What Happened this Day in Church History; Bishops Ridley and Latimer Burned at the Stake

Christian History Institute ^ | unknown | Diana Severance

[dangus]

For those not familiar with St. Bartholomew's Day massacre:

Admiral Coligny, a Calvinist in mid-16th century France, was alleged to have assassinated Francis, Duke of Guise. After the Spanish trounced the Muslim navy (!), Admiral Coligny insisted that Queen Catherine attack the Spanish.

On St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24th, Admiral Coligny and about two dozen of his men were killed. Although Queen Catherine was never tied to the attacks, the protestants' presumption that she ordered them is not unreasonable, since she feared that Coligny would seize military control for himself to attack Spain.

Paris broke out into riots, with a Catholic/Loyalist mob slaughtering up to three thousand Calvinists. Similar outbreaks occurred over the next few months in many major cities, resulting in perhaps another 2,000 deaths. (Some Calvinists claim 100,000; certain Catholics cite "mere" hundreds; I used Wikipedia as an impartial source.)

Rome, believing that Coligny was prepared to attack Spanish forces which had rescued Europe from the Muslim horde, did appear to approve of the St. Bartholomew's Day raid. As the event became known as the "massacre," however, the following tragic riots became conflated with the raid, leading many to inaccurately suggest that Rome had approved of the purely unjustifiable violence.

[Gamecock]

***I used Wikipedia as an impartial source***

Since when does impartiality have any value around here? ;-)

[dangus]

No, and I'm probably not going to. Not that I think it'll be terrible, it's just I don't foresee the occasion to, and don't feel like I wanna spend $10 on a movie, the best for which I could say is that it probably isn't despicable. It's a hagiography of a very problemmatic man. It doesn't slander the Catholic Church too badly, but it *is* very one-sided from what even Lutherans I know have said.

[dangus]

Oh, by the way... Things look bad for Luther... Down 32%... Looks to peak out at about $7 million.... Still made way more than the Gospel of John ($900,000 vs. $122,000), but John did so well on a per-screen basis, that it's rumored to have gotten a better distributor for later in the year. Luther did quite poorly on a per-screen basis. (20 times more screens!)

[beelzepug]

Stand proud, soldier! :0)

[Gamecock]

***It's a hagiography of a very problemmatic man.***

A man who was a self-professed sinner. Just like the rest of us.

[Tantumergo]

"We Predestinarians seem to have been on the short end of almost all of it."

If that were true I guess it must have been pre-destined - just like in the days of Elijah.

[CARepubGal]

October 31 is a glorious day indeed! ;-)

[CARepubGal]

Somehow, the Catholics seem less than enthusiastic about this wonderful movie. Why would that be? :-)

[Gamecock]

Must be hitting a little close to home. The truth hurts. ;-)

[dangus]

I'm not slammin' Luther. I'm just saying as a Catholic, he's not *my* hero.

[redgolum]

Luther is an interesting figure. Full of faults and follies, like all of us. I haven't seen the movie, but from what I have heard it tends to minimize the problems with the way Luther orginally started to formulate his theology. Polygamy is not an acceptable form of Godly marriage.

[Gamecock]

Neither is shacking up with nuns, like a lot of middle age Popes were apt to do....

[redgolum]

True. Didn't one early pope die in..., a compromising position. ;)
No man, or authority is perfect. God uses a bunch of sinners to get his work done, and as a result we sinners sometimes get things messed up. The amazing thing is even with the sinful tendicies, the Christian church has remained.

[Gamecock]

You know, if the RCs would just admit that, I would go away. But they would rather dig their heels in and make their claims about how they have the "true" church.


Heck, even the "first Pope" had issues....