“O excellent! I love long life better than figs.” –Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, 1.2.35

The Daily Star Egypt is reporting that the mummies of Antony and Cleopatra have likely been found at a Ptolemite site near Alexandria. Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, also announced that they may have found the remains of Queen Hatshepsut in Al Deir El Bahari. Oh, and they discovered four hidden doors inside the Great Pyramid. In other news…

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I am devoting the next five months to reading and writing about history. April will be on the history of books and libraries, May will be for writing an analysis of justification in Peter Martyr’s Romans locus in comparison with three of Thomas Cranmer’s homilies on the subject. June, July, and August are for finishing my Th.M. thesis before beginning a library science degree in August.

So, hold me accountable to this schedule.

As for the April books, I plan to read one book on the history of the written word, one book on the history of bookshelves, and another on the history of libraries. First up: A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel, followed by The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski, and Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles. Reviews to follow, D.V.

I wonder if this site is covered: Books on Poster, entire texts, legibly printed on a single poster. But where do you put it? In the loo? On the ceiling above the bed? Above the microwave? On the ceiling in the dentist’s office? In the elevator at work? Others?

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Speaking of the Reformation, here’s a new book that just came through our library. John Spurr, The Post-Reformation: Religion, Politics and Society in Britain 1603-1714 (Harlow, England: Pearson, 2006). Publisher’s blurb:

Spurr provides a substantial account of English, Scottish and Irish history from 1603 to 1714, and a unique portrait of the century’s religious life. The Civil Wars and Revolutions of the seventeenth century are brought to life with vivid quotations and a compelling narrative. Accessibly written and presented, this book is an essential starting point for undergraduates studying seventeenth-century Britain and church history.

On a different note, you’ve read Mortimer Adler’s How to Read a Book, now read Terry Eagleton’s How to Read a Poem (Malden, MA / Oxford: Blackwell, 2007). The publisher’s blurb:

Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader.

• Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content.
• Takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis.
• Discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more.
• Includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.

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On the heels of my previous post, I thought it appropriate to now introduce you to another Reformation era man whom I respect greatly. Peter Martyr Vermigli (PMV) was an Italian priest whose theology of justification was influenced greatly by the Spaniard Juan de Valdes (coffee, anyone?). While the ecclesiastical allegiances of Contarini and Pole ultimately trumped their soteriologies, PMV chose to adhere to his Reformed theology and fled Italy. He spent time in Geneva, became a Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University in England, and fled back to the Continent when Queen Mary ran him out of town. He was a man of great influence, though one of humility and character. He was a good man worthy of emulation. I am edified when I consider him and read his writings. Luther, for example, I can’t read because of too frequently vitriolic tone.

The title of my blog is common enough (pun), but I chose it in reference to PMV’s Commonplaces in particular. My first post included the title page from that work. So I am joyed when others join me in my appreciation for Peter Martyr.

I frequently read a very thoughtful blog by Cynthia Nielson, a very intelligent graduate student and adjunct philosophy instructor at, well, I don’t know, but I heartily recommend her analysis of PMV and Turretin (PMV was in Geneva and knew the Turretin clan) on free will none-the-less. As of Feb 9, 2007, it is in seven parts and still growing. Read the first part here.

By the way, is it just me or is there a remarkable resemblance?

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Some new books of interest in our library:

From two volume set, The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization (Greenwood Press), under the entry “uniforms”:

“Outside Europe, uniform military dress was more common in this period. Boys inducted into the Janissary Corps, for instance, dressed in all red, including red caps. Fully trained Janissaries wore an exclusive white felt cap called a “Bork” which distinguished them on the battlefield. The Bork had wooden spoon attached, in line with nearly all unit symbolism in a corps where even officer ranks and titles expressed a culinary motif rooted in ritual meal sharing…” 2:886.

The Oxford History of Western Art, ed. Martin Kemp (OUP). From Greece and Rome to Postmodernism, this beautiful collection contains it all. Come, join the throngs of contemporary gnostics looking for hidden symbolism in the world’s great works of art. I’m sure you’ll find plenty of fodder for another book best-selling thriller. Just what was Durer trying to say with his 1525 Dream Vision? If only he would have told us… [Hint: he did.]

