I am not a christian but am well read on it and other religions. The best thing about christianity is that it has evolved to be by far the most tolerant and most egalitarian. Mostly when i see Asians, even among some of my distant relatives who are christians, i see that Asians simply do not understand the message of Christ. By converting, they retain so much of their bad values that they become a disgrace to Christianity. Some of my christian relatives (Asian) even find socialising in Hindu festivals as an insult. What is the use of becoming a christian if you retain your hate and still think in term of caste system?. Asian people to some extent appear to be unable to handle  their new religion.
The western world has been built on the values of christianity. It is these values that give us our freedom and human rights that we enjoy so much. Come think of it. When the floods happened in PAkistan or disasters happen in other countries, it is the Christian countries who dig into their pockets to help. These people are burdened with debt and lack of a proper job in their country but many do not hesitate to donate to the needy. Do the Nepalese and Indian Christians emulate this aspect of their new found religion?. Negative as i have not seen it. So why are they becoming christians if they cannot be a proper one?. 
I am an agnostic but i do admire the teachings of Jesus and as i try to be a good human being, i try to follow his good message. I have learnt to be tolerant, egalitarian by observing and socialising with some good Christians.
I have not become a Christian as per religion, but i have become a better human being.

 

 I challage you find a fault in Jesus and i will be your slave.

I  beleive slavery is a crime  so I have no intention to keep someone as slave. In human History Christians were involevd in worldwide slave trade so that their church can survive and priest can have luxurious life. The towring minar of many cathedrals are monuments of profit made from slave trade.

fault in Jesus ?
What jesus created? a cult which committed crime against humanity. He just added another cult which in centuries committed in many heinous crime against humanity. Was that the intention of Jesus christ ? I dont think so .He wanted to create an  angel instead created a monster, If that is not a failure then what is?

Bible says He was fault less thats why He was the perfect sacrifice (bali) for our sins. Serch his word and find out one thing that is faultful. 
What is new about this, evey trecherous book/cult/leader say either my way or high way. that is not religion, that is dictatorship.

 Please do not donate to any religious organization your donation will be used mostly for 

1. Luxurous life of priests/brothers/sisters/fathers or whatevers

2. To settel to case for pedophiles

3. To buy the faith of an innocent illitrate person somewher on earth.

 
Early 2nd Century

Ignatius of Antioch argued quite vehemently that church members should "regard the bishop as the Lord himself."[Ignatius, "To the Ephesians," 6.1; cited by Ehrman, 216-217]

 

c.90-100

In a letter to the Corinthians Pope St. Clement I asserted that God delegates his authority to the earthly bishops, priests and deacons. "Clement warns that whoever disobeys the divinely ordained authorities 'receives the death penalty!'" [Pagels, 1989, 34]

 

c.105-115

Pope St. Alexander I started the custom of blessing houses with holy water and salt, according to the sixth century Liber Pontificalis. This custom "really stemmed from a pagan practice." [McBrien, 37]

 

200 - 299

 

217

Pope St. Callistus I, before his church career, was guilty of bank fraud and fighting in a synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath. He was sentenced to hard labor in the Sardinian salt mines. After his release from prison, he made his way to Rome where he was eventually promoted by Pope St. Zephrynus. He then got Zephrynus to name him his successor. The prominent priest, Hippolytus, accused Callistus of using his position to enhance his personal wealth. They fought throughout the five year reign of Callistus. [Curran, 12-15; McBrien, 43-44]

 

251

"... Bishop Cyprian of Carthage praised the currently spreading plague because it allowed Christian youths to die while still in a state of virginity." [Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians, 298-299 (cited by Walker, 6)]

300 - 349

 

 

Fourth century

Emperor Constantine, the first Roman Emperor to become a Christian, had over 3000 Christians executed because their interpretation of the Bible did not agree with his. That is more than the number of Christians who died at the hands of the Romans during the well known 1st century "Christians to the lions" persecutions.[Manchester, 7-8]

 

 

304

Pope Marcellus I is not mentioned in Eusebius' History of the Church. Annuario Pontifico, the Vatican's official directory of the popes gives his dates in office as 308-309. The New American Bible gives them as 304-309. Upon becoming pope, Marcellus persecuted Christian backsliders so viciously that the Roman Emperor Maxentius banned him from the city to avoid public disorder. Marcellus was later made a saint. [Curran, 16-18, McBrien, 55]

 

310

Pope Eusebius, like his predecessor Marcellus, was involved in the dispute over the treatment of backsliders. Also like Marcellus, the dispute was so disruptive to civil order that he was deported by Emperor Maxentius. He was also made a saint. [McBrien, 55-56]

 

313

Church officials were given immunity from paying taxes and compulsory service, among other things. It also got the right to inherit property. Sunday was given state protection. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Constantine the Great"; Letter of Constantine to Anulinus, in Bettenson, 17; Eusebius, E.C., 10.7. See also 319, 343, & 377.]

 

315

Constantine's edict criminalized proselytizing by Jews. [ http:// www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Cults/Catholicism/ch-state.htm ]

 

318

Appeals were allowed to be made to Christian courts, even if a suit had already begun in a civil court. The bishop's decision was legally binding. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Constantine the Great." See also 333.]

 

319

Roman Emperor Constantine excused clergy from paying taxes and serving in the army. [Ellerbe, 27. See also 313, 343 & 377.]

 

320-321

A law stated that if any public building should be struck by lightning, then soothsayers shall be called to find out what it means.

Note that a law of 385 prohibited the use of soothsayers. "He who seeks to find the truth of the present of the future, contrary to what has been forbidden, shall be the subject of severe punishment." [Valantasis, 271]

 

321

Constantine, on state recognition of Sunday,

• wrote "Constantine to Elpidius. All judges, city-people and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the Sun." [Bettenson, 18]
• directed his soldiers to honor Sunday as a day of prayer to the Christian god. He prescribed a particular prayer and commanded them to say it. [Eusebius, L.C., Book IV, Chapter XIX]
• directed the governors of every province "to respect the days commemorative of martyrs, and duly to honor the festal seasons in the churches." [Eusebius, L.C., Book IV, Chapter XXIII]

323

Constantine defeated Licinius in a battle over religious policy. Licinius' surrendered after Constantine promised not to kill him. Six months later Constantine had him murdered anyway. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Constantine the Great"]

 

 

c.325

Helena, mother of Constantine, went to Jerusalem and found the "true cross" of Jesus. [Richardson, Chapter IV, "The Mythical Constantine," 6,7]

325

Near the end of the Council of Nicaea, Constantine slandered the Jews, called them Christ killers, and urged the members to have nothing to do with them. [Eusebius, L.C., Book III, Chapter XVIII]

325

A majority of bishops at Nicaea favored the Arian position. They were overruled by Emperor Constantine. In a letter to the churches, Constantine wrote that "any one who conceals a work of Arius shall be punished with death." State interference in church affairs resulted in politics causing the falsification of the Gospels' message. The church became more important than religion, to the detriment of Christianity. [De Rosa, 44; Richardson, Chapter III, "Writings," 23]

325

A law was passed banning pagan sacrifices. This was the first of many laws prohibiting various kinds of pagan and other sacrifices. Such laws were published in 353, 382, 385, and 392. [Valantasis, 271-72]

 

 

c.326

Constantine destroyed many pagan temples and looted them. He

• destroyed a temple of Venus in Jerusalem because it was supposedly built on top of Jesus' sepulcher. [Eusebius,L.C., Book III, Chapter XXVI]
• "... he determined to purge the city which was to be distinguished by his own name from idolatry of every kind, that henceforth no statues might be worshiped there in the temples of those falsely reputed to be gods, nor any altars defiled by the pollution of blood: that there might be no sacrifices consumed by fire, no demon festivals, nor any of the other ceremonies usually observed by the superstitious." [Ibid., XLVII]
• ordered all idols and altars destroyed "at the place which takes its name from the oak of Mambre, where we find that Abraham dwelt." [Ibid., LII]
• sent his men to "every city and country" to destroy idols and appropriate the materials used to make them.[Ibid., LIV]
• with the help of his military, overthrew a temple of Venus, Aphaca, on part of the summit, in Phoenicia. "It was a school of wickedness for all the votaries of impurity. ... unlawful commerce of women and adulterous intercourse, with other horrible and infamous practices, were perpetrated in this temple...." [Ibid., LV]
• razed the temple of Asclepius at Egaae in Cilicia "... whom thousands regarded with reverence as the possessor of saving and healing power...." [Ibid., LVI]
• "... destroyed the Temple of Venus at Heliopolis, and Built the First Church in that City" [Ibid., LVI]
• "... began the depredations by removing gold and silver treasures from some temples and in the East he actually pulled several down to make way for Christian basilicas. [Johnson, 1976, 97]

c.326

Constantine denied "heretics and schismatics" the right of assembly in public or private, confiscated their property and gave it to the Catholic church. His edict specifically names "Novatians, Valentinians, Marcionites, Paulians, ye who are called Cataphrygians." Constantine also had their homes searched and confiscated any heretical books. [Eusebius, L.C., Book III, Chapter LXIV, LXV, & LXVI; "Edict against the heretics. In Eusebius, V.C., 3. 64-5." Cited by Richardson, Chapter III, "Writings," 32.]

c.326

In Egypt, Constantine prohibited sacrifices, mystic rites, combats of gladiators, and "the licentious worship of the Nile." [Eusebius, L.C., Book IV, Chapter XXV]

c.326

"(1) [Constantine] also passed a law to the effect that no Christian should remain in servitude to a Jewish master, on the ground that it could not be right that those whom the Saviour had ransomed should be subjected to the yoke of slavery by a people who had slain the prophets and the Lord himself. If any were found hereafter in these circumstances, the slave was to be set at liberty, and the master punished by a fine. (2) He likewise added the sanction of his authority to the decisions of bishops passed at their synods, and forbade the provincial governors to annul any of their decrees: for he rated the priests of God at a higher value than any judge whatever." [Eusebius, L.C., Book IV, Chapter XXVII]

326

After Constantine converted to Christianity he continued his brutal ways. He executed

• Licinius, his brother-in-law, after publicly stating that he would not do so.
• Licianus, son of Licinius, at age eleven.
• Crispus, his own son, on a false charge.
• Fausta, his second wife, for falsely accusing Crispus.
[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Constantine the Great"]

Despite Constantine's bloody history, he was canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church. St. Constantine's feast day is September 3 (celebrated by Orthodox Christians only.

 

 

 330-380

In the eastern part of the empire, "orthodox" Christians killed large numbers of "heretical" Christians. The death toll of Vestal Virgins, Arians, Athanasians, Donatists, and Novatians killed by other Christians between 330 and 380 was many times more than had been killed by pagan persecution in two and half centuries. [McCabe, 1939, 55]

 

332

Constantine directed the suppression of idolatrous worship at Mamre. [Second Letter of Constantine to Macarius and the rest of the Bishops in Palestine (to Eusebius). In Euseb. V.C., 3. 52-53 (Op. Const. 539-544). Cited by Richardson, Chapter III, "Writings," 31]

 

333

Anyone who was a party to a secular judicial proceeding could ask for a transfer of the case from a civil to a Church court. "A law of 333 commanded the state officials to enforce the decisions of the bishops, a bishop's testimony should be considered sufficient by all judges and no witness was to be summoned after a bishop had testified." [Freeman, 2009, 146; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Constantine the Great." See also 318.]

 

339

Conversion to Judaism became illegal. The government could confiscate converts' property. [Engh, 94]

 

341

Sacrificing to the pagan gods became a capital crime. [McCabe, 1939, 79]

 

341-342

"Constantius II passed the first major anti-pagan law in 341 and [the] next year ordered that 'all superstitions must be completely eradicated.'" [Johnson, 1976, 97]

 

343

Constantine reaffirmed the clergy's exemption from taxes. [Valantasis, 267. See also 313 & 319.]

 

c.345

Christians pressured the imperial court to end toleration of paganism and to suppress it instead. [Johnson, 1976, 97]

 

 c.350-356

Constantius ordered the closing of all pagan temples. This led to the destruction of many temples in the eastern empire. [McCabe, 1939, 79]

 353

A law added wives, children, and servants of clergy to the clergy's tax exemption. [Valantasis, 267]

 355

Christian bishops were exempted from ever being tried in secular courts. [Ellerbe, 27]

c.356

"Those who claimed to be the genuine followers of Christ denounced the Arian Emperor and bishops as spawn of the devil and fought their adherents with fire and sword." [McCabe, 1939, 79]

 356

Emperor Constantius II renewed the death sentence for practicing pagan religions. [McCabe, 1939, 75, 79]

 357

If a Christian converted to Judaism his property was to be confiscated. [Valantasis, 273]

 366

Damasus, a deacon under Pope Liberius, took an oath not to recognize another pope while Liberius was alive. After the emperor exiled Liberius, Damasus broke his oath and served Anti-pope Felix II.

After Liberius died, his supporters elected Ursinus pope. That election was violently overturned by supporters of Damasus. After winning the struggle to succeed Liberius, Damasus became an ardent advocate of papal supremacy. [McBrien, 62-64]

The CE ("Pope St. Damasus I") alleges that it was the supporters of Ursinus who initiated the violence.

"The emperor Valentinian I intervened in support of Damasus and banished Ursinus for a time to Cologne...."[Cross, 370]

"The high level of violence in this period has been largely ignored by historians, but a close reading of the sources shows that almost every vacant bishopric gave rise to murder and intimidation as rival candidates fought for the position." [Freeman, 2009, 67]

 372

A law ordered the confiscation of Manichaean meeting places and punishment for Manichaean teachers. [Engh, 93]

 374

[St.] Ambrose was appointed bishop of Milan (Mediolanum) before he was baptized. [Freeman, 2009, 67]

 377

A law exempted clergy from public service. [Valantasis, 267. See also 313 & 319.]

 c.378

Bishop of Rome [St.] Damasus I held a synod which ruled that "the Bishop of Rome should not be compelled to appear in court...." [Johnson, 1976, 99]

 379

[St.] Ambrose persuaded Roman Emperor Gratian to outlaw Arianism in the west. [Delaney, 33]

 380

Roman emperor Theodosius I ("The Great"),

 

• made Christianity the official state religion.
• began enacting repressive laws to punish non-Christians.
• made paganism and pagan rites illegal, and abolished the pagan priesthood.
• granted privileges to Christian clergy, banned activities on Sunday, and made Christmas and Easter legal holidays.
• confiscated Arian Christian churches and banned their meetings.
• removed Arian-leaning bishops from their offices or forced them to conform, and systematically banished Arian believers (even though there were many in Constantinople).
• forbade Apollonarians to call their leaders "bishop" or "clergy." He also decreed the death penalty for Manichaean monks.
• defined Christians as believers in the Trinity and declared non-Christians insane and subject to divine and imperial vengeance.
• burned the books of heretics.

 

[Bokenkotter, 62; Engh, 97; Grant, 272-273; Jenkins, 122-123; Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"; www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm ]

 381

Emperor Theodosius I,

 

• "made 'heresy' a crime against the state." [Pagels, 1988, 62]
• "made it illegal to disagree with the Church." [Ellerbe, 28]
• "ordered that no Manichaean of either sex should be able to bequeath or inherit any property." [Freeman, 2009, 104; Engh, 93]
• decreed that the Holy Spirit was divine, thus creating the Holy Trinity and expanding the Nicene Creed. He declared Homoeans, Homoiousians, and Arians heretical and ordered their churches handed over to Trinitarians. He probably did this for political reasons, because there was no consensus on the nature of the Holy Spirit. Like Constantine before him, Theodosius wanted to put a stop to the endless disputes, and just as before, he failed at this. [Freeman, 2005, 193]
• called a council of pro-Nicene bishops, the First Council of Constantinople. The council apparently affirmed Theodosius' decree regarding the Holy Spirit, but no record of that exists. The council also decreed that Christians who lapsed into paganism forfeited their right to make a will. [Freeman, 2005, 193; www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm ]

 

Theodosius' edicts "confirmed the emperor as the definer and enforcer of orthodoxy." [Freeman, 2005, 194]

381

Nectarius was appointed bishop of Constantinople before he had been baptized. [Freeman, 2009, 311]

 382

At the urging of [St.] Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Emperor Theodosius I ordered the pagan statue removed from the Roman Senate, "the revenues of the pagan temples be confiscated to the State, and the privileges of the priests be annulled." [McCabe, 1939, 81]

382

Theodosius made membership in some Manichaean sects a capital crime, and made it illegal to support Manichaean monks. He also used a system of informers to police the pagans. [Freeman, 2009, 104; www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm ; Engh, 93-94; Jenkins, 123]

 383

Emperor Theodosius I decreed that Eunomians and other kinds of "heretical" congregations were forbidden to assemble or to build places of worship. Another decree six months later confiscated their property and expelled all Eunomian clergy. [Freeman, 2009, 140]

 384

Theodosius I made divination from chicken entrails a capital crime. Other pagan practices were also outlawed, such as burning incense, torch bearing processions, wearing garlands, and offerings of wine. Household gods were outlawed. Magistrates' failure to enforce the law was also criminalized. [ www.jesusneverexisted.com ]

 384-385

Theodosius I ordered his Prefect Cynegius, with the cooperation of local bishops and monks, to destroy the temples and shrines of the pagans in Greece and Asia Minor. [www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm, citing Gibbon, v.3, ch. 28]

 385

The first execution of a heretic by Christians occurred in Spain, when Bishop Priscillian of Avila was executed. The trial of Priscillian and other heretics set a new precedent. It was the first time a secular court had convicted Roman citizens on religious grounds. Priscillian was then denied a hearing by Bishop [St.] Ambrose at Milan and by Pope [St.] Damasus I at Rome. He appealed to Emperor Maximus at Trier and was sentenced to death. [McCabe, 1939, 86; Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Ambrose" and "Inquisition"; Engh, 98]

 388

Theodosius I prohibited public discussion of any religious topic. [Ellerbe, 28; Freeman, 2009, 120; Grant, 272-273; Valantasis, 269]

388

Bishop [St.] Ambrose of Milan "compelled" Theodosius I to allow a bishop, who had burned down a synagogue in Callinicum on the Euphrates, to remain unpunished. He wrote: "The maintenance of civil law is secondary to religious interest." His hold on Theodosius is likely the reason for the severity of the laws against pagans, including the destruction of their temples. [Grant, 273; Johnson, 1976, 104-105]

It was illegal for Jews to build new synagogues. They were not allowed to own Christian slaves. [Engh, 94]

388

A law forbid intermarriage between Christians and Jews. This crime was to be punished the same as adultery.[Valantasis, 273]

388

A law ordered that Apollonarians in particular and all other heretics be barred from all human contact. [Valantasis, 269]

388

Theodosius I sent a prefect to destroy the temples in Egypt and Syria. [www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm]

 389

Theodosius outlawed the use of non-Christian calendars and dating methods.[www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm]

 

390

By this year Emperor Theodosius I had a system of religious persecution in place. [Jenkins, 122-123]

390

Thessalonika had a large Hippodrome for chariot races. The garrison of the city (composed of Goths) was commanded by one Butheric. Butheric imprisoned a popular charioteer for a sex crime. When the charioteer failed to appear at the next race, the crowd rioted and murdered Butheric and several other officers. After receiving the news, Theodosius ordered retribution. "... 7,000 may have died." [Freeman, 2009, 121-122; Bokenkotter, 63;Catholic Encyclopedia, "Theodosius I"; McCabe, 1939,77]

