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Hugh Binning

Hugh Binning (1627–1653) was a Scottish philosopher and theologian. He was born in Scotland during the reign of Charles I and was ordained in the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland. He died in 1653, during the time of Oliver Cromwell and the Commonwealth of England.

Personal life
Hugh Binning was the son of John Binning of Dalvennan, Straiton, South Ayrshire. and Margaret M'Kell. Margaret was the daughter of Matthew McKell, who was a minister in the parish of Bothwell, Scotland, and sister of Hugh M'Kell, a minister in Edinburgh. Some authors suggest that Matthew M'Kell was either the grandfather or uncle to Hugh M'Kail (sometimes Hugh M'Kell), which would make Hugh M'Kail a brother-in-law to Hugh Binning. The spelling of names was not as precise in those days, e.g. when describing Hugh Binning in the same document, there are variations of the spelling of the Binning name. Hugh M’Kell was arrested for being concerned in the insurrection at Pentland Rising. Hugh M'Keil was imprisoned and tortured (his foot was mangled to the point of compound fractures using the boot). In the end, M'Kell was executed in Edinburgh on 22 December 1666 because he would not sign the Test Act—because his preaching would not conform to the Anglican tradition. "The address of young M’Kail on the scaffold concluded with these sublime expressions—"“Farewell, father and mother, friends and relations. Farewell the world, and all delights. Farewell meat and drink. Farewell sun, moon and stars. Welcome God and Father! Welcome sweet Lord Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant! Welcome blessed Spirit of grace, and God of all consolation! Welcome glory! Welcome eternal life! Welcome death!" We are told by Kirkton that “when Mr. M’Kail died, there was such a lamentation as was never known in Scotland before, not one dry cheek upon all the street or in all the numberless windows in the market place". It was discovered afterwards, that Alexander Burnet, then the archbishop of Glasgow, had in his possession at the time, a letter from the king, forbidding any more blood to be shed. But to the disgrace of his sacred profession, and of his feelings as a man, "Burnet let the execution go on, before he produced his letter, pretending there was no council day between". (Binning, Hugh (24 March 2011) The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning (Kindle Locations 20474-20487)) Binning was born on his father's estate in Dalvennan. The family owned other lands in the parishes of Straiton and Colmonell as well as Maybole in Carrick.

A precocious child, Binning was admitted to the study of philosophy at the University of Glasgow at age thirteen. Binning has been described as "an extraordinary instance of precocious learning and genius."

In 1645, James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, who was Hugh's master (primary professor) in the study of philosophy, announced he was retiring from the University of Glasgow. Dalrymple was afterward President of the Court of Session, and Viscount Stair. After a national search for a replacement on the faculty, three men were selected to compete for the position. Binning was one of those selected, but was at a disadvantage because of his extreme youth and because he was not of noble birth. However, he had strong support from the existing faculty, who suggested that the candidates speak extemporaneously on any topic of the candidate's choice. After hearing Hugh speak, the other candidates withdrew, making Hugh a regent and professor of philosophy, while he was still 18 years old.

On 7 February 1648, (at the age of 21) Hugh was appointed an Advocate before the Court of Sessions (an attorney). In the same year, he married Barbara Simpson (sometimes called Mary), daughter of James Simpson a minister in Ireland. Their son, John, was born in 1650.

Binning became a minister on 25 October 1649. As minister of Govan, he was the successor of William Wilkie. His ordination took place on 8 January 1649, when Mr David Dickson, one of the theological professors at the College of Glasgow, and author of Therapeutica Sacra, presided. He was ordained in January, at the age of 22, holding his regency until 14 May that year. At that time Govan was a separate town rather than part of Glasgow.

Hugh died around September 1653 and was buried in the churchyard of Govan, where Patrick Gillespie, then principal of the University of Glasgow, ordered a monument inscribed in Latin, roughly translated: "Here lies Mr. Hugh Binning, a man distinguished for his piety and eloquence, learned in philology, philosophy, and theology, a Prelate, faithful to the Gospel, and finally an excellent preacher. In the middle of a series of events, he was taken at the age of 26, in the year of our Lord 1653. Alive, he changed the society of his own land because he walked with God. And if you wish to make other inquires, the rest should keep silence, since neither you nor the marble can comprehend it."

Hugh's widow, Barbara (or Mary), then remarried James Gordon, an Anglican priest at Cumber in Ireland. Together they had a daughter,Jean who married Daniel MacKenzie, who was on the winning side of the Battle of Bothwell Bridge serving as an ensign under Lieutenant-Colonel William Ramsay (who became the third Earl of Dalhousie), in the Earl of Mar's Regiment of Foot.

Binning's son, John Binning, married Hanna Keir, who was born in Ireland. The Binnings were Covenanters, a resistance movement that objected to the return of Charles II (who was received into the Catholic Church on his deathbed). They were on the losing side in the 1679 Battle of Bothwell Bridge. Most of the rebels who were not executed were exiled to the Americas; about 30 Covenanters were exiled to the Carolinas on the Carolina Merchant in 1684. After the battle, John and Hanna were separated.

In the aftermath of the battle at Bothwell Bridge, Hugh Binning's widow (now Barbara Gordon) tried to reclaim the family estate at Dalvennan by saying that John and his wife owed his stepfather a considerable some of money. The legal action was successful and Dalvennan became the possession of John's half-sister Jean, and her husband Daniel MacKenzie. In addition, Jean came into possession of Hanna Keir's property in Ireland.

By 1683, Jean was widowed. John Binning was branded a traitor, was sentenced to death and forfeited his property to the Crown. John's wife (Hanna Keir) was branded as a traitor and forfeited her property in Ireland. In 1685, Jean "donated" the Binning family's home at Dalvennan and other properties, along with the Keir properties, to Roderick MacKenzie, who was a Scottish advocate of James II (James VII of Scotland), and the baillie of Carrick. According to an act of the Scottish Parliament, Roderick MacKenzie was also very effective in "suppressing the rebellious, fanatical party in the western and other shires of this realm, and putting the laws to vigorous execution against them".

Since Bothwell Bridge, Hanna had been hiding from the authorities. In 1685, Hanna was in Edinburgh where she was found during a sweep for subversives and imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, a combination city hall and prison. Those arrested with Hanna were exiled to North America, however, she developed dysentery and remained behind. By 1687, near death, Hanna petitioned the Privy Council of Scotland for her release; she was exiled to her family in Ireland, where she died around 1692. In 1690, the Scottish Parliament rescinded John's fines and forfeiture, but he was unable to recover his family's estates, the courts suggesting that he had relinquished his claim to Dalvennan in exchange for forgiveness of debt, rather than forfeiture.

There is little documentation about John after his wife's death. John received a small income from royalties on his father's works after parliament extended copyrights on Binning's writings to him. However, the income was not significant and John made several petitions to the Scottish parliament for money, the last occurring in 1717. It is thought that he died in Somerset county, in southwestern England.

He died of consumption at the age of 26 on September 1653. He was remarkably popular as a preacher, having been considered "the most accomplished philosopher and divine in his time, and styled the Scottish Cicero." He married (cont. 17 May 1650), Mary (who died at Paisley in 1694) and had a son, John of Dalvennan. She was the daughter of Richard Simson, minister of Sprouston. After John's early death Mary married her second husband, James Gordon, minister of Comber, in Ireland. A marble tablet, with an inscription in classical Latin, was erected to his memory by his friend Mr Patrick Gillespie, who was then Principal of the University of Glasgow. It has been placed in the vestibule of the present parish church. The whole of his works are posthumous publications.

He was a follower of James Dalrymple. In later life, he was well known as an evangelical Christian.

Impact of the Commonwealth
Hugh Binning was born two years after Charles I became monarch of England, Ireland, and Scotland. At the time, each was an independent country sharing the same monarch. The Acts of Union 1707 integrated Scotland and England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Acts of Union 1800 integrated Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The period was dominated by both political and religious strife between the three independent countries. Religious disputes centered on questions such as whether religion was to be dictated by the monarch or was to be the choice of the people, and whether individuals had a direct relationship with God or needed to use an intermediary. Civil disputes centered on debates about the extent of the King's power (a question of the Divine right of kings), and specifically whether the King had the right to raise taxes and armed forces without the consent of the governed. These wars ultimately changed the relationship between king and subjects.

In 1638, the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland voted to remove bishops and the Book of Common Prayer that had been introduced by Charles I to impose the Anglican model on the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Public riots followed, culminating in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, an interrelated series of conflicts that took place in the three countries. The first conflict, which was also the first of the Bishops' Wars, took place in 1639 and was a single border skirmish between England and Scotland, also known as the war the armys did not wanted to fight.

To maintain his English power base, Charles I made secret alliances with Catholic Ireland and Presbyterian Scotland to invade Anglican England, promising that each country could establish their own separate state religion. Once these secret entreaties became known to the English Long Parliament, the Congregationalist faction (of which Oliver Cromwell was a primary spokesman) took matters into its own hands and Parliament established an army separate from the King. Charles I was executed in January 1649, which led to the rule of Cromwell and the establishment of the Commonwealth. The conflicts concluded with The English Restoration of the monarchy and the return of Charles II in 1660.

The Act of Classes was passed by the Parliament of Scotland on 23 January 1649; the act banned Royalists (people supporting the monarchy) from holding political or military office. In exile, Charles II signed the Treaty of Breda (1650) with the Scottish Parliament; among other things, the treaty established Presbyterianism as the national religion. Charles was crowned King of Scots at Scone in January 1651. By September 1651, Scotland was annexed by England, its legislative institutions abolished, Presbyterianism dis-established, and Charles was forced into exile in France.

