Podcasts about holy roman emperor charles v

The determined attempt to thwart Ottoman dominance was fought by Muslims and Christians across five theaters from the Balkans to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, from Persia to Russia. But this is not merely the story of a clash of civilizations between East and West. Europe was not united against the Turks; the scandal of the age was the alliance between King Francis I of France and Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Meanwhile, the resistance of the Saadi dynasty of Morocco to Ottoman encroachment played a critical role in denying Constantinople direct access to the Atlantic Ocean. By the same token, though religious imperatives were critic al to the motivations of all the key actors involved, these in no way fell neatly along the Christian Muslim divide. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V desired nothing more than to eradicate the Protestant heresy metastasizing throughout his domains, but the threat of Turkish invasion forced him to stay his hand and indulge his Lutheran subjects to ensure a common defense. Nevertheless, the collective effort to constrain the expansion of the Ottoman superpower did succeed with the ultimate victory in 1571 the tipping point in reordering the trajectory of history. To explore these facets of medieval and early modern European history is today’s guest, Si Sheppard, author of “Crescent Dawn: The Rise of the Ottoman Empire and the Making of the Modern Age.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, and the Tower of London have in common? Balthasar Guercy, an Italian physician who served both queens—and found himself imprisoned for his controversial beliefs. Originally from Milan, Guercy rose to prominence at the Tudor court, healing some of the most powerful figures of the day. But in 1543, he was arrested for supporting papal authority, a dangerous stance under Henry VIII's reign. Facing potential execution, Guercy's life hung in the balance… until Holy Roman Emperor Charles V stepped in to save him. From royal service to religious exile and a brush with death, Guercy's life reveals the dangerous tightrope Tudor physicians walked in a time of political and religious upheaval. Want to know more about this unsung figure of Tudor history? Watch now to uncover his incredible story of resilience, survival, and service to royalty. #TudorHistory #OnThisDay #AnneBoleyn #CatherineOfAragon #TudorCourt #TowerOfLondon #HistoricalMysteries #RoyalIntrigue #TudorMedicine #RenaissanceHistory

#261.> Corporate sponsor of the series: GluckPlumbing.For all your service needs big or small in NJ with a full service division, from boiler change outs, main sewer line snake outs, camera-ing main lines, to a simple faucet leak, Gluck Plumbing Service Division has you covered. Give them a call -   732-523-1836 x 1.> Episode Sponsor: Virtual Halacha Program > How do you want your Purim to look? Is it really all about finding the best costumes, rushing around making deliveries, and ingesting insane amounts of food and drink? Or do you want your Purim to be different, special and meaningful?> For a limited time, the Virtual Halacha Program is offering a free limmud in hilchos purim. This is for serious learners who want to see the sugya inside, with guidance and clarity. The VHP offers a digital platform that enables learning which is structured, yet flexible for a busy schedule.> https://learn.vhalacha.com/courses/purim1> This episode is also sponsored by Benyamin & Esti Kaminetzky in honor of my grandparents, Shelly & Henry Frisch, and my aunt and uncle, Elie & Vivi Rosenfeld. > To purchase, "The Diary of a Black Jewish Messiah":  https://amzn.to/49uIxHb> Subscribe and read the new  SeforimChatter Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/seforimchatter?r=91ow0&utm_medium=ios> To support the podcast or to sponsor an episode (including an individual episode in the series): https://seforimchatter.com/support-seforimchatter/ or email seforimchatter@gmail.com (Zelle/QP this email address)> To join the SeforimChatter WhatsApp community: https://chat.whatsapp.com/DZ3C2CjUeD9AGJvXeEODtK> We discussed David Reuveni and his bio, where he was from, languages he spoke, his travels in the Middle East disguised as a Muslim, his travels in Italy, meeting with Pope Clement VII, King João III of Portugal, relationship with Shlomo Molcho and Molcho's conversion to Judaism, fauled meeting with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Reuveni's retinue, bad acts of his servants, the story of the diary and the manuscript, and much more.

What encouraged a young man who had spent most of his formative years being raised by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to bite the hand that feeds him and become one of the Empire's greatest enemies? Why risk his life spending most of his adult years leading a revolt when he could have enjoyed the pomp and pleasures of being a prince? And when did the revolt he led become the foundations of an entire nation? The man in question is William the Silent, also known as William, Prince of Orange.In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Nick Ridley to find out more about William the Silent's rise as a nationalist leader that led to the founding of the Netherlands.This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg and edited by Joseph Knight.Discover the past with exclusive history documentaries and ad-free podcasts presented by world-renowned historians from History Hit. Watch them on your smart TV or on the go with your mobile device. Get 50% off your first 3 months with code TUDORS. Sign up now for your 14-day free trial here >You can take part in our listener survey here > Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Lion House is a riveting new book from journalist and historian Christopher De Bellaigue, written like a novel that tells the dramatic story of Suleyman the Magnificent and his power and influence over 16th-century Europe. In this episode recorded at the Chalke Valley History festival during the summer of 2022, Christopher talks Dan through what was happening at the opposite end of Europe to Henry VIII and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as this fearsome Sultan set his sights on swathes of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa and reigned over what became known as the 'Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire.'This episode was produced by Mariana Des Forges. The audio editor was Dougal Patmore. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

May 25, 1521. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V passes the Edict of Worms, condemning German theologian Martin Luther and sparking Europe's Protestant Reformation. Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Anna and Paul discuss the project that united Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Teddy Roosevelt, and Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame)! Put on your mosquito netting because we're going to be surviving malaria, monsoons, and malnutrition to get this one done.

In this episode, we begin following King Henry VIII, King Francis I, and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as the tumultuous 1520s unfold. Francis sees his stock fall after his failed attempt to become Holy Roman Emperor. Charles deals with unrest in Castile while also confronting Martin Luther. Henry finds himself courted by both men. Website: www.westerncivpodcast.comAd-Free Version: www.patreon.com/westerncivpodcastWestern Civ 2.0 Free Trial: www.glow.fm/westernciv

The Lion House is a riveting new book from journalist and historian Christopher De Bellaigue, written like a novel that tells the dramatic story of Suleyman the Magnificent and his power and influence over 16th Century Europe. In this episode recorded at the Chalke Valley History festival earlier this summer, Christopher talks Dan through what was happening at the opposite end of Europe to Henry VIII and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as this fearsome Sultan set his sights on swathes of the Middle East and the Horn of Africa and reigned over what became known as the 'Golden Age of the Ottoman Empire.'This episode was produced by Mariana Des Forges, the audio editor was Dougal Patmore.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Readings* Psalm 119:41–48* Psalm 73* Proverbs 31:10–31* John 21:1–25* Augsburg Confession, XX, 1–18CommemorationToday we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Augsburg, Germany, on 25 June 1530, the Augsburg Confession presents the theology of the Lutheran Church and of the Reformation. At the heart of the Confession is justification by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone — presented primarily in Article IV, often called the ‘article on which the Church stands or falls'. Through the Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran Reformers began the arduous task of removing the corruption that had crept into the Church over centuries and restoring to its rightful place the true core of Christianity: Justificatio Sola Gratia Sola Fide Solo Christo — justification by grace alone through faith alone by and through Christ alone.ReaderCorey J. MahlerCopyright NoticesUnless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, copyright © 2005, 2006 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, call 800-325-3040.Support the show

In the early 1500s, the Catholic Church is plagued by corruption, and the Pope is blind to his people. To fund the building of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, he offers to sell indulgences; money in exchange for eternal salvation. In Germany, a priest named Martin Luther takes offense. The resulting crisis is bigger than anyone – even Martin Luther – expected. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V will suddenly be forced to deal with not just foreign invasion, but civil war within his own empire. The outcome would change Christianity, and the world, forever. SUBSCRIBE TO RELEVANT HISTORY, AND NEVER MISS AN EPISODE! Relevant History Patreon: https://bit.ly/3vLeSpF Subscribe on Apple Music (iTunes): https://apple.co/2SQnw4q Subscribe on Google Music: https://bit.ly/30hUTRD Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/38bzOvo RSS feed: https://bit.ly/2R0Iosz Relevant History on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3eRhdtk Relevant History on Facebook: https://bit.ly/2Qk05mm Relevant History SubscribeStar: https://www.subscribestar.com/relevant-history Official website: https://bit.ly/3btvha4 Music credit: Sergey Cheremisinov - Black Swan  

On this day in Tudor history, 20th July 1554, Philip of Spain, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, arrived in England to prepare for his marriage to Queen Mary I.   Find out more in this edition of #TudorHistoryShorts from historian Claire Ridgway. Here's a link to a video on their marriage - https://youtu.be/289MSTDoZHA   You can see this podcast as a video at the following link: https://youtu.be/RmSfIR_0AB8

Readings* Psalm 119:41–48* Psalm 73* Proverbs 31:10–31* John 21:1–25* Augsburg Confession, Art. XX ¶¶ 1–18CommemorationToday we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Augsburg, Germany, on 25 June 1530, the Augsburg Confession presents the theology of the Lutheran Church and of the Reformation. At the heart of the Confession is justification by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone — presented primarily in Article IV, often called the ‘article on which the Church stands or falls'. Through the Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran Reformers began the arduous task of removing the corruption that had crept into the Church over centuries and restoring to its rightful place the true core of Christianity: Justificatio Sola Gratia Sola Fide Solo Christo — justification by grace alone through faith alone by and through Christ alone.ReaderCorey J. MahlerCopyright NoticesUnless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, copyright © 2005, 2006 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, call 800-325-3040.Support the show (https://confident.faith/donate/)

Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Professor Geoffrey Parker to explore the extraordinary life and career of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1500–1558), who ruled Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and much of Italy and Central and South America,Prof. Parker has examined countless surviving written sources, interrogating every dimension of Charles's long reign, to produce an epic, detailed and vivid life of a complex man and his rule over the world's first transatlantic empire. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The most interesting book ever to come out of Johanna Gutenberg's print shop in Heidelberg was the Complutensian Bible--a living, walking, hard candy-hating book of sacred scripture. Agents of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V immediately target the Bible for their own, chasing it to the demilitarized zone of the Hungarian plain where the fierce and intelligent cabbages called the Huzhon Frisee live. Called upon to rescue the Bible and confront the plans of the evil Margaret of Parma and Count Crimsyn, Grimhilda the Psychosomatic Poisoner and Aldo Krasplasian, Hungary's King of Puppets team up with Johanna Gutenberg and "Junker Jorg," the League's disinformation specialist. That's a lot of exposition!

