©
Compiled by Bob Stanley, January 7, 2000
Updated May 16, 2001
A special thanks to Tim Brennan and Eric Ostmann for their historical input.
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"What
then shall we say to these things? IF GOD IS FOR US, WHO IS AGAINST US?"
Romans 8:31
"For if this plan or work is of men,
it will be overthrown;
but if it is of GOD, you will not be able to overthrow it.
ELSE PERHAPS YOU MAY FIND YOURSELVES FIGHTING EVEN AGAINST GOD."
Acts 5:35-36
Since the Catholic
Church has existed
for almost 2000 years, and it certainly has been tried by Heretics,
Jews, Romans, Protestants, the French Revolution, Hitler, Communism, and
a whole host of others to overthrow it, then we are left with only two
logical conclusions.
Either the Catholic Church is of GOD, or GOD's Word in Acts 5:35-36 is
simply not true.
It is not my intention to
present a comprehensive history of the various Inquisitions
here, as it would take many pages for each of them.
(1) Medieval... 1233
This was considered to be the first of the Inquisitions.
It was convened specifically to combat the Albigensian heresy. This was
a cancerous heresy which threatened the very foundations of the Church.
(2) French....1306
This Inquisition was called again to combat
the Albigensian (or Cathari) heresy.
(3) Spanish.....1478-1834
This is the Inquisition of which most detractors
refer. It was initiated by the secular governments of France and Spain
and with the approval of the Church at the beginning. Be it known that
Spain had been under fierce attack from Moslems for over 700 years. (Read
about the Spanish hero, El Cid, for more on these Moslem and Moor conquests).
The Moslems were determined to convert Catholic Spain into a Moslem state
by force of war. The purpose of the Inquisition
was to ferret out Moslems and Jews who were causing social havoc by posing
as faithful Catholics. Some were even masquerading as priests and bishops
and they were attempting to lead the faithful away from the Church. Non-Catholics
who admitted they were non-Catholics were not persecuted by the Inquisition.
Several Popes condemned the Inquisition, which
had come under the control of the Spanish civil authorities, when it was
brought to their attention that civil justice was giving way to cruel abuses.
It was this insistent condemnation by the Popes which finally put an end
to the Inquisitions.
No one knows the exact figures for sure, but it is estimated that there
were less than 60,000 cases spread over a 356 year period until the Spanish
Inquisition was finally abolished in 1834.
This averages to less than 169 cases per year. Of this number, the vast
majority were exonerated. According to modern scholars, approximately 2000-6000
from the Spanish Inquisition alone*,
and a total of 5000-9000 from all Inquisitions
combined, for over the entire six century period were turned over to secular
authorities for punishment or execution, but only after a second trial
for a repeated offence. It is to be noted that the highest figure of 9000
is far lower than the total number of executions by the civil authorities
of those countries which held Inquisitions
in this same time frame. Not surprisingly, Protestant estimates of the
numbers killed by the various Inquisitions
are far higher (of course) with a range of as high as 300,000 to an astronomical
95,000,000**.
That last figure, of course, is highly ridiculous, as that number is far
higher than the entire population of all of Europe at the time. Records
recovered from this era, support the figures of less than 60,000 cases
total for all Inquisitions, as I have shown
above, and there have been no authentic records found which support anywhere
near the Protestant charges of hundreds of thousands, or millions of cases.
Go here for much more detail than I have recounted here: The
Spanish Inquisition
* "Research
has shown that about four thousand deaths occurred at the hands of the
Spanish Inquisition
during almost three centuries." Radio Replies 1:1069, Rumble and Carty.
**A
Protestant book, "The Mystery of Babylon Revealed".
(4) Roman.......1542
This Inquisition was convened to combat the
Protestant heretics soon
after the start of the reformation. We all know the story of the censure
of Galileo from this Inquisition
in 1616. Pope John Paul II has recently declared Galileo's censure,
and therefore his persecution by this Inquisition,
to be in error. He has apologized for the part the Church had played in
it.
