Total War. Rome II. Destruir Cartago (Spanish Edition)

Accordingly, Enrique II arranged the marriage of two of his bastard daughters with the sons of the Marquis and gave Don Alfonso an advance payment of the joint dowry of 60, f lor ins to be added to the or ig inal 50, paid to the English. Don Alfonso, the elder son of the Marquis, was to marry, within two years of his release, the king's daughter Dona Leonor; Don Pedro, the younger son of the Marquis, was to marry the king's other bastard daughter, Dona Juana, within four years of his release from capt ivi ty. And, i f this arrangement was not f u l f i l l e d , the Marquis, or his sons, were to return to the king the dowry of 60, f l o r i n s.

At the beginning of 1 3 7 8 , just over a year before the king's death, Don Pedro de Aragon completed his part of the bargain by marrying Dona Juana de C a s t i l l a i n Burgos. However, Don Alfonso the younger refused to marry Dofia Leonor because of her notorious immorality. No doubt he f e l t j u s t i f i e d i n his refusal on moral grounds, but i t was nevertheless a breach of the agreement between his father and the King. Whether he f e l t that the death of Enrique II absolved him from the obligation to honour the bargain, we do not know; what i s certain i s that , under the administration of Enrique I I I , the refusal of Don Alfonso to marry Dona Leonor was to mil i ta te against the interests of his father and the young Enrique de V i l l e n a.

According to Zur i ta , Alfonso later married a sister of the King of Navarra. The marriage of Don Pedro and Dofia Juana seems, however, to have been successful. They had three children, the eldest of whom, Enrique, was born, as we have seen, i n Doubtless with the object of placating 27 the new King, Juan I, Don Alfonso the elder had conceded his t i t l e of Marquis of V i l l e n a to his son Don Pedro, with the proviso that he retained for himself the income from the estates for the rest of his l i f e.

Unfortu-nately, Don Pedro was destined not to enjoy the benefits of the Marquisate f o r , on August i h , , the year after the b i r t h of Enrique de V i l l e n a , he died f ighting for Castile i n the battle of Aljubarrota. Don Pedro must have been held in high regard by the King, for shortly before he met his tragic end i n the f i e l d he had been named i n the w i l l of Juan I as tutor to the King's son, the future Enrique I I I , i n the event of his being pre-deceased by the Marquis Don Alfonso. However, now that his son had died f i r s t , the duties of tutor to the King's heir remained with Don Alfonso.

Juan I had granted the Marquis a stipend of , maravedis for the discharge of this important and i n f l u e n t i a l o f f i c e , an amount which ex-ceeded by some 30, maravedis the stipend offered to the other tutors named i n the testament. As we shal l see, Don Alfonso's obstinate refusal to obey the summons to take charge of the education of the heir to the Cast i l ian throne was to have unfortunate repercussions both for himself and for his grandson.

Upon the death of Don Pedro de Aragon, the chi ld Enrique de V i l l e n a remained under the tutelage of his grandfather and, when the time came for his education to begin, went to l i v e with Don Alfonso on his estates i n Aragon. L i t t l e i s known of his mother except that she later remarried, becoming the wife of the Infante Don Dionis , pretender to the Portuguese throne, thereafter s tyl ing herself "Queen of Portugal. From him we learn that Don Alfonso wished to bring up the chi ld as a knight but that, doubtless to his grandfather's 28 everlasting dismay, the young Enrique much preferred his study and his books to the manly art of chivalry.

E l en su ninez quando los nifios suelen por fuerca ser llevados a las escuelas, e l contra voluntad de todos se dispuso a aprender. Who his teachers were, and where he obtained his books, we do not know. The popular legends of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries connect him, as a young man, with the schools of "magic" i. Whilst Waxman i s incl ined to take this cum grano s a l i s , pointing out quite correctly that the legends are much older than V i l l e n a and that they have simply been transferred to a more contemporary Spanish loca le , i t must be admitted that V i l l e n a does show some acquaintance with many s c i e n t i f i c works which are s t i l l preserved today i n the Cathedral Library at Toledo.

At the same time, however, we have no evidence to support any claim that he attended a University and the nature of the somewhat haphazard learning displayed i n his extant works does not seem to be the result of formal schooling i n any particular d i s c i p l i n e , but rather of the enquiries of a par t icular ly curious autodidact.

In , when the condestablia was worth 60, maravedis, Don Alfonso was removed from off ice because of his continued refusal to heed the frequently repeated summons to present himself at the court as tutor of the new King Enrique III who had not yet reached his majority. Don Alfonso attempted to excuse his previous conduct; the King, doubtless to test his loyal ty and good f a i t h , asked for Alfonso's assistance against the forces of the Duke of Benavente which were dis turb-ing the peace of Cast i le. When this was refused, the King and Don Alfonso parted company on less-than-cordial terms, the la t ter returning to his estates.

This was not the attitude to take with the King of Cas t i le , and Enrique III was not prepared to le t the matter rest. Don Alfonso's removal from the off ice of Condestable had been ample return for his refusal to serve as the young monarch's tutor ; his insolence in seeking reinstatement whilst at the same time refusing the King his assistance in a matter of internal security required sterner measures. The matter of the only p a r t i a l l y f u l f i l l e d marriage agreements between the sons of Don Alfonso and the daughters of Enrique II aunts of the new King Enrique III had not been set t led.

Dona Leonor had, to a l l intents and purposes, been cheated out of a husband and the crown had been cheated out of the 30, f l o r i n s which represented her part of the dowry of 60, paid in advance to the Marquis. Also , Don Alfonso no longer had any right to retain the 30, f l o r i n s paid on behalf of Dona Juana, now that she was a widow. In order to reclaim these losses, the King confis -cated the marquisate of V i l l e n a and revoked Don Alfonso's t i t l e , which thus passed to the crown. As Cotarelo points out, "algo ancha tuvo D.

Enrique e l Doliente l a manga en este procedimiento; porque, siendo e l importe de l a reclamacion It appears that Don Alfonso, as Marquis of V i l l e n a , had ruled over his estates as though he were in fact a monarch in his own r ight. That the "King's writ" did not run i n the marquisate is made quite clear by the Cronica de Juan I: The outcome was that Don Alfonso found himself stripped of a l l the possessions and dignities which had been conferred upon him by Enrique II and Juan I , although he retained control , temporarily, of the w e l l - f o r t i f i e d towns of V i l l e n a and Almansa.

The person who suffered most from this reverse of fortune was, of course, Don Enrique de V i l l e n a. Don Alfonso was s t i l l a powerful man in Aragon, but the heir to his Aragonese estates was his eldest son Alfonso, Enrique's uncle. The marquisate of Vi l lena had reverted to the Cast i l ian crown, thus making i t v i r t u a l l y impossible for Don Enrique to succeed to i t ; he could expect to inherit nothing in Aragon and l i t t l e else i n Castile from his mother, by now the se l f - s ty led "Queen" of Portugal.

His ambitious attempts to better his unhappy lot were, as we shal l see, 31 doomed to f a i l u r e , with, the result that he spent the rest of his l i f e in a state of what, for a man of such noble lineage, must have been tantamount to dire poverty. Don Enrique de V i l l e n a , therefore, began his public l i f e with the prospect of a rather uncertain future.

The earl iest date recorded of his part icipation in state ceremonies i s October, 5 when Martin e l Humano was crowned in Zaragoza. On the day of the coronation there was a pro-cession of "los q u e. Alonso hermano de Enrique un chapeo muy adornado de piedras y perlas , que era l a insignia de aquella dignidad que habia de r e c i b i r , y detras seguia D. Enrique, su nieto, que llevaba l a bandera de sus armas. H During the f i n a l years of the fourteenth century we do not know the precise date , V i l l e n a l e f t Aragon for the court of C a s t i l e , where he seems to have enjoyed a certain measure of protection and friendship from his cousin, Enrique III.

