Bill Petro

HISTORY OF OCTOBER 31

On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg 95 propositions or theses and marked the beginning of the Reformation. Of course, the Reformation began long before that, but this date proves to be a convenient coat hanger to mark the beginning of Protestantism. But the 95 Theses were not intended as a call to reformation and it is the story behind this event that proves so fascinating, and shows the real purpose of the 95 Theses.

Prince Albert wanted the archbishopric of Mainz. (You may know Mainz as the home of a goldsmith named Johann Gutenberg, who had developed the uniform-sized movable type printing press 60 years earlier.) Because Albert was younger than 25 years old, the office of archbishop would cost him $500,000. Pope Leo X, who was financing the building of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (for $46 million) suggested that Albert borrow the money from the wealthy Fugger banking family. Albert was able to secure half the funds from the Fuggers, and for the rest he sold indulgences. An indulgence was a document which freed the holder from the temporal penalty of sin. The sale of indulgences, introduced during the Crusades, remained a favored source of papal income. In exchange for a meritorious work - frequently, a contribution to a worthy cause or a pilgrimage to a shrine - the church offered the sinner exemption from his acts of penance by drawing upon its “treasury of merits.” This consisted of the grace accumulated by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and the meritorious deeds of the saints. In Castle Church at Wittenberg for example, it was believed that the relics (bones of saints, etc.) were reckoned to earn a remission for pilgrims of 1,902,202 years and 270 days.

When the Dominican John Tetzel came preaching through much of Germany on behalf of Albert, he boasted that for a contribution he would provide donors with an indulgence that would even apply beyond the grave and free souls from purgatory. “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings,” went his jingle, “quickly the soul from purgatory springs”.

To Martin Luther, the professor of biblical studies at the newly founded University of Wittenberg, Tetzel’s preaching was bad theology if not worse. Luther thought this practice was wholly unwarranted by Scripture, reason or tradition. It encouraged not repentance but mere payment. Luther promptly drew up 95 propositions or theses in Latin, following university custom, for a call to theological debate. Among other things, they argued that indulgences cannot remove guilt, do not apply to purgatory, and are harmful because they induce a false sense of security in the donor. The 95 Theses were not a general call to break with the Roman Catholic Church. The irony is that someone took the 95 Theses and translated them into German, the language of the common man. And with the aid of the printing press copies were distributed to the masses. This was the spark that ignited the Reformation.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HALLOWEEN

Halloween (Allhallows Even) is the evening of October 31. In its strictly religious aspect this occasion is known as the vigil of Hallowmas or All Saints’ Day, November 1, observed by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. In the fourth decade of the 8th century, Pope Gregory III moved this holiday to this date (from May 13) for celebrating the feast when he consecrated a chapel in St. Peter’s basilica in Rome to all the saints. Gregory IV extended the feast to the entire church in 834. In Latin countries the evening of October 31 is observed only as a religious occasion, but in Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States, ancient Halloween folk customs persist alongside the ecclesiastical observance.

Halloween is the second most popular holiday in the U.S. after Christmas, at least according to retailers. Not only are candy and costumes popular purchases, but houses are being decorated with “Halloween lights.” Parties are popular and are increasingly being celebrated the weekend before. In Boston, for example, Salem is a popular location for these with its month-long Haunted Happenings celebrations — due to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 — and the Massachusetts Turnpike traffic signs point out that Salem can be reached from Boston via Route 1A North. Young people in Tokyo dress up in costumes during Halloween.

Students of folklore believe that the popular customs of Halloween show traces of the Roman harvest festival of Pomona and of Celtic Druidism. These influences are inferred from the use of nuts and apples as traditional Halloween foods and from the figures of witches, black cats, and skeletons commonly associated with the occasion.

