#research and study

[cinemaocd]

Thomas Cromwell's big book, The Valor Ecclesiasticus

Reading this morning in History Today about the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a massive survey of all religious holdings that was begun in 1535, and completed in less than 18 months (or at least it was completed enough to be acted upon as 1/4 of the religious houses in England were closed by the end of that period). It details not only the holdings down to every last bone of every last saint, but maps, and the detailed accounts of the tenants, as the Church was the largest landlord in England.

This document was probably Cromwell's greatest achievement, just in terms of sheer output, as it covered not only the 800 religious houses and their tenants' activities, which often required tracing people across county lines, etc. something that had never been done at that point. The data was collected rapidly, from a wide variety of sources. In many cases, church officials simply refused to meet with Cromwell's commissioners. In those cases the commissioners took matters into their own hands and made broad guesses about holdings based on what they could observe.

After the Valor was completed and the associated religious houses closed, it was set aside and forgotten until 1800, when Parliament funded a team of scholars led by John Caley to "translate" the document into some useful information, attempting essentially turn it into a modern ledger book. Caley took 38 years to do this, spent thousands of pounds more than he was meant to, held the documents hostage in his home and then promptly died as soon as the last volume was published. The government found the results "a mischief of confusion" and it was never used. Historians largely ignored the Valor and Caley's "translation" for the most part, except, fascinatingly, around the time of the Russian Revolution, some Marxists attempted to use it as a blueprint for modernizing Russian agriculture!

Now it is being digitized for the first time.

One thing that I gleaned from the article, was that special attention was paid to dams on rivers, which were used by many religious houses for private fisheries. This interfered with Cromwell's general scheme of improving the navigability of waterways (no son of Putney could love a dam that stops a barge moving on a river). This right of the government to take private property away from the church was critical to create a modern government that could conduct nationwide schemes like improving the navigability of the waterways.

The leap from not having fishing dams on every river, to the profitable canal system borrowed from the Low Countries in later centuries, was not dramatic after the legal impediments were removed. And you really can't have the industrial revolution in England without it.

I have for a long time characterized Cromwell as someone had multiple motivations for almost every decision he undertook. Usually there would be a personal profit motive as well, which is unseen. It really depends on the political leanings of the historian as to which of those motives people have tended to see, be they greed, Lutheranism, Machiavellian political maneuvering etc, but as far as I'm concerned, his motivations could simply be: I find fisheries on the Themes and its tributaries annoying because they interfere with my daily commute.

Another interesting thing in the article was the discussion of class mobility provided by unseen parts of the monastic system. There was a class of clerks, agents, etc. that were enriched by managing the church's land holdings. Cromwell's agents often came from this pool of men, and he himself, given his start assisting Wolsey, could be seen as also coming from this class. Putting the overall management of this class of people into the hands of Parliament and away from the Pope was a huge improvement for them and you can see it as the bedrock on which the British Civil Service was built.

[liones-s]

one of the most boring lessons I’ve learned is that when a task feels overwhelming, you just have to start doing it. Even if you’re not sure how to do 90% of it, look for one small component that seems close and start there. Sometimes it’s reading one article on the topic, or searching one related term, or literally just googling how to do the task. Do anything other than thinking about it. The process of working on a thing inherently makes it less scary.

[slushy-sash]

very important research

[discoursets]

[cordiee]

Somewhere between memory and myth.

[stemiwithme]

samira mohan the best patient advocate in that emergency department hands down. the way she takes care of joyce st. clair never ever fails to give me goosebumps. when she steps back and screams at everybody to stop and the whole department stands still and then she immediately gets down to business, confirming that joyce has sickle cell and ordering the appropriate treatment. and when whitaker seems doubtful of the validity of joyce’s condition samira educates him concisely and directly without being unkind, but still with the full intensity and seriousness that that conversation deserves. and while still being respectful towards addicts!!! and then there’s the case with the influencer suffering from mercury poisoning that samira refuses to ship off to psych because her patient is telling her something is off and she trusts her patient. and the fact that she’s actively researching racial disparity in the ER by painstakingly reviewing patient charts from the last 5 years!!!!! THAT’S dedication and passion!!!! people call her slow-mo and she’s made her peace with that bc she knows it’s for the right reasons, bc she refuses to cut corners or overlook things or ignore her gut. bc she cares deeply for every single one of her patients, no matter how they treat her (see: the morphine addicted dad visiting from new york for his daughter’s wedding). like she really is that girl!!!!! she really is!!!! samira mohan i LOVE YOU and you’re the BEST RESIDENT DOCTOR EVER and i would TRUST YOU with MY LIFE

