A CONVINCING REJOINDER
By J. O. C.
Logic Not Refuted—Beheaded Nevertheless
IN the reign of Henry VIII, king of England, the union of church and state was the settled policy of that government. As is ever the case in such a system, the king had spies in all parts of his realm to catch dissenters by some word dropped in an unguarded moment. Sir Thomas More, who became so eminent as to be raised by the king to the office of lord chancellor, afterward displeased that monarch by his adherence to religious principles, which forbade him to sanction the royal union with Anne Boleyn, and so he was sent to the tower on the charge of being suspected of holding heretical opinions. Shortly after his imprisonment, he was visited by one of the king's trusted inquisitors, named Robert Rich. In the course of conversation, this judicial scout began to talk in a professedly friendly way about the cause of dispute for which More was a prisoner. "Suppose," said he, "there were an act of Parliament that all men should take me for king; would you not take me for king?" Knowing full well the current history of English monarchy, Sir Thomas quickly replied, "Yes, sir, that I would; for a Parliament may make a king and depose him." "Yet one further question," put in the wily royal agent: "Suppose there were an act of Parliament that all the realm should take me for pope; would you not then take me for pope?" To this question, so consistent with united church and state doctrine, the answer of Sir Thomas was not only discreet, but in perfect accord with righteous principles. "Your first question," said he, "applies to temporal government. But suppose the Parliament should make a law that God should not be God; would you then, Mr. Rich, say so?" Of course, the inquisitor's lips were sealed; yet upon his report of the conversation to the privy council, the verdict of "guilty" was pronounced, and the alleged offender was beheaded without delay. This historical incident, taken from "Knight's History of England," readily shows the evil of a civil government's interference with human conscience. When both church and state can be satisfied, each to act within its God-given sphere, the occasion for such interviews as the one here cited will be a thing of the past. Would that it might be so!
J. O. C.