Ball and the Cross - Chapter 2
The Religion of the Stipendiary Magistrate
If you are enjoying this study guide, share it with your friends by pressing the button below.
Plot Summary
This chapter begins with a description of the editorial office of The Atheist, and its editor, “a fiery little Scotchman, with fiery, red hair and beard, going by the name of [James] Turnbull.”
Evan MacIan is introduced next as the person who smashed the window of Turnbull’s shop. A Scottish highlander, who has a Celtic look, with “high, hawklike features and snaky black hair.” MacIan is a Roman Catholic whose great-grandfather had been cut down at Culloden. He is a man on a mission, continuing the legacy of his father and grandfather before him.
He sees a blasphemous comparison of Mary, the Mother of Jesus to a Babylonian goddess, and he is filled with rage and smashes the window of the office of The Atheist. MacIan confronts Turnbull and the police are called. Turnbull and MacIan are brought before the magistrate, Mr. Cumberland Vane.
MacIan is called to account for his actions, and explains that he smashed the window because Turnbull blasphemed Our Lady. Vane becomes upset and demands that MacIan does not invoke religion in the courtroom. MacIan then declares that he will fight Turnbull whenever he meets him, and will not back down ever. He sees this as an existential battle.
The chapter ends with MacIan and Turnbull agreeing to duel.
Vocabulary
Battle of Culloden - The course of British, European and world history was changed at Culloden on 16 April 1746. A ferocious war had come to Scotland, dividing families and setting clan against clan.
It was here that the Jacobite army took their last stand to reclaim the thrones of Britain from the Hanoverians for a Stuart king. The Jacobites fought to restore the exiled James VIII as king and were led by Prince Charles Edward Stuart, James’s son; George II’s government army (led by the Duke of Cumberland, George’s son) was equally determined to stop this happening.
In spring 1746, the Jacobite rising was in trouble. The decision to return north from Derby, rather than press on to London, had marked a turning point in their fortunes. Despite victory at the Battle of Falkirk in January, the Jacobites had not capitalised on their success. Now Charles was heading to meet the Duke of Cumberland’s troops in the Highlands, to prevent them from taking Inverness. However, many Jacobite troops were still far from Inverness and were urgently summoned to join the Prince. Food and money were in short supply and the army was not at full force – few commanders thought they could win a battle in this state.
In contrast, Cumberland marched his troops from Aberdeen in good order. They were closing in on the Jacobite army for what would surely be the decisive battle. Morale was high as they camped at Nairn on 15 April, Cumberland’s 25th birthday. He gave his soldiers extra rations and drink in celebration.
Rather than risk a pitched battle in their weakened state, the Jacobites agreed on a final desperate plan: a surprise night attack. This could have been a brilliant strategy: sleeping Government troops would have been no match for the Jacobites. In reality, as the hungry and exhausted Jacobite column stumbled along in the dark, their progress was too slow and they had to turn back.
As dawn broke, battle was still not inevitable. Even now, there was time for the Jacobites to draw back to Inverness and regain their strength at a safe distance. Bitter arguments broke out between the senior commanders – even the French envoy pleaded for the Prince to withdraw.
But the Prince was determined and took the decision to fight there and then. Many of his soldiers were exhausted from the night march, while others were away looking for food or had yet to arrive in the area.
Some Jacobite leaders favoured a retreat to high ground south of the River Nairn. The Prince preferred to fight where they stood, on the moor at Culloden. With Cumberland’s army in sight, the pipers began to play and the tired army struggled into position.
At around 1pm, the Jacobite artillery opened fire on government soldiers. The government responded with their own cannon, and the Battle of Culloden began.
Bombarded by cannon shot and mortar bombs, the Jacobite clans held back, waiting for the order to attack. When at last they moved forward, it was through driving rain, smoke, gunfire and grapeshot. Upon reaching the government lines, some fought ferociously; many others never reached their goal. This time the government troops were prepared for the dreaded Highland charge; under brutal gunfire and faced with deadly bayonets, the Jacobites were forced to retreat.
Hardly an hour had passed between the first shots and the final flight of the Prince’s army. Charles watched from safety as the Duke of Cumberland emerged victorious. Although a short battle by European standards, it was an exceptionally bloody one that changed life in the Highlands forever.
Source: https://www.nts.org.uk/visit/places/culloden/the-battle-of-culloden
Stuarts - The Stuarts were the first kings of the United Kingdom. They were the last of the Roman Catholic rulers of England as The Settlement Act of 1701 forbade Roman Catholics from occupying the throne of England. The Stuart dynasty reigned in England and Scotland from 1603 to 1714.
crapulous- given to or characterized by gross excess in drinking or eating.
stipendiary magistrate - were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal courts.
Selected Passages and Discussion Questions
“He did not understand that their one essential historical principle, the one law truly graven on their hearts, was the great and comforting statement that Queen Anne is dead. This path was a fundamental as his faith, that Our Lady was alive.”
Queen Anne was an Episcopalian, and the last of the Stuarts to rule England. The Act of Settlement of 1701 ensured that she and all subsequent rulers of England must not be Roman Catholics. When she left the throne, George I, of the house of Hanover, took over the throne, even though there were more than 50 Roman Catholics with stronger claims to the throne.
Why do you think Chesterton places all of this historical context into his introduction of Evan MacIan? How is this context relevant to the discussion of faith vs. reason?
“To me this whole strange world is homely, because in the heart of it there is a home; to me this cruel world is kindly, because higher than the heavens there is something more human than humanity. If a man must not fight for this, may he fight for anything? I would fight for my friend, but if I lost my friend, I should still be there. I would fight for my country, but if I lost my country I should still exist. But if what that devil dreams were true, I should not be —I should first like a bubble and be gone. I could not live in that imbecile universe. Shall I not fight for my own existence?”
How is the battle to defend the faith existential for MacIan? What is “more human than humanity?”
“I swear to you, then,” said MacIan, after a pause. “I swear to you that nothing shall come between us. I swear to you that nothing shall be in my heart or in my head till our swords class together. I swear it by the God you have denied, by the Blessed Lady you have blasphemed I swear it by the seven swords in her heart. I swear it by the Holy Island where my fathers are, but the honour of my mother, by the secret of my people, and by the chalice of the Blood of God.”
“The atheist drew up his head. “And I,” he said,” give my word.”
There is something to be said for the eloquence of Turnbull’s (the atheist’s) oath. Do you think MacIan has something to learn from him?
See Matthew 5:37