Povey Prattle

I am enjoying a book which is entitled “Manhattan 1945”. It was written by the famed travel writer and historian Jan Morris, and published by the John Hopkins University Press in 1998. Jan Morris first visited Manhattan in 1953 (?) and her book reflects the “Manhattan that was” at the end of World War II. Jan quotes the following delicious anecdote (from the 1961 book “Children of the Golden Ghetto” ):   A Jewish parent is reported to have said “I don’t want my children to get too much religious training - just enough to know what religion they aren’t observing ”.   Aint that the case! 

(Clarendon Code) While some of the Penal Laws were much older, they took their most drastic shape during the reign of Charles II . Four of them became known as the Clarendon Code , after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon , though he was not their author and did not fully approve of them. [1] These included: Corporation Act (1661) - This first of the four statutes which made up the Clarendon Code required all municipal officials to take Anglican communion, and formally reject the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. The effect of this act was to exclude nonconformists from public office. This legislation was rescinded in 1828 . Act of Uniformity , (1662) - This second statute made use of the Book of Common Prayer compulsory in religious service. Over two thousand clergy refused to comply and so were forced to resign their livings (the Great Ejection). The provisions of the act were modified by the Act of Uniformity Amendment Act , of 1872. Conventicle Act (1664) - This act forbad...

“Intrigue, secrecy, lobbying, back-stabbing, feuding, and conspiracy” , are words which I referenced in my blog entry about the accession of James VI of Scotland to the English throne, (as James I of England). They are also apt in the matter of the “Glorious Revolution” which led to William III, Prince of Orange, and his wife Mary II as co-equal English monarchs, in 1688. Here is a bit of background .  King Charles I was executed in 1649.  This led to what is known as the “Commonwealth Period” in English history, a time in which Oliver Cromwell was the Lord Protector of England.   ' Cromwell’s ascendancy favored Independent and Presbyterian forms of church government, thus stripping the Church of England of its monopoly on English religion, and in fact setting the C of E at a distinct disadvantage. After Cromwell’s death there was little official sentiment for the continuation of the Commonwealth/Protectorate, so C I’s son, Charles II was invited back to ...

(via Kippy Altini) Via Bob Ginn

“It ain’t necessarily so…” has also been on my mind as I have been revisiting two bits of English and Scottish history. Perhaps I was taught badly, or maybe I was a poor student  (most likely a bit of both), but I now realise that I’ve had a very incomplete and inaccurate understanding of the rise of James VI of Scotland to become James I of England, and of the “Glorious Revolution” which led to the accession of William and Mary as joint monarchs. I remembered those bits of history as if they were almost seamless and inevitable transitions in the English/Scottish monarchies. ‘Twas far from so! The three immediate successors of Henry VIII  (Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I ) each died without heirs.  Henry VIII had willed that a member of the Scottish Royal House of Stuart could never inherit the throne, and English law stated that the Monarch should be a native. Elizabeth I steadfastly refused to name a successor. There was a certain wisdom to this, for it ensu...

“Nanny” Povey was the  mother of my Dad, Henry John “Jack” Povey.   Her husband (my paternal grandfather) was Henry George, (or George Henry) Povey.  He was a plumber and gas fitter who ran his business from 12, Robertson Road, Eastville, Bristol. I never knew Grandfather Povey who died in 1939.  He was riding a bicycle on Church Road, Redfield, Bristol and was hit by a car, sustaining injuries from which he died.  Only my oldest sister Maureen has any memories of him. “Nanny” had been born in Easton, Bristol. (U.K.)  Her birth name was Sarah Bennett.  Her own father had been a coal miner, back in the days when there were open cast coal mines in the Easton district of Bristol. As a wee lad I was confused since my nanny was known as “Sally”.  I knew that her given name was Sarah, but I did not know that Sally is a diminutive of Sarah.  I thought that her name was “Sally Sarah“. Nanny Povey told me that as a young girl she had ...

“It ain't necessarily so It ain't necessarily so De things dat yo' liable to read in de Bible It ain't necessarily so” These are words from Ira and George Gershwin’s musical “Porgy and Bess”. They have a ring of truth. The Christian Bible is a strange admixture of myths, fables, fairy tales,  oral history remembered, and teaching. Mostly it is a collection of 66 “books”, more accurately described as “writings”, which are trying to make a case for the G-d of Israel in the “old testament”, and for the “Jesus Movement”, (a.k.a. the Church), in the “new testament”. As we come to understand that these writings are for the most part “propaganda” (in the best sense of that word), so we can approach them with suspicion, albeit a suspicion which is biased towards faith. As I read the bible it is always with the questions: “What’s the angle here?”, “what’s the spin?”, “what are the underlying suppositions of the writer or compiler?”, and (very importantly) “what are...