Why are there so many demoninations?
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Then he will say the apology is a few centuries too late.Originally posted by plo30360:How come you never mention the atrocities comitted by the poeple opposing the crusaders, like what they did to the city of constinaople?
Anyway, I'm not here to bring up the faults of others.
During the crusades, the crusaders might have gone into brutal acess for which popes have apologized.
Somehow, SIS makes me understand why pagans were burnt alive. Sorry, hor, Buddhist/Taoist friends. If you're offended, blame it on that "I_think_I'm_Smart".
Anyway, why is the discussion so out of topic? Why must "I_think_I'm_So_Smart" always distort other people's topic/thread? Or does he have poor comprehension of Engrish? -
How it started:
The Turks in 1480 attacked the south Italian city of Otranto. 12,000 people were killed, the rest made slaves. The Turks killed every cleric in the city and sawed the archbishop in two. So Queen Isabel sent a fleet to Italy. In September of 1480, when it was clear the Turks might do the same to any coastal city, King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella established the Inquisition. It dealt with the special problem of those who pretended to become Christians, but were not really converted, and might open the gates of the city to the Turks.
During this period the West was in danger of following the fate of Constantinople and falling under the sword of Islam. Indeed Protestant and Catholic princes joined forces against the threat and at one point the Turkish armies were at the gates of Vienna.
Otherwise, the modern nations of Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, 16 miles away from Spain, formed part of a vast imperial system established by the Muslim Turks, a system as powerful and menacing to western Europe as the Soviet bloc was conceived to be in our day.
It was under this threat that the Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 if it should be needed. The kings of Spain, Isabella and Ferdinand, instituted it two years later. The specific threat that the Inquisition faced was the "conversos." Spain had been freed form Islamic control for only a few generations, after 800 years of oppression... and not completely, because Islam still ruled in Granada up to 1492.
The Spanish Inquisition was independent of the Medieval Inquisition. It was established by Ferdinand and Isabella with the reluctant approval of Sixtus IV. It was entirely controlled by the Spanish kings, and the pope's only hold over it was in naming the inquisitor general chosen by the kings. The popes were never reconciled to the institution, which they regarded as usurping a church prerogative.
The Spanish Inquisition had no authority over practicing Muslims and Jews, only over professed Christians suspected of being fakes and a threat to the country... it remained operative in Spain into the nineteenth century. Originally called into being against secret Islam and secret Judaism, it served also to repel Protestantism in the sixteenth century, but was unable to expel French Rationalism and immorality of the eighteenth... it also took some action against witchcraft though it was very limited compared with the 30,000 witches burned in England and the 100,000 in Germany.
It was a state institution used to identify conversos, mainly Muslims (Moors, Moros), and Jews (Marranos), who falsely "converted" to Christianity and secretly practiced their former religion. Its job was also, and more importantly, to clear the good name of many people who were falsely accused.
The judges were to be at least forty years old, of unimpeachable reputation, distinguished for virtue and wisdom, masters of theology, or doctors or licentiates of canon law, and they must follow the usual ecclesiastical rules and regulations.
On 17 September, 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella appointed, at first for Seville, two Dominicans as inquisitors, with two of the secular clergy assistants. Fray Tomás Torquemada (at Valladolid in 1420, at Avila, in 149
was the true organizer of the Spanish Inquisition. The institution speedily ramified from Seville to Cordova, Jaen, Valladolid, Villareal, and Toledo, About 1538 there were nineteen courts, to which three were afterwards added in Spanish America (Mexico, Lima, and Cartagena). The Spanish government tried to establish the Inquisition in all its dominions; but in the Spanish Netherlands the local officials did not cooperate, and the inquisitors were chased (1510) out of Naples, apparently with the pope's connivance.
King Joseph Bonaparte abrogated it in 1808, but it was reintroduced by Ferdinand VII in 1814 and approved by Pius VII on certain conditions, among others the abolition of torture. It was definitely abolished in 1820.
The Spanish Inquisition was much harsher, more highly organized, and far freer with the death penalty than the Medieval Inquisition... soon no Spaniard could feel safe from it; thus, St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Theresa of �vila were investigated for heresy, and they were absolved!.
A most important point made by the Spanish scholars is that the inquisitional courts of the Church were both more just and more lenient than civil courts and religious courts elsewhere in Europe at the time. Prisoners in Spanish secular courts, knowing this would sometimes blaspheme in order to be sent to the courts of the Inquisition where conditions were better.
A History of the Inquisition -
Jews and Moors Expelled from Spain in 1492:
After Granada and the last remnant of Spanish Islam fell to the armies of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492, policy-makers had to decide how to treat the Moors and the relatively small but influential Jewish community which had flourished in Spain. Fearful of Muslim and Jewish sympathizers in their midst, offered no compromise: Moors and Jews were expelled from Spain by the Government in 1492... and it was precisely the inability of the inquisitorial courts to check Jewish and Moors influence on the conversos that served as a decisive argument for the Monarchs in banishing Moors and Jews from Spain... a total of about 160,000 Jews were deported, including many who were not guilty of any offenses.
A main modern objection about the Spanish Inquisition is that it brought about "a reign of terror throughout Europe" which was responsible for the impoverishment, exile, and death of countless Jews, Muslims, and "heretical" Christians. Jews were singled out for persecution because of their identity as Jews... however, the Spanish Inquisition exercised its authority only in Spanish Dominions, not throughout Europe, and had no authority over practicing Muslims and Jews, only over professed Christians suspected of being fakes. http://www.geocities.com/iberianinquisition -
The Catholic Church:
As far as the abuses of the Spanish Inquisition are concerned, the Catholic Church is not responsible for them. Those abuses were committed, with a few exceptions, by the civil power, and they were condemned by Popes Leo X, Paul III, Paul IV, and Sixtus IV who reigned during that period of history.