Full Text of ReadingsMonday of the Third Week of Lent Lectionary: 237All podcast readings are produced by the USCCB and are from the Catholic Lectionary, based on the New American Bible and approved for use in the United States _______________________________________The Saint of the day is St. John of God, ConfessorThe Catholic Church celebrates the extraordinary life of St. John of God on March 8. The saint lived through decades of sin and suffering before a profound conversion that led him to embrace poverty, humility and charity.John was born in Portugal during the year 1495 to middle-class parents. Tragically, at the age of 8, he was kidnapped by a stranger and was later abandoned to homelessness in a remote part of Spain.He worked as a shepherd until age 22, when the opportunity came along for him to join the army of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. This apparent stroke of fortune, however, would eventually lead John into greater misery.For the next 18 years, John lived and fought among the emperor's foot soldiers, first against the French and later the Turks. His morals began to decline, as he completely abandoned the piety of his earliest youth for a greedy and brutal way of life.John's conscience was occasionally troubled, particularly by the memories of his early years before he was taken from his parents. And despite falling into a lifestyle of violence and plundering, he had a certain weakness for those who were poor or in extreme distress, and would give alms to them.He was narrowly saved on two occasions from what seemed like certain death once after instinctively uttering a prayer to the Virgin Mary after falling wounded in enemy territory; and again, when he was falsely suspected of theft and nearly executed but for another soldier's intervention.Events such as these weighed heavily upon him, and when his regiment was disbanded he decided to amend his life beginning with a pilgrimage to Spain's Santiago de Compostela Cathedral along the Way of St. James. There, he confessed his sins and committed himself to living a life of repentance.Soon after this, he returned to Portugal and discovered what had become of his parents. His mother had died, brokenhearted, after the loss of her son, after which his father had become a Franciscan monk.At age 42, John returned to Spain and picked up nearly where he had left off 20 years before, working again as a shepherd. This time, however, he was committed to living out the faith in God that he had regained.He traveled briefly to North Africa, seeking to help Christians there who had been enslaved by Muslims. Eventually, however, he returned to Spain and settled for a time in the occupation of selling religious books and other goods, always encouraging his customers to live their faith sincerely. St. John of God's later reputation as the patron saint of booksellers derives from this period of his life.Later, however, he felt compelled to give himself entirely to the service of the poor, sick, and vulnerable. He opened his house to them allowing it to become a combined hospital, homeless shelter, and halfway-house, run entirely by John himself. When he was not bandaging wounded occupants or breaking up fights between them, he would go out begging on their behalf.The Bishop of Granada approved his work, and gave him the name John of God. A group of volunteers came to accompany him in his work, many of whom had first come to him while in dire need themselves.Others, who resented his work, assaulted John's reputation by focusing on his past sins but John, unfazed in his humility, would acknowledge the truth of what was said, as a testament to God's grace in his life. He once offered to pay a woman to tell the entire city what she had been saying about him in private.John served the sick and poor for 15 years before meeting his death through an act of charity. He jumped into a freezing river and managed to save a drowning man, but came home shivering and weakened from the ordeal. He lay down in one of his own hospital beds, where his condition further declined.The Bishop of Granada came to administer the last rites. As the bishop prepared him for death, John expressed a number of anxieties.There are three things that make me uneasy, he said. The first is that I have received so many graces from God, and have not recognized them, and have repaid them with so little of my own.The second is that after I am dead, I fear lest the poor women I have rescued, and the poor sinners I have reclaimed, may be treated badly.The third is that those who have trusted me with money, and whom I have not fully repaid, may suffer loss on my account.The bishop, however, assured him that he had nothing to fear. John then asked to be alone, and summoned his last strength to rise from bed and kneel before a crucifix.He died in prayer, with his face pressed against the figure of Christ, on the night of March 7, 1550. St. John of God was canonized in 1690, and has become the patron of hospitals and the dying. Saint of the Day Copyright CNA, Catholic News Agency

In this sweeping tour of Renaissance century Italy, Mary Hollingsworth takes us to see the most powerful figure of the age: the King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, the Lord of the Netherlands and the soon-to-be-crowned Holy Roman Emperor - Charles V. To WIN a hardback copy of Mary Hollingsworth's beautifully designed and written new book, Princes of the Renaissance, just 'like' our new Facebook page. For much, much more, as ever, head to our website: tttpodcast.com Show notes Scene One: Bologna, 24 February 1530, Pope Clement VII crowns Charles V as the Holy Roman Emperor, the last Pope to do so, marking the end of an 800-year tradition that stretched back to Charlemagne. Scene Two: Mantua, 2 April 1530. Charles V is staying with Federigo Gonzaga at his beautiful court, they play a game of real tennis before sitting down in the great dining hall surrounded by Guilio Romano’s erotic frescos to enjoy an elaborate banquet. Scene Three: Florence, 15 April 1530 (Good Friday). Imperial forces surround the city of Florence, leaving just one access point into the city at Empoli. Inside the gates, the situation is getting more desperate, food supplies are very low, but the spirit of the Florentine Republicans remains undimmed. Memento: A piece of Florentine plaster daubed with the words “Poor but Free!” Further reading: Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V, 2019 (Yale University Press) People/Social Presenter: Violet Moller Guest: Mary Hollingsworth Production: Maria Nolan Podcast partner: Colorgraph Follow us on Twitter: @tttpodcast_ Or on Facebook See where 1530 fits on our Timeline

The Cost of Discipleship is a series where we look through the lens of church history and look back on people who following Jesus and standing for Christ cost them much. This series looks at what we can glean from those individuals and how we can apply the principles found in their lives to our current world.Martin Luther 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546 was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and a seminal figure in the Reformation. Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject several teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church; in particular, he disputed the view on indulgences. Luther proposed an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses of 1517. His refusal to renounce all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X in 1520 and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521 resulted in his excommunication by the pope and condemnation as an outlaw by the Holy Roman Emperor.Revival Talks is a series of discussions where staff from our church and members of our community sit down and talk about various topics in light of what is going on in our church, our community, and our world.For more information about our church visit us on our website or our Facebook pageWebsite: http://revivalcenterag.comFacebook: http://facebook.com/revivalcenterag

Readings* Psalm 119:41–48* Psalm 73* Proverbs 31:10–31* John 21:1–25* Augsburg Confession, Art. XX ¶¶ 1–18CommemorationToday we commemorate the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession. Presented to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V at Augsburg, Germany, on 25 June 1530, the Augsburg Confession presents the theology of the Lutheran Church and of the Reformation. At the heart of the Confession is justification by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone — presented primarily in Article IV, often called the ‘article on which the Church stands or falls’. Through the Augsburg Confession, the Lutheran Reformers began the arduous task of removing the corruption that had crept into the Church over centuries and restoring to its rightful place the true core of Christianity: Justificatio Sola Gratia Sola Fide Solo Christo — justification by grace alone through faith alone by and through Christ alone.ReaderCorey J. MahlerCopyright NoticesUnless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations from the Lutheran Confessions are from Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions, copyright © 2005, 2006 by Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission. All rights reserved. To purchase a copy of Concordia, call 800-325-3040.Support the show (https://confident.faith/donate/)

On this day in Tudor history, 6th June 1549, an army of rebels assembled at Bodmin in Cornwall, and there was a town meeting in which the rebels' demands were put forward.What were these rebels rebelling against?The recent religious changes, particularly the new law concerning the Book of Common Prayer.Trouble ensued and their grievances became a full-blown rebellion, the Prayer Book Rebellion. You can find out what happened next and how the rebellion ended in today's talk from Claire Ridgway, founder of the Tudor Society.You can see this podcast as a video at the following link:https://youtu.be/y1eIshncBH8Other videos on the Prayer Book Rebellion:August 5 - Rebels defeated near Exeter - Battle of Clyst St Mary - https://youtu.be/jK_lEDaLfD4 August 6 - Cruel was the fight - Battle of Clyst Heath - https://youtu.be/IABiBMQ3ACs Also on this day in Tudor history, 6th June 1522, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and King Henry VIII made a grand entry into the city of London. Find out more about the pageantry involved in last year’s video - https://youtu.be/JCIH_7jrtl0 

In this week's short fictional episode, we join Francis Valois as he tries to destroy the Habsburg army facing him. The Spanish arquebusiers, Swiss and German Landsknecht, and French gendarmes all find themselves fighting for their lives outside the besieged city of Pavia. The French King wanted Milan and control of the Italian Pennisula, his Habsburg rival, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, wanted control of all Europe. Pavia was the decisive battle in a long series of wars known as the Italian Wars, and it was this battle that changed Francis I's life forever. To learn more about the fight, check out this week's main episode dropping Friday 28th. *As always, with these fictional episodes, some characters and events are fictitious or have been altered slightly. The purpose of this show is to entertain while also giving listeners a peek into a moment in time. Enjoy! Source - Thomas F. Arnold's The Renaissance At WarCover Art - Portrait of Francis I, King of France (ca. 1532-1533) by Joos van der BekeJourney in the New World by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://www.twinmusicom.org/song/258/journey-in-the-new-worldArtist: http://www.twinmusicom.orgHeavy Interlude by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100515Artist: http://incompetech.com/

