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Charles Mordaunt, Third Earl of Peterborough, 1658-1735, is probably best remembered as the captor of Barcelona in 1705. Aram Bakshian Jr. shows that, in addition... |
During the sixteen years of Portugal's first Republic there were forty-five governments. Douglas Wheeler shows how this turbulent period of parliamentary rule gave... |
Peter Quennell on a fine edition of a Tudor guide to art |
Dominic Baker-Smith on a much-needed book, taking stock of the public life of Thomas More |
L.C.B. Seaman |
J.O. Baylen enthuses about a long-awaited biography of Olive Schreiner |
Chris Wrigley reviews the impact of the great historian, celebrating his recent birthday. |
Philip Mansel reflects on a trenchant account of pre-Revolutionary Europe |
In the Georgian age the insane came to be seen not as a threat to society but as its victims. Roy Porter shows however that, in treating the mad with greater... |
A review of two new books on Bismarck |
David Dabydeen concludes our special issue with a look at Hogarth's representations of black people in the 18th century. |
Ziggi Alexander and Audrey Dewjee consider the life of a remarkable Victorian woman. |
Paul Edwards profiles two black men who settled in 18th Century Britain. |
Barbara Bush looks at the experience of black people in 1930s Britain. |
James Walvin looks at attitudes to black people in the context of slavery |
Paul Edwards traces the leading black figues of the period. |
Shula Marks puts racial stereotypes in South Africa in historical perspective. |
Jonathan Israel on a new look at the life of Sir Lewis Namier |
I.D. McFarlane |
Kevin Sharpe finds a new biography on the first Duke of Buckingham offers incisive comment on Stuart England |
Ivan Roots on an elegant series of lectures on Elizabethan foreign policy |
Michael Neve on an excellently-researched history of Victorian trials and the idea of madness |
Rosalie Mander inrtoduces a life of the notorious Victorian politician, Edwin John James |
To its respectable neighbours Campbell Road was easily identifiable as the roughest street in north London. As Jerry White argues here, to its residents this... |
Harriet Berry shows how the Venetian artist, Canaletto, who first came to England in 1746, was to give the English a new and lasting image of their land. |
Gerald Strauss assess the attempts in the 1520s to ensure continued public support for the new churches. |
Theo Barker takes stock on an edited collection of local history |
Mysterious, exotic, colourful.... this was the view of their colonies that the 1900 Paris Fair presented to the French. William Schneider argues that this image was... |
Thomas Gretton presents a special review of the impact of the 19th century French satirical artist. |
John Robinson looks at the sorry state of a London monument |
Douglas Johnson applauds a lengthy and detailed treatment of 18th century France |
Ivan Roots on a new textbook for undergraduate history |
An introduction to this month's special feature on Edwardian Britain, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Historical Association. |
Michael Howard on the culture of imperial Britain in the face of international competition in the economic and military spheres. |
John Saville reviews a major survey of world socialism, published in English for the first time |
R.B. Rose on a stimulating, but ultimately unconvincing, approach to the impact of revolutionary ideologies |
F.S. Northedge on a history of the foundation of the League of Nations |
A new exhibition and publication devoted to the wartime images of Cecil Beaton |
Henry Loyn is impressed by a lecture series on the distinctive experience of feudalism in Scotland |
Rene Elvin on two comprehensive German reference works |
David Starkey asseses a new guide to UK Heritage, sadly lacking in awareness of current developments |
It is through reading the letters that the soldiers sent home, argues Frank Emery, that "the Victorian rank and file cease to be a mute and anonymous body of men... |
Ian Bradley shows that the characters and plots of Gilbert and Sullivan's operas reveal much that is of interest to the historian about certain individuals and... |
Patrick Buckland on a detailed survey of religious identity and sectarianism in the northern English city. |
November 5th had traditionally provided an outlet for the expression of popular attitudes towards religion in the city of Exeter. In this article Roger Swift... |
More witches were executed in the German-speaking territories than in any other part of Europe. Why was the German witch-hunt, asks H.C. Erik Midelfort, so... |
Henry Kamen considers two works on medieval and early modern religious dissent |
Paul Addison struggles with an illiberal and extreme work |
Wendy Davies on the first in a new Archaeology series, focusing on the Welsh Marches |
David Walker on a new collection of essays on modern Welsh history and identity |
Robert Thorne on an unusual biography of the architect of Victorian Gothic, William Burges |
Anna Davin compares two approaches to Victorian education for girls |
John Turner compares five approaches to the history of Ireland |
Japan had two great infatuations with the West: in the 1870s and during the American occupation of 1945-52. Forsaking traditional isolationism, Japan welcomed... |
