Medieval America – Torturing and Murdering Heretical Scientists, Reporters and the Poor
August 12, 2021 - Medieval 1 lasted about a thousand years from the fifth century to the late 15th Century. Nearly the entire world is now deep off into Medieval 2 – the Tortures Continue.
Whenever I have difficulty trying to predict what today’s Euro-American politicians will do next, I reflect on the leaders of the Medieval Era and ask: “What would they have done?”
In most cases the answer is simple: Torture, rob and murder a large group of people who are different somehow to beef up the rulers’ pocketbooks and terrify the serfs so they humbly go back into the fields and just shut up. COMPLAINERS (of course) WILL BE SEVERELY PUNISHED. Just ask Julian Assange.
An interesting article by George Dvorsky published in 2014 explains one relatively effective method of social control commonly used during the Medieval Era.
The 10 Most Gruesome Torture Techniques from Medieval Europe, By George Dvorsky 8/26/14
“During the Middle Ages, torture was considered a legitimate way to extract confessions, punish offenders, and perform executions. Some methods were considerably crueler than others — these 10 being among the most barbaric and brutal… During this time, torture was often used to extract confessions, or obtain the names of accomplices or other information about crimes. Laws and local customs did not impose limits on the treatment of prisoners or the extent to which torture could be inflicted. In fact, confessions were not considered genuine or sincere when so-called "light torture" was used (such as toe wedging and strappado). Different types of torture were used depending on the victim's crime, gender, and social status. Skilled torturers would use methods, devices, and instruments to prolong life as long as possible while inflicting agonizing pain. Many prisoners were tortured prior to execution in order to obtain additional information; in many of these cases, the execution method was part of the torture endured by prisoners.
“Also called the Judas Chair, this Italian invention was particularly cruel...
“Using ropes, a prisoner would be lowered above the pyramid-shaped "seat" with the point inserted into the anus or vagina. Victims would be tortured by intense pressure and stretching of the orifice, resulting in permanent damage. In many cases, the victim would succumb to rips in the muscle tissue that would later become infected. Weights would be added to facilitate the effect, often resulting in death by impalement.”
https://gizmodo.com/the-10-most-gruesome-torture-techniques-from-medieval-e-1626942115
Is that so different from what Ms. Clinton’s “rebels” did to Libyan sovereign leader Muammar al-Gaddafi before murdering him? Point made, so to speak. (Painting the victim of this sadistic murder as a rapist all over the internet was a “nice touch” in the psychopathic world of the inquisitors.)
American prosecutors are just drooling at the opportunity to get Mr. Assange into an AMERICAN prison to make an example of him and teach everyone: “Thou shall not squawk about American murder of innocents!”
There are nine more tortures on the above referenced list of medieval tortures, but having visited the dungeons of dozens of European castles as a child and having been a Muslim for 30+ years now, I know there are hundreds of other extremely cruel ways medieval and modern torturers torment(ed) their victims.
American Crusades and Inquisitions
The American propensity for torture and killing is truly unrivaled in history exceeding even that of the Unholy Western Roman Empire.
The US government has always given “very good reasons” for those pogroms ranging from “Christianizing the heathens” to “protecting American security.” Protecting American security is so wonderfully open-ended because that means the US can mass murder, rape and steal from Christians too, like the Sack of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade and Protestant Central African Republic today.
The modern American version is little different from the days of old. Take the colonization of Hawaii and the Philippines for examples.
Almost everybody likes sugar, right?
January 17, 1893
Americans overthrow Hawaiian monarchy
On the Hawaiian Islands, a group of American sugar planters under Sanford Ballard Dole overthrow Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, and establish a new provincial government with Dole as president. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, and 300 U.S. Marines from the U.S. cruiser Boston were called to Hawaii, allegedly to protect American lives.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/americans-overthrow-hawaiian-monarchy
And the Philippines:
From The Conquest of the Philippines by the United States, 1898-1925 regarding general J.M. Bell, one of regional military campaign’s leaders:
“I am now assembling in the neighborhood of 2,500 men who will be used in columns of about fifty men each. I take so large a command for the purpose of thoroughly searching each ravine, valley and mountain peak for insurgents and for food, expecting to destroy everything I find outside of towns. All able-bodied men will be killed or captured. ... These people need a thrashing to teach them some good common sense; and they should have it for the good of all concerned.”
“Another testimony, by Sergeant Howard McFarland of the 43rd Infantry, wrote to the Fairfield Journal of Maine:
“I am now stationed in a small town in charge of twenty-five men, and have a territory of twenty miles to patrol.... At the best, this is a very rich country; and we want it. My way of getting it would be to put a regiment into a skirmish line, and blow every nigger into a nigger heaven. On Thursday, March 29, eighteen of my company killed seventy-five nigger bolo men and ten of the nigger gunners. When we find one that is not dead, we have bayonets”
Also see:
https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1138&context=historical-perspectives
Reason number four for the genocide in the Philippines given by American President William McKinley at that time was:
“(4) That there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow men for whom Christ also died.”
https://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=3&psid=1257
“Christianize” here means killing as many Muslims as they possibly could. Though the Spanish colonialists had previously converted some of the Filipinos to Catholicism, the majority were still Muslim. Most of them were subsequently slaughtered in the subsequent Moro genocide which continues to this day. It is so pathetically easy to undermine any Muslim group. Americans will slip a few American Made real terrorists in with any Muslim group, and then the whole group gets labeled as “terrorists.” Nothing changes, except now Muslims are called “terrorists,” “ragheads” and “skinnies,” instead of moors, Mohammedans and heathens.
The Inquisition: A Model for Modern Interrogators, January 23, 2012
“Murphy’s new book God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World traces the history of the Inquisitions — there were several — and draws parallels between some of the interrogation techniques used in previous centuries with the ones used today.
“‘A few years ago, the intelligence agencies had some transcripts released ... of interrogations that were done at Guantanamo, and the interrogations done by the Inquisition were surprisingly similar and just as detailed,’ he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. ‘[They were] virtually verbatim.’
