Tenderness

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

Page 143 of 145 · 20 per page

• From The Great Believers (2018)

  She’d cried into the cat’s fur the whole way to the vet. Was it so bad to let her do right by him? Dr. Cheng’s office was in what used to be a house. Incense in the waiting room, a nurse who came around the desk to give Fiona an enormous hug. There was no one else there, thank God, no hollow-eyed stranger sitting like the ghost of Yale’s own future, no acquaintance with whom he’d have to make small talk. “It’s a day for waiting rooms,” Yale said. Fiona said, “Better magazines here.” On the coffee table sat a stack of old Esquire s. He had forms to fill out, though: family history, medications, surgeries. He said, “You don’t have to wait.” “I want to say hi to Dr. Cheng. If I go back home, I have to watch the kids. Trust me, this is vacation.” She must have been lying. She’d probably passed some of the worst moments of her life in the same worn green armchair she was sinking into right now. Yale said, “I’ll let you stay if you promise something.” Fiona’s look was a cross between wary and indulgent. “What are you doing for yourself these days? What’s your plan for next year? You’re twenty-one. You’re smart. Don’t you think that now—don’t you want to go to college?” “You mean now that Nico’s gone.” “Well—yeah. And Terrence. Here’s what I don’t want. I don’t want you to adopt me next, and then whoever else gets sick, and then the next guy, and before you know it you’re fifty and you’re living in a ghost town surrounded by all our old clothes and books.” “I won’t adopt the next person. Just you. Nico loved you, and you were so nice to me when I was a kid. Do you remember when you walked me through the Art Institute?” “Yeah, you set off the alarm.” “I’m just saying: We could both use a friend right now.” “We’re friends, Fiona, I just—” “Well let’s be best friends. Don’t laugh, I don’t mean like ten-year-olds! I mean like family. Let’s just say we’re family now. Let’s say we call each other when we’re sad. And I’ll get you a birthday present, and everything.” “Okay.” He couldn’t say no to her. “But we were talking about college.” “Oh God, Yale. I really don’t see myself enjoying the frat party scene. I’m going to, what, sit there in class with eighteen-year-olds?” The distance between eighteen and twenty-one seemed laughably small, but he didn’t say so. Besides, Fiona’s twenty-one might as well have been two hundred. “You could take classes here in the city. It wouldn’t be going off to college , with dorms and, like, drunk guys playing guitar at you. Just think of it as the classes, the degree. You don’t want to be a nanny forever, do you?” He regretted the words once they were out. But only half his brain was in the conversation.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Augustine, with Tertullian, teaches plainly, as an old tradition, that the eucharistic sacrifice, the intercessions or suffragia and alms, of the living are of benefit to the departed believers, so that the Lord deals more mercifully with them than their sins deserve.1048 His noble mother, Monica, when dying, told him he might bury her body where he pleased, and should give himself no concern for it, only she begged of him that he would remember her soul at the altar of the Lord.1049 With this is connected the idea of a repentance and purification in the intermediate state between death and resurrection, which likewise Augustine derives from Matt. xii. 32, and 1 Cor. iii. 15, yet mainly as a mere opinion.1050 From these and similar passages, and under the influence of previous Jewish and heathen ideas and customs, arose, after Gregory the Great, the Roman doctrine of the purgatorial fire for imperfect believers who still need to be purified from the dross of their sins before they are fit for heaven, and the institution of special masses for the dead, in which the perversion of the thankful remembrance of the one eternally availing sacrifice of Christ reaches its height, and the idea of the communion utterly disappears.1051 In general, in the celebration of the Lord’s Supper the sacrament continually retired behind the sacrifice. In the Roman churches in all countries one may see and hear splendid masses at the high altar, where the congregation of the faithful, instead of taking part in the communion, are mere spectators of the sacrificial act of the priest. The communion is frequently despatched at a side altar at an early hour in the morning. § 97. The Celebration o f the Eucharist. Comp. the Liturgical Literature cited in the next section, especially the works of Daniel, Neale, and Freeman. The celebration of the eucharistic sacrifice and of the communion was the centre and summit of the public worship of the Lord’s day, and all other parts of worship served as preparation and accompaniment. The old liturgies are essentially, and almost exclusively, eucharistic prayers and exercises; they contain nothing besides, except some baptismal formulas and prayers for the catechumens. The word liturgy (leitourgiva), which properly embraces all parts of the worship of God, denotes in the narrower sense a celebration of the eucharist or the mass. Here lies a cardinal difference between the Catholic and Evangelical cultus: in the former the sacrifice of the mass, in the latter the sermon, is the centre. With all variations in particulars, especially in the introductory portions, the old Catholic liturgies agree in the essential points, particularly in the prayers which immediately precede and follow the consecration of the elements.

• From Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999)

  But what of the poor to homeless man in the back orchestra of the sex movie who, after the sexual act is satisfactorily completed, asks, “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a couple of bucks on you—so I can go out, get something to eat, and get back in here to catch some sleep?”—who may, indeed, be as easily told, “Sorry, I don’t have any money with me,” as “Oh, sure. Here.” Is that commercial? What of the encounter that starts off particularly well, so that one person pauses and says, “Hey, I’m going to go out and get some sandwiches and a couple of cans of beer. I’ll be back in ten minutes. What kind of sandwich you want? This way we can make an afternoon of it,” and is told, “Great, man. Bring me a ham and cheese on rye with mustard.” Is that commercial? Finally, what about the man who, before the incident, presents himself as hustling, asking (however) for only five dollars, but who, when you shrug and say, “Sorry. I’m not paying,” waits ten, silent seconds, then responds, “Ah, fuck . . . we’ll do it anyway. Besides, I did it with you before. I know you’re good.” Is this commercial? These, and numberless other scenarios the longtime visitor to the area can recount (the laborer from Queens who, after sex, insisted on giving me fifteen dollars, because he “only went with hustlers” and would have felt uncomfortable if I didn’t take some money from him; so, after five minutes of polite protest, I obliged), trouble the line between the commercial and the noncommercial encounter. Because the reality of the situation is intricate and often difficult to articulate—and because an overall fictional model preexists that is simpler and generally accepted; and because the whole situation lies outside the boundaries of the “socially accepted” anyway—often it’s easier to let the extant rhetoric hold unchallenged sway. The result is an image of who is and who isn’t a hustler that is as hard to pin down overall as who is and who isn’t a whore—a concept which runs, as we all know, from the agented call girl to the woman who simply enjoys sex with several partners over a period of time.

