Month: March 2017

“Burned without pity” – the fake quotation taken back to 1930!

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A few weeks ago, I discussed a fake quotation attributed to Pope Innocent III:

Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with church dogma must be burned without pity.

These kinds of “quotes” are often derived from opinions by modern writers, which someone has then turned into a quote by the object of the opinion.  And so it proved; it was a quote from Peter Tompkins, The Magic of Obelisks.

But a correspondent then pointed out that the phrase appeared earlier, in the English translation of a book by Frenchman Maurice Magre, in 1931.  The US title was “Magicians, Seers and Mystics”; the UK title “Return of the Magi”, London, 1930.

This I have now obtained, and as it is public domain, I have uploaded it to Archive.org here.  And indeed this is correct – on p.60, our “quote” appears.

Three terrible figures dominate the great Albigensian massacre. For the massacre to be possible, it was necessary that an extraordinary genius for violence, for organisation, and for hypocrisy, should take shape in three men, who were all equally devoid of pity and, possibly, equally sincere in their hatred of heresy and love of the Church.

It was Pope Innocent III who, with obstinate determination, desired and decided on the crusade. The murder of the papal legate Pierre de Castelnau was only a pretext. Historians are unanimous in gloryifing this pope. To them the great men of history are men who do something, who have a powerful will and exert it to attain an aim. It makes no difference whether the aim is sublime or abominable; it is success in attaining the aim which gives the measure of genius.

As soon as he was elected pope, in all his public utterances Innocent III began to talk of ” exterminating the impious.” It was the dominating idea of his life, and he realised it wholeheartedly. He had a deep-rooted conviction that any man who attempted to build up a personal view of God which conflicted with the dogma of the Church must be burned without pity at the stake.

Italics mine.

No reference or source is given for the claim.

The author appears to be an occultist.  A chapter is devoted to the supposed origins of Rosicrucianism, recited uncritically; another to a biography of Apollonius of Tyana, equally uncritically given.  The prose style of the author is that of a historian; the content is nonsense.

With luck, this is the final origin of this striking phrase.

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Life of the Coptic Patriarch Isaac (686-689 AD) by Anthony Alcock

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Anthony Alcock has kindly translated for us all a Bohairic Coptic account of the life of the Coptic patriarch Isaac (686-689 AD), which he has sent to me for publication.  The PDF is here:

Isaac does appear in the History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church, but only briefly – this Life is much longer, but also hagiographical.  It is translated from the text in the Patrologia Orientalis 11 (1914).

Our thanks to Dr. Alcock for making this accessible!

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I am now recovered from the virus that struck me down last week.  Thank you everyone who prayed for me.  I’ve spent the last few days preparing for a job interview with a new client.  This required quite a bit of revision of my skills, for the inevitable technical test.  But I was successful. Evidently the “other guy” bombed the technical test, for they got back to me in a couple of hours, before I had even got home.  So gainful work beckons in a week’s time.  Sadly I shall have to spend much of that week haggling over contractual terms, but such is the nature of the business.  It is my dream to find a client one day who does not attempt to impose an unreasonable contract.  But in twenty years this has yet to happen.  It will be back to dwelling in a hotel for four nights a week.

In the limited time available, I’ve been OCRing the 1845 French translation of Serenus Sammonicus.  It looks to me as if Google Translate would process this into English quite easily.  Indeed the Latin itself is not difficult.  So I will carry on with this.

An email today asked me if I knew where the “pine cone” in the Vatican courtyard came from.  It was previously in the atrium before Old St Peter’s.  Before that … I can’t say that I know.  Something to think about one day!

I have a little list of blog post topics that has built up over the past few weeks.  I shall get to them all one day!

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A week of illness, as I have had yet another bout of fever and stomach troubles, assisted by a dental problem.  It seems odd to get two episodes of the fever within two weeks, but so it is.  I’ve been unable to respond much to emails.

Most days I have taken a ten minute drive down to the sea front, and walked a little on the promenade.  The section that I go to is far from the pier, which means that it is quieter, and fortunately the street parking is free, which is a blessing.  I can sit there and gaze at the waters for a bit, without being charged.  Two very sunny days presage the coming of summer; but today we’re back to cold March weather.

