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February 21

February 21

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 313 days remaining, 314 in leap years.

Events


- 362 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria
- 1431 - The trial of Joan of Arc begins.
- 1440 - The Prussian Confederation is formed.
- 1543 - Battle of Wayna Daga - A combined army of Ethiopian and Portuguese troops defeated a Muslim army led by Ahmed Gragn.
- 1613 - Mikhail I is elected unanimously as Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia .
- 1743 - The premiere in London of George Frideric Handel's oratorio, "Samson".
- 1804 - The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren ironworks in Wales.
- 1842 - John J. Greenough patents the sewing machine.
- 1848 - Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto.
- 1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune publishes its first newspaper.
- 1875 - Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history.
- 1878 - The first telephone book is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.
- 1885 - The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.
- 1893 - Thomas Edison receives two U.S. patents for a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and for a "Stop Device"
- 1916 - World War I: In France the Battle of Verdun begins.
- 1925 - The New Yorker publishes its first issue.
- 1937 - Initial flight of the first successful flying car, Waldo Waterman's Arrowbile
- 1937 - The League of Nations bans foreign national "volunteers" in the Spanish Civil War.
- 1947 - In New York City Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.
- 1948 - NASCAR is incorporated.
- 1952 - Language Martyrs' Day, marking language-revolution in the then East Pakistan (currently, the independent state of People's Republic of Bangladesh)
- 1952] - The government of Winston Churchill abolishes Identity Cards in the UK to "set the people free".
- 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson discover the structure of the DNA molecule.
- 1960 - Cuban leader Fidel Castro nationalizes all businesses in Cuba.
- 1965 - Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City by members of the Nation of Islam.
- 1970 - Swissair Flight 330: A mid-air bomb explosion and subsequent crash kills 38 passengers and nine crew members near Zürich, Switzerland.
- 1971 - The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.
- 1972 - President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.
- 1972 - The Soviet unmanned spaceship Luna 20 lands on the Moon.
- 1973 - Over the Sinai Desert, Israeli fighter aircraft shoot down a Libyan Airlines jet killing 108.
- 1974 - The long-running Japanese comic strip "Sazae-san]"] publishes its final installment in the [[Asahi Shimbun]].
- 1974 - The last [[Israeli soldiers leave the west bank of the Suez Canal in carrying out a truce with Egypt.
- 1975 - Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.
- 1986 - The Legend of Zelda was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan.//Metallica released their 3rd album Master of Puppets.
- 1988 - Jimmy Swaggart, on his own televangelism program being taped in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, confesses that he is guilty of an unspecified sin and will be temporarily leaving the pulpit.
- 1995 - Serkadji prison mutiny in Algeria; 4 guards and 96 prisoners killed in a day and a half.
- 1995 - Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.
- 2000 - David Letterman returns to The Late Show over a month after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass surgery.
- 2003 - Over 100 concert goers die in a fire during a performance of the rock band Great White.
- 2004 - The first European political party organization, the European Greens, is established in Rome.

Births


- 1484 - Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg (d. 1535)
- 1556 - Sethus Calvisius, German calendar reformer (d. 1615)
- 1621 - Rebecca Nurse, American accused witch (d. 1692)
- 1675 - Franz Xaver Josef von Unertl, Bavarian politician (d. 1750)
- 1688 - Queen Ulrike Eleonora of Sweden (d. 1741)
- 1705 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer (d. 1781)
- 1721 - John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (d. 1796)
- 1723 - Louis-Pierre Anquetil, French historian (d. 1808)
- 1728 - Tsar Peter III of Russia, husband of Catherine the Great (d. 1762)
- 1791 - Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)
- 1801 - John Henry Newman, English Catholic cardinal (d. 1890)
- 1821 - Charles Scribner, American publisher (d. 1871)
- 1836 - Léo Delibes, French composer (d. 1891)
- 1844 - Charles-Marie Widor, French organist and composer (d. 1937)
- 1865 - John Haden Badley, English author and school founder (d. 1967)
- 1867 - Otto Hermann Kahn, German millionaire and benefactor (d. 1934)
- 1880 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
- 1885 - Sacha Guitry, Russian dramatist, writer, director, and actor (d. 1957)
- 1893 - Celia Lovsky, Russian-born actress (d. 1979)
- 1893 - Andrés Segovia, Spanish guitarist (d. 1987)
- 1895 - Carl Peter Henrik Dam Danish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1976)
- 1903 - Fairfax M. Cone, American advertising executive (d. 1977)
- 1903 - Anaïs Nin, French writer (d. 1977)
- 1907 - W. H. Auden, English poet (d. 1973)
- 1910 - Douglas Bader, British pilot (d. 1982)
- 1910 - Carmine Galante, Italian-born gangster (d. 1979)
- 1915 - Ann Sheridan, American actress (d. 1967)
- 1917 - Lucille Bremer, American actress (d. 1996)
- 1925 - Sam Peckinpah, American director (d. 1984)
- 1924 - Robert Mugabe first President of Zimbabwe
- 1927 - Erma Bombeck, American humorist (d. 1996)
- 1927 - Hubert de Givenchy, French fashion designer
- 1933 - Nina Simone, American singer (d. 2003)
- 1934 - Rue McClanahan, American actress
- 1936 - Barbara Jordan, American politician (d. 1996)
- 1937 - King Harald V of Norway
- 1937 - Gary Lockwood, American actor
- 1941 - James Wong, Hong Kong composer (d. 2004)
- 1942 - Margarethe von Trotta, French actor, film director, and writer
- 1943 - David Geffen, American record producer
- 1946 - Tyne Daly, American actress
- 1946 - Anthony Daniels, British actor
- 1946 - Alan Rickman, English actor
- 1947 - Olympia Snowe, American politician
- 1949 - Jerry Harrison, American musician
- 1953 - Christine Ebersole, American actress
- 1953 - William Petersen, American actor
- 1955 - Kelsey Grammer, American actor
- 1958 - Mary Chapin Carpenter, American singer
- 1958 - Alan Trammell, baseball player and manager
- 1961 - Davey Allison, American race car driver (d. 1993)
- 1961 - Christopher Atkins, American actor
- 1961 - Martha Hackett, American actress
- 1961 - Chuck Palahniuk, American writer
- 1963 - William Baldwin, American actor
- 1967 - Leroy Burrell, American sprinter
- 1969 - Eric Wilson, American musician (Sublime)
- 1970 - Michael Slater, Australian cricketer
- 1972 - Seo Taiji, Korean musician
- 1974 - Ivan Campo, Spanish footballer
- 1974 - Roberto Heras, Spanish cyclist
- 1975 - Affirmed, American race horse (d. 2001)
- 1977 - Kevin Rose, American television host
- 1979 - Pascal Chimbonda, French footballer
- 1979 - Jennifer Love Hewitt, American actress and singer
- 1983 - Braylon Edwards, American football player
- 1986 - Charlotte Church, Welsh singer

