The formation of team spirit (mind-sets) can’t be evaluated, but they can be studied. Why? A tribe of head-hunters hasn’t enough similarity to a tribe of vegetarians and the evaluation is based on the evaluators upbringing. That is mixing three mind-sets to find assumptions of value for two distinctly different peoples. The study brings forth facts, and the facts must be objectively decrypted removing the self. This is objectivity. People are social creatures, and this takes away most person’s ability to be objective.

Measures devised by the self-scale. The information may present value to an individual based on his reality, meanwhile reality and real are hardly related. Facts are not truths, but things occur adding to the pot of real sending off reality’s aroma. In the example above, the observers records and postulations are transmitted to anthropologists for group analytical deliberation. These first three paragraphs are the devices for scientific theory and it can be applied to any of life’s quests, if freedom reigns.

Value becomes the pivotal point. Value and beauty are two very different things, however in equality they are in the eye of the beholder. Failure is ugly and ugly surrounds every beholder during a world recession. The old saying, “use it or loose it” is people’s inability to recognize loss. They are locked in their ritualism. Social cast systems are narrow minded prejudicial people controlling world finance. They are labeling people by value in a capitalist society. Ask yourself, why you have a daily visions of many people going through garbage? They have been labeled nonfunctional by this social system that talks freedom.

The freedom of choice is unlimited in a free society. People are not insects born into a hive of predetermined jobs in support of the nest. Your cast systems implants people and families into such a niche.  This eliminates natural selection for your best Heart Surgeons or perhaps your best Scientists by placing them in medial labor. They now survive hand to mouth. The elimination of the strong are the points of a such a system, because the strong are diligent of the schooled systems, and they do not approve of the practices at hand.

You can make an evaluation within your tribe by looking at your society. Those of you that are elders can look at your friend’s daily tasks and say what you thought of that person as a child. In the Dark Ages, it was common for the sons to kill the parents for power. You may know some street people or cashiers that have minds far above their station. You can evaluate livelihoods by your personal measure from what you see and what you know. Is Johnny or Josephina plastic recyclers, making their worth in life by ripping through your garbage? Is the merchant selling cocaine making a better contribution to your society while living in his guarded mansion? Perhaps you are driving his factory produced motor-home.

Ninety-five percent of the population can not send their children (young adults) to universities even though fifteen percent of them try. Half of the wealth of your country is controlled by six percent of your nation’s populous. Freedom is guaranteed by your constitution. Where is your freedom of choice prioritized under the Constitutional guarantee?

   An Anglo-Saxon monarchy is a concept that is substantially different from what one would normally define a monarchy to be. When monarchy’s are discussed one thinks of absolute power, of political figures and of hereditary succession. This is typically true of Medieval England and Medieval Europe in general, however Anglo-Saxon kings shared very few key traits with their counterparts centuries down the line. Offa king of the Mercians from 757 to 796 is a new kind of Anglo-Saxon leader, in many ways, from those proceeding him and it was in no small way due to him that later kings such as Alfred of Wessex (849-899) started to become more like the kings of the middle ages.

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  The most powerful kings of the 6th and 7th centuries are described in sources like the Anglo-Saxon chronicles and the writings of the monk Bede were described as Bretwaldas. Æthelberht of Kent (590–616) and Oswald of Northumbria (633–42) are examples of people called Bretwaldas by both sources. Bretwaldas are powerful warrior kings who are importantly Christian, Bede being a monk would not name any pagans as Bretwaldas it is for this reason that the Mercian Penda is not given the illustrious title. Bretwaldas owed their power to success on the battlefield and the booty that was brought with it. Early Northumbrian kings were so successful because they were able to raid north into Scotland and so were able to gain the support of their followers with the spoils of war. Men were kept loyal by being given anything of valuable that could moved, cattle, gold and coin are good examples of what kings gave in return for support. However this system is unsustainable and therefore flawed. It required kings to personally go to battle in search of victory, this lead to the death in battle for many Bretwaldas. The deaths of the kings when they were in their early twenties or thirties caused deep political instability in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, kings did not reign for long periods of time and as they died when their children were in their infancy there was no possibility of dynasties being formed. The warlike nature of the Bretwaldas kingdoms also left kings open to threats from powerful people within the kingdom. Offa did at least attempt to create a dynasty by having his son Ecgfrith crowned as co-king in 787, nine years before his death, but this attempt failed due to Ecgfrith’s death 141 days after that of his father’s.[1]