The Scottish Parliament rescinded the Act of Classes in 1651, which produced a split within Scottish society. The sides of the conflict were called the Resolutioners (who supported the rescission of the act – supported the monarchy and the Scottish House of Stewart) and the Protesters (who supported Cromwell and the Commonwealth); Binning sided with the Protestors. Binning joined the Protesters in 1651. When Cromwell had sent troops to Scotland, he was also attempting to dis-establish Presbyterianism and the Church of Scotland, Binning spoke against Cromwell's act.

On Saturday 19 April 1651, Cromwell entered Glasgow and the next day he heard a sermon by three ministers who condemned him for invading Scotland. That evening, Cromwell summoned those ministers and others, to a debate on the issue. a discussion on some of the controverted points of the times was held in his presence, between his chaplains, the learned Dr John Owen, Joseph Caryl, and others on the one side, and some Scots ministers on the other. Mr. Binning, who was one of the disputants, apparently nonplussed the Independents, which led Cromwell to ask who the learned and bold young man was. Told it was Binning, he said: "He hath bound well, indeed," ... " but, laying his hand on his sword, this will lose all again." The late Mr. Orme was of the opinion that there is nothing improbable in the account of the meeting, but that such a meeting took place is certain. This appears from two letters which were written by Principal Robert Baillie, who was then Professor of Theology at the University of Glasgow.At the debate, Rev Hugh Binning is said to have out-debated Cromwell's ministers so completely that he silenced them.

Politics
Hugh Binning's political views were based on his theology. Binning was a Covenanter, a movement that began in Scotland at Greyfriars Kirkyard in 1638 with the National Covenant and continued with the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant—in effect a treaty between the English Long Parliament and Scotland for the preservation of the reformed religion in exchange for troops to confront the threat of Irish Catholic troops joining the Royalist army. Binning could also be described as a Protestor; both political positions were taken because of their religious implications. However, he saw the evils of the politics of his day was not a "fomenter of factions" writing "A Treatise of Christian Love" as a response.

Theology
Because of the tumultuous time in which Hugh Binning lived, politics and religion were inexorably intertwined. Binning was a Calvinist and follower of John Knox. As a profession, Binning was trained as a Philosopher, and he believed that philosophy was the servant of theology. He thought that both Philosophy and Theology should be taught in parallel. Binning's writing, which is primarily a collection of his sermons, "forms an important bridge between the 17th century, when philosophy in Scotland was heavily dominated by Calvinism, and the 18th century when figures such as Francis Hutcheson re-asserted a greater degree of independence between the two and allied philosophy with the developing human sciences."

Religiously, Hugh Binning was, what we would call today, an Evangelical Calvinist. He spoke on the primacy of God's love as the ground of salvation: "... our salvation is not the business of Christ alone, but the whole Godhead is interested in it deeply, so deeply that you cannot say who loves it most, or who likes it most. The Father is the very fountain of it, his love is the spring of all."

With regards to the extent of the 'atonement', Hugh Binning, did not hold that the offer of redemption applied only to the few that are elect but said that "the ultimate ground of faith is in the electing will of God." In Scotland, during the 1600s, the questions concerning atonement revolved around the terms in which the offer was expressed.

Binning believed that "forgiveness is based on Christ's death, understood as a satisfaction and as a sacrifice: 'If he had pardoned sin without any satisfaction what rich grace it had been! But truly, to provide the Lamb and sacrifice himself, to find out the ransom, and to exact it of his own Son, in our name, is a testimony of mercy and grace far beyond that. But then, his justice is very conspicuous in this work'."

Works
All of the works of Hugh Binning were published posthumously and were primarily collections of his sermons. Of his speaking style, it was said: "There is originality without any affectation, a rich imagination, without anything fanciful or extravert, the utmost simplicity, without an thing mean or trifling."
 * The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, Clearly Proved, and Singularly Improved; or, A Practical Catechism published by Patrick Gillespie in 1660 An analysis of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The work was translated into Dutch in 1678 by James Koelman, a minister of Sluys in Flanders.

(The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, fulltext) Quotations from the publication include:
 * On the love of God
 * And what is love but the very motion of the soul to God? And so till it have attained that, to be in him, it can find no place of rest.
 * On the free grace of the Gospel
 * I am guilty, and can say nothing against it, while I stand alone. But though I cannot satisfy, and have not; yet there is one, Jesus Christ, who gave his life a ransom for many, and whom God hath given as a propitiation for sins. He hath satisfied and paid the debt in my name; go and apprehend the cautioner, since he hath undertaken it, nay, he hath done it, and is absolved.
 * On Learning
 * Be not ignorant as beasts, that know no other things than to follow the drove; quæ pergunt, non quo eundum est, sed quo itur; they follow not whither they ought to go, but whither most go. You are men, and have reasonable souls within you; therefore I beseech you, be not composed and fashioned according to custom and example, that is, brutish, but according to some inward knowledge and reason. Retire once from the multitude, and ask in earnest at God, What is the way? Him that fears him he will teach the way that he should choose. The way to his blessed end is very strait, very difficult; you must have a guide in it,—you must have a lamp and a light in it,—else you cannot but go wrong.

 * Sinner's Sanctuary, being forty Sermons upon the eighth Chapter of the Epistle of the Romans, from the First Verse down to the Eighteenth. a treatise originally published in 1670
 * Fellowship with God, being Twenty Eight Sermons on the First Epistle of John, Chap. 1st and Chap. 2nd, Verses 1, 2, 3. a treatise originally published in 1671 by "A.S. who in the preferace to the reader, styles himself, his servant in the gosple of our dearest Lord and Savior"
 * Heart Humiliation or Miscellany Sermons, preached upon some choice texts at several solemn occasions. originally published in 1676 by the same A.S. that published the treatice "Fellowship with God". The first of the sermons was preached July 1650
 * An Useful Case of Conscience, Learnedly and Accurately Discussed and Resolved, Concerning Associations and Confederacies with Idolaters, Infidels, Heretics, Malignants or any other Known Enemies of Truth and Godliness.  The treatise was used by the Covenanters and seems to have been originally published in Holland in 1693.  There is a reference to the treatise at a "general meeting of Society people ... at Edinburgh 28 May 1683." The treatise expressed the opinion that Scotland should not support Charles I without some restraint placed on relatively absolute royal power and without assurance the Presbyterian religion could be maintained. The documents seem to have been presented to the Society either by Hugh Binning's son, John, or his widow, Barbara Gordon (who remarried about 1657 to James Gordon; he was born in Ireland and became a minister at Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland.)  (An Useful Case of Conscience, fulltext). In the treatise Binning writes:
 * Where God hath given us liberty by the law of nature, or his word, no king can justly tie us, and when God binds and obliges us by any of these, no king or parliament can loose or untie us.

 * A Treatise of Christian Love a sermon based on John 13:35, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another” and 1 Corinthians 13. Binning explores the concept that as a believer in Christ, there is a need for Christians to show by their love for one another. (A Treatise of Christian Love, fulltext) Binning argues:
 * But Christ’s last words persuade this, that unity in affection is more essential and fundamental. This is the badge he left to his disciples. If we cast away this upon every different apprehension of mind, we disown our Master, and disclaim his token and badge.
 * On Charity
 * Charity "thinketh no evil." [1 Cor. 13:5] Charity is apt to take all things in the best sense. If a thing may be subject to diverse acceptations, it can put the best construction on it. It is so benign and good in its own nature that it is not inclinable to suspect others. It desires to condemn no man, but would gladly, as far as reason and conscience will permit, absolve every man. It is so far from desire of revenge, that it is not provoked or troubled with an injury. For that were nothing else but to wrong itself because others have wronged it already, and it is so far from wronging others, that it will not willingly so much as think evil of them. Yet if need requires, charity can execute justice, and inflict chastisement, not out of desire of another’s misery, but out of love and compassion to mankind. Charitas non punit quia peccatum est, sed ne peccaretur, it looks more to prevention of future sin, than to revenge of a bypast fault, and can do all without any discomposure of spirit, as a physician cuts a vein without anger. Quis enim cut medetur irascitur? "Who is angry at his own patient?"

 * In 1735, the collections of Binning's works were published posthumously, originally edited by M. Leishman, a minister who was a later successor to Hugh in the parish of Govan, which contained sermons not previously published. There have been several editions of The Complete Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning, one of the latest (Classic Reprint) was published by Forgotten Books in 2012.

title: Hugh Binning


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Henry Home, Lord Kames

Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696 – 27 December 1782) was a Scottish writer, philosopher, and judge who played a major role in Scotland's Agricultural Revolution. A central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, he was a founding member of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh and active in The Select Society. Home acted as patron to some of the most influential thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment, including philosopher David Hume, economist Adam Smith, writer James Boswell, philosopher William Cullen and naturalist John Walker.

Life
Henry Home was born in 1696 at Kames House, between Eccles and Birgham in Berwickshire. Henry was the son of George Home of Kames, and was homeschooled by Mr Wingate, a private tutor, until the age of 16. In 1712, Home was apprenticed as a lawyer under a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh, and was called to the Scottish bar as an advocate bar in 1724. He soon acquired reputation by a number of publications on the civil and Scottish law, and was one of the leaders of the Scottish Enlightenment. In 1752, he was "raised to the bench", thus acquiring the title of Lord Kames.

Kames held an interest in the development and production of linen in Scotland. Kames was one of the original proprietors of the British Linen Company, serving as a director of the company from 1754 to 1756. Kames was on the panel of judges in the Knight v. Wedderburn case which ruled that slavery was illegal in Scotland. In 1775, he lived in a townhouse in Canongate. The house was located the head of the street's east side, facing onto the Canongate.

He died of old age, aged 85 or 86, and is buried in the Home-Drummond plot at Kincardine-in-Menteith west of Blair Drummond.

