Post by Daniel on Oct 22, 2009 5:03:47 GMT -5
The Death of Queen Elizabeth 1
On March 24th, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died. She had been a popular Queen, famous for her defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and had no living heir to the throne.
However, talks had been ongoing between herself and James VI of Scotland,and upon her death, James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England and Ireland.
Under James, the Golden Age of Elizabethan literature and drama continued.
James I
One of the first things James did was to declare himself King of Great Britain, though this title was rejected by the House of Commons(the government).
The Gunpowder Plot occured during his reign: on November 5th 1605, on the eve of the opening of the second session of Jame’s first Parliament, a soldier named Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of of the parliament building with 36 barrels of gunpowder. This became known as the Catholic Gunpowder Plot.
James reign also saw the early colonisation of America with Jamestown established in Virginia in 1607 and Plymouth established in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620.
James died in 1625, and was widely mourned by his people.
Charles I
Charles I was the second son of King James I and succeeded to the English and Irish Throne after his father’s death.
Like his father, he believed in the Divine Right of Kings
He married a Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria of France, much to the dislike of parliament and public opinion.
After many ongoing disputes between Charles and Parliament, the First English Civil War was declared: the Royalists (or Cavaliers) vs. Parliament supporters(Roundheads).
Charles was captured and put on trial in 1649, whereupon he was found guilty and publicly executed.
Oliver Cromwell took over as ‘ruler’.
CROMWELL AND PURITANISM
Cromwell became well-known in the Civil War as a pragmatic and effective leader. He went from leading a cavalry troop to commanding the entire army.
Having participated in the execution of Charles I, Cromwell rose to power after Parliament gave him command of the army to conquer Ireland(1649-50) and Scotland (1650-51), who were still either Royalists or Independents.
Having conquered these countries, Cromwell dismissed Parliament before becoming ‘Lord Protector’ of England,Scotland and Ireland.
He was a staunch Puritan and persecuted Roman Catholics, especially in Ireland.
He died in 1658, and was succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell.
Puritanism
After the English Reformation (when the Church of England broke away from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church), many Christians in England felt that they had still not moved far enough away from Catholicism. These Christians were called Puritans.
They believed that worship should take a more ‘Pure’ or ‘Divine’ form and that Catholicism had become too reliant on iconography and ritual than actual worship.
They also believed in pre-destination, a controversial topic that became banned in Churches in England during the reign of Charles I
The Colonies established in American in the 17th Century were predominantly Puritan.
We will return to Puritanism in the Spring Semester.
John Milton
Milton was born in 1608 to a Puritan family, though his father wasn’t an extreme Puritan; that is to say he didn’t object to the Arts.
He attended Cambridge at the age of 15, and graduted with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1629 and a Master of Arts degree in 1632
He moved to his father’s home and spent many years writing poetry and educating himself. Because of his many years of private study, Milton is often considered one of the most educated poets in all of English Literature.
1638 Milton embarked on a tour of France and Italy that lasted fifteen months. He returned prematurely in 1639 because of rumours of Civil War. He was employed by the Parliament forces to write Political Pamphlets and Essays attack the Monarchy and Defending concepts of liberty.
John Milton and His Family
Milton married Mary Powell in 1642 and had four children: Anne, Mary, John and Deborah.
Mary died in 1652 during complications following Deborah’s birth. Milton’s daughters survived to adulthood.
Milton remarried in 1656 to Katherine Woodcock, though she died two years afterward.
Milton married for the final time in 1663 to Elizabeth Minshull, then aged 24 (Milton was 55)
Milton went blind in 1654.
Read On His Blindness and On His Deceased Wife
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem consisting of 12 sections or ‘Books’. It is a religious poem dealing with Good, Evil and The Fall of Man.
Milton states that his aim is to ‘Justify the ways of God to men’ and explain the conflict between God’s omniscience and Man’s free will.
The story contains two arcs or parts: The story of Satan and the story of Adam and Eve.
Book 1
Read the passage from your book.
The opening books tells of Satan’s fall from Heaven having lost the war against God.
He looks around and sees his fallen comrades, and also the fiery hell that he has been sent to. He gives a rousing speech, including the famous line ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in heav’n’
Book 2
Book begins with a debate amongst the rebel Angels at to what should be done next.