390

A law forbade women with short hair to enter a church. [Engh, 94; Valantasis, 267]

390

A law set minimum age limits for church offices and prohibited remarried women from any office. [Valantasis, 267-268]

 391

Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, closed a pagan temple in Alexandria and destroyed several other temples. The pagans rioted and some Christians were killed. Theophilus led a Christian mob, which destroyed the temple of Serapis. He later built a church on the ruins. The CE says that Theophilus was gifted intellectually but also was violent and unscrupulous. The Serapeum was said to be the largest place of worship in the world. It also was part of the famous Alexandrian library, which held 700,000 scrolls. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Theophilus"; Johnson, 1976, 98; Ellerbe, 46; Pollard and Reid, 282, 298]

391

Theodosius closed all pagan temples and criminalized Pagan worship." [Grant, 273]

391

A law barred heretics from making a will or inheriting. [Valantasis, 270]

 392

"... the law restricting monks to the deserts was repealed, allowing them to join the renewed destruction of pagan shrines." [Freeman, 2009, 124]

392

Private worship or any activity associated with pagan rites were criminalized. Local authorities had the right to search private homes for pagan objects, and punishment for violators could result in confiscation of their homes. Pagan gods officially became demons and pagans were called minions of Satan. Despite these harsh laws, some pagan rituals were adopted by Christians. This practice was deemed acceptable by [St.] Jerome when done for a Christian purpose. [Engh, 91; Freeman, 2009, 124; Valantasis, 272]

 393

"The Olympic Games, held every four years in honour of Zeus, and by now well over a thousand years old, were celebrated for the last time in 393." [Freeman, 2009, 124]

393

Jewish marriage laws became invalid. [Valantasis, 273]

 

396

Pagan priests lost their privileges, their incomes went to the army and their property to the state. The authorities made little or no attempt to protect pagan institutions from militant Christians. [Johnson, 1976, 98; Valantasis, 270]

 

397-398

"There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity ... It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature, these secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing, and which man should not wish to learn." [St. Augustine, quoted by Freeman, 2009, 169, citing Confessions, Book X, Ch.35]

 

398

The Fourth Council of Carthage forbade bishops to read the books of gentiles. [Ellerbe, 48]

398

"Manichaeans were expelled from Rome and threatened with exile from all Roman territory." [Engh, 94]

 

 Early 5th century

[St.] John Chrysostom "delivered eight 'Sermons Against the Jews' at Antioch," partially based upon the Gospels of Matthew and John. This was the beginning of a distinctively Christian anti-Semitism, which included branding Jews as Christ-killers. Chrysostom's influence plus pagan smears and rumors put at risk Jewish communities in all Christian cities. [Johnson, 1987, 165]

 

c.400

Pope St. Anastasius condemned the writings of Origen, the Church's first great theologian, even though he was not familiar with them. Anastasius was also the father of his successor, Pope St. Innocent I. [McBrien, 65]

 405

Emperor Honorius had published the Edict of Unity, "which ordered the dissolution of the Donatist [Christian] Church." [Bokenkotter, 79; Valantasis, 270]

 407

A law aimed specifically at Donatists and Manichaeans criminalized their beliefs. Punishment was confiscation of all their property. They were barred from inheritance. Convicted heretics were also barred from buying, selling, or making a contract. [Valantasis, 270]

 

408

It became illegal for Jews to "burn the symbolic 'gallows of Haman' during their Purim festivals. Some Christians had mistaken it for a cross." [Engh, 94]

408

A law stated that any images used by pagans should be torn down and destroyed. Pagan temples were to be opened to the public for public purposes. [Valantasis, 272]

 409

A law was passed requiring the burning of all books possessed by heretics. Failure to hand over a heretical book was made a capital crime. [Freeman, 2009, 143]

409

Astrologers were to be deported if they refused to burn their books. [Valantasis, 273]

 410

Emperor Honorius decreed that heretics and pagan worshipers were to be punished by "exile and blood." [Ellerbe, 28]

Repression of pagans by secular authorities was "unavoidable" and "not necessarily a case of persecution for religious opinions." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Donatists"]

After talks had failed, [St.] Augustine of Hippo (in Africa), reversed his long-standing position and sanctioned the use of force against the Donatists. He promulgated the principle Cognite intrare, 'Compel them to enter.' The church would use this doctrine time and again to justify intolerance and violent repression of dissent, heresy, and other religions. [Ellerbe, 37-38]

Augustine based his Cognite intrare principle on Luke 14:23: "The master then ordered the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled.'" This verse was part of a parable about a man who wanted to give a great dinner and his invited guests made excuses not to come. Somehow it became an excuse to force people to convert to Christianity and to punish them if they refused.

The doctrine of a "holy war" or "just war" was developed by Augustine. He said that a defensive war is always just and that an offensive war is just when waged against "a state that refuses to make reparations for wrongs committed or fails to return seized property." [Williams, 2002, 29]

 412

[St]. Cyril, Theophilus' nephew and "an impetuous, self-promoting radical who believed in backing up the power of the Word with the power of the mob," succeeded Theophilus as patriarch of Alexandria. He was not elected to the position. His supporters won it for him after three days of street fighting with the supporters of Archdeacon Timothy, who was backed by the church hierarchy and the military.

He increased the stresses between the various groups of the city, sometimes using his "shock troops," the parabolani. He also got the fanatical black-robed monks of the Nitrian desert to enforce his will. Many monks were misfits, criminals, and fugitives, who vandalized pagan temples and rioted in the streets. Cyril even got them to attack Orestes, the Roman prefect of Egypt. They so terrorized the city that the emperor asked him to limit their number to 500.

Cyril closed the churches of the peaceful Novatian sect and took their property. In response to a provoked Jewish attack on Christians, he authorized the looting of Jewish sites and expelled all Jews from the city. He was also at least partially responsible for the murder of Hypatia, a famous pagan scholar, at the hands of a Christian mob. [Freeman, 2005, 268; Johnson, 1976, 94]

412

Parabolan monks, incited by lies about Hypatia spread by [St.] Cyril, and led by Peter the lector, killed her inside a Christian church. Hypatia had been a popular public lecturer in philosophy and mathematics, and a close advisor of Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria. "Cyril resented her influence with the city prefect and others. No one was punished for the crime." The Catholic Encyclopedia absolves Bishop Cyril of all blame for this event.

Pagan idols and altars were ordered destroyed. All pagan property was claimed by the imperial authorities. Bishops were allowed to disrupt pagan rites, with force if necessary. Pagans were excluded from positions in government. [Pollard and Reid, 272-278; Haught, 1990, 53; Engh, 92]

 

415

The bishop of Mahon in Minorca burned Jews in their synagogue for refusing to meet with him on the Sabbath.[Letter of Severus by the bishop of Mahon; cited by Freeman, 2005, 266.]

 

416

[St.] Augustine bribed the bishop of Rome to side with him against Pelagius. [Ellerbe, 35]

 

417

At the urging of [St.] Augustine and other African bishops, Pope [St.] Innocent I excommunicated Pelagius, who denied the doctrines of original sin and that it was impossible to do good works without God's grace. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Palagianism"]

 418

Emperor Honorius banished Pelagians from all Italian cities. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Palagianism"]

418

The Roman Catholic Church "embraced the doctrine of hereditary transmission of original sin." [Ellerbe, 35]

418

After the death of Pope St. Zosimus, one church faction elected Eulalius pope, while a different faction elected Boniface. The emperor called a synod at Ravenna to choose, but the attendees were unable to make a decision. Next, a council at Spoleto was convened on June 13, 419, to settle the issue. The emperor insisted that both contenders leave Rome in the meantime. Boniface left, but Eulalius stayed. The emperor than banished Eulalius and declared Boniface Bishop of Rome (pope). [McBrien, 68-69]

 c.420

"... a band of Syrian monks under the fanatic Barsauma conducted a series of pogroms against Jewish Palestine, burning synagogues and entire villages." [Johnson, 1987, 165]

 420

Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, received imperial help to ransack and burn pagan temples in Gaza. [Freeman, 2009, 144]

 423

The building of new Jewish synagogues was banned. [Valantasis, 274]

 427

A law forbade anyone to make an image of Jesus in any medium. [Valantasis, 266]

 428

The prohibitions against any and all heresies (35 were specifically named) was renewed. In addition, the law decreed that "they shall also be deprived of all aid, whether military or civil, of the law courts, the defenders and judges...." [Valantasis, 270]

 435

A law threatened any heretic with death. Judaism was still legal but intermarriage with Christians was a capital crime. [Ellerbe, 29]

435

Emperor Theodosius II decreed, "... we order that all [pagan] shrines, temples, sanctuaries, if any even now remain intact, should be destroyed by the magistrates' command and that these should be purified by the placing of the venerable Christian religion's sign [the Cross]." [Freeman, 2009, 144]

The death penalty was decreed for permitting or practicing pagan rites. [Engh, 92]

 438

Theodosius II decreed, "We finally sanction by this law ... that no Jew, no Samaritan ... shall enter upon any honors or dignities; to none of them shall the administration of a civil duty be available, nor shall they perform even the duties of a defender of the city ... with an equally reasonable consideration also, We prohibit any synagogue to arise as a new building." [Freeman, 2009, 145]

 

439

If a Jew circumcises a Christian his property will be confiscated. [Valantasis, 274]

 440-461

During Pope [St.] Leo I's reign the Arian Vandal leader Genseric laid waste to most of northern Africa, thereby establishing the Pope's dominion over the African churches. [McCabe, 1939, 100]

Pope [St.] Leo I was "the first to formulate the Church's right to put heretics to death." [McCabe, 1939, 101]

 

444

Pope [St.] Leo I ("The Great") brought the Manichaean bishop and his clergy to trial and confronted them with confessions which had been secured by torture. [McCabe, 1939, 88]

 447

The letter [from Pope (St.) Leo I] to the Spanish Bishop Turribius of Astorga is notable as the first explicit Papal approval of the execution of a heretic. [McCabe, 1916, 43]

 448

Theodosius II passed a law which required the burning of heretical books. [Freeman, 2009, 150]

 449

The Second Council at Ephesus, sometimes called "the robber council" or "the gangster synod," was called to decide matters related to the "monophysite" heresy. Monophysites believed that Jesus had one nature; their opponents said he had two natures. Flavian, archbishop of Constantinople, was beaten to death and his rival, Dioscorus, archbishop of Alexandria, bullied his way into control of the council. He used armed guards to force the attending bishops to sign their names to blank pieces of paper. Nestorian (i.e., Monophysite) bishops were condemned and charged with all manner of crimes, whether they had committed them or not. Dioscorus even excommunicated Pope [St.] Leo I, who was definitely not a Monophysite, having written document (Tome) which explained Jesus' two natures and other Christian beliefs. [Freeman, 2005, 261; Martin, 72; Jenkins, 188, 191-192]

 451

At the request of the clergy, Emperor Marcian outlawed public discussions on the nature of Christ. [ www.stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm ]

 457

"When, in 457, the emperor Leo I (457-474) asked the Bishop of Melitene, in Armenia, whether he wanted a council to discuss theological issues, the bishop shrewdly replied: 'We uphold the Nicene creed but avoid difficult questions beyond human grasp. Clever theologians soon become heretics.'" [Freeman, 2009, 143]

457

A law forbade Eutychians and Apollonarians to assemble, promote their religions, or to publish anything against the "holy Chalcedonian Synod." All their writings should be burned. Violators were to be banished forever.[Valantasis, 271]

 459

A law was passed forbidding anyone from publicly discussing religion. [Valantasis, 267]

 460-467

"Pope Leo I asserted papal primacy, arguing that the pope alone has the responsibility and authority to care for the entire church." [Cline, medieval1]

 472

"... owners of property where [pagan] rites took place were held responsible. Upper-class owners could lose their rank and property, while the lower classes could be tortured and sentenced to hard labor in the mines. .... most of the violence perpetrated against non-Christians ... was not official persecution." Those who destroyed temples and murdered pagans were pious Christians who had been enflamed by their leaders. This kind of violence was illegal but Christians were rarely punished for it, nor was restitution made to the victims.

Christianity gradually absorbed much of the pagan religion: "lighting lamps and candles, singing hymns, parading with sacred objects, dedicating votive offerings, giving gifts at religious holidays, eating and drinking to commemorate dead relatives and friends. Pagan festivals became Christian holidays, and Christian martyrs and saints were often revered at times and places where pagan deities had been worshipped. ... something very basic had changed. Belief-right belief-was now more important than worship or conduct. And everyone was now assured of eternal life, either in bliss or in agony. The world had become an anxious place, where thoughts as well as deeds were driven by the fear of hell." [Engh, 92-93]

 484

Arian Christian Huneric, king of the Vandals, declared Catholic Christians heretics and persecuted them as Catholics had persecuted Arians previously. Catholic churches were closed and their property confiscated. Catholic clergy were executed, exiled, or enslaved. Those who resisted conversion to Arianism were sometimes tortured. [Engh, 103]

 494

Pope St. Gelasius I, in a letter to emperor Anastasius, said that Jesus had spoken of two swords. According to Gelasius the two swords represented the priestly power and the royal power. He then asserted that "religious power always took precedence over the secular so that kings ruled at the pleasure of ... popes." [Jenkins, 240]

 

 511-558

Catholic Frankish king Childebert I ordered the destruction of all pagan idols and one hundred lashes for peasants caught worshiping them. [Engh, 106]

 515

"... at Zoara, south of the Dead Sea, a local god, Theandrites, was replaced by St. George and his temple reconstituted as a church with the inscription 'God has his dwelling where there was once a hostel of demons' ...." [Freeman, 2005, 269]

 517

Christians closed the university at Alexandria. [Johnson, 1976, 112]

 524

Catholic philosopher Boethius was tried and executed by Arian Christians at Pavia. [Johnson, 1976, 153]

 

 529

Emperor Justinian closed the school of Athens. The school was founded by Plato, which had been located in a pagan temple to ensure its safety, and had endured for a millennium. [Freeman, 2009, 154; Johnson, 1976, 112]

529

"Benedict of Nursia destroys pagan temple at Monte Cassino (Italy) and builds a monastery." [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

 530s

Justinian ordered all subjects to submit to Christian baptism. Failure to do so resulted in their rights to goods and property being forfeited. The death penalty was prescribed for followers of pagan cults. [Freeman, 2009, 154]

 530

When Pope St. Felix III died in 530, the cardinals elected the deacon Dioscorus of Alexandria Pope. In a hall next door to the cardinals, a group comprising mostly laymen and military men with no authority to elect a pope, chose Boniface. According to Canon Law Dioscorus had been properly elected, but he died under mysterious circumstances only twenty-two days after his election. Boniface then intimidated the cardinals to choose him to be the next pope, using the threat of military violence. Even today the official records show Boniface II to be the immediate successor of Felix III. [Curran, 19-21]

 

532

Encouraged by his wife Theodora, Christian Emperor Justinian ordered soldiers to massacre more than 30,000 non-conformist citizens in Constantinople to impose his version Christian orthodoxy. Apparently, "Justinian did not see it as murder if the victims did not share his own beliefs." The Old Testament of the Christian Bible has many examples of violent punishment by God. As God's representative on earth, Justinian thought himself justified in using his absolute power to punish Christians as well as non-believers, if those Christians refused to accept the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. [Frank Mortyn, "Blood on the Ground, Churches All Around," reprinted in Leedom, 237-240; Freeman, 2003, 253; Haught, 1990, 53-54; Jenkins, 235; Johnson, 1987, 166]

"In 532 a very dangerous revolt (the Nika revolution), ... was put down severely. ... The Corpus Juris is full of laws against paganism (apostasy was punished by death) ... Jews, Samaritans ... Manichaeans, and other heretics. ... There was no toleration of dissent. ... [Justinian's] ecclesiastical tyranny is the one regrettable side of the character of so great a man. ... He was undoubtedly the greatest emperor after Constantine, perhaps the greatest of all the long line of Roman Caesars. Indeed one may question whether any state can show in its history so magnificent a ruler." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Justinian I"]

 533

General Belisarius, sent by the Catholic Eastern emperor Justinian, defeated the Vandals and made Arianism heretical again. [Engh, 104]

 

537

Christian emperor Justinian, disregarding a treaty with the African nation of the Blemyes, closed the temple dedicated to Isis at Philae, arrested the priests, confiscated the temple treasures, defaced the paintings, and made the temple into a church dedicated to St. Stephen. "In Libya, Justinian closed at least two temples of Ammon." [Engh, 111]

Freeman says that this temple was closed in 526. [Freeman, 2005, 269; Freeman, 2009, 154]

 540

"The Church explained that the [bubonic] plague was an act of God, and disease a punishment for the sin of not obeying Church authority. ... it declared the field of Greek and Roman medicine ... to be heresy. While the plague assured the downfall of the Roman Empire, it strengthened the Christian church." [Ellerbe, 42]

 

553

The Council of Constantinople condemned Origen as a heretic even though he had been dead for 300 years. "This conflict had only occurred because an orthodoxy had been proclaimed to which earlier thinkers, long since dead, were now expected to conform."

"Origen was the first major exegetist, or interpreter, of the Bible. In one the finest intellectual achievements of the third century, he began by putting together the different Greek versions of the Old Testament so that discrepancies could be ironed out."