The extreme penalties during the days of the Spanish inquisition were imposed by the state, as heresy was considered to be a crime in those days, and abuses took place on the part of the inquisitors. The Catholic Church, while divinely protected from error in defining matters of faith and morals, does not claim to be immune from acts of abuse of power on the part of some of her children, even in high places. Such an abuse on the part of officials of the Church caused Pope Leo X to excommunicate the Catholic tribunal at Toledo, and to have the witnesses who appeared before its inquisitorial trial arrested for perjury. This was during Spanish Inquisition days. But such an abuse of power was rare, as the spirit of charity dominated those historic inquiries regarding heresy. Persons called before the inquisitors who repented were released after
promising to mend their ways and to do the penances enjoined, such as fasting, wearing a special penitential garb for a time, and imprisonment, which very often was in the houses of the penitents themselves. Torturing and burning were no part of the solemn religious ceremony called the Auto-da-Fe, where the penitents abjured their errors and made public recantation, by making an Act of Faith. Truth about the Spanish Inquisition
It is necessary to bear in mind the fact that extreme punishments meted out during the middle ages, such as burning at the stake, which you and I abhor, were common throughout the world at that time. They did not originate during the middle ages, having been the law before the Christian era. Such punishment did not shock the people then any more than the people of our country are shocked at the present time by electrocution... and at those times "heresy" was considered a worse crime than "murder", because murder kills the body, but heresy kills the soul for an eternity and it is a severe threat to kill the soul of the neighbors...
However, the inquiries became a kind of religious intolerance and even persecution, with abuses and atrocities against the self proclaimed Catholics who were actually heretics or fake Catholics... but we have to put ourselves in those times: Spain was not alone in inflicting religious persecution at that time. Elizabeth I burned heretics, as did her successor James I, as did virtually every Protestant government in Europe until the middle of the seventeenth century, so, it was something not unusual at those times, but a real deplorable stain on Christianity as a whole. Protestant Inquisition
Intolerance or persecution, or even any kind of discrimination, is totally opposed to Christianity, against all the principles of Jesus Christ... and if any Christian practices them, he is a bad Christian, a truly fake Christian!.
Jesus Christ never exercised any political power, and anytime Christian leaders have done politics it has been a disaster, a shameful stain on Christianity... definitely, the mixture of Religion and Politics is a deadly poison...
Jesus always is telling us what he told Peter:
"Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest, and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?. But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"... "But Jesus said, "No more of this!" And he touched his ear and healed him." (Mat.26:50-54, Lk.22:51)... Love and service and prayer were the only weapons of Jesus, and love and service and prayer should always be the only weapons of a Christian. -
The Inquisition Myth... The Black Legend:
We must remember again that every government in Europe punished treason and heresy by painful death, usually by burning in a public place... though the Black Legend paints it as an exclusive atrocity of the Spanish Inquisition... Yes, the Inquisition is to be blamed for many things, but not as badly as the Black Legend says.
The Inquisition Myth, which Spaniards call “The Black Legend,” did not arise in 1480. It began almost 100 years later, and exactly one year after the Protestant defeat at the Battle of Muhlberg at the hands of Ferdinand's grandson, the Emperor Charles V. In 1567 a fierce propaganda campaign began with the publication of a Protestant leaflet penned by a supposed Inquisition victim named Montanus. This Protestant character painted Catholic Spaniards as barbarians who ravished women and sodomized young boys. The propagandists soon created “hooded fiends” who tortured their victims in horrible devices like the knife-filled Iron Maiden which never was used in Spain.
The BBC/A&E special plainly states a reason for the war of words: the Protestants fought with words because they could not win on the battlefield.
Please, take a look at the BBC/A&E special program, "The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition"
ABSTRACT: The 1994 BBC/A&E production, "The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition" exposes the common understanding that the Inquisition was a vast pogrom of non Catholics as largely the creation of Protestant propaganda. In explaining the historical context, the program shows that the Spanish were not acting odd by their contemporary standards...
... And most significantly, historians have declared fraudulent a supposed Inquisition document claiming the genocide of millions of heretics. What is documented in the program is that 3000 to 5000 people died during the Inquisition's 350 year history, which pale in comparison to the 150,000 documented witch burnings elsewhere in Europe over the same centuries.
American historian William T. Walsh writes: "In Britain, 30,000 went to the stake for witchcraft; in Protestant Germany, the figure was 100,000"
The Inquisition was fiercely attacked with gross exaggeration. Thus, a combination of political rivalry, contempt for the Catholic faith, and anti-Spanish racism created a distorted image of the Inquisition... serving as a handy stick with which to beat the Catholic Church or Spain, whatever you hate most.
For example, Fray Tomas de Torquemada, the Inquisitor General of Spain whose very name is now a symbol of ruthless cruelty, actually checked the excessive zeal of the earlier inquisitors in many ways, including the limiting and mitigating of torture. After the appointment of Fray Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor General in 1483 its tribunals were so fair that many preferred to have it hear their cases rather than the regular courts.
Walsh thinks that torture under Torquemada was no worse than that used by American police in the 1930s. Also, under Torquemada's entire tenure as Inquisitor General (1483-149, 100,000 prisoners passed before his various tribunals throughout Spain. Of this number, less than 2% were executed. In Barcelona, from 1488 to 1498, "one prisoner out of 20 was put to death" (23 executions). Torquemada is not the monster of the Black Legend; still, he was responsible for, as an estimation, between 1,000 and 1,500 deaths... those death sentences were not at stake, but always pronounced by the civil court where the heretics were turned... and mostly by burning, the common method for those times.
http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ442.HTM
In Dostoyevski's famous novel The Brothers Karamazou, his imaginary Grand Inquisitor is a sinister horror who is master of Spain and who intends to put Christ to death after He returns to 16th-century Spain. Dostoyevski's Grand Inquisitor is a phantom, a creature of delusion, spawned in ignorance. How can one believe in the Russian novelist's scenario? Can great art be built on lies? Torquemada was not master of Spain and would not murder Christ.
And what of Poe's tale of the condemned man in The Pit and the Pendulum?. Since the setting and the plot are wildly false, what is left? But because of the power of art, these writings will continue to haunt the imagination and work against the truth. They will remain as literary thorns in the side of the Church. I doubt if people will discard so handy a weapon as the Inquisition with which to beat Catholics over the head. The Spanish Inquisition: Facts versus Fiction
This collection of bitter fables, with their overtones of bigotry and racism, proves once more that a lie told often enough and convincingly enough will in the end be accepted as gospel.
There was in historical fact no single or monolithic "Inquisition", but several Inquisitions. Dostoyevsky may be forgiven for inventing the "Grand Inquisitor", such a daunting, haunting figure. Dostoyevsky wrote fiction, and everyone knows it. The inventors of the "Myth of the Inquisition" should not be so readily pardoned, and the Myth should be carefully studied and re-evaluated . Here is the second pertinent history, the tale of a fiction with enough traces of authenticity to fool a lot of folks, much like a contemporary television "docudrama," or an Oliver Stone movie, or one of the recent political party conventions.
