Maryann Philip

Reading about the United States Justice Department investigation of Ferguson, Missouri has me thinking about what happened to Leonardo da Vinci when he was a young man.

The Justice Department investigation has decided that, after the botched investigation, the evidence was too contradictory to support a criminal prosecution of the Ferguson, Missouri officer who shot Michael Brown. Instead, they are going after the City of Ferguson, for the way its criminal justice system operated. DOJ is saying, among other things, that the criminal justice system in Ferguson became a money–making device, which violates due process of law.

Leonardo was a victim of a money–making criminal justice system: the Florentine "Office of the Night." The Night Office spearheaded a witch hunt for homosexuals that reached its zenith around the time Leonardo was anonymously accused of homosexuality and publically arrested, then released for lack of evidence. The anonymous accusation against Leonardo, three other men and a seventeen year old with no known connections simply labelled them as homosexuals, without explaining how "anonymous" could have known about the intimate lives of all five. Under modern legal standards Leonardo could not have been arrested, much less jailed indefinitely based on such an accusation. But that is precisely what happened.

During Leonardo's time, over 50% of males in Florence were formally accused of homosexuality to the Night Office– sixty percent of men who lived to forty years of age. It specialized in coerced confessions–but it did not get one from Leonardo. Which is remarkable, once you understand how it worked.

I wrote about this in Da Vinci Detects http://www.amazon.com/Vinci-Detects-Renaissance-Featuring-Machiavelli-ebook/dp/B00PFAP1VS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459294075&sr=8-1&keywords=da+vinci+detects – a murder mystery from Real History Mystery Press that details, as historical background, the abuses of the Night Office, including the story of Leonardo's treatment and how it changed his life and reputation. In Da Vinci Detects you will also meet other Renaissance greats, like Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Raphael and Botticelli, all of whom were together in Florence at the time, as a matter of historic fact. Botticelli, in fact, was also anonymously accused to the Night Office.

Which brings me back to Ferguson, Missouri. I won't comment on the DOJ's allegations, which I have not followed closely. But here is the analogy to fifteenth century Italy: under the Office of the Night, the judges, police, and anonymous citizen accusers were all paid directly out of the heavy fines imposed on convicted homosexuals–a system that was regarded as "liberal" at the time, since homosexuals were routinely executed elsewhere during that era. But paying everyone involved for convictions resulted in huge numbers of accusations and arrests, numbers that dwarfed criminal prosecutions for homosexuality elsewhere. And once arrested, the accused were subjected to a wide variety of pressures, occasionally including torture, to get them to confess.

All this is explained at greater length and –ironically –in an entertaining way in Da Vinci Detects. http://www.amazon.com/Vinci-Detects-Renaissance-Featuring-Machiavelli-ebook/dp/B00PFAP1VS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459294075&sr=8-1&keywords=da+vinci+detects

Do you see the analogy here? When justice becomes about money, weak and despised minorities get victimized. In Renaissance Italy, it was homosexuals and juveniles. In Ferguson, Missouri, it is blacks. In both places, many were arrested on pretense. Some were guilty, but many were innocent. And the facts are so distorted by a biased system that it is impossible to know the guilty from the innocent. In this kind of justice "system," people get labelled for bad reasons. Even though he was not convicted, Leonardo da Vinci has been labelled a homosexual pedophile for five hundred years, based on no evidence whatsoever.

Guilt or innocence becomes secondary when justice is about money.

This entry was posted in Blog on March 29, 2016 by mary bernard.

