Christmas Every Day

1519

Death of Johann Tetzel, provoker of Martin Luther

Seldom has the financing of public works had such profound consequences. In the early sixteenth century, the papacy was engaged in a long-standing and expensive renewal of Rome and its churches; the centre-piece of this project was the enormous St Peter’s Basilica. The old St Peter’s, dating back to the 300s, had been torn down and the finest architects and artists had been engaged to produce a splendid successor — Bramante, Bernini, and Michelangelo all worked on the building. Their talents were costly, so popes were always looking for ways to find funding for this Renaissance masterpiece. In 1517 Pope Leo X, in return for a large sum of money, granted a waiver of canon law to allow Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz to hold two sees simultaneously. In order that Albrecht not suffer too much financially, the pope also granted him the franchise to preach an indulgence campaign in parts of Germany. Half of the money raised would go to the building of St Peter’s and the other half to Albrecht.

The catechism defines an indulgence as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints”. In the summer of 1517 the Dominican monk Johann Tetzel raised funds in Saxony in return for indulgences that would reduce the pains of Purgatory for those purchasing them or those already dead. Tetzel was an experienced preacher of such drives and his sermons were very effective. Unfortunately, he abused the permissible limits of indulgences by claiming in his sale pitch that “as soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs.”

Tetzel did not take his entourage to Wittenberg because its ruler, Frederick of Saxony, already possessed the rights to sell indulgences but word of Tetzel’s claims reached the ears of Augustinian monk Martin Luther. Luther was so incensed, both by the doctrine of indulgences and Tetzel’s fraudulent claims that he posted “97 Theses” on the doctrine of Purgatory and papal powers over the afterlife. This was the first shot in the battle we call the Protestant Reformation.

Tetzel was caught up in the controversy and was forced to retire in disgrace. Despite their disagreement, when Luther heard that Tetzel was dying he wrote to absolve him from responsibility for the firestorm that had erupted, telling him “not to be troubled, for the matter did not begin on his account, but the child had quite a different father.”

St Lawrence

The Church is proud of its martyrs. It assigns days of the year to their remembrance; it adorns its buildings with their statues and paintings; it bids us name our children after them. It recommends that those suffering from disorders pray for the intercession of a saint whose suffering was similar — thus Job, who sat on a dunghill scraping his lesions with a shard of broken pottery, is petitioned by those with skin diseases. The Church also makes them patrons of places and professions and in doing the latter often manifests a grim sense of humour. The saint for August 10 is St Lawrence who is, among other things, the patron of short-order cooks. Why? Thereby hangs a tale.

Lawrence was an arch-deacon in Rome in 258, in the midst of the Valerian persecution, a wide-ranging attack on Christianity ordered by the imperial government. After the execution of Pope Sixtus II, Lawrence was left as the highest-ranking churchman in the capital. Knowing that it would not be long before he too would be arrested, he charitably gave away the Church’s funds lest they be seized by the pagan government. On August 10, 258 Lawrence was summoned to trial and ordered to bring the treasury of the Church with him. He appeared before the authorities accompanied by a train of orphans, beggars, and the sick, saying that these were the “true treasures of the Church”. He was then executed by being placed on a red-hot grid-iron (see illustration) which led to him being the patron saint of cooks and kitchen workers. He can also be appealed to by those who have been burnt or suffering from lumbago. His patronage of comedians comes from the remark he made while undergoing torture on the grid-iron. “Turn me over,” he is supposed to have said, “I’m done on this side.”

St Oswald

The seventh century saw the island of Britain divided among various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms set up by the Germanic invaders. Some of these had been Christianized, some remained pagan and there was no single state powerful enough to dominate the others. Occasionally, a strong ruler would arise who might temporarily be recognized as Bretwalda or “High King”. Such a one was Oswald of Northumbria (604-42)

During years of unrest, Oswald seems to have travelled in Ireland and the lowlands of Scotland where he was converted to Christianity. At the Battle of Heavenfield he defeated an army of Welsh and Mercians and made himself the most powerful ruler south of Scotland. He was instrumental in spreading the Christian religion and gave the island of Lindisfarne to the Irish monk Aidan as a base for evangelism. His generosity to the poor was legendary; St Aidan is said to have clasped him in admiration saying “May this hand never perish!” Oswald fell in battle against the pagan king of Mercia, Penda, who had his arms and head stricken off and mounted on a pole. Legend says his hand was recovered by his pet raven and where the bird dropped it, a healing well sprung up. His corpse was obtained by his brother Oswy and his relics are venerated in a number of churches in England and on the Continent. (There are supposed to be four heads of Oswald in circulation.) Many of these relics are associated with miracles and Oswald is called upon by those suffering from the plague. The image below is a German reliquary containing some fragment of the saint.

