Thursday, December 22, 2016

Catching Up With Henry VII, in England, late 1497

Through the summer of 1497, and into late fall, Henry VII the Tudor, may well have been disturbed by the many tumults and upsets that had threatened his reign, time and again that year. But by Christmas, he could also look back to a year marked also by a steady supply of surprise breakthroughs, resolutions and alliances. The results by end of year for Henry, according to J.D. Mackie, after so much offense, intrigue, and suspense, looked very well indeed.

There had been the uprising that started with Cornish miners and who faced off with the King's men near Blakheath in June. The week after these were put down, Henry squared off with James IV in Scotland over the pretender Perkin Warbeck [p. 143]. Scots advanced on Norham in July, and were repulsed. That same month there was also the finalising of  the Magnus Intercursus [p. 139] and the many certain worrisome details to iron out of the previous year's omnibus trade law with the Dutch.

After Warbeck was scared into submission and surrendered himself, (around the first of October, 1497 [p. 145]), Warbeck's wife, Lady Katherine Huntly was also captured and in time was brought into Henry's court.

In addition to using Don Pedro de Ayala from the Spanish court the year before (1496) as an ambassador with James IV in Scotland, Henry also used this diplomat to finalise certain milestones in his relations with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella with a marriage. The betrothal of ten year-old Arthur, the English heir apparent would have him marry Catherine of Aragon, the infant daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella [p. 148]. The settlement reached in July, was celebrated formally in August, and every few months thereafter, until the youths could come of age. By the end of September, Ayala had also secured a truce between James and Henry for ten years.

Through November, while at Exeter, Henry also established a great tax collecting scheme. The program was extensive, strict, and far-seeing. It's reach and effects, Mackie tells us, went on for some ten years til 1507. [p. 146] At some point Henry and his train left Exeter, arriving in Westminster November 27. Here again Warbeck was made to tell his tale again. An assistant to him, a serjeant farrier and a deserter were captured and hung at Tyburn on December 4 [p. 147]. After much hard work, and even well laid plans, Henry could see himself as, and be respected all over as, a stable monarch [p.150]. At peace with everyone but the French, and quiet again domestically, these were reasons a King could rest contentedly.

Each of these stories, the one Perkin Warbeck told after his capture about what he had in fact done, the story of the truce of Henry and James, a peace that would last til their deaths, and the one about poor Prince Arthur and his bride to be Catherine of Aragon, all deserve to be chapters of their own. I'd like to find a book in English about Pedro de Ayala.

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quotes and pagination from J.D. Mackie: The Earlier Tudors 1485-1558 Oxford, UK 1957
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Thursday, December 1, 2016

Is it time for breakfast, yet?

 Found a bunch of semi-related things in front of me today. This hardly ever happens to me anymore. Different unintended paralells or, overlaps from different fields and areas, also seeming to call attention to themselves and each other.

Learned this week that courtiers in the fifteenth century practiced what they called mediocrità (yes, with an accent on the a). This was a skill, an ability to shift from seriousness to facetiousness or, produce levity, especially at the same time. A thing in the middle that can comment critically by doing both. But as Daniel Javitch points out, this is also a practiced thing, and often done counter to the natural bearing or upbringing, or training, of such persons employed as a courtier. An art of dissembling, disinvoultura - an ease of misdirection - or even deception and often for the purposes of discretion must be practiced. Despots demanded dependence and diplomats declaimed denuded disputations, like dour dunces, dainty driscolls, and droll devotees. To the teeth.
[definitions from, Javitch, Daniel : Castiglione: The Ideal and the Real in Renaissance Culture , ed. Robert W. Hanning and David Rosand (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983). More later.]
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Also found this last week that made me laugh a bunch.

"What advantages attended shaving by night?"
A softer beard: a softer brush if intentionally allowed to remain from shave to shave in its agglutinated lather: a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours: quiet reflections upon the course of the day: a cleaner sensation when awakening after a fresher sleep since matutinal noises, premonitions and perturbations, a clattered milkcan, a postman's double knock, a paper read, reread while lathering, relathering the same spot, a shock, a shoot, with thought of aught he sought though fraught with nought might cause a faster rate of shaving and a nick on which incision plaster with precision cut and humected and applied adhered which was to be done." Joyce, Ulysses p. 657 in the Modern Library ed. 1934
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There's a website that Trump followers go to that started to get more views than even Drudge this year. It's a platform set up for those on the right to get their daily red on. Which is a pun, but whatever.

They've been accused of 'White Zionism', as being Islamophobic, anti-Obama, anti-women etc. and become bright flashpots in the cablenews world. Turned out a strong right arm for Trump's campaign. They've also given voice to white nationalists, anti-vacciners and Area 51-curious curios, told like facts, or may as well be's.Because, FOX and Drudge, in the zeroth year of Trumplandia, needs a place to source farther right material from, and have old favorites on for little chats. In the Year of DJT, blessed be our future King of Tort Brooms.
Businesses of different walks have begun boycotting this Platform of Breitbart, because of how they talk about people and their behavior, by the disallowing of ads of these companies on said Platform. Ads on the internet these days act as subsidy contracts between the major advertised companies and high traffic websites. So, this comes as a potential blow fiscally, a limiting of the ad market for Platform Breitbart to 'keep the lights on' and for their columnists to get paid. And when big influential companies start paying other outlets to advertise on other platforms, other companies follow suit.

So, when Kellogg's, the brand most known for selling US breakfast cereal said they were boycotting Breitbart, this morning, the twitter tweeters had an excuse to fight again. Like any other day. Those on the far right who notice these things said they'd boycott Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes. Everybody else laughed. For a minute, the hashtag #Breitbartcereals made the rounds.



'Mediocrità' indeed.

or this cartoon by Tom Tomorrow...
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Because there have been a great deal of questions about Trump's global business reach, people are learning what 'conflicts of interest' may mean.
Maybe funniest of all was the very random approval by the Gov Office of Ethics yesterday afternoon via twitter. A series of tweets from the office came upon the announcement that the PEOTUS shamboll we are currently pretending to find unity with made a public announcement that he would opt to postpone til 15December, an announcement about his business dealings, but not get into the details, quite yet.

The series of tweets from the OGE claimed he had already agreed with them for a complete divestiture of all his business dealings acting as if that would resolve all the mounting concerns for conflicts of interest between them and government work. It's a funny story, had npr calling them rogue tweets. Many thought the site had been hacked, but no, today's departure from their pretty staid, straight ahead tweets, caught everyone by surprise.
Here's the npr story. You can hear it if you click on the play button once the link opens.

