Post 28. The Two Miriams ( Mary) in Jesus' Life.

(To Luthien from Norway).

One of the most ancient and naively anthropomorphic icons of

the Most Holy Trinity

that Hebrews and Moslems

hypocritically, unfairly, dihonestly

and above all,

uncomprehendingly and unscholarly-like,

if even not maliciously,

insist taking at face value, i.e., anthropomorphically.

How else can a human and humane creature

who is desperately and agonisingly

in love

with God's Mystery,

attempt to express the necessarily, humanly crippled understanding

of

three spiritual essences making One single and united Spirit,

the One and only God,

by an attempt to reach God "from below" (i.e., through the human being ),

which is, unlike the one "from above"

(i.e., the essentially non-human [ let us have the courage to say this ] Spirit, Jehovah)

the only one possible for the average believer who,

arrogantly having chosen too steep a cliff to climb

(i.e., the meeting with God's Divinity),

eventually falls-off, spent, from the cliff,

into the idolatry of pantheism

( i.e., inclusive of all the little petty, nasty little human fantasies/illusions/delusions).

Take care you fools!

La', ila laa', illaa' Allah!

St. John the Baptist,

Jesus's cousin

and traditionally representing until his death without issue

the 'Zadok', the Most-High Priest of Israel

( How different He look from our clergymen and women of any denomination!

I wonder why?).

( See Sir Laurence Gardner ).

Holy Mary,

( of the Houses of Joseph [ Manasseh & Ephraim] and David [Judah ] )

the Mother of Jesus.

A fresco possibly showing Mary the Mother of Jesus standing behind and holding Mary Magdalene hugging and holding the child Jesus while being kissed by him.
The fresco in this photo is located in one of the darkest recesses in one of the most ancient churches in the centre of Como, a city on Lake Como, Lombardy, Italy, dedicated to St. Fedele ( St. Faithful ). The Church was built in the times of Constantine ( 300-400+A.D.), and I estimate the painting as being earlier than 1000 A.D. I would be grateful to any expert commenting on this.
I took its photo in 2004 and since then I never gave much thought to the younger woman in a black mantle being kissed by the child Jesus. A few months ago (2007 ) I began reading Laurence Gardner's Books on the Sacred Line of the Holy Grail Kings ( S.L.H.G.K.) and about St. Mary Magdalene and realized that it is quite possible that the young lady in black might have been intended by the painter to represent St. Mary Magdalene. If correct, this fresco may be telling us that, at the time the fresco was painted, a tradition existed in Como of respect for and veneration of the Magdalene.
We know for a fact that this tradition began in France with the landing on the french side of the sea-coast of Languedoc, a region then straddling the Pyrenees mountains, of jewish, christian missionaries and refugees from the Middle East, escaping from the roman persecutions of the Jews after the destruction of the Temple, in ca. 70 A.D. There existed already in Ireland and in the british islands, according to other similar traditions, families connected to the S.L.H.G.K. by blood-ties going back to the times of Moses ( whom Gardner believes to have been pharao Akhenaten alias Amenhotep IV) and to those of the prophet Jeremiah.
At approximately the time Mary Magdalene, whom an ancient tradition considers as a more learned and charismatic figure than any of the Apostles, with the exception perhaps of St. Paul, landed in Languedoc, later moving to the area around Marseille, some jewish-christians also crossed the Pyrenees and moved to the area around Barcelona, where the mountains of Montserrat north of Barcelona became in fact the sites of christian anchorites who were later absorbed by the benedectine Monastery of Montserrat, founded in 1030, when Rome began to proscribe and reject these traditions for various politically justifiable reasons.
In the Valley of the Rhone river a Prince of the House of Herod had been given by the Romans sanctuary and possessions, and the Magdalene, who belonged to one of the traditionally most important priestly families in Israel, might have been able to benefit from his generosity. If it is true that the Magdalene may have been accompanied by Jesus' children ( a girl and two boys ) at the time of the landing in France, it is possible she may have entered into a highly ritualized matrimonial covenant with Jesus, before his death and Resurrection, in accordance to the ancient priestly traditions of the Hebrew nation which the Essenes' community had revived, for the purpose of producing heirs to the House of Joseph ( of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh as well as of Judah ), also in order to continue the traditional lines of virtual personas harbouring the spiritual powers of Angels and of ancient kingly and priestly biblical key-persons. On these tradition is founded the belief that there is even to-day a S.L.H.G.K. These traditions cannot be disproved, dismissed or slighted except by recurring to theological dogmas and the authority of roman prelates which cannot either be dismissed, opposed or slighted from a purely religious perspective, but which I am prepared to normalize with the present traditions of freedom of worship and separation of Church from State. Someone is required to integrate and synthetise the lot extracting what is common and fundamental ( the ethical code and christian ethos for example ) to all and not negotiable, leaving the rest to be accepted by a person according to conscience. I feel the S.L.H.G.K.' traditions should in fact be reconsidered as to whether these can better fulfil in to-day's existing scenarios and threats, some historical goal of paramount, ethically sound, worthwhile political value to the civilization which is holding these traditions, in the same spirit that Rome and Judaism chose to oppose, dismiss and hide these in the past, for equally politically justifiable, however different scenarios. Gardner's failure to recognize the contributions of the Roman Empire to our civilization and the right its leaders had to defend it from the people from the steppes ( the descendants of some of which are even to-day threatening us ), is a negative aspect of his narrow conclusions and visions for our present era, in relation to the S.L.H.G.K.' traditions. While being flexible and constructive in relation to change due to normal historical evolution and world-view, within an acceptable and viable ethical system and code of morality is essential to survival ( the ethical system and code of morality must remain a fixed, non-negotiable datum in the whole exercise of normalization ), fanaticism, inflexibility about and narrowness of world-view can only lead to failure.
Lastly, in order to recapitulate all these traditions, something Gardner has done better than I shall ever be able to do, at the same time that the Magdalene was landing in France, Jesus' brother, James, who had inherited the family traditional title of Arimathea when Jesus had become both the Messiah, the King as well as the Zadok High Priest ( Melchizedek the High Priest mentioned in both Genesis and Hebrews), when his cousin John the Baptist had died without issue, landed in England with a daughter who married into a british royal house. There may therefore be at least four lines of messianic blood merging, evolving and maturing one into the other in the course of time in the history of post-roman Europe. The one of Mary Magdalene would be the most close to Jesus and this is why the Magdalene has had such a hold on the respect and veneration of people who held, believed and hoped in these traditions, in the midst of the chaos and anarchy prevailing in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, between 400 and 1000 A.D.
The First-Art Works representing the Black Madonna came from Ferrieres a village on the Pyrenees mountains.
I have said above that the tradition about Mary Magdalene's closeness to Jesus began in the french side of Languedoc, and coincidentally or not the fact is that the first representations of the Black Madonna commemorating Mary Magdalene to people who respected and venerated her came from Ferrieres, a small village on the french slopes of the Pyrenees, located to the west of Lourdes.
I have also mentioned the mountains of Montserrat north of Barcelona where a monastery was founded by the Benedectine Order in 1030, on ground previously occupied by anchorites. A wooden statue from the eleventh century, of a Dark Madonna, is venerated in that Monastery and even St. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the Jesuits promised eternal service to the Mother of Jesus kneeling in front of this satue, at the very beginning of his conversion, when he abandoned his clothes which distinguished him as a soldier and a knight, to begin his training for service in the Church. By the time this statue was made, the identities of Mary the Mother of Jesus and that of the Magdalene had somehow merged in the minds of those seeking consolation from the memories of the ancient, sweet, christian beginnings, which had been betrayed by Rome who wanted to erase demonstrations of piety toward the Magdalene, for various reasons. I am not going to discuss here. The Magdalene connection which is made explicit, unequivocal and transparent in the fresco shown in Post 6 e, is shown in the case of this statue of Our Lady of Montserrat, by the pine-cone the child-Jesus is holding in his right hand, and by the presence of two pine-cones, located at each of the lady's feet. The pine-cone is in fact an ancient Sumerian symbol, referring to fertility, immortality, supreme intellect, etc., attributes, the abundance of which was originally associated with the rulers of a nation.
Art-Works related to the tradition of the Black Madonna exist at the Benedectine Abbey/Monastery at New Norcia in Western Australia.
In a recent pilgrimage to the Benedectine Abbey/Monastery at New Norcia, founded in 1840 by spanish benedectine monks led by Ildefonso Salvado, located 132 km north-east of Perth in Western Australia, I was surprised, although a guiding hand must have directed me to this experience of discovery, to discover the presence of Art Works related to the Black Madonna's tradition and the wooden, 11th century statue of the Dark Madonna of Montserrat.
I shall publish photos of these findings at New Norcia in a following Post.
The link to the Montserrat statue is given by the gold pine-cone held by the child-Jesus in an Altar statue of the dark-skinned Madonna and Child. Two gold pine-cones are further located at the top of each of two risers at the sides of the back of the throne the Madonna is sitting on. There is also a Dark Madonna appearing on her own clearly standing on a moon-crescent. Finally the link to Montserrat is shown by a shield of the Montserrat Mountains centred in a compass of heraldic Fleur-de-Lis and concentric with a corniche in the shape of an eight-pointed star. The profusion of Lilies, like the pine-cone is unherringly pointing to the association with the mesopotamic traditions, connections and origins of the S.L.H.G.K.
Additional Art-Works related to the Mary Magdalene's tradition.
There is at St.Fedele in Como a further fresco of a Lady standing on her own but wearing a red mantle. This does not however exclude her from representing a mature Mary Magdalene since Gardner refers to paintings of a red robed Magdalene, i.e., One by Giotto Bondone, c. 1322, another by Nicolas Borras, c. 1580, the latter showing Mary Magdalene half kneeling between fully genuflected Benedict and Bernard. Fra Angelico also painted a Magdalene robed in red in c.1441. Finally there is a statue located at Paris (Neuilly-sur-Seine) of a standing Lady holding a child Jesus on her right-arm and a fleur-de-lis with her left-hand, both unambiguously black-skinned.
The unusually modern-looking wooden statue of a very young lady standing at play with the child Jesus observed inside the Gate-Church of our Lady of Merevale.
During my pilgrimage to England in 2004, I visited the Gate-Church at Merevale where three Ferrers' Brasses are located, including the damaged ( both the head and the feet are missing ) knight-effigy of William the Templar, who died at the siege of Acre, Palestine, in ca. 1194-97 A.D., wordly known as William Ferrers, Lord Tutbury, the 5th Earl of Derby, his Coat of Arms which was also his father's, Robert the first of the two great Ferrers who rebelled against the Crown, being represented among 61 of that family (deeply associated with the Templars since the foundation of that Order ) in the Great Hall ( Parlour Hall ) at Tamworth Castle ( just judged in a competition held a few months ago, as one of the top 10 Castles in medieval England ), in Staffordshire, Britain. Incidentally, the representation of the Arms of the two great rebels, both called Robert, the fourth and the eighth and last Ferrers-Earls of Derby, is really an illegal act, since the English law does not allow the heraldic commemoration of rebels to the Crown, irrespective of any available historical justification. or provocation by the Crown However, the Townshend/Ferrer person who commissioned the paintings of the Ferrers' Arms at Tamworth in the eighteenth century, willfully caused heraldic errors to be introduced and, in the case of the last Earl' Arms he had these located by far out of chronological sequence, also probably introducing an heraldic error in order to be able to distance himself from any blame for these having been represented at all. This is part of what I readily see as a Ferrers' Code in no way less intriguing than the famous Dan Brown's Da Vinci's Code, if one considers the history of the eight Ferrers-Earls in relation to their deep ties to the Order of the Knight-Templars. My attention inside the Gate-Church at Merevale was taken by a statue located on a marble corner-shelf near the knight-effigy. This is clearly visible at both Posts 6 a & b.
When asking who is it representing, I was told by the Anglican lady-rector that it was of course representing Mary the Mother and Jesus.
I believe now that it might represent the Magdalene as a young girl playng with Jesus. It would be interesting to know the origins of that statue . This would also be supported by the fresco at Como which shows a young Magdalene, however older than Jesus.
My feelings about the Como fresco at St.Fedele.
I find the Como-fresco at St.Fedele which shows the two women Jesus loved most during his short life on earth, to be a very healing, cheering and consoling art-work which somehow points at the nobility of the human female who was created as the Crown of Creation by a Loving Father, the purely spiritual celestial Jehovah, the Creator of All Reality.
Oh Lord! Let those therefore be chastised who are inclined to exploit, degrade, cheapen, vandalise, corrupt, and harm women.

