The end of the 11th century was marked by a broad movement of Christian peoples against the Muslim world. For almost two hundred years, Western European feudal lords and the Catholic Church organized eight so-called crusades (1096-1270) to the Middle East - to Syria, Palestine and North Africa. The invasive goals of such conquests were covered with the sacred slogans of the struggle against the "infidels" (Muslims), the liberation of the "tomb of the Lord" and the "holy promised land" (Palestine).
In 1099, the crusaders daringly captured Jerusalem and founded a sacred Christian state. After that, the influx of pilgrims to the Holy Sepulcher increased, and the most powerful Order of the Knights Templars, or Templars, founded in 1119 by Hugo de Payen, took care of their needs and protection. Gradually, the knightly orders returned to their homeland, to their homes.
The Order of the Knights Templar also returned, as peasant uprisings flared up in the south of France, Germany, and the north of Italy. Waging a fierce struggle with Muslims, the French authorities missed a much more serious and immediate danger for the Church and the state - the spread of heresy, which they increasingly linked with witchcraft.
BAGROVAYA ZARYA HERESIES OVER EUROPE
The names of the most common heresies ("hairesis" is the Greek word meaning "free choice") - Cathars, pilgrims, Albigensians and Waldens - gave goosebumps to many in Europe alone.
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The cathars, who took the path of extreme asceticism, caused the greatest concern. Their teaching was most widespread in the XII-XIII centuries. The basis of their faith is Manichean, that is, they believed not in one God, but in two eternally existing ones, good and bad. Satan, the God of evil, controls the world and opposes the good God everywhere. According to their firm conviction, “everything material, works of art, the human body itself with its vices, are tools created by the Devil for the sole purpose of taking possession of the souls of people.” According to their logic, the Catholic Church itself is an instrument of the Devil, and all its shrines are obscene abominations, and its seven sacraments - a devilish deception. Cathars married, but did not give birth to children, so as not to strengthen their soul in the flesh. Their stoicism sometimes went to extremes. As a result of prolonged violent starvation, they reached such a deranged state that they committed mass suicide, only to avoid falling into the hands of the Church. At the end of the 13th century, the fierce persecution of the Cathars by the ecclesiastical and secular authorities led to the stratification of this heretical movement and its decline. But their teaching was taken up by supporters of an even more dangerous heresy - the Albigensians.
They were called Albigensians because most of them were concentrated in the city of Albi, in Provence, and in Toulouse in the XIII-XV centuries. This contagious heresy began to penetrate into southern Europe in 1020 along the trade routes from Eastern Europe. They were often called “Burgs”, or “Bulgarians” (after the name of approximately the same sect of Bogomils, which arose in the 10th century on the territory of Bulgaria). Among the many charges brought against them were those that we now refer to as sexual perversion. The Albigensians rejected the dogma of a traditional God, church sacraments, and the veneration of the cross. They did not recognize the authority of the Pope, the Catholic Church, which they never called devilish power. They even created their own Church, declaring it independent from Rome. Unable to break the movements of the Cathars and Albigensians by other means,Pope Innocent III organized a crusade against them, and in 1209 an army of knights and mercenaries from northern France invaded Provence. The pacification of dissidents continued for two decades, turning one of the richest provinces of France into ruins. The capital punishment was the burning at the stake of those heretics who abandoned Christianity. The bonfire served them as a reminder of the hellish fire that awaited each of them ahead. Waldenses.
This group of heretics gets its name from its founder Pierre Waldo, a wealthy merchant from Lyon. He translated the New Testament into French without the permission of the authorities and, having adopted the new faith around 1170, began to preach it openly everywhere. The Waldensians were distinguished from the Albigensians by one peculiarity - they were strongly opposed to the Catholic clergy led by the Pope. Under the protection of Duke William IX of Aquitaine, the Waldensians greatly strengthened their position in southern France. The crusade against the heretics, announced by Innocent III, as you know, ended in complete failure. Some of the knights were killed, some were bribed, but the heresy continued to exist as before, posing an increasing threat to the authorities.
Then Pope Gregory IX with his bull ordered the Vatican to organize his own punitive institute, which was created in 1233. The Inquisition with troops of the Crusaders pursued the Waldens everywhere, equating their crimes with witchcraft. They accused them of summoning demons, sending storms, eating human flesh. In general, they were charged with a full set of accusations typical of witches and sorcerers, after which they were ruthlessly sent to the fire. Some of the Waldensians managed to escape persecution and take refuge behind the Alps, in Piedmont, Italy. Their bloody persecution continued until the 15th century and even longer, after Pope Innocent VIII in 1487, with his bull, blessed their general extermination and dealt the first powerful blow in a long, protracted war with sorcerers in Europe for several centuries.
