Part III
By their fruit you shall know them
We are all tested in life, our knowledge is tested through exams, our characters are seen for what they are by the level of trust people place on our word, businesses and politicians are held to account according to their performance. A church can be held to account by studying how closely it adheres to its mission statement, to the word of God it professes to believe and to the Spirit of that same word.
The Catholic Church has described itself as a perfect society, it purports to be the kingdom of God on earth led by a hierarchy that in matters of faith and morals are guaranteed from error. The Church is inhabited by sinners so this perfection is seen more as theoretical than actual but the image still counts for something.
I could quote heavily from Church documents, encyclicals, catechisms and so on to illustrate that this was the view. But just one, Pius IX, gives a clear idea of how the papacy viewed life outside the orbit of its own belief system. The perfect society, in which only those things of which Rome approved was permitted, began collapsing around his ears, and on his shift. The Holy Father’s response? He acted like a cornered animal.
In 1864 Pope Pius IX produced a prolonged rant against the modern world, he called it the Syllabus of Errors. In it the pope anathematises, curses virtually everything in sight, simply because of the innumerable challenges to Rome’s perceived authority that arose during the late nineteenth century. Catholicism states that it alone is the One True Church, and to resist this imperative was heretical, it was of no significance where or why the challenges to papal prerogatives arose, Pope Pius simply hated them all.
This pope became a clerical monarch shorn of his temporal inheritance, a fierce dictator increasingly reduced to firing verbal volleys from his own backyard, over the unbowed heads of the newly formed democratic societies that surrounded the fallen bastion of Rome.
He became a truly horrible man, an anti-Semite and an arch, and maybe insane conservative. Secure in his own certainties he imposed them ruthlessly on his Church at the 1st Vatican Council. It opened in the December of 1869 and closed in the October of 1870. On September 20th 1870, Victor Emmanuel II having already conquered the Papal States took Rome and ended the temporal rule of the popes. To Pope Pius this was catastrophic. His response was to reinforce and promote papal power to the absolute heights. He sought infallibility for his own office and person. As a result of the
1st Vatican Council he was now fully equipped, and so were his successors.
Lord Acton, the famous Catholic writer said this about power. ‘ Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.’
Acton spoke at this Council, arguing against the proposed doctrine of Papal Infallibility. Many people spoke against it, some senior ecclesiastics, with great eloquence and force, but Pope Pius IX was determined, and he had marshalled his supporters and bullied the opposition. Infallibility has become a cornerstone of the modern papacy.
The Syllabus of Errors expressed the extreme views of this pope as clearly as anyone could wish to see.
In a book published in 1962 the author of Roman Catholicism, Lorraine Boettner stated that the Syllabus of Errors remained part of the ordination vows of every Roman Catholic priest throughout the world.
The document describes a long list of ideas that are considered to be monstrous, dangerous, pernicious nonsense. The method of this denunciation is difficult to follow. Every statement is made in a form that gives the impression it is approved, that is until it is finally denounced, accursed and anathematised. Every statement condemned in the strongest possible terms. In the following quotes the comments in italics are mine.
That the decrees of the Apostolic See and the Roman Congregations fetter the free progress of science.
(It did fetter the free progress of science: the obvious case is that of Galileo’s condemnation. He was brought before the Inquisition and as an elderly man shown the instruments of torture. His scientific theories were later proved to be wholly accurate, the Church‘s wholly wrong)
That every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason… that the eternal salvation may (at least) be hoped for, of all those who are not at all in the true Church of Christ. That Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion; in which it is possible to please God equally as in the Catholic Church.
(All those comments and views are seen as erroneous, and anathematised, cursed. Salvation was only possible, other than in rare circumstances, through obedience to the Church of Rome. Pope Boniface VIII made this claim: “ We declare it to be altogether necessary for salvation that every human creature should be subject to the Roman Pontiff.”)
Even Bible Societies were condemned along with many other forms of religious and political gatherings and activities.
That the Roman Pontiffs and Oecumenical Councils have exceeded the limits of their power, have usurped the rights of princes, and have even committed errors in defining matters of faith and morals. That the Church has not the right to avail herself of force, or of any direct or indirect temporal power…
(All these statements cursed and held to be erroneous. Note the implicit threat that the Roman Church reserves the right to demand of a Catholic state that it use, if required, coercive and physical means to pursue its ends.)
That the best theory of civil society requires that popular schools, open to children of all classes, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority… That the Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.
