Author: gerryadmin

April 26

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1478

Murder at Easter Mass

The Medici family, led by Lorenzo the Magnificent, were the de facto rulers of Renaissance Florence but they had powerful enemies. Inside the city they were envied by the old-money Pazzi clan of rich bankers, and outside the city they were despised by the Pope, Sixtus IV (after whom the Sistine Chapel is named.) The Medici had frustrated the pope’s plan to place one of his nephews on the throne of a city near Florence so Sixtus turned to the Pazzi to gain revenge. He took away valuable papal monopolies from the Medici that hurt them financially, and conspired to murder Lorenzo and his brother and invade Florence with an army of mercenaries.

Various plots were hatched, including poisoning the brothers, but it was finally decided that the best place to get at the victims, unarmed and together, would be at Easter Mass. A professional assassin was hired for the task but he recoiled when told that the murder was to take place at the elevation of the Host during communion. He refused the job, claiming that such a deed in the face of Christ would merit eternal damnation, so the killing was assigned to priests and members of the Pazzi family.

With the Medici brothers in the front row and the conspirators behind them, the murderers waited until the ringing of the bell that signifies the climax of the Mass. Then they leapt upon Lorenzo and brother Giuliano. The latter was killed instantly but Lorenzo was only wounded, his heavy scarf and cloak protecting him from the knife of the priest who attacked him. While Lorenzo was whisked away to safety, the Pazzi clan attempted to seize the city hall and its arsenal, and ran through the streets crying “Liberty!”, hoping to raise a popular rebellion. They were met with resistance by Medici supporters who shouted their own battle cry and turned on the conspirators who found they had almost no support. The mob exacted summary justice on the Pazzi family. The Archbishop of Pisa, one of the plotters, was hanged, in his full ecclesiastical garb, from the balcony of the city hall along with other leaders of the conspiracy. Pazzi mansions were looted while their followers were dragged through the streets and murdered.

Rather than be embarrassed that the head of the Catholic Church had conspired with archbishops and priests to commit a murder during the most sacred moment in the Christian calendar, the papacy expressed outrage that clergy had been killed in the retaliation and declared war on Lorenzo de Medici, a crisis which he was able to weather. A final ironical note: Guiliano’s mistress at the time of his death was pregnant. The posthumous illegitimate child was raised by the Medici clan and grew up to be Pope Clement VII.

April 25

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by gerryadmin

St Mark’s Day

April 25 honours the writer of the third Gospel. The fourth-century Christian historian Eusebius, using much earlier records, says of him:  And so greatly did the splendor of piety illumine the minds of Peter’s hearers that they were not satisfied with hearing once only, and were not content with the unwritten teaching of the divine Gospel, but with all sorts of entreaties they besought Mark, a follower of Peter, and the one whose Gospel is extant, that he would leave them a written monument of the doctrine which had been orally communicated to them. Nor did they cease until they had prevailed with the man, and had thus become the occasion of the written Gospel which bears the name of Mark. . . And they say that this Mark was the first that was sent to Egypt, and that he proclaimed the Gospel which he had written, and first established churches in Alexandria. (Eccl. Hist. II, 15-16)

But who was Mark? Tradition links him to “John Mark”, the cousin of Barnabas, mentioned in the books of Acts, Timothy, Philemon and Colossians. He seems to have been a Jewish Christian who served in Paul’s missions for a time, was with Peter in Rome, and then went to Egypt becoming the first bishop of the African church in Alexandria. For a very long time Mark’s Gospel was seen merely as a summary of Matthew, but most scholars now agree that Mark’s was the first Gospel to be written and place the date of writing some time after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD, though others date it from the 60s. The latter argue that Mark was writing for an audience of Roman Christians, then undergoing the persecution of Nero. We have no reliable account of his death but the Coptic Church claims that he was martyred in Alexandria by outraged pagans.

In the 7th century Egypt was overrun by Arab invaders and the native Christians placed under religious restrictions, largely cut off from western and Byzantine Christendom. In 828 Venetian merchants are said to have smuggled the relics of St Mark out of Alexandria and taken them to Venice where the basilica of San Marco was built to house them. (Coptic Christians assert, however, that the head of St Mark remains in Alexandria.)

