20. On The Rustat Memorial, Church Law and the Loving Purposes of Christ.

Dearly Beloved,

Last week the petition to the Consistory Court of the diocese of Ely to remove a monument from the Chapel of Jesus College Chapel was rejected, to the shock of staff and students.

The petition sought the removal of the monument to Tobias Rustat (1608 to 1694) who was closely involved in the activities of the Royal African Society and the Merchant Adventurers; organisations which traded slaves for profit. The judgment extends to 108 pages. At its best it represents an example of our thorough, combative judicial system at work. At its worst it is the implementation of a foregone conclusion with various legal excursions of doubtful relevance combined with arbitrary, judgmental, comments about witnesses.

The central problems surrounding the memorial were set out by the Master of Jesus College, Sonita Alleyne. She said:

  1. Personally, I believe that the Rustat Memorial’s link to slavery is the antithesis of what the Gospels and teachings of Jesus Christ stand for. Whilst we are welcoming to all faiths, it is Anglican Christianity that stands at the foundation of the College and is part of our charitable objective.

  1. And let us not skip over the core belief that drove the Atlantic slave trade - that African people were sub-human and thus to be legally considered as property alongside goats and chickens and to be bred like cattle. I believe that this profoundly immoral justification has driven much of the racism that continues to impact our world. I believe that such views need to be faced up to, even now, so that our own and future generations can pull free of both conscious and unconscious racism. Pages 44-45.

The main practical concern was that a number of people felt unable to worship in the chapel because it celebrates someone who promoted slavery.

It was clear from the legal framework that the Consistory Court would very probably refuse the petition. That included Paragraph 78(5) “In the light of the strong presumption against proposals which will adversely affect the special character of a listed building, will any resulting public benefit (including matters such as liturgical freedom, pastoral well-being, opportunities for mission, and putting the church to viable uses that are consistent with its role as a place of worship and mission) outweigh the harm?” Paragraph 78 pages 63-64.

Reading the judgment, it seems that one obstacle to understanding the case set out by Jesus College, was the assumption that because Rustat had died 328 years ago, this monument was something from the past and irrelevant to the present day. That is an illusion. The wrong he did all those years ago will still affect those using the Chapel today, especially if they are of African origin or have ancestors that were traded or enslaved.

Grade I listed buildings exist within a cocoon of law and customary legal rulings. Fulfilling the loving purposes of God lies beyond and above the law. It cannot be legislated for and is therefore going to be ignored in a legal setting. In the legal framework there is a failure to set out the criteria upon which “resulting public benefit” can be judged. The loving purposes of Christ were reflected in the testimony of various witnesses including The Master, The Dean and the Bishop of Ely but, given the legal framework they were, inevitably, disregarded. That is despite it being a Consistory Court of the Church of England. (See also discussion Paragraphs 86-88 on pages124-128).

The argument which seems to have swayed Deputy Chancellor Hodge KC was presented by a favoured witness and concerned Archbishop Cranmer who also  has a monument in the Chapel; "he had also been a murderous misogynist who had shown violent hostility to religious freedom and all those who had rebelled against the English Reformation or had held to the old Roman Catholic religions and its ways. In 1533 Cranmer had pronounced Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne 35 Boleyn to be lawful; three years later he pronounced it null and void. He took Anne’s confession before her execution in May 1536, knowing full well that she was innocent of the crimes laid against her"...." Religious persecution, murderous misogyny, and profiting from slavery are all wrong. In short, if Rustat, why not also Cranmer?"(Para 44)

 That seemed to ignore the fact that student's who were descendants of Cranmer or Anne Boleyn, or who are Catholics are unlikely to be affected by the presence of that monument as the issues involved in Cranmer's time have been  largely resolved, whilst those students who were the descendants of slaves would be affected as the stigma associated with a family background of slavery is still very much alive. Thus the  presence of the Rustat memorial in the chapel might seem to be a confirmation of the acceptability of slavery and the stigma it has imposed on the descendants of slaves.

Surely an appeal should be made against this judgment with the hope that Court of Arches (or the appropriate appeal court) can inject some of the loving purposes of Christ into a resolution of this dispute? The alternative is that the Church of England will appear to have put its buildings before its faith, its communities, its congregations, and the welfare of racial minorities who still bear the stigma of past contempt.

Peace,

Paul

"An alternative view of Jesus College Chapel without the Rustat memorial.  The Empyrean (highest heaven), from the illustrations to The Divine Comedy by Gustave Doré, Paradiso Canto 31.

Notes 1)  the original DB letter was completed on 27th March 2022. Paragraphs 10 and 11 were added to on 02 November 2022.

            2) Jesus College eventually decided not to appeal against  the judgment of the Ely Consistory Court on the grounds of cost.

            3) The full Judment may be found here: https://www.jesus.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/Full%20Judgment%20of%20Deputy%20Chancellor%20Hodge%20QC.pdf

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