Dead body paraded around in Britain

[Ben Kenobi]

that's the first time I've ever heard of them.

The first time I ever heard of them was when I was 22 or so. That was my reaction too.

[MikeH]

Your reaction the first time you heard of something was that it was the first time you had heard of it?

:shock:

[Ben Kenobi]

Your reaction the first time you heard of something was that it was the first time you had heard of it?

I was puzzled why I had never heard of them before.

[MikeH]

I am not puzzled why I have never heard of them. It's just some Catholic church label.

Obviously I had learnt about the brutal way Catholics were treated in the reformation, in my anglican school history classes.

[Ben Kenobi]

Obviously I had learnt about the brutal way Catholics were treated in the reformation, in my anglican school history classes

That makes one of us. We were taught about Good Queen Bess and Bloody Mary. Oddly enough we weren't taught that the connection the current royals have to the past royals is through Charles I. That rather deviates from the plot.

[kentonio]

That makes one of us. We were taught about Good Queen Bess and Bloody Mary.

Why do you keep coming back to this considering how utterly ridiculous you ended up looking last time?

Oddly enough we weren't taught that the connection the current royals have to the past royals is through Charles I. That rather deviates from the plot.

Because the only plot is in your mind?

[giblets]

Is Ben proving you can't convert to Catholicism without being mentally deranged?

[regexcellent]

G.K. Chesterton wasn't deranged.

But Ben seems to be doing his best to do that, yes.

[Ben Kenobi]

Why do you keep coming back to this considering how utterly ridiculous you ended up looking last time?

Are you saying you weren't taught about Good Queen Bess?

Because the only plot is in your mind?

So clearly you've forgot.

[kentonio]

Are you saying you weren't taught about Good Queen Bess?

The only contemporary person I've heard use that expression is you. Over here the Tudors are simply taught as distant history, the focus is usually on Henry VIII and chiefly because of his nasty habit of murdering his wives. Elizabeth is generally seen as fairly good for her time, because for her time she was, but there is no deeper undercurrent there. The reason you don't understand this is because you don't understand that very few British people care about religion anymore, and the old wars of Protestant vs Catholic are long dead.

[Ben Kenobi]

They don't teach that Bloody Mary = Mary Tudor?

[kentonio]

Of course, and you know what? It doesn't have a damn thing to do with her being a Catholic, it has to do with the woman being a bloodythirsty theocrat who earned that name. Do we talk about the 'bloody' earlier Henry's? How about 'Bloody' James II? No, the only one who earned that title was a cruel Queen who spilled blood like it was water.

[Ben Kenobi]

it has to do with the woman being a bloodythirsty theocrat

very few British people care about religion anymore

Ah, so you were lying then when you said that 'people today don't care about religion.' Gotcha. Thought so. People obviously do care because the 'good guys' won.

[kentonio]

Ah, so you were lying then when you said that 'people today don't care about the religious wars.' Gotcha. Thought so.

Please quote where I said that people don't care about the religious wars. Go on, I dare you.

People obviously do care about them because the 'good guys' won.

People care about right and wrong, yes. They judge the monarchs largely on whether what they did was good or bad by the standards of the time. The catholic/protestant thing is history, it's so rare to meet people here that are openly religious, that the idea of protestants and catholics being at each others throats seems laughably archaic.

[Ben Kenobi]

People care about right and wrong, yes. They judge the monarchs largely on whether what they did was good or bad by the standards of the time. The catholic/protestant thing is history, it's so rare to meet people here that are openly religious, that the idea of protestants and catholics being at each others throats seems laughably archaic.

Oh, I see. What I see is that anti-Catholic bigotry has simply shifted from protestants to secularists. Elizabeth executed more people than Queen Mary ever did, yet she gets a pass because she's on the 'good side', ie, not Catholic.