I hope you follow me in my side trip away from modern-day newsiness and into the world of Venice of some 500 years ago. So like us in so many ways it is the differences that are revealing, to us. If we can ask 'why'd they do that like that' then maybe we can ask 'why do we do it like this?'
Technically the only thing that stays the same here are the dates. The places, the people are different. But the motives seem to come from the same place. The outcomes, the situations may differ in some respects but, to me plainly makes the case that they are the same as us. Venice was an authoritarian mercantile state. Besides our advances in technology, how are we different?
April 14, 1525, Sanudo Diaries: vol 38: 185
"After dinner His Serenity attended the sermon in San Marco with the ambassadors [it was Good Friday], was preached to by a member of the Order of Observant Dominicans -- who is a Venetian and the son of Matio di la Torre, the broker, and who normally preaches at San Lorenzo. He has a good voice and gave a good sermon. Among other things, he said that many in this city have been eating meat this Lent and that as a result the butchers' tax during Lent this year has brought in a higher revenue than in other years because of the large number of Lutherans."
It should be noted that the majority of the Germans at their fondaco* ate meat. The preacher at the church of San Zane Polo said from the pulpit that this year the friars of his monastery heard half as many confessions as in previous years because many hold Lutheran views".
* fondaco - similar to our 'Foundation' in Venice a fundaco was a warehouse and a hotel and restaurant and a councilroom and a center for operations of a commercial interest. Like a corporate headquarters it also was the always- current waystation for news of a particular mercantile interest and also brought news from back home. Wherever that was. The Germans had their own and the Turks had theirs on the Rialto as did many other interests.
Editor's footnote: "Lutheran followers refused to observe the laws of fasting and abstinence and rejected five of the seven sacraments, including confession. It would have been hard to keep Lutheran ideas from circulating in such a cosmopolitan city as Venice, especially given the German population. But Luther's ideas never constituted any real threat to the Roman Catholic establishment in Venice, and the reasons for the decline in confessions may well have include factors such as indifference alongside Lutheran influence". p. 415
I can't help but see similarities here of teahdists or progressives with the encroaching Lutherans. This week Orrin Hatch has come out denouncing the far right legions in bold and nearly defamatory pronouncements against some on the right. Far-righters stand up and say they know there are x-number of communists in Congress or the Republicans didn't start the 'war on women' etc. floating the ideas in hopes that the 'teh faithful' will run with and redistribute the meme.
This week also, Gawker had a 'mole' at FOX who was found and fired and trumpeted as evidence of a leftist conspiracy. It's the only way they know how to paint that picture.
"Speak roughly to your little boy and beat him when he sneezes! For he can thoroughly enjoy the pepper when he pleases! WOW!WOW!WOW!" from 'The Duchess' of Lewis Carroll
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Another chief part of the infrastructure in Venice and a central member of the city among many other social institutions was the Scuoli. It was an honor to be member of a scuole.
Editor's note: "For all its secular aspects, the religious mission of the scuole remained paramount [as that's how they had been founded]. This included sharing in the religious feasts which took place on Holy Thursday, accompanied by a significant number of flagellants". p. 315
April 14, 1530 Sanudo Diaries: 53:144:
"This evening the scuole came in good order to San Marco to see the blood of Christ. Among them were the Scuola di San Rocho with ninety flagellants beating themselves, many lamps, and many patricians stripped [of their usual finery] with each scuola Then they went to Santo Antonio to obtain the indulgence".
Another day was set aside so that women could witness this ritualized relic of the blood in order to prevent disturbances! What kind of disturbances I wonder? The flagellants themselves - often of the noble class - were a group of the faithful, commonly seen executing a form of penitence. A ritualized, social procession, beating themselves and marching amidst flags and banners and lamps and singers and musicians and such. All male. A year later, as our Editor tells us, in 1531, "it was mandated, conversely that women not be allowed to visit this relic on Holy Thursday, which would henceforth be reserved for men".
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All quotes as Sanudo Diaries and Editor's footnote from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll, editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008
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