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Page 1 of 5 THE INQUISITION
THE SPANISH INQUISITION
ENEMIES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
THE ENFORCING ARM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
INTRODUCTION
The word Inquisition is normally associated with something terrible
which happened in Spain in the late Middle Ages (c.1500) under the
authority of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Indeed this is correct
and describes the Spanish Inquisition but the origins of the
Inquisition go back much further to around 1200 when the Pope in Rome
(Innocent 3rd) set up an organisation to get rid of a reformist
Christian movement, the Cathars of southern France. Since that time the
Inquisition has been the office in the Vatican which has enforced the
dogma of the church on its faithful or unfaithful flock. In the Middle
Ages and even up to the time of Napoleon, that is only 200 years ago,
this took the form of torture and murder, the latter by burning alive
(Burning at the stake). Latterly, that is in more civilised times the
punishment for transgression is excommunication (removal from the
Catholic Church) which for some devout Catholics would be a fate worse
than death. The Inquisition office is also responsible for censorship
which mainly takes the form of producing a huge and ever growing list
of forbidden books.
Although the Cathars reached England before they were exterminated, the
Inquisition did not, even though John Wycliffe gave them enough reason
to. The Inquisition supported the Catholic anti Reformation movement
but they were too busy in Germany to bother about England. The
Inquisition has been likened to a combination of Hitler’s
Gestapo
and SS. The fact that the present head (year 2000) is a German called
Cardinal Ratzinger is presumably a non sequitor.
THE INQUISITION
1000 YEARS AGO
This story starts at the time when the Catholic Church although well
established and already wealthy, was going through a period of
threatening actions from powerful reformers and different ideologies.
- 1054 The Christian Church splits in two. The church in
Constantinople splits from the Church in Rome significantly cutting the
huge income coming to the wealthy Pope.
- 1095 The Crusades. With the Muslims threatening the
territories under the rule of the Eastern Roman Empire head quartered
in Constantinople, which included the holy city of Jerusalem. The Roman
ruler of Byzantium, supported by the Patriarch of the newly formed
Christian Orthodox church sent a messenger to the Pope in Rome asking
for military reinforcements. The Pope surprisingly (bearing in mind he
had just been snubbed by Constantinople) responded with the Crusades.
Recruiting Crusaders was not too difficult because the rewards for
taking part were attractive to out of work Knights, prisoners and
labourers who were immediately pardoned for all their past and future
sins, their financial debts and could keep any bounty stolen en-route.
Many a Crusader was set up for life with riches, land, slaves and often
a harem of wives. Indeed at the recruiting centre, which was the town
of Clermont in Southern France, Crusaders were being offered a quick
route to heaven in return for killing a few Muslims. (Clearly
frighteningly similar to rewards for Muslims of today who take part in
a Jihad.) (Crusaders took the opportunity to hone their fighting skills
on any group they came across en-route who were not Christians. Many
settlements of unsuspecting Jews were decimated during these times
particularly in Germany.) The next three Crusades were in 1147, 1189
and 1202.
- 1206: The next threat to the wealth and domination of the
Catholic Church came not from the Muslims in the Middle East but from a
fundamentalist religious movement, the Cathars of France. Indeed the
origins of this creed came from the Bogomils in Bulgaria which is
nearby Constantinople via the Black Sea and would have been ruled by
the Byzantines and come under the teachings of the Christian Orthodox
Church at this time. Cathars and Bogomils believed in the fundamental
teachings of early Christians without believing that Jesus was the
Messiah or the son of God.
The Cathars came to France at a time when the Catholic Church was at a
morally low ebb. In some places Mass had not been taken for 30 years.
Priests lived like Nobles many having a harem of mistresses. The Pope
himself described his own priests as “worse than beasts
wallowing
in their own dung”. On the other hand Cathars did not
“bully, extort, traffic in guilt, emotionally blackmail,
tyrannise or terrorise with threats of eternal damnation or demand
payment or bribes at every opportunity”. Catholics fled to
the
Cathars in droves which had an immediate and serious effect on the
churches income.
- 1208-1218. Pope Innocent 3rd wrote to the king of France,
stating that the Cathars were worse than the Muslim Infidel and that he
should organise a crusade against the Cathars. All those taking part
would receive the same benefits as Crusaders to the Middle East Holy
Land so long as they signed up for 40 days. A military commander
emerged called Baron Simon de Montfort supported by the fanatical Papal
Legate, Arnald Amaury, Abbot of Citeaux. With a Crusade of some 15,000
men it took about 10 years to exterminate some 15,000 men women and
children from the Cathars (and Jews who got caught up in the massacre.)
During this period the Spanish King of Aragon came in on the side of
the Cathars but was defeated and when Simon de Montfort was killed at
Toulouse the King of France himself took on the role of Crusade
commander. At the end those Cathars who survived disappeared into
Lombardy, present day northern Italy and Catalonia, Barcelona, north
east Spain.
NOTES
- The territory influenced by the Cathars covered much of present day
Southern France. Part of this land was being ruled by the Norman Kings
of England and a part further east, away from the coast, by another
King, Louis 9th of a much smaller France.
- The Baron leading this Crusade, as mentioned above was Simon de
Montfort. He was also at the same time the senior Baron in England
reporting to English Henry 3rd.
- Henry 3rd lost much of his “French” land back to
Louis
at this time. Remember: Henry 2nd 1154-89 ruled in England, Wales, the
east coast of Ireland including Dublin and the whole of the west part
of present day France, that is from Normandy south to the Spanish
boarders on the west side of Paris and Orleans. King Richard 1189-99
spent too much time crusading in the Middle East to look after this
huge territory. King John 1199-1216 lost more land through bad
relationships with the Barons in France. He was forced into signing the
Magna Carta by the Barons in England. Henry 3rd 1216-72 was certainly
not the character to get back any of these lands in France where many
of the French barons preferred the French King Louis 9th. Around the
time Simon de Montfort led the Crusade against the Cathars in southern
France he also led the English Barons (many were also Norman French) in
a small civil war against King Henry 3rd to persuade him to adopt the
principles of government laid out in the Magna Carta. Henry was
actually imprisoned for a short time.
- The Cathars movement did indeed come to England. This was not known
until about 40 years ago when a man redecorating his 1000 year old
house in Piccotts End in the Hertfordshire Chilterns (35 miles north of
London) came across a perfectly preserved wall painting of Cathar
origin. It is presumed they used this house HQ while visiting the
friendly English Monks in their Monastery in Ashridge Forest. (Burnt
down by Henry 8th 300 years later)
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