And lost myself for a while in that heady atmosphere’

A ruin now, the once proud stone

Set down, midst Beauvale land

Should haunt the ghost of Henry’s vilest past

And taunt him once again

Those Martyrs set their lives at nought

And never yielding, soon were caught

They could have chosen King ’bove God

They could have given ‘liegence to a mortal tyrant he

They could have hailed him as the grace

Above their own beliefs

They would have known his minions were too grand

Yet doomed to hang, they kept their faith

And did not bow to threats of his command

Centuries slipped away as visitors were welcomed to the cluster of tents: heraldic flags and banners-flying high, proclaiming we had reached the encampment of ‘Team Falchion’ fourteenth century re-enactment knights: dedicated to the memory of Sir Nicholas de Cantilupe, Lord of Ilkeston and founder of Beauvale Priory, and whose remains lie at rest in Lincoln Cathedral.

The pious knights, squires, levied peasantry and retinue were realistically dressed in the most natural way with artefacts and weaponry genuinely created, to accurately reflect living and working conditions of the time.

I entered a Roman Catholic knight’s cosy, circular tent, containing his bed, complete with decorative inner curtain and feather pillows, sheepskin rugs, laid on authentic matting. An iron banded wooden trunk sat just inside the entrance, containing his personal possessions and doubling as a low table. Spread over this, on an embroidered sleeve, lay his strung-bead-Rosary, tankard, and green-bohemian-glass goblets, his sheathed dagger, working knife and wooden food bowl.

We were treated to displays of ‘knights, in man to man combat’ Squires doing battle, full of enthusiastic violence: if not such skilful moves: archery exhibitions with the longbow and demonstrations of field manoeuvres by fully armed soldiers. These included pikemen and bowmen and the new musketry of the time, loading and firing (we were told these weapons would never catch on – far too slow and ponderous.)

There were yeoman farmers and their wives and monks and minstrels mingling with the crowd.

Robin Hood was alluded to, and Dougie the Wood, had his beautifully crafted artefacts on display.

Many other enthusiasts were present, giving displays and selling their medieval wares, including ‘The Knights of Skirbeck’ from Lincolnshire with interactive displays of food, cookery and games, as well as armour and weapons (all their equipment being freely accessible.)

All credit to Abbey Farm’s proprietors; Anne and Tony Whyte: for having the inspiration, commitment and determination to present this vivid spectacle of medieval life: for one unforgettable, fascinating weekend, the past was king.  

Image via Wikipedia : Pope Benedict us  XVI 

The Vatican City, also called as the Holy See, is the headquarters of one billion strong Roman Catholics living throughout the world. It is the seat of the Pope Benedict XVI, the ecclesiastical head of the Vatican City. He was elected in the year 2005 by the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church and he holds his papal position for life.

Image via Wikipedia : Panorama of  St.peters Square in the Vatican City.

The territorial extent of the Vatican City is only 0.44 sq.km and has a population strength of just around 800 (April,2009) and an employees strength of 3000 living outside the Vatican City. The people of Vatican City are not permanent residents of the city. Hence, the Vatican City does not collect any tax from its citizens. There is not even a single street name in the Vatican City, even though it boasts of a postal system.

Image via Wikipedia : Panoramic image of the Vatican City

Image via Wikipedia  escription : Vatican City

Can you still call the Vatican City which does not even have a system of taxation and does not confer a permanent citizenship to its residents, a State?

But your doubts are not bona fide. The Vatican City fulfills the prerequisites of a state. It has a territorial extent (though very small) with clear-cut international boundaries with an erected conclave separating it from the city of Rome; The Vatican City was created in the year 1929 by the Treaty of Lateran entered into between Mussolini and the then Pope. But, the Holy See had been a sovereign entity from the medieval times.

The Vatican City has the following unmistakable proofs to show that it is a state or country:-

1)Elected Monarchy:

Image via Wikipedia : Palace of the Governorate of Vatican City State

The Pope is the non-hereditary, elected monarch, who rules with absolute authority. As a head of the state he is the combination of legislative, executive and judicial powers. In fact the Pope is the only absolute monarch in Europe.

Image via Wikipedia : Vatican with Pope Benedict XVI

2)The Government and the Institutions:

The Pope exercises the supreme legislative, executive and judicial power over the Holy See and the Vatican City State. As the central government of the catholic church, the Holy See has a legal status that permits to enter into treaties and to send and receive diplomatic representatives.

