At 08:54 PM 1/29/2004 -0800, Vance Wood wrote: >Hi Caroline: > >I did not realize that you expected me to write a book.
Come now, Vance. A book and a simplified-to-the-point-of-error paragraph are not the only possibilities. >You might want to >check out my response to Herbert Ward. The one with more sweeping generalizations? >The Church at the time had this ingrained arrogance that only they had full >knowledge of God, and that the rest of the people could not begin to >understand what the Bible had to say. >No I did not forget Martin Luther, but if Henry VIII had not done what he >did at about the same time I think Luther may have faltered. On the contrary, it was Luther's circle that nurtured the English reformers at the earliest stages. Cranmer was secretly married to Philip Melancthon's daughter. Others were sheltered by Calvin in Geneva during the reign of Queen Mary. >Now the church >had to deal with a heretic nation, not just a heretic monk. Excuse me, but reducing all the turmoil of the Reformation in continental Europe to a single heretic monk is, well, another sweeping generalization. It lets you make a nice rhetorical point, but it's just not true. You persist in seeing the Church as monolithic, which it wasn't. Incidentally, there's a very good novel about Cranmer by Godfrey Turton, "My Lord of Canterbury." He's sympathetic to Cranmer, as am I. Caroline ********************************* Caroline Usher DCMB Administrative Coordinator 613-8155 Box 91000
