Weekend self-care open thread: Carols from King's
When King Henry VIII of England, his wife Catherine of Aragon being unable to bear him a son and heir, broke with the Papacy because the Pope refused to annul his marriage to a woman who happened to be the niece of Emperor Charles V, who, sadly for Henry, had the distinction of being the most powerful monarch in Europe with troops ready at a moment's notice to march on Rome, much was lost. Monasteries which had dominated the landscape, economy, and culture of England for a thousand years were demolished within a generation. Glorious church art was white-washed away. Rhythms of life which had obtained since St. Augustine made his missionary journeys to the heathen Angles, Saxons, and Jutes were swept out like so much rubbish. In many ways Henry's break with Rome was a cultural revolution, and a catastrophe. But while Church art and the cults of the saints were seen as so much blasphemy, the English fell back on the glory of their civilization: their language. And one thing which...
