Category Archives: Religion

1816: Pious teen avoids rope swing – just like Jesus

James Walter Douglas was born in Virginia in November 1797. After completing his primary education Douglass moved to the village of Christiana, Delaware, where he obtained a position as a trainee clerk. The teenaged Douglass also became a pious and active member of the local church. The extent of his faith is evident in Douglass’s personal diary.

In its pages, he explains his reasons for not using a rope swing, popular with numerous other young men in Christiana:

“A very high and quite expensive swing was put up in the village by the young men [and has become] a great resort for the young people of the town. I was very much in doubt whether I ought to attend it, and at length determined that I ought not, for these reasons:

1. It takes time and we must account for our time.

2. It is setting an example of levity.

3. The Lord Jesus would not attend such a place.

4. Nor [would] his apostles.

5. Nor [would] our minister Mr Latta…

6. Please when carried to excess is criminal. Is this not excess?

7. What good can I get [from the swing]. Will I be more virtuous? Wiser? Better tempered? More full of grace? No, no I will not…”

In October 1816, Douglass had another moral dilemma when he visited New York. Out walking, he found himself continually drawn towards the printed handbills of the theatre, which threatened to “inflame [his] imagination”. But Douglass triumphantly reported being able to return to his lodgings without passing the theatre and looking inside.

Perhaps unsurprisingly Douglass later entered the church. By 1823, he was preaching in North Carolina and in 1833, he married a woman from Virginia. He died prematurely in August 1837, just weeks before his 40th birthday.

Source: Diary of James W. Douglass, July 1st 1816. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1731: Brazilian termites abide by court order

In 1713, a group of Franciscan monks in north-eastern Brazil lodged a complaint with their local bishop. A swarm of termites had taken up residence in their monastery, St Anthony’s, and chewed their way through food, furniture, floorboards and foundations. Attempts to drive away the termites had failed and St Anthony’s was now on the brink of collapse.

The friars asked their bishop to excommunicate the hungry insects before it was too late. The bishop agreed to submit the matter to an ecclesiastical court, which heard the matter over several days. As was usual in legal action against animals, the termites did not attend but were granted human legal representation. Their lawyer, whose name is not recorded, argued that his clients were resident in the area long before the monks. Not only that, as God’s creatures they were entitled to foraging rights.

Further, the lawyer suggested that the termites’ busy activities:

“…some might contend, hath proven them more industrious and attentive to their labours than those who stand to accuse them [the monks].”

The court eventually reached a compromise, ruling that the monks set aside timberland and ordering the termites to relocate there forthwith. According to the chronicles of St Anthony, cited by Evans, the court’s ruling was:

“…read officially before the hills of the termites [then] they all came out and marched in columns to the place assigned… conclusive proof that the Almighty endorsed the decision of the court.”

Sources: Bernardes, Nova Floresta &tc., vol.5, 1747; Edward P. Evans, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals, 1906. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1642: Mob plays football with Catholic priest’s head

Hugh Greene, also known as Ferdinand Brooks, was a victim of anti-Catholic persecution during the English Civil War. Greene was born in London to Anglican parents but converted to Catholicism after his graduation from Cambridge. After studying in France, Greene became a parish priest in Dorset.

In 1642, Charles I banished all Catholic priests from England. Greene complied with the king’s order but was held up and missed the deadline by several days. He was subsequently arrested trying to board a ship in Lyme Regis.

Greene was imprisoned for several months, committed to trial on charges of high treason and sent for execution. The sentence was carried out in Dorchester in August 1642. According to the written testimony of an eyewitness, Elizabeth Willoughby, Greene was hanged to the point of unconsciousness, then messily quartered:

“The man that was to quarter him was a timorous, unskilful man, by trade a barber, and his name was Barefoot… he was so long dismembering him that [Greene] came to his perfect senses and sat upright and took Barefoot by the hand… then did this butcher cut his belly on both sides… Whilst [Greene] was calling upon Jesus, the butcher did pull a piece of his liver out instead of his heart, tumbling his guts out every way to see if his heart were not amongst them…”

This barbarous ordeal went on for more than a half-hour, with Greene either praying devoutly or screaming in agony. According to Willoughby, Greene only expired after his throat was cut and his head was hacked off with a cleaver. His heart was eventually removed and thrown into a fire before it was snatched up and stolen by a local woman.

As for the priest’s severed head:

“An ungodly multitude, from ten o’clock in the morning till four in the afternoon, stayed on the hill and sported themselves at football with his head [then] put sticks in his eyes, ears, nose and mouth and buried it near to the body.”

Source: Letter from Elizabeth Willoughby, Dorchester, June 20th 1643. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1529: Silver rings help pilgrims deal with erectile problems

In the late 1520s, Sir Thomas More penned a defence of the Catholic church that included a condemnation of superstitious rituals being practised in some areas.

One of the sillier examples described by Sir Thomas occurred at an abbey in Picardy, near the mouth of the Somme. The abbey, dedicated to St Valery, had become a shrine for men suffering from kidney stones, impotence and erectile problems. It attracted visitors from across western Europe, including some from England. Seeking the blessings of St Valery, these pilgrims sometimes left offerings peculiar to their impairment:

“…Just as you see wax legs or arms or other parts hanging up at other pilgrimage shrines, in that chapel all the pilgrims’ offerings hung about the walls, and they were all men’s and women’s private gear [genitalia] made out of wax.”

Sir Thomas also describes a particular ritual carried out at the abbey, apparently intended to help pilgrims with their impotence and erectile problems:

“…At the end of the altar, there were two round rings of silver, one much larger than the other, through which every man puts his privy member, not every man through both… for they were not of the same size but one larger than the other.”

Source: Sir Thomas More, Dialogue concerning Heresies, 1529. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.

1742: New Jersey man makes himself “an eunuch”

In November 1742, the Boston Evening Post reported that Mister John Leek of Cohansey, New Jersey had:

“…after twelve month’s deliberation, made himself an eunuch… it is said for the Kingdom of Heaven’s sake… He is now under Dr Johnson’s hands and in a fair way of doing well.”

According to the Evening Post, Mr Leek was following the example outlined in Matthew 19:12 which reads:

“For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others. And there are those who choose to live like eunuchs, for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Source: The Boston Evening Post, November 8th 1742. Content on this page is © Alpha History 2016. Content may not be republished without our express permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use or contact Alpha History.