21st of February
Art Neuendorffer
. http://home.freeuk.net/sidsoft/pensinfo.html
.
The Sidney Family arms shows a porcupine & a lion
. on either side of the Sidney *PHEON*
.
- T O T H E [O.] N L I E B
_ E G E T T [E.] R O F T H
__ E S E I N [S.] V I N G S
. O N N E T [S.] M r W H A
__ L H A P ___ I N E S
___- |L] N D T [P] A T E [S|
____- [E|A] T I [H] P R [T|E]
- R___-[N|I] Y [E] V [O|M] I
. S E__ [D|B] [O] [R|E] V E
__ R L I___ [V|I][N][G|P] O E_ [T]
. W I S H__ [E||T||H] _T H_ [E] _ [W]
. E L L W I__ [S] _ H I_- [N] G_ [A]
. D V E N T_ [U] R_ [E] R_I_ [N]
. S E T T I____ [N] _ [G] F O R [T]
. ................................................
"Whither the Fates call" is the meaning of Sidney's motto:
.
____ *QUO FATA VOCANT*
.
"Whither the Fates carry" is the meaning of Bermuda's motto:
.
____ *QUO FATA FERUNT*
----------------------------------------------------
Bermuda Motto: *Quo Fata FERUNT*
(Latin: "Whither the Fates carry [us]")
-------------------------------------------------------
http://www.fellowshipofisis.com/jc/jcfeb16.html
FEBRUARY 17-21st Sun enters Pisces (tropical).
.
Roman: MANIA; The Manes. The Parentalia, Last Day. The Feralia.
"The Feralia. The general festival of the dead kept in February,
instituted, according to Macrobius, S. 1. 12, by Numa Pompilius;
by some it was considered to have lasted for one day only, which
is variously stated as the 17th & 21st; by others, to have extended
over a period of 11 days, from the 8th to the 18th inclusive".
"Feralia, Roman All Souls' Day, 21st February,
last of the dies parentales.. during which each
household made offerings at the graves of its dead".
"Mania took part in the festivals of the Compitalia and the Feralia".
(Ovid, Fasti, II. 569) "That day [ *February 21* ] they name
*the Feralia, because they carry (FERUNT) to the dead their dues* ;
it is the last day for propitiating the ghosts". "February 21st.
"Feralia .. it was universally believed that the manes of their
departed friends came and hovered over their graves, and feasted
upon the provisions that the hand of piety and affection
had procured for them". "On .. the Feralia, all Romans
were supposed to remain within their own homes".
---------------------------------------------------------------
*February 21* , 1599,
Shareholders in Globe sign a lease to build theatre.
.
*February 21* , 1601, Essex confesses his crimes admitting that
he & his followers intended to seize the Court and take the Queen
into their power. They had planned to change the Government and
condemn all those they considered to have misgoverned the State.
.
*February 21* , 1608, Elizabeth Hall, daughter of
. Susanna Shakespeare and John Hall, christened.
--------------------------------------------------
http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/anagrams/text.html
____ *EDOUARUS VEIERUS*
_____ per anagramma
____ *AURE SURDUS VIDEO*
.
[A]uribus hisce licet studio, Fortuna, susurros
[PE]rfidiae et technas efficis esse procul,
. Attamen accipio (quae mens horrescit et auris)
. Rebus facta malis corpora surda tenus.
. Imo etiam cerno Catilinae* fraude propinquos
. Funere solventes FATA aliena suo.
.............................................
_______ *EDWARD VERE*
______ by an anagram
____ *DEAF IN MY EAR, I SEE*
.
Though by your zeal, FORTUNE, you keep perfidy's
murmurs & schemings at a distance, nonetheless I learn
(at which my mind & ear quake) that our bodies have
been deafened with respect to evil affairs. Indeed,
I perceive men who come close to Catiline* in deception,
freeing other men's FATES by their death.
.
* Catiline was the rabble-rouser suppressed by Cicero.
His name became a watchword for incendiary troublemakers.>>
------------------------------------------------------------
<<ACROSTICKS, and Tellesticks, or jumpe names,>> -- B. Jonson
------------------------------------------------------------
. EPIGRAMS by Ben Jonson
. ON POET-APE.
.
Poor POET-APE, that would be thought our chief,
Whose works are e'en the frippery of wit,
[F]rom brokage is become so bold a thief,
As we, the robb'd, leave rage, and pity it.
[A]t first he made low shifts, would pick and glean,
Buy the rEVERsion of old plays ; now grown
[T]o a little wealth, and credit in the scene,
He takes up all, makes each man's wit his own :
[A]nd, told of this, he slights it. Tut, such crimes
The sluggish gaping auditor devours ;
He marks not whose 'twas first : and after-times
May judge it to be his, as well as ours.
Fool ! as if half eyes will not know a fleece
From locks of wool, or shreds from the whole piece ?
---------------------------------------------
That day (ie, February 21) they name the Feralia, because they carry
[ferunt] to the dead their dues; it is the last day for propitiating
the ghosts. - Ovid, Roman poet, Fasti II. 569 Roman calendar
.
"Votive garlands, a sprinkling of grain, a few grains of salt, bread
soaked in wine and some loose violets; these are enough; set these
on a potsherd and leave it in the middle of the path. Now doth
the ghost fatten upon his dole." - Ovid on the Feralia
---------------------------------------------
East London Observer : Saturday, 21 February 1891.