Post 27. A De Ferrarii Coat of Arms from the 100+ Collection.

To Luthien

from Norway,

I here dedicate
the following-:

Arms of a Ferreri-branch of the Gensferreria(ferraria).

A De Ferrarii Coat of Arms ( a Ferrari branch ), one of 100+ from the Collection of Gensferreria( ferraria)'s Arms & honours, drawn and painted in oil by the blogger.

Post 27.Mohammedans, look at the example of Edhi of Pakistan.

Information extracted from an Article "Islam's Fault Line Pakistan"

in the National Geographic dated September 2007.

Islamic unrest, resurgence and escalation to violent action is a relatively recent phenomenon that began after WWI, when people and nations of arabic and mohammedean indoctrination, were liberated from the control and oppression of the Ottoman Empire by western allied nations of mainly christian european traditions. In spite of the dismantling of Colonialism which we are all seeing to-day as the beginning of chaos and disorder in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, with catastrophic results, which are going to become more and more irreversible as Global Warming takes its toll on world-economies, the arabic, mohammedan world has treacherously and ungratefully turned against the West. Instead of seeking convergence, Islamic minorities, called terrorists as they do not even qualify for the definition of partisan, are instigating divergence and war. In spite of the liberation from the Ottoman rule that the christian West achieved for the Arabs, these people and nations which claim to be acting in the name of their sacred religious traditions, i.e., of Allah, paradoxically began to exploit the confrontations the West began to experience with the Communist block, i.e., China and the U.S.S.R.s which are fundamentally atheist regimes. The insane activities of the representatives of active, aggressive and murderous minorities are gradually bringing the world of Islam to a Confrontation with the West in which the latter shall be compelled to suspend its New Testament- inspired policies of humanity and restraint and revert to the never abrogated Laws of "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth " of the Pentateuch, upon which some parts of the Quran have been based anyway. Since the Quran has been written approx. 600 years after the New Testament when its writers had had the opportunity to consistently adopt the New Testament as a matrix, signifying a clear rejection of the New Testament's Law of Love and Peace,

the West would be immediately at any time be justified to adopt when engaged in war activities against self-professed islamists, the Old Testament's Confrontation Ethics. Until now the West has exercised restraint, however this does not mean this restraint must go on for ever. The West is getting awfully tired of loosing good men and women and of the rising number of severely wounded soldiers and civilians.

The point I am trying to make in this article is that the present attitude and mentality of the islamic minorities is a return to the interpretations of the Quran, Sharia Law, etc. and scenarios of the world as it was in the Middle Ages.

While in Saudi Arabia medieval interpretation of the Quran is called Wahabism, Pakistani call it Deobandism.

At times I cannot believe my ears when I hear in Australia resident Islamists praise, while lying, Sharia Law and the Quran, claiming the violent sectarianism and the incompatible medieval distortions are not really part of Islam.

Even in Pakistan which is a more or less a Democratic nation, judicial rape, mutilation and death penalties in accordance to Sharia Law are widespread.

In fact, the apparent ( I personally do not believe an islamic centralised headquarter does not exist, as this is a typical strategy of islamic cunning, in feigning divisions and decentralisation to confuse an bamboozle the opponent ), lack of a centralised, universally accepted priestly hyerarchy, with a supreme Head of Islamism ( in the days of Turkish leadership there was a Khaliff, abolished by the reformer Ataturk, never openly reelected, as for example Roman Apostolic Catholicism and almost every Protestant Church have, has always encouraged apparent(?) divisions, distortions and abuses throughout Islam in so far as, in practice, every minor warlord can elect priests chosen from within his group and dictate his own interpretation of the Quran and of Sharia Law, all in the name of Allah who, by now mkust be really angry with islam as eveidencded by the continuous natural catastrophes hitting islamic countries.

But Islam never learns, further annoying Allah.

This is a very erratic procedure since, while at some time some improvement and some good may result, the movement having resulted as the correction of social and civil abuses by oppressive landlords or Opium and Cocaine Barons, as in the case of the Talibans in Afghanistan, most of the time there is a degradation and retrogression of the whole religious hyerarchy and structures.

Even in such a modern example as that of the Talibans movement, the initial dysfunctions its rise may have corrected, ends into its reversal as the result of the need to acquire weapons and to carry on useless and fanatical wars, which means the production of Opium and Cocaine is again encouraged. How can Allah be happy of these scenarios oh you imbecillic people? Stop and think for a moment. and stop blaming the west but blame yourselves.

Isolated examples of apparently moderate islamic nations like Dubai and Malesia are not sufficient to demonstrate islamic good-will and intentions, as these may just be hypocritical attempts at fooling moderate westerners. Islam is being and must be judged and weighed in Palestine vis-a-vis its confrontation with the State of Israel, in Iraq with the refusal of its minorities to accept peace terms at the end of a War in a civilised way ( as for example even the formidable Germans did at the end of WWII), in Iran, where defiance and stealth in financing and preparing for confrontation with the West and in instigating defiance and confrontation in Iraq and in the Middle Esat is a continuing process.

How can Allah be happy with these scenarios oh you foolish people?

Yet, Mohammedanism, as the mentioned Article on Pakistan briefly mentions, has also produced peace-loving religious schools of Quranic interpretation and moderation. The Sufi-tradition is one such school. Even to -day there is in Pakistan a holy mohammedan called EDHI who preaches peace and has founded hospitals and an ambulance service that serves all people regardless of their race, and religion, like Christians, especially we Roman Catholics and western natio0ns in general do. Yet this man is being persecuted and oppressed and even threatened by Islamists of the medieval strain who even stole a whole building intended to be an hospital to devote it to the use of a quranic school.

So my dear Mohammedans pay attention to what I say. Although I do not wear white little hats and ghallabias, I am a qualified theologian and have the same status as your islamic priests.

I do not resort to and do not require istrionics and theatrical shows.

In justice and fairness, I always make a concession to Islam and this is that even the West badly needs moral reformation, in this agreeing with Baktar Beshir of Indonesia. However, killing as a punishment or the law of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a toooth, as done in the cases of " judicial raping", is too extreme to-day and more suitable, acceptable modern legislation compatible with modernity should be adopted by a Reformed Mohammedanism. I never get tired of repeating tha I am not against a reformed Mohammedanism and that I dream of the three people of the Book to join together in their diversities, may Allah be my witness and the confounder of my opponents. To Baktar Beshir I say to begin reforming Islam, while justly criticising and attacking western immorality. Europeans or Australians visiting Africa or Asia in order to cheaply satisfy their sexual ( i.e. , child-sexual-abuse especially) or substance-abusing deviations should be caught, exposed, judged and incarcerated according to suitable Laws, compatible with their faulty western upbringing. Moreover he should realise when preaching that not all tourists are guilty and immoral.

To start with, I am certainly not, as I desire wholeheartedly to be good and to do good.

Generally speaking, Christianity still remains, after Judaism, the Senior Religion and has nothing lacking in relation to Mohammedanism.

I agree if you agree.

Confrontation Ethics is otherwise the only alternative and Islam shall have it on its Head.

So speaks a Templar!

Post 26. Advertising on this blogger's planned Website.

Advertising.

Business persons, Organisations , Institutions, Government's Departments, etc., anyone needing to advertise, please note my intention to soon create my own Website.

I wish to know about anyone prepared to use my Website for the purpose of advertising.

I already have "Bidvertising" and others prepared to do so and that is a large American Organisation.

Please express your interest by e-mailing me at-:

gensferreria@bigpond.com

with particulars about your e-mail address and type of business, etc.

Thank you for your esteemed co-operation.

Post 25. A classical case of the Nigerian Scam.

A CLASSICAL CASE OF THE NIGERIAN SCAM.

( being drafted )

Post 24. The World shall improve!

This is a favorite song of mine, by Migliacci, Cioni/Romitelli. Edizioni-: Mimo Edizioni Musicali Srl. Original (P) 1975 Sonty BMG Music Entertainment ( Italy ) SpA., much sung by the famous Gianni Morandi. I am here uploading the italian wording, hoping to be able to translate it in the English language, while able to project the magic of its lirics.

