Ch. XXIII The Inquistion, Galileo Case p 231-241

CHAPTER XXIII

THE INQUISITION,

THE GALILEO CASE

What is an Inquisition?

The Inquisitions were simply trials to determine the guilt or innocence of a person accused of a crime, usually Heresy. In those days, the crime of Heresy was also correctly considered by the State, as treason and often severely punished as such. Many of the heretical movements were also movements against the King and the laws of the kingdom. Usually Church officials lead the inquiry, to determine if the accused was indeed guilty. The accused, particularly if innocent, preferred to be judged by The Church Officials, than by strictly civil Officials because the trials would be fairer.

In England and Germany the Inquisition was an Episcopal tribunal (under control of the local Bishop). In other countries it was gradually lost to the Episcopacy. In France it was transformed into a state tribunal by Philip the Fair, who used it effectively in his warfare against the Knights Templars.

Two good references on the Inquisition:

I would like to refer the reader to the following references which were used for these “Notes”:

1. “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” Chapter 23 by Karl Keating. Mr. Keating gives a good summary of the non-Catholic attacks of The Church over the Inquisition and puts everything in perspective.

2. “Characters of The Inquisition” by William Thomas Walsh. This book give many more details about those involved in the Inquisition.

The major Inquisitions:^[115]

“In 1184 the Inquisition was established in southern France in response to the Catharist heresy. In this phase it was known as the Medieval Inquisition. It died out as Catharism disappeared. Cartharism had serious, truly civilization destroying, social consequences. Marriage was scorned and concubinage was permitted. In addition, ritualistic suicide was encouraged (those who wouldn’t take their own lives were “helped” along). They refused to take oaths which in feudal society, meant they opposed all governmental authority. Thus, Catharism was both a moral and a political evil.”

“Quite separate was the Roman Inquisition, begun in 1542. It was the least active and most benign of the three variations. Under it Galileo was tried.”

“Separate again, was the famed Spanish Inquisition, started in 1478, a state institution used to ferret out Jews and Moors who converted to Christianity not out of conviction but for purposes of political and social advantage.” The Inquisition established in Spain was purely a state tribunal, all the members being nominated by the sovereign. “It was the Spanish Inquisition that had the worst record.”

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“The Inquisition” is often used today in attacks on Catholicism:

The word “Inquisition” used to mean “inquiry”. Today it has become almost synonymous with “bigotry”, “intolerance”, and “cruelty” of the Catholic Church. This is because the Inquisitors were Catholics and the histories of the Inquisition have been mostly written by enemies of the Catholic Church. They could not weigh the facts well because they harbored a fierce animosity toward the Church, an animosity which had little to do with the Inquisition itself. The Catholic Church in the modern world has therefore suffered much in reputation on their account. Their so called “histories” often exaggerated the cruelty, motives and sometimes the influence of The Church in the punishment of the guilty and the numbers of those so punished. It is true that abuses crept in, but this is no reason for criminating the Church. The jurisdiction of the Holy Office was limited to the declaration of the guilt or innocence of the accused; the penalties were according to the Criminal Code of the Country.

1. The excesses of the Inquisition prove the illegitimacy of the Catholic Church!

The burning of a human being for denying certain dogmas is not reconcilable with the teachings of Christ and the profession of a Christian.

CATHOLIC RESPONSE:

(1) Excesses by Catholics, do not prove what some think they prove:

Unfortunately some have left The Catholic Church and others, attracted to Her, have been kept outside Her for this reason. True, there were excesses during the Inquisition but these do not prove what non-Catholics think they prove.

The excesses of the Inquisition prove that the Catholic Church contains sinners! Guilty as charged.

The excesses of the Inquisition prove that at times sinners reach positions of Authority! True, alas true!

Christ even warned us of this in Matt. 3:24-30 – An enemy has sowed cockle with the wheat!

The excesses of the Inquisition shows that even otherwise good Catholics, afire with zeal, sometimes lose their balance! True all true, but such charges could be made and verified even if the Inquisition never existed.

The Church has nothing to fear from the Truth. No account of foolishness, misguided zeal, or cruelty by Catholics can undo the Divine Foundation of The Church. What must be grasped is that the Church contains within herself all sorts of sinners and knaves, and some of them obtain responsible positions. The wheat and the chaff co-exist in the Kingdom until the end, which was how Christ intended it. Even the young French girl, St. Joan of Arc, was burned at the stake as a “heretic” by the English. She was of course innocent of the charge and eventually even Canonized as a Saint by The Church. Unlike St. Joan of Arc, however, many found “guilty”, were really guilty. The case of St. Joan however, shows that some of the excesses were politically motivated and not sanctioned by Rome.

