It is forbidden to kill. All murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire, as quoted by Catherine von Ruhland in Third Way, Jan./Feb. 2014
The sixteen most scandalous charges
Another review from Third Way Jan./Feb. 2013. This time by Nick Spencer, who discusses Stephen Greenblatt’s The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began, which tells the story of a Renaissance bibliophile. I’m not sure that I’m that interested in the book, but the concluding lines of Spencer’s review really made me laugh. Here they are:
the book’s line on the charges read against Pope John XXIII at Council of Constance is worth its cover price alone: ‘Fearing their effect on public opinion, the council decided to suppress the sixteen most scandalous charges – never subsequently revealed – and accused the pontiff of simony, sodomy, rape, incest, torture, and murder.’
Now, what else could he have possibly done?
Karl Möller 