• From The Principle of Desire (2013)

  Poor Ed. He sounded as though he’d rather have spikes driven under his nails, but she knew he’d come if she asked. “Nah. I mean it’s just down the street. The most onerous part will be waiting for the guy to return my car from valet parking after I’m done.” “Good, I was going to insist you use the valet parking instead of going into the parking garage. Okay, well at least I can help you find your clothes.” “Deal.” “If you don’t end up staying for long, you could come back here for the rest of the night.” She grinned, even though he probably couldn’t see it in the dark. “Also a deal.” Chapter Ten Beth didn’t make it back to Ed’s place that night. She barely made it to her Thursday afternoon class, after driving Aaron home and making sure he was comfortably and safely set up. Aaron wasn’t happy about her being there—in a rare period of relative lucidity, he had tried to find out the name of the nurse who’d contacted her—but ultimately he needed the help too badly to refuse. They’d sent him home with serious painkillers, the kind that were known to have devastated many celebrity reputations and more than one small rural town. A nondrinker who typically refused even something as innocuous as acetaminophen, Aaron had no tolerance for or experience with intoxication. And he had nobody else in town to take care of him, no family or friends close enough to ask for a favor like that. Only Beth. When she wasn’t in class, she stayed with him, and when he was awake he talked a lot to try to distract himself from the pain. Under the influence, he said things he never would have sober. He was also whiny and fretful, like a sick child. “I love you. You know, right? You know I always loved you.” “How would I have known that? Keep that pillow under your knee, you need the extra support.” “Well, can I have another one for my back? I want to sit up.” “I’ll get one of the extra ones from the guest room.” She fetched a pillow, and food and drinks. She helped him to and from the restroom when he was wobbly on his crutches. “I got you a ring and everything. You want to see the ring? It’s upstairs on my dresser.” “No, thank you. I don’t need to see the ring. I’m sorry you went to that much trouble, but I did tell you.” “I wanted it to be a grand gesture,” he mumbled, eyes drooping. “Sweep you off your feet. But I suck at that...all that kinda shit.” When he fell asleep a few minutes later, she stole upstairs to look at the ring. It sat in its velvet box, which was open and gathering dust. Aaron must not have had the cleaning service back in since he returned from his trip.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  He was involved in the political and ecclesiastical disturbances of his country, opposed the use of the sword by the bishops, and the appropriation of church property, and sale of offices by the avaricious laity. He lost the favor of the court by his opposition to the intrigues of Queen Constantia. He died April 10, 1029.1511 Fulbert’s fame rests chiefly on his success as a living teacher. This is indicated by his surname.1512 He was not an original thinker, but knew how to inspire his pupils with enthusiasm.1513 His personality was greater than his learning. He wisely combined spiritual edification with intellectual instruction, and aimed at the eternal welfare of his students. He used to walk with them at eventide in the garden and to engage in familiar conversations on the celestial country; sometimes he was overcome by his feelings, and adjured them with tears, never to depart from the path of truth and to strive with all might after that heavenly home.1514 His ablest pupil was Berengar of Tours, the vigorous opponent of transubstantiation, and it has sometimes been conjectured that he derived his views from him.1515 But Fulbert adhered to the traditional orthodoxy, and expressed himself against innovations, in letters to his metropolitan, Leutberich, archbishop of Sens. He regarded the real presence as an object of faith and adoration rather than of curious speculation, but thought that it is not more difficult to believe in a transformation of substance by Divine power than in the creation of substance.1516 He was a zealous worshipper of the saints, especially of the Virgin Mary, and one of the first who celebrated the festival of her Nativity. The works of Fulbert consist of one hundred and thirty-nine (or 138) Letters, including some letters of his correspondents;1517 nine Sermons;1518 twenty-seven Hymns and Poems,,1519 and a few minor compositions, including probably a life of St. Autbert.1520 His letters have considerable interest and importance for the history of his age. The longest and most important letter treats of three doctrines which he regarded as essential and fundamental, namely, the trinity, baptism, and the eucharist.1521 From the school of Gerbert at Rheims proceeded the school of Fulbert at Chartres, and from this again the school of Berengar at Tours—all equally distinguished for popularity and efficiency. They in turn were succeeded by the monastic school of Lanfranc at Bec, who came from Italy, labored in France, opposed Berengar, his rival, and completed his career in England as archbishop of Canterbury. He was excelled by his pupil and successor, Anselm, the second Augustin, the father of Catholic scholasticism. With him began a new and important chapter in the development of theology. § 181. Rodulfus Glaber. Adam of Bremen. I. Rodulfus Glaber (Cluniacnesis monachus): Opera, in Migne, Tom. CXLII. col. 611–720. The Historia sui temporis or Historia Francorum is also printed in part, with textual emendations by G. Waitz, in the Monum. Germ. Script., ed. by Pertz, Tom. VII. 48–72, and the Vita Willelmi abbatis in Tom. IV. 655–658.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Besides sermons upon Psalm xlviii.,970 on an auspicious year,971 four during Lent,972 in which he specially inveighs against the lax marital customs, and five on different martyrs,973 he wrote an enthusiastic treatise in praise of monasticism974 if properly used, while at the same time he faithfully rebuked the common faults of the monks, their sloth, their hypocrisy and their ignorance, which had made the very name of monk a reproach. To the Stylites,975 he was particularly plain in setting forth their duty. By reason of their supposed sanctity they were sought by all classes as oracles. He seeks therefore to impress them with their responsibility, and tells them always to speak fearlessly, irrespective of person; not flattering the strong nor domineering the weak. He addressed also the laity, not only in the sermons already mentioned, but in separate treatises,976 and with great earnestness and tenderness exhorted them to obedience to their lawful rulers, and rebuked them for their hypocrisy, which was the crying sin of the day, and for their vindictiveness. He laid down the true gospel principle: love is the central point of the Christian life. His letters977 of which 75 have been published, give us a vivid picture of the time, and bear unconscious testimony to his virtue. To his Interpretation of the Pentecostal hymn of John of Damascus Cardinal Mai accords the highest praise.978 § 152. Nicetas Acominatos. I. Nicetas Choniates: Opera, in Migne, Tom. CXXXIX., col. 287—CXL., col. 292. His History was edited by Immanuel Bekker in Scriptores Byzantinae. Bonn, 1835. II. See Allatius in Migne, CXXXIX., col. 287–302. Ceillier, XIV. 1176, 1177. Karl Ullmann: Die Dogmatik der griechischen Kirche im 12. Jahrhundert, reprinted from the "Studien und Kritiken," 1833. Nicetas Acominatos, also called Choniates, to denote his birth at Chonae the old Colossae in Phrygia, was one of the great scholars and authors of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. He was educated at Constantinople, studied law and early rose to prominence at the imperial court. He married a descendant of Belisarius; and at the time when Constantinople was taken by the crusaders (1204) he was governor of Philippopolis. He fled to Nicaea, and there died about 1216. It was during this last period of his life that he composed his Treasury of Orthodoxy,979 for the consolation and instruction of his suffering fellow-religionists. This work was in twenty-seven books, but only five have been published complete, and that only in the Latin translation of Peter Morel, made from the original MS. brought to Paris from Mt. Athos.980 Cardinal Mai has, however, given fragments of Books vi. viii. ix. x. xii. xv. xvii. xx. xxiii. xxiv. xxv., and these Migne has reprinted with a Latin translation. The work is, like the Panoply of Euthymius, a learned text-book of theology and a refutation of heresy, but it has more original matter in it, and being written by a layman and a statesman is more popular.

