[Note: All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]
THE EARLY BENEDICTINE CLERGY *
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Pope Felix IV (526-530 AD.) asked St. Benedict of
Nursia to establish an order of highly motivated and well-educated monks to
evangelize Western Europe. This
involved the introduction into these lands of a new culture, a foreign
religion and many new languages. Nyland
(2001) suggested that this was a very tall order, because each group of monks
was instructed to:
DIFFICULT TIMES
FOR THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
The task assigned to Benedict was to train monks to go
out into western Europe and create a Roman Catholic Christian presence in
areas where many Gnostic Christian missionaries from Ireland had long been
active. After the Benedictine monks had established themselves in secure
monasteries they were to do everything within their power to destroy not only
the deep-rooted belief in the very ancient Ashera
religion with its supreme Goddess, but also to re-evangelize the areas where
Gnostic evangelists from Ireland had spread their own Gospels. Most of these
were very different from those in the New Testament. (See "The Gnostic
Gospels" by Elaine Pagels, Vintage Books 1989). The name 'Gnostic' is shorthand for five agglutinated words: .g. - no - os. -
.ti - ik.
The only thing the two forms of Christianity could
agree on was the teachings of Christ, and even here were differences; all
other aspects were at odds. It was considered of great urgency to teach
orthodox Christianity because the Gnostic missionaries had already converted
all of Ireland to their particular type of worship and were having great
success in large parts of the continent. These evangelists had no real
disagreement with the ancient Goddess faith, its culture or its language. They were on talking terms with the
abade, the male clergy of the Ashera religion, many of whom they converted to
Christianity to become the most dedicated and enthusiastic evangelists of the
Gnostic Christian church. In short time they spread their form of
Christianity over much of western Europe, establishing numerous monasteries
in England, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and Spain. One of the best known Benedictines, Bonifacius, was
disgusted with the looks of these energetic and incorruptible monks. In the
style of the abade of the Goddess religion they painted their upper eyelids
purple, shaved the front half of their heads from ear to ear (instead of a
circle on top of the head like the Benedictines) and wore long white woolen
cloaks, which made them recognizable and highly respected among the peoples
they set out to convert. The free-spirited Gnostic Christianity they preached
was abhorrent to Bonifacius who complained to the Pope and asked him to place
two of them, the respected monks Adalbert and Clement the Irishman, into
solitary confinement. At the same time, these two gentlemen reported
Bonifacius to the same Pope asking that Bonifacius be removed because of his
inconsiderate and ruthless behaviour. The Pope was caught in the middle. The R.C.
church could not do without either of the complainants because the Irish
monks would preach in the universal (Saharan/Basque) language of the people
and introduce a basic Christianity to the people. These Gnostic evangelists
were very welcome wherever they went and, most important of all, they never
had to worry about personal safety. On the contrary, many of the dogmatic
orthodox missionaries, Bonifacius among them, were martyred in the
evangelizing process in areas where the Gnostic monks had not done their
"softening-up" work first. The town where St. Boniface was murdered is said to be
Dokkum in Friesland. However, the translation of the name of the nearby town
of Drachten appears to indicate that he may have been killed there. Like Gnostic,
Drachten is shorthand for a sentence of five words: .d.-.ra-ak.-.te-en:
Irish Gnostic Christianity proved to be popular among
the people of the continent. It was
considered a refinement and natural growth of the ancient religion. They also
promised to end the voluntary sacrifice of a worthy young man. The ease with
which the Gnostic monks successfully converted the people of Western Europe
was a most unnerving threat to the ambitious Roman Catholic Church. The
church fathers' plan to bring Orthodox Christianity to this huge area was
being pre-empted by this "heretical cult". The word "Heretic"
was especially coined for them by a church-grammarian and means: he - ere - eti -
ik.:
a most unfair label for these selfless
and dedicated followers of Christ. The Roman Catholic leadership decided it
had to do something drastic and proceeded with an aggressive and far-reaching
solution. SCHOLARLY EVANGILISTS
The search was on for a highly educated, strong-minded
and absolutely devoted man to organize a monastic Order of disciplined,
scholarly commandos to thrust into the opponents' territory, to courageously and
aggressively establish monasteries and to bring the "right" form of
Christianity to the "heathens" of the Ashera religion. The search
for this super apostle ended in 528 when Benedict was found, who was then
approximately 48 years old. He quickly was given all necessary resources and
support to build and staff the headquarters for his new Order. He was to
train monks for the dangerous and almost overwhelming task of evangelizing
all of western Europe. The name he was given by the Pope was "Benedict
of Nursia", analyzed with the VCV formula: .be-ene-edi-ik.-.t.
