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In this week's episode, I take a look at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook versions of my anthologies at my Payhip store: JUNE25 The coupon code is valid through June 17, 2025. So if you need a new ebook this summer, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates   Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 252 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is May 23rd, 2025, and today we are looking at the movies and streaming shows I watched in Winter and Spring 2025. We missed doing an episode last week for the simple reason that the day before I wanted to record, we had a bad thunderstorm that knocked down large portions of my fence, so my recording time was instead spent on emergency fence repair. However, the situation is under control, so hopefully we'll be back to weekly episodes for the immediate future. And now before we get to our main topics, let's have Coupon of the Week and then a progress update on my current writing projects.   So first up, Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebook version of all my short story anthologies at my Payhip store and that is JUNE25. As always, the coupon code and links will be available in the show notes. This coupon code is valid through June the 17th, 2025, so if you need a new ebook for this summer, we have got you covered.   And now an update on my current writing projects. Ghost in the Corruption is finished. It is publishing right now. In fact, I paused the publishing process to record this and so by the time this episode goes live, hopefully Ghost in the Corruption should be available at all ebook stores. My next main project now that Ghost in the Corruption is done will be Shield of Power and as of this recording I am 15,000 words into it. My secondary projects will be Stealth and Spells Online: Final Quest and I'm 97,000 words into that, so hopefully that will come out very shortly after Shield of Power and I'll also be starting Ghost in the Siege, the final book in the Ghost Armor series as another secondary project and I'm currently zero words into that. So that is where I'm at with my current writing projects.   In audiobook news, Ghost in the Assembly (as excellently narrated by Hollis McCarthy) is now out and should be available at all the usual audiobook stores so you can listen to that if you are traveling for the summer. Recording of Shield of Battle (as excellently narrated by Brad Wills) is underway soon. I believe he's starting it this week, so hopefully we will have another audiobook in the Shield War series for you before too much longer. So that's where I'm at with my current writing projects.   00:02:17 Main Topic: Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup   And now let's move on, without any further ado, to our main topic. Summer is almost upon us, which means it's time for my Winter/Spring 2025 Movie Roundup. As usual, the movies and streaming shows are listed in order for my least favorite to my most favorite. The grades are based upon my own thoughts and opinions and are therefore wholly subjective. With all of that said, let's get to the movies and our first entry is MacGruber, which came out in 2010 and in all honesty, this might be objectively the worst movie I have ever seen. The Saturday Night Live MacGruber sketches are a parody of the old MacGyver action show from the ‘80s. And so the movie is essentially the sketch stretched out to make a parody of an ‘80s action movie. It is aggressively dumb and crude. Its only redeeming feature is that the movie knows it's quite stupid and so leans into the stupidity hard. I'll say this in its favor, MacGruber has no pretensions that is a good movie and does not take itself seriously and then runs away hard with that fact. For that he gets a plus, but nothing else. Overall grade: F+   Next up is Down Periscope, which came out in 1996. Now the fundamental question of any movie is the one Russell Crowe shouted at the audience in Gladiator: “Are you not entertained?” Sadly, I was not entertained with Down Periscope. This wanted to be a parody of Cold War era submarine thrillers like The Hunt for Red October, I say wanted because it didn't really succeed. Kelsey Grammer plays Lieutenant Commander Thomas Dodge, an unorthodox US Navy officer who wants command of his own nuclear sub, but he's alienated a few admirals, which is not traditionally a path to career advancement in the military. Dodge gets his chance in a Navy wargame where he has to command a diesel sub against nuclear subs. Sometimes parodies are so good that they become an example of the thing they are parodying (Hot Fuzz and Star Trek: Lower Decks are excellent examples of this phenomenon). The trouble is that the movie takes itself too seriously and just isn't all that funny. A few funny bits, true, but not enough of them. In the end, this was dumb funny but didn't resonate with me the way other dumb funny movies like Dodgeball and Tropic Thunder did. Overall grade: D   Next up is Deadpool and Wolverine, which came out in 2024. Unlike Down Periscope, I was entertained with this movie, though both movies reside on the dumb funny spectrum. Deadpool and Wolverine is basically one long meta in-joke/love letter for the last 30 years of superhero movies. If you've seen enough of those movies, you'll find those movies funny, if occasionally rather tasteless. If you haven't seen enough of those movies, Deadpool and Wolverine will just be incomprehensible. The plot is that Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool gets pulled into some Marvel style multiverse nonsense. To save his universe from destruction, he needs to recruit a Wolverine since in his universe, Wolverine died heroically.   In the process, Deadpool stumbles across the worst Wolverine in the multiverse. Together they have to overcome their mutual dislike and attempt to save Deadpool's universe from destruction at the hands of a rogue branch of the Time Variance Authority. This means the movie can bring in a lot of cameos from past Marvel films. Hugh Jackman's performance really carries the movie on its back. Like I said, this movie is essentially one very long Marvel in-joke. I thought it was funny. I definitely think it can't stand on its own without having seen a sufficient number of the other Marvel movies. Overall grade: C   Our next movie is the Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which came out in 2024. This is very loosely (with an emphasis on “very”) based on Operation Postmaster during World War II, when British Special Forces seized some Italian ships that had been supplying parts for German U-boats. It was entertaining to watch but it couldn't quite make up its mind tonally if it was a war thriller or a heist movie about Western desperados recruited into a crew. It kind of tried to do both at the same time, which killed the momentum. Like, the first parts of the movie where the protagonists take out a Nazi patrol boat and then free a prisoner from a base were good thriller stuff, but then the plot fused with the heist stuff and really slowed down through the middle forty percent or so. It was also oddly stylized with a lot of spaghetti western-style music that seemed out of place and some stuff just didn't make sense, like at the end after pulling off the mission, the protagonists were all arrested. That just seems bizarre since if anything, Winston Churchill and a lot of the British wartime leadership were enthusiastic about special operations and probably had too much confidence in the effectiveness of covert operations. So I did enjoy watching this, but I can see why it didn't make a lot of money at the box office. Overall Grade: C   Next up is The Gorge, which came out in 2025. This was a peculiar mix of science fiction, romance, and horror. For the romance part, perhaps shooting zombies together is a good idea for a first date. Before I dig into the movie, a brief rant. In one scene, a character is using a chainsaw with no protective gear whatsoever and she's not fighting zombies or anything in a situation where she has to pick up a chainsaw without preparing first. She's trimming branches to pass time. If you're using a chainsaw, at a minimum you want protective eyewear and headphones. Ideally you'd want chainsaw pants as well to reduce the chance of serious injury if you slip and swing the saw into your leg. Since I became a homeowner, I've used a chainsaw a number of times and believe me, you definitely want good eye and ear protection. This has been your public safety announcement for this movie review.   Anyway, loner former sniper Levi is approached by a high ranking intelligence officer giving him a mysterious job. He needs to guard a tower overlooking a mysterious mist-filled gorge for one year. On the other side of the gorge is another tower, guarded by an elite Lithuanian sniper named Drasa. Like Levi, Drasa has a fair bit of emotional damage and they're officially forbidden to communicate. However, they're both lonely and they soon start communicating over the gorge using telescopes and whiteboard messages. Eventually Levi gets emotionally close enough to Drasa to rig a zipline to cross the gorge and speak with her in person.   Unfortunately, it turns out the gorge is full of twisted creatures that storm out and attack and the job of the two snipers is to keep them contained. If Levi and Drasa want to save their lives, they'll need to unravel the dark secret within the gorge. This movie was interesting and I enjoyed watching it, but it falls apart if you think about it too much (or at all). Like the chainsaw thing I ranted about above. The entire movie runs on that sort of logic. That said, I appreciate how the filmmakers were trying something new instead of something like Deadpool and Wolverine. Additionally, this was an Apple+ movie and it's interesting how Apple's approach to streaming is to just make a whole bunch of random stuff that's totally distinct, from Ted Lasso to Mythic Quest to Severance to The Gorge. It's like, “we have more money than most countries, so we're going to make Ted Lasso because we feel like it.” Then again, Apple+ is apparently losing a billion dollars every year, so maybe they'll eventually change their minds about that approach. Overall Grade: B-   Next up is Click, which came out in 2006. Cross It's a Wonderful Life with A Christmas Carol and the comedic style of Adam Sandler and you end up with Click. Basically Sandler plays Michael Newman, a workaholic architect with a demanding boss and increasingly strained relationship with his wife and children due to his workload. In a fit of exasperation with his situation, he goes to Bed Bath and Beyond, where he encounters an eccentric employee named Morty (played entertainingly by Christopher Walken). Morty gives him a remote control that lets him fast forward through time, which Michael then uses to skip the boring and tedious parts of his life, but he overuses the remote and goes too far into the future and sees the disastrous results of his current life choices. Definitely a story used in A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life but effectively told and I was entertained (rather on the crude side, though). Overall Grade: B- Next up is Mr. Deeds, which came out in 2002. This was actually one of Adam Sandler's better movies, in my opinion. It was a remake of the ‘30s movie Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. In this new version, Sandler plays Longfellow Deeds, a popular pizzeria owner in a small New Hampshire town. Unbeknownst to Deeds, his uncle is the owner of a major media mega corporation and when he dies, Deeds is his legal heir. When the company's CEO and chief lawyer arrive at the pizzeria to inform him of this fact, Deeds goes to New York and soon finds himself involved in the CEO's sinister machinations. Yet he happens to rescue an attractive woman from a mugger, but there is more to her than meets the eye. The movie was funny and not as crude, well, not quite as crude as some of Sandler's other stuff. It had good story structure and several great lines, my favorite of which was “he was weak and cowardly and wore far too much cologne.”   Sandler's movies, in a strange way, are often very medieval. Like various medieval fables had a savvy peasant outwitting pompous lords, greedy merchants, and corrupt clergymen. The best Adam Sandler protagonist tends to be a good natured everyman who defeats the modern equivalent of medieval authority figures- evil CEOs, arrogant star athletes, sinister bureaucrats and so forth. Overall Grade: B     Next up is House of David, which came out in 2025 and this is basically the story of King David from the Bible told in the format of an epic fantasy TV series. Like if someone wanted to do an epic fantasy series about Conan the Barbarian, it could follow the same stylistic format as this show. And of course Conan and David followed a similar path from adventurer to king. Anyway, if one were to pick a part of the Bible from which to make a movie or TV series, the story of David would be an excellent choice because David's life was so dramatic that it would hardly require any embellishments in the adaptation. The story is in the Books of First and Second Samuel. King Saul is ruling over the Israelites around 1000 BC or so, but has grown arrogant. Consequently, God instructs the prophet Samuel to inform Saul that the kingdom will be taken away from him and given to another. God then dispatches Samuel to anoint David as the new king of Israel. David is a humble shepherd but then enters Saul's service and undertakes feats of daring, starting with defeating the giant Goliath and leading Saul's troops to victory and battle against Israel's numerous enemies. (The Iron Age Middle East was even less peaceful than it is now.) Eventually, Saul's paranoia and madness gets the best of him and he turns on David, who flees into exile. After Saul and his sons are killed in battle with the Philistines. David returns and becomes the acknowledged king after a short civil war with Saul's surviving sons and followers.   If Saul's fatal flaw was his arrogance of pride, David's seems to have been women. While the story of David and Bathsheba is well known, David nonetheless had eight wives (most of them at the same time) and an unknown but undoubtedly large number of concubines. Naturally David's children from his various wives and concubines did not get along and David was almost deposed due to the conflicts between his children. Unlike Saul and later David's son Solomon, David was willing to repent when a prophet of God informed him of wrongdoing and to be fair to David, monogamy was generally not practiced among Early Iron Age Middle Eastern monarchies and dynastic struggles between brothers from different mothers to seize their father's kingdoms were quite common, but enough historical digression.   Back to the show, which covered David's life up to the death of Goliath. I thought it was quite well done. Good performances, good cinematography, excellent battles, good set design and costuming, and a strong soundtrack. All the actors were good, but I really think the standout performances were Stephen Lang as Samuel, Ali Sulaman is King Saul, Ayelet Zurer as Saul's wife Queen Ahinoam, and Davood Ghadami as David's jerkish (but exasperated and well-intentioned) eldest brother Eliab. Martyn Ford just looks extremely formidable as Goliath. You definitely believe no one in their right mind want to fight this guy.   Making fiction of any kind based on sacred religious texts is often tricky because no matter what you do, someone's going to get mad at you. The show has an extensive disclaimer at the beginning of each episode saying that it is fiction inspired by the Bible. That said, House of David doesn't really alter or deviate from the Biblical account, though it expands upon some things for the sake of storytelling. Queen Ahinoam is only mentioned once in the Bible as the wife of Saul, but she has an expanded role in the show and is shown as the one who essentially introduces Saul to the Witch of Endor. Goliath also gets backstory as one of the “Anakim,” a race of giants that lived in Canaan in ancient times, which is something that is only mentioned in passing in the Old Testament. Overall, I enjoyed the show and I hope it gets a second season.   