All language subtitles for Channel4.Christianity.A.History.5of8.Reformation.XviD.MP3.eng

For over a thousand years,
one Church dominated Western Europe.

Roman Catholicism was the only
official religion.

And at its centre was the Pope
in Rome,

a bishop who could crown kings
and launch crusades.

Five centuries ago,
that Church was torn apart

by a vast religious revolution -

the Reformation.

In this film,
I want to discover what sparked

that cataclysmic upheaval that
led Christian to kill Christian.

Luther said the devil was raging,
and it was Luther

fighting against that devil,
as a prophet at the end of the world.

That one man, Martin Luther,
launched an attack on corruption

that split the Church.

Europe was gripped
by religious wars and atrocities.

The Protestants were regarded
as people who polluted the city,

and it would be doing God's work
if they were massacred.

Christianity broke into
intolerant factions

and communities
were divided for generations.

The Pope is a man of sin,
and I believe the Reform faith

and they identify the Pope as
the Antichrist, and I accept that.

I want to find out if the
Reformation really needed to happen,

if it had to lead
to such bloodshed and turmoil.

This was the greatest struggle
in the history of my religion.

It was Christianity's civil war.

I was brought up a Protestant
in the Church of England.

My family went regularly to church.

And Sunday School was one of
the few constants in my life,

as my father's work took us
anywhere from Bath to Singapore.

But 15 years ago I went through
my own personal reformation.

The Church of England had abandoned
its roots and its traditions,

and seemed immersed instead

in the liberalism and political
correctness of the modern world.

That wasn't the Church I'd been
brought up in, and I didn't feel

I belonged there any more.

So I left
and I became a Roman Catholic.

I was free to make
my deeply personal conversion.

It opened no rift with my brother,

who's still a vicar in
the Church of England.

But five centuries ago
it would have been very different.

Back then, as the Reformation
swept across Britain,

I could have been beheaded
as a traitor

or burned alive as a heretic.

For a century, the common people
of England

faced waves of religious
change, tyranny and persecution.

At the Catholic monastery of
Westminster Abbey,

the monks were thrown out
and holy relics destroyed.

Families were divided by their faith

as England became an officially
Protestant country.

This immense upheaval was sparked
by a crisis in Western Christianity.

Across Europe,

there were fears the Medieval
Catholic Church had become corrupt.

There were
calls for sweeping reform,

even panicked claims that the end
of the world was approaching.

The man who brought all these hopes
and fears to a head was not a king,

pope or emperor, but a lowly
German monk called Martin Luther.

There had already been attacks

on power-crazed bishops, ignorant
priests and fake holy relics.

Luther targeted a set of corrupt
documents, called Indulgences.

In 1517, he made them the launch pad
for his religious rebellion.

This is Indulgence, it's a printed
piece of parchment.

We have also got
manuscripts with the same text,

it's a blank form, you had to fill in
the name of the person who bought...

Received it, yeah.

..who received it
here in this part...

So whose authority was
behind this certificate?

In this case,
it was the authority of the Pope.

'The Church sold these simple pieces
of parchment

'for vast sums of money.

'It claimed by buying one
you could wipe away

'all the sins of a wicked life,

'and were guaranteed swift access
to an eternity in heaven.

'Luther saw Indulgences
as expensive con tricks

'which could never save a sinner.

'He laid out his argument against
these symbols of Church corruption

'in 95 academic points, or theses.

'But the Pope was less than pleased
with Luther's detailed proposals.'

So, OK, Luther was
attacking Indulgences.

What was so radical about that?

Many were critical of Indulgences,
and that's of course the reason why

the 95 theses were so successful,

because people thought, "Yes,
this is exactly what I think."

But nobody before had written
really 95 theses attacking this

as a practice in the Church, and in
1520 Luther is declared a heretic.

Heresy was the greatest crime
of the Middle Ages.

Luther was cast out of the Church,
his books were banned

and the authorities were
commanded to burn him alive.

At the same time,
Luther was also raising the stakes.

It was no longer simply Indulgences.

He was now convinced that,
instead of any Church ritual,

it was faith in God alone that
would earn you a place in heaven.

