the inquisition and galileo

7/29/2019 The Inquisition and Galileo

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29 January 2013Celmer Santos and Jaime Dumaliang


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Saint Augustine as the first Theorist of Inquisition" Although Augustine always maintain that the final, individual act of choice had to be free in order to be effective, he also argued that, inmany circumstances, such a choice needed to be prepared by processes which individuals did not necessarily chose for themselves. Theseprocesses, moreover, were often imposed on individuals against their will"

12th Century - Chatharism (from greek word purity)

It regarded the whole of the material world, and especially the human body, as the evil creation of satan.

Church Response

Ecclesia abhorret a sanguineThe Church abhors the shedding of blood

Remained true even after increasing numbers of rulers and bishops begun to execute heretics from the eleven century onwards Condemned by St. Bernard and by Gerhoh of Reichersberg

Turning Point

1224 Emperor Frederick II made heresy punishable by burning His motive is a combination of an attempt to cover up his own manifestly doubtful orthodoxy and subtle tactic to assert his authority

in religious matters at the expense of the Church.

1231 Official foundation of the Inquisition Pope Gregory IX appointed a special commission to ensure that the inquisition remained under the authority of the Church. A Bold decision in the side of the Church to stop Emperor Frederick

Background


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Pope Gregory Appointed permanent judges who were given special powers to execute

doctrinal functions in the name of the Pope.

Dominican and Franciscan friars answerable directly to the pope

Could arrest suspects on the testimony of two anonymous witnesses Ecclesiastical Penances

Wearing of a Badge of shame

Abuses Robert le Bougre (a convert from Catharism) - ordered the burning en masse (nearly 200 perfecti in 1239)

1252 onwards Judicial Torture was introduce which is a serious breach with the Churchs tradition ofopposing torture

Witchcraft

Most harmful development was the effort of inquisitors to address the witchcraft

1484 Pope Innocent VIII issued the extraordinary Bull Summis Desiderantes through the influence of twoleading anti-witch Inquisitors in Germany: the Dominicans Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger.

At this time, the official Church hierarchy contributed substantially to the formation of a persecutingmentality across Europe

25,000 (estimate) people may have been burned in Germany alone

Medieval Inquisition


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Unbalanced Picture Pope Gregory IX immediately removed Robert le Bourgres from office

and imprisoned him for life

Numerous manuals was produced in the 14th century; notably those ofBernard Gui and Nicolas Eymeric, were serious and meticulous attempts tosecure justice.

Results

safer trial for the accused in Inquisitorial courts than in secular ones

42 accused only out of 930 sentences by Bernard Gui in Toulouse in the early 14th

centurywas delivered to the secular authorities for capital punishment

Henry Charles Lea, a protestant historian, confirmed that the numbers are relatively fewafter an exhaustive study of the available documentation.

Medieval Inquisition


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Conversos Ferdinand as King of three religions

Hundred Years war and Economic Problems

Successful Jews living in larger urban centres became the escape goats for this problem.

June 1391 The Pogrom or violence against Jew & the Black Death

Many Jews converted to Christianity to survive the pogrom which resulted to another even more delicate problem.

False Conversos

Pope Sixtus IV formally established the Inquisition in 1478 upon the request of Ferdinand and Isabel to address thereligious issue on false conversos.

1484 Torquemadas Ordenanza

1492 - the expulsion of the 100,000 Jews from Spanish land

1500s Auto de fe

Moriscos (Converted Muslims)

1497 the end of over 700 years of Muslim occupation of Granada

Talavera - Conversion through preaching and careful instruction

1499 Cardinal Francisco Jimenez de Cisneros - policy of forced conversions and baptism en masse.

1502 The Cardinal persuaded the Catholic Monarch to expelled all unconverted adult muslims from thepeninsula.

1504-1560s a fatwa inAljamiado script April 9, 1609 King Philip III approved the decree of expulsion of Spanish moriscos.

The Spanish Inquisition


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The Alumbrados (the enlightened ones)

1510 the Inquisition started to discover the Alumbrados Divine revelation was communicated by God to individuals.

