Glimpses of Church History

12.     Period 1550 – 1600

 

Paul IV - Jew Hater

In July 1555, two months after his election, Pope Paul IV issued a little known bull (edict) cum nimis absurdum against the Jews. The bull reminded Christians that since Jews had killed Christ, they were only fit to be slaves. They were ordered to be confined to a restricted area, the ghetto. They were obliged to sell their properties to Christians dirt cheap - for example, a house in exchange for a donkey or a vineyard for a suit of clothes.

 

Jews could only engage in minor trade and could not employ Christians nor treat them medically. Most of their synagogues were destroyed as well as their holy books. They were not to be addressed ‘sir’ by Christians, even beggars. They had wear a yellow hat in public as identification and had to return to their ghetto by nightfall. The Roman ghetto was crowded with over 4000 Jews within a perimeter of 500 yards. Pope Paul hoped the repressive measures would lead to a mass conversion but most of the Jews remained steadfast in their faith.

 

Index of Prohibited Books

With the invention of printing around 1450, books started rolling off the presses. The Inquisition sought to censor a number of books and in 1559 (his last year), Paul IV authorised an official Index of Forbidden Books and placed a long list of books on it. Also included was a tract, Consilium (advice), to which he himself had contributed as Cardinal This tract had openly criticised papal supremacy, simony (bribing for spiritual favours) and other abuses. (Unfortunately, a copy fell into the hands of Protestants  who found it simply confirmed what they were protesting about all along.) Publishers were constantly coerced to stay in line and many authors either stopped writing or had to be content to have sanitised versions published.

 

Council of Trent

This Council appointed by Pope Paul III in 1545 in answer to the Protestant set out to systematise Catholic doctrine and canon law. Celebacy was proclaimed to be superior to marriage. The  Catholic  marriage ceremony was to be conducted by a priest in the presence of two witnesses. Priests were to be trained in seminaries isolated from the community. The Latin version of the Bible, the Vulgate, was declared the authentic version. The Protestants had compiled their own version. The Council met in three sessions: 1545-48, 1551-52 and 1562-63. The last session was presided over by Pius IV. (Picture shows the Council in session )

 

Elizabeth I Excommunicated

The next pope, Pius V, set about implementing the Council decisons in earnest. Himself a former Inquisitor, he gave the Inquisition full freedom to operate and made use  of the Index liberally. His excommunication of the English queen, Elizabeth I, led to a vicious persecution of English Catholics. The naval Battle of Lepanto (1571), won with papal support, broke the power of the Turks in the Mediterranean. In memory of the victory, Pius V added the supplication Help of Christians to the Loreto Litany. He was declared saint 150 years later.

 

 

Tortured for changing her knickers on Saturdays

The Story of Elvira

 

Although the Inquisition was established to root out heresy, ethnic hatred (mostly of Muslims & Jews) or anti-woman bias was often at work. The tribunals in different countries were independent but the Spanish Inquisition has a particularly vicious record. We illustrate with the case of Elvira del Campo.

 

In July 1563, Elvira, a pregnant young woman from Toledo was arrested and brought before the Tribunal a year later. Her baby was born in prison and she didn’t know what came of it. The charge against here was that she disliked pork and changed her underclothes on Saturdays. It was presumed she was secretly a Jewess.

Actually Elvira and her husband  were both Christian and so were her parents though her mother had Jewish ancestry. While a young girl, her mother had instilled in her a dislike of pork and taught her to change her underwear on Saturdays. Lodgers at her house reported her ‘Jewish habits’ to the Inquisition but confirmed that she was a good Catholic. The informers were rewarded with a 3 years’ indulgence!

The Inquisitors (three clerics) warned her to confess or else she would be tortured. Falling on her knees, Elvira begged them to tell what they wanted her to say and she would say it.