The indications are that i t was s t r i c t l y a marriage of convenience. The Albornoz estates included a number of towns or v i l l a s which had formerly belonged to Don Alfonso de Aragon and which, under normal circumstances, would have been inherited by Enrique de V i l l e n a. To a certain extent, therefore, the marriage can be seen as an attempt to compensate p a r t i a l l y the loss of the V i l l e n a estates. It 32 has been suggested that , as a result of the obvious favour shown towards him.

There is no documentary evidence to support this contention, but i t i s a dis t inct p o s s i b l i t y. We do know, however, that " e l rrey don Enrrique. The date of V i l l e n a ' elevation to the rank of Count i s not known,but i t must have been before Rumour would have us believe that his wife , Dona Maria, had become 15 the King's mistress. If i t i s true, i t may help to explain why, i n the spring of l 4 o 4 , at the age of twenty, V i l l e n a took i t into his head to leave the court and to t ravel the world in search of his fortune.

A nostre molt car nebot don Henrich de V i l l e n a. Dominus rex mandavit mihi Guillelmo Poncii. However, i t seems fairly-certain that the l e t t e r from Martin e l Humano, as well other considerations, secured V i l l e n a ' s prompt return to the Court of C a s t i l e , although, as we shal l see, within four years he was in Martin's Court at Barcelona. One of the other considerations instrumental i n effecting his return to Castile yr i n ihOk was the death, "en edad de setenta anos," of Don Gonzalo Nunez de Guzman, Maestre of the Order of Calatrava. With an ambition v i r t u a l l y amounting to insolence in a young man of twenty years, Enrique de V i l l e n a presented himself as a candidate for the maestrazgo, with the f u l l support of the King of C a s t i l e , Enrique III had sound p o l i t i c a l reasons for en-couraging V i l l e n a i n this ambitious scheme.

It is well known that he had long cherished the desire to wage war on the i n f i d e l kingdom of Granada in the hope of f in ishing off the work of reconquest which, over the centuries, had gradually lost i t s momentum. Now one of the most outstanding characteristics of the p o l i t i c a l situation of fifteenth-century Castile i s the extremely precarious balance of power between the Crown, as the supposed central authority, and the n o b i l i t y.

Thanks to the mercedes of Enrique I I , considerable power had been distributed w i l l y - n i l l y to the great nobles with the result that the authority of the Crown had been greatly diminished. As the King kept no standing army, he was forced to re ly on the nobles and on the M i l i t a r y Orders to provide for his mil i tary needs. But the pla in fact was that , 3 U because of the Crown's fundamentally weak posi t ion , he could not re ly on them to support his ventures i f they did not approve.

The preparations for mounting a campaign such as Enrique had i n mind involved, therefore, p o l i t i c a l machinations of almost Machiavellian proportions before there could be any hope of an army taking to the f i e l d. The King had to make very sure that the balance of power swung i n his favour.

As Ines MacDonald points out: Power was essential for the Crown's preservation, especially since the middle of the fourteenth century, when the new hierarchy of nobles had been created by Henry I I. But even before then History had recorded various encroachments by the crown on the privileges of the M i l i t a r y Orders, which, by the opening of the f i f teenth century, constituted a menace to the State. It was because the Crown had no army of i t s own that i t so coveted the Maestrazgos of the M i l i t a r y Orders. But, owing to the or ig inal constitution of these bodies , the Comendadores had to be l e f t free to elect as Maestre whomsoever they chose; moreover, as they only recognised the authority of the Pope above that of the Maestre, they did i n fact form a State within a State.

The Kings, therefore, i f they wished to be sure of the support of the Orders , had to persuade the Comendadores to elect a candidate chosen by the Crown. V i l l e n a , however, was not e l i g i b l e ; on the one had, he held the t i t l e of Count of Cangas and Tineo and, on the other, he was married.

The f i r s t impediment was easily surmounted by V i l l e n a ' s renunciation of the t i t l e i n favour of the Crown, together with the waiving of his rights to the Marquisate. A solution to the second problem was conveniently supplied by his wife 's pet i t ion for a divorce on the unsubstantiated grounds of his impotence. Dona Maria, doubtless 35 with the object of winning a swift papal decision i n her favour, made the token gesture of wishing to embrace the religious l i f e.

In fac t , the King had made i t quite clear that she would only remain within the cloisters u n t i l Don Enrique was elected Maestre, after which she would be free to return to the Court and i f the 1 9 rumours are to be believed to the King's bed. In the meantime, Enrique III had ordered the postponement of the election of the new Maestre u n t i l he could be there i n person, and secretly prevailed upon the most i n f l u e n t i a l of the electors to cast their votes in V i l l e n a ' s favour.

They met i n convocation at the church of Santa Fe i n Toledo. V i l l e n a ' s renunciation of his secular claims and t i t l e s was made p u b l i c ; the papal b u l l of separation, absolving him from his marriage to Dona Maria, was proclaimed; Don Enrique was at t i red i n the habit of f r e i l e i n the Order of Calatrava, having received papal permission to dispense with the novi t ia te , and f i n a l l y , i n the presence of the King, he was elected Maestre.

The e lec t ion , however, did not go unopposed. A number of knights of the Order met i n Calatrava to declare the Toledo election i n v a l i d , and to appoint their r i v a l Maestre i n the person of Don Luis Gonzalez de Guzman, nephew, or possibly the son, of the previous Maestre. The King and V i l l e n a were thus obliged to go to Calatrava to confirm the election which had taken place at Toledo. Doubtless under the threat of violence, the dissident faction was subdued, with the exception of Don Luis Gonzalez de Guzman who f l e d to A l c a n i z , the pr inc ipal encomienda and convent of the Order i n Aragon, where he would be able to plead his cause with the Pope i n an atmosphere less fraught with personal danger.

Rades y Andrada, i n his Croriica de Calatrava, records a number of minor items referr ing to V i l l e n a ' s administration of the Order, and indicates that V i l l e n a was present as we would have expected at the Cortes which Enrique III held i n Toledo towards the end of lUo6 to make preparations 20 for his proposed campaign against the kingdom of Granada. The King's death on December 25, , brought to a close V i l l e n a ' s short period of undisputed enjoyment of the Maestrazgo.

The Cronica de Juan II indicates that V i l l e n a had committed "muchos desaguisados e sinrazones" against the 21 f r e i l e s comendadores of the Order. For this reason, upon the death of Enrique I I I , the knights "le quitaron l a obediencia," having congregated i n Calatrava and f o r t i f i e d the convent i n anticipation of a siege. V i l l e n a was not l e f t without supporters, however, and with their assistance he was 22 able to maintain his authority by force of arms for some time. His closest fr iend at this time was his cousin, the Infante Don Fernando, co-regent of Castile with the queen-mother Dofia Catalina de Lancaster or Alencastre as i t appears i n the chronicles during the minority of Juan I I.

In V i l l e n a accompanied Don Fernando to Andalusia at the start of the campaign against the Moors of Granada. He entered Sevi l le with the Infante'and numerous other knights and dignitaries on Wednesday, June 22 23 of that year. However, there is no record of V i l l e n a having played any part i n the f ighting which took place during this f i r s t campaign. A document dated February 22, l 4 0 8 records the following 37 ceremony: En aquest dia lo senyor Rey [Don.

Martin 1 edif f icha lo monestir de l a orde dels frares Celestins , lo qual fon edificat en. En los fonaments del qual foren posades , lo di t d i a , les pedres segiients, go es: Martin de Riquer has made i t quite clear that V i l l e n a not only enjoyed the favour of Martin I , but also his active support i n the matter of V i l l e n a ' s claim to the Maestrazgo. Martin I wrote several let ters on the subject, and refers constantly to V i l l e n a as Maestre de Calatrava. Nos e l Rey d'Aragon, vos embiamos muyto a saludar, assin como aquella que mutxo amamos e pora qui querriamos que diesse Dios mucha salut e honra.