The Myth of the Inquisition was the work of Protestants and others united at about the time of the Enlightenment's deification of scientific reason. Their design was to turn people against revealed religion and, especially, the Roman Catholic Church. They transformed the Inquisitions into a flaming scourge which swept through Europe, its sanguinary effects touching virtually every hamlet, every family... The Myth of the Inquisition is just that: phony, made up, bogus.
"A New Industry: The Inquisition", exposes the big business of writing about the Inquisition today, and makes some good well studied remarks:
"Edward Peters, for example, goes to great pains to develop an interpretation of three layers: institution, legend, and myth. Much of what the world thought about the Spanish Inquisition came from Protestant propaganda in the Low Countries during the interminable war there in the seventeenth century. The Vietnam of the period was the war in the Spanish Netherlands. Dutch and English Protestants hesitated to attack the King of Spain directly, because they themselves had kings in an era when monarchies were less and less stable. Charles I lost his head, and Cromwell represented a sizable anti-monarchist point of view. But it was "safe" to attack Spain's religion, and you could get at the religion through the institution which supposedly promoted or represented it. Dutch Calvinists spared no effort, aided by their German and English allies, in painting a picture of the religion of Rome in the most negative of terms. The Black Legend was the result of Protestant propaganda, according to Peters and other historians. Even if there was a Catholic version, a sort of White Legend, have you ever heard of it?...
The Inquisition was really a court system, and jurists keep good records, clean records, and abundant records. Curialists write neatly".
I wish this humble writings would do a little the job of a Fair Legend. -
See how somebody distort the topic? Since when this topic is about inquisition and crusaders?Originally posted by stupidissmart:they do distort history like the inquisition and crusaders.
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The modern historiography of the Inquisition:
Modern Historiography
The modern historiography of the Inquisition, most of it by non-Catholic historians, has resulted in a careful, relatively precise, and on the whole rather moderate image of the institution, some of the most important works being; Edward Peters, Inquisition; Paul F. Grendler, The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press; John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy; and Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition.
Some of their conclusions are:
- The inquisitors tended to be professional legists and bureaucrats who adhered closely to rules and procedures rather than to whatever personal feelings they may have had on the subject.
- Those roles and procedures were not in themselves unjust. They required that evidence be presented, allowed the accused to defend themselves, and discarded dubious evidence.
- Thus in most cases the verdict was a “just” one in that it seemed to follow from the evidence.
- A number of cases were dismissed, or the proceedings terminated at some point, when the inquisitors became convinced that the evidence was not reliable.
- Torture was only used in a small minority of cases and was allowed only when there was strong evidence that the defendant was lying. In some instances (for example, Carlo Ginzburg's study of the Italian district of Friulia) there is no evidence of the use of torture at all.
- Only a small percentage of those convicted were executed—at most two to three percent in a given region. Many more were sentenced to life in prison, but this was often commuted after a few years. The most common punishment was some form of public penance.
- The dreaded Spanish Inquisition in particular has been grossly exaggerated. It executed about 880 persons. It did not persecute millions of people, as is often claimed, but approximately 44,000 between 1540 and 1700, of whom less than two per cent were executed.... about 880 persons.
- The celebrated case of Joan of Arc was a highly irregular inquisitorial procedure in France rigged by her political enemies, the English. When proper procedures were followed some years later, the Inquisition exonerated her posthumously.
- Although the Inquisition did prosecute witchcraft, as did almost every secular government, the Roman inquisitors by the later sixteenth century were beginning to express serious doubts about most such accusations. -
Wow, plo30360. This is so impressive. stupidissmart has so much to learn from you.Originally posted by plo30360:I wish this humble writings would do a little the job of a Fair Legend.
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Credit should go this website:
http://biblia.com/christianity/index.html -
Somehow I have a bad feeling that stupidissmart will not read what you pasted here. He is not asking questions. He just want to debate and win. We all open discussion here for exchange of information. But he just wants to put every Christian down and not receive any information. So your effort might go wasted.Originally posted by plo30360:Credit should go this website:
http://biblia.com/christianity/index.html
Nevertheless, now I get to know this website. I will read up whenever I have time. -
So what if there is a Protestant Inquisition as well? I do not think SIS cares. He will bash Christianity, be it Catholic or Protestant.
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The info is not meant only for him.Originally posted by Honeybunz:Somehow I have a bad feeling that stupidissmart will not read what you pasted here. He is not asking questions. He just want to debate and win. We all open discussion here for exchange of information. But he just wants to put every Christian down and not receive any information. So your effort might go wasted.
Nevertheless, now I get to know this website. I will read up whenever I have time. 
As for SIS putting down every christian, we cannot assume that he is anti-christian. Besides, I doubt my effort goes wasted if even 1 person reads it -
I agree with so what if there is a Protestant Inquisition. The fact remains the Catholic church did wrong things, We'll record it our history and teach our future genreations.Originally posted by SingaporeMacross:So what if there is a Protestant Inquisition as well? I do not think SIS cares. He will bash Christianity, be it Catholic or Protestant.
But, SIS here is attributing it all to the Catholic church, hence the Protestant Inquistion and the secular government's involvement.
Of, course I want to make this clear, just beacuse other people were involved does not mean Catholic guilt is absolved lest any one say we distort history again. -
That is the point that what we have been trying to get across to the populace for centuries.Originally posted by plo30360:I agree with so what if there is a Protestant Inquisition. The fact remains the Catholic church did wrong things, We'll record it our history and teach our future genreations.
But, SIS here is attributing it all to the Catholic church, hence the Protestant Inquistion and the secular government's involvement.
Of, course I want to make this clear, just beacuse other people were involved does not mean Catholic guilt is absolved lest any one say we distort history again. -
Misuse of religion for political mileage is not confined to the Christian world. It is even more widespread in the Muslim community. Whatever the reasons the perpetrators give, they are still in the wrong.
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How come you never mention the atrocities comitted by the poeple opposing the crusaders, like what they did to the city of constinaople?
but none really matched the cruelty of the crusaders who first started killing every single men, women and children.1- It was more cruel precisely because it was administered by the secular government.
u still fail to answer tis qustion. Aren't these gov agents catholic ? If the aren't they will be the one facing the trials instead. Haven't the pope support it as well ? BTW, protestant and catholic r the same to me
2- It was concerned, in large part, with the conversos. These were Jews who had converted either under duress or out of social convenience, and were suspected of secretly practicing the Jewish faith.
