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torterracotta · 9 months

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When I heard Gerry Duggan get asked on Cerebro, white boy to white boy, about the unfortunate optics of announcing and then immediately murdering the least white team of X-Men in years, I knew we'd be in for some shit. Man, did he deliver - after some evasive waffling about how ORCHIS is meant to be fascist, and how the story's point is to put the collective back of mutantkind even more against the wall than it was any of the last six times something like this has happened.

And, honestly? That's fair! This year's Hellfire Gala is ultimately the first part of a larger story, and history shows it's not going to last forever — hell, does anyone remember what the status quo was immediately before HoXPoX? At least this time most of the characters have implicitly just been sucked into Mother Righteous's magical Poké Ball, rather than outright killed; if anything, that's an improvement. I was fully content to just think "hey, not for me," and get back to ignoring everything beyond Immortal and Sabertooth, secure in the knowledge that certain topics are bound to be handled poorly when almost everyone in the room is white, when Duggan said three words that stopped me in my tracks:

"Keep the faith."

See, that struck me, because for a lot of us, this entire era of comics has been about nothing but faith. I've been reading X-Men, and engaging with fans since I was eight, and I've never seen the kind of collective buy-in from other marginalized readers that I have with Krakoa. X-Twitter (or, I suppose, X-X) has been Blacker, queerer, more disabled, less homogeneous than the fandom has ever been, all of us buying in to the implicit promise that this time things would be different. Sure, the line was headed by a presumably straight white guy, but there were other voices in the room for a change, and it really felt like they were going to be listened to. We thought we'd moved past clunky metaphor, past queerbaitimg and awkward racial gaffes. Storm and Kwannon were getting to do stuff, Arakko was full of amazing characters of color, Cyclops and Wolverine were probably fucking, we were hooked, and we turned out.

It's hard to overemphasize just how wild this was to see in real time. X-Men has always been allegory, sure, but it's traditionally allegory by and for the majority. For years, the readers who might really feel that resonance, those of us who have been hated and feared for the unforgivable crime of being who we are, we were afterthoughts, tolerated at best. We got scraps, "representation" from creators who seemed to be offended by the implication that we would ever want something other than being fetishized tokens. We were, as Hickman so succinctly put it, told that we were less when we knew we were more. And then, out of nowhere, Krakoa made us inescapable.

The two biggest X-Men podcasts, X-Plain the X-Men and Cerebro, are hosted by queer people. X of Words has been rocking the Black, queer experience like no one's business, Mutant Watch has been a joy to listen to and to be on. Not just podcasts, either, in everything from criticism to fanart to cosplay, voices have been elevated that were previously silent. I mean, hell, I've gotten paid to talk about comics, that shit never would have happened four years ago.

All of that was based on faith.

Faith that we were being celebrated, for once, instead of just used. Faith that for whatever growing pains there might be, things were going to be better.

And let's not fuck around here, there were growing pains. In the first year alone we dealt with everything from blatant whitewashing, to queerbaiting — any Sunspot fan can go into detail there, assuming you can get one of us to stop crying for long enough. While that was going on, we watched Bryan Edward Hill (the only non-white writer in that initial wave) put out a book that was, let's face it, at worst aggressively mid, only to be excoriated by certain portions of the fandom, and dropped by the office, while significantly worse books managed to hold fast — er, hold on. Not to say that Fallen Angels was without sin, mind you, the book was packed with enough orientalism to make Chris Claremont blush. But, at the same time, Wolverine's first year ended with him doing what he does best: trying so hard to be Japanese that I had to check to make sure he wasn't Marvel's editor in chief.

Through all of that, we kept the faith.

Things didn't really get much better, of course. Arakko was a fascinating concept, and felt like it damn near doubled Marvel's characters of color. And yeah, the ending of X-Factor was one of the most poorly handled racist messes I've seen this side of… well, any given day on Twitter. Sure, the whitewashing has never stopped, to the point where everything from X-Corp to this week's Hellfire Gala has had to be hastily edited between previews and release. Maybe we keep dealing with stuff like butchered AAVE, even more queerbaiting, Kate Pryde's funeral, the genocide of almost all of those Arraki characters, and whatever the hell was going on with Lost in Way of X. Maybe there's a very real argument to be made that there's something insidious about three straight years of voting to determine if characters like Monet (who, by the by, has been retooled from "basically Superman" to "Black woman with anger powers") deserve the honor of being written by a white man who's stayed writing with his foot in his mouth. I mean, hey! All my white friends in the scene say he's nice, just like Williams, or Howard, or any number of other crusty crackers who are still proud of tripping over the bar Claremont left on the floor in the 80's!

And dammit, we kept the faith!

Even before the issue dropped, the Fall of X has had a lot of us wary. After all, all of the promotion leading up to it has been white guys saying the minority allegory has had it too good for too long, which, whatever, press copy. We all know they've gotta sell books — they, in this case, being the almost exclusively white, almost exclusively male creative teams attached to all of the books in the line. Sure, as Duggan said, the 616 has a fascism problem, but it’s hard not to see this as a deliberate step back from the almost double digit number of non-white creators these past few years — almost as if Marvel has realized they can make space for a fourth ongoing by their favorite white boy if they just throw out a Voices special every couple of months as a containment zone for the darkies. And, hey, considering how good ol’ C.B. got his foot in the door, I can’t even fake surprise. At this point, it’s a minor miracle any time a person of color is tapped for anything that’s expected to last beyond one issue.

In this issue, as a reward for keeping the faith, we got to see something astounding, something that'd bring a tear to the eye of even the most cynical reader — a team that was only half white. My god. And sure, their brutal murder in favor of a team with Kate "Hard-Arrr" Pryde and the Kingpin(????) was only a pit-stop between the resurrection of the suddenly ashy Ms. Marvel and Lourdes Chantel being killed off for the sake of a white woman's angst yet afuckinggain, but ain't that the dream that Malcolm Ten or whoever died for?

The Krakoan era, ultimately, has been the same as every other. Empty promises by white men who show us time and again that there was never any point in expecting anything better. Any meaning we've found, everything of worth, has been what we've made for ourselves.

We've spent years keeping the faith, Gerry, while you and yours have continued to let us down. What the hell do we have to show for it?

#xspoilers #Hellfire Gala 2023 #X-Men

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bubblegum-blackwood · 2 years

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Vampires this or that (part 1):

Louis or Lestat?

