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Above: The Peace of Munster Oath, ending the 80 Yrs War. The end of that war coincided with the end of the very traumatic 30 Yrs War. Protestantism did NOT bring peace to 16th Century Europe, as St Francis of Assisi brought peace to 13th Century Italy. Protestantism brought War. The true church reformer was Francis. Neither Luther nor Calvin nor Simons had the stigmata of Christ's crucifixion wounds. Francis did, though. Take a hint from God.
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Thesis:
European governments of the 16th Century either began as ... continued as ... or transformed into ===> Theocracies. There was no concept of individual choice in one's religion. However, there was a major irony & contradiction in this, in that:
Catholics could individually make their own personal choice in spirituality, in choosing between [1] Franciscanism (taught by the Order of the Friars Minor), or [2] Dominicanism (taught by the Order of Preachers which ironically included the writings of a woman named Catherine of Siena) or [3] Carmelitism which included devotion to Elijah and John the Baptist, or [4] Augustinian Spirituality, [5] the charity of the "ransom orders," such as the Trinitarians and the Mercedarians, which were dedicated to freeing captive & persecuted Catholics, [6] even the knightly orders, [7+] as well as other specific devotions.
Yet, there would be an elaborately compiled 'official prayer of the Church' known as the Liturgy of the Hours ... or the Divine Office .. which gravitated around the Psalms, Book of Wisdom, Book of Sirach, and other Biblical texts. Priests would be bound to pray a small fraction of this each day.
None the less, in 16th Century Catholicism, there had been 1,450+ years of synods, ecumenical councils, theological writings and debate, to figure things out. Protestantism had a handful of guys who said that things are going to be this way ... or that way ... in a profession of faith called "a confession," and if you don't publicly agree with that new profession of faith written by two or three well-fed guys (especially in Protestant Switzerland), then you die (died). This included other Protestants, such as in Switzerland, where Anabaptists were drowned-to-death.
Plus, in Catholicism, there would be a specific theology on the nature of God and the nature of man. The theology on the nature of man included moral theology which was taught as law and NOT as suggestion or opinion. This was regarded as Natural Law.
Even a person electing to become a monk would choose the monastic order of his choice, provided that the monastic order found him to be fit to serve. However, when it came to Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Puritanism, there was a tight grip on the adherents of those religions. Freedom of thought was thrown out the door.
In matters of faith and fidelity to the true God, there is a
process. There was even a process of God's Revelation to man, as was
charted in Scriptural text. After all, it took approximately one thousand year to
complete the Old Testament. With the New Testament, it was a matter of
manpower --- in the number of people it took to complete the New
Testament --- from Mark to Luke to Peter to Paul to James to Jude and then John, not
to mention Matthew and all of the assistants involved.
There was no
one Martin-Luther-Only doing the job of defining Catholic dogma, as if Luther were a divine being unto
himself. There was no sole-John-Calvin in Catholicism, bringing forth all knowledge to
all mankind. There were ecumenical councils which involves every available bishop, time after time, along with one presider, the pope, to prevent confusion.
Then came a council where it was formally declared infallibly, that no pope could delete a single infallible statement established in any previous ecumenical council, once the presiding pope of that previous council signed it into doctrine. Thus, no subsequent pope can change the doctrine declared as such by previous popes and their advisory --- and scholarly --- councils.
If memory serves me correctly, that decisive council was the Council of Basel, in the 1430s. It was associated with the Councils of Florence and Ferrara which were councils intended to rid religious life and the priesthood of chaos and confusion. That infallible statement was in one of those three councils, where a pope can NEVER invalidate, abrogate, repeal, delete, discard any previous infallible statement of an ecumenical council that was affirmed by the presiding pope. God is changeless. Thus, the doctrine of God, God's nature, & God's will are unchangeable. Sort of like an evergreen tree. For those uninformed, Germans used evergreens for Christmas trees to symbolize the changelessness of God. So stated for the record.
Now, Protestantism was a case of one-man-shows, with an assistant here and an assistant there. There are a number of examples of 15th & 16th Century
Shape-Shifters of the Church, where Christianity was presented as a
one-man show. The one-man shows ended up splintering and becoming new
one-man shows with a new preacher man, over and over again. Protestantism came to be
spiritual cell division. Split after split after split after split.
Remember the theme of the anti-Catholics obsessed with
perpetuating the Nightmarish Inquisition Tale which had long since been
proven to be a myth:
It's very simple: "The Catholic haters"
are obsessed with clinging to the mostly fabricated 1567 Inquisition Tale so that, in 2023, "they"
can officially declare the One Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church
founded by Jesus Christ to, instead, be the Whore of Babylon ... instead of being the only Bride
of Christ. Catholicism was the FIRST CHRISTIANITY, and God is
changeless. So, do the math on this topic.
Protestants condemned and still condemn
"tradition," because Protestantism had no tradition. It was a new start-up religion in 1521 ... without a past and therefore zero tradition. That amounted to approximately 1461 years AFTER the original surviving apostles ... and St. Matthias ... distributed their first official teaching on Christianity. It was called, the Didache and it was/is 16 chapters in length.
Now,
St. Paul ... in the Bible ... instructed his converts to also adhere to
all that Paul taught them "orally" ... "in spoken word." Spoken word is
known as tradition. Therefore, adhering to Tradition IS BIBLICAL.
Catholicism has tradition. Protestantism does NOT.
This makes Protestantism fake Christianity. After all, Lutheranism didn't start until 1,493 years
after the Star of Bethlehem was seen by learned Magi. Protestantism is
equivalent to the fraudulent marathon runner who sneaks into the race at
the 25th mile mark, making it look as if the fraudulent competitor started at the
beginning.