IL MONDO CAMBIERA'!

amico mio che stai

guardando intorno a te

non credi agli occhi tuoi

tu piangi e so il perche'

quel che provi tu

los sto provando anch'io

ma non cambiare mai

ti fa paura il mondo

amico mio coraggio

io piango come te

vedrai che il mondo cambiera'

le sue ferite guarira'

l'amore no, non puo' morire

sarebbe come dire

che questa e' la fine

vedrai la notte finira'

e l'uomo si risvegliera'

con gli occhi e il cuore

di un bambino che, non puo', tradire, mai

se nella mente tua

nascesse qualche idea

coraggio amico mio

il mondo aspetta te

ma non cambiare mai

e non scordare che

via via che salirai

gradino per gradino

ti sembrero' lontano

ma io sono uguale a te

vedrai che il mondo cambiera'

le sue ferite guarira'

l'amore no, non puo' morire

sarebbe come dire

che questa e' lafine

vedrai la notte finira', vedrai

e l'uomo si risvegliera'

con gli occhi e il cuore

di un bambino che, non puo, tradire, mai.

THE WORLD IS CHANGING!

oh friend of mine

all around you observing

unbelieving what you see

I know why you cry

feeling

just as you do

please, never change however

the world is scaring you, I know

oh friend of mine, have courage

while I cry with you

you'll see, the world shall change

its wounds shall heal

its love is not, cannot be dying

else it would be as if

all this should be an end

you'll see, the night shall end

and humankind be re-born anew

with eyes and the heart

of an infant who, betrayal never knew

if your mind

an idea were to sprout

my friend, be daring

while the world waits for you

please, never change however

never forget that

as you shall soar

one step at the time

far away I may appear to you

however I am the same as you

you'll see, the world shall change

its wounds shall heal

its love is not, cannot be dying

else it would be as if

all this should be an end

you'll see, the night shall end, you'll see

and humankind be re-born anew

with eyes and the heart

of an infant who, betrayal never knew.

I dedicate my english translation to all the mothers of the Universe and to their motherly love, and to all loving women in general !

Post 23. The Ferrers,Templars,Merevale,Staffordshire, Nothamptonshire, Rutland

The Syon Cope.
I have become aware of the existence of this priestly liturgical vestment 10 years ago, when looking into the history of the british/norman Ferrers searching for their armorial distinctions and honours, as I was then collecting all known Arms of all families with a surname rooted in the latin verb: fero-tuli-latum-ferre, in order to prove my thesis of their common origins in the period preceding the Dark Ages, i.e., prior to 1000 A.D.
The Syon Cope was mentioned in C.Wilfrid Scott-Giles, The Romance of Heraldry , J.M.Dent & Sons Ltd., London 1929 and in W.H. ST John Hope, A Grammar of English Heraldry, Cambridge, 1953.
After unsuccessfully attempting to obtain a colour photo, I decided to have a look at it at the Victoria & Albert Museum, in the occasion of my trip to Europe in 2004
Nobody appears to have been for centuries or to be aware to-day of the links between the Syon Cope and the Order of the Knights- Templar, which had originally been known, when founded by Geoffrey de Bouillon, as the Order of Syon. The Cope is semicircular being worn by the Roman Catholic Priest who used it during Masses behind and around his torso, clasped in front on his breast It is embroidered to a higher standard than the Bayeux Tapestry with religious icons from the Gospels the central one of which is about the Crucifixion. It prominently shows St Peter and St. Paul and is very orthodox from a theological point of view. However at the top of the Crucifixion there is an icon showing a Crowned Lady at the left ( of the Priest wearing the Cope with his back to us) and a blessing Glorified Jesus, similarly Crowned on the right, both sitting, looking at one another. The crowned Lady could be either Mary the mother or St. Mary Magdalene, whom some believe married Jesus and shares with him the Lordship given Him by the celestial Father Jehovah. The Lady is holding her left hand up as if preaching. The border along its diameter shows 14 fairly large, easily discernible Coat of Arms a series of smaller ones filling the border of the Cope along the semi-circumference.
The 14 Arms are, beginning from the right of the Cope-: Clifford, Despencer, Order of Knights-Templar, Despencer, Clifford, Geneville, Robert Ferrers the 8th Earl of Derby (1241-1279 ) [ circular pattern of Arms ], Castile & Leon ( this dates the Cope since it commemorates the marriage of King Edward I ( 1272-1307 ) to Eleanor, the sister of Ferdinand III the King of Castile & Leon, when Spain was still not joined to Aragon and Catalonia ), Warwick, (unknown ), William Ferrers, the 5th Earl of Derby who died at Acre in ca, 1194-97 [ lozenge-shaped Arms, perhaps signifying his status a deceased], definitely a crusading Knight-Templar of the Order of Knights-Templar, William Ferrers' lozenge-ashaped Arms again, ( the same unknown Arms previously mentioned). Ferrers' Arms are also discernible among the smaller ones located on the semi-circumference of the Cope.
Dating shows the Cope was in use during the reign of King Edward I and the life of Robert Ferrers the 8th Earl. of Derby. It shows a link between powerful families of the Midlands and between these and the Order of the Knight-Templars. One should also note that at the time of King Edward I, although the Spanish Reconquesta had not yet begun, i.e., that large and determined drive that the united Spain of Elisabeth of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon was to generate during the next century for the liberation of the Spanish territories under Islamic domination, yet Spain already constituted an alternative crusading frontier and the opportunity to acquire honour, wealth and indulgences for past sins if not even eternal life, for Knights from all over Europe. This is how, for example, branches of the spanish Ferrer, Ferrari, Ferrero, Ferrero', Ferrante, etc. originated from migrating british/norman knights from Britain, breton/norman from Brittany ( France ), british/norman from Scotland ( especially after the dissolution of the Order of Knight-Templars in 1300 ), other knights from Languedoc, Provence, etc.
The various families of the Gens Ferreria (Ferraria ) Clan, then existing in most parts of western Europe, collected a total of more than 100 Coat of Arm, which may appear one day in the Book I have been writing about the Clan, a unique occurrence in the Heraldic History of Europe, certainly worthy of the Guinnes Book of Records. The best comic character ( french cartoons ) who would better and more closely portrey in a satirical mode, a typical Ferreri ( Ferrari ) knight whose fighting prowess would have been forged in the days of the gallic struggles against the Romans, would be the french Asterix ( a Breton like most Ferrarii ) with his fat squire Obelisk. The Book's Title sounds funny as it hints at Julius Caesar's imaginary ( probably also historically true as the Bretons from Vannes gave him tremendous problems; finally forcing him to deport the whole tribe to Venetia in Italy [ modern Veneti from Vannes], not to mention the great hero Vercingetorix ) vexation with the continuous harassment received from Asterix and Obelisk -: " Veni, vidi, vici, ...............................who shall rid me from these ubiquitous and pugnatious Ferrarii......?"

I am loking for an expresion of interest from Publishers and for supporters of the Gens Ferreria ( Ferraria) to join as Members.
( send me an e-mail at gensferreria@bigpond.com ).

Coat of Arms of Sir William Ferrers, Lord Tutburie, the 5th Earl of Derby, a crusading Knight-Templar, who died in the operations during the siege of Acre in Palestine, in c. 1194-1197, serving his heavenly Lord Jesus Christ under his earthly liege Lord, King Richard I, the Lion Heart.
His knight-effigy carved in the Templars' manner, correctly identified by me in June 2004, is located in the Church of Our Lady of Merevale, Staffordshire and is similar to the one of Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, his coeval companion-in-arms, located at the Temple Church in London.
Arms embroidered on the Syon Cope ( produced during the reign of King Edward I: 1272-1307 ) at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

On a blue field, (i) A gold Agnus Dei ( Lamb of God/ Paschal Lamb ), passant, regardant carrying a banner showing a red, square Latin Cross on silver field, (ii) A red Templar Cross at top, (iii) A silver crescent at bottom, representing St. Mary Magdalene, (iv) Rising and lowering golden Suns. All crosses are red on silver. Divided banneret is black at bottom and silver at top, these being the liverie colours of the Priestly House of St. Mary Nagdalene, and incidentally, also of the Ferrarii of Ferrieres-st.Hilaire in Evreux, Normandy, where the norman origins of the Ferrers of Derby are located.

Motto-: " Beau Seant", signifying the Sage of Ages.

The "blogger" has arbitrarily added supporters representing two great Knight-Templars, i.e., The much maligned and sabotaged Earl of Pembroke, Sir William Mareshall, the legendary winner of 500 tourneamonts, and Sir Geoffrey De Mandeville * , the richest man in the England of his age and at some time a Master of the Order, as shown by a device on his shield, the eight- pointed rose of lilies ( I believe it was called "The Carbuncle") referring to the Sumerian links of christianity. Sir De Mandeville was a companion of Sir William Ferrers, both knight effigies being strikingly similar and using the same grey marble, the former located at the Temple-Court-Templar-Church in London, the latter at the Gate Church of Our Lady of Merevale, Staffordshire, vandalised during the destruction of the Abbey-Monastery of Merevale ordered by King Henry VIII, the welsh Boar and royal glutton and fornicator par excellence . All members and the families of those affiliated to the Order of Knight-Templars have been victimised and maliciously sabotaged one way or another by pseudo-christians.

I am rising in their defence! Beware of the wrath of God!

