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J.V ANDREAE[Lange inleiding, het boek zelf vanaf p.143]
"Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654) was a multi-faceted product of late Reformation Germany. A theologian who was firmly committed to the Lutheran confession, he could yet see very clearly the flaws in his church and argue for their reform; without being an ecumenicist in the modern sense, he yet admired many aspects of the society he observed in Calvinist Geneva, and he recognised the outstanding merit of individual Catholic scholars. A linguist and a lover of art and music, he was the friend of scientists and an enthusiastic student of mathematics whö held that science leads both to an appreciation of the wonders of the material world and its rejection in favour of more spiritual concerns. In his satirical writing he could be ironic and flippant, his rhetoric was often laboured and over-elaborate, but there is no mistaking the sincerity of his outrage at cruelty, inhumanity and injustice.
Andreae was optimistic, in that he believed that the corruption and deceit, the luxury and deprivation, the hypocrisy, tyranny and sophistry of the age could be transformed in a second reformation; yet there runs through his life a deep-rooted pessimism or depression which makes his willingness to continue the struggle all the more admirable."(xiii)
"We can see in his Christianopolis of 1619 an attempt to devise a society or community which would remove the terror from childhood, the error from youth and the horror from infirm old age. Labor remains, for he had no interest in a lotus-eating utopia which assumes away its problems and does no more than provide its writer or readers with a temporary escape from reality. In his ideal community physical labour is transformed, however, from the mindless and exhausting form it takes in conventional society into the kind of activity which is creative and part of our individual development. Similarly he wanted education in his ideal society to take place in bright, warm schoolrooms with teachers who would encourage children to leam by playing games, and understand what they were learning; and the elderly were to be offered the company of young people who would cheer them up, treat them with respect and ask their opinion - 'for old age is an illness in itself.'"(xiii)
Wat betreft de vader en moeder van Johann Valentin Andreae (JVA):
"Johannes seems to have regarded his pastoral work as an unavoidable duty, reserving his enthusiasm for studies in alchemy and the natural sciences."(2)
"If Johannes was a modest, liberal, musical and sociable - and rather weak - man, his wife was very different. Four years older than her husband, Maria Moser (1550-1631) was a decidedly strong personality, characterised by a tough, thrifty, self-disciplined severity which cared little for worldly elegance."(2)
"Andreae was a sickly child, unable to stand upright before he was two years old. (...) his difficulty was reinforced by an accident when the family was travelling to Tübingen after the death of his father, and he limped for the rest of his life. According to Kienast, his physical weakness meant that he was unable to take part in the usual children's games. He was educated at home by two Silesian medical students who lived in the Andreae household at Herrenberg."(3)
"He went on to a broad education in theology, science and the humanities at the University of Tübingen from 1601 to 1605, reading widely in contemporary history and literature."(4)
Hij werd om een onduidelijke reden van de universiteit verwijderd en verkeerde in omstandigheden die maakten dat hij reizen kon ondernemen naar Frankrijk, Zwitserland en Italië. Het thema van de reiziger / rondzwervende persoon wordt belangrijk in zijn werk.
"These years of travel were interspersed with further periods of residence at Tübingen, as a tutor in 1608-1610, and as a registered theology student in August 1611. Andreae was thus already quite widely travelled when he visited Calvinist Geneva in 1611, and was mature enough to discriminate between the moral discipline of the citizens, for which he conceived a Iifelong admiration, and the theological position of their religious leaders, which he disliked."(6)
"... he declares that he has nothing in common with 'the mire of Papism, the grandiloquence of Calvinism, the blasphemies of Photinianism, the hypocrisy of the Schwenckfelders, the craze of the Weigelians, the dregs of Anabaptism, the reveries of the Enthusiasts, the predictive calculations of the curious, the slipperiness of syncretism, the abomination of Iibertinism - or, in short, with any vanities and illusions of impostors'"(7-8)
"... appointed Deacon in Vaihingen on the Enz, some 50 km from Tübingen, on 25 February, 1614 ..."(9)
Vier maanden later trouwt hij met
"Agnes Elisabeth Grüniger (1592-1659), daughter of the pastor of Poppenweiler and niece of Erasmus Grüniger, the evangelical Abbott of Maulbronn."(10)
"His unusual career through life and education made him suspect to the orthodox. He needed a response and, since it was impossible for him to do anything through his personal example in a small circle, he began to publish his works.' (Newald 1951: 140)"(11)
Andreae is in verband gebracht met de formatie van de Societas Christiana en met de manifesten (Fama, Confession) van de Broederschap van de Rozenkruisers. Hijzelf ontkende er iets mee te maken gehad te hebben.
"In any event, it would appear from the introduction to Christianopolis that it was written in part in response to the Rosicrucian furore; it certainly shares some of the Rosicrucian objectives, since it adopts the suggestion of Wense that there is no need to wait for the Rosicrucians in order to take up the beneficial features of what the Fama proposed. On the other hand, there is a flat rejection of what he viewed as the unhealthy responses to the Fama, and in this respect it was like his Turris Babel of same year. It may be argued, however, that a deeper concern of Andreae was the development of a programme of religious, social and intellectual reform along lines suggested by Campanella, rather than the Fama, so that for this purpose Christianopolis should be read along with his Christenburg, and with his Imago and Porrecta of 1620, rather than with the 1619 Turris Babel."(19)
Arndt, Johann Gerhard:
"...he cited Arndt and Gerhard (along with Moller) in the introduction of Christianopolis as leading defenders of the Lutheran confession ..."
"It evident that More's Utopia made an impression on Andreae and it is indeed clear that Christianopolis has 'literary connections back through Campanella's Civitas solis, the Utopia of Thomas More, and the mediaeval pedagogies to Plato's Republic.' (Newald 1951: 148) There are also clear indications that Andreae had the example of Renaissance and later architects in mind when designing Christianopolis."(21)
Er is veel in Plato dat JVA verwierp zoals de sociale structuur waarin ambachtslui inferieur waren.
"Andreae's conception of something very like a one-class society in which most individuals are both craftsman and scholar was one which the aristocratic Plato would have found very uncomfortable, if not indeed incomprehensible, for one of the things upon which Classical Greek writers like Plato, Xenophon and Aristotle were agreed was that craftsmen were physically, mentally and socially crippled ... (...)
