ALLTIME CHRISTIAN CRIMES FROM 4TH CENTURY TO 6TH CENTURY (Reference: 666christiancrimes/1900%20-%201949.html) 400 - 499 Early 5th century [St.] John Chrysostom delivered eight Sermons Against the Jews at Antioch, partially based upon the Gospels of Matthew and John. This was the beginning of a distinctively Christian anti-Semitism, which included branding Jews as Christ-killers. Chrysostoms influence plus pagan smears and rumors put at risk Jewish communities in all Christian cities. [Johnson, 1987, 165] c.400 Pope St. Anastasius condemned the writings of Origen, the Churchs first great theologian, even though he was not familiar with them. Anastasius was also the father of his successor, Pope St. Innocent I. [McBrien, 65] 405 Emperor Honorius had published the Edict of Unity, which ordered the dissolution of the Donatist [Christian] Church. [Bokenkotter, 79; Valantasis, 270] 407 A law aimed specifically at Donatists and Manichaeans criminalized their beliefs. Punishment was confiscation of all their property. They were barred from inheritance. Convicted heretics were also barred from buying, selling, or making a contract. [Valantasis, 270] 408 It became illegal for Jews to burn the symbolic gallows of Haman during their Purim festivals. Some Christians had mistaken it for a cross. [Engh, 94] A law stated that any images used by pagans should be torn down and destroyed. Pagan temples were to be opened to the public for public purposes. [Valantasis, 272] 409 A law was passed requiring the burning of all books possessed by heretics. Failure to hand over a heretical book was made a capital crime. [Freeman, 2009, 143] Astrologers were to be deported if they refused to burn their books. [Valantasis, 273] 410 Emperor Honorius decreed that heretics and pagan worshipers were to be punished by exile and blood. [Ellerbe, 28] Repression of pagans by secular authorities was unavoidable and not necessarily a case of persecution for religious opinions. [Catholic Encyclopedia, Donatists] After talks had failed, [St.] Augustine of Hippo (in Africa), reversed his long-standing position and sanctioned the use of force against the Donatists. He promulgated the principle Cognite intrare, Compel them to enter. The church would use this doctrine time and again to justify intolerance and violent repression of dissent, heresy, and other religions. [Ellerbe, 37-38] Augustine based his Cognite intrare principle on Luke 14:23: The master then ordered the servant, Go out to the highways and hedgerows and make people come in that my home may be filled. This verse was part of a parable about a man who wanted to give a great dinner and his invited guests made excuses not to come. Somehow it became an excuse to force people to convert to Christianity and to punish them if they refused. The doctrine of a holy war or just war was developed by Augustine. He said that a defensive war is always just and that an offensive war is just when waged against a state that refuses to make reparations for wrongs committed or fails to return seized property. [Williams, 2002, 29] 412 [St]. Cyril, Theophilus nephew and an impetuous, self-promoting radical who believed in backing up the power of the Word with the power of the mob, succeeded Theophilus as patriarch of Alexandria. He was not elected to the position. His supporters won it for him after three days of street fighting with the supporters of Archdeacon Timothy, who was backed by the church hierarchy and the military. He increased the stresses between the various groups of the city, sometimes using his shock troops, the parabolani. He also got the fanatical black-robed monks of the Nitrian desert to enforce his will. Many monks were misfits, criminals, and fugitives, who vandalized pagan temples and rioted in the streets. Cyril even got them to attack Orestes, the Roman prefect of Egypt. They so terrorized the city that the emperor asked him to limit their number to 500. Cyril closed the churches of the peaceful Novatian sect and took their property. In response to a provoked Jewish attack on Christians, he authorized the looting of Jewish sites and expelled all Jews from the city. He was also at least partially responsible for the murder of Hypatia, a famous pagan scholar, at the hands of a Christian mob. [Freeman, 2005, 268; Johnson, 1976, 94] Parabolan monks, incited by lies about Hypatia spread by [St.] Cyril, and led by Peter the lector, killed her inside a Christian church. Hypatia had been a popular public lecturer in philosophy and mathematics, and a close advisor of Orestes, the Roman governor of Alexandria. Cyril resented her influence with the city prefect and others. No one was punished for the crime. The Catholic Encyclopedia absolves Bishop Cyril of all blame for this event. Pagan idols and altars were ordered destroyed. All pagan property was claimed by the imperial authorities. Bishops were allowed to disrupt pagan rites, with force if necessary. Pagans were excluded from positions in government. [Pollard and Reid, 272-278; Haught, 1990, 53; Engh, 92] 415 The bishop of Mahon in Minorca burned Jews in their synagogue for refusing to meet with him on the Sabbath. [Letter of Severus by the bishop of Mahon; cited by Freeman, 2005, 266.] 