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1520 A.D. - A Capitalist Aristocracy encourages academic intellectualism, effort intensive innovation and artistic pride during 1450 to 1575. Aggregation of wealth through a concentration
of inherited assets (through great losses due to disease), a transfer of assets through the
plundering of war and conquest, and a saving of profit gained from increasing international trade
were added to by tithings to the Roman Catholic Church and the exploitation of local forced and
imported slave labourers to colonies.
A very small minority of humanity, representing gluttonous,
greedy, envious and slothful nobility used their material obsessiveness to finance monuments
(idols) reflecting their power. The Church and the monarchies were primary in these efforts.
Whether for their own sense of pride in their achievements, and a justification for how such had
been made, or, in denial and guilt, a referral to their god as an example of his apparent blessings to
them, a great many persons suffered so that a few could play.
The human brain does not naturally evolve in most human civilizations to express
intellectualization, although it has the capability. Rather, it is dominantly concerned with the
satisfaction of needs (patterns) and wants (emotional) with an avoidance of pain (pattern) and
sacrifice (emotion). To the extent that these patterns and emotions can be more easily kept in
balance by an abundance of resources and opportunities, the more spontaneously the spirituality
of the person evolves. The more difficulty, anxiety and fear producing the human's efforts
to provide for a satisfaction of normal needs, the greater becomes the human's
obsessiveness in obtaining resources and the more intense the human expression of emotion. This
development draws humans further away from a spontaneous development of spirituality and
encourages, in some, the compulsive pattern of rationalization.
In order to try and avoid the pain and frustration of failure, humans, at this point, use anticipation, fantasy, and denial - to construct strategies and deceptions. These effectively motivate the human to undertake risks which have been perceptually minimized by planning. They also blind the human to many opportunities by
focusing such planning on winning over rather than cooperating with other persons. This stands
true of debates, theses, romance, religious and political conversions, authority-based
organizations, and social norms. Modern human authority-based civilizations stimulate the
patterning of human mentality to be intellectually dependent.
This development began as early as the bioengineering change of human sexuality began to
result in a population explosion which forced humans to migrate into ever distant and hostile
environments for the sake of survival. Those in more hostile environments generally grew to
envy the materially advantaged and conflicts developed between the two. When the authority
structure becomes great in size and power, as was true during this period, it has the option of
using its power to create a hypocritical reality. It speaks of spirituality while it coerces, steals,
and tortures. It promotes the manufacture of material beauty relocated from the immense
material destruction it generates elsewhere. It proclaims human intellectual progress in its
norms while destroying the Earth's environment wantonly and disrespecting most forms of life
through abuse, murder, and brutality - such that "wild" forms of Earthly life appear to be
considerably more "civilized".
What is lost in denial is the fact that innovation without
spirituality is the result of pure chance and obsession. The spiritually guided person innovates
spontaneously; the rationally-oriented person often uses thousands of trial-and-error attempts to
find an answer. The intellectually-based thinker may conjecture at length about possibilities and
correctness while the spiritually-guided person finds a dependable answer almost immediately.
The rationally-dependent person constructs a monument or births a baby to demonstrate his or
her control of reality; the spiritually guided creates according to need and appreciation.
During this period, the following would be noted as providing human benefit & mentoring by
their rationality:
1313-1375 Boccaccio: the Decameron short stories;
1348 Establishment of the University of Prague;
1401-1464 Nicholas of Cusa: Religion can conceive God only relatively;
1405-1457 Lorenzo Valla: critical study of Bible translations;
1433-1499 Ficino: advocated a religion of aesthetics;
1444-1510 Sandro Botticelli: painter;
1450-1528 Jakob Wimpfeling: wrote first German historical study;
1455-1522 John Reuchlin: promoted the study of Greek and Hebrew;
1459-1508 Conrad Celtis: Poet Laureate invited to Vienna;
1463-1499 Pico della Mirandola: a concept of the world based on Christ;
1447-1455 Nicholas V: founded the Vatican Library at Rome;
1452-1519 Leonardo da Vinci: paintings, writing, designing, inventing;
1506 Pope Julius II commissions the construction of St. Peter's;
1467-1536 Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam: Gk. edition of the New Testament;
1471-1528 Albrecht Durer: painter;
1475-1564 Michelangelo: painter, writer;
1478-1529 Castiglione: created the image of the "uomo universale" great man;
1478-1535 Thomas Moore: Utopia , the ideal state, after Plato's Republic;
-1516 Hieronymous Bosch: grotesque paintings;
1483-1520 Raphael Santi: painter;
1488-1523 Ulrich von Hutten: reacted against Church abuses for a German state;
1523 Jacques Lefevre: translated the Greek Testament;
1495-1553 Rabelais: a satirist, with a new writing style;
1497-1553 Hans Holbein the Younger: painter;
1525-1594 Palestrina: instrumental music rather than ballad entertainment;
1532-1594 Orlando di Lasso: pure instrumental (solitary) music;
1533-1592 Michel de Montaigne: moralist and essayist;
1564-1593 Christopher Marlow: dramatist;
and others.
1521 A.D. - Ferdinand Magellan anchored off Cebu, Philippines, on his around the Earth
voyage. Malay and mountain tribes occupied the islands and they had been trading with Chinese
merchants from before the 900s. In exchange for gold, they had purchased silks, ceramics, metals
and mirrors from the Chinese. The fisherfolk living in the stilt villages and the terrace farmers had
a harmony with their environment. Each community consisted of a few hundred people headed by
a chief. Magellan obviously angered a chief, Lapu-Lapu whose warriors killed him. Magellan's
crew continued on their voyage, completing the trip, which humans in typical political fashion
would credit to Magellan.
A flood of Spanish Roman Catholic priests backed by conquistadors arrived afterwards to avenge
the killing and establish a base of operations. The Philippines grew rich on the gold stolen by the
Spanish from central and South American civilizations as a small number of Spaniards, less than
1,000, in Manila, sent galleons filled with Chinese goods to Acapulco, Mexico, to return with
gold and other precious metals.
Typically, the Inca, Mayan, and other gold and silver artifacts were melted down before shipment
and almost nothing survived intact for future appreciation or understanding. This also tends to be
a historical truism of humanity - that the dominant group in an era or geographic location tends to
destroy all traces of, or, hopelessly disorient, the culture and historical contributions of the earlier
peoples. This has proven elemental in effecting denial amongst humans as to their origins,
spurring enmity and intolerance between groups, and promoting the magnification and
dependence on authoritarian interpersonal relationships which have resulted in magnanimous
human misery. It is not that answers, choices, remedies, and understanding was not available but
rather that because such was willfully destroyed future knowledge resources had to be rebuilt from
a stone age level.
After the Spanish conquest of Yucatan, Roman Catholic Bishop de Landa consigned at one pen
stroke all written Mayan knowledge, with its possible reference to their origin and earlier
civilizations, to bonfires, since the conquerors had decided that the New World religions, with
their similarities to Christianity - with the exception of human sacrifice - were the work of the
devil to confuse the faithful. After all, who could be more correct than those possessing the most
military force. Only 4 Mayan books still survive of what may have been the largest library of
knowledge in the Americas. Stone carvings would later reveal that their calendar was as accurate
as that of modern day 1996.
The priests formed a religious theocracy acquiring immense landholdings, eventually controlling
21 gigantic haciendas around Manila. Material possession was far more motivating than spiritual
teaching, of which the Church had provide little to the priests. The Malays tried to emulate their
Spanish authorities by throwing feasts on every day of celebration with the result that they
increasingly had to borrow money, using their land as collateral, which was eventually lost. A
subsistence economy of rice and fish can be a contented one. The introduction of social displays
of materialism can be a disaster.
The Spaniards were fearful of the Chinese because of their incomprehensible language and
customs, their greater numbers, their ambition, their financial acuity, their capacity to endure
hardship, their secretiveness, and their clannishness. They put a ceiling on Chinese immigration,
restricting their movements to Manila ghettoes, and barring then from citizenship and direct
ownership of the land. Periodically, small groups of Chinese, under 100 in number, were
massacred.
Like most human explorers/missionaries/troops the Spaniards came to the Philippines and bore
prodigious numbers of illegitimate children, with usual lack of human self-control and self-responsibility, to the natives. Raised as Catholics, citizens, and having access to Chinese credit -
the Chinese mestizos were in a position to use exceptional leverage as middlemen and
moneylenders. Financing the average Malay in their strivings for social acceptance by way of
emulation of the feast celebrations of the Spanish, these loan sharks came to own more and more
of the land with the original owners as tenant farmers in their own country.
The Spanish mestizos, lacking access to Chinese credit, moved into the professions, particularly
law, where they entangled the Malays in bureaucracy long enough to take the land owned by the
Malay client. Any native Malay which had not eventually forfeited their land to the Catholic
church for penances, tithes and feast expenses, or the interest on the monies they had borrowed,
were fleeced by the legal profession: the Malays would gradually become a nation of serfs - a
future pattern for mass "democratic" capitalism.
Historical repetitions of this cycle would be made possible by the romantic denial of the reality
which had gone before such that the political, religious and business authority interests could
continue to amass material wealth by selling illusions to the masses.
Wealth accumulation grew in the Philippines through the local Spaniards taking their share from
the arriving gold, the local Chinese traders taking their share, and the remainder being sent, past
Chinese middlemen (bandits) in the islands who took their share, to China to pay for the exported
goods. The Spaniards moved their base from Cebu to Manila Bay in 1571 and thereafter Manila
became an important Chinese financial centre.
1521 A.D. - Melchior Hoffman, a furrier from Waldshut, Germany, joins the Anabaptist reformers and preaches millenarianism (the near future arrival of Christ's thousand year reign).
Driven from place to place, he eventually converts many in the Netherlands. With increasing
persecution, his confidence in the coming of Christ increased. He predicted that the "Kingdom"
would be founded by Christ at Strasbourg in 1533. He was arrested there and died in prison 10
years later. Commoners and lower income townspeople were leading such desperate lives that the
spiritual desert which surrounded them encouraged them to presume that they were already in the
last days as described in the Christian text, Revelations.
The Christian New Testament, The Revelation of Saint John the Divine:
Chapter 16: 2 - 21
"there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon those (who traded) [smallpox, syphilis, ...]
... and every living soul (upon the sea) died in the sea [scurvy, shipwrecks, sinkings] ...
the sun ... power was given to scorch men with fire [heat wave summers] ... kingdom
was full of darkness [despair at the economic, political and religious anarchy of the
times] ... the water (of rivers) was dried up [droughts] ... thunders and lightnings; and
there was a great earthquake ... a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight
of a talent (coin) [images of many UFOs which at a distance appeared similar to coins in
shape - round, silvery, able to skip through the air, able to spin - and, hails of gravel
taken up by distant tornados or waterspouts, and, meteorite showers] ...."
Chapter 18: 11 - 17
"And the merchants of the Earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth
their merchandise any more; The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones,
and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and
all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of
brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours (perfumes), and ointments, and
frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and
horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted
after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed
from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things,
which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping
and wailing, and saying ... alas, alas, ... for in one hour so great riches is come to
nought."
Chapter 21: 9
"And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the
seven last plagues [measles, chickenpox, cholera, malaria, intestinal dysentery, infantile
diarrhea, Y. pestis, bubonic plague, syphilis, influenza - take your pick!] ..."
So frequent and fatal had been the Black Death pandemic of plagues between 1347 and 1521, that
between 50% and 70% of the population had died of such influence. This had destroyed the
marketplace for some as a market without patrons cannot sustain itself; governments and
landlords without taxpayers and renters do not have the funds to employ a bureaucracy of civil servants, wage wars, finance the arts, maintain and build municipal buildings and monuments.
Everyone had been persuaded to
view the lifestyle of the urbanite, government employee, academic, and material nobility (wealthy
entrepreneur) and artiste as occupations of social respect. ALL now suffered: governments had
more debt and expense than income; there were too many capital dependent occupations relative
to the size of the population. The only salvation, and rational explanation for some was the
optimism of a possible interference by God - even though the timing set out by prophesy was
hopelessly at odds with the present.
1521 A.D. - Bartholomew Chassenee, a French lawyer, during the year, made his reputation by defending a pack of rats and having the charges against them dropped. Animals who were the
possession of one person and had caused damages, injury, or death to another - were usually
assigned guilt so as to assuage the grief and losses of the victim as well as justifying the action
taken by the court. Wild animals were tried by church courts with citations being drawn from the
Bible to justify the process. Animals could be found guilty of demonic possession, premeditated
murder, assault, ... and could be sentenced to death, or, excommunication.
1524 A.D. - On November 14, Francisco Pizarro, a rich and respected Spanish soldier and explorer in Panama, and increasingly a keen gambler, sets sail in command of his first of 3
expeditions of discovery. Three years late he will reach the Isla Del Gallo, off Columbia.
1525 A.D. - The Great Peasant War in Europe:
Prosperous as a result of the secure markets
for their products, and militant and self-confident because of their service as lansquenets, the
peasants of the splintered territories of south and central Germany resisted pressures to make
financial contributions and perform labour services exerted on them by the impoverished
landlords. The reintroduction of Roman Law had further limited their rights to the commons,
their personal freedom and their self-administration. Secret societies and unrest developed in
Europe from this date.
1525 A.D. - Konrad Grebel founds a community of Anabaptists (Gk: to rebaptise) in Zurich, Switzerland. It acknowledges an idealistic vision of uncompromising Christian love. They
established their church from voluntary, professed members who pleaded for religious freedom
and considered themselves martyrs for the cause of a church independent of state control.
Their refusal to bear arms (to murder for profit or according to the duty of a slave to a human state
master), swear oaths (of dependency and reverence to a human god-leader), assume political
office (to abuse the rights and freedoms of others), discourage usury (credit and debt - which
destroyed the integrity of the spirit) and pay taxes to support military expenses (most often used
to murder innocent foreigners, abuse and rape the enemy, torture the civilian populace into
subjugation, and steal the lands of others for the benefit of one's own state) challenged the
authority of state politics, state religion, and cultural capital dependency.
Their insistence that baptism be withheld until a person had made a profession of faith (and
understood was aware of the covenant which was being made between themselves and God) was
considered highly heretical to both Roman Catholics and Protestants of the time. Until the end of
the 1990s, the Roman Catholic Church would use the ceremony of infant baptism more for a
pledge of the parents of their infant's soul to the ownership of the Church than to the service of
God.
Protestants, at this time, concurred with the teachings of the Catholics that the individual
was born guilty and with a damned soul which could only be salvaged by a commitment to Christ
through the baptismal ceremony: delay in baptism was considered equal to potential eternal
damnation of the child's soul if it died before its baptism. Prison terms were threatened and then
enacted and the death penalty was employed in an effort to stop the movement. Such action only
served to legitimize the movement by further demonstrating the coerciveness of the state and its
state religion.
1525 A.D. - A German mystic, Jakob Boehme, said he could look at a plant and suddenly, by willing to do so, mingle with that plant, be part of that plant, feel its life "struggling towards the
light." He said he was able to share the simple ambitions of the plant and "rejoice with a joyously
growing leaf."
1525-60 A.D. - Anton Fugger, private banker and successor to the trade and commerce businesses of the Fugger family, acquired trading concessions in Chile, Peru and Moscow in return for
assisting in the financing of the Spanish and other state voyages of conquest to those areas. By
the end of the century the company would fall into decline as it was victim to the state bankruptcy
of Spain, family conflicts and a lack of interest on the part of his heirs in the continuation of the
high political intrigue and deception involved in global and state financing.
Even though representatives of Spain and the Roman Catholic Church plundered Central and South America,
perhaps 40% of the precious gold and silver would end their journey in the Philippines and
southeast Asia. A further 15% would be lost through shipwrecks, sinkings and pirating. What
reached Europe was spent to enable the continuation of wars, the expansion of an opulent lifestyle
for the nobility and a financial leverage for the further development and intensification of craft and
artistic industries.
About 10% of the stolen treasures were used to finance the
continuance of the discovery and exploitation voyages and to reward the crews with a rich
lifestyle when they returned from their self-sacrifice of a long ocean voyage, torture and murder of
largely friendly natives, and a rage-like obsession of thievery and desecration.
1526 A.D. - William Tyndale toward the end of February, had his English translation of the Christian New Testament printed in the German town of Worms. A month later, copies would
begin to appear in England. Tyndale had succeeded with persistence. Early in the 1520s he had
tried to get authorization in England to produce his translation and been denied. In April or May
of 1524, he had travelled to Wittenberg, Germany, a major printing centre, to try again. After an
unsuccessful year, he first moved to Hamburg, and then to Cologne. He had arrived at the latter
in August, 1525, and given his translation to Peter Quentel, a printer. But the city senate, not
wishing to anger the Roman Catholic Church, forbade the printing. Tyndale picked up the printed
sheets and travelled on to Worms and success.
Tyndale's English translation of the New Testament became the first to be printed and the first to
be directly translated from the original Greek, rather than from the Vulgate Latin of the Church.
While about 18,000 copies of the 1526 edition and the revisions of 1534 and 1535 were printed,
only 2 would survive to the late 1900s. Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of London, bought copies in
great numbers, with Church funds, and burned them publicly.
Sir Thomas Moore, the Lord High Chancellor, published a dialogue in which he denounced Tyndale's translation as "not worthy to be called Christ's testament, but either Tyndale's own testament or the testament of his master Antichrist." The opposition which Tyndale received serves to show the absolute authority and control which the Roman Catholic Church held over European politics and the ends to which it
would go to intimidate the populace into continued idolatry of itself and the symbols it imbued
with magical powers.
1526 A.D. - Balthaser Hubmaier leads a congregation of persecuted "Swiss Brethern" (Anabaptists) to Moravia where the counts of Liechtenstein give them refuge on their estates at
Nickolsburg. There they farm and develop small industries in peace.
1527 A.D. - Francisco Pizarro, a 50-year-old Spanish soldier, challenges the 150 emaciated men who have accompanied him on his first voyage south of Panama in search of riches, to
continue on with him. After a 10-month expedition, they have arrived on Gallo Island off the
Pacific coast of Colombia. He offers the emaciated men a choice of returning to "hardship,
hunger, nakedness, rains, and abandonment", or, to continue south to "comfort." 13 men choose
to continue with him.