3- It has been the main target of Protestant and secular opponents of Catholicism who have fabricated — through pamphlets, “histories,” plays, and even paintings — cruelties and excesses far beyond what actually occurred.No. Talking about a shameless atheist
then please tell me where am I wrong ? I think just verbaly bashing someone without giving any justification is pretty weakSomehow, SIS makes me understand why pagans were burnt alive.
because they go against wat u believe ? Trust me, u r really becoming the catholic tat the pope will like -
as expected... from a christian source... why don't u find a neutral third party source of information ? I put mine from wikipedia here
The trigger for the First Crusade was Emperor Alexius I's appeal to Pope Urban II for mercenaries to help him resist Muslim advances into territory of the Byzantine Empire. Although the East-West Schism was brewing between the Catholic Western church and the Greek Orthodox Eastern church, Alexius I expected some help from a fellow Christian. However, the response was much larger, and less helpful, than Alexius I desired, as the Pope called for a large invasion force to not merely defend the Byzantine Empire but also retake Jerusalem.
When the First Crusade was preached in 1095, the Christian princes of northern Iberia had been fighting their way out of the mountains of Galicia and Asturias, the Basque country and Navarre, with increasing success, for about a hundred years. The fall of Moorish Toledo to the Kingdom of León in 1085 was a major victory, but the turning points of the Reconquista still lay in the future. The disunity of the Muslim emirs was an essential factor, and the Christians, whose wives remained safely behind, were hard to beat: they knew nothing except fighting, they had no gardens and libraries to defend, and they worked their way forward through alien territory populated by infidels, where the Christian fighters felt they could afford to wreak havoc. All these factors were soon to be replayed in the fighting grounds of the East. Spanish historians have traditionally seen the Reconquista as the molding force in the Castilian character, with its sense that the highest good was to die fighting for the cause of the right deity, in a Christian jihad. An ascetic religious fanaticism enforced by a military aristocracy became the dominant social value.
While the Reconquista was the most prominent example of Christian war against Muslim conquests, it is not the only such example. The Norman adventurer Robert Guiscard had conquered the "toe of Italy," Calabria, in 1057 and was holding what had traditionally been Byzantine territory against the Muslims of Sicily. The maritime states of Pisa, Genoa and Catalonia were all actively fighting Islamic strongholds in Majorca and Sardinia, freeing the coasts of Italy and Catalonia from Muslim raids. Much earlier, of course, the Christian homelands of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and so on had been conquered by Muslim armies. This long history of losing territories to a religious enemy, as well as a powerful pincer movement on all of Western Europe, created a powerful motive to respond to Byzantine emperor Alexius I's call for holy war to defend Christendom, and to recapture the lost lands, starting at the most important one of all, in modern Israel.
The papacy of Pope Gregory VII had struggled with reservations about the doctrinal validity of a holy war and the shedding of blood for the Lord and had resolved the question in favor of justified violence. Actions against Arians and other heretics offered historical precedents in a society where violence against unbelievers, and indeed against other Christians, was acceptable and common. Saint Augustine of Hippo, Gregory's intellectual model, had justified the use of force in the service of Christ in The City of God, and a Christian "just war" might enhance the wider standing of an aggressively ambitious leader of Europe, as Gregory saw himself. The northerners would be cemented to Rome and their troublesome knights could see the only kind of action that suited them. Previous attempts by the church to stem such violence, such as the concept of the "Peace of God", were not as successful as hoped. To the south of Rome, Normans were showing how such energies might be unleashed against both Arabs (in Sicily) and Byzantines (on the mainland). A Latin hegemony in the Levant would provide leverage in resolving the Papacy's claims of supremacy over the Patriarch of Constantinople, which had resulted in the Great Schism of 1054, a rift that might yet be resolved through the force of Frankish arms.
In the Byzantine homelands the Eastern Emperor's weakness was revealed by the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, which reduced the Empire's Asian territory to a region in western Anatolia and around Constantinople. A sure sign of Byzantine desperation was the appeal of Alexius I Comnenus to his enemy the Pope for aid. But Gregory was occupied with the Investiture Controversy and could not call on the German emperor and the crusade never took shape.
For Gregory's more moderate successor Pope Urban II, a crusade would serve to reunite Christendom, bolster the Papacy, and perhaps bring the East under his control. The disaffected Germans and the Normans were not to be counted on, but the heart and backbone of a crusade could be found in Urban's own homeland among the northern French.
On a popular level, the first crusades unleashed an unprecedented wave of impassioned, personally felt pious fury that was expressed in the massacres of Jews that accompanied the movement of mobs through Europe, and the violent treatment of "schismatic" Orthodox Christians of the east. This first phase of the Crusading movement culminated and largely spent itself in the rampages of the sack of Constantinople in 1204.
The 13th century crusades never expressed such a popular fever, and after Acre fell for the last time in 1291, and after the extermination of the Occitan Cathars in the Albigensian Crusade, the crusading ideal became devalued by Papal justifications of political and territorial aggressions within Catholic Europe.
The last crusading order of knights to hold territory were the Knights Hospitaller. After the final fall of Acre they took control of the island of Rhodes, and in the sixteenth century were driven to Malta. These last crusaders were finally unseated by Napoleon in 1798. -
I have pasted a few selected entries from tis large source of inofrmation
March of 1095 Alexius I sent envoys to the Council of Piacenza to ask Urban for aid against the Turks. The emperor's request met with a favourable response from Urban, who hoped to heal the Great Schism of 40 years prior and re-unite the Church under papal supremacy as "chief bishop and prelate over the whole world" (as he referred to himself at Clermont, [1] (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html#Fulcher)), by helping the Eastern churches in their time of need.
At the Council of Clermont, assembled in the heart of France in November 1095, Urban gave an impassioned sermon to a large audience of French nobles and clergy. He summoned the audience to wrest control of Jerusalem from the hands of the Muslims. France, he said, was overcrowded and the land of Canaan was overflowing with milk and honey. He spoke of the problems of noble violence and the solution was to turn swords to God's own service: "let robbers become knights." [2] (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/urban2-5vers.html#Fulcher) He spoke of rewards both on earth and in heaven, where remission of sins was offered to any who might die in the undertaking. The crowd was stirred to frenzied enthusiasm with cries of "Deus le volt!" ("God wills it!").