Each of the Gospellers has been traditionally denoted by a particular figure, derived from visions recorded in the Book of Ezekiel and Revelation: Luke by an ox; John by an eagle; Matthew by a man; and Mark by a lion. The Lion of St Mark remains the emblem of Venice, on its flag and atop a pillar in the Piazzetta beside the Doge’s Palace.

April 24

Home / Today in Church History / April 24
by gerryadmin

1915

The Armenian Genocide Begins

On the evening of April 24, 1915 agents of the Ottoman Empire conducted a mass arrest of Armenian community members in Constantinople and other Turkish cities. Most of these men, among whom numbered clergy, intellectuals, newspaper editors and businessmen, were eventually murdered in the waves of atrocities that followed. This action is considered the first step by the Young Turks regime in an ethnic cleansing of Asia Minor that resulted in the deaths of over a millions Armenians and other Christian minorities in the empire.

The Ottoman Empire was on its last legs and involved in the First World War on the side of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires. The government, ostensibly under the rule of Mehmed V, was really in the hands of nationalist officials known as the Three Pashas. For them the non-Muslim minorities in the Ottoman Empire were not to be trusted as their loyalties were believed to lie with the Christian Russian Empire, then at war with the Turks. The arrests of April 24 were undertaken to deprive the Armenian community of its natural leaders.

What followed was a series of deportations, forced marches, massacres and artificial famines against the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Orthodox population of Anatolia and parts of Syria that endured over a period of years until the defeat of the Central Powers in 1918. As many as 1.5 million people were reported to have been killed in this persecution. At the conclusion of the war, trials found the Three Pashas and other officials guilty of ordering the massacres. Two of the three pashas were assassinated by Armenian revenge seekers while the third died in battle.

The Turkish Republic, the successor of the Ottoman state, has acknowledged that many civilians died during relocations but has steadfastly denied that there was an organized plan of racial extermination and strenuously objects to the use of the word “genocide”. Members of the Armenian diaspora have long campaigned for their new homelands to recognize that the actions which began in 1915 were a deliberate attack on a race and religion.

April 23

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by gerryadmin

1985

New Coke

Custer’s charge at Little Big Horn; the introduction of the Edsel; the decision not to withdraw from Stalingrad; Hilary Clinton choosing not to campaign in the Rust Belt: all great disasters, but they pale into insignificance beside the arrival of “the new taste of Coca Cola” in April 1985.

When World War II ended, Coke’s share of the American soft drink market was 60%; 30 years later that share had dwindled to under 24% — and much of that was only because of Coke’s near monopoly of the fountain drink syrup business. Analysts saw young people buying Pepsi Cola, with its sweeter taste, and Baby Boomers switching to diet drinks. It was not unreasonable, therefore, for Coke to tinker with its formula in order to compete with Pepsi; a series of blind taste tastes showed that a sweeter concoction was preferred to both the old Coke and Pepsi. The company chose not to introduce the new flavour as an option, lest it merely cannibalize sales, and in April 1985 production of the old drink ceased, to be replaced by the “more harmonious” cola.

Pepsi executives had seen this coming and poisoned the well of public opinion, announcing that this change proved Coke had lost the “Cola Wars” and was no longer “the real thing”. Public reaction was scathing and the media had a field day mocking the decision. Entrepreneurs bought up stocks of the old flavour and commanded premium prices for the drink. Finally, three months later, Coke executives reintroduced “Coke Classic” while keeping New Coke on the market. Sales shot back up and the soda drinkers of America had an old friend back. New Coke was quietly given the axe in 2002.

April 22

Home / Today in History / April 22
by gerryadmin

The story of the Wandering Jew

According to Chambers Book of Days: On the 22nd of April 1774, the Wandering Jew, or some individual who had personated him, appeared in Brussels, where he told his story to the townsfolk.