The same anti-Catholic propagandists
who assert that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon also assert
that there is very little evidence of the Inquisition, but that the
Heidelberg text of one Reginaldus Gonslavius Montanus is true anyway. Well, that assertion is a compound
falsehood. Take Note:::
[1] There is no evidence which supports the ridiculously hyped-up overkill of the Heidelberg publication. But, there are literally TONS of pages of evidence
attached to the Spanish Inquisition, in the form of case files; 356 years of such files. Every case brought before the
Inquisition (which operated from 1478 to 1834) had a case file attached
to it.
Spanish Inquisition case files were kept well-preserved in
the Inquisition archive system throughout the centuries. This amounts
to the undeniable records of approximately 130,000 cases that were
brought before the Inquisition. In contrast, one and only one horror
story was written by an anonymous person shortly before the start of the 80 Years War. The whole thing was pre-war propaganda.
[2]
Being that there has never been found any mass graves, any bloodstained
torture chamber walls, any blood-soaked road that leads to any mass
grave, and no bloodstained torture devices, the 1567 Inquisition horror
story is most probably a fraud composed with malice aforethought ---
and not an error made in good faith. The reasonable person
would conclude the that whole damn thing is a premeditated lie. Moreover, that 1567 tale was sheer, hate-ridden racism, evidenced by the
anonymous writer calling the Spanish (per se) "the children of Satan."
Now, it's hard to fathom Ricardo Montalban as being the Son of Satan. None the less, according to Montanus, the Antichrist will be Spanish. But in reality, the real antichrist will simply claim himself to be the Messiah prophesied by the ancient Jewish prophets. HOWEVER, anyone who professes belief in the Nicene Creed is not possibly the Antichrist. This is because the creed states that Jesus the Nazarene is the Christ. The moment you state that Jesus the Nazarene is the Son of God made man, you disqualify yourself as a candidate for the long awaited Antichrist.
Dozens of popes came after Luther's bold "Antichrist accusation of 1520." Yet, no pope claimed himself to be the Messiah, and no pope forced humanity to wear
"the engraving of the Beast." In fact, they all prayed the following:
"I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of the Father. God
from God. Light from Light. True God from true God. Begotten, not
made. One in being with the Father. Through him all things were made." In as much,
it's impossible to be the Antichrist if you can vocally pray the
Apostle's Creed.
Now, Martin Luther claimed that the pope of 1520 (Leo X) was the Antichrist. Well, Leo died in 1521 without ushering in the Great Apostasy and without declaring himself the Messiah. Luther was a false prophet. Then, the next pope (Adrian VI) died in 1523, making Luther a double false prophet. This is because Adrian did NOT claim himself to be the Christ, either ... and he did not require anyone to wear the "Mark of the Beast." (Actually, it's "the engraving of the Beast" --- the charagma, in Greek). And Pope Adrian surely didn't make anyone worship the Beast. Thus, he was NOT the Antichrist Luther made him out to be.
Then came Clement VII who died in 1534 without ushering in the Age of the Antichrist, either. This made Luther a triple false prophet. Next came the Pope Paul III who faithfully adhered to Catholic Church marriage law. He did NOT claim himself to be the Messiah, and he did NOT make anyone wear the "mark of the beast" on the forehead or on the hand, either. This made Luther a QUADRUPLE FALSE PROPHET, invalidating the ornery Martin Luther completely.
Luther spent his life doing nothing more than setting the stage of nearly two centuries of European warfare. Luther died in 1546, and in the past 477 years, no pope turned out to be the Antichrist, and no pope presented to humanity any Antichrist, as messiah. All popes until at least 2013 claimed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah and other Jewish prophets. To claim Jesus to be the Messiah is to instantly disqualify yourself as the dreaded Antichrist.
Luther was and is a defamatory liar. Luther died in his defamatory sins and in his false prophesying. If you are a follower of him, then you are wasting your life away. BTW, the Elector of Saxony (Freddy III) and the King of Denmark (Christian III --- more like "anti-christian" III) did more to establish the Lutheran religion than did Luther and his academic confreres. Through edict, Lutheranism was literally forced upon the people of [1] Norway, [2] Denmark, [3] Sweden, [4] Finland, [5] Saxony, and [6] Brandenburg. Wherever there was Lutheranism, there was no freedom of religion. In fact, wherever there was the 16th Century, there was no freedom of religion. Religion was seen as a cultural identifier & the definer of a nation's boundaries. Religion was like a sports team's uniform or a military uniform. You weren't allowed to be out of uniform, back in those days.
Take note that these
anti-Catholic propagandists state that the One Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church guided by God the
Holy Spirit is the great persecutor of Holy Holy "Bible-Believing-People." Well, Protestants stole the Bible from Jews &
Catholics, with the New Testament being a sole Catholic production.
The Catholic Church has always used the Bible far far far more often
than the Protestants ever did. Here is a vivid example:
You have heard of
the Gregorian Chant ... correct? Well, what exactly are monks chanting
when they do the Gregorian Chant? ANS: Passages of the Bible, in the Liturgy of Hours, also known as the Divine Office --- along with devotional reflections written after the New Testament texts. The monks chanted the Psalms, among other things. Catholics use and always have used the Bible far more often than do Protestants.
The Protestant obsession with "Bible Only" is because they had no tradition
The claim that Catholics hid the Bible from humanity is like a candidate defaming his opponent in the upcoming election. The big problem is that Christianity is a monarchy, and NOT a congress of politicians who use the art of lying to get elected. Christ the King is not amused when the only church he ever founded is called invalid. To claim such a thing is to claim that Christ and his Spirit committed gross dereliction of duty from 325 AD to 1517 AD --- or that evil evil popes stuffed God away and made God accessible to man, as if God weren't all-powerful. You can see Bible passages, in picture-form, on stained-glass Medieval church, shrine, and cathedral windows.
