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| Norma Boeckler |
churchmousec (http://churchmousec.wordpress.com/) has left a new comment on your post "The Augsburg Confession, June 25, 1530.":
'The threat of Muslim invasion drew Charles away from his plan of destroying the budding Lutheran Church.'
Thank you for the historical insight. I'd often wondered how the Reformation survived vis a vis the Ottoman Empire. It's a subject which Protestants in the West might need to expound on soon in adult classes at church.
Churchmouse
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| The Norwich three-volume set is also available in a one-volume paperback summary. This history has more gore and scandal than anyone could possibly imagine. Example - a general has an affair with the Empress, beats her husband to death, takes over as Emperor, and expels her for committing adultery with him. |
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| The Poles saved Vienna. Sobieski said, "We came, we saw, God conquered." |
GJ - Here is a good link on Muslim/Ottoman military advances during the era.
The best work on that era is The Byzantine Empire - Norwich. Owning this set is a sign of culture and distinction. I read the set three times, the one-volume version a few times. No one writes better than the British - especially history and military history. Because UOP drafted me to teach Western religion, I had to study Islam, which suddenly made Gibbon and Norwich fascinating reading. There is nothing like the curiosity of classes to fuel one's interest in reading more.
I had a similar experience with teaching Catholic/Lutheran differences in Columbus. The more I taught, the more questions I got, the more I went to the Vatican owned seminary for research.
The military might of Europe grew from 1530 to 1680, enough to repel the threat against Vienna. That was also the time between the Augsburg Confession and post-Concord orthodoxy. Lutheran Orthodoxy became entrenched because the Muslim army first drew Emperor Charles' attention away from the Germans. He still hated the Lutherans, but the Muslim threat was far greater. The threat lasted over 150 years, which kept Roman Catholic forces from concentrating on the Lutheran lands.