First, Moloch, one of the fiercest fighters in the war on Heaven, speaks up and says that nothing could be worse than the hell they are living in now: they should therefore fight another war against God with the weapons of Hell, because nothing could be worse than what they’re already experiencing.
Belial speaks up and contradicts him, saying God has not yet punished them as much as he might, and suggests they do nothing and expect God’s forgiveness.
Mammon speaks and says he will never bow down to God again, but instead prefers to peacefully advance their freedom, and that one day their hell will rival heaven in its magnificence. His suggestion gathers the greatest support.
Beelzebub speaks up, Satan’s second in command. He says that he has heard rumours of a new race and the creation of Earth as a home for ‘Man’. He proposes that they seek their revenge by corrupting this new race, a race believed preferred to the Angels.
Everyone agrees and they decide on sending a scout to find out more about this new world, and in a heroic speech, Satan volunteers himself.
Satan leaves hell after confronting Sin and Death, the guardians of the gates. He discovers that they are his children: Sin came out of Satan’s head when he was an Angel, and she gave birth to Death.
After leaving the gates of Hell, Satan encounters Chaos and Night. After explaining his plan and promising to bring more disorder to the Universe, Chaos agrees to help and points him to Earth. Behind Satan, Sin and Death build a bridge from Hell to Earth so that evil spirits can travel there.
Book 3
Book 3 shifts the action from Hell to Heaven: God is watching Satan and the events in Hell, and sees from his foresight of past, present and future that Man will fall because of his free will, and yet without that free will Man would not love.
Whilst God considers punishing Man for his actions, he decides to show love and mercy instead. The Son asks how can God give mercy without destroying justice, and God tells him that a suitable sacrifice must be made.
The Son volunteers himself; he will become mortal and sacrifice himself so that both mercy and justice will be served. The Son will die for our sin.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Satan arrives and becomes jealous of the land God has created for Man. He disguises himself as a Cherub and approaches the Archangel Uriel, guardian of the Sun. He tricks Uriel by pretending to be a lower Angel come to see God’s magnificent work, and Uriel is fooled. He points Satan to Eden where Adam lives.
Book 4
Book 4 begins with Satan sat atop Mount Niphates, just north of Paradise, the Garden of Eden. He begins to doubt his purpose: looking at the beauty and innocence of Earth has made him remember his Angelic past, and he wonders if he repented if he could be forgiven. But then he realises that he could not serve again in Heaven, and so he will embrabce Hell and his evil side.
Uriel, watching Satan from afar, realises it is not a Cherub because Satan’s face changes and distorts with emotion: Cherub’s faces are always joyous. He reports to the Archangel Gabriel at the Gates of Eden what he has discovered.
Satan enters the Garden of Eden, and sees the biggest tree, the Tree of Life next to the Tree of Knowledge. He disguises himself as a bird and sits upon the Tree of Life whilst looking over the garden. He sees two creatures walking on two feet amongst the animals: Adam and Eve.
Adam tells Eve she should not complain of the work God’s asks them to do because he has given them much, and only asked they obey one rule. Do not eat from the tree of knowledge.
Satan hears this and thinks of his plan: he will convince them to break God’s one rule.
Meanwhile, the Angels decide to search the Garden of Eden for Satan at night, and they discover him disguised as a frog whispering into Eve’s ear.
Satan pretends to be innocent, but Gabriel knows who he is and knows his intentions, and threatens to drag him back to hell.
Satan is very angry, and they prepare to fight, but suddenly a sign comes from heaven: a pair of golden scales in the sky, and Satan recognises that he cannot win and flies away.
Book 5
Adam awakens from a peaceful sleep, but Eve appears to have been restless during the night. She tells him of a disturbing dream leading her to the Tree of Knowledge where an Angel eats a fruit and the voice tells her that she could be like the Gods if she would eat from the tree.
Meanwhile in Heaven God calls Archangel Raphael to his side. He tells Raphael that he does not want Adam and Eve to claim that Satan took them by surprise if they are lured into disobedience, so instructs him to warn Adam.
Raphael goes to talk to Adam. First he describes the composition of things God created, saying that the highest substance is spirit, which God put into humankind. Below humans are animals, which hav eliving flesh but no spirit, followed by plants and then objects.
He says Man is the highest being on earth because of his God-given to reason and warns Adam to always choose obedience to God.