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND FERGUSON, MISSOURI

Reading about the United States Justice Department investigation of Ferguson, Missouri has me thinking about what happened to Leonardo da Vinci when he was a young man.
The Justice Department investigation has decided that, after the botched investigation, the evidence was too contradictory to support a criminal prosecution of the Ferguson, Missouri officer who shot Michael Brown. Instead, they are going after the City of Ferguson, for the way its criminal justice system operated. DOJ is saying, among other things, that the criminal justice system in Ferguson became a money–making device, which violates due process of law.
Leonardo was a victim of a money–making criminal justice system: the Florentine "Office of the Night." The Night Office spearheaded a witch hunt for homosexuals that reached its zenith around the time Leonardo was anonymously accused of homosexuality and publically arrested, then released for lack of evidence. The anonymous accusation against Leonardo, three other men and a seventeen year old with no known connections simply labelled them as homosexuals, without explaining how "anonymous" could have known about the intimate lives of all five. Under modern legal standards Leonardo could not have been arrested, much less jailed indefinitely based on such an accusation. But that is precisely what happened.
During Leonardo's time, over 50% of males in Florence were formally accused of homosexuality to the Night Office– sixty percent of men who lived to forty years of age. It specialized in coerced confessions–but it did not get one from Leonardo. Which is remarkable, once you understand how it worked.
I wrote about this in Da Vinci Detects http://www.amazon.com/Vinci-Detects-Renaissance-Featuring-Machiavelli-ebook/dp/B00PFAP1VS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459294075&sr=8-1&keywords=da+vinci+detects – a murder mystery from Real History Mystery Press that details, as historical background, the abuses of the Night Office, including the story of Leonardo's treatment and how it changed his life and reputation. In Da Vinci Detects you will also meet other Renaissance greats, like Machiavelli, Michelangelo, Raphael and Botticelli, all of whom were together in Florence at the time, as a matter of historic fact. Botticelli, in fact, was also anonymously accused to the Night Office.
Which brings me back to Ferguson, Missouri. I won't comment on the DOJ's allegations, which I have not followed closely. But here is the analogy to fifteenth century Italy: under the Office of the Night, the judges, police, and anonymous citizen accusers were all paid directly out of the heavy fines imposed on convicted homosexuals–a system that was regarded as "liberal" at the time, since homosexuals were routinely executed elsewhere during that era. But paying everyone involved for convictions resulted in huge numbers of accusations and arrests, numbers that dwarfed criminal prosecutions for homosexuality elsewhere. And once arrested, the accused were subjected to a wide variety of pressures, occasionally including torture, to get them to confess.
All this is explained at greater length and –ironically –in an entertaining way in Da Vinci Detects. http://www.amazon.com/Vinci-Detects-Renaissance-Featuring-Machiavelli-ebook/dp/B00PFAP1VS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459294075&sr=8-1&keywords=da+vinci+detects
Do you see the analogy here? When justice becomes about money, weak and despised minorities get victimized. In Renaissance Italy, it was homosexuals and juveniles. In Ferguson, Missouri, it is blacks. In both places, many were arrested on pretense. Some were guilty, but many were innocent. And the facts are so distorted by a biased system that it is impossible to know the guilty from the innocent. In this kind of justice "system," people get labelled for bad reasons. Even though he was not convicted, Leonardo da Vinci has been labelled a homosexual pedophile for five hundred years, based on no evidence whatsoever.
Guilt or innocence becomes secondary when justice is about money.
This entry was posted in Blog on March 29, 2016 by mary bernard.

Reading about the United States Justice Department investigation of Ferguson, Missouri has me thinking about what happened to Leonardo da Vinci when he was a young man.

Guilt or innocence becomes secondary when justice is about money.
This entry was posted in Blog on March 29, 2016 by mary bernard.

Gay Rights, Discrimination, Justice for Homosexuals, History of Persecution Gays Homosexuals

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Martin Luther: The Idea that Changed the World

September 13, 2017

Tags: Martin Luther: the Idea that Changed the World, Martin Luther and indulgences, Martin Luther and 500th anniversary, Martin Luther and biography, Martin Luther and Reformation

Martin Luther as a young monk by his friend and contemporary, Lucas Cranach, lower right

I watched yesterday's PBS documentary, "Martin Luther: The Idea that Changed the World" with interest, hoping it portrayed Luther as I did in my new (fictional and fun) Real History Mystery Press book, Martin Luther, Machiavelli and Murder. In recognition of the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's 95 theses—the October, 1517 document that ignited the Protestant Reformation and changed the face of Europe—my third book follows Luther as a young monk when he was in Rome, as historic fact. The "real history" in the book is the corruption and scandal there that provided the tinder when Martin Luther lit the match.

I am very serious about the history in my books, and hoped for confirmation that I portrayed Martin Luther accurately. I got it! The man I saw in the PBS documentary was my Martin Luther, with all his contradictions. Earnest, self-effacing, and sometimes depressed by his supposed sinfulness, Luther was also a brilliant and pugnacious writer and thinker who could not keep silent about perceived religious wrongs, even knowing he was likely to be burned at the stake for heresy. PBS was fair to him, bringing out his love of family and music and, in a balanced way, his least holy pronouncements. (After years of advocating relatively generous treatment of Jews he reversed himself, advocating property seizures and other harsh measures against those who refused to convert to Christianity. He also supported crushing a violent peasant rebellion.) The show spends little time on Lutheran doctrine (nor does my book—Luther was young and still a staunch Catholic when it occurs). There were no gross inaccuracies, though. It is also silent on the Catholic scandals of the time (which my book is not), and superficial though fair in its treatment of Catholic "indulgences," the primary subject of Luther's 95 theses, which then involved the outright sale of salvation.

In my book, Martin Luther occasionally discusses indulgences and other religious subjects with my free-thinking female protagonist, the illegitimate daughter of real-life bastard Niccolò Machiavelli, of "Machiavellian" fame. To his guilty horror, Luther also falls in love with her. Martin Luther, Machiavelli and Murder is the third book in the Nicola Machiavelli series, which has consistently rated 4 out of 5 stars after 140+ Amazon reviews and will eventually chronicle the entire High Renaissance in Italy. You can read a plot summary and the first 20% for free, and follow a first page link to all the great Renaissance art in the book, here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074K96HRN. And of course buy it, for $2.99(e-book)/$7.99 (hard copy). If you are seeing this on my website, maryannphilip.com, there should be a link to the right through which you can purchase as well.

Enjoy.

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Alternate subtitle: A Real History Mystery of Homosexual Persecution

Leonardo da Vinci and the Florentine witch hunt for gay men

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