A Short History of the Order of Knights-Templar.
( According to Sir Laurence Gardner's utterances.)
There may have been four branches of the messianic-related Sacred Line of the Holy Grail Kings ( S.L.H.G.K ), merging, evolving and maturing one into the other in the course of time in the history of post-roman Europe. The most ancient is reputed to be the one that resulted from the migrations of Celtic and Gothic tribes from Asia Minor, the Celtic tribes gradually moving toward Europe through the Balkanic regions, following the chain of the Alps into North Italy, Austria, Switzerland the Rhone Valley etc. and eventually reaching Ireland, leaving pockets of their own people in various parts of Europe. One of the leaders of these Celtic tribes had married a Jewish/Egiptian Princess of the line of the biblical Joseph the Vizier of Egypt and the hereditary Chief of the hebrew tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim. In Ireland this celtic leader ( wrongly identified by Gardner as a Scythian ) had become the pre-eminent and predominant force in the Irish Royal Lineage. Moreover, at the same time that St. Mary Magdalene was landing in France, Jesus' brother, James, who had inherited the family traditional title of Arimathea when Jesus had become both the Messiah, the King as well as the Zadok High Priest ( Melchizedek the High Priest mentioned in both Genesis and Hebrews), when his cousin John the Baptist had died without issue, landed in England with his daughter who married into one of the predominant british royal houses. The royal line established by Mary Magdalene would be the most close to Jesus and this is why the Magdalene has had such a hold on the respect and veneration of people who held, believed and hoped in these traditions, in the midst of the chaos and anarchy prevailing in Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, between 400 and 1000 A.D. ( In my opinion, the West is to-day slowly moving toward a scenario of chaos and calamities similar to the one that engulfed western Europe in the days of the Fall of the Roman Empire of the West and the only available traditions capable to remotivate and determinate the West to avert total disaster are the return to those of the S.L.H.G.K. whether true or false is immaterial as nothing certain can be absolutely proved pro or contra. Their power is symbolic and as Paul Tillich argues in the Dynamics of Faith, let no one underestimate the power of symbols. Unfortunately the symbol of the Cross has been abused and although still the most powerful on earth, ancillary and homely ones are also required, those that made the Templars into the most formidable fighting force of their times ).

St. Mary Magdalene had, according to a strong tradition a daughter and two boys, from her marriage to Jesus of Nazareth, all marrying royal scions of the Merovingian dynasty in Gaul.
The branch that is responsible for the rise and development of the Order of the Knights-Templar, was led by the Prophet Jeremiah, the son of Hilkias, a priest at Anath, who became the high priest of Jerusalem and discovered the Book of the Law ( what had existed so far of the Scriptures or Old Testament, i.e., the Pentateuch ), that had been secreted in the Temple. This migration of exalted Hebrew personalities of Holy-Grail- relevance occurred to Ireland in the days of Zedekiah the King of Judah (598-586 B.C.) who died a captive of the Babylonians, after having been blinded and witnessed all his sons being murdered by order of King Nebuchadnezzar. The history of the Phoenicians, of the Hebrews and later of the Carthaginians shows in fact commercial links between the Middle-East and North Africa to Ireland and Wales for the acquisition of Tin which was essential to the production of Bronze. Since the Age of Bronze is prior to the one of Iron, one can see the antiquity of these links.
The only survivor of the Royal Family had in fact been a daughter of Zedekiah, called Tamar . Jeremiah the Prophet, who was also the captain of Hilkiah's Temple Guards had been able to hide the Sacred Ark of the Covenant, the documents concerning all alchemical knowledge related to the use of the Ark, the Tablets of the Testimony ( I quote from Gardner-: "Inscribed on these [the stone tables received on the Mountain of Sinai by Moses] were the Tables of the Testimony ......... the Cosmic Equation-: The divine law of number, measure and weight. The mystical art of reading the inscriptions was achieved by the cryptic system of the Cabbala ". Unquote) and of all apparatus used in the manipulations of gold in order to produce mono-atomic gold-powder, etc., a great deal of the Royal Treasure ( 140 tons of precious metals ) together with other historical and religious documents under the foundations of the Temple of Solomon. Jeremiah made an accurate record of the location and formed a secret Order of the Temple which held the record in custody for 1700 years until the opportunity to go to Jerusalem and the authority to excavate the site of the Temple and to retrieve the Cache was made available by the Crusade in which took part a highly positioned member of the Order, by then called The Jerusalem Order or Order of Syon, the crusading King Geoffrey ( Godefroi ) de Bouillon, Duke of Lower Lorraine, of Merovigian descent, a fact that qualified him as a member of the S.L.H.G.K. ( His ancestors had survived Charlemagne's jealousie and persecution of all Merovingian princes ).
The reorganisation of the Order of Syon into that of the Knights-Templar had been inspired in 1099 by St. Bernard de Clairvaux, known as the Cluniac ( from Burgundy ) reformer of the Orders of the Benedectines ( founded in 529 by St. Benedict ) and of the Cistercian Monks ( founded in 1098 ). The Order of the Knights-Templar became in fact a de-facto lay-branch of the Cistercian Order, sharing the same Rule of St. Benedict modified to suit soldiers and military-technicians belonging to the Order of Knight-Templars mainly in so far as diet was concerned.
St. Bernard, a noble, belonged to the closed circle of nobles belonging to the Order of Syon and knew about the Temple-secrets/documents/treasures and wished these brought to Europe.
Godefroi died in 1100 and was succeeded as King of Jerusalem by his brother Baudouin II du Bourg, who established The Order of the Templar Grand Knights of St. Andrew in 1118, also called The Guardian Princes of the Royal Secret. Other similar Orders were also founded in order to establish redundancy and survival. This is why Europe may be even to-day in good hands. Tamar married Ard Ri' ( High King of Ireland ) Eochaid, ancestor of Ugaine Mar ( Ugaine the Great ). The Irish Royal Line eventually moved to Scotland with the Sacred Stone of Scone( Jacob's Pillow ) So the irish/scottish/pictish kings considered themselves the descendants of King Zedekiah of Judah.

The Dugdale, although having the right as the owners of the Farms, and the re-builders of the Gate-House to display their Coat of Arms on it, have arrogantly and insultingly neglected, thus severely lacking in courtesy and scholarship, to commemorate the Ferrers who have always been their superiors in rank and social status and who donated the original lands of the Abbey-Monastery, then known as the Forest of Arden, also causing the great Abbey to be built and endowed. Ignorance cannot be their excuse since their anscestor Sir William Dugdale the author of Antiquities of Warwichshire reports this historical fact.

In my opinion, the Dugdale are feloniously neglecting to replace all heraldic commemorations of the Ferrers inside the Church as these wear out with the passing of time. Since they have made enormous gains by selling all the stones left on the lands as the result of the destruction of the Abbey, not even leaving the foundations, a crime against history and culture, they should at least have the courtesy and good-will to maintain some vestiges of heraldic recognition.

Commemorative, heraldic tiles and glass-windows are abandoned without a minimum of maintenance or replacement. The foul-attitude of King Henry VIII, the great boar of Wales, great royal glutton and fornicator, appears to foul all Staffordshire.

Tutburie Castle and Tutburie Church ( built by the Ferrers and supposed to hold the mortal remains of the first Ferrers, a companion of William the Conqueror) central places in Ferrers' history, lack commemoration of their existence and historical contributions. Yet the Ferrers were affiliated to the order of Knigh-Templars from its very foundation until beyond its disbandment, since Ferrers Knight-Templars seeked protection in Scotland with King Bruce differentiating their surname to Farrar, Farrars, Ferrars, Ferrier, etc.

The town of Duffield on the border between Staffordshire and Derbyshire is an example of good-willed people since the ruins of Duffield-Castle still show at least their foundations, the stones of which have not been pilfered by King Henry VIII's sycophants & crawlers and the hill is still commemorated by a sign by the National Trust which does justice to the Ferrers.

A difference can also be felt in neighbouring Northamptonshire, where historical monuments were under current repair in 2004, see Post on Pendragon ad Higham-Ferrers.

Rutland ( a small shire of people with small minds ad hearts) should be called perhaps Ratland. The people of Rutland recently decided to remove from the name of the city, called since ca. 1200 A.D. Oackam-Ferrers, the Ferrers-distinction. Being ignorant clowns, they however neglected to remove from the Shire Arms the obvious Ferrers' horse shoe and oack symbols. Also they are still getting tourists' money by showing the horse-shoe-tithes paid to their Ferrers' overlords by passers by, in a variety of sizes and metals, all held in an ancient granary, built by the Ferrers.

I shake the dust of their Shire from my sandals lest it pollutes me!

