Glossary
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Decadence - The process of decaying
Or
Decadence - Luxurious self-indulgence
Gentry - Fancy British people of good social stock, but not as good as the noble British.
Bay - A space inside of a room that is projected from a wall, kind of like a cubbyhole or a nook
Rabble - A large number of people, Sometimes an angry mob or just ordinary folks.
Cathedral Close- The area around a cathedral, sometimes extending past 100 yards. This property was owned by the Cathedral and was under the control of the local bishop. It usually had schools, and other buildings used by the diocese. It’s called a close because it had gates to keep out the rabble (see Rabble) when things got hairy.
Star - a white patch on the forehead of animals, specifically horses.
Garland - A wreath of flowers and leaves
Comminate - To threaten with divine punishment. To curse
Footpace - The ground or floor at the bottom of a staircase or a flight of steps.
Descende - (Latin) Descend.
Monstrance - Aka Ostensorium. A display case that looks like a ridiculously fancy candle stick. It’s usually used to show off communion bread, but it can also be used to display some relic of a saint, or whatever
Burly - A big strong person.
Alb - The white gown that priests wear at mass
Pyx - The fancy container that holds the consecrated bread of the Eucharist
Lady Chapel - A building built for the worshipping of the Virgin Mary.
Housel - Another word for the Eucharist, or the act of giving or receiving it.
Dan - A title equivalent to Master or Sir.
Image - 1. A representation of the external form of something. 2. A general impression that someone one presents to the public
Places
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Clongowes (Continued) - Its full name is Clongowes Wood College. A boy’s boarding school located near Clane, Ireland. The school population is split into thirds also called “lines”: ⅓ = Third line for the first and second year students. ⅓= Lower line for the third and fourth year students. ⅓= The Higher line for the fifth and sixth year students.
Marsh’s Library - The first Library built in Dublin. During the late Renaissance/ early Enlightenment times, Archbishop Narcissus Marsh ordered it to be built to hold his 25,000 books and 300 manuscripts. was established during the late Renaissance and Early Enlightenment era.
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Other Things
Joachim of Fiore - (Gioacchino de Fiore, Italian) He was a Catholic abbot and the founder of San Giobanni in Fiore. He once had a spiritual episode on his way to Jerusalem which turned him off of the luxurities of the modern world. He became a hermit, spent all of his time preaching and studying the bible, with an emphasis on hidden meanings, especially in the part with John’s Revelation. Later on he inspired a group of followers who called themselves the Joachimites to continue his work.
Latherin - When a horse is working hard and getting all sweaty, they have to cool down. That's where Latherin kicks in. It’s a protein in horse sweat that causes it to lather up like soap. Horses hair is waterproof, and that is no good for a hot horse so latherin brings the sweat to the surface, allowing it to evaporate and keeping the horse happy.
2 Kings 23, 24 - 23 And he went up from thence unto Bethel. And as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him,”Go up, thou bald head! Go up, thou bald head!” 24 and he turn back and looked on them, and cursed the name of the Lord. And there came forth two shebears out of the wood and tore forty and two children of them.
Did you catch that? Let me break it down for you. A dude is walking to town. A bunch of bratty kids came out talking garbage. Now pay attention… This guy cursed them in the name of the Lord, and two female bears came from the woods and tore up forty two of them.
A grown ass man asked God to curse some bratty kids. And God sent BEARS to murder 42 children.
That is fucking metal!
Deuteronomy 32:13-14 - 13 he made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the increas of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock; 14 Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats with the fat of kidnes of wheat; and thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape.
Vaticinia de Summis Pontificbus - (Prophecies of the Popes) A book full of drawings and prophecies of popes starting with Pope Nicholas III and going forwards. Joachim of Flora was wrongfully credited for writing them.
Basilik - A European Mythcal reptile that can kill with a single glance. Pliney the Elder wrote about it in his book Naturalis Historia, saying its was a small snake that leaves a trail of deadly venom and its gaze is just as dangerous. It's only weakness is the stink of a weasel. It’s possible that this creature was inspired by real life snakes and their arch enemies, Mongoose
Altar Bell - A small set of bells used in church services of various denominations. I will be discussing the Catholic stuff. In short, these bells are rung to let the audience know that the priest is doing something special. Typically, the server will ring the bell while the priest shows everybody the Host (bread) and the wine while saying the epiclesis (the magic words) .
(Blah blah blah….)
Take this, all of you, and eat of it.
For this is my Body,
Which will be given up for you
*priest displays the bread*
*Server rings alter bell*
*Priest grabs goblet*
Take this, all of you, and drink from it,
For this is the chalice of my blood,
The blood of the new and eternal covenant,
Which will be poured out for you and for many
For the forgiveness of sins,
*Priest displays the goblet*
*Server rings alter bell a second time*
Trial of the Pyx
William of Occam - Also known as Doctor Invincible. He was an English son, Francisican philosopher, theologian, and political writer. He came up with the idea behind Occam’s Razor, and a an advocate for a school of thought known as Nominalism.