From his accession to the Spanish throne in 1516 until his abdication in 1556, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dominated Europe in a way that no ruler had since Charlemagne. In Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Parker draws upon an enormous array of documentation to provide readers with a better understanding of Charles and the many challenges he faced over the course of his decades-long reign. A member of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles stared assuming his inheritance at an early age due to the premature death of his father Philip the Fair. With his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1520, Charles was sovereign over a realm stretching across central and northwestern Europe to Spain and her rapidly expanding empire in the Americas. The nature of his domains and the challenges he faced, from the persistent military clashes with his French counterpart Francis I to the rise of Lutheranism in Germany, forced Charles to adopt a peripatetic existence, spending much of his reign on horseback crisscrossing Europe to manage his scattered territories. As Parker shows, most of these problems defied his best efforts to resolve them, which fueled his decision to retire to a monastery in Spain two years before his death in 1558. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From his accession to the Spanish throne in 1516 until his abdication in 1556, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dominated Europe in a way that no ruler had since Charlemagne. In Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Parker draws upon an enormous array of documentation to provide readers with a better understanding of Charles and the many challenges he faced over the course of his decades-long reign. A member of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles stared assuming his inheritance at an early age due to the premature death of his father Philip the Fair. With his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1520, Charles was sovereign over a realm stretching across central and northwestern Europe to Spain and her rapidly expanding empire in the Americas. The nature of his domains and the challenges he faced, from the persistent military clashes with his French counterpart Francis I to the rise of Lutheranism in Germany, forced Charles to adopt a peripatetic existence, spending much of his reign on horseback crisscrossing Europe to manage his scattered territories. As Parker shows, most of these problems defied his best efforts to resolve them, which fueled his decision to retire to a monastery in Spain two years before his death in 1558. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From his accession to the Spanish throne in 1516 until his abdication in 1556, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dominated Europe in a way that no ruler had since Charlemagne. In Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Parker draws upon an enormous array of documentation to provide readers with a better understanding of Charles and the many challenges he faced over the course of his decades-long reign. A member of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles stared assuming his inheritance at an early age due to the premature death of his father Philip the Fair. With his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1520, Charles was sovereign over a realm stretching across central and northwestern Europe to Spain and her rapidly expanding empire in the Americas. The nature of his domains and the challenges he faced, from the persistent military clashes with his French counterpart Francis I to the rise of Lutheranism in Germany, forced Charles to adopt a peripatetic existence, spending much of his reign on horseback crisscrossing Europe to manage his scattered territories. As Parker shows, most of these problems defied his best efforts to resolve them, which fueled his decision to retire to a monastery in Spain two years before his death in 1558. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

From his accession to the Spanish throne in 1516 until his abdication in 1556, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dominated Europe in a way that no ruler had since Charlemagne. In Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Parker draws upon an enormous array of documentation to provide readers with a better understanding of Charles and the many challenges he faced over the course of his decades-long reign. A member of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles stared assuming his inheritance at an early age due to the premature death of his father Philip the Fair. With his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1520, Charles was sovereign over a realm stretching across central and northwestern Europe to Spain and her rapidly expanding empire in the Americas. The nature of his domains and the challenges he faced, from the persistent military clashes with his French counterpart Francis I to the rise of Lutheranism in Germany, forced Charles to adopt a peripatetic existence, spending much of his reign on horseback crisscrossing Europe to manage his scattered territories. As Parker shows, most of these problems defied his best efforts to resolve them, which fueled his decision to retire to a monastery in Spain two years before his death in 1558. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From his accession to the Spanish throne in 1516 until his abdication in 1556, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V dominated Europe in a way that no ruler had since Charlemagne. In Emperor: A New Life of Charles V (Yale University Press, 2019), Geoffrey Parker draws upon an enormous array of documentation to provide readers with a better understanding of Charles and the many challenges he faced over the course of his decades-long reign. A member of the Habsburg dynasty, Charles stared assuming his inheritance at an early age due to the premature death of his father Philip the Fair. With his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1520, Charles was sovereign over a realm stretching across central and northwestern Europe to Spain and her rapidly expanding empire in the Americas. The nature of his domains and the challenges he faced, from the persistent military clashes with his French counterpart Francis I to the rise of Lutheranism in Germany, forced Charles to adopt a peripatetic existence, spending much of his reign on horseback crisscrossing Europe to manage his scattered territories. As Parker shows, most of these problems defied his best efforts to resolve them, which fueled his decision to retire to a monastery in Spain two years before his death in 1558. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In our second episode on the Italian Wars, we explore how Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's vast territories ratcheted up the conflict from a dynastic squabble to a continent-spanning contest of great powers.

