Science and theology are as relevant as astronomy and astrology. Although they have the same origins, their research goals and research methods are very different.

—Francis Bacon

Tonight, St. James's Palace is immersed in an atmosphere of tranquility and solemnity.

Instead of the usual silence of the night, it is brightly lit up tonight, like the stars falling in the night sky lighting up this historic palace. The light shines through the carved window lattices and sprinkles on the red brick walls, reflecting the traces and majesty of the years.

The King's private apartments and the adjacent Privy Council were brightly lit, illuminating the long corridors and wide halls, and every window seemed to be an eye, gazing brightly into the darkness of the changing clouds.

In the corridors, the attendants in ornate dresses quietly shuttled, busy and orderly, and the candles on the trays in their hands flickered, adding a bit of tension and solemnity to the temporary and urgent meeting of the Privy Council.

In the center of the conference hall, velvet crimson high-backed chairs surround a large oak table, on which a variety of documents and archives are spread out, and the sword and scepter, symbols of the king's supreme power, stand silently aside.

Wilhelm IV sat on the first seat, dressed in a royal robe embroidered with gold thread and a crown encrusted with precious stones, his face solemn, his head tilted slightly to listen to the reports of the advisers beside him.

In addition to the King, the members of the Privy Council, who had arrived at the King's summons, were also talking in low voices, and they were briefly exchanging information at hand.

Although they are no longer at the height of the power of the Privy Council in the Middle Ages and the early modern period, they are no longer the central decision-making body of Britain that holds the legislative, executive, and part of the judicial power of the King in the conduct of the affairs of the state.

This does not mean, however, that there is no one in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland who can flout the supreme authority and honour of the Privy Council.

This was not only due to their proximity to the king, but also to the social status of the members of the Privy Council themselves.

As is customary, the three most revered Lords of the Church of England are among them, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, and the Bishop of London.

In the field of law, the presiding judge of all high courts, such as the Court of Queen's Bench and the Court of Chancery, is also honored as an adviser to the Privy Council.

In the political realm, it includes members of the ruling party's cabinet, important colonial governors, and some former cabinet members who are trusted by the royal family.

However, although the Privy Council is a large body of 100 members, all of them are required to be present only when the monarch announces a grand marriage or the monarch dies.

In most cases, the king would invite only a very small number of of his advisors to attend. And the process of the meeting was nothing more than the Privy Council President reading out a series of boring decrees waiting for the king's approval, and all William IV had to do was nod his head in agreement.

Although William IV theoretically had the power to refuse, the last time a king rejected a Privy Council decision was during the early 18th century under Queen Anne.

In 1702, the Tories introduced a rather unruly bill, the Occasional Communion Prohibition, or what could be interpreted as the Prohibition of Occasional Anglicanism.

Although Britain had long since left the papal authority in the religious field, this did not mean that those who did not practice Catholicism would join the Anglican Church, which had many denominations of Protestantism, and the Anglican Church was only one of several options for believers to choose from.

The Whigs were the same as they are today, many of them were not Catholics, but they were not Orthodox, some were members of the Scottish Presbyterian Church, some were Lutherans and other various Protestant denominations.

According to the Statute of Tests, passed by Parliament in 1673, all persons holding public office or clergy were required to take a verbal oath of obedience to the Anglican Church at the time of their inauguration and to attend the Anglican church at least twice a year to receive Holy Communion.

As a result, most Whigs and other non-Anglican Protestants go to the Anglican church twice a year to receive Holy Supper, while the rest of the year they still go to their own church.

The Tories, who were loyal royalists, were naturally furious at this phenomenon, and they felt that it was necessary to crack down on this group of shameless opportunists who 'pretended to convert and regretted their daily lives.'

Therefore, in order to defend the king and his own religious beliefs, and more importantly, to fight against the old political rivals of the Whigs, the Tory Party introduced such a ridiculous-sounding "Prohibition of Occasional Confession" in Parliament.

As king, Queen Anne is naturally the most loyal believer in the Anglican Church.

However, although she sincerely agreed with the Tories, Queen Anne eventually vetoed the bill in the Privy Council, considering that her husband, Prince George of Denmark and Norway, was a Lutheran, and that the passage of the bill was likely to exacerbate the division of the country and set off a purge of the Whigs.

Just as Queen Anne was confronted with the same problems at her Privy Council meeting more than 100 years ago, William IV is now confronted with a difficult problem about religion and belief.

In order to be able to solve this difficult problem well, the Excellency of the Privy Council who attended the meeting tonight was naturally carefully selected by him.

Among them were archbishops of high prestige among the clergy, important representatives of the Tory and Whig parties, and even several medical authorities of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons were invited to attend the meeting on an ad hoc basis.