Deaths


- 1437 - King James I of Scotland (b. 1394)
- 1471 - John of Rokycan, Czech Catholic archbishop
- 1513 - Pope Julius II (b. 1443)
- 1543 - Ahmed Gragn, Sultan of Adal
- 1554 - Hieronymus Bock, German botanist
- 1595 - Robert Southwell, English poet
- 1668 - John Thurloe, English Puritan spy (b. 1616)
- 1677 - Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (b. 1632)
- 1715 - Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore, Governor of the Province of Maryland (b. 1637)
- 1788 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
- 1824 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon's wife, Josephine (b. 1781)
- 1846 - Emperor Ninko of Japan, (b. 1800)
- 1862 - Justinus Kerner, German poet (b. 1786)
- 1926 - Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1853)
- 1938 - George Ellery Hale, American astronomer (b. 1868)
- 1941 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1891)
- 1944 - Ferenc Szisz, Hungarian-born race car driver (b. 1873)
- 1945 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (b. 1902)
- 1965 - Malcolm X, American black activist (b. 1925)
- 1967 - Charles Beaumont, American writer (b. 1929)
- 1968 - Howard Walter Florey, Australian-born pharmocologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1898)
- 1974 - Tim Horton, Canadian hockey player (b. 1905)
- 1984 - Michail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov, Russian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1905)
- 1991 - Dame Margot Fonteyn, English ballet dancer (b. 1919)
- 1994 - Luis Donaldo Colosio, Mexican politician (b. 1948)
- 1996 - Morton Gould, American composer (b. 1913)
- 1999 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1918)
- 2002 - John Thaw, English actor (b. 1942)
- 2004 - John Charles, Welsh footballer (b. 1931)
- 2004 - Guido Molinari, Canadian artist (b. 1933)
- 2005 - Ara Berberian, American opera singer (b. 1930)
- 2005 - Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Cuban novelist (b. 1929)
- 2005 - Eugene Scott, American religious broadcaster (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances


- Language Martyrs' Day - A day celebrated by Bengali speaking people for gaining right of mother tongue.
- International Mother Language Day (UNESCO)
- Catholicism - Feast day of St Peter Damian.
- Presidents' Day in the United States (2005)
- Family Day in Alberta (2005)

External links


- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/february/21 BBC: On This Day]
- [http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/20050221.html The New York Times: On This Day] ---- February 20 - February 22 - January 21 - March 21 -- listing of all days ko:2월 21일 ms:21 Februari ja:2月21日 simple:February 21 th:21 กุมภาพันธ์



Leap year

A leap year (or intercalary year) is a year containing an extra day or month in order to keep the calendar year in sync with an astronomical or seasonal year. Seasons and astronomical events do not repeat at an exact number of days, so a calendar which had the same number of days in each year would over time drift with respect to the event it was supposed to track. By occasionally inserting (or intercalating) an additional day or month into the year, the drift can be corrected. Leap years (which keep the calendar in sync with the year) should not be confused with leap seconds (which keep clock time in sync with the day).

Gregorian calendar

The Gregorian calendar, the current standard calendar in most of the world, adds a 29th day to February in all years evenly divisible by 4, except for century years (those ending in -00), which receive the extra day only if they are evenly divisible by 400. Thus 1996 was a leap year whereas 1999 was not, and 1600, 2000 and 2400 are leap years but 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2100 are not. The reasoning behind this rule is as follows:
- The Gregorian calendar is designed to keep the vernal equinox on or close to March 21, so that the date of Easter (celebrated on the Sunday after the 14th day of the Moon that falls on or after 21 March) remains correct with respect to the vernal equinox.
- The vernal equinox year is currently about 365.242375 days long.
- The Gregorian leap year rule gives an average year length of 365.2425 days. This difference of a little over 0.0001 days means that in around 8,000 years, the calendar will be about one day behind where it should be. But in 8,000 years' time the length of the vernal equinox year will have changed by an amount we can't accurately predict (see below). So the Gregorian leap year rule does a good enough job. Image:Gregoriancalendarleap.png

Which day is the leap day?

The Gregorian calendar is a modification of the Julian calendar first used by the Romans. The Roman calendar originated as a lunar calendar (though from the 5th century BC it no longer followed the real moon) and named its days after three of the phases of the moon: the new moon (calends, hence "calendar"), the first quarter (nones) and the full moon (ides). Days were counted down (inclusively) to the next named day, so 24 February was ante diem sextum calendas martii ("the sixth day before the calends of March"). Since 45 BC, February in a leap year had two days called "the sixth day before the calends of March". The extra day was originally the second of these, but since the third century it was the first. Hence the term bissextile day for 24 February in a bissextile year. Where this custom is followed, anniversaries after the inserted day are moved in leap years. For example, the former feast day of Saint Matthias, 24 February in ordinary years, would be 25 February in leap years. This historical nicety is, however, in the process of being discarded: The European Union declared that, starting in 2000, 29 February rather than 24 February would be leap day, and the Roman Catholic Church also now uses 29 February as leap day. The only tangible difference is felt in countries that celebrate feast days.

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4. This rule gives an average year length of 365.25 days. The excess of about 0.0076 days with respect to the vernal equinox year means that the vernal equinox moves a day earlier in the calendar every 130 years or so.

Revised Julian Calendar

The Revised Julian calendar adds an extra day to February in years divisible by 4, except for years divisible by 100 that do not leave a remainder of 200 or 600 when divided by 900. This rule agrees with the rule for the Gregorian calendar until 2799. The first year that dates in the Revised Julian calendar will not agree with the those in the Gregorian calendar will be 2800, because it will be a leap year in the Gregorian calendar but not in the Revised Julian calendar. This rule gives an average year length of 365.242222… days. This is a very good approximation to the mean tropical year, but because the vernal equinox tropical year is slightly longer, the Revised Julian calendar does not do as good a job as the Gregorian calendar of keeping the vernal equinox on or close to 21 March.

Chinese calendar

The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, so a leap year has an extra month, often called an embolismic month after the Greek word for it. In the Chinese calendar the leap month is added according to a complicated rule, which ensures that month 11 is always the month that contains the northern winter solstice. The intercalary month takes the same number as the preceding month; for example, if it follows the second month then it is simply called "leap second month".

Hebrew calendar

The Hebrew calendar is also lunisolar with an embolistic month. In the Hebrew calendar the extra month is called Adar Alef (first Adar) and is added before Adar, which then becomes Adar Sheni (second Adar). According to the Metonic cycle, this is done seven times every nineteen years, specifically, in years, 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17, and 19. In addition, the Hebrew calendar has postponement rules that postpone the start of the year by one or two days. The year before the postponement gets one or two extra days, and the year whose start is postponed loses one or two days. These postponement rules reduce the number of different combinations of year length and starting day of the week from 28 to 14, and regulate the location of certain religious holidays in relation to the Sabbath.

Hindu Calendar

In the Hindu calendar, which is a lunisolar calendar, the embolismic month is called adhika maas (extra month). It is the month in which the sun is in the same sign of the stellar zodiac on two consecutive dark moons.

Iranian calendar

The Iranian calendar also has a single intercalated day once in every four years, but every 33 years or so the leap years will be five years apart instead of four years apart. The system used is more accurate and more complicated, and is based on the time of the March equinox as observed from Teheran. The 33-year period is not completely regular; every so often the 33-year cycle will be broken by a cycle of 29 or 37 years.

Long term leap year rules

The accumulated difference between the Gregorian calendar and the vernal equinoctial year amounts to 1 day in about 8,000 years. This suggests that the calendar needs to be improved by another refinement to the leap year rule: perhaps by avoiding leap years in years divisible by 8,000. (The most common such proposal is to avoid leap years in years divisible by 4,000 [http://www.google.com/search?q=%22gregorian+calendar%22+error+%22leap+year%22+4000]. This is based on the difference between the Gregorian calendar and the mean tropical year. Others claim, erroneously, that the Gregorian calendar itself already contains a refinement of this kind [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mleapyr.html].) However, there is little point in planning a calendar so far ahead because over a timescale of tens of thousands of years the number of days in a year will change for a number of reasons, most notably: #Precession of the equinoxes moves the position of the vernal equinox with respect to perihelion and so changes the length of the vernal equinoctial year. #Tidal acceleration from the sun and moon slows the rotation of the earth, making the day longer. In particular, the second component of change depends on such things as post-glacial rebound and sea level rise due to climate change. We can't predict these changes accurately enough to be able to make a calendar that will be accurate to a day in tens of thousands of years.

