Of Martyrs and the state

Friends,

I am writing this on the feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher. Thomas More was an ambitious lawyer and John Fisher a bishop. King Henry VIII of England had numerous mistresses, but one, Anne Boleyn, would not give way without the promise of marriage and coronation as queen of England, so Henry asked for an annulment of his marriage to the Spanish princess and reigning queen, Catherine of Aragon. Pope Clement refused the annulment.

In 1534, by the Acts of Supremacy, Henry declared himself head of the Church in England and gave himself the annulment. All were expected to sign the Acts. Henry had what he wanted. Thomas More, chancellor of England and servant of Henry’s government, could not agree that the king was head of the Church in England. For this he was eventually killed by beheading. All of England went along with the king, save for Thomas his chancellor and Bishop Fisher.

His friends said, “Thomas, will you not go along for the sake of fellowship?” Thomas replied, saying, “If you have signed the Acts of Supremacy in good conscience and you stand before God at the judgment, and you are sent to heaven for your good conscience, and I am sent to hell for violating my conscience, will you come along with me for the sake of fellowship?” There were 26 bishops in England at the time. Twenty-five signed the acts of supremacy. One, John Fisher, did not. He, like Thomas, was beheaded.

Christian religion is mostly dead in England. The Church that Henry founded is very progressive. They have women bishops, lesbian bishops, same sex marriage etc. etc. etc. etc. A few years ago, the Spectator published an article titled, “2067: the end of British Christianity.”  In the article, we read that “Every ten years the census spells out the situation in detail: between 2001 and 2011 the number of Christians born in Britain fell by 5.3 million — about 10,000 a week. If that rate of decline continues, the mission of St Augustine to the English, together with that of the Irish saints to the Scots, will come to an end in 2067.”  By providing a church that will allow you the relationship you desire, Henry killed the church in England. Still he got what he wanted.

There is a wonderful movie “A Man for All Seasons” (1966). It tells the story of St. Thomas More and references St. Bishop John Fisher. It leaves out St. Thomas’ faults, which like for all saints were many, but by in large, it is good history. Watch it. Please, watch it. Thomas did not say what he thought about the King’s new marriage, even to his wife. He relied on the English common law principle that a man may not be executed or punished for what he does not do, only for what he does. The king was determined to execute his old friend Thomas regardless. When he had been falsely tried, he decided to unburden his conscience by speaking plainly. He said that he had come to this place because he would not bend to the marriage!!

Here we are. Catholic, bishops and laity, increasingly hemmed in by an unjust government and a sleeping populace. Will we bend to the marriage?

Yours sadly and sincerely,

The Rev. Know-it-all

Who is in charge when there is no pope? Part 4

When last I wrote, I mentioned that much of Europe had managed to throw off the shackles of the papacy with the help of Fr. Martin Luther. They had tried to take over the papacy by means of councils, but that having failed, they just decided to dump the whole notion of the papacy resulting in 128 years of war. It started with the German peasants rising up to slaughter the aristocracy, to which Luther responded by telling the aristocracy to “smite the peasants hip and thigh,” which they happily did,  slaughtering perhaps 100,000 of them. Eventually about a third of the population of Northern Europe died. What pushed them over the cliff?

A fellow named Alfons de Borja from Torreta, near Valencia Spain, did. He had been a professor of law at the University of Lleida and then a diplomat for the king of Aragon.  He was very useful in clearing up the mess at the Council of Basel (1431–1439) in which once again the crowned heads of Europe were trying to make the Catholic Church more “democratic.” For his service to king and church he was made a cardinal.

He was old and feeble and so was elected as a compromise candidate for pope in 1455. This happens when the cardinals can’t figure out whom to elect, so they elect some sick old fellow and start praying the novena to St. Joseph patron of a happy death. Pope John XXIII who convened the Second Vatican Council was such a compromise candidate, who like Alfons de Borja, who took the name Callistus III, would set events in motion that would change the world. I hope the cardinals have learned that old and dying compromise candidates aren’t always the best choice.   

Alfons de Borja changed the world by inviting boatloads of friends and relatives to Rome and giving them high church office. In 1456 Pope Callistus III elevated two of his nephews to the position of cardinal. One was Rodrigo Borgia who later became Pope Alexander VI in 1492. He was so straightforward about his corruption and immorality that it is almost refreshing. He was the father of at least four illegitimate children and possibly ten or eleven. He managed to worm his way into the powerful families of Italy by marrying his children off to the powerful.  Once again the papacy had become the plaything or the powerful families of Rome and all Italy. 