The story of the Jew who had witnessed the Crucifixion, and had been condemned to live and wander over the earth until the time of Christ’s second coming, while it is one of the most curious of the mediaeval legends, has a peculiar interest for us, because, so far as we can distinctly trace its history, it is first heard of with any circumstantial details in our island. The chronicler of the abbey of St. Albans, whose book was copied and continued by Matthew Paris, has recorded how, in the year 1228, ‘a certain archbishop of Armenia Major came on a pilgrimage to England to see the relics of the saints, and visit the sacred places in this kingdom, as he had done in others; he also produced letters of recommendation from his Holiness the Pope to the religious men and prelates of the churches, in which they were enjoined to receive and entertain him with due reverence and honour. On his arrival, he came to St. Albans, where he was received with all respect by the abbot and monks; and at this place, being fatigued with his journey, he remained some days to rest himself and his followers, and a conversation took place between him and the inhabitants of the convent, by means of their interpreters, during which he made many inquiries relating to the religion and religious observances of this country, and told many strange things concerning the countries of the East.

In the course of conversation he was asked whether he had ever seen or heard anything of Joseph, a man of whom there was much talk in the world, who, when our Lord suffered, was present and spoke to him, and who is still alive, in evidence of the Christian faith; in reply to which a knight in his retinue, who was his interpreter, replied, speaking in French:

“My Lord well knows that man, and a little before he took his way to the western countries, the said Joseph ate at the table of my lord the archbishop in Armenia, and he has often seen and held converse with him.” He was then asked about what had passed between Christ and the said Joseph, to which he replied, “At the time of the suffering of Jesus Christ, he was seized by the Jews and led into the hall of judgment before Pilate, the governor, that he might be judged by him on the accusation of the Jews; and Pilate finding no cause for adjudging him to death, said to them, ‘Take him and judge him according to your law;’ the shouts of the Jews, however, increasing, he, at their request, released unto them Barabbas, and delivered Jesus to them to be crucified. When therefore the Jews were dragging Jesus forth, and had reached the door, Cartaphilus, a porter of the hall, in Pilate’s service, as Jesus was going out of the door, impiously struck him on the back with his hand, and said in mockery, ‘Go quicker, Jesus, go quicker; why do you loiter and Jesus, looking back on him with a severe countenance, said to him, ‘I am going, and you will wait till I return.’ And, according as our Lord said, this Cartaphilus is still awaiting his return.

At the time of our Lord’s suffering he was thirty years old, and, when he attains the age of a hundred years, he always returns to the same age as he was when our Lord suffered. After Christ’s death, when the Catholic faith gained ground, this Cartaphilus was baptized by Ananias (who also baptized the apostle Paul), and was called Joseph. He dwells in one or other division of Armenia, and in divers Eastern countries, passing his time amongst the bishops and other prelates of the church; he is a man of holy conversation, and religious; a man of few words, and circumspect in his behaviour, for he does not speak at all unless when questioned by the bishops and religious men, and then he tells of the events of old times, and of those which occurred at the suffering and resurrection of our Lord, and of the witnesses of the resurrection, namely, those who rose with Christ, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto men.

He also tells of the creed of the apostles, and of their separation and preaching. And all this he relates without smiling or levity of conversation, as one who is well practised in sorrow and the fear of God, always looking forward with fear to the coming of Jesus Christ, lest at the last judgment he should find him in anger, whom, when on his way to death, he had provoked to just vengeance. Numbers come to him from different parts of the world, enjoying his society and conversation; and to them, if they are men of authority, he explains all doubts on the matters on which he is questioned. He refuses all gifts that are offered to him, being content with slight food and clothing.”‘

Such is the account of the Wandering Jew left us by a chronicler who was contemporary with what he relates, and we cannot doubt that there was such a person as the Armenian in question, and that some impostor had assumed the character of the Jew who was supposed to be still wandering about the world, until in the middle of the sixteenth century he made his appearance in Germany. He had now changed his name to Ahasuerus, and somewhat modified his story:

It was again a bishop who had seen him, when he attended a sermon at Hamburg, where a stranger appeared in the winter of 1542, who made himself remarkable by the great devotion with which he listened. When questioned, he said that he was by nation a Jew, that his original occupation had been that of a shoemaker, that he had been present at the passion of Jesus Christ, and that since that time he had wandered through many countries. He said that he was one of the Jews who dragged Christ before Pilate and were clamorous for his death, and on the way to the place of crucifixion, when Jesus stopped to rest, he pushed him forward, and told him rudely to go on. The Saviour looked at him, and said, ‘I shall stop and repose, but thou shalt go on;’ upon which the Jew was seized with an irresistible desire to wander, and had left his wife and children, whom he had never seen since, and had continued to travel from one country to another, until he now came to Germany.

