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[Note:  All Basque words are in Italics and Bold-faced Green]

 

THE EARLY BENEDICTINE CLERGY 1

 

A review derived from the following:

 

Nyland, Edo.  2001.  Linguistic Archaeology: An
Introduction.   Trafford Publ., Victoria, B.C., Canada.

ISBN 1-55212-668-4. 541 p.

 

----Please CLICK on underlined categories for detail [to search for Subject Matter, depress Ctrl/F ]:

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Introduction

 

          Pope Felix IV (526-530 AD.) asked St. Benedict of Nursia to establish an order of highly motivated and well-educated monks to evangelize Western Europe.  This involved the introduction into these lands of a new culture, a foreign religion and many new languages.  Nyland (2001) suggested that this was a very tall order, because each group of monks was instructed to:


1) Locate a site and build a monastery which was to be the center of the evangelization effort


2) Build, equip and staff a scriptorium with a library where the new regional language was to be

          developed


3) Do Christian outreach work to overcome local prejudices


4) Introduce the newly invented language to the population.


This extraordinary assignment was the Church's response to a serious challenge.

 

 

DIFFICULT TIMES FOR THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH

 

          The task assigned to Benedict was to train monks to go out into western Europe and create a Roman Catholic Christian presence in areas where many Gnostic Christian missionaries from Ireland had long been active. After the Benedictine monks had established themselves in secure monasteries they were to do everything within their power to destroy not only the deep-rooted belief in the very ancient Ashera religion with its supreme Goddess, but also to re-evangelize the areas where Gnostic evangelists from Ireland had spread their own Gospels. Most of these were very different from those in the New Testament. (See "The Gnostic Gospels" by Elaine Pagels, Vintage Books 1989). The name 'Gnostic' is shorthand for five agglutinated words:

 

.g. - no - os. - .ti - ik.
igo - ono - osa - ati - ika
igoarazi - onon - osatasun - atxikigarri - ikaskai
to lift up - exquisite - perfection - faithfulness – teachings


"Lift up to exquisite perfection our teachings in faithfulness."

 

          The only thing the two forms of Christianity could agree on was the teachings of Christ, and even here were differences; all other aspects were at odds. It was considered of great urgency to teach orthodox Christianity because the Gnostic missionaries had already converted all of Ireland to their particular type of worship and were having great success in large parts of the continent. These evangelists had no real disagreement with the ancient Goddess faith, its culture or its language.

 

They were on talking terms with the abade, the male clergy of the Ashera religion, many of whom they converted to Christianity to become the most dedicated and enthusiastic evangelists of the Gnostic Christian church. In short time they spread their form of Christianity over much of western Europe, establishing numerous monasteries in England, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Italy and Spain.

 

          One of the best known Benedictines, Bonifacius, was disgusted with the looks of these energetic and incorruptible monks. In the style of the abade of the Goddess religion they painted their upper eyelids purple, shaved the front half of their heads from ear to ear (instead of a circle on top of the head like the Benedictines) and wore long white woolen cloaks, which made them recognizable and highly respected among the peoples they set out to convert. The free-spirited Gnostic Christianity they preached was abhorrent to Bonifacius who complained to the Pope and asked him to place two of them, the respected monks Adalbert and Clement the Irishman, into solitary confinement. At the same time, these two gentlemen reported Bonifacius to the same Pope asking that Bonifacius be removed because of his inconsiderate and ruthless behaviour. The Pope was caught in the middle. The R.C. church could not do without either of the complainants because the Irish monks would preach in the universal (Saharan/Basque) language of the people and introduce a basic Christianity to the people. These Gnostic evangelists were very welcome wherever they went and, most important of all, they never had to worry about personal safety. On the contrary, many of the dogmatic orthodox missionaries, Bonifacius among them, were martyred in the evangelizing process in areas where the Gnostic monks had not done their "softening-up" work first.

 

          The town where St. Boniface was murdered is said to be Dokkum in Friesland. However, the translation of the name of the nearby town of Drachten appears to indicate that he may have been killed there. Like Gnostic, Drachten is shorthand for a sentence of five words:

 

.d.-.ra-ak.-.te-en:
ada - ara - aka - ate - ent
adarka - arakintzo - akabatu - atezatu - entzute
by goring - massacre - to end a life - to live on – fame


"The stabbing massacre ended his life but his fame lives on."