Nicodemus

Nicodemus was an early believer in Jesus who appears three times in the Gospel of John, the first in Chapter 3:

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. ² He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” ³ Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” ⁴ Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

¹¹ “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. ¹⁴ And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

¹⁷ “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹ But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Later Nicodemus reminds the Sanhedrin that the law requires a hearing before Jesus can be judged, and he is among those who provide for the burial spices and tomb for his Lord. He is often venerated with Joseph of Arimathea. Because Nicodemus seeks out Jesus first at night, his name was used during the Reformation as an insult for those who chose to hide their true beliefs.

1833

William Wilberforce dies

The prime mover behind the decision of the British Parliament to abolish the slave trade and then slavery itself in the Empire was born in 1759 to a family of wealthy Yorkshire merchants. With no need to earn a living, William Wilberforce was a rich young man with a penchant for parties, gambling, drinking, and travel. He entered politics at the age of 21 as an Independent but often supporting the policies of his friend William Pitt. At the age of 25 he underwent a religious conversion in which he began to take the demands of Christianity seriously. This was in a period in which an arid Deism and a disregard for traditional religion were fashionable. Wilberforce, however, made his faith the foundation of his political actions, which led him to become interested in the abolition of the slave trade.

In the late 18th century, Britain found that slavery was enormously profitable. British ships would carry wretched African captives to their colonies in the Americas, and to the Caribbean and South American plantations of other European powers as well. The cotton, sugar, rum and tobacco trades that slavery provided the labour for also made the merchants of Britain wealthy, so that to challenge the slave trade was to imperil the prosperity of the nation. Small wonder that the abolitionist movement had found little traction in Parliament despite petitions from Quakers beginning in 1783. Wilberforce became part of a group comprised of Christians inside and outside of the Anglican Church who organized to create the pressure necessary to defeat the vested interests and it was decided that he would lead the battle in the House of Commons. Bill after bill introduced by Wilberforce in the 1780s and 1790s failed until finally in 1807 the Slave Trade act was passed. Wilberforce’s reforms did not end there: he went on to press for Catholic emancipation, the total end of slavery, Parliamentary reform, and better working conditions for the poor; he was also a founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He died in 1833 just after the passage of bills outlawing slavery in the British Empire.

The 2007 film Amazing Grace portrays Wilberforce’s struggles in Parliament and society. The title role went to Ioan Gruffudd who was less wooden than usual, his wife was played by the dazzling Romola Garai, but Albert Finney as an elderly John Newton, ex-slave trader and author of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, stole the show. Two decent biographies of Wilberforce are Eric Metaxas’s Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, (2007) and William Wilberforce by Stephen Tomkins (2007).

Blessed Andrew the Catechist

Christianity penetrated Southeast Asia largely through the work of Portuguese Jesuits. In Vietnam they made a number of converts despite official opposition; one of these was Anrê of Phú Yên (1625-44). Andrew, as he was known, was baptized in his teens and served as an aide and teacher. He was caught up in a purge of Christians in 1644; loyal to his Jesuit clergy, he refused the orders of his ruler to renounce the faith. For this he was hanged (or stabbed or beheaded), becoming the first Vietnamese martyr. His body was taken to Macao, the Portuguese colony in southern China where it was interred. He was beatified in 2000 by Pope John Paul II. In the homily the pope preached on this occasion, he said of Andrew, “The words he repeated as he advanced on the path of martyrdom are the expression of what motivated his whole life: ‘Let us return love for love to our God, let us return life for life.’

1195 Death of Herrad of Landsberg

I make it known to your holiness, that, like a little bee inspired by God, I collected from the various flowers of sacred Scripture and philosophic writings this book, which is called the Hortus deliciarum, and I brought it together to the praise and honor of Christ and the church and for the sake of your love as if into a single sweet honeycomb. Therefore, in this very book, you ought diligently to seek pleasing food and to refresh your exhausted soul with its honeyed dewdrops.

One of the most remarkable, and under-appreciated, women of the Middle Ages, Herrad (c. 1130-195) was abbess of the convent of Hohenburg on Mount St. Odile in Alsace. She was superbly educated and a very capable ecclesiastic administrator, but is chiefly remembered for her massive encyclopedia of ancient knowledge entitled the Hortus deliciarum or Garden of Delights. Meant for the instruction of the nuns in her convent, it was a 648-page volume in Latin and German including more than 600 illustrations. The original was destroyed in 1870 during the Prussian invasion of France but, fortunately, copies had been made. As a sample of the wonders that the book contains, here is one of the illustrations and a helpful guide to what is being portrayed.

