Clerics in Politics Trivia Quiz

Answer: Makarios III

Archbishop Makarios was elected head of the Cypriot Orthodox Church in 1950 becoming the de facto head of the Greek community on Cyprus. He was soon at odds with the occupying British who were reluctant to de-colonise as Cyprus had become their new headquarters in the Middle East following the withdrawal east of Suez.

He initially supported the aims of the ENOSIS resistance organisation headed by Georgias Grivas, which wanted union with Greece. Exiled by the British in 1956 he was persuaded by the Greek PM Constantine Karamanlis to support independence for Cyprus and was elected President when independence was gained in 1960.

His Presidency was marred by conflict between the Greek and Turkish communities, the latter fearing domination by Greece.

He also fell out with Grivas over his unwavering support for an independent Cyprus. Attempts to defrock him were unsuccessful. Matters came to a head in 1974 when the changing political climate in Greece led to a coup d'etat led by ENOSIS supporter Nikos Sampson.

This promoted a Turkish invasion to protect their interests and the collapse of Sampson's government. Makarios returned as president in late 1974 but could not end the Turkish occupation which remains to this day. He died of a heart attack in 1977.

Answer: Cannan Banana

The cast of characters involved in the struggle for independence of Zimbabwe is replete with clerical figures. In an effort to end the long running bush war, the Smith regime appointed a transitional government with moderate Methodist Bishop Abel Muzorewa of the United African National Council as prime minister.

This was never going to work because of the exclusion of the guerrilla resistance organisations led by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. This led to the Lancaster House agreement and new elections in 1980 which resulted in the resounding victory of Mugabe's ZANU PF. Mugabe became prime minister and appointed the Rev Canaan Banana, who had been a member of Muzorewa's transitional government, as president. President Banana, who passed a law in 1982 preventing citizens making a joke about his name, sought to bring the contending ZANU and ZAPU factions together.

He fell from favour with Mugabe who took over the presidency himself in 1982. In 1997 he fled the country when he was charged with sodomy, received a 10 year suspended jail sentence and was defrocked.

When he died in 2003 he was buried without the full honours due a former head of state. Rev Ndabaningi Sitole was a Methodist minister and founder of ZANU (Zimbabwe African National Union) who spent 10 years in prison under the Smith regime. He renounced violent resistance leading to the split with Mugabe who formed ZANU PF.

Answer: Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)

The Rev Ian Paisley was a founding member of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster but found his true calling as a fierce defender of the union between Northern Ireland and Britain and an ardent critic of Roman Catholics and Sinn Fein. He has been a member of the Northern Ireland legislature since 1970 and helped establish the DUP in 1971. Regarded as a hardliner he gained a reputation of being loud and aggressive and became identified with the 'Ulster says No!' campaign against the Anglo-Irish agreement of 1985. Indeed his operative word was 'no' to any attempt to settle the Nth Ireland issue. There is a story that when he was asked by a British minister: "Ian, if the word 'no' was to be removed from the English language, you'd be speechless, wouldn't you!" Paisley replied, "No, I wouldn't!"
He never accepted any culpability for the violence despite his fiery speeches. In recent years Ian Paisley appears to have mellowed as evidenced by his surprise acceptance of the St Andrews agreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP. He has also stood down from the European Parliament and devoted time to working with church missions in Africa.

Answer: Rev Jesse Jackson

The Rev Jesse Jackson joined Martin Luther King's movement in 1965 and was present in Memphis when he was assassinated in 1968. He was a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) but clashed with King's successor, the Rev Ralph Abernathy, and left to set up his own group.

He became a prominent statesman supporting causes unpopular with mainstream America but later gained a reputation as a patriot after securing the release of prisoners held by hostile regimes. The Rev Billy Graham is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention and a well known and admired Christian evangelist.

He has been the minister of choice at the funerals of several ex US presidents.

Answer: Cardinal Richelieu

Cardinal Richlelieu rose through the church ranks at a time when this was seen as a path to high political office in France. He became a cardinal in 1622 and went on to serve as Louis XIII chief minister from 1624 to 1642. Although a Roman Catholic cardinal, this did not stop Richelieu from making alliances with Protestant rulers during the Thirty Years' War in Germany as long as they were opposed to Habsburg power in Europe, this being the prime aim of French foreign policy at this time. He was denounced in the Catholic Church as a traitor but despite this he did not support the repeal the authority of papal power in France which was being advocated by some. At home he sought to consolidate royal power and crush domestic opposition. Probably because of this he was portrayed in Dumas' novel as a power hungry and avaricious minister but many historians now regard him as the founder of the modern nation state. He mentored his successor Cardinal Jules Mazarin who continued his anti-Habsburg policies.
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and was a favourite of England's Henry VIII till he fell from favour over his failure to grant an annulment of Henry's marriage.
Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty was an opponent of the Hungarian Communists who was confined to the US embassy for 15 years when he sought political asylum after the suppression of the 1956 revolt.

Answer: Warrior

Pope Julius II, Guiliano Della Rovare, commonly known as the 'Warrior Pope', reigned from 1505-13 and was one of the most powerful rulers of his age, He is better known for military than ecclesiastical abilities. Even when he was appointed a cardinal by virtue of family connections Rovare displayed no interest in spiritual affairs and had all the attributes of a corrupt and unscrupulous Renaissance prince.

After the death by malaria of his predecessor and long time rival, Rovare was eventually elected pope probably by bribery (simony) as was the custom at this time.

He personally led military efforts to prevent French domination of Italy and established the Swiss Guard as the Papal bodyguard after their success in repelling these incursions. Julius II was more concerned with the advancement of his family name (he fathered three illegitimate children when he was a cardinal) and the embellishment of the papal office than with church welfare.