416 [St.] Augustine bribed the bishop of Rome to side with him against Pelagius. [Ellerbe, 35] 417 At the urging of [St.] Augustine and other African bishops, Pope [St.] Innocent I excommunicated Pelagius, who denied the doctrines of original sin and that it was impossible to do good works without Gods grace. [Catholic Encyclopedia, Palagianism] 418 Emperor Honorius banished Pelagians from all Italian cities. [Catholic Encyclopedia, Palagianism] The Roman Catholic Church embraced the doctrine of hereditary transmission of original sin. [Ellerbe, 35] After the death of Pope St. Zosimus, one church faction elected Eulalius pope, while a different faction elected Boniface. The emperor called a synod at Ravenna to choose, but the attendees were unable to make a decision. Next, a council at Spoleto was convened on June 13, 419, to settle the issue. The emperor insisted that both contenders leave Rome in the meantime. Boniface left, but Eulalius stayed. The emperor than banished Eulalius and declared Boniface Bishop of Rome (pope). [McBrien, 68-69] c.420 ... a band of Syrian monks under the fanatic Barsauma conducted a series of pogroms against Jewish Palestine, burning synagogues and entire villages. [Johnson, 1987, 165] 420 Porphyry, bishop of Gaza, received imperial help to ransack and burn pagan temples in Gaza. [Freeman, 2009, 144] 423 The building of new Jewish synagogues was banned. [Valantasis, 274] 427 A law forbade anyone to make an image of Jesus in any medium. [Valantasis, 266] 428 The prohibitions against any and all heresies (35 were specifically named) was renewed. In addition, the law decreed that they shall also be deprived of all aid, whether military or civil, of the law courts, the defenders and judges.... [Valantasis, 270] 435 A law threatened any heretic with death. Judaism was still legal but intermarriage with Christians was a capital crime. [Ellerbe, 29] Emperor Theodosius II decreed, ... we order that all [pagan] shrines, temples, sanctuaries, if any even now remain intact, should be destroyed by the magistrates command and that these should be purified by the placing of the venerable Christian religions sign [the Cross]. [Freeman, 2009, 144] The death penalty was decreed for permitting or practicing pagan rites. [Engh, 92] 438 Theodosius II decreed, We finally sanction by this law ... that no Jew, no Samaritan ... shall enter upon any honors or dignities; to none of them shall the administration of a civil duty be available, nor shall they perform even the duties of a defender of the city ... with an equally reasonable consideration also, We prohibit any synagogue to arise as a new building. [Freeman, 2009, 145] 439 If a Jew circumcises a Christian his property will be confiscated. [Valantasis, 274] 440-461 During Pope [St.] Leo Is reign the Arian Vandal leader Genseric laid waste to most of northern Africa, thereby establishing the Popes dominion over the African churches. [McCabe, 1939, 100] Pope [St.] Leo I was the first to formulate the Churchs right to put heretics to death. [McCabe, 1939, 101] 444 Pope [St.] Leo I (The Great) brought the Manichaean bishop and his clergy to trial and confronted them with confessions which had been secured by torture. [McCabe, 1939, 88] 447 The letter [from Pope (St.) Leo I] to the Spanish Bishop Turribius of Astorga is notable as the first explicit Papal approval of the execution of a heretic. [McCabe, 1916, 43] 448 Theodosius II passed a law which required the burning of heretical books. [Freeman, 2009, 150] 449 The Second Council at Ephesus, sometimes called the robber council or the gangster synod, was called to decide matters related to the monophysite heresy. Monophysites believed that Jesus had one nature; their opponents said he had two natures. Flavian, archbishop of Constantinople, was beaten to death and his rival, Dioscorus, archbishop of Alexandria, bullied his way into control of the council. He used armed guards to force the attending bishops to sign their names to blank pieces of paper. Nestorian (i.e., Monophysite) bishops were condemned and charged with all manner of crimes, whether they had committed them or not. Dioscorus even excommunicated Pope [St.] Leo I, who was definitely not a Monophysite, having written a document (Tome) which explained Jesus two natures and other Christian beliefs. [Freeman, 2005, 261; Martin, 72; Jenkins, 188, 191-192] 451 At the request of the clergy, Emperor Marcian outlawed public discussions on the nature of Christ. [ stopthereligiousright.org/theodosius.htm ] 457 When, in 457, the emperor Leo I (457-474) asked the Bishop of Melitene, in Armenia, whether he wanted a council to discuss theological issues, the bishop shrewdly replied: We uphold the Nicene creed but avoid difficult