Summer History & Heritage — #2

Please keep in mind that for June, you should take a little time to review the
Summer 2010 Quiz (mostly about the ancient Greeks) and the Fall 2010
Quiz (mostly about the Romans). Again, if you no longer have the test
booklets, you can find what you need on the Veritas website.
Here are a couple of things that have stood out in my review thus far: the
rationale behind Socratesʼ observation about true philosophers never
fearing death (Summer, #8), and Aristotleʼs reasons for being wary of any
of the three basic forms of government in their purest expressions
(Summer, #14).
What follows are some comments on last weekʼs Almanac readings:
June 14 — Whatever Happened to Chivalry? please note the description
or definition of this ideal, and make sure you know the meaning of
noblesse oblige (a French expression carried right over into English);
today, as the author observes, we are apt to regard chivalry as an
outmoded medieval concept, but in reality it is Christian to the core. Can
you explain, in a deep theological sense, how this is so?
June 16 — Benedictʼs Concession (Pope Benedict XIV); know what
“vernacular” refers to as in “vernacular translations”; also, take note of what
version of the Bible had become the exclusive standard by the late Middle
Ages; What fears and concerns drove the late Medieval and Renaissance
Catholic Church to make war on various versions of the Bible?

Lastly, in light of historic battles over the Bible, we should pause to note
that the present year (2011) happens to be the 400th anniversary of the
publication of the English King James Version (1611). It appears that that
sacred book, says Aaron Wolf in the June issue of Chronicles magazine,
“has finally started to yield up the ghost. And that is a shame, because the
King James Version is, hardly arguably, the single-most influential book in
the modern English-speaking world. So much so that, while its liturgical
use is all but lost, it still sways the imagination of those who once heard it.”