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1200
The population on Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has grown from nothing in 500 to 10,000.
The once well forested island now has become quite deforested through slash and burn and housing construction and cookfire requirements. Agriculture has been introduced and necessary to support the increasing numbers and this capability has fortunately been available. Many of the animals originally present have been killed off by now.

1200
By this year, virtually all of the European Mediterranean Basin and most of the German plain had been deforested and cultivated. Indigenous flora and fauna were replaced by domestic grasses and animals, and invaluable woodlands were lost. Wolves created such a sense of fear, largely from myth and inadequate human burial practices, that few remained by 1300. Similar extensive deforestation had, or would, result in climate changes in The Ukraine, central North America, North Africa, China, India, central South Africa, and the Middle East.

Generally, the change was from a more temperate moisture balanced climate to one typified by drought, flood, famine. While rainfall and temperature patterns could change, stresses on animal health were likely to reduce the populations of highly specialized or dependent species. In the "wild" natural abundance of variety, there was little opportunity for disease or pest to gorge in an area and reach high population concentrations capable of sweeping onwards with devastation. In "domesticated" populations, that variety was replaced with a density of sameness in which pest or disease could multiply quickly, devastate widely, and move on with considerable and growing strength.

1201 - During July,
A Most Severe Earthquake occurred in the Near East and the Mediterranean, of undetermined strength and epicentre, Spiritually Guided to be of a strength of over 9). Almost every city in the region was affected and the human toll was estimated at 1,100,000 (about 50% of the population).

1202 - During this year,
Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), went into battle against the Perugians in the company of his fellow citizens.
He was a member of an elite group of middle class citizens who were able to afford the expenses of procuring armour and maintaining a horse. Francis was captured in battle, held for ransom, as was the custom with some noblemen, and until the ransom was paid, lived in a Perugian prison. The crisis of defeat and the humiliation of the capture were, for Francis, moments of grace. His new awareness of the value of life, of humility, and of reverence for God and His mercy led to a conversion from cruel and ruthless knight to kind and compassionate peacemaker.

1204
Chinghiz is proclaimed Khan of all the nomadic Mongols and sets about to conquer the Chinese world.
In 1206, he becomes known as Ghenghis Khan, leader of all steppe nomads.
Ghenghis enhances the fighting skills of his horse mounted hunters into a military cavalry.
He destroyed all local resistance and makes all of the bands loyal to him.
He institutes a norm of absolute obedience such that individual members learn from birth to think and act as part of a larger entity. He structured his army on the decimal system and chose commanders according to skill, not heritage or wealth.

Each combatant carried a quiver of 60 arrows, 2 bows, a lance, a needle and thread, food, and cooking utensils. They used an Asian compound bow made of yak bone and bamboo glued together, then stressed against the grain. The European crossbow had half the range and was slow to use. Mongol archers could fire 12 arrows per minute while at full gallup. The Mongols wore a leather outfit over a felt tunic. They wore silk undershirts which limited the damage caused by an enemy's arrow and allowed them to pull it out of a shallow wound without the head being snagged within the flesh; the silk did not tear - it acted as a cover around the arrow head.

In group hunts, and later in military strategy, a line of mounted warriors would flush the quarry into an ambush where a flurry of killing would prevent the escape of any of the animals. Genghis sent out scouts to tribes not yet conquered to pose as deserters from his own army. They left behind them false information with their new enemy (anyone who was not one of them was an enemy) and returned with detailed intelligence about the terrain they had covered and the state of the defences of the tribe they had visited. In this manner, they arrived prepared, with a strategy, and with the element of surprise.

Living on the steppes, dry grasslands, was a bare subsistence lifestyle.
Once captured, every part of an animal would be used for food, clothing, or tool making.
Existence was harsh and the frustrations and challenges encouraged the Mongols to develop a culture with intense norms. Slights and crimes were met with vengeance. Anger was dispersed with physical violence. The better man was the one regarded as most brutal and ruthless.

There was no room here for the "spiritual" hunter.
His domain was in the rainforest and temperate forest regions where wild game was more plentiful and hunting competition far less. Here desperation ruled. Whenever you spotted game, you pursued it until it died, you killed it, or, you lost with deep shame. As a nomadic herder and hunter, the Mongol grew to respect what little surrounded them and their way of life with an obsession based on the trauma of survival itself. You either came to love the way of life or you died opposing it. Those who lived would become intolerant to any other form of life.

The possibility of considering a settlement of permanent buildings to the Mongol was ludicrous.
The wild animals which sustained them and the herds which they husbanded constantly roamed.
Grass did not grow as fast as it could be eaten. You moved frequently and constantly or your herd and your family starved. Sandstorms and flash floods were unusual but obliterating; how could any location be "safe" enough to build a permanent dwelling in? With conquest and a political amalgamation of bands, administration could not be carried out from the back of a horse. By the 1230s, a tent city was constructed, and, with the riches collected from the conquered Chinese, artisans and merchants frequented it.

Genghis would capture Peking in 1215; occupy the Hsi-Hsia Kingdom in 1217; conquer Khai-feng in 1233; overcome the Sung Dynasty in 1279. The Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty would be the result. Millions of Chinese would perish in the process. The Chinese represented a detestable "species" to the Mongols. They had proudly rejected the Mongols on the basis of their low status as herders and hunters - not even civilized enough to be agricultural peasants.

To the Chinese, the Mongols were worse than animals - quick to anger and violence; greedy and gluttonous in need (like a poor destitute in a rich man's house); impatient and intolerant and unprincipled: ruthless. The Mongols resented the pride and envied the material riches of the Chinese. Paid "protection money" for years by the Chinese to keep them away from Chinese territory, the Mongols felt continually enticed by the silks and gold they received as a payment to exclude them. For the Mongols, like any herding, nomadic culture, land ownership and possession was unthinkable. Land was there for everyone to use as they required it - for the herding of animals and the hunting of game. To restrict their hunting and herding abilities was intolerable. They would go wherever they wished.

Ghenghis left the future and the conquest of the world to his son Obidai and the Mongols when he died.

1209
The Nuns of St. Clara are formed when St. Francis begins to collect nuns, over whom he made St. Clara the prioress.
The nuns were divided into branches according to the severity of their rules.
The Urbanists would be founded by Pope Urban IV; they would revere St. Isabelle, daughter of Louis VIII of France, as their mother. Nuns were often abandoned or runaway juveniles who were given the choice of starvation, adoption, thievery, prostitution, ostracism, execution as a witch, or entry into a nunnery.

1209
Pope Innocent III, afraid of the rising popularity of heresies becoming a threat to his authority and power, he sent a military offensive against the Cathars who sought personal freedom exclusive of Church and monarchial restrictions. 500 knights and 2000 troops were assembled with the motivation that whatever lands they seized, they were free to keep for themselves or to sell (mercenaries). Sieges of fortifications became increasingly frequent as did outright slaughter and dishonesty. 22,000 peasants would die under the hand of romanticised groups such as the Knights Templars, the Knights of St. John, and others.

1210
The Franciscans are formed by St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis, born 1182, had enjoyed carnal and material pleasures as a youth in the military. Following a serious illness, he reacted to his return to health by renouncing such a life for extreme poverty, beginning in 1208. At first he had few followers, but when they reached 11 in number, he formed a new order. He made a highly authoritarian doctrine for them which he verbally received sanction from the Roman Catholic church for.

The Franciscans were also called the Minorities or "lesser friars" in token of their humility, and sometimes the Gray Friars, from the colour of their garment. The order was noted for its vows of absolute poverty and a renunciation of the pleasures of the world, and was intended to serve the Roman Catholic church by its care of the religious state of the people. The rule of the order destined them to beg and preach. The popes would grant them extensive privileges for their selfless allegiance to them and the church. Some would become renown spies in the courts of princes and the houses of noblemen and gentry.

In 1212, St. Francis would receive from the Benedictines a church in the vicinity of Assisi, which now became the home of the order. Pope Honorious confirmed the order. St. Francis attempted to convert the Sultan Meledin unsuccessfully.

1212 - In the spring,
Stephen, a shepherd boy, had a vision in which he believed that Jesus had appeared to him disguised as a pilgrim and gave him a letter for the king of France. Stephen, who lived near the little French town, Cloyes-sur-le-Loir, set out to deliver the letter telling everyone along the way of his mission. Soon he had gathered around him a crowd of other children determined to follow him and assist him, many likely to have been orphans or fatherless children of crusaders killed in earlier battles. Eventually 30,000 decided to go to Marseilles, where they hoped to travel by ship to the Holy Land. There they were confident that they would conquer the overlords by love instead of force of arms.

Arriving in Marseilles, the children were taken under the care of merchants who, seeing an opportunity for enormous profits, promised to carry them to Jerusalem. Instead, they shipped them to North Africa, where they were sold as slaves in the Muslim markets that did a large business in the buying and selling of other humans. Few if any ever returned. None of the 30,000 were known to have reached the Holy Land.

1216
The Dominicans are founded by St. Dominic at Toulouse, France.
Also called predicants or preaching friars, they would be governed by the rule of St. Augustine, perpetual silence, poverty, and fasting. The principal object of their institution is to preach against heretics. Their distinctive attire of a white habit and scapular with a large black mantle, or outer cape, would result in their commonly being called the Black Friars. They would spread rapidly through Europe, Asia and Africa.

Famous scholars such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas would begin as Dominicans.
In Spain, Portugal and Italy, they would become the exclusive managers of the Roman Catholic Inquisitions and their achievements.

1219 - During this year,
St.Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), who had been converted from warrior to peacemaker through an experience of spiritual realization, passed through the lines of the crusaders to visit Sultan Malik al Kamil in Damietta. Francis lived in a culture which praised the spiritual ideals of the knight and after his imprisonment and release earlier, he sought to uphold those ideals, as an example to others. By the end of his life, the courtesy which St. Francis extended toward all of God's creation, his struggle with material values, and the ideals of spiritual combat had replaced his younger identity of the noble soldier with the ideal of the Son of God.

1221
The Tertiarians (Tertiaries) order was founded by St. Francis for persons who did not wish to take the ascetic monastic vows of the Franciscans yet desired to adopt a few of the easier observances as penitences for earlier indulgences. The order admitted both men and women. They were very popular during this century.

1225
A 10-year-old boy named Nicholas, preached a "Children's Crusade" in the German Rhineland and attracted 20,000 boys and girls to go with him. Many were abandoned children or orphans. After crossing the Alps into Italy, they met various fates, none of them good. A large number were shipped to Africa and sold as slaves. Nicholas was a Walk-In.

1227
The Death of Genghis Khan leads to a partition of the Mongol Empire between his 4 sons: Joti, Jagatal, Tului, and Ugudei.
Each received military levies, a grazing area and a share of the tribute.
Karakorum becomes the permanent capital for the Mongols.
Between 1229 and 1241, the Great Khan Ugudei would complete the subjugation of northern China (the Ch'in Empire) and Persia.

1228
A major tidal wave or flood in Holland results in the death of 100,000 persons.

1230 - By this year,
Cambridge University, England, had been founded.
By 1250, astrology would be taught as a major study.

1231 - In February,
Pope Gregory IX (19 Mar. 1227 - 22 Aug. 1241) extended existing legislation against heretics making them liable to the death penalty under state authority, and, so as not to encroach on the power of the bishops, instituted the papal as distinct from the episcopal Inquisition, entrusting its operation to the Dominicans.

1233
Pope Gregory IX, begins "the Inquisition" by sending priests throughout the empire to judge as to who was a heretic and who not. Some priests were more zealous and ambitious than others. The more heretics one caught, the more effective and valuable he was presumed to be. Competition between state and church Inquisition courts increased; each learned from the abuses of the other. It was only a matter of a few decades before priests would find that torture was an effective method of gaining confessions.

1233
The Mongols attack the Chinese city of Khai-feng in the centre of the northern Empire.
With a population of 1 million, it was a centre for trade, treasures, artisans. It had strong city walls for defenses and both gunpowder and artillery were available to the Chinese. Still, the Mongols captured the city, executed all male members of the Royal family and deported the women to serve as slaves. The Mongols intended, as was their normal practice, to massacre all who remained.

Yehlu Chhu-Tsai, an adviser descended from the royal house of Liao, persuaded the Mongols that they would be better advantaged by sparing the lives of the people so they could pay dues from an already established taxation system. The Mongols were astonished at the agricultural wealth which they found. They agreed and left the tax collection to Chhu-Tsai and Kuo Shou-Ching to administer.

They conducted a campaign of terror over the principalities until total submission was gained.
Taoism was driven into secret activity with its books burnt; this only encouraged a secret cult associated with nationalism to be formed. The Mongols often let the local princes keep their positions, preferring to rule at arms length for they disliked administrative duties immensely. Each year the princes would hand over large amounts of tribute, swear loyalty to their Mongol masters and literally bow down and kiss the spurs of the leaders. The Mongols would become known as "The Golden Hoard" from the wealth they collected.

1234 - Throughout this century,
Bosnia becomes a focus for crusades against the Bogomils (Slavic: "Friends of God"), a Manichaean sect who, despite their struggle against the Hungarians, Serbs, Croats and Venetians, established their own state, under "the king of the Serbians and Bosnians." The Bogomils had first developed in Bulgaria; their belief followed severe asceticism, imitation of the Christian apostle's lives, and a dualistic doctrine of belief in God, the Father and, God, the Son. No authority was provided for an earthly human representative of Christ, such as a ruler, called a Pope. In 1463, they would be conquered by the Ottomans (Turks).

1235 - By this year,
The Mongols controlled 1/3rd of Asia, from Korea to Ukraine.
In China, the Yuan Empire became a combined Mongol and Chinese administration with supervisory posts being shared and with Chinese peasants working the land, Chinese officials and landlords taxed and renting it, and the Mongol emperors glorified for it. As the Chinese were less than trusted, foreigners were recruited into some official posts by preference. Marco Polo spent 16 or 17 years in China as a court official.

The "Old Silk Road", long in use for merchants travelling between China and Europe, was now stabilized and other services added. Canal systems and roads were improved within China itself. Karakoron became the Mongol capital. Up to 500 caravans carrying foods and materials passed by or through it each day. A fast and reliable messenger service (postal Service) was instituted to maintain contact between the capital and distant armies and to escort traders. Riders wore large "pesa" identification plates (passports) and rode horseback up to 200 miles each day for periods up to 10 days. A transfer station was located every 30 miles to afford the rider with a fresh mount. Such routes would now become considered as free of lawlessness for no robber or bandit gang dared irritate the Mongols.

The Sultans and Amirs of Iraq and Persia quickly paid homage to the Mongols.
A mountain cave fortress of the ruling Moslem "assassins" were believed by the defenders to be impregnable.
The Mongols carried their military machines and ammunition up the mountains piece by piece, reassembled them, and attacked. Orthodox Moslems rejoiced at the fall of the heretics - hashish users - but the Mongols continued onward. Baghdad was the spiritual and cultural centre of the Moslem world, rich in science, art, commerce and trade.

The Mongols sacked the city, killing every person and destroying 5 centuries of culture.
The Caliph was captured and was said to be left imprisoned in a tower to starve with all his wealth.
Aleppo, Syria, fell to the invader's catapults after 7 days. The Mongols were so impressed by the bravery of the garrison that they ordered the lives of the remaining defenders spared, an unusual occurrence. Damascus surrendered out of fear and Moslem rule dwindled. In order to establish clear lines of communication, the Mongols destroyed the Kingdom of Bulgar situated between the Ural mountains and Kiev.

The Mongols quickly acquired the military technology of the Chinese.
To save their own lives, Persian and Chinese scientists and technicians assisted the transfer of technology in any way possible. Chinese physicians, Arab bridge builders and engineers, interpreters, cattle, camels, wives and children travelled along with the army. Ballista were used to hurl rocks against the fortifying walls of eastern European and western Asian city and fortress walls. Seige machines were built. Primitive explosives were used.

Attacks were most frequently carried out during the winter when they were not expected and when the weather was adverse to hunting and herding. Typically, a city or town would be attacked and almost all of the inhabitants would be massacred, excepting a few - who would be allowed to "escape" and run on to warn the next towns of the terror which was coming. Terror and surprise were the Mongols greatest weapons.

A favoured strategy would be for a small group of suicide troops to charge straight into the enemy lines shooting arrows; then, turn and flee, drawing the confident opposition after them into an ambush at a prearranged location where archers on both sides would decimate the enemy. To keep the Russian principalities from uniting against them, the Mongols attacked several places at once. As they neared Moscow, the townsfolk fled before their arrival.

The Mongols had intended to capture Kiev peacefully.
On meeting resistance, they gutted the city. Such human devastation was left that 5 years later the surrounding plains were still reportedly covered with human remains. 30 gold-domed churches were desecrated and anything else of value was taken. By 1239, the Mongol armies stopped to rest in Ukraine.

1238
Emperor Frederick II finds that the tool of the state Inquisition, sanctioned by the Pope, is an effective way of eliminating political dissent. In his Constitutions of Melfi for the reorganization of Sicily as a centralized state subject to his will, Frederick passes laws against heretics including burning. Frederick solicited Pope Gregory IX's assistance in excommunicating those who opposed his empire but the pope refused this and cautioned Frederick against his new ruthlessness, especially when it targeted regional congregations of the Church.

By 1239, it would become evident to Gregory that Frederick intended to obtain sovereignty over all of Italy including Rome, the Pope's base. Gregory excommunicated the emperor and the emperor called for a general council to judge the pope. Frederick encircled Rome. Gregory called for a Council at Easter, 1241; Frederick captured most of the non-Italian participants on their journey to Rome; Gregory died in August during a heat wave.

1241 - In February,
The Mongols moved to attack both Hungary and Poland.
Led by Batu, the grandson of Genghis Khan) and Subatai, the Kama Bulgars are destroyed in 1236.
Kiev falls in 1240 and Wallachia and Poland are invaded. In 1241 at the battle of Liegnitz, German and Polish knights are defeated. Then the Hungarian army is defeated in the Battle of Sajo River. The death of the Great Khan, Batu, leaves the Mongols in confusion and they return to Karakorum to choose a new leader. Subatai claimed that wars were won on the strength of espionage; the Europeans had none and the other Asians would learn from them.

They wanted the Hungarian Steppes but were cautious that the Polish might assist the Hungarians; so they attacked both at once. A smaller contingent was sent to Hungary to draw off some of the Polish who might come to their aid. Invading Poland, the Krakow garrison was ambushed and destroyed. Most of the monks and church buildings nearby were killed and destroyed. As usual, no prisoners were taken, no burden of prisoners was sustained and future vengeful opposition was eliminated. Other cities were subsequently destroyed.

Meanwhile, a second army was sent through the Carpathian Mountains to easily conquer Hungary.
The Hungarian nobility, like the Chinese, refused to support their King and allowed the Mongols time to advance farther, to the Danube. A large composite army gathered in northern Europe (Poland) to oppose the Mongols. The cavalry were drawn into the open, divided from the infantry by a smokescreen, and the infantry were annihilated. Then the cavalry was crushed. At least 30,000 Europeans were killed in Poland; 2 days later, more than 40,000 more died in Hungary.

European defenses were no match for the Mongol-Tartars.
The Europeans armies were made up of an assortment of knights and bowmen who held largely hereditary positions and readied for combat by participating in "contests". Norms of honour, pride, and loyalty were prevalent. Pride centred on their belief that their armour was stronger than that of any enemy, their brute strength greater, and the backing of the Roman Catholic church a sanction and guarantee of success. The heavy armour used by mounted European knights covered iron mail leggings and shirt which in turn covered a cotton long underwear. The weight of such a suit could exceed 100 pounds and attendants were often required to dress the knight. The horse could be carrying 300 pounds into battle. The armour was primarily effective in deflecting sword blows, low velocity arrows and hand-thrown lances.

Monks, fighting on behalf of the church, preferred hand-to-hand combat.
Untrained peasants armed with axes and farm implements were often drafted at the last minute to enlarge the number of defenders. The Mongol offence was arranged entirely different. ALL of the fighters were highly seasoned in battle and killing. They wore light-weight effective leather and silk protective wear. They used high-speed arrows delivered in rapid succession. They rode quickly past and around the Europeans, picking off their foes like shooting arrows at fish in a tub. Their enemy, wounded, was finished off at closer range with a sturdy long knife. They were ruthless.

1242 - May,
The Mongols stopped their advance and returned to Sinkiang, their home.
The Khan had died; a new leader had to be chosen. Dissention, internal competition for power and anarchy would keep the Mongols from returning to finish their goal. The Polish would proudly rationalize, in ignorance, that the Mongols had fled in fear of the last defenders they had been preparing to annihilate. The Catholic Church revelled in its glory.

1245
The Roman Catholic Pope, Innocent IV sent letters to the Mongol Khan hoping to persuade the Tartar-Mongols crusaders not to reinvade Europe and offering baptism into the Mother Church. The Church saw itself, proudly, as the centre of all learning, intelligence and civilization. Yet it was completely ignorant of the Mongol culture and its beliefs. They sanctioned and spread legends depicting the Mongols as monsters and mutants. The Church declared that the Mongols were the anti-Christ coming before Armageddon.