The use of slaves to get the heavy, degrading work of the community done which was essential in Classical thinking, and which was incorporated to a restricted extent in the communities of More and Campanella, was replaced by Andrere's view that where there are no slaves, there can be no work which is truly degrading. The common meals of Plato's Guardians, and the community of wives and children among the Guardians, have no place in Christianopolis though both are present in Civitas solis; the nuclear family is of paramount importance to Andreae, and it is significant that while he follows Plato in thinking of education as a communal responsibility, open almost without restriction to both sexes, he still allows parents in Christianopolis to watch their own children in college from concealment.(ch.53) Education in Christianopolis is not a way of abrogating or blurring family relationships. On the contrary, the family is emphasised and family relationships are utilised as a means of social control."(21-22)
"In general, it might perhaps be argued that Andreae owes more to Patristic writers, than to Classical philosophers. For example, his call for a fraternal union in which goods would be pooled (as in Veroe 10) owes nothing to Plato, but is very close indeed to Tertullian's statement that 'we who are united in mind and soul, have no hesitation about sharing property. All is common among us - except our wives.'(Apologeticus 39,11)"(23)
"It is striking that while Andreae's community shares some features with the planned cities of Utopia - such as the uniformity of the buildings, the twenty-foot wide streets, three-storied domestic buildings, the provision of gardens and fresh water, the use of bricks and firewalls to reduce the danger of fire, the short working day, absence of marriage dowries - and appears to have substantial defences (see 3.2.2 below, however), Christianopolis is nevertheless much more symmetrical and carefully detailed than any of the Utopian cities. In these respects Andreae parts company to some extent both with his utopian precursors and with the medieval German town, and leans towards the ideal city of Renaisasance town planners and architects."(26)
"We may look briefly at one of the German utopias produced after More's Utopia but before Civitas solis and Christianopolis.(...)
Johan Eberlin of Günzburg produced the first Protestant utopia in his Wolfaria of 1521."(26)
"Andreae shared Eberlin' s concern for poverty and social welfare, his distrust of the world of commerce and lawyers, moneylenders and usurers, and his disapproval of beggars. (...) Like most of their predecesors both Eberlin and Andreae agree that boys and girls should follow essentially the same course of study."(27)
"In Wolfaria, as in Christianopolis, there is the usual utopian reformer's dislike of luxury, with uniformly plain-coloured clothing for all, including the priests, but Eberlin is perhaps more liberal than Andreae in allowing some public entertainment (with 'modest movement, steps, songs and piping') ..."(28)
Vervolgens meer over de invloed van Campanella op Andreae.
"On the face of it, the connection between Campanella's Civitas solis and Andreae's Christianopolis should be close and direct. Andreae's circle at Tübingen adopted 'Civitas solis' as a name for their projected society, using it as a tessera or password, and there is a long history of reading the two works together."(30)
"First, however, let us consider briefly some of the ways in which the two communities differ in outlook. In Civitas solis Campanella is almost obsessed with weapons of war, describing their nature and use with relish, whereas Andreae has them hidden away in the armoury of Christianopolis, a necessity to be grieved over. Campanella, like Plato and Doni, would obliterate the family and its influence in the City of the Sun, whereas Andreae - like More - makes the family the fundamental social unit of Christianopolis."(31-32)
Andreae is ook helemaal niet zo gek op de doodstraf als Campanella, ziet het als het falen van een samenleving wanneer die toegepast moet worden. Technologisch gezien heeft hij geen innovaties als Campanella.
"Above aIl, however, the important difference is that Campanella's city is ruled by priests - 'Metaphysic' or 'The Sun', and his subordinates 'Power', 'Wisdom' and 'Love' - whereas in Christianopolis government is in the hands of a triumvirate representing 'Religion', 'Justice' and 'Knowledge'."(32)
Dat wordt uitvoerig uitgewerkt op de bladzijden hierna.
"... Civitas solis describes a city which is 'more than two miles in diameter ... Because it is on the sides of a hill it has more dwellings than would be the case if it were on flat ground,' whereas Christianopolis is of the size of a college, monastery or small commune of 400 people which could barely accommodate the officials of Campanella's city."(42)
Vervolgens wordt gekeken naar Andreae's eigen werk dat aan de Christianopolis vooraf ging.
"Taken as a whole, perhaps the simplest interpretation of Christianopolis is that it is an entertainment, a mock travel tale (on the truthfulness of which Andreae teIls us we should reserve judgement 'until the truthfulness of all accounts of journeys by sea and land has been put to the test.'); it is a 'ludicrum' consciously written in the same spirit as More's Utopia. Some passages are intended to amuse the reader; some are a display of rhetorical virtuosity."(61)
[Kan zijn, maar altijd drukt een utopie ook de waarden en normen van de schrijver uit, zeker in het geval van zo'n serieus persoon als Andreae.]
"On the other hand, the work has a serious didactic purpose and in a sense the traveller's tale is simply the vehicle for one hundred theses on the evils of contemporary society, each illustrated by comparison with the Christianopolitan alternative. Christianopolis thus holds up a mirror to society and pleads for a reform of the institutions and the attitudes which Andreae felt to be corrupt."(61)
[Precies.]
"Without prejudice to the other interpretations, however, the present section concentrates on the proposition that Christianopolis was intended to serve as a prospectus, in which Andreae invites like-minded people to join him in forming a community dedicated to living a truly (Lutheran) Christian life of worship, work and study."(62)
"The credibility of this interpretation is enhanced by the consideration that it was completely in tune with the spirit of the times, when numerous literary and scientific societies were founded, or at least proposed, throughout Europe. They were modelIed on the Florentine Accademia della Crusca and the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome, and included Bolton's scheme in 1616 for a Royal Academy in Britain, the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (later Palmenorden) founded a year later in Weimar, the Academia Parisiensis which grew out of meetings at the house of Mersenne, the Deutschgesinnte Gesellschaft and its rival, the Elbschwanenorden, in Hamburg, and the Nuremberg Gekronte Blumenorden. Christianopolis can be seen as an alternative to such societies, as well as being a counter to the Rosicrucian Fama fraternitatis (1614) and Confession (1615), and such groups as Simon Studion's 'Militia Crucifera Evangelica' (Montgomery 1973:I,202-3). Andreae described his Invitatio fraternitatis Christi (1617,1618) as an alternative to the Rosicrucian fantasy and it is clear that the Cosmoxenus of Christianopolis can be viewed as a myth devised to counter the myth of Christian Rosencreutz."(63)
[Boeiend. Kunnen we in die wetenschappelijke verenigingen al het begin van de Verlichting zien en in een boek als Christianopolis de religieus-romantische reactie daarop?]
"Our view is that while Christianopolis has undeniable applications both to society at large, and to the individual, its primary description is not that of a city-state, but rather a much smaller-scale institution, akin to a college or a research institute.
On this interpretation Christianopolis is distanced from such ideal city-states as those of More, Campanella, Doni and Burton and is brought closer to the kind of institute described by Bacon as Solomon's House, say, or Abraham Cowley's 'Philosophical College' of 1661. In this respect it becomes an alternative to the learned society proposed in Christiana Societatis Imago, capable of being taken up and implemented."(64)
Christianopolis, met zijn circa 400 bewoners, is dus geen stad of stadstaat, maar meer een klooster of college.