Buffy or The Lost Boys?

Angel/Buffy/Spike or Bella/Edward/Jacob?

The Vampire Lestat or The Vampire Armand?

Dracula (1931) or Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)?

Tom Cruise or Stuart Townsend?

The blue tint in Twilight or the blue tint in Let the Right One In?

Twilight or The Mortal Instruments?

The Mortal Instruments or Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Simon Lewis or Raphael Santiago?

Angel or Spike?

Bejewelled chokers or clunky rings?

Fancy updos or hair loose and flowing?

Edward Cullen or Jasper Hale?

Hot vampires or scary vampires?

Drinking from the neck or wrist?

Bat or wolf?

Horror-comedy/horror-romance or straight-up horror?

Vampires as protagonists or vampires as antagonists?

Vampires vs werewolves or vampires by themselves?

@redversaillesrose @i-want-my-iwtv @aandreiii @hekateinhell @vivienne1996 @the-apostates-martyr

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c-c-2 · 1 year

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“Of Glory” by Giulio Bussi (1),Translated by Sir Aubrey de Vere (2), Samuel Waddington, comp. “The Sonnets of Europe”. 1888.

Glory, what art thou? Thee, despite of pain,

And want, and toil, the brave heart cherisheth:

Thee the pale student courts, wasting, in vain,

His primal youth, thy worshipper in death.

Glory, what art thou? Thine imperial breath

Speaks woe to all: with pangs do men obtain

An empty boon that duly perisheth,

Whose very fear of loss outweighs the gain.

Glory, what art thou then? A fond deceit,

Child of long suffering, empty air, a sweet

Prize that is sought with toil, but never found:

In life, by every envious lip denied;

In death, to ears that hear not a sweet sound:

Glory—thou fatal scourge of human pride!

I care not whose it was, mine it is now.

Illustration: “Camillus, Allegory of Glory” (3), ceiling fresco by Mariano Rossi (4)- Galleria Borghese - Rome, Italy.(5)

Notes: Count Giulio Bussi (born March 12, 1646 in Viterbo - died April 14, 1714 in the same city) was an Italian poet. Giulio Bussi was chamberlain to Pope Clement XI, and died in Viterbo on April 14, 1714. He was a member of the Academy of Arcadia in Rome. In addition to several musical dramas, comedies, and various poems, he published a verse translation of Ovid's “Heroides: Epistole eroiche d'Ovidio” translated in terza rima, Viterbe, 1703-1711, 2 parts in-12. It has been inserted, in part, into t. 24 of the large collection of translations of classical poets, printed in Milan, 1745, in-4°

(2) Sir Aubrey (Hunt) de Vere, 2nd Baronet (28 August 1788 – 5 July 1846)[3][2] was an Anglo-Irish poet and landowner. De Vere was the son of Sir Vere Hunt, 1st Baronet and Eleanor Pery, daughter of William Pery, 1st Baron Glentworth and his first wife Jane Walcott. He was educated at Harrow School, where he was a childhood friend of Lord Byron, and Trinity College, Dublin. He married Mary Spring Rice, the daughter of Stephen Edward Rice and Catherine Spring, and sister of Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, in 1807. He succeeded to his father's title in 1818. He and Mary had five sons, including the third and fourth baronets, Aubrey and Stephen de Vere, and the poet Aubrey Thomas de Vere, and three daughters, two of whom died in infancy.

The Hunt/de Vere family estate for 300 years (1657–1957), including the period of the de Vere Baronetcy of Curragh, is the present-day Curraghchase Forest Park, in County Limerick. De Vere spent most of his life on the estate and was closely involved in its management. He suffered much trouble from his ownership of the island of Lundy, which his father, who was a notoriously poor businessman, had unwisely purchased in 1802, and which became a heavy drain on the family's finances. Sir Vere was never able to find a purchaser for Lundy, and it took his son until 1834 (or 1830) to dispose of it.

Sir Aubrey stood for election in the 1820 General Election and came in third with 2921 votes. He changed his surname from Hunt to de Vere on 15 March 1832, in reference to his Earl of Oxford ancestors, dating back to Aubrey de Vere I, a tenant-in-chief in England of William the Conqueror in 1086. He served as High Sheriff of County Limerick in 1811.

Wordsworth called his sonnets the most perfect of the age. These and his drama, “Mary Tudor: An Historical Drama”, were published by his son the poet Mr. Aubrey Thomas de Vere in 1875 and 1884.

De Vere produced numerous works over his lifetime. The most notable are: “Ode to the Duchess of Angouleme” (1815), “Julian the Apostate: A Dramatic Poem” (1822), “The Duke of Mercia: An Historical Drama” [with] “The Lamentation of Ireland, and Other Poems” (1823), “A Song of Faith: Devout Exercises and Sonnets” and his most famous work, “Mary Tudor: An Historical Drama.”

(3) Marcus Furius Camillus (possibly c. 448 – c. 365 BC[1]) is a semi-legendary Roman statesman and politician during the early Roman republic who is most famous for his capture of Veii and defence of Rome from Gallic sack after the Battle of the Allia. Modern scholars are dubious of Camillus' supposed exploits and believe many of them are wrongly attributed or otherwise wholly fictitious.The cognomen Camillus derives from the title of an aristocratic youth who helped in religious duties; it is possible that a young Camillus served in such a position. His filiation is identical with that of the consul of 413 BC, Lucius Furius Medullinus, which may indicate that Medullinus and Camillus were brothers.

Camillus is first firmly recorded as entering public office in 401 BC. He served in that year and again in 398 BC as consular tribune against the Falisci and the Capenates. Both were tribes near Rome and Veii. His first supposed office was that of censor (before having held any other public office) in the year 403 BC. He was then supposed to have, as dictator completed a campaign against Veii which saw the city captured in 396 BC. The specific story of Veii's capture in Livy is mostly legendary. After a ten-year siege (the third Veientine war) – "obviously modelled on the Greek legend of the Trojan war" – the Alban Lake rises supernaturally after a supposed prophecy of Veii's destruction in its "Books of Fate". The Romans then extirpate the prodigy by building a tunnel to drain the lake after being so instructed by the oracle at Delphi. Camillus, as commander, then persuades Veii's goddess, Juno Regina, to leave the city and move to Rome. Archaeological remains near Veii include blocked drainage tunnels from the fifth-century, which may indicate the possibility that this story in Livy arises a Romans breakthrough into the city through them.

