Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

One more quotation from the Ackroyd book, TUDORS, which is the second volume in his ongoing history of England .  I quoted him last week on Mary and Reginald Pole, and the week before on Henry VIII and the dispossession of the monasteries. This week's lesson involves Pope Pius V and Mary's youngest Protestant sister Elizabeth. In early 1570, Pope Pius V issued a bull in which he excommunicated Elizabeth as a paramount heretic and tyrant. It stated that 'the pretended queen of England' could no longer command allegiance, and that she was the 'servant of iniquity'. Its denunciation covered any person who obeyed her laws and commands. The Queen herself was now a legitimate object of attack by any assassin of the old faith; her death would speed his way to heaven. It was the last stand of medieval religion, the final occasion when a pope would try to depose a reigning monarch.... I'm certainly glad Popes don't do that any more. In honor of that mil...

Last week, I quoted Peter Ackroyd's book, TUDORS, in connection with the dispossession oif the Catholic monasteries in Tudor England. Today, I'll quote a passage form a bit later in Ackroyd's story. As my readers probably know, Henry III was succeeded on the throne by his only son, Edward. King Edward (beloved among those of us who read The Prince and the Pauper as youngsters). As some may not know, the young King and his circle of advisors pushed the Protestant Reformation a good deal further than Henry had. Henry was interested in the power of the pope and the wealth of the monasteries, but he wasn't interested in making changes in doctrine. He didn't see himself as an ally of Lutherans in another other than their possession of common foes. But under Edward, the English Church came under the control of people who very much did have doctrinal quarrels with Rome -- over the role of Mary as intercessor, over the veneration of saints, over the miracle of tran...

A common political meme, "Lots of money is going to waste doing x. Think of all the better things we [some collective 'we'] could do with that money!" This kind of thing seems to have evolved to support taxation of those frivolous activities by various states representing that collective we. I thought of this recently whist reading TUDORS, a recent popular history of the English dynasty of that name written by Peter Ackroyd. When Ackroyd is telling us about the despoliation of the Catholic monasteries by Henry VIII pursuant to his (Henry's) dispute with Rome, he reminds me that this meme is an old one. The monastic life was considered one of the frivolous activities that meme would have 'us' target, as was the veneration of saints, etc.  How did it work out? Ackroyd (pictured above) writes thus: "It had previously been proposed that the dissolution of the monasteries was for the higher good for the nation. The incomes of the var...