.nu- ur. - .si -
i.a
Benedict's new monastic order was awarded a distinctive
habit, which was a loose black gown tied around the waist with a rope, with
large wide sleeves and a cowl on the head, similar in design to what had been
worn by the Gnostic St. Pachomius and his anchorite brothers of the Sinai
monastery some centuries before. Black was chosen to clearly distinguish the
Benedictines from the white-robed Gnostic monks. Black clothes had also been
adopted many centuries before by the Luwian pre-Hebraic clergy, who wanted to
be distinguished from the white-gowned abadeak (priests) of the Ashera
religion, who had been given the derogatory title: Druids .d. - .ru - id. Benedict's first action was to get organized in the
area of Subiaco, east of Rome, while he searched for a
suitable headquarters site. .su-ubi-ako
This refers to the voluntary sacrificial death of a
young man in the whirlpool of Corrivreckan 70 km west of Glasgow. This event,
which occurred once every eight years, was of course unacceptable to the Christian
church and the name Subiaco became the Benedictines' rallying cry and they
even carved it on pre-Christian standing stones in Ireland, using Ogam
characters (e.g. Llominaca #121, Litubiri #131, Lubbais #152, Corbi #244,
Caveti #433, see Macalister). The task was of such importance that the Pope
ordered Benedict not to deal with any bishops or other intermediaries but to
report directly to him on all matters. The general had given his marching
orders and the commando units would soon fan out over Western Europe to
spread their own variety of Christianity, which had married Christianity to
Judaism. The Pope's order to have Benedict report directly to him applied to
every Benedictine Abbot from then on, until rescinded in 1893 by Pope Leo
XIII who created the office of the Abbot Primate of the Federation of
Autonomous Congregations. EARLY YEARS OF
ST. BENEDICT
No
reliable information exists about Benedict's birth but it is estimated that
he was born in 480 and lived until 547. As an educated young man from a
well-to-do family, he had observed the shocking licentiousness of life in
Rome. In his early twenties he decided upon a life as an ascetic and then
spent three years living the life of a hermit, first near Enfide in the
Simbruinian Hills, later to move into the cave of Sacro Speco, above the lake
then existing near Nero's ruined palace at Subiaco, some 65 km east of Rome. Sacro
Speco decodes as: .sa-ak.-.ro
.spe-eko
There were several small monasteries near Subiaco and
he was asked to become abbot of one of these. Although bored stiff, the young
man denied the offer and returned to his cave, where he then came to the
conclusion that self-torment in solitude was not nearly as constructive as
group living, communal worship and doing good works. By now the fame of his
sanctity was spreading and disciples started to flock to him. To take care of
his many devoted followers he organized twelve monastic homes, each with 12
novices, patterned after Christ's 12 apostles, with himself in general
control. Senators and other influential people came from Rome to offer their
sons to be trained as monks under his direction and two of these young men,
Maurus and Placid, became his lifelong trusted disciples. Maurus
is a contraction of Marurus: .ma - aru - uru
- us.
Placid
Many of his associates followed him to Monte Cassino.
To this day Subiaco is considered the mother-house of the Benedictine Order,
but the use of the name as a rallying cry has been forgotten. The militant
aspect of the new Order was clearly demonstrated in the type of site chosen
for their main monastery. The summit of a rocky hill located between Rome and
Naples was selected, which had been a major holy Ashera site of the Volski
people. At one time the town of Casinum had existed there in the 5th century
bce. This action set the example for all future monasteries to be
established; when entering a new region, it became a tradition for the monks
to conquer the most important religious center of Ashera, devastate it,
desecrate the holy well and cave, cleanse the site by prayer and build a
monastery on the ruins. On the mainland these sites had usually been on very
prominent locations, steep rocky hills or centrally located islands, preferably
near a year-round flowing well and sacred cave. On the Atlantic islands the
Sea-Peoples had chosen similar sites if they were available, such as Mont St.
Michel in Normandy, Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, England and Talamhantu on
Barra, Scotland. Where such prominent sites were not available, small and
centrally located islands had been selected with the result that a few of the
new Benedictine monasteries ended up in some of the most out-of-the-way
places, only accessible by boat, which created problems for the landlubbers
among the monks, e.g. Iona.(Scotland) and Griend (Friesland). There was a
practical side to this aggressive action, because these were the sites where
very large stone monuments, such as barrow tombs, had existed, the stones of
which were then put to good use in the new monastery construction. The other
major Ashera sites, which had not been used by the monks, were leveled with
the ground, e.g. the Talamhantu center on the Isle of Barra. Benedict named
his first monastery: Monte Cassino. It is desirable to explain this name
because the theme expressed in it would be repeated over and over in many of
the later establishments. "Monte Cassino" .mo - on. -
.te
The word "monte" therefore means a "welcoming
refuge", which later was used for the French word "mont" and
English "mount and mountain". Benedict's sister, Scholastica,
established a convent near Monte Cassino.