For Luther, Jesus was the only
leader of the Church, and the Pope,

who had damned him as a heretic,
was actually the Antichrist,

his opponent in a titanic battle
between good and evil.

I believe that the medieval Church

wasin need of
urgent and sweeping reform.

But what Luther was proposing
was something more than just

a simple attack on corruption.

It was something more than just
an academic theological debate.

He was mounting a challenge

to the very nature and structure
of the Church.

He could never have realised it,
but what Luther was unleashing

was one of the greatest

political and religious
revolutions in history.

Luther was summoned to
the German city of Worms

and given one last chance to recant.

But, even facing death at the stake,
he stood by his beliefs.

This is one monk
against a vast monolith of a Church.

Why wouldn't he back down?

That was of course very much
a viewpoint of all the Church.

They thought, what is this man doing,

really he's saying, "I'm right and
all the Church, all of the scholars

"that gather together, they're all
wrong." How can he possibly say this?

But Luther saw himself as a prophet,
at the end of the days.

So he actually believed
the world was going to end?

Yes, and if you think that
and if you think

that the Papacy is the Antichrist, it
goes along with that that you think

everything will get worse
and that are just the signs

of the world coming to an end.

Despite his recklessly brave stand,
Luther escaped death at the stake.

He had won the support of
a powerful prince,

who took the fugitive monk
into hiding at Wartburg Castle.

Here,
in disguise and under a false name,

Luther set to work
on his masterpiece -

the translation of the Bible
into his native tongue of German.

The medieval Church had used
the Latin edition of the Scriptures,

which could be read only by priests,

monks and other
well educated people.

Luther
was determined to change that.

For me, this is the triumph
of the Reformation.

The Luther Bible, with his own notes
handwritten in the margin.

The Bible was so important to me
as I was growing up.

And it was Luther who believed
that everybody should have access

to this book, should work out their
personal relationship with God.

It was this Bible which made
the Reformation so necessary,

and this which made it
a religious revolution.

Luther
had changed Christianity forever.

But, while he had started the
Reformation, he couldn't control it.

New Protestant groups
broke away from the Catholic Church.

And when they read Luther's Bible
they came to their own conclusions,

radically different from his.

The thousand-year monolith

of the medieval Church wasn't just
cleaved in two, it was shattered.

The result was religious anarchy
and political rebellion.

From 1524, hordes of rioting
peasants overran Germany,

attacking corrupt priests
and demanding religious reform.

Here, in the small town
of Frankenhausen,

the site of their bloodiest battle,

their struggles have been
immortalised

in the world's largest painting.

But, rather than a victory, the
panorama shows a crushing defeat -

a one-sided slaughter in which
the armies of the German princes

annihilated the untrained peasants.

Appalled by the rebellion,
Luther could now only watch

as the Reformation
took on a violent life of its own.

He thinks the world is a cesspit,
it's full of sin.

And he thought again
the devil was raging,

he was really doing his most,
now was the time for the devil,

and it was Luther
fighting against that devil,

as a prophet of these last days.

There were now dozens
of warring religious factions.

Germany was riven with
disputes and conflict.

Luther had every reason
to believe the Apocalypse had come.

This schism soon spread
to touch every country in Europe.

And in one land

it became a part of royal politics
and court intrigues -

England.

Hampton Court.
England's grandest Tudor palace.

In the 1520s, while Luther was
fighting for his life

against the Catholic Church,

Henry VIII was one
of his most formidable opponents.

He had copies of the German monk's
Bible burnt in the streets,

and his English followers
executed as heretics.

The Pope was the official head
of the Church in England

and gave Henry the title Defender
of the Faith for his loyal zeal.

Yet it was this same Henry

who eventually brought
the Reformation to England.

As a politician, I know
how important it can be

to harness the prevailing mood, and
the Reformation was a gift to Henry.

He wanted a male heir,

but his wife
hadn't been able to give him one.

So he wanted to get rid of her
and marry his mistress, Anne Boleyn.

The only problem was, to do that
he needed his marriage annulled,

and the Pope said...no.

What does that do to Henry?

Well, Henry hates to be thwarted,
so the first thing it does to Henry

is just to get angry, and Henry
becomes absolutely convinced that

he should have total control over the
Church, that the Pope has usurped it.

