Saturday, June 30, 2018

news late june 2018

It's been quite a busy end of week and month. The disturbances from all over include those along the borderlines of our seemingly fracturing society, newly highlighted by the worst possible approaches by the current Executring Administration in DC. But what is also out of the ordinary are the continuing protests and marches, with social media blitzes exploding out into the streets and then going on to dominate the headlines.

Two days ago 630 people were arrested in the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C.. They continue to want a change in the new Trump policy over the deportations of immigrants, and especially the separation of detainees from their children.

These protests and demonstrations have continuously spread since news of the change in policy was extracted from this weak and vacillating White House last month.

Another action that was much praised earlier this month was the "breakthrough" in US and North Korean talks at denuclearization. But that seems to be having serious problems.
The Donald seems blithely unaware how his actions effect anything else. I'm not even mentioing his trade wars. The stories write themselves...



But Saturday there were marches. Lots of them.




Trump has another bad habit as well.
And this seems so important.
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Another mass shooting, this time at the Annapolis, MD Capitol-Gazette killed five.
It's a terrible time when journalists are being killed by sociopaths who feel underserved by the broader public.
Another post will have to mull over Supreme Court Decisions and the surprise retirement of Judge Anthony Kennedy.

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Friday, June 29, 2018

Savonarola: On Truth of Prophecy: ii, 10,12-17

Here are a few central bits of dialogue between Girolamo Savonarola and his imagined character Uriah, one of seven Holy Ghosts that Savonarola produced to dispute with in his De Veritate Prophetica Dyalogus. The lead up and the immediate contexts for these can be found here.

Uriah: ... if by some proof it were shown that the things you say have come from God, then no one should speak against them. But what is the harm in raising doubts?
Girolamo: I have asserted nothing contrary to natural reason, nothing contrary to sacred Scripture, nothing contrary to the holy Roman Church doctrine, ever: rather, all the things I have said are very much consonant with reason and with Scripture, and are both possible for God and very easily accomplished by Him. "Qui ergo pervicaci animo illis repugnat, cum nulla ratione nullaque auctoritate infringi possint, nonne stultitiam suam et infidelitatem ultro ostendit?" [ii, 10]

Or, Who then opposes these with an obstinate heart, those who are able to overcome them with neither reason nor authority, isn't he the one that shows his own foolishness and infidelity?
The character of Uriah responds, "Vere stultus est, qui sine ratione loquitur;" ... Truly the foolish is who without reason speaks. [ii,11] Footnotes here ask us to confer with Isaiah 32:6, and Proverbs 13: 16.

Just as heavy objects fall down [?!?] , Savonarola says, no one can deny the things revealed by God whether out of sheer stubbornness or otherwise, and still remain in the faith. They should likely instead incline toward those things revealed, over time, and certainly not keep dissenting out of stubbornness. Savonarola shows Uriah as convinced.

Uriah: Your reasoning is right on the mark. No one of sound mind can deny such revelations, which are, or can be, contrary neither to reason nor to the teaching of the Church, unless he has wandered utterly from the faithful. I do not see why anyone would speak against them, unless he deeply holds nothing to be faithful... if he had faith surely he should expect the occurrence of these things - which are more than possible by God - and not deny them. What else can it mean, then, when someone with an obstinate heart like this is unwilling to believe, except that he is insisting that these things are entirely impossible! And what is that but to deny the whole faith?
Savonarola is quick here to point out that these sick can be easily healed. [ii, 12] Of course he could then that winter, but would for not much longer. Does he agree, S. asks, that not any detail in the articles of faith is worth conceding? - Uriah agrees. - Every doubt? - Yes.

- In quo igitur lumine certus es? In solarisne globi, aut in naturalis rationis lumine confirmaris?
or, 'In which light are you certain? In the light of the sun, or in the light of natural reason are you confirmed? [ii, 13]
- Not either. says Uriah. - Then in which? asks Savonarola.
- By the light infused supernaturally. For things that are of faith aren't able to be seen by the body, nor by reason in the head.
-But how are you made certain by that light?

In the same way, Savonarola has his Uriah say, as that the spirit isn't deceived by colors in the sun's rays, or regarding natural light about first principles in natural reason, so too they believe in sacred scripture with the most constancy, as to not find in it anything to doubt or dissent by natural reason. [ii, 14]

- Where does this constant belief come from? Savonarola asks.
- By the nature of the faith's light.
- Can we know all the things in scripture?
- Sure, but only some can be known better than others.