Marriage proposal

There is a tradition, said to go back to Saint Patrick and Saint Bridget in 5th century Ireland, whereby women may only make marriage proposals in leap years.

Saint Patrick and the leap year

:Saint Patrick, having driven the frogs out of the bogs was walking along the shores of Lough Neagh, when he was accosted by Saint Bridget in tears, and was told that a mutiny had broken out in the nunnery over which she presided, the ladies claiming the right of popping the question. :Saint Patrick said he would concede them the right every seventh year, when Saint Bridget threw her arms round his neck, and exclaimed, "Arrah, Pathrick, jewel, I daurn't go back to the girls wid such a proposal. Make it one year in four." Saint Patrick replied, "Bridget, acushla, squeeze me that way again, an' I'll give ye leap-year, the longest of the lot." Saint Bridget, upon this, popped the question to St Patrick himself, who, of course, could not marry: so he patched up the difficulty as best he could with a kiss and a silk gown. (Source: Evans, Ivor H, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, Cassell, London, 1988) According to a 1288 law in Scotland, fines were levied if the proposal was refused by the man; compensation ranged from a kiss to a silk gown to soften the blow. Because men felt that put them at too great a risk, the tradition was in some places tightened to restricting female proposals to 29 February.

Birthdays

A person who was born on 29 February may be called a "leapling". In non-leap years they usually celebrate their birthday on 28 February or 1 March. There are many instances in children's literature where a person's claim to be only a quarter of their actual age turns out be based on counting their leap-year birthdays. A similar device is used in the plot of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance. Category:Calendars Category:Units of time als:Schaltjahr ko:윤년 ja:閏年 simple:Leap year th:ปีอธิกสุรทิน

362

Events
- February 21 - Athanasius returns to Alexandria.
- October 22 - The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch is destroyed in a mysterious fire.
- Earthquake in Nicaea Births Deaths
- Dorotheus of Tyre, bishop and martyr Category:362 ko:362년

Athanasius

Athanasius of Alexandria (also spelled "Athanasios") (298–May 2, 373) was a Christian bishop, the Patriarch of Alexandria, in the fourth century. He is revered as a saint by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, and revered as a great leader and doctor of the Church by Protestants. Roman Catholics have declared him one of 33 Doctors of the Church. His feast day is January 18.

Historical significance

January 18 In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius began teaching that there was a time before God the Father begat Jesus when the latter did not exist. Athanasius accompanied Alexander to the First Council of Nicaea in 325, which council produced the Nicene Creed and anathematized Arius and his followers. On May 9, 328, he succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria. As a result of rises and falls in Arianism's influence, he was banished from Alexandria only to be later restored on at least five separate occasions, perhaps as many as seven. This gave rise to the expression "Athanasius contra mundum" or "Athanasius against the world". During some of his exiles, he spent time with the Desert Fathers, monks and hermits who lived in remote areas of Egypt. Despite his doctrinal firmness, he showed diplomatic flair in rallying the orthodox at the Council of Alexandria in 362. Possibly during his first exile at Trier in 335-7, although probably between 318 and 323, Athanasius wrote a double treatise entitled Against the Gentiles -- On the Incarnation, affirming and explaining that Jesus was both God and Man. In his major theological opus, the Three Discourses Against the Arians, Athanasius stressed that the Father's begetting of the Son, or uttering of the Word, was an eternal relationship between them, not an event that took place within time. He makes very sparing use of the key-word of Nicea, homoousios (consubstantial). These writings lay the foundation of catholic Christianity's fight against the heresy of Arianism, which Athanasius opposed all his life. He also wrote a defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit (Letters to Serapion) in the 360s, and wrote a polemic (On the Holy Spirit) against the Macedonian heresy. Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today. Up until then, various similar lists of works to be read in churches were in use. A milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books is his Easter letter from Alexandria, written in 367, usually referred to as his 39th Festal Letter. Pope Damasus, the Bishop of Rome in 382, promulgated a list of books which contained a New Testament canon identical to that of Athanasius. A synod in Hippone in 393 repeated Athansius' and Damasus' New Testament list (without the Epistle to the Hebrews), and a synod in Carthage in 397 repeated Athanasius' and Damasus' complete New Testament list. Scholars have debated whether Athanasius' list in 367 was the basis for the later lists. Because Athanasius' canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the canon used by Protestant churches today many Protestants point to Athanasius as the father of the canon. They are identical except that Athanasius excludes the Book of Esther which is placed in a deuterocanon along with the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Judith, Tobit, the Didache, and the Shepherd of Hermas. On the other hand, Catholics tend to point to Damasus or the Council of Carthage, since these councils endorsed an Old Testament identical to that used by Catholics today. Regardless of this question, the New Testament canon endorsed by Athanasius has been used by almost all Christians since his day. Athanasius also wrote a biography of Anthony the Great entitled Vita Antonii, or Life of Antony, that later served as an inspiration to Christian monastics in both the East and the West. The Athanasian Creed is traditionally (but not credibly) ascribed to him. Athanasian Creed The saint was originally buried in Alexandria. His holy body was later transferred to Italy. H.H. Pope Shenouda III restored the relics of St. Athanasius back to Egypt on 15 May 1973 [http://www.avarewase.org/en/map/athanas.htm], after his historical visit to the Vatican and meeting with H.H. Pope Paul VI. The relics of St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria are currently preserved under the new St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Deir El-Anba Rowais, Abbassiya, Cairo, Egypt. The following is a troparion (hymn) to St. Athanasius sung in some Orthodox churches. : O holy father Athanasius, : like a pillar of orthodoxy : you refuted the heretical nonsense of Arius : by insisting that the Father and the Son are equal in essence. : O venerable father, beg Christ our God to save our souls.

Criticism of Athanasius

The tactics of Athanasius, while often downplayed by church historians, were a significant factor in his success. He did not hesitate to back up his theological views with the use of force. In Alexandria, he assembled an "ecclesiastical mafia" that could instigate a riot in the city if needed. It was an arrangement "built up and perpetuated by violence." (Barnes, 230). Along with the standard method of excommunication he used beatings, intimidation, kidnapping and imprisonment to silence his theological opponents. Unsurprisingly, these tactics caused widespread distrust and led him to being tried many times for "bribery, theft, extortion, sacrilege, treason and murder. (Rubenstein, 6) While the charges rarely stuck, his reputation was a major factor in his multiple exiles from Alexandria. He justified these tactics with the argument that he was saving all future Christians from hell. Athanasius stubbornly refused to compromise his theological views by stating, "What is at stake is not just a theological theory but people's salvation." (Olson, 172). In this assertion that violence was justfied in defense of theology and the church, Athanasius, some hold, laid the foundation for theological concepts such as just war and the inquisition.

