Click2Flicks - The Musketeer - Chapter 2

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>THE MUSKETEER</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 2 - SOURCE OF THE TROUBLE</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">The trouble in France started after <a href="http://www-4.ibm.com/software/is/dig-lib/info/graphics/luther/sl100.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Martin Luther</b></a>, at the time a German monk, <a href="http://www.wittenberg-academy.de/images/luther.jpg" target="_blank"><b>nailed</b></a> 95 <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385098766.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif" target="_blank"><b>arguments</b></a> with Rome on <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/e/seiten/thesentu.html" target="_blank"><b>the door</b></a> of the <a href="http://www.wels.net/sab/about/img-about/ml-13.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Castle</b></a> <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/e/seiten/virtuell/vir_sf01.html" target="_blank"><b>Church</b></a> in Wittenberg, Germany. It was October 31, 1517. </p> <p><a href="http://www.e-papyrus.de/images/martin%20luther.354x493.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Luther</b></a>, among other things, thought it was wrong for the Catholic Church to <a href="http://history.hanover.edu/early/trent/ct25ind.htm" target="_blank"><b>sell</b></a> "<a href="http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cascade.sarl/rabelais/photos/recuindulgence.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Indulgences</b></a>" (a piece of paper <a href="http://www.catholic-forum.com/communion/eng/library/177.shtml" target="_blank"><b>ostensibly</b></a> designed to shorten a soul’s stay in <a href="http://history.hanover.edu/early/trent/ct25pur.htm" target="_blank"><b>purgatory</b></a>). </p> <p>Since the Church used money obtained from the <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/e/seiten/ablass.html" target="_blank"><b>sale</b></a> of "<a href="http://chi.lcms.org/melanchthon/indulgences.gif" target="_blank"><b>Indulgences</b></a>" to fund projects (like St. Peter’s Basilica), <a href="http://www.wright.edu/~h.melton/images/reformation-lutherbycranach.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Luther</b></a> believed the Church was deceiving people. He argued that mankind was saved by <i>sola Scriptura</i> (Scripture - the Bible - alone) and <i>sola fide</i> (faith alone), not by the <a href="http://history.hanover.edu/early/trent.htm" target="_blank"><b>teachings</b></a> of the Catholic Church.</p> <p>With his <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/e/seiten/95thesen.html" target="_blank"><b><i>95 Theses</b></i></a>, citing Church abuses, <a href="http://www.wittenberg.de/e/seiten/virtuell/vir_sf14.html" target="_blank"><b>Luther</b></a> (follow the link to see his <a href="http://www.wels.net/sab/about/img-about/ml-03.jpg" target="_blank"><b>home</b></a> in Wittenberg) started a protest against the authority of the Catholic Church. His reforms led to the Protestant Reformation; his ideas quickly spread throughout Europe.</p> <p><a href="http://www.online-bible.com/calvin.gif" target="_blank"><b>John Calvin</b></a>, in Switzerland, agreed with Luther. His <a href="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0802881661.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg" target="_blank"><b>ideas</b></a>, set forth in <i>Institutes of the Christian Religion</i>, spread to France. By 1550, preachers brought Bibles from Switzerland into France where people converted to the Protestant faith in astonishing numbers. They were called <a href="http://www.tasc.ac.uk/histcourse/reformat/toulouse/huguen.htm" target="_blank"><b>Huguenots</b></a>.</p> <p>French Catholics believed that Protestant ideas would cause the wrath of God to descend on everyone. To avoid such a catastrophe, would they have to wipe out the Protestant faith - and its adherents - from French soil?</p> <p>Protestants, on the other hand, thought Catholics were misguided. With unrestrained arrogance, Huguenots destroyed relics Catholics held sacred even as they ruined crosses and statues of saints. </p> <p>One <a href="http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/History/Modern/Level1/1Bwarfare1SB/tsld007.htm" target="_blank"><b>powerful</b></a> French noble family (Bourbon) was Protestant while another (Guise) was Catholic. (<a href="http://mahogany.lib.utexas.edu/Libs/PCL/portraits/stuart.jpg" target="_blank"><b>Mary Queen of Scots</b></a>, a member of the Guise family, was married to the young French King Francis II, son of Catherine de Medici.)</p> <p>Each side believed its view was "truth." The stage was <a href="http://www.vwc.edu/library_resources/wwwpages/PhiAlpha/PATdoc2.html" target="_blank"><b>set</b></a> for war and massacres.</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="the_musketeer_ch1.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="the_musketeer_ch3.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>