Gaspard De Coligny: Religious Martyr

“I became frustrated with living in fear. I felt as if I was always waiting for death to come to

someone that dies for what they believes in, for example Martin Luther King jr. , soldiers , and

1. Martin Luther/Peace of Augsburg: Luther’s Reformation allowed German princes to choose their own religion. This threatens the unity of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE). Some princes remained loyal to Catholicism and others chose Protestantism. Civil war broke out but Charles V was unable to quash Protestant princes militarily.

Like the song, he is hopeful and associates this with victory. The persona is portrayed as nervous and worried about being martyred, but after self-affirming through acknowledging that his life is hidden with Christ, that he is bound to God by love; which he metaphorizes to be a strong cord, and that no pain or struggle in this life is worthy to be compared to the reward prepared for him; as shown through the biblical allusion used, he experiences a calm. The victory effectuated by martyrdom was constituted by the incentives he would receive for dying as a martyr: he would acquire a starry crown, his own mansion, an opportunity to walk on golden streets, through gates of pearl and ultimately, the opportunity to meet his Lord, Jesus Christ. The persona gets excited at the thought of these rewards and mentally annunciates “Victory over defeat! Life and death!” and after repeating “Victory over death!”, he verbally exclaims, “Jesus and I have almost met!”, placing the tragic and heart-rending idea of martyrdom in a positive and even desirable light. Simply, the first persona verbally declares that his physical death will only result in his freedom to be with God, (stanza 5 line 5) thereby characterizing not only hope and victory in death but also freedom.

"Harness your fear, look death in the eyes and admit you fear it. Yet, never surrender to it. As death approaches, harness

John Calvin was a major Contributor as a reformer in Geneva. The Protestants were scattered heavily throughout Europe, and were considered leaders of the Reformation. Calvin’s work in the writing of the Institutes would arouse many throughout Europe the opportunity to present their faith and views as a church and enabled the Protestants to have a voice. Calvin’s strength as a reformer was his brilliance to organize the Ecclesiastical Ordinances within the church that would bring structure among the elders.

Protestant Reformation was a religious movement in the 16th century with an agenda of bringing religious restructurings. It happened to the Roman Catholic whereby it split up and there was the formation of a new Christian religion called the Protestants. Martin Luther was the name of the man who sparked the split up. He differentiated with the Roman Catholics in the way they approached deliverance. The Catholics believed that one can only find deliverance in the interior of the Catholic Church, Martin Luther, on the other hand, believed that salvation was personal and one is only saved when the grace of God is sufficient to them (Quentin). Martin Luther was a person determined to make changes in the world of Christians and fight for the true justice regardless of who opposed him.

Everyone can be happy, seeing a dog walk down the street might bring you joy a short period of time. Or hearing a new born babies first cry. Even someone who is depressed can be happy, they just don’t

A martyr is someone who is killed because of their religious or other beliefs. A famous martyr that many people look at in the church today is Saint Stephen. Stephen was often called the protomartyr, or the first martyr of Christianity. Stephen's original name in Greek is given as Stephanos meaning "crown". This is given to him because he is invested with a crown on martyrdom. If you want to learn more about Stephen you can find him in the New Testament in the Acts of Apostles. He is mentioned in Acts as one of the Greek speaking Hellenistic Jews selected to participate in a fairer distribution of welfare to the Greek speaking widows.

Death awaits everybody, there is no running, there is no escaping. You come, you live, you die.

Most people are about as happy as they decide to be, however, there are many unhappy people out

We all must serve something or somebody in our life, living serving fear is like living in captivity. It can happen, that our instinct sometimes, warns us of the danger that in reality doesn’t exist. The fear of looking at death's face tells us that we are not ready and suggests the escaping the unknown that is flashing upon us. It warns us to be afraid of the dark awaiting and we are not ready to accept all the images about death from us projected and dictated by our fear.

“Dragging out an intolerable life in desperate helplessness! That is the most pitiful of all griefs; death is better. Should such a day come to me I pray for death first.” (Page 36)

The Protestant Reformation came about from a German priest, Martin Luther. He invited everyone to a debate about the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church. Martin Luther made a document, which everyone knows it as the Ninety-Five Theses. He went to the church in Wittenberg, and nailed it right to the front door of the church. The theses were mainly about ideas of the church on the nature of of penance, the authority and power of the pope, and the efficacy of indulgences. That led to people joining the Protestant faith.

A martyr is someone who puts everybody else’s well-being before their own. Whilst this sounds