SATURDAY, JULY 5
I can't find much to blog about this evening. I did a book signing this afternoon at the Tombstone book store. It was slow, but I did better than expected. Some friends came by and we visited for awhile. I have a great new story idea, and that helps - much. I ended up buying more books than.... well, you know the score.
It rained several times this afternoon - a good, hard rain. The dirt in the streets where the city officials decided, two years ago, to put dirt down on the streets to give it that authentic Wild West look was a little muddy. Fortunately they are using "Hollywood" dirt, so it doesn't go to mud as much as one might think. I did some additional photos this afternoon. All photos here, with the exception of the one of Wyatt Earp are copyright SJ Reidhead, 2008. They cannot be used without my permission.
We had a nice dinner at the Tombstone Boarding House B & B, where Juan was excellent as usual. Wait - there is huge - earth-shaking news. My father ordered cheese enchiladas with red chili! First time ever. He loved them. I am shocked. My mother finally tasted them - after me ordering red cheese enchiladas on a regular basis for the past twenty years or so. To set the stage - I am the subject of familial persecution because of my love of cheese enchiladas. I am harassed. I am made fun of for not liking 'authentic' Mexican food. I don't know how the heck more authentic a person can get, but like tree, I can bend. So, my mother tastes the enchiladas and has a fit over them! Maybe I'm not so stupid after all.
Last photo of Wyatt Earp, taken a month before his death in January of 1929
I saw somewhere that John McCain doesn't like bloggers. Right about now I think he's probably right. Where I am, it is obviously John McCain country - trust me.
Did you hear the one about the guy who floated over two states in his helium balloon contraption? Then there is this possible answer to annoying air travel. I'd love to fly in one of these things.
We have a tidbit of archaeological news.
How the historical artifacts of the Wild West are disappearing.
THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS
Born: Socrates, Grecian philosopher (6th Thargelion), Inc. 468; Joseph de Tournefort, botanist, 1656; Dr. Adam Smith, political economist, 1723, Kirkcaldy; Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover, 1771.
Died: Count D'Egmont and Count Horn, beheaded at Brussels, 1568; John Henry Hottinger, learned orientalist, 1667, drowned in River Limmat; Rev. Dr. Henry Sacheverell, bombastic preacher, 1724; John Paisiello, musical composer, 1816, Naples; Carl Maria Von Veber, musical composer, 1826, London; T. H. Lister, novelist, 1842, London; Jacques Pradier, French sculptor, 1852.
Feast Day: St. Dorotheus, of Tyre, martyr, 4th century; St. Doro theus the Theban, abbot, 4th century.; Other Saints named Dorotheus; St. Illidius, Bishop of Auvergne, confessor, about 385; St. Boniface, Archbishop of Mentz, Apostle of Germany, and martyr, 755.
ST. BONIFACE, THE APOSTLE OF THE GERMANS
The true name of' this saint was Winfrid, or Winfrith. He was the son of a West-Saxon chieftain, and was born at Crediton, in Devon-shire, about the year 680. Having shown from his infancy a remarkable seriousness of character, he was sent, when in his seventh year, to school in the monastery at Exeter. He made rapid and great proficiency in learning, and, having been ordained to the priesthood about the year 710, he was soon afterwards chosen by the West-Saxon clergy to represent them in an important mission to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and it was probably in the course of it that he formed the design of seeking to effect the conversion of the heathen Germans who occupied central Europe. Remaining firm in his design, he proceeded to Friesland in 716; but, on account of obstacles caused by the unsettled state of the country, he returned home and remained in England until 718, in the autumn of which year he went through France to Rome, where he formed a lasting friendship with the Anglo-Saxon princess-nun Eadburga, better k
nown by her nickname of Bugga.
The pope approved of the designs of Winfrid, and, in May 719, he gave him authority to undertake the conversion of the Thuringians. After making some converts in Thuringia, where his success appears to have fallen short of his anticipations, Boniface visited France, and went thence to Utrecht, where his countryman Wilbrord was preaching the gospel with success; but he soon returned to the first scene of his own labours, where he made many converts among the Saxons and Hessians. In 723, the pope, Gregory II, invited him to Rome, and there signified his approval of his missionary labours by ordaining him a bishop, and formally renewing his commission to convert the Germans. The pope at the same time conferred upon him the name of Boniface, by which he was ever afterwards known. After visiting the court of Charles Martel, Boniface returned into Germany, and there established himself in the character of Bishop of the Hessians.