<<Frances Coles lies at the Whitechapel mortuary to-day, the latest
victim of a murderous ferocity that seems, for some reason or another,
to have been directed of late years among the women who ply the most
degraded of trades in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel. Her apparently
mysterious death is the sensation of the hour. The manner in which her
destroyer has disappeared, silently and mysteriously, without leaving
the shadow of a clue behind, is spoken of with awe bordering almost
on the superstitious.>>
------------------------------------------------------
Feast of the Feralia, ancient Rome
.
<<The general festival of the dead kept in February. Spirits (manes)
of the dead were said to hover above graves on this day, and provisions
were put out for them. Today was the last day of the Roman year
in which to placate ghosts; on February 22 the living were appeased.
.
Today the temples would be opened at noon. The Feralia was a religious
holiday sacred to Jupiter, whose surname was Feretrius. On this day the
ongoing celebrations forming part of the dies parentalis (Parentalia)
and the time of religious devotion, tempus religiosum, came to a close.
.
The Feralia was instituted by Numa Pompilius; by some it was considered
to have lasted for one day only, which is variously stated as the 17th
and 21st; by others write that it extended over a period of 11 days,
from the 8th to the 18th inclusive.
.
?According to Blackburn, an ugly old woman, surrounded by girls,
performed rituals to appease the Silent Goddess, a gossiping nymph whose
tongue ws plucked out by Jupiter. The rituals included putting incense
in mouseholes and casting spells over threads and tying them to pieces
of lead. While holding seven beans in her mouth, the old woman roasted
a fish-head sealed with pitch, pierced with a pin and sprinkled with
wine, and then drank the rest of the wine herself, giving a little to
the girls. The point of these rituals was to bind the tongues
of others so they couldn't do harm.?
Source: School of the Seasons
.
Lesser Eleusinia, ancient Greece (Feb 20- 23)
Parentalia, ancient Rome (Feb 13 - 21)
--------------------------------------------------
Southwell: I am decayed in memory with long and close imprisonment,
and I have been tortured ten times. I had rather have endured ten
executions. I speak not this for myself, but for others; that they
may not be handled so inhumanely, to drive men to desperation,
if it were possible.
.
Topcliffe: If he were racked, let me die for it.
.
Southwell: No; but it was as evil a torture, or late device.
.
Topcliffe: I did but set him against a wall.
.
Southwell: Thou art a bad man.
.
Topcliffe: I would blow you all to dust if I could.
.
Southwell: What, all?
.
Topcliffe: Ay, all.
.
Southwell: What, soul and body too?
--------------------------------------------------
Robert Southwell, English poet, hanged at Tyburn on February 21, 1595
.
<<Born at Horsham Saint Faith's, Norfolk, England, in 1561 or 1562; died
at Tyburn, London, England, February 21, 1595; beatified in 1929;
canonized on October 25, 1970, by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40
representative martyrs of England and Wales.
.
When King Henry VIII could not induce his wife, Catherine of Aragon,
to allow their marriage to be declared invalid because she was his
brother's widow, Henry declared himself head of the Church in England.
He persuaded the Parliament to declare that it was high treason for
anyone to deny Henry's right to this title. On this account monasteries
were closed and Church property confiscated--both real and monetary,
including the innumerable foundations designed to maintain schools
for the people, who were largely illiterate. A long procession
of saints and beati were executed under Henry VIII.
.
Robert Southwell's lineage included most of the country gentry of
Suffolk and Norfolk, but his father Richard was born on the wrong side
of the sheets though his grandfather, also Richard, did eventually
marry Robert's grandmother, a poor relation of his first wife.
.
Richard Southwell, Sr., had been a courtier to Henry VIII and received
his share of the booty from the pillaging of monasteries, including the
ancient Benedictine priory of Horsham Saint Faith. Richard changed his
political and religious affiliations a few times during the reigns of
Edward and Mary of Scotland. The saint's father had married Queen
Elizabeth's governess; thus, Richard Senior's grandson Robert
was born in the old Benedictine priory.
.
Robert is the mystic among the English martyrs, though circumstances
made him a man of action and bold adventure. Fire, sweetness,
purity, and gentleness were features of Robert Southwell's nature.
.
Once as a child, he was stolen by gypsies, who were numerous in the
great woods surrounding Saint Faith's. His nurse found him again.
Robert referred to this misadventure often. "What had I remained with
the gipsy? How abject, how void of all knowledge and reverence of God!
In what shameful vices, in how great danger of infamy, in how certain
danger of an unhappy death and eternal punishment!" On his return to
England as a missionary, the first person he visited was his old
nurse, whom he tried to lead back to the Roman Catholic Church.
.
His father sent him to Douai to be educated by the Jesuits, either
because he was a Catholic at that time or because of the reputation
of the order's schools. There Robert met John Cotton,
who later operated a safehouse in London.
.
Robert was inspired with intense enthusiasm for the Society of Jesus
and begged entry at once, though he was too young. He was bitterly
disappointed, but on the feast of Saint Faith (fortuitously on October
17, 1578) he was received into the order in Rome as a novice. He spent
his novitiate in Tournai, but took his vows and, in 1584, was ordained
to the priesthood in Rome, where for a time he was prefect in the
English College.
.
At this time he began to attract a good deal of attention by his poems.
