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The point of my responses to the attacks on the behavior of people within the Catholic Church, using the facts I present, are to demonstrate the false nature of the argumentation that uses these claims against the Catholic Church as an attempt to somehow invalidate Her - they are not intended as an attack protestantism in return - the conclusion of which is here:
http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/s...&postcount=119
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Now to address the attack on the Catholic Church regarding the inquisitions.
Supposedly the most infamous is the Spanish Inquisiton.
Have you ever heard of "The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition" ???
It was documentary put on by the BBC that busted all the myths we see so popularly resurrected quite frequently by anti-Catholics.
Some interesting facts:
People fell all over themselves to have their cases transferred from the secular courts to the Inquisiotnal courts . . did you know that? If the Spainish Inquisitoin was so terrible, why would people do such a thing?
They would intentionally blaspheme or do some other act that would require that their case be heard by the inquisiton . . Why? Because they could be sure of:
In contrast, the secular court system and jails provided none of those assurances.
- a fair trial
- fair treatment
- clean jail cells
- basic needs attended to
- decent food
- clean water
Now why would people fall all over themselves to get their case heard before the Inquisition if it was so terrible?
Doesn't make sense in my book . . and this special explains why . . . The inquisiton was not at all what popularist history has portrayed it to be.
Here is some interesting information:
From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep that had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring those sheep back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.Lots more info here - much more than I could possibly post here - by
Most people accused of heresy by the medieval Inquisition were either acquitted or their sentence suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed. If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely departed out of hostility to the flock, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to the secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Church did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.
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The Spanish people loved their Inquisition. That is why it lasted for so long. It stood guard against error and heresy, protecting the faith of Spain and ensuring the favor of God. But the world was changing. In time, Spain’s empire faded away. Wealth and power shifted to the north, in particular to France and England. By the late 17th century, new ideas of religious tolerance were bubbling across the coffeehouses and salons of Europe. Inquisitions, both Catholic and Protestant, withered. The Spanish stubbornly held on to theirs, and for that, they were ridiculed. French philosophes like Voltaire saw in Spain a model of the Middle Ages: weak, barbaric, superstitious. The Spanish Inquisition, already established as a bloodthirsty tool of religious persecution, was derided by Enlightenment thinkers as a brutal weapon of intolerance and ignorance. A new, fictional Spanish Inquisition had been constructed, designed by the enemies of Spain and the Catholic Church.
Because it was both professional and efficient, the Spanish Inquisition kept very good records. Vast archives are filled with them. These documents were kept secret, so there was no reason for scribes to do anything but accurately record every action of the Inquisition. They are a goldmine for modern historians who have plunged greedily into them. Thus far, the fruits of that research have made one thing abundantly clear—the myth of the Spanish Inquisition has nothing at all to do with the real thing.
Thomas F. Madden is associate professor and chairman of the Department of History at Saint Louis University. He is the author of numerous works, including most recently A Concise History of the Crusades (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999) and Enrico Dandolo and the Rise of Venice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003)http://www.crisismagazine.com/october2003/madden.htm
So, far from being the barbaric institution myth has characterized it as, it was noble and elevated in its judicial system for the day. And far from the excessive humbers that have been claimed by myth upwards in the hundreds of thousands to millions commonly head to have been burned at the stake, etc, the numbers put to death by secular authoritie was actully quite small in the hundreds to few thousands over several hundreds of years.
In contrast to that, we look at the Protestant inquisitions, where the real attrocities took place - but we never hear the protestant inquisitions being attacked, let alone even addressed.
More hypocrisy? Evidently.
So what happened in the protestant inquisitions? The data is vast. Hundreds of thousands, if not well over a million were put to death in the space of perhaps 200 years. The protestant inquisitons were indeed barbaric.
Let's take a look at some real history - this is not for the faint of heart, it is fairly gruesome:
MARTIN LUTHERWe could go on. The Protestant Inquisition in Ireland was even more vicious than most. A simple list just of Catholic PRIESTS (not including far greater numbers of laymen) killed in a hundred year periodis very instructive. I can provide the list of at least a good hundred priests killed in a short number of years.
He encouraged the German Princes to seize church property in return for protection for the Reformation. Along with others, he issued a licence permitting the Landgrave of Hesse to keep 2 wives simultaneously. However worse was to come.
He urged the slaughter of the German peasants:
"Let all who are able, cut them down, slaughter and stab them, openly or in secret, and remember that there is nothing more poisonous, noxious and utterly devilish than a rebel... For we are come upon such strange times that a prince may more easily win heaven by the shedding of blood than others by prayers."This call by Luther for the slaying of the peasants in the Peasant Revolt, we have 100,000masequered right there alone.
Luther was no less inflamatory with regard to the Jews, as seen in the following excerpts from his pamphlet: The Jews and Their Lies, (1543):
"First to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honour of our Lord and of Christendom,ULRICH ZWINGLI
Was a serial adulterer, killed those who disagreed with him, and promoted war against Catholic areas that refused to follow his doctrines. he also approved the drowning of Anabaptists.