“Eight-hundred years ago, the first Inquisition was initially designed to deal with an upsurge in heretical activity from the Cathars in France. The Cathars' unconventional interpretation of religious doctrine worried Pope Gregory and other Vatican leaders...”
https://www.npr.org/2012/01/23/145512271/the-inquisition-a-model-for-modern-interrogators
It seems I can’t read a newspaper these days without being reminded of the Medieval crusades and inquisitions.
First under Biden, Guantanamo Bay prisoner released after 19 YEARS of detention without charges, 19 Jul, 2021
“A Moroccan national, Abdul Latif Nasir, has been released from the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention facility after spending some 19 years imprisoned without ever facing any charges.
“The move was announced by the US military in a statement on Monday. The Pentagon described the release as a “transfer from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay to the Kingdom of Morocco.”
“No charges have ever been brought against the Moroccan national, who spent some 19 years in the Guantanamo detention facility after getting captured in Afghanistan in late 2001. The US military alleged that he deliberately traveled to the country “for jihad,” received “military or terrorist training,” and overall was described as “Al-Qaeda leadership cadre” – yet Nasir has never been prosecuted...
“The CIA has been accused of subjecting the detainees to the so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ – basically, torture – that included sleep deprivation, beatings, waterboarding and so on. The ‘enhanced interrogation’ was officially banned by Obama back in 2009, yet the practice actually continued unofficially, according to the UN, which repeatedly urged Washington to stop it and punish those responsible.”
https://www.rt.com/news/529600-guantanamo-bay-prisoner-release
Meanwhile the US is going all out trying to strap China down on the torture rack as well, however is running into formidable resistance.
The West projects its own crimes onto China by accusing it of ‘genocide’ and ‘colonialism,’ by Maitreya Bhakal, 19 Jul, 2021
“A key Western propaganda strategy is to accuse others of crimes that they’ve themselves committed. This is seen most blatantly in Western accusations that China is committing “genocide” or “colonialism” in Xinjiang.
“As I say, not as I do
“Most Western criticisms of China can be categorized under one broad umbrella: psychological projection. It is involuntary, reflexive and Pavlovian; as well as strategic, planned and deliberate. It’s a key pillar of Western propaganda, especially against China. It manifests in accusing others of that which you are guilty of.
“Few propaganda campaigns meet the criteria better than the “Xinjiang genocide” narrative. Western history has no shortage of genocide and mass murder – both at home and abroad. Thus, in a natural reversal, many in the West accuse China of genocide. Such accusations are weaponized by the Western propaganda machinery – from the media to Wikipedia – and then projected onto China. Of course, there’s little evidence for any of it.
“The United States of America, the vanguard of Western propaganda today, remains at the forefront of this campaign. The entire nation itself was of course founded on the genocide of indigenous peoples. Thus, in a classic example of projection, the US projects its crimes onto someone else, officially accusing China, its main rival, of genocide.
“It is of course an entirely political decision – the US regime’s own lawyers disagree with the assessment.”
God forbid anyone should try to shine any light on American crimes against humanity to maintain its Medieval absolute power.
“US would show no mercy to Assange if he’s extradited, but Bush & Blair will never face justice for their crimes, Richard Medhurst, 14 Jul, 2021
“US assurances that Julian Assange will, or rather may, not be imprisoned under harsh conditions if he’s extradited from the UK cannot be taken seriously because the entire case is built on fabrications and is rife with foul play.
“A key witness in the US prosecution against Assange has admitted to having fabricated his testimony. Icelandic newspaper Stundin revealed that Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, nicknamed “Siggi the Hacker,” had lied in his witness testimony against Assange. This came a few days before the UK granted the US limited permission to appeal....”
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/529216-assange-extradition-crimes-fabricated-accusations/
Chris Hedges summarizes as follows:
“The debacle in Afghanistan, which will unravel into chaos with lightning speed over the next few weeks and ensure the return of the Taliban to power, is one more signpost of the end of the American empire. The two decades of combat, the one trillion dollars we spent, the 100,000 troops deployed to subdue Afghanistan, the high-tech gadgets, artificial intelligence, cyberwarfare, Reaper drones armed with Hellfire missiles and GBU-30 bombs and the Global Hawk drones with high-resolution cameras, Special Operations Command composed of elite rangers, SEALs and air commandos, black sites, torture, electronic surveillance, satellites, attack aircraft, mercenary armies, infusions of millions of dollars to buy off and bribe the local elites and train an Afghan army of 350,000 that has never exhibited the will to fight, failed to defeat a guerrilla army of 60,000 that funded itself through opium production and extortion in one of the poorest countries on earth. Like any empire in terminal decay, no one will be held accountable for the debacle or for the other debacles in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen or anywhere else. Not the generals. Not the politicians. Not the CIA and intelligence agencies. Not the diplomats. Not the obsequious courtiers in the press who serve as cheerleaders for war. Not the compliant academics and area specialists. Not the defense industry. Empires at the end are collective suicide machines. The military becomes in late empire unmanageable, unaccountable, and endlessly self-perpetuating, no matter how many fiascos, blunders and defeats it visits upon the carcass of the nation, or how much money it plunders, impoverishing the citizenry and leaving governing institutions and the physical infrastructure decayed. The human tragedy — at least 801,000 people have been killed by direct war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan and 37 million have been displaced in and from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Philippines, Libya, and Syria according to The Watson Institute at Brown University — is reduced to a neglected footnote. Nearly all the roughly 70 empires during the last four thousand years, including the Greek, Roman, Chinese, Ottoman, Hapsburg, imperial German, imperial Japanese, British, French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Soviet empires, collapsed in the same orgy of military folly. The Roman Republic, at its height, only lasted two centuries. We are set to disintegrate in roughly the same time. This is why, at the start of World War I in Germany, Karl Liebknecht called the German military, which imprisoned and later assassinated him, “the enemy from within.” Mark Twain, who was a fierce opponent of the efforts to plant the seeds of empire in Cuba, the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, wrote an imagined history of America in the twentieth-century where its “lust for conquest” had destroyed “the Great Republic…[because] trampling upon the helpless abroad had taught her, by a natural process, to endure with apathy the like at home; multitudes who had applauded the crushing of other people’s liberties, lived to suffer for their mistake.”... https://scheerpost.com/2021/07/26/hedges-the-collective-suicide-machine/
How can all this sadism, destruction and theft be justified? Partly its “manufactured consent.”
