The verbal tussle that erupts seasonally between government people and Church leaders is  a minuscule example of the conflict that has sometimes characterized the relationship between civilian and clerical leadership over the ages.

An example was the bitter exchange between Archbishop Fernando Capalla and former Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over the mandated prayer or “oratio imperata.”

In world history, the conflict between English King Henry VIII and Pope Leo X over the king’s divorce with Queen Catherine of Aragon (which the Pope refused to grant) and Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn (which Leo X refused to tolerate) resulted in the schism that gave birth to the Church of England.

Henry VIII simply appropriated all the properties – churches, land and all – of the Roman Catholic Church in England and declared himself the head of the new and ‘reformed’ Anglican Church.

Of course, there was, too, the revolt of Augustinian monk Martin Luther supported by the German nobles against the ‘power and efficacy of indulgencies’ declared by the same Pope Leo X. The pope granted indulgencies which allegedly shortened one’s stay in purgatory in exchange for money paid. Well, reminiscent of the impositions of faith that priests force upon the faithful nowadays.

But this conflict sometimes results in beautiful monuments for posterity. One such example is a conflict that occurred 750 years ago, but this one resulted in the construction of one of the most beautiful and elegant churches in the United Kingdom.

Old Sarum was one of the earliest settlements in England, with evidence of human habitation as early as 3000 years before Christ, at about the same time that the stone circles known as Stonehenge was built and used by the early inhabitants.

Old Sarum was among the oldest seats of military and political power. It was an important station of the Roman Empire which occupied Britain between AD 43 to AD 410.

When the Romans left, the Anglo Saxons took over, and the place became one of the most important towns in the Western Kingdom under Cynric, King of Wessex.

The French King William of Normandy , also known as William the Conqueror, drove away the Anglo Saxons, brought in Christianity, built his castle and church, and called the place Sarisburia, from which the name Sarum and Salisbury are derived.

To Sarisburia, William gathered the nobles, knights, and prelates to pay homage to him.

Sarisbury was an important seat of military and ecclesiastical power under the Norman rule; a cathedral and bishop’s palace were built in the site under the prelature of Bishop Osmond.

But the contrast and conflict between military and ecclesiastical power in Old Sarum was stark. Writer Peter of Blois in 1200 described Old Sarum as “barren, dry, and solitary, exposed to the rage of the wind; and the church stands as a captive on the hill where it was built, like the ark of God shut up in the profane house of Baal.”

By 1219, the contrast became open conflict. The place proved too small to hold both cathedral and castle. The King’s men held captive the churchmen of Bishop Richard Poore, and the bishop begged the king to have the cathedral relocated to another site two and a half miles away, where it stands to this day in the township of Salisbury .

The Salisbury Cathedral, built in 1220 and completed in 1258, is one of the most imposing churches in the world. It was constructed with a single, consistent architectural style, Early English Gothic. Originally known as St. Mary’s Church under the Catholics and before the Protestant Reformation, the statue of the Virgin Mary and Child sits above the massive church door.

I was in Salisbury Cathedral at about this time three years ago.

Walking inside the church is like walking through the corridor of dark-lit, incense-filled centuries. All around one sees medieval frieze, chapters of an enduring faith captured in stained glass.

All around are scenes from the books of Genesis and Exodus; captured in colored glass are portraits of Adam and Eve, Noah, the Tower of Babel , Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jesus with the Apostles.

Displaced behind protective glass inside the cathedral is one of the best preserved copies of the Magna Carta, the charter of liberty and rights granted and signed by King John in Runneymede in June 1215. (Another copy is at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford upon Avon where William Shakespeare is buried.)

One item of great curiosity is the cathedral clock. It is the oldest working clock in the world, dating back to medieval times, circa 1386. It stands in a corner of the church nave, ticking the hour as it has done for over 600 years. The clock has no face, only its exposed mechanism, and it gives the hour by tolling the church bell.

In the heart of Salisbury Cathedral is a huge marble holy water font with water ever-flowing down the four spouts at its sides. The water is as clear and placid as glass and the font is always full.

A middle-aged British woman dips her fingers in the water and makes the sign of the cross. I follow her gesture of faith.

The sign of the cross is a gesture that ties the two of us – Catholic and Anglican – in a common bond.

And the holy water flows serenely down, constant as faith.