He corresponded with Mr. Parsons, the leader of the Jesuit mission in
England. He was worried that many who had been faithful Catholics were
now sliding into the Church of England to avoid the fine for every
service from which they absented themselves. Many families held out
until they were financially ruined; then they would attempt to make
their way to the continent and live on alms.
.
Though Robert Southwell knew how his journey to England would end, with
Father Henry Garnet, he returned in 1586 to serve among those Catholics
who were still willing to venture life and welfare by hearing a Mass and
receiving the Sacraments. Before his departure he wrote to the general
of the Jesuits, Claudius Acquaviva, "I address you, my Father, from the
threshold of death, imploring the aid of your prayers . . . that I may
either escape the death of the body for further use, or endure it with
courage."
.
Most of the remaining Catholics were to be found in the countryside.
Most were content to long for better days and hope that a priest could
be smuggled into their sickroom before their deaths. On the other hand,
among the actively militant there was a wonderful cohesion and a mutual
helpfulness and affection that recalled the days of the primitive
Church. But these little congregations that assembled before dawn
in a secret room of some remote manor house never knew
if a traitor might be in their midst.
.
Southwell rode about the countryside in disguise, saying Mass, hearing
confessions, celebrating marriages, baptizing, re-admitting apostates,
giving the Sacraments to the dying. He even managed to visit Catholics
in prison and say Mass there. Time after time he miraculously managed
to elude his pursuers.
.
Much of Southwell's correspondence during this period has been preserved
and provides many insights into the events and attitudes of the period.
These were hard times. In one letter he requests permission to
consecrate chalices and altar slabs (usually reserved to the bishop)-
-so much had been taken away in the constant searching of the
homes of Catholics that such things were becoming scarce.
.
His letters home also reveal Robert's anxiety about the salvation of his
father and one of his brothers, Thomas. The soul of the poet is evident
when he writes his brother: "Shrine not any longer a dead soul in a
living body: bail reason out of senses' prison, that after so long a
bondage in sin, you may enjoy your former liberty in God's Church, and
free your thought from servile awe of uncertain perils.... Weigh with
yourself at how easy a price you rate God, Whom you are content to sell
for hte use of your substance. . . . Look if you can upon a crucifix
without blushing; do not but count the *FIVE* wounds of Christ
once over without a bleeding conscience."
.
Thomas was won back to the faith and died in exile in the
Netherlands. His father died in prison after Robert's martyrdom,
but it is unknown whether he, too, suffered for the faith.
.
As chronicled in Robert's letters, the persecution intensified after
the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Captured Catholics used their trials
in defense of the faith. Robert tried to remain at large for as long
as possible by adopting disguises and using the alias of Mr. Cotton-
-a poor, unkempt, and socially awkward young man.
.
Robert was a priest in London from 1584 to 1592. About 1590, Robert
Southwell became chaplain to Anne, countess of Arundel, wife of the
imprisoned Saint Philip Howard, who was being told lies about her
now-faithful husband. To Southwell, Earl Philip wrote from prison
that his greatest sorrow was that he would never see his wife again.
"I call Our Lord to witness that as no sin grieves me so much as
my offenses to that party [Anne], so no worldly things makes me
loather to depart hence than that I cannot live to make that party
satisfaction, according to my most ardent and affectionate desire.
Afflictio dat intellectum (affliction gives understanding)."
.
During the time that Fr. Southwell was concealed in Arundel House in
London, he corresponded with Philip Howard because of their mutual
affection for Anne Dacre and because of their shared faith and shared
interest in poetry. Southwell holds a place in English literature as a
religious poet. Ben Jonson remarked to Drummond that "Southwell was
hanged, yet so he [Jonson] had written that piece of his 'The Burning
Babe' he would have been content to destroy many of his." Many of
Southwell's poems, apologetic tracts, and devotional books were
published on a private printing press installed at Arundel House.
.
At Arundel House, the soon-to-be martyr also found himself often lost in
mystical experiences that are later revealed in his poetry. There is an
unforgettable power in his poetic image of Christ as the unwearied God
throughout eternity supporting the earth on His fingertip and enclosing
all creation in the hollow of His hand, but Who, in His humanity,
breaks down and falls beneath the weight of a single person's sin.
.
Robert Southwell was betrayed by Anne Bellamy. After giving her
absolution during her confinement with a family in Holborn, he told her
that he would offer Mass in the secret room in her father Richard's home
in Harrow on June 20, 1592. She reported this to Richard Topcliffe, one
of the most notorious for hunting down priests. Robert Southwell was
arrested while still wearing his vestments. Southwell was immediately
tortured upon arrival at Topcliffe's Westminster home--for two days
he was hung up by the wrists against a wall, so that
he could barely touch the floor with the tips of his toes.
.
When he was at the point of death, his tormentors revived him, hung him
up again, and prodded him to reveal the names of other priests and for
information to condemn Lady Arundel. All he would confess was that he
was a Jesuit priest. He gave no information, not even the color of
the horse on which he had riden, that would allow them to find other
Catholics. Southwell's steadfastness led several of the witnesses,
including the Treasurer Sir Robert Cecil, to whisper that
he must indeed be a saint.
.
He was taken from Topcliffe's house to a filthy cell in the Gatehouse
and left for a month. His father, seeing him covered with lice, begged
the queen to treat his son as the gentleman he was. She obliged by
having Southwell moved to a cleaner cell and permitting his father
to send him clean clothes and other necessities, including
a Bible and the writings of Saint Bernard.
