My View from Mill Bay
View this:
Climate: The Movie (The Cold Truth) English (youtube.com)
It doesn’t matter anyway because Climate ideology is a religious cult. It has become the new Reformation of religious thought. It is a matter of faith to most climate zealots and believers. Science be damned.
There will be a reckoning though, led by the working masses, people such as you and me.
Some more from the story I am working on:
“Luther was summarily excommunicated for his beliefs but no matter. For what was the authority of the Church or the Pope if not for God’s laws and the word of Jesus Christ as the only true word for a God fearing Christian to believe.
“In spite of all of this, it was a wonderful time to be alive, to be a Christian and to be free of the financial burden, encumbrances and stranglehold of a pompous papacy. For the working classes, of which I now belonged, it was also a very, very dangerous time.
“What were the consequences of this religious reformation and the 95 Theses of Martin Luther? Churches were burned or stripped bare of any vestiges of Catholicism; religious icons were demolished and destroyed; defrocked Priests and Nuns were suddenly free to marry; Papal Bulls galore, excommunications, heretical dictates, the Inquisition, murders, debauchery, fraud, licentiousness, wars and purges. Life was anything but boring in this new awakening.
“As this reformation took hold across much of Europe and the British Isles there was no turning back as new leaders of the Reformation would emerge. John Calvin, born in Picardy France, schooled in Paris, and enemy of Catholic France, practiced and preached his unique form of Protestantism in Switzerland and Strasbourg. He was a liturgical genius who transcribed what could be called a religious Declaration of Independence, his “Institutes.” In them he laid down the foundation and pillars of worship for this new form of worship. His sermons in Geneva were legendary so much so that the city fathers protected him from every threat that could be conceived by the Catholic Church to undermine his personal security. His work emerged as seminal and his doctrine, interpretation of the word of God and his view of worship ultimately spread to France, the Lowlands, Switzerland, Germany, the New World and South Africa. Italy was a non sequitur to this new doctrine of Christ. France was unique however in that France could not decide how it would go. Nationally, officially, this country was Catholic but there were many who leaned toward the Protestant way. Huguenots, The House of Burgundy were renowned in the Protestant faith but a purely Machiavellian scheme by Catherine de Medici arose to undermine the Protestant cause. This led to the St Bartholomew’s Day massacre in August, September, 1572 in which up to 30,000 French Protestants were killed in Paris and outward across France. If anything else the efficacy of killing in the name of the Catholic faith was impressive and without equal.
“St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre was the worst of the religious skirmishes to date although there was worse to come. The 80 years war between Spain and the Low Countries, 1568 – 1648, would result in the Dutch Republic and Dutch Calvinism and the Dutch “Golden Era”. The 30 Year’s War, 1618-1648, enveloped much of central Europe and culminated with the Treaty Of Westphalia of 1648. The interesting thing about the 30 Year’s War was its brutality. Ferdinand II of the Holy Roman Emperor thought to impose Catholicism as the national and only religion across his entire empire. Naturally, this sparked outrage and rebellion. He failed to implement his Catholicism at great cost in human and material resources. It is thought that up to 8 million fatalities occurred, about a third of the population of Europe. Most of the European nations and nation or city states were engaged in this Protestant versus Catholicism conflict. The plague returned. Famine was rampant. Religious fervour, especially Catholicism, was severely undermined. It would never return as the dominant form of worship in Europe. Westphalia? Finally, officially, underscored and under written by a political treaty, meant religious freedom and respite from the shackles of Rome, the Papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. Westphalia also meant the genesis of the European nation states.
“Who would have thought that such carnage could occur over the Love of Christ? We here in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland however were not immune to the chaos. While Europe was aflame in one of the most terrifying and devastating conflicts in World History, we were experiencing our own form of religious terrorism. This so called religious reformation was evident in our island nation. Our King, Henry VIII, watched the events of Reformation Europe unfold with the writings and teachings of Martin Luther and later John Calvin. However he was not a admirer of this monk and publicly criticized and adopted religious change but purely for his own selfish reasons.
“This Martin Luther is an abomination, a religious zealot, insane, with the peasant mind. These 95 Theses? Religious, heretical trash from the mind of a mad monk” so thought Henry VIII. He added to that with his infamous pamphlet “Defence of the Seven Sacraments.”
You can imagine how Pope Leo X viewed Henry’s remarks.
“The defender of the Faith.” he exclaimed of the robust, dynamic and influential monarch.
“I am “The Defender of the Faith” retorted Henry, who was justly proud of this confer and publicly rejoiced in the papal laurel right up until he died. Indeed the English Kings and Queens right up to your day and age still confer upon themselves this title, proudly.
Too bad these brothers didn’t get along. Great group.
Have a great day.