Reyna muy cara e muy amada cormana: E por esto escrivimos con nuestras letras a l Rey de C a s t i e l l a , nuestro muy caro e muy amado sobrino, rogando que quiera sobre aquesto de algun buen remedio prevehir, car nos e a l Rey de S i c i l i a , nuestro muy caro primogenito, que aquesto ha sobiranament a coragon, h i entendemos ayudar assin con e l Padre Santo como en otra manera en todo lo que possible sera. A note at the end of the let ter states that a copy of i t was sent to the Queen of Navarra, Dona Leonor de C a s t i l l a , with hermana replacing cormana.

E l padre Sancto ha ordenado, segund que poredes veder clarament por su b u l l a , a suplicacion del venerable e re l igioso fray Henric, Maestro de Calatrava, caro cosin hermano nuestro, que a l f i e l nuestro En Ffrancisco P u j o l , notario de Barchinona, o a su procurador, sean pagados e liurados tres mil f lorines d'oro d'Aragon por fray Johan de Camanyo, comendador delCollado, e fray Johan Rodrigues, comendador de S i v i l i a , recebidores e adminis-tradores de las rendas e dreytos del maestrado de Cala-trava, a l qual Ffrancisco los ditos tres mil f lorines son devidos por e l dito Maestre.

Per que vos rogamos con grant affeccion, rey muy caro e muy amado sobrino, que por honrra nuestra querades mandar a los ditos comendadores que cumplan luego tan tonst e l mandamiento e ordinacion del dito Padre Sancto a ellos feyto sobre las cosas desuso ditas , quar en otra manera e l dito Maestre no trobaria qui le emprestas o bestragues alguna quantia de moneda en las suyas necessidades, e convendria-le a b i v i r con grant vergonya de vos e nuestra, l a qual cosa devemos muyto esquivar.

Now a number of interesting considerations emerge from this corre-spondence. The f i r s t and most obvious point i s that these documents help to f i l l a notable lacuna i n our knowledge of that period of V i l l e n a ' s l i f e when i t was generally thought that he was i n Andalusia with Fernando de Antequera. The second point is that V i l l e n a undoubtedly took advantage of his v i s i t to Barcelona to mingle with the poets , scholars and writers of Martin's Court; we can be f a i r l y certain that he must have come into contact quite frequently with Bernat Metge who, at that time, was secre-tary to the king.

The t h i r d , and most important point , concerns the f i e s t a de l a Gaya Ciencia , held i n Barcelona, which V i l l e n a describes in. Riquer points out that u n t i l now i t has been generally considered that V i l l e n a f i r s t came to the Aragonese 4o Court in l4 l2 in the entourage of Fernando de Antequera, and that the f ies ta described i n the famous passage from the Arte de trovar took place during Fernando's reign as King of Aragon. Alvar Gomez de Castro, the sixteenth-century writer from Toledo, whose abridged and annotated version of the Arte de trovar i s the one which has come down to us, did not know of the documents which we have just examined, and which prove that V i l l e n a was i n Barcelona at least four years before l 4 l 2.

He did know probably through the Cronica de Juan I I , as Riquer suggests that V i l l e n a came to Aragon with Fernando in , and for that reason i t must have seemed l o g i c a l to conclude that the f i e s t a i n which V i l l e n a played such an im-portant part must have taken place during Fernando's reign. However, we now know that V i l l e n a not only enjoyed the friendship and support of Martin I , but that he was i n his Court in l4o8 and l40 Q.

As Riquer says, " s i leemos este pasaje Cdel Arte de trovar3 prescindiendo de las ediciones de Alvar Gomez no cabe duda de que l a f ies ta descrita por don Enrique de 3 0 V i l l e n a l a situaremos en e l reinado de Martinel Humano. As Don Fernando made his triumphant return from Antequera,. On June 28, l 4 l 2 , Don Fernando e l de Antequera was elected King of 41 Aragon by the compromisarios at Caspe, and when, on August 5, l 4 l 2 , he 32 set foot i n his new kingdom, Don Enrique de V i l l e n a went with him.

We must remember, however, that Don Fernando was elected, not unanimously, 33 but on a majority vote only, and that a Catalan faction of considerable power, unsympathetic to the idea of a Cast i l ian monarch i n Aragon, refused to accept the decision of Caspe and r a l l i e d to the support of their favour-i t e , Don Jaime or Jaume , Count of U r g e l l.

Jaume d 'Urgel l ' s claim to the throne of Aragon was almost as strong as Fernando's. He was, moreover, a Catalan, and from a family older than the royal house i t s e l f. History, however, has not treated him kindly , and he emerges from the pages of Ines MacDonald's account of Fernando's reign as a swashbuckling but p o l i t i c a l l y naive adventurer, completely dependent upon his equally incompetent advisers.

Much of his conduct at this period can also be explained by the malign influence of his scheming and ambitious mother, the Dowager Countess of U r g e l l , Dofia Margarita, who goaded him con-t i n u a l l y with her uncompromising repetit ion of the motto she had invented: Although theoretical ly strong enough at the time of Fernando's e lec t ion, to seize the Crown of Aragon for himself, Jaume had by the summer of , allowed himself to be manoeuvred i n both a p o l i t i -cal and mil i tary sense into an indefensible posi t ion.

F l u v i a , however, had underestimated the resistance which the towns would offer and, having f a i l e d to capture them, the Count was reduced to the much infer ior plan of making Balaguer his base, but keeping his forces moving in the v i c i n i t y of the c i t y , so that he could harass Fernando's armies and keep himself supplied with food from the r i c h lands of the plain of U r g e l l. In the circumstances this was the only feasible alternative which remained, but Jaume at once discarded any chance of success by yielding to the emotional entreaties of his wife and his mother who begged him to remain with them i n the c i t y , rather than r i s k his l i f e i n the uncertainties of g u e r r i l l a warfare with the king's forces.

F luvia once more revealed his complete lack of mi l i ta ry acumen by supporting Dona Margarita and the Count's wife. So i t was that Jaume d 'Urgel l found him-sel f shut up i n Balaguer, a town well provided with both natural and a r t i -f i c i a l defences but, through lack of foresight and the sudden change of plan , most inadequately supplied with everything which a prolonged siege required. Throughout the entire period of the Count's r e b e l l i o n , Fernando had acted with a degree of patience which was in direct contrast to Jaume's impetuous and agressive posturing.

In this way he succeeded i n attracting the support of his subjects, as the Count succeeded i n losing i t. On August 19, l U l 3 , the Duke of Gandia, V i l l e n a ' s uncle, brought up a troop of some men-at-arms at his own expense, and a contingent of Valencians. By a slow process of bribery and bombardment, Fernando gradually weakened the defences and the morale of the town while he made preparations for a f i n a l attack at the end of September.

Cotarelo speaks only b r i e f l y of this episode: Since the publication of his work, however, a copy of Alvar Garcia de Santa Maria's chronicle of the reign of Don Fernando has come to l i g h t , although i t is s t i l l unpublished and has not attracted 36 the attention i t deserves. During the preparations for the general assault on the town, Fernando suddenly began to have second thoughts about the size of the scaling-towers escalas or bastidas. Doubtless he had unpleasant memories of the siege of Antequera when the bastida had been placed badly, f a i l e d to reach the , 37 top of the walls and was burned by the Moors with fuego de alquitran.