3)Administration of the Vatican City State:

The Pope has entrusted the administration of the Vatican City State to a Pontifical Commission. Vatican City State Gendarmerie are responsible for the security.The Vatican City State has its own Post Office, Commissary, bank, railway station and electrical generating plant.

i)Postal system:

Though Vatican City does not have any single street that has been named, it has a unique and efficient postal system.A mail booked from the Vatican City to any international city reaches faster than from Rome, the capital of Italy, which is situated just a few hundreds of meters away from the Vatican City. In fact, as many as 7,200 mails are booked by a person in a year from the Vatican City, than elsewhere in the world.

ii)Communication system:

The Vatican City has a country code top level domain known as .va and currently there are nine publicly known domains.(Wiki).There is also a Radio broadcasting service called Vatican Radio (Wiki) which was established by Marconi, the father of the Radio.

4)Administration of the Holy See:

Image via Wikipedia : Vatican Museums are the worlds 37 th most visited tourist destination with over 4.2 millions a year.

The Pope exercises his authority through the Roman Curia and the Papal Civil Service.

Three tribunals are responsible for judicial power which deals with matters of conscience, appeals including annulments of marriage; the Apostolic Signatura is the final court of appeal.

5)Citizenship:

The citizenship is not a birth right in the Vatican City. Citizens are mainly members of the clergy. They enjoy their citizenship along with their family members including their children as long as they reside in the Vatican City and their citizenship is revoked when they leave the country.Hence, there is no annual birth rate nor there are school going children in the Vatican City. However, the Vatican City has 100 % literacy. Suffrage is limited to cardinals only who are below 80 years old.

6)Revenue:

Image via Wikipedia : Stamp Machine of the Vatican City Post Office

The Vatican City, though does not levy any taxes from its citizens, mint its own coins.The state receives the revenue derived from tourism, publishing works of Vatican City, revenue generated from the sale of postage stamps, revenue obtained from admission fee for museums etc. Apart from that, the donations received from the catholic community from throughout the world promote the revenues of Vatican City significantly. According to the latest available figures, the estimated budget revenue for the year 2008 was $ 344 millions and the expenditure for the year 2008 was $ 345.5 millions.

7)Security:

The Vatican City has its own security guards numbering about 120 and they are none other than Swiss Guards, all of them unmarried catholic men; they also look after the personal security of the Pope. It is the responsibility of the Italian Government to safeguard the Vatican City from any external threat.

8)Languages:

The official languages of the Vatican City are Latin and Italian.The ATMs in the Vatican City are operated in the Latin language, the only country that operates its ATM in the Latin language, one of the oldest languages in the world.

9) Foreign Relations:

The Holy See conducts active diplomacy. It has international relations with as many as 178 nations. Though the Vatican City State is not a member of the United Nations, it has an observer status. However, it actively participates in the activities of the UN.

Thus the Vatican City State with Pope as its head has multifarious activities acting as the central Government of the Roman Catholics. Therefore, it has all the paraphernalia of a Country or State and no one can dispute its credentials.

Misanthropic and Anti-Utopian Disaster Ahead

Such is the easily observed public attitude of Nancy Pelosi and such other dedicated leftists who eagerly support the Culture of Death; she genuinely thinks, for instance, birth control will boost the nation’s economy; this is since there will be, by definition, less mouths to feed; such is her obviously Malthusian pessimism concerning, one supposes, more mere human trash that can be, thus, properly avoided from appearing on this endangered planet.   The best way to eliminate the creation of biological hazards is to exterminate people; the logic is frighteningly simple as it is rather quite evil as well.

Although the primitive thinking of Malthus has been systematically disproved (by, e.g., the economist Julian Simon, etc.) many times over, she surely represents the general consensus of most leftist opinion concerning the great need to restrict population growth whenever possible, which is the basis of what gets called freedom of choice, in America and the Western world, regarding human sexual reproduction.   And, of course, there are many actual and suitably morally dangerous implications revolving around such nihilistic thinking.

It is generally thought, for instance, that Pres. Obama will easily come to sign the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA); however, more likely is it the politically effective case that he will take a clever, cunning, and sly Machiavellian way out by trying, through Executive Orders and other means, to essentially achieve what the FOCA would do; this will be for 1.) skillfully avoiding a formal and direct confrontation with the conservatives, 2.) giving the appearance of being more moderate than might be supposed, and  3.) achieving the disarming of many opponents who would be more intensely energized and focused if he were to seek an aggressively direct activation of FOCA.

