THE HOLY INQUISITION - the ultimate religious murder machine
The Catholic Church tends to play down the evil of the Inquisition which was set up by her to destroy anybody who differed from her. You will read in books like Apologetics for the Pulpit that it was not the fault of the Inquisition which was a legitimate arm of the Church that the secular powers went too far in killing heretics for the Church (page 431). But the fact is that excommunication in those days made you a complete outcast and if you were an excommunicated king you had no authority so the Church could have used excommunication to deter Inquisitors from going too far. And besides the Church was not forced to hand heretics over to the state for punishment. The state would not have been so keen to destroy heretics had it not been for the Church teaching that the heretic was a powerful instrument of the Devil and had to be destroyed for to destroy him was to weaken the Devil and destroy his plan. They knew fine well that there were plenty of harmless heretics and a large chunk of the population was made up of closeted heretics and no harm had come. It is a fact that no pope for centuries condemned the view that heretics have no rights while the Inquisition was in force (page 227, Vicars of Christ). They encouraged the Inquisition by their silence.
The Fourth Lateran Council which took place in 1215 AD in Rome, stated that all
who disagree with the Catholic Church in any way are heretics and all heretics
are as bad as each other and their goods must all be taken from them and if they
are priests or princes they must lose their authority and it shall be taken from
them and heretics have no right to testify legally and they must be rooted out
and excommunicated (page 287, Fifty Years in the “Church” of Rome). The Council
offered a plenary indulgence to Catholics who took it on themselves to
exterminate heretics. They were granted the same spiritual benefits as those who
fought in the Crusades. (The decree can be read in the book, Documents of the
Christian Church, pages 132-133.)
The Catholic doctrine that even an apparition of Jesus or the Virgin Mary must
be ignored if it commands what is contrary to the will of the Church or the
parish priest or bishop or anybody in authority in the Church obviously shows
that the Church is claiming a monopoly on the right to tell people what they
should believe. If the Church commands the slaughter of heretics even Jesus is
forbidden to say nothing against her. So the Church is not so worried about the
will of God after all! Well that is assuming God has any kindness in him at all.
It does not really help the Church if the numbers murdered were low for it was
still evil and intolerant for her to kill them and shows what he would like to
do to heretics.
But many Catholic scholars who know a thing or two believe that the horrific and
unbelievable account of the Inquisition put together by Henry Charles Lea who
many Catholics disparage is the truth. Lord Acton endorsed it and he was hard to
please (page 637, Vicars of Christ).
The accused would never have been sure about what he was supposed to have done
for he was never fully informed (Difficulties, page 14). The Inquisition
hypocritically forbade anybody from being tortured more than once but allowed
the torture to go on indefinitely. We know that “a Toledo record which extends
over forty years (1648-1694) contains 1,205 cases (2 cases per month, almost
exactly) of which only six ended in complete acquittal” (Difficulties, page 14).
The Inquisition did not mind if it made mistakes and killed good Catholics for
it felt it was better to do that then to let one heretic escape (Difficulties,
page 16). All Mgr Knox can do in response to all this is appeal to the Chambers
Encyclopaedia of 1860 which stands refuted by the historical evidence.
The Inquisitor, Bernard Gui, said that even the testimony of a notorious
perjurer against a person should be accepted and the names of the witnesses were
never disclosed to the accused (Difficulties, page 36). In Difficulties it will
be seen that the Catholic Fr Knox does not really make an answer to any of that.
He tries to claim that the papal protests against the Inquisition were
ineffective not because the pope didn’t want them to work but because it is
sometimes hard for even the pope to influence the Church. He says that Rome
forbade duelling and few listened (page 39). Surely he knows that the nations
obeyed the pope when he wanted the Inquisition established though it was an
inhuman institution that had a different legal procedure from that of the state.
A lot of countries wouldn’t have wanted it for that reason but still they
accepted it to please the pope. Some of the popes did not like innocent
Catholics being jailed and tortured just because they were accused and tried to
PARTLY restrain the evil urges of the Inquisition but what does that do to
redeem them from the charge of wickedness and fanaticism? Nothing.
Excommunication was the weapon used by the popes to enforce obedience for once a
person was an outcast from the Church the person had no rights at all so the
pope could have forced the Inquisition to disband. The idea that its cruelty was
right was not regarded as heretical but orthodox. But when the popes themselves
complained at times it shows they knew the Inquisition was partly heretical and
did not care enough to stop it by force. And the pope was not interested in
stopping duelling for sin was forbidden but people were given the freedom to
commit it. Knox knows fine well that this issue has nothing to do with proving
papal inability to stop the Inquisition.
Most people would have seen the Inquisition for what it really was and would
have inwardly frowned on its speciality, forcing people to confess under torture
to things they never did. They could have torn it down but did nothing because
they believed the pope who said that all this was right. The papacy is certainly
mainly to blame for the excesses of the Inquisition.
The Roman Inquisition in Spain was told to stop using torture by Pius VII in
1816. This was not out of kindness but out of a desire to prevent fanatical
Catholics from being forced to confess to what they never did. A dead devotee
was not use to the pope. The torturing, however, did not stop for at least two
more decades proving that the pope did not mind that much if it continued.
Perhaps he only forbade the torturing to give the Church a better image for it
had many troubles and did not mean it.
Catholics often try to blame the evil of the Church on the barbaric climate of
the times. That is offensive to us for even the blind can see that the things
she did were wrong as the Protestant Hubmaier wrote in 1524 (Vicars of Christ,
page 247).
CONCLUSION
Roman Catholicism is the most murderous religion in history. Its thirst for
blood was sanctioned in its holiest decrees and when it killed once it can do it
again.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM:
The Amplified Bible
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THE WW
www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_10.html
Fascist Romanism Defies Civilisation by Joseph McCabe
www.hom.net/~angels/democracy.html
Democracy is not a good form of Government by Citizens for the Ten Commandments
www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm
Is Christianity a Cult?