Nobody Expects the British Inquisition!

I understand that more than just books were burned, but bear with me on this one!

A friend of mine just came back from a foreign trip and was questioned quite vigorously on his trip abroad and his reason for a visit. He wasn't sure whether the Customs people were talking about his trip abroad or his reasons for coming to the UK, chief of which, was that he is British. He made it sound something like the British Inquisition. Today, I committed the cardinal offence of Catholic apologeticism and found myself defending the Holy Inquisition on the same Telegraph blogsite I was laying into assisted-suicide yesterday. If you can't see the link between the two issues, read below for, indeed, there is one. I must confess I didn't write the following, but nicked it off someone else's website.

After the Papal Bull 'Ad Abolendam', issued at the end of the 12th century by Pope Lucius III to combat Albigensianism, 'the Inquisition was established in southern France in response to the Albigensian heresy, which found particular strength in the cities of Lombardy and Languedoc. It is important to point out the social dangers presented to all society by this group, which was not just a prototype of modern Protestant fundamentalism, the popular view of our day. The term Albigensian derives from the town of Albi in southern France, a center of Cathar activity.

The Cathars (the name refers to the designation of its adherents as cathaaroi, Greek for the "pure ones") held that two deities, one material and evil, the other immaterial and good, struggled for the souls of man. All material creation was evil and it was man's duty to escape from it and reject those who recognized it as good. The God of the Old Testament, who created the world, which is 'evil', was repudiated. It was the New Testament, as interpreted by the Cathars, that acted as guide for man to free his spiritual soul from evil matter, the body. (So far, so heretical...)

The Cathars thus held that the Mass was idolatry, the Eucharist was a fraud, marriage evil, and the Redemption ridiculous. Before death, adherents received the consolamentum, the only sacrament permitted and this permitted the soul to be free from matter and return to God. For this reason, suicide by strangulation or starvation was not only permitted, but could even be laudable. (Seen the link yet?!)

To preach that marriage was evil, that all oaths were forbidden, that religious suicide was good, that man had no free will and therefore could not be held responsible for his actions, that civil authority had no right to punish criminals or defend the country by arms, struck at the very root of medieval society.

For example, the simple refusal to take oaths would have undermined the whole fabric of feudal legal structures, in which the spoken word carried equal or greater weight than the written. The cause of orthodoxy was the cause of progress and civilization. Had Catharism become dominant, or even had it been allowed to exist on equal terms, its influence could not have failed to become disastrous.'

Now, the first great problem with heresy, that is, the open espousal and preaching of a proselytising theology that undermines the Holy Church and One True Faith, was and remains to this day, that the proponents of these heresies drag souls away from the arms of Holy Mother Church, and therefore God Himself and into the arms of false prophets, led by the Devil, who will only lead them into headlong into destruction, both spiritual and physical.

The second great problem with heresy is that if it becomes the established order or religion of the day, the result can be total chaos, human destruction, mayhem and horror which makes the Inquisition's interrogation of mad religious leaders and their subsequent deaths at the hands of the civil authorities appear like a walk in the park. Heresy, you see, at this time in history was winning converts and especially Albigensianism, which, as you can see by the grotesque theology espoused, was inhumane, devoid of God's unconditional love for humanity, devoid of any humanity, deforming to the human person and actually suicidal. Remember Waco? Well these guys were not that far off.

At the time of this Holy Inquisition (coming to the Spanish one in a mo'), it really was a case of "Houston, we have a problem!" Much as the Holy Crusades are derided as being terribly cruel and nasty, just like the Inquisition's interrogation and trial under menace of bizarre heretics, the issue of Islamic troops murdering Christians on their way to the Holy Land needed addressing. The Popes of the times had to address these issues.

Pope's advisors: "Your Holiness! The Islamic forces are killing Christians on their way to the Holy Land to revere the footsteps of Our Blessed Saviour and the Mysteries of the Incarnation. Holy Father, what are we going to do!?"

Pope: "Ah, just leave them be. Honestly, they're nice! They've just got funny ways, you know. It's their culture. Let's ignore the problem and hope it goes away."

