#A Rose For Ecclesiastes

[lemongrad]

In reviewing my personal quilting tag, I realized I never posted photos of my Tiffany appliqué quilt, based on the window "Magnolias and Irises" in the Met's collection.

This was the first large-scale attempt at a project of this type, and while I'm overall pleased with the result, there are definitely things I would do differently were I to attempt something like this again (starting with using a machine with a much better satin stitch...)

[ecclesiasticallatinfest]

Join us!

In our first ever Our Flag Means Non-English Fanworks Fest!

Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it.

As we all know, the Our Flag Means Death fandom community is spread across the globe (Awesome map set up by the RenewAsACrew team and filled in by the fans!)

So how about we celebrate how international we are and focus on non-English languages with a fanworks fest that will run from the 7th of February 2024 until the 15th of February!

And by fanworks, I mean:

Fanfic

Fanart/fancomics

Fanvids

Meta on translation/subtitling/dubbing choices!

Schedule and rules under the Read More:

Schedule:

7th & 8th of February: Write fic in a non-English language OR translate a fic into a non-English language. (If you want to do the latter and translate someone else's fic, check the fic author's profile to see how they feel about translations!)

9th & 10th of February: Make fanart or a fan comic in a non-English language.

11 & 12th of February: Make an OFMD fanvid to a non-English language song. (Hard mode: Don't use Con's French version of La Vie En Rose. Bonus points if you make a supercut of all the different dubs of Oh Daddy for some multilingual awkwardness)

13th & 14th of February: Write meta on the translation choices made when it comes to dubbing and subbing to a non-English language you speak, OR write about meta about the use of non-English in the show.

For example, here is some meta from a while ago on the German dub and how it handles the formal and informal form of address, and here's one that does the same with French.

15th of February: Catch-up day and also AO3's International Fanworks Day!

This is both a catch-up day for posting fanworks mentioned above OR catching up on commenting on those fanworks! And obviously you can also comment on non-English fanworks that were posted outside of the fest!

Rules:

All characters and pairings welcome.

All ratings welcome.

All non-English languages welcome - AO3 supports the following languages.

Please post your fanwork to the AO3 Collection (if possible and if you like) to make it easy for everyone to see the fanworks made for the event.

Please use either Ecclesiastical Latin Fest and/or EcclesiasticalLatinFest if you post about it on Tumblr or Twitter or elsewhere to make it easy for everyone to see the fanworks made for the event.

You can use a few sentences of English in your fic here and there, same as English fics often have Jim saying some words or sentences in Spanish.

You can start posting your fanwork when it is the correct day in your timezone.

You can participate if you're a native English speaker, so break out your best secondary school/Duolingo German/French/Spanish! There's no foreign language practise like reading and writing fic.

Don't be a dick.

[accord-vn]

Major Players in the War Against the Firmament

The Republic of Stauros

The Republic of Stauros is a global superpower that controls the Americas and much of eastern and southern Africa, its imperialist agenda funded by the exploitation of abundant natural resources. This influx of resources means that they have been able to rapidly advance technology, particularly in bio-science, engineering, and materials science fields, and their advanced technology in turn makes for political capital with which they can bully nations into being subsumed by the Republic.

Stauros is a meritocratic oligarchy with republican structures, and presents itself as being a place where the best can rise to the top. It is centrally governed in its capital of Etorios, by a council of (what were originally) six departments that oversee facets of government such as treasury, military, agriculture, etc. These department heads are chosen from among a democratically elected parliament that makes up the upper levels of each department by the previous council. In short, the system rejects change very stubbornly as those who are eligible to lead have been entrenched in the system for a very long time. This entrenchment means that the Republic, while founded on progressive ideals, has now fully embraced the authoritarian streak that has haunted it since its inception.

Most prominent in Stauros's war against the Firmament is the ExoCorps, the executive arm of the Department of the Exterior. The Dept of the Exterior was created in order to protect Stauros's offplanet interests, however in the decades since they have come to rival the power of the Dept of Military, even surpassing it in many instances. The most notable example of this power imbalance is in the ExoCorps' development of Synaptic Transfer technology and the resulting Janissary program.

The Sophic Church

The Sophic Church originated as part of the Third Awakening, a reactionary revival in religiosity coupled with anti-Christian sentiment and strong undercurrents of paranoia brought about by a sharp rise in conspiratorial thought. What were several grassroots Gnostic revival movements came together to form a single ecclesiastical society, united in their desire to dismantle current institutions and build something new. These movements, originally different sects, syncretized their beliefs, though after several decades of transformation, their doctrine has evolved into a largely ahistorical conflation of Valentinianism and Sethianism alongside some entirely new ideas.

The Sophic Church played a key role in the formation of the Republic and rose alongside it, shaping it in the process, and as a result, within Stauros there is a strong presumption that most residents of the Republic are a part of the church.

Naturally, due to this relationship the Church has amassed a large amount of wealth and influence, and has invested this wealth into a number of corporate assets. The most prominent among these is Ascension, a corporation with child companies for mining, manufacturing, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and many other industries.

As a result, the Sophic Church has control over a substantial amount of the economy not just of Stauros, but the rest of the world as well.

The Stereomatos

In 2068, Olympia, Stauros's first permanent Martian research base, collapsed due to mismanagement. Due to the nature of the Stauros Dept of Research's control over the research base, while researchers lived permanent lives on base and even raised families there, leadership was not only appointed from a bureaucracy located on Earth, but also frequently rotated. As a result, most Directors of Operations viewed the position only as a temporary station, and ultimately failed to carry out their duties.

This culminated in 2067, when a failure in the water system caused dozens of people to become ill and 14 deaths. Civil unrest had already started to stir, but now was in full swing.

A nearby ExoCorps detachment was then stationed inside the colony to dissuade uprising, but the additional strain on resources that they caused served only to exacerbate discontentment. Before any violence broke out, the base was declared no longer fit for human habitation and disbanded, its residents either returned to earth or stationed in other colonies. The base was leveled shortly thereafter.