"The condemnation of Origen was thus a profound loss to Christianity. Not only did Augustine's extreme theology make nonsense of the concept of a loving and forgiving God, but the threat of hell was used to manipulate obedience." [Freeman, 2009, 133, 137, 139]

The Council of Constantinople failed to bring peace between the factions, but did define how orthodoxy was to be judged: Holy Scripture, teachings of the Holy Fathers, and the actions of four councils—Nicaea of 325, Constantinople of 381, Ephesus of 431, and Chalcedon of 451. All four councils "had been subject to imperial pressures and in many cases unrepresentative of the Church as a whole....By 600, in Rome, Pope Gregory the Great was equating these four councils with the four gospels as the cornerstones of Christian orthodoxy.... it was the emperors who had actually defined Christian doctrine. This definition was then incorporated into the legal system so that orthodoxy was upheld by both secular and Church law, and heretics were condemned by the state." This was a radical development which had the effect of diminishing intellectual life. Heresy and orthodoxy were the result of power struggles within the Church, with the competitors vying for imperial support. The state often intervened to restore order. "The outcome was an authoritarianism based on irrational principles, which presided over the demise of ancient traditions of reasoned debate." [Freeman, 2009, 155-156]

 

572

The Church Council of Braga passed the first law against contraception. [Bokenkotter, 56]

 590-604

Pope [St.] Gregory I ("The Great") objected to grammatical study, condemned education for all but the clergy, forbade laymen to read even the Bible, and had the library of the Palatine Apollo burned. He also had many Roman marble statues torn down and turned into lime. [Ellerbe, 48, 50]

Gregory praised the thugs Queen Brunichildis and eastern emperor Phocas and rejoiced when Emperor Maurice was murdered. He wrote about devils and miracles. Consequently, he convinced many nobles to bequeath their estates to the Church, because the imminent end of the world would preclude their descendants from enjoying them. [Joseph McCabe, "Europe Decays And The Popes Thrive," from his book Popes and Their Church, reprinted in Leedom, 248-250]

Gregory greatly enhanced the Church's temporal power. He expanded papal territories to between 1300 and 1800 square miles, yielding income of about $1.5 million yearly. The CE makes his reign sound like an idyll: "... he made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. ... under his able management the estates of the Church increased steadily in value, the tenants were contented, and the revenues paid in with unprecedented regularity." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Gregory the Great"]

 12th Century

The church forbade clerics to marry so that property would pass to the church rather than to the families of clergy. [Ellerbe, 58]

 

1100

After praying at the monastery of Sorde for the apprehension of his brother's murderer, a knight from Gascony ambushed the criminal. The knight cut off the hands, feet and testicles of the murderer. To show his gratitude for the answered prayers, he offered the murderer's bloody armor and weapons to the monks, who accepted them gratefully. [Williams, 2002, 18]

 

1101

After receiving their commanders' permission, crusaders slaughtered all the Moslems of Caesarea. These episodes were not unusual during any of the crusades. [Johnson, 246]

 

1109

Crusaders destroyed the Banu Ammar library in Tripoli, said to be "the finest in the Moslem world." [Johnson, 1976, 246]

Crusaders under King Baldwin burned the library at Dar al-Iim, which contained more than 100,000 books. The Moslems of the city were exiled or sold into slavery. [Williams, 2002, 118]

 

1110

Crusaders massacred the Moslems of Beirut. [Williams, 2002, 118]

 

1121

Peter Abelard's Theologia was condemned and ordered to be burned. About Abelard's teaching, St. Bernard of Clairvaux complained that the people had been discussing the Virgin Mary, the Trinity, and sacraments, and said that "faith in God has no merit if human reason provides proof for it." [Freeman, 2009, 188-189]

 

1130

Archbishop Diego of Compostella, after unsuccessful attempts at persuasion, put the Abbot of S. Pelayo de Antealtaria on trial for keeping seventy concubines. The abbot also had numerous children out of wedlock and had spent the monastery's money on luxurious living. Although the charges were proved, the abbot received no canonical punishment, but was granted "a benefice in the abbey lands ... for his support..." [Lea, 1884, 308]

 

1139

Pope Innocent II "pronounced that a union contracted in opposition to the rule of the Church was not a marriage." [Lea, 1884, 315]

 

1144

The death of a boy near Norwich, England, was rumored to have been sacrificed by Jews. After writing an account of routine "blood libel" by Jews, monk Thomas of Monmouth set off a round of pogroms all over Europe.[Haught, 1990, 44]

1144

A Moslem army under Zengi laid siege to Edessa in Syria, which was defenseless except for some mercenaries who had not been paid recently. They had not been paid because Archbishop Hugo kept the money he was supposed to have paid them with. William of Tyre wrote, "Although he was said to have amassed great riches, which he might have used to pay troops for defending the city, Archbishop Hugo preferred, like a miser, to store up his wealth rather than to consider his perishing people." As a result, Zengi's army took the city. During the attack, the desperate citizens sought safety in the citadel, but Archbishop Hugo locked the doors so that they couldn't get in. The archbishop was murdered along with the defenseless Christians under his authority. [Williams, 2002, 122-123]

 

1145-47

German crusaders, prompted by one of St. Bernard's anti-Semite monks, again massacred hundreds of Jews and stole their possessions. [Williams, 2002, 134]

 

c.1145

[St.] Bernard of Clairvaux wrote: "The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because thereby Christ himself is glorified." [Haught, 1990, 26]

 

1145

Pope Lucius II led an army against the Roman Capitol, because the republican faction wanted him to relinquish all temporal powers. Lucius II was defeated and died of his battle wounds. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Lucius II"]

1145

Pope [Bl.] Eugene III commissioned [St.] Bernard of Clairvaux to preach the Second Crusade. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Blessed Eugene III"]

 

1147

King Conrad led a German army to the eastern empire as part of the second crusade. In the Byzantine city of Philippopolis, one talented magician was so good that the Crusaders thought he was a warlock. Consequently, they burned the town's suburbs. [Williams, 2002, 134]

 

1149

[St.] Bernard of Clairvaux "complained that the courts rang with Justinian's laws rather than those of God."[Ellerbe, 62]

 

1150

"The church's greatest ever canon lawyer, Gratian, said in 1150: 'Peter compelled the Gentiles to live as Jews and to depart from Gospel truth.'" [De Rosa, 25]

 And yet, the church proudly proclaims that its authority is derived from Peter.

 

1153

Reynald of Chatillon, the Christian prince of Antioch, was an insane pirate. He tortured the patriarch Aimery of Antioch until he agreed to give him money to attack Christian Cyprus. Cyprus was peaceful and supported the crusades. William of Tyre wrote: "Reynald completely overran the island of Cyprus without meeting any opposition, destroyed cities and wrecked fortresses. He broke into the monasteries of men and women and shamelessly raped nuns and young virgins." Cyprus belonged to the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel Comnena. Reynald sent him the noses he had cut off the faces of Byzantine priests. [Williams, 2002, 158-59]

 

1155

Arnold of Brescia, a priest, was hanged and burned after being defrocked, exiled and excommunicated for calling for reform. [Haught, 1990, 84]

The Catholic Encyclopedia ("Arnold of Brescia") says that Arnold was a demagogue and turned against Pope Eugene III. The pope had been lenient with him after he had joined revolutionary forces in Rome, which had forced the pope into temporary exile. [Haught, 1990, 84]

 

1163

Cathari were executed at Steinfeld and at Bonn. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Cathari"]

 

c.1165

After making an alliance with the Egyptians, Amalric and his crusaders demanded the surrender of the Egyptian city of Bilbeis. When the garrison defending the city refused, Amalric laid siege and took the city three days later. He gave his men permission to kill, loot and burn with abandon, which they did.

Amalric contended that Sultan Shawar and Nur ed-Din were plotting against the Franks. The Christian William of Tyre thought that this was a lie, that the attack was contrary to divine law, and a pretext to defend an atrocity.

"The Christians who set out to save the Holy Tomb from infidels are now slaughtering civilians, violating all sacred oaths, and causing untold misery for millions of Moslems." [Williams, 2002, 152]

 

1165

Charlemagne was canonized by the antipope Paschal III for political purposes, but his canonization was not accepted by the Roman Church. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Charlemagne"]

 

1166

Thirty Cathari were found in England and were condemned by a council of bishops at Oxford. They were branded on the forehead, flogged, and thrown out of the city. They all died from hunger or exposure in the harsh winter.[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Cathari"; Engh, 133]

 

1167

Seven Cathari were burned at Vézelay in Burgundy. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Cathari"]

 

1168

Crusading Franks systematically massacred civilians, including Christian Copts, in Egypt. "... the effect was to unite Egyptians of all religions (and races) against the crusaders." [Johnson, 1976, 246]

 

1171

In Blois, France, 38 Jewish leaders were sentenced to death for killing a child. No body was found and no children were missing. [Haught, 1990, 44]

 

1179

The Third Lateran Council proclaimed a military crusade against Cathars (Cathari, Albigenses), but it was unsuccessful. Cathari doubted Creation, said Jesus was an angel, rejected transubstantiation, and practiced celibacy. [Haught, 1990, 54]

 

1182

Jews were banished from France. [Grun, 160]

 

1184

The Council of Verona excommunicated Waldensians. These were followers of Peter Waldo of Lyon, who preached in the streets. Despite being banned by the church, they continued their preaching. The Albigensian Crusade (1208) was directed at them as well as the Cathari. Centuries later, Waldensians were still being persecuted and executed. [Haught, 1990, 56]

 

1189

The Synod of Melfi decreed that the wives and concubines of priests "became liable to be seized as slaves by the over-lord." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Celibacy of the Clergy"]

1189

Jews were slaughtered at Richard I's coronation. [Grun, 160; Cline, medieval3]

 

1190-1250

Crusades continued throughout the twelfth century, and almost constantly between 1190 and 1250. [Billings, 86]

 

1190

Frederick II (Barbarossa), Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, died. He had long fought with the popes in a dispute about the powers of church and state. "Of Frederick's children and grandchildren, ten died by papal violence or in papal dungeons." [Johnson, 1976, 203]

1190

The entire Jewish community of York, England, was massacred. [Kirsch, 241]

 

1191

During the third Crusade Richard the Lion-Heart massacred 3000 residents of Acre, mostly women and children. Corpses were cut open to look for swallowed gems. According to the chronicler Ambroise: "They were slaughtered every one. For this be the Creator blessed." [Haught, 1990, 26; www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org , "Acre (Akko)"]

 

1197

"In 1197 the Pope [Celestine III] engaged in a conspiracy to murder Henry VI, in conjunction with his estranged wife Constance of Sicily;...." [Johnson, 1976, 198]

 

1198

At Cardinal Lothaire's coronation as Pope Innocent III, the ritual words were uttered: 'Take this tiara and know that thou art Father of princes and kings, Ruler of the World, the Vicar on earth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, whose honor and glory shall endure through all eternity.'

Apparently, the new pope took those words literally. He wore clothing dripping with gold and jewels. His procession went through the rubble and ruins of Rome to the Lateran, where the Roman Senate swore allegiance to him and clerical and aristocratic notables kissed his foot. He dispensed money to rich and poor, then hosted a sumptuous banquet for the nobles. A senior prince served him the first dish. [De Rosa, 67]

 1227

Pope Gregory IX excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, for not beginning his promised crusade. The fact that most of his army had been destroyed by disease apparently did not influence the pope's decision.[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Frederick II"]

 

1229

"The Inquisition in Toulouse forbids Bible reading by all laymen." [Grun, 168]

This is not mentioned in the Catholic Encyclopedia article "Inquisition," although Toulouse is mentioned many times.

1229

"In 1229-1230 a couple of unfortunates who ventured to doubt [the Donation of Constantine's] authenticity were burned alive at Strasburg." [Richardson, Chapter IV.4]

The Donation is now generally believed to be a forgery.

1229

The bull Excommunicamus issued by Pope Gregory IX denied legal counsel to defendants on trial by the Inquisition.[Kirsch, 79]

A church council convened by Pope Gregory IX ordered every man fifteen and older and every woman thirteen and older to swear that they would denounce heretics. They also set the precedent of refusing to let defendants know who had accused them. [Engh, 132]

1229

The excommunicated Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, crowned himself King of Jerusalem after making a deal with Sultan al-Kamul of Egypt. No blood was shed on either side. Pope Gregory IX was so incensed that he suspended all religious services for everyone in Jerusalem. After William returned to Europe, his success forced the Pope to lift his excommunication. [Williams, 2002, 256; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Frederick II"] ]

 

1231

Pope Gregory IX established the Holy Office of Inquisition as a separate tribunal answerable only to the Pope. Its law was "guilty until proven innocent." A papal statute decreed burning as a standard penalty. But executions were carried out by civil authorities, not priests, to preserve the church's "sanctity." [Ellerbe, 78; Haught, 1990, 74; McBrien, 212]

 

c.1232

"'We would gladly burn a hundred,' boasted an unapologetic Conrad [of Marburg, Inquisitor of Germany], 'if just one among them were guilty.'" [Cohn, Norman, Europe's Inner Demons, New York: Basic Books, 1975. Cited in Kirsch, 59]

 

1233

Before the Albigensian Crusade, local bishops were responsible for finding heretics and punishing them. During this crusade, Pope Gregory IX sent out delegates with special powers, who were independent of the local bishops. In 1233 he made the Inquisition a permanent body and staffed it primarily with Dominicans and Franciscans. [Bokenkotter, 132]

 

c.1233

Dominican inquisitors at Montpelier burned the books written by the Jewish philosopher Maimonides. [Kirsch, 168]

 

1239

Pope Gregory IX produced "the heads of the apostles Peter and Paul." Also alleged to be kept in the Lateran basilica: "the Ark of the Covenant, the Tablets of Moses, the Rod of Aaron, an urn of manna, the Virgin's tunic, John the Baptist's hair shirt, the five loaves and two fishes from the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the dining-table used at the Last Supper. The nearby chapel of St. Lawrence in the Lateran Palace boasted the foreskin and umbilical cord of Christ...." [Johnson, 1976, 200]

1239

In 1228, Frederick finally brought his crusaders to the Holy Land. There he made a deal with his good friend the sultan al-Kamul. Frederick received Jerusalem, among other things; al-Kamul got permission for Muslims to worship at the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. All this was accomplished without bloodshed.

In 1239, Pope Gregory IX rejected the pact that Emperor Frederick II had made and excommunicated him a second time. He then began a new crusade, this one against the Emperor himself. To get public support for this crusade, the pope displayed the alleged heads of Sts. Peter and Paul. The purpose of the crusade against the emperor was to take over his holdings in Sicily and southern Italy. Latin Christians wondered why they were being taxed to pay for the killing of other Christians.

The pope chose to conduct another crusade to free Jerusalem at the same time. To pay for the two crusades, Gregory doubled the taxes. In addition to the exorbitant taxes, the pope forced those physically unable to go on crusade to pay the full cost for someone else to go. The homes, properties and possessions of those unable to pay were confiscated. Both crusades were unsuccessful. [Williams, 2002, 254-256, 259-261; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Frederick II"]

1239

Pope Gregory IX ferociously persecuted antinomians and other heretics. He also claimed that moral law did not apply to his conduct toward Emperor Frederick II, because he was answerable only to God. [Johnson, 1976, 200]

Of course this position of Gregory's was itself antinomian.

1239

Robert le Bougre, a former Cathar who became a fanatical Dominican, burnt about 180 people at Montwimer in Champagne after a trial lasting less than a week. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Inquisition" and "Cathari"]

A contemporary chronicler praised le Bougre's executions as "a holocaust, very great and pleasing to God." Le Bougre earned the nickname "Hammer of Heretics" from his admiring fellow inquisitors. [Kirsch, 67]

1239

Pope Gregory IX banned the Jewish Talmud. He ordered all European secular authorities to seize all Jewish manuscripts for the Inquisition on the first Saturday in Lent, because the Jews would then be in their synagogues. The inquisitors decided that the Talmud and its commentaries were "perversely heretical" and should be burned.[Kirsch, 168; Johnson, 1987, 217]

 

1243

Jews were burned at the stake for host desecration in Belitz, Germany. [Haught, 1990, 50]

1243

Innocent IV was elected pope. He was the first pope to authorize torture by the Inquisition, acted on the principle "the end justifies the means" committed nepotism frequently, and used church revenues as if they belonged to him; he also believed that popes had authority over the temporal realm "by right." [McBrien, 215]

 

1244

After the Albigensian crusade, some of the last Cathari in southern France holed up in the fortress of Montségur in the Pyrenees. They resisted a siege by the crusaders for many years, but the fortress finally fell to the Catholic army in 1244. The remaining Cathari survivors (about two hundred) were marched to an open field and burned alive. [Kirsch, 51; Oldenbourg, 362-364]

1244

During the papacy of Innocent IV, a Council at Narbonne decided against leniency or mitigating factors when sentencing heretics. Sickness, old age, children to be orphaned, or leaving families destitute could not be considered. Flagellation of the guilty was mandatory, irrespective of any other punishment that might be imposed. [Ellerbe, 81-82]

 

1245

Pope Innocent IV granted inquisitors and their underlings absolution for any acts of violence. This made them free from either secular or ecclesiastical jurisdiction. [Ellerbe, 78-79]

Eventually, the Inquisition would defy even a pope (see 1559, below).

Innocent again excommunicated Emperor Frederick II for trying to conquer northern Italy. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Frederick II"]. (McBrien (215) says it was 1248.)

 

1246

Pope Innocent IV continued Gregory IX's war against Emperor Frederick II. He was probably part of a failed conspiracy to assassinate Frederick. "... the conspirators were blinded, mutilated and burned alive," but that did not deter the pope from continuing to try to get rid of the emperor. [Johnson, 1976, 200]

 

1248

Possession of a copy of the Jewish Talmud was a crime. [Kirsch, 168]

1248

The seventh crusade was launched by King [St.] Louis IX against Egypt. The crusade failed in its objective, the king was captured and ransomed. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Crusades"]

 

1249

"Count Raymond VII of Toulouse caused eighty confessed heretics to be burned in his presence without permitting them to recant." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Inquisition"]

 

1251

From "the speech which Cardinal Hugo made... on the occasion of the departure of [Pope] Innocent IV in 1251 from [Lyons], after a residence of eight years - 'Friends, since our arrival here, we have done much for your city. When we came, we found here three or four brothels. We leave behind us but one. We must own, however, that it extends without interruption from the eastern to the western gate.'" [Lea, 1907, 290-291]

 

1252

Pope Innocent IV issued the bull Ad extirpanda, which authorized torture. This authorization was not rescinded until 1917, 665 years later. The accused had no rights. Victims were required to implicate family and friends. Even if repentant, their property was confiscated and they spent the rest of their lives in prison. Others were burned at the stake in a ceremony called auto-da-fé ("act of the faith"). [Haught, 1990, 61; Bokenkotter, 132; McBrien, 215]

 

1254

"Pope Alexander IV (1254-61) ... continued Innocent IV's policy of a war of extermination against the progeny of Frederick II ... and the people rose against the Holy See ... the unity of Christendom was a thing of the past."[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Alexander IV"]

 

1255

The body of an 8-year-old boy was found in the well of a Jew in Lincoln, England. Hysteria was spread by such as the chronicler Matthew Paris, who wrote: "The child was first fattened for 10 days with white bread and milk and then almost all the Jews of England were invited to the crucifixion." 18 Jews were tortured and hanged.[Haught, 1990, 46]

 

1256

Pope Alexander IV "empowered any inquisitor to absolve any other inquisitor from 'canonical irregularities occurring in the performance of their duties.'" [Kirsch, 83]

 

1259

Pope Alexander IV, in a bull, "bemoans the fact that the laity were not reformed but corrupted by the clergy."[DeRosa, 410]

 

1265-68

Pope Clement IV reigned. He was a widower, even though celibacy for Latin Rite clergy had been required from 1139 on. [McTavish, 93]

 

1265-73

"With regard to heretics ... they deserve ... to be severed from the world by death. ... heretics, as soon as they are convicted of heresy, to be not only excommunicated but even put to death.... if heretics be altogether uprooted by death, this is not contrary to Our Lord's command ...."[(St.) Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica: "Of Heresy" (Article 3)]

 

"... nothing misbegotten or defective should have been in the first production of things. Therefore woman should not have been made at that first production.

Further, occasions of sin should be cut off. But God foresaw that the woman would be an occasion of sin to man. Therefore He should not have made woman." [(St.) Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica: "The Production of the Woman" (Article 1)]

It's instructive that a man who wrote that God made a big mistake should achieve sainthood. In 1757 (see below) a Massachusetts Puritan was whipped for saying much the same thing.

 

1270

The eighth crusade was begun by the king of France, [St.] Louis IX. He landed at Carthage and soon died of disease there. The crusade was a failure. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Crusades"; Wikipedia, "Eighth Crusade"]

 

1272

Under Pope Gregory X "discussion of any purely theological matter was forbidden." [Ellerbe, 55]

 

1275

The first witch sentenced by an inquisitor (Hugues de Baniol) was burned to death at Toulouse ("the hot-bed of Catharan infection"). [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Witchcraft"]

1275

"When disputes over tribute payments arose in 1275, the Pope [Gregory X] excommunicated the whole town of Florence." [Ellerbe, 71; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Gregory X"]

 

1276

Four popes reigned during this year: Gregory X, Innocent V, Hadrian (Adrian) V, and John XXI. [Grun, 178; New American Bible, front matter, no page number]

 

1277

Roger Bacon, an early scientist, was imprisoned for publishing books and pamphlets containing "suspect innovation" (heresy). [Grun, 178; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Roger Bacon"]

 

1285

180 Jews were burned in Munich. [Haught, 1990, 46]

 

1290

King Edward I expelled all Jews from England. [Engh, 137; Kirsch, 242]

 

1291-94

The church was without a pope for two years and three months, because the cardinals were split between the Colonna faction and the Orsinis. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Celestine V"]

The "List of the Popes" in the New American Bible (1987) shows that Nicholas IV died in 1291, not 1292 as theCatholic Encyclopedia of 1914 has it. That would mean the church was without a pope for more than three years.

