The Reformation At 500

2017 is the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation. This is the splitting away of the Protestants from the Catholic Church. The Reformation utterly changed the world. It was not the first split, the Eastern Orthodox Church had split nearly five hundred years before.

The Catholic Church was transformed by the Reformation, almost as much as the Protestant Churches. After the Protestants had split, the Catholic Church launched it's own Counter-Reformation in response, and so much of what the Catholic Church is today is not from the original church but the result of reforms during the Counter-Reformation.

You may notice that churches and cathedrals in Britain are often referred to as abbeys, but that term is not seen in North America. The reason is that Catholic monasteries were closed by Henry VIII (The Eighth), following the Reformation, and the abbey churches were converted to use as ordinary churches or cathedrals.

But many former monasteries, particularly away from towns or cities, were simply abandoned. All around the country are ruins that are reminders of the Reformation.

The following scenes are of Tintern Abbey, on the Welsh side of the Wye River. It was a thriving monastery, with a cathedral-sized abbey church, for about four hundred years. Then, closed and abandoned after the Reformation, it has been falling into ruin for nearly five hundred years. It has been the subject of paintings, but no effort has been made to rebuild it.

I walked around here when I was a teenager, it is like surviving a nuclear holocaust and emerging from the shelter to see what is left of civilization.

Remember that, if there is a compass showing on the right of the image, it is a 360 degree view, if not then it is a still photo. You can get more viewing space by clicking the arrow to "Hide Imagery". You can pull the screen up or down or around with the mouse:

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.6973323,-2.6768199,3a,75y,193h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-ZRQMbWayCc8%2FV8Xlc2DDJVI%2FAAAAAAAAsOA%2FWyuciahXh-gD6CIIrsD0ONZ3Z2kCKMcAwCJkC!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh3.googleusercontent.com%2F-ZRQMbWayCc8%2FV8Xlc2DDJVI%2FAAAAAAAAsOA%2FWyuciahXh-gD6CIIrsD0ONZ3Z2kCKMcAwCJkC%2Fw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya209.31277-ro-0-fo100%2F!7i10240!8i5120

Former Continent Discovered

Did you see the news this week that scientists have identified a former continent under Mauritius island, which is in the Indian Ocean to the east of Madagascar?

Remember that, in my geological theory of "The Continental Asteroids And Lines Of Emergence Hypothesis", the first of two Continental Asteroids landed and was centered in what is now the undersea ridge structure, known as the Mascarene Ridge. Islands like Mauritius, Reunion and, the Seychelles are where the ridge pokes above the surface of the water.

The continent formed by this First Continental Asteroid has long since been split apart by lines of emergence that formed beneath it. Those lines formed the ridges of the Mascarene Ridge. The central portion of the Second Continental Asteroid is still at it's impact site, it is the continent of Antarctica.

There are two separate reviews of this geology theory on this blog, "Summary Of Geological Theory Of Continental Asteroids" and "The Continental Asteroids And The Lines Of Emergence Hypothesis Made Really Simple".

The posting on this blog, "The First Antarctica And The First Original Impact Line", details where the fragments of this First Continental Asteroid can be seen now.