Ten Commandments...Ten Questions Quiz

Answer: Julian

Known to posterity as "Julian the Apostate", Flavius Claudius Julianus was a philosopher-general whose role models were his great predecessors Hadrian and Marcus Aurelius. He believed that the empire needed to revitalize itself by restoring the values and customs of their day - including paganism. By proclaiming that all religions were, as in the old days, equal in the eyes of the empire, he robbed Christianity of the privileged position it had held since Constantine's day - and committed a flagrant breach of the first commandment!

Answer: Ho Chi Minh

Tito, ruler of the former Yugoslavia, was provided with a post-mortem mausoleum (known as the House of Flowers), but he was buried there, rather than preserved. Pol Pot was cremated after his unfairly peaceable death. Ceausescu, shot by his own people during the general fall of communism in 1989, had outlived the days when communists got made into mummies.

Ho Chi Minh's body can be seen in his mausoleum in Hanoi. He was a man who achieved many things - not least, his ongoing breach of the second commandment!

Answer: Planet of the Apes

When astronaut Taylor, played by Heston, discovers the ruin of the Statue of Liberty buried in the sand at the end of the movie, he realizes that the planet of the apes is in fact Earth, and that humanity's leaders have, at some point in the past, destroyed human civilization by fighting a nuclear war. Hence his desire that they all burn in Hell.

While we can understand Taylor's frustration with the politicians and generals for blowing up the human race and delivering it into the hands of terrible, highly evolved apes, that's still no excuse. Charlton Heston - you have broken the third commandment!

Answer: Hugh Jackman

Billy Crystal, of course, has hosted the Oscars numerous times. Steve Martin did the honors in 2001 and 2003 and Chris Rock in 2005.

As for the 2009 ceremony, although all those who participated must take some responsibility, host Jackman, AKA Memphis, must take the brunt of the blame for this breaking of the fourth commandment.

Answer: Richard the Lionheart

At the tender age of 16, Richard, along with two of his brothers, decided his dad had been on the throne long enough. Dad, AKA the formidable Henry II, was up to the challenge and crushed his sons' rebellion. Most fathers only have to put up with a bit of backchat from their teenage sons!

Richard's mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, was an enthusiastic supporter of the rebellion against her husband, and encouraged her sons to try and dethrone him. In following her wishes, therefore, Richard at least honored his mother. Nevertheless, his behavior must be seen as a shocking breach of the fifth commandment.

Answer: His children's nanny

Around 9:00 p.m. on the night in question, the Lucan family nanny, a young woman named Sandra Rivett, went downstairs to the kitchen. Lucan was already hiding in the basement. In the darkened room, he mistook Rivett for his wife and clubbed her to death with a lead pipe. After realizing his mistake, Lucan fled the UK. Police believe that this charming man was helped to evade justice by some of his charming, aristocratic friends.

Supposed sightings of Lucan in various places around the world have never been confirmed. Although he was declared legally dead in 1999, Lucan is very possibly still alive. Wherever you are, Lord Lucan, you are in breach of the sixth commandment.

Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Although Roosevelt's affair with Lucy Mercer did not become public knowledge until the 1960's, it became known to his wife, Eleanor, in 1918 when she found his love letters. Eleanor told FDR she would divorce him unless he promised never to see Mercer again. Knowing what a divorce would do to his political career, Roosevelt agreed, but nevertheless stayed in contact with Mercer for the rest of his life.

Needless to say, there are many, many historical figures who could have been the subject of this particular question, but I've chosen Roosevelt to show that even the greatest heroes can fall down on the job when it comes to the seventh commandment!

Answer: The Philippines

Marcos still has his supporters, but it cannot be denied that he used the power of his office to illegally enrich himself beyond the wildest dreams of ordinary embezzlers. He smuggled contraband, sold government contracts, skimmed money off construction projects paid for by Filipino taxpayers, siphoned off aid given to him by American taxpayers, and, allegedly, dug up football-field-sized bunkers of looted gold that the Japanese had buried in the Philippines during their occupation of the country in World War II.

Now that Marcos is dead, the precise number of billions that he appropriated during his tenure as president is a secret known only to his Swiss bank manager. One thing is certain though - his full-frontal attack on the eighth commandment!

Answer: Witchcraft

Although Miller's play "The Crucible" is generally (and accurately) regarded as an allegorical attack on McCarthyism, it is based on real events and the villainous Abigail Williams was a real person. She was the first, and most significant, of a group of girls in Salem who, in 1692, were observed in the grip of strange "fits" and eventually began to accuse local people of bewitching them. Those accused who refused to confess to being witches were executed.

Williams' ultimate fate is unknown; most versions claim that she sank lower and lower in life before dying young. This may, however, be wishful thinking on the part of later storytellers wanting to show that she had been "punished" for her misdeeds. No one will ever know if she felt any guilt about the terrible consequences of her breach of the ninth commandment.

Answer: Jennifer Aniston

Angelina Jolie met Brad Pitt on the set of their film "Mr and Mrs Smith", while he was married to the unfortunate Jennifer Aniston. Jolie and Pitt admit that they fell in love while he was still married, but deny that the relationship went any further than that until after the divorce. If accurate, this gets them off the hook as far as the seventh commandment goes.

Despite being equally guilty, Brad Pitt technically has not broken any commandments, as Jolie was not married at the time the coveting took place. Angelina herself, however, is indisputably in breach of the tenth commandment.