 

1294

All Jews in Bern, Switzerland were killed or expelled based on a rumor. [Haught, 1990, 46]

 

1296

Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull Clericis laicos "which declared all clerical and monastic property in the world to be under his protection and sternly bade secular rulers respect it." [McCabe, 1916, 203]

(This bull was later withdrawn by Pope Clement V, c.1306.)

 

1298

Pope Boniface VIII destroyed the city of Palestrina, breaking his promise to the Colonna family to preserve it if they surrendered to him. This pope also diverted funds for the crusades to his private war. [Chamberlin, 102-104, 116]

1298

A Nuremberg priest spread a host-nailing story. 628 Jews (including the famous Rabbi Mordecai Hillel) were killed. Rindfliesch, a Bavarian knight, led a brigade which exterminated 146 Jewish villages in six months. [Haught, 1990, 50]

 

 1300s

John Wycliffe of England denounced church corruption, rejected transubstantiation, and translated the Bible into English. After his death, his followers (called "Lollards") were declared heretics and persecuted. Some were burned at the stake. [Haught, 1990, 85-86]

 

1300

Gerhard Segarelli was burned at the stake. He led the Apostolic Brethren, who preached and sang in public.[Haught, 1990, 58]

 

1302

Pope Boniface VIII issued the bull Unam Sanctam which declared that the Pope answers only to God, and "it is altogether necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Roman pontiff." [Ellerbe, 64; Martin, 108]

Chamberlin (119) repeats this quote from the famous bull and adds, "Temporal power throughout the earth lay in the hands of the pope; he could, and did, delegate it to monarchs and princes but he could, and would, withdraw it as he chose."

 

1303

After his election, Pope Benedict XI immediately left Rome because his life was in danger. He died by poisoning in Perugia after less than a year in office. William of Nogaret was suspected of the crime. The CE says he died in 1304. [Martin, 177; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Benedict XI"]

 

1305

Pope Clement V was crowned in Lyons, France. In fear for his life, he never went to Rome. After wandering among French cities, he settled in Avignon. Thereafter, most cardinals selected were French. The next six popes were chosen by the French king. From 1305-1377, while the popes resided in Avignon, Rome declined. The former papal city became crime-ridden and infrastructure decayed. [Martin, 177-179]

 

1307

Dolcino, successor to Segarelli of the Apostolic Brethren, was burned at the stake. [Haught, 1990, 58]

1307

The Knights Templar were accused of devil worship and spitting on crucifixes. They were tortured and killed. 70 were burned. [Haught, 1990, 58-59]

"On October 13, 1307, every Templar in France was placed under arrest in a single sweep, and the property of the order was confiscated." [Kirsch, 139]

 

1309

After Amiel de Perles, a Cathar teacher, was arrested by the Inquisition and refused food and water, the Inquisitor, Bernard Gui, conducted a speedy trial and execution, rather than let Perles starve himself to death.[Kirsch, 86]

"Of 636 heretics convicted by ... Bernard Gui ... forty-two were burned, about three hundred were sent to prison, and the rest were given lesser penalties. [Engh, 133]

 

1310

Inquisitor Bernard Gui sentenced convicted heretics to life imprisonment (some in chains) and burning by the civil authorities. [Kirsch, 86]

1310

Fifty-four French Knights Templar recanted their confessions of heresy, which had been coerced by torture. The church considered them relapsed heretics and publicly burned them at the stake anyway. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Knights Templar"]

 

1311

The 15th ecumenical council, the Council of Vienne, was convened by Pope Clement V. The primary purpose of the council was to suppress the Knights Templar in order to appease the French king. "The Acts of the council have disappeared...." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Council of Vienne (1311-1312)"; Cline, medieval5]

 

1312

Pope Clement V issued a bull suppressing the Knights Templar and distributing their property to other orders of the church. Eventually, Philip, the French King, was able to control the property formerly belonging to the Knights. Clement V, in effect, "traded" the Knights Templar to preserve the reputation of former Pope Boniface VIII, because King Philip was so powerful that he was bound to have one or the other. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Knights Templar" & "Pope Clement V"]

 

1314

Jacques de Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, Geoffroy de Charnay, Grand Preceptor of Normandy, and thirty-seven other French Knights Templar were burned at the stake in Paris for alleged heresy. [Grun, 184; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Clement V"]

 

1317

Pope John XXII had an elderly French bishop tortured and executed by burning. The pope believed that the bishop tried to murder him using black magic. [Kirsch, 145]

 

1318

A group of Celestine or "spiritual" Franciscan monks were burned for refusing to abandon the primitive simplicity of Franciscan garb and manners. When the Franciscan leaders declared that poverty had been permitted by Pope Nicholas III [1277-80], Pope John XXII revoked Nicholas's bull. [Haught, 1990, 58; McCabe 1916, 214]

 

1319

"... a wealthy burgher of Carcassonne named Castel Faure, ... was charged and convicted of heresy some forty-one years after his death in 1278. ... his heirs were dispossessed of their inheritance." [Kirsch, 87]

 

1320

Pope John XXII formalized the persecution of witchcraft when he authorized the Inquisition to prosecute sorcery.[Ellerbe, 121]

1320

The Shepherds' Crusade, comprising mostly poor people, massacred Jews in more than a dozen cities. "337 Jews who had taken refuge in the castle of Montclus were slaughtered." Children were forcibly baptized and brought up as Christians. Local authorities did not interfere with the crusaders' violence. [Engh, 138]

 

1323

Even though many popes before him had agreed that Jesus and the apostles lived in poverty, Pope John XXII, in the bull Cum inter nonnullos, stated that it was a perversion of scripture to maintain that Jesus and the apostles had no property. The Franciscans, with their vows of poverty, became heretics. It was said that the pope did this to counter criticism of the church's wealth in contrast to Jesus' ideals. (Ellerbe states that the bull was issued in 1326.) [DeRosa, 212; Ellerbe, 58]

 

1324

"In 1324 Petronilla de Midia was burnt at Kilkenny in Ireland at the instance of Richard, Bishop of Ossory...."[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Witchcraft"]

 

1328

"... in a single papal audience, no fewer than one patriarch, five archbishops, thirty bishops, and forty-six abbots were excommunicated for default on their taxes." [Bokenkotter, 183]

 

1329

A Carmelite monk, convicted of sorcery, informed on his fellow prisoners in order to get a lighter sentence from the Inquisition. His "good work" helped him to avoid the usual harsh punishment he would have received. "Inquisition apparently regarded the Christian rigorism of Cathars and Waldensians as a greater threat to the Church than the secret practice of sorcery by one of its own monastics." [Kirsch, 71]

 

1330

"[The] last Cathar had been burned alive by the Inquisition, and Catharism was extinct." [Kirsch, 134]

 

1334

At a witch trial in Toulouse, eight women were sentenced to burning and fifty-five to long or life imprisonment. Their confessions had been extracted by torture. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Witchcraft"]

 

1337

The Jewish population of Deggendorf, Bavaria, was burned after stories of host-defiling. Sixteen oil paintings showing Jews defiling hosts were displayed in the Catholic church there through the 1960s. [Haught, 1990, 50]

 

1343

Pope Clement VI published the bull Unigenitus. This bull formed much of the Church's legal basis for indulgences. The theory is that the works, penances, sufferings and virtues of Jesus, Mary, and the saints far outweigh the sins of mankind. The surplus ("infinite treasury") was entrusted to the Church, to be dispensed to the faithful as needed "in full or partial remission of the temporal punishment due to sin." This is one of the doctrines later denied by Martin Luther. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Indulgences"]

 

1348

Jews were blamed for the bubonic plague, leading to massacres in 300 cities. [Haught, 1990, 69]

 

1349

2,000 Jews were killed in Strasbourg. [Cline, medieval5; Johnson, 1987, 217]

6,000 Jews were killed in Mainz. [Haught, 1990, 70; Johnson, 1987, 217]

Flagellants massacred Jews in Frankfurt. In Brussels they incited Christians to kill 600 Jews. [Haught, 1990, 70]

 

1350

Emperor Charles IV began to issue pardons to cities which had murdered their Jews. [Johnson, 1987, 217]

 

1365

The last great international crusade, led by Peter I, King of Cyprus, landed at the predominantly Christian city of Alexandria. His forces plundered the city, including the stores of Latin tradesmen, and killed Christians, Jews, and Moslems alike. They then retreated when the Egyptian army approached the city. [Johnson, 1976, 246; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Crusades"

 

1366

"... the Priors of Florence, who had previously given their sanction to the import and sale of infidel slaves..." changed their definition of "infidel" to mean anyone arriving "from the land and race of infidels" whether Christian or not. [David Brion Davis, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture, 101 (quoted in Stannard, 208).]

 

1370

In Brussels, someone reported that a Jew broke a wafer. Nearly all Belgian Jews were massacred, including children. In the cathedral, eighteen tableaux showing Jews nailing bleeding wafers were displayed until recent times. [Haught, 1990, 52]

"Jews were expelled from Brussels, Belgium." [Cline, medieval5]

 

1376

"Pope Gregory XI wrote that too many accused heretics were dying of starvation in prison before they could be brought to the stake, and he offered indulgences to all who would donate food to them." [Walker, 7]

 

1377

Cardinal Robert of Geneva massacred the people of Cessna (Cesena). As papal legate, he was trying to put down a rebellion. The people had killed some of Robert's mercenaries for raping their women. They negotiated a truce, which included a promise by Robert that he would spare their lives if they disarmed. They did, and all* were slaughtered. After raping the women and ransoming the children, the city was then plundered and burned. Robert became Avignon Pope Clement VII in 1378. [De Rosa, 92; Ellerbe, 71; McBrien, 247; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Robert of Geneva]

*Estimates of the number of those killed varies. Ellerbe says 2500-5000; DeRosa 8000; the CE 4000.

 

1378-1417

These were the years of the so-called Great Schism*, with popes living in Rome and anti-popes living in Avignon. The schism was about political power rather than church theology or practice. [Ellerbe, 64]

* Sometimes referred to as the Western Schism, as opposed to the equally great schism with the Eastern Orthodox Church.

 

1378

Under pressure from a Roman mob, the cardinals elected the Italian, Bartolomeo Prignano, as pope. Immediately after he was consecrated as Pope Urban VI, sixteen cardinals left Rome and held their own conclave at Fundi. They elected the Frenchman, Robert of Geneva as anti-pope Clement VII, who returned to Avignon. [Martin, 184]

 

1391

Enraged mobs of Christians attacked Jews across all of Spain, killing thousands. They had been required to wear badges, making it easy for rioters to identify them. Jewish synagogues, homes and businesses were looted and their neighborhoods were destroyed. Some Jews chose conversion or were forced to convert to Christianity. After conversion, they became vulnerable to anti-heresy laws. [Cline, medieval5; Engh, 138; Stannard, 182]

 

 1400

England's Parliament mandated the death penalty for heresy. [Kirsch, 242]

 

1401

England passed De Hæretico Comburendo ("on the burning of heretics"). This act gave church bishops the power to arrest and imprison those suspected of heresy. Those condemned were to be burned. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Lollards"]

Different sources place this act in 1399, 1400, and 1401.

 

1407

Anti-Jewish riots occurred in Poland. Jews were attacked in Cracow. [Cline, medieval6; Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1409

Cardinals of anti-Pope Benedict XIII met with some of Pope Gregory XII's cardinals. Together, they deposed and excommunicated both Benedict XIII and Gregory XII, then elected a new anti-pope, Alexander V. There were now one pope and two anti-popes. [Martin, 184]

 

1410

All three claimants to the papacy held synods in March 1410, where each one condemned the other two. Alexander V died from poisoning on March 17 and was succeeded by anti-pope John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa).[Martin, 185, 192]

 

1411

The Bishop of Verden wrote: "When the existence of the Church is threatened, she is released from the commandments of morality. ... The use of every means is sanctified, even cunning, treachery, violence, simony, prison, death." [Kirsch, 13]

This is the antinomian heresy. Laymen were killed for this, but it's OK for the church.

 

1412

John Hus of Prague advocated that the Church should give up its wealth and halt the sale of indulgences, sinful priests should not administer the sacraments, any devout Christian had a right to preach, and the Bible was the only source of true doctrine. He was excommunicated by Pope Gregory XII. Gregory also put Prague under interdict while Hus was there: church services could not be held, nor could people receive a Christian burial. Three of his followers were burned. [Engh, 135-136; Haught, 1990, 86]

1412

In Piedmont, Italy, several deceased Cathari were executed in effigy. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Cathari"]

 

1414

Anti-Pope John XXIII was deposed by the Council of Constance in 1415. In The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon wrote, "The most serious charges were suppressed; the Vicar of Christ was accused only of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Antipope John XXIII"; Haught, 1990, 82]

 

1415

John Hus, a church reformer from Prague, went to the Council of Constance to explain his ideas against a charge of heresy. He had a letter of safe passage from the Holy Roman Emperor but was arrested, found guilty and burned at the stake anyway. [Haught, 1990, 86]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia ("Council of Constance"), the safe passage letter was good only against illegal actions, and the council's decision was considered legal. Therefore, Hus' punishment was legal.

In 1999 Pope John Paul II apologized for the "cruel" execution of Hus, 584 years earlier. [Bokenkotter, 484]

1415

The Council of Constance (in Germany) decided that Urban VI and his successors were the true popes and that Clement VII and his successor anti-popes were not. The council deposed all three claimants to the papacy: Gregory XII (currently the "real" pope), Benedict XIII and John XXIII (the "anti-" popes). They then elected Italian Cardinal Oddo Colonna pope, and he took the name Martin V.

Baldassare Cossa (formerly John XXIII) was tried before the council. In addition to the charges of simony, adultery, fornication, perjury, sacrilege and gluttony, was the charge of murder. When Cossa was Cardinal, serving Pope Boniface XI, they said that he had seventeen Roman nobles beheaded in 1398 and thirty-one more in 1400. [Martin, 194-197]

1415

The council of Constance ordered the remains of John Wycliffe (d. 1384) to be dug up and thrown away. That was not done until 1428. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "John Wyclif"]

 

1416

"Jerome of Prague, a follower of [Jan] Hus, burned for heresy." [Grun, 202]

 

1420

Pope Martin V started a crusade against the Hussites. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Crusades"; Cline, medieval6]

"Between 1420 and 1432 five separate crusades were launched against the Bohemian separatists." They were all defeated by the Bohemians. [Engh, 137]

 

1421-22

Reformed Bohemian Christians, known as Taborites and led by John Zizka, executed some of his own followers for heresy, forced the conversion of others, and suppressed another Christian group known as Adamites. [Engh, 137]

 

1421

Austrian Jews were imprisoned and exiled. Jews were killed in Linz, Styria, and Vienna. [Cline, medieval6; Johnson, 1987, 230]

 

1424

"Jews were expelled from Cologne." [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1427

"Jews were expelled from Berne, Switzerland." [Cline, medieval6]

 

1428

Pope Martin V ordered the village of Magnalata leveled and all inhabitants killed. This was the village of the "Spiritual Franciscans" who had adopted the ideas about poverty of their founder St. Francis of Assisi. They were persecuted, excommunicated, and finally killed. [Lea, 1901, 176; Ellerbe, 81]

1428

John Wycliffe, who died in 1384, was disinterred, his remains burned, and the ashes scattered. This was done by order of the Council of Constance (1415), which had found numerous "errors" in his writings. [Cross, 1480; Leedom, 279; Catholic Encyclopedia, "John Wyclif"]

 

1430

Jews were expelled from Eger, Bohemia, and Speyer, Germany. [Cline, medieval6]

 

1431

Joan of Arc was burned by the British for heresy. She had also been accused of witchcraft. [Cline, medieval6; Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Joan of Arc."]

 

1434

The Bohemian Taborites were defeated by a more moderate group of Hussites. The victors returned to the Catholic Church without giving up their principles. [Engh, 137]

 

1434-68

Ethiopian emperor Zara Yakob, a Christian, persecuted Jews, Muslims and pagans, including members of his own family. His successor Baida Maryam continued the persecution during his reign. [Engh, 155]

 

1435

"Forced conversion of Jews in Palma de Mallorca, Spain." [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1439

Jews were expelled from Augsburg. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1440

A papal aide, Lorenzo Valla, proved that the "Donation of Constantine" was a fraud. Valla's book was not published until 1517. "Though every independent scholar was won over by Valla's arguments, Rome did not concede; she went on asserting the Donation's authenticity for centuries." [De Rosa, 42]

 

1442

Jews were expelled from Bavaria. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 1450

Jews were expelled from Bavaria again. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1452

Pope Nicholas V issued the bull Dum diversas. This document authorized the King of Portugal to enslave unbelievers and take their territory for the monarchy. [Thomas, 59]

 

1453

In Breslau, a woman accused a Jew of stabbing a wafer. 41 Jews were burned. [Haught, 1990, 52]

 

1454

Jews were expelled "from the crown cities of Moravia." [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1455

Joan of Arc was rehabilitated, twenty-four years after her execution in 1431. An appellate court in Paris, authorized by Pope Callistus III, declared illegal the court which had found her guilty and reversed her conviction.[Cline, medieval6; Catholic Encyclopedia, "St. Joan of Arc"]

1455

"Jews were forced to flee Spain." [Cline, medieval6]

 

1458

Pope Paul II "first declared witchcraft a crimen exceptum, and made those accused subject to torture." [Johnson, 1976, 309]

 

1471

Pope Sixtus IV, granting the request of the monarchs, created the Spanish Inquisition to subdue heresy. [Cline, medieval6]

 

1475

Reports that Simon, a toddler in Trent, Italy, had been sacrificed by Jews caused all Jews in the city to be tortured, tried and burned. Simon received sainthood and many miracles were reported at his shrine in Trent.[Haught, 1990, 46]

In 1965 the Vatican ordered a halt to the "cult" of Simon of Trent.