The rest of my days has been spent lying on the sofa, and reading websites.  Many of these are political, and of course these are always full of the latest crisis; which is not really good reading for an invalid.  My twitter feed is now entirely without political content.  In fact I’ve been reading lots of posts about the Sudan and its monuments.  I’ve even followed the Khartoum weather centre tweets – somehow hearing that it is 35ºC out there, under a cobalt sky, is cheering.

At night I’ve been reading from Paupers and Pig-Killers: The Diary of William Holland, a Somerset Parson, 1799-1818 (Amazon).

This is what it sounds like: the daily journal of a clergyman, complete with sharp observations of his neighbours.  Each entry is short, and it is just as gently readable as James Woodforde, The Diary of a Country Parson (1758-1802), Amazon, who lived in Norfolk.  Sadly a lot of the volumes of Holland’s diary are lost, including the year of Waterloo.

Almost any account of daily life, it seems, is of interest once enough time has passed.

I’m a little sick of reading Twitter, so I have pulled down the white hardback of Kent Weeks’ The Lost Tomb.

Weeks is an archaeologist working in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.  Reliant on whatever funding he can obtain – often, clearly, meagre – he has done what has never been done, and actually mapped the valley in a professional way.  It is extraordinary, considering a century of digging, that no proper surveys were ever taken.  In the process he relocated the sprawling tomb of the sons of Ramasses II, KV 5, which was lost; and excavated it, finding many galleries and stairways never seen before.  There used to be an excellent website, www.kv5.com, but this now redirects to his main website.  There are still details there, and a zoomable map, of which this is a screen grab.  You go down steps into room 1 (marked by my red arrow), into the main chamber, and doors go back and down steps behind you.


Note the unexplored corridor leaving the main chamber at the SW (top left).  I wonder why it has been left?  The corridor going down stairs at the SE (bottom left) itself has not been fully cleared, it seems.

I can’t say that I have ever read Weeks 1998 volume since I obtained it.  It is a big white hardback, and unfortunately Weeks is not an engaging writer.

I have still been throwing out books that I have not reread, or which I feel I might not read again.  Being ill though leads me to doubt – won’t I want some of these?  It is an odd feeling, to see gaps in my shelves, after all these years.

I’ve also been looking for a new contract, as I work freelance.  There ought to be more than there is, I feel.  No luck yet.  It usually happens suddenly.  All the same, the government here is trying to tax the heck out of my sector, and passing endless new laws.  This, together with the political uncertainty of Brexit and Trump, is causing employers to hesitate.  Your prayers for a contract reasonably close to home that pays well would be appreciated.

I shall now return to my sofa!

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Nice big image of the Nuremberg drawing of Rome (with Meta Romuli)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Again seen on twitter, a link to a wonderfully large image of the page in the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493) with a picture of Rome.  It may be found here, but I reproduce it below because images vanish from the web like butterflies.  The basilica of Old St Peter’s may easily be seen; but also the vanished pyramidal monument, the Meta Romuli, between St Peter’s and the Castel S. Angelo.

Click to enlarge.

UPDATE: A correspondent writes to say that the Nuremberg Chronicle 1497 (767 pages) is available at the following web sites:

  • University of Adelaide (Australia) ebooks here .
  • Bayerische Staatsbibliothek here (downloadable as a PDF file (349MB) and also as JPEG files (300DPI).

Always useful to know!

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The Meta Sudans in 1849 in Pierre Monami

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A twitter post alerted me to the existence of an oil-painting from 1849 by Pierre Monami, depicting the Roman forum with the Arch of Constantine, the Meta Sudans, the Temple of Venus and Rome, and the Via Sacra leading to the Arch of Titus.  The painting was sold recently at Bonhams, who have a viewer on it here.

Zooming in we get this:

P. Monami, The Meta Sudans, 1849 (excerpt)

The most notable feature is that the Meta Sudans looks pretty much exactly as it does in 1930. The demolition of the top section took place earlier, it seems.

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The Annals of Eutychius of Alexandria (10th c. AD) – chapter 19b – Abbasids part 2

Posted on by Roger Pearse

We continue with a couple more caliphs.

CALIPHATE OF HARUN AR-RASHID (170-193 / 786-809).

