The Good Quotes
About 200 years after Voltaire made this statement, Robert F Kennedy was quoted with a similar notion. See {624825}. However, both of these echo an old Russian proverb. See {615261}.
This a particularly important quotation from a religious source. This view was espoused by Spinoza and for it he was excommunicated by the Jews, Christians and the Muslims. Although he was a devout Jew, he was accused of being irreligious because this view undermined the authority of the Rabbis, Priests, and Imams. See {624859}.
Plunckett was the last Roman Catholic martyr to be executed in Britain. He was accused of conspiring against the state by allegedly plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into the country, and for levying a tax on his clergy to support 70,000 men for rebellion. The English have always feared ever since Henry VIII severed England from the Roman Catholic Church, that the Papacy was plotting to restore Catholicism to England and sponsor an invasion of Ireland. And indeed that was true in several cases, but nowhere near as many as the English imagined. In this case, paranoia prevailed, and the trial was pretty much a farce, but he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered which he was.
Peace on Earth
“Magistrates” at the time were rulers and heads of government and state. There was little or no separation of powers and the chief magistrate could make edicts and laws, enforce them and be the judge and jury as well. In the United States, the President is also called the “Chief Magistrate” even though his powers are only within the Executive Branch. For us today, “Magistrate” usually refers to a judge or other official of the Judicial Branch.