Following the capture of the city, Livy reports that Camillus had its free population sold into slavery before the land was resettled with Roman citizens with land allotments of seven jugera. Archaeological evidence points to Romans switching quarries: after the capture of Veii's better-quality quarries, Roman structures switch largely to using stone sourced therefrom, which may suggest enslaved Veientine quarry workers. Camillus then celebrates a triumph and dedicates a temple of Juno on the Aventine. It is likely that many of the details of his return in Livy were copied from the less historically distant triumphal entrances of Scipio Africanus or Sulla.

In 394 BC, he supposedly secured the surrender of the Falisci in their main town of Falerii Veteres (modern Civita Castellana) after refusing to accept pupils from a schoolmaster as hostages. Much of the Livian narrative about the exchange with the schoolmaster is meant to recount an exemplum which stresses the importance of Roman good will (Latin: fides) and the importance of gentlemanly aristocratic behaviour. After taking Veii and Falisci, Camillus is supposed to have been prosecuted. Accounts differ: he may have been accused by the quaestors of misappropriating spoils of war or of his extravagance in purchasing four white horses for his triumph. Whatever the charge, though a quaestorian trial for misappropriation is more likely, Camillus was reportedly convicted and sent into exile. Historians believe this story of disgrace before the courts is modelled on fates of Achilles and Scipio Africanus and is meant to draw comparison with Themistocles and Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus. The underlying source for the story likely postdates the Sullan period and is an "evident anachronism".The story of conviction, however, likely did not happen and was instead adduced to place Camillus away from Rome when the Gallic sack occurs, excusing him of any blame for Rome's defeat.

In 390 BC (Varronian), more likely in actuality 387 BC, a large group of Gauls crossed the Apennines into northern Etruria.They advanced until they reached Roman territory and there defeated Rome's army at the Battle of the Allia. In the following days, they entered Rome and sacked it. They then induced the surrender of Roman holdouts on the Capitoline hill before receiving a large ransom of gold and withdrawing north. This account is corroborated by Greek sources as early as the 4th century BC; Polybius places the sack in the same year as the Peace of Antalcidas and the siege of Rhegium.

According to Livy, after the fall of the city, Camillus is recalled from exile at Ardea by the people and appointed again as dictator – even though a consular tribune was available to nominate a dictator in the normal fashion – in the city's hour of need. Then, at the climax of the Gallic sack, when a thousand pounds of gold is being weighed out, Camillus and a hastily organised army returns and defeats the Gauls, saving the city and recovering the ransom. This story was probably a creation of Roman annalists during the first century BC; Ogilvie in his Commentary on Livy, calls it "one of the most daring fabrications in Roman history.”

Other traditions have different narratives: for example, the Livii Drusi are supposed to have by single combat with a Gaul named Drausus recovered the same ransom; Plutarch records a fragment of Aristotle asserting that "a certain Lucius" (probably a Lucius Albinius who is recorded to have secreted away the Vestal Virgins and sacred objects to Caere) having saved the city. Polybius reports that rather than being defeated by Camillus, the Gauls occupied the city for some seven months before the Romans bought them off and they departed of their own accord to deal with an invasion of their territory by the Veneti. While the literary sources assert Rome was sacked and had to be rebuilt, there is no archaeological evidence of major damage to pre-fourth century BC buildings in the forum, which indicates that the sack – if it occurred – consisted largely of stealing portable property.

After the sack, Camillus is supposed to have led the opposition to a proposal circulating among the plebs to relocate the city to Veii. This story also cannot be accepted and is more likely "a reflection of the tensions that arose concerning the distribution of the conquered territory of Veii" and to introduce "anti-plebeian elements" into the Camillan narrative. The speech does not appear in Polybius and may have been invented c. 122 BC in order to oppose by historical precedent Gaius Gracchus' proposal to establish a colony at Carthage with further embellishment of its anti-Italian themes during the time of the Social War.

Regardless, the ancient tradition records that within a year after Rome was reduced to ruins, the city had been completely rebuilt and all rebellions by Roman allies suppressed due to the extraordinary leadership of Camillus, who is therefore regarded as the city's "second founder.” In these victories, he is supposed to have dedicated three gold saucers to Juno for victory against the Volscians, Aequians, and Etruscans all the next year in 389 BC. None of these achievements are mentioned in Polybius or Diodorus.

After his probably fictitious victories, Livy next reports Rome sending Camillus to take the city of Tusculum in 381 BC. The city, already surrounded by Roman territory, immediately surrenders and the inhabitants thereof are given Roman citizenship with some level of self-rule, becoming the first Roman municipium. Later sources view this as an act of magnanimity due to the later elevated status of municipia but at the time it was likely little more than annexation; Tusculum would be one of the first to revolt in the Second Latin War. Both Camillus' role in Manlius' sedition and his later dictatorship (engaging the Gauls and plebeian reforms) may be anachronistic and fictitious insertions.

The account of Dio, coming from a Byzantine summary by Zonaras, asserts Camillus was elected dictator in 384 BC to put down the sedition of Marcus Manlius Capitolinus, who is believed to be trying to make himself king. Camillus reportedly has Manlius arrested by a slave before a trial; Manlius is convicted and then thrown from the Tarpeian Rock. No such attribution is given in the accounts of Livy and Plutarch, who note Camillus merely as one of the six consular tribunes in that year.[

According to Livy, there are ten years in which Gaius Licinius Stolo and Lucius Sextius Lateranus were elected plebeian tribunes continuously. During the last five or six years, they blocked the election of all magistrates in an attempt to pass what would become the Licinio-Sextian rogations. Camillus is alleged to have been elected dictator in 368 BC and attempted to obstruct their attempts, without success. But the next year, he is appointed dictator again. He then reconciles the plebeians and the patricians with a proposal to appoint a patrician-only praetor and curule aediles (in exchange for plebeian eligibility to the consulship); all accept the passage of the rogations and domestic harmony is restored; Camillus then constructs a temple to Concordia. "Very little of this narrative can be accepted as it stands". While Diodorus Siculus reports the length of the anarchy to have been merely one year, it is implausible that Rome could have been without magistrates for more than a few months. More damningly, a passage of Aulus Gellius' “Attic Nights” (5.4) preserves a fragment of Numerius Fabius Pictor that shows that alleged years where tribunes blocked all elections were a late annalistic invention, likely to line up Greek and Roman chronologies.

