St Albans Abbey – SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR)

St Albans: St Germain’s Block! (30.5.2024)

30/05/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

We walked to the Verulamium Museum through the “Verulamium Park” – from St Albans Abbey. This boundary wall was built using Roman materials – but not until the 11th century. It was part of St Germain’s Chapel – an element found within the grounds of St Albans Abbey. Today, around 30-feet of what is left of this wall forms an isolated structure situated in the middle of the park. This was part of the original Roman Fortifications (designed to keep the British Celts out) – which were abandoned during the early 5th century – with the ruins incorporated into the later buildings of St Albans Abbey. Indeed, there is little evidence of Christianity being present in Verulamium during Roman times.

St Albans Abbey: Interior & Enclosures! (29.5.2024)

29/05/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

Abbot, Abbesses and other Head Monastics were offered a life-long pension from the Crown amounting to 1% of the annual income of the monastery being dissolved. As St Albans made around £1000 per year – the Abbot received a guaranteed £10 per year – a very substantial amount for the time. The idea was to purchase their compliance. Those who resisted were tried for Treason and publicly executed. Henry gave away monastic property to his favourites – or sold it at a cut-price to other interested parties. All the accumulated gold, silver, copper, led and bronze, as well as gemstones – were sold into the public domain and effectively laid the foundation for a modern capitalist economy. This freeing of monastic treasure into the public domain represented a massive injection of wealth into the English economy – stimulating buying, selling and market speculation. When the movable wealth ran-out – the brick-work and foundations of many monasteries were dismantled and used to reinforce Henry’s castles along the coast – or in the case of Merton Abbey – to build Nonsuch Palace in Surrey! Whereas the monks were opposed to greed and grasping – a new secular society emphasised the exact opposite to get on. Now, greed, lying and cheating guaranteed the personal accumulation of wealth that could purchase a place to live, schooling, food, travel and leisure, etc. Of course, supporting Henry often guaranteed social climbing. Modern capitalism was invented in England by Henry VIII.

St Albans Abbey: Main-Gate! (28.5.2024)

28/05/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

During 1381 – England came within a hair’s breadth of becoming a People’s Republic! This great effort led by Wat Tyler was eventually defeated through the duplicity of the ruling classes – but its example echoes down through history! The beginnings of this gate stem from the 11th century and the consolidation of the Norman Conquest. This was when Roman Catholicism landed in England as part of the ruling government structure. Prior to this, Celtic Christianity (probably from Egypt) held sway in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. What Catholic presence there was prior to 1066 CE was piece-meal and generally lacked any real political power or influence. The differwence between these two forms of Christianity is that although both possessed a monastic tradition – the Celtic version saw the monastery (not the Church) as the centre of society. Furthermore, the Celtic version possessed a tolerant attitude toward non-Christian beliefs – a position rejected by the Catholic variant. With the coming of the politically empowered Catholic Church – Celtic Christianity was all but wiped-out by the 12th century.

St Albans Abbey was Once the Greatest in the UK!

St Albans Cathedral: WWI – The Verdun Tree! (27.5.2024)

28/05/2024 Adrian (釋大道)

Not mentioned in this bourgeois memorial is the fact that widespread “Socialist” uprisings spread throughout the French Army due to the callous attitudes of the French Generals. Research shows that around 7000 Frenchmen were arrested and Courts Marshalled – with 629 being sentenced to death by firing-squad (49 of these executions were eventually carried-out). Many Frenchmen were acting in sympathy with their Russian Allies – the soldiers of whom were participating in the 1917 Socialist Revolution! This is a clear example of the bourgeois censorship of history which only partly informs the masses about the reality of their own history! The British mass murder of the Battle of the Somme soon followed Verdun – where the bourgeoisie demonstrated to the working-class that the middle-class still controlled society – which led to 60,000 British casualties in the first 20-minutes!