In this respect the kingship of Offa is different, his appeal for loyalty was not just extended to the warrior class but all of his subjects. Offa had many different means at his disposal to ensure the loyalty of his subjects. He was one of the first kings to begin to exploit religion to political gain by farming off potential rivals to his power by placing them in monasteries and abbeys, with the princes and princesses confined to these places of worship they were unable to form a power base with with to challenge Offa. Offa also attempted to control the church after he regained control of Kent and with it the the Archbishopric of Canterbury in 785 by chairing a synod during which he exercised his political power over the bishops every year until his death.[2]

Offa made the use of land grants rather than booty to keep his warrior class on side. Land grants worked in two ways, first they replaced the content need of a king to go into harms way in the search of booty thereby greatly improving their average age. Secondly land grants tied powerful people to one place, they could not possibly raise an army if  they were required to maintain their land. The minor kings that found themselves incorporated into the kingdom of Mercia were placated by being given the title Ealdormen and were granted considerable power in the local area however during the reign of Offa this was increasingly wielded in the name of the king. Walker attributes this change to the fact that the traditional system was becoming increasingly harder to sustain and with an increasingly literate elite Offa was able to give and receive information and instructions to the far flung corners of his kingdom.[3]

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Offa, together with the Frankish king Charlemagne, were unique among European kings of the age. It is know that the two were in correspondence with each other. The one letter that survives is very significant as it is the first letter, between kings, discussing trade ever to be discovered.[4] To Campbell the letter, sent to Offa from Charlemagne in the year of his crowned Roman Emperor by the pope, gives an impression of the power that Mercia had or more likely could obtain. This is because Charlemagne describes Offa as “brother” inferring that the two were of equal status, this is a courtesy that was not extended to any other western king other than Offa. The power and friendship from the most powerful state in Europe sets Offa apart from other Anglo-Saxon rulers as no ruler before him came close to holding this kind of power in his grasp.

Offa also used currency to gain a personal loyalty from the people of Mercia. He was the first king to put a portrait of himself onto coins and all coins carried his title Rex Merciorum King of Mercia, because of this whenever the Mercian people used coins they saw the face of their king. Millions of such coins were produced for a country which would have a very small population by today’s standards. This display of wealth and the image of the king provided what almost amounted to a guarantee from the king that the coins were valuable. Because of this Offa was one of the first kings to receive a personal loyalty and it is not far fetched to suggest that this could possible be one of the first personality cults to arise around a political leader.

Another reason for the expansion of coinage, Offa increased the number of moneyers from three to twenty one around 785, was to facilitate the trade with the Franks discussed in Charlemagne’s letter to Offa. The large number of coins in circulation made such trade much easier.[5]

Unlike previous Anglo-Saxon kings Offa set himself up as a peace giver. He enacted Ine’s law code in an apparent attempt to stop long running bloody feuds between families. It did this by establishing the Wergild or man-payment. The Wergild was a monetary reparation paid to the family of the deceased by the killer. The size of the Wergild would be dependent on the persons social status, less if he happened to be a native for instance. Once the Wergild was paid the dispute was over, this meant that family feuding akin to that of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and something that was fairly common in Scandinavia was severely limited bring a much more stable less violent country. This peacefulness allowed Mercia to significantly develop its culture which is evident in their exquisite metal work[6] and in the Lichfield Angel.

Borders of kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England are very different to what one might call a border today. This was because they were in a state of flux, they were not clearly marked or defined and the shape and nature of the kingdoms themselves were constantly changing. Offa made steps to correct this. He built an earthwork starting at the river Dee and possibly ending at the Severn estuary although more likely its southern most reach was near the present day town of Hereford. The purpose of the Dyke is a case for debate, on the face of it it would appear that it was built as a defensive measure to prevent people from Wales raiding into the Mercian heartland however there is no evidence of forts, palisades or permanent garrisons. This does not exclude the possibility of it being a defensive structure but it seems possible that it was more of an attempt to create a physical border between Wales and Mercia and possibly to serve as a monument to the power of King Offa in an attempt to re-enforce the personality cult and to ensure his son’s succession to the thrown.[7] However Hill & Worthington maintain that, for the palisades, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence as there are many lengths of the dyke that have not been inspected and they say that the Dyke being a defensive structure is logical given the power of the Powys kingdom at the time.[8]

While construction dates are not know it is know that at a similar time Charlemagne attempted a similarly massive project by trying to link the rivers Rhine and Danube by canal, interestingly Charlemagne’s project failed this tells us of the great power that Offa was able to wield as the Dyke would have required thousands of workers to create it.[9] The dyke was an impressive feat that previous Anglo-Saxon kings would have been unable to construct.