JOHN CALVIN
Had 58 people executed in Geneva in just a few years of establishing his trule which many describe as tyrannical. This included the burning of Servetus, Gruet and others for criticising Calvin. The modern-day Congregational, Prebyterian, Reformed, Baptist and many of the Charismatic churches, all look to this same Calvin as their founding spiritual authority
Calvin himself writes about 23 such victims, executed for spreading the plague by witchcraft in a letter to Myconius of Basel (March 27, 1545):
"A conspiracy of men and women has lately been discovered, who, for the space of three years, had spread the plague through the city by what mischievous device I know not. After fifteen women have been burnt, some men have even been punished more severely, some have committed suicide in prison, and while twenty-five are still kept prisoners,—the conspirators do not cease, notwithstanding, to smear the door-locks of the dwelling-houses with their poisonous ointment.THOMAS CRANMER and THOMAS CROMWELL
Founders of the Church of England, and through that the Baptists and the Methodists, helped directly to organise the plunder of the monasteries. Systematic torture and execution were used to gain the compliance of the population with the new protestant Church. This included the deaths of:
Queen Anne BoleynAfter Catholics rose up in protest at the closing of the Monasteries in 1536, King Henry wrote:
Queen Katherine Howard
St Thomas More
The Maid of Kent and her followers
Cardinal Fisher
Burning of Friar forrest
Disembowelling of Carthusian Monks
Execution and disembowelling of dozens monks and abbots who resisted the disollution of their monasteries.
"Our pleasure is that . . . you shall cause such dreadful execution to be done upon a good number of the inhabitants of every town, village, and hamlet that have offended, as they may be a fearful spectacle to all others hereafter that would practice any like matter."Hundreds were massacred at random in the Catholic areas.
Others disembowelled or burnt within months included:
1534: Elizabeth Barton, q.v. (The Holy Maid of Kent), with five companions;John Dering, O.S.B., Edward Bocking, O.S.B., Hugh Rich, O.S.F., Richard Masters p., Henry Gold p.,
1537. Monks, 28. - After the pilgrimage of grace and the rising of Lincolnshire many, probably several hundred, were executed, of whom no record remains. The following names, which do survive, are grouped under their respective abbeys or priories. - Barling: Matthew Mackerel, abbot and Bishop of Chalcedon, Ord. Prĉm. Bardney: John Tenent, William Cole, John Francis, William Cowper, Richard Laynton, Hugh Londale, monks. Bridlington: William Wood, Prior. Fountains: William Thyrsk, O. Cist. Guisborough: James Cockerel, Prior.Jervaulx: Adam Sedbar, Abbot; George Asleby, monk. Kirkstead: Richard Harrison, Abbott, Richard Wade, William Swale, Henry Jenkinson, monks. Lenten: Nicholas Heath, Prior; William Gylham, monk. Sawlet: William Trafford, Abbott; Richard Eastgate, monk. Whalley: John Paslew, Abbott; John Eastgate, William Haydock, monks. Woburn: Robert Hobbes, Abbott; Ralph Barnes, sub-prior; Laurence Blonham, monk. York: John Pickering, O.S.D., Prior. Place unknown: George ab Alba Rose, O.S.A. Priests: William Burraby, Thomas Kendale, John Henmarsh, James Mallet, John Pickering, Thomas Redforth. Lords: Darcy and Hussey. Knights: Francis Bigod, Stephen Hammerton, Thomas Percy. Laymen (11): Robert Aske, Robert Constable, Bernard Fletcher, George Hudswell, Robert Lecche, Roger Neeve, George Lomley, Thomas Moyne, Robert Sotheby, Nicholas Tempest, Philip Trotter.
1538 (7): Henry Courtney, the Marquess of Exeter; Henry Pole, Lord Montague; Sir Edward Nevell and Sir Nicholas Carew; George Croft p., and John Collins p.; Hugh Holland l.. Their cause was "adhering to the Pope, and his Legate, Cardinal Pole".
1540 (6): Lawrence Cook O. Carm., Prior of Doncaster; Thomas Empson, O.S.B.; Robert Bird p.; William Peterson p.; William Richardson p.; Giles Heron l. 1544 (3): Martin de Courdres, O.S.A., and Paul of St. William, O.S.A.; Darby Genning
Over the next few reigns around 600 Catholic priests alone, and thousands of ordinary Catholics were disembowelled or otherwise murdered by Protestants because of their faith. Topcliffe, Elizabeth's chief torturer, had a special house full of torture equipment to be used on Catholic priests. One elderly priest was tortured 12 separate times to gain information on other priests and believers.
JOHN KNOX
Founder of Presbyterian Church
Participated in the murder of Cardinal Beaton.
Advocated the killing of Queen Mary of Scotland
Praised the stabbing of Rizzio
Advocated the slaying of Catholics.
At 51 married a 15 year-0ld girl.
Without counting all of the incidents of protestant attacks on Catholics and others, we have:
100,000 peasants masequered by the German Princes per Luther's instructionsThat is 750,000 to 1,250,000 and counting over a very short period of time, around 100 years . . . . . (which doesn't count the anabaptists and others the protestant inquisitions killed),
150,000+ witches burned at the stake by protestants
500,000+ Catholics slaughtered by protestants in Ireland Add in the deaths that were religiously motivated during the famine, and you have 1,000,000 in Ireland alone.
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