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 The Sacred Roman Empire of the West

 

Charlemagne was a fairly strong man and could speak Latin. He founded various

universities but he wasn't able to read and could barely write his own name. He

had 4 wives, several concubines and a lot of children. When pope Leo III

(795-816) begged him for his help, he saw the opportunity of stepping into the

void of power between Rome and Constantinople (that was very far in the East)

and to become the head of the Western Roman Empire.

Pope Leo III had been accused of adultery, and shortly before the arrival of

Charlemagne, he was attacked by a crowd who gauged his eyes and cut his tongue.

In spite of that, he was able to catch his opportunity of establishing his power

over the king: while Charlemagne was kneeling in front of what was believed to

be the tomb of Peter, the pope quickly put the crown on his head, thus

establishing the right of the Church to consecrate kings.

 

Pope Gregorius V (827-844) ordered the sons of Ludovic the Pious to imprison

their father as a punishment for daring to question the behavior of the priests.

He also prepared the first army to attack the Muslim marauders.

After him, a John VIII (844-846) became pope, but he was actually a woman

disguised as man (with a false beard). After two years the secret was disclosed

when, during a solemn procession, the "pope" gave birth to a baby and died on

the street of hemorrhage, to the great dismay of all the priests. From then on,

the "sex test" was introduced and is still valid: those who wished to be elected

as popes had to sit on a special chair (with a hole) and a priest stuck his hand

in the hole to verify the sex of the candidate.

Pope Leo IV (847-855) was made a saint because he introduced the selling of

"holy water" to the people (which meant more income for the priests). He also

built high walls around the central area of the Vatican.

Pope Adrian II (867-872) who had a wife and several children (his daughter

eloped with the brother of his rival pope Anastasius), imported the ashes of St.

Clemens, and by a "miracle" he multiplied them to sell them everywhere. From

that time the mad rush to the "holy relics", already scandalous, became

incredible. There are still two navels of Jesus worshiped in France (at Chalons

and Lucques) and one in Rome (S. Maria del Popolo).

Pope John IX (872-882, sometimes called VIII to try to minimize the embarrassing

event of "Popess Joan", that still stimulates laughing in Protestants even

today) used fancy underwear and was a declared homosexual; he became a tributary

to the Muslims and paid them 25,000 silver marks every year. He was poisoned and

killed with a big hammer stroke on his head by his brother, who was paid by

another candidate to the position of pope (who was later poisoned).

His successor's successor, pope Adrian III (884-885) personally killed the

previous pope by poison, but he became very angry when he found that the pope's

treasury was seriously depleted, so he gauged off the eyes of the servant who

was in charge of the treasury and he beat to death the wife of the chief servant

of the palace. He also tried to impose his illegitimate son Bernard as his

successor as pope.

Pope Formosus (891-896) crowned almost simultaneously two kings as "the only

emperor of the Holy Roman Empire", Guido from Spoleto first and Arnolfo from

Carinzia later, and died of old age just in time to escape revenge from the

priests of Spoleto who had to content themselves to vent their anger over his

dead body. The election of his successor (in 896) was an open riot where monks

and priests came from far and wide with all kinds of weapons (including

broomsticks and rolling pins) to fight in Vatican, but Bonifax VI lasted less

than one month.

His next successor, pope Stephan VI (896-897), wanted to please Gertrude, the

widow of the Duke of Spoleto, so he organized a public trial for the dead

Formosus: the dead body was stripped naked and then hanged. The dead body was

beheaded and mutilated of three fingers of the right hand (used in life to

impart the pope's blessings), then dragged around in the filthy streets, and

finally thrown in the river. However, the Annals written by Baronio inform us

that Stephan VI himself was later hanged by the people about 18 months later.

Stephan VI is famous for introducing the cult of St. Joseph, the foster father

of Jesus.

>From 897 CE onwards the Vatican fell into the hands of powerful families who

increasingly brought degradation into the Church. The Tuscolos, descendents of

Alberic of Tuscolo, gave seven popes (and anti-popes) to Rome, and this was just

the beginning.

In the following 150 years there were 35 popes, some of whom lasted two weeks,

one or three months; many were deposed, many were killed.

One of the main characters of this horror and sex film is Theodora, wife of a

nobleman called Theofilattus. She made and killed (by poisoning or in other

ways) at least four popes who were her lovers: Romano (897), Theodore II (897),

John IX (898-900, killed by suffocation) and Benedict IV (900-903). Without

counting Anastasius III (91-913), who was also subject to Theodora's control

(although not openly keeping an illicit relationship with her) and also

poisoned.

Pope Sergius III (904-911) again fished the skeleton of Formosus (who had died

in 896) from the river and had it dragged around the city streets, then thrown

back into the waters. Theodora became the lover of this pope, too, and also

supplied her young daughter Marozia to the lust of Sergius. Marozia gave him a

son who later was made pope in 928 with the name of John XI, or number XII if we

count the embarrassment of "popess Joan". The problem with the list of the popes

is that many entries were too embarrassing for the compilers, so they were often

nonchalantly skipped. Many popes overlap (sometimes 3 at the same time) due to

fighting of opposite factions, as we have seen, and for periods the pope's seat

remained vacant for various reasons.

Stephen VIII (939) was killed by an angry mob soon after being elected and the

subsequent Stephen IX (939-942), Marino II (942-946) and Agapitus II (946-955)

were totally subservient to Albericus, the powerful son or Marozia.

John X also (914-928) convinced Marozia to marry Alberic who was later killed.

When Theodora died in 928, Marozia had the pope strangled and installed her own

son as the pope John XI (928-939). This came quite handy for Marozia, as she

received the required authorization to marry her stepbrother, Hugue of Provence,

after having his legal wife killed. The marriage was personally celebrated by

the pope in 932.

The second son of Marozia, Alberic II, took over the power in Rome, deposed and

jailed his brother John XI until his death, and he also jailed his mother in the

terrible Mausoleum of Adrian (that later became Castel S. Angelo).

John XII (955-964), who became pope at the age of 16, was extremely lusty. He

maintained a permanent harem and he openly had sex with his mother and sisters,

a nephew and the lover of his father. It is said that he stopped the celebration

of a Mass to go and have sex with a nun; the story was later changed and the

reason for which he left the celebration unfinished was to "attend to the

childbirth" of a horse. He charged fees for the nomination of priests,

informally ordained deans in the stables; he gauged the eyes of his spiritual

advisor and castrated a cardinal (causing his death).

He had personal stables with 2000 horses that he fed with almonds, figs and

wine. The bad reputation of the pope created a crisis in the flow of pilgrims

(Rome was supported mainly with the income of tourism), and he was forced to

flee the city by the angry crowd. A synod was called, where the bishop of

Cremona recorded a list of the criminal activities ascribed to the young pope,

including homicide, perjury, drunkenness, sacrilege and worship of demons. John

answered the accusations by threatening to excommunicate all the bishops, then

he gathered an army paid by his relatives and returned to Rome, where he killed

or maimed all his opponents. He died at the age of 24, killed by a husband who

found him having sex with his wife, as reported by Liutprand, bishop of Cremona

and historian of the Church.

At the death of John XII the Roman people chose Benedict V as pope, but the

emperor Otto of Germany refused to accept a pope that had not been chosen by

him, and he appointed Leo VIII. Benedict stepped down and the supporters of Leo

VIII were flogged and maimed. However, Leo VIII (964) was stabbed to death by a

priest just after ascending the throne. The Church officially admits that at

least 13 popes were killed by poisoning by priests, and that a great number of

others were killed by stabbing, hammering or clubbing, strangling or torn apart

by angry mobs. However, a much greater number of popes have died "mysteriously"

even the same day of their election or the next day, like the very recent John

Paul I.

The killer nominated himself as the next pope with the name of Christopher V

(964-966), and the first action he took was burning his victim and throwing the

ashes in the river. Christopher was defeated in battle by the Duke of Tuscany,

then he gave up his position as a pope and became a friar.

The 9th century is famous as the "iron age" of Christianity that systematically

destroyed whatever was left of ancient scientific and literary texts by

scratching the parchments to use them for writing their nonsense: this has been

passed off as "preservation of culture in the dark ages" by "scholarly monks".

This is even confirmed by Henrion, a historian writing in support of the

Vatican.

After the death of both Benedict and Leo, the emperor appointed pope John XIII

(965-972), son of Theodora, but the Romans kicked him out of Rome immediately.

The emperor reinstalled him with the strength of his army, but he soon realized

that the new pope was a very bad man. According to the report of Liutprand, John

XIII was a madman who used to killed anyone who displeased him. He persecuted

his adversaries, gauged their eyes and killed them by burning them alive after

covering their bodies with pitch, using them as human torches for his dining

room. He also had the Governor of Rome arrested, dragged in the dirt of the

streets, severely flogged and hanged by his hair to the statue of Marcus

Aurelius. All along, with public declarations of his "forgiveness" for the

offenses of his enemies.

 

After the death of the emperor Otto I, another son of Theodora, Crescentius,

deposed pope Benedict VI (973-974) who had tried to reconcile the two factions

(the supporters of the popes and the supporters of the emperors) and had him

strangled by Bonifax VII, who was then made pope. Bonifax VII only reigned for

one year (974-975) and then escaped to Byzantium with a ship loaded with silver.

Pope Benedict VII (974-983) was elected and reigned in spite of the fact that

Bonifax VII was still alive. He became famous because he invited his enemies to

a reconciliation banquet and killed them while they were eating. He also

introduced the custom of charging fees for funerals, and prohibition to the

priests of accompanying to the cemetery the bodies of the destitute deceased.

Pope John XIV (983-984) was killed after four months of reign, poisoned by

Bonifax VII who had returned to Rome after spending all his accumulated money in

Byzantium. His corpse was dragged in the streets of Rome and finally thrown at

the feet of the statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Pope John XV is described by Gelmi as a "greedy son of a priest", and he was

"mysteriously" killed by the priests in 985 after a few weeks of reign. It is

not clear if he was strangled, stabbed or clubbed to death because his body was

hastily buried.

Pope John XVI (995-996) was almost killed by his rival the abbot of Farfa over a

matter of money. He introduced the new calendar with the saints and claimed for

himself all the moneys coming from the "making of saints" or canonization, which

earlier went to the bishops, too. He was arrested, blinded, horribly maimed and

locked up for life by his successor Gregorius V (996-999), who followed the

example of many other popes like Stephan III, who gauged eyes and tongue from

the bishop Theorodus, Passivo's eyes, the eyes and tongue from Gracilis a

nobleman from Alatri who had supported his predecessor. However, he was also

killed later on during a procession.

In 996 Gregorius V, then aged 25, decided with his cousin the emperor Otto III,

that Marozia had been kept in jail long enough, so they sent a bishop to

exorcise her, then she was absolved of her sins and then killed.

 

The coming of the year 1000 was anxiously awaited by all Christians, as it was

common knowledge that Jesus himself had announced the end of the world at that

time. Of course all priests and bishops took advantage of the situation by

scaring people with threats of eternal hell if they were not "serving the Church

well" and accumulated even more wealth and properties. The trick was repeated

many times at intervals, up to 1321 CE, with great profits.

