Sagittarius Granorum

The scene from "A Man for All Seasons" (Fred Zinnemann, 1966) in which Sir Thomas More is finally convicted of high treason and sentenced to death for refusing to swear an oath that King Henry VIII is the supreme head of the Church in England and that Anne Boleyn is now Queen of England. I love this scene because More's statement is a perfect summary of the Medieval mindset, which is so foreign to modern viewers but amazing in its completeness, complexity, and other-ness: a self-consistent worldview that is completely foreign from our modern, scientific, post-Enlightenment cosmology. It is also a compelling story to see More's sacrifices for that belief. In a sense, the movie can be read as a story of the conflict between the Medieval and Modern worldview, with More personifying the former and Cromwell and Rich the latter. Vestiges of that battle continue even today. Here's the transcript of More's statement: MORE: Since the court has determined to condemn me, God knoweth how, I will now discharge my mind concerning the indictment and the King's title. The indictment is granted in an act of Parliament, which is directly repugnant to the law of God and his Holy Church, the supreme government of which no temporal person may *by any law* presume to take upon him! This was granted by the mouth of our Savior, Christ Himself, to Saint Peter and the Bishops of Rome *whilst he lived* and was *personally present* here on Earth! It is therefore insufficient in law to charge any Christian to obey it. And more to this: the immunity of the Church is promised both in Magna Carta and in the King's own coronation oath! CROMWELL: Now, we plainly see you *are* malicious! MORE: Not so! I am the King's true subject, and I pray for him and all the realm. I do none harm. I say none harm. I think none harm. If this be not enough to keep a man alive, then in good faith, I long not to live. (pause) Nevertheless! It is not for the Supremacy that you have sought my blood, but because I would not bend to the marriage!

On Evola. Giulio Caesare (Julius Caesar) Andrea Evola. That is the full legal name of the child born in Rome on the 19th of May, 1898 to two lower bourgeoisie parents. There is little indication that Evola was a baron, a noble at all, nor is there that much in the way of proof that he even called himself anything of the sort. It is likely this is the result of a decades long game of telephone, in part started by Evola as a young adult when he was active in the Italian Dada scene, and further utilized as part of a wider ploy to be recognized as a reliable Italian asset by agents of the SD. His father was a radio technician and his mother rented out apartments. Everyone and their grandmother has heard the story of the buddhist text and Evola's depression, but very few people know that the real start of Evola's interest in mysticism and the origins of the crisis of modernity started when he was studying mathematics for his engineering degree, and he began to properly internalize the implications of the works of…