.
Robert Southwell was moved to the Tower of London, where he was
imprisoned for three years and tortured 13 times (according to Cecil).
Many of his poems on death, including "Saint Peter's Complaint," were
written in the Tower. Not once was he given the opportunity
to confess his sins or say Mass.
.
He was allowed only one visit--from his sister. Communication with Saint
Philip Howard was limited to notes smuggled between their cells. Because
Arundel's dog would sometimes follow the warder into Southwell's cell,
the lieutenant of the Tower mocked that he supposed the dog had gone
to get the priest's blessing. Howard replied, "Marry! it is no news
for irrational creatures to seek blessings at the hands of holy men.
Saint Jerome writes how those lions which had digged with their
paws Saint Paul the Hermit's grave stood after waiting with
their eyes upon Saint Antony expecting his blessing."
.
Finally, Southwell entreated Cecil to bring him to trial or permit
him visitors. To which Cecil answered, "if he was in so much haste
to be hanged, he should quickly have his desire." Shortly thereafter
he was taken to Newgate Prison and placed in the underground dungeon
called Limbo before being brought to trial at Westminster on February
20, 1595. He was condemned for being a priest. When the Lord Chief
Justice Popham offered the services of an Anglican priest to prepare
him for death, he declined saying that the grace of God
would be more than sufficient for him.
.
Like many martyrs before him, Southwell drew the admiration of
the crowds because he walked as though he whole being were filled
with happiness at the prospect of being executed the next day.
On the morrow, the tall, slight man of light brown hair and beard
was taken to the "Tyburn Tree," a gallows, where the custom was
for the condemned to be driveN underneath the gallows in a cart,
a rope secured around his neck, and the cart driven from under him.
According to the sentence, the culprit would hang until
he was dead or cut down before reaching that point.
.
Standing in the cart, Father Southwell began preaching on Romans 14:
"Whether we live, we live unto the Lord: or whether we die, we die
unto the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or whether we die, we are
the Lord's. . . . I am brought hither to perform the last act of this
miserable life, and . . . I do most humbly desire at the hands of
Almighty God for our Savior Jesus' sake, that He would vouchsafe to
pardon and forgive all my sins. . . ." He acknowledged that he was
a Catholic priest and declared that he never intended harm or evil
against the queen, but always prayed for her. He end with "In manus
tuas, Domine (into Your hands, Lord), I commend my spirit."
Contrary to the sentence, he was dead before he was cut down
and quartered. >>
---------------------------------------------------------------
Time and place give best advice, Out of season, out of price.
. - Robert Southwell, 'St Peter's Complaint'
.
The greater the obstacle, the more the glory in overcoming it. -
French author, Molière, who was secretly buried on February 21, 1673
.
The state of enchantment is one of uncertainty.
- WH Auden, Anglo-American poet, born on February 21, 1907
.
Sam is the only person I've ever physically threatened on a set.
American actor, Charlton Heston, speaking of Sam 'Bloody Sam'
Peckinpah, American director, born on February 21, 1925
.
February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian
calendar, with 313 days remaining (314 in leap years).
------------------------------------------------------
Day of Ishtar, Babylonia
.
Goddess of Love and Battle from the region of Mesopotamia
(Greek for 'between the rivers', ie, between the Tigris &
Euphrates rivers), the area now known as Iraq, and from Assyria.
.
Ishtar is the counterpart of the Phoenician Astarte.
.
Her name is said the be associated with the word 'Easter', because
of her associations, like Easter, with springtime and fertility.
The meaning of the name is not known, though it is possible that the
underlying stem is the same as that of Assur, which would thus make
her the 'leading one' or 'chief'. She was known as Inanna in Sumerian
mythology. She is a life-death-rebirth deity, daughter of Anu, the
god of the air, mother and consort of the farm god Tammuz, who is
similar to the Greek Adonis. She was usually described as an evil,
heartless, women who destroyed her mates and lovers.
.
'In the astral-theological system, Ishtar becomes the planet Venus, and
the double aspect of the goddess is made to correspond to the strikingly
different phases of Venus in the summer and wintel seasons. On monuments
and seal-cylinders she appears frequently with bow and arrow, though
also simply clad in long robes with a crown on her head and an
eight-rayed star as her symbol. Statuettes have been found in large
numbers representing her as naked with her arms folded across her breast
or holding a child. The art thus reflects the popular conceptions formed
of the goddess. Together with Sin, the Moon god, and Shamash, the Sun
god, she is the third figure in a triad personifying the three great
forces of nature - Moon, Sun and Earth, as the life-force. The doctrine
involved illustrate, the tendency of the Babylonian priests to
centralize the manifestations of divine power in the universe, just as
the triad Anu, Bel and ha - the heavens, the earth and the watery deep -
form another illustration of this same tendency.' : Wikipedia
.
'... in the great epic of Gilgamesh, she tried to make Gilgamesh her
husband, but he refused her and reminded her of her former lovers, whom
she mercilessly killed or left injured. She reported this to her father,
Anu, and he gave her the mystical bull of heaven to avenge herself.
Gilgamesh and his friend Enkidu stopped and killed the mighty creature
and threw its headless body at her feet. They also insulted her, and
she responded by sending disease to kill Gilgamesh's best friend Enkidu.
She is one of Aphrodite's counterparts.' : Encyclopedia Mythica
------------------------------------------------------
Day of Nut, ancient Egypt
.
