Robertson Davies Quotes
Sometimes there was a serious article on a hot topic, and I especially remember one by a bishop headed "Is Nudity Salacious?" The bishop thought it need not be, if encountered in the proper spirit, but he gave a lot of enlightening examples of conditions under which it might be, in his word, "inflammatory." There wasn't much nudity in our neck of the woods, and I enjoyed that article tremendously.
Davies, Robertson. The Merry Heart: Selections 1980-1995. Viking, 1997, p. 11.
In modern times this would appear to be a most reasonable approach to quality and doctrinal control within a church. But keep in mind that these were to be promulgated by Catholic Kings and become the civil law of the land as well as the religious. So the Catholic Bishops were granted control of who could preach in any church in the Bishopric. The power of the state was there to back up the Bishops with criminal laws and law enforcement. This together with the Inquisition would counter the forces of Reformation—Protestants.
The Fascist Dictator hinted at all the Church property that the State might seize and began to place taxes on the Church and in a brilliant political stroke actually negotiated the Lateran Pacts of 1929 with the Church whereby the Dictator would guarantee all the churches property and protect its officials end exempt the church from taxation and all the Church had to do was have all their Italian Bishops swear to this oath of political support for the dictatorial fascist state and its outrages and aggression and denial of rights. He actually have the church more religious power than they had enjoyed in Italy for years. For example he turned over the public school curriculum to the church with no other religion considered. Despite thus oath of the Italian bishops, there were a number of individual Catholic priests who aided the anti-Fascist resistance, but for the most part Mussolini bought the political and moral support of the Catholic Church. Apologists for the Church at the time point out that the entire Vatican and the Pope was totally within the dictator’s span of control, and he could jail any of the Holy see who criticized him or have them executed as he did so many others. He could also loot the Vatican and sell off holy relics and other object to finance his wars of aggression and his alliance with Hitler. They argue that there was nothing any priests could say that would break the iron hold Mussolini had on Italy and at least, the priests could perform their pastoral functions so long as they supported the Fascists. The debate continues to this day. However, after WWII Italians left the Catholic Church in droves and it is one of the least religious states in Europe.
Bruce is one of the few American Comedians to so offend the political establishment that he was constantly legally harassed throughout his career. He was actually criminally convicted in New York for obscenity. In 2003 he was posthumously pardoned by the New York Governor, the first posthumous pardon in state history.
William Robertson Davies CC OOnt FRSL FRSC was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished "men of letters", an unfashionable term Davies gladly accepted for himself. Davies was the founding Master of Massey College, a graduate residential college associated with the University of Toronto.