Adam wonders how any living being created by God could choose to be disobedient, and Raphael explains that Adam was created as perfect but changeable, with the power to maintain his perfection but also the power to lose it. Adam wants to know more and Raphael tells him the story of Satan’s Fall.
Raphael goes on: when heaven was still at peace, all the hierarchies of angels were obedient to God. One day, God announced he had made a son, who was as his next in command. Most of the angels were happy with this, but one was angry: Satan. Proud to be one of the highest archangels, Satan felt that he deserved the same powers as God and became jealous of the Son.
Satan erected his own throne in Heaven, and persuaded 1/3 of the Angels to join him. He told his followers that they hsould not allow themselves to be unjustly ruled. One of these followers, however, disagreed. His name was Abdiel and he returned to God’s side.
Book 6
Raphael continues relating the story of the war of heaven. Though Satan only commands 1/3 of the Angels of Heaven, God decides to fight the rebel Angels with only an equal amount of angels. He appoints Gabriel and Michael as the leaders of his army.
Both armies fight. The battle started with both sides staring each other in line formation with swords and armor. Angels, however, are immortal and recover from both death and serious injuries quickly. The first day of battle ended when Michael cut Satan in half with his unusually big sword. The Rebel Angels retreated and Satan recovered during the night.
He also decided that they would need superior weapons, and during the night they created cannons.
The following day Satan unveils his secret weapons and God’s Angels find themselves at a disadvantage: they are not able to retreat effectively because of their armor.
Michael decides he needs to act: he advises his angels to throw mountains at the rebel angels so as to delay them. This works.
The rebel spend the nights digging themselves from underneath the mountains.
On the second night, God decides that the fighting must end and sends out his Son the next day to end the battle.
The Son enters the battlefield on a great chariot and charges through the ranks of the rebel angels. Endowed with the power of God, the Son surrounds the Rebel Angels and drive them out of the Gates of Heaven.
Satan and the Rebel Angels are driven through a hole in heaven’s ground into Chaos, and the they fell for nine days before reaching Hell.
Raphael warns Adam that he suspects is plotting revenge by corrupting Earth, and he should be careful of Satan’s evil ways.
Book 7
Adam asks Raphael about how the world and Man was created.
Raphael continues his story: after God has sent the Rebel Angels to hell, he decides to create another race, partly to erase the memory of the rebellion and partially to make up for the absence in God’s loyal creations.
God sends the Son down to Chaos to create the Earth. He begins by creating night and day. Land is separated from water, and animals are created to populate both land and sea. The creation takes six days, and Adam and Eve are created last.
God gives Adam one command: he must not eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which gives knowledge of good and evil. The Son, finishing with his work, hangs Earth beneath Heaven by a chain
On the Seventh Day God rests, and this becomes known as The Sabbath.
Book 8
After listening to Raphael, Adam tells him what he knows about his own creation.
He remembers God coming to him and explaining how and why he was created, giving him dominion over the rest of creation and asking only that he not eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
Adam longed for a companion, someone to share his thoughts with, and so God created Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam saw Eve, and instantly fell in love.
Raphael talks to Adam about Love, recommending that he refrain from carnal passion and search for pure love that rejuvenates and expands his mind and body.
Adam is worried about his physical attraction to Eve, and Raphael says that while Eve is more beautful on the outside, she is less pure on the inside and that her spirituality and intellect is less than Adam’s, and she has the weakness of vanity. Raphael warns Adam again of lust and of Satan’s intentions. He leaves Adam and returns to Heaven.
Book 9
Raphael leaves for Heaven. The night after Raphael’s departure Satan arrives again at the Garden of Eden and successfully avoids Gabriel and the Guards, and enters the Garden.
After studying all the animals in Garden, Satan decides to become a snake, but before he does this he experiences another moment of regret and grief: he is jealous of this new world, a world he believes is more beautiful than Heaven itself. He recovers, finds a sleeping serpent and enters its body.
In the morning, after Adam and Eve wake, they decide to prepare for their usual morning labors. Eve suggests they work separately, so that they might get more work done. Adam is apprehensive but eventually agrees. They go off alone to do their morning duties.
Satan finds Eve working in the Garden alone, and speaks to her. She is surprised to find a snake that can speak, and Satan tells her he can speak because he has an eaten a fruit from a tree. He leads Eve to the Tree of Knowledge and she is shocked. She tells Satan that she cannot eat the fruit or God has told her she will die, but Satan says to look at him, he has eaten from it and he is not dead.