In Egyptian mythology, Nut (Nuit), daughter of Shu and Tefnut, was
the goddess of the heavens & sky. It was believed that the world was
created by a divine act of sex between the earth god Geb and the
sky goddess Nut; the goddess Nut was on top, while Geb reclined.
.
The sun god Re entered her mouth after the sun set in the evening
and was reborn from her vulva the next morning. She also swallowed
and rebirthed the stars. She was a goddess of death, and her image
is on the inside of most sarcophagi. The pharaoh entered her body
after death and was later resurrected.
.
In art, Nuit is depicted as a woman wearing no clothes, covered with
stars and supported by Shu; opposite her (the upper area, the sky),
is her husband, Seb, the Earth. With Seb, she was the mother
of Osiris, Horus, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.
.
-- (originally she was a goddess of just the sky at day, where the
clouds formed) and the heavens. She was believed to be the daughter
of the gods Shu & Tefnut, the granddaughter of the sun god Ra. Her
husband was also her brother, Geb. She was thought to be the mother
of five children on the five extra days of the Egyptian calendar,
won by Thoth -
.
[O]siris who was born on the first day,
[H]orus the Elder on the second,
[S]et on the third,
[I]sis on the fourth, and
[N]ephthys the last born on the fifth day.
THE CHAPTER OF SNUFFING THE AIR, AND OF HAVING POWER OVER THE WATER
IN KHERT-NETER. The Osiris Ani saith: Hail, thou Sycamore tree of the
goddess Nut! Give me of the [water and of the] air which is in thee.
I embrace that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard over the Egg
of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it liveth, and I live;
it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris Ani, whose word
is truth, in [peace].- A goddess Nut spell from the Book of the Dead
--------------------------------------------------------
Born February 21:
.
1688 Reigning Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)
.
1728 Peter III (d. 1762), Tsar of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great
.
1791 John Mercer, chemist and industrialist (d. 1866)
.
1794 Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Mexican revolutionary leader;
he freed his people from Spanish rule only to subject them
to his own despotism. The usual.
.
1801 John Henry Newman (d. August 11, 1890), English convert
to Catholicism, later made a cardinal
.
1844 Charles-Marie Widor, organist and composer (d. 1937)
.
1866 August von Wasserman (d. March 16, 1925), German bacteriologist
who in 1906 invented a test for the detection of syphilis
.
1867 Otto Hermann Kahn, millionaire and benefactor (d. 1934)
.
1875 Jeanne Calment (d. 1997), who lived for 122 years 164 days,
the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history
.
1893 Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
.
1895 Henrik Carl Peter Dam Danish biochemist, winner of
the 1943 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
.
1907 WH Auden (d. September 29, 1973), Anglo-American poet who proved
that having a face like a sat-map of Colorado was no impediment to
penning fine lines. His early writing was influenced by the poetry
of Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, as well as William Blake,
Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Old English verse.
--------------------------------------------------
Funeral Blues (1936) By Wystan Hugh Auden
.
Below is Auden's poignant poem popularised in the film
Four Weddings and a Funeral, in which it is called Funeral Blues.
.
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
.
He was my North, my South, my East and West.
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong.
.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
--------------------------------------------------
1924 Robert Mugabe, first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
.
1925 Sam ('Bloody Sam') Peckinpah (d. 1984), American movie director
.
'Peckinpah's abrasive manner, peppered by booze and pot,
provoked usually even-keeled Charlton Heston to threaten him
with a cavalry sabre.'
.
1927 Erma Bombeck, writer, humourist (d. 1996)
.
1936 Barbara Jordan, American politician from Texas (d. 1996)
.
1946 Tyne Daly, actress
.
1986 Charlotte Church, singer
----------------------------------------
4 CE Gaius Caesar Agrippa (b. 20 BCE) died.
.
362 Athanasius returned to Alexandria.
.
1431 The trial of Joan of Arc began.
.
1437 Perth, Scotland: King James I of Scotland was assassinated at
the Friars Preachers Monastery by a group of nobles, led by Sir Robert
Graham, who sought to place a rival on the throne. He attempted to
escape his assailants through a sewer. However, three days previously,
he had had the other end of the drain blocked up because of its
connection to the tennis court outside, balls habitually getting
lost in it. The conspirators failed, as his son ascended the throne.
.
1440 The Prussian Confederation was formed.
.
1513 Death of Pope Julius II (b. 1443).
------------------------------------------------------------
1595 Robert Southwell, English poet ('St Peter's Complaint'; 'Upon the
Image of Death'; 'Love's Servile Lot'; b. 1561), was hanged at Tyburn,
after having been pursued relentlessly and mercilessly tortured by
Walsingham's fave psychopath, Topcliffe, and his agents, for having
become a Jesuit priest against the law.
.
To the Roman Catholic Church he is the Venerable Robert Southwell,
martyr, canonized on October 25, 1970, by Pope Paul VI as one of the 40
representative martyrs of England and Wales.
.
He was examined 13 times under torture by members of the Council, and
was long confined in a dungeon crawling with vermin. However, despite
the extremity of the tortures, he refused to give information that would
reveal other priests. After nearly three years in prison he was taken to
Newgate Prison and placed in the underground dungeon called Limbo before
being brought to trial at Westminster on February 20, 1595, when he was
sentenced to the usual punishment of hanging and quartering, which was
carried out the following day. Contrary to the sentence, he was dead
before he was cut down and quartered.