In pre-Christian Ireland and Scotland, the Celtic year ended on October 31, the eve of Samhain, and was celebrated with both religious and harvest rites. For the Druids, Samhain (pronounced: SOWin) was both the “end of summer” and a festival of the dead. The spirits of the departed were believed to visit their kinsmen in search of warmth and good cheer as winter approached. It was also an occasion when fairies, witches, and goblins terrified the populace. The agents of the supernatural were alleged to steal infants, destroy crops, and kill farm animals. Bonfires were lighted on hilltops on the eve of Samhain. The fires may have been lighted to guide the spirits of the dead to the homes of their kinsmen or to kill and ward off witches. In the City Center of modern day Dublin one can find signs advertising “Samhain Halloween” parties. Samhain is also the name for November in the modern Scots Gaelic and Irish languages.

During the middle ages when the common folk believed that witchcraft was devoted to the worship of Satan, this cult included periodic meetings, known as witches’ Sabbaths, which were allegedly given over to feasting and revelry. One of the most important Sabbaths as held on Halloween. Witches were alleged to fly to these meetings on broomsticks, accompanied by black cats who were their constant companions. Stories of these Sabbaths are the source of much folklore about Halloween.

In 17th century Puritan New England the celebration of Halloween was banned, along with any special celebration of Christmas and Easter, though in Catholic Maryland and Anglican Virginia retained some Halloween customs. During 19th century Victorian times, Halloween was generally tame and devoid of occult overtones. Instead of pulling pranks or haunting neighborhoods, young people chatted and flirted in festooned parlors.

By the early part of the 20th century, Halloween became almost a civic affair with block parties and parades. Pranks and mischief were common on Halloween. Wandering groups of celebrants blocked doors of houses with carts, carried away gates and plows, tapped on windows, threw vegetables at doors, and covered chimneys with turf so that smoke could not escape. In some places boys and girls dressed in clothing of the opposite sex and, wearing masks, visited neighbors to play tricks. These activities generally resembled the harmful and mischievous behavior attributed to witches, fairies, and goblins.

The contemporary “trick or treat” custom resembles an ancient Irish practice associated with Allhallows Eve. Groups of peasants went from house to house demanding food and other gifts in preparation for the evening’s festivities. Prosperity was assured for liberal donors and threats were made against stingy ones. These contributions were often demanded in the name of Muck Olla, an early Druid deity, or of St. Columb Cille, “dove of the Church” (also known as St. Colomba) who was an Irish missionary to Scotland during the 6th century. In England some of the folk attributes of Halloween were assimilated by Guy Fawkes day celebrated on November 5. Consequently Halloween lost some of its importance there.

Immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland brought secular Halloween customs to the U.S., but the festival did not become popular in this country until the latter part of the 19th century. This may have been because it had long been popular with the Irish, who migrated here in large numbers after 1840. In America, though some churches observe Halloween with religious services, many people regard it as a secular festival. Other Protestant churches celebrate it as “Reformation Day” in commemoration of the date in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Theses to the northern wooden door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY, Part 3: LOCATION

In County Mayo in Ireland, Cruach Phadraig — as it is known in Irish — is also called "The Reek." It stands at 764 meters or 2510 feet elevation. It is located about 5 miles from the lovely town of Westport , an Irish Tidy Town . St. Patrick’s "Confessions" tells of his slavery in the wood of Fochluth . Evidence relating to the history of St. Patrick suggests that this location was actually on the west shore of Ireland in this area.

Westport is a popular tourist destination in County Mayo, not only as a launching point for the pilgrimage, but for its picture postcard beauty. In the center of the town is an octagon with a pillar featuring St. Patrick. On each of the eight sides is a panel illustrating an event from his life.

The Book of Armagh , a vellum book on display alongside the fabled and ornately illustrated "Book of Kells" at the Trinity College Library in Dublin, is thought to have been written by the hand of Patrick himself and tells of him hearing of the Wood of Fochloth and agreeing to undertake a mission there because of the children crying with a loud voice saying "Come O Holy Patrick to save us." Though Patrick began his evangelization of Ireland in 432 AD, it wasn’t until 9 years alter that he reached Croagh Patrick just before Easter of 441 AD, or more specifically before Lent.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY, part 2: PILGRIMAGE

Pilgrims, nature lovers, archeologists, historians and hill climbers come from all over the world to climb the mountain. This pilgrimage has been going on for centuries, and an older one for millennia. More on that later.

