Trusty Servant 110_layout 1 05/11/2010 18:25 Page 1 The TRUSTY SERVANT N O .110 NOVEMBER 2010 Porcinum Os We print here an edited version of the undesirable. How can it be right that, in a the foundations of a state. Democracy address given in Cathedral by the Rev’d. diverse, multicultural democracy, we give alone, the Pope said, is not a sufficient Justin White, Chaplain, at the Founder’s legislative influence to bishops? grounding for how we should live: if the Obit service on 27th September. moral principles underpinning the I wonder how William of Wykeham, democratic process are themselves ‘All of these died in faith without bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of determined by nothing more solid than having received the promises, but as it is, England, would have responded. social consensus, then the fragility of the they desire a better country, that is, a Return to the extraordinary scene process becomes all too evident. heavenly one.’ (Hebrews 11:13,16) that recently took place in London. As In short, politics needs religion. Well, Our founder, William of Wykeham, part of his state visit, the Pope addressed a he would say that, wouldn’t he? But, was not just the founder of great places of gathering of parliamentarians and perhaps he’s right. Perhaps politics needs learning, he was also Bishop of statesmen in Westminster Hall, in the religion as much as religion needs politics. Winchester and Chancellor of England. The one without the other is a recipe for The office of Chancellor was the highest disaster. Where are the ethical civil office of the day, equivalent to foundations of our democracy to be our Prime Minister. found? Answer: in the interplay What an odd conjunction between the reason of politics that seems to us, both bishop and the faith of religion. and Chancellor of England! Religion shouldn’t be running We would feel distinctly uneasy the country, neither should it if the door to No.10, Downing have a monopoly on determining Street were to swing open and out what are right and what are wrong stepped a man wearing a bishop’s types of action. Instead, religion ought to mitre. Surely religion and politics are provide the corrective, shedding light inappropriate and dangerous bedfellows? very heart of our democratic tradition. upon the application of reason to the Religion ought to be confined to the With an irony that was not lost on many, discovery of objective moral principles. private sphere, and not enter into the the Pope spoke from the place where, 475 public square. And likewise, religion must itself be years earlier, St Thomas More, a successor subjected to reason. Without the It comes as something of a shock, to William of Wykeham as Chancellor of corrective supplied by reason, religion can therefore, to discover that, in the House of England, had been sentenced to death for fall prey to all manner of distortions - Lords, in the seat of our national refusing to acknowledge King Henry’s fundamentalisms and sectarianisms which legislature, there sit twenty-six Church of breakaway from the Church of Rome. create serious social problems themselves. England bishops, unelected, and there by What did the Pope dare to say in such an Without the corrective supplied by law established. Take a look at the website inauspicious setting? He said that religion, religion, reason can also fall prey to all of the National Secular Society to see rather than being society’s problem, is a manner of distortions - murderous what they have to say about this state of vital contributor to the national ideologies which fail to see humans as affairs: unfair, undemocratic, and conversation. Religion has a key place in ends in themselves but rather as means to 1 Trusty Servant 110_layout 1 05/11/2010 18:25 Page 2 T HE T RUSTY S ERVANT ends. Reason and religion: the one sheds bishops in the House of Lords is not simply faith that the Pope was extolling. In our light upon and purifies the other. One a mediaeval hangover which has no place founder, that conjunction was lived out in without the other is, at best, diminished, in a modern democracy. Take a look at the his twin responsibilities, his spiritual and at worst poisonous. proceedings of the House in recent responsibilities as a bishop and his temporal months and you will see what responsibilities as Chancellor. I think he That was what a religious leader was contributions the bishops have been would be pleased to see that the debate trying to say in the heart of our reasoned making. Have they been peddling their between matters spiritual and matters democracy and I think William of repressive, archaic beliefs and hindering temporal continues energetically at Wykeham would have agreed. So too the progress of enlightenment? As it Winchester. Long may Winchester College would the man the Pope beatified two happens, homelessness, international remain a place were reasoned faith and days later, John Henry Newman. development, prison overcrowding, social faithful reason flourish. The Roman Catholic Church of care - these have been their concerns. It is clear that, in the words of the Newman’s day was in crisis. The 19th Their speeches and their votes have Letter to the Hebrews, William of century saw the papacy besieged in an tended to reflect the interests of the poor Wykeham ‘died in faith desiring a better aggressively secular Italy. Liberal and the marginalised, rather than the rich, country, that is, a heavenly one.’ By faithful democracies, rising across Europe, were the elite or the overtly religious. Their politics, he sought another country. He had posing a serious challenge to the Church’s democratic legitimacy may be hard to a vision of the Kingdom of God, a political monopoly over ethics and education. The defend, but no harder than it is to defend vision, seen through the eyes of faith, of a then Pope responded by vigorously the hereditary peers or life peers who hold place where the poor find their reward, the reasserting the claims of the papacy and their seats by virtue of blood or political homeless find their shelter, the hungry find denouncing the secular world. This faced patronage. Besides which, there are other their fill, where the lame walk, and the Newman with a dilemma. He shared the kinds of legitimacy; the kind of legitimacy, blind see, the imprisoned are set free, the pope’s distaste for secularism, but he also for instance, that comes from first-hand excluded are included, and the dead live. deplored the Church’s suppression of knowledge of local people and local His prayer for our great college is that we intellectual freedom. ‘Truth’ wrote situations, insights which the Lords might set about our faithful political Newman, ‘is wrought out by many minds, Spiritual may have in greater measure manifesto: to begin to make that kingdom working together freely’. For Newman the than the Lords Temporal. not just a longed-for future hope but also a Church needed secular reason as much as The bishops in Westminster form just fought-for present reality. ■ secular reason needed the Church. that corrective, that mediation, between The presence, then, of twenty-six the claims of secular reason and religious EMN An appreciation, by Nick Fennell, of the life At Winchester Liz was a pioneer. She of Liz Nash (Staff, 1982-97): was the first female don to teach an Arts subject full time and to have a Sixth Book With a First in French and German div. She became one of the first deputy from Bristol University and a PGCE, Liz heads of an academic department, helping Nash started her teaching career at The Alan Conn run the Modern Languages King’s School, Ely, where she ran a girls’ department. In June 1986, she founded house. She taught for a year at Phillips FROG Soc, which is still going strong. Exeter, USA, and for fifteen at Winchester, arriving here in 1982. In 1997 EMN’s contribution to the she left to do a course in literary intellectual and cultural life of the school translating at UEA and then moved on to was great. She was a Censor of The Oxford where she furthered her career as a Wykehamist. She was a fine actress. She French translator. She was a French tutor excelled as Mistress Quickly in Jo Bain’s at Oriel College until the final stages of production of The Merry Wives of her illness. She died on 11 May this year. Windsor, but her greatest theatrical 2 Trusty Servant 110_layout 1 05/11/2010 18:25 Page 3 T HE T RUSTY S ERVANT achievement was her brilliant shocked div apologised sincerely and Her move away from Winchester was interpretation of Agrippine in a quickly, and the future of lively yet a real loss. Her reputation as a translator production in French of Britannicus. More tolerant debate was assured. Her views grew; her tutorials became legendary. At than once she came back from Oxford as also challenged the mostly male Senior her funeral there were many heartfelt a guest reader for FROG Soc, and put in Common Room. For instance, she tributes to her as a teacher, adviser and unforgettable performances as Racinian successfully argued that we stop friend. Her Oriel colleague, Richard heroines (Phèdre, Agrippine, subscribing to The Sun, on the grounds Scholar, movingly read Baudelaire’s Andromaque and Hermione). that its Page Three models were Élévation, whose last verse is a fitting degrading. tribute to Liz: Liz was also a wonderful singer. She was the first woman to sing Domum She made her greatest impact as a Celui dont les pensers, comme des graces and she delivered a stunning jazz teacher of French and German, and spoke alouettes, solo at John Thorn’s leaving party.