.
Ben Jonson declared of one of Southwell's pieces, 'The Burning Babe',
that to have written it he would readily forfeit many of his own poems.
Printed posthumously, his poetry would become some of the most popular
of the age. While it is probable that Southwell had read Shakespeare,
it is practically certain that Shakespeare had read Southwell and
imitated him, using 'The Burning Babe' in Macbeth.
.
'The night before his execution Southwell's prominent Catholic
friends had pressed his case with Elizabeth in a private audience.
After his death they met her again to present her with Southwell's
book on the duty of poets. What she read is said to have
moved her to display 'signs of grief.'?
------------------------------------------
'Upon the Image of Death' By Robert Southwell
.
Before my face the picture hangs
That daily should put me in mind
Of those cold names and bitter pangs
That shortly I am like to find ;
But yet, alas, full little I
Do think hereon that I must die.
.
I often look upon a face
Most ugly, grisly, bare, and thin ;
I often view the hollow place
Where eyes and nose had sometimes been ;
I see the bones across that lie,
Yet little think that I must die.
.
I read the label underneath,
That telleth me whereto I must ;
I see the sentence eke that saith
Remember, man, that thou art dust!
But yet, alas, but seldom I
Do think indeed that I must die.
.
Continually at my bed's head
A hearse doth hang, which doth me tell
That I ere morning may be dead,
Though now I feel myself full well ;
But yet, alas, for all this, I
Have little mind that I must die.
.
The gown which I do use to wear,
The knife wherewith I cut my meat,
And eke that old and ancient chair
Which is my only usual seat,'
All these do tell me I must die,
And yet my life amend not I.
.
My ancestors are turned to clay,
And many of my mates are gone ;
My youngers daily drop away,
And can I think to 'scape alone'
No, no, I know that I must die,
And yet my life amend not I.
.
Not Solomon for all his wit,
Nor Samson, though he were so strong,
No king nor person ever yet
Could 'scape but death laid him along ;
Wherefore I know that I must die,
And yet my life amend not I.
.
Though all the East did quake to hear
Of Alexander's dreadful name,
And all the West did likewise fear
To hear of Julius Cæsar's fame,
Yet both by death in dust now lie ;
Who then can 'scape but he must die'
.
If none can 'scape death's dreadful dart,
If rich and poor his beck obey,
If strong, if wise, if all do smart,
Then I to 'scape shall have no way.
Oh, grant me grace, O God, that I
My life may mend, sith I must die.
------------------------------------------
1613 Mikhail I (Michael Romanov, son of the Patriarch of Moscow)
was elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly,
beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.
.
1673 French playwright Molière was buried in secret in a Paris cemetery,
denied a public funeral by his enemies in the church and court
of King Louis XIV, who himself was a fan.
.
1677 Death of Benedict Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Jewish parentage,
whose theories of God & Nature were condemned by Christian scholars.
.
1743 The London premiere of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, Samson
.
1795 Freedom of worship was established in France.
.
1804 The first self-propelling steam engine/locomotive
made its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales;
it was built by Richard Trevithick.
.
1816 Captain Edmund Gardner, of the whaler Winslow, while
standing on the bow of a whaleboat, was bitten by a whale
he had harpooned. He lived another 59 years.
.
1824 Death of Eugène de Beauharnais (b. 1781),
son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine de Beauharnais
.
1828 USA: The first issue of the Cherokee Phoenix was published,
the first US newspaper in a native language. Using the Cherokee
syllabary, it was developed by Sequoyah, who assigned symbols
to 86 Cherokee syllables. Using his new alphabet, Sequoyah taught
his daughter to read in less than a week. In 1821, a group of
skeptical tribal chiefs mastered the alphabet in seven days,
and gave Sequoyah permission to teach the language to
the whole tribe. The Phoenix appeared weekly until May 1834.
.
1842 John J Greenough patented the sewing machine.
.
1848 England: In London, 29-year-old Karl Marx
published the Communist Manifesto.
.
1849 The Punjab was annexed by Britain.
.
1858 The first electric burglar alarm was installed
by Edwin Holmes of Boston, US.
.
1874 The Oakland Daily Tribune newspaper published its first edition.
.
1878 The first telephone book (with just 50 names) issued,
in New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
.
1885 The newly completed Washington Monument dedicated!
.
1893 Thomas Edison received two US patents. The first was for
a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for
a "Stop Device" (No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for
"Process of Coating Conductors for Incandescent Lamps."
.
1916 World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun began.
.
1925 The New Yorker published its first issue.
.
1947 In New York City at a meeting of the Optical Society of America,
Edwin Land demonstrated the first 'instant camera', the Polaroid
Land Camera, the first camera to take, develop and print
a black and white picture on photo paper, in about a minute.
.
1952 The Churchill government in the UK abolished
Identity Cards to "set the people free".
.
1952 Actress Elizabeth Taylor married Conrad Hilton, Jr.
.
1957 Israel defied a UN deadline & retained control of the Gaza Strip.
.
1960 Cuban dictator Fidel Castro nationalised all businesses in Cuba.
.
1965 Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom
in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
.
1970 Swissair Flight 330: All nine crew members and 38 passengers
were killed due to the explosion of a bomb in the rear of
the plane when it crashed near Zurich, Switzerland.
