Tuesday, June 28, 2011

It seems to me that if you......

....want a good history book, it's best to go back a few years.  When I was in Vancouver earlier this month for my ERCP, I called in at the Vancouver Library and picked up this copy of "How the Reformation Happened."  by Hilaire Belloc.  He didn't disappoint me.  Packed with information, a very thorough description of the Reformation as it unfolded, he tells in a short book the major sequence of events in England, Scotland, France, Germany and Holland.  I would like to have a copy of this book for reference.  He claims that when it started, the Reformation was not about Doctrine, but a protest against clerical and Papal abuses, and a realization by the nobility that it was an opportunity to get rich by plundering Church and Monastic property, and that it was a movement of nobles more than a popular uprising.  Also surprising was the involvement of Islam, which won in Hungary at the battle of Mohacs in August 1526, which distracted the German Emperor and stopped him from quelling the rebellion at home.  He also claims that Henry Vlll's break from the Pope was not meant to be permanent, Kings did that all the time.  But that Henry died before he could repair the break.  Excellent book.

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