Looking for the roots of democracy.

Salisbury Cathedral spire is famous. It can be seen from miles around and around and around it flies a super-predator, the peregrine falcon. I could see one and hear its distinctive screams during a recent Saturday afternoon visit.  Outside the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds has erected a stand to tell people about these birds. Inside the cathedral  cloister another RSPB sign suggests that peregrines have lived there as long as there has been a spire. 

But was not here for the birds. I mean to look even further back on time towards the roots of modern democracy. Salisbury Cathedral holds one of the four remaining versions of the Magna Carta. (No one of these is considered the original - all have the same status.)

This is the document that started the drive to modern democracy in 1215 when the then king (John) agreed to devolve power enshrined in a series of principles. For example, these included the right of free passage. Clause 42 states that ‘In future it shall be lawful for any man to leave and return to our kingdom unharmed and without fear….’.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, the US President, said in 1941 in his inaugural speech: “The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the life of ancient peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It was written anew in Magna Carta.”

Physically the MC is a small piece of parchment covered in fine hand-written Latin text. 

Salisbury Cathedral