Protestantism 1557 substantial Protestants were exposed in Seville and Valladolid, an event that

shock waves across the peninsula. Charles V, from his retirement, penned a famous letter to his daughter Juana with a

conclusion that states Believe me, If so great an evil is not suppressed and remedied

without distinction of persons from the very beginning, I cannot promise that the Kingor anyone else will be in a position to do it afterwards Autos de fe in Valladolid and Seville 1559-1566 Spanish Inquisition condemned just over a hundred convicted protestants to

be burnt at the stake relatively fewer than the other French under Henry II at least twice English under Mary at least three times

The Spanish Inquisition


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One stock argument against the Church according to Cardinal Newman 1473-1543 Polish Astronomer Nicholas Copernicus

Introduced that the Sun is the Center of the Solar System rather than the Earthas opposed to the Ptolemy (87-150 A.D)

1564-1642 Galileo made Important astronomical observations with histelescope.

1610 Father Christopher Clavius wrote to tell Galileo that his fellowJesuit astronomers had confirmed his discoveries.

Galileo wrote to a friend I have been received and shown favour bymany illustrious cardinals, prelates, and princes of this city He enjoyed along audience with Pope Paul V, and the Jesuits of the Roman College helda day of Activities in honor of his achievements.

1612 Galileo published his letters on the Sunspots, in which he espousedthe Copernican System for the first time in print. One of the manyenthusiastic letters of congratulation he received came from CardinalMafeo Barberini, who later became Pope Urban VIII.

Galileo Case


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Jerome Langford, among the most judicious modern scholars of the subject summarize Galileos

position;

Galileo was convinced that he had the truth. But objectively he had no proof with which towin the allegiance of open-minded men. It is a complete injustice to contend, as some historiansdo, that no one would listen to his arguments, that he never had a chance. The Jesuitastronomers had confirmed his discoveries; they [waited] eagerly for further proof so that theycould abandon Tychos system and come out solidly in favour of Copercanism. Manyinfluential churchmen believed that Galileo might be right, but they had to wait for more proof

1624 Pope Urban VIII told Galileo that the Church had never declared Copernicanism to beheretical, and that the Church would never do so.

1632 Galileos Dialogue on the Great World Systems was published. It was written at theurging of the pope, but galileo ignored the instruction to treat Copernacanism as a hypothesisrather than as established truth.

1633 Galileo was declared suspected of heresy and was ordered to desist from publishing onCopernicanism.

It is important, however, not to overstate what took place. As J.L. Heilbron explains:

Informed contemporaries appreciated that the reference to heresy in connection with Galileo orCopernicus had no general or theological significance. Gassendi, in 1642, observed that the decision of thecardinals, though important for the faithful, did not amount to an article of faith; Riccioli, in 1651, that

heliocentrism was not a heresy; Mengoli, in 1675, that interpretations of Scripture can only bind Catholicsif agreed to at a general council; and Baldigiani, in 1678, that everyone knew all that.

Galileo Case


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The Church should kneel before God and implore forgiveness for the past and present sins of her sons and

daughters

Original Text from Tertio Millennio Adveniente (1994 Encyclical Letter)

35. Another painful chapter of history to which the sons and daughters of the Church must returnwith a spirit of repentance is that of the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, tointolerance and even the use of violence in the service of truth.

It is true that an accurate historical judgment cannot prescind from careful study of the culturalconditioning of the times, as a result of which many people may have held in good faith that anauthentic witness to the truth could include suppressing the opinions of others or at least payingno attention to them. Many factors frequently converged to create assumptions which justifiedintolerance and fostered an emotional climate from which only great spirits, truly free and filled

with God, were in some way able to break free. Yet the consideration of mitigating factors doesnot exonerate the Church from the obligation to express profound regret for the weaknesses of somany of her sons and daughters who sullied her face, preventing her from fully mirroring theimage of her crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and of humble meekness. Fromthese painful moments of the past a lesson can be drawn for the future, leading all Christians toadhere fully to the sublime principle stated by the Council: "The truth cannot impose itself exceptby virtue of its own truth, as it wins over the mind with both gentleness and power".(19)

John Paul IIs Apology


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Sources:

The Inquisition by Fernando Cervantes

Tertio Millennio Adveniente (1994 Encyclical Letter)

Catholic Church: Builders of Civilization by Tomas Woods


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Thank You!

the inquisition and galileo

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