The favour shown by the pope to Boniface had another object besides the mere desire of converting pagans. The German tribes in the country entrusted to his care had already been partially converted—but it was by Irish monks, the followers of Columbanus and St. Gall, who, like most of the Frankish clergy, did not admit in its full extent the authority of the pope, and were in other respects looked upon as unorthodox and schismatical; and Gregory saw in the great zeal and orthodoxy of Boniface the means of drawing the German Christians from heterodoxy to Rome. Accordingly, we find him in the earlier period of his labours engaged more in contentions with the clergy already established in this part of Germany than with the pagans. In the course of these, the pope himself was obliged sometimes to check the zeal of his bishop. Still, in his excursions through the wilds of the Hercynian forest, the great resort of the pagan tribes, Boniface and his companions were often exposed to personal dangers. However, supported by the pope, and aided by the exertions of a crowd of zealous followers, the energetic missionary gradually overcame all obstacles.
In his choice of assistants he seemed always to prefer those from his native country, and he was joined by numerous Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics of both sexes. Among his Anglo-Saxon nuns was St. Waltpurgis, so celebrated in German legend. A bold proceeding on the part of the bishop sealed the success of Christianity among the Hessians and Thuringians. One of the great objects of worship of the former was a venerable oak, of vast magnitude, which stood in the forest at Geismar, near Fritzlar, and which was looked upon, according to the Latin narrative, as dedicated to Jupiter, probably to Woden. Boniface resolved to destroy this tree; and the Hessians, in the full belief that their gods would come forward in its defence, seem to have accepted it as a trial of strength between these and what they looked upon merely as the gods of the Christians, so that a crowd of pagans, as well as a large number of the preachers of the gospel, were assembled to witness it. Boniface seized the axe in his own hands, and, after a few strokes, a violent wind which had arisen, and of which he had probably taken advantage to apply his axe to the side on which the wind came, threw the tree down with
a tremendous crash, which split the trunk into four pieces. The pagans were struck with equal wonder and terror; and, acknowledging that their gods were conquered, they submitted without further opposition. Boniface caused the tree to be cut up, and built of it a wooden oratory dedicated to St. Peter.
In 732, a new pope, Gregory III, ordained Boniface Archbishop of the Germans, and he soon afterwards built two principal churches—that of Fritzlar, dedicated to St. Peter; and that of Amanaburg, where he had first established his head-quarters, dedicated to St. Michael. From this time the number of churches among the German tribes increased rapidly. In 740, he preached with great success among the Bagoarii, or people of Bavaria. He subsequently divided their territory into four dioceses, and ordained four bishops over them. About this time a new field was opening to his zeal. The throne of the Franks was nominally occupied by one of a race of insignificant princes whose name was hardly known out of his palace, while the sceptre was really wielded by Charles Martel; and, as it was in the power of the Church. of Rome to confirm the family of the latter in supplanting their feeble rivals, they naturally leaned towards the orthodox party, in opposition to the schismatical spirit of the French clergy.
In 741, Charles Martel died, and his sons, Karlomann and Pepin, were equally anxious to conciliate the pope. During the following years several councils were held, under the influence of Boniface, for the purpose of reforming the Frankish Church, while the conversion of the Germans also proceeded with activity. In 744, Boniface founded the celebrated monastery of Fulda, over which he placed one of his disciples, a Bavarian, named Sturm, in one of the wildest parts of the Thuringian forest. In 745, at the end of rather severe proceedings against some of the Saxon ecclesiastics, the arch-bishopric of Mentz, or Mayence, was created. Next year Karlomann retired to a monastery, and left the entire kingdom of the Franks to his brother Pepin. The design of changing the Frankish dynasty was, during the following year, a subject of anxious consultation between the pope and the bishops; and, the authority of the pope Zacharias having been obtained, King Childeric, the last of the Merovingian monarchs of the Franks, was deposed and condemned to a monastery, and Pepin received the reward of his zeal in enforcing the unity of the church. In 751, Boniface performed the coronation ceremonies at Soissons which made Pepin king of the Franks. Thus the Roman Catholic Church gradually usurped the right of deposing and creating sovereigns.
Boniface was now aged, and weak in bodily health; yet, so far from faltering in his exertions, he at this moment determined on undertaking the conversion of the Frieslanders, the object with which. especially he had started on his missionary labours in his youth. His first expedition, in 754, was very successful; and he built a monastery at a town named Trehet, and ordained a bishop there. He returned thence to Germany, well satisfied with his labours, and next year proceeded again into Friesland, accompanied by a considerable number of priests and other companions, to give permanence to what he had effected in the preceding year. On the 4th of June they encamped for the night on the river Bordau, at a spot where a number of converts were to assemble next day to be baptized; but that day brought the labours of the Anglo-Saxon missionary to an abrupt conclusion.
