Mary I, Queen of England is known today as, “Queen Bloody Mary.” She single handedly murdered hundreds of Christians and ravaged the Church of England. You might wonder why we would take this column that is dedicated to men and women who glorified God with their lives…only to write about a wicked woman?
The answer is Isaiah 46:10. If you believe this Scripture, it will help interpret the way history unfolds. Think about this, had Mary been born a male…or even if a son had been born to King Henry VIII and Catherine to ascend to the throne then England’s history would have been completely different. So why does God allow certain events? Why was Queen Mary allowed to usurp the throne and execute such a bloody reign?
The answer is Isaiah 46:10! Now if you are a Deists who believes God is neither involved nor interested in the affairs of men then you won’t believe this Scripture. If you believe open theism thinking God Himself does not know the future…that God has left the future “open” to man’s choices to shape his destiny…well, then you probably won’t believe this Scripture either. For me, Isaiah 46:10 and others like it, shapes my thinking and feeling about God’s absolute sovereignty, His ultimate plans and the outcome of historic events.
So what does Isaiah 46:10 say? God is, “declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” Do you really believe this? Now, what does all this have to do with Queen Mary?
Her story begins with King Henry VIII falling in love with his brother’s wife, Catherine of Aragon. He cleverly devices a way to gain permission from the Pope to annual their marriage, allowing the King and Catherine to wed. Mary was the only child from this union to survive childhood. As time passed, King Henry began to doubt the validity of his marriage because it had failed to produce a male heir. So, through Cardinal Wosley, the trusted Catholic advisor to the King and Lord Chancellor of England, they requested for the marriage to Catherine of Aragon be annulled.
This was a huge problem for Rome. To say the marriage could be annulled would be admitting the first annulment was a mistake and that was a prideful assumption the Pope would not make. Infuriated, the King Henry arrested Cardinal Wosley and replaced him with Thomas Cramner, the author of The Book of Common Prayer.
This was a turning point in history, for it was Thomas Cramner and Thomas Cromwell (influenced by the ideas of that young German shaking the foundations of Europe, Martin Luther) who convinced King Henry to break England from the Roman Catholic Church.
King Henry did just that. He broke from Rome. He established the Church of England, in which he was the head of the Church. He granted himself the annulment and married Anne Boleyn. When this happened, Mary the Princess was now an “illegitimate child.” She lost her title of Princess and simply was “Lady Mary.”
Devastated by her father’s rejection, she remained devoutly Catholic as she watched England change. Now at this time, Protestantism was growing stronger and the Reformation throughout Europe was in full swing. Mary’s young heart burned with anger, and Satan was poised to use her as a weapon against the Church.
Due to Henry’s only son dying as a teenager, Mary worked circumstances to her favor to where she could take the throne of England and restore Catholicism as the nation’s religion. Yet it would not come without a great price for God’s people.
She restored England to Rome and instituted many Catholic practices. She tried to weaken the Protestant Church with 4 years of persecution. The wealthy within the church was able to flee to mainland Europe (around 800). Those remaining were left to endure the hardships of her 5 year reign. In all, she executed 247 Protestants by burning them at the stake.
So how does God’s purpose stand in the life of Queen Bloody Mary? If Isaiah 46:10 is a declaration of God’s sovereignty, then where do we see it in her reign? Acts 8:1 sheds a great deal of light on our subject. Persecution had come to the early church and Scripture says, “They were scattered” from Jerusalem into other regions. The word picture for scattered is a sower spreading seed. When God scattered His Church out of Jerusalem, the Church grew and advanced throughout the world.
A similar scattering happened in the persecution of Queen Mary, known as the Marian Persecutions. Men like John Foxe, who authored, Foxes Book of Martyrs forged the Church ahead in this time period. John Knox of Scotland fled to Geneva where the Lord connected him to John Calvin. Returning to Scotland, Knox brought back with him a wealth of knowledge and the spirit of the Reformation.
England would never be the same as Mary’s half sister, Queen Elizabeth would soon ascend to the throne. A strong Protestant, and as the Reformation swept the nation, England would go on to produce some of the greatest thinkers, preachers and missionaries the world has ever known. So the point of this month’s article is simply this…rather it be a ruthless Queen Mary or a hardened Pharaoh’s heart, God will get His glory (Romans 9:17).
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