As a child I didn’t like history… I thought my history teacher was boring. History was irrelevant. I could manage without it.
I worked with good history teachers in schools… I observed some of their lessons. History became fascinating… I became interested in local history… My interest grew…
As a child I loved Christian faith… I went to church, five meetings on Sunday… weeknight Bible Studies, prayer meetings, activities… I was converted and convinced.
I’ve listened to people without faith, or those whose faith was different to my brand… I recently heard Christianity described as teaching ‘answers we don’t understand to questions we don’t care about for reasons we don’t know’… I’ve questioned what previously I had held as ‘gospel’…
I’m fascinated by church history…
On Saturday someone mentioned Thomas Bilney… I’d never heard of him… I googled…
Thomas Bilney was a local man, born around 1495 near Norwich. He went to Cambridge University. He was religious – fasting, going to mass, paying indulgences…
He bought and read a copy of the banned Greek New Testament… He met with William Tyndale (who later translated the Bible into English) and other young men who questioned their religious traditions.
Their beliefs changed… They believed that forgiveness came not from priestly absolution but by a personal faith… Venerating saints and relics, pilgrimages to Walsingham and Canterbury were of no value…
Bilney preached…
In 1526 he was called to London and told not to preach these new doctrines… he continued to preach…
In 1527 he was arrested, charged with heresy, imprisoned in the Tower of London, released… he kept preaching…
He was arrested again, tried by the Bishop of Norwich and sentenced to death…
On 19 August 1531, Thomas Bilney was burned at the stake in Norwich as a heretic – the first martyr of the Reformation of the Church in England. He died repeating the word ‘Credo’ – I believe.
Musing… lessons from Bilney… questioning… being brave and changing… personal faith… martyrdom… ‘I believe’.
malcolmsmusings.org 