And the question they are going to discuss today is as comical as the one raised by the Tories back then: is it a medical question or a theological question about a man who crawls out of a coffin three days after being shot?

What William IV did not expect was that on this issue, the medical authorities and the bishops seemed to be wearing each other's clothes.

William Howley, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who has been silent since entering the door, spoke out as the representative of the state church, who enjoyed the glory second only to the king.

"Your Majesty, first of all I must say that I am very pleased to hear the news that Officer Hastings is safe and well, and congratulate him on his gradual recovery. Since last year's parliamentary reform, which led to widespread social unrest, I have been making it clear to believers that I do not like politics, and that I am more opposed to the turmoil and crimes caused by politics.

Although it was very difficult to achieve this, God willing, we finally got through this difficult time. But unfortunately, many people fell before the dawn. And Officer Hastings, who is dedicated to his country, almost became one of them. There is no more joyful news in the world to hear that such an upright, kind young man can continue to be alive and well on the earth.

But I must say that if you, or some of you here, want to define Officer Hastings' normal recovery as a resurrection, you are very wrong. If some of your Excellencies have delusions that they should not have, such as sacraments or miracles, they have fallen into the vanity of the Roman Ecumenical Church.

For according to Article 22 of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Faith adopted by the Council and implemented by the State Church: the so-called purgatory, the remission of sins, the prostration of icons, the veneration of relics, and the invocation of the teachings of the saints are all fictional. These things are not based on passages and passages in the Bible, and they are very different from the original text of the Bible. ”

The Archbishop of York also echoed solemnly.

"Your Majesty, this is a serious matter, and it cannot be treated as a joke. You are also an Anglican, so of course you know that Christ's death and resurrection were prophesied, that He died and was buried for us, and that we should believe that He went down to Hades. After that, He rose from the dead, not just flesh and bones, but also the ascension of body and soul, and He sat at the right hand of God the Father until the end came to judge the world.

All of this is true, but it is a very different concept from Officer Hastings. If some people believe that Officer Hastings has risen from the dead, they have fallen into the superstitious and ignorant views of the Roman Ecumenical Church, the Eastern Church, and other sects. Breaking away from superstitious idolatry and returning to the harmony between God, reason, and nature is exactly what we, the Anglican priests, wanted to practice during the Renaissance Reformation. ”

When the doctors heard this, they immediately couldn't sit still, and some doctors even felt that their medical knowledge had been insulted.

Mr. Thomas Wackley, founder of The Lancet, Member of the House of Commons and member of the Royal College of Physicians, said euphemistically.

"I have no offense to His Honourable Archbishop of England and His Majesty the Archbishop of England, and I myself had worked with Officer Hastings in the London murder case a few years ago to help Scotland Yard publicly dissect the bodies of the stolen bodies. I must say that Officer Hastings is probably the best officer I know in all of Britain, and indeed in all of Europe, and in the world.

What I say next is not to attack different points of view, but to objectively express my own insignificant opinions. From a doctor's point of view, it is not uncommon for a person to recover after being shot and then recovering after treatment.

If the location of the shot is the heart, it can still be cured, although such cases are rare, but there are still a few cases in our community of field doctors, and the Lancet even published a paper on such cases earlier.

But if a gentleman is not only shot, but also in the heart, and three days after his heart stopped beating and he is dead, he crawls out of the coffin. In this kind of case, I can't say in good conscience that this is a problem that current medical research can explain. ”

Benjamin Bunnold, a senior doctor from the Royal Society of Surgeons, also nodded and agreed: "Your Majesty, I must say that this is not a miracle, but a miracle. I've treated many people with gunshot wounds, but I've never seen anything like it. ”

Lord Breham, the newly appointed Lord Chancellor, could not help but smile lightly when he heard this, and could tell that the barrister with an odd temperament and caustic words was in a good mood because of the resurrection of the student from the dead.

As the recorder of this meeting, he bowed his head slightly to William IV and said: "Your Majesty, I will summarize for you, that, in the light of the present situation, the doctors advise you to believe in theology, and the noble crowns advise you to believe in science. ”

When the Archbishop of York heard this, his face changed, and he replied in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, although I have always known your reputation, it is better not to speak too harshly in this principle of inadmissibility. Or are you actually on the side of the Vatican, a spy sent by the Pope to Britain? ”

The Bishop of London also said suspiciously: "If this is the case, then it is not difficult to explain why His Excellency Lord founded the 'Atheist College on Gower Street'. Say it's 'atheism', but you're secretly doing idolatry? ”

Seeing that the bishops were planning to go online, the Prime Minister Earl Grey hurriedly said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, I actually agree with the bishops' views to a certain extent. Officer Hastings' resurrection should have been a medical misdiagnosis, not a real trip from the underworld. ”

But as soon as he finished saying this, the doctors quickly objected.