Pope Silvester II (Gerbert d'Aurillac, 999-1003) renounced the percentages of

the income for the election of the bishop of Reims and was killed with poison by

the enraged priests. His successor, John XVII (1003), was beheaded by pope John

VIII (1004-1009).

Pope Sergius IV (1009-1012) introduced the symbol of the golden globe

(symbolizing the entire planet) surmounted by a cross as emblem of the popes.

The next pope, Benedictus VIII (1012-1024), excommunicated and persecuted all

the priests who had wives and children and sentenced that all the children of

priests had to be thrown in the streets. This gradually brought to the deep

division from the Orthodox church that admitted marriage of priests.

One day, a Good Friday (traditionally considered as the day of Jesus' death),

there was an earthquake in Rome and he was slightly hurt: the pope blamed the

Jews and took the opportunity to start cruel persecutions against them.

At the same time the greatest persecution against women was started, based on

the book of Marbodus (1035-1123) bishop of Rennes, who accused all women

indiscriminately of all crimes, evils and sins. The Church then proceeded to

burn millions of "witches" and "heretics" who didn't agree with this idea, in

order to "purify the world".

 

In 1032 pope John XIX (1024-1032) died and Alberic III spent a fortune to keep

the post of pope in the Tuscolo family.

The next pope was Theophilattus, the son of Alberic III and the grandson of

Benedict VII. He was appointed with the name of pope Benedict IX (1032-1057) at

11 years of age, and as recorded by Raoul Glaber, monk of Cluny, he soon

surpassed in madness all his predecessors. Many times he had to flee from Rome

for fear of being killed, and regularly came back with the protection of the

emperor Corradus. In 1036, during one of these absences, the Romans elected

another pope, Silvester III, but after 50 days his family put him back on the

throne. In 1045 he decided to sell his position for 700 kg of gold to his

godfather Giovanni Graziano, who became Gregorius VI (1045-1045), with the idea

of retiring to private life and marrying his cousin, but after some time he had

second thoughts and he came back to claim his post. So at that time there were 3

popes in Rome, engaged in excommunicating each other: Silvester III in St.

Peter's church, Benedict IX on the hills outside Rome, and Gregorius VI in the

Lateran palace.

The German king Henry then called for a synod in Sutria, and proclaimed that

Silvester was an imposter: he was degraded to the position of layman, but

condemned to spend the rest of his life as a hermit. He also sentenced that

Benedict had given up his post and could not come back, while Gregorius was

thanked for his role in eliminating the other two. However, since he had being

involved in a sinful act by paying for his position, he had to resign, to leave

the seat free for the king's own choice: Clemens II (1046-1047), who immediately

crowned Henry as emperor. The new emperor left for Germany, taking Gregorius

with him to keep him within reach, and ordered Bonifax of Tuscolo to keep an eye

on Benedict. Clemens II died soon afterwards, like the new successor appointed

by Henry, Damasus II (1048), but Benedict's attempt to sit on the throne was

thwarted and he retired in a monastery, where he proclaimed himself a saint

before dying.

This story had heavy consequences: in 1046, when Henry deposed and humiliated

Gregorius, a young monk was present to the events -- his name was Ildebrand. He

decided to accompany Gregorius to Germany, and at his death he came back to

Italy, where he became the advisor of all the subsequent popes (starting from

Leo IX) and finally in 1073 he became pope himself with the name of Gregorius

VII, marking an extremely important turning point for the history of the Church

(and the world).

 

Damasus' successor, pope Leo IX (1049-1057) disapproved the excesses of the

priests, and with a synod in Rome he ordered that the wives of the priests who

still remained had to be either sold as slaves or forced to serve in his own

palace. However, in the subsequent synod of Coyaca (Spain) in 1050, he orders

that no women will be allowed to live near a church. The 1054 is the year of the

final separation between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. At some

point pope Leo IX was found in bed with a monk, and he defended himself by

saying that he was conjugating with Jesus Christ himself by "embracing his

humanity". Thus justified in his open homosexuality, he had his homosexual lover

accepted by the court.

 

A group of other popes (Victor II 1055-1057, Stephan IX 1057-1058, Benedict X

1058-1059, Nicholas II 1059-1061), lived very short lives, completely controlled

by Ildebrand of Soana, already advisor of Leo IX (1049-1054), who extended the

kingdom of the pope from Capua to Sicily and imposed on the people a new annual

tax on possession of oxen.

This same Ildebrand pushed Alexander II (1061-1073) to bless the invasion of

England by William the Conqueror and the consequent massacre at Hastings.

Alexander II was a strict celibate because he had been castrated, and he

encouraged sexual sadistic-masochistic practices as "penance" and

"purification"; all Christians (males and females) were recommended to regularly

beat themselves and others on shoulders, backs, breasts and genitals with flogs,

bunches of stinging nettles and sticks, often publicly in processions. He also

introduced the practice of self-torturing devices that were often worn day and

night on the body, such as the thorny cilices: belts or tunics full of thorns or

small metal hooks or spikes that were applied directly on the skin

and fastened on the body more or less tightly. The idea was that pain was

"purifying" the soul from sins, especially from sexual desires.

Finally Ildebrand became pope himself with the name of Gregorius VII

(1073-1085).

At that time of ascending the throne, he dictated the powers of the pope:

 

1. the pope cannot be judged by anyone on earth because he is the direct

representative of God

2. the Church of Rome has always been, and will always be, infallible and

unquestionable

3. only the pope can depose bishops

4. only the pope can carry the imperial insignia

5. the pope can depose emperors and kings, and free their subjects from the duty

of obedience towards rulers

6. all the kings must kiss the pope's feet

7. the pope's ambassadors, even if laymen, have power on all bishops

8. an elected pope is automatically and unquestionably a saint, simply on the

strength of St. Peter's merits, because he is the legal representative of Peter.

 

His next act was to test the limits of his power on the Church by prohibiting

the marriage for priests, which until then had been perfectly legal and regular.

Thousands of wives of the priests were thrown on the streets with their children

and treated as prostitutes; most of them committed suicide. A group of Italian

bishops, in a meeting in Pavia in 1076, excommunicated the pope, but without

much success. Rather, Gregorius deposed them and all the moderate and tolerant

bishops and priests from their positions.

Gregorius further strengthened his political power by subjugating the cousin of

the emperor Henry IV (son of the previous Henry who had deposed the previous

Gregorius), the countess Matilde of Tuscany, who was 14 years old at that time

and who entrusted all her immense properties and armies (the most powerful in

Italy at that time) to the diabolical priest (called "Saint Satan" by Pier

Damiani).

Then he openly accused Henry of interfering in the business of the Church and

challenged his authority. Henry called a council at Worms and annulled the

decree of the pope, to which Gregorius answered with the anathema: "On the order

of God, I forbid Henry to rule on the peoples of Italy and Germany. I absolve

all his subjects from any promise or oaths of loyalty to him, and I

excommunicate anyone who may serve him as a king." The news shocked the entire

Europe. Until then, the popes had been appointed either directly by the

emperors, or with their consent, and could be removed by the emperors. However,

Gregorius had convinced Henry's mother, Agnes, to take sides with the Church,

and he also had the support of the powerful countess Matilde of Canossa (in

Tuscany), cousin of the emperor. At the same time, Gregorius offered the

imperial crown to Rudolf of Svevia if he defeated Henry.

In the winter of 1077 Henry (aged 21) traveled through the Alps with great

hardships to the fortress of Canossa, where Gregorius lived, and remained

barefoot and dressed in a simple cloth in the snow for 3 days outside the

fortress, waiting for Gregorius' "forgiveness" and submitting to his political

control.

The pope himself boasts of this victory of his pride in a letter to German

princes: per triduum, ante portam Castri, deposito omni regio cultu,

miserabiliter, ut pote discalceatus, et laneis indutus, persistens, non prius

cum multo fletu apostolicae miserationis auxilium et consolationem implorari

destitit, quam omnes, qui ibi aderant, et ad quos rumor ille pervenit, ad tantam

pietatem, et compassionis, misericordiam movit, ut pro eo multis precibus et

lacrymis intercedentes, omnes quidem insolitam nostrae mentis duritiem

mirarentur; nonnulli vero in nobis non Apostolicae sedis gravitatem, sed quasi

tyrannicae feritatis crudelitatem esse clamarent. (Memorie della Contessa

Matilda, by Fiorentini, published in 1756).

After a few months Henry IV was again excommunicated for having "taken care of"

Rudolf of Svevia, but this time he immediately called for a council and

nominated a new pope with the name of Clemens III (1080). Gregorius angrily

prophetized that Henry would die in one year's time but that didn't happen;

rather, Henry successfully marched into Italy with his armies, occupied Rome and

put Clemens III on the throne of the pope. Abandoned by his cardinals, Gregorius

fled to Salerno, where he offered a solemn blessing to "the entire human race,

except for the false king Henry".

Gregorius VII is the single most responsible man for the disaster of the Church,

claiming for the pope the supreme material authority over all the kings and

emperors of the earth in the name of Jesus who recommended to his followers to

be always humble, poor and detached from any material power and politics. His

status as "saint" (already claimed by himself for himself during his life) was

confirmed by Pius V, 5 centuries later. Napoleon said: "If I weren't Napoleon, I

would have liked to be Gregorius VII."

 

After the death of Gregorius VII, the Vatican was again contended by weaker

popes, like Clemens III (1080 and 1084-1100), Victor III (1086-1087) and Urban

II (1088-1099), who fought against each other also by simultaneously

consecrating the "only real" dead body of an ancient saint, St. Nicholas: one of

the two bodies claimed to be St. Nicholas' was in the cathedral of Bari, while

the other body of the same saint was worshiped in a church in Venice.

In order to get fame and prestige, after the council of Clermont (1095) Urban II

invented the first Crusade, supported by Peter the Hermit who led 100,000

simpletons from various parts of Europe, to march with lighted candles towards

the "Holy War" by screaming "Deos vult! (God wants it!). All those who

participated to the crusade were promised heaven.

 

The first Crusade, called "the Crusade of the Beggars", was waged solely by

children, women, thieves, runaway slaves, unemployed people, mental cases and

various bad and desperate elements of society; they marched on Byzantium,

looting villages and cities and killing all Jews and Orthodox Christians, but

finally they were massacred by the Turks. Only 3 people returned from the

disaster, while Peter the Hermit had fled at the first fight in Macedonia. For

some time, the idea of the Crusades was put aside.

 

Pope Pasqual II (1099- 1118) ordered the emperor Henry V to give up his

traditional right to appoint bishops (who were usually nominated by the

emperor); in the ensuing fight the pope was defeated and he fled to Benevento.

During the following council, when the bishops and priests learnt that they had

to give up their possessions to the emperor so that they could better dedicate

their energies and minds to ministering to the souls of their people, they

reacted violently and the pope could not even finish to read the document. This

was what the pope was hoping for: he added to the purple dress of the pope a

belt carrying seven keys and seven seals, symbolizing the absolute power of the

Church over the entire world, including the emperors.

