Every morning as part of my study I take the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, open it at random, and read three entries.
On Wednesday I opened and read a small article about the Saint, Margaret Clitherow. I was startled a bit when I read that her feast day was October 25th, which was Wednesday. It was like a little bit of a divine synchronicity. What I read though, made me blanch, and wince and feel disgusted. Margaret is a Saint in the Catholic Church because she was executed by Protestants for her faith.
It's a dark story. The year is 1586 in the city of York, England. York was a Protestant city where Catholicism was outlawed. Participation in the local Protestant parish was legally mandated. If you didn’t attend church, you were fined, punished, and imprisoned.
Margaret was an ordinary woman. The wife of a butcher. She had two children. After giving birth to her second child, she converted to Catholicism. By becoming a Catholic she stepped outside the legal religion, Protestantism. By refusing to attend parish worship she was put on a list of those who were not willing to conform. It was a protestant hit list. The local pastors and leaders were looking for how to trap Margaret and do away with her.
She was eventually brought before the protestant court where she was tried for non-attendance at church. She was found guilty and was sentenced to prison. Her time in prison only emboldened her faith.
When she was released to her home, she secretly started allowing priests to hold mass in her home. She created a secret room in the basement of her house to hide priests.
Someone tipped off the town officials and they raided Margaret’s home. They found priests vestments and vessels for holding mass. She was arrested.
She was tried before the local tribunal but was unwilling to make a plea. She didn’t want to force her children to testify against her. As punishment the judge in the case was quoted as saying, “You will be stripped naked, laid down, and your hands and feet tied to posts and a sharp stone placed beneath your back, with as much weight laid upon you as you are able to bear, until you are pressed to death.”
While awaiting her execution in prison, Protestant preachers and church leaders came to her encourage her to recant her catholic faith. She refused. She was committed to martyrdom.
On the fateful day she was taken to the middle of a bridge, stripped, laid down, a rock was placed behind her back to break her spine and a door was placed upon her. Heavy stones were placed on the door until she was crushed to death.
All in the name of the Protestant Church and Jesus Christ.
It makes me nauseous.
What’s even more, the history of the church is filled with such barbaric actions all in the name of the God of love and Jesus the Christ. Battles fought, thousands killed as Catholics and Protestants waged war against each other.
Have we changed all that much? Sometimes I wonder if there are some old-line conservative fundamentalists who would love to squash those of us who dare to differ with their orthodoxy. I also wonder if there are those of us on the progressive spectrum who would love to do the same back.
I pray someday we can find tolerance and common ground with those we disagree with. Our Christian community could radically change, if we all worked to find common ground, or at least mutual respect for those with different beliefs.
As I read my dictionary and pour over church history, I find stories of people who inspire my own life and faith. I read and wonder would I have as much commitment as they did?
As a Protestant, I read the story of Margaret Clitherow and confess our sin and ask for forgiveness that our ancestors in the faith could have committed such atrocities.
As Protestants and Catholics, as well as people of all religions, may we all commit ourselves to building bridges and finding avenues of communication so we may all celebrate what it means to be children of God.
Steve
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