Girolamo agrees with this and asks for examples. [ii,15]
In a longer sction [ii, 16] Uriah goes on and gives example. Savonarola returns to the idea that what is seen by this supernatural light of faith as compared with that of the mind of natural reason, is like the difference between seeing an image and seeing a shadow. [ii,17]

The conclusions of Savonarola's argument regarding light and faith and prophecy, for this interlocutor ,follow in sections 18-22. I would repeat them at length here as they have a fascinating combination of  both logic and swiftness of certainty that shows the friar very confident with his skills of persuasion. But interested readers should just go get the book.
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Savornarola, Girolamo: Apologetic Writings; ed. and trans. in english , by M. Michele Mulchahey, for The I Tatti Renaissance Library (ITRI); by The President and Fellows of Harvard College, USA 2015


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News of Election of Charles V Circulates: June 28, 1519

Re-reading the bits in the middle (pp. 140-64) about Jacob Fugger fin-angling the election of Charles V as Emperor of The Roman People, i.e., some German and Dutch and Austrian lands and, Spain. Jacob  Fugger, according to this author,  bid up the competitors, and sent smart, timely, repeated memos to his diplomats who would press the various potential heads of state to do what he wanted them to do. Mostly to those of Francis I of France and the handlers of young Charles, as well as the prominent electors in German and Austrian lands who would decide. But their decision would rest, as Fugger insured in his various ways,  on where Fugger himself would promise the largest loans. The electors had to know ahead of time that Fugger would guarantee loans that any prospective emperor would need just in order to pay for the election, let alone do anything afterwards. Then they would be satisfied. So Fugger had to promise loans and bankroll the 'festivities' enticing representatives to come, and then promise to pay more than the other banks of Italy and his nearest competitors, the Wesler family. Steinmetz says bribes spent for this election totalled 852,000 florins, of which Fugger paid 544,000, nearly 64%... [p. 162].

This election was concluded on 28 June, 1519.

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Greg Steinmetz: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived: The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger Simon & Schuster, NY, 2015
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Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Delays, Management Reorganizations: Spain and the New World 1498-1502

A marked difference between the times of Columbus and our own and which effected everything was the time it took to do most anything. It took most of the month of May for him just to leave Spain in his boats on the third voyage. Sailing down the Guadalquivir he and his fleet first had to reach Sanlúcar de Barrameda from Seville where the boats were made. Genoese bankers in Seville financed the construction and much of the fitting and manning of this Admiral's fleet. [p. 193] They would work to and win control of [p. 262] much of this process of goods and information for these oceanic trips west. But even they had to wait months sometimes to find out what was going on.

When Admiral Cristobal Colon returned to La Española - the modern island Hispaniola which comprises both Haiti and the Dominican Republic - on his third voyage to the Caribbean of 1498, he soon (12September) penned a decree stating that anyone who wished to return to Spain would be supplied with food and retain safe passage. As Hugo Thomas relates:
"Two months after Columbus' arrival, a new flotilla of five caravels went home to Castile from Santo Domingo. To the Admiral's surprise, three hundred Spainiards took advantage of his offer to return. Columbus permitted each of them to take back one Indian salve, and some other slaves were sent. The Queen [Isabela] was not pleased when she heard of this concession: "What power of mine does the Admiral hold to give my vassals to anyone?" she demanded, asking that all slaves be freed."
But this came many months later, only after the letter could come back and make it into their hands. In a footnote, Thomas gives this quote as coming thru Bartolome de las Casas (in the 3-volume, 1986 Historia de las Indias, published in Mexico and edited by Agustin Millares Carlo) as "Qué poder tiene el Almirante para dar a nadie mis vasallos?"

But Columbus knew (and his son Fernando also knew as he stated in a letter sent to the monarchs on his return) that slavery could be profitable. The Admiral made it clear in his letters back to Spain there were two to three servants per man sent, plenty of pretty women, and even dogs for the hunt as well, so that such a man had no need for anything except more wine and fellow settlers. But he also could tell them that he knew these circumstances were 'bad for Christians'. For this he recommended a letrado - a man learned in law and justice - be sent for corrections. [p. 203]

While there Columbus himself did manage to find a way to reconcile the rebels including Roldán in the west with the help of negotiator Hernández de Carvajal. Meanwhile in Spain the King and Queen began hearing of the difficulties there and the many complaints against the rules set by the sons of Columbus during his absence. In time they would select Francisco de Bobadilla and give him instructions to bring a justice to the new world more in line with their thinking. He would leave with a fleet and his instruction in July 1500 and arriving there that August [p. 220]. The monarchs were setting up both replacements and a series of known loyal informants about what happened so far away.

But that would take years to develop as they would spend most of their time at Granada continuing their religious fight against those of other religions in central Spain. In time, Bobadilla would be replaced by Fray Nicolas de Ovando (made Governor Sept 1501)  who would arrive after delays and shipwrecks in April 1502 [p.238] in the new world with his instructions [pp. 231-2].

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Thomas, Hugh: Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire ; Penguin/ Random House, UK; 2003
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