Virtually all such things have deep roots in history. Some of the more “moderate” roots can be found in the Codex Justinianus.
The Code of Justinian
The Code of Justinian, AKA Latin Codex Justinianus; collections of laws and legal interpretations developed under the sponsorship of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I from 529 to 565 CE.
Title 5. Concerning heretics, Manicheans, and Samaritans.
“We pursue, with exemplary severity, Manicheans of both sexes, and Donatists. Therefore, they have nothing in common with the human race, so far as either customs or laws are concerned.
“(1) We desire, in the first place, that their offence should be classed as a public crime, because whatever is committed against the divine religion is productive of injury to all persons.
(2) We punish them by the confiscation of all their property, and We wish them to be excluded from obtaining any gift or inheritance of any description whatsoever.
(3) In addition to this, We deprive anyone found guilty of these heresies of the power of giving, purchasing, selling, and finally, of making any contracts.
(4) An investigation of this kind shall also extend beyond death, for, as it is permitted to denounce the memory of the deceased in case of treason, it is not unreasonable that a heretic should undergo the same sentence.
(5) Therefore, the last will of a person convicted of having been a Manichean, whether it is manifested by a testament, a codicil, a letter, or in any other way whatsoever, shall be void.
(6) We do not permit their children to succeed them as heirs, or to enter upon their estates, unless they abandon the perverseness of their fathers, for We pardon those who repent.”
Justinian Code, Book 1
https://droitromain.univ-grenoble-alpes.fr/Anglica/CJ1_Scott.htm
Such a pretty document representing the diametric opposite of everything Jesus the Christ taught, in this humble heretical writer’s opinion.
Manicheans, and Samaritans, along with the Waldensians much later in history were considered some of the worst of heretics being followers of competitive religions.
In fact, those were the “good old days,” before the crusades and inquisitions.
“Although canon law did not apply to non-Christian populations, that attitude changed when Europe came into greater contact with Muslims. The reason is explained by James Brundage:
“European Jewry had furnished the model upon which early canonists had formed their views about the legal relationship between non-Christians and canon law. Jewish populations, however, tended to be relatively small, stable (save when one ruler or another decided to expel them from his territories), and peaceful. They certainly posed no military threat to Christian rulers and only an occasional fanatic could seriously maintain that they menaced the Christian religious establishment.
“Muslims in the Mediterranean basin and pagans along Latin Christendom's eastern frontiers, however, were an altogether different matter. Many Christians considered them a serious threat to Christianity's goal of converting the world...” [Brundage, James A. Medieval Canon Law, p.163]
“This interaction with the Muslim world caused canonists to re-examine the self-imposed limits of canon law and its application to non-Christians, especially when it came to whether it was proper for Christians to conquer and take Muslim territory. This may seem an odd concern to the modern reader, but remember that this was a time when ownership of property was not open to everyone. If Muslims fell into a category that was not allowed property—such as slaves or minors—then taking their lands was not an issue.
“In the 13th century, Pope Innocent IV (c.1195-1254; pope from 1243 until his death) declared that ownership of property was a human right, as part of the natural law established by God. He also declared, however, that although non-Christians may not be part of Christ's church, they were still part of Christ's flock, and therefore they should fall under the rule of Christ's vicar on Earth.
“This view of the popes prevailed, reaching a peak in 1302 with Boniface VIII’s papal bull, Unam Sanctam. For the next several centuries, Christian rulers had the license they needed to attack non-Christians and take their lands.”
http://dailymedieval.blogspot.com/2013/03/canon-law-and-muslims.html
The ill-fated Crusades
The two hundred years of Crusades to “take back the holy land” were some of the most bizarre and bloody in history. Naturally the European kings wanted to steal as much gold as they possibly could from the Holy Lands. They also desperately wanted to alleviate overpopulation of the very poor in large hideously stinking European urban areas for they were cesspools of disease, crime and licentiousness. Most of the profits from the crusades were accumulated by the Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici (Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon), commonly known as the Knights Templar, famed for inventing Europe’s international banking, and later being wholesale slaughtered beginning on Friday the 13th, 1307 by the European kings that ordered the crusades in the first place. It only made sense to steal the gold from the poor monks that stole it from the Holy Lands, and incidentally get revenge on the scurrilous moors that stole that holy land in the first place, thereby bringing it back into the arms of the loving Jesus, or something like that.
Not surprisingly, many or most of the Templar Knights saw this coming, hid their gold, and went on to found NATO much later in history.
The crusades got off to a rather bloody start given that they raped and pillaged all along the way to those hallowed grounds, in the name of God, of course. And upon arrival they became even more atrocious.
The siege and capture of Jerusalem - June-July, 1099 CE
Version of Raymond d’Aguiliers:
“Then the Count quickly released the long drawbridge which had protected the side of the wooden tower next to the wall, and it swung down from the top, being fastened to the middle of the tower, making a bridge over which the men began to enter Jerusalem bravely and fearlessly. Among those who entered first were Tancred and the Duke of Lorraine, and the amount of blood that they shed on that day is incredible. All ascended after them, and the Saracens now began to suffer.
“Strange to relate, however, at this very time when the city was practically captured by the Franks, the Saracens were still fighting on the other side, where the Count was attacking the wall as though the city should never be captured. But now that our men had possession of the walls and towers, wonderful sights were to be seen. Some of our men (and this was more merciful) cut off the heads of their enemies; others shot them with arrows, so that they fell from the towers; others tortured them longer by casting them into the flames. Piles of heads, hands, and feet were to be seen in the streets of the city. It was necessary to pick one's way over the bodies of men and horses. But these were small matters compared to what happened at the Temple of Solomon, a place where religious services are ordinarily chanted. What happened there? If I tell the truth, it will exceed your powers of belief. So let it suffice to say this much, at least, that in the Temple and porch of Solomon, men rode in blood up to their knees and bridle reins. Indeed, it was a just and splendid judgment of God that this place should be filled with the blood of the unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from their blasphemies. The city was filled with corpses and blood. Some of the enemy took refuge in the Tower of David, and, petitioning Count Raymond for protection, surrendered the Tower into his hands.”