1527 A.D. - Hans Hut joins the "Swiss Brethern" at Nickolsburg and preaches the imminence of the millennium (Christ's 1000 year reign on Earth), the efficacy of communal property, and the
evil of paying taxes to support wars. Both Hut and Hubmaier are imprisoned and the Swiss
Brethern move to Austerlitz.
1528 A.D.
Francisco Pizarro and 13 soldiers, in March, are rescued by Bartolome Ruiz.
They sail south along Ecuador and Peru. Entertained by a woman chief, they take back with them
proof of Peru's wealth - fine cloth, gold and silver, boys to train as interpreters and llamas.
1528 A.D.
Jakob Hutter and a group of Anabaptists from the Tyrol joined the "Swiss Brethern" in Austerlitz.
A great administrator, he helps them build a thriving community and economy.
They would eventually be forced to move by persecution. They would thereafter be called
Hutterites.
1528 A.D.
Francisco Pizarro: By the end of the year, had gone to the Spanish court of King Charles of Toledo to request authority to proceed in the conquest of South America. Hernan
Cortes, who had influenced the collapse of Mexico's Aztec, was dazzling the court with his wealth
and an area of conquest larger than Spain itself. Pizarro bargained his llamas and Inca artifacts
into the title of governor and a license to conquer. For a 20% share of the booty, the king
authorized Pizarro's authority to conquer in the name of Spain. And to maintain the status quo
and the support of the politically influential Roman Catholic Church, the conquest would be
conducted under the pious secondary motive of conversion of the natives to Christianity - by force
if necessary.
1530 A.D.
An English Translation from and of the Hebrew Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Jewish Old Testament) was published by William Tyndale, who had been living in Antwerp.
His translation of the Book of Jonah would follow in 1531.
1531 A.D.
In January, Francisco Pizarro sails from Panama with 3 ships and 180 men and 37 horses.
Half the men "were in very poor shape and sickly" - financially desperate and carriers of
disease. Reaching northern Ecuador, they advanced overland for 15 months, in hardship, to the
Gulf of Guayaquil; then sailed on to mainland Peru in April 1532 on balsa-wood rafts. The men
were mostly Spaniards, but also converted Jews and Noors from Grenada, Levantines, Italians,
and a Greek. Most were destitute farmers and artisans, along with adventure and booty-seeking
soldiers, sailors, mystics, tailors, salesmen, smiths, slavers and a priest.
Arriving at the town of Tumbes, they found it ruined and depopulated by a 1530 smallpox
epidemic, brought by earlier explorers. Pizarro and his army were disheartened by the remains of
what had several years earlier been described to them as a bustling city of riches. The ruler,
Huayna Capac, had died of the disease and civil war ensued between his sons.
1531-1534 A.D.
The Inca Empire is sacked by ruthless, greedy Portuguese conquistadors, who like the Spanish in Mexico, decimated the population by illnesses which they brought with them and
for which the natives had no biological immunization. A peaceful, well organized political state
without any military structure, the Inca were trusting and welcoming. Their early past had
involved conquest and the establishment of an empire with considerable efficiency in agriculture
and no poverty. At the time of the European conquest, a bureaucracy had grown with conflict
over who should succeed to the throne. Like the Aztecs, the Inca also had reverence for gods
which had white skins and may have been overly passive as a result.
Francisco Pizarro, and his crew, stole hoards of gold objects of technical and religious
significance, melted them down and returned with them to Europe. Once they had been shown
the first items, they sought to do little more than search the countryside, killing and torturing as
they went, in their obsessive greed for wealth and acceptance. Incredible cruelty was committed
against this peaceful, gentle population. Hands, arms, legs, women's breasts were cut off. On at
least one occasion, the soles were cut off the feet of a group of natives and they were forced to
walk across a desert with raw feet in the heat of the day. Children were beaten with musket butts.
Hundreds of thousands died. One of the king's sons, Atahualpa, was deceived, captured and
killed by Pizarro. On returning to Europe, the nobility which had sponsored their exploits
rewarded them with political and social honours as heroes.
1531 A.D.
King Henry VIII of England forces the clergy to recognize the king as the supreme head of the church. The king's main concern was over royal possession and power - succession based on heredity. When his wives failed to give birth to a male heir, he sought to divorce them and remarry with the hope of gaining a son. He married 6 times. He received the title "Defender of the Faith".
Between 1534 and 1539, the king had the monasteries dissolved
such that their properties were sold to the nobility in what would become the greatest shift of
property in British history. The Anglican Church evolved, primarily as a Roman Catholic Church
with the British Crown replacing the Papal Crown.
1531 A.D.
The Oronteus Finaeus World Map is discovered.
It gives very accurate longitudinal coordinates but shows an as yet "undiscovered" Antarctic continent, rivers,
valleys, and coastlines in their correct position under the glacial ice as well as the approximate
location of the South Pole.
1532 A.D.
In November, Pizarro took his men inland to Cajamarca, a provincial centre of the Inca, and asked for a meeting with Atahualpa, a son of the previous ruler, Huayna Capac, who
was in the northern part of the Inca empire with a professional army of 80,000 or more.
Atahualpa was preparing to move against his brother Huascar who possessed the traditional elite
in the capital of Cuzco. Each soldier wore a large gold or silver disc on their head and all chanted
in hypnotic unison. Most of the Spaniards were in sheer terror when they saw the army in the
valley surrounding them. Pizarro, determined to risk all, set a plan to murder the Inca leader.
Pizarro positioned his 8 or 9 musketeers and 4 small pieces of artillery on the stone-faced
platform at the end of a huge plaza, flanked on 3 sides by low buildings, with a wall on the fourth.
Pizarro prompted his men to romantically think of themselves as knights or crusaders about to
face their hour of glory.
The priest, Dominican Vicente de Valverde, and an interpreter advanced to meet Atahualpa and
show him a Roman Catholic symbol and a book "of the things of God." The Inca had no system
of writing and Atahualpa neither understood nor could appreciate the abstract object of a book;
he cast the book away. In pious pride, Friar Valverde ran back to his companions, shouting
"Come out, Christians! Come at these enemy dogs who reject the things (idols) of God (the
Roman Catholic Church)!"
The gunner, Pedro de Candia, a Greek, fired his cannon, and horsemen and foot soldiers charged
from their hiding places, shouting and blowing trumpets to result in the surprise and terror of the
unarmed Inca who panicked in confusion. The Inca had never seen horses before. The Inca
soldiers were in the valley below; those with Atahualpa had come unarmed in peace. In their
terror, the Inca, who were packed into the square, fell over one another and into mounds.
Spanish swords severed hands, arms and heads and gashed bodies until blood was splashed
everywhere. Daggers finished the attack with murder.
After 2 hours of frenzied killing,
motivated by greed, piousness, fear, and the passion of mortal combat - almost 7,000 Inca lay
dead; many many more had their arms cut off, and would die over the coming hours. Every
Spaniard had massacred an average of 15 natives during the period. The honour of such carnage
and treachery was credited to God for "it was not accomplished by our own forces, for there were
so few of us. It was by the grace of God, which is great."
Humans have a tendency to blame/credit their most unspiritual activities to an idol worship of
a god. By demonstrating reverence to sacred objects and to human agents which are sanctioned
as the interpreters of the desires of these idols, humans willingly surrender their spiritual
strength in return for emotional promises of material wealth, social acceptance and child-like
sympathy and forgiveness.
With rationalizations used to either place the responsibility for
personal frustrations and failures as a penalty for non-obsessive worship of the idols, or, place
the responsibility of group endeavours of material success where the skill of deception,
manipulation, treachery, torture, and disrespect have been pivotal - to the "grace of god", the
adherent is provided with an overwhelming sense of stability, security, predictability, and
control.
As the culture feeds on such obsessions, it weakens in spiritual strength and contact
with God - and, increasingly displays the iniquities which will bring increasing turmoil to the
lives of individual adherents: anger, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, pride, sloth, vice, vengeance -
possessiveness.
1532 A.D.
On the November day after Atahualpa's Capture and the Cajamarca massacre, Hernando de Soto confiscated 800 pounds of gold, more than 3,500 pounds of silver, and 14
emeralds - including the personal table service of Atahualpa. Expecting that this was simply a
raiding party, Atahualpa, noticing the Spaniard's greed, tried to buy his freedom. Eventually, the
misunderstanding and disbelief of the Spaniards resulted in his offering them all of the precious
metals of the empire: a room full of gold and an entire hut filled twice over with silver.
Pizarro agreed to the offer on condition that Atahualpa committed no treason following the agreement.
Atahualpa remained a captive for 8 months, allowed to function as ruler of the Inca. He ordered
the gold and silver to be brought in from the countryside, his generals were not to resist nor
impede the Spaniards, and his temples were looted. By mid-1533, the ransom was collected. It
was melted down from large and small dishes, pitchers, jugs, and effigies - and divided among the
160 Spaniards; 20% went to the King of Spain - for his sanction of the activities.
1533 A.D., April,
a tailor named Jan Bockelson had become the leader of the Anabaptists.
He now dismissed the town council and declared himself king of the "New Zion." During the siege which
followed, the male population diminished until there were 4 women to every man. Bockelson
declared polygamy legal to prevent social anarchy and when the news reached the besiegers, they
piously intensified their assaults on the town.
Rumours and gossip amongst the depressed, frustrated, and sexually abstinent troops (intimacy is not a battlefield privilege) quickly grew through fantasy and projection into dramatized and exaggerated accounts of the reality within the city to descriptions of licentiousness. In typical fashion, this incited hatred and rage within the attacking troops and Christians murdered Christians with determination.
1533 A.D.
By July 26, Diego de Almagro, Pizarro's partner, had reached Cajamarca with
reinforcements from Panama - too late to share in the ransom but in time to be motivated by the
tons of gold and silver already collected. He and his men would believe that what Pizarro had
confiscated could only be a small part of what could be found and stolen. To believe otherwise
would be to admit that one's voyage and hardship were useless and that one could only return
home in poverty and disgrace, worse off than when they had started their desperate search for
fortune.
Afraid of Atahualpa's potential to unify the Inca against them, he was tied to a stake in the city
square, trumpets sounded, the Friar instructed him in a conversion to "Christianity", and, against
Pizarro's promise of freedom, for which the ransom had been paid, he was strangled with a twisted
rope.
On hearing of the deed, carried out in his name, King Charles of Spain wrote to Pizarro: "We
have been displeased by the death of Atahualpa, since he was a monarch and particularly as it was
done in the name of justice." Nevertheless, Charles took his 20% of the booty and no penalty was
ever levied against any of the thieves or murders involved.
1533 A.D.
On November 15, Pizarro and his men enter the Inca capital, Cuzco.
Pizarro appointed one of the few surviving sons of Huayna Capac to be Inca administrator.
Now named Manca, he was crowned early in 1534 and expected to help the Spaniards enslave his people.
1534 A.D.
The Foundation of the Societas Jesu (The Jesuit Order) was founded by Ignatius Loyola and 7 companions who wanted to do missionary work or to place themselves
unconditionally at the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope. A Basque (Spanish) nobleman,
Loyola had received a severe wound in the defence of Pamplona in 1521 at the age of 29. For his
military service for the Pope, he was awarded "Knight in the service of Jesus." Mystical, or
hallucinatory, visions during his recovery and ascetic (self-denial) reflection led to a recording of
"Spiritual Exercises".
In 1523 he had participating in a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; by 1526, he began
theological studies; following conflicts with the Inquisition, in 1528 he continued his studies at the
Sorbonne in Paris. Now, Loyola wanted to atone for the military excesses and lax religious
behaviour of his youth, regain the respect of the social and political authorities, and, avoid
execution by the Inquisition.
Melding the authoritarian practices of the military with the ritual and authoritarianism of the
Roman Catholic Church, Loyola had evolved self-hypnotic routines for meditation, prayer and
daily devotions which inspired total spiritual surrender from adherents towards the focus of the
practices. This focus became the idolatry of Jesus Christ and of the Pope. The Jesuits would
train to be replicants of the Papal Church. That is, they would ultimately aspire to the rank of
Professi , a 4th vow taken by members of the order in which they dedicated their life and soul to
the conversion of heretics and heathens.
Since such a pious and noble task was to be carried out
under the authority of the Church, various "missionaries" would interpret the means which they
could use as endless in terms of force. Rather than in any way come under the suspicion of the
Inquisition, the Order would become the agent of the Inquisition - particularly in international
locations which were out of sight of the resident Inquisition and where any acts of personal heresy
could be easily and permanently covered up by murder or by the difficulty of easily transferring
information back to Europe when the reports and translations had to pass by way of a member of
the order.
Such were desperate times.
The earlier widely known history of the excesses of the Inquisition
left individuals in the position of having to choose between support for the authority of the Pope,
or, be tortured and perhaps murdered on the presumption of either disloyalty, or, lack of
acknowledgement of authority. Approached himself by the Inquisition on suspicion, Loyola
became aware that the safest, most respected, and most powerful position for a person to hold
was as a devoted agent of the Pope and the Inquisition. The lot of many people of the times was
poverty. As a nobleman's son, Loyola had been materially gifted in his youth, a fact that brought
personal respect and community authority.
Those who fought in the wars of the time were largely mercenaries, poor or unemployed working as killers for hire, although they seldom saw themselves with that self-awareness, or nobility who sought greater recognition and power from the most powerful military and political leader in a dispute with the expectation of recognition in the form of new titles and privileges for their military service and achievements. The "spiritual" aspect of the Christian religion had long ago being supplanted by human hero worship of the Pope
as a human stand-in for the Christ.
A poor nobleman with a title of military recognition, which was daily becoming less influential,
and, a person who had been near death - Loyola sought both for a mission which would justify the
second life which had been spared him (rather than death on the field), and, a means by which he
could be rewarded for the skills which he had. Humans who feel a sense of guilt at not having
died in an accident or other incident in which a close friend, or many associates have died - often
seek to rationalize their "salvation." An easy rational association within an authoritarian
community is the effort to accomplish something dramatic in the service of one's acknowledged
supreme identity: God, idol, self.
Those individuals who are truly spiritual in such a quest may be
humbled by the experience to experience reverence and seek with open heart for guidance from
God's communicator, The Holy Spirit. More often, the influenced individual acts out the
authority training which has been impressed upon them and their search becomes one of how best
to satisfy the goals of that human idol and leader. The vows and disciplines so organized by
Loyola would be a pattern for authoritarian organizations for centuries ahead.
1535 A.D. - In January, Ciudad de los Reyes (City of the Magi) is made the Spanish capital in the coastal Rimac Valley of Peru. It would later become known as Lima. Many thousands of
Inca are forced to hard labour in the silver mines of Bolivia (i.e.. Potosi) and other parts of South
America so as to provide 60% of the wealth which Spain would steal from the Americas in the
1500s and 1600s.
1535 A.D. - On May 21, William Tyndale, a Cambridge University professor and subsequent chaplain, who had translated and published the first English translation of the Christian New
Testament from the origin Greek and the Pentateuch from the original Hebrew, was betrayed.
The Catholic Church was enraged by his English translations, not because they were inaccurate,
but because they reduced the complete dependency and servitude of the Christian followers to the
Catholic priests. In addition, they raised the awareness of the basic principles of Christianity
within the interested individual and enabled more of the congregation to hold the Pope and
Church officials accountable. The popes had engineered the increasing idolatrous practices and
repeatedly used their positions to introduce spurious requirements and practices which abused
individuals within and outside of the congregations.
Keeping the public ignorant of what was
presented to them as the divine will perpetuated the totalitarian order imposed by the Church
officials and this maintained many political allies who "paid" for the maintenance of this social
order through the tithes of the church members. Monarchies and the Church itself had become
accustomed to the riches that attended such absolute authority and their desires had continued to
grow accordingly. They had no intention of risking this loss of power now.
Many attempts had been made since his earliest printing, in 1526, to lure Tyndale back to
England, where the authorities directly responsible for restraining him in the beginning could take
care of this "problem." Carrying out this endeavour with the respect for the jurisdiction of others
countries eventually became too aggravating and secret service agents (spies) of Emperor Charles
V, arrested him now, and took him to Vilvorde, 6 miles north of Brussels - where he was
imprisoned in a fortress.
In August, 1536, he was tried, found guilty of heresy, and turned over to
the secular (state) power for execution. On October 6, 1536, he was strangled and burned at the
stake. According to John Foxe, his last words were,
"Lord, open the King of England's eyes!"
1535 A.D.
During the summer, the Siege of the City of Munster, Germany, ends with the slaughter of thousands of Anabaptists by Catholic and Protestant troops. The city had become
largely Anabaptist in belief and the city council had closed access to the city to all nonbelievers,
including Catholics and Protestants.
1535 A.D.
Later in the year, Miles Coverdale edited a Complete English Bible, dedicated to Henry VIII and published in continental Europe. The New Testament was essentially a revision
of Tyndale's New Testament, and his translation of portions of the Old Testament was used. The
first "authorized" Bible was published in 1537, the so-called Thomas Matthew Bible, edited by
John Rogers, friend of Tyndale.
1536 A.D.
Pope Paul III convoked a 'deputation of reform' to re-establish the authority of the Catholic Church.
His sister, Giulia, had been a mistress of a former pope, Alexander VI. He
himself accumulated many lucrative benefits from the church; he was treasurer of the Church from
1492. He kept an aristocratic Roman mistress who bore him 3 sons and a daughter.
From 1513, he began to reform his personal life, at age 44 (mid-life crisis), and left his mistress.
An intellectual, he favoured writers, artists and scholars and restored Rome University, expanded the
Vatican library, hired many painters and architects, including Michelangelo, gave many masked
balls and feasts in the Vatican, revived the carnival, named two grandsons cardinals at the ages of
14 and 16, and, held a general council (1545-49) to try and negotiate the differences between the
Protestants and the Catholics.
In July, 1542, Pope Paul III established the Sacred Congregation of the Inquisition (casually
called "The Holy Office") to combat heresy. The name would be changed in 1965 to the Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith . It would become the most authoritarian of the church's
institutions. Throughout the life of the church, it would report on a daily basis alleged
misdemeanours and reports on doubtful theological books and teachings to the Pope. Its
viewpoints would remain strongly legalistic.
