©
Compiled by Bob Stanley, January 7, 2000
Updated March 4, 2006
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
5:38-39
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 5:38-39 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 offense. 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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