The Drama at the Abbey of Merevale.
The knight-effigy of Sir William Ferrers, Lord Tutbury, the 5th Earl of Derby ( died at Acre in 1194-97 A.D.) is located inside the Gate-Church of Our Lady of Merevale, which is the only original structure left from the destruction of the imposing Abbey/Monastery ordered by King Henry VIII ( the welsh boar ), the Gate House having been rebuilt later-on by the Dugdale family ( who probably courted favour with Henry VIII for personal gain and aggrandisement, acquiring lands at Merevale ) in order to enclose the rich farming grounds developed on the ancient Abbey-grounds ( originally known in their wild undeveloped state as the Forest of Arden ) donated to the Cistercians by the third generation of british/morman Ferrers in Britain, later-on grabbed by King Henry VIII. Incidentally, the Ferrers remained faithful to their ancient and original Faith of Roman Catholicism, without subscribing to its southern excesses, aberrations and distortions. To them this was also a matter of ancestral loyalty and continuity that alone can ensure a healthy and civilized state of being. One should in fact not betray one's native Faith but try to reform it from the inside, if not happy with it, leaving the final move to God. What the Protestants have really achieved is the weakening through its fragmentation, of Christianity and consequently of the western civilization, a fact for which we are probably all be going to suffer in the end, if further breackdown in our civilization shall occur, God perhaps willing it to be so in order to rebuild it. In fact, it is highly probable that one of Henry VIII's motivations, in destroying these Cistercian-Abbeys, linked as these were to the knights-Templar's Order, was the search for hidden treasures and scriptural documents of the type Sir Laurence Gardner refers to in his books on the Sacred Line of the Holy-Grail-Kings to which Henry VIII also belonged, however in a madly, undeserving and treacherous liaison ( He was a highly bastardized, defective-mix of saxon and other barbaric strains ). His main motivation in attacking the uncompromising ( in his case ) Roman Catholic Church centered on his desperate desire to procreate a male heir [ he placed the blame for failure on his wives whom he had judicially murdered], hopelessly so, since his reproductive system had been damaged from syphilis and debauchery, and only female-children could survive, however condemned to infertility. The church ( actually a chapel ) is now inside the Gate-House but had originally been outside it, to be used by common visitors of the Abbey/Monastery.
The effigy has been incorrectly identified in the past, and I suspect the possibility of malice in this failure as I intend to explain, resulting from surviving anti-Ferrers feelings elicited by the events at Merevale, in the times of Henry VIII. First of all, the effigy has been mutilated, its head and legs having been broken off The description of its identity contained in the small white rectangle of cardboard visible in the photo shown below, reads -:
"The 13th Century knight is presumed to be William, Earl Ferrers of Chartley, who died in St. Neots after a fall from his bier in 1254".
My identification is-:
"The 12th Century knight is presumed to be William Ferrers, the 5th Earl of Derby, a crusading knight-Templar who died at the siege of Acre in ca. 1194-97, in the service of his liege King Richard I (The Lion Heart )".
My identification centers on the striking similarity between William, the 5th Earl of Derby's effigy and the one of Geoffrey de Mandeville. The two effigies must have been made by the same artist, since William and Geoffrey lived at the same time prior to the struggles for Magna Carta. It is almost certain ( as shown by the Templar symbolic language used in the carving of his effigy, which is the same as that visible in William's effigy ) that Mandeville also participated in the same Crusade held by Richard I, in which William had participated, Mandeville returning however to Britain to lead the Barons' struggles against King John for Magna Carta.
The lack of a reference to the fact the effigy is of a crusading knight Templar, is clearly an injustice ( not to be imputed to the present Rector ) owing to the failure to make explicit the symbolic message which is the fundamental goal of the effigy and the desire, expectation and last will of the dead knight, either through ignorance ( I cannot believe it could be ignorance as this would reflect poorly on English scholarship and archeological circles which are supposed to be outstanding when it suits them and their hostorical distortions and misrepresentations ) or malice ( as the result of the Drama at Merevale and the lingering-on tradition of slight, insult and general ill-will generated in the past against this noble family I intend to defend, so help me God Almighty! I have also witnessed expressions of good-will and memories towards the Ferrers in other Counties such as for example at Higham-Ferrers in Nottinghamshire and at Tutburie on the border with Derbyshire where Ferrers-schools are still being funded through ancient Ferrers's grants. One criterion to judge the quality of the ancient administration of a County is by looking at the quality of housing built in those ancient times and the Ferrers' places are outstanding in this respect. So, lay-off will you? By rights William's effigy should be located among those of his piers and Templar-brethren at the London Temple Court Church, however the scenario at Merevale is so beautiful and magic that I might agree it should remain there. However heraldic recognition and commemoration should be displayed inside the church, which I suggested to authorities but was discouraged through a total lack of response. Arrogant parvenus!
The identification on the effigy is also wrongly worded, as Chartley has never been linked to the Eardom of Derby which was lost to the Crown, through the rebellion of the 8th and last Earl, Robert in the struggle for the Dispensations of Westminster and Oxford which paved the way later-on to the institution of Parliament. Chartley and Groby were subsequently linked to newly acquired Baronies which allowed the Ferrers to continue as active members of the English nobility, until to-day. The fall at St.Neots' bridge occurred when William the 7th Earl of Derby, who suffered from gouts, had in his old age to be carried around on a chair. Mentioning such a trivial matter is ridiculous, malicious, and belittling ( a tabloid hit ) since it shows a desire to draw attention to the genetic ailment that afflicted the 6th, the 7th and the 8th Earls in their old age. Gout is just a form of arthritis and yes, diet influences these ailments. So what? Why not rather mention the fact that he had married in St.Thomas' in Canterbury or that he had gone to the Holy Land in pilgrimage with the Earl of Chester in 1218?
I found another similar slur on the Ferrers on a walking guide for the Midlands, sold at the Bookshop at Coventry Cathedral. In relation to the Manor at Baddesley-Clinton in Warwickshire, acquired by the Ferrers through a marriage to the heiress of the Broome family, it so happened that the Broome father-in-law killed a Priest he had judged to have found in a compromising scene with his wife. The book misreported the event stating the Ferrers-son-in-law had done so. Another such instance of malice is the famous trial by his piers and punishment by public hanging of a Ferrers in the eighteenth century, known in Law as the Ferrers-case, guilty of having shot one of his stewards. By then, the Ferrers' surname and titles had been passed on to and through several houses by Ferrers-female heiresses. The murderer had in fact been principally a Shirley, secondarily a Ferrers, yet his secondary surname became sacrificially linked with the case in preference to the principal one ( the Shirley had originally been a skilled and gifted saxon family of millers, employed by the Ferrers, called Siwalis who began their social climb from the times of William the Conqueror on the Ferrers' back, gradually becoming squires, knight, etc., one of their branches to-day sitting in the House of Lords with the title of Earl Ferrers, newly created in 1711 as a recognition of the wisdom and justice in the commemoration of this legendarily great historical surname ). These apparently trivial issues are indicative of some malice directed to this great and noble family, a malice which is unworthy of the british character and tradition, which is gradually disappearing from the fabric of our democratic societies, including our Australian one.
I have mentioned my findings to several authorities in the U.K.( I even wrote to the BBC ) and have been totally ignored, without even the benefit of the courtesy of an acknowledgment of the receival of my message. I also wrote to the Department of Medieval History at the Melbourne University without any answer at all. What sort of persons are we dealing with to-day? These persons should be handed a pick and shovel and sent to work the fields where they belong. Apparently this is what most English archeologists love to do. Leave the fine intellectual work and judgment to inspired amateurs like me! After all the discoverer of the ruins of Troy and of the jewels of the Court of Priamus was a german amateur called Shliemann!
The fact that such an outstanding and noble monument such as William's effigy is, could be so easily neglected and misrepresented makes one wonder how many times this must have happened in history to documents, scriptural documents, the characters of persons with a high value and worth as referential witnesses, historical facts, events and scenarios, etc. This lends strength to our dear Sir Laurence Gardner's utterings, disclosures and warnings about the human person who was Jesus of Nazareth.

Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville, the Earl of Essex.
(drawing by Stothard of de Mandeville's knight-effigy located at the London Temple- Court Church ).
He was a Knight-Templar who led, together with the Saire de Quincy the struggle of the british/norman Barons for Magna Carta against King John. He lived at the same time as Sir William Ferrers, Lord Tutbury, the 5th Earl of Derby, whose knight-effigy, strikingly similar to Mandeville's, probably made by the same artist, is located at the Gate-Church of Our Lady of Merevale. Sir William died between 1194 and 1197 in the operations around Acre, in the Holy Land, serving under King Richard the Lion Heart.
De Mandeville was confused by Stothard and is being confused by many present historians with his ancestor Sir Geoffrey de Magnaville who lived in the times of William the Conqueror ( Mentioned in a document reported by Sir William Dugdale).

Please Note-: The blogger claims the distinction to have discovered in May 2004 the true identity as a crusading Knight-Templar of the Ferrers-knight, a companion of Sir Geoffrey de Mandeville and the Sair De Quincy, represented in the knight-effigy at Merevale, Staffordshire, Britain.

Knight-Effigy of Sir William Ferrers, Lord Tutburie, the 5th Earl of Derby, crusading Knight-Templar, who died at Acre, Palestine in ca. 1197 A.D. fighting for his heavenly master Jesus under his earthly liege Lord King Richard I the Lion-Heart.

The effigy is located inside the Gate-Church of Our Lady of Merevale, the only original building surviving from the barbaric destruction of the Cistercian Abbey-Monastery of Merevale.

The destruction has been so felonious that even the foundation stones have disappeared and sold. Until 1800 a gothic arch remained but even that was disposed-off by the owners.

The general conspiracy by the petty, local, usurping, grasping and buccaneering nobility of this area is still proceeding with the erasure of the memory of this historical and cultural site as well as of the Ferrers, in general. The Ferrers were experienced administrators and managers who built this area up from its wild origins and civilised the anscestors of these bibulous, undisciplined, oath-breaking saxon/gothic parvenues. This conspiracy is going so far that even the location and reference to the ancient Abbey-Monastery is being withheld from the latest Road-Maps! How low can one go?

A typical and classical example of what I am complaining about is the present Earl Ferrers ( actually a branch of the Shirley, ancient saxon name being Siwalis, whose saxon anscestors crawled-up the social ladder on the back of the Ferrers, at one stage in 1700 actually blackening their name, whose millers they had been, tempore William the Conqueror ) sitting in the House of Lords is doing nothing about Ferrers' monuments and heraldic and historical recognition.

Predictable, is it dear Watson! What? Quite so, old chap! Barbarians!

The Anglican Church, in spite of a few exceptions among its lower ranks ( i.e., the lady-rector of the Church at Merevale who keeps the Church immaculately and loves her effigies ) is useless and historically biased.

I have written to the Bishop of Leicester offering financial and pratical help but the arrogant fellow did not even bother to acknowledge my letter.

On the other hand, I am happy to be able to say, confirming the truth that " noblesse oblige ", His Royal Highness Prince Charles, did acknowledge and share my concerns

thrice-: Good on you Charles!

Noble England, Noble England, how lowly Thou art being dragged down by the usurpers from the steppe!

The copy of a letter directed to whomever may be concerned with my identification of the identity of the knight-effigy at Merevale.
4th March 2007

To Whomever may be concerned.

Reference-: Identity of stone effigy of Ferrers-Knight in the Gate-Church of Our Lady of Merevale Abbey.
Dear Madam/Sir or as applicable in the case Titles are concerned,

I visited the Church in June 2004 admitted by the most genteel Rector, the lady Reverend .........., when on a pilgrimage and modest historical research for a book I am writing about the Clan of the de Ferrariis to which the Ferrers belong. While leafing through The Monumental Effigies of Great Britain compiled by C. A. Stothard, I have become certain that the effigy under discussion represents a Member of the Order of the Knights Templars who had taken vows ( a Crusading Knight ) to fight Infidels in the Holy Land, owing to characteristic symbolic features of the carving of this effigy which were at the times this was made, within the Order of the Templars, the distinction accorded to its crusading members -:

1. The crossed legs.

2. The fact that these are represented in a walking stance.

3. The sword carried on the right hand side.

4. The right-hand-side hand over the heart.

5. When laid in their original position the effigies would be gazing and with their walking-stance oriented toward the East.
Examples of these are shown by five effigies shown at page 1 of the section of the mentioned book devoted to the Knights Templars.Allow me to quote from page 2 of the same section-:

Stow speaks of " eleven monuments of noblemen in the round of the Church [ in Fleet street, London , built in 1240 A.D. upon the foundations of a pre-existing Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary by Patriarch Eraclius]; eight of them, images of armed knights, five being cross-legged as men vowed to the Holy Land against the infidels and unbelieving Jews; the other three straight-legged; the rest are coaped stones, all of grey marble................