And he will not brook
any opposition to this idea.

So he decided to set himself up
as Head of the Church,

at any rate the Church in England,

and that he would set the rules, but
was Henry convinced by Lutherism?

Not at all. He never accepted the
real fundamentals of Lutheran belief.

If Henry hadn't needed a male heir,

would the Reformation have come
to England?

I think it's most unlikely.

There was closed ranks
against Lutheranism

in the 1520s, when Henry still
thought he would have a male heir.

It was only after Henry took on

the supreme headship of the Church
that things began to splinter.

Henry VIII didn't change the
authority of the Church, he didn't
change the structure of the Church,

it was just about putting him
at its head instead of the Pope.

It had little to do with
Luther's theology, and everything

to do with that crude mixture
of power, pride, lust and politics.

In 1534, an Act of Parliament
made the break from Rome official.

The common people were ordered
to obey Henry's religious commands.

The first communities to feel the
full force of the royal Reformation

were the monasteries.

Magnificent, rich and ancient, they
were lifelines for local people.

The monks were major employers,

and provided charity
to the poor and sick.

Their vast libraries were
centres of learning and education.

All this was paid for by
the monasteries' immense estates,

two million prime acres, a sixth
of all the land in the Kingdom.

When he started the Reformation,

it was all about solving
Henry VIII's marriage problems.

Oh, but soon he realised there were
other advantages to being in charge

of the Church of England, that in
the Church he now controlled

he had a vast source of wealth.

So I reckon that to the motives of
lust and politics

we can now add greed.

Royal agents were ordered to draw up
charge sheets against monasteries

and assess their wealth.

'In September 1539,
they arrived at Glastonbury,

'the richest Abbey in England.'

What's the charge sheet
against the monasteries,
what have they done wrong?

Well, the popular perception, both
in Tudor times and subsequently,

is that they had become
horribly corrupted.

Now, as soon as one begins to dig
beneath the surface of those charges,

one finds that there
is far less substance to them,

because the monks provide a range
of social and cultural services.

So what happened when
the Reformation arrived?

Well, all of this, in a space
of four years, is swept away.

The Abbey was ruthlessly stripped of
its valuables, the land confiscated

and even the roof removed to stop it
being used as a place of worship.

The Abbot of Glastonbury spoke out
against the destruction,

and paid
the price for his resistance.

He was found guilty on
trumped-up charges,

and executed in a cruel mockery
of Christ's Crucifixion.

He is dragged through the town to
the tor, the hill outside the town,

where he is executed with

two others accused of the robbery
of the treasures of the Church.

The mode of his execution undoubtedly
has a kind of

biblical resonance, the hill
outside the town, the...

The two people either side of him.

The two people either side,
clearly designed to deter

any others from offering resistance.

Greed may have been the motive,
but its realisation

was desecration, was sacrilege.

Like Luther himself, Henry VIII had
unleashed something that he couldn't

actually any longer control.

And by the time the Reformation
reached Somerset

it was no longer
about theological debate,

wasn't even about political debate.

Now it was in the hands of some
depraved and very vengeful people.

King Henry died six years
after the last monastery fell,

and was succeeded by his son.

Unlike his father, Edward was a true
Protestant believer.

But vast numbers of
the King's subjects

were still, at heart, Catholic.

They were devoted
to the medieval festivals,

processions and relics which
Edward's government now outlawed.

In the Devon hamlet of Morebath,

Church rituals had held the
community together for generations.

The humble farming folk didn't want
the Reformation,

but were being forced
to join it by royal commands.

'In the parish's ancient
record book,

'Professor Eamon Duffy
has made an incredible discovery

'of how far they would go
to protect their Catholic faith.'

It's the removal of the traditional
Latin Mass, that's the crunch point.

And in the summer of 1549

the parish, in common with
most of the other parishes of Devon,

rebelled against the Reformation.

It wasn't till I became curious
about this

and examined the original manuscript

that it emerged that
here we had the only surviving record

of a parish equipping soldiers to go
and commit high treason.

By rebelling, the villagers
were committing a crime

second only to heresy itself.