A priest wrote that the Mongols ate their enemies.
The church had no knowledge, except gossip, as to why the Mongols had left Poland.
It believed that Jerusalem was the centre of the universe. 150 years earlier, Pope Urban had preached the First Crusade promising soldiers a place in heaven in return for destroying the Moslems. These Christians had hunted down and murdered men, women and children - in addition to military defenders, sometimes to the last person. If you were a visiting spaceperson from a highly advanced spiritual civilization, how would humans impress you?

But this was not all.
Innocent constantly used his authority to obtain monies, buy friends, and unjustly implicate foes.
He treated gifts to the church as papal revenues and his exploitation of the system of papal provisions to benefices (i.e. the right of the pope to nominate to vacant offices persons who made gifts to the Church over those of the general public) aroused scandal. In 1252, he established the Inquisition as a permanent institution in Italy, combining all earlier papal and imperial regulations in a new law which sanctioned the use of torture to extract confessions. With his encouragement Louis IX of France set out in 1248 on the Seventh Crusade (1248-54).

1247
Saint Simon Stock, is elected Prior General of the Roman Catholic Carmelite Order which had been chased from Palestine by the Saracens. They were having great difficulties in becoming settled in Europe. After several years, Saint Simon would experience an apparition which he would perceive to be Mary, mother of Jesus Messiah (Christ), presenting a scapular (image and verse talisman) to be worn around the neck and which he believed was a sign of salvation for the brotherhood.

The scapular read "Whosoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire."
An image of a crowned person holding a baby and seeming to be standing on a cloud, and much larger than St. Simon Stock, would come to be pictured on the reverse. It should be noted that the use of any such object as an intercession between the individual and a god is a form of idolatry and is fundamentally an expression of magic, that is, the ability to control God. If the affirmation is believed, the wearer could commit any degree or frequency of crime without concern for severe and relevant penance.

While the scapular does say that the wearer will not be subjected to "eternal fire", it does neither exclude the person from the torment of fire nor make any suggestion of admission into a heaven. Such an admonition would neither have been necessary nor popular unless the Carmelite brothers were forced to, from their materialistic perspective, break spiritual and possibly civil laws. It was popular for individuals, bands and armies who were returning from the crusades in the Middle East (1096-1270) to criminalize the countryside. How else would they have food for themselves and their horses?

Legends and stories about the spiritual ethics of various forces of knights were almost totally the result of portrayals fantasized by the minstrels who accompanied the knights in later times. The reality was that these groups of mercenary, and a few volunteer, troops, made their return from the Middle East in a state of desperation. They had often suffered military losses, fatalities, and injuries and had no provisions left. They had been away from their homes for extended periods of time and had been poorly organized for extended periods of travel and conflict. Poorly housed, exposed to the elements of weather, poorly clad, and poorly fed - it was common for such persons to make their way home by beating, robbing, raping and murdering the common folk along the way. There were no mass media at this time, no effective authority over these groups - who carried the sanction of the Roman Church, and, frequently, no survivors left to carry news of the deeds.

One does not return home from a religious crusade to brag about this nature of activity, yet any who do or come to have any sense of spiritual awareness must feel remorseful or ashamed for participation in such activities. Such feelings do not promote positive self-directedness, positive self-esteem, positive self-awareness, or positive expectation. With such negative perspectives, it is often difficult for humans to actively participate in a community with a sense of faith, hope and charity. To do so without either open acknowledgement for one's errors or acceptance of penance is deception before an all-knowing God, and in contrast to the trust of those around one. Talismans, written sanctions, superstitious acts, ritual incantations, magic potions, and a mundane forgiveness by religious authorities in return for material gain - are all forms of idolatry. The contrast is a Way of life which is directed by spiritual decision-making based on individual spiritual communication with God.

There were many talismans which came to be used and encouraged by "wise" men and women.
Those who were part of a political institution were often provided with the title of king, queen, lord, priest, doctor, merchant. Those who represented more individualized efforts came to be known frequently as astrologers, herbalists, gypsies, witches. Co-dependency between property owners and the non-political commoner was growing along with population density, tithing to church and state, harshness of climate, and the incidence of both chronic and acute disease.

There was much to be anxious, worried, or regretful about; alcoholism grew, and, the alcoholic became increasingly dependent, insecure, and self-obsessed. Talismans provided an easy way out of this negativity. They were solid, material, obvious in presence and action. If you believed in their power, the changes in your perceptions and attitudes would result in more confident (not necessarily more spiritual) behaviours. Life became more relaxed, more enjoyable, more in denial of one's personal responsibility.

Such methods failed to initiate self-reflection, self-awareness, and the modification of destructive habits of decision-making into one's which were more constructive to self and society. Rather, the idolatrous use of talismans encourages the follower to have faith in human-based authority and material superstition; it encourages hope that one can avoid justice and manipulate God; it encourages a charity which may be described as "It's acceptable to do anything I want, IF, I can get away with it, know a human authority who can sanction it, or, am "wise" or informed enough to know how to "cover" it up. Humans are born with many capabilities; what is translated into ability and how that ability is used depends upon how the individual is mentored.

1248
About this time, the German Guilds of Craftsmen obtained the right to defend by arms their own interests.
The lords of the manors had now diminished their power and focus to the defense of the small villages of peasants who maintained their estates and those which rented farmland from them. Larger towns and cities had developed largely as a consequence of the guild activities of small scale industry and trade and the increasing imperial administrations of both the royal political empires and the Roman Catholic political and religious empire.

The military forces of the emperor were more focused on keeping the dukes, princes, regional kings and other land managing nobility friendly, obedient, and peaceful towards the larger political order, and, of maintaining and expanding the borders of that state or empire - than having concern about civil law enforcement and the trade dominated illegalities of thievery, vandalism, extortion and kidnapping, assault, pre-meditatated murder, and fraud. The guilds now formed their own vigilante enforcement militias to protect the cities and trade routes from such uncertainties and losses.

In addition, these guild enforcement teams also determined the level of guild membership locally.
As a profitable and successful enterprise continued to be of great concern, local limits were placed on how many master mechanics or other tradespersons could reside there. These restrictions might extend to define the geographic limits within which the tradesperson could offer services or products and even to whether all or a part of the trade could be conducted. This monopolistic policy was often the result of a vote in which each member had an equal vote, and by which there was an intent that each guild member would have steady work and a good income with a secure opportunity for stability and expansion.

Inevitably, abuses arose.
Insecure and greedy persons enacted restrictions which resulted in inadequate supply to satisfy the demand.
Prices and profits rose, and, a degree of blackmarketeering occurred as potential customers purchased their goods from other towns and regions. The importance of the tradesman's mark or emblem grew - not only to identify and promote the quality of the artisan but also in an attempt to restrict the marketability of such items beyond the tradesperson's sanctioned sales district. Sometimes, individuals and their families, having every right to continue their enterprise within the district they were in, were forcefully evicted on charges brought against them on the basis of jealousy, pride, hatred, revenge, vice, or prejudice. Public perceptions were easily swayed by superstitions, gossip, and spurious rationalizations. The fear and authority inspired by the guilds grew and began to threaten the security of the kings and emperors as much as that of the land-holding nobles.

To end this growing conflict and injustice, Emperor Frederick II abolished the guilds by his 1240 decree.
Much of the decree remained unenforceable due to the secret nature of the guilds and the loyalty of the members towards one another - which extended beyond any other vow. Rather than such practices being conducted publicly, they increasingly became hidden behind deceptions and unspoken actions which allowed more subtle abuses with often more effective results.

Unwanted tradespersons might have their products or tools stolen by the possessive guild members; receive anonymous threats; have members of their family beaten by disguised attackers; be incriminated in the dealings of witchcraft or heresy by the placement of evidence against them. In the end, if you were not wanted in your home town or chosen work district any longer, it was probably more constructive to leave than to stay. This option was most difficult for many of those affected to undertake.

For many, the town concerned had been part of the family residing heritage for generations and the all of one's relatives and friends lived there. For even more, the district of their "practice" was the foundation of their financial security: their repeat customers and referral sources. For some, the costs involved with leaving one's residence behind and moving only with what could be packed on one's back, on a horse, and in a cart - intensified the sense of poverty which resulted. Finally, moving to any other district would often bring the itinerant trades family in conflict with a new set of regional guild restrictions which ostracized them.

With some exceptions, rejection of one's right to continue to practice one's trade locally was equal to the death of one's ability to continue a family tradition of employment and service to the community. Few members of the innocent public understood what was happening in each instance, and, when they did, it came long after the damage had been done. On the one hand, those of good intent wanted not to believe that their neighbours could be guilty of such evil against other members. Another part of their concern was the hope that something similar would not fall upon them, and the fear that without substantial community support behind them, any resistance to such events would find oneself co-indicted.

1250
The European Population had risen from about 25 million in AD 950 to 75 million in 1250. In some regions the rate of increase was even greater. In some regions of France, population rose at a rate of 1% annually, and while high, these were exceeded by eastern Germany where population increased 4 or even 5 fold. Records of immigration and emigration did not exist.

1250
The Turkish leader Mameluke seizes power in Egypt.
In 1260, the palace guard will repulse the Mongol attack on Egypt.

1248-54
King Louis IX of France, intended to destroy Egypt, the strongest Islamic power.
He took Damietta but was defeated at Mansura and taken prisoner with his entire army.
He was released against a heavy ransom, fortified Acre, and returned to France.
There he suppressed an uprising of the barons, which had been supported by England.
In the Peace of Paris (1259), the English king Henry III returned control of previously French lands to the monarch.

Jechiele, a French rabbi and close friend of Louis IX wrote of a "dazzling lamp that lighted itself."
The lamp had neither oil or wick, and Jechiele sometimes put it in his window at night to the great fascination of his contemporaries. He never revealed the secret of the lamp.

According to his chroniclers, he had a very special way of discouraging unwanted visitors who approached his door. He "touched a nail driven into the wall of his study and a crackling, bluish spark immediately leapt forth. Woe to anyone who touched the iron knocker at that moment; he would double, howling as if the earth were about to swallow him, and then he would run away as fast as his legs could carry him.

One day a hostile threatening crowd gathered in front of his door.
The men held each other by the arm to withstand what they called the 'earthquake'.
The boldest one pounded on the door with the knocker. Jechiele touched his nail.
The assailants were instantly thrown back against each other. They fled screaming as if they had been burned. They were sure they had felt the earth open beneath them, and they had sunk into it up to them knees. They did not know how they had escaped, but, from then on, nothing on earth could have made them go back and create a commotion in front of the sorcerer's door. In this way, by the terror he aroused, Jechiele saw to it that he was left in peace."

Had Louis IX brought back the secret of an electric lamp and batteries from Egypt and shared it with Jechiele?; had Jechiele accompanied him to Egypt? Batteries dating from about 1800 B.C. have been found in ("God's Gate") Babylon. Are these secrets which were passed on through a secret brotherhood? We do know that numerous inventors and political leaders from 1750 to 1900 were part of the then secret Egyptian originated Rosicrucian (Red Cross) Brotherhood including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison. Where did such highly advanced technical awareness originate?

1250
Expansion of arable land in Europe had virtually come to an end due to high human fertility levels, high population growth and old mixed farming methods. More intensive farming would now be required with pasture and fodder crops being exchanged, in some areas to the abandonment of animal husbandry. Cattle, a non-grain food hedge against famine and an importance source of protein, diminished in number. Humans became more susceptible to the hardships of famine due to their dependence on a monoculture crop of wheat. After 1250, living standards declined. Lack of crop rotation led to soil exhaustion and lower crop yields. By 1300, some crop yields would have fallen by 80%. Population would then be exceeding the food supply capability.

Rising prices in the previous warm and abundant economic period had resulted in a rise in food and other prices. Estate owners had either raised their land rent charges to the peasants or had insisted upon the labour obligations to have the peasants work their lands for profit. Now, in harder times, the peasants needed more time to grow subsistence supplies. When those resources fell short, they had to buy grain, grown with their labour, from the estate lord.

During the warmer climatic period, more land was available and crop yields were higher.
This allowed for an earlier division of available land thus allowing earlier marriages, younger mothers and higher fertility rates. The peasant population had so grown rapidly through this earlier time of plenty. Yet humans had learned nothing from their history and religious and landholding/political leaders had been happy to see, and had encouraged, the growth of the population - to increase their material wealth through taxes, rents and tithes.

1250
Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro divided the Jewish Old Testament and the Christian New Testament into chapters for ease of reference and assignment.

1251-1259
The Great Mongol Khan Mongka sends two armies of 500,000 each to again expand the empire.
Russia experiences exploitation by the Mongols and separation from Europe.
By 1258, the Great Khan Kublai attacks southern China while Hulagu, who has been conquering Persia, sacks Baghdad, a city of 1 million inhabitants. Aleppo and Damascus fall to the advancing army and it is the Mameluks (mercenary slaves from the Black Sea region) who finally defeat the Mongols at Ain Jalut in 1260.

1254-1324
Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and traveller-explorer travels to China and is "persuaded" to stay for awhile.
He observes over 5,000 astrologers at work in China (Kanbalu).

1256
The Picatrix, a work on magic translated from the Arabic, becomes the Black Bible of all sorcerers.
Because a curse strikes those who persist in interpreting it, most translations have been garbled.
The magic contained, declared to be the most complete work on the subject, is based on an astral combination of planets and fixed stars engendering infinitely powerful forces.

A translation was in the possession of the Pasha in Constantinople while a shorter less sophisticated version is in the Bibliotheque de L'Arsenal in Paris, France. The authentic manuscript was said to contain terrible secrets: how to destroy a city with the "Ray of Silence"; how to influence or kill people at a distance; how to make flying machines; how to make weapons of death as powerful as atomic bombs, but based on a science different from ours; how to make low cost gold; and many others.

One formula designed to provide a "light that shines like silver" in a house is as follows:

"Take a black or green lizard, cut off its tail and dry it.
You will then find in it a liquid like quicksilver. Coat a wick with this liquid and place it in a glass or iron lamp. When the lamp is lit, the house will soon take on a silvery aspect and everything in it will shine like silver."

1258 - About this time,
The "Celestines", a Roman Catholic religious order, is founded by the man who will become Pope Celestine V in 1294.
Following the principle set forth by St. Benedict, they focus on following a life of contemplation.
Few such priories would survive into modern times. In the evolving materialistic and politically powerful societies, there is little tolerance for groups which reject the concept of financial profit (and the payment of taxes) and which withdraw from participation in society (and from the contribution of effort to the maintenance of the status quo).

1274 - During this year
Mongol expeditions against Japan and the Wako are made now, and again in 1281.
The Japanese political leaders always assumed that other countries were of less stature to themselves.
The Japanese came to know of the silk, grain and gold of China and, during periods of low agricultural yield relative to need (often due to the maintenance of larger armies and groups of nobles), the Japanese were willing pirates and plunderers. A second motive of their raids was the taking of captives for use as cheap labour slaves. This again assisted in allowing a few more Japanese maintain or take a post of nobility.

The Wako were piratical groups which originated in Japan and operated along the coasts of the Korean peninsula and the China mainland. Following 1310, Wako groups appeared regularly. Between 1350 and 1375 they conducted an average of 5 large raids a year. Between 1376 and 1384, the average increased to over 40 per year. Some raids were made up of as many as 400 ships carrying 3,000 men. Over 1,000 coastal people might be taken back at a time to be made into agricultural slaves. The distinction between trade and piracy became indistinguishable to the Japanese.

Eventually, even the interior areas distant from the coast became the subject of Wako attacks involving cavalry units. The Mongol invasions stimulated shipbuilding and vengeance for, as usual, the Mongol-Tartars attacked with the intent of inflicting the maximum damage and taking no prisoners. Trying to occupy and subjugate the Chinese was the more important goal of the Mongols; the Japanese were alarming and confusing the Japanese and diminishing the tribute sent to the Mongols: their interference had to stop.

1275-1289
Very low rainfall results in a widespread drought in the Mesa Verde region of Colorado State, USA.
A flourishing urban centre, in Sand Canyon, later referred to as "The Ancient Ones", housing about 500 people in a 400 room "apartment" complex is abandoned during this period. Intensive agricultural production with the use of irrigation had enabled the high population density. Such technology, like most, enables humans to become proud and dependant upon the technology, which has limitations itself.

Major Changes in climate can be effected by the following:
     a) Impact of the Earth by a comet;
     b) Impact of the Earth by a meteorite;
     c) Solar activity sunspot maximums (11-year cycle, warmer and drier);
     d) Solar activity sunspot minimums (11-year cycle, cooler and wetter);
     e) Large scale deforestation for changing to agricultural use;
     f) Diminished surface water available through intensive use;
     g) Diminished ground water available (wells) through intensive use;
     h) Increased air aggregate through volcanic eruption (cooler & wetter);
     i) Increased air aggregate through human originated burning of materials;
     j) Changes in thickness of the ozone layer around the Earth;
     k) others.

In this situation, the principle of irrigation had been "adopted" from ? and utilized to increase food production. As often happens in human history, a good thing was over indulged in, and, eventually failed. Cutting down the forests produced a less temperate climate with greater variations of temperature, humidity and rainfall. Increased food productivity allowed the humans to become overly self-confident and expectant. Consequently, they bore and kept more children and invited other families to join or stay with the community.

Irrigation, intensive and expanding in application, diminished the amount of surplus surface water (lakes) available until there was no reserve. Ground water aquifers were tapped by increasing numbers of persons until the amount available for the region came close to equalling the amount required. Long-term use of irrigation, on some soils, will tend to leach away the nutrients and concentrate the salts in the soil. This can eventually begin a trend to infertility and resultant lower crop yields.

With all of these factors in summation - increased temperature and humidity variations, increased reliance upon mass production, decreasing water reserves and decreasing fertility - a small additional factor could result in a disaster, and did. During the full solar maximum, 11 years, which was stronger than usual, the combination of factors resulted in a drought. Deforested, dry fields lost some of their topsoil through windstorm soil erosion: it blew away.

After a year or two, desperation would become endemic amongst those remaining and there would be the human tendency for superstitions and false judgements (projected responsibility) to arise. A once-peaceful and prosperous town would become a hell. Eventually, the townspeople came to believe that evil spirits had come to possess the town - and they had. They were their own spirits of pride, gluttony, sloth, distrust, envy, intolerance, self-obsession. A number of the remaining villagers burned the town and the people deserted it and moved north.

1276
The process of Papermaking reaches Fabriano, Italy.

1277
The works of scholars who stressed the use of "Reason" or, "Reason and Faith" in the study of theology were eliminated from the Roman Catholic sponsored and controlled curriculum of the universities. This ban extended to the works of Aristotle, the Islamic commentators, and a number of European interpreters. The capability of human rationality to understand theology and serve to justify the hardships of the past and present were both inadequate and were jeapardizing the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.

The direction chosen to focus on was that of faith, in support of Authority.
A concentration on the magical and human-authority centredness of faith, penance and revelation became paramount. Faith in the human ability to "read God's mind" through rationalization was set aside in hopes that a return to the superstition of human-authority would work the miracle of a second coming of Christ. In despair, the materially privileged fell back onto the simplicity of skepticism, doubt, spurious and superstitious thinking - not faith. This was the faith of drama, intolerance, persecution, ritual, - think for me.

1279
The Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty, in China, begins with nomadic Mongols, previously led in their expansion efforts by Chinghiz (Ghenghis Khan), capturing Khai-feng, a city in the heart of the traditional Chinese Empires and of the Wei Kingdom.

1280
Johannes Campanus, mathematician and chaplain to Pope Urban IV, devises a new method of House division for astrology.

1290
In Chihili, China, a major earthquake results in the death of 100,000 persons.

1290 - On July 18,
King Edward I of England, ordered the expulsion of all Jews from England.
They would not be allowed back into the country for hundreds of years until Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England granted them the right of settlement in 1657. July 18 happens to be an anniversary of the "9th of Av", the date on which Jerusalem fell to the Romans.

1294 - From July 5 to December 13,
Pope Celestine V (Pietro del Morrone) was expected to fulfill the expectation of an "angel pope" which would lead the Roman Catholic church and the papacy out of a materialistic hedonism into a "spiritual age."

The papal throne had remained vacant for more than two years while the 12 cardinals, responsible for the election of a successor by a vote of 2/3rds, remained split by petty personal differences. Political events increased the sense of urgency when Charles II, king of Sicily and Naples, arrived at their meeting location in March, 1294 and wished to have a secret treaty which he had made with James II of Aragon blessed by the new pope. They had to decline, still unable to choose a successor and political circumstances in the surrounding states appeared to disintegrate into anarchy over the following months.

Finally, on July 5, Cardinal Latino Malabranca came to reveal that a devout hermit had prophesied that divine retribution would occur if the church was left without a head much longer. Questioned, the cardinal revealed the hermit to be an 85-year-old ascetic priest who had spent much of his life in the wilds of Italy, in caves and at a church he had built for like-minded adherents.

His brotherhood had been incorporated as the "Celestines" into the Benedictine Order in 1274 and been granted a privilege of non-intervention by the institutional clergy. Pietro Celestine had become well known and highly respected as an ascetic, miraculous healer and monastic leader and had been advanced to the position of an abbot. In 1293, he had retired into a grotto 637 metres up the mountain near to the monastery and left its administration to others. The cardinals now insisted on his taking the post, believing that his reputation would rejuvenate the church.

