Sunday, October 11, 2009
Holy Alphabet
"Since God or the gods invented the alphabet- everyone believed it to be divine intervention- the letters were holy. Since it was letters that formed words, the words were equally holy...Letters and words were miraculous in origin and therefore were the stuff of magic." I always knew that words were powerful, but I never knew they were Holy. No wonder the clergy had such an influence over even the highest of authorities back then. If they were the only members of society who knew how to read and write, it would stand to reason that they would yield a significant amount of power over anyone who had need of the written word for any number of purposes. I was unaware that people back then not only thought of the words as magical, but that the words themselves, and not what they represented, were what was seen as so powerful. The fact that these powers extended into the medicinal aspects and this is why people would wear pieces of parchment around their necks in order to relieve any number of ailments struck me as really bizarre. Granted, the way of thinking now is quite different than the way of people back when these philosophies were practiced, but this seems, even for the mentality of people back then, strange. It is one thing to worship God, but to worship the writings themselves, seems backwards, and perhaps even sacrilegious. However, to take the value of the words as so Holy that as Diebert states, "In 1022 a group of heretics were burned in Orleans for referring to the clergy's knowledge as human fabrications "written on animal skins" as opposed to what the heretics believed was the "law written on the inner man by the Holy spirit". It seems as if the Church made sure to make known the sanctity of the written word just to maintain their own levels of power and to be the undisputed source of information. If no one else had the ability to refute anything they were saying, they would remain as the highest source of authority on essentially everything. As Diebert makes known, the aristocracy had to rely on the clergy as much as they did on their servants. Even the greats of the day, such as William of Normandy, had to rely on the Church "to organize a wiser and more prudent administration of the crown's holdings." With all of the other duties that seemed to become associated with the clergy, such as monks being chancellors, ministers, and state advisers, it is no wonder that people started to fear that the Church was actually pulling away from the Holy aspects associated with it, and conducting itself more like a business or administration. It seems that by today's standards, or the standards of a few hundred years ago, that people believe a Church should be run as a Church and not a corporation. It seems that this is the safest way to prevent corruption and keep the Church focused on the more spiritual aspects of life, as opposed to the financial, power-driven world.
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The idea of letters of the alphabet being delegated as Holy and powerful sounds strange more than it seems strange. They are the essential components to the units of language. Is it really that bizarre to view the letters that compose something as Holy as the Word of God as having equal or even greater power as the Word itself?
ReplyDeleteAs far as the Church focusing on spirituality rather than bureaucracy goes, standards conform to the preference of a Church existing as a place of sanctity. Bearing in mind the collapse of the Church's power over written documentation and the diminished control they once had over society, I do agree that the Church should persevere as a Holy entity to spread gospel and operate as grounds for spirituality, rather than face eventual corruption by functioning as a corporation.
I find it fascinating that people back then thought that words themselves were holy and that they would incorperate them into things such as the holy salve or the parchment around the neck. I've always been fascinating by the written word and just words in general that I myself have no trouble seeing them as being holy. As Kellie mentioned above, the word of God is seen as being holy to some, so wouldn't those words still hold the same weight coming from a different source in a different context?
ReplyDeleteIn my humble opinion, words are holy. Not necessarily even in a religious sense but, consider this: one can save someone's life with naught but a few kind words. One can crush someones hopes with a few discouraging or hateful ones. Yes, it depepnds on the intetion behind the words, but, just as vessles, they can hold a multitude of emtions. From a molotov cocktail to water for roses, words can hurt or help, words are holy.
ReplyDeleteI found the idea of "holy words" strange too until I thought about them in a different way. I'm not religious but to many people who are the bible is thought of as holy. Not just because of the words written in them, but the book itself is considered holy to some people. The church considered the words to be holy not only because it was thought that gods invented the alphabet but also because the words were written as religious text.
ReplyDeleteThis realization of the church's function has come by trial and error over centuries. Our current (American) view that politics and religion should be seperate is relatively new and not a world-wide view. And although we say that this is what we believe as a nation, our actions sometimes speak otherwise. Many people won't even vote for specific candidates if they do not share similar religious views, no matter how good their other ideas may be. Sometimes religion just gets in the way of people being good to other people (my opinion).
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