Writings
Home wrote much about the importance of property to society. In his Essay Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities, written just after the Jacobite rising of 1745, he showed that the politics of Scotland were based not on loyalty to Kings, as the Jacobites had said, but on the royal land grants that lay at the base of feudalism, the system whereby the sovereign maintained "an immediate hold of the persons and property of his subjects".

In Historical Law Tracts, Home described a four-stage model of social evolution that became "a way of organizing the history of Western civilization". The first stage was that of the hunter-gatherer, wherein families avoided each other as competitors for the same food. The second was that of the herder of domestic animals, which encouraged the formation of larger groups but did not result in what Home considered a true society. No laws were needed at these early stages except those given by the head of the family, clan, or tribe. Agriculture was the third stage, wherein new occupations such as "plowman, carpenter, blacksmith, stonemason" made "the industry of individuals profitable to others as well as to themselves", and a new complexity of relationships, rights, and obligations required laws and law enforcers. A fourth stage evolved with the development of market towns and seaports, "commercial society", bringing yet more laws and complexity but also providing more benefit. Lord Kames could see these stages within Scotland itself, with the pastoral Highlands, the agricultural Lowlands, the "polite" commercial towns of Glasgow and Edinburgh, and in the Western Isles a remaining culture of rude huts where fishermen and gatherers of seaweed eked out their subsistence living.

Home was a polygenist, he believed God had created different races on earth in separate regions. In his book Sketches of the History of Man, in 1774, Home claimed that the environment, climate, or state of society could not account for racial differences, so that the races must have come from distinct, separate stocks.

The above studies created the genre of the story of civilization and defined the fields of anthropology and sociology and therefore the modern study of history for two hundred years.

In the popular book Elements of Criticism (1762) Home interrogated the notion of fixed or arbitrary rules of literary composition, and endeavoured to establish a new theory based on the principles of human nature. The late eighteenth-century tradition of sentimental writing was associated with his notion that 'the genuine rules of criticism are all of them derived from the human heart. Prof Neil Rhodes has argued that Lord Kames played a significant role in the development of English as an academic discipline in the Scottish Universities.

Family
He was married to Agatha Drummond of Blair Drummond. Their children included George Drummond-Home.

Major works

 * Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session 1706 to 1728 (1728)
 * Essays upon Several Subjects in Law (1732)
 * Decisions of the Court of Session from its First Institution to the Year 1740 (1740)
 * Essay Upon Several Subjects Concerning British Antiquities (1747)
 * Essays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion (1751) He advocates the doctrine of philosophical necessity.
 * The Statute Law of Scotland (1757)
 * Historical Law-Tracts (1758)
 * The Principles of Equity (1760)
 * Introduction to the Art of Thinking (1761)
 * Elements of Criticism (1762) Published by two Scottish booksellers, Andrew Millar and Alexander Kincaid.
 * Remarkable Decisions of the Court of Session from 1730 to 1752 (1766)
 * Gentleman Farmer (1772)
 * Sketches of the History of Man (1773)
 * Elucidations Respecting the Common and Statute Law of Scotland (1777)
 * Loose Hints upon Education (1781)

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title: Henry Home, Lord Kames


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Harwich

Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on-Sea to the south. It is the northernmost coastal town in Essex.

Its position on the estuaries of the Stour and Orwell rivers, with its usefulness to mariners as the only safe anchorage between the Thames and the Humber, led to a long period of civil and military maritime significance. The town became a naval base in 1657 and was heavily fortified, with Harwich Redoubt, Beacon Hill Battery, and Bath Side Battery.

Harwich is the likely launch point of the Mayflower, which carried English Puritans to North America, and is the presumed birthplace of Mayflower captain Christopher Jones.

Harwich today is contiguous with Dovercourt and the two, along with Parkeston, are often referred to collectively as Harwich.

History
The town's name means "military settlement", from Old English here-wic.

The town received its charter in 1238, although there is evidence of earlier settlement – for example, a record of a chapel in 1177, and some indications of a possible Roman presence.

The town was the target of an abortive raid by French forces under Antonio Doria on 24 March 1339 during the Hundred Years' War.

Because of its strategic position, Harwich was the target for the invasion of Britain by William of Orange on 11 November 1688. However, unfavourable winds forced his fleet to sail into the English Channel instead and eventually land at Torbay. Due to the involvement of the Schomberg family in the invasion, Charles Louis Schomberg was made Marquess of Harwich.

Writer Daniel Defoe devotes a few pages to the town in A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. Visiting in 1722, he noted its formidable fort and harbour "of a vast extent". The town, he recounts, was also known for an unusual chalybeate spring rising on Beacon Hill (a promontory to the north-east of the town), which "petrified" clay, allowing it to be used to pave Harwich's streets and build its walls. The locals also claimed that "the same spring is said to turn wood into iron", but Defoe put this down to the presence of "copperas" in the water. Regarding the atmosphere of the town, he states: "Harwich is a town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety and pleasure; yet the inhabitants seem warm in their nests and some of them are very wealthy".

Harwich played an important part in the Napoleonic and more especially the two world wars. Of particular note:

1793–1815—Post Office Station for communication with Europe, one of embarkation and evacuation bases for expeditions to Holland in 1799, 1809 and 1813/14; base for capturing enemy privateers. The dockyard built many ships for the Navy, including HMS Conqueror which captured the French Admiral Villeneuve at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Redoubt and the now-demolished Ordnance Building date from that era.

1914–18—base for the Royal Navy's Harwich Force light cruisers and destroyers under Commodore Tyrwhitt, and for British submarines. In November 1918 the German U-boat fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy in the harbour.

1939–1945—one of main East Coast minesweeping and destroyer bases, at one period base for British and French submarines; assembled fleets for Dutch and Dunkirk evacuations and follow-up to D-Day; unusually, a target for Italian bombers during the Battle of Britain.

Royal Naval Dockyard
Harwich Dockyard was established as a Naval Dockyard in 1652. It ceased to operate as a Royal Dockyard in 1713 (though a Royal Navy presence was maintained until 1829). During the various wars with France and Holland, through to 1815, the dockyard was responsible for both building and repairing numerous warships. HMS Conqueror, a 74-gun ship completed in 1801, captured the French admiral Villeneuve at Trafalgar. The yard was then a semi-private concern, with the actual shipbuilding contracted to Joseph Graham, who was sometimes mayor of the town. During World War II parts of Harwich were again requisitioned for naval use and ships were based at HMS Badger; Badger was decommissioned in 1946, but the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service maintained a headquarters on the site until 1992.

Lighthouses
In 1665, not long after the establishment of the Dockyard, a pair of lighthouses were set up on the Town Green to serve as leading lights for ships entering the harbour. Completely rebuilt in 1818, both towers are still standing (though they ceased functioning as lighthouses in 1863, when they were replaced by a new pair of lights at Dovercourt).

Transport
The Royal Navy no longer has a presence in Harwich but Harwich International Port at nearby Parkeston continues to offer regular ferry services to the Hook of Holland (Hoek van Holland) in the Netherlands. Many operations of the Port of Felixstowe and of Trinity House, the lighthouse authority, are managed from Harwich.

The Mayflower railway line serves Harwich and there are three operational passenger stations: Harwich International, Dovercourt and Harwich Town. The line also allows freight trains to access the Port.

The port is famous for the phrase "Harwich for the Continent", seen on road signs and in London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) advertisements.

From 1924 to 1987 (with a break during the Second World War), a train ferry service operated between Harwich and Zeebrugge. The train ferry linkspan still exists today and the rails leading from the former goods yard of Harwich Town railway station are still in position across the road, although the line is blocked by the Trinity House buoy store.

Architecture
Despite, or perhaps because of, its small size Harwich is highly regarded in terms of architectural heritage, and the whole of the older part of the town, excluding Navyard Wharf, is a conservation area.

The regular street plan with principal thoroughfares connected by numerous small alleys indicates the town's medieval origins, although many buildings of this period are hidden behind 18th century facades.

The extant medieval structures are largely private homes. The house featured in the image of Kings Head St to the left is unique in the town and is an example of a sailmaker's house, thought to have been built circa 1600. Notable public buildings include the parish church of St. Nicholas of 1820-22 (architect: M G Thompson of Dedham ), in a restrained Gothic style, with many original furnishings, including a somewhat altered organ in the west end gallery. There is also the Harwich Guildhall of 1769, the only Grade I listed building in Harwich.

The Pier Hotel of 1860 and the building that was the Great Eastern Hotel of 1864 can both been seen on the quayside, both reflecting the town's new importance to travellers following the arrival of the Great Eastern Main Line from Colchester in 1854. In 1923, The Great Eastern Hotel was closed by the newly formed LNER, as the Great Eastern Railway had opened a new hotel with the same name at the new passenger port at Parkeston Quay, causing a decline in numbers. The hotel became the Harwich Town Hall, which included the Magistrates Court and, following changes in local government, was sold and divided into apartments. Also of interest are the High Lighthouse (1818), the unusual Treadwheel Crane (late 17th century), the Old Custom Houses on West Street, a number of Victorian shopfronts and the Electric Palace Cinema (1911), one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas to survive complete with its ornamental frontage and original projection room still intact and operational.

There is little notable building from the later parts of the 20th century, but major recent additions include the lifeboat station and two new structures for Trinity House. The Trinity House office building, next door to the Old Custom Houses, was completed in 2005. All three additions are influenced by the high-tech style.

International Shanty Festival
A Harwich International Shanty Festival was set up in 2006 to organise and co-ordinate an annual sea shanty festival in October. Through concerts, 'singarounds', pub sessions, talks and workshops, the seafaring history and heritage of Harwich is celebrated by local people and international groups. This unique event for Essex attracts audiences countrywide and beyond. The festival is one of the biggest shanty festivals in the country.

