Alex > Recent Status Updates

"The appropriate geological metaphor is not that of the live volcano: a lava-bed of discontent hissing and bubbling with increasing vehemence before erupting with explosive and predictable force. We should think rather of a set of pre-existent fault-lines which helped to determine the way the religious landscape would fracture when it was hit by an earthquake which no one was particularly expecting to happen."

Also good info on ecclesiastical and royal courts. Gotta look up Richard Hunnes case.

"Despite what Reformation propaganda would later say about the financial burdens imposed by Rome, Henry VII and Henry VIII squeezed out of the English Church over two-and-a-half times the sum that the popes did."

I think Medieval Iceland may be a spanner in Spooners works, but I might be wrong. Still, really good book.

Good arguments as to why the majority principle in assemblies other than governmental ones is not an example of democracy:
1. Such assemblies do not determine rights, but those are determined by charters voluntary agreed upon;
2. Disputes are settled not by a majority vote, but by independent arbitrators or judges.

Also, it's not easy to distinguish Lollards from orthodox believers, either in their beliefs or in how they acted. Still, it seems to be possible.

Also really good info on the Lollards. The movement seems to have died out by 1414 or so, when they lost the support of the upper class after attacking the king. By 1480, the Lollards began to be prosecuted again, so either they had a resurgence or just the prosecutions did, or a mix of both. Interestingly, in that later period, no significant lollard works were written.

Good and very nuanced take on anticlericalism. The clergy were criticized, but their right to exist not questioned in the late 15th century. Much of the criticism seems to come from the high expectations of them. However, good-spirited, critical tropes from orthodox observers gave later anticlerical critics fodder.

The Carthusians seem to have been exceptionally popular among the laity, and received a disproportionate amount of gifts.

Really unsure of how to rate this, whether three stars or just two.

"All the evidence available indicates that Temur was an early and forceful proponent of free trade."
Which would explain his effectiveness.

Marozzi argues effectively that the story of Bayazid beinh carried to Timur in a cage is a myth. Only Arabshah seems to mention it, but even in his account, the word for cage might as well mean litter, and Bayazid being carried in a litter after battle makes sense.

"Such piety was nowhere in evidence in this latest correspondence, in which, against all Muslim customs, Bayazid deliberately referred to the Tatar’s wives in the most offensive fashion."
Judging his piety from one remark to the wifes of a childmurdering tyrant is hardly fair.

Timur protected Islam so hard he broke the Umayyad Mosque. Or maybe he was just an opportunistic hypocrite?

The encounter between Ibn Khaldun and Timur is one of the highpoints of this book.

On another note, if Timurs forces were attacked in so many cities that surrendered, maybe they did something to deserve it? I can even imagine Timur instigating troubles to get more plunder. In other words, Damascus was an inside job. Maybe. Not saying it was but it makes you think.

Régine Pernoud is amazing at seeing the personal aspects of political games. She doesn't reduce every action to political maneuvering in the spirit of Realpolitik.

I like how Petronius handled his impending death.

Nero handled the situation in Armenia very well, I must say.

"Selbst auf seiner späteren Griechenlandreise, für die er sich doch sehr viel Zeit genommen hatte, vermied er ei- nen Besuch in Eleusis und in Athen, sonst immer im Pflicht- programm der antiken Griechenlandbesucher. Es ist gut möglich, daß er die Furien fürchtete."