Anglo America's original hatred of Catholicism dating back to backwoods hicks
Anti-Catholic American
Protestants simply hate anything as classical as the Gregorian Chant. Those
anti-Catholics simply prefer what a city slicker calls hick music --
hoopie music ... yee-haw music --- briar hopper music --- twanging guitar
(pronounced ghi-tar & "ghit-tar," as in "Play this here ghittar.") This is ironic, because at the start of Luther's rebellion, the European city slicker chose Protestantism, while the country folk of Europe retained Catholicism. Today, it's quite the opposite, especially in America.
Protestantism is the act of taking the profane and calling it sacred. It calls being "boldly sinful" salvation. It's Orwellian, and it led to the consolidation of the Nazi Party. And yes, Luther advocated that the Jews should have been expelled from Germany ... by government authorities and not by lynch mobs. Well, a very deadly German government followed Luther's advice ... in the 1930s & 1940s.
All in all, if it were not for the Catholic Church's existence, from the Years 26 to 1517 C.E. (A.D.), no Protestant alive today would have even heard the name, Jesus. The Catholic Church had been the promoter of ... the protector of ... the steward of ... the Holy name of Jesus & the New Testament, long before Luther had his first seizure. Moreover, European Protestants all have ancestors who were Roman Catholic for 400, 600, and even 900 years running. They can't deny that. This means that shelf of the ancestors are burning in Hell for all Eternity ... either for being Roman Catholic, from the 500s to the 1400s ... or for being Protestants from 1521 to present.
None the less, John Adams used to belittle the Catholic Mass, as if it were a superstitious ritual. But, in reality it consisted in basic intellectual things. The Mass comprises [1] An entrance song or the reading of one Biblical sentence, [2] an opening prayer that acknowledged mankind's sinfulness as it applied to each individual present, followed by a repetition of 'Lord/Christ have mercy." Such a thing is called, "the Confiteur, which means "I confess," [3] Then comes Bible reading. [4] Then comes homily/sermon time. [5] Then comes the consecration of unleavened bread and grape wine.
Apparently, John Adams had the hardest time believing in transubstantiation and the concept of "the Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity of Jesus Christ" in a cosmological venue that is not instantly understand by man's very finite and very limited ... and often distracted ... mind. Adams needed to meditate on the Biblical account of the Road to Emmaus. All Catholic haters who read the Bible should do so.
The Sacred vs the Secular (synonymous with the "profane")
In
Protestantism, there is no such thing as differentiating the sacred
from the secular. So, they claim secular hillbilly hick music to be the sacred
music played by angels in Heaven. They claim secular hoopie music of briar hoppers to be the choice of the very Jewish Jesus
Christ who, instead hearing a hick guitars, heard Greek chants in his lifetime. After all,
Nazareth was a heavily Greek-influenced city. In fact, the renown St
Paul of Tarsus was known as a "Hellenistic Jew," aka a "Greek Jew." In fact, the author of this discourse has Greek ancestry. This shows that the world really is round and its trails intersect each other.
None
the less, Protestantism is a very profane religion that has no concept
of consecrating anything or anyone. After all, its preachers wear business suits, and NOT consecrated garments as did the ancient Jewish religion and all forms of sacramental Christianity which includes Catholicism and Orthodoxy.
The sacred Music of the middle
& western Mediterranean regions is regarded as Satanic by more rural American Anglo factions of humanity ---
because it's foreign to them, and anything foreign is not seen as
fascinating, but rather, it's seen as evil. That's the mindset of the Isolationist.
At this point, remember the following: The lower the education level of the person the more fear the person carries. Greta Thunberg and her complete absence of knowledge in Atmospheric Science & Meteorology is today's brightest example --- the example of Fear in the Place of Ignorance. This is especially the case in 2023, being that, in merely 7 months after the "perpetual 'climate change' drought prediction" was consolidated by the media & UN, Planet Earth instead enjoyed record snowpacks, ample rain, the opposite of global warming, and the bountiful replenishment of dams. It didn't take 7 year for that doomsday prediction to be proven false. It took only 7 months. In her uneducated state and in crippling fear, Greta was suckered into believing such predictions which have now quickly blown away with the wind.
So, Anglo-Saxons of low education hate the concept of Latin. The great irony with them is that the English language is half Latin, being that the Roman Empire ruled parts of England for centuries. Way to go, Anglo-Saxon Roman Haters. If you hate Italians that badly, then you need to stop speaking zee Englishia which happens to be semi-Latin.
For the record, the music of
the Eastern Mediterranean region is in 2/4 time, and it's very much
different than the Greco-Roman "sound modes" of the Dorian, Phrygian,
Lydia, etc, "tonalities." 2-4 time is called, "Tribal Time" in music school. The Jews identified as tribes. The Greeks and Romans were a bit more sophisticated in managing their societies. I'll stop here, before turning this text into
a music history class.
Concerning the 1567 horror story of
"Montanus," it's an easily understood premise that, before one goes to
war, one needs to make sure that he does it when his enemy has a full
schedule --- when the enemies' hands are full and are unable to dedicate their full strength to the war you are trying to hatch. And coincidentally enough, Spain was [1] in its tenth year
of war against France, [2] while the Habsburg Dynasty which controlled
Spain & the Netherlands was in its 40th consecutive year of warfare
against the Ottoman Empire.
Plus, there was [3] Spain's Conquest of the
Inca Empire [4] and trouble in the Philippines with the "Dagohoy Rebel Group" there. This caused a distancing between England and Spain. So, that alliance was fading away. After all, Spain was really really busy in those days and didn't have time for England, even though it really could have used England against the rebellions in the Netherlands.
The Final Muslim/Catholic War in Spain
And yes, I'm well
aware of the 77 executions per year, in the last six years of the
Granada War against the occupier Moors. Divide 77 by 20 tribunals, aka
"district courts," and it only amounts to 4 executions per year per
district tribunal, on the average. But of course, the executions would
logically have been concentrated at the one tribunal (district court);the one nearest to Granada, the former capital of
Andalusia ... aka Moorish Spain. This would translate into approximately 5 1/2 executions per month in one district court throughout the duration of that war. War brings an increase in executions
anywhere there is war. However, this number isn't anywhere near the number used by anti-Catholics in 19th & 20th Century America, when anti-Catholicism was a religion onto itself.
