Summer History & Heritage — #8 (week of August 1)
Students, please recall that our summer test will include questions from our last 4
History & Heritage quizzes (Summer 2010 through Spring 2011). Many of you have the copies in your possession, or you can access the quizzes on the Veritas website.
The August Almanac readings are as follows: August 2 & 4 — 9 & 11 — 16 & 18 — 23 &
25 — & 30. Below, some thoughts on this weekʼs content.
July 26 — William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
This English parliamentarian and philanthropist led a forty-year battle to outlaw
slavery in the British Empire before achieving legislative victory as he lay dying in 1833?
His affirmation of evangelical Christianity in the 1780s provoked a reassessment of his
political ambitions, but after seeking counsel, including that of converted slave trader
John Newton, he resolved to promote social reform from his governmental platform. His
fellow evangelical reformers lived in Clapham and were called the Clapham Sect.
July 28 — Le Morte dʼArthur (The Death of Arthur)
Your turn to write the question: we have here a prose epic consisting of 8 romances on
the exploits of King Arthur, derived chiefly from French sources and translated into
skillful English by Thomas Malory, a knight, in the late 1460s; note the central role
played in the epic by Bernardʼs medieval code of chivalry; you should be able to
recognize several English words that are based on the Latin names for the codeʼs
virtues (hilaris, hilarious; sanctus, sanctity; urbanus, urbane; etc.)
“He descended into hell” — (from July 21 daily Bible lesson in Tabletalk magazine) As suggested by this phrase in the Apostlesʼ Creed, many in the early church may have believed that Jesus, in the time between His death and resurrection, visited hell and preached to souls there? The theory is based in part on St. Paulʼs reference in Ephesians 4 to Christ having “descended into the lower regions,” though in all likelihood
the apostle simply speaks of His descent from heaven to earth in this passage. Calvin
understood the old creedal phrase as a witness to Christʼs sufferings on the cross.
Of Magnanimity
(from the June 2011 issue of Chronicles, a poem by David Middleton for you to enjoy)
To rule men well there first must be
This virtue, magnanimity:
Greatness of soul whose depths forget
Each slight and hurt without regret;
In public and in private life
The servant-head of kingdom, wife;
The foe included with the friend
In council for a common end;
Due credit given to those few
Whoʼve earned it but to others too
Who did much less, yet when words praise,
Example, exhortations raise;
The man subsumed within the role
That self, through selflessness, makes whole,
Free subject of a subject Liege,
His shed blood his noblesse oblige.
Students, please note the close ties these verses share with the medieval code of
chivalry mentioned in our Almanac studies above.
In the first stanza the word “magnanimity” is actually defined for the reader, its Latin
roots, I trust, easy for you to pick out. And in the last stanza you have that marvelous
French phrase “noblesse oblige” that we encountered earlier this summer. Again, I trust
you can define it.
Just wondering, however, what you make of the line, Free subject of a subject Liege?
Hereʼs an occasion for good conversation (table talk) with our parents and siblings.
Lastly, speaking of “credit where credit is due,” David Middleton is presently poetry
editor for Modern Age. He has authored many collections including The Habitual
Peacefulness of Gruchy: Poems After Pictures by Jean-Francois Millet (LSU Press).
