If you are a little bored someday, you might watch some Calcio Fiorentino, the 16th century version of “football”:
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Oh… has the Synod started already? I thought it wasn’t til October.
Awesome! Two teams of men throwing punches in a fun looking game–and at the end they all shook hands! I wish we could settle disputes this way amongst the presbyterate!
[Do I hear an “Amen!”? I’ve occasionally thought that we might do well to get a group of priests together and catch the erring cleric in the parking lot to rough him up a little. “Knock it off, or we’ll be back!” That sort of thing. Then I return to this planet. Otherwise, we could hold a “dance”, with a boxing ring. Anyone with serious grievances could fish the other guy’s dogtags out of the upturned biretta and call him into the ring.]
Put that on ice and it’ll be a 24th century reconstruction of hockey, based on unearthed reports.
pseudomodo, I am literally laughing out loud. Well deserving of the gold star. In fact, I think Father Z should have an entire constellation for that one!
One of my kendo sensei once told me that the bout ends when you clear the parking lot.
I was fortunate enough to witness the calcio fiorentino in June, 1970; glad to see this clip!
Actually now that I look at the video a little closer, this is obviously the annual world cup final punch-up between the Greek Orthodox and the Franciscans in the courtyard at the Holy Sepulchur.
My mistake…
I had hoped that the comments would have a little enlightenment about the rules. Are there any? One guy has a ball but nobody seems at all interested. Well, it’s good to see guys being guys. Viva Firenze!
A really enjoyable little book for anyone who can find a library that has a copy is Francis P. Magoun’s History of football from the beginnings to 1871 (1938).
Looks like Verdi handed it to Rossi.