Source: August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 257-62
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/cde-jlem.asp#raymond3 (Accessed Nov. 28, 2020)
Version of Fulcher of Chartres:
“Count Raymond and his men, who were attacking the wall on the other side, did not yet know of all this, until they saw the Saracens leap from the wall in front of them. Forthwith, they joyfully rushed into the city to pursue and kill the nefarious enemies, as their comrades were already doing. Some Saracens, Arabs, and Ethiopians took refuge in the tower of David, others fled to the temples of the Lord and of Solomon. A great fight took place in the court and porch of the temples, where they were unable to escape from our gladiators. Many fled to the roof of the temple of Solomon, and were shot with arrows, so that they fell to the ground dead. In this temple almost ten thousand were killed. Indeed, if you had been there you would have seen our feet colored to our ankles with the blood of the slain. But what more shall I relate? None of them were left alive; neither women nor children were spared.”
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/cde-jlem.asp#raymond3
Count Raymond and his lascivious men would certainly be delighted at today’s American crusaders as “not sparing the women and children” is still the very chic way to do warfare for the American “elite of the elite” “warriors” who monitor and direct drones.
https://www.afsc.org/blogs/news-and-commentary/us-has-killed-thousands-people-lethal-drones
https://warontherocks.com/2019/04/trump-cancels-drone-strike-civilian-casualty-report-does-it-matter
Just the same as the days of old, no one amongst the crusaders would even consider counting those slain women and children, as being heathens “they’re all going to hell anyways, so what’s the point?”
The 3rd Crusade (1189-1192 CE)
The 3rd Crusade was launched to retake Jerusalem after its liberation by the Muslim leader Saladin in 1187 CE.
“Richard I of England, also known as Richard the Lionheart reigned as king of England from 1189 to 1199 CE. The son of Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189 CE) and Eleanor of Aquitaine (c. 1122-1204 CE), Richard was known for his courage and successes in warfare, but he became so busy with the Third Crusade (1189–1192 CE) and then the defence of English-held territory in France, that he would only spend six months of his reign in England.”
That’s the official version.
The Massacre of Ayyadieh August 20, 1191 CE
“Richard (the “lion heart”) was keen to set off for Jerusalem, but could not leave while burdened by the 3,000 prisoners. His patience ran out, and he took a terrible decision. In his own words:
“‘On Saladin’s behalf it has been agreed that the Holy Cross and 1,500 living prisoners would be handed over to us, and he fixed a day for us when all this was to be done. But the time limit expired, and as the pact which we had agreed was entirely made void, we quite properly had the Saracens that we had in custody – about 2,600 of them – put to death.’
“They were roped together, led out to the open space before Acre, in full view of Saladin’s advance guards and executed by Christian swordsmen, along with 300 of their wives and children, sparing only the ‘prisoners of note’ and such as were strong enough to labor. The watching Muslims troops rushed to stop the slaughter, but were repulsed…
“Two thousand six hundred: not many, perhaps by the standards of modern genocide, but a show of brutality far beyond anything done by Saladin. It is not a question of numbers. This was a political act, revealing the difference between personalities and between cultures… What a difference between the generosity Saladin, as a Muslim, usually (not always) showed to his enemies, and the ruthlessness that Richard, as a Christian, showed to his.”
Saladin - The Life, the Legend and the Islamic Empire, by John Man, Penguin Random House UK, Corgi Edition 2016, p. 282.
The Massacre of Ayyadieh does rather sound like a classic example of terrorism but was justified by God and law so Richard is dubbed in the history books with the moniker of being “lion-hearted,” however differently his victims no doubt felt.
In all, the Third Crusade (1189-1192 CE) spearheaded by King Richard was another abject failure following the disastrous 2nd Crusade.
On the way home Richard was shipwrecked and captured by Leopold of Austria who Richard had previously gravely insulted and he had to be ransomed for 150,000 marks, which amounts to several million dollars today.
Upon arrive home he had enormous problems with his younger brother John, but appointed him his successor anyways.
King John was such a rapacious king (with a habit of forcibly bedding the wives of his noblemen) there was a revolution against him which he lost, and then King John was forced by the people to sign a magnificent document called the Magna Carta that gave the people some rights and protections from the king. Following that, the reinstated King John went around and tried to murder all the writers of that famed document.
None-the-less the Magna Carta stands as legend in history finally giving the people some measure of freedom and security in spite of the endless treacheries of kings.
Unfortunately, as everyone knows the Magna Carta has been shredded by the modern crusaders who just need to find a crusader/inquisitor judge to sign a search warrant and consequently a man’s home is no longer his castle. RIP Common Law.
And so, on rolled Euro-American history, however the stage was set for the 4th Crusade.
The 4th Crusade
The 4th Crusade was launched in another attempt to retake Jerusalem. Incidentally, this is the same Jerusalem President Trump – in a gesture of fealty gave to the Israelis, usurping a couple thousand years of history, but who’s counting anyways? On the way to the 4th Crusade, the crusaders decided to stop and sack the headquarters of the Holy Eastern Christian Empire in Constantinople (now Istanbul).
The Sack of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade (1204)
Account of the sack
Nicetas Choniates: Alexii Ducae Imperium, ch. iii-iv, in Recueil des historiens des Croisades, hist. grec., 1, 397. Greek.
“3. … How shall I begin to tell of the deeds wrought by these nefarious men! Alas, the images, which ought to have been adored, were trodden under foot! Alas, the relics of the holy martyrs were thrown into unclean places! Then was seen what one shudders to hear, namely, the divine body and blood of Christ was spilled upon the ground or thrown about. They snatched the precious reliquaries, thrust into their bosoms the ornaments which these contained, and used the broken remnants for pans and drinking cups,-precursors of Anti-Christ, authors and heralds of his nefarious deeds which we momentarily expect. Manifestly, indeed, by that race then, just as formerly, Christ was robbed and insulted and His garments were divided by lot; only one thing was lacking, that His side, pierced by a spear, should pour rivers of divine blood on the ground.