"If then ideal Utopian cities, planned cities, real cities and fortress towns are all so very much larger than Christianopolis, we may reasonably wonder what Andreae had in mind that would make the community he was describing seem normal so that he would never feel obliged to comment on its overall size, although he explains why the apartments in it and their domestic cellars are small (ch.12), and how capacious the communal storage space is.(ch.8) The answer would appear to be that Christianopolis is comparable in size with at least some of the former monastic establishments with which Andreae was familiar ..."(69)
Allerlei andere argumenten voor dat klooster-concept worden beschreven.
"Andreae's rhetoric identifies the world outside Christianopolis as a place where the vices of wealth are prevalent, the virtues of poverty are ignored, and everything has its price.(ch.74) The economic effects of the corrupt valuation of the world form one reason for the arrangements in Christianopolis."(102)
"In the ideal community of Christianopolis, the unequal income distribution of the real world, rooted as it is in the demands of those who are both wealthy and corrupt, is rejected in favour of an egalitarian distribution of goods, or perhaps their distribution in accordance with something like need. It is quite clear that Andreae distrusted what we should now regard as 'economic' behaviour, where this is self-interested, individualistic and competitive."(103)
"Money is not used within Christianopolis, in part because it can have little or no function in a small community without private property, and partly no doubt to remove temptation from the people."(104)
"Evidently the self-interested individualistic utility-maximising behaviour of the market-place would be utterly opposed by the self-abnegating, community-serving practitioners of Christian Poverty."(107)
"Leaders lead by example, so their orders are easy to accept. At the same time these administrators serve as the moral and religious leaders of the four sectors of the community."(107)
"... scarcity has to be overcome by a combination of restraint in consumption, and a universal obligation to work ..."(108)
"Economic growth would appear to have no place in Christianopolis, or more precisely, there is no place for any significant growth in domestic consumption. This does not, however, preclude improvements in productivity which permit the time required for work to be reduced and the time available for worship, study or relaxation to be increased. Thus Andreae is certainly not hostile to technological progress, and indeed the community is up-to-date in every way, but the intention is that productivity gains be channeled in directions which may seem unusual and will be discussed further below, for 'work' is necessary and in some respects desirable."(113)
"We should perhaps note however that while educational access is apparently equally open to men and women, its application to productive activity is constrained by a rigid social division of labour. Women are described as no less capable of learning than men (chs.53,54) and women have excelled in every virtue.( ch.89) Elsewhere he remarks that 'there is not anything on earth that can not be accomplished by the talents of women.' But the activities open to women are confined to domestic duties; nursing (a particular duty of women and widows, ch.98); midwifery, which is held in the highest regard, and on occasion acting as lying-in maids (ch.90); education of girls (ch.91), and working with silk, wool and linen - spinning, sewing, embroidery and weaving are specified, with tapestry as the art-form of women (ch.89); all other crafts seem to be a male preserve. In religion and administration too women are treated differently from men, being forbidden to speak in church or in the assembly."(115-116)
" The steady-state equilibrium which Andreae favours appears to be egalitarian, with a modest level of personal or domestic consumption and relatively substantial collective consumption."(120)
"Mannish women and effeminate men seem to have been another grouping which Andreae though would endanger the stability of the community, perhaps a common view in patriarchal seventeenth century Germany; but the solution did not lie in repressing women e.g. by witch trials, which he opposed, for the fault lies with the men."(122-123)
"In a world where poverty was widespread and famine a recurring feature of life, one might have expected Andreae to place a higher priority on output - and indeed in later years he played a notable part in relieving the refugees and casualties of the Thirty Years War. In Christianopolis, however, the economy has the same function as the monastic Economus: it is there, in essence, to enable the community to experience a fuller religious life."(131)
"The narrative of Christianopolis clearly has a good deal in common with More's Utopia, CampaneIla's Civitas solis and Bacon's New Atlantis. Determined to assert the independence and originality of Andreae, however, Held remarks that Utopia and Civitas Solis are in dialogue form whereas Christianopolis has the form of a letter, in which the writer teIls of his own personal experiences."(135)
Beschrijving van de structuur en de taal (Latijn) van de tekst.
[Hier start het boek zelf. 'Gegroet, christelijke lezer' begint het. Tja. Als hierboven iets is duidelijk geworden dan is het de normatieve insteek van Andreae. Maar ook vanuit zo'n insteek kun je grote kritiek hebben op een samenleving dan wel op het gedrag van mensen en zul je een toekomstige situatie beschrijven waarin jouw waarden en normen werkelijkheid worden. Bij More is dat niet echt anders, iets abstracter vanuit de christelijke naastenliefde misschien, bij Andreae mag je dus een streng-lutheraanse piëtistische normatieve ideologie verwachten in lijn met Johan Arndt (1555-1621). "... to regain the light and drive out the darkness"(146) zoals hij schrijft.
Het meeste zal me wel niet liggen. Economisch is het van beperkte waarde omdat het om een bijzonder kleine gemeenschap gaat, niet om een samenleving in meer moderne zin. Op het relationele vlak zijn de opvattingen conservatief en staat het gezin centraal / is seks beperkt tot het gezin en de voortplanting.]
Schildering van de religieuze chaos vóór Luther / de Reformatie. Opnieuw lijkt echter een soort van reformatie nodig.
"For although all our activities are supposed to be arranged according to the model of our Christ, whose name we bear and acknowledge, still it happens through our utterly wicked negligence, that Christians are not different from worldly people in any way. That is, whether we consider the churches, the courts, or the universities - they are by no means free from ambition, avarice, gluttony, debauchery, envy, idleness and the other vices that rule over them. Christ has a great aversion to these vices, but we find the greatest pleasure in them."(147)
[Met andere woorden: veel christenen zijn nog steeds niet christelijk genoeg omdat ze zich laten verleiden door wereldse ondeugden. Dat mensen dat niet inzien is het werk van de duivel. Maar gelukkig laten sommige mensen zich niet verblinden door de duivel.
Uiteraard is er op de achtergrond een normatieve standaard op basis waarvan Andreae dat kan zeggen en die hij vindt in het werk van "Doctor Johann Gerhard, Doctor Johann Arndt and Doctor Martin Moller"(148), de piëtistische lijn in het Lutheranisme. Nog steeds is dat de kritiek op een neiging tot materialisme die er bij geestelijken en anderen al was vóór de Reformatie: "their excessive dedication to material concerns"(149).]