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Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Papal Brief on Dominican Congregation Strikes At Savonarola: October 16, 1496

A papal brief was received in Florence at San Marco's, the Dominican house where Friar Girolamo Savonarola carried out his orders. The brief asserted that a new congregation of Dominican convents be established with the effect that they would form an unbroken line down the length of Italy from Tuscany to Rome. In September of 1495 another papal brief, also from Pope Alexander VI, had reaffirmed and placed the Dominican orders of Florence and Fiesole back in the Lombard Congregation of houses. This had come after the secession of this Dominican house in Florence from the Lombard Congregation in 1493.

In turn, this new brief of 1496 plainly countered those previous moves and gave Savonarola's House a new overseer. The reason promoted by Rome was for a 'smoother functioning of the bureaucracy' of these houses. But it turned out, with its implied threats, to be another crucial event for Savonarola and he took it quite seriously.
"The brief closed with the threat of excommunication latae sententiae, to be levelled against anyone who contradicted or impeded or tried to work against the new arrangement. ... The vicar of the new congregation was announced in December and he was a Sicilian." [p. 138]
This simple reorganization made by the brief received in Florence on November 7, 1496, made Savonarola's pulpit at San Marco no longer independent. What should have been good news was that it was Cardinal Oliviero Carafa who was placed by the pope as vicar of this new enlarged congregation. He had been in Rome on Savonarola's behalf, an influential Neapolitan noble doing his best to dissuade this Spanish Pope Borja not to deal too harshly with the little friar in Florence the year before. This time Savonarola would be sceptical of the good Cardinal's direction. As Lauro Martines puts it,
"Rightly suspicious, Savonarola opposed the change from the start. ... At the end of 1496, Savonarola was still committed to seeing King Charles and 'the barbarians' return to Italy to complete the 'scourging'. In Florence, the aristocrats who wanted his head were seeking, on the contrary, to draw the republic back under their control or under the domination of the Medici,...".
Whether through various alliances, by weakening or changing the great Council, or through a coup, the oligarchy grew more determined to oust Savonarola. [p. 139]

notes and pagination from Martines, Lauro: Fire In The City: Savonarola and the struggle for the soul of Renaissance Florence ; Oxford University Press, New York, 2006 

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Again, a bit more detail in citing both Romeo de Maio (1969) and the collection of documents of Alesandro Gherardi (1887), Weinstein in his biography Savonarola shows the San Marco House of Dominic to be steadfast. The only way the friar thought he could counter this papal brief from Rome was from the ground up. An Apologeticum was sent to Rome and this pope from all 250 friars of the Congregation of San Marco asking for this reorganization to not transpire. At first it was thought by Cardinal Carafa and ambassador Becchi that perhaps, in becoming part of a larger congregation, spreading down the length of Italy could spread 'God's work' as Savonarola once had wished.
"As they saw it, there was more at stake for the Church than the independence of a single friar, however dedicated he might be. Conflicts within the Dominican Order had to be resolved and papal authority upheld. But to Savonarola submission was not an option; he could only see it as the abandonment of God's work." [p. 210]
Weinstein tells us that here, in this Dominican Congregation which Cardinal Carafa would lead, Savonarola's response began to look more like that of some self-centered friar. One who had become an over-reaching, self-important character, rather than a servant of the church. Much had changed since Cardinal Carafa had petitioned the pope in 1493. This most recent act of this papal breve sent from Rome (and its consequences in Florence) would reverberate. And this news had come at the end of several days of intense preaching from Friar Savonarola.
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from Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

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Monday, October 31, 2016

news and reflections late Oct 2016

This Halloween it would be welcome to see more of these. A portrait of a kind of civic order. By Edouard Vuillard, 1911, reworked in 1923. Rather than spend money on more war, maybe we could cut off more energy trains. And not just in North Dakota. ______________________________________________________
But militants attempting to counter the Maduro regime, go on the offensive after a summer of deepening violence and a swelling lack of basic necessities. ________________________________________________________ In the US, at the height of our quadrennial pre-election media frenzy, the Republicans seem bent on destroying their own brand to the extent that old-guard conservative leaders are trashing the reputation of actual office holders. _________________________________________________________
The purge of old officials in Turkey continues following this summer's attempted coup. Some more context on Turkey's recent movement. _______________________________________________________
Earthquakes in Italy continue to upset their increasing desire for stability.
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Better Control, More Money, More Problems: Cortes of Toledo, 1480

Key among the reforms that Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand in Spain began with the 1480 Cortes of Toledo, were in its own royal counsel, the Consejo Real. This essential but traditional entity despite its fluidity had become unwieldy. These reforms, as they played out, would remove many of the greater magnates in Castile from influence in the central state decisions, those of the sovereign King and Queen. This also, as J.H. Elliott relates, allowed a shifting in revenue streams for the Crown and thus, another kind of removal of influence, providing greater control over the Spanish magnates in Castile.

Though the Royal Council had long been central as working bodies that represented the Crown, certain offices and leaders were promoted and others were let go. They had advised on appointments and acted as 'a supreme court of justice and supervised local Castilian governments'. These were reduced to a dozen or so roles dependent on royal prerogative. A prelate, three caballeros and eight or nine jurists (letrados) would do the work of all the rest. Others might come to meetings but would not be allowed to decide matters.
"This exclusion of the great magnates from voting on matters of state meant that the traditional offices of some of the proudest families of Castile were transformed into empty dignities. The Velascos continued to be Constables of Castile, the Enriquez Admirals of Castile, but their high-sounding titles ceased to give them a proscriptive right to the exercise of political power."
Instead, 'new men' were promoted and the old, well established bureaucracy was left to drift. People of university learning were established as secretaries who acted as scribes detailing communications and remained dependent on the workings of the Council's activities. It hadn't always been that way. [p.90]

The Consejo had previously been remade under different circumstances in the 1300's due to the same sort of expansions of magnate control and power, with much of that falling to local regidores acting as municipal administrators. Based on the model in Burgos, as Elliott tells us, there were six alcaldes or judges with judicial duties and sixteen regidores who operated a sort of closed oligarchy. In city after city in Castile, more and more municipalities expanded on this model of civic office-holding with corregidors, royally chosen representatives to influence these municipal affairs with royal input. But the Crown lost a lot of power thru the 1400's and this entire system needed to be reformed. As a result with the Cortes of Toledo in 1480, more of these corregidors took on more duties across Castile.
"The growth of venality, and the decline of royal control, left the field open for local magnates and competing factions to extend their influence over the organs of municipal government, so that towns were either bitterly divided by civil feuds, or fell into the hands of small, self-governing oligarchies." [p. 94].
By the time Isabella had come to power these problems had become more important to quell, and once they were, new order had to be asserted. Hereditary grants of offices were revoked. New town halls were erected in many towns that had not had them before. Written records were to be kept of what transpired in all the places.New offices of these corregidors would be entrusted with administrative and judicial duties. These individuals were to be selected by Queen and King and they would work hard to choose the replacement figures from any place they saw fit. Not necessarily, Elliott warns, were these chosen from the lower classes, but at least, these selected were not limited to those former traditional noble families. So on the one hand there was a kind of greater inclusion from society at large, while simultaneously cutting out many of the old family namesakes.

