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Bernard of Clairvaux
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Accessed: 7/31/22
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
San Bernardo by Juan Correa de Vivar, held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain
Doctor of the Church
Doctor Mellifluus
Last of the Fathers
Confessor
Abbot
Born: c. 1090, Fontaine-les-Dijon, Burgundy, Kingdom of France
Died: 20 August 1153 (aged 62-63), Clairvaux Abbey, Clairvaux (modern day part of Ville-sous-la-Ferté), Champagne, Kingdom of France
Venerated in : Catholic Church, Anglican Communion[1], Lutheranism[2]
Canonized: 18 January 1174, Rome, Papal States by Pope Alexander III
Major shrine: Troyes Cathedral
Feast: August 20
Attributes: Cistercian habit, book, and crosier
Patronage Cistercians, Burgundy, beekeepers, candlemakers, Gibraltar, Algeciras, Queens' College, Cambridge, Speyer Cathedral, Knights Templar, Binangonan, Rizal
Bernard of Clairvaux (Latin: Bernardus Claraevallensis; 1090 – 20 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was a Burgundian abbot and a major leader in the revitalization of Benedictine monasticism through the nascent Cistercian Order.
He was sent to found Clairvaux Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar,[a] which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility.
On the death of Pope Honorius II in 1130, a schism arose in the church. Bernard was a major proponent of Pope Innocent II, arguing effectively for his legitimacy over the Antipope Anacletus II.
In 1139, Bernard attended the Second Council of the Lateran and criticized Peter Abelard vocally. Bernard advocated crusades in general and convinced many to participate in the unsuccessful Second Crusade, notably through a famous sermon at Vézelay (1146).
Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.
Early life (1090–1113)
Bernard's parents were Tescelin de Fontaine, lord of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, and Alèthe de Montbard [fr], both members of the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard was the third of seven children, six of whom were sons. Aged nine, he was sent to a school at Châtillon-sur-Seine run by the secular canons of Saint-Vorles. Bernard had an interest in literature and rhetoric. He had a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, and he later wrote several works about the Queen of Heaven.[3]
The Vision of St Bernard, by Fra Bartolommeo, c. 1504 (Uffizi)
Bernard emphasized the value of a personally held faith, with the life of Christ as a model and new emphasis on the Virgin Mary. In opposition to the rational approach to divine understanding used by the scholastics, Bernard preached an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.
Bernard was nineteen years old when his mother died. During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations and around this time he thought of living a life of solitude and prayer.[4]
In 1098, a group led by Robert of Molesme had founded Cîteaux Abbey, near Dijon, with the purpose of living literally according to the Rule of St Benedict. After his mother died, Bernard decided to go to Cîteaux. In 1113 he and thirty other young noblemen of Burgundy sought admission into the new monastery.[5] Bernard's example was so convincing that scores followed him into the monastic life.
Abbot of Clairvaux (1115–28)
Bernard exorcising a possession, altarpiece by Jörg Breu the Elder, c. 1500
Bernard holding a demon at his feet, oil on canvas by Marcello Baschenis, c. 1885
The little community of reformed Benedictines at Cîteaux grew rapidly. Three years after entering, Bernard was sent with a group of twelve monks to found a new house at Vallée d'Absinthe, in the Diocese of Langres. This Bernard named Claire Vallée, or Clairvaux, on 25 June 1115, and the names of Bernard and Clairvaux soon became inseparable.[4] During the absence of the Bishop of Langres, Bernard was blessed as abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. From then on a strong friendship grew between the abbot and the bishop, who was professor of theology at Notre Dame of Paris and the founder of St. Victor Abbey in Paris.[3]
The beginnings of Clairvaux Abbey were austere; Bernard soon became ill. Nonetheless, candidates for the monastic life flocked to it in great numbers. Even his father and all his brothers entered Cîteaux, leaving only Humbeline, his sister, in the secular world. She, with the consent of her husband, later took the veil in the Benedictine nunnery of Jully-les-Nonnains. Gerard of Clairvaux, Bernard's older brother, became the cellarer of Cîteaux. Clairvaux soon started founding new communities.[6] In 1118 Trois-Fontaines Abbey was founded in the diocese of Châlons; in 1119 Fontenay Abbey in the Diocese of Autun; and in 1121 Foigny Abbey near Vervins.
In addition to successes, Bernard also had his trials. During an absence from Clairvaux, the Grand Prior of the Abbey of Cluny went to Clairvaux and enticed away Bernard's cousin, Robert of Châtillon. This was the occasion of the longest and most emotional of Bernard's letters.[3]
The abbey of Cluny as it would have looked in Bernard's time
The monks of the powerful Benedictine abbey of Cluny were unhappy to see Cîteaux take the lead role among the monastic orders. They criticized the Cistercian way of life. At the solicitation of William of St.-Thierry, Bernard defended the Cistercians with his Apology. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, answered Bernard and assured him of his admiration and friendship. In the meantime, Cluny launched a reform and Abbot Suger, the minister of Louis VI of France, was converted by Bernard's Apology.
Doctor of the Church
Christ Embracing St. Bernard by Francisco Ribalta
In 1128, Bernard participated in the Council of Troyes, which had been convoked by Pope Honorius II, and was presided over by Cardinal Matthew of Albano. The purpose of this council was to settle certain disputes of the bishops of Paris, and regulate other matters of the Church of France. The bishops made Bernard secretary of the council, and charged him with drawing up the synodal statutes. After the council, the bishop of Verdun was deposed. It was at this council that Bernard composed a rule for the Knights Templar; it soon became an ideal of Christian nobility. Around this time, he praised them in his Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae.[7]
Schism
Bernard's influence was soon felt in provincial affairs. He defended the rights of the Church against the encroachments of kings and princes, and recalled to their duty Henri Sanglier, archbishop of Sens and Stephen of Senlis, bishop of Paris. When Honorius II died in 1130, a schism broke out in the Church by the election of two popes, Pope Innocent II and Antipope Anacletus II. Innocent, having been banished from Rome by Anacletus, took refuge in France. King Louis VI convened a national council of the French bishops at Étampes and Bernard, summoned there by the bishops, was chosen to judge between the rival popes. He decided in favour of Innocent.
Bernard travelled on to Italy and reconciled Pisa with Genoa, and Milan with the pope. The same year Bernard was again at the Council of Reims at the side of Innocent II. He then went to Aquitaine where he succeeded for the time in detaching William X, Duke of Aquitaine, from the cause of Anacletus.[4]
Saint Bernard and the Duke of Aquitaine, by Marten Pepijn
Germany had decided to support Innocent through Norbert of Xanten, who was a friend of Bernard's. However, Innocent insisted on Bernard's company when he met with Lothair II, Holy Roman Emperor. Lothair II became Innocent's strongest ally among the nobility. Although the councils of Étampes, Würzburg, Clermont, and Rheims all supported Innocent, large portions of the Christian world still supported Anacletus.
In a letter by Bernard to German Emperor Lothair regarding Antipope Anacletus, Bernard wrote, “It is a disgrace for Christ that a Jew sits on the throne of St. Peter’s” and “Anacletus has not even a good reputation with his friends, while Innocent is illustrious beyond all doubt.”
Bernard wrote to Gerard of Angoulême (a letter known as Letter 126), which questioned Gerard's reasons for supporting Anacletus. Bernard later commented that Gerard was his most formidable opponent during the whole schism. After persuading Gerard, Bernard traveled to visit William X, Duke of Aquitaine. He was the hardest for Bernard to convince. He did not pledge allegiance to Innocent until 1135. After that, Bernard spent most of his time in Italy persuading the Italians to pledge allegiance to Innocent. The conflict ended when Anacletus died in 1138.[8]
In 1132, Bernard accompanied Innocent II into Italy, and at Cluny the pope abolished the dues which Clairvaux used to pay to that abbey. This action gave rise to a quarrel between the White Monks and the Black Monks which lasted 20 years. In May of that year, the pope, supported by the army of Lothair III, entered Rome, but Lothair III, feeling himself too weak to resist the partisans of Anacletus, retired beyond the Alps, and Innocent sought refuge in Pisa in September 1133. Bernard had returned to France in June and was continuing the work of peacemaking which he had commenced in 1130. Towards the end of 1134, he made a second journey into Aquitaine, where William X had relapsed into schism. Bernard invited William to the Mass which he celebrated in the Church of La Couldre. At the Eucharist, he "admonished the Duke not to despise God as he did His servants".[3] William yielded and the schism ended. Bernard went again to Italy, where Roger II of Sicily was endeavouring to withdraw the Pisans from their allegiance to Innocent. He recalled the city of Milan to obedience to the pope as they had followed the deposed Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan. For this, he was offered, and he refused, the archbishopric of Milan. He then returned to Clairvaux. Believing himself at last secure in his cloister, Bernard devoted himself to the composition of the works which won for him the title of "Doctor of the Church". He wrote at this time his sermons on the Song of Songs.[ b] In 1137, he was again forced to leave the abbey by order of the pope to put an end to the quarrel between Lothair and Roger of Sicily. At the conference held at Palermo, Bernard succeeded in convincing Roger of the rights of Innocent II. He also silenced the final supporters who sustained the schism. Anacletus died of "grief and disappointment" in 1138, and with him the schism ended.[3]
In 1139, Bernard assisted at the Second Council of the Lateran, in which the surviving adherents of the schism were definitively condemned. About the same time, Bernard was visited at Clairvaux by Malachy, Primate of All Ireland, and a very close friendship formed between them. Malachy wanted to become a Cistercian, but the pope would not give his permission. Malachy died at Clairvaux in 1148.[3]
Conflict with Abelard
Towards the close of the 11th century, a spirit of independence flourished within schools of philosophy and theology. The movement found an ardent and powerful advocate in Peter Abelard. Abelard's treatise on the Trinity had been condemned as heretical in 1121, and he was compelled to throw his own book into a fire. However, Abelard continued to develop his controversial teachings. Bernard is said to have held a meeting with Abelard intending to persuade him to amend his writings, during which Abelard repented and promised to do so. But once out of Bernard's presence, he reneged.[10] Bernard then denounced Abelard to the pope and cardinals of the Curia. Abelard sought a debate with Bernard, but Bernard initially declined, saying he did not feel matters of such importance should be settled by logical analyses. Bernard's letters to William of St-Thierry also express his apprehension about confronting the preeminent logician. Abelard continued to press for a public debate, and made his challenge widely known, making it hard for Bernard to decline. In 1141, at the urgings of Abelard, the archbishop of Sens called a council of bishops, where Abelard and Bernard were to put their respective cases so Abelard would have a chance to clear his name.[10] Bernard lobbied the prelates on the evening before the debate, swaying many of them to his view. The next day, after Bernard made his opening statement, Abelard decided to retire without attempting to answer.[10] The council found in favour of Bernard and their judgment was confirmed by the pope. Abelard submitted without resistance, and he retired to Cluny to live under the protection of Peter the Venerable, where he died two years later.[4]
Cistercian Order and heresy
Bernard had occupied himself in sending bands of monks from his overcrowded monastery into Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy. Some of these, at the command of Innocent II, took possession of Tre Fontane Abbey, from which Eugene III was chosen in 1145. Pope Innocent II died in the year 1143. His two successors, Pope Celestine II and Pope Lucius II, reigned only a short time, and then Bernard saw one of his disciples, Bernard of Pisa, and known thereafter as Eugene III, raised to the Chair of Saint Peter.[11] Bernard sent him, at the pope's own request, various instructions which comprise the Book of Considerations, the predominating idea of which is that the reformation of the Church ought to commence with the sanctity of the pope. Temporal matters are merely accessories; the principles according to Bernard's work were that piety and meditation were to precede action.[12]
Having previously helped end the schism within the Church, Bernard was now called upon to combat heresy. Henry of Lausanne, a former Cluniac monk, had adopted the teachings of the Petrobrusians, followers of Peter of Bruys and spread them in a modified form after Peter's death.[13] Henry of Lausanne's followers became known as Henricians. In June 1145, at the invitation of Cardinal Alberic of Ostia, Bernard traveled in southern France.[14] His preaching, aided by his ascetic looks and simple attire, helped doom the new sects. Both the Henrician and the Petrobrusian faiths began to die out by the end of that year. Soon afterwards, Henry of Lausanne was arrested, brought before the bishop of Toulouse, and probably imprisoned for life. In a letter to the people of Toulouse, undoubtedly written at the end of 1146, Bernard calls upon them to extirpate the last remnants of the heresy. He also preached against Catharism.[11]
Crusade preaching
Second Crusade (1146–49)
News came at this time from the Holy Land that alarmed Christendom. Christians had been defeated at the Siege of Edessa and most of the county had fallen into the hands of the Seljuk Turks.[15] The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states were threatened with similar disaster. Deputations of the bishops of Armenia solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors. In 1144 Eugene III commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade and granted the same indulgences for it which Pope Urban II had accorded to the First Crusade.[16]
There was at first virtually no popular enthusiasm for the crusade as there had been in 1095. Bernard found it expedient to dwell upon taking the cross as a potent means of gaining absolution for sin and attaining grace. On 31 March, with King Louis VII of France present, he preached to an enormous crowd in a field at Vézelay, making "the speech of his life".[17] The full text has not survived, but a contemporary account says that "his voice rang out across the meadow like a celestial organ"[17]
James Meeker Ludlow describes the scene romantically in his book The Age of the Crusades:
When Bernard was finished the crowd enlisted en masse; they supposedly ran out of cloth to make crosses. Bernard is said to have flung off his own robe and began tearing it into strips to make more.[16][17] Others followed his example and he and his helpers were supposedly still producing crosses as night fell.[17]
Unlike the First Crusade, the new venture attracted royalty, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France; Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders; Henry, the future Count of Champagne; Louis's brother Robert I of Dreux; Alphonse I of Toulouse; William II of Nevers; William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey; Hugh VII of Lusignan, Yves II, Count of Soissons; and numerous other nobles and bishops. But an even greater show of support came from the common people. Bernard wrote to the pope a few days afterwards, "Cities and castles are now empty. There is not left one man to seven women, and everywhere there are widows to still-living husbands."[16]
Bernard then passed into Germany, and the reported miracles which multiplied almost at his every step undoubtedly contributed to the success of his mission. Conrad III of Germany and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, received the cross from the hand of Bernard.[15] Pope Eugenius came in person to France to encourage the enterprise. As in the First Crusade, the preaching led to attacks on Jews; a fanatical French monk named Radulphe was apparently inspiring massacres of Jews in the Rhineland, Cologne, Mainz, Worms, and Speyer, with Radulphe claiming Jews were not contributing financially to the rescue of the Holy Land. The archbishop of Cologne and the archbishop of Mainz were vehemently opposed to these attacks and asked Bernard to denounce them. This he did, but when the campaign continued, Bernard traveled from Flanders to Germany to deal with the problems in person. He then found Radulphe in Mainz and was able to silence him, returning him to his monastery.[19]
The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Second Crusade he had preached, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him.[11] Bernard considered it his duty to send an apology to the Pope and it is inserted in the second part of his "Book of Considerations." There he explains how the sins of the crusaders were the cause of their misfortune and failures.
Wendish Crusade (1147)
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Bernhard preached the Wendish Crusade against Western Slavs, setting a goal to the crusade of battling them "until such a time as, by God's help, they shall either be converted or deleted".[20]
Final years (1149–53)
Bernard receiving milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary. The scene is a legend which allegedly took place at Speyer Cathedral in 1146.
The death of his contemporaries served as a warning to Bernard of his own approaching end. The first to die was Suger in 1152, of whom Bernard wrote to Eugene III, "If there is any precious vase adorning the palace of the King of Kings it is the soul of the venerable Suger". Conrad III and his son Henry died the same year. Bernard died at age sixty-three on 20 August 1153, after forty years of monastic life.[11] He was buried at Clairvaux Abbey, and after its dissolution in 1792 by the French revolutionary government his remains were transferred to Troyes Cathedral.
Theology
Main article: Doctor Mellifluus
Bernard was named a Doctor of the Church in 1830. At the 800th anniversary of his death, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical about him, titled Doctor Mellifluus, in which he labeled him "The Last of the Fathers." The central elements of Bernard's Mariology are how he explained the virginity of Mary, the "Star of the Sea", and her role as Mediatrix.
The first abbot of Clairvaux developed a rich theology of sacred space and music, writing extensively on both.[citation needed]
John Calvin and Martin Luther quoted Bernard several times[21] in support of the doctrine of Sola Fide.[22][23] Calvin also quotes him in setting forth his doctrine of a forensic alien righteousness, or as it is commonly called imputed righteousness.[24]
Spirituality
Stained glass representing Bernard. Upper Rhine, c. 1450
Bernard was instrumental in re-emphasizing the importance of lectio divina and contemplation for monks. Bernard had observed that when lectio divina was neglected, monasticism suffered.[25] Bernard "noted centuries ago: the people who are their own spiritual directors have fools for disciples."[26]
Legacy
Bernard's theology and Mariology continue to be of major importance, particularly within the Cistercian and Trappist Orders.[c] Bernard helped found 163 monasteries in different parts of Europe. His influence led Alexander III to launch reforms that led to the establishment of canon law.[27] He was canonized by Alexander III 18 January 1174.[28] He is labeled the "Mellifluous Doctor" for his eloquence. Cistercians honour him as one of the greatest early Cistercians.[11]
His feast day (observed in several denominations) is 20 August.
Bernard is Dante Alighieri's last guide, in Divine Comedy, as he travels through the Empyrean.[29] Dante's choice appears to be based on Bernard's contemplative mysticism, his devotion to Mary, and his reputation for eloquence.[30]
The Couvent et Basilique Saint-Bernard, a collection of buildings dating from the 12th, 17th and 19th centuries, is dedicated to Bernard and stands in his birthplace of Fontaine-lès-Dijon.[31]
Hymns
Bernard of Clairvaux is the attributed author of poems often translated in English hymnals as:
• "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"
• "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee"
• "Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts"
Works
An engraving of The Lactation of Saint Bernard. The Virgin Mary is shooting milk into the eye of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from her right breast.
The modern critical edition is Sancti Bernardi opera (1957–1977), edited by Jean Leclercq.[32][d]
Bernard's works include:
• De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae [The steps of humility and pride] (in Latin). c. 1120.[33]
• Apologia ad Guillelmum Sancti Theoderici Abbatem [Apology to William of St. Thierry] (in Latin). Written in the defence of the Cistercians against the claims of the monks of Cluny.[34]
• De conversione ad clericos sermo seu liber [On the conversion of clerics] (in Latin). 1122.[35]
• De gratia et libero arbitrio [On grace and free choice] (in Latin). c. 1128..[36]
• De diligendo Dei [On loving God] (in Latin).[37]
• Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae [In Praise of the new knighthood] (in Latin). 1129.[38]
• De praecepto et dispensatione libri [Book of precepts and dispensations] (in Latin). c. 1144.[39]
• De consideratione [On consideration] (in Latin). c. 1150. Addressed to Pope Eugene III.[40]
• Liber De vita et rebus gestis Sancti Malachiae Hiberniae Episcopi [The life and death of Saint Malachy, bishop of Ireland] (in Latin). [41]
• De moribus et officio episcoporum (in Latin). A letter to Henri Sanglier, Archbishop of Sens on the duties of bishops.[42]
His sermons are also numerous:
• Most famous are his Sermones super Cantica Canticorum (Sermons on the Song of Songs). Although it has at times been suggested that the sermon form is a rhetorical device in a set of works which were only ever designed to be read, since such finely polished and lengthy literary pieces could not accurately have been recorded by a monk while Bernard was preaching, recent scholarship has tended toward the theory that, although what exists in these texts was certainly the product of Bernard's writing, they likely found their origins in sermons preached to the monks of Clairvaux.[e] Bernard began to write these in 1135 but died without completing the series, with 86 sermons complete. These sermons contain an autobiographical passage, sermon 26, mourning the death of his brother, Gerard.[43][44] After Bernard died, the English Cistercian Gilbert of Hoyland continued Bernard's incomplete series of 86 sermons on the biblical Song of Songs. Gilbert wrote 47 sermons before he died in 1172, taking the series up to Chapter 5 of the Song of Songs. Another English Cistercian abbot, John of Ford, wrote another 120 sermons on the Song of Songs, so completing the Cistercian sermon-commentary on the book.
• There are 125 surviving Sermones per annum (Sermons on the Liturgical Year).
• There are also the Sermones de diversis (Sermons on Different Topics).
• 547 letters survive.[45]
Many letters, treatises, and other works, falsely attributed to him survive, and are now referred to as works by pseudo-Bernard.[3] These include:
• pseudo-Bernard (pseud. of Guigo I) (c. 1150). L'échelle du cloître [The scale of the cloister] (letter) (in French).[3]
• pseudo-Bernard. Meditatio [Meditations] (in Latin). This was probably written at some point in the thirteenth century. It circulated extensively in the Middle Ages under Bernard's name and was one of the most popular religious works of the later Middle Ages. Its theme is self-knowledge as the beginning of wisdom; it begins with the phrase "Many know much, but do not know themselves".[46][47][3]
• pseudo-Bernard. L'édification de la maison intérieure (in French).[3]
Translations
• On consideration, trans by George Lewis, (Oxford, 1908) https://books.google.com/books?id=kkoJAQAAIAAJ
• Select treatises of S. Bernard of Clairvaux: De diligendo Deo & De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae, (Cambridge: CUP, 1926)
• On loving God, and selections from sermons, edited by Hugh Martin, (London: SCM Press, 1959) [reprinted as (Westport, CO: Greenwood Press, 1981)]
• Cistercians and Cluniacs: St. Bernard's Apologia to Abbot William, trans M Casey. Cistercian Fathers series no. 1, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1970)
• The works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Vol.1, Treatises, 1, edited by M. Basil Pennington. Cistercian Fathers Series, no. 1. (Spencer, Mass.: Cistercian Publications, 1970) [contains the treatises Apologia to Abbot William and On Precept and Dispensation, and two shorter liturgical treatises]
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs, 4 vols, Cistercian Fathers series nos 4, 7, 31, 40, (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1971–80)
• Letter of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux on revision of Cistercian chant = Epistola S[ancti] Bernardi de revisione cantus Cisterciensis, edited and translated by Francis J. Guentner, (American Institute of Musicology, 1974)
• Treatises II : The steps of humility and pride on loving God, Cistercian Fathers series no. 13, (Washington: Cistercian Publications, 1984)
• Five books on consideration: advice to a Pope, translated by John D. Anderson & Elizabeth T. Kennan. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 37. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1976)
• The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Volume Seven, Treatises III: On Grace and free choice. In praise of the new knighthood, translated by Conrad Greenia. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 19, (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1977)
• The life and death of Saint Malachy, the Irishman translated and annotated by Robert T. Meyer, (Kalamazoo, Mich: Cistercian Publications, 1978)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Homiliae in laudibus Virginis Matris, in Magnificat: homilies in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary translated by Marie-Bernard Saïd and Grace Perigo, Cistercian Fathers Series no. 18, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979)
• Sermons on Conversion: on conversion, a sermon to clerics and Lenten sermons on the psalm "He Who Dwells"., Cistercian Fathers Series no. 25, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1981)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Song of Solomon, translated by Samuel J. Eales, (Minneapolis, MN: Klock & Klock, 1984)
• St. Bernard's sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary, translated from the original Latin by a priest of Mount Melleray, (Chumleigh: Augustine, 1984)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, The twelve steps of humility and pride; and, On loving God, edited by Halcyon C. Backhouse, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
• St. Bernard's sermons on the Nativity, translated from the original Latin by a priest of Mount Melleray, (Devon: Augustine, 1985)
• Bernard of Clairvaux : selected works, translation and foreword by G.R. Evans; introduction by Jean Leclercq; preface by Ewert H. Cousins, (New York: Paulist Press, 1987) [Contains the treatises On conversion, On the steps of humility and pride, On consideration, and On loving God; extracts from Sermons on The song of songs, and a selection of letters]
• Conrad Rudolph, The 'Things of Greater Importance': Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990) [Includes the Apologia in both Leclercq's Latin text and English translation]
• Love without measure: extracts from the writings of St Bernard of Clairvaux, introduced and arranged by Paul Diemer, Cistercian studies series no. 127, (Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1990)
• Sermons for the summer season: liturgical sermons from Rogationtide and Pentecost, translated by Beverly Mayne Kienzle; additional translations by James Jarzembowski, (Kalamazoo, Mich: Cistercian Publications, 1991)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On loving God, Cistercian Fathers series no. 13B, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, The parables & the sentences, edited by Maureen M. O'Brien. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 55, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On baptism and the office of bishops, on the conduct and office of bishops, on baptism and other questions: two letter-treatises, translated by Pauline Matarasso. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 67, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2004)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for Advent and the Christmas season translated by Irene Edmonds, Wendy Mary Beckett, Conrad Greenia; edited by John Leinenweber; introduction by Wim Verbaal. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 51, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2007)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for Lent and the Easter Season, edited by John Leinenweber and Mark Scott, OCSO. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 52, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2013)
See also
• Biography portal
• Christianity portal
• France portal
• Saints portal
• List of Catholic saints
• List of Latin nicknames of the Middle Ages: Doctors in theology
• Scholasticism
• St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church
• Prayer to the shoulder wound of Jesus
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, patron saint archive
• Pope Eugene III
References
Notes
1. André de Montbard, one of the founders of the Knights Templar, was a half-brother of Bernard's mother.
2. Other mystics such as John of the Cross also found their language and symbols in Song of Songs.[9]
3. His texts are prescribed readings in Cistercian congregations.
4. For a research guide see McGuire (2013).
5. For a history of the debate over the Sermons, and an attempted solution, see Leclercq, Jean. Introduction. In Walsh (1976), pp. vii–xxx.
Citations
1. Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. Church Publishing, Inc. 17 December 2019. ISBN 978-1-64065-235-4.
2. "Notable Lutheran Saints". resurrectionpeople.org. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
3. Gildas 1907.
4. Bunson, Bunson & Bunson 1998, p. 129.
5. McManners 1990, p. 204.
6. "Expositio in Apocalypsim". Cambridge Digital Library (manuscript). Cambridge Digital Library. MS Mm.5.31. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
7. Durant 1950, p. 593.
8. Cristiani 1977.
9. Cunningham & Egan 1996, p. 128.
10. Evans 2000, pp. 115–123.
11. Bunson, Bunson & Bunson 1998, p. 130.
12. McManners 1990, p. 210.
13. Alphandéry 1911, pp. 298–299.
14. McManners 1990, p. 211.
15. Riley-Smith 1991, p. 48.
16. Durant 1950, p. 594.
17. Norwich 2012.
18. Ludlow 1896, pp. 164–167.
19. Durant 1950, p. 391.
20. Christiansen, Eric (1997). The northern Crusades (2nd, new ed.). London, England: Penguin. p. 53. ISBN 0-14-026653-4. OCLC 38197435.
21. Lane 1999, p. 100.
22. Calvin 1960, bk.3 ch.2 §25, bk.3 ch.12 §3.
23. Luther 1930, p. 130.
24. Calvin 1960, bk.3 ch.11 §22, bk.3 ch.25 §2.
25. Cunningham & Egan 1996, pp. 91–92.
26. Cunningham & Egan 1996, p. 21.
27. Duffy 1997, p. 101.
28. Kemp 1945, pp. 13–28.
29. Paradiso, cantos XXXI–XXXIII
30. Botterill 1994.
31. Base Mérimée: Couvent et Basilique Saint-Bernard, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
32. SBOp.
33. PL, 182, cols. 939–972c.
34. PL, 182, cols. 893–918a.
35. PL, 182, cols. 833–856d.
36. PL, 182, cols. 999–1030a.
37. PL, 182, cols. 971–1000b.
38. PL, 182, cols. 917–940b.
39. PL, 182, cols. 857–894c.
40. PL, 182, cols. 727–808a.
41. PL, 182, cols. 1073–1118a.
42. Ep. 42 (PL, 182, cols. 807–834a).
43. Verbaal 2004.
44. PL, 183, cols. 785–1198A.
45. SBOp, v. 7–8.
46. PL, 184, cols. 485–508.
47. Bestul 2012, p. 164.
Sources
• Anon. (2010). Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. Church Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-89869-637-0.
• Alphandéry, Paul D. (1911). "Henry of Lausanne" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 298–299.
• Pierre Aubé: Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, Paris, éd. Fayard, 2003, 812 pages.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1976). On the Song of Songs II. Cistercian Fathers series. Vol. 7. Translated by Walsh, Kilian. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879077075. OCLC 2621974.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1998). The letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux. Cistercian Fathers series. Vol. 62. Translated by James, Bruno Scott. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879071622.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1836). Mabillon, Jean (ed.). Opera omnia. Patrologia Latina (in Latin). Vol. 182–185. Paris: Jacques Paul Migne. 6 tomes in 4 volumes.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1957–1977). Leclerq, Jean; Talbot, Charles H.; Rochais, Henri Marie (eds.). Sancti Bernardi Opera (in Latin). Vol. 8 volumes in 9. Rome: Éditions cisterciennes. OCLC 654190630.
• Bestul, Thomas H (2012). "Meditatio/Meditation". In Hollywood, Amy; Beckman, Patricia Z. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521863650.
• Botterill, Steven (1994). Dante and the Mystical Tradition: Bernard of Clairvaux in the Commedia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret & Bunson, Stephen (1998). Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints. Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor.
• Calvin, John (1960). McNeill, John T. (ed.). Institutes of the Christian Religion. Vol. 1. Translated by Battles, Ford Lewis. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. OCLC 844778472.
• Cantor, Norman (1994). The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-092553-1.
• Cristiani, Léon (1977). St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153. Translated by M. Angeline Bouchard. St. Paul Editions. ISBN 978-0-8198-0463-1. OCLC 2874038.
• Cunningham, Lawrence S.; Egan, Keith J. (1996). "Meditation and contemplation". Christian spirituality: themes from the tradition. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-3660-5.
• Duffy, Eamon (1997). Saints and Sinners, a History of the Popes.
• Durant, Will (1950). The Story of Civilization. Vol. IV: The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Gildas, Marie (1907). "St. Bernard of Clairvaux" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Evans, Gillian R. (2000). Bernard of Clairvaux (Great Medieval Thinkers). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512525-8.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bernard, Saint" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 795–798.
• Gilson, Etienne (1940). The mystical theology of St Bernard. London: Sheed & Ward.
• Kemp, E. W. (1945). "Pope Alexander III and the Canonization of Saints: The Alexander Prize Essay". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 27: 13–28. doi:10.2307/3678572. ISSN 0080-4401. JSTOR 3678572.
• Lane, Anthony N. S. (1999). John Calvin: student of the church fathers. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. ISBN 9780567086945.
• Ludlow, James Meeker (1896). The Age of the Crusades. Ten epochs of church history. Vol. 6. New York: Christian Literature. OCLC 904364803.
• Luther, Martin (1930). D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesammtausgabe (in German and Latin). Vol. 40. Weimar: Herman Böhlau.
• McGuire, Brian Patrick (30 September 2013), "Bernard of Clairvaux", Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/OBO/9780195396584-0088
• McManners, John (1990). The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822928-3.
• Most, William G. (1996). "Mary's Immaculate Conception". ewtn.com. Irondale, AL: Eternal Word Television Network. Archived from the original on 19 February 1998. Retrieved 23 February 2015. Adapted from Most, William G. (1994). Our Lady in doctrine and devotion. Alexandria, VA: Notre Dame Institute Press. OCLC 855913595.
• Norwich, John Julius (2012). The Popes: A History. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-956587-1.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1991). The Atlas of the Crusades. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-2186-4.
• Runciman, Steven (1987). The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187. A History of the Crusades. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34771-8.
• Smith, William (2010). Catholic Church Milestones: People and Events That Shaped the Institutional Church. Indianapolis: Left Coast. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-60844-821-0.
• Verbaal, Wim (2004). "Preaching the dead from their graves: Bernard of Clairvaux's Lament on his brother Gerard". In Donavin, Georgiana; Nederman, Cary; Utz, Richard (eds.). Speculum sermonis: interdisciplinary reflections on the medieval sermon. Disputatio. Vol. 1. Turnhout: Brepols. pp. 113–139. doi:10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.3.1616. ISBN 9782503513393.
External links
• Works by Bernard of Clairvaux at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Bernard of Clairvaux at Internet Archive
• Works by Bernard of Clairvaux at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "St. Bernard, Abbot", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• Opera omnia Sancti Bernardi Claraevallensis his complete works, in Latin
• Audio on the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux from waysideaudio.com
• Database with all known medieval representations of Bernard
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux at the Christian Iconography web site.
• "Here Followeth the Life of St. Bernard, the Mellifluous Doctor" from the Caxton translation of the Golden Legend
• "Two Accounts of the Early Career of St. Bernard" by William of Thierry and Arnold of Bonneval
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Abbot, Doctor of the Church-1153 at EWTN Global Catholic Network
• Colonnade Statue St Peter's Square
• Lewis E 26 De consideratione (On Consideration) at OPenn
• MS 484/11 Super cantica canticorum at OPenn
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/31/22
APPENDIX C: The History of Ariosophy
BETWEEN January 1929 and June 1930 a long essay by Lanz appeared in serial form in the Zeitschrift fur Geistes- und Wissenschaftsreform. 'Die Geschich te der Ariosophie' claimed to trace the history of the ariosophical racial religion and its opponents from earliest times up until the present. This account provides a graphical account of Lanz's neo-manichaean conception of the world, inasmuch as he attempted to identify all historical agents as being within one or other of two eschatological camps, working respectively for good or evil, light and darkness, order and chaos.
According to Lanz, the earliest recorded ancestors of the present 'arioheroic' race were the Atlanteans, who had lived on a continent situated in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. They were supposedly descended from the original divine Theozoa with electromagnetic sensory organs and superhuman powers. Catastrophic floods eventually submerged their continent in about 8000 BC and the Atlanteans migrated eastwards in two groups. The Northern Atlanteans streamed towards the British Isles, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe, while the Southern Atlanteans migrated across Western Africa to Egypt and Babylonia, where they founded the antique civilizations of the Near East. The ariosophical cult was thus introduced to Asia, where the idolatrous beast-cults of miscegenation had flourished.
Lanz claimed that the racial religion had been actively preached and practised in the ancient world. He asserted that Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Alexander the Great had been its champions. The laws of Moses and Plato's esteem for the aristocratic principle, and his provision for a caste of priest-kings in The Republic, proved them Ariosophists. Lanz conflated the writings of these ancient thinkers into a monolithic ariosophical tradition, which focused on the famous library at Alexandria, which allegedly housed a magnificent collection of ariosophical scriptures. Scholars and priests from all over the world were said to have come here to study the old papyri of the Southern Atlanteans; here the Old Testament (a fundamental ariosophical text) was edited from scattered chronicles discovered in Palestine; a college of priest-kings attached to the library spread the racist gnosis through missionaries as far as China. The entire Hellenistic world was thus supposed to be familiar with Ariosophy before the advent of Christ-Frauja. The coming of Frauja and his establishment of the Church unleashed -- so it was maintained -- a new wave of ariosophical missionary activity in the world.
The Germans entered the ariosophical tradition as a result of the missionary activities of Wulfila [Ulfilas] (c. 311-83). Wulfila translated the Bible into the Gothic language and carried the gospel to the Germanic tribes which had settled on the Balkan peninsula and beyond the River Danube. He had also been a partisan of the Arian heresy (so named after the theologian Arius of Alexandria). Lanz claimed that Wulfilia had actually preached the Aryan racial religion to the Germanic tribes. The suppression of the Arian heresy was interpreted as a victory for those devoted to the beast-cults. Lanz angrily charged these pagans with the defacement of the famous codex of the Gothic Bible. Because most of its racist passages had been excised, the Germans were permitted to neglect those strict eugenic observances, which would have guaranteed their transformation into god-men. Lanz wrote five Luzerner Briefe numbers about the supposedly suppressed writings of Wulfila, together with a lexicon which provided a key to the hidden meaning of his surviving text. [5]
Despite the suppression of the Arian heresy and the failure of the Goths to realize the racial parousia within their extensive sixth-century empire, Ariosophy was fostered by new historical agents. Lanz identified the revival of Ariosophy in the monastic tradition of medieval Europe. Lanz regarded the Benedictine Order as a revival of the old Aryan colleges of priest-kings, dedicated to the preaching of the racist gnosis and organized on hierarchical principles. He wrote five studies about the ariosophical inspiration of the Benedictines. After identifying the reformed monastic orders as agents of Ariosophy Lanz traced this spiritual heritage to the Cistercian Order. Lanz celebrated this order and its famous leader St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) as the principal force behind Ariosophy in the Middle Ages.
Because of their close links with the Cistercian Order, the military order of the Knights Templars was regarded by Lanz as the armed guard of Ariosophy. Its rule had been composed by St Bernard, who wrote a homily of praise, De Laude novae militiae (c. 1132), and preached the Second Crusade in 1146. According to Lanz, the Templars were attempting to stem the tide of inferior races in the Near East, and so provide a bulwark of racial purity on the eastern flank of Aryan Christendom. Their efforts were paralleled in the west by the military orders of Calatrava, Alcantara, and Aviz, which had been formed during the mid-twelfth century to fight the Moors in Spain.
Lanz invoked the struggle of the medieval military orders against the heathen powers as a legitimation of his own crusade against populism, democracy, and Bolshevism in the twentieth century. With graphical imagination Lanz conjured up an ideological map of the world from the eighth to the seventeenth century: within the ever tightening ring formed by the Islamic powers of Northern Africa, the Middle East and eventually the Balkans, and the amorphous Mongol hordes of the steppes, lay the embattled 'aria-christian' domain. The constant offensive of peoples devoted to the beast-cults and the threatened destruction of European racial supremacy necessitated the crusades of the military orders. Thus medieval Christendom was envisaged as a martial monastery of aristocratic and racial virtue, from which armed knight-monks rode forth to break the vice-like encirclement of the aggressive inferiors. These images nourished Lanz's vision of a modern crusade against the political emancipation of the masses through parliamentary democracy and socialist revolution.
The Middle Ages represented the golden age of Ariosophy to Lanz. A world of bold knights, pious monks, magnificent castles, beautiful monasteries was underlaid by the racist-chivalrous cult of the religious and military orders. The religion of this period was 'keine weichliche Humanitats-Religion, sondern eine extrem-aristokratische und ariokratische Rassenkultreligion und eine straffe, supranationale, alle arioheroischen Volker umfassende wissensehaftliche, politische und wirtschaftliche Organisation, welche rucksichtslos, bisweilen sogar mit Harte, das Untermenschentum ausrottete, oder im Sklaven- und Hongentum oder in Judenghetti in Untermenschentum ausrottete, oder im Sklaven- und Horigentum oder in Judenghetti in wohltatigen Schranken hielt!' ['no insipid humanity-religion, but an extremely aristocratic and "ariocratic" racial cult religion and an austere scientific, political and economic organization embracing all ario-heroic peoples. This religion ruthlessly exterminated sub-humanity or else kept it charitably within the bounds of slavery and serfdom or in Jewish ghettoes!"] Lanz regarded the 'cosmic week' (a subdivision of the Platonic year) from 480 to orders. The culture of the period was described as 'die letzte herrliche, beruckend schone Blute arisch-heldischer Religion, Kunst und Wissenschaft' ['the last magnificent and fascinatingly beautiful blossoming of ario-heroic religion, art and science']. [8]
The suppression of the Templars in 1308 signalled the end of this era and the ascendancy of the racial inferiors. Henceforth Europe witnessed the slow decline of her racial, cultural, and political achievements. The growth of towns, the expansion of capitalism, and its creation of an industrial labouring class led to the breakdown of the aristocratic principle and the strict maintenance of racial purity. Christianity was perverted into a sentimental altruistic doctrine, which taught that all men were equal, and that man should love his neighbour, irrespective of his race. During the 'cosmic week' from 1210 to 1920 Europe was subject to a process of debasement, culminating in the enormities of Bolshevism and its open proclamation of rule by the masses.
-- The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Arisophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
San Bernardo by Juan Correa de Vivar, held in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain
Doctor of the Church
Doctor Mellifluus
Last of the Fathers
Confessor
Abbot
Born: c. 1090, Fontaine-les-Dijon, Burgundy, Kingdom of France
Died: 20 August 1153 (aged 62-63), Clairvaux Abbey, Clairvaux (modern day part of Ville-sous-la-Ferté), Champagne, Kingdom of France
Venerated in : Catholic Church, Anglican Communion[1], Lutheranism[2]
Canonized: 18 January 1174, Rome, Papal States by Pope Alexander III
Major shrine: Troyes Cathedral
Feast: August 20
Attributes: Cistercian habit, book, and crosier
Patronage Cistercians, Burgundy, beekeepers, candlemakers, Gibraltar, Algeciras, Queens' College, Cambridge, Speyer Cathedral, Knights Templar, Binangonan, Rizal
Bernard of Clairvaux (Latin: Bernardus Claraevallensis; 1090 – 20 August 1153), venerated as Saint Bernard, was a Burgundian abbot and a major leader in the revitalization of Benedictine monasticism through the nascent Cistercian Order.
He was sent to found Clairvaux Abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val d'Absinthe, about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southeast of Bar-sur-Aube. In the year 1128, Bernard attended the Council of Troyes, at which he traced the outlines of the Rule of the Knights Templar,[a] which soon became an ideal of Christian nobility.
On the death of Pope Honorius II in 1130, a schism arose in the church. Bernard was a major proponent of Pope Innocent II, arguing effectively for his legitimacy over the Antipope Anacletus II.
In 1139, Bernard attended the Second Council of the Lateran and criticized Peter Abelard vocally. Bernard advocated crusades in general and convinced many to participate in the unsuccessful Second Crusade, notably through a famous sermon at Vézelay (1146).
Bernard was canonized just 21 years after his death by Pope Alexander III. In 1830 Pope Pius VIII declared him a Doctor of the Church.
Early life (1090–1113)
Bernard's parents were Tescelin de Fontaine, lord of Fontaine-lès-Dijon, and Alèthe de Montbard [fr], both members of the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard was the third of seven children, six of whom were sons. Aged nine, he was sent to a school at Châtillon-sur-Seine run by the secular canons of Saint-Vorles. Bernard had an interest in literature and rhetoric. He had a special devotion to the Virgin Mary, and he later wrote several works about the Queen of Heaven.[3]
The Vision of St Bernard, by Fra Bartolommeo, c. 1504 (Uffizi)
Bernard emphasized the value of a personally held faith, with the life of Christ as a model and new emphasis on the Virgin Mary. In opposition to the rational approach to divine understanding used by the scholastics, Bernard preached an immediate faith, in which the intercessor was the Virgin Mary.
Bernard was nineteen years old when his mother died. During his youth, he did not escape trying temptations and around this time he thought of living a life of solitude and prayer.[4]
In 1098, a group led by Robert of Molesme had founded Cîteaux Abbey, near Dijon, with the purpose of living literally according to the Rule of St Benedict. After his mother died, Bernard decided to go to Cîteaux. In 1113 he and thirty other young noblemen of Burgundy sought admission into the new monastery.[5] Bernard's example was so convincing that scores followed him into the monastic life.
Abbot of Clairvaux (1115–28)
Bernard exorcising a possession, altarpiece by Jörg Breu the Elder, c. 1500
Bernard holding a demon at his feet, oil on canvas by Marcello Baschenis, c. 1885
The little community of reformed Benedictines at Cîteaux grew rapidly. Three years after entering, Bernard was sent with a group of twelve monks to found a new house at Vallée d'Absinthe, in the Diocese of Langres. This Bernard named Claire Vallée, or Clairvaux, on 25 June 1115, and the names of Bernard and Clairvaux soon became inseparable.[4] During the absence of the Bishop of Langres, Bernard was blessed as abbot by William of Champeaux, Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne. From then on a strong friendship grew between the abbot and the bishop, who was professor of theology at Notre Dame of Paris and the founder of St. Victor Abbey in Paris.[3]
The beginnings of Clairvaux Abbey were austere; Bernard soon became ill. Nonetheless, candidates for the monastic life flocked to it in great numbers. Even his father and all his brothers entered Cîteaux, leaving only Humbeline, his sister, in the secular world. She, with the consent of her husband, later took the veil in the Benedictine nunnery of Jully-les-Nonnains. Gerard of Clairvaux, Bernard's older brother, became the cellarer of Cîteaux. Clairvaux soon started founding new communities.[6] In 1118 Trois-Fontaines Abbey was founded in the diocese of Châlons; in 1119 Fontenay Abbey in the Diocese of Autun; and in 1121 Foigny Abbey near Vervins.
In addition to successes, Bernard also had his trials. During an absence from Clairvaux, the Grand Prior of the Abbey of Cluny went to Clairvaux and enticed away Bernard's cousin, Robert of Châtillon. This was the occasion of the longest and most emotional of Bernard's letters.[3]
The abbey of Cluny as it would have looked in Bernard's time
The monks of the powerful Benedictine abbey of Cluny were unhappy to see Cîteaux take the lead role among the monastic orders. They criticized the Cistercian way of life. At the solicitation of William of St.-Thierry, Bernard defended the Cistercians with his Apology. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Cluny, answered Bernard and assured him of his admiration and friendship. In the meantime, Cluny launched a reform and Abbot Suger, the minister of Louis VI of France, was converted by Bernard's Apology.
Doctor of the Church
Christ Embracing St. Bernard by Francisco Ribalta
In 1128, Bernard participated in the Council of Troyes, which had been convoked by Pope Honorius II, and was presided over by Cardinal Matthew of Albano. The purpose of this council was to settle certain disputes of the bishops of Paris, and regulate other matters of the Church of France. The bishops made Bernard secretary of the council, and charged him with drawing up the synodal statutes. After the council, the bishop of Verdun was deposed. It was at this council that Bernard composed a rule for the Knights Templar; it soon became an ideal of Christian nobility. Around this time, he praised them in his Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae.[7]
Schism
Bernard's influence was soon felt in provincial affairs. He defended the rights of the Church against the encroachments of kings and princes, and recalled to their duty Henri Sanglier, archbishop of Sens and Stephen of Senlis, bishop of Paris. When Honorius II died in 1130, a schism broke out in the Church by the election of two popes, Pope Innocent II and Antipope Anacletus II. Innocent, having been banished from Rome by Anacletus, took refuge in France. King Louis VI convened a national council of the French bishops at Étampes and Bernard, summoned there by the bishops, was chosen to judge between the rival popes. He decided in favour of Innocent.
Bernard travelled on to Italy and reconciled Pisa with Genoa, and Milan with the pope. The same year Bernard was again at the Council of Reims at the side of Innocent II. He then went to Aquitaine where he succeeded for the time in detaching William X, Duke of Aquitaine, from the cause of Anacletus.[4]
Saint Bernard and the Duke of Aquitaine, by Marten Pepijn
Germany had decided to support Innocent through Norbert of Xanten, who was a friend of Bernard's. However, Innocent insisted on Bernard's company when he met with Lothair II, Holy Roman Emperor. Lothair II became Innocent's strongest ally among the nobility. Although the councils of Étampes, Würzburg, Clermont, and Rheims all supported Innocent, large portions of the Christian world still supported Anacletus.
In a letter by Bernard to German Emperor Lothair regarding Antipope Anacletus, Bernard wrote, “It is a disgrace for Christ that a Jew sits on the throne of St. Peter’s” and “Anacletus has not even a good reputation with his friends, while Innocent is illustrious beyond all doubt.”
Bernard wrote to Gerard of Angoulême (a letter known as Letter 126), which questioned Gerard's reasons for supporting Anacletus. Bernard later commented that Gerard was his most formidable opponent during the whole schism. After persuading Gerard, Bernard traveled to visit William X, Duke of Aquitaine. He was the hardest for Bernard to convince. He did not pledge allegiance to Innocent until 1135. After that, Bernard spent most of his time in Italy persuading the Italians to pledge allegiance to Innocent. The conflict ended when Anacletus died in 1138.[8]
In 1132, Bernard accompanied Innocent II into Italy, and at Cluny the pope abolished the dues which Clairvaux used to pay to that abbey. This action gave rise to a quarrel between the White Monks and the Black Monks which lasted 20 years. In May of that year, the pope, supported by the army of Lothair III, entered Rome, but Lothair III, feeling himself too weak to resist the partisans of Anacletus, retired beyond the Alps, and Innocent sought refuge in Pisa in September 1133. Bernard had returned to France in June and was continuing the work of peacemaking which he had commenced in 1130. Towards the end of 1134, he made a second journey into Aquitaine, where William X had relapsed into schism. Bernard invited William to the Mass which he celebrated in the Church of La Couldre. At the Eucharist, he "admonished the Duke not to despise God as he did His servants".[3] William yielded and the schism ended. Bernard went again to Italy, where Roger II of Sicily was endeavouring to withdraw the Pisans from their allegiance to Innocent. He recalled the city of Milan to obedience to the pope as they had followed the deposed Anselm V, Archbishop of Milan. For this, he was offered, and he refused, the archbishopric of Milan. He then returned to Clairvaux. Believing himself at last secure in his cloister, Bernard devoted himself to the composition of the works which won for him the title of "Doctor of the Church". He wrote at this time his sermons on the Song of Songs.[ b] In 1137, he was again forced to leave the abbey by order of the pope to put an end to the quarrel between Lothair and Roger of Sicily. At the conference held at Palermo, Bernard succeeded in convincing Roger of the rights of Innocent II. He also silenced the final supporters who sustained the schism. Anacletus died of "grief and disappointment" in 1138, and with him the schism ended.[3]
In 1139, Bernard assisted at the Second Council of the Lateran, in which the surviving adherents of the schism were definitively condemned. About the same time, Bernard was visited at Clairvaux by Malachy, Primate of All Ireland, and a very close friendship formed between them. Malachy wanted to become a Cistercian, but the pope would not give his permission. Malachy died at Clairvaux in 1148.[3]
Conflict with Abelard
Towards the close of the 11th century, a spirit of independence flourished within schools of philosophy and theology. The movement found an ardent and powerful advocate in Peter Abelard. Abelard's treatise on the Trinity had been condemned as heretical in 1121, and he was compelled to throw his own book into a fire. However, Abelard continued to develop his controversial teachings. Bernard is said to have held a meeting with Abelard intending to persuade him to amend his writings, during which Abelard repented and promised to do so. But once out of Bernard's presence, he reneged.[10] Bernard then denounced Abelard to the pope and cardinals of the Curia. Abelard sought a debate with Bernard, but Bernard initially declined, saying he did not feel matters of such importance should be settled by logical analyses. Bernard's letters to William of St-Thierry also express his apprehension about confronting the preeminent logician. Abelard continued to press for a public debate, and made his challenge widely known, making it hard for Bernard to decline. In 1141, at the urgings of Abelard, the archbishop of Sens called a council of bishops, where Abelard and Bernard were to put their respective cases so Abelard would have a chance to clear his name.[10] Bernard lobbied the prelates on the evening before the debate, swaying many of them to his view. The next day, after Bernard made his opening statement, Abelard decided to retire without attempting to answer.[10] The council found in favour of Bernard and their judgment was confirmed by the pope. Abelard submitted without resistance, and he retired to Cluny to live under the protection of Peter the Venerable, where he died two years later.[4]
Cistercian Order and heresy
Bernard had occupied himself in sending bands of monks from his overcrowded monastery into Germany, Sweden, England, Ireland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Italy. Some of these, at the command of Innocent II, took possession of Tre Fontane Abbey, from which Eugene III was chosen in 1145. Pope Innocent II died in the year 1143. His two successors, Pope Celestine II and Pope Lucius II, reigned only a short time, and then Bernard saw one of his disciples, Bernard of Pisa, and known thereafter as Eugene III, raised to the Chair of Saint Peter.[11] Bernard sent him, at the pope's own request, various instructions which comprise the Book of Considerations, the predominating idea of which is that the reformation of the Church ought to commence with the sanctity of the pope. Temporal matters are merely accessories; the principles according to Bernard's work were that piety and meditation were to precede action.[12]
Having previously helped end the schism within the Church, Bernard was now called upon to combat heresy. Henry of Lausanne, a former Cluniac monk, had adopted the teachings of the Petrobrusians, followers of Peter of Bruys and spread them in a modified form after Peter's death.[13] Henry of Lausanne's followers became known as Henricians. In June 1145, at the invitation of Cardinal Alberic of Ostia, Bernard traveled in southern France.[14] His preaching, aided by his ascetic looks and simple attire, helped doom the new sects. Both the Henrician and the Petrobrusian faiths began to die out by the end of that year. Soon afterwards, Henry of Lausanne was arrested, brought before the bishop of Toulouse, and probably imprisoned for life. In a letter to the people of Toulouse, undoubtedly written at the end of 1146, Bernard calls upon them to extirpate the last remnants of the heresy. He also preached against Catharism.[11]
Crusade preaching
Second Crusade (1146–49)
News came at this time from the Holy Land that alarmed Christendom. Christians had been defeated at the Siege of Edessa and most of the county had fallen into the hands of the Seljuk Turks.[15] The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the other Crusader states were threatened with similar disaster. Deputations of the bishops of Armenia solicited aid from the pope, and the King of France also sent ambassadors. In 1144 Eugene III commissioned Bernard to preach the Second Crusade and granted the same indulgences for it which Pope Urban II had accorded to the First Crusade.[16]
There was at first virtually no popular enthusiasm for the crusade as there had been in 1095. Bernard found it expedient to dwell upon taking the cross as a potent means of gaining absolution for sin and attaining grace. On 31 March, with King Louis VII of France present, he preached to an enormous crowd in a field at Vézelay, making "the speech of his life".[17] The full text has not survived, but a contemporary account says that "his voice rang out across the meadow like a celestial organ"[17]
James Meeker Ludlow describes the scene romantically in his book The Age of the Crusades:
A large platform was erected on a hill outside the city. King and monk stood together, representing the combined will of earth and heaven. The enthusiasm of the assembly of Clermont in 1095, when Peter the Hermit and Urban II launched the first crusade, was matched by the holy fervor inspired by Bernard as he cried, "O ye who listen to me! Hasten to appease the anger of heaven, but no longer implore its goodness by vain complaints. Clothe yourselves in sackcloth, but also cover yourselves with your impenetrable bucklers. The din of arms, the danger, the labors, the fatigues of war, are the penances that God now imposes upon you. Hasten then to expiate your sins by victories over the Infidels, and let the deliverance of the holy places be the reward of your repentance." As in the olden scene, the cry "Deus vult! Deus vult! " rolled over the fields, and was echoed by the voice of the orator: "Cursed be he who does not stain his sword with blood."[18]
When Bernard was finished the crowd enlisted en masse; they supposedly ran out of cloth to make crosses. Bernard is said to have flung off his own robe and began tearing it into strips to make more.[16][17] Others followed his example and he and his helpers were supposedly still producing crosses as night fell.[17]
Unlike the First Crusade, the new venture attracted royalty, such as Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of France; Thierry of Alsace, Count of Flanders; Henry, the future Count of Champagne; Louis's brother Robert I of Dreux; Alphonse I of Toulouse; William II of Nevers; William de Warenne, 3rd Earl of Surrey; Hugh VII of Lusignan, Yves II, Count of Soissons; and numerous other nobles and bishops. But an even greater show of support came from the common people. Bernard wrote to the pope a few days afterwards, "Cities and castles are now empty. There is not left one man to seven women, and everywhere there are widows to still-living husbands."[16]
Bernard then passed into Germany, and the reported miracles which multiplied almost at his every step undoubtedly contributed to the success of his mission. Conrad III of Germany and his nephew Frederick Barbarossa, received the cross from the hand of Bernard.[15] Pope Eugenius came in person to France to encourage the enterprise. As in the First Crusade, the preaching led to attacks on Jews; a fanatical French monk named Radulphe was apparently inspiring massacres of Jews in the Rhineland, Cologne, Mainz, Worms, and Speyer, with Radulphe claiming Jews were not contributing financially to the rescue of the Holy Land. The archbishop of Cologne and the archbishop of Mainz were vehemently opposed to these attacks and asked Bernard to denounce them. This he did, but when the campaign continued, Bernard traveled from Flanders to Germany to deal with the problems in person. He then found Radulphe in Mainz and was able to silence him, returning him to his monastery.[19]
The last years of Bernard's life were saddened by the failure of the Second Crusade he had preached, the entire responsibility for which was thrown upon him.[11] Bernard considered it his duty to send an apology to the Pope and it is inserted in the second part of his "Book of Considerations." There he explains how the sins of the crusaders were the cause of their misfortune and failures.