The country was still in a very wild and unsettled state, and many of the tribes lived entirely by plundering one another, and were scattered about in strong parties under their several chieftains. One of these had watched the movements of Boniface and his companions, under the impression that they carried with them great wealth. On the morning of the 5th of June, before the hour appointed for the ceremony of baptism, the pagans made their appearance, approaching in a threatening attitude. Boniface had a few armed attendants, who went forth from his encampment to meet the assailants; but the archbishop called them back, probably because they were evidently too weak to resist; and, exhorting his presbyters and deacons to resign themselves to their inevitable fate, went forth, carrying the relics of saints in his hands.
The pagans rushed upon them, and put them all to the sword.; and then, separating into two parties (they were probably two tribes who had joined together), they fought for the plunder, until a great number of one party was slain. The victorious party then entered the tents, and were disappointed at finding there nothing to satisfy their cupidity but a few books and relics, which they threw away in contempt. They were afterwards attacked and beaten by the Christians, who recovered the books and relics; and gathering together the bodies and limbs of the martyrs (for the pagans had hacked them to pieces, in the rage caused by their disappointment), carried them first to the church of Trehet, whence they were subsequently removed to Fulda, and they were at a later period transferred with great pomp to Mentz.
Such was the fate of one of the earliest of our English missionaries in his labours in central Europe. In reading his adventures we may almost think that we are following one of his successors in our own day in their perilous wanderings among the savages of Africa, or some other people equally ignorant and uncultivated. Boni-face was an extraordinary man in an extraordinary age; and few men, either in that age or any other, have left their impress more strongly marked on the course of European civilization, at a time when learning, amid a world which was beginning to open its eyes to its importance, exercised a sort of magic influence over society. He was a man of great learning as well as a man of energy, yet his literary remains are few, and consist chiefly of a collection of letters, most of them of a private and familiar character, which, rude enough in the style of the Latin in which they are written, form still a pleasing monument of the manners and sentiments of our forefathers in the earlier part of the eighth century. Boniface was an Englishman to the end of his life.
nown by her nickname of Bugga.The pope approved of the designs of Winfrid, and, in May 719, he gave him authority to undertake the conversion of the Thuringians. After making some converts in Thuringia, where his success appears to have fallen short of his anticipations, Boniface visited France, and went thence to Utrecht, where his countryman Wilbrord was preaching the gospel with success; but he soon returned to the first scene of his own labours, where he made many converts among the Saxons and Hessians. In 723, the pope, Gregory II, invited him to Rome, and there signified his approval of his missionary labours by ordaining him a bishop, and formally renewing his commission to convert the Germans. The pope at the same time conferred upon him the name of Boniface, by which he was ever afterwards known. After visiting the court of Charles Martel, Boniface returned into Germany, and there established himself in the character of Bishop of the Hessians.
The favour shown by the pope to Boniface had another object besides the mere desire of converting pagans. The German tribes in the country entrusted to his care had already been partially converted—but it was by Irish monks, the followers of Columbanus and St. Gall, who, like most of the Frankish clergy, did not admit in its full extent the authority of the pope, and were in other respects looked upon as unorthodox and schismatical; and Gregory saw in the great zeal and orthodoxy of Boniface the means of drawing the German Christians from heterodoxy to Rome. Accordingly, we find him in the earlier period of his labours engaged more in contentions with the clergy already established in this part of Germany than with the pagans. In the course of these, the pope himself was obliged sometimes to check the zeal of his bishop. Still, in his excursions through the wilds of the Hercynian forest, the great resort of the pagan tribes, Boniface and his companions were often exposed to personal dangers. However, supported by the pope, and aided by the exertions of a crowd of zealous followers, the energetic missionary gradually overcame all obstacles.
In his choice of assistants he seemed always to prefer those from his native country, and he was joined by numerous Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastics of both sexes. Among his Anglo-Saxon nuns was St. Waltpurgis, so celebrated in German legend. A bold proceeding on the part of the bishop sealed the success of Christianity among the Hessians and Thuringians. One of the great objects of worship of the former was a venerable oak, of vast magnitude, which stood in the forest at Geismar, near Fritzlar, and which was looked upon, according to the Latin narrative, as dedicated to Jupiter, probably to Woden. Boniface resolved to destroy this tree; and the Hessians, in the full belief that their gods would come forward in its defence, seem to have accepted it as a trial of strength between these and what they looked upon merely as the gods of the Christians, so that a crowd of pagans, as well as a large number of the preachers of the gospel, were assembled to witness it. Boniface seized the axe in his own hands, and, after a few strokes, a violent wind which had arisen, and of which he had probably taken advantage to apply his axe to the side on which the wind came, threw the tree down with
a tremendous crash, which split the trunk into four pieces. The pagans were struck with equal wonder and terror; and, acknowledging that their gods were conquered, they submitted without further opposition. Boniface caused the tree to be cut up, and built of it a wooden oratory dedicated to St. Peter.In 732, a new pope, Gregory III, ordained Boniface Archbishop of the Germans, and he soon afterwards built two principal churches—that of Fritzlar, dedicated to St. Peter; and that of Amanaburg, where he had first established his head-quarters, dedicated to St. Michael. From this time the number of churches among the German tribes increased rapidly. In 740, he preached with great success among the Bagoarii, or people of Bavaria. He subsequently divided their territory into four dioceses, and ordained four bishops over them. About this time a new field was opening to his zeal. The throne of the Franks was nominally occupied by one of a race of insignificant princes whose name was hardly known out of his palace, while the sceptre was really wielded by Charles Martel; and, as it was in the power of the Church. of Rome to confirm the family of the latter in supplanting their feeble rivals, they naturally leaned towards the orthodox party, in opposition to the schismatical spirit of the French clergy.
