The history of the Catholic Churches vigorous repression of alternative forms of Christianity is infamous. Somehow the church was able to maintain vast libraries of information despite constant infiltrations.
Philip IV of France intimidated the Conclave to secure the papacy for Clement V, his childhood friend, in 1305. The new pope then made Avignon France the seat of the church. The Dulcinians were one of Clement V’s targets for persecution. Among other beliefs they believed in
- The fall of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and return of the Church to its original ideals of humility and poverty
- The fall of the feudal system
- Human liberation from any restraint, and from entrenched power
- Creation of a new egalitarian society based on mutual aid and respect
- holding property in common and respecting gender equality
Franciscan Fra Dolcino, the leader of the Dulcinians, was burned at the stake by Clement V. 15 years later 30 of his followers were as well.
Related: St Francis de Assisi
The Waldensians were one of the first protestant movements, attributed to Peter Waldo who gave away his property in 1173 and followed a path of apostolic poverty. In 1215 the Waldenesians were declared heretical by Pope Innocent III. Those who did not denounce their beliefs were persecuted by the Church. Their movement lasted until they became absorbed into the Calvinist movement in 1532.
Another group of early protestants were followers of Jan Hus and know as the Hussite Movement. The movement was supported by the Crown of Bohemia. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415 but the movement lived on. The result was the Hussite Wars, a series of conflicts with the Catholic Church, from 1419 until 1437. The wars ended because of a split in the Hussite Movement. Moderate Hussites (called Ultraquists) joined forces with the Church and defeated the Taborites. The Compact of Basel was a peace agreement between these collaborators and the Church.
In the 1450s a group arose called the Unity of the Brethren, who distinguished themselves from the Hussites. They received ordination from the Waldenesians. By this time 90% of the subjects of the Crown of Bohemia were protestants. Protestantism was growing in influence in Austria, France and The Holy Roman Empire. Protestant schools teaching commoners to read Latin, Hebrew and Greek were prevalent in Bohemia.
The advent of the printing press in 1440 by goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg and his Gutenberg Bible in the 1450s made access to the Bible available to common people for the first time. The Tyndale Bible was the first English translation made in the early 1500s. The Matthew’s Bible was published in 1537. The most important and influential translation of the Bible into German is the Luther Bible: the initial New Testament was released in 1522 (the “September Bible”)
This brings us to Martin Luther, who received his ordination in 1507. Luther became disenchanted with the Church’s use of indulgences to raise money. Indulgences were paid to Priests who would alleviate one’s sins in exchange. Luther attempted to resolve these differences amicably, first proposing an academic discussion of the practice and efficacy of indulgences in Ninety-five Theses, which he authored in 1517.
Ninety five Theses was published by Martin Luther a full three hundred years after the protestant movement began. Sixty seven years had passed since the Gutenberg Bible was created and Protestantism was already firmly rooted in Europe to include England.
Archbishop Albrecht had Luther’s theses checked for heresy and in December 1517 forwarded them to Rome. He needed the revenue from the indulgences to pay off a papal dispensation for his tenure of more than one bishopric. As Luther later notes, “the pope had a finger in the pie as well, because one half was to go to the building of St. Peter’s Church in Rome.”
Pope Leo X was used to reformers and heretics, and he responded slowly, “with great care as is proper.” Leo X excommunicated Luther in 1521 and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V declared him an outlaw. The Emperor’s edict made it a crime for anyone in Germany to give Luther food or shelter. It permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. Luther was smuggled to safety by sympathizers.
It should not have been too difficult for the giant authorities to locate and execute Luther. The question; “why didn’t the German Holy Roman Empire execute Martin Luther?“
One reason, as noted, Protestantism was already a very big deal and had numerous followers. Another; one could gain control of such a movement and homogenize it, make it relatively harmless, if someone were allowed to lead it. This person would have to become famous through controversy. This person would come to define Protestantism and hold it to specific beliefs deemed necessary. Some things could be changed, but some things would not be allowed to change. Belief in the Holy Trinity is an example…
…Martin Luther was a rabid anti Semite.
Luther’s major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies), and Vom Schem Hamphoras und vom Geschlecht Christi (On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ) Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but “the devil’s people”, and referred to them with violent language
Luther advocated setting synagogues on fire, destroying Jewish prayer books, forbidding rabbis from preaching, seizing Jews’ property and money, and smashing up their homes, so that these “envenomed worms” would be forced into labor or expelled “for all time”. In Robert Michael’s view, Luther’s words “We are at fault in not slaying them” amounted to a sanction for murder. “God’s anger with them is so intense,” Luther concluded, “that gentle mercy will only tend to make them worse, while sharp mercy will reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!” – Wikipedia
Related: I Repeat, History Repeats
Pope John XXIII or Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli (25 November 1881 – 3 June 1963) is referred to as “The Good Pope” by Catholics and admirers. He served as Pope for only 5 years. His election by the Cardinals was to be a stop gap measure. Because of his advanced age it wasn’t expected he would have much influence.
As a young priest he was drafted into the Italian army and served as a stretcher bearer and chaplain during World War I. In 1921 he met Pope Benedict XV who appointed him president of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He served as Apostolic Visitor to Bulgaria and Apostolic Delegate to Turkey. Beginning in 1935 he used this position to help the Jewish underground evacuate thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe.
In 1940, Roncalli was asked by the Vatican to devote more of his time to Greece; therefore, he made several visits in January and May of that year. He maintained close relations with the Jews and also intervened to convince Bulgaria’s Tsar Boris III to cancel deportations of Greek Jews during the Nazi occupation of Greece –Wikipedia
Roncalli took many measures to save Jews from the Holocaust, including conversions to Christianity with official papers. On 7 September 2000, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation launched the International Campaign for the Acknowledgement of the humanitarian actions undertaken by Vatican Nuncio Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli for people, most of whom were Jewish, persecuted by the Nazi regime.
As Pope, John XXIII encouraged peaceful relations between the Soviet Union and the United States. He made overtures to the Eastern Orthodox Church and sought to relieve persecution of Eastern Catholics by Communist regimes. See Ospolitik
Pope John XXIII also eliminated the term perfidous (unfaithful) from the prayer for the conversion of the Jews. He made a confession for the Catholic Church for antisemitism through it’s history.
He died of complications from stomach cancer at the age of 81.
Related Raoul Wallenberg Case Study 27
Kenneth Eugene Smith (July 4, 1965 – January 25, 2024) was an Alabama man who was convicted in 1988 of a murder for hire. He and John Forrest Parker stabbed Elizabeth Sennett to death. They had been recruited by Billy Gray Williams who had been hired by Charles Sennett, Elizabeth’s husband. Goes to show the fascist giants can brainwash anyone.
Charles Sennett committed suicide after the murder. Billy Williams was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2020. Parker was executed in by lethal injection in 2010. Kenneth Smith was also sentenced to death.
Alabama attempted to execute Kenneth Smith in November of 2022 but the team botched it. The Eleventh Circuit of Appeals had issued a stay of execution 2 hours earlier but the Alabama Department of Corrections didn’t inform Smith or his lawyers. They attempted to execute him by lethal injection but were unable to find a vein.
On Jan 25, 2024 Smith was the first person to be executed by Nitrogen Hypoxia (lack of oxygen) in what has been reported as a prolonged violent death.
Related Nitrogen gas execution: Kenneth Smith convulses for four minutes in Alabama death chamber Montgomery Advisor