   Offa was distinctly different from previous Anglo-Saxon kings, he cast aside the conventional methods of rule of the time and adopted and instigated many new practices that set him apart from the earlier kings of the age. In doing so he influenced not just the future Anglo-Saxon kings but also had influence on the continent. Offa king of the Mercians was a new kind of Anglo-Saxon king.

Bibliography

Brown Michelle & Farr Carol. Mercia. (London, Continuum) 2001

Cameron James. The Anglo-Saxons. (London, Penguin) 1982

Fisher D.J.V. The Anglo-Saxon age. (Essex, Longman) 1973

Highman Nicholas. Rome, Britain and the Anglo-Saxons.(London, Seaby) 1992

Hill David & Worthington Margaret. Offa’s Dyke. (Stroud, The History Press) 2003

Walker Ian. Mercia and the making of England. (Thrupp, Sutton) 2000

[1]D Hill & M Worthington Offa’s Dyke (2003) p10

[2]I Walker Mercia and the making of England (2000) pp 12-13

[3]I Walker Mercia and the making of England (2000) pp 6-7

[4]J Campbell. The Anglo-Saxons (1982) p101

[5]I Walker Mercia and the making of England (2000) p 12

[6]L Webster in Mercia (2001) pp263-278

[7]I Walker Mercia and the making of England (2000) p 9

[8]D Hill & M Worthington Offa’s Dyke. (2003) pp 124-128

[9]I Walker Mercia and the making of England (2000) p 10

Almost travelling in a perfect circle, sexuality has moved from the carefree and uninhabited days of the ancient world through a long period of repression and denial, and finally back to acceptance of old again.

Ancient Greece 1300 – 27BC

Although hard to imagine, back in Ancient Greece, women were honoured to the point of wielding influence over men and remaining relatively free to do as they pleased; although most chose to remain virtuous. However, with the Golden Age of Greece, beginning in 450BC, a new opinion of women and sexuality emerged. Temple prostitutes were seen as superior to wives and men who fell in love were considered to be ‘unwell’. Love was not connected with marriage, but considered an amusing distraction or hindrance.

The Roman Empire 27BC – 385AD

The Roman Pagans were highly sexual and indulged in lusty love affairs, with no guilt at all; often being unfaithful or deceitful. They preferred sex to be separated from philosophy and attached little significance to it, including any reverence towards procreation. Abortion as a means of contraception was common. Once Christianity permeated Roman society in 100AD however, the concept of guilt was introduced into the sexual act. Celibacy was promoted and an emphasis placed on procreation.

The Dark Ages 385 – 1000AD

Christians continued to preach that sex was a sinful affair. Denial saw Christians indulge in bizarre feats of self denial, such as burning their own fingers off to avoid temptation. Severe laws and Papal decrees were introduced. In 585AD the Catholics stated that women had no immortal soul, and by the 9th century women were seen as wasteful property, giving noblemen the ‘natural right’ to rape peasants and deflower brides. Marital sex was restricted to one position, and only allowed for conceiving a child.

Circle of Love and Sex – Part 2

Circle of Love and Sex – Part 3

© Copyright J M Lennox. All Rights Reserved.

The Renaissance, beginning approximately in the 14th century, was a period of rebirth. The term Renaissance was coined by Giorgio Vasari as meaning “rebirth.” After the Middle Ages, various important persons began to bring back ideas from the Classical Age. People began to meddle more in the City of Man than spend their lives devoted to entering the City of God. Although the Christian Church remained prominent, people began to experiment with new concepts, such as humanism and capital gain.

The Renaissance began in Italy, and more specifically, in Florence. Multiple factors led to the development of the Renaissance in Florence for it was a melting pot of genius and culture. In the Renaissance, art began to flourish under patronage and literature thrived with the printing press, renewing the ideas of ancient Greece and Rome. In the Renaissance, people began to search for truth, and their main source of truth was knowledge and reason. This great cultural movement thrust Europe, and by extension the rest of the world, in the position it is today. One can only wonder what life would be like if Florence had failed and the concept of the Dark Ages had remained.

