[LEAPSECS] A treaty not sworn to, nor broken (was Re: princes)

[Rob Seaman]

On Nov 8, 2008, at 3:55 AM, Tony Finch wrote:


> On Mon, 3 Nov 2008, Clive D.W. Feather wrote:

>> Tony Finch said:

>>>

>>> As well as the egregious example of the pre-Julian Roman calendar,  

>>> I'm

>>> amused and disgusted by the anti-Jewish fiddles in the rules for

>>> determining Easter to minimise when it coincides with Passover.

>>

>> Actually it was a pro-Jewish fiddle: by keeping the two dates apart  

>> it

>> minimized the risk of religious riots and/or pogroms.

>

> I got this claim from "Calendrical Calculations" which says:

>

> 	The concern that the date of Passover would influence the date of

> 	Easter goes back to the easliest days of Christianity. For

> 	example, Eusebius (Vita Constantini, book iii, 18-20) gives a

> 	letter of the Emperor sent to those not present at the Council of

> 	Nicaea:

>  ...


One might take exception to the author's assertion that the Council of  
Nicaea was the earliest days of Christianity - considering it didn't  
take place until the year 325.  I've appended some timeline entries  
for AD 1683 to show what can change and remain the same over 325  
years.  (Various harbingers of today's world, as well as echoes of  
Nicaea.)  I recommend listening to the empyrean Purcell from 1683 to  
put the rest of my more pedestrian message into its best context :-)

	http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLn-35h3V3g

Sidestepping the disturbing anti-semitic history of our calendar,  
there is indeed a useful insight one can draw from this analogy with  
the Council of Nicaea.

 From Wikipedia:


> The Council of Nicaea was historically significant because it was  

> the first effort to attain consensus in the church through an  

> assembly representing all of Christendom.[3]


We can draw the insight, namely, that 1683 years later, we still  
remember its occurrence as historically significant and honor its work  
products:

	God from God, Light from Light,
	true God from true God,
	begotten, not made,
	of one Being with the Father.

(From the 1975 ecumenical translation.)  Not bad for poetry written by  
committee.

We remember the Nicene Creed and the Council that created it -  
precisely because Constantine sought consensus BEFORE decision-making,  
not after.

One seriously doubts that the work products of ITU-R WP7A will be  
remembered as long or will be regarded as poetic.  What is more  
lyrically elemental than time, however?

Surely it is in the interest of all parties to pursue a truly robust  
consensus.  As with the 1884 International Meridian Conference, echoed  
by the 1993 Longitude Symposium at Harvard, it is now time to organize  
an ecumenical (that is, broadly conceived and broadly attended)  
conference on civil timekeeping.

The alternative to doing so will be an awkward, fragile, and cramped  
decision, well short of consensus - immediately to splinter and  
ultimately to shatter.

It appears that some have taken the message from the 2003 Torino  
meeting that civil timekeeping is an obscure topic of little interest,  
with unbridgeable factional differences.  A more generous  
interpretation is that even on short notice, in a distant city, with  
an obscure title ("The ITU-R SRG 7A Colloquium on the UTC timescale")  
that still three dozen interested parties (from just one narrow  
segment of the broader "community of time") attended due to their  
perception of the key importance of the topic.  They were also able to  
reach an interim consensus (roughly "don't be hasty" and "call it  
something other than UTC if it IS other than UT"), that should inform  
future discussions.

A well advertised meeting in London or Washington (ie., one plane hop  
from either side of the Atlantic), planned a year or two in advance  
(as other scientific meetings are), promoted assiduously by a broad- 
based organizing committee (I nominate Steve Allen), would provide the  
foundation for actually accomplishing the underlying goal of devising  
a coherent long term plan for worldwide civil timekeeping.

This is also the quickest practical way to reach such a goal:
	"Let us enjoy the benefits of the time - but rather the benefits of  
their own valour and prudence, for time drives everything before it,  
and is able to bring with it good as well as evil, and evil as well as  
good."
					- Nicolo Machiavelli

(Exercise for the student:  Contrast Nicolo and Nicaea with Penn's  
son's "Walking Purchase" of land from the Lenni Lenape/Delaware.  "Not  
sworn to, nor broken"?  Maybe in 1683 while Penn himself was still  
around.)

Rob Seaman
National Optical Astronomy Observatory
----

 From http://timelines.ws/1661_1699.HTML:

1683        Feb 12, A Christian Army, led by Charles, the Duke of  
Lorraine and King John Sobieski of Poland, routed a huge Ottoman army  
surrounding Vienna.
     (HN, 2/12/99)

1683        Feb 20, Philip V, first Bourbon King of Spain, was born.  
[see Dec 19]
     (HN, 2/20/01)

1683        Apr 15, Catherine I (d.1727), empress of Russia  
(1725-1727), was born as Martha Skravonskaya in Jacobstadt, Latvia.  
Catherine was the daughter of Samuil Skavronski, a Lithuanian peasant.
     (HN, 4/15/98)(www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Catherine_I_of_Russia)

1683        Jun 23, William Penn signed a friendship treaty with Lenni  
Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania. It became the only treaty "not sworn  
to, nor broken."
     (HN, 6/23/98)(MC, 6/23/02)