What's interesting, from a larger perspective, is to see how the wheel of history keeps turning. In the 1950s and the 1960s, Biblical epics were a major film genre. The 10 Commandments and Ben Hur with Charlton Heston are probably the ones best remembered today. Eventually, the genre just sort of ran out of gas, much the way superhero movies were in vogue for about 20 years and began running out of steam around 2023 or so. Like, I enjoyed Thunderbolts (which we're going to talk about in a little bit), but it's not going to make a billion dollars the way Marvel stuff often did in the 2010s. The wheel just keeps turning and perhaps has come back around to the popularity of Biblical epics once more. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Chef, which came out in 2014. I actually saw this back in 2021, but I watched it again recently to refresh my memory and here are my thoughts. I quite liked it. It's about a chef named Carl Casper, who's increasingly unhappy with his work after he gets fired over a Twitter war with a writer who criticized his cooking. Carl is out of options and so he starts a food truck and has to both rediscover his love of cooking and reconnect with his ex-wife and 10-year-old son. In Storytelling: How to Write a Novel (my book about writing), I talked about different kinds of conflict. Carl's conflict is an excellent example of an entirely internal conflict. The critic is an external enemy, but he's basically the inciting incident.   Carl's real enemy is his own internal conflict about art versus commerce and a strained relationship with his son. I recommend the movie. It was rated R for bad language, but there's no nudity or explicit sexual content and honestly, if you've ever worked in a restaurant kitchen or a warehouse, you've heard much worse in terms of language. The movie also has an extremely valuable lesson: stay off social media when you're angry. Overall Grade: A     Next up is Thunderbolts, which came out in 2025 and I thought this was pretty good, both very dark and yet with quite a lot of humor to balance the darkness. Former assassin Yelena Belova has been working as a mercenary for the sinister director of the CIA, Valentina de Fontaine (now there's a villain name if there ever was one). Yelena has grown disillusioned with her life and career and is suffering from increasing depression since she never really dealt with the death of her sister. Valentina promises her one last job, only for Yelena to realize that Valentina decided to dispose of all her freelance contractors at once, which includes US Agent and Ghost (previously seen in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Antman and the Wasp). In the process of escaping Valentina's trap, Yelena stumbles across a mysterious man who identifies himself as Bob, who has no memory of how he got there, but shows increasingly unusual abilities. Yelena wants to deal with Valentina's betrayal, but it turns out one of Valentina's science projects has gotten out of control and is threatening the world. The movie was well constructed enough that it didn't rely too heavily on previous Marvel continuity. It was there, but you probably wouldn't be lost without it. It almost feels like Marvel looked at the stuff they did the last couple of years and said, okay, a lot of this didn't work, but makes great raw material for new things. It helped that the central conflict was in the end, very human and about the characters, not stopping a generic villain from getting a generic doomsday device. Overall Grade: A   Next up is The Hound of the Baskervilles, which came out in 1988. This is a movie length episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes television series, which had Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes and Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Watson. The plot deals with Sir Henry Baskerville, the American heir to an English manor set in the Windswept moors of Dartmoor. Apparently there's an ancestral curse laid over the Baskerville estate that manifests in the form of a spectral hound. Local rumors hold that the previous holder of the manor, Sir Charles Baskerville, was killed by the ghostly hound and many of the local people fear it. The local physician, Dr. Mortimer, is so worried about the hound that he comes to Sherlock Holmes for help. Holmes, of course, is skeptical of any supernatural explanation and soon becomes worried that an extremely subtle and sinister murderer is stalking Sir Henry.   Jeremy Brett's version of Holmes is, in my opinion, the best portrayal of the character and Edward Hardwicke's version of Watson is a calm, reliable man of action who sensibly takes a very large revolver with him when going into danger. Definitely worth watching, Overall grade: A   Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 3, which came out in 2024. The 2020s have been a downer of a decade in many ways, but on the plus side, between Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog, people have finally figured out how to make good video game movies, so we've got that going for us. Sonic 3 was an excellent kids movie, as were the first two in the trilogy. In this one Sonic is living with Knuckles and Tails under the care of their human friends Tom and Maddy, but then a dark secret emerges. The government has been keeping a Superpowered hedgehog named Shadow in stasis and Shadow has broken out. It's up to Sonic, Knuckles, and Tails to save the day.   Meanwhile, Dr. Robotnik is in a funk after his defeat at Sonic's hands in the last movie, but then his long lost grandfather, Gerald Robotnik returns seeking the younger Dr. Robotnik's help in his own sinister plans. Keanu Reeves was great as Shadow (think John Wick if he was a superpowered space hedgehog in a kid's movie). Jim Carrey famously said he would retire from acting unless a golden script came along and apparently that golden script was playing Dr. Ivo Robotnik and his evil grandfather Gerald. To be fair, both the Robotniks were hilarious.   It is amusing that Sonic only exists because in the 1990s, Sega wanted a flagship video game character that won't get them sued by either Nintendo or Disney. It is also amusing that the overall message of the Sonic movies seems to be not to trust the government. Overall Grade: A   Next up is Paddington in Peru, which came out in 2024. This is also an excellent kids' movie. In this installment, Paddington has settled into London with the Brown family and officially become a UK citizen. However, he receives a letter from Peru that his Aunt Lucy has mysteriously disappeared into the jungle. Distraught, Paddington and the Browns set off for Peru at once. Adventures ensue involving mysterious lost treasure, a crazy boat captain, and an order of singing nuns who might not quite be what they appear. Anyway, it's a good kids' movie. I think Paddington 2 was only slightly better because Hugh Grant as the chief villain, crazy actor Phoenix Buchanan, was one of those lightning in the bottle things like Heath Ledger as the Joker in the Dark Knight. Overall Grade: A   Now for the two best things I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. The first of them is Andor Season Two, which came out in 2025. Star Wars kind of has an age range the way Marvel stuff does now. What do I mean by that? In the Marvel comics and some of the TV series like Jessica Jones, they get into some really dark and heavy stuff, very mature themes. The MCU movies can have some darkness to them, but not as much because they're aiming at sort of escapist adventures for the general audience. Then there are kid shows like Spidey and Friends that a relative of mine just loved when he was three. You wouldn't at all feel comfortable showing a 3-year-old Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but Spidey and Friends is just fine.   Star Wars now kind of has that age range to its stuff and there's nothing wrong with that. Sometimes you want to see a dark meditation upon human nature. Sometimes you need something kid friendly to occupy the kids you're babysitting and sometimes you just want to relax and watch Mando and Baby Yoda mow down some space pirates or something. All that said, Andor Season Two is some of the darkest and the best stuff that Star Wars has ever done. It successfully shifts genres from Escapist Pulp Space Fantasy to a gritty Political/Espionage Thriller. We in the audience know that the emperor is a Sith Lord who can use Evil Space Magic and wants to make himself immortal, but that fact is totally irrelevant to the characters. Even though some of the characters are high ranking in their respective organizations, this is essentially a “ground's eye” view of the Rebellion and life under the Empire.   In some ways, this is like Star Wars' version of Wolf Hall (which we're going to talk about shortly), in that we know how it ends already, but the dramatic tension comes from the harrowing emotional journey the characters undertake on the way to their inevitable destinations. Cassian Andor is now working for the nascent Rebellion under the direction of ruthless spymaster Luthen Rael. Mon Mothma is in the Imperial Senate, covertly funneling money to the Rebellion and realizing just how much the Rebellion will require of her before the end. Syril Karn, the ineffective corporate cop from Season One, has fallen in love with the ruthless secret police supervisor Dedra Meero, but he's unaware that Director Krennic has ordered Meero to manufacture a false flag incident on the planet Gorman so the planet can be strip-mined for resources to build the Death Star and Dedra has decided to use Syril to help accomplish it. All the actors do amazing jobs with their roles. Seriously, this series as actors really should get at least one Emmy. Speaking of Director Krennic, Ben Mendelson returns as Orson Krennic, who is one of my favorite least favorite characters, if you get my drift. Krennic is the oily, treacherous middle manager we've all had to deal with or work for at some point in our lives, and Mendelson plays him excellently. He's a great villain, the sort who is ruthless to his underlings and thinks he can manipulate his superiors right up until Darth Vader starts telekinetically choking him. By contrast, the villain Major Partagaz (played by Anton Lesser) is the middle manager we wish we all had - stern but entirely fair, reasonable, and prizes efficiency and good work while despising office drama. Unfortunately, he works for the Empire's secret police, so all those good qualities are in the service of evil and therefore come to naught. Finally, Episode Eight is one of the most astonishing episodes of TV I've ever seen. It successfully captures the horror of an episode of mass violence and simultaneously has several character arcs reach their tumultuous climax and manages to be shockingly graphic without showing in a lot of actual blood. Andor was originally supposed to be five seasons, but then Peak Streaming collapsed, and so the remaining four seasons were compressed down to one. I think that was actually to the show's benefit because it generates some amazing tension and there's not a wasted moment. Overall Grade: A+   Now for the second of my two favorite things I saw, and that would be Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, which came out in 2024, but I actually saw it in 2025. This is a dramatization of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall novels about the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell, who is King Henry VIII's chief lieutenant during the key years of the English Reformation. The first series came out in 2015, but the nine year gap between this and between the second series and the first series actually works quite well since Thomas Cromwell looks like he ages nine years in a single year (which may be what actually happened given how stressful working for someone like Henry VIII must have been). Anyway, in The Mirror and the Light, Cromwell has successfully arranged the downfall and execution of Anne Boleyn, Henry's previous queen. Though Cromwell is haunted by his actions, Henry still needs a queen to give him a male heir, so he marries Jane Seymour. Cromwell must navigate the deadly politics of the Tudor Court while trying to push his Protestant views of religion, serve his capricious master Henry, fend off rivals for the King's favor, and keep his own head attached to his shoulders in the process. Since Cromwell's mental state is deteriorating due to guilt over Anne's death and the downfall of his former master Cardinal Wolsey and Henry's a fickle and dangerous master at the best of times, this is an enterprise that is doomed to fail. Of course, if you're at all familiar with the history of Henry's reign and the English reformation, you know that Cromwell's story does not have a happy ending. Rather, Wolf Hall is a tragedy about a talented man who didn't walk away from his power until it was too late and he was trapped. Anyway, in my opinion, Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light was just excellent. All the performances were superb. Mark Rylance is great as Cromwell and has some excellent “WTF/I'm SO screwed” expressions as Cromwell's situation grows worse and worse. Bernard Hill played the Duke of Norfolk in the first series, but sadly died before Series Two, so Timothy Spall steps in and he does an excellent job of channeling Hill's portrayal of the Duke as an ambitious, crude-humored thug.   Damien Lewis is amazing as Henry VIII and his performance captures Henry's mixture of charisma, extreme vindictiveness, and astonishing self-absorption. The real Henry was known for being extremely charming even to the end of his life, but the charm was mixed with a volcanic temper that worsened as Henry aged and may have been exacerbated by a severe head injury. Lewis's performance can shift from that charm to the deadly fury in a heartbeat. The show rather cleverly portrays Henry's growing obesity and deteriorating health by having Lewis wear a lot of big puffy coats and limp with an impressively regal walking stick.   Overall, I would say this and Andor were the best thing I saw in Winter/Spring 2025. I wouldn't say that Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light is an accurate historical reputation. In real life, Cromwell was rather more thuggish and grasping (though far more competent than his rivals and his master) and of necessity the plot simplifies historical events, but it's just a superb historical drama. Overall Grade: A+ As a final note, I should say that of all the 2024 and 2025 movies mentioned here, the only one that actually saw in the theater was Thunderbolts, and I hadn't actually planned to see it in theaters, but a family member unexpectedly bought tickets for it, so I went along. Which I suppose is the movie industry's biggest problem right now. The home viewing experience is often vastly superior to going to the theater. The theater has the big screen and snacks, but at home you can have a pretty nice setup and you can pause whatever you want, go to the bathroom, and you can get snacks for much more cheaply. That's just much more comfortable than the movie theater.   Additionally, going to the theater has the same serious problem as booking a flight in that you're an enclosed space with complete strangers for several hours, which means you're potentially in a trust fall with idiots. All it takes is one person behaving badly or trying to bring their fake service dog to ruin or even cancel a flight, and the theater experience has much of the same problem, especially since the standards for acceptable public behavior have dropped so much from a combination of widespread smartphone adoption and COVID. The difference between the movie industry and the airline industry is that if you absolutely have to get from New York to Los Angeles in a single day, you have no choice but to book a flight and hope for the best. But if you want to see a movie and are willing to exercise some patience, you just have to wait a few months for it to turn up on streaming. I'm not sure how the movie industry can battle that, but sadly, it is much easier to identify problems than to solve them.   So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe, stay healthy, and see you all next week.

