No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!

So, just came back from watching that new Elizabeth movie. It wasn't bad, per se: the costumes were good, but the focus seemed a bit fuzzy. I think if you're doing a movie on the Armada, you should just do that, without all that fancy Walter Raleigh stuff. But here's my real problem, which is preventing me from just plain enjoying the movie: every single Catholic character was presented as devious and manipulative, in varying degrees.

I also like how they managed to drag the Inquisition into it. Hollywood should start paying royalties to the Catholic Church, for all the mileage they're getting out of this. As it turns out, the Inquisition probably wasn't as bad as we think. But just in case, I feel safe in saying, on behalf of Catholics everywhere: to each of you personally hurt by the Inquisition: I'm really sorry. I know that can't repair all those fingers broken by thumb screws, or bring back those relatives who died in the Iron Maiden, (which was not, in fact, used by the Inquisition), but maybe the healing can start here. Seriously folks, its been more than 500 years, can we give it a rest?

Back to Philip II and Co. Its important to understand that all these Catholic characters truly believed that Catholicism was the True Faith, and that God wanted everyone to be Catholic, and so anyone who turned away from Catholicism was turning away from God. Remember, the world was full of plagues and famines and everyone believed that they were directly caused by God's unhappiness. Remember also that England was a Catholic country, before Henry VIII decided he needed a new wife. Elizabeth was the product of that second "marriage," which of course was never recognized by any Catholic as being real, and so Elizabeth was not only illegitimate, she was dragging England back away from the True Faith of God, after her elder, and legitimate, half-sister, Mary,(and hubby, the aforementioned Philip II) had tried so hard to save the poor citizens from what they viewed as certain damnation. The point is, Phillip wasn't a crazy old rosary-clutching, cursing warmonger, he really believed that God allowed him to be king, but expected him to do his part to turn souls back to Him, and there were plenty of Catholics in England writing to him all the time and asking him to please rescue the country from the evil grasp of the Protestants, who had driven them to worship in hiding. See, two sides to every story.

Now, can't we stereotype and demonize some other group? Maybe Martian robots, they seem like a likely target.

By the way, in case you missed it, the moral of today's post was: wikipedia: not just for finding Simpson's info!