Neither the Greeks nor the Romans paid much attention to the achievements or customs of the peoples that they conquered. As Jenny Morris shows here, in the case of... |
Michael Crowder continues our monthly series on Monuments, with a look at a 19th century Haitian jewel. |
William Doyle applauds a long-awaited English translation of a landmark French history of the Revolution |
Harold Perkin is unimpressed by a new social history of 18th century England |
T.P. Wiseman on a new reference book for Roman history |
Alfred Stepan continues our series on Makers of The Twentieth Century, arguing that the romantic acclaim of Fidel Castro as a revolutionary guerrilla leader... |
Stuart A. Schram continues our Makers of the 20th Century series. That Mao Zedong has changed the course of modern history is beyond dispute. the extent of his... |
Robert Stephens continues our series on the Makers of the 20th Century, with a look at how Nasser left his mark on nearly twenty years of Egyptian, Arab and world... |
M.S. Drower on a well-illustrated but far from comprehensive survey of Ancient Egypt |
Ian Duffield argues that, more than any other African leader Kwame Nkrumah - together with the man whose examples and ideas gave him so much inspiration, Marcus... |
M.T. Clanchy explores the new edition of an unrivalled collection of historical documents |
Mia Rodríguez-Salgado looks at the lives and impact of the Christian and Muslim corsairs on the early modern seas. |
Maggie Black continues her seasonal history of food and popular culture with a look at this period of autumnal celebration at Harvest End. |
A. Lentin finds much of interest in an exploration of the man behind the Decline and Fall... |
Juliet Gardiner continues our Monument series, welcoming the opening of Linley Sambourne's house in London as one of the few city house museums to show us the habitat... |
Basil Davidson reviews a new look at Prince Paul of Yugoslavia |
Colonel Nasser became president of Egypt in 1956. In this article from our 1981 archive, Robert Stephens considers how he has been both acclaimed as a nationalist... |
Nicholas Goddard on the Victorians and the agricultural utilisation of sewage. |
Edward Spiers on a new social history of the British military |
Stuart Andrews shows how Tom Paine not only popularised the idea of American Independence but helped to keep the spirit of Union alive through seven years of war. |
Martin Walker on a magisterial treatment of the developments in British political journalism |
In the month that the population of Britain will be counted for the eighteenth time, Sydney D Bailey argues that census taking, 'molesting and perplexing every... |
Patrick Chorley on a valuable new book on French agriculture in the 19th century. |
In Wales rugby football grew up in the communities of the industrial south. It was imbued with Welsh culture and aspirations, and provided drama for the Welsh... |
Martin Henig follows the Roman ritual year in an excellent new book |
John Martin Robinson on a fascinating and beautifully-illustrated account of English dreams of chivalry |
Plekhanov refused to accept that Lenin's coup in October 1917 was a Marxist revolution. To him it was an anti-Marxist revolution that violated history's economic... |
Denis Judd finds much to praise in a new life of Joseph Chambelain |
David Mitchell assesses two new publications in religious history |
The popular revolts of 1578-79 and 1586-89 in Normandy were triggered by an unruly military presence and the high level of royal fiscal exactions. Joan Davies... |
The career of Colonel Fernando Santos Costa explodes the myth of Salazar's Portugal as a politically stable country with 'no history'. In charge of Portugal's army... |
Geoffrey Parker concludes our two-part feature on the European Witchcraze Revisited. |
Ronald Pearsall enjoys reminiscences about growing up in Edwardian England |
Maggie Black continues her cultural history of food with a look at preserves. |
Douglas Johnson compares two first-hand accounts of early 20th century British politics |
Norman L. Jones compares two works reflecting new developments in Tudor historiography |
Hugh Rank is intrigued but bewildered by an exhibition on the rise of Prussia, held in a Berlin still coming to terms with its legacy. |
'Australia is a nation of immigrants' In the belief that manifestations of the unconscious can no longer be exempt from the attentions of the historian, John... |
Edward Acton is disappointed by a new book on early 20th century Russia |
This month History Today publishes the first in a new regular series of bibliographical essays on a wide variety of historiographical topics. The idea of the series... |
A short round-up of the latest history publications |
Edward Royle considers the rise of secular Britain |
Paul Slack and Alan MacFarlane present twin assessments of the impact of this ground-breaking work |
Ian Roy on an excellent, if individual, guide to the English Civil War |
F.S. Northedge is uninspired by two edited collections |
Phyllis Grosskurth compares the reception of Havelock Ellis on either side of the Atlantic |
Paul Preston reveiws a survey of British supporters of the Nazi regime |
London must be transformed into a place 'safe from fire and beautiful and magnificent' decreed James I – and Patrick Youngblood finds it was only the wealthy who... |
