Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Long Before Hollywood Script Writers-- there was Bradwardine

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:23
 
Long Before Hollywood Script Writers with DISEASED IMAGINATIONS to pass from their heads to a storyboard to a Script to your box office or TV-- there was Bradwardine....just saying...

 "Medieval monks had a terrible time concentrating. 
And concentration was their lifelong work! 
They complained about being overloaded with information, and
about how, even once you finally settled on something to read, it was easy to get bored and turn to something else. They were frustrated by their desire to stare out of the window, or to constantly check on the time (in their case, with the Sun as their clock), or to think about food or sex when they were supposed to be thinking about God. They even worried about getting distracted in their dreams.
Say that you wanted to learn the sequence of the zodiac. 
Thomas Bradwardine (a 14th-century university master, theologian and advisor to Edward III of England) suggests that you imagine 
a gleaming white ram with golden horns, 
kicking a bright red bull in the testicles. 
While the bull bleeds profusely,
imagine that there’s a woman in front of it, 
giving birth to twins, 
in a gory labor that seems to split her up to her chest. 
As her twins burst forth, they’re playing with an awful red crab, 
which is pinching them and making them cry. 
And so on."
PocketWorthy