Jude Seal's Notebook

A lesser known saint of the British Isles, St Herbert’s story - at least what we know of it - is an interesting sketch of the lesser recorded, isolated monasticism of some early medieval Christians.  Like many saints the name most attached to this particular Herbert is not the place of his origin.  In fact, his origin is unknown, with even Bede, the most reliable historian who wrote of him, being vague about the details of his early life.  Indeed, in Bede’s Ecclesiastical History, where he is named as Herebert, and according to most translations is described as a ‘hermit’ but not as a monk, he appears only once.  The details of his calling or his life before his self-exile are scarce indeed.  What is emphasized in its stead is the strong spiritual fellowship he had with St Cuthbert.  The passage in Bede is one in which Cuthbert predicts his own death to Herebert.  It is from Bede’s narration of this passage that we get the minimal detail we have...

An Introductory Note - While this particular number of All About History's History Of series does give individual author citations for each section I have chosen not to refer to them in this review.  A fair percentage of the problems with each volume are not necessarily the responsibility of the writers, but of the editors and others within the publisher.   Before beginning this review or deconstruction of All About History’s special edition on the Occult there are couple of things which need establishing before we go any further on this crazy train ride.  The first is what is meant by the term ‘occult’.  We must first consider that to many the term occult is grounded in the historiographical divisions created during the Renaissance.  This divided the world into the Ancient world, the Medieval world (this is the poison spring which gives origin to the highly questionable concept of the ‘dark ages’), and the Modern world (divided by subsequent histori...