Pope Gelasius II (1118-1119) was captured by the people, beaten severely (with

the fracture of several bones) and thrown in a ditch in Cluny. His successor,

Calistus II (1119-1124), negotiated a truce with the emperor while Onorius

nominated himself pope without need of any election. Italy was torn in civil war

between the two factions of Guelfs and Ghibellins, respectively the supporters

of the pope and the emperor.

It is ironic that the supporters of the emperor had an uniform bearing a big

cross on the chest, while the supporters of the pope had the emblem of two big

golden keys on one shoulder.

During these period it was not uncommon to have two popes at the same time (both

fighting each other), like Anacletus II (1130-1138) and Innocentius II

(1130-1143), who started a profitable business of coffins. Priests and popes

mingled in the private lives of people, like in the famous case of the

philosopher Abelard and his wife Heloise, who were persecuted by the uncle of

the bride, Fulbert. Abelard was castrated on the instigation of Bernard of

Chiaravalle, a famous assassin "saint", who was enraged by the tolerant and

humanistic philosophy of Abelardus and his student Arnald of Brescia. Arnald

escaped the stake by fleeing to Zurich, and after the death of Innocentius II he

returned to Rome to fight with the people against the popes, to "re-establish

the purity of early Christianity", and he kicked out all priests from Rome. This

Bernard, who invented the feudal system, also proclaimed the second Crusade with

the slogan in morte pagani christianus sanctificatur: "by killing pagans, a

Christian is sanctified".

 

Pope Eugene III (1145-1153), kicked out from Rome, wandered into France and

camped in Paris. There he became famous for a disgraceful episode among the

priests of his retinue, who stopped reciting the prayers in the church of St.

Genevieve to fight over the appropriation of a nice carpet. He invented the

practice of the "indulgences": by paying adequate and fixed amounts of money to

the church, anyone could commit any sin, including the most horrible (homicide,

rape, violence of all kinds, sacrilege, etc) and be automatically forgiven by

paying money (even in advance, for sins they intended to commit).

Bernard, his former superior, said about him: rusticum in palatium trahere ...

ridiculum videtur pannosum homuncionem assumi ad praesidendum principibus, ad

regna et imperia disponenda (Letter to the Cardinals, CCXXXVII).

During the council of Reims in 1148, the same pope arrested a Breton nobleman,

scholar and philosopher, with a great number of his followers. To disgrace these

scholars among the people, the priests accused them of performing orgies,

incest, and cannibalism. Priests also said that these scholars, made invisible

by the pagan Goddess Diana, sneaked at night into other people's houses, drank

their best wines and passed stool and urine inside the containers.

Pope Anastasius IV (1153-1154), who was famous for having spent his childhood in

the most degraded and dangerous neighborhood of Rome (called the "Suburra")

invited Fredrick (by promising to crown him emperor) to loot Tortona, Chieri,

Milano, Asti and destroy Crema that had been put under the pope's anathema. He

imposed to the University of Bologna the mandatory teaching of a new department

on "Church laws".

Also pope Adrian IV (1154-1159) made friends with the same king and convinced

him to capture and burn Arnaldo of Brescia at the stake as heretic. This Adrian

was a descendant of Nicholas II (1059-1061), the pope who punished all the

priests who wanted to keep a family. The Church then switched alliances between

the emperor and the Lombard League of the peoples of north Italy who fought

against the invader emperor.

 

Pope Lucius III (1181-1185), elected at a very advanced age, excommunicated the

Romans for their rebellions and started the persecutions against the Waldenses.

At the council in Verona he proclaimed as a law the duty of the government

authorities to always serve the bishops in searching and punishing the heretics.

Pope Gregorius VIII (1187) excavated the dead body of his deposed predecessor

Victor IV (1138), and enthusiastically scattered its bones, because had

protested the election of Alexander III (1159-1181) voted by a violent minority.

Gregorius VIII proclaimed another Crusade (who was not followed by anyone),

re-established compulsory fasting on Fridays for common people (who were already

starving due to poverty and malnutrition while priests and cardinals gorged on

delicious foods), and died in Pisa after a few days or reign.

Pope Clemens III (1187-1191) invented a new way of making money, promising

plenary indulgence to all those who would marry a prostitute. He also sold the

positions of bishops of York and Bordeaux to Elijah and Ganfrid of Meammort, and

the position of ambassador to Wilhelm of Longchamp. He proclaimed another

Crusade to "free Jerusalem", but the city was lost to the Muslim army lead by

the Saladin.

Pope Celestin III, called "the Bully" (Giacinto Orsini, 1191-1198) approved the

creation of the order of the Teutonic knights and proclaimed that marriage is

indissoluble. Kicked out from Rome from the people, he succeeded in getting back

to his seat by promising the destruction of Toscolo, the original home of the

Toscolo family (Theodora's and Marozia's), a city entrusted by the emperor

Arrigo VI to the protection of the popes.

Toscolo was burn to ashes, the few survivors escaped from the destruction will

rebuild it later on and call it "Frascati" (from frasche, "huts made of

branches", where they had to live having lost everything). All those inhabitants

who were captured by the pope's soldiers are maimed: their eyes are gauged and

their hands and feet are chopped off.

Pope Celestin III was famous for his ability in creating "music concerts" by

passing foul air and for being proud of his physical muscles. While crowning

emperor Henry VI, he banged the crown on his head twice, with great astonishment

of all the presents.

Under the strict control of the Church, those who had the common sense and

intelligence to see and object to the horrible crimes and degradation of the

popes and clergy were cruelly persecuted and burned as heretics, like Arrigo of

Settimello from Florence, who refused to kiss the pope's feet (rotting from some

disease) and wrote that the Vatican, like a rotten head, causes the infection of

the entire body (ipsa caput mundi venalis curia papae, prostat et infirmat

caeteras membra caput).

Pope Innocentius III (1198-1216) wrote a protest letter to Henry the emperor of

Byzantium, who had proclaimed a "wicked prohibition" (pravam inibitionem) to the

priests to extort donations from people who were not in their sound minds.

Innocentius was especially full of hatred against women: he forbade all women to

enter in churches for a long period after giving birth and even to attend the

christening of their children. He also invented the system of confession, where

all Christians are bound to tell all their sins, other people's sins and all

kinds of personal matters to the priests for "obtaining God's forgiveness". In

this way the priests had another very valuable weapon for blackmailing people in

their hands.

In that period the Christian legal system was based on "ordeals" (dangerous or

painful tests to which the accused was submitted under supernatural control, in

order to determine guilt or innocence) also called "God's judgment" (as in the

prescription of the Deuteronomy to establish if a wife had been unfaithful).

Some of the tests were walking between two close rows of torched tree branches,

wearing a tunic impregnated with wax, walking on burning coals, holding a

red-hot iron in one's hand, being thrown in a cauldron of boiling water or oil,

etc. In the 4th Lateran council (1215) ordeals were dispensed with for the

secular legal system, but they continue to be used in the proceedings of the

Inquisition.

 

 

The Crusades

 

The news of the Turks conquering Jerusalem in 1070 was a turning point for

Christianity.

As we already mentioned, in 1095 pope Urban II proclaimed the "holy war" against

the Turks, promising to the Crusaders total forgiveness for all their sins and

remission of all material debts. On 20 April 1096 Peter the Hermit (from

Amiens) led about 100,000 among peasants, beggars, children, women, thieves,

runaway slaves, unemployed people, mental cases and various bad and desperate

elements of society on a "holy war" marching through Hungary and Yugoslavia. In

Hungary they kill about 4000 people and devour everything on their way; it is

said that when they finished to eat the cattle, they were roasting and eating

children. The "army of beggars" looted villages and cities and killed

indiscriminately Jews and Orthodox Christians. They are stopped at Nis, where

5000 of them are killed or jailed; the army is joined by another group led by

Walter Sans Avoir ("penniless") who had started from Cologne, Germany, and

sacked Beograd on his way. On 8 August they all sail from Constantinople for

Palestine and they are finally massacred by the Turks on 21 October 1096. When

the next Christian knights arrived there in the summer of 1097, they found huge

heaps of dried corpses, and the French soldiers used them, mixed with mud, to

build the walls of their first fortresses.

Another Crusader leader, the German count Emich Leisingen, claims to have

received the stigmata (supernatural blessing in the form of the same wounds

suffered by Jesus on the Cross) and gathers a small army; as a "divine guide"

they take a goose and follow the direction in which the animal leads them. On 3

May they start by killing 14 Jews in Spira (Germany), then they reach Worms

where they kill hundreds of Jews; 500 Jews had taken shelter in the palace of

the bishop, who delivers them in the hands of the Crusaders. Rabbi Calonymos

escapes to Rudesheim with 50 Jews, but the archbishop of Magonza orders them to

convert to Christianity: when they refuse, he has them killed.

In Cologne the Crusaders torch the synagogue, then they proceed to Treviri and

Metz, always killing Jews. Why were Crusaders so keen on killing Jews? Because

Jews are not subject to Christian laws and therefore they freely practice usury

and buy and sell articles stolen from churches.

A disciple of Peter the Hermit, Volkmar, gathers an army of about 10,000 and

goes to Prague to massacre almost all the Jews there; on 30 June 1096 he is

stopped by the Hungarians and the entire army is killed. Gottschalk, with his

bands, kills more than 10,000 Jews in Ratisbona.

In 1096 Geoffrey of Bullion and his brother Baldwin obtain a "donation" of 1,000

silver coins from the Jews in Cologne and Magonza, and start the first

"official" Crusade, which killed more than one million people. In Constantinople

Baldwin captures 60 envoys who were supposed to monitor the Crusaders' army, and

kills almost all of them. The army conquers Nicea (by throwing the heads of the

killed enemies into the walls of the city to scare the inhabitants), then

Tarsus, Edessa, Tripoli, Antioch and finally Jerusalem.

Tarsus had already been "liberated" by Tancredis, but Baldwin kicks him out, and

300 of Tancredis' knights are left out from the city, to be massacred by the

Turks during the night.

In Edessa, Baldwin has governor Thoros killed, although the legitimate leader of

the city had officially adopted him as a son in a public ceremony and declares

Edessa a county under his personal dominion, appropriating its treasury to buy

the emirate of Samosata. He accepts a payment from the Muslim prince Barak to

conquer the city of Saruj for him, and then he keeps the city for himself.

In Antioch, the Crusaders massacre all the inhabitants, Turks and Christians

indiscriminately, including women and children: thousands of corpses are left

rotting in the streets. All the houses are ransacked, but most of the food and

goods are destroyed. The knight Boemond, who became prince of Antioch, purchased

the head of emire Yaghi-Siyan from a peasant. At Maarat an-Numan Boemond

promised the inhabitants that all those who surrendered would be spared, and

instead the Crusaders' army massacred all men and sold women and children into

slavery. All the houses were sacked and torched. In the subsequent famine, the

Crusaders' army was forced to eat the rotting corpses of their victims.

