{"id":64802,"date":"2017-07-08T07:00:56","date_gmt":"2017-07-08T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/?p=64802"},"modified":"2017-07-12T17:20:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T00:20:27","slug":"to-go-deep-into-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/2017\/07\/08\/to-go-deep-into-history\/","title":{"rendered":"To go deep into history&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-64803 alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/CofE.jpg\" alt=\"CofE\" width=\"270\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/CofE.jpg 540w, https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/CofE-169x300.jpg 169w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/>Cardinal Newman famously said that <span style=\"color: #000080\">&#8220;&#8230;to go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant&#8221;<\/span>. I couldn&#8217;t help but think of this quotation when a friend of mine sent me a screenshot of the Church of England Twitter account, remembering the <span style=\"color: #000080\">&#8220;Reformation Martyrs&#8221;<\/span> St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. While I can appreciate the ecumenical good-will which no doubt motivated the tweet, the history of these two men renders this tweet exceptionally odd.<\/p>\n<p>Both Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher were Catholics who were executed by King Henry VIII. They were killed because they opposed the King&#8217;s divorce of Catherine of Aragon, his marriage to Anne Boleyn and the break from Rome which this remarriage necessitated. It is therefore more than a little strange for the Church of England to hold in high regard two men who shed their blood in opposing the creation of their own institution!<\/p>\n<p>On a personal note, when I lived in London, the gym which I attended was very close to the location of their execution on Tower Hill, so I would quite often pray the Divine Office on that martyrdom site.<\/p>\n<p>It has been said that\u00a0shortly before Bishop Fisher&#8217;s execution, he opened St. John&#8217;s Gospel and read the following:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"color: #993300\">&#8220;Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ. I have given You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave me to do. Do You now, Father, give me glory at Your side&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"color: #993300\">&#8211; John 17:3-5<\/span><\/p>\n<p>After closing the book, the good bishop commented <span style=\"color: #000080\">&#8220;There is enough learning in that to last me the rest of my life&#8221;<\/span>. \u00a0St. More and St. Fisher, pray for us.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardinal Newman famously said that &#8220;&#8230;to go deep into history is to cease to be Protestant&#8221;. I couldn&#8217;t help but think of this quotation when a friend of mine sent me a screenshot of the Church of England Twitter account, remembering the &#8220;Reformation Martyrs&#8221; St. Thomas More and St. John Fisher. While I can appreciate the ecumenical good-will which no<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[1888,2969,4388,4389,4390],"class_list":["post-64802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apologetics","tag-church-of-england","tag-featured","tag-king-henry-viii","tag-st-john-fisher","tag-st-thomas-more"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Thomas-More.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64804,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64802\/revisions\/64804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}