PUNISHMENT - DEATH
The main fault of heresy, according to the generally accepted theory, is that it is not a sin, but a crime, and therefore is punishable only by death. This theory was deepened in the XII and XIII centuries. So, in 1179, Pope Innocent III sent his edict to the King of France, in which he considered it necessary to use the spiritual method of excommunicating heretics from the Church, but if this turns out to be insufficient, an iron sword can also be used.
The Lateran Ecumenical Council (1215) incorporated this edict into canonical ecclesiastical law and stated that heretics should be excommunicated or handed over to secular authorities for a death sentence. The death sentence was precisely their prerogative. However, five years later, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, introduced this ecclesiastical law into the body of civil law.
INQUISITION
The Inquisition (from the Latin word "inquisito" - search, investigation) is a judicial tribunal that the Catholic Church created in the 13th century to combat heresy.
In the Middle Ages, all heretics were considered "enemies of society." Threatened by the expansion of the activities of the heretical sects - Cathars, Bogomils, Albigensians and Waldensians, Gregory IX created the papal inquisition to fight the heretics.
In Spain in the 13th century, its own "national" inquisition was created, which brutally persecuted local heretics ("alumbarados", the enlightened ones). In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV officially blessed the Spanish Inquisition with his bull. Two years later, a "New Inquisition" was created in this country, headed by the cruel Dominican monk Torquato Torquemada, who personally sent more than 2 thousand people to the fire. During the Spanish conquest of America, the Inquisition moved its activities overseas. The Inquisition in Spain was banned in 1808 by Napoleon's brother Joseph.
Napoleon himself outlawed this punitive institution after the Great French Revolution in all the countries he conquered. In 1542, Pope Paul III organized another, third inquisition to fight the Protestants.
In America, the Inquisition was abolished during the War of Independence in 1810-1826. In 1908, Pope Pius X banned the use of the word "Inquisition". From now on, this punitive Vatican institution officially became known as the Sacred Chancellery. In 1965, Pope Paul VI reorganized it into a more democratic institution and called it the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.
THE KNIGHTS RETURN
The Crusades went bankrupt, the knights returned to their homeland. In 1306, the most powerful and richest knightly order in Christendom returned - the Order of the Templars.
Led by Grand Master Jacques de Olot, unfolding their "Bosean", a black-and-white striped banner with a cross and the motto "Not for us, not for us, but for Your name," courageous, glorious Palladins descended on the coast of France, accompanied by a crowd of pages, squires and servants. But, alas, in front of the order ran a bad, smacking of blasphemy and witchcraft glory.
The pilgrims, turning to cautious whispers, talked about the strange things happening in the temples of the templars.
In them, the knights utter mysterious, mystical speeches, trample the cross with the crucifixion of Christ with their feet.
These rumors reached the ears of the French king Philip IV the Handsome, who was putting an iron hand in order in the country.
He always remembered the dangerous warnings made by the Templars to his predecessor, Henry III: "You will be king as long as you are just!" He also remembered that during the siege of Paris, Henry III was killed by a monk.
A CHALLENGE TO ROYAL AUTHORITY
The rudiments of political heresy, the Knights Templar.
Concerned about heresy, King Philip IV more and more often recalled the history of the origin of the order and his seemingly impeccable work for almost two centuries.
King Baldwin II of Jerusalem presented the knights-monks with a spacious house for temporary stay. At this place, according to legend, was the temple of Solomon, hence the name of the order - the Templars, or Templars (from the French word "tempie" - temple). Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, a great religious authority of that time, in 1128 compiled a code (charter) for the order with his own hand, headed by a grand master. By the end of the 12th century, the order reached unprecedented brilliance and glory. Monarchs and popes showered him with their favors, provided the knights with unheard of privileges. Templars now occupied the most honorable places in the French, English and Spanish courts.
The external power of the order grew rapidly, and it was drowning more and more in unprecedented luxury. He achieved complete independence, but a wormhole had already started up inside.
The previously infinite devotion of the order to the Church was replaced by indifference and indifference. The knights increasingly began to be struck by a dangerous disease - freethinking, from which heresy is one step away. New trends penetrated the Templar Order, and the charter underwent radical changes.
The order began to accept those excommunicated from the Church - an unprecedented sacrilege! This was explained as follows - "in order to contribute to the salvation of lost souls." A very convenient excuse.
The Church begins to suspect that a secret teaching is taking root among the knights. Rumor has it that secret gatherings take place in the dungeons of the order at night or at dawn, at which mystical rites, strange initiations and worship of mysterious demonic powers are performed.
