雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界歷史67 基督徒的爭吵

67
Christians Quarrel
基督徒的爭吵

     SOME people say young boys and girls can't understand this chapter. They say it is too difficult. But I want to see if it is.
     Up to this time, as I have told you before, in Western Europe had been one Christian religion-the Catholic. There was no Episcopalian, nor Methodist, nor Baptist, nor Presbyterian, nor any other denomination. All were just Christians.
     In the sixteenth century, however, some people began to think that changes should be made in the Catholic religion.
     Others thought changes should not be made.
     Some said it was all right as it was.
     Others said it wasn't all right as it was. So a quarrel started.
     This is the way the trouble began. The pope was building a great church called St. Peter's in Rome. It took the place of the old church that Constantine had built on the spot where St. Peter was supposed to have been crucified head down. The pope wanted it to be the largest and finest church in the world, for Christ had said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock [Peter means rock in Latin] I will build my church. ..." So the Church of St. Peter's was to be the Capitol of the Christian religion. Both Michelangelo and Raphael had worked on the plans for the new church. In order to get marble and stone and other materials for this Church of St. Peter, the pope did as others before him had done; he tore down other buildings in Rome and used their stone for the new church.
     Besides all this the pope needed an enormous amount of money to build such a magnificent church as he had planned. So he started to collect from the people. Now, there was a man in Germany named Martin Luther who was a monk and a teacher of religion in a college. Martin Luther thought that not only this but also other things in the Catholic Church were not right. He made a list of ninety-five things that he thought were not right and nailed them up on the church door in the town where he lived, and he preached against doing these things. The pope sent Luther an order to stop, but Luther made a bonfire and burned it publicly. Many took sides with Luther, and before long there was a great body of people who had left the Catholic Church and no longer obeyed the pope.
     The pope called on the king of Spain to help in this quarrel with Luther. The reason he called on him was this: the king of Spain was Charles V, the grandson of the Ferdinand and Isabella who had helped Columbus. He was not only a good Catholic but the most powerful ruler in Europe. The Spanish explorers had claimed large parts of America and so Charles was owner of a large part of the New World. But he was emperor not only of these Spanish settlements in America but of Austria and of Germany as well. It was quite natural that the pope should go to Charles for help.
     Charles commanded Luther to come to a city named Worms to be tried. He promised Luther that no harm would be done him, and so Luther went. When Luther arrived at Worms, Charles ordered him to take back all he had said. Luther refused to do so. Some of Charles's nobles said Luther should be burned at the stake. But Charles, as he had promised, let him go and did not punish him for his belief. Luther's friends were afraid, though, that other Catholics might do him harm. They knew Luther would take no care of himself, and so they themselves took him prisoner and kept him shut up for over a year, so that no one could harm him. While Luther was in prison, he translated the Bible into German; it was the first time that the Bible had been written in that language.

Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn
亨利八世和他的第二任妻子安妮?博林
     The people who protested against what the pope did were called Protestants, and the new churches that grew from this protest are still called Protestant today. The time when these changes were made in the Catholic form of worship was called Re-form-ation, as the old religion was reformed.
     Now, you may be a Catholic and your best friend may not be a Catholic, but that makes no difference in your friendship. But at that time those who were Catholics were deadly enemies of those who were not, and vice versa. Each side was sure it alone was right and the other side was wrong. Each side fought for the things it thought were right, fought the other side as furiously and madly and bitterly as if the other side were scoundrels and devils. Friends and relatives murdered each other because they thought differently about religion, and yet all were supposed to be Christians.
     Charles was greatly worried and troubled by the religious quarrels and other difficulties in his vast empire. He became sick and tired of being emperor and of having to settle all the many problems he had to solve. He wanted to be free to do other things that he was more interested in. Being king did not mean being able to do whatever you wanted, as some people think. Charles then did what few rulers have ever done voluntarily: He resigned-abdicated, as it is called- and gave up his throne to his son, who was named Philip II.
     Charles, glad to be rid of all the cares of state, went to live in a monastery. There he spent his time doing what he liked-what do you suppose?-making mechanical toys and watches-until he died!
     Now, the king of England at this time, when Charles was king of Spain, was Henry VIII. His last name was Tudor. So many kings had first names which were alike that such names were numbered to tell which Charles or Henry was meant and how many of the same name there had been before. Henry VIII was, at first, also a strong Catholic, and the pope had called him Defender of the Faith. But Henry had a wife whom he wanted to divorce because she had no son. Henry wanted a son to succeed him as king and keep England united. In order to divorce her so that he might marry again, he had to have the agreement of the pope because the pope was the only one who could give Henry a divorce. Now, the pope at Rome was head of the Christian Church in all of Europe and the Americas and said what Christians could do or could not do, no matter whether they were in Italy or Spain or England. Henry asked the pope to grant him this divorce. The pope, however, told him he would not give him a divorce.
     Now, Henry thought it was neither right nor proper that a man in another country-even if he were pope-should say what could be done in England. He himself was ruler, and he didn't intend to let any foreigner meddle in his affairs or give him orders.
     Then Henry said that he himself would be head of all the Christians in England; then he could do as he wished without the pope's permission. So he made himself head, and then he divorced his wife. All the churches in England were now told by the king what they should do; the pope no longer had anything to say in the matter; the English churches obeyed the king, not the pope. This made the second big break in the Catholic Church.
     After this, Henry VIII had five other wives, six in all; not of course all at one time, for Christians could only have one wife at a time. His first wife he divorced, the second he beheaded, the third died. The same thing happened to his last three wives: the first he divorced, the second he beheaded, and the third survived. Henry died before she did.
     Is this too difficult for you to understand?