Even in the newly formed
British American colonies, you could be put to death for stealing a
horse in New England. You could even be put to death in South Carolina,
for wrecking a tobacco crop. This is because, at one time, tobacco
leaves were colonial currency. In fact, in the Wild Wild West, a
person could get hung for stealing a horse.
The thesis
statement is that Spain did nothing more violent than any other European sovereignty at the time. Moreover, the Spanish
Inquisition did NOT perform any of the sick & twisted tortures
mentioned in the one Reginaldus Montanus tale published in 1567. The
French, British, Scottish, etc individually had their executions too, relatively
close to the same statistical number as did the Spanish. The nation which went overboard in executions was none other than . . . Russia.
And of course, neither in British America nor in Spain were there iron maidens, plums of agony, or similar torture devices of a sick & twisted nature.
29 Years Later
It
has now been 29 years since the production of the the BBC Spanish
Inquisition documentary. The most important point at this point is
that, in the past 28 years, numerical statistics on the Spanish
Inquisition have become much more exact ... concise ... like a major
league team's scorecard ... like an accountant's tax return ... like an
almanac author's weather history report. This included the number of
executions which occurred in the Inquisition's 356 year history, as well
as the number of people investigated and brought to trial ... and even
the categories of cases.
For example, the number of people who
were investigated for advancing the Lutheranism which stole Roman
Catholic real estate in Northern Europe ... done under the guise of
being moved by the Holy Spirit ... were 3,499, between 1560 and 1700.
That also amounts to an average of 25 Lutheran cases per year, in a 140
year period. That also amounts to an average of ONLY 1.25 Lutheran
cases a year, per tribunal court.
The reality was that
accusations of secret Lutherans undermining the Church occurred mostly in the Valladoid and Seville regions of Spain, starting in
1558, where there already were Protestant communities. The reality was 25 cases per year at Seville. It was NOT the 100,000 that were asserted during the early decades of Anti-Catholic 20th Century.
In the 1550s, Catholic Spain and
Protestant England were allies against Catholic France. England
regarded Lutherans as the enemy to the Church of England, founded by
Henry. Thus, both Spanish Catholics and British Anglican Church
authorities saw Lutherans as a very hostile enemy. After all, Lutherans
successfully stole Roman Catholic Church property in Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, Saxony, and Brandenburg. For some reason, 16th Century
Lutherans did NOT have the concept of building their own churches. Ironically, the Church of England which stole all Roman Catholic Church real estate didn't want Lutherans taking over their turf.
The
daughter of Henry VIII, namely Elizabeth, put Lutherans to death during
her reign. In like manner, approximately 100 Lutherans were executed
by the Seville tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition ("district court") between 1558 and 1562. And of course, 1558 was the year when Elizabeth I became Queen of England. Thus, the Spanish Inquisition was acting in tandem with Elizabeth I. The goal was to keep the Lutherans of Central Europe out of Western Europe.
Only in the
1580s did Elizabeth end friendly relations with Spain. She then ordered a full
persecution of Catholicism in England. It came as a result of
Elizabeth knowing that Catholics wanted England to return to the Roman
Catholic status it had since 597 A.D. This would include deposing her
... overthrowing the House of Tudor. Elizabeth was not going to have anything to do with that. So, the persecution which was started by her father was resumed by her.
Q ::: Concerning the
Lutherans in the Seville area, here is a question: Who would have reported them to the
Inquisition? ANS: The Moriscos (Muslim converts.) Seville was thriving. It was an
Indies Trade post, 25 miles from the Gulf of Cadiz. Yet, it was a
refuge for the poor and the displaced. So, "runaway Lutherans" would find
their ways there.
Moriscos knew how Luther advocated the ousting
of the Jews from Germany. Moriscos were not too far away from that
destiny in Europe. Lutherans in Spain could easily sabotage the hopes
of the Moriscos and have them be treated like Jews. So, the Lutherans
had to go away --- the hard way. Yet, the Inquisition was actually
marked with numerous cases where leniency was granted --- even to Lutherans.
It was the BBC who claimed that Leniency was the Policy of the Spanish Inquisition
Now,
the 1994 BBC documentary's mentioned that the Spanish Inquisition
employed a lot of leniency. An example I found is that, from 1563 to
the end of the 16th Century, an additional 200 persons were put on trial
in Spain for propagating the Lutheran Agenda. Yet, only 12 of those 200
people were executed. Thus, 15 out of 16 Lutheran-promoters were allowed to live, after a Spanish Inquisition judgment was rendered. This is fact, and this is opposite of the asininity hyper-exaggerated Montanus Tale.
Executions came in waves, usually during
wartime. But, at no time did the Spanish use the ridiculously narrated
torture chamber antics mentioned in the very fraudulent 1567 tale. War
propaganda & pre-war propaganda is expected to be a
hyper-exaggerated lie. But, that lie has been used by Catholic-hating
Protestants for 400+ years, and the incessant lying about the
Inquisition needs to stop.
Concerning Seville, the Montanus
Tale was asserted to have been written by a Spaniard once stationed near
Seville, as a monk. Well, this Spaniard was burnt in effigy three or
four year prior to the publication of the Montanus Tale.
Q:: Do
you know what it means to be burnt in effigy in 16th Century Spain?
ANS: It means that they haven't caught up to you and did NOT burn the
real you. It means that you evaded capture --- that you "got away" and were
free. Thus, a person burnt in effigy is one who never appeared before
Inquisition lawyers or judges. In as much, if that certain Spanish
person did write the 1567 Montanus Tale, it was NOT written from personal
experience, being that he was never caught by the Inquisition. It was NOT an eyewitness account. It was deliberate
pre-war propaganda.
