The unfortunate excesses of early Protestant opposition to the religious life?

"all those who live outside of marriage, although God has not—on account of their nature by a special command—called them to a life without marriage, are only half humans [(halbe leut)].  They are only half useful to society as well, and often they are altogether useless, and even harmful."

". . . alle, die ausser der Ehe leben, die Got auß der eh durch die natur oder andere befelch nit besonders berüffet hat, allein halbe leut sind vnd der gemeinde allein halben nutz, ja offt keinen, sonder mehr schaden bringen. . . ."

     Martin Bucer, Traupredigt . . . für Hieronymus zum Lamb und Margarete Silberborn zwischen 13. September und 8. Oktober 1543, Martin Bucers Deutschen Schriften, Im Auftrag der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften herausgegeben von Gottfriend Seebaß, Bd. 10, Schriften zu Ehe und Eherecht, ed. Stephen E. Buckwalter und Hans Schultz unter Mitarbeit von Thomas Wilhelmi (Gütersloh:  Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2001), 580, ll. 16-19 (569-589).  For an early report on and edition of this document, see Hans von Schubert, "Zwei Predigten Martin Bucers," Beiträge zur Reformationsgeschichte: Herrn Oberkonsistorialrat Professor D. Köstlin bei der Feier seines siebzigsten Geburtstages ehrerbietigst gewidmetere (1898), 208 ff.  Translation:  H. J. Selderhuis, Marriage and divorce in the thought of Martin Bucer, trans. John Vriend and Lyle D. Bierma, Sixteenth century essays and studies 48 (Kirksville, MO:  Thomas Jefferson University Press, Truman State University, 1999 [1994]), 173.  Selderhuis cites it (with my expansions) as Ein predig Bucerj vom Ehestand 156a =Trau- und Ehestandpredigt 222 =Les archives du chapitre Saint-Thomas de Strasbourg (AST) | Die Archivalien des Kapitels St. Thomas von Straßburg (AST), Varia Eccl. 2, no. 167, 154a-159b, now in Les archives de la ville et de l'eurométropole de Strasbourg.  I was put onto this by Bucer scholar Brian Lugioyo, who shared one of his unpublished manuscripts with me.

Tolle, bibe, or Drink this book

      "'The philosophers, preachers, and learned men of your world stuff fine words into you, through your ears [(aureilles)].  Here, we actually incorporate our teachings through our mouths [(bouche)].  So instead of saying to you, "Read [(lisez)] this chapter, look at [(voyez)] this explanation [(glose)]," I say, "Taste [(tastez; var. goûtez)] this chapter, swallow [(avallez)] this fine gloss."  Once, an old Jewish prophet ate [(mangea)] a book and became a scholar to the teeth [(dents)]; now you're going to drink [(boirez)] one and become a scholar right up to the liver [(foye)].'"

     Baqbuc to Panurge in François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel 5.56, trans. Burton Raffel ((New York and London:  W. W. Norton & Company, 1990), 616-617).  French from the 1994 Pléiade edition of Huchon and Moreau, p. 833.  Cf. "you guzzlers—you like to enjoy books like this to the very last drop" (Prologue to Book 5 (528)).

"Yet how easily, in the end, I let it go."

Tim Peters

"The model of the house in my head, try as it would to accommodate itself to the original, kept coming up against stubborn resistance.  Everything was slightly out of scale, all angles slightly out of true.  The staircase was steeper, the landing pokier, the lavatory window looked out not on to the road, as I thought it should, but back across the fields.  I experienced a sense of panic as the real, the crassly complacent real, took hold of the things I thought I remembered and shook them into its own shape.  Something precious was dissolving and pouring away between my fingers.  Yet how easily, in the end, I let it go.  The past, I mean the real past, matters less than we pretend."

     John Banville, The sea (London:  Picador, 2005), 156-157.

armpittylegmiddle

Mackenzie Sue Perisho indicating
her left armpittylegmiddle.

n. popliteal fossa, ham, hough, houx, kneepit.

     Mackenzie Sue Perisho dictionary of the English language, 26 August 2021.

The birth of Quaker historical study

      "Through their opposition to the evangelicals' emphasis on the Scriptures and their savage criticism of the latter's apparent 'backsliding' into the unreformed Church, the Quietists drew attention to the divisions that existed within British Quakerism during the early part of the nineteenth century.  Subsequent historical study of this period has also emphasized these divisions and often cast evangelicalism as an invading force in British Quakerism.  This is because, as ever, history was written by the winners.  The birth of Quaker historical study coincided with the eclipse of evangelicalism within London Yearly Meeting and its replacement with a liberalism which doubted whether evangelical doctrine represented the true beliefs of Friends.  Elizabeth Isichei has identified the links that existed between the main motor of Quakers' study of their own past, the Friends Historical Society, and the rise of liberalism within British Quakerism."

     Simon Bright, "'Friends have no cause to be ashamed of being by others thought non-evangelical':  unity and diversity of belief among early nineteenth-century British Quakers," in Unity and diversity in the church:  papers read at the 1994 summer meeting and the 1995 winter meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, ed. R. N. Swanson, Studies in church history 32 (Oxford:  published for the Ecclesiastical History Society by Blackwell Publishers, 1996), 340 (337-349).

Aaronic blessing, Priestly benediction

The Lord bless you and keep you:
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you:
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. 

     Num 26:24-26 RSV, a version of which appears on the second of the two 6th-century BCE Ketef Hinnom scrolls/amulets (KH2) discovered in 1979, ""the oldest copies of biblical text known to us today."

"Where God's Word is, there is God himself, there God's Spirit is at work, there God establishes his covenant, there he plants His church."

"Waar Gods Woord is, daar is Hij zelf, daar werkt zijn Geest, daar richt Hij zijn verbond op, daar plant Hij zijn kerk."

     Herman Bavinck, Saved by grace:  the Holy Spirit's work in calling and regeneration, trans. J. Mark Beach (Grand Rapids, MI:  Reformation Heritage Books, 2008), 79; Roeping en wedergeboorte (Kampen:  Zalsman, 1903), 109 (chap. 2, "De onmiddellijke werking des H. Geestes en de genademiddelen," The immediate working of the Holy Spirit and the means of grace).  I traced this back to the original Dutch; later, Daniel (Bonggun) Baek, who had access to the e-version of Saved by grace, found it in the English translation.