Wendish Crusade (1147)
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Bernhard preached the Wendish Crusade against Western Slavs, setting a goal to the crusade of battling them "until such a time as, by God's help, they shall either be converted or deleted".[20]
Final years (1149–53)
Bernard receiving milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary. The scene is a legend which allegedly took place at Speyer Cathedral in 1146.
The death of his contemporaries served as a warning to Bernard of his own approaching end. The first to die was Suger in 1152, of whom Bernard wrote to Eugene III, "If there is any precious vase adorning the palace of the King of Kings it is the soul of the venerable Suger". Conrad III and his son Henry died the same year. Bernard died at age sixty-three on 20 August 1153, after forty years of monastic life.[11] He was buried at Clairvaux Abbey, and after its dissolution in 1792 by the French revolutionary government his remains were transferred to Troyes Cathedral.
Theology
Main article: Doctor Mellifluus
Bernard was named a Doctor of the Church in 1830. At the 800th anniversary of his death, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical about him, titled Doctor Mellifluus, in which he labeled him "The Last of the Fathers." The central elements of Bernard's Mariology are how he explained the virginity of Mary, the "Star of the Sea", and her role as Mediatrix.
The first abbot of Clairvaux developed a rich theology of sacred space and music, writing extensively on both.[citation needed]
John Calvin and Martin Luther quoted Bernard several times[21] in support of the doctrine of Sola Fide.[22][23] Calvin also quotes him in setting forth his doctrine of a forensic alien righteousness, or as it is commonly called imputed righteousness.[24]
Spirituality
Stained glass representing Bernard. Upper Rhine, c. 1450
Bernard was instrumental in re-emphasizing the importance of lectio divina and contemplation for monks. Bernard had observed that when lectio divina was neglected, monasticism suffered.[25] Bernard "noted centuries ago: the people who are their own spiritual directors have fools for disciples."[26]
Legacy
Bernard's theology and Mariology continue to be of major importance, particularly within the Cistercian and Trappist Orders.[c] Bernard helped found 163 monasteries in different parts of Europe. His influence led Alexander III to launch reforms that led to the establishment of canon law.[27] He was canonized by Alexander III 18 January 1174.[28] He is labeled the "Mellifluous Doctor" for his eloquence. Cistercians honour him as one of the greatest early Cistercians.[11]
His feast day (observed in several denominations) is 20 August.
Bernard is Dante Alighieri's last guide, in Divine Comedy, as he travels through the Empyrean.[29] Dante's choice appears to be based on Bernard's contemplative mysticism, his devotion to Mary, and his reputation for eloquence.[30]
The Couvent et Basilique Saint-Bernard, a collection of buildings dating from the 12th, 17th and 19th centuries, is dedicated to Bernard and stands in his birthplace of Fontaine-lès-Dijon.[31]
Hymns
Bernard of Clairvaux is the attributed author of poems often translated in English hymnals as:
• "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded"
• "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee"
• "Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts"
Works
An engraving of The Lactation of Saint Bernard. The Virgin Mary is shooting milk into the eye of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux from her right breast.
The modern critical edition is Sancti Bernardi opera (1957–1977), edited by Jean Leclercq.[32][d]
Bernard's works include:
• De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae [The steps of humility and pride] (in Latin). c. 1120.[33]
• Apologia ad Guillelmum Sancti Theoderici Abbatem [Apology to William of St. Thierry] (in Latin). Written in the defence of the Cistercians against the claims of the monks of Cluny.[34]
• De conversione ad clericos sermo seu liber [On the conversion of clerics] (in Latin). 1122.[35]
• De gratia et libero arbitrio [On grace and free choice] (in Latin). c. 1128..[36]
• De diligendo Dei [On loving God] (in Latin).[37]
• Liber ad milites templi de laude novae militiae [In Praise of the new knighthood] (in Latin). 1129.[38]
• De praecepto et dispensatione libri [Book of precepts and dispensations] (in Latin). c. 1144.[39]
• De consideratione [On consideration] (in Latin). c. 1150. Addressed to Pope Eugene III.[40]
• Liber De vita et rebus gestis Sancti Malachiae Hiberniae Episcopi [The life and death of Saint Malachy, bishop of Ireland] (in Latin). [41]
• De moribus et officio episcoporum (in Latin). A letter to Henri Sanglier, Archbishop of Sens on the duties of bishops.[42]
His sermons are also numerous:
• Most famous are his Sermones super Cantica Canticorum (Sermons on the Song of Songs). Although it has at times been suggested that the sermon form is a rhetorical device in a set of works which were only ever designed to be read, since such finely polished and lengthy literary pieces could not accurately have been recorded by a monk while Bernard was preaching, recent scholarship has tended toward the theory that, although what exists in these texts was certainly the product of Bernard's writing, they likely found their origins in sermons preached to the monks of Clairvaux.[e] Bernard began to write these in 1135 but died without completing the series, with 86 sermons complete. These sermons contain an autobiographical passage, sermon 26, mourning the death of his brother, Gerard.[43][44] After Bernard died, the English Cistercian Gilbert of Hoyland continued Bernard's incomplete series of 86 sermons on the biblical Song of Songs. Gilbert wrote 47 sermons before he died in 1172, taking the series up to Chapter 5 of the Song of Songs. Another English Cistercian abbot, John of Ford, wrote another 120 sermons on the Song of Songs, so completing the Cistercian sermon-commentary on the book.
• There are 125 surviving Sermones per annum (Sermons on the Liturgical Year).
• There are also the Sermones de diversis (Sermons on Different Topics).
• 547 letters survive.[45]
Many letters, treatises, and other works, falsely attributed to him survive, and are now referred to as works by pseudo-Bernard.[3] These include:
• pseudo-Bernard (pseud. of Guigo I) (c. 1150). L'échelle du cloître [The scale of the cloister] (letter) (in French).[3]
• pseudo-Bernard. Meditatio [Meditations] (in Latin). This was probably written at some point in the thirteenth century. It circulated extensively in the Middle Ages under Bernard's name and was one of the most popular religious works of the later Middle Ages. Its theme is self-knowledge as the beginning of wisdom; it begins with the phrase "Many know much, but do not know themselves".[46][47][3]
• pseudo-Bernard. L'édification de la maison intérieure (in French).[3]
Translations
• On consideration, trans by George Lewis, (Oxford, 1908) https://books.google.com/books?id=kkoJAQAAIAAJ
• Select treatises of S. Bernard of Clairvaux: De diligendo Deo & De gradibus humilitatis et superbiae, (Cambridge: CUP, 1926)
• On loving God, and selections from sermons, edited by Hugh Martin, (London: SCM Press, 1959) [reprinted as (Westport, CO: Greenwood Press, 1981)]
• Cistercians and Cluniacs: St. Bernard's Apologia to Abbot William, trans M Casey. Cistercian Fathers series no. 1, (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1970)
• The works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Vol.1, Treatises, 1, edited by M. Basil Pennington. Cistercian Fathers Series, no. 1. (Spencer, Mass.: Cistercian Publications, 1970) [contains the treatises Apologia to Abbot William and On Precept and Dispensation, and two shorter liturgical treatises]
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Song of Songs, 4 vols, Cistercian Fathers series nos 4, 7, 31, 40, (Spencer, MA: Cistercian Publications, 1971–80)
• Letter of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux on revision of Cistercian chant = Epistola S[ancti] Bernardi de revisione cantus Cisterciensis, edited and translated by Francis J. Guentner, (American Institute of Musicology, 1974)
• Treatises II : The steps of humility and pride on loving God, Cistercian Fathers series no. 13, (Washington: Cistercian Publications, 1984)
• Five books on consideration: advice to a Pope, translated by John D. Anderson & Elizabeth T. Kennan. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 37. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1976)
• The Works of Bernard of Clairvaux. Volume Seven, Treatises III: On Grace and free choice. In praise of the new knighthood, translated by Conrad Greenia. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 19, (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications Inc., 1977)
• The life and death of Saint Malachy, the Irishman translated and annotated by Robert T. Meyer, (Kalamazoo, Mich: Cistercian Publications, 1978)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Homiliae in laudibus Virginis Matris, in Magnificat: homilies in praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary translated by Marie-Bernard Saïd and Grace Perigo, Cistercian Fathers Series no. 18, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1979)
• Sermons on Conversion: on conversion, a sermon to clerics and Lenten sermons on the psalm "He Who Dwells"., Cistercian Fathers Series no. 25, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1981)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Song of Solomon, translated by Samuel J. Eales, (Minneapolis, MN: Klock & Klock, 1984)
• St. Bernard's sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary, translated from the original Latin by a priest of Mount Melleray, (Chumleigh: Augustine, 1984)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, The twelve steps of humility and pride; and, On loving God, edited by Halcyon C. Backhouse, (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1985)
• St. Bernard's sermons on the Nativity, translated from the original Latin by a priest of Mount Melleray, (Devon: Augustine, 1985)
• Bernard of Clairvaux : selected works, translation and foreword by G.R. Evans; introduction by Jean Leclercq; preface by Ewert H. Cousins, (New York: Paulist Press, 1987) [Contains the treatises On conversion, On the steps of humility and pride, On consideration, and On loving God; extracts from Sermons on The song of songs, and a selection of letters]
• Conrad Rudolph, The 'Things of Greater Importance': Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Toward Art, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990) [Includes the Apologia in both Leclercq's Latin text and English translation]
• Love without measure: extracts from the writings of St Bernard of Clairvaux, introduced and arranged by Paul Diemer, Cistercian studies series no. 127, (Kalamazoo, Mich. : Cistercian Publications, 1990)
• Sermons for the summer season: liturgical sermons from Rogationtide and Pentecost, translated by Beverly Mayne Kienzle; additional translations by James Jarzembowski, (Kalamazoo, Mich: Cistercian Publications, 1991)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On loving God, Cistercian Fathers series no. 13B, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1995)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, The parables & the sentences, edited by Maureen M. O'Brien. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 55, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, On baptism and the office of bishops, on the conduct and office of bishops, on baptism and other questions: two letter-treatises, translated by Pauline Matarasso. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 67, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2004)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for Advent and the Christmas season translated by Irene Edmonds, Wendy Mary Beckett, Conrad Greenia; edited by John Leinenweber; introduction by Wim Verbaal. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 51, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2007)
• Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons for Lent and the Easter Season, edited by John Leinenweber and Mark Scott, OCSO. Cistercian Fathers Series no. 52, (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2013)
See also
• Biography portal
• Christianity portal
• France portal
• Saints portal
• List of Catholic saints
• List of Latin nicknames of the Middle Ages: Doctors in theology
• Scholasticism
• St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church
• Prayer to the shoulder wound of Jesus
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, patron saint archive
• Pope Eugene III
References
Notes
1. André de Montbard, one of the founders of the Knights Templar, was a half-brother of Bernard's mother.
2. Other mystics such as John of the Cross also found their language and symbols in Song of Songs.[9]
3. His texts are prescribed readings in Cistercian congregations.
4. For a research guide see McGuire (2013).
5. For a history of the debate over the Sermons, and an attempted solution, see Leclercq, Jean. Introduction. In Walsh (1976), pp. vii–xxx.
Citations
1. Lesser Feasts and Fasts 2018. Church Publishing, Inc. 17 December 2019. ISBN 978-1-64065-235-4.
2. "Notable Lutheran Saints". resurrectionpeople.org. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
3. Gildas 1907.
4. Bunson, Bunson & Bunson 1998, p. 129.
5. McManners 1990, p. 204.
6. "Expositio in Apocalypsim". Cambridge Digital Library (manuscript). Cambridge Digital Library. MS Mm.5.31. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
7. Durant 1950, p. 593.
8. Cristiani 1977.
9. Cunningham & Egan 1996, p. 128.
10. Evans 2000, pp. 115–123.
11. Bunson, Bunson & Bunson 1998, p. 130.
12. McManners 1990, p. 210.
13. Alphandéry 1911, pp. 298–299.
14. McManners 1990, p. 211.
15. Riley-Smith 1991, p. 48.
16. Durant 1950, p. 594.
17. Norwich 2012.
18. Ludlow 1896, pp. 164–167.
19. Durant 1950, p. 391.
20. Christiansen, Eric (1997). The northern Crusades (2nd, new ed.). London, England: Penguin. p. 53. ISBN 0-14-026653-4. OCLC 38197435.
21. Lane 1999, p. 100.
22. Calvin 1960, bk.3 ch.2 §25, bk.3 ch.12 §3.
23. Luther 1930, p. 130.
24. Calvin 1960, bk.3 ch.11 §22, bk.3 ch.25 §2.
25. Cunningham & Egan 1996, pp. 91–92.
26. Cunningham & Egan 1996, p. 21.
27. Duffy 1997, p. 101.
28. Kemp 1945, pp. 13–28.
29. Paradiso, cantos XXXI–XXXIII
30. Botterill 1994.
31. Base Mérimée: Couvent et Basilique Saint-Bernard, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
32. SBOp.
33. PL, 182, cols. 939–972c.
34. PL, 182, cols. 893–918a.
35. PL, 182, cols. 833–856d.
36. PL, 182, cols. 999–1030a.
37. PL, 182, cols. 971–1000b.
38. PL, 182, cols. 917–940b.
39. PL, 182, cols. 857–894c.
40. PL, 182, cols. 727–808a.
41. PL, 182, cols. 1073–1118a.
42. Ep. 42 (PL, 182, cols. 807–834a).
43. Verbaal 2004.
44. PL, 183, cols. 785–1198A.
45. SBOp, v. 7–8.
46. PL, 184, cols. 485–508.
47. Bestul 2012, p. 164.
Sources
• Anon. (2010). Holy Women, Holy Men: Celebrating the Saints. Church Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-0-89869-637-0.
• Alphandéry, Paul D. (1911). "Henry of Lausanne" . In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 298–299.
• Pierre Aubé: Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, Paris, éd. Fayard, 2003, 812 pages.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1976). On the Song of Songs II. Cistercian Fathers series. Vol. 7. Translated by Walsh, Kilian. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879077075. OCLC 2621974.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1998). The letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux. Cistercian Fathers series. Vol. 62. Translated by James, Bruno Scott. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications. ISBN 9780879071622.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1836). Mabillon, Jean (ed.). Opera omnia. Patrologia Latina (in Latin). Vol. 182–185. Paris: Jacques Paul Migne. 6 tomes in 4 volumes.
• Bernard of Clairvaux (1957–1977). Leclerq, Jean; Talbot, Charles H.; Rochais, Henri Marie (eds.). Sancti Bernardi Opera (in Latin). Vol. 8 volumes in 9. Rome: Éditions cisterciennes. OCLC 654190630.
• Bestul, Thomas H (2012). "Meditatio/Meditation". In Hollywood, Amy; Beckman, Patricia Z. (eds.). The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521863650.
• Botterill, Steven (1994). Dante and the Mystical Tradition: Bernard of Clairvaux in the Commedia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Bunson, Matthew; Bunson, Margaret & Bunson, Stephen (1998). Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Saints. Huntington: Our Sunday Visitor.
• Calvin, John (1960). McNeill, John T. (ed.). Institutes of the Christian Religion. Vol. 1. Translated by Battles, Ford Lewis. Philadelphia: Westminster Press. OCLC 844778472.
• Cantor, Norman (1994). The Civilization of the Middle Ages. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-092553-1.
• Cristiani, Léon (1977). St. Bernard of Clairvaux, 1090-1153. Translated by M. Angeline Bouchard. St. Paul Editions. ISBN 978-0-8198-0463-1. OCLC 2874038.
• Cunningham, Lawrence S.; Egan, Keith J. (1996). "Meditation and contemplation". Christian spirituality: themes from the tradition. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. ISBN 978-0-8091-3660-5.
• Duffy, Eamon (1997). Saints and Sinners, a History of the Popes.
• Durant, Will (1950). The Story of Civilization. Vol. IV: The Age of Faith. New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Gildas, Marie (1907). "St. Bernard of Clairvaux" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
• Evans, Gillian R. (2000). Bernard of Clairvaux (Great Medieval Thinkers). Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512525-8.
• Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bernard, Saint" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 795–798.
• Gilson, Etienne (1940). The mystical theology of St Bernard. London: Sheed & Ward.
• Kemp, E. W. (1945). "Pope Alexander III and the Canonization of Saints: The Alexander Prize Essay". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 27: 13–28. doi:10.2307/3678572. ISSN 0080-4401. JSTOR 3678572.
• Lane, Anthony N. S. (1999). John Calvin: student of the church fathers. Edinburgh: T & T Clark. ISBN 9780567086945.
• Ludlow, James Meeker (1896). The Age of the Crusades. Ten epochs of church history. Vol. 6. New York: Christian Literature. OCLC 904364803.
• Luther, Martin (1930). D. Martin Luthers Werke: kritische Gesammtausgabe (in German and Latin). Vol. 40. Weimar: Herman Böhlau.
• McGuire, Brian Patrick (30 September 2013), "Bernard of Clairvaux", Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/OBO/9780195396584-0088
• McManners, John (1990). The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-822928-3.
• Most, William G. (1996). "Mary's Immaculate Conception". ewtn.com. Irondale, AL: Eternal Word Television Network. Archived from the original on 19 February 1998. Retrieved 23 February 2015. Adapted from Most, William G. (1994). Our Lady in doctrine and devotion. Alexandria, VA: Notre Dame Institute Press. OCLC 855913595.
• Norwich, John Julius (2012). The Popes: A History. Vintage. ISBN 978-0-09-956587-1.
• Riley-Smith, Jonathan (1991). The Atlas of the Crusades. New York: Facts on File. ISBN 0-8160-2186-4.
• Runciman, Steven (1987). The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Frankish East, 1100–1187. A History of the Crusades. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-34771-8.
• Smith, William (2010). Catholic Church Milestones: People and Events That Shaped the Institutional Church. Indianapolis: Left Coast. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-60844-821-0.
• Verbaal, Wim (2004). "Preaching the dead from their graves: Bernard of Clairvaux's Lament on his brother Gerard". In Donavin, Georgiana; Nederman, Cary; Utz, Richard (eds.). Speculum sermonis: interdisciplinary reflections on the medieval sermon. Disputatio. Vol. 1. Turnhout: Brepols. pp. 113–139. doi:10.1484/M.DISPUT-EB.3.1616. ISBN 9782503513393.
External links
• Works by Bernard of Clairvaux at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Bernard of Clairvaux at Internet Archive
• Works by Bernard of Clairvaux at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• "St. Bernard, Abbot", Butler's Lives of the Saints
• Opera omnia Sancti Bernardi Claraevallensis his complete works, in Latin
• Audio on the life of St. Bernard of Clairvaux from waysideaudio.com
• Database with all known medieval representations of Bernard
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux at the Christian Iconography web site.
• "Here Followeth the Life of St. Bernard, the Mellifluous Doctor" from the Caxton translation of the Golden Legend
• "Two Accounts of the Early Career of St. Bernard" by William of Thierry and Arnold of Bonneval
• Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Abbot, Doctor of the Church-1153 at EWTN Global Catholic Network
• Colonnade Statue St Peter's Square
• Lewis E 26 De consideratione (On Consideration) at OPenn
• MS 484/11 Super cantica canticorum at OPenn
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Apocatastasis [Eternal Return] [Wheel of Time]
by Robert Turcan
1987
Translated from French by Paul C. Duggan
Revised Bibliography
encyclopedia.com
Accessed: 7/31/22
The oldest known usage of the Greek word apokatastasis (whence the English apocatastasis ) dates from the fourth century bce: it is found in Aristotle (Magna Moralia 2.7.1204b), where it refers to the restoration of a being to its natural state. During the Hellenistic age it developed a cosmological and astrological meaning, variations of which can be detected (but with a very different concept of time) in Gnostic systems and even in Christian theology, whether orthodox or heterodox, especially in the theology of Origen.
Medical, Moral, and Juridical Meaning
Plato employed the verb kathistanai in the sense of to "reestablish" to a normal state following a temporary physical alteration (Philebus 42d). The prefix apo- in apokathistanai seems to reinforce the idea of an integral reestablishment to the original situation. Such is the return of the sick person to health (Hippocrates, 1258f.; Aretaeus, 9.22). The verb has this meaning in the Gospels in the context of the hand made better by Christ (Mt. 12:13; Mk. 3:5, Lk. 6:10). There are Hellenistic references to the apocatastasis, or "resetting," of a joint. In a psychological sense, the same meaning is present (with nuances that are hard to specify) in magical papyri and in the so-called Mithraic Liturgy. Origen (Against Celsus 2.24) uses the verb in his commentary on Job 5:18 ("For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal") in one of several expositions where he compares the divine instruction on salvation to a method of therapy. The shift to a spiritual acceptation is evident, for example, in Philo Judaeus (Who Is the Heir 293), where "the perfect apocatastasis of the soul" confirms the philosophical healing that follows the two stages of infancy, first unformed and then corrupt. The soul recovers the health of its primitive state after a series of disturbances.
In a sociopolitical context, apocatastasis may signify a reestablishment of civil peace (Polybius, 4.23. l), or of an individual into his family (Polybius, 3.99.6), or the restoration of his rights (readmission of a soldier into an army, restoration of an exiled citizen to his prerogatives, etc.). Thus the verb apokathistanai is applied to the return of the Jews to the Holy Land after the captivity of Babylon (Jer. 15:9) as well as to the expression of messianic and eschatological hopes. Yet the noun form is not found in the Septuagint.
Astral Apocatastasis and the Great Year
The popularity and development of astrology influenced the cosmological systems of Hellenistic philosophy starting at the end of the fourth century bce. Apocatastasis here refers to the periodic return of the stars to their initial position, and the duration of the cycle amounts to a "Great Year." Plato defines the matter without using the word in the Timaeus (39d), where he talks of the eight spheres. Eudemius attributed to the Pythagoreans a theory of eternal return, but the Great Year of Oenopides and Philolaus involves only the sun. That of Aristotle, who calls it the "complete year," takes into account the seven planets: it also includes a "great winter" (with a flood) and a "great summer" (with a conflagration). Yet one could trace back to Heraclitus the principle of universal palingenesis periodically renewing the cosmos by fire, as well as the setting of the length of the Great Year at 10,800 years (this latter point is still in dispute). The astronomic teaching on the apocatastasis was refined by the Stoics, who identified it with the sidereal Great Year concluded either by a kataklusmos (flood) or by an ekpurosis (conflagration). Cicero defined it (with Aristotle) as the restoration of the seven planets to their point of departure, and sometimes as the return of all the stars (including the fixed ones) to their initial position. The estimates of its length varied considerably, ranging from 2,484 years (Aristarchus); to 10,800 years (Heraclitus); 12,954 years (Cicero); 15,000 years (Macrobius); 300,000 years (Firmicus Maternus), and up to 3,600,000 years (Cassandra). Diogenes of Babylon multiplied Heraclitus's Great Year by 365.
The Neoplatonist Proclus attributes the doctrines of apocatastasis to the "Assyrians," in other words to the astrologers or "Chaldeans." However, Hellenistic astrology also drew from Egyptian traditions. The 36,525 books that Manetho (285–247 bce) attributed to Hermes Trismegistos represent the amount of 25 zodiac periods of 1,461 years each, that is, probably one Great Year (Gundel and Gundel, 1966). The texts of Hermes Trismegistos make reference to the apocatastasis (Hermetica 8.17, 11.2; Asklepios 13). In the first century bce, the neo-Pythagorean Nigidius Figulus perhaps conceived the palingenetic cycle as being a great cosmic week crowned by the reign of Apollo. Whence the celebrated verses of Vergil's Fourth Eclogue: "A great order is born out of the fullness of ages … now your Apollo reigns." The return of Apollo corresponds to that of the Golden Age. The noun apocatastasis (as well as the verb from which it derives) always evoked the restoration of the old order. It often implied a "nostalgia for origins." It is no accident that, in the scheme of the Mithraic mysteries, the last of the "doors" is made out of gold and corresponds to the sun, since the order of these planetary doors is that of a week in reverse; there is the presupposition of a backward progression to the beginning of time. In the teaching of the Stoics, this new beginning is seen as having to repeat itself indefinitely, following a constant periodicity that rules out of chance, disorder, and freedom. During the imperial age, the Roman mystique of renovatio rested upon the same basic concept (Turcan, 1981, pp. 22ff.).
Gnostic Apocatastases
In Gnosticism, apocatastasis also corresponds to a restoration of order, but in a spiritual and eschatological way from the perspective of a history of salvation that is fundamentally foreign to the Stoics' "eternal return." The Christ of the Valentinians "restores" the soul to the Pleroma. Heracleon interprets the wages of the reaper (Jn. 4:36) as being the salvation of souls and their "apocatastasis" into eternal life (Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John 13.46.299). The Valentinian Wisdom (Sophia) is reintegrated through apocatastasis to the Pleroma, as Enthumesis will also be. The female aiōn Achamoth awaits the return of the Savior so that he might "restore" her syzygy. For Marcus, the universal restoration coincides with a return to unity. All these systems tell the story of a restoration of an order disturbed by thought.
The concept of the followers of Basilides is difficult indeed to elucidate, since they imagine at the beginning of all things not a Pleroma but nonbeing. Given this premise, there is no talk about a restoration to an initial state, even less to the truly primitive state of nothingness. However, for the Basilidians the salvation that leads men to God amounts to no less than a reestablishment of order (Hippolytus, Philosophuma 7.27.4). Like the Stoics, Basilides linked apocatastasis to astral revolutions: the coming of the Savior was to coincide "with the return of the hours to their point of departure." (ibid., 6.1). Yet this soteriological process is historical: it unfolds within linear rather than cyclical time. The Basilidian apocatastasis is not regressive but rather progressive and definitive. Some other Gnostics integrated astral apocatastasis into their systems: the Manichaeans seem to have conceived of a Great Year of 12,000 years with a final conflagration.
Christian Apocatastasis
In the New Testament, the first evidence of the noun apocatastasis used in an eschatological sense is found in Acts of the Apostles 3:21: Peter states that heaven must keep Jesus "till the universal apocatastasis comes." According to André Méhat (1956, p. 209), this would mean the "definitive achievement" of what God has promised through his prophets and would indicate the notion of accomplishment and fulfillment. In the Gospels, Matthew 17:11 and Mark 9:2 speak of Elijah as the one who will "reestablish" everything, and Malachi 3:23 (of which the evangelists could not help but think) speaks of the day when Yahveh will "restore" hearts and lead them back to him. Apocatastasis thus represents the salvation of creation reconciled with God, that is, a true return to an original state. The verb has this meaning for Theophilus of Antioch (To Autolycus 2.17). For both Tatian (Address to the Greeks 6.2) and Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.3.2) apocatastasis is equivalent to resurrection and points without any ambiguity to a restoration of man in God. In Clement of Alexandria, the precise meaning of the word is not always clear, but this much may be said: apocatastasis appears as a return to God that is the result of a recovered purity of heart consequent to absorption in certain "Gnostic" teachings; it is a conception not unlike that found in the Book of Malachi in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament).
It is in Origen that the doctrine of apocatastasis finds its most remarkable expression. In Against Celsus 7.3, where he mentions the "restoration of true piety toward God," Origen implicitly refers to Malachi. Elsewhere (Commentary on the Gospel of John 10.42.291), the word involves the reestablishment of the Jewish people after the captivity, yet as an anticipatory image of the return to the heavenly fatherland. Origen's originality consisted in his having conceived apocatastasis as being universal (including the redemption even of the devil or the annihilation of all evil) and as a return of souls to their pure spirituality. This final incorporality is rejected by Gregory of Nyssa, who nonetheless insists upon apocatastasis as a restoration to the original state. Didymus the Blind and Evagrios of Pontus were condemned at the same time as Origen by the Council of Constantinople (553) for having professed the doctrine of universal apocatastasis and the restoration of incorporeal souls. Yet there is still discussion concerning this principal aspect of Origen's eschatology. Astronomical theories and Greek cosmology seem also to have inspired the Greek bishop Synesius of Cyrene, a convert from Neoplatonism. Yet Tatian (Address to the Greeks 6. 2) had already emphasized what fundamentally set Christian apocatastasis apart: it depends upon God (and not upon sidereal revolutions) and is completed once and for all at the end of time, without being repeated indefinitely.
See Also
Ages of the World; Golden Age.
Bibliography
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New Sources
Charalambos, Apostolopoulos. Phaedo Christianus. Studien zur Verbindung und Abwägung des Verhältnisses zwischen dem platonischen "Phaidon" und dem Dialog Gregor von Nyssa "Über die Seele und die Auferstehung." Bern, 1986.
Crouzel, Henri. "L'apocatastase chez Origène." In Origeniana Quarta. Die Referate des 4. Internationalen Origeneskongresses (Innsbruck, 2.–6. September 1985), edited by Lothar Lies, pp. 282–290. Innsbruck, 1987.
Kettler, F. H. "Neue Beobachtungen zur Apokatastasislehre des Origenes." In Origeniana secunda. Second colloque international des études origéniennes (Bari, 20–23 septembre 1977), edited by Henri Crouzel and Antonio Quacquarelli, pp. 339–348. Rome, 1980.
Kretzenbacher, Leopold. Versöhnung im Jenseits. Zur Widerspiegelung des Apokatastasis-Denkens in Glaube, Hochdichtung und Legende. Munich, 1971.
Maturi, Giorgio. "Apokatastasis e anastasis in Gregorio di Nissa." Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 24 (2000): 227–240.
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Salmona, Bruno. "Origene e Gregorio di Nissa sulla resurrezione dei corpi e l'apocatastasi." Augustinianum 18 (1978): 383–388.
van Laak, Werner. Allversöhnung: die Lehre von der Apokatastasis: ihre Grundlegung durch Origenes und ihre Bewertung in der gegenwärtigen Theologie bei Karl Barth und Hans Urs von Balthasar. Sinzig, Germany, 1990.
von Stritzky, Maria Barbara. "Die Bedeutung der Phaidrosinterpretation für die Apokatastasislehre des Origenes." Vigiliae Christianae 31 (1977): 282–297.
Robert Turcan (1987)
Translated from French by Paul C. Duggan
Revised Bibliography
by Robert Turcan
1987
Translated from French by Paul C. Duggan
Revised Bibliography
encyclopedia.com
Accessed: 7/31/22
In the constant transformation from arising to becoming and out beyond this to passing away, to a new arising and a new becoming, in which Wuotan [Wotan] continues in an uninterrupted evolutionary process -- just as the All (macrocosm) and every individual self (microcosm) consistently remains the same ego [Ich] -- this ego was from the beginning of time bound inseparably and unalterably to certain spiritual and physical realities in a biune-bifidic biunity [beideinig-zwiespaltige Zwei-Einheit). Thus Wuotan [Wotan] appears before our eyes as the reflection of the All as an individual self: "He consecrates himself, consecrated to himself," he consecrates himself -- as a self-sacrificer to himself as a self-sacrifice -- to the passing away in order to arise anew. The nearer he feels to the point in time for this passing away toward a new arising -- his death -- the clearer the knowledge grows in him about the secret of life which is an eternal arising and passing away, a constant transformation, an eternal return [ewige Wiederkehr] -- a life of constant cycle of being born and dying. "This knowledge completely arises in him only at that twilight-moment in which he is sinking (dying) into the Ur out of which he will once more arise, and in this twilight-moment (death) he gives his eye as a pledge in exchange for elevated knowledge. However, this eye remains his property -- even if it has been pawned. He will reclaim it upon his rebirth out of the Ur. For this one is is his physical body, while his other eye, which he retains and takes with him into the Ur, is his spiritual body, his soul. The one physical eye, that is, the physical body itself, is only temporarily lost in the transitional phase of death, but it nevertheless remains his own, and is reunified with his other (spiritual) eye at the moment of his return out of the Ur -- upon his rebirth. This latter is his spiritual body (the soul), but the primeval knowledge gained from Mimir's well also remains his property upon his rebirth, i.e. the property of the All. It is the sum of the experience (Gjallar) of thousands upon thousands of ages which is preserved and inherited -- unconsciously through the mind and consciously through language and writing. Thus the knowledge of Wuotan [Wotan], and that of each individual self, is increased by means of the drink from Mimir's well using the Gjallarhorn, he enriches it through his questions to the Wala (Lady of Death, Totenwal, Helja), as well as through his dialog with Mimir's head. It only appears that he is separating himself from the material world, from humanity, to which he also belongs in what appears to be physical nonexistence, for he constitutes a biune-bifidic biunity as something both spiritual and physical. He cannot separate his own physical day-life from his psychosomatic night-life -- a life which only appears to be nonexistence. There he gains primeval knowledge of his eternal life, which guides him in eternal change through the transformations from arising, becoming, transforming, passing away, and arising anew though all eternity. Through this knowledge he became wise and found both the science surrounding the fate of the world by his own life being consecrated to death, and the solution to the riddle of the cosmos, which -- as it says in the "Runatals thattr Odins" -- "he will never ever reveal to a woman or a girl." And since Wuotan [Wotan] is himself in fact also the All at the same time -- as every self is also simultaneously the not-self, i.e. the All-Unified-Self (community = all-one-self) -- each individual self, each person, makes the same transformations through the same levels of knowledge. All individual storehouses of knowledge and solutions to problems (not mere dead memorized data!) are thus evaluated. Such storehouses are not lost upon death, but rather are preserved in death and once more brought back to the world of men upon the next reincarnation. People call these spiritual storehouses that the reborn individuals bring to the earth "natural abilities," "talent" or "innate genius," which has already been established and discussed above. But just as the unrevealed God is only able to reveal himself in matter and become the world-spirit (First Logos), and just as the revealed God has to activate himself in creation generatively (Second Logos), in order to come to a a vision and knowledge of himself, and finally just as the human spirit (Third Logos) had to attain this through an apparent descent from divinity for the sake of awareness of divinity itself, i.e. his own selfhood, so too the human being can only rediscover the divinity within himself (the divine inwardness) after he has lost it, after he has searched for God unsuccessfully outside himself "up there in heaven," in temples and churches finally only to rediscover his God within his own heart on the painful detour through atheism -- and this time he does so in a way that God will never again be lost. And here we recognize in the world-ash, Yggdrasil -- the imagematic tree of knowledge -- the holy tree Zampuh of Tibetan myth, the Assyrian tree of life, and the other similar trees in Indian, Persian and other mythologies. Thus we find our way back to Yggdrasil again.
-- The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric, by Guido von List
When D. P. Walker wrote about "ancient theology" or prisca theologia, he firmly linked it to Christianity and Platonism (Walker 1972). On the first page of his book, Walker defined the term as follows:By the term "Ancient Theology" I mean a certain tradition of Christian apologetic theology which rests on misdated texts. Many of the early Fathers, in particular Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius, in their apologetic works directed against pagan philosophers, made use of supposedly very ancient texts: Hermetica, Orphica, Sibylline Prophecies, Pythagorean Carmina Aurea, etc., most of which in fact date from the first four centuries of our era. [100-400 A.D.] These texts, written by the Ancient Theologians hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, were shown to contain vestiges of the true religion: monotheism, the Trinity, the creation of the world out of nothing through the Word, and so forth. It was from these that Plato [428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC)] took the religious truths to be found in his writings. [???!!!] (Walker 1972:1)
Walker described A revival of such "ancient theology" in the Renaissance and in "platonizing theologians from Ficino to Cudworth" who wanted to "integrate Platonism and Neoplatonism into Christianity, so that their own religious and philosophical beliefs might coincide" [!!!](p. 2). After the debunking of the genuineness and antiquity of the texts favored by these ancient theologians, the movement ought to have died; but Walker detected "a few isolated survivals" such as Athanasius Kircher, Pierre-Daniel Huet, and the Jesuit figurists of the French China mission (p. 194). For Walker the last Mohican of this movement, so to say, is Chevalier Andrew Michael Ramsay (1686-1743), whose views are described in the final chapter of The Ancient Theology. But seen through the lens of our concerns here, one could easily extend this line to various figures in this book, for example, Jean Calmette, John Zephaniah Holwell, Abbe Vincent Mignot, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, Guillaume Sainte-Croix, and also to William Jones (App 2009).
Ur-Traditions
To better understand such phenomena we have to go beyond the narrow confines of the Christian God and Platonism. There are many movements that link themselves to some kind of "original," "pure," "genuine" teaching, claim its authority, use it to criticize "degenerate" accretions, and attempt to legitimize their "reform" on its basis. Such links can take a variety of forms. In Chapter 4 we saw how in the eighth and ninth centuries the Buddhist reform movement known as Zen cooked up a lineage of "mind to mind" transmission with the aim of connecting the teaching of the religion's Indian founder figure, Buddha, with their own views. The tuned-up and misdated Forty-Two Sections Sutra that ended up impressing so many people, including its first European translator de Guignes, was one (of course unanticipated) outcome of this strategy. Such "Ur-tradition" movements, as I propose to call them, invariably create a "transmission" scenario of their "original" teaching or revelation; in the case of Zen this consisted in an elaborate invented genealogy with colorful transmission figures like Bodhidharma and "patriarchs" consisting mostly of pious legends. Such invented genealogies and transmissions are embodied in symbols and legends emphasizing the link between the "original" teaching and the movement's doctrine. "Genuine," "oldest" texts are naturally of central importance for such movements, since they tend to regard the purity of teaching as directly proportional to its closeness to origins.
A common characteristic of such "Ur-tradition" movements is a tripartite scheme of "golden age," "degeneration," and "regeneration." The raison d'etre of such movements is the revival of a purportedly most ancient, genuine, "original" teaching after a long period of degeneration. Hence their need to define an "original" teaching, establish a line of its transmission, identify stages and kinds of degeneration, and present themselves as the agent of "regeneration" of the original "ancient" teaching. Such need often arises in a milieu of doctrinal rivalry or in a crisis, for example, when "new" religions or reform movements want to establish and legitimize themselves or when an established religion is threatened by powerful alternatives.
When young Christianity evolved from a Jewish reform movement and was accused of being a "new religion" and an invention, ancient connections were needed to provide legitimacy and add historical weight to the religion. The adoption of the Hebrew Bible as "Old Testament," grimly opposed by some early Christians, linked the young religion and its "New Testament" effectively to the very creation of the world, to paradise, and to the Ur-religion of the first humans in the golden age. Legends, texts, and symbols were created to illustrate this "Old-to-New" link. For example, the savior's cross on Golgotha had to get a pedigree connecting it to the Hebrew Bible's paradise tree; and the original sinner Adam's skull had to be brought via Noah's ark to Palestine in order to get buried on the very hill near Jerusalem where Adam's original sin eventually got expunged by the New Testament's "second Adam" on the cross (Figure 11). Theologians use the word "typology" for such attempts to discover Christian teachings or forebodings thereof in the Old Testament.
Similar links to an "oldest," "purest," and "original" teaching are abundant not only in the history of religions but also, for example, in freemasonry and various "esoteric" movements. They also tend to invent links to an original "founder," "ancient" teachings and texts, lineages, symbols of the original doctrine and its transmission, eminent transmitter figures ("patriarchs"), and so on; and they usually criticize the degeneration of exactly those original and pure teachings that they claim to resuscitate. In such schemes the most ancient texts, symbols, and objects naturally play important roles, particularly if they seem mysterious: pyramids, hieroglyphs, runic letters, ancient texts buried in caves, and divine revelations stored on golden tablets in heaven or in some American prophet's backyard ...
-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App
According to Lanz, the earliest recorded ancestors of the present 'arioheroic' race were the Atlanteans, who had lived on a continent situated in the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean. They were supposedly descended from the original divine Theozoa with electromagnetic sensory organs and superhuman powers. Catastrophic floods eventually submerged their continent in about 8000 BC and the Atlanteans migrated eastwards in two groups. The Northern Atlanteans streamed towards the British Isles, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe, while the Southern Atlanteans migrated across Western Africa to Egypt and Babylonia, where they founded the antique civilizations of the Near East. The ariosophical cult was thus introduced to Asia, where the idolatrous beast-cults of miscegenation had flourished.
Lanz claimed that the racial religion had been actively preached and practised in the ancient world. He asserted that Moses, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato, and Alexander the Great had been its champions. The laws of Moses and Plato's esteem for the aristocratic principle, and his provision for a caste of priest-kings in The Republic, proved them Ariosophists....
The suppression of the Templars in 1308 signalled the end of this era and the ascendancy of the racial inferiors. Henceforth Europe witnessed the slow decline of her racial, cultural, and political achievements. The growth of towns, the expansion of capitalism, and its creation of an industrial labouring class led to the breakdown of the aristocratic principle and the strict maintenance of racial purity. Christianity was perverted into a sentimental altruistic doctrine, which taught that all men were equal, and that man should love his neighbour, irrespective of his race. During the 'cosmic week' from 1210 to 1920 Europe was subject to a process of debasement, culminating in the enormities of Bolshevism and its open proclamation of rule by the masses.
-- The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Arisophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
From the feeling that society, and indeed 'everything', was in flux, arose, I believe, the fundamental impulse of his philosophy as well as of the philosophy of Heraclitus; and Plato summed up his social experience, exactly as his historicist predecessor had done, by proffering a law of historical development. According to this law, which will be more fully discussed in the next chapter, all social change is corruption or decay or degeneration.
This fundamental historical law forms, in Plato's view, part of a cosmic law — of a law which holds for all created or generated things. All things in flux, all generated things, are destined to decay. Plato, like Heraclitus, felt that the forces which are at work in history are cosmic forces.
It is nearly certain, however, that Plato believed that this law of degeneration was not the whole story. We have found, in Heraclitus, a tendency to visualize the laws of development as cyclic laws; they are conceived after the law which determines the cyclic succession of the seasons. Similarly we can find, in some of Plato's works, the suggestion of a Great Year (its length appears to be 36,000 ordinary years), with a period of improvement or generation, presumably corresponding to Spring and Summer, and one of degeneration and decay, corresponding to Autumn and Winter. According to one of Plato's dialogues (the Statesman), a Golden Age, the age of Cronos — an age in which Cronos himself rules the world, and in which men spring from the earth — is followed by our own age, the age of Zeus, an age in which the world is abandoned by the gods and left to its own resources, and which consequently is one of increasing corruption. And in the story of the Statesman there is also a suggestion that, after the lowest point of complete corruption has been reached, the god will again take the helm of the cosmic ship, and things will start to improve.
It is not certain how far Plato believed in the story of the Statesman. He made it quite clear that he did not believe that all of it was literally true. On the other hand, there can be little doubt that he visualized human history in a cosmic setting; that he believed his own age to be one of deep depravity — possibly of the deepest that can be reached — and the whole preceding historical period to be governed by an inherent tendency toward decay, a tendency shared by both the historical and the cosmical development. Whether or not he also believed that this tendency must necessarily come to an end once the point of extreme depravity has been reached seems to me uncertain. But he certainly believed that it is possible for us, by a human, or rather by a superhuman effort, to break through the fatal historical trend, and to put an end to the process of decay.
Great as the similarities are between Plato and Heraclitus, we have struck here an important difference. Plato believed that the law of historical destiny, the law of decay, can be broken by the moral will of man, supported by the power of human reason.
It is not quite clear how Plato reconciled this view with his belief in a law of destiny. But there are some indications which may explain the matter.
Plato believed that the law of degeneration involved moral degeneration. Political degeneration at any rate depends in his view mainly upon moral degeneration (and lack of knowledge); and moral degeneration, in its turn, is due mainly to racial degeneration. This is the way in which the general cosmic law of decay manifests itself in the field of human affairs.
It is therefore understandable that the great cosmic turning-point may coincide with a turning-point in the field of human affairs — the moral and intellectual field — and that it may, therefore, appear to us to be brought about by a moral and intellectual human effort. Plato may well have believed that, just as the general law of decay did manifest itself in moral decay leading to political decay, so the advent of the cosmic turning-point would manifest itself in the coming of a great law-giver whose powers of reasoning and whose moral will are capable of bringing this period of political decay to a close. It seems likely that the prophecy, in the Statesman, of the return of the Golden Age, of a new millennium, is the expression of such a belief in the form of a myth. However this may be, he certainly believed in both — in a general historical tendency towards corruption, and in the possibility that we may stop further corruption in the political field by arresting all political change. This, accordingly, is the aim he strives for. He tries to realize it by the establishment of a state which is free from the evils of all other states because it does not degenerate, because it does not change. The state which is free from the evil of change and corruption is the best, the perfect state. It is the state of the Golden Age which knew no change. It is the arrested state.
-- The Open Society and Its Enemies, by Karl R. Popper
The oldest known usage of the Greek word apokatastasis (whence the English apocatastasis ) dates from the fourth century bce: it is found in Aristotle (Magna Moralia 2.7.1204b), where it refers to the restoration of a being to its natural state. During the Hellenistic age it developed a cosmological and astrological meaning, variations of which can be detected (but with a very different concept of time) in Gnostic systems and even in Christian theology, whether orthodox or heterodox, especially in the theology of Origen.
Medical, Moral, and Juridical Meaning
Plato employed the verb kathistanai in the sense of to "reestablish" to a normal state following a temporary physical alteration (Philebus 42d). The prefix apo- in apokathistanai seems to reinforce the idea of an integral reestablishment to the original situation. Such is the return of the sick person to health (Hippocrates, 1258f.; Aretaeus, 9.22). The verb has this meaning in the Gospels in the context of the hand made better by Christ (Mt. 12:13; Mk. 3:5, Lk. 6:10). There are Hellenistic references to the apocatastasis, or "resetting," of a joint. In a psychological sense, the same meaning is present (with nuances that are hard to specify) in magical papyri and in the so-called Mithraic Liturgy. Origen (Against Celsus 2.24) uses the verb in his commentary on Job 5:18 ("For he wounds, but he binds up; he smites, but his hands heal") in one of several expositions where he compares the divine instruction on salvation to a method of therapy. The shift to a spiritual acceptation is evident, for example, in Philo Judaeus (Who Is the Heir 293), where "the perfect apocatastasis of the soul" confirms the philosophical healing that follows the two stages of infancy, first unformed and then corrupt. The soul recovers the health of its primitive state after a series of disturbances.
In a sociopolitical context, apocatastasis may signify a reestablishment of civil peace (Polybius, 4.23. l), or of an individual into his family (Polybius, 3.99.6), or the restoration of his rights (readmission of a soldier into an army, restoration of an exiled citizen to his prerogatives, etc.). Thus the verb apokathistanai is applied to the return of the Jews to the Holy Land after the captivity of Babylon (Jer. 15:9) as well as to the expression of messianic and eschatological hopes. Yet the noun form is not found in the Septuagint.
Astral Apocatastasis and the Great Year
The popularity and development of astrology influenced the cosmological systems of Hellenistic philosophy starting at the end of the fourth century bce. Apocatastasis here refers to the periodic return of the stars to their initial position, and the duration of the cycle amounts to a "Great Year." Plato defines the matter without using the word in the Timaeus (39d), where he talks of the eight spheres. Eudemius attributed to the Pythagoreans a theory of eternal return, but the Great Year of Oenopides and Philolaus involves only the sun. That of Aristotle, who calls it the "complete year," takes into account the seven planets: it also includes a "great winter" (with a flood) and a "great summer" (with a conflagration). Yet one could trace back to Heraclitus the principle of universal palingenesis periodically renewing the cosmos by fire, as well as the setting of the length of the Great Year at 10,800 years (this latter point is still in dispute). The astronomic teaching on the apocatastasis was refined by the Stoics, who identified it with the sidereal Great Year concluded either by a kataklusmos (flood) or by an ekpurosis (conflagration). Cicero defined it (with Aristotle) as the restoration of the seven planets to their point of departure, and sometimes as the return of all the stars (including the fixed ones) to their initial position. The estimates of its length varied considerably, ranging from 2,484 years (Aristarchus); to 10,800 years (Heraclitus); 12,954 years (Cicero); 15,000 years (Macrobius); 300,000 years (Firmicus Maternus), and up to 3,600,000 years (Cassandra). Diogenes of Babylon multiplied Heraclitus's Great Year by 365.
The Neoplatonist Proclus attributes the doctrines of apocatastasis to the "Assyrians," in other words to the astrologers or "Chaldeans." However, Hellenistic astrology also drew from Egyptian traditions. The 36,525 books that Manetho (285–247 bce) attributed to Hermes Trismegistos represent the amount of 25 zodiac periods of 1,461 years each, that is, probably one Great Year (Gundel and Gundel, 1966). The texts of Hermes Trismegistos make reference to the apocatastasis (Hermetica 8.17, 11.2; Asklepios 13). In the first century bce, the neo-Pythagorean Nigidius Figulus perhaps conceived the palingenetic cycle as being a great cosmic week crowned by the reign of Apollo. Whence the celebrated verses of Vergil's Fourth Eclogue: "A great order is born out of the fullness of ages … now your Apollo reigns." The return of Apollo corresponds to that of the Golden Age. The noun apocatastasis (as well as the verb from which it derives) always evoked the restoration of the old order. It often implied a "nostalgia for origins." It is no accident that, in the scheme of the Mithraic mysteries, the last of the "doors" is made out of gold and corresponds to the sun, since the order of these planetary doors is that of a week in reverse; there is the presupposition of a backward progression to the beginning of time. In the teaching of the Stoics, this new beginning is seen as having to repeat itself indefinitely, following a constant periodicity that rules out of chance, disorder, and freedom. During the imperial age, the Roman mystique of renovatio rested upon the same basic concept (Turcan, 1981, pp. 22ff.).
Gnostic Apocatastases
In Gnosticism, apocatastasis also corresponds to a restoration of order, but in a spiritual and eschatological way from the perspective of a history of salvation that is fundamentally foreign to the Stoics' "eternal return." The Christ of the Valentinians "restores" the soul to the Pleroma. Heracleon interprets the wages of the reaper (Jn. 4:36) as being the salvation of souls and their "apocatastasis" into eternal life (Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John 13.46.299). The Valentinian Wisdom (Sophia) is reintegrated through apocatastasis to the Pleroma, as Enthumesis will also be. The female aiōn Achamoth awaits the return of the Savior so that he might "restore" her syzygy. For Marcus, the universal restoration coincides with a return to unity. All these systems tell the story of a restoration of an order disturbed by thought.
The concept of the followers of Basilides is difficult indeed to elucidate, since they imagine at the beginning of all things not a Pleroma but nonbeing. Given this premise, there is no talk about a restoration to an initial state, even less to the truly primitive state of nothingness. However, for the Basilidians the salvation that leads men to God amounts to no less than a reestablishment of order (Hippolytus, Philosophuma 7.27.4). Like the Stoics, Basilides linked apocatastasis to astral revolutions: the coming of the Savior was to coincide "with the return of the hours to their point of departure." (ibid., 6.1). Yet this soteriological process is historical: it unfolds within linear rather than cyclical time. The Basilidian apocatastasis is not regressive but rather progressive and definitive. Some other Gnostics integrated astral apocatastasis into their systems: the Manichaeans seem to have conceived of a Great Year of 12,000 years with a final conflagration.
Christian Apocatastasis
In the New Testament, the first evidence of the noun apocatastasis used in an eschatological sense is found in Acts of the Apostles 3:21: Peter states that heaven must keep Jesus "till the universal apocatastasis comes." According to André Méhat (1956, p. 209), this would mean the "definitive achievement" of what God has promised through his prophets and would indicate the notion of accomplishment and fulfillment. In the Gospels, Matthew 17:11 and Mark 9:2 speak of Elijah as the one who will "reestablish" everything, and Malachi 3:23 (of which the evangelists could not help but think) speaks of the day when Yahveh will "restore" hearts and lead them back to him. Apocatastasis thus represents the salvation of creation reconciled with God, that is, a true return to an original state. The verb has this meaning for Theophilus of Antioch (To Autolycus 2.17). For both Tatian (Address to the Greeks 6.2) and Irenaeus (Against Heresies 5.3.2) apocatastasis is equivalent to resurrection and points without any ambiguity to a restoration of man in God. In Clement of Alexandria, the precise meaning of the word is not always clear, but this much may be said: apocatastasis appears as a return to God that is the result of a recovered purity of heart consequent to absorption in certain "Gnostic" teachings; it is a conception not unlike that found in the Book of Malachi in the Hebrew scriptures (Old Testament).
It is in Origen that the doctrine of apocatastasis finds its most remarkable expression. In Against Celsus 7.3, where he mentions the "restoration of true piety toward God," Origen implicitly refers to Malachi. Elsewhere (Commentary on the Gospel of John 10.42.291), the word involves the reestablishment of the Jewish people after the captivity, yet as an anticipatory image of the return to the heavenly fatherland. Origen's originality consisted in his having conceived apocatastasis as being universal (including the redemption even of the devil or the annihilation of all evil) and as a return of souls to their pure spirituality. This final incorporality is rejected by Gregory of Nyssa, who nonetheless insists upon apocatastasis as a restoration to the original state. Didymus the Blind and Evagrios of Pontus were condemned at the same time as Origen by the Council of Constantinople (553) for having professed the doctrine of universal apocatastasis and the restoration of incorporeal souls. Yet there is still discussion concerning this principal aspect of Origen's eschatology. Astronomical theories and Greek cosmology seem also to have inspired the Greek bishop Synesius of Cyrene, a convert from Neoplatonism. Yet Tatian (Address to the Greeks 6. 2) had already emphasized what fundamentally set Christian apocatastasis apart: it depends upon God (and not upon sidereal revolutions) and is completed once and for all at the end of time, without being repeated indefinitely.
See Also
Ages of the World; Golden Age.
Bibliography
Bouché-Leclercq, Auguste. L'astrologie grecque (1899). Brussels, 1963.
Carcopino, J. Virgile et le mystère de la quatrième eglogue. Paris, 1943.
Crouzel, Henri. "Différences entre les ressuscités selon Origène," Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum 9, supp., Gedenkschrift für A. Stuiber (1982): 107–116.
Daniélou, Jean. "L'apocatastase chez saint Grégoire de Nysse." Recherches de science religieuse (1940): 328ff.
Daniélou, Jean. Platonisme et théologie mystique. Paris, 1944.
Daniélou, Jean. Origen. Translated by Walter Mitchell. New York, 1955.
Faye, E. de. Origène: Sa vie, son œuvre, sa pensée. Paris, 1923–1928.
Gundel, Wilhelm, and Hans Georg Gundel. Astrologumena. Wiesbaden, 1966.
Hoven, R. Stoïcisme et stoïciens face au problème de l'audelà. Paris, 1971.
Lenz, Chr. "Apokatastasis." Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum 1 (1950): 510–516.