No advisor was more important to King Henry VIII than Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He captured Henry's attention with his brilliance and became his most trusted confidant.  But when the King wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon, not even the eloquent Wolsey could convince the Pope to agree. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, first released in January 2022, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Wolsey's biographer Professor Glenn Richardson, about the man who was responsible for building Henry VIII's reputation as England's most impressive king but ended up being accused of treason.Hear more:Wolf Hall: Who's Who >Six Wives: Catherine of Aragon >Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. Edited and produced by Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Not Just the Tudors is a History Hit podcast.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here

We're back with another This Week in YouTube where we highlight some recent content from my YouTube channel. This week: The Wolf Hall Recap: Henry VIII vs. Mary; Cardinal Wolsey's Daughter, Dorothea. Make sure you're subscribed at https://www.youtube.com/@hteysko so you don't miss all the content we put out!Support the podcast for even more exclusive contenthttps://www.patreon.com/englandcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Fall of the Duke of Buckingham    Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, had everything—royal blood, vast wealth, and a place at the heart of Henry VIII's court. But in 1521, his world came crashing down. Accused of treason, condemned in a rigged trial, and executed on Tower Hill, Buckingham's downfall was a chilling warning to the nobility.   Was he truly plotting against the king, or was he a victim of Henry VIII's paranoia and Cardinal Wolsey's political scheming?   A powerful noble, a dramatic trial, and a brutal execution—this is the story of one of the Tudor era's most shocking betrayals.   #TudorHistory #HenryVIII #DukeOfBuckingham #TudorScandal #RoyalBetrayal

When you think of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, you imagine power, influence, and unwavering loyalty to Henry VIII. But behind the grandeur of Tudor politics lies a secret life filled with intrigue and scandal. Did you know that Wolsey, the Church's highest-ranking official, had a mistress and two children?   Who was the mysterious Mistress Larke? What became of their children? And how did Wolsey juggle his sacred vows with his hidden family? Discover the story of a man torn between ambition, faith, and forbidden love.   Dive into the secret life of one of Tudor England's most powerful figures—Cardinal Wolsey.   #TudorHistory #CardinalWolsey #Scandal #HenryVIII #HiddenHistory #HistoryRevealed #TudorSecrets   

The oldest surviving part of Hampton Court Palace is a series of chambers and closets built in the 1520s for Henry VIII's chief advisor and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey. They are now the setting for a wonderful exhibition bringing together artworks created during Henry VIII's reign alongside some evocative 16th century objects and brilliant interactive displays.Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to Hampton Court to meet curator Brett Dolman and talk about the exhibition which takes visitors back into the Tudor world and the lives not just of the kings and queens, but of the ordinary people whose labour upheld the functioning and magnificence of the Tudor court.Presented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The audio editor is Ella Blaxill, the researcher is Alice Smith, and the producer is Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.Not Just the Tudors is a History Hit podcast.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original TV documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off your first 3 months using code ‘TUDORS' https://historyhit.com/subscriptionYou can take part in our listener survey here: https://uk.surveymonkey.com/r/6FFT7MK

This week Beau chats to Luca Johnson all about the life, times, achievements, and downfall of Thomas Cromwell, one of Henry VIII's most important henchmen. From his early life, his career under Cardinal Wolsey, his battles with Thomas Moore, his support then back-stabbing of the Boleyns, his role in the dissolution of the monasteries, his part in the Anne of Cleves affair, and his ultimate downfall and demise.

Mother Shipton, born Ursula Southeil, was born in Yorkshire, England in the late 1400s.  According to legend she was born in Shipton's cave, a site famous for waters that quickly petrify objects left in it.  She is purported to have written a great deal of prophesy that predicted such things as the death of Cardinal Wolsey and the eventual use of plumbing to bring water across the Ouse Bridge.  While it is hard to determine what, if any, of the writing that are attributed to her are indeed her works, her name remains synonymous with prophesy and witchcraft across all of England. 

The truth about Henry VIII may surprise you. This second episode of Not Just the Tudors' Tudor Dynasty mini-series provides you, in a nutshell, with everything you really need to know about Henry: his upbringing as a second son, his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, his exploits on the battlefield and tilt yard, his dependence on Cardinal Wolsey, his romance with Anne Boleyn, the break with Rome, his foreign policy, his murderous legislation and the downfall of Thomas Cromwell.Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes to Lincoln College, Oxford, to get to grips with the iconic and infamous monarch with his biographer, Dr. Lucy Wooding.This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS sign up now for your 14-day free trial >You can take part in our listener survey here >You can take part in our listener survey here >

In this episode I speak to Phil Roberts the author of a book called Cardinal Wolsey: For King and Country that was published in 2022. Phil talks about the Ipswich Wolsey would have known as a child, explains how Wolsey managed to rise to such power, and what his achievements were. Phil also explains how Wolsey fell from power and how he died. Interviewee: Phil Roberts Podcast Artwork: Kelly Wadsworth Music: Caleb Howgego For more local history visit www.ipswichhistory.com

The public stocks in St Clement's Dane's parish (now Portugal Street in London's Strand) were finally dismantled on 4th August, 1826. They had originally been mandated in 1351, to subjugate labourers demanding higher wages.  Not to be confused for pillories (which restrain both head and hands), stocks (which restrain only the feet) were used for lesser ‘crimes', such as homosexuality, heresy, and drunkenness. The treatment of prisoners was essentially at the crowd's discretion: at the minor end of the scale, humiliation, but, if rocks or bricks were thrown, sometimes fatality.  In this episode, Arion, Rebeca and Olly uncover celebrities-in-the-stocks Cardinal Wolsey and Daniel Defoe; explain why this medieval punishment was never formally abolished in Britain; and reveal the ecclesiastical purpose of ‘the finger stocks'...  Further Reading: • ‘Haydn's Dictionary of Dates Relating to All Ages and Nations' (E. Moxon and Company, 1866): https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Haydn_s_Dictionary_of_Dates_Relating_to/Aq9CAAAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=1826+stocks+removed+from+st+clement+danes&pg=PA690&printsec=frontcover • ‘The use of public corporal punishment up to the 19th century - Methods of punishment' (BBC Bitesize): https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z938v9q/revision/3 • ‘What It Was Like to Be In the Stocks' (Weird History, 2022): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6sUhH3SYrU #London #Crime #Medieval #Victorian #Strange Love the show? Join 

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn and his consequent rejection of his wife Catherine of Aragon resulted in Henry's push for a wedding annulment. As the king's chief adviser and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey failed to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine. He fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.George Cavendish (1497 - c.1562) was Cardinal Wolsey's "Gentleman Usher".The intrinsic value of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Cavendish has been recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age. Shakespeare is said to have used this work as the basis for his play "Henry VIII".Note: Latin passages recorded by Kazbek.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn and his consequent rejection of his wife Catherine of Aragon resulted in Henry's push for a wedding annulment. As the king's chief adviser and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey failed to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine. He fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.George Cavendish (1497 - c.1562) was Cardinal Wolsey's "Gentleman Usher".The intrinsic value of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Cavendish has been recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age. Shakespeare is said to have used this work as the basis for his play "Henry VIII".Note: Latin passages recorded by Kazbek.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn and his consequent rejection of his wife Catherine of Aragon resulted in Henry's push for a wedding annulment. As the king's chief adviser and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey failed to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine. He fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.George Cavendish (1497 - c.1562) was Cardinal Wolsey's "Gentleman Usher".The intrinsic value of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Cavendish has been recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age. Shakespeare is said to have used this work as the basis for his play "Henry VIII".Note: Latin passages recorded by Kazbek.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Thomas Wolsey was an English statesman and Catholic bishop. His appointment as a cardinal by Pope Leo X in 1515 gave him precedence over all other English clergy.Henry VIII's passion for Anne Boleyn and his consequent rejection of his wife Catherine of Aragon resulted in Henry's push for a wedding annulment. As the king's chief adviser and Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey failed to negotiate an annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine. He fell out of favour and was stripped of his government titles.George Cavendish (1497 - c.1562) was Cardinal Wolsey's "Gentleman Usher".The intrinsic value of Cavendish's Life of Cardinal Wolsey has long been perceived, for it is the sole authentic record of a multitude of events highly important in a particularly interesting section of the history of England. Cavendish has been recognized as the earliest of the great English biographers. He writes with simplicity and vividness, rarely yielding to the rhetoric which governed the ordinary prose of his age. Shakespeare is said to have used this work as the basis for his play "Henry VIII".Note: Latin passages recorded by Kazbek.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Charlotte Cushman was one of the first female actresses to play male and female roles and achieve international fame. Her voice was noted for its full contralto register, which made her well-known for playing male characters such as Romeo, Hamlet, and Cardinal Wolsey and strong female characters like Lady Macbeth and Nancy Sykes in Oliver Twist. She often rubbed elbows with the elite, including President Abraham Lincoln. She was also out in the open with her same-sex partner relationships in the mid-19th century. Follow us: @homance_chronicles Connect with us: https://linktr.ee/homance Request a Hoe of History: homancepodcast@gmail.com  