Alan Wood argues that the real significance of 1905 lies not so much in what was achieved as in the portents provided for the achievements of the future. |
In 1844 the people of the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo rose in rebellion against the Haitians who had occupied their island since 1822. But instead of... |
John Martin Robinson compares two works on Hollar in Germany and in England |
William Seymour argues here that the determination of Sir Charles Napier to uphold British interests in Sind led to coercion and eventual war. Much criticised for his... |
Ian Bradley on a life of the Victorian Socialist, Edward Carpenter |
C.R. Boxer begins our special feature on Japan, considering the reception of Europeans in the country from the 16th century. |
Nagasaki is often immediately associated with the American atomic attack on August 9th, 1945. However, it was also, for over two centuries, the only place in Japan... |
Taking the waters became a Victorian passion and spa towns flourished. In this article the first prize winner in History Today's Essay Competition Pamela... |
John Ardagh enjoys a survey of Franco-British contact over ten centuries. |
Irene Coltman Brown continues our series on the Historian as Philosopher. |
Peter Burke compares two view of popular culture in early modern Italy |
Keith McCulloch on a valuable presentation of the historical illustratiosn of the late Alan Sorrell |
Ian Kershaw on an English translation of a German history of Nazi government |
Stephen Usherwood shows how Lord Mansfield employed his precise legal mind and his reasoned humanitarianism to expose the iniquities of slavery - and thus helped... |
Denis Judd on a collection of essays on the South African War |
The Exhibition held in Wembley in 1924 was intended to herald a great Imperial revival - in fact, as Kenneth Walthew shows here, it was to prove an escapist... |
'A people's prospects are affected by its image of its past' - Arnold Toynbee presents an exclusive extract from his book on the Greek sense of the past, The... |
Christopher Fyfe looks at how, in 1975 the Cape Verde Island gained their independence from the Portuguese after five hundred years of colonial administration that... |
Roger Bartlett on a long-awaited study of the Russia of Catherine the Great |
Maggie Black looks at the cultural history of three February menus, based as much on show as the cooking. |
G.R. Elton asseses a posthumous work on the nature of the discipline |
Edited by Geoffrey Barraclough |
Keith Robbins begins our special feature on Edwardian Britain, considering the plurality of the Edwardian church, its relations with the state, and its responses... |
Alan Howkins compares two histories of rural England |
Huw Richards on the rise and fall of the media voice of UK radicalism. |
Nicholas Cann on the first in a new series on the representations of daily life from the V&A |
Ian Duffield finds much of interest in a new account of the beginnings of British imperialism |
Although Kensington Palace was the official residence of Edward, Duke of Kent, and the birthplace of his daughter, the future Queen Victoria, his attempts to repair... |
Geoffrey Parker looks at the moment, four hundred years ago this month, when the representatives of certain provinces of the Netherlands met together to depose their... |
Ivan Roots looks at the interaction of European settlers and native Americans in colonial Virginia |
Maggie Black completes her history of the year in food, with a look at the history of a festive favourite |
British-Russian rivalry over the control of Persia had, by the beginning of the twentieth century, a long history. Donald Ewalt shows how this conflict was greatly... |
David Nicholls on a broad look at cinematic depictions of the past |
The framework for the police of nineteenth century France, argues Clive Emsley, emerged out of the reorganisation of the Revolution and the reforms of Napoleon. |
Margot Heinemann assesses a magisterial account of the English Civil War |
Irene Coltman Brown begins this series on the historian as philosopher by taking a look at the Greek historian known as the Father of History. |
Irene Coltman Brown provides an insight into Tocqueville, who, reflecting on the history of revolutionary France, thought that liberty alone was capable of... |
Mark Cohen on a recent batch of historical novels for children |
Alan Ereira |
Richard Mullen looks back on the wedding of Prince Albert Edward to Princess Alexandra of Denmark. |
Eugene Kamenka contrasts two of the latest publications on Marx and Engels |
Norman Gash praises a brave attempt to penetrate the mystery of the life of the 19th century politician |
Why was Francis Drake in the Pacific in the 1570s? Was the Golden Hind bound on a trade voyage or was there a deeper political motive? The documents are... |
'A kind of apotheosis of terracotta', the Natural History Museum has been open for a hundred years as a scientific institution to serve the huge lay audience who... |
J. Derek Holmes |
R.A. Stradling is impressed by a wide-ranging look at the Madrid of Philip IV |
In the mid-seventeenth century Spain was at the apogee of artistic and cultural achievement under the patronage of her monarch, Philip IV - but, as R.A. Stradling... |