Méhat, André. " 'Apocastastase,' Origène, Clément d'Alexandrie, Act. 3, 21." Vigiliae Christianae 10 (November 1956): 196–214.
Méhat, André. "Apokatastasis chez Basilide." In Mélanges d'histoire des religions offerts à Henri-Charles Puech, pp. 365–373. Paris, 1974.
Müller, G. "Origenes und die Apokatastasis." Theologische Zeitschrift 14 (1958): 174–190.
Mussner, Franz, and J. Loosen. "Apokatastasis." In Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, vol. 1, pp. 708ff. Berlin, 1957.
Siniscalco, P. "I significati di 'restituere' e 'restitutio' in Tertulliano." Atti della Accademia delle Scienza di Torino 93 (1958–1959): 1–45.
Siniscalco, P. "Apokatastasis nella letteratura cristiana fino a Ireneo." Studia Patristica 3 (1961): 380–396.
Turcan, Robert. Mithras platonicus: Recherches sur l'hellénisation philosophique de Mithra. Leiden, 1975.
Turcan, Robert. "Rome éternelle et les conceptions gréco-romaines de l'éternité: Da Roma alla terza Roma." Seminario internazionale (April 1981): 7–30.
New Sources
Charalambos, Apostolopoulos. Phaedo Christianus. Studien zur Verbindung und Abwägung des Verhältnisses zwischen dem platonischen "Phaidon" und dem Dialog Gregor von Nyssa "Über die Seele und die Auferstehung." Bern, 1986.
Crouzel, Henri. "L'apocatastase chez Origène." In Origeniana Quarta. Die Referate des 4. Internationalen Origeneskongresses (Innsbruck, 2.–6. September 1985), edited by Lothar Lies, pp. 282–290. Innsbruck, 1987.
Kettler, F. H. "Neue Beobachtungen zur Apokatastasislehre des Origenes." In Origeniana secunda. Second colloque international des études origéniennes (Bari, 20–23 septembre 1977), edited by Henri Crouzel and Antonio Quacquarelli, pp. 339–348. Rome, 1980.
Kretzenbacher, Leopold. Versöhnung im Jenseits. Zur Widerspiegelung des Apokatastasis-Denkens in Glaube, Hochdichtung und Legende. Munich, 1971.
Maturi, Giorgio. "Apokatastasis e anastasis in Gregorio di Nissa." Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 24 (2000): 227–240.
Sachs, John R. "Apocatastasis in Patristic Theology." Theological Studies 54 (1993): 617–640.
Salmona, Bruno. "Origene e Gregorio di Nissa sulla resurrezione dei corpi e l'apocatastasi." Augustinianum 18 (1978): 383–388.
van Laak, Werner. Allversöhnung: die Lehre von der Apokatastasis: ihre Grundlegung durch Origenes und ihre Bewertung in der gegenwärtigen Theologie bei Karl Barth und Hans Urs von Balthasar. Sinzig, Germany, 1990.
von Stritzky, Maria Barbara. "Die Bedeutung der Phaidrosinterpretation für die Apokatastasislehre des Origenes." Vigiliae Christianae 31 (1977): 282–297.
Robert Turcan (1987)
Translated from French by Paul C. Duggan
Revised Bibliography
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
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Wheel of time
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 4/22/22
The wheel of time or wheel of history (also known as Kalachakra) is a concept found in several religious traditions and philosophies, notably religions of Indian origin such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, which regard time as cyclical and consisting of repeating ages. Many other cultures contain belief in a similar concept: notably, the Q'ero Natives of Peru, as well as the Hopi Natives of Arizona.
Hinduism
Main articles: Yuga Cycle, Manvantara, and Kalpa (aeon)
In Hindu cosmology, kala (time) is eternal, repeating general events in four types of cycles. The smallest cycle is a maha-yuga (great age), containing four yugas (dharmic ages): Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. A manvantara (age of Manu) contains 71 maha-yugas. A kalpa (day of Brahma) contains 14 manvantaras and 15 sandhyas (connecting periods), which lasts for 1,000 maha-yugas and is followed by a pralaya (night of partial dissolution) of equal length, where a day and night make one full day. A maha-kalpa (life of Brahma) lasts for 100 of Brahma's years of 12 months of 30 full days (100 360-day years) or 72,000,000 maha-yugas, which is followed by a maha-pralaya (full dissolution) of equal length.[1]
Buddhism
Main article: Kalachakra
The Wheel of Time or Kalachakra is a Tantric deity that is associated with Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, which encompasses all four main schools of Sakya, Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug, and is especially important within the lesser-known Jonang tradition.
The Kalachakra tantra prophesies a world within which (religious) conflict is prevalent. A worldwide war will be waged which will see the expansion of the mystical Kingdom of Shambhala led by a messianic king.
Jainism
Main article: Ajiva
Within Jainism, time is thought to be a wheel that rotates for infinity without a beginning. This wheel of time holds twelve spokes that each symbolize a different phase in the universe's cosmological history. It is further divided into two equal halves having six eras in them. While in a downward motion, the wheel of time falls into what is known as Avasarpiṇī and when in an upward motion, enters a state called Utsarpini. During both motions of the wheel, 24 tirthankaras come forth to teach the three jewels or sacred Jain teachings of right faith, right knowledge, and right practice, then create a spiritual ford across the ocean of rebirth for humanity.[2][3]
Ancient Rome
The philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius saw time as extending forwards to infinity and backwards to infinity, while admitting the possibility (without arguing the case) that "the administration of the universe is organized into a succession of finite periods".[4]: Book 5, Paragraph 13
Modern usage
Literature
In an interview included with the audiobook editions of his novels, author Robert Jordan has stated that his bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time borrows the titular concept from Hindu mythology.[5]
Television
Several episodes of the American TV series Lost feature a wheel that can be physically turned in order to manipulate space and time. In a series of episodes during the fifth season, the island on which the show takes place begins to skip violently back and forth through time after the wheel is pulled off its axis.
See also
• Eternal return
• Kalachakra
• Wheel of the Year
References
1. Gupta, Dr. S. V. (2010). Hull, Robert; Osgood, Jr., Richard M.; Parisi, Jurgen; Warlimont, Hans (eds.). Units of Measurement: Past, Present and Future. International System of Units. Springer Series in Materials Science: 122. Springer. pp. 6–9 (1.2.4 Time Measurements). ISBN 9783642007378.
2. Bhattacharyya, Sibajiban (1970). Buddhist Philosophy From 350 to 600 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 3. ISBN 9788120819689.
3. Dundas, Paul (2003). The Jains (2 ed.). Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 9781134501656.
4. Aurelius, Marcus (2011). Meditations. Robin Hard. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957320-2. OCLC 757023454.
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 4/22/22
-- On the Chronology of the Hindus, by the President (Sir William Jones), Written in January 1788
-- A Supplement to the Essay on Indian Chronology, by the President (Sir William Jones), Asiatic Researches, Volume 2, 1788
-- On the Chronology of the Hindus, by Captain Francis Wilford, Asiatic Researches; or, Transactions of the Society Instituted in Bengal, For Inquiring Into the History and Antiquities, The Arts, Sciences, and Literature, Of Asia, Volume the Fifth, 1799
-- [Book Review of:] A Key to the Chronology of the Hindus; in a Series of Letters, in which an Attempt is made to facilitate the Progress of Christianity in Hindustan, by proving that the protracted Numbers of all Oriental Nations, when reduced, agree with the Dates given in the Hebrew Text of the Bible. 2 vols. 8vo. Rivingtons. 1820. [by Anonymous, 1820], by F. and C. Rivington (Firm), The British Critic, Volumes 13-14, Editors: 1793-1813, Robert Nares, William Beloe; 1814-1825, T.F. Middleton, W.R. Lyall, and others. 1820, originally published 1792
-- A Key to the Chronology of the Hindus in a Series of Letters in Which an Attempt is Made to Facilitate the Progress of Christianity in Hindostan, by Proving That the Protracted Numbers of All Oriental Nations When Reduced Agree with the Dates Given in the Hebrew Text of the Bible, In Two Volumes, Volume I, by Alexander Hamilton, 1820
-- Determination of the Date of the Mahabharata: The Possibility Thereof, [Reprinted from Vishveshvaramand Indological Journal, Vol. XIV (1976) pp. 48-56.], Excerpt, from Collected Papers on Jyotisha, by T.S. Kuppanna Sastry
-- History of Classical Sanskrit Literature, by Kavyavinoda, Sahityaratnakara M. Krishnamachariar, M.A., M.I., Ph.D., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London (Of the Madras Judicial Service), Assisted by His Son M. Srinivasachariar, B.A., B.L., Advocate, Madras, 1937
The wheel of time or wheel of history (also known as Kalachakra) is a concept found in several religious traditions and philosophies, notably religions of Indian origin such as Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, which regard time as cyclical and consisting of repeating ages. Many other cultures contain belief in a similar concept: notably, the Q'ero Natives of Peru, as well as the Hopi Natives of Arizona.
Hinduism
Main articles: Yuga Cycle, Manvantara, and Kalpa (aeon)
In Hindu cosmology, kala (time) is eternal, repeating general events in four types of cycles. The smallest cycle is a maha-yuga (great age), containing four yugas (dharmic ages): Satya Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dvapara Yuga and Kali Yuga. A manvantara (age of Manu) contains 71 maha-yugas. A kalpa (day of Brahma) contains 14 manvantaras and 15 sandhyas (connecting periods), which lasts for 1,000 maha-yugas and is followed by a pralaya (night of partial dissolution) of equal length, where a day and night make one full day. A maha-kalpa (life of Brahma) lasts for 100 of Brahma's years of 12 months of 30 full days (100 360-day years) or 72,000,000 maha-yugas, which is followed by a maha-pralaya (full dissolution) of equal length.[1]
Buddhism
Main article: Kalachakra
The Wheel of Time or Kalachakra is a Tantric deity that is associated with Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, which encompasses all four main schools of Sakya, Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug, and is especially important within the lesser-known Jonang tradition.
The Kalachakra tantra prophesies a world within which (religious) conflict is prevalent. A worldwide war will be waged which will see the expansion of the mystical Kingdom of Shambhala led by a messianic king.
Jainism
Main article: Ajiva
Within Jainism, time is thought to be a wheel that rotates for infinity without a beginning. This wheel of time holds twelve spokes that each symbolize a different phase in the universe's cosmological history. It is further divided into two equal halves having six eras in them. While in a downward motion, the wheel of time falls into what is known as Avasarpiṇī and when in an upward motion, enters a state called Utsarpini. During both motions of the wheel, 24 tirthankaras come forth to teach the three jewels or sacred Jain teachings of right faith, right knowledge, and right practice, then create a spiritual ford across the ocean of rebirth for humanity.[2][3]
Ancient Rome
The philosopher and emperor Marcus Aurelius saw time as extending forwards to infinity and backwards to infinity, while admitting the possibility (without arguing the case) that "the administration of the universe is organized into a succession of finite periods".[4]: Book 5, Paragraph 13
Modern usage
Literature
In an interview included with the audiobook editions of his novels, author Robert Jordan has stated that his bestselling fantasy series The Wheel of Time borrows the titular concept from Hindu mythology.[5]
Television
Several episodes of the American TV series Lost feature a wheel that can be physically turned in order to manipulate space and time. In a series of episodes during the fifth season, the island on which the show takes place begins to skip violently back and forth through time after the wheel is pulled off its axis.
See also
• Eternal return
• Kalachakra
• Wheel of the Year
References
1. Gupta, Dr. S. V. (2010). Hull, Robert; Osgood, Jr., Richard M.; Parisi, Jurgen; Warlimont, Hans (eds.). Units of Measurement: Past, Present and Future. International System of Units. Springer Series in Materials Science: 122. Springer. pp. 6–9 (1.2.4 Time Measurements). ISBN 9783642007378.
2. Bhattacharyya, Sibajiban (1970). Buddhist Philosophy From 350 to 600 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 3. ISBN 9788120819689.
3. Dundas, Paul (2003). The Jains (2 ed.). Routledge. p. 20. ISBN 9781134501656.
4. Aurelius, Marcus (2011). Meditations. Robin Hard. Oxford [England]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-957320-2. OCLC 757023454.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
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Christian Kabbalah
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/11/22
Christian Kabbalah arose during the Renaissance due to Christian scholars' interest in the mysticism of Jewish Kabbalah, which they interpreted according to Christian theology. It is often transliterated as Cabala (also Cabbala) to distinguish it from the Jewish form and from Hermetic Qabalah.[1]
Background
The movement was influenced by a desire to interpret aspects of Christianity even more mystically than current Christian mystics. Greek Neoplatonic documents came into Europe from Constantinople in the reign of Mehmet II. Neoplatonism had been prevalent in Christian Europe and had entered into Scholasticism since the translation of Greek and Hebrew texts in Spain in the 13th century. The Renaissance trend was a relatively short-lived phenomenon, ending by 1750.
Christian scholars interpreted Kabbalistic ideas from "a distinctly Christian perspective, linking Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His resurrection to the Ten Sefirot" – the upper three Sephirot to the hypostases of the Trinity and the other seven "to the lower or earthly world".[2] Alternatively, they "would make Kether the Creator (or the Spirit), Hokhmah the Father, and Binah – the supernal mother – Mary", which placed her "on a divine level with God, something the orthodox churches have always refused to do".[3] Christian Kabbalists sought to transform Kabbalah into "a dogmatic weapon to turn back against the Jews to compel their conversion – starting with Ramon Llull", whom Harvey J. Hames called "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", though Llull was not a Kabbalist himself nor versed in Kabbalah.[4] Later Christian Kabbalah is mostly based on Pico della Mirandola, Johann Reuchlin and Paolo Riccio.[5]
After the 18th century, Kabbalah became blended with European occultism, some of which had a religious basis; but the main interest in Christian Kabbalah was by then dead. A few attempts have been made to revive it in recent decades, particularly regarding the Neoplatonism of the first two chapters of the Gospel of John, but it has not entered into mainstream Christianity.
Medieval precursors
Raymond Llull
Main article: Ramon Llull
The Franciscan friar Ramon Llull (c. 1232-1316) was "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", although he was "not a Kabbalist, nor was he versed in any particular Kabbalistic approach".[4] Not interested in the possibilities of scholarly Jewish influence, which began later in the Renaissance, his reading of new interpretations of Kabbalah was solely for the sake of theological debate with religious Jews; i.e., missionizing.
Spanish conversos
An early expression of Christian Kabbalah was among the Spanish conversos from Judaism, from the late 13th century to the Expulsion from Spain of 1492. These include Abner of Burgos and Pablo de Heredia. Heredia's Epistle of Secrets is "the first recognizable work of Christian Kabbalah", and was quoted by Pietro Galatino who influenced Athanasius Kircher. However, Heredia's Kabbalah consists of quotes from non-existent Kabbalistic works, and distorted or fake quotes from real Kabbalistic sources.[6]
Christian Kabbalists
Pico della Mirandola
Main article: Pico della Mirandola
Among the first to promote aspects of Kabbalah beyond exclusively Jewish circles was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494)[7] a student of Marsilio Ficino at his Florentine Academy. His syncretic world-view combined Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah.
Mirandola's work on Kabbalah was further developed by Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), a Jesuit priest, Hermeticist and polymath; in 1652, Kircher wrote on the subject in Oedipus Aegyptiacus.
Johann Reuchlin
Title of Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica libri tres, iam denua adcurate revisi, 1530.
Main article: Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin, a Catholic humanist (1455–1522), was "Pico's most important follower".[8] His main sources for Kabbalah were Menahem Recanati (Commentary on the Torah, Commentary on the Daily Prayers) and Joseph Gikatilla (Sha'are Orah, Ginnat 'Egoz).[9] Reuchlin argued that human history divides into three periods: a natural period in which God revealed Himself as Shaddai (שדי), the period of the Torah in which God "revealed Himself to Moses through the four-lettered name of the Tetragrammaton" (יהוה), and the period of Christian spiritual rule of the earth which is known in Christianity as "the redemption." It was asserted that the five-letter name associated with this period is an altered version of the tetragrammaton with the additional letter shin (ש).[10]
This name, Yahshuah (יהשוה for 'Jesus'), is also known as the pentagrammaton. It is an attempt by Christian theologians to read the name of the Christian deity into The unpronounced name of the Jewish God. The first of Reuchlin's two books on Kabbalah, De verbo mirifico, "speaks of the […] name of Jesus derived from the tetragrammaton".[9] His second book, De arte cabalistica, is "a broader, more informed excursion into various kabbalistic concerns".[11]
Francesco Giorgi
Main article: Francesco Giorgi
front page of Francesco Giorgi's De harmonia mundi.
Francesco Giorgi, (1467–1540) was a Venetian Franciscan friar and "has been considered a central figure in sixteenth-century Christian Kabbalah both by his contemporaries and by modern scholars". According to Giulio Busi, he was the most important Christian Kabbalist second to its founder Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. His, De harmonia mundi, was "a massive and curious book, all Hermetic, Platonic, Cabalistic, and Pinchian".[12]
Paolo Riccio
Main article: Paolo Riccio
Paolo Riccio (1506–1541) "unified the scattered dogmas of the Christian Cabala into an internally consistent system",[10] based on Pico and Reuchlin and adding "to them through an original synthesis of kabbalistic and Christian sources".[13]
Balthasar Walther
Main article: Balthasar Walther
Balthasar Walther, (1558 – before 1630), was a Silesian physician. In 1598-1599, Walther undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to learn about the intricacies of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism from groups in Safed and elsewhere, including amongst the followers of Isaac Luria. However, he did not follow the teachings of these Jewish authorities but later used his learning to further Christian theological pursuits. Despite his claim to have spent six years in these travels, it appears that he only made several shorter trips. Walther himself did not author any significant works of Christian Kabbalah but maintained a voluminous manuscript collection of magical and kabbalistic works. His significance for the history of Christian Kabbalah is that his ideas and doctrines exercised a profound influence on the works of the German theosopher, Jakob Böhme, in particular Böhme's Forty Questions on the Soul (c.1621).[14]
Athanasius Kircher
Main article: Athanasius Kircher
The following century produced Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit priest, scholar and polymath. He wrote extensively on the subject in 1652, bringing further elements such as Orphism and Egyptian mythology to the mix in his work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus. It was illustrated by Kircher's adaptation of the Tree of Life.[15] Kircher's version of the Tree of Life is still used in Western Kabbalah.[16]
Sir Thomas Browne
The physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82) is recognised as one of the few 17th century English scholars of the Kabbalah.[17] Browne read Hebrew, owned a copy of Francesco Giorgio's highly influential work of Christian Kabbalah De harmonia mundi totius (1525), and alluded to the Kabbalah in his discourse The Garden of Cyrus and encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica which was translated into German by the Hebrew scholar and promoter of the Kabbalah, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth.[18]
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth
Sephirotic diagram from Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata.
Main article: Christian Knorr von Rosenroth
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, (1636–1689), became well known as a translator, annotator, and editor of Kabbalistic texts; he published the two-volume Kabbala denudata ('Kabbalah Unveiled' 1677–78), "which virtually alone represented authentic (Jewish) kabbalah to Christian Europe until the mid-nineteenth century". The Kabbala denudata contains Latin translations of, among others, sections of the Zohar, Pardes Rimmonim by Moses Cordovero, Sha’ar ha-Shamayim and Beit Elohim by Abraham Cohen de Herrera, Sefer ha-Gilgulim (a Lurianic tract attributed to Hayyim Vital), with commentaries by Knorr von Rosenroth and Henry More; some later editions include a summary of Christian Kabbalah (Adumbratio Kabbalæ Christianæ) by F. M. van Helmont.[19]
Johan Kemper
Main article: Johan Kemper
Johan Kemper (1670–1716) was a Hebrew teacher, whose tenure at Uppsala University lasted from 1697 to 1716.[20] He was Emanuel Swedenborg's probable Hebrew tutor.
Kemper, formerly known as Moses ben Aaron of Cracow, was a convert to Lutheranism from Judaism. During his time at Uppsala, he wrote his three-volume work on the Zohar entitled Matteh Mosche ('The Staff of Moses').[21] In it, he attempted to show that the Zohar contained the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.[22]
This belief also drove him to make a literal translation of the Gospel of Matthew into Hebrew and to write a kabbalistic commentary on it.
Adorján Czipleá
Main article: Adorján Czipleá
See also
• Emanation (Eastern Orthodox Christianity)
• Platonism in the Renaissance
References
1. KABBALAH? CABALA? QABALAH? Archived 25 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine from Jewish kabbalaonline.org
2. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 147f, accessed on 28 March 2013.
3. Rachel Pollack: The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth. First edition, second printing 2004. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications 2004, p. 50, accessed on 28 March 2013.[dead link]
4. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 1, accessed on 28 March 2013.
5. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 150, accessed on 28 March 2013.
6. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 2f, accessed on 28 March 2013.
7. Christian Cabala Archived 22 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on 15 February 2013.
8. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 6, accessed on 28 March 2013.
9. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 16, accessed on 28 March 2013.
10. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 149, accessed on 28 March 2013.
11. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 17, accessed on 28 March 2013.
12. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 19, accessed on 28 March 2013.
13. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 23, accessed on 28 March 2013.
14. Leigh T.I. Penman, A Second Christian Rosencreuz? Jakob Böhme’s Disciple Balthasar Walther (1558-c.1630) and the Kabbalah. With a Bibliography of Walther’s Printed Works. In: Western Esotericism. Selected Papers Read at the Symposium on Western Esotericism held at Åbo, Finland, on 15–17 August 2007. (Scripta instituti donneriani Aboensis, XX). T. Ahlbäck, ed. Åbo, Finland: Donner Institute, 2008: 154-172. Available online at:[1]
15. Schmidt, Edward W. The Last Renaissance Man: Athanasius Kircher, SJ. Company: The World of Jesuits and Their Friends. 19(2), Winter 2001–2002
16. Rachel Pollack: The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth. First edition, second printing 2004. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications 2004, p. 49, accessed on 28 March 2013.
17. Beitchman, Philip (1998). Alchemy of the Word: Cabala of the Renaissance. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791437384. p.339-40
18. p.339-40 Barbour, Reid (2013). Sir Thomas Browne: A Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199679881.
19. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 43, accessed on 28 March 2013.
20. Messianism in the Christian Kabbala of Johann Kemper. In: The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning Volume 1, No. 1—August 2001.
21. Schoeps, Hans-Joachim, trans. Dole, George F., Barocke Juden, Christen, Judenchristen, Bern: Francke Verlag, 1965, pp. 60-67.
22. See Elliot R. Wolfson's study available at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
Bibliography
• Armstrong, Allan: The Secret Garden of the Soul: An introduction to the Kabbalah, Imagier Publishing: Bristol, 2008.
• Blau, J. L.: The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance, New York: Columbia University Press, 1944.
• Dan, Joseph (ed.): The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books and their Christian Interpreters, Cambridge, Mass., 1997.
• Dan, Joseph: Modern Times: The Christian Kabbalah. In: Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Farmer, S.A.: Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486), Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998, ISBN 0-86698-209-4.
• Reichert, Klaus: Pico della Mirandola and the Beginnings of Christian Kabbala. In: Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism, ed. K. E. Grözinger and J. Dan, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995.
• Swietlicki, Catherine: Spanish Christian Cabala: The Works of Luis de Leon, Santa Teresa de Jesus, and San Juan de la Cruz, Univ. of Missouri Press, 1987.
• Wirszubski, Chaim: Pico della Mirandola's encounter with Jewish mysticism, Harvard University Press, 1989.
• Yates, Frances A.: The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1979.
External links
• Christian Cabala
• The Study of Christian Cabala in English
• The Study of Christian Cabala in English: Addenda
• Knots & Spirals: Notes on the Emergence of Christian Cabala
• Historical background in Christendom of 13th century Jewish Kabbalah
• Forshaw, Peter J (2013). "Cabala Chymica or Chemica Cabalistica - Early Modern Alchemists and Cabala". Ambix, Vol. 60:4.
• Forshaw, Peter J (2014). "The Genesis of Christian Kabbalah - Early Modern Speculations on the Work of Creation". Hidden Truths from Eden: Esoteric Readings of Genesis 1-3.
• Forshaw, Peter J (2016). "Christian Kabbalah". The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism.
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 8/11/22
Christian Kabbalah arose during the Renaissance due to Christian scholars' interest in the mysticism of Jewish Kabbalah, which they interpreted according to Christian theology. It is often transliterated as Cabala (also Cabbala) to distinguish it from the Jewish form and from Hermetic Qabalah.[1]
Background
The movement was influenced by a desire to interpret aspects of Christianity even more mystically than current Christian mystics. Greek Neoplatonic documents came into Europe from Constantinople in the reign of Mehmet II. Neoplatonism had been prevalent in Christian Europe and had entered into Scholasticism since the translation of Greek and Hebrew texts in Spain in the 13th century. The Renaissance trend was a relatively short-lived phenomenon, ending by 1750.
Christian scholars interpreted Kabbalistic ideas from "a distinctly Christian perspective, linking Jesus Christ, His atonement, and His resurrection to the Ten Sefirot" – the upper three Sephirot to the hypostases of the Trinity and the other seven "to the lower or earthly world".[2] Alternatively, they "would make Kether the Creator (or the Spirit), Hokhmah the Father, and Binah – the supernal mother – Mary", which placed her "on a divine level with God, something the orthodox churches have always refused to do".[3] Christian Kabbalists sought to transform Kabbalah into "a dogmatic weapon to turn back against the Jews to compel their conversion – starting with Ramon Llull", whom Harvey J. Hames called "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", though Llull was not a Kabbalist himself nor versed in Kabbalah.[4] Later Christian Kabbalah is mostly based on Pico della Mirandola, Johann Reuchlin and Paolo Riccio.[5]
After the 18th century, Kabbalah became blended with European occultism, some of which had a religious basis; but the main interest in Christian Kabbalah was by then dead. A few attempts have been made to revive it in recent decades, particularly regarding the Neoplatonism of the first two chapters of the Gospel of John, but it has not entered into mainstream Christianity.
Medieval precursors
Raymond Llull
Main article: Ramon Llull
The Franciscan friar Ramon Llull (c. 1232-1316) was "the first Christian to acknowledge and appreciate kabbalah as a tool of conversion", although he was "not a Kabbalist, nor was he versed in any particular Kabbalistic approach".[4] Not interested in the possibilities of scholarly Jewish influence, which began later in the Renaissance, his reading of new interpretations of Kabbalah was solely for the sake of theological debate with religious Jews; i.e., missionizing.
Spanish conversos
An early expression of Christian Kabbalah was among the Spanish conversos from Judaism, from the late 13th century to the Expulsion from Spain of 1492. These include Abner of Burgos and Pablo de Heredia. Heredia's Epistle of Secrets is "the first recognizable work of Christian Kabbalah", and was quoted by Pietro Galatino who influenced Athanasius Kircher. However, Heredia's Kabbalah consists of quotes from non-existent Kabbalistic works, and distorted or fake quotes from real Kabbalistic sources.[6]
Christian Kabbalists
Pico della Mirandola
Main article: Pico della Mirandola
Among the first to promote aspects of Kabbalah beyond exclusively Jewish circles was Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463–1494)[7] a student of Marsilio Ficino at his Florentine Academy. His syncretic world-view combined Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, Hermeticism and Kabbalah.
Mirandola's work on Kabbalah was further developed by Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), a Jesuit priest, Hermeticist and polymath; in 1652, Kircher wrote on the subject in Oedipus Aegyptiacus.
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola; Latin: Johannes Picus de Mirandula; 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views.
-- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, by Wikipedia
Johann Reuchlin
Title of Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica libri tres, iam denua adcurate revisi, 1530.
Main article: Johann Reuchlin
Johann Reuchlin, a Catholic humanist (1455–1522), was "Pico's most important follower".[8] His main sources for Kabbalah were Menahem Recanati (Commentary on the Torah, Commentary on the Daily Prayers) and Joseph Gikatilla (Sha'are Orah, Ginnat 'Egoz).[9] Reuchlin argued that human history divides into three periods: a natural period in which God revealed Himself as Shaddai (שדי), the period of the Torah in which God "revealed Himself to Moses through the four-lettered name of the Tetragrammaton" (יהוה), and the period of Christian spiritual rule of the earth which is known in Christianity as "the redemption." It was asserted that the five-letter name associated with this period is an altered version of the tetragrammaton with the additional letter shin (ש).[10]
This name, Yahshuah (יהשוה for 'Jesus'), is also known as the pentagrammaton. It is an attempt by Christian theologians to read the name of the Christian deity into The unpronounced name of the Jewish God. The first of Reuchlin's two books on Kabbalah, De verbo mirifico, "speaks of the […] name of Jesus derived from the tetragrammaton".[9] His second book, De arte cabalistica, is "a broader, more informed excursion into various kabbalistic concerns".[11]
Francesco Giorgi
Main article: Francesco Giorgi
front page of Francesco Giorgi's De harmonia mundi.
Francesco Giorgi, (1467–1540) was a Venetian Franciscan friar and "has been considered a central figure in sixteenth-century Christian Kabbalah both by his contemporaries and by modern scholars". According to Giulio Busi, he was the most important Christian Kabbalist second to its founder Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. His, De harmonia mundi, was "a massive and curious book, all Hermetic, Platonic, Cabalistic, and Pinchian".[12]
Paolo Riccio
Main article: Paolo Riccio
Paolo Riccio (1506–1541) "unified the scattered dogmas of the Christian Cabala into an internally consistent system",[10] based on Pico and Reuchlin and adding "to them through an original synthesis of kabbalistic and Christian sources".[13]
Balthasar Walther
Main article: Balthasar Walther
Balthasar Walther, (1558 – before 1630), was a Silesian physician. In 1598-1599, Walther undertook a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to learn about the intricacies of the Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism from groups in Safed and elsewhere, including amongst the followers of Isaac Luria. However, he did not follow the teachings of these Jewish authorities but later used his learning to further Christian theological pursuits. Despite his claim to have spent six years in these travels, it appears that he only made several shorter trips. Walther himself did not author any significant works of Christian Kabbalah but maintained a voluminous manuscript collection of magical and kabbalistic works. His significance for the history of Christian Kabbalah is that his ideas and doctrines exercised a profound influence on the works of the German theosopher, Jakob Böhme, in particular Böhme's Forty Questions on the Soul (c.1621).[14]
Athanasius Kircher
Main article: Athanasius Kircher
The following century produced Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit priest, scholar and polymath. He wrote extensively on the subject in 1652, bringing further elements such as Orphism and Egyptian mythology to the mix in his work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus. It was illustrated by Kircher's adaptation of the Tree of Life.[15] Kircher's version of the Tree of Life is still used in Western Kabbalah.[16]
Sir Thomas Browne
The physician-philosopher Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82) is recognised as one of the few 17th century English scholars of the Kabbalah.[17] Browne read Hebrew, owned a copy of Francesco Giorgio's highly influential work of Christian Kabbalah De harmonia mundi totius (1525), and alluded to the Kabbalah in his discourse The Garden of Cyrus and encyclopaedia Pseudodoxia Epidemica which was translated into German by the Hebrew scholar and promoter of the Kabbalah, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth.[18]
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth
Sephirotic diagram from Knorr von Rosenroth's Kabbala Denudata.
Main article: Christian Knorr von Rosenroth
Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, (1636–1689), became well known as a translator, annotator, and editor of Kabbalistic texts; he published the two-volume Kabbala denudata ('Kabbalah Unveiled' 1677–78), "which virtually alone represented authentic (Jewish) kabbalah to Christian Europe until the mid-nineteenth century". The Kabbala denudata contains Latin translations of, among others, sections of the Zohar, Pardes Rimmonim by Moses Cordovero, Sha’ar ha-Shamayim and Beit Elohim by Abraham Cohen de Herrera, Sefer ha-Gilgulim (a Lurianic tract attributed to Hayyim Vital), with commentaries by Knorr von Rosenroth and Henry More; some later editions include a summary of Christian Kabbalah (Adumbratio Kabbalæ Christianæ) by F. M. van Helmont.[19]
Johan Kemper
Main article: Johan Kemper
Johan Kemper (1670–1716) was a Hebrew teacher, whose tenure at Uppsala University lasted from 1697 to 1716.[20] He was Emanuel Swedenborg's probable Hebrew tutor.
Kemper, formerly known as Moses ben Aaron of Cracow, was a convert to Lutheranism from Judaism. During his time at Uppsala, he wrote his three-volume work on the Zohar entitled Matteh Mosche ('The Staff of Moses').[21] In it, he attempted to show that the Zohar contained the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.[22]
This belief also drove him to make a literal translation of the Gospel of Matthew into Hebrew and to write a kabbalistic commentary on it.
Adorján Czipleá
Main article: Adorján Czipleá
See also
• Emanation (Eastern Orthodox Christianity)
• Platonism in the Renaissance
References
1. KABBALAH? CABALA? QABALAH? Archived 25 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine from Jewish kabbalaonline.org
2. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 147f, accessed on 28 March 2013.
3. Rachel Pollack: The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth. First edition, second printing 2004. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications 2004, p. 50, accessed on 28 March 2013.[dead link]
4. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 1, accessed on 28 March 2013.
5. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 150, accessed on 28 March 2013.
6. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 2f, accessed on 28 March 2013.
7. Christian Cabala Archived 22 July 2016 at the Wayback Machine, accessed on 15 February 2013.
8. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 6, accessed on 28 March 2013.
9. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 16, accessed on 28 March 2013.
10. Walter Martin, Jill Martin Rische, Kurt van Gorden: The Kingdom of the Occult. Nashville: Thomas Nelson 2008, p. 149, accessed on 28 March 2013.
11. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 17, accessed on 28 March 2013.
12. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 19, accessed on 28 March 2013.
13. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 23, accessed on 28 March 2013.
14. Leigh T.I. Penman, A Second Christian Rosencreuz? Jakob Böhme’s Disciple Balthasar Walther (1558-c.1630) and the Kabbalah. With a Bibliography of Walther’s Printed Works. In: Western Esotericism. Selected Papers Read at the Symposium on Western Esotericism held at Åbo, Finland, on 15–17 August 2007. (Scripta instituti donneriani Aboensis, XX). T. Ahlbäck, ed. Åbo, Finland: Donner Institute, 2008: 154-172. Available online at:[1]
15. Schmidt, Edward W. The Last Renaissance Man: Athanasius Kircher, SJ. Company: The World of Jesuits and Their Friends. 19(2), Winter 2001–2002
16. Rachel Pollack: The Kabbalah Tree: A Journey of Balance & Growth. First edition, second printing 2004. St. Paul, MN: Llewellyn Publications 2004, p. 49, accessed on 28 March 2013.
17. Beitchman, Philip (1998). Alchemy of the Word: Cabala of the Renaissance. SUNY Press. ISBN 9780791437384. p.339-40
18. p.339-40 Barbour, Reid (2013). Sir Thomas Browne: A Life. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199679881.
19. Don Karr: The Study of Christian Cabala in English (pdf), p. 43, accessed on 28 March 2013.
20. Messianism in the Christian Kabbala of Johann Kemper. In: The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning Volume 1, No. 1—August 2001.
21. Schoeps, Hans-Joachim, trans. Dole, George F., Barocke Juden, Christen, Judenchristen, Bern: Francke Verlag, 1965, pp. 60-67.
22. See Elliot R. Wolfson's study available at "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 25 August 2007. Retrieved 18 June 2007.
Bibliography
• Armstrong, Allan: The Secret Garden of the Soul: An introduction to the Kabbalah, Imagier Publishing: Bristol, 2008.
• Blau, J. L.: The Christian Interpretation of the Cabala in the Renaissance, New York: Columbia University Press, 1944.
• Dan, Joseph (ed.): The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books and their Christian Interpreters, Cambridge, Mass., 1997.
• Dan, Joseph: Modern Times: The Christian Kabbalah. In: Kabbalah: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Farmer, S.A.: Syncretism in the West: Pico's 900 Theses (1486), Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998, ISBN 0-86698-209-4.
• Reichert, Klaus: Pico della Mirandola and the Beginnings of Christian Kabbala. In: Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism, ed. K. E. Grözinger and J. Dan, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1995.
• Swietlicki, Catherine: Spanish Christian Cabala: The Works of Luis de Leon, Santa Teresa de Jesus, and San Juan de la Cruz, Univ. of Missouri Press, 1987.
• Wirszubski, Chaim: Pico della Mirandola's encounter with Jewish mysticism, Harvard University Press, 1989.
• Yates, Frances A.: The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1979.
External links
• Christian Cabala
• The Study of Christian Cabala in English
• The Study of Christian Cabala in English: Addenda
• Knots & Spirals: Notes on the Emergence of Christian Cabala
• Historical background in Christendom of 13th century Jewish Kabbalah
• Forshaw, Peter J (2013). "Cabala Chymica or Chemica Cabalistica - Early Modern Alchemists and Cabala". Ambix, Vol. 60:4.
• Forshaw, Peter J (2014). "The Genesis of Christian Kabbalah - Early Modern Speculations on the Work of Creation". Hidden Truths from Eden: Esoteric Readings of Genesis 1-3.
• Forshaw, Peter J (2016). "Christian Kabbalah". The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
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Part 1 of 2
Oration on the Dignity of Man
by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
1486
Most esteemed Fathers, I have read in the ancient writings of the Arabians that Abdala the Saracen on being asked what, on this stage, so to say, of the world, seemed to him most evocative of wonder, replied that there was nothing to be seen more marvelous than man. And that celebrated exclamation of Hermes Trismegistus, ``What a great miracle is man, Asclepius'' confirms this opinion.
And still, as I reflected upon the basis assigned for these estimations, I was not fully persuaded by the diverse reasons advanced for the pre-eminence of human nature; that man is the intermediary between creatures, that he is the familiar of the gods above him as he is the lord of the beings beneath him; that, by the acuteness of his senses, the inquiry of his reason and the light of his intelligence, he is the interpreter of nature, set midway between the timeless unchanging and the flux of time; the living union (as the Persians say), the very marriage hymn of the world, and, by David's testimony but little lower than the angels. These reasons are all, without question, of great weight; nevertheless, they do not touch the principal reasons, those, that is to say, which justify man's unique right for such unbounded admiration. Why, I asked, should we not admire the angels themselves and the beatific choirs more? At long last, however, I feel that I have come to some understanding of why man is the most fortunate of living things and, consequently, deserving of all admiration; of what may be the condition in the hierarchy of beings assigned to him, which draws upon him the envy, not of the brutes alone, but of the astral beings and of the very intelligences which dwell beyond the confines of the world. A thing surpassing belief and smiting the soul with wonder. Still, how could it be otherwise? For it is on this ground that man is, with complete justice, considered and called a great miracle and a being worthy of all admiration.
Hear then, oh Fathers, precisely what this condition of man is; and in the name of your humanity, grant me your benign audition as I pursue this theme.
God the Father, the Mightiest Architect, had already raised, according to the precepts of His hidden wisdom, this world we see, the cosmic dwelling of divinity, a temple most august. He had already adorned the supercelestial region with Intelligences, infused the heavenly globes with the life of immortal souls and set the fermenting dung-heap of the inferior world teeming with every form of animal life. But when this work was done, the Divine Artificer still longed for some creature which might comprehend the meaning of so vast an achievement, which might be moved with love at its beauty and smitten with awe at its grandeur. When, consequently, all else had been completed (as both Moses and Timaeus testify), in the very last place, He bethought Himself of bringing forth man. Truth was, however, that there remained no archetype according to which He might fashion a new offspring, nor in His treasure-houses the wherewithal to endow a new son with a fitting inheritance, nor any place, among the seats of the universe, where this new creature might dispose himself to contemplate the world. All space was already filled; all things had been distributed in the highest, the middle and the lowest orders. Still, it was not in the nature of the power of the Father to fail in this last creative élan; nor was it in the nature of that supreme Wisdom to hesitate through lack of counsel in so crucial a matter; nor, finally, in the nature of His beneficent love to compel the creature destined to praise the divine generosity in all other things to find it wanting in himself.
At last, the Supreme Maker decreed that this creature, to whom He could give nothing wholly his own, should have a share in the particular endowment of every other creature. Taking man, therefore, this creature of indeterminate image, He set him in the middle of the world and thus spoke to him:
``We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select, these same you may have and possess through your own judgement and decision. The nature of all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down; you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody We have assigned you, trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature. I have placed you at the very center of the world, so that from that vantage point you may with greater ease glance round about you on all that the world contains. We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.''
Oh unsurpassed generosity of God the Father, Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be! The brutes, from the moment of their birth, bring with them, as Lucilius says, ``from their mother's womb'' all that they will ever possess. The highest spiritual beings were, from the very moment of creation, or soon thereafter, fixed in the mode of being which would be theirs through measureless eternities. But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities, the germs of every form of life. Whichever of these a man shall cultivate, the same will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, dissatisfied with the lot of all creatures, he should recollect himself into the center of his own unity, he will there become one spirit with God, in the solitary darkness of the Father, Who is set above all things, himself transcend all creatures.
Who then will not look with awe upon this our chameleon, or who, at least, will look with greater admiration on any other being? This creature, man, whom Asclepius the Athenian, by reason of this very mutability, this nature capable of transforming itself, quite rightly said was symbolized in the mysteries by the figure of Proteus. This is the source of those metamorphoses, or transformations, so celebrated among the Hebrews and among the Pythagoreans; for even the esoteric theology of the Hebrews at times transforms the holy Enoch into that angel of divinity which is sometimes called malakh-ha-shekhinah and at other times transforms other personages into divinities of other names; while the Pythagoreans transform men guilty of crimes into brutes or even, if we are to believe Empedocles, into plants; and Mohammed, imitating them, was known frequently to say that the man who deserts the divine law becomes a brute. And he was right; for it is not the bark that makes the tree, but its insensitive and unresponsive nature; nor the hide which makes the beast of burden, but its brute and sensual soul; nor the orbicular form which makes the heavens, but their harmonious order. Finally, it is not freedom from a body, but its spiritual intelligence, which makes the angel. If you see a man dedicated to his stomach, crawling on the ground, you see a plant and not a man; or if you see a man bedazzled by the empty forms of the imagination, as by the wiles of Calypso, and through their alluring solicitations made a slave to his own senses, you see a brute and not a man. If, however, you see a philosopher, judging and distinguishing all things according to the rule of reason, him shall you hold in veneration, for he is a creature of heaven and not of earth; if, finally, a pure contemplator, unmindful of the body, wholly withdrawn into the inner chambers of the mind, here indeed is neither a creature of earth nor a heavenly creature, but some higher divinity, clothed in human flesh.
Who then will not look with wonder upon man, upon man who, not without reason in the sacred Mosaic and Christian writings, is designated sometimes by the term ``all flesh'' and sometimes by the term ``every creature,'' because he molds, fashions and transforms himself into the likeness of all flesh and assumes the characteristic power of every form of life? This is why Evantes the Persian in his exposition of the Chaldean theology, writes that man has no inborn and proper semblance, but many which are extraneous and adventitious: whence the Chaldean saying: ``Enosh hu shinnujim vekammah tebhaoth haj'' --- ``man is a living creature of varied, multiform and ever-changing nature.''
But what is the purpose of all this? That we may understand --- since we have been born into this condition of being what we choose to be --- that we ought to be sure above all else that it may never be said against us that, born to a high position, we failed to appreciate it, but fell instead to the estate of brutes and uncomprehending beasts of burden; and that the saying of Aspah the Prophet, ``You are all Gods and sons of the Most High,'' might rather be true; and finally that we may not, through abuse of the generosity of a most indulgent Father, pervert the free option which he has given us from a saving to a damning gift. Let a certain saving ambition invade our souls so that, impatient of mediocrity, we pant after the highest things and (since, if we will, we can) bend all our efforts to their attainment. Let us disdain things of earth, hold as little worth even the astral orders and, putting behind us all the things of this world, hasten to that court beyond the world, closest to the most exalted Godhead. There, as the sacred mysteries tell us, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones occupy the first places; but, unable to yield to them, and impatient of any second place, let us emulate their dignity and glory. And, if we will it, we shall be inferior to them in nothing.
How must we proceed and what must we do to realize this ambition? Let us observe what they do, what kind of life they lead. For if we lead this kind of life (and we can) we shall attain their same estate. The Seraphim burns with the fire of charity; from the Cherubim flashes forth the splendor of intelligence; the Thrones stand firm with the firmness of justice. If, consequently, in the pursuit of the active life we govern inferior things by just criteria, we shall be established in the firm position of the Thrones. If, freeing ourselves from active care, we devote our time to contemplation, meditating upon the Creator in His work, and the work in its Creator, we shall be resplendent with the light of the Cherubim. If we burn with love for the Creator only, his consuming fire will quickly transform us into the flaming likeness of the Seraphim. Above the Throne, that is, above the just judge, God sits, judge of the ages. Above the Cherub, that is, the contemplative spirit, He spreads His wings, nourishing him, as it were, with an enveloping warmth. For the spirit of the Lord moves upon the waters, those waters which are above the heavens and which, according to Job, praise the Lord in pre-aurorial hymns. Whoever is a Seraph, that is a lover, is in God and God is in him; even, it may be said, God and he are one. Great is the power of the Thrones, which we attain by right judgement, highest of all the sublimity of the Seraphim which we attain by loving.
But how can anyone judge or love what he does not know? Moses loved the God whom he had seen and as judge of his people he administered what he had previously seen in contemplation on the mountain. Therefore the Cherub is the intermediary and by his light equally prepares us for the fire of the Seraphim and the judgement of the Thrones. This is the bond which unites the highest minds, the Palladian order which presides over contemplative philosophy; this is then the bond which before all else we must emulate, embrace and comprehend, whence we may be rapt to the heights of love or descend, well instructed and prepared, to the duties of the practical life. But certainly it is worth the effort, if we are to form our life on the model of the Cherubim, to have familiarly before our eyes both its nature and its quality as well as the duties and the functions proper to it. Since it is not granted to us, flesh as we are and knowledgeable only the things of earth, to attain such knowledge by our own efforts, let us have recourse to the ancient Fathers. They can give us the fullest and most reliable testimony concerning these matters because they had an almost domestic and connatural knowledge of them.
Let us ask the Apostle Paul, that vessel of election, in what activity he saw the armies of the Cherubim engaged when he was rapt into the third heaven. He will answer, according to the interpretation of Dionysius, that he saw them first being purified, then illuminated, and finally made perfect. We, therefore, imitating the life of the Cherubim here on earth, by refraining the impulses of our passions through moral science, by dissipating the darkness of reason by dialectic --- thus washing away, so to speak, the filth of ignorance and vice --- may likewise purify our souls, so that the passions may never run rampant, nor reason, lacking restraint, range beyond its natural limits. Then may we suffuse our purified souls with the light of natural philosophy, bringing it to final perfection by the knowledge of divine things.
Lest we be satisfied to consult only those of our own faith and tradition, let us also have recourse to the patriarch, Jacob, whose likeness, carved on the throne of glory, shines out before us. This wisest of the Fathers who though sleeping in the lower world, still has his eyes fixed on the world above, will admonish us. He will admonish, however, in a figure, for all things appeared in figures to the men of those times: a ladder rises by many rungs from earth to the height of heaven and at its summit sits the Lord, while over its rungs the contemplative angels move, alternately ascending and descending. If this is what we, who wish to imitate the angelic life, must do in our turn, who, I ask, would dare set muddied feet or soiled hands to the ladder of the Lord? It is forbidden, as the mysteries teach, for the impure to touch what is pure. But what are these hands, these feet, of which we speak? The feet, to be sure, of the soul: that is, its most despicable portion by which the soul is held fast to earth as a root to the ground; I mean to say, it alimentary and nutritive faculty where lust ferments and voluptuous softness is fostered. And why may we not call ``the hand'' that irascible power of the soul, which is the warrior of the appetitive faculty, fighting for it and foraging for it in the dust and the sun, seizing for it all things which, sleeping in the shade, it will devour? Let us bathe in moral philosophy as in a living stream, these hands, that is, the whole sensual part in which the lusts of the body have their seat and which, as the saying is, holds the soul by the scruff of the neck, let us be flung back from that ladder as profane and polluted intruders. Even this, however, will not be enough, if we wish to be the companions of the angels who traverse the ladder of Jacob, unless we are first instructed and rendered able to advance on that ladder duly, step by step, at no point to stray from it and to complete the alternate ascensions and descents. When we shall have been so prepared by the art of discourse or of reason, then, inspired by the spirit of the Cherubim, exercising philosophy through all the rungs of the ladder --- that is, of nature --- we shall penetrate being from its center to its surface and from its surface to its center. At one time we shall descend, dismembering with titanic force the ``unity'' of the ``many,'' like the members of Osiris; at another time, we shall ascend, recollecting those same members, by the power of Phoebus, into their original unity. Finally, in the bosom of the Father, who reigns above the ladder, we shall find perfection and peace in the felicity of theological knowledge.
Let us also inquire of the just Job, who made his covenant with the God of life even before he entered into life, what, above all else, the supreme God desires of those tens of thousands of beings which surround Him. He will answer, without a doubt: peace, just as it is written in the pages of Job: He establishes peace in the high reaches of heaven. And since the middle order interprets the admonitions of the higher to the lower orders, the words of Job the theologian may well be interpreted for us by Empedocles the philosopher. Empedocles teaches us that there is in our souls a dual nature; the one bears us upwards toward the heavenly regions; by the other we are dragged downward toward regions infernal, through friendship and discord, war and peace; so witness those verses in which he laments that, torn by strife and discord, like a madman, in flight from the gods, he is driven into the depths of the sea. For it is a patent thing, O Fathers, that many forces strive within us, in grave, intestine warfare, worse than the civil wars of states. Equally clear is it that, if we are to overcome this warfare, if we are to establish that peace which must establish us finally among the exalted of God, philosophy alone can compose and allay that strife. In the first place, if our man seeks only truce with his enemies, moral philosophy will restrain the unreasoning drives of the protean brute, the passionate violence and wrath of the lion within us. If, acting on wiser counsel, we should seek to secure an unbroken peace, moral philosophy will still be at hand to fulfill our desires abundantly; and having slain either beast, like sacrificed sows, it will establish an inviolable compact of peace between the flesh and the spirit. Dialectic will compose the disorders of reason torn by anxiety and uncertainty amid the conflicting hordes of words and captious reasonings. Natural philosophy will reduce the conflict of opinions and the endless debates which from every side vex, distract and lacerate the disturbed mind. It will compose this conflict, however, in such a manner as to remind us that nature, as Heraclitus wrote, is generated by war and for this reason is called by Homer, ``strife.'' Natural philosophy, therefore, cannot assure us a true and unshakable peace. To bestow such peace is rather the privilege and office of the queen of the sciences, most holy theology. Natural philosophy will at best point out the way to theology and even accompany us along the path, while theology, seeing us from afar hastening to draw close to her, will call out: ``Come unto me you who are spent in labor and I will restore you; come to me and I will give you the peace which the world and nature cannot give.''
Summoned in such consoling tones and invited with such kindness, like earthly Mercuries, we shall fly on winged feet to embrace that most blessed mother and there enjoy the peace we have longed for: that most holy peace, that indivisible union, that seamless friendship through which all souls will not only be at one in that one mind which is above every mind, but, in a manner which passes expression, will really be one, in the most profound depths of being. This is the friendship which the Pythagoreans say is the purpose of all philosophy. This is the peace which God established in the high places of the heaven and which the angels, descending to earth, announced to men of good will, so that men, ascending through this peace to heaven, might become angels. This is the peace which we would wish for our friends, for our age, for every house into which we enter and for our own soul, that through this peace it may become the dwelling of God; sop that, too, when the soul, by means of moral philosophy and dialectic shall have purged herself of her uncleanness, adorned herself with the disciplines of philosophy as with the raiment of a prince's court and crowned the pediments of her doors with the garlands of theology, the King of Glory may descend and, coming with the Father, take up his abode with her. If she prove worthy of so great a guest, she will, through his boundless clemency, arrayed in the golden vesture of the many sciences as in a nuptial gown, receive him, not as a guest merely, but as a spouse. And rather than be parted from him, she will prefer to leave her own people and her father's house. Forgetful of her very self she will desire to die to herself in order to live in her spouse, in whose eyes the death of his saints is infinitely precious: I mean that death --- if the very plenitude of life can be called death --- whose meditation wise men have always held to be the special study of philosophy.
Let us also cite Moses himself, who is but little removed from the living well-spring of the most holy and ineffable understanding by whose nectar the angels are inebriated. Let us listen to the venerable judge as he enunciates his laws to us who live in the desert solitude of the body: ``Let those who, still unclean, have need of moral philosophy, dwell with the peoples outside the tabernacles, under the open sky, until, like the priests of Thessaly, they shall have cleansed themselves. Those who have already brought order into their lives may be received into the tabernacle, but still may not touch the sacred vessels. Let them rather first, as zealous levites, in the service of dialectic, minister to the holy offices of philosophy. When they shall themselves be admitted to those offices, they may, as priests of philosophy, contemplate the many-colored throne of the higher God, that is the courtly palace of the star-hung heavens, the heavenly candelabrum aflame with seven lights and elements which are the furry veils of this tabernacle; so that, finally, having been permitted to enter, through the merit of sublime theology, into the innermost chambers of the temple, with no veil of images interposing itself, we may enjoy the glory of divinity.'' This is what Moses beyond a doubt commands us, admonishing, urging and exhorting us to prepare ourselves, while we may, by means of philosophy, a road to future heavenly glory.
In fact, however, the dignity of the liberal arts, which I am about to discuss, and their value to us is attested not only by the Mosaic and Christian mysteries but also by the theologies of the most ancient times. What else is to be understood by the stages through which the initiates must pass in the mysteries of the Greeks? These initiates, after being purified by the arts which we might call expiatory, moral philosophy and dialectic, were granted admission to the mysteries. What could such admission mean but the interpretation of occult nature by means of philosophy? Only after they had been prepared in this way did they receive ``Epopteia,'' that is, the immediate vision of divine things by the light of theology. Who would not long to be admitted to such mysteries? Who would not desire, putting all human concerns behind him, holding the goods of fortune in contempt and little minding the goods of the body, thus to become, while still a denizen of earth, a guest at the table of the gods, and, drunk with the nectar of eternity, receive, while still a mortal, the gift of immortality? Who would not wish to be so inspired by those Socratic frenzies which Plato sings in the Phaedrus that, swiftly fleeing this place, that is, this world fixed in evil, by the oars, so to say, both of feet and wings, he might reach the heavenly Jerusalem by the swiftest course? Let us be driven, O Fathers, by those Socratic frenzies which lift us to such ecstasy that our intellects and our very selves are united to God. And we shall be moved by them in this way as previously we have done all that it lies in us to do. If, by moral philosophy, the power of our passions shall have been restrained by proper controls so that they achieve harmonious accord; and if, by dialectic, our reason shall have progressed by an ordered advance, then, smitten by the frenzy of the Muses, we shall hear the heavenly harmony with the inward ears of the spirit. Then the leader of the Muses, Bacchus, revealing to us in our moments of philosophy, through his mysteries, that is, the visible signs of nature, the invisible things of God, will make us drunk with the richness of the house of God; and there, if, like Moses, we shall prove entirely faithful, most sacred theology will supervene to inspire us with redoubled ecstasy. For, raised to the most eminent height of theology, whence we shall be able to measure with the rod of indivisible eternity all things that are and that have been; and, grasping the primordial beauty of things, like the seers of Phoebus, we shall become the winged lovers of theology. And at last, smitten by the ineffable love as by a sting, and, like the Seraphim, filled with the godhead, we shall be, no longer ourselves, but the very One who made us.
