Gratitude Monday: Vis et voluntas

Let me step away from the strictly personal and move into the realm of the universal for Gratitude Monday today. Because this month marks the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta, a document that first put words to parchment delineating the notion that people should be governed by something more reasonable and responsive than the vis et voluntas (“force and will”) of any crackbrained individual who happened to bear the title “monarch”.

Magna Carta did not bring democracy to the people of England (although that’s pretty much the way it’s explained to us in grade school). None of the signatories gave a toss about “the people”, and they all would have been horrified by the idea of “democracy”. But what it did was to limit the powers of the monarch, which (when you think of it) kind of put paid to the notion of the divine right of kings. It was essentially the thin edge of the wedge that cracked open the door leading to government by the consent of the governed.

I mean—once you’ve said “the king has donkey’s ears, and his brain’s no improvement on that”, it’s not so many steps to get to “We hold these truths to be self-evident.”

Yes, King John signed Magna Carta under duress, and weaseled out of it as soon as he could. And the barons who exerted the duress weren’t a massive improvement on John, as far as the rest of the country was concerned. But that divine right horse could never be put securely back into the barn after that.

Yes—representative government has its flaws. I personally believe that if we examined the $250 haircuts on all 535 members of Congress (and most of the Executive Branch) we’d find a fair plurality of donkeys’ ears. But I’m a lot happier knowing that the asses are corralled by laws than I would be if it was just them running free-range.

So I’m heartily grateful for the power struggle between King John and his barons (which would make a pretty good name for a garage band) that resulted in Magna Carta.