Replies

As an Anglican I find neither Calvinist nor (by orders of magnitude) Anabaptist arguments entirely convincing (hey - we don't find *anyone* else's arguments entirely convincing that's why we're Anglicans!) I believe that it is entirely wrong to act as though one act of one person being burned for their beliefs was any worse than any other. As a cultural phenomena, and a sin to which all major parts of the Body of Christ (both Protestant and Catholic) fell prey, the execution of people by burning probably is the penultimate example. It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty, and with a very few exceptions it wasn't even right, but the lack of forgiveness on the parts of those who still hold these things against one another half a millenium later is perhaps the greatest sin of all.

Well said.

As an Anglican I find neither Calvinist nor (by orders of magnitude) Anabaptist arguments entirely convincing (hey - we don't find *anyone* else's arguments entirely convincing that's why we're Anglicans!) I believe that it is entirely wrong to act as though one act of one person being burned for their beliefs was any worse than any other. As a cultural phenomena, and a sin to which all major parts of the Body of Christ (both Protestant and Catholic) fell prey, the execution of people by burning probably is the penultimate example. It wasn't nice, it wasn't pretty, and with a very few exceptions it wasn't even right, but the lack of forgiveness on the parts of those who still hold these things against one another half a millenium later is perhaps the greatest sin of all.

If they were actually following the principles laid out in the New Testament, (Sola Scriptura), the Reformers would have advocated tolerance, not persecution.

They are an example of what happens when State and Church are combined, as some still advocate (Dominion Theology)

In this regard, the Anglican church is not without blood on its hands also.

Those who forget the lessons of history are bound to repeat its mistakes.