The Council of Pisa met today in 1409 in Pisa Cathedral (above). The church had a serious problem: there were two popes, each with his own cardinals, his own holy city and the allegiance of half of Europe. So at Pisa, their two sets of cardinals met and came up with the brilliant idea of sacking both popes and starting again with a new one. Unsurprisingly, neither of the original two popes recognised this agreement, and sat tight. Which meant there were now three popes. So that went well.
Today in 1811, the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from Oxford University for writing an anonymous pamphlet, The Necessity of Atheism.
‘If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him? If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future? If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers? If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him? If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses? … If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him? If he has spoken, why is the universe not convinced?’ Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism
This is Lady Day, a feast celebrating the visit of the Archangel Gabriel to Mary, telling her she would give birth to Jesus (an event known as the Annunciation). In pre-Christian Europe, today was the pagan festival of spring, when fertility and the return of life to the soil was celebrated. The church, failing to wean its converts off this old ritual, stole it instead, making the day a celebration of the beginning of Mary’s pregnancy, exactly nine months before 25 December.
This is the feast day of the good thief, St Dismas. One of the two thieves crucified alongside Christ, Dismas was the one who asked him, ‘Remember me when you come into your kingdom’. St Dismas is the patron saint of thieves and funeral directors (a pairing that calls for a Venn diagram).
Eden’s locked gates the thief has opened wide,
By putting in the key, ‘Remember me.’
Eastern Orthodox liturgy for Good Friday
Image: Mal B