(The pope wants and demands access to all children so that none should be deprived of the benefits of a Catholic education. It follows that no state is empowered by God to resist the claims of Rome.)
That knowledge of philosophical matters and morals, and civil laws, may be and should be independent of Divine and ecclesiastical authority… that it is allowable to refuse obedience to legitimate princes; nay more to rise in insurrection against them…
(It can be seen that nothing actually falls outside the ecclesiastical authorities. The right to oversight and to administer corrective measures is absolute. The meaning of the latter statement, that it is illegal and morally wrong to rise in insurrection against a ruler was tragically endorsed nearly seventy years latter. When, as a result of a concordat with Adolf Hitler, (a legitimate prince?), in the early nineteen thirties the huge Catholic population of Germany, under instruction from Rome did virtually nothing to oppose the National Socialist Party of Hitler or the ensuing Holocaust. Pius XII personally ensured the emasculation of the German bishops as a force to be reckoned with and the dissolution of the democratic Catholic Centre Party in Germany. Thus leaving Germany with no effective political opposition to the growing power of the Nazis.)
That the abrogation (loss) of the temporal power (use of a states police or military to enforce Church directives) of which the Apostolic See is possessed , would be the greatest contribution to the liberty and prosperity of the Church…
(It is obvious why the Catholic Church should object to the loss of this power. Where would it have been historically without the force of arms. No crusades, no Inquisition, no power to impose its will on populations, no Roman Church as the world has known it.)
That in the present day, it is no longer necessary that the Catholic religion be held as the only religion of the state, to the exclusion of all other modes of worship: whence it has been wisely provided by the law, in some countries nominally Catholic, that persons coming to reside therein shall enjoy the free exercise of their worship… that the Roman Pontiff can, and ought reconcile himself to, and agree with, progress, liberalism, and modern civilisation.
(All this along with everything else condemned as modern heresies. It is an often heard complaint that Muslims can worship freely in the democratic west whereas Christians are forbidden the same rights in most Muslim states. Rome demanded precisely the same, rights of Catholic worship in non Catholic countries while denying those same rights to non Catholics in Catholic countries) Heretics had no rights in Catholic Christendom.
And speaking of heresy let it be shown exactly what this doctrinaire, authoritarian, punitive and utterly ruthless regime considered apt punishment for those who broke from Roman orthodoxy.
A perfect society has a duty of care to that society. Imperfection and impurity must necessarily be scoured and expunged from it. To permit error the oxygen of freedom and tolerance would in itself be sinful. Something like such thinking underpins the terrors that were loosed on those individuals and peoples that failed to repent and turn in obedience to Rome and its doctrines.
Pope Leo XIII in 1903 wrote:
“It is not lawful to demand, to defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought or speech, or writing or religion, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man.”
The papal states were governed from Rome. The popes ruled these for more than a millennium. They remained one of the last independent states in Europe to give up the use of torture and other repressive measures as means of imposing orthodoxy, order and compliance.
But long before this the right to take life in the name of God and the Church was enshrined in Roman Catholic doctrine.
Thomas Aquinas born 1226, died 1274 is perhaps the greatest theologian known to Catholicism. He was a Dominican monk and called the “angelic doctor” His opinion on the subject of heresy is at least thoroughly considered, and not born out of any inherent viciousness. It was just the way things had to be, a reflection of what God had ordained.
He says of heretics that they do not deserve to be tolerated but that they ought be given an opportunity to be reconciled with the Church. Should they spurn this and remain obstinate in their errors then they must be not only excommunicated but also delivered over to the secular power to be exterminated. Death was the ultimate penalty for heresy.
The persecutions and sufferings of those held to be guilty of heresy or baffling, stubborn non conformity like the Jews could be terrible in the extreme. The crusades that went to recapture the Holy Land were a disaster, a cruel bloody waste of mankind in an adventure that assumed its inherent holiness and God’s blessing. It was a curse and not least to God’s people the Jews who were often the scapegoats for failure and misadventure. The curse of anti-Semitism is written large in the history of the Church, and in this regard the Protestant Church is also guilty. It has dogged the thinking of the Church since the earliest post apostolic ages. It is written into the fabric of the Church through the writings of those called the Church Fathers. These constant pogroms and crimes against the helpless scattered tribes of Israel, reliant as they were on the goodwill of Christian kings, princes and people remain a terrible stain on the conscience of all Christians.
The crusades sent against heretical Christians, like the Cathars, Albigensians and Waldensians were characterised by appalling acts of barbaric cruelty. In the centuries that followed the Reformation history documents the pursuit, the imprisonment, the torturing and burnings that characterised the persecution of Protestant believers.
