April 15

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by gerryadmin

 

1865

The death of Abraham Lincoln

After four years of bloody civil war, America was at peace. The forces of the secessionist Confederate States had surrendered, slavery would be no more, and President Abraham Lincoln had announced that he was considering granting all African Americans the right to vote. But not all Confederate sympathizers were willing to lay down their arms: a group of plotters who had planned to kidnap Lincoln now decided to kill the president and members of his cabinet. Actor John Wilkes Booth would shoot Lincoln, ex-soldier Lewis Powell would target Secretary of State William H. Seward and carriage-maker George Antzerodt would attack Andrew Johnson, the Vice President.

On the evening of April 14, Booth entered Ford’s Theatre and shot Lincoln in the back of the head. He leapt to the stage shouting Sic semper tyrannis! (“Thus to all tyrants!”) and “The South is avenged!” Lincoln would die of his wounds the next morning. Powell entered Seward’s home and stabbed him, but the Secretary survived; Antzerodt backed out of his part and spent the night drunkenly wandering the streets. Booth died in a gunfight when surrounded by captors and the other two were hanged after a lengthy trial.

The assassination of Lincoln was undoubtedly a tragedy for the nation but particularly for the South which was deprived of the president’s moderation. As an observer said, “Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again.”

One final tragic note. The military officer in Lincoln’s box, Major Henry Rathbone, attempted to detain Booth but was badly stabbed in the attempt and passed out from loss of blood. His companion for the evening was his fiancée Clara Harris who helped tend to his wounds. They married and had three children but Rathbone’s mental health declined. In 1883 he attacked his children and murdered his wife who died trying to protect them; he spent the rest of his life in an insane asylum.

 

April 15

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by gerryadmin

1610

Death of a Jesuit conspirator

During the early years of the reign of Elizabeth I, the open practice of Catholic worship was forbidden but its adherents were not seriously troubled by the state. The queen professed a desire not to “open a window into men’s hearts”; outward obedience to the Protestant settlement would keep Catholic families safe from persecution. This policy changed after 1569 when many Catholics were moved to rebellion, urged on by the papal decree “Regnans In Excelsis” and by Jesuit theorists who argued that it was a godly deed to assassinate a heretic queen. A number of murder plots were hatched by English Catholics who hoped that by killing Elizabeth a Catholic monarch could ascend the throne.

The chief theologian of assassination and rebellion in the English context was the Jesuit Robert Persons (1546-1610), an Oxford academic who fled England and joined the Society of Jesus. In 1580 he accompanied the soon-to-be-martyred Jesuit Edmund Campion in a secret mission to his home country. When Campion was arrested Persons slipped back to the Continent and spent the rest of his career trying to provoke and justify a Catholic invasion of England and Ireland. Among his more famous works were De persecutione Anglicana (1582), Leicester’s Commonwealth (1584) and A Conference About the Next Succession (1594).

The efforts of Persons and Cardinal William Allen, the chief English Catholic in exile, were largely bent toward persuading King Philip II to launch the Spanish Armada against England in 1588. This invasion failed spectacularly and helped convince English Protestants that their Catholic countrymen were not to be trusted. Both Persons and Allen died in Rome without ever returning home.

April 9

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1945

The execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Over the west door of Westminster Abbey is a series of ten sculptures: the Gallery of 20th Century Martyrs. They include  Maximilian Kolbe, the Polish priest who gave his life to save a fellow prisoner in Auschwitz; Manche Masemola, a young South African girl murdered by her parents for converting to Christianity; Janani Luwum, the Ugandan Archbishop, assassinated on the orders of Idi Amin; Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Russia, killed by the Bolsheviks; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Archbishop Oscar Romero; Esther John, a Pakistani nurse knifed to death for converting from Islam; Lucian Tapiedi, a New Guinea Anglican murdered by Japanese troops in World War II; and Wang Zhiming, a Chinese evangelist killed during the Cultural Revolution. In the middle of these statues stands one depicting Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) was a German Protestant clergyman and theologian. He studied in Berlin and New York, receiving two doctorates before his ordination in 1931. He was teaching systematic theology at the University of Berlin when the Nazis came to power in 1933. Bonhoeffer revealed himself as a bold opponent of National Socialism and Adolf Hitler. He attacked the Führer on the radio and helped to establish the Confessing Church, an underground movement to counteract the official Nazi-oriented Church. The Nazis arrested his colleague Martin Niemoller, persecuted the Confessing Church and banned Bonhoeffer from living in the capital. For a time, he pastored in German-speaking churches in London and then ran clandestine ministerial training efforts back in Germany. When the war broke out he was studying in New York City. Friends congratulated him on being in a safe haven but the author of The Cost of Discipleship thought differently, saying: “Christians in Germany will have to face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilization may survive or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose but I cannot make that choice from security.” He returned to his homeland where he continued to be harassed by the authorities.

