About a month or two ago, the former Catholic Michael Coren received ordination as a “deacon” in the Anglican Church. He loves to wear his clerical collar and simply can’t stop talking about it. On the other hand, the Queen’s former chaplain Gavin Ashenden is being received into the Catholic Church on the fourth Sunday of Advent. The Anglican Church got Michael Coren and the Catholic Church got Gavin Ashenden. I’d say that the Catholics won this swap hands down.
Apparently the rosary and Eucharistic miracles played a huge role in his conversion. It’s amazing how powerful the rosary is. I know Protestants who pray the rosary because of the tremendous spiritual benefits that it provides. Apart from the Eucharistic Liturgy, it’s harder to find a better devotion than the rosary.
Both Coren and Ashenden are English. Coren grew up as a secular Jew in England and has changed his religion more times than Rod Dreher. Of course, in the 1530’s King Henry VIII separated the English Church from the authority of the Pope. The Anglican Church is like putty. It’s molded at the whim of the monarch. Edward VI had a Calvinist Church of England. Elizabeth I made it into a collage of Calvinism, Lutheranism, and even a bit of Catholicism thrown in. Of course when Oliver Cromwell took control of England he changed it into a Puritan religion. The Anglican Church shows us that sola scriptura is more about the monarch than the scriptura.
In looking at England and France, I feel bad for both countries. England should have stayed Catholic during the reformation. It only became Protestant through dozens of small little changes. Even then it received huge opposition such as the Pilgrimage of Grace and the Rising of the North. The new religion had to be forced on the population from above. Queen Elizabeth would end up making thousands of Catholic martyrs, to say nothing of the monarchs throughout the 17th century that did likewise. Believe it or not the Catholic Church almost won in England because of so many loyal believers. Of course the 1800s produced the Oxford movement which has wielded some of the most impressive patristic research known to man. Many English returned to Catholicism because of this.
France on the other hand has been a horrible Catholic country from the renaissance period forward. Until 1300, France was a loyal son of the Church with devout Catholic monarchs like Louis IX. After that, the country started to work against the faith. It started with King Philip IV of France who attempted to tax the Church. He also started the movement against the Templars. France essentially made possible the Great Western Schism with the nonsense in Avignon.
At the time of the reformation, France was at war with the Holy Roman Empire which prevented Charles V from dealing with Luther. People like to talk about how the Turks were harassing Charles V which was certainly true but France was harassing him as well. France fought with the Protestants during the 30 Years War. On top of this you have heresies like Galicanism and Jansenism followed by the ultimate rejection of Christ in 1789 in that horrific event known as the French Revolution. Of course France went to war with numerous Catholic countries destroying the influence of the Church in those countries. France hasn’t been a good country since the Middle Ages.
And so perhaps as a principle of justice, England should have stayed Catholic while France went Protestant. The English are slowly finding their way back. Gavin Ashenden is the most recent example but I don’t believe for a second that he’ll be the last.
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