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WICKINS: But you were certain that His Majesty would view your application for a special dispensation with beneficence. NEWTON: Isaac Barrow is His Majesty s Chaplain, and he said that if the news were excellent I would learn within a short while. WICKINS: You went to St James Palace only three weeks ago. By royal standards, that is a very short while indeed. (Putting his hand on NEWTON s shoulder) You must be patient, Isaac. (NEWTON breaks away.) NEWTON: If the King refuses to grant me a special dispensation, I will resign my Chair rather than take holy orders as Trinity College demands. WICKINS: How will you make a living without your College income? NEWTON: Heaven only knows. But for too long now, John, I ve been on the slippery slope. I have never told you, nor any man, but when I obtained my Bachelor of Arts it was through gritted teeth that I pledged to uphold the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Anglican Church, because they are the legal requirements of this damnable College. WICKINS: Gently, Isaac, gently. Even closed doors have ears. NEWTON: I don t care who hears me! Why should I? Then when I was appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics in order to fulfil Trinity s requirements! I promised I would take Holy Orders in the near future. To avoid committing such a blasphemy, these past six years I ve procrastinated to obtain more time. But now every tongue is wagging, and time has run out. WICKINS: I don t understand. You already live like an abstinent monk. What will you lose by being ordained? NEWTON: The sanctity of my immortal soul. WICKINS: How can taking holy orders in the Anglican Church threaten your immortal soul? NEWTON: Why do you think I haven t slept for weeks? 60 Newton s Darkness: Two Dramatic Views WICKINS: You ve been a slave to the crucible, reading texts of& NEWTON: (Cutting him) & Biblical scholarship. In case I m challenged on my religious beliefs. (WICKINS points to the crucible.) WICKINS: I trust to Heaven that the Art has not turned you heretic! NEWTON: It is the Trinity that is heresy. WICKINS: In God s name& NEWTON: Exactly. God said Thou shalt have no other gods before me . So there is only one God. And not three, as the idol-worshipping Trinitarians would have us believe, with their God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost ! WICKINS: But the Anglican Church places the Trinity at the centre& NEWTON: The Trinity is the work of that idolater, Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria, who was part of the perfidious Council of Nicaea in 325 which condemned the great Arius. WICKINS: Arius? NEWTON: Yes! It was only Arius who upheld the truth that Christ is not God. WICKINS: On what authority could this& Arius have made such a blasphemous claim? NEWTON: On Saint Paul s authority, who wrote, There is One God, and one Mediator between God and Man the Man Jesus Christ . So we should only pray to God the Father because Christ was not divine. WICKINS: That s heresy! NEWTON: No, it s the Trinity that is heretical. Yet not withstanding, the corrupt Athanasius and his fellow deviants exiled Arius as a heretic. Then they cynically enforced the Trinitarian unification of the Church. Even though Trinitarianism defies fundamental logic. The principle that three equals one is no more applicable to rationalist theology than it is to Newton s Hooke: Act 1, Scene 4 61 the arena of mathematics. So it s simply unthinkable for me to be ordained. WICKINS: Why do you confide this to me, Isaac? Aren t you concerned at what I could do with all that I ve heard? NEWTON: Do you wish to play Judas, John? (WICKINS laughs.) NEWTON: You laugh at the strangest things. WICKINS: It wasn t I who said, I was not born on Christmas Day by accident . NEWTON: (Appalled) Are you implying that I think that I am another& well, another Messiah? WICKINS: I m implying nothing, Isaac. But I fear for you if this ever comes to light. NEWTON: If the King refuses to grant me a special dispensation for my Lucasian Chair, I ll have no recourse but to challenge this heretical hoax. WICKINS: Then the Lord help us both, for they will also indict me as your friend and confidant. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |