Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
Actually, it comes from a mediaeval anecdote a bit before there was an SF as we know it today. In 1209, during the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in Southern France, the forces of Orthodox Catholicism laid siege to the city of Beziers which was defended by the Cathar heretics. The Catholic forces finally breached the walls of the city and - as they prepared to storm it - Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester and the commander of the crusaders, pointed out that not everybody in the city was a heretic. Because some of them were good Catholics, he asked the Papal Legate how they should treat the inhabitants when they captured the city.
A monk who was actually present at the siege recorded the answer of the Legate (Arnaud-Amaury, the Abbot of Citeaux) to the Crusaders as "Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet." ( Kill them all. God will know his own.)
The Crusaders followed his advice - surviving Cathars then became the original targets of the Inquisition.
In today's less flowery language, it's "Kill them all and let God sort them out."
Nothing like a mid-afternoon waltz down the murky old theological memory lane of zealots (from whatever belief) to place the world in perspective for us, is there. 
Richard's $.02  |
Richard,
Thanks for the explanation,I knew I should have asked you first to begin with.....
Big Teddy
__________________
I believe that SF is a 'calling' - not too different from the calling missionaries I know received. I knew instantly that it was for me, and that I would do all I could to achieve it. Most others I know in SF experienced something similar. If, as you say, you HAVE searched and read, and you do not KNOW if this is the path for you --- it is not....
Zonie Diver
SF is a calling and it requires commitment and dedication that the uninitiated will never understand......
Jack Moroney
SFA M-2527, Chapter XXXVII
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