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The Bridge

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The Celestial Sign On Constantine's Shields At The Battle Of The Mulvian Bridge, Charles Odahl

Quidditas

Most scholars now accept the reality and sincerity of Constantine's conversion to Christianity during his military campaign against Maxentius for control of Rome in A.D. 312—provided that "conversion" is understood in terms of the superstitious religious environment of the times. The ancient pagan and Christian sources that described the campaign all agreed that the war was waged in an atmosphere of intense religious fervor, even superstitiosa maleficia as one source described it, and that each commander appealed to divine power for aid against his enemy. Christian accounts of the campaign reported that Constantine turned to the Christian God at this …

Some Observations Of The Deposition Of Archbishop Theodulf Of Orleans In 817, Thomas F. X. Noble

Quidditas

Theodulf of Orleans, called by Ann Freeman "one of the brightest lights of the Carolingian Renaissance," is one of the most fascinating individuals in the history of the eighth and ninth centuries. He was a fine poet, perhaps the best of the Carolingian era, and more than 4,000 of his verses survive. His Paranesis ad iudices and his work on the filioque dispute indicate that he was a skilled controversialist. Finally, his authorship of the Libri Carolini, the massive Carolingian treatise against the positions on icons taken by the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, reflects a theological knowledge …

Who Cast Donne's Tolling Bells?, J. X. Evans

Quidditas

The following paragraph from a funeral sermon written in 1620 by Charles Fitz-Geffrey (1575-1637), an Anglican clergyman, contains imagery so much like John Donne's celebrated figure in Devotion XVII (1624) that it should come to the attention of readers interested in Donne and the literature oof Jacobean England:

Do they who close the eyes and cover the face f the Dead consider that their eyes must be closed, and their faces covered? Or they who shroud the Coarse remember that they themselves shortly must be shrouded? Or they who ring the Knell consider that shortly the Bels must goe the …

The Dynamics Of Pietas In Ben Jonson's Catiline, Wilson F. Engel Iii

Quidditas

Ben Johnson's Catiline, the exemplary Renaissance tragedy, has only recently been studied in detail for its menacing statement about Republican politics, and since no thorough reading of the play appeared until the 1950s, no received critical opinion need stand between the reader and the text. The disadvantage of this state of affairs is clear—any reading is liable to partake of the imbalance of contemporary criticism lamented by Richard Levin in New Readings vs. Old Plays. After Ellen M. T. Duffy demonstrated that Jonson made the most of Renaissance scholarship in his use of the classics, a number of …

A Reexamination Of The Development Of Protestantism During The Early English Reformation, John K. Yost

Quidditas

G.R. Elton's recent investigations of the relation between humanist reform and reformist government during the 1530's leave us with no uncertainty about Cromwell's beliefs regarding Protestantism. Elton concludes from an anonymous letter fo 1538, which he ascribes to the eminent civil and canon lawyer John Oliver, that "as early as 1531 or 1532, therefore, Thomas Cromwell was thinking along reformed lines and lines of evangelical theology...." Moreover, he reports how Cromwell "told the prior of Kingswood: by him 'the Word of God, the gospel of Christ, is not only favoured but also perfected, set forth, maintained, increased and defended'."

Full Issue

Quidditas

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Review: Commission Nationale Pour La Publication De Documents Diplomatiques Suisses, Documents Diplomatiques Suisses 1848-1945, Volume. 7 (1918-1920), Part 1 (November 11, 1918 To June 28, 1919). Bern: Benteli Verlag, 1979. Lxxviii And 964 Pp., Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This is the first in a projected series of sixteen volumes of documents designed to illuminate the diplomatic history of Switzerland from the founding of the modern Swiss state in 1848 to the end of World War II, a scholarly enterprise of major proportions. The apparatus behind the enterprise is an elaborate and intricate one. A National Commission for the Publication of Swiss Diplomatic Documents (DDS), under the presidency of Jacques Freymond from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, comprising historians from every university of the country and representatives of the Swiss .Federal Archives, the Federal Department of …

In Memoriam Corinne Honegger-Baumann, Marianne Burkhard

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

At the age of 85, Corinne Honegger-Baumann died on March 14, 1981, in her home near Rapperswil/Switzerland. Though she had returned permanently from New York to Switzerland about ten years ago, she nevertheless continued to follow the activities of the SAHS, of which she was a life member, with keen interest. For decades, Mrs. Honegger resided with her husband, a successful Swiss businessman, in New York. It was during World War II, which wrought so many horrors upon innocent children, that she decided to become active in humanitarian concerns. In 1942, upon Mrs. Honegger's inspiration, H.C. Honegger established the Pestalozzi …

