and perceived insult taken. It has been like this through history: the enunciation of the Nicean Creed led to riots in which the chroniclers claimed 10,000 were killed in 6th century Byzantium.
The words in this case appear almost to come last.
Asked to comment on Sky TV yesterday morning, the spokeswoman for the conservative Catholic group, Opus Dei, admitted she had not actually read the Regensburg text before going on to pronounce on the affair.
If she had done so, she would have learned that the crucial bit of the text Pope Benedict referred to was a discussion between the Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and a Persian scholar during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402. The Emperor says: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he praised."
To illustrate
his talk at this point with the quotation from the Emperor may have made sense in the context of the structure of the
|
|
 |
 |
 |
| To use the quotation in the context of today’s world seems crass. Politically it was inept |
|
|
Pope's argument, but to use it in the context of today's world, seems crass. Politically it was inept.
Furthermore, the Pope returned to the Emperor's words at the end of his Regensburg talk when he spoke in favour of the use of Greek learning and philosophy by Christianity as against the way it had been absorbed by Islamic scholars. He quoted the Emperor saying: "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos [the Greek word meaning both 'reason' and 'the word', as in the word of the gospel] is contrary to the nature of God."
The Pope concluded: "It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures."
Ironically, in hindsight, the transcript of the Pope's Regensburg address finishes with the line: "The Holy Father intends to supply a subsequent version of this text, complete with footnotes. The present text must therefore be considered provisional".
The Pope has since made it clear that he 
|
