In 1535, three years before King Henry VIII ordered the sacking and burning of Marian shrines in England, the arch-heretic Calvin encouraged his followers to tear down and burn paintings and statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the city of Geneva.
An example of this hatred for Our Lady and the saints is expressed in the destruction of these statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht. See how their faces are bashed in.
The fact that the common faithful could be influenced by a heretical preacher to smash holy and sacred statues that they had venerated with special respect until then, seems to indicate that their devotion to Our Lady had waned considerably before these events took place.
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Picture by Arktos of statues in the Cathedral of Saint Martin in Utrecht is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license.
I am Orthodox Catholic, and the Roman Church is silly on many matters(but perhaps not heretical but off a bit) but that is primarily the fault of the Carolingian's quest for power and not the laity, which is the church, not the pope(before the schism, many were named saints, after, 3 I believe as many were heretics), not the beautiful cathedrals, or the papacy. Catholicism aside from the filioque and legalist tendancies(which lead to many ridiculous situations about a soul in grace or not as if it is some instant transformation back and forth rather than a life long process) is still for the most part orthodox. This blasphemy against images is the islam of Christianity. Banal, foul, and heritical in the worst way. It hearkens back to the Marcionist heresy. They hang on to such evils despite the fact it was refuted 1800 years ago and in this case 1300 years ago. God made that which is beautiful. And they despise it, and lust for it all at once. I almost pray that Calvin is burning, but I am just as much a wretch as he. May Christ have mercy on us all...
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean by 'Orthodox Catholic'? The term isn't widely used... Perhaps its 'traditional' that you mean?
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