John ii of France

Battle At Poitiers, 1356', (c1850).Photo by The Print Collector

It was never expected that the future King John II would ever become king, considering King Philip IV (r. 1285-1314) had three sons, at least one of whom was expected to have male issue. Therefore, in his early life, John was not given any sort of upbringing to prepare him for kingship. He received a solid education but particularly excelled in martial activities, such as horse riding and weaponry. In 1328, however, John's life took an unexpected turn when the last of Philip IV's sons died, and his father, Philip VI, succeeded to the throne as the closest male relative of the royal family, becoming the first Valois monarch of the Capetian dynasty. The new royal family immediately moved to Paris, and at the age of nine, John was now heir to the throne of France. By 1332, John had married Bonne, daughter to the King of Bohemia, and the marriage is believed to have been a happy one, producing eight children, including the future Charles V in 1337. For the next several years, events within France remained relatively calm, but by 1337, war had erupted between France and England under the command of King Edward III. By the time the English landed in France, they had already won a major naval battle at Sluys and continued their dominance after arriving on the continent. Although John showed no lack of bravery or reluctance to fight alongside his men, he was nowhere close to the commander that Edward III and his captains were, and the French suffered heavy losses in men and territory. The war dragged on intermittently for the next ten years or so, and the French were most certainly on the losing side, suffering a huge defeat at Crecy in 1346.

To make matters worse, the Black Death was working its way through Europe, and both the English and French suffered major losses, with their respective populations being severely decimated. In 1350, Philip VI passed away and John succeeded as King John II. He ascended to the throne of a nation that was deeply in debt and ravaged by the plague. His lavish spending on banquets and tournaments (undoubtedly inherited from his equally extravagant father) and favoring of his close friends did not help matters along, and before long, the king made some powerful enemies within his own realm. Charles II of Navarre, a pretender to the throne and a distant cousin to the king, was the most powerful amongst them. After a number of years of backbiting and tensions between the two men, John II was finally able to outwit his enemy when Charles was turned in by the dauphin for supposedly attempting to depose the king. Navarre was promptly arrested and thrown in prison to rot. Despite achieving this significant victory, John II now had to deal with the problem of the English, who were once again on the verge of invading France.

After arriving, the English handed the king and his army a crushing defeat at the Battle of Poitiers, which saw the Black Prince subdue a French force that was five to six times the size of his own army. Thousands were killed and John II himself was taken prisoner. The French king was taken to London where he would remain a prisoner for four years, though he was treated with great respect as a king and member of the royal family should (John II was a maternal cousin of Edward III). Finally, in 1360, after much negotiating, a treaty was set up, and John II was ransomed, being allowed to return to France after the first installment was paid. Unfortunately, John found his country in bad shape when he returned and spent the final years of his life attempting to repair the ravages that war and plague had inflicted on the realm. In late 1363, Louis, Duke of Anjou, one of the king's sons who had been left as hostages in the English-controlled city of Calais as reassurance that the remainder of John's ransom would be paid, escaped from captivity. John II, the honorable man he was, turned himself in to the English king for this grave offense and returned to London, not to return until his full ransom was paid. However, in 1364, John became sick and suddenly passed away, shortly before his forty-fifth birthday. He was given a funeral fit for a king in England before his body was shipped back to France. Despite John's brave and honorable character, his reign was faced with far too many hardships, and in the end, it is hard to deny the fact that he was simply no match for a man such as Edward III.

Coyolxauhqui

Coyolxauhqui ruled over her brothers, the Four Hundred Southerners, she led them in attack against their mother, Coatlicue, when they learned she was pregnant, convinced she dishonored them all.

 

 

Attack On Coatlicue

 

The miraculous pregnancy of Coatlicue, the maternal Earth deity, made her other children embarrassed, including her oldest daughter Coyolxauhqui. As Coatlicue swept the temple, a few hummingbird feathers fell into her chest. Coatlicue’s child Huitzilopochtli sprang from her womb in full war armor and killed Coyolxauhqui and her other 400 brothers, who had been attacking their mother. He cut off her limbs, then tossed her head into the sky where it became the moon, so that his mother would be comforted in seeing her daughter in the sky every night.

Sin of Pride

Asmodeus appearing before Don Cleophas, illustration from The Lame Devil (Le diable boiteux) by Alain-Rene Lesage (1668-1747), Croci edition, Milan, Italy, 1871.

