It's interesting how religious leaders can completely change their beliefs when it happens to be convenient. I wonder if God revealed himself to the defecting clergy and declared that, actually, the host does become the body of Christ?

I imagine plenty of people have noticed the comparison to the original founding of the Church of England, although in that case the king could at least justify his actions as a king, what with his divine right and so on. How convenient for the monarchy that their power should come directly from God; and convenient again for parliament, when it was later discovered that in actual fact, there is no divine right of kings.

I have no explanation for why religious doctrine is so malleable, and seems to be constantly changing to support the whims of the ruling classes. It's almost as if the Church has nothing to do with God at all, but exists only as a crutch to support the oppression of the people. But that would mean that thousands of years of religious teaching was completely worthless... surely that couldn't be the case?