But they chose their religion
over their King.

The Church funded and
armed five young men

and sent them
to join the rebel siege at Exeter.

In order to finance this, they
had a collection at the church gate

and the priest wrote down
the names of everyone who
contributed to the collection...

Contributed to treason, actually.

Yes, and he paid again
to William Hurley, the young man,

at his going forth to St David's
Downs Camp, six and eightpence.

Later,
he crosses out, each time it occurs,

the incriminating word "camp".
The word camp meant rebel camp.

And so this is desperately
incriminating, and he makes a
rather feeble attempt at covering up.

This wasn't trivial stuff.

What drove them to do it?

For a start,

this particular community had
been stripped to the bone

by the Reformation,
their dignity and independence

had been taken away from them.

And there's a tremendous sense
of the worm turning,

of the West Country standing up
for itself and saying, "Enough."

The royal government in London
was determined to crush the protest.

An army of foreign mercenaries
was assembled

and marched down to Exeter.

Thousands of Devon peasants
were slaughtered.

The ordinary man or woman
had no choice.

It was the King who decided
what their religion was.

It makes me feel very angry.

The Reformation started as
something, if you like to put it
that way, noble

and it came to this -
right to the heart of this ordinary,

law abiding,
inoffensive little village,

and it had a huge impact on people,
even to the taking of life.

In 1553, just four years after

Morebath's rebellion, the King died
and his sister, Mary, became Queen.

Unlike Protestant Edward,
she was a devout Catholic.

After 20 years of religious change,

Mary ordered the people to convert
yet again.

For the last time in history,

England became an officially
Catholic country.

Protestants faced five dark years
of persecution.

Here in the market town of Lewes,

17 local men and women
were tried for heresy.

They treasured their English Bibles
and were committed to Protestantism.

So each was dragged through the
town's high street and burned alive.

The Protestant martyrs are
remembered every Bonfire Night

as Lewes turns into a festival
of fire and thunder.

BANG

We have 17 crosses that we carry
through the high street

and they're lit up almost as
a literal reminder of the martyrs.

The martyrs gave this country
a freedom that we didn't have.

Dying for their beliefs.
And we're free to have opinions

and choices because of people
like that that gave their lives.

The Reformation began with
Luther's call for Christian freedom,

for everyone to form
their own relationship with God.

But it's clear to me that in England

the Reformation had been hijacked
by politics.

Instead of religious freedom,
Kings and Queens gave

the common people a stark choice -
convert or face horrific death.

But there's more to this.

This Bonfire Society
burns a pope in effigy,

carries banners saying No Popery.

When Cliffe Bonfire Society
was founded

over 150 years ago, this wasn't
just an event to remember history.

Instead, it was a fiercely
anti-Catholic rally.

Well, they're burning the Pope
in effigy, cheering as they do it.

They're shouting,
"Burn him, burn him!"

I find the image of the Pope
burning particularly difficult.

It's the one that is
very solemn to Catholics.

That is what they're burning.

They don't mean it like that,
but it's ghastly.

You're not embarrassed to be
burning the Pope in effigy?

Oh, absolutely not,
we make no apology for doing that.

And we have many Catholics
in the procession itself.

Some of our vice-presidents are, I
wouldn't know how many in Lewes are,

and the "no Popery" bit
we make no apology for.

The Pope we actually blow up is
Pope Paul V, and we make no apology
for doing that.

This crowd is no lynch mob.

Most of them aren't
even anti-Catholic.

But this event is a deeply upsetting
relic of a long and vicious history

of anti-Catholicism in Britain.

Because, as the years passed,
the Reformation became more than

a set of theological doctrines
or even royal commands.

Instead, being a Catholic or
a Protestant became woven into

national identity and fundamental
to how people defined themselves.

Those on the other side of
the religious divide were seen as

enemies, outsiders, aliens.

Religious hatred tore nations,
cities and families apart.

And it led to one of history's worst
religious atrocities,

a massacre
that turned a river red with blood.

By 1572, the Reformation had been
sweeping over Europe for 50 years.

But the Catholic kings of France
had stood firm.

Unlike the Tudors in England,

they had remained steadfastly loyal
to the Pope in Rome.

