Below is Chapter 7 of my book on religion, “Disbelief”.
PEACE BE UNTO YOU
According to Church historians, early Christians were victims of religious persecution at every turn. To hear them tell the story, all they wanted was to exercise their religious freedom.
Yet, from virtually the moment that the Christian church was legalized in the Roman Empire by the Edict of Milan in 313, church leaders embarked on an ever-expanding mission to stamp-out competing versions of their new religion as well as pagan beliefs. Over the succeeding centuries, as the new Church gained more and more secular influence, and its dogma became more established, it then added established religions to its “enemies list”.
By the Middle Ages, Christianity (now the Roman Catholic Church) was the dominant religion in Europe and in a political position to have its followers and governmental agents ruthlessly stamp out all vestiges of competing theologies. As philosopher Blaise Pascal later remarked, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.”
Christians as Victims
“Persecution of the Christians” was a common theme of the early Catholic Church. Supposedly, the Jesus Christ cult was picked on by orthodox Jews, and, later, Roman authorities hounded early Christians. Whether the crucifixion of Jesus tale and the systematic persecution of early Christian leaders portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles actually occurred, or is simply metaphorical fiction putting a human face to some of Christianity’s early growth pains, no one knows for sure.
Roman historians documented many punishments meted out to enemies of the Empire. In the 1st and 2nd centuries, civil punishments were directed at any agitators who threatened “Pax Romana”. If the Bible is to be believed, the Jesus Christ cult (which was a branch of Judaism at that time) and orthodox Jewry were constantly at each other’s throats. As far as Roman officials were concerned in the 1st and 2nd centuries, “Christian” Jews and the good, old fashioned Jews were, collectively, considered Jews, period. At any rate, it is not surprising that Roman authorities would have taken measures against any Jews generally “disturbing the peace” (i.e. Pax Romana).
Although it is often claimed that Christians were persecuted for their refusal to worship the emperor, a general dislike for Christians likely arose among the populace from their refusal to worship the gods or take part in sacrifice, which was expected of those living in the Roman Empire. Although the Jews also refused to partake in these actions, it seems that they were tolerated because they followed their own Jewish ceremonial law, and their religion was legitimized by its ancestral nature. On the other hand, Romans believed that Christians, who were believed to take part in strange rituals and nocturnal rites, cultivated a dangerous and superstitious sect.
Evidence from suspect ancient documents suggests that the persecution of the Jewish-Christian sect by the Roman government did not occur until the reign of Nero, and it might not have started that early. In 64 A.D., a great fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city and economically devastating the Roman population. In his book, Annals, historian Tacitus recorded that Nero was rumored to have ordered the fire himself, and in order to dispel the accusations, accused and savagely punished the already-detested Christians. This is the story that Christians proudly tell when “persecution” is discussed. However, as was mentioned in a previous chapter, many historians believe that these passages in Tacitus’ Annals were added much later by Christian redactors. Another historian of the day, Suetonis, mentioned that Christians were killed under Nero’s reign, but does not mention anything about the fire. Interestingly, the term “Christian” wasn’t in common usage during Nero’s reign, so one wonders if Suetonis’ writings were also amended after the fact, in order to bolster Christian allegations of persecution as early as the 1st century.
There is no known historical record of a law against Christians during Emperor Nero’s alleged persecution. Church “tradition” informs believers that the Apostles Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome during this persecution. However, the only evidence for this claim is derived from later martyrologies (i.e. stories concocted by the Church one to two hundred years after the fact). Had Saints Peter and Paul actually been martyred during the reign of Nero, it is inconceivable that such incidents wouldn’t have been included in the Acts of the Apostles, which were clearly written after the reign of Nero. Acts featured Peter and Paul, and focused on martyrdoms of key Christian leaders.
It was not until the reign of Emperor Decius, almost two hundred years after Nero, that a persecution of Christian laity across the Empire took place. The persecution under Decius was the first universal and organized persecution of Christians. In January 250, Decius issued an edict requiring all citizens to sacrifice to the emperor in the presence of a Roman official and obtain a certificate (libellus) proving they had done so. This persecution lasted for one year. Many Christians complied and earned the ever-lasting enmity of those who had not. Wealthy Christians were able, with a suitable bribe to officials, to acquire the “Get out of jail free” card without making the required oath.
