The Lesson

Sighing, Colman said: "Come now, Master Gardiner. That was so long ago this assembly of enchanters might not even exist anymore and if they still do then they are no danger!"

Gardiner was not convinced by his pupil's skepticism. What reason was there to be skeptical? For all the clergymen knew these druids were still committed to the dark ways of old with their human sacrifice. Still, he was in agreement that the time for Colman's lesson was at hand.

"Very well then." Uttered Gardiner with a nod. "Yesterday, King James and I discussed the subject of the divine right of kings and he asked me if pagan societies had anything similar in regards to their own monarchs and deities."

"And what did you have to say?" inquired Colman. "Peleus, King of Phthia and paterfamilias of Achilles, was a grandson of the Greek god Jupiter, who was the chief amongst their deities, and even Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, and his brother Menelaus, King of Sparta by marriage to Helen, were twice-great grandsons of that same god, with Helen herself having been said to have been fathered by that deity. In Troy, there too did the monarchs claim descent from the greatest of their divinities, with Priam having been the four-times great grandson of Jupiter. The divine right of kings has existed in some way before the coming of Jesus Christ, through the claim of descent from these deities."

"And you have taught me that Jupiter was a mortal man who deified after his death." Commented Colman. "Therefore, this divine right of kings is altogether different."

"The world is full of similarities and differences, Colman." Stated Gardiner. "That is the way of life, Gaelic Irish and Old English are different in their own ways, but we are still Irish, just as the New English are, my student."