1. The bay’ah was given to Harun ar-Rashid b. al-Mahdi – his mother was al-al-Khayzuran – in the same night that Musa al-Hadi died, the night of Friday 14 Rabi al-awwal in the year 170.  That night his son al-Ma’mun was born.  He entrusted the management of his business in Yahya b. Khalid b. Barmak.  During his caliphate he made the pilgrimage to Mecca  nine times and he invaded the territories of Rum eight times.  He removed his favour from the Barmakees in the month of Safar of the year 187 of the Hegira. His caliphate lasted twenty-three years, two months and sixteen days.

2. Leo (IV), son of Constantine, son of Leo, king of Rum, died.  After him there was made king of Rum Nicephorus (I), son of Istirāq[1], who asked for a truce from [Harun] ar-Rashid.  Ar-Rashid gave him a respite of three years.  There ruled in Egypt, in the name of ar-Rashid, Musa b. Isa al-Hashimi, who extended the Great Mosque of Misr at the rear of the building which may still be seen.  Ar-Rashid then deposed Musa ibn Isa and entrusted the government of Egypt to Abd Allah ibn al-Mahdi.  Abd Allah sent as a gift to ar-Rashid a young girl of his choice from among the Yemenis who lived in the south of Egypt.  She was very beautiful and ar-Rashid fell intensely in love.  The young girl was then hit by a serious disease.  The doctors cared for her but no medicine was effective.  They said to ar-Rashid: “Send word to your governor in Egypt, Abd Allah, to send you an Egyptian doctor.  The Egyptian doctors are more able than those of Irāq to cure this young girl.”  Ar-Rashid sent word to Abd Allah ibn al-Mahdi to choose the most skillful Egyptian doctor and send him to him, telling him about the young girl and of what had happened.  Abd Allah sent for Politianus, the Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria, expert in medicine, made him aware of the young girl and the disease that had struck her, and sent him to ar-Rashid.  [Politianus] brought with him some Egyptian durum “ka’k”[2], and some pilchards.  When he arrived in Baghdad and presented himself to the young girl, he gave her some rustic ka’k and pilchards to eat.  The young girl recovered her health at once, and the pain disappeared.  After that [ar-Rashid] began to order from Egypt, for the sultan’s use, durum ka’k and pilchards.  Ar-Rashid gave lots of money to the patriarch Politianus and gave him in writing an order which provided that all the churches that the Jacobites had taken away from the Melkites and of which they had taken possesion, should be returned.  The patriarch Politianus returned to Egypt and got back his churches.  The patriarch Politianus died after having held the patriarchal seat for forty six years.  After him there was made patriarch of Alexandria Eustathius[3], in the sixteenth year of the Caliphate of ar-Rashid.  Eustace was a linen-maker and had found a treasure in the house in which he used to prepare linen.  He had embraced the monastic life at “Dayr al Qusayr”, later becoming the superior.  He built at “Dayr al-Qusayr” the church of the Apostles, and a residence for the bishops.  Later he was made patriarch of Alexandria, held the office for four years and died.  After him there was made patriarch of Alexandria Christopher[4] in the twentieth year of the Caliphate of ar-Rashid.  The patriarch Christopher was hit by hemiplegia and could only move if supported.  There was therefore appointed a bishop named Peter after a vote whom the bishops put in place of the patriarch.  Christopher held the office for thirty-two years and died.  In the eighth year of the Caliphate of ar-Rashid there was made patriarch of Antioch Theodoret.  He held the office for seventeen years and died.  During the caliphate of ar-Rashid there was, after the afternoon prayer, an eclipse of the sun so intense that you could see the stars, and people stood screaming at the sky imploring God – may His name be glorious!  In Khurasan there rebelled against ar-Rashid, Rafi ibn al-Layth and occupied it.  Ar-Rashid invaded Khurasan, but at Gurgan he became ill and stopped at Tus, sending al-Ma’mun to Merv to the head of a large army.

3. Ar-Rashid died in the month of Jumādà al-Akhar in the year 193 [of the Hegira], at the age of forty-six.  He was buried in Tus, in the city of an-Nirāt [5].  The sons who were with him, those of his family and his commanders gave the bay’ah to his son Muhammad ibn Zubaydah.  Al-Fadl ibn ar-Rabi returned with his men to Baghdād.  Ar-Rashid was of perfect stature, handsome of face, with a black and flowing beard which he used to cut when he went on pilgrimage.  The leaders of his bodyguard were al-Qasim ibn Nasr b. Malik first, then Hamza ibn Hazim b. Obayd Allah b. Malik, then Hafs ibn Umar b. ash-Shugayr.  His hāgib was Bishr ibn Maymun b. Muhammad b. Khalid b. Barmak.  Then al-Fadl ibn Rabi regained this position.

