I went to Lewes today with a friend and was shown for the first time the Priory of St Pancras which was destroyed by Henry VIII's men in 1537. It is funny sometimes how some days are thematic by chance. My friend and I walked around the old priory and kind of mourned for it a little, and for the the life of the Church that once breathed between its walls before the brutality of the Reformation made its mark on Lewes. Tell you what, you've got to hand it to Cromwell's men, if nothing they were efficient.
In the evening I watched 'Christianity: A History', which was this week presented by Ann Widdecombe MP. Now, I know this is going to sound terribly hypocritical, but it was a good programme. Ann Widdecombe was a lot more balanced in her approach to tackling the Reformation than was Omar on the Crusades.
She did, for instance, mention the fact that there was blood spilt on both sides of the Catholic/Protestant divide, not only by Henry's and Cromwell's men, but Catholics in France who slaughtered Protestants in reaction to the Reformation, apparently 10,000 of the poor blighters, as well as the Lewes Protestant martyrs who are commemorated yearly. Bravely, she attended the Bonfire Night at Lewes as well, where effigies of the Pope are burned annually to demonstrate just how deeply the Protestants in the area forgive the Catholics for past crimes.
'Good Lord!', I always think to myself, 'If we Catholics had to parade around our town centres with burning crosses in order to mark every occasion when our Brothers and Sisters had been martyred in history, we'd have to run it in shifts, there would be a national petrol shortage and it would never stop.'
I've composed a song to mark this, one of the bloodiest and most terrible events in British religious history...
Ooooh I got me the Reformation blues
Ooooh, dear Lord, please do excuse
All the crimes that have taken place
In Your Most Holy Name
Oh Lord, I got me the Reformation blues
Oooh I got me the Reformation blues
Ooooh, dear Lord, please do not refuse
Eternal pardon to the victims and perpetrators too
In Your Most Holy Name
Oh Lord, take away these Reformation blues
Ooooh, dear Lord, when are we gonna learn?
Ooooh, we're all Brothers and Sisters
Oh Lord, we're all the same
Sons and Daughters loved by You
Oooooooooooooh
Oooooooooooooh
Oooooooooooooh
Then there'll be no more Reformation blues
But ooooooooooooooooh, ooooooooooooooh, oooooooooooh
It's still happening, Lord, everyday, its in the news
Oh my Protestant friend keeps irritating me
Doubting the Holy Father's Papal Supremacy
Defending Luther and his heresy
But I can't kill him even though some days I want to
For your sake O Lord, I have to love him because You love him too
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
Let the past be the past
Let all fratricidal hatred be banished at last
Let we Catholics, Protestants and Muslims and Jews
Just love each other O Lord
And then we'll all, we'll all, we'll all be loving You
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh...
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh
2 comments:
The Channel 4 programme, Sunday 8th February "Reformation" was an interesting programme and well presented by Ann Widdecombe. The clear information about the Reformation meant that I really understood how the whole process came about. The comment that if Henry VIII had produced a son and heir with Katherine of Aragon -- the Reformation would not have come to England, is thought provoking; a subject for further debate.
Agreed...If only the man had had a son straight away. I was intrigued that he was hardly an enthusiast for Lutherism, but used the Reformation as an excuse once Rome said 'No!' to his annulment. Stubborn old mule, he was though and the results were disastrous.
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