To avoid a repeti t ion of this catastrophe, Don Fernando resolved to have the height of the walls measured. The task was entrusted to Don Enrique de V i l l e n a who, i n an attempt to put his book-learning to some pract ica l use and to add some s c i e n t i f i c sophistication to the arts of war, decided 44 to make the calculations with the aid of his astrolabe, just as modern surveyor would use a quadrant or a theodolite. No doubt considerations of personal security also influenced his decision to use the astrolabe, as i n this way he could remain at a r e l a t i v e l y safe distance from the truenos , lombardas and other pieces of primitive but potent a r t i l l e r y mounted on the ramparts of Balaguer.

Unfortunately, as Alvar Garcia shows us, V i l l e n a had an imperfect grasp of the trigonometrical pr inciple behind the use of the astrolabe i n this fashion. E l rreyaviendo voluntad de l legar las vastidas a l C a s t i l l o del l a ciudad, mando a don Enrrique, e l que diximos en las ystorias antes desto que fue maestre de Calatraua, que fuese medir l a caua por que sy e l escala fuese corta que l a cregiesen antes que se llegasen a l a caba; e don Enrrique fue a medir l a caua del astrolabio. Lleuo su astrolabio consygo e quiso medir las caua por su arte del astrolabio, e f a l l o que segun su medida que seria corta e l escala, e quando vino a l rrey dixo que sic gelo; e l rrey touo que obo hierro yerro en l a medida e que l a no sopo medir, e por ende e l mariscal Alvaro que l a mediese, e echaron encima de l a torre vn dardo atado con vna cuerda e sopieron e l altura de l a torre e medieron l a caua, e asy sacaron l a medida e fal laron que ' l escala que hera asaz luenga, e do e l rrey estaua enojado que avn tenia que ' l escala no l l e g a r i a , e le venieron desir que hera conplida, obo plazer e dixo a don Enrrique: Echad vuestro astrolabio en rremojo pues tan mal saco l a medida.

Nevertheless, he held out obstinately u n t i l the end of October, , by which time i t became obvious that he would be unable to defend the c i ty against the a l l -out attack which was so clearly imminent. Prepared to surrender, he was not unnaturally fearful for his l i f e , and sent his wife Dofia Isabel to beg the King for mercy. Don Enrique de V i l l e n a is t h i r d on the l i s t of Caballeros de Aragon who, by the end of the month, had congregated i n Zaragoza for the coronation ceremonies; in a less conspicuous position among the notables Caballeros que de C a s t i l l a vinieron we f ind the name Ul of Ifiigo Lopez de Mendoza, Senor de Hita y Buitrago.

This i s , I bel ieve, the earl iest date at which we can be sure that they met, and the future Marques de Santil lana's contacts with Enrique de V i l l e n a during their sojourn in the Aragonese Court must have been frequent and f r u i t f u l.

Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion

The coronation of Fernando de Antequera took place on Sunday, Febru-ary 1 1 , l U l U amid elaborate ceremonial and sumptuous feasting. The f e s -t i v i t i e s are described i n great d e t a i l by Alvar Garcia whose chronicle served as a basis for the Coronaciones de los serenissimos reyes de Aragon by h6 Jeronimo de Blancas , printed i n Zaragoza i n l 6 4 l. The passages from Alvar Garcia transcribed by Blancas were for a long time the only extant portions of the o r i g i n a l chronicle, which explains why Cotarelo only mentions Alvar Garcfa i n connection with the coronation of Fernando.

The ceremonies have dwell on them at great length here except to point out that V i l l e n a took part i n them and, during the banquet, served as cuchil lo and sobrecopa at the King's table. A word might be s a i d , however, about the pageants and the a l legor ica l spectacles which took place at the banquet i n the courtyard of the A l j a f e r i a. A detailed description of them, based on Alvar Garcia's text , may be consulted i n N.

Shergold's History of the 43 Spanish Stage and I do not wish to repeat i t here. Suffice i t to say that before each course of the enormous meal, the guests were treated to a juego or entrernes mounted on a lavish and complicated scenario. The banquet began — writes Shergold — with an entry of the gryphon, breathing f i r e and preceding dishes of roast peacock, and while the guests were eating the l a t t e r , God the Father moved the heavens , and a great cloud descended to earth, bearing an angel with a drawn sword who addressed verses to the King.

These reminded the monarch of his royal duties , and also expressed the hope that he would heal the schism i n the Church, and restore the Pope to Rome. The cloud then took the angel back to Heaven, after which each of the seven deadly sins in turn spoke a verse about his particular v i c e. Shergold points out i n a note that these verses have been attributed by some to Enrique de V i l l e n a.

This is not quite correct ; the verses which have been attributed to V i l l e n a were those sung i n praise of the King by four f igures , representing Just ice , Truth, Peace and Mercy, which stood on the four towers of a "castle" which the King passed as he l e f t the Cathedral after the coronation ceremony.

The attribution of these verses to Don Enrique seems, then, to have been the invention of Bias Nasarre.

However, this has not prevented i t from being repeated down to the present 46 day, in spite of the fact that Amador de los Rios, Cotarelo and others have pointed out the weakness of the supposition. Fernando reached Morella on July 1 , and the Pope arrived on July The following Sunday July 22 , the King prepared a banquet for the benefit of the Pope, the Cardinals and the entire Court.

As the King and his principales were to serve at the Pope's table , they ate earl ier i n Fernando's U8 quarters. It i s quite possible that at this meeting with Benedict XIII Fernando had occasion to discuss the marital status of Enrique de V i l l e n a , for i t was during the year iklh that the General Chapter of the Order of Calatrava met to declare n u l l and void V i l l e n a ' s election to the Maestragzo. His r i v a l , Don Luis Gonzalez de Guzman, was o f f i c i a l l y recognized as Maestre, and those members of the Order who continued to support V i l l e n a were pro nounced excommunicate.

As Rubio y Balaguer points out, " s i hemos de dar credito a las palabras del rey, l a h i s t o r i a de aquellas ruidosas divergencias conyugales se nos presentaria bajo luz mucho menos 52 desfavorable para e l famoso Don Enrique de lo que cuentan sus biografos. It is quite l i k e l y , therefore, that his swift return to the married state was an economic ne-cessi ty , and, u n t i l we can prove anything to the contrary, there seems to be l i t t l e reason for revising our or ig inal opinions of the s i tuation.

We do know, however, that the Pope anulled the divorce and ordered the estranged parties to l i v e together; "e quanto en uno duraron siempre vivieron mal 53 avenidos , adds the Croriica de Juan I I. Her plan was to poison Don Fernando and a l l the members of the Royal family, and to release her son, Jaume d ' U r g e l l , from the castle of Uruefia where he had been imprisoned for l i f e. She had attempted to suborn Pero C a r i l l o de Escalante, who had been placed i n charge of the Count.

Escalante, however, was not to be corrupted, and the king was informed of the intrigue. T y p i -c a l l y , before he decided to act , the King waited u n t i l he has acquired incontrovertible evidence against the Dowager Countess. This reached him while he was holding Court at Montblanc. He promptly dispatched Diego de Vadil lo and the Infante Don Juan to Lerida to arrest the Countess, at which time further evidence, in the form of incriminating l e t t e r s , was uncovered. Dona Margarita and her accomplices were t r i e d and convicted. The Dowager Countess was condemned to imprisonment in a castle near Valencia, and the Count's sisters were obliged to re t i re into a convent, a l l their possessions having been confiscated by the Crown.

Enrique de V i l l e n a seems to have played a part in the t r i a l , as we f ind him named as a witness to the sentence proclaimed against Dona Margarita in the presence of the king on December 2 9 , iklk, i n the Bishop's Palace at Lerida. It i s , I think, reasonable to assume that V i l l e n a accompanied the Court from Morella to Montblanc and thence to Valencia.