The Newly Found Letter
I
mentioned a newly found and authenticated letter of the 16th Century
which reported that the former inhabitant and monk of Seville was gone
--- went awol --- having left Spain with 16 other monks. It was one of
TWO newly found 16th Century letters, concerning 16th Century Seville.
The
letter also mentioned that the authorities intended on searching for
him and the 16 other ex-monks . . . in Northern Europe. Thus, he would have
been taken to the Netherlands Inquisition, if he were ever caught.
Rather, he ended up healthy and alive in Geneva, in 1568. He eventually
moved to Frankfort, to work and make his livelihood. He died in 1594,
if memory serves me correctly. So, he had a long life. If he were
tortured by the Inquisition, he would have died a bit earlier. He would have died a lot earlier.
The
truth about 1567 is that the Dutch wanted to declare Independence from
Spain. So, they incited severe hatred of the Spanish, instead of
promoting the concept of civil rights and a nation's right to
self-determination. The concept of allowing freedom of religion was
going to have to wait for the births of John Adams, John Jay, and Ben
Franklin, apparently. The Dutch were going to have none of that
civilized stuff. Nor were the Swedes. In fact, the Swedes were the demons of the 30 Years War. It would necessitate the Reign of Napoleon to allow freedom of religion in Western Europe. The Dutch and Swedes were simply going to demonize the Spanish, attack them, and kill as many as they could. How Christian of them! BTW, during the 30 Years War, it was the Swedes who were the demons ... in a very sick & twisted way. If there were a Nuremberg Trial at the end of that war, numerous Swedes would have ended up there. The Swedes were horrifying at the time.
Now,
keep in mind that the 1567 horror story led people to believe that
executions were occurring at a rate of dozens a day. So, in the early
20th Century, media outlets claimed that the number of people executed
by the Spanish Inquisition was between 100,000 to 1,000,000 people.
Then, by the time the 21st Century came into existence, even the most
hate-filled anti-Catholic propagandist knew that the number of
executions were nowhere near that numerical range. They concluded that
32,000 people were executed, in 356 years. Well, that number turned out
to be 12 times higher than the reality.
The actual number turned
out to be 2,600 persons (approximately), in 356 years. This amounts to
ONLY SEVEN executions per YEAR. This means that there was an average
of ONE execution in any one tribunal court every THREE years ...
approximately speaking, of course.
The 1994 BBC documentary
estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 persons were executed in the Inquisition's
356 years of operation. The BBC was close. Yet, even the BBC's
highest estimated number averaged only 1 and a half executions every TWO
years, for each of the 20 tribunal courts. Observe: 5000 divided by
356 years = 14.4, divided by 20 court jurisdictions = 0.7 = 2.1
executions every three years ... or 1.5 executions every two years.
None the less, the average number of executions per year ... for all 20
tribunals combined ... was 9 to 14.
When reducing the estimate
of executions to 3,000, the average becomes 3,000 divided by 356 = 8.4,
divided by 20 jurisdictions = 0.42 (or 1 execution per jurisdiction,
every TWO years.) Thus, the horror story told by the anonymous
"Montanus" in 1567 was one huge insult to the intelligence of the
average modern human.
Now, if you insist on believing in the
claim of 32,000 executions, this only amounts to 4.5 (four and a half)
executions per year for each tribunal, individually. Observe: 32,000
divided by 356 years = approx 90 per year divided by 20 tribunals = 4.5
executions per year per tribunal (otherwise known as "per district
court.")
Even the anti-Catholic's high number is actually a low
number. Now, divide that exaggerated number by 12, and you have
approximately the real number. This is why you cannot find bloodstained
torture chambers, or mass graves, or bloodstained streets leading to
any cemetery. It's because they didn't exist in the first place.
In conclusion, the tales of torture chambers and iron
maidens were myth ... false ... bull crapola ... a
class-action-defamation-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen, etc. This is
because that mythical version of the Spanish Inquisition is said to be a
reflection on Catholicism today, and such defamation incites violence.
There has been enough violence done to Catholic churches recently.
In conclusion, the Number One Killer of 16th &
17th Century Europe was NOT the Spanish Inquisition. Next to war, the
Number 1 Killer of Europeans was . . .
THE BUBONIC PLAGUE. Observe:::
[1563, London | 1582, Tenerife Spain | 1592, Malta | 1592, also
London | 1596, Spain (second plague pandemic --- 600,000+ losses) |
1603, London (40,000 losses) | 1629, Italy (one million losses) |
1632, Augsburg Germany | 1636, London again | 1647, Seville (500,000
losses) | 1656 Naples Italy (1,250,000 losses) | 1663, Amsterdam
| 1665 London again (100,000+ losses) | 1668, France (40,000 losses)
| 1675, Malta again | 1676 Spain again | 1679, Vienna (76,000
losses) | 1681 Prague (83,000 losses).]
Note About 1527 Wittenberg and Luther's 14-page note on the Plague
NOTE: Protestants claim that the plague reached Wittenberg in vast casualty numbers in 1527, and that the holy holy divinely inspiring Martin Luther opened his home to the plague sufferers, all the while issuing a writing which stated that he'll trust in God and go about freely. HOWEVER:
[1] The Protestant propaganda squad failed to mention the entire content of that letter, especially the part where he warned people to not go about freely, lest they become contagious. He even stated to be irresponsible with infectious disease equaled suicide or murder.
[2] His "home" was sizable Roman Catholic Church property stolen by the corrupt actions of Frederick III, elector of Saxony. It wasn't a small cottage.
[3a] Secondly, I could not find one statistical plague timeline chart (or graph ... or numerical table) which mentioned Wittenberg. There was NEVER a plague outbreak in Wittenberg that resulted in large numbers of patients or deaths. IF there were an outbreak in Wittenberg, it was too small for the records. So, we again have predictable exaggerated Protestant propaganda.