 

          Irish Gnostic Christianity proved to be popular among the people of the continent.  It was considered a refinement and natural growth of the ancient religion. They also promised to end the voluntary sacrifice of a worthy young man. The ease with which the Gnostic monks successfully converted the people of Western Europe was a most unnerving threat to the ambitious Roman Catholic Church. The church fathers' plan to bring Orthodox Christianity to this huge area was being pre-empted by this "heretical cult". The word "Heretic" was especially coined for them by a church-grammarian and means:

 

he - ere - eti - ik.:
helburu - erretxindura - etikaezin - ikaraz
destination - exasperation - unethical – frightfully


"Destined to be a frightfully unethical exasperation."

 

       A most unfair label for these selfless and dedicated followers of Christ. The Roman Catholic leadership decided it had to do something drastic and proceeded with an aggressive and far-reaching solution.

 

 

SCHOLARLY EVANGILISTS

 

          The search was on for a highly educated, strong-minded and absolutely devoted man to organize a monastic Order of disciplined, scholarly commandos to thrust into the opponents' territory, to courageously and aggressively establish monasteries and to bring the "right" form of Christianity to the "heathens" of the Ashera religion. The search for this super apostle ended in 528 when Benedict was found, who was then approximately 48 years old. He quickly was given all necessary resources and support to build and staff the headquarters for his new Order. He was to train monks for the dangerous and almost overwhelming task of evangelizing all of western Europe. The name he was given by the Pope was "Benedict of Nursia", analyzed with the VCV formula:

 

.be-ene-edi-ik.-.t.   
abe - ene - edi - ika - ate
abe - eneganatu - ediren - ikasgintza - ateratu
cross - to come to me - to find - learning - to take with you


Come to me under the cross and find learning to take with you.

 

.nu- ur. - .si - i.a
inu - ura - asi - iha
inurritze - urragarri - asiberri - ihardetsi
inspiring - touching - beginner - to respond


He inspires and touches beginners to respond.

 

          Benedict's new monastic order was awarded a distinctive habit, which was a loose black gown tied around the waist with a rope, with large wide sleeves and a cowl on the head, similar in design to what had been worn by the Gnostic St. Pachomius and his anchorite brothers of the Sinai monastery some centuries before. Black was chosen to clearly distinguish the Benedictines from the white-robed Gnostic monks. Black clothes had also been adopted many centuries before by the Luwian pre-Hebraic clergy, who wanted to be distinguished from the white-gowned abadeak (priests) of the Ashera religion, who had been given the derogatory title: Druids

 

.d. - .ru - id.
udi - iru - ido
udikan - iruzurtsu - idolgurtzaile
get out - deceitful - idolator
"Get out, you deceitful idolator."

 

          Benedict's first action was to get organized in the area of Subiaco, east of Rome, while he searched for a suitable headquarters site.

 

.su-ubi-ako
isu - ubi - ako
isurikatu - ubil - akorduan euki
to waste a life - whirlpool - to remember


"Remember the waste of life in the whirlpool".

 

          This refers to the voluntary sacrificial death of a young man in the whirlpool of Corrivreckan 70 km west of Glasgow. This event, which occurred once every eight years, was of course unacceptable to the Christian church and the name Subiaco became the Benedictines' rallying cry and they even carved it on pre-Christian standing stones in Ireland, using Ogam characters (e.g. Llominaca #121, Litubiri #131, Lubbais #152, Corbi #244, Caveti #433, see Macalister). The task was of such importance that the Pope ordered Benedict not to deal with any bishops or other intermediaries but to report directly to him on all matters. The general had given his marching orders and the commando units would soon fan out over Western Europe to spread their own variety of Christianity, which had married Christianity to Judaism. The Pope's order to have Benedict report directly to him applied to every Benedictine Abbot from then on, until rescinded in 1893 by Pope Leo XIII who created the office of the Abbot Primate of the Federation of Autonomous Congregations.

 

EARLY YEARS OF SAINT BENEDICT

 

          No reliable information exists about Benedict's birth but it is estimated that he was born in 480 and lived until 547. As an educated young man from a well-to-do family, he had observed the shocking licentiousness of life in Rome. In his early twenties he decided upon a life as an ascetic and then spent three years living the life of a hermit, first near Enfide in the Simbruinian Hills, later to move into the cave of Sacro Speco, above the lake then existing near Nero's ruined palace at Subiaco, some 65 km east of Rome. Sacro Speco decodes as:

 

.sa-ak.-.ro      .spe-eko
usa - aka - aro     aspe - eko  
  usa - akabu - arroztu      asperkeria - ekoiztu
dove/holy man - ultmate - to exile      boredom - to produce    

           
"Holy man in ultimate exile, which produces boredom."

 

          There were several small monasteries near Subiaco and he was asked to become abbot of one of these. Although bored stiff, the young man denied the offer and returned to his cave, where he then came to the conclusion that self-torment in solitude was not nearly as constructive as group living, communal worship and doing good works. By now the fame of his sanctity was spreading and disciples started to flock to him. To take care of his many devoted followers he organized twelve monastic homes, each with 12 novices, patterned after Christ's 12 apostles, with himself in general control. Senators and other influential people came from Rome to offer their sons to be trained as monks under his direction and two of these young men, Maurus and Placid, became his lifelong trusted disciples. Maurus is a contraction of Marurus:

 

.ma - aru - uru - us.
ema - aru - uru - usu
eman - aruntz onuntz ibili - urrun - usu
to teach - to wander - far away – often


"(He) often wandered far away to teach."

 

Placid
.p. - .la - aki - id.
apa - ala - aki - ide
apaiz - alai - akigabe - adiskide
priest - happy - tireless – compagnion


"A happy priest and a tireless companion."

 

          Many of his associates followed him to Monte Cassino. To this day Subiaco is considered the mother-house of the Benedictine Order, but the use of the name as a rallying cry has been forgotten.

 

          The militant aspect of the new Order was clearly demonstrated in the type of site chosen for their main monastery. The summit of a rocky hill located between Rome and Naples was selected, which had been a major holy Ashera site of the Volski people. At one time the town of Casinum had existed there in the 5th century bce. This action set the example for all future monasteries to be established; when entering a new region, it became a tradition for the monks to conquer the most important religious center of Ashera, devastate it, desecrate the holy well and cave, cleanse the site by prayer and build a monastery on the ruins.

 

          On the mainland these sites had usually been on very prominent locations, steep rocky hills or centrally located islands, preferably near a year-round flowing well and sacred cave. On the Atlantic islands the Sea-Peoples had chosen similar sites if they were available, such as Mont St. Michel in Normandy, Mount St. Michael in Cornwall, England and Talamhantu on Barra, Scotland. Where such prominent sites were not available, small and centrally located islands had been selected with the result that a few of the new Benedictine monasteries ended up in some of the most out-of-the-way places, only accessible by boat, which created problems for the landlubbers among the monks, e.g. Iona.(Scotland) and Griend (Friesland). There was a practical side to this aggressive action, because these were the sites where very large stone monuments, such as barrow tombs, had existed, the stones of which were then put to good use in the new monastery construction. The other major Ashera sites, which had not been used by the monks, were leveled with the ground, e.g. the Talamhantu center on the Isle of Barra. Benedict named his first monastery: Monte Cassino. It is desirable to explain this name because the theme expressed in it would be repeated over and over in many of the later establishments. "Monte Cassino"

 

.mo - on. - .te 
amo - ona - ate
amodiotsu - onarketa - aterpe
loving - welcoming – refuge


"A loving and welcoming refuge.

.ka - as. - .si - ino
ika - asa - asi - ino
ikasleku - asagutu - asi
learning centre - go far away - to start – somewhere


Go far away and start a learning center somewhere."

 

          The word "monte" therefore means a "welcoming refuge", which later was used for the French word "mont" and English "mount and mountain". Benedict's sister, Scholastica, established a convent near Monte Cassino.  She was allowed to adopt for her nuns the same habit as the monks wore. Her name comes from:  

 

.skola-asti-ika
eskola - astiro - ikasle
to teach - calmly – student


"She calmly teaches the students".