See also


- Nicene Creed
- Theodelinda

External links


- [http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-04/TOC.htm Background information, plus his actual writings]

Sources


- Barnes, Timothy, 1981 Constantine and Eusebius
- Brakke, Pter, 1995. Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism
- Olson, Roger E., 1999 The Story of Christian Theology
- Rubenstein, Richarde, 1999 When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome Category:298 births Category:373 deaths Category:Coptic Saints Category:Saints Category:Patriarchs of Alexandria Category:Theologians Athanasius Category:Doctors of the Church category:Church Fathers ja:アタナシオス (アレクサンドリアの)

Alexandria

Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that country's second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. It is located at , 208 km (129 miles) northwest of Cairo. The Canopic mouth of the Nile (now dry) was 19 km (12 miles) east, near the ancient city of Canopus. It has a population of approximately 3,723,000. It was named after its founder, Alexander the Great, and as the seat of the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt quickly became one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world — second only to Rome in size and wealth throughout much of antiquity. However, upon the founding of Cairo by Egypt's mediæval Islamic rulers its status as the country's capital was ended, and it fell into a long decline, which by the late Ottoman period had seen it reduced to little more than a small fishing village. Ottoman, was inaugurated in 2001]] 2001

History

The history of Alexandria covers four periods:
- The Ptolemaic era which starts with the founding of the city and ends with the arrival of the Romans (blue).
- The Roman era from 80 BC until the arrival of the Arabs in 641 (green).
- The Arab city from 641 until 1798 when Napoleon arrived (yellow).
- The modern city from 1798 (red).

Founding

Alexandria was founded by Alexander the Great in or around 334 BC (the exact date is disputed) as Ἀλεξάνδρεια (Aleksándreia; see also List of traditional Greek place names). Alexander's chief architect for the project was Deinocrates of Rhodes. Ancient accounts are extremely numerous and varied, and much influenced by subsequent developments. One of the more sober descriptions, given by the historian Arrian, tells how Alexander undertook to lay out the city's general plan, but lacking chalk or other means, resorted to sketching it out with grain. Alexander's seers, and in particular Aristander of Telmessus, interpreted this as an omen that the city would prosper, particularly in grain. Other authors make the omen not the grain itself, but the arrival of flocks of birds to eat it. In any case, the story explains Alexandria's role as the shipping-point for Egyptian grain, which fed the Hellenistic and Roman world. A number of the more fantastic foundation myths are found in the Alexander Romance, and were picked up by mediæval Arab historians. The 14th century Arab historian Ibn Khaldun ridiculed one where sea-monsters prevent the foundation, but are thwarted when Alexander descends in a glass box, and armed with exact knowledge of their appearance, erects metal effigies on the beach which succeed in frightening the monsters away. Alexandria was intended to supersede Naucratis as a Greek centre in Egypt, and to be the link between Greece and the rich Nile Valley. If such a city was to be on the Egyptian coast, there was only one possible site, behind the screen of the Pharos island and removed from the silt thrown out by Nile mouths. An Egyptian townlet, Rhacotis, already stood on the shore and was a resort of fishermen and pirates. Behind it there were five native villages scattered along the strip between Lake Mareotis and the sea, according to a history of Alexander attributed to the author known as pseudo-Callisthenes. A few months after the foundation, Alexander left Egypt for the East and never returned to his city. His general, Ptolemy (later Ptolemy I of Egypt) succeeded in bringing Alexander's body to Alexandria, where it became a famous tourist destination for ancient travellers. After Alexander departed, his viceroy, Cleomenes, continued the creation of Alexandria. The Heptastadion, however, and the mainland quarters seem to have been mainly Ptolemaic work. Inheriting the trade of ruined Tyre and becoming the centre of the new commerce between Europe and the Arabian and Indian East, the city grew in less than a generation to be larger than Carthage and in a century it was the largest city in the world; and for some centuries more it was second only to Rome. Nominally a free Greek city, Alexandria retained its senate to Roman times; and indeed the judicial functions of that body were restored by Septimius Severus, after temporary abolition by Augustus. It was not only a center of Hellenism, but was also the greatest Jewish city in the world. There the Septuagint was produced. The early Ptolemies kept it in order and fostered the development of its museum into the leading Greek university but they were careful to maintain the distinction of its population into three nations, "Greek", Jew and Egyptian. One of the earliest inhabitants was the geometer and number-theorist Euclid. From this division arose much of the later turbulence which began to manifest itself under Ptolemy Philopater, who reigned 221–204 BC. In ancient times, Alexandria was known for its lighthouse (one of the Seven Wonders of the World) and its library (the largest in the world). Ongoing maritime archaeology in the harbor of Alexandria, begun in 1994, is revealing details of the Alexandria of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Roman jurisdiction

The city passed formally under Roman jurisdiction in 80 BC, according to the will of Ptolemy Alexander: but it had been under Roman influence for more than a hundred years previously. Julius Caesar dallied with Cleopatra in Alexandria in 47 BC and was mobbed by the rabble; his example was followed by Marc Antony, for whose favor the city paid dear to Octavian, who placed over it a prefect from the imperial household. Alexandria seems from this time to have regained its old prosperity, commanding, as it did, an important granary of Rome; this fact, doubtless, was one of the chief reasons which induced Augustus to place it directly under imperial power. In AD 215 the emperor Caracalla visited the city; and, for some insulting satires that the inhabitants had directed at him, he abruptly commanded his troops to put to death all youths capable of bearing arms. This brutal order seems to have been carried out even beyond the letter, for a general massacre was the result. Even as its main historical importance had formerly sprung from pagan learning, so now it acquired fresh importance as a centre of Christian theology and church government. There Arianism was formulated and there Athanasius, the great opponent of both Arianism and pagan reaction, triumphed over both, establishing the Patriarch of Alexandria as a major influence in Christianity for the next two centuries. As native influences, however, began to reassert themselves in the Nile valley, Alexandria gradually became an alien city, more and more detached from Egypt; and, losing much of its commerce as the peace of the empire broke up during the 3rd century AD, it declined fast in population and splendour. In the late 4th century, persecution of pagans by Christians had reached new levels of intensity. Temples and statues were destroyed throughout the Roman empire, pagan rituals forbidden under punishment of death, and libraries closed. In 391, Emperor Theodosius ordered the destruction of all pagan temples, and the Patriarch Theophilus, complied with this request. It is possible that the great Library of Alexandria was destroyed about this time. The Brucheum and Jewish quarters were desolate in the 5th century, and the central monuments, the Soma and Museum, fallen to ruin. On the mainland, life seems to have centred in the vicinity of the Serapeum and Caesareum; both become Christian churches. The Pharos and Heptastadium quarters remained populous and intact. In 616 it was taken by Khosrau II, king of Persia. Although the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered it a few years later, in 640 the Arabians, under the general Amr ibn al-As, captured it for good after a siege that lasted fourteen months. The city received no aid from Constantinople during that time; Heraclius was dead and the new Emperor Constantine III was barely twelve years old. Notwithstanding the losses that the city had sustained, Amr was able to write to his master, the caliph Omar, that he had taken a city containing "4,000 palaces, 4,000 baths, 12,000 dealers in fresh oil, 12,000 gardeners, 40,000 Jews who pay tribute, 400 theatres or places of amusement."