1539 A.D.
Richard Taverner, a lawyer, published a revision of the Matthew Bible, the first to be completely printed in England. Miles Coverdale's revision of the Matthew Bible, known as
the Great Bible, owing to the large size of its pages, was printed in Paris, France and was
enthusiastically received by Tunstall, now bishop of Durham.
1540 A.D.
The Jesuits, Societas Jesu, is finally confirmed by Pope Paul III.
The elected Superior General office, also known as the "Black Pope", governed the provinces and
the houses of the Order in military-absolutist fashion. He was assisted by an admonitor
(cautioner) who was to provide constant criticism. Members wore the garb of secular priests and
took vows. Through exercises and mutual supervision, an elitist selection enabled the participant
to graduate to higher levels of authority which introduced additional vows.
Those reaching the level of the "Professi" dedicated themselves to obedience to death.
Many would receive social positions as teachers and instructors in schools and universities where they became cheap, highly motivated, purveyors of the status quo as defined by the Pope and the Church hierarchy. By
1549, the Order was made directly subject to the Pope. In the same year the Anglican Book of
Common Prayer was introduced. The heresy of the Protestant Anglican church, which had
recognized British king Henry VIII as their "Pope" in 1531, had to be countered.
The order soon proved its value to the pope by their zealous and intolerant activities.
Their eventual management of the Inquisition would discourage Protestantism from growing in power
and numbers. The Jesuits major intent was the establishment of papal power against not only
Protestantism but against all the claims of kings and national churches.
In 1541, the "foreign missions" of the Jesuits would begin with missionaries to the Portuguese East
Indies, followed by numerous placements in South America - particularly in Brazil and Paraguay.
In Europe, they would become the teachers of the wealthier classes and the nobility thereby
spreading a more strict and abusive form of authoritarianism with greater inter-class intolerance.
Their pro-papal devotion made them objects of suspicion and jealousy by political leaders,
particularly in France where there presence was largely denied until 1562. At that time, they were
legally recognized, and, provided great influence by their teachings at the universities. As early as
1549, Jesuits received teaching positions in German universities.
1542 A.D.
Bishop Latimer wrote the following about his understanding of the 1000 year period expected to begin around the year 2000 A.D.:
"The world was ordained to endure, as all learned men affirm, 6000 years.
Now of that number, there be passed 5,552 years [as of A.D. 1552],
so that there is no more left but 448 years [ending in A.D. 2000]."
1545-1563 A.D.
The Council of Trent excludes Gypsies from entering the Roman Catholic Church priesthood.
Too many instances of gypsy fraudulent use of "letters of protection" had been
reported to the church authorities. This "counterfeiting" was an abuse of papal authority and an
expectation arose that by allowing entry of gypsies into the priesthood would only lead to further
and more extensive abuse of church status for personal gain.
1547 A.D.
On January 16, Ivan the Terrible was crowned the first czar of Russia.
1547 A.D.
Early in the year, a Typhus Epidemic swept across southern Europe.
1547 A.D.
During the year, a Sow was found guilty and Executed in France for attacking and killing a person.
Her six piglets were treated as young offenders are allowed to live. Swine often roamed freely in France.
1550 A.D.
General unrest in Germany resulted in the printing of pamphlets calling for an Ultimate Emperor, who would protect the "good law of old" and the German church from
foreign control. Criticism of papal judicial decisions reflecting a craving for profit led to general
dissatisfaction and bitterness because of:
- The wealth of the Church had led to a levelling of spiritual values and a moral decline of the
clergy. A study conducted in Italy during the early 1990s and released in 1994 declared that
almost all of the Roman Catholic clergy in the performance of their counsel to individual
parishioners advised that bribery and manipulation was a normal, and therefore acceptable, part of
business activities, while also advocating harsh shame and degradation for deception between
spouses. The study suggested that the strength and pervasiveness of organized crime in a country
in which the citizens strongly adhered to the authoritarian Roman Catholic teachings was the
result of a iniquities within the performance of church services (greed, envy, pride, sloth,
weakness).
- The upper clergy considered the properties under their administration as personal "wards of the
nobility", looking upon them as a means to an elevated standard of living reflecting the spiritual
authority given them; upper clergy lived in riches while lower clergy lived in theological
ignorance.
- The deterioration of "means of salvation" from acknowledgement, humility, forgiveness, resolve,
renewal - to legalisms of secular formality, that is, bureaucratic procedures, in which forgiveness
was provided impersonally for indulgences and superstitious incantation of phrases: money and
deference to authority bought spiritual freedom. In studies of the Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
neighbourhoods populated by gangs of killers and thieves during the 1920s and 1930s, it was
found that the dominant religious authority was the Catholic Church.
It was an oft reported observance that the leaders of crime alleged loyalty to the Church, attended mass, took confession, and resumed their criminal behaviours with new enthusiasm before the day was
finished. Absolute authority in humans encourages abuse, as was repeatedly shown in the "Priest
Trials" conducted in Canada throughout the 1980s: sexual and physical abuse had been the
experience of hundreds of children entrusted to the care of the Church.
1550 A.D.
Robert Stevens, a printer from Paris, made the first division of the Old Testament and the New Testament into verses. The first publication of a versified New Testament was printed in 1557. This was followed by a versified Old Testament and complete "Bible" in 1560.
Previously, there had been no verse separation and chapter divisions had only
been introduced in 1250. All of these modifications facilitated the institutional and authoritarian
use of the scriptures. What beforehand had been a composite whole could now be easily
segregated into parts and easily referenced for group study and participation - especially if
numerous members of a group had personal copies. These modifications to the original format
also facilitated a uniformity of preaching between congregations - to the extent desired by the
church leadership.
1550-1750 A.D.
The Celts during this period have been confined to Wales, Ireland and Scotland; partly converted to Catholicism or Protestantism; governed by the English and mixed with other
groups.
Markedly different from most histories carried on for the benefit of the military backed political
administrations, some CELTIC legends refer to persons which are partly conceived by gods,
develop extraordinary capabilities, possess radical technology, put responsibility before feelings,
perform miracles, and are capable of changing into other forms. This selection of factors tends
only to converge in those cultures which suggest in their writings that contact with "beings from
the heavens" has influenced them. Several examples follow:
In the early 1400s, Owen Glendower (Owain Glyndwr) led a rebellion against the English and
for a short time was the virtual ruler of Wales. His guerilla tactics gave rise to stories of near
escapes, and to a role as magician in touch with supernatural forces. His birth is said to have
taken place on a stormy night during which his father's horses were discovered standing in pools
of blood.
Near 1711, Melusine, a supernatural woman, resided in Lough Inchiquin (a lake) in County
Clare, Ireland. She married a local man by the name of Quin on condition that none of the local
O'Briens who had held her prisoner for a spell would ever be invited to their house. Quin broke
his promise to her and she returned to the lake with her children. Quin followed after them and
they were never seen again.
Note: see also 2600 B.C. and 400-140 B.C., 525 A.D., 1115-1200.
1553-1558 A.D.
During the reign of Queen Mary, all printing of the English translations of the Bible was stopped in England and its use in church services was withdrawn. Many Protestant leaders travelled to continental Europe to express their religious freedom.
1556 A.D.
Pope Paul IV Carafa (23 May 1555 - 18 Aug. 1559) became the first active reformer, and re-introduced the "Roman Inquisition". Born Giampietro Carafa, into a Roman
aristocratic family, educated in Hebrew and Greek, privileged by family political connections in
church and state, jealous of Spanish imperial successes, intellectually secular and forcefully
intolerant. Hateful of any religious or state opposition, he raised enmity in Spain and England and
made the Protestant division easier for the English. Suspecting Jews of supporting Protestantism,
he confined their presence in Rome to ghettos and forced them to wear distinctive headgear.
Blinded by hatred of opposition, envy of Spanish wealth, distrust of strangers and paranoia about
potential Italian dissent - he came to rely upon on relatives whom he promoted to lucrative and
powerful positions in the Church, and, who often proved to be morally degenerate relative to the
Roman Catholic teachings. Distrusting democracy, he refused to recall the suspended Council on
the rationalization that he could accomplish much more much faster without their input. He
imprisoned cardinals (Giovanni Morone, ...) because they opposed him, denounced peace treaties
(Augsburg), refused to recognize the abdication of Emperor Charles V, declared the Lutherans
heretics, made war on Spain with France as ally, and was known to be extremely brutal in his use
of the Inquisition.
In 1557, he revised the "Index of Forbidden Books", a division of the Inquisition, and greatly
increased the number of titles to be confiscated, burned, and used as justification for a declaration
of heresy if some unfortunate person was found with a copy of such a book nearby. By this time,
writings in the topical areas of law, history, geography, religion, surgery, pharmacology and many
other subjects were being commercially printed for aristocratic private libraries as well as
university reserves. If the views expressed did not concur with those of the Pope, they were
heresy. On his death, the public vented their anger back against him and his family by rioting in
Rome, destroying the offices of the Inquisition, and, setting free the surviving prisoners. His
statue was toppled over and mutilated as a final act of revenge.
1556 A.D.
Catherine de Medici, wife of the French king Henry II, became deeply troubled by a prediction made in writing by Michael Nostradamus in 1555. It predicted that danger,
blindness, possibly death might result in the king's 41st year (1559) from any form of single
combat. Nostradamus had written that Henry II could become the finest king since Charlemagne;
however, the alternative was that he would die from a jousting "accident" which would bring the
House of Valois to extinction within one generation.
To avoid persecution by the Roman Catholic church and the rulers of the day, Nostradamus wrote
his Siecles in verse form in code. It was intended that at some later time they might be decoded
and understood rather than translated and "interpreted". Images were used rather than literal
description and this would lead to many misinterpretations of the writings in the future.
Nostradamus' understanding of the future was that it was unchangeable and this was due to an
energy block of his own. It was this view of predictions, held by some astrologers and by many
who visited them, which brought such negative reactions to their work as to have them
persecuted and executed throughout history. When astrology and predictions were seen as magic
by the authorities, the bearers of the bad, or good news, were executed.
In reality, such predictions are warnings of times of stress which are to come, of possible events
which may happen, and, an invitation for US to change, OR, allow ourselves to be swept along by
the patterns of history. What Nostradamus "saw" was so clear to him that he could not believe
that it was anything less than the truth, and, like the religious training of the time, all truth was
absolute. In opposition to his belief concerning his own time, that which had preceded, and much
that would follow, Nostradamus did believe that only near the end of the 20th century would his
verses be properly decoded and would humanity have the intelligence necessary to take control
over its future.
On June 28, 1559, a 3-day tournament began in Paris to celebrate the double marriage of the
King's daughters to Philip II of Spain and the Duke of Savoy. Henry himself took part delighting
everyone with his skill. On the afternoon of the 3rd day, he jousted with Count Montgomery,
Captain of the Scottish Guard. They rode against each other twice with no decisive result. In
their 3rd encounter, the point of Montgomery's lance passed through the visor of the King's helmet,
piercing his eye, and Henry fell from his horse. He lingered on in agony until he died of infection
on July 10th. Had the true meaning of the verses been known at the time, Nostradamus would
have been tortured and burned at the stake, as many others were at the time for less suspicious
acts.
1556 A.D.
On January 23, an 8.0+ Magnitude Earthquake in Shansai Province, China, was
estimated to have left 830,000 dead and three times that number injured. It was one of the worst
natural disasters recorded in human history. Tremors were felt in 212 of China's counties and
widespread devastation occurred in 98 of those. The earthquake happened at night; many houses
collapsed onto the sleeping occupants. Also, many thousands of peasants who lived in hollowed-out caves within the unstable soft-silt (loess) cliffs were buried alive when the massive earth
structures collapsed. Had the population neither been as dense or as numerous living conditions
could have been safer and loss of life much less.
1558 A.D.
The Stroganovs, a family of merchants, are provided with a document from Russian Tzar, Ivan IV, certifying their possession of Siberia with the obligation to colonize it. Escaped
Russian and Ukrainian serfs, the Cossacks, established autonomous military communities in the
open steppes under elected leaders called Atamans. The Tsars used their skills and presence to
protect the borders against Turks, Tartars and Poles.
Commissioned by the Stroganovs, Hetman Yermak crossed Western Siberia with 800 men
(without horses) to the Irtysh; the Khanate of Sibir was conquered. Siberian cities developed
from fortified outposts along the major routes.
1560 A.D.
Garcilaso de la Vega, a Portuguese explorer in South America,
saw 5 Inca mummies that had been taken to the house of a man named Ondegardo. They were
identified as the ancient rulers Huiracocha, Tupac-Yupanqui, Huayna-Capac, Mama-Runto and
Mama-Ocilo.
The bodies were so well preserved that even their hair and eyebrows were intact. They were
dressed as they had been when they were alive, seated with their hands crossed over their
stomachs and their heads bowed.
Father Acoste said of them,
"They were so whole, and so well embalmed with a certain kind of
pitch, that they seemed to be alive." Garcilaso de la Vega wrote, "I imagine that the Indians'
secret was to bury the bodies in snow ... and then apply the pitch that Father Acoste mentions.
When I saw the bodies, I impulsively touched one of Huayna-Capac's fingers. It, too, seemed to
be alive."
When the mummies were brought into the town, passers-by fell to their knees and the Spaniards
respectfully took off their hats. Seeing that the Indians continued to worship the bodies of their
ancient sovereigns, the Marques de Caneta, Viceroy of Peru, had them taken to Lima. Heat and
humidity did their work: the mummies decomposed and were buried in 1562.
Garcia Beltran stated,
"Those mummies along with dozens of others were taken from the Temple
and hidden before the birth of Garcilaso de la Vega. They were found by mistake. Scientifically,
they were bodies with all their organs inert but alive, as the result of a process of suspended
animation that was well known to the Inca. This kind of embalming had a purpose: the Inca
believed that science would some day be able to bring life and soul back to the mummies."
Both the Americans and the U.S.S.R. have been working on developing a method of suspended
animation in secret laboratories since the early 1950s. In 1955, Soviet scientists declared that
living beings in a frozen state could be revived after several thousand years.
Another incident, described by Garcilaso de la Vega, was the finding of ingots of pure Inca gold
in the possession of Lima goldsmiths in Peru. They were identical in every way to ordinary pure
gold except they had a specific gravity of half the normal 19.3. The mystery was never explained
beyond some form of scientific weightlessness or partial levitation - unweighting.
1560 A.D.
"The Geneva Bible" was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth I (whose reign began in 1558).
William Whittingham, pastor of the English Church of Geneva, translated the New Testament and
served as editor of the Old Testament translation. The Geneva Bible was printed in roman type,
bound in small octavo size, and was the first English language Bible to have verse numbers. It
became immensely popular because of its ease of use. Over 150 editions would be printed in its
100-year duration of popularity.
Its extremely Protestant notes were offensive to the bishops, and
in 1568, a revision was published which became known as the Bishops' Bible. In 1570, the
Convocation of Canterbury ordered it to be placed in all cathedrals, and so it became the second
Authorized Version.
1561 A.D.
Extermination of the Gypsies by "steel and fire" is authorized by the
Parliament of Orleans, France during the reign of Francis I. The persecution would continue
through the reigns of Louis XIII and Louis XIV. The biggest threat to the elite (wealthy,
government employees (including the military), merchants, professionals, the Roman Catholic
Church) of a capital-based society is any practice which creates negativity towards a currency
dependent marketing system in favour of a barter system, and, any influence which promotes a
lack of public confidence in the cultural authorities and the currency system which they sanction.
Public distrust of the market and of currency was increasing because of the reality of and rumours
of increasing fraud and embezzlement. Those most successful at such schemes and those who
most irritated the public were those who arrived in the community, were gregarious, elicited
friendship, were enthusiastic, appeared quick-witted, offered solutions to personal concerns,
exchanged a product or service for money, left the neighbourhood, and, led to the discovery that
the product or service was of poor quality, had been fraudulently presented, was inaccurate, or,
resulted in apparent illness, accident or death. This pattern was most often associated with
Gypsies - sometimes accurately and sometimes as scapegoats - but increasingly as a stereotype.
If the general population became overcautious and defensive about their reliance on the market
for products and services, they would revert to subsistence farming. In 1900s terms, a capital
economy depression would result. Feudal allegiances would be collected in the form of produce.
An empire or large state with its extensive bureaucracy could not be maintained with a mountain
of spoiling carrots or huge cattle pens. Confidence had to be restored in the capital exchange
system or the elite mentioned above would face a severe curtailment of their livelihood - even a
cessation of their income - and poverty.
Threaten a material-centred elite with poverty and you threaten their life. Drastic situations required drastic measures. The public required a dramatic demonstration of support from those who governed, and who were responsible for protecting them, or anarchy would result with the civil disorder of vigilante justice. Neither church nor state wanted this. So they did what they had made illegal for the public to do: commit murder.
Remember this:
When a state allows its currency or its capital equivalent (banks, credit,
government vouchers, ...) to lose the confidence of its citizens, it risks the loss of the
capitalization which allows it to exist. Similarly, when a state enables the capital-based
economy which forms a foundation for its cooperative existence to fall into disfavour, it
encourages the development of an economy which, by the necessity of produce extraction for
government services affordability, must use coercion of its people to maintain its existence.
Only band-structured economies require nothing more from its participants than their personal
self-sufficiency.
1561 A.D.
In Germany, "the sky was filled with cylindrical shapes from which emerged black, red, orange and blue-white spheres that darted about."
1565-1572 A.D.
The Oprichniki (Secret Police), was instituted by Tsar Ivan IV, The Terrible, of Russia.
Ivan regarded the princes and land-owning aristocracy as his enemies. The purpose of
the Oprichniki was to destroy their influence and acquire their estates, thereby increasing the
political control of the Tsar indirectly.
A new warrior class, the "Dvoryane", carried out most of the
dispossessions, deportations, and redistribution of the land. The Oprichniki spied against and won
over the commercial classes. Many princes and landowners became listed as traitors and were
either executed or banished for life to Kazan with their property being confiscated. So extreme
were the actions taken that at times the population of complete cities was murdered.
In 1570, Novgorod city was gutted completely of its inhabitants.
Mass flights of peasants followed despite a decree of the Tsar tying them to the land like slaves. The Tsar grew in his paranoia and had some of the police charged with treachery. Eventually, the organization was disbanded, but not forgotten.
