Witch-Hunting Mania

Malleus Maleficarum or The Hammer of Witches is the most destructive and vicious book ever published in history. It caused the slaughter of million innocent people in the whole Europe. According to historians, this was used as a police force to oppress “wickedness and abominations of witches” as they claimed it. The book was produced by two Dominican Inquisitors, Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer. The book contained the details about witches and how to identify or destroy them. Although the said guidelines were all based from folklore and legends, many people were convinced in the existence of them. The witch-hunting mania began when again, Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull on December 5, 1484 in which he condemned the practice of witchcraft. Through Inquisition, the accused were forced to confess without any evidence of guilt. The authorities that time often used torture against the accused to produce a confession even if it was a false accusation. Both Catholics and Protestants promoted witch-hunting for they believed that it is a way to eliminate evil not considering that what they were doing was undeniably evil itself. As a result of abusive interpretation of texts in the bible, families in various places were swept away in an instant. If plaques or disease came upon the land, ordinarily witches were blamed.

No one was really safe. Either young or old, men or women. Even defenseless children were murdered. Commonly, women were the subject of torture wherein 70% of them was wiped out clean in the state. The trials were common in 1300’s until 1600’s. The proceedings were done in public. They shaved women in public, searching for what they called “the Devil’s Mark” as a common sign of Satan to the witches. Some were weighed because of their belief that witches have no weight at all. Those guilty were actually burned alive in public! This grim deeds of religious liars became worst. Some people used this only for vengeance or to suppress their enemies. One would think, “Christians to the lions” had come back to life. There also came a time when they do it for mere amusement.  The witch-hunting mania was widespread even to America. Like a disease that ended so many innocent lives. In 17^th century, the trials gradually decreased when physicist began to explain the existence of science over the plaques and the things which were believed by the people as demonic possession or works of witches. And by the end of that century, they had all but ended. 

Papal Power and The 50 million martyrs

             Inquisition , also called the "Holy Office", was instituted by Pope Innocent III who claimed to be "Vicar of Christ", and had the right to depose Kings and Princes, that "All things on earth and in heaven and in hell are subject to the 'Vicar of Christ'-the Pope. "The power of the Papacy was maintained by executing the Inquisition in which according to historians, more than 50 million martyrs perished at the hands of the Papacy in the Middle Ages and Early Reformation Era. It is indeed the cruelest and most brutal chapter in the history of mankind. Yet, no Pope has ever apologized.

Innocent III was the most powerful of all the Popes that he gained control over the Byzantine Empire and brought many Monarchs of Europe under his regime. He was responsible for the massacre of the Albigenses. He condemned the Magna Carta. He ordered two crusades causing the life of thousand people to perish. He decreed the Extermination of heretics and forbade the reading of the Bible in vernacular. Among these unacceptable and disturbing orders of self-claimed "Holy" and "Righteous" Popes, the Inquisition is the evilest and most virulent. Some of the punishments were either life imprisonment or being burned or skinned alive. The process was very unjust and commonly executed in public. Anyone suspected to heresy was immediately turned over to civil authorities depriving the person to defend himself. 

In 1540 to 1570, no fewer than 900,000 Protestants were put to death in the Pope's war for the extermination of the Waldenses. Thousand more people shed blood under the orders of the Pope to convert pagans into Christianity through the use of coercion or torture. For over 500 years, the Inquisition was used by the Papacy to suppress its enemies and to maintain its power as well.

One of the victims of such was the famous Italian astronomer and physicist, Galileo Galilei. He was charged of grave suspicion of heresy because of his book entitled Dialogue on the Tides, which the Roman Catholic Church altered the title and changed it to Dialogue of the Two Chief World systems , published in Florence in 1632 and proclaiming the idea of the Earth moving around the sun or the Heliocentric system. This made ​​Galileo renounce his ideas and was put into house arrest.

Another controversial work of the Inquisition was the Witch-hunting Mania occurred in Europe. Pope Innocent VIII issued a papal bull condemning witchcraft, killing a massive number of innocent citizens, and tortured most of women back in that time. ( I wrote a separate blog regarding this matter  )

All these gruesome events in history was caused by one single authority. How could one execute such brutality, doing it in the NAME OF CHRIST? The Papal power was in fact enormous yet terrifying that nobody in history has ever exerted that kind of superiority and power . During the Vatican Council, January 9, 1870, it was stated: "The Pope is Christ in office, Christ in jurisdiction and power." The Catholic book entitled Prompta Bibliotheca describes the Pope and his authority over the Church and the World. An excerpt from the book written in Latin was translated in English:

 Prompta Bibliotheca, vol. 7, PAPA, Articulus II

      1. The Pope is of great dignity and so exalted that he is not mere man , but as it were God , and the vicar of God.

13. Hence the Pope is crowned with a triple crown, as king of heaven and of earth and of hell .

30. The Pope is of so great authority and power that he is able to modify , declare, or interpret even divine laws. "

                The Papacy insists that it has authority to change God's laws and claims that the Pope is not a mere man, but "as it were God ." One great example of the laws in the Bible that were modified by the church was the Sabbath day . God Himself observed the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week. T he seventh day of the week is Saturday, not Sunday. All dictionaries in the world claim this fact.  ( Read my Blog for more details SUNDAY SERVICE ) Not one single verse in the bible specifying Sunday as the day of worship and this rests upon the authority of the Catholic Church. Many actually opposed this truth even up to today and  people cited different opinions regarding this matter. But this simple fact - Saturday is the Sabbath day - can not actually be denied for even the Catholic Church itself admitted its correctness and stated that churches are not mandatory to worship on Sunday.