The Book of Sports
It’s probably not what you think it is.
There’s no mention of soccer.
“The declaration listed archery, dancing, “leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation” as permissible sports, together with “May-games,Whitsun-ales and Morris-dances, and the setting up of May-poles”. Also allowed: “women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church for the decorating of it, according to their old custom.”
King James had no patience for Puritans. He viewed them as really annoying and potentially dangerous. So he passed a law proclaiming that recreation on Sunday was lawful. But (and this was directed against recusant Catholics) you had to attend Anglican services first. You couldn’t just go straight to the festivities. (I guess there were a lot of fun-loving recusant Catholics.)
Sabbatarians have a long history in England. Circa 1200, a FRench abbot came to England with a letter from Jesus Christ himself about sabbath observance. It seems a number of markets were moved from Sunday to weekdays because of his preaching.
A letter from Jesus Christ? Not bad. What language was it written in? Latin, presumably. What other language would Jesus speak? One of my grad school colleagues — a Merovingian historian (yes, Virginia, there are Merovingian scholars) once did some research on a 19th century French forger, who managed to sell (to a croyant presumably) a letter purporting to be a long-lost Petrine epistle, and signed “St.-Pierre.” The manuscript was written, of course, in French. Dizzy with success, he then composed (and sold) a Platonic dialogue, also written in French, and signed (of course) “Platon.”
According to the Merovingian scholar, when the authorities caught up with the scam, they prosecuted not the forger himself, but the purchasers of the letters for criminal simple-mindedness.
Back to Sabbatarians and such like. I never really studied Tudor history, but I remember hearing that in the reign of good Queen Bess, meatless Fridays were done away with, as being too Papist. On the other hand, the English fishing industry needed support, and so meatless Tuesdays were instituted — good for the national economy, and not a whiff of the Scarlet Woman about them.
Are these true stories? I have no idea.
If only someone had banned in perpetuity the vuvuzela (or “vuvuhella,” as my son has named it) when South Africa was a British colony. It’s like hearing the incessant drone of hornets while watching the World Cup on TV. I can’t imagine what it must be like to hear such an irritating sound live in a stadium.
The English–and the rest of the world–play football, but that is not mentioned either.
Cathy,
You and so many others who have little or no interest in sports have no idea that a world without sports is impossible. King James and all other leaders know that there is no way you can lead without promoting sports. Bloomberg is politicking for Lebron James (Cleveland basketaball star) to come to New York while Obama, aware perhaps that his number in Ohio is sagging while NY is secure for him, pleads for James to stay in Cleveland.
And I am scandalized that not one contributor has commented on the the epic basketball championship series now entering the sixth game. Not to mention the World Cup. I am surprised at you Cathy for your lack of reverence for sports. What are you a Puritan or something?
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/political-ftbol-and-football-and-basketball/?ref=opinion&nl=opinion&emc=tya3
Bill, consider me sports-challenged. It’s a disability. But I’ve already been chastised–by my own father!
A true story: When I was interviewing for the faculty at Notre Dame in 1995, Theresa Phelps was on the hiring committee. There was a dinner, and her then-husband came. He held out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Digger Phelps.” And I said something to the effect of, “Hi! And what do you do?” I had no idea he was a very famous head basketball coach for ND.
A few days later, I happened to tell the story to my father, and he said, “Oh no, you’ll never get the job now.”
Both Terry and Digger were very gracious, however!
:-)
Bill
Sports fans are by definition fanatics given to worshiping false gods.
The spirit of King James lives on in youth travel soccer and baseball leagues that schedule games during mass times. (One of the more popular reasons given on that long-running list, “Reasons don’t bring my family to mass anymore”).
I think King James would make you go to church first.
Re fish eating: A Nazarene friend once told me that the Church owned a vast fishing industry and so required everyone to eat fish on Fridays. It seemed so palpably idiotic I laughed out loud.
FWIW, Queen Elizabeth I was a pretty spiky Anglican. She liked smells, bells and rosaries. She referred to the Eucharist as “Mass.”
Maybe it was just the glitter and pomp.
Or maybe, like H.L. Mencken, she viewed a Puritan in the same way Mencken did, as “someone desperately afraid that somewhere, someone might be having a good time.”
Certainly, the Puritans would have disapproved of QEI’s gaudy jewelry, colorful language, and love of dance and comic theater. I’ve always thought Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” was supposed to be a Puritan.
Here, from the ever-unreliable Wikipedia:
“Some Shakespearean scholars hypothesize that the character Malvolio was inspired by Puritan landowner Sir Thomas Posthumous Hoby, who was involved in a famous court case against many of his Yorkshire neighbors in 1600. Hoby sued his neighbors when they came uninvited to his house, drank, played cards, mocked his religion, and threatened to rape his wife. Hoby won damages in the case, which may have influenced the scene in Twelfth Night when Malvolio interrupts Sir Toby’s late-night reveling.”
Surely, though, when Malvolio falls for Olivia, however, and makes an ass of himself by showing up cross-garter’d and with yellow stockings, he’s not behaving much like a Puritan.
If the charges above are true, my sympathies are with Hoby.
It seems that the Puritans were generally okay with colorful and luxurious dress–provided it was not too risque (no exposed breasts or exaggerated codpieces) and didn’t vault one above one’s station (they didn’t like the emerging capitalists dressing better than their social betters).
A very good little book is Francis Bremer’s Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction, part of a good series by the name issued by Oxford University Press. It’s more reliable than Wikepedia–and maybe it will be Ipadable soon. The series as a whole looks really neat.
Cathleen, thanks for that recommendation. I like history and philosophy when it is “very short.”
My grandmother’s ancestors came Over Here in the 1640s. Not religious, in it for the money, and involved in constant wrangles with the local clergy over tithes and authority. Some of it seems kind of funny and petty, but you can see the beginnings of the tensions between church and state we’re still arguing over today.
Posthumous?
I like the notion that Sir Toby and Sir Andrew Aguecheek are Catholic. And come to think of it, the serving-wench’s name is Maria …
Jim, “Posthumous” was sometimes given as a middle name to babies born after the deaths of their fathers.
A little late, but yes the letter was in latin. There were tons of these types of letters from saints/Christ in the middle ages. Some of them survive. They usually fell from heaven onto the altar. Never got much official approval.
So he passed a law proclaiming that recreation on Sunday was lawful.
One finds Reformed denominations articulating exceptions to their Westminster Confession of Faith, along these lines: We do not believe that the intention of Scripture is to exclude recreation necessarily and especially in the context of the fellowship of God’s people.” The same are equally likely to amend 25.6 which calls the pope antichrist.
Just a reminder that historic documents ought not be read in insolation from related documents.