Under Valerian, who took the Imperial throne in 253, all Christian clergy were required to sacrifice to the gods. In a 257 edict, non-compliance was punished with exile; in 258, the punishment became death. Christian senators, knights and ladies were also required to sacrifice under pain of heavy fines, reduction of rank and, later, death. Finally, all Christians were forbidden to visit their cemeteries.
Many Christians were killed during this period, according to the Church. At about this time, a letter by (later Pope) Dionysus stated that “men and women, young and old, maidens and matrons, soldiers and civilians, of every age and race, some by scourging and fire, others by the sword, have conquered in the strife and won their crowns.” The seven-year period of official harassment and brutality under Valerian was easily the worst that Christians faced.
The prayers of Christians were answered in 260, when Emperor Valerian was captured in battle by the Persians. Valerian was then persecuted by his captors, for a time being used as a human footstool by Persian strongman, Shapur I, when mounting his horse. According to one version of events, after a long period of such treatment, Valerian offered Shapur a huge ransom for his release. In reply, Shapur was said to have either forced Valerian to swallow molten gold or flayed him alive (accounts vary), and then had the unfortunate Valerian skinned, his skin stuffed with straw, and preserved as a trophy in the main Persian temple.
Over the next fifty years, there were several official anti-Christian persecutions authorized and, then, un-authorized within the Empire, depending on the mood and beliefs of the monarch in charge at the time. Finally, in 313, by the Edict of Milan, the persecutions ended, and it became legal to be a Christian.
The persecutions of Christians by the Roman government failed to check the rise of the Church, and may have actually turned public opinion in its favor. Although the several decades of official persecution resulted in the deaths of—according to one modern estimate—3,000 Christians, and the torture, imprisonment, or dislocation of many more, most Christians avoided punishment.
Documented history shows that religious persecution greatly increased within the Roman Empire beginning in the latter half of the 4th century. Harassment, looting, destruction of property, and atrocities became a tool of the State. What is surprising, however, is that Christians weren’t the target of this persecution; they were the eager instigators, cheerleaders, and participants
Enforced Monotheism
Christian fanatics had helped Constantine secure the Imperial throne in the early 4th century, or at least he may have believed that. Accordingly, Christianity quickly became the “favored religion” of the Empire, and then Constantine moved to repay his Christian friends by beginning Imperial persecution of pagans. This benefitted the Christian clergy by driving pagans into the fold, and also by providing the Church with important real estate assets (i.e. ex-pagan temples and their treasures).
Between 324 and 335, Constantine sacked pagan temples throughout the Empire, ordered the execution by crucifixion of all “magicians and soothsayers”, and looted the temples of treasures and statues to decorate Constantinople, the new capital of his Empire.
Constantius II, the son of Constantine, accelerated and deepened the campaign of pagan persecution by the Empire. Between 341 and 357, he ordered the death penalty for all kind of worship through sacrifice and “idols”, ordered the closing of all pagan temples (providing many to the Catholic Church and turning others into brothels or gambling rooms), and ordered destruction of pagan temples and the execution of all “idolaters”.
In 364, Emperor Jovian issued several Imperial edicts which: (1) ordered the death penalty for “all those that worship their ancestral gods or practice divination”; (2) ordered the confiscation of all properties of the pagan temples; and, (3) ordered the death penalty for participation in pagan rituals, even private ones. Emperor Valens followed up in 365 with an Imperial edict forbidding pagan officers of the army to command Christian soldiers.
In 380, Emperor Theodosius I, a newly-converted Christian, issued the Edict of Thessalonika, proclaiming Christianity the exclusive religion of the Roman Empire. In this and follow-up edicts, the Emperor called non-Christians “loathsome, heretics, stupid and blind”, and labeled “insane” those who do not believe in the Christian God and outlawed all disagreement with the Church dogmas.
A chief Catholic theologian of the time, the esteemed “Saint” Augustine, rationalized the brutality of the pagan persecution by the Empire/Church: “There is a persecution of unrighteousness, which the impious inflict upon the church of Christ; and there is a righteous persecution, which the church of Christ inflicts on the impious…Moreover, she persecutes in the spirit of love, they in the spirit of wrath.”
