[Holly_P]

I thought Martin Luther addressed this practice quite well.

[wideawake]

I thought Martin Luther addressed this practice quite well.

Correct. He helped pioneer the takeover of private Church finances by government officials.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Yep, fer sure. Turned convents, priories, bishoprics over to the princes and to the princes’ favorites. Parallel in many ways to Henry’s sacking of the monasteries in England. There, as in Scandanaviaa and all of northern Europe, the Reformation was a wonderful thing for the grand project of the redistribution of wealth: the transfer of property to the State.