“Latin Cross: Cross with transverse arms and upper shaft of equal length, and shorter than the lower shaft. Used as the basis for Western European church plans.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
“Grand Master * Seneschal * Commander of the Kingdom of Jerusalem * Commander of the City of Jerusalem * Commander of Tripoli and Antioch * Drapier * Commander of Houses * Commander of Knights * Knight Brothers * Turcopolier * Under Marshal * Standard Bearer * Sergeant Brothers * Turcopoles * Elderly Brothers
The Knights Templar were a crack force of armed monks, established in 1129 to protect pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem, and then employed to defend the Crusader kingdoms of Outremer. After the fall of Outremer to Turkic and Egyptian forces, the Templars no longer had a function for a medieval Europe without any appetite for crusading, and in 1312 they were suppressed by the Pope, under pressure from the French King Philip IV. His reason was straightforward: the throne was bankrupt and he wanted the Order’s considerable wealth—lands bequeathed to them, priories in all the nations of Christendom and a banking business. Because of the violence and suddenness of their suppression (and the accusations of heresy levied against them) a conspiratorial glamor continued to attach to the name of the Order, in contrast to its rival Hospitaller Knights of Saint John (who had the good sense to take over the island bases of Malta and Rhodes and still to an extent survive as a charitable institution). Indeed, the traditions of the Templars—or, to give them their full name, ‘The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon’—would be enthusiastically mined some 400 years later by the quasi-Templar Freemasonry Lodges established in Europe and North America.
During their heyday, the Templars Grand Master was the absolute ruler over the Order and answered only to the Papacy. The Seneschal acted as both deputy and advisor to the Grand Master. The Commander of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Commander of the City of Jerusalem, and the Commander of Tripoli and Antioch had the same powers as Grand Master within their own jurisdictions. The Drapier was in charge of the Templar garments. The Commander of Houses and the Commander of Knights acted as lieutenants to higher authorities within the Order. The Knight Brothers were the warrior-monks who wore the white tunic and red cross. Each was equipped with three horses and apprentice-like squires. The Turcopolier commanded the brother sergeants in battle. The Under Marshal was in charge of the footmen and the equipment. The Standard Bearer was one of the sergeants and charged with carrying the order’s banner. The Sergeant Brothers were warriors who did not have proof of eight quarterlings of noble blood and thus had but one horse and no squires to assist them. The Turcopoles were local troops who would fight alongside the Templars. Sick and Elderly Brothers were no longer fit for active service but still members of the order.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
Last but not least on this cool Sunday morning in southwestern Vermont, here is a reading on Cicero along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.
This is a good general introduction to the great Roman orator. I assembled this material with a variety of uses in mind, including a biographical research paper the freshman global studies curriculum in my New York City high school assigned. But Marcus Tullus Cicero is a key figure in world history, so I can think of a lot of uses for this material. For example, this summer I had the good fortune to become involved with professional development in Debate-Centered Instruction; I might open a unit on debate and rhetoric with these documents.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“The end cannot justify the means, for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed determine the nature of the ends produced.”
Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means ch. 1 (1937)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion, science literacy
“De Stijl: Now synonymous with the term Neo-Plasticism, De Stijl was the name of a Dutch journal started by Theo van Doesburg in 1917 which, as the organ of Neo-Plasticism, was influential in spreading the theories of Piet Mondrian. These ideas strongly marked the architectural, industrial, and commercial design of the Bauhaus.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
“Mammon: An Aramaic word used in the New Testament of personify riches and worldliness; also, the god of avarice or cupidity. The word occurs in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 to represent the opposite of a God-fearing life: ‘No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate one and love the other; or he will hold to one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.’ Both Spenser, with his cave of Mammon in The Faerie Queene, and Milton, by identifying him with Vulcan in Paradise Lost, make Mammon the epitome of the evils of wealth.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
“Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.”
Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged philosophy/religion
“The law may…depend on what the judge has had for breakfast.”
“The Autobiography of an Ex-Law Student,” American Law School Review, Apr. 1934
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
“The notion ‘grammatical’ cannot be identified with ‘meaningful’ or ‘significant’ in any semantic sense. Sentences (1) and (2) are equally nonsensical, but…only the former is grammatical.
(1) Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
(2) Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
Noam Chomsky, Syntactic Structures ch. 2 (1957)
Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the concept of the Freudian Slip. This is a half-page worksheet with a single-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. I cannot, for the life of me, remember why I wrote this. Usually, that means I put some together in response to student interest; that is all but certainly the case here.
This might be too abstract or advanced an idea for some students–and, depending on one’s thoughts about such things, it might also be a bit risque. I don’t know. I do know that it’s worth mentioning that there is a more clinical term for the Freudian Slip, to wit, parapraxis. This worksheet, as it is in Microsoft Word, could easily be recast to call upon students to understand the concept of parapraxis.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
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