He may even have i accompanied Fernando to Perpignan for the conferences with the Pope and the Emperor Sigismund which were intended to terminate the Schism. If this i s the case, we may be f a i r l y certain that he was with the a i l i n g Fernando when he l e f t Perpignan for Castile i n a l i t t e r towards the end of March, lkl6, and may even have been with the king when he died at Igualada near Barcelona on A p r i l 2.

But we do not know. There can be l i t t l e doubt, 50 however, that the death of his friend and protector must have "been a great blow to V i l l e n a , and must have greatly influenced, i f not actually caused, his decision to withdraw almost completely from public l i f e. In A p r i l , lUl7 , he was i n Valencia , at which time he informs us that "avia de estar poco en Valencia e dende entendia tomar mi camino para c a s t i l l a e tenia ya liados mis l i b r o s.

Don Sancho de Rojas , Archbishop of Toledo, intervened on his behalf, and V i l l e n a was granted the 'sefiorio of the town of Iniesta situated between M o t i l l a and Requena, just south of the main road 5 8 from Madrid to Valencia. This town, and his wife's v i l l a de Torralba were to become his pr inc ipal places of residence for the rest of his l i f e , spent largely beyond the public gaze i n the pursuit of knowledge.

His reputation as a scholar and collector of rare books was by now firmly established. Car oncle, sabents certament que vos havets un l l i b r e appellat i s tor ies Trogi i Ponpei affectam aquell molt haver per 5 0 que'n pugam translatar a fer-ne traure un latre per a nostre servir vos pregam axi affectuosament com podem que v i s t a l a present nos trametats aquell per Pere de Santafe, portador de l a present, lo qual per aquesta raho va a vos, e translatat vos manarem tornar, e ago no di la te ts s i 'ns desitjats servir e complaure.

Dada en Caragoca sots nostre segell secret a. A nostre car oncle don Henrich. Dominus rex mandavit mihi Paulo N i c o l a i. On March 7, , he was present when the 61 Court met i n Madrid to acknowledge the King's coming-of-age, "y desde 62 entonces — says Cotarelo — desaparece enteramente de l a esfera p u b l i c a.

However, since the publication of Cotarelo's study of V i l l e n a , two chronicles, considered lost since the sixteenth century, have come to l i g h t. As we shal l see, the information provided by these chronicles resolves most of the controversy which has surrounded the burning of V i l l e n a ' s books; they also t e s t i f y to V i l l e n a ' s part icipation i n a p o l i t i c a l act of considerable importance whose ultimate fa i lure would seem to shed a considerable amount of l ight upon V i l l e n a ' s exclusion from the affa i rs of the Cast i l ian Court.

With the majority of Juan II in l 4 l 9 , the Crown passed under the influence of powerful favourite , Alvaro de Luna, with his henchmen Juan Hurtado de Mendoza, the Mayordomo mayor, and the l a t t e r ' s nephew Mendoza, Senor de Almazan. In this group staged a successful palace coup i n Tordesi l las , Juan 52 Hurtado and his nephew being imprisoned. The Infante Don Enrique and his followers made their way to the King's chamber where they found him asleep, with Alvaro de Luna at his feet.

The king awoke muy turbado e enojado and the Infante announced: Senor, yo soy aqui venido por vuestro servic io , e por echar e arredrar de vuestra. This remark was doubtless intended to include Alvaro de Luna, but i t was found that the King's perfervid attachment to his favourite was so great. The favourite was therefore permitted to remain with the King so that he could be made to prevail upon him to do the Infante's bidding.

The King and Don Alvaro were removed to Talavera, where they remained v i r t u a l l y prisoners of the Infante de Aragon. However, Alvaro de Luna and those knights who remained f a i t h f u l to the King, succeeded in escaping with him. They made their way to V i l l a l b a with the Infante i n hot pursuit , but finding the place impossible to defend, they continued to the castle of Montalban which they took by surprise, thanks to the promptaction of Pedro C a r r i l l o , the author of the chronicle. However, there was no food i n the castle and i t was necessary to send for provisions.

The following day, Saturday, November 30, , the f i r s t batch of supplies was brought to the castle. Murgia, e Ynigo Lopez de Mendoga, senor de F i t a e de 53 Buitrago, f i j o del almirante don Diego Furtado, que a l a sazon era en l a casa del ynfante don Enrrique, con treynta o quarenta rrogines e tomaronla toda sic The same day saw the a r r i v a l of the Condestable Ruy Lopez Davalos, Pero Manrique and Garci Fernandez Manrique, each with some twenty or t h i r t y escuderos.

They pitched camp "fasta un t i r o de ballesta de Montal'aan. E fuese a donde abian asentado e l rea l e l condestable, e Pero Manrrique, e Gargi Fernandez Manrrique. E de t a l manera bedaron las biandas, que a l Rey daban por rracion vn quarto de carnero por l a mafiana, e dos pares de gallinas e medio cabrito por semejante en l a noche, e pan e bino lo que le podia abastar.

E a todos los que dentro estaban no les consentian meter nenguna bianda. E segun l a poca bianda que tenian los que estaban dentro, de negesidad fueron muertos dos caballos, e fueron luego comidos. The Infante informed Juan II that he was acting i n his majesty's best interests , that he understood that the King was being held i n Montalban against his w i l l , and would the King make his intentions known. The king assured the Infante that he had come to Montalban of his own v o l i t i o n , that there was nothing to be gained but his disfavour i f the siege continued, and requested the Infante kindly to withdraw.

Advised thus of the King's wishes, and having learned that the Infante Don Juan was hastening to the King's support with a large army, the Infante Don Enrique judged i t prudent to retreat. In , the Infante and his mayordomo, Garci Fernandez, were enticed from Ocana to Madrid where, on Sunday, June 14, they were arrested and imprisoned for 5h 63 their part i n the uprising.

No doubt this unsuccessful conclusion to the coup of Tordesillas helps to explain why Villena spent at least the lat t e r half of i n , 69 Aragon. In he was in Torralba where he wrote the Tratado de l a Consolacion, and where, on September 6, he put the finishing touches to his Arte Cisoria. His ' Expos ic ion del sa,lmo was completed on November 2 8 , , , TO , in Iniesta, and probably in the following year he wrote his Tratado de l a Fascinacion in Torralba.

The legal heir to his considerable estates in Ribagorza was Enrique de Villena, but the inheritance was either given to or seized by the Infante Don Juan, now the King of Navarre. Villena's unsuccessful attempts to obtain r e s t i -tution are alluded to i n the letter of dedication to the King of Navarre which prefaces his translation of the Aeneid, begun on September 2 8 , As we have seen in the introductory chapter of this study, Villena also spent the period in translating the Divine Comedy, the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and i n writing otras obras menudas.

Somewhere between and he wrote, in Iniesta, his Epistbla a Suero de Quinones, and i n his Arte de Trovar. In December, , Villena was in Madrid, possibly in connection with the a r r i v a l on December 6 of the ambassadors from the King of France. Salieronlos a rrescebir e l condestable don Aluaro de Luna, e e l adelantado Pero Manrrique, e e l conde de Venabente don Rodrigo Alfonso Pimentel, e l conde de Castafieda don Gargi Fernandes Manrrique, e don Enrrique de Villena; perlados, el argobispo de Toledo don Jhoan de Luna, hermano del condestable, e don Pedro, nieto del rrey don Pedro, obispo de Osma.

The Croriica del Halcbnero t e l l s us that. Tanto, que no podia beuer con sus manos ni menearse de los p ies , que sus escuderos lo caualgauan e descaualgauan. Estando e l Rey en Madrid, miercoles quinze dias de dizienbre deste ano de m i l l e quatrocientos e treynta ' e quatro afios , murio a l i i don Enrrique de V i l l e n a , en e l monesterio de Sant Frangisco, donde estaua aposentado. When Jonah said those words, he was acknowledging that God was disciplining him and that he deserved it. How we respond to discipline determines how much benefit we receive from it.