Astride a donkey, in proud and irreverent symbolism of the entry of Jesus Messiah (Christ) into Jerusalem, Pietro was escorted by the expectant Charles II and his son to a ceremony in a town in the domain of Charles, rather than at the Vatican. Charles also ensured that the new pope took up residence in Naples, not Rome. In gratitude, Celestine favoured Charles by appointing Charles's nominees to 12 newly created cardinal positions as well as to key positions in the papal administration. Celestine blessed the treaty Charles had presented earlier.

Much of the administration fell into confusion for Celestine could not speak the Latin of the aristocracy and bureaucracy, was elderly, and non-political. In some cases, several persons were placed in charge of the same administrative duty. Falling under the influence of power, Celestine gave many privileges to his own congregation as well as a preferential status to monastic orders. Soon, the stress of such a decidedly non-spiritual political, bureaucratic, and business-like post became too oppressive for the elderly hermit and he began making arrangements to abdicate.

His successor, Boniface VIII (Cardinal Benedetto Caetani) a lawyer from an aristocratic family who had (unusually) tallied together all of the incomes and other material benefits of previous clergical positions, and who was politically aggressive in his networking, negotiating and ambition - would not permit anarchy to rise over the papacy again. Also, Pietro, with his popularity, could possibly be manipulated back to the leadership and aggravate the Cardinal's plans. Thus, Celestine (Pietro) was placed under guard, escaped, was recaptured - and kept under strict guard in a tower, until he died, in May, 1296. Meanwhile, Cardinal Caetani met with the other Cardinals soon after the "planned" abdication of Celestine - and was elected the new pope. The "angel pope" had been a vain hope against the momentum of materialistic power.

1300
The European Climate became cooler and wetter beginning in 1300/1350 and continued for several hundred years.
This environmental change encouraged the development of plague conditions.
More crops would fail, surpluses would drop below subsistence into famine, and, the wealth of the landowners would dwindle. The 1290s was an extremely rainy decade; in some areas, crops rotted in the fields. In 1291 - 1293, the wheat crop failed in England and was fractional in France and Germany.

The crop failed again in 1297, this time over a wider area.
A succession of very wet seasons between 1300 and 1347 led to famine in 1304 and 1305, followed by the first continent-wide famine in 1309, the first in 250 years. Every crop yield was below average in France, Germany and England between 1310 and 1319. Annual mortality in some regions during the famines of 1310, 1315, and 1317, in the urban areas ran from 10% to 20% of the population.

By 1320, the large urban centres of Italy probably had lost up to 10% of their total population and were left with rising lawlessness. Cattle became so scarce and the cost of meat so high that people resorted to the eating of cats, dogs and the cannibalization of criminals freshly killed on the local gallows. From 1316 to 1322, a series of livestock epidemics devastated what was left of the livestock population, sometimes cutting away 2/3rds to 4/5ths of the herd.

Humans carried on through this period with a sense of ignorant detachment.
Bound to a ritual lifestyle of leader or follower, farmer or artisan - options appeared to be few and innovation and planning was virtually absent as they required a consideration of change and a challenge to authority structures. Fertility levels remained high as humans tend to adopt short-term pleasurable habits in good times and show no ability to readapt to more relevant levels in worse times. Of course, education and minimal technology could have enabled greater sexual frequency to continue without a corresponding high birth rate

The Baltic Sea froze twice, in 1303 and 1306/07.
By the 1340s, ocean ice blocked the usual routes between Norway-Iceland-Greenland.
Between 1400 and 1480, the Thames River in England froze 12 times.

1300
Alighieri Dante (Durante), an Italian Catholic and poet, a member of the lower nobility.
He was extensively educated for the time and became an academic and intellectual.
He expressed a tendency towards co-dependency and fantasy and at an early age had become so infatuated with a woman, Beatrice Portinari, that for decades he revered her as a goddess of beauty and love. By this year, Beatrice had married someone else and died, Dante had married, and the local political factions, the Blacks (an extreme papal party) and the Whites (moderates), were burning each other's houses and killing one another in the streets of Florence again.

Dante, a member of the trades and an influential citizen, and, as a member of the "Whites", Dante had gone to Rome to negotiate with the Pope. In his absence, the Blacks took over Florence, obtained a decree of banishment against him, a heavy fine, and then, a sentence condemning him to be burned alive. Politically exiled and fearing for his life, he wandered as a stranger throughout the Italian speaking world, from city to city. Until almost his death in 1321, he would write "The Divine Comedy".

"The Divine Comedy", a three part epic, was to become the first - and thus the most popular major printed work, in the common Italian language of the day. It is ironic that after his death, Dante and his work would profoundly influence the Church, which had condemned him to death, and most later Christians. Increasing population densities, changing climate-induced agricultural deficiencies, and widespread epidemics - would result in the Catholic Church adopting and preaching Dante's vision of hell and purgatory as if it were a central biblical contribution.

Civil unrest was growing and the papacy, as Rome's civil administrative answer to law and order - a bureau of propaganda - would use the services of its priest-officials to coerce the public into servitude through the fear of a hell as found nowhere within the Judeo-Christian Bible. For Dante, souls after death were judged according to their works during life on Earth and punished according to the degree of evil presumed.

The three sections were entitled, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Wandering into a forest, in a dreamlike state, Dante describes how the form of the pagan poet Virgil offers to conduct him on a tour through hell and purgatory. Dante follows and at the end of that journey, an angel, named Beatrice leads him through heaven. Hell is the lowest of all three locations and while there, Dante observes and records the condemned with a great degree of pathos, depth of characterization, fantasy, subtle insight and intense faith - such that each is recognizable as a possible real person to many of the readers. Described in the first person, the Comedy read as if it were partly each of the following modern classifications: drama, travelogue, mystery, science fiction, religion, romance.

Punishments described in Dante's hell were physical and unending.
Ascending to purgatory, Dante again describes many "real" people characterizations, each undergoing temporary punishment. Reaching the edge of paradise, Dante meets Beatrice, who, with exquisite beauty, guides him into the heavenly regions where they roam through 7 spheres to an eighth. In the 9th, Dante feels himself in the presence of the divine essence, and sees the world of the blessed. The deity is surrounded by such brilliance in the 10th sphere that He cannot be seen. Many translations would follow. Hell would come to be of political importance. Fear of a physical purgatory and physical hell as a reward for one's physical excesses on Earth served to focus the attention of the Christian follower on the material world rather than the spiritual reality.

1301
Osman I declared himself Sultan and established the Ottoman Empire centred in Asia Minor.
Turkish Moslems had retreated to Asia Minor as a result of the advance of the Mongols earlier.
The Mongols had invaded earlier and destroyed Baghdad in 1258. Almost constant unrest had reigned for several hundred years as local clans and kings had fought for control and stability while foreign clans had attempted subversion and annihilation.

1309
The seat of the Roman Catholic Papacy was moved to Avignon (France) from Rome.
The bishop of Rome had previously been pope because he was heir to St. Peter and the keys to the kingdom. Avignon was a city under the legal auspices of the German emperor, yet geographically and culturally it was French. In Avignon, the pope had no obvious ties to Rome; he was perceived by many Christians, as a creature of the king of France. The papacy had grown more secular, preoccupied with secular gain and political advantages, and pretentious in its claims to universal power from the early 1200s.

At the very least, it gave the appearance of neglect in spiritual things.
As the Church would have taken the credit had any of its physicians provided a cure for the plague, so it had to accept the loss of confidence which accompanied the almost total ineffectiveness of the medical community during the plague to come. Instead of being a beacon to guide humans spiritually, it chose to be an instrument of arrogance and lust for power and material benefit, and, by example, taught its followers to forget what "spiritual" meant.

1312 - Near this time,
The Olivetians, an order of the Benedictine monks and nuns, was founded by Tolomei of Siena in Italy, and named from Nonte Oliveto Maggiorre near that city, where their first monastery was erected.

1314 - For the next 2 years,
The Roman Catholic Cardinals were so fragmented in their faith that they could not decide upon a successor to Pope Clent V (1305-1314).
Divisions along clan and racial (national) lines were passionate and an agreement was only reached when Philip, count of Poitiers (to become King Philip of France in 1316) pressured them to do so. It was not the first time that the institution of the Church and its Papal leadership were challenged in their existence by dramatic expressions of un-Christian attitudes and actions by its senior officials.

Eventually, a compromise candidate, a 72-year-old Jacques Duese, who had the support of Philip and King Robert of Naples was nominated. Of aristocratic parentage and a legal background, he was authoritarian in action. He streamlined the bureaucracy by preventing the clergy from holding two income producing positions simultaneously, introducing set fees for every church document issued, published job descriptions of the major offices, split up overly large dioceses, banned the more practical and more brief habit (clothing) worn by some orders, and had the Inquisition burn 4 priests at the stake (1318) for not following his orders.

Next, in 1322, the Order at Perugia pronounced in defiance of the Inquisition that the teachings of Christ and their actions demonstrated that they owned nothing and thus the papacy should not either. John first appeared to agree and then declared their position heresy. Obviously, a Pope without property would be a leader without material wealth and power - in a material world. To those of Perugia and others, John now appeared to be a heretic himself and was so branded. John promptly excommunicated all who opposed his position. They in turn supported John's enemy Louis IV who appointed his own imperial vicar and began claiming royal rights in Italy for France. John excommunicated him also.

1316-1334
The Canary Islands (or, Canaries) are discovered by Spanish explorers and the natives are subjugated.
Named after dogs (Latin: canes = dog), the islands are found to have a plentiful supply of dogs, goats, sheep, and cattle. None of these had been brought to the islands by boat for the natives who have a great fear of the sea arising from a legend that describes how their former homeland was swallowed by the ocean in a worldwide disaster from which they believed they were the only survivors.

One of the placenames of the era that has remained into the modern era is Atalaya.
Unidentified ruins found on the Canary Islands are similar to the construction of others found at Mnajdra, on the island of Malta, and at Jericho, in Jordon. They are dated to 8400 B.C. Aircraft pilots in the 1900s would report seeing underwater ruins with similar construction outlines (circular walled patterns) while flying over submerged plateaus and continental shelves in areas where they rose to within 100 feet (30.5 metres) of the surface. No boats were found on the islands which are 60 or 70 miles from the northwest coast of Africa, are 13 in number, and all are volcanic, rugged and mountainous. Indeed, the principal peak of Tenerife is over 12,180 feet above sea level. The Canaries are connected with the African continent by Africa's coninental shelf.

Following conquest by the Spanish, the Portuguese capture the islands and towards the end of the 1400s, the Spanish recapture the islands, exterminate the natives (Guanches), and make the Canaries a Spanish province and a Roman Catholic seat is set up with a bishop in the town of Laguna. When the islands were first discovered, the Guanches had a tradition of 10 kings, a custom also followed by the Maya of southern Mexico. Because the climate is so favourable to pleasant human habitation, the islands were also known by the Europeans of this era as "The Fortunates".

How did the Guanches and animals get to the islands?
What does their legend mean? Why was it necessary to exterminate and dominate an otherwise peaceful native population who at best may have tried to defend their dignity as individuals and their lands from exploitation?

1317
Pope John XXII issues the "Spondent Pariter", in which alchemists are condemned to exile and heavy fines are established against swindlers commercializing transmutation. Transmutations of common elements into gold could lead to the devaluation of major currencies and of papal treasures as well as to the possible bankruptcy of nations and the elite followed by a return to the barter system. Such could collapse the capital-based imperialistic economies along with their bureaucracies and power structures.

1323 - By this time,
Witches ("Wise Persons") were popular throughout Europe.
They were the itinerant teachers and storytellers, the local herbalist, the regional occultist, the astrologer, the magician, the renown seer, the foreigner, the neighbourhood idiot or crazy person. There were no institutions to acknowledge, perfect or standardize the training or competence of such persons; reliability ranged from that of professional to charlatan. Since the awareness of the average commoner seldom extended beyond the farm gate or the town limits there was little positive experience on which to form a true perception of capability. Acceptance of advice or knowledge from such persons largely depended upon blind faith and the persuasiveness of the presentation of the witch.

As humans frequently do, associations were used to extend well beyond the reality.
Word of, or experience of, the expertise of a particular astrologer or herbalist would frequently be extended to all who professed to follow the "trade." This practice inevitably, contributed to many disappointments, some serious errors, anger, humiliation, abuse, and, scepticism. It would not be unusual for a family to fully endorse any form of herbal medicine, completely distrust foreigners, hold fascination for any magician or storyteller, fear the insane, have ridicule for the retarded, and hate astrologers.

Another family in the same locale might be sceptical of the benefits of herbal medicines, welcome foreigners, distrust magicians, love storytellers, have compassion for the insane, fear the retarded, and find astrologers confusing, or, interesting. Such anarchy of perception and expectation in an increasingly dense population encouraged the human response of prejudice, social fragmentation and unrest, and, discouragement of those who really were gifted in ability and professional in perception.

With increasing population density and an increasing dependency on agriculture ... material possessiveness and a requirement for civil orderliness increased. Once a family or individual had a farm, the efforts made to clear the land, till the soil, plant and weed the crops, harvest the crops, process the grains and forage, husband cattle, maintain and build implements, provide housing, and trade any surplus - the prospect of allowing any passerby to share in the benefits reduced. Simplistic sharing without a community of trust based on shared effort, honesty, and self-responsibility would lead to poverty and enslavement very quickly. Such a sense of "community" was frequently still minimal or undependable in what for many was a "frontier" civilization. Feudalism attempted to provide a structure for both security and community.

Those with larger plots of land and greater material resources frequently acquired greater defensive capabilities in the form of fortifications, armaments and mercenary guards. When smaller landowners felt threatened by strangers or local bullies, they would ask for assistance and protection from the "lords." As the larger landowners came more frequently to provide such a service, they agreed to contract such services for a fee. That fee might be a portion of one's produce, a certain amount of labour to tend the crops of the lord, voluntary part-time service in the "militia", or, any combination of the foregoing.

As the power structure of the lord grew, it became materially obvious that "protecting" a larger region would enable a larger and more professional fortress, army, produce and labour taxation. Small autocratic political structures were formed encompassing mini states led by dukes, princes and kings and queens. While this process had been developing for 500 years, it was now somewhat institutionalized.

With the increasing population density, political organizations, and intensive use of agriculture - so also insecurities and challenges had arrived which could not be coped with by military force. Floods, droughts, soil erosion, grass fires, pest invasions, crop disease, famine and epidemics - all increased as forests were removed, vast expanses of singular crops were planted and humans began to live in more dense neighbourhoods. Surplus production encouraged trade which encouraged travel which facilitated the spread of diseases and pests.

The desire for security, power and material wealth prompted imperialistic expansion by autocratic landowners and the travel of their troops also resulted in an increased transfer of pestilence and disease. Humans were ill-equipped to cope with these uncertainties. They had no history of successfully coping with them and many of the factors were new in size of catastrophe due to the changes mentioned. With so much uncertainty, traumatic hardship, and frustration - humans resorted to idiosyncratic, spurious and superstitious use of their reasoning capabilities. For most, the knowledge of such positive coping skills as prayer and meditation had long since been forgotten or set aside by their political and religious institutions. Such abilities increased one's self-directedness and did not encourage human-centred authority systems.

With the masses allowed to remain unskilled and ignorant, they became receptive to domination and leadership. The aggravation for would-be authorities hoping to concentrate their power and control over territorial empires was that such human weakness enabled the individual to relegate authority to many individuals over many aspects of their lifestyle. This fragmented the commitment any individual could make and maintain to any "centralized" authority. Thus a subtle competition was building between political and religious wanna-be centralized authorities and a wide and disorganized assortment of minor authorities, loosely termed "witches." The foundation of the latter was the human ability for rational reasoning, imagination, and passion - all of which humans would later proudly proclaim to be indicators of evolutionary superiority over other Earth-based lifeforms.

Whenever a negative trauma-building event occurred, the participants would attempt to rationalize as to what had caused it. That is, it was assumed that life in the past had largely been constructive, pleasurable, and secure for humans - and, for many thousands of years it had been. Now that bad things were happening to "good" people, there had to be a reason why - a cause. Primitive tribal religions had frequently proportioned this "blame" between an assortment of "evil" influences. The devil, bad spirits, evil-possessed people, or things, and bad magic were favoured reasons. If a cow became diseased when a foreigner came to the area, then it must be the presence of the foreigner which resulted in the disease.

If a cat had distracted a person who then stumbled and became hurt in an accident - it was the fault of the cat which had crossed the path of the victim. Since religious leaders told their followers that a person's spirit left the body on death and went "up" to heaven - anything capable of flight came to represent either good or bad spirits. In some localities strong beliefs led to strong reactions. Killing a bee, a butterfly, certain birds, a cat, or an owl - might result in your own execution for killing a good spirit and bringing bad luck against the neighbourhood.

Rivers and lakes came to be believed of as having an annual or periodic death quota.
If 7 persons were drowned over several repetitive periods of 3 years, it was reasoned that the sacrifice of 7 cattle or 7 criminals or 7 witches would keep everyone safe for the next period. If a person was noticed to be whistling just before a severe storm, they might later be accused of using magic to bring on the storm - and be beaten or executed. Any association was capable of being rendered the truth according to the degree of trauma felt by the victim and the degree of suspicion and paranoia directed at the proposed target of guilt.

For those witches who worked with herbs, a great range of superstitions would arise.
If their proposed cure was ineffective, they were frauds and should be beaten.
If you were cured by them, it was obvious that they knew how to use some form of magic and they were thus working against the design of God, were evil, should be reported to the Church and the community, and, should be penalized or killed. If a person was heard to be speaking to themselves while sweeping or lighting a candle or while fashioning figures out of wax or clay - it was likely that they were casting an evil spell or charm against someone, and, likewise, they should be whipped, abused, or killed - to safeguard the community.

As has occurred in all periods of recorded human history, persons in this age were also attracted to stimulants, aphrodisiacs, intoxicants and hallucinogens. Some women were seen to use, and may even have bragged about the effects of using, broomhandle-ends as dildoes. Greased with a combination of lard and one or more poisonous herbs, gentle manipulation of the stick could vaginally excite the user while powerful salve ingredients provided feelings of lightness, increased sensitivity, faintness, warmth, and visual hallucination. Described to someone else, the user would speak of feeling as if they were flying - some would even experience out-of-body experiences. If the combination or proportion of the herbs proved too strong, insanity or death might result. Either only served to prove the "evilness" of the act and of the person.

When incidents happened which preyed on the lack of emotional balance in an already alerted and challenged population, frustration and anxiety resulted. And from those developed impatience, intolerance, anger, revenge, and sometimes, rage. When toads disturbed one's sleep, they were witches in spirit form come to annoy you. When clean persons acquired lice, and some forms of lice do prefer clean people, it was because a witch had sent them. Hares (rabbits) were sometimes so destructive of crops that people believed that they were witches turned into animals form to aggravate the crop owner.

The wearing or growing of certain plants were believed to keep "bad" witches away.
Clover was a sturdy crop which attracted the good spirits represented by bees.
Thus other crops benefited by the pollination provided by the bees and since crops were better when clover was also present, clover was given the benefit, and, witches were presumed to be the negative influence. Primrose, nightshade, garlic, St. John's Wort, trefoil, vervain and dill also shared this positive perspective - many for their benefit in attracting the pollinating bees and some for repelling pests. Until the 1900s, the plants would be believed to protect against evil witches.

Some witches were well aware of the influence of hypnosis, affirmations, self-esteem and confidence as aspects of healing, well-being and disease. The hypnotic, pseudo-magical persuasiveness of releasing fear through the use of association was often referred to. A person who felt great anxiety or pain might be told that by performing a certain act or by having something waved over them or around them, they would be cured or at least feel better. With a sense of confidence and hope, the person's anxiety and fear would reduce, muscular and nervous tensions would wane, and the problems would disappear.

At times, the general public had to be warned against the haphazard use of extremely potent and potentially fatal herbs. Thus, mandrake, whose root has an image shaped like a miniature human form, and is an aphrodisiac, hallucinogen, and anaesthetic gained a frightful reputation. It was said to give a shriek when it was pulled from the ground such that the soil around the root should be loosened first and then a calf or cow should be tied to it and urged at a distance to pull the herb from the ground. Henbane and elder wood were believed capable of releasing spirits when burned - possibly because of their toxic smoke. In ignorance and frustration, power can bring the reverence of authority or fear and hatred which develop into violence.

1327 - By this year,
Marsilius of Padua (John) had become the principal exponent of the theory of the lay state: a religion-based state administered by a civilian democracy rather than by an autocratic feudal papal god. Both the writings and Marsilius were condemned by Pope John XXII. In January, 1328, Louis XIV would enter Rome and have himself declared emperor and declare the Pope deposed on the grounds of heresy. A straw effigy of John, complete with papal robes was burned.

Louis had a Franciscan monk elected Pope (Nicholas V) but shortly thereafter had to return to Germany for political reasons. John actively opposed Nicholas, and, without the presence of Louis, Nicholas went into hiding. John asserted his own views on doctrine, to more charges of heresy, started the papal library and founded a university. Frugal in his own lifestyle, John was generous in providing gifts to his relatives and in accumulating a massive personal fortune. Clearly power had its rewards. Little more would be heard of the lay state within the institution.

