The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 13.0824  Monday, 18 March 2002

From:           John Velz <
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Date:           Saturday, 16 Mar 2002 15:51:58 -0600
Subject:        Papal Legates, etc.

In re: SHK 13.0811

     King John seems to some to be pro
     Catholic because the sources that make John a hero for standing up
to
     the pope were blatant Protestant propaganda while Shakespeare
     villainizes John. But the Church doesn't come off any better.
Rather
     than a defense of Catholicism, it seems to me more a statement
about
     good and evil motives, a good Reformation vs a bad Reformation.
Clifford Stetner

Someone (I forget whom) once suggested (unconvincingly) that Sh. went
through a lapse of faith in the period when he was writing *Jn.* and
then revived his fervor by time he was working on the friar plays
(*Rom*., *Ado*, *MM*). Rather than good Reformation and bad Reformation,
the ambivalence may be a matter of revering the office and distrusting
the man.  As a friend of mine once said "I like Christianity, but I just
can't stand Christians."

A note of levity may be permitted. The Chairman of the Theology
Department at Boston College, who seems to be defending the Vatican's
stance on celibacy in the Roman clergy, is named "Stephen Pope".
*Austin American Statesman* Sat. Mar. 16, p. A8.

John

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