Florence, an Italian city in the region of Tuscany, was the birthplace of the Renaissance. Under the leadership of the Medici, the Renaissance was born. The Medici led the Renaissance through thick and thin, supporting geniuses and promoting radical ideas along the way. The Medici, the godfathers of the Renaissance, began as simple wool sellers. Soon they created a banking system, which was passed onto Cosimo after Giovanni passed away. This new banking system began to make the Medici extremely wealthy, and they quickly were the most powerful family in Florence. With their riches they began to commission great works from famous artists such as Brunelleschi. With the creation of the Duomo, the Medici became even more famous and the Renaissance began to flourish under their patronage.

Another, more simple, reason why the Renaissance began in Florence finds its traces in the effects of the great plague, the Black Death. Florence was the first city to recover from the Black Death. While other cities and whole countries waited in silent sorrow for the effects to subside, Florence began to thrive. The people of Florence, once confident the disease was gone, built the economy strong. The great city began to grow in both population and prosperity due to its trade capabilities.

Trade creates wealth; that is fact. In the early 14th century, Florence became a center of trade. With the emergence of banking Florence became one of the wealthiest cities in Europe. Banking systems, such as the Medici bank, brought money from all corners of Europe. Also, the cloth industry flourished after the Black Death, and Florence was a capital of the industry. Banking and trade brought prosperity to the city-state. With this new concept of capital gain, people began to view the world with a more human sense. People began to worry more about money than just purely salvation. It is no surprise that with these factors, this dramatic era of change began in Florence.

Unlike man of today, the Medieval mind was centered on one thing, how to get to heaven. Society did not advance because people devoted their lives to the Christian God. An average Medieval Man had no ego, no personal goals. They did not seek riches or prestige; instead rational thought was overshadowed by pure irrationality, by faith over reason. Men feared damnation, and would do anything to gain salvation. The Church controlled the lives of the people of Europe. Medieval man followed a dogma set forth by bishops, cardinals, and other religion figureheads whose own personal wealth trumped most citizens. The Pope was the most powerful man in Europe and held the lives of millions in his hand; excommunication to a man in the Middle Ages was believed to be far worse than torture and death.

The mind of Medieval man can essentially be expressed in the Augustinian concept of the City of God and the City of Man. The City of Man contained everything earthly and everything sinful. Rome was considered by Augustine to be the prime example of the City of Man, and the root of all evil. The City of God, by contrast, was everything divine. In the Middle Ages, people believed entering the City of God was man’s one and only goal. Everything earthly had little consequence next to damnation. Man devoted himself to poverty and to a morality preordained by the Church.

The Baptistery in Florence gives us a prime example of the thought process of the Medieval mind. On the ceiling of the Baptistery is a brilliant mosaic depicting The Last Judgment. This biblical piece of art reflects how man’s most important goal was securing a place in heaven. It also tells us why they thought it was so important. In this mosaic, the images of hell are vividly displayed. It shows damned souls suffering in unimaginable ways, while those who made it into heaven were now in paradise. The art itself shows how important people believed the journey to heaven was, and how much they feared damnation. The ceiling not only expresses man’s need for salvation, however. The painter of the ceiling was anonymous, which shows the lack of a human ego.

The Renaissance is characterized by several different elements which helped shape this great time period. One main element was the rediscovery of individual achievement and the human ego. After the pious and egoless period of the Dark Ages, people began to rediscover self-worth. Instead of seeking only salvation, people began to strive for a more rational and individual concept, ambition. Instead of seeking the City of God, people began to thrive in the City of Man. Man was now at the center of all things. The focus was now on the individual rather than the collective service of mankind to an omnipotent God. In the Renaissance, the spotlight shined upon individual achievement. The first example of this was the creation of the Baptistery doors. Lorenzo Ghiberti, who had won the commission of the doors against Filippo Brunelleschi, sculpted himself and his name on the doors of the Baptistery. Instead of an altruistic service for God, Ghiberti had carved his name into history, earning fame and prestige. The Medici, the godfathers of the Renaissance, are another example of the expression of the ego. The Medici, instead of dedicating their lives to poverty and prayer, founded a bank and became wealthy. And by extension of their capital gain, they laid the foundations for centuries of discovery.

