Д Area: InfiReligi ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
Msg#: 731 Date: 08-11-96 23:13
From: Dexter Read: Yes Replied: No
To: Antryg Windrose Mark:
Subj: Re: alright!
ДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДДД
AW> Does that mean you approve that "'good' xians have burnt,
AW> enslaved, exiled or otherwise purged those espousing such
AW> 'wrong' doctrines" ?? I find it pretty repulsive, myself.

In the 1200s, a storm of heretic-hunting burst upon Europe.
The first victims were the christians called the 'Albigenses',
centered around Albi, France. They doubted the biblical account of
Creation, considered Jesus an angel instead of a god, rejected
transubstantiation, and demanded strict celibacy. Their leaders
were rounded up and burned.

In 1208, Pope Innocent III declared a major crusade to destroy the
Albigenses. Some 20,000 knights and peasants answered the call,
forming an army that scourged southern France, smashing small towns
where belief was strong. When the besieged city of Beziers fell,
soldiers asked papal legate Arnold Amalric how they could distinguish
the infidel from the faithful among the captives. He commanded: "Kill
them all. God will know His own." Thousands were slaughtered -many
first blinded, mutilated, dragged behind horses or used for target
practice. The legate reported to the pope: "God's wrath has raged in
wondrous wise against the city."

This was the beginning of numerous "internal crusades" against
nonconforming Christians and rebellious lords.

Another target for extermination were the Waldensians, followers of
Peter Waldo of Lyon, lay preachers who sermonized in the streets. The
church decreed that only priests could preach, and commanded them to
cease. They persisted. Executions ensued for five centuries. The lay
preachers fled to Germany and Italy, where they frequently were caught
and burned.

Also condemned were the Amalricans, who taught that all people are
potentially divine, and that church rites aren't needed. Followers
were burned alive as heretics, and the body of founder Amalric was dug
up and burned. Survivors followed leader Dolcino into fortified places
to withstand attacks and wage counterattacks. Troops of the bishop of
Malan overran their fort and killed nearly all of them. Dolcino was
burned in 1307.

In 1218 a group of Celestine or "Spiritual" Franciscan monks were
burned because they refused to abandon the primitive simplicity of
Franciscan garb and manners. Others executed as heretics included
Beghards and Beguines, who lived in Christian communes, and the
Brothers of the Free Spirit, a mystical order of monks.

The Knights Templar, religious warriors of an order that originated
in the Crusades, were accused in France in 1307 of spitting on
crucifixes and worshiping the devil. They were subjected to extreme
torture, which killed some of them; others "confessed". About seventy
were burned at the stake.

Although Catholics and Protestants were mortal enemies during most
of the Reformation, they united to kill certain Christians for the
crime of double baptism.

The Anabaptists rejected traditional infant baptism. They said
baptism should be for thinking adults, so they rebaptized mature
converts. When they first did so in Zwingli's Switzerland in 1525,
Protestant leaders of Zurich sentenced them to death, basing the
verdict on the Justinian Code, which mandates execution for baptizing
twice. The Swiss Anabaptists were ordered drowned-which was deemed a
fitting end for those wanting immersion.

Despite the persecution, Anabaptism spread rapidly to the Low
Countries and Germany. At the Diet of Speyer in 1529, both Catholics
and Lutherans agreed to put Anabaptists to death. Martin Luther
publicly affirmed the edict in 1531. Around Europe, many were drowned,
burned, beheaded.

During the slaughter, one group of Anabaptists turned to bizarre
behavior. They seized control of Munster, Germany, and banished all
Catholics and Protestants who wouldn't convert to the new faith.
Outside the city walls, the bishop of Munster brought an army and
began a siege. Inside the walls, Anabaptist leader John of Leyden
proclaimed himself kind of the New zion, took several wives, and
imposed the death penalty for numerous infractions. Historian Hendrick
van Loon recounted:

"In that community of starving men and suffering children came the
period of hallucinations when the populace suffered from a diversity
of religious manias; when the marketplace was crowded day and night
with thousands of men and women awaiting the trumpet blasts of the
angel Gabriel. Then came the period of terror, when the prophet kept
up the courage of his flock by a constant orgy of blood and cut the
throat of one of his own queens."

Finally the bishop's army captured Munster and wrought vengeance.
The anabaptist leaders were tortured to death with red-hot pincers and
their bodies were hung in iron cages from a church steeple, where they
remained for many years.

"Such leaders as had escaped the carnage at Munster were hunted down
like rabbits and killed wherever found," Van Loon added.

Surviving fragments of the Anabaptist movement eventually became the
modern Mennonites, Amish, and Hutterians.

Killing heretics was endorsed by Protestants, Popes and Saints. They
quoted Old Testament mandates such as "He who blasphemes the name of
the Lord shall be put to death." St. Thomas Aquinas declared: "If
coiners and other malefactors are justly doomed to death, much more
may heretics be justly slain."
---------------

Excerpts from:

-James A. Haught
-Holy Horrors
An illustrated history of religious murder and madness.
Prometheus Books, 1990

(800) 421-0351

** Dexter **

-Remember.. 'God' is nothing but 'Dog' spelled backwards.

** Dexter **

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! Origin: Miskatonic University (310)404-6363 Norwalk, CA (68:3101/0)