There's Just Something About The 16th Century

Of late I have become an Elizabethan. I have been occupying myself with watching series like "Wold Hall" (2015) which tells the story of King Henry VIII's right hand Thomas Cromwell, and features figures like Sir Thomas Moore who wrote Utopia, and controversies that surrounded the Reformation in England. What I love about sixteenth century is Scripture is finally available in the languages of people, and all the pomp and beauty of Roman Church is still standing. It was an intersection of my two favorites, Solae Scriptura and the Splendor of Rome. I had equal love for the Protestant in black cap and gown, and the Red Cardinal with golden pectoral crosses. I find myself in vein of Queen Elizabeth I of England, who unlike the rest of Europe which splintered into Protestant and Catholic states, decided to allow her kingdom to be a combination of both peoples, as she said "There is One Christ, and these are but two ways to serve Him." From hence Elizabeth developed a middle road which varies in its Scripture adherence and Canon Law, called Anglicanism.

I once was Medievalist, who found charm in the time of Crusades, Pilgrimages, and knights. My heart has shifted of late into the Sixteenth century, where I find God's Holy Bible available and all splendor of Cathedrals and crosses still intact. I do not have to submit to Rome as the Medieval People did, nor do I have to endure modern tech in Protestant Churches today. There was a time when we Protestants looked regal and splendid too, but now greasy hair, hairless bodies, and the same untucked dress shirt with some kind of lines prevails. O how I would love to have caps of Thomas Cromwell, Martin Luther, and William Tyndale, but I might add the Pectoral cross of Cardinal Wolseley, Cardinal Cajetan, and Pope Pius II. The time of English Reformation to me is a glorious period of tolerance and transformation. Elizabeth battled the radicals on both sides, Papists (Catholics loyal to Pope alone) and Puritans (Protestants), while trying to make the plethora and majority of her people happy and able to practice their Catholic or Protestant faith in peace.

Although I be a Protestant, I would not have wanted those overpious Puritans (Colossians 2:23) to prevail, nor the Papists with their Inquisition. Instead, I would take road of Queen Elizabeth, who sensibly allowed everyone to have their differences. In today's day and age of Snow Flakeism, and no one able to forbear a difference of opinion, I wish we would all look to Elizabeth, a Christian Queen, and see how she handled the situation with grace and kindness. In an age when our Church in all its Trinitarian denominations is fragmenting further and fighting bitterly, I wish, nay I pray we would take a chapter from Christ and Paul the Apostle, "I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me," (John 17:20-21), and "If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other." (Galatians 5:15). I am not delusional that we can just unifiy all of Christendom overnight, there are differences we Protestants and Catholics can never concede or forgo, but we can be unified enough, we can afford our differences and be family in the areas of agreement. I am not advocating an ecumenism that is being promoted by the Papacy or EOC, but I do believe the least we can do to fulfill our Lord's prayer is to be friendly, have dialouges, and agree to disagree with respect on matters we cannot agree on. Amen.