• From When Breath Becomes Air (2016)

  I remember his wry, gentle smile, a hint of mischief there, even though his face was gaunt and haggard. He’d been through the wringer with this cancer but a new biological therapy had produced a good response, allowing him to look ahead a bit. He said during medical school he’d assumed that he would become a psychiatrist, only to fall in love with neurosurgery. It was much more than a falling in love with the intricacies of the brain, much more than the satisfaction of training his hands to accomplish amazing feats—it was a love and empathy for those who suffered, for what they endured and what he might bring to bear. I don’t think he told me this as much as I had heard about this quality of his from students of mine who were his acolytes: his fierce belief in the moral dimension of his job. And then we talked about his dying. After that meeting, we kept in touch by email, but never saw each other again. It was not just that I disappeared into my own world of deadlines and responsibilities but also my strong sense that the burden was on me to be respectful of his time. It was up to Paul if he wanted to see me. I felt that the last thing he needed was the obligation to service a new friendship. I thought about him a lot, though, and about his wife. I wanted to ask him if he was writing. Was he finding the time? For years, as a busy physician, I’d struggled to find the time to write. I wanted to tell him that a famous writer, commiserating about this eternal problem, once said to me, “If I were a neurosurgeon and I announced that I had to leave my guests to go in for an emergency craniotomy, no one would say a word. But if I said I needed to leave the guests in the living room to go upstairs to write…” I wondered if Paul would have found this funny. After all, he could actually say he was going to do a craniotomy! It was plausible! And then he could go write instead. While Paul was writing this book, he published a short, remarkable essay in Stanford Medicine, in an issue that was devoted to the idea of time. I had an essay in the same issue, my piece juxtaposed to his, though I learned of his contribution only when the magazine was in my hands. In reading his words, I had a second, deeper glimpse of something of which there had been a hint in the New York Times essay: Paul’s writing was simply stunning. He could have been writing about anything, and it would have been just as powerful. But he wasn’t writing about anything—he was writing about time and what it meant to him now, in the context of his illness. Which made it all so incredibly poignant.

• From White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America (2016)

  new New Deal, Johnson connected his reform to the work of Eleanor Roosevelt, invoking her sentimental appeal to hillbillies. Lady Bird Johnson went to the Kentucky hills, where she distributed lunches and dedicated a new school gym; her husband sat himself down and talked with families. 80 As they followed him on his five-state tour, cameramen captured images of the president on the porches of run-down shacks, affectionately listening to the mountain people—it was nothing if not a James Agee/Walker Evans flashback to the thirties. The problems facing Appalachia were acute: a high rate of joblessness compared to the rest of the country (in some places three or four times the national average); deteriorating housing; an uneducated workforce; and a ravaged environment wrought by strip mining. Mountain farm families had been stripped of the legal right to their property when coal-mining companies, aided by state courts, were given the prerogative to ruin fields, destroy forests, build roads wherever they chose, and pollute the water supply. In the end, the Johnson administration secured passage of the Appalachian Regional Development Act, providing infrastructure, schools, and hospitals. The president subsequently stated that seeing the poverty there firsthand had convinced him of the necessity of the Medicare amendment. And so fighting rural poverty remained a central plank in Johnson’s overall “War on Poverty.” But even these bold policies proved inadequate to manage the massive devastation that the blighted regional economy had already experienced. 81 Lyndon Johnson was aware of every detail as he went about fashioning his public image. The hat he wore was not a ten-gallon cowboy, but a modified five- gallon version with a narrower brim. This was LBJ: a modified, modernized southerner. When he sought aid for Appalachia, he imagined himself as a kindly benefactor, making the “cold indifferent” government newly responsive to the “little fella.” He offered homespun logic in defense of basic human decency: “No American family should settle for anything less than three warm meals a day, a warm house, a good education for their children . . . and sometimes simply to plain enjoy life.” This was the Johnsonian translation of FDR’s 1944 exhortation on behalf of a second Bill of Rights that included “the right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation,” “the right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation,” “the right of every family to a decent home,” and “the right to a good education.” 82 In private, though, Johnson was not always kind to poor rural whites. He had this to say about white trash on driving through Tennessee and seeing a group of