According to the ideas of the order, there are two gods in the world: the Highest - the creator of spirit and good and the Lower - the creator of matter and all evil. Baphomet became the symbol of the second among the Templars. Translated from Greek, Baphomet means "baptism with wisdom" and is a figurine with the head of a goat and a woman's breast.
After the defeat of the Albigensians in France in the 12th century, many of them, including their leader Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, found political asylum in the order and, thus, "infected" the knights with the poison of their teachings. The Order, accumulating enormous wealth, showed an enviable "business streak", and its lucrative enterprises arose throughout Europe. In the second half of the 13th century, the annual income of the Templars reached an already fantastic sum for those times - 120 million francs. It was decided to end the order. Under the guise of a struggle for the purity of the faith, mass executions of the Templars began as heretics, accomplices of the Devil. But all these illegal killings became just a small prelude to the next massive repressions against dissidents. witches, sorcerers, soothsayers and witches.
New bonfires glowed over Europe. Gloomy "witchcraft processes" were already looming on the horizon - the shame of human civilization.
An encroachment on power
Both in England and in France, the most absurd accusations of witchcraft and witchcraft were brought forward for political reasons, if only one of the suspects was encroaching, in the opinion of the court, on the royal power. In this case, the royal entourage was one hundred percent sure that there would be no misfire.
For example, in 1278, Bishop Pierre de Baillaud and his nephew were accused of using witchcraft to kill King Philip III of France. The bishop was acquitted, but the nephew was sent to the stake.
In 1308, in an attempt to send to the next world with the help of witchcraft the wife of the French king Philip IV the Fair, one of the bishops was accused and sent to prison. In 1314, the new French king Louis X was informed that a magician named Jacques Dulot had decided with his wife to kill the monarch, and for this purpose they made many of his wax figures. Madame Dulot was burned alive at the stake, and Dulot himself was finished off in prison.
A few years later, Count Robert d'Artois sculpted a wax figurine to kill the son of King Philip IV, Jean, and the attacker even asked the bishop to consecrate it in order to prevent a "blunder". The count was immediately sent into exile, and the bishop was sent to prison. In 1340, two monks attempted to enchant Philippe of Valois. Without further ado, both accused were sent to the stake.
End of the Order of Templars
It is said that the sad end of a flourishing order was predetermined by two main reasons - economic and political. The heretical doctrine he preached became only a pretext. The growing influence of the order, of course, deprived many courtiers and priests of sleep, but both the Pope and the king were well aware of the contents of the Templar's huge, heavy chests.
Philip IV's treasury was ruined. He was always in need of money and dreamed of how to quickly get his hands on the treasures of the Templars. But the Templars also invaded the field of politics. The king always strove for a strong monarchical power, and the Templars - for a completely different thing: they wanted to achieve a single union of all the peoples of Europe. If such a political union arises, then all peoples will make peace and there will be no more destructive wars. If there are no wars, then how to conquer new lands and replenish the royal treasury? And then the necessary pretext appeared. Two former Templars and criminals, in order to save their own lives, wrote a denunciation of the order, in which they set out in detail "a new secret doctrine of the Templars, glorifying the machinations of the Devil." The king was just waiting for this. There is apostasy. It is necessary to inform the Popelet him make a decision. It must be said that Pope Clement for a long time hesitated to raise his hand against the order, which for two hundred years of its existence enjoyed the favor of Rome. The Pope did not forget about how much gold the Templars transferred to the Vatican.
After much deliberation, however, he agreed to help the king and summoned Jacques de Malay from Cyprus to Paris under the pretext of negotiating a new crusade. Unsuspecting Jacques de Mala arrived in Paris. Together with him came sixty knights, who brought with them 150 thousand gold florins and a large amount of silver. This huge amount could cover all the urgent debts of the kingdom, but the king could no longer stop.
On October 13, 1307, all the Templars in France, along with their grandmaster and members of the Convention, were arrested by order of the king, and a judicial investigation began.
On August 12, 1308, the papal bull was promulgated, allowing both spiritual and secular authorities to initiate a case of heresy and apostasy against the Knights Templar.
The trial over the accused lasted seven whole years. As a result, the order was condemned. With a bull on May 2, 1312, the Pope abolished the Order of the Knights Templar and cursed all its members.
Prison and torture did their job. One by one, the knights confessed to terrible sins that they had never committed. The impatient king, even before the end of the investigation, ordered in 1310 to put 54 knights to painful death over a slow fire, who dared to refuse forced testimony. Now the fires were already lit on the legal basis of the court. The Grand Master of the Order of Jacques de Mala Philippe, fearing the outrage of the Parisians, decided not to execute, but to sentence him to life imprisonment in the Temple. But at the announcement of the verdict, the stubborn templar denied all testimony under torture and protested against the illegal inquiry procedure, after which he was executed.