1327
English Local Justice Administration was founded with the appointment of "Justices of the Peace" from the gentry (lower nobility).

1328
Tarter slaves (Mongol and Chinese) were being sold in Europe by this time.
Between 1366 and 1397, at least 259 Tartars, mostly young women, were sold at the slave market in Florence, Italy. The influx had begun when Marco Polo, who had been employed by the Chinese dynasty as an administrator for almost a dozen years, returned to Italy with his own servant, Peter the Tarter, who was granted Venetian citizenship. Most of the slave-trading ended in 1453 with the fall of Byzantium.

1330
Famine in China claims 20 million lives from a population of 45 million.
Poor harvest between 1368-1644 and floods lead to peasant uprisings. A series of droughts, earthquakes and floodings between 1330 and 1334 led to widespread famines, which were worsened by swarms of locust that destroyed much of the remaining crops.

An unspecified epidemic broke out in the province of Hopei in 1331 and allegedly killed 90% of the population. It was later reported that 2/3rds of the Chinese population had died between 1331 and 1353. The Black Death would arrive from Europe by 1350 and by 1393, the Chinese population would drop to 90 million from a previous high of 130 million in the 1200s.

1337 - By this year,
Orkhan, the son of the former Sultan of Asia Minor, Osman I, introduced a new currency and a new national symbol (the fez - a smooth felt cap). The army was organized into light troops and feudal cavalry (the Sultan's guard of pashas). This army of elite soldiers became a terrorizing force to Europe: the spahis (riders) composed of renegades (converts to Islam), and the Janissaries (Christian captives raised as slaves to become fanatical Moslems) fought with robot-like precision and devotion for the "Master of all the faithful". Numbering up to 100,000 men, they eventually formed a state within a state.

The major persuasion of the Moslems towards their Christian prisoners captured in battle was that their Moslem victors could have killed them. Having won over them, the Moslems had proved their supremacy and religious truth; having saved their lives, their lives were the possession of the Sultan. Trained by their Christian parents and leaders to hate the Moslems enough to want to kill them, Christian prisoners could now feel betrayed by those whom they had most trusted when faced with the apparent compassion and forgiveness of the Moslems.

Redirected back at the source, Christian hatred was converted into Janissary rage.
There is no violence, brutality or ruthlessness great enough to satisfy human rage: it is an obsession.
While conveying greater power to the Moslem forces, this dynamic inspired greater hatred in Christian reactions to it.

1328 - During this century,
The terms "Crist" and "Cristian" became common references to the Jew named "Jesus Messiah (Hebrew)", and his religious followers.

1328 - From now until 1573,
The Muromachi age would be a chronicle of Japanese history.
Much warring had preceded this era between emperors and local military-political chiefs or shogunates.
Now, as keeper of the balance of power among competing regional lords, the political importance of the shogun would be reduced. Struggles for power among the regional lords, or between them and newly emergent groups in villages and towns would increase. A spread of popular religious beliefs and organizations gradually replaced individual superstitions and idiosyncratic group traditions.

This was a period of increasing mercantile prominence in Japan.
Warehouse keepers also served as moneylenders and quickly became influential to the culture.
The townspeople emerged as holders of considerable economic power because the wealthy warehouse keepers had joined them. But also the merchants, by virtue of their close contact with the political leaders became participants in a sophisticated cultural life of their own. Profit and practicality as goals amongst the townsfolk replaced in prominence the elite ideals of political and social prestige.

Beginning with the Einin Tokusei Edict of 1297, the Confucian ideal of benevolent rule became the universal norm of politics. Within that context, virtue became synonymous with profit. The leader who brought material prosperity to his subjects was a virtuous leader. Such leaders now began to provide cultural recognition to skilled and competent men from any level of society rather than, as previously, only to those of heritage and influence. The new concentration on the practical led away from the religious emphasis on the WAY or means to the result being important toward a cultural norm of the PROFIT or end being more important than the means.

The Lotus Sect (Hokke) was introduced into Kyoto in 1294.
Although the merchant elite sought to emulate the lifestyle and standards of the samurai, they were attracted to this practical form of Buddhism. The Lotus sect asserted that there is profit in the present world and that comfort in this life is attainable by anyone who trusts in the power of prayer and perseveres in religious practice. Some of the main temples of the sect were in appearance fortresses, possessing moats and earthen embankments surrounding vast grounds and heavy massive structures.

Desire for profit took Japanese traders into foreign waters.
But in an East Asian international community in which trade was subordinated to diplomacy, such traders had to turn pirate or else subordinate themselves to elaborate official regulations. Whether in the trade with China, Korea, or Ryukyu, diplomacy had to take precedence over economics. The right to control foreign diplomacy and trade was still the private prerogative of the feudal aristocracy, a right capable of being subdivided and its parts granted to vassal lords like feudal fiefdoms. The continued existence of commercial tolls and barriers together with bureaucracy encouraged the development of illegal underworld commerce. The leaders of the newly founded Ashikaga shogunate were alarmed over the decline in moral values and behaviour of the times. In 1336, they declared:

"These days, people give themselves over entirely to that form of extravagance known
as "basara".  One's eyes are dazzled by fashionable attire ... and by such adornments as
finely wrought silver swords.  It is indeed madness itself!  The wealthy are ever more
vain, while the shame of the less fortunate knows no bounds.   ...(men) are addicted
to the pleasures of loose women and engage in gambling .... Under the pretext of
holding tea parties and poetry competitions, they make great wagers, and their
expenses are beyond calculation."

Peasant revolts were not simply a rural problem.
Because of the immense profits being reaped by the moneylenders from the countryside by means of rice hoarding and the manipulation of prices, retaliation for such exploitation was taken against all those associated with them - the townspeople. This encouraged the townspeople to strengthen their unity against such vehemence.

At the same time, class distinctions appeared in village communities between the owner-cultivator-landlord (myoshu) who grew into minor proprietors, and, the solely proprietor class. The former, and more wealthy, effectively sided with the political authority ruling the villages and acted as betrayers of the peasant owner-cultivator-tenant (hyakusho) struggle. Local administration changed during the period so as to become more self-governing with the daimyo (political leader) frequently using the phrase "public good" as a way of expressing their right to political authority. By stressing the public rather than private characteristics of their authority, they attempted to justify their use of power.

1339
The first report of the bubonic plague indicated that it was moving westward from a Nestorian Christian community near Lake Issyk Kul, in the Tien Shan region of central Asia. Later in the year, it reached Belasagun, Talas, and perhaps Samarkand. By 1345, it was at Sarai, a major trading centre on the Lower Volga river. During 1346, it reached Astrakhan, the Caucasus, and Azerbaijan. Reports began reaching Europe that

"India was depopulated; Tartary, Mesopotamia, Syria, Armenia were covered with
dead bodies; the Kurds fled in vain to the mountains.  In Caramania and Caesaria (in
Asia Minor) none were left alive."

1345
The Black Death had reached the Crimea, along the northern coast of the Black Sea, where Italian merchants had a number of trading colonies. By 1347, it would have reached Constantinople, and, later that year it reached Alexandria. As the weather got colder, the plague got worse.

1339-1453
The Hundred Years War in Europe between the English people's army (archers and bombards) against French knights as urban civilization with mercantile interests oriented towards England conflicted with duties and taxes imposed by monarchies with enforcement by knights. Kings had become totally self-serving, only taking action to increase and maintain their wealth and lifestyles, rather than fulfilling their contractual obligation of providing protection from anarchy and assistance in time of flood, famine, fire, etc. The British had a more orderly levying of taxes whereas the French had become unpredictable by levying taxes relative to immediate need and desire for defense and wealth of lifestyle.

1345 - On March 20,
There was a conjunction of the planets Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars.
This fact would later be used to suggest that it represented a portent of pestilence and high mortality according to the humeral theory. Jupiter was believed to be a warm and humid planet, dominated by earth and water. Mars, being excessively hot and dry, set these elements aflame. No one was quite sure what Saturn's contribution had been. Eurasia did experience a number of earthquakes between 1345 and 1347. Many doctors believed that these had released noxious fumes from the Earth's core; some claimed that the devil was behind it all.

 A famine would destroy a Colorado civilization (1275-1289).
 A famine would claim 20 million lives in China (1331-1644).
 The Black Death would take the lives of 40% of Europeans (1339- ).
 The Black Death would take another 20 million Chinese lives (1350- ).

1347 - In mid-year,
At the Genoese city of Caffa, a street brawl ensued between Christian merchants and the local Muslim residents.
This degenerated into a war!
After some initial skirmishes, the Muslims sought help from the local Tatar lord.
This lord, a Kipchak khan named Janibeg, raised a large army and forced the Genoese to fortify their quarters in the town.

The Tatars laid seige to Caffa, but in the course of the attack, plague erupted among the troops.
It decimated the besiegers. Janibeg ordered his surviving troops to load plague victims on catapults and fling them over the walls into the citadel. Rotting bodies soon proliferated the town and the Black Death spread throughout. The Genoese fled to their boats and sailed to Italy, taking the plague with them.

1347- By October,
The Black Death, a combination of bubonic, pneumonic, and septicaemic plague strains had entered Eurasia and North Africa. A Genoese fleet made its way in October into the Messina harbour in northeast Sicily. Its crew had "sickness clinging to their very bones." All were dead or dying, afflicted with a disease from eastern Asia. The Messinese harbour masters tried to quarantine the fleet, but it was too late.

It was not humans but rats and fleas that brought the sickness, and they scurried ashore as the first ropes were tied to the docks. Within days, the pestilence spread throughout Messina and its rural environs and, within 6 months, half the region's population died or fled. This scene, repeated thousands of times in ports and fishing villages across Eurasia and North Africa, heralded the arrival of the greatest human diaster in European history - the Black Death.

Famine and flood had devastated the feudal dense societies of China, leaving millions of bodies to rot - a prime incentive for scavengers; the expansion of rodent and parasitic species. Filthy, congested poultry-raising practices by an over-expanded disorganized China had encouraged the generation of the plague strains. Loss of livestock through famine and drought led to a migration of the Y. pestis bacteria carried by rat fleas from central Asia, first to Europe, and then to China.

Human congestion and poor practices of sanitation, garbage disposal and the absence of efficient septic systems throughout Eurasia and North Africa encouraged the scavenger population. The combination of these - human density, human ecological imbalance, abuse of foul populations, encouragement of scavenger populations and huge destitute and starving human populations precipitated a natural rebalancing of the ecology: elimination of much of humanity.

The Hundred Years War, in Europe, had been particularly brutal because of its length.
Soldiers foraged off the land and were absent from home for years: crops were looted and burned; famine and poverty increased; non-political common folk were raped, murdered, and beaten; soldiers were still dying of wounds inflicted by sword slash, pike punctures, or poisoned arrows; recovery from wounds was slim - no hospitals nor battlefield medics; bodies were often left to rot on the fields; destruction of crops and decay of bodies encouraged expansion of rodent and parasite population.

In the previous 250 years the European population had increased by 300%, to 75-80 million.
European towns and cities had begun to form to take the population overburden from the countryside and provide for safety in numbers of humans in fear of humans. None of these towns or cities had coordinated or efficient disposal of human excrement. Vegetable refuse was commonly and simply thrown out of the windows of the houses. Animal refuse, from cooking preparations and meals was likewise discarded. It became a "polite" custom for men to walk on the outer side of a walking duo in cities, furthest from the windows of the houses, to reduce the chance of the woman walking with them from receiving the garbage thrown from upper windows on themselves.

Humanity had long since left band societies for conflicting tribal associations.
In Eurasia, the development of well-organized and peaceful states had not survived.
Human technological innovation was infrequent despite the need, thus demonstrating the low intellectual development of humans, their lack of control over biological imperatives, the lack of a spirit of inclusion in and responsibility for the living universe which surrounded them.

Destruction of each other in wars as well as of cattle and rodents, for food, forced the combined strains of diseases to migrate from their primary hosts, non-humans, to a secondary host: humans. Now humans, more than ever became carriers of a variety of plagues: a pandemic. Three major forms of disease became endemic. Bubonic plague was the more common and had an incubation period of 6 days from infection to appearance of symptoms.

The initial symptom, a blackish, often gangrenous pustule at the point of a flea bite was followed by an enlargement of the lymph nodes in the armpits, groin, or neck. Next, subcutaneous haemorrhaging caused purplish blotches called buboes. The haemorrhaging produced cell necrosis and intoxication of the nervous system, ultimately leading to neurological and psychological disorders. It was the least toxic disease of the major 3 at this time: 50% to 60% of its victims died.

Pneumonic plague could be transmitted directly from one person to another by the severe cough associated with it. After an incubation period of 2 or 3 days, the infection moved to the lungs, consolidated there, led to a rapid cyanosis, and the discharge of bloody sputum which contained the Yersinia pestis bacteria. Neurological difficulties and coma followed infection, with a mortality rate of 95% to 100%. Airborne plagues are generally more deadly. This disease would lead to the superstitious myth of the Dracula.

First, the victims would be more restless at night than during the day.

Secondly, neurological complications could at times result in erratic behaviour including the biting of others.

Thirdly, victims would often display more copious bloody sputum in the mornings after lying supine most of the night.

Fourthly, victims would usually be in a state of sickliness, pain and despair and desire comforting including the maternal loving aspects of cuddling, stroking, bathing and soothing.

Fifth, some would fall into coma, be buried in shallow graves, regain consciousness, and, struggle out of their graves. Others would find them crazed with terror from their ordeal, dishevelled and with the emaciated appearance of a corpse and assume them to be the evil risen from the dead.

Sixth, so many people died that many were placed in shallow graves encouraging scavengers, including wolves, to frequent the graveyards.

Seventh, the process of rigor mortis and body disintegration after death was little understood by humans. If someone was thought to have been a "vampire", the grave must be dug up for inspection. As the corpse deteriorated, the flesh withdrew from finger- and toe-nails making them appear to be growing. Rigor mortis changed, normally, to a flexibility of the limbs. Gas sometimes developed within the body such that driving a stake through the chest would result in a sound suggestive of a muffled scream - really just escaping gas.

Eighth, with so much death surrounding them and no understanding of the cause of the illness, anxious fearful humans became paranoid and used rationalization and imagination to invent superstitions. Church leaders built on the superstition to suggest that the magic of a cross, intended to suggest Christianity, would halt the offending evil approaches of the victim and render the bacteria harmless. If it didn't work, it didn't much matter: you died. If you didn't die after exposure - rare - you would tell all you saw of the miracle of the cross. Eager, terrified humans would believe you without question and both follow and spread the myth. By such manipulation Christian leaders promoted idolatry of the cross.

Like bubonic plague, the third prevalent terminal disease, the septicaemic plague, was born by insects: rodent and human fleas. Yersinia pestis entered the bloodstream in massive numbers, a rash formed within hours and death occurred within a day: it was always fatal. It was also more rare than the former two plagues.

The presence of these plagues was also assisted by environmental conditions.
Certain rat fleas are quite hardy and can survive, without a host, in a nest, dung, or textile bale for as long as a year. Cold (below 15 degrees C) and heat (above 20 degrees C) limit the flea's activity; humidity less than 70% kills it. The climate was wetter and cooler than normal for several decades due to an extended Sunspot Minimum at this time. Sunspot Minimums occur approximately every 11 years. In addition, there are longer-term cycles including one which occurs approximately every 300 years producing a delayed reaction cooling of the Earth's climate for several decades. Once a pandemic is present, plague epidemics occur in intervals of between 2 and 20 years, until weather, economic circumstances, and/or cultural sanitation practices change. For this period, population was held from expansion.

Humans acted as if they were refuges from some other world with neither respect for nor understanding of the balanced system of the Earth. Humans acted as if they were prisoners - grudgingly dependent upon ever-changing and abusive jailors who constantly threatened their safety and took their surplus; beat them into submission; raped the women; and slashed their self-esteem. Even the jailor, the nobility, hopeful of riches and material wealth and sloth - found their resources challenged by those who wanted more.

For the average family, work and survival diminished the availability of time and energy for social enjoyment and environmental appreciation and no religion or social structure encouraged meditation and prayer for the purpose of spiritual growth. Those churches which did exist often supported the authoritarian political abuses, for their own material gain, and then, held out their arms to the vanquished to sooth them. For the commoner, sex was the only pleasure: free, simple, an addiction built on despair - the irresponsible use of which contributed to their problems: a larger population for limited resources.

The Black Death (1347-1351) resulted in the death of 45-50% of the population of Europe dwarfing the numbers killed in combat. Greed, gluttony and sloth by a few led to weakness of the majority resulting in anger, hate, murder and abuse, ending in famine and pestilence. The Black Death would expand into a 300 year pandemic with a further 15-20% of the European population dying from the Great Plague of 1665 alone. Concentration of wealth amongst the survivors would encourage the industrial revolution involving the risk of capital in the development of technology and absorption of shipping losses. Spiritual weakness from this legacy of abuse, abandonment and pride would result in continuous ever enlarging preparations and participation in wars.

1347-1400
Inca Viracocha rules and expands the Inca empire along the length of the western coast of South America.
There was a ruling clan of the Quechua (or Keshiva) tribe and the tribe administered the empire.
Every peasant family, clan and tribe had lands assigned to it. These plots were revised in size periodically to ensure that each family could support itself. Along with their own plots, the people had to farm those of the church and state. Church lands supported the priesthood of the state-centred Sun worship.

Gods of the conquered peoples were welcomed into a pantheon, much as Rome had done within its empire and as the Roman Catholic Church would (Mother god, Saints, worship of the Cross, ...). The state lands supported not only the Inca emperor and his officials and soldiers, but also the aged and crippled subjects and those who had lost their own crops through misfortune. No money was used. Taxes were in the form of labour or produce, much like in medieval Europe. Social organization was extensive and simple. Unless born into the administrative clan or made an honourary official, you would become a farmer.

1348 - By this year,
The Black Death reached Cairo, Egypt, one of the largest cities in the world at that time.
With a population perhaps as large as 500,000, mortality in the city ranged between 300 and 7,000 per day depending on the climate. Several reports even indicate totals over 20,000 on particular days. Coffins and shrouds fell into short supply. Labour for grave-digging and officiating at the funerals became insufficient such that mass graves in trenches became common. Prices rose and begging in the streets became commonplace. Over 200,000 would die.

In late 1348, the plague reached Antioch, a major commercial seaport with a pre-plague population of 40,000. Mortality exceeded 50%. By February, 1349, the Black Death had reached Aswan, along the Upper Nile. The following summer, only 116 of 6000 people would pay taxes in nearby Asyut. By early 1349, Damascus, with a population of over 80,000, received the plague and over 30,000 of the inhabitants died. Mecca was reached in spite of Prophet Mohammed's prediction that plagues would never reach the city. Islamic scholars rationalized that it must have been the influence of nonbelievers in the city.

By 1349, the entire Islamic world had been engulfed by the Black Death.
About a third of the population and perhaps as many as 50% of those living in urban areas had died.
Between 35% and 40% of the overall population of the European Mediterranean Basin had perished by the year 1350. Nuremberg, Germany had one of the lowest death tolls of any major city. Unlike all of the others, it had a highly developed system of public health. The streets were paved and regularly cleaned. Trash and garbage could not be dumped in the streets, but had to be bagged and carted away. Pigs were not allowed to roam the city, and personal cleanliness was held in high regard, an unusual attitude in late medieval Christendom.

Bathing money was part of many workers' weekly wages, and municipal employees washed regularly.
Nuremberg had 14 public baths and a rigorous system of inspection to make certain they were clean and did not serve as brothels, as they did in many other towns. The town had its own medical community and, when the plague arrived, they quickly offered constructive suggestions which the town leadership adopted. Cadavers were buried outside the city. Burial services were kept short. The clothes and bed of the dead were burned. Incense, an ancient bactericide, was used to fumigate the rooms occupied by the afflicted. Such observation and calm conclusions were seldom followed elsewhere.

Such devastation brought another human response to negative stress: rationalization and imagination used to bring ethnocentrism and superstition into reality. Gossip and suggestion and distrust led to accusations, torture, and, execution of Jews. The usual accusation was that they had poisoned the wells. The lawlessness was usually the act of fear-struck vigilante commoners. The true reality was that if humanity had been more spiritual in character, the plague would never have developed!

1348
The first European Papermill is set up in Troyes, France.

1349 - In November,
"Liber secretum eventum" by John of Rupecissa, would proclaim the return of Christ in the year 1370.
He would slay the anti-Christ, and a new, blessed world would emerge. In 2370, after another millennium, Judgement Day would occur and there would be heaven on Earth. It was a rational attempt to justify the events surrounding the Black Death in the context of human egotism. If humans were as important and blessed as they proudly believed, then such a lengthy purgatory of woes on the Earth had to be for a reason.