Urban's sermon is among the most important speeches in European history. There are many versions of the speech on record, but all were written after Jerusalem had been captured, and it is difficult to know what was actually said and what was recreated in the aftermath of the successful crusade. However, it is clear that the response to the speech was much larger than expected. For the rest of 1095 and into 1096, Urban spread the message throughout France, and urged his bishops and legates to preach in their own dioceses elsewhere in France, Germany, and Italy as well. Urban tried to forbid certain people (including women, monks, and the sick) from joining the crusade, but found this to be nearly impossible. In the end the majority of those who took up the call were not knights, but peasants who were not wealthy and had little in the way of fighting skills, but whose millennial and apocalyptic yearnings found release from the daily oppression of their lives, in an outpouring of a new emotional and personal piety that was not easily harnessed by the ecclesiastical and lay aristocracy
Urban planned the departure of the crusade for August 15, 1096, but months before this a number of unexpected armies of peasants and lowly knights organized and set off for Jerusalem on their own. They were lead by a charismatic monk and powerful orator named Peter the Hermit of Amiens. The response was beyond expectations: while Urban might have expected a few thousand knights, he ended up with a migration numbering up to 100,000 mostly unskilled fighters including women and children.
Their march was difficult. On their way down the Danube, Peter's followers looted Hungarian territory and were attacked by the Hungarians, the Bulgarians, and even a Byzantine army near Nis. About a quarter of Peter's followers were killed, but they arrived largely intact at Constantinople in August. In Constantinople they joined with other crusading armies from France and Italy. Alexius, not knowing what else to do with such an unusual army, quickly ferried them across the Bosporus.
After crossing into Asia Minor they began to quarrel and the armies broke up into two separate camps. The Turks were experienced, savvy, and had local knowledge; most of the People's Crusade was massacred upon entering Seljuk territory. Peter survived, however, and would later join the main Crusader army. Another army of Bohemians and Saxons did not make it past Hungary before splitting up.
The crusader army, meanwhile, marched on to Antioch, which lay about half way between Constantinople and Jerusalem. They arrived in October, 1097 and set it to a siege which lasted almost 8 months. Antioch was so large that the crusaders did not have enough troops to fully surround it, and thus it was able to stay partially supplied. As the siege dragged on, it was clear that Bohemund wanted the city for himself. In May 1098 Kerbogha of Mosul approached Antioch to relieve the siege. Bohemond bribed the Armenian guard of the city to open the gates, and in June the crusaders entered the city and killed most of the inhabitants. However, only a few days later the Muslims arrived, laying siege to the former besiegers. At this point a minor monk by the name of Peter Bartholomew claimed to have discovered the Holy Lance in the city, and although some were skeptical, this was seen as a sign that they would be victorious. On June 28 the crusaders defeated Kerbogha in a pitched battle outside the city, as Kerbogha was unable to organize the different factions in his army. According to legend, an army of Christian saints came to the aid of the crusaders during the battle.
Over the course of that afternoon, evening and next morning, the crusaders murdered almost every inhabitant of Jerusalem. Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians were all massacred. Although many Muslims sought shelter in Solomon's Temple (known today as Al-Aqsa Mosque), the crusaders spared few lives
After Byzantine emperor Alexius I called for help with defending his empire against the Seljuk Turks, in 1095 Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join a war against the Turks, a war which would count as full penance. Crusader armies marched up towards Jerusalem, sacking several cities on their way. In 1099, they took Jerusalem and massacred the Muslim population. As a result of the First Crusade, several small Crusader states were created, notably the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Following this crusade there was a second, unsuccessful wave of crusaders; see Crusade of 1101.
Third Crusade
In 1187, Saladin recaptured Jerusalem. Pope Gregory VIII preached a crusade, which was led by several of Europe's most important leaders: Richard I of England, Philip II of France and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor. Frederick drowned in Cilicia in 1190, leaving an unstable alliance between the English and the French. Philip left in 1191 after the Crusaders had recaptured Acre from the Muslims, while Richard left the following year after establishing a truce with Saladin.
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was initiated by Pope Innocent III in 1202, with the intention of invading the Holy Land through Egypt. The Venetians gained control of this crusade and diverted it to Constantinople where they attempted to place a Byzantine exile on the throne. After a series of misunderstandings and outbreaks of violence the city was sacked in 1204. The popular spirit of the movement was now dead, and the succeeding crusades are to be explained rather as arising from the Papacy's struggle to divert the military energies of the European nations toward Syria.
Albigensian Crusade
The Albigensian Crusade was launched in 1209 to eliminate the "heretical" Cathars of southern France. It was a decades-long struggle that had as much to do with the concerns of northern France to extend its control southwards as it did with heresy. In the end both the Cathars and the independence of southern France were exterminated.
Effect on the Jewish community
The crusaders' atrocities against Jews in the German and Hungarian towns, later also in those of France and England, and in the massacres of non-combatants in Palestine and Syria have passed into Jewish popular history as a dark legend. This left behind for centuries strong feelings of ill will on both sides. The social position of the Jews in western Europe was distinctly worsened by the Crusades, and legal restrictions became frequent during and after them. They prepared the way for the anti-Jewish legislation of Pope Innocent III, and formed the turning-point in the medieval history of the Jews. -
Somehow I have a bad feeling that stupidissmart will not read what you pasted here. He is not asking questions. He just want to debate and win. We all open discussion here for exchange of information. But he just wants to put every Christian down and not receive any information. So your effort might go wasted.
r u here for discussion ? Frankly I never see any points u have mentioned except for bashing meI agree with so what if there is a Protestant Inquisition. The fact remains the Catholic church did wrong things, We'll record it our history and teach our future genreations.
IMO, they r shifting the blame to other people for the things they had done. They, IMO, had distort history as much as they r able to. Why is it mentioned is bacause they cannot conceal tis history tat spans a few centuries. -
Well that's the question for you. You don't appear to be discussing, just bashing and not sticking to the topic.Originally posted by stupidissmart:r u here for discussion ? Frankly I never see any points u have mentioned except for bashing me
We are talking about Christian Denominations here. Why talk about inquisition? Cuz you have nothing to contribute on the topic? You don't understand the word denominations or you simply dunno anything about it?
You have proven me right that you don't bother to read. When information is given to you so clearly, you just reply with IMO, IMO, IMO and IMO. You're not interested in the information at all. so are you here for discussion? That's the question for you to reflect on. -
Let's stick back to the topic :
The Christian Denominations
Protestant families of denominations
Please note that only general families are listed here (tens of thousands of individual denominations exist):- Calvinist/Reformed/Presbyterian
Lutheran
Methodist
Pentecostal
Quakerism
Unitarian
Calvinism is a Protestant Christian doctrine named after John Calvin.