He convinces Eve that God is testing them and wants them to be independent. He flatters Eve telling her that once he at eaten he came to her to worship her for her beauty.
Eve relents and eats of the Tree, and then immediately thinks of Adam and wonders whether or not share the gift. She thinks it would be better to not tell him and be his equal or his superior in some ways. And then she decides:
Read the hand-out.
Adam and Eve have lustful, carnal sex, and briefly go to sleep.
When they wake up, they feel shame for the first time.
Book 10
Heaven realises immediately what has happened, and God sends his Son to pass judgement on the couple.
The Son enters the Garden and calls Adam to him and asks if they eaten from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam, ashamed of his nakedness answers yes, and that Eve had given it to him. Eve blames the Serpent.
First, the Son condemns the Serpent, and commands that all Snakes from then on will crawl on their stomachs.
As punishment to Eve, the commands that all woman will experience in childbirth and must submit to their husbands.
As punishment t oAdam, he commands that all men will have to hunt and and labor to provide food in cursed ground. The Son returns to Heaven.
Meanwhile, Sin and Death complete their bridge to Earth.They meet Satan and congratulate him, and promise him that Death will corrupt all living sins and Sin will corrupt the thoughts and deeds of mankind.
Sin and Death arrive on Earth and begin their work. God sees they have arrived and tells his angels that he will allow them to stay until Judgement Day. After that they must return to hell and be forever locked up with Satan.
God now calls on the other Angels to change the universe. They alter the path of the sjun so that humankind will now have to endure both extreme hot and cold seasons, rather than the perfect weather they had experienced before.
Adam is regretful, and argues with Eve. She accepts the blame and asks Adam that they take their own lives, but Adam forbids it.
Adam becomes calm, and says they must stop blaming each other and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Book 10 ends with them both returning to the spot they were punished and confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness.
Book 11
God commands the Archangel Michael to go down to Earth and escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise. They can no longer live in a pure place now that they are impure. But through leading a good and moral life, they may be reunited with God after their death. To make the news easier on them, God allows Michael to show Adam a vision of what is to come in the future of humankind.
From the highest hill in Paradise, Michael allows Adam to see nearly an entire hemisphere of the Earth.
Adam sees visions of the fall and the sins of mankind, and Book 11 ends with God becoming too ashamed of Mankind and sending the Great Flood, sparing only Noah and his family so as to repopulate the Earth.
Book 12
Book 12 continues with Michael showing a vision of the future of Mankind. Humans now act more obediently to God than humans before the Flood, offering sacrifices from their flocks and fields. However, several generations later, a leader arrives with proud and ungodly ambitions. This upstart is Nimrod, a tyrant who forces many men under his rule. He constructs the Tower of Babel in an attempt to reach up to Heaven. As punishment, God decrees that men will now speak different languages and be unable to understand each other.
Michael relates the story of the Israelites and Moses, and the commandments and laws given to Moses.
Adam does not understand how all the laws given to these people can possibly be obeyed.Michael replies that they cannot remain just, even if they obey the law, until a greater sacrifice is made. After many different rulers, there will come a king named David, and from his descendants will eventually come a Messiah, or chosen one. This Messiah, also known as Jesus or the Son, will once again bring together Earth and Heaven. However, he will have to suffer for it: he shall be hated by many while he lives and will be distrusted, betrayed, and punished by death
However, the grave will not hold this Messiah for long, and rising up he will defeat both Sin and Death, and bruise the head of Satan. His resurrection fulfills the prophecy about the Son finally punishing Satan through his sacrifice. Adam worries that the followers of Jesus will be persecuted, and Michael confirms that they will indeed be persecuted. However, the Archangel says, from Heaven the Messiah will send down the Holy Spirit to provide spiritual protection. But after the first followers die, corrupt leaders as well as good ones will enter the church. Thus those who genuinely follow the truth will still be prosecuted, laments Michael: the world will continue to accommodate evil and make it difficult for individuals to do good deeds. Finally, the Messiah will return a second time, to judge all humankind and reunite Heaven and Earth.
Read the hand-out
On March 24th, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died. She had been a popular Queen, famous for her defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and had no living heir to the throne.