Philosophy, the Queen, sits in the center of the circle. She wears a crown with three heads labeled ethica, logica, and physica (a traditional Platonic division of philosophy that was common in the early Middle Ages). The scroll she holds reads, “All wisdom comes from the Lord God; the wise alone achieve what they desire.” To Philosophy’s right is an inscription which says that “seven streams of wisdom, called the Liberal Arts, flow from Philosophy.” To her left the inscription asserts that the Holy Spirit inspired seven liberal arts: grammatica, rethorica, dialectica, musica, arithmetica, geometa, and astronoma. The legend on the inner circle tells us “I, Godlike Philosophy lay out seven arts which are subordinate to me; by them I control all things with wisdom.”

Below Philosophy, seated at desks, are Socrates and Plato, identifed as those scholars of the Gentiles and sages of the world who first taught ethics, natural philosophy, and rhetoric.

From Philosophy emerge seven streams, three on her left and four on her right. These are the seven liberal arts, inspired by the Holy Spirit: grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.

Arrayed around the circle are the liberal arts. Three correspond to the rivers which emerge from Philosophy’s left and are concerned with language and letters: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic. Together they comprise the trivium. The four others, which emerge on Philosophy’s right, form the quadrivium, arts which are concerned with the various kinds of harmony: music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Each of the seven arts holds something symbolic, and each is accompanied by a text displayed on the arch above it.

Grammar (at 12 o’clock) holds a book and a whip. The text reads: Through me all can learn what are the words, the syllables, and the letters.

Rhetoric (at 2 o’clock) holds a tablet and stylus. The text reads: Thanks to me, proud speaker, your speeches will be able to take strength.

Dialectic (at 4 o’clock) points with a one hand and holds a barking dog’s head in the other. The text reads: I allow arguments to join, dog-like, in battle.

Music (at 5 o’clock) holds a harp, and other instruments are nearby. The text reads: I teach my art using a variety of instruments.

Arithmetic (at 7 o’clock) holds a cord with threaded beads, like a rudimentary abacus. The text reads: I base myself on the numbers and show the proportions between them.

Geometry (at 9 o’clock) holds a staff and compass. The text reads: It is with exactness that I survey the ground.

Astronomy (at 11 o’clock) points heavenward and holds in hand a magnifying lens or mirror. The text reads: I hold the names of the celestial bodies and predict the future.

The large ring around the whole scene contains four aphorisms and the stages through which Philosophy works (investgation, writing, and teaching): What it discovers is remembered; Philosophy investigates the secrets of the elements and all things; Philosophy teaches arts by seven branches; It puts it in writing, in order to convey it to the students.

Below the circle are four men seated at desks — poets or magicians, outside the pale and beyond the influence of Philosophy. According to the text they are guided and taught by impure spirits and they produce is only tales or fables, frivolous poetry, or magic spells. Notice the black birds speaking to them (the antithesis of the white dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit).

Thanks to http://www.plosin.com/work/HortusDetails.html for this explication.

1983 The Pine Tar Controversy

Baseball is a game with many rules, some written, some unspoken. One of those rules (Rule 1.10c) deals with the use of adhesive permissible on the handle of a bat. A grip-enhancer, such as pine tar, cannot be applied farther than 18 inches from the bottom of the bat. Any malefactor found to be using such an implement was (according to the regulations in effect in 1983) to be deemed out and ejected from the contest.

On July 24, 1983, the New York Yankees were playing the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium. In the top of the ninth inning, the Bronx Bombers were leading 4-3 with two out, one on, and famed stopper Goose Gossage and his bizarre moustache on the mound. Up strode George Brett, a prodigiously gifted hitter and tobacco chewer. The two future Hall of Famers performed the ritual glare before Brett fouled off the first pitch and then smote the second into the right field stands for a two-run home run and a 5–4 lead. 

Enter now the Yankee skipper Billy Martin – like fabled Odysseus, a man of many wiles. He drew the attention of the umpires to Brett’s bat and the officials determined that the pine tar extended a fatal 6″ too high. Brett was ruled out, his home run was cancelled, and the Yankees declared the winner.

Upon hearing this decision, Brett launched himself from the dugout and begged to differ so vigorously that he had to be physically restrained from raising his objections on umpire Tim McClelland’s person. Great was the snickering of the Yankees and deep was the woe of the Royals as the players exited the field. Yet our tale is not ended.

The Royals appealed the decision to American League president Lee McPhail. In a ruling as arbitrary as any made by a medieval pope, MacPhail decided that the penalties prescribed by 1.10c were null and void — the extensive use of pine tar was an aesthetic violation (it would mark the ball) and not one that gave an unfair competitive advantage. The game was to be resumed from the point of Brett’s home run. The Yankees protested with law suits, injunctions were issued, but the courts ruled that the rescheduled contest should be held on August 18.