In Jerusalem, between 14 and 15 July 1099, there was another massacre: everyone

was killed, men women and children, more than 60,000 people, during an entire

day and night, including a group that had taken shelter in Tancredis by raising

his flag over a mosque. Only the emire Iftikhar and his personal guard escaped

by paying a ransom. When Raymond of Aguilers visited the area of the Temple, he

walked through blood as deep as his knees. The Jews of Jerusalem were burned

alive inside their synagogue.

Archbishop Wilhelm of Tyre writes: "Happy and weeping for the immense joy, our

army gathered in front of the tomb of Jesus to offer homage and thanks... They

were soaked in blood from head to toe."

Some Orthodox priests had found a large piece of the Cross, and the new Latin

archbishop Arnulf tortured them to get the sacred relic.

In the conquered territories, the Crusaders established their own kingdoms,

where peasants had to pay taxes amounting to the 50% of the harvest. On the

coast, merchants from Genoa, Venice, and Marseille established colonies to

ensure monopoly on trade, and the "protection" of the people the monk-knight

orders of Templars, Teutons and Jovannites were established.

 

The second Crusade started with the fall of the Christian kingdom of Edessa in

1144; the pope convinced the king of France and the emperor of Germany to move

against the Turks. The Crusaders started by massacring Jews as usual. Peter the

abbot of Cluny accused them of not paying "donations" to support the Crusade,

and in Germany the Cistercian monk Rudolf instigated the mob to massacre. After

starting the journey, the Crusaders' army reach Philippopolis, where they

torched a monastery and killed all the monks; the opposition of the people and

disagreements among the leaders, together with several epidemics, weakened the

army that was finally massacred by the Turks in Damascus in 1148.

The third Crusade started with the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 conquered by the

Turk Saladdin, who had already conquered Egypt and Arabia. Saladdin allowed the

Christians to go free by paying ransoms: ten coins for a man, five for a woman.

Those who did not pay were made slaves. The Crusade failed, and emperor Fredrick

died.

The fourth Crusade (1202-1204), proclaimed by Innocentius III after the death of

Saladdin (1193) gathered French, Italian and German and sailed from Venice to

conquer Jerusalem after occupying Egypt. Venice had good trade business with

Egypt, so in exchange for the journey they asked for the conquer of Zara in

Croatia, that belonged to the Catholic king of Hungary. The Crusaders accept but

the pope gets angry and excommunicates them after the fall of Zara, but he has

to "forgive" them, otherwise the army will not go to Jerusalem any more.

The Crusaders proceed to Constantinople; after an agreement proposed during the

siege of Zara, they install the brother of the former emperor, but the treasury

is empty and the people refuses to accept the authority of the Roman Church or

to give special privileges to the army. A revolt of the people deposes and kills

the new emperor, his son and a few hundred soldiers. The Crusaders reply with 3

days of massacres and sacking, and they proclaim the Latin eastern empire,

putting a new patriarch at the head of the Orthodox Church and granting Venice

exemption from all taxes in all the cities of the new empire. The Latin empire

will crumble in 1261 under the attack of Bulgarians, Albanese and Byzantines

helped by Genoa (a traditional rival of Venice).

 

Under pope Innocentius III, two "children's Crusades" were proclaimed in France

and Germany, sending children unarmed and chanting devotional hymns to fight and

reclaim Palestine, the "Holy Land". In 1212 Stephan, a peasant boy from the city

of Cloyes in Orleans, goes to king Philippe of France to tell him that Jesus

appeared to him and asked him to gather people for the Crusade. Stephan starts

preaching at the abbey of Saint Denis, promising that the sea would open to let

the Christians walk through it and gathers about 50,000 among boys and girls.

When they reach Marseille the sea does not open and many go back home. Two

merchants offered to take them to Palestine by ship. Of the seven ships, two

sank in a storm near the coast of Sardinia, while the other five arrived in

Egypt, but the merchants sold all the children into slavery.

A few weeks after Stephan has left from Vendome, in Germany another child from a

village, Nicholas, starts preaching at the sanctuary of the Three Kings in

Cologne, promising that the sea would part and that the infidels will

spontaneously convert to Christianity. The "army" marches through Italy in two

groups, directed towards the two opposite coasts, Tyrrenic and Adriatic. The

largest group, about 20,000 in number with Nicholas, goes first to Genoa, but

the sea does not part and the city leaders allow them to stay for one night

only; they proceed towards Pisa, hoping that the sea would open there. Two ships

directed to Palestine accepted to carry some of them, but they "disappeared".

Nicholas and his followers proceed to Rome, where pope Innocentius III tells

them to go back home. Many remained in Italy, a few returned to Germany in the

spring; Nicholas' father was arrested and hanged on the protests of the parents

of the lost children. The other group finally reached Brindisi, some embarked

for Palestine and others returned home.

The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Crusades failed in spite of the alliance

with the Mongols (Moguls) because people were tired. The world hadn't ended

(with the year 1000 as prophetized by the Church), so peasants went back

cultivating the fields.

 

However, the greatest Crusade of Innocentius III was from 1208, against the

Cathars, also called Patarins in north Italy and Albigenses in Languedoc,

France. The Cathars were a community of original Christians already mentioned

in the 4th century, and attached to the Merovingian tradition.

Gregoire of Tours, official historian of the Church in the Middle Ages, writes

that when Mary Madgalene with Jesus' child had escaped from Palestine to France

with a small number of Jesus' disciples, the local Celtic population had

welcomed the early Christians and mixed with them. The child of Mary Madgalene

married into a Celtic noble family, and the descendents of Jesus started the

Merovingian dynasty with Clovis and his son Meroveo (450 CE); these kings,

called "fisher kings", were known for their "long hair", their healing power and

sanctity of life. The myth of the Fisher King as the "husband of the earth"

survived in the Poems of the San Graal and especially in the Cycle of Arthur

king of Britain. The "San Graal", that became famous in Christian mystic

literature in the Middle Ages, was described as the "sacred container of the

holy blood of Jesus", or sang real ("holy blood" in French language).

Mary the Magdalene was worshiped by her descendents as the famous "Lady with

Child" that the Church later explained as being the "Madonna" or Mother of

Christ, with baby Jesus. Actually the cult of the "Mother" started with the

worship of Mary Magdalene, connected to the pre-Christian religions of Mother

Earth, Isis etc, and after the extermination of the Cathars, it was appropriated

by the Church and manipulated to fit into the dogmatic system.

The Cathars (from the Greek word for "pure") considered women on the same level

of men in regard to leadership; they were vegetarian, they believed in

reincarnation, lived according to strict moral principles, and studied ancient

books of knowledge.

 

Certainly the Church could not allow the growth of a movement that claimed to be

supporting the direct descendents of Jesus, with a kingdom of their own, and so

close to the original ancient religions that had been popular in Europe before

the persecution of the "heathens". The Cathars, also called perfecti ("perfect

people") were also very critical towards the corruption of the Church (which

they rejected) and the bad behavior of the priests and bishops, and thus they

were very popular.

Innocentius III was well aware of the situation; in fact he wrote: "In all this

region (the Languedoc, France) the priests are laughingstocks for the commoners.

But the origin of the evil is the archbishop of Narbonne: this man knows no god

but money, and he has a purse in place of his heart. In the ten years he held

the post, he never visited once his diocese... where everyone can see priests

and nuns who have given up their dress, taking wives and lovers, and living on

usury." Other documents written at those times also say that priests and bishops

liked gambling and whoring, excommunicated people at the lightest offense, did

not celebrate rituals, asked money for marriages and cancelled people's last

will to appropriate the assets of the deceased.

The pope had already killed all the Patarins in Milan, north Italy; the

survivors had fled in Provence, France, and other areas, where they started

again to preach. Then he sent several priests to try to convince the Cathars to

submit to the authority of the Church, starting from Dominic, the founder of the

Dominican order, Peter of Castelnau and Raoul. Peter had accused the count of

Toulouse, Raimond, of hiding and protecting the heretics, and excommunicated

him, after which he was killed by one of the knights of the count. The pope

immediately declared Peter of Castelnau a saint, and launched the Crusade

against the "heretics" of Languedoc, in France, on 10 March 1208.

The King of France refused to lead the Crusade, so the position of commander in

chief was entrusted to Arnaud-Amalric, ambassador of the pope and leader of the

monastic order of Rigorous Cluniacenses who were delegated to search,

inquisition, torture and destroy all dissidents, although also Dominicans and

even Franciscans were doing their best in the job. Arnaud promised the Crusaders

a special "indulgence" (forgiveness of all sins) for the 40 days of the

expedition, and grants of lands in Languedoc and thus he collected an army of

about 200,000 foot soldiers and at least 20,000 horsemen, including members of

the aristocracy, dukes and counts, including Raimond of Toulouse, who had

visited Saint-Gilles cathedral one week earlier and swore loyalty to the Church.

The siege to the city of Béziers started on the "auspicious day" of Mary

Madgalene. Arnaud asked the city to deliver about 300 "heretics" who lived in

the city so the other inhabitants could be spared, but the city refused. Arnaud

Amalric ordered his army: "Kill everybody, God will recognize who is not a

heretic", and writes in his report to the pope: "Today 20,000 people have been

killed, without discrimination for age and sex". The city was destroyed. The

Church stated in fact that everyone, guilty or innocent, repentant or defiant,

should be tortured and killed: if one is innocent, that suffering will purify

his soul, otherwise it will be a deserved punishment.

The next city, Carcassonne, was taken by surprise while the leaders were

discussing a truce. All the inhabitants were expelled from the city, "completely

naked, except for the sins they carried", and were given one day only to run

away, after which they would be killed. After this military feat, at the end of

the 40 days of the official Crusade, Arnaud Amalric appointed Simon de Montfort

as commander in chief of the army to continue to eliminate the "heretics". Simon

de Montfort attacked Bram in 1210 and after capturing the city he decided that

nobody should be killed, because "dead people are not good messengers": he cut

noses and eyes from all the inhabitants, leaving one eye only to one who could

lead all the others to Cabaret to scare the other Albingenses. Vaux de Cernay

wrote to the pope that all the Perfecti were burned alive from town to town with

"immense joy" (cum ingenti gaudio combusserunt).

Innocentius III and Simon de Montfort died in 1216, but the Crusade continued

until 1226, killing hundreds of thousands for "disobedience to the pope".

The last stronghold of the Cathars, Montségur ("safe haven on the mountain"),

falls to the mercenary army of the Church and 200 people are burned alive, but

just before the fall Rocelin de Fos, a Templar Knight, helps the Cathars to

"take away something very important" from the city. The legacy of the Cathars is

then entrusted to the Templar Knights.

The Inquisition, however, continued by burning people suspected of being Cathars

and Waldensians (another branch of the Cathars): 250 in south France (1244 CE),

200 in Verona in 1278, 100 in Graz, Austria, in 1397, 2470 in Provence in 1545,

2000 in south Italy (Guardia Piemontese, San Sisto and Montaldo) in 1561 and

2000 in the Alps in 1686.

 

 

.......... to be continued

 

 

 

 

 

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I think we have said enough. This is a forum to discuss shakti sadhana is it

not?