Vickery insisted, "Your Excellency, I still hold my point. I say this for all reason, as we have specifically questioned the doctor who performed the surgeon on Officer Arthur Hastings, and obtained from him the conclusion that Officer Hastings was indeed medically dead. ”

When the Bishop of London heard this, he only frowned, and interrupted: "Your Majesty, about the person who was considered dead to get up from the coffin...... This is rare, but it has not happened before. In at least three decades of my service to God, there have been two similar incidents in my diocese.

And the two deceased, as Mr. Vickerley claimed, had been given medical death notices by the doctors. But in fact, a deceased person crawled out of the coffin in a daze half a day after his heart stopped beating. When his wife came back from outside, she happened to see him cooking for herself in the kitchen, and her wife was almost scared to go there.

The other so-called 'deceased' was also misdiagnosed, except that he woke up earlier, just at the funeral. Everyone was mourning in the church, only to hear a thud in the coffin, and when the coffin was opened, they saw that the unfortunate quack victim was lying in despair, his hands scratched.

The first lucky guy lived peacefully for five years after his 'resurrection' before he died. As for the second one, if you send someone to find him in the countryside of Lancaster, you might still see him sweating in the fields. ”

The Bishop of London couldn't help but glare at the doctors, and then added: "Because of this, the believers in the Lancastrian countryside fear that they will be buried alive. So when they go to the coffin shop to order a coffin for themselves, the rich will ask for a good ventilation, and the poor will also ask for a small hole in the coffin so that a tube for ventilation can be inserted. It's almost a custom, and I'm finding that it's even spreading to London, and if you don't believe it, you can go to the coffin shop in London and ask if there's anything like it. ”

When the two doctors, Vickerley and Bunnold, couldn't help but widen their eyes when they heard this, they didn't believe that such a thing could happen.

"It's not that we don't believe in the character of the bishop," they said, "but we want to be able to verify it." ”

But Dr. Barry, who was sitting next to him and didn't speak, was sweating profusely, and he gritted his teeth and said ruthlessly: "Actually, this situation, I ...... I've had the pleasure of having a ......"

Vickery was stunned: "You've encountered it too?" ”

Dr. Barry nodded slightly, "Not only have we encountered it, but it is similar to the situation described by His Majesty the Bishop, and you know that whether it is an internist, a surgeon, a general practitioner, or even a pharmacist, we all regard cardiac arrest as a symbol of death.

It was the same with the patient I met, who had been in cardiac arrest for more than 30 minutes, so I issued him a death notice. However, what I didn't expect was that when I asked my apprentice to put him in a body bag, he suddenly sat up on his own.

At that time, I thought I had misdiagnosed. Fearing that the misdiagnosis would affect my reputation, I kept it in my stomach for many years, and was ready to bring the secret with me in the coffin. But after hearing the story told by His Majesty the Bishop and seeing the case of Officer Hastings, I now really wonder if cardiac arrest is really the criterion for identifying the death of the deceased.

But having said that, after all, Officer Hastings' heart had stopped beating for three days, and he had been hit by a bullet through the wound, and if he could heal in this way, I could only marvel at the wonder and infinite possibilities of God's creation. ”

While Dr. Barry's brow furrowed in doubt seemed worrisome, it seemed reassuring to the rest of the Privy Council meeting.

Because they can finally convince themselves that this is really not a miracle, but a trivial medical accident.

Bishop York, seeing that there was a split within the group of doctors, took the opportunity to complain.

"However, while Officer Hastings' supposed resurrection from the dead is not a miracle, I have reasonable suspicions that his 'resurrection' is most likely due to some despicable and evil tactics employed by your group of doctors. Even if we do not go back to the murder and robbery of corpses that occurred two years in advance, and go back to 1818, Mr. Andrew Yule of the University of Glasgow conducted an almost desecration experiment on the corpses of death row prisoners, I believe that no one will forget it. ”

When the people heard this, they immediately remembered what he was talking about.

Because it was so famous that it was in the newspapers, the Scottish Medical Journal recorded the whole experiment in detail.

To be precise, Andrew Yule inserted electrode rods into the neck, buttocks, and heels of the corpse, and then stimulated them with varying degrees of electrical current.

According to his own account: after the electricity was applied, the corpse seemed to shiver, and its fingers were very flexible, as if they were the hands of a violinist. Every muscle on the corpse's face moved, and expressions of anger, fear, despair, pain, and joy appeared on the corpse's face together.