The three alleged rogations touched on a number of topics. The first rogation was a mechanism for debt relief. The second imposed a possession limit of 500 jugera of public land. The third was the reform that abolished the consular tribunate and required the election of consuls, one of which had to be a plebeian. Gary Forsythe, in “Critical history of early Rome”, accepts that the first law is consistent with voiced concerns over indebtedness from this period, that the second (limits on public land possession) is attested to in later speeches, and that the third is reflected in the consular fasti. Livy includes in the same year of this compromise, 367 BC, another alleged victory by Camillus over the Gauls. Modern scholars are especially suspicious of this report, especially because Livy notes confusion in his own sources over this victory, which is alternatively attributed to Titus Manlius Torquatus.

According the ancient Roman tradition, Camillus died during an epidemic that hit Rome in 365 BC. However, it is unlikely that any evidence of Camillus' death was known in later times: Münzer, writing in the “Realencyclopädie,” believes later annalists simply assumed Camillus died in the epidemic.

The traditional account of Camillus' life comes from Livy and Plutarch's eponymous “Life.” But these were based on a larger annalistic tradition which painted Camillus as the dominant figure in this period of history; Livy, for his part, organised his fifth and sixth books around Camillus' career (Camillus enters public office at the start of the fifth book and leaves it at the end of the sixth). Little evidence of this tradition survives, though fragments of Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius' work indicate that the myth of Camillus was well-established by the 80s and 70s BC.

The name Camillus is attested in the Etruscan François Tomb, built c. 300 BC near Vulci. One of the paintings therein describes a "Gneve Tarchunies Rumach" (probably Gnaeus Tarquinius the Roman) being killed by a "Marce Camitlnas" (possibly Marcus Camitilius or Marcus Camillus). It is not known, however, what specific legend the tomb depicts. Some scholars have suggested that Camitlnas refers to the Camillus of this article, but such attribution is problematic. Scholars believe Camillus qua person probably existed: the fasti, if believed, record his importance and influence in Roman public life at this time. But, in general, the quality of the sources – which interject "plenty of myth, embellishment, and fantasy" – led Mary Beard, in the book “SQPR,” to write "Camillus is probably not much less fictional than the first Romulus". Mommsen, writing in “Römisches Strafrecht,” called Camillus' legend "the most dishonest of all Roman legends". Tim Cornell, writing of Camillus, calls him "the most artificially contrived of all Rome's heroes". The source of scholars have suggested that Camillus emerged from a popular oral tradition which linked the names Camillus, Manlius Capitolinus, and Sulpicius to inscriptions placed on the temple of Juno Moneta (erected in 345 BC by Lucius Furius Camillus).

By the late republic, after centuries of embellishment from the fourth to the first century BC, the Romans believed that Camillus had captured Veii, saved the city from the Gallic sack, saved the city from foreign threats on all sides, opened the highest magistracies to the plebeians, ensured domestic harmony, and largely settled the struggle of the orders. Through it all, they believed he had held six consular tribunates and been dictator five times. For these reasons, he was hailed as the second founder of the city. A bronze statue of Camillus also bedecked itself on the rostra in the Forum.

His reputation by the Late Republic and Early Empire was such that Camillus was a source of exempla: fables giving lessons for Romans on how to act in line both with morals and with Roman tradition and procedures. One of the most famous ones is during Camillus' capture of Faliscii: one of their schoolmasters defects, bringing with him to the camp his pupils who are Faliscan nobles' children. Camillus, displaying his exemplary fides, has the schoolmaster reprimanded and punished by the pupils; the Faliscans then surrender the city before Camillus' good faith. Camillus is similarly alleged to have resigned a dictatorship to which he was appointed merely because of faulty procedure; Livy mentions it – an event that "almost certainly never took place" – as an example of Roman legal scruples. In all, Camillus is mentioned in Livy's “Ab urbe condita” as an example to be followed eight times, an "unusually high frequency", usually in relation to his alleged successes as a general, moderation in the face of hot-headed colleagues, and triumphant recall from exile.

The memory of Camillus became part of the public image of the first Roman emperor Augustus. The history of Livy, for example, may have been written to coincide at the beginning of a great year consisting of 360–365 years. Starting with Romulus, the cycle reaches a peak under King Servius Tullius before a second founding under Camillus, completing the cycle. The next cycle has a second peak in the time of Scipio Africanus before Augustus enters as the figure to re-found Rome again and restart the great year, with Livy suggesting that Romulus, Camillus, and Augustus are coequal heroic figures.

(4) Mariano Rossi (7 December 1731 - 24 October 1807) was an Italian painter, persisting in what had become an anachronistic Rococo style amid an ascendant neoclassical environment. His placement legions of figures in a complex scenography and quadrature recalls the work of Pietro da Cortona.

Mariano was born to poor parents in Sciacca, Sicily. He trained first in Palermo, then in Naples, and finally in Rome, where he studied under Marco Benefial. He was patronized by the illuminated charity of men of fashion (that is, wealthy individuals) He was paid 400 zecchini by the Cardinal Cardinal Bernis for a canvas depicting Joshua commanding Sun to stand still. He painted for the churches of Purgatorio and Santa Lucia in Sciacca, Sicily. In 1766, he was called to paint frescoes for the royal court in Turin. He then returned to Rome, where he painted a fresco in the grand salon of the Villa Borghese. During 1775-1779, he painted a large ceiling fresco depicting Marcus Furius Camillus Fighting Brennus and his Gauls, while Romulus Entreats Jupiter to Help Rome. The room displays some of the ancient Roman statuary, previously collected by Camillo Borghese. Other contemporary painters active in the Villa were Laurent Pecheux and Domenico de Angelis. Mariano joined the Academy of St Luke in 1776.

The Napoleonic invasion of Rome caused him to leave for Sicily. There he painted a Roger I Liberating of Sicily from the Saracens for the Palermo Cathedral. With the Bourbon restoration in Naples, he briefly painted again at the Palace of Caserta. But on moving back to Rome in 1804, he died and was buried in the church of Santa Susanna, Rome.

(5) The great hall of the Casino in the Villa Borghese, whose interiors were remodeled in a Neoclassical style by Antonio Asprucci, was adorned with a ceiling fresco that constitute a finale to the Baroque idiom, by that time altogether passé in Rome. The pictorial program takes up the theme of the classical forebears that great Roman families had so successfully invoked to create historical legitimacy for themselves. The Sicilian painter Mariano Rossi blended the legend of the victorious hero Furius Camillus with an allegory on Rome, its founders, its virtues, and its glory.