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Basil was poor, and almost always sickly; he had only a single worn-out garment, and ate almost nothing but bread, salt, and herbs. The care of the poor and sick he took largely upon himself. He founded in the vicinity of Caesarea that magnificent hospital, Basilias, which we have already mentioned, chiefly for lepers, who were often entirely abandoned in those regions, and left to the saddest fate; he himself took in the sufferers, treated them as brethren, and, in spite of their revolting condition, was not afraid to kiss them.1952 Basil is distinguished as a pulpit orator and as a theologian, and still more as a shepherd of souls and a church ruler; and in the history of monasticism he holds a conspicuous place.1953 In classical culture he yields to none of his contemporaries, and is justly placed with the two Gregories among the very first writers among the Greek fathers. His style is pure, elegant, and vigorous. Photius thought that one who wished to become a panegyrist, need take neither Demosthenes nor Cicero for his model, but Basil only. Of his works, his Five Books against Eunomius, written in 361, in defence of the deity of Christ, and his work on the Holy Ghost, written in 375, at the request of his friend Amphilochius, are important to the history of doctrine.1954 He at first, from fear of Sabellianism, recoiled from the strong doctrine of the homoousia; but the persecution of the Arians drove him to a decided confession. Of importance in the East is the Liturgy ascribed to him, which, with that of St. Chrysostom, is still in use, but has undoubtedly reached its present form by degrees. We have also from St. Basil nine Homilies on the history of the Creation, which are full of allegorical fancies, but enjoyed the highest esteem in the ancient church, and were extensively used by Ambrose and somewhat by Augustine, in similar works;1955 Homilies on the Psalms; Homilies on various subjects; several ascetic and moral treatises;1956 and three hundred and sixty-five Epistles,1957 which furnish much information concerning his life and times. § 165. Gregory of Nyssa.

• From The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (2001)

  A group visit to an exhibition organised by Germano Celant in a Genoa museum. Claude, Germano and the others are walking ahead, I spend a little longer in each gallery, accompanied by William who has contributed to the exhibition. Quick, furtive gestures, he lands his hand across my snatch, I grind the bulge in his trousers, always amazed to find it so hard, like something inert, not like part of a living body. He has a very distinctive laugh, which sounds as if his mouth is already engaged in a long, deep kiss. He’s having fun teaching me English: ‘cock, pussy’. Not long after that, he spends a few days in Paris. As he comes out of the Rhumerie, he licks my ear and whispers ‘I want to make love with you’ leaving a little pause between each of the words. In the corner next to a service door at the back of the post office which stands where the rue de Rennes meets the rue du Four, I mutter my own English contribution ‘I want your cock in my pussy.’ Explosive laughter, the same trip all the way to the studio in the rue Bonaparte. William, like Henri and like many others, would return several times. We fuck there as a twosome and with others. The pretext is often a girl picked up by one of the boys and who needs a bit of persuading that it’s even more fun when there are more than two to share in the pleasure. It doesn’t always work and when it doesn’t I am given the job of reassuring her, consoling her. The boys disappear discreetly to have a cigarette on the landing. I don’t actually speak, I cajole, give her a gentle hug; girls are more easily conned by another girl. Of course, they could just leave, but not one of them ever did, not even the one who remained friends with Claude and admitted, twenty years later, it was because she was still a virgin that she had refused to comply that evening and burst into tears. Henri remembers another girl: I locked myself into the kitchen – which also served as a bathroom – with her to clean her face because her tears had smudged her mascara. He maintains that from the communal toilets on the landing he could hear us moaning through the skylights. She probably wanted to thumb her nose at the boys and I, perversely, went along with her.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Her obsequies, which lasted a week, were attended by the bishops of Jerusalem and other cities of Palestine, besides clergy, monks, nuns, and laymen innumerable. Jerome apostrophizes her: "Farewell, Paula, and help with prayer the old age of thy adorer!" § 43. Benedict of Nursia. Gregorius M.: Dialogorum, l. iv. (composed about 594; lib. ii. contains the biography of St. Benedict according to the communications of four abbots and disciples of the saint, Constantine, Honoratus, Valentinian, and Simplicius, but full of surprising miracles). Mabillon and other writers of the Benedictine congregation of St. Maurus: Acta Sanctorum ordinis S. Benedicti in saeculorum classes distributa, fol. Par. 1668–1701, 9 vols. (to the year 1100), and Annales ordinis S. Bened. Par. 1703–’39, 6 vols. fol. (to 1157). Dom (Domnus) Jos. De Mège: Vie de St. Benoit, Par. 1690. The Acta Sanctorum, and Butler, sub Mart. 21. Montalembert: The Monks of the West, vol. ii. book iv. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of the celebrated order which bears his name, gave to the Western monasticism a fixed and permanent form, and thus carried it far above the Eastern with its imperfect attempts at organization, and made it exceedingly profitable to the practical, and, incidentally, also to the literary interests of the Catholic Church. He holds, therefore, the dignity of patriarch of the Western monks. He has furnished a remarkable instance of the incalculable influence which a simple but judicious moral rule of life may exercise on many centuries. Benedict was born of the illustrious house of Anicius, at Nursia (now Norcia) in Umbria, about the year 480, at the time when the political and social state of Europe was distracted and dismembered, and literature, morals, and religion seemed to be doomed to irremediable ruin. He studied in Rome, but so early as his fifteenth year he fled from the corrupt society of his fellow students, and spent three years in seclusion in a dark, narrow, and inaccessible grotto at Subiaco.373 A neighboring monk, Romanus, furnished him from time to time his scanty food, letting it down by a cord, with a little bell, the sound of which announced to him the loaf of bread. He there passed through the usual anchoretic battles with demons, and by prayer and ascetic exercises attained a rare power over nature. At one time, Pope Gregory tells us, the allurements of voluptuousness so strongly tempted his imagination that he was on the point of leaving his retreat in pursuit of a beautiful woman of previous acquaintance; but summoning up his courage, he took off his vestment of skins and rolled himself naked on thorns and briers, near his cave, until the impure fire of sensual passion was forever extinguished. Seven centuries later, St. Francis of Assisi planted on that spiritual battle field two rose trees, which grew and survived the Benedictine thorns and briers. He gradually became known, and was at first taken for a wild beast by the surrounding shepherds, but afterward reverenced as a saint.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Therefore, O men, persist not in your enmity, nor hesitate to retrace your steps. For Christ is the God who is over all ( ,comp. Rom. 9:5), who commanded men to wash away sin [in baptism],1430 regenerating the old man, having called him His image from the beginning, showing by a figure His love to thee. If thou obeyest His holy commandment and becomest an imitator in goodness of Him who is good, thou wilt become like Him, being honored by Him. For God has a need and craving for thee, having made thee divine for His glory." Hippolytus wrote a large number of other works, exegetical, chronological, polemical, and homiletical, all in Greek, which are mostly lost, although considerable fragments remain. He prepared the first continuous and detailed commentaries on several books of the Scriptures, as the Hexaëmeron (used by Ambrose), on Exodus, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the larger prophets (especially Daniel), Zechariah, also on Matthew, Luke, and the Apocalypse. He pursued in exegesis the allegorical method, like Origen, which suited the taste of his age. Among, his polemical works was one Against Thirty-two Heresies, different from the Philosophumena, and described by Photius as a "little book,"1431 and as a synopsis of lectures which Hippolytus heard from Irenaeus. It must have been written in his early youth. It began with the heresy of Dositheus and ended with that of Noëtus.1432 His treatise Against Noëtus which is still preserved, presupposes previous sections, and formed probably the concluding part of that synopsis.1433 If not, it must have been the conclusion of a special work against the Monarchian heretics,1434 but no such work is mentioned. The book On the Universe1435 was directed against Platonism. It made all things consist of the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. Man is formed of all four elements, his soul, of air. But the most important part of this book is a description of Hades, as an abode under ground where the souls of the departed are detained until the day of judgment: the righteous in a place of light and happiness called Abraham’s Bosom; the wicked in a place of darkness and misery; the two regions being separated by a great gulf. The entrance is guarded by an archangel. On the judgment day the bodies of the righteous will rise renewed and glorified, the bodies of the wicked with all the diseases of their earthly life for everlasting punishment. This description agrees substantially with the eschatology of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Tertullian.1436 The anonymous work called The Little Labyrinth,1437 mentioned by Eusebius and Theodoret as directed against the rationalistic heresy of Artemon, is ascribed by some to Hippolytus, by others to Caius. But The Labyrinth mentioned by Photius as a work of Caius is different and identical with the tenth book of the Philosophumena, which begins with the words, "The labyrinth of heresies."1438