After Amr

Shortly after its capture, Alexandria again fell into the hands of the Greeks, who took advantage of Amr's absence with the greater portion of his army. On hearing what had happened, however, Amr returned, and quickly regained possession of the city. About the year 646, Amr was deprived of his government by the caliph Uthman ibn Affan. Amr was greatly beloved by the Egyptians; they threatened such a revolt over this that the Greek emperor was determined to reduce Alexandria. The attempt proved successful. The caliph, perceiving his mistake, immediately restored Amr, who, on his arrival in Egypt, drove the Greeks within the walls of Alexandria, but was only able to capture the city after a most obstinate resistance by the defenders. This so exasperated him that he completely demolished its fortifications, although he seems to have spared the lives of the inhabitants as far as lay in his power. The city was for some time a center of the Mediterranean spice trade, receiving overland caravans of pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and more from India and beyond, which were bought by European traders at enormously inflated prices. The locations of the source of these spices were carefully guarded by their Indian and Arabian merchants. The building of Cairo in 969, and, above all, the discovery of the route to the East by the Cape of Good Hope in 1498, nearly ruined the commerce of Alexandria; the canal, which supplied it with Nile water, became blocked; and although it remained a principal Egyptian port, at which most European visitors in the Mamluk and Ottoman periods landed, we hear little of it until about the beginning of the 19th century. Alexandria figured prominently in the military operations of Napoléon's Egyptian expedition of 1798. The French troops stormed the city on July 2 1798, and it remained in their hands until the arrival of the British expedition of 1801. The battle of Alexandria, fought on March 21 that year between the French and the British, took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir.

The 1800s

During the anarchy which accompanied Ottoman rule in Egypt from first to last, Alexandria sank to a small town of about 4,000 inhabitants, and it owed its modern rennaissance solely to Mehemet Ali, who wanted a deep port and naval station for his viceregal domain. He restored its water communication with the Nile by making the Mahmudiya canal, finished in 1820; and he established at Ras et-Tin his favorite residence. The old Eunostus harbour became the port, and a flourishing city arose on the Pharos island and the Heptastadion district, with outlying suburbs and villa residences along the coast eastwards and the Mareotic shore. Being the starting-point of the "overland route" to India, and the residence of the chief foreign consuls, it quickly acquired a European character and attracted not only French residents, but great numbers of Greeks, Jews and Syrians. There most of the negotiations between the powers and Mehemet Ali were conducted; from there started the Egyptian naval expeditions to Crete, the Morea and Syria; and thither sailed the betrayed Ottoman fleet in 1839. It was twice threatened by hostile fleets, the Greek in 1827 and the combined British, French and Russian squadrons in 1828. The latter withdrew on the viceroy's promise that Ibrahim should evacuate the Morea. The fortifications were strengthened in 1841, and remained in an antiquated condition until 1882, when they were renovated by Arabi Pasha. Alexandria was connected with Cairo by railway in 1856. Much favored by the earlier viceroys of Mehemet Ali's house, and removed from the Mameluke troubles, Alexandria was the real capital of Egypt until Said Pasha died there in 1863 and Ismail Pasha came into power. Though this prince continued to develop the city, giving it a municipality in 1861 and new harbour works in 1871–1878, he developed Cairo still more; and the center of gravity definitely shifted to the inland capital.

Bombardment of 1882

1882]] Fate, however, again brought Alexandria to the front. After a mutiny of soldiers there in 1881, the town was greatly excited by the arrival of an Anglo-French fleet in May 1882, and on June 11 a terrible riot and massacre took place, resulting in the death of four hundred Europeans. Since satisfaction was not given for this and the forts were being strengthened at the instigation of Arabi Pasha, the war minister, the British admiral, Sir Frederick Beauchamp Seymour (afterwards Lord Alcester), sent an ultimatum on July 10 and opened fire on the forts the next day. They were demolished, but as no troops were landed immediately a fresh riot and massacre ensued. As Arabi did not submit, a British military expedition landed at Alexandria on August 10, following which the British engaged in the occupation of the whole country.

Under British control

August 10] Alexandria has greatly expanded since then. As the British consular report for 1904 stated, "Building … for residential and other purposes proceeds with almost feverish rapidity. The cost of living has doubled and the price of land has risen enormously." More Greeks continued to settle the city, establishing financial and cultural centres. The Greek poet Constantine Cavafy was born and lived here. British occupied Alexandria developed into a major Royal Navy base, with the strategic Suez Canal to the east. During Second World War and the North Africa Campaign of 1940–1943 The decisive Battles of El Alamein were fought to its west. The Egyptian military coup of 1952 saw the destruction of the Egyptian monarchy and British protectorate status. Colonel Nasser took power and the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1954 made provision for the withdrawal of British troops. The numbers of the city's foreign population have dwindled ever since. A small Greek community, however, remains to this day. The film Ice Cold in Alex would later be set here.

Geography

Ice Cold in Alex

Layout of the ancient city

The Greek Alexandria was divided into three regions: #The Jews' quarter, forming the northeast portion of the city; #Rhacotis, on the west, occupied chiefly by Egyptians; #Brucheum, the Royal or Greek quarter, forming the most magnificent portion of the city. In Roman times Brucheum was enlarged by the addition of an official quarter, making up four regions in all. The city was laid out as a grid of parallel streets, each of which had an attendant subterranean canal. Two main streets, lined with colonnades and said to have been each about 60 metres (200 feet) wide, intersected in the centre of the city, close to the point where rose the Sema (or Soma) of Alexander (his Mausoleum). This point is very near the present mosque of Nebi Daniel; and the line of the great east–west "Canopic" street only slightly diverged from that of the modern Boulevard de Rosette. Traces of its pavement and canal have been found near the Rosetta Gate, but better remains of streets and canals were exposed in 1899 by German excavators outside the east fortifications, which lie well within the area of the ancient city. Alexandria consisted originally of little more than the island of Pharos, which was joined to the mainland by a mole nearly a mile long (1240 m) and called the Heptastadion ("seven stadia" — a stadium was a Greek unit of length measuring approximately 180m). The end of this abutted on the land at the head of the present Grand Square, where rose the "Moon Gate". All that now lies between that point and the modern Ras et-Tin quarter is built on the silt which gradually widened and obliterated this mole. The Ras et-Tin quarter represents all that is left of the island of Pharos, the site of the actual lighthouse having been weathered away by the sea. On the east of the mole was the Great Harbour, now an open bay; on the west lay the port of Eunostos, with its inner basin Kibotos, now vastly enlarged to form the modern harbour. In Strabo's time, (latter half of 1st century BC) the principal buildings were as follows, enumerated as they were to be seen from a ship entering the Great Harbour. #The Royal Palaces, filling the northeast angle of the town and occupying the promontory of Lochias, which shut in the Great Harbour on the east. Lochias (the modern Pharillon) has almost entirely disappeared into the sea, together with the palaces, the "Private Port" and the island of Antirrhodus. There has been a land subsidence here, as throughout the northeast coast of Africa. #The Great Theatre, on the modern Hospital Hill near the Ramleh station. This was used by Caesar as a fortress, where he stood a siege from the city mob after the battle of Pharsalus #The Poseideion, or Temple of the Sea God, close to the Theatre #The Timonium built by Mark Antony #The Emporium (Exchange) #The Apostases (Magazines) #The Navalia (Docks), lying west of the Timonium, along the sea-front as far as the mole #Behind the Emporium rose the Great Caesareum, by which stood the two great obelisks, each later known as "Cleopatra's Needle," and now removed to New York City and London. This temple became in time the Patriarchal Church, some remains of which have been discovered; but the actual Caesareum, so far as not eroded by the waves, lies under the houses lining the new sea-wall. #The Gymnasium and the Palaestra are both inland, near the Boulevard de Rosette in the eastern half of the town; sites unknown. #The Temple of Saturn; site unknown. #The Mausolea of Alexander (Soma) and the Ptolemies in one ring-fence, near the point of intersection of the two main streets #The Musaeum with its famous Library and theatre in the same region; site unknown. #The Serapeum, the most famous of all Alexandrian temples. Strabo tells us that this stood in the west of the city; and recent discoveries go far to place it near "Pompey's Pillar" which, however, was an independent monument erected to commemorate Diocletian's siege of the city. The names of a few other public buildings on the mainland are known, but there is no information as to their position. On the eastern point of the Pharos island stood the Great Lighthouse, one of the "Seven Wonders," reputed to be 138 meters (450 feet) high. The first Ptolemy began it, and the second completed it, at a total cost of 800 talents. It took 12 years to construct. It is the prototype of all lighthouses in the world. The light was produced by a furnace at the top. It was built mostly with solid blocks of limestone. The Pharos lighthouse was destroyed by an earthquake. A temple of Hephaestus also stood on Pharos at the head of the mole. In the Augustan age the population of Alexandria was estimated at 300,000 free citizes, in addition to an immense number of women, freedmen, children and slaves. The total population has been estimated to range from 500,000 to over 1,000,000 people.