[sugurusladyknightt]

➺ suguru x gn!reader

if you set a timer to nap suguru will absolutely sabotage you.

let me set the scene. you're getting comfortable laying on his chest his arms secured around you and your eyes closing with a content hum and then suddenly your like 'oh hold on' and grab your phone to set a timer then promptly explain that you have something to do so you don't wanna oversleep during your nap and end up losing time.

but you're so tired, he knows a short nap won't be enough rest though, he says nothing. you get comfortable on his chest again, your cheeks smooshed against his skin and doze off shortly after thanks to the soothing hand at your back and head and the warmth of his skin. when you're asleep this man will fully just grab your phone and cancel the timer, that way, you get all the rest your body needs undisturbed and wake up when your ready.

if it's assignments or notes or anything really that he can do for you, then he will do it for you. taking neat concise notes for you, or finishing up your research paper. no this is not a violation of academic integrity because you are his baby. you are his person and he is yours so to anyone else you may as well be the same person, and anyway he isn't plagiarizing or cheating. suguru does a really good job actually.

when you wake up later, dry eyes slowly blinking away the sleep and readjusting to the light. the skin of your cheek turned pink from how long it's been resting against him softly greeting him in a small raspy voice. when you wake up enough to realize the timer hadn't gone off and reach over to your phone to check the time, the sleep leaves you so fast. you're frenzied, panicked, confused. as if you've been splashed with cold water. suddenly awake and upset about all the time you had wasted what about the timer? how are you supposed to finish everything now?? only for you to find everything done and neatly organized for you to look over, anything with a tight deadline? already sent in.

oh. well.. now that you have nothing that urgently needs your attention (besides him) you can lay back down on his chest and continue where you left off 🙂‍↕️

[heavyhandedhex]

they should've met!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thesecrethistori-an]

A quick underwhelming breakfast

PhD Day 14: feeling very tired today (it's not even 7 am yet). I have so many things to do and so little time. My big deadline for my grant proposal is getting closer and closer and I feel like all these other tasks get on the way.

I just need October to end to be able to focus on the research :)

[saint-ambrosef]

we need a shorthand term to explain to others that you believe in a healthy skepticism of established medical practice and don't blindly believe whatever Big Pharma™ says to be gospel truth on health, but also dont think the answer is to reject all mainstream medical advice and put trust in christine from facebook who has a 1-week online course "degree" in functional medicine and thinks every health issue is because you dont eat enough beef fat

[academicfever]

71/100

I've bad period cramps today... couldn't go to uni... I gotta be honest here... not everyday will be 10/10... we will have these days and its ok. accepting a not so productive day when ur body is barely surviving is more than ok! sending love and warmth to all my perfectionist girlies out there!

Log: 17th Feb 2025 running wild

Read Ministry of Time

Journal_mental health check

Gentle stretching and long shower

Protein rich brunch

Studied Gradient Descent __2P

Loss function __2P

Language P

called home

watched Run Jin Variety Show Extravaganza

Note to self: No self-hatred is allowed! u r doing what u can!

[milli0n-dollar-fool]

This has probably been said before but good omens had made very clear aziraphale and Crowley's relationship at the end of season 1 for any doubters

Here Crowley says 'time to leave the garden,' like God had said 'the story ends as it began - in a garden,' not just referring to Adam young. The Garden of Eden represented their responsibilities as angel and demon, especially their very first responsibilities. Leaving the garden means leaving it all behind.

When they met in Berkeley Square, they met no longer as angel or demon but as lovers, 'the first meeting of two lovers in Berkeley Square.'

Gonna go scream now

[karver518]

Something clicked in my mind, and so I decided to make a y/n for the Dreamweaver au for shits and giggles

Beginner weaver over here wish them luck

This cool bonus: their first day did not end well

Close up on the watcher's sphere Moonstone has (candy apple found them 💔💔💔🥲)

[cryptid-with-an-axe]

-Pros to me doing my field research alone: nobody saw me sprain my ankle by tripping over a gopher hole

-Cons to me doing my field research alone: I keep pointing at bugs/critters going "woah look a cool bug/critter!" and nobody's there to go "woah lemme see!" so I'm really just entertaining myself only

[archivegeo]

trackpad painting of this man that took [redacted] hours