 

          Another major Benedictine monastery using "mont" was built in northeastern Spain called Mont Serrat, also built on a high rock outcrop

 

.mo-on.-.t.
amo - ona - ate
amodiotsu - onarketa - aterpe
loving - welcoming – refuge


A loving and welcoming refuge.

 

.se - er. - .ra - at.
ase - era - ara - ati
asezindaki - erakuste - arrazi - atxikitzaile
craving - education - to encourage – faithful


We encourage the faithful to get a craving for education.

 

          In the above text, some of the important names of the Benedictines are translated. All of their names can be readily translated with the use of the VCV formula and the modern Basque dictionary which means that this language has changed very little over the last 1500 years. Even the name "Vatican" proves to be pure Basque when analyzed with the VCV formula:

 

.ba - ati - ika - an.
aba - ati - ika - ana
abadeburu - atxiki - ikasgiro - anaiarte
head priest - faithful - learning environment – brotherhood


"The faithful head priest's learning environment for the brotherhood."

 

          The fact that the pre-Christian, universal language is still clearly discernable in the majority of words and names we speak means that an important element of the Neolithic civilization is still with us in a very fundamental way.

 

 

BENEDICTINE CLERGY DAILY ROUTINES

 

          After some years on the job, Abbot Benedict realized that much greater discipline among the monks was required if the Pope's enormous ambitions were to be realized. In about 535 A.D. he wrote his "Little Rule for Beginners" known as the "Rule of St Benedict", which provided complete instructions for monastic government, spiritual and material well-being. The "Little Rule" dictated a routine that filled day and night and established a highly disciplined pattern, later adopted by other monastic orders. The Rule divided the day into strict periods of prayer, sleep, intellectual and manual work. It wasn't long before the Monte Cassino monastery was renowned for its teaching, scholarship, devoutness and above all, its discipline. The novices were put through a tough training course and had to perform as was expected of them or else they were punished, often with floggings. It was the first Orthodox Christian place of higher learning in western Europe and its methods of corporal discipline carried on into later secular institutions.

 

          The activities in the scriptorium section of the monastery were two-fold, one was public and the other secret. To outsiders it was a workshop where monks preserved and multiplied Christian writings and where the ancient legends and myths of the people were written down and preserved for eternity. Scriptorium:

 

.s. - .k. - .ri - ip. - .to - ori - um.
ese - eka - ari - ipa - ato - ori - ume
esegeini - ekarpen - arrigarri - ipar - atondu - orrits - umekoi
to offer - contribution - marvelous - north - to arrange - feast – prolific


"We offer a marvelous contribution to the north by arranging a prolific feast."

 

          What the public did not find out about until later was the work the "grammarians" did. These highly skilled professional linguists, some were monks, others were Ligurian laymen, were hard at work at Monte Cassino developing Latin as the Christian liturgical language, to replace the Ligurian tongue which was still spoken by a majority of inhabitants of Italy. They also trained specialists in the art and science of language invention, to be put into practice in areas the monks were evangelizing in the north. To make up new Latin words, they made use of the eolithic language, which in reality was the Saharan/Basque/Ligurian language. The scriptorium was the only place in the monastery where the ancient language was allowed to be spoken and consequently was out-of-bounds to all those not involved in language invention. The name Ligurian tells us what was in store for it:

 

li-igu-uri-an
libratu - iguindu - urritu - andeatu -
to purge - to despise - to dwindle - to corrupt


To be purged, despised, dwindled and corrupted.

 

          The church was not entirely successful in reaching this goal in northern Italy because Rhaeto-Romance, also called Ladin, is the last remnant of Ligurian still spoken in a few out-of-the-way valleys in the Alps (Lahovari).