In time the old alcaldes were replaced with temporary royal corregidores that acted as justices. By the mid 1500's in the reign of Phillip II there were 66 corregimientos in Castile. [p. 95] Similarly the economy of Castile and then greater Spain was effected. Independent revenues that came from sources other than the traditional Cortes was crucially important for the independent viability of the Crown and its continued well-being. Too often had the Crown of old required assistance from this or that municipality or this or that collection of royal representatives in order to carry out its goals. With greater diversity in revenue streams, of new and trusted eyes and voices out in the many towns and cities, in time, the sovereigns could extend their own control, bit by bit, becoming greater arbiters of power and their regal will. The process would expand over decades.

Earlier in their reign they found the Cortes useful in putting down rebellions and upstarts. By the time of the Cortes of 1480, and in the midst of the Reconquista program pushing out the older traditional forms of rule in many cities, the Crown also found it useful to promote their own trusted figures in doing so. The putting down of rebels, and muslims, of corrupt locals and puffed up magnates, coincided with an increase of wealth and wealth distribution in Castile. [p. 92] These benefits, including better record keeping and accurate informants, even firmer judicial decisions by trutsed appointees, all effectively swelled the coffers of the crown, allowing them to operate outside the decions of the limiting Cortes. In turn, more wealth led to a kind of virtuous cycle, in that it renewed attention to goals like the Conquest of  Granada, and establishing greater influence in Italy, bringing more power to the Crown. [p. 93]
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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002

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Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Florentine Cultural Patrons In the Fifteenth Century: Portrait from Weinstein's "Savonarola", III

In depicting the broad cultural milieu of the period in Florence prior to the main subject of Weinstein's Savonarola , he describes, in addition to the famous Medici family, a group of thinkers and doers, teachers and clergy that had great influence. Despite this Republic's advancement of external holdings like Pisa, of growing internal urban industry, and economics in the 1400's, there were a few who would be able to help steer them through the many changes until at least the period up to the Italian Wars and Savonarola. The short list that Weinstein chooses in order to offer up some of the voices for the contours of those times, skates over a mere fifteen pages addressing church ritual, the scourge of forced loans, the ideas inherent in humanism and charged interest as well as taxes. The footnotes should be good too.

The Archbishop of the City held a special, privileged position. Married to the Church in a pageant of prestigious ritual, he also held great responsibility and power and influence.
"He was the chief authority in matters regarding the clergy. He presided over the ecclesiastical court, exercising jurisdiction over the laity in important matters such as marriage and faith. From the revenue producing properties under his control he dispensed patronage, most of it to the city's illustrious families. A successful archbishop had to know how to balance the interests of the local clergy with those of the curia. He had to speak for the laboring classes without aggravating their masters. He had to be a skillful administrator, a student of canon law and theology, a diplomat ... and ... shepherd of his flock, and effective preacher and doctor of souls." [p. 50]
One Antonino Pierozzi played the role from 1444 to 1459. His father was a notary, and he himself became a protege of Pope Eugenius IV and 'chief disciple' of the founder of Dominican Observance in Florence. As archbishop he became known as one who banned lewd festivals and issued death warrants for errant Franciscans. But in his semons, Weinstein says, Pierozzi tended to weave an ethos of humanism into the prior predominant mold of Thomas Aquinas. "He promoted the idea that service to the common good (bene comune) was a Christian as well as a civic virtue, especially relevant to life in a communal polity such as Florence." A chief problem was in the charging of interest which was not in agreement with Church teaching. [p.50]

It was his generation's misery to witness the slow demise or a shift in certain cultural attitudes. There was more money by mid-century and hence more ways to make money for more people. Pierozzi could still preach until his end that this pursuit of wealth may not all be bad so long as it was for public works, for aid to the poor and for the greater good of the community. But this generosity and magnanimity must be performed, he thought, as one of a few necessary civic duties, and not just for personal salvation. This was also an idea that Cosimo de' Medici could get behind. But for a city full of bankers and takers this must have been hard to reconcile for a mendicant Dominican. He was made a saint in 1523.[p. 51]

But Cosimo was also constantly reminded about the costs for security. The proliferation of mercenaries to quell bandits or just protect messengers, as well certainly, for the transport of goods and coin, was also more and more expensive. Interested in extending the influence of Florence, Cosimo also went ahead and built palaces in the cities and countryside round about. He could fill them up too, by extending his generosity to artists and builders, to musicians and those who studied rhetoric. Of course he did, and he did so for schools as well as churches and monasteries or the Mendicant Orders.  His patronage of the arts 'was personal, open and princely', Weinstein says.
"He was an avid builder of palaces and churches, employed the finest painters and sculptors of his time, and retained agents who traveled far and wide hunting for rare manuscripts and books. He sponsored Greek and Latin scholars, most notably Marsilio Ficino, the son of his physician, setting him up with the income from a farm at Careggi and a house in town, where he translated and commented on Plato and taught his brand of Neo-Platonism to leading citizens and their sons."
 "... [He] also liked to be seen as a benevolent father figure who embodied the traditional Florentine virtues of the pious Christian, shrewd pragmatic merchant, and republic-loving patriot. He played on the symbolism of the family name: the Medici were the republic's medici, physicians protecting the health of the polity." [p. 52]
But, he also nearly broke the bank funding Francesco Sforza's successful overthrow and capture of Florence's long time rival Milan, in 1449. When Cosimo died in 1464 he was hailed as Father of His Country and defender of its liberty.

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quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011

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Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Maximillian In Italy, later 1496: Index of Francesco Guicciardini, ii

It is in the second volume of the 1763 edition of Austin Goddard's translation of Francesco Guicciardini's History of Italy, that the tale of Maximillian Habsburg's trip to Italy - to save Pisa from so many suitors - forces its way into view. Max had a mix of changing intentions and not enough money and not enough troops to accomplish so much. The uncrowned emperor tried to get as much of these as he could. He tried to find out what the players really wanted and found instead that was a changeable thing, too. There were motives all over, there were motions on the field. In the end, the players, as well as Max, returned to what they were doing before he came to Italy. The result was a great loss of prestige for Maximillian and for Ludovico, the duke of Milan.

