Today In Wyoming's History: June 15: 1215 King John put his seal to the Magna Carta, which in its original version, stated: KNOW THAT BEFORE GOD, for the health of our soul ...I've reads the Magna Carta before, but what struck me in starting to read it this time is the large number of Churchmen who are mentioned in the opening paragraph, and that independence of the Church from the Crown was the first right noted.
It strikes me that this clause wasn't adhered to. Certainly St. Thomas More and St. Thomas Becket lost their lives over that very point, and King Henry VIII went into a species of rebellion over it. The Magna Carta is part of the American legal background, due to our country being founded by English colonist, but certainly the colonies didn't always view things that way either, which of course they wouldn't, all having been established after King Henry VIII. With that in mind, the official prohibition on the creation of state religions by the US Constitution is, perhaps, quite remarkable. In some ways, the Revolution better reflected the best of English law than the British position during the war did.
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