1566 A.D.
Francisco Toledo, the Viceroy of Peru, reports that he has found Inca painted
cloths and tablets that were a rich source of information in history, science, prophecy, etc. He
burned them all. The existence of such writings was confirmed also by Jose de Acosta, Balboa,
and Father Cobo.
1570 A.D.
Human Reproductive Loss in the town of York, England, during this century, resulted in only 20% of the children born surviving to age 20. Stillbirths, abortions, infanticide, disease, accidents, and physical abuse resulted in the high mortality rate.
1571 A.D.
In March, "The Congregation of the Index" was established by Pope Pius V
(1566-1572) as a new department in the Inquisition with executive powers. Strongly anti-Protestant and intolerant, he had banned most Jews from Rome and had enlarged and strengthened the powers of the Inquisition. He built a new palace for it, more strongly defined its rules and practices, personally attended many of its sessions. As he prided himself on the numbers accused and sentenced, his piousness resulted in the number of academic leaders and professionals being imprisoned, tortured and executed.
The "Congregation" was charged with reviewing and
deciding on the heretical nature of any printed document. Since almost anything of a religious
tone which was not written by the hand of the Pope was likely to be declared heresy, hundreds of
printers fled to Germany and Switzerland - away from the Inquisition's abuses.
1572 A.D.
Tupac Amaru, son of Manco, is captured in Vilcabamba by the Spanish and beheaded in the town square of Cuzco. He is the last of the royal Inca line.
Bartleme de Vega records that excessive tribute is taken from all the natives by the Spanish.
Chiefs were tortured to reveal treasure; women were raped - "no woman who was good-looking
was safe to her husband." Pizarro did issue instructions to his soldiers not to abuse the natives
too grossly - but there was little attempt at restraint or enforcement of the laws.
The size of the native population declined rapidly: lower class poverty-driven Spaniards brought
new diseases from Europe; the Inca system of food storage was abandoned, opening the way for
eventual famine and starvation; the Inca irrigation canals and agricultural terraces were stripped of
their labourers to benefit mining production, and, again, mandated eventual mass starvation.
1572 A.D.
Gypsies are banished from the city states of Venice, Milan, and Parma.
1574 A.D.
In the Philippines, Li Ma-hong and force of 3,000 men in 64 war junks attacked Manila and torched the town. Unable to drive the Spaniards out of their fortress, Li sailed north
to Sual Bay, where he built a fort of his own and started a Chinese colony. The Spaniards (300)
and 2,500 Malays followed and laid siege to Li Mahong's fort, burning his fleet of junks in the
process. Nearing the time when the fort was running out of provisions, Li's forces dug a tunnel to
the sea and slipped away, leaving the area to Spanish domination.
1575 A.D.
Paper making is introduced at Culhuacan, Mexico, from Spain.
1576 A.D.
Juan Fernandez, Spanish seaman, reports land near the modern location of Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
1582 A.D.
The New Testament of the "Rheims-Douai Bible" is published by William Allen.
A fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, he had been influenced to leave England in 1565 along with
many other Roman Catholics. In Douai, Flanders, France, he founded a college for training
priests who would eventually go to England. In the interim, he began an English translation from
the Vulgate Latin version of the Bible which the Church authorities wished to offer as an
approved version in opposition to other English translations.
In 1578, the college had moved to Rheims, where the New Testament was completed.
Eventually, the college would return to Douai, and the Old Testament translation would be published from there in 1609-10.
1582 A.D.
Pope Gregory XIII reforms the calendar.
He decrees that the day following Thursday October 4, 1582, should be Friday October 15, 1582.
Thereafter, centennial years (1600, 1700, ...) were to be leap years only when divisible by 400; other years being leap years when divisible by 4. This restored the vernal equinox (beginning of spring and reference date for
the Christian Easter) to March 21. It also reduced the number of days in "400" calendar years by 3,
making the average number of days in the calendar year 365.2425. This calendar was immediately
adopted by all Catholic countries, according to the recognized god-like authority assumed by the
Roman Catholic Pope; Greek Church and most Protestant countries refused to recognize it until
as late as 1919 (Rumania). The composition of the calendar is important for the interpretation of
"sacred" predictions.
1586 A.D.
The Mayan culture disintegrates.
Centred in Mexico, Guatemala, and San Salvador, it has grown from 350 A.D. to prosperous city states to weak anarchy. Moving into an unpopulated area, they had utilized their agricultural skills to provide a surplus production economy. This enabled the formation of capital intensive activities including politics, science,
career artists, and a military. It had developed a pictographic form of writing and advanced forms
of mathematics and astronomy. Expanding population led to increasing destruction of the natural
forest cover.
Anarchy developed as food supplies began to diminish relative to the expanding population.
As the loss of trees, up to 80%, led to erosion, farming productivity decreased. Not
wishing to lower their standard of living nor control their population, the Maya had no other
choice but to take possession of other lands occupied by other people. Such invasions required
armies, which placed greater negative stresses on both the environment and the culture. Some
emigrated to the Yucatan. Political power diminished as the city states became poorer and the
population became less stable and more itinerant. Aggressions against other peoples and the
strain of taxation upon a people who were becoming increasingly poor, increased the anarchy and
led to a dissolution of the culture. Uprisings by oppressed peoples concentrated the Maya back
into Guatemala.
By the time the Spanish arrived, the population had been reduced by 75%.
Arrival of the Europeans brought diseases which decimated the population further.
1586 A.D.
The first Paper mill in the Netherlands is established.
1588 A.D.
The Sacred Congregation of the Causes of Saints is founded in the Roman Catholic Christian Church of Rome. Its purpose is to handle canonization matters and the preservation of
holy relics. Both of these activities are favoured in human cultures from the most primitive of
written histories. In an attempt to portray abstract spiritual values to a congregation which is
untrained and inexperienced and has not developed the capacity for abstract thought, physical
idolatrous symbols are provided.
Without having to project, anticipate or reflect on one's behaviour and the results likely in the
future, the adherent is asked to revere the designated behaviour of (usually) a deceased person,
whose history is used as an example for the adherent to follow. Typically, only those aspects of
the designated person's life which support the authority of the revering religion are noted.
Encouraged to and predisposed to take the easy route to salvation, many adherents subsequently
pray to the saint or to a physical representation of the saint (in either case, an idol) rather than
seek to build one's own spiritual awareness and skills and rather than humble oneself to seek
reverent contact with the God-Spirit, the concept of which most human religions are founded on.
Artifacts provide the same reference for the physical existence of the "church" by catering to the
natural inclination of humans to revere that which have a longer existence than an alternative.
Artifacts, because of their length of history, suggest to humans a foundation on which to build a
sense of emotional security and stability. To the extent that a human has anxieties about change -
often relative to whether the person has been provided with spiritual coping skills or not to adapt
to sudden changes - he or she will have a tendency to become possessive of the material world:
artifacts, wealth, food, consumer goods, other people, ....
Sudden changes are particularly experienced when cultural authorities conceal reality from their citizens, when cultural authorities manipulate and deceive their citizens, and when the basic coping skills of reverence, self-esteem, faith-through-experience, anticipation, projection, empathy, forgiveness, and self-directedness are confounded. The resulting mental confusion, anxiety and desperation predisposes the human to
psychologically enter a state of dependency in which an addiction to materialism and object-(idol)-worship is used to alleviate feelings of abandonment and uncertainty. A truly spiritual religion has
no requirement for artifacts for the daily experience of the adherent provides a real demonstration
of the wisdom, grace and power of the God-Spirit held in reference.
Thus, the formation of the "Causes" at this point serves to detract from the spiritual aspects of the
Christian teachings by the Roman Catholic Church and to enhance the human congregational
dependence upon the physical representations of the authority of the Church.
1596 A.D.
After this date, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria led the counter reformation to
carry out the re-catholicizing of Austria according to the Reform Commission (1579) under
Cardinal Melchior Khlesi. Like Francis I of France, he did not tolerate heretics because he needed
the income derived from the Catholic Church. Brutal extermination of heretics proceeded in
Styria, Carinthia and Carniola.
1596 A.D.
The Great Pharmacopoeia (Pen Tshao Kang Mu) of China is completed and published
by Li Shih-Chen. It describes about 1000 plants and 1000 animals in exhaustive detail, classifying
them into 62 divisions according to their ecological character, while an appended work added
more than 8000 prescriptions. Discussions on distillation and its history, smallpox inoculation,
and the use of mercury, iodine, kaoline and other substances are also included. Two important
technical works appear near the same time, one describing every kind of manufacturing process,
and the other outlining all aspects of military technology.
1600 A.D.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) founds the law of governing bodies in free fall.
1600 A.D.
Nicolas Remy, a judge in Lorraine, France/Germany, after having sentenced more than 800 witches and sorcerers to death, denounced himself as a sorcerer and was burned at the stake in Nancy, France.
1600 A.D.
Jan Baptista van Helmont, a physician who founded gastric juices, wrote of the authenticity of the Philosopher's Stone as follows:
"I have several times touched with my own hands that stone which makes gold; I have seen
with my own eyes how it really transmuted commercial quicksilver and how, by projecting a
little powder on a quantity of quicksilver a thousand times greater, one could change it to
gold. It was a heavy, saffron-coloured powder which glittered like glass pulverized to
medium fineness. I had been given a quarter of a grain of it. I rolled it in a piece of sealing
wax so that it would not be lost. I dropped the little ball onto a pound of quicksilver that I
had just bought, and I heated them together. The metal soon melted with a little sound, then
it contracted into a pellet, but it was so hot that molten lead would not yet have hardened. I
increased the heat of the fire and the metal again became liquid. When I poured it out, I had
8 ounces of the purest gold. One part of powder had therefore transmuted 19,186 parts of an
impure metal which, when heated, had decomposed into pure gold."
Geber, in his Book of Royalty describes the Philosopher's Stone as follows:
"Know, dear Brother, that you must mix the water, the dye and the oil in such a way as to
make a homogenous whole. Then let the liquid ferment, solidify and become like a grain of
coral. The water thus produces a substance that is fusible like wax and subtly penetrates all
bodies."
From Egyptian times and before, initiates were told of the above:
"If we divulge this secret, the world would be corrupted, for one would make gold as one now
makes glass." Typically an oath of secrecy would have been a necessary prerequisite before
receiving any information.
1600 A.D.
Jan Baptista Helmont, a Flemish chemist plants a willow sapling in a clay pot containing 200 pounds of oven-dried soils and for five years waters the tree with nothing but rain
or distilled water. No other nutrients are added. When Helmont removes the tree and weighs it
he finds that it has gained 164 pounds whereas the weight of the soil remained about the same as
at the beginning. Helmont wondered if the plant had been able to turn water into wood, bark, and
roots.
Could plant beings be capable of living on nothing more than water and some universal energy
available throughout the universe?
1600 A.D.
William Gilbert wrote, in Britain, that the Earth could be thought of as a giant magnet.
All of Gilbert's writings were, unfortunately, destroyed in the great fire of London.
The possibilities of using this concept to provide a propulsive energy for aircraft were lost until the 1940s.
1603 A.D.
The Bayer Star Designations are devised in this year.
Bayer, recognizing that there were too many stars in the sky to assign proper names to for reference, over 6000 naked-eye stars, and millions of others which would come into view with some form of optical
enhancement, he assigned each star in a constellation a letter from the Greek alphabet, beginning
usually with Alpha, for the brightest, Beta for the second brightest, and so on. In a few cases, the
order of position was used rather than brightness. The Greek letter was followed by the name of
the constellation, that is, the group of stars. Proper names already assigned by ancient observers
were noted in the classification thereafter.
After the supply of Greek letters ran out, the remaining stars in a constellation are given ordinary numbers according to a system to be developed by Flamsteed. That numbering began at the western border of the constellation and proceeded eastward. Fainter stars would be identified by numbers attached to alpha prefixes or names used to list thousands of stars. Special forms of stars, such as double, variable or novae would be
designated by the use of special letters and dates.
Galaxies are the major visual units of the universe appearing to the naked human eye as glowing
patches of light in the sky. Variable stars appear to vary the intensity of their light output in any
of a multitude of ways, some changing quickly and others varying over great spans of time.
Novae are stars that explode, blasting their outer layers into space and increasing their brilliance
greatly for a short period of time. Within galaxies there may be great glowing clouds of gases and
dust apart for the stars yet lighted by them; these are nebulae. Constellations are patterns of stars
which appear, to the human eye and imagination, to form images, figures, or hold some other
meaningful significance. 88 standard constellations would be recognized by 1930, at which time
their boundaries would be set by the International Astronomical Union.
1604 A.D.
In January, the "Hampton Court Conference" of theologians and churchmen is called by King James VI of Scotland "for the hearing, and for the determining, things pretended to be
amiss in the Church." James had ascended to the throne in 1603. Two competing Bibles
complicated religious affaires - the Bishops' Bible, preferred by the church authorities, and the
Geneva Bible, preferred by the common people. The Puritan leader John Reynolds proposed that
a new translation be made, which would replace the two Bibles.
The king approved the plan and on February 10 he ordered that "a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek, and this to be set out and printed without any marginal notes and only to be used in all Churches of England in time of Divine Service." 54 'learned men' were
divided into 6 panels: 3 for the Old Testament, 2 for the New Testament, and one for the
Apocrypha (many other examples of New Testament literature written during the first 2 centuries
after the death of Jesus). They began their work in 1606, meeting at Oxford, Cambridge, and
Westminister Abbey.
A list of 15 rules was drawn up to guide the translators.
The first was "The ordinary Bible read in the Church, commonly called the Bishops' Bible, to be followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit."
Rule 14 listed the other texts that could be followed "when they agree better with the Text than the Bishops' Bible." This is clearly the bureaucratic manner of approaching a task for more time was spent in comparing the texts of already produced translations and trying to rationalize them to the status quo of conservative Catholicism in the Bishops' Bible than would have been necessary to start afresh with the intent of simply producing an accurate Text without the influence of the totalitarian leadership of the Church. In 1611 the
translation would be published.
1604 A.D.
In England, the Monarchy struggles for survival until 1649 when it is abolished.
James (Stewart) VI of Scotland proclaims himself 'King of Great Britain' and looks to the
Anglican state church for support. The bishops condemn both Catholicism and Puritanism which
leads to Parliamentary opposition.
In 1625, Charles I, at age 25, receives the throne and
intensifies the conflict by increasing taxes to support increasing military (naval) expenses.
Parliament is dissolved repeatedly until 1629 when it is suspended until 1640.
The Scots rebel in 1638, joining the 'League of God' of the Presbyterians to defend themselves against the introduction of the Anglican Church into Scotland.
Civil War results between 1642-48 during
which Oliver Cromwell leads the Parliamentary army (Roundheads) to victory over the Scots
(Celts) and the Irish Catholics (Celts). During 1649 there is a Puritan 'clean-up' of Catholic
Ireland by Cromwell, with Scotland following in the 2 years following.
1611 A.D.
The King James Version of the Bible is published in its first edition.
It rapidly goes through several revisions in which certain parts of the text are changed to agree with
the prejudices of the Catholic and Protestant hierarchy.
The 1614 edition differs from that of 1611 by textual changes in more than 400 places!
And this is after 54 scholars had done their best to attain some sense of accuracy beyond that of the Bishops' Bible. It would take some 40 years of political strife before the commoners came to accept the new Bible as the authority. In Biblical
writings, 40 years is considered equivalent to the duration of one generation.
The Christian Old Testament is a selection of Jewish religious, administrative
and political history taken from ancient Hebrew writings. Beginning, after the death of the
Christian Jesus Christ, translations of some of the biblical books had been made into the more
local languages of various European groups from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Chaldean, Syrian, Indian,
Persian, Armenian, Ethiopic, Scythian, Egyptian, Georgian and German. From the 700s, English
kings and queens had commissioned parts to be translated. These choices were often
idiosyncratic in nature of selection. Those writings which did not conform to the political
interests of the time, or the intellectual capacity of the reviewers, were excluded, and, in some
cases, destroyed. What was left has neither been diminished further, nor had any of the earlier
excluded writings added.
The fact that two opposing basic principles of law are contained in the Bible is seldom defined by
those who teach it, thereby adding to the confusion of the masses and their dependence upon
authorities whose greatest contribution to political order appears to be a spiritual deadening of the
culture in favour of materialism and idolatry.
Anthropologically, the religion of a culture, the
beliefs upheld in reverence, guided the definition and application of its laws. A culture with a
religious system filled with contradictions places the confused citizenry in dependence upon
secular authority, with its final political authority, to impose order. Individuals who have been
imprinted and taught to adopt competing codes of justice, only to be ruled by a third, and
separate, set of laws - have a tendency to reference to whatever code is advantageous to them in
the moment, preferring overall to ritualize their lives as greatly as possible along lines which
maximize their individual benefits and minimize their contact with secular law.
Ultimately, a passive tendency of the citizen to make socially independent decisions based upon "Spiritual"
Guidance rather than group consensus evolves. For the state, power and order is increased. For
the individual, implicit freedom and active self-responsibility is decreased. The result is an endless
sea of regulations, poorly acknowledged and enforced, unequal from region to region, often
contradictory between intent and outcome, and effective in building a "closet" society. In such a
society it becomes increasingly the trend for the individual to participate in the society as if he or
she is in competition with the state and with fellow citizens for privilege.
1619 A.D.
The Franciscans were not made an independent Roman Catholic order until now even though they had been recognized by several popes shortly after their founding in 1210. They can now elect a particular general.
1620 A.D.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) codified inductive-based investigation techniques.
He considered that the observation of many facts would eventually lead to a generalization becoming
apparent; supposed predictive detail he considered highly unreliable for all things change and the
options for variation are so numerous that to suggest that a numerical predominance could dictate
a future reality was a surrender to the tyranny of anxiety which demands certainty.
Bacon identified preconceptions which blinded humans to the truth and called them IDOLS.
"Idols of the Tribe" were inherent, generally agreed-upon ways of thinking, such as our ways of
perceiving;
"Idols of the Den" were prejudices created by an individual's environment and education;
"Idols of the Marketplace" were deceptions arising out of the loose and misuse of words;
"Idols of the Theatre" referred to the blind acceptance of authority and tradition in that all previous
systems created theatrical worlds, not the real one.