Focusing on the downfall of Wolsey, this is the second part of the deep dive into Cardinal Wolsey, thanks to the new biography by Phil Roberts. Check the Show notes at Englandcast.com/WolseyTudorcon tickets at englandcast.com/TudorconThanks for listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Way back in 2009 I did an episode on Cardinal Wolsey. I thought it was time to revisit him, and the timing with a new biography was perfect! This is the first part with the second coming next week. Show notes at englandcast.com/WolseyTudorcon tickets at englandcast.com/TudorconThank you so much for being here, and listening! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we take a step back and examine the origins of the English Reformation up to, roughly, 1522. Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey work to try and solve some of the problems facing the church while the intersection between civil and canon law eats away at the delicate balance between church and state.Website: www.westerncivpodcast.comPatreon: www.patreon.com/westerncivpodcastWestern Civ 2.0 Free Trial: www.glow.fm/westernciv

In the final of the history plays, Shakespeare and his collaborator John Fletcher take on Henry VIII, the story of his first two wives, the birth of the future queen Elizabeth, and the establishment of the Church of England. In this episode, Will and James discuss why people have found the politics of Henry's court so compelling across the ages from Showtime's The Tudors to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall to Broadway's Six, unpack the downfall speeches of Cardinal Wolsey and Katherine of Aragon, and consider whether you could pull it off today.CreditsIntro Music: Jon Sayles, "The Witches' Dance" (composed by anonymous)Outro Music: Jon Sayles, “Saltarello” (composed by anonymous)Illustrative Excerpts: Herman's Hermits, “Henry the Eighth, I Am,” The Ed Sullivan Show (1965); Arkangel / BBC, “History of Henry VIII” (1998); Bea Segura, “Henry VIII,” dir. Hannah Khalil, Shakespeare's Globe (2022)

In a special programme first broadcast in 2013, Hilary Mantel discusses Bring Up the Bodies, her second Man Booker Prize-winning novel with James Naughtie and his Bookclub audience. England, 1535. A one-time mercenary, master-politician, lawyer and doting father, Thomas Cromwell has risen from commoner to become King Henry VIII's chief adviser. He learnt everything he knew from his mentor Cardinal Wolsey, whose place he has taken. Anne Boleyn is now Queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell. But Henry remains without a male heir, and the conflict with the Catholic Church has left England dangerously isolated as France and the Holy Roman Empire manoeuvre for position. Mantel charts how the King begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour at her family home of Wolf Hall; how Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly dangerous court as he charms, bullies and manipulates nobility, commoners and foreign powers alike to satisfy Henry, and advance his own ambitions. Hilary Mantel was the first author to win two Man Booker Prizes with consecutive novels. She discusses Bring Up the Bodies with Jim and her readers at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival in Devon - and gives tantalising insights into the final part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light. Producer : Dymphna Flynn

In this episode, we follow all three of our major protagonists for the first time. Charles I of Spain tries to win the Imperial Election and become the next Holy Roman Emperor after the death of Maximilian I. Henry VIII continues his quest for an heir after the birth of Princess Mary. Meanwhile, Cardinal Wolsey attempts to negotiate an entente between Francis I and Herny while the former continues his efforts to thwart Charles in any way possible.Website: www.westerncivpodcast.comAd-Free Show: www.patreon.com/westerncivpodcastWestern Civ 2.0 Free Trial: www.glow.fm/westernciv

Henry VIII begins his reign as king immediately provoking a war with France. Henry's accomplishments in France, however, fighting against Louis XII would prove not worth the cost. Meanwhile, now-Cardinal Wolsey pushes Henry to reconsider his continental ambitions. Wolsey's Pro-France attitude would ruffle a few English aristocratic feathers, but ultimately he got his way with the marriage of Princess Mary to the aging Louis XII. Website: www.westerncivpodcast.comPatreon: www.patreon.com/westerncivpodcastSubscription Feed: www.glow.fm/westernciv

Many of the private and public dramas in the life of Henry VIII took place at Hampton Court Palace. Begun in 1514 for Cardinal Wolsey, Hampton Court became one of Henry VIII's favourite residences. Set in 60 acres of magnificent gardens, much of the Tudor building was destroyed during King William III's massive rebuilding and expansion work, as he sought to create a residence to rival the Palace of Versailles.In this explainer episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb takes a walk around Hampton Court to take in the sights and tell the story of this spectacular, historic building.Keep up to date with everything early modern, from Henry VIII to the Sistine Chapel with our Tudor Tuesday newsletter > If you would like to learn more about history, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit >To download, go to Android > or Apple store > See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The date is March 1528. Cardinal Wolsey has been tasked by Henry VIII to get his marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. If his plans don't work, he'll be out of a job. He needs to look at his career options so decides to visit a coach. The Lost Tapes of History was created and written by Kerrie Fuller. Wolsey: Stephen Haynes - www.mandy.com/uk/actor/stephen-haynes Coach: Kerrie Fuller Narrator: Fraser Fraser - www.mandy.com/uk/actor/fraser-fraser-1 – T: @fraserfraser123 Intro/Outro: Becky Reader Fact Check Here: https://www.losttapesofhistory.co.uk/cardinal-wolsey-and-the-career-coach Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/since79p ©2022 Since79 Productions Sound Disclaimer: The Lost Tapes of History was recorded remotely in late 2021. As such, the actors used what equipment they had available and were limited by their location. This has resulted in variable audio quality although hopefully, it won't stop your enjoyment of the podcast. Sound effects from Freesound.org: Opening Theme Music: TheTunk; Closing Theme Music: Nuria1512; Other effects: AldebaranCW, straget.

No advisor was more important to King Henry VIII than Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. He captured Henry's attention with his brilliance and became his most trusted confidant. But when the King wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon, not even the eloquent Wolsey could convince the Pope to agree. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Wolsey's biographer Professor Glenn Richardson, about the man who was responsible for building Henry VIII's reputation as England's most impressive king but ended up being accused of treason.Keep up to date with everything early modern, from Henry VIII to the Sistine Chapel with our Tudor Tuesday newsletter: Subscribe here >:If you would like to learn more about history, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit >To download, go to Android > or Apple store > See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From the "Twelve English Statesmen," series of books. A brief history of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey who helped shape England's foreign policy through the early part of Henry VIII's reign, and beyond, along with his subsequent fall from grace when he failed to procure the King's divorce. Genre(s): Biography & Autobiography --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/3daudiobooks0/support

Only the gatehouse of the once lavish Esher Place remains, but step back in time to imagine the palace in its prime. It was a house of exile for Cardinal Wolsey and a place of mourning for Henry VIII, before serving as a private residence for the remainder of the sixteenth century. It even witnessed an early seventeenth century exorcism.

Dr Tarnya Cooper is the Curatorial and Collections Director at the National Trust. For her recent book, 125 Treasures from the Collections of the National Trust, she and 60 curators brought together the most extraordinary objects that can be found in National Trust properties around the country.In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Tarnya joins Suzannah Lipscomb with her pick of her 12 favourite items, from Cardinal Wolsey's purse to a "spangled bed." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thank you to Kristian from Bulgaria for his question about Anne Boleyn and her role in the fall of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's Lord Chancellor and chief advisor. What role did Anne Boleyn have in Cardinal Wolsey's fall and his eventual arrest? Did Anne and her family work to bring Wolsey down?  Was Wolsey's fall Anne Boleyn's revenge for him breaking up her romance with Henry Percy? Find out in this latest Fan Q&A talk from historian Claire Ridgway. You can see this podcast as a video at the following link: https://youtu.be/RjePQyNINFo Book recommendation: The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn by Eric Ives

The word apology has come to mean “a way to repair damage for one's own words or actions” but it started off as a legal term (we were legally required to explain that before making jokes).  From ancient Greece to Cardinal Wolsey to Shakespeare, the word has changed over time, but one thing has remained constant: judgment.  What makes a good apology?  What makes a bad one? If someone says “sorry” are you obligated to accept their words and offer forgiveness? Not Theo is traveling and Not Juliette is puppy training, so this week we reached into our vault of early unreleased episodes – here is a peek into the distant past of November 2020, where we discuss the genesis of the show and all things apology.

Join Zac as he explores the famous home of King Henry VIII, Hampton Court Palace. In this episode Zac is going back in time and learning all about Cardinal Wolsey who was the king's right hand man... until he wasn't anymore!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Salutations, you beautiful thing, you, and thank you for joining me once again. No, I’m not sick, and it’s not the mumps. In fact, cast the viral infection that affects the salivary glands, easily preventable by vaccination FAR from your mind, as we explore today’s word: mumpsimus.‘Mumpsimus’ is a word to describe ‘a stubborn person who insists on making an error in spite of being shown that it is wrong’. Okay, bring the mumps back into your mind as I provide you with this example: you might say, ‘Geraldine is being a real mumpsimus - she insists on not vaccinating young Sammy for mumps even though we’ve given her numerous pamphlets detailing scientific research, procedures and outcomes!’. Okay, you can forget the mumps again now. Thank goodness none of us know a mumpsimus like that, right?The origin of this word is rather clever - it’s a malapropism, or incorrect but amusing adaption of the word ‘sumpsimus’ which means ‘adherence to or persistence in using a strictly correct term in rejection of a more common, but technically incorrect, form. The story goes that an illiterate priest used ‘mumpsimus’ instead of ‘sumpsimus’ during mass, and when someone attempted to correct him, he replied that he ‘would not change his old mumpsimus for his critic’s new sumpsimus’. Perhaps the first time we see it in writing is 1530, where William Tyndale's book ‘Practice of Prelates’ states that the men whom Cardinal Wolsey had asked to find reasons why Catherine of Aragon was not truly the wife of King Henry VIII of England were "all lawyers, and other doctors, mumpsimuses of divinity”’. An excellent use, I think you’ll agree. In 1883, John Burgon commented on errors in translations in the bible, ‘If men prefer their 'mumpsimus' to our 'sumpsimus', let them by all means have it: but pray let them keep their rubbish to themselves—and at least leave our SAVIOUR's words alone.’ Oof. Heated stuff. Isn’t language wonderful?Written by Taylor Davidson, Read by Zane C WeberSubscribe to us on ITUNES, STITCHER, SPOTIFY, or your podcatcher of choice.Find us on FACEBOOK or TWITTERBecome a Patron of That’s Not Canon Productions at Patreon!Email us at Grandiloquentspodcast@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On this day in Tudor history, 29th November 1528, nobleman and courtier, Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, was born. Montagu began his court career with the help of his father in Henry VIII's reign. served as a privy councillor in Mary I's reign, and died a natural death as a wealthy man in Elizabeth I's reign. He even survived being implicated in a rebellion!  Who was Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu, and just how did he manage to not only have an excellent court career, but leave a fortune to his grandson, when he was a Catholic in Elizabeth I's reign? Find out all about him in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, author of several Tudor history books. Also on this day in Tudor history, 29th November 1530,  Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s former Lord Chancellor, died at Leicester Abbey. The cardinal cheated the executioner by dying a natural death while on his way to London to answer charges of treason. You can find out about Cardinal Wolsey's death, and who ended up being buried in the sarcophagus he'd had commissioned in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/KtVsZbo9RWs 

