SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
I am slow-blogging today. The post I put up this morning took a tremendous amount of time, so just deal with that one. I went out for a very long brunch (wasn't fit to eat) that took up most of the day. One of the other things getting in the way of blogging today is the great Word Press Migration. If I could find a format that pleased me, I would be migrating The Pink Flamingo tonight. My lack of CSS knowledge and very limited knowledge on how to upload filed from a Mac are really getting in the way.
Congrats to Carlos Zambrano for throwing a no-hitter today!
The fate of Galveston and historic planning.
SITE METER: Have you noticed it has changed? It is so annoying I dumped some of my smaller blogs, the whole thing not even being worth dealing with now. Evidently I'm not the only one who is furious over the whole mess. It is un-usable. According to Captain Ed they're putting it back to what it once was. I truly hope so. The old version is bad enough. Are you as tired as I am about the tyranny of Site Meter and Technorati?
This evening as I write this, I'm having still more problems with Windstream Telecom. I've been told that they have a dslam card that is defective. Evidently it is one of their man transfer stations, probably Hobbs. They are refusing to fix it, and are instructing their techs to basically blame the customer.
In a move that JFK would have found ironic and absolutely fascinating considering his interest in science, the Lone Gunman Theory has been debunked. This morning I found an article about some hard core science that has been going on with The Magic Bullet. Evidently the Lone Gunman theory doesn't hold up under scientific investigation.
From PJMedia comes the chilling news that our little AQ friends want to target that X-files type disease research institute off Long Island.
A huge pipe organ is going in a smallish Catholic church in Sierra Vista.
THE CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS
Born: Henry Cornelius Agrippa, alchemist and author, 1486, Cologne; Browne Willis, antiquary, 1682, Bland-ford, Dorsetshire; Alexander Baron von Humboldt, celebrated traveller and natural philosopher, 1769, Berlin; Lord William Charles Cavendish Bentinck, governor-general of India, 1774.
Died: St. Cyprian, archbishop of Carthage, Christian writer and martyr, 258, Carthage; St. Chrysostom, renowned preacher and writer, 407, near Comana; Dante Alighieri, great Italian poet, 1321, Ravenna; John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, English commander in France, 1435, Rouen; Pope Adrian VI, 1523; Robert, Earl of Essex, parliamentary general, 1646; John Dominic Cassini, astronomer, 1712; Charles Rollin, historian, 1741, Paris; Louis Joseph de Montcalm, French commander, 1759, Quebec; James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, 1851, Cooperstown, New York; Arthur, Duke of Wellington, illustrious British commander, 1852, Walmer Castle, Kent; Augustin W. N. Pugin, ecclesiastical architect, 1852, Ramsgate.
Feast Day: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 629. St. Cormac, bishop of Cashel, 908. St. Catherine of Genoa, widow, 1510.
EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS - HOLYROOD DAYDied: St. Cyprian, archbishop of Carthage, Christian writer and martyr, 258, Carthage; St. Chrysostom, renowned preacher and writer, 407, near Comana; Dante Alighieri, great Italian poet, 1321, Ravenna; John Plantagenet, Duke of Bedford, English commander in France, 1435, Rouen; Pope Adrian VI, 1523; Robert, Earl of Essex, parliamentary general, 1646; John Dominic Cassini, astronomer, 1712; Charles Rollin, historian, 1741, Paris; Louis Joseph de Montcalm, French commander, 1759, Quebec; James Fenimore Cooper, American novelist, 1851, Cooperstown, New York; Arthur, Duke of Wellington, illustrious British commander, 1852, Walmer Castle, Kent; Augustin W. N. Pugin, ecclesiastical architect, 1852, Ramsgate.
Feast Day: The Exaltation of the Holy Cross, 629. St. Cormac, bishop of Cashel, 908. St. Catherine of Genoa, widow, 1510.
The discovery of the cross on which Christ was supposed to have suffered, by the Empress Helena (see under May 3), led to the sacred relic being raised or exalted in view of the people, in a magnificent church built by her son the Emperor Constantine, at Jerusalem; and this ceremony of the exaltation of the holy cross, which took place on the 14th September 335, was commemorated in a festival held on every recurrence of that day, by both the Greek and Latin churches. The cross was afterwards (anno 614) carried away by Chosroes, king of Persia, but recovered by the Emperor Heraclius, and replaced amidst circumstances of great pomp and expressions of the highest devotion.
Many churches in Britain were dedicated to the Holy Rood or Cross. One at Edinburgh 'became the nucleus of the palace of the Scottish kings. Holyrood Day was one of much sacred observance all through the middle ages. The same feeling led to a custom of framing, between the nave and choir of churches, what was called a rood-screen or rood-loft, presenting centrally a large crucifix, with images of the Holy Virgin and St. John on each side. A winding stair led up to it, and the epistle and gospel were often read from it. Some of these screens still remain, models of architectural beauty; but numbers were destroyed with reckless fanaticism at the Reformation, the people not distinguishing between the objects which had caused what they deemed idolatry and the beautifully carved work which was free from such a charge.
