Thursday, June 18, 2026
Pseudonymity
Roger Bacon, "Epistola de secretis operibus artis et naturae, et de nullitate magiae," in Opera quaedam hactenus inedita, ed. J. S. Brewer (London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, 1859), 526, as translated at Anthony Grafton, Magus: the art of magic from Faustus to Agrippa (Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University, 2023), 26. (Yet Bacon was himself more enamoured of astrology than, say, Nicholas of Cusa.)
Monday, June 8, 2026
Neue Quäckerey in der Quietisterey
Ehregott Daniel Colberg, Platonistich-hermenetisches Christenthum, begreiffend die historische Erzehlung vom Ursprung und vielerley Secten der heutigen Fanatischen Theologie, unterm Namen der Paracelsisten, Weigelianer, Rosencreutzer, Quäcker, Böhmisten, Widertäuffer, Bourignisten, Labadisten and Quietisten (Frankfuhrt: 1690) 1.16 (vol. 1, pp. 75-76). The reference seems to be to Apology 11.5. I was put onto this by Bern Roling, “Mittelalterliche Mystik im Kreutzfeuer des Pietismusstreites: der Wittenberger Theologe Martin Chladni (1669-1725) und seine Auseinandersetzung mit der Frauenmystik des Hochmittelalters, Pietismus und Neuzeit 46/47 (2020/2021): 40 (38-84):
War es Zufall, so hatte Colberg gefragt, das ein Quäker wie Robert Barclay (1648-1690) sich auf Bernhard von Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Bonaventura (1221-1274) hatte befufen können?
Cf. the title cited in n6: Conrad Tiburtius Rango, Neue Quäckerey in der Quietisterey (Frankfurt: 1688). For what very little it may be worth, neither Colberg nor Rango are listed in Smith's 1873 Bibliotheca anti-Quakeriana.
Ordo naturae
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| Universität Wien |
Saturday, June 6, 2026
"the gate is narrow and the way is hard [(einfaltig)], that leads to life [(Fülle)]"
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| Universität Wien |
"The religious symbol-system of Israel was, with reference to the multiplicity [(Vielfalt)] of Ancient [Near] Eastern [polytheism]—indeed ancient polytheism [more generally]—comparatively simple: YHWH is one and . . . unique (Dt 6:4), exclusive, shuts out all other gods. . . . The God of the Bible is no fan of [riotous] diversity [(Vielfalt)]."
"Against the background of the genesis and phenomenology of the religious symbol system attested to in the Bible, [our contemporary] praise of [sexual] diversity looks to me like a surreptitious praise of polytheism. It is [well-]suited to the self-understanding of the postmodern, [and] stands for all of that in opposition to the biblical tradition. The God of Israel is one; he is constant [(true)], does not dissemble, wears no masks, has nothing evil up his sleeve. The fulfillment [(Fülle)] that the biblical faith promises is not to be confused with the profusions [(Vielfalt)] of ancient cosmotheism. [It is] only through the needle's-eye of simplicity [(Einfalt)] that man acquires access to the plenitude [(Fülle)] of the God attested to in the Bible: so confess both Judaism and Christianity together (cf. Mk 12:28-34, 1 Thess 1:9, Rom 6:21)."
Friday, June 5, 2026
The Differentiation
"Blessed are You, L‑rd our G‑d, King of the universe, who makes a distinction between sacred and mundane, between light and darkness, between Israel and the nations, between the Seventh Day and the six workdays. Blessed are You, L‑rd, who makes a distinction between sacred and mundane."
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחוֹל בֵּין אוֹר לְחֹשֶׁךְ בֵּין יִשְׂרָאֵל לָעַמִּים בֵּין יוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי לְשֵׁשֶׁת יְמֵי הַמַּעֲשֶׂה בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יי הַמַּבְדִּיל בֵּין קֹדֶשׁ לְחוֹל
The Havdalah.
queer, quer
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| Universität Wien |
Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, "Die Bibel queer lesen? Zu einem umstritten Heft des katholischen Bibelwerks," Communio blog, 29 May 2026. As I don't have an etymological dictionary of German ready-to-hand, here is the etymology the OED gives for the adjective "queer": "perhaps < (or perhaps even cognate with) German quer transverse, oblique, crosswise, at right angles, obstructive, (of things) going wrong (now rare), (of a person) peculiar (now obsolete in this sense), (of a glance) directed sideways, especially in a surreptitious or hostile manner (now rare), (of opinion and behaviour) at odds with others (see thwart adv.), but the semantic correspondence is not exact, and the figurative senses in German are apparently much later developments than the English word."
Monday, May 25, 2026
Frequent Communion
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| © Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY 2.5 |
"Those who have not partaken of Holy Communion for three Sundays [running] are excommunicated."
The c. 8th-century Bigotian Penitential (so-called), as quoted by Fr. Edmond Dublanchy, S.M., citing Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche, ed. Wasserschleben (Halle: 1851), 448, in "Communion eucharistique. II. Communion fréquente,” in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique 3 (1908), col. 522 (cols. 515-552). For the context, see The Irish penitentials, ed. Bieler, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae 5 (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1963), 219:
9. CONCERNING THE LORD'S DAY
1. If anyone by negligence fasts on the Lord's Day, he must fast for the entire week; if (he does so) a second time, forty days; if, after that, sixty days. 2. Those who have not communicated for three Sundays, are excommunicated.
communicaverit is PAS3P. Cf. Penitential of Theodore I.xii.1, as quoted in the DMLBS, sv communicare: "qui iij Dominicis non [communic]averint, excommunicentur" (excommunicentur being pPS3P).
Presumably that "Qui" would have to be "Worthies who". I.e. presumably in context it would not be directed against those who, say, haven't been able to get to confession.




