"it was at Jerusalem the feast" - The Right Side and The Wrong Side of 1492

Asakusa, a Tokyo Downtown

The Right Side and The Wrong Side of 1492

In 1492, Columbus started to sail to a new world over the Atlantic Ocean.  But in the same year, corruption of the Vatican reached one of the worst levels.

ALEXANDER VI. (Rodrigo Borgia) (1431-1503), pope from 1492 to his death, is the most memorable of the corrupt and secular popes of the Renaissance. He was born (January 1, 1431) at Xativa, near Valencia in Spain, and his father's surname was Lanzol or Llancol; that of his mother's family, Borgia or Borja, was assumed by him on the elevation of his maternal uncle to the papacy as Calixtus III. (April 8, 1455).
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His manners were agreeable and his appearance fascinating, but, like many other prelates of the day, his morals were far from blameless, his two dominant passions being greed of gold and love of women, and he was devotedly fond of the children whom his mistresses bore him.
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Before his elevation to the papacy Cardinal Borgia's passion for Vannozza somewhat diminished, and she subsequently led a very retired life. Her place in his affections was filled by the beautiful Giulia Farnese (Giulia Bella), wife of an Orsini, but his love for his children by Vannozza remained as strong as ever and proved, indeed, the determining factor of his whole career. He lavished vast sums on them and loaded them with every honour. A characteristic instance of the corruption of the papal court is the fact that Borgia's daughter Lucrezia (see BORGIA, LUCREZIA) lived with his mistress Giulia, who bore him a daughter Laura in 1492.
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On the death of Pope Innocent VIII. the three likely candidates for the Holy See were Cardinals Borgia, Ascanio Sforza and Giuliano della Rovere; at no previous or subsequent election were such immense sums of money spent on bribery, and Borgia by his great wealth succeeded in buying the largest number of votes, including that of Sforza, and to his intense joy he was elected on the 10th of August 1492, assuming the name of Alexander VI. Borgia's elevation did not at the time excite much alarm, except in some of the cardinals who knew him, and at first his reign was marked by a strict administration of justice and an orderly method of government in satisfactory contrast with the anarchy of the previous pontificate, as well as by great outward splendour. But it was not long before his unbridled passion for endowing his relatives at the expense of the church and of his neighbours became manifest. For this object he was ready to commit any crime and to plunge all Italy into war.

http://historymedren.about.com/od/aentries/a/11_pope_alex6.htm 

So, history tells us that when Europe was on the verge of irredeemable corruption symbolized by the emergence of a putrid Pope, God gave another big chance for salvation to mankind through Columbus.

The historical fact that the two incidents occurred in the same year means that the so-called discovery of America and the religious standstill of Christianity movement led by the Vatican represent the right side and the wrong side of a coin.

If there was no American Continent and the Atlantic and the Pacific formed one super-big ocean, Columbus could not have reached anywhere and Europe would have been morally degraded irremediably.

It is not simple to see how and what good influences the discovery of America had on the status of the Vatican and Christianity, but it is also a historical fact that the Vatican threw heavily itself to missions in South America.  As the incumbent Pope is from Argentina, Latin America must have given a kind of breakthrough in spirit of the Vatican.  Of course, their missions to Africa and Asia also contributed to uplift of morale of the Vatican.  But, Popes and other Vatican bishops must have felt a divine providence in the discovery of the new world, America.  They had then found a new stage to redo their stalemated religious missions despite the emergence of corrupt Popes such as Alexander VI.

It is a lesson to lean from incidents in 1492.

Today, the world has become more complicated.  But the emergence of horrible Islamic terrorists and ISIS must be balanced with something hopeful.  So then, what is the right side of a coin this time?





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Joh 10:22 And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.
Joh 10:23 And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.
Joh 10:24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.