.
1972 US President Richard Nixon visited the People's
Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
.
The cordial welcome given Nixon by the Chinese Stalinists was a rebuke
to North Vietnam and the NLF, China's supposed allies. By opening
diplomatic relations with Beijing, the US hoped to isolate the NLF
and pressure it into accepting a negotiated deal to end the war
in Vietnam, while preserving imperialist interests in the region.
.
1972 USA: Beginning of the trial of Fr Philip Berrigan and six other
activists ('The Harrisburg Seven') in Harrisburg, PA for an alleged
plot to kidnap Henry Kissinger. Proceedings later ended in a mistrial.
.
1972 The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 landed on the Moon.
.
1973 Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft
shot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
.
1974 The long-running Japanese comic strip Sazae-san
published its final instalment in the Asahi Shimbun.
.
1974 The last Israeli soldiers left the West Bank
of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
.
1975 Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General
John N Mitchell and former White House aides HR Haldeman
and John Ehrlichman were sentenced to prison.
.
1986 Shigechiyo Izumi, the world's oldest man, died at 120 years
and 237 days. Shortly after his hundredth birthday, he experienced
anamelanism, a condition in which grey or white hair becomes dark again.
.
Izumi drank Sho-chu (distilled from barley) and took up smoking at the
age of 70. He attributed his long life to "God, Buddha, and the Sun".
-------------------------------------------------------------
Feast day of St Eleanora
Feast day of St George of Amastris
Feast day of SS Germanus, abbot, and Randaut, martyrs
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Germanus & Randoald, (a.k.a. Germain & Rancald or Randaut)
Born in Trier (Trèves), Palatinate, Germany; died c. 677. Germanus, son
of a rich senator, was an orphan raised by Bishop Modoard. At age 17,
Germanus disposed of his property and entered Saint Romaric's monastery
governed by Saint Arnulf of Metz at Romberg in the Vosges Mountains
(Remiremont). Arnulf encouraged the young man to grow in holiness,
and he did. Germanus, in turn, encouraged his younger brother
Numerian to forsake the world and enter the double monastery, too.
From Remiremont he migrated to Luxeuil under its third abbot Saint
Waldebert, who introduced the Benedictine Rule into the abbey.
He later became abbot of the Granfel (Münsterthal) Monastery in
the Val Moutier, which had been founded by Duke Gondo of Alsace.
Germanus became a pioneer in reconstruction, road-building, dedication
to the poor and under- privileged. This last was his downfall.
.
Gondo's successor, Boniface (Catihe), daily oppressed both the monks
and poor inhabitants. The holy abbot, while bearing private injuries
silently, often pleaded the cause of the poor. The duke laid waste to
their lands, destroyed their harvests, and took away the means needed
to eke out their poor subsistence. Germanus went out to meet Boniface
as he was ravaging their lands and plundering their houses at the head
of a troop of soldiers. German begged Boniface to spare a distressed
and innocent people. The duke promised to stop, but his soldiers took
up the killing, burning, and plundering again while the saint prayed
in the church of St. Maurice.
.
The soldiers had long awaited an opportunity to expunge the inconvenient
abbot who often denounced their ravaging of the poor. When Germanus and
Randoald, his prior, were on their way back to Granfel, the soldiers
captured, stripped, and pierced them with swords as the martyrs prayed.
Their relics were deposited at Granfel, and were exposed in a rich
shrine till the Reformation, when they were translated to Telsberg,
or Delmont. Their acta were written by a contemporary priest, Babolen.
.
Germanus is pictured as a Benedictine abbot holding a lance.
Sometimes Randoald, his prior, is with him. Germanus may also be shown
with a poor man at his feet (because he was murdered by the duke for
interceding for the poor) or with a book, palm, and crozier. Germanus
is venerated in Trier, Remiremont, Luxeuil, and Granfel (Roeder).>>
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Feast day of St Gundebert
Feast day of St Noel Pinot
Feast day of Blessed Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace
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Blessed Pepin of Landen (also known as Pippin)
.
<<Died February 21, c. 646. Pepin was, perhaps, the most important,
powerful person in the empire during his age. As duke of Brabant and
mayor of the palace (first minister) of kings Clotaire II, Dagobert I,
and Sigebert III, he determined much of the policy of the Franks.
.
Pepin, the ancestor of the Carolingian dynasty of French kings, was
the husband of Blessed Itta and father Grimoald, of Saint Gertrude of
Nivelles and Saint Begga. He is described as "a lover of peace and the
constant defender of truth and justice," though it may not seem that
way at first glance.
.
Pepin and Bishop Arnulf of Metz aided King Clotaire II of Neustria in
overthrowing Queen Brunhilda of Austrasia in 613. In recognition of
the important roles they played, Clotaire appointed them mayors of the
palace to rule Austrasia for Clotaire's son Dagobert I from 623. When
Pepin rebuked Dagobert (who had succeeded his father about 629) for his
licentious life, Dagobert discharged him and he retired to Aquitaine.
.
Dagobert still respected him enough to appoint him tutor of his
three-year-old son Sigebert before his death in 638, and Pepin
returned and ruled the kingdom until his own death the following year.
.