The current one has been going on in an active way since 1905 with the dedication of the new St. Patricks Oratory. Pilgrimages had fallen off following the Great Hunger (Potato Famine) of the 1840s and efforts were made to revitalize it. On Sunday July 30, 1905 there were 10,000 pilgrims in attendance of the new church. Night pilgrimages were performed until 1973, but they are now held during the day, sometimes barefooted.

An older tradition goes back even further. Pre-Christian artifacts have been discovered by archeologists suggesting a Celtic hillfort that circled the top of the mountain. On the summit have been found amber, blue and black glass beads dating to the 3rd century BC. The mountain seems to have been revered long before Patrick, and was perhaps the reason he had his fast and contest there. It was believed to be the seat of the old Celtic fertility deity Crom Dubh, often translated as the Dark Stooped One. In pre-Roman times, Crom Dubh seems to have been considered a despotic deity with evil powers.

Throughout Ireland, the Festival of Lughnasa is celebrated at the end of July as the start of the harvest festival in honor of the deity Lugh, the ancient pagan god of the Tuatha De Danann, a people whose name is now encompassed in the Irish word for August — Lughnasa. Lugh, personified as both young and strong, grasped harvest riches from the hands of fate each year by defeating the older god Crom Dubh. Each year the ritual involved cutting the first of the harvest and taking the head of Crom Dubh from its sanctuary and temporarily burying it in a high place. This head (right) survived until it was recently stolen from the wall of a ruined church on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.

Locally in County Mayo the celebration is known as Domhnach Crom Dubh (Black Crom Sunday), but it is also known as Garland Sunday, Garlic Sunday, the last Sunday of Summer, and Domhnach na Cruaiche — Reek Sunday.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF REEK SUNDAY

This week I’m in Boston. But last year at this time I was on the west coast of Ireland, where they say, “West o’ here, da next parish over, dat’s Boston.”

This Sunday, the last Sunday in July every year, marks Reek Sunday, or Garland Sunday in Ireland. At this time between 25,000 and 40,000 people will walk the 3-hour round trip up the Reek Mountain, or Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland, the sacred mountain of St. Patrick in a popular pilgrimage in honor of the patron saint of Ireland, commemorating his driving the snakes from Ireland. Over 100,000 people a year visit Croagh Patrick.

In this history miniseries, we’ll look at the Tradition, the Pilgrimage, and the Location.

The Tradition

On the summit of this mountain it is believed that St. Patrick fasted and prayed for 40 days in 441 A.D. The story goes that at the end of this fast St. Patrick threw a bell down the mountain side and banished all the serpents from Ireland. The fact that snakes never were native to Ireland does not diminish the tradition. Some believe that the banishing of the snakes represents either certain pagan practices or outright evil. In any event, the pilgrimage in honor of St. Patrick goes back to this date. Radiocarbon dating of the remnants of a dry stone oratory is dated at between 430 and 890 AD. This oratory or place of worship is similar in design to the magnificently preserved Gallarus Oratory found on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry, Ireland. The bell we have now dates from 600 to 900 AD and is kept by the National Museum of Ireland.

As to the Saint’s bell, the so-called “Black Bell of St. Patrick” it remained a highly venerated relic with an old reference in O’Flaherty’s History of West Connaught dating back to 1098 AD. The tradition is that the bell was originally made of a shiny white metal though it became black from constant pelting at the demons in the form of black birds and venomous snakes who came after St. Patrick on the mountain. Patrick banished these powers into the hollow of Log na Deamhan (Lake of the Demons.) The devil’s mother, Corra (the fiery one,) escaped and flew into the lake south of the mountain, known since as Loch na Corra.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

AMAZING GRACE, part 2

As we mentioned in our first article on the History of Amazing Grace this is the story of the lives of two men and that one song. In the first part we discussed the life of the song’s author John Newton. The recent film “Amazing Grace” however is about the life of one of Newton’s protégés, William Wilberforce. Wilberforce was a man well known to the Framing Fathers of the American Revolution and became in his day not just a politician, philanthropist and abolitionist, but also a writer of such popularity (in his own day) as C.S. Lewis was in the 20th century.