“Nor can the violation of the Great Church [Hagia Sophia] be listened to with equanimity. For the sacred altar, formed of all kinds of precious materials and admired by the whole world, was broken into bits and distributed among the soldiers, as was all the other sacred wealth of so, great and infinite splendor.
“When the sacred vases and utensils of unsurpassable art and grace and rare material, and the fine silver, wrought with go , which encircled the screen of the tribunal and the ambo, of admirable workmanship and the door and many other ornaments, were to be borne away booty, mules and saddled horses were led to the very sanctuary of t temple. Some of these which were unable to keep their footing the splendid and slippery pavement, were stabbed when they fell, that the sacred pavement was polluted with blood and filth.
“4. Nay more, a certain harlot, a sharer in their guilt, a minister the furies, a servant of the demons, a worker of incantations and poisonings, insulting Christ, sat in the patriarch's seat, singing an obscene song and dancing frequently. Nor, indeed, were these crimes committed and others left undone, on the ground that these were of lesser guilt, the others of greater. But with one consent all the most heinous sins and crimes were committed by all with equal zeal. Could those, who showed so great madness against God Himself have spared the honorable matrons and maidens or the virgins consecrated to God?
“Nothing was more difficult and laborious than to soften by prayers, to render benevolent, these wrathful barbarians, vomiting forth bile at every unpleasing word, so that nothing failed to inflame their fury. Whoever attempted it was derided as insane and a man of intemperate language. Often, they drew their daggers against anyone who opposed them at all or hindered their demands.
“No one was without a share in the grief. In the alleys, in the streets, in the temples, complaints, weeping, lamentations, grief, the groaning of men, the shrieks of women, wounds, rape, captivity, the separation of those most closely united. Nobles wandered about ignominiously, those of venerable age in tears, the rich in poverty. Thus, it was in the streets, on the corners, in the temple, in the dens, for no place remained unassailed or defended the suppliants. All places everywhere were filled full of all kinds of crime. . Oh, immortal God, how great the afflictions of the men, how great the distress!”
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/source/4cde.asp#sack
(Italics added by this author.) The above quotation is a small section within the larger document:
For a more detailed and slightly sarcastic version of the motivating factors leading to the Sack of Constantinople at the beginning of the 4th Crusade read:
https://www.ancient.eu/article/1188/1204-the-sack-of-constantinople
The bitter end leading to a new beginning
In all there were officially 12 crusades, with each being its own kind of murderous hell for the victims and in most cases resulting in huge profits for the crusader knights. The official end was in 1291 with the fall of Acre. When Muslims retook cities fortunately, they did not as a rule slaughter the surviving inhabitants as the crusaders so routinely did.
The Inquisitions - 325 CE to 1965 CE
“Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with Church dogma must be burned without pity.”
Catholic Pope Innocent III
The divergence of opinion as to when the inquisitions really began is fascinating and no doubt an excellent example of either revisionist histories, poorly researched histories, and/or the “deep state” at work. Indeed an 800-year gap exists between a well-researched historical date of the origin of the inquisition, and the vastly more common standard histories of the inquisition. Eight hundred years is not an inconsiderable length of time, given the often-extreme nature of the consequences of being caught by inquisitors and charged with heresy (as I well know).
A Brief History of the Inquisition, by University of Notre Dame, Rare Books & Special Collections
“This inquisitorial process was already in place when the Roman Empire converted to Christianity in the fourth century, and Christian emperors from Constantine on employed it to suppress heresy. Although defined in terms of religious belief, heresy was largely viewed as a threat to the social order of Latin Christendom. When required, bishops could assume the role of secular magistrates in carrying out inquisitiones. Procedures were codified and regularized with the issuance of the Corpus Iuris Civilis of Justinian in 534. They remained intact even during the centuries of Germanic invasions and domination which followed the collapse of the Roman Empire, although they were rarely used.
“The situation began to change towards the end of the twelfth century after the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III reached an accord reconciling their respective powers in the Peace of Venice. In 1184, Pope Lucius III issued the decretal Ad abolendam, which some have called the "founding charter of the inquisition" since it commanded bishops to take an active role in identifying and prosecuting heresy in their jurisdictions…
“The greatest perceived threats of heresy lay in southern France (Languedoc) and northeastern Spain (Aragon). The chief targets were Cathars (also known as Albigenses), who openly condemned the doctrines and authority of the Latin Church, and to a lesser extent the Waldenses. Yet while King Alfonso X could boast that Jews and Muslims lived peacefully alongside Christians in Spain, economic and natural disasters beginning with the Black Death (1348-49) upset the balance, with the result that Jews came to be increasingly resented due to their roles as tax collectors and financiers. By the end of the century, terrible pogroms left thousands of Jews dead or forced to convert to Christianity. During the fifteenth century the descendants of converted Jews, known as conversos, came under increasing suspicion. The appearance in 1460 of a fanatical treatise by Alfonso de Espina, Fortalitium Fidei, attested to the rising tide of anti-Semitism. Finally in 1478, Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife Isabella, Queen of Castile whose subsequent joint rule over Spanish territories and devotion to their ecclesiastically-minded councilors would earn them the designation Reyes Catolicos, the ‘Catholic Monarchs’ implored Pope Sixtus IV to grant them power to appoint inquisitors to deal with the problem of conversos who practiced Jewish rites in secret. Sixtus IV granted their request, but the first Spanish inquisitors operating in Seville proved so severe that he tried to limit their powers. Yet his efforts were largely unsuccessful, and in 1483 he was further induced to allow the Spanish government to name a Grand Inquisitor and Supreme Council to supervise local inquisitorial tribunals that had been established in Castile, Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia. That same year, Ferdinand appointed as the first Inquisitor-General the Dominican friar Tomás de Torquemada, whose name ever since has remained a symbol of the cruelty and terror wrought by the institution...
