Browsing: Religion

A Brief History On April 23, 1348, King Edward III of England proclaimed The Order of the Garter on the feast day of St. George, the Patron Saint of England. Originally called The Most Noble Order of the Garter, it was conceived as the highest award for chivalry in the age of knights. Today, the Order still exists, but ranks behind the Victoria Cross and the George Cross in the hierarchy of British medals. Digging Deeper As you may expect, the Order of the Garter comes from an incident concerning a woman’s garter, a mini-belt that holds up one’s stockings.…

A Brief History On April 21, 1509, King Henry VIII of England ascended to the throne when his father, King Henry VII died. Henry VIII was the second of the Tudor monarchs of England and is best known for his 6 star crossed marriages and for taking England away from the Catholic Church and into the Protestant fold. Henry VIII was also the father of England’s next three monarchs, giving him a pivotal role in English History. Digging Deeper (Note: The premium cable television channel, Showtime, featured a 4 season series starting in 2007 called The Tudors, basically chronicling the…

A Brief History On April 11, 1689, King James II of England, Scotland, and Ireland was deposed by his son-in-law and daughter, William III and Mary II who became joint sovereigns on this date. James II, the second son of King Charles I and younger brother of King Charles II, became King of England (and King James VII of Scotland) upon the death of Charles II. James II was a Roman Catholic, the last such monarch in England. Digging Deeper James II had generated suspicion and loathing among the mostly Protestant population of England and Great Britain, accused of being…

A Brief History On April 10, 2018, adherents of the Anglican Church celebrate the Feast Day of St. William of Ockham, the Franciscan theologian and philosopher that gave us the logical tool known as Occam’s Razor, an idea oversimplified as ‘the briefest, most likely explanation is the best.’ Digging Deeper Born in Ockham, Surrey, England around 1285, William joined the Franciscan Order as a lad and was probably educated at Oxford, believed to have completed his studies in theology for a master’s degree which was apparently not awarded (for unknown reasons). William wrote an unpopular commentary on the Peter Lombard…

A Brief History On March 25, 1811, Percy Bysshe Shelley was booted from the University of Oxford (England) for the publishing of a pamphlet titled The Necessity of Atheism, a continuation of a long history of discrimination and persecution of atheists and agnostics by religious believers. In spite of a long, slow march toward religious toleration of competing beliefs, atheism did not enjoy any sort of rapprochement with “mainstream” religion and still has not. Digging Deeper Around the time of the Enlightenment and the American and French Revolutions, a growing number of educated and prominent figures had gravitated away from…