http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9113893Oh my.
A twofer.
NNN0LHI (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-11-10 07:02 AM
DON, THE GROUCHY OLD PRIMITIVE
Original message
Catholics in England were considered outlaws for nearly 300 years
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jyCSo...
Catholics in England suffered long repression
STONOR, England — For nearly three centuries after the Reformation, Catholics in England were outlaws.
But in the turmoil and persecution that followed the break between King Henry VIII and Rome, noble families such as the Stonors clung to their faith, "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword," as the Victorian hymn "Faith of our Fathers" put it.
"We're just stubborn, really," says Ralph Thomas Campion Stonor, the seventh Lord Camoys, a title bestowed on an ancestor for valor in the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.
Pope Benedict XVI will recall the years of persecution during his upcoming tour of Britain Sept. 16-19. He will visit Westminster Hall, the medieval chamber within the Houses of Parliament where the Catholic Thomas More was tried and convicted of treason in 1535. More refused to swear an oath accepting the annulment of King Henry's marriage, thus becoming one of the first of the legion of English Catholic martyrs.
The Stonor family's history mirrors the vicissitudes of Catholics, both noble and humble, who defied the law and risked death to preserve their faith through times of persecution until they regained full legal rights in the 19th century.
I think the grouchy old primitive is trying to draw a parallel here, between English Catholics of 450 years ago, and American Moslems of the present day, but it won't work.
Of course Roman Catholics were persecuted, and sometimes bloodily so, after the Dissolution (1532-1534), during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I, especially under the first.
However, by the time Elizabeth I came to the throne (1558), it was more a matter of politics than religion; the reluctance of English Catholics to take an oath of loyalty to the throne. Those were the ones who became the martyrs. But near the end, the only restriction upon Catholics was that they were not allowed to serve in the court or Parliament; as long as they behaved (as most were in the sparsely-populated North of England, this was not difficult), they were left alone.
However again, persecution of Catholics in England during this time was pretty mild, compared with persecution of Catholics in other places, and most especially when compared with the persecution of Catholics under the socialists during the twentieth century (eastern Europe, China, Vietnam).
Kolesar (1000+ posts) Sat Sep-11-10 07:19 AM
Response to Original message
1. Now Britain is 58% agnostic and government has to fund their church to keep it from disappearing.
Dumbshit.
That's the Church of England, dating back to the 1530s, not the Roman Catholic Church.
And the Church of England has
always been funded by the state; nothing new there.
By the way, 64% of the British don't believe in evolution either.
One can't blame English "fundies" (no such thing exists) for that, and wonders what they do believe.