Martin’s shrewdness was again in evidence. Before the first pitch was thrown, the ball was tossed to first base on the theory that Brett had not tagged the bag on July 24. The umpire ruled him safe. The ball was then thrown to second base on the theory that U.L. Washington, the base runner on when Brett hit his homer, had not not touched there. Again the ruling was safe — though neither call was given by an umpire who had been officiating in the original game. Martin, with the good sportsmanship that marked his entire career, naturally protested, but the pin-striped helmsman was stunned when the umpire crew chief pulled out a notarized affidavit, signed by all four umpires from July 24, vowing that Brett had touched every base. 

The Royals went on to win the game 5-4 with the Yankees declaring that they were playing under protest. The bat is now in the Hall of Fame and the penalties of the pine tar rule have been changed.

Mary Magdalene

Confusion reigns supreme when it comes to investigating the real story of the saint known as Mary Magdalene. She is mentioned in the Gospels by name more often than almost any other follower of Jesus but she is often confused with an unnamed woman with a jar of ointment. She was present at the empty tomb but is better known in recent years for allegedly being the wife of Jesus. There is no reliable connection between her and a repentant prostitute but her name has become a byword for fallen women. Meet Mary Magdalene.

The first mention of this particular Mary — and there are a number of them surrounding Jesus — comes in the eighth chapter of Luke:

After that, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out—and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. 

She is then depicted as being at the crucifixion, as carrying spices to the tomb to anoint the body of the Lord and then as encountering the risen Christ. From this point things are far less certain. In the apocryphal Gnostic accounts, The Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Philip and The Gospel of Thomas, she is treated as both important to the mission of Jesus and as his very intimate companion. The latter has this enigmatic passage:

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mary go forth from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Behold, I shall lead her, that I may make her male, in order that she also may become a living spirit like you males. For every woman who makes herself male shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Then at the beginning of the seventh century we see the creation of what becomes known as “the composite Magdalene” in which three women — the Magdalene, Mary of Bethany and the penitent sinner — are merged. Pope Gregory in a homily conflates her with the repentant prostitute:

She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. What did these seven devils signify, if not all the vices? . . . It is clear, that the woman previously used the unguent to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts. What she therefore displayed more scandalously, she was now offering to God in a more praiseworthy manner. She had coveted with earthly eyes, but now through penitence these are consumed with tears. She displayed her hair to set off her face, but now her hair dries her tears. She had spoken proud things with her mouth, but in kissing the Lord’s feet, she now planted her mouth on the Redeemer’s feet. For every delight, therefore, she had had in herself, she now immolated herself. She turned the mass of her crimes to virtues, in order to serve God entirely in penance.

Thus in Western medieval art Mary Magdalene is portrayed as an alluring, attractive woman with long red hair, often carrying a container of ointment. According to legend she and other disciples traveled miraculously to Gaul where they evangelized the south of France. Churches in Provence have longed claimed to possess her relics. The Eastern Church regards her as always chaste and living with the Virgin Mary in Ephesus until her death.

 

1553

Lady Jane Grey and the Protestant coup

Henry VIII’s desire to have a legitimately-born son to follow him in the Tudor dynasty led to all manner of marital distress, political turmoil, and the withdrawal of the Church of England from its subjection to the papacy. In 1544 Henry passed a scheme of royal succession. The throne, on his death, would pass to his only surviving son Edward (raised as a Protestant); if he died without children, the throne would go to Mary, his eldest daughter (and a Catholic); if Mary were to prove childless, she would be succeeded by Henry’s youngest daughter, Elizabeth (religiously ambiguous). Should all of his children die without issue, the throne would go to the successors of Henry’s younger sister Mary Tudor, the line which included Lady Jane Grey (1536-1554).

When Henry died in 1547, Edward VI instituted a Protestant national church, the beginning of Anglicanism as we now know it. For almost six years he legislated against Catholic practices, instituted a new Prayer Book, allowed clergy to marry, and placed Protestant ministers and professors in positions of power. In this he was supported by some, though by no means all, of the political class. By 1553 it was clear that Edward was not going to live long and steps were taken to disinherit Mary, still obdurately Catholic. Elizabeth was still, by law, considered a bastard and was thought to be religiously unreliable, so plans centred on Lady Jane Grey. Jane had been raised a firm Protestant and had been married off unwillingly to the son of the greatest Protestant noble, the Duke of Northumberland. In his “Devise for the Succession”, Edward sought to preserve Protestantism by placing Jane on the throne.

At Edward’s death in July 1553, the Protestants of the political class, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, had Jane declared Queen and set her securely in the Tower of London to await the result of the rest of the coup. The key was the arrest of Mary and Elizabeth to keep them from raising support for the legitimate line. Mary slipped through Northumberland’s fingers and assembled so many armed partisans and so much public goodwill that after nine days the coup collapsed. Mary promised religious toleration and, on July 19, Jane stepped down. By early 1554 Mary was well on the way toward the active persecution of English Protestantism. Jane, her husband, and father-in-law were considered too dangerous to live. On February 12, Jane went to the block to die, becoming a romantic martyr for the reformed cause.