A mere two years later, Synesia was founded on Olympia's ruins. Synesia was intended to serve as a colony and an experiment in autonomous government, as well as a center for Stauros' civic operations offplanet. This quickly expanded into a semi-autonomous satellite state, granted nominal independence by Stauros in return for serving as the governing body for bases and offplanet stations too large and too distant from Earth in order to be effectively managed by a planetary bureaucracy.

In practice, the Stereomatos is a puppet state. Most of its leadership is either beholden or sympathetic to Stauros, and lives under constant threat of dismantlement. Stauros maintains exclusive trading rights with the Stereomatos, and uses the leverage of their monopoly on space infrastructure as means of controlling the nation.

The Firmament

The Firmament is a revolutionary movement across the Stereomatos with the ultimate goal of eliminating Stauros control over space.

The movement is comprised of several cells across both inner sphere and outer sphere colonies and stations, which frequently work together to improve the living conditions of Stereomatos citizens, smuggle goods and resources across planetary boundaries, and wage asymmetric warfare against Stauros.

The Firmament's immediate strategy is to hold Stauros at resource-point through piracy and targeted attacks on military installations so that they'll agree to several key conditions:

The right to self-govern independent of Stauros control, including reforming the government from a parliamentary republic into a syndical state.

Better access to tertiary industry, including the means to utilize synaptic transfer tech

Access to Stauros trade networks in order to carry out trade with other nations with minimal interference

The Stereomatos as a whole may be generally divided in their opinion on the Firmament's methods, however it is an unspoken rule to side with them whenever possible, because the Firmament represents hope for a freer future and an end to overcrowding and military police actions. Even those ideologically opposed tend to avoid speaking out, because the members of the Firmament are ultimately members of their community. A number of Stereomatos politicians have direct connections to Firmament leadership, and work to achieve the movement's aims through diplomatic means.

On Earth, however, the opinion is generally much more divided. Typically the details of their actions are largely reduced to the effect that they've had on Stauros, and are branded terrorists due to civilian casualties from their attacks. Within Stauros, media is sufficiently skewed that those who are aware of them despise them. Outside of Stauros, the Stereomatos is shown more sympathy, and even those who skew more conservative are open to the idea of free trade with the Stereomatos.

Federated Oceania

As climate change ravaged the global south, Aotearoa (formerly New Zealand) successfully pushed back the encroaching ocean with a sea wall, reclaiming additional land in the process. Having secured their new position as a safe haven for climate refugees, they pushed Australia into adopting a similar strategy. As a means of allowing displaced people to retain their sovereignty as well as protect against the threat of a subjugation-hungry Stauros on the horizon, the bloc of Federated Oceania was formed.

With a vested interest in environmental sciences and sustainable energy, Oceania rose to prominence by implementing the first viable fusion reactor and selling off excess energy from successive plants. This paved the way to further successes until it became the non-Stauros leader in technology on a global stage, and served as the first country to challenge Stauros's self-proclaimed "monopoly on space".

As a staunch rival of Stauros, Oceania is one of the few terrestrial nations to openly provide support the Firmament.

The Archon Program

The disappearance of the Caesarea is a mainstay of conspiracy circles system-wide. From independent blogs hosted on the clearnet to chatrooms on planetside LITEs to forums and message boards maintained on Firmnet servers in the belt, no hushed whisper passes through the internet's lips without mentioning its name, and the Caesarea is rarely mentioned without the words "Archon program" in its wake.

However, there is little consensus on what those words mean.  

They say that Archon Program is run by the Dept of the Exterior— no, by the Sophic Church— no, it's the secret Dept of Suppression— as a psyop— actually, it's in order to crush unions (the IPU has NEVER been able to touch Ascension)— no, to serve as a counter to the Firmament's dark matter bomb— and eventually, to dominate the world— utilizing heinous machines that are larger than any Cataphract, that bleed, that drive their enemies and pilots to madness.

When asked for proof, however, the stories converge. A would-be whistleblower from Ascension Aerospace, killed when lightning struck her complex as she was uploading the leak, severing the connection and her life at once. All that was uploaded was the first gigabyte of a single file, titled Archon Program, completely blank except for the image of an A with an ouroboros divided into seven pieces.

Nothing more is known by the public.

[whencyclopedia]

Thomas Wolsey

Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal Archbishop of York (l. c. 1473-1530 CE) served as Lord Chancellor to Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547 CE) from around 1513 CE to 1529 CE. Wolsey rose to become the most powerful man in England after the king, he created the Chancery court, worked with some success at England's foreign policy, and famously built Hampton Court Palace near London. Unable to secure from the Pope the annulment of Henry's first marriage to Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536 CE), Wolsey fell out of favour with his friend and monarch. Accused of treason, the cardinal was already seriously ill when he died on his way to imprisonment and trial in November 1530 CE.

Early Life & Rise in the Church

Thomas Wolsey was born c. 1473 CE in Ipswich, the son of a butcher. He studied at university and became the chaplain to Henry VII of England (r. 1485-1509 CE), gaining invaluable experience of Tudor politics from his sponsor, the councillor Bishop Richard Fox (1448-1528 CE). However, it was under Henry VIII that Wolsey's career really took off. Indeed, after being appointed the royal almoner (giver of alms) in 1509 CE and benefitting from the new king surrounding himself with his own advisors rather than his father's, Wolsey enjoyed a meteoric rise to power from 1514 CE. He became the bishop of Lincoln in March 1514 CE and just a few months later, in September, he was appointed archbishop of York and so became the second most powerful church official in England.

Eager to be the top man in England but realising the current Archbishop of Canterbury was secure in his position, Wolsey bypassed him by directly approaching the Pope. In 1515 CE Wolsey became a cardinal and so he now outranked even the archbishop; he was truly a 'prince of the Church.' In 1518 CE Wolsey went one step higher and became a papal legate (legatus a latere), that is a representative of the Pope himself and entitled to make decisions on his behalf. Usually, legates were given their authority for a limited time only and for a specific purpose such as an international conference. In 1524 CE, Cardinal Wolsey was given legate powers for life. Thomas could now really believe that one day, he might even be in a position to grab the very top job of Pope.

Even before these momentous ecclesiastical progressions, and much more importantly for history, Wolsey had become Lord Chancellor around 1513 CE (or perhaps 1515 CE, historians do not agree on the date). In this position, he was, in effect, Henry VIII's sole minister, the very apex of the pyramid of political power in England. Thanks to his administrative skills and good friendship with the king, Wolsey became a giant political spider with a web of subordinates that stretched into every part of the kingdom.