The next pope died after 26 days. Italy and the papacy was squabbled over by the French, the Spanish, the Holy Roman emperor  and all the while the Muslim Turks who had conquered the Eastern Empire and taken its capital Constantinople in 1453 were planning to invade Italy in the chaos and take all of Europe. In the midst of the mess, a most remarkable man was elected to the papacy: Giuliano della Rovere, Pope Julius II, the fearsome (Il Terribile). He reconciled the powerful families of Rome to each other, took to the battlefield personally and drove the French across the Alps, began the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica, hired Michelangelo to paint the Sistine chapel where the cardinals just met to elect the next pope and all in all he saved Rome and the papacy from the vultures who were trying to devour them. He created the monuments that still draw people to Rome and was marvelously played by Rex Harrison in the movie about Michelangelo, (Charlton Heston) The Agony and the Ecstasy a fun film to watch with the children. The next pope however was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici, elected Leo X, in 1513 wasn’t even a priest when he was elected pope, but he was the son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, ruler of Florence and his mother was an Orsini.  The Venetian Ambassador, who didn’t like him said that when he became pope, Leo X said to his brother Giuliano de Medici, “Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it.” He inadvertently sparked the Protestant revolution by his questionable fund-raising practices for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s. Everybody liked Leo. He had no children that anyone knew about, which caused people to wonder why, but he was a great fellow a real generous type, who spent money lavishly, funded the arts, and promoted the Renaissance. Here’s a fun fact: the King of Portugal gave him a white elephant named Hanno, which was a great favorite of Leo’s. Poor Hanno died when the pope tried to feed him gold to cure poor Hanno’s stomach ache. The papacy was once again the plaything of the powerful.

The next pope came from Holland. The Spanish and the French cardinals were deadlocked, so they thought why not elect a non Italian. So they elected Adrian Florenszoon Boeyens as pope Adrian VI the last non Italian pope until Karol Wotyla in 1978. Adrian had been the Holy Roman Emperor’s tutor. This irritated the French and would have made things even more complicated, but Adrian only lasted about a year. He was succeeded, in 1523, by another Medici, (Pope Clement VII ) Giuliano de' Medici, cousin of the late, fun loving Pope Leo X. 

Pope Clement realized what his cousin Leo had not. This German fellow, Luther, was going to be a lot more trouble than cousin Leo had thought. He figured it out the hard way when the troops of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor and King of everywhere from Mexico City to Vienna invaded Italy and his Lutheran army sacked the Vatican and raped and pillaged their way through Rome in the name of religious reform. Clement had to flee for his life down a secret passage to hide out in the Castel Sant’Angelo, a re-configured tomb of a Roman emperor, while the German Lutherans killed most of the Swiss guards. Meanwhile the very Catholic King of England, Henry VIII wanted an annulment in order to dump his Spanish wife Catherine, the aunt of the Holy Roman emperor whose army was occupying Rome. He wanted to marry Ann Boleyn, a bit of a hotsy totsy, who had been raised in the French court. The next time Henry wanted a divorce, he left the Catholic Church and simply cut off Ann’s head. No red tape. This was an era in which religion was a lot more exciting than it is now.

So, in 1527, you have the German Lutherans trashing Rome, the French invading Milan, the Spanish owning Naples, the English joining the anti-Catholic camp and the pope hiding out in a re-habbed tomb.  Could things get any worse? 

Yes. Much worse.

A short history of the Hootenanny Mass & other absurdities... part 7

Letter to Harold “Hoot” and Annie Gibson cont. part 7

HENRY VIII, A MONARCH WHO KNEW HOW TO TURN HEADS

Henry VIII (1491-1547), King of England from 1509. Remember Luther? He tacked up his 95 Theses and started the whole ball rolling around 1517. Henry was staunchly Catholic, but un-staunched as the Reformation unfolded. (Staunch: firm and steadfast; true. One often hears of staunch Republicans, though I have never heard of a staunch Democrat but there must be some. Where was I? Oh yes... the Reformation) He was so staunch that he wrote a book in 1521 called “The Defense of the Seven Sacraments” for which Pope Leo X (not very staunch) rewarded Henry the title “Defender of the Faith.”

Henry’s life was charmed. He was young, handsome, both scholarly and athletic. His father Henry VII, had been so tight that he squeaked and thus left Henry with a full treasury. He had a lovely Spanish wife, the aunt of Emperor Charles V, the most powerful man on earth, (very, very staunch). She adored him. He was the very model of the Renaissance prince and was loved by all, except for the people whose heads he lopped off, beginning early in his reign with his miserly father’s finance ministers. Having taken care of the treasury department, he promptly started to spend all that money on his two favorite hobbies: building palaces and invading France.