To those who enjoy needling Catholics over this subject, I must remind
you to look in your own backyard before doing so. I am reminded of the
phrase, "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
The Protestant history of persecutions, especially of Catholics, is not
pretty. I have presented good reasons for the Inquisitions
here. There seems to be no valid reasons for Protestant persecution of
Catholics except for their desire to totally annihilate them. Here are
a few examples...
King Henry VIII is responsible for the deaths of over 70,000 Catholics
including hundreds of priests and Bishops. He had St. Thomas More executed
in 1535. He even ordered the destruction of most of the uncorrupted bodies
of saints in England. The only bodies that were not destroyed are the ones
taken by Catholics and hidden from the persecutors.
John Calvin, one of the Protestant reformers, viciously persecuted Catholics
as heretics. He persecuted others as well, and had a rival critic, Michael
Servetus, burned alive in October 1553.
Queen Elizabeth I, had thousands of Catholics put to death in England.
She ordered that Catholic Mary Queen of Scots be executed in 1587. She
had thousands more killed in Ireland.
Oliver Cromwell is responsible for starting the English civil war and the
subsequent beheading of Catholic King Charles I, and for the killing of
thousands of Catholics in that war of 1642-1649.
Thousands of Catholics were murdered in Ireland by the English in the 19th
century simply because they attended the Catholic Mass. The Protestant
English redcoats were also responsible for confiscating the food from the
Irish people and for leaving them only with potatoes which were blighted
and unfit to eat. In the mid 19th century this caused the deaths by starvation
of an estimated 1-1.5 million Irish Catholics, and the emigration of about
2 million more. It was a case of either leave the country or die of starvation.
How many thousands of women were burned at the stake after witch trials,
by Protestant witch hunters, over several centuries, and throughout Europe
and America? It is estimated that 30,000 went to their deaths in Britain
alone, and another 100,000 in Protestant Germany***.
Interestingly, the Protestant mind-set in those
times was that if the woman survived the burning, she was considered not
to be a witch. Now just how many innocent women, do you think, survived
this horror?
*** "Isabella
of Spain", by William Thomas Walsh.
"The Golden Century of Spain", by R. Trevor Davies.
Isn't it strange that those who accuse the Catholic Church of convening
Inquisitions, which I have shown to be Biblical
and therefore were legitimate, never mention these Protestant atrocities,
most of which when taken separately, far surpass the total numbers of deaths
due to all of the Inquisitions combined?
Interestingly, in this writing, I have recounted an apology from the Catholic
Church for the injustice which was done to
Galileo. I have yet to see any Protestant apology for any of the injustices
they have perpetrated against Catholics. The Catholic
Church does not persecute Protestants, however,
Protestants continue to persecute Catholics, as evidenced recently by Britains
refusal to allow Catholics to ascend to the Monarchy. Protestant bigotry
has lasted much longer than Catholic persecution has.
The deaths attributed to the Inquisitions
pale immeasurably to the 1.2 million humans killed by abortion every year
in the United States alone. Add to this figure the many more millions aborted
from all of the other countries of the world. To those of you who attack
the Catholic Church
over the Inquisitions, I must ask, "Since
it seems that you are concerned about human life, who is the most outspoken
in the whole world in combating this 'culture of death' in which we live
today?"
It is none other than the Catholic Church.
How can anyone who is so concerned about the value of human life of the
past, not be concerned at all about human life in the present?
I would suggest that you should not be so concerned about something that
happened hundreds of years ago, of which neither you nor I can do anything
about, and channel your energy to join in attacking an evil of the present
day, an evil that you can do something about, an evil going on right now,
in your lifetime, and right before your very eyes. Join with the Catholic
Church and funnel your energies to protest
this present day genocide.
It is the greatest evil conceived by man since the Crucifixion.
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