Hitler’s control of the German military was not a complete one; pockets of opposition to him lingered among the army, particularly among Christian officers. One such circle arranged for him to join the Abwehr, the army intelligence branch. As an agent he carried out secret anti-Nazi activities, helped German Jews escape and made contact with voices in the Allied countries. In 1943 he, his brother Klaus and his brother-in-law Hans von Donhanyi were arrested. Along with other plotters he was executed in the final weeks of the war.

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

April 9

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1948

Deir Yassin Massacre

It is well to remember, when contemplating the Middle East today, that terrorism has been used by every side in the struggle to carve out territory and achieve ethnic security. Muslims of every sect, Christians, and Jews have all resorted to assassination and atrocity. On this day in 1948 Jewish extremists from the Stern Gang (already infamous for its willingness to ally with Nazis in World War II in fighting the British; their assassination a U.N. envoy would come later) and the Irgun (bombers of the King David Hotel) entered the Palestinian village of Deir Yassin and killed about 150 inhabitants. After the massacre the surviving women and children of the village were paraded triumphantly through Jerusalem streets.

The village had no military significance and had in fact signalled its desire to remain neutral and on good terms with its Jewish neighbours. The murders seem designed to be part of a policy of ethnic cleansing — not just in eradicating the Palestine presence from this site but encouraging a mass flight of others to avoid a similar fate. The looting, rape, and execution of prisoners after the battle appear to be part of that plan.

Though the aftermath of the massacre was witnessed by British officers and Red Cross officials, confirmed by testimony from Jewish military sources, supporters of the Jewish extremists still claim that the Deir Yassin murders were a myth designed to discredit Zionism.

April 4

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St Isidore of Seville

Spain, in the seventh century, had been hit hard by the barbarian invasions that had ravaged western Europe. It had been swamped by the Vandal tribe, then the Alans and the Suevi, and finally by the Visigoths who drove out their Germanic rivals and established a kingdom in much of the Iberian peninsula. The destruction caused by these incursions and the primitive disunity into which the West had fallen had resulted in a loss of knowledge and higher culture. Isidore (560-636) set out to preserve what civilization remained in Spain.

He was born into a prominent family that produced bishops for the Catholic Church at a time when the ruling class of Visigoths were converting from Arianism but when the heresy still had a hold on many inhabitants. The Gothic habit of killing their kings for opposing the wishes of the nobility added further weakness and confusion. (These murders were so frequent that in the Middle Ages the term morbus Gothicus or “Gothic disease” became a jocular term for political assassination.) In this situation of shaky monarchy and religious division Catholic bishops became an important source of authority. As Bishop of Seville Isidore worked for improved clerical education, national unity and the spread of learning.

Isidore’s most memorable accomplishment was the compilation of the “Etymologiae”, the first Christian encyclopedia, an attempt to summarize and preserve all classical knowledge available to him. The rules of logic, the origins of words, descriptions of the animal kingdom, road-building techniques, geography, agriculture, war, textiles: all that and more found a place in his twenty volumes. He also wrote histories, theological works on the Trinity, apologetics, monastic regulation and allegorical biographies. His vast learning earned him the title of Doctor of the Church. Unfortunately, because of scribal errors, because so many works of science and philosophy had been lost and because of the disintegration of the Roman empire that kept Spain relatively isolated, much of what Isidore thought was true was not.

Recently a project has been launched to make Isidore the patron saint of the Internet, a fitting title because of the universal scope of his knowledge and the fact that so many of his assertions were unreliable.

March 31

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1492

The expulsion of Spanish Jews begins

On January 6, 1492 the Reconquista came to an end. With the fall of Granada, the last Muslim stronghold in Spain, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile had completed the 700-year battle to drive Islam from the Iberian peninsula. On March 31 of the same year a new kind of religious purification began — the two rulers issued the Alhambra Decree which forced the country’s Jews to choose between conversion to Christianity within four months or penniless expulsion. Most Spanish Jews chose to leave. Some fled to Portugal (though they were expelled from that country too before long) and some to North Africa. The Ottoman emperor Bayezid II sent ships to transport Jews and resettle them in his domain, mocking the Spanish king as one “who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine!” The pope and a number of Italian city states also welcomed Jews to their territories. Bayezid’s assessment of the economic impact of the Spanish actions was correct: migrating Jews took valuable skills and connections with them to their new homes while the Spanish economy, despite the massive influx of gold and silver from the New World, stagnated.