[3b] Ironically enough, in 1505, as a student, Luther was amidst the plague in Erfurt, Germany. The added irony to this is that Erfurt is the place where 3,000 Jews were killed by Germans, in a lynch-a-thon, in March of 1349. This was during the massive version of the Bubonic Plague, and of course, in Germany, the Jews were blamed for causing & spreading the Plague.
[3c] For those unaware, Luther wrote that the Jews needed to be expelled from all of Germany in the 16th Century. His qualifying statement was that the expulsion needed to be done by government officials and NOT lynch mobs. But, Luther was extremely antisemitic, even calling the Jews the Children of Satan in his writings. So, this would make Jesus Christ a son of Satan too, being that Jesus was quite Jewish.
Back to the Spanish Inquisition's 20 district courts (aka "tribunals.")
As far as record
keeping goes, 20 tribunals (district courts) each had 356 yearly time
segments, for record-keeping purposes. This translates into boxes -
windows -cells. Now, 356 years x 20 tribunals = 7,120 time segments,
for the record-keeping purposes. In as much ...
The
statistical summary of the number of cases brought before the entire
Spanish Inquisition, in its 356 year history is approximately 131,000.
It sounds like a lot to a member of the American public school system.
HOWEVER, 131,000 cases divided by 356 years of operation = an average
of 368 cases per year.
Now divide 368 yearly cases by 20 tribunals
(district courts). This equals 368 DIVIDED BY the 20 tribunals = 18 and a third cases per
year per tribunal. 18.333 divided by 365 = 1 Spanish Inquisition case every 20 days. This means that there were
years when the Spanish Inquisition was basically on vacation. So, you Dan-Brown-Types can take your paranoiac tales and . . . Well, you know the drill.
Now,
in the last six years of the Granada War which ended in 1491, there was
an average of 77 executions --- wartime executions --- in Spain's
effort to win back all of Spain to the Spanish, for the first time in
767 years. The Granada War was the effort to finally defeat the final
Moorish stronghold in Spain. Thus, you would expect a higher number of
executions during wartime.
This stat also means that there were
many years when there were NO EXECUTIONS ordered by the Spanish
Inquisition. Plus, the BBC pointed out that the number of executions
in 16th & 17th Century Spain was not greater than those which
individually occurred in any other European nation, be it France
individually, England individually, etc.
The Pertinence
Perhaps
you saw a smug-faced anti-Catholic gloat with certainty that the one
... and only one ... Spanish Inquisition horror story narrative was
100,000 % true. Perhaps you saw the arrogant & smirking facial
expression of someone who believes he has all Catholics "busted" ---
that he has all the proof needed to declare Catholicism a fraud that has to be wiped off the Planet Earth. This has occurred amongst
anti-Catholic Atheists and Protestants and Neo-Pagan New Agers alike.
The Montanus Tale is their "Gotcha Moment." There is one huge problem
to this arrogance.
If you ever do come to read the Montanus Horror
Story that was first published in Heidelberg in 1567, you will
immediately see --- in your technologically advanced &
psychologically advanced 21st Century mind --- that only an easily
fooled buffoon would fail to instantaneously catch the contradictions
and logistic problems in the uncorroborated account. Rather, these
smug faced anti-Catholics never asked to learn of the evidence.
Example:
The Montanus Tale claims that the remains of gore and shredded flesh
were all over the torture devices which Montanus claimed existed. This
includes the mention of an Iron Maiden. Okay then. Which humans had
the capability to constantly clean human gore & carnage off of
torture machines ... or to even endure such a repulsive sight ...
throughout full-time employment?
Plus, how could someone be so
stupid as to believe that young Spanish males were too idiotic to detect
a mechanical woman at least 20 to 30 feet away.
The biggest
indictment of the hate-filled anti-Catholics is that the Montanus Tale
is sheer racism, to the depths of the definition of racism. It calls
the Spanish vile animals, low-lifes, and the children of Satan. Okay then. Ricardo Montalban, Antonio Banderas, Plácido Domingo, neurosurgeon
Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, famed math teacher Jaime Escalante, Nobel
Prize Winner Luis Alvarez, NASA Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, etc, etc,
etc, are all vile trash and the sons of Satan simply because they have the
Spanish DNA . . . according to anonymous Montanus. Well, people with common sense don't think so.
Concerning
Montanus' identity, the anti-Catholics did name a person. I addressed
that particular person in this discourse. Well, if he were dragged into
the Spanish Inquisition, then the anti-Catholics can hire a historian to
go to Seville's meticulously kept Inquisition case files, find that
particular person's case file, make copies of it, and show it to the
world.
The
interesting thing about those who believe the Montanus' Tale is that
they claim that the Spanish Inquisition dragged people into torture
chambers, to force them to become Catholic. Observe the asininity of
these super smug buffoons:
To
become Catholic, you have to go through the "Rite of Christian
Initiation." It used to be called "the Catechumenate." This means that
you have to go to a series of catechism classes and then show that you
have at least a minimum-marginal understanding of the articles of the
Faith ... in the Faith of Peter. In years past, the catechumens would leave Mass before the Consecration of the bread & wine and
then go to another room for classroom instruction on the Faith. That is not going to happen in any torture chamber.
Next,
you had to wait until the soonest Palm Sunday, where you would be
introduced at a Mass. Oh, and you also had to find a "catechumen's
sponsor," and I don't think that you'll being walking into a Catholic
man's house all bloody and chained-up with hooded torturers dragging you
into that house, just so that you can ask that man to be your sponsor.
In fact, you wouldn't be going to the Palm Sunday Mass all bloody and
chained-up to a torture wheel, either. Nor do I think that you would go
to catechism classes all bloody and chained up.
Here
is the other asininity: Jews who refused to become Catholic were
expelled from Spain ... NOT tortured in a torture chamber and forced to
become Catholic. This, alone, proved the Montanus Tale to be complete
bull crap. Jews got the Pink Slip. They got fired. They weren't set on fire. They were told to leave Spain.