Presbyterianism is part of the Reformed churches family of denominations of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of John Calvin which traces its institutional roots to the Scottish Reformation, especially as led by John Knox. There are many separate institutional entities that subscribe to Presbyterianism, in different nations around the world. Besides national distinctions, Presbyterians also have divided from one another for doctrinal reasons, especially in the wake of the Enlightenment.
History of Presbyterianism
These denominations derive their name from the Greek word presbyteros, which literally means "elder." Presbyterian church governance is common to the Protestant churches that were most closely modelled after the Reformation in Switzerland. In England, Scotland and Ireland, the Reformed churches that adopted a presbyterian instead of episcopalian government, became known naturally enough, as the Presbyterian Church.
In Scotland, John Knox (1505-1572), who had studied under Calvin in Geneva, returned to Scotland and led the Parliament of Scotland to embrace the Reformation in 1560. The first Presbyterian church, the Church of Scotland, was founded as a result. In England, Presbyterianism was established in secret in 1572, toward the end of the reign of Elizabeth I of England. In 1647, by an act of the Long Parliament under the control of Puritans, Presbyterianism was established for the Church of England. The re-establishment of the monarchy in 1660 brought the re-establishment of episcopalian government in England (and in Scotland for a short time); but the Presbyterian church continued in non-conformity, outside of the established church. In Ireland, Presbyterianism was established by Scottish immigrants and missionaries to Ulster. The Presbytery of Ulster was formed separately from the established church, in 1642. Presbyterians, as well as Catholics in Ulster and the rest of Ireland suffered under the discriminatory Penal Laws until they were revoked in the early 19th century. All three, very diverse branches of Presbyterianism, as well as independents, and some Dutch, German, and French Reformed denominations, combined in America to form what would eventually become the Presbyterian Church USA (1705). The Presbyterian church in England and Wales is the United Reformed Church, whilst the tradition also influenced the Methodist church, established in 1736.
Because of an emphasis on equal education for all people, Presbyterians have 'planted' and encouraged schools across the US as the country grew and the missionaries were sent out to the people.
Characteristics of Presbyterians
Presbyterians distinguish themselves from other denominations by both doctrine and institutional organization, or as they prefer to call it 'church order'. The origins of the Presbyterian churches were in Calvinism, which is no longer taught by some of the contemporary branches. Many of the branches of Presbyterianism are remnants of previous splits from larger groups. These splits have been caused by disagreement concerning the degree to which those ordained to church office should be required to agree with the Westminster Confession of Faith, which historically serves as the main constitutional document of Presbyterian churches. Those groups that adhere to the document most strictly are typified by baptism of the infant children of members, the exclusive use of Psalms (modified for metrical singing), singing unaccompanied by instruments, a common communion cup, only men are eligible for ordination to any church office, and a fully Calvinist doctrine of salvation. Because of this diversity of belief, more conservative Presbyterians are likely to attend the smaller denominations that have chosen to split from a larger body. While these conservative Presbyterians are not in the majority, their numbers are significant.
Presbyterian church order is based on two congregationally elected bodies, the Elders and the Deacons. Elders are typically in charge of relations with the larger denomination, doctrine, membership in the particular congregation, and relations between the pastor and the congregation. Ministers are called by individual churches and in a three-way agreement. A call is issued for the clergy to serve a particular congregation in conjunction with the Presbytery or higher governing body. The people that formerly handled the financial affairs of the church were the Trustees. The Trustees no longer exist in most Presbyterian churches because their jobs are being handled by the session, made up of Elders. Each congregation elects representatives to a local assembly, often called a presbytery. A presbytery elects representatives to a broader regional synod, and the synods elect representatives to the General Assembly. This congregation / presbytery / synod / general assembly schema is based on the historical structure of the larger Presbyterian churches, like the Church of Scotland; some of the smaller bodies, like the Presbyterian Church in America skip one of the steps between congregation and General Assembly, and usually the step skipped is the Synod. The Church of Scotland has now abolished the Synod.
Presbyterians place great importance upon education and continuous study of the scriptures, theological writings, and understanding and interpretation of church doctrine embodied in several statements of faith and catechisms formally adopted by various branches of the church. References to the adoption of Calvin's theology of predestination and the typical member's predisposition to conduct themselves "decently and in order" have earned them the moniker of the "frozen chosen". However, most Presbyterians generally exhibit their faith in action more than words, including generosity, hospitality, and the constant pursuit of social justice and reform. -
Lutheranism
The Lutheran movement is a group of denominations of Protestant Christianity by the original definition.
History of Lutheranism
Lutheranism as a movement traces its origin to the work of Martin Luther, a German religious scholar who sought to reform the practices of the Roman Catholic Church in the early 16th century.
The symbolic beginning of the Protestant Reformation occurred on October 31, 1517, when professor Luther posted an open invitation to debate his 95 theses (statements) involving current Roman Catholic dogma and practices upon the door of All Saints Church (customarily used as a notice board by the University) attached to the castle in Wittenberg, Saxony (Germany).
Between 1517 and 1520, Luther preached and published his scathing criticisms of the Roman Church in books and pamphlets. His ideas were supported by many other Christian theologians, and they also had a certain populist appeal. As a result, Luther gained many supporters and followers from all levels of society, from peasants who considered him a folk hero, to knights who swore to protect him, to rulers of German lands who wanted more independence from papal interference in their domestic policies. Luther also gained some powerful enemies, including the Pope in Rome and the youthful Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
Concerned about the "problem" of Luther, the Pope and Roman Catholic officials decided to send Luther the papal bull called the "Exsurge Domine" in 1520, which called on Luther to recant and abandon his ideas, with the unspoken threat of being killed if he did not recant (the Roman Church had killed earlier would-be reformers, notably Czech reformer Jan Hus, who was burned at the stake). Luther and a group of his supporters publicly burned the document in December of 1520.