 

Parama Karuna Devi <paramakaruna wrote: The Sacred Roman Empire

of the West

 

Charlemagne was a fairly strong man and could speak Latin. He founded various

universities but he wasn't able to read and could barely write his own name. He

had 4 wives, several concubines and a lot of children. When pope Leo III

(795-816) begged him for his help, he saw the opportunity of stepping into the

void of power between Rome and Constantinople (that was very far in the East)

and to become the head of the Western Roman Empire.

Pope Leo III had been accused of adultery, and shortly before the arrival of

Charlemagne, he was attacked by a crowd who gauged his eyes and cut his tongue.

In spite of that, he was able to catch his opportunity of establishing his power

over the king: while Charlemagne was kneeling in front of what was believed to

be the tomb of Peter, the pope quickly put the crown on his head, thus

establishing the right of the Church to consecrate kings.

 

Pope Gregorius V (827-844) ordered the sons of Ludovic the Pious to imprison

their father as a punishment for daring to question the behavior of the priests.

He also prepared the first army to attack the Muslim marauders.

After him, a John VIII (844-846) became pope, but he was actually a woman

disguised as man (with a false beard). After two years the secret was disclosed

when, during a solemn procession, the "pope" gave birth to a baby and died on

the street of hemorrhage, to the great dismay of all the priests. From then on,

the "sex test" was introduced and is still valid: those who wished to be elected

as popes had to sit on a special chair (with a hole) and a priest stuck his hand

in the hole to verify the sex of the candidate.

Pope Leo IV (847-855) was made a saint because he introduced the selling of

"holy water" to the people (which meant more income for the priests). He also

built high walls around the central area of the Vatican.

Pope Adrian II (867-872) who had a wife and several children (his daughter

eloped with the brother of his rival pope Anastasius), imported the ashes of St.

Clemens, and by a "miracle" he multiplied them to sell them everywhere. From

that time the mad rush to the "holy relics", already scandalous, became

incredible. There are still two navels of Jesus worshiped in France (at Chalons

and Lucques) and one in Rome (S. Maria del Popolo).

Pope John IX (872-882, sometimes called VIII to try to minimize the embarrassing

event of "Popess Joan", that still stimulates laughing in Protestants even

today) used fancy underwear and was a declared homosexual; he became a tributary

to the Muslims and paid them 25,000 silver marks every year. He was poisoned and

killed with a big hammer stroke on his head by his brother, who was paid by

another candidate to the position of pope (who was later poisoned).

His successor's successor, pope Adrian III (884-885) personally killed the

previous pope by poison, but he became very angry when he found that the pope's

treasury was seriously depleted, so he gauged off the eyes of the servant who

was in charge of the treasury and he beat to death the wife of the chief servant

of the palace. He also tried to impose his illegitimate son Bernard as his

successor as pope.

Pope Formosus (891-896) crowned almost simultaneously two kings as "the only

emperor of the Holy Roman Empire", Guido from Spoleto first and Arnolfo from

Carinzia later, and died of old age just in time to escape revenge from the

priests of Spoleto who had to content themselves to vent their anger over his

dead body. The election of his successor (in 896) was an open riot where monks

and priests came from far and wide with all kinds of weapons (including

broomsticks and rolling pins) to fight in Vatican, but Bonifax VI lasted less

than one month.

His next successor, pope Stephan VI (896-897), wanted to please Gertrude, the

widow of the Duke of Spoleto, so he organized a public trial for the dead

Formosus: the dead body was stripped naked and then hanged. The dead body was

beheaded and mutilated of three fingers of the right hand (used in life to

impart the pope's blessings), then dragged around in the filthy streets, and

finally thrown in the river. However, the Annals written by Baronio inform us

that Stephan VI himself was later hanged by the people about 18 months later.

Stephan VI is famous for introducing the cult of St. Joseph, the foster father

of Jesus.

>From 897 CE onwards the Vatican fell into the hands of powerful families who

increasingly brought degradation into the Church. The Tuscolos, descendents of

Alberic of Tuscolo, gave seven popes (and anti-popes) to Rome, and this was just

the beginning.

In the following 150 years there were 35 popes, some of whom lasted two weeks,

one or three months; many were deposed, many were killed.

One of the main characters of this horror and sex film is Theodora, wife of a

nobleman called Theofilattus. She made and killed (by poisoning or in other

ways) at least four popes who were her lovers: Romano (897), Theodore II (897),

John IX (898-900, killed by suffocation) and Benedict IV (900-903). Without

counting Anastasius III (91-913), who was also subject to Theodora's control

(although not openly keeping an illicit relationship with her) and also

poisoned.

Pope Sergius III (904-911) again fished the skeleton of Formosus (who had died

in 896) from the river and had it dragged around the city streets, then thrown

back into the waters. Theodora became the lover of this pope, too, and also

supplied her young daughter Marozia to the lust of Sergius. Marozia gave him a

son who later was made pope in 928 with the name of John XI, or number XII if we

count the embarrassment of "popess Joan". The problem with the list of the popes

is that many entries were too embarrassing for the compilers, so they were often

nonchalantly skipped. Many popes overlap (sometimes 3 at the same time) due to

fighting of opposite factions, as we have seen, and for periods the pope's seat

remained vacant for various reasons.

Stephen VIII (939) was killed by an angry mob soon after being elected and the

subsequent Stephen IX (939-942), Marino II (942-946) and Agapitus II (946-955)

were totally subservient to Albericus, the powerful son or Marozia.

John X also (914-928) convinced Marozia to marry Alberic who was later killed.

When Theodora died in 928, Marozia had the pope strangled and installed her own

son as the pope John XI (928-939). This came quite handy for Marozia, as she

received the required authorization to marry her stepbrother, Hugue of Provence,

after having his legal wife killed. The marriage was personally celebrated by

the pope in 932.

The second son of Marozia, Alberic II, took over the power in Rome, deposed and

jailed his brother John XI until his death, and he also jailed his mother in the

terrible Mausoleum of Adrian (that later became Castel S. Angelo).

John XII (955-964), who became pope at the age of 16, was extremely lusty. He

maintained a permanent harem and he openly had sex with his mother and sisters,

a nephew and the lover of his father. It is said that he stopped the celebration

of a Mass to go and have sex with a nun; the story was later changed and the

reason for which he left the celebration unfinished was to "attend to the

childbirth" of a horse. He charged fees for the nomination of priests,

informally ordained deans in the stables; he gauged the eyes of his spiritual

advisor and castrated a cardinal (causing his death).

He had personal stables with 2000 horses that he fed with almonds, figs and

wine. The bad reputation of the pope created a crisis in the flow of pilgrims

(Rome was supported mainly with the income of tourism), and he was forced to

flee the city by the angry crowd. A synod was called, where the bishop of

Cremona recorded a list of the criminal activities ascribed to the young pope,

including homicide, perjury, drunkenness, sacrilege and worship of demons. John

answered the accusations by threatening to excommunicate all the bishops, then

he gathered an army paid by his relatives and returned to Rome, where he killed

or maimed all his opponents. He died at the age of 24, killed by a husband who

found him having sex with his wife, as reported by Liutprand, bishop of Cremona

and historian of the Church.

At the death of John XII the Roman people chose Benedict V as pope, but the

emperor Otto of Germany refused to accept a pope that had not been chosen by

him, and he appointed Leo VIII. Benedict stepped down and the supporters of Leo

VIII were flogged and maimed. However, Leo VIII (964) was stabbed to death by a

priest just after ascending the throne. The Church officially admits that at

least 13 popes were killed by poisoning by priests, and that a great number of

others were killed by stabbing, hammering or clubbing, strangling or torn apart

by angry mobs. However, a much greater number of popes have died "mysteriously"

even the same day of their election or the next day, like the very recent John

Paul I.

The killer nominated himself as the next pope with the name of Christopher V

(964-966), and the first action he took was burning his victim and throwing the

ashes in the river. Christopher was defeated in battle by the Duke of Tuscany,

then he gave up his position as a pope and became a friar.

The 9th century is famous as the "iron age" of Christianity that systematically

destroyed whatever was left of ancient scientific and literary texts by

scratching the parchments to use them for writing their nonsense: this has been

passed off as "preservation of culture in the dark ages" by "scholarly monks".

This is even confirmed by Henrion, a historian writing in support of the

Vatican.

After the death of both Benedict and Leo, the emperor appointed pope John XIII

(965-972), son of Theodora, but the Romans kicked him out of Rome immediately.

The emperor reinstalled him with the strength of his army, but he soon realized

that the new pope was a very bad man. According to the report of Liutprand, John

XIII was a madman who used to killed anyone who displeased him. He persecuted

his adversaries, gauged their eyes and killed them by burning them alive after

covering their bodies with pitch, using them as human torches for his dining

room. He also had the Governor of Rome arrested, dragged in the dirt of the

streets, severely flogged and hanged by his hair to the statue of Marcus

Aurelius. All along, with public declarations of his "forgiveness" for the

offenses of his enemies.

 

After the death of the emperor Otto I, another son of Theodora, Crescentius,

deposed pope Benedict VI (973-974) who had tried to reconcile the two factions

(the supporters of the popes and the supporters of the emperors) and had him

strangled by Bonifax VII, who was then made pope. Bonifax VII only reigned for

one year (974-975) and then escaped to Byzantium with a ship loaded with silver.

Pope Benedict VII (974-983) was elected and reigned in spite of the fact that

Bonifax VII was still alive. He became famous because he invited his enemies to

a reconciliation banquet and killed them while they were eating. He also

introduced the custom of charging fees for funerals, and prohibition to the

priests of accompanying to the cemetery the bodies of the destitute deceased.

Pope John XIV (983-984) was killed after four months of reign, poisoned by

Bonifax VII who had returned to Rome after spending all his accumulated money in

Byzantium. His corpse was dragged in the streets of Rome and finally thrown at

the feet of the statue of Marcus Aurelius.

Pope John XV is described by Gelmi as a "greedy son of a priest", and he was

"mysteriously" killed by the priests in 985 after a few weeks of reign. It is

not clear if he was strangled, stabbed or clubbed to death because his body was

hastily buried.

Pope John XVI (995-996) was almost killed by his rival the abbot of Farfa over a

matter of money. He introduced the new calendar with the saints and claimed for

himself all the moneys coming from the "making of saints" or canonization, which

earlier went to the bishops, too. He was arrested, blinded, horribly maimed and

locked up for life by his successor Gregorius V (996-999), who followed the

example of many other popes like Stephan III, who gauged eyes and tongue from

the bishop Theorodus, Passivo's eyes, the eyes and tongue from Gracilis a

nobleman from Alatri who had supported his predecessor. However, he was also

killed later on during a procession.

In 996 Gregorius V, then aged 25, decided with his cousin the emperor Otto III,

that Marozia had been kept in jail long enough, so they sent a bishop to

exorcise her, then she was absolved of her sins and then killed.

 

The coming of the year 1000 was anxiously awaited by all Christians, as it was

common knowledge that Jesus himself had announced the end of the world at that

time. Of course all priests and bishops took advantage of the situation by

scaring people with threats of eternal hell if they were not "serving the Church

well" and accumulated even more wealth and properties. The trick was repeated

many times at intervals, up to 1321 CE, with great profits.