In this mini-episode, Sarah is joined in the studio by special guest, Professor Glenn Richardson in a celebration of The Tudor Travel Guide's forthcoming virtual mini-summit: 'The Rise and Fall of Cardinal Wolsey'.   To whet your appetite for the summit, Sarah explores with Glenn how Wolsey has been portrayed across the 490 years since his death in 1530, from gluttonous villain to revered, international statesmen.    For more information, and to register for 'The Rise and Fall of Cardinal Wolsey' FREE mini-summit follow this link.   In the meantime, if you want to keep up to date with all the Tudor Travel Guide's adventures, as well as top tips for planning your own Tudor road trip, don't forget to subscribe to the blog via www.thetudortravelguide.com.   This podcast now has an accompanying closed Facebook group, dedicated to discussing the places and artefacts discussed in each episode. it is also a place to ask your fellow Tudor time travellers questions about visiting Tudor locations or planning your Tudor-themed vacation or sharing your top tips to help others get the most out of their Tudor adventures on the road. Go to The Tudor Travel Show: Hitting the Road to join the community.    You can also find The Tudor Travel Guide on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.   Credits: Presenter: Sarah Morris Produced by Cutting Crew Productions

More great books at LoyalBooks.com

2020 marks the 500th anniversary of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, one of the most extraordinary diplomatic events of the late medieval period. Although commonly regarded as a 'peace festival', the meeting might more usefully be described as a two-week long war game. The lecture will set the Field in context, examine the crucial role played by Cardinal Wolsey in organising it, and the spectacular temporary structures built to house the event. It will offer insights into the history of sixteenth-century Anglo-French relations, and of the European Renaissance monarchy more generally.A lecture by Glenn Richardson 07 MayThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/field-of-cloth-of-goldGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollege Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollege Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Anyone else in the mood for comfort reading? In this episode, I'm revealing the two historical fiction series that’ll get you through the next phase of social distancing. What are you reading? Let me know by reviewing Bri Books on Apple Podcasts, joining the community on Instagram, and show me your TBR pile using #bribooks! SUBSCRIBE TO BRI BOOKS ON APPLE PODCASTS Bri Books Best Historical Fiction Novels to Read During Quarantine (and What to Watch) Historical literature, in a nutshell, is a piece of writing wherein the plot takes place in the past. What sets historical fiction apart is the detail the author takes to create a world that pays attention to the period being discussed. When it comes to historical fiction, you want to select an author who will ‘do right’ by the characters being created. Women write fantastic historical fiction. I’m certain former Bri Books guest Liana Rodriguez would agree!  These two historical fiction novel series have visual counterparts (like an accompanying TV series). Welcome to the Bri Books Pod Multiplatform Book Club!  Series #1: “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon 3:25 - The origin story of the “Outlander” historical fiction novel series by Diana Gabaldon and the novel's plot Series #2: “Wolf Hall” Trilogy by Hilary Mantel 6:30 - “Wolf Hall” series by Hilary Mantel is my all-time favorite historical fiction collection. The trilogy spans “Wolf Hall,” “Bring Up The Bodies,” and Mantel’s final installation “The Mirror and the Light.”  Reading “The Mirror and the Light” by Hilary Mantel feels like riding a roller coaster. The first novel, “Wolf Hall,” chronicles the rise of Thomas Cromwell and the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, the Archbishop; and the impact of Anne Boleyn. “Bring Up the Bodies” traces the beginnings (and end) of Anne Boleyn, and the ushering in of Jane Seymour, the third of King Henry’s queens. Oh, and a casual Protestant Reformation sweeping the nation, NBD. I highly recommend you read the entire “Wolf Hall" trilogy, and to accompany your reading, watch the 2015 BBC six-part mini-series “Wolf Hall,” which follows the plots of the first two novels.    What have you been reading? Show me your TBR pile on Instagram and Twitter using #BriBooks. Subscribe to our newsletter bribookspod.com/newesletter!

Meats and vegetables are ordinary, but put them on a stick and it's Shish Kabob. Frozen Kool-Aid is frozen Kool-Aid; put it on a stick and it's a popsicle. A marshmallow is one thing, but a marshmallow on a stick means a campfire. A frankfurter is a weenie, but a frankfurter on a stick is a weenie roast. And what are hors d'oeuvres but little pieces of something-on-a-stick? And what is fondue? Put food on a stick and it becomes special. But that only works for food. How does a person become special? You become special by that which holds you captive. You become special when you fall into a gravitational pull. You become special when you orbit something important. A meteor is a rock on fire as it falls to the earth. We call it a shooting star. I have met a number of these. A comet is a slightly larger rock that comes within sight of our planet. Think of it as a meteor on tour. Comets are the definition of fly-by-night. A moon is a planet that orbits a larger one. Moons are important and have names of their own. We write stories about moons and give them great respect. A planet orbits a star. A star is a celestial fire with powerful gravity. Planets and moons and comets orbit celestial fires. God is a fire. Science is a fire. Entertainment is a fire, including all the arts and every form of sport. On a much smaller scale, we see people as comets, moons, planets, and stars. In Wolf Hall, Hillary Mantel's extraordinary book about the Renaissance, we witness the Tudor saga through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell, an ordinary man who chooses to orbit Cardinal Wolsey and soon becomes an important moon to that planet. Throughout the book, Cromwell's advice to those he loves is “Arrange your face,” and “Choose your prince.” Cromwell's advice could be phrased as two questions; “Who will you be?” and “Who will you follow?” An asteroid is a rock that has failed to choose a passion, so it wanders aimlessly in a cold, airless vacuum. A meteor is a rock on fire as it falls to the earth. We call it a shooting star. I have met a number of these and seen them fall. Every meteor I have ever met thought it was a star. Roy H. Williams

In Two Additional Boleyn Girls' first at-home interactive podcast experience, Cardinal Wolsey embraces villainy, Ellen introduces Jonah Hauer-King, and Gráinne deals with her own unique early 2000's indie rock location blindness. #GoogleJonathanRhysMeyers

A Career Retrospective with Jonathan Pryce on January 27, 2020. Moderated by Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter. Academy Award® nominated Jonathan Pryce is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning actor of the stage and screen. He is best known for Brazil, Glengarry Glen Ross, Evita, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The Pirates of the Caribbean series, as well as his widely recognized performances as the High Sparrow in HBO’s Game of Thrones and Cardinal Wolsey in The BBC’s Wolf Hall. On stage, Jonathan starred in: Comedians in London and on Broadway, for which he received a Tony Award; Hamlet, for which he received an Olivier Award; and in the original West End and Broadway productions of Miss Saigon, for which he received both the Olivier and Tony Awards. Jonathan received further Olivier nominations for his performances in West End’s Oliver and My Fair Lady, and received widespread critical acclaim for his performance as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice which originated at The Globe and toured to America, China and Venice. Other standout performances include leading roles in King Lear, The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?, and The Caretaker in London and New York. Jonathan starred opposite Glenn Close in The Wife, and as Don Quixote in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, opposite Adam Driver. He was recently on Broadway in the critically acclaimed play The Height of the Storm opposite Dame Eileen Atkins.

On this day in Tudor history, 29th November 1530, at around 8 o’clock in the morning, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII’s former Lord Chancellor, died at the Abbey of St Mary de Pratis, Leicester. Cardinal Wolsey, who was in his fifties, cheated the executioner by dying a natural death while on his way to London to answer charges of treason. He surely would have been tried and executed had he reached the capital. Find out about Cardinal Wolsey's death, and who ended up being buried in the sarcophagus he'd had commissioned, in today's talk from Tudor history author Claire Ridgway. You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/KtVsZbo9RWs You can find out more about his downfall and arrest in the November 4th video - https://youtu.be/vyZgnO32sNE You can find Claire at:https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com https://www.tudorsociety.comhttps://www.facebook.com/theanneboleynfiles/https://www.facebook.com/tudorsociety/https://twitter.com/AnneBoleynFiles https://twitter.com/thetudorsociety https://www.instagram.com/tudor.society/ https://www.instagram.com/anneboleynfiles/ 

On this day in Tudor history, 8th November 1528, at Bridewell Palace, King Henry VIII made a rather strange public oration to “the nobility, judges and councillors and divers other persons” to explain his troubled conscience regarding the lawfulness of his marriage to his first wife, Catherine of Aragon.In today's talk, Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society, shares an extract from the king's speech, in which he praises Catherine of Aragon to the hilt even though he'd proposed to another woman, Anne Boleyn. Find out all about this strange situation!Sources: Appendix C of George Cavendish's "The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey" edited by Richard S Sylvester, and Hall's Chronicle.You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/QE78TDeh7VUYou can find Claire at:https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com https://www.tudorsociety.comhttps://www.facebook.com/theanneboleynfiles/https://www.facebook.com/tudorsociety/https://twitter.com/AnneBoleynFiles https://twitter.com/thetudorsociety https://www.instagram.com/tudor.society/ https://www.instagram.com/anneboleynfiles/