Between May and August of 1348, over 28% of all the Roman Catholic cardinals died along with 25 archbishops and 207 bishops. Such clergy had been generous patrons of the intellectual community cloistured behind the walls of universities and in monestaries. Between 25% and 35% of the university teachers in Europe would die within 2 decades. In 1349, Europe had 30 universities; 5 disappeared by 1360, and 15 others by 1400. As early as 1361, students were petitioning Pope Innocent VI for financial assistance to aid those witnessing poverty, lack of payment of dues owed to them, and debt.

1353
English is proclaimed the official language in London, England's sheriff's courts when, due to the deaths due to plague, enough officials could not easily be found who spoke the previously official languages of Latin and French. Since the eleventh century, Latin and French had been the languages of the nobility, the elite, and the bureaucracy. In 1362, English was designated as the official language of all high courts of law.

In 1363, the king's chancellor would open Parliament with a speech in English.
Now, the commoner could understand what he was being charged with, how he was being testified against, what arguments and decisions were being made "publicly" on his or her behalf and what regulations he was obligated to follow. This lessened the absolute and often abusive authority of government representatives, lawyers, and teachers. By 1385, few students would understand the foreign languages, and by 1400, most students entering university would no longer be able to read and converse in Latin.

1356
In the "Golden Bull", issued by the Emperor Charles IV of Germany, regulations were documented for the mode of procedure in the election and coronation of future emperors. Clauses were inserted into the document to again reaffirm the government abolishment of the guilds. Again, the law remained unenforceable. The guilds became more secretive in their membership, vows, and practices, and, more elitist, monopolistic, and subversive of individual freedoms.

1360
Tamerlane (Timur the lame) proclaims himself renewer of the Mongol Empire while appealing to the Moslem Koran as his divine inspiration. In 36 typically ruthless and massacre-like campaigns, his forces take command over the area from Samarkand to Iran (1380) and on into India (1398).

1363
The GRAYs (Extraterrestrial Visiting lifeforms) begin building bases on the Earth's moon.
The Moon provides a good source of raw materials for the GRAYs plus an environment which was not contested by other biological forms. Soil characteristics were an advantage to their preferred subterranean nests (bases).

1368
Chu Yuan-Chang, a Buddhist monk, drove the last Mongol Emperor from Peking and established a new national dynasty at Nanking, which continued until 1644. Trade and industry were controlled because, according to Confucian teachings, they were considered morally questionable. As bureaucratization increased and power and authority became concentrated amongst officials, rivalries between same led to corruption based on iniquities. The security of the Empire became the leading task and to improve defenses the Great Wall was constructed between 1403-24 along the northern frontier, extending for 2,450 km; it was 16 metres wide and 8 metres high. Famines, earthquakes and floods weakened the Empire from about 1500. These led to peasant uprisings.

1369
T'at-tsu, the Ming emperor of China, sends envoys to Japan, Java, and other southeastern Asian countries in the hope of establishing political order and trade in the greater China region. In 1370 a second envoy was sent. Prince Kanenaga, of the Sei-sei Japanese shogun-fu, sent the envoy back with gifts such as horses and 70 Chinese men and women who had been captured by the Wako. Ashikaga Yoshimitsu sent envoys to China in 1374 and 1380, but they were not recognized by T'ai-tsu.

In 1401, Yoshimitsu would send a further envoy, headed by the priest Soa, with Koetomi, a Hakata merchant, as deputy. The Chinese wanted nominal political subservience from the Japanese, and all others. The Japanese hated the blow to their pride but wanted profits. More exchanges of envoys occurred and the first tally ships from Japan began sailing to China.

1373 - At this time,
Pope Gregory XI (30 Dec. 1370 - 27 Mar. 1378) became particularly active in repressing heresy in Provence, Germany, and Spain; in France he used the Inquisition ruthlessly, and called for the help of King Charles V so effectively that the prisons were soon too full to receive those who escaped a sentence of burning at the stake. He threatened Oxford University for not stamping out the errors represented by such reformists as John Wycliffe.

With a lawyer's training and poor health, he had entered the papacy from the position of an important administrator for the former pope, Urban V. Authoritarian, relentless and pious - he determined that the only head office for the Catholic Church had to be Rome and not Avignon, and that only from Rome could the pope's authority be properly exercised over the newly organized papal empire. On coming to power, the papal treasury was empty.

Seeking a new crusade, the war between France and England had to be resolved first - for their congregations would largely have to pay for the crusade. Gregory sought to bring to an end the imperialistic unrest in the north of Italy by the creation of a political league; however, the league couldn't get organized before its budget ran out. By 1376, Gregory had approved the wholesale distribution of indulgences by professional "pardoners." Essentially, he franchised the sale of forgiveness, as if God's grace could be bought with a material donation to a human god - the pope.

During 1375/6, France and England were ready to talk peace; City state Florence was exasperated at the papacy for withholding food supplies from Rumania. Florence was able to rouse almost the whole of the papal state against the pope. Gregory simply laid an interdict against Florence, her allies, and the rebel cities - similar to a blockade - paralysing banking and commercial transactions, and, sent a powerful army of mercenaries to Italy to swiftly recapture the papal state. In January, 1377, Gregory finally took up residence in the Vatican.

1380
Dutch fishermen perfected a method of salting, drying, and storing fish aboard their ships.
Previously, fishermen had to come ashore to salt their fish, limiting the length of stay at sea and the fishing grounds available to them within that distance. With the decrease in dependence on livestock for protein, Europeans required greater quantities of fish. The new process enabled the fishermen to stay out on the ocean until their ship was full and to go to any distance their ship's seaworthiness and their navigational and piloting skills made feasible. Again humanity could avoid its genetically disposed characteristic of over-fertility, or, culturally disposed weakness of lack of self-responsibility for expansion of population - and continue to exacerbate social, economic and political injustices.

1380 - During the year,
The "Ravensburger Trading Company", was one of a number of private trading companies, formed to expand long-distance trade. They invested capital (profit) to finance the transport of goods (shipbuilding) and trading stations (ports and forts) abroad. Merchants began using new techniques of accounting and granted credit. Religious prohibitions of interest (usury) were evaded by the Church itself through the rent system. The Church would grow to the top rank of European financial power through the tithing of its members.

Large capitalists tried to establish monopolies and used the political influence of the control of one part of the economy (mining, export trade, banking, credit) to control other factors. Increasingly, major capitalist enterprises became competitors of states, thereby requiring greater discreteness on the part of the entrepreneurs. Eventually, states would provide monopolies to private companies which carried out the colonizing aims of the state. As such the companies became mercenaries of the states and in some cases became a law unto themselves, with profit and gain their only guideline. The Ravensburger Company continued its operation until 1530.

The merchant banker established his own shops for textiles and metal articles which were produced on the basis of paying out wages to the domestic worker with raw materials and tools and then taking the responsibility for distribution.

1382
The conquest of Yunnan Province, China by Ming nationalists eliminated the last Mongol stronghold.
The Mongols had failed to become masters of the bureaucracy necessary for the administration of such a large area and large number of people. Gradually, the Chinese scholar-gentry had infiltrated back into the administration. Confucianism had gained much ground and with the failure to control the bureaucracy, the Mongolian Yuan dynasty had encountered financial problems. The Mongols had squandered great wealth on military ventures, inefficiencies, and other forms of overspending. Their humiliation and coercion of the Chinese had given power to a rebellion.

The Ming established their capital at Nanking in the east-central economic area.
They modified the laws, built new irrigation works, and drove the Mongols north to the Yablonovy mountains, sacking the Mongol capital of Karakoron on the way. Manchuria was annexed. Hung-Wu, the first Ming emperor died. A civil war followed, while the emperor's successors struggled for control. In 1403, peace returned, the capital was shifted to Peking from Nanking, and under the leadership of Chu Ti, the 3rd Ming emperor, the country entered the Yung-Lo period. The Chinese embarked on their greatest period of maritime exploration.

1382
The First Translation of the Bible to English is credited to "John Wycliffe".
His translation was part of his larger ambition of reforming the Church.
It was his contention that the church could be reformed only if everyone knew God's law, and that required that the Bible be translated into the language of the people.

Two versions of the translation were produced.
The first was almost a word-for-word translation of the Vulgate Latin.
The second was more idiomatic and may have reflected more the efforts of Wycliffe's associates, John Purvey and Nicholas of Hereford. The legitimacy of the Latin translation from the Greek and Hebrew were not tested at this point. The Vulgate would continue to be used in the Roman Catholic Church well into the 20th century. For 150 years, the Wycliffe Bible was the only English version.

1387 - From about this time,
"The Great Wall of China" was constructed to help keep Mongol and other invaders out of the Chinese kingdom, by improving the defense of the northern frontier. 3 million workers spent the next 37 years building a wall 6 to 15 meters above the ground and wide enough on top for a lane of modern cars to pass in each direction. In some places, the Wall was 16 meters wide. It was extended to more than 2414 kilometres.

1390
Ulman Stromer sets up the first German papermill at Nurnberg.

1391
The First Recorded Labour Strike against an employer takes place at the Stromer papermill.
While previous slave rebellions and worker work stoppages had occurred, it was not in the interest of the human authorities to spread this news of their temporary loss of control. Frequently, such work stoppages would have been dealt with in a violent manner by the manor lord, nobility or employer. This tradition was changing.

The introduction of privately owned mills for any product, in opposition to mills operated by monasteries, required the employment of individuals who through the duration of their employment would become more skilled and more efficient in production than a new hire who fundamentally was a labourer to all new industries. Particularly in the early years of mill operation and production, the only experienced staff available were to be found working in the mill. Loss of any such worker, through illness, accident, death, dismissal, or quitting - could create a severe loss of overall efficiency. The prospect of losing ALL of one's skilled employees and having to train all new and inexperienced staff was a considerable setback. This was not only because of the initial lack of efficiency involved. A local enterprising person with capital could become a new competitor.

Once a staff had been trained in the operation of a mill and a market had been established for the goods which it produced, others in the community would then have to accept that such an enterprise was not only viable, but profitable. For either or a combination of a greedy employer who refused to raise wages, an assertive workforce which wanted to receive monetary recognition of their improved employment worth, or a greedy workforce which wanted to exploit the mill owner's success to their maximum benefit - the prospect of worker abandonment or strike now became relevant. An unhappy worker might simply take the position that working long hours doing a continuously demanding and monotonous job for the purpose of making a living was no longer a positive comparison beside working long hours of demanding yet variable work in agriculture.

A respected and well-financed entrepreneur, hearing of the success of a mill and the disgruntlement of the employees - could covertly arrange to have a similar mill built locally and then offer all the unhappy workers better working conditions, increased wages, and incentives for encouraging others to join with them, and, leave the original employer bankrupt of employees, production, and sales. Against the competition of his experienced workers and a new mill, business failure would increase greatly in potential. A strike, in which all of the workers banded together to produce a public protest against the lack of negotiation and improvement by the owner - the owner was challenged to either end the strike quickly, or, find that there was a ever-widening and intensifying notice to other entrepreneurs that a competitor might benefit from.

The success or failure of all future strikes would depend on a number of factors including these:

     A) exclusivity of the workforce and its skills;
     B) market stability, growth, or decline;
     C) profitability of the industrial sector concerned;
     D) current production and market competition;
     E) degree of enforcement of civil rights;
     F) ability of the workers to act as a unified group.

Many of these factors would not be considered, resulting in strikes and companies failing, sometimes together. In addition, both direct and subtle efforts to coerce individual workers, all the workers, or the ownership - to accept certain demands or offers, would add a greater degree of insecurity, authoritarian competitiveness and distrust into the worker-employer relationship.

1391
Chinese drawings in the late 14th century show flying chariots suggesting a propulsive force of some kind of electromagnetism.

1394
A Sow was Executed by Hanging in France, after a court found it guilty of eating a child.
Swine roamed freely in France for many years. It is unknown if the pig was seen to actually kill the child. Swine are known for there habit of consuming what humans consider garbage as well as roots and other foods.

1394-1433
During this period, "The Perfumed Garden for the Delectation of Souls"
(Al-Raudh al-'Atir fi Nouzhat al-Khawatir) was written by a native of the town of Nafzawa in Tunisia: Shaykh al-Imam Abu'Abd-Allah al-Nefzawi. It contained numerous aphrodisiac recipes and other details relating to increased variety and appreciation for sensual and sexual behaviours.

The book contained 21 chapters covering such topics as these:

   Qualities in Men Admired by Women;
   About Men who are to be Held in Contempt;
   Qualities in Women admired by Men;
   Of the Deceits and Treacheries of Women;
   Organs of Generation in Animals;
   The Act of Generation: Concerning the Causes of Enjoyment ...;
   Everything Favourable to Coition;
   Treating of the Good Effects of the Deglutition of Eggs ...;
     as well as chapters concerning Lesbianism, male homosexuality, masturbation, .... 

While some of the information was of the most accurate and wise of the era, other details were cultural in attitude and expectation or the result of idiosyncratic personal experience or gossip.

Considerable detail was provided as to the factors encouraging impotence and to the types of food, digestive practices, and, clothing which were positive or negative to a healthful and rich appreciation of human sensuality and sexuality. Uro-genital diseases for which he is unaware of an herbal remedy he acknowledges that "God only can cure them." Many of his aphrodisiac recipes were pleasant enough in composition and provided a potential for improved intimate physical interpersonal activities through an improvement in health reached by better nutrition. His base on which to build a human's greatest physical enjoyment was:

"Know that there are 8 things which give strength. .... These are:

      bodily health,
      the absence of all care and worry,
      an unembarrassed mind,
      natural gaiety of the spirit,
      good nourishment,
      wealth,
      the variety of the faces of women, and
        the variety of their complexions ...."

A number of the recipes which Nefzawi offers to positively influence passion and strength for sexual intercourse represent spiced food staples such as adding cinnamon, ginger, and cardamoms to green peas boiled with onions. Some recipes given as remedies for impotence bear a common resemblance to more recent North American and European desserts: pastries containing honey, ginger, pyrether, syrup of vinegar, hellebore, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamoms, pepper, cloves, and other spices. A secondary method of taking a combination of these spices is mixed in a chicken, pigeon, or other fowl broth. Many of these herbs contain hormones, as does the fowl broth, and some also contain very high concentrations of vitamins. If the broth does not seem to be palatable enough, Nefzawi suggests the addition of a honey.

A considerable amount of male fantasy based on anxiety regarding the optimum length of the penis for the satisfaction of the so-called standard woman are of the same nature as those which have been common throughout many ancient and modern human cultures. In brief, the axiom that the longer, the better is presented - creates much anxiety in the majority of the male readers and an increasing devotion and servitude to the remainder of the work.

The more open expression of the attitudes and experiences of women during the 1970s and 1980s would largely deny this technically-based viewpoint. Men raised with infantile ego-centred perceptions about their sexual "tool" would then be challenged to acknowledge the preference of women for partners who had the ability and inclination to express the spiritually positive traits of sharing, compassion, assertiveness, empathy, listening, and patience. Caring partners could find means of stimulating and pleasuring one another - particularly if the male organ was of an "average" length.

The final chapter of "The Perfumed Garden" provides recipes for combinations of foods, the eating of which is expected to stimulate one's amorous desires as well as prolong one's stamina. The regular eating of egg yolks, onions, asparagus and herbs is suggested. Translation of the original Arabic into the word "asparagus" is somewhat questionable and the meaning may well be closer to a meal made from chickpeas, mung beans, and wheat germ.

1395
Jean de Bethencourt, a French nobleman in the service of Spain, officially "discovers" the Canary Islands.
Their existence had been previously noted in a Catalonian (Spanish) atlas published 20 years earlier, based on information copied from ancient maps. The Spanish conquerors of the Canary Islands found that the native Guanches ("men") were surprised to learn on their arrival that other people had survived the disaster that had flooded their world and had left them isolated on islands that were once the tops of the high mountain of their former homeland.

The Guanches were white-skinned, usually had blond hair, were very tall, and had a Cro-Magnon build and facial structure - believed to have suddenly appeared about 45,000 years ago and representing the first true human primates. In subsequent warfare between the Guanche natives and the Spanish occupiers, the former were exterminated.

The Guanches, had stone inscriptions which they could no longer understand, ancient stone houses that they no longer repaired, and no boats to go out on the sea they so feared for drowning the much larger lands of their ancestors: they were an example of cultural disintegration, a result often following a catastrophe.

1400 - For the past 1400 years ..
The Hohokam had lived in central Arizona, centred around present day Phoenix.
They had constructed elaborate irrigation canal systems to boost agricultural production and feed the expanding population. Salinization of the soils resulted from the accumulation of mineral salts deposited from the evaporating irrigation water. Farming became difficult as yields lowered in response to the toxic influence of the salts. The inability to desalinize the irrigation water and to control the population led to the negative stress on the environment and its eventual failure to support plantlife. The civilization collapsed, dispersing elsewhere, and, incurring increasing poverty, hunger and anarchy.

1404 - During this year,
Jupiter and Saturn will be in Conjunction in the astrological sign of Aquarius.
This relationship only occurs once each 616 years.
Some people believe that such an arrangement heralds major changes.

Mongol anarchy would follow the death of Tamerlane (1405).

    The Roman Catholic Church would be intolerant of translations (1415).
    The RC Pope Eugene IV would declare a Holy War against the Turks (1444).
    The Gutenberg printing press would be invented and commercialized (1445).
    The influence of Rome would decline with the loss of Constantinople (1453).
    Ivan III would institute the position of Tzar (sole ruler) in Russia (1462).
    Pope Sixtus IV and the Catholic monarchs of Spain > Spanish Inquisition (1478).
    RC persecution of the Gypsies and Jews would border on extermination (1492).
    Columbus would "discover" San Salvador, Cuba, Haiti, for Spain (1492).
    Importation of African slaves into European colonies begins (1510).
    Luther's  "95 Comment" would be posted for the public (1517).
    The Aztecs would be decimated by European smallpox (1519).

ALL of the above changed human civilization and were major in influence.

1404
Japanese Tally Ships made 17 trips between China and Japan and involved a total of 84 ships over the next 150 years, to 1547.
The Chinese sought peace in exchange for prestige.
The Japanese looked for something more practical.
The tally system had arisen after the Ming emperor in China had sent envoys to the "King of Japan" requesting that the Japanese ruler control the Wako, that is, the Japanese pirates who raided the coast of China, and that the King bring Japan under the political unity of China, much like a province or colony.

The "invitation" was made as a friendly gesture, with autocratic authority, by the Chinese;
the "threat" was confused by the Japanese with the earlier invasions by the cruel and ruthless Mongol-Tartars.
It was only a century before that the Mongols had twice invaded and massacred whole villages.
The interim had allowed enough time to pass for anger and grief to become hatred and for fear and pride to back vengeance.

When the offer was first made, anarchy ruled in Japan and no major political leader could either agree to the terms nor had the power to enforce restrictions against the Wako. Tallies provided evidence to the receiver that the original shipment was intact or that it had been broken apart by smugglers and pirates. Not only the cargo was tallied. The number of ships and the number of crew were also recorded and checked. Tribute or taxes went to China in exchange for merchant trade between the countries. Peking set the price for payment for Japanese goods sold to the government. Such goods changed hands at Nanking with the Japanese being paid in copper coin. Among tribute goods were horses, sulfur, long swords, armour, spears, inkstones, folding fans, and decorative screens.

Private trade was conducted both in Peking and Ningpo.
Private goods exported to China included swords, sulfur, copper, sapanwood (from India), fans, lacquer ware, screens, and inkstones. At Ningpo, especially privileged merchants (licensed brokers) sold goods on commission and bought goods from the ship's crew. Payment to the Japanese was often in the form of copper coins, silk or hemp. The Japanese became such a good armaments supplier that at one point their delivery of 30,000 swords for sale in one shipment caused concern with the Chinese.

The resulting price paid, suitable to the Chinese for a less-than-high demand product, proved insulting to the Japanese relative to the quality of the work: it would result in major problems of attitude and communication in later trade. Delegations allowed into the interior of China, to Peking, were restricted in size after 1511. In 1453, 9 ships carrying 1,200 people arrived at the shore of China and 350 were allowed to proceed to Peking. Delegation members sometimes created "disturbances" along the way, so, the number admitted dropped to 50 after 1511.

Trade during this 150 year period was neither consistent nor stable.
Rulers changed and with them policies and attitudes changed. Early on, Ashikaga Yoshimochi discontinued contact with China after his father's death. The Ming emperor Ch'eng-tsu even contemplated sending troops to attack Japan. In 1417 and 1419, he sent emissaries instead in an attempt to resume friendly trade. Yoshimochi's younger brother Yoshinori succeeded him and later sent a document to the Ming emperor in which he referred, diplomatically, to himself as "Your Japanese Subject, Minamoto Yoshinori." Satisfied, the Ming emperor sent a delegation back investing the shogun with the title "King of Japan". Various powerful temples and shrines, and some of the city overlords, joined with the regional shogun, now King, to sponsor most of the tally ships. Heavy restrictions in the mid-1400s, imposed by the Chinese, led to a drop in the trade, and an increase in piracy.

1404
Henry IV of England issues an act declaring that the "multiplying of metals" was a crime against the Crown.
Transmutation of common elements into gold and other metals (counterfeiting) could undermine the valuation of the royal treasury while potentially lending support to opposition forces if the counterfeit precious metals were used to finance a competing military force. The Hundred Years War between England and France was in progress as was the Peasants' Revolt in England. The appearance of gold from sources other than the government treasury or other authorized sources resulted in the alarm.