The Inquisitions, other than the most cruel and infamous which took place in Spain, could be anything between relatively tolerant to very severe. Countless numbers suffered from penances and acts of humiliation through to banishment, torture and execution. The curse of holding any opinion or even being thought suspect of holding an opinion other than the one acceptable to ecclesiastical authority was to risk disaster. Not just heretics and Jews were involved; vast numbers of women, incalculable numbers, were burned during an insane witch-hunt that imagined the black arts were being practised anywhere and everywhere. No female collector of herbs, or eccentric, or loner, or person of strange appearance was safe from this persecution.
When the Inquisition visited a town there was a period of grace during which the populous was encouraged to report any misconduct that may indicate a person was a heretic. In this way vicious little vendettas could be secretly and anonymously conducted against anyone who had caused personal offence. A victim of the inquisition had no idea who his accuser was nor often even what the charges were. The best defence was confession and contrition even if you were guiltless. If you were a true heretic, as many evangelical Christians were by the definitions of the Church, then denial of the truth of their beliefs was not an easy option. These men and women died as martyrs for their faith. Many books have been written on the subject and it is not one to dwell on beyond knowing that such things occurred. The climax of an inquisitions work was often celebrated as an extravagant event called an Auto de Fe. These “Acts of Faith” filled the squares of great cities with men and women dressed in strange and lurid clothing that illustrated their sin, being led to their deaths by burning at the stake. These medieval spectaculars drew vast crowds and they served as warnings, watch yourself and others, keep your head down and your thoughts orthodox.
The decree quoted from the fourth Lateran Council in 1215 gives a glimpse of how far reaching and relentless was the scope of Roman Catholic power in pursuit of heresy.
“…if a temporal lord neglects to fulfil the demand of the Church that he shall purge the land of this contamination of heresy, he shall be excommunicated by the metropolitan and other bishops of the province. If he fails to make amends within a year, it shall be reported to the Supreme Pontiff, who shall pronounce his vassals absolved from fealty to him and offer his lands to Catholics. The latter shall exterminate the heretics, possess the land without dispute and preserve it in the true faith…”
“Catholics who assume the cross and devote themselves to the extermination of heretics shall enjoy the same indulgence as those who go to the Holy Land.” An indulgence of this type was one issued by the pope that absolved a Christian knight from all the time his soul owed in Purgatory up to this point in his life. Any killing he did by way of such holy service to the Church did not incur any spiritual penalty."
The terror and the fear generated by these doctrines is difficult to imagine sitting in the present comfort of a modern democracy. But this history is not as far removed from this generation as we may like to think. During the Second World War there was an example of Catholic atrocities in Croatia that were as sickening as anything related above. This can be read about on a website entitled Papal Rome and the European Union by Richard Bennett and Michael de Semlyen.
Much of the diabolical history related above is the consequence of thinking that mere men, given absolute power are akin to being gods on earth. None of this would have been permissible without papal approval.
How could it be pleasing to God to claim a society that resembles a tyrannical dictatorship as his kingdom on earth. One that keeps its environs clean by purging anything it sees as different to itself. It is astonishing to contemplate that a religion that has available at its core the holy scriptures and a firm belief in the Lord Jesus Christ could have produced such a society, let alone gloried in its production and longevity. Do they not understand that while the Kingdom of God begins here on earth it does not reside completely and fully for the redeemed of the earth until evil, sin and Satan are finally dealt with at the return of Jesus. The rule and reign of God on earth is yet to come. Man cannot replicate the Kingdom of God. Catholics have tried it and failed, Calvin, the Protestant reformer also tried it in Geneva. It cannot be done, we are sinners living in a sinful world. The attempted creation of a perfect society characterised by The State and Church working together has led to multiple tragedies, immeasurable loss, terrible injustices and utter devastation for many nations, races and peoples.
The Magdelene Sisters is a fairly recent film depicting such a cruelty that went on in 20th century Ireland. It demonstrates the fearful capacity of Rome to terrify, enslave and oppress when it is able to work alongside a pliant state apparatus steeped in Catholicism and respect for its priests and nuns.
The rule and reign of the Church of Rome, along with any other religious or secular dictatorship that could be named produces the same effects. The power of the Holy Roman Empire, overseen by its twin gods: emperors and popes, has been experienced by countless of its victims as a pitiless, prolonged and terrifying nightmare.