The Tyrant

At the moment I’m in the midst of reading a historical novel, “The Tyrant’s Shadow” by Antonia Senior. It is set in the interregnum period that followed the execution of Charles I.  I have just got to the point when Oliver Cromwell is appointed Lord Protector in 1653.

Above all, it makes me question religious fervour. I find myself wondering who, or what, is the tyrant of the title. Cromwell? The preacher who beats his wife as she has not conceived yet, which he regards as a sign of her sinfulness? The extreme Puritanical religious views that show no tolerance for other views?

How do you really know the will of God? Some zealots at the time were convinced Christ was about to return to earth & their job was to prepare the country for His arrival by the persecution of people who did not share their views. I can’t help feeling there’s a kinship with the more extreme views of many Muslim zealots in the Middle East & Afghanistan today.

I’m sure, in those countries, as in ours, most people just want peace, to be allowed to make a living & bring up families without war or governmental interference, to not have to fear every day that they may do something that would incur someone else’s ire. A quiet life is to be much prized & so rarely possible where religious extremes abound.

Or is it just that I feel no such religious certainties? Without doubt I accept the existence of God, but what He wants of me is far from certain. I certainly I don’t feel I have the right to thrust my religious views on anyone else. I’m all for tolerance & listening with respect to what others have to say.