The most destructive perspective advanced by Bacon was the admonition that nature, to be
commanded, must obey. This placed humanity in opposition to nature. It demonstrated the
tremendous ignorance which humanity possessed about themselves, the Earth, and other
lifeforms. The plagues which had decimated their numbers for centuries had been the result of
their own activities and disruptions of the environment. Unable to understand this, humans
blamed nature as responsible for its woes. In obsessing on those losses and seeking to
rationalize a better approach for the future, Bacon proposed, not a working together with
nature, but an all out war for domination.
1620 A.D.
The Dominicans receive new importance in the Roman Catholic church by being made responsible as censors of all books for the church. A bureaucratic role given to a conservative, intolerant, and authoritarian order - the denial and destruction of written works became a means of ascertaining one's efficiency and enthusiasm. That is, the enacted rule became: "When in doubt, burn!"
1620 A.D.
Domestic Animals could be Character witnesses during the century, in favour of persons charged with murder in Savoy, England.
1622 A.D.
The city of Villa Franca, capital of the Azorian island of Sao Miguel, is buried by a sudden earthquake which opens up huge geological faults and produces tidal waves in the
Atlantic Ocean.
1625 A.D.
Johann Kepler (1571-1630) founds the laws of planetary motion.
1631 A.D.
Rene Descartes, (1596 - 1650) a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist, presented a scientific approach quite unlike that of Bacon. He founds his system on universal
doubt. His motto, "I think, therefore I am", he uses as proof that the action of the mind proves
reality. He builds a system of DUALISM in which the real world is separate from an equally real
thinking self. He distrusts the senses which he says deceive, such that humans can deceive
themselves through faulty reasoning, and even in sleep one may have the same thoughts as one
does in waking without their being true. His dualism extends to the separation of the mind and
the body such that if you take something away from the body, nothing is lost from the mind.
The Cartesian method is one of mathematical deduction in which Descartes advises:
1) never accept anything as true which is not known clearly to be such;
2) divide difficulties into as many parts as possible;
3) proceed from the simplest and easiest to understand to the more complex knowledge;
4) make the connections so complete and the reviews so general as to insure that nothing is
overlooked.
The Cartesian method would be promoted by social authorities because of its support for their
power. Its hypocritical system fails to acknowledge that the human brain is a sophisticated
sensory organ which receives all of its external input by way of the simpler senses which
Descartes inferred could not be trusted. If the inputs cannot be trusted, how can any of the
output possess a higher credibility? Secondly, perhaps in piousness or for protection from
religious persecution, Descartes affirms the existence of God with reasoning that is directly at
odds with the method he proposed.
As proof of God's existence, Descartes concludes that:
1) everything has a cause, including our ideas;
2) we have the idea of God;
3) to cause us to have an adequate idea of God nothing less than God is necessary; therefore,
4) God does exist. God, the most perfect of all beings, would not deceive.
Problems existing with this line of reasoning include these:
A) all things are interrelated, yet we have no assurance of what has a "cause";
B) not all humans have an idea of God; even then, those who do often have a selection of ideas
of what they have experienced, know, or, believe God to be;
C) the fact that a person has an idea that there is a God may be from that person's own lack of
self-esteem, self-confidence, or degree of anxiety about the uncertainty of the future;
D) unless we are perfect ourselves, how can we describe the traits of perfection?
Cartesian philosophy allowed the religious leaders to re-emphasize the duality of the human
body as they understood it: lecherous physical abomination, and, heavenly, "spiritual" thought.
This reinforced the attitude that the freedom and rights of the individual were to be dominated
and leashed by the authority of the state and the church. Human authoritarian management
systems received a boost, as did bureaucracies; abusive treatments would be institutionalized.
1631 A.D.
Mount Vesuvius in Italy erupts and disperses major amounts of ash and atmospheric dust.
1636 A.D.
Harvard University is founded by the early English settlers on the eastern coast of New England, later to become the United States of America. It is the first American university. Increasing sophistication and popularity would follow 1869 with the attraction of renown scholars, the establishment of graduate schools in every major department and the development of the elective system of studies.
1637 A.D.
The English become the first Europeans to arrive in China by sea.
Russian attempts to make contact by way of Siberia had been unsuccessful.
The Spanish who had landed much earlier in the Philippines, would bring books, trade and introduce the Mexican silver dollar into Chinese commerce. Europeans had approached the coast from 1514 onward, but none had
been known to land and make contact with the people.
1639 A.D.
The Closure of All Japanese Ports (until 1854) followed the uprising of the Shimbara and the annihilation of Christians in 1637-8. This occurred following a lengthy period of internal conflict and warring during which the state almost disintegrated. It was believed, and largely true, that the Christian missionaries and the sailors and tradesmen who accompanied them, were more interested in the commercial exploitation and political colonization of Japan than in the freeing of their souls.
1640 A.D.
The Mauder Minimum sunspot cycle is noted.
For almost a 20-year period, no sunspot activity appears to occur.
European weather reaches the coldest on human record and the period becomes known as the little ice age. Since the Sun is actually brighter during sunspot peaks because the dark "spots" are accompanied by much brighter
"faculae" spots, overall sun brightness is reduced and less solar radiation reaches the Earth. While
noted at the time in naked eye and telescopic reports, this period would be confirmed later by
tree-ring radiocarbon dating and thickness.
A considerable encouragement for the change of housing design and the use of technology arose
during this period. Previously, much of the "settled" agriculture or town-based housing consisted
of single storey one room or 2-floor residences with a singular heating area or fireplace on the
ground floor. With the constant cool weather and very cold winters, persons increasingly opted
for dwellings with interior spaces separated into rooms with doors and with bedrooms on the
upper floors having their own fireplaces.
Particularly in Germany and northern Europe, the
custom of building living quarters over the cattle area (stable) was common. During the cold
nights and winters, the heat of the cattle had the influence of a natural furnace for both stable and
upstairs human dwellings (hot air rises). While the odour of the manure accumulating in the
stable was a disadvantage, the human nose, once exposed to an odour for a period of time,
becomes desensitized to that odour. Regardless of snowfall or cold winds, the farmer could care
for the cattle, fetch milk, eggs and cold storage vegetables and staples - and never leave the home.
Note that the only forms of lighting after dark in the temperate latitudes of Europe was that of an
oil lamp (expensive and dangerous) or a wood (labour intensive) fire. Days during the spring,
summer, and fall were often fully occupied with sowing, cultivating and reaping of agricultural
crops. Winters, particularly in this colder period, encouraged everyone to stay inside as much as
possible. Beyond feeding and bedding the cattle and poultry there was little to do beyond crafts
and socializing. Few people could read and few had any formal education. For those so inclined,
this would provide more time for fantasy, reflection, study and laziness. Most humans chose the
latter. Some of the inventions originating during or near to this period include:
1604 Telescope, Kepler
1610 King James version of the Christian Bible, 1st edition
1637 Analytical geometry, Descartes
1642 The Adding Machine, Pascal
1643 Mercury Thermometer, Torricelli
1657 Pendulum Clock, Huygens
1662 The Physical Properties of Gases, Boyle
1663 Air Pump, von Guericke
1665 Differential and integral calculus, Newton
1665 The Diffraction of Light, Grimaldi
1666 The Law of Gravitation, Newton
1669 Reflecting Telescope, Newton
1673 The Calculating Machine, Liebniz
1675 Calculation of the Speed of Light, Romer
1677 Discovery of Spermatozoa in semen, Leewenhoek
1640 A.D.
"The Articles of War" were published, theoretically applicable in time of war, or to any body of troops on active service. Highly detailed and rational in nature, they formed the basis of British military law and discipline until 1879 when they were merged in Britain with the Mutiny act. Other European Empires adopted versions of the Articles.
"The Articles of War" specified 25 distinct offenses for which the death penalty could be imposed.
Among them were such crimes as murder, mutiny, sedition, striking a superior officer, cowardice
in the face of the enemy, robbery, offering violence to civilians bringing goods to the camp or
garrison, hindering a Provost-Marshal or his deputies in the performance of their duties, and rape
- "whether she belong to the Enemy or not"). The necessity for such a wide use of such a strict
penalty mirrored the tendency with which the lesser crimes in the list had been engaged in by the
troops as well as the understanding by the military leaders that absolute discipline and the carrying
out of orders was important to the efficient operation of the military.
1642 A.D.
A major flood in China results in the death of 300,000 humans.
1648 A.D.
By this year, the German Empire had lost as much of 70% of its population in some areas due to recent and severe war conflicts. An earlier population size of 15 million was
now reduced to 10 million. There was widespread robbery, brutality, rape, and superstitious
attraction to witchcraft, in the absence of order and stability. The princes effected a rapid
recovery of the region by centralizing the administration through the development of states with
constitutions based on the estates. Beginning with about 300 sovereign parts, a permanent
imperial congress (Reichstag) would be organized by 1663.
1650 A.D.
The Visodl family during this decade, in an October, experience horror and helplessness for an extended period of time near their home in a small village in south central France.
It occurs during a period of civil anarchy following the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) in which
Protestants and Catholics fought battles throughout Germany and France with armies partly
composed of mercenaries. Mercenaries were freed of their obligations if their pay was in arrears,
frequently being hired by opposing or other forces. Frequently troops and mercenaries would
pillage and suppress the population near them as a means of obtaining food, satisfying their sexual
frustration and generally acting as bullies to alleviate the poverty, boredom and desperation of
their existence. They fought with lance, pike, and arquebus (an early form of musket) travelling
mainly on foot or on horse.
Occasionally, countrymen would band together to avenge the brutality they had been subjected to,
or appease the fear of such treatment heard about from a neighbouring town, and massacre
stragglers and small groups of roving mercenaries. The destitution in which a small town or
group of farmers might be left in, sometimes resulted in short-term cannibalism of the murdered
stragglers. Rage on either side led to greater cruelty as the war dragged on. When the war
officially ended, numbers of soldiers and mercenaries were out of work and became little more
than bands of thieves and robbers.
The Visodls were returning from a nearby forest, after dark, when they heard cries and screams
coming from the hamlet. Helpless to stop the proceedings, they watched and heard the violence
from a distance as French soldiers terrorized the town. The 70 inhabitants were subjected to
multiple beatings and rapes and the 24 children of the town were murdered. The men were
brutally castrated so that all of the offspring of the town would be sired by the soldiers. The
incident continued for 8 days and 9 nights until the food supplies of the town were depleted. No
historical record of any visibility was made due to the shame of the townsfolk, the anarchy of the
state and the lack of writing materials or ability. Like many similar incidents which have occurred
in almost every human nation sometime during its existence, admission of such happenings was
considered politically incorrect.
In the year following, 30 children were born in the town: 12 girls and 18 boys.
Five boys and one girl were killed by their parents through hatred, while still infants.
Eight girls and three boys were allowed to die of disease before reaching age five, when medical assistance and care was intentionally withheld from them. Eleven others ran away before their 10th birthday: one girl, a set
of brother-sister twins, and four boys. Of those 12, all were killed as roving criminals. Two boys
committed suicide: one at age six; one at age nine. One boy died in a fight at age nine and
another was executed for committing a murder, at age 14.
A girl was born to the Visodls and a stillborn son.
They were tortured by the memories of the incident and the attitudes of the townsfolk.
The girl married someone from another hamlet when she became an adult. So strong were the periodic feelings of hopelessness and terror that her parents experienced while she was in the womb and during her upbringing, that, without more positive influences and guidance to be had, her emotions became patterned after theirs as her form
of "normality". In spiritual terms, the trauma they experienced and could not resolve became an
energy block in their life system imposing psychological attitudes and response patterns on them.
Emotions produce biochemical changes in the body which, during pregnancy, are mirrored in the
fetus. These emotional swings can only be understood as "normal" by the fetus and, unless
resolved after birth by the child or later adult, are passed on to their children through womb or
expressed patterns of reactions to stress. As a result the daughter of the Visodls and her prodigy,
until such persons found ways to release such inappropriate responses, mirrored such responses
and feelings and passed them on to succeeding generations. Undiminished or confused by the
influence of other traumatic inspired energy blocks, this one was most often displayed by a great
need for comforting and sensuality frustrated by social rules of acceptable display of emotions and
a tolerance for the individuality of others.
A tendency towards sexual addiction might have been displayed by different members of the
succeeding generations as spousal abuse, spousal rape, infidelity, piousness, sexual abstention or
prudery, shyness, passion, depression, suicide, physical or emotional exhaustion, workaholism,
drug addiction, despair, anger, and rage. In sum, passive-aggressive communication and
behaviour patterns would have developed most easily in response to biochemical neurological
patterns "learned" from the parent before or after birth. The resolution of these "energy blocks"
was known in ancient Chinese medicine, largely lost, and rediscovered in Europe and the
Americas - in a minor way - towards the end of the 1900s.
1650 A.D.
Archbishop Ussher writes in "The Chronology on the Old and New Testament", after reference to many ancient church manuscripts, most of which were lost in the burning of the early Irish churches during the savage Irish wars, that the Millennium of the return and rule of Christ to the Earth would begin in 1997.
His chronological system was adjusted to an assumption that Christ was born in 4 B.C., a date
which would be disputed in the mid-1990s by newly available information indicating a more
probable birth date of 1 B.C. With the latter calculation, the start of the Millennium would begin
in the year 2000 A.D.
1650 A.D.
A Monk is Struck by a Meteorite and killed in Milan, Italy.
It should be remembered that most of the population of this era was agriculturally employed,
seldom travelled beyond the distance of their neighbours, and were both unable to read or to
write. Independent farmers often worked alone or with a spouse or child. Monks were in the
habit of making their own paper and were often literate. When working outside, they often
worked in small groups. Monks so killed were more likely to be written about and remembered.
They would be more likely to both witness such an event and to be believed in their reporting of
it.
1650-1700 A.D.
Smallpox would be the cause of as many as 600,000 deaths per year in Europe.
In Britain, William II of Orange, Queen Mary II and Queen Anne would die from it.
1658 A.D.
Francesco Redi (1626-1697), an Italian nobleman, naturalist, physician, and poet, carried out a huge program of observations on the generation of insects and intestinal
worms. He continued to believe in the popular concept of spontaneous generation of lifeforms.
The status quo of the educated of the times believed that inert matter could give birth to animals
of an inferior order: maggots, lice, slugs, wood lice, scorpions, and even frogs or mice. While
Redi also believed this, it puzzled him that when meat was placed under hermetically sealed flasks,
no maggots emerged, even after several months.
1658-1707 A.D.
The Mogul Rule in India reaches its furthest extent and begins to decline.
Aurangzeb, the last significant and fanatical Grand Mogul conquers Kandahar (Afghanistan), Kabul and Deccan. Persecution of the Hindu, leads to civil unrest, the loss of the Sikh Punjab state and the Hindu Raijput states. Army were sustained by constant raidings.
1660 A.D.
Nicholas Chorier publishes "Satyra Sotadica", the first book in the Western world, almost totally preoccupied with sexuality. About the same time the prose novel emerged in
Europe. The book is declared to be the work of a Spanish court lady named Luisa Sigea and consists of dialogues about sex among girls with Latin names. It repeatedly harks back to
classical times as a sexual golden age far superior to the degenerate present. Chorier's work,
although based on that of Aretino and Lucian before him, is in sensibility quite different; it
obsessively catalogues a range of sexual variations, following the principle of erotic intensification
found in later pornography - progressing from simple coupling and lesbianism through buggery to
orgies, incest, flagellation, and other forms of sado-masochism. And all of these activities take
place within a tightly knit family.
1661 A.D.
Louis XIV, taking the French throne at 22 years of age, sought to unify Europe. Economic unity was attempted first by means of the use of subsidies. War, including the destruction of cities and tombs and the abuse of the country folk continued for a great time:
1667 - The War of Dissolution against Spain;
1670 - The Occupation of Lorraine;
1672 - The War against Holland (for aiding Spain);
1678 - The Peace of Nijmegen (Holland-Spain-France);
1679 - German - French conflicts;
1681 - Annexation of Strasbourge;
1684 - Occupation of Luxembourg; distracted by the advance of the Turks;
1688 - Rebellion by the League of Augsburg;
1689 - French invasion of southern Germany;
1692 - Defeat of the new French fleet.
1664 A.D.
The "Marines" are created as a military force drilled as infantry, whose especial
duty is to serve on board ships of war when on commission, and also on shore under certain
circumstances. They are trained to seamen's duties but do not go aloft, being mainly employed in
sentry duty, etc. An Order in Council results in this "emergency" force intended originally to
provide highly motivated and skilled personnel to the fleet.
Over the centuries which follow, this elite and semi-covert force would develop into an obsessive
slave-like tool of the political systems which created them - in Britain and the USA. Military
training would be used to break their spirit of self and independence to produce individuals whose
identity became synonymous with the performance of their duties as requested by their leadership.
Various procedures would be enacted to instill fear and toxic shame so as to promote behaviours
of perfectionism, honour based upon group image, loyalty based upon group acceptance.
Minor infractions of performance would be met with actions indicating severe disappointment by their
cadres. Being late, leaving their barracks in any form of disorder, falling back on a run, letting a
weapon slip on a hot day, and many other infractions of the stipulated code of behaviour - could
result in a hazing, code Red, the "mill", and a variety of other harsh disciplines. Some of these
same principles of disciplines would permeate throughout boys groups in North American and
Britain, including in those operated within Christian churches - well into the twentieth century.
The Code of behaviour so upheld would recognize as its line of authorities: Unit, Corp, "God",
Country.
In true military fashion, this places the survival of the unit and of the Marine Corps
beyond any consideration for spiritual ethics, or, political ethics. On a number of occasions,
individuals and units would take extreme and unethical actions against their own members, against
civilians, as well as against the enemy - with the motivation of survival at any cost. This form of
"training" resulted in a supremely obedient fighting unit which was formidable in its single-mindedness of purpose and in its uniform response. An image of heroism, selfless sacrifice, dependability, and ethnocentric political intolerance would develop for these Marine Corps.
The "mill" constituted a corridor of marines - 2 lines facing each other about 2.5 feet apart -
through which the errant member had to make his way from one end to the other. Unit members
on each side were obliged to punch the target member repeatedly as he passed. Kicking was also
allowed. The face and groin were usually not to be struck. Any member who held back on their
enthusiastic participation were likely to be run through the "mill" themselves. The British-based
expression of feeling "put through the mill" when one feels exhausted from the stresses of one's
work or the day originated from this activity.