James Madison, 1751-1836, the fourth president of the United States, is best remembered, according to Esmond Wright, for his personal integrity and the scholarly... |
John Saville is impressed by this account of British Marxism in the early 20th century |
Noel Carrington recalls how he was a Witness to the Past, as the Prince of Wales toured India in 1921. |
Philip M. Taylor |
William Rees-Mogg finds a new life of Anthony Eden well-researched but rather unengaging. |
Pat Thane on a French philosophical approach to the history of the family |
Kenneth Hudson on how the museum at Rüsselsheim is no usual museum of local history or industry. Rather it is a museum of industrialisation conceived as a microcosm... |
Clive Emsley on a wide-ranging collection of essays on crime and the law |
A hundred years ago this month the Smoke Abatement Exhibition was held in London. In this article, John Ranlett explains how the exhibition demonstrated the... |
Peter Burke takes stock of an introduction to the early modern debates on witchcraft |
Maggie Black on the history of bread and breadmaking. |
Olwen Hulfton on a tale of sorry neglect for the poor in Revolutionary France |
Robert Tombs |
Brian Bond on a useful book for students of the Pacific War |
Ian Bradley gives a concise assessment on a new life of Gladstone |
Milton Osborne reviews a book by Thomas Hodgkin. |
Jeffrey Weeks finds much of interest in a ground-breaking work |
Richard Holmes continues our series with a look at the Problems of Military Biography. |
Ian Beckett continues our series on military history with a look at War and Society. |
David G. Chandler discusses the logistics of Military History. |
John Vincent asks a key question of the Conservative politician. |
G.P.C. Thomson looks at a work which cuts away the mythology of the Mexican revolution |
Martin Gilbert |
Comparisons between the English and Scottish witch-hunts have been drawn from as early as 1591. Using recent research on the subject from both sides of the border,... |
The artistic images of women depicted as witches were varied and constitute unusual 'pieces of history' by preserving a visual record of the intellectual origins... |
A.A. Powell on a new exhibition and publication from the British Library. |
Margaret Morris compares two accounts of the rise of working class politics in 20th century Britain |
Richard Gray compares a host of books on the roles of Christianity in the African nation. |
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text: One summer in the early 1980s, British photographer Janette Beckmann went to East L.A. and documented El Hoyo Maravilla gang with her Hasselblad camera. "The East L.A. area was poor, hot and arid," she recalls, "and there was the constant sound of LAPD helicopters buzzing overhead. The gang members introduced me to their families, showed me the barrio and tried to explain how it was living la vida loca. I was the first British person they had ever met and we were curious about each other." In 2011, Dashwood Books published a limited-edition book of these photos, and we recommend picking one up while you still can.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Send Us Your Thanksgiving Football Photos
Waltham High School varsity football plays Malden Catholic High School at 10 a.m.
Waltham High School kids will surely be hungry for Thanksgiving turkey today -- the high school football team will play Malden Catholic High School at 10 a.m. at Waltham High School.
If you'll be at the game today, we'd love for you to share your photos with us. Add them to this post so we can compile one gallery for everyone to see.


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Tags: Cotton Dress, Dunlop Tennis Shoe, England, Fashion, Fashion Photography, Fashionable, London, London Street Style Fashion, Summer Dress, Wayne Tippetts, White Cut-Out Daisy Pattern Dress, White Tennis Shoe, Woman Wearing
Posted in Street Style | 2 Comments »
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Vacation Rentals in Green Valley Lake, California
List your property
Be the first in this area to list your property, and bring travelers to your door! Call our Sales Team at 1-866-845-0908 to receive a special discount.
Green Valley Lake vacation rentals
Are you getting tired of the daily life in the jam-packed city and want to spend some time with good old Mother Nature? Well, the best place for you is Green Valley Lake, California. Although it's close to LA, giving you a great excuse for a city day trip, it's secluded at the same time. That means you'll enjoy peace and quiet in one of our Green Valley Lake vacation rentals. If a Green Lake Valley vacation home seems too expensive, consider this – you'll likely spend the same amount of money on a multiple-bedroom, spacious, amenity-filled Green Lake Valley vacation rental as you would on a few halfway decent hotel rooms, and in many cases, a single hotel room. If you add Green Valley Lake deals into the mix, your trip becomes all the more affordable. So, don't miss out on Green Valley Lake last minute deals, discounts, and special offers on your next trip. Green Valley Lake savings and a great vacation rental are a perfect match for your upcoming getaway.
more destinations
Check out more areas which feature homes, villas, cabins, cottages, or condos.