Notable residents
Harwich has also historically hosted a number of notable inhabitants, linked with Harwich's maritime past.

 * Christopher Newport (1561–1617) seaman and privateer, captain of the expedition that founded Jamestown, Virginia
 * Christopher Jones (c.1570–1622) Captain of the 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower
 * Thomas Cobbold (1708–1767), brewer and owner of Three Cups
 * William Shearman (1767–1861) physician and medical writer
 * James Francillon (1802–1866) barrister and legal writer
 * Captain Charles Fryatt (1872–1916) mariner executed by the Germans, brought back from Belgium and buried at Dovercourt
 * Peter Firmin (1928- 2018) artist and puppet maker
 * Randolph Stow (1935–2010) reclusive but award-winning Australian-born writer made his home in Harwich
 * Myles de Vries (born 1940), first-class cricketer
 * Liana Bridges (born 1969) actress, best known for co-presenting Sooty & Co
 * Kate Hall (born 1983) British-Danish singer
 * Dan Rowe singer

Politicians

 * Sir John Jacob, 1st Baronet of Bromley (c.1597–1666) politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and 1641
 * Sir Capel Luckyn, 2nd Baronet (1622–1680) politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1647 and 1679
 * Samuel Pepys (1633–1703) diarist and member of parliament (MP) for Harwich
 * Sir Anthony Deane (1638–1721) Mayor of Harwich, naval architect, Master Shipwright, commercial shipbuilder and MP
 * Lieutenant-General Edward Harvey (1718–1788) Adjutant-General to the Forces and MP for Harwich 1768 to 1778
 * Tony Newton, Baron Newton of Braintree OBE, PC, DL (1937–2012) Conservative politician and former Cabinet member
 * Nick Alston (born 1952) Conservative Essex Police and Crime Commissioner
 * Bernard Jenkin (born 1959) Conservative politician, MP for Harwich and North Essex since 2010
 * Andrew Murrison VR (born 1961) doctor and Conservative Party politician, MP since 2001

Sport
Harwich is home to Harwich & Parkeston F.C.; Harwich and Dovercourt RFC; Harwich Rangers FC; Sunday Shrimpers; Harwich & Dovercourt Sailing Club; Harwich, Dovercourt & Parkeston Swimming Club; Harwich & Dovercourt Rugby Union Football Club; Harwich & Dovercourt Cricket Club; and Harwich Runners who with support from Harwich Swimming Club host the annual Harwich Triathlons.

Media
Local news and television programmes are provided by BBC East and ITV Anglia. Television signals are received from the Sudbury TV transmitter and the local relay transmitter.

The town is served by both BBC Essex and BBC Radio Suffolk. Other radio stations including Heart East, Greatest Hits Radio Essex, Actual Radio, Nation Radio Suffolk and Radio Mi Amigo, a community based station which broadcast from The Harwich Quay.

The town is served by the local newspaper, Harwich and Manningtree Standard which publishes on Fridays.

title: Harwich


text:
Hendrick Avercamp

Hendrick Avercamp (January 27, 1585 (bapt.) – May 15, 1634 (buried)) was a Dutch painter during the Dutch Golden Age of painting. He was one of the earliest landscape painters of the 17th-century Dutch school, he specialized in painting the Netherlands in winter. His paintings are colorful and lively, with carefully crafted images of the people in the landscape. His works give a vivid depiction of sport and leisure in the Netherlands in the beginning of the 17th century. Many of Avercamp's paintings feature people ice skating on frozen lakes.

Avercamp's work enjoyed great popularity and he sold his drawings, many of which were tinted with water-color, as finished pictures to be pasted into the albums of collectors. The Royal Collection has an outstanding collection of his works.

Life
Avercamp was born in Amsterdam, where he studied with the Danish-born portrait painter Pieter Isaacsz (1569–1625), and perhaps also with David Vinckboons, who was a follower of Pieter Brueghel the Elder. In 1608 he moved from Amsterdam to Kampen in the province of Overijssel. Avercamp was mute and probably deaf, he was known as "de Stomme van Kampen" (the mute of Kampen). He also had a nephew Barent Avercamp (1621-1679) who was also a painter and who imitated Hendrick's style of painting. Avercamp lived his entire life through the Eighty Years' war, where the young Dutch Republic resisted in a war against the Spanish Habsburgs. He died in Kampen and was interred there in the Sint Nicolaaskerk.

Artwork
Avercamp probably painted in his studio on the basis of sketches he had made in the winter. Avercamp was famous even from abroad for his winter landscapes. The passion for painting skating characters probably came from his childhood as he practiced skating with his parents. The last quarter of the 16th century, during which Avercamp was born, was one of the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age.

The Flemish painting tradition is mainly expressed in Avercamp's early work. This is consistent with the landscapes of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Avercamp painted landscapes with a high horizon and many figures who were working on something. Many of his paintings are narrative-based, with many anecdotes. For instance, included in the painting Winter Landscape with Skaters are several prurient details: a couple making love, naked buttocks, and a peeing male.

Avercamp used the painting technique of aerial perspective. The depth is suggested by a change of color in the distance. To the front objects are painted in richer colors, such as trees or a boat, while farther objects are lighter. This technique strengthens the impression of depth in the painting.

Sometimes Avercamp used paper frames, which were a cheap alternative to oil paintings. He first drew with pen and ink. This work was then covered with finishing paint. The contours of the drawing remained. Even with this technique, Avercamp could show the pale wintry colors and nuances of the ice. Avercamp has also painted cattle and seascapes. Later in his life drawing the atmosphere was also important in his work.

Avercamp produced about a hundred paintings. The bulk of his artwork can be seen in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Mauritshuis in The Hague. From November 20, 2009, to February 15, 2010, the Rijksmuseum presented an exhibition of his work entitled The "Little Ice Age".

title: Hendrick Avercamp


text:
Hans Baldung

Hans Baldung (1484 or 1485 – September 1545), called Hans Baldung Grien, (being an early nickname, because of his predilection for the colour green), was a painter, printer, engraver, draftsman, and stained glass artist, who was considered the most gifted student of Albrecht Dürer and whose art belongs to both German Renaissance and Mannerism.

Throughout his lifetime, he developed a distinctive style, full of colour, expression and imagination. His talents were varied, and he produced a great and extensive variety of work including portraits, woodcuts, drawings, tapestries, altarpieces, and stained glass, often relying on allegories and mythological motifs.

Early life, c. 1484–1500
Hans was born in Schwäbisch Gmünd (formerly Gmünd in Germany), a small free city of the Empire, part of the East Württemberg region in former Swabia, Germany, in the year 1484 or 1485. Baldung was the son of Johann Baldung, a university-educated jurist, who held the office of legal adviser to the bishop of Strasbourg (Albert of Bavaria) from 1492, and Margarethe Herlin, daughter of Arbogast Herlin. His uncle, Hieronymus Baldung, was a doctor in medicine, with a son, Pius Hieronymus, Hans' cousin, who taught law at Freiburg and became chancellor of Tyrol in 1527.

Hans was not propertyless, but with unknown occupation. He was the first male in his family not to attend university, but was one of the first German artists to come from an academic family.

Life as a student of Dürer

Baldung's earliest training as an artist began around 1500 in the Upper Rhineland with an artist from Strasbourg. Beginning in 1503, during the "Wanderjahre" ("years of wandering") required of artists of the time, Baldung became an assistant in Albrecht Dürer's studio in Nuremberg, where he perfected his art between 1503 and 1507.

Here, he may have been given his nickname "Grien". This name is thought to have come foremost from a preference to the color green: he seems to have worn green clothing. He may also have been given this nickname to distinguish him from at least two other Hanses in Dürer's shop, Hans Schäufelin and Hans Suess von Kulmbach. He later included the name "Grien" in his monogram, and it has also been suggested that the name came from, or consciously echoed, "grienhals", a German word for witch—one of his signature themes.

Hans quickly picked up Dürer's influence and style, and they became friends. Baldung seems to have managed Dürer's workshop during the latter's second sojourn in Venice. In a later trip to the Netherlands in 1521 Dürer's account book records that he took with him and sold prints by Baldung. Near the end of his Nuremberg years, Grien oversaw the production by Dürer of stained glass, woodcuts and engravings, and therefore developed an affinity for these media and for the Nuremberg master's handing of them. On Dürer's death Baldung was sent a lock of his hair, which suggests a close friendship.

Strasbourg
In 1509, when Baldung's time in Nuremberg was complete, he moved back to Strasbourg and became a citizen there. He became a celebrity of the town and received many important commissions. The following year, at age 26, he married Margarethe Herlin, a local merchant's daughter, with whom he had one child, Margarethe Baldungin. He also joined the guild "Zur Steltz", opened a workshop, and began signing his works with the HGB monogram that he used for the rest of his career.

His style became much more deliberately individual—a tendency art historians used to term "mannerist." He stayed in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1513–1516 where he made, among other things, the High altar of the Freiburg Münster.

Like Dürer and Cranach, Baldung supported the Protestant Reformation. He was present at the diet of Augsburg in 1518, and one of his woodcuts represents Luther in quasi-saintly guise, under the protection of (or being inspired by) the Holy Spirit, which hovers over him in the shape of a dove.

Witchcraft and religious imagery

In addition to traditional religious subjects, Baldung was concerned during these years with the profane themes of the imminence of death and the relation between the sexes, as well as with scenes of sorcery and witchcraft. The number of Baldung's religious works diminished with the Protestant Reformation, which generally repudiated church art as either wasteful or idolatrous.

