The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost become official

The fracturing of the Christian religion into various churches and doctrines with different beliefs started in the early centuries of Christianity.

One source of division was a debate between Christians who believed in Trinitarianism and those who believed in Arianism.

Trinitarianism was based in part on Matthew 28:19, a line in the Bible which says:

      “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
        name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

In the fourth century A.D., some Christian leaders used this verse and others in the Bible to develop the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, or Trinitarianism.

This doctrine maintains that, although there is only one God, he has three forms: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus) and God the Holy Ghost, also called the Holy Spirit.

However, another early Christian leader in Alexandria, Egypt, named Arius (c. 250-336 A.D.), disagreed. He and his followers believed that, despite being the Son of God, Jesus was human and not divine like God.

In the year 325 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine I, who had converted to Christianity, convened a meeting of more than 300 Christian bishops in Nicaea, a city in Turkey (now called Iznik). This came to be called the First Council of Nicaea.

On August 25, 325, after two months of discussion, the Council issued The Nicene Creed. This established the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as official Christian doctrine and it was adopted by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and several other Christian faiths.

The Council also condemned Arianism as heresy and ordered Arianist writings to be burned. Arius was banished from the Roman Empire and took refuge in Palestine. Nonetheless, some Christians refused to reject his teachings and Arianism has continued in one form or another to the present day.

In 336, Arius was pardoned by Constantine I and invited to come to Constantinople. Before he got there, he died unexpectedly under suspicious circumstances.

According to a contemporary account “his bowels protruded, followed by a copious hemorrhage, and the descent of the smaller intestines: moreover portions of his spleen and liver were brought off in the effusion of blood.”

Some historians theorize that Arius was poisoned by anti-Arianist Christian zealots.

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“No man is a hero to his valet” – the backstory on a famous proverb and misquote...

Charlotte Aïssé (1693-1733) was quite a celebrity in France in the early 18th Century — part heroine, part sex symbol, part intellectual.

As a child, her father’s palace was raided by the Turks. They took her captive but soon sold her to Count Charles de Ferriol, the French ambassador at Constantinople.

She was raised by Ferriol's sister-in-law in Paris and became a beauty who attracted the attention of several prominent French aristocrats.

After her death, her fame grew. Three French plays were written about her. The letters she wrote to a friend were edited by Voltaire and published in book form in 1787 (Lettres de Mademoiselle Aïssé a Madame Calandrini).

In one of those letters, dated August 13, 1728, Aïssé mentioned a quip she’d heard.

It was a comment by another prominent French lady, Anne-Marie Bigot de Cornuel (1605-1694), who was once the mistress of King Louis XIV.

A simplified English translation of part of what Madame Cornuel said became cited as a famous quotation:

       “No man is a hero to his valet.”

Many books of quotations attribute this quote to Cornuel by way of Aïssé’s letter. However, it seems to be a case of something gained in translation.

In the original French, what Aïssé actually wrote in her letter was:

“Je vous renvoie à ce que disoit madame Cornuel, qu’il n’y avoit point de héros pour les valets de chambre, et point de pères de l’Église parmi ses contemporains.”

A literal English translation of is something like:

“I refer to what Madame Cornuel said, that there were no heroes to valets, nor to the Fathers of the Church among their contemporaries.”

Somewhere along the line, in English translations, the valet part of Aïssé’s comment morphed into “No man is a hero to his valet.”

That may be because it already existed as a proverbial saying.

Indeed, “No man is a hero to his valet” is listed in many sources simply as an old French or English proverb. 

The meaning of the proverb is that a servant (such as a valet) does not usually have the same grand, positive view of their master or employer that other people have.

My guess is that “No man is a hero to his valet” is proverbial, with no clear origin, and that what Madame Cornuel said was a version of the saying — which came to be misquoted in translation to fit the English version of the proverb.

Je suis désolé, Madame Cornuel. I’m sorry. But you don’t get credit for coining it — and may not even deserve credit for saying it.

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Books about proverbs from around the world…

“Our long national nightmare is over.”

In August of 1974, faced with Congressional hearings, a mountain of bad press and the looming threat of impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign.

His official letter of resignation was delivered at 11:35 a.m. Eastern Time on August 9, 1974.

A half-hour later, Nixon’s Vice President Gerald Ford took the Presidential Oath and was sworn in as the 38th president of the United States.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Ford gave a brief acceptance speech that was broadcast live on radio and television.

He acknowledged that he was taking office “under extraordinary circumstances” and urged Americans to “go forward now together.”

He then made a remark that became — and remains — a famous political quotation:       

       “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

Following that, Ford alluded to another famous political quote.

“Our Constitution works.” he said. “Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule.”

The phrase “a government of laws, and not of men” reflects a political idea that dates back as far as the ancient Greeks.

But it was enshrined in quotation history by John Adams in one of his Novanglus letters, published in the Boston Gazette in 1774.

Written anonymously under the pen name “Novanglus,” these letters argued that Great Britain’s treatment of American colonists violated their rights under British law.

In the seventh Novanglus letter, Adams wrote that “the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire...a government of laws, and not of men.”

By the 20th Century, British monarchs had virtually no real power.

In contrast, American presidents have many significant powers under the law. One of them is the power to pardon criminals, both after and apparently before they are convicted.

On September 8, 1974, President Ford announced that he had granted Richard Nixon a “full, free, and absolute” pardon for any crimes he “has committed or may have committed” while president.

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Related reading…

 

August 7, 1988 – Nike’s “Just do it” takes on “Reeboks let U.B.U.”

During the summer of 1988, Reebok and Nike both unveiled new ad slogans to promote their athletic shoes.

The Reebok slogan was “Reeboks let U.B.U.”

It’s still being used by Reebok today.

However, it isn’t quite as well known as the Nike ad slogan that was also launched in the summer of ‘88.

Nike’s became one of the most famous slogans in advertising history.

It was a memorable phrase created by the Wieden & Kennedy ad agency of Portland, Oregon:

       “Just do it.” 

Nike first began using this slogan in an ad campaign launched nationwide on August 7, 1988.

It was initially used in a series of Nike TV commercials that featured sports celebrities like Bo Jackson, Charles Barkley, Andre Agassi and New York marathon winner Priscilla Welch.

Several of the ads were directed by high profile directors, including Spike Lee, Barry Sonnenfeld and Joe Pytka.

Of course, with great fame comes great spoofability.

Over the years, “Just do it!” has been snarkily parodied in countless ways.

For example, you’ve probably seen the black-and-white TV ad in which Tiger Woods, one of more recent Nike sports celebrities, stares dolefully at the camera while we hear a thoughtful voiceover by Tiger’s father.

This ad was apparently designed to show that Tiger is contrite about the sex scandal he was involved in, which blew up his marriage and almost blew up his career.

In the real version of that commercial, Tiger’s father ends it by saying: “Did you learn anything?”

In a parody version posted on YouTube, Tiger’s (fake) dad says: “Clean up your act, stop being a jackass, get out there and just do it — not her!”

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Post them on my quotations Facebook group.

(To see some other funny take-offs on “Just do it,” check out this post on my QuoteCounterquote.com site.)