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itstatiifagundes · 2 years

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Pensando agora eu sou da geração que viu Isabella Swan, uma garota como ela mesma se definia sem sal, despertar amor em um deus grego, de novo, por ela definido, Edward Cullen, alguém com MTS anos e conhecedor de MTS lugares, Ciências, pessoas. Geração que viu e leu Edward ir embora por seu melhor pensamento ser o melhor pra Bella e ao regressar estar disposto a ficar de joelhos pra pedir perdão e nem foi porque ele traiu, ou porque não a quis, mas porque era o melhor pra ela. Pensando em todos os meus amores, é isso que eu espero do cara certo. Não perfeição porque eu não sou. Mas alguém disposto a pedir desculpa e a mudar quando estiver errado mesmo sob seu melhor julgamento, somos humanos e somos errantes, não viemos com todas as respostas e eu não quero estar em uma relação aonde os erros devem ser sempre passados e esquecidos e como se nada tivesse acontecido, como se nunca tivessem acontecido, como se não houvesse medo pós eles, não houvesse insegurança, como se não houvesse nenhuma mudança pós eles. As coisas mudam e um casal deve ser maduro pra lidar com eu li aos 16. E olhando pra esse casal, admiro ainda mais o Edward, melhor ficar solteiro uma vida inteira do que se aproveitar de sentimentos que não seriam correspondidos pra apenas inflamar o ego, mostrar ao mundo que se tem alguém ou não lidar com a solidão ou pior, pra tentar substituir quem se ama de verdade porque em tese não se encaixa num padrão que se criou. Apesar de ser extremamente romântica, o último ano me magoou tanto a ponto de me fazer enxergar o amor como algo que deveria ver tbm com a cabeça, se não há atitude pode haver sentimentos, mas só será isso, sentimento, não passa disso. Não haverá nada concreto, sempre será incerteza, o sonho de algo, a vontade de algo, mas nada de verdade. Até que se aposte tudo tem, como Edward fez ao amar uma humana que nada tinha a lhe oferecer. Mas tinha o que ela é, o que despertou e ele o que ele quis que o amor deles se tornassem: algo concreto. E é assim que eu quero .

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fata-vocant · 4 years

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everyone: julian they wanna overthrow you

emperor julian: i nap

(from The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 22)

#my post #ancient rome #roman empire #julian the apostate #tagamemnon #classic lit #classics #roman emperor #rome #edward gibbon #decline and fall

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thegrapeandthefig · 3 years

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Hi! I was wondering if you had any recommendations on resources for Julian Hellenism? (Apart from the brilliant Hellenic Faith website)

Here.

Once you've read those posts:

H. C. Teitler, The Last Pagan Emperor Julian the Apostate and the War against Christianity, Oxford University Press, 2009.

David Neal Greenwood, Five Latin Inscriptions From Julian’s Pagan Restoration, In: Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, 57.2 (2014): 101-119.

Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians: in the Mediterranean World from the Second Century AD to the Conversion of Constantine. Penguin UK, 2006.

Marianne Sághy & Edward M. Schoolman, eds. Pagans and Christians in the Late Roman Empire: New Evidence, New Approaches (4th–8th centuries). Central European University Press, 2017.

Susanna Elm, Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church. University of California Press, 2012.

Frank R. Trombley, Hellenic religion and Christianization: c. 370-529. Vol. 2. Brill, 1993.

#friendly reminder everything after 312AD doesn't exist to me #with all due respect anon #you're better off learning about neoplatonism if that's what draws you towards this direction

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bri-notthecheese · 3 years

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Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Gotham (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Oswald Cobblepot/Edward Nygma Characters: Oswald Cobblepot, Edward Nygma Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon Age AU (during Inquisition specifically), Fluff, First Meetings, Mutual Pining, First Kiss, Mild Hurt/Comfort, CircleMage!Oswald, CityElf!Oswald, GreyWarden!Ed Summary:

“Why did you help me?”

“Hmm?” Edward tilts his head as if he doesn’t comprehend the question. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m a mage. An apostate. And an elf, obviously. That combination doesn’t warrant much sympathy wherever you go.” - When a stranger with a bow saves his life, kindness is the last thing Oswald expects. But as they continue to grow closer, Oswald finds himself wanting more.

//an AU set during Dragon Age: Inquisition, but can be enjoyed without prior knowledge of the game

#nygmobblepot #gotham #oswald cobblepot #edward nygma #dragon age au #my fics #feels good to post something <3 #wanna get that energy back for my current WIP

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tortoisesforhire · 3 years

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Twilight - A Study in Mormonism

So it's been a hot minute since I've made any kind of rant post on this hellsite but I'm watching therapists react to Twilight and I have Thoughts so;

The Twilight Saga is a hot mess of garbage, we all know this. It's fun, sure, the same way a lot of awful movies and books are fun. Entertaining junk-food media that we love to consume. I do this as well, there's nothing wrong with that, But; I have made a realization.

Or, well, I re-realized something, because I've definitely had this thought before. Stephenie Meyer, for those of you unaware, is very, very Mormon. And if you know anything about Mormonism, then Twilight becomes a fairly uncomfortable case study in everything wrong with what Mormonism teaches you about sexuality, love and relationships.

It's essentially a huge Mormon metaphor. Bella, for the sake of the metaphor, is a blank canvas, an empty vase just waiting to be filled, which is generally how Mormonism views non-mormons. Everyone who isn't a Mormon and who isn't an apostate is, to Mormons view, a Mormon waiting to happen. Edward and the rest of the Cullens represent a perfect Mormon family. They're all gloriously white, supernaturally beautiful and all in loving (weird) monogamous relationships. They would be what Mormons call a Celestial Family.

In Mormonism, as far as I know I'm not an expert I'm an ex-vangelical, you as a woman leave your family and join your husband's family and through some kind of hinky Mormon ritual join their future Celestial Family.

So in Twilight, all of Bella's interactions with Edward are framed from Stephanie's Mormon viewpoint. She glosses over all his abusive tendences because that is what a good Mormon girl is supposed to do. She loves him without reason because that's what a good Mormon girl is supposed to do. She distances herself from her friends and family because Edward and his family are more important. Kind of like when you're getting pulled into a cult huh?