France's monasteries stood intact.

Catholic processions still marched
through Paris's streets.

Despite this,

one in eight Frenchmen had converted
to the new Protestant religion.

There had been riots,
feuds, and civil wars

but in August 1572,

a royal wedding was arranged
between a Catholic and a Protestant

to heal the rift.

Just days after the ceremony,
as Gaspard de Coligny -

a leading Protestant -
walked home from the King's palace,

an unseen assassin opened fire.

GUNSHOT

Coligny survived the attack.

But there were rumours
of Protestant plans for retaliation.

So the Catholic royal council
launched a pre-emptive strike.

In the early hours of the 24th of
August - St Bartholomew's Day -

troops fanned out across Paris.

'They were sent to kill Coligny,
and another 50 Protestant nobles.'

While you weren't aware of it?
Yeah, yeah.

While you weren't aware of it?
Yeah, yeah.
Yes.

So, Mark,
what was actually happening?

Things seem to have been going,
more or less, according to plan,

through the night, until daybreak.

And by five o'clock, it seems,

the bodies were already
beginning to stack up

of the leading Protestant nobles

in the Place Saint-Honore
just over there,

where they were to be
brought down by carts,

and dumped into the Seine
round about there.

But at some point, the populace
becomes involved in all of this.

Absolutely.

So it's at that point that the
things start to move out of control.

CROWD SHOUTING

The Catholic citizens of Paris
had been woken by the commotion.

For years, they had despised their
heretical Protestant neighbours.

They now seized their chance,

and turned
the targeted assassinations

into a general slaughter.

This doesn't look as if
it's changed a great deal.

What was happening here?

We're in the suburbs just
outside the city walls, here, Ann.

And it was here that lived
about 1,500 or more Protestants,

and we have accounts, for example,

of a lady who was in
the latter stages of pregnancy.

The midwife was already with her,

and she gets stabbed,
thrown out of the window,

and the baby, even, is half-born
as her dead body is in the streets.

So, it's as though people
are no longer human beings.

So, it's as though people
are no longer human beings.
They've crossed a line.

So, it's as though people
are no longer human beings.
They've crossed a line.
They have become animals.

But who was doing all this killing?

Who were these Catholics
who were doing it?

Often, it was neighbours, people
that they recognised and knew.

But it could be the chap next door?

Often was.

Despite royal attempts to halt the
carnage, it continued for five days.

The River Seine ran red with blood,

and copycat attacks
occurred across France.

10,000 Protestants died
in the wave of hideous violence.

So, it's all been pretty horrible,

but why were people doing this?

What was the driving motivation
for a man to kill his neighbour?

We live in a century
of mass violence and genocide,

and we tend to think that's something
unique to the 20th, 21st century.

It's not. It was also
a feature of the 16th century,

it's just that the religious
component is more obvious.

If you've been told,
from the pulpit,

as Parisians in this city were,

that their city
was going to be under God's judgment

if they allowed
Protestant heretic pollution

to survive within its walls,

then it's not surprising, is it,

that people take into
their own hands,

believing they're not
just doing the King's will,

but that they're doing God's will?

In this city,
the religious divide was so intense,

the Catholics no longer saw
the Protestants as Frenchmen,

neighbours, family,
or even fellow human beings.

The Reformation had led ordinary
Christians to butcher one another.

News of the St Bartholomew's Day
Massacre raced across Europe.

Before the Reformation,

a single religion
had bound the continent together.

Now, people defined themselves
as either Catholic or Protestant

and fought to defend that faith.

When the Pope
heard of the Paris slaughter,

he had a medal struck to celebrate
a "Glorious Catholic victory."

In 1588, his successor blessed
the Spanish Armada as a crusade -

a holy invasion fleet -
sent against heretical England,

where Protestant Elizabeth
now ruled.

As the threat from abroad rose,

the Queen turned on the Catholics
within England.

They were banned
from celebrating the Mass,

their priests were outlawed

and for 200 years,

it was illegal to be
a practising Roman Catholic

in this country.

But the old faith did survive.

Hidden away
on their country estates,

a few devoted families, such as
the Stonors, kept Catholicism alive.