Here follows then a bird's eye view of the many turns and switchbacks, presented as a glossing index of topics in the same sequence as Goddard's text of Guicciardini.

pp 48-52, Venetian doge gives reasons for protecting Pisa
pp 52- 55, reasons for a vain Ludovico, safe in his delusions of grandeur, not to worry
pp 56-108: troop movements, payments, allocations, battles thru summer 1496
p.108 Why King of France decided to stay in France, for now,

pp 109:::>> Max goes to Italy and then leaves, then comes back
p 110 Ludovico convinces Max to come to Italy, w/ promise of 30,000 additional ducats above the 60K already promised. Ferdinando of Naples dies, Giovanni son of F&I in Spain offered as King of Napoli which doesn't happen.
p 111 Max returns w/ few troops to Vigevano, where allies counselled to take Asti, then Montferrat & Savoy. But no one was impressed w/ Max's troops and wouldn't budge much.
p 112 Max asked Ercole duke of Ferrara to come but he wouldn't budge since Max 'held' Genoa;
p 112-3 Ludovico of Milan took it upon himself to influence Pisa w/ money and Max's prestige should give to himself and Milan the power over Pisa.
p 114 Guicciardini thinks Max wanted Pisa and more money for himself and that is why he was there
p 115-6 motives and view of Florence on Pisa, influence of Savonarola at this point
pp 117-19 Pisa takes action again and again to defend itself against Ludovico, Venice
pp 120-21 battles of Florence and Pisa
p 122 Pisa leans toward Venice after supplies granted
p 123 Ludovico was ill tempered and seen as ill-suited to be put in charge of Pisa

p 124 Max convinced he should go to Pisa, sent ambassadors to all allies to 'take Cognizance'
p 125 Venetian influence grew in Pisa w/ supply of troops and food
p 126 fear grows in Florence of losing Pisa
p 127 Ludovico of Milan kept petitioning the Pisan's to wait for Max
p 127-29 Pisa decided they should not defer to Max's decision and give up their rights before they had received their lost possessions taken thru violence
pp 130-32 Florentine ambassadors refuse to talk to Ludovico of Milan

p 132 Max leaves Genoa w/ six galleys and many more Genoese vessels, Venetian ships, and many armies in order to 'get a closer look' at Pisa from Livorno; Pietro Bembo says this happened on October 7, 1496.
p 133 but the French were in communication w/ Florence
p 134 French fleet encounters allies' preparatiions near Livorno
pp 135-36 siege of Livorno from sea and land: French ship drops off grain and leaves,
pp 137 cannon is used on Florentine castle but then a storm sinks Genoese ship w/ Max and 2 Venetian ships

p 138 Max makes it to Pisa, leaves for Vico Pisano, lays 2 bridges across the Arno then leaves for Milan asking Venice for more money. They refuse and he asks for 22000 Rhenish florins a month
p 139 Max goes on to Pavia, then Lomellino and then Cusago w/out entering Milan, and then Como
p 140 Max hurries home instead of seeing the pope's rep, Florence retakes Pisan forts and

p 141 Ludovico withdraws his armies. Venice consolidates theirs and looks for supplies. Meanwhile Tortona is taken by Venice
p 142 French retreat from more forts and return to France

pp 143-44 France decides to go after Genoa and Pope goes after holdings of the Orsini
pp 145-47 siege by pope of Bracciano the fortress of the Orsini
p 148 French arrive to give aid to Bracciano
pp 149-51 the siege was raised in time but incursions continued until
pp 152 peace articles over the Orsini were finalised
p 153 pope turns to secure the port city of Ostia from French

Alll the above taken from the online photocopy of the John Adams Library copy of this Second Edition of Austin Goddard's translation of The History of Italy, volume ii, London, 1763.

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Friday, September 30, 2016

the lens grows darker: late September 2016

It is widely acknowledged that there is one person in the US driving the discussion of public issues through as many least common denominators as he can find. Many times before he has shown this habit, but recently the Republican nominee has increasingly resorted to forms of dishonest rhetoric in order to support his personal claims. The problem with this of course is that anyone who knows about fractions, or factions, knows that there is only one number found in or common to all denominators - even if it may not be counted. And that is one. Anyone can have an opinion. But if the basis for the opinion are merely a tissue of lies and misppropriations, then it becomes the problem of that audience, then who repeats them. Donald Trump keeps telling people he won the first round of Presidential Debates with Hillary Clinton. The overwhelming consensus is that he clearly did not.
The press disagrees with that assessment partly because their credibility has been called into question. Not the least over how Trump has seemingly sucked the air out of the collective media exposure of his tactics, since the summer of last year. He repeats a lie until others are repeating it too. Then the 'issue' is either a 'scandal' or, just another 'two-sided' disagreement. The facts, what is really happening, in turn, gets ignored as 'less interesting'. People become unaware of what is actually happening and, react instead to another orchestrated scandal. (Today, it is over the nominee's 3AM tweets attacking Alicia Machado, a former Miss Universe winner, who accused the nominee of mental abuse after her win. Irrationally, in order to discredit her, he then invited his followers to watch a fake sex tape that didn't involve her.) There's been such a scandal, or two, or three, or more, every week since Trump started running for President. One example is that Trump doesn't seem to understand the US had an embargo against Cuba, for over fifty years. Another is that he doesn't seem to understand how a charitable foundation, that is, his charitable foundation functions.

It's alarming how so many people can't seem to get enough of the petty scandals and outrageous pychopathic behaviors.

But it seems even Congress has a difficult time understanding the gravity of their actions.

A graphic with the last date that people can register to vote has been circulating.

It is common knowledge these days that 'lack of education', in addition to 'poverty' makes these problems worse. But there is even disagreement on what that means, and less agreement on what to do about it. There is a problem with the shrinking middle class in the US as well.
Also, in the US more people feel that this is happening:

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Thursday, September 22, 2016

Queen Isabella of Castile & the Cortes of Madrigal: 1476

Castile was the most populous Spanish realm when Isabella and Ferdinand came to power. After the War of Succession in 1476, they immediately held a great council, the Cortes of Madrigal, that very year in April. For decades Greater Spain and Castile in particular had suffered internal civil wars and constant waves of anarchy and corruption. With this new arrangement and those reorganizations that followed later, Isabella formed at first a solid grasp on the region that grew in time to a tight control over the breadth of Castilian lands. The formation of a workable system had to be established first and order needed to be restored. This took time, but within just a few years and, by a number of careful selections, a broad framework for order could flourish.

