Ugly, Wicked Results of the Papacy ' U2. Inquisitions

July 27, 2019 version

 

"They will put you out of the synagogues, yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think he offers God service." John 16:2 NKJV

 

Innocent VIII 1484 Summus desideramaus affectibus: "[m]any persons of both sexes, unmindful of their own salvation and straying from the Catholic Faith, have abandoned themselves to devils, incubi and succubi, and by their incantations, spells, conjurations, and other accursed charms and crafts, enormities and horrid offences, have slain infants yet in the mother's womb, as also the offspring of cattle, have blasted the produce of the earth, the grapes of the vine, the fruits of the trees, nay, men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, vineyards, orchards, meadows, pasture-land, corn, wheat, and all other cereals; these wretches furthermore afflict and torment men and women, beasts of burthen, herd-beasts, as well as animals of other kinds, with terrible and piteous pains and sore diseases, both internal and external; they hinder men from performing the sexual act and women from conceiving, ...they blasphemously renounce that Faith which is theirs by the Sacrament of Baptism, and at the instigation of the Enemy of Mankind they do not shrink from committing and perpetrating the foulest abominations and filthiest excesses to the deadly peril of their own souls, (...) the abominations and enormities in question remain unpunished not without open danger to the souls of many and peril of eternal damnation."

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summis_desiderantes_affectibus)

 

U2a. Inquisitions

The inquisition stated under Gregory IX sometime between 1227 and 1233. "Gregory IX included in his register in 1224 constitution of Frederick II, which permitted the burning at the stake of heretics." The Inquisition : Hammer of Heresy p.33

 

U2b. Inquisitions

1229 Council of Toulouse. Hunt heretics. Non-clergy forbidden to read any non-Latin Bible, except a psalter or breviary

In February 1231, Gregory IX issued the constitution Excommunicamus against both heretics and even those who merely do not denounce the heretics they might know to the authorities. It included life imprisonment for unrepentant heretics, the right to appeal was denied, and their homes were destroyed.

1234 Council of Tarragona ratified the Council of Toulouse "No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days, so that they may be burned'"

 

U2c. Inquisitions

On October 11, 1231, Gregory IX issued the Papal bull Ille humani generis The Inquisition : Hammer of Heresy p.35-36: "When you arrive in a town, you will summon the prelates, clergy and people, and you will preach a solemn sermon: then you will assume several discreet persons as assistants and begin your enquiry into beliefs of heretics and suspects with diligent care (they will already have been denounced). Those who, after examination, are recognized as guilty or suspected of heresy must promise to obey the orders of the Church absolutely; if they do not, you should proceed against them, following the statutes that we have recently promulgated against the heretics."

 

U2d. Inquisitions

May 13, 1239, 183 Cathars burned at the stake. Alberic des Trois-Fontaines described it as "a holocaust, very great and pleasing to God."(p.37)

Papal Bull by Innocent IV Ad Extirpanda approved the use of torture in northern Italy and later all of Italy.

1256 Pope Alexander IV gave inquisitors the right to mutually absolve one another and grant dispensation to each other for torture. (p.62)

 

U2e. Inquisitions

On July 21, 1542, Paul III refounded the Roman Inquisition with papal bull Licet ab init.

 

U2f. Inquisitions

On May 28, 1252, Bull Cum Adversus Haereticam torture to obtain confessions, death penalty at the stake and a police force for the Office of Faith (i.e. the Inquisition)

"As the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick has pass certain laws against the heretical evil, by which laws the spread of this plague might be hindered, and as we desire that these laws be observed for the strengthening of the faith and the salvation of the faithful, so we order the beloved sons who are in authority to incorporate these laws, whose exact wording is attached, into their statues, and to proceed against the heretics with great zeal. Therefore we order you [the inquisitors], when these authorities fulfill our orders carelessly, to force them to compliance by means of excommunication and interdiction ... We utterly curse those who have fallen from the Catholic faith, we pursue them with punishment, we rob them of their fortunes, deny them succession and revoke any and all their rights."

 

U2g. Inquisitions

Innocent IV, in his bull "Ad extirpanda" of 1252, called for the use of torture and its canonical regulation in the fight against "heretics" in northern Italy. This policy expanded to include all of Italy in 1256 and was confirmed in the following years by Popes Alexander IV and Clemens IV. In 1261 Urban IV allowed inquisitors, under whose direction delinquents expired from this rather more robust manner of opinion research, to mutually absolve one another. It was after all not permitted to torture to death a person being questioned. In such a case the inquisitor would face excommunication, from which he could be immediately freed, however, by a priest of the Inquisition uttering the formula: Ego te absolvo.

 

U2h. Inquisitions

1478-1834 Spanish Inquisition tortured & killed Jews, Muslims, Protestants, & even many Catholics

Leo X (1513-1521) granted indulgences to donors to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica. Excommunicated Martin Luther. Expanded the Spanish Inquisition into Portugal

Paul IV (1555-1559) Made Jews in Rome wear distinctive clothing and live in a ghetto. Set up the Roman inquisition.

 

By Steven M. Morrison, Ph.D.