Reginald Pole (1500–1558)

This 16th century monumental J'Accuse is a reply to Henry VIII's command to Pole to justify his destruction of Papal authority in England over a divorce and a bigamous marriage. Pole writes four Books bound together by righteous indignation.

Reginald Pole was a younger cousin of Henry VIII, with both Tudor and Plantagenet blood in his veins. The King aided him with benefices as he advanced his scholarship on the Continent among leading Renaissance scholars. Their lives clouded as Reginald opposed Henry's protracted divorce proceedings against Catherine of Aragon.

Ironically, Pope Julius II permitted the marriage only with a dispensation, where she was the widow of his deceased brother Arthur. Henry commanded Pole to undertake a mission to Paris to invalidate the dispensation. Pole was actually on the continent among friends in Padua and Rome, with Henry's financial help and his mothers' blessing. However, the news reaching the Christian commonwealth, in addition to the usual violence of the age, was the shocking proclamation that Henry's marriage to Catherine was annulled, and his secret marriage to Anne Boleyn was validated by law in 1534.

Pole's former chaplain, Thomas Starkey, was now chaplain to Henry VIII. Starkey forwarded a request from the King for an examination of history and scripture which would dispose of the matter. Meanwhile, Henry was chopping off the heads of Bishops, John Fisher, Sir Thomas More, among others. That news in 1535 ignited our continental student to study with vehemence, and write as Isaiah himself: 58:1 "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet!" This work is now a monument which addresses every aspect of kingship, priesthood, and righteous indignation.

Ironically, when Mary reintroduced Catholicism, she appointed Pole as the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, a former friend (having worked together for years on the infamous reformatory Council of Trent), Pope Paul VI, deprived Pole of his power as legate, and recalled him to Rome. Mary Tudor withheld this summons, enabling him to remain in England.

Of course, he protested. In a forcefully pointed letter, he reminded this Pope that he himself had received greater benefits from Pole's labors than any Pope had ever received from any legate. [xxxiv] Perhaps broken by the pathetic paradox of this event, in shock, Pole's health declined rapidly. He died on the same day as the Queen, November 17, 1558.

The work was widely distributed and studied. We owe to Pole the term "seminarian". He put iron in the dictum Propter populum igitur Rex, non populus propter regem; the King exists on behalf of the people, not the people on behalf of the King. He places the people as the source of authority and power -- unusual, in an age still claiming "divine right". [54]

He found compromise with many--for example, the Lutherans. He led the 1536 Reform Commission which listed every major abuse and scandal in the Church.

Other gems include fearless investigation into matters in spite of kings or priests--for example, he cites the pagan "Testament of Tiberius" used by Valerius Maximus. [53] He invites penetration of myths about nature.

By including Plato in his affirmation of happiness as a goal of a civilized government, [60-61] he recognized that necessity alone brings unction to the function of both the priest and the king.(!) The Prophet speaks to this dignity: "I have said: You are gods and all of you are the sons of the Most High". Psalms 81:6. Without pausing, Bishop Pole notes that kings who commit crimes deserve to be buried alive. [65] Well, he does pause to invoke the Biblical example of King Ozias.

Perhaps remembering to Henry how he lurched with lust over the questioning of Anne Boleyn, Pole invokes the story of Peter who trembled and denied Christ upon the queries of a servant girl. [99] "You, a man of your age and with such experience, are miserably burning with passion for the love of a girl." [185] The j'accuse is detailed and colorful. The unseemly details of Henry's objections to having married his deceased brother's wife are exposed. [186]

Each of the books illuminates a blood-drenched vituperative time, although Pole is relatively remarkably restrained, more gently ironic and even resorting to a poignant appeal for Henry's repentance in Book IV.

And yes, it is obvious that the fat slobbering Henry VIII excoriated by Pole is very similar to the simian king who was placed into the Presidency of America on November 2016. Now, if only we could find and empower, for today, the righteous indignation against tyrants which is needed! "Lift up thy voice like a Trumpet!" Isaiah 58:1.… (plus d'informations)