The cities and towns of Castile all had different histories. They all had their own memory of who had taken whom and whose allegiance was due, or not. The monarchy wanted greater royal supremacy and stronger, more effective control over Castile as a whole. 
"... the walled cities and towns which dotted the Castilian landscape had many of the characteristics of city states and enjoyed a high degree of independence of the Crown. Established one after another during the southward march of the Reconquista, they had been given their own fueros or charters of liberties by generous kings, and had been liberally endowed with vast areas of communal land, which extended their jurisdiction far into the surrounding countryside and served to meet the bulk of their expenses. Their charters gave them the right to form a general assembly or concejo, which was ordinarily composed of the heads of families (vecinos), and which chose each year the various municipal officials." [p. 93]
Judicial officials were called alcaldes, and below them were large numbers of regidores, local police officers. There were also escribano, who kept the municipal registers. These were the long-standing traditional arrangements baked in to the broader culture over centuries. But even these, and often too, in many places, these local officials werethen  replaced with the Santa Hermandad and corregidor by Isabella and Ferdinand. Established during the Cortes of Madrigal in 1476, these were the reestablishment of a particular order of men used for 'security'.
"The Hermandad combined in itself the functions of a police force and of a judicial tribunal. As a police force, its task was to suppress brigandage and to patrol the roads and countryside. Every town and village was expected to provide its quota of troops, at the rate of one horseman to every hundred householders."
...
"If the malefactor was caught by the Hermandad he was also likely to be tried by it, for the tribunals of the Hermandad enjoyed complete jurisdiction over certain carefully specified classes of crimes -- robbery, murder, and arson... together with rape, housebreaking and acts of rebellion ...". [p. 87]
These often inflicted terrible punishments to offenders. The desired effect achieved was an overall suppression of disruptive crime and disorder. There was widespread revolt at thier tactics, but they remained useful through the recapture of Granada in 1492 and weren't entirely disbanded until 1498.

There is the sure certainty of 20-20 hindsight here in the ripe summation that Elliott offers us in taking leave of one topic and turning to another. There was much violence and tumult to quell and other old institutions needed reworking, as well. No single way forward was assured success.
"The organization of the Hermandad was therefore essentially a temporary expedient devised to deal with an acute national emergency. The year... saw another move by the Crown to reassert its authority over the magnates...  the mastership of the powerful Order of Santiago." [p. 88]
The Orders were traditional medieval institutions. As groups of (at least nominally) ordained soldiers with their own traditions, offices, and hierarchies, they served both Church and Crown. In Castile, certain members of the prominent Orders - Elliott lists those of Santiago, Calatrava and Alcantara - held vast tracts of land and could count on thousands of vassals serving them. Similar in practice to so many princes in German lands and beyond, they fought with each other over principle and prestige, the confiscation of goods or revenue streams.  Some kind of control over the leaders, at least, of these 'states within states' by the Crown could certainly help unify central Spain.

When news arrived (also in 1476) that the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago had died, Isabella raced on horseback to Udes where the Council of the Order had gathered to choose a successor. Once there she insisted on a suspension of the hearing, and for her husband King Ferdinand to be named the new Grand Master. Later, Elliott tells us Ferdinand demurred, but the precedent was set. When in 1487 and 1494 the same office of the other Orders fell vacant, they sent representatives asking for royal permission.

In this same time, the Crown drew more and more of these gigantic revenue streams for their own use. Between the three Orders they controlled 183 different encomienda, or 'commanderies',  with combined annual rents of 145,000 ducats. In addition, with the numerous offices and officers (some 1500 and more) in these Orders, a rich store of potential dignitaries therein could be individually encouraged and, in time, selected from. This would go a long way toward ensuring regal control in all the districts. [p. 89]

Another form of controlling the many magnates came in the decisions ironed out during the 1480 Council of Toledo. As sovereign entities they also felt they needed a stronger hand in the operation of governmental activities. The Consejo Real, the old royal Council of Castile also needed refashioning, and for more than just money streams.

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J.H. Elliott: Imperial Spain 1469-1716 : Penguin, NY, 2002
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Excerpted Lives of Katherine Hughen & Wibbe Arnts: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings

A couple more quick sketches of lives spent in devotion under direction at those Houses in Holland here. The more of these the better, yes, as they act like tiny windows on individual lives, long ago. Still, the existence of these texts themselves shed light on what these houses thought memorable and noteworthy. They clearly thought these were people worth remembering: the forebears and former 'sisters' in this particular House of Devotion. And with just a few, poles of activity and the personalities and their roles, a view on how a house could operate also comes into view, so there should be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.

These two snapshots are of older women who perhaps saw the earliest Houses of 'sisters' in their earliest years. But both were older by the time they entered their devotional practices in these separated spiritual spaces, both stayed there for years and both died about the same time. One was Sister Wibbe Arnts.
"Good sister Wibbe [d. 1412] used to take care of the inner courtyard of our house, and this was her office. She did this humbly; it was her way of turning herself to our dear Lord. She was an elderly sister and had lived here a long time, but she walked about simply and plainly as if she were a young sister. She was a plain and simple creature by nature, and she turned to our dear Lord in this same way. She was never sharp or complaining, and was never heard talking or murmuring about the things her superiors had charged or ordered. She did the work charged to her very devoutly and was at peace with it, allowing things to go up and down just as God and her superiors wished. She also spurred others on, according to their abilities." [pp. 126-7]
Another sister Katherin Hughen had died the year before and had come to join the others already after the age of fifty.
"She was an ardent and devout person and took pains  -- because she had entered the Lord's vineyard in her eleventh hour -- to give herself all the more ardently to the virtues, for she had spent her time in the world foolishly." [p. 126]
The word ardent comes up frequently in these encomia. It was indeed a mark of high praise in these houses. Van Engen tells us in his introduction that ardent (in both the English and Latin use) referred to an inner fire or glow.
"Every brother or sister who had caught the spark, whose inner life was moved with desire toward God and goodness, was described as "ardent" or "kindled" or "fervent". The New Devout looked for that glow, for that inner radiance, that inner light, marking a heart now folllowing down the path of the new devotion with intensity, with "fire."" [p. 34]
In this new place, in her ardent reaction to her former 'worldly foolishness', Katherine,  "... tried.. to retrieve twice as much:"
"Just as earlier she had served the world with everything that was in her, so now she served our dear Lord with everything that was in her. She had once lived with people who were great in the world's eyes, and there she had grown accustomed to much worldliness and done all to serve her own pleasure. But when she came to join the sisters, she converted herself wholly to God and gave herself over to great humility and lowliness, as if she neither had nor had ever had great possessions in the world. For she saw what she had done and therefore counted nothing as what she now did in turn. Because she had joined fully in the idle pleasures of this world, she possessed all kinds of beautiful jewelery; this she brought along and gave to our dear Lady, or elsewhere as there was need." [p. 126]
It would be interesting to find out how Katherine Hughen in her pursuit of 'idle pleasure' in those days (c. 1370-1400) could acquire so many 'kinds of beautiful jewelery'.  Also interesting would be the chain of events that led her to enter into such a modern devotion instead of the other many canonical houses. This move would possibly be away from courtlife, or the gambling houses and brothels, or even, any of the other leading abbeys and Houses with Canoninc Orders.  The question of why and how the chain of events of her conversion to such a House and toward this form of practice scratches at the imagination. While the record is silent on these matters, a spare clue is given.