And Edward is a very Mormon male love interest. He's self centered but self hating, a martyr, self righteous to a fault, creepily protective of her, overly physical while still somehow being a prude.

More than anything Twilight just highlights everything wrong with Mormonism. I could probably have put this better but this is tumblr and I just wanted to rant. Maybe an ex-mormon will dissect the series better than me, maybe they already have, I don't know.

#twilight #stephanie meyer #mormonism #god this movie is hot garbage #and yet i can't stop watching

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ir0n-angel · 3 years

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Five Favorites

I was tagged by @crackinglamb to share five favorite bits of writing. Thank you, dear.🤍

Tagging @st0nergh0ul @madangel19 @the-desert-dancer and anyone else who wants to play.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to write, so these are oldies. Hopefully Lamb won’t mind that I copied her format. Mine also got really long, so under the cut it goes.

From War Cry (Fallout 4):

Nora tightened the belt around her waist, making sure that each device was secure. She systematically flipped each ones' switches on and off again, satisfied when each light blinked then cut out.

"It really doesn't seem like a good idea to arm those things when they're wrapped around you like that." The power armor's speaker distorted Deacon's voice to the point of being unrecognizable.

Nora smiled at him, wrapping a long strip of cloth around and over her middle like she'd seen some of the scavver women wear. Wasteland deprivation, for once, had it's perks. The devices were virtually unnoticeable. "Careful, Dee. You almost sounded like you cared for a moment there."

"Absolutely not."

It was probably the worst lie she'd ever heard from him.

--- Trying my hand at telling a story with flashbacks for the first time, this one is a very strong contender for being my favorite to have ever written. Unfortunately, it’s my least popular Completed fic. ---

From Blue (Fallout 4):

On his third circuit of the perimeter, he was startled by the sounds of splashing down by the southerly side of the river. He crouched low and made his way to the crumbled stone wall, laser musket at the ready.

The splashing continued, then "GodDAMNit!", followed by groan of metal and a ba-whoosh of something large hitting the water.

The lady sure had a mouth on her, he thought to himself as he lowered his weapon and stood.

It would have been comical to see Nora sprawled on her ass in the swallows if the half moon's light didn't throw her look of misery into such sharp relief. It worried him more that he could hear the faint clicking of her Pip-Boy's Geiger counter, yet she made no move to stand back up.

--- Before I lost my heart to a certain ghoul, Preston Garvey was (and, really, still is) my sweetheart. I had a lot of plans for him. Sadly, this is the only one that made it to post. ---

From Things We Can’t Say (Fallout 4):

"Hey, Yo Go... Yao Gooey... Yogurt! Sign says don't feed the bears!" he shouted. A second hard hit nearly knocked him off his feet again, causing him to slip and fall with his back against the door.

Regaining her wits, Nora jumped up and threw herself against the door as a third hit nearly had it open, knocking Deacon's glasses askew. She scanned around frantically for anything to fight with when she noticed the bar latches on either side of the door. She managed to slide both into place as the fourth hit rattled the hinges.

Five. The door held, not giving an inch. Six, but less forceful this time. Pause. A growl. Seven, eight... Weaker still.

"I think it's getting tired," Deacon huffed. "Or dying. That'd be nice. Wouldn't get our hopes up. Buckshot does fuck all against You-goo hide."

--- I had way too much fun with parts of this one, even though I eventually had to hand it over to my bestie to help me finish it after it stalled for two years. Deacon as a character is... well. Yet I’ve been given very high compliments that I keep him in character, so that’s nice. ---

From Have A Drink On Me (Fallout 4):

The woman was too stealthy, he thought as without warning her hand was on his arm. "Did I do something wrong?" she whispered when he refused to turn to look at her.

Correction: This was a terrible idea.

"No, but I might," he confessed, running a hand over his tired face. "I should leave."

When he opened his eyes again, he found that she had slid between him and the door. "Do you really want to?"

It'd been well over two hundred years since he'd seen eyes so blue, or so... full of lust? Surely not.

"No."

"I don't want you to, either." She slid her hands up to the buckle of his leather jacket, loosening it and pulling the strap free before moving up to the zipper.

The armor slipped from his grip and clattered to the floor as she pushed the jacket off his shoulders. "Nora, please..." he rasped. "I'm a ghoul, but I'm also just a man. You need to stop."

The jacket joined his armor. "Do you want me to stop?" she asked, her hands going still at the hem of his undershirt as she looked up to meet his gaze. Her eyes were sharp and clear. One beer wouldn't have been enough to impair her judgment like this, and she showed no signs of chem use.

"No." He leaned forward, crowding her against the door, and rested his forearms against the wood at opposite sides of her head, caging her in. A reminder of his size and a show of his strength to scare her off. "But I don't want to stop, either. Nora, look at me. You can't want this."

Her brows knitted and she tilted her chin up defiantly. "Edward Deegan, you and I are both from the old world. I know how this works just as well as you do. I would not have invited you up to my room if I didn't want this."

--- YEARNING. The start of my maddening spiral into Rare Pair Hell that resulted in my epic series Beer and Benefits. Just... *dreamy sighs* ---

From an Untitled WIP (Dragon Age: Inquisition):

It started with a simple, unconscious gesture so subtle that if he had blinked, he would have missed it.

The moment Cassandra had mentioned he was an apostate, the prisoner had angled slightly to put herself between him and the Seeker.