Those Jews who chose to convert were never fully trusted by the Spanish authorities who feared (probably correctly) that their conversions were insincere and that these “New Christians” or “Marranos” were secret Judaizers. The Spanish Inquisition troubled the converso families for centuries as religious anti-Semitism morphed into racism. Anyone who could not prove that their ancestors had not married into a once-Jewish line were deemed to lack “purity of blood” and were kept from influence and high office. In the sixteenth century Spanish authorities turned on their Muslim subjects and on converts from Islam as well, driving them into exile or bloody rebellion.

Recently, the Catholic Church and the Spanish government have apologized to the descendants of these persecuted Jews. Spain has offered them automatic Spanish nationality without the requirement of residence in Spain.

March 30

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1949

Icelanders riot over NATO

The savage Viking heart that slumbers in every Icelander’s breast was awakened to near-violent action in March, 1949 when its government announced that the island nation would join the anti-Communist North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Left-wing parties, already resentful at the presence of an American airbase, wanted nothing to do with the Cold War, opposition to Russia, or any military spending. A crowd of protesters gathered outside the Alþingishús, (the Parliament building), harsh words were spoken, and rocks were hurled (note the damage above). Someone was almost hit by a stone. Fortunately, the bloodthirsty mob was dispersed by the police before further atrocities could occur.

Today Iceland remains a member of NATO but has no standing military except its Coast Guard.

St Patrick’s Day

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From The Catholic Encyclopedia, the magisterial 1912 edition, comes this account of St Patrick’s final days and the concessions he won from God for the people of Ireland. Some pretty bold claims here.

The saint, however, would not, as yet, descend from the mountain. He had vanquished the demons, but he would now wrestle with God Himself, like Jacob of old, to secure the spiritual interests of his people. The angel had announced to him that, to reward his fidelity in prayer and penance, as many of his people would be gathered into heaven as would cover the land and sea as far as his vision could reach. Far more ample, however, were the aspirations of the saint, and he resolved to persevere in fasting and prayer until the fullest measure of his petition was granted. Again and again the angel came to comfort him, announcing new concessions; but all these would not suffice. He would not relinquish his post on the mountain, or relax his penance, until all were granted. At length the message came that his prayers were heard:

  • many souls would be free from the pains of purgatory through his intercession; 
  • whoever in the spirit of penance would recite his hymn before death would attain the heavenly reward; 
  • barbarian hordes would never obtain sway in his Church; 
  • seven years before the Judgement Day, the sea would spread over Ireland to save its people from the temptations and terrors of the Antichrist; and 
  • greatest blessing of all, Patrick himself should be deputed to judge the whole Irish race on the last day.

Such were the extraordinary favors which St. Patrick, with his wrestling with the Most High, his unceasing prayers, his unconquerable love of heavenly things, and his unremitting penitential deeds, obtained for the people whom he evangelized.

At Saul (Sabhall), St. Patrick received the summons to his reward on 17 March, 493. St. Tassach administered the last sacraments to him. His remains were wrapped in the shroud woven by St. Brigid’s own hands. The bishops and clergy and faithful people from all parts crowded around his remains to pay due honour to the Father of their Faith. Some of the ancient Lives record that for several days the light of heaven shone around his bier. His remains were interred at the chieftan’s Dun or Fort two miles from Saul, where in after times arose the cathedral of Down.

The Ides of March

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44 BC

The Ides of March conspirators assassinate Caesar

The Roman republic was a state formed around 500 BC after the overthrow of an early monarchy. It rose from a collection of towns in the Tiber valley to become a Mediterranean empire but its military successes eroded its political culture. Instead of self-sacrifice and service to the “res publica”, Roman leaders now vied to command armies and battle each other. The first century BC saw civil wars with dictators carrying out massacres of fellow Romans and the state degenerating into a rivalry of gangsters.

The most successful of these gang leaders was Gaius Julius Caesar, who had defeated rivals such as Pompey and added Gaul and Egypt to Roman control. Many of his fellow senators saw his power growing to such an extent that they feared the republic would once more become a kingship. Caesar had recently been named “dictator for life” and had been hailed in the streets as “rex”, though he made a show of refusing kingly honours.

On the Ides of March 44 BC, a group of senators calling themselves “the Liberators” accosted Caesar on his way to the Senate and stabbed him 23 times, leaving him to bleed to death. Their proclamation that they had delivered Rome from tyranny was not well-received and Rome again fell into civil war. The armies of the conspirators led by Brutus and Cassius were defeated by those of Marc Antony, Marcus Lepidus and Octavius Caesar — the so-called Second Triumvirate. In time Antony and Octavius would fall out out and make war, which resulted in Octavian ending the republic and becoming the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar.