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  (2.) The Epistle to Florinus, of which Eusebius has preserved an interesting and important fragment, treated On the Unity of God, and the Origin of Evil.1406 It was written probably after the work against heresies, and as late as 190.1407 Florinus was an older friend and fellow-student of lrenaeus and for some time presbyter in the church of Rome, but was deposed on account of his apostasy to the Gnostic heresy. Irenaeus reminded him very touchingly of their common studies at the feet of the patriarchal Polycarp, when he held some position at the royal court (probably during Hadrian’s sojourn at Smyrna), and tried to bring him back to the faith of his youth, but we do not know with what effect. (3.) On the Ogdoad1408 against the Valentinian system of Aeons, in which the number eight figures prominently with a mystic meaning. Eusebius says that it was written on account of Florinus, and that he found in it "a most delightful remark," as follows: "I adjure thee, whoever thou art, that transcribest this book, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by his gracious appearance, when he shall come to judge the quick and the dead, to compare what thou hast copied, and to correct it by this original manuscript, from which thou hast carefully transcribed. And that thou also copy this adjuration, and insert it in the copy." The carelessness of transcribers in those days is the chief cause of the variations in the text of the Greek Testament which abounded already in the second century. Irenaeus himself mentions a remarkable difference of reading in the mystic number of Antichrist (666 and 616), on which the historic interpretation of the book depends (Rev. 13:18). (4.) A book On Schism, addressed to Blastus who was the head of the Roman Montanists and also a Quartodeciman.1409 It referred probably to the Montanist troubles in a conciliatory spirit. (5.) Eusebius mentions1410 several. other treatises which are entirely lost, as Against the Greeks (or On Knowledge), On Apostolic Preaching, a Book on Various Disputes,1411 and on the Wisdom of Solomon. In the Syriac fragments some other lost works are mentioned. (6.) Irenaeus is probably the author of that touching account of the persecution of 177, which the churches of Lyons and Vienne sent to the churches in Asia Minor and Phrygia, and which Eusebius has in great part preserved. He was an eyewitness of the cruel scene, yet his name is not mentioned, which would well agree with his modesty; the document breathes his mild Christian spirit, reveals his aversion to Gnosticism, his indulgence for Montanism, his expectation of the near approach of Antichrist. It is certainly one of the purest and most precious remains of ante-Nicene literature and fully equal, yea superior to the "Martyrdom of Polycarp," because free from superstitious relic-worship.1412