"And so hypocrisy has taken over the protection of religion, tyranny that of government, and sophistry that of knowledge at the wish and command of ignorance. They have taken possession of them brutally, with many and various decisions, but still God's champions and those who serve the good cause were undaunted: for they had the highest hopes and expectations of something much more just, more learned and above all more moderate, from those who were thought to have the best knowledge of the state and were presumed to be thoroughly deserving. Yet anyone who has even once looked more deeply into the world will clearly observe that nothing is so insupportable to deceivers as truth and uprightness, which they hate so much that in their fury they forget their weakness, throw off their masks, covers and wrappings, jump forth naked and reveal the secret of their wickedness in its entirety. class="notitierood">[mijn nadruk]
How disgraceful is the service of the stomach in the centre of the church, the destruction of morals in the middle of the city square, the corruption of the intellect at the heart of the university. Meaningless titles and unbounded prodigality are excused everywhere, and indeed are prized and publicised in eulogies - no decent person can see this without a shudder."(149)
Kritiek op de Fama van de Broederschap der Rozenkruisers uit zijn tijd. Een dergelijke beweging is niet nodig als je je leven gewoon op de bijbel baseert, vindt Andreae. Hij wil een dergelijk voorbeeldig leven beschrijven
"in this new Republic which I should like to name Christianopolis."(152)
[De term hier is Republiek. Maar zoals de editor hiervoor heeft uitgewerkt is dat een beetje een rare term voor het kleinschalige Christianopolis. Het is geschreven voor vrienden, is daarom niet altijd serieus en ook bedoeld om te vermaken.]
[Dat het boek één grote metafoor is blijkt al uit de eerste alinea's waarin reis en schipbreuk op het schip Fantasia worden beschreven, waarna de verteller aanspoelt op een klein eiland:]
"While I was wandering about the whole world as a stranger; patiently enduring many tyrannies, sophists and hypocrites, not yet having found the man for whom I was searching anxiously, I decided once again to attempt the Academic Ocean, even though it had very often been hostile to me. So I boarded the ship of Fantasy with many others and left behind the well-known ports, exposing life and limb to the thousand dangers of a desire for knowledge.
For a short time the weather was in our favour, then hurricanes of envy and false accusations from the opposite quarter began to stir up the Ethiopian Sea against us, driving out all hope of calmness."(155)
Een wachter vangt de schipbreukelingen op. Deze zijn erg onder de indruk van het driehoekige eiland waar alles groeit en bloeit.
Alles - de natuur, de gebouwen - op het eiland is even indrukwekkend, niets ter wereld is vergelijkbaar met wat de schipbreukelingen daar zien.
"So I turned round to my guide and said: "What happy being has come to live here?" Then he replied: "A being which for the most part is not very fortunate in this world. When the world raged against good people and decided to drive them out of its borders, Religion was exiled. It gathered to itself as allies the most faithful followers it had, and led them over the seas. After searching for some time, Religion at length chose this land, where it set its people ashore and thereafter constructed the community which we call Christianopolis, intending it to be the home, or if you prefer the stronghold, of truth and goodness. Soon you will experience the generosity of this community of ours towards all who are in need. If in addition you would also care to wander about the community with discreet eyes, guarded tongue and chaste behaviour, it will indeed not be denied you, but will be allowed one part at a time.""(157)
[De motivatie om dit eiland te kiezen en er een gemeenschap te stichten is dus ingegeven door de verdreven ware religie.]
De verteller antwoordt:
"For a long time now many people have had experience of how unfortunate my errors and wanderings have been; may I now for once see things which are more true, more good, more certain, more established and above all may I now see what the world indeed promises but never reveals."(158)
[Meer waarheid, meer goedheid, meer zekerheid. Uiteraard laten dit soort formuleringen zien hoe normatief de ervaring is.]
"The official smiled approvingly and advised me in a friendly way that there would be no objection to me on the island, unless I was one of those whom the community would not tolerate having among them, but would send back to where they came from - beggars, hucksters and actors (who make idleness enjoyable), curiosity-seekers (who pry minutely into anything unfamiliar), fanatics (who have no genuine piety), alchemists (who defile Chemistry), impostors (who give out falsely that they are Rosicrucian brethren), and other similar blemishes on the sciences and the arts. These will certainly never be allowed to study this community."(158-159)
[Uiteraard is ook dit een keuze voor bepaalde waarden en normen.]
De tweede onderzoeker ondervraagt hem verder.
"During this speech I could not help noticing that he was watching the calmness of my soul, the modesty of my expression, the hold I kept on my tongue, the steadiness of my gaze and the deferential posture of my body. This he did with such skill that I feit he could scrutinise my very thoughts, yet he did it with so much kindness that I could hold back nothing, and with so much respect that I realised that I owed it to him to reveal everything."(160)
[Het doet aan een biecht denken. De reiziger mag pas verder nadat hij in alle eerlijkheid heeft getuigd van zijn intenties en persoon.]
De derde onderzoeker gaat na hoe het gesteld is met zijn intellectuele niveau. De reiziger krijgt het gevoel helemaal niets te weten en zegt dat ook. De onderzoeker is blij dat hij nog een onbeschreven blad is.
"You bring to us the cleanest of slates, as though purified by the sea itself. It remains only that we ask God to write on you with His holy pen, so that you may experience His blessings of wisdom and goodness."(161)
Hij wordt toegelaten tot de stad en krijgt drie begeleiders mee.
[Intussen zijn er een paar dingenn aangeduid: de kleding die men er draagt is eenvoudig en geschikt voor fysieke activiteiten. Benadrukt wordt dat een goed karakter nederig, kalm, bescheiden is, zonder arrogantie en hooghartigheid.]
Het is een soort van Middeleeuws kasteel. In het centrum staat de tempel.
[Ik vind heel die beschrijving van de indeling van het eiland en de stad en de activiteiten die er plaatsvinden niet erg interessant of zelfs maar noodzakelijk. Andreae denkt daar duidelijk anders over.]
"Everything looks the same in all directions, neither luxurious nor squalid, and well suited to breathing and fresh air."(162)
"About four hundred members live here, enjoying perfect religion and peace, almost the only people of whom as much can be said."(162)
"Here there is nothing of boorish rusticity, but rather the farm ing methods of the patriarchs have been revived: the c10ser they are to God, and the more that simplicity is observed, the more successful it is."(164)
"It is more wonderful than I can say how temperance here produces a sufficiency for all from what is scarcely a great abundance. For no-one in the whole island is overfed, yet everyone always has sufficient because insobriety and drunkenness are absent, whether by God's blessing or the generosity of nature. I shall go into the distribution of victuals later, and at present add only one thing, that the whole process is carried out efficiently and with reverence for the gifts of God. The men assigned to labour are not made bestial, but are thoroughly cultured; those appointed to be guards are not gluttons, but extremely moderate, not foul-smelling but neat and tidy. And things which are beneficial for all are so managed that the people experience the full benefit of them in communal but modest pleasure."(166)
[Geregeld worden dus waarden aangeduid. Matigheid wordt erg belangrijk gevonden en daarom ook is iedereen van alles voorzien. Daarnaast wordt het schoonhouden van alles belangrijk gevonden.]