Unquote.

Further on, the carrying of the sword preferentially if unusually on the right- hand side by men destined for service in the Middle East is also related. This practice may have been adopted in order to facilitate the riding of the same horseby two kights in crisis ( Templars always fought as a pair ), to balance the weight of the shields, to remove the long scabbard from the blind side and to place it on the sword-side in order to negate the possibility to an opponent grabbing it, usually from behind, in a melee.
I have found evidence that Geoffrey de Magnaville and Geoffrey de Mandeville are two different characters (see Costain and Dugdale ), the former living in the days of W. Conqueror, and dying of wounds in the days of king Stephen, while the latter died after William Ferrers and king Richard I, as De Mandeville fully participated in the struggles for Magna Carta in the times of King John. The two effigies are strikingly similar, the one of Mandeville being a later copy made of the Ferrers' one, the latter's being however superior in the carving of the mantling and exhuding a more stately personality, even in its present vandalised condition. The information leaflet issued at the Gate-Church, states that the effigy came from Merevale-Abbey's Church, gives the name of an art-critic of the past called Pevsner who praised the sculpture's quality, and mentions the possibility it may be of a William, the fourth Earl of Derby, however, according to my knowledge, the fourth Earl was called Robert, the rebel who joined the wife and four sons of King Henry II ( i.e. Henry, Geoffrey, Richard and John ) in a rebellion against the King that lasted sixteen years. However, Robert's son, called William, the fifth Earl of Derby, joined Richard Lion-Heart in his crusade in the Middle East and died at the siege of Acre in 8 Richard I, ca. 1197 A.D. It appears therefore that if this effigy is of a Ferrers' knight, as it must be since it was originally located in Merevale- Abbey's Church, it must represent with the greatest probability the crusading William Lord Ferrers, the fifth Earl of Derby. [ Henry II ( reigned ca. 1154-1189 ); Richard I ( reigned ca. 1189-1199 ). ]I believe that, in spite of all possible uncertainties, my identification is more constructive than the one used at present and should in all justice be adopted, granting me recognition of my discovery.
Further evidence that the Ferrers had ties with the Templars at the time this effigy was carved is evidenced by the Syon Cope ( in the V. & A. Museum ) commemorating the times of Richard I (i.e., Spanish royal Coat of Arms in relation to his wife ) in which the Templars' Arms (i.e. A Paschal Lamb..........) are enbroidered together with those of Sir William (died ca.1197 ) and Lord Robert Ferrers ( 1241-1279), the eighth and last Earl of Derby, the second great rebel in this family, and of other influential families of the Midlands.
Would you care to give me some feedback in relation to these observations? Who in Great Britain would be directly interested in this discovery and what should be done about it? How important is it in view of the fact that no one among the archeologists and artists interested in monuments and effigies ( i.e., Stothard ) have mentioned the existence or realised the identity of this Knight Templar? I have written to the Rector of the Gate Church of Our Lady at Merevale, but received no answer. She should at least correct the label she places at the side of the effigy. Could not missing parts be replaced by plastic components, while at the same time notifying the visitors of the restoration occurred ? I would also like to receive recognition of my discovery.
I remain, Yours faithfully

Post 22. The Pampered Royals.

NEWS HOME . NATIONAL NEWS
Monday Mar 10 11:44 AEDT

New Idea 'sorry' for running Harry story
Monday Mar 10 09:09 AEDT
An Australian women's magazine has apologised for breaking a global media blackout on Prince Harry's frontline deployment in Afghanistan.
In its latest issue published on Monday, New Idea magazine says it is sorry it was not "alert to the possible ramifications" of running the story about Harry's secret tour of duty, which appeared in the magazine and on its website in January.
Few people noticed the initial report, but a scandal erupted after US website the Drudge Report picked up the story and broadcast it around the world, breaching an agreed global media blackout.
"We did not knowingly breach any embargo and were not party to any agreement for a media blackout on the story," New Idea says.
"However, and more importantly, we do acknowledge that our actions in publishing the story can be reasonably viewed as insensitive and irresponsible."
The magazine says it acknowledges and regrets "the distress and anxiety felt by readers" over the revelations.
"We regret this serious lapse of judgment," it says.
"We sincerely apologise to all our readers, to the servicemen whose lives are at constant risk while serving at home and abroad and to their families and loved ones."
Defence chiefs in the UK had tried to keep the young prince's deployment secret under a news blackout agreed by British media to prevent details reaching insurgents and endangering the prince and his comrades.
The 23-year-old, who is third in the line to the throne, was forced to cut his three-month tour of duty short and returned to the UK on March 1 after serving 10 weeks in Helmand province.
©AAP 2008

Bloger's Comments-:

What a difference between our times of general western decadence with our heroic guitar strummers, our pathetic singers, our pathetic dancers, our pathetic athletes ( footballers, rugby, gridiron, cricket players, etc.), the multitude of pathetic and anhorexic models and throllops, our pathetic media, etc. etc.

and, as an example,

the historical times in which the British ( I enphatically wish to make a distinction here between British and Anglo-Saxon attitudes ) Plantagenet and european monarchs ( i.e., Henry VI, Richard III, etc. ) went to war in the front line, personally looking at the enemy in the eyes, taking the same chances as the common knights ( i.e., battles of Crecy, Agincourt, Poitiers, Bosworth, etc. )!

I agree about the necessity of common war-sense of which our bird-brained technically skilled media are sadly depleted, in so far as the desirability of restraint and deprivation of intelligence to our opponents is concerned.

However, I believe royal princes and all those who aspire to public government positions, like MPs, etc. who have the necessary prerequisites, should take risks and demonstrate their military prowess and general character-attributes, in the field of battle, even onto death.

Else how can the above mentioned classes of social parasites be driven through the right example from above, to become more useful and beneficial by the employment of their gifts for the defence of the civilisation that is feeding them?

They are corrupting and emasculating generations of westerners.

Where is our belief in God or at least ethical behaviour and in the righteousness

of our democratic cause and civilisation?

Has anyone thought how badly Harris may have felt at being molley-coddled?

Why do we praise the Princes only when they misbehave in overdrinking or womanising?

What sort of a latter-days christianity or pagan world has the West become?

Who is really leading us to our own destruction and fall as a civilisation?

Perhaps the West needs Islam, and God may be just willing to allow it, to take us over and to put us all under the whip of correction and reformation!

In this case the Royals have failed their mission as christian Monarchs and become useless!

I speak with the authority of a De Ferrarii.

Post 21. Tiny Rudd "the mean".

Tiny Rudd "the mean"!
(Bonhoeffer, the christian german martyr of Nazism would disclaim Rudd's claim to be his follower and admirer.)
(Leader of a False Labour!)
$500 senior's bonus may be scrapped
Saturday Mar 8 06:19 AEDT
A $500 senior's bonus payment may be scrapped under the federal government's budget-tightening measures.
Sources within the government have told The Australian newspaper the $500 payment to seniors may be scrapped in the Rudd government's drive to cut expenditure.
The payment was created by the Howard government last year to help over-65s cope with the rising cost of living.
The Labor government is under fire for plans to get rid of the $1600 carer's payment, which is paid to 400,000 Australians.
News of the cuts comes as a Treasury report has found spending by the Howard government was unsustainable and akin to that of the Whitlam years.
"The recent growth in spending stands out, along with the growth in spending under Whitlam in 1974-75 and the increased spending following the recessions in 1982-83 and 1990-91," the Treasury report said.
©AAP 2008

Blogger's Comments-:
Let me just say that I would be overjoyed, if this meannes had to be fully consummated by Labour, in relation to those 65% of the population of this country who voted Labour.
They are scabs.
Many among the elderly pensioners have trouble paying the exhorbitant criminally high rents, many among the hipocritical members of these Latter-Days-Labour-Party are charging as owners of properties additional to the residential one ( generally a mansion disproportionate to their real needs and status in society, which is to them a convenient way to hide money that should be paying higher tax or be invested to generate development and jobs).

I am not criticising here the reasonable and acceptable practice by working people to invest during their working lives in expensive real estate, only the retention of these huge investments by either assigning these to relatives or heirs, or by generating legal-trust deeds or as residential homes while additionally claiming pension-benefits.
These issues can be particularly predicated about ethnic groups in which family and group-cohesiveness, supposedly a christian as well an islamic virtue, is abused to hide, by spreading wealth within the group ( relatives or friends), for the purpose of tax minimisation, "minimisation" being, in such instances, again another form of tax evasion, used by hipocritical people. Many among the menbers of Labour are in fact to-day minor capitalists bent on accumulating wealth, changing and distorting the traditional goals and mission of Labour.
Another move to reduce tax evasion would be to force all citizens to declare their assets and the origin of these, plus the introduction of a national identity card. These would be measures a strong leader would go for, not the oppression and victimisation of the elderly and the pensioner.
Shame on you Labour!
These neo-capitalists belong to Labour to appease their consciences in the same way some Christians go to Church to appease their complexes of guilt without doing anything about its roots-: i.e., A waste of time and an insult to God.
"Thou art witewashed graves full of iniquity and dead men' bones ", said Jesus of Nazareth!
If Labour is really serious about saving money, why does it not begin by addressing the above mentioned abuses, in addition making pension-qualifying-criteria more strict, specifically in relation to who among pensioners should benefit from this small hand-out it is considering cutting out?
Another thing that I cannot understand is why the Churches remain silent about obvious injustices such as the one herein discussed?
Why should a humble fellow such as I am have to come out and speak?
Thank you BigBlog/BigPond for allowing me free use of this blog and freedom of expression.
Buy Telstra, the Australian National Communication Channel for liberty and growth, and participate in what a humble blogger dares to write about. Be thinking and active citizens not scabs!
So speaks a Templar!
Amen!

Post 20. Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism complete one another.

Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism

complete one another

and should be one,

as verily as

God is Unity and Uniqueness.

( Caveat-: The word "One" understood as numerical unity, although not incorrect, is in practice excessive, unnecessarily restrictive, limiting of the paradoxically, simultaneously simple and complex reality that the omnipotent and free God/Allah/Jehovah is.

