Yeah, my most enduring memory of that whole trip to see the living lord in Rome is the visit to the Vatican where I saw the indent on the sculpture from all the people kissing it's feet. remarkable. I mean I can understand it with stairs - all those feet going up and down would wear a dip in the stone but kissing? oh I know, maybe the monks used to scrub it clean all the time.
I think I got a pretty normal 60's education in England - tres establishment. Nothing going on there. When the vicar banned our unruly class from church no problem, it was more secular the religious.
Or was it. I still remember how spooky it was learning about the reign of Bloody Mary. How she had people burnt at the stake and how terrible it was. No mention, not one about how Catholics had been burnt at the stake in the years before and she was just doing the same to Protestants. And it wasn't as if it wasn't known at the time - I remember reading about the Catholics being burnt in a university book I had found shortly after leaving school.
I have been watching a history of Spain. Oy. it was about the Inquisition and Ferdinand and Isabella, what a bloodthirsty pair they were. Christianity at it's most terrifying and equalling Islam in it's brutal believer-based warfare. Well winning, and taking back the territory previously taken by Islam. Once they had established modern Spain, they said it would be alright if you converted to Christianity but then they set up the inquisition and fortunes were made and lost. On the race and religion side of what it was about, it was aimed at the Jews more than the Muslims. You had to eat non-kosher ham if you wanted to stay alive.
In Australia, touch wood, it's still pretty secular but if religious sentiments get going here it will be a real mess.