"And here the true value of trade becomes clear, wh ich has regard not to money but to the variety of things, so that we may gaze upon the special endowment of each part of the earth, and put them all into a common stock. Thus although we are in one place, we may seem to enjoy the whole globe of the earth. In this way we acquire knowledge of this little point, our earth, and at the same time the generosity of God's distribution of His gifts becomes more evident to us. Finally, the gifts which were given to all mankind are made available to each individual."(167)
[Dat is een mooie manier om naar handel te kijken. Het gaat niet om geld, maar om het ter beschikking stellen van alles wat de aarde kan voortbrengen aan iedereen die er leeft.]
"There remains the western side, which is given over to working with fire. That is, there are seven workshops to be seen here set up for smelting, stamping, casting and moulding metals. On the other side of the gate are the workers' quarters, where seven more workshops have been assigned to the manufacture of salt, glass, bricks, earthenware and all other things which require repeated heating. Here indeed is to be seen the exploration of nature, since whatever the earth contains in its depths is subjected to the laws and instruments of science. This is not done by men who are driven to mindless labour like beasts of burden, but on the contrary by men who have long been trained in an accurate knowledge of natural philosophy, and who therefore find pleasure in the inner workings of nature. Unless you listen to reason here, and examine the anatomy of the macrocosm, they think that nothing can be said to you or shown to you. If you do not settle disputes by means of experiments, if you do not make use of more suitable instruments to improve the sciences and make them more comprehensive, you are worthless."(168-169)
[Opmerkingen dus over de experimentele manier om wetenschap te bedrijven: niet alleen maar woorden tellen, maar de ervaring door te doen, door uit te proberen. In het werk wisselen inspanning en rust elkaar af, er is een balans die maakt dat iedereen die werkt alert is.]
"No-one should be surprised that the living quarters are rather limited, for there are very few people to be accommodated, and there is almost no household furniture. Other people, who give houseroom to vanity, extravagance and things of that sort, and who heap up baggage obtained by wicked means, never have enough room to live. They overload themselves, and are a burden to others. Nor is there any necessity at all for this. On the contrary, the suitability of an immense heap of things measured easily in another way, by how unbearable and intolerable it is. Oh, people are rich indeed if all they have is that which they truly need, if they call nothing their own which they are able to do without!"(170-171)
Voetnoot 394
"This seems to anticipate Marcuse's distinction between 'true needs' and 'false needs', but it is common to most utopian, socialist and radical economics."(171)
[Allemaal onderscheidingen die we in de realiteit van nu nooit meer zouden maken. Na een hele opsomming van ambachten en activiteiten de zin:]
"Since we have now named all these activities, we may add that clothing and needlework are the province of the women."(172)
"Before I go any further, something has to be said about public worship. They have prayers three times a day - in the moming, at noon and in the evening - when they thank God for His blessings. They kneel down, fold their hands and in a solemn prayer beg for the continuation of His help, and for a happy death.
No-one is allowed to be absent from these meetings, except for the strongest reasons. Everyone who is the parent of children brings them along so that they can as it were lisp their praise of God. Next, they listen to a reading from Holy Scripture, then the meeting is brought to a close after about half an hour with a hymn."(173)
"Truly those people are happy, therefore, and very prudent who anticipate here the first fruits of winning etemal life. But with all regret, the people who end this whole life under the burden of mortality are exceedingly foolish."(173)
[Uiteraard zijn dit vanuit mijn perspectief zinloze activiteiten waaraan iedereen ook nog eens verplicht moet deelnemen. Religie is uitgangspunt en er is duidelijk maar een ware religie in zo'n visie als deze. Geen enkele twijfel door de wetenschap van andere religies, geen enkele twijfel bij het idee dat religie een goed ding is voor iedereen. Pure dictatuur, dit. En dat vanuit zoiets vaags als dat je het eeuwige leven zou kunnen verwerven en dat het aanvaarden van de sterfelijkheid van het menselijk bestaan een last zou zijn.]
Iedereen eet zijn of haar rantsoen apart in zijn / haar eigen appartement.
"For since disturbance and clattering can scarcely be avoided when a large number of people dine together, they prefer to eat in their individual apartments."(173)
Voetnoot 401
"This runs counter to the tradition of communal dining in Utopian settlements, which originated with the archaic Cretan and Spartan common mess admired by Plato, and was reinforced by the Christian institution of the love-feast (agape) and monastic arrangements; communal catering later found favour as embodying the efficiency of large-scale activity (Charies Fourier and Robert Owen, for example)."(173)
Vrouwen maken de maaltijden klaar.
"Since their older children are fed elsewhere, a household consists for the most part of four or five, or less commonly six, persons: father, mother and one or two children. Servants and maids are extremely uncommon here and not easily encountered except looking after the sick, women in child-bed, and babies. Men and women together carry out the usual domestic duties - anything over and above is dealt with in the communal workshops."(174)
[Wauw, een stukje emancipatie, mannen moeten ook de afwas doen en stofzuigen.]
Het is een communale planeconomie:
"Work, or as they prefer to call it, 'the exercise of the hands' is done to a plan, and everything that is produced is taken to a common store. (...) No-one has any money, and it has no private use among them, although the community has a treasury. (...) They have very limited working hours, yet no less work is done. This is because everyone thinks it is wicked to take more than the permitted amount of leisure. Elsewhere one idle person can scarcely be fed by ten hard-working men, so it will come as no surprise that where they all work together there is time left over for each individual to relax."(175)
In Christianopolis vindt men:
"If we are to revive the tired faculties of the soul, and sharpen the cutting edge of our mind, we need to stand still, or be seated frequently at the whetstone."(176)
[Dat is een mooie uitspraak en bijzonder actueel. Maar natuurlijk komt hier dan meteen het typische vervolg dat het in dienst moet staan van religie:]
"And so you must not expect mindless games or distracting noise during this philosophical leisure, but rather the freeing of the mind for serious purposes, and above all contemplation of things to do with the preparation for etemity. Second only to God, this is what is held dearest and most highly by us.