One of the most famous of these roods or crucifixes was that at the abbey of Boxley, in Kent, which was entitled the Rood of Grace. The legend is, that an English carpenter, having been taken prisoner in the French wars, and wishing to employ his leisure as well as obtain his ransom, made a very skilful piece of workmanship of wood, wire, paste, and paper, in the form of a cross of exquisite proportion, on which hung the figure of our Saviour, which, by means of springs, could bow down, lift itself up, shake its hands and feet, nod the head, roll its eyes, and smile or frown. The carpenter, getting permission to return and sell his work, put it on a horse, and drove it before him; but stopping near Rochester at an alehouse for refreshment, the animal passed on, and missing the straight road, galloped south to Boxley, and being driven by some 'divine furie,' never stopped until it reached the church-door, when it kicked so loudly with its heels, that the monks ran out to see the wonder. No sooner was the door opened, than the horse rushed in, and stood still by a pillar. The monks were proceeding to unload, when the owner appeared, and claimed his property; but in vain did he try to lead the horse from the sanctuary; it seemed nailed to the spot. He next attempted to remove the rood, but was equally unsuccessful; so that in the end, through sheer weariness and the entreaties of the monks to have the image left with them, he consented to sell it to them for a piece of money.
The accounts transmitted to us by the Reformers —although to be taken as one-sided—leave us little room to doubt that, in the corrupt age preceding the great change in the sixteenth century, many deceptions practices had come to be connected with the images on the rood-galleries. '
'If you were to benefit by the Rood of Grace, the first visit to be paid was to one of the priests, who would hear your confession and give you shrift, in return for a piece of money. You must next do honour to another image of St. Rumwald or Grunnbald, a little picture of a boy-saint, which, by means of a pin of wood put through a pillar behind, made certain contortions, by which the monks could tell whether all sins had been atoned for in the previous confession. Those who stretched their purse-strings, and made liberal offerings, gained St. Rumwald to their side, and were pronounced to he living a pure life. If the poor pilgrim had done all this with sufficient honour to himself and the saints, he was prepared to go to the holy rood and gain plenary absolution.'
At the dissolution of the abbeys, Cromwell and his associates laid their ruthless hands on Boxley; and Nicholas Partridge, suspecting some cheat in the Rood of Grace, made an examination, and soon discovered the spring which turned the mechanism. It was taken to Maidstone, and there exposed to the people; from thence to London, where the king and his court laughed at the object they had once deemed holy; and, finally, it was brought before an immense multitude at St. Paul's Cross, by Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, on Sunday, the 24th of February 1538, when it was broken to pieces and buried, the bishop preaching a sermon on the subject.
Many churches in Britain were dedicated to the Holy Rood or Cross. One at Edinburgh 'became the nucleus of the palace of the Scottish kings. Holyrood Day was one of much sacred observance all through the middle ages. The same feeling led to a custom of framing, between the nave and choir of churches, what was called a rood-screen or rood-loft, presenting centrally a large crucifix, with images of the Holy Virgin and St. John on each side. A winding stair led up to it, and the epistle and gospel were often read from it. Some of these screens still remain, models of architectural beauty; but numbers were destroyed with reckless fanaticism at the Reformation, the people not distinguishing between the objects which had caused what they deemed idolatry and the beautifully carved work which was free from such a charge.
One of the most famous of these roods or crucifixes was that at the abbey of Boxley, in Kent, which was entitled the Rood of Grace. The legend is, that an English carpenter, having been taken prisoner in the French wars, and wishing to employ his leisure as well as obtain his ransom, made a very skilful piece of workmanship of wood, wire, paste, and paper, in the form of a cross of exquisite proportion, on which hung the figure of our Saviour, which, by means of springs, could bow down, lift itself up, shake its hands and feet, nod the head, roll its eyes, and smile or frown. The carpenter, getting permission to return and sell his work, put it on a horse, and drove it before him; but stopping near Rochester at an alehouse for refreshment, the animal passed on, and missing the straight road, galloped south to Boxley, and being driven by some 'divine furie,' never stopped until it reached the church-door, when it kicked so loudly with its heels, that the monks ran out to see the wonder. No sooner was the door opened, than the horse rushed in, and stood still by a pillar. The monks were proceeding to unload, when the owner appeared, and claimed his property; but in vain did he try to lead the horse from the sanctuary; it seemed nailed to the spot. He next attempted to remove the rood, but was equally unsuccessful; so that in the end, through sheer weariness and the entreaties of the monks to have the image left with them, he consented to sell it to them for a piece of money.
The accounts transmitted to us by the Reformers —although to be taken as one-sided—leave us little room to doubt that, in the corrupt age preceding the great change in the sixteenth century, many deceptions practices had come to be connected with the images on the rood-galleries. '
'If you were to benefit by the Rood of Grace, the first visit to be paid was to one of the priests, who would hear your confession and give you shrift, in return for a piece of money. You must next do honour to another image of St. Rumwald or Grunnbald, a little picture of a boy-saint, which, by means of a pin of wood put through a pillar behind, made certain contortions, by which the monks could tell whether all sins had been atoned for in the previous confession. Those who stretched their purse-strings, and made liberal offerings, gained St. Rumwald to their side, and were pronounced to he living a pure life. If the poor pilgrim had done all this with sufficient honour to himself and the saints, he was prepared to go to the holy rood and gain plenary absolution.'
At the dissolution of the abbeys, Cromwell and his associates laid their ruthless hands on Boxley; and Nicholas Partridge, suspecting some cheat in the Rood of Grace, made an examination, and soon discovered the spring which turned the mechanism. It was taken to Maidstone, and there exposed to the people; from thence to London, where the king and his court laughed at the object they had once deemed holy; and, finally, it was brought before an immense multitude at St. Paul's Cross, by Hilsey, bishop of Rochester, on Sunday, the 24th of February 1538, when it was broken to pieces and buried, the bishop preaching a sermon on the subject.
Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.
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