The modern city

Augustan Augustan The city is built on the strip of land which separates the Mediterranean from Lake Mareotis (Mariout), and on a T-shaped peninsula which forms harbors east and west. The stem of the T was originally a mole (breakwater) leading to the island of Pharos which formed the cross-piece. In the course of centuries this mole has been silted up and is now an isthmus half a mile wide. On it a part of the modern city is built. The cape at the western end of the peninsula is Ras et-Tin (Cape of Figs); the eastern cape is known as Pharos or Kait Bey. South of the town — between it and Lake Mareotis — runs the Mahmudiya canal, which enters the western harbour by a series of locks. isthmus The Place Mehemet Ali, usually called the Grand Square, is an oblong open space, tree-lined, in the center of which there is an equestrian statue of the ruler after whom it is named. The square is faced with handsome buildings mainly in the Italian style. The most important are the law courts, exchange, Ottoman bank, English church and the Abbas Hilmi theatre. theatre On the Ras et-Tin promontory, overlooking the harbour, is the khedivial yacht club (built 1903) and the palace, also called Ras et-Tin, built by Mehemet Ali. In the district between the Grand Square and the western harbour, one of the poorest quarters of the city, is an open space with Fort Caffareli or Napoleon in the center. A major new library and cultural complex, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, was recently built with the help of the United Nations. The original library contained authentic books from the time of Cleopatra but they were later burned when the library was destroyed. The predominant languages spoken, besides the Arabic of the natives, are Greek, French, English and Italian. Alexandria is served by a network of trams traveling east and west roughly parallel to the Corniche, or sea wall.

Ancient remains

Corniche Very little of the ancient city has survived into the present day. Much of the royal and civic quarter has sunk beneath the harbour due to earthquake subsidence, and much of the rest has been built upon in modern times. "Pompey's Pillar" is the most well-known ancient monument still standing. It is located on Alexandria's ancient acropolis — a modest hill located adjacent to the city's Arab cemetery — and was originally part of a temple colonnade. Including its pedestal it is 30m (99 feet) high; the shaft is of polished red granite, roughly three meters in diameter at the base, tapering to two and a half meters at the top. It has, however, nothing to do with Pompey, having been erected in AD 293 for Diocletian. Beneath the acropolis itself are the subterranean remains of the Serapeum, where the mysteries of the god Serapis were enacted, and whose carved wall niches are believed to have provided overflow storage space for the ancient Library. Alexandria's catacombs, known as "Kom al Sukkfa" are a short distance southwest of the pillar, consist of a multi-level labyrinth, reached via a large spiral staircase, and featuring dozens of chambers adorned with sculpted pillars, statues, and other syncretic Romano-Egyptian religious symbols, burial niches and sarcophagi, as well as a large Roman-style banquet room, where memorial meals were conducted by relatives of the deceased. The most extensive ancient excavation currently being conducted in Alexandria is known as "Kom al Dikka", and it has revealed the ancient city's well-preserved theatre, and the remains of its Roman-era baths.

Antiquities

Persistent efforts have been made to explore the antiquities of Alexandria. Encouragement and help have been given by the local Archaeological Society, and by many individuals, notably Greeks justly proud of a city which is one of the glories of their national history. The past and present directors of the museum have been enabled from time to time to carry out systematic excavations when opportunity offered; Mr D.G.Hogarth made tentative researches on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund and the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies in 1895; and a German expedition worked for two years (1898–1899). But two difficulties face the would-be excavator in Alexandria. First, since the great and growing modern city stands right over the ancient one, it is almost impossible to find any considerable space in which to dig, except at enormous cost. Second, the general subsidence of the coast has sunk the lower-lying parts of the ancient town under water. Unfortunately the spaces still most open are the low grounds to northeast and southwest, where it is practically impossible to get below the Roman strata. The most important results were those achieved by Dr G Botti, late director of the museum, in the neighbourhood of "Pompey's Pillar," where there is a good deal of open ground. Here substructures of a large building or group of buildings have been exposed, which are perhaps part of the Serapeum. Hard by immense catacombs and columbaria have been opened which may have been appendages of the temple. These contain one very remarkable vault with curious painted reliefs, now lighted by electricity and shown to visitors. The objects found in these researches are in the museum, the most notable being a great basalt bull, probably once an object of cult in the Serapeum. Other catacombs and tombs have been opened in Kore es-Shugafa Hadra (Roman) and Ras et-Tin (painted). The Germans found remains of a Ptolemaic colonnade and streets in the north-east of the city, but little else. Mr Hogarth explored part of an immense brick structure under the mound of Kom ed-Dik, which may have been part of the Paneum, the Mausolea or a Roman fortress. The making of the new foreshore led to the dredging up of remains of the Patriarchal Church; and the foundations of modern buildings are seldom laid without some objects of antiquity being discovered. The wealth underground is doubtless immense; but, despite all efforts, there is not much for antiquarians to see in Alexandria outside the museum and the neighbourhood of "Pompey's Pillar." The native tomb-robbers, well-sinkers, dredgers and the like, however, come upon valuable objects from time to time, which find their way into private collections.

External links


- [http://www.alex4all.com/english/cat.php Alex4All]
- [http://wikitravel.org/en/article/Alexandria Wikitravel: Alexandria]
- http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/Alexandria/index.html
- [http://www.sevenwondersworld.com/wonders_of_world_lighthouse_alexandria.html Seven Wonders of the world: Lighthouse of Alexandria]
- [http://www.unesco.org/csi/pub/source/alex5.htm Mostafa el-Abbadi on the pivotal place of Alexandria in Greek and Roman era trade networks]
- [http://st-takla.org/Alexandria-1.html More about Alexandria.. past and present at St Takla Church - Alex. website] Category:Cities in Egypt Category:Roman legions camps Category:World Book Capital Category:Hellenistic colonies ja:アレクサンドリア

Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc, also Jeanne d'Arc (1412 – 30 May 1431) is a national heroine of France and a Saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Many believed she had visions from God that told her to recover her homeland. In early 1429 she convinced the uncrowned king Charles VII to give her a suit of armor and permission to relieve the siege at Orléans. At first treated as a figurehead by veteran commanders, she gained prominence when she lifted the siege in only nine days. After several other engagements and an important victory at Patay she led a bloodless expedition to Reims for Charles VII's coronation. This settled the disputed royal succession and recovered important territory. The renewed French confidence outlasted her own brief career. Wounded during an unsuccessful attempt to recover Paris, she participated in minor actions until her capture outside Compiègne the following spring. Her Burgundian captors delivered her to the English, who selected clergymen to convict her of heresy. John, Duke of Bedford had her burnt at the stake in Rouen. She had been the heroine of her country at the age of seventeen. She died at just nineteen. Some twenty-four years later Pope Callixtus III reopened the case. The new finding overturned the original conviction. Her piety to the end impressed the retrial court. Pope Benedict XV canonized her on 16 May, 1920. Joan of Arc has remained an important figure in the collective imagination of Western culture. From Napoleon to the present, French politicians of all leanings have invoked her memory. Major writers and composers who created works about her include Shakespeare, Voltaire, Schiller, Verdi, Tchaikovski, Twain, Shaw, and Brecht. Depictions of her continue in film, television, and song.