"She was very loyal to our house. Because she wanted so very much that the sisters should receive her earthly possessions, she held on so powerfully in her final illness that she nearly died without the holy sacrament." [p. 126]
Were these houses or their practitioners taxed? What rights did she have over her earthly possessions when she died? Why did this matter at this time? Why was this matter, even for these worldly renouncing sisters, seemingly so important? It's hard to answer these basic questions from so far away.

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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988


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Thursday, September 15, 2016

Bembo Shows Venice Most Willing For War Over Pisa: Fall 1496

The official view from Venice was that the City had been playing its role in the recovery of Pisa. At last coming to agreement to do something, they agreed to build more ships, and as the summer wore out, to send plenty of gold and troops and envoys out into the field. There were the discussions with Maximillian, then on Italian soil, with details of his perambulations closely following Burchard's own. But tensions were rife as this anecdote from Bembo's History of Venice shows. 

Bembo implies that it was while the King was at Vigevano that the discussions with the Pisans were had, and that there was some sort of impasse. [iii,54] But for him as well, it also seems that when word came that Venice was willing to take a more prominent role in protecting Pisa, and the money came in, Maximillian then resolved at last to actually go help the Pisans. Word came out that Max would go first through Tortona on his way to Genoa and there board ship in a fleet to approach Pisa, via Livorno (Leghorn) its port. 

The scene quickly tumbles into view. Florence had its partisans, to be sure, but all Florentines (with or against the current Council) could point to Pisa as being their traditional protectorate. And it was the French who had liberated it from the de'Medici faction, only lately previously in power in Florence. So, for those remaining as Florentine partisans, it seemed, Pisa should naturally fall under Florentine rule. The Pisans as they repeatedly told all, wanted to find some way to maintain their independence from all callers. Yet, Venice would say, that's not what was told to them.
"At Tortona, the following incident occurred. Meeting by chance on the street two Florentine ambassadors who had come to Maximillian, the Venetian ambassadors greeted them, but got not a word in return as the Florentines continued on their way in an ill-bred and haughty manner. Meeting again the next day, they would not give way to the Venetian ambassadors, but practically jostled them with their retinue in an arrogant manner. Morosini, who had a face of remarkable dignity and was very strongly built, cried, "Learn to give way to your betters!" and gave one of them such a push that he fell over in the mud."
Then after this exchange, almost as an afterthought or a conclusion, this additional transaction was (quite a bit) more simply spelled out.
"As he reached Genoa from Tortona, Maximilian asked to be given the Genoese citadel. When his request was refused, he left the town the next day and spent a number of days in the outskirts preparing his fleet." [iii,55]
It would not be until October that Maximiliian would actually make his approach to Livorno. When soon after a French and Florentine fleet arrived full of grain and troops, Bembo says it was a Venetian ship that drew off the French captain's ship, while Maximillian retreated in the hail of explosions and cannon fire.
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from Pietro Bembo: History of Venice; edited and translated by Robert W Ulery, Jr.; in english and latin, for The I Tatti Renaissance Library; by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2007
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Thursday, September 8, 2016

news late summer 2016

The constant churn of disasters all over still leaves survivors to sort it all out. Ten thousand refugees were rescued in the Mediterranean in a 36-hour period at the end of August.
Fires in Spain and California, earthquakes in Italy and Oklahoma, and floods elsewhere accumulate, as do great mounds of hail on top of terrible earthquakes in New Zealand, and snow in Montana. The celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London seems an odd thing to celebrate.

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Why is is it that for eighteen months current US policy is to help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen?
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Some ask if GLOBO Brasil's primary news source isn't partly to blame for their change in government this summer. Already the same media reports bonfires over their new temporary president after last week's impeachment vote ousting President Dilma Roussef.
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Many Americans are deeply concerned about water and land rights. This looks big from here people.
Obama went to Asia, and assuredly sealed a deal with China over the environment,
but his TPP trade plan has problems.
Back in session the US Congress has work to do.

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We lost another couple legends last week. In addition to the wonderful Gene Wilder, we also lost longtime recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder.

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Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Johann Burchard, Diary Digest: Afield in Lombardy, Aug-Sep 1496

Johann Burchard wrote many details of ceremonies and interactions in his official capacity as the master of ceremonies for the papal court in Rome. The office was appointed and he served under several popes. He also travelled overland and wrote of those activities. On a Saturday at the end of July 1496 Burchard was sent, 'on order of the pope',  north from Rome after Cardinal Carvajal, the pope's legate. Burchard met up with the Cardinal 'on Sunday before dinner at one of the inns of Otricoli', a couple days after the legate had left Rome. The details of the following itineraries and the arrangements for meetings of such notable persons - and who should decide what - reveals both physical exposition but cultural explanations as well in a multipolar world.

"We eventually reached Milan on August 24th, and there the legate attended various services and ceremonial functions during the next two or three days. On Sunday, August 28th, he rode out with the Duke of Milan and the ambassadors that were present to the monastery of the Augustinian nuns, whose abbess was the duke's sister, although she was of illegitimate birth, and where there were about a hundred and thirty nuns following the Rule."
This may have been Bianca Francesca Sforza (1448-1516), abbess at Santa Monica in Cremona, some miles southeast of Milan. This off-hand remark by Burchard connecting Ludovico Sforza's half-sister with the abbey outside Milan, by itself, shows so much. The previous couple years this Lombard region of north Italy, had been full of threats of, rumors of, and evidence of, wars and battles. In running an abbey, it was especially the sister to the local Duke Ludovico (who continued to be instrumental in fomenting, prolonging and often worsening affairs), who had to be selective on who she might let in. As I wonder what duties she might have running such a place, one also wonders how many other sisters were employed detailing the arrangements affording accomodation there to the many dignitaries and emissaries and thir attendants and horsemen and so on. Heirs of nobles, and often the 'illegitimate' heirs especially, would be sent, fulfilling in some capacity, and often for a fee to such sequestered, holy orders. Still, even for her place, this daughter of Francesco Sforza had much responsibility.