Most people do not know just how militantly pro-abortion Obama really is, since they have not closely followed his entire political career.   Abortion could become the major focus of sustained political opposition to his Administration; he knows that.   It is often forgotten, nonetheless, that more than 10,000 times more people were arrested for right-to-life protests in America than was ever the case for, e.g., the entire modern civil rights movement.  Therefore, the Great One can achieve essentially and indirectly almost all of the ultimate goals of a FOCA without directly confronting the right-to-life people, within the context of American society.

This clearly leftist ideological thrust sought now by the pro-abortion, pro-death, forces that have backed the supposed need for FOCA would, therefore, tip the balance of power rather heavily toward the Culture of Death.   Among others, there was someone who tried to give a most profound and deeply thoughtful warning.

Prophetic Warning Unheeded

Leo Strauss, an often unappreciated 20th century philosopher, had tried, valiantly and repeatedly, to urgently warn Western, and especially American, academics, philosophers, political scientists, intellectuals, and other people against trying to recreate the terrible intellectual, political, social, and cultural conditions that he had, in fact, experienced during the German Weimar Republic.   For this, he was and is still generally vilified and mainly condemned; sometimes, criticism of him accused him or intimated strongly that was just some kind of fascist or, at the least, a clearly authoritarian-minded thinker.   

Of course, there are, in adamant opposition, many Straussians who have a very different and extremely positive view of his good efforts to champion freedom of thought, political tolerance, civil liberty, and moral responsibility.  These are, therefore, two absolutely opposed views as to what exactly Strauss had intended to teach; both views cannot be right; one must be, finally, wrong.  Too many people forget, e.g., that tyrants can,  sometimes, get themselves elected, which means that democracy is never a simple or absolute guarantee of the certain and confident protection of all social civil liberty and civic freedom.

Unfortunately, Strauss often gets mainly interpreted, usually through a number of his students, who did not necessarily follow properly the intellectual or philosophical strictures of their teacher; some chose the dark side of seeing classical political philosophy as a convenient means of creating power structures or seeking power for themselves; thus, even good tools of thought can, of course, be wrongly perverted toward many bad ends by (imperfect) human will and its perversity, which, theologically speaking, often gets classified, appropriately, as sin.

Although he did not explicitly take on any purely religious angle, he was yet intimately concerned about promoting sound morals and ethics.  In his important philosophy book, e.g., Thoughts on Machiavelli, Strauss properly noted that the evil teaching of that thinker was not simply the advocacy of amoral behavior in gaining and keeping political power; rather, Machiavelli’s dark teaching that neither good nor evil really exists is the truly most evil assertion of that shocking advocate of modernism in cognition, which, of course, rejects all Christian teachings.  

Some important books by Strauss significantly include: Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy, Persecution and the Art of Writing, Natural Right and History, The City and Man, The Political Philosophy of Hobbes: Its Basis and Its Genesis, and his On Tyranny: An Interpretation of Xenophon’s Hiero, among many others that could be interestingly cited.

Strauss, to only quickly here give a bare outline, had critically stressed the moral and philosophical superiority of classical politics, classical political philosophy, as being true philosophy; this is over and against the evil of modernism, of modern politics, seen best in the destructive thoughts of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Nietzsche, Marx, Lenin, and all those who seek power on earth, which, in effect, creates an anti-philosophy.   In terms of political modernity, therefore, even democracy does not guarantee that truth will win against the effectiveness of public lies because, among other salient and highly important reasons, truth ought never to be put to any vote, democratic or otherwise.   This lack of respect for the truth, furthermore, gives rise to horrid regimes dedicated to various degrees of power worship as a substitute for religion in a society and culture.

Part of the direct implications of such an anti-philosophy or ideological thinking creates the necessary conditions that do then give rise to a Weimar Republic; in turn, this quite horrible situation, Strauss vehemently insisted, must eventually lead to a despotic or totalitarian regime as a simply logical consequence of the deification of Man, through the transformation of philosophy/politics into ideology, the rationalization of the secularist-oriented or materialistic worship of power on earth.

Therefore, the ultimate and integral success of anything that successfully reaches the genuine level of a FOCA must lead to the rapid degradation and degeneration, decline and demoralization, of American society and culture that will be, in turn, strongly reflected in its politics, sooner or later.  This will be called here the phenomenon and process of Weimarization, the democratically-inspired secularist-oriented attempt to go full force into the nominalist realm of promoting deconstructionism, as a nihilistic manner of thought, in all areas of national life and culture.  

