Tag: Reformation

Heretics & Believers!

The Other “Richard Hunne” [d. 1514]! (14.4.2024)

The Secular Court case against the murderers of Hunne was continuously adjourned so that NO decision was ever reached (with the accused being quietly pardoned and released) – whilst Parliament’s order for the Church to return the Hunne land and property was never obeyed by the Church. Such a situation represented a totalitarian Canon’s Law controlled by a foreign power (which exempted all clerics from Secular Law) – locked in a deadly competition with the local power of an absolute monarchy – which would eventually end with the destruction of the Catholic Church in England just twenty-years later (through the Dissolution of the Monasteries) and the abolition of the resultant Church of England around one-hundred years after that (During the English Civil Wars)! Such was the dialectic times that Richard Hunne existed!

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Sutton: St Nicholas Church – Interior and History! (10.9.2023)

Since around 1539 CE (and Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries) this Church has been ‘Protestant’. This is a large Church built for a substantial Township and can probably hold at least 100 worshippers at any one time. Bear in mind that there used to be a greater number of Churches in the UK per small area than there are today – and that populations used to be far smaller despite virtually everyone professing a faith. Perhaps the ample and impressive size of the Church is linked to it serving a local population with a higher social status and wealth – requiring certain standards as being seen to be kept! As far as we are concerned, archaeological structures retain the data of the past, and by studying these structures we are able to glimpse into that past!

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Henry VIII: St Alban’s the Martyr Church (Cheam) – Constructed from a Nonsuch Royal Stable! (14.5.2023)

The wood used for the roof (and support beams) dates to about 1550 CE – and was originally a very large royal stable used by King Henry VIII and I am told – his daughter – Queen Elizabeth I! It was dismantled from its original site (adjacent to Nonsuch Palace) by Shipwrights – and brought to what was once a remote area of Cheam – and reassembled (with added contemporary brickwork) to form a very large Church! The wood would have been part of a royal forest cultivated in the area – grown to make ships, buildings and other required ‘royal’ structures! Therefore, the wood itself will be far older than the 1550 CE date the barn is believed to have been originally constructed! The beams are held together entirely by wooden-pegs – just as they were originally designned to be – with no ‘modern’ nails or connecting materials! Indeed, Shipwrights reconstructed this building as if they were building a wooden ship!

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What the Holy Qur’an Says About the Moon Splitting in Two! (28.3.2023) 

‘The first verses of al-Qamar are understood by the vast majority of commentators as a reference to a miracle performed by the Prophet. One evening he was addressing a group of disbelievers and Muslims on the plain of Mina, just outside of Makkah. The disbelievers had been disputing with the Prophet for several days, demanding a miracle as proof of his prophethood, and they began to do so again. The Prophet then raised his hand and pointed to the moon, whereupon it appeared to separate into two halves, one on either side of nearby Mt. Hira. He then said, “Bear witness!”, and the line of separation disappeared. All were left speechless, but his opponents soon discounted it as an illusion produced by sorcery. According to one account, one of the disbelievers said, “Muhammed has merely bewitched us, but he cannot bewitch the entire world. Let us wait for travellers to come from faraway places and hear what reports they bring.” Then, when some travellers arrived in Makkah a few days later, they confirmed that they too had witnessed the splitting of the moon.’

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