According to Hebrews Discipline is to the believer what exercise and training are to the athlete v. The fact that God chastened His servant is proof that Jonah was truly a child of God, for God disciplines only His own children. Jonah was going in one direction only—down. When you turn your back on God, the only direction you can go is down. Whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows the plague of his own heart, and spreads out his hands toward this temple: Jonah claimed that promise.

Now Jonah admits that there were idols in his life that robbed him of the blessing of God.

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An idol is anything that takes away from God the affection and obedience that rightfully belongs only to Him. We shall learn from chapter 4 that Jonah was also protecting his own reputation 4: For somebody who was famous for his prophecies 2 Kings Jonah closes his prayer by uttering some solemn vows to the Lord, vows that he really intended to keep. Like the psalmist, he said: Jonah promised to worship God in the temple with sacrifices and songs of thanksgiving.

It is also the central theme of the Bible. How wise of Jonah to memorize the Word of God; because being able to quote the Scriptures, especially the Book of Psalms, gave him light in the darkness and hope in his seemingly hopeless situation. We can be sure that he was duly humbled as he once again stood on dry land.

Few miracles in Scripture have been attacked as much as this one, and Christian scholars have gathered various kinds of evidence to prove that it could happen. At Pentecost, Peter preached the Resurrection Acts 2: In order to protect the integrity of the Scripture, some have suggested that the Crucifixion be moved back to Thursday or even Wednesday. At any rate, we hope that Jonah gave thanks to God for the divinely provided creature that rescued him from certain death.

In these two chapters, we are confronted with four marvels that we dare not take for granted:. BOICE - A Turning Point To concentrate so much on what happened inside the great fish that we miss noting what happened inside Jonah is to make a great mistake, however, as I have indicated. As we read it we discover that the prayer reveals the truly great miracle. It shows that though Jonah had been brought to the depths of misery within the fish, he nevertheless found the mercy of God in his misery.

He discovered that though he had forsaken God, God had not forsaken him, though it seemed that he had. In brief, Jonah found salvation even before the fish vomited him up on the land. With the exception of verse 10, the second chapter is a record of this prayer. Since the book is only four chapters long, it is obvious that the prayer is important.

You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you.

These characteristics should be in our own prayers at all times, particularly when we get into trouble because of disobedience and need to repent and get ourselves back on the right path. The first is honesty. The prayer is starkly honest. So often Christians are dishonest in their prayers. They come to the Lord trying to overlook some circumstance that he has caused, ignore some sin that he has highlighted, or obtain some request that he has already clearly rejected.

What we do may be illustrated by a story frequently told by Donald Grey Barnhouse. On one occasion his daughter had come to him with a request that he had denied.

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He told her what he wanted and then went on with his work. She remained standing in front of him. Barnhouse called to the daughter from another room.

What are you doing? I have told you what I want you to do, but you do not like it. You are actually waiting to see if you can get me to change my mind. If we go on to reject his will and thus reap the fruits of our disobedience, we frequently try to explain away the results. Christians ought to be the greatest realists in the world. But they are not, especially when they are disobeying God or running away from him. Instead of being honest about their trouble, as Jonah was, they find themselves trying to explain their miseries away. Jonah not only acknowledged his misery; he acknowledged that it was God who had caused it.

But these are minor technicalities, and Jonah is done with technicalities. They do not matter. He was in desperate straits, and God was the one who was causing them. In one sense, this increased the terror of his situation. The situation was bad enough. He was far from land with no path of escape. But add the fact that God had caused it! God had addressed himself to Jonah in the character of a judge. He had summoned him to trial, witnessed against him, cast a verdict of guilty, and then sentenced him to death, proceeding at once to the implementation of the sentence—this was a terror almost beyond words!

For it is better to fall into the hands of God, even in judgment, than to be apart from him. David is a case in point. David could choose seven years of famine, three months of defeat before his enemies, or three days of pestilence. God is a God of judgment, but his judgment is tempered by the mercy that is so prominent a theme in Jonah. We can acknowledge that God caused it but still get angry. In one such instance a Christian girl married a man who was not a Christian, ignoring the advice of her pastor and friends.

Then she knew great misery as the marriage turned sour and ended in divorce. Instead of repenting of the sin, she drifted away from Christian friends and activities. Only much later, by the grace of God, did she return to him. First, he acknowledged that everything that had happened to him, while caused by God, was nevertheless his own fault. This is the meaning of verse 8, one of the great verses of the book: God is not less merciful, but the believer has rejected that mercy and therefore deserves all that comes on him.

If he had, we might suspect that his repentance had a hidden motive. Perhaps he was repenting just so he could get out of the fish and back on dry land. In reality he asked for nothing. He was genuinely sorry for his disobedience. What could Jonah, swallowed by a fish, in the midst of the ocean awaiting death, possibly be thankful about?

But if we ask the question in spiritual terms and think of a spiritual deliverance, the answer is easy. True, Jonah had no hope of deliverance from the fish. Jonah was not thankful that God had delivered him from the fish because God had not yet delivered him. He was not thankful that God was going to deliver him, because he had no idea that God was going to do it. What he was thankful for was that God had turned him from rebellion and had caused him to call on the name of the Lord once again. He was thankful for salvation. He was thankful for the abiding grace of God.

Ellul discusses the prayer in these words: But he has been answered if we take the answer to be adoption under the care of the God who takes on the totality of our sufferings, dramas and situations. He is answered because grace does not fail in any way, and even if there is no visible, actual and personal sign, Jonah can state that the answer takes place because grace has been granted to him from all eternity.

Jonah rediscovers this grace of God at the very moment his situation is hopeless and to all appearances nothing more is to be expected. His refusal and flight were clearly outside grace. Events have taken place without any indication of a favorable intervention, only signs of judgment. But suddenly, when he has accepted his condemnation, when he has acknowledged before God that he was guilty and that God was just, he sees that at no point did God cease to show him grace. No fact confirms his insight. He does not have even the first beginning of deliverance.

But simply in the very fact that he has been able to repent, to condemn himself, to recognize the sentence of the just judge, he has reason enough to say: It is not when history is redirected by some supernatural, spectacular event, not when bodies are brought to life or heavenly bodies are stopped in their normal motion that the great miracles occur.

It is when a person comes to acknowledge his or her sin and confess it before God and when, as a consequence, God restores the broken Creator-creature relationship. Jonah is now ready to take his place alongside the ungodly. Jonah, the prophet of the Lord, also approached through the sacrifice promising to do in the future what he obviously could not do in the belly of the great fish, if that should be possible and made a vow.

It is hard to miss the point. It is thus with us all. If you come to God claiming privileges, boasting of your own special achievements and therefore expecting God to accept you or acknowledge you on the basis of your own merit, you have no hope of salvation. The Scriptures explicitly say that God will not pay court to human merit: Colson, known nationally because of his involvement in the Watergate scandal, is one who found this kind of grace. By his own confession, Colson had been driven by pride. But he came to see this one night in the living room of a good friend, Thomas Phillips, president of the Raytheon Company, who had just become a Christian.

As they talked, Phillips shared the story of his conversion and then read from the chapter in Mere Christianity in which C. But the prayer was honest and repentant. Colson was coming to God as a sinner, and the God who receives sinners and only sinners heard him and rapidly led him to a knowledge of Christ and the assurance of salvation. No one has ever truly repented till he or she has acknowledged that there is nothing in any person that can possibly commend him or her to God.

And no one has ever been saved who has not come to God on the basis of the sacrifice that he alone has provided. The last phrase of the prayer makes this plain: Salvation is possible only because God makes it possible. It is of him. The wording is slightly different, of course; but the meaning is precisely the same: But we should not miss the point that in another sense it is also the story of our Lord, who went down to hell for us bearing our sin and then was raised from the dead to bring many sons with him into glory.