Hypostasis - The underlying state or underlying substance and is the fundamental reality that supports all else. What does that mean? Let’s change to word to basic, The basic state or basic substance and is the fundamental reality that supports all else.
What does that mean? I don’t know.
Let’s try this, Hypostasis meant a particular thing to Plotinus and later on the Christians will take the Hypostasis ball and Christ it up. I’am thinking the Christian version might be the more relevant one here, but why not look at them both?
Plotinus says Hypostasis is made up of three parts.
One
There is a thing that exists. And this thing is extremely boring. It doesn’t follow our rules like time, space or gravity, It does it’s own thing. This thing can not be divided. It can not be multiplied. It can not be categorized, or compared to anything that does or does not exist. It is not the sum of all things. It existed before Existence even existed. Now take this thing and call it ONE (caps for emphasis)
One is kind of a crappy name for it, seeing that it is the thirty fifth most popular word in the English language. But I am only trying to figure this out, like you, so I won't reinvent the wheel by calling it something else, But I will Ctrl+b it though.
Now, One is the source of our world, but not through any actions. Because since One is beyond all attributes, it painted itself into a very boring corner. How can action be caused by something that is unchangeable? If One grew an arm and made a tree, that would mean that that particular arm was making a tree, and not doing something else.
Just to really drive this idea home, One, according to Plotius, is utterly simple. One is beyond description. One is so simple, you can't even say that it exists.
You can’t even say that it exists.
Cf.^ “There is a thing that exists.
Now the world is gone, I’m just one
Cf. Metallica, … And Justice for All.
Now through means of which i do not understand, One, this thing that is so beyond anything, was able to cause changes known as Emanations.
We should explore this first.
Emanations - This is an idea that is thrown around a lot in certain religious and philosophical camps. It comes from the Latin word Emanare which sort of conveys the idea of “Flowing or pouring out from”. It is basically the process of which everything flows from the original thing. In this case, the “original thing” is One.
Like I said, One is the source of everything and everything flows out or Emanate from the orgical perfect source.
Here is how i think of it:
The Source - I am in a dreamless sleep, unconscious, I can not be aware of the ideas going on in my head. Roughly speaking I call this My One stage. The source of the great idea I am about to have.
Aristotle might call it Potentiality (Cf.****15 Potentiality and Actuality)
Emanation 1. I wake up and have this totally perfect idea, about a totally perfect musical about cats. This is the most perfect thing that I can comprehend. This would be my Nous Stage. (we’ll jump in to that in a minute)
Émanation 2. I take all these crazy wonderful ideas about singing and dancing anatomically accurate alley tabbies and start committing to paper. This very roughly represents the Soul stage
Emanation 3. I create a totally perfect musical, and it turns out exactly like the perfect
idea I had in my head.
Emanation 4. My perfect musical was made into a movie that won every possible award Imaginable. It was a wonderful movie with suspense, intrigue, love and drama, there was even a bootleg version that even included all the cat anuses that were edited out. It was perfect in every way, almost as good as seeing it live for the first time. From here the emanations will slowly deteriorate in quality.
Emanation 5 My perfect movie that was almost as good as the live performance is now released on 4K Bluray with all the bells and whistles. Crystal clear vision Dolby 12.76 or something audio. A wonderful experience to watch in the comfort of your own home. Almost as good as watching it on the big screen.
Emanation 6 A few years go by since this musical took pop culture by storm and now it is found in the $5 dvd bin at Walmart. It is packaged in one of those 2 for 1 dvd sets. It was paired up by accident with a bootleg Bollywood remake of The Lion King.
… Years and emanations go by...
Emanation 42 Hidden in his dusty collection of pornos. A weird uncle with peculiar interests has a vhs copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of the Unauthorised XXX Bollywood Cat Anus Cut, dubbed in German, subbed Dutch, but he swears that it is in French. His sad wife only wishes that he would put it away when they had company over.
Nous
- Commonly thought of as “Intelligence”, “Mind”, “Reason” and so on. Nous is
described as God. Well actually, the image of God, and referred to as the Demiurge.
Cf. (****21) Demiurge
In other words:
Nous = Intelligence.
Intelligence = The image of God
The image of God = The Demiurge
Nous = The Demiurge
I think?
When I refer to Nous, I will mean all of this.
Actually the Image of God
Cf. ^ The Soul.
Nous is the concept and thought behind everything.
Plato might call this his Theory of Forms
Cf. Plato (****15)
Nous is where this starts to get fun. Referencing my fresh and flawless feline
affair emanation enumeration, we see that The Source is my One stage.
Flowing from this would be my first emanation. My perfect idea- My Nous stage!
Be Careful not to fall into thinking that One is somehow superior to Nous
though. One is only the possibility of the foundation of everything.