questions beyond human grasp. Clever theologians soon become heretics. [Freeman, 2009, 143] A law forbade Eutychians and Apollonarians to assemble, promote their religions, or to publish anything against the holy Chalcedonian Synod. All their writings should be burned. Violators were to be banished forever. [Valantasis, 271] 459 A law was passed forbidding anyone from publicly discussing religion. [Valantasis, 267] 460-467 Pope Leo I asserted papal primacy, arguing that the pope alone has the responsibility and authority to care for the entire church. [Cline, medieval1] 472 ... owners of property where [pagan] rites took place were held responsible. Upper-class owners could lose their rank and property, while the lower classes could be tortured and sentenced to hard labor in the mines. .... most of the violence perpetrated against non-Christians ... was not official persecution. Those who destroyed temples and murdered pagans were pious Christians who had been enflamed by their leaders. This kind of violence was illegal but Christians were rarely punished for it, nor was restitution made to the victims. Christianity gradually absorbed much of the pagan religion: lighting lamps and candles, singing hymns, parading with sacred objects, dedicating votive offerings, giving gifts at religious holidays, eating and drinking to commemorate dead relatives and friends. Pagan festivals became Christian holidays, and Christian martyrs and saints were often revered at times and places where pagan deities had been worshipped. ... something very basic had changed. Belief—right belief—was now more important than worship or conduct. And everyone was now assured of eternal life, either in bliss or in agony. The world had become an anxious place, where thoughts as well as deeds were driven by the fear of hell. [Engh, 92-93] 484 Arian Christian Huneric, king of the Vandals, declared Catholic Christians heretics and persecuted them as Catholics had persecuted Arians previously. Catholic churches were closed and their property confiscated. Catholic clergy were executed, exiled, or enslaved. Those who resisted conversion to Arianism were sometimes tortured. [Engh, 103] 494 Pope St. Gelasius I, in a letter to emperor Anastasius, said that Jesus had spoken of two swords. According to Gelasius the two swords represented the priestly power and the royal power. He then asserted that religious power always took precedence over the secular so that kings ruled at the pleasure of ... popes. [Jenkins, 240] 511-558 Catholic Frankish king Childebert I ordered the destruction of all pagan idols and one hundred lashes for peasants caught worshiping them. [Engh, 106] 515 ... at Zoara, south of the Dead Sea, a local god, Theandrites, was replaced by St. George and his temple reconstituted as a church with the inscription God has his dwelling where there was once a hostel of demons .... [Freeman, 2005, 269] 517 Christians closed the university at Alexandria. [Johnson, 1976, 112] 524 Catholic philosopher Boethius was tried and executed by Arian Christians at Pavia. [Johnson, 1976, 153] 529 Emperor Justinian closed the school of Athens. The school was founded by Plato, which had been located in a pagan temple to ensure its safety, and had endured for a millennium. [Freeman, 2009, 154; Johnson, 1976, 112] Benedict of Nursia destroys pagan temple at Monte Cassino (Italy) and builds a monastery. [Wikipedia, Timeline of Christian Missions] 530s Justinian ordered all subjects to submit to Christian baptism. Failure to do so resulted in their rights to goods and property being forfeited. The death penalty was prescribed for followers of pagan cults. [Freeman, 2009, 154] 530 When Pope St. Felix III died in 530, the cardinals elected the deacon Dioscorus of Alexandria Pope. In a hall next door to the cardinals, a group comprising mostly laymen and military men with no authority to elect a pope, chose Boniface. According to Canon Law Dioscorus had been properly elected, but he died under mysterious circumstances only twenty-two days after his election. Boniface then intimidated the cardinals to choose him to be the next pope, using the threat of military violence. Even today the official records show Boniface II to be the immediate successor of Felix III. [Curran, 19-21] 532 Encouraged by his wife Theodora, Christian Emperor Justinian ordered soldiers to massacre more than 30,000 non-conformist citizens in Constantinople to impose his version Christian orthodoxy. Apparently, Justinian did not see it as murder if the victims did not share his own beliefs. The Old Testament of the Christian Bible has many examples of violent punishment by God. As Gods representative on earth, Justinian thought himself justified in using his absolute power to punish Christians as well as non-believers, if those Christians refused to accept the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. [Frank Mortyn, Blood on the Ground, Churches All Around, reprinted in Leedom, 237-240; Freeman, 2003, 