The Luddite Resistance

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by gerryadmin

Chamber’s Book of Days, a 19th-century source tells us about these resisters of technology:

March 11th, 1811, is a black-letter day in the annals of Nottinghamshire. It witnessed the commencement of a series of riots which, extending over a period of five years, have, perhaps, no parallel in the history of a civilized country for the skill and secrecy with which they were managed, and the amount of wanton mischief they inflicted. The hosiery trade, which employed a large part of the population, had been for some time previously in a very depressed state. This naturally brought with it a reduction in the price of labour.

During the month of February 1811, numerous bands of distressed framework-knitters were employed to sweep the streets for a paltry sum, to keep the men employed, and to prevent mischief. But by the 11th of March their patience was exhausted: and flocking to the market-place from town and country, they resolved to take vengeance on those employers who had reduced their wages. The timely appearance of the military prevented any violence in the town, but at night no fewer than sixty-three frames were broken at Arnold, a village four miles north of Nottingham. During the succeeding three weeks 200 other stocking frames were smashed by midnight bands of distressed and deluded workmen, who were so bound together by illegal oaths, and so completely disguised, that very few of them could be brought to justice. These depredators assumed the name of Luddites; said to have been derived from a youth named Ludlam, who, when his father, a framework-knitter in Leicestershire, ordered him to ‘square his needles,’ took his hammer and beat them into a heap.

Their plan of operation was to assemble in parties of from six to sixty, as circumstances required, under a leader styled General or Ned Ladd, all disguised, and armed, some with swords, pistols, or firelocks, others with hammers and axes. They then proceeded to the scene of destruction. Those with swords and firearms were placed as a guard outside, while the others broke into the house and demolished the frames, after which they reassembled at a short distance. The leader then called over his men, who answered not to names, but to certain numbers: if all were there, and their work for the night finished, a pistol was fired, and they then departed to their homes, removing the black handkerchiefs which had covered their faces. In consequence of the continuance of these daring outrages, a large military force was brought into the neighbourhood, and two of the London police magistrates, with several other officers, came down to Nottingham, to assist the civil power in attempting to discover the ringleaders: a secret committee was also formed, and supplied with a large sum of money for the purpose of obtaining private information; but in spite of this vigilance, and in contempt of a Royal Proclamation, the offenders continued their devastations with redoubled violence, as the following instances will shew.

On Sunday night, November 10th, a party of Luddites proceeded to the village of Bulwell, to destroy the frames of Mr. Rollingworth, who, in anticipation of their visit, had procured the assistance of three or four friends, who with firearms resolved to protect the property. Many shots were fired, and one of the assailants, John Woolley, of Arnold, was mortally wounded, which so enraged the mob that they soon forced an entrance: the little garrison fled, and the rioters not only destroyed the frames, but every article of furniture in the house. On the succeeding day they seized and broke a waggonload of frames near Arnold: and on the Wednesday following proceeded to Sutton-in-Ashfield, where they destroyed thirty-seven frames: after which they were dispersed by the military, who took a number of prisoners, four of whom were fully committed for trial.

During the following week only one frame was destroyed, but several slacks were burned, most probably, as was supposed, by the Luddites, in revenge against the owners, who, as members of the yeoman cavalry, were active in suppressing the riots. On Sunday night, the 24th of November, thirty-four frames were demolished at Basford, and eleven more the following day. On December the 6th, the magistrates published an edict, which ordered all persons in the disturbed districts to remain in their houses after ten o’clock at night, and all public-houses to be closed at the same hour. Notwithstanding this proclamation, and a great civil and military force, thirty-six frames were broken in the villages around Nottingham within the six following days. A Royal Proclamation was then issued, offering £50 reward for the apprehension of any of the of-fenders: but this only excited the men to further deeds of daring.

They now began to plunder the farmhouses both of money and provisions, declaring that they ‘would not starve whilst there was plenty in the land.’ In the month of January 1812, the frame-breaking continued with unabated violence. On the 30th of this month, in the three parishes of Nottingham, no fewer than 4,348 families, numbering 15,350 individuals, or nearly half the population, were relieved out of the poor rates. A large subscription was now raised to offer more liberal rewards against the perpetrators of these daring outrages: and at the March assize seven of them were sentenced to transportation. In this month, also, an Act of Parliament was passed, making it death to break a stocking or a lace frame.

In April, a Mr. Trentham, a considerable manufacturer, was shot by two ruffians while standing at his own door. Happily the wound did not prove mortal: but the offenders were never brought to justice, though a reward of £600 was offered for their apprehension. This evil and destructive spirit continued to manifest itself from time to time till October 1816, when it finally ceased. Upwards of a thousand stocking frames and a number of lace machines were destroyed by it in the county of Nottingham alone, and at times it spread into the neighbouring counties of Leicester, Derby, and York, and even as far as Lancaster. Its votaries discovered at last that they were injuring themselves as much or more than their employers, as the mischief they perpetrated had to be made good out of the county rate.