 

1478

Pope Sixtus IV authorized King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to revive the inquisition to hunt "secret Jews" and Muslims. Dominican friar Tomas de Torquemada was appointed inquisitor general. He tortured thousands and burned 2000. [Haught, 1990, 65-66]

1478

Pope Sixtus IV voided the acts of the reformist Council of Constance (1414-18). [McBrien, 264]

 

1480

"Ferdinand and Isabella appoint inquisitors against heresy among converted Jews." [Grun, 214]

 

1481

The Spanish Inquisition began its reign of terror. Supposedly, the purpose of the office was to prevent conversos (converted Jews) from relapsing rather than punish unconverted Jews. Nevertheless, many cities passed laws against Jews. In Seville about 800 Jews were burned and thousands more imprisoned in the 1480s. [Garraty and Gay, 423; Thomas, 60]

 

1483

"... the Inquisition was instituted in Castile in 1483, finally spreading to Barcelona in 1487." [Stannard, 182]

 

1484

Pope Innocent VIII made disbelief in witches heresy. Prior to this it had been heresy to believe in witches (see 906, above). In the bull Summis desiderantes he authorized two inquisitors, Kramer and Sprenger, to systematize the persecution of witches. [Ellerbe, 121; Haught, 1990, 73-74]

"... Pope Innocent VIII officially ordered pet cats to be burned together with witches, a practice which continued throughout the centuries of witch-hunting." [Ellerbe, 142]

1484

Spanish Inquisitor Torquemada instructed his inquisitors that descendants of condemned heretics were ineligible for most professions and occupations. "A new doctrine of original sin...." [Johnson, 1976, 306-307]

 

1485

Inquisitor Cumanus burned 41 women as witches. A colleague in the Piedmont of Italy burned 100. [Haught, 1990, 74]

1485

Jews were expelled from Perugia. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1486

Dominican inquisitors Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer published Malleus Maleficarum, used as a manual by inquisitors for centuries. It became a best seller. [Haught, 1990, 74]

1486

In Toledo, 2,400 Jewish converts confessed to heresy and implicated others in order to avoid torture and burning. [Kirsch, 189]

1486

Jews were expelled from Vicenza. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1487

Pope Innocent VIII declared a crusade against Waldensians in France's Savoy region. [Haught, 1990, 56, 58]

1487

"Henry VII of England eliminates the right of accused heretics to know the names of their accusers." [Cline, medieval6]

 

1488

Jews were expelled from Parma. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1489

Jews were expelled from Milan and Lucca. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1491

Jews tortured by the Holy Inquisition in Spain were made to confess to child sacrifice near La Guardia. All those Jews were murdered. No such town existed. [Haught, 1990, 47]

 

1492

Three boys died in an unsuccessful attempt by doctors to transfuse their blood to a dying Pope Innocent VIII. Among Innocent's mourners were his mistress and their children. [Carl Sagan, The Demon Haunted World (excerpts in Joshi, 222)]

1492

Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia) bought the papacy by bribing cardinals to elect him. He then hosted sex orgies attended by his illegitimate children, Cesare and Lucrezia Borgia. Although celibacy had been required for Catholic clergy since 1139, Pope Alexander VI had four children by and a mistress. His official actions as pope were "determined almost solely by political and family considerations." [Chamberlin, 170-171; Cross, 33; Manchester, 79; McTavish, 93; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Alexander VI"]

1492

Twenty-seven Jews were tortured and burned in Mecklenburg. [Haught, 1990, 52]

1492

After twelve years of anti-Semitic laws, Spanish monarchs exiled all Jews. Many thousands had converted and stayed in the country. However, some members of the most powerful Christian families in Spain had intermarried with Jews. "The Inquisition could authenticate false genealogies" and accurate genealogies then became "subversive literature." [Johnson, 1976, 306]

1492

100,000 Jews were expelled from Sicily. [Cline, medieval6]

 

1493

"Pope Alexander VI appoints his son, Cesare Borgia (b .1475), a cardinal." [Grun, 218]

1493

Alexander VI decreed that all newly discovered lands east of a north-south line (the "line of demarcation") 100 Spanish leagues east of the Azores belonged to Portugal. All west of that line belonged to Spain. This was conditional on their converting any native peoples to Christianity. [Martin, 108; Thomas, 59]

1493

By command of Pope Alexander VI, Spain was to found Catholic missions throughout the New World. Columbus took priests with him on his second trip to the Americas. [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1494

With Pope Alexander VI's approval, the line of demarcation defined in 1493 was moved 270 leagues further west by the Treaty of Tordesillas. Thus, Spain received North and South America, except Brazil, and Portugal got Brazil and Africa. [Martin, 108]

1494

Jews were expelled "from Florence and all Tuscany." [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

1495

"The Jews expelled from Portugal." [Grun, 218]

1495

"January 28 - Pope Alexander VI gave his son Cesare Borgia as hostage to Charles VIII of France." [Cline, medieval6]

 

1496

The Jews were expelled from Syria, Portugal, and Carintha, Austria. [Cline, medieval6]

 

1497

Attempting to carry out moral reform, the Dominican Girolamo Savonarola destroyed much of the work of Renaissance Florence in a huge bonfire. Among the works destroyed were books, illuminated manuscripts, women's ornaments, musical instruments, and paintings. His police state tactics included compelling servants to inform on their masters and organizing bands of young men to raid people's homes. Savonarola wrote: "It would be good for religion if many books that seem useful were destroyed." [Ellerbe, 57]

1497

"Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Girolamo Savonarola." [Cline, medieval6]

1497

King Manuel of Portugal allowed Jewish children to be taken from their parents to be raised as Christians. Thousands of Jews were forcibly baptized in Lisbon. [Engh, 139]

 

1498

Florence priest Girolamo Savonarola was hanged and burned with two followers after calling for reform. [Haught, 1990, 86]

 

1499

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517), Spanish inquisitor-general, began forcing Moors to convert en mass. That practice led to the Moorish revolt in Granada. [Grun, 220; Cline, medieval6]

1499

By the end of this decade, Jews had been expelled from the Kingdom of Navarre. [Johnson, 1987, 231]

 

 1500s

Queen Mary of Hungary, Regent of Flanders, ordered the execution of all heretics, with instructions not to depopulate the provinces. [Haught, 1990, 98]

 

c.1500

The Spanish Inquisition burned heretics in Mexico and South America. The Portuguese did the same in Goa in India. Inquisitors routinely accompanied priests on missionary travels. [Kirsch, 55]

 

1501

Spain, in the treaty ending their victory over the last Muslim kingdom in Spain, promised toleration. That promise was soon broken. In 1501 Muslims in Spain were given the same choice as that given to Jews: convert or leave the country. Queen Isabella ordered all copies of the Koran burned. [Engh, 139; Kirsch, 182]

1501

Pope Alexander VI allows Spain to claim all new lands in the Americas, only if they provide religious instructions to the indigenous people there. [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1503

Queen Isabella decreed that natives [in the New World] who rejected the Catholic faith could be enslaved." [Engh, 181]

1503

Massacre of Xaragua: Fr. Nicolás de Ovando, governor of Espanola, invited Anacaona, native queen of the west of the island, to dine. She accepted the invitation and was hanged. Her chief followers were burned alive. [Thomas, 66-67]

 

1503-18

Dominican monk, Johann Tetzel (1465-1519), preached and sold indulgences in Germany. Tetzel was Martin Luther's first public antagonist. [Grun, 224; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Johann Tetzel"]

 

1506

4,000 Lisbon Jews were slaughtered in one night. [Manchester, 33]

 

1509

"Persecution of Jews in Germany; the converted Jew, Johann Pfefferkorn, receives authority ... to confiscate and destroy all Jewish books, especially the Talmud...." [Grun, 226]

 

1510

In Spandau, after a tortured Jew confessed, 38 more Jews were burned in Berlin. [Haught, 1990, 52]

1510

Russian monk Philotheus of Pskov wrote: "Our ruler, Czar Basil III, is on earth the sole Emperor of the Christians, the ruler of the Apostolic Church which stands no longer in Rome or in Constantinople but in the blessed city of Moscow....Two Romes have fallen, but the Third stands. A fourth there will not be." [Martin, 135]

 

c.1512

"The Pope must have been drunk," when he gave to the Catholic kings so much territory which belonged to others. Comment of the Cenú Indians when being told that Alexander VI had divided the world between the Portuguese and the Spaniards. [Thomas, 72]

 

1512

Dominican missionary Antonio de Montesino reported to King Ferdinand that the native populations of Hispaniola and Cuba were in danger of extinction because of slavery imposed by the colonists. [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1513

Giovanni de'Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, became Pope Leo X. Leo was a spendthrift who sold cardinal hats and anything else he could to raise money to pay his debts and put on lavish displays. One of his favorites, Cardinal Petrucci, joined a conspiracy to assassinate Leo. Leo lured him back to Rome with a promise of safe conduct, a promise which he broke. While Petrucci was being tortured, he told the ambassador who guaranteed the safe conduct, "No faith need be kept with a prisoner." Not content with that, Leo also had killed Petrucci's family and friends. [Martin, 203]

 

1515

The Spanish began turning the Caribbean natives into slaves. About half a million people of the Bahamas were sent to Hispaniola to replace the huge loss of population there. Cuba's large population was also severely reduced by slavery. Millions of the Caribbean's original population died in only twenty-five years. Slavers continued enslaving people from other islands to replace the dead elsewhere. By the time Cortés arrived in 1525, the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras were uninhabited. [Stannard, 72-73]

 

1517

Thomas Cardinal Wolsey ordered 60 street people hanged who had demonstrated against their plight. [Manchester, 36]

 

1518

"'In the year 1517, New Spain was discovered; after the discovery of which they did nothing first or second, but immediately fell to their old practices of cruelty and slaughter; for in the following year the Spaniards (who called themselves Christians) went thither to rob and kill. Though they gave out that they went to people the country. From that year unto this present year 1542, the violent injustice and tyrannies of the Spaniards came to their full height.' His writings were banned for a long time in Spain and most of Europe...." [Catholic priest Bartaloméde las Casas (1474-1566), The Tears of the Indians (quoted in Costo and Costo, 50)]

 

1519

Cortés landed at an island near Yucatan, Mexico. He had been instructed that "the first motive which you and your company have to carry with you is to serve our Lord God and increase the dimension of our holy Catholic faith." When Cortés encountered the Mayas, he informed them there was one God, the creator and giver of all things. He and his men interrupted a native ceremony and arranged for a mass to be held instead. He broke their idols and installed an image of the Virgin Mary. [Thomas, 159-161]

 

1521

Pope Leo X made heretics of secular officials if they refused to execute people at the church's order. There was no appeal. [Ellerbe, 82-83]

1521

Paris' high court ruled that the theological faculty of the Sorbonne must approve all religious books prior to publication. French-language Bibles were burned and new translations were forbidden. [Engh, 170]

 

1523

The first Protestant was burned at Paris. [Engh, 170]

1523

Giulio de'Medici, nephew of Giovanni (Pope Leo X) was elected pope, becoming Clement VII. Church law had disqualified him for the papacy because he was a bastard, but he was able to buy the office by paying the cardinals for their votes. [Martin, 209]

c.1523

Twenty-five years after Columbus landed, the population of the island of Hispaniola had been reduced to 3 percent of its former number. After eighty years, only 125 natives remained from the original 3.5 million inhabitants. Eventually, 90 to 95 percent of the native population of North America was wiped out. [Engh, 181]

 

1534

Martin Luther wrote a tract condemning the peasants' revolt. After thousands of peasants had been killed, he said, "It is a trifle for God to massacre a lot of peasants, when he drowned the whole world with a flood and wiped out Sodom with fire." He had changed his position over time, from believing that people could not be coerced into changing their religion, to believing that capital punishment was proper for blasphemy and idolatry. He applied this to other religions, especially Judaism. He wanted to destroy Jewish synagogues and books. [Engh, 165]

 

1525

Thomas Muntzer led rebels in the Peasant's War. They were wiped out; he was tortured and executed. Martin Luther supported the merciless suppression of the peasants in this war. [Haught, 1990, 88; Ellerbe, 99]

1525

The Dutch Inquisition convicted Lutherans for the first time. Sentences were imprisonment on bread and water for two to seven years. Survivors had to "wear conspicuous red or yellow crosses for the rest of their lives." [Engh, 168-169]

1525

In France, a commission was appointed to prosecute suspected heretics. [Engh, 170]

 

1526

The Colonnas pretended reconciliation with the Vatican, then suddenly attacked Rome. Cardinal Pompeo Colonna led a raid to assassinate Pope Clement VII. The Pope was cornered while the attackers plundered the Vatican. They stole the papal tiara and valuable works of art, raped, killed and plundered. Several members of the papal household were killed, but the pope escaped through a secret passageway. That was followed by an invasion by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. His army finished what Colonna had started—sacking Rome. [Manchester, 196-197;Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Clement VII"; Martin, 211-213]

1526

"Persecution of Jews in Hungary." [Grun, 234]

1526

Possession of a French translation of the Bible or any of Martin Luther's writings was criminalized in France. [Engh, 170]

 

1528

"Austrian Anabaptist Balthasar Hubmair burned at the stake in Vienna." [Grun, 234]

1528

"The first auto [da fe] on American soil was held in Mexico City in 1528, when two Marranos from Spain were burned alive." [Kirsch, 180]

 

1529

At the Diet of Speyer, Catholics and Lutherans agreed to join forces to execute Anabaptists. [Haught, 1990, 111]

 

1530

Pope Clement VII crowned Charles V emperor. He had made his peace with Charles by agreeing to pay an enormous ransom. [Martin, 219]

 

1531

Martin Luther publicly supported the Speyer agreement to execute Anabaptists. [Haught, 1990, 111; Ellerbe, 99]

1531

In Switzerland, Ulrich Zwingli led urban Protestants in two local wars against rural Catholics. He was killed in the second war. [Haught, 1990, 88]

1531

"Inquisition in Portugal." [Grun, 236]

1531

Michael Servetus' On the Errors of the Trinity was published. [Freeman, 2009, 194]

 

1531-64

John Calvin led the Protestants and created a police-state theocracy in Geneva. No amusements were allowed. Morality police inspected household behavior. Theological nonconformists were executed. He also urged the burning of witches. He burned Michael Servetus, a famous dissenter who had fled the French Inquisition. He and John Knox believed that theirs was the only legitimate church. Each new Protestant church made the same claim. [Ellerbe, 99-100; Haught, 1990, 90]

 

1532

Catholic Spaniards captured the Incan king Atahualpa. After receiving a ransom for his release, the Spaniards murdered him. [Engh, 184]

 

1533

Martin Luther wrote, "Girls begin to talk and to stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops." [Ellerbe, 99]

 

1534

Protestant religious radicals seized the town of Munster, Germany. After the leader, John Mathijs, was killed, his successor, John Beukels, instituted a reign of terror. Catholics recaptured the town in 1535. Beukels was tortured to death in January, 1536. [Johnson, 1976, 262-263]

1534

The death penalty was prescribed in France for "reading, expounding, translating, writing, or printing anything contrary to Catholic doctrine." [Engh, 170]

 

1535

Most of the population of Munster were massacred by forces of the Catholic ruler Prince-Bishop Franz von Waldeck. Their leader, Jan Beukelsz, and two others "were ripped apart with red-hot tongs, and their bodies displayed in iron cages hung on the city gates." They had been denounced by Luther. Philip Melanchthon said that "all Anabaptists should be exterminated." [Engh, 167]

1535

The native population of most of the Caribbean islands had been wiped out. "By 1496 ... the population of Hispaniola had fallen from eight million to between four and five million. By 1508 it was down to less than a hundred thousand. By 1518 it numbered less than twenty thousand. And by 1535, say the leading scholars on this grim topic, 'for all practical purposes, the native population was extinct.'" [Stannard, 74-75]

1535

"Study of canon law forbidden in Cambridge." [Grun, 238]

 

1536

English Protestant William Tyndale was captured by Catholics in Antwerp, tried for heresy, strangled and burned. He had dared to translate the Bible into English and have it smuggled into England. Much of his prose is retained in the King James Version. [Haught, 1990, 101]

1536

"... the Portuguese king successfully petitioned the pope [Paul III] for an inquisition of his own...." [Kirsch, 180]

1536

"Northern Italian Anabaptist missionary Hans Oberecker is burned at the stake in Vienna, Austria." [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1540s

"In southern France, the Parlement of Aix condemned whole villages of Waldensian immigrants to be killed and their houses demolished. Some three thousand villagers were massacred by government troops." [Engh, 170]

 

1540

In Portuguese Goa, the governor, acting on royal authority, destroyed all Hindu temples on the islands. On the island of Teeswadi, the local base for the Jesuits and the Franciscans, there was no temple there, according to a contemporary report from Fr. Nicolau Lancilotto. The temple estates were to be confiscated for churches not yet built. [Roberts, 81-82]

 

1542

Pope Paul III revived the Inquisition to hunt Protestants in Italy. [Haught, 1990, 90; Kirsch, 159]

 

1543

Martin Luther published On the Jews and their lies. [http://www.humanitas-international.org/showcase/chronography/documents/luther-jews.htm ; Also found at: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Luther_on_Jews.html ; "Jewish Virtual Library, A Division of The American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise"]

In his book On the Jews and their lies "Luther referred to Jews as 'as plague, a pestilence,' as 'venomous, bitter worms,' as 'a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous, and devilish lot,' as 'useless, evil, pernicious people,' as 'tricky serpents, assassins, and children of the devil,' as a 'brood of vipers,' and as 'mad dogs.'" [Stannard, 248]

"Although Luther could find no scriptural warrant for exterminating Jews, he believed that they should be enslaved or thrown out of Christian lands and that their ghettos and synagogues should be burned." [Ellerbe, 99]

1543

"First Protestants burned at the stake by Spanish Inquisition." [Grun, 240]

 

1545-63

The Council of Trent declared that scripture is not to be interpreted "in any other way than in accordance with the unanimous agreement of the fathers." [Freeman, 2009, 150]

 

1546

Peter Chapot was executed in France for publicly selling Bibles translated into French. [Forbush, IV]

 

1547

France created the "burning chamber" for executing heretics. Within three years, the chamber had charged more than five hundred people with heresy. [Engh, 171; Grun, 242]

1547

Archbishop Siliceo of Toledo said, "... the principal heretics of Germany, who have destroyed that nation ... are descendants of Jews." [Johnson, 1976, 307]

 

1549

Protestant reformer Philipp Melanchthon opposed the Copernican theory. [Grun, 242]

 1551

"Jews persecuted in Bavaria." [Grun, 244]

1551

Possession of a Bible in any language other than Greek or Latin was a crime in Spain. [Kirsch, 184]

1551

"The Spanish Index of Prohibited Books was first published in 1551...." The Spanish Index was independent from the Vatican's list. It included a number of books which had been approved by Rome. [Johnson, 1976, 307]

 

1553

Spanish theologian Michael Servetus was burned at the stake for doubting the Trinity. He escaped the Inquisition, only to be captured in Switzerland and burned by Calvin. [Haught, 1990, 90; Cross, 1244; Freeman, 2009, 194-195]

Servetus "had corresponded with Calvin for years and may have hoped to find toleration" of his views by him. Servetus fled the French Inquisition and went to Geneva. Calvin decided to execute him. Protestants as well as Catholics approved. [Engh, 168]

 

1553-58

Queen Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"), a Catholic, burned 300 Protestants in three years, as she tried to restore Catholicism using terror. She was a daughter of Henry VIII and the wife of Philip II of Spain. [Haught, 1990, 102; Cross, 870]

 

1555

The Peace of Augsburg ended war between Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and Protestants led by German Lutheran princes, and "allowed 300 local German rulers to decide whether their districts were to be Catholic or Protestant." The people had to adopt the religion prescribed by their king. It also "recognized the right of Protestant 'heretics' to exist in Germany." [Haught, 1990, 88, 90; Engh, 166]

1555

In England a pregnant woman was burned at the stake for sorcery. She suffered a miscarriage at the stake and her still living baby was thrown back into the flames. [Kirsch, 242]

 

1555-59

Under Pope Paul IV the inquisition became a reign of terror, killing many "heretics" on mere suspicion. [Haught, 1990, 66]

 

1556

Church of England official under Henry VIII Thomas Cranmer (b. 1489) was burned at the stake during the reign of the Catholic Mary Tudor. [Grun, 244; Cross, 870]