As the historian S. Brigden summarises, Wolsey developed a very special working relationship with his mercurial monarch:

The Council was still consulted, but only after Wolsey and the king, in a kind of partnership, had determined policy. Wolsey would first 'move' Henry towards some idea; the King 'dreamed of it more and more'; and only then would the council be informed. Wolsey's influence seemed supreme, and his household, in its magnificence, looked a rival to the royal court. So completely did he see himself as alter rex, it was alleged, that he would say: 'The King and I would ye should do thus: the King and I do give you our hearty thanks.' His pride and splendour were legendary: crosses, pillars and poleaxes, hated symbols of his authority, were carried before him; earls and lords served him. (106)

Continue reading...

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Do Not Judge Your Brother

1 Receive him that is weak in the faith, but not for passing judgment.

2 For one believes that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eats herbs.

3 Let not him that eats despise him that eats not; and let not him who eats not judge him that eats: for God has received him.

4 Who are you that judge another man's servant? to his own master he stands or falls. Yea, he shall be held up: for God is able to make him stand.

5 One man esteems one day above another: another esteems every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

6 He that regards the day, regards it unto the Lord; and he that regards not the day, to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he that eats not, to the Lord he eats not, and gives God thanks.

7 For none of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself.

8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

10 But why do you judge your brother? or why do you despise your brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

11 For it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.

12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

13 Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumbling block or an occasion to fall in his brother's way.

Do Good to Your Brother

14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteems anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean.

15 But if your brother is grieved with your food, you no longer walk in love. Destroy not him with your food, for whom Christ died.

16 Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

17 For the kingdom of God is not food and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

18 For he that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men.

19 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things with which one may edify another.

20 For food destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eats with offense.

21 It is good neither to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor anything by which your brother stumbles, or is offended, or is made weak.

22 Have you faith? have it to yourself before God. Happy is he that condemns not himself in that thing which he allows.

23 And he that doubts is condemned if he eats, because he eats not of faith: for whatever is not of faith is sin. — Romans 14 | King James 2000 Bible (KJB2K) The King James 2000 Bible, copyright © Doctor of Theology Robert A. Couric 2000, 2003. All rights reserved. Cross References: Ruth 3:14; Psalm 34:14; Ecclesiastes 11:9; Zechariah 14:21; Matthew 7:1; Matthew 12:36; Matthew 13:21; Mark 7:2; Mark 7:19; Luke 1:1; Luke 18:9; Acts 10:15; Romans 2:1; Romans 8:38; Romans 15:1; 1 Corinthians 8:8; 1 Corinthians 8:11; Philippians 2:10; Titus 1:15; James 4:11-12; 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 4:5; Revelation 14:13

Notes: A judgment day is coming for Christians when Christ will examine all our works. He will determine which of our deeds were worthwhile and which were worthless.

Key Passages in Romans 14

1. Men may not condemn one another for disputable matters; 13. but must take heed that they give no offense in them; 15. which the apostle proves unlawful by many reasons.

[bantarleton]

King Charles III will reuse vestments which featured in the Coronation Services of King George IV in 1821, King George V in 1911, King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, including the Colobium Sindonis, the Supertunica, the Imperial Mantle, the Coronation Sword Belt and the Coronation Glove.

The Monarch is invested with the Colobium Sindonis after the Anointing. It takes the form of a white linen shift-like tunic, and a plain collar fastened with a single button, intended to represent a priests' alb. The King will use the Colobium Sindonis worn at the Coronation of his grandfather King George VI at Westminster Abbey on 12th May 1937, which was made by the robemakers Ede & Ravenscroft.

The Supertunica takes the form of a full-length, sleeved gold coat and is worn under the Imperial Mantle. The Sovereign is invested with the Supertunica following the Anointing and it is fastened with the Coronation Sword Belt.

Although this Supertunica dates from the twentieth century, the form of the Supertunica has changed little since medieval coronations. The design of the Supertunica is based on priestly and religious vestments.

Each side of the front of the Supertunica features an embroidered band with spiral threads, which take the shape of leafy stems using the goldwork technique. The embroidery was carried out in 1911 by the Ladies Work Society and, as part of the centuries-old tradition for the Supertunica, is based on ecclesiastical vestments from medieval times.

The Imperial Mantle is worn over the Supertunica and is more similar in design to a robe. The Imperial Mantle being used by the King at this year’s Coronation was made for the Coronation of George IV in 1821, and has been worn by King George V, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II. It is the oldest vestment being used in the Coronation Service.

The Imperial Mantle is made of cloth of gold, gold, silver and silk thread, silk, gold bullion fringe and a gold clasp. The cloth of gold is woven with roses, thistles, shamrocks, crowns, eagles and fleurs-de-lis. The gold clasp is in the shape of an eagle, which can also be seen on the newly created Anointing Screen, and in the form of the Ampulla which will hold the Chrism oil.

The Imperial Mantle was made by the tailor John Meyer in 1821 and the Royal Goldsmiths to George IV, Rundell, Bridge and Rundell supplied the gold eagle clasp.

The Girdle, also known as the Coronation Sword Belt, is made of cloth of gold, and embroidered in gold thread with arabesques and scrolls. It is lined with dark red silk, with a gold buckle stamped with national emblems (roses, thistles and shamrocks) and a gold clip for attaching the Jewelled Sword of Offering in place.

During the Coronation Service, the Sword Belt is placed around the Supertunica. The Jewelled Sword of Offering is then 'girded' or fastened at the Sovereign's waist using the Sword Belt. The Archbishop presents the Sword to the Monarch while saying that it should be used for the protection of good and the punishment of evil. The Sword is then removed and placed on the altar in Westminster Abbey, before the Sovereign is invested with the Imperial Mantle.

Historically the Sword Belt is supplied new by the Worshipful Company of Girdlers for each Coronation. His Majesty has chosen to reuse the Sword Belt made for the Coronation of his grandfather, King George VI, on 12th May 1937.