Although Dr. Yule was not able to resurrect the corpse in the end, he did not regret it, but was content to conclude in his book of experiments entitled "The Goodness of Man": "If death is not caused by physical trauma, then it is possible for the corpse to be resurrected." However, even if this experiment is successful, I will not be happy. For I will be resurrected as a murderer who has been hanged. ”

Although Britain may be the most tolerant country in the world at the moment, Dr. Yule's behavior inevitably attracted the wrath of the church, and the clergy soon scolded Yule at the public and political levels, and protested the insult and blasphemy of the corpse in Parliament.

Under pressure from the Church, the Council soon ordered the University of Glasgow and Dr. Yule to put an immediate end to the farce of the living dead.

However, although this farce died down, there were still many reports and cartoons about the incident left in the newspapers.

One of the most impressive is a deceased lying in a coffin with positive and negative electrodes attached, and the devil standing by his side.

Some of the doctors present couldn't help but light up, and they suddenly remembered Arthur's life experience, which is currently second only to Michael Faraday in the field of electromagnetism in Britain!

Could it be ......

Was his resurrection due to some kind of electricity and magnetic reaction?

Thinking of this, even the doctor who had just spoken the loudest kept his mouth shut, and although no one spoke, they all tacitly pondered a new question.

When William IV saw that the discussion had finally come to an end, the sailor king couldn't help but laugh a few times with a red face.

Although he regretted that he had not been able to find a miracle, he was glad that it was within the scope of scientific explanation.

William IV smiled and asked, "So, the answer is already on the horizon?" Is this a scientific question? ”

The Duke of Wellington, who had been silent, also nodded lightly and said, "Your Majesty, this can only be a scientific question. ”

The Prime Minister, Earl Grey, also read the subtext of the Duke of Wellington, and he implicitly reminded the king: "Officer Hastings is a Catholic, although according to our investigation, he seems to be only an occasional believer in Catholicism, and even when he was sworn in at Scotland Yard, he did not hesitate to take the oath of office in accordance with the Anglican oath. But he was a Catholic after all, so if this wasn't a matter of science, the Vatican, and Ireland...... It's all troublesome. ”

William IV was a little bit by Count Gray, and suddenly woke up like a dream, and even his smile faded: "This, I almost forgot this ......"

Although Britain has been separated from the Vatican for a long time in the religious field, since the time of Henry VIII, the pope has been trying to regain his voice in the religious field of England. For this reason, he even did not hesitate to launch a holy war against Britain, calling on Catholic countries to encircle and suppress Britain, which was also one of the important reasons for the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain.

Although the Holy See is no longer as imposing as it once was, and they have never considered canonizing the living. However, if the Pope insisted on using this incident to disgust Britain, for example, to ask for an investigation to be sent to Britain, or to give Arthur a young man a Catholic holy object or something, then the matter would be a bit of a big deal.

Even if the best is planned, even if the Catholics living in England and Scotland are not interested in the small actions of the Pope, the millions of Irish Catholics on the island of Ireland will never be indifferent to the Pope's edict.

As soon as William IV thought of this, he heard the Duke of Wellington on the side say in a low voice: "Your Majesty, it is true that this is a scientific question, but in the eyes of most ignorant people, many things cannot be explained. Therefore, in view of the well-known and sensitive beliefs of Officer Hastings, and from the perspective of maintaining the stability of the country, I suggest that the impact of this matter should be minimized and treated coldly at this time. If we can, we should send someone to persuade him to convert to the state religion. ”

Despite the partisan differences, the Earl of Grey reached a rare agreement with the Duke of Wellington on the matter: "Not only that, but from the point of view of public opinion and his protection, Officer Hastings is no longer fit to continue his service at Scotland Yard at this time." ”

William IV groaned for a while, and he said with some regret: "Gray, are you suggesting that I remove him from office?" He's just made a contribution, and even if we're going to leave him with a decent parting, it's too impersonal. ”

Lord Broughham, who was on the side, replied with a smile: "Your Majesty, he needs to find a sunny place to recuperate, and stay out of the sight of the domestic public for a period of time, so that everyone will gradually forget his religious attributes, but this does not mean that he will not come back, I think at an appropriate time, you and we will need to let him return." And just because he left Scotland Yard doesn't mean he can't play for his country. ”

William IV was surprised: "You mean? ”

Bruham bowed his head and said, "I recall that you mentioned earlier that, given the current tensions in the German region, you are considering following the successful experience of Britain and adopting a relatively liberal new constitution in the Kingdom of Hanover?" I think this student of mine might be able to go there and make some small contribution, at least in terms of policing reform, he is definitely an expert. ”

Wilhelm IV originally felt sorry, but when he thought about it, he suddenly thought: "The sunshine in Hanover seems to be really good." As a police adviser to the Hannover parliament to advise on a new constitution, this young man seems to be indeed qualified......"

(End of chapter)