THORNEY
706
THOU
Thorney Abbey (i. e. "the isle of thorns", an-
ciently called Ancarig), in Cambridgeshire, England,
was for some three centuries the seat of Saxon her-
jnits, or of anchorites living in community, before it
was refounded in 972 for Benedictine monks by lOthel-
wold. Bishop of Winchester, with the aid of King
Edgar. The founder brought thither the body of St.
Botulph and of other Saxon saints, including, possi-
bly, St. Benet Biscop; and the church, originally dedi-
cated to Jesus Christ and His Blessed Mother, became
known thereafter as St. Mary and St. Botulph's.
The structure built by Ethelwold stood for a century,
and was replaced after the Norman Conquest by a
new church 290 feet long, which was finished in 1108.
The long series of charters granted to Thorney in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries attests the pros-
perity of the abbey and the number of its bene-
factors. In Domesday Book its value is reckoned as
equal to that of Peterborough ; and William of Malmes-
bury de.scribes it, in the reign of Henry II, as "an
image of Paradise", and flourishing in all respects. Of
the thirty-eight abbots whose names are recorded, the
first was Godeman, and the last Robert Blytli, who
was also Bishop of Down and Connor, in Ireland.
Blyth and his community of nineteen monks sur-
rendered the abbey to Henry VIII in 1539, receiving
a pension in exchange. The buildings and most of the
property were granted by Edward VI to John Earl of
Bedford, whose family still owns them. The original
Norman nave of five bays, with its perpendicular
clerestory, remains, and is used as the parish church.
The choir has disappeared, and the nave aisles were
demolished in 1636, the material being used to fill up
the nave arches. The west front, flanked by square
turrets with octagonal terminations 100 feet high, and
displaying an elaborate screen, with niches containing
nine statues over the west window, is extremely
picturesque.
DnoDALE, Monast. anglican., II (London, 1817). 593-613; Tanner. Noiitia monastica: Cambridgeshire (Cambridge, 1787), xxvi; Willis, Hist, of Mitred Parliamentary Abbies, I (London, 1718), 187-191; Willelm. Malmesb., De gestis pontificum, ed. Hamilton (London, 1870), 326-329; Gasquet, The Greater Ab- beys of England (London, 1908), 205-210.
D. O. Hunter-Blair.
Thorns, Feast of the Crown of. — The first feast in honour of the Crown of Tliorns {Feslum siiscep- tionis corome Domini) was instituted at Paris in 1239, when St. Louis brought thither the relic of the Crown of Thorns, which was deposited later in the Royal Chapel, erected in 1241-8 to guard this and other relics of the Passion. The feast, observed on 11 Au- gust, though at firat special to the Royal Chapel, was gradually observed throughout the north of France. In the following century another festival of the Holy Crown on 4 May was instituted and was celebrated along with the feast of the Invention of the Cross in parts of Spain, Germany, and Scandinavia. It is still kept in not a few Spanish dioceses and is observed by the Dominicans on 24 April. A special feast on the Monday after Passion Sunday was granted to the Diocese of Freising in Bavaria by Clement X (1676) and Innocent XI (1689) in honour of the Crown of Christ. It was celebrated at Venice in 1766 on the second Friday of March. In 1831 it was adopted at Rome as a double major and is observed on the Fri- day following Ash-Wednesday. As it is not kept throughout the universal Church, the Mass and Office are placed in the appendices to the Breviary and the Missal. The hymns of the Office, which is taken from the seventeenth-century Gallican Bre- viary of Paris, were composed by Habert. The " Analecta hymnica" of Dreves and Blume contains a large number of rythmical offices, hymns, and se- quences for this feast.
lloHAiiLT DE Fledhy, Instruments de la Passion (Pari.s, 1870); NiLLES, Kalendarium manuale (Innsbruck. 1897) ; Grotefend, Zeitrechnuno. II, 2, 88.
F. G. HOLWECK.
Thorpe, Robert, Venerable, priest and martyr,
b. in Yorkshire; suffered at York, 15 May, 1591. He
reached tlie English College at Reims 1 March,
1583-4, was ordained deacon in December following,
and priest by Cardinal Guise in April, 15S5. He w;is
sent on the mission, 9 May, 1585, antl laboured in
Y'orkshire. He was arrested in bed very early on
Palm Sunday, 1595, at the house of his fellow-martyr,
Thomas Watkinson, at Menthorpe in the East Rid-
ing of Y'orkshire, someone having seen palms being
gathered the night before, and having informed John
Gates of Howden, the nearest justice of peace. Wat-
kinson, an old Catholic yeoman who lived a solitary
life, is described by the treacherous priest John Cecil
as a clerk, so it is possible he was in minor orders.
Both, though naturally timorous, met their deaths
with great fortitude. Thorpe, condemned as a traitor
merely for being a priest, was hanged, drawn, and
quartered. Watkinson, condemned as a felon merely
for harbouring priests, was only hanged. He was
offered his life if he would go to church.
Challoner, Missionary Priests, I, no. 86; Pollen, English Martyrs, lS3i-1603 (London, 190S), 200-2; Kno.s, Dauay Diaries (London, 1878), passim.
John B. Wainewright.
Thou, Jacques-Augdste de, French historian, b. .at Paris, 8 October, 1553 ; d. there, 7 May, 1617. The son of Christophe de Thou, fu-st president of the Par- Icment of Paris, he studied at several French universi- ties, especially at Valence, where he knew Sealiger. Both when he ac- companied the am- bassador Paul de Foix to Italy (1.572- 76) and when he went to live in Guienne (1581), it was always his aim to make the ac- quaintance of the most celebrated men of intellect, such as Murctus, P. Manutius, the Pithous, and Mon- taigne. During his sojourn in Guienne he knew Henry of Navarre, the future Henrv IV. As Mastrr of Petitions of the Pnrlement of Paris in 1585 and in 1588 as coun- cillor of State, he was the opponent of the League. After the assassination of the Duke of Guise he did much to further the reconciliation between Henry III and Henry of Navarre (April, 1589) and set out for Germany with Gaspard de Schomberg to ask the help of Protestant princes against the League. After the deatli of Henry III he entered the service of Henry of Navarre, with whom he lived for five years in cainp. He had an important share in the conferences of Surennes, which prepared the entry of Henrv IV into Paris (22 May, 1594) and especially in compiling the Edict of Nantes (1.598) which estab- lished the religious liberty and political influence of the Protestants. During the regency of Maria de' Medici he took part in the negotiation of the Treaties of Sainte Menehould (1(>14) and Loudun (1616) between the Court and the rebellious Condi^. His influence in the royal councils was exercised in behalf of Gallican ideas and he was victorious in his opposition to the recep- tion in France of the Tridentine decrees.
An eminent Latinist, De Thou published several collections of Latm poems, but his fame is chiefly due
