Word: carta
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Legend has it that after he was forced to agree to the Magna Carta in 1215, King John of England threw himself on the floor in a rage, crawling around and biting on a stick like a dog. There were good reasons for such a show of temper. The document imposed on him by rebellious barons and bishops in a meadow called Runnymede was one of the first comprehensive written attempts to limit the powers of the English King and to set forth the rights of his subjects. Lord Bryce, the historian, has described it as "the starting point...
...great charter. Under a proposed statute repeal bill, some 200 British laws that are "no longer of practical utility" are likely to be scrapped soon by Parliament, including one "prohibiting common night walkers in the universities." More significant, all but two of the remaining twelve provisions of Magna Carta are also to be struck from the books...
...articles unaffected by the bill, one prevents the King from revoking certain powers and privileges of local governments. The other article is regarded as Magna Carta's most important legacy, for it sets forth the seminal notions that a man has a right to a speedy trial and may not be deprived of his rights without due process of law: "To no one will we [the King] sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice. No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived...
...between liberals and conservatives at the Second Vatican Council. They would assume that Pope Paul's encyclical Humanae Vitae had been almost universally acclaimed by the faithful. They would have no inkling that last month 40 of the church's best-known theologians issued a historic Magna Carta demanding greater intellectual freedom within the church...
...seems, Pope Paul issues a new admonition against Roman Catholic priests, bishops and laymen whom he considers to be flirting with heresy for their challenge to the magisterium of Rome. Last week, 38 leading theologians answered the Pope by releasing a statement that demanded, in effect, a Magna Carta of intellectual freedom in the church...