CALIPHATE OF MUHAMMAD AL-AMIN (193-198 / 809-814).

1. The news of the death of ar-Rashid arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday, twelve days before the end of Jumāda al-Akhar.  The crowds gathered, his son Muhammad went out in the pulpit, and invited them to mourn his death.  The people gave him the bay’ah on that day.  Then there appeared strong differences between him and his brother al-Ma’mun.  The mother of Muhammad al-Amin was called Umm Jaffar[6], and was the daughter of Abu Jaffar al-Mansur.  Muhammad al-Amin sent Ali ibn Isa b. Mahan to Khurasan to fight against al-Ma’mun, who sent against him, from Merv, Zahir ibn al-Husayn b. Sa’b al-Būsagi.  Zahir killed Ali ibn Isa, put to flight the armies of Muhammad al-Amin and came to Baghdad, where he was joined by Hartama ibn A’yan and Humayd ibn Abd al-Hamid at-Tusi. Al-Ma’mun was hailed as caliph in Khurasan in the year 196.  The civil war then moved to Baghdād.

2. Muhammad al-Amin was killed in Baghdad on Saturday, five days before the end of the month of Muharram of the year 198 [of the Hegira].  His caliphate, until the day of his murder, had lasted four years, eight months and six days. He was killed at the age of twenty-eight years.

3. Nicephorus, son of Istabraq, king of Rum, died.  After him there reigned over Rum  Istabraq[7], son of Nicephorus, son of Istabraq.

4. In the third year of the caliphate of Muhammad al-Amin there was made patriarch of Jerusalem Thomas, nicknamed Tamriq[8].  He held the office for ten years.

5. Muhammad al-Amin was handsome, with a perfect constitution, white-skinned, fat, strongly built, with thin fingers.  His body was buried at Baghdād and his head brought to Khurasan.  The leader of his bodyguard was Ali ibn Isa b. Mahan and his hāgib al-Fadl ibn ar-Rabi, who was also his confidential adviser.

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  1. [1]Elsewhere “Istabrāq”; i.e. Stauracius.↩
  2. [2]A collective term for various pastries and pretzels.↩
  3. [3]813-817 AD↩
  4. [4]817-848.↩
  5. [5]Possibly means “Iran”?↩
  6. [6]I.e. Zubaydah, the wife of Harun ar-Rashid.↩
  7. [7]Stauracius, emperor of the East from 26 July 811 to 2 October 811.↩
  8. [8]807-821.↩

Alin Suciu on the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon or “Gospel of the Savior”

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It’s taken four years, but Alin Suciu’s magnificent thesis on the so-called “Gospel of the Savior” has now appeared in book form from Mohr Siebeck, although at a huge price.  The abstract is as follows:

The Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon – A Coptic Apostolic Memoir

The present volume offers a new edition, English translation, and interpretation of the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon , previously known as the Gospel of the Savior . An apocryphal story about Jesus probably transpiring shortly before the Crucifixion, the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon claims to recount the narrative as told by the apostles themselves. The text also includes a long hymn sung by Christ to the cross on which he will soon be crucified.

The Berlin Strasbourg-Apocryphon is exclusively preserved in Coptic by two fragmentary manuscripts, Papyrus Berolinensis 22220 and Strasbourg Copte 5-7. Additionally, a Coptic manuscript discovered at Qasr el-Wizz in Christian Nubia contains a short version of the Hymn of the Cross.

Until now, it has been almost unanimously accepted that the Berlin Strasbourg-Apocryphon is an ancient Christian gospel – probably datable to the second century CE – which was bypassed in the formation of the Christian canon. Approaching the text from the angle of Coptic literature, Alin Suciu rejects this early dating, showing instead that its composition must be located following the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE), whose theological deliberations gradually alienated Egypt from the Byzantine world. The author argues that the Berlin-Strasbourg Apocryphon is one of numerous ‘apostolic memoirs,’ a peculiar genre of Coptic literature, which consists of writings allegedly written by the apostles, often embedded in sermons attributed to famous church fathers.