1405
The Death of Tamerlane before the beginning of his "Holy (Islamic) War" against China results in family conflicts in the Mongol hierarchy and anarchy results. The Chinese princes which had been displaced, return.

1405
Cheng Ho, a Chinese eunuch admiral, set off with the first of 8 expeditions to be conducted over the next 30 years. Ho left with a fleet of 63 ocean-going junks, visited many parts of the South Seas and returned with the kings of Palembang and Sri Lanka to do homage to the Imperial court. For the first time animals such as ostriches, zebras, and giraffes came to be seen in China.

1415
The Wycliffe Bible was Condemned and Burned by the Roman Catholic Church.
Only 107 copies of this first complete English translation of the Bible would survive to the 1900s.
Obviously, the Pope did not want his congregations to know what the meaning was behind the Latin phrases they were being taught to repeat and revere. It is easier to make an idol of something which is mysterious by its confusion, sanctioned by an authority, and magical in its expected benefit - than something which is understood, and holds awareness rather than mystery, something which requires personal confirmation, and something which proves to be worthy by practice.

1421
Early in the century, the Franciscans were split into the Observants and the Sabotiers.
The former went barefooted, wore a long, gray cassock and cloak and hood of large dimensions, covering the chest and back, and a knoted belt. The Observants wore wooden sandals, a cassock, a narrow hood, a short cloak with a wooden clasp, and a brown robe. In France, a member of the order not affiliated with either of the above was called a Cordlier, from the cord which they tied about them in place of a belt. The Capuchins, so-called from the peculiar shape of hood or cowl they wore, would originate in the reform of the Observantists introduced in the 1500s by Matthew of Baschi.

1425
The Dominicans are granted permission to receive donations.
They begin to move away from the self-denial and self-victimization of their origin and towards the self-aggrandizement of intellectualism as expressed in philosophy and theological science. With the Franciscans, their great rivals, they divided the honour and prestige of ruling in church and state until the founding and growth of the Jesuits. They were the exclusive managers of the Roman Catholic Inquisition is Spain, Portugal and Italy.

1428
The body of John Wycliffe is exhumed by the Roman Catholic Church and burned.
Burning of and condemning the English translations which he had made of the Bible had neither quashed the desire of some of the populace to know what it was that they were being asked, and forced, to revere. In its frustration at the continuing influence of Wycliffe's proposals for honesty and legitimacy within the Church, the Pope extended the punishment of burning beyond the living body to the corpse.

Superstition and a desire for obedience from the coercion of the drama of such an incident could have motivated the fantasy that the burning of a corpse would somehow influence the man's spirit. Intense anger, rage, could also have contributed. That such should be the primary motivations of the spiritual leaders of ANY institution only confirms the spiritual poverty of those who represented the Church.

1429 - By this year,
Jeanne d'Arc, the 'Maid of Orleans' (1412-1431) believed that she had been given a divine mission to embrace military life to the fullest as a military commander. Born to a peasant family in Domremy, a village in the Champagne area of France, at the age of 14, she began to hear the voices of saints calling her to drive the English from France. The Hundred Years War (1339-1453) had been ongoing for 90 years and to a 14-year-old, that would have seemed like an eternity in those times. All of history was verbal and most of the conversation which she would have been exposed to would have been from relatives, friends and acquaintances with a continual emphasis on their experiences of the war and their relating of the horrors they had seen or heard about the war.

Children born during such times of high levels of negative stress and anxiety would be determined in the latter part of the 20th century to have an above average genetic formation which would encourage the development of homosexuality or gender transfer. In awareness of this, it would not be unusual for "Joan" to be attracted to the "male" lifestyle of the soldier and the military and feel a closer bond of "brotherhood" with males than the average woman.

Emotional sensitivity also often accompanies humans born during such times of turmoil.
The development of a strong sense of will and an intensity of emotional commitment would be expected of such a young, impressionistic person who had lived the horrors of 90 years of war, real and exaggerated, as lived by those around her. Joan would believe that her battles were just and her actions correct in opposing the continuance of such barbarism.

Between 1422-61, Charles VII lost the crown lands around Paris to the English.
Crossing France with a sense of mission and enthusiasm, Joan stimulated the spirit of resistance and vengeance which had been increasing in the French populace, to support her efforts against the English. In 1429, she felt directed by spirits to make sure that the Dauphin be crowned the king of France. Some correct prophecies gained her an audience with the Dauphin, who, impressed with her enthusiasm and sincerity, provided her with some troops to end the English seige of the city of Orleans. She succeeded there and felt success again when she saw the Dauphin crowned as King Charles VII in the cathedral at Rheims.

The following year, military failures led to her capture by the Burgundians (who were allies of the English) and she was given over to the English. Joan went on trial for her life (much like a war crimes trial) at Rouen before a Roman Catholic Church court presided over by the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre Cauchon. Charged with witchcraft and heresy, Joan stated her valiant defense as having followed the guidance of the saints and as having never killed anyone. The Church (Inquisition) would not tolerate anyone who suggested that they received divine guidance directly - that could only come to the individual by way of the pope, so they preached. After a period of recantation, she was released.

Joan resumed the wearing of male clothing and "male" activities, and the Church declared her a lapsed heretic.
Handed over to state authorities, she was burned at the stake in the public square of Rouen on May 30, 1431. Witnesses later reported that she died a rather slow and agonizing death, crying out at the last for holy water and uttering the word "Jesu." Joan was one of hundreds of persons burned to death during this period for reasons of insanity, the practice of herbal medicines, the affirmation of individual spiritual communication, personal dislike, gossip, belief in a religion other than that of the Roman Catholic Church. This was the terror of being helpless while flames rose hotter and closer around you, to burn your flesh until physical shock and loss of blood allow you to die - an agony that could last between 15 and 40 minutes during which each minute would seem to be an eternity of fear and pain.

Twenty-five years later, Pope Callistus III would reverse the church condemnation of Rouen and would declare Jeanne D'Arc innocent of the charges brought against her. In 1920, Pope Benedict XV would declare her a saint.

During WWII, both the Nazi-backed Vichy government and the Gaullist government in exile would call upon the example of Jeanne d'Arc to justify their example and give credibility to it. No matter how noble the cause or justified the end, the means of "battle," "military action," "deceit," or "torture" do not uphold the spiritual principles which Jesus Christ expressed and demonstrated in his WAY of life. Yet humans who profess to be Christians are responsible through the last 1000 years for more human degradation, murder, torture, and abuse than any other social grouping, although Stalinist and Maoist Communists and Islamic fundamentalists have come close.

1430
Cardinal de Cusa writes:

"Since the machine of the world is as if it had its centre everywhere and its circumference nowhere - because the centre and the circumference of the world is God, who is everywhere and nowhere - all stellar regions must be inhabited by human species with different natures and capacities."

1430
In the "Dera Linda Boek", a Frisian (Dutch) chronicle the following disappearance of Atland in the Atlantic is described.

"Atland, as the land was called by seafaring people, was swallowed by the waves
together with its mountains and valleys, and everything else was covered by the sea. 
Many people were buried in the ground and others, who escaped, died in the water. 
The mountains breathed fire ... the forests were burned to a cinder, and the wind bore
the ash which covered the entire Earth.  New rivers took shape and the sand in their
mouths formed new islands.  For three years the land groaned, and when it recovered,
its wounds could be seen.  Many countries had disappeared and others had been rent
asunder by the sea."

1430-1480 - During this period
Typhus caused by Rickettsia, carried by the human body flea became highly contagious and relatively lethal throughout Europe.
Encouraged by the filth of the towns and the battlefields, famine and malnutrition also contributed to this disease from India. In the cities, household garbage was often thrown out of the windows into the street. Open sewers flowed past the houses and the prospect of indoor plumbing and toilet facilities was still centuries in the future. Bathing was rare by the standards of the late 1900s and most people slept on straw or hay mattresses. Many dwellings were little more than single-room shelters.

With dead dying from wounds on the battlefield and epidemics, in addition to the more normal causes of old age and accident - corpses might be left to decay on the spot or only buried or burned when the stench became too strong. Because of the filthy conditions in which most mercenary troops lived, and their tendency to live in close itinerant communities called armies, the prospect of an infestation beginning at one end of the camp and progressing to the other end was high. Jails, which were seldom cleaned after the release of the former prisoner, became such a vector for the disease that it was also known as "Jail Fever." It was recorded in Germany, France, and England in the 1430s. In 1444, Newgate Prison in England recorded the deaths of 5 jailors and 64 prisoners from the disease in the course of one week.

1431
The Azores are discovered by Cabral and shortly thereafter are taken possession of and colonized by the Portuguese.
A group of volcanic islands 900 miles (1448 km) west of Portugal in the north Atlantic, subject to earthquakes, having a mountain peak of 7600 feet (2200 metres) and many land birds and rabbits - no human residents are found. The mountains are of comparatively recent origin and there are many hot springs on the islands. The islands are named after their resident hawks (Portuguese = Acores), which typically are hunters and scavengers of land-based small mammals which particularly frequent forests and plains rather than mountain regions. Two kinds of continental coast and inland sea seals, the monk and the siren are found off the coasts of the Azores - at a great distance from their apparent preferred habitat.

In the mid-1900s, the Azores would be found to represent the above surface portion of a section of the mid-Atlantic Ridge of mountains resting on a plateau-like feature defined by the 2000-foot (610 metre) depth contour line. Freshwater springs would be found in the vicinity of the Azores - in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, even though few exist on the Azores themselves. Fishermen in that era would be experienced in finding such springs and filling their buckets with fresh water from the sea for home use. Similar ocean freshwater springs would be found in the 1900s over a submerged plateau of lopsided-triangular shape measuring about 60 miles (96.5 metres) on each side and located between the Straits of Florida and the Santaren and Nicholas Channels, south of Bermuda.

It would be in the vicinity of the Azores that searches for Atlantis would be first undertaken in the 1900s and where rocks from the bottom would provide evidence of massive explosive forces and sudden sinkings. A large continent-size island would be possible to envision as resting on seamounts which extend into the central Atlantic from about north latitude 50 degrees on a line between Newfoundland and northern France and then continues south through the Azores, turning southwest and passing through the Sargasso Sea down to north latitude 20 degrees on a line between Yucatan, Central America and Mauritania, Africa.

This underwater plateau would compare in size to the mid-1900s size of France, Spain, Portugal and the British Isles combined. Or, in Plato's legendary description of Atlantis, to the ancient size of "Libya" (the coastal section of north Africa, and "Asia" Minor. Protrubances would be defined on this plateau by echograms that could indicate human-constructed elements.

In addition, research by a Swedish deep-sea expedition in 1947-1948, would indicate numerous samples of freshwater plankton and land-grown plants in bottom cores taken at a then recorded depth of over 10,500 feet (3170 metres). This indicates the area was at some point dry land. Other ocean bottom core samples, taken at a similar depth in the Romanche Earth crust geological fracture zone in the vicinity of the St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks, would exhibit numerous samples of feshwater microorganisms, twigs, plants, tree bark, all of which must have descended to the bottom at the same time.

Lastly, it would be noted by the mid-1900s that flocks of migrating birds on their annual winter flight from Europe to South America would arrive within an area to the south of the Azores, circle over the open sea - as they would when preparing to land. Some would continue to circle for so long that they would fall into the ocean, exhausted; others, would continue on to South America. The same process, and confusion, would be duplicated on the return flight. Migratory species of insects and birds are known to be extremely exact in their navigation to their destination: individual birds and butterflies have been known to return to the same tree in successive years after a flight of thousands of miles, and, often without any apparent degree of search.

1444
The Roman Catholic Christian Pope Eugene IV declared a holy war (the Turkish Crusade) against the Moslem crusaders which were spreading west out of Asia Minor. The Sultan, Murad II, fought against the Christian armies of the Hungarian king, Vladislav III, who was killed, and others. Dracula was the son of Vlad. The Battle at the port of Varna was especially devastating with very high loses on both sides. The Sultan's forces were highly trained with at least 8 years of practice in lance throwing, archery, sword play and horsemanship. They were largely Janissaries and Spahis, converted fanatics and professional soldiers. The Sultan's troops were said to hit anything they shot an arrow at.

1445
In Europe, Johann Gutenberg (Gensfleisch) invented the printing press with moveable metallic type, a printing press, capacity to print double faced on linen paper (used with woodcuts in Europe from the 1200s). Printing spread rapidly throughout Europe greatly providing increased communication and a possibility for a basic level of structured education.

1447-55
Pope Nicholas V establishes the Vatican Library.
By 1564, indexes of books prohibited by the Roman Catholic Church would be issued with some copies of such historical texts forever locked away from the scrutiny of the layman while other were simply destroyed. Any other copies of the prohibited works found in the local countryside or in occupied or conquered countries were simply destroyed as the work of heathens, whereas, if it were scribed by an authorized member of the Church, it could be deemed acceptable.

This authority-centred institution quickly and accurately affirmed the belief that the medium of the written word, depending upon its grammatical style, can evoke a reverence in the reader by an assumption of authority. Such works can be used to mind-pattern the individual to adopt certain assumptions in future decision-making which will tend to either guide the individual to more constructive solutions or blind the person to such constructive decisions.

This capability can provide the ultimate challenge to a political authority which relies upon the dependency of its subjects through their ritual education to always seek their answers from a designated human authority. Provision of the individual with the true reality of the past and present together with the true nature of the options available enables that individual, with or without spiritual guidance, to make an independent decision. Independence of and spiritually-guided decisions suggest anarchy to the political leader for they cannot be easily manipulated nor ritualized into predictable patterns.

1451
In Switzerland, a number of Leeches were taken to court in Lausanne, found guilty of spreading sickness rather than reducing it.
They were ordered to leave the district within three days.
Leeches were used with a degree of popularity by physicians to "bleed" patients.
For someone who may have been ill due to a poison, heavy metals toxicity, or blood-borne bacteria, virus, fungi or protozoa - the drawing off of blood could have been helpful in some instances by reducing the degree of "illness" and providing the individual's immune system a better chance of coping with the parasite or substance.

This process was frequently used in cases of blood poisoning sustained from a scratch, cut or abrasion.
As there were limitations to the success of this option, some people still died.
Indeed, leeches that were repeatedly used for this purpose had the potential to spread illnesses between patients. Considered valuable to the practitioner, a court could serve the interests of the community by either excluding the leeches from the region - making them someone else's problem - or, it could demand their execution. The former decision enabled the practitioner involved to take them out of the region and set them free, continue to use them in a new district or sell them to another practitioner - depending on whether the practitioner wished to move his practice. In either sentence by the court, the community could feel safe again in the belief that any further treatment received with leeches in the vicinity would not carry the bad omen with it which apparently now accompanied these accused.

1453 - During May,
The Siege and Fall of Constantinople resulted in the city falling from the Christians, being renamed Istanbul, becoming the capital of the Turkish empire, and, Serbia and Bosnia became Ottoman provinces. It was the last Christian city in Moslem Asia Minor, defended by Byzantines, Genoese and Venetians. Its fall marked the end of the eastern Roman Empire. The western Roman Empire had fallen in 476.

Mohammed II the Conqueror, subjected 12 kingdoms and 200 cities; for the sake of world order, he ordered that each Sultan must kill his brothers. This was the only certain way in which it could be determined that human jealousy and greed would not result in warring feuds, quarrels, and aggressions where the brother of a Sultan would try to steal the power of a neighbouring Sultan.

In 1455, Mohammed II initiated a tax on the Christians throughout the Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, Wallachia, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia). Every 5 years, each family was to provide one of its sons for the service of the Sultan. Only sons and gypsy youth were not accepted and those taken were to be between the ages of 8 and 18. They would be trained to join the Janissaries, a slave/servant army of the Sultan. They would be vigorously tested, disciplined, and taught a trade, clothed, fed, housed, would learn the Turkish language and would be expected to fight in return with the Sultan's armies.

For many, this form of slavery was their only alternative to a life of long hours of routine work and constant poverty working on a farm and competing with one's brothers for a piece of the family farm or for new land to be developed into farming. The emotional trauma of suddenly being taken from one's family, relatives and friends - probably for life, was dramatic. The spiritual trauma was one of forcefully being converted to another religion, another language and another culture. Resistance was not unusual and it was dealt with harshly until the spirit of the son was broken and an appreciation of the material benefits developed.

Submerged and redirected rage and anger would be a foundation of the Janissarian ruthlessness in battle.
Despair, grief, and pride provided a driving motivation which turned soldiers into suicidally courageous combatants. On the material side of the equation, the Janissary never lacked for his basic needs, always had a certainty about his duties, and developed a detached professional attitude which made him an effective combatant and an efficient tradesman. Meanwhile his brother would likely work longer hours at tedious tasks, lack a stability of lifestyle and frequently be totally responsible for the satisfaction of all his needs. Janissaries were like early industrial workers: dependent upon the employer, specifically skilled, poorly self-directed and poorly self-sustainable.

1458
Henry VI of England grants permits exclusively to John Cobbe and John Mistelden to "practice the philosophic art of the conversion of metals"; these licenses were approved by Parliament. This alchemically made gold was used in coinage: the Crown supported the manufacture of alchemically produced gold - provided the Royal Mint received it. Henry had been facing both challenges to the throne and to the nation. Local justice administration had been expanded in an order to curb increasing lawlessness. Somehow the costs had to be met. Increases in taxes would have resulted in civil war.

1462 - On March 13,
The First Bible was printed using the new printing press technology.

1462 - 1505
Ivan III, "the Great" married the Byzantine princess Zoe and called himself the "sole ruler" (Tsar) of all Russia.
Italian architects transformed the Kremlin ("castle") into his residence. With the aid of immigrating Boyars, Ivan united the Muscovite state into a national state. The necessary autocratic concept of the state and its symbols (the twin-eagle, the court ceremonial) were of Byzantine origin. A myth was promoted that Moscow was the "3rd Rome" and origin of the true faith (according to the monk, Philotheos). This provided a sense of mission for the Russian people and their ruler, who was welcomed by the Orthodox Church as God's Deputy (Abbot Yosif of Volokolamsk, about 1480). The republic of Novgorod was destroyed in 1478.

The Tartars (Kipchak Khanate) were not assimilated by the Russian-Byzantine civilization and were only partially Islamized. The Mangu-Timur independent state divided internally into separate Khanates of the Crimea, Khazan, and Astrachan - while at the same time sustaining attacks from Muscovy. In 1480, Ivan III "liberated" Moscow from Tartar rule.

1471
A Rooster in Basel, Switzerland, was found to have laid an egg.
This became a serious matter for the community.
In accord with the authority and conservativeness of the Roman Catholic Church, anything which was not the way in which the Pope believed it should be was judged as demonic in nature. The Church continued to promote folktales of numerous incidents involving animals as well as humans in which the subject was judged guilty of ungodly behaviour, and, tortured to submission followed by execution - all carried out for the benefit of the soul and spirit of the subject.

Admission was required before forgiveness could be granted by God.
Thus forcing a person to admit to a suspected crime was humanitarian, for it then presented the subject with the further option of confession which would be received with forgiveness. At this point, on the admission of guilt, the individual had to receive an appropriate sentence to meet the crime. If the crime was seen as an affront to nature, and thus to God, it was assumed to be the work of the devil: the sentence would be decided upon by an ecclesiastical (church) court, such as the Inquisition.

Most crimes deemed to be against God could only be satisfied through a release of the spirit.
Such could only be achieved by returning the person's body to dust through a cleansing by fire.
As such sentences were commonly carried out at this time against persons, the fate of the rooster attests to its popularity. Both the rooster and its egg were burned at a stake.

1475
Edward VI of England commented on the "French Pox", which had become a problem with his troops, following his military campaign in France.

"... many a man that fell to the lust of the women and were burned by them, 
and their penises rotted away and fell off and they died."

Venereal diseases had been present in Europe from antiquity, such as gonorrhea, yet it is unknown what the specific antigen of this disease was. In other wars, the women who had just been widowed by foreign troops only rushed into the arms of those troops when a deception was to be wrought on such troops - usually in vengeance. Herbs were of common knowledge throughout the countryside and various substances - from insect, fungal and hormonal sources - were known to be extremely corrosive and irritating to the skin, including the penis. Some of these were actually used as aphrodisiacs in very small quantities. Larger quantities could result in permanent damage or even gangrene; the latter was often fatal in this era unless you had an excellent herbalist to provide immediate remedy.

Particularly in France, condoms made from pig intestine were becoming popular.
If the cleaning of this "natural-source barrier" is not thorough, or, if purposely or not it is contaminated with hormonal fluids from the endocrine organs of the slaughtered animal, it can lead to disastrous results. Parasitic infections, which many venereal diseases are, or hormonally induced permanent over-sensitivity of the organ can and did result in "side-effects" ranging from worm infestation leading to gangrene, spontaneous bleeding from the skin or penile head surface on erection, and impotence. Foreign troops with no intimacy, access to alcohol in excess, living under constant danger and in constant hardship - can be very brutal in their association with the wives and daughters of the enemy.