Recap: Seven Blessings of Marriage So turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 7:8-16. We're going to be walking through that today as we continue to look at the practical instructions that God has for us, originally given by the Apostle Paul to a specific local church there in Corinth. But in the wisdom and the providence of God through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, elevated into perfect scripture and put in into the canon for us so that we can read it and learn from it. So we're really sitting at the feet, not so much of the Apostle Paul, but of the Lord Jesus as He speaks to us by the power of the Spirit. Now, last week as we began talking about marriage, I laid out God's marvelous purposes of marriage and how God ordained it from the beginning for many blessed purposes. I remember I laid out those seven purposes, first, for partnership, that we would be free from loneliness, that it's not good for the man to be alone. God said concerning Adam that we will be delivered and freed from loneliness in this world. Secondly, the blessing of marriage and pleasure, specifically in marital union, the delights of sex within marriage, in the Song of Songs, which celebrates that and how it was established from the beginning, the man and his wife became one flesh and they were naked and felt no shame, and there was the pleasure of that union. Thirdly, we saw for procreation, because God intended that through Adam and Eve, the earth would be filled, that they would be fruitful and multiply, and there would be people in the image of God who would be knit together in their mother's wombs and that God intended a vast army of the redeemed up in Heaven and the holy way by which children will be brought into this world as marriage and so procreation. Also purity, how marriage is protection from sexual immorality, and from all of the wickedness that Satan would pour into our souls by that seems like sometimes gaping hole in the wall, the fortress wall, of our souls. And so there is purity. And also with that, we talked about protection, a physical protection certainly from the elements, protection from the difficulties of life in this physical world, that's true, and the husbands can protect the wives in some senses, and the wives can protect the husbands in some senses, but also again with the issue of sexual protection, the need that we have for each other, and we talked a lot about that last time. And also productivity, that the two come together and they're productive in their labors and they help each other, they buttress each other's weaknesses and they're able to cooperate and do remarkably productive things. They're able to fill the Earth, and subdue it, and rule over it together in a marvelous partnership. And then finally, portrayal, how marriage is a portrayal or a picture of Christ in the church. And so all of these things are the beautiful blessings of marriage, but we've also been seeing and discussing how rapidly sin entered the world. In the very next chapter, in Genesis 3, the serpent came and brought sin into the world and attacked that first married couple. And so there has been tremendous distress in marriage ever since. Martin Luther put it in his humorous way, as only Martin Luther could do. I tell you what, of all the figures from church history, who would I want to spend the evening with the most? He'd be my first joys, him or Spurgeon. What a fun evening that would be, if you could speak German. I'm assuming the translation issue is dealt with, but just to be able to sit at the table and listen to this man and his wisdom and the humor. But this is what he said about marriage: "Good God, what a lot of trouble there is in marriage. Adam has made a mess of our nature. Think of all the squabbles Adam and Eve must have had in the course of their 900 years together. Eve would say, 'You ate the apple,' and Adam would say, 'Yes, but you gave it to me.'" 900 years of that, I guess. And some of the deepest questions of our life center around this issue of marriage, of singleness, of love because these are powerful forces, and God... And I love how Jesus said, the night before He was crucified, said, "I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you." And by that, He meant the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the counselor who would come and give us instruction in all things. And here, we need instruction concerning singleness and marriage, and so that's what's in front of us. Four Patterns of Marriage in the Roman World Now, the Corinthians were in a very messed up context in terms of marriage back then. Their conception of marriage before the Gospel came to town was significantly corrupted. In the Greco-Roman world, there were four patterns of marriage in the pagan world that they lived in. First, there was slave marriage. Many of the... Much of the world, the Greco-Roman world, were slaves, a huge percentage of the population, and as Paul said, and we saw in 1 Corinthians 6, "You're not your own, you're bought at a price," that's a language of slavery, we are Christ's slaves, but even just physically, those individuals who are slaves were really not their own. And so, what could happen is two slaves could come together in what was known as some kind of a tent marriage, that's a literal Latin expression, a tent dwelling, together which would speak of a temporariness. We, in our slang, might use the language of "shacking up," but there was that sense of coming together, and who knows how long it would last because if the master didn't like how they were together, he could break them apart, he could sell off one of them, et cetera. And so it was a very temporary setting, and so many of the church back then were slaves. Paul addresses them right in 1 Corinthians 7, now we'll not address it today. He is dealing with slaves and therefore with slave marriage. And so, there's a lot of mixed-up scenarios. There's a lot of mess. And it doesn't follow the pattern of one man, one woman, and covenant relationship for life; it was a sick pattern there in the pagan world. And so what is the church going to do? And what Paul did was not to try to break up everything but try to teach them the sanctity of marriage, what marriage is, and if they were in this tent relationship, to make the best of it and live up to the pattern of marriage as God originally ordained, even though a wicked or tyrannical master might break it apart physically or in terms of the actual ethical situation. Secondly, there was common-law marriage. A man and a woman would live together, for them for one year, I think in our culture, common-law marriage is seven years, but one year, and at the end of the one year, they'd be identified as husband and wife and so the church had to address situations like that where people were living together and there'd never been a ceremony, there'd never been any kind of vows taken, there was no real legal status, but it was a common-law marriage. Again, Paul doesn't say anything about what they ought to do other than the sanctity of marriage that exists wherever it exists, and to live up to it, to God's pattern and to what God would intend. Thirdly, there was the marriage by sale, and this is where... Would be where a wealthy father would sell marital rights to his daughter to a suitor, and if the man could come up with the bride price, then he would give his daughter to her in marriage, and that was very common in that part of the world. And then finally, the highest form of marriage in the pagan and the Greco-Roman world was patrician marriage and this was among the nobility, and so, a man would marry a high-born woman and she would be his legal wife in patrician marriage, and therefore, the children that she bore would be his legal heir, his legal heirs. But sadly, they would be frequently hardly any kind of love relationship between the two. There would be a lot of adultery, a lot of sexual immorality. Each of them, it would just be understood, they would have partners, not their legal spouse, and so this is just very common in the pagan world. So that was the situation and the Greco-Roman patterns. Beyond that, as we've seen in the Book of 1 Corinthians, they were tremendous pressure sexually, the pagan religion was very corrupt sexually, and so, a lot of times, the gods and goddesses were worshipped by means of temple prostitutes, both male and female. And we discussed this clearly in chapter 6. Also, there would be Christians from the Jewish background there in the church, and they would have a very different view of marriage than the pagans did, but they would go so far as to say that you're not normal if you're not married, something's wrong with you. There'd be even a sense of a curse on the women if they were barren, and you see that a lot in the Old Testament, but there's a sense of what's normal and right, that's fine, but they go maybe too far and say there's something abnormal with you if you can't find a spouse, like something's spiritually wrong with singleness. And so Paul has to address that, and he does so on the platform of His own life and His own example. We'll talk about that. On the other hand, there would be some ex-pagans who were very philosophically-minded and very... So they believe high-minded and said, "Now that we've come to Christ, we're in the realm of the Spirit, not of the flesh," and so as we saw at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 7, they said, "It's good for a man not to touch a woman at all." And so even in marriage, it's time for just total abstinence. And so into all of this messed up mental scenario or spiritual scenario, Paul has to give the biblical truth and he's commissioned by God to speak timeless truths about marriage, and in the providence of God, though he could never have known how many generations of Christians he would speak to that God ordained, he would speak to every generation of Christians about marriage. And we need it, because we're messed up, too, when it comes to marriage. We have to be honest. Our culture is in a decaying orbit of relationship with Judeo-Christian values. We're moving more and more culturally toward paganism, so, to see the kind of ways that pagans understood men and women coming together, don't be surprise to see some of those things coming back. We also know that there's terrible assaults on marriage as I've already mentioned in my prayers, leading to divorce. Divorce statistics are staggering. Somewhere around 50% of all marriages end in divorce. 41% of all first marriages end in divorce. 60% of all second marriages end in divorce. 73% of all third marriages end in divorce. So you can see even in those statistics, the pattern of serial monogamy, with the corruption of illicit divorces in between. And so we need to hear the Biblical truth on the issue of divorce. The average first marriage that doesn't end in divorce lasts about eight years, and soon after marriage, a lot of pressures come on the couple: Pressures, financial pressures, sexual pressures, relationship pressures, scheduling pressures, and it drives them apart, and if they don't have the resources of the Word of God and the Spirit, that it is very likely that they could end up in divorce. But the United States, for all of its troubles, has only the sixth highest divorce rate in the world; the worst is in Russia: Three-quarters of all first marriages end in divorce. And so this is a problem worldwide. And beyond all of these staggering and depressing statistics is the reality of what divorce does to the children and to extended families and friends and everyone that knows the couple. It's like a bomb that's dropped in and has concentric circles of effect. It's devastating. The costs are staggering. The problems are not new, and the Corinthians face their own problems with marriage as we have seen, and only the Word of God has the power to help us face our problems as well. So we turn now to 1 Corinthians 7:8-16, and Paul addresses four categories of people in the Corinthian church, and his words are timeless and relevant, and each one of you that's listening to me here today will find yourself in one of these four categories. It covers everybody. First, those who are presently unmarried of various categories, and those are addressed in verses 8 and 9. And then secondly, Christians who are presently married to other Christians, so that's addressed in verses 10 and 11, and then Christians who are presently married to non-Christians, and the non-Christians are willing to stay married to them, those are addressed in verses 12 through 14, and then fourthly, Christians who are presently married to non-Christians and the non-Christians want to leave or actually do leave, and that's in verses 15 and 16. So, Paul's words, you're not going to cover every little detail or every scenario, but this is a very great place for us to start as we try to understand marriage. I. Commands to the Unmarried (vs. 8-9) So let's begin with commands to the unmarried in verses 8 and 9. "Now to the unmarried and the widows, I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion." So let's try to understand this category. He uses a simple term, "unmarried." It's just a very simple term in the Greek, but then along with that comes the specific term, "widows." So it's probably best to take this as a broad category of all the adults in the congregation who are not presently married, both male and female. Widows, I think are singled out because they had special needs and they were understood as a special category in the church and in society. So there is somewhat of a redundancy in the phrase to the "unmarried" and the "widows"; obviously, all widows are unmarried, but I think that's what he's dealing with here. So in this category, it would be all single people who have never been married and also people who are married at one point and are no longer married. So Paul's basic advice to this category is, "Stay unmarried, if you can." So, Paul is going to give in 1 Corinthians 7 the greatest, most detailed unfolding of the gift of singleness or the value of singleness in the