1556

King Philip II wrote that all the heresies which occurred in Spain, France, and Germany were the work of Jews.[Johnson, 1976, 307]

 

1558

Scottish Protestant John Knox wrote that every Protestant had a right to kill every Catholic. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "John Knox"]

 

1559

Many Protestants were burned in Spain in honor of King Philip II, son of Charles V. King Philip, in response to an appeal by a condemned Protestant, "I myself would bring the faggots to burn my own son, were he as perverse as you." [Haught, 1990, 90; Kirsch, 184]

1559

Archbishop of Toledo, Bartolomeo de Carranza, was arrested by the Inquisition and kept in prison for seven years despite papal intervention. [Haught, 1990, 90; Johnson, 1976, 308. See also, 1565 and 1566]

1559

"The first Roman 'Index of Prohibited Books' (Index librorum prohibitorum), published in 1559 under Paul IV, was very severe...." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Index of Prohibited Books"]

 

1560

Pope Pius IV ordered that all Protestants in Italy be persecuted. The result was that many men, women and children, of all ages, were killed. [Forbush, VI]

1560

"Beginnings of Puritanism in England." [Grun, 246]

1560

Catholic invaders of the Americas destroyed Mayan temples and idols and burned all Mayan books they found.[Engh, 184]

c.1560

The Inquisition was instituted in Portuguese Goa, at the urging of [St.] Francis Xavier and others. It was not ended until 1812. [Roberts, 89,91]

 

1561

A yellow smock, which all condemned heretics in Spain had to wear, for each person burned was hung like a trophy in the church where the person had lived. [Kirsch, 201; Johnson, 1976, 307]

 

1562-89

Catholics and Huguenots in France fought eight wars. [St.] Pope Pius V sent troops to France with orders to take no prisoners. [Haught, 1990, 92, 94]

 

1562

"1200 French Huguenots slain at Massacre of Vassy; first War of Religion begins." [Grun, 248]

1562

"Diego de Landa burns the libraries of the Maya civilization." [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1565

A papal legation including three future popes, Gregory XIII, Urban VII, and Sixtus V, reported to Pope Pius IV: "Nobody dares to speak in favor of [Archbishop of Toledo] Carranza [see also 1559 and 1566] because of the Inquisition ... and its authority would not allow it to admit that it had imprisoned Carranza unjustly. The most ardent defenders of justice here consider that it is better for an innocent man to be condemned than for the Inquisition to suffer disgrace." [Johnson, 1976, 308]

1565

Spanish Catholic soldiers massacred all members of a Huguenot colony in Florida. [Haught, 1990, 96]

 

1566

[St.] Pope Pius V finally brought Archbishop Carranza to Rome "where he was held in the fortress of St. Angelo. The power of Spain prevented his clearance until 1576, just eighteen days before his death." [Johnson, 1976, 308; see also, 1559 and 1565]

 

1568

Spanish King Philip II sent the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands to assist the Inquisition there to persecute Protestants. At one point the Duke condemned the entire population, threatening genocide if they did not submit. There were many massacres by Spanish soldiers, including a mass drowning of about 6000. He also set up what came to be known as the Court of Blood. It condemned 18,000 people to death as heretics. [Stannard, 216; Engh, 169. See also, 1573.]

1568

In Valencia, 2,689 converted Jews confessed to heresy and implicated others in order to avoid torture and burning. [Kirsch, 189]

 

1571

[St.] Pope Pius V launched the final crusade against Islam. [Haught, 1990, 27]

 

1572

St. Bartholomew's Day massacre: 10,000 Protestants were killed in France. After the third Catholic/Huguenot war, the Catholic Catherine de Medici had arranged the marriage of a daughter to a Huguenot prince, Henry of Navarre. When Huguenots gathered in Paris for the wedding under a promise of safe passage, Catherine plotted with Catholic dukes to assassinate the Huguenot military leader, Admiral Gaspard de Coligny. The assassin missed, merely wounding the admiral-so Catherine and the dukes hastily decided to murder all the Huguenots before they had time to counterattack. On St. Bartholomew's Day Catholic troops swept through Huguenot neighborhoods in Paris, slaughtering thousands. Admiral Coligny was beheaded. Other massacres were staged throughout France.

Coligny's head was sent to Rome, where Pope Gregory XIII received it joyfully. He wrote to France's Charles IX, "We rejoice with you that with the help of God you have relieved the world of these wretched heretics." He and the whole college of cardinals offered a mass of thanksgiving. The pope struck a medal celebrating the Catholic victory and commissioned the artist Giorgio Vasari to paint a fresco of the triumph. The massacre triggered another war and four more followed. Finally, Henry of Navarre was offered the crown as king of France if he would convert to Catholicism. He did so. [Haught, 1990, 94, 96; Ellerbe, 95]

 

1573

The Duke of Alva massacred Haarlem Protestants. The duke also killed thousands in Antwerp. He was sent by King Philip II, ruler of Holland and Belgium, to kill all Protestants after they had rebelled and burned 400 Catholic churches. Philip also revived the Inquisition. [Haught, 1990, 98, 100. See also, 1568]

 

1574

"First auto-da-fé in Mexico." [Grun, 254]

1574

The Spanish government waged war against the Chichimeca in the Mexican state of Michoacán. [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1575

The Spanish Inquisition in Seville imprisoned an Englishman for seven years for possession of a Protestant prayer book. [Kirsch, 184]

 

1577

"Dominicans enter Mozambique and penetrate inland, burning Muslim mosques as they go. [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1578

Inquisitor Francisco Pena stated, "We must remember that the main purpose of the trial and execution is not to save the soul of the accused but to achieve the public good and put fear into others." [Ellerbe, 76; Kirsch, 189-190]

1578

"King of Spain orders the bishop of Lima not to confer Holy Orders on mestizos." [Wikipedia, "Timeline of Christian Missions"]

 

1580

The Inquisition in Goa disinterred and burnt the remains of Garcia d'Orta, a noted physician. Inquisitors did this to dead Jews who had not been condemned while they were alive. [Stannard, 209]

 

1581

Jesuit Edmund Campion was tortured and executed for treason in England. He converted from the Church of England to Catholicism, preaching and publishing pamphlets. [Cross, 225; Grun, 256]

1581

"... Pope Gregory XIII forbade Jews to employ Christian wet-nurses because of the slander ... that Jews make these women pour their milk into the latrines for three days [after taking communion] before they again give suck to the children." [Kirsch, 170-171]

 

1583

In Vienna, a 16-year-old girl suffered stomach cramps. Jesuits exorcised her for 8 weeks. Her grandmother was tortured into confessing she was a witch, then burned at the stake. "One of perhaps one million such executions during three centuries of witch hunts." [Haught, 1990, 10]

 

1584

William of Orange was killed after leading Dutch Protestants in a rebellion against Catholic Spain. [Haught, 1990, 100]

 

1586

"... the entire female population of two villages was wiped out by the inquisitors, except for only two women left alive." [Ellerbe, 136]

 

1587-93

Archbishop Johann von Schoneburg burned more than 300 "witches" in twenty-two villages around Trier. He also tortured, strangled and burned the chief judge of the electoral court, a university rector, for leniency. [Johnson, 1976, 310]

 

1590

Philip II proclaimed that witchcraft was "the scourge of the human race." [Johnson, 1976, 310]

 

Late 1500s

879 heresy trials were recorded in Mexico. The Inquisition had been brought to the Americas by Spaniards to punish Indians who reverted to native religions. [Haught, 1990, 66; Stannard, 218]

 

1598

After Henry of Navarre had assumed the French throne as Henry IV, he issued the Edict of Nantes, which permitted French Huguenots (Protestants) to worship freely. "When the Edict of Nantes was signed in 1598 it was promptly denounced by Pope Clement VIII as 'the worst thing in the world'." [Johnson, 1976, 319]

 1600

Giordano Bruno, who espoused Copernican theory, was burned in Rome. [Haught, 1990, 66]

 

1602-05

"Some [witch] hunters were paid by results: Balthasar Ross, minister to the Prince-Abbot of Fulda made 5393 guilden out of 250 victims...." [Johnson, 1976, 311]

 

1607-1632

Ethiopia had always been and still is Monophysite. The Ethiopian Church followed the ritual and doctrine of the Egyptian Coptic Church and its bishops were ordained by the patriarch of Alexandria. Catholic Christian Susenyos, emperor of Ethiopia, forced Ethiopia's bishops and priests to be re-ordained, re-consecrate all churches and re-baptize all believers in the Catholic faith. Susenyos crushed the rebellions that followed. He was succeeded by his son, Fasilidas, who reversed his father's actions and began persecuting Catholics. [Engh, 156; Jenkins, 234]

 

1608-1622

The Extirpation of Idolatry in South America "condemned 1618 people as pagan priests or priestesses, absolved 18,893 other people after due penance, destroyed 1769 major shrines, 7288 household shrines, and 1365 mummies." [Engh, 185-186]

 

1610

Twenty-nine people were condemned as witches in Navarre; six were burned alive. [Kirsch, 188]

1610

"... some witches were burned in Logroño, the first known instance of such a punishment by the [Spanish] Inquisition." [Lippy, 11-12]

 

1612

"Last recorded burning of heretics in England." [Grun, 274]

 

1614

"Iyeyazu, Shogun of Japan, accused the [Christian] missionaries of 'wanting to change the government of the country and make themselves masters of the soil.'" [Ellerbe, 88]

 

1615

The Inquisition declared Galileo's ideas heretical. He then renounced his ideas to avoid punishment. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Galileo"]

"To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin." - Cardinal Bellarmino, during the trial of Galileo (1615)

The church admitted its error and reinstated Galileo in 1993, almost 380 years later.

1615

"Theodore Agrippa d'Aubigné's 'Histoire Universelle,' a Huguenot-inspired survey from 1553 to 1602, officially burnt in Paris." [Grun, 274]

 

1616

The church banned all works advocating the Copernican system. That system was allowed to be taught as hypothesis, not fact. Copernicus' treatise, De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, was put on the Catholic Index of forbidden books. Although it was removed from the Index in 1757, Catholics were still not allowed to read it until 1828. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Galileo"; Cross, 341; Manchester, 91, 295]

1616

"Catholic oppression intensified in Bohemia." [Grun, 276]

 

1618

The Thirty Years' War engulfed all of Europe and killed more people—numbered in the millions—than any other religious war in history. Central Europe became a wasteland and Germany's population was reduced from about 18 million to 4 million. The war was the result of the Catholic Holy Roman Empire attempts to stamp out Calvinism. There was no clear winner—the war ended because the combatants were exhausted. The Peace of Westphalia also recommended an end to the Vatican's temporal power. [Haught, August 1990; Haught, 1990, 106-107]

 

1619

"Lucilió Vanini, Italian Catholic philosopher, burned as a heretic." [Grun, 278]

 

1622-33

Von Dornheim burned 600 witches at Bamberg. Many were falsely accused by those who were tortured until they implicated others. [Johnson, 1976, 311]

 

1623-31

Wurzburg's Bishop von Ehrenberg killed nineteen priests, a seven year old, and his own nephew among the more than 900 "witches" he had burnt. [Johnson, 1976, 311]

 

1624

The English Parliament passed an act prohibiting swearing and cursing. [Ellerbe, 107]

 

1627

The Collegium de Propaganda Fide (Sacred Congregation of Propaganda) was founded. It is the department of the pontifical administration charged with the spread of Catholicism and with the regulation of ecclesiastical affairs in non-Catholic countries. [Grun, 282; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Sacred Congregation of Propaganda"]

 

1629

"In the Bavarian prince-bishopric of Eichstatt, 274 were burned in the year 1629 alone." [Johnson, 1976, 311]

 

1631

Pope Urban VIII suppressed the Jesuitesses (founded in 1609 by Englishwoman Mary Ward) for "insubordination."[Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope Urban VIII"]

1631

The German city of Magdeburg was sacked. 30,000 Protestants were killed before the 30 Years War ended. [J.H. Robinson, ed., Readings in European History, 2 vols. (Boston: Ginn, 1906), 2:211-212; found at http://history.hanover.edu/texts/magde.html ]

1631

Protestants printed a Catholic document written by a Jesuit, Friedrich Spee, which read: "Torture fills our Germany with witches and unheard-of wickedness, and not only Germany but any nation that attempts it. ... If all of us have not confessed ourselves witches, that is only because we have not all been tortured." [Johnson, 1976, 311]

 

1633

The Inquisition forced Galileo to repudiate the Copernican theory that the earth revolves around the sun. In 1965, 332 years later, the Roman Catholic Church finally revoked its condemnation of Galileo. [Grun, 286; Ellerbe, 44]

Where did Galileo's soul reside until 1965? NOTE: In 1992 John Paul II rejected the finding of a papal commission and refused to reverse Galileo's conviction.

 

1634

A New England General Court forbade garments "... with any lace on it, gold or thread ... also all cutworks, embroidered or needlework caps, bands and rails ... all gold and silver girdles, hatbands, belts, ruffs, beaver hats." [Ellerbe, 104]

 

1636

"Welsh Puritan Roger Williams banished from Massachusetts; establishes Providence, RI; proclaims complete religious freedom." [Grun, 288]

 

1637

"Introduction of new liturgy into Scotland causes riots." [Grun, 288]

 

1638

A Catholic revolt in Shimabara, Japan, led to the ban of Christianity and contacts with Europeans. Zealous Christians convinced the government that they put loyalty to their religion ahead of loyalty to the state. [Garraty and Gay, 638, 637]

 

1639

"A [New England] law in 1639 prohibited the custom of drinking toasts or health-drinking as an 'abominable' pagan practice." [Ellerbe, 152]

 

1641

The massacre of Ireland began. Catholics murdered thousands of English Protestants. [Forbush, XVII]

 

1642-46

Civil war in England led to the disestablishment of the Church of England and the establishment of Presbyterianism in its place. [Cross, 266]

 

1647

"Dismissal of Anglican professors at Oxford University." [Grun, 294]

 

1648

Pope Innocent X condemned that part of the Peace of Westphalia which prescribed religious toleration and equality. Centuries of succeeding popes continued that condemnation, calling it atheistic and insane. [DeRosa, 37,145]

1648

In the Ukraine, Orthodox priests and peasants rallied behind the Cossack Boydan Chmielnicki (Bohdan Kmelnistsky). Some Jews fled back to Poland but others were massacred. Cossacks got help from Orthodox Russia. 100,000 Jews died in 300 communities. Later, Ukraine was taken from Catholic Poland and annexed to Orthodox Russia. [Haught, 1990,126]

1648

"John Stearne: 'Confirmation and Discovery of Witchcraft'." [Grun, 294]

 

1649

"John Milton: 'The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates,' defense of Charles I's execution [in 1649]." [Grun, 294]

 

1650

A New England law prohibited "short sleeves, whereby the nakedness of the arm may be discovered." [Ellerbe, 104]

1650

"James Ussher: 'Annales Veteris et Novi Testamenti' (giving beginning of world as 4004 B.C.)" [Grun, 294]

 

1653

A Massachusetts law was passed prohibiting Sunday walks and visits to the harbor as being a waste of time. To enjoy oneself on the Sabbath was considered a terrible offense. [Ellerbe, 103]

1653

English Quaker James Naylor (or Nayler) (1618-1660) was called the new Messiah by his followers. He was imprisoned and severely punished for blasphemy. He eventually repented and was released. [Grun, 296; Cross, 940-941]

 

1654

Maryland repealed its religious toleration law. [Engh, 191]

 

1655

Troops from France and Savoy massacred Waldensians in the mountain valleys of northern Italy. [Eng, 169]

 

1656

Puritan Massachusetts arrested ten Quakers as soon as they arrived, and confiscated and burned their books.[Engh, 190]

 

1657

Christian clergy in Swabia denounced Jewish doctors as diabolical sorcerers: "It is better to die with Christ than to be healed by a Jew doctor with Satan." [Kirsch, 171]

 

1659

"Children as young as ten were charged by the tribunal at Toledo...." [Kirsch, 202]

1659

Puritan Massachusetts outlawed celebration of Christmas. [Engh, 189]

 

1661

"... the Corporation Act incapacitated from holding office in any corporation all who did not first qualify by taking the sacrament according to the Anglican rite...." [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Nonconformists"]

 

1663

"Writings of Descartes put on the Index." [Grun, 302]

 

1664

The Conventicle Act, against Nonconformists, forbade meetings of more than five people. Nonconformists were those who refused to conform to the official rites of the Church of England. Eventually, the term came to be associated with the Puritans. [Grun, 302; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Nonconformists"]

 

1665

The Five Mile Act restricted Nonconformist ministers from being within five miles of a town without official authorization. Violators were imprisoned. [Grun, 302; Catholic Encyclopedia, "Nonconformists"]

 

1666

Patriarch Nikon's reforms triggered "Raskol" (Great Schism) in the Russian Orthodox Church. [Grun, 304; Cross, 1139]

 

1668

William Penn was imprisoned for unorthodox (Church of England) writings. He was freed by a jury in 1670, who were in turn imprisoned for their verdict. On appeal, the jury and Penn were freed. [Cross, 1042]

 

1670

John Lewis and Sarah Chapman were brought before the New London court for "sitting together on the Lord's Day, under an apple tree in Goodman Chapman's orchard." [Ellerbe, 104]

 

1680s

This period was called the "killing time." James II persecuted Puritans. Puritans who went to Massachusetts to escape the persecution, persecuted others. [Haught, 1990, 122]

 

1680

King Charles II, his wife and 50,000 others gathered in Madrid to be entertained by a 12-hour auto-da-fé. 188 condemned heretics were displayed and 51 were "relaxed" (burned at the stake). [Kirsch, 196]

 

1682

"58,000 French Huguenots forced to conversion." [Grun, 312]

 

1684

"93 Jewish families expelled from Bordeaux." [Grun, 312]

 

1685

French King Louis XIV revoked the edict of Nantes, which had been issued by King Henry IV (Henry of Navarre) in 1598. The edict had allowed French Protestants religious freedom. After the revocation, Protestant public worship was forbidden; Protestants were forbidden to assemble in private homes; Protestant ministers had to convert to Catholicism within fifteen days or leave the country; parents were forbidden to teach their children Protestantism and were ordered to have them baptized by a priest and sent to Catholic schools; emigration was forbidden. Thousands of French Protestants were exiled. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "Huguenots"; Grun, 312]

 

1689

The Church of England was established as the colony of Maryland's official religion. Denying church doctrine or excessive swearing could be punished by fines, prison, and even tongue-boring. [Engh, 191]

 

1691-92

"Twenty alleged witches were killed and 150 imprisoned" in Massachusetts by Puritans. [Haught, 1990, 122-124]

 

1693

"Secret society, Knights of the Apocalypse, founded in Italy to defend the church against the antichrist." [Grun, 316]

 

1696

All New Hampshire residents were required to swear an oath against Catholicism. [Engh, 191]

 

1697

Thomas Aikenhead was hanged in Scotland for denying the divinity of Christ. [Engh, 229]

 1700

Catholic priests in New York could be sent to prison for life, and New York Catholics were denied the right to vote. [Engh, 192]

 

1702

British author Daniel Defoe was pilloried, fined and imprisoned for fourteen months for writing a satirical religious tract, The Shortest Way with Dissenters. The tract recommended executing nonconformists in order to frighten others. "Several prominent Anglican churchmen took the proposal seriously and endorsed the policy."[Engh, 229]

 