Similarly:

Pope's advisors: "Your Holiness! The Albigentians are winning converts in France by the tens and hundreds, possibly thousands. They're mental! They say marriage is wrong, the whole World is evil and endorse suicidal fasting as a sure-fire way to Heaven! If we don't do something about this, Holy Mother Church will be destroyed in France soon, the souls of many will be in the hands of ravening wolves and eventually, if we don't act, it will become the State religion and they'll all be barking mad Cathars and it's unlikely anyone will ever breed! What's more, Holy Mother Church will most likely be made illegal if they become more entrenched!"

Pope: "Oh, it'll be alright, don't worry. I know they're a bit kooky, but hey! Lighten up! What time's the football on Brother Benedict?"

No, in both cases the Popes said, "Outrageous! They can't do that! We must fight!"

If only His Holinesses of the time could have turned the other cheek, one could argue. Hmm...yes, but how long before militant Sharia Islam, which was rapidly spreading, covered the whole of Europe? By the time of the last Crusade, it was the Polish forces that defeated the Turkish forces at the gates of Vienna. If they hadn't, the freedoms you and I take for granted now would have long ago disappeared, I wouldn't be able to go to Mass, there'd be no Church, you wouldn't be able to do yoga, or have a pint down the local and our main enjoyment out of life would be watching adulterers getting stoned to death on a Saturday afternoon for sport.

Similarly, if the Holy Inquisition had not been launched in defence of true Chrisitanity in the 12th century the flock of Christ in France would have fallen into the hands of lunatics, hell-bent not only on destroying the Church, but dragging the beloved souls of Christ into self-destructive cults. The Pope, remember, the Successor to St Peter, has ringing in his ears the words of Christ who said to St Peter, "Peter, do you love me? Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep." If ravening wolves are breaking into the Church and gobbling up Christian lambs and sheep, the Holy Father can't just stand by and watch them get drawn into suicidal sects. Christ has charged him with being the Guardian of Souls entrusted to him.

Historians note four periods of Inquisitions (at least, the one on Wikipedia does).

1. the Medieval Inquisition (1184- 1230s)
2. the Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)
3. the Portuguese Inquisition (1536-1821)
4. the Roman Inquisition (1542- ~1860)

So let's skip a couple of hundred years and get onto the Spanish Inquisition, the nasty Cathars having presumably had a good hiding and fading into obscurity. Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile established it the Spanish Inquisition - not the Pope. The lesson is - never trust the Laity to organise anything! In Christendom, which all of Europe by this age was, heresy was punishable by the State. It was up to the Church to give trial to decide who was or who was not heretical.

The Spanish Inquisition was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the medieval inquisition which was under Papal control. So this time the Pope acquiesced but did not instigate it. The new body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy and was designed to defend orthodoxy among new converts from the Muslim and Jewish communities. Here, I must admit, things become darker on the part of the Church. Even St Teresa of Avila, the Spanish mystic nun was interrogated. There is no avoiding the admission that things got well and truly out of hand. Remember, St Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake at the behest of her local Bishop, whose bones were dug up and thrown into the river, once the city discovered it, and even St Pio of Pietrelecina more recently was banned from celebrating Mass because of his fame and Miracles.

Similarly, the Portugese Inquisition started in 1536 at the request of the King of Portugal, João III. Manuel I had asked Pope Leo X for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515, but only after his death (1521) did Pope Paul III acquiesce. This too was pretty dark and gruesome.

So how does the Catholic apologetic try and explain all this? Well, the idea was and for Catholics true to the Magisterium still is, that the Deposit of Faith, the Faith handed down by Our Lord, God Incarnate, to the Apostles themselves was Pure, Holy and unalterable. In the Early Church, heresies were abounding then too. In fact, the Church has always been battling with heresy and schisms since the time of the Apostles. St Paul himself identifies some in his letters. It was only when the Church had grown in power and influence by the 12th to 16th century and was established throughout Christendom and became friends with the State that things got messy and violence was meted out when heretics were handed over to civil authorities following trial.