The next day, Burchard tells us, he received some letters. These detailed the arrival of King Maximillian at Carimate, some miles north of Milan. Reporting this news to the Cardinal, asking if there was any other service he might offer, the cardinal 'was most pleased' to send Burchard off in his capacity of legatine ambassador to meet with the King's group, and, 'in accordance with the instructions sent by Cardinal Piccolomini'.
"The legate commissioned me to speak plainly and suitably about everything that need not be concealed from the Duke of Milan, who thereafter arranged for my journey by placing me in the care of his chamberlain. The latter arranged for me to be provided with hospitality and all other necessities in Carimate, which I reached that same evening at about seven o'clock, only to find that there was no time then to have an audience with the king and that my accomodation was not yet available."
So, Burchard retreated 'under protection of the duke's chamberlain' to another nearby town named Lentate where they spent the night. The info he might keep from the Duke of Milan while being protected by the Duke's chamberlain, refers to agreements and arrangements the pope wanted to send to Maximillian but without the Duke of Milan's knowledge. It wasn't until later that Burchard would be able to do this. The next day there was a meeting at Carimate. Burchard paid his due respects, 'as a servant should', and immediately began discussing precedence, and who should sit next to whom.
"Properly speaking, His Majesty's place should be next to the legate, and this I had to explain to him at the same time as I pointed out what the difference was between a crowned Emperor and the King of the Romans." [p. 123]
The German lords present agreed that the legate could sit at the left of the King since the King already 'held the full powers of imperial administration'. After all, the distinction that Maximiliian Habsburg, King of the Romans desired, to be crowned Holy Roman Emperor, could only be bestowed by the pope. Pope Alexander VI had offered this possibility in exchange for helping in keeping the French out of Italy. Abruptly, Burchard turns from his narrative to retrace his steps, telling details of how difficult matters had been for him on this trip in exercising what he saw was his correct duties.

It is possible Burchard had a difficult time of these exchanges. This may have had to do with his sense of the importance of his office, - that's how he writes about it - also recognizing the importance of the issues at stake, and showing he wanted things to be done in a procedurally sound way. But he wasn't negotiating, or persuading. He was there almost perfunctorily to explain the order of things, literally the precedence of persons, and the distinction of a king's own station, to his face, upon first meeting. Burchard had done this before, and back in Rome usually (like with the French King Christmas week two years back), but not before this king or these chamberlains and other attendants, so far afield like this.

Burchard returned that afternoon (Aug30) to report back to Cardinal Carvajal. His group then left for Monza on the way to meet up with Max at Carimate. There he was given orders by the legate and the duke to leave before dawn next day and return to Carimate and the King carrying the proposed itinerary and timetable for the arrival and meeting of the legate with Max. That night, Burchard notes, 'if I remember rightly', he slept in a nearby public inn, the Campana.

Before dawn, Burchard had saddled up and returned to Carimate, where he learned that the King 'had not yet breakfasted' and could 'give no audience', but that the papers could be sent ahead. Later, he received word that the legate and the duke should go to Meda in order to meet up with the King there. This message was returned to the duke and the legate whereupon they agreed to all the king's requests. All these goings and comings to ensure that their eventual meeting could be worked out smoothly, shows how high the degree of respect that each wanted to pay to the other. The actual physical approach of one to the other, and who should dismount, and how the legate should then pay his respects to the mounted King, etc. are details that Burchard most dutifully explains.

"They thereupon continued to Meda to wait for the king, and they joined the Duchess of Milan and her ladies-in-waiting who had arrived in three carriages. King Maximillian then appeared with about two hundred cavalry, and he was met by the legate, the duke and the duchess. On reaching the legate, the king dismounted and embraced him, and all four together went into an inner room. The legate presented the apostolic letter to the king who, receiving it, handed it on to his secretary to open and read. This was done publicly, after which the legate spoke some suitable words about the commission given him by His Holiness, and blessed the king according to his authority whilst they remained seated on their thrones, together with the duke and duchess, and the envoys standing around." [p. 126]
Maximillian had a prepared response written out and delivered by his secretary 'in a finely-composed, polished Latin'. A local nobleman's villa had been prepared to receive the king, the duke, the legate and the various councillors, and this is where they then went and spent the afternoon. Later, when the king retired again to Carimate, the duke, duchess and the legate returned to Monza. And the following day (Sep 1) they went on to Milan. By Sunday they had again gone on to another villa, by boat and on horse to Vigevano, situated between Milan and Novarra to the west. There the group spent most of September receiving many dignitaries from all over, including Spain, Venice, Naples and Florence.
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Johann Burchard: At The Court of the Borgia translated for english, with introduction by Geoffrey Parker, The Folio Society, Ltd, 1963