 

 

The Inquisitors merely repeated: “Tell the truth.” She was stripped naked and given a pair of underpants. Her arms were tied and she writhed in pain as the cords were twisted. She kept screaming “I did not eat pork because it made me sick. Loosen me, senores, and tell me what to say.” The cords were tightened until they snapped. She was then transferred to the potro (trestle with sharp-edged rungs). Her limbs were tied together and she was positioned so that her head was lower than her feet. Her mouth was forced open with an iron prong and a toca, a piece of linen was thrust down her throat. Slowly an attendant poured water from a jar onto the linen piece so that the water dripped steadily down her throat. When the toca was removed, Elvira was stiff and unable to speak. The torture was suspended and she was put into solitary confinement, cold and naked. After 4 days the torture was was resumed.

 

In the end she confessed her ‘Jewish’ habits. She was jailed for a year and ordered to wear a robe of shame. Her property was confiscated. At end of the year, she was sentenced for another 3 years but was released after six months probably for reasons of insanity.

 

 ___ Original Source: H C Lea: The History of the Inquisition in Spain, New York 1906

 

 

Colleges & Calendar

Pope Gregory XIII continued with the Tridentine reforms. He entrusted the Jesuits with the running of  over 20 new colleges and seminaries in several countries,  the one in Rome - Gregorian University - named after him. His reform of the Julian calendar (by deleting 10 days in October) has come to be known as the Gregorian calendar and has been used by all Christians since about 1580.

The guilt of the Jews only grows deeper with successive generations, entailing perpetual slavery     ___ Pope Gregory XIII

 

Like most popes, Gregory IV elevated his own relatives: two nephews were made cardinals and his illegitimate son, Giacomo, received a lesser position. He was less charitable to the Jews.

 

He rewrote the Bible

Pope Sixtus V (left) proved to be a tireless worker. He built the dome of St Peter’s and the Vatican Library. He was not satisfied with the revised version of the Vulgate compiled by scholars in 1588 and set out to prepare his own version. He laboured night after night, translating at whim, adding phrases of his own and altering references. In 18 months, his work was done. It was printed in haste and many misprints were found. Correcting took another six months. Finally, in 1590, Sixtus issued his bull Aeternus Ille:

“By the fullness of Apostolic power, We decree and declare this edition (of the Bible) ... is to be held as true, lawful, authentic and unquestioned in all public and private discussions, readings and preaching.”

 

Four months later Sixtus V was dead.  His bible was found to be riddled with errors. Pope Gregory XIV decided on a cover-up. He declared that the errors were due to printers ‘and other persons’ and that Sixtus had asked  for a revised version. A team of scholars came up with a revision in June 1591. Meanwhile the Vatican tired to buy back Sixtus’ bible whatever the cost and Pope Clement VIII agreed to pass the new  version as Sixtus’ own! Some institutions had received both versions. Oxford’s first librarian Dr Thomas James spotted the fraud, pointing out the contradictions in the versions.

 

Bruno burnt alive

A philosopher of the time, Giordano Bruno, appalled by the prevailing Christian intolerance and wars, advocated a return to natural religion, like that of Egypt. He said: “To Egypt, we  Greeks  owe our fables, metaphors and doctrines.” He also championed   Copernicus’ heliocentric theory. The (Roman) Inquisition got the go-ahead from Pope Clement VIII to burn Bruno at the stake in 1600.

 

TABLE OF POPES  (220-230)

 

221) Marcellus II   1555        223) Pius IV          1559-65

225) Gregory XIII   1572-85    227) Urban VII       1590

229) Innocent IX    1591        220) Julius III         1550-55

222) Paul IV         1555-59    224) Pius V           1566-72

226) Sixtus V       1585-90    228) Gregory XIV    1590-91

230) Clement VIII  1592-1605

 

NOTE:

In October 1998, the Vatican made available the Inquisition documents for examination by some 50 historians and clerics. Only the Roman material will be allowed to be examined. (Most of this material was lost when Napoleon plundered the archives in 1810 but some 4500 files survive.) Further, nothing beyond 1903 may be accessed. This was the year in which Pope Pius X launched his  embarrassing anti-modernist campaign.

 

References

1.  P de Rosa, Vicars of Christ,  (Corgi 1994)

2.  J Brusher, Popes through the Ages,  (New Advent 1996)

3.  Maxwell- Stuart, Chronicles of the Popes,  (Th & Hudson, 1997)

4.  Martin Bernal, Black Athena, (Vintage 1991)