Armada

On July 29, 1588, the Spanish Armada was defeated.  And you say, “So what?”  Actually, it was a very big deal then and it is a big deal yet today.  You guessed it – I’m going to tell you why – at least in part.

The story needs to go back centuries – actually it could go back to Rome’s founding in 753 BC but not now.  We could go to Paul and Peter in Rome in the first century after Christ, but not now.  It probably should be noted that the epi-center of the first church seems to have finally landed in Rome with those two apostles being there and the impact of the letter to the Romans from God through Paul on the world.

We could jump ahead to St. Augustine’s huge influence on the world which came within a century of the Roman Empire being declared Christian by Caesar Constantine (312) only to weaken and succumb to the Goths in 476.

The story should probably start around 590 when Pope Gregory the Great came to rule over Rome, the Catholic church, and most of the western world.  Significant infighting led to a huge split in 1054 with the entire eastern segment of the Catholic domain left to start the Eastern Orthodox Church which yet today dominates that part of the world.

From the “great schism” we jump ahead a couple of centuries and there are rumblings in all of the Catholic Empire.  In response, the Catholic church instituted the inquisitions in Spain and burned “heretics” at the stake including the Bohemian firebrand John Huss (1415).  The Catholic Church was fraying and fighting.

Then came that monk of Germany who posted 95 points of contention on the public bulletin board in the fall of 1517 and later rose in great opposition to Catholicism leading a host of people with him.  To counter this new exodus, the Catholics called a council to decide how to combat the problem – the Council of Trent (1546-63).

And then came England and King Henry the VIII who wanted a divorce which the Catholic Church denied so he started his own church.  His “new” church would agree with him and declare a divorce/annulment from wife Catherine valid because she did not make him happy (could not bear a son).  [Boy, doesn’t this sound like today?  Not happy so get a divorce and find a church that will agree.]

Henry VIII died and his son Edward ruled for 6 years and was replaced by a half-sister, Mary (the daughter of Henry’s first wife).  She was bent on returning England to Catholicism even using the sword to do so (thus known as bloody Mary).  She died and a younger half-sister took over who opted to keep England Anglican – Queen Elizabeth.

To this decision to not rejoin Catholicism, the Catholics developed an Armada of 130 ships so to invade England and force the wayward “child” back into the fold.  In the English Channel God used one of His tools – wind and waves (Jonah 1:4) – to defeat Rome’s plan and leave England outside of Rome.  If God had not crushed the invading army, England would be so different today.

A number of things happened over the next centuries that are yet tied to the Catholic/Anglican split, but I’ll just stop with WW II.  Hitler’s Third Reich was in part another attempt to bring the Brits back into the Catholic fold (a Reich is a holy empire).  If the Armada had not been crushed by God, there is a good chance there would have never been a WW I or WW II.

So, the destruction of the Armada radically changed the face of Europe for the centuries since.  We think little of that event, but it is in no way little – even today!

One more point – the whole rift, split, and warring that included the Spanish Armada started over a marriage rift and a desire for a divorce and the granting of a divorce.