Green Valley Lake things to do
Snow Drift Snow Tubing Park
0 stars. This place blows- for lack of a better word. I actually can't believe it's still in business. First: Be careful with each step you take, the...read more
Tough Mudder
Went as a spectator to cheer on my hubby and his 2 teammates. But omg was parking an issue. I love the idea of shuttles but the school buses just trudged...read more
Castle Rock Trail
Wow!!! What an amazing place to spend the day. I loved climbing here. Topping out or belaying from the top is such a treat with the breathtaking view of the...read more
Lucky Bear Fishing Charters
We worked with Mike and Trish to get us on a group charter. After reading such great reviews on Yelp and seeing how family friendly they were, we were...read more
Deep Creek Hot Springs
Beautiful natural hot springs in Southern CA! =) There are several hot pools in the rock formations, plus a cooler creek flowing below the hotter...read more
Arrowhead Queen Tour Boat
My family and I had a great time on the Arrowhead Queen Tour Boat. We learned so much about Lake Arrowhead and had a chance to take in the beauty of the...read more
Arrowbear Music Camp
For a place that had such a huge impact on my life, it's hard to know where to begin. I guess I can start with the facts. Arrowbear offers sessions for...read more
Ice Castle International
As a former competitive ice skater (yes, embarrassing fact), this is one of the best places in the world to train. Although I've heard that there have been...read more
Big Bear Discovery Center
A great place to stop for information on trails and nature walks. Very children-friendly- lots of activities, museum, food, etc. Many biking trails and...read more
National Forest Association's Children's Forest
So this is a cute little sectioned off area of a national park. The scenery is very beautiful and the staff generally friendly. I have only been here in...read more
Wildhaven Ranch
Have you ever been to a zoo or any kind of animal center, and felt HORRIBLE for the animals? The way they look at you... how small the cages looked... how...read more
SnowDrift Tube-Boggan Area
My family and I had a blast here. The hills range from super small for the kiddies to super huge for the adults. You pay $5 to park and then you pay $12...read more
Boulder Bay Park
Beautiful and picturesque scenery! The scenery is breathtaking! The neighborhood is quite, clean, and well-plowed. I stayed in one of the cabins, which...read more
Lodestone Adventures
We had lots of fun on the 3 line, just long enough for us. Our guides were fantastic and we would come back again with our teenager next time for the 5 line.read more
- bedrooms 1
- community
- rental type Cabin
- sleeps 5
- baths 1
- rates (USD)
- $90
$350 - $375 /wk
$650 - $750 /mth


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This flexible hose kit is used to plumb the filtered air from a Gideon System or RESPA-SD into the fresh air side of an HVAC system with a 4 inch inlet. The kit contains 8 feet of 4 inch hose and 2 stainless steel worm gear clamps.
HOW Vortex HyperFLOW Works |


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Women's Soccer Announces Recruits In Class of 2017
May 24, 2013
Head Coach Matt Fannon will welcome eight recruits to the Wittenberg women's soccer program in August 2013.
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File Photo | Erin Pence
Matt Fannon Selected As Women's Soccer Head Coach
April 18, 2013
The York, England native joins the coaching staff at Wittenberg after a successful stint as an assistant at the University of Wyoming.
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Photo courtesy Wyoming Athletics
Wittenberg Women's Soccer 2013 ID & Skills 1-Day Clinic
January 16, 2013
Coaches and student-athletes in Wittenberg University's women's soccer program will lead individual development and skill camps April 21st.
read more ››
Wittenberg Soccer Standouts Earn All-Ohio Honors
December 19, 2012
Five student-athletes from the women's soccer team and one from the men's earned 2012 All-Ohio awards from the Ohio Collegiate Soccer Association.
read more ››
File Photo | Erin Pence
McMahon, Streibel Earn 2012 All-Great Lakes Region Awards
December 6, 2012
Lauren McMahon was named second team and Kailey Striebel earned third team all-region honors from the NSCAA.
read more ››
File Photo | Erin Pence
Tigers Fall In First Round Of NCAA Division III Tournament
November 9, 2012
Wisconsin-Whitewater scored three goals in the first 23 minutes to pull away from Wittenberg quickly en route to a 4-0 victory.
read more ››
File Photo | Erin Pence
Team Information
Latest News
Lauren McMahon, Kwame Lloyd Pick Up Top NCAC Awards
November 7 —
Lauren McMahon was named Defensive Player of the Year and Kwame Lloyd earned Coach of the Year from the NCAC after leading the Tigers to the conference title.
Tigers Earn Fifth NCAA Division III Tournament Berth
November 5 —
For the fifth time in program history and the first time since 2009, the Wittenberg women's soccer team is dancing.
Tigers Bow Out Of NCAC Tournament With Semifinal Loss To DePauw
November 1 —
Wittenberg battled back to even the score, only to see DePauw pick up the game-winner on a penalty kick to advance to the NCAC Tournament Championship.
Tigers Top Kenyon To Secure NCAC Regular Season Title
October 27 —
Wittenberg scored less than two minutes into the game and the NCAC's top defense did the rest in a 2-0 victory.
Soccer Standout Kicks Cancer With Support Of Campus Community
October 26 —
She thought she had a concussion. It turned out to be much more than that. But Leslie Oliver found the support she needed to beat cancer and return to soccer field.


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Chapter 16
Prophets and Miracles
From its very beginning the church of Christ ran into trouble in the world, where it was everywhere regarded as an intruder on the rights and prerogatives of established and going concerns. Its doctrine collided with philosophy; its offices and priesthood aroused the suspicion of governors and politicians; its divine gifts and powers scandalized the schoolmen, Jewish and Greek alike; the inspired preaching of the word had to settle a score with rhetoric as its revelation did with a great heritage of mysticism. We have touched upon all these things in preceding chapters, but there is one important phase of the story which we have not mentioned. God is a God of miracles. Everything he does is marvelous and in the end surpasses the understanding of men. As the gospel with all its gifts and powers was introduced into a world of philosophy, mysticism, and rhetoric—all of which were hostile to it—so too it was introduced into a world of miracles. And just as it is important to distinguish between the gospel and philosophy, the spirit and rhetoric, revelation and mysticism, so it is necessary to distinguish sharply between the kind of miracles that were found among the saints and the kind that enjoyed currency and popularity in the outside world; for here too we have a sure key to the presence of God's church and his prophets in the world.