Christian life. Now we'll get into this again later in the chapter, but this is especially in verses 32 through 35. And the value of staying single, if you can do it with a pure heart, sexually, if you can stay single, the value is practical because you'll be able to serve your Lord with undivided devotion. So I'm stealing a little thunder from those later verses, but that's what he says. So that's the reason why if you can stay unmarried, please do so. Now, in a larger sense, and we're going to see this very soon, not this morning, but in subsequent sermons in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul is going to argue for a basic life contentment. He's going to argue for your life is bigger than your marital status. It's bigger than your status as slave or free. It's bigger than anything that's going on. Your relationship with Christ trumps everything, all of those scenarios, and it is possible, actually, it is desired and even commanded from God, for you to be content and maximally fruitful in whatever of those scenarios you find yourself in. So don't be continually pining after something that you don't have. Don't be yearning to get out of your present situation. We'll talk more about this, I think, next week. But the basic contentment, he even goes so far as to say it to slaves. He says, "If you're a slave, don't let it trouble you. But if you can get your freedom, do it." And so in other words, he's saying, "Don't be consumed, you might actually spend the rest of your life as a slave. And if you're a Christian and if you served faithfully, the Lord sees what you've done and He will reward you," as he says in many other places. And so don't let it trouble you. So there's a basic contentment perspective here, saying the grass is not greener on the other side. Don't imagine, "If I could only have X, if I could have that scenario, then I could really be fruitful and I could really be happy in the Lord." Basic contentment: Stay content in what you are. Whatever your lot in life is. We'll talk more about that, God willing, next week. Paul’s Own Example So Paul gives himself then as his own example in terms of singleness, look at verse 8: "Now to the unmarried and the widows. I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am." So there, he clearly asserts that he's an unmarried man, he's a single man. Now, we don't know very much more about Paul's marital status. Many people who study the Jewish society at the time said if he was going to be in the Sanhedrin or he was a ladder climber there in Judaism, he would have been married at a young age, would've been expected, as I mentioned earlier in the sermon. So it was just the norm in Jewish society, and so therefore, many scholars, New Testament scholars, think Paul was a widower. We don't know anything about it, we can't speculate but just assume at some point he was married and lost his wife. But we don't know, maybe he had never been married. At any rate, he clearly says, "As I am." So he's a single man. So he's arguing for the benefits of life from his own personal experience. He, the Apostle Paul, was completely free to serve the Lord in some radical and courageous and bold ways which he would not have been able to do if he were a married man. The Lord had a call on Paul's life which was quite extreme. You remember in the Book of Acts how the prophet Agabus took his belt and tied him up with it, tied himself, I think he tied himself up with it, and he said, "The Holy Spirit says, ‘'In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.'" And then everyone around Paul starts weeping and pleading with him not to go to Jerusalem. Well, that's a lot harder to hear from a wife and kids than it is from a bunch of friends in the church. But listen to what Paul says in Acts 21:13, he says, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." So there's a special call in Paul's life, would have been much harder for him to do it as a married man with children that he had to provide for. Actually, Martin Luther was very similar to this. Martin Luther went and courageously stood for the Lord at the Diet of Worms. When he was asked to recant of all of his Reformation discoveries, justification by faith alone apart from works of law, the Gospel rediscovered and he stood courageously and boldly and would not recant, but said, "Here I stand. Sinners are justified, they are made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. I will not recant. I can't turn my back on the word of God for the turn away from the Word of God and conscience is not safe. Here I stand, I can do no other." That's it. Well, what ended up happening is the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V put a ban on him. He was given safe conduct there and back, but basically, once he left the city districts, all bets are off. And a German citizen, seeing Martin Luther along the road, could take their sword or dagger any moment, plunge into Luther's heart and be exonerated of any guilt. He was a marked man, he was a dead man walking. So, Luther had taken vows of celibacy in the medieval Catholic pattern, which he later renounced as unbiblical, and felt he was free to marry, but he thought it would be unwise to get married because of that ban that was on him. So it's very similar to the Apostle Paul. He had a freedom to serve the Lord and a freedom to die, really, as a martyr, that he would not have if He was a married man. Now we'll talk more about this later in 1 Corinthians 7, this is the very case that Paul makes later on. So here, in this chapter, he's vigorously refuting the Jews who say that only weird or defective people…the idea that there is something wrong with you if you're single. That's just not true. It may be a special calling on that individual's life, that we all acknowledge that it's rare. He is advocating, "If you can stay single, then do so." But there's a limitation, and the question you have to ask yourself is, "Can I be sexually pure as a single man or woman?" Can You be Self-Controlled? So look at verse 9. "If they, [the unmarried] cannot control themselves, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn," and then it's added in the translations, "burn with passion," and I think that's a right understanding, to burn with lust, to burn with sexual desire, and if you can't control yourself, the only holy avenue for you is marriage. So God gives to some people the gift of singleness, and the essence of it has to do with this verse 9, which is the ability to just move through this issue without any strong pulls. They could be married, but it really seems a matter of indifference, not against it, but they really feel that they can serve the Lord fine without it. Paul's saying if that's how you are, then stay single, really, because you'll be set free to serve the Lord in some remarkable ways. But if you know in your heart that sexual temptation is powerful and strong, you feel like you're walking through a minefield and you can't stay pure and you don't know what to do and et cetera, then you don't have the gift of singleness. So that's what's he saying. You have to analyze yourself, you have to know yourself and then you'll know. So, if I can just stop and make an application to those of you that are single. You may ask, "Alright, what do I do if I diagnosed myself and I don't think I have the gift of singleness? But I haven't received my gift yet, what should I do? What should I do?" That's a very good question. As you look at it, you analyze yourself, you have to say to yourself, it's true that it's better to marry than to burn with passion. But let me say one more thing. It's better to burn with passion than to sin. And God is calling on you, if you don't have the gift of singleness but you don't have a spouse yet, He's calling on you to fight the good fight of sexual purity, to stand firm in the day of test. All sexual expression outside of marriage is sin. God is not giving you permission to sin because you can't control yourself. So He's calling on you to sexual purity. So, let me just give you the basic instructions that we all have concerning sanctification. First, "put sin to death by the Spirit," Romans 8:13. If you, by the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the flesh, you'll live. So that's the Christian life. All of us have to do it, you especially have to do it in this area, put sin to death by the power of the Spirit. Secondly, avoid tempting situations, like it says in the Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Thirdly, know that God "will not tempt you beyond what you can bear, but with the temptation, will make a way of escape so you can bear up under it," 1 Corinthians 10:13. Fourthly, pray daily for a godly spouse. Get other people to pray for you in this area. God makes marriages. Jesus said, "What God has joined together, let man not separate." I think there's an interesting kind of locational transfer that He does with Eve where he makes... God makes Eve in some other place. I don't think it's helpful to think of a workshop, but just another place, and he makes her and brings her to the man. And I think there's a reason for that, because there's a providential from the man's perspective bringing to that happens and God does that. And I've seen it again and again; it's a beautiful thing to see. But until that happens, you have to wait patiently and ask God to do that. "Bring that person to me." Fifthly, concentrate not so much on finding the right person, but on being the right person. So for you young men, develop the kind of godly character and lifestyle in a fruitful life direction that a godly Christian woman will want to follow and want to be part of, to be a helper suitable for that life. Where are you going? It's a reasonable question for her to ask. What are your plans? What are you doing? You must have an answer to that question. And it better line up in the great commission. I am here to serve God, to the glory of God, and these are my gifts, and this is where I'm going. Well, that kind of godly man, a woman's going to want to be part of, a godly woman's going to want to be part of. So be the right person, not just waiting for the right person. And young women, same thing, be the kind of godly woman that a godly man will want to marry, and get other women to speak into your life on this. And then sixth, be active, active, active, in serving the Lord, especially in the context of local church. Find ministry. I'm telling you, time and time again, couples find each other in the context of service. They're working together in a national ministry, in urban ministry, they're working together in something, and they just see each other's heart and they come together on a mission trip. Different things, there's certain rules about that, about the mission trip. Please hear me about that. Alright, there's rules about that, but it happens again and again. So that's what I have on my sheet. I want to add another one. Let me say this carefully, going off-message here so that's dangerous, but let me say it. Don't be too choosy. God can bring godly people, that she's a believer, he's a believer…I remember hearing from another counselor, he's talking to this guy, and this guy said, "I don't know, I'm waiting for a... I think I'm just waiting for a 10." And this man said, this godly counselor said, "Brother, can I be honest with you? You're a seven…Maybe." So you need people like that to speak into your life. Alright? "Can I just be honest? You're a seven, alright?" II. Commands to Married Christians (vs. 10-11) Alright secondly, commands to marry Christians. Verse 10, 11, "To the married, I give this command: Not I, but the Lord. A wife must not separate from her husband, but if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband, and the husband must not divorce his wife." So here, we get to the command, and keeping it simple, do not get a divorce. If we could just summarize it, that's what he's saying, both to the man and to the woman. That's the basic command, if we could just keep it simple. Now what does Paul mean at the beginning when he says, "Not I, but the Lord"? Well, in the statement that he makes when he says, "Not I, but the Lord," he's saying, "I have a word from the Lord on this, the Lord Jesus. Jesus, while He was in His physical life on earth, taught on divorce. Multiple times, actually. And so keep in mind, the New Testament hadn't been pulled together yet, probably most of it hadn't even been written yet, and so, they were working on an oral tradition of sayings from the Lord Jesus. Remember how Luke gathered a lot of accounts together, talking to eye witnesses to write the Gospel of Luke, and so he had a saying from Jesus on this. And you just go to the Sermon in the Mount, for example, Jesus said there in Matthew 5:31-32, "It has been said anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce, but I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, [pornea] causes her to become an adulteress and anyone who marries the woman commits adultery." So He's very clear on this, and He does the same thing in Matthew 19, where they come and ask, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" And He goes back to the beginning and He says, "It was not intended…" so it is not lawful to get a divorce for any and every reason. So Paul states it simply, first to the Christian wife: A wife must not separate from her husband. He doesn't go into the exception clause for when divorce is acceptable, namely, there has been a sexual sin. Just simply, the Christian wife must not separate herself from her husband. As we've mentioned, divorce is devastating to people. It's devastating to their psyches, it's devastating to their physical and mental emotional health. It's hard to recover. God says plainly in Malachi 2:16, "I hate divorce." The impact on children is incalculable. So Christian couples need to stay together. And he adds also in verse 11, "A husband must not divorce his wife." But then why does he add, "But if she does," look at verse 10, 11, "a wife must not separate from her husband, but if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled with her husband." I don't know the best answer for this, but what I would say is probably divorces had already happened. By the time the letter got there, I don't know, the horse was already out of the barn, if that's the expression. There was no going back. And a lot of times, situations occur that are not the best, they're not biblical norm. And I think as in the case of David and Bathsheba and Uriah is dead, can't come back, and that the baby dies, can't come back, and then later, Bathsheba conceives and gives birth to Solomon, and God gives us a sweet, peaceful message saying, "Call him Jedidiah the Lord loves him, Beloved of the Lord." It's just a very fascinating thing. God's standards couldn't be higher, but God moves on. And if some things can't be undone, they can't be undone. And I think that's what he's addressing. Others may have a different interpretation of that, but what He says is, "Look, if that's what has happened, if you've gotten divorced without suitable grounds," speaking of the woman here, "she must seek to undo the wrong by being reconciled with her husband or else she needs to remain unmarried for the rest of her life." That's how seriously God takes marriage and divorce. Work it Out! Now I remember early in my ministry here, I came across some marriage and parenting days by a man named Reb Bradley, and he was very helpful to me, gave me some good insights by the tapes that I was listening to. He had been a professional photographer before he was in vocational ministry, and he was doing a family life thing and his picture was up on a poster, and this guy finds him and tracks him down through the local church and says, "You know, you look a lot like the guy who photographed our weddings," he's calling them on the phone, "But you look a lot... " He said, "Well, I used to be a professional photographer." And so they kind of compared notes and it's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that wedding. I remember it distinctly. Yeah," he says, "How is it going?" He said, "Well, it's not going very well," the man said. Reb Bradley said, "Oh. Well, what's going on?" He said, "Well, I think we're going to get a divorce." There was this long pause, and then Reb Bradley said, "You can't." The man said, "I beg your pardon?" He said, "I said you can't. I mean, it's true I was there as a photographer, but all of us were there as witnesses and I heard what you said to God and to us. And this is the very thing you said you wouldn't do, so you can't." And the man said, "Well, what do you want me to do?" And he said, "Work it out." And beautifully, in the story, the man and his wife came to meet with him for multiple times of counseling and they worked it out. So, that story sticks with me, I would say every day, I think about it in my own marriage, every day, "Work it out." We have the resources, if we're Christians, to work it out. We have the resources to give and receive forgiveness. We have the resources to grow and be transformed out of terrible sin patterns. We have resources. So effectively, God puts the couple in a room with no windows and doors and says, "Work it out," and He gives the Holy Spirit and He gives the Scripture and that's what He's calling on us to do. III. Commands to Christians Married to Non-Christians Who Want to Stay (vs. 12-14) Thirdly, commands to Christians married to non-Christians who want to stay or are willing to stay, look at verses 12 and 13. It says, "To the rest, I say this: I, not the Lord, if any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her, and if a woman has a husband who's not a believer, and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him." So, again, the same advice. Stay married if you can. The overall advice on the whole chapter is stay in the situation you're in. A consistent advice he's going to give, with exceptions, but in this case, he's saying, "Alright, you're dealing with what we would call a mixed marriage. A Christian man with a non-Christian woman, a Christian woman with a non-Christian man." That's the scenario. Now he speaks, he says, "This I say: I, not the Lord," now, please don't say that Paul's pitting himself against Jesus here. It's like, "I'm slipping aside. I'm going to tell you something Jesus wouldn't tell you." That's not what he's doing. What he's saying is, "I don't have an oral tradition saying from Jesus on this topic." But he is speaking as an apostle and God is expanding our understanding through the Apostle. That's how you should understand it. It's every bit as inspired as anything Jesus would ever say. So the topic's mixed marriage. Now, first of all, please hear me on this. No single Christian should ever willingly, willfully go into a mixed marriage, ever. Ever. 2 Corinthian 6:14 says, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers," or sometimes translated "unequally yoked." "For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?" Don't willingly do that, don't step into something that God said He will not bless, willingly. Later in this very chapter, he talks to a widow who desired to get remarried. He said It's fine. Look at verse 39, "A woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, but [he must be a Christian] he must belong to the Lord," it must be in the Lord, that that marriage happens. However, in the strange providences of God, God frequently in His wisdom and for his own inscrutable purposes, makes mixed marriages all the time by converting one of the couple. It happens again and again and again. And we don't always understand that, but God has the right to do that if He wants, and so He's speaking into that situation. In the meantime, what should the Christian spouse do in such a close proximity with a non-Christian? Unequally yoked, but wasn't it her fault or his fault, what should she do? Tertullian, the ancient writer, talked about the challenges of a woman becoming a Christian without her husband, and she's got new friends, she's got a new lifestyle, a new pattern of worship, everything in her life is new, and he's not part of any of it. He doesn't understand any of it. Some might have thought, "Why don't you just make a clean break of it in every respect, divorce the non-Christian, find a nice Christian man, get married, and raise a Christian family?" But do you not see the devastation that would wreak in pagan society? How Christianity, even Christ, could be seen as a home-wrecker? And Christ is no home-wrecker. And so, the advice here is if the unbelieving spouse wants to stay married, Paul says stay married, then keep the marriage intact. Yes, it's going to be challenging, but this is God's best in the situation, if the unbelieving spouse is willing to stay in the marriage, is happy in the marriage. : And then he says a very fascinating thing: Family life is sanctified or made holy by the believer in that marriage. Some might say, "Won't I be spiritually defiled by my unbelieving spouse, especially even in the marital bed? Aren't I taking the members of Christ and joining them with somebody who's not a child of God? How can I do that?" And so he addresses that in an amazing way. "And what about our children, wouldn't they be, to some degree, spiritual half-breeds? How are we going to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord?" And so look at verse 14, he says, "The unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified or made holy through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy." So Paul is saying in some very powerful and mysterious way, the presence of a Christian in the home, especially in the marriage, has a permeating and a powerful spiritual effect in the whole household. Doesn't mean that the unbeliever is made holy absolutely in standing before a holy God. No, that only happens by that individual repenting and believing in Christ for him or herself. However, the Christian wife can have an amazing, powerful influence in that home for Christ. Or conversely, the Christian husband can do the same. IV. Commands to Christians Married to Non-Christians Who Want to Leave (vs. 15-16) Now the fourth categories commands to Christians married to non-Christians who want to leave, verse 15. He says, "If the unbeliever leaves let Him do, so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances." ESV has "enslaved" but I like "bound." "God has called us to live in peace." So he addresses the opposite case, the unbeliever wants to leave, does leave, they're gone, person can't stand living with the Christian spouse now, doesn't want any part of this. Wants a divorce, has sued for divorce, or just left. They don't even know where they are. Just gone. Paul makes it clear that the believing spouse should not make some superhuman efforts to track the individual down, force them to stay married, compel them. How could that even happen anyway? The person doesn't want it, they don't want it. And so when he says "not bound," I think it's really important to hear, that's why I don't think the "enslave" statement is helpful, because Paul uses the "bound" language to speak of marriage. And so in Romans 7:2, he says, "By law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as her husband is alive, but if her husband died, she is released from the law of marriage." Same idea here. So I think he's saying if the unbeliever leaves, she's no longer... The Christian wife is no longer married. The marriage has ended. So that expands our understanding of lawful grounds for divorce to include abandonment, biblically, here. So, also, and this is hotly debated, but I believe it means if you have a licit divorce, then you have the right to remarry. If God says that you have the right to get a divorce, then you have a right to remarry. Not everyone says that, but that's my conviction. So Paul's reason that he gives here is God has called us to live in peace, the endless strife and conflict of trying to compel the unbeliever to stay in a home they don't want any part of. That's what he has in mind. The unbeliever does not love Christ, does not want to pray, does not want to raise the children of the Lord, does not want to go to church, does not want to give money to Christian causes, does not want to offer hospitality to other Christians, doesn't want any part of any of that, is a continual war, and that's not glorifying to god. Furthermore, in verse 16, he says that you don't know what the future holds, you don't know the outcome spiritually where we're heading with all this. Verse 16. "How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?" Now the best motive that the believing spouse could have is like, "I'm going to stay in it, that they would be converted. They don't want to stay, but I'm going to stay close to this unconverted spouse and I'm going to be with them and evangelize them every day, and I'm going to pour out the goodness." It's like, you don't know that that's going to happen. You don't know that the person's ever going to be converted. Now I just have to stop this moment and say if I can say this is the most central, vital issue there is in human life. We are talking about a detail of human life, very important detail: Marriage. But it is not the centerpiece of your life. You will not spend eternity in Heaven married to another human being; you'll spend eternity in Heaven married to Jesus in a mystical union, as we've discussed. Marriage is temporary; it's for the rest of your life, but it's temporary. The most important issue for you, for each one of you, is, are your sins forgiven through faith in Christ? I pray this morning that God would bring a lost person here to the church today to hear this: That God sent His son Jesus into the world for sinners like you and me, and all you need to do to be fully forgiven of all your sins, justified, is trust in the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, and you will be forgiven of all your sins. And it could be that you're having marital problems. It could be that you're having problems as a single, it could be you're having sexual problems. God, through Christ and through the Holy Spirit, gives you all of the power you will need for a healthy, holy life from now on, but only if you trust in Christ. So come to Christ. V. Applications And I want to give some other applications, I've been giving them throughout, but just let's finish with a few more. First of all, just as a believer in Christ, praise God for the clarity of His Word, that God has told us everything we need for a healthy marriage. I'm not saying 1 Corinthian 7:8-16 is everything you need. But everything you need for a healthy, fruitful marriage is in the Scripture, so praise God. Psalm 119:105, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Secondly, bring this area to God and pray regularly, no matter which of these four categories you're in. Pray for God's best in this area. And I want to say especially you married couples, pray together for your marriage. Pray for the health of your marriage, even if you feel... Very healthy marriage, good, then it should be easy to get together and pray. But even if it's not, then you probably need prayer, you need prayer more than anyone else. Get together, hold hands, and bow your head, husbands lead out and this what it means to be a Christ-like leader, say, "We need to pray for our marriage." And do that even this afternoon. Don't wait. Thirdly, look at the blessings of marriage. Keep your eyes on that. See it's a good thing, the seven full blessings. It's a good thing to be married. Praise God for it. Be thankful for marriage. Be thankful for your spouse. Now we're going to say more about being thankful for singleness. If you are single, and you don't think you have the gift of singleness, ask God for a kind of a provisional gift of singleness between now and then. There's nothing wrong with that. "Lord, greatly reduce my desires in this area. I got it that I probably don't have the gift of singleness, I got the message. But God, would You just greatly reduce my desires in this area until You bring the right person in my life?" Just lay it out before God in prayer. Close with me in prayer.

