¶ … Silvio A. Bedini's book "The Pope's Elephant," Hanno, the elephant in question manifests the corrupt, cultural and oftentimes ridiculous papacy of the early 1500s under the reign of Pope Leo X (1513-1531). Through the travails of Hanno, Bedini provides a remarkable insight into the traditions and pageantry of the Vatican in the early 16th century. Bedini also manages to show the human face of God's appointed representative on earth as well as the cruelty that existed in that period. As Hanno becomes the vehicle to convey the massive accumulation and application of wealth, privilege and power thoroughly enjoyed by Pope Leo and his supporters to the reader, the pachyderm also began to symbolize this excess, becoming part of the concluding chapter of what they termed the Golden Age.
Before tackling this issue, a summary of "The Pope's Elephant" needs to be proffered. Bedini provides a captivating and insightful study into the bizarre activities of Rome and the Papacy in the early 16th century and their business with other countries, such as Portugal, the country responsible for Hanno's introduction into Rome. Presented to Leo at 1514, Hanno the elephant embodied Portuguese supremacy and control in the Far East.
Bedini describes the passage from Lisbon to Porto Ecole, during which Hanno was tied between the two masts of the ship. Then on the dusty roads to Rome, Hanno is forced to walk at great length on his tender feet as well as be subjected to the crowds of spectators wanting to catch a glimpse of the great beast. When they finally arrive in Rome, with great pomp and ceremony, Hanno is officially presented to Pope Leo. Upon settling in Rome, the Vatican...
In his theory of evolution, Darwin argued that evolution occurred because of natural selection, wherein the determining principle is, "survival of the fittest." That is, in a given population and a given environment, certain individuals have certain characteristics that would make survive and thrive. As thriving happens, adaptation occurs, wherein the individual ensures that s/he is able to cope with the changes, state, and dynamics of his/her environment. This
The growing dominance of the bourgeois class and the growing economic discontent in the society combined to create the atmosphere of dissatisfaction and conflict that eventually led to the development and declaration of the French Revolution. King Louis XVI's passion for ballet dancing paved the way for ballet to thrive, develop and become rampant during his reign in the late 17th century. Under the leadership of Louis XVI's, ballet was
Although the consumers of Europe may have profited from cheaper goods in the short-term, the film shows that the oppression of the proletariat at home and the exploitation of natives abroad was in fact part of the same system that enriched the bourgeois and aristocracy, and kept others in their service either by fear or through the dispensing of small economic rewards. Trade is thus viewed with a very cautious
The history from the Renaissance to the Machine Age was defined by major technical and stylistic advances that allowed for much larger, taller, more elegant buildings, and higher degrees of functionality and architectural expression. In cultural and scientific matters, the Modern Era was characterized by an increasingly rationalistic trajectory of thought which was based on an ethos of the humanistic exploration of reality and truth. While in a cultural sense
Rather than continue the process that began in the first two books, in which the Rosicrucian Order first announced themselves, gave their history, and then responded to certain criticisms while making their position within Christian theology clearer, the Chymical Wedding can almost be seen as the first instance of literature written within the Rosicrucian tradition, rather than as part of its manifesto-like founding documents, because it does not seek to
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