This mask was inherited in one Scottish clan as a sacred relic until the 19th century. However, in 1840, when the family that guarded it tragically ended (there was even talk of the curse of the mask), the artifact turned out to be the property of the University of Edinburgh. And, I must say, this property is quite creepy.
The mask is made of leather (thankfully not human) and cloth. It is framed by a red head of human hair, there are false wooden teeth in the mouth, and bird feathers around the eyes. All of this makes the mask devilishly sinister. It would have looked great in a cultist horror, but it belonged to a man who was revered as a saint.
His name was Alexander Peden, and he was Scottish to the core. Fiery and fanatical, unstoppable like a battering ram and at the same time full of black melancholy - an almost perfect prophet emerged from him.
He was born in 1626 in a dark era for Scotland and England. Civil war, religious reformation, execution of the king, rule of Cromwell. A young priest who had studied at the University of Edinburgh had something to talk about with the rebellious flock. And he was unstoppable. All his life, Alexander Peden preached - zealously and violently, driving himself to frenzy with his speeches, and the crowd to a state of ecstasy.
He is more like a gloomy seer than a priest. Preaching Presbyterian dogmas, he went into the fields. Having settled in a cave, Peden walked around the area, gathering crowds of peasants. At first they surrounded him to laugh at the holy fool, then they fell under his influence and listened, roaring with ecstasy.
Peden quickly earned the glory of a prophet and could well have started an uprising against the English crown or found his own cult - there were enough admirers. But he preferred to remain a wandering oracle and preacher of the fields. However, the British, who had barely restored the monarchy, were expectedly afraid of every suspicious Celtic.
A hunt was announced for Alexander Peden. So he moved around the country exclusively at night. And so that the soldiers did not recognize him, he created this mask. Although, looking at her, you would rather believe that he scared them to death. It is difficult to imagine that in it you can impersonate a living person. But for a wandering spirit, boggle - quite.
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The predictions that Peden gave were muddy and unclear, like that of a pagan oracle, but all, as one, came true. Because this is how the memory of the crowd works - it was ready to believe that the hazy words of the holy madman contained a prophecy, and readily sought it out.
Once the prophet was pressed, even a terrible mask did not help, and in 1670 he fled to Ireland. There he continued to preach, but there they treated him with apprehension. The Irish were alien to the Scottish frenzy of the Presbyterian, so three years later he returned to his homeland, where he was captured and sent for four years to the island-prison of Bass Rock, reminiscent of either Alcatraz or Azkaban.
Cave of Alexander Peden.
The stone from which Peden preached.
Peden was serving time with the same charismatic prophets gathered all over the country, so it was, perhaps, the craziest company that could be gathered in one building. He came out even more fierce, but careful. The mask was returned to him by his followers, so he did not part with it until his death.
He lived until 1686, wandering and prophesying. It is said that after prison he became mentally damaged and began preaching right in his terrible mask, which has already become part of his personality. Peden stopped luring crowds, his speeches became too scary and seditious, and his old followers preferred to forget about him.
Sword and mask of Alexander Peden.
His only clear prophecy was utterly dark. In 1682, Peden married the farmer John Brown and Isabel Weir, but darkened it with the words addressed to the bride: “You have a wonderful husband, but your happiness is short-lived. Have linen at the ready - it will come in handy as a shroud. The outcome will come when you do not wait and it will be bloody."
In 1685, just three years after the wedding, English dragoons surrounded the Brown farm and shot her husband for disobeying the authorities - he refused to accept Anglicanism and recognize the king as the head of the church.
A fulfilled prophecy of Peden.
After his death, Alexander Peden did not find rest: forty days after the burial, English soldiers exhumed the body and transported it to another place. This was done intentionally so that the grave would not become a place of pilgrimage. So, according to Scottish beliefs, Peden really had to become a boggle - a malevolent spirit roaming the roads and driving lonely travelers crazy. And, looking at his mask, it is easy to imagine how he would look in a new incarnation.
Author: Vladimir Brovin