Ok, I have been trying to find something to illstrate my thoughts on the cards showing something other than a Christian narrative. Perhaps the preachings of Bernadino of Siena might put it clearer than I can obviously.
The second great evil which called for this ener-
getic voice was gambling, or the passion for games of
chance, and very probably this was one of the causes
of the very prevalent usury of the day. It can easily
be understood that the one engenders the other, as
an unlawful mode of spending money will suggest all
kinds of ways of making it. Bernardine compares
gambling to a kind of rival Catholic Church of the
powers of darkness. He supposes the devil to be
calling together his satellites at the sound of the
trumpet, and he puts these words into his mouth :
' I have learnt by your account that Christ our Adver-
sary has established one Holy Church on earth for the
salvation of souls. Now I have been thinking of
establishing a rival Church for the wicked in order to
lose souls, and whatever He instituted in His Church
unto good, I will disorganize it in mine unto evil.
The gambling-houses, to be set up as near as possible
to the true temples of God, are to be the rival
attraction to the services of the Church, and they are
to promote sensuality by providing savoury food,
greediness being so often the first incentive to a life
of vice.' The devil's wish, for in the first point the
Saint speaks quaintly enough in his words, is to
succeed in getting a greater attendance in his ' profane
churches ' than our Lord gains in His. The gambling
tables represent ecclesiastical fittings and ornaments,
and the dice stand for the missal.
Obscene pictures
form this breviary of impiety, and open the minds of
the gamblers to knowledge of the most horrible vice.
* The more wicked they are, the dearer they will be to
me.' The third comparison of the ceremonies of the
Mass to those of the gambling-tables, though some-
what fanciful, gives us an insight to the sort of
impiety which was carried on under the cloak of a
passion apparently distinct from it. Fifteen grievous
sins, according to St. Bernardine, arise from indulgence
in gambling, and one of the not least deadly of its
results is idleness, and idleness was one of the crimes
which ruined Sodom.
23 Dc alcarum ludo (Sermo xlii.)
Now I made bold the the sentence that has me puzzled.
Obscene pictures form this breviary of impiety, and open the minds of
the gamblers to knowledge of the most horrible vice.
Do the pictures teach them how to gamble? What cards of obscenity is he talking about? He also mentions putting IHS in the centre of the Sun...... which might indicate a Sun card in the first place.
If it is a Christian narrative on the cards in general.........
~Lorredan