Danish King Knut (sometimes Canutus) was as handsome as he was strong, as brave as he was learned, and, above all, pious. Well, pious in a certain vein. He was a warrior and a conqueror, and people feared his “martial spirit.” His contemporaries compared Knut favorably to his elder brother, Harald the Slothful.

Alas, Knut’s fortunes as a successful warrior and king did not last. He eventually died a most theatrical and even magnificent death, when a rebel group from within Denmark rose against him and succeeded in surrounding the church that Knut had gone to for refuge. One of that group pierced Knut with a thrown javelin as the King was standing before the altar, his arms outstretched.

What certainly helped the bloody and bloodied Knut to canonization, though, was his lavish patronage of the clerical class in Denmark. Butler writes, “[Knut] countenanced and honoured holy men, granted many privileges and immunities to the clergy, to enhance the people’s esteem of them; and omitted nothing to convince [the people] of their obligation to provide for [the clergy’s] subsistence by the payment of tithes.” In fact, Knut made it a law that everyone had to pay a tithe (10% of their income) over to the clerics. Ironically, this law did not lead to enhanced esteem for the clergy, but rather to the plummeting of Knut’s favorability among the populace (see javelin, above).

To recap…the people are perfectly willing for their leader to be a hawk when it comes to war (as long as he’s successful) and they are quite willing to grant non-profit status and other breaks to the clergy–but don’t raise their taxes! Meanwhile, the church ascribes righteousness to governmental favoritism, and elevates those who elevate it.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!