1117
St Bede explains how the Exodus and the Ten Commandments are related to Easter and Whitsuntide.
Just as the Jewish festival of Passover commemorated the Israelites’ escape from slavery in Egypt, so the Feast of Weeks fifty days later commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. St Bede explains how these two feasts are taken up in the Christian year as Easter and Whit Sunday or Pentecost.
Picture: © Mujtaba Hassan, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted June 4 2017
1118
A marble statue in Venice bears witness to Europe’s long history of brave defeats and fruitless victories.
The Piraeus Lion has seen some remarkable history pass before his eyes, from the days when Scandinavian and English mercenaries were taking the fight to the Normans in Italy, to the day when the Turks came knocking imperiously on the doors of Vienna.
Picture: © Didier Descouens, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted June 2 2017
1119
Louisa Musgrove thought she had hit on a sure method of winning Captain Wentworth’s affections.
Anne Elliot has no expectation that Captain Wentworth will ever forgive her for turning down his proposal of marriage eight years before. Nonetheless, the Captain’s attentions to young Louisa Musgrove have been noted, and events on the promenade at Lyme in Dorset complicate matters further.
Picture: © Chris Talbot, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 1 2017
1120
A twelve-year-old girl from Lyme Regis made a historic discovery while selling seashells to tourists.
Around the time that the fictional Anne Elliot paid a visit to Lyme Regis in Jane Austen’s novel ‘Persuasion’, in real life a young girl named Mary Anning was chipping away at the nearby cliffs, and had already entered the history books.
Picture: Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted May 31 2017
1121
High above the roof of the Amazonian rainforest, Professor Challenger sees something that eerily reminds him of home.
High on a remote plateau amidst the Brazilian rainforest, Edward Malone, Professor Challenger and their party of explorers come across fresh, oozing prints in the mud. Lord John Roxton sees three toes and thinks ‘bird’, but the sight reminds Professor Challenger of Sussex — and quite a different creature.
Picture: © Ballista, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.
Posted May 30 2017
1122
In the fourth century, Britain’s Christians acquired a taste for watering down the mystery of their message.
When the Roman Emperor Constantine ended decades of persecution for Christians in February 313, those in Britain returned to their churches with simple joy. Yet missionaries to Anglo-Saxon Britain in 597 found a church scattered and plagued by alien beliefs. St Bede blamed a priest from Egypt, Arius, for the startling change.
Picture: From the Benaki Museum, Athens, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted May 29 2017