The pious fanatic Augustine counseled the Emperor that forced conversion was the answer, quoting the Gospel of Luke, 14:23, “And the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and fenced-in places, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” So much for the doctrine of “free will”!
In 381, Theodosius declared that any Christians who returned to the pagan religion would be deprived of all their rights as a citizen of the Empire, and, in 388, outlawed public talks on religious subjects, except, of course, in Catholic churches. And, in there, of course, the only one allowed to talk was the Catholic priest.
Between 390 and 500, the Empire stepped up its persecution and destruction of pagans, their property, and their memory. Citizens were prohibited from not only visiting ex-pagan temples, but also from looking at the vandalized statues. “Saint” John Chrysostom collected funds from rich Christian women to financially support hordes of grey-dressed monks armed with clubs and iron bars who traveled far and wide vandalizing pagan “idols”, sacking temples, and slaughtering priests. The Olympic Games, a Greco-Roman tradition of some 600 years, were outlawed, and Christian fanatics sacked the temples of Olympia, Greece. The 15th Council of Chalcedon, a self-important conclave of Catholic clergy, ordered that all Christians who still kept good relations with their non-Christian relatives be excommunicated (even after their death).
In 515, Saint Augustine’s fondest desire became reality: Catholic baptism became obligatory for all citizens, even for those who were already Christians. The Church now had government-sanctioned control of all matters spiritual throughout the Empire.
Thus, in little more than two centuries, the religious beliefs of 90 percent of the citizens of the Empire, and most of the evidence thereof, were obliterated by fanatical Emperors and their Catholic advisors. During this time the Church became wealthy and powerful, serving as influential advisors to Emperors.
From 380 to 500, an untold number of pagan believers, priests, and Hellenic philosophers were slaughtered in the name of the “Prince of Peace”. Historians believe that the numbers of Christians killed in Roman persecutions pale in comparison to the carnage wrought by the 4th and 5th century pagan “holocaust” directed by the Imperial Theocracy.
Christian Heretic Hunting
Christian clergy have been throwing charges of “heresy” at each other for two thousand years. It’s a never-ending story; one man’s orthodoxy is another man’s heresy.
The bitter Arian-Trinitarian battle of the 4th century was finally won-out by Trinitarian forces, and those Christians became known as Catholic (another word for “orthodox” Christians). They were orthodox simply because they were on the winning side. Had they not prevailed, they could have been labeled “heretics”, because Arian Christianity was in the driver’s seat at the time.
Once the Catholic Church gained Imperial favor, they spent a lot of effort over the following couple of centuries squashing their heretical Christian brethren. Un-cooperative clergy were deposed and sometimes murdered, heterodox writings were burned, and sectarian Christians lost possession of their churches and were even forbidden to assemble together.
By perhaps 600, Catholicism was endemic throughout European kingdoms (the former Western Roman Empire) and within the Byzantine Empire (the former Eastern Roman Empire). The Church had moved on to more pressing issues (see Chapter 8, The Divine Money Machine), although there were always “unorthodox” Christian sects in various locations throughout Christendom. And, the Church was always on the lookout for heretical individuals that it could bully.
In 782, in one of the more heinous examples of heretic hunting, Charlemagne (later crowned “Holy ‘Roman Emperor” by Pope Leo II) had 4,500 Saxons, unwilling to convert to Christianity, beheaded in what is known as the Massacre of Verden.
The Islamic Menace
As Aristotle once proclaimed, “Nature abhors a vacuum”. Apparently, it is also necessary that a religious void must be filled, because that’s what occurred in the Middle East in the early 7th century.
Christians were on a roll, amassing religious as well as political power in most of the once mighty Roman Empire. This could not have escaped notice in neighboring lands which had not embraced monotheism. And, so, it is not surprising that, seemingly out of the blue, God decided to speak to an Arab man named Mohammed. Or, so he claimed.
The nomadic, clannish, tribal Arab peoples of the Middle East had no experience with organized religion, no regional political strongmen, nor did they have any holy heroes, so to speak. In Mohammedism (later to be termed Islam), they acquired provenance (claiming Biblical/Abrahamic roots), a local Arab hero/prophet to rally around (Mohammed), and a simple, unifying message tailored to Arab sensibilities. The Islamic holy book, the Koran, is claimed to be a verbatim rendering of the conversations that Mohammed had with Allah (God).
