What role has the Church with the State? The problem is not, in essence a spiritual one but rather it involves political power and its use. Today in 1170 one of the more famous victims of this conundrum, Archbishop Thomas Becket was brutally murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by three knights who took literally King Henry II’s mutterings against Becket for refusing to humble the Church to his will.
Within a year, the same King Henry landed in Ireland, with the support of the Church and proclaimed himself King of Ireland, thus beginning the British colonization and occupation of the emerald isle. It would take the Irish 766 years to breathe free in their own land again. On this day in 1937 the Republic of Ireland was established.
– Posted by Douglas Racionzer (serendipiday.blogspot.com)