Fall History & Heritage — #6 (October 17)

This weekʼs Q&Aand commentary are based on George Grantʼs Christian Almanac and Bill Bennettʼs America, Vol.1.

 Calvin Coolidge — (Almanac, Oct. 11)

Best known for saying, “The chief business ofAmerica is business,” this taciturn New Englander (1872–1930) rose through the ranks of Massachusetts politics and got national attention for his deft handling of the Boston police strike?  Elected U.S. Vice President (on the Republican ticket with Ohioʼs Warren Harding) in 1920, he succeeded to the presidency when Harding died suddenly in 1923.  His straightforward conservatism called for less government and a more free and virtuous citizenry.

 The Red Badge of Courage — (Almanac, Oct. 13)

If “altogether a work of the imagination, unbased on personal experience,” said English critic Sydney Brooks of this late 19th-century novel, “its realism would be nothing short of a miracle”?  Brooks assumed that the novelʼs author, Stephen Crane had seen combat firsthand in the Civil War, but Crane (1871–1900) wasnʼt even born till six years after the surrender atAppomattox.  His novel, it turns out, is less “fictionalized journalism” than a fantasy that depicts the human condition in its most dire straits.

 “Defender of the Faith”; Latin, “Fidei Defensor” — (America, Vol.1, pp. 23-24)

Despite its odd and dubious origins in the early 1500s, British monarchs to this day retain this bold religious title?  The honor was originally bestowed by Pope Leo X to King Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547) for his aggressive attack (in pamphlet form) on the life and doctrine of German Reformer Martin Luther.  In a mind-boggling twist of fate, Henry later severed the bonds between English Christianity and Rome, and he got his Parliament to declare himself the authoritative head of a newAnglican Church.

 Thomas Cranmer — (America, Vol.1, p. 25)

ThisArchbishop of Canterbury was burned to death for heresy at Oxford during the reign of Mary Tudor (“Bloody Mary,” r. 1553–1558)?  Under torture he had earlier signed a recantation of his Reformational beliefs, but when Mary decided to execute him anyway, he reaffirmed his Protestantism, casting “that hand that hath offended” into the flames first.  Agifted writer, he drafted the Thirty-Nine Articles (the formal confession of the Church of England), and his resonant style adorns the Book of Common Prayer.

 “Gloriana” — (America, Vol.1, pp. 25-29)

Without a doubt, the long reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558–1603) was the Tudor dynastyʼs greatest glory.  In her day England saw a remarkable flowering of arts and letters (including Spenser, Shakespeare, and Marlowe) and the beginning of centuries of mastery of the seas (admiralty).