The bishop described him as a tall man, apparently of about fifty years of age, with long hair, which hung down to his shoulders, who went barefooted, and wore a strange costume, consisting of sailor’s trousers which reached to the feet, a petticoat which descended to the knees, and a mantle which also reached to the feet. He was always taciturn, was never seen to laugh, ate and drank little, and, if anybody offered him money, he never took more than two or three pence, which he afterwards gave away in charity, declaring that God contributed to all his wants. He related various events which he had seen in different countries and at different times, to people’s great astonishment.

All these details, and many more, are told in a letter, dated the 29th of June 1564, which was printed in German and in French. On this occasion the Jew spoke good German, in the dialect of Saxony; but when he, or another person under the same character, appeared in the Netherlands in 1575, he spoke Spanish. A few years later the Wandering Jew arrived in Strasburg, and, presenting himself before the magistrates, informed them that he had visited their city just two hundred years before, ‘which was proved to be true by a reference to the registers of the town.’

The Wandering Jew proceeded next to the West Indies, and returned thence to France, where he made his appearance in 1604, and appears to have caused a very considerable sensation. As during the time he was there the country was visited by destructive hurricanes, it was believed that these visitations accompanied the Jew in his wanderings, and this belief became so general that at the present day, in Brittany and Picardy, when a violent hurricane comes on, the peasantry are in the habit of making the sign of the cross, and exclaiming, ‘C’est le Juif-errant qui passe!‘ Various accounts of the appearance of the Wandering Jew in differents parts of France at this time were printed, and he became the subject of more than one popular ballad, one of which is well known as still popular in France, and is sold commonly by the hawkers of books, the first lines of which are,-

‘Est-il rien sur la terre
Qui soit plus surprenant
Que la grande misere
Du pauvre Juif-errant?
Que son sort malheureux
Parait triste et facheux!’

There is a well-known English ballad on the Wandering Jew, which is perhaps as old as the time of Elizabeth, and has been reprinted in Percy’s Reliques, and in most English collections of old ballads. It relates to the Jew’s appearance in Germany and Flanders in the sixteenth century. The first stanza of the English ballad is,

When as in fair Jerusalem
Our Saviour Christ did live,
And for the sins of all the world
His own dear life did give;
The wicked Jews with scoffs and scorn
Did dailye him molest,
That never till he left his life
Our Saviour could not rest.’

 The wanderer has not since been heard of, but is supposed to be travelling in some of the unknown parts of the globe. The Histoire admirable du Juif-errant, still printed and circulated in France, forms one of the class of books which our antiquaries call chap-books, and is full of fabulous stories which the Jew is made to tell with his own mouth.

April 21

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by gerryadmin

St Anselm of Bec

Anselm (1033-1109) was Archbishop of Canterbury during the intense, and often deadly, struggle between an ambitious papacy and national monarchies known as the Investiture Controversy. He was also one of the leading theologians of the Middle Ages, responsible for important propositions in Atonement Theory and proof for the existence of God.

Anselm was born in southern France and became a Benedictine monk at the rather advanced age of 27. He distinguished himself quickly and rose to be prior and then abbot of the monastery at Bec in Normandy, which he made a centre of learning. While visiting England the see of Canterbury came open and he was pressured by English clerics and the king, William II “Rufus”, to take up the post. This Anselm did in 1093 but with much reluctance (see above), probably foreseeing the difficulties he would have with a greedy and headstrong ruler.

