The politics of the ‘Church’ in the Italy of Pope Wojtyła

Abstract

This article analyzes the development of different political tendencies with the Italian Church during the pontificate of John Paul II. Two different strategies enabled the episcopal conference to maintain stability for a long period, in which time Cardinal Ruini played a key role, first as secretary and then president of the bishops. In his years the conference of bishops accepted that the political unity of the Catholic world was over, but it still tried to retain a strong political influence even though the mediation of the Christian Democratic Party was no longer available. With the end of Wojty?a's pontificate, however, this period came to a close and the different tendencies that make up the rich and complex world of the Italian Catholic Church have become more visible.     

Transformations: Post-Battle Processes on the Hürtgenwald Battlefield

Abstract

This paper uses the 1944 Hürtgenwald battlefield on the German-Belgian border as a case study to reflect upon two issues: what contributions to an understanding of post-battle transformations are made by an analysis of Second World War battlefields; and how an archaeological approach can help understand the Hürtgenwald battlefield. The analysis presented here discusses what actually happens with a modern battlefield after the killing is over and how such post-battle processes alter the way such a site is interpreted. In this respect, a battlefield from World War II reveals the transformations to which battlefields are subjected and provides a well-documented model case to study the effect of post-battle processes on conflict landscapes.     

Peleliu 1944: The Archaeology of a South Pacific D-Day

Abstract

In September 1944, US Marines invaded the tiny Micronesian island of Peleliu in the Palau group, held by the Japanese. It would become one of the worst battles of the Pacific War, but the struggle for Peleliu was afterwards largely overlooked in the public consciousness in favour of the better- known conflicts on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Tourist impact on the island, with its community of only six hundred native Palauans, poses acute issues of heritage management relating not only to the integrity of the sites but also to the hazards of unexploded ordnance that is present in massive quantities. This paper presents the preliminary results of an archaeological investigation of the best-preserved battlefield of the Pacific theatre.     

Walther Birkmayer,Co-describer of L-Dopa,and His Nazi Connections: Victim or Perpetrator?

Walther Birkmayer, an Austrian neurologist, codiscovered the efficacy of levodopa therapy for Parkinsonism in 1961. However, little has been published regarding Birkmayer’s ties to National Socialism. Through documentary review, we have determined that he was an early illegal member of the SS and the Nazi party, taking part in the “de-Jewification” of the Vienna University Clinic of Psychiatry and Neurology. He also was a leader in the Nazi racial policy office and was praised for his dedication and fanaticism despite being forced to later resign from the SS. He sought support from leading Viennese Nazis, and was able to maintain his professional status for the war’s remainder. Postwar, he succeeded at reintegration personally and professionally into Austrian society, all but erasing any obvious ties to his Nazi past. His story reflects ethical transgressions regarding professional and personal behavior in response to a tyrannical regime and provides lessons for today’s neuroscientists.     

Yorkshire's Southern Boundary

Abstract

Henry Bolingbroke allegedly swore not to usurp the throne in Yorkshire in 1399 before going on to do so. Whether he committed perjury has divided historians of the past fifty years. Understanding of some old sources has improved and a new source has been discovered. This article reviews the evidence. It itemises each source in its original language and a modern translation as a foundation for future study. It suggests that Henry swore several oaths in different parts of Yorkshire and that originally there were options other than replacement of Richard II by Henry IV. It finds that all nine sources are interrelated. All date from the Percy revolt of 1403 or later. Some definitely do re-use Percy propaganda and others may. They cannot therefore be regarded as independent accounts of Henry's perjuries, which may nevertheless be true.     

Veteran Politics in Restoration England, 1660–1670

This article calls attention to the political and social significance of the military during the first decade of Charles II's reign. The “Old Army” of the Commonwealth continued to be a sensitive issue long after 1660, and its disposal was neither as unproblematic nor as bloodless as oft-quoted sources such as Pepys might suggest. The redeployment of thousands of troops in Portugal, Tangier and Bombay is presented as a decisive episode in the consolidation of royal power. This redeployment, together with the great demobilisation of 1660–1662 had a significant impact on local communities, where demobilised veterans, maimed soldiers and war widows (both royalist and parliamentarian) had already become catalysts for economic and cultural tension. The author argues that the various issues concerning veterans were inextricably intertwined with wider political issues and had far-reaching consequences for the Restoration regime.     