(2) The punishments inflicted by the Inquisition were typical of their times.

The kinds and degrees of punishments inflicted by the Inquisition were similar to (or even lighter than) those meted out by secular courts. In fact, many people preferred to have their cases tried by ecclesiastical courts because the secular courts had even fewer safeguards. The wisest men of Spain did not consider the Inquisition and instrument of cruel oppression but an instrument of reform, which substituted a judicial punishment of the guilty for indiscriminate mob butchery of guilty and innocent alike.

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(3) Intolerance was not the invention of the Middle Ages nor the child of Christianity.

Plato, who lived several hundred years before Christ set it down as a duty of government to show no tolerance toward those who denied the state religion.

Moses was a prophet, a leader of the Hebrews, inspired by God and even appeared with Christ during His Transfiguration. Moses has been called the “First Inquisitor”. The Hebrews were told to love their neighbors. But they were not encouraged to confuse charity for fellow men with a sentimental and suicidal toleration for false ideas. “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” Moses, acting under Divine inspiration, never hesitated to shed blood rather than let his Chosen People become like the pagans around them. For example when the Jews started to adore the golden calf, in Exodus 32:27,28 we read:

“Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Put every man his sword upon his thigh: Go, and return from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and let every man kill his brother, and friend, and neighbor. And the sons of Levi did according to the words of Moses, and there were slain that day about three-and-twenty thousand men.”

Moses had toleration for weaknesses of human nature, but he had none for those which separated men from the True Faith. Idolaters were put to the sword and their lands confiscated.

Sir James Stephens, in his History of English Criminal Law, notes that there were 800 executions a year during the early stages of the Protestant Reformation in England, where the Inquisition never operated.

The burning of “witches” was almost unknown in Catholic Countries, who had access to the Sacrament of Confession. In Britain thirty thousand went to the stake accused of witchcraft; in Protestant Germany, the figure was one hundred thousand.

The Puritans fled to America to escape Protestant persecution and then in turn persecuted the Catholics. They also burned their share of “witches” at the stake.

Such statistics do not make the Spanish executions right, but they perhaps indicate that severity in punishment was not due to Catholicism as such, but must be attributed to the general character of the times.

(4) Burning unbelievers is not a Doctrine of the Catholic Church:

During the first 1000 years of the Catholic Church there were always unbelievers who did not go to Mass, yet no coercion was applied to them.

In the Middle Ages, Catholic countries were being attacked by Moslems and other enemies that threatened both Church and Country. Severe measures were taken to protect citizens from these evils. The Crusades were mainly attempts to free the Holy Land from Moslem attacks and enslavement of Christians living and visiting there.

No one sees Catholics today burning unbelievers, even in Ireland and Portugal, where the population is almost entirely Catholic. Catholic priests are not bloodthirsty men, quite the contrary as a rule. No one of sense, foresees the likelihood of a future persecution involving Catholics except, perhaps, as victims.

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2 The Galileo Case:

The Catholic Church is against science and persecuted Galileo. The enemies of The Church present Galileo as a “Martyr of Science”.

CATHOLIC RESPONSE:

(1) There is no conflict between true science and the Doctrines of The Church since both come from God the Source of all Truth. Many of the leaders in the various sciences were Catholics.

(2) Galileo did not discover or prove that the Earth revolved around the Sun (it was assumed that the Sun was the center of the universe and did not move). This was a theory advanced by Copernicus, a Catholic Priest, a century before Galileo. Copernicus was not “persecuted” by The Church for his ideas. Many scientists in Galileo’s day thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Therefore in Galileo’s day this was still an unproven theory.

(3) Even today there are those who argue that the Sun orbits the Earth and not the other way around. For example, if movement is sensed between two objects who can say which is stationary and which is moving. From a ship sailing out to sea, it looks like it is the land that is moving away. They claim that quasars are arranged in spherical shells, the center of which is the Earth. They quote the following Scriptural Passages:

Jos.10:12-13 “Move not, O sun, toward Gabaon, nor thou, O moon, toward the valley of Ajalon,” were upon “The sun and the moon stood still, till the people revenged themselves of their enemies.”