William Wilberforce was born to privilege and wealth in 18th century England and though physically challenged, worked for nearly 20 years to push through Parliament a bill for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire 200 years ago.

Born in 1759 in Hull in Yorkshire, upon his father’s death in 1768 he was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in Wimbledon. While there, he came into contact with the great evangelist George Whitefield. He was also influenced by the former slave-trading sea captain, pastor John Newton. However, his mother and grandfather wanted him away from Newton’s influence, which they thought was too evangelical and “Methodist”, much too enthusiastic for respectable Anglicans, and returned him to Hull.

Following private school Wilberforce took both his B.A. and M.A. at St. John’s College in Cambridge — where he began a lasting friendship with the future Prime Minister, William Pitt the Younger — but Wilberforce was not a serious student and he was given to late nights of drinking, gambling, and card playing. At the youngest age at which one could be elected, at 21 he was elected to Parliament. He was noted for his charm and eloquence, indeed, his phenomenal rhetorical skill caused the young Prime Minister William Pitt to later challenge Wilberforce with a considerable undertaking — abolition.

The abolitionist Thomas Clarkson influenced Wilberforce to become an activist in the issue of slavery and together they proposed to Parliament a dozen resolutions against the slave trade. Wilberforce’s early optimism was met with one defeat after another. This did not dissuade him from the cause against slavery, or other issues for that matter.

Where did his motivation come from? At the age of 25 he heard very clearly the Gospel of Christ and converted in a way that changed his life. Within two years he determined to serve God by serving the lowest and most ill-treated. But what of his blossoming career in Parliamentary politics? At this point, he decided to visit his old preacher, John Newton, who was now an influential Anglican clergyman installed as rector of St Mary Woolnoth in London. Wilberforce considered retiring from public life in order to engage fully in the spiritual life.

Newton helped them understand that an awakened faith did not necessitate flight from society. He told him that just as Esther had been put in the palace of King Xerxes “for such a time as this,” Newton went on to say,

“…One may not be able to calculate all of the advantages that may result from your service in public life. The example, and even the presence of a consistent character, may have a powerful, though unobserved, effect upon others. You are in a place where many know Him not, and can show them the genuine fruits of the religion you are known to profess.”

At the age of 28 Wilberforce wrote in his diary: “God Almighty has set before me two great objects, the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners [morals].”

Though he continued to be plagued by poor health that kept him bedridden at times for weeks, he attended to his causes. All his life he suffered chronic ill health that included a crooked spine, poor eyesight and stomach problems. He wrote:

“So enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable did the [slave] trade’s wickedness appear that my own mind was completely made up for abolition. Let the consequences be what they would: I from this time determined that I would never rest until I had effected its abolition.”

When in 1797 he settled in Clapham, he became a member of the so-called “Clapham Sect,” a group of devout Christians dedicated to correcting social ills. Wilberforce was himself dedicated to and help found numerous parachurch groups like the Society for Bettering the Cause of the Poor, the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Antislavery Society, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He championed the cause of chimney sweeps, single mothers, Sunday schools, orphans, and juvenile delinquents. In total, he supported 69 philanthropic causes, giving one forth of his annual income to the poor.

In the same year Wilberforce completed writing his book “A Practical View of the Prevailing Religious System of Professed Christians in the Higher and Middle Classes of This Country Contrasted With Real Christianity” which he’d been working on for some 4 years. He spoke against the decline of morality in the nation but more than anything his own personal testimony and views. His book became a best seller and a strong and influential apologetic for a vital and living Christianity. The book sold widely for over forty years.

