quondam @ archinect/79/7912g.htm
Gay Architecture
Silent Disapproval Robot 2005.04.03 12:44
Gay Architecture
Rita Novel 2005.04.03 13:08
sources re a law of silence
2003.07.26 14:28
Today seems a perfect time for me to publicly discuss my research regarding the "law of silence" I believe shrouded Helena's discovery of the True Cross, but the reality is that 17 January 2002, coincidentally the anniversary of the death of Theodosius, was the perfect time for me to publicly discuss this law of silence. Here's what I wrote at design-l just over one and a half years ago:
The following was first sent to the late antiquity list last night:
The first paragraph below was sent as part of another email post on a list primarily made up of architects. Following this paragraph are further comments addressed to lt-antiq listers.
For those interested in what may well be the turning point in Western civilization when the Church began wielding more power than the ruling Imperials, see wqc/03/0291.htm and the two pages that follow [2003.07.26: This link no longer contains this information.]. These pages describe the double theater of power between Ambrose (Bishop of Milan) and the Emperor Theodosius during the later years of the fourth century. Two events are here described, a Christian terrorist attack on a Synagogue, and a brutal massacre of over 7000 innocent people within a stadium/circus at Thessalonica. There is even a 'calendrical coincidence' involving the 18th of August. Theodosius was the last emperor to solely rule over the entire empire, and during his reign Christianity became the empire's official and only religion. It is within Ambrose's obituary of Theodosius that the [his]story of Helena's finding of the True Cross is for the first time spoken of publicly after almost sixty years of imperially enforced silence.
I have become 95% (if not virtually completely) convinced that the "silence" surrounding Helena's finding of the True Cross was manifest by a Constantinian "command". Although I have long held to this hypothesis, there just wasn't enough circumstantial evidence to allow me to make a case. This changed however when I became aware of the TYPE of Constantine III (who is more commonly known as Constans II), a mid-7th century law that forbade further discussion of the possible one or two wills and energies of Christ. Constans II had an empire that was becoming interiorly divided over theology, while the rise of Islam was now a definite threat to the empire from without. The TYPE was essentially issued to strengthen the unity of the empire from within, and thus presenting a stronger front to invading Muslims. Interestingly, Byzantine chronicles never mention the TYPE, and it is only from Lateran records that the TYPE and the gist of its contents is known. Of course, it is impossible to see the TYPE as a precedent to the "silence" ordered by Constantine I, but it does at least validate the notion that 'laws of silence' have existed.
[There are actually a number of uncanny (and even inverted) coincidences between the reign of Constantine I and Constantine III, not the least of which is how Christianity under Constantine I became the oppressor of Paganism, while Christianity under Constantine III became the victim of Islam. There is also much similarity of 'hair-splitting' within the debates of Arianism and those of Monotheletism. These aspects and more will be a prominent part of "Theatrics Times Two", the second chapter of EPICENTRAL.]
If there indeed was a "law of silence" issued by Constantine I regarding Helena and her finding of the True Cross, then it was Ambrose that 'officially' (and perhaps most intentionally) broke this law when he spoke of this subject publicly as he delivered the obituary of Theodosius. What makes this supposition even more interesting is that Ambrose had already been actively breaking down the core of imperial power, as the above mentioned episodes between Ambrose and Theodosius clearly demonstrate. And upon reflection of what Ambrose actually accomplished in terms of greatly strengthening the power of the Church largely at the expense of imperial power, it occurred to me just why Constantine I ordered the silence. Given the fact that Cross was discovered within the same year that Constantine had to kill his own son, and also seems somewhat responsible for the death of his wife, to then allow public acknowledgment of the True Cross and the 'Higher' power it implied would only really mean Constantine's own demise, and hence the demise of the entire imperial power structure (which up to this point Constantine worked very hard to reestablish).
If you believe that there was an enforced silence regarding Helena's discovery of the True Cross, then you should also believe that the silence worked in terms of keeping imperial rule firmly established. That is, until Ambrose and Theodosius.
Any comments or criticisms of the above 'thesis' are invited and welcome.
Stephen Lauf
ps (17 January 2002) I found out about the TYPE quite by accident. Just over a month ago I was at Philadelphia's Free Library's main branch looking up information on Santa Croce in Gerusalemme (which was in one of the volumes published by the Vatican entitled Basilicum something something something.) The book I wanted had to be gotten from a non-public section of the library, and while I was waiting I noticed a book within the new art books display--The Geometry of Love. It turned out that this book is all about the church St. Agnes Outside the Walls, Rome, and I borrowed the book. Although St. Agnes Outside the Walls is one of the original Constantinian Basilicas from the early 4th century, the church was rebuilt under Pope Honorius in the middle of the 7th century. Honorius was pope when Constantine III issued the TYPE, and this historic episode is related briefly in The Geometry of Love.
Just to make public note of it, it was actually during my doing research on St. Agnes (the person) on 1 April 1999 that first led me to St. Helena, a person who up until then I knew absolutely nothing about.
1 April 1999 was Holy Thursday, and a few times that day I though of a departed friend, R. David Schmitt, who died 1 April 1995 (which was Good Friday that year). Dave was an architect, and during our school years together he did an analysis of Santa Costanza, Rome, the mausoleum of Constantine's daughter Constantina which was attached to the original Basilica of St. Agnes (outside the walls). Dave was also a hemophiliac, received HIV tainted blood in 1981(!), and ultimately died of AIDS. I still occasionally see Dave's wife and daughter. This morning while doing further reading on St. Ambrose I found out the following:
"On his last day, which was Good Friday, he remained continuously in prayer from five o'clock in the afternoon. He lay with his outstretched out in the form of the cross; his lips moved but no words were audible. Hour after hour went by. ...
"Ambrose died very early in the morning of Easter Eve, the 4th of April, A.D. 397, being about fifty-eight years old, and having governed the Church of Milan for twenty-three years and four months.
ps 2003.07.26 Until recently, I have remained curious as to how a law of silence was actually issued, yet I never expected to actually see the workings of a "law of silence" first hand. It seems that laws of silence are simply instituted via forbidding any further discussion of a given subject.
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