Empires are made of money and men. During “The Thousand Year Reign” of The Catholic Church over Western Christendom, The Church had both. A third of England was owned by monasteries filled with men who focused on “Work and Prayer”. Each warred with vanity and sin. “I will spend my life fighting every un-Christlike desire for fame, fortune, and sex.”
Envious enemies fought for the opposite. Those who wanted money, land, and men hired public relation shills to attack The Church. “I could save money!” concluded middle-class taxpayers after being told: “If the abbeys went down, the king would never want any taxes again.”
The attack on monasteries destroyed hospitals, schools, and places of accommodation that provided care and housing for the poor. At the same time, vast acreages were converted to sheep farming Hundreds of thousands of homes and villages were flattened for endless pastures so the new estates of the King’s favorite looters could be used for sheep farming.
Empires are made of money and men. England’s government realized they had both. A powerful Navy came into being, along with the world’s most modern army. Over time, all but 22 nations in the world would be invaded by England’s armed forces.
The prayers and good works of holy men in monasteries were replaced by, in words Churchill later denied saying, “A Navy with a long tradition of rum, sodomy, and the lash”.
