Tag: EV 1597
EV 1597 Hints
Enigmatic Variations 1597 (Hints)
Illumination by Vagans
Hints and tips by Phibs
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I believe that we may be dealing here with an episcopus vagans, or wandering bishop. My usual source of information on all things historical is 1066 and All That, but it appears to be silent on this subject. However, what I have gleaned from other sources is that the Middle Ages engendered a Wave of Wandering Bishops, deflocked clerics who considered domus to be wherever their mitres came to rest. The Sitting Bishops, who were trained to recognize a crook at a hundred ells, declared their itinerant counterparts parsonae non gratae and united against them under the banner nolo episcopari (‘no nasty episcopalians’), mercilessly moving them on using crosiers especially sharpened for the purpose. The Wandering Bishops were thus a Bad Thing, whose only lasting legacy is the expression ‘long time no see’.