John Chewter (of Deprogrammed Radio) in conversation with Seriah.. Outro Music by Sin Circus with Pied Piper. Download Ursula Southeil (c. 1488–1561) (also variously spelled as Ursula Southill, Ursula Soothtell or Ursula Sontheil), better known as Mother Shipton, is said to have been an English soothsayer and prophetess. The first publication of her prophecies, which did not appear until 1641, eighty years after her reported death, contained a number of predictions. After that, later editions go off the scale. She is reportedly the model for Shakespeare's MacBeth Witches with the hooked nose and jutting chin. If you dressed up like that at halloween - you were being Old Mother Shipton. One of the most notable editions of her prophecies was published in 1684 and states that she was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in a cave now known as Mother Shipton's Cave which, along with the Petrifying Well and associated parkland, is operated as a visitor attraction. She was reputed to be hideously ugly. The book also claims that she married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512, told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life. She made her name by accurately fortelling the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the reformation and much more. Later editions have prophesies of submarines, ET saviours after an Armageddon from a cometary impact and much more. Now read on.. NOTE: In the 'read more' is a lot of links to articles and downloadable books (free), an interactive timeline with events mentioned in conversation, and some videos showing the famous cave where she lived. This is an interactive timeline. It zooms and is dragable. Expand it (mouse-wheel)! Histropedia is currently down. Books & Documents (pinch of salt required). The Life, prophecies and death of the famous Mother Shipton : being not only a true account of her strange birth and most important passages of her life, but also all her prophecies .. The Life and Prophesies Of Old Mother Shipton 1877 pdf William H. Harrison. 1881.Full text of "Mother Shipton investigated : the result of critical examination in the British Museum Library of the literature relating to the Yorkshire sibyl" Download (1881AD) Mother Shipton Investigated pdf Other Source Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Shipton https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_shipton01.htm Prophecies of Mother Shipton (from Australian library source) https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2015/08/14/old-mother-shipton/ http://www.links2theoccult.co.uk/shipton.pdf http://www.toadland.net/1er/lastdays/Mother%20Shipton%27s%20Prophecies.pdf https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shipton,_Mother_(DNB00) http://www.ephemera-society.org.uk/articles/shipton.html

On this day in Tudor history, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's former Lord Chancellor, was arrested at his home of Cawood Castle in Yorkshire.Wolsey was accused of high treason, but why? And what happened when his former servant, Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland, arrived with orders to arrest him?Claire Ridgway, author of "On This Day in Tudor History", explains all in today's talk, including how Wolsey 'cheated' the axeman.You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/vyZgnO32sNE

John Chewter (of Deprogrammed Radio) in conversation with Seriah.. Outro Music by Sin Circus with Pied Piper. Download Ursula Southeil (c. 1488–1561) (also variously spelled as Ursula Southill, Ursula Soothtell or Ursula Sontheil), better known as Mother Shipton, is said to have been an English soothsayer and prophetess. The first publication of her prophecies, which did not appear until 1641, eighty years after her reported death, contained a number of predictions. After that, later editions go off the scale. She is reportedly the model for Shakespeare's MacBeth Witches with the hooked nose and jutting chin. If you dressed up like that at halloween - you were being Old Mother Shipton. One of the most notable editions of her prophecies was published in 1684 and states that she was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in a cave now known as Mother Shipton's Cave which, along with the Petrifying Well and associated parkland, is operated as a visitor attraction. She was reputed to be hideously ugly. The book also claims that she married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512, told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life. The made her name by accurately fortelling the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the reformation and much more. Later editions have prophesies of submarines, ET saviours after an Armageddon from a cometary impact and much more. Now read on.. NOTE: In the 'read more' is a lot of links to articles and downloadable books (free), an interactive timeline with events mentioned in conversation, and some videos showing the famous cave where she lived. This is an interactive timeline. It zooms and is dragable. Expand it (mouse-wheel)! Histropedia is currently down. Books & Documents (pinch of salt required). The Life, prophecies and death of the famous Mother Shipton : being not only a true account of her strange birth and most important passages of her life, but also all her prophecies .. The Life and Prophesies Of Old Mother Shipton 1877 pdf William H. Harrison. 1881.Full text of "Mother Shipton investigated : the result of critical examination in the British Museum Library of the literature relating to the Yorkshire sibyl" Download (1881AD) Mother Shipton Investigated pdf Other Source Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Shipton https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_shipton01.htm Prophecies of Mother Shipton (from Australian library source) https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2015/08/14/old-mother-shipton/ http://www.links2theoccult.co.uk/shipton.pdf http://www.toadland.net/1er/lastdays/Mother%20Shipton%27s%20Prophecies.pdf https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shipton,_Mother_(DNB00) http://www.ephemera-society.org.uk/articles/shipton.html

John Chewter (of Deprogrammed Radio) in conversation with Seriah.. Outro Music by Sin Circus with Pied Piper. Download Ursula Southeil (c. 1488–1561) (also variously spelled as Ursula Southill, Ursula Soothtell or Ursula Sontheil), better known as Mother Shipton, is said to have been an English soothsayer and prophetess. The first publication of her prophecies, which did not appear until 1641, eighty years after her reported death, contained a number of predictions. After that, later editions go off the scale. She is reportedly the model for Shakespeare's MacBeth Witches with the hooked nose and jutting chin. If you dressed up like that at halloween - you were being Old Mother Shipton. One of the most notable editions of her prophecies was published in 1684 and states that she was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, in a cave now known as Mother Shipton's Cave which, along with the Petrifying Well and associated parkland, is operated as a visitor attraction. She was reputed to be hideously ugly. The book also claims that she married Toby Shipton, a local carpenter, near York in 1512, told fortunes and made predictions throughout her life. She made her name by accurately fortelling the death of Cardinal Wolsey, the reformation and much more. Later editions have prophesies of submarines, ET saviours after an Armageddon from a cometary impact and much more. Now read on.. NOTE: In the 'read more' is a lot of links to articles and downloadable books (free), an interactive timeline with events mentioned in conversation, and some videos showing the famous cave where she lived. This is an interactive timeline. It zooms and is dragable. Expand it (mouse-wheel)! Histropedia is currently down. Books & Documents (pinch of salt required). The Life, prophecies and death of the famous Mother Shipton : being not only a true account of her strange birth and most important passages of her life, but also all her prophecies .. The Life and Prophesies Of Old Mother Shipton 1877 pdf William H. Harrison. 1881.Full text of "Mother Shipton investigated : the result of critical examination in the British Museum Library of the literature relating to the Yorkshire sibyl" Download (1881AD) Mother Shipton Investigated pdf Other Source Links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Shipton https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/esp_shipton01.htm Prophecies of Mother Shipton (from Australian library source) https://historytheinterestingbits.com/2015/08/14/old-mother-shipton/ http://www.links2theoccult.co.uk/shipton.pdf http://www.toadland.net/1er/lastdays/Mother%20Shipton%27s%20Prophecies.pdf https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdid=book-SyJbAAAAcAAJ&rdot=1 https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Shipton,_Mother_(DNB00) http://www.ephemera-society.org.uk/articles/shipton.html

On this episode, we discuss the thirty-ninth Best Picture Winner: “A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS.”"A Man for All Seasons" is a British biographical drama based on Robert Bolt's play of the same name and adapted for the big screen by Bolt himself. When the highly respected British statesman Sir Thomas More refuses to pressure the Pope into annulling the marriage of King Henry VIII and his Spanish-born wife, More's clashes with the monarch increase in intensity. A devout Catholic, More stands by his religious principles and moves to leave the royal court. Unfortunately, the King and his loyalists aren't appeased by this, and press forward with grave charges of treason, further testing More's resolve.  Directed by Fred Zinnemann, the film stars Paul Scofield as Thomas More, Wendy Hiller as Alice, Leo McKern as Cromwell, Robert Shaw as Henry VIII, Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey, Susannah York as Margaret, John Hurt as Rich, Corin Redgrave as Roper, Nigel Davenport as Duke of Norfolk, and Vanessa Redgrave as Anne Boleyn.Here on The Envelope, we discuss & review every Best Picture Winner in the Academy Awards History. We are a Cinema Squad Production, presented on the Cinema Squad Podcast Channel. You can reach anyone here at TheCinemaSquad.com – Just go there to email us, check our bios, and keep up with the latest episode.

Today in 1553 Mary Tudor made Stephen Gardiner her Lord Chancellor. Gardiner born around 1483, and had met with Erasmus, and other humanists. He rose to prominence under Cardinal Wolsey, and he worked for Wolsey trying to secure the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon.

Episode 3: St. Thomas More - Show Notes Corrections or clarifications on a few point are provided below in the Summary. Also, since this discussion went long, we have divided the recording into three parts, separated by short breaks: • Part 1: Early Life (beginning to 35:40) • Part 2: Beginning of the Reformation (35:40 to 57:06) • Part 3: Martyrdom (57:06 to end) *Special Thank You to Paul Spring for allowing us to use his song "Itasca" from the album Borderline EP (2014)! Brief Chronology: • 1478 - Birth of Thomas More • 1485 - Battle of Bosworth Field (end of Plantagenet and beginning of Tudor dynasty) • 1490-92 - More is a page in Cardinal Morton's household • 1504 or 1505 - Marriage to first wife, Jane Colt, mother to More's four biological children • 1511- Death of Jane Colt and marriage to second wife, Alice Middleton • 1515 - More writes Utopia (published 1516) • 1517 - Martin Luther posts his Ninety-Five Theses (starting Protestant Reformation) • 1525 - Peasants' War in Germany; William Tyndale translates New Testament • 1527 - Rome sacked by Charles V's army • 1529-1532 - More is made Lord Chancellor • 1533 - Marriage of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn • 1534 - More is imprisoned in Tower of London • 1535 - Trial and execution of Thomas More • 1935 - Canonization by Pope Pius XI Episode Summary: This was a long conversation, but we hope you get a lot out of good information from it! Thomas More was (probably) born February 7, 1478 in London, England. His childhood was a unstable time for England: the final years of a civil war between rival branches of the ruling Plantagenet family called the Wars of the Roses. Thomas More would become an important official under the new Tudor dynasty, especially under Henry VII's son Henry VIII. More studied grammar, logic and rhetoric from a young age and was eventually sent to Oxford and the Inns of Court to study law. He also spent some years as part of the household of Cardinal Morton, which may have helped shape him spiritually. More's family came from a middle class background: his grandfathers were a baker and brewer. His father John More was sent to study law and eventually became a judge. However, the family seems to have been targeted by Henry VII after a young Thomas More opposed a tax in parliament that the king wanted. (+ Correction to the episode: the tax was related to posthumous knighting of Arthur and a dowry for Princess Margaret's marriage to the king of Scotland). After Henry VII's death, More found favor with his son Henry VIII and eventually More rose to the high position of Lord Chancellor, technically the highest judicial post, but which also included other duties at the king's discretion. Both before and after becoming Lord Chancellor, More was responsible for suppressing what were then considered heresies (Protestantism), a fact which has made him controversial for modern scholars. The Reformation is traditionally reckoned to have begun with Martin Luther posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral in 1517. The reformation spread to the rest of Europe and started to take on new forms. In England it was viewed as a dangerous sequel to the Lollard movement. Henry VIII's government, fearing sedition and social chaos, violently suppressed the Protestants. More was the highest lay official in this government and vehemently opposed to the Protestants' attack on tradition. Six people were executed for heresy during his time in office and many protestant books were seized and burned. During this period More wrote books against the ideas of Luther and Tyndale, who had ironically been influenced by the ideas of More's friend Erasmus. (+ Another correction to the episode: the Bible text that Zwingli and other reformers liked, which Jake butchers is," The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing." - John 6:63). Nonetheless, More was moderate in his response to his son-in-law William Roper's temporary conversion to Protestantism and he may have sensed that the Reformation would eventually gain the upper hand. He privately confided to Roper, "'And yet, son Roper, I pray God,' said he, 'that some of us, as high as we seem to sit upon the mountains, treading heretics under our feet like ants, live not the day that we gladly would wish to be at league and composition with them, to let them have their churches quietly to themselves, so they would be content to let us have ours quietly to ourselves." (Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas More, Knight, p. 18). Ironically, More became a victim of the same government he had served. More took over office as Lord Chancellor, following the fall of Cardinal Wolsey from royal favor, in a turbulent time. While central Europe was dividing along sectarian lines, Italy was fought over by France and the Holy Roman Empire. England shifted first from an alliance with the Holy Roman Empire (championed by Wolsey) to an alliance with France when it became clear that Emperor Charles V would not support Henry VIII's claim to be king of France. However, despite Wolsey's efforts, Pope Clement VII would not approve Henry VIII divorce from Queen Catherine, Charles V's aunt. Clement VII was apparently fearful after Charles V's troops sacked Rome in 1527, but he also may have realized that the annulment could have tarnished his spiritual and moral authority, which was already in jeopardy due to the Reformation (Richard Marius, Thomas More, p. 214-15). In his position of power, More's beliefs eventually became impossible to reconcile with King Henry VIII's objectives of divorcing Catherine and declaring himself supreme head of the Church of England. More was allowed to resign, but refused to publicly support the marriage or the new laws enacting the English Reformation. Anne Boleyn and the royal secretary Thomas Cromwell, both favoring reformation, increasingly targeted More. After refusing an oath to support the marriage to Anne Boleyn and succession, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After over a year of confinement, during which he continued to refuse to take the oath or to say directly why he would not, he was finally put on trial for treason. When he was executed on July 6, 1535, More told onlookers "to pray for him, and to bear witness with him that he should now suffer death in and for the faith of the Holy Catholic Church." (Roper, p. 50) Four hundred years later, in 1935, Pope Pius XI declared Thomas More a saint along with his fellow martyr St. John Fisher. Even if Thomas More had not risen to high office or been martyred for his faith, he would still be famous today as a renaissance humanist and writer. He left behind political works such as Utopia as well as religious and philosophical writings, such as the Dialogue Concerning Heresies and the Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation. He was friends with the famous humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam, who remembered More after his execution as follows: " [...] Thomas More, who was the chief magistrate of his country, whose heart was whiter than snow, a genius such as England never had before, nor ever will have again, a country by no means lacking genius" (Erasmus’ Dedicatory Preface to Ecclesiastes, August 1535, online at The Center for Thomas More Studies). Primary Sources: * Utopia by Thomas More, ed. by Edward Surtz, S.J . (Yale Univ. Press, 1964). * Final Letters by Thomas More, ed. by Alvaro de Silva (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2000) * The Life of Sir Thomas More, Knight by William Roper - Citations above are to the edition published in Lives of Saint Thomas More, ed. by E.E. Nichols (J.M.Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1963). This is a short memoir of More by his son-in-law William Roper. * The Center for Thomas More Studies: https://thomasmorestudies.org/index.html Secondary Sources: * Thomas More: A Biography by Richard Marius (Alfred A. Knopf, 1984). * The King's Good Servant but God's First: The Life and Writings of St. Thomas More by James Monti (Ignatius Press, 1997). * The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. by George Logan (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2011) - Especially recommended is the essay, "Thomas More and the heretics: statesman or fanatic?" by Richard Rex . * Reformation Divided: Catholics, Protestants, and the Conversion of England by Eamon Duffy (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017). * The Reformation: A History by Diarmaid McCulloch (Penguin, 2004). Movies: * A Man of All Seasons (1967) - Highly recommended award-winning movie based on the play by Robert Bolt. (source for the quote, "This isn't Spain, this is England!" featured in the episode). Image Credit: "Thomas More and His Family" (1592) - Rowland Lockey [Public domain]

