Holy Horrors: The medieval Catholic hierarchy
Popes, cardinals, archbishops, abbots, bishops, priests, and monks kept concubines and pocketed church wealth.
Holy Horrors: The Black Death
When the bubonic plague stalked Europe in 1348, hysterical Christians concluded that it was caused by Jews poisoning wells.
Holy Horrors: Christian persecution of Jews
In 1370 at Brussels, someone reported seeing a Jew break a wafer, and virtually all Belgian Jews were massacred.
Holy Horrors: The Catholic Church And Anti-Semitism
St. Gregory called Jews “slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, adversaries of God”. St. Jerome added “vipers”.
Holy Horrors: The Holocaust
For century after century after century, the Christian church had designated the people to be despised: the religious believers called Jews.
Holy Horrors: The Crusades
Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095 to wrest the Holy Land from infidels. "Deus Vult" (God wills it) became the rallying cry.
Holy Horrors: A Grim Pattern
When religion is the ruling force in a society, it produces horror. The stronger the supernatural beliefs, the worse the inhumanity.
Holy Horrors: The Inquisition
The victim was required to confess that he was a heretic, but also to accuse his children, wife, friends, and others as fellow heretics.
Holy Horrors: Religious slaughter through the centuries
Without religion, divisions would blur with passing generations; children would adapt to new times, mingle, intermarry, forget ancient wounds.
Holy Horrors: Witch-Hunts
During the 1400s, the Inquisition shifted its focus toward witchcraft, and the next 300 years witnessed a bizarre orgy of religious delusion.