He was wilful and quick tempered and his tempestuous relationship with Michelangelo is the stuff of legend.

Answer: Rodrigo Borgia

Rodrigo Borgia (reigned as Pope Alexander VI from 1492-1503) is regarded as bringing the church of St Peter to its lowest level of degradation. The Borgia family had a reputation for vice and crime and it was Alexander VI who introduced the notorious selling of indulgences as a source of Church income. This debasement of a Church teaching was the spark which started the Protestant Reformation a few years later. Despite his reputation, Alexander VI was a notable patron of the arts with Bramante, Raphael and Michelangelo being beneficiaries of his patronage. When he was a cardinal he fathered a number of illegitimate children the most famous of whom was Cesare who tried to set up a secular state in Italy. Machiavelli admired his ruthless methods and made him the model of his famous book 'The Prince'. When Cesare fell ill at the same time his father died, some suspected the hand of long time family rival Guiliano Della Rovare who succeeded as Pope Julius II. There was a short 10 day reign of Pope Pius III between these two great rivals.
Giovanni de Medici became Pope Leo X reigning from 1513-21 and is quoted to have said on his election 'Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it'. His appears to have been a genuine election with no evidence of simony, the practice having been cynically outlawed by his predecessor Julius II. His was an easy going papacy but he was unable to stem the Protestant Reformation which was in full swing during his reign.
Michael Corleone was the principal character in Mario Puzo's novel 'The Godfather'.

Answer: Thomas Becket

When Henry II uttered these fateful words in the presence of some of his knights, little did he realise, so he said, that they would act so precipitously. Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (1162-70), was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by Henry's followers. Becket had been an able and efficient chancellor for Henry and the two were close friends but when he became Archbishop Beckett had a sea change and threw himself into the new role with devotion and a life of austerity. He became a fierce defender of the Church and fell out with Henry over his attempt to end the clergy's immunity from prosecution in secular courts. This was fiercely opposed by Becket who was forced into exile. When Henry heard of his return some years later he uttered his infamous remark. Becket was hailed as a martyr especially when it was found he had been wearing a hairshirt under his archbishop's garments and was later canonised a saint. Henry did penance at Thomas Becket's tomb.

Thomas Cromwell became Henry VIII's chief minister after the fall of Cardinal Wolsey and played an important part in the English Reformation.

Thomas More is remembered for his opposition to Henry VIII proclaiming himself head of the Church of England, a stand for which he was executed. He is recognised as a saint by the Catholic Church and is the patron of lawyers and statesmen.

Thomas Aquinas is believed by many Catholics to be the Church's greatest theologian. His best known work is 'Summa Thelogiae' and he has been canonised.

Answer: Jerusalem

The British, as the occupying power, appointed Amin al Husseini Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921 following the death of his brother who had previously held the position. The Grand Mufti is the highest official on religious law in a Sunni country and issues legal opinions, edicts and fatwa's and interprets Islamic law. Husseini is known for none of these. He is best known as a militant anti-Zionist bent on the expulsion of all Jews and foreigners from Palestine and as an enthusiastic Nazi collaborator during WWII.
After being forced to leave Damascus following the dissolution of King Feisal's Greater Syria, in accordance with the Sykes-Picot agreement when France occupied Syria and Lebanon, Husseini centred his activities on Jerusalem. After being appointed Grand Mufti he fomented the Arab revolt in 1936 and was forced to flee to Iraq where he first came to the attention of the Nazis. Following the suppression of Al Rashid's pro-Nazi revolt in 1941 he spent the rest of the war in Germany where he became a propagandist for the Arab cause. He had a controversial role in the Holocaust, visiting extermination camps and proposing the formation of Einsatzkommando Ägypten to follow in the heels of Rommel's advance in Egypt to deal with the Jewish problem in Palestine. He was also instrumental in recruiting Muslim Waffen SS units in the Balkans.
After the war his popularity with Palestinian Arabs was undiminished and he recruited the 'Holy War Army' to participate in the Arab-Israeli war of Independence of 1948-49. He fell out with Jordan's King Abdullah when the king failed to re-appoint him Mufti of Jerusalem and his forces were quickly crushed by the King's Arab Legion led by Glubb Pasha. He died in Lebanon in 1974 and understandably Israel refused his request to be buried in Jerusalem.

Answer: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was Supreme leader of Iran from 1979-89 and was named Time magazine's 'Man of the Year' for 1979. He was the political leader or the Islamic Revolution which overthrew the Shah of Iran. Sent into exile in 1964 for opposition to the Shah's regime he spent the next 14 years mostly in Iraq where he continued his activities until forced out by the then Vice-President Saddam Hussein.

He became spiritual leader as opposition to the Shah grew until he returned in triumph from France following the overthrow of the provisional government of Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar.

He wasted no time in assuming control of the revolution and to the surprise and disappointment of many set up an Islamic theocratic state with himself appointed as Supreme Leader. Soon afterwards the exiled Shah's treatment for cancer precipitated the US embassy hostage crisis when the US refused to hand over the Shah for trial.

The 50 hostages were held for 444 days before the crisis ended with the election of Ronald Reagan as president. Khomeini's power was enhanced when Saddam Hussein precipitated the Iran-Iraq war which lasted 8 years.

He refused to admit that continuing the war after the Iraqi invasion had been reversed was a mistake and Iran suffered another 900,000 casualties as a result. After the war his health deteriorated and when he died the public outpouring of grief at his funeral was one of the great spectacles of the 20th century . He was succeeded by Ali Khameini who was not an Ayutollah at the time of his appointment. Akhbar Hashemi Rafsanjani assumed the Presidency from Khameini after the latter stepped down from that post retaining the Supreme Leader role for himself. Rafsanjani was president from 1989-97.