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Le Bateleur ~ Priest of Hazard
17/12/07
17 December 2007
23:37:00 o'clock GMT
quote:
And from thence the spirits fled to the lower regions where the great Lucifer asked them why so many had fled the light. Thereupon a demon named Azarus arose and explained why they had fled. “But”, he added, “if you have the strength to obey me, I shall overturn them to forswear God and love yourself.” “And what will you do?' Lucifer asked. “I shall set up”, Azarus replied, “in the towns and the encampments and the villages the bishopric of the gambling house, and for bishop a veritable cheat. On the night of the Nativity more people will come to our church than to God’s. Our parishes will be the tavern, the tavern keeper our priests, the wine cellar our chapel, the cellarman our chaplain. Our sacristy will be the house bank, dice made of animal bones our holy relics, the cards our images, the bench our altar, the playing table our holy paten, the goblet of wine our chalice, a gold coin our host, the dice will be the Missal, whose pages are the cards and triumphs.”
end quote from:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones_de_Ludo_Cum_Aliis
In relation to the similarity between images of the bateleur at his table and priest at his altar; we may perhaps recognise the preacher's veritable gaming cheat as mock bishop, whose bishopic is set up as an inversion of that of the Christian.
Alciato (1543) calls the card caupo, an innkeeper (who is to our preacher the mock priest):
“queis caupo propinat Omnibus”
“the tavern keeper toasts (or passes the cup to) all.”*
(Perhaps much later image of the Della Rocco ‘bagatto’ card, a cobbler with a glass of wine in his hand, is somehow related to this?)
As the Bishop (or Priest) of Hazard (after which our preachers demon Azarus is named), I am reminded of C. de Geblin’s description of the bateleur:
A la tête de tous les Etats, il indique que la vie entiere n'est qu'un songe, qu'un escamotage: qu'elle est comme un jeu perpétuel du hasard ou du choc de mille circonstances qui ne dépenditent jamais de nous…
At the head of all the States, he indicates that life is but a dream, a vanishing act: that it is like a perpetual game of chance or the random encounter of a thousand circumstances beyond our control…
Ref: Andrea Alciato, "[Parergon] Juris libri VII posteriores" (Lyon, Sebastian Gryphus, 1543), bk. VIII ch. xvi (pp. 72-73). Ross Caldwell has placed the segment on line here: http://www.geocities.com/anytarot/alciato.html
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23:37:00 o'clock GMT
Le Bateleur ~ Priest of Hazard
| ... to rejoice is thine in arts gymnastic, and in fraud divine. .. |
quote:
And from thence the spirits fled to the lower regions where the great Lucifer asked them why so many had fled the light. Thereupon a demon named Azarus arose and explained why they had fled. “But”, he added, “if you have the strength to obey me, I shall overturn them to forswear God and love yourself.” “And what will you do?' Lucifer asked. “I shall set up”, Azarus replied, “in the towns and the encampments and the villages the bishopric of the gambling house, and for bishop a veritable cheat. On the night of the Nativity more people will come to our church than to God’s. Our parishes will be the tavern, the tavern keeper our priests, the wine cellar our chapel, the cellarman our chaplain. Our sacristy will be the house bank, dice made of animal bones our holy relics, the cards our images, the bench our altar, the playing table our holy paten, the goblet of wine our chalice, a gold coin our host, the dice will be the Missal, whose pages are the cards and triumphs.”
end quote from:
http://www.tarotpedia.com/wiki/Sermones_de_Ludo_Cum_Aliis
In relation to the similarity between images of the bateleur at his table and priest at his altar; we may perhaps recognise the preacher's veritable gaming cheat as mock bishop, whose bishopic is set up as an inversion of that of the Christian.
Alciato (1543) calls the card caupo, an innkeeper (who is to our preacher the mock priest):
“queis caupo propinat Omnibus”
“the tavern keeper toasts (or passes the cup to) all.”*
(Perhaps much later image of the Della Rocco ‘bagatto’ card, a cobbler with a glass of wine in his hand, is somehow related to this?)
As the Bishop (or Priest) of Hazard (after which our preachers demon Azarus is named), I am reminded of C. de Geblin’s description of the bateleur:
A la tête de tous les Etats, il indique que la vie entiere n'est qu'un songe, qu'un escamotage: qu'elle est comme un jeu perpétuel du hasard ou du choc de mille circonstances qui ne dépenditent jamais de nous…
At the head of all the States, he indicates that life is but a dream, a vanishing act: that it is like a perpetual game of chance or the random encounter of a thousand circumstances beyond our control…
Ref: Andrea Alciato, "[Parergon] Juris libri VII posteriores" (Lyon, Sebastian Gryphus, 1543), bk. VIII ch. xvi (pp. 72-73). Ross Caldwell has placed the segment on line here: http://www.geocities.com/anytarot/alciato.html
Written by kwaw93 Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | digg this