Anselm tried to institute church reforms, such as insisting on clerical celibacy and curbing simony, the buying and selling of church offices, but he was caught up in political struggles between King William and the papacy. William insisted on the traditional rights of naming high-ranking English clergy to their positions and of appropriating church funds while Anselm defended the claims of the papacy to nominate bishops and archbishops and to pay no taxes unwillingly. The resulting brouhaha saw Anselm go into exile on two occasions before a shaky compromise was reached and he was allowed to return to his archdiocese.

Anselm’s greatest fame comes from two theological works. In the first, the Proslogion, he advanced what became known as the Ontological Argument for the existence of God. It is a simple but profound assertion:

God is a being than which a greater cannot be thought. Because we can conceive of such a being, this being exists in our minds. To exist in reality is greater than to exist only in the mind. Thus, if we think of God as existing only in the mind, we can think of something greater than God. But God is that than which nothing greater can be thought. It follows, then, that God exists in reality as well. In fact, it is incoherent to suppose that that than which nothing greater can be thought exists only in the mind.

Philosophers are still threshing out their thoughts on this simple paragraph and there exists an academic cottage industry around Anselm’s argument.

His second great contribution to medieval theology came with his presentation of the “satisfaction view” of the Atonement in Cur Deus Homo? or “Why did God become man?” In his Introduction, Anselm says:

 From the theme on which it was published I have called it Cur Deus Homo, and have divided it into two short books. The first contains the objections of infidels, who despise the Christian faith because they deem it contrary to reason; and also the reply of believers; and, in fine, leaving Christ out of view (as if nothing had ever been known of him), it proves, by absolute reasons, the impossibility that any man should be saved without him. Again, in the second book, likewise, as if nothing were known of Christ, it is moreover shown by plain reasoning and fact that human nature was ordained for this purpose, viz., that every man should enjoy a happy immortality, both in body and in soul; and that it was necessary that this design for which man was made should be fulfilled; but that it could not be fulfilled unless God became man, and unless all things were to take place which we hold with regard to Christ.

Anselm dedicated his working life to fides quaerens intellectum (“faith seeking understanding”) and, following Saint Augustine, asserted credo ut intelligam, “I believe so that I may understand.”

April 20

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1968

Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood”

Enoch Powell (1912-98) was a brilliant classical scholar and linguist, a soldier who rose from the rank of private to general in the course of the Second World War, and a Conservative politician in the British House of Commons. In 1968 while his party was in Opposition, he gave a speech in his Birmingham constituency which opposed further non-white immigration from Commonwealth countries. It became known as the “Rivers of Blood” speech, after Powell’s reference to a passage in the Aeneid where the Sybil prophecies civil war.

As I look ahead, I am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman, I seem to see “the River Tiber foaming with much blood”. That tragic and intractable phenomenon which we watch with horror on the other side of the Atlantic but which there is interwoven with the history and existence of the States itself, is coming upon us here by our own volition and our own neglect. Indeed, it has all but come. In numerical terms, it will be of American proportions long before the end of the century. Only resolute and urgent action will avert it even now. Whether there will be the public will to demand and obtain that action, I do not know. All I know is that to see, and not to speak, would be the great betrayal.

The speech was denounced by many in public life, including his fellow Conservative politicians; he was fired from his position as shadow defence critic.  The general public seems to have been widely supportive at the time; polls backed his position, workers went on strike to protest his demotion, and letters to the editor were overwhelmingly in his favour. In the 1970 election, the Conservatives were returned to power and voting experts were convinced that Powell’s speech had added over two million votes to the winning party.

Because of the speech, Powell remained an outsider for the rest of his political life, opposing his party on entry into the European Union and on anti-terrorist legislation, and eventually running for the Ulster Unionists. The current debate on immigration levels has prompted many in the media to bring up Powell’s 1968 predictions again.

April 19

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by gerryadmin

797

The usurpation of the Empress Irene

Irene (752-803) was the wife of the Byzantine Emperor Leo IV and the mother of the Emperor Constantine V. Unlike her husband, Irene was a supporter of the veneration of icons at a time when the empire had adopted a strict and controversial policy of iconoclasm. After the death of Leo in 780 she ruled as regent for her son and relaxed the persecution of iconodules. She summoned the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 which once again permitted the reverence to icons and aligned the Eastern Church once more with Rome.

