From: Ric Carter
To: ctRL@LISTSERV.AOL.COM ; SkeptiChat list
Subject: [SC] inquisition
Date: Sunday, April 26, 1998 12:27 PM
from: AMERICAN ATHEISTS
subject: AANEWS for April 17, 1998
VATICAN A LOSER IN PARTIAL OPENING OF INQUISITION FILES?
OR IS A ''REVISIONIST'' SMOKE SCREEN BEING CREATED ?
Several weeks ago we reported the decision of the Vatican to finally open
some of the files pertaining to the Inquisition, records covering some three
and a half centuries of trials, intimidation, torture and executions. That
move is seen as part of a larger effort by Pope John Paul II to "purify" the
church in anticipation of the Great Jubilee scheduled for the year 2000.
And Vatican watchers see the decision to air the church's dirty laundry in
conjunction with other developments, such as the papal admission of guilt in
the Holy see's role in slaveocracy, and its passivity to the Holocaust. In
October, 1996, John Paul also shook up the church bureaucracy and public
opinion with a declaration that the evolutionary theories of Darwin and
other scientific evidence were "more than just a hypothesis." That appeared
to erode the 1950 Encyclical issued by Pope Pius XII stating that while
evolution was not necessarily wrong, it could be used to reaffirm a materialist
and atheistic view of the universe.
Ironically, it is a self-professed atheist, Dr. Carlo Ginzburg of UCLA, who
more than any other individual may be responsible for pressuring the Vatican
to now reveal at least some of the voluminous records covering the period of
the Inquisition. According to the Los Angeles Times and other sources, even
Cardinal John Ratzinger -- the dour hear of the Inquisition's success agency
known as the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith -- admits
Ginzburg's influence in this matter. The Cardinal, considered by Vatican
watchers to be a staunch church conservative and traditionalists, nevertheless
says that the opening reflects the church's "confidence in the face of any
critical and serious investigation."
Ginzburg adds, "The Inquisition remains shameful... The opening of the
archives is deeply symbolic because it implies the idea of rejecting,
turning the page of a long chapter in the church's history and trying to
clean its image."
Maybe so. But there are concerns that Mother Church may not be "telling
all," a fear that compounds a problem for historians. Many of the files of
the Inquisition office were seized by Napoleon's troops in 1810 and lost.
And the 4,500 volumes that will be presented for examination at the Vatican do
not cover the period after 1903. The Times described this collection as "off
limits -- a can of worms that will stay unopened to avoid aggravating such
disputes as abortion, clerical celibacy and papal infallibility that divide
Catholics today."
The Vatican has also had ample time to review and, if necessary, sanitize
the Inquisition records. Ginzburg's original request to the pope was made
in a 1979 letter. In 1991, the church began permitting a select group of
scholars limited access to the records, and it was only in January of this
year -- 19 years later -- that the archives were opened to "qualified
researches" of any religious belief.
Christian -- Make That "Catholic" -- Revisionism
Along with the possibility of "sanitizing" records and omitting material
which Church authorities may still wish to conceal, there is evidence that a
campaign of "Catholic revisionism" may be getting underway to blunt the brutal
truth of the three hundred-plus years of religious fanaticism and excess. A
professor of church history, for instance, has described the Inquisition
grilling sessions as "actually a very progressive tribunal (which) dispensed
a very high level of law in 16th century." terms." That disingenuous claim
confuses the formality of Inquisitorial procedures and courts with the fact
that papal Inquisitors had near-total power over the fate of the accused.
Suspects or witnesses who were thought to be lying, for instance, could be
imprisoned. An ecclesiastical reign of terror which had begun with Pope
Gregory IX in 1231 led to progressively more brutal abusers, and in 1252,
Pope Innocent IV sanctioned the use of torture in order to extract confessions.
Other claims, such as the figure that less than 2% of the Inquisition's
known subjects were executed -- a figure reported in the Times coverage --
should be considered highly suspect, or considered in context. Low figures
and elaborate procedures typified the Medieval inquisition, but not its
counterpart in Spain. There, the Inquisition was established by papal fiat
in 1478 at the request of the monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella. Its primary
target at first was the Marranos, Jews who had converted to Christianity,
but later Muslims and Protestants fell under Inquisitorial scrutiny. Excesses
from these persecutions sometimes drew condemnation from the papacy, but the
Vatican refused to take any tangible steps to intervene.
Later, the Inquisition evolved into yet another form. In 1542, the Roman
Congregation of the Inquisition (also known as the Holy Office) was
established to combat the Protestant Reformation; victims suffered torture,
garroting or incineration at the stake until 1727. The leader of this
Inquisitorial office, Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa -- ironically identified
in some texts as a "reformer" -- rose to the papacy and became Pope Paul IV in
1555, and began the Index Prohibitorum or Index of Forbidden Books. That
branch managed to survive until 1966, and decreed which books were to be
burned for their heretical content. Catholics found to be in possession of
those tomes were often excommunicated unless they possessed a special church
exemption, presumably for research and study purposes.
Inquisigate?
Even with a degree of sanitizing, there may be some bombshells in the
Inquisition records. One tantalizing area is the Vatican's possible role in
contributing to the Holocaust in World War II by its long standing doctrine of
antisemitism, portraying the Jews as "Christ killers." The Times notes that
scholars on the hunt for this sort of evidence "will look for archives
detailing the Inquisition's order to burn the Talmud and evict Jews from the
Papal States." Unfortunately, the most relevant details will not be
forthcoming, at least in the immediate future. Researchers can only speculate
what the post 1903 Vatican archives contain on subjects like the papal role in
World War II, and its present-day effort to combat abortion and family planning.
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