50 Million dead in Inquisition

[BobRyan]

I'd challenge that there were 25 million within the reach of the Roman Catholic Inquisition.

Even if you get a number of 50 million total Western European population, to say that 50 million, or even 25 million, were executed because of the Inquisition would mean 1/2, or 3/4, of the population died as a result of it. No reasonable historian, that I know of, would believe that number.

According to the Bible there were millions engaged in war in the area of just the ONE nation of Israel alone - more than a 1000 years BEFORE the RCC began its 1260 year war against the saints.

Plenty of millions left for the RCC.

1 Billion on planet earth by the year 1800. Easily 500 million on earth 400 years earlier - during the heyday for the RCC. The Golden age for the RCC - was the dark ages for the world.

in Christ,

Bob

 

[preachinjesus]

But think about the fact it was a 700 year period. The population at one time may not have been many but we are talking about 17 or 18 generations.

A fair point.

However, as Salty has pointed out quite marvelously:

Over 700 years, that would be an average of 71428 per year, 1373 per week, 196 per day

I don't see that the Roman Catholic Inquisition system had the mechanism or ability to do this. Though there would certainly be some group executions, each person who was executed was handled individually (in terms of understanding their heresy or heterodoxy.)

If there is one think that leaps up from the data and historical accounts of the Inquisition, it is that the Roman Catholic authorities took their time and made sure the people they were massacring were actually deserving of the blade.

Odd as it may sound, the records and processes that were in place were not efficient enough to produce this kind of number.

It is curious to track down how many people lived within the reach of the Roman Catholic Church during this period.

Notice that I am being specific here. It isn't the total European population, but Western European population. Since the Orthodox Church was very much in place, it provide some safeguard in Eastern Europe and such.

 

[preachinjesus]

According to the Bible there were millions engaged in war in the area of just the ONE nation of Israel alone - more than a 1000 years BEFORE the RCC began its 1260 year war against the saints.

I'd be interested to see where the Bible says millions.

Plenty of millions left for the RCC.

Well the Inquisitions didn't begin until substantially later. Comparing biblical accounts and suggestions about numbers to event that were 2500 years later isn't a good way to proceed.

1 Billion on planet earth by the year 1800. Easily 500 million on earth 400 years earlier - during the heyday for the RCC. The Golden age for the RCC - was the dark ages for the world.

Total world population isn't really what we're looking at here. Total world population could be 5 billion, but if the RCC only had access to Western Europe, which is pretty well established, I don't know of any major Inquisition councils outside of Western Europe, it is then the population of Western Europe that is what matters.

I think Sola has a good point in noting that, over 700 years there might have been enough people. However, I just don't think the Inquisitions had the capacity to get to 50 million people. These weren't ongoing executions, these were periods of time.

Thanks

 

[SolaSaint]

Doesn't seem like many were killed for religious reasons prior to the 1800s. Was this a lack of respect for life or a high respect for religion? To put someone to death for beliefs or differing doctrines, seems like they took their faith oh so serious. We don't see that today in execution type killing. We do however see ethnic/religious cleansing.

 

[Bro. James]

Translate and find origins:

"Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnocet"

"Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius."

"Nulla salus extra ecclesium"

The mother of harlots is drunk with the blood of the Saints.

An exact number is irrelevant.

Now what?

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Bro. James

 

[kyredneck]

You posted two links - but not one quote of the Pope saying "The inquisition was wrong - was a sin. The Church should not have done it and we apologize."

I found that lack of anything to quote "noteworthy" when the apology first came out - to be curious so I contacted the Catholic EWTN online source. At that time Dr. William Carroll was in charge of the church history section of Q&A. So I asked about the supposed apology and how it speaks to the issue of infallibility given that Lateran IV was an infallible ecumenical council calling for the "extermination" of all heretics.

The response I got in no uncertain terms is that the Pope had been very careful NOT to apologize for any actual act of the church in history.

So a lot of window dressing there - but even by RCC standards - no substance to it -- for a number of reasons.

in Christ,

Bob

Oh, lots of gobbledygook there no doubt, however, it is the general perception that the RCC (through John Paul II) has indeed acknowledged, and has attempted to apologize and ask forgiveness for it's past wrongdoings, including the inquisition:

"Pope John Paul II made many apologies. During his long reign as Pope, he apologized to Jews, Galileo, women, people convicted by the Inquisition, Muslims killed by the Crusaders and almost everyone who had allegedly suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church over the years. Even before he became the Pope, he was a prominent editor and supporter of initiatives like the Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops from 1965. As Pope, he officially made public apologies for over 100 of these supposed wrongdoings...."

 

[kyredneck]

...The mother of harlots is drunk with the blood of the Saints.....

Indeed.

34 Therefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: some of them shall ye kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city:
35 that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous unto the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar. Mt 23

24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth. Rev 18

The two most prominent of her daughters today are Marxism and Zionism.