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Should Richard III Receive a Catholic Burial?
First Things ^ | February 4, 2013 | Mark Movsesian

Posted on 02/06/2013 4:11:39 AM PST by NYer

richardIII

You thought there couldn’t be a law and religion angle to today’s news—fascinating for us history nerds—that archaeologists have discovered the mortal remains of Richard III beneath a parking lot in Leicester? Think again. Plans are underway to re-inter the bones in the city’s Anglican Cathedral. Not so fast, say some: the hunchback king wasn’t a Protestant, but a Catholic, and he requires a Catholic burial. In fact, as Shakespeare fans know, Richard died at Bosworth Field (“A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!”), defending his throne from Henry Tudor. Henry went on to reign as Henry VII; his son, Henry VIII, broke with Rome. As The Tablet’s blog argued this morning, “Had Richard prevailed at the Battle of Bosworth Field, there would have been no Henry VII, therefore no Henry VIII and no Reformation. England today might still be a Catholic country.” Think of it: no Reformation, no Established Church, no Archbishop Laud, no Puritans, no Great Migration — no Massachusetts! — and no Establishment Clause. Surely there’s a law review article in there somewhere.

Leicester Cathedral seems to know it’s facing a sensitive situation. A Catholic priest is keeping watch over Richard’s remains (as is an Anglican, I believe), and the cathedral is planning a “multifaith” burial ceremony. Personally, I’m not sure why English Catholics are so keen to claim Richard, anyway. They must be forgetting the nephews in the Tower.


TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; History; Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: anglican; coupdetat; godsgravesglyphs; helixmakemineadouble; henrytheusurper; henryvii; kingrichardiii; murderedbytraitors; plantanget; richardiii; shakespeare; uk; unitedkingdom
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To: Campion

Many Christians are unconsciously neo-platonists. The doctrine of the General resurrection is little emphasized.


81 posted on 02/06/2013 1:10:14 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: SampleMan

Cranmer was a correspondant with Calvin, and I suspect their theologies were not that far apart. Calvin was rather indifferent to forms of church government or shapes of liturgy. He was willing to let Polish reformers keep their bishops, and his own “order of service” was a kind of stripped down mass. He even suggested a weekly Eucharist but went along with his Geneva friends. In many respects Calvin was not a Calvinist.


82 posted on 02/06/2013 1:16:15 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: miss marmelstein

But Shakespeare was a flack for the Tudors.


83 posted on 02/06/2013 1:18:43 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: cuban leaf

There are degrees of saints. The word means “holy one.”


84 posted on 02/06/2013 1:21:45 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: Tax-chick

As I remember from my old history books, there was a lot of “Southern Gothic” in Robert E. Lee’s family.


85 posted on 02/06/2013 1:24:06 PM PST by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: cuban leaf

One can believe many things that are wrong. As for the dead, my mother may be dead but she remains my mother. Death cannot change what has already happened.


86 posted on 02/06/2013 1:25:18 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: RobbyS

Yeah, he took Thomas More’s tripe and ran with it. It’s a good play, a FUN play, but it is not history.


87 posted on 02/06/2013 1:25:42 PM PST by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: cuban leaf

One can believe many things that are wrong. As for the dead, my mother may be dead but she remains my mother. Death cannot change what has already happened.


88 posted on 02/06/2013 1:25:42 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: NYer
It depends.

He didn't "interpret the Bible literally," did he???

89 posted on 02/06/2013 1:27:58 PM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Ki-hagoy vehamamlakhah 'asher lo'-ya`avdukh yove'du; vehagoyim charov yecheravu!)
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To: miss marmelstein

Good description.

What fun would history be, anyway, without the crazy upper-class people? I’ve got nuts in my family, but they’ll never be in encyclopedias.


90 posted on 02/06/2013 1:28:42 PM PST by Tax-chick (Watch out for spiders.)
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To: Tax-chick

When I was a student, I took many a Southern Gothic literature course: Flannery O’Conner, Faulkner, Carson McCullers...you name it. Awful stuff, really, but with a grounding in reality!


91 posted on 02/06/2013 1:38:46 PM PST by miss marmelstein ( Richard Lives Yet!)
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To: miss marmelstein

Sharyn McCrumb, who looks like a thinner Barbara Mikulski (but just barely thinner) writes Southern Gothic novels, as well as a straight mystery series.


92 posted on 02/06/2013 2:21:57 PM PST by Tax-chick (Watch out for spiders.)
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To: RobbyS
In many respects Calvin was not a Calvinist.

Indeed. Given the Calvinist mantra (you should not have a priest interpret the Bible for you, but read it yourself), I was amused to look at the first Calvinist Bible printed and find that it is packed with interpretation of Scripture, printed in an outer margin.

93 posted on 02/06/2013 2:49:38 PM PST by SampleMan (Feral Humans are the refuse of socialism.)
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To: RobbyS

The word means “holy one.”


Which begs the question, what does “holy one” mean?


94 posted on 02/06/2013 4:24:38 PM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: RobbyS

As for the dead, my mother may be dead but she remains my mother. Death cannot change what has already happened.


I agree. Except I would say she WAS your mother. We talk of things which already happened in the past tense. As in, My team “won” the Superbowl.

But really, we are arguing semantics only.


95 posted on 02/06/2013 4:28:25 PM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf

It means a person with special graces from God. The Reformers were not,like so many present day evangelicals ones who thought that he had been chosen by God was among the Elect. Saints are God’s chosen few, often times unknown but to him; while others, who may seem that way to the world, are not.


96 posted on 02/06/2013 9:32:32 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: cuban leaf

No, she IS my mother. Nothing can change that.


97 posted on 02/06/2013 9:34:37 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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To: RobbyS

No, she IS my mother. Nothing can change that.


Yes. We arguing semantics and the meaning of the word “is”.

HOLY COW, I’VE BECOME BILL CLINTON!!!


98 posted on 02/07/2013 5:25:09 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: RobbyS

Saints are God’s chosen few...


Interestingly, that is how I see those who have been chosen by God. That is, all of what the Bible calls “the saints”. The believers.


99 posted on 02/07/2013 5:26:29 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: cuban leaf

If we remain the same persons after death, then we shall be raised as the same persons, but glorified or damned in accordance with our merit.


100 posted on 02/07/2013 2:20:55 PM PST by RobbyS (Christus rex.)
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