Laudator Temporis Acti

Isiah Holmes, "Wisconsin communities see uptick in white supremacist activity," Wisconsin Examiner (April 11, 2022):

Several of these simple signs were hung around Milwaukee City Hall during the summer of protest in 2020. Dues Valt is latin for “God Wills It,” a reference to the Crucades which has been adopted by modern white supremacist groups.

I read "Dues Vult" on the sign. At any rate, the correct Latin is "Deus Vult" (also read "Crusades" for "Crucades"). On the war cry see e.g. Peter Frankopan, The First Crusade: The Call from the East (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2012), p. 3 (note omitted):

The response to Urban’s speech was rapturous. Up went the cry: ‘Deus vult! Deus vult! Deus vult!’ — ‘God wills it! God wills it! God wills it!’ The crowd listened intently to hear what the Pope would say next. ‘Let that be a war-cry for you in battle because it came from God. When you mass together to attack the enemy, this cry sent by God will be the cry of all — “God wills it! God wills it!”’

Id., p. 109:

Bohemond, the son of Robert Guiscard, was another stellar recruit. According to the anonymous author of the Gesta Francorum, Bohemond first heard about the expedition when he was besieging Amalfi in 1096 and noticed men passing on their way towards the ports of southern Italy shouting ‘Deus vult! Deus vult!’

Labels: typographical and other errors