Issue 29 • April 2015 • Record of Lent Term 2015
THE
OCELLUS From the Headmaster
A recent television highlight has been the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s novel Wolf Hall. As well as the quality of the acting and production, critics have commented on the personalities of Thomas More and Thomas Cromwell. One accepted historical view was that Thomas More was a saintly man, who died rather than deny his conscience but Thomas Cromwell was a chancer, something of a brute, whose similar demise on the scaffold was his just comeuppance. One of the joys of Mantel’s novel is that she reverses this characterisation. More is seen rather as a small-minded, bigoted man, whose treatment of those who disagreed with his religious view was harsh and cruel. Cromwell, on the other hand, was a man who showed great loyalty, who held his beliefs profoundly, and was a faithful servant, if sometimes given to intrigue. I am not qualified to judge if Mantel’s depictions are more accurate. But then, I doubt she intended to do anything as unsubtle as champion any one individual. I imagine she was keen to encourage us not to rush to judgement, nor to accept any simple reading of history. Life is complicated, people are complicated and, after all, we are rarely in a position to judge motives. Such conclusions have great value in education. They encourage a benign scepticism, which is always a good thing in any student, whether historian or scientist. They also remind us that the young people in our care are always likely to be more than they seem, and we should be no more inclined to condemn those prone to weaknesses and failure than we should lionise those who enjoy success. No one really knows who will turn out to be the saint and who the sinner!
Editor’s Notes
The icon idicates that a longer write-up and/or further photographs are available on the School website. ‘Ocellus’ (pronounced ‘oh, sell-us’) refers to the eye in the tail feathers of a peacock.
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Front Page Photo: Solar Eclipse - Friday 20 March 2015.