However, talks had been ongoing between herself and James VI of Scotland,and upon her death, James VI of Scotland was crowned James I of England and Ireland.
Under James, the Golden Age of Elizabethan literature and drama continued.
James I
One of the first things James did was to declare himself King of Great Britain, though this title was rejected by the House of Commons(the government).
The Gunpowder Plot occured during his reign: on November 5th 1605, on the eve of the opening of the second session of Jame’s first Parliament, a soldier named Guy Fawkes was discovered in the cellars of of the parliament building with 36 barrels of gunpowder. This became known as the Catholic Gunpowder Plot.
James reign also saw the early colonisation of America with Jamestown established in Virginia in 1607 and Plymouth established in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620.
James died in 1625, and was widely mourned by his people.
Charles I
Charles I was the second son of King James I and succeeded to the English and Irish Throne after his father’s death.
Like his father, he believed in the Divine Right of Kings
He married a Catholic princess, Henrietta Maria of France, much to the dislike of parliament and public opinion.
After many ongoing disputes between Charles and Parliament, the First English Civil War was declared: the Royalists (or Cavaliers) vs. Parliament supporters(Roundheads).
Charles was captured and put on trial in 1649, whereupon he was found guilty and publicly executed.
Oliver Cromwell took over as ‘ruler’.
CROMWELL AND PURITANISM
Cromwell became well-known in the Civil War as a pragmatic and effective leader. He went from leading a cavalry troop to commanding the entire army.
Having participated in the execution of Charles I, Cromwell rose to power after Parliament gave him command of the army to conquer Ireland(1649-50) and Scotland (1650-51), who were still either Royalists or Independents.
Having conquered these countries, Cromwell dismissed Parliament before becoming ‘Lord Protector’ of England,Scotland and Ireland.
He was a staunch Puritan and persecuted Roman Catholics, especially in Ireland.
He died in 1658, and was succeeded by his son, Richard Cromwell.
Puritanism
After the English Reformation (when the Church of England broke away from the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church), many Christians in England felt that they had still not moved far enough away from Catholicism. These Christians were called Puritans.
They believed that worship should take a more ‘Pure’ or ‘Divine’ form and that Catholicism had become too reliant on iconography and ritual than actual worship.
They also believed in pre-destination, a controversial topic that became banned in Churches in England during the reign of Charles I
The Colonies established in American in the 17th Century were predominantly Puritan.
We will return to Puritanism in the Spring Semester.
John Milton
Milton was born in 1608 to a Puritan family, though his father wasn’t an extreme Puritan; that is to say he didn’t object to the Arts.
He attended Cambridge at the age of 15, and graduted with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1629 and a Master of Arts degree in 1632
He moved to his father’s home and spent many years writing poetry and educating himself. Because of his many years of private study, Milton is often considered one of the most educated poets in all of English Literature.
1638 Milton embarked on a tour of France and Italy that lasted fifteen months. He returned prematurely in 1639 because of rumours of Civil War. He was employed by the Parliament forces to write Political Pamphlets and Essays attack the Monarchy and Defending concepts of liberty.
John Milton and His Family
Milton married Mary Powell in 1642 and had four children: Anne, Mary, John and Deborah.
Mary died in 1652 during complications following Deborah’s birth. Milton’s daughters survived to adulthood.
Milton remarried in 1656 to Katherine Woodcock, though she died two years afterward.
Milton married for the final time in 1663 to Elizabeth Minshull, then aged 24 (Milton was 55)
Milton went blind in 1654.
Read On His Blindness and On His Deceased Wife
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem consisting of 12 sections or ‘Books’. It is a religious poem dealing with Good, Evil and The Fall of Man.
Milton states that his aim is to ‘Justify the ways of God to men’ and explain the conflict between God’s omniscience and Man’s free will.
The story contains two arcs or parts: The story of Satan and the story of Adam and Eve.
Book 1
Read the passage from your book.
The opening books tells of Satan’s fall from Heaven having lost the war against God.
He looks around and sees his fallen comrades, and also the fiery hell that he has been sent to. He gives a rousing speech, including the famous line ‘Better to reign in Hell than serve in heav’n’
Book 2
Book begins with a debate amongst the rebel Angels at to what should be done next.