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Yet towards the close of the second century there was no lack of local persecutions; and Clement of Alexandria wrote of those times: "Many martyrs are daily burned, confined, or beheaded, before our eyes." In the beginning of the third century (202) Septimius Severus, turned perhaps by Montanistic excesses, enacted a rigid law against the further spread both of Christianity and of Judaism. This occasioned violent persecutions in Egypt and in North Africa, and produced some of the fairest flowers of martyrdom. In Alexandria, in consequence of this law, Leonides, father of the renowned Origen, was beheaded. Potamiaena, a virgin of rare beauty of body and spirit, was threatened by beastly passion with treatment worse than death, and, after cruel tortures, slowly burned with her mother in boiling pitch. One of the executioners, Basilides, smitten with sympathy, shielded them somewhat from abuse, and soon after their death embraced Christianity, and was beheaded. He declared that Potamiaena had appeared to him in the night, interceded with Christ for him, and set upon his head the martyr’s crown. In Carthage some catechumens, three young men and two young women, probably of the sect of the Montanists, showed remarkable steadfastness and fidelity in the dungeon and at the place of execution. Perpetua, a young woman of noble birth, resisting, not without a violent struggle, both the entreaties of her aged heathen father and the appeal of her helpless babe upon her breast, sacrificed the deep and tender feelings of a daughter and a mother to the Lord who died for her. Felicitas, a slave, when delivered of a child in the same dungeon, answered the jailor, who reminded her of the still keener pains of martyrdom: "Now I suffer, what I suffer; but then another will suffer for me, because I shall suffer for him." All remaining firm, they were cast to wild beasts at the next public festival, having first interchanged the parting kiss in hope of a speedy reunion in heaven. The same state of things continued through the first years of Caracalla (211–217), though this gloomy misanthrope passed no laws against the Christians. The abandoned youth, El-Gabal, or Heliogabalus (218–222), who polluted the throne by the blackest vices and follies, tolerated all the religions in the hope of at last merging them in his favorite Syrian worship of the sun with its abominable excesses. He himself was a priest of the god of the sun, and thence took his name.39 His far more worthy cousin and successor, Alexander Severus (222–235), was addicted to a higher kind of religious eclecticism and syncretism, a pantheistic hero-worship. He placed the busts of Abraham and Christ in his domestic chapel with those of Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and the better Roman emperors, and had the gospel rule, "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," engraven on the walls of his palace, and on public monuments40. His mother, Julia Mammaea, was a patroness of Origen.

• From The Great Believers (2018)

  Terrence is awake.” Yale tried to peek at this new roommate as he walked in, tried to see if it was anyone he knew—but it was dark on that side of the curtain, and all he could see was the bottom of someone’s chin, stubble and purple lesions on a hollowed jawline. Terrence was eating a chocolate pudding with a plastic spoon—a cannula in his nose for oxygen, an IV taped to his wristbone. He looked even thinner than he had at the fundraiser, but better too. Happier, at least. “Hey,” Terrence said. “You want to eat this for me?” His voice was rough, strained. “I’m tempted,” Yale said, sitting down, “but those artificial flavors are for your health and recovery.” Yale asked if Charlie had been in. Terrence said no, just Fiona. “Why? What’s wrong?” “Nothing. We just got our signals crossed.” He said, “Hey, don’t talk, okay? I’ll talk. This place is nice. Seriously, you got a TV lounge out there? This is Club Med.” “Club Dead.” “No, no talking. I made your veggie chili on Christmas. It turned out okay, but I’m no expert.” Terrence said, “You know the hardest thing about having AIDS?” It had quickly become an old joke, but Yale still laughed. “Yeah,” he said, “telling your parents you’re Haitian.” “No.” Terrence cracked a wide grin. “It’s actually the dying part.” He started laughing, and then he started coughing. But it was okay, it was okay. Yale remembered, so vividly: Terrence carrying Fiona down the hall of the suburban hospital where Nico’s parents had insisted on moving him, carrying her like a baby as she sobbed on his neck. She had stubbornly refused to go into Nico’s room without Terrence, and all the social worker had managed to broker was an hourly changing of the guard: Mr. and Mrs. Marcus, to whom Fiona wasn’t speaking, would spend an hour at his bedside while Terrence and Fiona sat in the ICU waiting area, and then Terrence and Fiona would get half an hour while the Marcuses went down to the cafeteria. Yale and Charlie and Julian and Teddy and Asher and a rotation of Nico’s other friends filled in the gaps. Yale was the one there with Fiona and Terrence—the three of them were stepping off the elevator—when the terrible nurse with the spiky hair came toward them, told Fiona she should go in there now, that this was the time. “Can I bring Terrence?” she said, and the nurse looked put out and said she could maybe get the social worker out of his meeting, and Fiona said, “I’m not going in without him.” Fiona sat down then on the bench, and Yale didn’t know whether to look at her or to look at Terrence, who was shaking, his hands on the windowsill, or if maybe he should just leave—if this was the point at which he didn’t deserve to be here anymore.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  Symphorinus, a young man of good family, having refused to fall down before the image of Cybele, was condemned to be beheaded. On his way to the place of execution his own mother called to him: "My son, be firm and fear not that death, which so surely leads to life. Look to Him who reigns in heaven. To-day is thy earthly life not taken from thee, but transferred by a blessed exchange into the life of heaven." The story of the "thundering legion"37 rests on the fact of a remarkable deliverance of the Roman army in Hungary by a sudden shower, which quenched their burning thirst and frightened their barbarian enemies, A.D. 174. The heathens, however, attributed this not to the prayers of the Christian soldiers, but to their own gods. The emperor himself prayed to Jupiter: "This hand, which has never yet shed human blood, I raise to thee." That this event did not alter his views respecting the Christians, is proved by the persecution in South Gaul, which broke out three years later. Of isolated cases of martyrdom in this reign, we notice that of Justin Martyr, at Rome, in the year 166. His death is traced to the machinations of Crescens, a Cynic philosopher. Marcus Aurelius was succeeded by his cruel and contemptible son, Commodus (180–192), who wallowed in the mire of every sensual debauchery, and displayed at the same time like Nero the most ridiculous vanity as dancer and singer, and in the character of buffoon; but he was accidentally made to favor the Christians by the influence of a concubine,38 Marcia, and accordingly did not disturb them. Yet under his reign a Roman senator, Apollonius, was put to death for his faith. § 21. Condition of the Church from Septimius Severus to Philip the Arabian. A.D. 193–249. Clemens Alex.: Strom. II. 414. Tertull.: Ad Scapulam, c. 4, 5; Apol. (A.D. 198), c. 7, 12, 30, 37, 49. Respecting the Alexandrian martyrs comp. Euseb.: VI. 1 and 5. The Acts of the Carthaginian martyrs, which contain their ipsissima verba from their diaries in the prisons, but bear a somewhat Montanistic stamp, see in Ruinart, p 90 sqq. Lampridius: Vita Alex. Severi, c. 22, 29, 49. On Philip the Arabian see Euseb.:VI. 34, 36. Hieron.: Chron. ad ann. 246. J. J. Müller: Staat und Kirche unter Alex. Severus. Zürich 1874. F. Görres: Kaiser Alex. Severus und das Christenthum. Leipz., 1877. Jean Réville: La religion à Rome sous les Sévères. Paris, 1886 (vii and 302 pp.); Germ. transl. by Krüger, 1888. With Septimius Severus (193–211), who was of Punic descent and had a Syrian wife, a line of emperors (Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander Severus) came to the throne, who were rather Oriental than Roman in their spirit, and were therefore far less concerned than the Antonines to maintain the old state religion.

