Henry VIII and the Leave campaign

SIR – As a member of the Historians for Britain group, which campaigned for Brexit, it is a trifle hard to be grouped with the “Remainers” by Professor John Rist (Letters, August 12); but then, as the Texas Senator said when asked if he was going to be more middle of the road in his second term: “Son, the only thing you find in the middle of the road are white lines and squashed armadillos.”

Having been squashed, let me respond to Prof Rist with the observation that Henry VIII’s rejection of Rome went beyond its spiritual authority – as Article 37 of the Thirty-Nine Articles made clear. The soi-disant reformers wrote of Rome in not dissimilar ways to that in which some Brexiteers write about the EU, some even, as Prof Rist does, seeing it as a source of sexual licence. I join Prof Rist and Pope Benedict in deploring the absence of mentions of our faith in the EU Charter, but prefer Benedict’s conclusion to that of Prof Rist. Benedict thought we should stay and act as leaven in the lump. Indeed, given the intensely secular nature of British society, an alliance with our Catholic brothers and sisters to act in this way seemed to me one of the few arguments for Remain.