253; Haught, 1990, 53-54; Jenkins, 235; Johnson, 1987, 166] In 532 a very dangerous revolt (the Nika revolution), ... was put down severely. ... The Corpus Juris is full of laws against paganism (apostasy was punished by death) ... Jews, Samaritans ... Manichaeans, and other heretics. ... There was no toleration of dissent. ... [Justinians] ecclesiastical tyranny is the one regrettable side of the character of so great a man. ... He was undoubtedly the greatest emperor after Constantine, perhaps the greatest of all the long line of Roman Caesars. Indeed one may question whether any state can show in its history so magnificent a ruler. [Catholic Encyclopedia, Justinian I] 533 General Belisarius, sent by the Catholic Eastern emperor Justinian, defeated the Vandals and made Arianism heretical again. [Engh, 104] 537 Christian emperor Justinian, disregarding a treaty with the African nation of the Blemyes, closed the temple dedicated to Isis at Philae, arrested the priests, confiscated the temple treasures, defaced the paintings, and made the temple into a church dedicated to St. Stephen. In Libya, Justinian closed at least two temples of Ammon. [Engh, 111] Freeman says that this temple was closed in 526. [Freeman, 2005, 269; Freeman, 2009, 154] 540 The Church explained that the [bubonic] plague was an act of God, and disease a punishment for the sin of not obeying Church authority. ... it declared the field of Greek and Roman medicine ... to be heresy. While the plague assured the downfall of the Roman Empire, it strengthened the Christian church. [Ellerbe, 42] 553 The Council of Constantinople condemned Origen as a heretic even though he had been dead for 300 years. This conflict had only occurred because an orthodoxy had been proclaimed to which earlier thinkers, long since dead, were now expected to conform. Origen was the first major exegetist, or interpreter, of the Bible. In one the finest intellectual achievements of the third century, he began by putting together the different Greek versions of the Old Testament so that discrepancies could be ironed out. The condemnation of Origen was thus a profound loss to Christianity. Not only did Augustines extreme theology make nonsense of the concept of a loving and forgiving God, but the threat of hell was used to manipulate obedience. [Freeman, 2009, 133, 137, 139] The Council of Constantinople failed to bring peace between the factions, but did define how orthodoxy was to be judged: Holy Scripture, teachings of the Holy Fathers, and the actions of four councils—Nicaea of 325, Constantinople of 381, Ephesus of 431, and Chalcedon of 451. All four councils had been subject to imperial pressures and in many cases unrepresentative of the Church as a whole....By 600, in Rome, Pope Gregory the Great was equating these four councils with the four gospels as the cornerstones of Christian orthodoxy.... it was the emperors who had actually defined Christian doctrine. This definition was then incorporated into the legal system so that orthodoxy was upheld by both secular and Church law, and heretics were condemned by the state. This was a radical development which had the effect of diminishing intellectual life. Heresy and orthodoxy were the result of power struggles within the Church, with the competitors vying for imperial support. The state often intervened to restore order. The outcome was an authoritarianism based on irrational principles, which presided over the demise of ancient traditions of reasoned debate. [Freeman, 2009, 155-156] 572 The Church Council of Braga passed the first law against contraception. [Bokenkotter, 56] 590-604 Pope [St.] Gregory I (The Great) objected to grammatical study, condemned education for all but the clergy, forbade laymen to read even the Bible, and had the library of the Palatine Apollo burned. He also had many Roman marble statues torn down and turned into lime. [Ellerbe, 48, 50] Gregory praised the thugs Queen Brunichildis and eastern emperor Phocas and rejoiced when Emperor Maurice was murdered. He wrote about devils and miracles. Consequently, he convinced many nobles to bequeath their estates to the Church, because the imminent end of the world would preclude their descendants from enjoying them. [Joseph McCabe, Europe Decays And The Popes Thrive, from his book Popes and Their Church, reprinted in Leedom, 248-250] Gregory greatly enhanced the Churchs temporal power. He expanded papal territories to between 1300 and 1800 square miles, yielding income of about $1.5 million yearly. The CE makes his reign sound like an idyll: ... he made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. ... under his able management the estates of the Church increased steadily in value, the tenants were contented, and the revenues paid in with unprecedented regularity. [Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Gregory the Great]
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 05:24:11 +0000
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