TRAGEDY OF KING CHARLES

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 255, 24 July 1937, Page 6 (Supplement)

TRAGEDY OF KING CHARLES

“It Is A Great Work To Die”

No one except the most ■ bigoted of partisans can dispute that the Church of England has the right to regard King Charles I as a martyr, writes the Very Ker. C. A. Allington D.D., Dean of Durham, in the London “Daily Telegraph.” A martyr is a man who witnesses by his death to bis belief in a cause, and it is quite certain that King Charles need not have died on the scaffold on this day, had he been willing to surrender his belief in the doctrine of Episcopacy.

It is quite possible to hold that the belief was not worth dying for, or that his advocacy of Church of England doctrines was so carried on as deservedly to lose them sympathy. It is quite possible to believe that his firmness was mere obstinacy, and that his own faults of character contributed to his downfall; But no one questions the sincerity of his convictions, or .denies that when the end came,

He nothing common did or mean Upon that memorable scene. “The young men in the All Souls’ College” who, according to Hearne, dined together on January 30, 1707, and amused themselves with cutting off the heads of a number of woodcocks, in default of calves’ heads (which the cook refused to dress) “in contempt of the memory of the blessed martyr,” were as ignorant of the true meaning of words as of the elements of good manners.

These are the words of Clarendon, and even those who regard him as a prejudiced witness will enjoy reading the noble phrases in which he pays tribute to his master’s character : "He was the worthiest gentleman, the best master, the best friend, the best husband, the best father, and the best Christian that the age in which he lived had produced, and if he were not the best king, if he were without some parts and qualities which have made some kings great ami happy, no other prince was ever unhappy who was possessed of half his virtues and endowments, and so much without any kind of vice.” It is probably true, as he also says, “that in that very hour when he was wickedly murdered in the sight of the sun, he had as great a share in _ the hearts and affections of his subjects in general, and was as much esteemed and longed for by the people in general of the three nations as any of his predecessors had been.”

Of course, there is .another side to the picture. He and Laud bound up their own religions views with a political system which menaced English liberty, and did thereby a great disservice to English religion. The injustices of the religious settlement at the Restoration were, in a sense, their legacy. But we need not remember that on January 30. “Death,” said Sir Harry Vane on the scaffold, “is a little word, but it is a great work to die.”