• From A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB) (1907)

  . 51 כ day (as opp. to‏ .ב בצ | יָמְמָא (cf. Aram.‏ (in‏ ימם night); X DD’ by day; perb. Ph.‏ 401 יונה dates, before num.), )2157 1.1099: so טא‎ ZDMG 18,721: on D_, y. sub 02)—1. subst. daytime (rare) Je 15° בעוד יומם‎ while it is yet daytime, 337° יומם ולילה‎ ni לָבְלְתִּי‎ daytime and night, v™ בָּרִיתִי 79 ולילה‎ (trd. ni as (**ד‎ Ez30" צרי יוּמֶם‎ foes of daytime, i.e. coming by day (cf. Je 15°; but text appar. defective, v. G Sm); once (late) DDV2 (cf. ₪ 0012 ₪ Jb 5"), Neg’ (varied from Ex13™ Dt 1* --.(יומם‎ Nu 9” the sense required is (during) a day and a night; rd. prob. .יום‎ 2. adv. in the day- time, by day, Nuro™ Jb24"* (but v. OMA), Is 4° Ez12**"; mostly 6. nbs, and then oft. poet.= continually < so mbydy bd} Ex 137 Jos1° 1 K 8° ינש‎ 324+, Dd) ne 12% 28° Is 34” Je 14%, in parallel clauses (esp. in poetry) 2S 21” Is 21° 1031% 22% 42° gt 121°+. 13° by day yields a lame sense: either add ngdy (G Del Gr Ch), or rd. ים ים‎ (ov (יום‎ ae eres Gr. Ed. Spee, 13 Now. i יון‎ (Vof foll.; meaning unknown). hy n.[m.] mire ;—abs. [27 DOD ש‎ 40°; 68. MOND FYI MYID 60: IL. 799 (of foll., mng. unknown ; 721 ace. to Lag 47m: Stud. 7. 53; M. i. 23— Pers, wand, but im- prob.; Sta’*** conject. 731° to be fr. 728 mourn, sowie): Grit mr n.f. dove (NH id.; Aram. id., Kiat)}—abs. 721° Gn 8°+ 20 +.; estr. יונת‎ ¥ 56; sf. ‘NV Ct 2*+ 2.5 pl. D3) Na 28+ 6 %.; cstr. ‘2 Ez 7% (v. infr.);—dove Gn 855197145 (all J); oft. of offerings, 72172 Lv 12° (P ; an individual of the species; || 7); (חרים|) בָּנִי ְהיונִים‎ 1 5" 125147 154 Nu 6% (all P); D3? IN dove's dung 2 K 6” (Kt, yet v. Gei ="); in various similes: Ephr. is 7038 731°3 like a silly dove Ho 7" (allowing itself to be snared); sim. of return of exiles, like eager flight of doves 11", of ships with white outspread sails Is 60°; M393 WAN 557; v. also 721° “BID 68"; sim. of fugitive Moab Je 48"; also הַגּאִיות‎ 52D Ez 7 like the doves of the valleys (but on txt. v. Co, who emends Ni*3i7 ,כיונים‎ but regards phr. as gloss) ; sim. of mourning 0°31? כָּקול‎ Na 2°; with- out הגה כיונים ,קול‎ Is 38 * 59" (from mournful note); fig. of beauty (only Ct): DI TY thine eyes are (those of) doves Ct 1® 4, v. also v"; term of endearment, ‘121 my dove Ct 2™ 5? 6°. Elsewh. only y 56! (title) BYP אֶלֶם‎ nai (dy) prob. name of melody: Jo ‘the dove of distant pd may terebinths’ (rd. אֶלִים‎ for Dds SK DDN supr. p. 48, and Bae’? *"").—On sanctity of dove among Shemites, v. RS Sem: | 2% 275,

• From The Great Believers (2018)

