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[Music]
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right so what you need to know is how we
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get from jesus here to the great big
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church all the great big churches we
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have today no problem
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so jesus christ parables miracles love
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your enemies death and resurrection
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amazing he had lots of followers or
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disciples but these 12 guys were
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specially chosen by jesus and he made
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peter their leader
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when jesus went up to heaven this lot
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well one was replaced and another story
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this lot continued to spread jesus
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teaching but not everyone was happy
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about it the romans were a star who'd
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already crucified jesus and felt that
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should have been an end to it
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and the jewish authorities employed
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people like saul here to stamp out the
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new religion but then saul had a vision
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and heard jesus why are you giving me a
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hard time what's your problem so saul
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changed his name to paul and spent the
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rest of his life spreading the new
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religion instead paul and peter and the
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rest of the 12 are known as the apostles
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which is greek for messengers
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the people who believed the apostles
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message began to meet together and
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someone in antioch came up with a
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nickname for them christians because
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they followed christ
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paul and peter and a few others wrote
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letters to these groups of christians
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called churches and you can read some of
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them in the bible
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around about now the first book about
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jesus life was written it's called mark
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and you can read that in the bible too
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in the following 50 years or so the
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books of matthew luke and john appeared
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all with a slightly different take on
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jesus life
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most christians believe that peter
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became the very first bishop of rome a
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dangerous place to be
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fire destroyed most of the city and
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rumors spread that the emperor nero had
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started it to clear the land for a
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massive palace he needed someone else to
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blame so he picked on the christians no
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one like christians everyone thought
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they were superstitious because they
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didn't follow the roman religion or even
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the jewish one they were probably
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criminals because their leader jesus had
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been executed and they were cannibals
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because they ate bodies and drank blood
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they didn't it was the bread and wine of
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the lord's supper of course
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all are misunderstanding but the upshot
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was that thousands of christians were
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persecuted and killed nero used them as
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human candles and many more met gory
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deaths in the circus
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not that kind of circus that kind of
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circus
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peter and paul were probably executed
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around now the story goes that peter was
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crucified upside down and paul was
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beheaded the other apostles were all
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killed too apart from jon who was the
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only one to die of old age
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but christianity continued to grow the
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churches were run by bishops and the
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first ones along with other christian
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thinkers of the time are known as the
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church fathers
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most of them were killed as well right
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from the start christians argued about
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what to believe and how to behave one of
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the church fathers a man called oregon
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even castrated himself because he wanted
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to live a pure life
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but it didn't catch on in britain
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christianity probably arrived with roman
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combats trying to escape the persecution
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some hope one of the first british
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christians we know about a man called
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alban was beheaded for being a christian
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then a general in the roman army called
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constantine became emperor and he'd
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recently converted christianity
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or so he said his story was that he'd
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had a vision of a christian symbol
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called the cairo the first two letters
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of christ in greek he heard the words by
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this sign conquer so he got his soldiers
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to paint it on their shields beat anyone
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who fancy to fight and became emperor
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but his conversion might have been a
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crafty political move constantine wanted
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everyone to work together but the roman
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religion got in the way because
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different people worship different gods
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he saw christianity a religion in which
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everyone worshiped the same god as a
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good way to unite the empire little did
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he know how things would turn out
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constantine passed a law that allowed
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christians freedom to worship without
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persecution this meant that the bishops
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could get together to decide exactly
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what they all believed they drew up the
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first draft of the nicene creed a
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statement of their beliefs that churches
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still use today this big he get together
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was called an ecumenical council and
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there were seven in all because the
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arguments went on and on mainly about
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jesus some people believed he was just a
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man some people believed he was god and
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had disguised himself as a man some
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people believed he was two beings god
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and man in one body
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the councils eventually decided that
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jesus was totally god and totally man at
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the same time
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christianity was made the roman empire's
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official religion by the emperor
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theodosius who also split the empire in
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two
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and despite the bishop's efforts to keep
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everyone together the church was
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beginning to split up as well the
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nestorians left at the council of
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ephesus because they believed that jesus
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was just a man and god's spirit had come
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to live inside him more people known
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today as the oriental orthodox churches
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left at the council of chalcedon they
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didn't like the council's description of
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jesus of one substance with the father
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and at the same time of one substance
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with man because they thought it sounded
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too much like what the historians had
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said they also didn't like how powerful
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the bishop of rome was becoming
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for a long time now the bishop of rome
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also called the pope had been gaining
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power partly because he'd inherited the
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authority of the apostle peter but
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mainly because those guys in rome were
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really good at organizing everyone the
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western church in the eastern church
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were slowly drifting apart they just
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didn't talk anymore most people in the
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west about latin and most people in
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esport greek and the east didn't like
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having to do what the pope said all the
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time and then the west added some words
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to the nice and creed without asking the
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east
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they were living separate lives for a
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while the eastern church was more
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powerful than the west which had to cope