 

 

THE PRE-CHRISTIAN LITERATURE

 

          Another task assigned to the Order was the gathering, translating and censoring of large numbers of classical Greek and Roman writings. In the process of translating, these documents were cleansed of all references to the global pre-Christian civilization and religion, its elaborate rituals, celebrations, sacraments and other unwanted wisdom, all aimed at wiping out any memories of this very early and peaceful civilization. Those references to the Ashera religion that remained, were twisted routinely to put the ancient religion in a cruel or decadent light, always referring to it as pagan, heathen, idolatrous, savage, barbaric, cruel etc. often followed by "cult", something despicable. Many years later Charlemagne re-enforced this policy by making it an official order in his Edict #78, dated March 23, 789. It read:

 

          #78. "let no false writings and doubtful narratives, records which entirely contradict the Catholic Faith, ....let not such documents be believed or read, but be destroyed by fire, lest they lead people into error. Only the canonical books and Catholic treatises and the sayings of sacred writers are to be read and delivered" (Duckett p122).

 

          After the censor's work was done, the original document containing the objectionable passages was burned as ordered, even if it had been borrowed from elsewhere, in which case a cleansed copy was returned. The censored manuscript was then sent to the copiers in the scriptorium for multiplication. Epics like Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Apollonius' Voyage of the Argo and many others were thus censored and shorn of any favorable references to the previously omnipresent supreme Goddess and Her civilization. This savage censoring has done enormous harm to the wonderful classical and ancient literature which had been passed on by word of mouth for many centuries without change. Much of this historical information was located in several world class institutes of learning such as the famous Library of Classical Antiquity at Alexandria, founded by the Ptolemies about 300 bce.

 

          Another famous library was started by Ptolemy III in the Temple of Saragis. The knowledge contained in these institutes left no doubt that a world-wide civilization speaking a universal language (Genesis 11:1) had existed before the coming of Judaism and the library's existence was a major irritation for the Christian church in Rome, which had decided to deny the existence of this Neolithic civilization. As the church had no direct control over these educational facilities, special action was necessary. The oldest and best library was targeted first and burned just before 300 A.D. The satellite library in the Temple of Saragis was attacked and burned in 391 A.D. The confusing inconsistencies, the invented and inserted mythologies and glaring gaps in the Odyssey and the travelogue of the Argonauts are obviously the work of crude censorship. But the ancient oral traditions were never completely eradicated by the church and to this day are remembered as folklore and myths which make it possible to get some idea about the early civilization of our ancestors.

 

          Any "heathen" population was invariably described in these censored documents as having its own primitive and distinct language, which covered up the fact that they had all been speaking exactly the same highly evolved universal language. Many early personal and geographical names, even words, managed to survive unaltered, which allowed me to prove that all the tribes had spoken the same language. It is true that, after Emperor Charlemagne's reign, no more classical literature was lost due to fire, wars or neglect, however, it is also true that all the surviving literature which had gone though Charlemagne's cleansing sieve, was severely mutilated, often rendered useless and embellished with phony information. Not until archaeologists discovered the huge libraries of clay tablets in long-ruined palaces of the Near East, dating from classical and ancient civilizations, would we have access to authentic, unaltered original literature. Even so, when documents such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library were discovered early in the 20th century, the church managed to assign trusted censors who succeeded in delaying and obstructing release for many decades, to the point where we do not know today how much of the literature disappeared or was hidden before the remainder was made public.

 

OPERATIONS MANUAL OF THE BENEDICTINES

 

          We would not have known about the activities inside the protecting walls of the scriptorium, were it not for an amazing book called the "Auraicept na n'Ecez", the Benedictines' operational manual (see Ogam ). Parts of this book dated from different centuries, the earliest we have are from about 700 A.D., but it must have been first initiated the moment language invention was started in Monte Cassino. There is little doubt that this manual was confidential and should not have been released to the public. However, some parts of it found their way to the British Museum in London and Trinity College in Dublin and are now available in print (Calder) and reprinted recently in Ireland. Irish scholars insisted that the book was written in "Celtic" but were unable to provide a single translation that made sense, although they tried very hard. The language of the Auraicept is Basque, more accurately: coded Basque, which can be decoded by using the VCV formula and a modern Basque dictionary, as shown. In the Auraicept it is described how the grammarians made up languages and that they took a great deal of pride in their work as for instance the Auraicept indicates in: Beithe-luis-nin (Auraicept lines 1057, 1134, 4013) (Nyland 2001).

