Re: Hundred Thousand Kingdoms Epub 49
Hilke Mcnally
"Maister: ... howbeit Copernicus a man of great learning, ofmuch experience, and of wonderfull diligence in observation,hath renewed the opinion of Aristarchus Samius, affirmingthat the earth, not onely moveth circularly about his ownecentre, but also may be, yea and is, continually out of theprecise centre of the world eight and thirty hundredthousand miles: but because the understanding of thatcontroversie depends of profounder knowledge than in thisIntroduction may be uttered conveniently, I wil let it passetil some other time.
French thinkers, like the English, did not encourage the new doctrineat this time. Montaigne[198] was characteristically indifferent: "Whatshall we reape by it, but only that we neede not care which of the twoit be? And who knoweth whether a hundred yeares hence a third opinionwill arise which happily shall overthrow these two præcedent?" Thefamous political theorist, Jean Bodin, (1530-1596), was as thoroughlyopposed to it as DuBartas had been. In the last year of his life,Bodin wrote his Universæ Naturæ Theatrum[199] in which he discussedthe origin and composition of the universe and of the animal,vegetable, mineral and spiritual kingdoms. These five books (ordivisions) reveal his amazing ideas of geology, physics and astronomywhile at the same time they show a mind thoroughly at home in Hebrewand Arabian literature as well as in the classics. His answer to theCopernican doctrine is worth quoting to illustrate the attitude of oneof the keenest thinkers in a brilliant era:
In the Middle Ages, it was thought that praying at the right shrine could save you from just about anything, from madness and famine to false imprisonment and even shipwreck. Kingdoms, cities, and even individual trades had patron saints who would protect them from misfortune and bring them wealth and prosperity, and their feast days were celebrated with public holidays and pageants. With saints believed to have the ear of God, veneration of figures such as Saint Thomas Becket, Saint Cuthbert, and Saint Margaret brought tens of thousands of pilgrims from all walks of life to sites across the country.
Saints, Shrines and Pilgrims takes the reader across Britain, providing a map of the most important religious shrines that pilgrims would travel vast distances to reach, as well as descriptions and images of the shrines themselves. Featuring over one hundred stunning photographs and a index of places to visit, it explains the history of pilgrimage in Britain and the importance it played in medieval life, and describes the impact of the unbridled assault made on pilgrimage by the Reformation.