Pepin worked to spread the faith throughout the kingdom, defended
Christian towns from Slavic invaders, and chose responsible men to fill
vacant sees. The marriage of his daughter, Begga, and Bishop Arnulf's
son, Segislius, produced Pepin of Herstal, the first of the Carolingian
dynasty in France. Pepin of Landen was buried at Landen, but his relics
were later translated to Nivelle, where they are now enshrined with
those of his wife and daughter Gertrude. Here is feast is kept.
Pepin was never canonized but is listed as a saint in some of the
old Belgic martyrologies and a litany published by
the authority of the archbishop of Mechlin.>>
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Feast day of St Peter Damian
Pietro Damiani (Saint Peter Damian), (c. 1007 "five years after the
death of the Emperor Otto III" - February 21/22, 1072) was one of the
most celebrated, universally loved and zealous reforming monks in the
circle of Hildebrand of the 11th century, made a cardinal and
(in 1823) declared a Doctor of the Church. Dante placed Peter Damiani
in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor
of Saint Francis. : Wikipedia
------------------------------------------
Peter Damian, B Doctor (born in Ravenna, Italy, 1001;
died at Faenza, Italy, February 22, 1072}
.
. "Here they live in endless being:
. Passingness hath passed away:
. Here they bloom, they thrive, they flourish,
. For decayed is all decay."
.
--Saint Peter Damian from his Hymn on the Glory of Paradise.
The parents of this brilliant teacher & writer died shortly after his
birth. Peter's elder brother used the young lad as an unpaid servant
until another brother, Damian, *found Peter tending pigs* & rescued
him, sending him to be educated at Faenza & Parma. This brother was a
priest and Peter took his Christian name--Damian--as his own surname.
.
Peter Damian responded readily to his teachers and became proficient
enough in grammar, rhetoric, and law that he later taught at Ravenna.
He began to practice austerities by himself, gave liberal alms, seldom
went without some poor persons at his table, and took pleasure in
serving them with his own hands. But he longed to do more for his Lord.
The Lord answered his prayer by sending two religious of Fonte Avellana
to visit his home. They told him much about their way of life. So,
at age 34 (1035) he became a Benedictine monk at Fonte Avellana,
a monastery founded 20 years earlier by Blessed Rudolph.
.
The brothers of Fonte Avellana lived as hermits in bare cells, utterly
disciplined and given to constant study of the Bible. Their regimen was
so austere that, for a time, Peter's health broke down. Nevertheless,
Peter became a model monk who occupied himself by studying Scripture and
patristic theology, and transcribing manuscripts. He was elected prior
of this small, poor community in 1043. Others were attracted to imitate
his life, and Peter founded five more religious houses for them. He
became famous for his uncompromising attitude toward worldliness
and denunciations of simony and clerical marriage.
.
In 1057, Peter was named cardinal-bishop of Ostia by Pope Stephen IX.
His fame spread as he took a leading role in the Gregorian Reform. In
1059, he participated in the Lateran synod that proclaimed the right of
the cardinals alone to elect future bishops of Rome. After a brief time
as bishop, with the permission of Pope Alexander II (which previously
had been denied by Nicholas II) and under the condition that he continue
to serve the Holy See as needed, Peter returned to his cell. There he
wrote unceasingly, on purgatory, the Eucharist, and other theological
and ascetical topics, but he also wrote poetry. While his Latin verse is
among the very best of the Middle Ages, especially that in honor of Pope
Saint Gregory, which begins "Anglorum iam Apostolus," Peter Damian never
considered his learning something of which to boast. What counted, he
said, was to worship God, not to write about Him. What use was it to
construct a grammatically correct sentence containing the word 'God,'
if you could not pray to him properly.
.
In his ideas about monasticism, the saint always looked back to the
example of the early desert monks. Although he regarded the monastic
life as inferior to eremitic life, he advocated regular canoical life
for cathedral clergy, and was a precursor of the devotional development
to the Passion of Christ. In some respects he was not unlike the
highly-critical Saint Jerome in character, fervor, and impatience.
Although he was kind to his monks and indulgent to penitents, his
writings reveal his severity. It may seem odd to us that Peter Damian
reproved the bishop of Florence for playing a single game of chess, or
objected strenuously to monks seating themselves as they chanted the
Divine Office. His onslaught on clerical misconduct is called The
Gomorrah Book. But the austerities he prescribed for others, he
practiced himself. When not employed in prayer or work, he made
wooden spoons and other utensils to get his hands from idleness.
.
Peter also continued the work of ecclesiastical reform. He opposed
the antipopes, especially Honorius II. And he went on missions for
the pope--once even managing to persuade the king of Germany not to
divorce his wife, Bertha. When Henry, archbishop of Ravenna, had been
excommunicated for grievous enormities, Peter was sent by Alexander II
as legate to settle the troubles. When he arrived at Ravenna, he found
the bishop had died and brought his accomplices to repentance. Peter
died at Faenza on route back to from Ravenna, which he had just
reconciled with the Holy See. His vita was written by his disciple
John of Lodi. Although he was never formally canonized, local cults
arose at his death, and, in 1828, Pope Leo XII extended his feast to
the Universal Church.
.
In art, Saint Peter is portrayed as a cardinal archbishop holding a
birch and a book. Sometimes he may be shown (1) as a bishop with the
cardinal's hat above his head or by his side, (2) as an old hermit, dead
in a cave, lying on a stone slab with a crucifix on his breast; books,
miter, cardinal's hat, and angels near him (Roeder), or (3) praying
before a cross with a miter and cardinal's hat on the ground.
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Art Neuendorffer