Hence it is usual for there to be the greatest peacefulness among the people at these times. Most are concemed with God's holy purpose, or with some neighbour with a cross to bear, or are engaged in mutual instruction through truly Christian discussion."(176)
[Betekent 'geen lawaai' ook 'geen muziek'? Alleen kerkelijke muziek zal er wel gewaardeerd worden. Swingende jazz en expressieve dans zullen er wel niet op prijs gesteld worden. Alles moet natuurlijk gericht zijn op "control of our passions"(177), wat in religies meestal betekent dat ze onderdrukt moeten worden, dat er niet over gepraat mag worden, etc etc..]
Goed gedrag vindt de beloning in zichzelf (bv. omdat je een goed geweten hebt).
"The more one is ruled by God's will, the more suitable he is judged to rule over others."(177)
[Probleem is alleen dat we dan zouden moeten kunnen vaststellen wat gods wil is. Zoals steeds weer blijkt is dat voor gelovigen helaas geen probleem.]
"This is tumed upside down by the world, which pricks its ears up to the pipes of vanity while what a good mind has to say goes unheard, and which places in authority the person who is most impure in body and soul. No wonder the world does not know what it wants or does not want, and that blind leaders promise the light but lead their blind followers into the deep pit of darkness."(177)
[Terechte kritiek. Maar de vraag is dus: wat is "a good mind"? wanneer is iemand "pure in body and soul"? Het is niet zo simpel om dan te roepen dat elke 'echte christen' dat is of zo. En zelfs de normatieve maatstaven als 'is devoot godaanbidder', 'gedraagt zich gematigd en deugdzaam' helpen dan niet, want wanneer is iemand 'devoot', wanneer 'gematigd en deugdzaam'? Dat zal minstens controleerbaar uitgewerkt moeten worden.]
Je moet het moeilijk maken om te zondigen, dan is straffen niet nodig.
"Moreover the judges of the Christian community observe this above all, that those who attack God directly are punished more severely; those who attack men are punished more lightly; and those whose crime is against property are punished most lightly of all. How differently the world behaves, which punishes a petty thief with incomparably more savagery than a blasphemer or an adulterer!"(178)
[Dat is dus het problematische van een rechtspraak gebaseerd op een godsdienst. We zien vandaag de dag nog vaak genoeg hoe iemand door religieuze fanatici wordt beschuldigd van blasfemie en zo, dat is zo gemakkelijk. Als een dominante religie zo'n grote invloed heeft in de staat en de samenleving is het voor mensen niet meer mogelijk om anders te denken en af te wijken.]
"Since Christianopolitans are always chary of spilling blood they do not willingly agree to the death penalty. The world, by contrast, is lavish with the blood of brothers and innocent people, and makes an entertainment out of killing people, calling out for the first kind of death that comes into its head, sheltering securely behind this one idea that they have not personally used the sword, the noose, the wheel or the fire - these are administered by an official. This, by Christ, is a fine piece of reasoning in a nation which makes dissolute people into thieves, intemperate men into adulterers, travellers into murderers, whores into witches, so as to have someone whose blood may be sacrificed to your avenging god."(178)
[Terechte kritiek weer, maar uiteraard is dat precies wat ook christenen zo lang gedaan hebben en waarschijnlijk nog doen.]
Afkomst en overgeërfde titels zijn niet belangrijk, je moet het zelf verdienen om geëerd te worden. Verdiensten en deugdzaam gedrag worden door de hemel / door god verdeeld.
[Klein wereldje, dus dat bestuur is ook nogal gemakkelijk. Uiteraard zijn alle bestuurders mannen. Alles wordt weer onderbouwd met religie.]
Iedereen werkt gehoorzaam mee aan alle collectieve taken die communaal leven met zich meebrengt. Niemand voelt zich te goed voor dat werk.
"Housing is not the private property of anyone. All accommodation is provided and has its use assigned. Whenever the community so wishes, the people change their quarters easily."(182)
Mensen hebben slechts wat nodig is. Alles is sober ingericht.
"There are only two kinds of garment, one suitable for work and the other for leisure. They are all of the same pattern for everyone, with differences in form according to sex and age. The material is linen or wool, changing from summer to winter, and the colour is white or grey. No-one has extravagant tailoring."(184)
[En het zijn toch weer de vrouwen die dat allemaal wassen en schoonhouden. Zie p.174.]
Er is 's nachts verlichting omdat de 'krachten van de duisternis' dan minder kans krijgen.
Het hart van Christianopolis waar de bestuurders verantwoordelijk voor Religie, Recht, en Geleerdheid / Wetenschap zetelen en de kanselier.
Er is dus geen monarchie, maar een aristocratie in de letterlijke zin van het woord: de besten regeren.
"It goes without saying that all of these men are pious, all are prudent and all are wise; yet only certain men who are particularly appropriate are appointed to these positions."(188)
De religieuze dogma's staan in gouden letters op een tablet.
"Information about morality and the rules of life is given by the second tablet ..."(190)
[Uiteraard zijn dat er tien naar de tien geboden. En er is er bijna geen een waarin het woord 'god' niet voorkomt, het is puur een religeuze moraal:]
"I. We strive with alt our powers to serve God, the creator and only Lord of the human race, in all reverence and admiration, preferring nothing in Heaven nor on Earth to Hirn, dedicating our life and all our deeds to His glory, and leaving success to His help.
II. We strive not to provoke the most Holy name of God with any blasphemy, nor to alienate ourselves from it by murmuring, nor frivolously to dishonour it, nor to neglect it through indolence, and reverently to maintain the most holy mysteries of our salvation.
III. We strive to have leisure for our God, and to renounce the restlessness of the flesh; to offer the Trinity a still sanctuary, our fellows a clean dwelling, and refreshment to living creatures; and to dedicate ourselves to the divine Word alone.
IV. We strive to serve and show love to our parents, respect to those above us, care for our equals, moderation towards those entrusted to our charge, labour to the community and a good example to future generations; and in reciprocal service to fulfil the duties of Christian love.
V. We strive to subdue our anger, to cool down hot impatience, to give heed to the value of human blood, to forget revenge, to abhor envy, and carefully to imitate the very gentle heart of Christ.
VI. We strive to protect the innocence of youth, the chastity of the virgin, the purity of marriage and the spotless modesty of widowhood; and through moderation and fasting to tame the sensuality and voluptuousness of the flesh.
VII. We strive to enjoy the goods entrusted to us by God as carefully and peaceably as possible, properly and with thanksgiving; to carry out their distribution as justly as possible, their utilisation as moderately as possible, and their preservation as surely as possible.
VIII. We strive justly and freely to pass on to others the light of truth, the purity of conscience and the integrity of witness; to honour the presence of God at all times and everywhere; to protect the innocent, and to show the guilty the error of their ways.
IX. We strive not to disturb anything belonging to others, nor to mix together the divine with the human; to be content with our lot; to live quietly in our homes, and to scorn this whole world as a temporary resting place for travellers.
