FIDELITY OVER LOYALTY

Mattias Caro has chosen A Man for All Seasons for today’s post to teach of fidelity. A play by Robert Bolt before it was an Academy Award winning movie, A Man For All Seasons tells the story of Sir Thomas More.

Statesman. Scholar. Writer. Family Man. Lawyer. The real life More faced the ultimate conflict in his life. He had to choose between his loyalty as a public servant and subject of King Henry VIII and his Catholic faith. Henry VIII demanded that all in England swear that he was the Supreme head of the church. This came after the Pope refused to grant the king an annulment for his marriage to Katherine of Aragon, so that Henry could marry Anne Boleyn.

More held the position of Supreme Chancellor, the equivalent of the modern Prime Minister. Instead of holding a press conference and publicly challenging Henry VIII, More resigned his office quietly. Loyalty to the king and to his faith was More’s utmost concern: he neither desired to put his King in a bad light nor to compromise commitment to his faith.

Because More was renowned as a man of loyalty and integrity, Henry wanted More’s assent. More’s affirmation could fend off opprobrium to Henry’s tyrannical action. More’s loyalty to his conscience cost him his life. Robert Bolt’s screenplay has forever immortalized More’s final words, “I die today the king’s good servants, but God’s first.”

Would that all of our politicians had More’s conviction and courage to carry loyalty to their principles down whatever road they may lead.