Muslims (adherents of Islam) view Mohammed as a messenger from God, the last in a line of prophets including Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims consider Hebrews and Christians “fellow children of The Book” (i.e. the Old Testament), recognizing that the Christian God, the Hebrew Yahweh, and the Islamic Allah are one and the same Almighty.
Thus, from an ecumenical point of view, it would seem that these religious brethren, sharing so much in common, would be able to live and let live, minding their own business, worshipping and honoring the One True God, whatever his name might be.
Of course, honoring God is not exactly what organized religion is about. It is about the acquisition and use of power…in God’s name. (By the way, the Islamic god, Allah, conveniently felt the same way about women as the Hebrew and Christian god, according to the author of the Koran. Women were to be secondary citizens, chattel of the men folk, to be enjoyed or disrespected at the pleasure of the male horde. Not surprisingly, Allah communicated his support of polygamy to Mohammed, and the Prophet found his way clear to secure/own 13 wives.)
Mohammed and his followers, much like the Hebrews in the Old Testament fervently pursuing their Promised Land, and the Christians voraciously devouring the old Roman Empire, began an aggressive campaign to convert all people in the Arab world to Islam, whether they wanted it or not. Beginning in about 630 A.D., Mohammed first, and then his followers after his death, quickly brought all of Arabia under Islamic control. Over the next 400 years, large swaths of Europe, Asia, and Africa fell under Islamic control.
The Islamic juggernaut was not without it problems, however. Jealousy and infighting among the “clergy” began almost immediately after Mohammed’s death in 632 A.D. The esteemed Prophet had not left an heir or designated protege to lead the Islamic flock. Two factions formed. Shia Muslims believe that the caliph (or, successor) to Mohammed must be a holy man chosen by Allah from the “Family of the House”, i.e. Mohammed’s direct descendents. In contrast, Sunni Muslims believe that the supreme religious and political leader should be elected by Muslims or their representatives (i.e. the priestly class).
A distinguishing characteristic of Islam is that, conceptually, it is a unified religious and political program. There is really no “separation of Church and State” in a perfect Islamic world. The religious leader IS the leader, and the law is religious-based (sharia). This concept seems alien to today’s Western sensibilities; however, at the time that Islam was conceived and developed, the Roman Catholic Church was attempting, with great success at the time, to achieve the same thing in Europe and other areas.
Empire-Building
Beginning in 1095, the arrogance and ambition of the Roman Catholic prelates reached an all-time high when Pope Urban II commanded Christendom to embark on a holy war to “free” the Holy Lands from blasphemers who had occupied those territories for centuries. The First Crusade was ostensibly a war between the Christians and the Muslims. However, once the heavily-armed knights and their troops received Papal “indulgences” (i.e. in-advance forgiveness for sins they might commit in the holy war), they used the occasion to indiscriminately rape, plunder, pillage, and murder whenever they saw fit. For example, the earliest crusaders found time to loot Hungarian cities and destroy Jewish enclaves in Germany, killing thousands of innocent citizens in the process, as they passed through Europe on the way to the Middle East.
The real slaughter began when the Christian armies reached the Holy Lands. Antioch was conquered in June, 1098. There, over 100,000 Turks, including men, women, and children were killed. According to eyewitness Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres: the Christians “did not other harm to the women found in the enemy tents…save that they ran their lances through their bellies.”
Jerusalem itself was “liberated” in July, 1099 with the annihilation of 60,000 victims (Jewish and Muslim men, women, and children). In the words of one eyewitness: “there in front of Solomon’s temple was such a carnage that our people were wading ankle-deep in the blood of our foes”, and after that “happily and crying for joy our people marched to our Savior’s tomb, to honour it and to pay off our debt of gratitude.” It was reported that within the Temple enclosure alone about ten thousand infidels perished.
About one month later, at the Battle of Askalon, one observer reported that 200,000 heathens were slaughtered “in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, although other reports have the toll at no more than 60,000 Muslim fighters.
At any rate, the bloodshed of these battles was of biblical proportion, and they were repeated many times over in several other Crusades authorized by subsequent Popes. Some historians estimate that, by the time the last Crusade had run its course in 1291, there had been as many as twenty million victims in the Holy Lands and Arab/Turkish areas alone.