Among the early Christians, miracles were a common and a useful thing. It is no contradiction of terms, as later Christians claimed, to speak of common miracles. In the restored Church the sick are healed every day, but for all its frequency, that occurrence loses none of its miraculous quality that fills the beholder with joy and thanksgiving. We are told in emphatic terms in the scriptures that the Lord and the Apostles performed very many miracles during their short ministries on earth; in their day miracles were a daily event. More than forty specific miracles are attributed to Christ alone in the New Testament, and on one occasion we are told (Luke 6:17, 19) that "a great multitude of people out of all Judaea and Jerusalem, and from the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon . . . came to hear him, and to be healed of their diseases. . . . And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all." Here was no concern lest the spectacle value of miracles be diminished by making them over-common, for the ancient saints did not value miracles for their spectacular qualities at all. For them, miracles were a supremely useful gift of God to those who believed, and emphatically not a means of impressing the opposition. "And these signs shall follow them that believe," says the Lord at the end of the gospel of Mark (16:17—18); "in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." And in the very last verse (20) of this gospel we read, "And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The signs follow the word; they do not precede it. And note just what these signs are: they are the intervention of the power of God in situations in which men need help very badly and cannot help themselves, when they are possessed, poisoned, and sick. In the days when the church had to bear witness within a short time to very many people, the language barrier was an insurmountable one: so the Lord gave them power to "speak with new tongues," as is plainly seen in the day of Pentecost, when every man heard the gospel preached in his own tongue, and Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 14:22) that this particular gift is specifically "for a sign . . . to them that believe not."
But what about the other signs? They are not for unbelievers. The pagan world of the time was, as we have said, a world of miracles and miracle-lovers. Those popular miracles were of the type calculated to excite awe in all beholders and stir up general public interest. Of this type of miracle the Lord strongly disapproved. Not only did he repeatedly instruct those who had been the beneficiaries of his miraculous powers not to spread the news abroad, but in every instance where he was asked for a sign, he rebuked the askers and quickly withdrew from the scene. Father Garrigou-Lagrange in his recent treatment of the subject, defending the thesis that the purpose of miracles was to prove the divine origin of the Christian religion "by most certain signs accommodated to the intelligence of all," cites the instances in Matthew 11:4—6 and Luke 7:18—23 where the Lord answered John the Baptist's question as to whether he was the Messiah by referring him to the miracles he had done.1 But a personal message to his friend and relative John, a righteous man and a believer all his days, can hardly be construed as a policy for converting the heathen; and here John does not ask for a sign—he is ready to take the Lord's word for it. The powerful rebukes administered by the Lord to those who sought signs, Lagrange explains as applying only to the Pharisees, "who were always seeking new signs after they had had other signs." Yet we also read (Luke 11:29): "And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign." Speaking to the whole multitude, he condemns the whole sign-seeking generation. The Lord says those who seek a sign will receive a sign—but it is not the sign they want, it is the sign of Jonah. When the Pharisees asked him for a sign, "he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation. And he left them" (Mark 8:12—13). And yet there were signs all around them, but only those who believed could see them—the signs only follow them that believe: "O ye hypocrites," said the Lord to the Pharisees and Sadducees asking him for a sign from heaven, "ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed" (Matthew 16:3—4; italics added).
Whenever people asked the Lord for a sign, he walked out on them, telling them that to those who ask for a sign, no sign shall be given save one they don't want. (Cf. Luke 21:11—28.) When the Jews pinned him down with the request for a specific demonstration, asking him, "What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?" he evaded them neatly with the challenge, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:18—19), that being a thing he knew they would never do—they brought this against him later as a serious charge, and of course missed the real significance of the remark. In the other passages cited by Lagrange we read (Acts 5:14—15): "And believers were the more added to the Lord. . . . Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets" to be healed, etc. Here they bring out their sick inasmuch as they believe: They believe first; the miracles follow. Does not the Lord in preparation for a miracle often ask the recipient whether he or she believes, this being a prerequisite to the miracle? In his own native district the Lord "did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matthew 13:58). If the purpose of miracles was to convince the unbelieving, this should have been the very place where the Lord would perform his greatest ones, but the rule is very clear—no belief, no miracles: "Ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6—30). Lagrange again cites the case of Simon, who "wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done" (Acts 4:30; 8:13), but that was only after he had believed and was baptized. He was not converted as a result of those miracles, but they followed his belief. In the King James Bible, the twelfth chapter of 2 Corinthians is headed Paul's Visions Are Apostolic Credentials. Yet he never reveals the content of those visions, least of all to unbelievers; what he does in this chapter is to remind the Corinthians, "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you . . . in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds" (2 Corinthians 12:12). The Corinthians had been treated to this after their conversion as Christians, not as pagans, but even these signs did not guarantee a lasting conversion, for Paul goes on to describe how these same Corinthians are falling away.
