doesn’t end there though, the carol ‘Good King Wenceslas’, written by the eminent English clergyman and author John Mason Neale, has a story all of its own. Neale was born in London in 1818. His father died when he was five years old. When he was fourteen he began to translate the poetical writings of Coelius Sedulius, who wrote around AD 450, and was thought to be one of the founders of Christian hymn writing. While a student Neale developed an extraordinary interest in church archaeology, especially architecture, and with a few others founded the Cambridge Camden Society in 1839, renamed the Ecclesiological Society, which exercised an immense influence on the architecture and ritual of the English Church, which lasted till 1845.
John Mason Neale.
Neale was a great supporter of ‘Victorian Gothic’ and worked ceaselessly with those who wanted more ritual and religious decoration in churches. This movement was a natural partner to Tractarianism (The Oxford Movement) as both looked back to the Middle Ages as a time when the church met the needs of its’ parishioners both spiritually and aesthetically.
Neale graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840. He was ordained deacon in 1841 and priest in 1842. 1842 was also the year he met and married Sarah Webster. They moved to Crawley, Surrey, where he became incumbent. Ill health meant that Neale needed to resign within a few months and they went to live in Madeira.
Fortunately for Neale and hymn writing, there was a fine library at the cathedral there, from which he found sources for one of his books History of the Eastern Church , and also for his Commentary on the Psalms.
He returned to England in 1845, and from 1846 until his death he was Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex. In fact, the college was an almshouse, a charitable institution for the aged. Neale’s salary was a mere £27 a year. There he wrote furiously; history, theology, travel books, hymns, poems and books for children.
Neale continued to be a traditionalist and a staunch supporter of the Oxford Movement, this attracted criticism from many quarters, as did his outspoken views on the judgment of God that would fall on those clergy who took and destroyed consecrated property from the churches, installing ‘pews’ and other innovations. His criticism of wealthy clergy living in luxurious surroundings and his insistence on traditional church furnishings meant that for the last few years of his life he was censured by his bishop, and prevented from ministering in Church. Working closely with those who had little worldly goods in the ‘college’, supporting antiquarians who were intent on preserving the churches and continuing to act as a minister, it’s quite easy to see how Neale was drawn to the story of Good King Wenceslas.
The title page of Piae Cantiones.
Neale wrote the lyrics for ‘Good King Wenceslas’ to the tune of a thirteenth-century spring song ‘Tempus Adest Floridum’ (‘It is time for Flowering’), which was first published in the a sixteenth century Finnish collection Piae Cantiones . The first appearance of the carol in print was in the book Carols for Christmastide , which Neale published with Thomas Helmore in 1853. It is highly likely, however, that he had written the carol sometime earlier, possibly when he completed his book Deeds of Faith in 1849, which Neale wrote to ‘to lead children to take an interest in Ecclesiastical History’ through sixteen stories of saints and martyrs, including ‘The Legend of St. Wenceslaus’.
Neale says of Wenceslas, on his mission to the poor on the Feast of Stephen:
And so great was the virtue of this Saint of the Most High, such was the fire of love that was kindled in him, that, as he trod in those steps, [his knight Podiven] gained life and heat. He felt not the wind; he heeded not the frost; the footprints glowed as with a holy fire, and zealously he followed the King on his errand of
John Mason Neale.
Neale was a great supporter of ‘Victorian Gothic’ and worked ceaselessly with those who wanted more ritual and religious decoration in churches. This movement was a natural partner to Tractarianism (The Oxford Movement) as both looked back to the Middle Ages as a time when the church met the needs of its’ parishioners both spiritually and aesthetically.
Neale graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1840. He was ordained deacon in 1841 and priest in 1842. 1842 was also the year he met and married Sarah Webster. They moved to Crawley, Surrey, where he became incumbent. Ill health meant that Neale needed to resign within a few months and they went to live in Madeira.
Fortunately for Neale and hymn writing, there was a fine library at the cathedral there, from which he found sources for one of his books History of the Eastern Church , and also for his Commentary on the Psalms.
He returned to England in 1845, and from 1846 until his death he was Warden of Sackville College, East Grinstead, Sussex. In fact, the college was an almshouse, a charitable institution for the aged. Neale’s salary was a mere £27 a year. There he wrote furiously; history, theology, travel books, hymns, poems and books for children.
Neale continued to be a traditionalist and a staunch supporter of the Oxford Movement, this attracted criticism from many quarters, as did his outspoken views on the judgment of God that would fall on those clergy who took and destroyed consecrated property from the churches, installing ‘pews’ and other innovations. His criticism of wealthy clergy living in luxurious surroundings and his insistence on traditional church furnishings meant that for the last few years of his life he was censured by his bishop, and prevented from ministering in Church. Working closely with those who had little worldly goods in the ‘college’, supporting antiquarians who were intent on preserving the churches and continuing to act as a minister, it’s quite easy to see how Neale was drawn to the story of Good King Wenceslas.
The title page of Piae Cantiones.
Neale wrote the lyrics for ‘Good King Wenceslas’ to the tune of a thirteenth-century spring song ‘Tempus Adest Floridum’ (‘It is time for Flowering’), which was first published in the a sixteenth century Finnish collection Piae Cantiones . The first appearance of the carol in print was in the book Carols for Christmastide , which Neale published with Thomas Helmore in 1853. It is highly likely, however, that he had written the carol sometime earlier, possibly when he completed his book Deeds of Faith in 1849, which Neale wrote to ‘to lead children to take an interest in Ecclesiastical History’ through sixteen stories of saints and martyrs, including ‘The Legend of St. Wenceslaus’.
Neale says of Wenceslas, on his mission to the poor on the Feast of Stephen:
And so great was the virtue of this Saint of the Most High, such was the fire of love that was kindled in him, that, as he trod in those steps, [his knight Podiven] gained life and heat. He felt not the wind; he heeded not the frost; the footprints glowed as with a holy fire, and zealously he followed the King on his errand of
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