QUOTE=LilyM;3715497]What about the Reformation? Didn’t the clergy of England and Northern Europe en masse - almost TO A MAN - leave the Church then?
Uh…no. However, since you mentioned England specifically, a good portion of our priesthood in that country went underground & many were persecuted, some to the point of death. ; the Act of Supremacy made the King of England the ‘only supreme head on earth of the Church’ & Catholic priests, Bishops & laity were required to take an oath that they supported this Act. Any rebellion or disagreement was considered treason. It was under this act that St.Thomas More & approximately 160 Catholic priests were executed. Queen Elizabeth I’s scorn for Jesuit missionaries led to many executions at Tyburn. Since Ireland was under the rule of the Enflish Crown, the Irish were “punished” for the rebellion of 1641 & their priesthood was hard hit by persecution & execution…
A little study into the different orders of Catholic priests, especially in Ireland, would amaze you. In that country Priests, martyrs of the order of St. Augustine,during the Protestant “Reformation” are Peter Taaffe and Fulgentius Jordan, executed under Oliver Cromwell in 1649. Their cause is presently proposed for beatification.
William Tirrey was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992. He was hanged in 1654 at Clonmel after appealing to the people to stand firm in their Catholic beliefe.
Other friars remained in hiding or were scattered throughout the continent of Europe. In 1656 some took up residence at San Matteo in Merulana, thanks to the intervention of Pope Alexander VII and began the history of the Irish Augustinian community in Rome.
Your comparison of the Council called Vatican II & the Protestant Reformation really surprised me for a few minutes. However, considering that both have been very destructive to the priesthood…one murdering their bodies & one their vocations…it might just be appropos.
'Taint nothing new under the sun. The Good Book was the first to say so, so it must be true. :yup: :getholy: And your 66 years of experience is a mere blink of an eye in terms of Church time. Don’t be so shortsighted as to think because you’d never seen it before in your lifetime that it’s never happened before.
Well, considering the fact that I said that, “during my 66 years as a Catholic” it’s those years that I was talking about. However, giving you a little instruction re the Catholic priesthood & the Protestant Reformation has made it worthwhile to go a little farther back than my own lifetime.
BTW., Have you ever heard of St. John Fisher. He’s another Catholic victim of the Reformation:
A special commission for Fisher’s trial was issued, and he was arraigned in Westminster Hall on a charge of treason, in that **he denied the king to be supreme head of the Church. **Since he had been deprived of his bishopric by the Act of Attainder, he was treated as a commoner, and tried by jury. He was declared guilty, and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, but the mode of execution was changed, and instead he was beheaded on Tower Hill.
**The martyr’s last moments were thoroughly in keeping with his previous life. He met death with a calm dignified courage which profoundly impressed all present. His headless body was stripped and left on the scaffold till evening, when it was thrown naked into a grave in the churchyard of Allhallows, Barking. Thence it was removed a fortnight later and laid beside that of Sir Thomas More in the church of St. Peter ad Vincula by the Tower. His head was stuck upon a pole on London Bridge, but its ruddy and lifelike appearance excited so much attention that, after a fortnight, it was thrown into the Thames, its place being taken by that of Sir Thomas More, whose martyrdom occurred on 6 July next following. **
