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| DB: |
Good
evening and welcome to History Today.
I have been informed that we *must*, on tonight's programme, make every
endeavour to stick with an academic discipline to tonight's topic - Church
and State. Professor Lewis,... |
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| RN: |
Well, you must remember that for a large part of our country's history church
and state were effectively one. This spiritual bureaucracy is reflected
in the severity of monastic orders at the time. Under the terms of his oath
a Benedictine Monk, for example, could not only never have sexual relations
with a woman, nor did her ever talk to a woman, nor even approach within
50 yards of a woman. |
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| DB: |
I
am aware of the scriptures. |
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| RN: |
That's
you on your 18-30 holiday, that is. |
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| DB: |
Of
course Charles the First was executed in a dispute {picks up book}
essentially concerning Church and State. Hansard records that following
his guillotining {reads from book} The body jerked around grotesquely
for 20 seconds. Writhing about in a pitiful display, his arms and legs shooting
this way and that uncontrollably, as the gathered crowd laughed
and spat at him.
{puts book down} and that's you dancing, that is. {waves arms around and
sings} That's
the way , uh huh uh huh. I like it, uh huh uh huh.." |
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| RN: |
See
an old chipped saucer lying against a brick wall in an alley way? |
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| DB: |
Is
it a green saucer from an institutional tea set? |
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| RN: |
Yes
and it's gone brown where some tea has stained the white bit. |
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| DB: |
{trying
not to laugh} I have seen such an item of discarded bric-a-brac. |
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| RN: |
That's
your satellite dish, that is. |
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| DB: |
The
Monarch who could be said to have truly united Church and State was Elizabeth
the First. Her power was iconically linked with her refusal to marry, so
that it became part of her mythology that she remained inviolable, known
to all as the Virgin Queen. |
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| RN: |
Yes. |
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| DB: |
That's
you, that is. That's your most manly nickname. |
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| RN: |
Essentially
throughout our history there has been a constant pouch (?)
leading from Church to State, from State to Church, thus {waves hand
in front of face} and then back again once more. |
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| DB: |
I
am aware of the continual fluctuation. |
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| RN: |
And
that's what everyone does when they stand down wind from your mum.
{waves hand in front of face again} Oh, cor blimey! Poo.... |
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| DB: |
In the present day the balance seems to have shifted to State but today's
secessionist society is perhaps conditioned by an awareness of our temporal
instability. Why, when this very land on which the battle between Church
and State was, for so many years, fought is continually being eroded by
the sea. And cliffs are moving back by a rate of 4 metres per year. |
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| RN: |
I
am aware of the topographical crisis. |
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| DB: |
And
that's how fast you run. That's you on Sports Day.
Well, I don't think anyone can be in any doubt that tonight myself and
Professor Lewis have had a most incisive debate.
Professor Lewis,
thankyou very much. |
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| RN: |
Thankyou. |
