If you look at all the controversy surrounding Pope Benedict’s four-day trip to Great Britain, which begins today when he touches down in Scotland, you have to wonder why he’s going at all.

There have been calls for Benedict’s arrest, and a variety of attacks on the Pontiff, ranging from his handling of the sex abuse crisis in the Church, to Catholic teaching on abortion, women priests and homosexuality.

So why IS he going into such hostile territory, anyway? The answer comes in the name of one, and perhaps two men. One is Cardinal John Henry Newman, that’s for sure. The other is St. Thomas More.

Benedict with beatify Newman on Sunday in Birmingham, officially bestowing on him the title of “Blessed.” That’s the last stop before sainthood.

Newman has had a profound impact on Benedict. A formidable intellect and a convert from the Anglican Church, Newman understood that the denial of the objectivity of truth was one of the greatest challenges to the teaching of Christ.

That’s an idea that Benedict holds dear. Such thinking, he has said on several occasions, leads to what he calls the “dictatorship of relativism.” In other words, anything goes.

Newman was also a great defender of conscience, and once famously offered a toast in which he said, “I shall drink to the Pope, if you please, still, to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards.”

Thomas More is already a saint, so Benedict won’t necessarily refer to him directly. But when he addresses British civil and political leaders in Westminster Hall on Friday, he will certainly remember that it was there that More was condemned to death in 1535.

More, who held the prestigious position of Lord Chancellor, lost not only his job but his life for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as head of the Church of England, something he felt he could not do in conscience.

More’s fascinating life and dramatic decision is portrayed brilliantly by Paul Scofield in the 1966 film, A Man for All Seasons.