What were the penalties,

what were the restrictions
that practising Catholics

actually faced?

actually faced?
depending on what you did,

started with treason at the top,

life imprisonment was the next worst,
of course,

and then,
a lesser period of imprisonment.

So, did your family remain loyal
to Catholicism?

Yes, there was a priest here
who celebrated Mass,

and this,

they somehow continued to do.

Through the very difficult times,
they hid priests here.

These priests were concealed
in hidden compartments and holes.

If caught,
they and their accomplices

could have been executed
as traitors.

On top of this legal threat,

Catholics also faced
popular prejudice.

Hundreds of gutter-press pamphlets
attacked them and their faith.

Well, in this library here,

I found these pamphlets,

most of which have been here
from the time of their publication.

So, you've got here
The Necessity Of Maintaining

The Established Religion
In Opposition to Popery.

Yes, it's all very blunt,
in your face, isn't it?

Yes, it's all very blunt,
in your face, isn't it?
Yeah.

This is what
they're afraid of, isn't it?

This is what
they're afraid of, isn't it?
Yes, that's what they're afraid of.

This is what they're afraid of -
"establishing popery,"
as they call it.

Here, we're into the tabloid.

It was...the propaganda was wild.

Certainly was.

These pamphlets were published
and soldon the street in London,

or sometimes in pubs.

'All the Stonors wanted

'was to live in peace,
as both English and Catholic.

'But for centuries, it was claimed

'only Protestants could be loyal
to king and country.

'British law still states

'that the monarch
cannot be a Catholic,

'or even married to a Catholic.'

Given the history of your ancestors,

what they went through,
what they did, how they held out,

are you proud of them?

Oh, yes, very.

I'm very proud of them indeed,

and I'm particularly proud that,
whilst they kept their faith,

they were never disloyal
to the sovereign.

Today, practically all the old
intolerant laws have been repealed.

But I believe there's still plenty
of anti-Catholic sentiment

around in Britain today.

And when I converted to Catholicism
15 years ago,

I found out just how extreme
some of it still is.

CHEERING

In 1995, I was at
Westminster's Catholic cathedral,

when the Queen made the first
visit by a British monarch.

CHEERING

We were heckled by hard-line
Protestants yelling, "Betrayal."

Betrayal! Betrayal! Betrayal!

Ever since my conversion,
I have received a stream

of anti-Catholic letters, accusing
me of betraying queen and country.

"Ann Widdecombe being
received into Popery."

And they've changed "converts
to Rome" to "perverts to Rome."

"Traitor, go and live in Rome,

"with the Pope and the Mafia!"

I'm not surprised that one
didn't have any address on it.

According to this,
I'm bringing back the Antichrist.

It would be easy to dismiss these
letters as the ranting of lunatics.

But, unfortunately,

they are also a tragic,
lasting legacy of the Reformation.

Ah.

"A Protestant country has given
you the right to high office,

"which you have abused."

These letters contain the same ideas

that sparked
the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre.

They maintain
the perverse Reformation beliefs

that Catholics and Protestants
are natural mortal enemies,

that someone can't be both
Catholic and British.

PIPES AND DRUMBEATS

Most of us have now escaped
from these dreadful ideas.

But in one region of modern Europe,

this language of religious hate
has kept its power.

There,
the divisions of the Reformation

are still marked on the streets,

and God has been called on
to bless killers.

In the century after Luther's
break with Rome,

the people of Europe were divided
by religious wars and feuds.

But sheer exhaustion
eventually led to pragmatism.

In 1648,

the rulers of Europe gathered
together for a massive conference.

They agreed the Peace of Westphalia,

an end to holy wars

and a grudging promise
of religious acceptance.

But as ever, this tale of great men
and grand ideas

was only part of the story.

Actual religious tolerance
was already all round them.

This building may look like
any other Amsterdam town house

but actually it conceals
an extraordinary secret.

This house was built
in the mid-17th century.

Holland was an officially
Protestant country

and Dutch Catholics were banned
from worshipping in public.

The Mass was illegal
and priests were outlawed.

But rather than a dusty
storage loft,

this staircase leads to one of the
hidden wonders of the Reformation.

Ah!