Have you seen that truth? We have run from God, all of us. But none need perish. God has himself provided the way into eternal life through the death of his Son. The popular idea that Jonah went straight from the deck of the ship into the fish's open mouth has no support from either the narrative or Jonah's prayer.

He was half-drowned before he was swallowed. If he was still conscious, sheer dread would have caused him to faint--notice that there is no mention of the fish in his prayer. He can hardly have known what caused the change from wet darkness to an even greater dry darkness. When he did regain consciousness, it would have taken some time to realize that the all-enveloping darkness was not that of Sheol but of a mysterious safety.

Jonah's Psalm of Thanksgiving 2: While there are phrases, sentences, and short passages in the OT that seem undoubtedly misplaced textually, they are rare; and the misplacements can normally be explained by the general principles governing scribal errors. Here, however, no adequate reasons for misplacement have been suggested. It is claimed that the psalm is unsuited to its setting because it is a psalm of thanksgiving, not a prayer 2: To be sure the statement that someone prayed to the Lord seems everywhere else in Scripture to be followed by a petition, even if the prayer includes thanksgiving.

But is this psalm purely thanksgiving? There is a sudden change in v. It is questionable whether the rendering "But I I will make good" is adequate. Nearer the meaning is probably "may I sacrifice As for praising God for rescue from drowning, that is exactly what the psalm does. What else should it praise him for? Jonah desired to bring a thank offering and pay his vows because of God's mercies already shown.

Though Jonah did not tell us what he had vowed, the context leaves little doubt that it was complete obedience. This is also mirrored in the closing cry of confidence: A discussion of the psalm's peculiar nature and its many parallels to other psalms may be found in the Introduction. It is true that Sheol is often no more than a synonym for the grave; Jonah was not saying, however, that he thought he was buried but that he had gone to join the dead.

The terrifying experience described in v.

It is not a statement of salvation but of Jonah's determination to pray in spite of his banishment; probably "but" would suit the sense better. These verses vividly illustrate the hopelessness of his situation. He was, as it were, beyond human help. The "earth beneath" should probably be rendered the "land beneath," since it is in parallel to "pit," which is a synonym for Sheol. The reference is to the place of the dead, pictured as being within the earth, and once again points to Jonah's expectation of certain death. At what point, presumably on the Palestinian coast, the fish spewed out Jonah is not indicated; for it is completely immaterial to the story.

Unfortunately some, whether they have or have not defended the historicity of the story, have allowed their fancy full scope here. Some for example, saw the fish as God's means for transporting the prophet to Alexandretta, the Mediterranean terminus of the shortest route from the sea to Nineveh. Trumbull suggested that Jonah came out of the fish "on the coast of Phoenicia, where the fish-god was a favourite object of worship. He suggested that the effect of the fish's gastric juices on Jonah's face and other exposed parts of his body must have been terrible.

Since the story of his miraculous deliverance had preceded him, Jonah was immediately recognized when he arrived in Nineveh. All such theories suffer from two major and insurmountable objections. They demand that we interpret Scripture by something that cannot legitimately be deduced from it. What is worse, they make the miracle of the fish a necessary ingredient in Nineveh's repentance. What would have happened if Jonah had gone there when first commanded? The suggestion that the fish acted as a kind of submarine transport for the prophet is less objectionable, but it does detract from Jonah's obedience when the second call came.

Probably the majority of those who support an allegorical or parabolic interpretation of the book see in Jonah a personification of Israel and in the fish a type of the Exile. Provided we do not thereby deny the truth of the story, there is no reason why we should not at least in a measure, accept this.

There is a typological purpose in many of God's OT actions. Israel's downfall and exile are clearly linked with chaos, directly as in Jeremiah 4: If the book is preexilic, Jonah's experience should have been a real consolation to those godly men who found themselves swallowed up by exile. At the same time we may not place this typology in the foreground and infer that Israel went into exile because it had failed to carry God's message to the nations. Here too the fish is secondary to the main message of the book. Far more acceptable is the view given by E.

It is rather to show that Jonah being cast into the depths of Sheol and yet brought up alive is an illustration of the death of the Messiah for sins not His own and of the Messiah's resurrection. Jonah wash an Israelite and the servant of the Lord, and his experience was brought about because of the sins of the nations Nineveh. It also lays the stress in the wrong place, for once again it forgets that there would have been no fish had Jonah not been disobedient.

It is true that Jonah had to suffer because of Nineveh and for its salvation, but the suffering was caused by his own disobedience. In Scripture God deals with human disobedience and sin in a manner that teaches both the sinner and the future generations, but there is never any suggestion that the sin occurred in order to make the lesson or type possible. Jonah had not prayed while the storm was raging and the sailors were frantically crying out to their gods.

Now he felt the desperateness of his situation. Obviously the prayer was not written down while Jonah was inside the fish praying. It is in the past tense throughout, in keeping with the fact that it was composed after the experience. Jonah at least knew to whom to pray. The sailors had their own various gods but forsook them when they found out how powerful the Lord was.

Jonah, however, had always known the true God. That was his difficulty. Now that he was in trouble, it was this same understanding of divine love that led him back to God. According to the Hebrew way of thinking, genuine hearing involved response.

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For man, hearing God involved obeying Him. For God, hearing man involved delivering him. Nothing more is meant here by the Hebrew than that the inside of the fish was a kind of grave. Thou hadst cast me. In the OT a typical feature of a prayer of supplication is the declaration of the cause and nature of the affliction that gives rise to the prayer. Yet I will look again. The experience of being swallowed was so horrible that Jonah here returns to a graphic description of it. He had even become entangled with the other material within the fish.

Bottoms of the mountains. Several phrases in this verse are difficult to translate with clear sense. The word bottoms seems to refer to the bases or foundations of the mountains in the ocean. Jonah could not see any way out of his trouble, yet he looked to God. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.

Salvation is an act of God in the face of the impossible, and Jonah, in his words, recognized the concern of God for him personally- my God. Corruption would be better rendered grave. When the prophet had all but given up hope, he turned to the Lord for help. This theme is repeated several times in the prayer, because the physical impossibility of deliverance stood in stark contrast to the fact of the divine intervention.

This was a source of constant amazement to Jonah. Ordinarily, prayer was to be offered in the courts of the Temple at Jerusalem. A descriptive name for the idols and gods of paganism Ps In context the word refers neither to the act of saving another, nor to the spirit of love for man, but rather to the source of salvation-God himself. Jonah reaffirmed his repudiation of idolatry as a way of worship. In contrast to pagan concepts, the true act of sacrifice is an expression of gratitude to God, rather than an effort to appease his wrath.

He had become certain of one thing: Salvation is a gift of God and not an achievement of man. The inner assurance that God saves by the act of his power was not a fancy nor an abstract idea, but was matched by an actual event. Jonah was delivered from the great fish, and found himself upon land, safe but chastened. From a near drowning experience he awakened to find himself in a terrifying environment. Nonetheless, his ability to breathe and continue living was a cause for rejoicing.

So he prayed lit. No doubt he found his entire experience in the sea overwhelming. That this prophet of few words finally prayed marks a turning point in the book. Although exhorted to pray earlier by the pagan captain, there is no indication Jonah did so. These verses produce consternation in some and worship in others. Some say they are out of place. Arguments usually focus on alleged nconsistencies between the psalm and the surrounding narrative and on the claim that it is not necessary to the plot. A strong case, however, can be made for the genuineness of the psalm. Very few literary works contain the minimum that may be said.

