Demon trum

"it should be made lawful for any magistrate to commit a confirmed and notorious trombone-player to the lunatic asylum, and to appoint a Receiver and Administrator of his property.  Books, tracts, and lectures on the evils of brass instruments should be employed to develop a healthy public sentiment, and the young should be induced to join societies pledged to total abstinence from brass in every form.  But there must be no delay.  The evil must be met by legal methods now. . . ."

     "The brass instrument habit," The New York times, 28 July 1880, p. 4.  I have also a complete scan of the original on file, but you can see a transcription of the whole at Musicology for Everyone.

"Stephen is not . . . to be supposed to have loved his enemies when he prayed for them, yet not to have loved them when he reproved them"

"Stephen is not . . . to be supposed to have loved [his] enemies when he prayed for them, yet not to have loved [them] when he reproved [them] by censuring their unbelief [(Neque . . . existimandus est Stephanus tunc inimicos dilexisse cum pro eis oraret, et non dilexisse cum eorum incredulitatem arguendo corriperet)]. Such a thing [(hoc)] would be unworthy of [(absit ab)] the soul of a martyr hastening to the palace of heaven.  For that holy charity kept to [(servavit)] a firm patience in prayer which held fast to [(tenuit)] a rigid censure in reproof. And lenity merited to be heard in prayer because [(ideo . . . quia)] without charity there was no severity-in-reproof.  And so [(ac per hoc)], whether by praying or by reproving, Blessed Stephen stocked up on [(reservavit)] charity, because he aimed via both methods [(utrobique)] at [(cogitavit)] the salvation of the errant, and the presence [(indicio)] of holy prayer was proof [(ostendit)] that th[e] rebuke [derived] not from animosity, but from love [(amoris)]."

     St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (462/468-527/533), Sermon 3.3 on St. Stephen the Protomartyr and the Conversion of St. Paul, translation, italics, and underscoring mine.  Latin from PL 65, col. 731A, not yet CCSL 91A (1968), ed. Fraipont, 905-909.

"This, surely, is the true life, my brothers!"

     "[3.] And so the love that brought Christ from heaven to earth raised Stephen from earth to heaven; shown first in the king [(Rege)], it later shone forth in his soldier [(milite)]. . . . Love was Stephen’s weapon [(armis)] by which he gained every battle, and so won the crown [(coronam)] signified by his name. His love of God kept him from yielding to the ferocious mob; his love for his neighbour made him pray for those who were stoning him. Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend [(Per caritatem arguebat, ut corrigerentur)]; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment. Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven [(et quem habuit in terra persecutorem, in coelo meruit habere consortem)]. In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition. . . .
     "[5.] . . . Now at last, Paul rejoices with Stephen, with Stephen he delights in the glory of Christ, with Stephen he exults, with Stephen he reigns [(Et ecce nunc Paulus cum Stephano laetatur, cum Stephano Christi claritate perfruitur, cum Stephano exsultat, cum Stephano regnat)]. Stephen went first, slain by the stones thrown by Paul [(trucidatus lapidibus Pauli)], but Paul followed after, helped by the prayer[s] of Stephen. [6.] This, surely, is the true life, my brothers, a life in which Paul feels no shame [(non confunditur)] because of Stephen’s death [(occisione)], and Stephen delights [(gratulatur)] in Paul’s companionship [(consortio)], for love fills them both with joy. It was Stephen’s love that prevailed over the cruelty of the mob, and it was Paul’s love that covered the multitude of his sins; it was love that won for both of them the kingdom of heaven.
     "Love, indeed, is the source of all good things; it is an impregnable defence, and the way that leads to heaven. He who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides him, protects him, and brings him to his journey’s end [(perducit)].
     "My brothers, Christ made love the stairway [(scalam)] that would enable all Christians to climb to heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore, in all sincerity, give one another practical proof of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together. . . ."