So, Hebrews and Mohammedans beware!)

To be brief, as my purpose is to awake awareness and thougt rather than present a complete treatment of this fundamental and critical issue for our present times in which Islam is fatally bent on pursuing anew its illusion and delusion of being the only and true predominating religion in the world, I shall be schematic.

Judaism.

Judaism is the most ancient of the three monotheistic systems of Belief and Faith in the one ( as unity ), unique ( as numerically one as well as all-else-exclusive ) and purely spiritual God. It is characterised by a long process of learning about and discovering the identity and truths about the true and only God.

For example, the insights of the belief in the Resurrection and Judgment of the dead who died in belief, was ignored in its full and clear understanding until the days of David. Punishment and Reward were considered to occur during a believer's lifetime. A confused and uncertain belief was held for a long time, that the reward for faithfulness to God would consist of one's somehow remaining in God's memory( this is also true to-day) and that his descendents would have enjoyed favours from God ( this remains always possible although not necessarily so. It cannot anyway be always used as a criterion to judge about the sanctity of a believer since Creation is after all subjected "until the last day" to the laws of scarcity and necessity).

The insight and belief in Heaven and Hell began much later after David's times and was developed in Christian Theology with the addition of Purgatory.

This was in a way an extremely good trait of Judaism since a gratefully generous, noble and true believer, as for example, in the case of mythical Job, mainly believed in and Loved God simply as the Father, the Creator, without and even in spite of perhaps being troubled by adversity and believing to have been seemingly abandoned by God. Likewise the good son or daughter love their father even when a poor and oppressed one.

One just loved God then out of gratefulness for having been created a human person, irrespective of Punishment or Reward, irrespective of gifts and resources received or acquired during one's lifetime. In fact, this is the virtual pentateuchal scenario which meditative and contemplative christian monastic orders call their members to experience. Of course, to-day both the approaches "from below " and "from above" have become integral to monastic lives, whereas in ancient times the latter approach alone was strived at with sometimes catastrophic results or hipocritical adaptations and

compromises and, in the case of uncompromising, obstinate strivers, failures, a classical case being poor, good Martin Luther, the great reformer of christianity.

This is still to-day, the best, the most noble way of loving, the highest path to God.

However, Judaism like all human collectives, became infiltrated and ceased from learning and evolving in the knowledge of God, and became trapped in a system of all exclusive belief about its own chosenness, its own election as the only people worthy of God's love, its superiority to all other people as the only people chosen by God, establishing Hebrew as the only language fit for worship, making it so complex for the average human memory, as to make it extremely hard for those who were not born in the system to easily and confidently use it, it evolved complex purity laws and rituals in order to keep the priesthood and the leadership jewish, etc. Although much has changed to-day, how many non-jews can hope to master the vast libraries of the Talmud, the Cabala, etc. and to become a Rabbi? Is the Talmud really worthy of such consideration? Is this not a subtle form of idolatry, the idolatry of the human intellect and of the word?

In view of the present scenarios of unending struggles and conflict in Palestine, I would suggest to get rid of all these trappings which are only dividing and not helping people to get together, intermarry and solve problems together.

As Jesus pointed out and Mohammed confirmed, the love of the poor and oppressed is the best way to the Love of God in an approach "from below". Amen!

All the rest can become ( I am not saing that it must necessarily and inevitably be so, only that it may become part of an illusionary and hipocritical approach to God "from above") cosmetics, adornment and hidolatry.

I have chosen the belief of the Resurrection and in Heaven and Hell, which is missing in the Pentateuch, because Mohammed the great arabic Reformer believed in it ( having acquired it from christianity and later-judaism ) and incorrectly criticised the Hebrews for not believing in it ( since his criticism is unfairly based on the Pentateuch alone ). Mohammed is in fact extremely unfair to pentateuchal Judaism which existed until approx. 1300-1000 B.C., which he accuses as late as in 600 A.D. of corruption, neglecting to note that the Arabs had remained politheists and pagan all the time until 600 A.D., therefore always worse than the worse among the Hebrews, and totally ignoring the evolution and learning curve of Judaism between 1300 B.C.and the times of Jesus of Nazareth, and the fact that christianity is actually itself an integral and constitutive part of main-stream-Judaism, however rejected by some fanatical Hebrews ( some of whom might not have been totally unjustified seing the conflicts and struggles among christians and the violence of islamic world conquests [jihads]) who ceased to evolve new religious insights about God, however reforming somehow Judaism. In fact, it is obvious, as I have already made it clear in previous Posts that Mohammed learnt much and imperfectly about religion and theology from jewish and christian missionaries ( some of whom were unorthodox and heretical ) who had been preaching and teaching in Mesopotamia, including the Arabian Peninsula for centuries before Mohanmmed's birth in the sixth century A.D.. Even St.Paul, the greatest of Jesus' Apostles with perhaps the exception of Mary Magdalene ( in accordance to Sir Laurence Gardner), preached for three years after his conversion from Phariseism, in the deserts of Mesopotamia.

It is possible then that Mohammed may not have received a correct and complete picture about Jewish belief in the Resurrection of the dead, asd it evolved after the Maccabean Revolution against Greek/Macedonian-dominance in Palestine. Mohammed's knowledge of Judaism appears to be focused only on the petateuchal stage of Jewish History and this is a serious weakness of his preaching against Judaism which must be acklnowledged and rectified to-day by mohammedan theological circles.

I strongly disagree with anyone trying to tell me that Mohammed was infallible and without error or confusion, without on the other hand ceasing from or diminishing my respect and belief in Mohammed's worth as the greatest practical Reformer in the History of Religions. Finally, for this schematic context, Judaism was a hybrid approach to God "from above" that, in addition to seing God through anthropomorphic icons, was excessively focused, in the absence of a mediator like Jesus, on God's allmightiness, divinity, inapproacheability by humanity, with the exception of a few chosen individuals like Moses, and the Prophets whose lives were however marked by strife and endless spiritual stuggles. Judaism avoided Pantheism, which is unfortunately a fault in Mohammedanism, by an approach to ritual and creation which precurred christian sacramental understandings and developments. It has in fact never been easy or safe to deal directly ( without mediation ) with God, some of the Profets even becoming permanently mentally affected by their experiences.

Christianity.

With Jesus of Nazareth, the perfect human being as well as the perfectly and totally divinised human being, in whom the Word ( the only Being generated and not made by God in so far as Christian Trinitarian Theological insighting is concerned ) incarnated, and who was born from the agencies of the Holy Mary and of God's Spirit, as even Mohammed the great arabic Reformer confirmed in the Holy Quran, humanity became empowered to approach God "from below ", crossing the vast abyss ( chorismos ) of which Plato spoke in his philosophical speculations, that separates the hybrid person of the human being, consisting of a material and a spiritual homeostatic reality from the fully and totally divine and spiritual reality that God is. Although Trinitarian Christian Theology sees Jesus as an homeostatic reality of perfect humanity and perfect divinity, it may be gross to say "Jesus is God" without the proper necessary explanations and caveats which are not however within the grasp of Everyman/woman in the street or of untutored, bad-willing, unfriendly Hebrews or Mohammedans. One fact is obvious ad undisputable, that the Word was generated and not made and is of God as God's own utterance, since when God decided to express God to all else that may not originally have been generated, glorified or unglorified as the case may be. Jesus can only be safely said to be God in so far as his person has not any longer any ordinary material affiliation with earthly humanity

The New Testament says, in the language used by st.Paul, he has acquired a glorified body ( "the body of glory" ) which is anyway accessible by and the inheritance of every willing believer in the inheritance promised to Abraham, i.e., of eternal life. For completenes sake, to use st. Paul's insights, Jesus' mediation also allowed the human " body of sin " to loose its subjection to the Law and sin ( the Law of Sin ), and to be reduced to the

" body of death ", conversion and salvation qualifying the believer for the " body of glory", as a possible reward after the Resurrection and the Judgment. One can further say that a human believer found worthy shall also in this sense and understanding become like God, of God. How else can a human being be able to be in God's presence, itself the Reward for faithfulness to God?

What is there so difficult or unacceptable for Hebrews and Mohammedans alike in the above, if of good-will and not malignant?

Short Digression.

Moreover, in the ancient Hebrew traditions ( see Sir Laurence Gadner's treatment of these issues-: "The Bloodline of the Holy Grail" ) ignored by Mohammed who nevertheless believed in the existence of Angels, there are insights of the existence of Angels, Prophets and great biblical persons whose spiritual powers are effective at each generation of believers in hereditary members of some selected Jewish families. The community of the Essenes to which Jesus belonged had attempted to reintroduce and preserve all these traditions in the hebrew society since the times of the Maccabean revolt, a tradition which had been interfered with by Assyrian and Babylonian invasions, however this tradition, if not the knowledge of it, has been interrupted for our times with the destructions, massacres and deportations of the Jews, by the Romans in 70 A.D. To-day, we only know of the possible and probable existence of Jesus' descendents called the Desposinii, from among whose members are the monarchs of the european royal houses, either ruling or in exhile. In the Essene's community, Jesus as the legal son of Joseph and Mary, held the Messianic role of David, and inherited after the death of his cousin, John the Baptist, who died without issue, the role of High Priest or Zadok Priest ( Melchizedeck ). This does not mean that the influence of these spiritual powers ( angelic and personal ) may not still be manifested in individuals who are somehow related to the dinastic successions of the dispersed jewish families. The Scriptures and even Mohammed have confirmed the impossibility to be in God's presence without some mediation, as long as one is in the human form. Mohammed always enjoyed in fact the mediation of dreams or of the Angel Gabriel, who, according to the Hebrew Essenic traditions was associated with the spirit of the Zadok Priest, hence, possibly the glorified Jesus himself.

In my awareness and understanding, it does not really matter what one believes Jesus to be, as all three alternative beliefs about him are probably equally true and even acceptable to Jesus for the sake of peace and of the unity of the three people of the Book-: i.e.,

(1) The Christian Trinitarian/Monotheistic one that he is the homeostatic unity of the perfect man and the perfect divine being, the Son of God, God.

(2) The Arian Unitarian/Monotheistic ( Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarian , Mohammedan ) belief that Jesus is just a man, a teacher, a reformer, a prophet.