In the end, Christendom was still denied possession of Jerusalem and the most holy sites that it had originally sought: incredibly, God’s own army had failed to achieve its objective.
Importantly, though, Christians had earned the everlasting emnity of the Arab/Islamic world.
Keeping the House in Order
Crusades weren’t just about the Holy Lands. Some popes used them to weed out heretics, settle old scores, court favor with European monarchs, and obtain the wealth and lands of their allegedly disloyal and misguided Christian brothers.
In 1209, Pope Innocent III authorized the Albigensian Crusade against French Christians (Cathars) who refused to accept Roman Catholic rule. The first battle was in Bezirs, France, in 1209, where the city was destroyed and an estimated 20,000 to 70,000 inhabitants were slaughtered. In the subsequent twenty years of war, nearly all of the Cathars (probably half of the population of southern France) were exterminated. Actual warfare was followed by an Inquisition to search and destroy surviving/hiding heretics. The last Cathars were burned at the stake in 1324. It is estimated the victims of the so-called Cathar Heresy numbered upwards of one million souls, whose only sin was disobedience to the Holy Father in Rome.
The Cathars weren’t the only Christians who were taught a lesson by arrogant pontiffs. In 1234, peasants of Steding, Germany rebelled at paying suffocating church taxes. Pope Gregory IX authorized a crusade to show the faithful the error of their ways. In the ensuing battle, the Dominican priest-led crusaders annihilated the community, killing between 5,000 and 11,000 men, women, and children.
Another example of Church house-cleaning was the demise of the Knights Templar. During the crusades, this military Holy Order, officially endorsed by the Church in 1129, had some of the most skilled fighting units and also managed a large economic infrastructure within Christendom, including the first banking system within Europe. When the Holy Lands were lost, papal support for the Order of Knights Templar waned. Rumors began to circulate about the Order’s secret initiation ceremony, creating mistrust in Vatican halls. At the same time, King Phillip IV of France was heavily in debt to the Order. Taking advantage of the situation, and presumably acting to protect the Church, Phillip had many of the Order’s members arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and burnt at the stake as heretics. Under pressure from King Phillip, Pope Clement V disbanded the Order in 1312. Instantly, Phillip’s debts were “forgiven”, but an important part of European infrastructure (i.e. banking) was devastated.
Acts of Faith
The “Inquisition” holds a particularly infamous position in the hierarchy of Church misdeeds. The Catholic Encyclopedia devotes twenty full pages to rationalizing an excuse for the Inquisition and its approved procedures and methods. By definition, an Inquisition is a special ecclesiastical institution for combating or suppressing heresy. In other words, it is a tool of the Holy Father to stamp out any type of disagreement or discontent with Church dogma and policies. It was also used to settle scores in the community and enrich the coffers of the Church.
The heyday of the Inquisition was the 13th through 16th centuries (four hundred years!) in Europe. Supposedly, only Christians can be accused of heresy and be subject to a true Inquisition. When an accusation was made, the defendant was reminded that heresy was subject to the penalty of death, so full confessions were rare.
Once a denial of the charges was made, the appointed Inquisitor had four methods of extracting confessions: (1) fear of death, i.e. by giving the accused to understand that burning at the stake awaited if he would not confess (as opposed to a quicker, more humanely administered death); (2) close confinement in a dungeon, possibly emphasized by curtailment of food; (3) visits of individuals who would attempt to induce free confession through friendly persuasion; and, (4) torture.
The defendant had no right to know the identity of his accusers, and testimony from infamous accusers (i.e. commonly-known perjurers) was accepted by the Church. As the Catholic Encyclopedia naively notes, “Torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but purely as a means of eliciting the truth.” The Church-approved limit on torture was that it was not to cause loss of life or limb or emperil life, and it was only to be applied once. However, in actual practice, these guidelines were often ignored or circumvented. For example, “with each new piece of evidence the rack could be utilized afresh, and secondly, by imposing new torments on the poor victim (often on different days), not by way of repetition, but as a continuation”. Obviously a clever lawyer wrote that!