The Coronation Glove or gauntlet is made for the Sovereign’s right hand. It was presented by the Worshipful Company of Glovers, made by Dents the glovemakers, and embroidered by Edward Stillwell & Company in 1937. This Glove has been conserved by Dents with support from the Worshipful Company of Glovers and re-presented by the Company ahead of the Coronation on 6th May.

The Glove is worn to hold the Sovereign's Sceptre during the Crowning and then removed before processing to the Throne Chair. At the Coronation on 6th May, the Coronation Glove will be presented to His Majesty by Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon.

[saintsenara]

writing patterns

[list the first line of your last ten fics and see if there's a pattern.]

thank you so much for the tag @perverse-idyll! a variety of multi-chapter and one shots here, so let's see if any similarities emerge...

subluxation - rodolphus lestrange/percy weasley

It is an ordinary day.

2. one year in every ten - harry potter/tom riddle

In the United Kingdom, a man kills a woman every three days.

3. the war of the roses - sirius black/severus snape

It begins with blood.

4. ecclesiastes three - andromeda tonks & her sisters

How bizarre, she said to herself, that the charms on the ceiling of the Great Hall should have held through a battle.

5. bó na leath adhairce - merope gaunt

The village of Little Hangleton was a cluster of houses and shops - stone walls the shimmery colour of brown sugar, gardens neat with lupins and alliums - set in a rolling swipe of bucolic Lancashire splendour. 

6. sparkling cyanide - hokey the house elf & hepzibah smith

Eokhí is waking up one morning in her nest on the kitchen floor. 

7. the pleiades - bellatrix lestrange/lord voldemort

The cupboard had been unlocked the day she turned ten.

8. catmint - minerva mcgonagall & pomona sprout

For thirty years, her morning stomp to the greenhouses had been marked by a crunch - crunch - crunch-ing of gravel under the stout boots she used to shield her ankles from the more nibbly plants.

9. scylla and charybdis - severus snape/lord voldemort

[this one needs two sentences, for obvious reasons.]

In 1963, Richard Beeching published a report called The Reshaping of British Railways. This has made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

10. everlasting ink - delphini riddle & ginny weasley

When she was sixteen, she nearly died.

well. it's clear we can learn that i'm not particularly fond of a long opening sentence - which is at odds with the fact that i use a lot of compound sentences elsewhere in all of these stories.

although sentence structure isn't - as i doubt it is for most people - the thing that readers particularly comment on... what gets brought up to me most frequently when people are kind enough to leave responses to my writing is the idea that each of my characters has a distinctive narrative voice, whether they're part of an ensemble piece [readers of one year in every ten have told me a lot that they particularly look forward to sections from ron's perspective as a emotionally mature respite from harry being reckless and tom being a dick] or the sole focus of the piece, and i think you can see that in these lines.

and - y'know - hopefully they're a good hook...

[i'll tag @ashesandhackles, @cealesti, @midnightstargazer, @celestemagnoliathewriter @incalculablepower and anyone else interested in playing.]

[thirdity]

A monk should surely love his books with humility, wishing their good and not the glory of his own curiosity; but what the temptation of adultery is for laymen and the yearning for riches is for secular ecclesiastics, the seduction of knowledge is for monks.

Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose

[sunstar706]

Hear me out: Bucky Barnes is 100% not Jewish.

I’ve been doing a lot of scrolling on Tumblr/Ao3 the past few days looking for other people’s opinions on the nitty gritty of Bucky Barnes’ background, and realized- a lot (a *lot*) of people headcanon him as Jewish, which I find really interesting. Judaism, on the whole, is an extremely interesting subject, as the only non-universalizing Abrahamic faith, the only ethnic Abrahamic faith, and the oldest Abrahamic faith (making it one of the oldest monotheistic religions ever to exist).

Let me present to you my speculation on Bucky’s religious background. First of all, we know Steve is Catholic. Just getting that out of the way.

Am I a geography and demography nerd? Yes, yes I am. And I also have a strange hyperfixation on names. That’s why this stood out to me immediately.

James Buchanan Barnes, born March 10, 1917, into a poor family in Brooklyn, New York.

James is a really ambiguous name, with versions in pretty much every Indo-European language, as far as I know. It’s the number one baby boy name in the United States of all time, beating out the second place name (Robert) by over 300,000. Honestly, this name tells me nothing. Moving on.

Buchanan. It’s Scottish. That says a lot. It was fairly common at the time for the eldest sons middle name to be the mothers maiden name, so we can safely say that Winnifred Barnes (née Buchanan) was most likely Scottish.

Now, this is where we get historical, and also where speculation starts. As many Outlander fans will know, things went south for Catholics in Scotland after the battle of Culloden Moor and the Jacobite rebellion, however… The Roman Catholic ecclesiastical hierarchy was reestablished in Scotland in 1878. Catholic emancipation occurred in 1829, and there was a revival of Papism in Scotland, along with an influx of Irish Catholic immigrants coming in (especially with the potato famine starting in the 1840s in Ireland), so, while Catholicism isn’t as popular in Scotland today (approximately 15% of modern Scots are Catholic), when Winnie was born (likely somewhere between 1897 and 1900, I usually put it at 1899) there would have been a good number of Catholics in Scotland. There’s a really good chance she was Catholic.

Now. Barnes. If there was ever an extremely English surname, it was Barnes. It’s pretty hard to provide reasonable evidence that George Barnes was not English, so, let’s run with that. While England today has high percentages of Islam, Hinduism, and even reasonable amounts of Sikhism and Buddhism, it was… very Christian back in the day. In fact, the only really established non-Christian religion in England was Judaism (England contained approximately 60000 Jews in 1880, a number which rose to 300000 by 1914. However, please consider that the majority of these people were fresh immigrants escaping anti-semitism in Eastern and Northern Europe, who would not have had the surname ‘Barnes’). Delving further into English Christianity- they were Anglican, pretty much.

Guess what? Protestants (ex. Anglicans like George) and Catholics (like Winnie) don’t like each other. While marriage between Protestants and Catholics wasn’t illegal in the uk at the time, it is extremely unlikely their families would have approved. So, Winnie and George moved to NYC. (Actually, this is how my very own great-great-grandparents ended up in New Zealand).