Kennedy counters the objection that thanksgiving for deliverance is herein given while Jonah was still inside the fish by pointing out that the deliverance referred to here is not from the fish but from drowning. As many have observed, this prayer resembles other passages of Old Testament Scripture. The opening words of the prayer resemble Pss Rather, it is a good example of Hebrew psalm-poetry in which the poet drew upon the regular liturgical language common to the Book of Psalms and other poems in the Old Testament to fit the situation.

Inevitably, those who know the Lord will not only speak to one another using biblical language Eph 5: Whether Jonah composed his prayer in this form as a psalm inside the fish or only later, we do not know; neither do we know whether Jonah himself was the one who gave it poetic expression. But there is no adequate cause to doubt that it accurately reflects his thoughts in this unusual situation. Four typical elements are reproduced: As this psalm explains, it was while struggling for his life in the sea, with seaweed wrapped around his head v. That he now found himself alive even in so terrifying an environment Jonah took to be a miracle of God intended as the means of his eventual deliverance.

The fish was a beneficent device for returning Jonah to the place of his commission. It may be said with certainty that in Hebrew thought the term referred to a place of the dead. It was spoken of as located under the earth Amos 9: Normally those who were in Sheol were seen as separated from God Ps Sheol was used as an expression for being in the grave Pss Similar idioms in modern speech are found regularly. The miraculous event in this case would be resurrection as well as rescue.

He finally came to grips with the author of his life. The syntax with the pronoun subject expressed first indicates a contrast with the previous verse. He stood with many other Old Testament prophets in believing in the all-present God of Israel. One must beware of making textual alterations based upon the supposed unlikelihood of what a character might say or do in a given situation.

Allen agrees that this verse depicts a new Jonah. Verse 5 is similar to Pss As Jonah lay in the great fish, he continued to reflect upon his miraculous deliverance from the sea. Not only had the currents swept him beneath the waves v. Indeed, he painted a dreadful picture of the action of the water. Others see this as referring to seaweed, which grows at many depths. Any help or hope was completely out of reach. There it seems the bolts of the sea are the walls of the sea basin, which set bounds to the sea that it cannot pass over.

Consequently, the bolts of the earth may be such barriers as restrain the land from spreading over the sea. Jonah felt the weight of the waves or the great masses of water pressing upon him when he sank to the bottom of the sea, refusing him access back to the earth. If these bars were closed behind a human being, they remained finally shut. Even beyond the deepest sea, he felt that he had passed into the underworld from which he would never escape.

Here begins an extremely strong contrast to the preceding description, since Jonah was acknowledging that he had been brought back alive from the depths of the sea. Jonah had been retrieved by God from a hopeless situation. This prayer clearly shows him turning back to the Lord. This verse echoes the initial summary statement in v. Allen picks up on this theme: Just as dire physical extremity forced the prodigal son to a decision to return home in penitence, so Jonah in his last moments thought of the one who alone could help him as Creator and controller of the sea. It is almost always the basis for action Exod In 2 Sam However, there is no proof that the earthly temple in Jerusalem was intended here.

Jonah herein declares his conviction that Yahweh alone is the source of salvation, and he bestows it upon those who call on him. There are several difficulties of interpretation in v. The entire line is found also in Ps The overall thought here seems to emphasize the salvation that comes from the Lord v. In this passage Jonah also sang a song of thanksgiving and vowed sacrifice and the fulfillment of covenant vows.

Though the essence of the vow is not delineated, it may have been some kind of commitment to live up to his calling as a prophet. Idols represent not only ineffectiveness, but worshiping them involves a rejection of Yahweh. It may be said that this line of thought is highly ironic. In this text Jonah sermonized during his prayer regarding an issue where he himself had failed.

While he advocated total dependence upon the Lord and the forsaking of idols, his recent history showed that he was the one who fled and forsook God. Did Jonah express hypocrisy here? Did he fail to deal honestly with his own life? No, not at all. When we read the first part of chap. Understanding again the context of the whole book, we realize that Jonah had not yet reached a point of total repentance.

Nonetheless, he seriously considered the right path and in v. No one else can provide in such a way, though Jonah already showed in v.

It is correct to say that this line may serve as the key verse in the book. Fretheim is possibly correct in pointing out that salvation does seem to be the key motif in the book, and this verse points to that motif. He then knew, as we do, that no one deserves deliverance. It is an act of mercy by a gracious God.

God concluded his assignment for this fish by commanding it to relieve itself of its cumbersome cargo. This indicated their nearness to the starting port of Joppa. These verses contain the story of miracle and grace, praise and thanksgiving, deliverance and renewed hope. In this chapter the poor fish is relieved of its cargo few ever express sympathy for the difficult days of this marine creature.

It is God who is the most important character. He is the one who affects salvation, and he is the one who enables deliverance. Neither Jonah nor the fish had control. It was God and God alone. Dios ama a todas las personas que habitan la tierra y nos ha dado a los cristianos la responsabilidad de predicar el evangelio a los perdidos a fin de que se arrepientan y sean salvados de su pecado.

Como el libro de Rut indica, ellos estaban dispuestos a recibir a personas individuales de otras naciones que quisieran convertirse a la fe de Israel, pero nunca enviaron misioneros a otras naciones. No debemos nunca decir que es una obra ficticia. Dios llama constantemente a hombres y mujeres a dejar su patria y llevar el evangelio a otros pueblos.

Pero muy pocos lo hacen. Nosotros limitamos a Dios por nuestra desobediencia. No debemos considerar nunca una tarea para Dios como algo sin importancia y que podemos eludir. Es imposible escapar de la presencia de Dios. Era una ciudad muy grande como el libro dice 3: Es curioso que ni la Biblia ni los documentos asirios mencionen el gran avivamiento.

Estos no constituyeron un problema. La tempestad y su causa, 1: La tempestad era tan fuerte que aun los marineros veteranos tuvieron miedo v. Probablemente eran de distintas nacionalidades, puesto que cada uno invocaba a su dios. Echaron todo el cargamento lit. Es interesante observar que mientras los marineros paganos estaban orando el profeta de Dios estaba profundamente dormido. Al caer la suerte era costumbre pedirle al mismo culpable que confesara su crimen Jos. Es importante notar la actitud tan noble de los marineros. Era cosa muy grave ser responsable de la muerte de otro. Con temor y respeto adoraron a Jehovah; reconocieron su poder sobre los elementos de la naturaleza.

Cuatro veces en este libro corto se emplea este verbo que significa preparar o disponer 1: A lo profundo puede significar el mar Sal. Como en el Salmo Es muy semejante al pensamiento de los Salmos 42 y Los hebreos no estaban acostumbrados a navegar, por eso el mar representaba un lugar de peligro mortal para ellos Job El regreso a Palestina era como salir de la tumba.

El culto falso y el culto verdadero, 2: No se sabe la naturaleza de los votos; Deuteronomio Tuvo que enviar a su Hijo a la muerte para mostrarnos el valor de su gracia. Ya no era predicar contra la ciudad sino proclamar el mensaje que Dios le diera en el momento oportuno. La falta de evidencia externa no significa que el amor de Dios no se extienda a toda persona en todo lugar. Al escuchar la gravedad del mensaje y ver los resultados, el rey y sus nobles se unieron con el pueblo y expidieron un decreto de penitencia general.

La palabra rey melej en heb. La costumbre de cubrirse con cilicio y sentarse sobre cenizas se empleaba en momentos de tristeza o tragedia 2 Sam. El rey y sus oficiales dieron un decreto semejante a los decretos que se hallan en Daniel y Esdras Esd. Cada uno debe dejar su mal camino , o sea el seguir un estilo de vida que se caracteriza por pecado y maldad. La misericordia de Dios se extiende a cada habitante de este planeta. La pregunta de Dios es una manera suave y compasiva de reprender al profeta. De nuevo vemos una nota del humor fino que caracteriza al libro. Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

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