While Dürer had occasionally included images of witches in his work, Baldung was the first German artist to heavily incorporate witches and witchcraft and erotic themes into his artwork. His most characteristic works in this area are small in scale and mostly in the medium of drawing; these include a series of puzzling, often erotic allegories and mythological works executed in quill pen and ink and white body color on primed paper.

His fascination with witchcraft began early, in 1510 when he produced an important chiaroscuro woodcut known as The Witches' Sabbath, and lasted to the end of his career. Witches were also a local interest: Strasbourg's humanists studied witchcraft and its bishop was charged with finding and prosecuting witches.

Baldung's work depicting witches was produced in the first half of the 16th century, before witch hunting became a widespread cultural phenomenon in Europe. According to one view, Baldung's work did not represent widespread cultural beliefs at the time of creation but reflected largely individual choices.

On the other hand, Baldung may have taken inspiration from the humanism of the early 16th century. Baldung, through his family, stood closer to the leading humanist intellectuals of the day than any of his contemporaries and partook in this culture, producing not only many works depicting Strasbourg humanists and scenes from ancient art and literature, but also works reflecting their attitude, drawn in large part from classical poetry and satire, toward witches. To take one example, Baldung is believed to have alluded to the notion expressed in Latin and Greek literature that witches could control the weather in his 1523 oil painting Weather Witches, which showcases two attractive and naked witches in front of a stormy sky. As Gert von der Osten commented, "Baldung [treats] his witches humorously, an attitude that reflects the dominant viewpoint of the humanists in Strasbourg at this time who viewed witchcraft as 'lustig,' a matter that was more amusing than serious".

However, it has also proved difficult to distinguish between the satirical tone that some critics observe in Baldung's work and a more serious vilifying intent, just as it is for many other artists, including his rough contemporary Hieronymus Bosch. Baldung could also draw on a burgeoning literature on witchcraft, as well as on developing juridical and forensic strategies for witch-hunting. While Baldung never worked directly with any Reformation leaders to spread religious ideals through his artwork, even though he lived in fervently religious Strasbourg, he was a supporter of the movement, working on the high altar in the city of Münster, Germany.

Baldung also regularly incorporated scenes of witches flying in his art, a characteristic that had been contested centuries before his artwork came into being. Flying was inherently attributed to witches by those who believed in the myth of the Sabbath Flight; without their ability to fly, the myth fragmented. Baldung depicted this in works such as Witches Preparing for the Sabbath Flight (1514).

Painting

Baldung settled eventually in Strasbourg and then to Freiburg im Breisgau, where he executed what is held to be his masterpiece: an eleven-panel altarpiece for the Freiburg Cathedral, still intact today, depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin, including The Annunciation, The Visitation, The Nativity, The Flight into Egypt, The Crucifixion, Four Saints and The Donators. These depictions were a large part of the artist's greater body of work containing several renowned depictions of the Virgin.

The earliest pictures assigned to him by some are altar-pieces with the monogram H. B. interlaced, and the date of 1496, in the monastery chapel of Lichtenthal near Baden-Baden. The Martyrdom of St Sebastian and the Epiphany (now Berlin, 1507) was painted for the market-church of Halle in Saxony.

Baldung is well known as a portrait painter, known for his sharp characterization of his subjects. His works include historical pictures and portraits, such as Maximilian I and Charles V. At a later period he had sittings with Margrave Christopher of Baden, Ottilia his wife, and all their children, and the picture containing these portraits is still in the gallery at Karlsruhe.

While Dürer rigorously details his models, Baldung's style differs by focusing more on the personality of the represented character, an abstract conception of the model's state of mind.

Printmaking
His prints are more important than his paintings. Baldung's prints, though Düreresque, are very individual in style, and often in subject, showing little direct Italian influence. He worked mainly in woodcut, although he made six engravings, one very fine. He joined in the fashion for chiaroscuro woodcuts, adding a tone block to a woodcut of 1510. Most of his hundreds of woodcuts were commissioned for books, as was usual at the time; his "single-leaf" woodcuts (i.e. prints not for book illustration) are fewer than 100, though no two catalogues agree as to the exact number.

Unconventional as a draughtsman, his treatment of human form is often exaggerated and eccentric (hence his linkage, in the art historical literature, with European Mannerism), whilst his ornamental style—profuse, eclectic, and akin to the self-consciously "German" strain of contemporary limewood sculptors—is equally distinctive. Though Baldung has been commonly called the Correggio of the north, his compositions are a curious medley of glaring and heterogeneous colours, in which pure black is contrasted with pale yellow, dirty grey, impure red and glowing green. Flesh is a mere glaze under which the features are indicated by lines.

His works are notable for their individualistic departure from the Renaissance composure of his model, Dürer, for the wild and fantastic strength that some of them display, and for their remarkable themes. In the field of painting, his Eve, the Serpent and Death (National Gallery of Canada) shows his strengths well. There is special force in the Death and the Maiden panel of 1517 (Basel), in the Weather Witches (Frankfurt), in the monumental panels of Adam and Eve (Madrid), and in his many powerful portraits. Baldung's most sustained effort is the altarpiece of Freiburg, where the Coronation of the Virgin, and the Twelve Apostles, the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity and Flight into Egypt, and the Crucifixion, with portraits of donors, are executed with some of that fanciful power that Martin Schongauer bequeathed to the Swabian school.

Other works
One of his earliest works is a portrait of the emperor Maximilian, drawn in 1501 on a leaf of a sketch-book now in the print-room at Karlsruhe.

His bust of Margrave Philip in the Munich Gallery tells us that he was connected with the reigning family of Baden as early as 1514.

Selected works

 * Phyllis and Aristotle, Paris, Louvre. 1503
 * Two altar wings (Charles the Great, St. George), Augsburg, State Gallery.
 * Portrait of a Youth, Hampton Court, Royal Collection 1509
 * The Birth of Christ, Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1510
 * The Adoration of the Magi, Dessau, Anhalt Art Gallery, 1510
 * The Witches, 1510
 * The Mass of St. Gregory, Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1511
 * The Crucifixion of Christ, Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1512
 * The Crucifixion of Christ, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 1512
 * The Holy Trinity, London, National Gallery, 1512
 * The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, Vienna, Paintings Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts, 1513
 * Portrait of a Man, London, National Gallery, 1514
 * The Lamentation of Christ, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, 1516
 * Death and the Maiden, Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, 1517
 * The Baptism of Christ, Frankfurt am Main, Städel, 1518
 * Stoning of Saint Stephen, Strasbourg, Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, 1522 (contains a self-portrait with a moustache)
 * Two Witches, Frankfurt am Main, Städel, 1523
 * Venus with Cupid, Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, 1525
 * Pyramus and Thisbe, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, around 1530
 * Ambrosius Volmar Keller, Strasbourg, Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame, 1538
 * Christ as a Gardener, Darmstadt, Hessen State Museum, 1539
 * Adam and Eve, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi - Uffizi
 * The Unlikely Couple, Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, 1527
 * The Three Ages of Man and Death, Museo del Prado, Madrid
 * Portrait of a lady, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 1530
 * Mercury as a Planet God, Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, 1530–1540
 * Harmony, or The Three Graces Die Jugend (Die drei Grazien) The youth (the three graces) Museo del Prado between 1541 and 1544
 * The Seven Ages of Woman, Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, 1544

title: Hans Baldung


text:
Hammered dulcimer

The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion-stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more traditional styles may sit cross-legged on the floor, or in a more modern style may stand or sit at a wooden support with legs. The player holds a small spoon-shaped mallet hammer in each hand to strike the strings. The Graeco-Roman word dulcimer ("sweet song") derives from the Latin dulcis (sweet) and the Greek melos (song). The dulcimer, in which the strings are beaten with small hammers, originated from the psaltery, in which the strings are plucked.

Hammered dulcimers and other similar instruments are traditionally played in Iraq, India, Iran, Southwest Asia, China, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, Central Europe (Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland (particularly Appenzell), Austria and Bavaria), the Balkans, Eastern Europe (Ukraine and Belarus), and Scandinavia. The instrument is also played in the United Kingdom (Wales, East Anglia, Northumbria), and the United States, where its traditional use in folk music saw a revival in the late 20th century.

History
The santur, a type of hammered dulcimer, originates from the Middle East. The earliest evidence comes from Assyrian and Babylonian stone carvings dated to 669 BC, showing the instrument being played while hanging from the player's neck. This instrument was traded and travelled to different parts of the Middle East. Musicians modified the original design over the centuries, yielding a wide array of musical scales and tunings. The original santur was likely made with wood and stone and strung with goat intestines. The Babylonian santur was the ancestor of the harp, yangqin, harpsichord, qanun, cimbalom and hammered dulcimers.

In Western Europe, a hammered dulcimer first appears in textual and iconographic sources from the early 15th century.

Strings and tuning

A dulcimer usually has two bridges, a bass bridge near the right and a treble bridge on the left side. The bass bridge holds up bass strings, which are played to the left of the bridge. The treble strings can be played on either side of the treble bridge. In the usual construction, playing them on the left side gives a note a fifth higher than playing them on the right of the bridge.

The dulcimer comes in various sizes, identified by the number of strings that cross each of the bridges. A 15/14, for example, has 15 strings crossing the treble bridge and 14 crossing the bass bridge, and can span three octaves. The strings of a hammered dulcimer are usually found in pairs, two strings for each note (though some instruments have three or four strings per note). Each set of strings is tuned in unison and is called a course. As with a piano, the purpose of using multiple strings per course is to make the instrument louder, although as the courses are rarely in perfect unison, a chorus effect usually results like a mandolin. A hammered dulcimer, like an autoharp, harp, or piano, requires a tuning wrench for tuning, since the dulcimer's strings are wound around tuning pins with square heads. (Ordinarily, 5 mm "zither pins" are used, similar to, but smaller in diameter than piano tuning pins, which come in various sizes ranging upwards from "1/0" or 7 mm.)

