Losing Champions

This chapter discusses how 1626 was to be a dangerous year for those wedded to Elizabeth Stuart's cause. The first casualty was a minor Protestant polemicist and fervent supporter of hers named Thomas Scott. Then the Duke of Brunswick died at Wolfenbüttel; Brunwick's death damaged not only Elizabeth's cause, but also her well-being. Meanwhile, in November, Gabor agreed terms with the Holy Roman Emperor, signing the Peace of Pressburg in December. With Gabor making peace, Elizabeth had lost yet another champion. The chapter then looks at how Buckingham's invasion of the Isle of Rhé started the Franco-Stuart war of 1627–1629. Frederick V and Elizabeth were fully committed to two complementary struggles: regaining the Palatinate and keeping up appearances. Just when nothing seemed to be going right for Frederick and Elizabeth, the good news that the Swedish king's army had landed at Usedom in July of 1630 arrived. Gustavus Adolphus died on the battlefield on November 16, 1632, shortly after the taking of Frankenthal. His death was presumably received with mixed emotions by Elizabeth, as while she may have joined in the general mourning of a lost Protestant champion, his passing must also have seemed timely, not least because of the disrespect that he had accorded her husband and his stance on the Palatinate.

A Voice of the Nonconformist Conscience, 1849–80

The son of a Congregational minister in the north of England, W. T. Stead was largely taught at home by his father, and experienced conversion during the religious revival of 1859–62. In 1870, at the age of 22, he was appointed editor of the Darlington Northern Echo, and over the next decade he made the newspaper a powerful voice of the Nonconformist Conscience in the north of England. For Stead, the editor’s desk was a ‘pulpit’ from which to preach to a congregation of thousands. He played a leading role in the ‘Bulgarian atrocities’ agitation of 1876–8, calling for British intervention to end the massacres of Christians in the Ottoman Empire and becoming a fervent supporter of the Liberal politician, William Ewart Gladstone. Through the enigmatic Russian, Madame Novikoff, Stead was introduced into London cultural circles and embraced what would be a lifelong love of Russian cultures and peoples.

Medicina i religió a la Baixa Edat Mitjana: la justificació mèdica de les pràctiques penitencials en els sermons de sant Vicent Ferrer

Resum: És ben conegut que Vicent Ferrer va ser un fervorós partidari de pràctiques penitencials rigoroses, com ara els dejunis, la vigília i, sobretot, la disciplina fins l’efusió de sang. La companyia que el seguia practicava totes aquestes penitències, seguint les instruccions del predicador. Especialment significativa i polèmica era la seua adhesió a les virtuts espirituals del cilici i el flagell, utilitzats per ell mateix i pels seus seguidors. Enfront de les demandes i protestes, especialment de clergues, pel dany per a la salut que aquestes pràctiques suposaven, Ferrer va utilitzar tot un seguit d’arguments mèdics i filosòfics inspirats en el galenisme i l’aristotelisme, per tal de justificar la penitència com a un element que, lluny de perjudicar, beneficiava la salut espiritual i corporal del cristià. Paraules clau: sermons, Vicent Ferrer, galenisme, aliments, penitència Abstract: It is well known that Vincent Ferrer was a fervent supporter of rigorous penitential practices such as fasting, vigil, and especially the discipline to bloodshed. The company that followed him practiced all these penances, with the instructions of the preacher. It was particularly significant and controversial his adherence to spiritual virtues of the scourge and sackcloth, used by himself and his followers. Faced with demands and protests, especially by clerics, about the damage to health of these practices, Ferrer used a series of medical and philosophical arguments inspired in Galenism and Aristotelism, to justify penance as an element that, far from harm, produced physical and spiritual health benefits for the Christian. Keywords: sermons, Vincent Ferrer, galenism, foods, penance

‘A Saint for all Australians’?

On 17 October 2010 Mary MacKillop became the first Australian citizen to be officially canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. This event generated a similar outpouring of patriotic enthusiasm to that which greeted Mary’s beatification in 1995. The title of this paper is borrowed from a newspaper article of 1985 by the poet, publisher and self-described ‘implacable agnostic’, Max Harris, a fervent supporter of Mary’s canonization. Saints are the only relatives that you can choose, commented Bishop Ambrose of Milan in the fourth century, and taking this ancient aphorism rather more literally than St Ambrose intended, Dame Edna Everage has claimed descent from a branch of the MacKillop family tree. As Dame Edna’s creator, comedian and satirist Barry Humphries, is a shrewd observer of Australian culture, Mary MacKillop’s triumph as a saint for all Australians seems assured — but what does this reveal about the meaning of sainthood in contemporary Australian society? This paper will trace some important stages in devotion to saints in Australian history before returning to Mary Helen MacKillop, her status as a national icon, and the threads of change and continuity which can be discerned in her cult.

Max Weber und die ,,deutsche Gemütlichkeit": Amerika, Du hast es besser … (Goethe, 1827)

Max Weber is presented as a fervent supporter of the US-American life-style, its love of freedom and capitalist competition. After his return from the United States he makes all efforts at Americanizing Germany and bridging the transatlantic divide that Germany has brought about by its cultivation of "Gemütlichkeit" and "Bildung".