Â鶹Éç

Available for over a year

Good morning. Over the past couple of days, the news has been dominated by the debate about the prorogation of Parliament. But a political crisis a millennium ago lies behind another recent unrelated announcement. The British Museum revealed that a huge hoard of silver coins had been discovered in Somerset earlier this year. Over 2500 of them, buried a year or so after the traumatic Norman Conquest in 1066. Many bore the image of King Harold, who died at the battle of Hastings. There were also lots of coins featuring William the Conqueror, the new ruler. Some apparently showed both kings, one on either face. That sounded to me like an early form of recycling. But it turns out to have been a tax dodge by the person minting the money. The past is not such a different country, after all. There seems little doubt that these coins were deliberately buried – and by someone clearly well off. But what were they afraid of? The answer given by the curator of early medieval coinage at the British Museum was instructive. He said south-west England was unstable in the first couple of years of William’s reign. There were raids across the border from Wales and King Harold’s sons, based in Ireland, were determined to avenge their father’s death. Someone was in charge of the country whom everyone did not actively support, and the relationship with the continent was uncertain. In such circumstances, the curator said, anyone might choose to bury their money. Jesus told a parable about a man who buried money. He was one of three servants, each given an amount to invest for their master while he went abroad. The servant given the least buried it to keep it safe. On his master’s return he was excoriated for doing so. He’d been given a talent, the word then used for a considerable sum, and not made the best of it. Both the servant in the parable and the wealthy person in Norman times buried money through fear. We are less tempted to bury money in the ground now but there may be other things we hide. I think I’m much more likely to bury my convictions or opinions through fear of an argument. Others may bury their talents since they don’t believe in themselves. The situations in which we find ourselves can be forbidding, and yet we are frequently strongest when we face and overcome our fears. Fear is powerful, whatever its source. It can make us too cautious, and sometimes we impose it on ourselves.