{"id":4670,"date":"2019-11-26T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-26T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/?p=4670"},"modified":"2019-11-26T23:27:46","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T23:27:46","slug":"word-of-the-day-renege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/2019\/11\/26\/word-of-the-day-renege\/","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Renege"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The New York Times<\/em>\nWord of the Day for today is renege<\/em>,\nwhich means \u201cto fail to fulfill a promise or obligation,\u201d or, according to www.dictionary.com<\/a>, \u201cto go back on one\u2019s\nword.\u201d According to www.etymonline.com<\/a>,\nit entered the language in the \u201c1540s, \u2018deny, renounce, abandon,\u2019 from Medieval\nLatin renegare<\/em>, from Latin re-<\/em>, here probably an\nintensive prefix, + negare<\/em> \u2018refuse,\u2019 from PIE<\/strong> root *ne-<\/strong><\/a> \u2018not.\u2019\nMeaning \u2018change one’s mind\u2019 is from 1784.\u201d It also has a meaning in the game of\nbridge, both as a verb and as a noun, but nobody plays bridge anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this date in 1648, according to the OnThisday website,\nPope Innocent X condemned the Peace of Westphalia. The what? The Peace of\nWestphalia! Why would a Pope condemn a peace treaty, you might ask. Well, first\nsome background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There used to be this thing in Europe called \u201cThe Holy Roman\nEmpire.\u201d It got its beginning around 800 when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne\n(Charles the Great) \u201cKing of the Romans.\u201d Eventually, the Empire consisted of\nterritories throughout Western and Central Europe, and even Italy. It existed,\nmore or less, in one form or another, until 1806. But despite the efforts of\nnumerous emperors over the years, it never really became a unified empire,\nconsisting instead of numerous smaller kingdoms where were loosely aligned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, in 836, Otto I was crowned King of Aachen, a\ncity in Germany. Otto gradually expanded his power, unifying many parts of\nGermany under his rule. He defeated the Magyars in 955, gaining a reputation as\na savior of Christendom. Partly through his marriage to Adelaide, Queen of\nItaly, and partly through conquest, he became the King of Italy in 961. Then,\nin 862, Otto was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope John XII in Rome. Otto died\nin 973, and while his son, Otto II, succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor, he\ncouldn\u2019t keep control over the many kingdoms and regions under his rule. Soon,\nthe power became decentralized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For most of its existence, the Holy Roman Empire was\ndominated by the Roman Catholic religion, and to some extent by the Pope,\nthough at various times along the way the Emperor lorded it over the Pope. Then,\nin the early 16th<\/sup> century, Protestant groups started to emerge out\nof the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. Most notably, Martin Luther and\nhis followers, who attempted to reform the Church, were excommunicated. This\nReformation led to conflict throughout Europe between the various expressions\nof Christianity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1555, the Treaty of Augsburg was signed between Charles\nV, Holy Roman Emperor, and the Schmalkaldic League, a group of German princes\nwho were supporters of the Lutheran Church. If made official the division of\nthe Empire into Roman Catholic and Lutheran kingdoms, allowing the prince of\neach kingdom the power to determine which faith expression his kingdom would\nadhere to. This peace lasted until 1618, when the newly elected Ferdinand II,\nHoly Roman Emperor, decided to impose religious uniformity, i.e. Roman\nCatholicism, on the entire empire, reneging on the promise made in the Peace of\nAugsburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferdinand\u2019s reneging on the promise of the Peace of Augsburg\nled to the 30 Years\u2019 War, which started out as a religious war but turned into a\nkind of proxy war between France and the Hapsburgs for political domination of\nEurope. This war led to the untimely loss of about 8 million people, most of\nthem in what today is Germany. While many of the dead fell in battles, as both\nthe French and the Austrians employed largely mercenary armies, many others\nwere civilians who died from starvation or illness or the violence of the soldiers.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Peace of Westphalia, which took years to cobble\ntogether, and which was the result of negotiations by hundreds of diplomats\nfrom around the Holy Roman Empire and beyond, ended that war, as well as a\ncouple of other conflicts that were taking place around Europe. Had the war\ncontinued, millions more likely would have died. According to the wiki, \u201cThe\nPeace of Westphalia established the precedent of peace established by\ndiplomatic congress. A new system of political order arose in central Europe,\nbased upon peaceful coexistence among sovereign states. Inter-state aggression\nwas to be held in check by a balance of power, and a norm was established\nagainst interference in another state’s domestic affairs. As European influence\nspread across the globe, these Westphalian principles, especially the concept\nof sovereign states, became central to international law and to the prevailing\nworld order.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Pope Innocent X condemned it. Why? Because of narrow\nreligious partisanship and the desire for power. Just as Ferdinand reneged on\nthe promise of the Peace of Augsburg, the ironically named Innocent X reneged\non his promise to put Christ\u2019s church ahead of his own political ambitions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far too often leaders are corrupted by the power that they\nhave, and this corruption may result in reneging on promises, trying to destroy\nlives, or just failing to abide by the teachings of Christ. And the amount of\npower such people have does not seem to matter. They might be popes, emperors,\nor just college administrators. And reneging on promises is never a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The image is a fragment of\nthe Portrait of Innocent X<\/a><\/em>, by Diego\nVel\u00e1zquez<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The New York Times Word of the Day for today is renege, which means \u201cto fail to fulfill a promise or obligation,\u201d or, according to www.dictionary.com, \u201cto go back on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4672,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-of-the-day","clearfix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4673,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4670\/revisions\/4673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.freedomshillprimer.com\/institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}