The sacred names of Apollo, to anyone who penetrates their meanings and the mysteries they conceal, clearly show that God is a philosopher no less than a seer; but since Ammonius has amply treated this theme, there is no occasion for me to expound it anew. Nevertheless, O Fathers, we cannot fail to recall those three Delphic precepts which are so very necessary for everyone about to enter the most holy and august temple, not of the false, but of the true Apollo who illumines every soul as it enters this world. You will see that they exhort us to nothing else but to embrace with all our powers this tripartite philosophy which we are now discussing. As a matter of fact that aphorism: meden agan, this is: ``Nothing in excess,'' duly prescribes a measure and rule for all the virtues through the concept of the ``Mean'' of which moral philosophy treats. In like manner, that other aphorism gnothi seauton, that is, ``Know thyself,'' invites and exhorts us to the study of the whole nature of which the nature of man is the connecting link and the ``mixed potion''; for he who knows himself knows all things in himself, as Zoroaster first and after him Plato, in the Alcibiades, wrote. Finally, enlightened by this knowledge, through the aid of natural philosophy, being already close to God, employing the theological salutation ei, that is ``Thou art,'' we shall blissfully address the true Apollo on intimate terms.
Let us also seek the opinion of Pythagoras, that wisest of men, known as a wise man precisely because he never thought himself worthy of that name. His first precept to us will be: ``Never sit on a bushel''; never, that is, through slothful inaction to lose our power of reason, that faculty by which the mind examines, judges and measures all things; but rather unremittingly by the rule and exercise of dialectic, to direct it and keep it agile. Next he will warn us of two things to be avoided at all costs: Neither to make water facing the sun, nor to cut our nails while offering sacrifice. Only when, by moral philosophy, we shall have evacuated the weakening appetites of our too-abundant pleasures and pared away, like nail clippings, the sharp points of anger and wrath in our souls, shall we finally begin to take part in the sacred rites, that is, the mysteries of Bacchus of which we have spoken and to dedicate ourselves to that contemplation of which the Sun is rightly called the father and the guide. Finally, Pythagoras will command us to ``Feed the cock''; that is, to nourish the divine part of our soul with the knowledge of divine things as with substantial food and heavenly ambrosia. This is the cock whose visage is the lion, that is, all earthly power, holds in fear and awe. This is the cock to whom, as we read in Job, all understanding was given. At this cock's crowing, erring man returns to his senses. This is the cock which every day, in the morning twilight, with the stars of morning, raises a Te Deum to heaven. This is the cock which Socrates, at the hour of his death, when he hoped he was about to join the divinity of his spirit to the divinity of the higher world and when he was already beyond danger of any bodily illness, said that he owed to Asclepius, that is, the healer of souls.
Let us also pass in review the records of the Chaldeans; there we shall see (if they are to be believed) that the road to happiness, for mortals, lies through these same arts. The Chaldean interpreters write that it was a saying of Zoroaster that the soul is a winged creature. When her wings fall from her, she is plunged into the body; but when they grow strong again, she flies back to the supernal regions. And when his disciples asked him how they might insure that their souls might be well plumed and hence swift in flight he replied: ``Water them well with the waters of life.'' And when they persisted, asking whence they might obtain these waters of life, he answered (as he was wont) in a parable: ``The Paradise of God is bathed and watered by four rivers; from these same sources you may draw the waters which will save you. The name of the river which flows from the north is Pischon which means, `the Right.' That which flows from the west is Gichon, that is, `Expiation.' The river flowing from the east is named Chiddekel, that is, `Light,' while that, finally, from the south is Perath, which may be understood as `Compassion.' '' Consider carefully and with full attention, O Fathers, what these deliverances of Zoroaster might mean. Obviously, they can only mean that we should, by moral science, as by western waves, wash the uncleanness from our eyes; that, by dialectic, as by a reading taken by the northern star, our gaze must be aligned with the right. Then, that we should become accustomed to bear, in the contemplation of nature, the still feeble light of truth, like the first rays of the rising sun, so that finally we may, through theological piety and the most holy cult of God, become able, like the eagles of heaven, to bear the effulgent splendor of the noonday sun. These are, perhaps, those ``morning, midday and evening thoughts'' which David first celebrated and on which St. Augustine later expatiated. This is the noonday light which inflames the Seraphim toward their goal and equally illuminates the Cherubim. This is the promised land toward which our ancient father Abraham was ever advancing; this the region where, as the teachings of the Cabalists and the Moors tell us, there is no place for unclean spirits. And if we may be permitted, even in the form of a riddle, to say anything publicly about the deeper mysteries: since the precipitous fall of man has left his mind in a vertiginous whirl and and since according to Jeremiah, death has come in through the windows to infect our hearts and bowels with evil, let us call upon Raphael, the heavenly healer that by moral philosophy and dialectic, as with healing drugs, he may release us. When we shall have been restored to health, Gabriel, the strength of God, will abide in us. Leading us through the marvels of nature and pointing out to us everywhere the power and the goodness of God, he will deliver us finally to the care of the High Priest Michael. He, in turn, will adorn those who have successfully completed their service to philosophy with the priesthood of theology as with a crown of precious stones.
These are the reasons, most reverend Fathers, which not only led, but even compelled me, to the study of philosophy. And I should not have undertaken to expound them, except to reply to those who are wont to condemn the study of philosophy, especially among men of high rank, but also among those of modest station. For the whole study of philosophy (such is the unhappy plight of our time) is occasion for contempt and contumely, rather than honor and glory. The deadly and monstrous persuasion has invaded practically all minds, that philosophy ought not to be studied at all or by very few people; as though it were a thing of little worth to have before our eyes and at our finger-tips, as matters we have searched out with greatest care, the causes of things, the ways of nature and the plan of the universe, God's counsels and the mysteries of heaven and earth, unless by such knowledge on might procure some profit or favor for oneself. Thus we have reached the point, it is painful to recognize, where the only persons accounted wise are those who can reduce the pursuit of wisdom to a profitable traffic; and chaste Pallas, who dwells among men only by the generosity of the gods, is rejected, hooted, whistled at in scorn, with no one to love or befriend her unless, by prostituting herself, she is able to pay back into the strongbox of her lover the ill-procured price of her deflowered virginity. I address all these complaints, with the greatest regret and indignation, not against the princes of our times, but against the philosophers who believe and assert that philosophy should not be pursued because no monetary value or reward is assigned it, unmindful that by this sign they disqualify themselves as philosophers. Since their whole life is concentrated on gain and ambition, they never embrace the knowledge of the truth for its own sake. This much will I say for myself --- and on this point I do not blush for praising myself --- that I have never philosophized save for the sake of philosophy, nor have I ever desired or hoped to secure from my studies and my laborious researches any profit or fruit save cultivation of mind and knowledge of the truth --- things I esteem more and more with the passage of time. I have also been so avid for this knowledge and so enamored of it that I have set aside all private and public concerns to devote myself completely to contemplation; and from it no calumny of jealous persons, nor any invective from enemies of wisdom has ever been able to detach me. Philosophy has taught me to rely on my own convictions rather than on the judgements of others and to concern myself less with whether I am well thought of than whether what I do or say is evil.
Oration on the Dignity of Man
by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
1486
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola; Latin: Johannes Picus de Mirandula; 24 February 1463 – 17 November 1494) was an Italian Renaissance nobleman and philosopher. He is famed for the events of 1486, when, at the age of 23, he proposed to defend 900 theses on religion, philosophy, natural philosophy, and magic against all comers, for which he wrote the Oration on the Dignity of Man, which has been called the "Manifesto of the Renaissance", and a key text of Renaissance humanism and of what has been called the "Hermetic Reformation". He was the founder of the tradition of Christian Kabbalah, a key tenet of early modern Western esotericism. The 900 Theses was the first printed book to be universally banned by the Church. Pico is sometimes seen as a proto-Protestant, because his 900 theses anticipated many Protestant views.
-- Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, by Wikipedia
Most esteemed Fathers, I have read in the ancient writings of the Arabians that Abdala the Saracen on being asked what, on this stage, so to say, of the world, seemed to him most evocative of wonder, replied that there was nothing to be seen more marvelous than man. And that celebrated exclamation of Hermes Trismegistus, ``What a great miracle is man, Asclepius'' confirms this opinion.
And still, as I reflected upon the basis assigned for these estimations, I was not fully persuaded by the diverse reasons advanced for the pre-eminence of human nature; that man is the intermediary between creatures, that he is the familiar of the gods above him as he is the lord of the beings beneath him; that, by the acuteness of his senses, the inquiry of his reason and the light of his intelligence, he is the interpreter of nature, set midway between the timeless unchanging and the flux of time; the living union (as the Persians say), the very marriage hymn of the world, and, by David's testimony but little lower than the angels. These reasons are all, without question, of great weight; nevertheless, they do not touch the principal reasons, those, that is to say, which justify man's unique right for such unbounded admiration. Why, I asked, should we not admire the angels themselves and the beatific choirs more? At long last, however, I feel that I have come to some understanding of why man is the most fortunate of living things and, consequently, deserving of all admiration; of what may be the condition in the hierarchy of beings assigned to him, which draws upon him the envy, not of the brutes alone, but of the astral beings and of the very intelligences which dwell beyond the confines of the world. A thing surpassing belief and smiting the soul with wonder. Still, how could it be otherwise? For it is on this ground that man is, with complete justice, considered and called a great miracle and a being worthy of all admiration.
Hear then, oh Fathers, precisely what this condition of man is; and in the name of your humanity, grant me your benign audition as I pursue this theme.
God the Father, the Mightiest Architect, had already raised, according to the precepts of His hidden wisdom, this world we see, the cosmic dwelling of divinity, a temple most august. He had already adorned the supercelestial region with Intelligences, infused the heavenly globes with the life of immortal souls and set the fermenting dung-heap of the inferior world teeming with every form of animal life. But when this work was done, the Divine Artificer still longed for some creature which might comprehend the meaning of so vast an achievement, which might be moved with love at its beauty and smitten with awe at its grandeur. When, consequently, all else had been completed (as both Moses and Timaeus testify), in the very last place, He bethought Himself of bringing forth man. Truth was, however, that there remained no archetype according to which He might fashion a new offspring, nor in His treasure-houses the wherewithal to endow a new son with a fitting inheritance, nor any place, among the seats of the universe, where this new creature might dispose himself to contemplate the world. All space was already filled; all things had been distributed in the highest, the middle and the lowest orders. Still, it was not in the nature of the power of the Father to fail in this last creative élan; nor was it in the nature of that supreme Wisdom to hesitate through lack of counsel in so crucial a matter; nor, finally, in the nature of His beneficent love to compel the creature destined to praise the divine generosity in all other things to find it wanting in himself.
At last, the Supreme Maker decreed that this creature, to whom He could give nothing wholly his own, should have a share in the particular endowment of every other creature. Taking man, therefore, this creature of indeterminate image, He set him in the middle of the world and thus spoke to him:
``We have given you, O Adam, no visage proper to yourself, nor endowment properly your own, in order that whatever place, whatever form, whatever gifts you may, with premeditation, select, these same you may have and possess through your own judgement and decision. The nature of all other creatures is defined and restricted within laws which We have laid down; you, by contrast, impeded by no such restrictions, may, by your own free will, to whose custody We have assigned you, trace for yourself the lineaments of your own nature. I have placed you at the very center of the world, so that from that vantage point you may with greater ease glance round about you on all that the world contains. We have made you a creature neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, in order that you may, as the free and proud shaper of your own being, fashion yourself in the form you may prefer. It will be in your power to descend to the lower, brutish forms of life; you will be able, through your own decision, to rise again to the superior orders whose life is divine.''
Oh unsurpassed generosity of God the Father, Oh wondrous and unsurpassable felicity of man, to whom it is granted to have what he chooses, to be what he wills to be! The brutes, from the moment of their birth, bring with them, as Lucilius says, ``from their mother's womb'' all that they will ever possess. The highest spiritual beings were, from the very moment of creation, or soon thereafter, fixed in the mode of being which would be theirs through measureless eternities. But upon man, at the moment of his creation, God bestowed seeds pregnant with all possibilities, the germs of every form of life. Whichever of these a man shall cultivate, the same will mature and bear fruit in him. If vegetative, he will become a plant; if sensual, he will become brutish; if rational, he will reveal himself a heavenly being; if intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, dissatisfied with the lot of all creatures, he should recollect himself into the center of his own unity, he will there become one spirit with God, in the solitary darkness of the Father, Who is set above all things, himself transcend all creatures.
Who then will not look with awe upon this our chameleon, or who, at least, will look with greater admiration on any other being? This creature, man, whom Asclepius the Athenian, by reason of this very mutability, this nature capable of transforming itself, quite rightly said was symbolized in the mysteries by the figure of Proteus. This is the source of those metamorphoses, or transformations, so celebrated among the Hebrews and among the Pythagoreans; for even the esoteric theology of the Hebrews at times transforms the holy Enoch into that angel of divinity which is sometimes called malakh-ha-shekhinah and at other times transforms other personages into divinities of other names; while the Pythagoreans transform men guilty of crimes into brutes or even, if we are to believe Empedocles, into plants; and Mohammed, imitating them, was known frequently to say that the man who deserts the divine law becomes a brute. And he was right; for it is not the bark that makes the tree, but its insensitive and unresponsive nature; nor the hide which makes the beast of burden, but its brute and sensual soul; nor the orbicular form which makes the heavens, but their harmonious order. Finally, it is not freedom from a body, but its spiritual intelligence, which makes the angel. If you see a man dedicated to his stomach, crawling on the ground, you see a plant and not a man; or if you see a man bedazzled by the empty forms of the imagination, as by the wiles of Calypso, and through their alluring solicitations made a slave to his own senses, you see a brute and not a man. If, however, you see a philosopher, judging and distinguishing all things according to the rule of reason, him shall you hold in veneration, for he is a creature of heaven and not of earth; if, finally, a pure contemplator, unmindful of the body, wholly withdrawn into the inner chambers of the mind, here indeed is neither a creature of earth nor a heavenly creature, but some higher divinity, clothed in human flesh.
Who then will not look with wonder upon man, upon man who, not without reason in the sacred Mosaic and Christian writings, is designated sometimes by the term ``all flesh'' and sometimes by the term ``every creature,'' because he molds, fashions and transforms himself into the likeness of all flesh and assumes the characteristic power of every form of life? This is why Evantes the Persian in his exposition of the Chaldean theology, writes that man has no inborn and proper semblance, but many which are extraneous and adventitious: whence the Chaldean saying: ``Enosh hu shinnujim vekammah tebhaoth haj'' --- ``man is a living creature of varied, multiform and ever-changing nature.''
But what is the purpose of all this? That we may understand --- since we have been born into this condition of being what we choose to be --- that we ought to be sure above all else that it may never be said against us that, born to a high position, we failed to appreciate it, but fell instead to the estate of brutes and uncomprehending beasts of burden; and that the saying of Aspah the Prophet, ``You are all Gods and sons of the Most High,'' might rather be true; and finally that we may not, through abuse of the generosity of a most indulgent Father, pervert the free option which he has given us from a saving to a damning gift. Let a certain saving ambition invade our souls so that, impatient of mediocrity, we pant after the highest things and (since, if we will, we can) bend all our efforts to their attainment. Let us disdain things of earth, hold as little worth even the astral orders and, putting behind us all the things of this world, hasten to that court beyond the world, closest to the most exalted Godhead. There, as the sacred mysteries tell us, the Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones occupy the first places; but, unable to yield to them, and impatient of any second place, let us emulate their dignity and glory. And, if we will it, we shall be inferior to them in nothing.
How must we proceed and what must we do to realize this ambition? Let us observe what they do, what kind of life they lead. For if we lead this kind of life (and we can) we shall attain their same estate. The Seraphim burns with the fire of charity; from the Cherubim flashes forth the splendor of intelligence; the Thrones stand firm with the firmness of justice. If, consequently, in the pursuit of the active life we govern inferior things by just criteria, we shall be established in the firm position of the Thrones. If, freeing ourselves from active care, we devote our time to contemplation, meditating upon the Creator in His work, and the work in its Creator, we shall be resplendent with the light of the Cherubim. If we burn with love for the Creator only, his consuming fire will quickly transform us into the flaming likeness of the Seraphim. Above the Throne, that is, above the just judge, God sits, judge of the ages. Above the Cherub, that is, the contemplative spirit, He spreads His wings, nourishing him, as it were, with an enveloping warmth. For the spirit of the Lord moves upon the waters, those waters which are above the heavens and which, according to Job, praise the Lord in pre-aurorial hymns. Whoever is a Seraph, that is a lover, is in God and God is in him; even, it may be said, God and he are one. Great is the power of the Thrones, which we attain by right judgement, highest of all the sublimity of the Seraphim which we attain by loving.
But how can anyone judge or love what he does not know? Moses loved the God whom he had seen and as judge of his people he administered what he had previously seen in contemplation on the mountain. Therefore the Cherub is the intermediary and by his light equally prepares us for the fire of the Seraphim and the judgement of the Thrones. This is the bond which unites the highest minds, the Palladian order which presides over contemplative philosophy; this is then the bond which before all else we must emulate, embrace and comprehend, whence we may be rapt to the heights of love or descend, well instructed and prepared, to the duties of the practical life. But certainly it is worth the effort, if we are to form our life on the model of the Cherubim, to have familiarly before our eyes both its nature and its quality as well as the duties and the functions proper to it. Since it is not granted to us, flesh as we are and knowledgeable only the things of earth, to attain such knowledge by our own efforts, let us have recourse to the ancient Fathers. They can give us the fullest and most reliable testimony concerning these matters because they had an almost domestic and connatural knowledge of them.
Let us ask the Apostle Paul, that vessel of election, in what activity he saw the armies of the Cherubim engaged when he was rapt into the third heaven. He will answer, according to the interpretation of Dionysius, that he saw them first being purified, then illuminated, and finally made perfect. We, therefore, imitating the life of the Cherubim here on earth, by refraining the impulses of our passions through moral science, by dissipating the darkness of reason by dialectic --- thus washing away, so to speak, the filth of ignorance and vice --- may likewise purify our souls, so that the passions may never run rampant, nor reason, lacking restraint, range beyond its natural limits. Then may we suffuse our purified souls with the light of natural philosophy, bringing it to final perfection by the knowledge of divine things.
Lest we be satisfied to consult only those of our own faith and tradition, let us also have recourse to the patriarch, Jacob, whose likeness, carved on the throne of glory, shines out before us. This wisest of the Fathers who though sleeping in the lower world, still has his eyes fixed on the world above, will admonish us. He will admonish, however, in a figure, for all things appeared in figures to the men of those times: a ladder rises by many rungs from earth to the height of heaven and at its summit sits the Lord, while over its rungs the contemplative angels move, alternately ascending and descending. If this is what we, who wish to imitate the angelic life, must do in our turn, who, I ask, would dare set muddied feet or soiled hands to the ladder of the Lord? It is forbidden, as the mysteries teach, for the impure to touch what is pure. But what are these hands, these feet, of which we speak? The feet, to be sure, of the soul: that is, its most despicable portion by which the soul is held fast to earth as a root to the ground; I mean to say, it alimentary and nutritive faculty where lust ferments and voluptuous softness is fostered. And why may we not call ``the hand'' that irascible power of the soul, which is the warrior of the appetitive faculty, fighting for it and foraging for it in the dust and the sun, seizing for it all things which, sleeping in the shade, it will devour? Let us bathe in moral philosophy as in a living stream, these hands, that is, the whole sensual part in which the lusts of the body have their seat and which, as the saying is, holds the soul by the scruff of the neck, let us be flung back from that ladder as profane and polluted intruders. Even this, however, will not be enough, if we wish to be the companions of the angels who traverse the ladder of Jacob, unless we are first instructed and rendered able to advance on that ladder duly, step by step, at no point to stray from it and to complete the alternate ascensions and descents. When we shall have been so prepared by the art of discourse or of reason, then, inspired by the spirit of the Cherubim, exercising philosophy through all the rungs of the ladder --- that is, of nature --- we shall penetrate being from its center to its surface and from its surface to its center. At one time we shall descend, dismembering with titanic force the ``unity'' of the ``many,'' like the members of Osiris; at another time, we shall ascend, recollecting those same members, by the power of Phoebus, into their original unity. Finally, in the bosom of the Father, who reigns above the ladder, we shall find perfection and peace in the felicity of theological knowledge.
Let us also inquire of the just Job, who made his covenant with the God of life even before he entered into life, what, above all else, the supreme God desires of those tens of thousands of beings which surround Him. He will answer, without a doubt: peace, just as it is written in the pages of Job: He establishes peace in the high reaches of heaven. And since the middle order interprets the admonitions of the higher to the lower orders, the words of Job the theologian may well be interpreted for us by Empedocles the philosopher. Empedocles teaches us that there is in our souls a dual nature; the one bears us upwards toward the heavenly regions; by the other we are dragged downward toward regions infernal, through friendship and discord, war and peace; so witness those verses in which he laments that, torn by strife and discord, like a madman, in flight from the gods, he is driven into the depths of the sea. For it is a patent thing, O Fathers, that many forces strive within us, in grave, intestine warfare, worse than the civil wars of states. Equally clear is it that, if we are to overcome this warfare, if we are to establish that peace which must establish us finally among the exalted of God, philosophy alone can compose and allay that strife. In the first place, if our man seeks only truce with his enemies, moral philosophy will restrain the unreasoning drives of the protean brute, the passionate violence and wrath of the lion within us. If, acting on wiser counsel, we should seek to secure an unbroken peace, moral philosophy will still be at hand to fulfill our desires abundantly; and having slain either beast, like sacrificed sows, it will establish an inviolable compact of peace between the flesh and the spirit. Dialectic will compose the disorders of reason torn by anxiety and uncertainty amid the conflicting hordes of words and captious reasonings. Natural philosophy will reduce the conflict of opinions and the endless debates which from every side vex, distract and lacerate the disturbed mind. It will compose this conflict, however, in such a manner as to remind us that nature, as Heraclitus wrote, is generated by war and for this reason is called by Homer, ``strife.'' Natural philosophy, therefore, cannot assure us a true and unshakable peace. To bestow such peace is rather the privilege and office of the queen of the sciences, most holy theology. Natural philosophy will at best point out the way to theology and even accompany us along the path, while theology, seeing us from afar hastening to draw close to her, will call out: ``Come unto me you who are spent in labor and I will restore you; come to me and I will give you the peace which the world and nature cannot give.''
Summoned in such consoling tones and invited with such kindness, like earthly Mercuries, we shall fly on winged feet to embrace that most blessed mother and there enjoy the peace we have longed for: that most holy peace, that indivisible union, that seamless friendship through which all souls will not only be at one in that one mind which is above every mind, but, in a manner which passes expression, will really be one, in the most profound depths of being. This is the friendship which the Pythagoreans say is the purpose of all philosophy. This is the peace which God established in the high places of the heaven and which the angels, descending to earth, announced to men of good will, so that men, ascending through this peace to heaven, might become angels. This is the peace which we would wish for our friends, for our age, for every house into which we enter and for our own soul, that through this peace it may become the dwelling of God; sop that, too, when the soul, by means of moral philosophy and dialectic shall have purged herself of her uncleanness, adorned herself with the disciplines of philosophy as with the raiment of a prince's court and crowned the pediments of her doors with the garlands of theology, the King of Glory may descend and, coming with the Father, take up his abode with her. If she prove worthy of so great a guest, she will, through his boundless clemency, arrayed in the golden vesture of the many sciences as in a nuptial gown, receive him, not as a guest merely, but as a spouse. And rather than be parted from him, she will prefer to leave her own people and her father's house. Forgetful of her very self she will desire to die to herself in order to live in her spouse, in whose eyes the death of his saints is infinitely precious: I mean that death --- if the very plenitude of life can be called death --- whose meditation wise men have always held to be the special study of philosophy.
Let us also cite Moses himself, who is but little removed from the living well-spring of the most holy and ineffable understanding by whose nectar the angels are inebriated. Let us listen to the venerable judge as he enunciates his laws to us who live in the desert solitude of the body: ``Let those who, still unclean, have need of moral philosophy, dwell with the peoples outside the tabernacles, under the open sky, until, like the priests of Thessaly, they shall have cleansed themselves. Those who have already brought order into their lives may be received into the tabernacle, but still may not touch the sacred vessels. Let them rather first, as zealous levites, in the service of dialectic, minister to the holy offices of philosophy. When they shall themselves be admitted to those offices, they may, as priests of philosophy, contemplate the many-colored throne of the higher God, that is the courtly palace of the star-hung heavens, the heavenly candelabrum aflame with seven lights and elements which are the furry veils of this tabernacle; so that, finally, having been permitted to enter, through the merit of sublime theology, into the innermost chambers of the temple, with no veil of images interposing itself, we may enjoy the glory of divinity.'' This is what Moses beyond a doubt commands us, admonishing, urging and exhorting us to prepare ourselves, while we may, by means of philosophy, a road to future heavenly glory.
In fact, however, the dignity of the liberal arts, which I am about to discuss, and their value to us is attested not only by the Mosaic and Christian mysteries but also by the theologies of the most ancient times. What else is to be understood by the stages through which the initiates must pass in the mysteries of the Greeks? These initiates, after being purified by the arts which we might call expiatory, moral philosophy and dialectic, were granted admission to the mysteries. What could such admission mean but the interpretation of occult nature by means of philosophy? Only after they had been prepared in this way did they receive ``Epopteia,'' that is, the immediate vision of divine things by the light of theology. Who would not long to be admitted to such mysteries? Who would not desire, putting all human concerns behind him, holding the goods of fortune in contempt and little minding the goods of the body, thus to become, while still a denizen of earth, a guest at the table of the gods, and, drunk with the nectar of eternity, receive, while still a mortal, the gift of immortality? Who would not wish to be so inspired by those Socratic frenzies which Plato sings in the Phaedrus that, swiftly fleeing this place, that is, this world fixed in evil, by the oars, so to say, both of feet and wings, he might reach the heavenly Jerusalem by the swiftest course? Let us be driven, O Fathers, by those Socratic frenzies which lift us to such ecstasy that our intellects and our very selves are united to God. And we shall be moved by them in this way as previously we have done all that it lies in us to do. If, by moral philosophy, the power of our passions shall have been restrained by proper controls so that they achieve harmonious accord; and if, by dialectic, our reason shall have progressed by an ordered advance, then, smitten by the frenzy of the Muses, we shall hear the heavenly harmony with the inward ears of the spirit. Then the leader of the Muses, Bacchus, revealing to us in our moments of philosophy, through his mysteries, that is, the visible signs of nature, the invisible things of God, will make us drunk with the richness of the house of God; and there, if, like Moses, we shall prove entirely faithful, most sacred theology will supervene to inspire us with redoubled ecstasy. For, raised to the most eminent height of theology, whence we shall be able to measure with the rod of indivisible eternity all things that are and that have been; and, grasping the primordial beauty of things, like the seers of Phoebus, we shall become the winged lovers of theology. And at last, smitten by the ineffable love as by a sting, and, like the Seraphim, filled with the godhead, we shall be, no longer ourselves, but the very One who made us.
The sacred names of Apollo, to anyone who penetrates their meanings and the mysteries they conceal, clearly show that God is a philosopher no less than a seer; but since Ammonius has amply treated this theme, there is no occasion for me to expound it anew. Nevertheless, O Fathers, we cannot fail to recall those three Delphic precepts which are so very necessary for everyone about to enter the most holy and august temple, not of the false, but of the true Apollo who illumines every soul as it enters this world. You will see that they exhort us to nothing else but to embrace with all our powers this tripartite philosophy which we are now discussing. As a matter of fact that aphorism: meden agan, this is: ``Nothing in excess,'' duly prescribes a measure and rule for all the virtues through the concept of the ``Mean'' of which moral philosophy treats. In like manner, that other aphorism gnothi seauton, that is, ``Know thyself,'' invites and exhorts us to the study of the whole nature of which the nature of man is the connecting link and the ``mixed potion''; for he who knows himself knows all things in himself, as Zoroaster first and after him Plato, in the Alcibiades, wrote. Finally, enlightened by this knowledge, through the aid of natural philosophy, being already close to God, employing the theological salutation ei, that is ``Thou art,'' we shall blissfully address the true Apollo on intimate terms.
Let us also seek the opinion of Pythagoras, that wisest of men, known as a wise man precisely because he never thought himself worthy of that name. His first precept to us will be: ``Never sit on a bushel''; never, that is, through slothful inaction to lose our power of reason, that faculty by which the mind examines, judges and measures all things; but rather unremittingly by the rule and exercise of dialectic, to direct it and keep it agile. Next he will warn us of two things to be avoided at all costs: Neither to make water facing the sun, nor to cut our nails while offering sacrifice. Only when, by moral philosophy, we shall have evacuated the weakening appetites of our too-abundant pleasures and pared away, like nail clippings, the sharp points of anger and wrath in our souls, shall we finally begin to take part in the sacred rites, that is, the mysteries of Bacchus of which we have spoken and to dedicate ourselves to that contemplation of which the Sun is rightly called the father and the guide. Finally, Pythagoras will command us to ``Feed the cock''; that is, to nourish the divine part of our soul with the knowledge of divine things as with substantial food and heavenly ambrosia. This is the cock whose visage is the lion, that is, all earthly power, holds in fear and awe. This is the cock to whom, as we read in Job, all understanding was given. At this cock's crowing, erring man returns to his senses. This is the cock which every day, in the morning twilight, with the stars of morning, raises a Te Deum to heaven. This is the cock which Socrates, at the hour of his death, when he hoped he was about to join the divinity of his spirit to the divinity of the higher world and when he was already beyond danger of any bodily illness, said that he owed to Asclepius, that is, the healer of souls.
Let us also pass in review the records of the Chaldeans; there we shall see (if they are to be believed) that the road to happiness, for mortals, lies through these same arts. The Chaldean interpreters write that it was a saying of Zoroaster that the soul is a winged creature. When her wings fall from her, she is plunged into the body; but when they grow strong again, she flies back to the supernal regions. And when his disciples asked him how they might insure that their souls might be well plumed and hence swift in flight he replied: ``Water them well with the waters of life.'' And when they persisted, asking whence they might obtain these waters of life, he answered (as he was wont) in a parable: ``The Paradise of God is bathed and watered by four rivers; from these same sources you may draw the waters which will save you. The name of the river which flows from the north is Pischon which means, `the Right.' That which flows from the west is Gichon, that is, `Expiation.' The river flowing from the east is named Chiddekel, that is, `Light,' while that, finally, from the south is Perath, which may be understood as `Compassion.' '' Consider carefully and with full attention, O Fathers, what these deliverances of Zoroaster might mean. Obviously, they can only mean that we should, by moral science, as by western waves, wash the uncleanness from our eyes; that, by dialectic, as by a reading taken by the northern star, our gaze must be aligned with the right. Then, that we should become accustomed to bear, in the contemplation of nature, the still feeble light of truth, like the first rays of the rising sun, so that finally we may, through theological piety and the most holy cult of God, become able, like the eagles of heaven, to bear the effulgent splendor of the noonday sun. These are, perhaps, those ``morning, midday and evening thoughts'' which David first celebrated and on which St. Augustine later expatiated. This is the noonday light which inflames the Seraphim toward their goal and equally illuminates the Cherubim. This is the promised land toward which our ancient father Abraham was ever advancing; this the region where, as the teachings of the Cabalists and the Moors tell us, there is no place for unclean spirits. And if we may be permitted, even in the form of a riddle, to say anything publicly about the deeper mysteries: since the precipitous fall of man has left his mind in a vertiginous whirl and and since according to Jeremiah, death has come in through the windows to infect our hearts and bowels with evil, let us call upon Raphael, the heavenly healer that by moral philosophy and dialectic, as with healing drugs, he may release us. When we shall have been restored to health, Gabriel, the strength of God, will abide in us. Leading us through the marvels of nature and pointing out to us everywhere the power and the goodness of God, he will deliver us finally to the care of the High Priest Michael. He, in turn, will adorn those who have successfully completed their service to philosophy with the priesthood of theology as with a crown of precious stones.
These are the reasons, most reverend Fathers, which not only led, but even compelled me, to the study of philosophy. And I should not have undertaken to expound them, except to reply to those who are wont to condemn the study of philosophy, especially among men of high rank, but also among those of modest station. For the whole study of philosophy (such is the unhappy plight of our time) is occasion for contempt and contumely, rather than honor and glory. The deadly and monstrous persuasion has invaded practically all minds, that philosophy ought not to be studied at all or by very few people; as though it were a thing of little worth to have before our eyes and at our finger-tips, as matters we have searched out with greatest care, the causes of things, the ways of nature and the plan of the universe, God's counsels and the mysteries of heaven and earth, unless by such knowledge on might procure some profit or favor for oneself. Thus we have reached the point, it is painful to recognize, where the only persons accounted wise are those who can reduce the pursuit of wisdom to a profitable traffic; and chaste Pallas, who dwells among men only by the generosity of the gods, is rejected, hooted, whistled at in scorn, with no one to love or befriend her unless, by prostituting herself, she is able to pay back into the strongbox of her lover the ill-procured price of her deflowered virginity. I address all these complaints, with the greatest regret and indignation, not against the princes of our times, but against the philosophers who believe and assert that philosophy should not be pursued because no monetary value or reward is assigned it, unmindful that by this sign they disqualify themselves as philosophers. Since their whole life is concentrated on gain and ambition, they never embrace the knowledge of the truth for its own sake. This much will I say for myself --- and on this point I do not blush for praising myself --- that I have never philosophized save for the sake of philosophy, nor have I ever desired or hoped to secure from my studies and my laborious researches any profit or fruit save cultivation of mind and knowledge of the truth --- things I esteem more and more with the passage of time. I have also been so avid for this knowledge and so enamored of it that I have set aside all private and public concerns to devote myself completely to contemplation; and from it no calumny of jealous persons, nor any invective from enemies of wisdom has ever been able to detach me. Philosophy has taught me to rely on my own convictions rather than on the judgements of others and to concern myself less with whether I am well thought of than whether what I do or say is evil.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
by admin » Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:15 pm
Part 2 of 2
I was not unaware, most revered Fathers, that this present disputation of mine would be as acceptable and as pleasing to you, who favor all the good arts and who have consented to grace it with your presence, as it would be irritating and offensive to many others. I am also aware that there is no dearth of those who have condemned my undertaking before this and continue to do so on a number of grounds. But this has always been the case: works which are well-intentioned and sincerely directed to virtue have always had no fewer --- not to say more --- detractors than those undertaken for questionable motives and for devious ends. Some persons disapprove the present type of disputation in general and this method of disputing in public about learned matters; they assert that they serve only the exhibition of talent and the display of opinion, rather than the increase of learning. Others do not disapprove this type of exercise, but resent the fact that at my age, a mere twenty-four years, I have dared to propose a disputation concerning the most subtle mysteries of Christian theology, the most debated points of philosophy and unfamiliar branches of learning; and that I have done so here, in this most renowned of cities, before a large assembly of very learned men, in the presence of the Apostolic Senate. Still others have ceded my right so to dispute, but have not conceded that I might dispute nine hundred theses, asserting that such a project is superfluous, over-ambitious and beyond my powers. I should have acceded to these objections willingly and immediately, if the philosophy which I profess had so counseled me. Nor should I now undertake to reply to them, as my philosophy urges me to do, if I believed that this disputation between us were undertaken for purposes of mere altercation and litigation. Therefore, let all intention of denigration and exasperation be purged from our minds and with it that malice which, as Plato writes, is never present in the angelic choirs. Let us amicably decide whether it be admissible for me to proceed with my disputation and whether I should venture so large a number of questions.
I shall not, in the first place, have much to say against those who disapprove this type of public disputation. It is a crime, --- if it be a crime --- which I share with all you, most excellent doctors, who have engaged in such exercises on many occasions to the enhancement of your reputations, as well as with Plato and Aristotle and all the most esteemed philosophers of every age. These philosophers of the past all thought that nothing could profit them more in their search for wisdom than frequent participation in public disputation. Just as the powers of the body are made stronger through gymnastic, the powers of the mind grow in strength and vigor in this arena of learning. I am inclined to believe that the poets, when they sang of the arms of Pallas and the Hebrews, when they called the barzel, that is, the sword, the symbol of men of wisdom, could have meant nothing by these symbols but this type of contest, at once so necessary and so honorable for the acquisition of knowledge. This may also be the reason why the Chaldeans, at the birth of a man destined to be a philosopher, described a horoscope in which Mars confronted Mercury from three distinct angles. This is as much as to say that should these assemblies and these contests be abandoned, all philosophy would become sluggish and dormant.
It is more difficult for me, however, to find a line of defense against those who tell me that I am unequal to the undertaking. If I say that I am equal to it, I shall appear to entertain an immodestly high opinion of myself. If I admit that I am unequal to it, while persisting in it, I shall certainly risk being called temerarious and imprudent. You see the difficulties into which I have fallen, the position in which I am placed. I cannot, without censure, promise something about myself, nor, without equal censure, fail in what I promise. Perhaps I can invoke that saying of Job: ``The spirit is in all men'' or take consolation in what was said to Timothy: ``Let no man despise your youth.'' But to speak from my own conscience, I might say with greater truth that there is nothing singular about me. I admit that I am devoted to study and eager in the pursuit of the good arts. Nevertheless, I do not assume nor arrogate to myself the title learned. If, consequently, I have taken such a great burden on my shoulders, it is not because I am ignorant of my own weaknesses. Rather, it is because I understand that in this kind of learned contest the real victory lies in being vanquished. Even the weakest, consequently, ought not to shun them, but should seek them out, as well they may. For the one who is bested receives from his conqueror, not an injury but a benefit; he returns to his house richer than he left, that is, more learned and better armed for future contests. Inspired by such hope, though myself but a weak soldier, I have not been afraid to enter so dangerous a contest even against the very strongest and vigorous opponents. Whether, in doing so, I have acted foolishly or not might better be judged from the outcome of the contest than from my age.
I must, in the third place, answer those who are scandalized by the large number of propositions and the variety of topics I have proposed for disputation, as though the burden, however great it may be, rested on their shoulders and not, as it does, on mine. Surely it is unbecoming and captious to want to set limits to another's efforts and, as Cicero says, to desire mediocrity in those things in which the rule should be: the more the better. In undertaking so great a venture only one alternative confronted me: success or failure. If I should succeed, I do not see how it would be more praiseworthy to succeed in defending ten theses than in defending nine hundred. If I should fail, those who hate me will have grounds for disparagement, while those who love me will have an occasion to excuse me. In so large and important an undertaking it would seem that a young man who fails through weakness of talent or want of learning deserves indulgence rather than censure. For as the poet says,
if powers fail, there shall be praise for daring; and in great undertaking, to have willed is enough.
In our own day, many scholars, imitating Gorgias of Leontini, have been accustomed to dispute, not nine hundred questions merely, but the whole range of questions concerning all the arts and have been praised for it. Why should not I, then, without incurring criticism, be permitted to discuss a large number of questions indeed, but questions which are clear and determined in their scope? They reply, this is superfluous and ambitious. I protest that, in my case, no superfluity is involved, but that all is necessary. If they consider the method of my philosophy they will feel compelled, even against their inclinations, to recognize this necessity. All those who attach themselves to one or another of the philosophers, to Thomas, for instance or Scotus, who at present enjoy the widest following, can indeed test their doctrine in a discussion of a few questions. By contrast, I have so trained myself that, committed to the teachings of no one man, I have ranged through all the masters of philosophy, examined all their works, become acquainted with all schools. As a consequence, I have had to introduce all of them into the discussion lest, defending a doctrine peculiar to one, I might seem committed to it and thus to deprecate the rest. While a few of the theses proposed concern individual philosophers, it was inevitable that a great number should concern all of them together. Nor should anyone condemn me on the grounds that ``wherever the storm blows me, there I remain as a guest.'' For it was a rule among the ancients, in the case of all writers, never to leave unread any commentaries which might be available. Aristotle observed this rule so carefully that Plato called him: auagnooies, that is, ``the reader.'' It is certainly a mark of excessive narrowness of mind to enclose oneself within one Porch or Academy; nor can anyone reasonably attach himself to one school or philosopher, unless he has previously become familiar with them all. In addition, there is in each school some distinctive characteristic which it does not share with any other.
To begin with the men of our own faith to whom philosophy came last, there is in Duns Scotus both vigor and distinction, in Thomas solidity and sense of balance, in Egidius, lucidity and precision, in Francis, depth and acuteness, in Albertus [Magnus] a sense of ultimate issues, all-embracing and grand, in Henry, as it has seemed to me, always an element of sublimity which inspires reverence. Among the Arabians, there is in Averroës something solid and unshaken, in Avempace, as in Al-Farabi, something serious and deeply meditated; in Avicenna, something divine and platonic. Among the Greeks philosophy was always brilliant and, among the earliest, even chaste: in Simplicus it is rich and abundant, in Themistius elegant and compendious, in Alexander, learned and self-consistent, in Theophrastus, worked out with great reflection, in Ammonius, smooth and pleasing. If you turn to the Platonists, to mention but a few, you will, in Porphyry, be delighted by the wealth of matter and by his preoccupation with many aspects of religion; in Iamblichus, you will be awed by his knowledge of occult philosophy and the mysteries of the barbarian peoples; in Plotinus, you will find it impossible to single out one thing for admiration, because he is admirable under every aspect. Platonists themselves, sweating over his pages, understand him only with the greatest difficulty when, in his oblique style, he teaches divinely about divine things and far more than humanly about things human. I shall pass over the more recent figures, Proclus, and those others who derive from him, Damacius, Olympiodorus and many more in whom that to theion, that is, that divine something which is the special mark of the Platonists, always shines out.
It should be added that any school which attacks the more established truths and by clever slander ridicules the valid arguments of reason confirms, rather than weakens, the truth itself, which, like embers, is fanned to life, rather than extinguished by stirring. These considerations have motivated me in my determination to bring to men's attention the opinions of all schools rather than the doctrine of some one or other (as some might have preferred), for it seems to me that by the confrontation of many schools and the discussion of many philosophical systems that ``effulgence of truth'' of which Plato writes in his letters might illuminate our minds more clearly, like the sun rising from the sea. What should have been our plight had only the philosophical thought of the Latin authors, that is, Albert, Thomas, Scotus, Egidius, Francis and Henry, been discussed, while that of the Greeks and the Arabs was passed over, since all the thought of the barbarian nations was inherited by the Greeks and from the Greeks came down to us? For this reason, our thinkers have always been satisfied, in the field of philosophy, to rest on the discoveries of foreigners and simply to perfect the work of others. What profit would have dervied from discussing natural philosophy with the Peripatetics, if the Academy of the Platonists had not also participated in the exchange, for the doctrine of the latter, even when it touched on divine matters, has always (as St. Augustine bears witness) been esteemed the most elevated of all philosophies? And this in turn has been the reason why I have, for the first time after many centuries of neglect (and there is nothing invidious in my saying so) brought it forth again for public examination and discussion. And what would it have profited us if, having discussed the opinions of innumerable others, like asymboli, at the banquet of wise men, we should contribute nothing of our own, nothing conceived and elaborated in our own mind? Indeed, it is the characteristic of the impotent (as Seneca writes) to have their knowledge all written down in their note-books, as though the discoveries of those who preceded us had closed the path to our own efforts, as though the power of nature had become effete in us and could bring forth nothing which, if it could not demonstrate the truth, might at least point to it from afar. The farmer hates sterility in his field and the husband deplores it in his wife; even more then must the divine mind hate the sterile mind with which it is joined and associated, because it hopes from that source to have offspring of such a high nature.
For these reasons, I have not been content to repeat well-worn doctrines, but have proposed for disputation many points of the early theology of Hermes Trismegistus, many theses drawn from the teachings of the Chaldeans and the Pythagoreans, from the occult mysteries of the Hebrews and, finally, a considerable number of propositions concerning both nature and God which we ourselves have discovered and worked out. In the first place, we have proposed a harmony between Plato and Aristotle, such as many before this time indeed believed to exist but which no one has satisfactorily established. Boethius, among Latin writers, promised to compose such a harmony, but he never carried his proposal to completion. St. Augustine also writes, in his Contra Academicos, that many others tried to prove the same thing, that is, that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were identical, and by the most subtle arguments. For example, John the Grammarian held that Aristotle differed from Plato only for those who did not grasp Plato's thought; but he left it to posterity to prove it. We have, in addition, adduced a great number of passages in which Scotus and Thomas, and others in which Averroës and Avicenna, have heretofore been thought to disagree, but which I assert are in harmony with one another.
In the second place, along with my own reflections on and developments of both the Aristotelian and the Platonic philosophies, I have adduced seventy-two theses in physics and metaphysics. If I am not mistaken (and this will become clearer in the course of the proposed disputation) anyone subscribing to these theses will be able to resolve any question proposed to him in natural philosophy or theology on a principle quite other than that taught us in the philosophy which is at present to be learned in the schools and is taught by the masters of the present generation. Nor ought anyone to be surprised, that in my early years, at a tender age at which I should hardly be permitted to read the writings of others (as some have insinuated) I should wish to propose a new philosophy. They ought rather to praise this new philosophy, if it is well defended, or reject it, if it is refuted. Finally, since it will be their task to judge my discoveries and my scholarship, they ought to look to the merit or demerit of these and not to the age of their author.
I have, in addition, introduced a new method of philosophizing on the basis of numbers. This method is, in fact, very old, for it was cultivated by the ancient theologians, by Pythagoras, in the first place, but also by Aglaophamos, Philolaus and Plato, as well as by the earliest Platonists; however, like other illustrious achievements of the past, it has through lack of interest on the part of succeeding generations, fallen into such desuetude, that hardly any vestiges of it are to be found. Plato writes in Epinomis that among all the liberal arts and contemplative sciences, the science of number is supreme and most divine. And in another place, asking why man is the wisest of animals, he replies, because he knows how to count. Similarly, Aristotle, in his Problems repeats this opinion. Abumasar writes that it was a favorite saying of Avenzoar of Babylon that the man who knows how to count, knows everything else as well. These opinions are certainly devoid of any truth if by the art of number they intend that art in which today merchants excel all other men; Plato adds his testimony to this view, admonishing us emphatically not to confuse this divine arithmetic with the arithmetic of the merchants. When, consequently, after long nights of study I seemed to myself to have thoroughly penetrated this Arithmetic, which is thus so highly extolled, I promised myself that in order to test the matter, I would try to solve by means of this method of number seventy-four questions which are considered, by common consent, among the most important in physics and divinity.
I have also proposed certain theses concerning magic, in which I have indicated that magic has two forms. One consists wholly in the operations and powers of demons, and consequently this appears to me, as God is my witness, an execrable and monstrous thing. The other proves, when thoroughly investigated, to be nothing else but the highest realization of natural philosophy. The Greeks noted both these forms. However, because they considered the first form wholly undeserving the name magic they called it goeteia, reserving the term mageia, to the second, and understanding by it the highest and most perfect wisdom. The term ``magus'' in the Persian tongue, according to Porphyry, means the same as ``interpreter'' and ``worshipper of the divine'' in our language. Moreover, Fathers, the disparity and dissimilarity between these arts is the greatest that can be imagined. Not the Christian religion alone, but all legal codes and every well-governed commonwealth execrates and condemns the first; the second, by contrast, is approved and embraced by all wise men and by all peoples solicitous of heavenly and divine things. The first is the most deceitful of arts; the second, a higher and holier philosophy. The former is vain and disappointing; the later, firm, solid and satisfying. The practitioner of the first always tries to conceal his addiction, because it always rebounds to shame and reproach, while the cultivation of the second, both in antiquity and at almost all periods, has been the source of the highest renown and glory in the field of learning. No philosopher of any worth, eager in pursuit of the good arts, was ever a student of the former, but to learn the latter, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato and Democritus crossed the seas. Returning to their homes, they, in turn, taught it to others and considered it a treasure to be closely guarded. The former, since it is supported by no true arguments, is defended by no writers of reputation; the latter, honored, as it were, in its illustrious progenitors, counts two principal authors: Zamolxis, who was imitated by Abaris the Hyperborean, and Zoroaster; not, indeed, the Zoroaster who may immediately come to your minds, but that other Zoroaster, the son of Oromasius. If we should ask Plato the nature of each of these forms of magic, he will respond in the Alcibiades that the magic of Zoroaster is nothing else than that science of divine things in which the kings of the Persians had their sons educated to that they might learn to rule their commonwealth on the pattern of the commonwealth of the universe. In the Charmides he will answer that the magic of Zamolxis is the medicine of the soul, because it brings temperance to the soul as medicine brings health to the body. Later Charondas, Damigeron, Apollonius, Osthanes and Dardanus continued in their footsteps, as did Homer, of whom we shall sometime prove, in a ``poetic theology'' we propose to write, that he concealed this doctrine, symbolically, in the wanderings of his Ulysses, just as he did all other learned doctrines. They were also followed by Eudoxus and Hermippus, as well as by practically all those who studied the Pythagorean and Platonic mysteries. Of later philosophers, I find that three had ferreted it out: the Arabian, Al-Kindi, Roger Bacon, and William of Paris. Plotinus also gives signs that he was aware of it in the passage in which he shows that the magician is the minister of nature and not merely its artful imitator. This very wise man approves and maintains this magic, while so abhorring that other that once, when he was invited to to take part in rites of evil spirits, he said that they ought rather to come to him, than he to go to them; and he spoke well. Just as that first form of magic makes man a slave and pawn of evil powers, the latter makes him their lord and master. That first form of magic cannot justify any claim to being either an art or a science while the latter, filled as it is with mysteries, embraces the most profound contemplation of the deepest secrets of things and finally the knowledge of the whole of nature. This beneficent magic, in calling forth, as it were, from their hiding places into the light the powers which the largess of God has sown and planted in the world, does not itself work miracles, so much as sedulously serve nature as she works her wonders. Scrutinizing, with greater penetration, that harmony of the universe which the Greeks with greater aptness of terms called sympatheia and grasping the mutual affinity of things, she applies to each thing those inducements (called the iugges of the magicians), most suited to its nature. Thus it draws forth into public notice the miracles which lie hidden in the recesses of the world, in the womb of nature, in the storehouses and secret vaults of God, as though she herself were their artificer. As the farmer weds his elms to the vines, so the ``magus'' unites earth to heaven, that is, the lower orders to the endowments and powers of the higher. Hence it is that this latter magic appears the more divine and salutary, as the former presents a monstrous and destructive visage. But the deepest reason for the difference is the fact that that first magic, delivering man over to the enemies of God, alienates him from God, while the second, beneficent magic, excites in him an admiration for the works of God which flowers naturally into charity, faith and hope. For nothing so surely impels us to the worship of God than the assiduous contemplation of His miracles and when, by means of this natural magic, we shall have examined these wonders more deeply, we shall more ardently be moved to love and worship Him in his works, until finally we shall be compelled to burst into song: ``The heavens, all of the earth, is filled with the majesty of your glory.'' But enough about magic. I have been led to say even this much because I know that there are many persons who condemn and hate it, because they do not understand it, just as dogs always bay at strangers.
I come now to those matters which I have drawn from the ancient mysteries of the Hebrews and here adduce in confirmation of the inviolable Catholic faith. Lest these matters be thought, by those to whom they are unfamiliar, bubbles of the imagination and tales of charlatans, I want everyone to understand what they are and what their true character is; whence they are drawn and who are the illustrious writers who testifying to them; how mysterious they are, and divine and necessary to men of our faith for the propagation of our religion in the face of the persistent calumnies of the Hebrews. Not famous Hebrew teachers alone, but, from among those of our own persuasion, Esdras, Hilary and Origen all write that Moses, in addition to the law of the five books which he handed down to posterity, when on the mount, received from God a more secret and true explanation of the law. They also say that God commanded Moses to make the law known to the people, but not to write down its interpretation or to divulge it, but to communicate it only to Jesu Nave who, in turn, was to reveal it to succeeding high priests under a strict obligation of silence. It was enough to indicate, through simple historical narrative, the power of God, his wrath against the unjust, his mercy toward the good, his justice toward all and to educate the people, by divine and salutary commands, to live well and blessedly and to worship in the true religion. Openly to reveal to the people the hidden mysteries and the secret intentions of the highest divinity, which lay concealed under the hard shell of the law and the rough vesture of language, what else could this be but to throw holy things to dogs and to strew gems among swine? The decision, consequently, to keep such things hidden from the vulgar and to communicate them only to the initiate, among whom alone, as Paul says, wisdom speaks, was not a counsel of human prudence but a divine command. And the philosophers of antiquity scrupulously observed this caution. Pythagoras wrote nothing but a few trifles which he confided to his daughter Dama, on his deathbed. The Sphinxes, which are carved on the temples of the Egyptians, warned that the mystic doctrines must be kept inviolate from the profane multitude by means of riddles. Plato, writing certain things to Dionysius concerning the highest substances, explained that he had to write in riddles ``lest the letter fall into other hands and others come to know the things I have intended for you.'' Aristotle used to say that the books of the Metaphysics in which he treats of divine matters were both published and unpublished. Is there any need for further instances? Origen asserts that Jesus Christ, the Teacher of Life, revealed many things to His disciples which they in turn were unwilling to commit to writing lest they become the common possession of the crowd. Dionysius the Areopagite gives powerful confirmation to this assertion when he writes that the more secret mysteries were transmitted by the founders of our religion ek nou eis vouv dia mesov logov, that is, from mind to mind, without commitment to writing, through the medium of of the spoken word alone. Because the true interpretation of the law given to Moses was, by God's command, revealed in almost precisely this way, it was called ``Cabala,'' which in Hebrew means the same as our word ``reception.'' The precise point is, of course, that the doctrine was received by one man from another not through written documents but, as a hereditary right, through a regular succession of revelations.
