Yesterday was apparently “National Siblings Day”, and I missed it. To commemorate this rather insignificant day, I have chosen to write about a couple of my favorite siblings. It begins with an empress, the daughter of an English king. Her name was Matilda, and her father Henry Beauclerc (Henry I) was both King of England… Read More »
In 1098, the armies of the First Crusade were besieging the city of Antioch. One of the commanders, Etienne Henri Comte de Blois (Count Stephen Henry of Blois as English historians style his name), abandoned the army and fled back to France. On his way, he encountered the armies of the Byzantine emperor Alexios Komnenos… Read More »
In 1204, French Crusaders broke down the seawalls of Constantinople and sacked the greatest city on earth. Although the French nobles and their Venetian allies had agreed to keep the sacking to a non-violent minimum (there was a ban on raping women and killing priests), the rank and file of the Crusader army was not… Read More »
In 1203, a massive Venetian fleet sailed into the Golden Horn intent on landing a Crusader army and taking the city of Constantinople. The Crusaders had intended to sail to Egypt but they had failed to pay the Venetians and now were doing the Venetians bidding in attempting to put the young claimant Alexius Angelus… Read More »
The other night, one of our guys asked me about the differences among the various translations of the Scriptures, so I figured it was worth mentioning what is going on with all that stuff. I am going to give some basic, basic thoughts. By its nature, this kind of an entry will leave out a… Read More »
Western cultures love a good epic that explains things. We really do. It all really starts with the Greeks and their fixation with Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey. Of course, the Greeks saw themselves as the descendants (spiritually if not physically) of Odysseus and Achilles. They were living out that heroic tradition. When the Romans needed to connect their own… Read More »
One reason why Christianity has been the most successful of all world religions in crossing cultural boundaries is its adaptability. To be sure, this has not been manifested in all places and at all times, some missionary endeavors have been based on the premise that any rival belief system is of the devil and must… Read More »
Last week, we began this series with a biographical sketch of Anselm of Canterbury. Today, we continue the series with a sketch of the life of Peter of Abelard. Peter of Abelard, the Peasant Philosopher Unlike Anselm, Peter Abelard was not born into a noble family. His family were Bretons, living in the town of… Read More »