Healing the nation: royalist visionaries,Cromwell, and the restoration of Charles II

ABSTRACT

The radical visionaries of the civil war era had several royalist counterparts, today often overlooked. This article examines the three most significant: John Sanders of Harborne, Walter Gostelo, and Arise Evans. God, they claimed, had directed them to press Cromwell to restore Charles II, perhaps through a marriage alliance. This alone could settle the nation, and it would usher in a millennial age of peace. Sanders combined support for the crown and Church with a remarkable call for the nailers of Birmingham to strike against their oppressive employers. His family responded to his visionary mission with deep hostility. Evans attracted far greater public interest; he and Gostelo were able to present their ideas to Cromwell in person, and Gostelo travelled to the exiled royal court. The visionaries’ message, if ultimately unacceptable, spoke to the concerns of many contemporaries anxious and uncertain about the future.     

Mapping Spain in the Sixteenth Century: The Escorial Atlas and Pedro de Esquivel’s Notebook

ABSTRACT

The twenty-one maps of Spain that comprise the Escorial atlas (El atlas de El Escorial) and the later notebook compiled by Pedro de Esquivel for another map of Spain have long been confused. Recently identified documents in the Royal Library, Stockholm, have allowed us to recognize the two works as completely separate and to shed new light on each. In this article we describe their respective histories, starting with the Escorial atlas, now known to have been commissioned by Emperor Charles V from the Sevillian cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz, who between c.1538 and 1545 produced an index map and 20 regional sheets drawn to the scale of 1:400 000. We then go on to show how, later in the century (between c.1552 and 1565), Pedro de Esquivel was using a version of the topographical methods described in Peter Apian’s Cosmographia to assemble data for the map of Spain commissioned by Philip II before and just after he became king in 1556. Esquivel died in 1565 before all the data had been collected, his map was never drawn, and his notebooks, with all his astronomical measurements and calculations of angles and distances, took a curious journey that ended in Stockholm in the archives of the Royal Library of Sweden.     

The Peerage and the Revolution of 1688

Four points support the thesis that the English nobility played a critical role in the revolution. First, the later 17th‐century aristocracy was energetic, wealthy, and connected in ways facilitating political action within, and subsequently outside, the parliamentary arena. Second, it was a class conscious of status and privilege which many policies of James II bumped up against inadvertently, but often with negative consequence. Third, most peers were observant protestants in an age when religious belief, or at least the externals of practice, still mattered greatly. Fourth, habits of deference and traditional spheres of influence at the local level remained surprisingly intact despite intensive royal effort to reshape the lieutenancies, commissions of the peace, and municipal and other corporate bodies. Resistance to repeal of the Test Acts was the issue around which a leadership group emerged in the aristocracy. Initially it focused on a parliamentary solution in which an absolute majority in the house of lords could be counted on to stand firm no matter how the Commons might vote. In the absence of that opportunity and in the face of other events regarded as inimical to class, nation and the protestant interest, many peers turned away from natural alliance with the crown and – in the case of a forward group – conspired with the prince of Orange. Ultimately, more than a third of the nobility aligned itself with those peers intent on constraining the king's freedom of political action, an important factor contributing to his decision to flee.     

GPR and inductive electromagnetic surveys applied in three coastal sambaqui (shell mounds) archaeological sites in Santa Catarina state, South Brazil

In this article, GPR – Ground Penetrating Radar and inductive electromagnetic (EM38 equipment) results are presented for three archaeological sites of shell mounds located between Laguna and Jaguaruna cities, mid-southern coast of Santa Catarina state, Brazil. The Jabuticabeira II, Santa Marta IV, and Encantada III sites were studied. These sites consist of carbonate shell mounds built by societies that inhabited this region during the pre-colonial period (7.5–1.3 ky BP). Geophysical responses obtained in these archaeological sites had allowed the identification of anomalous regions related to archaeological point targets as well as continuous targets, correlated to the shell mound's structure and buried geologic features. GPR numerical modelling studies were done in order to evaluate the performance of the GPR method in relation to materials found in that environment, besides helping interpretations of real results. The synthetic GPR model was a good match with real data obtained in the field. So, the real and synthetic results serve as a reference guide to direct excavation activities in these archaeological and geological structures. In the Jabuticabeira II shell mound, lithic materials and burials were found amidst archaeological layers characterized by sediment rich in organic material, ferruginous concretions, and loose shells. In the Santa Marta IV archaeological site, a concentration of ceramic materials, burials and fireplaces were found. In the Encantada III site, a strong anomaly characterized by a hyperbolic reflection was related to the presence of a silicified tree root; a great example of ambiguity in shallow geophysics interpretation in archaeological applications. Results functioned as a guide to archaeological excavations, allowing cost and time reduction as well as contributing to improve the knowledge of these archaeological sites situated in southern Brazil.