Monday, February 18, 2008

The Newest Hollywood Religous Flick, Chronicles The Start Of Protestantism

History tells us lots about Anne Boleyn (played by Portman), who convinced the king to divorce the reigning queen and marry her instead.
The divorce cause a permanent rift (That would be called the Protestant Reformation) between England and the Catholic Church that lasts to this day.
Unfortunately the scheme didn’t work out so well for Anne, who later got her head chopped off for her trouble. Not only that but Anne bypassed her sister on the way to the throne; Mary Boleyn (played by Johansson) was the king’s mistress, and had his son, before he spurned her in favor of her sister. Mary had the last laugh, though: she remarried and lived in peace the rest of her life.
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Read the lengthy interview of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson in their new movie entitled The Other Boleyn Girl. (here)
Sixteenth century Jesuit historian, Nicholas Sanders wrote about Anne Bolyen (here)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"The divorce cause [sic] a permanent rift (That would be called the Protestant Reformation) between England and the Catholic Church that lasts to this day."

It's interesting to note that Henry VIII had no real intention of changing the doctrines of the Church in the way that the Protestant reformers did. The truly Protestant doctrines of Luther, Calvin and Zwingli did not take hold until after Henry's death. But I suppose it's still fair to say that by breaking with Rome, Henry ushered in the changes that made real Protestant theology unavoidable in England.