After Cyrus had delivered the Hebrews from the Babylonian captivity, and the Temple had been restored under Zorobabel, the Hebrews bethought themselves of restoring the Law. Esdras, who was head of the church [sic!] at the time, amended the book of Moses. He readily realized, moreover, that because of the exiles, the massacres, the flights and the captivity of the people of Israel, the practice established by the ancients of handing down the doctrines by word of mouth could not be maintained. Unless they were committed to writing, the heavenly teachings divinely handed down must inevitably perish, for the memory of them would not long endure. He decided, consequently, that all of the wise men still alive should be convened and that each should communicate to the convention all that he remembered about the mysteries of the Law. Their communications were then to be collected by scribes into seventy volumes (approximately the same number as there were members of the Sanhedrin). So that you need not accept my testimony alone, O Fathers, hear Esdras himself speaking: ``After forty days had passed, the All-Highest spoke and said: The first things which you wrote publish openly so that the worthy and unworthy alike may read; but the last seventy books conserve so that you may hand them on to the wise men among your people, for in these reside the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom and the river of knowledge. And I did these things.'' These are the very words of Esdras. These are the books of cabalistic wisdom. In these books, as Esdras unmistakably states, resides the springs of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the precise metaphysical doctrine concerning intelligible and angelic forms; and the stream of wisdom, that is, the best established philosophy concerning nature. Pope Sixtus the Fourth, the immediate predecessor of our present pope, Innocent the Eight, under whose happy reign we are living, took all possible measures to ensure that these books would be translated into Latin for the public benefit of our faith and at the time of his death, three of them had already appeared. The Hebrews hold these same books in such reverence that no one under forty years of age is permitted even to touch them. I acquired these books at considerable expense and, reading them from beginning to end with the greatest attention and with unrelenting toil, I discovered in them (as God is my witness) not so much the Mosaic as the Christian religion. There was to be found the mystery of the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word, the divinity of the Messiah; there one might also read of original sin, of its expiation by the Christ, of the heavenly Jerusalem, of the fall of the demons, of the orders of the angels, of the pains of purgatory and of hell. There I read the same things which we read every day in the pages of Paul and of Dionysius, Jerome and Augustine. In philosophical matters, it were as though one were listening to Pythagoras and Plato, whose doctrines bear so close an affinity to the Christian faith that our Augustine offered endless thanks to God that the books of the Platonists had fallen into his hands. In a word, there is no point of controversy between the Hebrews and ourselves on which the Hebrews cannot be confuted and convinced out the cabalistic writings, so that no corner is left for them to hide in. On this point I can cite a witness of the very greatest authority, the most learned Antonius Chronicus; on the occasion of a banquet in his house, at which I was also present, with his own ears he heard the Hebrew, Dactylus, a profound scholar of this lore, come round completely to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
To return, however, to our review of the chief points of my disputation: I have also adduced my conception of the manner in which the poems of Orpheus and Zoroaster ought to be interpreted. Orpheus is read by the Greeks in a text which is practically complete; Zoroaster is known to them in a corrupt text, while in Chaldea he is read in a form more nearly complete. Both are considered as the authors and fathers of ancient wisdom. I shall say nothing about Zoroaster who is mentioned so frequently by the Platonists and always with the greatest respect. Of Pythagoras, however, Iamblicus the Chaldean writes that he took the Orphic theology as the model on which he shaped and formed his own philosophy. For this precise reason the sayings of Pythagoras are called sacred, because, and to the degree that, they derive from the Orphic teachings. For from this source that occult doctrine of numbers and everything else that was great and sublime in Greek philosophy flowed as from its primitive source. Orpheus, however (and this was the case with all the ancient theologians) so wove the mysteries of his doctrines into the fabric of myths and so wrapped them about in veils of poetry, that one reading his hymns might well believe that there was nothing in them but fables and the veriest commonplaces. I have said this so that it might be known what labor was mine, what difficulty was involved, in drawing out the secret meanings of the occult philosophy from the deliberate tangles of riddles and the recesses of fable in which they were hidden; difficulty made all the greater by the fact that in a matter so weighty, abstruse and unexplored, I could count on no help from the work and efforts of other interpreters. And still like dogs they have come barking after me, saying that I have brought together an accumulation of trifles in order to make a great display by their sheer number. As though all did not concern ambiguous questions, subjects of sharpest controversy, over which the most important schools confront each other like gladiators. As though I had not brought to light many things quite unknown and unsuspected by these very men who now carp at me while styling themselves the leaders of philosophy. As a matter of fact, I am so completely free of the fault they attribute to me that I have tried to confine the discussion to fewer points than I might have raised. Had I wished, (as others are wont) to divide these questions into their constituent parts, and to dismember them, their number might well have increased to a point past counting. To say nothing of other matters, who is unaware that one of these nine hundred theses, that, namely, concerning the reconciliation of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle might have been developed, without arousing any suspicion that I was affecting mere number, into six hundred or more by enumerating in due order those points on which others think that these philosophies differ and I, that they agree? For a certainty I shall speak out (though in a manner which is neither modest in itself nor conformable to my character), I shall speak out because those who envy me and detract me, force me to speak out. I have wanted to make clear in disputation, not only that I know a great many things, but also that I know a great many things which others do not know.
And now, reverend Fathers, in order that this claim may be vindicated by the fact, and in order that my address may no longer delay the satisfaction of your desire --- for I see, reverend doctors, with the greatest pleasure that you are girded and ready for the contest --- let us now, with the prayer that the outcome may be fortunate and favorable, as to the sound of trumpets, join battle.
I was not unaware, most revered Fathers, that this present disputation of mine would be as acceptable and as pleasing to you, who favor all the good arts and who have consented to grace it with your presence, as it would be irritating and offensive to many others. I am also aware that there is no dearth of those who have condemned my undertaking before this and continue to do so on a number of grounds. But this has always been the case: works which are well-intentioned and sincerely directed to virtue have always had no fewer --- not to say more --- detractors than those undertaken for questionable motives and for devious ends. Some persons disapprove the present type of disputation in general and this method of disputing in public about learned matters; they assert that they serve only the exhibition of talent and the display of opinion, rather than the increase of learning. Others do not disapprove this type of exercise, but resent the fact that at my age, a mere twenty-four years, I have dared to propose a disputation concerning the most subtle mysteries of Christian theology, the most debated points of philosophy and unfamiliar branches of learning; and that I have done so here, in this most renowned of cities, before a large assembly of very learned men, in the presence of the Apostolic Senate. Still others have ceded my right so to dispute, but have not conceded that I might dispute nine hundred theses, asserting that such a project is superfluous, over-ambitious and beyond my powers. I should have acceded to these objections willingly and immediately, if the philosophy which I profess had so counseled me. Nor should I now undertake to reply to them, as my philosophy urges me to do, if I believed that this disputation between us were undertaken for purposes of mere altercation and litigation. Therefore, let all intention of denigration and exasperation be purged from our minds and with it that malice which, as Plato writes, is never present in the angelic choirs. Let us amicably decide whether it be admissible for me to proceed with my disputation and whether I should venture so large a number of questions.
I shall not, in the first place, have much to say against those who disapprove this type of public disputation. It is a crime, --- if it be a crime --- which I share with all you, most excellent doctors, who have engaged in such exercises on many occasions to the enhancement of your reputations, as well as with Plato and Aristotle and all the most esteemed philosophers of every age. These philosophers of the past all thought that nothing could profit them more in their search for wisdom than frequent participation in public disputation. Just as the powers of the body are made stronger through gymnastic, the powers of the mind grow in strength and vigor in this arena of learning. I am inclined to believe that the poets, when they sang of the arms of Pallas and the Hebrews, when they called the barzel, that is, the sword, the symbol of men of wisdom, could have meant nothing by these symbols but this type of contest, at once so necessary and so honorable for the acquisition of knowledge. This may also be the reason why the Chaldeans, at the birth of a man destined to be a philosopher, described a horoscope in which Mars confronted Mercury from three distinct angles. This is as much as to say that should these assemblies and these contests be abandoned, all philosophy would become sluggish and dormant.
It is more difficult for me, however, to find a line of defense against those who tell me that I am unequal to the undertaking. If I say that I am equal to it, I shall appear to entertain an immodestly high opinion of myself. If I admit that I am unequal to it, while persisting in it, I shall certainly risk being called temerarious and imprudent. You see the difficulties into which I have fallen, the position in which I am placed. I cannot, without censure, promise something about myself, nor, without equal censure, fail in what I promise. Perhaps I can invoke that saying of Job: ``The spirit is in all men'' or take consolation in what was said to Timothy: ``Let no man despise your youth.'' But to speak from my own conscience, I might say with greater truth that there is nothing singular about me. I admit that I am devoted to study and eager in the pursuit of the good arts. Nevertheless, I do not assume nor arrogate to myself the title learned. If, consequently, I have taken such a great burden on my shoulders, it is not because I am ignorant of my own weaknesses. Rather, it is because I understand that in this kind of learned contest the real victory lies in being vanquished. Even the weakest, consequently, ought not to shun them, but should seek them out, as well they may. For the one who is bested receives from his conqueror, not an injury but a benefit; he returns to his house richer than he left, that is, more learned and better armed for future contests. Inspired by such hope, though myself but a weak soldier, I have not been afraid to enter so dangerous a contest even against the very strongest and vigorous opponents. Whether, in doing so, I have acted foolishly or not might better be judged from the outcome of the contest than from my age.
I must, in the third place, answer those who are scandalized by the large number of propositions and the variety of topics I have proposed for disputation, as though the burden, however great it may be, rested on their shoulders and not, as it does, on mine. Surely it is unbecoming and captious to want to set limits to another's efforts and, as Cicero says, to desire mediocrity in those things in which the rule should be: the more the better. In undertaking so great a venture only one alternative confronted me: success or failure. If I should succeed, I do not see how it would be more praiseworthy to succeed in defending ten theses than in defending nine hundred. If I should fail, those who hate me will have grounds for disparagement, while those who love me will have an occasion to excuse me. In so large and important an undertaking it would seem that a young man who fails through weakness of talent or want of learning deserves indulgence rather than censure. For as the poet says,
if powers fail, there shall be praise for daring; and in great undertaking, to have willed is enough.
In our own day, many scholars, imitating Gorgias of Leontini, have been accustomed to dispute, not nine hundred questions merely, but the whole range of questions concerning all the arts and have been praised for it. Why should not I, then, without incurring criticism, be permitted to discuss a large number of questions indeed, but questions which are clear and determined in their scope? They reply, this is superfluous and ambitious. I protest that, in my case, no superfluity is involved, but that all is necessary. If they consider the method of my philosophy they will feel compelled, even against their inclinations, to recognize this necessity. All those who attach themselves to one or another of the philosophers, to Thomas, for instance or Scotus, who at present enjoy the widest following, can indeed test their doctrine in a discussion of a few questions. By contrast, I have so trained myself that, committed to the teachings of no one man, I have ranged through all the masters of philosophy, examined all their works, become acquainted with all schools. As a consequence, I have had to introduce all of them into the discussion lest, defending a doctrine peculiar to one, I might seem committed to it and thus to deprecate the rest. While a few of the theses proposed concern individual philosophers, it was inevitable that a great number should concern all of them together. Nor should anyone condemn me on the grounds that ``wherever the storm blows me, there I remain as a guest.'' For it was a rule among the ancients, in the case of all writers, never to leave unread any commentaries which might be available. Aristotle observed this rule so carefully that Plato called him: auagnooies, that is, ``the reader.'' It is certainly a mark of excessive narrowness of mind to enclose oneself within one Porch or Academy; nor can anyone reasonably attach himself to one school or philosopher, unless he has previously become familiar with them all. In addition, there is in each school some distinctive characteristic which it does not share with any other.
To begin with the men of our own faith to whom philosophy came last, there is in Duns Scotus both vigor and distinction, in Thomas solidity and sense of balance, in Egidius, lucidity and precision, in Francis, depth and acuteness, in Albertus [Magnus] a sense of ultimate issues, all-embracing and grand, in Henry, as it has seemed to me, always an element of sublimity which inspires reverence. Among the Arabians, there is in Averroës something solid and unshaken, in Avempace, as in Al-Farabi, something serious and deeply meditated; in Avicenna, something divine and platonic. Among the Greeks philosophy was always brilliant and, among the earliest, even chaste: in Simplicus it is rich and abundant, in Themistius elegant and compendious, in Alexander, learned and self-consistent, in Theophrastus, worked out with great reflection, in Ammonius, smooth and pleasing. If you turn to the Platonists, to mention but a few, you will, in Porphyry, be delighted by the wealth of matter and by his preoccupation with many aspects of religion; in Iamblichus, you will be awed by his knowledge of occult philosophy and the mysteries of the barbarian peoples; in Plotinus, you will find it impossible to single out one thing for admiration, because he is admirable under every aspect. Platonists themselves, sweating over his pages, understand him only with the greatest difficulty when, in his oblique style, he teaches divinely about divine things and far more than humanly about things human. I shall pass over the more recent figures, Proclus, and those others who derive from him, Damacius, Olympiodorus and many more in whom that to theion, that is, that divine something which is the special mark of the Platonists, always shines out.
It should be added that any school which attacks the more established truths and by clever slander ridicules the valid arguments of reason confirms, rather than weakens, the truth itself, which, like embers, is fanned to life, rather than extinguished by stirring. These considerations have motivated me in my determination to bring to men's attention the opinions of all schools rather than the doctrine of some one or other (as some might have preferred), for it seems to me that by the confrontation of many schools and the discussion of many philosophical systems that ``effulgence of truth'' of which Plato writes in his letters might illuminate our minds more clearly, like the sun rising from the sea. What should have been our plight had only the philosophical thought of the Latin authors, that is, Albert, Thomas, Scotus, Egidius, Francis and Henry, been discussed, while that of the Greeks and the Arabs was passed over, since all the thought of the barbarian nations was inherited by the Greeks and from the Greeks came down to us? For this reason, our thinkers have always been satisfied, in the field of philosophy, to rest on the discoveries of foreigners and simply to perfect the work of others. What profit would have dervied from discussing natural philosophy with the Peripatetics, if the Academy of the Platonists had not also participated in the exchange, for the doctrine of the latter, even when it touched on divine matters, has always (as St. Augustine bears witness) been esteemed the most elevated of all philosophies? And this in turn has been the reason why I have, for the first time after many centuries of neglect (and there is nothing invidious in my saying so) brought it forth again for public examination and discussion. And what would it have profited us if, having discussed the opinions of innumerable others, like asymboli, at the banquet of wise men, we should contribute nothing of our own, nothing conceived and elaborated in our own mind? Indeed, it is the characteristic of the impotent (as Seneca writes) to have their knowledge all written down in their note-books, as though the discoveries of those who preceded us had closed the path to our own efforts, as though the power of nature had become effete in us and could bring forth nothing which, if it could not demonstrate the truth, might at least point to it from afar. The farmer hates sterility in his field and the husband deplores it in his wife; even more then must the divine mind hate the sterile mind with which it is joined and associated, because it hopes from that source to have offspring of such a high nature.
For these reasons, I have not been content to repeat well-worn doctrines, but have proposed for disputation many points of the early theology of Hermes Trismegistus, many theses drawn from the teachings of the Chaldeans and the Pythagoreans, from the occult mysteries of the Hebrews and, finally, a considerable number of propositions concerning both nature and God which we ourselves have discovered and worked out. In the first place, we have proposed a harmony between Plato and Aristotle, such as many before this time indeed believed to exist but which no one has satisfactorily established. Boethius, among Latin writers, promised to compose such a harmony, but he never carried his proposal to completion. St. Augustine also writes, in his Contra Academicos, that many others tried to prove the same thing, that is, that the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle were identical, and by the most subtle arguments. For example, John the Grammarian held that Aristotle differed from Plato only for those who did not grasp Plato's thought; but he left it to posterity to prove it. We have, in addition, adduced a great number of passages in which Scotus and Thomas, and others in which Averroës and Avicenna, have heretofore been thought to disagree, but which I assert are in harmony with one another.
In the second place, along with my own reflections on and developments of both the Aristotelian and the Platonic philosophies, I have adduced seventy-two theses in physics and metaphysics. If I am not mistaken (and this will become clearer in the course of the proposed disputation) anyone subscribing to these theses will be able to resolve any question proposed to him in natural philosophy or theology on a principle quite other than that taught us in the philosophy which is at present to be learned in the schools and is taught by the masters of the present generation. Nor ought anyone to be surprised, that in my early years, at a tender age at which I should hardly be permitted to read the writings of others (as some have insinuated) I should wish to propose a new philosophy. They ought rather to praise this new philosophy, if it is well defended, or reject it, if it is refuted. Finally, since it will be their task to judge my discoveries and my scholarship, they ought to look to the merit or demerit of these and not to the age of their author.
I have, in addition, introduced a new method of philosophizing on the basis of numbers. This method is, in fact, very old, for it was cultivated by the ancient theologians, by Pythagoras, in the first place, but also by Aglaophamos, Philolaus and Plato, as well as by the earliest Platonists; however, like other illustrious achievements of the past, it has through lack of interest on the part of succeeding generations, fallen into such desuetude, that hardly any vestiges of it are to be found. Plato writes in Epinomis that among all the liberal arts and contemplative sciences, the science of number is supreme and most divine. And in another place, asking why man is the wisest of animals, he replies, because he knows how to count. Similarly, Aristotle, in his Problems repeats this opinion. Abumasar writes that it was a favorite saying of Avenzoar of Babylon that the man who knows how to count, knows everything else as well. These opinions are certainly devoid of any truth if by the art of number they intend that art in which today merchants excel all other men; Plato adds his testimony to this view, admonishing us emphatically not to confuse this divine arithmetic with the arithmetic of the merchants. When, consequently, after long nights of study I seemed to myself to have thoroughly penetrated this Arithmetic, which is thus so highly extolled, I promised myself that in order to test the matter, I would try to solve by means of this method of number seventy-four questions which are considered, by common consent, among the most important in physics and divinity.
I have also proposed certain theses concerning magic, in which I have indicated that magic has two forms. One consists wholly in the operations and powers of demons, and consequently this appears to me, as God is my witness, an execrable and monstrous thing. The other proves, when thoroughly investigated, to be nothing else but the highest realization of natural philosophy. The Greeks noted both these forms. However, because they considered the first form wholly undeserving the name magic they called it goeteia, reserving the term mageia, to the second, and understanding by it the highest and most perfect wisdom. The term ``magus'' in the Persian tongue, according to Porphyry, means the same as ``interpreter'' and ``worshipper of the divine'' in our language. Moreover, Fathers, the disparity and dissimilarity between these arts is the greatest that can be imagined. Not the Christian religion alone, but all legal codes and every well-governed commonwealth execrates and condemns the first; the second, by contrast, is approved and embraced by all wise men and by all peoples solicitous of heavenly and divine things. The first is the most deceitful of arts; the second, a higher and holier philosophy. The former is vain and disappointing; the later, firm, solid and satisfying. The practitioner of the first always tries to conceal his addiction, because it always rebounds to shame and reproach, while the cultivation of the second, both in antiquity and at almost all periods, has been the source of the highest renown and glory in the field of learning. No philosopher of any worth, eager in pursuit of the good arts, was ever a student of the former, but to learn the latter, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato and Democritus crossed the seas. Returning to their homes, they, in turn, taught it to others and considered it a treasure to be closely guarded. The former, since it is supported by no true arguments, is defended by no writers of reputation; the latter, honored, as it were, in its illustrious progenitors, counts two principal authors: Zamolxis, who was imitated by Abaris the Hyperborean, and Zoroaster; not, indeed, the Zoroaster who may immediately come to your minds, but that other Zoroaster, the son of Oromasius. If we should ask Plato the nature of each of these forms of magic, he will respond in the Alcibiades that the magic of Zoroaster is nothing else than that science of divine things in which the kings of the Persians had their sons educated to that they might learn to rule their commonwealth on the pattern of the commonwealth of the universe. In the Charmides he will answer that the magic of Zamolxis is the medicine of the soul, because it brings temperance to the soul as medicine brings health to the body. Later Charondas, Damigeron, Apollonius, Osthanes and Dardanus continued in their footsteps, as did Homer, of whom we shall sometime prove, in a ``poetic theology'' we propose to write, that he concealed this doctrine, symbolically, in the wanderings of his Ulysses, just as he did all other learned doctrines. They were also followed by Eudoxus and Hermippus, as well as by practically all those who studied the Pythagorean and Platonic mysteries. Of later philosophers, I find that three had ferreted it out: the Arabian, Al-Kindi, Roger Bacon, and William of Paris. Plotinus also gives signs that he was aware of it in the passage in which he shows that the magician is the minister of nature and not merely its artful imitator. This very wise man approves and maintains this magic, while so abhorring that other that once, when he was invited to to take part in rites of evil spirits, he said that they ought rather to come to him, than he to go to them; and he spoke well. Just as that first form of magic makes man a slave and pawn of evil powers, the latter makes him their lord and master. That first form of magic cannot justify any claim to being either an art or a science while the latter, filled as it is with mysteries, embraces the most profound contemplation of the deepest secrets of things and finally the knowledge of the whole of nature. This beneficent magic, in calling forth, as it were, from their hiding places into the light the powers which the largess of God has sown and planted in the world, does not itself work miracles, so much as sedulously serve nature as she works her wonders. Scrutinizing, with greater penetration, that harmony of the universe which the Greeks with greater aptness of terms called sympatheia and grasping the mutual affinity of things, she applies to each thing those inducements (called the iugges of the magicians), most suited to its nature. Thus it draws forth into public notice the miracles which lie hidden in the recesses of the world, in the womb of nature, in the storehouses and secret vaults of God, as though she herself were their artificer. As the farmer weds his elms to the vines, so the ``magus'' unites earth to heaven, that is, the lower orders to the endowments and powers of the higher. Hence it is that this latter magic appears the more divine and salutary, as the former presents a monstrous and destructive visage. But the deepest reason for the difference is the fact that that first magic, delivering man over to the enemies of God, alienates him from God, while the second, beneficent magic, excites in him an admiration for the works of God which flowers naturally into charity, faith and hope. For nothing so surely impels us to the worship of God than the assiduous contemplation of His miracles and when, by means of this natural magic, we shall have examined these wonders more deeply, we shall more ardently be moved to love and worship Him in his works, until finally we shall be compelled to burst into song: ``The heavens, all of the earth, is filled with the majesty of your glory.'' But enough about magic. I have been led to say even this much because I know that there are many persons who condemn and hate it, because they do not understand it, just as dogs always bay at strangers.
I come now to those matters which I have drawn from the ancient mysteries of the Hebrews and here adduce in confirmation of the inviolable Catholic faith. Lest these matters be thought, by those to whom they are unfamiliar, bubbles of the imagination and tales of charlatans, I want everyone to understand what they are and what their true character is; whence they are drawn and who are the illustrious writers who testifying to them; how mysterious they are, and divine and necessary to men of our faith for the propagation of our religion in the face of the persistent calumnies of the Hebrews. Not famous Hebrew teachers alone, but, from among those of our own persuasion, Esdras, Hilary and Origen all write that Moses, in addition to the law of the five books which he handed down to posterity, when on the mount, received from God a more secret and true explanation of the law. They also say that God commanded Moses to make the law known to the people, but not to write down its interpretation or to divulge it, but to communicate it only to Jesu Nave who, in turn, was to reveal it to succeeding high priests under a strict obligation of silence. It was enough to indicate, through simple historical narrative, the power of God, his wrath against the unjust, his mercy toward the good, his justice toward all and to educate the people, by divine and salutary commands, to live well and blessedly and to worship in the true religion. Openly to reveal to the people the hidden mysteries and the secret intentions of the highest divinity, which lay concealed under the hard shell of the law and the rough vesture of language, what else could this be but to throw holy things to dogs and to strew gems among swine? The decision, consequently, to keep such things hidden from the vulgar and to communicate them only to the initiate, among whom alone, as Paul says, wisdom speaks, was not a counsel of human prudence but a divine command. And the philosophers of antiquity scrupulously observed this caution. Pythagoras wrote nothing but a few trifles which he confided to his daughter Dama, on his deathbed. The Sphinxes, which are carved on the temples of the Egyptians, warned that the mystic doctrines must be kept inviolate from the profane multitude by means of riddles. Plato, writing certain things to Dionysius concerning the highest substances, explained that he had to write in riddles ``lest the letter fall into other hands and others come to know the things I have intended for you.'' Aristotle used to say that the books of the Metaphysics in which he treats of divine matters were both published and unpublished. Is there any need for further instances? Origen asserts that Jesus Christ, the Teacher of Life, revealed many things to His disciples which they in turn were unwilling to commit to writing lest they become the common possession of the crowd. Dionysius the Areopagite gives powerful confirmation to this assertion when he writes that the more secret mysteries were transmitted by the founders of our religion ek nou eis vouv dia mesov logov, that is, from mind to mind, without commitment to writing, through the medium of of the spoken word alone. Because the true interpretation of the law given to Moses was, by God's command, revealed in almost precisely this way, it was called ``Cabala,'' which in Hebrew means the same as our word ``reception.'' The precise point is, of course, that the doctrine was received by one man from another not through written documents but, as a hereditary right, through a regular succession of revelations.
After Cyrus had delivered the Hebrews from the Babylonian captivity, and the Temple had been restored under Zorobabel, the Hebrews bethought themselves of restoring the Law. Esdras, who was head of the church [sic!] at the time, amended the book of Moses. He readily realized, moreover, that because of the exiles, the massacres, the flights and the captivity of the people of Israel, the practice established by the ancients of handing down the doctrines by word of mouth could not be maintained. Unless they were committed to writing, the heavenly teachings divinely handed down must inevitably perish, for the memory of them would not long endure. He decided, consequently, that all of the wise men still alive should be convened and that each should communicate to the convention all that he remembered about the mysteries of the Law. Their communications were then to be collected by scribes into seventy volumes (approximately the same number as there were members of the Sanhedrin). So that you need not accept my testimony alone, O Fathers, hear Esdras himself speaking: ``After forty days had passed, the All-Highest spoke and said: The first things which you wrote publish openly so that the worthy and unworthy alike may read; but the last seventy books conserve so that you may hand them on to the wise men among your people, for in these reside the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom and the river of knowledge. And I did these things.'' These are the very words of Esdras. These are the books of cabalistic wisdom. In these books, as Esdras unmistakably states, resides the springs of understanding, that is, the ineffable theology of the supersubstantial deity; the fountain of wisdom, that is, the precise metaphysical doctrine concerning intelligible and angelic forms; and the stream of wisdom, that is, the best established philosophy concerning nature. Pope Sixtus the Fourth, the immediate predecessor of our present pope, Innocent the Eight, under whose happy reign we are living, took all possible measures to ensure that these books would be translated into Latin for the public benefit of our faith and at the time of his death, three of them had already appeared. The Hebrews hold these same books in such reverence that no one under forty years of age is permitted even to touch them. I acquired these books at considerable expense and, reading them from beginning to end with the greatest attention and with unrelenting toil, I discovered in them (as God is my witness) not so much the Mosaic as the Christian religion. There was to be found the mystery of the Trinity, the Incarnation of the Word, the divinity of the Messiah; there one might also read of original sin, of its expiation by the Christ, of the heavenly Jerusalem, of the fall of the demons, of the orders of the angels, of the pains of purgatory and of hell. There I read the same things which we read every day in the pages of Paul and of Dionysius, Jerome and Augustine. In philosophical matters, it were as though one were listening to Pythagoras and Plato, whose doctrines bear so close an affinity to the Christian faith that our Augustine offered endless thanks to God that the books of the Platonists had fallen into his hands. In a word, there is no point of controversy between the Hebrews and ourselves on which the Hebrews cannot be confuted and convinced out the cabalistic writings, so that no corner is left for them to hide in. On this point I can cite a witness of the very greatest authority, the most learned Antonius Chronicus; on the occasion of a banquet in his house, at which I was also present, with his own ears he heard the Hebrew, Dactylus, a profound scholar of this lore, come round completely to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.
To return, however, to our review of the chief points of my disputation: I have also adduced my conception of the manner in which the poems of Orpheus and Zoroaster ought to be interpreted. Orpheus is read by the Greeks in a text which is practically complete; Zoroaster is known to them in a corrupt text, while in Chaldea he is read in a form more nearly complete. Both are considered as the authors and fathers of ancient wisdom. I shall say nothing about Zoroaster who is mentioned so frequently by the Platonists and always with the greatest respect. Of Pythagoras, however, Iamblicus the Chaldean writes that he took the Orphic theology as the model on which he shaped and formed his own philosophy. For this precise reason the sayings of Pythagoras are called sacred, because, and to the degree that, they derive from the Orphic teachings. For from this source that occult doctrine of numbers and everything else that was great and sublime in Greek philosophy flowed as from its primitive source. Orpheus, however (and this was the case with all the ancient theologians) so wove the mysteries of his doctrines into the fabric of myths and so wrapped them about in veils of poetry, that one reading his hymns might well believe that there was nothing in them but fables and the veriest commonplaces. I have said this so that it might be known what labor was mine, what difficulty was involved, in drawing out the secret meanings of the occult philosophy from the deliberate tangles of riddles and the recesses of fable in which they were hidden; difficulty made all the greater by the fact that in a matter so weighty, abstruse and unexplored, I could count on no help from the work and efforts of other interpreters. And still like dogs they have come barking after me, saying that I have brought together an accumulation of trifles in order to make a great display by their sheer number. As though all did not concern ambiguous questions, subjects of sharpest controversy, over which the most important schools confront each other like gladiators. As though I had not brought to light many things quite unknown and unsuspected by these very men who now carp at me while styling themselves the leaders of philosophy. As a matter of fact, I am so completely free of the fault they attribute to me that I have tried to confine the discussion to fewer points than I might have raised. Had I wished, (as others are wont) to divide these questions into their constituent parts, and to dismember them, their number might well have increased to a point past counting. To say nothing of other matters, who is unaware that one of these nine hundred theses, that, namely, concerning the reconciliation of the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle might have been developed, without arousing any suspicion that I was affecting mere number, into six hundred or more by enumerating in due order those points on which others think that these philosophies differ and I, that they agree? For a certainty I shall speak out (though in a manner which is neither modest in itself nor conformable to my character), I shall speak out because those who envy me and detract me, force me to speak out. I have wanted to make clear in disputation, not only that I know a great many things, but also that I know a great many things which others do not know.
And now, reverend Fathers, in order that this claim may be vindicated by the fact, and in order that my address may no longer delay the satisfaction of your desire --- for I see, reverend doctors, with the greatest pleasure that you are girded and ready for the contest --- let us now, with the prayer that the outcome may be fortunate and favorable, as to the sound of trumpets, join battle.
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
by admin » Thu Sep 29, 2022 8:54 am
Eric Hebborn - Portrait of a Master Forger
by BBC
Mar 14, 2012
A documentary featuring an interview with Eric Hebborn at his home in Italy. Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) was a British painter and art forger and later an author. On January 8, 1996, Eric Hebborn was found lying in a street in Rome, his skull crushed with a blunt instrument. He died three days later in the hospital on January 11, 1996.
Transcript
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the dealer is not interested in art he's interested in
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well basically money but you know worth of artists as good or bad as the price it fetches the art historian is not
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really very interested in art I mean he studies it but he's much more interested in his career whether he's going to go
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up in the nobody's we can come the head of some great museum look this is what he's really interested in and whether he
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can get a knighthood because he knows a lot about Rembrandt you know but no one
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would have ever given Rembrandt a knighthood for being Rembrandt you know serve it's all false values and art is
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neglected nobody is studying it really and truly with the kind of honesty that
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is necessary and although I can't myself claim to be a very honest man in fact
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though many people think I'm an old clock I do feel that in this case at
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least that I am honest I mean I do try to understand something about
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medieval hilltop village of antiquity Corrado to the east of Rome as for centuries been home to painters and
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sculptors 25 years ago English artist Eric had one came to live here how I
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shall freeze after all this son Here I am a gentleman at home a palace and thy
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loving and I love London and I love my English friends but when I'm in the
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Piazza here a local the old boys you know I feel that we may do the same
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stuff and they're not going to say all your your working-class guy I'm not
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going to say to them in all peasant make it on we have our grass of wine together happy about I think I would
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have been happy as artists in the relations and in the 20th century but I
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would have liked to have been employed in a different way rather than sort of having to be on the fringes of society
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were them being a little bit shaking all that heaven has devoted much of his life
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to the study of the Renaissance artists in particular the drawings made by the old masters as preparatory sketches for
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their oil paintings well I think what particularly appeals to people who are interested no mas joins it that they are
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of spontaneous expression of the artists are obviously drawing very great deal in
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whether they were made just sitting down doodling on his paper or of elaborate
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finished drawing of made a say as the cartoon for a painting but you do get a much more personal feel I think from the
3:36
drawing how the artist I mean it is just I'm often Lee starting with Leonardo artists were really kind of thinking on
3:46
paper I've made drawings in the Dutch style in the Flemish style in the German
3:53
style in the Swiss style in the Italian style and I've even deigned to a few
3:59
english drawings and some French toys and I've normally
4:04
chosen important masters not necessarily the greatest because it's very hard to convince people nowadays when you turn
4:11
up with a Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Leonardo they say let's go tell somebody
4:17
else you know but nevertheless I've turned up with people like stefano delle
4:24
bella and caste Leonean 17th century martyrs of some importance including Rubens and then Dyck so I have done some
4:34
very very important artists and I wouldn't call gain for a wine artist
4:39
normal I call constable a minor artist and all these people I have I have done nothing for ebon claims to have made
4:48
over a thousand drawings in the style of scores of different artists from the 14th to the 20th century many of these
4:54
drawings are now in the possession of some of the greatest private and national collections around the world from the British Museum to the
5:00
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
5:09
I'm not a crook I'm just doing what people have always done during the
5:14
history of the world I mean ever since art was invented people have made
5:20
imitations of it shall we say and I believe that the real criminal if there
5:25
is one is the person who makes the false description I mean if I were to tell you
5:31
that these this statue here is by facts
5:36
Italy's for whoever it's been copied from I would be making false description even if I said it was Roman I would be
5:43
making a post description because it's a modern copy but that doesn't mean to say that you can't enjoy it I mean you can
5:50
enjoy the fake isn't necessarily bad as a work of art it is simply something
5:56
that's wrongly described and age sometimes gives dignity to imitations
6:04
providing there of some quality and they should be enjoyed for what they are rather than being questioned for what
6:10
they're not the sale of several drawings in the style of Gustus John to a specialist dealer in
6:16
London help finance have ones permanent moved to Italy in the summer of 1964 for
6:23
the next decade business was brisk on the top floor of an old Palazzo in the heart of Rome's antique district a
6:29
conveniently short walk from the Christie's sale room in Piazza Navona
6:37
for a christie's sale in rome in 1974 everyone supplied twenty-four drawings
6:42
in the style of various old masters these were attributed by Christie's to 16th century artists such as stefano
6:49
delle bella luca cambiaso FR Bartolomeo as a
6:55
self-styled dealer in old master drawings he born was able to offer his own efforts alongside perfectly genuine
7:01
examples he called this bread and butter business panini galleries and quickly re-established links with the London art
7:07
trade very soon after I went to court argues when a drawing was sent from
7:15
Italy from some galleries called - Neely galleries by the Ambrogio either old or
7:22
younger which had been in colleges in the 1930s it could be traced in a stock
7:29
book and I think it may even been exhibited I really can't remember the state and this seemed to us a perfectly
7:37
genuine nice drawing which the further they pleased to purchase back and as a
7:42
result I think I'm going to be asleep fairly shortly after us I thought I might call on Erica Berlin who lived
7:48
that time in room I bought a drawing in a sale not in one of the great sale room
7:56
such as Christie's and Sotheby's and I noticed on the back of it a label the
8:04
label of a dealer called corn Rd and I thought well you know if they had it's
8:09
probably a decent drawing and I took it home and it said that it was by Blue Eagle so I hung it on the wall nice play
8:16
proud I'd bought a boy girl for only 40 pounds I thought how the hell did I get it that cheap if it's a real boy Eagle
8:24
then Wright was there for a few months then I began to look at it Nathan no this is not a
8:30
boggle this is a copy I thought was an engravers coffee because in the old days
8:37
the only ways of only way of reproducing drawings as you know for the engraver to
8:42
make an engraving of it and we produce it so to make his engraving he first made a copy in the medium that the
8:50
artists had used I thought that's what it is is and engravers copy then I wondered to myself well why can't I copy
8:56
that this copy and make it little better then it'll be a little bit more like a viable so I said to work in that way and
9:04
I made a copy a very close copy an almost exact copy but I speeded up the
9:10
lines that if I gave a more vigorous movement and it did look a bit more like
9:16
a boy/girl to me when I'd finished and then I did something I rather regret
9:21
doing now I tore up the thing I copied the thing that been in the corn Rd frame
9:28
I flushed it down the lavatory I rather wish I hadn't because it would be nice now to compare you know perhaps time you
9:36
know perhaps I destroyed an original Weigel I hope not and it seems that the people in the
9:42
Metropolitan Museum think the same thing
9:47
I mean they they seem to be happy with my coffee I have talked very recent in
9:52
the last day or two to the Metropolitan Museum who naturally have subjected it to very close our tests such as tests
9:59
can be made and they say the paper is perfectly genuine the ink looks good for
10:06
drawing of that date and though naturally they're keeping an open mind about it they can see absolutely nothing
10:12
wrong with the dry I don't have to prove what I did it or not if they can't see it what kind of damned experts are they
10:19
I mean they should be able to say this is definitely by Michael but then you ask them they say yes this is definitely
10:25
by broeckel then you say to them is it by jangle the old or the gonca well
10:31
we're quite sure about that professor so-and-so says it's the younger professor so-and-so says it's
10:38
the older but it could be a very late follower that's my claim there are I
10:46
mean I wanted to test you can do for ink but that does P suppose they had to be
10:52
certain substances in the ink which were not known at their particular time but
10:57
for the most part I mean it would not help and anyway in order to do these yes you don't have to ruin the drawing so
11:03
that's up at the end of the day hopefully much better off I've just been in the forest they're freaking calm when
11:10
little water fires collecting oak galls and these I need for making alcohol ink
11:16
which is the kind of ink that parmigianino used in the 16th century
11:22
and this is a common recipe for Oh calling they're about thirty often that
11:30
I have in my collection in terms of recipe going into a drain water gun
11:36
Arabic and a little iron sulphide bian rusts and it eats through the paper many
11:44
old drawings that are consumed in this way in parts of the drawing I imitated that on the Pusa I did it I wouldn't
11:51
have done it on a more important drawing because it lowers the sail ability of the drawing when it's in bad condition I
11:57
mean if I'd meant that boo Center pass as a boo sampler if not I was not have
12:03
aged it in that way because the value would have gone down immensely but in
12:08
this case I thought well you know let's give it a really nice old pattern er make it convincing
12:13
so well that's what I did no ingredient is really secret because really chemical
12:21
analysis can discover it but I don't want to encourage forgery line by giving
12:26
away these tricks of the trade that people might use dishonestly
13:53
early part of my life I think is rather sad my father seems to have been always
13:59
out of work and my mother had many children the poor woman was under great
14:04
stress she seemed to have taken her you know revenge of the world myself and
14:12
she used to treat me well badly at the age of eight I was still trying my hand
14:17
at Roy found that if you light a swan vest a match you have a little piece of
14:25
charcoal at the end that you can draw with and dip it in the school inkwell in those days they had ink wasn't anything
14:31
to have them anymore but anyway I would do that and I would make sketches and the headmaster came around making
14:37
inspection and he saw that in my desk I had this matchstick and a piece of
14:45
sandpaper and he thought that I was playing with fire and he gave me a cleaning for it and I thought well I've
14:51
been punished for the deed no I shouldn't do it and set light to the
14:57
cloakroom and the fire began to spread and I got frightened and I thought I'd
15:02
better tell the headmaster mr. Percy what had happened so I poked my smoky
15:08
face round his door and said to him because I I couldn't I didn't know how
15:15
to put it on him please so I've set light to the school I recited a little poem we'd learn they went fire fire
15:23
mrs. Dyer where where mrs. Claire did
15:28
that map of smoke came into his study and I found myself in the juvenile court
15:33
being charged I was asked what I was guilty or not guilty of arson I didn't
15:39
know either of the words I didn't know the word guilty or arson I didn't know what it means but policemen standing
15:45
next to me said I say guilty son say I'm not safe guilty so that's what I did
15:50
and ended up in borstal that was a nun promising beginning
16:04
Berek he born arrived as a pupil at the Royal Academy about 1950 sound like the
16:10
Academy itself heaven was already steeped in the ways of the old masters very little comment made about one's
16:15
work apart from the odd revelation that
16:21
somebody had won a prize or one happy you see from a lot of prize we didn't
16:26
win any hardly know practically nothing I was a really very good sort of silent
16:34
creature I mean he just kept to himself he didn't mix with other students as far as I remember he was always I never
16:41
remember seeing him in the canteen or anything he was always around there painting these Varanasi green grounds and all
16:48
this time all his old master stuff which he painted very much in the old master
16:54
styluses my man thought he was a joke actually Karen Raye and Nancy Goldsworthy also studied with had one uh
17:02
it was a school that produced a lot of brilliant people of whom Eric was one
17:07
though not appearing too many to be so because he was very quiet but when you
17:12
talked to him you knew he was an interesting person straightaway oh I was madly in love with him yes sure I used
17:19
to say Nance is playing hard to get rid of when he was at the Royal Academy he
17:24
won all the prizes for drawing so we we're dealing with a very gifted
17:30
draftsman while he was still a student at the Royal Academy Eric highborn discovered that he was
17:36
color blind I had this curious thing I believe men
17:42
have it more often than women of being not being able to distinguish between certain grades and certain greens and I
17:49
sometimes paint pictures with fear screens which I just couldn't see and I thought they were delicate pearly grays
17:57
and in fact they were not and I had to look at the tubes of color and read the
18:02
label to make sure that I wasn't falling into this trap there was a time at the
18:08
when the hippies were around people were on LSD and I was given some inner cake I
18:14
didn't know the difference taken ground up and I was suddenly hallucinating and seeing things the most extraordinary way
18:21
and my color blind is seemed to clear up after that one 18th century Italian
18:29
draftsman whose architectural drawings have consistently attracted heaven is Giovanni Battista para Nazy a fine
18:37
example of this masters work a magnificent Roman port was sold to the National Gallery of Denmark for fourteen
18:43
thousand pounds in 1969 by the London dealer hands Kalman who was hence Kalman
18:51
because he's now dead he was an ax dealer in drawings and a very important
18:56
dealer in old masters who perhaps had the best stock in London of old master
19:03
Roy at one point even HAP's even better than Cornell jeez I sold quite a lot of drawings to him I
19:09
mean I imagine it went into the hundreds he you know put my work on the market in
19:19
large numbers and who important people there is a foreign asian in the nursery
19:26
with investigative denmark in a Roman port main minister thought did you do that yes of course I did I have said so
19:33
often enough and so of other people said sir why do you suppose this is not being
19:39
accepted now well I don't know that wishful thinking perhaps on the part of
19:44
the National Gallery of Denmark but in their proof of but I mean it's absolutely
19:50
well I I say but people believe what they want to believe but there's no
19:56
doubt that the drawing passed through my hands I mean I had the drawing that it was I who sold it to hands Kalman and it
20:01
was hands Kalman who sold it to the National Gallery of Denmark and it was not known before everyone's friendship
20:08
with the late Sir Anthony Blunt lent credibility to his activities as a dealer the dealers who work with high
20:15
quality drawings tend to want a scholarly opinion and this is why in the case of Blount he would occasionally
20:22
give his imprimatur on say oh yes I believe that is a genuine Prasad castellone dalla bella or whatever
20:29
artist lund happened to know rather a lot about and of course sometimes mistakes were made but if a mistake was
20:35
made it's basically uncorrectable because without actually someone writing a very serious article in the Leonard
20:42
periodical saying that these attributions are provably wrong the matter just drops
20:47
I knew that Anthony Blunt and this dealer hen's Kalman were antagonists I
20:53
mean they didn't agree with each other hands thought that Denton E was you know not the right Hans who then and Anthony
21:02
thought that hence Calvin wasn't they right so I thought I'd make this drawing to tease them I thought I'd make it near
21:09
enough of taboo sanfur Antony to take it seriously but not close he nothing to accept it and put it there you know
21:14
among the Masters works then I take it to hands and say look Antony blunt says this is a fake what do
21:21
you think but I knew that his reaction would be what to fake if Antony such as
21:27
a failure must be genuine that sort of thing Anthony Blunt was regarded as one of the great experts he was artful in
21:34
charge of the Royal Collection and the Royal Collection has been one of the most magnificent collections of world
21:39
master drawings in the world and who was engaged in cataloguing it and supervising other people's catalogues on
21:46
it his range of expertise knowledge and awareness was immense Christopher white
21:53
at Carnegie's had been one of his pupils just as I had been and I'm sure that
22:00
amongst you out in his pupils there was a level of devotion if not veneration
22:06
which made us all take really seriously anything that he was inclined to suggest
22:13
when I have a friend I treat them slightly differently to I treat the way I treat so I'm not totally objective
22:20
about anything I would hate to ruin his reputation as a scholar when he was alive I didn't want to do it and now
22:26
he's dead I don't want to do it I don't want to put to jeopardize his a well
22:35
I've said did you know his reputation so I still tend always to rather defend him
22:42
I know this is not objective but at least I admit it no we were not
22:50
but we almost were as one evening I came
22:56
back from the Rome scholarship and I hadn't seen him for a number of months and he sent me a telegram sir why you so
23:05
damned standoffish I think the telegram made war why so standoffish telephone and he gave his telephone number and I
23:11
phoned him up and said come round this evening and we'll have a few drinks together I went round he was drinking
23:18
his gin and tonic he laughed and I don't mind it either but I had an empty stomach my god as drunk as a lord and he
23:26
got as drunk as a sir which he was seeing his base and we were wheeling
23:31
around eventually collapsed on his bed and I'm sure if we hadn't drunk him so
23:37
much I mean you know we might have actually made love but we did literally go to bed together and in my book I've
23:45
said that we were suffering from Brewers droop as they called some circles what
23:53
happened did and where he was very clever was that he did deal in old master drawings as well as being a
24:00
brilliant artist himself so he mixed his drawings with those of with those by
24:06
original of original works and I think he probably did show them to blunt and
24:12
blunt quite naturally was a collector and therefore anyway he would have been interested in seeing them and
24:20
I'm sure blunt would comment on them but I don't think there was any collusion there with blunt actually working with
24:27
heaven set and then telling him to go to Sotheby's or Christie's or Cole nagas or
24:33
wherever and sell the drawings it seems as I sold a lot through corner keys
24:40
because Cornell Giza the only people made a public statement saying that I'd sold in 1978 the London dealers Col Nagi
24:48
& Co felt obliged to issue a statement to the press they acknowledged a common hand at work in a number of the drawings
24:54
that they had handled over the previous 10 years the source was Erica born one
24:59
of these was a missing link in the irv of the great Flemish Master Sir Anthony Van Dyck purporting to be a study for
25:05
his painting of Christ crowned with thorns I was looking through a book on
25:11
Van Dyck drawings and I saw a series of drawings preparatory studies for
25:16
painting and I thought you know he's missed a chance there and I CLE would be
25:21
better if that figure was moved over here and a little bit more stress there and on him I'll try that out and so I
25:29
made a drawing in his manner making a variation on the other drawings what was interesting about Eric Evans approach to
25:36
making that drawing was that he found a group of the parrot few studies made by
25:42
Van Dyck for a painting where and I could experimented with different
25:47
positions and this is of a perfect common thing but we are it was unusual but we had though I think about four or
25:53
five drawings for this particular composition and what he very skillfully did was to rearrange the figures taking
26:00
one figure from one drawing and another from another in itself a perfectly reasonable thing for the artist to do I
26:06
mean as he was working through the his ideas to find the ideal solution but
26:12
when you studied them very carefully you see there is something rather suited in way that he extrapolated one figure from
26:20
one drawing and another but but as I say it was it was well I've saved all the
26:25
brilliant people together Cole Maggie's unwittingly sold her bones joined to the British as a VanDyke for an undisclosed sum in
26:32
1970 it is now correctly attributed to Ericka born whoever buys a babe has been
26:42
cheated that is something which causes concern I mean whether it's the public
26:47
institution or private collector they both in Keith here and I think the ones concerned when people are cheated any of
26:54
the drawings that have on claims to have made passed through the hands of leading dealers and the great auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's into the
27:00
possession of private collectors as well as Renaissance masters heaven claims around 80 drawings in the style of
27:07
Augustus John successfully executed stakin Lee attributed and sold in London
27:12
steno Elana Seeley deputy chairman and director of Fine Arts at Christie's was unavailable for comment the Julian stock
27:19
the old master drawings Department of Sotheby's was glad of an opportunity to clarify the conclusion well it's
27:27
possible a thousand drawings but the list that I've been given of what he's admitting
27:33
to only comes to 80 so it seems to me there are another nine hundred or so out
27:39
there one of the drawings that we sold and as long ago as 1967 was this rather
27:48
beautiful drawing of a page which took us in because we cataloged it as
27:54
attributed to Francesco del casas and based on an attribution of another
28:00
drawing in the British Museum which in fact mr. heaven now claims was his
28:06
prototype and we sold it I think it must have been one of the first drawings that
28:12
he actually sent in for sale and it was purchased by Col nagas who then they
28:20
didn't believe our attribution to Francesco del casas they called it just north Italian school 15th century and it
28:28
was purchased by the Morgan live the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York which is one of the most renowned
28:34
libraries in the world I would say he must be one of the very best that
28:39
probably ever lived I think one might go that far although now that one's recognized his work it's very
28:48
easy to see them for me it is anyway it's very easy I'm sure for some people
28:53
they're probably they might still be struggling to actually believe that they can be forged another drawing but we had
29:02
that is apparently claimed by Eric Kevin that he drew was a drawing by Yann
29:07
Bruegel that we sold and this one I must admit is very different from the others
29:14
that we're seeing now the papers foxed which is rather like a sort of fettling
29:19
it's a it's some some of the iron in the paper which has got damp and it's it's
29:26
got it's a disease in the paper and this drawing which is very spontaneous um he
29:31
claims he drew and I'm not actually 100% certain that he did it I wonder really
29:38
whether this is by heaven himself and I'd like him in a way to look at the
29:43
drawing however we sold it and then it went to a dealer in Hamburg and the dealer in Hamburg didn't find a client
29:51
and he gave it to another auction house to sell in Amsterdam and it was sold in Amsterdam and I don't know where it is
29:58
now this this is a Leonardo drawing that was offered to us and I'd looked at it I
30:06
felt that it was a forgery and I'm not certain that it's by Eric heaven but I
30:11
wouldn't be surprised and I would be interested to have mr. heavens comments
30:17
on it because in my opinion and a number of other people it is without doubt a
30:23
forgery why is the facial types is one of the
30:28
main giveaways here although there is pentimenti in the head of of the baptist
30:34
the the faces are too sweet and they don't have the physiognomy that you
30:40
would have in the early 16th century Penta mint is when an artist is rapidly
30:49
working out a position for a figure and he'll move his head like this like that
30:54
like this or like this and each that will all be on one drawing
31:00
now that is Penta meant pent it we call it pentimenti and when we see that that
31:07
gives us lots of confidence that the drawing is an original work of art because normally the copyist doesn't do
31:14
that he just copies one position of the head so heaven knew this probably one
31:21
obviously he he loves of the old masters he must have looked at them very intensely fact that he uses old paper
31:28
and a why didn't he use new paper he didn't use new paper because he would he
31:35
knows that we're not that simple volumes
31:44
containing blank fly leaves are still easily available from antiquarian book shops here I have another book I've
31:51
removed a piece of the Benham and if curiously enough the shape corresponds
31:57
Rolla use me with this drawing if we
32:03
notice blind slopes down at the top and so on this is attributed to personnel
32:10
law strong of an eagle's head the inspiration for that drawing came from a
32:16
photograph in a book called Annie Marley mondo Annie Marley and there's the
32:22
photograph let's have a look at the drawing together with it there we are
32:28
you see it's in exactly the same position and I think there's little
32:33
doubt that in fact that photograph is the inspiration for this drawing this
32:38
drawing was attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist pisanello by the gallery's Salomon a Gastonia grantee at
32:45
their sale in Milan in 85 in the same sale which contained a large group of
32:51
drawings now claimed by heaven was a small study of women attributed to Parma or Giovanni here we have Paul Maynard
33:01
Giovanni Venice 1544 zone and here's my sketch for this or related to it I
33:09
screwed it up I wanted it to away and somehow it survived you sold in this thing and it has here X collection
33:15
old Spencer now how the hell he could have had it before I produced it is
33:21
something I shall never know important drawings often bear one or more collectors marks small stamped monograms
33:29
which indicate their past history with collectors such as Jonathan Richardson and Sir Joshua Reynolds many of the
33:37
drawings that he's now claiming to have done bear fake collectors marks on them
33:42
doing that I would imagine is going beyond just drawing and letting the
33:51
expert make up his mind he's actually making the expert believed that the
33:56
drawing comes from Sir Joshua Reynolds or Sir Peter Lee Lee and therefore it should be an original Reynolds is not
34:03
particularly distinguished collection it contained an awful lot of dross and I
34:10
mean sometimes sheets with the collectors mark on a more interesting for the mark than for the drawing as if
34:17
it was it was quite a shrewd one tools yes why not they're very decorative I
34:22
mean it could be he could be claimed I mean people will claim that it's forgery but that's just their opinion tell me
34:30
about why did you protect his mark well they looked ice one thing I enjoy this
34:35
because they helped convince the experts they were general I don't think so I mean if they were experts I would have
34:41
seen that they were false collectors marks they should have seen in fact they weren't done very well some of them were
34:47
done freehand in watercolor rather than being stamped I mean I did them very in
34:52
a very amateurish way they shouldn't have been fooled at all but you see what is the the whole factoring in in the
34:59
whole affair that seizes people's imaginations the money Eric has never harmed anybody he's crossed a whole lot
35:06
of people a lot of money and I'm very glad
35:13
laughs at the expert and have a certain amount of pleasure in seeing a drawing
35:18
that you did in a museum with the learning catalog entry and you look at
35:25
it and you think well they don't know what they're talking about and I suppose that there's a certain amount of
35:31
pleasure of course in a way I find it amusing myself I became your millionaire
35:37
that you made a million yes I mean that's certainly not a great deal of
35:43
money must have gone through my hands but it goes through everybody's hands nowadays because life is expensive even
35:49
a modest lifestyle like mine cost money and I've had to make a living as an
35:54
artist a painter sculptor and all this sort of thing my own right and some of
36:00
the money I've earned has come through during the fakes as well I don't like the word fake apply to perfectly genuine
36:07
drawings but you know it's a word that people will apply to what I've done I
36:14
think that he is behaved really extremely badly odd people who have
36:21
trusted him and that I find deeply offensive um as far in as sympathy with
36:29
the trade that I have not at all the trade has always been well certainly
36:37
from the great bulk of the last 30 years the trade has been wrong but but no fine
36:42
point on it who ought to know in our business better who all not who had such
36:48
elastic judgment who ought not to have taken risks who knowing once the finger
36:54
had been pointed at Eric as it was very early on that he was a dangerous
37:00
customer to deal with and continue to deal with him for those people we need
37:06
have no sympathy at all my immediate reaction to the idea that Eric made at
37:12
least a thousand drawings would suppose that they were probably rather more than that judging by the rapidity with which
37:17
they are scribbled I believe his do chanise who went out with a lantern in
37:22
the middle of the day was asked what he was doing is ever in search of an honest man and well I
37:30
think you might possibly find an honest man but I don't think you'll find an honest man who's also a dealer new
37:38
dealer is likely to turn down something in which an enormous profit resides on a
37:44
sort of 10% suspicion he would take it on and push it Italian dealers are an
37:51
extremely dodgy lot in general I suppose and I mean Italy has been a source of
37:58
fakes for centuries and that absolutely brilliant and the dealers don't actually
38:04
mind selling them you know if somebody is foolish enough to buy them why not if
38:09
they get something in that looks like Pontormo and they're frightfully keen to set it as Pontormo you know they won't
38:15
go go round and really seriously look into it
38:32
the palazzo stop Seafarer is the kind of place that I try to avoid because it's
38:39
full of all the snobby people and flashy kind of people and I feel also too close
38:45
to the dealers I'd like to see his little liberal in as I possibly can just you have to sell them something
38:51
then I Maus because on the whole I own you know they're not the kind of people
38:57
I like and I believe they don't like me anymore
39:06
addy hmm deals in the north of Italy he asked me if I could find for him a collection of
39:13
old master drawings I said well no I don't deal in drawing anymore he's a world um you know will be very well-paid
39:20
on him and worry about that and I produced for him 30 or so important old
39:28
masters I mean very big names Pontormo and done I'd piss on Ehlo parmigianino
39:38
the sort of thing this dealer took the
39:44
drawings away and put them into sale and gave wrong attribution I mean he must
39:50
have known that the things were fake I mean he commissioned them I mean he'd asked me will you please do this and I
39:55
done it you know and so he knew perfectly well what he was handling and when I saw a sale catalogue with these
40:05
droids reproduced I found that not only had he given the attributions as being
40:11
firm and definite it also made stains on drawing to simulate age which is neat
40:18
because they were on old paper with old materials in any case and he'd also given false provenances I was so
40:26
surprised to find that the prices were so high I mean a hundred and seventy million I think it was for a Pontormo
40:32
that I'd made we're talking about 90,000 pounds or something like that there's quite a lot of money for drawing
40:39
that you've only Spade the artist 750 pounds for if that
40:46
there's quite a markup Eric highborn yes
40:55
it's by Eric highborn Eric he born
41:01
senior Eric airborne ISM is an artist the Salomon a Gastonia our grantee
41:08
catalog then the land sale of November 1985 appeared to confuse the dealer had
41:13
helped to compile it see know the exact
41:20
details of the Milan sale remain shrouded in mystery one magazine reported huge prices while other dealers
41:27
who attended the sale dismissed it as a bad joke little is known of the whereabouts of these drawings that one
41:33
of the Milan highborns the pastoral scene attributed to castee leone was sold for over nine thousand pounds at
41:39
Christie's London in December 1990 it was bought by a leading dealer in New York I have in fact carried out my most
41:50
significant work in the last decade or so but this is merely because I'm
41:57
getting better no one is an artist isn't quite like a footballer who sort of yeah
42:03
gets tired after the age of 25 or whatever it is
42:09
artists can go on forever and ever this beautiful drawing by Goya on the subject saying we still learn of himself as an
42:16
old man with a beard and he's tottering towards the grave but one can still
42:21
learn and master them so even in my fakes I'm getting better
42:27
I don't know when I suppose if you did the perfect fake you you there's no you
42:33
can't get any better I'd like to think I have done one or two perfect one
42:52
the old master toys are usually slight and sketchy all so on and so forth but nevertheless they're very important
42:58
because they are much nearer to the artists original thought noise he's
43:05
dashing down an idea in his first sketch and often this is lost in the final work one is closer to the creative process in
43:14
a drawing and one is in a final piece of sculpture or painting or fresco and this
43:21
this is one of the values of drawing but I believe there's an even deeper value
43:26
to drawing and mankind is in at the point of losing it is becoming a dead
43:33
art and it's the art of line
43:49
I wouldn't say that I've been taken
44:04
seriously by society or by the scholars or by anybody else I'd say I've been totally ignored the only reason people
44:11
are taking notice of me now is because I've made a handful of fakes nobody is truly interested in the art
44:17
side of it what I've really done whether I have a contribution to make or not what they're interested in is the
44:23
scandal of someone having fooled some experts we should enjoy works about what
44:29
they are don't worry too much whether the attributions are correct or otherwise in the long run I think my
44:36
story will be the beneficial effect on the experts and I think they'll take a
44:43
wider view of that matter and not be such fast spots as they are now
by BBC
Mar 14, 2012
A documentary featuring an interview with Eric Hebborn at his home in Italy. Eric Hebborn (1934-1996) was a British painter and art forger and later an author. On January 8, 1996, Eric Hebborn was found lying in a street in Rome, his skull crushed with a blunt instrument. He died three days later in the hospital on January 11, 1996.