She was allowed to adopt for her nuns the same habit as the monks
wore. Her name comes from: .skola-asti-ika
Another major Benedictine monastery using
"mont" was built in northeastern Spain called Mont Serrat, also built on a
high rock outcrop .mo-on.-.t.
.se - er. - .ra
- at.
In the above text, some of the important names of the
Benedictines are translated. All of their names can be readily translated
with the use of the VCV formula and the modern Basque dictionary which means
that this language has changed very little over the last 1500 years. Even the
name "Vatican"
proves to be pure Basque when analyzed with the VCV formula: .ba - ati - ika
- an.
The fact that the pre-Christian, universal language is
still clearly discernable in the majority of words and names we speak means
that an important element of the Neolithic civilization is still with us in a
very fundamental way. BENEDICTINE CLERGY DAILY ROUTINES
After some years on the job, Abbot Benedict realized
that much greater discipline among the monks was required if the Pope's
enormous ambitions were to be realized. In about 535 A.D. he wrote his "Little
Rule for Beginners" known as the "Rule of St
Benedict", which provided complete instructions for monastic government,
spiritual and material well-being. The "Little Rule" dictated a
routine that filled day and night and established a highly disciplined
pattern, later adopted by other monastic orders. The Rule divided the day
into strict periods of prayer, sleep, intellectual and manual work. It wasn't
long before the Monte Cassino monastery was renowned for its teaching,
scholarship, devoutness and above all, its discipline. The novices were put
through a tough training course and had to perform as was expected of them or
else they were punished, often with floggings. It was the first Orthodox
Christian place of higher learning in western Europe and its methods of
corporal discipline carried on into later secular institutions. The activities in the scriptorium section of the
monastery were two-fold, one was public and the other secret. To outsiders it
was a workshop where monks preserved and multiplied Christian writings and
where the ancient legends and myths of the people were written down and
preserved for eternity. Scriptorium: .s. - .k. - .ri
- ip. - .to - ori - um.
What the public did not find out about until later was
the work the "grammarians" did. These highly skilled professional
linguists, some were monks, others were Ligurian laymen, were hard at work at
Monte Cassino developing Latin as the Christian liturgical language, to
replace the Ligurian tongue which was still spoken by a majority of inhabitants
of Italy. They also trained specialists in the art and science of language
invention, to be put into practice in areas the monks were evangelizing in
the north. To make up new Latin words, they made use of the eolithic
language, which in reality was the Saharan/Basque/Ligurian language. The
scriptorium was the only place in the monastery where the ancient language
was allowed to be spoken and consequently was out-of-bounds to all those not
involved in language invention. The name Ligurian tells us
what was in store for it: li-igu-uri-an
The church was not entirely successful in reaching this
goal in northern Italy because Rhaeto-Romance, also called Ladin, is the last
remnant of Ligurian still spoken in a few out-of-the-way valleys in the Alps
(Lahovari). THE PRE-CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
Another task assigned to the Order was the gathering,
translating and censoring of large numbers of classical Greek and Roman
writings. In the process of translating, these documents were cleansed of all
references to the global pre-Christian civilization and religion, its
elaborate rituals, celebrations, sacraments and other unwanted wisdom, all
aimed at wiping out any memories of this very early and peaceful
civilization. Those references to the Ashera religion that remained, were
twisted routinely to put the ancient religion in a cruel or decadent light,
always referring to it as pagan, heathen, idolatrous, savage, barbaric, cruel
etc. often followed by "cult", something despicable. Many years
later Charlemagne re-enforced this policy by making it an official order in
his Edict #78, dated March 23, 789. It read: #78. "let no false writings and doubtful narratives,
records which entirely contradict the Catholic Faith, ....let not such
documents be believed or read, but be destroyed by fire, lest they lead
people into error. Only the canonical books and Catholic treatises and the
sayings of sacred writers are to be read and delivered" (Duckett p122). After the censor's work was done, the original document
containing the objectionable passages was burned as ordered, even if it had
been borrowed from elsewhere, in which case a cleansed copy was returned. The
censored manuscript was then sent to the copiers in the scriptorium for
multiplication. Epics like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Apollonius' Voyage of
the Argo and many others were thus censored and shorn of any favorable
references to the previously omnipresent supreme Goddess and Her
civilization. This savage censoring has done enormous harm to the wonderful
classical and ancient literature which had been passed on by word of mouth
for many centuries without change. Much of this historical information was