X. We strive to arrange our community so that his own property is divided and preserved to each man, and no-one allows himself to covet the property of another, but looks after his own and expends it to the glory of God and for the general good."(190-192)
"Abi-albon pleased me with the kind goodwill of this place: a man of buming spirit and cool flesh; loving the heavens and not attached to the earth; very close to deeds, and distant from mere talk; intoxicated with God, and an abstainer from luxury; vigilant for his flock, and negligent of himself; the first in merit, and the last to boast of it."(193)
[In de constitutie en hier weer een aantal waarden en normen die door Andreae belangrijk gevonden worden.]
Over de volmaakte vrouw van de theoloog.
"When I think of her, the women of this world disgust me for either they pick over tritles superstitiously, or they are completely lethargic, or they are ill-natured scolds, or they bring about every kind of wickedness, or their face is set in a scowl, or they revel wantonly - and finally they never pick the right time to reproach their husbands, never love them purely, nor ever look after them economically."(194)
Is de volmaakte vrouw van de rechter.
"Her husband is not at all ashamed to discuss difficult matters with her, and he listens willingly to what she has to say; but he reserves judgement for himself. If she is over-inquisitive about matters which are above her, he restrains her, warns her of heaven, and bids her apply her gifts more to her spinning-wheel. Thus they live peacefully and pleasantly under his rule, a most fitting example both to those who tell their wives everything and to those who tell them nothing."(197-198)
[Hoe prachtig de woorden ook zijn waarmee Andreae die geweldige vrouwen beschrijft, er is altijd een addertje onder het gras in de vorm van de echtgenoot ...]
Ieder krijgt zijn deel en omdat niemand meer wil dan dat is dat eenvoudig te regelen door Ahitub, een van de leden van het triumviraat.
"He has the greatest skill in calculating the annual supply of foodstuffs that will be sufficient for the people so that they will never go hungry; but will also never feed lavishly, placing their spirit in bondage. This is indeed a desirable arrangement, and particularly by contrast with those arrangements where some are crushed by hunger while others can scarcely be glutted with a whole storehouse of victuals and measure God's blessing not by its sufficiency, but by superfluity to the point of vomiting."(199)
[Zoals gewoonlijk is er de kritiek vanuit de bescheiden leefwijze om Christianopolis op de 'echte samenleving'. Maar natuurlijk niet op alle punten:]
Het is de taak van de vrouw om al dat eten te bereiden en te koken.
De derde van het triumviraat is Abida, verantwoordelijk voor de kennis.
".. he disapproved of any science which does not lead one closer to Christ, and he execrated anything which pulled one back from Christ.
All his efforts were directed towards the church, which had tossed about on the world's ocean for so many thousand years: all languages, all history, all exercise of reason, all the characters of nature, all study of the heavens were at the service of the church, so that at length the gift of a blessed eternity might be awaited. Only Christians have knowledge, and this comes from God. Other people utter empty words, because they come from within themselves."(200)
[Hoe gevaarlijk is dit soort denken. Dat is precies wat een religie of ideologie totaal immuun maakt voor welke kritiek ook. Wij hebben de echte kennis, zij zeggen maar wat. Dus waarom zouden we naar hen luisteren?]
Lofzang op zijn vrouw:
"Whatever she sees that is opposed to God or humanity, she does not approve of. On the contrary, she attacks it with sincerity and shrewdness. She is more opposed to hypocrisy and sophistry than anything else. She examines everything from top to bottom, and what she finds out she discloses to her husband.(...) Her speech is succinct and breathes the spirit of Christ, so that its truth is self-evident, and it overcomes her opponents without a struggle."(201)
[Ugh ... En altijd weer vindt hij het zwijgen van de vrouwen een deugd.]
"Yet it seemed to me that the people of Christianopolis do not make very great use of the library, and are content with a relatively small number of books, albeit powerful ones. The highest authority among them, however, is that of the sacred writings or Word of God, which they acknowledge to be both the one thing of value allowed to man by divine favour and also an inexhaustible source of secrets - they regard almost all the others as so much rubbish.(...)
For indeed there are very many things which it is best that we do not know in this life, and so a holy simplicity serves as a library for many."(203-204)
[Typisch. Kenmerkend voor het gesloten karakter van een religie. Waarom heb je dan een bibliotheek, als je zo graag je kop in het zand steekt en niets wilt weten buiten wat in de bijbel staat of zo?]
Ze vinden wapens maar niets, maar wel heeft iedereen een wapen:
"Nevertheless they take up arms reluctantly to drive off unjust force, and they hand out personal weapons to each member of the community, which they keep in their apartments in case something unexpected takes place."(205)
"Adjacent to this lies the room of the printing press, that invention of our times which is equally advantageous and disadvantageous. Here in Christianopolis it is certainly not dangerous, for apart from the Holy Scriptures and books which instruct the young and assist members of the community with their devotions, other books are seldom printed."(206)
"It is not permitted to reproduce anything here which casts doubt on God, corrupts morals, or deceives the mind."(207)
[Ja, dat zat er wel in: alleen christelijke boeken worden belangrijk gevonden, de rest is pulp. Dit is een wel heel simpele benadering van een probleem.]
Geld wordt onbelangrijk gevonden en speelt geen rol in Christianopolis, behalve voor het afhandelen van zaken met buitenstaanders en vreemdelingen.
"Thanks to money we have a society that is in confusion, salvation is up for sale, the soul is in pawn, the body is purchased, and hell is bought."(208)
[Kritiek op de geldeconomie komt vaak voor in utopieën. Het wonderlijke is dus dat dat vanuit heel verschillende waarden en normen kan voortkomen. Hier ontstaat de kritiek uiteraard vanuit een christelijke moraal.]
[Het is een wonderlijke tegenstrijdigheid: de natuur mag op alle niveaus onderzocht en bewonderd worden en kennis daarvan wordt belangrijk gevonden. Tegelijkertijd mag dat alleen maar als het een lofzang op god betekent en als die kennis binnen het religieuze perspectief ongevaarlijk is. En het is naïef, want als je eenmaal de smaak van het onderzoeken te pakken hebt ga je ook vragen stellen die binnen dat religieuze perspectief niet toegestaan zijn.]
"They take great care, however, that modesty is preserved everywhere. I believe this comes from the example of shamelessness of the world which finds impurity fascinating, and which corrupts the eyes of the innocent with lascivious pictures."(214)
"When I had been led away from there and up to a higher floor I saw a school which was much more spacious and attractive than one would believe. It was divided into eight lecture theatres where the young people, the most precious thing that the community has in its care, are moulded and shaped to God, nature, reason and the public good."(218-219)
[God voorop natuurlijk, tjonge jonge.]