I don't believe it.

They hid this.

It's a full-scale,
illegal Catholic church.

It is appropriately called
"Our Lord in the Attic."

It's beautiful.

This church,

it's not exactly something
you can hide if anybody comes.

Did anybody know it was here?

Everybody knew it was here.

It could accommodate
a congregation of a good 150,

and of course even 150 people
coming and going

were always going to be noticed.

All the neighbours knew. They
pretended that it wasn't occurring.

It was much easier, wasn't it,
not to notice it was just plain,

if you like, rather cold pragmatism?

There was some pragmatism
involved, to be sure,

but these were people's neighbours,

these were in many cases
close relatives.

Love thy neighbour was an injunction
that crossed these religious divides.

The Attic Church represents a brave
first step towards toleration.

Ordinary men and women,

who had suffered so much
from the turmoil of the Reformation,

were drawing on the
peaceful message of the Gospel.

Gradually, over the next 200 years,

hatred gave way to acceptance
across Europe.

We were finally escaping
the worst of the Reformation.

In recent times, only one region

has been plagued by that old mix of
Christian division and violence.

Like the wars of the Reformation,
there were always many factors

here in Northern Ireland.

But the religious divide was always
woven in to this deadly conflict.

Here, people are three times more
likely to go to church regularly

than they are
in modern Godless England.

And more than that, they mark
their differences on the streets.

Every year the Orange Order
celebrates its devotion

to fervent Protestantism.

Religious zeal is also found
in the corridors of power.

Northern Ireland's former
first minister, Dr Ian Paisley,

is the founder of his own
Protestant church.

He believes the Reformation was a
breakthrough that freed Christianity

from the corruptions
of Roman Catholicism.

PEOPLE CHANT

The Roman Catholic Church believes
that she is the supreme church

and if you're not a member of her,
you're not in the book, as it were.

I don't believe that,

I believe that Christianity's basis

is a personal relationship
to Jesus Christ,

rather than relationships
to churches.

Don't you regret how the Reformation
worked out in practice?

I don't think the Reformation
was responsible for that,

I think that was the reaction
of the Roman Catholic Church

to retain her position.

to retain her position.
Solely? >

Well, there was
resistance to it.

You think that the violence
of the Reformation

was solely down
to the Catholic Church?

Well, I think they started it.

You attacked the Pope
in the European Parliament,

indeed you proclaimed
him to be the Antichrist.

...to say how much I...

enemy and Antichrist!

And all your false doctrine.

I denounce you! I denounce you!

Mr Paisley...

I denounce you as the Antichrist!

Is that still your position?

Do I believe in the Reform
faith position? Yes, I do.

No, do you believe
the Pope is the Antichrist?

Yes, what it says in
the confession of faith.

I signed it when I was ordained,

that the Pope is that man of sin,
that son of perdition.

I believe the Reform faith

and they identify the Pope
as the Antichrist and I accept that.

For the second time, Mr Paisley...

Do you regard the Pope as the enemy?

Well, yes, I would say...

I would say that Romanism
is not good for the country

and it's not good for the world,
and it's not good for me.

For Protestants like Ian Paisley,

the Reformation remains
the bedrock of their faith.

And, even as a Catholic,

I support so much of what
the Reformation stood for.

Luther showed incredible bravery
in standing by his beliefs.

The Bible needed
to be made accessible to everyone.

The Church had to do away with
indulgences and other abuses.

Christianity needed a Reformation,

but I think the way it worked out
in practice

was the most appalling tragedy.

I passionately believe
that Christianity

can be and should be a massive
force for peace in the world.

After all, the central tenet of
my religion is love thy neighbour.

And yet, for centuries,

Christian killed Christian
in the name of their faith.

Theological debate led to war,

persecution and religious divisions
which have lasted to this day.

People had to convert
on the orders of their ruler,

rather than follow their own
personal convictions.

Both Catholics and Protestants

lost sight of what
still united them

as they fought over their
differences.

I believe we should celebrate

the breakthroughs and the reforms
that the Reformation brought about.

But we should also remember
that like any family feud

it left behind a bitter legacy
of division

and brought about
some of the darkest moments

in Christian history.

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