A Passion for Death

Every (degenerate) Weimar-style regime necessarily carries within itself the vile elements of its own appropriate and requisite destruction; thus, institutionalized moral chaos, brought about by an ideology-obsessed politics integrally indifferent to truth itself, cannot be rationally forever sustained in the raw face of forces that are, logically, even more ruthlessly indifferent to truth.  

The truly dire, socio-suicidal consequences will then become quite inevitably devastating as this nation’s social, cultural, moral, and spiritual core rots intensely within itself until the attendant chaos calls for what few people may really want but what the many will, nonetheless, simply deserve.

Strauss, justly famous for practicing the magnanimity of ancient classical thinking, readily forgave the vast bulk of today’s political scientists and political philosophers because he said they were truly ignorant of two highly important matters; they know not that they do fiddle and that they do so while Rome (America/the West) burns.   Or, perhaps, as T.S. Eliot more simply put it: This is the way the world ends, This is the way the world ends, Not with a bang but a whimper.   Decay and decline of morals and attendant political structures need not be that overtly dramatic to still be that effective and conclusive.

At a certain point in the course of events, moreover, there develops a compulsive passion for death that pervades, directly or indirectly, virtually every social, cultural, and moral institution; a civilization decays and dies off, especially as its leadership classes lose faith in the very basis for their own existence.   This is a great part of the meaning and unspoken significance of the predicted victory of the Great One over an inadequate specimen of the old order; he, John McCain, is convinced of his own obsolescence, as is easily evidenced by the kind of tepid campaign he ran that had then guaranteed his quite well-deserved defeat.   

The former main leaders of American political society, principally the WASP upper-class of society, could not, therefore, put forth even an adequate candidate for the highest political office in this country because of their degenerate natures; surely, it’s well said that a fish rots from the head down to the tail.  This loss of faith in themselves is part of what seems to be the historical cycle often remarked upon of wooden shoes ascending stairs and polished leather boots descending those same stairs.  

The question may be now raised, profitably, as to if a certain critical mass has been reached such that there is the point of no return as to the full ending of all that exists, as to its being, thus, greatly prefigured in the last national election.  Future events and actions will help to tell the truth of such speculation.

Part of the shocking proof of things is that, e.g., well over 50% of this nation’s Roman Catholics who had voted had ended up voting for a very militantly pro-abortion candidate, which is, of course, absolutely contrary to every moral teaching of their church concerning the needed defense of life, especially innocent human life.  Symbolically speaking, it was easily equivalent to have aggressively voted for the enthusiastic crucifixion of Jesus Christ because, as Scripture (Gospel of Matthew) truly teaches, “in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”  

If these and other so-called Christians, in this country, can act and think the way they do, what can be said of the majority of the American population itself?   This lust for death, as the American birth rate (meaning minus illegal aliens) demonstrates, produces, first, moral sterility and then physical sterility because both the will and intellect had, previously, become substantially sterile. 

It is the end result of a fulfilled modernism seen best in a non-Christian society and culture, meaning Japan, which leads toward an inevitable fatalism in terms of their deliberate racial destruction; after them, comes Europe; but, America will, definitely, eventually catch up if the major trends basically persist; for demography, as has been well said many times, is destiny.

And, Weimarization, therefore, logically shows the way for fulfilling that nihilistic destiny, more than what most people in this country may be now willing to admit openly.  Seen in this highly brilliant and revealing light, it becomes clear more than ever that, e.g., abortion is not really a single issue matter; it is, therefore, an entire constellation or galaxy of tremendous issues whose center is the always heroic fight against the Culture of Death epitomized manifestly by abortion and, moreover, by all that it necessarily means, both directly and indirectly considered.  

America’s Future Considered

The achievement of anything like the FOCA in America will, therefore, be so highly and irrevocably indicative of the final battle in this culture war; this is supremely ever because the overt moral and spiritual line will have been necessarily crossed, as to the greatly improper and immoral rendering of something to Caesar that only, in fact, belongs to God alone.  

Will democracy and democratic values still suffice, furthermore, as people will be then forced, by law no less, to fully descend into the ever damnable pit where Satan celebrates his empirical victory?

Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel who saw the world as an experience and not set in rules first challenged the Bible. This idea led Ferdinand Baur to make people forced to see Jesus in a different light. The thought that Jesus might not be what everyone thought He was came into context. ‘All this was a speculative trend, but stimulated much historical inquiry into the actualities of what we could know about Jesus’ (Smart 354).