Letter From Eugenia W. Howard, Eugenia W. Howard

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Forgive me for writing a form letter to you. I feel I am justified in this case because I will deal with a subject which I hope interests all of us. For twenty years I have been researching the history of the small, original colonies of South Carolina. I was a lonesome person for most of that time because I could find very little information and very few people who cared about that tiny but fascinating part of history. Suddenly I am hearing that more and more people are active in this area of research, and I would like to …

Review: Steven M. Benjamin, Occasional Papers Of The Society For German American Studies, Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

The bibliographies listed above provide the researcher with valuable tools as to their respective topics. Diffuse and at times little known material relating to German American language, folklore, biography, and the history of German settlements, groups, and congregations has been listed. Such an undertaking must obviously be selective and cannot fully escape a certain randomness. A topical arrangement of the titles would perhaps be preferable, with an alphabetical index of authors added for quick reference.

The Making Of New Basel, Dickinson County, Kansas: Selected Documents, Harvey E. Bross

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In the early 1850s began the "trek of a people" from the St. Gallen Rhine Valley to other lands but principally to the United States, because they lacked opportunity and believed in "freedom" and the "rights of the individual. " Many settled in Buffalo, New York, others in Wisconsin because of free land, and still others, of course, in other states. Some of our people from the Werdenberg area in Switzerland, went to a Swiss settlement twenty miles north of Marienfeld, Wisconsin, where land was cheap, but the timber had to be cleared before any crops could be planted.

Front Issue

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Swiss American News Notes

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

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Review: Marthi Pritzker-Ehrlich, Michael Schlatter Von St. Gallen (1716-1790), Eine Biographische Untersuchung Zur Schweizerischen Amerika-Auswandering Des 18. Jahrhunderts., Leo Schelbert

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

This work is important for the understanding of one facet of colonial Pennsylvania, the organization of the German Reformed Church. In years of research the author has analyzed widely dispersed German, Latin, Dutch, and English sources that highlight the career of Michael Schlatter, a leading German Reformed minister. She corrects omissions or concealments of authors such as Harbaugh, Good, and Hinke with tact and critical acumen. Accounts of Schlatter's role in general works as, for instance, S. Ahlstrom's survey of American religious history, need therefore revising since they are based on the studies of those authors. But Dr. Pritzker offers …

Stories And Experiences Of The Early Settlers Of Turkey Creek, Harvey E. Bross

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Turkey Creek was so named because of the abundance of wild turkeys. August Packard of east of Enterprise is said to have been out looking for timber to supply a new saw mill at Junction City. He came to Wainscott creek and saw a flock of turkeys and followed them up the creek. When he returned, his oxen had wandered off and had gotten stuck in the mud, at the mouth of the creek. This story was told so many times, that the creek was called Turkey Creek, and the new maps came out with the name on them. However, …

Storm Over The Summit: A Political History Of Summit County To 1882, Rodney L. Peck

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain a more complete understanding of Mormon politics in territorial Utah by studying the growth and development of the political process in Summit County to 1882.

The study suggests that the county was governed by a relatively small but growing group of politically minded men, many of whom also ecclesiastical trust or who were among the pioneers of the area. The study also suggests that the Mormon teaching of unity in all things and fair representation among county offices from the county's major population centers were the governing principles of Mormon political action …

Concepts In American Local History: Community In Winder, Idaho, Lorine S. Goodwin

Theses and Dissertations

Recently the need for a more clearly defined structural basis for American local history has become acute. Concepts used in national history often fall short of the needs of local history. As a result, both professionals and amateurs are producing a rash of community histories without the benefit of adequate guidelines.

This thesis draws together a number of concepts useful in the development of American local history as a viable academic field of study. It tests these concepts in presenting the history of community in Winder, a small, rural population set in southeastern Idaho.

Hans Syz, Of Being And Meaning. New York: Philosophical Library, 1981., Christian D. Nokkentved

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

In May 1916, Hans Syz, then a twenty-one year old medical student, experienced an intense revelation. The event, coming after years of struggle, granted him important insights. He tried to crystallize them in writing. The notes, all of the same month, were not made for publication, yet a German edition was eventually published in 1972 "without alteration and commentary" (preface); an English version, here under review, appeared nine years later. This slim book is significant both in historical perspective and in terms of current philosophical debate.

England's King Henry I And The Flemish Succession Crisis Of 1127-1128, Sandy B. Hicks

Quidditas

Historians have long appreciated the political significance of the Flemish Succession Crisis of 1127-28 upon the development of both Flanders and Capetian France. Anglo-Norman specialists, though, have generally overlooked the critical impact this crisis had upon the latter years of the reign of King Henry I and, indeed, upon the future direction of the Anglo-Norman state. This paper will examine why Henry judged the crisis as a threat to the very survival of his own realm, how he responded to it, and why is was of such importance to England and Normandy.

