Today's poem:

Prologue to Caesar Borgia Poem
- by John Dryden

https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/809875435205836800/prologue-to-caesar-borgia-poem?source=share

#poetry #JohnDryden #Borgia #papacy #corruption #power

John Wycliffe

His last name is also spelled: Wyclif, Wickliffe, & Wicklyf.

He’s an English scholastic philosopher, Christian reformer, Catholic priest, & a theology professor at the University of Oxford. He’s often called the “Morning Star of the Reformation.”

He made radical challenges to the Roman Catholic Church like advocating for or made a vernacular translation of the Vulgate Bible into Middle English. He paved the way for the Protestant Reformation nearly 200 years before Martin Luther.

Before he was a reformer, Wycliffe was a titan of Scholasticism at Oxford. At the time, the intellectual world was divided between Realist & Norminalists. The Norminalists, like William of Ockham, argued that “universals” (like the concept of “justice” or “humanity”) were just names (nomina) we give to groups of individual things.

John was a fierce Realist. He believed that universals were real entities that existed in the mind of God. For Wycliffe, everything in the physical world was a direct reflection of a divine archetype.

Wycliffe’s most radical political theory was the Dominion of Grace. He argued that all authority (dominium) is a gift from God. Which meant that the church wasn’t allowed to own property or have ecclesiastic courts, & men in mortal sin weren’t entitled to exercise authority in the church or state, nor to own property. He added a dangerous caveat: only those in a state of grace have a right to exercise authority.

Wycliffe’s later followers (derogatorily called Lollards by their orthodox contemporaries in the 15th & 16th centuries. Lollards meaning “mumblers” or “idlers.”) adopted a number of the beliefs attributed to Wycliff such as theological virtues, predestination, iconoclasm, & the notion of caesaropapism, with some questioning the veneration of saints, the sacraments, requiem masses, transubstantiation, monasticism, & the legitimacy/role of the Papacy.

Wycliffe was born in the village of Hipswell, near Richmond in the North Riding of Yorkshire, England. In 1356, Wycliffe completed his bachelor of arts degree at Merton College as a junior fellow. That same year, he produced a small treatise, The Last Age of the Church.

In 1361, he was Master of Balliol College in Oxford. That year, he was presented by the college to the parish of Fillingham in Lincolnshire. For this, he had to give up the headship of Balliol College, though he could continue to live at Oxford.

Wycliffe’s greatest legacy is his role in the 1st complete translation of the Bible into Middle English (circa 1382). At the time, the Bible was only available in the Latin Vulgate. This was accessible solely to the educated clergy.

Wycliffe believed that the Bible was the ultimate authority. Then every person (from the King to the “plowman”), needed to be able to read it.

Wycliffe didn’t just translate words. He helped create the English language. He’s credited with introducing, or popularizing, over 1,000 words into English, including: female, justice, communication, treasure, & glory.

His “potent” ideas were blamed for the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. Wycliffe didn’t endorse the violence, however the rebels used his discourse of “equality before God” & Wycliffe’s critiques of Church wealth to justify their demands.

In the U.S. culture, Wycliffe’s legacy is preserved in 2 distinct ways:

• The Democratic Spirit of the Bible: The American religious tradition of individual Bible interpretation & the rejection of centralized ecclesiastical authority can be traced directly back to Wycliffe’s “priesthood of all believers.”
• Wycliffe Bible Translators: Founded in 1942 in California by William Cameron Townsend. This organization (now 1 of the largest of its kind in the world) was named in honor of John Wycliffe. It carries on his mission by translating the Bible into thousands of indigenous languages worldwide.

Wycliffe passed away from a stroke, during a Mass, in 1834. In 1415, the Council of Constance declared him a heretic. In 1428, by order of Pope Martin V, his remains were exhumed from his grave in Lutterworth, burned to ashes, & cast into the River Swift.

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#1356 #1361 #1382 #1415 #1428 #15thCentury #16thCentury #1834 #1842 #BalliolCollege #bible #Caesaropapism #California #Catholic #DominionOfGrace #Dominium #England #Fillingham #Hipswell #Iconoclasm #IndigenousLanguages #JohnWycliffe #LatinVulgate #Lincolnshire #Lollards #MartinLuther #Mass #MertonCollege #MiddleEnglish #Monasticism #MorningStarOfTheReformation #Nomina #Norminalists #NorthRiding #Oxford #Papacy #PeasantsRevoltOf1381 #Pope #PopeMartinV #Predestination #ProtestantReformation #Realists #RequiemMasses #Richmond #RiverSwift #RomanCatholicChurch #Sacraments #Scholasticism #TheLastAgeOfTheChurch #Translate #Transubstantiation #Universals #UniversityOfOxford #VulgateBible #WilliamCameronTownsend #WilliamOfOckham #WycliffeBibleTranslators #WycliffeSBible #Yorkshire

Pope Leo, an Icon of Fashion?

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/pope-leo-an-icon-of-fashion/

Sacred King

In many historical societies, the position of kingship carried a sacral meaning & was identical with that of a high priest & judge.

Divine kingship is related to the concept of theocracy. Although a sacred King doesn’t necessarily rule through his religious authority. But rather, the temporal (or non-religious) position itself has a religious significance behind. The monarch may be divine, become divine, or represent divinity to a greater or lesser extent.