Qin Shi Huangdi was the first Chinese emperor to unify his nation. He is also known for his Terra Cotta Army guarding his tomb. His opponent today is Holy Roman Emperor Charles V who ruled vast parts of Europe during the tumultuous 16th century. Support the show (http://www.battlegroundhistory.com)

Let’s take a quick look back to the year 1500. Pinzon discovered an estuary of the Amazon, future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was born, and more.

This episode is titled “In the Low Countries.”Belgium, The Netherlands, and Luxemburg are referred to as “the Low Countries.” The get this name because laying along the coast NW of Germany and NE of France, they are at or slightly below sea level. That and there's not really much in the way of mountains. There are some low hills, but for the most part the region today called Benelux is pretty flat.During the Reformation, as in most of northern Europe, Protestantism in the low countries gained adherents early on. In 1523, in Antwerp, the first two Protestant martyrs were burned. From that point on, there's solid evidence Protestantism made headway across the region. But the political situation there hitched the advance of Protestantism to a long and bitter struggle for independence.Near the mouth of the Rhine River, there was a region known as the Seventeen Provinces, in what today is the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. These territories were part of the holdings of the Hapsburgs. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was born and raised there. So he was well-liked by the people, and under his rule the Seventeen Provinces grew close -er. That is,c loser than they'd been before, but not in fact, close.Their political unity was fragile since each province had a unique identity, traditions, and ruling nobles. Cultural unity was lacking since the French-speaking south and Dutch-speaking north were at ever at odds. Then there was the problem of ecclesiastical complexity with bishops vying with one another other over who's domain was the most prestigious.In 1555, Charles placed the Seventeen Provinces under the rule of his son Philip. He assumed the young man would continue his rule of slow-paced unification. But it was under Philip that what little unity there was cam apart. The low countries honored Charles because of his Flemish roots. Flemish was his mother-tongue. But Philip was raised in Spain. Both his language and outlook were Spanish. In 1556, having received the crown of Spain, he became Philip II, and made it clear his most important possession was the Iberian Peninsula. The Low Countries were put at the service of Spain and her interests. This provoked the resentment of the Seventeen Provinces, who resisted Philip's efforts to complete their unification, and to treat it as part of the hereditary possessions of the Spanish crown.Even before the Reformation broke out in the Low Countries, there'd been a strong movement toward reform. This was the birthplace of the Brethren of the Common Life, and of the greatest of humanist reformers, Erasmus of Rotterdam. One of the major themes of the Brethren was the reading of Scripture in the native language of the people. So the Protestant Reformation found fertile ground in the Low Countries.It wasn't long before Lutheran preachers entered the area, gaining large numbers of converts. Then the Anabaptists made headway. Last, there was an influx of Calvinist preachers from Geneva, France, and southern Germany. Eventually, these Calvinist preachers were most successful, and Calvinism became the main brand of Protestantism.That's not to say the advance of the movement went without opposition. Charles V took strong measures against the spread of Protestantism there. He issued edicts against it, in particular against Anabaptists. The frequency with which these edicts followed one another is proof of their failure to stem the tide of Protestant conversions. Tens of thousands died for their faith. Leaders were burned, their followers beheaded, and many women were buried alive. But, in spite of such punishments, the Reformation continued its advance. Toward the end of Charles's reign there was growing opposition to his religious policies. But Charles was a popular ruler, and many in Central Europe were convinced Protestants were heretics who deserved their punishment.Philip, on the other hand, never popular in the Low Countries, prompted even greater ill will through a combination of folly, stubbornness, and hypocrisy. When he returned to Spain and left the Provinces under the regency of his half-sister Margaret of Parma, he sought to strengthen her authority by quartering Spanish troops in the Low Countries. These troops were sustained financially by the locals. Clashes soon developed between the Spanish soldiers and the natives, who chafed under the presence of foreign troops. Since there was no war requiring their presence, the only possible explanation was that Philip doubted their loyalty. And if they were going to be assumed to be disloyal, why not actually BE disloyal?To this was added the appointment of new bishops given inquisitorial powers. But the locals said, “Wait! What? We've heard about the Spanish Inquisition. We do NOT want that here! NO way, NO How! Our King isn't treating us like citizens; He's treating us like the worst kind of enemy.”Philip and his regent Margaret paid no attention to their most loyal subjects. William, Prince of Orange, a close friend of Philip's father, and the Count of Egmont, who'd given outstanding military service to Charles, were made members of the Council of State. But they were mere figureheads who were never consulted.  Philip and Margaret took advice instead from a foreign advisor named Bishop Granvelle, whom the people of the Low Countries blamed for every injustice and humiliation they suffered. After repeated protests, the king recalled Granvelle. But it soon became clear Granvelle had really only carried out Philip's instructions. Philip was to blame.The leaders of the Seventeen Provinces sent the Count of Egmont to Spain to carry their grievances to the King. Philip received him with honors and promised change. Egmont returned home, confident things would turn around. But when he opened the letter from the King to be read to the other leaders, it contradicted everything the king had promised. Philip had already sent Regent Margaret the decrees of the Counter Reformation Council of Trent. Protestantism was to be rejected. All who opposed them were to be executed.These orders caused massive unrest. The magistrates of the Seventeen Provinces had no mind to execute the vast number of their fellow citizens the king decreed should die. In response to Philip's commands, hundreds of the nobility and joined in a petition to Margaret that such policies not be implemented. Margaret received them, and when she evidenced signs of an agitation so great her attendants feared she might have a seizure, one of her courtiers calmed her by calling the nobles “beggars.”That label captured the imagination of local patriots. If their oppressors thought them beggars, they'd bear that name proudly. The leather bag of a beggar became the symbol of rebellion. Under it the movement, until then limited to the nobility and merchant class, took root among the entire populace.Before coming to outright warfare, the movement took on a religious overtone. There were frequent outdoor meetings in which Protestantism and opposition to the authorities were preached under the protection of armed Beggars. In fear of greater disturbances if they didn't allow them, Regent Margaret's troops allowed these meetings. Then roving bands of iconoclasts invaded churches, overturned altars, and destroyed images and symbols of the Roman Church.Finally, the magistrates appealed to William of Orange. Thanks to his pleas, and those of his supporters, the violence dimmed, and the iconoclasts ceased their attacks. The Inquisition was suspended and a limited freedom of worship was permitted.But Philip was not the kind of ruler to be swayed by his subjects' opposition. He loudly declared he had no desire to be a “lord of heretics.” Appealing to the old principle that there was no need to keep faith with the unfaithful he set about to re-assert control of those troublesome low countries. While promising to abide by the agreements reached in the Provinces and pardon the rebels, he raised an army with which to force his will on the Low Countries. William of Orange, aware of the king's duplicity, advised his friends to join in armed resistance. They foolishly put their trust in the king's promises while William followed his own advice and withdrew to Germany.The storm arrived quickly. Early in 1567, the duke of Alba invaded the low countries with an army of Spanish and Italian troops. The king gave him powers similar to Regent Margaret who became a figurehead. Alba was the true ruler. His mission was to obliterate all rebellion and heresy.Protestants were condemned for their heresy, and Catholics for not having been sufficiently firm in resisting heresy. Even to express doubt as to Alba's authority was high treason. The same charge was brought against any who opposed the reorganization of the church, or declared the provinces had rights and privileges the king couldn't overturn. So numerous were those put to death under these ordinances chroniclers of the time speak of the stench in the air, and of hundreds of bodies hanging from trees along the roads. The counts of Egmont and Horn were arrested and brought to trial. Since William of Orange was not available, Alba captured his 15-year-old son and sent him to Spain. William responded by investing all his financial resources in raising an army, mostly German, with which he invaded the Low Countries. But Alba defeated him repeatedly and, in retaliation, ordered the execution of Egmont and Horn.Alba was in full command of the situation when the rebels received support from an unexpected quarter. Orange granted licenses to privateers, in the hope they'd harass Alba's communication and supply lines back to Spain. These pirate Beggars of the Sea achieved a measure of organization Philip's naval forces couldn't contain. Queen Elizabeth of England gave them support by allowing them to sell their booty in English ports. In a brilliant maneuver, the Sea-Beggars captured the city of Brill and, after that, their ongoing success made them a legend that inspired the patriots who resisted on land. Several cities declared themselves in favor of William of Orange, who once again invaded the provinces, this time with French support. But the French also were dealing in treachery, and William was approaching Brussels when he learned of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day. That put an end to collaboration between Protestants and the French crown. Lacking funds and military support, William was forced to disband his mercenary troops.Alba's vengeance was terrible. His armies took city after city, and repeatedly broke the terms of surrender. Prisoners were killed for no other reason than revenge, and several cities that had resisted were put to the torch. Women, children, and the elderly were indiscriminately killed along with the rebels. Soon every rebel stronghold was in Alba's hands.It was only on the sea that the rebels remained strong. The Sea Beggars continually defeated the Spanish, at one point capturing their admiral. This made it difficult for Alba to receive supplies and funds. The Spanish troops began showing signs of mutiny. Tired of the long struggle, and bitter because Spain didn't send the resources he required, Alba asked to be appointed elsewhere.The new Spanish general, Luis de Zúñiga y Requesens, had the wisdom to exploit the religious differences among the rebels. He sought a separate peace with the Catholics of the southern provinces, driving a wedge between them and the Protestants, who were more numerous in the north. Up to that point, the religious question was just a minor one among many in what was really a national rebellion against foreign rule. William of Orange, the leader of the uprising, was a liberal Catholic until his exile in Germany. Then in 1573 he declared himself a Calvinist. But Requesens's policies underscored the religious element of the struggle, neutralizing the Catholic provinces of the south.The Protestant cause was desperate as its armies were repeatedly defeated. Its only hope was the Beggars of the Sea. The main crisis came at the Siege of Leiden. The important trade center declared itself for Protestantism. The Spanish surrounded it. An army sent by William of Orange to break the siege was defeated, and 2 of William's brothers were killed. All was lost when William, whose enemies called him William the Sly, suggested that the dikes be opened, flooding the land around Leiden. This meant the destruction of many years of hard work, and the loss of a great deal of farmable land. But the citizens agreed. In spite of a shortage of food, the besieged continued their resistance during the four months it took the sea to reach Leiden. Riding in on the flood, the Sea Beggars also arrived, shouting they'd rather be Turkish than Popish. Lacking naval support, the Spanish were forced to abandon the siege.At that moment, Requesens died. His troops, having neither leader nor pay, mutinied, and set about sacking the cities of the Catholic south, which were easier prey than those of the Protestant north. This served to reunite the inhabitants of the Seventeen Provinces, who, in 1576, agreed to the Pacification of Ghent. This alliance among the provinces made it clear what was at stake was national freedom, not religious differences. The agreement was hailed by William of Orange, who'd repeatedly argued religious dogmatism and sectarian intolerance were an obstacle to the unity and freedom of the low countries.The next governor was Don Juan de Austria, an illegitimate son of Charles V, so half-brother of Philip II. Although he was one of the most admired military heroes in Christendom for his defeat of the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto, he was not allowed to enter Brussels until he'd agreed to the stipulations of the Pacification of Ghent. But Philip II would not give up the struggle. A new army was sent into the region, and once again the southern provinces abandoned the struggle. Then the northern provinces, against the advice of William of Orange, formed a separate league for the defense of their faith and freedom.The struggle dragged on for years. Though they were firmly in control of the south, the Spanish could not conquer the north. In 1580, Philip Il issued a proclamation promising a reward of 25,000 crowns and a title of nobility to anyone who would kill William the Sly. William and his supporters responded with a formal declaration of independence. Three years later, after several unsuccessful attempts, an assassin on a quest for the reward was able to kill William. And once again, Philip proved untrue to his promise, at first refusing to pay the reward, then paying only a portion of it.Philip hoped William's death would put an end to the rebellion. But William's nineteen year old son Maurice, proved to be a better general than his father, and led his troops in several victorious campaigns.In 1607, almost a decade after the death of Philip II, Spain decided her losses in the struggle weren't worth the effort and cost of continuing the war, and a truce was signed. By then, the majority of the people in the northern provinces were Calvinist, and many in the north equated their faith with their nationalist loyalty, while the southern provinces remained Catholic. Eventually, religious, economic, and cultural differences led to the formation of three countries; the Netherlands, which were Protestant, and Belgium and Luxembourg, both Catholic.

