The Beta timeline lacks the strong Pope Gregory with the result that the Popes become the Emperor's puppets. When Volstrup relates this to Everard and Tamberly:
"The wind sobbed." (p. 378)
That wind works overtime. It whooped when demands on Volstrup increased. Now it sobs for the weakened Papacy. Time Patrol agents are not (all) Papists but they need a Papacy that can resist the Empire just as they need an Empire that resists the Papacy. They need a Cyrus the Great that ends Jewish captivity in Babylon and Nazis that can be defeated, but must first exist, in the twentieth century.
By the end of this novel, the Patrol has ensured the growth of science and of "'...the first strong ideal of liberty.'" (1990 A. D., p. 434)
- and, when a Danellian points this out:
"The wind cried, the sea growled nearer." (ibid.)
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And we still need a strong Papacy which can resist and oppose the overweening demands of the state, any state.
Ad astra! Sean
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