1683        Jul 3, Edward Young, English poet, dramatist and literary  
critic, was born. He wrote "Night Thoughts."
     (HN, 7/3/99)

1683        Jul 21, Lord William Russell, English plotter against  
Charles II, was beheaded.
     (MC, 7/21/02)

1683        Jul 24, The 1st settlers from Germany to US left aboard  
the ship Concord.
     (www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/germantown.html)

1683        Sep 3, Turkish troops broke through the defense of Vienna.
     (MC, 9/3/01)

1683        Sep 6, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (b.1619), French finance  
minister (1665-1683) under Louis XIV, died. He pioneered state control  
of the economy and state intervention in industry.
     (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Colbert)(Econ,  
3/25/06, p.71)

1683        Sep 9, Algernon Sidney, English Whig politician and  
plotter, was beheaded.
     (MC, 9/9/01)

1683        Sep 12, A combined Austrian and Polish army defeated the  
Ottoman Turks at Kahlen-berg and lifted the siege on Vienna, Austria.  
Prince Eugene of Savoy helped repel an invasion of Vienna, Austria, by  
Turkish forces. Marco d'Aviano, sent by Pope Innocent XI to unite the  
outnumbered Christian troops, spurred them to victory. The Turks left  
behind sacks of coffee which the Christians found too bitter, so they  
sweetened it with honey and milk and named the drink cappuccino after  
the Capuchin order of monks to which d'Aviano belonged. An Austrian  
baker created a crescent-shaped roll, the Kipfel, to celebrate the  
victory. Empress Maria Theresa later took it to France where it became  
the croissant. In 2006 John Stoye authored “The Siege of Vienna.”
     (Hem., Dec. '95, p.69)(WSJ, 3/27/96, p.A-16)(HN, 9/12/98)(SFEC,  
2/6/00, p.A1)(Reuters, 4/28/03)(WSJ, 6/3/03, p.D5) (WSJ, 12/6/06, p.D12)

1683        Sep 17, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek reported the existence of  
bacteria.
     (MC, 9/17/01)

1683        Sep 24, King Louis XIV expelled all Jews from French  
possessions in America.
     (MC, 9/24/01)

1683        Sep 25, Jean-Philippe Rameau, composer, was born in Dijon,  
France.
     (MC, 9/25/01)

1683        Sep 29, A small armada sailed from the Mexican mainland  
across the Sea of Cortez to the Baha Peninsula. Hostile natives had  
forced them back to the mainland on a first landing and a storm forced  
them back on a 2nd attempt.
     (SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T5)(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A9)

1683        Oct 6, 13 Mennonite families from Krefeld, Germany,  
arrived in present-day Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of  
America's oldest settlements. They were encouraged by William Penn's  
offer of 5,000 acres of land in the colony of Pennsylvania and the  
freedom to practice their religion.
     (AP, 10/6/97)(www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/germantown.html)

1683        Oct 6, The small armada from the Mexican mainland landed  
on their 3rd attempt at crossing to the Baha peninsula and settled at  
the mouth of a river that they named San Bruno. The site was abandoned  
after 2 years. Spanish settlement on the Baha was later described by  
Father James Donald Francez in "The Lost Treasures of Baha California."
     (SFEC, 5/18/97, p.T5)(WSJ, 12/26/97, p.A9)

1683        Oct 30, George II, King of Great Britain (1727-60), was  
born. [see Oct 30]
     (MC, 10/30/01)

1683        Nov 10, George II, king of England (1727-60), was born.  
[see Nov 10]
     (MC, 11/10/01)

1683        Nov 22, Purcell's "Welcome to All the Pleasures,"  
premiered in London.
     (MC, 11/22/01)

1683        Dec 19, Philip V, King of Spain (1700-24, 24-46), was born  
in Versailles, France. [see Feb 20]
     (MC, 12/19/01)

1683        Dec 25, Kara Mustapha (b.~1634), chief of the Ottoman  
janissaries, appeared before the grand vizier in Belgrade. He was  
sentenced to death and executed for the military loss at Vienna.
     (WSJ, 12/5/06, p.D12)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Mustafa)

1683        Giovanni Battista Foggini created his sculpture "The Mass  
of Saint Andrea Corsini."
     (WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A18)

1683        The Ashmolean Museum was built in Oxford to house natural- 
history artifacts. It was the first such public museum. It gained its  
name and its first collections from Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), whose  
own collections were derived in part from those of John Tradescant  
(1608-1662).
     (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R34)(http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel//otherart/ashmole.htm 
)

1683        Alessandro Scarlatti (father of Domenico Scarlatti) wrote  
the score for his opera "L’Aldimiro." The only know score extant was  
found in a library in Berkeley, Ca., in 1989.
     (SFC, 5/26/96, DB p.26)

1683        Secatogue Indians deeded land on the South Shore of Long  
Island to William Nicoll.
     (WSJ, 10/9/07, p.D6)

1683        Roger Williams (b.1603) died in poverty in Rhode Island.  
Williams was the first cham-pion of complete religious toleration in  
America. In 2005 Edwin S. Gaustad authored the biog-raphy “Roger  
Williams.”
     (HNQ, 5/1/99)(WSJ, 6/21/05, p.D10)

1683        Taiwan was claimed by China's Manchu dynasty after large- 
scale immigration from the Chinese mainland to the island.
     (AP, 8/12/06)