Since we're rapidly approaching the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, we begin a short series on it's beginning.Most would do so with the career of Martin Luther. But as long time CS subscribers know, I usually buck the trend and do something else. à Why disappoint?So we begin with a look at another monumental figure of history that just so happened to be in that room that day at Worms when Luther was on trial for his ideas and writings.He's known to history as Holy Roman Emperor -- Charles V.Charles was born in 1500, the eldest son of Philip the Handsome and Joanna of Castile. This was right at that time in European history when in world history class, we all gave up trying to sort out how the kings and queens of one region became the rulers of others. Suffice it to say Charles ended up inheriting the rule of a vast swath of the European countryside in western, central, and southern Europe, as well as the Spanish colonies in the New World and Asia. His domains spanned some 4 million square kms / over 1.5 million mls. While we oftern refer to the British Empire as that on which the sun never set, that accolade was first attached to Spain's Empire under Charles V.He became king of the Spanish Empire at the age of 16, and was elected Holy Roman Emperor 3 years later. He was heir to 3 of Europe's leading dynasties: the Houses of Valois-Burgundy , the Habsburgs, and Trastámara in Spain which united the famous houses of Castile  & Aragon. The union of the Holy Roman Empire with the Spanish Empire under Charles meant the closest Europe had come to a single monarchy since the time of Charlemagne in the early 9th C.Growing up, Charles had the cream of the crop in terms of tutors. Being groomed to rule, he spoke French, Dutch, Spanish, Latin, and passable German, which he did not care for. He once quipped, “I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse.” His many thrones meant he was called by many names; Among the Spanish, he was Carlos. To Germans, he was Karl; the Dutch, Karel, the Italians, Carlo.It's one of those odd quirks of history that Charles V should come to his thrones right at the same time when the realms of Europe were growing weary of monarchies and turning away from distant rulers to more regional leaders. When the people of Europe were questioning the civil status quo because Medieval feudalism was beginning to dissolve. The long held assumption that government was provided by nobles led by a king was being reviewed and analyzed by scholars. Options were being suggested. Other forms of governing were being discussed. And there was a growing suspicion of those at the top of society who acted as though their privileged status was immutable. Change wasn't “in the air” yet. But it was certainly on the ground, being quietly discussed.French concern over Charles' attempt to establish a wholisitic European hegemony, precipitated a war that saw Charles recovering significant territory in Italy.  In the Battle of Parvia in 1525, He led a decisive defeat of the French and captured their king, Francis I. But France quickly recovered and renewed the fighting which lasted through the rest of Charles's reign. It was this conflict that led to the development of the first modern professional army in Europe, known as the Tercios.Charles also had a major threat to the East in the form of an aggressive Ottoman Empire. After seizing Eastern and Central Hungary in 1526, the Ottomans' advance was halted by the failure of their Siege of Vienna in 1529. Then, a costly war of attrition ensued. It was led by Charles' younger brother Ferdinand. That also lasted through the rest of Charles's reign. Equally damaging to the land losses in Eastern Europe to the Ottomans was their domination of the Eastern & Central Mediterranean.A third sphere of turmoil was Germany, the very heart of what was supposed to be the Holy Roman Empire. But Charles was opposed by several German princes who'd opted for a New Religious Reform movement known as Protestantism. They'd formed the Schmalkaldic League in their demand for great sovereignty over their realms. The question historians wrestle with today is to what degree these princes were genuinely motivated by religious conviction and how much was due to their seizing on the religious cause as a means to break lose of the strangling grip of the Roman Catholic Church.When Charles was unable to force the compliance to the German princes to his edicts banning Protestantism, it moved to war. He won a decisive victory in 1547 against the Schmalkaldic League at the Battle of Mühlberg. But he was forced to concede the Peace of Augsburg 8 yrs later.He abdicated at the age of 56 because he was exhausted! And rightfully so after facing some 40 yrs of unrelenting stress. He retired to a monastery, where he died 2 yrs later.I want to back up now, to when this amazing figure around which so much history flows, was a mere 21 yr old. It's 6 PM on the evening of April 18, 1521. He's sitting in an improvised hall in the German city of Worms, a city of 7,000, settled along the Rhine, 20 miles SW of Frankfurt. It's Charles's first time visiting German lands.Standing in front of him is a 37 yr old German monk named Luther whose writings have ignited a firestorm of controversy. Luther speaks in German. Though Charles will later learn the language, at this point his grasp of it and the nature of the hearing requires everything be translated into Latin. That's also for the sake of the large number of Italian church officials in attendance; there to represent the Roman Pope.You see, Luther is on trial for his life. He stands accused of heresy; a crime punishable by death.The day before, April 17th, Luther came before the Emperor's for the 1st time. Laid out on a table in the hall that had been converted into an official imperial cham­ber for this important occasion, were Luther's many writings. There were so many of them, Charles at first expressed doubt a single person could've written so much. Surely Luther's opponents had overplayed their hand and added more volumes to the pile. No—they were all Luther's works, made possible by the prolific use of the new invention of the movable type printing press. Luther was on record. His words, fashioned in ink and set into books lay now on the table as a witness to his views. Luther was summoned to Worms to recant; to declare before the highest authority on Earth in the form of the Emperor and the highest authority in the spiritual realm, the Pope, represented by his legates, that what he'd written was in error. His views on the nature of the Gospel, salvation, and the Church, detailed so clearly in all those books – now he had to publicly declare they were wrong and he no longer believed them. Furthermore, he would no longer promulgate them.So, on that first day, when told to recant, Luther looked at the stack of material before him and hesitated. It had been 4 yrs since he first tacked his 95 thesis on Wittenberg's castle church door. During that 4 yrs he'd written a lot. And the fact is, his ideas had evolved. Well, less evolved as grown, matured. Luther hadn't fundamentally changed his views. But the way he understood and expressed them had. A squared hadn't turned into a triangle, but it's 4 sharp corners had been slightly rounded by time and reflection. So when told to recant, Luther hesitated. Maybe there was something he'd once written he now longer regarded as valid. Or maybe a better explanation would turn something the authorities balked at into something they could go along with. Luther needed time to consider all that and to thumb through the works to see. He asked for a day to consider his reply to the demand that he recant. The imperial secretary wasn't pleased, but the Emperor granted his request.Students of history love to debate Luther's motive for asking for time. Many think it's a simple case of prevarication; that Luther was afraid, tempted to relent and cave to the pressure to recant. Others see his request for time as a sincere attempt to make sure the materials in front of him were in fact all by him and not someone else. What if Luther had boldly said at the first challenge, “I stand by all this,” as he waved his hand over the lot, then the prosecutor picked up a volume and proceeded to read out of an anonymous work Luther HADN'T penned that was blasphemous and inflammatory. Hey, listen; the history of these trials proves such shenanigans weren't unknown.We'll never know Luther's real motivation. All we DO know is that he asked for a night to ponder the challenge and got it. With the dawn of the new day, it was time to answer. There'd be no more delays.He was sternly instructed by his interrogator, “Come then; answer the question of his majesty, whose kindness you've experienced in seeking a time for thought. Do you wish to defend all your acknowledged books, or to retract some?”Luther's reply was careful. He said his books were of three kinds. Some were purely devotional in nature, simple encouragements to a life of faith now one could object to.  A 2nd group belonged to a long tradition of works calling for reform of a corrupt and moribund Church. Luther expressed his conviction such books as his could not be gainsaid since others had already pointed out the same things and had not been censured for it. The 3rd  group of books were a different matter. Luther conceded they contained ideas that may have been expressed in terms too harsh. But that stylistic caveat aside, it was their veracity and alignment with Scripture that ought to be the deciding factor. So he issued a challenge. He said, “I ask by the mercy of God, may your most serene majesty, most illustrious lordships, or anyone at all who is able, either high or low, bear witness; àExpose my errors, overthrowing them by the writings of the prophets and the evangelists. Once I have been taught I shall be quite ready to renounce every error, and I shall be the first to cast my books into the fire.” With that, Luther stopped talking.The court felt he'd not been clear enough in his reply. Was he recanting or not? The em­peror's spokesman pressed him. Luther paused, then repeated what he'd just said, but in different words. It's those words we remember. “Since then your serene majesty and your lordships seek a simple answer, I will give it in this manner, neither horned nor toothed: Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason, for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves, I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not retract anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.”And with that, Protestantism was born. Right in front of Charles V, the most august of German nobles, and a board of Rome's keenest theological & legal minds. There may not have been a collection of such luminaries prior to that for several hundred years and would certainly not be another for hundreds more.And there stood Martin Luther, seemingly alone. But in fact, quietly being cheered on by several of those German nobles who were itching for an opportunity to break away from Charles and the strangling grasp of Rome. That Charles didn't immediately give the order to seize the recalcitrant monk seemed to verify their suspicion the 21 yr old Emperor was unsure on how to proceed. Maybe that lack of confidence on where he stood with the nobles would be enough of an opening for them to pursue their larger agenda of an emerging independence. And it all hinged on this stocky monk and his revolutionary ideas.Luther had come to believe Scripture clearly taught truths on human nature, the way of salvation, the Christian life and how the Church ought to be led that had been horribly obscured by the very officials who ought to have been their faithful stewards. Luther seemed to present a new way forward in which believers would follow the Bible rather than religious authorities.Some historians have treated Luther's Trial at Worms in April of 1521 as if all that mattered about it was Luther's memorable speech. All that follows is regarded as a natural consequence. Instead of being arrested and executed, Luther was whisked off into hiding by his prince & protector, Frederick the Wise of Saxony. With some intrigue, Luther grew out his hair and beard and took on the identity of Junker Jorg – Knight George. It was there he gave vent to his conviction that Scripture ought to be the basis of all life and practice, by producing a sterling translation of the New Testament in common German. Now commoners could read Scripture for themselves. They no longer needed Latin speakers or church trained scholars to tell them what it said and meant.The crack that began in that improvised hall at Worms, quickly widened into a breach through which the streams of reformation poured.