I attended Jeremy Jones’s public lecture (May 20) on Queen Constance’s Latin-Arabic ‘letter’ to the people of Malta and Gozo dated November 1198. The lecture was kindly offered by the Archaeological Society Malta. It was impressively attended.

Unfortunately, we heard relatively little of significance about the highly interesting medieval letter in comparison to the time and effort Jones gave to “vindicate” – as he said – Godfrey Wettinger’s lifetime effort to disprove an uninterrupted presence of Christianity in the Maltese islands.

In this, besides Wettinger’s publications, Jones seemed to rely heavily on the guidance of fellow academic Marc Lauxtermann’s translation of the ‘poem’ in Greek verse composed by the famous 12th century Norman exile in Melitogaudo.

Jones claimed that his contribution to the knowledge of medieval Malta puts the controversy as to whether there were any Christians at all in the Maltese islands of the 11th century ”behind us”. Citing Lauxtermann, he said that it was 12th century George of Antioch who reintroduced Christianity in Malta and Gozo.

However, it took only a couple of questions and objections from the floor, although not exactly conclusive replies, to show that the debate is far from “behind us”.

Jones has actually reignited it.

I look forward to learning more about the subject, perhaps even from Lauxtermann himself. And, ideally, in a forum that would also include the participation of such academics as Stanley Fiorini and also Horatio Vella.