Transcript
0:33
the dealer is not interested in art he's interested in
0:38
well basically money but you know worth of artists as good or bad as the price it fetches the art historian is not
0:47
really very interested in art I mean he studies it but he's much more interested in his career whether he's going to go
0:53
up in the nobody's we can come the head of some great museum look this is what he's really interested in and whether he
1:01
can get a knighthood because he knows a lot about Rembrandt you know but no one
1:06
would have ever given Rembrandt a knighthood for being Rembrandt you know serve it's all false values and art is
1:14
neglected nobody is studying it really and truly with the kind of honesty that
1:20
is necessary and although I can't myself claim to be a very honest man in fact
1:25
though many people think I'm an old clock I do feel that in this case at
1:31
least that I am honest I mean I do try to understand something about
1:48
medieval hilltop village of antiquity Corrado to the east of Rome as for centuries been home to painters and
1:54
sculptors 25 years ago English artist Eric had one came to live here how I
2:03
shall freeze after all this son Here I am a gentleman at home a palace and thy
2:14
loving and I love London and I love my English friends but when I'm in the
2:20
Piazza here a local the old boys you know I feel that we may do the same
2:27
stuff and they're not going to say all your your working-class guy I'm not
2:33
going to say to them in all peasant make it on we have our grass of wine together happy about I think I would
2:43
have been happy as artists in the relations and in the 20th century but I
2:49
would have liked to have been employed in a different way rather than sort of having to be on the fringes of society
2:57
were them being a little bit shaking all that heaven has devoted much of his life
3:03
to the study of the Renaissance artists in particular the drawings made by the old masters as preparatory sketches for
3:10
their oil paintings well I think what particularly appeals to people who are interested no mas joins it that they are
3:16
of spontaneous expression of the artists are obviously drawing very great deal in
3:23
whether they were made just sitting down doodling on his paper or of elaborate
3:28
finished drawing of made a say as the cartoon for a painting but you do get a much more personal feel I think from the
3:36
drawing how the artist I mean it is just I'm often Lee starting with Leonardo artists were really kind of thinking on
3:46
paper I've made drawings in the Dutch style in the Flemish style in the German
3:53
style in the Swiss style in the Italian style and I've even deigned to a few
3:59
english drawings and some French toys and I've normally
4:04
chosen important masters not necessarily the greatest because it's very hard to convince people nowadays when you turn
4:11
up with a Rembrandt or Michelangelo or Leonardo they say let's go tell somebody
4:17
else you know but nevertheless I've turned up with people like stefano delle
4:24
bella and caste Leonean 17th century martyrs of some importance including Rubens and then Dyck so I have done some
4:34
very very important artists and I wouldn't call gain for a wine artist
4:39
normal I call constable a minor artist and all these people I have I have done nothing for ebon claims to have made
4:48
over a thousand drawings in the style of scores of different artists from the 14th to the 20th century many of these
4:54
drawings are now in the possession of some of the greatest private and national collections around the world from the British Museum to the
5:00
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
5:09
I'm not a crook I'm just doing what people have always done during the
5:14
history of the world I mean ever since art was invented people have made
5:20
imitations of it shall we say and I believe that the real criminal if there
5:25
is one is the person who makes the false description I mean if I were to tell you
5:31
that these this statue here is by facts
5:36
Italy's for whoever it's been copied from I would be making false description even if I said it was Roman I would be
5:43
making a post description because it's a modern copy but that doesn't mean to say that you can't enjoy it I mean you can
5:50
enjoy the fake isn't necessarily bad as a work of art it is simply something
5:56
that's wrongly described and age sometimes gives dignity to imitations
6:04
providing there of some quality and they should be enjoyed for what they are rather than being questioned for what
6:10
they're not the sale of several drawings in the style of Gustus John to a specialist dealer in
6:16
London help finance have ones permanent moved to Italy in the summer of 1964 for
6:23
the next decade business was brisk on the top floor of an old Palazzo in the heart of Rome's antique district a
6:29
conveniently short walk from the Christie's sale room in Piazza Navona
6:37
for a christie's sale in rome in 1974 everyone supplied twenty-four drawings
6:42
in the style of various old masters these were attributed by Christie's to 16th century artists such as stefano
6:49
delle bella luca cambiaso FR Bartolomeo as a
6:55
self-styled dealer in old master drawings he born was able to offer his own efforts alongside perfectly genuine
7:01
examples he called this bread and butter business panini galleries and quickly re-established links with the London art
7:07
trade very soon after I went to court argues when a drawing was sent from
7:15
Italy from some galleries called - Neely galleries by the Ambrogio either old or
7:22
younger which had been in colleges in the 1930s it could be traced in a stock
7:29
book and I think it may even been exhibited I really can't remember the state and this seemed to us a perfectly
7:37
genuine nice drawing which the further they pleased to purchase back and as a
7:42
result I think I'm going to be asleep fairly shortly after us I thought I might call on Erica Berlin who lived
7:48
that time in room I bought a drawing in a sale not in one of the great sale room
7:56
such as Christie's and Sotheby's and I noticed on the back of it a label the
8:04
label of a dealer called corn Rd and I thought well you know if they had it's
8:09
probably a decent drawing and I took it home and it said that it was by Blue Eagle so I hung it on the wall nice play
8:16
proud I'd bought a boy girl for only 40 pounds I thought how the hell did I get it that cheap if it's a real boy Eagle
8:24
then Wright was there for a few months then I began to look at it Nathan no this is not a
8:30
boggle this is a copy I thought was an engravers coffee because in the old days
8:37
the only ways of only way of reproducing drawings as you know for the engraver to
8:42
make an engraving of it and we produce it so to make his engraving he first made a copy in the medium that the
8:50
artists had used I thought that's what it is is and engravers copy then I wondered to myself well why can't I copy
8:56
that this copy and make it little better then it'll be a little bit more like a viable so I said to work in that way and
9:04
I made a copy a very close copy an almost exact copy but I speeded up the
9:10
lines that if I gave a more vigorous movement and it did look a bit more like
9:16
a boy/girl to me when I'd finished and then I did something I rather regret
9:21
doing now I tore up the thing I copied the thing that been in the corn Rd frame
9:28
I flushed it down the lavatory I rather wish I hadn't because it would be nice now to compare you know perhaps time you
9:36
know perhaps I destroyed an original Weigel I hope not and it seems that the people in the
9:42
Metropolitan Museum think the same thing
9:47
I mean they they seem to be happy with my coffee I have talked very recent in
9:52
the last day or two to the Metropolitan Museum who naturally have subjected it to very close our tests such as tests
9:59
can be made and they say the paper is perfectly genuine the ink looks good for
10:06
drawing of that date and though naturally they're keeping an open mind about it they can see absolutely nothing
10:12
wrong with the dry I don't have to prove what I did it or not if they can't see it what kind of damned experts are they
10:19
I mean they should be able to say this is definitely by Michael but then you ask them they say yes this is definitely
10:25
by broeckel then you say to them is it by jangle the old or the gonca well
10:31
we're quite sure about that professor so-and-so says it's the younger professor so-and-so says it's
10:38
the older but it could be a very late follower that's my claim there are I
10:46
mean I wanted to test you can do for ink but that does P suppose they had to be
10:52
certain substances in the ink which were not known at their particular time but
10:57
for the most part I mean it would not help and anyway in order to do these yes you don't have to ruin the drawing so
11:03
that's up at the end of the day hopefully much better off I've just been in the forest they're freaking calm when
11:10
little water fires collecting oak galls and these I need for making alcohol ink
11:16
which is the kind of ink that parmigianino used in the 16th century
11:22
and this is a common recipe for Oh calling they're about thirty often that
11:30
I have in my collection in terms of recipe going into a drain water gun
11:36
Arabic and a little iron sulphide bian rusts and it eats through the paper many
11:44
old drawings that are consumed in this way in parts of the drawing I imitated that on the Pusa I did it I wouldn't
11:51
have done it on a more important drawing because it lowers the sail ability of the drawing when it's in bad condition I
11:57
mean if I'd meant that boo Center pass as a boo sampler if not I was not have
12:03
aged it in that way because the value would have gone down immensely but in
12:08
this case I thought well you know let's give it a really nice old pattern er make it convincing
12:13
so well that's what I did no ingredient is really secret because really chemical
12:21
analysis can discover it but I don't want to encourage forgery line by giving
12:26
away these tricks of the trade that people might use dishonestly
13:53
early part of my life I think is rather sad my father seems to have been always
13:59
out of work and my mother had many children the poor woman was under great
14:04
stress she seemed to have taken her you know revenge of the world myself and
14:12
she used to treat me well badly at the age of eight I was still trying my hand
14:17
at Roy found that if you light a swan vest a match you have a little piece of
14:25
charcoal at the end that you can draw with and dip it in the school inkwell in those days they had ink wasn't anything
14:31
to have them anymore but anyway I would do that and I would make sketches and the headmaster came around making
14:37
inspection and he saw that in my desk I had this matchstick and a piece of
14:45
sandpaper and he thought that I was playing with fire and he gave me a cleaning for it and I thought well I've
14:51
been punished for the deed no I shouldn't do it and set light to the
14:57
cloakroom and the fire began to spread and I got frightened and I thought I'd
15:02
better tell the headmaster mr. Percy what had happened so I poked my smoky
15:08
face round his door and said to him because I I couldn't I didn't know how
15:15
to put it on him please so I've set light to the school I recited a little poem we'd learn they went fire fire
15:23
mrs. Dyer where where mrs. Claire did
15:28
that map of smoke came into his study and I found myself in the juvenile court
15:33
being charged I was asked what I was guilty or not guilty of arson I didn't
15:39
know either of the words I didn't know the word guilty or arson I didn't know what it means but policemen standing
15:45
next to me said I say guilty son say I'm not safe guilty so that's what I did
15:50
and ended up in borstal that was a nun promising beginning
16:04
Berek he born arrived as a pupil at the Royal Academy about 1950 sound like the
16:10
Academy itself heaven was already steeped in the ways of the old masters very little comment made about one's
16:15
work apart from the odd revelation that
16:21
somebody had won a prize or one happy you see from a lot of prize we didn't
16:26
win any hardly know practically nothing I was a really very good sort of silent
16:34
creature I mean he just kept to himself he didn't mix with other students as far as I remember he was always I never
16:41
remember seeing him in the canteen or anything he was always around there painting these Varanasi green grounds and all
16:48
this time all his old master stuff which he painted very much in the old master
16:54
styluses my man thought he was a joke actually Karen Raye and Nancy Goldsworthy also studied with had one uh
17:02
it was a school that produced a lot of brilliant people of whom Eric was one
17:07
though not appearing too many to be so because he was very quiet but when you
17:12
talked to him you knew he was an interesting person straightaway oh I was madly in love with him yes sure I used
17:19
to say Nance is playing hard to get rid of when he was at the Royal Academy he
17:24
won all the prizes for drawing so we we're dealing with a very gifted
17:30
draftsman while he was still a student at the Royal Academy Eric highborn discovered that he was
17:36
color blind I had this curious thing I believe men
17:42
have it more often than women of being not being able to distinguish between certain grades and certain greens and I
17:49
sometimes paint pictures with fear screens which I just couldn't see and I thought they were delicate pearly grays
17:57
and in fact they were not and I had to look at the tubes of color and read the
18:02
label to make sure that I wasn't falling into this trap there was a time at the
18:08
when the hippies were around people were on LSD and I was given some inner cake I
18:14
didn't know the difference taken ground up and I was suddenly hallucinating and seeing things the most extraordinary way
18:21
and my color blind is seemed to clear up after that one 18th century Italian
18:29
draftsman whose architectural drawings have consistently attracted heaven is Giovanni Battista para Nazy a fine
18:37
example of this masters work a magnificent Roman port was sold to the National Gallery of Denmark for fourteen
18:43
thousand pounds in 1969 by the London dealer hands Kalman who was hence Kalman
18:51
because he's now dead he was an ax dealer in drawings and a very important
18:56
dealer in old masters who perhaps had the best stock in London of old master
19:03
Roy at one point even HAP's even better than Cornell jeez I sold quite a lot of drawings to him I
19:09
mean I imagine it went into the hundreds he you know put my work on the market in
19:19
large numbers and who important people there is a foreign asian in the nursery
19:26
with investigative denmark in a Roman port main minister thought did you do that yes of course I did I have said so
19:33
often enough and so of other people said sir why do you suppose this is not being
19:39
accepted now well I don't know that wishful thinking perhaps on the part of
19:44
the National Gallery of Denmark but in their proof of but I mean it's absolutely
19:50
well I I say but people believe what they want to believe but there's no
19:56
doubt that the drawing passed through my hands I mean I had the drawing that it was I who sold it to hands Kalman and it
20:01
was hands Kalman who sold it to the National Gallery of Denmark and it was not known before everyone's friendship
20:08
with the late Sir Anthony Blunt lent credibility to his activities as a dealer the dealers who work with high
20:15
quality drawings tend to want a scholarly opinion and this is why in the case of Blount he would occasionally
20:22
give his imprimatur on say oh yes I believe that is a genuine Prasad castellone dalla bella or whatever
20:29
artist lund happened to know rather a lot about and of course sometimes mistakes were made but if a mistake was
20:35
made it's basically uncorrectable because without actually someone writing a very serious article in the Leonard
20:42
periodical saying that these attributions are provably wrong the matter just drops
20:47
I knew that Anthony Blunt and this dealer hen's Kalman were antagonists I
20:53
mean they didn't agree with each other hands thought that Denton E was you know not the right Hans who then and Anthony
21:02
thought that hence Calvin wasn't they right so I thought I'd make this drawing to tease them I thought I'd make it near
21:09
enough of taboo sanfur Antony to take it seriously but not close he nothing to accept it and put it there you know
21:14
among the Masters works then I take it to hands and say look Antony blunt says this is a fake what do
21:21
you think but I knew that his reaction would be what to fake if Antony such as
21:27
a failure must be genuine that sort of thing Anthony Blunt was regarded as one of the great experts he was artful in
21:34
charge of the Royal Collection and the Royal Collection has been one of the most magnificent collections of world
21:39
master drawings in the world and who was engaged in cataloguing it and supervising other people's catalogues on
21:46
it his range of expertise knowledge and awareness was immense Christopher white
21:53
at Carnegie's had been one of his pupils just as I had been and I'm sure that
22:00
amongst you out in his pupils there was a level of devotion if not veneration
22:06
which made us all take really seriously anything that he was inclined to suggest
22:13
when I have a friend I treat them slightly differently to I treat the way I treat so I'm not totally objective
22:20
about anything I would hate to ruin his reputation as a scholar when he was alive I didn't want to do it and now
22:26
he's dead I don't want to do it I don't want to put to jeopardize his a well
22:35
I've said did you know his reputation so I still tend always to rather defend him
22:42
I know this is not objective but at least I admit it no we were not
22:50
but we almost were as one evening I came
22:56
back from the Rome scholarship and I hadn't seen him for a number of months and he sent me a telegram sir why you so
23:05
damned standoffish I think the telegram made war why so standoffish telephone and he gave his telephone number and I
23:11
phoned him up and said come round this evening and we'll have a few drinks together I went round he was drinking
23:18
his gin and tonic he laughed and I don't mind it either but I had an empty stomach my god as drunk as a lord and he
23:26
got as drunk as a sir which he was seeing his base and we were wheeling
23:31
around eventually collapsed on his bed and I'm sure if we hadn't drunk him so
23:37
much I mean you know we might have actually made love but we did literally go to bed together and in my book I've
23:45
said that we were suffering from Brewers droop as they called some circles what
23:53
happened did and where he was very clever was that he did deal in old master drawings as well as being a
24:00
brilliant artist himself so he mixed his drawings with those of with those by
24:06
original of original works and I think he probably did show them to blunt and
24:12
blunt quite naturally was a collector and therefore anyway he would have been interested in seeing them and
24:20
I'm sure blunt would comment on them but I don't think there was any collusion there with blunt actually working with
24:27
heaven set and then telling him to go to Sotheby's or Christie's or Cole nagas or
24:33
wherever and sell the drawings it seems as I sold a lot through corner keys
24:40
because Cornell Giza the only people made a public statement saying that I'd sold in 1978 the London dealers Col Nagi
24:48
& Co felt obliged to issue a statement to the press they acknowledged a common hand at work in a number of the drawings
24:54
that they had handled over the previous 10 years the source was Erica born one
24:59
of these was a missing link in the irv of the great Flemish Master Sir Anthony Van Dyck purporting to be a study for
25:05
his painting of Christ crowned with thorns I was looking through a book on
25:11
Van Dyck drawings and I saw a series of drawings preparatory studies for
25:16
painting and I thought you know he's missed a chance there and I CLE would be
25:21
better if that figure was moved over here and a little bit more stress there and on him I'll try that out and so I
25:29
made a drawing in his manner making a variation on the other drawings what was interesting about Eric Evans approach to
25:36
making that drawing was that he found a group of the parrot few studies made by
25:42
Van Dyck for a painting where and I could experimented with different
25:47
positions and this is of a perfect common thing but we are it was unusual but we had though I think about four or
25:53
five drawings for this particular composition and what he very skillfully did was to rearrange the figures taking
26:00
one figure from one drawing and another from another in itself a perfectly reasonable thing for the artist to do I
26:06
mean as he was working through the his ideas to find the ideal solution but
26:12
when you studied them very carefully you see there is something rather suited in way that he extrapolated one figure from
26:20
one drawing and another but but as I say it was it was well I've saved all the
26:25
brilliant people together Cole Maggie's unwittingly sold her bones joined to the British as a VanDyke for an undisclosed sum in
26:32
1970 it is now correctly attributed to Ericka born whoever buys a babe has been
26:42
cheated that is something which causes concern I mean whether it's the public
26:47
institution or private collector they both in Keith here and I think the ones concerned when people are cheated any of
26:54
the drawings that have on claims to have made passed through the hands of leading dealers and the great auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's into the
27:00
possession of private collectors as well as Renaissance masters heaven claims around 80 drawings in the style of
27:07
Augustus John successfully executed stakin Lee attributed and sold in London
27:12
steno Elana Seeley deputy chairman and director of Fine Arts at Christie's was unavailable for comment the Julian stock
27:19
the old master drawings Department of Sotheby's was glad of an opportunity to clarify the conclusion well it's
27:27
possible a thousand drawings but the list that I've been given of what he's admitting
27:33
to only comes to 80 so it seems to me there are another nine hundred or so out
27:39
there one of the drawings that we sold and as long ago as 1967 was this rather
27:48
beautiful drawing of a page which took us in because we cataloged it as
27:54
attributed to Francesco del casas and based on an attribution of another
28:00
drawing in the British Museum which in fact mr. heaven now claims was his
28:06
prototype and we sold it I think it must have been one of the first drawings that
28:12
he actually sent in for sale and it was purchased by Col nagas who then they
28:20
didn't believe our attribution to Francesco del casas they called it just north Italian school 15th century and it
28:28
was purchased by the Morgan live the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York which is one of the most renowned
28:34
libraries in the world I would say he must be one of the very best that
28:39
probably ever lived I think one might go that far although now that one's recognized his work it's very
28:48
easy to see them for me it is anyway it's very easy I'm sure for some people
28:53
they're probably they might still be struggling to actually believe that they can be forged another drawing but we had
29:02
that is apparently claimed by Eric Kevin that he drew was a drawing by Yann
29:07
Bruegel that we sold and this one I must admit is very different from the others
29:14
that we're seeing now the papers foxed which is rather like a sort of fettling
29:19
it's a it's some some of the iron in the paper which has got damp and it's it's
29:26
got it's a disease in the paper and this drawing which is very spontaneous um he
29:31
claims he drew and I'm not actually 100% certain that he did it I wonder really
29:38
whether this is by heaven himself and I'd like him in a way to look at the
29:43
drawing however we sold it and then it went to a dealer in Hamburg and the dealer in Hamburg didn't find a client
29:51
and he gave it to another auction house to sell in Amsterdam and it was sold in Amsterdam and I don't know where it is
29:58
now this this is a Leonardo drawing that was offered to us and I'd looked at it I
30:06
felt that it was a forgery and I'm not certain that it's by Eric heaven but I
30:11
wouldn't be surprised and I would be interested to have mr. heavens comments
30:17
on it because in my opinion and a number of other people it is without doubt a
30:23
forgery why is the facial types is one of the
30:28
main giveaways here although there is pentimenti in the head of of the baptist
30:34
the the faces are too sweet and they don't have the physiognomy that you
30:40
would have in the early 16th century Penta mint is when an artist is rapidly
30:49
working out a position for a figure and he'll move his head like this like that
30:54
like this or like this and each that will all be on one drawing
31:00
now that is Penta meant pent it we call it pentimenti and when we see that that
31:07
gives us lots of confidence that the drawing is an original work of art because normally the copyist doesn't do
31:14
that he just copies one position of the head so heaven knew this probably one
31:21
obviously he he loves of the old masters he must have looked at them very intensely fact that he uses old paper
31:28
and a why didn't he use new paper he didn't use new paper because he would he
31:35
knows that we're not that simple volumes
31:44
containing blank fly leaves are still easily available from antiquarian book shops here I have another book I've
31:51
removed a piece of the Benham and if curiously enough the shape corresponds
31:57
Rolla use me with this drawing if we
32:03
notice blind slopes down at the top and so on this is attributed to personnel
32:10
law strong of an eagle's head the inspiration for that drawing came from a
32:16
photograph in a book called Annie Marley mondo Annie Marley and there's the
32:22
photograph let's have a look at the drawing together with it there we are
32:28
you see it's in exactly the same position and I think there's little
32:33
doubt that in fact that photograph is the inspiration for this drawing this
32:38
drawing was attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist pisanello by the gallery's Salomon a Gastonia grantee at
32:45
their sale in Milan in 85 in the same sale which contained a large group of
32:51
drawings now claimed by heaven was a small study of women attributed to Parma or Giovanni here we have Paul Maynard
33:01
Giovanni Venice 1544 zone and here's my sketch for this or related to it I
33:09
screwed it up I wanted it to away and somehow it survived you sold in this thing and it has here X collection
33:15
old Spencer now how the hell he could have had it before I produced it is
33:21
something I shall never know important drawings often bear one or more collectors marks small stamped monograms
33:29
which indicate their past history with collectors such as Jonathan Richardson and Sir Joshua Reynolds many of the
33:37
drawings that he's now claiming to have done bear fake collectors marks on them
33:42
doing that I would imagine is going beyond just drawing and letting the
33:51
expert make up his mind he's actually making the expert believed that the
33:56
drawing comes from Sir Joshua Reynolds or Sir Peter Lee Lee and therefore it should be an original Reynolds is not
34:03
particularly distinguished collection it contained an awful lot of dross and I
34:10
mean sometimes sheets with the collectors mark on a more interesting for the mark than for the drawing as if
34:17
it was it was quite a shrewd one tools yes why not they're very decorative I
34:22
mean it could be he could be claimed I mean people will claim that it's forgery but that's just their opinion tell me
34:30
about why did you protect his mark well they looked ice one thing I enjoy this
34:35
because they helped convince the experts they were general I don't think so I mean if they were experts I would have
34:41
seen that they were false collectors marks they should have seen in fact they weren't done very well some of them were
34:47
done freehand in watercolor rather than being stamped I mean I did them very in
34:52
a very amateurish way they shouldn't have been fooled at all but you see what is the the whole factoring in in the
34:59
whole affair that seizes people's imaginations the money Eric has never harmed anybody he's crossed a whole lot
35:06
of people a lot of money and I'm very glad
35:13
laughs at the expert and have a certain amount of pleasure in seeing a drawing
35:18
that you did in a museum with the learning catalog entry and you look at
35:25
it and you think well they don't know what they're talking about and I suppose that there's a certain amount of
35:31
pleasure of course in a way I find it amusing myself I became your millionaire
35:37
that you made a million yes I mean that's certainly not a great deal of
35:43
money must have gone through my hands but it goes through everybody's hands nowadays because life is expensive even
35:49
a modest lifestyle like mine cost money and I've had to make a living as an
35:54
artist a painter sculptor and all this sort of thing my own right and some of
36:00
the money I've earned has come through during the fakes as well I don't like the word fake apply to perfectly genuine
36:07
drawings but you know it's a word that people will apply to what I've done I
36:14
think that he is behaved really extremely badly odd people who have
36:21
trusted him and that I find deeply offensive um as far in as sympathy with
36:29
the trade that I have not at all the trade has always been well certainly
36:37
from the great bulk of the last 30 years the trade has been wrong but but no fine
36:42
point on it who ought to know in our business better who all not who had such
36:48
elastic judgment who ought not to have taken risks who knowing once the finger
36:54
had been pointed at Eric as it was very early on that he was a dangerous
37:00
customer to deal with and continue to deal with him for those people we need
37:06
have no sympathy at all my immediate reaction to the idea that Eric made at
37:12
least a thousand drawings would suppose that they were probably rather more than that judging by the rapidity with which
37:17
they are scribbled I believe his do chanise who went out with a lantern in
37:22
the middle of the day was asked what he was doing is ever in search of an honest man and well I
37:30
think you might possibly find an honest man but I don't think you'll find an honest man who's also a dealer new
37:38
dealer is likely to turn down something in which an enormous profit resides on a
37:44
sort of 10% suspicion he would take it on and push it Italian dealers are an
37:51
extremely dodgy lot in general I suppose and I mean Italy has been a source of
37:58
fakes for centuries and that absolutely brilliant and the dealers don't actually
38:04
mind selling them you know if somebody is foolish enough to buy them why not if
38:09
they get something in that looks like Pontormo and they're frightfully keen to set it as Pontormo you know they won't
38:15
go go round and really seriously look into it
38:32
the palazzo stop Seafarer is the kind of place that I try to avoid because it's
38:39
full of all the snobby people and flashy kind of people and I feel also too close
38:45
to the dealers I'd like to see his little liberal in as I possibly can just you have to sell them something
38:51
then I Maus because on the whole I own you know they're not the kind of people
38:57
I like and I believe they don't like me anymore
39:06
addy hmm deals in the north of Italy he asked me if I could find for him a collection of
39:13
old master drawings I said well no I don't deal in drawing anymore he's a world um you know will be very well-paid
39:20
on him and worry about that and I produced for him 30 or so important old
39:28
masters I mean very big names Pontormo and done I'd piss on Ehlo parmigianino
39:38
the sort of thing this dealer took the
39:44
drawings away and put them into sale and gave wrong attribution I mean he must
39:50
have known that the things were fake I mean he commissioned them I mean he'd asked me will you please do this and I
39:55
done it you know and so he knew perfectly well what he was handling and when I saw a sale catalogue with these
40:05
droids reproduced I found that not only had he given the attributions as being
40:11
firm and definite it also made stains on drawing to simulate age which is neat
40:18
because they were on old paper with old materials in any case and he'd also given false provenances I was so
40:26
surprised to find that the prices were so high I mean a hundred and seventy million I think it was for a Pontormo
40:32
that I'd made we're talking about 90,000 pounds or something like that there's quite a lot of money for drawing
40:39
that you've only Spade the artist 750 pounds for if that
40:46
there's quite a markup Eric highborn yes
40:55
it's by Eric highborn Eric he born
41:01
senior Eric airborne ISM is an artist the Salomon a Gastonia our grantee
41:08
catalog then the land sale of November 1985 appeared to confuse the dealer had
41:13
helped to compile it see know the exact
41:20
details of the Milan sale remain shrouded in mystery one magazine reported huge prices while other dealers
41:27
who attended the sale dismissed it as a bad joke little is known of the whereabouts of these drawings that one
41:33
of the Milan highborns the pastoral scene attributed to castee leone was sold for over nine thousand pounds at
41:39
Christie's London in December 1990 it was bought by a leading dealer in New York I have in fact carried out my most
41:50
significant work in the last decade or so but this is merely because I'm
41:57
getting better no one is an artist isn't quite like a footballer who sort of yeah
42:03
gets tired after the age of 25 or whatever it is
42:09
artists can go on forever and ever this beautiful drawing by Goya on the subject saying we still learn of himself as an
42:16
old man with a beard and he's tottering towards the grave but one can still
42:21
learn and master them so even in my fakes I'm getting better
42:27
I don't know when I suppose if you did the perfect fake you you there's no you
42:33
can't get any better I'd like to think I have done one or two perfect one
42:52
the old master toys are usually slight and sketchy all so on and so forth but nevertheless they're very important
42:58
because they are much nearer to the artists original thought noise he's
43:05
dashing down an idea in his first sketch and often this is lost in the final work one is closer to the creative process in
43:14
a drawing and one is in a final piece of sculpture or painting or fresco and this
43:21
this is one of the values of drawing but I believe there's an even deeper value
43:26
to drawing and mankind is in at the point of losing it is becoming a dead
43:33
art and it's the art of line
43:49
I wouldn't say that I've been taken
44:04
seriously by society or by the scholars or by anybody else I'd say I've been totally ignored the only reason people
44:11
are taking notice of me now is because I've made a handful of fakes nobody is truly interested in the art
44:17
side of it what I've really done whether I have a contribution to make or not what they're interested in is the
44:23
scandal of someone having fooled some experts we should enjoy works about what
44:29
they are don't worry too much whether the attributions are correct or otherwise in the long run I think my
44:36
story will be the beneficial effect on the experts and I think they'll take a
44:43
wider view of that matter and not be such fast spots as they are now
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
by admin » Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:12 am
Part 1 of 2
Scams, Schemes & Scoundrels
by A&E
(Highlighting Han Van Meegeren's life and art forgeries, many of which had been confiscated as Nazi loot. Also featuring the stories of Victor Lustig, Soapy Smith, and Media Prankster Joey Scaggs.)
Hosted by skeptic James Randi
1998
Transcript
0:00
the Eiffel Tower up for sale hard to believe but master swindler Victor
0:06
Lustig convinced his mark that it was a medical marvel was dr. Athens box of
0:12
remedy for the sick or only designed to enrich the scoundrel who created it
0:17
these works of art bearing the signature of Dutch master Yule had us Vermeer
0:22
today hanging museums as master works of deception do you believe everything you
0:30
see on the news how about a nationally reported story about a computer that determines the guilt or innocence of
0:36
suspected criminals host James Randi professional skeptic and a bunker of
0:43
frauds takes us through the conception the setup and the payoff of these
0:49
remarkable scams we've all heard that anything too good to be true probably is
0:55
but the charm and ingenuity of a great con artist can make us believe that maybe just this once
1:02
fortune has swung in our favor how does the scam artist do it what principles of
1:07
human nature play into the scoundrels hand and when it's all done are we any wiser or just poorer from seasoned
1:14
swindlers like the globe-trotting Victor Lustig and boomtown hustlers like soapy Smith to the vengeful genius of painter
1:21
Han Van Meegeren and modern day media hoaxster Joey Skaggs the scam and the scoundrel have remained remarkably
1:27
unchanged through the centuries I am James Randi and in this special
1:33
presentation we'll look at the inner workings of some of history's most outrageous scams and the competence men
1:40
behind them now most cons follow a very simple set
1:45
of rules the first rule is that the con artist always wins
1:53
[Music]
2:17
[Applause] few men have earned the title among
2:24
criminals of King Kong Victor listing was one of them an aristocrat of the
2:29
underworld he was known to his peers as count listing the caper that immortalized him as one of the greatest
2:36
confidence artists in history occurred in Paris where he lined up a scheme to
2:42
sell something that weighed 11,000 tons and didn't belong to him it's been said
2:50
that every society gets the crooks it deserves in a world where wealth and prestige are admired the Khan disguises
2:57
himself accordingly often playing the role of an aristocrat or high government official in times of change and social
3:04
upheaval the Khan enjoys a greater freedom to masquerade across the boundaries of class and wealth the
3:11
successful con artist is always a kind of mirror for the time and place in which he operates
3:17
[Music] and there couldn't have been a riper
3:23
time and place for Victor Lustig than Paris 1925 after World War one the youth
3:31
of France was happy to be alive and sought to create a new social order with more freedom and greater opportunity
3:37
expatriates of all kinds descended in droves upon the City of Light a new
3:45
class of entrepreneur emerged made wealthy by the rebuilding of Europe it
3:51
was a city filled with effervescent excess here amidst the creative fervor the nouveau riche mingled with old money
3:59
and exiled from prohibition America and Bolshevik Russia converged in what
4:04
seemed to be one big party Paris was ripe for change and anything
4:10
seemed possible a perfect place for Victor listing to pull off a swindle of a lifetime as a young man Lustig left
4:19
his birthplace in Eastern Europe and by the time he was 20 years old had already proven his talent as a first-rate
4:26
grifter his gift for languages and his easy charm served him well in his partnership with the infamous cardsharp
4:33
Nicky Arnstein together they worked the big ocean liners which sailed between
4:39
Paris and New York ships which were always rife with gullible and wealthy marks when he left Arnstein listing had
4:47
a booty of $35,000 and he headed for Paris
4:56
by now an experienced confidence trickster he will gracefully in society all we stylish always in control and
5:03
more importantly always looking for the next opportunity to work a scam it came
5:09
to him one spring day through an intriguing article in the local newspaper which provided the counts
5:15
cunning mind with enough material for a caper of truly monumental proportions
5:20
according to The Daily Press the Eiffel Tower was in a terrible state of disrepair and estimates on its upkeep
5:27
were astronomically high the price of a new coat of paint alone could reach into the hundreds of thousands of francs
5:33
listings inventive mind went to work which would happen if the city decided
5:39
it could no longer afford the tower would they dare tear down this glorious spire what an enormous and controversial
5:46
job that would be who would do it there would have to be a contract he supposed and where there's a contract there's
5:53
usually a bid listings scheme was taking
5:59
shape always the chameleon listing would transform himself into a high government
6:05
official his disguise would have to be flawless every detail perfect
6:12
he hired a forger to create counterfeit government stationery and sent six of
6:18
Paris leading scrap metal dealers authentic-looking invitations to attend a very secret
6:24
meeting sole secret it couldn't be held at City Hall listing chose a grand
6:32
setting delay is trap the Magnificent Hotel pre-owned on the plastic Accord was an exclusive meeting place for
6:39
diplomats dignitaries and royalty one could hardly under which doors without feeling a certain sense of heightened
6:46
expectation even perhaps a bit of self-importance all six scrap metal
6:51
dealers responded to listings invitation and attended the meeting each one put at ease by the presence of his successful
6:57
colleagues and by the time the count had introduced himself as a deputy director general of the Ministry of posts and
7:04
Telegraph's well they were convinced that they were all going to be part of something very significant and perhaps
7:12
profitable [Music]
7:17
he told the dealers that they had each been hand-picked for their flawless reputation as honorable business men
7:25
then in a hushed voice lifting explained that due to the exorbitant cost of its
7:30
upkeep the city had no choice but to tear down the Eiffel Tower the men were shocked listing pressed on
7:37
because of the certainty of public outcry over this matter the news could not be revealed until all the plans were
7:44
in place he explained that he would have the duty of selecting the man to carry out the demolition the idea that the
7:54
Eiffel Tower was gonna be sold for scrap again wasn't all that goofy it was with
8:00
some serious need of repairs you look at upon it today as this this thing which
8:06
you know Paris wouldn't be Paris without it but back then it wasn't quite as famous no doubt there are many people
8:14
who would have preferred it come down they could not yet see it as a permanent feature of the Parisian landscape
8:20
necessarily it didn't look like any of the most well known monuments of the city like the Opera House or any of the
8:27
Gothic cathedrals and churches it looked more like a machine and as a machine it
8:32
had the look of quickness that's what it felt so again
8:44
from the meeting listing risked all six men into a limousine for a special tour
8:50
of the tower it was a calculated move understanding human nature as he did the
8:55
Stig wanted to dangle the prize before their eyes gentlemen the tower was never
9:02
meant to be permanent as you know it was built for the 1889 exposition with a 20-year concession to mr. Eiffel in 1909
9:10
it was to have been taken down and reassembled somewhere else this of course didn't happen unlike our
9:17
city's other monuments the tower is made of 15,000 prefabricated parts which can
9:24
be assembled and disassembled think of the uses collectible and
9:31
otherwise to which these highly ornamented parts could be put and imagine their value
9:36
[Music] Theoden also gave the count the chance
9:43
to observe the men individually and pick which would be his mark the victim he
9:49
would cut from the herd he had a set of
9:54
rules that in order to sort of get people to trust you one thing is you you
9:59
listen very patiently to people you don't look bored you don't express
10:07
controversial opinions until the mark
10:12
tells you what his opinion is and of course you agree with you know let's you know naturally you do not try to pull
10:21
personal information out of the mark even if you want it and really sincerely
10:29
need it don't try to pull it out because people are gonna tell you just let it
10:34
ride let him talk he's gonna tell you what you want to know you don't brag
10:40
about yourself you brag about yourself people don't trust you you have to exude the authority it has to look right once they were back on the
10:47
ground listing ask the gentleman to submit their bids by the next day and he reminded them that they were in
10:54
possession of a state secret
10:59
the next morning bids from all six dealers arrived but listing had already made his choice the dubious honor would
11:06
go to the socially insecure and very ambitious Andre apostle list to get
11:11
easily picked up on his desire to join the business elite of Paris
11:18
if Lustig was the perfect con artist for the times Hasan was the perfect mark he
11:24
was from the new class of wealthy entrepreneurs who had made a fortune after the war and he had plenty to prove
11:30
the old boy network had shot him out of Parisian high society and pasal wanted
11:36
him what better way than to win the Eiffel towered contract I can imagine
11:43
that a provincial scrap metal dealer would see this as the means to really make his fortune it was really a
11:49
attractive prize for someone like that perhaps the grandeur of the deception
11:55
was the keyword success the tower of course itself was always a grand object
12:02
always subject to very exalted kinds of attentions whether by artists or by
12:08
planners they made people think globally and maybe people think big and certainly may press something big as well five
12:15
lucky scrap metal dealers had narrowly escaped listings traffic with possum in
12:20
his net listing was one step closer to a small fortune but he was also at risk
12:26
impersonating a Deputy Minister larceny listed knew that if he were caught and
12:32
stood in front of a French judge his cheeky scam would be severely punished
12:37
listings fares were justified in fact Paul's wife had become suspicious she
12:43
questioned her husband why was the meeting not held at the ministry did Andre know this official why was the
12:50
city's plan being enacted with such aced now at this point Lucic realized that
12:55
all paths all had to do was make a few discreet inquiries and the game was finished so what did he do quit run oh
13:03
no not as long as there was some chance of saving this game he showed his true
13:08
mettle as a genuine confidence artist he not only had proven he was clever he was now about to show that he had
13:15
nerves of steel well before then he's a risk-taker I mean you know you're out there scamming people and you don't know hey
13:22
well they've got maybe they'll find you up here they put you in jail he didn't go to jail a couple of times maybe they'll shoot you I mean he was a card
13:28
shark for a while you know he times somebody catches you with the wrong cards bang that's it he seemed to
13:34
enjoy that kind of danger that kind of risk [Music]
13:40
listed knew he had to act he set out to meet his mark that evening back at the
13:45
hotel this time in private there he confessed or is so it seemed
13:53
Monsieur Plus aw I'm sorry we have to meet like this but it's important we understand each other I am a government
13:59
official I'm expected to live in a certain style so as to maintain the dignity of friends I must dress well and
14:05
entertain on a lavish scheme I don't have to tell you that I make only a pittance my life is precarious when a
14:12
premier Falls my job is on the line and so it is that in the letting of government contracts I maintain my
14:19
security it is customary for the official in charge to receive
14:25
a commission parcel was relieved finally he understood this officials
14:31
mysterious behaviors listed wanted a bribe quoi saw smugly reached inside his
14:38
jacket and removed his wallet when
14:43
Lustig asked him on top of a blank cheque for also for a bribe for himself
14:48
as a poor government official for a song took this as proof that lipstick was in fact a bonafide government official he
14:54
was used to the idea of bribery as part of the everyday business of government and provided these two checks you know
15:01
he posed as a government official that he posed as a corrupt government official you give me you know you grease
15:08
my palm and I'm gonna give you the inside track on that and all of a sudden here in the mind of this somewhat greedy
15:15
probably not terribly bright but hey you know maybe not so very different from
15:21
the rest of us the scrap dealer came the idea that aha
15:26
now I understand I understand the secrecy I understand you you're a you're
15:32
a crook you're the kind of crook I I'm used to dealing with well he was that he was a crook of course but he was a very
15:38
very different kind of crook you see in
15:44
Poisson listing had discovered the perfect partner the mark who wants to believe the con works one because the
15:54
conman is good but secondly because you know we go we meet in more than halfway
15:59
in a lot of these cases there's more than a little larceny in the heart of
16:04
the of the of the person who is being caught
16:09
listing was endangered fossil would call the Ministry and then very likely the
16:15
police listening hopped a train to Vienna with a suitcase full of fossils money he checked into one of the city's
16:21
best hotels and watched the papers for news of the scam but nothing appeared
16:27
apparently plus all was too embarrassed to tell anyone that he'd been had assault was left calling the city on the
16:35
phone to saying when should I show up to help take down the tower and we can
16:42
imagine that the the ministry was rather amused by the foibles of the unfortunate
16:47
victim six months later
16:53
listing was back in Paris taking advantage of the fact that possum had felt too humiliated to report the scam
16:59
the Stig made his way back to the hotel preowned he reasoned that a possum
17:04
hadn't told the police he certainly would not have told his competitors [Music]
17:14
he worked his racket all over again this time with a different set of scrap dealers and remarkably enough he sold
17:21
that Eiffel Tower a second time the entrepreneurial spirit is crucial to the
17:26
lesson of the tower whether it be Eiffel as the enlightened entrepreneur who through his dynamic
17:32
understanding of the possibilities of Technology build something useful and also profitable so taps into the same
17:41
spirit hoping that he too can be part of this great story and enlisting I don't
17:48
know if we can call him an entrepreneur we certainly can call him someone who understood those desires and capitalized
17:54
on them very very well now would you look at the Eiffel Tower what do you see do you see a magnificent monument to the
18:01
spirit of the city or do you see the opportunity perhaps to make a few fast francs I think listing saw both
18:18
much of Victor listings genius lay in his ability to understand the psychology
18:23
of his mark and anticipate their next move after Paris Lustig returned to the
18:31
US where he pulled off dozens of scams he was finally arrested for counterfeiting and sent to Alcatraz for
18:38
the time of his death in 1947 Lewis takes career had become legendary when the clerk filling out his death
18:44
certificate came to the box marked occupation he paused then wrote salesman
18:50
thus paying a final tribute to the crafty count who sold the Eiffel Tower not once but twice that's right the
19:18
McGregor rejuvenated it reverses the aging process in its time this worthless
19:24
device relieved a lot of people of their money and today can be found here in the
19:30
Museum of questionable medical devices in Minneapolis Minnesota the final resting place we hope of hundreds of
19:37
quack devices that promised miracles but delivered nothing this helmet for
19:43
example promised to cure baldness by means of vacuum let's see
19:53
[Music]
20:01
I guess you have to leave it on a little bit longer but no other apparatus here
20:08
compares with the creations of dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco a brilliant diagnostician whose inventions
20:14
cured tens of thousands of people of deadly diseases or did they in the early
20:21
nineteen hundreds came technical wonders never seen before powered flight
20:27
electricity moving pictures for these inventions science or miracles the line
20:35
between the two had never seen so blurred if the new technologies were
20:40
astonishing and their effects their explanations were even more mysterious to the general public
20:46
Freud's unconscious postures germ theory and Madame Curie's discovery of
20:53
radioactivity all demanded that people believed in the invisible reputations
21:00
were made and industrial empires were built on these new discoveries at a time
21:07
when science was really developing and technology was beginning to explode would have been ready-made for somebody
21:12
to exploit the weak and the vulnerable and if you've got some sort of a device
21:18
that sounds mystical but you have the credentials of a medical doctor and then I put you in a pretty good position to
21:24
control other people from an early age Albert Abrams seemed destined for greatness
21:29
he was born in San Francisco in 1863 and received a medical degree from the
21:34
University of Heidelberg while he was still in his team [Music] he became chief pathologist at the
21:42
Cooper Medical Institute which was to become the Stanford Medical School
21:48
Abraham's was a doctors doctor his diagnostic skills were sought-after by
21:53
other established physicians and he published hundreds of articles in leading medical journals his patients
21:59
came from the elite of San Francisco society Abrams who moved along the Bay Area smart set insisted that his letter
22:07
had lists all his titles and all of his degrees [Music] he was a charismatic person quite a
22:15
handsome well-dressed individual he had a lot of social graces and he managed to
22:21
move in the right society and he seems to have been very convincing he seemed
22:28
to be a consummate manipulator and and that's really the the recipe for success
22:33
as a con artist to kind of know what makes people tick even perhaps better than they know themselves but
22:39
conventional honors however great were not enough for Albert Abraham's in a letter he wrote my goal is to become a
22:46
prophet among men a wise man who will have both wealth and power in 1912 he
22:54
announced that contrary to all that had been taught before electrons not individual cells were the basis of life
23:03
the doctor called his new theory of disease er a electronic reactions of
23:10
errors and unveiled a powerful new machine called the dynamize er it was
23:15
the latest in medical technology with this new invention Abram claimed he
23:20
could diagnose any known disease from a single drop of blood
23:26
now this invention was remarkably similar to another invention a real one called
23:31
wireless or radio and dr. Albert Abrams was able to see but radio was going to
23:37
change the way that people could communicate right across the world and he was among the first to exploit the
23:43
similarity between his so-called invention and real science the current
23:49
mystique surrounding electricity and radio waves provided the perfect environment for Abrams to sell his new
23:55
diagnostic theory to the public
24:09
if a simple box plugged into a wall and captured voice and music from the airwaves
24:14
it seemed that similar electric boxes could do just about anything though
24:30
people might not fully understand how it worked they were ready to accept another exciting example of new technology into
24:37
their homes Abram seems to have had this wonderful innate grasp of the psychology
24:45
of his patients his devices had beautiful cabinets just like the radios
24:52
that people had at home and so they tread this very fine line on the one
24:57
hand they were homey and reassuring enough that people would be willing to
25:02
submit to them they weren't these sort of frightening dr. Frankenstein like devices on the other hand they were
25:09
still high-tech circa 1920 and that already raised people's hopes and made
25:16
them think that there really was something to these wonderful gadgets well he was offering a very comforting
25:23
idea a comforting product there were patients out there who were going to demand it because it seemed
25:29
state-of-the-art it was high tech for its era and and they were going to demand it from their conventional
25:35
practitioners even if those practitioners themselves might have been a bit dubious about it with Abrams solid
25:42
reputation behind it by 1918 the dynamize er was becoming a national
25:47
sensation but Abrams could see that greater opportunities lay ahead while the diagnosis is made only once
25:54
an illness can require many treatments a machine that could cure disease would
26:00
keep patients returning again and again Abrams soon unveiled a second device
26:06
[Music] feel civilized it used the readings from
26:12
the dynamize er to cure the diagnosed illness after the dials were precisely set electrons would be beamed into the
26:19
patient's body and shattered the destructive electronic vibrations of the disease [Music]
26:27
the crux of dr. Abrams technology has really summed up in these two devices the dynamize ER and the asila clast you
26:36
took the sample of blood ran a magnet over to polarize it but the blood sample
26:41
in the dynamize ER but the lid on this would measure the vibration rate of that blood sample and send it to these
26:48
vasilich last dr. Abrams often had his
26:54
chauffeur our valet stand on a metal plate and by tapping this healthy persons abdomen he was able to diagnose
27:02
the patient's illness [Music] these are bearish blood samples sent to
27:09
dr. Abrams in 1920 along with letters from physicians and so forth and healers
27:14
he put those blood samples in his machine was able to diagnose that most
27:20
of them at 4 to 5 ohms of resistance designating that they had syphilis
27:26
cancer and diabetes [Music] hayburn's bolstered that the treatment
27:33
was painless that had eliminated the need for drugs and surgery and that for
27:38
an additional five dollars it could be done over the phone how preposterous you
27:44
say it's important to understand that the medical field at that time was not
27:50
quite what we think of medicine as being today after all during even much of just
27:56
the previous century the man who buried you the man who treated you and the man who cut your hair were probably all the
28:02
same professional medicine was part of the healing arts it had only recently
28:08
started to become something that people would think of as a science with no laws
28:15
regulating the manufacturer of medical devices it was a heyday for quackery of
28:20
every kind phrenology the measuring of bumps on people's heads became a popular
28:26
diagnostic tool and doctors claimed that anything from tuberculosis to the mumps
28:33
could be remedied by a dose of one of the hundreds of patent medicines on the market most of which consisted of a
28:41
mixture of corn syrup and morphine well
28:48
I think it was a famous Canadian physician Sir William Osler who to until about the turn of the century the
28:55
chances that that any average person going to his or her doctor would come away a better rather than worse was only
29:02
about 50/50 by 1920 Abrams electrotherapy felt was booming tens of
29:09
thousands of people sought the painless treatments doctors and alternative healers from around the country flocked
29:15
to his San Francisco clinic where for $200 a piece they too could learn to
29:20
detect the mysterious electronic reactions finally Abrams was receiving
29:26
the acclaim he felt was rightfully his he was also raking in a fortune for two
29:31
hundred and fifty dollars down and five dollars a week a great deal of money for that time his students were allowed to
29:38
lease one of the 4,000 authorized Abrams machines being churned out by a local
29:43
factory there was only one condition the machines could not be opened Abrams
29:48
insisted that this could damage the delicately tuned mechanism the Abrams
29:54
reluctance to let other people look at his little black boxes and so on makes sense from a number of perspectives one
30:01
is maybe there's nothing there and he knows that so why expose it I mean I'm putting on such a good show and
30:06
people are excited about it I'm doing all right as it is so why take a chance and the other possibility is that he may
30:13
actually have sincerely believed that he was on to something and that he wanted to protect it he had proprietary
30:19
interest in it it's almost like a patent in his own mind during his heyday Abrams
30:26
was called upon by laypeople and even the courts for expert testimony in a
30:31
high-profile paternity case he claimed he could identify the father by analyzing the vibrations in his blood
30:38
using his wonderful machines Abrams claimed his machines could do far more
30:44
than merely diagnose illness they could also determine your religion your inclination for romance and whether or
30:51
not you like to bet on the ponies by 1921 over 3,500 medical doctors
30:58
practiced Abrams electrotherapy dozens of clinical reports were published by ER
31:04
a doctors they documented the successful treatment of patients non-surgical non-pharmaceutical cures for uterine
31:11
cancer tuberculosis and syphilis these
31:16
doctors made between 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a week using Abrams leased boxes
31:23
conventional doctors were becoming more and more incensed aside from their unwillingness to believe Abrams
31:29
outrageous claims they had their own reasons for wanting to discredit him thousands of their patients defected to
31:36
medical practitioners using radion ik treatments for the traditional position a new Abrams machine in town and an
31:44
empty waiting room and a vastly reduced income
31:49
then in 1923 came a chilling case report from a leading medical journal a man in
31:55
his 70s was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic as having inoperable cancer of the
32:00
stomach after receiving a series of electrotherapy treatments from an Abrams practitioner he was told by the
32:07
practitioner that his cancer was gone and that he was completely cured a month
32:12
later he was dead Abrams increasingly grandiose claims were about to put him on a collision
32:19
course with the American Medical Association in this world there are many
32:24
different sorts of scoundrels someone who take your money but dr. Abrams was of a higher or perhaps lower order you
32:32
see the states in his scam turned out to be human lives was Abrams a true
32:39
visionary or just a quack preying on the hopes of the desperately ill a nationwide battle raged between AMA
32:46
establishment physicians and Abrams defenders the issue could only be
32:51
resolved by a scientifically respected neutral party so many people had been
33:00
writing to Scientific American saying this wonderful Abrams technique is the
33:05
scientific discovery of the new century surely you'll be learning and writing more about this that it caught the
33:12
editor's attention naturally would be a terrific subject for any kind of scientific investigation there were two
33:19
though these charges by people in the medical community that the whole thing was a fraud that it couldn't possibly
33:25
work the Scientific American put together a team of people to study the Abrams
33:32
technique a senior Abrams practitioner known for purposes of the study as dr. X
33:39
was chosen to conduct the first test six vials containing unknown germ cultures
33:45
were delivered to his laboratory he was to correctly identify the contents of each one the Scientific American
33:52
committee looked on as dr. X carried out the elaborate procedure in accordance
33:57
with Abrams technique a healthy young man wired to the dynamize ER stood on two metal plates facing west under dim
34:05
light when the doctor announced his results they were completely consistent in one respect they were all wrong dr.