“The Roman Inquisition came to a more gradual, bureaucratic end. In 1908, Pius X renamed it the Congregation of the Holy Office, and a few years later its duties were merged with those of the Congregation of the Index. In 1965 Pope Paul VI reorganized the Holy Office and changed its name to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; he eliminated the Index altogether the following year...”
https://inquisition.library.nd.edu/brief_history.RBSC-INQ:COLLECTION
Most standard histories of the inquisitions begin with the Spanish inquisition in the 15th Century and the hugely admired Queen Isabella, however I agree with the above writers that it began in the 4th Century ACE.
Even today there are those who justify the Inquisitions and work steadfastly to bring back those “good old days” which never did end after all, so how can they be brought back?
Defense of the Inquisition
By Jean-Claude Dupuis, of the Society of Saint Pius X
“The alleged horrors of the Inquisition generally come at the head of the list of the arguments of the enemies of the Church. Voltaire spoke of ‘that bloody tribunal, that dreadful memorial to monkish power.’ The black legend of the Inquisition has impregnated our minds to a point where, today, the majority of Catholics are incapable of defending this phase of the history of the Church. At best, they justify it by invoking the mores of the period which were so much more barbarous than those of our ‘enlightened’ era. More often, they join the chorus of the anticlericals to attack the tribunal of the Holy Office.
“In his letter on the jubilee of the Year 2000, the Holy Father himself denounces the Inquisition…
“However, the saints who lived in the era of the Inquisition never criticized it, except to complain that it did not repress heresy severely enough...
“How does one account for the fact that the Church has canonized no less than four Grand Inquisitors: Peter the Martyr (d. 1252), John Capistran (d. 1456), Peter Arbues (d. 1485) and Pius V (d. 1572)? St. Dominic (d. 1221) had indeed been an associate of the tribunal of the legatine Inquisition.
“In fact, criticism of the Inquisition by Catholic authors did not begin to appear until the 19th century, and then only among the liberal Catholics, since the ultramontanes [clerics believing most strongly in and supporting most vigorously papal policy in ecclesiastical and political matters—Ed.] were vigorously defending the tribunal. Prior to the French Revolution, anti-inquisitorial discourse was the province of the Protestants. The historian Jean Dumont, who at the present time is the best apologist of the Inquisition, points out that the engravings of the 16th century, which illustrate scenes of the auto-da-fe [‘act of faith,’ usually public, at which those tried by the Inquisition had their sentences pronounced—Ed.] habitually depict gabled buildings. This type of architecture was found at that time in the Low-Countries [e.g., the Netherlands—Ed.] and in the valley of the Rhine, but not in Spain. This detail reveals the Protestant origin of the engravings. In effect, the black legend of the Inquisition is the product of Protestant propaganda, which was passed down to the 18th century by the philosophy of the ‘enlightenment,’ to the 19th century by Masonic anticlericalism, and to the 20th by ‘Christian-democracy.’”
And so on. Yes, certainly the author is absolutely correct. Criticism of the inquisition was obviously a Protestant conspiracy passed down through that scurrilous debacle called the “Enlightenment,” to the accursed Masonic anticlericalism, and finally those ranting lunatics of so-called “Christian-democracy!”
Simultaneously, one cannot help but wonder how the author of the above cited work, a member of the Fraternal Society of St. Peter or FSSP, also known as the SSPX 1) can sleep at night, and 2) might feel if say Giordano Bruno had been his father, brother, son, teacher, mentor or friend?
“Giordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, cosmological theorist, and Hermetic occultist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which conceptually extended the new Copernican model. He postulated that the stars were distant suns surrounded by their own planets, and he raised the possibility that these planets might foster life of their own, a philosophical position known as cosmic pluralism. He also strongly believed that the universe is infinite and could have no ‘center.’
“Starting in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges of denial of several core Catholic doctrines, including eternal damnation, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the virginity of Mary, and transubstantiation.
“On Ash Wednesday, 17 February 1600, in the Campo de’ Fiori (a central Roman market square), with his ‘tongue imprisoned because of his wicked words,’ he was hung upside down naked before finally being burned at the stake.”
Slightly revised from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giordano_Bruno#Imprisonment,_trial_and_execution,_1593%E2%80%931600 Downloaded November 18, 2019
Most people who are not crazy consider those who defend the torture, humiliation and murder of innocent human beings to be psychopaths, and it is this level of psychopathology which appears to be at the heart of the hearts of the Euro-American multi-national “invisible government,” or “deep state” if one prefers. Such individuals give license to the rest to do as they will, with “legitimate” Cannon Law (church doctrine) to support their cold-blooded torture and murder.
Somewhere in between straightforward histories of the Inquisitions and very clear defense of them, is the “It wasn’t so bad,” crowd.
Historians say Inquisition wasn’t that bad
By Sophie Arie in Rome, June 16, 2004
“For centuries people were burned at the stake, stretched to death or otherwise tortured for failing to be Roman Catholic. But, if research released by the Vatican is right, the Inquisition was not as bad as one might think.
“According to the documents from Vatican archives relating to the trials of Jews, Muslims, Cathars, witches, scientists and other non-Catholics in Europe between the 13th and the 19th centuries, the number actually killed or tortured into confession during the Inquisition was far fewer than previously thought.
“Estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition, which Sixtus IV authorized in a papal bull in 1478, have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000. Some historians are convinced that millions died.
“But according to Professor Agostino Borromeo, a historian of Catholicism at the Sapienza University in Rome and curator of the 783-page volume released yesterday, only 1% of the 125,000 people tried by church tribunals as suspected heretics in Spain were executed.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jun/16/artsandhumanities.internationaleducationnews
Just so apologists and those who build castles of justification to rationalize Euro-American endless colonial pursuits live in denial of the birth to death bitter experiences of those human beings that live their lives in Euro-American target nations. Take for example the 25,000 people that starve to death every day primarily because of Euro-American driven conflicts, economic sanctions and/or “neo-liberal economic policies.”