1704

Maryland criminalized conversion to Catholicism. Catholics were not allowed to teach school. Irish servants were heavily taxed to discourage more immigration. A few years later, new laws prevented Catholics from voting or holding public office. [Engh, 191]

 

1706

Deist Matthew Tindal published The Rights of the Christian Church in England. He, his publisher and printer were all prosecuted. [Cross, 1360]

1706

Kimpa Vita (who called herself "St. Anthony") and her assistant ("St. John") were burned as heretics in the Christian African kingdom of Kongo. [Engh, 150]

 

1709

Matthew Tindal published A Defense of the Rights of the Christian Church. The book was burned on order of the House of Commons because it was thought to undermine Christianity. [Cross, 1360]

 

1715

"... King Louis XIV proudly declared that all Protestantism had been suppressed in France." [Haught, 1990, 96]

1715

Protestants were violently persecuted in the Rhineland Palatinate. [Haught, 1990, 130]

 

1716

"Christian religious teaching prohibited in China." [Grun, 328]

 

1720s

English writer Thomas Woolston was put under lifetime house arrest for doubting the Resurrection and Bible miracles. [Haught, 1990, 131]

 

1720

Two competing monastic orders of the Ethiopian Church accused each other of heresy. The emperor David III took sides with one group and massacred the monks of the other. [Engh, 156]

 

1721

"... a ninety-six-year-old woman named María Bárbara Carillo was sent to the stake at Madrid...." [Kirsch, 202]

 

1722

A Scottish woman was burned as a witch. [Haught, 1990, 78]

 

1723

The bishop of Gdansk, Poland, demanded the expulsion of Jews but the city council declined. The bishop then raised a mob which killed them. [Haught, 1990, 129]

1723

The printer and publisher of the works of Michael Servetus were imprisoned and all copies of the books were burned. Servetus was burned by Calvinists in 1553 for unorthodox ideas about the Trinity. [Engh, 229]

 

1727

The crime of obscenity, founded on religious grounds, was enacted in England. The highest court affirmed that Christianity was part of the common law of England and that offenses against it and morals should be punished.[Engh, 229]

 

1731

"Mass expulsion of Protestants from Salzburg." [Grun, 336]

1731

Eighty-three people were burned at the stake in Lisbon. [Kirsch, 197]

 

1732

Archbishop Firmian forcibly expelled 20,000 Protestants from Salzburg province. [Haught, 1990, 130]

 

1736

Freemasons were denounced by Clement XII, and later popes also condemned them. In France, Italy, and other Latin countries Freemasonry was openly hostile to the Church and to religion. In England, Germany, and other Germanic countries they professed a non-doctrinal Christianity. Catholics are prohibited from joining the Freemasons, with the penalty being excommunication. In more recent times Freemasonry demands belief in God from its members and is not hostile to religion. It is concerned primarily with philanthropic and social activities.[Grun, 338; Cross, 527]

 

1743

"Pogroms in Russia." [Grun, 342]

 

1749

A nun was burned as a witch in Wurzburg. [Haught, 1990, 78]

 

1752

French Catholics nullified all Protestant marriages and baptisms. [Haught, 1990, 132]

1752

At his own request, Fr. Junipero Serra was appointed Head Inquisitor of Sierra Gorda, Mexico. He wrote that the native people "... are addicted to the most detestable and horrible crimes of sorcery, witchcraft, and devil worship...." Serra later brought his inquisitorial techniques to the California mission system. [Jose Ignacio Rivera, "Father Serra And The Skeletons of Genocide," in Leedom, 270-271]

 

1755

"... Jacob Ilive was sentenced to three years hard labor for writing and printing an attack on the orthodox opinions of the bishop of London." [Engh, 229]

1755

In Maryland, the law forced Catholics to pay twice the property tax that Protestants paid. [Engh, 191]

 

1756

Virginia made it illegal for a Catholic to own a firearm or to own a horse worth more than five pounds. [Engh, 192]

 

1757

In Puritan Massachusetts a man was whipped for jokingly saying that "God was a damned fool for ever making a woman." [Engh, 190]

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote much the same thing and was made a saint. [See 1265-73.]

 

1759

The Jesuits were expelled from Portugal amid many accusations, from plotting assassinations to perpetrating frauds in the colonies. [Johnson, 1976, 353; Grun, 350]

 

1761

Jews were executed in Nancy, France, on unfounded allegations of host-nailing. [Haught, 1990 52]

1761

"The Portuguese Inquisition burned its last condemned heretic...." [Kirsch, 203]

 

1762

Seventy-year-old Peter Annet was sentenced to a "mitigated" twelve months hard labor, plus two sessions in the pillory, a fine, and a surety for his good behavior, after pleading guilty to a charge or blasphemy for printing a deist weekly, the Free Enquirer. [Engh, 230]

 

1766

A boy, Chevalier de La Barre, in Abbeville, France, was tortured and killed for criticizing the church. [Haught, 1990, 10]

 

1772

"Inquisition abolished in France." [Grun, 356]

 

1775

Fr. Junipero Serra, in Monterey, California, wrote to the governor requesting soldiers to help bring back native Americans who had fled the mission. The letter evidences Serra's practice of forced residency. [Jose Ignacio Rivera, "Father Serra And The Skeletons of Genocide,"] in Leedom, 272-273]

 

1779

Fr. Junipero Serra wrote to a priest to resist the military's plan to get native Americans to work for them. He added, "... no Indian has authority to dispose of his people without the consent of the Fathers." [Jose Ignacio Rivera, "Father Serra And The Skeletons of Genocide," in Leedom, 274.]

 

1780

Fr. Junipero Serra wrote to the governor that native Americans had no ability to manage their own affairs. He recommended punishing all malcontents and added, "... the natives of these parts will, in the course of time, develop into useful vassals for our religion and for our State ...." [Jose Ignacio Rivera, "Father Serra And The Skeletons of Genocide," in Leedom, 274.]

1780

"The unhappy treatment which the Franciscans give the Indians renders the Indian condition worse than slaves. The fathers aim to be independent and sovereign over the Indians and their wealth." [Governor Felipe de Neve, July 4, 1780, during the tenure of Fr. Serra (in Costo and Costo., 132)]

 

1782

Pope Pius VI tried to get Joseph II of Austria to revoke his freedoms of religion and of the press. [Grun, 362]

1782

Switzerland performed the last legal execution of a witch. The witch-hunts had been directed "not by superstitious savages, but by learned bishops, judges, professors, and other leaders of society." [Haught, 1990, 78-79]

 

 19th Century

This century saw Christian missionaries making great efforts to convert peoples all over the world, using force when necessary. They showed no respect for indigenous cultures, indeed they meant to replace them with "civilized" Christian culture. European governments were quite willing to send military assets to support the missionaries.

 

• In Polynesia, missionaries forced native religion underground and made Christianity the law of the land. They were unhappy about their inability to spread guilt among the islanders.
• In Australia, "only Christians could testify in court." Children were forced to attend Christian schools and indoctrinated with Christian religion.
• In China, the British compelled the government to make Christianity a protected religion. Unlike that earlier, more diplomatic missionaries, the new ones were willing to destroy China in order to "save" it.
• In America, missionaries made a concerted effort to teach children that their native cultures were barbarous and they should be ashamed of it. They were punished for speaking their native language.
• Jews were not allowed to attend public schools in Quebec.

 

[Engh, 210-215, 244, 247]

 

1801

In Bucharest, Romania, Orthodox priests incited their parishioners to kill Jews by repeating the lies that Jews sacrificed Christians and drank their blood. [Haught, August 1990]

 

1810

Mexican Miguel Hidalgo was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church for using his pulpit to advocate revolution against foreign rule. After that, he was known as "Zorro" to the parishioners. He was executed in 1811. ["Freethought Today," Nov. 2009, 17]

 

1814

"Pope Pius VII returns to Rome and restores the Inquisition." [Grun, 382]

1814

The Spanish Inquisition condemned artist Francisco Goya for his now famous painting, "Naked Maja." [Kirsch, 187]

1814

At the behest of the Russian Orthodox Church, Christians who observed the Sabbath and followed the laws of Moses were exiled to Siberia. Jews were then excluded from any district where "Sabbatarians" had been found, and were forbidden to hire Christian servants. [Engh, 234]

 

1815

Mexican Jose Maria Morelos, successor to Hidalgo (see 1810, above), was tried by the Inquisition and shot.[Freethought Today, Nov. 2009, 17]

 

1818

Spain prosecuted its last person of Jewish origin for heresy. [Kirsch, 193]

 

1821-34

"... there were seventy-three convictions for blasphemy in England. Most of those were for printing or distributing The Age of Reason." [Engh, 228]

 

1825

"France makes sacrilege a capital offense." [Grun, 388]

 

1826

The Spanish Inquisition took its last human life. [Kirsch, 204]

 

1828

A Catholic Irishman, Daniel O'Connell, was elected to Parliament. After he refused to take the oath of office, which denounced Catholicism, he was not allowed to take his seat. [Engh, 230-231]

 

1831

In his "Catechism on Revolution" Pope Gregory XVI wrote: "Does the Holy Law of God permit rebellion against the legitimate temporal sovereign? No, never, because the temporal power comes from God." [Burleigh, 116]

 

1832

Pope Gregory XVI published Mirari Vos, an encyclical against freedom and the separation of church and state. He specifically condemned freedom of thought, speech, writing, the press, and religion. He said "It is in no way lawful to demand, to defend, or to grant [these fredoms] as if they were so many rights that nature has given to man." Freedom of thought would lead to "the ruin of the Church" and freedom of the press is "the most deadly and execrable freedom for which one cannot have enough horror." [Cline, "This Date in History: Freedom of Conscience vs. Catholicism"; Burleigh, 141]

 

1834

A Protestant mob burned an Ursuline Catholic convent in a suburb of Boston. Thirteen men were arrested. Only one was convicted, and he was pardoned. The Ursuline order was not reimbursed for the loss of their property.[Engh, 247]

 

1838

Lilburn Boggs, governor of Missouri, ordered the state militia to treat Mormons as enemies and run them out of the state or exterminate them. A few days later during an attack on the Mormon village of Haun's Mill, militiamen found a nine-year-old boy. In response to efforts to protect the child, one militiaman said, "Nits will make lice," and shot the boy dead. [Engh, 241]

 

1840

Three English publishers were imprisoned on charges of blasphemy for publishing Letters to the Clergy of All Denominations by Junius Haslam. One, Henry Hetherington, accused a respected publisher, Edward Moxon, of blasphemy for publishing Shelley's poem Queen Mab. Hetherington's point was that only cheap publishers were actually punished. Hetherington's contention was proved when, after Moxon was found guilty, the prosecutors and judge let him off with no sentence. [Engh, 231-232]

 

1841

Charles Southwell was imprisoned for publishing England's first atheist periodical, "The Oracle of Reason." His successor, George Jacob Holyoake, was imprisoned for his "blasphemous" answer to a question from the audience after he gave a lecture. [Engh, 229]

 

1844

A cannon battle between Catholics and Protestants in Philadelphia killed 20. The fight arose when a Catholic bishop wanted Catholic children in the public schools to read from a Catholic Bible, rather than the King James Version required by the education authorities. Protestant mobs burned Catholic homes and churches. [Haught, 1990]

 

1847

Lionel de Rothschild became the first Jew elected to the English Parliament. He was denied his seat for eleven years on religious grounds. [Engh, 234]

 

1854

The Crimean War started when the Ottoman sultan declared war against Russia. The Czar had declared Russia protector of Christians and holy places in Ottoman lands. [Haught, 1990, 153-154]

1854

"Pope Pius IX declares the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be an article of faith." [Grun, 418]

 

c.1857

The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa enforced church separation, thus providing a justification for apartheid. It set a precedent for separate educational institutions for Afrikaners, English and the native African population. The new Calvinism of Abraham Kuyper played a key role in the evolution of this ideology. His view of Christianity was intended to counter the new freedoms of the Enlightenment. [Nieder-Heitmann]

 

1860s

Western missionaries had reduced Hawaii's native population by 90%. The Reverend Rufus Anderson said that the situation was similar to "the amputation of diseased members of the body." [Stannard, 244]

 

1860

The Haitian government gave the Catholic church special privileges. [Engh, 248]

 

1864

Pope Pius IX, in Syllabus Errorum, condemned rationalism, liberalism, modern civilization, and the idea of progress. Other errors he included were the state's not excluding all religions other than Roman Catholicism, and stating that the pope should accept modern civilization. [Grun, 426; Williams, 2003, 21]

1864

The Haitian government and the Church tortured and executed eight people during a campaign to eliminate the native Voodoo religion. [Engh, 248]

 

1865

A letter from Odo Russell, representative of the British government to the Vatican, to the British Foreign Office reported that Pope Pius IX said to him: "That liberty of conscience and toleration I condemn here [in Rome], I claim in England and other foreign countries for the Catholic Church." [De Rosa, 21]

 

1870

The First Vatican Council proclaimed papal infallibility when speaking ex cathedra, i.e. when speaking of doctrine or morals applicable to the Church as a whole. [Catholic Encyclopedia, "General Councils"; Grun, 432]

 

1972-89

Ethiopian Christian emperor Yohannes IV ordered all Muslims, Jews and pagans to become Christians. The penalty for disobedience was forfeiture of all property. His actions included forced baptism, tithing, and holy day celebration. [Engh, 257]

 

c.1878-1903

Pope Leo XIII forbade Catholics to participate in the new Italian state elections. His purpose was to prevent the separation of church and state, which he termed an "American" idea. [Williams, 2003, 23]

c.1878-1903

Pope Leo XIII approved capital punishment for heretics and other rebels who are not deterred by other penalties.[Ellerbe, 38]

 

1878

Heinrich Treitschke, a German historian, started an anti-Semite movement. [Grun, 438]

 

1879

"Anti-Jesuit Laws introduced in France." [Grun, 438]

 

Early 1880s

Atheist Charles Bradlaugh was repeatedly denied his seat in Parliament for refusing to take the oath of office. The oath had to be taken with a hand on the Bible, and the member had to swear "by the true faith of a Christian." [Engh, 232-233]

 

1881

"Persecution of Jews in Russia." [Grun, 440]

 

1882

Liberal Czar Alexander II was assassinated by bomb-throwing nihilists. One of six sentenced to death for the killing was a Jewish woman, mobs looted and beat Jews. Severe anti-Jewish laws were passed, and Moscow expelled 35,000 Jews. [Haught, 1990, 150; Engh, 234-235]

 

1885

"The Mormons split into polygamous and monogamous sections." [Grun, 442]

 

1890s

An estimated 200,000 Christian Armenians were killed by Muslim Turks. [Haught, 1990, 154]

 

1890

A policy of genocide by American Christians eliminated 80% of California's native-Americans when that state joined the Union. [Stannard, 145]

 

1893

An alliance of churches, missionaries and sugar growers overthrew Hawaii's Queen Liliuo Kalani. [Leedom, 278]

 

1896

Catholic Christian Haiti banned Voodoo religious services, Voodoo shrines were destroyed, and practitioners were arrested. [Engh, 248]

 

Late 1800s

The czars helped anti-Semitic groups to incite Orthodox Christians in order to divert public attention from rebellion. Pogroms occurred in the 1880s, from 1903 to 1906, and during the 1918 revolution. The pogroms of the revolutionary period saw 530 communities attacked and 60,000 Jews murdered. [Haught, August 1990]

 

 1903

The Russian Czar and the Orthodox Church hierarchy blamed the current civil unrest on the Jews. 300 Jews were killed at Odessa and 120 at Yekaterinoslav. Pamphlets urging pogroms were printed on a press of the Czar's secret police. [Haught, 1990, 150]

 

1907

Pope [St.] Pius X issued the decree Lamentabili and the encyclical Pascendi gregis both of which condemned modernism. He thought that modernism threatened the purity of Catholic doctrine. [Cross, 1080; Grun 460]

 

1908

The Roman Holy Office of Inquisition was renamed the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. [Kirsch, 208]

 

1909

20,000 Armenians were killed by Turks. [Haught, 1990, 154]

 

1910

Pope Pius X issued Sacrorum antistitum which contained an anti-modernist oath. In it he called modernism "Americanism" and said that it "represented 'the synthesis of all heresies.'" [Williams, 2003, 23; Cross, 1080]

 

1914

"When a clearly defined dogma contradicts a scientific assertion, the latter has to be revised." [Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914, "Science and the Church" (article), "Conflicts" (section heading]

1914

"To undo the creed is to undo the Church. The integrity of the rule of faith is more essential to the cohesion of a religious society than the strict practice of its moral precepts." [Catholic Encyclopedia, 1914, "Heresy" vii, "Vindication of their teaching"]

 

1915

While Ottoman Turks fought WWI on the German side, Christian Armenians backed by Russia rebelled and slaughtered Muslims, including 30,000 at Van. The Ottomans sent armies against them and forcibly relocated some. After WWI Muslim/Christian killing continued until the 1920s, when Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union. [Haught, 1990, 154]

 

1918

During the Bolshevik revolution 60,000 Jews in 530 communities were killed, mostly by the anti-communist White Army and Ukrainian troops. [Haught, 1990, 150]

 

1923

After receiving financial help from Mussolini, the Vatican ordered the Catholic Populist Party to disband. [Williams, 2003, 27]

 

1926

Therese Neumann (1898-1962), a German stigmatic visionary, lived in the Bavarian village of Konnersreuth. She lost her health and her sight, and became bedridden. On the day of the beatification of Teresa of Lisieux (or Teresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face) in 1923, Therese Neumann reportedly regained her sight. On the day of Teresa of Lisieux's canonization in 1925, Therese Neumann reportedly regained her ability to walk.