Once the accused was dutifully found guilty of heresy, the sinner was turned over to the cooperating civil authorities for punishment (typically burning at the stake). Thus, the Church could, in effect, “wash its hands of the matter” and put the onus on the King or his cronies. As the Catholic Encyclopedia states, “On the whole, the Inquisition was humanely conducted.” This is blessed news, of course, to the thousands of individuals who were imprisoned, starved, tortured, stripped of all possessions, and roasted over burning coals in front of their neighbors.
Of particular note were the antics of the First Grand Inquisitor of Spain, one Tomas de Torquemada, who conducted a twenty-year reign of terror in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic monarchs of Spain at the time, wanted to rid the country of Marranos (ex-Jews) and Moriscos (ex-Muslims) suspected of being sham converts to Christianity. Jews and Moslems had been given a choice: convert to Christianity or leave the country (where they had been resident for seven hundred years). Many converted rather than leave their homes, businesses, and friends.
However, suspicions remained about these individuals who also happened to have wealth and property. Pope Sixtus IV appointed Fray Torquemada (a Dominican priest) to administer the Inquisition, and this appointment was seconded by Sixtus’ successor, Pope Innocent VIII. Thereupon, Senor Torquemada embarked on his own crusade, uncovering heretics and no-goodniks in every nook and cranny. By the time Torquemada was done in 1498 (when he died), he had presided over the burning of 2,000 Jews and other assorted heretics.
The methods used by Torquemada’s Dominican goon squad to elicit confessions were inventive even by medieval standards. Supposedly, humane tortures could “spill no blood”. But, that didn’t rule out flogging, thumbscrews, the rack (stretching the victim’s extremities until joints dislocated), and red coals applied to the feet. Also popular at the time was the “strappado”, in which the accused was suspended by his wrists and incrementally heavier weights were wrapped around his ankles or looped around his toes. Other ingenious gadgets devised to elicit sincere confessions included: the “Judas Chair”, where the victim was lowered anus first onto a sharply-pointed seat; the “Head Vise”, a cranial version of the thumbscrew; the “Pear”, an expandable, bulbous device that was inserted into the anus or vagina; and, the “Wheel”, where the victim was strapped onto a wheel and their bones are crushed. Not surprisingly, these methods induced a high rate of confession.
The next diabolical step was the “auto da fe”, or act of faith, where the condemned would be publicly burned at the stake. If the poor soul kissed the Holy Cross, he was garroted (strangled) before the fire was set. If he merely apologized, he was barbequed with quick-burning logs. In the case of a stubborn bastard, a slow-roast was conducted using fresh, slow-burning green wood.
To His Excellency Torquemada’s credit, a large percentage of his victims were very wealthy. Researchers estimate that 91.6% of those judged in Valencia and 99.3% of those judged in Barcelona between 1484 and 1505 were of Jewish ancestry. They were saddled with exhaustive fines, court costs, and their properties were seized. All of the plundered wealth traveled up the hierarchy of cooperating church and governmental officials. Presumably, just as Jesus would have wanted it.
The Inquisition in Spain outlasted Father Torquemada by another 300 years as its mandate was expanded to include general morality, book censorship, superstition, witches, bigamy, solicitation, and, surprisingly, negative comments about the Office of the Inquisition. Over 50,000 such trials were eventually held in the name of the Prince of Peace.
The God-Killing Demons
Anti-semitism is as old as Christianity. Anti-Judaic attitudes developed from the early years of Christianity, driven by numerous factors including theological differences, competition between churches and synagogues, the Christian drive for converts, misunderstanding of Jewish beliefs and practices, and alleged Jewish hostility toward Christians.
The latter might be understandable, as the Christians pretty much shanghaied the Jewish religion. Back in the 4th century, Saint Augustine declared, “What we now call the Christian religion existed amongst the ancients, and was from the beginning of the human race, until Christ Himself came in the flesh; from which time the already existing true religion began to be styled Christian”. That’s right…Judaism had actually been Christianity from the very beginning, all the way back to Abraham! What’s peculiar, though, is why God did all the heavy lifting himself during the first several thousand years. If his son Jesus was the Answer, why didn’t God send him earlier?
From a very early point in Christianity, a theme emerged that both the Jews present at Jesus’ death and the Jewish people collectively and for all time, have committed the crime of “deicide” (or God-killing). This theory, originally attributed to 2nd century Bishop Melito of Sardis, gained traction during the Middle Ages when gullible, uneducated European peasants were brought into the Christian tent.