So, where does James Buchanan Barnes lie on the religion side of things? I can tell you The chances that he’s Jewish are very low. I’d say he’s probably Catholic, even if just to blend in- New York is extremely Catholic, even today. He could be Anglican. After all the shit Hydra put him through, he’s might’ve given up on religion all together. Or maybe he converted to Buddhism. A lot of people do that (Buddhism is the third largest universalizing religion on earth). I’m kidding, don’t take that seriously, he’s not a Buddhist.

I think he’s Catholic.

But hey, nothings concrete. I’ve read some really great stories where he’s Jewish. I’ve read great stories where he’s Catholic.

-Ranger616

[ginandoldlace]

As vast housing estates went up all around London in the 1930s, creating what most of us now think as London’s suburbs, all of the community buildings were going up too. The Church of England for example built about 45 new churches in London in the mid 30s with this one, the John Keble Church being one of them. What is unusual about this place though is the architecture. Whilst a lot of synagogues were designed in a modernist style (perhaps because of the amount of leading Jewish architects that had fled to England from Europe at the time) most churches were built in a more conservative and familiar way. Not so the John Keble, which was designed by D F Martin-Smith in what must have been a very daring style back then. John Keble himself was a 19th Century church reformer so perhaps it’s appropriate that 100 years later a radical new type of church was built in his name?

Although this building was officially opened in 1936 there was a temporary wooden shed on the site for about four years serving the growing new estate’s ecclesiastical needs as the permanent building went up next to it. After four years waiting and with great anticipation, on the cold December night of its consecration, 800 local people packed the building waiting for the Bishop of London to turn up and do his bishopy things to make things official. Unfortunately that night there was a full on London pea souper of a smog covering the area making the Bishop quite late and the large crowd were left waiting wondering if he was going to text his ETA at any point or just leave them hanging. He did eventually turn up and went straight to the church hall next door and casually donned his robes and bishop stuff and then eventually made a grand entrance into the main venue and started the show as if nothing had happened. It is believed by some that the events at the John Keble that night and the Bishop’s very late arrival on stage went on to influence almost every Guns n Roses concert some 50 years later. History is amazing eh?

[wishesofeternity]

“Ecclesiastics were so common and employed in so many activities that their presence in espionage was inevitable. Edward IV used monks from Cerne and Abingdon to help locate Henry VI in 1465, and in 1492 a monk was one of two spies employed by Henry VII. Henry used priests to take his messages to Brittany in 1492 to contact Breton rebels and stir them against Charles VIII of France. And since he used them as spies and messengers he knew that they would be used against him. Thus he ordered his Deputy at Calais, Gilbert Talbot, to prevent the passage into England of one Robert Stewart, friar, from France. Real clerics engaged as spies form one half of the equation. The other is the adoption of clerical disguise. After Warbeck's defeat in 1497 one of his followers, an ex-household official of Edward IV disguised himself as a hermit and avoided capture for several weeks.·'" Bernard de Vignolles recounted how a Spanish astrologer, hired to help murder Henry VII, was to come to England disguised as a pilgrim on his way to the shrine of Compostella. 'He would come to England in the habit of a friar, and because (he) had lost two of his teeth he would procure two others of ivory, of the colour of his own.' The pretended pilgrimage was a boon to secret diplomacy. It was a ruse advised by Vegetius, repeated by Christine de Pisan and personally employed by Philippe de Commynes. The Scots sent negotiators to England under colour of a pilgrimage to Durham; and the Douglases negotiated with the English government while ostensibly on pilgrimage to Canterbury or Rome.”

- “Espionage and Intelligence from the Wars of the Roses to the Reformation”

[scotianostra]

On August 22nd 1567 James Stewart, Earl of Moray was proclaimed Regent of Scotland.

It seems to be almost every post I do about men in power, it involves them switching sides, the Earl of Moray certainly did that several times.

Like many a prominent Stewart, James Stewart was illegitimate. He had a good pedigree, of course, as he was the illegitimate son of James V and his favourite mistress Lady Margaret Douglas, wife of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven and daughter of John Erskine, 5th Lord Erskine. He was thus the half brother of Mary I, Queen of Scots.

Illegitimacy was never a barrier to success for sons of Kings as the likes of Stewart were often granted positions of privilege. In such a fashion, James Stewart was made Prior of St. Andrews in his youth, but he was never intended for a career in the Church. Initially putting these men in positions like this was a device that enabled James V to take the Abbey’s income into his own hands; income that later fell to James Stewart.

Prior to 1562, Stewart was known as Lord James, but this notable quasi-Royal rose to become the 1st Earl of Moray, the Earl of Mar (briefly) and Regent of Scotland.

Unsurprisingly, religion played a big part in the life of James Stewart. Like many another, he came under the influence of the ideas of Protestant reformers such as George Wishart and John Knox. Like many another, he also abandoned the Catholic faith and joined the Protestant Lords of the Congregation and is regarded as one of the founding figures of the Scottish Church. His change of faith wasn’t the only switch he made in his career, which gets, largely speaking, a good press.

Switching religion led James Stewart to rebel against his legitimate Queen, Marie de Guise, in 1559-60, but despite that switch, in 1561, he helped negotiate the return of his half sister, when she found herself surplus to requirements in France. With masterful political poise, he reverted to being a supporter of the Crown and became Chief Adviser to Mary I, Queen of Scots, managing to moderate some of the more extreme Calvinists, which helped the Catholic Mary survive in a Scotland in the throes of a Protestant Reformation. He was rewarded with the Earldom of Moray on the 30th of January, 1562, and made it his business to pursue a policy of amity with England.

Moray switched sides yet again when Mary married Henry Stewart (distant relation) in 1565. Moray’s political policies and religious adherence meant he had no choice but to oppose the marriage, which pushed him into a rebellion known as the ‘Chaseabout Raid’ and subsequent exile in England.

Whilst in England, he conspired from a distance with the murderers of ‘Fiddler Davie’ Rizzio, but Mary was oblivious to his involvement and he was able to return to Scotland after she gave him a pardon. So, notionally at least, he was back on her side and, at the time of Darnley’s assassination, Moray contrived to be in France, which is where he remained whilst the Bothwell affair panned out.