In 741, Charles Martel died, and his sons, Karlomann and Pepin, were equally anxious to conciliate the pope. During the following years several councils were held, under the influence of Boniface, for the purpose of reforming the Frankish Church, while the conversion of the Germans also proceeded with activity. In 744, Boniface founded the celebrated monastery of Fulda, over which he placed one of his disciples, a Bavarian, named Sturm, in one of the wildest parts of the Thuringian forest. In 745, at the end of rather severe proceedings against some of the Saxon ecclesiastics, the arch-bishopric of Mentz, or Mayence, was created. Next year Karlomann retired to a monastery, and left the entire kingdom of the Franks to his brother Pepin. The design of changing the Frankish dynasty was, during the following year, a subject of anxious consultation between the pope and the bishops; and, the authority of the pope Zacharias having been obtained, King Childeric, the last of the Merovingian monarchs of the Franks, was deposed and condemned to a monastery, and Pepin received the reward of his zeal in enforcing the unity of the church. In 751, Boniface performed the coronation ceremonies at Soissons which made Pepin king of the Franks. Thus the Roman Catholic Church gradually usurped the right of deposing and creating sovereigns.
Boniface was now aged, and weak in bodily health; yet, so far from faltering in his exertions, he at this moment determined on undertaking the conversion of the Frieslanders, the object with which. especially he had started on his missionary labours in his youth. His first expedition, in 754, was very successful; and he built a monastery at a town named Trehet, and ordained a bishop there. He returned thence to Germany, well satisfied with his labours, and next year proceeded again into Friesland, accompanied by a considerable number of priests and other companions, to give permanence to what he had effected in the preceding year. On the 4th of June they encamped for the night on the river Bordau, at a spot where a number of converts were to assemble next day to be baptized; but that day brought the labours of the Anglo-Saxon missionary to an abrupt conclusion.
The country was still in a very wild and unsettled state, and many of the tribes lived entirely by plundering one another, and were scattered about in strong parties under their several chieftains. One of these had watched the movements of Boniface and his companions, under the impression that they carried with them great wealth. On the morning of the 5th of June, before the hour appointed for the ceremony of baptism, the pagans made their appearance, approaching in a threatening attitude. Boniface had a few armed attendants, who went forth from his encampment to meet the assailants; but the archbishop called them back, probably because they were evidently too weak to resist; and, exhorting his presbyters and deacons to resign themselves to their inevitable fate, went forth, carrying the relics of saints in his hands.
The pagans rushed upon them, and put them all to the sword.; and then, separating into two parties (they were probably two tribes who had joined together), they fought for the plunder, until a great number of one party was slain. The victorious party then entered the tents, and were disappointed at finding there nothing to satisfy their cupidity but a few books and relics, which they threw away in contempt. They were afterwards attacked and beaten by the Christians, who recovered the books and relics; and gathering together the bodies and limbs of the martyrs (for the pagans had hacked them to pieces, in the rage caused by their disappointment), carried them first to the church of Trehet, whence they were subsequently removed to Fulda, and they were at a later period transferred with great pomp to Mentz.
Such was the fate of one of the earliest of our English missionaries in his labours in central Europe. In reading his adventures we may almost think that we are following one of his successors in our own day in their perilous wanderings among the savages of Africa, or some other people equally ignorant and uncultivated. Boni-face was an extraordinary man in an extraordinary age; and few men, either in that age or any other, have left their impress more strongly marked on the course of European civilization, at a time when learning, amid a world which was beginning to open its eyes to its importance, exercised a sort of magic influence over society. He was a man of great learning as well as a man of energy, yet his literary remains are few, and consist chiefly of a collection of letters, most of them of a private and familiar character, which, rude enough in the style of the Latin in which they are written, form still a pleasing monument of the manners and sentiments of our forefathers in the earlier part of the eighth century. Boniface was an Englishman to the end of his life.
Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.
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