Hidden Page One The following pages from
To a Candid World will
be replaced by others in a
week or so.Waldenses
A d v e r t i s e m e n tThe Cathari, also known as the Albigenses, viewed
the Church of Rome as utterly corrupt and disavowed a
number of practices and beliefs it had long considered
essential. Toulouse and its vicinity became the focus of
crusades against the Cathari and other groups and
individuals who questioned papal authority and church
doctrine. Rome’s attempt to persuade the government
of Toulouse to be intolerant of dissenting views
resulted in the murder of church representatives, which
sparked the French massacre of an estimated ten
thousand of the citizens of that city.The Vitebsk translators saw Frankenstein’s visit to England as
hinting at Shelley’s knowledge of the story they were piecing
together, particularly with respect to the story of how The Holy
Shroud was produced. In Oxford’s history, Simon de Montfort,
who coincidentally became earl of Leicester in 1239, looms too
large to adequately survey here. Among much else, Simon defeated
Henry III and ruled England for about fourteen months. Simon’s
father led the crusade mentioned above. Simon’s brother, is the
Comte de Montfort about whom Louis IX told an interesting story
to Joinville, which intersects with the story told on the opposite
pages. Louis IX’s told of the Comte de Montfort’s having been
approached by some of the Albigenses, who asked him to go with
them to “see the body of our Lord” which “had been made flesh
and blood in the hands of a priest”. The reason that de Montfort
declined the invitation is very probably the one Louis IX would
have given himself, yet what de Montfort might have seen, had he
gone but a little distance, might have been quite unexpected.
Another hint at the Vitebsk story within Frankenstein is the
name of Walton. Though not the name that appeared in the Vitebsk
letters, it does resonate in the story the Frankenthaler tells. One of
the groups that preceded the Cathari had sprung up around a man
named Peter Valdes also known as Peter Waldo, whose followers
came to be known as the Waldenses. Banned in 1184 by Pope
Lucius III, Waldenses, through drawing closer to Geneva forms of
worship and organization, received full civil rights three years
before Mary Shelley’s death.134
False Sensations
A d v e r t i s e m e n tThe “false sensations” to which Cicero refers are not identifiable,
of course, as false by those who have them, at least, not until they
understand that the sensations in question are produced by
misinterpretation of what the senses have reported. Revisiting the
relevant information is necessary to the discovery of the cause of
the falseness of the sensation, which in John’s case is false humility.
(See Paul’s letter to the Colossians) Similarly, while we recognize
that during the Book Club of the Air meeting Ray Suarez
experiences the sensation of sympathy for Mary Shelley, we know
that some of what he is feeling in this regard is false. William
Godwin, her father, did not mistreat or abandon her mother, and
feelings of sympathy on that score cannot be true, for Shelley could
not have experienced them. When, however, false sensations have
been advertised, the sensations attending correction, as they are
embarrassing, are often less energetically expressed. John’s public
account of what amounts to his attempted corruption of a
messenger of God ends, very much as the similarly unwanted
attentions toward God’s messengers by some men of Sodom did,
with a messenger of God slamming the door. The second of John’s
unwanted attempts to worship the angel reveals no more about
what motivated him or the shock of repeated rejection of his
expression of his deeply felt sensations.
The spiritually incontinent favorite disciple of Jesus was a much
needed antidote to the empire that had worshipped Gaius (better
known as Caligula), hailed him as the savior of the world, and then
killed him. It wouldn’t have been so embarrassing if everyone had
shared in the false humility. When Philo and his fellow delegates of
the Jews of Alexandria fell on their faces before Gaius, it was
clearly not with the intention John confesses in the passage
referenced in the story on the opposite page. Philo and the others
had come to explain that Jews do not have such a thing in their
theology as a god-man and that they would not be worshipping his
image as everywhere gentiles were doing. When Philo published his
account of his delegation’s encounter with the emperor he found to
be “unbalanced”, it went without saying that those who had killed
him had been unbalanced also. The Greek Bible presents a picture
satisfying to several embarrassed points of view. Although it does
not accurately represent Pilate or those who suffered his abuse of
authority, it contains clues, one of which is John’s false humility,
that will tutor whomever in the future would avoid such organized
insanity.