Pride is the excessive love of one's own excellence. It is ordinarily accounted one of the seven capital sins. St. Thomas, however, endorsing the appreciation of St. Gregory, considers it the queen of all vices, and puts vainglory in its place as one of the deadly sins. In giving it this pre-eminence he takes it in a most formal and complete signification. He understands it to be that frame of mind in which a man, through the love of his own worth, aims to withdraw himself from subjection to Almighty God, and sets at naught the commands of superiors. It is a species of contempt of God and of those who bear his commission. Regarded in this way, it is of course a mortal sin of a most heinous sort. Indeed St. Thomas rates it in this sense as one of the blackest of sins. By it the creature refuses to stay within his essential orbit; he turns his back upon God, not through weakness or ignorance, but solely because in his self-exaltation he is minded not to submit. His attitude has something Satanic in it, and is probably not often verified in human beings. A less atrocious kind of pride is that which impels one to make much of oneself unduly and without sufficient warrant, without however any disposition to cast off the dominion of the Creator. This may happen, according to St. Gregory, either because a man regards himself as the source of such advantages as he may discern in himself, or because, whilst admitting that God has bestowed them, he reputes this to have been in response to his own merits, or because he attributes to himself gifts which he has not or, finally, because even when these are real he unreasonably looks to be put ahead of others. Supposing the conviction indicated in the first two instances to be seriously entertained, the sin would be a grievous one and would have the added guilt of heresy. Ordinarily, however, this erroneous persuasion does not exist; it is the demeanor that is reprehensible. The last two cases generally speaking are not held to constitute grave offenses. This is not true, however, whenever a man's arrogance is the occasion of great harm to another, as, for instance, his undertaking the duties of a physician without the requisite knowledge. The same judgment is to be rendered when pride has given rise to such temper of soul that in the pursuit of its object one is ready for anything, even mortal sin. Vain-glory, ambition, and presumption are commonly enumerated as the offspring vices of pride, because they are well adapted to serve its inordinate aims. Of themselves they are venial sins unless some extraneous consideration puts them in the ranks of grievous transgressions. It should be noted that presumption does not here stand for the sin against hope. It means the desire to essay what exceeds one's capacity. 

Excerpt From

Delany, Joseph. "Pride." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911

Gascony

Henry III sailing home from Gascony - from drawing by Matthew of Paris, 1243. MP: Benedictine monk, English chronicler, artist in illuminated manuscripts and cartographer, c. 1200 – 1259. Henry III of England, 1 October 1207 – 16 November 1272. (Photo by Culture Club)

Taken from the Visigoths by the Franks after the Battle of Vouillé (507), the region was overrun from 561 by the Basques (Basque), or Vascones; in 602 the Frankish kings recognized Vasconia, or Gascony, as a duchy under the national leader Genialis. In the latter half of the 7th century, the Gascon duke Loup (Lupus) extended his power over adjacent areas, and by the latter half of the 10th century his successors controlled all of Gascony as well as Bordeaux, Bazadais, and Agenais (now Agen).

      In 1032 a war of succession broke out, and Gascony was eventually won in 1052 by Guy-Geoffrey (from 1058 William VIII, duke of Aquitaine). But in the meantime, effective power within the duchy had devolved on the greater counts and viscounts (such as those of Armagnac and Lomagne), who were to dominate Gascony for centuries. In the 12th century the ducal title passed with the Aquitanian inheritance to the Plantagenet kings of England. Throughout the years of intermittent warfare between England and France, up to the definitive French reconquest at the end of the Hundred Years' War, Gascony remained the kernel of English royal power in southwestern France. Gascony was merged with Guyenne in the gouvernement of Guyenne-et-Gascogne during the ancien régime.

Barbara Jagiellon

Barbara was married on 21 November 1496 in a glittering ceremony in Leipzig to George, Duke of Saxony (1471–1539). At the wedding, 6,286 German and Polish nobles were said to be present. This marriage was a key part of maintaining good diplomatic relations between Germany and Poland. For Barbara's family, the marriage was also important due to their rivalry with the House of Habsburg.

In 1513, Barbara and her husband founded Meissen Cathedral; several Masses and liturgical celebration of Easter have been recorded to have taken place since then. Barbara sent letters to her husband while he was at battles. Witnesses say the couple had a very loving and happy marriage.

Barbara died in Leipzig aged 55. Her husband was so stricken by grief that he grew a beard during this time, which was why he was nicknamed "the Bearded". She was buried in the cathedral of Meissen in her husband's funeral chapel, built between 1521-1524. Barbara and George were the last Prince and Princess of the House of Wettin to be buried at the cathedral. The altarpiece in the funerary chapel was the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder. They are surrounded by apostles and saints.

Title: Portrait of Barbara, Duchess of Saxony

Style: Northern Renaissance

Artist Name: Cranach the Elder Lucas 

Cranach the Elder, Lucas

(1472-1553)

   One of the leading painters of the Danube School, Lucas Cranach the Elder was born in Kronach, Germany, and trained by his father Hans, who was also an artist. He is known to have been in Vienna in c. 1502 when he painted the portrait Johannes Cuspinian, a professor at the local university, and his wife, Anna, both now in the Oskar Reinhart Collection in Winterhur, Delaware. These portraits place the figures in front of atmospheric landscapes with contrasts of fully foliated and barren trees that recall the landscape forms of Albrecht Dürer. Cranach's Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1504; Berlin, Staatliche Museen) also places great emphasis on the landscape details.

Soon after completing the work, Cranach moved to Wittenberg where he became court painter to Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony. Cranach spent the rest of his life working for the electorate not only in his capacity as painter but also as diplomat. In 1509, he traveled to the Netherlands where he is known to have painted a portrait of the young Emperor Charles V, now lost. There he was exposed to the Netherlandish and Italianate styles.