--- Take a wild guess. ---

#tag game #my writing #five favorites #fallout 4 #dragon age inquisition

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lepreuxchevalier · 5 years

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Edmund IV, 41st and Reigning King of Albion and Current Head of House Lyonheart. Nicknamed “The Young Lion” or “The Boy King” by his contemporaries, Edmund IV is the firstborn son and second child after Princess Kaitlin Lyonheart, Duchess of Kingswood to Robert III, 40th and Late King of Albion and Former Head of House Lyonheart and Chloe Von Rotbart, Queen Mother of Albion and eldest daughter to Friedrich I, "Der erster und herrschend König von Middenland und Der Gründungschef von Hohenrotbart” from a previous marriage before his subsequent and complimentary anointment and coronation at the conlusion of "The Midlands Crusade" officially preached and prosecuted against the apostate Albic tribes religiously subscribed to the druidic, cult worship of "Erdøk" or "The Great Forest" across the easternmost frontiers of "Das Selbst Kaiserreich der Menschheit" or "The Empire of Mankind Proper" and indigenous to "The Former Kingdom of The Midlands" since long before it's final collapse with the extinction of the legitimate, male bloodline of "The Late House Bartholemew" over a century and a half ago. Born over a year after his father’s crushing defeat and capture at the hands of Prince Tancred Williamson, Duc de Chambord in The Battle of Tourangeau and the subsequent Treaty of Fontainebleau. Edmund IV’s birth as a legitimate male heir to House Lyonheart and The Kingdom of Albion had caused much controversy in the international affairs of the great powers of The Civilized World at the time of his birth. The defining condition of The Treaty of Fontainebleau was to acquire Edward Fitzroy, Duke of Huntington as a royal hostage in place of his father in return for ransoming Robert III back to The Kingdom of Albion at half cost. With the birth of Edmund IV as a legitimate male heir to Robert III and Chloe Rotbart, both House Williamson and The Kingdom of Aquitaine were forced to honour a peace treaty signed on hollow grounds with House Lyonheart and The Kingdom of Albion, as the defining conditions of the treaty had been rendered invalid by the illegitimacy of Edward Fitzroy’s importance as a royal hostage. The formative years of Edmund IV as the legitimate male heir to both House Lyonheart and The Kingdom of Albion was spent receiving the finest scholarly education and military training The Civilized World had to offer, being schooled personally by learned doctors from both The University of Couronne in The Kingdom of Aquitaine and The Imperial Academy at Nymphenburg in The Empire of Mankind, while being drilled in lessons on fencing, jousting, grappling, military strategy, and military technology by quartermasters from Chateau Lefleur, where The Emerald Legionnaires of House Williamson train from birth to be the elite bodyguards to the royal family of Aquitaine. By his 14th birthday, Edmund IV had prematurely inherited the Throne of Albion following Robert III’s untimely death from a severe case of dysentery. By his 16th birthday, Edmund IV had already been betrothed to Lady Amelie Godwinson of Evesham, or the daughter of Sir Æthelred Godwinson, Duke of Evesham, both the preeminent vassal and the former champion to the late Robert III. Preeminent in his ambitions as both the current head of House Lyonheart and the reigning King of Albion are his policies of developing The Kingdom of Albion into the foremost naval and commercial power in The Civilized World, subsidizing the enterprises of his charter companies to explore and claim uncharted territories across the great oceans and establish trade posts and colonies overseas, as well as subsidizing the exploits of trade guilds devoted to the production of maritime industries as a means of bolstering his island kingdom’s effectiveness as a naval power and reallocating The Kingdom of Albion’s military budget in favour of a powerful professional navy as opposed to a strong standing army, contrary to the policy of all historic Kings of Albion before him. Foremost in his foreign policy as King of Albion is avoiding war with House Williamson and The Kingdom of Aquitaine at all costs while entertaining cordial relations with House Rotbart of The Kingdom of Middenland, House Buchenauer of The Duchy of Solingen in The Empire of Mankind Proper, and House Wilkinsen of The Kingdom of Summerset. In regards to the international controversy and religious upheaval caused by the religious reforms of Karl Von Luxembourg, a doctor of theology at The University of Wörtzburch in The Duchy of Solingen and former heir to House Luxembourg of The Kingdom of Schönbrunn. Edmund IV has shown great personal sympathy for the reforms being preached by Karl Von Luxembourg. Granting both religious toleration and political asylum for the followers of his reformation, despite officially remaining fealty to The Conservative Church of The New Gods as the state church of The Kingdom of Albion.

#coats of arms #heraldry #shields #medieval #renaissance #chivalry #knights #plate armour #chainmail #black armour #blackened plate #gilding #swords #fantasy #fantasy world #graphic design #art #character portrait #Edmund IV

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melongumi · 5 years

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I’ve said before, and I will say again later, but hot damn I’d love to see an “Edward Elric gets reincarnated as Hawke” fic. He would make the most incredible shameless apostate.

#maker take you #feels made fullmetal

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officialyourdailyinspiration · 5 years

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Today in Christian History

Today is Wednesday, February 6th, the 37th day of 2019. There are 328 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

897: (Probable date) Death of Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople, one of the most learned scholars of his day. He had been an enemy of Rome and excommnunicated Pope Nicholas I and his associates, one of the events that will lead to the schism between the eastern and western branches of the church.

1481: First auto-da-fé in Spain, a ritual of public penance of condemned heretics and apostates. Such events would often be accompanied by the execution of the “heretics.”

1497: Death on the European continent of Jean de Ockeghem, a composer of Christian music, including a well-known requiem and many motets.

1564: John Calvin preaches his last sermon.

1812: On a bitterly cold day, Adoniram Judson, Gordon Hall, Luther Rice, Samuel Newell, and Samuel Nott are ordained for foreign service at Salem, Massachusetts, the first foreign missionaries of the United States.

1857: Presbyterian minister Edward Norris Kirk arrives in Paris to establish its American Church. He was well-known in the United States as a preacher, revivalist, and author. Among those converted under his ministry was Dwight L. Moody.

1870: Death in Bristol, England, of Mary Groves Müller, the faith-filled and godly wife of George Müller.

1876: Admission of Daniel Olubi as a priest in Nigeria’s Anglican Church. He had already shown himself an effective worker in the Anglican mission and will become even more influential as the years pass, establishing the gospel among his people.

1910: Death in Washington, DC, of Harriet Eugenia Peck Buell, author of the hymn “A Child of the King.”