Regardless of what the process was termed, the
action was always initiated by a senior officer who might supervise or simply leave the action to
the unit or members of the unit. While offensive-termed discretions would often be observed by
more than one witness, singular reports would also be entertained. There would seldom be any
discussion of why the incident had happened or of whether it had happened. Attempts to defend
oneself verbally or physically would usually result in more harsh punishment. This ethic of abuse
from one's peers and superiors to oneself would contribute to the spread of spousal abuse
patterns.
Abusive human behaviour follows a trickle-down principle.
When the government
justifies the hardships it experiences as being derived from an abusive god, or from an abusive
foreign state, it passes the abuse down to its functional representatives - the military. Within the
military, the leadership accept the abuse from their political leaders and pass it on to the troops.
When not acting in a war, the dominant troop members pass the abuse they have received down
to the less compulsively ritualized ones. When war occurs, the troops redirect their stored
abusiveness at the enemy - often including the civilians involved. Whenever you read the word
"WAR", remember this dynamic of physical and verbal abusiveness.
The price of too great a contest for material resources by too great a population density is
greed, possessiveness, power, and pride. The behaviour which is expressed by such emotions
often is abusive in nature. Abusive behaviour predisposes the abuser to become paranoiac in
expectation of revenge or vengeance from the abused party or their relatives. Paranoia begets
plans in preparation for greater conflict and control. Often, the result is a tenuous peace or
repetitive outbreaks of deception and aggression. A self-fulfilling prophesy occurs when the
action which humans take to prevent an action promote the possibility of that action happening.
Is War such a dynamic?
1665 A.D.
The plague in England, is at its worst.
1667 A.D.
A large earthquake in Shemaka, Caucasia, results in the deaths of 80,000 humans.
1668 A.D.
Louvois, minister of war for Louis XIV, the "Sun King", increased the standing French army to 170,000 men from a population of 18 million. He introduced uniforms, improved equipment (such as the bayonet), organized the troops functionally (infantry, cavalry, artillery) and fixed ranks. The king appointed and paid the officers ( a new nobility). The troops continued to share the loot they captured. This had always encouraged a readiness to fight - rather than sit
and starve.
1670 A.D.
Baron de Beausoleil and his dowser wife Marine de Bertereau, during the decade, working under the protection of Marechal d'Effiat, Louis XIV's superintendent of mines,
discovered several hundred profitable mines in France. Such was the spiritual awareness of the
time amongst the leadership of the nation, that they were both later arrested for practicing
sorcery, tortured and died - she in Vincennes, he in the Bastille. The persecution continued in
France, mostly against doctors who would find themselves in the 1900's dragged before the
courts for using dowsing designated cures on patients officially declared incurable. In some areas
of the country, great respect would be advanced for the art because of its effectiveness and
positiveness.
1672 A.D.
By now, the founder of the Iroquois League, "Tegun Oweda", has prophesied doom for native North Americans. He relates his vision in the metaphor of The Red and White
Serpents. A white serpent enters the land of the red serpent; it is helpless and weak in the new
land. The red serpent befriends the white, nurtures it in health and survival and the knowledge of
the new land. The white serpent grows and becomes powerful and begins to compete with the
red serpent for the lands and possessions of the red serpent. The white serpent gradually succeeds
in subjugating and decimating the identity and power of the red serpent.
1673 A.D.
Father Nicolas Malebranche (1638-1715) condemns the doctrine of spontaneous generation of life from dead matter as a moral impossibility. From humanity's anthropomorphic
(human-centred) perception of reality, the intellectualization that gross physical complexity could
grow out of a simpler complexity, spontaneously, was irrational:
"I cannot understand why such a large number of persons of good sense could have
committed such a gross error. For what is more incomprehensible than that an animal
should form from a piece of rotten meat? It is infinitely easier to explain how a piece of
rusty iron could change into a perfectly assembled watch, because there are infinitely
more springs, and more delicate ones at that, in a mouse than in the most complicated
clock."
Malebranche, in his criticism of a simplistic rationalization by a more complex rationalization
incorporating emotional assumptions, demonstrated that rational truth is in the eye of the
beholder. Rational truths, at best, are a variation of the truth. Such variations can be so diverse
as to represent opposites. Rationalization is a fundamental weakness of humanity for it enables
the truth to be determined by persuasion by which selected facts and observations are often
utilized to promote belief in an assumption or expectation. Malebranche attacked a
superstition. Without the suggestion of a new manner by which to discover the truth,
Malebranche simply opened the human mind to further self-centred rationalizations. Without a
change in method, explanations could only become more complex - perhaps more correct, or,
perhaps more spurious.
1675 A.D.
Two Swedish sailors, while aboard their boat, are struck by a Meteorite and killed.
1675 A.D.
The Abnaki Indians, living in what is now the states of Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire in the USA, fought, with the assistance of the French, against English settlers for the
next 50 years. The English settlers continually encroached on the hunting open shared territories
of the Indians, fencing off and clearing the land and excluded the Abnaki. This appeared not only
to be greed on the part of the English (in not sharing as the Indians were willing to do) but was
also understood by the natives as a sacrilegious destruction of the environment and both its plant
and animal bounty.
Communication between the two cultures was made more difficult by each assuming that their cultural beliefs regarding land use and survival were "right". Intolerance and lack of the spiritual abilities of forgiveness, sharing, empathy, open-mindedness, negotiation, humility resulted in increasingly set attitudes of discrimination, gossip, anger, hatred, assault, vengeance, murder, defensiveness, and, battle.
1678 A.D.
The English colonists promised to pay an annual tribute to the Abnakis.
Shortly after the outbreak of Queen Anne's War in 1702, the Abnakis and the French attacked the English
settlements on Maine's frontier. The Abnakis had learned the meaning of land ownership from the
English and French, by the loss of their own, and the French persuaded them to try and benefit
from the power of political alliance. It was another bad experience for the Abnakis because the
French lost to the English in 1712 when the English-French war ended in a peace treaty.
By 1722, further encroachments by the English settlers into the Abnakis territories angered the
latter who were incited to hold their ground by the French Jesuit missionary Sebastien Rasles.
The English tried to seize Rasles and he was eventually killed in battle. Peace was regained again.
1676 A.D.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), of Delft, Holland, a Dutch draper and student of natural history, who was also an amateur lens grinder, made powerful lenses and simple
microscopes. He became the first in recorded human history to see protozoa and bacteria and
was the first to give a complete description of red blood cells. He also discovered spermatozoa.
No knowledge or awareness of the associations later connected with these findings was yet
known. This included an almost complete ignorance of the fundamental aspects of human
medicine as later developed in the fields of immunology, fertility, digestion, organ structure and
function. Leewenhoek's discovery would go virtually unnoticed for 200 years.
Leeuwenhoek discovered "living creatures in rainwater that had been standing for several days in
a glazed earthenware vase." Very soon, such "animalcules" were discovered in all liquids and, it
was concluded that these "simple" living organisms could be born by the synthesis of inert
materials; persons even rationalized that this was a sign of divine wisdom, and it was explained to
the critic Malebranche that these animalcules had the providential function of purifying the air.
1677 A.D.
Li Chung Yun is born in China.
He would live to reach an age of 256 years.
He would become China's most distinguished herbalist of the time - continually learning from others, gaining experience by travelling throughout Asia, and integrating spiritual
lifestyle considerations with daily vigorous exercise and the use of herbs for the maintenance of
health.
1685 A.D.
"The Art of War", the Chinese manual written by the General, Sun Tzu, is translated into Russian.
The traumatic legacy of the Mongols and Tartars has created a respect for Chinese (military) power.
Increasingly, Russian military leaders will come to revere its rules - at first with resistance, then with obsession.
1686 A.D.
Isaac Newton publishes his "Principia 3" laws of motion which governed the universe.
It became a huge step for human institutionalized and authoritarian
centred learning. Previously, the concepts of Aristotle's stationary universe, which the Roman
Catholic church had supported as a recognition of the physical, rational structure of a world
created by a god-like-human thinker, and, a justification for its own assumed authority over
humanity - had been the ONLY concept of the universe taught by large institutionalized societies.
Newton's laws accepted and explained the dynamic universe which many other scientists had been
hinting at. Ultimately, this change of perception would allow the eventual discovery of the Laws
of Relativity and a consideration of space travel.
Newton had studied at Cambridge University, graduated to be offered a position as professor of
mathematics, and shortly retired to a farm in Lincolnshire when the plague decimated both
London and the University in 1666. Bored, he equipped a room at the farm with instruments for
experiments on light. His understanding of the Laws of Motion, he later said came to him as
obvious in the year of his move to the farm, so obvious that he told no one of it for 20 years. His
room at the farm allowed him endless hours of reflection, meditation and synthesis of ideas; most
of what he wrote has never been released to the public on the belief that what he wrote was too
ridiculous and would embarrass his reputation. One has to wonder if the concern of the state was
for his personal embarrassment or perhaps the possible challenge to the authority of the state and
church institutions.
Newton's Laws, when considered historically are plainly a synthesis of many concepts which he
had studied before graduating. The works of Gilbert, Galileo, Descartes, Kepler, and many others
were highly familiar to Newton.
The First Law of Motion asserted that every physical body continues in its
state of rest, or of uniform motion, unless it is compelled to change that state by a force or forces
impressed upon it. This concept nullified Aristotle's concept that each body had a "natural state
of rest". Different kinds of motion do not have to be rationalized with diverse forms of
superstition in an effort to find some "religious" cause to justify it. Disharmony may not only
result from the influence of antagonistic forces; it may result from the influence of the presence of
other objects which may be associated with intended benefits, or may simply exist by the grace of
the forces of the universe. This change of perception had the capacity to bring greater spiritual
awareness to humans, yet it did not for centuries. Physical manipulation and technological power
were the primary concerns which found its expression: ballistics.
The Second Law of Motion asserted that a change in motion was proportional to the force
impressed upon the body and is made in the direction of the straight line in which that force is
exerted. The greater the force, the greater the change of motion, and multiple forces could exert
a change that would be a combination of the different strengths and directions of those forces.
Newton assumed that a curved orbit in the solar system could be mathematically calculated as
being made up of an indefinitely large number of indefinitely short straight lines, joined to one
another in a string around the centre of the orbit. In mathematical terms, the curved orbit was the
"limit" of a process of reduction or differentiation, in which the individual segments could be
represented as small as desired or combined together to produce a smooth curve. This concept
became the foundation for calculus which Newton invented to enable mathematical definition of
the concept, problems and solutions. The Second Law extended the principles set forward in the
First, along with the opportunities for human benefit and abuse.
Newton's Third Law of Motion stated that to every action there is always opposed an equal
reaction. That is, the mutual actions of two bodies upon one another are always equal although
directed in opposite directions. While bodies move in relation to one another, they also influence
one another with both centrifugal and centripetal forces of attraction (gravitation) and repulsion
(individuation). This explained the elliptical orbits of the solar system and allowed for the concept
that even as the Earth revolved around the Sun, so the Sun revolved around the Earth: they were
relative to one another rather than one being dependent totally on the other. A further extension
of the previous Laws, humanity would have little application for it until space travel and
intercontinental ballistic missiles were considered.
Centuries would pass before the spiritual dimensions of this concept began to influence
humanity. Trying to influence the politics of a nation by the singular influencing of its leaders
would not provide a harmonious and constructive result; trying to influence the politics of a
nation by the influence of the populous apart from its leadership would not provide a
harmonious and constructive result. Human culture could ONLY be constructively influenced by
the free adoption of a spiritual standard by a majority of the populous AND the leadership based
on an acceptance of self-responsibility, self-directness, and, reverence. This state, achieved on
any scale, would demand the honesty and humility to seek and accept the truth of reality for what
it was, as a foundation on which to build.
1687 A.D.
Edward Davis, an English buccaneer, reports finding land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean near modern day Rapa Nui (Easter Island).
1688 A.D.
William and Mary of England issued an official repeal of the earlier ban on alchemy:
"And whereas, since the making of the said (1404) statute, divers persons have by their
study, industry and learning, arrived to great skill and perfection in the art of melting and refining
of metals, and otherwise improving and multiplying them."
The Act noted that many Englishmen had gone to foreign countries (France, Germany, ...) "to exercise the said art," with the suggestion that those countries had benefited immensely from scientific advancement in the design of
armaments and from artificially endowed national treasuries or economically booming economies.
The Act of repeal carefully states that "all the gold and silver that shall be extracted by the
aforesaid art" be turned over to the Royal Mint in the Tower of London, where the precious
metals would be bought at the full market value, and no questions asked.
As the wars and internal strife continued, and the capital of the state began to dwindle from the
high cost of wars and the declining value of currencies, the English King and Queen issued a
further declaration concerning the desirability of studying alchemy.
1689 A.D.
Civil Unrest in Europe founded on increasing poverty, increased population overflowing into the towns from the countryside, increasing numbers of abandoned or runaway children and a general lack of a cultural base of institutionalized or common levels of education, skill training and spiritual guidance resulted in 50 crimes for which the death penalty could be given. Life was raw and cruel and society was callous, unforgiving, unmerciful and largely had neither the resources nor the spirit to encourage reformation and
reparation. The legacy of the Black Death was a generation of despairing, desperate, ruthless,
need obsessed persons.
The death penalty was given for the crimes of stealing a horse, picking a pocket to the value of
one shilling and many similar property offenses. Public executions were a popular form of
entertainment for the common people. By 1691, in Britain, a poor vagrant caught begging
without a license could be punished by law such that he or she would be stripped from the waist
up and "whipped till his or her body be bloody."
1689 A.D.
On June 17, Louis XIV, the Sun King of France, allegedly received an apparition of what was later interpreted to be the mother of Jesus Christ, speaking on behalf of the Christian Holy Spirit - the only Christian communicator between God and humans. The "Sacred Heart of Jesus" commanded the king to consecrate France to Christianity. The king's religious advisers, his Jesuit confessors, in their authoritarian manner, were skeptical of the "hallucination" and advised the king to ignore it.
King Louis was in the middle of his reign (1661-1715).
While his health was weak and his
attitude generally passive, Louis was proud of his power and position. The opulent Palaise de
Versaille, built between 1624-1708, would become an example of material waste and orderliness
according to rational principles of repetitive homogenous predictable patterns which inspire
feelings of security and calm within the human. Geometrically planned parks, fountains, and
lawns served to deny the complexity and balance of nature which humans were now largely
unaware of, frustrated by, and sought to control or destroy.
Socially, appearance also reigned important with the elite adopting white wigs to give the suggestion of manliness and maturity while covering mutely-toned hair, thinning hair, baldness, and patchy hair - a side-effect of illness. White lead-based powder might be applied to the face to cover the pock marks left by smallpox.
The gallant cavalier image and cultured gentleman became social trends together with opera, ballet
and parade entertainment. Such customs and expectations would spread widely over Europe.
While technically the political system was a dictatorship operated by royal decree, the extensive
administration which the large size of the country made necessary created a bureaucracy which
included a secret Council of State, departmental ministers, a Cabinet (small, private room), secret
police, and, detention by officers of the law for political crimes. Aristocratic landlords (seigneurs)
retained administrative and police powers in the countryside making justice idiosyncratic and
encouraging abuses of power. Officers appointed or sold their titles were made the authorities
over the administration of provinces and cities. In a predominantly rural economy, and with the
clergy and the nobility being exempt from taxes, the costs to the peasant public were extreme in
relation to the monies and produce available - comparable to an income tax of 65% in 1996.
Colbert, as the Minister of Finance, was the first European bureaucrat to institute a state-guided
capital-based economy with a foundation of statistical projective budget and tax planning together
with regular bookkeeping. Again, in a rational perspective, the costs of political administration
and royalty were constant; the reality of the agricultural peasant was inevitable, and unpredictable,
economic and production deficiencies resulting from droughts, floods, fires, thefts, pests. To try
and satisfy this inequity, Colbert emphasized the use of duties and taxes on trade items as a basis
for the expansion of a capital-based economy to include the masses and providing a focus on
capital as central to wealth. Previously, land owning and political and military power (conquest
and exploitation of colonies) had satisfied human strivings for wealth. Now, a huge state
bureaucracy, a standing army of considerable size, and a costly royalty required the considerable
collection and expensing of a form of preservable and transferrable surplus, labour, and produce -
money.
Louvois, the Minister of War from 1668, had been steadily increasing the size of the army such
that 170,000 troops protected a population of 18 million. That is, for every 100 citizens, there
was an army regular. For a state with 4.5 billion population (vis. China), a standing army of 45
million would be comparable. Uniforms were introduced for the sake of efficiency, uniformity,
and recognition. Fighting with mercenaries against mercenaries, each with his personalized
clothing and armaments - was proving to be too confusing. Orderliness contributed to a sense of
identity, confidence, uniformity of purpose, and amassed strength. Weapons were also
standardized and mass produced and would now include the rifle bayonet in place of pike, spear,
or dagger. To end the battlefield anarchy of "anything goes" troops were organized by function
into infantry, cavalry, and artillery. Within each division, troops would be trained for their specific
roles according to the expected function of their units.
All of this desire for the ordering and institutionalization of society was not fulfilled through the
function of the state and its influence on the economy. The Catholic Church also continued to
extend its partnership role with the European monarchs. Increasing demands by adherents for the
Church to become more spiritual in direction and less materialistic led to state supported
persecution of the heretics who challenged the god-like authority of the pope. After 1685,
500,000 people would leave the country seeking freedom from political and religious
totalitarianism sustained by material greed. This illegal emigration reduced the government
revenues and prompted a further promotion of trade, exploration, crafts, and trading associations
- the basics of a capital dependent economy.
The apparition was timely in that it came at a time when the true demonstration of a Christian
WAY of life would have resulted in the following:
1) A reduction of royal material extravagances and waste;
2) Harmonization of justice practices;
3) Increased self-sufficiency of the populace;
4) Reduced dependency on capital;
5) Less religious and political conflict;
6) Marked reduction of the armed forces and their cost;
7) Increased emphasis on life skills training for all.
The outcome was just the opposite of the above possibilities.
1689 A.D.
"The Treaty of Nerchinsk" becomes the first Russian - Chinese border conflict agreement.
1689-1763 A.D.