   Cranach's mature works show a tendency toward a decorative manner, as seen in his portrait Henry the Pious (1514; Dresden, Staatliches Kunstsammlungen) and Judith with the Head of Holofernes (c. 1530; New York, Metropolitan Museum). In both, the figures are compressed into a dark setting and the emphasis is on patterning and sharp contrasts of vivid color. His Judgment of Paris (1530; Karlsruhe, Staatliche Kunsthalle) presents the goddesses Venus, Minerva, and Juno posing in the nude, their sinuous forms silhouetted against his usual landscape type. For Cranach, proportions were not an issue; instead, his emphasis was on aesthetically pleasing forms.

   Among Cranach's mature religious pictures is the Allegory of Redemption (1553-1555; Weimar, Stadtkirche), painted after he moved to Augsburg in 1550. The work, completed by his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger, includes Martin Luther standing at the foot of the Crucifixion next to Cranach himself and St. John the Baptist. Luther points to the biblical passage that speaks of the blood of Christ as redeeming agent. From Christ's side wound ensues his blood and falls on Cranach, an indication that clerical intercession is not imperative to the attainment of salvation and that the blood of Christ is sufficient to effect redemption—one of the declarations made by Luther who repudiated the authority of priests and the pope. Cranach died in Augsburg, after a long and highly successful career.

Barbara,Saint

Barbara, Saint, Virgin and Martyr. There is no reference to St. Barbara contained in the authentic early historical authorities for Christian antiquity, neither does her name appear in the original recension of St. Jerome's martyrology. Veneration of the saint was common, however, from the seventh century. At about this date there were in existence legendary Acts of her martyrdom which were inserted in the collection of Symeon Metaphrastes and were used as well by the authors (Ado, Usuard, etc.) of the enlarged martyrologies composed during the ninth century in Western Europe. According to these narratives, which are essentially the same, Barbara was the daughter of a rich heathen named Dioscorus. She was carefully guarded by her father who kept her shut up in a tower in order to preserve her from the outside world. An offer of marriage which was received through him she rejected. Before going on a journey her father commanded that a bath-house be erected for her use near her dwelling, and during his absence Barbara had three windows put in it, as a symbol of the Holy Trinity, instead of the two originally intended. When her father returned she acknowledged herself to be a Christian; upon this she was ill-treated by him and dragged before the prefect of the province, Martinianus, who had her cruelly tortured and finally condemned her to death by beheading. The father himself carried out the death-sentence, but in punishment for this he was struck by lightning on the way home and his body consumed. Another Christian named Juliana suffered the death of a martyr along with Barbara. A pious man called Valentinus buried the bodies of the saints; at this grave the sick were healed and the pilgrims who came to pray received aid and consolation. The emperor in whose reign the martyrdom is placed is sometimes called Maximinus and sometimes Maximianus; owing to the purely legendary character of the accounts of the martyrdom, there is no good basis for the investigations made at an earlier date in order to ascertain whether Maximinus Thrax (235-238), or Maximianus or Maximinus Daza (of the Diocletian persecutions), is meant. 

The traditions vary as to the place of martyrdom, two different opinions being expressed: Symeon Metaphrastes and the Latin legend given by Mombritius make Heliopolis in Egypt the site of the martyrdom, while other accounts, to which Baronius ascribes more weight, give Nicomedia. In the "Martyrologium Romanum parvum" (about 700), the oldest martyrology of the Latin Church in which her name occurs, it is said: "In Tuscia Barbarae virginis et martyris", a statement repeated by Ado and others, while later additions to the martyrologies of St. Jerome and Bede say: "Romae Barbarae virginis" or "apud Antiochiam passio S. Barbarae virg." These various statements prove, however, only the local adaptation of the veneration of the saintly martyr concerning whom there is no genuine historical tradition. It is certain that before the ninth century she was publicly venerated both in the East and in the West, and that she was very popular with the Christian populace. The legend that her father was struck by lightning caused her, probably, to be regarded by the common people as the patron saint in time of danger from thunderstorms and fire, and later, by analogy, as the protector of artillery-men and miners. She was also called upon as intercessor to assure the receiving of the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist at the hour of death. An occurrence of the year 1448 did much to further the spread of the veneration of the saint. A man named Henry Kock was nearly burnt to death in a fire at Gorkum; he called on St. Barbara, to whom he had always shown great devotion. She aided him to escape from the burning house and kept him alive until he could receive the last sacraments. A similar circumstance is related in an addition to the "Legenda aurea". In the Greek and present Roman calendars the feast of St. Barbara falls on December 4, while the martyrologies of the ninth century, with exception of Rabanus Maurus, place it on December 16. St. Barbara has often been depicted in art; she is represented standing by a tower with three windows, carrying the palm of a martyr in her hand; often also she holds a chalice and sacramental wafer; sometimes cannon are displayed near her.