In sacred kingship, the king often has little political power, & is contrasted with divine kingship where the king triumphs in the politico-religious struggle between the people & the king. A sacred king is often encumbered with ritals & used as a scapegoat for disasters such as famine & drought. However, they can become divine & achieve greater power.

In Africa, sacred kings are often represented as volatile & potentially dangerous wild animals. The Ashanti flog, yes flog, a newly selected King (Ashantehene) before enthroning him.

From the Bronze Age in the Near East, the enthronement & anointment of a monarch is a central religious ritual, reflected in such titles as Messiah or Christ. This became separated from worldly kingship. Sargon of Akkad described himself as a “deputy of Ishtar.” This is like how the modern Catholic popes take the role of the “Vicar of Christ.”

Kings are styled as shepherds from the earliest times. The term was applied to Sumerian princes such as Lugalbanda in the 3rd millennium BCE. Shepherd imagery combines themes of leadership & the responsibility to supply food & protection, as well as superiority. As a mediator between the people & the divine, the sacred King was credited with special wisdom (like Solomon or Gilgamesh) or vision (via oneiromancy). Oneiromancy is a form of divination based on dreams, & also uses dreams based on dreams, & also uses to predict the future.

Here are some examples of some sacred kings:

• Chakravartin, a righteous king derived from Indian religious thought
• Devaraja, a cult of divine kings in Southeast Asia
• Germanic kingship
• Kings in pre-Christian Scandinavia & England claimed descent from God’s such as Odin & Freyr. Scandinavian kings in pre-Christian times served as priests at sacrifices.
• The kings of Goryeo claimed descent from the Dragon King
• Holy Roman emperors
• Imperial cults
• The Omukama of Kitara ruled as a heavenly sovereign
• The High King of Ireland, according to medieval tradition, married the sovereignty goddess
• The Eze Nri, ruler of the defunct Igbo Nri Kingdom in present-day Nigeria. He was addressed as “Igwe,” meaning “heavenly one” in the Igbo language, & has bestowed his title to the monarch of a contemporary traditional state of the same name.
• The Emperor of Japan is known in Japanese as Tenno (Heavenly sovereign) & was formerly believed to be a living kami.
• The Kende was the sacred King of the Magyars in the 9th century.
• The Khagan
• The kings of Luba became deities after death.
• The earthly power of the papacy.
• Pharaoh, the title of Ancient Egyptian rulers. The pharaoh adopted names symbolizing holy might.
• The last vestige of Athenian monarchy, Archon basileus, mainly retained the duties of overseeing certain religious rites.
• The Son of Heaven, an East Asian title
• Shah & Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist, Islamic concepts
• The kings of Sparta claimed direct descent from Heracles himself, & served as hereditary priests.
• Madkhalism in Islam

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#3rdMillenniumBC #9thCentury #Africa #AncientEgypt #ArchonBasileus #Ashantehene #Ashanti #Athens #BronzeAge #Catholic #Chakravartin #Christ #Devaraja #Divination #DivineKingship #DragonKing #Dreams #EastAsia #EmperorOfJapan #England #EzeNri #Freyr #Germanic #Gilgamesh #Goryeo #Heracles #HighKingOfIreland #HighPriest #HolyRomanEmperor #IgboLanguage #IgboNriKingdom #Igwe #Indian #Ishtar #Islam #IslamicJurist #Japanese #Judge #Kami #Kende #KingSolomon #KingsOfLuba #Lugalbanda #Madkhalism #Magyars #Messiah #Monarch #NearEast #Nigeria #Odin #OmukamaOfKitara #Oneiromancy #Papacy #Pharaoh #Popes #PreChristian #Priests #SacredKing #SargonOfAkkad #Scandinavia #Shah #Shepherds #SonOfHeaven #SoutheastAsia #Sparta #Sumerian #Tenno #TheKhagan #Theocracy #VicarOfChrist

Warrior Pope's A Morbid Parody of Justice is an incredible album that spans numerous heavy genres while telling a chilling story the Papacy would much prefer no one knew ⬇️
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#music #musicreview #history #pope #papacy #vaticano #metal #heavymetal #doommetal #stoner #drone #postmetal #cadaversynod #bristol #punk #gwar #moorbeer

https://npryan.com/2025/05/26/a-morbid-parody-of-justice/

#ScottGalloway reaches his (as usual) on-point conclusion: the #Papacy knew exactly what they were doing when they asked "which region of humanity is struggling". When #EasternEurope was in trouble they chose a #PolishPope, this time they chose an #AmericanPope

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DHTCp2RpERg&si=bLtjuljiZZL8N-d7

Habemus papam.*

The smoke is white.

And some folks are hanging on word from the Vatican about who the man — that much we can predict — is.

* In using first-person plural, I don't mean to say that I personally have any investment in this fanfare or its outcome, other than to note that what Catholic officials choose to do has wide-ranging effects on the whole world.

#pope #Vatican #WhiteSmoke #papacy

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/08/white-smoke-signals-election-of-new-roman-catholic-pope

New pope elected on second day of the conclave

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/new-pope-conclave-day-two-05-08-25

#HackerNews #NewPope #Election #Conclave #Vatican #DayTwo #Papacy