The Importance of Political Life

Starky laments the parlour state of England in his own day. There is a pestilence in the political body, as witnessed by abandoned towns and a shortage of labor. He's still an Englishman though, so he makes sure to mention that things are even worse in France, and in Spain and Italy too. Part of the problem is a lack of virtue among the English nobility who out of inordinate love for themselves fail to do their part to support the common good. While Starky is cautious enough to say that the sitting king, Henry VIII, is eminently praiseworthy, he has his mouthpiece, Reginald Pole, argue that monarchs should