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At first, John Milton struggled to come to terms with the loss of his eyesight.
In 1649, John Milton (1608-74) was appointed Latin Secretary to the Council of State, a Parliamentary role accountable to Oliver Cromwell, the country’s military ruler following the execution of King Charles I that year. By 1655, Milton was losing his sight, and as his condition worsened he was tempted to complain that God was robbing him of any chance to continue serving him.
Picture: Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 16 2022
212
Three servants are engaged to invest their master’s money in the markets.
Jesus, now in Jerusalem, has been telling his disciples about the kingdom of heaven, perhaps better translated as ‘the reign of heaven’. He reminds them that this heavenly reign has begun and is getting wider, and that at some point in the future — he never says exactly when — God will require us to produce something to show for the errands he has sent us on, however small.
Picture: © A. N. Mironov, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted August 16 2022
213
Embarrassed by the behaviour of his Norman bishops and abbots, King William I asked monk Guitmond to come over and set an example.
After seizing the English crown in 1066, William the Conqueror appointed French clergyman as bishops and abbots across England. Many were contemptuous and greedy, few spoke English and some used gendarmes to enforce their French ways. William begged Guitmond of the Abbey of St Leufroi in Normandy to set a better example, but Guitmond said the problem went deeper than that.
Picture: © Ethan Doyle White, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted August 15 2022
214
Charles Dickens tells the story of Hereward the Wake, the last Englishman to stand up to William the Conqueror.
After seizing King Harold’s crown at Hastings in 1066, William of Normandy had to face a series of challengers from among the English and their friends in Ireland and Scotland. William crushed the revolt of Harold’s sons Edmund and Godwin, visited slaughter and burning on Durham, bought off the Danes and the Earls Edwin and Morcar — and left one man to lead the rebels in a last desperate stand.
Picture: . Source.
Posted August 14 2022
215
Jack Curran’s career as a defender of victims of political prejudice got off to a stuttering start.
John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) was a eloquent campaigner for civil rights in Ireland, then governed from London. Small, ungainly and plagued by a stammer, Curran overcame his inhibitions and impediments by a strenuous regimen of reading aloud, behaviour changes and mental rehearsal that transformed him into a fluent speaker, a clear thinker and a persuasive advocate.
Picture: By Anonymous, via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ?Public domain.. Source.
Posted August 11 2022
216
The Sheriff of Northumberland allows wealth and power to go to his head — and his digestion.
In the 680s, St Cuthbert was Bishop of Lindisfarne, an island just off the Northumberland coast, though he lived alone on neighbouring Inner Farne. His remains were later brought to Durham, where in 1093 a large priory was begun in his honour. Reginald, a monk in the priory, recorded dozens of miracles at Cuthbert’s Durham shrine, but some still went to Farne to seek his help.
Picture: © Andrew Curtis, Geograph. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted August 10 2022