Angered, Charles V wanted to outlaw Luther and his followers, but he was warned by advisors that doing so outright would cause a revolt, since Luther had become so popular. More importantly, the ruler of Luther's land, Frederick the Wise, refused to allow any of his subjects to be condemned without trial. So instead, Luther was to be summoned to appear before the Diet of Worms, where he was to recant his ideas publicly. Luther went to Worms (pronounced Vorms), but when called upon by Roman Catholic officials to recant, Luther made a historic stand, saying the following: "I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Councils, because it is clear as day they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless therefore, I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture ... I cannot and will not retract ... Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God, Amen!" --Martin Luther, April 16, 1521
Luther had been granted a Safe Conduct to travel to and from his trial, but remembering how a similar promise had been violated in the case of Jan Hus, Luther's supporters prevailed upon him to escape from Worms in the dark of night, before he too could be seized and executed. Luther remained in hiding for some time, all the while continuing to write and develop his ideas. Shortly after Luther escaped, Charles V issued the Edict of Worms, which outlawed Luther and his followers, declared Luther and his followers heretics, and banned Luther's writings.
Other Protestant reformers
The Lutheran movement was bolstered by the work of several reformers, primarily among the early leaders was Philipp Melanchthon (a colleague of Luther's at the Leucorea University in Wittenberg), Huldreich Zwingli, and John Calvin (the founder of the Calvinist movement).
Religious war
What had started as a strictly theological and academic debate had now turned into something of a social and political conflict as well, pitting the Luther and his German supporters against the king of Spain (the francophone Charles V who also ruled the Low Countries, the New World and the Holy Roman Empire -- of which Germany was then a part), and the Italian Pope, as well as the supporters of the latter two. The conflict would erupt even further into a religious war, fueled by the political climate of the Holy Roman Empire and strong personalities on both sides.
At the 1526 session of the Diet, meeting that year in Speyer, it was decided that, until a General Council could meet and settle the theological issues raised by Martin Luther, the Edict of Worms would not be enforced and each Prince could decide if Lutheran teachings and worship would be allowed in his territories (Cuius regio, eius religio). But the 1529 session, also meeting Speyer, the decision the previous Diet of Speyer was reversed — despite the strong protests of the Lutheran princes and free cities (giving rise to the term protestant).
Lutheranism would become known as a separate movement after the 1530 Diet of Augsburg, which was convened by Charles V to try to stop the growing Protestant movement. At the Diet, Philipp Melanchthon presented a written summary of Lutheran beliefs called the Augsburg Confession. Several of the German princes (and later, kings and princes of other countries) signed the document to define "Lutheran" territories. These princes would ally to create the Schmalkaldic League in 1531, which lead to the Schmalkald War that pitted the Lutheran princes of the Schmalkaldic League against the Roman Catholic forces of Charles V.
After the conclusion of the Schmalkald War, Charles V attempted to impose Roman Catholic religious doctrine on the territories that he had defeated. However, the Lutheran movement was far from defeated. In 1577, the next generation of Lutheran theologians gathered the work of the previous generation to define the doctrine of the persisting Lutheran church. This document is known as the Formula of Concord, and in 1580, all documents were bound and distributed in a volume titled The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. This book is still used today, and is referred to as the Book of Concord.
Results of the Lutheran Reformation
Luther and his followers began a large exodus from the Roman Catholic Church known as the Protestant Reformation. In the years and decades following Luther's posting of the 95 theses on the door of the Wittenberg church, large numbers of Europeans left the Roman Church, including the vast majority of Germanic people (the only Germanics who remained in the Catholic church were those under the domain and/or influence of Roman Catholic Austria). Because Luther sparked this mass movement, he is known as the father of the Protestant Reformation, and the father of Protestantism in general.
Today, 1 out every 4 Christians in the world is a Protestant, and 1 out of every 5 Protestants in the world is a Lutheran. Approximately 1 out of every 20 Christians in the world is a Lutheran.
Number of Lutherans worldwide
Europe – 66 million
Germany - 40 million
Sweden - 7.8 million
Denmark - 5.1 million
Finland - 4.7 million
Norway - 4 million
Latvia - 1.3 million
Estonia - 1.1 million
Hungary - 500,000
Iceland - 250,000
Others - 1 million
North America – 19 million
USA – 18 million
Canada - 800,000
Africa – 11 million
Ethiopia - 3.3 million
Tanzania - 2.2 million
Madagascar - 1.5 million
Namibia - 900,000
South Africa - 850,000
Nigeria - 650,000
Others - 1.3 million
Asia – 6 million
Indonesia - 2.4 million
India - 1.3 million
Papua New Guinea - 900,000
Australia - 250,000
Others – 800,000
Latin America & Brazil – 2 million
All Spanish speaking countries in the Western Hemisphere - 1 million
Brazil - 1 million
Total – 104 million -
Methodism - The Methodist Church - founded by John Wesley in 1784.
The Wesleyan revival
The Methodist revival originated in England. It was started by John Wesley, his younger brother Charles and George Whitefield as a movement within the Church of England in the 18th century, focused on Bible study, and a methodical approach to scriptures. The term "Methodist" was a pejorative college nickname that was bestowed upon a small society of students at Oxford, who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were accustomed to communicate every week, to fast regularly and to abstain from most forms of amusement and luxury. They also frequently visited poor and sick persons and prisoners in the jail.
The early Methodists reacted against the apathy of the Church of England, became open-air preachers and established Methodist societies wherever they went. They were notorious for their enthusiastic sermons and often accused of fanaticism. In those days, members of the established church feared that the powerful new doctrines promulgated by the Methodists, such as the necessity to salvation of a New Birth, of Justification by Faith, and of the constant and sustained action of the Holy Spirit upon the believer's soul, would produce ill effects upon weak minds. Theophilus Evans, an early critic of the movement, even wrote that it was "the natural Tendency of their Behaviour, in Voice and Gesture and horrid Expressions, to make People mad." In one of his prints, William Hogarth likewise attacked Methodists as "enthusiasts" full of "Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism (http://www.haleysteele.com/hogarth/plates/credulity.html)." But the Methodists resisted the many attacks against their movement. (See John Wesley and George Whitefield for a much more complete discussion of early Methodism.)
John Wesley came under the influence of the Moravians and Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, while Whitefield adopted Calvinistic views. Consequently, their followers separated, those of Whitefield becoming Calvinistic Methodists. Generally Methodists have followed Wesley in Arminian theology.
Separation from the Church of England
Wesley originally had no intention of separating from the Church of England. However, following the American Revolution, the Church of England cut off those of its members who were Americans, refusing to ordain ministers for them. Wesley decided to ordain ministers, and since he was not a bishop this put him at odds with the English Church. He and the other early leaders formed the Methodist Church as a separate body partly in response to those events. Wesley never, however, ceased to be or to act as a priest of the Church of England and died an Anglican. (See also the Episcopal Church.) Wesley chartered the first Methodist Church on February 28, 1784. -
Pentecostalism - Commonly known for their practise in speaking in tongues.