When Mary abdicated at Loch Leven in July of 1567, in favour of her son, the infant King James VI, Moray was appointed Regent of Scotland and returned to the opposing side once more. It seems that he may well have “reaped the fruits of the conspiracies” surrounding the murders of Rizzio and Darnley. After Mary escaped from Loch Leven on the 2nd of May, he was instrumental in her defeat at the Battle of Langside on the 13th of May, 1568, which forced her to exile and doom in England.

That makes five changes of side, but doesn’t stop posterity praising his time as Regent for having secured both civil and ecclesiastical peace, and the title of ‘The Good Regent’. Interestingly, an entry for Moray in the reference standard 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica concludes that James Stewart “…pursued his sister with a calculated animosity, which would not have spared her life had this been necessary to his end or been favoured by Elizabeth.” Perhaps Moray’s most important legacy was that his actions ensured James VI was raised a Protestant, which led to the Union of the Crowns in 1603, when, as Nigel Tranter called him, "Shaughling Jamie Saxt" succeeded Elizabeth I. Shaughling Jamie Sax meaning shuffling James VI.

Uniquely, Moray has the dubious distinction of being the victim of the World’s first ever recorded assassination by a firearm. That occurred on the 23rd of January, 1570, when Moray was the ‘mark’ in a professional ‘hit’ perpetrated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, a staunch and disgruntled supporter of Mary. Hamilton shot from his ‘lie’ behind a window at his uncle’s house in Linlithgow and fatally wounded Moray as he was passing in a cavalcade in the main street below.

Hamilton, like a true sniper, escaped to obscurity, but Moray’s death elevated him to the status of a Scottish Protestant martyr. His funeral in Edinburgh’s St. Giles’ Cathedral on the 14th of February was an occasion of much public mourning, graced by the presence of the less than graceful John Knox, who preached the sermon, and George Buchanan, who read the epitaph. James Stewart was buried in St. Anthony’s aisle in St. Giles’.

The pic is the “Gude Regent” circa 1568.

[richmond-rex]

Hi, I've only recently gotten interested in the Wars of the Roses and since I am unable to find an unbiased analysis, I wanted to ask: what do you think of Eleanor Talbot and the idea that she was allegedly married to Edward IV?

The more I research the claim, the more incredulous I get that it's often taken so seriously, particularly by Ricardian circles. I'm very skeptical about the fact that this supposed marriage was kept secret for ... 19 years? Even more? Logically, it is not possible for a piece of information that explosive and nationally relevant to stay under lock and key for that long, especially considering Edward's political enemies. I've read some pieces on Eleanor and the most any of them can do is theorize that she may have been romantically involved with Edward at some point before May 1464. But a potential affair hardly means marriage; as far as I can tell, Edward IV appears to have had affairs with lots of women, but Elizabeth Woodville was clearly the one he wanted as his wife and queen, and obviously the only one who was acknowledged and honored as such. From what I can make out, I don't think he would have had that much difficulty getting out of the marriage if he particularly wanted to: considering it was very private, his public acknowledgement of it was crucial, and his word would have triumphed whatever Elizabeth or her family would say; people gathering at Reading to find a way to end it or persuade him to end it did not amount to anything; Wake's witchcraft allegations against Jacquetta directly relating to their marriage which were cleared by Edward's council; even the fact that Elizabeth Woodville did not produce a son until 7 years after she became queen. He very clearly wanted to remain married to her even though he did have potential routes out of it. I've also observed that people tend to link the circumstances of his marriage to Elizabeth and alleged marriage to Eleanor and call it a pattern of behavior, without considering the fact that once again, being involved with someone doesn't automatically mean marriage, and that it's very possibly a deliberately constructed pattern/parallel by the people making the allegations.

And it seems awfully, almost embarrassingly convenient that this came up after both parties were dead, when Richard was actively slandering his brother's licentousness, and when he wanted to usurp the throne from his 12 year old nephew when neither he (Edward V) nor his mother (Elizabeth Woodville) were in a position to assert themselves.

Of course, we'll never truly know for sure but ... what do you think?

Hi! To get straight to the point, there is simply no evidence that Edward IV had been married to anyone other than Elizabeth Woodville. You'd think ricardians would be more careful about this claim since they make such a big deal out of the lack of material proof linking Richard to the murder of the princes (actually king and prince) in the Tower, but no. Lack of evidence doesn't work both ways in this case, apparently.

As many historians have pointed out, parliament, which ultimately ruled that Edward IV had committed bigamy and invalidated his marriage with Elizabeth Woodville, simply did that on the grounds that it was ‘the common opinion of the people and the public voice and fame is throughout the land’. Although parliament could legislate over the succession of the crown, it had no jurisdiction to invalidate anyone's marriage, since only the Church had authority over those matters at that time. If there were any proof that Edward IV had really been married to Eleanor Talbot/Butler, Richard and his supporters would have called an ecclesiastical court made exclusively of prelates and representatives of the pope to rule over that case based on canon law, as that was the Church's prerogative since the 12th century. A. J. Pollard made a very apt observation about this:

Had Richard lll been the deeply troubled, honourable and honest man we are asked to believe him to be he would surely have followed the course of a properly constituted investigation.

Ruth Mazo Karras has a great book called Unmarriages: Women, Men and Sexual Unions in the Middle Ages where she presents many cases of marriages judged by the church to have been clandestine or invalid and actually explains how the Church came to have a monopoly on the legislation of marriages. Jennifer Ward cites an example of an illegal marriage claim taken to the Pope and casts light on how the investigation of an ecclesiastical court should have proceeded in face of the pre-contract allegations made by Richard and his supporters:

This issue of legitimacy and therefore of inheritance was at the heart of the best-known twelfth-century case, concerning Richard de Anesty, dating from 1158-63. Richard claimed to be the heir of his uncle, William de Sackville, on the grounds that William's only child, Mabel de Francheville, was illegitimate. If Mabel had been legitimate, she would probably have inherited her father's land. Richard alleged that William had broken his marriage contract with Albereda de Tresgoz and married Mabel's mother, Adelicia, daughter of Amfrid the sheriff. William and Albereda were said to have expressed present consent, and, according to Richard's account, Albereda asserted that she was William's lawful wife at his wedding to Adelicia, but failed to be heard because of the crowd and because William turned a deaf ear. She was later granted a decree by the bishop of Winchester and Pope Innocent II that William should return to her as her husband. Mabel argued, however, that the marriage contract with Albereda only amounted to betrothal, and that both Albereda and William had agreed to end it; the relationship had never been consummated and William had returned Albereda's dowry. William and Adelicia's marriage had been carried out in the face of the church, and Albereda's father had been present at the wedding feast. The annulment of the marriage by the bishop was null and void. For Alexander III the annulment was the crucial issue, and Mabel was adjudged illegitimate.