  Some of the kids gave up and let it all go with a wet raspberry noise, fell off their chairs laughing, but Yale, who always did as he was told, managed to keep going. “Now take another breath on top of that one. That third breath is what pneumonia feels like.” There was something comforting in the midst of all this about knowing he’d been warned so early. That sitting there with his healthy, strong little body, he’d felt, for one second of his seven-year-old life, how things would end. Dr. Cheng said, “I want you to just nod or shake your head. If I can’t understand you, we’ll go to Fiona, alright? I want to know if I have your okay to take you off the pentam and the amphoterrible. That means we’d be officially starting hospice. And I want you on morphine.” It was one of the things Yale appreciated about Dr. Cheng, that he just went ahead and called it amphoterrible. Yale used all the strength he could to make it as clear as possible when he nodded yes. —He woke up after God knew how long to see a very tall young man hovering over the bed. He couldn’t quite focus; the face was cloudy. The morphine was a rug, a warm, numbing rug that was on him and in him. “Hey, it’s Kurt,” the man said. “Cecily’s son.” Yale tried to breathe in to say something, but he coughed out far more air than he’d taken in, and each cough was a morphine-dulled boot against his ribs. Debbie was here. It must be night again. Now that he thought about it, he’d known Debbie was here. He’d felt her beside him for a while now. She knew about the spot between his eyes. “Hey, I’m sorry. I don’t need you to talk. My mom wanted me to check how you were, and I—” Yale could see, foggily, Kurt glancing to Debbie for permission. He unzipped the duffel bag he carried. “I brought Roscoe.” A blur of gray. Yale had held Roscoe on his lap every time he went to Cecily’s for dinner, and each time, Roscoe settled in as if he knew exactly who Yale was. “Mom’s back from California on Friday.” Yale had no idea how far away Friday was. Kurt hovered near the bed, but he didn’t put Roscoe on it. He surely hadn’t been prepared for the number of tubes, the number of machines. He might have imagined Yale propped up with pillows, reading a book. “I know he appreciates it, honey,” Debbie said. “Here, let me bring him close for a second.” She took Roscoe, who didn’t object, and she raised Yale’s hand and put it down in the thick fur.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  The following selection of brief epitaphs in the Roman catacombs is taken from De Rossi, and Northcote, who give facsimiles of the original Latin and Greek. Comp. also the photographic plates in Roller, vol. I. Nos. X, XXXI, XXXII, and XXXIII; and vol. II. Nos. LXI, LXII, LXV, and LXVI. 1. To dear Cyriacus, sweetest son. Mayest thou live in the Holy Spirit. 2. Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. To Pastor, a good and innocent son, who lived 4 years, 5 months and 26 days. Vitalis and Marcellina, his parents. 3. In eternal sleep (somno aeternali). Aurelius Gemellus, who lived ... years and 8 months and 18 days. His mother made this for her dearest well-deserving son. In peace. I commend [to thee], Bassilla, the innocence of Gemellus. 4. Lady Bassilla [= Saint Bassilla], we, Crescentius and Micina, commend to thee our daughter Crescen [tina], who lived 10 months and ... days. 5. Matronata Matrona, who lived a year and 52 days. Pray for thy parents. 6. Anatolius made this for his well-deserving son, who lived 7 years, 7 months and 20 days. May thy spirit rest well in God. Pray for thy sister. 7. Regina, mayest thou live in the Lord Jesus (vivas in Domino Jesu). 8. To my good and sweetest husband Castorinus, who lived 61 years, 5 months and 10 days; well-deserving. His wife made this. Live in God! 9. Amerimnus to his dearest, well-deserving wife, Rufina. May God refresh thy spirit. 10. Sweet Faustina, mayest thou live in God. 11. Refresh, O God, the soul of .... 12. Bolosa, may God refresh thee, who lived 31 years; died on the 19th of September. In Christ. 13. Peace to thy soul, Oxycholis. 14. Agape, thou shalt live forever. 15. In Christ. To Paulinus, a neophyte. In peace. Who lived 8 years. 16. Thy spirit in peace, Filmena. 17. In Christ. Aestonia, a virgin; a foreigner, who lived 41 years and 8 days. She departed from the body on the 26th of February. 18. Victorina in peace and in Christ. 19. Dafnen, a widow, who whilst she lived burdened the church in nothing. 20. To Leopardus, a neophyte, who lived 3 years, 11 months. Buried on the 24th of March. In peace. 21. To Felix, their well-deserving son, who lived 23 years and 10 days; who went out of the world a virgin and a neophyte. In peace. His parents made this. Buried on the 2d of August. 22. Lucilianus to Bacius Valerius, who lived 9 years, 8 [months], 22 days. A catechumen.

• From History of the Christian Church: The Complete Set of Eight Volumes (1858)

  They are addressed not to congregations, but to individuals, and hence more personal and confidential in their character. This fact helps us to understand many peculiarities. Timothy, the son of a heathen father and a Jewish mother, and Titus, a converted Greek) were among the dearest of Paul’s pupils.1195 They were, at the same time, his delegates and commissioners on special occasions, and appear under this official character in the Epistles, which, for this reason, bear the name "Pastoral." The Epistles contain Paul’s pastoral theology and his theory of church government. They give directions for founding, training, and governing churches, and for the proper treatment of individual members, old and young, widows and virgins, backsliders and heretics. They are rich in practical wisdom and full of encouragement, as every pastor knows. The Second Epistle to Timothy is more personal in its contents than the other two, and has the additional importance of concluding the autobiography of Paul. It is his last will and testament to all future ministers and soldiers of Christ. The Pauline Authorship. There never was a serious doubt as to the Pauline authorship of these Epistles till the nineteenth century, except among a few Gnostics in the second century. They were always reckoned among the Homologumena, as distinct from the seven Antilegomena, or disputed books of the New Testament. As far as external evidence is concerned, they stand on as firm a foundation as any other Epistle. They are quoted as canonical by Eusebius, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Irenaeus. Reminiscences from them, in some cases with verbal agreement, are found in several of the Apostolic Fathers. They are included in the ancient MSS. and Versions, and in the list of the Muratorian canon. Marcion (about 140), it is true, excluded them from his canon of ten Pauline Epistles, but he excluded also the Gospels (except a mutilated Luke), the Catholic Epistles, and the Apocalypse.1196 But there are certain internal difficulties which have induced a number of modern critics to assign them all, or at least First Timothy, to a post-Pauline or pseudo-Pauline writer, who either changed and adapted Pauline originals to a later state of the church, or fabricated the whole in the interest of Catholic orthodoxy. In either case, the writer is credited with the best intentions and must not be judged according to the modern standard of literary honesty and literary property. Doctrinally, the Pastoral Epistles are made the connecting link between genuine Paulinism and the Johannean Logos—philosophy; ecclesiastically, the link between primitive Presbyterianism and Catholic Episcopacy; in both respects, a necessary element in the formation process of the orthodox Catholic church of the second century.