As early as the 4th century, anti-semitic attitudes were prevalent in the Church. One of the so-called Church Fathers, Saint John Crysostom, in a homily called, Against the Jews, said, “The pitiful and miserable Jews…Certainly it is the time for me to show that demons dwell in the synagogue, not only in the place itself but also in the souls of the Jews…And this is what happened to the Jews: while they were making themselves unfit for work, they grew fit for slaughter.”
Attitudes of contempt for Jews persisted in Christian preaching over the centuries and in many Christian countries it led to civil and political discrimination. For one thousand years in Europe, almost all of the monarchs were Catholic and there was a close cooperation between the Church and the State. Jews were subject to a wide range of legal restrictions during the Middle Ages, some of which lasted until the end of the 19th century. Jews were excluded from many trades, the occupations varying with place and time, and determined by the influence of various non-Jewish competing interests. Local rulers and church officials closed many professions to the Jews, pushing them into marginal occupations considered socially inferior, such as tax and rent collection and money lending, tolerated then as a “necessary evil”. Catholic doctrine of the time held that lending money for interest was a sin, and forbidden to Christians. Not being subject to this restriction, Jews dominated this business. This was then used to imply that Jews were insolent, greedy usurers, and subsequently lead to many stereotypes and propaganda.
Natural tensions between creditors (typically Jews) and debtors (typically Christians) were added to social, political, religious, and economic strains. Peasants who were forced to pay their taxes to Jews (the tax collectors) could personify and demonize them as taking their earnings, while remaining loyal to their Christian lords (the one’s doing the taxing and on whose behalf the Jews worked!). Jews were eventually accused of a variety of crimes against the good Christians of Europe including causing the Black Plague, kidnapping children and drinking their blood (fictions generally classified as “blood libels”), and desecrating Christian sacraments.
Anti-semitic discrimination took many forms: in some communities, the number of Jews permitted to reside in different places was limited; they were concentrated in ghettos, and were not allowed to own land; they were subject to discriminatory taxes on entering cities or districts other than their own; they were forced to swear special Jewish oaths; and, suffered a variety of other measures, including restrictions on dress. The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, under Pope Innocent III, proclaimed the requirement for Jews to wear something that distinguished them as Jews. It could be a colored piece of cloth in the shape of a star or circle or square, a Jewish hat, or a robe. Jews sought to evade the badges by what amounted to bribes in the form of temporary “exemptions”, which were revoked and re-paid whenever the ruling authority needed to raise funds.
When the Church successfully completed its Albigensian Crusade in southern France, the Counts of Toulouse were required to discriminate against Jews like other Christian rulers. Explicit provisions on the subject were included in the Treaty of Meaux (1229). Within a short time, the newly-chastened and now-zealous Christian rulers were arresting and imprisoning Jews for no crime, raiding their houses, seizing their cash, and removing their religious books. The offending Jews were then released only if they paid a new “tax”. The practice of expelling the Jews, accompanied by confiscation of their property, followed by temporary readmissions for ransom, was a popular device of European monarchs in the Middle Ages, including the French kings during the 12th to 14th centuries, Ferdinand II and Isabella of Spain in 1492, the kingdom of Portugal in 1496, and Frederick II of Prussia in 1744.
The displaced, persecuted, and heavily-taxed Jews of the Middle Ages were the lucky ones. Beginning with the First Crusade, tens of thousands of Jews were slain in various pogroms throughout Europe. Some of the highlights include: 1290, Bohemian (Poland), allegedly 10,000 Jews killed; 1337, beginning in Deggendorf, Germany, a Jew-killing craze reached 51 towns in Bavaria, Austria and Poland; 1348, all Jews of Basel, Switzerland and Strasbourg, France (2,000) burned; 1349, in 350 German towns, all Jews murdered, most of them burned alive; 1389, Prague (Czechoslovakia), approximately 3,000 Jews were slaughtered; and, 1391, in Seville (Spain), with Archbishop Martinez leading the way, 4,000 Jews were slain and 25,000 others were sold as slaves.