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with marauding vandals the fall of the
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roman empire and the dark ages by the
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time the west had sorted itself out the
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east had challenges of its own as a new
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religion called islam spread out from
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arabia in the west charlemagne was now
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ruling well most of it he gave himself
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the title holy roman emperor and got the
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pope to crown him this gave the pope
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even more power because from now on you
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can be emperor unless the pope said so
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finally it happened the great schism the
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church split in two the eastern orthodox
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church in the east obviously and the
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roman catholic church in the west the
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roman catholic church became more and
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more powerful while the eastern orthodox
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church began to feel more and more
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squeezed out by the rise of islam this
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is where the crusades come in the pope
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sent thousands of soldiers to the east
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to claim jerusalem for christianity but
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the so-called crusaders left a trail of
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destruction across europe before they
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got anywhere near a battlefield
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the muslim leaders fought back and over
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the next 150 years there were six more
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big crusades while the two sides
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struggled for control of the holy land
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eventually the crusaders gave up and
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went home but the fact that the pope now
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had the power to send soldiers to war
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shows that something somewhere had gone
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very wrong
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even your local priests were getting too
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big for their boots church services were
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in latin and the bible had been
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translated into latin but by now only
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educated people like priests could
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understand latin so everyone else had to
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trust that what they said the bible said
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was what the bible really said some
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priests have seen an opportunity here
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and had started to charge people to
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forgive their sins placing themselves
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firmly between god and everyone else
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like holy bouncers
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a professor at oxford university called
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john wickliffe argued that it was time
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for the church to clean up his act to be
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reformed he translated the bible into
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english so that everyone could read it
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for themselves and make up their own
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minds it didn't go down well with those
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in charge and his bibles were burned
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it took a long time for an actual
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reformation to kick off but eventually a
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german preschool martin luther wrote a
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list of 95 theses things he thought were
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wrong with the church and nailed them to
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the door of an actual church in
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wittenberg
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the pope sacked him which luther didn't
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mind because priests couldn't get
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married and if he wasn't a priest
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anymore
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a group of nuns had written him some fan
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mail so he smuggled them out of their
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convent in herring barrels and married
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one of them after she'd had a long bar
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the people who protested against the
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church and his teachings became known as
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protestants other big names included
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john calvin in france and ulrich wrigley
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in switzerland
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but they argued forever about what to
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believe instead so very soon there were
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different groups of protestants
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protesting
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england remained officially roman
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catholic and it was dangerous to be
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anything else william tyndale made
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himself so unpopular with his protestant
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ideas that he had to leave the country
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he translated the new testament into
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english and copies were smuggled back
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home to help protestant feelings grow
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then king henry viii decided to marry
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anne berlin but he was already married
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to catherine of aragon divorce was out
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of the question back then so henry asked
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the pope to annul his marriage instead
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which would mean that the marriage had
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never been a real marriage in the first
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place the pope said no but henry had met
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a friendly english priest called thomas
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cranmer and made him archbishop of
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canterbury so thomas was more than happy
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to annul henry's marriage to catherine
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and marry him off to anne the pope was
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very cross so henry left the roman
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catholic church and made himself head of
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a new church of england
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the roman catholics realized they had to
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do something before everyone became a
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protestant and so the
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counter-reformation began catholic
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bishops got together for the council of
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trent where they decided to keep their
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traditions but made rules to stop
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priests conning people out of their
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hard-earned cash
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the church of england was still very
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like the roman catholic church just
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without the pope but when henry died his
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nine-year-old son became king edward vi
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and he allowed thomas crummer to make
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the church of england more protestant
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crownmen wrote a list of 39 articles
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which spelt out what the church stood
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for and stands for today and wrote the
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book of common prayer which some
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churches still use
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but the fiercely roman catholic queen
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mary the first reunited england with the
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pope and had lots of protestants burnt
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at the stake including our friend thomas
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cranmer earning herself the nickname
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bloody mary then mary died elizabeth the
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first became queen and she made england
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protestant again next came james the
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first who was the first monarch of
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england wales ireland and scotland he
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was a big fan of protestantism and even
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published his own translation of the
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bible as european empires spread
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throughout the world so did christianity
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and churches sent out missionaries to
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convert people in those hard-to-reach
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places the protestants continue to
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protest and there have been various
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offshoots over the years from churches
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like the quakers and methodists who have
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fairly mainstream beliefs to groups like
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the latter day saints of jesus christ
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known as mormons and the jehovah's
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witnesses who have more distinct beliefs
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of their own in 1962 the roman catholic
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church held a council known as the
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second vatican council or vatican ii
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which brought in some big changes church
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services which had always been in latin
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were now to be in the language of the
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people
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and so we continue to the present day
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with churches of all different kinds all
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over the place the eastern orthodox
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church the oriental orthodox church the
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roman catholic church and ever
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increasing numbers of protestant
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churches lutherans calvinist the church
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of england
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quakers
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[Music]
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you have to wonder what jesus would say
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about it all
