by David West | Dec 8, 2024 | News
On 8th December 1854 Pope Pius IX formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, stating that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin. Pope Pius IX (1792–1878) was the longest-serving pope in history, reigning from 1846 to 1878. His papacy is one...
by David West | Dec 7, 2024 | News
The assassination of Marcus Tullius Cicero, one of Rome’s greatest orators, statesmen, and philosophers, occurred on 7th December 43 BCE, during the turbulent period of the Roman Republic’s fall. I mentioned Cicero in my post about Petrarch whose study of Cicero’s...
by David West | Dec 6, 2024 | News
Thomas Aquinas’s divine vision refers to a mystical experience he reportedly had near the end of his life, which profoundly influenced his perspective on his theological work. This event occurred on 6th December 1273, while he was celebrating Mass in a chapel. During...
by David West | Dec 5, 2024 | News
I have written about Renaissance writers, artists, musicians, and scientists. But how did the Renaissance come about? Francis Petrarch, often called the “Father of Humanism,” played a pivotal role in laying the intellectual and cultural groundwork for the...
by David West | Dec 4, 2024 | News
At time of writing there have been seven popes during my lifetime. The only other pope that I know much about was Pope Paul V, because he features in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But there was an English Pope and his relatives...