Paired with the breakthrough of individual achievement, the new philosophy of Humanism was also an element of the Renaissance. Humanism highlights the human virtues and concerns of life, rather than the proposed divine ones. It is the focus on education, the focus on knowledge and reality. Humanistic education involved studying the humanities; philosophy, language, literature, law, religion, and the arts were all parts of a Humanistic education.  Petrarch is considered the father of Humanism. He devoted his scholarly life to recovering Classical texts and literary excellence. It was Petrarch who first spread the ideals of Humanism to the people of the Renaissance. With the help of Classical texts, Humanism was able to transform Europe into an intellectual conflation.

Perhaps the most important element of the Renaissance was the rediscovery of the Classical Age. Evidence of this was abundant in the Renaissance. From the art to the architecture to the literature and new, wondrous ideas, the Renaissance flourished with the Classical Age as its power source. Renaissance men drew their inspiration from the works of ancient Greece and Rome, both in terms of art and philosophy. A prime example is that of Michelangelo’s David, a beautiful masterpiece. This sculpture, although biblical, could easily be compared to that of the Discus Thrower, a sculpture created by Myron of the Classical Ages. The same holds true for Brunelleschi’s famous dome in Florence, The Duomo. The Duomo is a brilliant architectural achievement, perhaps the most important in history. Brunelleschi constructed his Duomo with architectural concepts from ancient Greece and Rome. Other examples of the influence of Classical architecture are rampant throughout Europe in the form of religious, governmental, and commercial buildings. Perhaps the most obvious example of this element is School of Athens, a painting by Raphael. This painting depicts a blending of important persons from both the Renaissance and the Classical Age. It is a comparison between the two time periods, the two greatest explosions of knowledge in history.

One cannot discuss the Renaissance without mentioning the important concept of patronage, which is also a major element of the Renaissance. Patronage is support bestowed by one person to another to complete an endeavor, whether it is a piece of art, literature, or scientific discovery. It is most often in the form of financial aid by a group or individual. During the Renaissance, patronage flourished in Florence and other parts of Europe. Without the patrons who supported art and culture, the Renaissance would not have occurred. It was patronage that allowed great works to be made by those such as Leonardo, Michelangelo, or Brunelleschi. In Florence, the driving force was the Medici family. The Medici were patrons to a variety of famous artists, scientists, and writers. Their patronage allowed works such as Michelangelo’s David, Brunelleschi’s Duomo, and Leonardo’s and Galileo’s discoveries to be made. Patronage allowed for new ideas, concepts, and radical changes to be presented through art and culture. Controversial works such as Donatello’s David and Botticelli’s Birth of Venus would not have been possible without their patrons. Without patronage, artists would have struggled to make ends meet, and would have failed to achieve their goals. Without patronage, the Renaissance would not have existed.

Finally, the Renaissance may not have been such an affective time if it wasn’t for Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press was perhaps the most important invention of modern times. The printing press was a major catalyst in the development of both the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution later to come. It allowed for knowledge to spread rapidly and efficiently, allowing the spread of education to the masses. Without the printing press, the rediscovery of Classical ideals philosophies via text would not have been possible. Books such as Galileo’s Dialogue could have remained hidden to the world. With the printing press, the Bible could be printed in mass quantities and given to the qualities, which made it open to individual interpretation. The printing press also gave Martin Luther the tools to spread his Reformation. Without it, the Protestant Reformation may have been a minor thorn in the side of the Catholic Church, rather than the great problem it had been. Obviously, the printing press has remained one of the most important inventions in human history for good reason.

The Renaissance laid the foundations for the modern world, and the effects of such a great time are present everywhere. As Americans, the most obvious evidence of the effect of the Renaissance is right beneath our feet. The fact that we are here is partly due to the Renaissance. Christopher Columbus, who sailed to the New World in 1492, had a passion for exploration. This passion was fueled by the ideals created by the Renaissance. Without the Renaissance, this great country of America may have not been founded.

As discussed before, the invention of the printing press has been an influential force in modern times. Gutenberg’s printing press has allowed us to spread education around the world. The books on our shelves, the magazines scattered across the doctor’s office, this paper that I’m writing, these were all made possible by the printing press. The Renaissance created a need for Gutenberg’s invention, and the progress humanity has made since has only fueled the need.

Over time, Christianity has evolved from a unified, Catholic religion into many different sects. The Renaissance made this possible by supporting individual interpretation of the Bible. In the Renaissance, people began to search for the truth instead of blindly following the Church. This led to the Protestant Reformation; there are many Protestants in the world today because of this. With the Reformation, people began to build the courage to question the Church. And that, has led to different sects of Christianity such as Mormonism, Baptists, Methodists, and many others.