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell's views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry's chief minister, becoming the political architect of England's break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell's skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry's favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell's views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry's chief minister, becoming the political architect of England's break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell's skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry's favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell’s views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry’s chief minister, becoming the political architect of England’s break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell’s skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry’s favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell’s views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry’s chief minister, becoming the political architect of England’s break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell’s skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry’s favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell’s views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry’s chief minister, becoming the political architect of England’s break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell’s skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry’s favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell’s views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry’s chief minister, becoming the political architect of England’s break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell’s skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry’s favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite ranking among the most influential people in English history, Thomas Cromwell has long eluded biographers and historians. In Thomas Cromwell: A Revolutionary Life (Viking, 2018), though, Diarmaid MacCulloch provides readers with the definitive study of this key figure in the English Reformation. Drawing upon the full range of the available archival material and his own deep understanding of the era, MacCulloch shows how Cromwell’s views and achievements often belie the historical reputation that has formed around him. The son of a yeoman, Cromwell emerged by dint of his abilities and language skills to become a trusted servant of the Lord Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey, in the 1520s. When Wolsey lost favor because of his failure to obtain for Henry VIII an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Cromwell survived and established himself as a trusted adviser to the king. By 1534 he cemented his position as Henry’s chief minister, becoming the political architect of England’s break with the Catholic Church and the English Reformation that followed. As MacCulloch demonstrates, Cromwell’s skills as a Parliamentary manager and his experience with Church affairs were key to his role in the events of the 1530s, though in the end his formidable skills proved insufficient when Cromwell fell out of Henry’s favor by the end of the decade and was executed without trial in 1540. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Professor Bill Robison joins Mark to discuss Tudor England and its portrayal in film and TV—especially the series The Tudors and the interpretations of key characters such as Henry VIII, Ann Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon, Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey.

In this sprint through British church history, you’ll learn about King Henry VIII and his staggering Act of Supremacy when he pulled the Church of England out of Catholicism and appointed himself the head of the church.  After Henry’s death, England swayed back and forth as Henry’s successors adopted Protestantism then Catholicism then Protestantism again.  Read more about 125 The Reformation in Britain (Five Hundred 9)[…]

In this sprint through British church history, you’ll learn about King Henry VIII and his staggering Act of Supremacy when he pulled the Church of England out of Catholicism and appointed himself the head of the church.  After Henry’s death, England swayed back and forth as Henry’s successors adopted Protestantism then Catholicism then Protestantism again.  Read more about 125 The Reformation in Britain (Five Hundred 9)[…]

This week The Bard and the Bible Podcast pairs Cardinal Wolsey's speech in his own defense from Henry VIII with Psalm 100 in the King James Version of the Bible.  

Hampton Court Palace located in the London suburb town of Hampton, dates back to medieval times. Throughout the centuries, the palace has been expanded to the point that it has become two palaces in one. The first is a Tudor Palace that was transformed by both Cardinal Wolsey and then King Henry VIII and a baroque castle that was built by William and Mary. The interior decor has changed to suit the occupants, who have ranged from knights to cardinals to kings and queens. What has been left behind, makes Hampton Court a museum of history. Spirits have been left behind as well. Join us and our listener Amanda Prouty as we explore the history and haunting experiences, one of which is hers, of Hampton Court Palace. The Moment in Oddity was suggested by Tim Scott and features a light bulb that has burned since 1901 and This Month in History features Nelson's Pillar blown up by IRA. Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com Show notes can be found here: http://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2017/03/hgb-ep-189-hampton-court-palace.html Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump  

With James Naughtie.Hilary Mantel discusses Bring Up the Bodies, her 2nd Man Booker Prize winning novel.England, 1535. A one-time mercenary, master-politician, lawyer and doting father, Thomas Cromwell has risen from commoner to become King Henry VIII's chief adviser. He learnt everything he knew from his mentor Cardinal Wolsey, whose place he has taken.Anne Boleyn is now Queen, her path to Henry's side cleared by Cromwell. But Henry remains without a male heir, and the conflict with the Catholic Church has left England dangerously isolated as France and the Holy Roman Empire manoeuvre for position.Mantel charts how the King begins to fall in love with the seemingly plain Jane Seymour at her family home of Wolf Hall; how Cromwell must negotiate an increasingly dangerous court as he charms, bullies and manipulates nobility, commoners and foreign powers alike to satisfy Henry, and advance his own ambitions.Hilary Mantel is the first author to win two Man Booker Prizes with consecutive novels. She discusses Bring Up the Bodies with Jim and her readers at the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival in Devon - and gives tantalising insights into the final part of the trilogy, The Mirror and the Light, which will be published in 2015.November's Bookclub choice : Now All Roads Lead to France by Matthew Hollis.Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

REFLECTION QUOTES “Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” ~Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel of Luke 7:22-23 “Let it be said to one when set in some affliction, ‘There is a great man who can set you free;' he smiles, he rejoices, he is lifted up. But if it is said to him, ‘God frees you!' he is chilled, so to speak, by despair. The aid of the mortal is promised, and you rejoice; the aid of the Immortal is promised, and you are sad? It is promised you to be freed by one who need also to be freed, and you are pleased at such help; you are promised the great Liberator, who needs no one to free him, and you despair, as though it were but a dream. Woe to such thoughts, they wander far; truly there is sad and great depth to them.” ~Augustine, theologian and Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD) “O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favours! There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to, That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin, More pangs and fears than wars or women have: And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer, Never to hope again.” ~ Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII, by William Shakespeare SERMON PASSAGE Psalm 146 (ESV) 1Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! 2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. 3 Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. 4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, 6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; 7 who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free; 8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous. 9 The Lord watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. 10 The Lord will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord!