Government in colonial U.S.A. operated in 3 interdependent spheres: in the
counties and townships, in the colony-wide institutions, and on the level of imperial politics. The
interaction of power in these areas produced a unique pattern of political arrangements, which
enabled the colonists to obtain a large measure of self-government in practice, if not in principle.
Despite individual differences between the provinces, they tended to react to English royal
authority in a similar fashion owing to their assumption of basic English ideals and legal concepts.
It should be remembered that most colonists to "frontiers" have not been motivated by the
relatively modern ideals of adventure and curiosity: attitudes of the rich and comfortable. The
slums of England were emptied of runaways, orphans and chronic lawbreakers (thieves and
prostitutes) and banished to Canada, the American colonies, Australia. Some emigrated to the
Americas to escape the anarchy, poverty and pestilence that threatened them in Ireland and
elsewhere. More, sought anonymity and a new start in such unknown lands to escape
imprisonment, social disgrace or the pain of grief over a lost love or lost pride.
Some simply made the escape from a hopeless economic environment to one, which by its very nature of
change and suggestion of lessened political structure encouraged dreams of success. A few
economically successful and well versed in market economies saw an opportunity to make
investments a risk of failure lessened by reduced regulation and orderliness. As the latter
succeeded, stories of their generation of wealth grew to encourage others to follow out of envy
and greed as much as from an honest desire to fairly benefit from the efforts of their toil. In the
20th century, Siberia held the same attraction for some Russians and the same curse for Soviet
rejects set to gulag work camps.
1689 A.D.
Peter I, The Great, at the age of 17, overthrows his half-sister, Sophia, the
daughter of Tsar Alexis to become the new Russian ruler. He determines to Europeanize the
country with coercive authoritarian compulsion. He travels abroad and has himself trained as a
gunnery expert (Konigsberg), shipbuilder (Amsterdam) and Navigator (London). Exterminations
of opposition and even the death of his own son following torture in prison became acceptable to
the man brought up in a time of religious and political persecutions. The Empire was organized
into 11 governments and 50 provinces.
A direct head tax was instituted and 1 soldier per 20 serf households was conscripted.
Old traditions of dress and beard were changed. Monopolies where
given to the state for the manufacture of tapestries and textiles, and for forestry and mining.
Canals and ports were constructed with forced labour and foreign specialists were imported to
provide services and staff trade schools.
1690 A.D. - William Rittenhouse, a German paper maker, begins producing paper for the North American market from a mill near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Previously, paper was both in short
supply and expensive in the Americas. Public use was limited and mass communication had been
largely by way of circulated proclamations and posters, imported books, gossip, itinerant
merchants. News travelled slow, inefficiently, and often inaccurately.
1691 A.D.
20 women die accused of being witches in Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
8 girls are declared possessed when they express the following symptoms: convulsions, choking,
pinpricking and hallucinations. Witches (the term means "wise person" or "seeker of knowledge")
who may have advocated the use of astrology, herbs, aromatics, rituals, and magic to cope with
negative stress to avoid or treat illnesses seem to have been the individuals "chosen" by the
afflicted, in fear, as scapegoats for their illness. It was later suspected, after almost 300 years that
the symptoms were the result of a bread fungus.
Consistently throughout much of human history, persons who have shown wisdom regarding the
universe towards the benefits of restored health, predictions of the future, exposure of the truth,
admonishments to show reverence to God and assertiveness towards others - have been
persecuted, ostracized and executed far more often, and in much larger numbers, than those
given praise. If spacebeings were to arrive on Earth, what sane, well-informed human would
risk telling his or her fellow humans about it. If he could not feed their iniquities of fear, greed,
lust, or pride with the details, he would surely have been threatened for bringing the bad news.
Words of peace are nothing to a race which can only look at the prospect of a war to win.
In another perception, the stories of such an encounter or of such wisdom would soon be
forgotten as fantasy and madness and any context of safety and permanence would find itself in
the form of secret societies which experimented and practiced the new wisdom, whether they
understood it or not. Performed in secret for the power and benefit of the society, negativity and
constraint for the rest of society would be foregone.
A third reality, is that some persons who did come to know the power of relationships between
health and a multitude of factors in the universe, would not have had the spiritual strength to use
it in a positive manner. Pandering to the spiritual weaknesses of vengeance, hate, greed, and
lust - some "wise persons" would have brought pain, death, mishap and subservience to others.
In opposing this darkness of spirit, person could have struck against its expression in horror and
anger. Unfortunately, humanity seems to be also gifted with the tendency to tell 10 persons
about every misdeed done to them yet tell no one of the good deeds they have received.
This presents a situation in which a vast majority of good deed providers are "executed" for
appearing to share the same description as evil deed providers. Fear overtakes the spiritual
strength of the persons involved to make correct and well supported conclusions. Humanity gets
what it deserves: it has the tendency to kill or discriminated against the best it has to offer
thereby only allowing the most devious or ignorant to survive. Humanity then expresses self-pity
for God's penance upon them without justification. Humanity, by its own individual and mass
convictions and negativity, justifies its own tortures.
1691 A.D.
Aurangzeb, the last Great Mogul and a fanatical Moslem extended the Mogul empire to its largest size by this date. From 1658, persecution of the Hindus and the destruction of
temples in northern India plus a reinstitution of a tax on Hindus and attacks on Hindu
vassals (Jaipur) resulted in resistance. The Sikhs of the Punjab and the Rajput states became
militarily united with the Shivaji and the Marathi against the Moguls and sustained their army by
frequent raids. Pillages of Surat, the most prosperous trade-centre of the Mogul empire occurred
in 1664 and 1670. From 1681, the Moguls mounted annual campaigns against the rebels.
European colonists would follow.
1692 A.D.
The city of Port Royal, Jamaica, falls into the sea without warning, complete with its pirates, ships, bawdy taverns and stolen goods.
1693 A.D.
In August, a hermetic text, quoted by Bernard de Savignies stated that
"a ruler who is still alive received from an itinerant and completely unknown person a letter
containing 31 grains of philosophic medicine that was more than perfect, although it transmuted
only into silver. It had the appearance of a very fine salt, extremely subtle and scintillating, similar
to snow. The prince projected this mass of 31 grains, enveloped in wax, onto a pound and a half
of purified molten lead, and after keeping it in a molten state for more than an hour he poured it
and obtained from that pound and a half of lead, 37 lotons (about 555 grams) of extremely pure
artificial silver which passed all tests and was even firmer than silver."
In the 1990s we still cannot either do this transmutation nor explain it.
And who was the source who supplied it?
1694 A.D.
Rudolf Jakob Camerarius, a German professor of medicine and director of the botanical gardens at Tubingen, becomes the first modern botanist to demonstrate that flowering plants have sex and that pollen is necessary for fertilization and seed formation.
The idea that there could be a sexual difference in plants caused general astonishment, and Camerarius' theory
was fiercely combated by the current establishment. It was considered the "wildest and most
singular invention that ever evolved from a poet's mind." Even so, that plants have female organs in the form of vulva, vagina, uterus and ovaries, serving precisely the same functions as they do in a woman, as well as distinct male organs in the form of penis, glans, and testes, designed to sprinkle the air with billions of spermatozoa, were facts quickly concealed behind the Latinized terms given them during the 18th century.
In reality, each corn kernel on a cob in summer is a separate ovule; each strand on the pubic corn
silk tufted around the cob is an individual vagina ready to suck up the pollen sperm brought to it
on the wind, that it may wiggle the entire length of the stylized vagina to impregnate each kernel
on the cob. Every single seed produced on a plant is the result of a separate independent
impregnation. Each pollen grain impregnates but one womb, which contains but one seed. Had
humanity been able to accept the similarities between plants and animals rather than emphasizing
the differences, human history would have been dramatically more positive.
1697 A.D.
Charles Perrault published nine "Tales of My Mother Goose", a modernization and standardization of a set of original folk tales. They would become the most popular work of all French literature. Many of the original tales lacked some of the fantasy which Perrault added and included behavioural excesses which he made less dramatic, fearful and laughable and more believable.
Literacy was still rare in Europe.
Most news was conveyed about the country by travelling
witches (wise persons) and gypsies (travelling small merchants and beggars) who supplemented
their livelihood with the stories they provided as entertainment to their hosts. Many of the tales
noted incidents of black magic, murder, sexual infidelity, incest, infanticide, rape, mutilation,
deception and manipulation. They became examples of behaviours for the health to be proud they
were apart from and encouragement for the unhealthy to consider the opportunities.
1700 A.D.
On January 27, a Pacific Tsunami (ocean floor earthquake-triggered tidal wave) resulted in the Pacific Ocean level on the east side of Japan rising 7 feet and remaining so for many hours. Houses were washed through and rice paddies flooded. It was modest relative to others in Japanese records with the quake itself not even being felt in Japan.
In 1995, Kenji Satake of the Geological Survey of Japan would report that this tsunami was quiet
in Japan because it was but a faint signal from a giant earthquake that had occurred some ten
hours earlier and 5,000 miles away in the Pacific Northwest. This would make the quake of a
magnitude 9. Centred on a fault just offshore the northern California to southern British
Columbia coast called the Cascadia Subduction Zone - where the Pacific sea floor pushes under
the North American continent - a much larger tsunami would have been generated along the
North American coast. In marshes as much as half a mile inland, geologists Jofy Bourgeois and
Mary Ann Reinhart of the University of Washington had traced a thin, unbroken sheet of sand the
wave had left behind. They calculated that it must have been at least 30 feet high at the coast.
A magnitude 8 quake would have only raised the sea level by a foot at Japan; a magnitude 9 could
have produced a 7 foot wave. When Satake consulted a colleague in Japan, he found that
geologists had never been able to link the 1700 tsunami to a specific quake. The Cascadia
Subduction Zone runs near cities including Seattle and Portland.
1700 A.D.
The Third Great Climacteric, near this time, is determined to have occurred
according to historians. This denotes a period of substantial technological advancement
for humanity. The world population had now reached about 600 million.
1705 A.D.
Edmund Halley computes the orbit of "Comet Halley" which he and others had seen in 1682.
He predicts the next sighting as 1758 or 1759. It will be observed on Christmas Eve,
1758. Such (calculated) predictions must account for the gravitational influence of other planets
in the Earth's solar system, emission of material drag, and solar wind cosmic radiation and
electromagnetic influences. As time progresses, the ability for accuracy in such calculated
predictions will increase, slowly.
Remaining records of comet sightings are largely Chinese in origin before the 1500s with almost
no human record being found in the rest of the world. It is presumed that the following may also
have been sightings of Comet Halley:
87 B.C.
1531 Peter Apian
1607 Kepler and Longomontanus
1708 A.D.
Bartholomew de Gusmao, a Jesuit, was initiated into some of the ancient science
of the Inca while in Bolivia. One of the secrets was how to build a flying machine. These devices
were capable of lifting great weights and even capable of flying from one planet to another. With
the technological means available to him, only the device for use in the earth's atmosphere seemed
practical. Returning to Lisbon, in 1708, he sent the King of Portugal, John V, a report on his
project and a request for permission to carry it out. In his proposal he analyzed the ways in which
such a device could be used: making faster journeys than would be possible by land or sea;
directing armies and bringing help to positions under attack; exploring the world from pole to
pole; transporting merchandise; giving Portugal the honour of supremacy in the air - it had once
had supremacy of the seas.
On April 17, 1709, the king gave his support and allotted 600,000 reis to enable Bartholomew to
go to work immediately. Much was written about it and thousands admired it, but he kept the
manner of propulsion secret. It apparently was made to look like a head with horizontal tubes
which served as jet pipes or blowers. It had a tail for steering and flapping wings. On August 5, a
prototype was flown before the king and the whole court; unfortunately it caught fire and fell
back to the ground, the flames only being put out with great difficulty.
On October 30, a new
flight was entirely successful with the craft ascending to a great height and landing safely
afterwards. The invention was enthusiastically acclaimed and Gusmao received several honours
including the position of royal chaplain. Then the Inquisition ruled: the Catholic Church declared
that it was dangerous, perhaps even satanic. Gusmao had to stop his flights, burn his plans,
except for a set kept in the Vatican! Gusmao was kept silent by threat of excommunication or
worse: interrogation by the inquisition.
1712 A.D.
"Peter the Great", ruler of Russia, moves his government to St. Petersburg from Moscow.
Peter is determined to build his empire in the image of those of the Vatican, Spain, France and Britain.
Europeanization of architecture and the utilization of the most modern and
powerful technologies are his goals. His belief in capitalism is that the appearance of power and
sophistication will convey confidence, pride and a national identity to the Slavic peoples. He
expects, from the past history of the Eurasian peoples, that resistance to change and to a
homogeneity of efforts will arise - and he is prepared, as a "responsible leader" to enact whatever
controls are necessary to achieve his goal of a strong and unified empire.
Over the next decade, he would conscript hundreds of thousands of serfs and peasants to build St.
Petersburg. By making stonemasonry illegal elsewhere in the empire, he forced all stonemasons
to work in St. Petersburg, abandon their skills, or, face imprisonment at hard labour - doing
masonry in St. Petersburg. All rebellions were suppressed ruthlessly. Over 100,000 workers died
from overwork, malnutrition, physical abuse, disease, accident or insufficient housing and
overexposure during the period.
1715 A.D.
The establishment of the First Public Bank, in France, (issuing notes) and of joint stock companies (to exploit the colonies) grew out of the efforts of Scotsman John Law,
who was endeavouring to improve the fiscal position of the French state. It had become heavily
indebted because of the wars of Louis XIV and the Court of the Regent Philip of Orleans, during
the youth of Louis XV, had continued to be run in a most extravagant manner. By 1720, the
inflation of paper currency led to public bankruptcy.
1715 A.D.
European common life during this century, and particularly for the materially advantaged, was an era of increased erotic sensibilities. Many of the best brothels became virtual
restaurants, and eating-and-drinking houses became near-brothels. Most brothels, in fact,
possessed licenses for the sale of food and drink.
Besides the beer of the poor classes, and the fine liqueurs of the rich, people especially indulged in
heavy wines: burgundy, sherry, Oporto, .... At the court of James I it is said that both ladies and
gentlemen "passed out" on the floor. Besides meat, people ate all kinds of fish, oysters, crabs,
lobsters, turtles, eggs, artichokes, mushrooms, truffles, celery, onions, apricots, strawberries,
peaches, pepper, ginger, and cocoa.
Cantharides was utilized, not only extensively, but also carelessly.
This "Spanish Fly" was made up in sweetmeats, chocolates, and similar confections; it was cooked in cakes and biscuits. Many people died or suffered severe illness through abuse of carelessly administered cantharides, which act as an extreme irritant, and can result in severe inflammations. M. de Senneterre, colonel of the Haynault regiment in Grenoble died with a violent fever and inflammation brought about by the use of cantharides.
Nicolas Venette noted:
"'Spanish flies' have so powerful an effect upon the bladder and the genital organs of
both sexes, that if only 2 or 3 grains are taken such an inflammation arises that one
becomes immediately ill. A proof of this was experienced by one of my friends a few
years ago; and fortunately he lives to tell the tale. His rival, in despair at seeing him
marry his mistress, advised her to put cantharides into a pate' composed of pears, and to
give it to her husband on the wedding night. When night came, the husband embraced
his wife so much that she began to suffer exhaustion; but these delights quickly changed
to misfortune, for the poor man began to experience the effects of inflammation by
midnight, had the greatest difficulty in urinating, and saw a discharge of blood from his
member (penis). Fear augmented the illness, and he fainted more than once.
Considerable care had to be taken of him until his health was restored ...."
People resorted to the use of cantharides out of lust for excessive sexual pleasure.
Like a few items in the area of sexuality, the wide and popular reputation which cantharides was given was
seldom justified for its sexually exciting effects were merely the accidental result of its action in
causing inflammation of the genito-urinary tract. Even then, it was an uncertain and dangerous
result, except in skilful hands, and when administered in small doses.
In France, all manner of means were employed for increasing erotic sensibility, including
dramatic innovations in both masculine and feminine fashions.
Auto-eroticism, as had continued for centuries in the past and would continue at least until the late 1900s, that is, masturbation, was socially and religiously cloaked in all manner of
superstitions and misinformation. This arose partly out of the ignorance of previous
generations which had also received erroneous information. In addition, from a spiritual
viewpoint, auto-eroticism encouraged the visualization of the object of sexual admiration as
little more than simply a sex object. Further, institutionalized religions were centred upon their
ability to assert power over the public.
Restraining the normally felt desires in a negative shame-based manner, the status quo adherent would continually replace "self-abuse" with emotional and spiritual abuse leading to lowered self esteem - and, greater dependency on and reverence towards the religious leaders who appeared to personify male asexuality. Real and
practical concerns arose from incidences in which over-stimulation of the male sexual organs
could result in physical strains which prevented further sexual expression in the future. This
degree of activity was even used as a form of initiation into a few ascetic religious orders.
Permanent physical impotence was presumed to offer less distraction from a desired spiritual
development focus.
As had been the influence for millennia, physically mature and healthy
young persons, discouraged or prohibited from forming loving, considerate and committed
relationships still felt an oppressive need for the release of sexual tension. An inability to
constructively cope with such a need resulted in many anti-social expressions of acting out, and,
fed the authorities leading the society with an easily manipulated anxious and frustrated public.
Humans in such a state are receptive to quick, simplistic, authoritarian answers; they frequently
see reality in two-sided options such as black/white, yes/no, right/wrong, cheap/expensive. This
makes them exceedingly predictable for they take no personal awareness of relevant factors
concerning whether something is constructive-destructive-without influence, or, able to
contribute different qualities to or for different individuals. Once the individual no longer seeks
to understand before judging, that individual has surrendered to the authority of the decision-maker involved. The denial of masturbation effectively served the senior decision-makers,
whether intended or not.
Many of the prohibitions arose from religious orders and rulers who themselves had excessive
challenges following volunteering to follow a role of celibacy. They themselves felt destructive
shame through self-judgement and a felt passion for redemption. In their passionate
expressions some believed themselves to be morally justified in seeking to denigrate human
sexual needs as a way of avoiding the many socially unacceptable means of acting out sexually:
sexual exhibitionism in public, onanism (human-animal coitus), sexual obsession, rape,
lesbianism and male homosexuality, prostitution, infidelity, sexually-induced neuroses, physical
self-obsession.
