United States or Trinidad and Tobago ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Peter's, beneath a very ugly tomb. The next morning this epitaph was found inscribed upon the tomb: "VENDIT ALEXANDER CLAVES, ALTARIA, CHRISTUM: EMERAT ILLE PRIUS, VENDERE JUKE POTEST."; that is, "Pope Alexander sold the Christ, the altars, and the keys: But anyone who buys a thing may sell it if he please."
Holy things, religious privileges, had become merchandise with which the Popes trafficked. The chronicler Burchardus relates: "In those days the following couplet was sung in nearly the whole Christian world: "Vendit Alexander claves, Altaria, Christum, Emerat ista prius, vendere juste potest."
Peter's, beneath a very ugly tomb. The next morning this epitaph was found inscribed upon the tomb: "VENDIT ALEXANDER CLAVES, ALTARIA, CHRISTUM: EMERAT ILLE PRIUS, VENDERE JUKE POTEST"; that is, "Pope Alexander sold the Christ, the altars, and the keys: But anyone who buys a thing may sell it if he please."
And as if this were not enough, another distich struck with more directness at the vices of the Pope: "Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum: Emerat ille prius, vendere jure potest." "Alexander sells the keys, the altars, Christ. He bought them first, and has good right to sell."
Lady Mary's account moreover is reinforced by Murphy's classical periods: "Mr Fielding's case was generally the same with that of the poet described by Juvenal; with a great genius, he must have starved if he had not sold his performance to a favourite actor. Esurit, intactam Paridi, nisi vendit Agaven."
It is worth noticing also that a distinction was now drawn between the fisherman and the fishmonger the man who caught the fish and he who sold it piscator and piscarius; and in the vocabulary itself the leonine line is cited: "Piscator prendit, quod piscarius bene vendit." The whale was considerably brought into requisition for gastronomic purposes.
Word Of The Day