136
The Math
A d v e r t i s e m e n tAs has been noted, since the reappearance of the 1818 version
of Shelley’s Frankenstein, it has been increasingly preferred to the
1831 version. Soon it may be difficult to find the 1831 version,
which has considerable value, because it is Mary Shelley’s response
to the way her readers were overlooking clues within the story and
ignoring the boundaries of the preface. With regard to the Vitebsk
story, of course, her hints are of a different nature. In the later
version, Shelley elaborates on how the setting in which Victor tells
his story is something he expects will make it more likely that
Walton will believe it. This change introduces words that may be
seen as cautionary by the Vitebsk translators, such as “laughter”
and “ridicule”. We hold that greater value comes from seeing the
two versions as one continuous effort to promote independent
thought.The year 1239 has significance that may have had something to
do with what transpired in France at that time. This may be seen by
comparing the Hebrew calendar with the Roman one. The former
reckons any year as being greater than the latter by 3760, with the
exception of that period between the different advents of the new
year. So the year 1239, by the Roman calendar, begins with the
Jewish year 4999 and ends during the Hebrew year 5000. The
number fifty, and here we are dealing with that many centuries, is
found to be a number significant in a number of ancient sources.
Among these are Genesis, the Ethne of the Sebasteion of
Aphrodisias, Philo of Alexandria, Pythagoras, the Dead Sea Scrolls,
and the Greek Bible.
It was more openly admitted in Louis IX’s day than now that,
do to God’s work in a crusade, one only need swing the blade.
Whoever dies or suffers by the violent actions of a crusader, so the
superstitious belief holds, is willed such harm by God, who has the
power to prevent the blade from causing injury. Destruction of
books, such as that of 1239, may be something to which young
Mary Shelley is alluding in the scene in which Victor tears the
female creature to pieces. Not long before writing Frankenstein,
Mary was reading an average of four books a week. If the reader
regrets the destruction of human life and books that both record
and give it meaning, we ask that the reader consider that identifying
the difference between religion and superstition may be essential to
preventing moral tendencies, such as those of the sainted King
Louis, from running amok.
132
Tutissima
A d v e r t i s e m e n tThe word for salvation in the Greek Bible is SOTERIA, which
denotes safety or preservation. As we see in the passages in which
John is safe in heaven, but unable to stop himself from behaving in a
way that the angel finds completely out of order, SOTERIA is not
the best or highest state to which a human may aspire. There is,
however, a Latin word, one that is also translated salvation, which
describes what John needs. TUTISSIMA is the Latin word from
which we get the word tutor. The idea of salvation that is no more
than superstition, in which survival is the most important object,
and the goal of religion, which requires learning through review
how to behave in ways that do not threaten the well-being of
others, meet in the scene that opens the nineteenth chapter of Luke.
There Zacchaeus speaks to Jesus concerning a review he has made
of the course of his life to this time and tells Jesus how he intends
to alter his course. Jesus approves and it is to Zacchaeus’ house
that Jesus says salvation has come. Shelley’s reason for Victor’s
Creature being so large may be useful to review, as we look at the
effect of Zacchaeus’ stature and the effect it has in Luke. The
reason that Zacchaeus climbs a tree is that he is of insufficient
stature to see Jesus through the crowd. But another significance to
the viewing of Jesus from a higher place is more evident when the
two are face to face. It is then said that Zacchaeus stood. In other
words, his approach is unlike that of those who worship a
messenger of God or see God in the flesh. Zacchaeus is talking
tutissima, yet the word soteria also applies. In fact, there is more
soteria, for Zacchaeus is thinking of all others, and so all others are
safer.
Zacchaeus is like those called believers in the book of Acts, who
differ from Christians. There are several groups in the Greek Bible,
which claim allegiance to the cause of Jesus. These rank the
importance of things differently, and, as a result are hostile at times
toward one another. The Roman description of Christianity as a
“superstitious hatred of all mankind” reflects how far that group,
divided against itself, was from moral fulfillment. The variant
spelling, “Chrestus,” may hint at this as well. This situation, in
which Paul calls for reconciliation, develops in the same way that
this sort of thing does in Roman satire of that period. The humor in
Roman religious propaganda may be primarily for the benefit of
those who purvey it, helping them to preserve what the Romans
called comitas.150
Questions? Comments? Your response to this material will shape
future postings. e-mail Tom@hailMaryShelley.com