When her son came of age Irene was insistent on retaining real power and the two frequently clashed. Finally in 797 Irene had her son arrested and blinded (as a way of rendering him unfit to rule) in the same palace chamber in which she had given birth to him. Constantine V died shortly after from his wounds and Irene resumed sole rule of the Eastern Roman Empire. This usurpation was an excuse for the papacy to turn away from its obedience to the emperors in Constantinople and to look for new protectors among the Franks. Since Irene, as a woman and a murderer of her own son could not claim legitimacy, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor on Christmas Day 800.

In 802 Irene was deposed and sent into exile. Her icon-friendly reforms were undone.

1012

The Martyrdom of St Alphege

Alphege (or Ælfheah) (953-1012) was the Archbishop of Canterbury at a time when England was suffering from renewed Scandinavian attacks. In 1011 Vikings attacked the city and took Alphege hostage. He refused to be be ransomed and the pagans killed him, legendarily subjecting him to the “blood eagle” torture. He was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to be murdered; the next to be assassinated, Thomas Becket, prayed to St Alphege just before his own death.

April 18

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by gerryadmin

1988

Operation Praying Mantis

During the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-88, Iran blockaded the Gulf of Hormuz to prevent Iraqi tankers from exporting oil and prevailed upon Syria to block the pipeline from Iraq to the Mediterranean. Iraq then resorted to using Kuwaiti vessels to carry the valuable cargo, so Iran took military steps to prevent that maneuver. The United States, anxious to keep the supply of Gulf oil going to the industrialized world, reflagged the Kuwaiti ships and accorded them naval protection in the area.

When an Iranian mine exploded in international waters, damaging the guided missile frigate USS Samuel B. Morrison, the Americans replied with Operation Praying Mantis designed to destroy Iranian facilities and ships used in their blockade. On April 18, 1988 the US launched attacks on oil platforms used for gun installations and intelligence purposes. The Iranian navy challenged the American fleet with speedboats and frigates and also attacked unarmed tankers belonging to western nations, but overwhelming American force neutralized the threat. The Iranians lost a frigate, a gunboat and 3 speedboats; two of their oil platforms were destroyed with a cost to the US of only a 2-man helicopter crew.

The decisive defeat in the Gulf is said to have led to a more eager Iranian willingness to settle the greater war; a ceasefire with Iraq was signed later that year.

April 17

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by gerryadmin

Earliest date for celebration of Danish Great Prayer Day

The Lutheran Church of Denmark explains it thusly:

Great Prayer Day (in Danish Store Bededag) is a special Danish festival. It falls on the fourth Friday after Easter Sunday, i.e. somewhere between mid-April and mid-May. When it was put on the Statute Book in 1686 by King Christian V it was meant to be a day of prayer, fasting and penitence. Nowadays most Danes associate the Great Prayer Day with hot wheat buns (in Danish: varme hveder). In recent years immigrants have revived the Great Prayer Day (or National Prayer Day) as a day of prayer for the nation and for peace in the world, and people from various church denominations gather to pray and worship together. The event is organised by the Church Integration Ministry the Evangelical Alliance of Denmark. 

When the Great Prayer Day was introduced in 1686 there were a number of other fast and prayer days too. The architect behind three of these days, including the Great Prayer Day, was Bishop Hans Bagger from Roskilde. By 1770 there were 22 holy days in Denmark. Struensee, at the time royal physician and a minister in the Danish government, became the man behind a reform that abolished half of these, e.g. the Third Day of Christmas, Three Kings’ Day, Candlemas and St John’s Day. 

 In the past, on the evening before the Great Prayer Day, the church bells announced its coming. On Great Prayer Day itself, all kinds of work and trade were forbidden. People were expected to fast until the church services were over and to abstain from travelling, playing and gambling as well as from other sorts of “worldly vanity”. The bakers, too, were not allowed to work. So instead of making fresh bread on Friday they began baking wheat buns on Thursday. These could be heated up the following day. Today baking is no longer forbidden on Great Prayer Day, but it still remains common to eat hot wheat buns the evening before.