has the reformation achieved its purpose?

While the split with the Eastern Orthodox church had a lot to do with geography, the Reformation came about solely as a protest against the evil ways of the Roman Catholic church -- the selling of indulgences, the utter depravity of its popes, cardinals and priests and its total disregard for the poor and sick in its grab for more land and riches -- and while religious principles played a part it was largely a social movement.

Granted, some of the the protestant sects evolved into similar depraved and money-grubbing industries oppressing the poor, but most have done more to alleviate the plight of the poor and sick in the 500 years they have been in existence than the Roman Catholic church did in the previous 1500 years.

Democracy and the industrial revolution owed their beginnings in Europe to the protestant churches, and during that time it was not too difficult to equate the Roman Catholic church with oppression, ignorance, sickness and poverty and the protestant churches with freedom, education, health and prosperity.

In fact, the protestant churches have been so successful at lifting the masses out of oppression, ignorance, sickness and poverty that their very existence is today in jeopardy.

Generations raised with the protestant work ethic have become so prosperous -- taking their democratic rights, education and good health for granted -- that they have little interest these days in religion, other than on special occasions.

One can make the argument that the Reformation has now achieved its ultimate purpose as a social movement and its religious roots are largely redundant, but where does that leave the protestant churches and the many people who rely on them for employment?

Many, of course, are leaving the protestant churches to seek employment with the wealthy Roman Catholic church; others are seeking employment as counselors in government and non-government bodies; and others see their work continuing in the Third World -- raising the living standards of the poor, sick and oppressed in Africa and elsewhere.

Should we rejoice in the fact that the Reformation has raised us to stand on our own two feet,to commune with our Maker in our hearts and minds without a priest standing between us, hands out grasping for money, or should we bemoan the fact that the protestant churches have been so successful that they are no longer needed?

To drum up doom and gloom in the hope of attracting parishioners is to behave in a manner similar to that used by the pre-Reformation Catholic Church. It would be abominable.

There are many useful avenues of employment open for people previously employed in protestant churches, and although it is sad to see our churches close and be used for other purposes, we should bear in mind that just like doctors trained to treat the scourge of polio have been largely made redundant we should be thankful that our work, too, has been done.

germanic consolidation under catholicism

At the same time as Pagan Germanic conquerors were making a deal with the Roman Church following the fall of the Roman Empire, a new religion was emerging in the east that would act to consolidate Germanic power in Europe.

Preached by Mohammed - incorporating features of Christianity and other religions - Islam was an attractive unifying religion that took advantage of bitter theological arguments and power struggles between the eastern and western Christian bishops to sweep through the Middle East and reclaim most of the territory ruled by the Christians of the old Eastern Roman Empire.

Syria, Palestine and Persia converted to Islam in 637, Egypt in 641 and then Africa, penetrating to central Asia and the frontier of India and China. By 715 the Moslems had conquered Spain (ruled by the Germanic Visigoths), and the Christian nobles of Spain rapidly converted to Islam in order to retain their land, wealth and power in the same way that Pagan Roman nobles had rapidly converted to Christianity after the 390 policy of Emperor Theodosius.

All that remained of the eastern Roman empire of Heraclius was a wide area around Constantinople which was known as the Byzantium Empire

It was the Germanic Franks, led by Charles Martel, who stopped the Moslems at the Spanish border in 732 and gained southern Gaul for the Franks; and it was his grandson, Charlemagne, d. 814, who had bestowed upon him by Pope Leo III the ambiguous title of Holy Roman Emperor in 800 for saving the good pope's life.

Far more than the bishops, the Germanic Franks could see the remarkable parallels between the rise of Islam (and the fall of eastern Christianity) and the rise of Christianity (and the fall of Paganism). Charlemagne did not want western Christianity - and his kingdom - to suffer a similar fate, so he cracked down harder on his subject people than any Pagan Roman emperor ever did - brutally enforcing total obedience to Christianity (which, to him, encompassed his kingdom), burning all heretics and those who refused baptism.

The marauding Pagan Vikings, however, were more of a threat to Charlemagne and his descendants - and other European states - than the Moslem Arabs in terms of lost land.

The lower Loire and Seine were abandoned to the Vikings about the same time, 866, that the Vikings conquered York, Eastern Mercia and East Anglia in Britain, forcing the Germanic Saxon King Alfred to make a treaty in 900 creating a frontier between West Saxon territory and the Danelaw. In 879 the Vikings took Flanders, in 882 Cologne and Trier were taken, but Paris was saved by the Capetian, Odo, who, in 888, became first king of Francia unrelated to former rulers. In 911, the Frankish king Charles the Simple finally legitimized the authority of the Vikings by granting them the area around Rouen (the Duchy of Normandy), and they eventually settled down and became Christians.

While Spain thrived under the Moslems, seeing a flowering of culture and learning, the rest of Europe was thrown into the Gothic Dark Ages under oppressive Germanic Catholicism.

The argumentative Roman and Constantinople Christians finally parted company with a schism in 1054 - followed in 1096 by the 1st of 8 Crusades against the Moslems in the Holy Land - but despite Gregory VII's papal infallibility announcement in 1073 and Thomas Aquinas's (born 1225) announcement that faith and reason are compatible, doctrinal controversy and outright disbelief continued to plague the Roman Catholic Church. It took a brave Scot, John Duns Scotus (born 1270), to contradict Aquinas by holding that faith and reason are incompatible.