The strings of the hammered dulcimer are often tuned according to a circle of fifths pattern. Typically, the lowest note (often a G or D) is struck at the lower right-hand of the instrument, just to the left of the right-hand (bass) bridge. As a player strikes the courses above in sequence, they ascend following a repeating sequence of two whole steps and a half step. With this tuning, a diatonic scale is broken into two tetrachords, or groups of four notes. For example, on an instrument with D as the lowest note, the D major scale is played starting in the lower-right corner and ascending the bass bridge: D – E – F♯ – G. This is the lower tetrachord of the D major scale. At this point the player returns to the bottom of the instrument and shifts to the treble strings to the right of the treble bridge to play the higher tetrachord: A – B – C♯ – D. The player can continue up the scale on the right side of the treble bridge with E – F♯ – G – A – B, but the next note will be C, not C♯, so he or she must switch to the left side of the treble bridge (and closer to the player) to continue the D major scale. See the drawing on the left above, in which "DO" would correspond to D (see Movable do solfège).

The shift from the bass bridge to the treble bridge is required because the bass bridge's fourth string G is the start of the lower tetrachord of the G scale. The player could go on up a couple notes (G – A – B), but the next note will be a flatted seventh (C natural in this case), because this note is drawn from the G tetrachord. This D major scale with a flatted seventh is the mixolydian mode in D.

The same thing happens as the player goes up the treble bridge – after getting to La (B in this case), one has to go to the left of the treble bridge. Moving from the left side of the bass bridge to the right side of the treble bridge is analogous to moving from the right side of the treble bridge to the left side of the treble bridge.

The whole pattern can be shifted up by three courses, so that instead of a D-major scale one would have a G-major scale, and so on. This transposes one equally tempered scale to another. Shifting down three courses transposes the D-major scale to A-major, but of course the first Do-Re-Mi would be shifted off the instrument.

This tuning results in most, but not all, notes of the chromatic scale being available. To fill in the gaps, many modern dulcimer builders include extra short bridges at the top and bottom of the soundboard, where extra strings are tuned to some or all of the missing pitches. Such instruments are often called "chromatic dulcimers" as opposed to the more traditional "diatonic dulcimers".

The tetrachord markers found on the bridges of most hammered dulcimers in the English-speaking world were introduced by the American player and maker Sam Rizzetta in the 1960s.

In the Alps there are also chromatic dulcimers with crossed strings, which are in a whole tone distance in every row. This chromatic Salzburger hackbrett was developed in the mid 1930s from the diatonic hammered dulcimer by Tobi Reizer and his son along with Franz Peyer and Heinrich Bandzauner. In the postwar period it was one of the instruments taught in state-sponsored music schools.

Hammered dulcimers of non-European descent may have other tuning patterns, and builders of European-style dulcimers sometimes experiment with alternate tuning patterns.

Hammers
The instrument is referred to as "hammered" in reference to the small mallets (referred to as hammers) that players use to strike the strings. Hammers are usually made of wood (most likely hardwoods such as maple, cherry, padauk, oak, walnut, or any other hardwood), but can also be made from any material, including metal and plastic. In the Western hemisphere, hammers are usually stiff, but in Asia, flexible hammers are often used. The head of the hammer can be left bare for a sharp attack sound, or can be covered with adhesive tape, leather, or fabric for a softer sound. Two-sided hammers are also available. The heads of two sided hammers are usually oval or round. Most of the time, one side is left as bare wood while the other side may be covered in leather or a softer material such as piano felt.

Several traditional players have used hammers that differ substantially from those in common use today. Paul Van Arsdale (1920–2018), a player from upstate New York, used flexible hammers made from hacksaw blades, with leather-covered wooden blocks attached to the ends (these were modeled after the hammers used by his grandfather, Jesse Martin). The Irish player John Rea (1915–1983) used hammers made of thick steel wire, which he made himself from old bicycle spokes wrapped with wool. Billy Bennington (1900–1986), a player from Norfolk, England, used cane hammers bound with wool.

Variants and adaptations
The hammered dulcimer was extensively used during the Middle Ages in England, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Although it had a distinctive name in each country, it was everywhere regarded as a kind of psalterium. The importance of the method of setting the strings in vibration by means of hammers, and its bearing on the acoustics of the instrument, were recognized only when the invention of the pianoforte had become a matter of history. It was then perceived that the psalterium (in which the strings were plucked) and the dulcimer (in which they were struck), when provided with keyboards would give rise to two distinct families of instruments, differing essentially in tone quality, in technique and in capabilities. The evolution of the psalterium resulted in the harpsichord; that of the dulcimer produced the pianoforte.

Around the world
Versions of the hammered dulcimer, each of which has its own distinct manner of construction and playing style, are used throughout the world:

(རྒྱུད་མང་, literally "many strings")
 * Afghanistan – santur
 * Austria – Hackbrett
 * Bangladesh – santoor
 * Belarus – tsymbaly/цымбал
 * Belgium – hakkebord
 * Brazil – saltério
 * Cambodia – khim
 * Canada – hammered dulcimer
 * China – yangqin (扬琴, formerly 洋琴)
 * Croatian – cimbal, cimbale, cimbule
 * Czech Republic – cimbál
 * Denmark – hakkebræt
 * France – tympanon
 * Germany – Zymbal, Hackbrett
 * Greece – Σαντούρι
 * Hungary – cimbalom
 * India – santoor
 * Iran – santur
 * Iraq – santur
 * Ireland – tiompan
 * Israel – דולצימר פטישים
 * Italy – salterio
 * Japan – darushimaa (ダルシマー)
 * Korea – yanggeum (양금)
 * Laos – khim
 * Latgalia (Latvia) – cymbala
 * Latvia – cimbole
 * Lithuania – cimbalai, cimbolai
 * Mexico – salterio
 * Mongolia – yoochin (ёочин or ёчин)
 * Netherlands – hakkebord
 * Norway – hakkebrett
 * Pakistan – santoor
 * Poland – cymbały
 * Portugal – saltério
 * Romania – ţambal
 * Russia – цимбалы, dultsimer (дульцимер)
 * Serbia – цимбал (tsimbal)
 * Slovakia – cimbal
 * Slovenia – cimbale, oprekelj
 * Spain (and Spanish-speaking countries) – salterio, dulcémele
 * Sweden – hackbräde, hammarharpa
 * Switzerland – Hackbrett
 * Thailand – khim
 * Turkey – santur
 * Tibet - rgyud-mang or yangzi
 * Ukraine – tsymbaly (цимбали)
 * United Kingdom – hammered dulcimer
 * United States – hammered dulcimer
 * Uzbekistan – chang
 * Vietnam – đàn tam thập lục (lit. "36 strings")
 * Yiddish – tsimbl

title: Hammered dulcimer


text:
Humanae vitae

Humanae vitae (Latin, meaning 'Of Human Life') is an encyclical written by Pope Paul VI and dated 25 July 1968. The text was issued at a Vatican press conference on 29 July. Subtitled On the Regulation of Birth, it re-affirmed the teaching of the Catholic Church regarding married love, responsible parenthood, and the rejection of artificial contraception. In formulating his teaching he explained why he did not accept the conclusions of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control established by his predecessor, Pope John XXIII, a commission he himself had expanded.

Mainly because of its restatement of the Church's opposition to artificial contraception, the encyclical was politically controversial. It affirmed traditional Church moral teaching on the sanctity of life and the procreative and unitive nature of conjugal relations.

It was the last of Paul's seven encyclicals.

Affirmation of traditional teaching
In this encyclical Paul VI reaffirmed the Catholic Church's view of marriage and marital relations and a continued condemnation of "artificial" birth control. Referencing two Papal committees and numerous independent experts examining new developments in artificial birth control, Paul VI built on the teachings of his predecessors, especially Pius XI, Pius XII and John XXIII, all of whom had insisted on the divine obligations of the marital partners in light of their partnership with God the creator.

Doctrinal basis
Paul VI himself, even as commission members issued their personal views over the years, always reaffirmed the teachings of the Church, repeating them more than once in the first years of his Pontificate.

To Pope Paul VI, marital relations were much more than a union of two people. In his view, they constitute a union of the loving couple with a loving God, in which the two persons generate the matter for the body, while God creates the unique soul of a person. For this reason, Paul VI teaches in the first sentence of Humanae vitae, that the "transmission of human life is a most serious role in which married people collaborate freely and responsibly with God the Creator." This is divine partnership, so Paul VI does not allow for arbitrary human decisions, which may limit divine providence. According to Paul VI, marital relations are a source of great joy, but also of difficulties and hardships. The question of human procreation with God, exceeds in the view of Paul VI specific disciplines such as biology, psychology, demography or sociology. According to Paul VI, married love takes its origin from God, who is love, and from this basic dignity, he defines his position:

"Humanae vitae, no. 8–9"

The encyclical opens with an assertion of the competency of the magisterium of the Catholic Church to decide questions of morality. It then goes on to observe that circumstances often dictate that married couples should limit the number of children, and that the sexual act between husband and wife is still worthy even if it can be foreseen not to result in procreation. Nevertheless, it is held that the sexual act must retain its intrinsic relationship to the procreation of human life.

Every action specifically intended to prevent procreation is forbidden, except in medically necessary circumstances. Therapeutic means necessary to cure diseases are exempted, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result, but only if infertility is not directly intended. This is held to directly contradict the moral order which was established by God. Abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, is absolutely forbidden, as is sterilization, even if temporary. Therapeutic means which induce infertility are allowed (e.g., hysterectomy), if they are not specifically intended to cause infertility (e.g., the uterus is cancerous, so the preservation of life is intended). If there are well grounded reasons (arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances), natural family planning methods (abstaining from intercourse during certain parts of the menstrual cycle) are allowed, since they take advantage of a faculty provided by nature.

