From the 3rd century, through the machinations of the Roman
Emperor Constantine, the Church and the State had been forged
into one organisation – Christendom. It did not take long for the
Papacy to rise and take control of this monstrous
conglomeration, and, by the 1570s, it had for more than a 1000
years exercised a cruel domination over Western Europe,
enforcing its will on the people by means both political and
physical, including sword and stake. Although opposition to
papal claims had broken out from time to time down the
centuries, Rome had crushed it all. But in 1517, Luther, by
nailing his theses to the door at Wittenberg, had opened a front
against Rome; the Reformation had begun. And in 1525, in
Zurich, the Anabaptists had initiated a second front, this time
against both Rome and the Reformed. |