located in several world class institutes of learning such as the famous Library of
Classical Antiquity at
Alexandria, founded by the Ptolemies about 300 bce. Another famous library was started by Ptolemy III in
the Temple of
Saragis. The knowledge contained in these institutes left no
doubt that a world-wide civilization speaking a universal language (Genesis
11:1) had existed before the coming of Judaism and the library's existence
was a major irritation for the Christian church in Rome, which had decided to
deny the existence of this Neolithic civilization. As the church had no
direct control over these educational facilities, special action was
necessary. The oldest and best library was targeted first and burned just
before 300 A.D. The satellite library in the Temple of Saragis was
attacked and burned in 391 A.D. The confusing inconsistencies, the invented
and inserted mythologies and glaring gaps in the Odyssey and the travelogue
of the Argonauts are obviously the work of crude censorship. But the ancient
oral traditions were never completely eradicated by the church and to this
day are remembered as folklore and myths which make it possible to get some
idea about the early civilization of our ancestors. Any "heathen" population was invariably
described in these censored documents as having its own primitive and
distinct language, which covered up the fact that they had all been speaking
exactly the same highly evolved universal language. Many early personal and
geographical names, even words, managed to survive unaltered, which allowed
me to prove that all the tribes had spoken the same language. It is true
that, after Emperor Charlemagne's reign, no more classical literature was
lost due to fire, wars or neglect, however, it is also true that all the
surviving literature which had gone though Charlemagne's cleansing sieve, was
severely mutilated, often rendered useless and embellished with phony
information. Not until archaeologists discovered the huge libraries of clay
tablets in long-ruined palaces of the Near East, dating from classical and
ancient civilizations, would we have access to authentic, unaltered original
literature. Even so, when documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library were discovered
early in the 20th century, the church managed to assign trusted censors who
succeeded in delaying and obstructing release for many decades, to the point
where we do not know today how much of the literature disappeared or was
hidden before the remainder was made public. OPERATIONS MANUAL OF THE BENEDICTINES
We would not have known about the activities inside the
protecting walls of the scriptorium, were it not for an amazing book called
the "Auraicept
na n'Ecez", the Benedictines' operational manual (see Ogam ). Parts of this
book dated from different centuries, the earliest we have are from about 700
A.D., but it must have been first initiated the moment language invention was
started in Monte Cassino. There is little doubt that this manual was
confidential and should not have been released to the public. However, some
parts of it found their way to the British Museum in London and Trinity
College in Dublin and are now available in print (Calder) and reprinted
recently in Ireland. Irish scholars insisted that the book was written in
"Celtic" but were unable to provide a single translation that made
sense, although they tried very hard. The language of the Auraicept is Basque, more accurately:
coded Basque, which can be decoded by using the VCV formula and a modern
Basque dictionary, as shown. In the Auraicept
it is described how the grammarians made up languages and that they took a
great deal of pride in their work as for instance the Auraicept indicates in: Beithe-luis-nin (Auraicept lines 1057, 1134, 4013) (Nyland 2001). .be - ite
lu - is. ni - in.
Some of the linguists who knew the universal language
best, worked on specially organized dictionaries for the use of the
grammarians, the creative minds who assembled the words using pre-determined
linguistic rules. Nyland (2001) thought
that for a short time, the Benedictine clergy in Ireland made good use of the
pre-Christian Ogam writing system. Between 500 and 1500 A.D. these hard
working Basque-speaking grammarians created all west- and central European
languages, including Celtic, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian,
Scandinavian, even Finnish and Polish, an enormous accomplishment. LEARNING CENTERS
In order to get an idea of the extent of the
Benedictine effort and the long time period over which their efforts were
spread, Some of the most important monasteries and scriptoria are listed,
complete with dates of establishment, if these are available.
The very first monasteries created by the Benedictines
were probably small establishments with limited staff, similar to the
monastic houses that Benedict had established near Subiaco. These were well
suited for initial take-over of the new site, exploratory evangelical work
and scouting out of new locations and attitudes, but inadequate for sustained
social development, language invention and language introduction, which
required a much larger and more diverse establishment. Benedictine establishments were known as "Missions", which word expresses the
purpose of the order, seen from the monks' point of view. The following
analysis shows that "Mission" was originally
written with one "s", .mi - isi - on.:
|