How the Catholic Faith was taken from England.

From my reading of the situation over the years there was a great deal of corruption going on in the Church in Europe. One example was the Bishop of Mainz who had two mistresses to support. He sent a monk called Tetzel to Germany to `sell` indulgences. He said it was to help rebuild a Church in Rome but he wanted at least half. To raise the cash the monk was quite liberal in granting these indulgences and promised `forgiveness` of sins still to be committed. This roused the anger of Martin Luther who totally disillusioned posted his objections to the Catholic Faith on the door of a Church. Then the avarice of the Lords and Dukes took over. Realising that sirring a rebellion against the Church would enable them to steal land and booty from the Church they got solidly behind Luther. In England there is no evidence whatsoever of this corruption in the Church. In fact Henry VIII wrote a great work defending the Church and was given in thanks the title of `Defender of the Faith` But Henry was no saint. He was a rapist who demanded his pleasure because he was King. He had taken the throne after the death of his brother Arthur and wanted to marry his brother`s wife. Since the marriage had not been comsummated Rome gave permission and Henry lived with Queen Catherine for 18 years before he decided he had a problem. The Queen was now to old to produce a son as his heir so he wanted to marry someone else, Ann Boleyn, who was younger. He well knew that if he simply sent Catherine to the be beheaded he would have a war with Spain on his hands so he found a different approach. He thought back to the annullment of his brothers marriage and decided the Pope had been wrong. He could not marry his brothers wife after all. So he sked Rome to put the mater right. There are all sorts of views on what happened next. Some say without evidence that the Pope would have granted this divorce but he was in the power of Spain. There is no doubt that Spain would have not looked favourably on the Pope granting the divorce but this should not distract us from the serious point that the marriage to Catherine was legal and the action of the Pope in granting a divorce when an annullment had already been made would have made the whole thing a mockery. Spain or not, the Pope acted as a Catholic Pope should act. The quest failed and Henry the adulterer decided he should be head of the Church. He then started a life of murder and brutality. Of course there was the threat of the presence of the Church throughout England in her monasteries. The same greed and avarice that had marked the rapid rise of the Reformation in Europe took over. Church land an property was seized by the nobles and the monasteries destroyed. Yet there was still a Catholic presence in England fired by the martydom of saints such as Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher. It fell to Queen Elizabeth to really destroy catholicism. Elizabeth had grown up in a country of fear watching her father and his henchmen put to death those who opposed Protestantism. She also had witnessed his successor Mary Tudor do the same to Protestants. She worked out that for her survival she must choose one Faith and destroy the other. She chose the Protestant cause and by the Acto of Uniformity decided there would be only one faith in England. But her persecution of Catholicism caused her to become paranoid. Her attacks on the Catholic Missions and the hunting down and executions of priests was unprecedented and cruel. Yet English historians are still to question what happened during her reign. Good Queen Bess still is the cry . Het treatment of her cousin Mary Queen of Scots reveals this. She would not give safe passage for Mary to return to Scotland from France unless she rounced her claim to the English throne. She was constatnly interfering in the affairs in Scotland and seeking a suitable marriage for Mary with a good English Protestantthe Earl of Leicester. Mary`s refusals enraged her. Mary`s marriage to Lord Darnley, a nominal catholic, displeased her and she was so active in Scottish affairs that one wonders if she murdered Darnley. That she allowed the trial of Queen Mary, the sovereign of another country to take place in England was an insult tha beggars belief. Then when Mary was in her hands she feared her so much for her Catholic Faith that she imprisoned her for the rest of her life. Realsing that if she died Mary would succeed to the throne, Mary a Catholic, Elizabeth had her executed. But I digress. In England the faith all but disappeared. But times change and today we have a new beginning. Let us bring back the Faith to a country that needs it so much.