[Ansteorra] for discussion: the elusive end of period date

[jay yeates]

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i'm reading a excellent book that makes the preposition that it is
October 31, 1517.  without reading farther, can you tell me who,
what, and why?  (continued next message)

...

on this date, a simple monk known as Luther (or Lhuder, Lutter, or
Lotharius) nailed his 95 propositions on the All Saints church door
of in Wittenberg (a common way to start discussion in that time ...
take a strong stance against a thing and post your views to invite
comment and discussion - very similar to the modern internet in many
ways, more so with another twist i will mention in a bit).

what was the subject of his religious "RFC: request for comment" ???
the sale of indulgences by the church.  why did it not simply fade
away instead of providing a spark that set the secular and religious
western world on fire and began the first of the four major
revolutions (this first revolution, the one of "religion") that
shaped the modern world ???.  primarily, society was primed for the
revolution, his ideas were the spark - the carrier of the spark was a
new invention (important in all other revolutions that follow) - the
printing press.  without it, his ideas, like so many other similar
ones of the time would have faded into obscurity.
hence the similarities with the modern internet.

the protestant revolution that followed split the church, ended the
medieval period, and allowed all that followed ... for good or ill


for a exceptional read on the origins of the modern world, the theory
of the "four great revolutions" that shaped it, and some marvelous
explorations on what revolution is, how it happens, the forces that
drive it, and it's results, i strongly recommend the following work
as a "must have" on all historians shelves:

Jacques Barzun, _From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western
Cultural Life, From 1500 to the Present_, 2000, Harper Collins, ISBN:
0-06--017586-9

read it, and see the past in a new light with better understanding of
the forces that have led us to where we are, and wonder what the
fifth revolution will be,  when it will happen, and how it will shape
our future.

'wolf
... and personally, i like the symmetry that it was done on the
traditional date for samhain, the "in between time" of the cycle of
life & death .. and note the name of the church he chose on that
date.





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