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A monument to the transience of power (and of life)

A monument to the transience of power (and of life)

Last updated on: May 16, 2026 at 7:24 am by Dan Peterson

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A monument to the transience of power (and of life) 2026-05-16T07:24:52-06:00 Dan Peterson

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A wide view of the front of Hampton Court Palace

I had a number of pressing items to take care of today, so I reluctantly stayed in London to catch up on some work. But our group (including my wife!) went out today to Hampton Court Palace, which I last visited about a year ago and have visited multiple times over the years. On the whole, I would rather have gone this time, too. But life intervenes. It’s a structure going back to its foundation in 1514 by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey and then, after his fall from royal favor, to the ever-acquisitive Henry VIII.

Besides being the nominal Archbishop of York and a Cardinal, Wolsey was Lord Chancellor of England, the king’s chief adviser. In fact, he was sometimes called the alter rex (“other king”). However, his failure to negotiate an annulment of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon ultimately cost him his government titles. In the end, he was recalled to London to answer to charges of treason — Henry often charged those who irritated him or who failed to carry out his whims as traitors — but he died at Leicester from natural causes on 29 November 1530, on the way to meet Henry’s “justice.”

By that time, he had already married off his “non-canonical” “wife,” Joan Larke of Yarmouth, to another man. Both of their children lived to adulthood; the daughter, Dorothy, ultimately entered a convent (where she stayed until Henry VIII abolished the monasteries and seized their property).

“Cardinal Wolsey at the Gate of Leicester Abbey,” by Charles West Cope (1847)

In William Shakespeare’s play Henry VIII (Act 3, Scene 2), Cardinal Wolsey laments that

Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age have left me naked to mine enemies.

Historically, the real Cardinal Wolsey actually expressed an identical sentiment to Sir William Kingston upon his arrest for treason, in very similar language, remarking that

If I had served God as diligently as I have done the king, He would not have given me over in my grey hairs.

It’s very dangerous to devote one’s life to serving a whimsical autocrat, especially doing so entails compromising or altogether abandoning your principles. His moods may change. He’s liable to betray you. His gratitude for past services may not protect you. (The eighth-century Kalīla wa Dimna of Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, which I taught for many years at BYU, is excellent on this theme.)

The Golden Rule Mosaic at Thanks-Giving Square in Dallas, Texas (based upon a painting by Norman Rockwell)

If this is true (as I assume it is), it’s a shameful, disgusting, and embarrassing mark against my adopted home state: “Leader of Black LDS group says he fell victim to a racist threat while hiking in Utah: Despite repeated calls from church leaders to wipe out racism, Black members say such prejudice is on the rise in the state.”

Unfortunately, I don’t feel that I can do much about it. I would be very surprised if any of those who follow this blog are prone to making racist insults. In fact, I rather suspect that the tendency to engage in racist misbehavior is inversely correlated with faithful commitment to the Restoration. It’s certainly incompatible with the principles of the Gospel. So, if Church leaders have been unable to reach Utah’s racists, I’m certainly unlikely to do so. Nevertheless, I urge myself and others to take whatever steps we’re able to take to combat such attitudes and such actions.

For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. (2 Nephi 26:33)

A view of the Herefordshire Beacon (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph by Whatlep)

In yesterday’s post, I briefly mentioned having eaten a scoop of Bennetts Ice Cream (as most of the others in our group also did) up on the slope of the Herefordshire Beacon. I knew that such a reference would prove to be irresistible catnip to some of the addicts on the Peterson Obsession Board, and so, indeed, it was. Their little board has exploded with mockery. And yet — perhaps I’m going out on a limb here — I would be willing to venture good money (if I were a gambling man) that even some of them have, at least once in their lives, eaten a scoop of ice cream. (My chosen flavor, by the way, was clotted cream and blackcurrant. It was excellent, and I heartily recommend it to any others who might visit the Herefordshire Beacon after me.)

In that same post from yesterday, I also mentioned in passing a heartfelt moment for me that came while I was on my own in the Church of Holy Trinity Headington Quarry, in Oxford. The obsessives are deriding that, as well, because that’s the kind of classy people they are. It’s easy to see the wisdom in Jesus’ counsel, though it’s sometimes impossible to avoid exposing personal or sacred things to the tender care of dogs and the spiritually porcine:

Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:6)

Incidentally, too, my fans on the Obsession Board are still seeking new ways to accuse me of profiteering from trips such as this one. Lately, they’ve discovered that it’s customary for participants in these tours to tip the professional guide (in this case, the wonderful Peter Fagg) when the tour ends. And this is true. But they jump from that to the idea that I, too, receive substantial tips, and that, therefore, although I disingenuously attempt to deny and to obfuscate, I thus still manage, notwithstanding my denials, to profit handsomely from these episodes.

But I’m not a professional guide, and I’ve never accepted a tip for one of these travel tours. I think that I’ve been offered a tip once or twice over the years, but no more often than that. And, even in those cases, I’ve declined the tip, suggesting that it go instead as a donation to the Interpreter Foundation. I’m impressed by the Obsessives’ implacable determination to prove me guilty of mercenary financial motives for my involvement in these things, but, since they’re wrong, they’re never going to succeed.

The Asylum for Criminal Lunatics at Broadmoor (“Illustrated London News,” 1867). It’s high time for religious fanatics to turn all concern for mental and emotional health matters over to professionals at such fine institutions as that shown above. Possible remediation before prevention!

Finally, I share this terrifying piece from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™. It appears that theists are attempting to mess with the mental health and emotional balance of our young people and our neighbors. And the data make it pretty clear that they’re succeeding: “Analysis: Are we leveraging the full impact of faith in America’s mental health crisis? Beneficial associations between religion and mental health outpace harmful ones by roughly 10 to 1. It’s time to acknowledge the public health consequences of stepping back from faith”

Posted from London, England

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