Certainly before, during and after this period, rural wives who had seen their crops burned, trampled or stolen, and their houses and barns sacked, and their menfolk brutalized or murdered knew the consequence of sexual resistance: it was usually rape and murder, in any order. Nothing stimulates the inventiveness and ingenuity of most human minds like the emotion of vengeance. The ultimate vengeance on the enemy would be to make him suffer endlessly until death, by way of his penis.

1477
Johann Muller (Regiomontanus), a fifteenth century German mathematician and astronomer, made a device highly progressive technically for the times. It was a "metal fly" which he liked to have perform for his friends. During a banquet, it would fly in circles above the heads of the guests without ever bumping into the walls, then return to his hand.

Throughout history, there are instances of when an experimenter has found new knowledge which others around show no interest in until decades or centuries later (they are unable to "sell" the concept or idea, and it becomes lost). There are others who invent devices for whom the novelty of the device exceeds their interest in its practical possibilities. Again, the device is frequently lost to further development or acceptance, perhaps to be founded again decades or centuries later. There is a third category of devices and concepts which appear, are so highly advanced in scientific reasoning or technical merit that the masses respond to those who possess them as gods or representatives of gods, and then the devices are destroyed or the concepts are not communicated to younger followers and the knowledge is lost.

In the third instance, it is reasonable to question the origin of the knowledge as it appears to be beyond the scope of humanity to understand, replicate or redevelop. It is as if, on a singular occasion, a superior intelligence has given it to a human for some purpose, perhaps power intended for good, following which the knowledge and power are lost. In secret "knowledge" societies, an operating principle is that the secrets held by the group can only be passed to those who can express a high level of spiritual development. If no one becomes capable of such gifts, they must die with the last devotee who was capable of maintaining a state of high spirituality strong in opposition to the iniquities of material power.

1478 On November 1,
Pope Sixtus IV (9 Aug. 1471 - 12 Aug. 1484), at the request of the Catholic Kings, set up "the Spanish Inquisition".
By 1482, he would be trying to curtail its abuses; in 1483, he confirmed Tomas de Torquemada as grand inquisitor. "The Inquisition" would be put to its usual purpose of torturing critics of state imperialism and religious autocracy until they begged to be murdered for such an indiscretion of free thought.

Born of impoverished parents and educated by the Franciscans, he had earlier become an intellectual lecturer at universities and theologian. He rose through the ranks of the clergy and when indecision followed the death of the previous pope (Paul II), he became the unexpected favorite - at least partly due to his aristocratic networking and bribery. Strict in ends but unscrupulous about means - he was enthusiastic about beginning a crusade against the Turks, spent lavishly on a navy, but received little political support. He greatly increased the privileges of some monastic orders; approved the feast, mass, and office of the Immaculate Conception.

Enrichment of his family and the papal state was abusive.
He favoured relatives with high-ranking church appointments, gifts, and lucrative responsibilities.
Close relatives involved him in intrigue in Italian politics including the attempted murder of Lorenzo and Giuliano de'Medici - in which Giuliano was killed and Lorenzo wounded. In spite of greatly increasing papal revenues by granting indulgences (bribes to receive blessings and forgiveness for guilt) and accepting political bribes to change allegiance, his massive military and personal expenditures from the papacy left it deep in debt when he died. Most of the 34 cardinals he had appointed he had accepted bribes from and only wanted the positions in order to steal from the followers, with the authority of the Church.

At great expense, he increased the elitist image of Rome and of the Vatican.
He opened up new streets and widened and paved older ones. He had lavish churches built including the Sistine Chapel. He became the second founder of the Vatican library, and, in his centralization of church materials, he established the Vatican archives.

1478-1480
A Plague Epidemic crossed Europe with such severity that at least 15% of the population died in the Netherlands and France, with higher and lower numbers noted elsewhere.

1480-1519
Lucrezia Borgia 1480-1519 shares an executive advisory council of astrologers with her father, Pope Alexander VI.

1480
A map by the Florentine Toscanelli (1397-1482) inspired the Genoese Christopher Columbus to seek the western sea route to India in the service of Isabella of Castile (and to raise her mercantile fortunes). After a voyage of 61 days in 1492, Columbus landed at San Salvador, then Cuba, and Haiti.

The "Portolano maps", believed rescued from the ancient libraries before their destruction and used for centuries as navigational tools by sea captains in great secrecy in order to protect their trade routes, were also popular during this era. Copied for many centuries, perhaps millennia, these maps demonstrated a knowledge of the existence of, and even the coastlines of, "undiscovered" continents; continents that evidently were mapped by a past civilization and forgootten by the masses. The changes evident indicated that something had happened earlier which altered the geography greatly of part of the world.

Research during the 1900s by Professor Charles Hapgood of the University of New Hampshire would reveal a treasury of ancient maps in the USA Library of Congress, many of which would show an amazing knowledge of the Earth's true geography at a time when most people were presumed not to know that the Earth was round and when Antarctica was considered non-existent.

1481
Under the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada (1483-98), Spain becomes a country of religious fanatics, where agricultural work and the crafts are considered unworthy of a Christian. After the conquest of Granada, in 1492, and attacks on North African cities, the Jews and Moriscos are expelled from the country.

1482
"The Benincasa Map" became known throughout part of Europe after the fall of Constantinople (1453) and was studied by Christopher Columbus. The map showed Antilla in the middle of the north Atlantic Ocean close to another "savage" island. Columbus also used a number of other maps showing Antilla or Atlantis spelled in various ways, and located in the western part of the Atlantic.

1484-92
Pope Innocent VIII (29 Aug. 1484 - 25 July 1492), Giovanni Batista Cibo, son of a Roman senator, reigns over a papal court which deteriorates into excessive expression of inequity. His election was largely the result of the nephew of the former pope, Sixtus IV, Giuliano della Rovere, who through bribery bought votes supporting Giovanni - who he was confident he could dominate and manipulate. As a later strategy of organized criminals would become, Giuliano "picked" Giovanni because he could be easily blackmailed.

Giovanni had little experience in politics and had fathered several illegitimate children before ordination and then provided for them by arranging marriages of the women into rich families. The Pope personally has as many as 2500 concubines (prostitutes) on staff at one time. Having inherited a considerable debt from his predecessor, Innocent created numerous unnecessary church offices which he sold to the highest bidder. In modern times (1990s), such a transaction could be symbolised as the purchase of an annuity or pension: as long as one lived, they could expect an income with little if any further participation.

Money from tithes and the thievery associated with conquests together with the considerable sale of benefices and indulgences - by which illegalities and immoralities were "forgiven" in exchange for penances of capital (money), provided a large resource by which the Pope could be morally challenged. Unfortunately, he usually failed to uphold the self-discipline his institution prided itself on.

On December 5, 1484, Innocent ordered the "Inquisition in Germany" to proceed with the utmost severity against supposed witches. This gave a powerful influence to the persecution of witchcraft (both "black" and "white"), astrology, herbal medicine, and lay counselling of the abused and traumatized. Of course, with such eradications of non-institutionalized practices, the populace was left without much of a constructive support system and behaviours which could be interpreted as worthy of excommunication, torture and execution inevitably rose in frequency - seemingly justifying the abuse and bloodshed.

More persons in need of medical care died; more persons who had experienced "nervous breakdowns" were judged as "possessed by evil spirits"; more persons who warned of worsening times ahead were silenced; more persons who challenged the authority of the pope and the various regional elite were quietly murdered. The enduring example of the imposition of autocratic authority by the subjugation of the population one village at a time and one person at a time would be repeated many times as human history continued.

In 1489, Innocent agreed to an arrangement with the Ottoman sultan Bayezid II (Innocent wanted to contain the Turkish menace), whereby, in return for 40,000 ducats of gold yearly and the gift of the Holy Lance (supposed to have pierced the side of the Christ while he was on the cross and to now hold magical qualities), Innocent would detain Bayezid's rival brother, Jem, in solitary confinement at Rome. Jem had formerly escaped from his brother and gone to Rhodes. There, the grand master of the Knights of St. John, in return for a cardinal's position (and proving that he also could be bribed), turned Jem over to the pope. Innocent was happy to have such a hostage whose captivity he could use to bribe the sultan into treating the Christians better.

1490 - By this year,
Commercial Printers using printing presses with metal character dies and the capability to print copies in volume 400% cheaper than handwritten issues, were located in at least a dozen of the larger European cities. With Pope Innocent VIII greedy for money, the practice of granting indulgences had become much like a modern franchise. The pope had extended the right for the granting of such formal statements of forgiveness to priests and others on the basis that at least 70% of the collected monies found their way to the papal coffers. Justice had clearly fallen to the rich for one could be absolved of almost any religious, civil or state crime if a suitable indulgence could be paid for. Indulgences were now being printed as forms only requiring a authorized signature for them to be as worthy as money.

Indulgences and the Inquisition became companion tools for the unscrupulous.
A priest could pay, or otherwise benefit, a civilian for testifying against another civilian, innocent or guilty, of having broken church or state law. The only certain way for the accused to avoid harsh justice would be by the purchase of an indulgence - similar to the payment of a fine. But for those who were truly innocent such an indignity and frustration encouraged rebellion against the church and denial of the religion it supposedly encouraged.

Such rebellion was obviously heretical, and prosecutable, by the Inquisition.
Thus, unless you were willing to receive a state penalty for a crime you had not committed, you would have to buy an indulgence or commit a crime - and become guilty. This form of extortion would come to be remembered in the centuries ahead as the foundation of a business empire operated by a believer in the papal successes. He would call himself a Godfather.

1492
Persecution against Gypsies was begun by their expulsion from Spain by the Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
Gypsies are a band society which has maintained its band organization and genetic and cultural heritage by adaptation, focus and ethnocentrism. Dark skinned, dark eyed, with blue-black hair, they tend to speak idiosyncratic slang of the dominant culture and a derivative language called Romany. It is not surprising that many Europeans came to view "witches", Jews and gypsies as a uniform group of foreigners. Indeed, Gypsies formed into clans which they called "witzas" - thereby qualifying the derivation of the word "witch" as referring to gypsies as much as to "wise persons."

Beginning as early as 1000, Gypsies migrated into Europe from central and northern INDIA.
Their language is similar to Sanskrit, a most ancient language with similarities to Greek and more structured than most other languages. It had become the formal language and script of the Hindu in India, even as Latin had become the formal script of Europe. A modern record of the appearance of Gypsy society into Europe first notes them in Crete (1322). Acknowledging their differences as often stimulating intolerance, or, admiration in other cultural groups, Gypsy bands have frequently adopted "cover stories" of their origin and surface behaviours to take advantage of the respect accorded in human authority based tribal and state cultures.

Entering a Christian privileged community, they described themselves as Christian pilgrims from "Little Egypt" - a linguistic slang yielded "Gypsy." Treated as pilgrims, they have frequently been well received and treated generously by the new community they entered. As titles and social class became more important in an increasingly materialistic European (and later North American) society, some adopted titles of captain, duke, count and knight. Documents of identification and conveyance of privilege became a part of the increasingly human authority-centred European culture and gypsies took advantage of such inequalities by forging "letters of protection" authorized by either the current Roman Catholic pope or Sigismund, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Modern North American Gypsies may continue the pattern by choosing to travel in limousines.

The recognition of their presence and the names given to them locally included the following
(many of which are not out of admiration":

     1322 Crete    (central Mediterranean)
     1346 Corfu    (Greek island - east)    "athinganoi"
     1370 Peloponnesus     ( " " )          "guphtos"
     1407 Germany       (NW Europe)    "zigeuner", "sinte", "yenish"
     1416 Transylvania   (central)
     1417 Hungary     (central east)
     1422 Bologna, Italy (south)            "zingaro"
     1427 Paris, France  (west) "manouches", "bohemien", "voyageurs"
     1447 Barcelona, Spain (SW)             "cale", "gitano"
          Netherlands              "kramers", "heidene" - heathen
          Rumania                           "rudari"
          Scandinavia                       "tattare" - Tartars
          Albania                           "evgit"
          Slavic countries (E)              "tsygan"
          Ireland          (W)              "tinkers"

As a band-type of society, they preserved many characteristics of simpler band culture.
They have a nomadic lifestyle in which they have tended to be itinerant by choice - perhaps being proactive rather than waiting until they were driven out by the dominant culture. Like all bands, their members work and play at will, avoiding routine (and dependability), the work constrictions of holidays, and choosing to party whenever a celebration is believed deserving. Unable to carry much with them in their travels, they tend to convert their surplus capital into jewelry, brilliant coloured clothing, and celebration. This living life-in-the-present encourages a joyful attitude in spite of many hardships.

Gypsies were divided genetically into witzas (clans), of which the Rom would become the one of greatest longevity and presence. It would be further divided into "tribes" by the name of Kalderash, Lavara, Matshvaya, and Tshurara. Bands gathered together into "kumpanias" (later used as "company" to signify a coalition of individuals for the purpose of enterprise). These were led by a senior man, a "Capo," who was chosen for his demonstrated knowledge and skill. No one within the band received respect by virtue of a social title. For the outsiders, "kings" or "vaivodes" acted as figureheads and intergroup communicators and negotiators for the gypsies. The Kris represented their intertribal court of justice, governed by kristatora (judges).

Most sentences were in the form of fines paid in food or drink - both precious to the individual and representative of his or her worth. Enforcement was given over to "mules" - the spirits of ancestors. In such an ethnocentric society, separate from the status quo community yet tenuously living within it, and, committed to the lifestyle as one's identity, worth, and way of life - the most severe punishment was banishment. All of these perceptions and traditions are fundamental to true band-organized groups of people.

Their urge to travel would be explained as a desire to meet other gypsies, whom they assumed were everywhere in the world, whom they had not yet met. Travel was also necessary for their sons and daughters to meet potential mates who were both gypsies but not of the immediate group travelling together. Travel was frequently carried out according to the terrain of the surroundings and the acceptability within the culture. Possessions could be transported in covered wagons (vurdon, or vardo), 4-wheeled carts (carrying a tent and possessions), 2-wheeled carts, or open trucks. In later capital-based and urbanized societies, a rented store might double as a residence and place of business. Horses, donkeys or camels might be utilized according to appropriateness. Their behaviors would be more easily understood by non-gypsies as those of "migrant workers" and/or "economic scavengers/vultures".

Diet would be regulated according to sacred principles which held a taboo against the eating of horseflesh or the meat of most wild animals - who lived in freedom like themselves. Roasted meats from domestic animals was a dominant preference, and, most foods were highly spiced. Besides taste, highly spiced foods are more healthy in a society lacking refrigeration facilities: spices frequently have bactericidal and anti-fungal properties. Mushrooms were also avoided, a wise practise since many are confused with poisonous toadstools. Alcoholic overindulgence was restricted to feast days, in spite of their reputation for gaiety, celebration, loud voices, and riotous behaviour. Taboos existed regarding behaviours often found confusing or anxiety producing by humans: menstruation, childbirth, extramarital sex. Married couples stayed close to or lived with the parents of the husband.

At death, gold coins might be thrown into the grave and alcoholic beverages poured over the grave.
The possessions of the dead person would be burned afterwards, and, if the person had died in their tent or covered wagon, it also would be burned. This was a prudent health practice through many centuries of contagious fatal epidemics: it assisted in limiting the spread of such diseases. It was also constructive in maintaining the non-materialistic core nature of a band society. There was no opportunity for anyone to quarrel over the property of the deceased; no greed for inheritance; no envy of another's belongings; no compulsive striving for material wealth. Sufficiency, health and happiness provided a simple lifestyle base.

Gypsies maintained their cultural exclusivity by keeping their base language, reinforcing their form of band allegiance and racial allegiance, and by continuing to follow their own forms of religious, legal and dietary customs. While their content in each of these areas differs from that of the Jews and from that group loosely defined as witches, it is this similarity of marked independence, in these areas of practise, from the status quo society in which they are present that enables "outsiders" to group them together perceptually. Each of these "ethical" groups favour members within their "family" far beyond outsiders - who the Gypsies term "gaje". This eventually becomes apparent to the surrounding status quo community which frequently take exception to being rejected by those whom they have welcomed.

While the basic religion of the Gypsies is a belief in one God ("Del") which represents the creative and universal forces of the universe, together with a reverence and respect for ancestor mentors - whose exploits and successes are to act as experiential examples - the public are usually provided with a thin veneer of Christianity or Moslem tradition to facilitate local approval and support. It is the conflict between the legitimate expression of the more institutionalized religion's expectation of the universality of humanity and the Gypsy ethnocentrism which often leads to anti-Gypsy sympathy and anti-gaje practices.

Gypsies have long become associated with the trades and practices of musicians, dancers, metalworkers, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, violin makers, animal trainers, horse traders, fortune tellers, herbalists, magicians, circus performers, fairground attendants, sorcerers, pilferers, hoaxers, embezzlers, defrauders, seasonal workers, beggars and tramps. Many of the socially acceptable skills (entertainers, craftsmen, medical advisers) were not supportable financially by the small towns and largely non-existent cities of 1000 to 1800 The increasing concentration of the population, its dependency upon agriculture (largely a labour skill with indebtedness), an increasing dissociation of lifestyle from the joys and appreciations of the pre-agricultural and pre-tribal society, and an increasing requirement for agricultural and military "tools" did provide a constant requirement for such skills distributed over a wide territory.

Thus, it is a direct result of this need and the characteristics of itinerant social and racial groups which encouraged both Jew and Gypsy into these trades. Marketing was an obvious extension of such travel and skills and as profit is the motive of marketing, skill at obtaining a high profit often superseded ethical loyalty to "strangers." Thus, members from both groups gained reputations for being clever confidence artists and greedy, untrustworthy, ruthless individuals: shylocks. In a period of endemic (for the majority of the population) poverty and enslavement by indebtedness such actions were regarded as humiliating betrayals which incited anger, intolerance, insecurity, and - eventually, revenge.

Ethnocentrism made it acceptable for either Jew or Gypsy to knowingly take advantage of a customer, who they might never see again. It is unknowable as to what proportion of either ethnocentric group intentionally defrauded their clients, or, were simply so blatant as to be detected doing so. What is known is that in a capital-based society, a defrauded person can be very negatively influenced in emotional expression and physical behaviour and is encouraged by acculturated destructive coping skills to convert the behaviour of the individual into a stereotype of the ethnic group or class.

It has also been a developing trend in human authority based mass capital societies for individuals to deny their self-responsibility and project total blame on the perpetrator. In such societies, the individual is constantly encouraged to relinquish self-responsibility to the state which projects itself as the father-protector to which the individual owes allegiance and duty. In addition, the occurrence of negative experiences within the aura of expectations and assumptions promoted by the status quo tend to intensify the experience of hurt pride and loss and lead to obsessional patterns of reverse discrimination.

That is, a good deed is expected and goes unnoticed.
A bad deed meets no caution and results in many accusations against largely unrepresented persons to an ever widening audience. If the dynamic continues long enough and spreads widely enough, the status quo population will become increasingly negative in attitude toward the designated minority. Involvement and response are determined by the degree of spiritual skill which the individual has been provided with in order to cope with reality. In this case, history shows that such abilities were few and decreasing.

1492 - On August 2,
The Expulsion of some 800,000 Jews was ordered by the Spanish monarchy.
This date, on the Jewish calendar was the "9th day of the month of Av", the anniversary of the burning of the Second Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. As a largely business, administrative and capitalization class, the Spanish empire would have to find replacement profits to tax, or a monopoly market (such as a colony or exclusive supplier), or, a conquest. Wishing to satisfy the requirements of the Catholic Church, the Jews had to go somewhere or be killed as heretics and unbelievers. Perhaps a destination could be found.

1492 - On August 2,
The Genoese Christopher Columbus, is inspired by a map by Florentine Toscanelli (1197-1482), and by Queen Isabella's predicament of expelling the Jews and finding a place for them, to seek a westward sea route to India. Isabella of Castile believed in the possibility and sponsored the Columbus venture. Overland routes were lengthy and subject to attacks by bandits and duties by intervening nations. There was no Suez canal nor railways and protected ports in the suez region to substitute for it.

The normal sea route around the continent of Africa was both long and indirect, certainly not a straight line, and passage around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) was hazardous by weather. The prospect of a straight, and shorter route, to India, across the Atlantic, without the encumbrances of difficult weather, banditry, and the tariffs of many nations - presented great possibilities.

After a voyage of 61 days, Central America was discovered with landings being made at Guanahani (San Salvador), Cuba, and Haiti. Appointed Viceroy (the queen's representative) by Isabella, Columbus undertook 4 more voyages of discovery to "West India", discovering the mouth of the Orinoco River (Panama) and the mainland in 1498. The trading sophistication of the resident cultures bore no resemblance to that of India, and with the Spanish monarchy short on capital, the explorers were going to have to find something valuable soon, or, their financing would be terminated.

1492 - On November 16,
A 120-pound Meteorite fell near Ensisheim in Alsace, France (later, Germany).
It is the oldest recorded asteroid fall of which a piece has been kept in a museum.
Some reports place its original weight at 280 pounds (127 kilograms).

1492
Pope Alexander VI would rule the Roman Empire between Aug. 1492 and Aug. 1503.
Between 1492 and 1792, the reigning popes would appoint 1,275 cardinals with a maximum of 70 being in office at any one time, in accordance with the Alexandrian interpretation of the Bible.