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Sorry for the lapse in posting. I’ve been redesigning my other site, and with the holidays and all…

I have unusual books to highlight – all of which are new acquisitions in our library and are intended to help improve our weak art history holdings. Why does a theological library want to acquire works on the history of art? Well, because they serve as a visual representation of church history and even historical theology and biblical interpretation.

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Adelheid M. Gealt and George Knox. Domenico Tiepolo: A New Testament. Bloomington: Indiana University Art Museum and Indiana University Press, 2006.
This is the first collected presentation of 313 drawings of scenes from the New Testament by 18th Century Venetian artist Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804). When Domenico died, the drawings were dispersed among various purchasers. The authors have hunted them down and collected them for us here. This book will accompany an exhibition of many of the original drawings at The Frisk Collection in New York.

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Alessandro Scafi. Mapping Paradise: A History of Heaven on Earth. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
The first book to show how heaven has been expressed in cartographical form throughout the last 2000 years, this book claims to reveal how thought about heaven has developed over the centuries. Illustrated with more than 190 historic maps and drawings. Scafi touches on the nature of faith, theology, reason, and philosophy.

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Corinna Rossi. The treasures of the Monastery of Saint Catherine. [text by Corinna Rossi; photographs by Araldo de Luca; foreword by Archbishop Damianos of Sinai; translation by Jay Jaseph Hyams]. Vercelli, Italy : White Star ; [New York : Distributed in US and Canada by Rizzoli International], 2006.
Simply a fascinating history of the Monastery of St. Catherine, a monastery founded in the 5th Century when the mother of Constantine funded its establishment on what was believed to be the original site of the burning bursh, this book is beautiful if nothing else. The monastery it chronicles is (I think) a Greek Orthodox monastery, and houses artwork, artifacts, and a library of texts that is second only to the Vatican (does the Codex Sinaiaticus sound familiar?). A fascinating pictorial chronicle of a very odd, but historically important, place.

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This is the title page from Volume 1 of the classic set, The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Fathers down to A. D. 325. As the name indicates, it is a collection of writings by the Church Fathers prior to (“ante”-) the Council of Nicaea in 325. You can read more about the Council of Nicaea here.

Now read the spine. Oops. Do I hear Iranaeus protesting from the Great Beyond? What did Justin Martyr have against (“anti”-) the good people of Nicaea? Just because Ignatius didn’t write a letter to them, is that any reason to accuse him of being anti-Nicaea? Maybe I’ll give the binders the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up as a typo.

The book was rebound in 1975 with this typo on the spine. Surely I’m not the only person in the last 31 years to catch this. Surely not. Our students are more astute than that. Surely. Of course. Right? I’ll apologize to Polycarp someday on their behalf, just in case.

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I have for some time been reading the journal of David Brainerd through the posting of his journal entries on this blog. For those of you who don’t know of David Brainerd, read about him here. The final entry in his journal was on October 2, 1746:

Friday, Oct. 2.

My soul was this day, at turns, sweetly set on God: I longed to be with him, that I might behold his glory. I felt sweetly disposed to commit all to him, even my dearest friends, my dearest flock, my absent brother, and all my concerns for time and eternity. Oh that his kingdom might come in the world; that they might all love and glorify him, for what he is in himself; and that the blessed Redeemer might see the travail of his soul, and be satisfied! ‘Oh come, Lord Jesus, come quickly! Amen.’

Note from Jonathan Edwards: Here ends his diary. These are the last words that are written in it, either by his own hand, or by any other from his mouth.

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“The Consistory is for fornicators, and I am no fornicator,” replied the Purse-Maker and former Anabaptist Jane Pignier to a direct question from Consistory member John Calvin in December, 1544 (1). Perhaps she was not, but the Consistory took note of her frequent association with Benoite Jacon, wife of Pierre Amyaux, who admitted adultery to the Consistory exactly one week previous. Benoite claimed that givine charity to one’s Christian brothers included “living with all men and that they are all her husbands,” and that she received by direct revelation from the Holy Spirit himself that fornication is not wrong.(2) When the Consistory summoned Jane Pignier, formerly imprisoned and subsequently banished from Geneva for Anabaptism, to inquire whether she now intends to “live according to the consent and union of the church of Geneva,” they could not pass up the opportunity to question her relationship with the promiscuous Madame Benoite Jacon. Such was their mandate.