The PDF is the same as the printed book, which is cheeky.

Interesting to see a Coptologist’s perspective.  We all know that there are masses of apocrypha in Coptic, running into the medieval period.

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Origen’s Commentary on Matthew – what exists in English?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The remains of Origen’s 25-book Commentary on Matthew appear in four volumes in the GCS series.  These are:

  • GCS 40 – “Origenes Werke X, Commentarius in Matthaeum I” – this contains the Greek text of books of books 10-17.  (I found a PDF on ScribD and uploaded it to Archive.org here; a DJVU file exists in Poland also)
  • GCS 38 – “Origenes Werke XI, Commentarius in Matthaeum II” – this contains the Latin Commentariorum series, a bunch of homilies all translated in some way from the commentary, covering much of the lost books. (DJVU here)
  • GCS 41.1 and .2 – “Origenes Werke XII, Commentarius in Matthaeum III” – this contains quotations in other early Christians works, plus fragments from catenas. (DJVU of part 1 here).

A text can also be found in Migne’s Patrologia Graeca 13, reprinted from the 18th century edition of Delarue.

Finally we need to consider the edition of Lommatzsch (1831), which was used as the basis for the ANF English translation[1].

There is a complete German translation, in three large and expensive volumes, by H. J. Vogt: Origenes: Der Kommentar zum Evangelium nach Mattäus. Eingeleitet, übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1983–1993; Erster Teil: Buch X – XIII (= Bibliothek der griechischen Literatur. 18, Abt. Patristik). 1983, ISBN 3-7772-8307-X; Zweiter Teil: Buch XIV – XVII (= Bibliothek der griechischen Literatur. 30, Abt. Patristik). 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9011-4; Dritter Teil: Die Commentariorum Series (= Bibliothek der griechischen Literatur. 38, Abt. Patristik). 1993, ISBN 3-7772-9325-3.

A French translation of books 10-11 was published by Girod in the 1970s in the Sources Chretiennes series, but no more volumes appeared.

The English translation that floats around the internet is that of the Ante-Nicene Fathers series, reprinted and repackaged in heaven-alone-knows how many forms.  In this 1885 American edition, it is found in volume 9, online in PDF here (sometimes it is treated as volume 10).  I shall refer to the page numbers in this printed edition.

The translation was made by a certain John Patrick DD (p.409), minister of Greenside, Edinburgh (title page), and contains the following materials:

  • Extract from book 1 (p.411) – this is in fact quoted in, and so based on, Eusebius Church History book 6, chapter 25.  HTML here.
  • Extract from book 2 (p.412) – this is from the Philocalia of Origen, chapter 6.  HTML here.
  • Books 10-14 (pp.413-512) – these are from the Greek text.  HTML book 10 starts here.

The translator’s brief introduction makes plain that he knew of books 15-17, but ignored them.  Each book is around 50 pages of the GCS, and about 50 columns of Migne, so they are quite substantial.

The translator also ignored some extracts in Latin.  A second extract from book 1 is preserved in Pamphilus’ Apology for Origen, chapter 5, which exists only in a Latin version; but this is not translated by the ANF.  A chunk of book 7 is likewise preserved in Pamphilus, chapter 10.

Interestingly a portion of book 15 was translated in November 2007 by a certain Yoel Natan, using machine-translation, on this page.

Clearly there is a need for an English translation of the remaining material.  It seems a bit lengthy for me, but I have done no precise calculations.  It would be very nice to have it, though!

UPDATE (13/3/17): It seems that Justin Gohl has translated book 15, and has a version up at Academia.edu for comment!  Marvellous news!

UPDATE (21/11/17): And Dr Gohl has now translated and uploaded book 16 as well!

UPDATE (20/01/20): A new English translation has appeared: Ronald E. Heine, The Commentary of Origen on the Gospel of St Matthew, Oxford Early Christian Texts (2018), ISBN: 9780199669073.  Available here at Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk.  The OUP page states that: “The first translation into English of the entirety of the Greek and Latin remains of the Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, including most of the fragments.”

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  1. [1]So the PDF, p.294.↩