Credentials must be infallible, as the word of the Lord is infallible, but miracles employed for purposes of demonstration never can be, for miracles are not exclusively Christian: one need only recall the vast miracle literature of the Mohammedans. When the question was brought up at an early council in Antioch, "How does it happen that heretics often perform miracles?" the answer was, "It is not proper to enquire into such a matter." 2 The question could not be answered by men who believed that miracles were sure credentials. Like philosophy and mysticism, miracles—real miracles—are found throughout the whole world and are used by practitioners of religion everywhere to bedizen, amaze, and convince the doubters. "There shall arise false Christs," says the Lord, "and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." In this passage (Matthew 24:24) Christ further explains that a time is coming when many shall claim that Christ is with them, but none, not a single one of them, should be believed, because they would try to convert by signs and wonders. In Mark 13:21 it reads, "And then if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ; or, lo, he is there; believe him not: For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." Here we see plainly enough who it is who employs signs and wonders to convert the unbelieving, "whose coming," says Paul, "is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders" (2 Thessalonians 2:9).
What should people seek, then? The word of life. After declaring that "an evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign" (Matthew 12:39), the Lord explains that the people of Nineveh would condemn such a generation in the judgment, because the preaching of the prophet had been enough to convince them; and that the Queen of Sheba would judge them likewise, since she was satisfied not with a sign but with the wise words of Solomon (Matthew 12:40—42). In the last verse of Mark (16:20) we read that "they went forth, and preached . . . confirming the word with signs following." To prove that miracles were meant to convert, Lagrange cites John 2:11: "This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him."3 His disciples—not the whole multitude. "Many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples," says John, speaking of the time after the resurrection (John 20:30). If the purpose of miracles is to convert, then Jesus wasted his miracles all on believers. Next Lagrange cites John 10:25—27: "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep. . . . My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." 4 Father Lagrange could not have picked a better passage to demonstrate that miracles do not convert the unbelievers—"but ye believe not"; well, who does believe? Those, says the Lord, who hear his voice, for whom his words are enough. When the Lord "granted signs and wonders to be done" by the hands of the Apostles in Iconium, the result was that they got kicked out of town (Acts 14:3—6). The miracles did not break down opposition.
Then there is the famous case of Nicodemus, who came to the Lord by night and said, "We know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (John 3:2). But this was not the way the Lord wanted Nicodemus converted, for in answer he did not praise those who believed his miracles, but rebuked those who would not believe his words: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?" (John 3:2, 11—12.) To impress people with miracles is one thing; to give them a testimony of the gospel another. As the experience of the Apostles showed, if people will not accept the gospel by the word without miracles, they will not accept it with miracles: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead" (Luke 16:31).
After the first century, miracles ceased entirely from the church. This has been a much-discussed phenomenon. We have touched on it in these talks, and quoted Bishop John of Bristol's statement: "I perceive in the language of the Fathers, who lived in the middle and end of the second century . . . , if not a conviction, at least a suspicion, that the power of working miracles was withdrawn, combined with an anxiety to keep up a belief of its continuance in the Church."5 This can be illustrated by the instance of the Thundering Legion. When a Roman army was delivered from death by thirst by a timely shower of rain during an expedition in Germany, everybody rushed to claim the miracle for his church: Devotees of Isis claimed that the rain was sent in answer to the prayers of the Egyptian priest Arnuphius who was with the army; on the Antonine column we still see the miracle cited in support of the Roman state religion and attributed to the intervention of Jupiter Pluvius from whose outspread arms the shower pours down; Tertullian, however, attributes the miracle to the prayers of the Christians who were with the army. For Bishop John this eager exploitation by Tertullian of a mere coincidence shows how hard up the church was for real miracles, for in all his extensive writings Tertullian, like other Christian contemporaries, is at a loss to produce a single case of a good contemporary miracle. But more significant than this is the fact that this upright Christian is now competing with the pagan religionists for a miracle to prove his religion: He is speaking their language.