People began to see the Bible in more terms than belief. The Bible was beginning to be treated historical wise and not authoritatively. This was reinforced by Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species, which was published in 1859. Evolution was what Darwin proclaimed. The human species came from the mutation of animals and apes. This challenged the Creation of God, which leads to humans not believing that they were created for a purpose and that they were to serve God so that they could enjoy a life after death in Heaven.

Evolution, away from the Christian aspect, should have been considered a step above and towards the right direction. ‘Evolution is good news: it hints at how we have risen from earlier stalkings and screams in the undergrowth to our present moral stature-above all, so the argument goes, the Christian religion-has played crucial part’ (Smart 356).

The Roman Catholic Church revived religion by reaffirming the authority that it had in the Vatican I in Rome in 1870. The Pope and his doctrine would be held in high regard and people were to listen to the Pope and the authority that he held. Some people rebelled against this to form Christian Socialism and started Methodists and Baptists.

The teaching of Karl Marx and other thinkers such as Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin once again challenged Christianity. Many philosophers had great influence as well. The blending of countries and domination over each other in Europe leads to the work of missionaries. Karl Barth, who wrote Church Dogmatics, challenged the Church by saying that everything that we know about God is through revelation only.

The Ecumenical Movement after World War II and the Vatican II (1962-1965) proved that the Catholic Church had become less reserved and that it’s doctrine was more loosely translated. Strengths and weaknesses were prevalent in the Church but where there were weaknesses the strengths confirmed the movement of religion. ‘The weakness is that the Churches appear statistically in decline; the strength is that voluntary religion is deeper than conforming religion’ (Smart 363). Christianity in Europe changed from being forced into it to deciding what was good for the individual. When people weren’t forced into it they started to seek out religion for themselves and take on their own view of the Bible.

North America was also hit with a tremendous change in Christianity. Christianity broke into many different sects with different denominations such as Mormons, Baptist, and Methodists. The Great Awakening and the Enlightenment led to a form of different beliefs and the breakdown of Christianity. Many different people took bits and pieces of Christianity and formed there own religion but all based on the belief in God.

The Methodists was started by John Wesley and was influenced by Moravians and Pietism. His goal was to revitalize the Church of England. Roman Catholics were allowed to tithe in North America by the passing of The Quebec Act of 1774. ‘Maryland had in principle been a colony for English Catholics, but a Puritan majority in the colony repealed the Act of Toleration in 1664, and Catholics were deprived of voting rights’ (370).

Unitarian Christianity thought that Christ was not God and was subordinate to Him. This movement was lead by William Ellery Channing in 1819. Transcendentalism that was featured by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau reverted back to Nature. Joseph Smith II who said that an angel came down and told him about gold plates, which became The Book of Mormon, started the Mormans. He was killed and one of his followers, Brigham Young moved the people from Illinois to Salt Lake City, Utah. Many Mormans were persecuted because of their belief in polygamy and the new teachings.

Mass immigration lead to the start of many Catholic schools in North America and many different forms of Christianity. After the Civil War many former slaves became interested in their own “black religion”. Richard Allan started the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1816. Africa was a genuine symbol for many African Americans who felt that in order to practice their “black religion” freely was in Africa. ‘Ministers found it natural to blend into secular organizations, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and in general to take part in politics’ (374).

Other forms of Christianity that started in the 19^th century were the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Science. Seventh Day Adventists believed that the holy day is the seventh day of the week, which is a Saturday and was started by Ellen Gould White and her husband James. The Jehovah Witnesses believe in the name of Jehovah and that Satan has been ruling the world and that it is there duty to bring people to the love of Jehovah. Mary Baker Eddy started Christian Science, which believes in the blend of science and religion. She believed that she recovered from an accident because she was reading a book of Christ’s healings. She started the First Church of Christ Scientist in Boston, in 1892.

Another movement of Christianity is the fundamentalists and evangelicals. The fundamentalists believe in the infallibility of the Bible, The Virgin Birth of Christ and the Second Coming. Evangelicals believe in the authority of the Bible and the spiritual life. Dwight L. Moody started the premillenial movement during the middle of the 19^th century. C.I Scofield translated the Bible and believed in closely reading it.

Equal Rights and women again challenged Christianity and the formation of it and still continue to do even today. Things began to change because of the variety of Americans and social classes. Classes and race affect religion as do cultural integration. As we have seen Christianity was greatly affected by different people and different religions. It is impossible to obtain one certain religion with out being influenced by other religions.