Pope Silvester II (Gerbert d'Aurillac, 999-1003) renounced the percentages of

the income for the election of the bishop of Reims and was killed with poison by

the enraged priests. His successor, John XVII (1003), was beheaded by pope John

VIII (1004-1009).

Pope Sergius IV (1009-1012) introduced the symbol of the golden globe

(symbolizing the entire planet) surmounted by a cross as emblem of the popes.

The next pope, Benedictus VIII (1012-1024), excommunicated and persecuted all

the priests who had wives and children and sentenced that all the children of

priests had to be thrown in the streets. This gradually brought to the deep

division from the Orthodox church that admitted marriage of priests.

One day, a Good Friday (traditionally considered as the day of Jesus' death),

there was an earthquake in Rome and he was slightly hurt: the pope blamed the

Jews and took the opportunity to start cruel persecutions against them.

At the same time the greatest persecution against women was started, based on

the book of Marbodus (1035-1123) bishop of Rennes, who accused all women

indiscriminately of all crimes, evils and sins. The Church then proceeded to

burn millions of "witches" and "heretics" who didn't agree with this idea, in

order to "purify the world".

 

In 1032 pope John XIX (1024-1032) died and Alberic III spent a fortune to keep

the post of pope in the Tuscolo family.

The next pope was Theophilattus, the son of Alberic III and the grandson of

Benedict VII. He was appointed with the name of pope Benedict IX (1032-1057) at

11 years of age, and as recorded by Raoul Glaber, monk of Cluny, he soon

surpassed in madness all his predecessors. Many times he had to flee from Rome

for fear of being killed, and regularly came back with the protection of the

emperor Corradus. In 1036, during one of these absences, the Romans elected

another pope, Silvester III, but after 50 days his family put him back on the

throne. In 1045 he decided to sell his position for 700 kg of gold to his

godfather Giovanni Graziano, who became Gregorius VI (1045-1045), with the idea

of retiring to private life and marrying his cousin, but after some time he had

second thoughts and he came back to claim his post. So at that time there were 3

popes in Rome, engaged in excommunicating each other: Silvester III in St.

Peter's church, Benedict IX on the hills outside Rome, and Gregorius

VI in the Lateran palace.

The German king Henry then called for a synod in Sutria, and proclaimed that

Silvester was an imposter: he was degraded to the position of layman, but

condemned to spend the rest of his life as a hermit. He also sentenced that

Benedict had given up his post and could not come back, while Gregorius was

thanked for his role in eliminating the other two. However, since he had being

involved in a sinful act by paying for his position, he had to resign, to leave

the seat free for the king's own choice: Clemens II (1046-1047), who immediately

crowned Henry as emperor. The new emperor left for Germany, taking Gregorius

with him to keep him within reach, and ordered Bonifax of Tuscolo to keep an eye

on Benedict. Clemens II died soon afterwards, like the new successor appointed

by Henry, Damasus II (1048), but Benedict's attempt to sit on the throne was

thwarted and he retired in a monastery, where he proclaimed himself a saint

before dying.

This story had heavy consequences: in 1046, when Henry deposed and humiliated

Gregorius, a young monk was present to the events -- his name was Ildebrand. He

decided to accompany Gregorius to Germany, and at his death he came back to

Italy, where he became the advisor of all the subsequent popes (starting from

Leo IX) and finally in 1073 he became pope himself with the name of Gregorius

VII, marking an extremely important turning point for the history of the Church

(and the world).

 

Damasus' successor, pope Leo IX (1049-1057) disapproved the excesses of the

priests, and with a synod in Rome he ordered that the wives of the priests who

still remained had to be either sold as slaves or forced to serve in his own

palace. However, in the subsequent synod of Coyaca (Spain) in 1050, he orders

that no women will be allowed to live near a church. The 1054 is the year of the

final separation between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. At some

point pope Leo IX was found in bed with a monk, and he defended himself by

saying that he was conjugating with Jesus Christ himself by "embracing his

humanity". Thus justified in his open homosexuality, he had his homosexual lover

accepted by the court.

 

A group of other popes (Victor II 1055-1057, Stephan IX 1057-1058, Benedict X

1058-1059, Nicholas II 1059-1061), lived very short lives, completely controlled

by Ildebrand of Soana, already advisor of Leo IX (1049-1054), who extended the

kingdom of the pope from Capua to Sicily and imposed on the people a new annual

tax on possession of oxen.

This same Ildebrand pushed Alexander II (1061-1073) to bless the invasion of

England by William the Conqueror and the consequent massacre at Hastings.

Alexander II was a strict celibate because he had been castrated, and he

encouraged sexual sadistic-masochistic practices as "penance" and

"purification"; all Christians (males and females) were recommended to regularly

beat themselves and others on shoulders, backs, breasts and genitals with flogs,

bunches of stinging nettles and sticks, often publicly in processions. He also

introduced the practice of self-torturing devices that were often worn day and

night on the body, such as the thorny cilices: belts or tunics full of thorns or

small metal hooks or spikes that were applied directly on the skin

and fastened on the body more or less tightly. The idea was that pain was

"purifying" the soul from sins, especially from sexual desires.

Finally Ildebrand became pope himself with the name of Gregorius VII

(1073-1085).

At that time of ascending the throne, he dictated the powers of the pope:

 

1. the pope cannot be judged by anyone on earth because he is the direct

representative of God

2. the Church of Rome has always been, and will always be, infallible and

unquestionable

3. only the pope can depose bishops

4. only the pope can carry the imperial insignia

5. the pope can depose emperors and kings, and free their subjects from the duty

of obedience towards rulers

6. all the kings must kiss the pope's feet

7. the pope's ambassadors, even if laymen, have power on all bishops

8. an elected pope is automatically and unquestionably a saint, simply on the

strength of St. Peter's merits, because he is the legal representative of Peter.

 

His next act was to test the limits of his power on the Church by prohibiting

the marriage for priests, which until then had been perfectly legal and regular.

Thousands of wives of the priests were thrown on the streets with their children

and treated as prostitutes; most of them committed suicide. A group of Italian

bishops, in a meeting in Pavia in 1076, excommunicated the pope, but without

much success. Rather, Gregorius deposed them and all the moderate and tolerant

bishops and priests from their positions.

Gregorius further strengthened his political power by subjugating the cousin of

the emperor Henry IV (son of the previous Henry who had deposed the previous

Gregorius), the countess Matilde of Tuscany, who was 14 years old at that time

and who entrusted all her immense properties and armies (the most powerful in

Italy at that time) to the diabolical priest (called "Saint Satan" by Pier

Damiani).

Then he openly accused Henry of interfering in the business of the Church and

challenged his authority. Henry called a council at Worms and annulled the

decree of the pope, to which Gregorius answered with the anathema: "On the order

of God, I forbid Henry to rule on the peoples of Italy and Germany. I absolve

all his subjects from any promise or oaths of loyalty to him, and I

excommunicate anyone who may serve him as a king." The news shocked the entire

Europe. Until then, the popes had been appointed either directly by the

emperors, or with their consent, and could be removed by the emperors. However,

Gregorius had convinced Henry's mother, Agnes, to take sides with the Church,

and he also had the support of the powerful countess Matilde of Canossa (in

Tuscany), cousin of the emperor. At the same time, Gregorius offered the

imperial crown to Rudolf of Svevia if he defeated Henry.

In the winter of 1077 Henry (aged 21) traveled through the Alps with great

hardships to the fortress of Canossa, where Gregorius lived, and remained

barefoot and dressed in a simple cloth in the snow for 3 days outside the

fortress, waiting for Gregorius' "forgiveness" and submitting to his political

control.

The pope himself boasts of this victory of his pride in a letter to German

princes: per triduum, ante portam Castri, deposito omni regio cultu,

miserabiliter, ut pote discalceatus, et laneis indutus, persistens, non prius

cum multo fletu apostolicae miserationis auxilium et consolationem implorari

destitit, quam omnes, qui ibi aderant, et ad quos rumor ille pervenit, ad tantam

pietatem, et compassionis, misericordiam movit, ut pro eo multis precibus et

lacrymis intercedentes, omnes quidem insolitam nostrae mentis duritiem

mirarentur; nonnulli vero in nobis non Apostolicae sedis gravitatem, sed quasi

tyrannicae feritatis crudelitatem esse clamarent. (Memorie della Contessa

Matilda, by Fiorentini, published in 1756).

After a few months Henry IV was again excommunicated for having "taken care of"

Rudolf of Svevia, but this time he immediately called for a council and

nominated a new pope with the name of Clemens III (1080). Gregorius angrily

prophetized that Henry would die in one year's time but that didn't happen;

rather, Henry successfully marched into Italy with his armies, occupied Rome and

put Clemens III on the throne of the pope. Abandoned by his cardinals, Gregorius

fled to Salerno, where he offered a solemn blessing to "the entire human race,

except for the false king Henry".

Gregorius VII is the single most responsible man for the disaster of the Church,

claiming for the pope the supreme material authority over all the kings and

emperors of the earth in the name of Jesus who recommended to his followers to

be always humble, poor and detached from any material power and politics. His

status as "saint" (already claimed by himself for himself during his life) was

confirmed by Pius V, 5 centuries later. Napoleon said: "If I weren't Napoleon, I

would have liked to be Gregorius VII."

 

After the death of Gregorius VII, the Vatican was again contended by weaker

popes, like Clemens III (1080 and 1084-1100), Victor III (1086-1087) and Urban

II (1088-1099), who fought against each other also by simultaneously

consecrating the "only real" dead body of an ancient saint, St. Nicholas: one of

the two bodies claimed to be St. Nicholas' was in the cathedral of Bari, while

the other body of the same saint was worshiped in a church in Venice.

In order to get fame and prestige, after the council of Clermont (1095) Urban II

invented the first Crusade, supported by Peter the Hermit who led 100,000

simpletons from various parts of Europe, to march with lighted candles towards

the "Holy War" by screaming "Deos vult! (God wants it!). All those who

participated to the crusade were promised heaven.

 

The first Crusade, called "the Crusade of the Beggars", was waged solely by

children, women, thieves, runaway slaves, unemployed people, mental cases and

various bad and desperate elements of society; they marched on Byzantium,

looting villages and cities and killing all Jews and Orthodox Christians, but

finally they were massacred by the Turks. Only 3 people returned from the

disaster, while Peter the Hermit had fled at the first fight in Macedonia. For

some time, the idea of the Crusades was put aside.

 

Pope Pasqual II (1099- 1118) ordered the emperor Henry V to give up his

traditional right to appoint bishops (who were usually nominated by the

emperor); in the ensuing fight the pope was defeated and he fled to Benevento.

During the following council, when the bishops and priests learnt that they had

to give up their possessions to the emperor so that they could better dedicate

their energies and minds to ministering to the souls of their people, they

reacted violently and the pope could not even finish to read the document. This

was what the pope was hoping for: he added to the purple dress of the pope a

belt carrying seven keys and seven seals, symbolizing the absolute power of the

Church over the entire world, including the emperors.