First, Moloch, one of the fiercest fighters in the war on Heaven, speaks up and says that nothing could be worse than the hell they are living in now: they should therefore fight another war against God with the weapons of Hell, because nothing could be worse than what they’re already experiencing.
Belial speaks up and contradicts him, saying God has not yet punished them as much as he might, and suggests they do nothing and expect God’s forgiveness.
Mammon speaks and says he will never bow down to God again, but instead prefers to peacefully advance their freedom, and that one day their hell will rival heaven in its magnificence. His suggestion gathers the greatest support.
Beelzebub speaks up, Satan’s second in command. He says that he has heard rumours of a new race and the creation of Earth as a home for ‘Man’. He proposes that they seek their revenge by corrupting this new race, a race believed preferred to the Angels.
Everyone agrees and they decide on sending a scout to find out more about this new world, and in a heroic speech, Satan volunteers himself.
Satan leaves hell after confronting Sin and Death, the guardians of the gates. He discovers that they are his children: Sin came out of Satan’s head when he was an Angel, and she gave birth to Death.
After leaving the gates of Hell, Satan encounters Chaos and Night. After explaining his plan and promising to bring more disorder to the Universe, Chaos agrees to help and points him to Earth. Behind Satan, Sin and Death build a bridge from Hell to Earth so that evil spirits can travel there.
Book 3
Book 3 shifts the action from Hell to Heaven: God is watching Satan and the events in Hell, and sees from his foresight of past, present and future that Man will fall because of his free will, and yet without that free will Man would not love.
Whilst God considers punishing Man for his actions, he decides to show love and mercy instead. The Son asks how can God give mercy without destroying justice, and God tells him that a suitable sacrifice must be made.
The Son volunteers himself; he will become mortal and sacrifice himself so that both mercy and justice will be served. The Son will die for our sin.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Satan arrives and becomes jealous of the land God has created for Man. He disguises himself as a Cherub and approaches the Archangel Uriel, guardian of the Sun. He tricks Uriel by pretending to be a lower Angel come to see God’s magnificent work, and Uriel is fooled. He points Satan to Eden where Adam lives.
Book 4
Book 4 begins with Satan sat atop Mount Niphates, just north of Paradise, the Garden of Eden. He begins to doubt his purpose: looking at the beauty and innocence of Earth has made him remember his Angelic past, and he wonders if he repented if he could be forgiven. But then he realises that he could not serve again in Heaven, and so he will embrabce Hell and his evil side.
Uriel, watching Satan from afar, realises it is not a Cherub because Satan’s face changes and distorts with emotion: Cherub’s faces are always joyous. He reports to the Archangel Gabriel at the Gates of Eden what he has discovered.
Satan enters the Garden of Eden, and sees the biggest tree, the Tree of Life next to the Tree of Knowledge. He disguises himself as a bird and sits upon the Tree of Life whilst looking over the garden. He sees two creatures walking on two feet amongst the animals: Adam and Eve.
Adam tells Eve she should not complain of the work God’s asks them to do because he has given them much, and only asked they obey one rule. Do not eat from the tree of knowledge.
Satan hears this and thinks of his plan: he will convince them to break God’s one rule.
Meanwhile, the Angels decide to search the Garden of Eden for Satan at night, and they discover him disguised as a frog whispering into Eve’s ear.
Satan pretends to be innocent, but Gabriel knows who he is and knows his intentions, and threatens to drag him back to hell.
Satan is very angry, and they prepare to fight, but suddenly a sign comes from heaven: a pair of golden scales in the sky, and Satan recognises that he cannot win and flies away.
Book 5
Adam awakens from a peaceful sleep, but Eve appears to have been restless during the night. She tells him of a disturbing dream leading her to the Tree of Knowledge where an Angel eats a fruit and the voice tells her that she could be like the Gods if she would eat from the tree.
Meanwhile in Heaven God calls Archangel Raphael to his side. He tells Raphael that he does not want Adam and Eve to claim that Satan took them by surprise if they are lured into disobedience, so instructs him to warn Adam.
Raphael goes to talk to Adam. First he describes the composition of things God created, saying that the highest substance is spirit, which God put into humankind. Below humans are animals, which hav eliving flesh but no spirit, followed by plants and then objects.
He says Man is the highest being on earth because of his God-given to reason and warns Adam to always choose obedience to God.