The Pentecostal movement within Protestant Christianity places special emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pentecostalism is similar to the Charismatic movement, but developed earlier and separated from the mainstream church. Charismatic Christians, at least in the early days of the movement, tended to remain in their respective denominations.
History
Modern Pentecostalism began around 1901. Although the 1896 Shearer Schoolhouse Revival in Cherokee County, North Carolina might be regarded as a precursor to the modern Pentecostal movement, the commonly accepted origin dates from when Agnes Ozman received the gift of tongues (glossolalia) at Charles Fox Parham's Bethal Bible College in Topeka, Kansas in 1901. Parham, a minister of Methodist background, formulated the doctrine that tongues was the "Bible evidence" of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Parham left Topeka and began a revival ministry which led to a link to the Azusa street revival through William J. Seymour whom he taught in his school in Houston, although because Seymour was African American, he was only allowed to sit outside the room to listen.
The expansion of the movement started with the Azusa Street Revival, beginning April 9, 1906 at the Los Angeles home of a Mr. and Mrs. Edward Lee when Mr. Lee experienced what he felt to be an infilling of the Holy Spirit during a prayer session. The attending pastor, William J. Seymour, also claimed that he was overcome with the Holy Spirit on April 12, 1906. On April 18, 1906, the Los Angeles Times ran a front page story on the movement. By the third week in April, 1906, the small but growing congregation had rented an abandoned African Methodist Episcopal Church at 312 Azusa Street and organized as the Apostolic Faith Mission.
The first decade of Pentecostalism was marked by interracial assemblies, "...Whites and blacks mix in a religious frenzy,..." according to a local newspaper account. This lasted until 1924, when the church split along racial lines (see Apostolic Faith Mission). When the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America was formed in 1948, it was made up entirely of Anglo-American Pentecostal denominations. In 1994, Pentecostals returned to their roots of racial reconciliation and proposed formal unification of the major white and black branches of the Pentecostal Church, in a meeting subsequently known as the Memphis Miracle. This unification occurred in 1998, again in Memphis, Tennessee. The unification of white and black movements led to the restructing of the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America to become the Pentecostal/Charismatic Churches of North America.
During the beginning of the twentieth century, Albert Benjamin Simpson became closely involved with the growing Pentecostal movement. It was common for Pentecostal pastors and missionaries to receive their training at the Missionary Training Institute that Simpson founded. Because of this, Simpson and the C&MA (an evangelistic movement that Simpson founded) had a great influence on Pentecostalism, in particular the Assemblies of God and the FourSquare Church. This influence included evangelistic emphasis, C&MA doctrine, Simpson's hymns and books, and the use of the term 'Gospel Tabernacle,' which evolved into Pentecostal churches being known as 'Full Gospel Tabernacles.'
About the latter third of the 20th century there was a movement of Pentecostalism, sometimes called the Charismatic Movement into the mainline Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic church. Unlike earlier Pentecostals, they did not leave their churches for strictly Pentecostal churches, or found new denominations. Their motto became, "Bloom where God planted you."
In the United Kingdom, the first Pentecostal church to be formed was the Apostolic Church.
Size
The largest Pentecostal denominations in the United States today are the Church of God in Christ, Church of God (Cleveland) and the Assemblies of God. According to a Spring 1998 article in Christian History, there are about 11,000 different pentecostal or charismatic denominations worldwide.
The size of Pentecostalism in the U.S. is estimated to be more than 20 million and also including approx 918,000 (4%) of the Hispanic-American population, counting all unaffiliated congregations, although exact numbers are hard to come by, in part because some tenets of Pentecostalism are held by members of non-Pentecostal denominations in what has been called the charismatic movement.
Pentecostalism was conservatively estimated to number around 115 million followers worldwide in 2000; other estimates place the figure closer to 400 million. The great majority of Pentecostals are to be found in Third World countries (see the Statistics subsection below), although much of their international leadership is still North American. Pentecostalism is sometimes referred to as the "third force of Christianity." The largest Christian church in the world is the Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea, a Pentecostal church. Founded and led by David Yonggi Cho since 1958, it had 780,000 members in 2003. -
Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. The Church maintains the claim that it is both organisationally and doctrinally the original Christian Church, founded by Jesus and the Apostles and claims an unbroken Apostolic Succession with grace transferred through the laying on of hands. It is the oldest continuously operating institution in existence.
Members generally prefer the term Catholic Church, but this term has multiple meanings; the term Roman Catholic Church is used in this article to avoid confusion. The relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and the Western or Latin and the Eastern Churches within it is dealt with below.
The Second Vatican CouncilÂ’s Decree on the Church Lumen Gentium, 8,[1] (http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html) declared that "the sole Church of Christ which in the Creed we profess to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic" has a concrete realization (the Latin term is "subsistit") "in the Catholic Church, which is governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him". "Successor of Peter" refers to the Pope.
Overview
The Roman Catholic Church has a worldwide membership that worships in every country on earth. It is a heirarchical organisation in which ordained clergy are divided into the orders of bishops, priests and deacons. The world is divided into over a thousand bishoprics, each with a presiding bishop, responsible for the religious welfare of the believers in his geographical area. The principal bishopric is that of Rome, whose occupant is known as the Pope, considered to be a direct successor of the original leader of the Church, Saint Peter. Administrative authority in the Church is vested in the Pope and his ecclesiastical administrators, known as the Curia in the Vatican City.
The Church sees itself as a mystical body set up by Jesus Christ whose aim is the salvation of souls. The Church accomplishes this goal through teaching and through administration of sacraments including baptism, communion and forgiveness, which grant graces to the believer. Teaching authority is held by the magisterium of the Church, whose teachings are based on both scripture and apostolic tradition. As well as ordained secular clergy, the Church encourages monasticism, and has many orders of monks, friars and nuns who live in celibacy, and devote their lives entirely to God. Other religious practices include fasting, prayer, penance, pilgrimage and meditation.
Teaching
The Church holds that the teachings of Jesus call its members to act a particular way in their dealings with the rest of humanity. Among these teachings, as they have been elaborated in recent decades by Catholic thinkers, Bishops' statements and Papal encyclicals, are that every person has a right to life and to a decent minimum standard of living, that humanity's use of God's creation implies a responsibility to protect the environment, and that the range of circumstances under which military force is permissible is extremely limited.