Eccles. 1:5-6 “The sun riseth and goeth down and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the south and turneth again to the north” (from the way we see it?).

Psalm 92: God “hath established the world which shall not be moved.”(from its orbit?)

Psalm 103: He has “founded the earth upon its own bases (its orbit around the sun?); it shall not be moved forever and ever,”

Psalm 95: God has “corrected the world, which shall not be moved again,”(from its orbit?)

1 Paralipomenon 16:30: “He hath founded the earth immovable.” (from its orbit?)

(4) Today many would say that the force of gravity, keeps an orbiting object from flying off into space. The bigger the object, the greater is the gravitational pull it has. Hence the smaller object is said to orbit the larger object and that neither the Sun nor the Earth are stationary, but both move through space. Never the less we still talk about what time the Sun will rise and set as if it were orbiting the Earth. From our perspective it looks that way.

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(5) Non-Catholic “Bible Christians” who defend Galileo and criticize the Catholic Church for censoring him might want to reconsider their position. Galileo did not get into trouble because he supported Copernicus’ theory of the Earth orbiting the Sun. He was condemned because he but doubt on the infallibility of the Bible, on the basis of the unproven theory that the Sun did not move. He started to mix his own interpretation of Holy Scripture with scientific hypotheses. He claimed that the Bible said that the Earth was stationary, did not move and was therefore in error. If it was in error on this point, It could be in error in other areas. It is however the Catholic Church that has the exclusive right to infallibly interpret Holy Scripture and not Galileo. The Catholic Church has never claimed that an immovable Earth or Sun was a Doctrine of The Church, therefore Galileo cannot state that the Bible passages above refer to this.

“In fact, Galileo is the only one responsible for his own condemnation; his incredible pride pushed him to use his great intelligence to ridicule his adversaries: ‘You are mental pygmies, stupid idiots, not worthy to be called human beings.’ Galileo was preoccupied only by one thing: his personal glory!

Blinded by his pride, Galileo did not hesitate to make fun of the Pope or of the authority of his ecclesiastical superiors, refusing to give the proofs of his scientific hypotheses under the pretext that his adversaries were too stupid to understand them.”^[116]

Galileo’s “private interpretation” of The Bible is what got him in trouble because it caused scandal and encouraged others to place their own interpretation on Holy Scripture.

(6) Galileo was not tortured in any way. He accepted and then disobeyed orders to be silent in the affair that was creating a great disturbance between groups of scholars. His book was condemned because of his disobedience. His two day “house arrest” was first in the gardens of the grand duke and then in Siena and was far from unpleasant. ^[117]

^[115]. “Catholicism and Fundamentalism” Ch. 23 by Karl Keating

^[116]. Saint Ignatius Retreat House “Letter 25 - The Galileo Case” by Father Jean-Luc Lafitte

^[117]. “Some Reflections On The Galileo Case” by Frank Morriss The Wanderer Jan. 15, 1981

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QUESTIONS

Apologetics Chapter XXIII - THE INQUISITION, THE GALILEO CASE

(20 points each)

1. Write your name so I can read it.

2. Circle “T” or “F” when the following statements are True or False.

T F Those accused of a crime usually preferred to be tried by the Inquisition rather than by the

civil courts or by a mob because they were usually fairer.

T F Many of the “histories” of the Inquisition were written by people who had a fierce

animosity towards the Church, an animosity which had little to do with the Inquisition.

T F There were excesses during the Inquisition, however they were often greatly exaggerated

in some “histories”.

T F The excesses of the Inquisition prove that the Catholic Church contains sinners.

T F The excesses of the Inquisition prove that at times sinners reach positions of Authority!

T F The excesses of the Inquisition shows that even otherwise good Catholics, afire with zeal,

sometimes lose their balance.

T F The excesses of the Inquisition prove that the Catholic Church is not the Church founded

by Christ.

T F During the Inquisition, a person found guilty of heresy were often also guilty of treason.

T F Galileo was persecuted by The Church because he discovered that the Earth orbits the Sun

instead of the Sun orbiting the Earth.

T F Galileo was censored by The Church because he said that the Bible contained errors.

3. If the Catholic Church was founded by Christ, how come It contains sinners who sometimes reach

positions of Authority?

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4. A non-Catholic says that the burning of “heretics” at the stake and killing them in other ways is a Doctrine of the Catholic Church. What would you say?

5. A non-Catholic says that Intolerance of other religions is an invention of the Catholic Church. What would you say?

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