During the Renaissance, Machiavelli wrote his famous book The Prince. In this book, Machiavelli explains how a leader should lead. He explains how to attain power, and how to keep it. According to Machiavelli, ethics did not apply to leadership; for a leader, the ends justify the means. This book has been studied and analyzed by everyone who studied politics. It has tyrannical leaders who use any means necessary to achieve total control over their people. Although this may not be an overly-positive effect of the Renaissance, it is one that must be noted. 

 If the Renaissance had not occurred, we may have been stuck in the Dark Ages for an extended period of time. If it had not occurred, the Church would still control our lives, and the values of humanity would be ignored. Because of the Renaissance, humanity has progressed exponentially, and continues to do so. Some say the Renaissance is still occurring today, and maybe it is. Who knows where it will take us next?

The Renaissance was a distinct age from the Middle Ages. This is shown in the Revival of Classical ideas and way of thinking, the release of the ignorance blinding the people of the Middle Ages, and the pursuit of new knowledge that the writers, artists, doctors, and everyone involved in the Renaissance shared. The people in the Middle Ages finally began studying the geniuses of the Classical Age, something that had not been done for a thousand years, at least what was left of their work after the barbarians of the Middle Ages did all they could to destroy it. They also stopped being ignorant to the possibilities of a life, they began to realize there was a life outside Christianity and trying to reach salvation.

            One thing that made the Renaissance separate from the Middle Ages is the study and revival of the Classics. Wassace K. Ferguson said that “there was a great revival or rebirth of literature and the arts, after a thousand years of cultural sterility”. He says this about the Renaissance happening 1000 years after Rome’s fall when knowledge was actually pursued. Also in the Renaissance people began to consider themselves individual people rather than only a member of a larger group, a race, family, corporation . This is how people in the Classical Era lived; they considered themselves separate from each other as the Romans considered themselves different then the barbarians of the north. Another thing about the Renaissance is that knowledge was once again not only pursued by the church. In the Middle Ages all the people who could write were monks, learning in their secluded monasteries far away from civilization. Any average person that pursued knowledge was deemed a heretic and most likely killed. This all changed with the weakening of the Catholic Church and the rise and pursuit of knowledge.

            A large separation of the Renaissance and the Middle Ages was the ignorance of the Medieval people. Medieval people knew only their faith and their simple lives. Their Christian lives forced them to live only for heaven, and spend their lives trying to get to heaven. This changed when writers and preachers decided this was wrong and started spreading the word of new sects of Christianity and ways of living that allows a person to live their life rather than only use it as a gateway to the afterlife.

            The Renaissance also began the start of pursuit of new knowledge. They began to realize that this life is not only for getting to heaven or hell. They wanted to know new things about the human body and pursue knowledge of every aspect of human life and life on earth. Sketches by Leonardo Da Vinci, a Renaissance artist, show skeletons and muscular diagrams, this is the first time for a long time people thought about the human body and what it contains, which is good for knowledge. Also in the 14th and 15th centuries 49 universities were founded all over Europe, compared to 20 in the 12th and 13th centuries. This is more than twice as many in the 14th and 15th centuries than the two preceding them. This shows a larger pursuit for knowledge by average people.

            The Renaissance saw a new era of human life. It saw the revival of Classical Literature and Arts. It saw people not being as ignorant obsessed as they were in the Middle Ages, and also the pursuit of new knowledge on top of the studying of the Ancient Literature and Art. It was the transition period between the barbaric Middle Ages and the Modern Age. 

The Bosporus at Istanbul is one of the most celebrated of the many shores of the ancient world, and perhaps its most vivid frontier – the one that separates Europe from Asia. For more than a thousand years, ships of all nations have battled the fierce currents of this narrow strait, which joins the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and the Aegean, while smaller craft plied across the Golden Horn, the narrow arm of the Bosporus thrusting into the city between the misty domes and minarets of the mosques and the huddled passageways of the bazaars. The Bosporus is part of the geography of one of the most brilliant legends of history: the quest for the Golden Fleece.

