Today in 1541, King Henry VIII of England ordered that the Bible in English should be placed in all English churches, despite having had William Tyndale strangled five years earlier for translating it. To add insult to injury, Henry’s ‘Great Bible’ made free use of Tyndale’s translation, including his version of the seventh commandment: ‘Thou shalt not breake wedlocke’, which was at least an improvement on Wycliffe’s earlier version: ‘Thou shalt not do lechery’. The Bible’s title page (above) showed Henry dispensing Bibles as though it had all been his idea in the first place.
Today in 1757, the English poet Christopher Smart was confined to St Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics in London’s Bethnal Green. Alone for company he had his cat Jeoffry, whom he made famous by praising him over 74 lines of poetry, written while they were both in St Luke’s. The poem, ‘Jubilate Agno’, was first published almost two centuries later, in 1939, with the title, ‘Rejoice in the Lamb: A Song from Bedlam’. Smart was released from the hospital after six years.
For when his day’s work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord’s watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is of the tribe of Tiger.
Christopher Smart, ‘Jubilate Agno’
The Sack of Rome began today in 1527, when 20,000 Spanish and German troops of Charles V, mutinying because they had not been paid, turned their rage on Rome. The Swiss Guard, the protectors of the Pope, were slaughtered, while the Pope himself, Clement VII, holed up in Castel Sant’Angelo while the city was pillaged. A month later, he emerged and paid 400,000 ducats to save his skin.
It is the birthday of Joseph Brackett, elder in the Shaker movement, and writer of the Shaker dancing song, ‘Simple Gifts’, who was born today in 1797. His infectious melody has become widely known through the song ‘Lord of the Dance’, which borrows Brackett’s tune.
When true simplicity is gain’d,
To bow and to bend we will not be asham’d,
To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.
Joseph Brackett, ‘Simple Gifts’
Today was celebrated (until 1960) as the feast of St John, the disciple of Jesus, miraculously escaping from a cauldron of boiling oil. According to a Christian folk tale, John was brought to Rome, and was thrown into the cauldron on the orders of the Emperor Domitian during a Christian persecution. He escaped and went off to the island of Patmos, where he wrote his Book of Revelation.
‘How fortunate is the church in Rome, upon which the apostles poured their whole teaching, together with their blood; where Peter suffered like his Lord, where Paul was crowned with John the Baptist’s death, and where the apostle John, after he had been immersed in boiling oil without harm, was banished to an island.’ Tertullian, The Prescriptions against the Heretics