Historical background

Brecht This was the lowest era in French history until the Nazi occupation. The French king at the time of Joan's birth, Charles VI, suffered bouts of insanity and was unable to rule. A quarrel between his cousins duke John the Fearless of Burgundy and the duke of Orléans over the regency of France and the guardianship of the royal children finally led John the Fearless to order the assassination of the duke of Orléans in 1407. The factions loyal to these two men became known as the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. English king Henry V took advantage of the turmoil. He invaded France and won a dramatic victory at Agincourt in 1415, then proceeded to capture northern French towns. The future French king Charles VII assumed the title of dauphin as heir to the throne at the age of fourteen after all four of his older brothers had died. Almost his first official act was to conclude a peace treaty with John the Fearless in 1419. This ended in disaster when Armagnac partisans murdered John the Fearless during a meeting under Charles's guarantee of protection. The new duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, blamed Charles and entered an alliance with the English. Large sections of France fell to conquest. Charles's mother Isabeau of Bavaria concluded the 1420 Treaty of Troyes granting the royal succession to Henry V and his heirs, disinheriting Charles. Henry V and Charles VI died within two months of each other in 1422, leaving an infant Henry VI of England the nominal monarch of both kingdoms. Henry V's brother John, Duke of Bedford acted as regent. John, Duke of Bedford By the beginning of 1429 nearly all of the north and some parts of the southwest were under foreign control. The English ruled Paris and the Burgundians ruled Rheims. The latter was important as the traditional site of French coronations. Neither claimant to the throne of France had been crowned. The English had laid siege to Orléans, the only remaining loyal French city north of the Loire. Its strategic location along the river made this the last obstacle to an assault on the remaining French heartland. No one was optimistic about the city's chances to resist the siege for long.

Biography

Early life

Joan of Arc was born circa 1412 in the village of Domrémy in the province of Lorraine. Her parents Jacques D'Arc and Isabelle Romee owned a modest farm. The region was part of the duchy of Burgundy during that era. Joan's own village and a few surrounding communities formed an isolated patch of territory that remained loyal to the French crown. Jacques D'Arc, St. Margaret, and St. Catherine in the background. Oil on canvas in two joined vertical panels. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, 1879.]] Joan later said she had her first vision around 1424. She reported that St. Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Margaret told her to drive out the English and bring the Dauphin to Rheims for his coronation. At the age of sixteen she asked a kinsman, Durand Lassois, to bring her to nearby Vaucouleurs. She petitioned garrison commander count Robert de Baudricourt for permission to visit the royal French court at Chinon. Baudricourt's sarcastic response did not deter her. She returned the following January and found supporters in two men of standing: Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulegny. With their support she gained a second interview where she made an apparently miraculous prediction about a military reversal near Orléans.

Career

Baudricourt granted her an escort to visit Chinon after news from the front confirmed her prediction. She made the journey through hostile Burgundian territory in male disguise. Upon arriving at the royal court she won Charles's confidence in a private conference. He verified her morality with background inquiries and a theological examination at Poitiers. Charles's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon was financing a relief expedition to Orléans. Joan of Arc received permission to travel with the army. Her armor, horse, sword, equipment, and entourage were all donations. She had no funds of her own. Yolande of Aragon She arrived at the Orléans on 29 April 1429. Jean d'Orléans, the acting head of the Orléans ducal family, excluded Joan from war councils. She appealed to the town's population and the common soldiers, often disregarding war council decisions. The extent of her military leadership is a subject of historical debate. Traditional analysis cites her condemnation trial testimony to conclude that she was a standard bearer whose primary effect was on morale. Recent scholarship that focuses on rehabilitation trial testimony asserts that her fellow officers esteemed her as a skilled tactician and a successful strategist. In either case, the army enjoyed remarkable success during her brief career. French forces began aggressive actions against siege fortifications at Joan's urging. After several skirmishes the English abandoned peripheral structures and concentrated their forces at the stone fortress controlling the bridge, les Tourelles. This fell to French assault on 7 May. Contemporaries acknowledged Joan as the hero of the engagement after she pulled an arrow from her own shoulder and returned wounded to lead the final charge. 7 May The sudden victory at Orléans led to many proposals for offensive action. Surviving documents show the English expected a direct assault on Paris. French counterintelligence may have contributed to that perception. During Joan's later trial she described a mark the French command used in letters for disinformation. Joan of Arc persuaded Charles VII to approve her plan and grant her co-command of the army with duke John II of Alençon. They would recapture nearby bridges along the Loire then advance on Rheims. This was a daring proposal because Rheims was roughly twice as distant as Paris. Rheims held political importance as the traditional site of French coronations. Detractors have pointed to shortcomings in the army's supply lines to assert that Joan was more lucky than skilled. John II of Alençon. Detail from a portrait by Jean Fouquet, tempera on wood, Louvre Museum, Paris, c. 1445.]] The army recovered Jargeau on 12 June, Meung-sur-Loire on 15 June, then Beaugency on 17 June. Alençon credited Joan with saving his life at Jargeau by warning him of an impending artillery attack. She withstood a stone cannonball blow to her helmet while climbing a scaling ladder. An expected English relief force arrived in the area on 18 June under the command of Sir John Fastolf. The battle at Patay might be compared to Agincourt in reverse. The French vanguard attacked before the English archers finished defensive preparations. A rout ensued that decimated the main body of the English army. The French had minimal losses. A disgraced Fastolf escaped with a small band of soldiers. The French army set out from Gien-sur-Loire on 29 June, accepting the conditional surrender of the Burgundian-held city of Auxerre on 3 July. Every other town in their path returned to French allegiance without resistance. Troyes, the site of the treaty that had tried to disinherit Charles VII, capitulated after a bloodless four-day siege. Rheims opened its gates on 16 July. The coronation took place the following morning. Although Joan and the Duke of Alençon urged a prompt march on Paris, the royal court pursued a negotiated truce with the duke of Burgundy. Duke Philip the Good broke the agreement, using it as a stalling tactic to reinforce the defense of Paris. The French army marched through towns near Paris during the interim, accepting peaceful surrenders. The Duke of Bedford confronted Joan with an English force in a standoff on 15 August. The French assault on Paris ensued on 8 September. Despite a crossbow bolt wound to the leg, Joan continued directing the troops until the day's fighting ended. The following morning she received a royal order to withdraw. Most historians blame French grand chamberlain Georges de la Trémoille for the political blunders following the coronation.