Vision And Experience In Machaut's Fonteinne Amoureuse, R. Barton Palmer

Quidditas

Guillaume de Machaut's narrative verse, much honored and imitated by his peers, has met with a generally indifferent reception from modern critics. There are, it seems to me, two reasons for this. First, Machaut's heavy indebtedness to Guillaume de Lorris has made inevitable a comparison between the two which leaves the imitator, though exploring the form for a different purpose, at a disadvantage. Unlike his model, Machaut does not infuse allegorical narrative with either a sharp reading of psychology or his own quite genuine joy in experience. Allegory is for him a two-dimensional device to serve a didactic end: the …

Review: Walter S.G. Kohn, Governments And Politics Of The German-Speaking Countries, Heinz K. Meier

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Walter S.G. Kohn, a professor of Political science at Illinois State University in Normal, wrote this book out of an interest in the diverse culture of Europe's German-speaking countries and in response to a perceived need to close a gap in the political science literature. He set himself the task of comparing the governments and politics of East and West Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein, "a group of nations that are both geographically and linguistically closely related, and yet have very different forms of government." Kohn begins by giving a sketch of the historical and constitutional growth of these five …

Review: Wilfred Martens, River Of Glass, Murray Communications

Swiss American Historical Society Newsletter

Wilfred Martens' competent writing style makes River of Glass a very "readable'' novel. The language, the images, the structure, and the transitions lead the reader easily from one chapter into the next. An effective cyclical construction provides a comfortable framework as the story begins and ends with the promise of spring. The circle construction is used within chapters also. The Siberian prairie is seen almost cinematically as a frame that begins and ends the first chapter. The reader first is shown the vast Siberian night sky, then is drawn into the bedroom of sleepless, frightened, 14-year-old David, then out again …

Front Cover

The Bridge

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Front Matter

The Bridge

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Deepest Roots - Finest Fruits, Johannes Knudsen

The Bridge

Roots and fruits have an affinity in the natural order of things. It cannot be denied, of course, that the technical skills of our day can create marvels in sterile isolation or hot-house splendor, almost without roots. Nor must it be ignored that quickly growing plants with frail surface contacts to water and nutrients can grow luscious fruits. I would rather eat a strawberry than an acorn. Thus it shall not be contended that finest fruits require deepest roots. But let not the logic of cause and effect stifle a theme. Roots and fruits are valuable and related factors of …

Danish Settlement In Fresno County, California: An Example Of Acculturation To A Foreign Environment. 1880-1920, Marianne T. Stecher

The Bridge

Danish settlers were first attracted to Fresno County, California, in the late 1870's. By 1920, at the close of the era of Danish immigration, 1,839 Danes, 1 % of the entire Danish population of the United States, lived in Fresno County. The idea of Mediterranean crops thriving on twenty acres of fertile soil was tempting to aspiring farmers. The possibility of confining farm work to such a small land area seemed more preferable than one-hundred and sixty acres of spreading wheat fields in the midwestern prairie. A prospering fruit farm or a vineyard in sunny California was a dream of …

Four Poems On Death By Nis Petersen, Otto M. Sorensen

The Bridge

Very litte of Nis Petersen's poetry has been translated into English, and yet he is regarded as one of Denmark's finest poets in this century. In the following I offer readers of The Bridge translations and interpretations of four poems that deal with death, a subject that concerned Petersen over a considerable period of time. The reader should be cautioned, however, not to deem the poems typical of the poet. Death is one of many themes that run through his work. I have reproduced the originals here from the poet's Samlede Digte. ed. Hans Brix, Gyldendal, 1951 .

Reminiscences From A Long Life, Ane Helena Paulsen

The Bridge

My maiden name was Ane Helene Nielsen and I was born in Yestergaard, Lendum Sogn close to Frederickshavn on January 22, 1866. My father's name was Ole Christian Nielsen, Kirkerod, Skaerum Sogn. He died early of tuberculosis. I can scarcely remember him. My mother's name was Mariane Jensen. She was the daughter of Jens Nielsen, Sondergaard, Lendum Sogn, and his wife Johanne Marie Larsdatter of Vang, S4,ndergaard, Tirslev Sogn.

The Danish Colonization Society Of 1879, Frederick Hale

The Bridge

The Danish Colonization Society of 1879 (Den danske Kolonisations-Forening af 1879) is one of several organizations which historians have generally ignored. An analysis of it, however, could illuminate further a number of matters pertinent to the general theme of Scandinavian emigration. Essentially, it was an association that intended to assist economically deprived Danes in securing a collective home overseas as well as passage to it at the least possible expense. The Society was short-lived, apparently disbanding a little more than a year after coming into being. Moreover, the only direct evidence of its activity is its truncated biweekly newspaper, Udvandrings-Tidende …