During Lent in 1926, she began to have visions and to show stigmata, which bled on Fridays. She was alleged to have supernatural abilities, such as reading consciences and authenticating relics. Supposedly, Theresa took no solid food after 1922, and no nourishment at all after 1927 other than daily Holy Communion. As the news of her spread, pilgrims began visiting her village. Catholic authorities remained neutral and silent about her case.[Cross, 948; Grun, 490]

 

1928

A Hungarian court acquitted a peasant family of beating an old woman to death for witchcraft. The court found that the defendants had acted out of "irresistible compulsion." [Ellerbe, 137]

1928

Pope Pius XI published Mortalium animos: "On Fostering True Religious Unity." This encyclical forbade Catholics from taking part in Faith and Order or any other ecumenical movement to reunite the Christian churches. [Cross, 492 & 927; Grun 494]

 

1929

The Vatican under Pope Pius XI and Benito Mussolini signed a concordat known as the "Lateran Treaty." The Vatican blessed the Italian fascist in return for money and recognition of the Vatican as a sovereign state. "In Berlin, Adolf Hitler was delighted with the news of the treaty." Hitler wrote: "The fact that the Catholic Church has come to an agreement with Fascist Italy proves beyond doubt that the Fascist world of ideas is closer to Christianity than those of Jewish liberalism or even atheistic Marxism...." The treaty also made Catholicism the "'official religion of Italy' and outlawed propaganda in favor of Protestantism." [Williams, 2003, 31]

 

c.1930

Bernardo Nogara, financial manager for the Holy See, took over Banca di Roma for the Vatican. Pope Pius XI, in authorizing the investment, broke the tradition against usury, which was condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325 and reaffirmed by many councils thereafter. [Williams, 2003, 36-37]

 

1931

Catholic bishops, at a meeting in Fulda, Germany, voted down a condemnation of Nazism. "They hated liberalism and democracy much more than they hated Hitler." [Johnson, 1976, 482]

 

1933

Adolph Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany. "The Nazis, thanks to the clandestine workings of the Vatican, had gained control of the government." [Williams, 2003, 44]

1933

German Catholic bishops reversed their position and supported Hitler after he assumed power. The Vatican's Secretary of State Cardinal Pacelli convinced Pope Pius XII not to oppose Hitler. [Johnson, 1976, 482]

1933

Hitler told Bishop Berning of Osnabruch: "As for the Jews, I am just carrying on with the same policy which the Catholic church had adopted for 1500 years." [Johnson, 1976, 490]

1933

Rome signed a concordat with Hitler, which unilaterally ceded all power to the Nazis and advised German Catholics to support Hitler's regime. At the time of the signing, Nazis had been asserting their hostility to Catholics by "by searching priests' houses, forcing Catholic clubs and organizations to liquidate themselves, dismissing Catholic civil servants, confiscating diocesan property, censoring Catholic papers, and even attempting to close Catholic schools." Priests and leading lay Catholics were arrested and held until the Catholic Bavarian People's Party dissolved itself. In the face of these provocations, there was nothing but silence from German Bishops and the Vatican. [Johnson, 1976, 482-483, 489]

Hitler and the Vatican signed a concordat. The Nazis promised state support for Catholic social programs, outlawed criticism of Catholic doctrines in schools and public forums, and instituted a "church tax" on incomes of all Catholics in Germany. The tax was 9 percent of gross income and was collected via payroll deductions. In return, the Vatican agreed that Germany's Catholic Center Party would dissolve itself. In addition, German Catholic bishops were forced to swear loyalty oaths to the Nazi regime. [Williams, 2003, 46]

 

1934

The "Night of the Long Knives." Nazis purged the Reich. The executed included Dr Fritz Gerlich, editor of "Der Gerade Weg," a Munich Catholic weekly, Dr. Edgar Jung, prominent in Catholic Action, Dr Erich Klausner, General-Secretary of Catholic Action, Adalbert Probst, Director of the Catholic Sports Organization, and Father Bernard Stempfle, editor of an anti-Semitic Bavarian newspaper.

"Hitler refused to hand over their bodies to relatives and had them cremated in defiance of Catholic teaching." Evangelicals and Catholic bishops alike were silent, making no protest. One Evangelical bishop of Nassau-Hessen, a Dr. Dietrich, sent a congratulatory letter to Hitler, thanking him for the "rescue operation," and claiming that "he has been sent to us by God."

Cardinal Pacelli (later, Pope Pius XII), the Vatican's Secretary of State, stated that the atrocities against Jews and Catholics were matters of German internal affairs. [Johnson, 1976, 487; Williams, 2003, 48]

 

1935

A munitions plant owned by the Vatican provided armaments for Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. [Williams, 2003, 38]

1935

The Nuremberg Laws forbade two Catholics to marry if one was non-Aryan. The Church had initially complained that the law infringed on its spiritual jurisdiction, but eventually gave in. The Church excommunicated Catholics who willed that they be cremated, "but it did not forbid them to work in concentration or death-camps. "... at the end of 1938, 22.7 per cent of the SS were practising Catholics." [Johnson, 1976, 491]

 

1936

Talking with Bishop Berning of Osnabruch, Adolf Hitler told him "there was no fundamental difference between National Socialism and the Catholic Church. ... 'I am only doing what the church has done for fifteen hundred years, only more effectively.' Being a Catholic himself, he told Berning, he 'admired and wanted to promote Christianity.'" [De Rosa, 5]

 

1938

Pope Pius XI had prepared an encyclical that condemned Hitler's anti-Semitism and terrorism. He scheduled a meeting of the Italian hierarchy for February 11 to be followed by the public release of the document on the twelfth. On February 10 the pope died under mysterious circumstances. Not only was the encyclical never issued publicly, for decades the Vatican maintained that the document never existed. In 1997 scholars found a copy among the papers of Cardinal Eugenio Tisserant, who had been dean of the Sacred College under Pius XI.

Only Dr. Francisco Petacci and Cardinal Pacelli (later Pope Pius XII) had access to Pius XI's body. Against Vatican tradition, they had the deceased pope's body immediately embalmed and refused to allow an autopsy.

It turned out that Dr. Petacci's daughter was one of Mussolini's mistresses, and Cardinal Pacelli's secretary, Monsignor Umberto Benigni, was an official of the Fascist Secret Police—a Nazi spy. [Williams, 2003, 49-54]

 

1939

Cardinal Pacelli became Pope Pius XII on March 9, 1939. One of his first acts as pope was to send greetings to Hitler and "to strengthen papal ties to the Reich."

"Hitler's response to the groveling of the Austrian bishops was to revoke their concordat, close their schools, and loot and burn the palace of Cardinal Innitzer, their leader. Despite this, Pius XII ... could hardly wait to send Hitler a friendly letter." [Williams, 2003, 59; Johnson, 1976, 489]

 

1939-42

In 1939 Hitler invaded predominantly Catholic Poland. He planned to kill the Polish intelligentsia, including clergy, and enslave everyone else. There were more than 2,000 concentration camps in Poland. "Altogether Poland lost six million citizens during the war years."

"In his 1939 encyclical, Summi Pontificatus, Pius XII condemned the war but not the German invasion." "...the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said vaguely that the pope suffered because of the destiny of a Catholic nation, but that the Holy See would remain impartial and speak in the name of truth and justice."

Polish clergy wrote to the pope in 1941, telling him how bad things were for Polish Catholics. The Polish ambassador to the Vatican told the Vatican's secretary of state about it also. In the fall of 1942, six countries, including the US and Britain sent separate letters to the pope, warning him about the loss of papal moral authority. In 1942 the English minister to the Holy See checked the record and told the Vatican that "Pope Pius had not referred explicitly and publicly to Poland since June of 1940."

For a long time, the Vatican's official position on their silence was that condemning the atrocities in Poland would just make matters worse for the Poles. A second reason given for inaction was that they didn't want to be accused of giving in to Allied pressure. A third reason: the Vatican feared the Germans would put an end to their charitable work for the Poles. Then they admitted that the Nazis hadn't allowed it up to that time anyway

It appears that the real reason for the Pope's silence was that he was afraid of German retaliation against the Vatican if he spoke out. Three times during the latter half of 1941, Pius sent a representative to Germany to plead for better treatment of Polish priests and lay people, but that accomplished nothing. When the Vatican pressed the Germans more strongly in 1942, they received threats from the Nazis, so they backed off.

But, Pius said privately that he wanted both an independent Poland and a strong postwar Germany. On several occasions he spoke about Germany's "vital necessities." [Phayer, Chapter 2]

It was believed that the pope feared communism more than Nazism.

 

1941

Hitler conquered Yugoslavia and partitioned Catholic Croatia from Orthodox Serbia. A few days later, the primate of Croatia, Archbishop Stepinac, offered his congratulations to Hitler's new puppet ruler, Ante Pavelic, for the Fascist victory. He was the leader of the Croat fascist movement, the Ustasha. Besides being anti-Semitic, he was anti-Serb and pro-Catholic.The Catholic press published a statement which ended with "Glory be to God, our gratitude to Adolf Hitler, and infinite loyalty to chief Ante Pavelic." [Williams, 2003, 64; Phayer, 32]

 

1941-42

Many Catholic priests were officers at Ustashi death camps in Croatia. Fr. Miroslav Filipovic, Fr. Zvonko Brekalo, Fr. Zvonko Lipovac, Fr. Josef Culina, Fr. Grga Blazevitch, and Br. Tugomire Soldo, all of whom were Franciscans, also took an active part in the atrocities.

Many more such atrocities by Croatian Catholics (including priests) are documented here. Williams comments that even some hardened Nazi officers were horrified; one reported to Hitler that "the Ustashi have gone raving mad." The massacres and plundering of Orthodox establishments resulted in much treasure being transferred to the Vatican. [Williams, 2003, 67-68]

 

1942

Ample documentation exists which shows that Pope Pius XII and his closest advisers were well-informed throughout the war about the atrocities committed by the Croatians.

 

• The World Jewish Congress sent a letter to the Pope asking for help.
• Archbishop Stepinac of Croatia and the pope's personal representative in Croatia, Monsignor Ramiro Marcone, both regularly reported to him about the conditions in Croatia.
• Francis D'Arcy Osborne, London's Minister to the Vatican monitored and translated BBC broadcasts for the Pope.
• Prvislav Grizogono, former Minister of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, wrote an official letter to Pius XII listing the atrocities in Croatia.

 

Notwithstanding these reports and postwar documented stories in the international press, Pius XII did not censure the Ustashi, the Franciscans, or any member of the clergy.

After the war, when a war crimes tribunal found Archbishop Stepinac guilty and sentenced him to sixteen years in prison, then Pius XII publicly declared his outrage and excommunicated everyone who had taken part in the trial. Furthermore, in 1998 Pope John Paul II went to Croatia and announced the archbishop's beatification.[Williams, 2003, 70-72]

Corroboration and augmentation of the events in Croatia, described above, can be found in Chapter Three of Michael Phayer's The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965. The record clearly shows that Pope Pius XII wanted a Catholic Croatian state more than he wanted to end the genocide.

1942

On order of the Nazis, 500 Polish Christian men shot to death 1800 Jews in one Polish village. [Newberg, 147]

1942

The Vatican bank was founded by Pope Pius XII, despite never having withdrawn its ban against the charging of interest on loans "under any circumstances." The bank was involved in major financial scandals a few decades later. [De Rosa, 21]

 

1945

Pope Pius XII finally condemned the Nazis. By this time the Germans had surrendered and Hitler was dead.[Johnson, 1976, 493]

 

1948

"In a state where the majority of people are Catholic, the church will require that legal existence be denied to error, and that if religious minorities exist, they shall have only a de facto existence without opportunity to spread their unbeliefs." [Civilta Cattolica (Jesuit), (quoted in Leedom, 265]

 

 959

"Anti-Semitism flares at Cologne, Germany." [Grun, 544]

1959

"Cardinal Spellman said: 'Next to Jesus Christ, the greatest thing that happened to the Church was Bernardino Nogara.'" Nogara had been the manager and director of the Special Administration of the Holy See, a financial institution. Eventually, the Special Administration's "workings were esteemed to be of such importance that Nogara became the only Vatican official with free and unannounced access to the Holy Father." [Williams, 2003, 36]

 

1965

The Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (formerly The Holy Office of Inquisition) was again renamed. This time it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith. [Kirsch, 208]

 

1968

"Ulster civil rights campaign leads to fighting between Protestants and Roman Catholics." [Grun, 562]

1968

"Pope Paul VI: encyclical 'Humanae Vitae' against all artificial means of contraception." [Grun, 562]

 

1970

"Pope Paul VI declares priestly celibacy to be a fundamental principle of the Roman Catholic Church." [Grun, 568]

 

1971

"A synod of Roman Catholic bishops, meeting in Rome, reaffirms the role of celibacy for the clergy." [Grun, 568]

 

1975

"Four women ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in Washington; previous ordination of 11 women in Philadelphia is invalidated by the House of Bishops." [Grun, 580]

 

1976

"... a poor spinster, Elizabeth Hahn, was suspected of witchcraft and of keeping familiars, or devil's agents, in the form of dogs. The neighbors in her small German village ostracized her, threw rocks at her, and threatened to beat her to death before burning her house, badly burning her and killing her animals." [Ellerbe, 137]

 

1977

"... in France, an old man was killed for ostensible sorcery." [Ellerbe, 137]

 

1978

U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, his aides, reporters, State Dept. officers and relatives of colonists were killed at Jonestown, Guyana, by members of Rev. Jim Jones' People's Temple. Then 914 colonists killed themselves by drinking a poisoned liquid. A female member and her three children had their throats cut in Georgetown, Guyana. More than a year later, Former member Al Mills and his family were shot to death at their California home. They had helped to expose the problems at Peoples Temple. Jim Jones was an evangelical, a self-proclaimed prophet of God, then Jesus, who performed "miracles" and faith healing. He had also predicted that the world would end on July 15, 1967. [Haught, 1990, 185-191]

 

1979

"I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"[Rev. Jerry Falwell, (quoted in Leedom, 265)]

 

1981

The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (the new name for the old Inquisition) "reaffirmed an old decree of excommunication against Catholics who dare to join the Freemasons...." [Kirsch, 208]

1981

"A mob in Mexico stoned a woman to death for her apparent witchcraft which they believed had incited the attack upon Pope John Paul II." [Ellerbe, 137]

 

1983

In Darkley, Northern Ireland, Catholic terrorists with automatic weapons killed three and wounded seven in a Protestant church on a Sunday morning. It was "one of hundreds of Protestant–Catholic ambushes which have cost nearly 3,000 lives during 20 years of religious conflict in Northern Ireland." [Haught, 1990, 10]

 

1984

"I believe this notion of the separation of church and state was the figment of some infidel's imagination." [Rev. W. A. Criswell, Dallas TX, (quoted in Leedom, 265)]

1984

Father Gilbert Gauthe was indicted for many crimes, including rape and sexual relations with a minor, in Lafayette, Louisiana. Knowing Gauthe's history, the Church transferred him to different parishes several times for positions in which he had contact with children. [BishopAccountability.org, citing "The Tragedy of Gilbert Gauthe" by Jason Berry in The Times of Acadiana, May 23, 1985; Gaylor, Annie Laurie, "Sexual Child Abuse In The Church," in Leedom, 372.]

1984

When attorney Gloria Allred scheduled a press conference to name seven priests who had sexually abused her client, all seven "disappeared." When Msgr. Benjamin Hawkes found out about the lawsuit, he telephoned the priests and told them to leave town immediately. The Los Angeles diocese claimed not to know their whereabouts. [Morrison, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1991]

 

1985

In Northern Ireland, "there were 54 assassinations, 148 bombings, 237 shooting episodes, 916 woundings, thirty-one kneecappings, 522 arrests on terrorism charges, and 3.3 tons of explosives and weapons seized. All this in a tiny country with a population of 1.5 million people." [Haught, 1990, 183]

 

1986

"The Supreme Court of the United States of America is an institution damned by God Almighty." [Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, (quoted in Leedom, 265)]

1986

The son of Faye and Glenn Gastal were awarded $1 million for damages to their son by Father Gilbert Gauthe in Louisiana. [Gaylor, Annie Laurie, "Sexual Child Abuse In The Church," in Leedom, 372.]

1986

Father Andrew Christian Anderson was found guilty on 26 counts of child molestation. He was sentenced to only five years probation. The church had never reported him to authorities, and continued allowing him contact with young boys. [Gaylor, Annie Laurie, "Sexual Child Abuse In The Church," in Leedom, 373.]

 

1987

"[Non-believers] can't be considered citizens or patriots ... this is one nation under God." [George H.W. Bush, 41st US President, at a press conference at O'Hare Airport, Chicago]

 

1990

The death toll in Northern Ireland from the previous two decades was 3,000. [Haught, 1990, 184]

1990

According to a study by Rev. Ronald Barton and Rev. Karen Lebaczq at Berkeley found that 25% of all clergy have engaged in sexual misconduct. [Gaylor, Annie Laurie, "Sexual Child Abuse In The Church," in Leedom, 369.]

1990

"11 out of the 46 Protestant ministers charged in 1990 with criminal sexual abuse had prior convictions ... all dating since 1985. Most of the men had received light sentences ... Churches are not only failing to check ministers' records, but in some instances are knowingly hiring convicted child molesters." [Gaylor, Annie Laurie, "Sexual Child Abuse In The Church," in Leedom, 370.]

 

1991

"I want to be invisible. I do guerilla warfare. I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're in a body bag. You don't know until election night." [Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition, (quoted in Leedom, 265).]

1991

Letters dating from the 1980s from the Archdiocese of Los Angeles advised Santiago Tamayo, a priest accused of sexual abuse with a minor, to leave the country and stay there. Church officials later denied knowledge of his whereabouts. They later admitted that they did know that Tamayo was in the Philippines when the victim's attorney was trying to serve him legal papers. [Morrison, Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1991]

 

1992

"The majority of our leaders are pro-abortion. So you don't go in there and say, 'I'm an advocate against abortion.' No, you say, 'I'm interested in housing, or development, or sanitation.' And you keep your personal views to yourself until the Christian community is ready to rise up, and, wow! They're gonna be devastated!"[Antonio Rivera, Christian Coalition NYC, (quoted in Leedom, 265.]

1992

After a thirteen year study of Galileo's trial, a commission appointed by Pope John Paul II reported that the Inquisition had committed "a subjective error of judgment." The pope expressed sympathy with their findings but declined to reverse Galileo's conviction. As of 2008, Galileo's conviction still stood. [Kirsch, 208]

 

1994

Two thousand attendees including, then Vice-President Dan Quayle, at a religious-right training conference, pledged allegiance to Jesus and a Christian flag. [Sidney Blumenthal, New Yorker, July 18, 1994, (quoted in Leedom, 292]

1994

Rwandan Benedictine nun Maria Kisito and her mother superior Sister Gertrude helped Hutu militiamen set fire to a garage in which Tutsis had taken refuge. Five hundred Tutsis were burned alive. 5000 to 7000 in all died after taking refuge at the convent in southern Rwanda. [Wikipedia, "Maria Kisito," citing the Washington Post, June 9, 2001]

 

1995, July

"Srebrenica: Worst European Atrocity Since World War II"
Led by "Serb commander-in-chief General Ratko Mladic."
"In a five-day orgy of slaughter at Srebrenica in July 1995, up to 8,000 Muslims were systematically exterminated in what was described at the U.N. war crimes tribunal as "the triumph of evil." 
"More than 60 truckloads of refugees were taken from Srebrenica to execution sites where they were bound, blindfolded, and shot with automatic rifles."
"Some were buried alive...."
"... Bosnian Serb forces had killed and tortured refugees at will. Streets were littered with corpses, he said, and rivers were red with blood. Many people committed suicide to avoid having their noses, lips and ears chopped off...."
"... adults being forced to kill their children or watching as soldiers ended the young lives." [CNN World, 05/26/2011]

 

1998

Pope John Paul II announced the beatification of Archbishop Stepinac, who was a convicted war criminal.[Williams, 2003, 70-72. See also: 1942.]

 

This thread has been hijacked by some cut and paste bloke. The only reason why one cannot find such chronological equivalent in Hinduism and others is because they did not record history as well and when they did it was not unbiased. If one does more research one can find so much crimes in other religions too that are really much worse.
The fact remains that religion has had an evil history as far as politics is concerned. But which religion has evolved the best to support freedom and tolerance?. The answer is the religion which let you talk about its bad history even while staying in the country which was founded by that religion and established on its ideals by its founders.  

 LOL....freedon 2012 ....i have been reading your posts from the top and interesting to see how you are changing your stance about your religion. you started out as how christianity was the best religion and now ending with its equally bad as hinduism because bad stuffs are not recorded in hinduism.

Hinduism is the most tolerable and most free religion of all so far. There are no strict guidelines on how to approach the GOD. Each can find their own way to reach salvation. Hindus are so tolerant that they have allowed christians to open conversion shops at every little corner of India and Nepal. In other Abhramic religion such as Muslims, those christians would have been burned alive. Hindus know that the christians take advantage of their illitracy, poverty and ignorance and convert them into christianity wiht food and clothes sponsored from vatican and yet they allow them to keep on doing that in their land.