The idea was that the defence of the Deposit of Faith, the Magisterium, was so very vitally important to the Salvation of sinners and the protection of Holy Mother Church, that it must be defended - that is God and His Church - must be defended at any cost. Why? Because heresy was seen as not just bad for the Church, bad for Catholic communicants and bad for society, but a destructive evil of itself which, if fully unleashed would cause unprecedented mayhem, anarchy and diabolical horror upon all.

Of course, in due course, the power and influence of the Church declined, then also, quite quickly the power of monarchies declined, we had the Reformation, the Counter Reformation and the French Revolution and the Church and State separated, never to be joined again, and, soon enough, heresy against Holy Mother Church was never to be a matter for the civil authorities to deal with again.

"Hurrah!" I hear you cry! "Thank God! The Church was finally put in its place and heresy trials are a thing of the distant past! Oh Lord, what a relief!"

But wait...

While the Church may have been humbled and weakened (especially following the French Revolution, when the Jacobins, spearheaded by Robespierre and his 'Reign of Terror' had many, many Catholic priests, nuns, laity and bishops and aristos sent to death), but 'Enlightenment' thought emerged victorious from the popular ideological battle and 'democracy' was born in Parliaments around Europe. Enlightenment thought threw off the shackles of the 'old order', the dark Church of the previous age, establishing a 'new order' of enlightened progressive thinking, liberalism and a 'brotherhood of man' without God.

Not that long after the Church and State separated entirely all across Europe, the State reigned supreme and began to flex its muscles without recourse to the Church. It didn't take too long before this happened. Not sure these figures are right, but here goes:

World War I - 15 million dead
Russian Civil War - 9 million dead
World War II - 55 million dead
The Holocaust - 6 million dead
Vietnam War - 1.7 million dead
Abortion deaths, Worldwide - Unquantifiable, because the numbers go up and up every day.

These figures don't take account of a lot more horror, mayhem and destruction caused by the great heresies of the 'Enlightenment' - That man reigns and God is dead - The State reigns supreme and the Church can do nothing. "Hah!" they thought. The Enlightenment thinkers loved that, I'm sure.

People always say the Church didn't do enough for the Jews in the Second World War. Well, listen up. By the time Hitler, Mussolini, Franco and Stalin, that mini-quartet of Euro-psychos had their cults of personalities respectively endorsed by the millions of their populations and reigned supreme with the full power of the State and the influence of the Holy Mother Church with the State all but vanished, what did people expect from the Church - the same Church that had warned us through history of the dangers of heresy?! She tried her best, she sheltered many Jews, but the great link between Church and State had been destroyed by the profoundly phyrric and hollow victory of heresy.

The 20th century was an age of unprecedented mayhem, destruction, unfathomable human cruelty, war, strife, disaster and bore witness to mankind's ability to forget God, His laws and Holy Mother Church's warnings on murderous ideologies entirely. Once the Church loosened from influence with the State the State became all powerful. Who was and is now in charge of the State? Heretics. Who will lead Europe, the US and possibly the whole world headlong into destruction once the economic disaster brings up the next Cult of Personality/Earthly Saviour figure? I'll tell you who: Heretics.

The very people the Church tried to quash are now in charge and running the show and people still persist in thinking that the Church was the bad guy and the heretics were poor little fluffy meek creatures into arts and crafts. No, they're not now and they never were. They're out for themselves, they are out to destroy the Church, to drag as many souls as possible away from her and to unleash the full diabolical fury of their heresy upon us all.

Because they deny the Divinity of Christ, strip man of his dignity and humanity, believe people are only have purpose if they are economically viable, because they think marriage (at least traditional marriage) unnecessary, think procreation is wrong and espouse assisted suicide, abortion, eugenics and a whole Culture of Death that surrounds them, all the Church can do now is continue to fight them in Her Holy teaching and hope people listen. So, with the benefit of hindsight, we can say, the worst excesses of the Inquisitions were appalling, but looking back, the Church's policy was one of containment and isolation of the wickedness of heretical ideologies. What we have seen in the last century, what we have now from the State and what is to come...Well, God alone knows...

Anyway, say what you like about the Inquisition. All I know is: they would have put a stop to this being used in Sacred Liturgy at Holy Mass, which unfortunately, I experienced last weekend (not at St Mary Magdalen's)...