Did I mention he was loved by all? Especially the Boleyn girls. There was a rumor that young prince Henry had been a very close friend of Lady Elizabeth Boleyn. Just scurrilous court gossip probably, but he was definitely a special friend of her daughter, Mary Boleyn by whom he may have had one or perhaps two children, and her little sister, Ann. All three of the Boleyn girls, mother and both daughters were ladies in waiting at the Tudor court. One wonders just what they were waiting for. Well, with Ann it became pretty clear. She was waiting for a wedding ring and the crown of England. Meanwhile, Henry’s Spanish wife had managed to produce one measly daughter and Henry wanted a son and heir a Henry IX, if you will.

He decided that he had sinned by marrying Queen Catherine who had been his brother’s wife. His brother had died and the king, Henry VII, (the miser), had not wanted to return Catherine’s dowry to her Spanish relatives, so he asked the pope for permission to marry his second son off to the first son’s widow. No problem. It seems that Prince Arthur and Princess Catherine had never managed to complete the nuptials (remember this is a family column), so what was the issue? A dead prince who had never really been a husband?

Well, much later, Henry decided that he was living in sin with a Spanish princess who had been his brother’s true wife. His conscience was sore grieved. It wasn’t sore grieved by the fact that he was catting about with any lady in waiting who didn’t have the good sense to wait somewhere else, including a couple of sisters who were young enough to have been his daughters, one of whom may well have been, (though modern scholars dispute this. I still can’t help mentioning it. It makes for fun reading.) Ann had more sense than most of them. She refused the king which drove him wild with etc., etc. So he decide to dump his Spanish wife, who had let herself go a little bit anyway, and petitioned the pope for an annulment.

The pope had problems with the annulment. Queen Catherine’s nephew, (remember him? the most powerful man in the world who had an army that had just sacked Rome). There was the little matter that the woman Henry wanted to marry was the sister of Henry’s former girlfriend and he was probably the father of two children to whom he would soon be uncle by marriage and heaven knows what else, and had a legitimate daughter, Mary, by his first wife, who was supposed to inherit the crown. All this would make birthdays and Christmas a little confusing, to say the least. What to do, being a staunch Catholic and all? Ann was a clever girl and gave the king a book called “The Obedience of the Christian Man” which essentially said that there are kings in the Bible, but no popes, and that the king should run the Church in his own country. Wycliff had said as much a long time ago. So to get on with the story.

Henry declared himself head of the Church in England, gave himself an annulment, married Ann, crowned her queen and then chopped her head off. Really. She was only queen for three years, but oh, what eventful years they were! She convinced Henry to appoint one of her family friends, Thomas Cranmer, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in turn sponsored Thomas Cromwell for the job of Chancellor. They were both convinced Protestants and helped Ann bring the Calvinist version of the Reformation to England. Cranmer was useful theologically and Cromwell politically. All those palaces and invasions of France were expensive, so Cromwell got the idea that if they closed down the monasteries, and confiscated their lands and the incomes, all would be well. Slight problem: the monasteries maintained the schools, orphanages, hospitals, soup kitchens, homes for poor and aged and rented the land at low rates to the rural poor.

Suddenly all the monks and nuns and the people they had served were homeless and wandered the countryside begging. Toward the end of Henry’s life, Cromwell tried to solve the problem by declaring vagrancy a crime punishable by enslavement and worse. That must have helped. The estimates vary, but usually hover around 70,000 dead in Henry’s reform of the Church in England.

As I mentioned, Ann got her crown but didn’t long have a head on which to wear it. She was accused of incest, adultery and a host of other things, having also produced one measly girl, Elizabeth. More about her later. Henry managed to carry on somehow. He managed to carry on with another lady in waiting. One day after Anne's execution, Henry got engaged to Jane Seymour, with whom he had recently been keeping company. They were married 10 days later.

She died in 1537 from complications of childbirth, but she had produced a male heir, Edward (more later). Henry went on to wed Anne of Cleves, a German Protestant princess whose Teutonic charms did not appeal to Henry. He annulled the marriage and moved on to Catherine Howard, you guessed it, another lady in waiting whom he eventually beheaded, and finally Catherine Parr, who managed to out-live the old goat. And so Henry died in 1547, he started out a young, athletic Catholic with a happy marriage. He died obese, crippled, and heretical, the husband of six wives and numerous mistresses. England was in turmoil and tens of thousands dead and many more homeless, but Henry did manage to produce three children and the Church of England.


NEXT WEEK: BLOODY MARY, GOOD QUEEN BESS AND THEIR LITTLE BROTHER