In most cases, these forms of acting-out were more a factor of pseudo-religious
impositions against masturbation. Repressed, anxious and desperate humans - or at least those
who perceive themselves to be - are more likely than relaxed, sexually expressive individuals -
to superstitiously and irrelevantly make associations which appear to be simple rationalizations.
Such expectations, assumptions and rush-to-judgement decisions are wrong for humans at least
75% of the time. From an institutionalized religious viewpoint, an anti-masturbation stance
proved the righteousness, and desperateness, of their cause. The longer they maintained the
position, the worse the incidence appeared to become.
Constructive options were available and had been utilized for over a million years with success
and social stability by early humans. Virtual nudity greatly desensitized the genders to the
"erotic" sight of each other and left identity awareness and sensual tactile appreciation as the
potential erotic stimuli. An earned respect for one's elders mentored a respect for age equals
and juniors. A largely vegetarian diet of nuts, fruits, and fresh vegetation influenced a reduction
in sexual hormone intake relative to the more "modern" diet. This reduced human sexual
dependency by reducing the intensity and persistency of the presence of sexual desire. Indeed,
it extended sexual physical immaturity such that fertility in both genders arrived in the late teens
rather than in the pre-teens.
Sexual maturity was now arriving in the mid-teens.
Eating such foods, especially if they had to be fresh and were seldom cooked, did not satisfy hunger for any
longer period of time; hence, a continual activity of searching, gathering, sharing, and eating -
left little time for fantasy or imagination. During extensive rest periods, during evenings or
disadvantageous weather, interpersonal grooming was necessary for the cleanliness required to
avoid parasite infestation and disease. Such lengthy and constant grooming sessions effectively
reduced sexual inclinations by the release of hormones through the sensuality of this touch
dominated activity. While masturbation was present in the community, it would have remained
both unregulated and minor.
After the introduction of domestication of animals and herding, the formerly challenging and
innovative continual use of the human brain became more tedious and pattern/habit-oriented.
Introducing agriculture extended this trend of brain utilization - providing humans with a
greater amount of "boring" and less personally and immediately fulfilling activity. This was
augmented by increasing spaces of uninspiring human-constructed landscapes. Becoming an
adult in a hunting and gathering society made you an equal in your individual responsibilities to
the community and provided no restriction on the development of committed, intimate
relationships. Every individual, almost without regard to age, could in some way contribute to
the satisfaction of the material necessities of the family and the band.
With herding and agriculture, product ownership rose in importance to sometimes equal or surpass personal
knowledge and skills as a requisite for future material success and physical survival. Now, a
person was no longer able to learn and practice all of the expected necessary life skills by an
early age. Without considerable privilege, "earning" a calf, cow, sheep, horse, plough, piece of
land, or a house would require years of effort as a teen or an adult. While a complete reversion
to a simpler and earlier lifestyle was now impossible, more constructive options could be found.
Humans, in general, accepted the lifestyle which had been, and was being, fashioned for them
by their ancestral and current leaders. Masturbation, like the human sexual drive is relative to
one's diet, one's utilization of personal energies, one's exposure to erotic stimuli, and one's
actions to assert his or her identity. If masturbation was a true concern, why were all of the
contributing factors effectively denied and avoided?
In an attempt to set the record straight, Norman Haire would write the following in his "The Encyclopedia of Sexual Knowledge", Vol. 1 , published by Aldor, London, UK, in 1934,
followed by a number of reprints:
"Once more it is necessary to warn the reader against the fantastic catastrophes which
are popularly supposed to follow the practice of masturbation. Masturbation is a
normal phenomenon which appears in the vast majority of healthy children, as well as
in young adults who are, for one reason or another, unable to obtain the normal
satisfaction of their sexual appetite for a long time after they have become sexually
mature, and ripe for mating. In adult life masturbation offers poor satisfaction, in
comparison with normal sexual intercourse, ...."
During the 1700s, Europeans above the financial status of poor and not living on farms
possessed a preoccupation with sex, alcohol, and socializing. Remember, there were few books
and low literacy. There were no cameras, phonograph records, radio, television, telephone,
cinema, compact discs, magazines, computers, electric lights, or even electricity. The profits of
the capital-based trades and the ample spare time for the beneficiaries had to be spent in some
manner. There were other options; they were not promoted well by the churches and the
politicians and business leaders were often the role models for material extravagance. Churches
promoted obedience and ritual idolatry leaving little opportunity to learn and practice
constructive prayer, meditation, self-assertiveness, self-directedness, or self-awareness.
1716 A.D.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British ambassador, while living in Turkey, noted the crude use of ingrafting used locally to combat smallpox. Deciding to take a chance to save the life of her 3-year old son, she had him inoculated. The pus transfer was effective and her son survived exposure to smallpox. On her return to England, Lady Mary tried to convince doctors to use the procedure.
The English doctors were reviled by the procedure and treated her with disrespect. Undaunted,
Lady Mary went to the Prince of Wales and he granted the authority for her to carry out an
experiment with the procedure at Newgate Prison. Six convicted criminals were promised
pardons if they volunteered for inoculations. When all the prisoners survived the inoculations and
did not get smallpox, King George I was impressed. So impressed, that he had his two
grandchildren inoculated.
Usually effective, such inoculations were not foolproof.
Some would contract full symptoms and
die. It was often relevant, though unknown to be of significance then, as to the strength of the
virus in the inoculation relative to the strength of the antibody. A person who had no heritage of
exposure and who had not been personally exposed to smallpox before would have a good chance
of dying. Using pus from such an infected person usually meant that they had little protection
against the disease - so they could confer little protection to others.
It was all a case of who would take the time and patience to note the seriousness of the symptoms
of the exposed person before inoculating someone who may not yet have the symptoms. As was
too often the human response, fear led to impatience, and, impatience led to mistakes. As is also
too common in human endeavours, every mistake received at least 10 times more publicity as time
went on than did the successful cases. The combination of these 2 factors would lead to little use
of the practice for many decades. Millions of people would die as a consequence.
1718 A.D.
James Puckle patented a machine gun that utilized a revolving block for firing square bullets.
"The Gatling Gun", which would first be used during the U.S. Civil War, was an
improvement on the Puckle gun: it could fire several rounds a minute, which was more efficient at
defending and killing than having to reload and fire a rifle using ball and powder or single shot
bullets.
1719 A.D.
The Submarine is pioneered by Tsar Peter the Great, ruler of Russia from 1698 until his death in 1725. To accomplish his empire building goals, Peter recognized the need to use
the seas to reach Western technology, culture and skills. He also perceived that submarines could
offer protection against foreign navies. The subsequent Russian and Soviet navies have pioneered
in the development of explosive naval shells, mines, mine laying submarines, anti-ship missiles,
submarine-launched ballistic missiles, the use of satellites to support naval operations, advanced
ship construction techniques, the use of titanium in submarine construction, and highly innovative
submarine designs. Throughout Russian-Soviet history, submarines would be in the vanguard of
combat operations.
1718 A.D.
Russian inventor Yefim Nikonov proposed the construction of a "secret (underwater)
vessel ... by which at sea in calm weather it would be possible to destroy ships by projectiles." It
was to be a cigar-shaped craft made of oak planks, coated with oil-soaked animal skins to ensure
water tightness. It would be propelled by ordinary oars protruding through special holes with tight
packing to prevent water from entering. In the lower part of the hull was tin planking for
stability. The craft's armament was to consist of rockets fired from copper tubes.
Tsar Peter I approved the project on January 31, 1719.
A number of prototypes were built but accidents
during launchings and problems during tests ended with Nikonov being exiled after Peter died in
1725. The original descriptions and most of the work attending the initial efforts was lost or
destroyed by humans more interested in continuing with traditional methods.
1720 A.D.
Issac Newton (1642-1727) explains the laws of planetary motion with mathematical precision and founds the law of gravitation.
1722 A.D.
Dutch explorers arrive at Rapa Nui (Easter Island) from Europe, led by Dutch
admiral Jaakob Rogeveen. Approximately 35 miles in triangular shape with an area of 45 square
miles, the island had 3 extinct volcanoes and was located 2,200 miles west of the South American
coast and 1,200 miles east of Pitcairn Island. The explorers found the island almost devoid of
trees.
There were huge stone monuments of humanoid heads with long ears facing the sea, and
evidence suggestive of a long past massacre. All but one of the statues were turned over.
Composed of decomposing lava, the soil was fertile yet very porous. No rivers and only a few
springs meant there was little drinking water. Part of the depopulation and lack of vegetation was
the influence of the 1700 giant Pacific tsunami, unknown until the late 1900s. The Europeans
brought with them diseases which further decimated the population.
Naked natives approached the sailors with food.
Some boarded the ship, presented their gifts and
jumped overboard with whatever they could steal. When the sailors went ashore, hundreds of
natives gathered. Some were friendly and others threw stones. When the latter happened, the
soldiers shot many Pascuans with their muskets and left.
Sacred enclosures called "ahu" - rectangular, pyramidal, or ship-shaped - were used as burial
platforms. Some were as long as 300 feet. Around each platform statues were erected, facing
inward. There were about 260 ahu with up to 16 statues each. At least 600 huge headed statues
ranging in size from 3 to 6 feet in height would eventually be found. 200 unfinished statues were
later found in the quarries. Some of the statues in the quarries measured up to 66 feet long.
Some of the statues were constructed with separately carved "cylindrical hats." Between 250 and
300 others lacked this "hat." None of the "volcano statues" with the hats were later vandalized.
These appear to express a frown and are erected such that they gaze across the land or out at the
sea.
When wood became scarce, a number of the ahu were destroyed for their building stone.
On death, a Pascuan (native of the island) was wrapped in bark cloth and placed on a scaffold in an
ahu. After months, the corpse would be buried. Natives prayed and performed sacrifices to the
statues, much as North Americans pray at headstones and leave memorial flowers and plant
bushes around the headstone of their deceased. Competition for prestige and as a demonstration
of power and authority, succeeding chiefs built bigger and bigger statues. This was a common
practice amongst ancient Polynesians.
There was evidence that as resources became inadequate, particularly after the tsunami scoured
the land of vegetation, turned over the monuments, and swept many of the houses and boats out
to sea - the remaining clans or tribes victimized one another. Blaming one another for the
catastrophe, or for being greedy with what remained, or simply out of acts of desperation and
starvation - they took to cannibalism and the burning of the houses of others. Enmity and hatred
soon escalated to displays of corpse destruction of the families hated, a continuation of the
toppling of the statues, and a great increase in curses and swearing phrases in the language.
1725 A.D.
Frederick William I of Prussia condemns all gypsies over 18 years of age to be hanged regardless of gender. Extermination was the policy.
1725 A.D.
Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire decrees that all Gypsy men are to be put to death and women gypsies in Bohemia are to have their right ear severed while those in Silesia and
Moravia are to have their left ear severed.
1726 A.D.
Jonathan Swift in his "Gulliver's Travels" states that the planet Mars has 2 moons and correctly gives their dimensions and distance from the planet. They could not be seen by the unaided human eye at the time and their reality would not be confirmed by observers using
telescopes for another 150 years.
1727 A.D.
Siberia becomes the destination for exiled criminals and political prisoners in an effort to more effectively colonize the desolate forest and rocky subarctic region.
1730 A.D.
A major earthquake on Hokkaido Island, Japan results in the death of 137,000 humans.
1731 A.D.
The Earliest Printed Edition of Wycliffe's New Testament translation of the Latin Vulgate into English produced 160 copies in London, England.
1735 A.D.
Huntsman discovers the process necessary for cast steel.
To the year 1998 it will be used more often to build weapons than for peaceful purposes by a factor of 10 to 1.
1736 A.D.
Herpes Genitalis is first described in males and females in historic times.
1736 A.D.
Anders Celsius (1701-1744), a Swedish professor of astronomy at the University of Upsala, constructs the Centigrade thermometer, whose degrees would carry his name, Celsius. He travelled widely through Germany, England, France and Italy. During this year, he took part in an expedition of Maupertuis and others for the purpose of measuring a degree of the meridian in Lapland.
1737 A.D.
A major earthquake in Calcutta, India, results in the death of 300,000 persons.
All severe earthquakes can be forewarned of by the use of meditative techniques of awareness.
Those few persons, so spiritually gifted or developed, who can assess the imminence of such
events, are, tragically, usually regarded as insane by the surrounding population and their warning
go unheeded. On some occasions, such persons have been imprisoned, resulting in their own
demise.
Major loss of life due to the influence of earthquakes is the result of the CHOICE which
human leaders and individuals make in denouncing and discouraging the development of prayer
and meditative skills in favour of the worship of human-based authority, superstition, and
technology-based idols.
1738 A.D.
Bishop Calloner of London, England assisted in a thorough revision of the Rheims-Douai Bible of 1582 New Testament. His 1749-52 editions of the whole Rheims-Douai Bible of 1610 would be extensive and would be authorized for Roman Catholic use in the USA in 1810.
1740 A.D.
A Cow was sentenced to Death by a criminal court in France.
Citing the Bible, officials tried wild beasts under the jurisdiction of ecclesiastical courts; domestic
animals were tried by criminal courts. Such trials had been carried on for centuries; 92 trials of
animals had taken place in France alone since 1120 A.D.
Lawyers and clergy usually benefited the most from such trials through the charging of fees or the public exhibition of their authority. Sometimes, animals which had proven to be dangerous to the community, yet were owned by an individual, were tried in court as a means of releasing the grief and anger of the wronged and
justifying the execution to the caring owner.
1740 A.D.
Frederick II of Prussia developed a national security council with a network of spies.
All estates were to serve the state. "Counsellors" to the king took active care through
inspects and "controls". The nobility of large landowners and proprietors of agricultural estates
were required to provide army officers and high officials for the bureaucracy. The artisan and
bourgeois commerce and trading classes were responsible for much of the taxation yet received
state support in the development of the silk, glass, and porcelain industries. What began as a
police state would gradually become a constitutional state in 1794 with reforms being passed to
promote freedom of thought and religion and the purchase of offices, the use of torture and the
intervention of the crown in legal proceedings being legislated against.
1741 A.D.
On November 4, the Dane Vitus Bering described the Steller sea cow, while
exploring the Commander Islands of Russia in the northernmost Pacific Ocean:
"These animals (30 foot long, 3.1 ton) love shallow and sandy places along the
seashore. With the rising tide they come in so close to the shore that not only did I on
many occasions prod them with a pole but sometimes even stroked their backs with my
hands. Usually entire families keep together, male and female, long-grown offspring
and the little tender ones. They seem to have slight concern for their life and security,
so that when you pass in the very midst of them with a boat, you can single out the one
you wish to hook. When an animal caught on a hook began to move about somewhat
violently, those nearest in the herd began to stir also and attempted to bring succour.
To this end some of them tried to upset the boat with their backs while others tried to
break the rope or strove to remove the hook from the wound by blows of their tails.
It was a most remarkable proof of their conjugal affection that a male, having tried with all
his might, but in vain, to free the female caught by a hook, and in spite of the beatings
we gave him, nevertheless followed her to the shore, and that several times, even after
she was dead, he shot unexpectedly up to her like a speeding arrow. Even early the
next morning when we came to cut up the meat to bring it to the dugout, we found the
male again near the female's body, and the same thing I observed on the third day, when
I went up there myself for the sole purpose of examining the intestines."
The animals were named after a German, Georg Wilhelm Steller, the only naturalist to ever see them. 27 years after humans discovered Steller's sea cow, the last one was butchered. It
was a common fact of contact with humans.
What is destructively consistent throughout human written history is that humans appear to
possess little respect for other forms of life. Indeed, even similar forms, later also to be
regarded as humans, would be massacred as if they somehow presented a threat to the human
attacker. Most humans and their cultures would have no consideration for the capacity for
feeling which all animals share by virtue of their similar brain structure and neurology.
Why?
Psychologically, mutant species are usually avoided by the more basic of the specie.
This alienation is experienced by the mutant with frustration, hurt, anger and vengeance.
Thus mutants often take the position of being adversaries to their originating specie and seek
to eradicate it. The technological aberration created seeks to destroy the creator, or,
anything which resembles itself, yet is different. With humans, such obsessive violence has
frequently been demonstrated between "races" leading to physical and other abuses, torture,
massacre. No other lifeform on the Earth responds to other lifeforms with such obsessive
hatred than humans, unless they have been intentionally mutated.
1745 A.D.
A man by the name of Stornberger a cow herder, about this time, in the Bavarian forest, prophesies a number of events and warnings. His prophesies include:
A. The beginning of WWII as 1939;
B. He warns against the influence of a leader named "Hitler";
C. He affirms that Hitler and his followers will lose the war;
D. A third universal struggle will determine the future of nations;
E. Entirely new weapons and "artificial" guns will be used;
F. More people will die in such a war than in all wars before;
G. Gigantic catastrophes will occur;
H. Nations will enter into the conflict "with open eyes";
I. Everything will become different;
J. In many places the Earth will be as a cemetery;
K. The 3rd Great War will mean the end of many nations.
Consistent with human history after 180 B.C., few would take notice of the visions of a lowly
cow herder.
1750 A.D.
The Kalahari Desert, from this time onward, would develop out of the lush, grass
and forested region covering all of Bechuana and reaching into Angola. This are of 500,000 square
miles, north of Cape Province in southwest Africa, would become increasingly arid as the climate
changed. Human population growth, the expansion of agricultural activities throughout Africa
and the resultant deforestation increasingly modified the climate. By the mid-1950's, most of the
game and vegetation would be dead and Bushman tribe numbers would be quickly declining.
Etherton (1948) notes that at this time there were lakes and running streams. Animals including
the elephant, rhinoceros and giraffe were common in addition to lion, antelopes, ostrich and
porcupine.
Because the Bushman appeared so different to the European settlers, they were often shot during
the early years of colonization, as if they were wild game. Unlike the Europeans, they were
skilled hunters and gatherers, peaceful, non-political, spoke with a language of "clicks", dark-skinned, short, Negroid hair. The Bushmen would receive no compensation for the theft of their
lands, for the climate change which eliminated most of their food supply, and for the starvation
forced on them by restriction of territory. Indiscriminate and needless murders by white colonists
would continue into the 1900's.
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