Sometime during his lifetime he gave name
to what has become known as “Ernulph's curse.” What
the background to the event was has yet to come to light. One website included
an article on it from the Lancet, the medical journal, which provided some
insight.
"The need to protect books from thieves and
defilers (from biblioklepts and biblioclasts)
is ancient indeed. A thousand years ago the making of a manuscript book was a
time-consuming, back-breaking task. Sitting in the exposed archway of a
monastery, huddled over a sheet of vellum on his knee, the scribe worked 6
hours a day, 6 days a week for at least 6 months to make even the simplest of
books. Accuracy was paramount; any error was considered a great sin since the
mutated form would be reproduced in any subsequent copies.
Substantial sums were required as pledge
that a book borrowed for copying would be returned, and often a second copy was
required as payment for the loan. To copy without permission was to be guilty
of the Roman crime of slave-stealing or plagium (from
which we get plagiarism). St Columba, Irish apostle to the
Scots, is reputed to have copied, without permission, a rare and beautiful
manuscript belonging to his teacher, Finian of
Moville. When Finian demanded both original
and copy, Columba refused. The case came before Diarmit,
King of Meath, who decided in Finian's favour, and
Columba left
The invocation of prayerful protection for
books is probably as old as writing itself. A pious Christian scribe would
begin his manuscript with an inconspicuous Xb, an
abbreviation for Christe benedic
("May Christ bless [my work]") and when, at last, he had finished he
wrote Explicit, short for Explicitus liber est ("The book is
finished"). If a blank space remained he might append a brief orison, a
lament, a sigh of relief, the oldest of which says "Three fingers hold the
pen but the whole body labours.”
When scribes realised that their precious
work might fall into the hands of greasy-fingered semi-barbarians, they began
to issue instructions such as "Please wash your hands before reading
this" or "Don't put your hands on the page.” And eventually scribes
and book owners began to invoke the wrath of the Almighty on would-be book
stealers. Marc Drogin has collected many of these
early book curses. Examples are given in the figure.
Osler chose as his own the
grandfather of all curses, that of Ernulphus. Ernulf was a gentle, scholarly English cleric who was
consecrated Bishop of
"By
the authority of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and Holy Ghost, and of the
holy canons, and of the undefiled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness of our Saviour, and of all the celestial virtues, angels,
archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims and
seraphims, and of all the holy patriarchs, prophets,
and of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy innocents, who in the
sight of the Holy Lamb, are found worthy to sing the new song of the holy
martyrs and holy confessors, and of the holy virgins, and of all the saints,
together with the holy and elect of God
We excommunicate and
anathematize this malefactor, and from the thresholds of the holy church of God
Almighty we sequester him, that he may be tormented, disposed and delivered
over with Dathan and Abiram,
and with those who say unto the Lord God, Depart from us, we desire none of thy
ways. And as fire is quenched with water, so let the light of him be put out for
evermore, unless it shall repent him and make satisfaction.
May the Father who
created man, curse him. – May the Son who suffered for us, curse
him. - May the Holy Ghost, who was given to us in baptism, curse him. - May the
holy cross which Christ, for our salvation triumphing over his enemies,
ascended, curse him.-May the holy and eternal Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse
him. - May St Michael, the advocate of holy souls, curse him.- May all the
angels and archangels, principalities and powers, and all the heavenly armies,
curse him.-
May St. John, the Praecursor, and
May the holy choir of the holy
virgins, who for the honour of Christ have despised the things of the world,
damn him.-May the saints, who from the beginning of the world to everlasting
ages are found to be beloved of God, damn him. - May the heavens and earth, and
all the holy things remaining in therein, damn him.
May he be damn'd
wherever he be - whether in the house or
the stables, the garden or the field, or the highway, or in the path, or in the
wood, or in the water, or in the church.-May he be cursed in living, in dying.
May he be cursed in eating and drinking, in being hungry, in being thirsty, in
fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in walking, in standing, in lying, in
working, in resting, in pissing, in shitting, and in blood letting. May he be
cursed in all the faculties of his body.
May he be cursed inwardly and outwardly! - May
he be cursed in the hair of his head! - May he be cursed in his brains, and in
his vertex, in his temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his eye-brows, in
his cheeks, in his jaw-bones, in his nostrils, in his fore-teeth and grinders,
in his lips, in his throat, in his shoulders, in his wrists, in his arms, in
his hands, in his fingers!
May he be damn’d
in his mouth,
in his breast, in his heart and purtenance, down to
the very stomach! May he be cursed in his reins, and in his groin, in his thighs,
in his genitals, and in his hips, and in his knees, his legs, and feet and
toe-nails!
May he be cursed in all the
joints and articulations of his members, from the top of his head to the sole
of his foot! May there be no soundness in him!
May the Son of the living God,
with all the Glory of his Majesty, curse him! And may heaven with all the
powers that move therein, rise up against him, curse and damn him unless he
repent and make satisfaction. Amen. So be it - so be
it. Amen."
(www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0833/n9086_v350/20013577/p2/article.html
Sterne, L. (1760), Tristram Shandy Bk III, chs x, xi; www.xrefer.com/entry/370230)