**Today's host(s):** Scot Landry and Fr. Matt Williams **Today's guest(s):** Fr. Chip Hines, Pastor of St. Mary Parish, Wrentham, and co-host of CatholicTV's "Spotlight" * [St. Thomas More](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm) * [St. John Fisher](http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08462b.htm) **Today's topics:** St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher **Summary of today's show:** Scot, Fr. Matt, and Fr. Chip Hines commemorate the feast day of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher by discussing their martyrdom, especially in light of the movie of More's life, "A Man for All Seasons." They also discuss how More shows Catholics today how to be authentic witness with regard to politics and public life. **1st segment:** Scot welcomes Fr. Matt back to the show. Fr. Matt is preparing a young adult retreat this weekend at St. Thecla's in Billerica called "Life is Good in the Holy Spirit." The young adults always come back strengthened in their faith. There are specific talks that build up to praying for the release of the Holy Spirit in a new way in their life. They also have Adoration, Mass, Confession, small group discussion, and plenty of fellowship. There are about 12 different team members running the weekend.  On today's show, this is the feast of St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher, Catholics who were beheaded for standing up for the Catholic faith against King Henry VIII, who was leading the Church of England away from the Church. Thomas More is one of Scot's favorite saints. Fr. Matt said they help us to understand what it's like to live as a Catholic in this world. Scot said the 1966 movie "A Man for All Seasons" is a good way to enter into the life of St. Thomas More. **2nd segment:** Scot welcomes Fr. Chip back to the show. He's been very busy at St. Mary in Wrentham with preparations for parish activities throughout the summer. With regard to the movie "A Man for All Seasons", Fr. Chip said that it's in his top-five movies of all time. It's a classic and there's nothing bad you can say about this movie. It's engaging with great performances.  Scot said St. Thomas More was being pressured by King Henry VIII to accede to his wishes, to say that he was the supreme head of the church in England, and not the Pope. Many other leaders in England knuckled under to the pressure, but St. Thomas More resisted because of his faith. He is a model of courage under adversity. Fr. Chip said if you want to show this value to somebody, this movie is a perfect example. Thomas More did not waver in the end.  Fr. Chip said he did not become heroic overnight, but throughout his whole life, while this movie gives a snippet of that. It's a great image of what it means to be a Catholic in public life..  The movie starts a few years before he became chancellor of England. He was a tremendous intellect and a lawyer. Fr. Matt said he loved his family and was a devoted father. He was deeply faith-filled and wasn't afraid to let that affect his professional life. He was a judge who had a reputation for efficiency in adjudicating cases. Fr. Chip said he was known for his honesty as well. He couldn't be bribed. Leading a heroic Catholic life, you need to be true to yourself and your faith and to God. He was a prolific writer as well.  Fr. Chip said being a good father figure was important to him. He even insisted that his daughters receive a good classical education. He was born in 1477 and died on July 6, 1535, beheaded at the order of King Henry VIII. St. John Fisher was martyred on June 22, 1535. He was a bishop, the only one who did not sign the oath that King Henry VIII was demanding. They were beatified on the same day and canonized on the same day. They are heroes for standing up for their faith in the face of intense pressure. **3rd segment:** Scot said "A Man for All Seasons" was one of the first movies on virtue and courage he'd seen. Fr. Chip said the movie opens with a scene of a message being brought to St. Thomas More. It's beautifully filmed so the viewer feels like they're on the river. It sets the scene for what's coming up. When you think about our lives today with instant communication, this was like the instant message of the 14th century. Fr. Chip said it's a fun movie as well as having a great message. It won Best Movie and Best Actor at the Oscars in 1966. In this first scene, Thomas More is asked to visit with Cardinal Wolsey, the chancellor of England at the time. Wolsey wanted to ask More how he can help the king have an heir. The king had already had a dispensation from the Pope to marry his cousin, but she did not produce a son so he wanted to divorce her to marry another woman. The cardinal was presented with the problem of trying to satisfy the king's demand which was in conflict with Church teaching. Thomas More was clear that this wasn't their business, but was up to the Holy Father. There is a character called Richard Rich, a young man who wanted desperately to receive a position in the law with Thomas More. He eventually succeeded Thomas More as chancellor. Fr. Matt said the character is fascinating. More can see his strengths and weaknesses, how he could be tempted in greed or lust for power and seduced by his own intellect. More tried to encourage him into a field where he could be safe from such temptations and where he could live virtuously. Ultimately, Rich ends up joining More's nemesis, Cromwell, and tells the lie that becomes the false evidence that convicts More of being disloyal to the throne. Scot said More sensed Rich's potential as well as the danger of keeping him around, yet he still tried to mentor him and help him find his true vocation. Scot compared it to how Jesus knew Judas would betray him, yet kept him close and tried to form him so He could forgive him. More loved Rich loved him like a second father to the young man.  Fr. Chip said in the actor's performance you can see More's love and respect for Rich and how he saw the danger in his path. You see people like this in your own life, people who are traveling on a bad path and won't respond to your prompting to go another direction. Fr. Matt said More was really being a friend to him. So often we hear that people will go along with what someone wants to do because that's being their friend, when friendship considers what's really good for him.  It invites us to consider how important it is to be a good friend and to mentor, especially young people, in the faith, to help them discover the gifts that they have and encourage them in that direction. And not to be afraid to say that we don't think this is not a good direction, speaking in love. Fast-forwarding in the movie, upon Wolsey's death, the king appoints Thomas More as his new chancellor. The heat on the chancellor to find a way for the king to divorce his wife and re-marry is turned up on Thomas. He tries to stay as distant from it as possible, until Henry comes to visit him. Fr. Chip said Henry is trying to use his friendship with More to convince him of the need to accede to the king's desire. That unwavering faith in what the Church says is pretty adamant and strong in his personality and shown well through the actor's performance. It becomes a battle of the wills and More isn't the one to blink. He's very careful not to say something that will result him in being beheaded. King Henry knows that in all of England, Thomas More is respected for his integrity and honesty. And it's because of that reputation that the king wants More's support so that the people will be have confidence that the king is doing the right thing. The queen, Catherine, is not unpopular so the king wanted to win their support first. More was between an all-powerful king as well as his well-meaning family who did not understand his strong stance, on the one hand, and his unwavering commitment to truth, integrity, and his faith on the other. All these years later, More retains the respect of people and is known for his honesty. Fr. Matt said he is authentic which happens when the outward appearance matches up with the who I am in the interior life.  Catholics are called to be witnesses by the way we live our lives with authenticity and integrity. You can take away many things from a man, but you can't take away his witness. He can give it away, however. It takes great courage to live that witness. **4th segment:**  It's time to announce the winner of the weekly **WQOM Benefactor Raffle**. Our prize this week is a copy of the 2 audio CD set [How Mary & the Rosary Can Change Your Life](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1932927131/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=pilo0e-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1932927131), by Marcellino D'Ambrosio.    This week's winner is **Brian & Marcia Kean from West Roxbury, Mass**. Congratulations Brian and Marcia! If you would like to be eligible to win in an upcoming week, please visit [WQOM.org](http://www.WQOM.org). For a one-time $30 donation, you'll receive the Station of the Cross benefactor card and key tag, making you eligible for WQOM's weekly raffle of books, DVDs, CDs and religious items. We'll be announcing the winner each Wednesday during “The Good Catholic Life” program. **5th segment:** Scot said More talks in the movie about the important role of conscience: When leaders forsake their private conscience in their public duties, they lead their countries on a short route to chaos. Fr. Matt said the conscience is the place where the Lord speaks to the soul and the Lord informs the conscience to make decisions in light of God's plan for how He made the world to be. We need to have informed consciences when it comes to moral issues. It's not just our conscience, but an informed conscience. The Church's teachings are formed in rationality. Fr. Chip said people in public life today will say, I'm personally opposed, but I can't impose my conscience on someone else. But they're not imposing. The conscience is informed by the truth, so why wouldn't you spread the truth as opposed to spreading a lie. Scot said the Holy Father has said that if your conscience rooted in the truth is not heeded, then someone else's conscience is being imposed on you. Private conscience is rooted and based on principles. St. Thomas More is saying that a government official needs to have a well-rooted private conscience in order to lead and do their public duties. If they're not rooted and instead put their fingers in the wind to do what's popular, he says they are leading their country by a short route to chaos. Public officials aren't elected just to vote on what the majority of their constituents want, but are elected because of their proper judgment and formation. We elect them in order to trust them to get into the details that we can't in the rest of society and apply their good judgment, virtue, and values. Fr. Chip said our system of government has turned into a system of polls and where people want us to go this day. To find corruption, all you have to see is three speakers of the House in the Mass. Legislature in a row convicted of felonies. What's wrong with this picture? We keep sending the same sorts of people back to office and get the same result. Scot said we, as voters, have allowed our system of government to be dumbed down. Politicians legislate by polls, because we as voters have allowed them to. There is a lot less expected of candidates in races, probably because we're a soundbite media and because the voters have stopped demanding substance. Voters need to reward people for taking ethical stands, even if we disagree with them because we want people of true value and principle in office even if we agree with them only 80% or 90% of the time. Fr. Matt said it reflects the lack of appreciation by voters for virtuous leadership. Politicians are a reflection of ourselves as a country. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. It takes courage to consistently stand for something. Thomas More was a man of authenticity. The king went to Thomas More because the people were watching him and saw him as a man if integrity. His lack of support hindered the king's goals. Fr. Chip said voters have to decide if the current system is what we want for the future. He'd rather stand with someone who stood for something rather than someone wavering in the wind. Scot said More had a discussion with his future son-in-law, who pleaded with More to circumvent the law in order to fix the ills he saw in society. More asked him if he would cut down every law in England to get at the "devil" and the son-in-law said he would. And More said, And when the last law is cut down and the devil turns on you at last, where will you hide? This country is planted thick with laws and if you cut them down, do you think you'd stand upright in the winds that would buffet you? "Yes, I'd give the devil the benefit of the law for my own safety's sake." Scot said most elected officials respect that we have a system of laws and if you don't like the way things are, you change the law through the legislature and normal protocols. But recent examples of the undermining of the law include same-sex marriage in Massachusetts where the law was not changed legislatively, but through the courts and the voters weren't given a chance to vote on it. Also, when Mass. voters have passed tax reforms in referenda, they were ignored. And when the Defense of Marriage Act was passed nationally, President Obama instructed the Justice Department not to advocate to defend the law. There might be times when we're on the side where the law doesn't benefit us and if we encourage people on our side to ignore the rule of law, it's to our own peril. It's troubling when laws get circumvented either through the judiciary overstepping their bounds or the executive not enforcing the laws. Fr. Chip said it's also troubling when those in power change the rules to stay in power and people who wish to serve can't beat them in elections so keep having the same people over and over again. We have a judiciary that constantly oversteps its bounds and the Founding Fathers put the checks and balances in place for a reason. We see those checks and balances break down in the past decade and cowardice in the legislature, where they wouldn't stand up and let the people be heard. Thomas More would not have stood for that. Fr. Matt said it also speaks of the need for a new evangelization. The Church has to continue to find ways to help people whose hearts have grown cold in the faith. People are being more evangelized by the gospel of the culture than the Gospel of the Jesus Christ. It calls for the Church to reclaim her prophetic role of teaching, preaching, witnessing and evangelizing.  Scot said in the state of New York the legalization of gay marriage is before the state legislature and Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York has spoken up on the Church's views and many folks have been attacking him from all sides. He has spoken the truth with courage and joviality and certainly it can't be comfortable for anyone to read headlines calling him a bigot. Scot said there's no one better at articulating the Church's teachings in the public sphere with the right tone and emphasis. Yet he still takes a beating in the press. **6th segment:** In the end, Thomas More is martyred. Fr. Matt said the word comes from Greek and it means "witness." They are witnesses by the shedding of their blood. They are willing to die for their belief in Christ. More was willing to die rather than compromise his faith in the Lord or be a false witness. Fr. Matt said it shows that faith is messy. St. Paul was a real men dealing with persecution, but we can forget that with a cursory reading of his letters. It's not easy to live for Christ in the world. Fr. Chip said we have a sanitized idea of Christianity. We see saints with halos in pictures and think everything is great, but we forget that they struggled heroically for the faith. Maybe we don't talk about it enough. People who show heroic witness need to be exalted. Scot said Americans of today don't often encounter persecution for our faith, but there are martyrs around the world all the time. Just this year, there have been martyrs in Pakistan, Ivory Coast, Iraq, Egypt, Indonesia, and more.  Fr. Chip he hears people say they couldn't make it to Mass because the parking lot was full, yet people in Latin America will walk miles to go to Sunday Mass, even if they can once per month. Previous generations of American Catholics have suffered white martyrdom, which is suffering for the faith, but not physical violence. Fr. Matt said we endure martyrdom because we love Jesus, He's worth dying for or even just losing our reputations. We need to pray for courage to live our faith intentionally. And my witness has an overflowing effect on other people because others see us living our faith. Scot said St. Thomas was able to have this courage because he was a man of prayer. Fr. Chip said Thomas' final words were, "I was the king's good servant, but God's first." We need to remember that in our own lives. To be in service to God first. More even forgave the executioner and told him to do his duty.