We can make a few observations about this case. First, notice how William's alleged first wife, Albereda, sought the Bishop of Winchester then the Pope himself to protest against William's second marriage and have it annulled. Why wouldn't Eleanor Talbot, the daughter of the Earl Shrewsbury and NIECE of the Earl of Warwick, who had such influence over Edward IV's early reign, be silent about Edward IV's second marriage? It's not like she was a helpless nobody who wouldn't have anyone to vouch for her case in the papal court. Moreover, according to a Burgundian report about the revelation of Edward and Elizabeth's marriage, many dissatisfied lords tried to come up with means to annul the marriage, as anon cited in this ask. Knowing this, and having the possibility to be backed by number #1 dissatisfied noble in the kingdom, Warwick, why wouldn't Eleanor have spoken against Edward and Elizabeth's union at that time?

Second observation: notice how both parties concerning the legitimacy of the marriage of William and Adelicia, namely Richard and his cousin Mabel, had to testify in front of the court and produce witnesses, documents and/or reports that attested to their claim that the marriage was valid or invalid. There was never anything even remotely close to this in the case concerning Edward IV's marriage. Where was the appeal to the Pope? Where were the witnesses of Edward IV's first marriage testifying in a clerical court? In fact, we don't even actually know for sure who claimed to be witness to Edward IV's alleged first marriage. The document approving Richard's rule, Titulus Regius, only claimed that it was 'the common opinion of the people and the public voice and fame' but never actually cited anyone as an actual witness to the alleged first marriage of the king.

No contemporary English source gives the name of a witness. Robert Stillington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is only cited as the author of the bigamy claim and the only witness of the alleged first marriage in a French chronicle by Philippe de Commynes, a servant of King Louis XI. Commynes goes as far as to call him 'ce mauvais evesque', that is, 'this evil bishop'. That Commynes' claim is plausible comes from the fact that one of Henry VII's first actions after Bosworth was to order Bishop Stillington's arrest. If we accept that Stillington had helped Richard by concocting the pre-contract claim—and ricardians must accept it otherwise there's simply no name to validate their theory—the picture we're left with is not pretty. One, Bishop Stillington had previously been imprisoned by Edward IV in 1478 so Stillington was hardly an unbiased witness against Edward IV.

Two, in 1472 whilst he was still Edward IV's Chancellor, an office Stillington exercised up until 1473, he took part in a ceremony recognising the legitimacy of Edward Prince of Wales as Edward IV's heir. Along with the Archbishop of Canterbury and eight other 'Lords Spiritual' (that is, prelates) and thirty-six 'Lords Temporal' (that is, noblemen) Stillington solemnly swore to Prince Edward that

that in case hereafter it happen You, by God’s disposition, to outlive our said Sovereign Lord, I shall then take and accept You for true, very, and righteous King of England, &tc. And faith and truth to you shall bear.

If Bishop took part in that ceremony knowing the boy was illegitimate, he should have acted so as to either speak against it (admittedly, difficult to do), decline to take part in the ceremony by faking an illness or some other excuse (possible), or seek ways to legalise the king's current marriage by way of appeal to the papal courts, something people in irregular marriage situations did all the time. See to what lengths John of Gaunt went to have his Beaufort children legitimised. It seems scarcely possible that Edward IV, who was careful enough to orchestrate ceremonies to invest his son Edward as England's heir and recognise his authority over charters and conciliar bodies, would have left his heir as vulnerable to the law as ricardians claim he did.

Another point to the whole pre-contract story, is that it seems to have been only a later addition to the reasons Richard 'was offered' the crown. According to Mancini, Richard's affiliates' first idea was to claim Edward IV was a bastard (and his children unable to rule consequently). Ricardians claim Mancini was a foreigner and simply misunderstood the terms that were preached at St Paul's Cross, but The London Chronicler also believed that the first version that was preached was that Edward IV himself was illegitimate. Mancini tells us that the claim was not well received by the audience, so it makes sense that Richard's supporters would have quickly dropped it. The claim is lightly touched upon in the parliamentary act approving Richard's rule in the observation that Richard was his father's undoubted heir and the only one born in England. It alludes, of course, to the fact that Edward IV was born in France and George of Clarence in Ireland, as if subtly casting doubts about their legitimacy.

Lastly, even if the pre-contract story was true, it still by no means should be a definite reason to make Edward V unable to succeed his father. As Horspool has pointed out, solutions to that problem included 'securing a retrospective canonical or papal judgement of the invalidity of the pre-contract; an Act of Parliament legitimizing the children of Edward and Elizabeth Woodville’s marriage, or [...] proceeding to the coronation of Edward V, which would legitimize him by making him the Lord’s anointed'. Hypothetically, if parliament was competent to declare Edward V illegitimate enough to overrule an ecclesiastical court, it was equally competent to declare the boy legitimate. In face of all these possibilities to legitimise his brother's heir, Pollard has the correct assessment of the situation:

The truth of the matter is that Richard III did not want Edward V to be legitimate because he did not want him to be king.

Considering Richard made no effort to sustain his nephews' right to rule, as had been asked of him in his condition as Lord PROTECTOR, the pre-contract allegation must be seen in that light: a poorly sustained, entirely unevidenced excuse to justify an act of usurpation.

[woodsfae]

B5 S03E04: Passing Through Gethsemane table of contents • previous episode

What an acrimonious ecclesiastical chess game. Oh, are these the techy monks? I kinda forgot about them. idk what the little sculpture was. It looked like glass, but if so, he's using some 23rd c advanced tech or something! 