Capture, trial, and execution

After minor action at La-Charité-sur-Loire in November and December, Joan went to Compiègne the following March to defend against an English and Burgundian siege. A skirmish on 23 May 1430 led to her capture. When she ordered a retreat she assumed the place of honor as the last to leave the field. Burgundians surrounded the rear guard. It was customary for a war captive's family to raise a ransom. Joan's relatives lacked financial resources. Many historians condemn Charles VII for failing to intervene. She attempted several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government eventually purchased her from duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial. Beauvais Joan's trial for heresy was political. The Duke of Bedford claimed the throne of France for his nephew Henry VI. She was responsible for the rival coronation. Condemning her was an attempt to discredit her king. Legal proceedings commenced on 9 January 1431 at Rouen, the seat of the English occupation government. The procedure was irregular on a number of points. To summarize some major problems, the jurisdiction of promoter bishop Cauchon was a legal fiction. He owed his appointment to his partisanship. The entire trial was financed by the English government. Clerical notary Nicolas Bailly, commissioned to collect testimony against her, could find no adverse evidence. Without this the court lacked grounds to initiate a trial. Opening one anyway, it denied her right to a legal advisor. Nonetheless, her testimony could be brilliant. The transcript's most famous exchange is an exercise in subtlety. "Asked if she knew she was in God's grace, she answered: 'If I am not, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.'" The question is a scholarly trap. Church doctrine held that no one could be certain of being in God's grace. If she had answered yes, then she would have convicted herself of heresy. If she had answered no, then she would have confessed her own guilt. Her response was not only perfect but poetic. Several court functionaries later testified that significant portions of the transcript were altered in her disfavor. Many clerics served under compulsion, including the inquisitor, and a few even received death threats from the English. Joan should have been confined to an ecclesiastical prison with female guards. Instead the English kept her in a secular prison guarded by their own soldiers. Bishop Cauchon denied Jeanne's appeals to the Council of Basel and the Pope, which should have stopped his proceeding. The twelve articles of accusation that summarize the court's finding contradict the already doctored court record. Illiterate Joan signed an abjuration document she did not understand under threat of immediate execution. The court substituted a different abjuration in the official record. abjuration Heresy was a capital crime only for a repeat offense. Joan agreed to wear women's clothes when she abjured. Shortly afterward she was subject to a sexual assault in prison, possibly by an English lord. This does not appear to have been rape. She resumed male attire either as a defense against molestation or, in the testimony of Jean Massieu, because her dress had been stolen and she was left with nothing else to wear. Eyewitnesses described the scene of the execution on 30 May 1431. Tied to a tall pillar, she asked two of the clergy, Martin Ladvenu and Isambart de la Pierre, to hold a crucifix before her. She repeatedly called out "...in a loud voice the holy name of Jesus, and implored and invoked without ceasing the aid of the saints of Paradise." After she expired the English raked back the coals to expose her charred body so that no one could claim she had escaped alive, then reduced the body to ashes to prevent any collection of relics. They cast her remains into the Seine. The executioner, Geoffroy Therage, confessed to having "...a great fear of being damned, [as] he had burned a saint."

Retrial

After Charles VII regained Rouen in November 1449, the investigation began with an inquest by clergyman Guillaume Bouille. Inquisitor-General Jean Brehal conducted an investigation in 1452. The formal appeal was initiated in November 1455. Pope Callixtus III authorized this appeal, known today as the "Rehabilitation Trial," at the request of Brehal and surviving members of Joan's family. The appellate process included clergy from throughout Europe and observed proper court procedure. After collecting testimony from 115 witnesses, theologians gave opinions. Brehal drew up his final summary of the case in June 1456. This describes Joan as a martyr and her judges as heretics for having convicted an innocent woman in the pursuit of a secular vendetta. The court declared her innocence on 7 July 1456.

Clothing

1456 Joan wore men's clothing between her departure from Vaucouleurs and her abjuration at Rouen. This raised theological questions in her own era and raised other speculation in the twentieth century. Her assumption of male clothing had no sexual overtones. The technical reason for her execution was a Biblical clothing law. Medieval theology recognized exceptions to the stricture. Doctrinally speaking, she was safe to disguise herself as a page during a journey through enemy territory, and she was safe to wear armor during battle. The Chronique de la Pucelle claims it deterred molestation while she was camped in the field. These defenses leave other occasions open to challenge. She referred the court to the Poitiers inquiry when questioned on the matter during her condemnation trial . That record no longer survives. Circumstances indicate the Poitiers clerics approved her practice. In other words, she had a mission to do a man's work so it was fitting that she dress the part. A number of clergy who testified at her rehabilitation trial affirmed that she continued to wear male clothing in prison to deter molestation and rape. The garments she chose would slow an assailant. In the end, as cited above, she probably had no choice at all.

Visions

Joan of Arc's religious visions have interested many people. All agree that her faith was sincere. Devout Roman Catholics regard her visions as divine revelation. She lived in a society that accepted this possibility. Secular explanations that assert hallucination and mental illness encounter an apparent incongruity: she won the support of some leading statesmen, soldiers, and clergy. Most scholars who propose psychiatric explanations such as schizophrenia consider Joan a figurehead rather than an active leader. Among other hypotheses are a handful of neurological conditions that can cause complex hallucinations in otherwise sane and healthy people such as temporal lobe epilepsy. Régine Pernoud, a prominent historian, was sometimes sarcastic about such claims: in response to one such theory alleging that Joan of Arc suffered from Bovine Tuberculosis as a result of drinking unpasteurized milk, Pernoud wrote that if drinking unpasteurized milk can produce such potential benefits for the nation, then the French government should stop mandating the pasteurization of milk. A shortage of reliable evidence is a factor in any attempt to analyse Joan of Arc's religious visions. When questioned about the subject at the Condemnation Trial, she was reluctant to give the court details about her visions, often referring them instead to the transcript of the Poitiers inquiry, which has now been lost.

Legacy

epilepsy.]] Surviving historical evidence about Joan of Arc is abundant. Nineteenth century scholars discovered five separate copies of her condemnation trial transcript in archives across France. Over 100 witnesses submitted depositions to her rehabilitation trial. Numerous original documents still exist including several of her dictated letters. This exceptionally rich historical record has contributed to intense academic interest in her. Several impostors arose in the years following Joan of Arc's death. The most successful of these, Jeanne de Armoises, won the support of two of Joan's brothers and carried on the charade for four years until she met the king. The Hundred Years' War continued for 22 years after Joan's death. Most modern historians consider the Treaty of Arras in 1435 and the weak rulership of England's Henry VI to be greater factors in ending the conflict. Kelly deVries argues that Joan's aggressive use of artillery and frontal assaults influenced French tactics for the remainder of the war. All agree that Joan of Arc had a profound effect on French patriotism. She is among the earliest successful proponents of nationalism to emerge from the feudal era. The Church declared that a religious play in her honor at Orléans was a pilgrimage meriting an indulgence. Joan of Arc became a symbol of the Catholic League during the 16th century. Félix Dupanloup, bishop of Orléans from 1849 to 1878, led the effort for Joan's eventual beatification in 1909. Her canonization followed on 16 May 1920. Her feast day is 30 May. 30 May. The French Resistance used the cross of Lorraine as a symbolic reference to Joan of Arc.]] Joan of Arc was not a feminist. She operated within a religious tradition that believed an exceptional person from any level of society might receive a divine calling. Joan expelled women from the French army and may have struck one stubborn camp follower with the flat of her sword. Nonetheless, some of her most significant aid came from women. Charles VII's mother-in-law Yolande of Aragon confirmed Joan's virginity and financed her departure to Orléans. Joan of Luxembourg, aunt to the count of Luxembourg who held Joan of Arc after Compiegn