#Today in Christian History #February 6 #Death of Photius Patriarch of Constantinople #First auto-da-fé in Spain #death of Jean de Ockeghem #John Calvin preaches his last sermon #Adoniram Judson Gordon Hall Luther Rice Samuel Newell and Samuel Nott are ordained as missionaries #Edward Norris Kirk arrives in Paris #death of Mary Groves Müller #Admission of Daniel Olubi as a priest in Nigeria’s Anglican Church #death of Harriet Eugenia Peck Buell

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terzarocca · 2 years

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#REPOST @sussu.adora.livros with @get__repost__app Oi, gente! #resenha O Marquês de Mary, livro 5 da série Os Notórios Flynn, Jess Michaels, editora @Leabharbooks Disponível no Kindleunlimited 🗣sexo explícito e um pouco de spoiler do livro Apostando a Viúva, livro 3 Mary Quinn estava em mais uma temporada sem conseguir encontrar um marido adequado, antes que seu pai, um homem inescrupuloso que apostou a própria filha, irmã de Mary, Gemma, em troca de ter algum tipo de ligação com o Duque de Hartholm, a vendesse para um nobre decrépito, mas de posses. A jovem desejava se casar por amor e ser feliz assim como sua irmã estava com Crispim. E num desejo de querer voar para ser livre, um marquês a tira do eixo e pode ser o começo de tudo o que ela sonhou. Edward saiu de sua reclusão após a morte de sua esposa, voltar ao mercado do matrimônio era necessário para gerar um herdeiro para o seu marquesado. Ele não esperava encontrar um novo frescor em forma de uma bela dama, seria possível um começo diferente mesmo com o seu passado tão tumultuado? Só o amor pode salvar Edward e Mary. * Gostei desse livro, a interação do casal principal foi bem legal, eles foram se apaixonando aos poucos e senti que não foi forçado. Gemma e Crispim aparecem, fiquei um pouco tensa com o passado compartilhado entre os cavalheiros, eram mágoas que ficaram profundas no livro 3. Recomendo muito e finalizamos a série dos notórios, a autora deu a entender que eles vão aparecer em alguma outra série e me pareceu que vai ter um gancho desse com outro, talvez dessa vez com os irmãos do marquês, assim espero hahaha. #amoler #livros #libros #books #romancedeepoca #repostandroid #repostw10 https://www.instagram.com/p/CWgF14mLf21/?utm_medium=tumblr

#repost #resenha #amoler #livros #libros #books #romancedeepoca #repostandroid #repostw10

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bppwhalon · 3 years

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The pure in heart

Sermon on the Feast of John Keble

14 July 2021

Lamentations 3. 19-26

Matthew 5: 1-8

The Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon

In May 2010, Geoffrey Rowell, sometime Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe, suggested that the annual meeting of the Old Catholic bishops and the Anglican bishops in Europe be held in his native land, the Hampshires, as a (mostly) walking retreat.

We began at Winchester Cathedral, warmly welcomed by then-Bishop Michael Scott-Joynt and his wife Louise, and we wandered from there, visiting churches and abbeys, all under the expert tutelage of Bishop Geoffrey. He was a rather singular fellow, confirmed bachelor, inveterate traveler, brilliant historian especially of Newman, professor at Keble College, Oxford, and had first been Bishop of Basingstoke, Suffragan of Chichester Diocese, before translating to the Diocese in Europe. We met on the first day of our respective episcopates, All Saints Day, 2001, and resolved “come hell or high water” — that’s what we said — to become friends. And so we did until his death in 2017.

Geoffrey had carefully and knowingly constructed our retreat, not telling us where we were going until we got there. And so, to the great pleasure of my fellow bishops and me, we ended at John Keble’s grave, in the little town of Hursley. We spent the day wandering around his parish church with a young and knowledgeable guide. I was struck by how humble the church is, how low the pulpit. And yet from this obscure place a great light shone, and in some ways it shines still.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” In some respects, Keble’s life reminds me a little of the effect of the ministry of Jean Vianney, the Curé d’Ars, who was sent to a remote village “where he could do no harm”, and yet had a tremendous effect well beyond the little town of Ars-sur-Forman.

John Keble is considered the initiator of the Oxford Movement, a revival of the ancient catholic roots of the Church of England. The first seeds had already been sown by John Henry Hobart, third Bishop of New York, whose sermons preached in England in 1823 had made a great impression, especially coming from a suspect bishop of the former colonies. On July 14, 1833, in the annual sermon preached for the opening of the Assizes, the law courts in Oxford, Keble launched into an indictment of the Church of England as apostate, sold out to being nothing more than a government fixture. It was an immediate sensation, especially coming from a professor of poetry and not some weighty churchman in high office. Soon Keble was joined by other authors of “Tracts for the Times”, including notables such as Edward Pusey and John Henry Newman. And thus was born the Oxford Movement.

I don’t think I have to tell this congregation about the effect of that movement, not only for Anglicans but also for the wider Church including the Roman Catholic and many Reformed churches. But it did cost Keble. Calling the Church and England together “apostate” is no way to win friends in high places.

For instance, one promising young priest was told by his mentor, “Now remember if you become Keble’s curate, you will lose all chance of preferment for life.”[1] Besides being attacked for his apology of the Catholic Church in England, Keble had many personal tragedies, including remaining childless with his beloved but frail wife Charlotte. She outlived him by six weeks and is buried next to him under an identical tombstone. The verse from Lamentations surely fits Keble’s spirituality: “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

Besides the slow but growing recognition of his personal holiness and tender care of his flock, Keble’s parish preaching eventually became famous, and people traveled long distances to hear him. 12 volumes of sermons were published after his death in 1866. His 1830 volume of poetry for Sundays and holy days, The Church Year, was a smash hit, selling out 158 editions by 1873. Along with another collection, Lyra Innocentium: thoughts in verse on Christian children, Keble made enough money to fully refurbish his church building. He edited the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Richard Hooker’s magnum opus, and I have used his edition for 38 years now. He also translated the works of the second-century martyr-bishop Irenaeus, the Psalms from the Hebrew, created the hymnal ancestor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, and wrote a very consequential treatise on eucharistic adoration, a vigorous argument that the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament is and always has been consonant with the doctrine of the Church of England.

Above all, what struck me that day at All Saints, Hursley, were words inset in the steps leading to the chancel: “Blessed are the pure in heart.” This sums up the man and the effect he had on others, for those who see God help others find God as well.

The worst day of his life, he once said, was in 1845 when he received word from Newman that he was leaving for Rome. And yet in Keble’s last year, Newman visited him in Hursley along with Pusey. Only Keble could have pulled that off…

We just sang “Blest are the pure in heart”, whose first and third stanzas are Keble’s own.

1 Blest are the pure in heart, for they shall see our God; the secret of the Lord is theirs, their soul is Christ's abode.

3 Still to the lowly soul he doth himself impart, and for his dwelling and his throne chooseth the pure in heart.

May the Holy Spirit work such purity in our hearts. Amen.

[1] See a delightful history of Keble and his town, by Charlotte Yonge, his contemporary: "John Keble's Parishes: A History of Hursley and Otterbourne", at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6405/6405-h/6405-h.htm#page1

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