Alex > Recent Status Updates

From my introduction:
"Mr Baker has made some proficiency in the art of “adding insult to injury.” It is easy to see to what school of religion he belongs; but the author would be sorry to regard his publication as a specimen of the manner in which the members of it “practise virtue for virtue’s sake.”"

"She knew exactly how to temper reserve and dignity; her own reserve never gave the impression of harshness or cruelty, nor did her tenderness seem too soft or unrestrained – and this, I fancy, is the true definition of propriety: the due proportion of warm humanity and strict moral principle."

Alexius' confession and penance are inspiring.

"If one regards the art of ruling as a science, a kind of supreme philosophy (the art of all arts, so to speak, and the highest science of all), then one would have to admire him as a scientist in a way and a leading thinker for having invented these imperial titles and functions."
Who would say this, in a Christian empire? Every Christian would put theology above politics, I thought.

"Such is the way of Fortune: when she wishes to smile on a man she exalts him on high, crowns him with a royal diadem, gives him sandals of purple; but when she frowns, instead of the purple and the crown, she clothes him in ragged garments of black."
That is a strange sentence coming from a Christian.

The Island of Dr. Otaku is hands down one of the worst short stories I have ever read.

When the defeat of the communists in Spain was certain, one of their ranks tried to sell out members of the POUM to Franco. It didn't work, the members escaped.

Just read the description of the torture methods used by Spanish communists. To call it "medieval", as is still the custom, would be flattery.

*former monastery, although the text doesn't say whether the communists stole it.

The monastery Santa Ursula was used by the spanish communists as a torture prison.

I am amazed at Andrés Nins fortitude in the face of torture.

Although Kutna Hora surrendered to Zizka, he still massacred its people. He even burned down a church in which some of them took refuge. Then he replaced the German miners with Czechs. Verney says this was because the militia of Kutna Hora engaged the Hussites earlier, and because of the massacre of the Hussites that happened there years earlier.

Ironically, Zizkas behavior changed for the worse after he laid down his rules of conduct. He engaged in bloody infighting, killed a priest singlehandedly, and engaged in a scorched earth policy. Arguably, he had made himself a deserter with his document, which put his name and that of his second-in-command over those of four barons of higher social rank.

Zizka executed a captured priest in Prague after the battle of Strachuv Dur, by bashing his head with a club. This falls in line with his burning Catholic priests to death, although in this case, the priest belonged to a Hussite faction.

That call included himself.

I am impressed by Zizkas call to do penance at Nemecky Brod for the sins committed there.

There has been an armed uprising against King Edwards reforms, which was crushed. 3000 rebels died during that uprising.