The acceptance of artificial methods of birth control is then claimed to result in several negative consequences, among them a general lowering of moral standards resulting from sex without consequences, and the danger that men may reduce women to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of [their] own desires; finally, abuse of power by public authorities, and a false sense of autonomy.

Appeal to natural law and conclusion
Public authorities should oppose laws which undermine natural law; scientists should further study effective methods of natural birth control; doctors should further familiarize themselves with this teaching, in order to be able to give advice to their patients, and priests must spell out clearly and completely the Church's teaching on marriage. The encyclical acknowledges that "perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching", but that "it comes as no surprise to the church that she, no less than her Divine founder is destined to be a sign of contradiction." Noted is the duty of proclaiming the entire moral law, "both natural and evangelical." The encyclical also points out that the Roman Catholic Church cannot "declare lawful what is in fact unlawful", because she is concerned with "safeguarding the holiness of marriage, in order to guide married life to its full human and Christian perfection." This is to be the priority for his fellow bishops and priests and lay people. Paul VI predicted that future progress in social cultural and economic spheres would make marital and family life more joyful, provided God's design for the world was faithfully followed. The encyclical closes with an appeal to observe the natural laws of the most high God. "These laws must be wisely and lovingly observed."

Origins
There had been a long-standing general Christian prohibition on contraception and abortion, with such Church Fathers as Clement of Alexandria and Saint Augustine condemning the practices. It was not until the 1930 Lambeth Conference that the Anglican Communion allowed for contraception in limited circumstances. Mainline Protestant denominations have since removed prohibitions against artificial contraception. In a partial reaction, Pope Pius XI wrote the encyclical Casti connubii (On Christian Marriage) in 1930, reaffirming the Catholic Church's belief in various traditional Christian teachings on marriage and sexuality, including the prohibition of artificial birth control even within marriage. Casti connubii is against contraception and regarding natural family planning allowed married couples to use their nuptial rights "in the proper manner" when because of either time or defects, new life could not be brought forth.

The commission of John XXIII
With the appearance of the first oral contraceptives in 1960, dissenters in the Church argued for a reconsideration of the Church positions. In 1963 Pope John XXIII established a commission of six European non-theologians to study questions of birth control and population. It met once in 1963 and twice in 1964. As Vatican Council II was concluding, Pope Paul VI enlarged it to fifty-eight members, including married couples, laywomen, theologians and bishops. The last document issued by the council (Gaudium et spes) contained a section titled "Fostering the Nobility of Marriage" (1965, nos. 47–52), which discussed marriage from the personalist point of view. The "duty of responsible parenthood" was affirmed, but the determination of licit and illicit forms of regulating birth was reserved to Pope Paul VI. In the spring of 1966, following the close of the council, the commission held its fifth and final meeting, having been enlarged again to include sixteen bishops as an executive committee. The commission was only consultative but it submitted a report approved by a majority of 64 members to Paul VI. It proposed he approve of artificial contraception without distinction of the various means. A minority of four members opposed this report and issued a parallel report to the Pope. Arguments in the minority report, against change in the church's teaching, were that a loosening of contraception restrictions would mean the Catholic Church would "have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930" (when Casti connubii was promulgated), and that "it should likewise have to be admitted that for a half a century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI, Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error."

After two more years of study and consultation, the pope issued Humanae vitae, which removed any doubt that the Church views hormonal anti-ovulants as contraceptive. He explained why he did not accept the opinion of the majority report of the commission (1968, #6). Arguments were raised in the decades that followed that his decision has never passed the condition of "reception" to become church doctrine.

Drafting of the encyclical
In his role as Theologian of the Pontifical Household, Mario Luigi Ciappi advised Pope Paul VI during the drafting of Humanae vitae. Ciappi, a doctoral graduate of the Pontificium Athenaeum Internationale Angelicum, the future Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum, served as professor of dogmatic theology there and was Dean of the Angelicum's Faculty of Theology from 1935 to 1955.

According to George Weigel, Paul VI named Archbishop Karol Wojtyła (later Pope John Paul II) to the commission, but Polish government authorities would not permit him to travel to Rome. Wojtyła had earlier defended the church's position from a philosophical standpoint in his 1960 book Love and Responsibility. Wojtyła's position was strongly considered and it was reflected in the final draft of the encyclical, although much of his language and arguments were not incorporated. Weigel attributes much of the poor reception of the encyclical to the omission of many of Wojtyła's arguments.

In 2017, anticipating the 50th anniversary of the encyclical, four theologians led by Mgr. Gilfredo Marengo, a professor of theological anthropology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, launched a research project he called "a work of historical-critical investigation without any aim other than reconstructing as well as possible the whole process of composing the encyclical". Using the resources of the Vatican Secret Archives and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, they hope to detail the writing process and the interaction between the commission, publicity surrounding the commission's work, and Paul's own authorship.

Faithfulness to God's design
"13. Men rightly observe that a conjugal act imposed on one's partner without regard to his or her condition or personal and reasonable wishes in the matter, is no true act of love, and therefore offends the moral order in its particular application to the intimate relationship of husband and wife. If they further reflect, they must also recognize that an act of mutual love which impairs the capacity to transmit life which God the Creator, through specific laws, has built into it, frustrates His design which constitutes the norm of marriage, and contradicts the will of the Author of life. Hence to use this divine gift while depriving it, even if only partially, of its meaning and purpose, is equally repugnant to the nature of man and of woman, and is consequently in opposition to the plan of God and His holy will. But to experience the gift of married love while respecting the laws of conception is to acknowledge that one is not the master of the sources of life but rather the minister of the design established by the Creator. Just as man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general, so also, and with more particular reason, he has no such dominion over his specifically sexual faculties, for these are concerned by their very nature with the generation of life, of which God is the source. 'Human life is sacred—all men must recognize that fact,' Our predecessor Pope John XXIII recalled. 'From its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God.'"

Lawful therapeutic means
"15.[...] the Church does not consider at all illicit the use of those therapeutic means necessary to cure bodily diseases, even if a foreseeable impediment to procreation should result therefrom — provided such impediment is not directly intended."

Recourse to infertile periods
"16.[...] If therefore there are well-grounded reasons for spacing births, arising from the physical or psychological condition of husband or wife, or from external circumstances, the Church teaches that married people may then take advantage of the natural cycles immanent in the reproductive system and engage in marital intercourse only during those times that are infertile, thus controlling birth in a way which does not in the least offend the moral principles which We have just explained."

Concern of the Church
"18. It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that it, no less than its divine Founder, is destined to be a 'sign of contradiction.' The Church does not, because of this, evade the duty imposed on it of proclaiming humbly but firmly the entire moral law, both natural and evangelical. Since the Church did not make either of these laws, it cannot be their arbiter—only their guardian and interpreter. It could never be right for the Church to declare lawful what is in fact unlawful, since that, by its very nature, is always opposed to the true good of man. In preserving intact the whole moral law of marriage, the Church is convinced that it is contributing to the creation of a truly human civilization. The Church urges man not to betray his personal responsibilities by putting all his faith in technical expedients. In this way it defends the dignity of husband and wife. This course of action shows that the Church, loyal to the example and teaching of the divine Savior, is sincere and unselfish in its regard for men whom it strives to help even now during this earthly pilgrimage 'to share God's life as sons of the living God, the Father of all men'."

Developing countries
"23. We are fully aware of the difficulties confronting the public authorities in this matter, especially in the developing countries. In fact, We had in mind the justifiable anxieties which weigh upon them when We published Our encyclical letter Populorum Progressio. But now We join Our voice to that of Our predecessor John XXIII of venerable memory, and We make Our own his words: 'No statement of the problem and no solution to it is acceptable which does violence to man's essential dignity; those who propose such solutions base them on an utterly materialistic conception of man himself and his life. The only possible solution to this question is one which envisages the social and economic progress both of individuals and of the whole of human society, and which respects and promotes true human values.' No one can, without being grossly unfair, make divine Providence responsible for what clearly seems to be the result of misguided governmental policies, of an insufficient sense of social justice, of a selfish accumulation of material goods, and finally of a culpable failure to undertake those initiatives and responsibilities which would raise the standard of living of peoples and their children."

Galileo affair comparison
Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens, a moderator of the ecumenical council, questioned, "whether moral theology took sufficient account of scientific progress, which can help determine, what is according to nature. I beg you my brothers let us avoid another Galileo affair. One is enough for the Church." In an interview in Informations Catholiques Internationales on 15 May 1969, he criticized the Pope's decision again as frustrating the collegiality defined by the council, calling it a non-collegial or even an anti-collegial act. He was supported by Vatican II theologians such as Karl Rahner, Hans Küng, several Episcopal conferences, e.g. the Episcopal Conference of Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as several bishops, including Christopher Butler, who called it one of the most important contributions to contemporary discussion in the Church.

Open dissent
The publication of the encyclical marks the first time in the twentieth century that open dissent from the laity about teachings of the Church was voiced widely and publicly. The teaching has been criticized by development organizations and others who claim that it limits the methods available to fight worldwide population growth and struggle against HIV/AIDS. Within two days of the encyclical's release, a group of dissident theologians, led by Rev. Charles Curran, then Catholic University of America, issued a statement stating, "spouses may responsibly decide according to their conscience that artificial contraception in some circumstances is permissible and indeed necessary to preserve and foster the value and sacredness of marriage."