In the first millennium BC, around the Aegean, the most plentiful source of gold were the fine grains of gold dust mixed with river sands. The most effective method of retrieving alluvial gold was by washing the sands over sheepskins. The gold dust clung to the greasy fibres of the wool. When it could hold no more, the Golden Fleece was dried in the sun and then incinerated in a fire. The grains of gold melted together into blobs, which could be recovered from the ashes. The richest sources of alluvial gold were the rivers of Anatolia which flowed into the Black Sea, and it was through the Bosporus to those distant regions that the Greek adventurers sailed in search of fortune as much as glory.

That hunger for gold was an integral force in the great surge of expansion which followed the revival of Western Europe from the paralysis of the Dark Ages. The fall of the Roman Empire had brought to a halt the technological and social advances which had raised the Mediterranean powers. There followed a stagnation of thought and enterprise in Western Europe, and a disruption of trade and contacts between East and West, and between Africa and Europe. Each region was thrown back on its own resources , to survive as best it could. It was a period of universal disorder in mid Europe.  The fall of the Roman Empire was in fact no more and no less than the collapse of the Western Empire; the Eastern Empire not only survived but flourished. When Constantine established his capital in Greek city of Byzantium on the Bosporus and renamed it Constantinople, the Byzantine empire entered a period of stability unmatched in the Western world, and gained a pre-eminence that it was to keep for seven hundred years. Meanwhile, the rival Persian Empire was still strong in the east but kept ashore in east Anatolia and Euphrates.  The rise of Islamic Empire came as the Arabs burst out of the desert to challenge, conquer, and finally defeat both empires and inherit their civilization, specially the knowledge and technologies. At their peak, the Islamic Empire was stretched from Mesopotamia, to central Asia, North Africa, as well as east and south west Europe. Their eminence lasted over seven centuries and many wars and encounters occurred with European and Asian powers in this period.  However, the distinct rise and revival of Europe was from the Germanic tribes which had overrun the Western Empire emerged the peoples who would lay the foundations of European civilization: the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Vikings.

www.fisk-knives.com/Mace.jpg  A Mace Club, Medieval Weapon.

In 1982, I married a man with the surname of Mace. On our wedding day I happily took his surname and made it mine. I have now been a Mace for 28 years. I have given birth to two Maces and we have two granddaughters, who are Maces. Oh and I still have that Mace husband of mine. Until the time I met my husband, I had never heard of the last name of Mace.

As a Navy family we traveled and we were always the only Maces at each command. Yes, there were Smiths, Jones, Bakers, Rodrigues, Brooks and many other common and less than common surnames around but we were always the only Maces. It became a game for me at each new command to search the phone book for Maces.

The only state we found with more than it’s fair share of Maces was Utah, my husbands home state. There you can throw a stick and hit a Mace. Our home of Pensacola, Florida has three Maces listed, us and our two adult children.

In our early years of marriage, I asked my Mace husband where his name came from and we did some research which I have recently updated. Here is what I found out about the history and the use of the word or name of Mace.

The earliest definition of the word Mace has it’s origins in the Celtic culture and means: The son of the rock.

The word Mace may refer to many different types of things and includes the following:

1. Mace as a Medieval Weapon: The Mace Club a weapon with a heavy head on a solid shaft used to bludgeons opponents. The Mace Flail a spiked weapon on a chain.

2. Mace as a unit of measurement :  An English term used for a traditional Chinese measurement of weight.

3. Mace spice: A cooking spice obtained from the dried covering of nutmeg. It gives the flavor of nutmeg with a hint of pepper. It can be used for some desserts and to add flavor to beef or pork roast.

4. Mace spray: A type of tear gas used mainly by law enforcement, commonly confused with pepper spray

5. Mace businesses : There is a Mace Construction Firm in the UK and a Mace chain of convenience stories in the UK and Ireland.

You can claim to live in Mace, if you are currently living in or have lived in these two places:

1. Mace Commune in Normandy, France. Named after Hill 262 in Normandy during the World War Russia, the hill was known as “ The Mace “.

2. A small town in the United States known as Mace, Indiana.

Here are a few other uses for the word or name Mace.
 

1. A Ceremonial Mace : An ornamented object used in civic ceremonies.

2. The Mace : In debates, competitions can be named “ The Mace “ after the above named ceremonial mace.

3. Mace a game : Mace: The Dark Ages , is a fighting game for arcades and the Nintendo 64 system.

4. MGM-13 Mace : A United States tactical surface-to-surface missile.

5. Mace Windu: A character in the popular Star Wars movies.

As surprised as I was by my updated research, I still found the old saying to be true. A Mace by any name is still a Mace.
 