In 1964, the Catholic Church, under Pope John VI, issued a document Nostra Aetate, which finally laid to rest the bogus anti-semitic charge of deicide concocted by one of its bishops back in the 2nd century.
For Thirty Pieces of Silver
Unfortunately, Nostra Aetate was a bit late to save the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust.
Adolf Hitler was a product of the anti-semitism begun by Church saints in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Mr. Hitler was a Roman Catholic, baptized as an infant in Austria. He became a communicant and an altar boy in his youth and was confirmed as a “Soldier of Christ” in that church. Young Hitler did well in monastery school. He sang in the choir, found High Mass and other ceremonies intoxicating, and idolized priests. Impressed by their power, the young man at one time considered entering the priesthood. It’s a shame that didn’t happen, but the Church’s worst doctrines never left him. He was steeped in its liturgy, which contained the words “perfidious Jew” (perfidy means treacherous).
In his day, hatred of Jews was the norm. In great measure it was supported by the two major religions of Germany, Catholicism and Lutherism. Young Adolf had great admiration for Martin Luther who called Jews “ungodly wretches” and opined that “We ought to take revenge on the Jews and kill them!” Luther’s 1543 tract On the Jews and Their Lies, is believed to be a principal inspiration for Hitler’s own political manifesto, Mein Kampf.
As he matured, Hitler melded his Christian beliefs with an emerging racial theory called Christian Aryanism. According to that theory, Judaism was viewed as a racial curse, and Jesus was an Aryan soldier who brought the sword to cleanse the earth of Jews. Germany’s ambitions had ended in humiliating defeat in the First World War, followed by a wrecked economy. Putting all of this together (the anti-semitic religious culture, the Aryan theory, and the need for a scapegoat for Germany’s problems) when he sought power in 1925, Hitler wrote, “I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord’s work.” Years later, when in power, he quoted the same words in a Reichstag speech in 1938. Three years later he informed General Gerhart Engel: “I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so.”
Adolf Hitler never left the Church, and the Church never left him. Great literature was banned by the Church, but Mein Kampf never appeared on the Index of Forbidden Books. The Fuhrer was never excommunicated or even condemned by the Church. This is because Mr. Hitler had a very special relationship with the Vatican, one that most people don’t know about.
Stripped of her last Papal States in 1925, the Mother Church lay bankrupt until Italian dictator Benito Mussolini came to the rescue. In exchange for the Pope’s support for his fascist regime, Il Duce made an up-front payment of $100 million, instituted state salaries for the Italian clergy, and restored the Vatican City’s nationhood.
Not quite satisfied, then-Pope Pius XI coveted still richer booty, and God answered his prayers. Adolf Hitler, wanting to solidify his political power in a nation with more Roman Catholics than Italy, eagerly sought similar ties with the Church. The resulting 1933 Concordat, engineered by future Pope Pius XII, was one of history’s richest kickback schemes. The Pope gave Hitler legitimacy, the support of his office, and the enforced loyalty of German prelates. In return, one-tenth of the income tax paid by German Catholics would flow from Hitler’s treasury to the Church’s accounts. This averaged the equivalent of $100 million per year or approximately $1 billion over the life of the Third Reich. Because the grateful pontiffs held the same absolute control over the Church’s funds that the Fuhrer exercised over the German treasury, it can be fairly said that Pope Pius XI (reigned 1922-1939) and Pope Pius XII (reigned 1939-1958) were on Hitler’s payroll. Protestant churches in Germany received blood money from the Nazis, as well.
Flush with wealth, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches invested heavily in fascist enterprises, many of which would manufacture weapons, employ slave labor, or both. Ironically, as church leaders began to act as financiers and brokers, their prejudice against usury, the ancient keystone of anti-Semitism, melted away.
In the end, Christendom paid a heavy price for its deal with the devil. Some 2.5 million European Protestant soldiers and civilians died. The Catholic toll, which included people from other countries where Catholics were not in the minority as they were in Germany, was broadly similar. Perhaps half of all Soviets were Orthodox Christians, and so their Christian dead amounted to fifteen million or more. All told, more than twenty million Christians and six million Jews died courtesy of Adolf Hitler and his silent partners, the Christian clergy.
One wonders what Jesus and his Heavenly Father thought about this caper. And, better, why it wasn’t stopped before it got started.