Following the Swiss victory in the Burgundian Wars, tensions between the cantons increased over the distribution of spoils of war. In 1481 they were on the bring of war between each other, but a mysterious advice from a hermit named Nicholas of Flüe brought peace! How? I explain.
Nicholas of Flüe used to be a brave soldier. He married when he was 30 and his wife gave him 10 children. However at the age of 50 he received a vision of a lily eaten by a horse which he interpreted as a call for giving up on worldly life completely, and he became a hermit!
Little is known about this part of his life other than as hermit he was greatly respected for his wisdom and piety. Called "brother Klaus", he was held in immensely high regard in Swiss cantons and beyond, people from across Europe came to seek advice from him!
So when in 1481 the Swiss cantons were at the brink of war and the Confederacy was about to fall apart, they sought advice from brother Klaus! A priest named Heini Amgrund visited this man of great wisdom and received counsel from him for the leaders of Swiss cantons.
Heini Amgrund returned to the Swiss Diet called Tagsatzung and delivered to them the wise words of counsel from Nicholas of Flüe. They listened to Nicholas' message and followed his advice. The delegates immediately reached a compromise. All the quarrels were put aside!
What was the advice that this myserious brother Klaus gave them? We will never know because it remains a secret to this day! We only have letters of gratitude from the cantons of Bern and Solothurn left. It will always be a mystery.
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It's crazy how Americans bought the myth that during the time of Columbus people thought that the earth was flat, a complete lie popularized by quasi-historian Washington Irving in 1828.
This globe was literally made before Columbus' discovery, and has no America on it.
Washington Irving completely invented a fictional dialogue between Columbus and the Council of Salamanca, where the clergy supposedly objected him on the ground that the earth was flat.
His fraudulent book would become the most popular book on Columbus in English-speaking world.
This lie was then picked on in America and expended as some sort of anti-Catholic anti-medieval founding myth, where Columbus was supposedly representing enlightenment rationalism against irrationality and dogmatism of the Church.
The idea that monarchy and republic are opposed to each other is a modern thing.
The term republic (res publica) was often used to describe medieval kingdoms.
Even by 16th century the Kingdom of France was still called both a republic and a monarchy at the same time!
The Kingdom of France defined itself by the phrase of "chose publique" (res publica) from 1350s to 1580s, also using the word respublique, to describe the relation between the King of France and his subject.
The term was then replaced by State (État).
The absolutist French monarchy which emerged in 17th century preferred the term State over republic, and talked of the "good of the State".
However the term state also comes from earlier medieval concepts like status regis at regni (the state of the king and the kingdom).
16th century Romans developed an interesting tradition of "talking statues", attaching anonymous political commentary on statues.
The Pasquino was the first of such statues.🧵
The Pasquino is an old statue in Rome dating back to Antiquity.
It was one of many random statues in Rome until early 16th century when Cardinal Oliveiro Carafa decorated the statue with Latin epigrams on the occasion of the Feast of Saint Mark.
The Cardinal's actions unintentionally inspired ordinary Roman people to start writing satirical poems and attaching them to the Pasquino.
It is speculated that these were first only consisting of lowbrow humor, but they soon began including controversial political criticism!