American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

John Knox (c.1514-November 24, 1572) was the leader of the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. To appreciate the significance of John Knox, the historical setting of Europe must be explained. The King of France, Francis I, caused a scandal in Europe by making an alliance with Muslim Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent against Italy, Spain and England. Francis I ordered the punishment of religious dissidents known as Waldensians. Over the next century, religious wars between Catholics and Protestants resulted in tragic atrocities. Lorenzo de' Medici, to whom Niccolò Machiavelli dedicated his notorious book, The Prince, 1515, had his daughter, Catherine de' Medici, marry the...

Ambroise Pare' (1510-December 20, 1590) was a pioneer French surgeon, who greatly raised the standard of surgery. Rising to fame as a field surgeon in the French army, he discarded the common practice of cauterization, (using hot irons and boiling oils in the sealing of wounds), in favor of cleansing wounds with ointments and performing ligatures, surgically tying off major arteries. Ambroise Pare' was so successful that he was appointed to the court and served four different kings. The favorite saying of Ambroise Pare' was: <I treated him, God cured him.> 1510AP001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All...

John Calvin (July 10, 1509-May 27, 1564) was a renown religious reformer in Geneva, Switzlerland. Calvin's followers were called Calvinists, With kings and queens killing subjects who believed differently than they did, Calvin wrestled with Romans 13: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God." For most of world history the "governing authorities" were monarchs. Monarchs had subjects who were required to submit to government mandates. A problem arose, though. What if the "governing authority" had mandate to kill you and your family if you believed differently? Reformers who "protested"...

King Henry VII Patent to John Cabot (March 5, 1496): <Henry, by the Grace of God, king of England...Greeting. Be it known that we have given...our well beloved John Cabot citizen of Venice...authority...to sail to all parts, country, and seas of the East, of the West, and of the North, under our banners...to seek out, discover, and find whatsoever isles, countries, regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels whatsoever they be, and in what part of the world soever they be, which before this time have been unknown to all Christians.> 1496KH001 -- American Quotations by William J. Federer,...

Leif Eirkson (c.970-c.1020) voyaged around 1000 AD in the first attempt of Europeans to settle the coast of "Vineland," generally accepted to be Newfoundland in North America. Sailing Viking longboats, Leif, and later his brothers, Thorvald and Thorstein, and sister Freydis, all children of Eric the Red, explored and built a temporary settlement there, which included a church, but conflict with natives led to its abandonment, Thorvald being killed by an arrow. The Saga of Erik the Red contains the account of Norse exploration of North America. Thought to have been written in the 13th century, the Saga is preserved...