The Consistory was the most important institution in Geneva for preservign the family. Prior to the Reformation in Geneva, the lifestyle of merchants resulted in an organized guild of prostitutes whose solicitation, though supervised by the city government, was encouraged.(3) Though Geneva was in decline, its prosperity was largely due to four annual trade fairs which brought merchants from as far away as Northern Italy.(4) Though these visiting merchants fueled the prostitution industry in Geneva, eventually some Saxon merchants began bringing Lutheran pamphlets and other literature which stirred feeling of Reformation and tilled the Genevan soil even before the arrival of William Farel from Bern. With the arrival of the Reformation in Geneva, the only approved lifestyle was the nuclear family: husband, wife, children, and some domestic servants if they could be afforded. Men and women were both strongly encouraged to marry once of appropriate age.(5)

The Consistory oversaw a vast array of cases. In the early years, however, it was primarily concerned with religious practices.(6) It was not until after the Reformation had gained a solid footing in Geneva that the Consistory turned its fullest attention to other matters. Among those important matters was their fervent desire to uphold the institutions of marriage and family. In its attempt to preserve the family and bring reconciliation between husband and wife, reconciliation which was often forced on the couple, the Consistory worked diligently and occasionally used the harshest means at is disposal to emphasize the importance of the family. The Consistory, however, had no power to punish beyond that of excommunication, so it often referred unrepentant cases to the city courts for trial and sentencing if blatant immorality was judged by the Consistory to be the cause of the rift. The Consistory, however, saw its purpose as corrective, not punitive. If punishment was needed, the Council took jurisdiction.(7)

All issues of a sexual nature were particularly important to the Consistory becuase they were all viewed as threats to the family. Fornication, homosexuality, and adultery were especially threatening.(8) Sexual offenses which threatened the institutions of marriage and family were treated quite harshly, sometimes even punished by death.(9) In spite of these harsh responses, the motive was to preserve and nurture the family. In cases where children were involved, the Consistory showed surprising care and compassion for the children, and also for unwed mothers.

[footnotes to follow]

More to come…

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The Tridentine response to the traditional Protestant understanding of justification by faith was firm and certain, as evidenced by the 1547 Decree on Justification, and left no room for further dialogue such as had occurred in previous years at Worms (November, 1540) and Regensburg (April-May, 1541). The firmly anti-Protestant codification of justification at Trent does not, however, offer an accurate picture of the various positions held by Catholic theologians, even a few of those at the Council of Trent, who were open to forms of justification sola fide. It is tempting to read into pre-Trent time a post-Trent position. Prior to Trent, however, the doctrine of justification had not received much codifying treatment, and so many Roman Catholics prior to Trent were apparently free to hold views of justification which were largely in line with the Lutheran position.

Protestants who held to a doctrine of justification sola fide were accused by Catholics of the “Trent persuasion” of developing a fictitious concept of justification, of “suggesting that the believer lives in a sort of Walter Mitty world in which he is treated as righteous when he actually nothing of the sort.” The same accusation could have been leveled against some from among their own Catholic ranks, especially against many in the Italian spirituali movement. In fact, the Catholic Reformation was largely stimulated by such thinkers prior to Trent. Similarly, the Counter-Reformation was seemingly not just in response to the Protestants, but also in response to some of Catholicism’s very own curia who held quasi-Lutheran views of justification.

As evidence of this reform movement within Roman Catholicism prior to the Council of Trent, this post will focus on the Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia of 1537. This report on church reform was issued by a reform commission which was appointed by Pope Paul III during the previous year, and is a “surprising attack on the venality and other abuses associated with the curial system.” The commission was presided over by the Venetian diplomat Cardinal Gasparo Contarini, who would also later be appointed papal legate to the Diet of Regensburg in 1541.

Interestingly, other signers of this document include Cardinal Reginald Pole, who would later become Archbishop of Canterbury under the Tudor Queen Mary, and Gian Peitro Carafa who would later become Pope Paul IV in 1555. The signers of this document include many whose names are now synonymous with the spirituali movement. In would seem, then, that even though the spirituali largely held to justification sola fide, that when these theological “Walter Mittys” were given the opportunity to address the Pontiff on issues of reform they voiced their desire for the matters of institutional reform for which the non-spirituali Catholic reformers were calling.

(more…)

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