Canadian bishops
Two months later, the controversial Winnipeg Statement issued by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops stated that those who cannot accept the teaching should not be considered shut off from the Catholic Church, and that individuals can in good conscience use contraception as long as they have first made an honest attempt to accept the difficult directives of the encyclical.

Dutch Catechism
The Dutch Catechism of 1966, based on the Dutch bishops' interpretation of the just completed Vatican Council, and the first post-Council comprehensive Catholic catechism, noted the lack of mention of artificial contraception in the Council. "As everyone can ascertain nowadays, there are several methods of regulating births. The Second Vatican Council did not speak of any of these concrete methods[...] This is a different standpoint than that taken under Pius XI some thirty years ago which was also maintained by his successor[...] we can sense here a clear development in the Church, a development, which is also going on outside the Church."

Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union,, a publication of Soviet intellectuals, included an editorial and statement by Russian physicians against the encyclical.

Ecumenical reactions
Ecumenical reactions were mixed. Liberal and Moderate Lutherans and the World Council of Churches were disappointed. Eugene Carson Blake criticised the concepts of nature and natural law, which, in his view, still dominated Catholic theology, as outdated. This concern dominated several articles in Catholic and non-Catholic journals at the time. Patriarch Athenagoras I stated his full agreement with Pope Paul VI: "He could not have spoken in any other way."

Latin America
In Latin America, much support developed for the Pope and his encyclical. As World Bank President Robert McNamara declared at the 1968 Annual Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group that countries permitting birth control practices will get preferential access to resources, doctors in La Paz, Bolivia, called it insulting that money should be exchanged for the conscience of a Catholic nation. In Colombia, Cardinal Aníbal Muñoz Duque declared, "if American conditionality undermines Papal teachings, we prefer not to receive one cent". The Senate of Bolivia passed a resolution, stating that Humanae vitae can be discussed in its implications on individual consciences, but is of greatest significance because it defends the rights of developing nations to determine their own population policies. The Jesuit Journal Sic dedicated one edition to the encyclical with supportive contributions. However, against eighteen insubordinate priests, professors of theology at Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, and the ensuing conspiracy of silence practiced by the Chilean Episcopate, which had to be censured by the Nuncio in Santiago at the behest of Cardinal Gabriel-Marie Garrone, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, triggering eventually a media conflict with El Diario Ilustrado, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira expressed his affliction with the lamentations of Jeremiah: "O ye all that pass through the way…" (Lamentations 1:12, King James Bible).

Cardinal Martini
In the book "Nighttime conversations in Jerusalem. On the risk of faith.", well-known liberal Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini accused Paul VI of deliberately concealing the truth, leaving it to theologians and pastors to fix things by adapting precepts to practice: "I knew Paul VI well. With the encyclical, he wanted to express consideration for human life. He explained his intention to some of his friends by using a comparison: although one must not lie, sometimes it is not possible to do otherwise; it may be necessary to conceal the truth, or it may be unavoidable to tell a lie. It is up to the moralists to explain where sin begins, especially in the cases in which there is a higher duty than the transmission of life."

Karol Wojtyła
The future Pope John Paul II (at the time Archbishop of Krakow Karol Wojtyła) asked Paul VI to apply Papal infallibility in docendo (in teaching) to the encyclical, equating it with the authority of a dogma. Paul VI and John XXIII did not. Wojtyła himself declared the encyclical part of the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church.

Response of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI was troubled by the encyclical's reception in the West. Acknowledging the controversy, Paul VI in a letter to the Congress of German Catholics (30 August 1968), stated: "May the lively debate aroused by our encyclical lead to a better knowledge of God's will." In March 1969, he had a meeting with one of the main critics of Humanae vitae, Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens. Paul heard him out and said merely, "Yes, pray for me; because of my weaknesses, the Church is badly governed." To jog the memory of his critics, he also put in their minds the experience of no less a figure than Peter: "[n]ow I understand St Peter: he came to Rome twice, the second time to be crucified", – herewith directing their attention to his rejoicing in glorifying the Lord. Increasingly convinced, that "the smoke of Satan entered the temple of God from some fissure", Paul VI reaffirmed, on 23 June 1978, weeks before his death, in an address to the College of Cardinals, his Humanae vitae: "following the confirmations of serious science", and which sought to affirm the principle of respect for the laws of nature and of "a conscious and ethically responsible paternity".

Padre Pio
In his last letter to Pope Paul VI, Christian mystic and canonized saint Padre Pio called Humanae vitae "clear and decisive words".

Legacy
Polls have shown that many self-identified Catholics use artificial means of contraception, and that very few use natural family planning. However, John L. Allen Jr. wrote in 2008: "Three decades of bishops' appointments by John Paul II and Benedict XVI, both unambiguously committed to Humanae Vitae, mean that senior leaders in Catholicism these days are far less inclined than they were in 1968 to distance themselves from the ban on birth control, or to soft-pedal it. Some Catholic bishops have brought out documents of their own defending Humanae Vitae." Developments in fertility awareness since the 1960s have also given rise to natural family planning organizations such as the Billings Ovulation Method, Couple to Couple League and the Creighton Model FertilityCare System, which actively provide formal instruction on the use and reliability of natural methods of birth control.

Pope John Paul I
Albino Luciani's views on Humanae vitae have been debated. Journalist John L. Allen Jr. claims that "it's virtually certain that John Paul I would not have reversed Paul VI's teaching, particularly since he was no doctrinal radical. Moreover, as Patriarch in Venice some had seen a hardening of his stance on social issues as the years went by." According to Allen, "it is reasonable to assume that John Paul I would not have insisted upon the negative judgment in Humanae Vitae as aggressively and publicly as John Paul II did, and probably would not have treated it as a quasi-infallible teaching. It would have remained a more 'open' question". Other sources take a different view and note that during his time as Patriarch of Venice that "Luciani was intransigent with his upholding of the teaching of the Church and severe with those, through intellectual pride and disobedience paid no attention to the Church's prohibition of contraception", though while not condoning the sin, he was tolerant of those who sincerely tried and failed to live up to the Church's teaching. Raymond and Lauretta's book The Smiling Pope, The Life & Teaching of John Paul I states that "if some people think that his compassion and gentleness in this respect implies he was against Humanae Vitae one can only infer it was wishful thinking on their part and an attempt to find an ally in favor of artificial contraception."

Pope John Paul II
After he became pope in 1978, John Paul II continued on the Catholic Theology of the Body of his predecessors with a series of lectures, entitled Theology of the Body, in which he talked about an "original unity between man and women", purity of heart (on the Sermon on the Mount), marriage and celibacy and reflections on Humanae vitae, focusing largely on responsible parenthood and marital chastity.

In 1981, the Pope's Apostolic exhortation, Familiaris consortio, restated the Church's opposition to artificial birth control stated previously in Humanae vitae.

John Paul II readdressed some of the same issues in his 1993 encyclical Veritatis splendor. He reaffirmed much of Humanae vitae, and specifically described the practice of artificial contraception as an act not permitted by Catholic teaching in any circumstances. The same encyclical also clarifies the use of conscience in arriving at moral decisions, including in the use of contraception. However, John Paul also said, "It is not right then to regard the moral conscience of the individual and the magisterium of the Church as two contenders, as two realities in conflict. The authority which the magisterium enjoys by the will of Christ exists so that the moral conscience can attain the truth with security and remain in it." John Paul quoted Humanae vitae as a compassionate encyclical, "Christ has come not to judge the world but to save it, and while he was uncompromisingly stern towards sin, he was patient and rich in mercy towards sinners".

Pope John Paul's 1995 encyclical Evangelium vitae ('The Gospel of Life') affirmed the Church's position on contraception and multiple topics related to the culture of life.

Pope Benedict XVI
On 12 May 2008, Benedict XVI accepted an invitation to talk to participants in the International Congress organized by the Pontifical Lateran University on the 40th anniversary of Humanae vitae. He put the encyclical in the broader view of love in a global context, a topic he called "so controversial, yet so crucial for humanity's future." Humanae vitae became "a sign of contradiction but also of continuity of the Church's doctrine and tradition... What was true yesterday is true also today." The Church continues to reflect "in an ever new and deeper way on the fundamental principles that concern marriage and procreation." The key message of Humanae vitae is love. Benedict states, that the fullness of a person is achieved by a unity of soul and body, but neither spirit nor body alone can love, only the two together. If this unity is broken, if only the body is satisfied, love becomes a commodity.

Pope Francis
On 16 January 2015, Pope Francis said to a meeting with families in Manila, insisting on the need to protect the family: "The family is[...] threatened by growing efforts on the part of some to redefine the very institution of marriage, by relativism, by the culture of the ephemeral, by a lack of openness to life. I think of Blessed Paul VI. At a time when the problem of population growth was being raised, he had the courage to defend openness to life in families. He knew the difficulties that are there in every family, and so in his Encyclical he was very merciful towards particular cases, and he asked confessors to be very merciful and understanding in dealing with particular cases. But he also had a broader vision: he looked at the peoples of the earth and he saw this threat of the destruction of the family through the privation of children [original Spanish: destrucción de la familia por la privación de los hijos]. Paul VI was courageous; he was a good pastor and he warned his flock of the wolves who were coming."

A year before, on 1 May 2014, Pope Francis, in an interview given to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, expressed his opinion and praise for Humanae vitae: "Everything depends on how Humanae vitae is interpreted. Paul VI himself, in the end, urged confessors to be very merciful and pay attention to concrete situations. But his genius was prophetic, he had the courage to take a stand against the majority, to defend moral discipline, to exercise a cultural restraint, to oppose present and future neo-Malthusianism. The question is not of changing doctrine, but of digging deep and making sure that pastoral care takes into account situations and what it is possible for persons to do."

title: Humanae vitae