The total absence of miracles in the church in the second century—at the very time when the apologists were looking most eagerly for them—is usually explained as the laying aside of credentials that were no longer necessary. The arguments against this are only too obvious. Why didn't the Christians themselves ever give that explanation? Why did they stubbornly insist on clinging to every old or new miracle they could find? When did the missionary work of the church ever reach completion or come to a halt so that the alleged credentials would no longer be necessary? When did the Christians ever cease to need help against evil spirits or become immune to the effects of poison, snakebite, or disease? The church proceeded to remedy the fatal defect exactly as she made up for the loss of doctrine and authority—by substitution. As might be expected, the substitution followed two lines: the esoteric and the vulgar. Left to human providence, religious things, as has often been pointed out, tend to gravitate to two opposite poles—a purely intellectual on the one hand, and a vulgar and superstitious on the other. So among the intellectuals, Quadratus of Athens was the last man in the second century to insist on the literal nature of the miracles of Jesus;6 those who followed him, Aristides, Justin, Tatian, Athenagoras, and Theophilus—though they could not deny the miracles, being among the most fundamental things in Christianity—gave them a more sophisticated appraisal7 and, moving as fatally to a Neoplatonic "spiritual" explanation as a needle to the pole, took the position illustrated by Irenaeus who, when asked "why the Lord rained down manna on the people in the days of the fathers, but now does so no more?" replied: "If you only knew it, he still rains down manna upon his servants—every day, . . . even the perfect bread of heaven, the body born of the Virgin, [etc.] But there is also a spiritual manna, that is the downpouring of spiritual wisdom."8
Later on, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and especially St. Ambrose have a great deal to say about how much superior these mystic and spiritual miracles are to the crass physical article of the primitive Christians. For a while, as we have told before, the Gnostics tried to fake miracles of the old kind, but that was a strenuous program: A far richer source of substitute material lay near to hand in the fullblown cult of miracles that flourished throughout the ancient world. A great deal of research has been done on the adoption of local and general cults, legends, liturgies, vestments, rites, etc., by the Christian church. The local hero cults, the trips to healing shrines, the lovely old legends, the brisk cult of relics, such things were firmly rooted in popular devotion; they were thousands of years old and commanded the unshakable devotion of the masses. This is no time to explore this fruitful and colorful field, but we might refer our listeners to Franz Josef Dölger's study of the adoption by the church of the ancient and wide-spread pagan practice of throwing coins into holy fountains in hopes of getting a blessing. Dölger has produced many stout volumes packed with evidence to illustrate this transition from popular pagan to Christian miracles.9 Such well-known classics as Livy, Dio, Virgil, Pausanias, Hyginus, etc., provide plenty of description of the kind of popular miracles that were taken over by the Christians. Heavenly visitations and manifestations are common among them, but one thing they all have in common: they have no real message to convey; they have nothing to say; they are essentially just "eye-wash." The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus arose from their century-long sleep, praised God, and promptly fell dead again. We talked once about letters from heaven and the tremendous impact they had on medieval society—what was wrong with them? They had nothing to say.
The gifts and miracles all go together in the true Church and are taken as a matter of course. Where you have the one you have the others, for they are really but manifestations of the same power—the power that made and sustains the world. We see that miraculous power at work all around us, and the Lord has told us that he is displeased with those who fail to see his hand in all things. That power is operated directly through the priesthood; and where you have the priesthood, as Tertullian long ago observed, you must necessarily have the powers and the miracles that go with it. "He that believeth on me," said the Lord to Philip (John 14:12), "the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." The Lord then continues with the promise of the Holy Ghost, whom the world cannot receive, who will teach the saints all things. These things are not for the world, they are promised to the saints and them alone. And the greatest of all these things promised is the Holy Ghost. Now it is a significant thing that the Christian world loudly proclaims the gift of the Holy Ghost, but just as loudly denies the presence of any of the lesser gifts that accompany it. If one has the Holy Ghost, the other things are there as a matter of course—it does not supplant them; here it is explicitly promised along with them. To deny literal miracles, as one part of the Christian world does today, or to look for faith in rare, theatrical, stunning, and sensational displays—in a word, to seek after signs—as the rest do, is to miss the whole point of miracles. They belong to the church; they are a useful, natural, necessary part of it. They are not something to be handled in the abstract with the precious affections of the academicians; nor are they something to be spread abroad in hushed and excited whispers or written up in popular magazines for their publicity value. Since we say we know that God can do these things, it is a poor demonstration of faith when he actually does them to act as if he were a magician trying to make our eyes pop out. Where you find the true Church, there you will find true prophets and the priesthood in all its authority; and where you have that, all the signs and wonders will follow as a matter of course.
1. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, De revelatione per ecclesiam catholicam proposita (Rome: F. Ferrari, 1931), 2:335.
2. Quaestiones ad Antioch Ducem, in PG 28:665.
3. Garrigou-Lagrange, 2:331.
4. Ibid., 2:335.
5. John Kaye, Ecclesiastical History of the Second and Third Centuries Illustrated from the Writings of Tertullian (London: Griffith-Farran, 1893), 93—95.
6. Robert M. Grant, Second-Century Christianity (London: SPCK, 1946), 14—15.
7. Ibid.
8. Cited by Ambrose, Epistle 64, in PL 16:1271—72.
9. Franz Dölger's important works, Antike und Christentum, 5 vols. (1929); Ichthys: der heilige Fisch in den antiken Religionen und im Christentum, 5 vols. (Münster: Aschendorffs, 1910); and Sol Salutis (1925).