Adam wonders how any living being created by God could choose to be disobedient, and Raphael explains that Adam was created as perfect but changeable, with the power to maintain his perfection but also the power to lose it. Adam wants to know more and Raphael tells him the story of Satan’s Fall.
Raphael goes on: when heaven was still at peace, all the hierarchies of angels were obedient to God. One day, God announced he had made a son, who was as his next in command. Most of the angels were happy with this, but one was angry: Satan. Proud to be one of the highest archangels, Satan felt that he deserved the same powers as God and became jealous of the Son.
Satan erected his own throne in Heaven, and persuaded 1/3 of the Angels to join him. He told his followers that they hsould not allow themselves to be unjustly ruled. One of these followers, however, disagreed. His name was Abdiel and he returned to God’s side.
Book 6
Raphael continues relating the story of the war of heaven. Though Satan only commands 1/3 of the Angels of Heaven, God decides to fight the rebel Angels with only an equal amount of angels. He appoints Gabriel and Michael as the leaders of his army.
Both armies fight. The battle started with both sides staring each other in line formation with swords and armor. Angels, however, are immortal and recover from both death and serious injuries quickly. The first day of battle ended when Michael cut Satan in half with his unusually big sword. The Rebel Angels retreated and Satan recovered during the night.
He also decided that they would need superior weapons, and during the night they created cannons.
The following day Satan unveils his secret weapons and God’s Angels find themselves at a disadvantage: they are not able to retreat effectively because of their armor.
Michael decides he needs to act: he advises his angels to throw mountains at the rebel angels so as to delay them. This works.
The rebel spend the nights digging themselves from underneath the mountains.
On the second night, God decides that the fighting must end and sends out his Son the next day to end the battle.
The Son enters the battlefield on a great chariot and charges through the ranks of the rebel angels. Endowed with the power of God, the Son surrounds the Rebel Angels and drive them out of the Gates of Heaven.
Satan and the Rebel Angels are driven through a hole in heaven’s ground into Chaos, and the they fell for nine days before reaching Hell.
Raphael warns Adam that he suspects is plotting revenge by corrupting Earth, and he should be careful of Satan’s evil ways.
Book 7
Adam asks Raphael about how the world and Man was created.
Raphael continues his story: after God has sent the Rebel Angels to hell, he decides to create another race, partly to erase the memory of the rebellion and partially to make up for the absence in God’s loyal creations.
God sends the Son down to Chaos to create the Earth. He begins by creating night and day. Land is separated from water, and animals are created to populate both land and sea. The creation takes six days, and Adam and Eve are created last.
God gives Adam one command: he must not eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which gives knowledge of good and evil. The Son, finishing with his work, hangs Earth beneath Heaven by a chain
On the Seventh Day God rests, and this becomes known as The Sabbath.
Book 8
After listening to Raphael, Adam tells him what he knows about his own creation.
He remembers God coming to him and explaining how and why he was created, giving him dominion over the rest of creation and asking only that he not eat from the Tree of Knowledge.
Adam longed for a companion, someone to share his thoughts with, and so God created Eve from Adam’s rib. Adam saw Eve, and instantly fell in love.
Raphael talks to Adam about Love, recommending that he refrain from carnal passion and search for pure love that rejuvenates and expands his mind and body.
Adam is worried about his physical attraction to Eve, and Raphael says that while Eve is more beautful on the outside, she is less pure on the inside and that her spirituality and intellect is less than Adam’s, and she has the weakness of vanity. Raphael warns Adam again of lust and of Satan’s intentions. He leaves Adam and returns to Heaven.
Book 9
Raphael leaves for Heaven. The night after Raphael’s departure Satan arrives again at the Garden of Eden and successfully avoids Gabriel and the Guards, and enters the Garden.
After studying all the animals in Garden, Satan decides to become a snake, but before he does this he experiences another moment of regret and grief: he is jealous of this new world, a world he believes is more beautiful than Heaven itself. He recovers, finds a sleeping serpent and enters its body.
In the morning, after Adam and Eve wake, they decide to prepare for their usual morning labors. Eve suggests they work separately, so that they might get more work done. Adam is apprehensive but eventually agrees. They go off alone to do their morning duties.