34:14
X's results from this trial were spectacularly unsuccessful he managed to get all six vials completely wrong
34:22
naturally he was trying to figure out what had gone wrong so he then asked to
34:27
examine the vials and he said oh well there's the problem he pointed to the fact that the vials had each been
34:33
labeled and that the labels had red on them well red he said was a color that
34:39
was full of all kinds of electrical vibrations that set up bad reactions in
34:44
the dynamize errs Diagnostics so of course it couldn't possibly be accurate so they started over
34:50
they took off all the old labels they put on new plain white labels they gave the specimens back to dr. X and again he
34:58
managed to get every one completely wrong letters poured in vehemently
35:05
protesting the investigation on the one hand you had some people who felt
35:11
vindicated by these results who said they'd always thought it was probably a fraud you had on the other hand the
35:17
people who were strong believers in the Abrams technique and many of them started off by saying why are you
35:24
subjecting this wonderful wonderful procedure to any kind of scientific scrutiny after all aren't there
35:30
thousands of people walking around who've been cured by this already undaunted the Scientific American
35:36
committee continued its investigation Abrams offered to demonstrate his machines for them at his San Francisco
35:43
laboratory but the committee insisted on carrying out the investigation on their own terms but he wouldn't really submit
35:51
he never refused to participate in the studies but he would always beg off
35:58
submitting to some kind of real blind trial of the work as a result the
36:04
technique was never demonstrated by its inventor to any scientifically
36:12
satisfactory degree Abrams struck back at his critics in the pages of ER a
36:19
publications he accused them of scientific ignorance and of merely wanting to protect their own turf if he
36:28
was attacked by the medical profession or the scientific profession I suppose he could easily fall back on the
36:34
argument that he now is the victim and that this big amorphous Association American Medical Association and the
36:40
establishment are really after him and poor little me I'm just the victim and many of his followers would probably
36:47
accept that the struggle between Abrams and the AMA was about to reach a climax
36:52
in 1922 an AMA dr. anonymously sent a
36:57
blood sample to Abrams Clinic for diagnosis and the analysis came back
37:03
this patient had seemed had malaria diabetes and cancer and another disease
37:09
that most of Abrams patients seemed to have syphilis then came the jarring revelation to
37:16
Abrams at least you see it turned out that his patient actually was living a very moral life and was quite healthy
37:23
his patient was a rock rooster other
37:32
Abrams practitioners began getting into legal hot water in another sting operation an ER a doctor confidently
37:39
diagnosed a patient with some very human diseases once again the patient turned
37:44
out to be a member of the poultry family the star witness at the trial from mail
37:50
fraud in Jonesboro Arkansas was to be dr. Abrams himself and then an
37:57
unbelievable turn of events on the eve of the trial Abrams died apparently none
38:03
of his wonderful devices was able to cure him of pneumonia dr. Albert Abrams
38:08
dead at age 62 a healer unable to heal himself I think that between the
38:15
satisfaction that gave him in a humanitarian sense and the very real reward he was getting in terms of the
38:21
money that was rolling in it was an irresistible force for him the man left
38:27
an estate valued between I think two and five million dollars an extraordinary
38:33
sum of money for somebody who was basically just hitching up sick people to radios Abrams had always insisted
38:43
that his machines never be opened now that he was gone the AMA publicly opened
38:48
one a lot of the charlatans had the idea
38:53
that if you sealed the Machine put a clamp on it wires that no one would look
38:59
into it and discover his mysterious secret the secret was that it was a hodgepodge of meaningless dials wires
39:06
and lights that would expose him as a charlatan the Scientific American team
39:12
finally concluded that the Abrams technique was a complete fraud that in
39:19
fact dr. Abrams didn't know enough about electricity to be able to wire up a
39:24
doorbell that the dynamize er was probably nothing much more than just a
39:30
black box full of wires that you couldn't possibly get a real cure out of
39:35
the asila class and their basic position was that the entire field of the abrams technique
39:41
wasn't even fit for scientific study we would have hoped that Abraham's ideas would have died when he died but
39:48
unfortunately it was so successful financially that over 44 other manufacturers made similar devices and
39:55
even today we have people who are making machines patterned after his goofy ideas
40:01
selling him on the market in the 1990s dr. Abrams and his disciples treated
40:09
thousands of patients there are no records of how many people they cured or killed the dynamiters and the asila
40:17
clasts machines that once gave hope to so many and made the doctor himself a millionaire are now displayed as medical
40:24
oddities dr. Abrams obituary in the Journal of
40:30
the American Medical Association granted him the title Dean of all 20th
40:35
century charlatans while he and his machines may not have diagnosed physical illness he seemed exceptionally adept at
40:42
detecting one human infirmity gullibility when the promise being offered his life itself
40:49
people pay dearly the paintings of
40:54
Johannes Vermeer each one of priceless masterpiece and yet Vermeer died in total obscurity in 1675 of his life's
41:02
work fewer than 40 paintings are known to exist until this century he remained
41:08
virtually unknown today he's considered a genius praised by the art establishment as the great master of
41:14
Delft blockbuster exhibitions of his paintings tour the world images from his
41:21
rare originals are reproduced in a wide variety of forms from postcards to wine bottles to t-shirts the people buying
41:28
these souvenirs know they're buying mirror copies but what if they didn't
41:34
during the Second World War a series of never-before-seen Vermeer's was
41:39
discovered and sold for an unprecedented fifty million dollars and if it weren't
41:46
for a bizarre twist of fate no one would ever have known that they were forged it was the biggest scam in art history 1945
41:56
a special unit of Allied soldiers comprised of expert art historians made an extraordinary discovery
42:07
an assault mine in Austria they found a treasure trove of art stolen by the Nazis
42:12
these were Europe's greatest masterpieces pillaged during the war by the invading German army amongst the
42:19
booty was the collection of Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Goering the Dutch of
42:24
heart expert was shocked to notice that one of the paintings was a sign for a mirror he knew the Masters work and he had
42:31
never seen this painting before an investigation was immediately begun to determine the origin of such a rare and
42:38
priceless treasure it was then discovered that unlike the other paintings which had been looted this one
42:43
had been purchased recently from Holland that a Dutch citizen would sell a national treasure to a Nazi was caused
42:51
for outrage and suspicions of collaboration the paper trail led
42:57
through several intermediaries to this apartment in noise Spiegel strata in Amsterdam owned by the painter Han Van
43:04
Meegeren while most people of Europe had suffered a great deal in the devastation of the war von Negron lived very well
43:10
while other starved there was always lots of food and wine on his table he owned this property and fifty others
43:17
including two nightclubs one morning late in May 1945 two uniformed Dutch
43:24
police officers showed up at his door and they treated with some respect because he was a very wealthy man and
43:30
they said you know look we're not interested in how much was paid or
43:36
anything else we just want to know where this canvas came from and to immigrant
43:41
couldn't own so they came back and arrested him with being a collaborator
43:48
which could have meant the death penalty the culprit was in fact guilty but of a
43:54
far more imaginative crime who was Hanban Migra and how did he come to possess an undiscovered bear mirror the
44:03
painter Van Meegeren was born in Holland in 1889 his artistic talent was clear
44:08
from the start and he a badly pursued his dream of painting Dutch masters his own father despised
44:15
his sons artistic inclinations and in violent outbursts frequently destroyed
44:20
his artworks but fund me grant ultimately found a mentor a painter who taught the traditional methods of 17th
44:26
century painting while the art world hailed the new brilliance of Picasso and Matisse Van Meegeren steeped himself in
44:34
the style of another era though his
44:40
technical virtuosity won some praise by age 29 Van Negron's career had peaked
44:45
his work was panned or ignored by Holland's art critics who branded it derivative and out-of-date these merely
44:56
works done in the old style are examples of Van Lear ins failure to meet the expectations of the critics it also
45:03
didn't help his career that he refused to bribe the critics a common practice that bought many of his contemporaries
45:09
glowing reviews he recognized that in
45:15
the art world the nod of a few experts could make the difference between a worthless piece of canvas and a
45:21
million-dollar masterpiece I had been so belittled by the critics that I could no
45:28
longer exhibit my work I was systematically and maliciously damaged by those who don't know the first thing
45:34
about painting that migrants hatred of
45:39
the Dutch art critics gave rise to a scheme for revenge he decided to create a masterpiece that
45:45
they simply could not ignore him now his pension for using outdated painting
45:51
techniques which had diminished him in the eyes of those same critics could be used as ammunition against them that me
45:58
brron may have fancied himself as a master painter but he had all the instincts of a master con man but he did
46:08
have this belief that the press and the critics and the experts and the art eaters we're all venal could be bribed
46:16
and who ignorant didn't know their facts and it was really originally to show up
46:24
this incompetence and venality of the press and the media and the experts that he decided to paint
46:31
a Vermeer which would then be authenticated and he would then say I painted it this proves that you're fools
46:39
and I'm a great artist there was one very established critic who Van Meegeren
46:45
particularly despised and who he thought would make an easy mark dr. Abraham
46:51
bridges had a theory about the early work and training of Vermeer how happy
46:56
and thrilled he would be to stumble upon an earlier mirror which would bolster his theory abram brainiest the highly
47:03
regarded and respected art historian had a theory that well familiar maybe he was
47:10
in in Italy travelled there maybe maybe he has seen works by Caravaggio or other
47:15
baroque painters and maybe he has made also religious paintings and maybe these
47:23
religious paintings look like this a little sober a little Protestant a
47:28
little like this and that and in a way you can say that that affirmation used this theory by brady's as a kind of how
47:37
to make an early for mere painting the paint of fake Vermeer was a formidable
47:43
challenge not only would it have to be stylistically brilliant it would have to look three centuries old but Van
47:50
Meegeren was fuelled by the passion of revenge he found a 17th century campus and with pumice salt and water
47:57
stripped off the original paint he experimented with two chemicals
48:03
phenol and formaldehyde to create a synthetic aging process which would accomplish three centuries of paint
48:10
hardening in three hours he was the first forger who had this
48:16
idea to create a painting with a with a synthetic medium and why would he do
48:24
this because he had experience he had read a lot of book books how they
48:29
discovered forgeries and it it appeared to him that it was absolutely necessary
48:35
to come up with something different obsessed with detail he used the same
48:40
pigments per media even hand grinding ultramarine from lapis lazuli and blue
48:46
from indigo he used a badger hair brush with four barrel saviors and he would
48:54
take his pigment with the medium in it but then mix mix that through with the phenol and formaldehyde and then apply
49:02
it to the cameras he then baked the painting just as you would bake a cake to get the desired crackling in the
49:09
finish he went through one more step he would roll the painting over a drum I
49:16
mean just I'm simplifying it a little bit that would open up also cracks you
49:21
know they were coming from below would open up the new paint layer and then in
49:29
order to make them more visible he would then later wash over the whole surface with a black ink
49:36
[Music] he then had a picture the below
49:42
seventeenth-century canvas paid with 17th century pigments and the media had
49:49
all evaporated and the paint was perfectly hard five
49:56
years after his original research had begun Van Meegeren finished the painting he called it Christ at Emmaus he felt it
50:04
was a great painting something he'd always dreamed of producing but by signing it with Vermeer's monogram he
50:10
handed credit for his masterpiece over to another would it now withstand the
50:15
scrutiny of the hated critics Van Meegeren presented the painting to dr.
50:22
bridges who enthusiastically endorsed the work it was taken to Paris it was
50:28
seen by a number of potential buyers including the representative of Lord
50:34
Devine in Paris who wasn't fooled by it and sent a cable which I've seen saying
50:41
picture rotten fake didn't want him to have anything to do with it about
50:47
davines men were exceptions despite the skepticism of the Parisian critics the
50:53
painting was endorsed by Holland's art establishment it was given the place of honor in the boyens Museum and crowds
50:59
came in unprecedented numbers to see it and to acclaim what Britt iasts had said was the greatest fair mirror of
51:07
immigrant himself used to say that he went along as an ordinary member of the public to see this great Vermeer and the
51:15
hairy raped off says it couldn't get too close to it and he walked up and had
51:22
this moment of enormous pride of seeing his picture in pride faced the Bauman's and leant forward to examine it closely
51:31
and see the crackle crackling was still alright and so on and was moved back by
51:37
an attendant there too close to his cameras engage engaged in his canvas but
51:43
he he was just a member of the public looking at a great new painting
51:48
this film made in 1952 captures radius's excitement
51:55
at this moment the disciples have recognized Christ risen from the dead and seated before one the disciple on
52:03
the Left shows his silent adoration mingled with astonishment in no other
52:09
picture by the great master of Dilip do we find such sentiment such a profound understanding of the Bible story van
52:17
Negron had done it he'd painted as well as a great master he'd fooled the art critics including dr. Brady's Holland's
52:24
leading expert on very mirror instead of coming forward at this moment in exposing them to savor his great revenge
52:30
he found that he'd been caught up in the momentum of his own scam the moment came
52:36
to expose the fake but Van Meegeren stalled for a simple reason money when he sold the emmaus he served
52:44
it for in today's money 2.2 million dollars and suddenly he was
52:51
wealthy Van Meegeren went to Paris and frolicked in the city's famous clubs he
52:58
still intended to reveal his forgery but in the meantime he indulged himself with cabaret dancers wine even morphine he
53:06
was literally intoxicated with his newfound wealth exposing the forgery seemed less and less appealing Van
53:13
Meegeren had spent the money he'd made from the sale and realized that he could only continue to live well by turning
53:19
out more forgeries he could have sold anything after the amount honest it was
53:24
the de Christ at Emmaus it was radius was positive the museum
53:32
the Rembrandt's society the museum directors in Berlin in London everybody
53:38
accepted it immediately as a famille so why not go on it was one big illusion
53:45
Trading and illusions living the highlife in Amsterdam was too seductive
53:50
for Van Meegeren to resist he was transformed into a professional forger
53:55
between 1938 and 1945 he painted and sold six for bogus fare mirrors
54:03
[Music] the chaos of the Second World War
54:09
provided the perfect camouflage provide Migron to put his paintings on the market his people attempted to flee the
54:16
devastation of the war important private art collections were being sold on the black market with no questions asked masterpieces
54:24
were changing hands without the usual documentation and Van Meegeren claimed to have found one of his Vermeer's in a
54:30
farmhouse in Italy there was no way for checking of course it was strange to
54:36
have suddenly five or six for me in a few years time but in those war days it
54:42
was possible all these canvases had to be kept secret they couldn't be
54:48
exhibited the Nazis would get to know about them and they would be looted they
54:55
weren't examined the paintings carefully they were never x-rayed they'll never chemically analyzed the
55:02
canvas was never carefully examined the very vague stories he told by their
55:08
provenance we're completely accepted no one ever asked for additional detail were made
55:15
any attempt to trace where this painting had been for for 300 years the Last
55:20
Supper painting that was sold in 1942 1.6 million guilders and was by then the
55:27
most expensive painting in the world even from burning and who had a huge collection he had to sell 20 paintings
55:35
including Tintoretto and der and 18 other paintings to get this for me a
55:41
painting so you can imagine that when he heard at the end that this painting was
55:47
a forgery it was a drama the last of an migrants forgeries was Christ with the
55:53
adulteress after he sold it it changed hands several times finally catching the eye
55:59
of Nazi chieftain Hermann Goering who paid the equivalent of millions of dollars for it though the fact was not
56:06
known to Van Meegeren this was the painting discovered by the Allied soldiers in the Salt Mine in Austria
56:12
when officials traced the painting back to Van Meegeren he was vague about his involvement with it he was thrown in
56:18
jail and charged with treason well they took him to jail and they grilled him
56:24
they interviewed him very aggressively
56:29
for several days and after three or four days he broke down and said you're fools
56:38
I I didn't sell a great national treasure to the Nazis I painted it
56:44
myself and I also painted the Vermeer in Dobermans Museum the Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum and the piece then assumed
56:53
that he'd invented this fantastic story in order to escape the more serious
56:59
charge of collaboration and said well mr. Van Meegeren if you painted that if
57:06
you painted that this bit is yourself you could certainly make her an exact copy of it and then Megan said I can do
57:15
far better than that I wouldn't make a copy of a painting but I'll paint a new forgery the police were astonished but
57:23
they gave their prisoner a chance to prove his innocence Van Meegeren was locked into his studio
57:29
under armed guard and under those very difficult conditions he began to literally paint for his life for he knew
57:35
that if he failed he faced execution over the next three weeks in the
57:43
presence of police witnesses he created a new forgery which was the young Christ
57:49
teaching in the temple the creation of this painting captured
57:54
worldwide press attention on Van Meegeren emerged as a national folk hero the underdog who had made buffoons out
58:01
of all the experts the new painting
58:07
indeed stood up to scrutiny the charge of collaboration was now changed to one of forgery
58:15
and a poll before the trial Van Meegeren was voted the second most popular man in Holland after the Prime Minister on
58:24
October 29th 1947 that League reigns trial began right here ironically this
58:30
defendant wanted nothing so much as to be found guilty because you see that would prove that he was a genius here we
58:39
have that formation and it was here I am and during his day seen in the courts
58:45
film crews from all over the world his wife was there and it was his Triomphe
58:50
though in poor health at age 58 he was determined to appear debonair he was not
58:57
about to squander this moment in the limelight [Music]
59:06
the people who were giving evidence against him we're the experts and critics who'd been duped by his work few
59:14
wanted to give evidence because doing so was to admit their own incompetence and
59:19
stupidity a commission was set up to examine the paintings in a laboratory
59:26
knew that his paintings and that's very important he knew that his pictures were going to be subjected eventually to
59:33
x-rays it's very interesting he anticipated that and so he used all
59:40
paintings as was done before but in a different way 17th century painters often painted over
59:47
old canvases and this in fact had made Van migrants forgeries seen authentic
59:52
but now he could use this very point to prove that he was the forger he told the
59:58
Commission exactly what images laid beneath the paintings something that only he as the forger could have known
1:00:06
the painting Christ with the adulteress was x-rayed the radiograph of the framed
1:00:12
part showed a battle scene likewise the x-ray of the washing of the
1:00:17
feet revealed a horse and it's rider exactly as Van Meegeren had predicted
1:00:23
for me here and after the trial after they also proved that his paintings were
1:00:29
that there were faults then he said in the future it will not be possible at
1:00:35
all to make any forgeries that passed these tests the Commission unanimously
1:00:42
declared all of Van migrants Vermeer's to be fake after only two days Van
1:00:50
Meegeren was found guilty on the charge of forging signatures he was sentenced to two years imprisonment but migrants
1:00:59
downfall dead in a very real sense - a triumph for his revelations put the entire art establishment on trials the
1:01:07
con artist was convicted of forgery the marks were convicted of arrogance and incompetence because of his failing
1:01:15
health Van Meegeren didn't go to prison shortly after the trial he was admitted
1:01:20
to the valerian clinic he died of a heart attack on December 29th 1947
1:01:28
[Music] run Negron once wrote I want to see my
1:01:35
paintings and great museums if not as a reputable Peter than as a forger his
1:01:41
wish came true today his forgery is not only hang in galleries they're considered the most successful fakes of
1:01:48
the 20th century I personally regard his painting just very very ugly but and it
1:01:56
for me is it's so strange that the the big art historians the big names from
1:02:02
from those days that they regarded these paintings really as for me as or Peter dogs or whatever it's it's incredible
1:02:13
again I say it's easy to be wise after the event but I think there's also
1:02:19
something second or third rate about his forgeries but of course would I have said that in 1936 would I have said it
1:02:26
in 1942 when they were generally thought to be Vermeer's in hindsight you see you
1:02:35
can almost recognize any forgery because the people who did not see right away
1:02:40
that for me her and had done these works they were of the same period 10 20 30 40
1:02:49
50 years later this becomes more and more obvious but whether they would
1:02:58
still be on share the pride of the museum's collection can only be
1:03:03
speculative I didn't think bear Migron was a great painter he was a great
1:03:10
chemist and a great psychologist and a great technician all these qualities
1:03:19
were necessary for him to succeed as a forger if truth is beauty is beauty
1:03:25
necessarily true in one migraineurs case the illusion was more powerful than the
1:03:30
truth his lie earned this odd vengeful scoundrel a place in history not only
1:03:37
because of who he scammed but because his scam was on masterpiece
1:03:42
Scams, Schemes & Scoundrels
by A&E
(Highlighting Han Van Meegeren's life and art forgeries, many of which had been confiscated as Nazi loot. Also featuring the stories of Victor Lustig, Soapy Smith, and Media Prankster Joey Scaggs.)
Hosted by skeptic James Randi
1998
Transcript
0:00
the Eiffel Tower up for sale hard to believe but master swindler Victor
0:06
Lustig convinced his mark that it was a medical marvel was dr. Athens box of
0:12
remedy for the sick or only designed to enrich the scoundrel who created it
0:17
these works of art bearing the signature of Dutch master Yule had us Vermeer
0:22
today hanging museums as master works of deception do you believe everything you
0:30
see on the news how about a nationally reported story about a computer that determines the guilt or innocence of
0:36
suspected criminals host James Randi professional skeptic and a bunker of
0:43
frauds takes us through the conception the setup and the payoff of these
0:49
remarkable scams we've all heard that anything too good to be true probably is
0:55
but the charm and ingenuity of a great con artist can make us believe that maybe just this once
1:02
fortune has swung in our favor how does the scam artist do it what principles of
1:07
human nature play into the scoundrels hand and when it's all done are we any wiser or just poorer from seasoned
1:14
swindlers like the globe-trotting Victor Lustig and boomtown hustlers like soapy Smith to the vengeful genius of painter
1:21
Han Van Meegeren and modern day media hoaxster Joey Skaggs the scam and the scoundrel have remained remarkably
1:27
unchanged through the centuries I am James Randi and in this special
1:33
presentation we'll look at the inner workings of some of history's most outrageous scams and the competence men
1:40
behind them now most cons follow a very simple set
1:45
of rules the first rule is that the con artist always wins
1:53
[Music]
2:17
[Applause] few men have earned the title among
2:24
criminals of King Kong Victor listing was one of them an aristocrat of the
2:29
underworld he was known to his peers as count listing the caper that immortalized him as one of the greatest
2:36
confidence artists in history occurred in Paris where he lined up a scheme to
2:42
sell something that weighed 11,000 tons and didn't belong to him it's been said
2:50
that every society gets the crooks it deserves in a world where wealth and prestige are admired the Khan disguises
2:57
himself accordingly often playing the role of an aristocrat or high government official in times of change and social
3:04
upheaval the Khan enjoys a greater freedom to masquerade across the boundaries of class and wealth the
3:11
successful con artist is always a kind of mirror for the time and place in which he operates
3:17
[Music] and there couldn't have been a riper
3:23
time and place for Victor Lustig than Paris 1925 after World War one the youth
3:31
of France was happy to be alive and sought to create a new social order with more freedom and greater opportunity
3:37
expatriates of all kinds descended in droves upon the City of Light a new
3:45
class of entrepreneur emerged made wealthy by the rebuilding of Europe it
3:51
was a city filled with effervescent excess here amidst the creative fervor the nouveau riche mingled with old money
3:59
and exiled from prohibition America and Bolshevik Russia converged in what
4:04
seemed to be one big party Paris was ripe for change and anything
4:10
seemed possible a perfect place for Victor listing to pull off a swindle of a lifetime as a young man Lustig left
4:19
his birthplace in Eastern Europe and by the time he was 20 years old had already proven his talent as a first-rate
4:26
grifter his gift for languages and his easy charm served him well in his partnership with the infamous cardsharp
4:33
Nicky Arnstein together they worked the big ocean liners which sailed between
4:39
Paris and New York ships which were always rife with gullible and wealthy marks when he left Arnstein listing had
4:47
a booty of $35,000 and he headed for Paris
4:56
by now an experienced confidence trickster he will gracefully in society all we stylish always in control and
5:03
more importantly always looking for the next opportunity to work a scam it came
5:09
to him one spring day through an intriguing article in the local newspaper which provided the counts
5:15
cunning mind with enough material for a caper of truly monumental proportions
5:20
according to The Daily Press the Eiffel Tower was in a terrible state of disrepair and estimates on its upkeep
5:27
were astronomically high the price of a new coat of paint alone could reach into the hundreds of thousands of francs
5:33
listings inventive mind went to work which would happen if the city decided
5:39
it could no longer afford the tower would they dare tear down this glorious spire what an enormous and controversial
5:46
job that would be who would do it there would have to be a contract he supposed and where there's a contract there's
5:53
usually a bid listings scheme was taking
5:59
shape always the chameleon listing would transform himself into a high government
6:05
official his disguise would have to be flawless every detail perfect
6:12
he hired a forger to create counterfeit government stationery and sent six of
6:18
Paris leading scrap metal dealers authentic-looking invitations to attend a very secret
6:24
meeting sole secret it couldn't be held at City Hall listing chose a grand
6:32
setting delay is trap the Magnificent Hotel pre-owned on the plastic Accord was an exclusive meeting place for
6:39
diplomats dignitaries and royalty one could hardly under which doors without feeling a certain sense of heightened
6:46
expectation even perhaps a bit of self-importance all six scrap metal
6:51
dealers responded to listings invitation and attended the meeting each one put at ease by the presence of his successful
6:57
colleagues and by the time the count had introduced himself as a deputy director general of the Ministry of posts and
7:04
Telegraph's well they were convinced that they were all going to be part of something very significant and perhaps
7:12
profitable [Music]
7:17
he told the dealers that they had each been hand-picked for their flawless reputation as honorable business men
7:25
then in a hushed voice lifting explained that due to the exorbitant cost of its
7:30
upkeep the city had no choice but to tear down the Eiffel Tower the men were shocked listing pressed on
7:37
because of the certainty of public outcry over this matter the news could not be revealed until all the plans were
7:44
in place he explained that he would have the duty of selecting the man to carry out the demolition the idea that the
7:54
Eiffel Tower was gonna be sold for scrap again wasn't all that goofy it was with
8:00
some serious need of repairs you look at upon it today as this this thing which
8:06
you know Paris wouldn't be Paris without it but back then it wasn't quite as famous no doubt there are many people
8:14
who would have preferred it come down they could not yet see it as a permanent feature of the Parisian landscape
8:20
necessarily it didn't look like any of the most well known monuments of the city like the Opera House or any of the
8:27
Gothic cathedrals and churches it looked more like a machine and as a machine it
8:32
had the look of quickness that's what it felt so again
8:44
from the meeting listing risked all six men into a limousine for a special tour
8:50
of the tower it was a calculated move understanding human nature as he did the
8:55
Stig wanted to dangle the prize before their eyes gentlemen the tower was never
9:02
meant to be permanent as you know it was built for the 1889 exposition with a 20-year concession to mr. Eiffel in 1909
9:10
it was to have been taken down and reassembled somewhere else this of course didn't happen unlike our
9:17
city's other monuments the tower is made of 15,000 prefabricated parts which can
9:24
be assembled and disassembled think of the uses collectible and
9:31
otherwise to which these highly ornamented parts could be put and imagine their value
9:36
[Music] Theoden also gave the count the chance
9:43
to observe the men individually and pick which would be his mark the victim he
9:49
would cut from the herd he had a set of
9:54
rules that in order to sort of get people to trust you one thing is you you
9:59
listen very patiently to people you don't look bored you don't express
10:07
controversial opinions until the mark
10:12
tells you what his opinion is and of course you agree with you know let's you know naturally you do not try to pull
10:21
personal information out of the mark even if you want it and really sincerely
10:29
need it don't try to pull it out because people are gonna tell you just let it
10:34
ride let him talk he's gonna tell you what you want to know you don't brag
10:40
about yourself you brag about yourself people don't trust you you have to exude the authority it has to look right once they were back on the
10:47
ground listing ask the gentleman to submit their bids by the next day and he reminded them that they were in
10:54
possession of a state secret
10:59
the next morning bids from all six dealers arrived but listing had already made his choice the dubious honor would
11:06
go to the socially insecure and very ambitious Andre apostle list to get
11:11
easily picked up on his desire to join the business elite of Paris
11:18
if Lustig was the perfect con artist for the times Hasan was the perfect mark he
11:24
was from the new class of wealthy entrepreneurs who had made a fortune after the war and he had plenty to prove
11:30
the old boy network had shot him out of Parisian high society and pasal wanted
11:36
him what better way than to win the Eiffel towered contract I can imagine
11:43
that a provincial scrap metal dealer would see this as the means to really make his fortune it was really a
11:49
attractive prize for someone like that perhaps the grandeur of the deception
11:55
was the keyword success the tower of course itself was always a grand object
12:02
always subject to very exalted kinds of attentions whether by artists or by
12:08
planners they made people think globally and maybe people think big and certainly may press something big as well five
12:15
lucky scrap metal dealers had narrowly escaped listings traffic with possum in
12:20
his net listing was one step closer to a small fortune but he was also at risk
12:26
impersonating a Deputy Minister larceny listed knew that if he were caught and
12:32
stood in front of a French judge his cheeky scam would be severely punished
12:37
listings fares were justified in fact Paul's wife had become suspicious she
12:43
questioned her husband why was the meeting not held at the ministry did Andre know this official why was the
12:50
city's plan being enacted with such aced now at this point Lucic realized that
12:55
all paths all had to do was make a few discreet inquiries and the game was finished so what did he do quit run oh
13:03
no not as long as there was some chance of saving this game he showed his true
13:08
mettle as a genuine confidence artist he not only had proven he was clever he was now about to show that he had
13:15
nerves of steel well before then he's a risk-taker I mean you know you're out there scamming people and you don't know hey
13:22
well they've got maybe they'll find you up here they put you in jail he didn't go to jail a couple of times maybe they'll shoot you I mean he was a card
13:28
shark for a while you know he times somebody catches you with the wrong cards bang that's it he seemed to
13:34
enjoy that kind of danger that kind of risk [Music]
13:40
listed knew he had to act he set out to meet his mark that evening back at the
13:45
hotel this time in private there he confessed or is so it seemed
13:53
Monsieur Plus aw I'm sorry we have to meet like this but it's important we understand each other I am a government
13:59
official I'm expected to live in a certain style so as to maintain the dignity of friends I must dress well and
14:05
entertain on a lavish scheme I don't have to tell you that I make only a pittance my life is precarious when a
14:12
premier Falls my job is on the line and so it is that in the letting of government contracts I maintain my
14:19
security it is customary for the official in charge to receive
14:25
a commission parcel was relieved finally he understood this officials
14:31
mysterious behaviors listed wanted a bribe quoi saw smugly reached inside his
14:38
jacket and removed his wallet when
14:43
Lustig asked him on top of a blank cheque for also for a bribe for himself
14:48
as a poor government official for a song took this as proof that lipstick was in fact a bonafide government official he
14:54
was used to the idea of bribery as part of the everyday business of government and provided these two checks you know
15:01
he posed as a government official that he posed as a corrupt government official you give me you know you grease
15:08
my palm and I'm gonna give you the inside track on that and all of a sudden here in the mind of this somewhat greedy
15:15
probably not terribly bright but hey you know maybe not so very different from
15:21
the rest of us the scrap dealer came the idea that aha
15:26
now I understand I understand the secrecy I understand you you're a you're
15:32
a crook you're the kind of crook I I'm used to dealing with well he was that he was a crook of course but he was a very
15:38
very different kind of crook you see in
15:44
Poisson listing had discovered the perfect partner the mark who wants to believe the con works one because the
15:54
conman is good but secondly because you know we go we meet in more than halfway
15:59
in a lot of these cases there's more than a little larceny in the heart of
16:04
the of the of the person who is being caught
16:09
listing was endangered fossil would call the Ministry and then very likely the
16:15
police listening hopped a train to Vienna with a suitcase full of fossils money he checked into one of the city's
16:21
best hotels and watched the papers for news of the scam but nothing appeared
16:27
apparently plus all was too embarrassed to tell anyone that he'd been had assault was left calling the city on the
16:35
phone to saying when should I show up to help take down the tower and we can
16:42
imagine that the the ministry was rather amused by the foibles of the unfortunate
16:47
victim six months later
16:53
listing was back in Paris taking advantage of the fact that possum had felt too humiliated to report the scam
16:59
the Stig made his way back to the hotel preowned he reasoned that a possum
17:04
hadn't told the police he certainly would not have told his competitors [Music]
17:14
he worked his racket all over again this time with a different set of scrap dealers and remarkably enough he sold
17:21
that Eiffel Tower a second time the entrepreneurial spirit is crucial to the
17:26
lesson of the tower whether it be Eiffel as the enlightened entrepreneur who through his dynamic
17:32
understanding of the possibilities of Technology build something useful and also profitable so taps into the same
17:41
spirit hoping that he too can be part of this great story and enlisting I don't
17:48
know if we can call him an entrepreneur we certainly can call him someone who understood those desires and capitalized
17:54
on them very very well now would you look at the Eiffel Tower what do you see do you see a magnificent monument to the
18:01
spirit of the city or do you see the opportunity perhaps to make a few fast francs I think listing saw both
18:18
much of Victor listings genius lay in his ability to understand the psychology
18:23
of his mark and anticipate their next move after Paris Lustig returned to the
18:31
US where he pulled off dozens of scams he was finally arrested for counterfeiting and sent to Alcatraz for
18:38
the time of his death in 1947 Lewis takes career had become legendary when the clerk filling out his death
18:44
certificate came to the box marked occupation he paused then wrote salesman
18:50
thus paying a final tribute to the crafty count who sold the Eiffel Tower not once but twice that's right the
19:18
McGregor rejuvenated it reverses the aging process in its time this worthless
19:24
device relieved a lot of people of their money and today can be found here in the
19:30
Museum of questionable medical devices in Minneapolis Minnesota the final resting place we hope of hundreds of
19:37
quack devices that promised miracles but delivered nothing this helmet for
19:43
example promised to cure baldness by means of vacuum let's see
19:53
[Music]
20:01
I guess you have to leave it on a little bit longer but no other apparatus here
20:08
compares with the creations of dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco a brilliant diagnostician whose inventions
20:14
cured tens of thousands of people of deadly diseases or did they in the early
20:21
nineteen hundreds came technical wonders never seen before powered flight
20:27
electricity moving pictures for these inventions science or miracles the line
20:35
between the two had never seen so blurred if the new technologies were
20:40
astonishing and their effects their explanations were even more mysterious to the general public
20:46
Freud's unconscious postures germ theory and Madame Curie's discovery of
20:53
radioactivity all demanded that people believed in the invisible reputations
21:00
were made and industrial empires were built on these new discoveries at a time
21:07
when science was really developing and technology was beginning to explode would have been ready-made for somebody
21:12
to exploit the weak and the vulnerable and if you've got some sort of a device
21:18
that sounds mystical but you have the credentials of a medical doctor and then I put you in a pretty good position to
21:24
control other people from an early age Albert Abrams seemed destined for greatness
21:29
he was born in San Francisco in 1863 and received a medical degree from the
21:34
University of Heidelberg while he was still in his team [Music] he became chief pathologist at the
21:42
Cooper Medical Institute which was to become the Stanford Medical School
21:48
Abraham's was a doctors doctor his diagnostic skills were sought-after by
21:53
other established physicians and he published hundreds of articles in leading medical journals his patients
21:59
came from the elite of San Francisco society Abrams who moved along the Bay Area smart set insisted that his letter
22:07
had lists all his titles and all of his degrees [Music] he was a charismatic person quite a
22:15
handsome well-dressed individual he had a lot of social graces and he managed to
22:21
move in the right society and he seems to have been very convincing he seemed
22:28
to be a consummate manipulator and and that's really the the recipe for success
22:33
as a con artist to kind of know what makes people tick even perhaps better than they know themselves but
22:39
conventional honors however great were not enough for Albert Abraham's in a letter he wrote my goal is to become a
22:46
prophet among men a wise man who will have both wealth and power in 1912 he
22:54
announced that contrary to all that had been taught before electrons not individual cells were the basis of life
23:03
the doctor called his new theory of disease er a electronic reactions of
23:10
errors and unveiled a powerful new machine called the dynamize er it was
23:15
the latest in medical technology with this new invention Abram claimed he
23:20
could diagnose any known disease from a single drop of blood
23:26
now this invention was remarkably similar to another invention a real one called
23:31
wireless or radio and dr. Albert Abrams was able to see but radio was going to
23:37
change the way that people could communicate right across the world and he was among the first to exploit the
23:43
similarity between his so-called invention and real science the current
23:49
mystique surrounding electricity and radio waves provided the perfect environment for Abrams to sell his new
23:55
diagnostic theory to the public
24:09
if a simple box plugged into a wall and captured voice and music from the airwaves
24:14
it seemed that similar electric boxes could do just about anything though
24:30
people might not fully understand how it worked they were ready to accept another exciting example of new technology into
24:37
their homes Abram seems to have had this wonderful innate grasp of the psychology
24:45
of his patients his devices had beautiful cabinets just like the radios
24:52
that people had at home and so they tread this very fine line on the one
24:57
hand they were homey and reassuring enough that people would be willing to
25:02
submit to them they weren't these sort of frightening dr. Frankenstein like devices on the other hand they were
25:09
still high-tech circa 1920 and that already raised people's hopes and made
25:16
them think that there really was something to these wonderful gadgets well he was offering a very comforting
25:23
idea a comforting product there were patients out there who were going to demand it because it seemed
25:29
state-of-the-art it was high tech for its era and and they were going to demand it from their conventional
25:35
practitioners even if those practitioners themselves might have been a bit dubious about it with Abrams solid
25:42
reputation behind it by 1918 the dynamize er was becoming a national
25:47
sensation but Abrams could see that greater opportunities lay ahead while the diagnosis is made only once
25:54
an illness can require many treatments a machine that could cure disease would
26:00
keep patients returning again and again Abrams soon unveiled a second device
26:06
[Music] feel civilized it used the readings from
26:12
the dynamize er to cure the diagnosed illness after the dials were precisely set electrons would be beamed into the
26:19
patient's body and shattered the destructive electronic vibrations of the disease [Music]
26:27
the crux of dr. Abrams technology has really summed up in these two devices the dynamize ER and the asila clast you
26:36
took the sample of blood ran a magnet over to polarize it but the blood sample
26:41
in the dynamize ER but the lid on this would measure the vibration rate of that blood sample and send it to these
26:48
vasilich last dr. Abrams often had his
26:54
chauffeur our valet stand on a metal plate and by tapping this healthy persons abdomen he was able to diagnose
27:02
the patient's illness [Music] these are bearish blood samples sent to
27:09
dr. Abrams in 1920 along with letters from physicians and so forth and healers
27:14
he put those blood samples in his machine was able to diagnose that most
27:20
of them at 4 to 5 ohms of resistance designating that they had syphilis
27:26
cancer and diabetes [Music] hayburn's bolstered that the treatment
27:33
was painless that had eliminated the need for drugs and surgery and that for
27:38
an additional five dollars it could be done over the phone how preposterous you
27:44
say it's important to understand that the medical field at that time was not
27:50
quite what we think of medicine as being today after all during even much of just
27:56
the previous century the man who buried you the man who treated you and the man who cut your hair were probably all the
28:02
same professional medicine was part of the healing arts it had only recently
28:08
started to become something that people would think of as a science with no laws
28:15
regulating the manufacturer of medical devices it was a heyday for quackery of
28:20
every kind phrenology the measuring of bumps on people's heads became a popular
28:26
diagnostic tool and doctors claimed that anything from tuberculosis to the mumps
28:33
could be remedied by a dose of one of the hundreds of patent medicines on the market most of which consisted of a
28:41
mixture of corn syrup and morphine well
28:48
I think it was a famous Canadian physician Sir William Osler who to until about the turn of the century the
28:55
chances that that any average person going to his or her doctor would come away a better rather than worse was only
29:02
about 50/50 by 1920 Abrams electrotherapy felt was booming tens of
29:09
thousands of people sought the painless treatments doctors and alternative healers from around the country flocked
29:15
to his San Francisco clinic where for $200 a piece they too could learn to
29:20
detect the mysterious electronic reactions finally Abrams was receiving
29:26
the acclaim he felt was rightfully his he was also raking in a fortune for two
29:31
hundred and fifty dollars down and five dollars a week a great deal of money for that time his students were allowed to
29:38
lease one of the 4,000 authorized Abrams machines being churned out by a local
29:43
factory there was only one condition the machines could not be opened Abrams
29:48
insisted that this could damage the delicately tuned mechanism the Abrams
29:54
reluctance to let other people look at his little black boxes and so on makes sense from a number of perspectives one
30:01
is maybe there's nothing there and he knows that so why expose it I mean I'm putting on such a good show and
30:06
people are excited about it I'm doing all right as it is so why take a chance and the other possibility is that he may
30:13
actually have sincerely believed that he was on to something and that he wanted to protect it he had proprietary
30:19
interest in it it's almost like a patent in his own mind during his heyday Abrams
30:26
was called upon by laypeople and even the courts for expert testimony in a
30:31
high-profile paternity case he claimed he could identify the father by analyzing the vibrations in his blood
30:38
using his wonderful machines Abrams claimed his machines could do far more
30:44
than merely diagnose illness they could also determine your religion your inclination for romance and whether or
30:51
not you like to bet on the ponies by 1921 over 3,500 medical doctors
30:58
practiced Abrams electrotherapy dozens of clinical reports were published by ER
31:04
a doctors they documented the successful treatment of patients non-surgical non-pharmaceutical cures for uterine
31:11
cancer tuberculosis and syphilis these
31:16
doctors made between 1,000 to 2,000 dollars a week using Abrams leased boxes
31:23
conventional doctors were becoming more and more incensed aside from their unwillingness to believe Abrams
31:29
outrageous claims they had their own reasons for wanting to discredit him thousands of their patients defected to
31:36
medical practitioners using radion ik treatments for the traditional position a new Abrams machine in town and an
31:44
empty waiting room and a vastly reduced income
31:49
then in 1923 came a chilling case report from a leading medical journal a man in
31:55
his 70s was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic as having inoperable cancer of the
32:00
stomach after receiving a series of electrotherapy treatments from an Abrams practitioner he was told by the
32:07
practitioner that his cancer was gone and that he was completely cured a month
32:12
later he was dead Abrams increasingly grandiose claims were about to put him on a collision
32:19
course with the American Medical Association in this world there are many
32:24
different sorts of scoundrels someone who take your money but dr. Abrams was of a higher or perhaps lower order you
32:32
see the states in his scam turned out to be human lives was Abrams a true
32:39
visionary or just a quack preying on the hopes of the desperately ill a nationwide battle raged between AMA
32:46
establishment physicians and Abrams defenders the issue could only be
32:51
resolved by a scientifically respected neutral party so many people had been
33:00
writing to Scientific American saying this wonderful Abrams technique is the
33:05
scientific discovery of the new century surely you'll be learning and writing more about this that it caught the
33:12
editor's attention naturally would be a terrific subject for any kind of scientific investigation there were two
33:19
though these charges by people in the medical community that the whole thing was a fraud that it couldn't possibly
33:25
work the Scientific American put together a team of people to study the Abrams
33:32
technique a senior Abrams practitioner known for purposes of the study as dr. X
33:39
was chosen to conduct the first test six vials containing unknown germ cultures
33:45
were delivered to his laboratory he was to correctly identify the contents of each one the Scientific American
33:52
committee looked on as dr. X carried out the elaborate procedure in accordance
33:57
with Abrams technique a healthy young man wired to the dynamize ER stood on two metal plates facing west under dim
34:05
light when the doctor announced his results they were completely consistent in one respect they were all wrong dr.
34:14
X's results from this trial were spectacularly unsuccessful he managed to get all six vials completely wrong
34:22
naturally he was trying to figure out what had gone wrong so he then asked to
34:27
examine the vials and he said oh well there's the problem he pointed to the fact that the vials had each been
34:33
labeled and that the labels had red on them well red he said was a color that
34:39
was full of all kinds of electrical vibrations that set up bad reactions in
34:44
the dynamize errs Diagnostics so of course it couldn't possibly be accurate so they started over
34:50
they took off all the old labels they put on new plain white labels they gave the specimens back to dr. X and again he
34:58
managed to get every one completely wrong letters poured in vehemently
35:05
protesting the investigation on the one hand you had some people who felt
35:11
vindicated by these results who said they'd always thought it was probably a fraud you had on the other hand the
35:17
people who were strong believers in the Abrams technique and many of them started off by saying why are you
35:24
subjecting this wonderful wonderful procedure to any kind of scientific scrutiny after all aren't there
35:30
thousands of people walking around who've been cured by this already undaunted the Scientific American
35:36
committee continued its investigation Abrams offered to demonstrate his machines for them at his San Francisco
35:43
laboratory but the committee insisted on carrying out the investigation on their own terms but he wouldn't really submit
35:51
he never refused to participate in the studies but he would always beg off
35:58
submitting to some kind of real blind trial of the work as a result the
36:04
technique was never demonstrated by its inventor to any scientifically
36:12
satisfactory degree Abrams struck back at his critics in the pages of ER a
36:19
publications he accused them of scientific ignorance and of merely wanting to protect their own turf if he
36:28
was attacked by the medical profession or the scientific profession I suppose he could easily fall back on the
36:34
argument that he now is the victim and that this big amorphous Association American Medical Association and the
36:40
establishment are really after him and poor little me I'm just the victim and many of his followers would probably
36:47
accept that the struggle between Abrams and the AMA was about to reach a climax
36:52
in 1922 an AMA dr. anonymously sent a
36:57
blood sample to Abrams Clinic for diagnosis and the analysis came back
37:03
this patient had seemed had malaria diabetes and cancer and another disease
37:09
that most of Abrams patients seemed to have syphilis then came the jarring revelation to
37:16
Abrams at least you see it turned out that his patient actually was living a very moral life and was quite healthy
37:23
his patient was a rock rooster other
37:32
Abrams practitioners began getting into legal hot water in another sting operation an ER a doctor confidently
37:39
diagnosed a patient with some very human diseases once again the patient turned
37:44
out to be a member of the poultry family the star witness at the trial from mail
37:50
fraud in Jonesboro Arkansas was to be dr. Abrams himself and then an
37:57
unbelievable turn of events on the eve of the trial Abrams died apparently none
38:03
of his wonderful devices was able to cure him of pneumonia dr. Albert Abrams
38:08
dead at age 62 a healer unable to heal himself I think that between the
38:15
satisfaction that gave him in a humanitarian sense and the very real reward he was getting in terms of the
38:21
money that was rolling in it was an irresistible force for him the man left
38:27
an estate valued between I think two and five million dollars an extraordinary
38:33
sum of money for somebody who was basically just hitching up sick people to radios Abrams had always insisted
38:43
that his machines never be opened now that he was gone the AMA publicly opened
38:48
one a lot of the charlatans had the idea
38:53
that if you sealed the Machine put a clamp on it wires that no one would look
38:59
into it and discover his mysterious secret the secret was that it was a hodgepodge of meaningless dials wires
39:06
and lights that would expose him as a charlatan the Scientific American team
39:12
finally concluded that the Abrams technique was a complete fraud that in
39:19
fact dr. Abrams didn't know enough about electricity to be able to wire up a
39:24
doorbell that the dynamize er was probably nothing much more than just a
39:30
black box full of wires that you couldn't possibly get a real cure out of
39:35
the asila class and their basic position was that the entire field of the abrams technique
39:41
wasn't even fit for scientific study we would have hoped that Abraham's ideas would have died when he died but
39:48
unfortunately it was so successful financially that over 44 other manufacturers made similar devices and
39:55
even today we have people who are making machines patterned after his goofy ideas
40:01
selling him on the market in the 1990s dr. Abrams and his disciples treated
40:09
thousands of patients there are no records of how many people they cured or killed the dynamiters and the asila
40:17
clasts machines that once gave hope to so many and made the doctor himself a millionaire are now displayed as medical
40:24
oddities dr. Abrams obituary in the Journal of
40:30
the American Medical Association granted him the title Dean of all 20th
40:35
century charlatans while he and his machines may not have diagnosed physical illness he seemed exceptionally adept at
40:42
detecting one human infirmity gullibility when the promise being offered his life itself
40:49
people pay dearly the paintings of
40:54
Johannes Vermeer each one of priceless masterpiece and yet Vermeer died in total obscurity in 1675 of his life's
41:02
work fewer than 40 paintings are known to exist until this century he remained
41:08
virtually unknown today he's considered a genius praised by the art establishment as the great master of
41:14
Delft blockbuster exhibitions of his paintings tour the world images from his
41:21
rare originals are reproduced in a wide variety of forms from postcards to wine bottles to t-shirts the people buying
41:28
these souvenirs know they're buying mirror copies but what if they didn't
41:34
during the Second World War a series of never-before-seen Vermeer's was
41:39
discovered and sold for an unprecedented fifty million dollars and if it weren't
41:46
for a bizarre twist of fate no one would ever have known that they were forged it was the biggest scam in art history 1945
41:56
a special unit of Allied soldiers comprised of expert art historians made an extraordinary discovery
42:07
an assault mine in Austria they found a treasure trove of art stolen by the Nazis
42:12
these were Europe's greatest masterpieces pillaged during the war by the invading German army amongst the
42:19
booty was the collection of Nazi Field Marshal Hermann Goering the Dutch of
42:24
heart expert was shocked to notice that one of the paintings was a sign for a mirror he knew the Masters work and he had
42:31
never seen this painting before an investigation was immediately begun to determine the origin of such a rare and
42:38
priceless treasure it was then discovered that unlike the other paintings which had been looted this one
42:43
had been purchased recently from Holland that a Dutch citizen would sell a national treasure to a Nazi was caused
42:51
for outrage and suspicions of collaboration the paper trail led
42:57
through several intermediaries to this apartment in noise Spiegel strata in Amsterdam owned by the painter Han Van
43:04
Meegeren while most people of Europe had suffered a great deal in the devastation of the war von Negron lived very well
43:10
while other starved there was always lots of food and wine on his table he owned this property and fifty others
43:17
including two nightclubs one morning late in May 1945 two uniformed Dutch
43:24
police officers showed up at his door and they treated with some respect because he was a very wealthy man and
43:30
they said you know look we're not interested in how much was paid or
43:36
anything else we just want to know where this canvas came from and to immigrant
43:41
couldn't own so they came back and arrested him with being a collaborator
43:48
which could have meant the death penalty the culprit was in fact guilty but of a
43:54
far more imaginative crime who was Hanban Migra and how did he come to possess an undiscovered bear mirror the
44:03
painter Van Meegeren was born in Holland in 1889 his artistic talent was clear
44:08
from the start and he a badly pursued his dream of painting Dutch masters his own father despised
44:15
his sons artistic inclinations and in violent outbursts frequently destroyed
44:20
his artworks but fund me grant ultimately found a mentor a painter who taught the traditional methods of 17th
44:26
century painting while the art world hailed the new brilliance of Picasso and Matisse Van Meegeren steeped himself in
44:34
the style of another era though his
44:40
technical virtuosity won some praise by age 29 Van Negron's career had peaked
44:45
his work was panned or ignored by Holland's art critics who branded it derivative and out-of-date these merely
44:56
works done in the old style are examples of Van Lear ins failure to meet the expectations of the critics it also
45:03
didn't help his career that he refused to bribe the critics a common practice that bought many of his contemporaries
45:09
glowing reviews he recognized that in
45:15
the art world the nod of a few experts could make the difference between a worthless piece of canvas and a
45:21
million-dollar masterpiece I had been so belittled by the critics that I could no
45:28
longer exhibit my work I was systematically and maliciously damaged by those who don't know the first thing
45:34
about painting that migrants hatred of
45:39
the Dutch art critics gave rise to a scheme for revenge he decided to create a masterpiece that
45:45
they simply could not ignore him now his pension for using outdated painting
45:51
techniques which had diminished him in the eyes of those same critics could be used as ammunition against them that me
45:58
brron may have fancied himself as a master painter but he had all the instincts of a master con man but he did
46:08
have this belief that the press and the critics and the experts and the art eaters we're all venal could be bribed
46:16
and who ignorant didn't know their facts and it was really originally to show up
46:24
this incompetence and venality of the press and the media and the experts that he decided to paint
46:31
a Vermeer which would then be authenticated and he would then say I painted it this proves that you're fools
46:39
and I'm a great artist there was one very established critic who Van Meegeren
46:45
particularly despised and who he thought would make an easy mark dr. Abraham
46:51
bridges had a theory about the early work and training of Vermeer how happy
46:56
and thrilled he would be to stumble upon an earlier mirror which would bolster his theory abram brainiest the highly
47:03
regarded and respected art historian had a theory that well familiar maybe he was
47:10
in in Italy travelled there maybe maybe he has seen works by Caravaggio or other
47:15
baroque painters and maybe he has made also religious paintings and maybe these
47:23
religious paintings look like this a little sober a little Protestant a
47:28
little like this and that and in a way you can say that that affirmation used this theory by brady's as a kind of how
47:37
to make an early for mere painting the paint of fake Vermeer was a formidable
47:43
challenge not only would it have to be stylistically brilliant it would have to look three centuries old but Van
47:50
Meegeren was fuelled by the passion of revenge he found a 17th century campus and with pumice salt and water
47:57
stripped off the original paint he experimented with two chemicals
48:03
phenol and formaldehyde to create a synthetic aging process which would accomplish three centuries of paint
48:10
hardening in three hours he was the first forger who had this
48:16
idea to create a painting with a with a synthetic medium and why would he do
48:24
this because he had experience he had read a lot of book books how they
48:29
discovered forgeries and it it appeared to him that it was absolutely necessary
48:35
to come up with something different obsessed with detail he used the same
48:40
pigments per media even hand grinding ultramarine from lapis lazuli and blue
48:46
from indigo he used a badger hair brush with four barrel saviors and he would
48:54
take his pigment with the medium in it but then mix mix that through with the phenol and formaldehyde and then apply
49:02
it to the cameras he then baked the painting just as you would bake a cake to get the desired crackling in the
49:09
finish he went through one more step he would roll the painting over a drum I
49:16
mean just I'm simplifying it a little bit that would open up also cracks you
49:21
know they were coming from below would open up the new paint layer and then in
49:29
order to make them more visible he would then later wash over the whole surface with a black ink
49:36
[Music] he then had a picture the below
49:42
seventeenth-century canvas paid with 17th century pigments and the media had
49:49
all evaporated and the paint was perfectly hard five
49:56
years after his original research had begun Van Meegeren finished the painting he called it Christ at Emmaus he felt it
50:04
was a great painting something he'd always dreamed of producing but by signing it with Vermeer's monogram he
50:10
handed credit for his masterpiece over to another would it now withstand the
50:15
scrutiny of the hated critics Van Meegeren presented the painting to dr.