Pope Gelasius II (1118-1119) was captured by the people, beaten severely (with

the fracture of several bones) and thrown in a ditch in Cluny. His successor,

Calistus II (1119-1124), negotiated a truce with the emperor while Onorius

nominated himself pope without need of any election. Italy was torn in civil war

between the two factions of Guelfs and Ghibellins, respectively the supporters

of the pope and the emperor.

It is ironic that the supporters of the emperor had an uniform bearing a big

cross on the chest, while the supporters of the pope had the emblem of two big

golden keys on one shoulder.

During these period it was not uncommon to have two popes at the same time (both

fighting each other), like Anacletus II (1130-1138) and Innocentius II

(1130-1143), who started a profitable business of coffins. Priests and popes

mingled in the private lives of people, like in the famous case of the

philosopher Abelard and his wife Heloise, who were persecuted by the uncle of

the bride, Fulbert. Abelard was castrated on the instigation of Bernard of

Chiaravalle, a famous assassin "saint", who was enraged by the tolerant and

humanistic philosophy of Abelardus and his student Arnald of Brescia. Arnald

escaped the stake by fleeing to Zurich, and after the death of Innocentius II he

returned to Rome to fight with the people against the popes, to "re-establish

the purity of early Christianity", and he kicked out all priests from Rome. This

Bernard, who invented the feudal system, also proclaimed the second Crusade with

the slogan in morte pagani christianus sanctificatur: "by killing

pagans, a Christian is sanctified".

 

Pope Eugene III (1145-1153), kicked out from Rome, wandered into France and

camped in Paris. There he became famous for a disgraceful episode among the

priests of his retinue, who stopped reciting the prayers in the church of St.

Genevieve to fight over the appropriation of a nice carpet. He invented the

practice of the "indulgences": by paying adequate and fixed amounts of money to

the church, anyone could commit any sin, including the most horrible (homicide,

rape, violence of all kinds, sacrilege, etc) and be automatically forgiven by

paying money (even in advance, for sins they intended to commit).

Bernard, his former superior, said about him: rusticum in palatium trahere ...

ridiculum videtur pannosum homuncionem assumi ad praesidendum principibus, ad

regna et imperia disponenda (Letter to the Cardinals, CCXXXVII).

During the council of Reims in 1148, the same pope arrested a Breton nobleman,

scholar and philosopher, with a great number of his followers. To disgrace these

scholars among the people, the priests accused them of performing orgies,

incest, and cannibalism. Priests also said that these scholars, made invisible

by the pagan Goddess Diana, sneaked at night into other people's houses, drank

their best wines and passed stool and urine inside the containers.

Pope Anastasius IV (1153-1154), who was famous for having spent his childhood in

the most degraded and dangerous neighborhood of Rome (called the "Suburra")

invited Fredrick (by promising to crown him emperor) to loot Tortona, Chieri,

Milano, Asti and destroy Crema that had been put under the pope's anathema. He

imposed to the University of Bologna the mandatory teaching of a new department

on "Church laws".

Also pope Adrian IV (1154-1159) made friends with the same king and convinced

him to capture and burn Arnaldo of Brescia at the stake as heretic. This Adrian

was a descendant of Nicholas II (1059-1061), the pope who punished all the

priests who wanted to keep a family. The Church then switched alliances between

the emperor and the Lombard League of the peoples of north Italy who fought

against the invader emperor.

 

Pope Lucius III (1181-1185), elected at a very advanced age, excommunicated the

Romans for their rebellions and started the persecutions against the Waldenses.

At the council in Verona he proclaimed as a law the duty of the government

authorities to always serve the bishops in searching and punishing the heretics.

Pope Gregorius VIII (1187) excavated the dead body of his deposed predecessor

Victor IV (1138), and enthusiastically scattered its bones, because had

protested the election of Alexander III (1159-1181) voted by a violent minority.

Gregorius VIII proclaimed another Crusade (who was not followed by anyone),

re-established compulsory fasting on Fridays for common people (who were already

starving due to poverty and malnutrition while priests and cardinals gorged on

delicious foods), and died in Pisa after a few days or reign.

Pope Clemens III (1187-1191) invented a new way of making money, promising

plenary indulgence to all those who would marry a prostitute. He also sold the

positions of bishops of York and Bordeaux to Elijah and Ganfrid of Meammort, and

the position of ambassador to Wilhelm of Longchamp. He proclaimed another

Crusade to "free Jerusalem", but the city was lost to the Muslim army lead by

the Saladin.

Pope Celestin III, called "the Bully" (Giacinto Orsini, 1191-1198) approved the

creation of the order of the Teutonic knights and proclaimed that marriage is

indissoluble. Kicked out from Rome from the people, he succeeded in getting back

to his seat by promising the destruction of Toscolo, the original home of the

Toscolo family (Theodora's and Marozia's), a city entrusted by the emperor

Arrigo VI to the protection of the popes.

Toscolo was burn to ashes, the few survivors escaped from the destruction will

rebuild it later on and call it "Frascati" (from frasche, "huts made of

branches", where they had to live having lost everything). All those inhabitants

who were captured by the pope's soldiers are maimed: their eyes are gauged and

their hands and feet are chopped off.

Pope Celestin III was famous for his ability in creating "music concerts" by

passing foul air and for being proud of his physical muscles. While crowning

emperor Henry VI, he banged the crown on his head twice, with great astonishment

of all the presents.

Under the strict control of the Church, those who had the common sense and

intelligence to see and object to the horrible crimes and degradation of the

popes and clergy were cruelly persecuted and burned as heretics, like Arrigo of

Settimello from Florence, who refused to kiss the pope's feet (rotting from some

disease) and wrote that the Vatican, like a rotten head, causes the infection of

the entire body (ipsa caput mundi venalis curia papae, prostat et infirmat

caeteras membra caput).

Pope Innocentius III (1198-1216) wrote a protest letter to Henry the emperor of

Byzantium, who had proclaimed a "wicked prohibition" (pravam inibitionem) to the

priests to extort donations from people who were not in their sound minds.

Innocentius was especially full of hatred against women: he forbade all women to

enter in churches for a long period after giving birth and even to attend the

christening of their children. He also invented the system of confession, where

all Christians are bound to tell all their sins, other people's sins and all

kinds of personal matters to the priests for "obtaining God's forgiveness". In

this way the priests had another very valuable weapon for blackmailing people in

their hands.

In that period the Christian legal system was based on "ordeals" (dangerous or

painful tests to which the accused was submitted under supernatural control, in

order to determine guilt or innocence) also called "God's judgment" (as in the

prescription of the Deuteronomy to establish if a wife had been unfaithful).

Some of the tests were walking between two close rows of torched tree branches,

wearing a tunic impregnated with wax, walking on burning coals, holding a

red-hot iron in one's hand, being thrown in a cauldron of boiling water or oil,

etc. In the 4th Lateran council (1215) ordeals were dispensed with for the

secular legal system, but they continue to be used in the proceedings of the

Inquisition.

 

 

The Crusades

 

The news of the Turks conquering Jerusalem in 1070 was a turning point for

Christianity.

As we already mentioned, in 1095 pope Urban II proclaimed the "holy war" against

the Turks, promising to the Crusaders total forgiveness for all their sins and

remission of all material debts. On 20 April 1096 Peter the Hermit (from

Amiens) led about 100,000 among peasants, beggars, children, women, thieves,

runaway slaves, unemployed people, mental cases and various bad and desperate

elements of society on a "holy war" marching through Hungary and Yugoslavia. In

Hungary they kill about 4000 people and devour everything on their way; it is

said that when they finished to eat the cattle, they were roasting and eating

children. The "army of beggars" looted villages and cities and killed

indiscriminately Jews and Orthodox Christians. They are stopped at Nis, where

5000 of them are killed or jailed; the army is joined by another group led by

Walter Sans Avoir ("penniless") who had started from Cologne, Germany, and

sacked Beograd on his way. On 8 August they all sail from Constantinople

for Palestine and they are finally massacred by the Turks on 21 October 1096.

When the next Christian knights arrived there in the summer of 1097, they found

huge heaps of dried corpses, and the French soldiers used them, mixed with mud,

to build the walls of their first fortresses.

Another Crusader leader, the German count Emich Leisingen, claims to have

received the stigmata (supernatural blessing in the form of the same wounds

suffered by Jesus on the Cross) and gathers a small army; as a "divine guide"

they take a goose and follow the direction in which the animal leads them. On 3

May they start by killing 14 Jews in Spira (Germany), then they reach Worms

where they kill hundreds of Jews; 500 Jews had taken shelter in the palace of

the bishop, who delivers them in the hands of the Crusaders. Rabbi Calonymos

escapes to Rudesheim with 50 Jews, but the archbishop of Magonza orders them to

convert to Christianity: when they refuse, he has them killed.

In Cologne the Crusaders torch the synagogue, then they proceed to Treviri and

Metz, always killing Jews. Why were Crusaders so keen on killing Jews? Because

Jews are not subject to Christian laws and therefore they freely practice usury

and buy and sell articles stolen from churches.

A disciple of Peter the Hermit, Volkmar, gathers an army of about 10,000 and

goes to Prague to massacre almost all the Jews there; on 30 June 1096 he is

stopped by the Hungarians and the entire army is killed. Gottschalk, with his

bands, kills more than 10,000 Jews in Ratisbona.

In 1096 Geoffrey of Bullion and his brother Baldwin obtain a "donation" of 1,000

silver coins from the Jews in Cologne and Magonza, and start the first

"official" Crusade, which killed more than one million people. In Constantinople

Baldwin captures 60 envoys who were supposed to monitor the Crusaders' army, and

kills almost all of them. The army conquers Nicea (by throwing the heads of the

killed enemies into the walls of the city to scare the inhabitants), then

Tarsus, Edessa, Tripoli, Antioch and finally Jerusalem.

Tarsus had already been "liberated" by Tancredis, but Baldwin kicks him out, and

300 of Tancredis' knights are left out from the city, to be massacred by the

Turks during the night.

In Edessa, Baldwin has governor Thoros killed, although the legitimate leader of

the city had officially adopted him as a son in a public ceremony and declares

Edessa a county under his personal dominion, appropriating its treasury to buy

the emirate of Samosata. He accepts a payment from the Muslim prince Barak to

conquer the city of Saruj for him, and then he keeps the city for himself.

In Antioch, the Crusaders massacre all the inhabitants, Turks and Christians

indiscriminately, including women and children: thousands of corpses are left

rotting in the streets. All the houses are ransacked, but most of the food and

goods are destroyed. The knight Boemond, who became prince of Antioch, purchased

the head of emire Yaghi-Siyan from a peasant. At Maarat an-Numan Boemond

promised the inhabitants that all those who surrendered would be spared, and

instead the Crusaders' army massacred all men and sold women and children into

slavery. All the houses were sacked and torched. In the subsequent famine, the

Crusaders' army was forced to eat the rotting corpses of their victims.