But those are old statistics. What’s up now?
According to Oxfam.org, reported 9th July 2021,
“There has been a six-fold increase in people suffering famine-like conditions since pandemic began. A new Oxfam report today says that as many as 11 people are likely dying of hunger and malnutrition each minute. This is more than the current global death rate of COVID-19, which is around seven people per minute.”
Yet I didn't read that in western mainstream news. Why isn't this reported? The cold shroud of corporate silence insulates voters from its “moral compromises.” And oh yes, Black and Muslims lives really don't matter except as minor inconveniences to the wealthy and powerful and useful justifications from ever-expanding Defense Department spending, prison expansions and corporate profits!
Do Euro-Americans care?
It could be learned helplessness:
or Stockholm Syndrome, for those who understand the true nature and history of American foreign and domestic policies are well aware America Has No Allies, Only Hostages.
Stockholm Syndrome:
It could be as simple as many or most Euro-Americans having been terrorized by their own governments into silence. Any prosecuting attorney however would shift responsibility back onto those who vote war criminals into political office.
“We have our own problems,” Euro-American voters mumble and whine in self-indulgent denial of their own responsibilities. By not really researching their political candidates the majority of Euro-American voters cause the forever wars far too few protest.
For example, when the Iraq War was debated before the war, “Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-biden-role-iraq-war
In other words, then Senator Biden didn’t just vote for the Iraq War, he was from his position of great power as Chair of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, leading the charge to start a war against Iraq based on the same scurrilous lies that are now being told about Syria, Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, Somalia, and so on. There is no doubt Senator Biden knew exactly what he was doing as those were the same tired old lies told to justify all American wars. “They’re dangerous! They’re out to get us Americans!” What fatuous poppycock: Self-serving lies to line the pockets of his kleptocratic cronies and political donars.
He was instrumental in starting that war that directly created the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist group. Legally that demonstrates culpability. From a legal perspective, culpability describes the degree of one’s blameworthiness in the commission of a crime or offense. Except for strict liability crimes, the type and severity of punishment often follow the degree of culpability. In the case of the commission of the War Crime of the American Iraq War, then Senator Biden had a high degree of culpability.
And yet, even after that horrific seemingly endless series of war crimes, American voters elected Biden president in 2020. This, in a rational and humane world with an International Criminal Court, is inconceivable and irrefutably proves the power of “manufactured consent.”
For all practical purposes Joseph Biden should be in a jail cell in the Hague as a defendant in a War Crime trial, not “serving” as a corporate puppet in the White House ordering illegal assassinations of third parties in foreign nations. Those 22 Iranian advisors President Biden has murdered in cold blood were invited into Syria. In contrast, the US is illegally occupying Syria and openly stealing its oil and wheat.
This is precisely what Crusaders did during the Crusades. They raped and pillaged their way to the Holy Lands, slaughtered all of the inhabitants of the cities they conquered, and stole everything they could - relentlessly breaking every contract they made with the Muslims and relentlessly raiding trading caravans. Jerusalem was a safe and holy city open to all before the Crusades and became corrupt and treacherously unsafe upon their conquest of it. The same is absolutely true of Palestine and most of the world.
“The bombs rain down as I visit the Idlib frontlines, and witness the atrocities committed against civilians by NATO-backed terror, by Vanessa Beeley an independent journalist and photographer who has worked extensively in the Middle East – on the ground in Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Palestine, while also covering the conflict in Yemen since 2015. -
“Children are being killed, homes are being shelled, and fields scorched, often by Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists armed with US-made weapons or by Turkish artillery. Where’s the outcry in the West against these war crimes? UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres celebrated the extension of a “humanitarian” border crossing at Bab Al Hawa on July 10 as a “lifeline for millions of people” – many Syrians would rather describe it as a “lifeline” for Al-Qaeda.
“On July 15, I visited Jurin, a village to the north of the Hama governorate and only 5km from the Syrian-allied military frontlines with the Al-Qaeda-dominated armed groups controlling Idlib in northwest Syria. We arrived at around 9a.m. to the boom of mortar and rocket fire from the Jabal az Zawiya mountain that is under the control of Turkish-backed armed groups. Jurin is in the Al Ghab plains at the foot of two mountain ranges, and is an easy target for the elevated terrorist positions on Jabal az Zawiya.
“On June 20, a three-year-old child, Massa Akram Saleh, was murdered by armed groups who targeted her family home, injuring her father and brother, five-year-old Akram Saleh, whose body was lacerated by shrapnel wounds. Massa was rushed to Al Sqeilbiyyeh hospital, a journey of one hour, but later died. Her brother and father are still receiving treatment. Massa’s grandfather tells me: “If this had been a child of the militants, the UN would have made a big case of it. Hundreds of children have died in our area but it is as if nobody died at all.”
“The grandfather describes a daily deluge of attacks from the Turkey-assisted armed groups, targeting the triangle of Jurin, Al Safafeh and Zkereh. He begs the Syrian forces to push the militants at least as far as the M4 highway and away from the region, to bring an end to the ceaseless aggression.
“This is an aggression that apparently is not worth mentioning in UN reports on the cross-border “humanitarian” activity. He thanks the Syrian Arab Army for doing everything it can to keep the extremist groups at bay.”
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/530082-attacked-syrian-civilians-us-weapons/
It certainly appears part of a grand scheme for the US and its allies to completely take over the Middle East, while redacting and revising histories that will never be complete for most of the witnesses were and continue to be killed and records destroyed.
This is so like the the siege and capture of Jerusalem - June-July, 1099 CE, the Massacre of Ayyadieh August 20, 1191 CE, and Sack of Constantinople during the 4th Crusade (1204), with this latter example emphasizing in the target nations there are Christians and Jewish living there too, yes in Syria (and Iraq and most Muslim countries), and in peace, at least until the crusader armies show up.
