Reading Wolf Hall right now, I am always hit by the way religion informs politics in the most despicable ways. For Henry Vlll, it was genetics and greed. For the Roman Empire it was cultural domination of the conquered. For the Puritans is was creating an identity that permeated every aspect of one's life. I am fascinated by those monks who take austere vows and cloister themselves away from the World, capital W, and all things profane. (And what could be more profane than politics?) The idea of making bread and cheese, never voting or reading a newspaper. In my mind religion is for this separate realm, the spiritual one. But alas, this is fantasy. We see religion again intensifying its grip on the human imagination in horrible ways and being used as a political weapon. By fundamentalists in many different nations, including our own.