Sarah Densmore
In 1678, two English clergymen attempted to undermine the growing influence of the Catholic church, both on British society and in Parliament by claiming to have uncovered a Catholic plan against the life of King Charles II. Titus Oates and Israel Tonge claimed that a Jesuit (an order of the Catholic church) meeting had taken place at a local tavern, in which the various methods of assassination were discussed. This falsification set off the debate surrounding Charles' successor, further dividing Britain into Jacobites and Hanoverians. This rupture threatened to undo the Restoration resolutions and even worse, ignite a British civil war. The tug of war between politics and religion in Britain proved to be one of the institutions that the colonists tried to avoid when founding our spin-off nation. Yet, it seems that a complete separation of church and state remains difficult.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment