The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1936. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 16

The Evening Star SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1936. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH.

Probably it had escaped the notice of all but a. very small number of his subjects that King Edward VIII. never used the title “Defender of the Faith.” His avoidance of it was officially deposed to, in answer to a question, in the discussions on his abdication. It may be instanced as an example of the former King’s “ dislike of shams'.” A statement of the Bishop of Bradford will be remembered. Deferring to King Edward’s need of divine grace if he was to fulfil the .duties of his high position His Lordship said: “We hope that he is aware of his need. Some of us wish he gave more positive signs of such awareness.” The words were ■widely accepted as the first public condemnation of a scandal which within a few hours threatened to shake the Throne itself, but that was not in the Bishop’s mind. Oddly, he had written the address six weeks earlier, before he had heard the name of Mrs Simpson. What he referred to, as explained by himself, was “ the fact that to all outward appearance the King seems to live entirely indifferently to the public practice of religion. He may have a private religion of his own. That I know nothing about, but he does not show the world he has got one, and I think that is a pity.” King Edward, therefore, may have been right in his judgment if he thought it would be a sham for him t<j> use the title ‘ Defender of the Faith. 1 If it had to be interpreted in the sense in which it was originally given, it might be considered as a sham used by any English King. The designation was conferred by the Pope on King Henry VIII., before the Reformation, for a Latin treatise ‘ On the Seven Sacraments.’ The treatise was an answer to Luther. Henry was a trained theologian, ambitious alike to show his erudition and his orthodoxy. Luther answered his pamphlet with abuse as much as argument, and Sir Thomas More made a reply .to Luther. Followed the first steps in the Reformation, and soon Henry had a faith of his own. He burned Protestants, and beheaded Catholics as traitors. But he kept his title of Defender of the Faith, which was confirmed by Act of Parliament. His successors kept it, giving it a different sense from that of Pope Leo, though as individuals, if anyone had thought about it, it must have seemed to sit quaintly on not a few of them. In the preface to the Authorised Version of the Bible, for that matter, anyone can see King James I. described as “By the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland,” though in his day no British King had even attempted to rule over France for two hundred years. The letters “ F.D.” and “ D.G.,” signifying “ Defender of the Faith ” and, less equivocally, “by God’s Grace,” stamped on all the coinage, had a popular appeal until comparatively recent times. When Queen Victoria had been twelve years on the Throne there was issued a florin, popularly denounced as the “ graceless ” or “ godless ” florin because it bore neither of them. The Master of the Mint- happened to be a Roman Catholic, and the omission was attributed to his religious opinions. So great an outcry was, made against the coins they had to be called in the same year.

We live in a different age. The letters have never appeared on coins minted specially for New Zealand, though the British coins of King George V. retained them. No distinctive Edward VIII. coinage was ever issued. It is interesting to note, however, that the title “ Defender of the Faith ” makes its due appearance in the style of King George VI., as read at his proclamation. It was in the proclamation of King Edward, but not in the Instrument of Abdication or the Abdication Act. . It will he for Ids present Majesty, by his life and example, to give a fitting meaning to the phrase. Strictly, it is incorrect to speak of the King as “ head of the church.” That title was amended by Queen Elizabeth to “ Supreme Governor.” The actual prayers of England’s State Church, however, are without any phrase that might describe His Majesty’s relationship to it. The sovereigns of Spain boro the title “ Catholic,” and those of France “ Most Christian.” They bore them sometimes as a grace, and too often as an irony. The death-bed of one “ Most Christian ” King, Louis XIV., when sovereigns had more license than would bo tolerated now, was described as follows by a contemporary:—“Thus died one of the greatest of earthly monarchs, in the arms of an unworthy and unrecognised wife and of the offspring of his adultery; receiving the last Sacraments from the hand of the son of another beloved mistress, and the consolations of religion from a coix-

lessor such as Father Tellier. He may have died the death of a saint, but a saint’s death-bed is not usually surrounded by such attendants.