Murder In The Name Of God

Last night I watched a movie about Henry IV of France, also called Henry of Navarre and on occasion, Henry Bourbon. He was the first Bourbon king of France, taking over from the house of Valois, in a time of bloody internecine religious war in France. Both the houses of Valois and Bourbon are part of the long line of the Capetian dynasty, started by Hugh Capet in around 987 AD. The Capetians have ruled over much of the world in their time and I think Henry IV was one of the most interesting of them.

You see, he was the first king of Europe, perhaps of all the world, to declare that the crown had no place in the religion business. It was he who first set into law the concept that people should be free to worship and think as they wanted, as their hearts guided them, and not as the state decreed. Of course since he did this in 1598 through the Edict of Nantes, the Catholic Church was none too happy with him. Unfortunately he had grown so powerful as King of France that the Catholich Church could not simply excommunicate him, especially since they had so recently suffered the loss of England under the leadership of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The Pope had to take other actions to get rid of Henry IV.

So instead, the Catholic Church simply tried to assassinate him. Henry IV suffered no less than 12 assassination attempts, the last and successful on taking place in 1610. There are some who would suggest that these attempts at outright murder of a reigning sovereign were done by passionate individuals, but it takes only the merest amount on investigation to uncover the hand of the papistry in them. Murder was ordained in the name of God.

I suspect God wanted nothing to do with these murders. These were murders of religion, not God. God was not behind this religious execution; the Catholic Church was behind it. This religion, in its ever straining attempts to maintain its power and hold back the hands of time sought the ultimate solution, drenching itself in the blood of free minds.

Not that the Protestant Church is any better; its history is also a pool of blood and conniving, all in attempts to maintain power and control over people. The same can be said of so many religions, that they manipulate and destroy all for the love of wealth and power.

I believe in God. This may be a dismaying statement to many of my friends who hold other beliefs. But rest assured, I have no faith in religion. It is an organized attempt to suppress the free minds of those who are either too lazy or lack sufficient intelligence to think for themselves. All we need to do is look around us, even unto this day, to see murder in the name of God. That is what religion can do.