SJ……….………………………………Out
From my next book: 10 Monks Orchard:
“In my country, England, Henry VI gave way to Edward IV formally ending the 100 years war in 1475. Henry VII, from the House of Tudor, would reign supreme over us as he emerged victorious from that English civil war that was known as the War of the Roses – a conflict between two major houses of England – Lancaster and York. I am not entirely cognizant of the whys and wherefores of this conflict only to say that the House of Lancaster won out and Henry VII reigned over his kingdom, our land, us, with fortitude, resolve and without challenge. There will be another one, a bloody civil in England, as all civil wars are bloody affairs I can tell you, but later as you shall see. Yet these conflicts were important in some respects due to the naturally defined evolutionary growth that occurred over a span of a hundred plus years in weapons, tactics, discipline, loyalties and untold cruelty. Unintentionally, the consequences of such a long and protracted conflict as the 100 Years War saw the emergence of a new, hard working and imaginative middle class of merchants and skilled tradesmen. This was a new working order or middle class that relied upon innovative thought, imaginative discourse and a new work ethic. The age of chivalry, knighted knights of armour and feudalism was over. It was as if a humanistic approach to our meagre existence was beginning to take shape. And out of a religious and territorial war no less!
“Interestingly, what came about out of the wake of this 100 year conflict between France and my country England was an awakening of thought and essence, not in a spiritual context but more of a secular nature. It would emerge out of the Papal States, and ironically, the city of Rome. For this era would prove to be an age of enlightenment; a renaissance of spirit; a new life-force; and an exciting but equally dangerous time for one’s personal well being. But we did not know that at the time. For life was cheap and for the holy Catholic Church, intolerant. From cradle to grave the local clergy of the Roman Catholic Church was omnipresent, controlling every aspect of our lives. For these priests with their black robes and thick black cloaks of heavenly woven fabric represented to us a fearful existence. They were anything but a beacon of light. More-so a dark and impervious lead mark to death and damnation for anyone that considered a break from the centuries old traditions of the Catholic Church. Work and pray, worship and pay, submit your tithe, sacrifice with good deeds, were the hallmarks of salvation. Anything else was heresy.
“The Italian led Renaissance was truly enlightenment after centuries of intellectual darkness. Humanism: Raphael, Leonardo Da Vinci, Copernicus, Michelangelo, the printing press, philosophical rediscovery, was making huge inroads in art, culture, architecture and politics. Classical philosophy was rediscovered. The Greek philosopher Protagoras came to light with his “Man is the measurement of all things,” which in reality was a manifestation of everything that was beginning to take hold in this day and age.. This renewal of thought and new age thinking would have a profound impact on all of Europe. It would have a huge impact on us working and peasant classes as well as the nobility and rulers.
“But equally important, especially to the great unwashed hordes like myself, was the beginning of a religious reformation or liturgical reform of the Catholic faith itself. This would have a significant and profound impact on the lives and well being of all of Europe. Protestantism would soon take hold: slowly and gradually but with a surety; at first snaking and winding its way across the land until its revolutionary doctrine began to reverberate through the various kingdoms of Catholic Europe. The new religious awakening of Luther and Calvin would bring the Catholic hierarchy to their knees and shake Catholic liturgy and doctrine to its very core. The foundation of Catholicism was beginning to crack.
Who would have thought? Salvation being a gift from God based on individual faith and not on some nefarious righteousness or a bevy of good deeds that one had to achieve through personal sacrifice, confession, atonement, absolution and penance. And only from the third party intervention of a priest no doubt. No, salvation lay between God and the individual himself. It was time, or so men like Luther thought, to rid oneself of the middle man. Trappings such as the Church, priests, religious icons, the Virgin Mary and all of the saints were distractions and were anathema to one’s personal salvation and personal dialogue with God himself through his son Jesus Christ. The only true word was the word of God. The only true laws were those laws found in the Holy Bible. All other church laws, canon law, that fell under the yoke of Catholic Christendom were man’s law and not God’s law and therefore irrelevant to man’s salvation and rebirth in Christianity. This notion of salvation was unbelievable to someone like me.
“As you can imagine this new religious orthodoxy did not go over well with the Catholic Church. That some unknown, obscure, fanatical and spiritually troubled German monk by the name of Martin Luther would inscribe and nail to a church’s door in Wittenberg a list of some 95 Theses or talking points that were meant for religious liturgical and theological debate. It would spark a debate of course but one that no one ever expected or anticipated, least of all Luther. These Theses represented a radical departure from traditional theological ideas of faith and worship. A departure and divorce from accepted religious doctrine that would radiate and resonate like some theological poison, a liturgical plague or a spiritual Black Death, throughout the papacy’s areas of influence. An area of influence that was considerable as it encompassed much of the known world. But the time of reform had come. The Renaissance made sure of that even if it played to a secular crowd. The invention of the printing press about 1439 [1] brought the revolutionary word of God to the masses. At least to those who could read. Gutenberg’s invention became the internet of our day. Martin Luther, the German monk who started it all, became an international star.
[1] 1439 – Gutenberg’s First Moveable Type. By 1450 presses were in operation
https://youtu.be/7Gx1Pv02w3Q
Have a great Navy Day
SJ……….………………….Out