Satan finds Eve working in the Garden alone, and speaks to her. She is surprised to find a snake that can speak, and Satan tells her he can speak because he has an eaten a fruit from a tree. He leads Eve to the Tree of Knowledge and she is shocked. She tells Satan that she cannot eat the fruit or God has told her she will die, but Satan says to look at him, he has eaten from it and he is not dead.
He convinces Eve that God is testing them and wants them to be independent. He flatters Eve telling her that once he at eaten he came to her to worship her for her beauty.
Eve relents and eats of the Tree, and then immediately thinks of Adam and wonders whether or not share the gift. She thinks it would be better to not tell him and be his equal or his superior in some ways. And then she decides:
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Adam and Eve have lustful, carnal sex, and briefly go to sleep.
When they wake up, they feel shame for the first time.
Book 10
Heaven realises immediately what has happened, and God sends his Son to pass judgement on the couple.
The Son enters the Garden and calls Adam to him and asks if they eaten from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam, ashamed of his nakedness answers yes, and that Eve had given it to him. Eve blames the Serpent.
First, the Son condemns the Serpent, and commands that all Snakes from then on will crawl on their stomachs.
As punishment to Eve, the commands that all woman will experience in childbirth and must submit to their husbands.
As punishment t oAdam, he commands that all men will have to hunt and and labor to provide food in cursed ground. The Son returns to Heaven.
Meanwhile, Sin and Death complete their bridge to Earth.They meet Satan and congratulate him, and promise him that Death will corrupt all living sins and Sin will corrupt the thoughts and deeds of mankind.
Sin and Death arrive on Earth and begin their work. God sees they have arrived and tells his angels that he will allow them to stay until Judgement Day. After that they must return to hell and be forever locked up with Satan.
God now calls on the other Angels to change the universe. They alter the path of the sjun so that humankind will now have to endure both extreme hot and cold seasons, rather than the perfect weather they had experienced before.
Adam is regretful, and argues with Eve. She accepts the blame and asks Adam that they take their own lives, but Adam forbids it.
Adam becomes calm, and says they must stop blaming each other and ask for God’s mercy and forgiveness.
Book 10 ends with them both returning to the spot they were punished and confessing their sins and asking for forgiveness.
Book 11
God commands the Archangel Michael to go down to Earth and escort Adam and Eve out of Paradise. They can no longer live in a pure place now that they are impure. But through leading a good and moral life, they may be reunited with God after their death. To make the news easier on them, God allows Michael to show Adam a vision of what is to come in the future of humankind.
From the highest hill in Paradise, Michael allows Adam to see nearly an entire hemisphere of the Earth.
Adam sees visions of the fall and the sins of mankind, and Book 11 ends with God becoming too ashamed of Mankind and sending the Great Flood, sparing only Noah and his family so as to repopulate the Earth.
Book 12
Book 12 continues with Michael showing a vision of the future of Mankind. Humans now act more obediently to God than humans before the Flood, offering sacrifices from their flocks and fields. However, several generations later, a leader arrives with proud and ungodly ambitions. This upstart is Nimrod, a tyrant who forces many men under his rule. He constructs the Tower of Babel in an attempt to reach up to Heaven. As punishment, God decrees that men will now speak different languages and be unable to understand each other.
Michael relates the story of the Israelites and Moses, and the commandments and laws given to Moses.
Adam does not understand how all the laws given to these people can possibly be obeyed.Michael replies that they cannot remain just, even if they obey the law, until a greater sacrifice is made. After many different rulers, there will come a king named David, and from his descendants will eventually come a Messiah, or chosen one. This Messiah, also known as Jesus or the Son, will once again bring together Earth and Heaven. However, he will have to suffer for it: he shall be hated by many while he lives and will be distrusted, betrayed, and punished by death
However, the grave will not hold this Messiah for long, and rising up he will defeat both Sin and Death, and bruise the head of Satan. His resurrection fulfills the prophecy about the Son finally punishing Satan through his sacrifice. Adam worries that the followers of Jesus will be persecuted, and Michael confirms that they will indeed be persecuted. However, the Archangel says, from Heaven the Messiah will send down the Holy Spirit to provide spiritual protection. But after the first followers die, corrupt leaders as well as good ones will enter the church. Thus those who genuinely follow the truth will still be prosecuted, laments Michael: the world will continue to accommodate evil and make it difficult for individuals to do good deeds. Finally, the Messiah will return a second time, to judge all humankind and reunite Heaven and Earth.
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