(3) Sir Laurence Gardners' beliefs which introduces interesting possibilities which cannot be dismissed or ignored.

What counts really, is what sort of a human person any of these three systems of belief makes a human being to become. What cannot be compromised is the body of teachings and referential characters, experiences, stories which generate a unique and vastly valuable ethical system, which should be equally acceptable to the three people of the Book. If a human being is aided by any of the three systems of beliefs to the acceptance, adoption and performance of lawful, beneficial, civilisation-improval and maintenance, world-building, problem-solving, evil-reducing activities in accordance with the patterns set by the body of scriptural writings and wisdom-: The Bible and The Quran ( suitably and selectively interpreted for our times), then any of these systems of belief would be acceptable and adequate.

The first test as to the godliness of a person's assimilation ( It would not be sufficient to assert belief) of any of the above presented systems of beliefs would be the person's demonstrated ability and capacity to show good-will, co-operation and possibly even integration and amalgamation with any other person claiming to have equally accepted any of the three systems of belief. The theological differences would be privately held and expressed in separate churches in the same way this is occurring to-day. However, separation between State and Religious Confession would be written in the Constitution of each nation in such a way as to exclude any possibility of any religious system of belief holding the notion of predominating as the only and exclusively true, since, at a practical level none can demonstrate the truth of the claim, which is based strictly on Faith. The leaders and representatives of each religious system would have to publicly and statutorily declare their acceptance of what I am suggesting in a written document and would become responsible for deviations from and breaches of this declaration. Once this were to become accepted by all systems it would become a law of mutual acceptance and tolerance. Religion would only be concerned with the worship of the same God and the observance of a common ethical system not politically negotiable by political partiers for the sake of obtaining votes. The Churches would be responsible for the teaching of ethics and the presentation of the alternative systems of belief, showing the impossibility of proving the superiority of one against and over the other.

The aim would be the unity in difference of the three people of the Book.

I cannot see how Jews and Moslems could, in such a scenario, refuse to adopt the ready-made ethical system of the New Testament, freed from obligatory Trinitarian interpretations, while shelving the Old Testament and the Quran, which would remain as testimonies of the times during which human kind knew God imperfectly. The Old Testament and the Quran represent in fact ethical systems which were in force when God's people were surrounded by enemies-: Confrontation Ethics is in fact to be reserved for those who refuse peace, good-will and co-operation. Jesus did not in fact abolish the Old Testament but only selectively suspended it.

End of Digression.

So, Christianity has introduced the awareness of the approach to God's divinity "from below".

Both Judaism and Mohammedanism, as well as even Christianity itself, have not correctly understood the Christian Trinitarian Belief that should immensely humanity to approach God, in view of the extreme difficulty incurred by the average human person attempting to think without recourse to anthropomorphic icons, which falsify and hide the Trinitarian understanding. Therefore it should be reserved only for those few who can abstract beyond the anthropomorphic.

However, Christianity as all human collectives has also been infiltrated and is in need of reformation. Pope Benedict XVI has recently added ( March 2008 ) to the list of ethical requirements in this modern world, showing willingness to reform.

One thing is however certain, that the New Covenant offered in the Gospels represented with its stress on the Law of the Love of neighbour, especially if poor and oppressed, as if one's self, the highest possible development of Pentateuchal Ethics, which although offering this highest point in the Ten Comandments, hid it at the same time in the ancient traditional Law of an Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth. Jesus confirmed the continuing validity of he Old Testament, however inviting modernity to always try first the Loving and Merciful approach of the New Testament in confrontation scenarios. The Confrontation Ethics of the Old Testament are still applicable when everything else fails. The onus is on whoever first makes an approach in terms of the New Covenant to be honest and in good will.

Mohammedanism.

Mohammedanism was an understandable reaction to the corruption, hipocrisy, sectarianism, intellectualism exploding in never ending theological disputes carried out as a game by the common people in the Bizantine Empire. Mohammed converted to Monotheism and became determined to convert the whole of the arabian peninsula which was politheist, pagan and idolatrous, a conversion which he achieved in one generation. Instead of adopting Christianity, confused and distressed by the number of its divisions into various competing and unreliable sects, or Judaism which he had been experiencing in the unsatisfactory pentateuchal one of the early hebrew refugees in the arabian peninsula, he decided to found a new religious branch, and his followers created an arabic alphabet, grammar and lexicon in order to write the Quran which contains religious as well as secular teachings and directives. It is the learned opinion of modern scholarly circles that the religious parts of the Quran have been inspired by the preachings of the jewish and christian missionaries who preached in Mesopotamia since the death of Jesus, until the birth of Mohammed. Greek, Aramaic and Syriac were until the birth of Mohammed the official written and spoken languages for public servants and clergymen in Mesopotamia. Classical Arabic ( Quranic Arabic ) was developed as a written language with an independent Grammar and Lexicon only 150 years after Mohammed's death, for the purpose of writing the Quran. Anyone disagreeing with these facts let him/her comment accordingly in the proper space provided at the end of this article.

Mohammed is to be considered as a formidable Reformer rather than a Prophet, as he transformed in only one generation the arabic people he united from a politheistic to a monotheistic belief. If we compare his achievement to the long and protracted struggle of Christianity during the three centuries prior to the rise of Emperor Constantine, followed by the never ending rise of heresies, Mohammed's achievement was unique in the history of religious belief. However, Mohammed's methods fanatically retained and unchanged through time and history, also excluded Reformation, which instead occurred in the West.

Mohammed, correctly so for his times, stresses, in an approach totally "from above", to the ultimately and absolutely possible limits the oneness, uniqueness and spirituality of God/Allah/Jehovah. In so doing though, he left the average individual worshipper looking down into the abyss that separates God from Everyman/woman, without mediation. One is to wonder then what God becomes in the mind of a worshipper, who may be open to the assault of what his/her weacknesses are, substituting these for God. Paradoxically, the absolute rejection of images and mediators ends into a highlighting of the material and corporeal in the worship of a Mohammedan, thus falling into pantheism or anthropophormism.

In a way, all christian art about God is anthropomorphic, but it is clearly recognised as so and apologised for by the leading cadres.

This is exemplified and demonstrated for example by Mohammed 's choice and description of Paradise's rewards, i.e., virgin girls, fountains of drinks and food, etc., etc. which can only be accepted literally as the Quran does not allow the subtleties of Scholastic Theology with its analogical, virtual thinking and grading. Unlike the pristine form of Pentateuchal Judaism, God is feared and loved primarily for its Punishments and Rewards. So, it appears to me that the three religions may need each other in order to strike a necessary theological balance, in addition to the fundamental motivation of ceasing unnecessary fighting and bloodshed which is abhorrent to God.

The necessary Caveat at this stage of presentation is that, while the approach "from below" ( particularly a christian one that considers the cross as the ultimate symbol, in so far as it considers the love of the poor and oppressed as the way to the love of God) can avoid idolatrous pitfalls, the exclusive approach "from above" is always liable to paradoxically expose a worshipper to idolatry, since, in general, no human mind and soul has the power to approach God's reality, without vast outporings of Grace, always with traumatic results ( see st. Teresa de Avila who re-discovred with others in her times the approach " from below" ) .

I personally believe that God is also a God of paradox, this being one of the ways God uses to protect ITSELF and us from the idolatry IT abhors ( "Thou shalt not interpose between I and you, to my face, any other thing or being " . The pentateuchal verse does not exclude some other presence at God's side, a partnership [as Mohammed condemns ]; it only forbids an idolatrous, physical, bodily, material interposition, replacement or substitution which Jesus is not as Jesus said he and the Father are spiritually ( God the Father is a pure spirit without a corporeal body, which pantheistic [ i.e., anthropomorphic ] currents in Islam appear to assign to God, idolatrously) One.

This is not, cannot be condemned not even by the Quran, rightly interpreted .

Although Mohammed's and his followers' violence and religious wars may have been justified in his times, which were everywhere violent, this is not possible to-day. To-day's development in person-to-person communication, like the Internet ( i.e., blogging, websiting,

e-mailing, etc.) allows the presentation of discussion and the possibility of choices through democratic processes. There may be a case for democratic processes and Constitutions to be reformed in such a way as to re-establish an equilibrium between rights and duties, and to place a limit to the type of issues that can be subjected to the determinations and choices of the voting masses the majority of which does not have the time, dedication, intellectual capacity or moral judgment for the necessary training, expertise or knowledge to judge and choose about these issues. These special issues should be not politically negotiable and would be dealt with by specially elected Courts of experts. This would be required in order to make democratic principles more acceptable to islamic nations which are concerned with the moral corruption of western masses ( i.e., abortions, divorces, general spread and acceptance of immoral sexual deviations, the general coorruption and alienation of women, etc.).

It therefore follows that the Quran and Sharia Law which have never been subjected to reform, are not to-day acceptable to the modern international world, since these are just incompatible, even granting the shortcomings of the West, presented above. If Mohammed were to be correctly seen as a Reformer rather than as a Prophet, this need for Reformation would then become more obvious and acceptable, as Mohammed himself, if alive on earth to-day, would concur with me.

What Mohammedanism needs is a Document similar to the Gospels which would extract from the Quran and Sharia Law whatever would make Islam compatible with western developments in religious belief. This would not require any change to the Quran itself and to the body of Sharia Law. A classical example is the choice made available by verses 2:62, 3:84-86, 4:69, 5:69 about wether Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism are equally satisfactory to attain Salvation. There are contradictions, and ancient interpreters like IBN ABBAS have decided to abrogate the verses in which Mohammed clearlyand unequivocally declares the three religious branches equally satisfactory. Well, what is required by modern interpreters is to reverse the ancient decision in view of the changes and developments that have occurred.

Above all, given that the West accepts a Revival of christian ethics and morality, Mohammedanism must suspend in a new Document, valid for all Islam, not for a limited section of the Humma, similar to the christian Gospels any invitation to its followers to the use of weapons and war ( terrorism is an unacceptable, illegal, anti-Geneva corollary resulting from the present inability of Islam to wage conventional war against the West) to solve pseudo-religious issues that are in fact ideological and political.

This article is an invitation to Islam in the Spirit of the Gospels, which if rejected, may leave Islam open to the use by the West of Confrontation Ethics, which may be outside the Geneva Convention.