Queen Elizabeth Funeral

Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest from St. Giles Cathedral. Built during the time well before Mary Queen of Scots. Known as bloody Mary she was a murdering soul. My point of this article is to show how the cathedral disproves Roman Catholic rule in Scotland before the 1100s. A cathedral was a seat of political and religious power where a Bishop would rule. These were first built in the fourth century, and as the Roman Catholic church spread they would build a cathedral for their Bishop to sit and rule. The word cathedra, meaning seat, is a New Testament term used of Judaism and Moses' seat in particular.

The term Roman Catholic actually came from Britain, where they distinguished between Catholics who believed in the Pope from those Catholics who did not. The official name of the Roman church isn't Roman Catholic. There are several churches referring to themselves as Catholic who do not believe in the Pope. Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Britain was like that. Most of their Bishopricks were not Roman Catholic until the 12th century. 

The Catholic church is patterned after Judaism in many ways, and not really christian. Its baptism is patterned after Jewish washings, such as numbers 19. So much of Catholic theology is from Old Testament passages. The Roman Catholics ended up building seats for their leaders as Judaism had, the practice spread as they became more political. It is interesting the Church began in Jerusalem but there are no Cathedrals for churches around Jerusalem pre 5th century. 

The point in this article is that the Cathedral was built in Scotland in the 11th century, but was not named a cathedral until the 1620's, showing no Bishop of the Roman Catholic church reigned there until bloody Mary allowed the cathedral to be rebuilt after being destroyed in war, and a King later named it a cathedral. Thus, the Catholic church paints a false narrative about their power there from Apostle times. 

The protestants did not exist in the 11th century when St. Giles was built, Luther wasn't until the 1500's when bloody Mary reigned, but no Lutheran churches existed there. John Calvin wrote his thesis in 1536. Protestantism hadn't spread to Britain yet.  Opposition in the 11th century wasn't protestant,  John Knox who took over as Bishop at Giles was called a Presbyterian because he believed in the presbyter form of Church organization as most did at the time, but he didn't happen along till the 1500's. So opposition to Catholicism before 1500 weren't Protestant. People were burned at the stake in Britain from the 11th to 16th century who weren't protestant because that branch of Christianity hadn't started, yet.  Even the Catholics weren't Catholic as we see them today, they were not Roman but considered themselves catholic. They weren't just reforming the Roman Catholic church but the Catholic church in general. Presbyterian wasn't a name they used for themselves, it was a name given by Romans that stuck to them. John Knox wasn't a presbyterian but a non-popery catholic who believed in reformation.  He wasn't a protestant from the Roman church. 

The point is the St. Giles church could be considered Catholic but not Popish. This shows churches existed like ours that were neither Roman or protestant, just Christians from Christ and his apostles. Also, they weren't Catholic as a name but as a description.

When St. Giles was built, there were no Archdiocese in Ireland, there were four established in the 12th century according to Wikipedia. Thus, St. Giles was not built as a cathedral, since no Roman Catholic Bishoprick was established there.

Almost all lists of Catholic Bishops in Ireland only go back to the 1100. era. Usually within a few years of that time. It seems Romans may be borrowing names from non-Roman Bishops.

The fact Mary the Scot had to devastate non-Roman churches and non-protestant churches, shows the Romans were not always dominant and there were Christians there besides the protestants. At the time of Mary, protestants had not made inroads into Ireland, most of the Christians in Scotland were not Protestants but were localized Christians from Apostles days. Luther didn't teach until the 1500's and his churches didn't spread that quickly. Non-Roman Catholics were there much earlier. The first Presbyterian church was established after John Knox's death in the 1600's. So it couldn't be called Presbyterian yet.

Lutheran churches did not exist in Scotland in Mary's days. Calvinist Churches were just beginning to spread in  the 1500's. Most were not Calvinist. John Knox became a friend of John Calvin but only after being run out of Scotland. The two became friends in Europe. They may have known of Luther but not organized Lutheran churches existed there. They knew of Calvin but didn't call themselves Calvinists. There were baptists, not as current baptists, but those who practiced immersion only. They were referred to as baptists yet didn't teach faith only, enemies called them baptists but they only referred to themselves as Christians. They didn't teach modern baptist theology and those burned at the stake didn't refute baptism as a salvation purpose. They taught it was for the remission of sins..

Mary didn't kill protestants really, she killed Catholics that never practiced popery. Occasionally they killed baptists who wanted to re-baptize someone. Since John Knox didn't teach re-baptism he survived and was just kicked out of Scotland. 

So, the point is the St. Giles church is important to history, not because a queen was eulogized there, but because it tells us of history before the Papacy enveloped the world. People who believed in a universal church but didn't believe in the Papacy. The Church didn't use Catholic as a name, but a description.