Lyta's back! And she traveled in a Vorlon's ship! Hope they didn't drive her as mad as Jack the Ripper. A pretty badass story! She really committed to getting to Vorlon space, and they really almost let her die! Or actually did let her die? The PsiCorps havwe that freaky zombie protocol. 

Well, either a black rose has changed omnious meaning in the last few hundred years, so that monk guy is absolutely about to get whacked. Shuffled unwillingly off the mortal coil. On vacation with the space whales.  

Blegh, speaking of the psicorps zombie protocols! That isn't exactly a humane option. If human rights aren't human rights for everyone, then anyone can be stripped of their rights. 

Dr Franklin has a diagnosis for Lyta: In better than tip top condition. Some of her chronic and/or genetic conditions have been mysteriously cured. Idk if this is support for the Zombie Lyta theory, but it does suggest that the Vorlons have high levels of human-medical tech. Panaceas have been such a reoccuring theme and I'm interested to see where they take it. Lyta is the only example of someone who has had a full, medical glow-up. 

Yeah, fuck off Londo! He's such a slimy toerag. He can stop anytime, but nooooo. 

To Minbari, "the soul is a nonlocalized phenomenon," perceptible through physical form and sentient people, but are actual little thinking fragments of the universal intelligence, trying to understand itself. It really is a fascinating idea. It reinds me of something I've seen, "we are collections of atoms trying to understand ourselves."

It's relatively similar to gnosticism. 

Lennier is a nerd for Valen! Whatg a nice meeting. The monk is definitely dying now, right? Oh maybe he'll be tormented by hallucinations awhile first. Or pehaps a telepathic projection? It does seem to be leaning towards the high fantasy side of B5, I guess. Not so into the monks, but the experimental flashbacks and inexplicable visions are pretty entertaining. 

Ahhh, he's one of the mind-wiped murderers. HAH. I wonder if all the monks are murderers. It'd track for western society. The abbot fellow says the order is legit, but they only question the applicants about their beliefs. Coding murderers into genuinely philanthropic and ascetic monk wanna-bes...it's legitimately more humane than I thought it would be. Still horrific, but I expected they'd be like, barracksed and do dangerous, menial work, not be random monks having traumatizing flashbacks they can't process. 

Huh. He was a serial killer, and the facility where he was burned down and all his records were lost, he was presumed dead. So this isn't a normal situation for one of these wipe-ees. They're ...pretty good? at implaning new personalities? He's trying really hard to process this new self-knowledge through his theological bent. But I suppose he might have killed people with a theological bent, too. 

ooooooOOOooo. Someone triggered Brother Edward slash Charlie! Is it Lyta? Vorlons love fucking around with people's heads, particularly serial killers and religious fanatics. 

Oh dang! His victims' relations? They're pretty pissy, which is fair, but it's too bad they don't recognize that what was done to him is also heinous. 

But what's this?Lyta with a steel chair? I mean, an un-Psi-Corps-sanctioned mental assault! 

lolol, even with Lyta's dubiously legal activities, the monks found him first. It was pretty yoked of Bruce Boxleitner to singlehandedly lift him down. 

"I always wondered if I would have the courage to stay and wait in the Garden of Gethsemane...now I know. Now I know."

well, that's normal religious trauma. Every evangelical kids I knew wondered that and worried they were less able to face suffering than Jesus, hah! But his deathbed worries about salvation are also super christian culture, which is so funny since xtians literally invented the Get Out of Hell Free card. repentance. like, I saw that loophole as a kid. Just pray dear jesus I'm sorry on your deathbed! Moral condundrum solved. 

Love Lyta and Susan interacting! I was bummed when Lyta didn't make it onto the show from The Gathering, and although I'm desperately curious as to when Talia comes back (they haven't kissed yet!! There's whump to be had, I can tell!), it is great to have Lyta around. Especially since she's liberated telepath who don't care for no Psi Rules. 

Ooooh, Lyta gills reveal. That a new feature? hah.

Dr Franklin: Well, everything that was ever wrong with you has been fixed. Oh, it says you have gills now? Well, that can't be right. Never mind. /s

Well, christian episodes gonna christian. not my favorite, though I enjoy the lore and the Psi horror. And directed by Adam Nimoy! I did not see that one coming. And quite heavy handed, though I guess they were writing for an adult populations with a lot more lead poisoning than we typically see now.

oooh, big plot!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Everything is Futile

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea [is] not full; unto the place from what place the rivers come, there they return again. — Ecclesiastes 1:7 | New Messianic Version (NMV) The New Messianic Version Bible by Tov Rose © 2012. All Rights Reserved. Cross References: Ecclesiastes 1:6; Ecclesiastes 1:8

[albertfinch]

CREATING A FAVORABLE SPIRITUAL CLIMATE

"There is a season for everything, and a time for every event under heaven." - Ecclesiastes 3:1

We can't shift our seasons – God does that. But we can create a climate that invites Him to do the work in our hearts that prepares us for the next season.

After10 Days of praying in unity, "SUDDENLY (there was) a sound like a mighty rushing wind," and the 120 in the upper room were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2). When Paul and Barnabas experienced  persecution for Christ's sake, SUDDENLY an earthquake rose up and opened the doors SUDDENLY to the jail (see Acts 16:26).

Suddenly you may shift into a promotion.

Suddenly you may shift from sickness to health.

Suddenly you may shift into greater authority in the spirit.

Suddenly you may shift from a dark night of the soul to greater revelation of Christ.

Suddenly you may shift from feelings of oppression to new levels of freedom.

Believe for the suddenlies in 2024. Expect them to happen. Wait with anticipation, but understand that you have to do your part.

Like the disciples in the upper room, you need to pray.

Like Paul and Barnabas in the prison, you need to praise.

In other words, you need to create a spiritual climate over your life that invites the Holy Spirit to work in your heart, in your life, and in your circumstances. Your climate change will eventually lead to a season shift that will bring a suddenly you could never make happen in your own strength.

Take heart in Isaiah 48:3: "I have declared the former things from the beginning and they went forth from My mouth, and I announced them. Suddenly I did them, and they came to pass."

ALBERT FINCH MINISTRY