So, Nous is Intelligence. What would we expect pure intelligence to do
Well, think of course!
And what would it think about it?
Itself!
Actually, this has me confused,
It created itself, by thinking, or conceptualizing itself, and in turn created the concept of everything else. At this level, nothing physical exists, just free flowing thoughts flopping around in its own self formed space.
Soul
This is phase 3. With all of these vagrant ideas running around, we get another Emanaton. The Soul takes all of these ideas and creates a separate and material space. This space is the image, picture or reflection of Nous. It is the soul that understands everything from a physical point of view. Which in turn interprets it into reality.
Yeah, It’s confusing
Now the Christians play a different game of Hypostasis
The Hypostatic Union
Disclaimer: It is my opinion that the following are the anxious thoughts of ancient rich men purposefully trying to be as confusing as possible. Either because they kept writing themselves into corners. Or they had to sufficiently confuse the poor and uneducated to keep them scared and stupid. Either way, it was an excellent way to maintain that Catholic bread and butter.
Christians have some wacky things to say on this subject. This is as basic as I can get it:
Jesus Christ is completely God
Jesus Christ is completely Human
Jesus Christ is God because he is the most fundamental nature of the Father, who was born before time.
Cf.(****22) The Holy Trinity and Consubstantiation
Jesus Christ is Human because he is the most fundamental nature of his human mother and she and Jesus were born within time.
I would call shenanigans on that. Mary was a virgin. In order for a human to give birth. They have to retire their virginity jersey. She did not. Therefore, she was not human.
But she was touched by the Holy Spirit! Cf.(****22) The Holy and Consubstantiation
Don’t care, that would turn Mary from 100% human to 90% human and 10% divine.
Also, as I understand it, I might be wrong, Mary was born without original sin, So, I call her 75% human, 25% divine.
What was my point?
Jesus Christ is not two parts
Jesus Christ does not switch between roles of God and Human
Jesus Christ is not a blended mixture of two God and Human
Jesus Christ is one ‘thing’.
Not One, though
Jesus Christ is one ‘thing’ but not because he transformed from a God to a Human
Jesus Christ is one ‘thing’ because “God took humanity to himself”
The Athanasian Creed
What the hell is that supposed to mean? God took humanity to himself?
God physically picked up the collected human population and gave us a hug?
Are we saying that God learned how to become a physical person?
God brought humaneness and benevolence to himself?
God learned how to be humane and benevolent?
How does a perfect deity learn anything?
A Human is both soul and flesh just like Jesus Christ is both God and Human.
Soul = God
Flesh = Human
Are we saying that a Soul is God?
How do Catholics describe a Soul?
They say that a photon is both a particle and a wave
Soul (Catholic) - According to Origen of Alexandria, as opposed to the Body, the soul is the Image of God. What does that mean?
A soul is the representation of the external form of God.
Like a mirror’s reflection.
The soul can actually see God.
Kind of like a mirror’s reflection.
Only the soul can see God.
Not at all like a mirror’s reflection.
It is darn near impossible, or just plain impossible for the Soul to actually see God, because it is wedged between our crappy bodies and our Spirits.
Ok, now what the hell is a Spirit?
Woof… ok...
The Spirit - The old Romans called it Spiritus or Spirare, meaning to “to breathe”. Breathing is the most basic thing that pretty much every living thing does.
Do plants breathe?
Yes,
Hey, I breathe, quite a bit actually, does that mean that Spirit is another name for oxygen?
No.
Breathing is more like a metaphor for the Spirit. Like our breath, the Spirit is the unseen force that powers our bodies. I think that is the most fundamental way I can understand or explain it.
Of course, with such a vague explanation, it invites all kinds of fun interpretations:
Sometimes Spirit is the same thing as Soul
Which is not helpful right now.
Sometimes Spirit is actually referring to the Holy Spirit
Cf.(****22) The Holy Trinity and Consubstantiation, again.
Sometimes Spirit means the supernatural action of an outside force.
Cf. Any movie about a possession
The Body - Again, according to Origen of Alexandria, The Body is the creation of God, a piece of art, like a macaroni portrait. It is similar to God but not perfect. It is the responsibility of every Christian to pick up the slack and complete the perfection of the body to match God.
So, as I understand it, God decided to half-ass a messy human art project; (something that nobody asked for, by the way). He clocked out two hours early on a Friday, left us a note:
”I’ll be out of town for the weeknd, phone will be turned off, don’t forget to clean the bathroom. It’s gross, See you, Monday.”
God
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Characters
Temple -
Buck Mulligan -
Foxy Campbell -
Lanternjaws -
Abbas father,-- furious dean
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Timeline
1707- Marsh’s Library was established
1133 (circ.) - Joachim of Fiore was born
1202 (3/30) - Joachim of Fiore died.
1589 - Vaticina Pontificum (Prophecies of the Popes) was published
1285 - William of Occam was born
1347 - William of Occam died