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Tuesday, September 6, 2016

Florence, Of Rome and France: Portrait From Weinstein's "Savonarola", II

Continuing to look at the picture of Florence in Donald Weinstein's modern, clear-eyed account of that city's famous Friar Savonarola one must look at the relationship that Florence had with its Church, its Archbishop, its relations with Rome, as well as its internal politics. Despite the effects of the great plague, the numerous revolutions, assassinations, more than a few wars, and much internal conflict among families and between classes, the city's reputation still today retains a glow of freshness, virtue and even a sort of sanctity. This following gloss of quotes and barest context can only hint at the ongoing push and pull, over centuries.
"Building Florence was a collaborative effort involving government, clergy, aristocrats, wealthy gildsmen, skilled artisans, and laborers, and the sense of communal - if often fractious - participation and accomplishment remained a fundamental part of the Florentine republican identity. Important contributions to the urban landscape were the Dominican, Franciscan, and other mendicant friars who had begun arriving in the second quarter of the thirteenth century.... The mendicants were keen to depict the lives of their founders and saints on church doors, walls, windows, chapels, and crypts. Bishops and civic officials affixed their motifs and family crests.... Humbler parishioners contributed their pennies for candles and donated their labor." [p. 44]
Behind much of this, for centuries, lay the struggles between Guelf and Ghibelline factions. Owing allegiance to either the Pope in Rome or the Emperor and his allies, respectively, these parties had various familial and artisanal adherents, which over time would fluctuate.
"The control of Florence alternated between Ghibelline and Guelf until 1293 when a new set of ordinances established the principle of representation by occupation rather than party."
Only male citizens, enrolled in a guild, wealthy enough to pay certain taxes and enjoy the scrutiny of their peers (seduti) could be selected for administrative offices or deciding councils. The 'banking guilds, wool and silk merchants, lawyers, doctors, notaries and master craftsmen' were eligible. Names of these were drawn up, voted by lot, and, for varying councils and for varying lengths of time, these individuals would rule, temporarily. Until the next vote or revolution.
"Terms of service were strictly limited.... Members of the lesser gilds, journeymen, and gild-ineligible wage laborers (popolo minuto) ... were excluded as were members of the old landed aristocracy (magnati).
The Ordinances of Justice of 1293 were the Magna Carta of Florence's gild republic. With some adjustments they remained in force, at least formally, until the sixteenth century."
The Guelf party and its ties to Rome and its interests remained central to government and economics.
"The Guelf Party possessed great tax-exempt wealth and exercised conspicuous ceremonial, charitable, and honorific functions, such as the conferring of the title of knight, a dignity much prized in this society of merchants."
Long after the conflicts between the Guelf and Ghibelline parties were over, it was the descendants of the Guelfs that felt they were the caretakers of this Republican Florence. [p.45]

In the view of Giovanni Villani (the Chronicler of Florence until he died of the plague in 1348),
"...Florence's Roman-Guelf legacy stood for republican government, prosperity, and the charity and culture of her citizens, not territorial aggrandizement." 
The City was self-aware of her chosen alliance and wanted to nurture that image. It could see itself as both devoted to and prized by both Rome and France. As patrons, protectors, customers and even sometimes, foes, the City and its people could highlight different aspects.
"Writers forged a new version of Florence's history, reworking the old myth of Florence, the daughter of Rome, heir to Rome's imperial mission. In the second half of the thirteenth century a pseudo-prophecy of France's origin predicted that a King named Charles would rule the empire, reform the Church, and conquer the infidel in the East, uniting the world into one sheepfold under a single shepherd (Ezekiel 37.24)...."
In the following century that myth was reworked again into a closer relation with France. For Villani that extended to Charlemagne himself, perhaps the best known of Holy Roman Emperors, rebuilding Florence in his time, [p.46]

In the plague years, Florence and the church would fight a war over competing interests in southern Tuscany. Again, Florence would reassert its rights even after more internal revolution between the classes, and again politically, the ottimati would land on top of things. Within fifty years, the leading civic humanist of the day, Leonardo Bruni could tell Florentines that their city was built by the Roman people, and that they were the lord and leader of the world. [p.47] It was in this environment that the De'Medici family came to prominence as eminent bankers. Through the fifteenth century their influence and power grew across Europe but particularly in self-aware Florence.
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quotes and pagination in Donald Weinstein: Savonarola: the rise and fall of a renaissance prophet , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011
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Excerpted Life of Fye Vreysen, c.1430-54: Modern Devotion, Basic Writings

A collection of brief lives and remembrances of sisters of 'houses' that practiced some measure of that 'modern devotion' found in Holland and thereabouts in the fifteenth century. They are excerpts of individual lives, there will be a few. All are translated by John Van Engen and available for purchase in a sharp book by the Paulist Press.

This one, a former adherent, was a nice girl. But, one time, she went off with some friends and never came back. She also appears as one of the last of sixty-seven lives in a middle Dutch collection that Van Engen found and drew on for his translations. This collection, he says in his introduction, was found in the Deventer Archives but belonged to the canonesses at Frenswegen around 1480. He says there must have been an original produced around 1456, now lost. The author was probably another unknown sister. These lives must have been living in a House of Master Geert Grote set up in the later 1300's. The story concludes with ruminations on those found and lost.
"Sister Fye Vreysen (d. 1454) Good sister Fye did not work long for the penny of eternal life, because she was quite young when she died and lived here about six years. By nature she was friendly and personable. She put herself out remarkably to serve the sisters where she could, and used often to take work out of the hands of the older sisters -- and so quickly that when one thought to do it she already had it done. Yet she used to think she was the laziest of all and to lament that. Because she was so loving and ever ready to serve, she was loved by all the sisters. She spent most of her time in the workhouse, where she proved herself so well suited that everyone was glad to work alongside her. If she was next to someone who seemed not so strong, she often did much of the work for her, and then acted so kindly and friendly as if someone had done it all rather for her. No one ever heard her complain or grumble that she thought something was too much or anything of that sort. ...
But she was still young and had not visited much in the world, and the flesh and the devil and the world can prove very distracting from the good. She would probably have gladly been something in the world, which also distracts from a good will and a firm resolution. The result was that after she returned to the house she never again had the same love for this way of life. She became progressively sick in the body and declined from day to day until she finally died. 
We have said this to point out that we should be very careful and anxious about going often to spend time with our worldly friends, who have no taste for the things that belong to the spirit of God. We should not fall into a passion or displeasure if on occasion a superior denies us the right to go off somewhere to please our nature. They often perceive things unknown to us, and see that almost nothing is so harmful to us as frequent visits with our worldly friends, especially those who have sunk the roots of their hearts into the love of this world and hold nothing greater than temporal well-being. To go around much with such people... is nothing other than a kind of sweet poison or drink of death... and unworthy of the kingdom of God. ... For the spiritual things in which they should be enveloped have no taste for them, and that which would give them pleasure according to the flesh they cannot get. They are therefore like those who sit uncertainly between two tables and fail to get enough from either." [pp. 131-2]
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John Van Engen: Devotio Moderna, Basic Writings ; Classics of Western Spirituality, Paulist Press, New York, 1988
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Thursday, August 25, 2016

news mid August 2016

Earthquakes in Italy and Myanmar wreck lives as well as ancient buildings this week.
In Myanmar, ancient temples were damaged in an earthquake which measured 6.8 ...

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Amidst the ongoing war in Syria, a journalist returns and gives her report.

When Daesh was forced out of Manbij, locals and old freedoms returned.

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Airstrikes in Yemen continue.
But many question the policy that kills civilians without changing the government.
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Many rush to Mauritania to strike it rich.
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What some have called a '1000 year flood' devastates central Louisiana and beyond.


A plea for help spreads.

And a northwest passage was revealed by NASA this summer.
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The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro ended with many lauded standouts.

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In the US a prank ensues and the City responds.

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