PLUS
... if you were a Catholic who publicly denounced the Faith of Peter
and joined another religion such as Lutheranism or Calvinism or
Anabaptism, then you were AUTOMATICALLY EXCOMMUNICATED and you were
banned from walking into a Church and joining in the sacraments. There
was an entirely different process to observe, for you return to the
Faith, and it had nothing to do with whips, chains, torture wheels, iron
maidens, and hooded monks with vampire fangs.
You
need to understand that Catholicism is a process, and the ultimate
process is that of transforming into Christ. All other processes in
Catholicism are designed to get you to achieve the ultimate process of
transforming into the Divine Nazarene who was born in the City of David,
namely in Bethlehem. Actually, Bethlehem means "City of Bread."
There's
a process for becoming Catholic, as well as a process for returning to
the church after you left it for whatever reason. There was a process
in 382 A.D. to have those ancient writings of the Bible be declared the
Inspired Word of God, too. There is a process to ordination ...
confirmation ... marriage ... canonization, etc. There is NO rite in the Catholic
Church where a monk puts a gun to your head and says, "Become Catholic
right now or I'm gonna blow your brains out."
That scene is basically the
1567 Spanish Inquisition horror story. Whoever wrote it and published thought that
people were really stupid and gullible in the 16th Century. Today, only a hick from the sticks would believe such a story. The problem in the 16th Century was
that hicks from the stick couldn't read, in the first place. So, there only heard the rumors and instantly believed them, instead of reading the text and judging for themselves.
The
Catholic Church does the opposite of those Tent Revival Protestants who
do commit bully tactics in their services, as in literally pushing a
person to walk up to the front of the tent and do what Protestants call
"an altar call."
For the record, there is no altar at the front of
those tents.
You are then coaxed into suddenly declaring the Nazarene as your Lord
and "personal savior," followed by you being instantly declared "saved"
for all time and eternity This is followed by you hearing the echoing of "Praise the Lord."
The
Catholic Church knows that we live in time & space ... and that God
is the God of providence ... not the God of pushy & impatient
Born-again Tent Revivalists whose final goal is an increase of
tax-free collection basket revenue ... and an increase in donations-through-the-mail or
through paypal or through venmo.
All
in all, no monk is going to pull you into a torture chamber, if you're
excommunicated. He will instead give you the address of the church
official who can lift the sanction of excommunication from you. Thus,
the Montanus Tale is instantly recognized as bull crap yet again, being
that no amount of torturing done by any monk is going to get the
sanction of excommunication lifted from you or anyone else.
Rather, the
monk would need the approval of the Vatican to grant absolution for a
"reserved sin" and to bring you "back into communion with the See of
Peter." Thus, the main weapon of a Spanish clergy member was a quill and ink well ... along with a new commodity called paper ... which replaced vellum and parchment ... and smoke signals.
Moreover,
there are people perceived as so vile that no self-respecting Catholic
wants him anywhere near Catholic Church property. No monk is going to
be forcing that type of guy to "become a Catholic," being that such a
person will only sabotage and vandalize the Faith, in one way or
another.
By
the way, inquisitions weren't operated by "monks." They were operated
by commissioned laymen and "friars." The laymen were law school grads,
usually. I mentioned previously that there is a huge difference between
a friar and a monk. So, when you hear a nightmarish Spanish
Inquisition tale by a guy constantly using the word, "monk" "monk"
"monk," he's full of crap and doesn't know what he's
talking about. He's trying to get Catholics appalled, so that they will
leave the True Church and join one of Protestantism's many Fake
Churches.
Those fake churches do NOT have absolution from sin. They do
not have the consecration of the Eucharist. They do NOT have the
Sacrament of Confirmation. They do not have Christ's priesthood. And
they certainly do NOT have the Power of the Keys that Christ gave to
Peter and his successors until the End of Time. Their Spanish
Inquisition horror tales are as fake as their Protestant Churches.
Moreover,
throughout the history of Catholicism, the technique that the Church
used to get people to become Catholic is called "going out and talking
to people." This is traditionally called "missionary work."
For
example, a priest rents a place and invites people to come and listen to
him. If he is convincing enough, they will eventually become
Catholic. Sometimes, it will take more people to convince someone to
become Catholic. In fact, it might take a bit of book reading to
convince that person. So, how many books are mentioned in the Montanus
Tale?
So,
in review, the thing that Catholics do to convince you to become
Catholic is called "writing books" and "publishing books." ... not torture in Spain. In order to
get someone to become Catholic, you first have to teach him what
Catholicism is. You don't merely drag him into a torture chamber and
force him to become something he knows nothing Catholicism. That's like forcing someone to sing a song when he doesn't know the lyrics. Such a person
first needs to read ... or have read to him ... a catechism book ...
even a penny catechism pamphlet. There are no torture wheels or iron
maidens on Roman Catholic altars, and there never was.
As
you can now see, the anti-Catholics who rest their condemnation of
Catholicism upon the blatantly fictitious "Montanus Tale" are so easily
deceived ... and so void of common sense ... that they literally are a
danger to society. After all, look what happened to the easily deceived
Germans of the 1930s as soon as Hitler was granted a few "speaking
engagements." He ended up owing the German radio airwaves.
Ironically,
Germany was the first place where the Montanus Tale was published.
Germany is the same place where millions of people were deceived by
Adolph Hitler. The same nationality of people who accepted the Montanus Tale also accepted
the Hitler Tale.
Montanus damned the Spanish and Hitler damned the
Jews. Racist hatred prevailed in Germany throughout all those
centuries, until the rest of the Western world got sick of it all and
then turned Germany into the craters of the Moon, compliments of the
B-17, the B-24, British Lancasters, the P-51, the P-38, and the P-47, as
well as other airborne vehicles that did NOT drop cotton candy and
balloons from their bombers and "pursuit aircraft."