Alexander (Rodrigo de Borja y Borja) maintained the growing tradition of authoritarianism, deception, bribery, materialism, greed, and even murder - which had come to mirror the papacy. His maternal uncle, a bishop, prepared him by granting him money-earning titles as a boy. By 1457, Rodrigo held a string of bishoprics and abbeys (real estate and congregational revenues) and became vice-chancellor of the holy see, a lucrative position he held until he became the Pope. He became the second richest cardinal.

Fond of sexual pleasures and luxury, Alexander led an openly licentious life, fathering numerous children by Roman aristocrats (Vanozza Catanei, for one), mistresses (Giulia, for one), and, many others. Those by Vanozza, he particularly singled out to receive lucrative Church positions (Cesare and Alessandro), married to royalty for a large dowry of property (Goffredo), married to royalty and then signed over part of the papal state to (Juan), crowned as a king (Alfonso II), and, arranged one rich marriage after another (for Lucrezia) whom he often left in charge of the administration of the papal revenues. When the rulers of other nations rose defiant against his illegitimate progeny and their imperialism, Alexander thought nothing of annulling their marriages (Louis XII, of France), or changing political sides ( to favour France or Turkey).

In the political intrigue, Alexander aspired to take control of central Italy and the papal state by a systematic crushing of the powerful Roman families. To this end, enormous sums of money were raised by assassinations and extortion, followed by seizures of property, and by the endless creation of cardinal positions for those willing to pay dearly enough. To help satisfy his lust for luxury, Alexander restored buildings, had luxury apartments (Borgia) built and decorated lavishly in the Vatican, and had Michelangelo draw plans for the rebuilding of St. Peter's.

In 1493, Alexander drew a line of demarcation a hundred leagues west of the Azores (Atlantic Ocean) separating Spanish and Portuguese zones of exploration in the New World. It was soon found to favour Spain and was modified in June, 1494. Most notable, Alexander granted the kings control of the church in the lands they colonized - effectively making the new world Roman Catholic Church an institutional division of the imperial government and decidedly secularizing it. Alexander probably never expected the Americas to be found as anything more than a bunch of islands in the wilderness. For the explorers, agreements with their sponsors (kings and queens) were an open cheque for whatever they could plunder, extort, and tax. Alexander was not without opposition on this point.

Preacher Girolamo Savonarola, a Florentine friar, continually opposed this secularization and selling of the church. Alexander warned him, excommunicated him, had him questioned under torture, and, finally, executed in May 1498. In August, 1503, while he and his ambitious son, Cesare, were being hosted at a dinner by a cardinal they wished to get rid of, the poison intended for the cardinal ended up in their own drink - and both died. Sometimes, the evil intended for others, turns back upon oneself.

1494
Syphilus is introduced into Europe by the army of French King Charles VIII following their campaign in Spanish-held southern Italy. Well-established among the Amerindian population of Meso-America, the return of the Spanish sponsored exploration ships to the Americas returned with their Spanish, Italian, and Greek crewmembers together with a few captives. They had made sexual contact with the natives in the Americas and on their return many would quickly make use of the brothels. These, in turn, were utilized by soldiers, who, like the sailors, might be away from their families for 8 or 9 months at a time.

Armies were often composed of mercenaries - paid murderers in the hire of the state.
Consequently, the French army was composed of Frenchmen, Germans, Walloons, Swiss, Scots, and Irishmen. When it disbanded, each nationality took the disease back to its respective community. By summer 1495, it had spread across all German-speaking central Europe. By winter, 1496, it would be in the Netherlands and the British Isles. By the end of 1496, it would be as far east as Russia.

Each nationality blamed it on another.
The Italians called it the "French pox."
English called it the "Spanish pox."
Poles called it the "German pox."
Russians called it the "Polish pox."
Some of the more famous names connected with it would include Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand I of Spain, Henry VIII of England, Cardinal Wolsey of England, Francis I of France, Ivan IV of Russia, Pope Alexander VI, and the writer, Erasmus. Sexual fidelity was obviously not a convention among the nobility, the clergy, soldiers, seamen, and many others.

Syphilis is not an immediate killer.
More commonly, it takes the form of a degenerative disease which often renders its host or their offspring sterile. The epidemic which occurred between 1490 and 1500 became so widespread and was so fatal that it appears that it may have been spread by mucous membrane contact as well as by direct sexual contact. Successive migrations of peoples to the Mediterranean countries had brought with them infectious diseases. Europeans, now a storehouse of disease, would serve to transmit these diseases worldwide through the imperialism of capitalism and its need for cheap labour and cheap natural resources.

1494
John Tate establishes a paper processing mill at Hertford, England.

1499
In Germany, the Trial of a Bear which had been apprehended after rampaging about, was delayed when the lawyer assigned to it called for a jury of its peers.

1499 - 1530
Severe Epidemics during this period, were recorded in Britain during 8 of the years:
1499, 1509-1510, 1516-17, 1527-30.

1500 - Until this century,
"Crist" had been the common spelling of the Greek translation of the Hebrew term Messiah, used to refer to the religious leader and mentor, Jesus Crist, of the "Christian" faith. During the 1500s, the spelling would be modified to "Christ". Only by the 1600s would it become common practice to capitalize the word "Christ" and its adjectives, such as "Christian".

1500
King Henry VII receives a map of the Atlantic Ocean from a sea pilot.
It shows the northern part of South America, labelled "Terra Antarctica" with the islands of Cuba and "the islands of the King of Spain" between it and Florida. A large island named "Atlantis" is shown directly south of Iceland in the Atlantic Ocean.

1500
The Inca ruled 3 distinct geographical regions that Spanish soldier-chronicler Pedro de Cieza de Leon would come to term uninhabitable: rainless coastal deserts, mountain ranges rising to elevations of 22,000 feet, and steamy rainforests. Along much of the western coast of South America the empire would stretch. On slopes rising 4 vertical miles, climates in the empire varied from tropical to polar. In scattered areas on these slopes, at both high and low elevation, the Inca terraced and irrigated the land and produced abundant food and storage granaries for at least 6 million people.

A 10,000-mile network of roads, some as wide as 24 feet, joined the parts of the empire together.
Parallel service roads - connected by crossroads followed river valleys, coast and highland.
Four main highways entered Cuzco, the capital of the empire - roughly in the middle of the long coastal north-south expanse.

Later peoples, on arriving, would disdain the "primitive" level of the Inca who had not become dependant on the use of the wheel. Within the empire, there was little use for a large bureaucracy or civil service - until near the end of the empire. Most civilians were self-sufficient farmers with regional democratic governments and cooperative markets and utilities. There was little demand for marketing of products over a distance - thus the use for the roads was largely local in nature, and, there was little requirement for stores or warehouses. Since a selection of climates was always nearby, a wide selection of crop and other resources was also nearby. Why would one travel hundreds of miles and risk damage, theft, or spoilage to one's goods when whatever trade was desired could usually be carried out within a 5 mile radius?

1502
Francisco Pizarro, 25, sails to America from Italy.
He had left his birthplace in Trujillo to join the Spanish army in Italy.
Young men without landed inheritance could rise socially only through warfare or marriage.
The better armies either paid their troops, or, more commonly, provided them with a share of any booty stolen from the conquered. During the 1500s, 200,000 Spaniards would cross the Atlantic in search of fortune. This was not an alternative to unemployment; it was an alternative to certain poverty and the prospect of indenture (slavery) to pay off one's debts.

Pizarro participated in the bloody conquest of the Taino Indians of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic and Haiti) and crossed Panama with Vasco Nunez de Balboa to "take possession" of the Pacific Ocean for Spain. Pizarro would become one of the first citizens of Panama City, founded in 1519. There he would be granted a quota of Indian slaves and own a share of a ranch: his payment for military duty - stealing from and murdering others under the authority of his political leader and with the sanction of his religious authority, the Roman Catholic pope. Thus, by his late 40s, he was respected and rich.

1503
Michele de Nostradamus is born in France.
He studies the mysteries of Egyptology. He foretells many predictions in his writings which he disguises so as not to be executed by the Roman Catholic Church which had become totally intolerant to its authority being questioned by the existence of any criticism or findings which differ with its own beliefs. He writes of 3 anti-Christs. One in the "Angel of the Abyss", a commoner born near Italy: Napoleon.

A second anti-Christ is a man born in the deepest part of Western Europe (Austria) who would grow up near the Danube and whose name would be Hister (Hitler). He may have made reference to atomic weapons as a "bomb in the mushroom".

The third anti-Christ was to be born on February 4, 1962 in Jerusalem, Israel and is expected to begin a nuclear war in 1995 in which laser weapons would also be used. In 1999, July, a great terror would come from the skies and there would be a cloning of murderers. Also, a plague would affect 2/3rds of the world during the last 25 years of the century (AIDS).

1507
Leonardo da Vinci of Italy, predicts the invention of the submarine and helicopter in his writings which include sketches of possible designs.

1510
Emperor Maximilian I, king of Hapsburg Germany from 1486, was treated to an unusual technical display on the occasion of his entry into Nuremburg. A life-sized mechanical eagle was launched towards the emperor from the top of the ramparts while he was still far away. When it reached him, it turned around and flew before him, flapping its wings, all the way to the city gate.

Beloved leader of mercenary soldiers and a master of gunnery, as well as the last knight and patron of the humanists, Maximilian sometimes pursued what turned out to be unrealistic aims (succession to the French, Swedish and papal thrones. He declared himself neutral in questions of religion allowing Protestantism to reach its widest expansion to date.

1510
The Importation of Negro Slaves from Africa begins the extension of local African social customs to European colonialism.
Already established African customs in some tribal and state cultures allowed the servitude of a member of one's family or of oneself in payment of a debt owed. This practice has been long-established throughout agricultural and trading societies. In each, risk becomes an occasion in which the individual wagers their freedom or their labour in exchange for the staples required to survive a drought or the capital required to participate in a trading venture for profit. From the earliest of human writings, laws requiring the treatment of slaves, and, therefore, their acceptance and existence, have been set out. The Hammurabi Codes, Roman Law and the Jewish-Christian Pentateuch (Old Testament) all contain such regulations.

As Europeans discovered more and more of Africa, they extended their trading to include the new locales. While there had long been a common practice of peasantry and serfdom throughout Europe in which landownwers, who provided protection of those who lived on the land which they controlled in return for a portion of the produce which such "tenants" grew, the African concept of slavery was relatively new to European economics. Slavery allowed for the transfer of human labour capacity much the same as capital would at a later stage. Europeans began their involvement in the process by trading market goods for slavepersons. This process quickly degenerated with the risks involved in merchant trading of the times, the strain of population on ecological resources, and the trauma to families of feudal wars and epidemics.

Soon, explorers and traders began to expect that all African tribes and social organizations understood and followed the principles of slavery. This was definitely not the reality. Slaves were taken from Futa, Segou, Yatenga, Borgu, Yoruba, Benin, Congolese, Mombasa, Bene, Mono-Motapa and Madagascar tribes and kingdoms. As was true with other human societies, some african kingdoms and tribes warred amongst themselves and their disagreements and anarchy invited manipulation when European explorers and traders arrived.

With the advent of colonies in the Americas, the business of slaving became lucrative.
Harsh working conditions to clear jungle and excellent growing conditions for plantation crops raised a great requirement for cheap labour. Slave-trading quickly escalated to the coerciveness of slave-gathering with free individuals being captured for a bounty and kidnapped to a foreign continent to live out a lifetime of forced labour.

The risk of shipping at the time was the relatively high losses of ships during a trans-oceanic voyage.
As much as 20% of the ships which sailed sunk, from sudden reverses in the weather, malnutrition of the crew, loss through misnavigation, accidents, mutiny, piracy, other causes. Like later human patterns, stories of the successful and richly rewarded crews and captains were much of the news to the common public.

Failures were seldom acknowledged and never talked about.
This provided a fantasy image of reality in which it appeared that anyone willing to take the risk was sure to return rich, or not at all. With an increasing number of persons facing a life of poverty and shame, international commerce provided an opportunity. Slaving was simply an opportunity in such a market, unless you were one of the kidnapped.

Perhaps 22 million Negroid individuals were traded or kidnapped from the African continent and relocated elsewhere. Of these, 50% died enroute from the terrible conditions of unhygienic surroundings in the cramped quarters of an ocean-going sailing ship with its constantly heaving and pitching for a voyage of 3 to 6 weeks with minimal provisions.

1511
A monk in Cremona, Italy, is struck by a Meteorite and killed.

1513 - On March 11,
Leo X became the next Roman Catholic pope.
A Florentine, Giovanni De' Medici entered into the church hierarchy at an early age and was named cardinal deacon at 13. An aristocratic intellectual who toured Europe before 1500, he then returned to Rome to immerse himself in the luxuries of art, literature, theatre and music. By 1511, he had networked his way politically to the head of the papal army. Captured in Ravenna (1512), he escaped and determined not to let Italy or Florence fall to domination by other nations.

After ordination, he joined political alliances (Mechlin), negotiated concessions (France), changed loyalties, allowed the French king to nominate to all higher church offices, waged war (with political and financial disaster, uncovered conspiracies (to poison him), manipulated democracy (by creating 31 new Cardinal positions filled with his appointees), followed through in bureaucratic fashion the holding of a council (which more clearly defined legislation yet had no means of enforcement), decreed a crusade against the Turks, refounded Rome University, ordered assassinations, recklessly overfunded the arts, and, reacted against the rising call for reform of the church from its materialism.

So extravagant was Leo in his wish to beautify the Vatican, he pawned his palace furniture and plate, borrowed extensively, sold clergy offices - even cardinals' hats - in order to promote wars, build St. Peter's cathedral, and demonstrate power. When he arranged for indulgences to be sold and promoted in Germany, the Augustine monk, Martin Luther, posted a declaration of 95 complaints on the front door of the Wittenberg church. Leo responded by ordering him murdered, trying to bribe Luther's political protector (Frederick of Saxony), excommunicating him, publishing a papal decree opposing Luther's complaints, and, gave the title of "defender of the Faith" to England's King Henry VIII for writing a defence of the 7 sacraments, against Luther. When he died, Leo left the church in revolution and Italy in political turmoil.

1511-25
Jakob Fugger the Rich, a private banker, financed the election and wars of Charles V, controlled European lead, silver and copper production, and obtained a monopoly in quicksilver. These were the basis of international currency and capital and the armaments industry. During the previous century the Fugger family had risen from a peasant family of weavers through trade and transactions to become the bankers of the Hapsburgs and the popes.

1513
the last know copy of the Piri Re'is Map of the Southern Atlantic and its shores establishes that spheroid trigonometry was used to establish the correct longitudinal coordinates, a process not rediscovetred until the middle of the 1700s. The correct coastline of Antarctica was shown as it exists under the ice which covers it in the 1900s; a coastline not rediscovered until after the mid-1900s with the use of electronic sounding devices. This map may have been copied for millennia with older copies being destroyed by decay, use, loss, and cultural, religious or personal intolerance.

1513-21
Pope Leo X greatly supported the arts to the extent that in his pride he entered speculative markets and finally exceeded the financial power of the Medici family in Florence. The Tomb of the Medici in Florence, the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and the cupola of St. Peter's were all part of such extravagance. The capital raised for much of this extravagance came from the sale of Indulgences, written sanctions conveying forgiveness to criminals, heretics and weak-willed church members, signed by the Pope or his representative. Commercial printing greatly facilitated the distribution of tens of thousands of such "bribes."

1514
The Spaniard's Perception of American Natives changed over time.
At first the native tribes related histories to the Spaniards which included references to a Great Flood, selected individuals who survived because they had built vessels to carry them and their animals, the erection of a huge tower to escape the next flood, and the use of sacrifices as a means of penance and redemption. At first, it was suggested that these new tribes were the lost tribes of Israel. Soon, others conjectured that these natives were the survivors of Atlantis.

The natives almost universally believed that the arrival of the Europeans was a fulfillment of the promise made by ancient white-skinned gods who had brought them civilization, then left. These gods had all promised to return to continue their work of civilization. The Aztecs, Toltecs, and Maya (Mexico) looked for the return of their Quetzalcoatl. Other Maya looked for Kulkulkan and Votan. The Chibchas expected their god, Bochica; the Inca looked for Viracocha.

Many similarities have been found between words of American native language origin and words of Euro-Asian-African origin. A very small number of these include the following:

   Amerindian native                         Euro-Asian-African 
  ====================================    =================================
  Aztec - teocalli (house of the gods)    Greek - theou kalia (God's house)
          potomac  (river)                Greek - potamos     (river)
  Maya  - balaam   (priest)               Hebrew - bileam     (magician)
  Guarani - oko    (home)                 Greek - oika        (home)
  Nahuatl - mixtli (cloud)                Greek - omichtli    (cloud)
  Klamath - pniw   (to blow)              Greek - pneu        (to blow)
  Quechua - llake llake  (heron)          Sumerian - lak lak  (heron)
  Araucanian - anta  (sun)         Ancient Egyptian - anta    (sun)
  Araucanian - bal   (ax)                 Sumerian - bal      (ax)

1515
Father Francisco Alvarez, secretary of the Portuguese Embassy in Ethiopia, witnessed a gilded stick floating in the air in the Bizan monastery. He was so troubled by the inexplicability of what he saw that he wrote of it at length. He moved his hands in all directions around the stick without detecting any form of support. Before him, thousands of pilgrims had been admiring the display for several centuries.

Two hundreds years later, Jacques Poncet, a French doctor living in Cairo, heard of the wonder and went to Bizan to see it:

"Near the (right side of the church in relation to the congregation) at about the height of a man, floated a wand four feet long and as thick as a stout staff. Suspecting that there might be some invisible artifice, I obtained the abbot's permission to investigate. I passed a stick above, below and around the wand, and determined beyond doubt that it was actually suspended in the air. I was overwhelmed with astonishment, for I could conceive of no natural cause for such a prodigious phenomenon."

1517 - On October 31,
Martin Luther, a lawyer who had been converted in a storm and entered a monastery, later to enter the university at Wittenberg and become a professor of theology who wrote and lectured on the Bible - posted a thesis of 95 comments regarding the practices of the Roman Catholic Church on the front door of a local church.

Luther disputed that humans would be judged by God according to their efforts of goodwill and the grace of God and not by forgiveness obtained by payment. The resulting discussion between the staff and students of most European universities and the educated would greatly encourage the craft of commercial printing. Luther's theses and other writings, commentaries, critiques, the Bible, and more indulgences would encourage the popularity of printing.

1519-21
The bloody conquest of the Aztec Empire, Mexico, is an outcome of explorations by Hernan Cortez, of Spain.
Disadvantaged (poor) Europeans sought riches and fame in their exploits to sustain the nobility's lifestyle through mercantile expansion and foreign exploitation (imperialism). Human history has consistently shown that ALL political organizations in which power is concentrated and material wealth and a privileged lifestyle are envied are dependent upon control of sources of materials and labour which are cheaper than those within the controlling society. As happened repeatedly within the Americas, the native peoples were decimated by diseases which the Europeans carried with them.

In particular, Cortes and his 508 soldiers brought with them smallpox.
Never present in the Americas before, the natives had no resistance to the disease.
Within 2 years of the arrival of Cortes, at least 4 million Aztecs had died from smallpox infection.
At least 5 million Incas would die in South America from the same disease in the near future.
Never in the history of humanity had so few humans brought so much misery and death to so many others.

The Aztecs anticipated the arrival of a white-skinned God, Quetzalcoatl, which had been prophesied to return this very year. He was credited with having created man and the earth out of chaos. He had gone up into the heavens in the distant past in fire (as in an orange fire coloured sphere) and had promised to return to save them in a "white cloud". Part of the heritage left by the "gods" included a calendar of 18 months of 20 days each with 5 additional "nameless" days; 52 years made up a time cycle.

An interpretation of some of their wisdom had resulted in the belief that the "sun-gods" lived from the heart blood of humans, resulting in the sacrificial rite of human sacrifice of a young man and/or woman after a year of luxurious living as cultural appreciation for their voluntary ultimate sacrifice. Jesus Christ had also portrayed his mission as one of taking the hearts of mankind to please God, but his message was abstract in that it designated the motivations and desires of mankind rather than the actual physical organ.

The conquerors were treated largely like nobility by virtue of their skin colour and their possession of gunpowder; they were taken to Prince Montezuma II, whom they deceived for greed, murdered, and left the Empire in confusion and sickness. The Spanish conquistadors discovered flourishing cities with large populations ruling over empires that rivalled in size the largest countries of Europe. The Aztec empire was gone within a year of contact with the disease carrying Europeans. 168 Spanish soldiers were all that was necessary to destroy a large and harmonious civilization of 5 million persons under the direct leadership of Montezuma II.

In the midst of looting the Aztec civilization, melting down its marvellous art objects in gold, burning its books, and demolishing its temples, stone by stone, Hernan Cortes is reported to have paused to tell Montezuma: "I and my companions have a disease of the heart which can be cured only by gold."

In nearby Yucatan, Spanish bishops burned enormous quantities of native manuscripts and it was only the intervention of a French Franciscan, Jacques de Testera, that prevented all of them from destruction.