RedeemedChild said:
If you'd been watching the History Channel's Decoding The Past you'd know that the Vatican made up a lot of stuff to justify their own immoral and anti-Christian practices. The Roman Church has always been on the wrong path; "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" 2 Timothy 3:5.
That is why The Catholic Church has always been known as the "anti-Chirst" by Protestants. I can't think of even thing else that has depicted the Vatican so well as The Golden Compass movie did. That's why Martin Luther railed against the papacy and gave the world religious liberty.
The History Channel and The Golden Compass...hmmm. Tough sources to rebuke.
I guess intolerance is a fine basis to begin a new religion...that and to keep undesirables off the throne.
The Diet of the Holy Roman Empire, assembled at Speyer in April, 1529, resolved that, according to a decree promulgated at the Diet of Worms(1521), communities in which the new religion was so far established that it could not without great trouble be altered should be free to maintain it, but until the meeting of the council they should introduce no further innovations in religion, and should not forbid the Mass, or hinder Catholics from assisting thereat.
Against this decree, and especially against the last article, the adherents of the new Evangel ? the Elector Frederick of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Margrave Albert of Brandenburg, the Dukes of Lüneburg, the Prince of Anhalt, together with the deputies of fourteen of the free and imperial cities ? entered a solemn protest as unjust and impious. The meaning of the protest was that the dissentients did not intend to tolerate Catholicism within their borders. On that account they were called Protestants.
In course of time the original connotation of "no toleration for Catholics" was lost sight of, and the term is now applied to, and accepted by, members of those Western Churches and sects which, in the sixteenth century, were set up by the Reformers in direct opposition to the Catholic Church. The same man may call himself Protestant or Reformed: the term Protestant lays more stress on antagonism to Rome; the term Reformed emphasizes adherence to any of the Reformers. Where religious indifference is prevalent, many will say they are Protestants, merely to signify that they are not Catholics. In some such vague, negative sense, the word stands in the new formula of the Declaration of Faith to be made by the King of England at his coronation; viz.: "I declare that I am a faithful Protestant". During the debates in Parliament it was observed that the proposed formula effectively debarred Catholics from the throne, whilst it committed the king to no particular creed, as no man knows what the creed of a faithful Protestant is or should be.