In Jerusalem, between 14 and 15 July 1099, there was another massacre: everyone

was killed, men women and children, more than 60,000 people, during an entire

day and night, including a group that had taken shelter in Tancredis by raising

his flag over a mosque. Only the emire Iftikhar and his personal guard escaped

by paying a ransom. When Raymond of Aguilers visited the area of the Temple, he

walked through blood as deep as his knees. The Jews of Jerusalem were burned

alive inside their synagogue.

Archbishop Wilhelm of Tyre writes: "Happy and weeping for the immense joy, our

army gathered in front of the tomb of Jesus to offer homage and thanks... They

were soaked in blood from head to toe."

Some Orthodox priests had found a large piece of the Cross, and the new Latin

archbishop Arnulf tortured them to get the sacred relic.

In the conquered territories, the Crusaders established their own kingdoms,

where peasants had to pay taxes amounting to the 50% of the harvest. On the

coast, merchants from Genoa, Venice, and Marseille established colonies to

ensure monopoly on trade, and the "protection" of the people the monk-knight

orders of Templars, Teutons and Jovannites were established.

 

The second Crusade started with the fall of the Christian kingdom of Edessa in

1144; the pope convinced the king of France and the emperor of Germany to move

against the Turks. The Crusaders started by massacring Jews as usual. Peter the

abbot of Cluny accused them of not paying "donations" to support the Crusade,

and in Germany the Cistercian monk Rudolf instigated the mob to massacre. After

starting the journey, the Crusaders' army reach Philippopolis, where they

torched a monastery and killed all the monks; the opposition of the people and

disagreements among the leaders, together with several epidemics, weakened the

army that was finally massacred by the Turks in Damascus in 1148.

The third Crusade started with the fall of Jerusalem in 1187 conquered by the

Turk Saladdin, who had already conquered Egypt and Arabia. Saladdin allowed the

Christians to go free by paying ransoms: ten coins for a man, five for a woman.

Those who did not pay were made slaves. The Crusade failed, and emperor Fredrick

died.

The fourth Crusade (1202-1204), proclaimed by Innocentius III after the death of

Saladdin (1193) gathered French, Italian and German and sailed from Venice to

conquer Jerusalem after occupying Egypt. Venice had good trade business with

Egypt, so in exchange for the journey they asked for the conquer of Zara in

Croatia, that belonged to the Catholic king of Hungary. The Crusaders accept but

the pope gets angry and excommunicates them after the fall of Zara, but he has

to "forgive" them, otherwise the army will not go to Jerusalem any more.

The Crusaders proceed to Constantinople; after an agreement proposed during the

siege of Zara, they install the brother of the former emperor, but the treasury

is empty and the people refuses to accept the authority of the Roman Church or

to give special privileges to the army. A revolt of the people deposes and kills

the new emperor, his son and a few hundred soldiers. The Crusaders reply with 3

days of massacres and sacking, and they proclaim the Latin eastern empire,

putting a new patriarch at the head of the Orthodox Church and granting Venice

exemption from all taxes in all the cities of the new empire. The Latin empire

will crumble in 1261 under the attack of Bulgarians, Albanese and Byzantines

helped by Genoa (a traditional rival of Venice).

 

Under pope Innocentius III, two "children's Crusades" were proclaimed in France

and Germany, sending children unarmed and chanting devotional hymns to fight and

reclaim Palestine, the "Holy Land". In 1212 Stephan, a peasant boy from the city

of Cloyes in Orleans, goes to king Philippe of France to tell him that Jesus

appeared to him and asked him to gather people for the Crusade. Stephan starts

preaching at the abbey of Saint Denis, promising that the sea would open to let

the Christians walk through it and gathers about 50,000 among boys and girls.

When they reach Marseille the sea does not open and many go back home. Two

merchants offered to take them to Palestine by ship. Of the seven ships, two

sank in a storm near the coast of Sardinia, while the other five arrived in

Egypt, but the merchants sold all the children into slavery.

A few weeks after Stephan has left from Vendome, in Germany another child from a

village, Nicholas, starts preaching at the sanctuary of the Three Kings in

Cologne, promising that the sea would part and that the infidels will

spontaneously convert to Christianity. The "army" marches through Italy in two

groups, directed towards the two opposite coasts, Tyrrenic and Adriatic. The

largest group, about 20,000 in number with Nicholas, goes first to Genoa, but

the sea does not part and the city leaders allow them to stay for one night

only; they proceed towards Pisa, hoping that the sea would open there. Two ships

directed to Palestine accepted to carry some of them, but they "disappeared".

Nicholas and his followers proceed to Rome, where pope Innocentius III tells

them to go back home. Many remained in Italy, a few returned to Germany in the

spring; Nicholas' father was arrested and hanged on the protests of the parents

of the lost children. The other group finally reached Brindisi,

some embarked for Palestine and others returned home.

The fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth Crusades failed in spite of the alliance

with the Mongols (Moguls) because people were tired. The world hadn't ended

(with the year 1000 as prophetized by the Church), so peasants went back

cultivating the fields.

 

However, the greatest Crusade of Innocentius III was from 1208, against the

Cathars, also called Patarins in north Italy and Albigenses in Languedoc,

France. The Cathars were a community of original Christians already mentioned

in the 4th century, and attached to the Merovingian tradition.

Gregoire of Tours, official historian of the Church in the Middle Ages, writes

that when Mary Madgalene with Jesus' child had escaped from Palestine to France

with a small number of Jesus' disciples, the local Celtic population had

welcomed the early Christians and mixed with them. The child of Mary Madgalene

married into a Celtic noble family, and the descendents of Jesus started the

Merovingian dynasty with Clovis and his son Meroveo (450 CE); these kings,

called "fisher kings", were known for their "long hair", their healing power and

sanctity of life. The myth of the Fisher King as the "husband of the earth"

survived in the Poems of the San Graal and especially in the Cycle of Arthur

king of Britain. The "San Graal", that became famous in Christian mystic

literature in the Middle Ages, was described as the "sacred container of the

holy blood of Jesus", or sang real ("holy blood" in French language).

Mary the Magdalene was worshiped by her descendents as the famous "Lady with

Child" that the Church later explained as being the "Madonna" or Mother of

Christ, with baby Jesus. Actually the cult of the "Mother" started with the

worship of Mary Magdalene, connected to the pre-Christian religions of Mother

Earth, Isis etc, and after the extermination of the Cathars, it was appropriated

by the Church and manipulated to fit into the dogmatic system.

The Cathars (from the Greek word for "pure") considered women on the same level

of men in regard to leadership; they were vegetarian, they believed in

reincarnation, lived according to strict moral principles, and studied ancient

books of knowledge.

 

Certainly the Church could not allow the growth of a movement that claimed to be

supporting the direct descendents of Jesus, with a kingdom of their own, and so

close to the original ancient religions that had been popular in Europe before

the persecution of the "heathens". The Cathars, also called perfecti ("perfect

people") were also very critical towards the corruption of the Church (which

they rejected) and the bad behavior of the priests and bishops, and thus they

were very popular.

Innocentius III was well aware of the situation; in fact he wrote: "In all this

region (the Languedoc, France) the priests are laughingstocks for the commoners.

But the origin of the evil is the archbishop of Narbonne: this man knows no god

but money, and he has a purse in place of his heart. In the ten years he held

the post, he never visited once his diocese... where everyone can see priests

and nuns who have given up their dress, taking wives and lovers, and living on

usury." Other documents written at those times also say that priests and bishops

liked gambling and whoring, excommunicated people at the lightest offense, did

not celebrate rituals, asked money for marriages and cancelled people's last

will to appropriate the assets of the deceased.

The pope had already killed all the Patarins in Milan, north Italy; the

survivors had fled in Provence, France, and other areas, where they started

again to preach. Then he sent several priests to try to convince the Cathars to

submit to the authority of the Church, starting from Dominic, the founder of the

Dominican order, Peter of Castelnau and Raoul. Peter had accused the count of

Toulouse, Raimond, of hiding and protecting the heretics, and excommunicated

him, after which he was killed by one of the knights of the count. The pope

immediately declared Peter of Castelnau a saint, and launched the Crusade

against the "heretics" of Languedoc, in France, on 10 March 1208.

The King of France refused to lead the Crusade, so the position of commander in

chief was entrusted to Arnaud-Amalric, ambassador of the pope and leader of the

monastic order of Rigorous Cluniacenses who were delegated to search,

inquisition, torture and destroy all dissidents, although also Dominicans and

even Franciscans were doing their best in the job. Arnaud promised the Crusaders

a special "indulgence" (forgiveness of all sins) for the 40 days of the

expedition, and grants of lands in Languedoc and thus he collected an army of

about 200,000 foot soldiers and at least 20,000 horsemen, including members of

the aristocracy, dukes and counts, including Raimond of Toulouse, who had

visited Saint-Gilles cathedral one week earlier and swore loyalty to the Church.

The siege to the city of Béziers started on the "auspicious day" of Mary

Madgalene. Arnaud asked the city to deliver about 300 "heretics" who lived in

the city so the other inhabitants could be spared, but the city refused. Arnaud

Amalric ordered his army: "Kill everybody, God will recognize who is not a

heretic", and writes in his report to the pope: "Today 20,000 people have been

killed, without discrimination for age and sex". The city was destroyed. The

Church stated in fact that everyone, guilty or innocent, repentant or defiant,

should be tortured and killed: if one is innocent, that suffering will purify

his soul, otherwise it will be a deserved punishment.

The next city, Carcassonne, was taken by surprise while the leaders were

discussing a truce. All the inhabitants were expelled from the city, "completely

naked, except for the sins they carried", and were given one day only to run

away, after which they would be killed. After this military feat, at the end of

the 40 days of the official Crusade, Arnaud Amalric appointed Simon de Montfort

as commander in chief of the army to continue to eliminate the "heretics". Simon

de Montfort attacked Bram in 1210 and after capturing the city he decided that

nobody should be killed, because "dead people are not good messengers": he cut

noses and eyes from all the inhabitants, leaving one eye only to one who could

lead all the others to Cabaret to scare the other Albingenses. Vaux de Cernay

wrote to the pope that all the Perfecti were burned alive from town to town with

"immense joy" (cum ingenti gaudio combusserunt).

Innocentius III and Simon de Montfort died in 1216, but the Crusade continued

until 1226, killing hundreds of thousands for "disobedience to the pope".

The last stronghold of the Cathars, Montségur ("safe haven on the mountain"),

falls to the mercenary army of the Church and 200 people are burned alive, but

just before the fall Rocelin de Fos, a Templar Knight, helps the Cathars to

"take away something very important" from the city. The legacy of the Cathars is

then entrusted to the Templar Knights.

The Inquisition, however, continued by burning people suspected of being Cathars

and Waldensians (another branch of the Cathars): 250 in south France (1244 CE),

200 in Verona in 1278, 100 in Graz, Austria, in 1397, 2470 in Provence in 1545,

2000 in south Italy (Guardia Piemontese, San Sisto and Montaldo) in 1561 and

2000 in the Alps in 1686.

 

 

.......... to be continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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