50:22
bridges who enthusiastically endorsed the work it was taken to Paris it was
50:28
seen by a number of potential buyers including the representative of Lord
50:34
Devine in Paris who wasn't fooled by it and sent a cable which I've seen saying
50:41
picture rotten fake didn't want him to have anything to do with it about
50:47
davines men were exceptions despite the skepticism of the Parisian critics the
50:53
painting was endorsed by Holland's art establishment it was given the place of honor in the boyens Museum and crowds
50:59
came in unprecedented numbers to see it and to acclaim what Britt iasts had said was the greatest fair mirror of
51:07
immigrant himself used to say that he went along as an ordinary member of the public to see this great Vermeer and the
51:15
hairy raped off says it couldn't get too close to it and he walked up and had
51:22
this moment of enormous pride of seeing his picture in pride faced the Bauman's and leant forward to examine it closely
51:31
and see the crackle crackling was still alright and so on and was moved back by
51:37
an attendant there too close to his cameras engage engaged in his canvas but
51:43
he he was just a member of the public looking at a great new painting
51:48
this film made in 1952 captures radius's excitement
51:55
at this moment the disciples have recognized Christ risen from the dead and seated before one the disciple on
52:03
the Left shows his silent adoration mingled with astonishment in no other
52:09
picture by the great master of Dilip do we find such sentiment such a profound understanding of the Bible story van
52:17
Negron had done it he'd painted as well as a great master he'd fooled the art critics including dr. Brady's Holland's
52:24
leading expert on very mirror instead of coming forward at this moment in exposing them to savor his great revenge
52:30
he found that he'd been caught up in the momentum of his own scam the moment came
52:36
to expose the fake but Van Meegeren stalled for a simple reason money when he sold the emmaus he served
52:44
it for in today's money 2.2 million dollars and suddenly he was
52:51
wealthy Van Meegeren went to Paris and frolicked in the city's famous clubs he
52:58
still intended to reveal his forgery but in the meantime he indulged himself with cabaret dancers wine even morphine he
53:06
was literally intoxicated with his newfound wealth exposing the forgery seemed less and less appealing Van
53:13
Meegeren had spent the money he'd made from the sale and realized that he could only continue to live well by turning
53:19
out more forgeries he could have sold anything after the amount honest it was
53:24
the de Christ at Emmaus it was radius was positive the museum
53:32
the Rembrandt's society the museum directors in Berlin in London everybody
53:38
accepted it immediately as a famille so why not go on it was one big illusion
53:45
Trading and illusions living the highlife in Amsterdam was too seductive
53:50
for Van Meegeren to resist he was transformed into a professional forger
53:55
between 1938 and 1945 he painted and sold six for bogus fare mirrors
54:03
[Music] the chaos of the Second World War
54:09
provided the perfect camouflage provide Migron to put his paintings on the market his people attempted to flee the
54:16
devastation of the war important private art collections were being sold on the black market with no questions asked masterpieces
54:24
were changing hands without the usual documentation and Van Meegeren claimed to have found one of his Vermeer's in a
54:30
farmhouse in Italy there was no way for checking of course it was strange to
54:36
have suddenly five or six for me in a few years time but in those war days it
54:42
was possible all these canvases had to be kept secret they couldn't be
54:48
exhibited the Nazis would get to know about them and they would be looted they
54:55
weren't examined the paintings carefully they were never x-rayed they'll never chemically analyzed the
55:02
canvas was never carefully examined the very vague stories he told by their
55:08
provenance we're completely accepted no one ever asked for additional detail were made
55:15
any attempt to trace where this painting had been for for 300 years the Last
55:20
Supper painting that was sold in 1942 1.6 million guilders and was by then the
55:27
most expensive painting in the world even from burning and who had a huge collection he had to sell 20 paintings
55:35
including Tintoretto and der and 18 other paintings to get this for me a
55:41
painting so you can imagine that when he heard at the end that this painting was
55:47
a forgery it was a drama the last of an migrants forgeries was Christ with the
55:53
adulteress after he sold it it changed hands several times finally catching the eye
55:59
of Nazi chieftain Hermann Goering who paid the equivalent of millions of dollars for it though the fact was not
56:06
known to Van Meegeren this was the painting discovered by the Allied soldiers in the Salt Mine in Austria
56:12
when officials traced the painting back to Van Meegeren he was vague about his involvement with it he was thrown in
56:18
jail and charged with treason well they took him to jail and they grilled him
56:24
they interviewed him very aggressively
56:29
for several days and after three or four days he broke down and said you're fools
56:38
I I didn't sell a great national treasure to the Nazis I painted it
56:44
myself and I also painted the Vermeer in Dobermans Museum the Vermeer in the Rijksmuseum and the piece then assumed
56:53
that he'd invented this fantastic story in order to escape the more serious
56:59
charge of collaboration and said well mr. Van Meegeren if you painted that if
57:06
you painted that this bit is yourself you could certainly make her an exact copy of it and then Megan said I can do
57:15
far better than that I wouldn't make a copy of a painting but I'll paint a new forgery the police were astonished but
57:23
they gave their prisoner a chance to prove his innocence Van Meegeren was locked into his studio
57:29
under armed guard and under those very difficult conditions he began to literally paint for his life for he knew
57:35
that if he failed he faced execution over the next three weeks in the
57:43
presence of police witnesses he created a new forgery which was the young Christ
57:49
teaching in the temple the creation of this painting captured
57:54
worldwide press attention on Van Meegeren emerged as a national folk hero the underdog who had made buffoons out
58:01
of all the experts the new painting
58:07
indeed stood up to scrutiny the charge of collaboration was now changed to one of forgery
58:15
and a poll before the trial Van Meegeren was voted the second most popular man in Holland after the Prime Minister on
58:24
October 29th 1947 that League reigns trial began right here ironically this
58:30
defendant wanted nothing so much as to be found guilty because you see that would prove that he was a genius here we
58:39
have that formation and it was here I am and during his day seen in the courts
58:45
film crews from all over the world his wife was there and it was his Triomphe
58:50
though in poor health at age 58 he was determined to appear debonair he was not
58:57
about to squander this moment in the limelight [Music]
59:06
the people who were giving evidence against him we're the experts and critics who'd been duped by his work few
59:14
wanted to give evidence because doing so was to admit their own incompetence and
59:19
stupidity a commission was set up to examine the paintings in a laboratory
59:26
knew that his paintings and that's very important he knew that his pictures were going to be subjected eventually to
59:33
x-rays it's very interesting he anticipated that and so he used all
59:40
paintings as was done before but in a different way 17th century painters often painted over
59:47
old canvases and this in fact had made Van migrants forgeries seen authentic
59:52
but now he could use this very point to prove that he was the forger he told the
59:58
Commission exactly what images laid beneath the paintings something that only he as the forger could have known
1:00:06
the painting Christ with the adulteress was x-rayed the radiograph of the framed
1:00:12
part showed a battle scene likewise the x-ray of the washing of the
1:00:17
feet revealed a horse and it's rider exactly as Van Meegeren had predicted
1:00:23
for me here and after the trial after they also proved that his paintings were
1:00:29
that there were faults then he said in the future it will not be possible at
1:00:35
all to make any forgeries that passed these tests the Commission unanimously
1:00:42
declared all of Van migrants Vermeer's to be fake after only two days Van
1:00:50
Meegeren was found guilty on the charge of forging signatures he was sentenced to two years imprisonment but migrants
1:00:59
downfall dead in a very real sense - a triumph for his revelations put the entire art establishment on trials the
1:01:07
con artist was convicted of forgery the marks were convicted of arrogance and incompetence because of his failing
1:01:15
health Van Meegeren didn't go to prison shortly after the trial he was admitted
1:01:20
to the valerian clinic he died of a heart attack on December 29th 1947
1:01:28
[Music] run Negron once wrote I want to see my
1:01:35
paintings and great museums if not as a reputable Peter than as a forger his
1:01:41
wish came true today his forgery is not only hang in galleries they're considered the most successful fakes of
1:01:48
the 20th century I personally regard his painting just very very ugly but and it
1:01:56
for me is it's so strange that the the big art historians the big names from
1:02:02
from those days that they regarded these paintings really as for me as or Peter dogs or whatever it's it's incredible
1:02:13
again I say it's easy to be wise after the event but I think there's also
1:02:19
something second or third rate about his forgeries but of course would I have said that in 1936 would I have said it
1:02:26
in 1942 when they were generally thought to be Vermeer's in hindsight you see you
1:02:35
can almost recognize any forgery because the people who did not see right away
1:02:40
that for me her and had done these works they were of the same period 10 20 30 40
1:02:49
50 years later this becomes more and more obvious but whether they would
1:02:58
still be on share the pride of the museum's collection can only be
1:03:03
speculative I didn't think bear Migron was a great painter he was a great
1:03:10
chemist and a great psychologist and a great technician all these qualities
1:03:19
were necessary for him to succeed as a forger if truth is beauty is beauty
1:03:25
necessarily true in one migraineurs case the illusion was more powerful than the
1:03:30
truth his lie earned this odd vengeful scoundrel a place in history not only
1:03:37
because of who he scammed but because his scam was on masterpiece
1:03:42
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Re: Freda Bedi Cont'd (#3)
by admin » Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:13 am
Part 2 of 2
[Music]
1:03:49
step right up friends and neighbors and tell me you sir what is the first thing in your mind when you look in the mirror
1:03:55
in the morning and what's the last thing when you lay down to sleep at night I know the question on your mind is how am
1:04:01
I fixed for soap well for a mere five dollars you can not only try a soap of unusual strength and purity you can also
1:04:07
have a dance with Lady Luck and find yourself not only a cleaner but a welcoming that was the pitch you could
1:04:14
hear most days down at 17th and Larimer streets in Denver Colorado 1886 the trim
1:04:20
looking man with the basket of soap was Jefferson Randolph also known as soapy
1:04:26
Smith soapy Smith who was the ultimate con artist of that era that was called
1:04:33
soapy Smith for that reason he used to rap bars of soap with with $50 bills with $10 bills $20 bills $5 bills leave
1:04:40
a corner sticking out and they're selling for $5 each by the time the purchased bar got to the anxious
1:04:46
customer however the bills had inexplicably disappeared Jefferson
1:04:54
Randolph Smith was the oldest son of a genteel southern family who left their home in Georgia to take up residence in
1:05:00
Texas there as a teenager he worked on the cattle drives along the old Chisholm
1:05:05
Trail between Abilene and San Antone driving Texas Longhorns along hot dust
1:05:12
choke trails or plunging along with the herd into the raging waters the Cimarron
1:05:17
River but just part of the job $30 a month was all a cowboy could
1:05:22
expect and returned for long and often dangerous hours in the saddle one morning Jefferson Randolph headed
1:05:28
into San Antonio to cede the circuit you had no idea he was about to lose his
1:05:34
shirt and start a new way of life was a very rational man he had many attributes
1:05:41
he was the individual who could walk into a room and kind of light up the room in several different ways by the
1:05:46
way and he quickly learned when he was caught on a shell game which is they're
1:05:52
moving the pn of the three walnut shells that he lost all of his earnings over for several months in a few minutes
1:05:59
club football was one of the great shell game masters of all time that hadn't
1:06:04
taken him long to police jeff smith of every penny but smith wasn't angry with
1:06:09
the fast-talking hall he was envious he decided right then to earn his living
1:06:14
in a more rewarding way he quit his job the next day and determined to learn the
1:06:20
shell game joined the circus heading north after honing his skills in the small
1:06:26
frontier towns of Kansas and Colorado Smith arrived in Denver in 1884
1:06:32
it was the Bunko capital of the West at the height of his Denver days soapy ran
1:06:37
a saloon and the gambling hall he organized a gang of fellow cons and his accomplices were spread among dozens of
1:06:44
legitimate and not so legitimate businesses bartenders hotel owners even Madam's
1:06:51
provided him with the information he needed to work his cause [Music]
1:06:56
and they had barbers on the list as well and barbers tended to elicit information from individuals they would quite often
1:07:02
clip a little V in the back of their haircut which meant that this one was a mark indeed and soapy Smith was quick to
1:07:08
take advantage of that by 1893 soapy was looking for new opportunities and headed
1:07:13
to nearby Creede Colorado Reid was a boomtown that grew up around the holy
1:07:18
Moses silver mine with no existing government had no police force to contend with soapy Smith soon became de
1:07:26
facto ruler of the town in the saloons card sharps mined for silver in the
1:07:31
pockets of unwitting patrons while on the streets impromptu games of three-card Monte and the shell game
1:07:38
lightened their wallets soapy made money from it all his smooth talk and ability
1:07:43
to organize the other con men took him from being a mere street hustler to controlling an outlaw Empire his
1:07:51
confidence men were extremely well paid I think he enjoyed the role he was a study in contrasts very genteel in many
1:08:00
respects aristocratic looking spoke softly was very very eloquent in front
1:08:06
of a crowd and managed to manage to convince people of course this is the
1:08:12
one of the one of the signs of a very fine confidence man in 1897 the SS
1:08:18
Excelsior sailed into San Francisco with over 1 million dollars in gold bullion
1:08:23
on board Gold had been discovered in the Klondike the fever struck and the rush was on
1:08:30
with visions of immeasurable wealth filling their heads masses of people abandoned their firms and families to
1:08:36
seek their fortunes towns sprang up overnight along with prospectors who
1:08:42
expected to get rich from gold came con men who expected to get rich from prospectors back in Denver soapy quickly
1:08:50
understood the role that geography was going to play he realized that the town of Skagway in Alaska was the only
1:08:56
gateway to the Yukon Gold Fields and that all the fortune hunters would have to pass through it seeing a
1:09:02
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity soapy and his gang packed up their Merc Kurds and crooked dice and headed for Alaska and
1:09:11
of course a boomtown is established because of the wealth of either led zinc or silver or gold or whatever the metal
1:09:16
is and they rose overnight there weren't many laws in a lot of these towns certainly Colorado is an example
1:09:22
Skagway was a classic example so they gravitated there and who was to follow them on the Bunco men and then the con
1:09:28
artists and they were there in in all sorts of numbers as well as the gamblers volunteers are perfect setups the reason
1:09:36
they're ideal for these individuals that the rules haven't been established yet everything goes the laws is if it's
1:09:42
there it's sort of weak and amorphous and pretty ineffectual so these individuals can get into areas where
1:09:50
there is a breakdown and structure or where social structure has not yet developed and they can function with
1:09:55
impunity so Pete took Skagway by storm his operations were well organized and
1:10:01
his scams had a certain Flair Sofie opened a telegraph office a binary riving in town could send a telegram to
1:10:08
his loved ones back home assuring them of his safe arrival often a reply would come back the very same day each
1:10:15
telegram costs $10 thousands of messages were sent before anyone seemed to notice
1:10:21
there were no telegraph wires in his kagwe he set up an information booth for
1:10:28
miners on their way to the gold fields unlike most this information booth specialized in extracting information
1:10:34
rather than giving it the hopeful miner was questioned as to whether he had enough money to
1:10:40
make the trip to Dawson anyone with a large Grove steak became the target for Soapy's schemes the average prospector
1:10:48
is an optimist he's waiting for a strike just around the next bend in the creek or in a creek that no one else has found
1:10:54
or perhaps a digging they've missed it appeals to that type of individual this is a type of an individual who takes the
1:11:00
chance so they'll take a chance on the diggings they'll probably take a chance on other things as well and indeed they
1:11:05
did so there they're set mentally to become a mark for the con men so P was
1:11:11
the virtual dictator of Skagway while his hired thugs beat robbed and sometimes murdered the miners his
1:11:18
accomplices in every gambling establishment every bordello and every bar in town fleeced them without mercy
1:11:25
fixed card games and fake gold claims stock swindles and gold brick scams no
1:11:35
one really touched soapy Smith and he had of course all sorts of reasons why he succeeded he befriended the the
1:11:41
reporters politicians of all stripes write to the federal level the police of course he had a network of Confederates
1:11:49
and confidence men who felt that he was the ultimate confidence man and they would do very well under him what
1:11:56
couldn't be taken by force was extracted by deception miners out for a good time were more than ready to pay for female
1:12:03
company which the dance halls were more than willing to supply dancehall girls like Klondike Kate and snake hips Lulu
1:12:10
made small fortunes with a clever mixture of bawdy charms and sleight of hand
1:12:16
they danced with a man for a daughter usually the house would get twenty-five cents if they would get 75 cents and
1:12:21
that's where the term chip or chippy game of action because sometimes there was more involved in that but generally
1:12:28
they work for a percentage and they also worked for a percentage of the drinks so some of them did extremely well some of
1:12:35
them had at the end of their careers certainly in Dawson City and in places like Skagway more rangel they would have
1:12:41
solid gold belts with 22-hour gold pieces and each one of the each one of the loops of the belt
1:12:47
[Music]
1:12:54
Sophie did have a big heart beside which he flaunted in grand gestures I could benevolent dictator he wanted to
1:13:01
be admired he supported the local churches and started an adoption program for the abandoned dogs of Skagway he
1:13:08
himself took in six lucky stray mutts on the 4th of July in 1898 Grand Marshal
1:13:15
soapy Smith met a spectacular parade through the streets of Skagway it was
1:13:20
its greatest moment but even as soapy enjoyed the acclaim of the holiday crowd
1:13:26
other events would soon dispelled his illusions of grandeur the soapy had been able to limit his protection to
1:13:32
competence men and hungry dogs he might have continued without opposition but a much rougher breed was
1:13:38
being drawn to Skagway men who didn't hesitate at outright murder and they too
1:13:43
operated with Sophie's approval the law-abiding citizens of the town started to feel that soapy despite his personal
1:13:50
charm was too much of a liability JD Stuart a miner on his way back to Vancouver Island was robbed in broad
1:13:57
daylight by a group of Soapy's thugs it was the last straw for the respectable
1:14:02
element of the town a group of armed miners headed down to City Hall to deal with this latest outrage Sophie headed
1:14:09
there too but this time neither his gift of oratory or his gang could save
1:14:15
nor could the loaded shotgun he was carrying he was confronted by city engineer Frank Reid they fired at the
1:14:22
same time soapy died instantly with a bullet through his heart it had only
1:14:31
been four days since his triumphant ride as grand marshal of the Independence Day
1:14:37
Parade he had no compunction no sympathy
1:14:42
for stripping a man of everything he had and sometimes he'd give him a square meal that's about all
1:14:47
not passage out of town because passage out of town was on the sternwheeler and or another ship and that would cost too
1:14:54
much and so he wasn't about to do that so he did have a weakness he liked to be
1:14:59
admired and that's probably why I ended up virtually a destitute manner of his death soapy had gambled are given away
1:15:07
the hundreds of thousands of dollars that passed through his outlaw empire he wanted the admiration of society yet he
1:15:14
could not live within its rules he chose the path of marked cards crooked games
1:15:21
and easy money a gambler to the very end those who young had a favorite memory of
1:15:26
Smith sitting in the front pew on a Sunday singing his favorite hymn free
1:15:32
from the law Oh blessed condition today
1:15:37
we live in a world filled with many kinds of media where the truth may be manipulated in very sophisticated ways
1:15:44
we expect sitcoms and adventure stories to be the product of someone's imagination but the news
1:15:53
feeling tired maybe just a little bit stressed well a visiting New York therapist says he has a roaring good way
1:16:01
to chase away those blues and he's trying it out in East London vince rogers explains exactly just rule this
1:16:12
reporter thinks he's getting a scoop on a new-age social therapy developed in california he's really getting scammed
1:16:19
the man behind this caper is New York media hoaxster Joey Skaggs over the past
1:16:27
25 years Joey Skaggs has created dozens of fabricated news stories all disseminated through the mainstream
1:16:33
media [Music] he's created hoaxes such as impoverished
1:16:39
artists living in water towers in Manhattan and curing baldness by
1:16:45
transplanting scalps from cadavers he even managed to hoax the gameshow to tell the truth and
1:16:52
invented a story that received international attention the fat squad and the fat squad consists of a contract
1:17:00
that you would take out on yourself to rub out your own fat a three-day minimum $300 a day plus expenses and every eight
1:17:07
hours a new commander was with you to make sure that you don't break your diet and we will physically restrain you with
1:17:13
force if necessary our commandos take no bribes
1:17:21
whoa no no not here yeah look at his strawberries come on let's do this thing
1:17:28
Martha Wilcox is taking a tough new stand on dieting no longer alone in a
1:17:33
world of temptations she'll have help staying on her latest she's hired the
1:17:40
fat squad I sent this out to the news
1:17:46
media it was picked up by the Philadelphia Inquirer in The Washington Post they totally believed it made the
1:17:53
wire services I then went on national television and everyone around the world
1:17:59
Japanese television and the German television Italian television the French television CNN they all fell apart I use
1:18:08
the media as a painter would use a canvas I'm a social political media satirist and what I mean by that is I
1:18:14
create plausible but non-existent realities that are staged for the media but media even when that only meant
1:18:21
newspapers has always had the means to manipulate the truth journalists and editors in the Old West well understood
1:18:28
the public's appetite for sensational stories phony articles were dreamed up and published not just for fun but for
1:18:35
profit the further away from its place of origin the more likely it was for a tall tale to be printed as fact every
1:18:44
paper in in Alaska or in California or along the frontier every one of them was
1:18:50
was the kind of tabloid that would that would look silly perhaps at your
1:18:57
checkout counter day but this was these were these were the regular newspapers of the time and the hoax story wasn't
1:19:02
just another literary genre early radio soon demonstrated even greater powers of
1:19:09
persuasion it was the night of Halloween 1938 Orson Welles and a group of actors
1:19:16
performed an adaptation of HG Welles War of the Worlds ladies and gentlemen I
1:19:23
have a grave announcement to make incredible as it may seem so strange beings who landed in the jersey
1:19:28
farmlands tonight the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars
1:19:33
all over America listeners to the Lindo a panic believing the drama was real people flocked into churches to pray
1:19:40
emergency rooms were filled with people in shock when the public realized the
1:19:46
broadcasts had been staged the players were taken into protective custody for fear they'd be attacked by mobs of angry
1:19:53
listeners it was a most famous unintentional media hoax in history I'm
1:20:00
surprised that the HG Wells classic which is the original for many fantasies
1:20:08
about invasions by mythical monsters from the planet Mars should have had
1:20:17
such an immediate and profound effect upon radio listeners with the arrival of
1:20:23
television came the opportunity for more elaborate hoaxes the last two weeks of
1:20:29
March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer there's always the chance of a late frost which while not
1:20:36
entirely ruining the crop generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices
1:20:42
in world markets but now these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest goes
1:20:47
forward spaghetti cultivation here in Switzerland is not of course carried out
1:20:53
on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry beginning in the 1950s the BBC elevated the art of the
1:21:01
intentional media hoax to a new level there April Fool's Day broadcast of
1:21:06
preposterous fake news stories has become an institution the secret is to
1:21:14
get something which is just about believable you know stretches the imagination a little bit but not too far
1:21:20
but in my experience I've found that in fact the public had taken in by the most ridiculous lies and often don't believe
1:21:28
those things which are actually true we didn't immediately recognize the significance of what we saw first when
1:21:34
we entered hopped in park but these pictures taken in very difficult conditions at 200 yards distance
1:21:41
disclosed a reality won't than anything our wildest suspicions had suggested not just the recombination of
1:21:48
genes to make new species but the recreation of species that died out millions of years ago there was
1:21:55
something basically very wrong with their library there were reports of books tumbling from the shelves
1:22:02
difficulties in opening and closing the windows even trouble getting through some of the doors the problems of living
1:22:09
with a new library built up so much in the first few months the grim and District Council decided to hold an
1:22:15
investigation imagine the shock and embarrassment then for the townsfolk of Grimm and when they discovered that
1:22:21
their library which looks like this should in fact have looked like this
1:22:28
their library had quite simply been built upside down the television and the
1:22:35
media environment in general is reality making but the media and media images
1:22:41
because they are so riveting and persuasive and fast-paced and frequent
1:22:47
serve to establish a basis upon which we define our reality our very selves our
1:22:55
relationship to others and because of that media have great authority in our
1:23:02
lives Joey Skaggs is convinced that the
1:23:07
media's authority and power are not always deserved and he's made a career out of proving how easy it is to fool
1:23:13
them I give them what they want what they're looking for the hook and my work
1:23:19
is done in the number of stages the first stage is the hook that's where I come up with a concept and then I figure
1:23:24
out how to execute that concept how it's going to work what I me and I staged the event
1:23:34
this is poplars very own pride of lions indulging in their rather peculiar form
1:23:39
of group therapy and of course they have their own Lion King by the name of Baba
1:23:45
while Simba he's flown over from New York to lead to the roaring sessions and then I document where it goes and who
1:23:53
does what with it I record the process of how the media interprets what I'm
1:23:58
doing for their own purposes what they do with it and thirdly I then reveal the
1:24:04
truth and that gets very interesting and then I document what the media does with the truth do they address it
1:24:10
do they ignore it do they trivialize me do they treat me like I'm the bad guy or
1:24:16
am I the person with the message you're
1:24:21
a reporter engaged in your professional practice you got all these stories going
1:24:28
on simultaneously you're looking for leads you got this call you got these apparently valid and real press releases
1:24:39
about a news story you follow them up you spend a lot of time doing that whomp you're off back to the studio I got to
1:24:45
get the Edit it's got to be on the six o'clock and the 11 o'clock and it goes on and on and there's no time for
1:24:52
engagement and reflection while Joey was developing his talent as a painter he
1:24:58
was also finding his role as social commentator and provocateur during the
1:25:03
heady days of the 60s counterculture I constructed a life-size Vietnamese
1:25:09
village portraying a Vietnamese nativity I erected in Central Park on Christmas and I had a group of actors dressed as
1:25:15
American soldiers attack it with fake guns to protest the war in Vietnam and
1:25:21
there were numerous arrests in that day as well and the New York Times covered the story and said something along the
1:25:28
line that we were arrested for littering Scaggs was struck by the media's ability to reinterpret events for the public and
1:25:35
decided to try to manipulate this power and roman catholics attending the 1992
1:25:42
democratic convention in new york who didn't have time to confess at this unusual option porta fess a portable
1:25:50
confessional pulled by a bicycle it was the brainchild of the Reverend Anthony Joseph aka Joey scams the hardest thing
1:26:02
about that was designing the confessional booth I had to have a tricycle custom-made and I'll get the priests outfit then to pedal up there
1:26:08
and be exposed to about 15,000 journalists covering you know the Democratic convention there was awesome
1:26:15
they were all over me journalists were all over me I had actors posing as people coming in to confess and then real people wanted to
1:26:22
confess and I had a hard time keeping them out I said I was waiting for Ted Kennedy you're a drunk come back again and I found myself front-page news the
1:26:29
Philadelphia Enquirer CBS Fox CNN everybody jumped on the bandwagon and
1:26:35
finally when they called up California where I said I was from as this priest Father Anthony Joseph the archdiocese
1:26:42
said what are you kidding we don't know this guy I think there's a professional pride they don't like to feel that somebody
1:26:48
can pull the wool over their eyes I think they're angry because they can
1:26:53
see the more serious side of it that if somebody can hoax them on something that's fairly trivial Jim perhaps somebody can hook someone something much
1:26:59
more sinister more important how do you fool those whose very business it is to
1:27:06
tell the truth CNN UPI ABC CBS with a
1:27:11
fax machine in some cooperative friends Joey has scammed them all his skill like
1:27:16
that of so many great confidence tricksters is understanding the preoccupations of his own society he
1:27:22
knows exactly what his marks want to hear it's so predictable you can you can
1:27:28
make a calendar of events you know what the media is going to be recording
1:27:33
during the course of a year you know they're gonna have the homeless on Thanksgiving you know they're gonna you
1:27:39
know be there the anniversary of trinova Liz you know there's always a disaster
1:27:44
or an event you can predict what stories are going to cover so you know what
1:27:49
they're looking for and it's really easy to tune in that way you can do an ironic reversal or a
1:27:55
juxtaposition or even a statement along those lines and you're pretty much guaranteed that that's going to push the
1:28:02
button that they want to hear and that's one way of getting access to them we the
1:28:09
jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder and
1:28:15
violence the OJ Simpson murder trial it was the biggest media circus of 1995 and
1:28:22
it became the basis for an elaborate and thought-provoking media hoax Skaggs called it the Solomon project posing as
1:28:32
a New York University professor named dr. Joseph von Musel Skaggs sent a letter to over 3,000 judges legislators
1:28:40
law enforcement officers legal publishers and law schools now the
1:28:47
Solomon project I said was seven years and in developing we had over 150
1:28:53
scientists artificial intelligence scientists and computer experts lawyers and judges who were working on this
1:28:59
project and students we were inputting all the laws of the land both criminal
1:29:05
and civil into a series of supercomputers and that these computers would be able to replace juries I sent
1:29:13
out a second press release saying that we were preparing a 15 city tour we were soliciting cases that were controversial
1:29:20
we're gonna retry them with a computer and we were even going to retry OJ man
1:29:27
beautifully smartly he throws in oh gee that CNN became oj TV it became the
1:29:35
fetish of of America for a while sadly so and so he's got he's got all
1:29:42
the preconditions to carry out a hoax which is not merely a hoax which is a
1:29:47
critique and ultimately an indictment I said on a third press release saying that we did retry OJ and we found him
1:29:55
guilty now that's what everyone was waiting to hear Oh J guilty of course he's guilty but now we know you know
1:30:01
look the computer said he is guilty so I really hit a lot of nerves with that
1:30:06
one Skaggs had 24 hours to prepare for a CNN news crew intent on interviewing dr.
1:30:12
Joseph bono so of course they also wanted to shoot a demonstration of the Solomon supercomputer at work
1:30:24
we got about 25 people there and we designed bogus screens OJ guilty all
1:30:32
this stuff that was only literally a screen deep there was nothing beyond it and we did voice-stress analysis we
1:30:39
could analyze your voice you were telling the truth you're not telling the truth you are somewhat telling the truth
1:30:45
you was somewhat telling a lie and all this was rigged just totally totally bogus
1:30:51
when CNN came in they saw these cameras they saw these journalists they see all these screens all those computers
1:30:56
there's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment there well it has to be real and it's NYU Law School of
1:31:02
course it's real the danger was that the crew might ask to see something that wasn't technically possible on the
1:31:09
computer or that the reporter would make inquiries at NYU Law School about their innovative professors neither one
1:31:16
happened the piece complete with newsdesk intro reporter standups oj file footage
1:31:23
and joeys interview was broadcast across the country on December 29 1995 it
1:31:30
didn't catch it that evening though you're unlikely ever to see it
1:31:35
related to do the last stage of what I
1:31:41
did which is to tell the truth ultimately is the hardest thing because nobody wants to hear it and when you try
1:31:47
to gain access to the news media and say listen we're preparing a piece and showing how this was a hoax and what
1:31:54
it's all about we'd like to get permission to run this footage they say no they don't want the
1:32:01
public to question their credibility as investigative news source anymore than they've already been questioned I've
1:32:08
been on some shows like a half a dozen times I fooled CNN I think five or six times porta fast walk right fat squad
1:32:15
bad guys it's always amazing to me when sometimes the same crew shows up you
1:32:22
know as a cameraman or a sound person from from a previous hoax will show up say you know this place looks familiar was a guy heroes making fish condos oh
1:32:28
really and that's this has happened I've been on live at five about a half a dozen times so it's it's kind of
1:32:36
frightening when you think about you know how they don't remember anything they don't can't remember the story is
1:32:43
more important than the truth sometimes I don't measure my success by how many
1:32:50
people I've fooled how many newspapers or radio stations or magazines I fool but how many people I'm
1:32:56
able to reach with the messages that we are all being fooled when will schedule
1:33:03
reporters that he's perpetrated his last post I swore that this would this would
1:33:09
be the last one he's this the last would you hope to sure I'm not gonna do this anymore I
1:33:16
decided that I've had it with hoaxes too many people have seen my face it's gonna get really difficult to do this so I'm
1:33:23
gonna quit Joey Skaggs doesn't break the law and he
1:33:29
doesn't profit from his schemes but to those he's duped he's a scoundrel as
1:33:35
someone who makes expert use of the con artist bag of tricks Skaggs may make us laugh but he also
1:33:41
wants us to look more carefully at the truth that we're being sold for the
1:33:50
foibles of human nature and the well-tested rules of deception meat is where the con artist plies his trade but
1:33:57
without fooling believers in the promise of instant riches a miracle cure or an undiscovered masterpiece the scam is
1:34:04
just another game of solitaire
1:34:12
[Music]
[Music]
1:03:49
step right up friends and neighbors and tell me you sir what is the first thing in your mind when you look in the mirror
1:03:55
in the morning and what's the last thing when you lay down to sleep at night I know the question on your mind is how am
1:04:01
I fixed for soap well for a mere five dollars you can not only try a soap of unusual strength and purity you can also
1:04:07
have a dance with Lady Luck and find yourself not only a cleaner but a welcoming that was the pitch you could
1:04:14
hear most days down at 17th and Larimer streets in Denver Colorado 1886 the trim
1:04:20
looking man with the basket of soap was Jefferson Randolph also known as soapy
1:04:26
Smith soapy Smith who was the ultimate con artist of that era that was called
1:04:33
soapy Smith for that reason he used to rap bars of soap with with $50 bills with $10 bills $20 bills $5 bills leave
1:04:40
a corner sticking out and they're selling for $5 each by the time the purchased bar got to the anxious
1:04:46
customer however the bills had inexplicably disappeared Jefferson
1:04:54
Randolph Smith was the oldest son of a genteel southern family who left their home in Georgia to take up residence in
1:05:00
Texas there as a teenager he worked on the cattle drives along the old Chisholm
1:05:05
Trail between Abilene and San Antone driving Texas Longhorns along hot dust
1:05:12
choke trails or plunging along with the herd into the raging waters the Cimarron
1:05:17
River but just part of the job $30 a month was all a cowboy could
1:05:22
expect and returned for long and often dangerous hours in the saddle one morning Jefferson Randolph headed
1:05:28
into San Antonio to cede the circuit you had no idea he was about to lose his
1:05:34
shirt and start a new way of life was a very rational man he had many attributes
1:05:41
he was the individual who could walk into a room and kind of light up the room in several different ways by the
1:05:46
way and he quickly learned when he was caught on a shell game which is they're
1:05:52
moving the pn of the three walnut shells that he lost all of his earnings over for several months in a few minutes
1:05:59
club football was one of the great shell game masters of all time that hadn't
1:06:04
taken him long to police jeff smith of every penny but smith wasn't angry with
1:06:09
the fast-talking hall he was envious he decided right then to earn his living
1:06:14
in a more rewarding way he quit his job the next day and determined to learn the
1:06:20
shell game joined the circus heading north after honing his skills in the small
1:06:26
frontier towns of Kansas and Colorado Smith arrived in Denver in 1884
1:06:32
it was the Bunko capital of the West at the height of his Denver days soapy ran
1:06:37
a saloon and the gambling hall he organized a gang of fellow cons and his accomplices were spread among dozens of
1:06:44
legitimate and not so legitimate businesses bartenders hotel owners even Madam's
1:06:51
provided him with the information he needed to work his cause [Music]
1:06:56
and they had barbers on the list as well and barbers tended to elicit information from individuals they would quite often
1:07:02
clip a little V in the back of their haircut which meant that this one was a mark indeed and soapy Smith was quick to
1:07:08
take advantage of that by 1893 soapy was looking for new opportunities and headed
1:07:13
to nearby Creede Colorado Reid was a boomtown that grew up around the holy
1:07:18
Moses silver mine with no existing government had no police force to contend with soapy Smith soon became de
1:07:26
facto ruler of the town in the saloons card sharps mined for silver in the
1:07:31
pockets of unwitting patrons while on the streets impromptu games of three-card Monte and the shell game
1:07:38
lightened their wallets soapy made money from it all his smooth talk and ability
1:07:43
to organize the other con men took him from being a mere street hustler to controlling an outlaw Empire his
1:07:51
confidence men were extremely well paid I think he enjoyed the role he was a study in contrasts very genteel in many
1:08:00
respects aristocratic looking spoke softly was very very eloquent in front
1:08:06
of a crowd and managed to manage to convince people of course this is the
1:08:12
one of the one of the signs of a very fine confidence man in 1897 the SS
1:08:18
Excelsior sailed into San Francisco with over 1 million dollars in gold bullion
1:08:23
on board Gold had been discovered in the Klondike the fever struck and the rush was on
1:08:30
with visions of immeasurable wealth filling their heads masses of people abandoned their firms and families to
1:08:36
seek their fortunes towns sprang up overnight along with prospectors who
1:08:42
expected to get rich from gold came con men who expected to get rich from prospectors back in Denver soapy quickly
1:08:50
understood the role that geography was going to play he realized that the town of Skagway in Alaska was the only
1:08:56
gateway to the Yukon Gold Fields and that all the fortune hunters would have to pass through it seeing a
1:09:02
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity soapy and his gang packed up their Merc Kurds and crooked dice and headed for Alaska and
1:09:11
of course a boomtown is established because of the wealth of either led zinc or silver or gold or whatever the metal
1:09:16
is and they rose overnight there weren't many laws in a lot of these towns certainly Colorado is an example
1:09:22
Skagway was a classic example so they gravitated there and who was to follow them on the Bunco men and then the con
1:09:28
artists and they were there in in all sorts of numbers as well as the gamblers volunteers are perfect setups the reason
1:09:36
they're ideal for these individuals that the rules haven't been established yet everything goes the laws is if it's
1:09:42
there it's sort of weak and amorphous and pretty ineffectual so these individuals can get into areas where
1:09:50
there is a breakdown and structure or where social structure has not yet developed and they can function with
1:09:55
impunity so Pete took Skagway by storm his operations were well organized and
1:10:01
his scams had a certain Flair Sofie opened a telegraph office a binary riving in town could send a telegram to
1:10:08
his loved ones back home assuring them of his safe arrival often a reply would come back the very same day each
1:10:15
telegram costs $10 thousands of messages were sent before anyone seemed to notice
1:10:21
there were no telegraph wires in his kagwe he set up an information booth for
1:10:28
miners on their way to the gold fields unlike most this information booth specialized in extracting information
1:10:34
rather than giving it the hopeful miner was questioned as to whether he had enough money to
1:10:40
make the trip to Dawson anyone with a large Grove steak became the target for Soapy's schemes the average prospector
1:10:48
is an optimist he's waiting for a strike just around the next bend in the creek or in a creek that no one else has found
1:10:54
or perhaps a digging they've missed it appeals to that type of individual this is a type of an individual who takes the
1:11:00
chance so they'll take a chance on the diggings they'll probably take a chance on other things as well and indeed they
1:11:05
did so there they're set mentally to become a mark for the con men so P was
1:11:11
the virtual dictator of Skagway while his hired thugs beat robbed and sometimes murdered the miners his
1:11:18
accomplices in every gambling establishment every bordello and every bar in town fleeced them without mercy
1:11:25
fixed card games and fake gold claims stock swindles and gold brick scams no
1:11:35
one really touched soapy Smith and he had of course all sorts of reasons why he succeeded he befriended the the
1:11:41
reporters politicians of all stripes write to the federal level the police of course he had a network of Confederates
1:11:49
and confidence men who felt that he was the ultimate confidence man and they would do very well under him what
1:11:56
couldn't be taken by force was extracted by deception miners out for a good time were more than ready to pay for female
1:12:03
company which the dance halls were more than willing to supply dancehall girls like Klondike Kate and snake hips Lulu
1:12:10
made small fortunes with a clever mixture of bawdy charms and sleight of hand
1:12:16
they danced with a man for a daughter usually the house would get twenty-five cents if they would get 75 cents and
1:12:21
that's where the term chip or chippy game of action because sometimes there was more involved in that but generally
1:12:28
they work for a percentage and they also worked for a percentage of the drinks so some of them did extremely well some of
1:12:35
them had at the end of their careers certainly in Dawson City and in places like Skagway more rangel they would have
1:12:41
solid gold belts with 22-hour gold pieces and each one of the each one of the loops of the belt
1:12:47
[Music]
1:12:54
Sophie did have a big heart beside which he flaunted in grand gestures I could benevolent dictator he wanted to
1:13:01
be admired he supported the local churches and started an adoption program for the abandoned dogs of Skagway he
1:13:08
himself took in six lucky stray mutts on the 4th of July in 1898 Grand Marshal
1:13:15
soapy Smith met a spectacular parade through the streets of Skagway it was
1:13:20
its greatest moment but even as soapy enjoyed the acclaim of the holiday crowd
1:13:26
other events would soon dispelled his illusions of grandeur the soapy had been able to limit his protection to
1:13:32
competence men and hungry dogs he might have continued without opposition but a much rougher breed was
1:13:38
being drawn to Skagway men who didn't hesitate at outright murder and they too
1:13:43
operated with Sophie's approval the law-abiding citizens of the town started to feel that soapy despite his personal
1:13:50
charm was too much of a liability JD Stuart a miner on his way back to Vancouver Island was robbed in broad
1:13:57
daylight by a group of Soapy's thugs it was the last straw for the respectable
1:14:02
element of the town a group of armed miners headed down to City Hall to deal with this latest outrage Sophie headed
1:14:09
there too but this time neither his gift of oratory or his gang could save
1:14:15
nor could the loaded shotgun he was carrying he was confronted by city engineer Frank Reid they fired at the
1:14:22
same time soapy died instantly with a bullet through his heart it had only
1:14:31
been four days since his triumphant ride as grand marshal of the Independence Day
1:14:37
Parade he had no compunction no sympathy
1:14:42
for stripping a man of everything he had and sometimes he'd give him a square meal that's about all
1:14:47
not passage out of town because passage out of town was on the sternwheeler and or another ship and that would cost too
1:14:54
much and so he wasn't about to do that so he did have a weakness he liked to be
1:14:59
admired and that's probably why I ended up virtually a destitute manner of his death soapy had gambled are given away
1:15:07
the hundreds of thousands of dollars that passed through his outlaw empire he wanted the admiration of society yet he
1:15:14
could not live within its rules he chose the path of marked cards crooked games
1:15:21
and easy money a gambler to the very end those who young had a favorite memory of
1:15:26
Smith sitting in the front pew on a Sunday singing his favorite hymn free
1:15:32
from the law Oh blessed condition today
1:15:37
we live in a world filled with many kinds of media where the truth may be manipulated in very sophisticated ways
1:15:44
we expect sitcoms and adventure stories to be the product of someone's imagination but the news
1:15:53
feeling tired maybe just a little bit stressed well a visiting New York therapist says he has a roaring good way
1:16:01
to chase away those blues and he's trying it out in East London vince rogers explains exactly just rule this
1:16:12
reporter thinks he's getting a scoop on a new-age social therapy developed in california he's really getting scammed
1:16:19
the man behind this caper is New York media hoaxster Joey Skaggs over the past
1:16:27
25 years Joey Skaggs has created dozens of fabricated news stories all disseminated through the mainstream
1:16:33
media [Music] he's created hoaxes such as impoverished
1:16:39
artists living in water towers in Manhattan and curing baldness by
1:16:45
transplanting scalps from cadavers he even managed to hoax the gameshow to tell the truth and
1:16:52
invented a story that received international attention the fat squad and the fat squad consists of a contract
1:17:00
that you would take out on yourself to rub out your own fat a three-day minimum $300 a day plus expenses and every eight
1:17:07
hours a new commander was with you to make sure that you don't break your diet and we will physically restrain you with
1:17:13
force if necessary our commandos take no bribes
1:17:21
whoa no no not here yeah look at his strawberries come on let's do this thing
1:17:28
Martha Wilcox is taking a tough new stand on dieting no longer alone in a
1:17:33
world of temptations she'll have help staying on her latest she's hired the
1:17:40
fat squad I sent this out to the news
1:17:46
media it was picked up by the Philadelphia Inquirer in The Washington Post they totally believed it made the
1:17:53
wire services I then went on national television and everyone around the world
1:17:59
Japanese television and the German television Italian television the French television CNN they all fell apart I use
1:18:08
the media as a painter would use a canvas I'm a social political media satirist and what I mean by that is I
1:18:14
create plausible but non-existent realities that are staged for the media but media even when that only meant
1:18:21
newspapers has always had the means to manipulate the truth journalists and editors in the Old West well understood
1:18:28
the public's appetite for sensational stories phony articles were dreamed up and published not just for fun but for
1:18:35
profit the further away from its place of origin the more likely it was for a tall tale to be printed as fact every
1:18:44
paper in in Alaska or in California or along the frontier every one of them was
1:18:50
was the kind of tabloid that would that would look silly perhaps at your
1:18:57
checkout counter day but this was these were these were the regular newspapers of the time and the hoax story wasn't
1:19:02
just another literary genre early radio soon demonstrated even greater powers of
1:19:09
persuasion it was the night of Halloween 1938 Orson Welles and a group of actors
1:19:16
performed an adaptation of HG Welles War of the Worlds ladies and gentlemen I
1:19:23
have a grave announcement to make incredible as it may seem so strange beings who landed in the jersey
1:19:28
farmlands tonight the vanguard of an invading army from the planet Mars
1:19:33
all over America listeners to the Lindo a panic believing the drama was real people flocked into churches to pray
1:19:40
emergency rooms were filled with people in shock when the public realized the
1:19:46
broadcasts had been staged the players were taken into protective custody for fear they'd be attacked by mobs of angry
1:19:53
listeners it was a most famous unintentional media hoax in history I'm
1:20:00
surprised that the HG Wells classic which is the original for many fantasies
1:20:08
about invasions by mythical monsters from the planet Mars should have had
1:20:17
such an immediate and profound effect upon radio listeners with the arrival of
1:20:23
television came the opportunity for more elaborate hoaxes the last two weeks of
1:20:29
March are an anxious time for the spaghetti farmer there's always the chance of a late frost which while not
1:20:36
entirely ruining the crop generally impairs the flavor and makes it difficult for him to obtain top prices
1:20:42
in world markets but now these dangers are over and the spaghetti harvest goes
1:20:47
forward spaghetti cultivation here in Switzerland is not of course carried out
1:20:53
on anything like the tremendous scale of the Italian industry beginning in the 1950s the BBC elevated the art of the
1:21:01
intentional media hoax to a new level there April Fool's Day broadcast of
1:21:06
preposterous fake news stories has become an institution the secret is to
1:21:14
get something which is just about believable you know stretches the imagination a little bit but not too far
1:21:20
but in my experience I've found that in fact the public had taken in by the most ridiculous lies and often don't believe
1:21:28
those things which are actually true we didn't immediately recognize the significance of what we saw first when
1:21:34
we entered hopped in park but these pictures taken in very difficult conditions at 200 yards distance
1:21:41
disclosed a reality won't than anything our wildest suspicions had suggested not just the recombination of
1:21:48
genes to make new species but the recreation of species that died out millions of years ago there was
1:21:55
something basically very wrong with their library there were reports of books tumbling from the shelves
1:22:02
difficulties in opening and closing the windows even trouble getting through some of the doors the problems of living
1:22:09
with a new library built up so much in the first few months the grim and District Council decided to hold an
1:22:15
investigation imagine the shock and embarrassment then for the townsfolk of Grimm and when they discovered that
1:22:21
their library which looks like this should in fact have looked like this
1:22:28
their library had quite simply been built upside down the television and the
1:22:35
media environment in general is reality making but the media and media images
1:22:41
because they are so riveting and persuasive and fast-paced and frequent
1:22:47
serve to establish a basis upon which we define our reality our very selves our
1:22:55
relationship to others and because of that media have great authority in our
1:23:02
lives Joey Skaggs is convinced that the
1:23:07
media's authority and power are not always deserved and he's made a career out of proving how easy it is to fool
1:23:13
them I give them what they want what they're looking for the hook and my work
1:23:19
is done in the number of stages the first stage is the hook that's where I come up with a concept and then I figure
1:23:24
out how to execute that concept how it's going to work what I me and I staged the event
1:23:34
this is poplars very own pride of lions indulging in their rather peculiar form
1:23:39
of group therapy and of course they have their own Lion King by the name of Baba
1:23:45
while Simba he's flown over from New York to lead to the roaring sessions and then I document where it goes and who
1:23:53
does what with it I record the process of how the media interprets what I'm
1:23:58
doing for their own purposes what they do with it and thirdly I then reveal the
1:24:04
truth and that gets very interesting and then I document what the media does with the truth do they address it
1:24:10
do they ignore it do they trivialize me do they treat me like I'm the bad guy or
1:24:16
am I the person with the message you're
1:24:21
a reporter engaged in your professional practice you got all these stories going
1:24:28
on simultaneously you're looking for leads you got this call you got these apparently valid and real press releases
1:24:39
about a news story you follow them up you spend a lot of time doing that whomp you're off back to the studio I got to
1:24:45
get the Edit it's got to be on the six o'clock and the 11 o'clock and it goes on and on and there's no time for
1:24:52
engagement and reflection while Joey was developing his talent as a painter he
1:24:58
was also finding his role as social commentator and provocateur during the
1:25:03
heady days of the 60s counterculture I constructed a life-size Vietnamese
1:25:09
village portraying a Vietnamese nativity I erected in Central Park on Christmas and I had a group of actors dressed as
1:25:15
American soldiers attack it with fake guns to protest the war in Vietnam and
1:25:21
there were numerous arrests in that day as well and the New York Times covered the story and said something along the
1:25:28
line that we were arrested for littering Scaggs was struck by the media's ability to reinterpret events for the public and
1:25:35
decided to try to manipulate this power and roman catholics attending the 1992
1:25:42
democratic convention in new york who didn't have time to confess at this unusual option porta fess a portable
1:25:50
confessional pulled by a bicycle it was the brainchild of the Reverend Anthony Joseph aka Joey scams the hardest thing
1:26:02
about that was designing the confessional booth I had to have a tricycle custom-made and I'll get the priests outfit then to pedal up there
1:26:08
and be exposed to about 15,000 journalists covering you know the Democratic convention there was awesome
1:26:15
they were all over me journalists were all over me I had actors posing as people coming in to confess and then real people wanted to
1:26:22
confess and I had a hard time keeping them out I said I was waiting for Ted Kennedy you're a drunk come back again and I found myself front-page news the
1:26:29
Philadelphia Enquirer CBS Fox CNN everybody jumped on the bandwagon and
1:26:35
finally when they called up California where I said I was from as this priest Father Anthony Joseph the archdiocese
1:26:42
said what are you kidding we don't know this guy I think there's a professional pride they don't like to feel that somebody
1:26:48
can pull the wool over their eyes I think they're angry because they can
1:26:53
see the more serious side of it that if somebody can hoax them on something that's fairly trivial Jim perhaps somebody can hook someone something much
1:26:59
more sinister more important how do you fool those whose very business it is to
1:27:06
tell the truth CNN UPI ABC CBS with a
1:27:11
fax machine in some cooperative friends Joey has scammed them all his skill like
1:27:16
that of so many great confidence tricksters is understanding the preoccupations of his own society he
1:27:22
knows exactly what his marks want to hear it's so predictable you can you can
1:27:28
make a calendar of events you know what the media is going to be recording
1:27:33
during the course of a year you know they're gonna have the homeless on Thanksgiving you know they're gonna you
1:27:39
know be there the anniversary of trinova Liz you know there's always a disaster
1:27:44
or an event you can predict what stories are going to cover so you know what
1:27:49
they're looking for and it's really easy to tune in that way you can do an ironic reversal or a
1:27:55
juxtaposition or even a statement along those lines and you're pretty much guaranteed that that's going to push the
1:28:02
button that they want to hear and that's one way of getting access to them we the
1:28:09
jury in the above-entitled action find the defendant Orenthal James Simpson not guilty of the crime of murder and
1:28:15
violence the OJ Simpson murder trial it was the biggest media circus of 1995 and
1:28:22
it became the basis for an elaborate and thought-provoking media hoax Skaggs called it the Solomon project posing as
1:28:32
a New York University professor named dr. Joseph von Musel Skaggs sent a letter to over 3,000 judges legislators
1:28:40
law enforcement officers legal publishers and law schools now the
1:28:47
Solomon project I said was seven years and in developing we had over 150
1:28:53
scientists artificial intelligence scientists and computer experts lawyers and judges who were working on this
1:28:59
project and students we were inputting all the laws of the land both criminal
1:29:05
and civil into a series of supercomputers and that these computers would be able to replace juries I sent
1:29:13
out a second press release saying that we were preparing a 15 city tour we were soliciting cases that were controversial
1:29:20
we're gonna retry them with a computer and we were even going to retry OJ man
1:29:27
beautifully smartly he throws in oh gee that CNN became oj TV it became the
1:29:35
fetish of of America for a while sadly so and so he's got he's got all
1:29:42
the preconditions to carry out a hoax which is not merely a hoax which is a
1:29:47
critique and ultimately an indictment I said on a third press release saying that we did retry OJ and we found him
1:29:55
guilty now that's what everyone was waiting to hear Oh J guilty of course he's guilty but now we know you know
1:30:01
look the computer said he is guilty so I really hit a lot of nerves with that
1:30:06
one Skaggs had 24 hours to prepare for a CNN news crew intent on interviewing dr.
1:30:12
Joseph bono so of course they also wanted to shoot a demonstration of the Solomon supercomputer at work
1:30:24
we got about 25 people there and we designed bogus screens OJ guilty all
1:30:32
this stuff that was only literally a screen deep there was nothing beyond it and we did voice-stress analysis we
1:30:39
could analyze your voice you were telling the truth you're not telling the truth you are somewhat telling the truth
1:30:45
you was somewhat telling a lie and all this was rigged just totally totally bogus
1:30:51
when CNN came in they saw these cameras they saw these journalists they see all these screens all those computers
1:30:56
there's hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment there well it has to be real and it's NYU Law School of
1:31:02
course it's real the danger was that the crew might ask to see something that wasn't technically possible on the
1:31:09
computer or that the reporter would make inquiries at NYU Law School about their innovative professors neither one
1:31:16
happened the piece complete with newsdesk intro reporter standups oj file footage
1:31:23
and joeys interview was broadcast across the country on December 29 1995 it
1:31:30
didn't catch it that evening though you're unlikely ever to see it
1:31:35
related to do the last stage of what I
1:31:41
did which is to tell the truth ultimately is the hardest thing because nobody wants to hear it and when you try
1:31:47
to gain access to the news media and say listen we're preparing a piece and showing how this was a hoax and what
1:31:54
it's all about we'd like to get permission to run this footage they say no they don't want the
1:32:01
public to question their credibility as investigative news source anymore than they've already been questioned I've
1:32:08
been on some shows like a half a dozen times I fooled CNN I think five or six times porta fast walk right fat squad
1:32:15
bad guys it's always amazing to me when sometimes the same crew shows up you
1:32:22
know as a cameraman or a sound person from from a previous hoax will show up say you know this place looks familiar was a guy heroes making fish condos oh
1:32:28
really and that's this has happened I've been on live at five about a half a dozen times so it's it's kind of
1:32:36
frightening when you think about you know how they don't remember anything they don't can't remember the story is
1:32:43
more important than the truth sometimes I don't measure my success by how many
1:32:50
people I've fooled how many newspapers or radio stations or magazines I fool but how many people I'm
1:32:56
able to reach with the messages that we are all being fooled when will schedule
1:33:03
reporters that he's perpetrated his last post I swore that this would this would
1:33:09
be the last one he's this the last would you hope to sure I'm not gonna do this anymore I
1:33:16
decided that I've had it with hoaxes too many people have seen my face it's gonna get really difficult to do this so I'm
1:33:23
gonna quit Joey Skaggs doesn't break the law and he
1:33:29
doesn't profit from his schemes but to those he's duped he's a scoundrel as
1:33:35
someone who makes expert use of the con artist bag of tricks Skaggs may make us laugh but he also
1:33:41
wants us to look more carefully at the truth that we're being sold for the
1:33:50
foibles of human nature and the well-tested rules of deception meat is where the con artist plies his trade but
1:33:57
without fooling believers in the promise of instant riches a miracle cure or an undiscovered masterpiece the scam is
1:34:04
just another game of solitaire
1:34:12
[Music]
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