White Anglo-Saxon Prejudice Across the Atlantic, in America
Jimmy
Swaggart called the religion of intellectuals and scholars such as
Aquinas, Liguori, von Hildebrand, Chesterton, Garrigou-Lagrange, Bede
the Venerable, and Luis de Molina a church of superstition. It's also a
religion followed by many an Italian-American engineer, lawyer, and
architecture, as well as followed by Hispanic teachers and professors.
Thus, Swaggart is simply a liar marketing fear of Latin People.
Jimmy
Swaggart's biggest lie is in him denying that the Bible came from the
Catholic Church. Well, Martin Luther said the opposite. He said that
his Lutheran people needed to give credit to the Catholic Church for
preserving and passing on the Bible. After all, it was Catholic monks
who made copies of the Bible. Protestants didn't have anyone man-enough
--- or disciplined enough -- to be a monk, as well as being literate
enough to read the Psalms in the Catholic Church's official prayer. The
official prayer of the Catholic Church is the Divine Office ... the
Liturgy of the Hours. The central prayer is the Mass. And the most
advocated prayer by popes and canonized saints ... and yours truly ...
is the Rosary and rosary-like devotions, such as honoring the 7 Sorrows
and 7 Joys of St. Joseph.
As a quick note, in the 1520s &
1530s, it was the rural people --- the country folk --- who remained
Roman Catholic. The Northern European city slickers were the ones
supporting the Protestant takeover of Catholic Church real estate.
Today, country folk in America are usually Protestant, and the American
city slickers who have any faith in Christ are are usually Catholic ...
or Episcopalian ... or Presbyterian ... or Orthodox. For some reason
the urban blacks in America decided to adhere to the religion of their
great grandparents' slave owners. Well, "the slave Bible" was very much
truncated. It omitted all Biblical passages dealing with becoming
free from slavery.
None the less, the collection of writings
known as the Bible was declared "the Inspired word of God" in 382 C.E.,
long before Hus, Luther, and Jimmy Swaggart were even born. Swaggart is
simply a feisty guy with a brawler's mindset. He's a spiritual thug.
HOWEVER, do NOT bother him. If you see him in a public venue, such as
in a restaurant, leave him alone. Do NOT harass him. Do NOT publish
any address or phone number of his. NEVER make the enemies of God look
like martyrs.
There is a civilized reason why there exists the
written word and audio recording devices. You can do videos exposing
his doctrinal untruths. You are not going to get him to do it, for
you. So, don't waste your time, unless you are going to pray and offer
sacrifices for his conversion. And that is a legit thing to do with any
enemy of the Church, be it Jimmy Swaggart, fake Catholics, corrupt
politicians as anti-Catholic you-know-whom, and bully celebrities who
get to sit and B.S. away on a TV talk show, thereby wasting people's
time every weekday.
Now, concerning today's Protestant attacks
against Catholicism, in the 450 year tradition of Protestants defaming
the only church ever founded by Christ, the motive has been this: The
renewed defamation is the attempt to create a horror for Catholicism in
the minds of Catholics, in the hope that Catholics will leave the True
Church, then join a fake church, and then put disposable income into the
tax-free collection baskets of the defamer Protestants. It's
business. It's all business. After all, these Protestant TV preachers
do wear business suits at their pulpits, as they pretend to be Biblical
scholars.
Catholicism is the largest and oldest Christianity
ever. This means that Catholicism is the lead competitor of the product
being sold by TV preachers. Now, these defamatory preachers approach
their pulpits in business suits ... when not dressed in graduation
gowns. So, the Catholic Church has the greatest number of potential
customers. The constant defaming of Catholicism is an element of
Business Suit Protestantism. It's their way of saying that their
product is better than the product of the leading competitor. It's
their way of getting more customers ... and more income.
You
gotta admit that these TV evangelists are really really really rich,
thereby showing humanity that Americans are not very bright. Americans
have a way of throwing away their money.
And remember,
Protestantism began in the 1520s & 1530s by stealing Catholic Church
real estate and infrastructure. This was done, by means of a king's
decree here and an elector's decree there, to the point where a new
Protestant religion was suddenly declared the official state religion in
England, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Jurisdiction
of Saxony, the Jurisdiction of Brandenburg, the City of Zurich, etc. Even Munster Germany was temporarily commandeered by a cult of Anabaptists who had the reputation of a sex cult . . . like the Ranters (which see)
Protestantism
was NOT the people's choice, being that it was too new to have been
test-driven by any 16th Century Northern European nation. The only
place where it showed itself to exist according to the People's will was
in a pocket or two of Southern France, where the Huguenots lived ...
and in Zurich, as well as in Geneva. Protestantism elsewhere was
imposed upon the People by the sword. This has been already outlined,
in other articles at this site.
The fact that there were
Catholic-Protestant wars throughout the 16th & 17th Centuries shows
that Protestantism wasn't as popular as the propagandists make it out to
be. Luther advocated the death penalty for anyone who didn't believe
his specific heretical doctrines, and he did the OPPOSITE of allowing
for freedom of thought. Yet, people claim that he was the champion of
freedom of thought. This is why this site is here. Luther was not what
his propagandists made him out to be, and even his medical condition
was "well-documented," including his "seizure disorder." But, his
followers won't admit that he was a pathological mess.
There's
more. That's why there is now need to address all of the anti-Catholic
propaganda. It has quickly become the anti-Catholic 1800s in America,
again. See: Know-Nothing Party (Political Party).
As an
example of misunderstanding & false light defamation, the statue of
St. Louis was vandalized under the claim that Louis was a white racist.
King Louis was half Hispanic, and in today's America, Hispanics are
regarded as a racial minority, by American society ... as opposed to the
Census Bureau. So, people vandalized the statue of a minority person
who actually began the free-of-charge hospital system in Western
Europe. That's the thanks Louis got ... for his charity.
