Italy
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Giovanni Bruno- Heretic or Scientist
Born Filippo Bruno in Nola in the Kingdom of Naples in 1548. A precocious student, Bruno eventually found himself in the regional capital as a Dominican friar. The Dominicans had the best university, but were very orthodox and unimaginative. This did not sit well with Bruno, who was a very innovative thinker as well as being extremely cantankerous. He often called his fellow friars “asses”. In his cell at San Domenico Maggiore, he stripped imaged of the Virgin of the walls saying it was idolatry. This put him on his superior’s bad list as a possible Protestant. Then he brilliantly defended the Arian heresy to a professor. Bruno’s name was…
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The History of Burlesque
I’m guessing if you’re at all connected to the Internet, you’ve heard the word “burlesque” before, and I’m guessing the mere mention of the word conjures images of scantily clad women prancing about on stage in myriad hellscape of saturated scarlet light and a panoply of scintillating and lascivious shadows… yeah. I’m a professional writer, folks. There is far more history behind burlesque than catering to the lecherous libidinous cravings of a depraved and debauched audience. Look deeper and you’ll see certain themes to the various performances, following popular culture, media, politics, music, or cultishly classical movies. The reason for this is that the original basis for burlesque was grotesque…
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Council of Constance and the arrest of Jan Hus
Preceding this date in History, there had been a major issue regarding the Papacy, in that during 1378, two rival Popes had been appointed. Urban VI of Rome was appointed in April of 1378 from outside the College of Cardinals. His election was opposed by the French Cardinals, as invalid. Later on in September of that year the French Cardinals nominated their own rival antipope, Clement VII of Avignon, the home of the Pope for the previous seven decades. This period came to be known as the second part of the Great Schism, or alternatively the Western Schism. Urban VI was later succeeded, upon his death in October 1389 by…
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Dante Alighieri- Divine Literary Retribution
Dante Alighieri was born in 1265 in Florence, Italy. At that time, Florence was not part of a princely kingdom, but run as a commune, or run by municipal councils. These harken back to their republican past and the members of the council call themselves consuls. Despite this, this was a time of great upheaval, and the Alighieri family was intimately involved in the internal turmoil. During this time, two rival factions were jockeying for power in Florence- the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. The Guelphs supported the Pope and the Ghibellines supported the Holy Roman Emperor. In this background, Dante grew up, a Guelph on his father’s side and a…
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THE MYTH OF THE CHIVALRIC AGE
I originally wanted to call this “Why Chivalry is a Damn Dirty Lie” but thought better of it. Before I launch into this, let me get this out of the way: The Chivalric Code was a code of conduct implemented to noble militaries somewhere in the late 12th and early 13th centuries CE. The term “chivalry” itself comes from the Old French term chevalarie meaning “horse soldiery”. It has its roots in Germanic and Roman military traditions and is known to be used by Charlemagne’s military forces. But what I really want to get into is what chivalry was, why it was necessary, and why it was a damn dirty…
