Gustav Adolfs dag ping to the Swedish Ping List.
Posted on 11/06/2008 7:23:27 AM PST by WesternCulture
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Very nice post. Thank you.
Except for those unfortunate Catholics in Sweden, Saxony, England and elsewhere who were expropriated and murdered for such crimes as attending Mass, possessing rosaries or other dangerous contraband, or being ordained as Catholic priests.
You don't feel very free when you're being disemboweled without anesthesia.
Oct. 31 started it all with the 95 Theses though, and that is Reformation Day....seems like a bigger deal for me.
Oh, and cake.
I enjoy knowing the Lutherans have ashes put on their forehead on Ash Wednesday and knowing Lutherans celebrate the Eucharist (at least Traditional Lutherans) and that their Pastors wear Vestments and that Luther continued saying the Rosary after he left the Catholic Church.
While there is nothing glorious about Europeans killing Europeans and Christians killing Christians, I would say something positive evolved out of this conflict.
Religious tolerance.
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I guess it would be easy to tolerate something that is dead.
Here’s to Gustav Adolf, one of my Lutheran and Swedish heroes!
Gustav Adolfs dag ping to the Swedish Ping List.
But the underlying thesis of this post: that Gustavus Adolphus was fighting for religious freedom (something he never believed in and which he absolutely forbid in his own kingdom) and that his motive for going to war was out of religious principle (he was financially induced to join the war by Cardinal Richelieu of France) is ridiculous.
The war had been raging for years and Gustavus Adolphus never raised a finger. He only intervened when Catholic France, locked in its usual power struggle with the Catholic Habsburgs, offered him financial incentives to do so.
Moreover, Wallenstein is portrayed as a Catholic absolutist bent on destroying Protestantism, when in reality he tried to mediate a compromise between both sides and was arrested for his trouble.
After Adolphus' death in the Swedish victory at Luetzen, the next major clash between the two sides was at Nordlingen where the Catholic League decisively defeated the Swedes. The Swedes became a non-factor in the war at that point and the next major military threat to the Catholic League was the entrance of Catholic France into the war against the Catholic League.
Portrayals of the Thirty Years' War as a religious struggle are childish. There was certainly a religious aspect to it - but it really was a struggle over which Great Power would exercise control over the disorganized small states of Germany -the Emperor, the King of France or the King of Sweden.
With great fondness for the Lutherans, and speaking as someone who has attended a few Lutheran churches, “celebrate” and “Lutheran” aren’t two words I usually associate with one another! ;-)
Enjoy this happy time, it does sound delightful.
I know, I’ve always wanted to get one of those Lutheran humor books, I saw a whole book devoted to it once. Some is on the net and not offensive I believe on the whole.
“You know you are a Lutheran if
...you know what a Lutheran Church Basement Woman is.
...the only open pew is up front, so you volunteer to shovel (snow obviously) the sidewalk.
...you have your wedding reception in the fellowship hall and feel guilty about not staying to help clean up.”
- http://www.oldlutheran.com/page.php?page=humor&id=5
A lot more, many not all that funny.
What country are you talking about?
BTT
or is that redundant?
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