"Their teachers are not drawn from the dregs of humanity, people who are unfit for any other employment. On the contrary they are very specially chosen from the people who have a high standing in the community, and indeed have very often occupied the highest official positions."(218)
"All the children of the whole community, both boys and girls, undergo education."(219)
"The first and highest task they have is to worship God with a pure and devout mind; the second, is to achieve the best and most chaste morality; and the third is to develop their intellectual faculties."(220)
"The boys have their hours of study in the morning, and the girls are taught in the afternoons by school-mistresses who are no less learned than the schoolmasters. Besides, I do not know why this sex, which is in nature no less teachable, is excluded from scholarship elsewhere. The rest of the time is given over to mechanical arts and women's crafts, in which each one is assigned to his occupation according to the direction in which his talents lie."(221)
[Strikte scheiding van jongens en meisjes dus, zoals gebruikelijk bij christenen tot aan de 1960er jaren.]
Beschrijving van het totale programma van het onderwijs.
[Uiteraard met om de zin het woord 'god' of een andere religieuze term ...]
"Nonetheless, we shall hold medicine in high regard; not because it succeeds in extending life beyond its allotted span, or because it combats death, but because the Creator is very good, and just as He wishes His creation to be well, so He wishes us to be well by making use of His creation."(254)
"In Christianopolis they enter into marriage with great devotion. It is undertaken with great caution, cherished with great tenderness and held in high respect. Marriage is thus safer here than anywhere else. For since pride over the bride's dowry is absent here, along with uncertainty over their living expenses, they are left to judge people only by their good qualities and sometimes their appearance.
Young men who are twenty-four years old are allowed to marry young women of eighteen, subject to the consent of the parents, the advice of their relatives, the approval ofthe laws, and the blessing of God.
They are very careful about people who are related by blood. In general they unite in marriage those who share the same outlook and beauty of morals, but also - which is rare elsewhere - those whose godliness is a recommendation. Moral impurity is considered to be the greatest fault, and the laws against it are severe. But since the opportunities have been removed, the crimes are easily avoided."(265)
"If their marriages have any very rough sides they are polished away and smoothed over by the experience of all their friends - as long as no unfaithfulness has taken place, to which they respond with severe punishment. For God too suffers His own pain from our desertion, which comes from forgetting the love of our parents and spouse. Through His love He has shown us His justice, so that we shall both draw back from ingratitude and faithlessness and at the same time punish them."(266)
[Het huwelijk tussen man en vrouw is helemaal ingebed in religieuze opvattingen. Uiteraard is het dan zo dat het huwelijk als een 'heilige eenheid' gezien wordt en ontrouw is dan een misdaad tegen god die streng gestraft moet worden.]
"Whatever human industry can create out of silk, wool or linen is the province and object of women's art. So they leam spinning, sewing, embroidery and weaving, and excel in different ways in their vocations. Tapestry work is the art form of these women, making clothing is their work, laundry is their duty. In addition they have to see to the house and kitchen and keep them clean.
The more gifted they are, the more carefully they cultivate whatever education they have attained, and indeed not so much for the sake of knowledge itself but so as to be able to pass it on one day. They have to keep silent in the church and in council meetings, but nevertheless they mould piety and good moral behaviour, and in this way shine no less in the gifts of heaven."(266-267)
[Vrouwen hebben dus alleen huishoudelijke en verzorgende taken. De ideale vrouw houdt zoals we al zagen haar mond en laat Kerk en Staat aan mannen over, aldus Andreae min of meer. Vrouwen moeten vooral vroom zijn en zich schikken / aanpassen:]
"... real Monicas [Monica was de moeder van Augustinus - GdG] who are devoted to the church, a joy to their parents, content with their husband, patient during widowhood, kind to their children, diligent for their friends, helpful to the needy, obliging to everyone."(267)
"The women have no adornments apart from those mentioned in Peter 3,3 and they have no authority except over household matters."(268)
"The crowning glory of women is their childbearing, which gives them precedence over all the heroes ofthe world ... "(268)
"They place the greatest emphasis on marital purity and set great store by it, so that they do not wear themselves out and weaken themselves with sexual pleasure. While producing offspring is a worthy thing, the heat of sensual desire is to be condemned."(269)
[Het huwelijk is er dus voor de voortplanting. Genieten van seks is niet de bedoeling. Ik had niet anders verwacht ...]
"Since no marriage can withstand death, even closely united married couples must part. If the husband dies, his wife leaves the house and takes herself to the widows' quarters, where she serves the community through some kind of work. A widow may marry again if she wishes, but out of respect for the former loving relationship only after a year. If the wife dies, her husband receives his food from their neighbours or is fed along with others by the community, until after a year he may marry another woman."(269)
"God dislikes haughtiness, marriage pleases Him, widowhood is honoured by Him, virginity is blissful."(270)
Er zijn 24 raadsleden. Mannen.
"They are chosen in equal numbers from the three c1asses and they are honoured as much as they are loved by the people because they have the greatest zeal for the community. The people have not raised these men up so that they may be freed from all virtues, but rather so that they may be a shining example to all. Thus they all show zeal for religion, peace and learning, from which all good things come in abundance."(272)
"They regard the aged of both sexes with the greatest respect and care for them in such a way that they are not afflicted by any hardship, for old age is an illness in itself. They therefore have people who look after the elderly, cheer them up, treat them with honour and ask their advice. For since the strength of both their mind and their body deserts them, they are always in need of support. Because they are weakened by weariness with human life and the memory of so much misfortune, and indeed their own mistakes, they need to be heartened with youthful liveliness."(275)
"They are most charitable and generous towards strangers and foreigners, as I myself, a man of ill fortune, am a striking testimony."(276)
"Since there are different kinds of illness, so also must our compassion take many different forms. The people of Christianopolis observe this very zealously, and they have learned to care for afflicted souls, minds and bodies, and comfort them. This duty is incumbent on everyone, so that if necessary they can help themselves and others. Medicine, surgery and diet are Iikewise there for the sick, and everyone is ready to play his part in it."(277)
"Here lies the most important task and expertise of the women and widows, whom the community entrusts with the gentle tending of the infirm. Naturally they also have hospitals for this purpose."(278)
"People whose mind is disturbed or confused are tolerated within the community if they can be borne; if this is not the case they are looked after very gently. They deal in the same way with deformed people, for reason demands that human society should take a particularly generous interest in those whom nature has treated shabbily ..."(278)
"That these matters are not taken very earnestly among them should not be wondered at, since they hold this life in the lowest regard and pin their hopes on the life to come."(280)
[Allemaal op een religieuze manier ingekaderd, uiteraard.]
"These, Christian reader, are the things I believe I saw and heard in that blessed City of God, and frankly acknowledge I learned there."(280)