Today is the feast Day of St Thomas Aquinas (above), the 13th century Catholic theologian. He came close to inventing the limerick (among other more celebrated achievements) with these lines of Latin he wrote for a prayer book:
Sit vitiorum meorum evacuatio
Concupiscentae et libidinis exterminatio,
Caritatis et patientiae,
Humilitatis et obedientiae,
Omniumque virtutum augmentatio.
Here’s the Ship of Fools translation:
Sin I must obliterate!
Libido I’ll exterminate!
Love and humility,
Patience, docility,
Long may they proliferate!
The English musical composer John Tavener was born today in 1944. His big break as a young composer came when he persuaded the Beatles to release his first major work, The Whale, on the Apple label, but most of his work was inspired by Eastern Orthodox spirituality, including The Protecting Veil, Song for Athene and The Lamb.
The hilariously named Diet of Worms began today in 1521. This was the imperial assembly (a ‘diet’) where Martin Luther faced the accusation of heresy. His moment of defiance, in which he reportedly said, ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’, is celebrated as the most dramatic and heroic episode in the formation of Protestantism. But Luther himself recalled it somewhat differently:
‘I had expected that his majesty the Emperor would have collected 50 doctors of divinity to confute the monk in argument. But all they said was: “Are these books yours?”
“Yes.”
“Do you recant them?”
“No.”
“Then get out!”’
At 2am today in 1547, King Henry VIII died. The creator of the Church of England lived and died to all intents and purposes a Catholic, and his commitment to ecumenism was such that he created martyrs for every branch of Christianity then in existence. His corpse was so bloated it took 12 men to bear it, and when they came for him in the morning they found it had burst and was being feasted upon by his dog.
Today (in the year 814) was also the last day of the Emperor Charlemagne. He left behind an empire (the Holy Roman one) that included most of Europe, on which he had forcibly imposed Roman Christianity. He can therefore take more credit than any other single person for the fact that Europe turned out Christian.
Image: Lawrence Rice