Myth and lack of historical fact checking often lead to a misreading and a misunderstanding of history. One of those places we've believed myth over reality is in the crusades. In his book God's Battalions: The Case for the Crusades Rodney Stark takes on the myths that have been passed down through the centuries. Scholar Thomas Madden does a similar debunking in his article on the Inquisition. Here is a bit of the article:
"The Inquisition was not born out of desire to crush diversity or oppress people; it was rather an attempt to stop unjust executions. Yes, you read that correctly. Heresy was a crime against the state. Roman law in the Code of Justinian made it a capital offense. Rulers, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no patience for heretics. Neither did common people, who saw them as dangerous outsiders who would bring down divine wrath. When someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment, just as if they had stolen a pig or damaged shrubbery (really, it was a serious crime in England). Yet in contrast to those crimes, it was not so easy to discern whether the accused was really a heretic. For starters, one needed some basic theological training — something most medieval lords sorely lacked. The result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities without fair trials or a competent assessment of the validity of the charge.
The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, first instituted by Pope Lucius III in 1184. It was born out of a need to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges. From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community."
4 comments:
Sadly, the church's history has both high and low points. To proclaim perfection or to claim total excellence simply doesn't reflect reality. The challenge is to know, as best we can, the actual history and not a caricature. So the real history of the church is not fleecing the sad and protecting child molesting priest, it at times includes that, but it also includes followers of Christ who suffered and died caring for the sad, rescuing abandoned infants in the Roman empire, and much more. In fact, in a study done concerning who did the most to rescue Jews during the holocaust it was people who had a deep commitment to following the ways of Christ. All of this is part of the real history of the church.
I really enjoyed reading your posts. I like reading about church history and the church fathers of the past. God bless, Lloyd
Far from perfection, excellence or even a statistical average, the Catholic church has been responsible for mass child abuse of the most evil kind.
Enlighten yourself as to the activities of the Sisters of Mercy and the Christian Brothers in Ireland.
Stark's book might seem to make a plausible case to the non-specialist, but critical analysis shows it is riddled with errors, full of convenient use of selective evidence and undermined by flawed arguments. He manages to debunk a few myths about the Crusades, but his apologetic argument simply does not work.
For detailed critical analysis see:
http://armariummagnus.blogspot.com/2010/05/gods-battalions-case-for-crusades-by.html
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