     St. Fulgentius of Ruspe (462/468-527/533), Sermon no. 3, secs. 3 and 5-6 on St. Stephen the Protomartyr and the Conversion of St. Paul, as translated for the Liturgy of the hours, but with ellipses re-inserted by me.  Latin from PL 65, cols. 729-732, not yet CCSL 91A (1968), ed. Fraipont, 905-909.  At some point I'm going to have to translate the whole thing.  See also here.

In the first place Tradition?

"Our first plea and entreaty was that he [(Sébastien Châteillon/Sebastian Castellio)] should not rashly reject the age-long interpretation of the whole of the Church."

"Principio obtestati eum sumus, ut ne perpetuum universae ecclesiae consensum temere pro nihilo duceret."

Above all we begged him not rashly to consider as nothing the unbroken consensus of the universal church.

     John Calvin for the ministers of the church of Geneva, Letter no. 531 of early 1544 recommending Sébastien Châteillon/Sebastian Castellio (who had been denied admission to the Genevan company of pastors) for another (teaching?) post in Lausanne, as trans. G. R. Potter and M. Greengrass, eds., John Calvin, Documents of modern history (London:  1983), 101, as quoted in Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation:  a history (New York:  Viking, 2003), 235 =705n34.  This appears to me to be CO 11, col. 675 (674-676), above (translation mine).  Cf. Wulfert de Greef, The writings of John Calvin:  an introductory guide, trans. Lyle D. Bierma, expanded ed. (Louisville:  Westminster John Knox, 2008), 33-34.  At issue was "the unbroken consensus of the universal church" on the canonicity of the Song of Songs, and (for MacCulloch) what Trent would in a few years make of that.  Note, however, that I have not yet read this in the context of the letter or Calvin's theology as a whole!

"Are we selves or are we souls?"

Wiseblood Books

"We are engaged in a fight about the nature of man. What is in man? Either a self or a soul. Are we selves or are we souls? And that is the question that lies before us."

     Pierre Manent, "Who is Pierre Manent?," a conversation with Jonathan Silver, Mosaic, 15 December 2022.

"Ethics is [not] formally independent of the facts of human life and . . . human physiology."

The British Academy

"5. Ethics is formally independent of the facts of human life and, for example, human physiology."

     Elizabeth Anscombe, "Twenty opinions common among modern Anglo-American philosophers" (Rome, 7/12 April 1986), as reprinted in Faith in a hard ground:  essays on religion, philosophy, and ethics by G.E.M. Anscombe, ed. Mary Geach and Luke Gormally, St Andrews studies in philosophy and public affairs 11 (Exeter, UK; Charlottesville, VA:  Imprint Academic, 2008), .  Anscombe:  "there are a number of opinions which are inimical to Christianity which are very often found implicitly or explicitly among analytical philosophers.  A seriously believing Christian ought not, in my opinion, to hold any of them. . . .  In saying these opinions are inimical to the Christian religion I am not implying that they can only be judged false on that ground.  Each of them is a philosophical error and can be argued to be such on purely philosophical grounds."

"the most memorable thing Luther never said"

"He spelled out to the Emperor that without a conviction from 'scripture or plain reason (for I believe neither in Pope nor councils alone)', he could recant nothing.  It was such a momentous ending to his words that not long after his death, the first editor of his collected works, Georg Rörer, felt compelled to construct two tiny summary sentences in German, which have become the most memorable thing Luther never said:  'Here I stand; I can do no other.'"

     Diarmaid MacCulloch, The Reformation:  a history (New York:  Viking, 2004), 127.  MacCulloch cites Eike Wolgast, Die Wittenberger Luther-Ausgabe:  zur überlieferungsgeschichte der Werke Luthers im 16. Jahrhundert (Nieuwkoop, 1971), col. 122.  But read also Thomas Kaufmann, "Luther auf dem Wormser Reichstag:  Person und publizistische Wirkung," in Hier stehe ich:  Gewissen und Protest – 1521–2021. Begleitband zur Landesausstellung 3. Juli bis 30. Dezember 2021, Museum der Stadt Worms im Andreasstift (Worms:  Worms Verlag, 2021), 280 (274–289; citation from Wikipedia).  Clearly, I am very far from done with this one!