Yet, some truths do slip out, and those who facilitate the illumination of any truths at all become targets as well, just ask Julian Assange (currently being tortured in British dungeons, Daniel Hale (who faces 10 years in prison), Chelsea Manning, Jeffrey Sterling, Thomas Drake, John Kiriakou, and others. And then there’s this:
“Hundreds of reporters were attacked or arrested in the U.S. in 2020. For data, visit the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, a partnership between CPJ and Freedom of the Press Foundation. Read CPJ’s proposal to the Biden administration on restoring U.S. leadership in global press freedom.”
Likewise, consult the surviving family members of journalists killed in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq… or the heroes that keep the struggle going on a daily basis, never knowing when they will “cross the ever-shifting line” drawn in the sands of time by the unholy crusaders and inquisitors, in this, Medieval 2 – The Sequel.
(This reporter crossed that line in January 1994 with publication of a series of articles published in a national newspaper about the War in Kashmir from the Pakistani side of the border. That led to a series of tortures and incalculable losses I prefer to not discuss.)
One might wonder why Pope Francis doesn’t have a chat with President Biden, given that President Biden is reported to be Catholic, and the good pope is from Argentina, a land that carried a heavy cross forged in the accursed fires of the CIA. The answer? He worked with the Romans, the American imposed dictatorship, not the suffering Christians during that time in Argentina. In other words, he’s a “company man.” I might think differently if he for example ordered President Biden to end all wars and economic sanctions, close all American foreign military bases, and permit priests to marry, which he can easily do as according to Cannon Law (Can. 749 §1) the pope is infallible, but he doesn’t, so I won’t.
And so, the world sinks deeper into the corporate controlled Dark Ages, while Americans celebrate their paper-thin illusions of freedom and democracy and move ever closer to permanent economic insolvency, AKA slavery.
Meanwhile, the foreign “heathen” paupers die unrecorded in history except as some tiresome statistics, if they’re lucky.
“Every 5 seconds starving kids of Africa dies. Please help.”
“World Hunger Statistics in 2 minutes”
Euro-American wars and American economic sanctions are the primary causes of hunger and starvation.
And the mass slaughtering of minorities in Afghanistan now? A cause for gleeful jubilation in the string of crusader castles strewn across the citadels of Europe to the White House and laughably named “House of Representatives,” as if they ever represented anyone except rich white folks and nowadays a few token minorities rather reminiscent of the story of Randall as related in: The Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave.
Meanwhile, American voters ponder grander issues like vaxxers vs. anti-vaxxers, BLM vs. ALM, and whether or not to encourage their children to have sex change operations. Elsewhere in the world:
Palestinians are Suffering from Hunger, Poverty, Conflict & a Global Pandemic, UNITED NATIONS, Apr 9 2021
Over 140 Palestinians injured as Israeli forces use rubber bullets and tear gas to break up West Bank protest (PHOTOS, VIDEO) 23 Jul, 2021
https://www.rt.com/news/530079-palestinians-injured-idf-beita-clashes
And on and on it goes with no end in sight, except the predictable tendency for marauding rapacious empires to eventually sink beneath the weight of their own vast corruption and infinite cruelties.
Identical to the wanning years of the Western Roman Empire the primary religions practiced today appear to be sadism and greed rationalized by tribalist dogma.
Manufactured consent is an essential driving force making Americans believe they have free choices before and at elections, when really those choices are tailor made and spoon fed to them by cold-blooded money and power-hungry media corporations.
Once that malignancy turns fully inward, the final collapse of that rotting empire is inevitable and imminent. Truly Socrates and Plato (who strongly and articulately warned about the dangers of democracy) appear to have lived and died in vain.
In addition, the warnings contained in former President Eisenhower’s final speech concerning the dangers of the military-industrial complex went unheeded by far too many voters and consequently that complex has metastasized into the military-industrial-news and entertainment media-university-medical-psychiatric-judicial-prison complex! That is a natural by product of the CI/DoD designed “weaponization of everything.” Even children’s shows now program them for war. In one of histories most transparent examples of self-serving psychological projection, American Defense One online accuses Russia and China of the “weaponization of everything,” yet even the briefest reviews of the statistics proves beyond any doubt it is the American DoD that is leading and driving the international arms race, and promoting war and aggression more than any nation on earth or in history. This accusation would be funny however has already caused unimaginable suffering and death for uncounted millions of innocents and has the all-too-real possibility of causing WWIII and possibly species extinction.
Is there a way to reverse the direction of this hell-bound train on a hill racing downwards towards the cliff corporate America’s racism, corruption, absolute greed and sadism have fashioned? Perhaps but two conditions must first be met. 1) Euro-American voters have to wake up enough from their escapist denial to realize there are numerous fatal flaws in the US a) system of government, and b) that government’s foreign and domestic policies, and 2), they have to have the will-power, courage and energy to implement at minimum 17 solutions to “fix” the faulty blood-soaked steam engine pulling Western civilization down to what may be its final fall.
Once awoken to these grim realities, the voter might say:
“He answered and said, ‘Whether he be a sinner or no, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.’”
John 9:25
This will be THE END, unless someone in the USA is willing to drink of this cup of bitter truths and lead a strong, straightforward, honest and peaceful political movement against the promoters and benefactors of corruption and war.
Unfortunately, that cannot be me, for I have already suffered far too many losses and honestly don’t know where I might be next week.
Besides that, I’ve been in exile for 20 years and absolutely no desire whatsoever to visit the US for any reason now or in the future. I’ve been on several target lists since I converted to Islam in 1987. Following that I worked as a reporter (for the Black Press) in the US for several years and then foreign journalist in enough foreign countries and conflict zones I seriously wonder if I’m already on one of the American kill lists. Incidentally I’ve also been threatened several times in recent months as the result of my articles (and books) posted on:
https://uwm.academia.edu/GregBrundage
and other locations.
Also incidentally, Freedom of Information Requests yield no results during ongoing operations especially when those operations are highly illegal which they usually are, at least according to human rights law.
Good luck my American friends. You’re going to need it.
Afterthought
I’m curious if Edward Snowden could run for president while in exile? He’s a younger fellow, obviously of good moral character and highly intelligent. I’d definitely vote for him and suspect so would a lot of other real Americans who believe in those old-fashioned virtues of truth, justice and freedom.