 

  .be - ite   lu - is.    ni - in.
obe - ite   lu - isi   ni - in
obetoezin - itegun   ludi - isilean   ninikatu - inguru
perfectly - work performed    world - hidden from    to take root – vicinity


Perfectly performed work, hidden from the world, will take root in the vicinity.

 

          Some of the linguists who knew the universal language best, worked on specially organized dictionaries for the use of the grammarians, the creative minds who assembled the words using pre-determined linguistic rules. Nyland (2001) thought that for a short time, the Benedictine clergy in Ireland made good use of the pre-Christian Ogam writing system. Between 500 and 1500 A.D. these hard working Basque-speaking grammarians created all west- and central European languages, including Celtic, French, Spanish, German, Hungarian, Scandinavian, even Finnish and Polish, an enormous accomplishment. 

 

 

LEARNING CENTERS

 

          In order to get an idea of the extent of the Benedictine effort and the long time period over which their efforts were spread, Some of the most important monasteries and scriptoria are listed, complete with dates of establishment, if these are available.

 

Date

Monastery

 Details

529

Monte Cassino (Italy)

Established by St. Benedict himself.

550

Luxeuil (France)

Established originally by the Gnostic St. Columbanus; library taken to Vatican in 15th c.

597

Canterbury, (England)

Established by papal librarian Augustine and 40 Benedictines.

612

Bobbio (Italy)

First established by the Gnostic evangelist St. Columbanus.

635

Holy Island (N.E.Engl.)

Established by Gnostic St. Aidan. The name was changed to Lindisfarne in 793 after the Vikings burned Aidan's monastery.

674

Wearmouth (England)

Founded by Biscop Baducing.

681

Jarrow (England)

Where Bede grew up and wrote many books.

724

Reichenau (Germany)

Est. by Karl Martell, first abbot: Pirmin.

727

Murbach (France)

Est. by St. Pirmin from Reichenau. Alcuin visited here to borrow books.

744

Fulda (Hessen,Germany)

Est. by Sturmi, disciple of St. Bonifacius.

769

Aachen (Germany)

First it was a Pfaltzkapelle, then royal palace and scriptorium

785

Westminster (England)

Small monastery on island in the Thames, enlarged by St.Dunstan 960.

822

Corvey (Germany)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

888

Mont Serrat (Spain)

Officially est. 888 but functioned covertly in early Moorish times.

889

Andechs (Austria)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

910

Cluny (France)

Founded by William of Aquitane. Main center for the French language.

922

Egmond (Holland)

Est. by the burial place of St. Willibrordus in North Holland near Alkmaar.

934

Ebersberg (Germany)

The amazing Willeram was written here in 1060.

934

Einsiedeln (Switzerland)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

985

Melk (Austria)

Benedictine presence officially est. in 1089.

996

Pannonhalma (Hungary)

In 1996 1000 years old, big party.

1040

Pecherskaia Lavra (Kiev,

Est. by Yaroslav the Wise; with linguistic help of Benedictines.

1044

Tyniec (Poland)

Still an active monastery.

1044

Sofiyiskaya Storna (Russia.)

Linguistic assistance from Benedictines only.

11th century.

Alba Iulia (central Romania)

 

Formerly Karlsburg: its famous library now housed in Batthyaneum Library, which includes famous "Codex Aureus."

 

          The very first monasteries created by the Benedictines were probably small establishments with limited staff, similar to the monastic houses that Benedict had established near Subiaco. These were well suited for initial take-over of the new site, exploratory evangelical work and scouting out of new locations and attitudes, but inadequate for sustained social development, language invention and language introduction, which required a much larger and more diverse establishment.

 

          Benedictine establishments were known as "Missions", which word expresses the purpose of the order, seen from the monks' point of view. The following analysis shows that "Mission" was originally written with one "s",

 

.mi - isi - on.:
umi - isi - one
umiltasun - isilka - onegite
humbleness - quietly - doing good


Quietly doing good in humbleness.

 

          These absolutely dedicated men really believed that changing the peaceful, egalitarian and happy society of theirancestors into a male dominated and strictly disciplined civilization, was their God assigned task.

 

 

     Bibliography