 The MGM-13 Mace. Image via Wikipedia

 The Maces. Christmas 2009. Photo by PR Mace

          In the past various items have been used to carry out this practice, such as whips, canes, cat-o-nine tails, and sjambok, but the use of these were reserved for torture and interrogation as well as punishment for crimes committed against both church and state. During the middle Ages it was often seen as the lesser of three evils when used as punishment. For most the order went as follows: flogging, imprisonment and finally execution. This pattern of penitence is still followed by many countries that harbor a more black and white view of justice in today’s world. However with that being said there is not one country in today’s society that does not have it as a part of their history. It has also however evolved into a form of pleasure that is practiced within the D/s BDSM community within the confines of a safe, sane, and consensual application.

             In this sub-culture this practice has become somewhat of an art form in its own right. What makes it unique within this setting is that it does not come without its own set of guidelines. Great pains and attention to detail are utilized to ensure maximum pleasure is derived from its use. Not everyone is cut out for this particular style of stimulation and therefore it is not recommended for everyone, even among those within the sub-culture itself. A trained Master or Mistress will know the intricacies of this particular form of punishment/pleasure and it should only be performed by those who have the experience necessary to carry it out in a safe manner for if it is not done by qualified persons, then permanent damage and injury can result from it. This would completely defeat the purpose behind it, which is ultimately the sensation of pain becoming said pleasure.

             Within the D/s BDSM community a flogger is generally 2 to 3 feet in length from handle to end. The materials used can vary, though most masters and mistresses prefer leather above all else. The handles are often braided leather with the tails being made of thin strips of leather, approximately a ¼ inch in width. On a side note and a humorous one at that, if you are a fashion conscious person, they do come in a multitude of colors. The environment in which this activity occurs is determined by both the Master/Mistress and the slave during the negotiation process. This includes, but is not limited to, the amount of lashes at any given time as well as the implement to be used. This is often determined by the level of pain agreed upon and by the scene decided upon.

             The act of flogging will usually go something like the following scenario. First the slave is either restrained and bent over some form of apparatus or tied and shackled onto a St. Andrew’s cross. Once this is completed, the Master/Mistress will indulge in building up the anticipation of what is to come by using such phrases as “who’s been a bad boy” or “who’s been a naughty girl”. The act of flogging, itself, soon follows. With each swing of the wrist, the Master/Mistress takes great care ensuring that only the areas that are well muscled, or areas where the body’s fat deposits rest, are the only areas affected. In order to avoid the dangers of injury, they will avoid areas such as the abdomen and face. Some of the more practiced Masters/Mistresses will even aim for the breasts, but with just the right amount of force so as to sting, rather then injure. When this is performed properly there should not be remaining any visible scarring or marks upon the slave’s body.

             The psychology behind this is that with every landing of the flogger’s tails, endorphins are released in the brain, which is laden upon the slaves already heightened awareness, as a result of any prior actions that have taken place. Society, and most psychiatrists, will undoubtedly classify this practice as abnormal behavior or a sign of mental illness. To the Master/Mistress however, it is a perfectly acceptable way in which to garner maximum pleasure and arousal from their slave. To society in general, all of this appears as torturous and barbaric in both its nature and practice. This, I feel, is largely due to the lack of knowledge of its history as well as the lack of distinctions made between punishment for crimes and its use as a tool of pleasure. They often fail to realize that the floggers of today are not the floggers of the Dark-Ages. In those times, brutality was the only desire. Floggers of that era were generally woven with bits of glass in them or the tips were adorned with metal that had been shaped into hooks, or talons if preferred. The floggers of today are designed to sting but, as long as it is in the hands of those experienced in its uses and dangers, they will not injure.

             As I have stated in past writings, the D/s BDSM lifestyle is not for everyone. Those involved know, and fully understand, that some pain is indeed involved. But with careful preparation and after care, as well as heeding the message behind the mantra of “Safe, Sane & Consensual”, the lifestyle provides an alternative to what some have come to perceive as a stagnant relationship based on a societal interpretation of what is normal and acceptable and what is not. Flogging is an art, make no mistake on that. Like all art it is open for interpretation and debate. This is as it should be, for it is a source of pleasure to some and a source of revulsion to others. I would argue that it is this diverse reaction that often adds spice to something that can be fulfilling in a sexual way for those involved.