Though his bill in Parliament called for the abolition of the slave trade, slavery itself continued, although he always hoped for emancipation of the slaves. As old age set in, he lacked the vigor to work to its accomplishment, though he continued to attack it through speeches in public meetings and the House of Commons. Finally, 46 years after he began his fight in Parliament, the Emancipation Bill gathered sufficient support and had its final commons reading on July 26, 1833. He died three days later and was buried in the north transept of Westminster Abbey next to his friend William Pitt, Prime Minister.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

AMAZING GRACE, part 1

Today marks the 200th anniversary of the British parliament passing a bill banning the nation’s slave trade. In these two articles we’ll explore the lives of two men and one song that played a large role in that effort.

John Newton’s devoted Christian mother dreamed that her only son would grow up to become a preacher. But he lost his mother when he was six years old, and at the age of eleven followed his sea-captain father to sea. He did not take to the discipline of the Royal Navy and deserted ship, was flogged, and eventually discharged.

In looking for greater liberty, he ended up on the western coast of Africa in Sierra Leone, where he worked for a slave trader who mistreated him and made him a virtual slave of his black mistress. At this time he was described as “a wretched looking man toiling in a plantation of lemon trees in the Island of Plaintains… clothes had become rags, no shelter and begging for unhealthy roots to allay his hunger.” After more than a year of such treatment he escaped the island through an appeal to his father in 1747.

The next year at sea, his ship was battered by a severe storm. Newton had been reading “The Imitation of Christ,” and in great fear while he rowed and bailed for hours (for he could not swim!), he cried out to God to save him, a wretched sinner. Years later he looked back and penned these autobiographical words.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see.

Epilogue: Ironically, following his conversion to Christianity, Newton spent the next six years as captain of a slave ship. While he had religious services on board, he eventually came to abhor slavery and later to crusade against it. He influenced British Member of Parliament William Wilberforce to become active in working to abolish it. (We’ll discuss Wilberforce’s story in a subsequent article.) Newton later studied for the ministry and attracted large audiences when he preached where he was known as “the old converted sea captain.” He collaborated with the poet William Cowper in producing the Olney Hymns, which became the standard hymnal of evangelical Anglican churches.

In his old age, when it was suggested that he retire due to his bad health and failing recollection, he said,

“My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior!”

His song, Amazing Grace, has become the American anthem and influenced many generations. You can learn more at www.amazinggracemovie.com

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING

The origin of Thanksgiving Day has been attributed to a harvest feast held by the Plymouth Colony, although such celebrations date from ancient times. In 1621, Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony proclaimed a day of “thanksgiving” and prayer to celebrate the Pilgrims’ first harvest in America. The picture you usually see of a few Native American men joining the Pilgrims at the feast is a bit inaccurate however. From original settler Edward Winslow in a letter to a friend in 1621 we know that some 90 men accompanied the Wampanoag Chief Massasoit to visit at Plymouth for three days of fish, foul, and venison. But of the roughly 100 English settlers who had spent their first year on the Massachusetts coast, about half had died by this time. This would have left about half the 52 survivors as English men. So the Native men outnumbered the Pilgrim men by over three to one!

The idea of a day set apart to celebrate the completion of the harvest and to render homage to the Spirit who caused the fruits and crops to grow is both ancient and universal. The practice of designating a day of thanksgiving for specific spiritual or secular benefits has been followed in many countries.

One of the first general proclamations was made in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1676. President George Washington in 1789 issued the first presidential thanksgiving proclamation in honor of the new constitution. During the 19th century an increasing number of states observed the day annually, each appointing its own day. President Abraham Lincoln, on October 3, 1863, by presidential proclamation appointed the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day, due to the unremitting efforts of Sarah J. Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book.

Each succeeding president made similar proclamations until Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1939 appointed the third Thursday of November, primarily to allow a special holiday weekend for national public holiday. This was changed two years later by both congress and the President to the fourth Thursday of November. Thanksgiving Day remains a day when many express gratitude to God for blessings and celebrate material bounty.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com