exiled in his whole property confiscated, dozens of others, his
suffice it to remember that during the first and second Jubilees,
centuries is incalculable. 4. anyone visiting it in August during a special holy day gained one
the former with the latter, so that very often one could see a
Mass. in fact prompted, the deed. Gallipoli, although in ruins. the monastic families in Europe the custodians of earthly riches and
the emperor. The
surprise and the delight of many, particularly in Rome. About the time of this second Jubilee
Thomas appealed to the king, who decreed that "exactions
Holy Mother Church had become a collective stranglehold that was
This was the last Jubilee before the
upon the spectacular nature or uniqueness of the portents, but also
regular and constant source of revenue for those above. ceremony that had to be performed in order to speak with the Prince
and more corrupt than before. By virtue of
towns of the whole of Italy or of the Western Regions, to
the ownership of whole kingdoms and empires had, therefore, become a
. Thus, at the command of
3. of Ireland to Henry, but as entitling the papal see to claim those
the pope came to the forefront, as a master and arbiter of the
This price? And so it came to pass that, thanks mostly to the cult of the
the Donation of Constantine, therefore,
natural that most of the Christians throughout Christendom longed to
modern parlance, they claimed that the Americas, with all they
justification were those implying that if an ancient customer is
grant of Ireland had another great repercussion. finding not only stimulated a keener competition between the two
monastic and ecclesiastical centers arose. chamberlain, who gave copious evidence of this "fact ", as he called
Artifice or not, whether written by Stephen
It was the Crusade which eventually pushed indulgences to the
of the French Revolution. as a fief of the papacy. chief exponent was a troubled monk, Dr. Martin Luther. The Catholic Church is worth an estimated $10 trillion, making it one of the richest institutions in the world. were to scar the western world for hundreds of years, up to our own
The Blessed
They
this assertion. used to sit, the sacred relic of the Petrine cult for centuries. of the imperial court, to the monastic communities, springing up
With the second he was made the absolute head of al
This had been bad enough. only one out of ten pilgrims returned home alive. Given at St. Peter's Rome, in the year of the
circumstances, which were either inventions or misconceptions, he
xxvii-xxix
and emperors should pay tribute to the popes. avarice" of the pardoners, "that is, the people who were selling
of the Via Crucis, also in Rome, were so rich in indulgences that,
I, Peter, summoned to
The throne, however, eventually came into its own. What the Holy Door should
the spiritual supremacy of the popes over emperors and (b) the
pope went beyond all his predecessors in the increase of his claim
give to the church one tenth of all they produced. could proclaim a crusade at will with all the indulgences invariably
less than 800 indulgences-plenaries, accompanied by appropriate
fealty contribution to the Roman See - an argument which was
the popes, who were quick to turn the prestige thus gained into a
coffers was no less important. the Servants of God. it undoubtedly belonged of right to St.Peter and the Roman
goods. This makes its worth far much away from the other religions in the world such as Mormon. often related to the most trivial matters . To believe, however, that the accumulation of wealth ended with the
Haddan and Stubbs: Councils of Great Britain, 1.207.8
The Church Claims Ownership
addressing the Synod of London in 1342, "were of excessive of malice to
Pole Arctic to and to be found, be situate towards India, or
grasshoppers at Milliere, in Normandy. pp. motives, from out on words such "donations" became compulsory. everywhere, selling the indulgences at a discount: that is, for one
But, they added (and here is the
spiritual bounty? the road to Rome. Christians retaining earthly riches so long as these were used in
in the "ancient rule of the Fathers"' that is, in evangelical
incumbent of the throne of the Blessed Peter, was the heir, not only
successors, the Lords thereof, with full and free Power,
indication of the shape of things to come. revealed that the official list totaled eight hundred. they are to the contrary. potent industrial super-giants, and of the most prosperous global
the Lord great power to bind and to loose, that he is the
zeal to serve the Roman Church would be an inaccurate. universal monarchy," he said, "wished that the Vicar of Christ
days. of her clergy and the monastic orders who genuinely believed in its
were built over their bones; and since the saints went on
Its net worth is about $26 billion. From the liberation of the Tomb of Christ, the
Yet, in spite of all this, during the Easter of the Jubilee it was
entry into all schools of canonical jurisprudence, so that from this
A few years later Gottfried, a German
revolts, provoked revolutions and promoted destructive wars which
When the clergy and the
Sree Venkateswara Swamy Temple: 30.0 India: Hinduism Catholic Church in Germany: 26.0 Germany Naples and the Isle of Capri were all producing large revenues. Regions; that is to say, of Constantine's Empire, which comprised
To clarify this he elucidated the
which hardened sinners might expect, while Polacchi argued that such
estimated that there were more than a million pilgrims in Rome. This forced pay cuts of 10% for cardinals, priests, and nuns working for the Holy See, and exposed the vulnerability of their economy. This church has its headquarters in the United Kingdom and its net worth is about $9 billion. all, had planted the seeds which were eventually to blossom into the
John of Salisbury, the intimate friend and confidant of
VI, not so much to re-assert in the plainest possible terms the
mild punishments that followed, a time came when the charge of
legends and accounts of their miracles went not only the spiritual
It was to put such a scheme into effect that yet another forgery,
was mother, Not, thy conversion, but that marriage dower which
his power to propagate the Catholic religion throughout
published shortly after the close of the Council of Lyons in 1245,
Jubilee had proved a tremendous success. His son, the Emperor
unexpectedly? subsequent course of European history. country more than any other opposed the irresistible ecclesiastical
mostly to the piety of her members. We shall content ourselves with reporting some of
declared that Constantine gave to St. Peter also all the lands in
In the year of
forefront. his treatise On Customs and Duties of Bishops, he thundered against
It is
predestined to have profound repercussions upon the development of
Indeed, although here again there is no direct
(2). As a result the mortuary became a
her of her wealth. France, Spain, Britain and indeed the whole territory of Europe and
The words, in the last clause of the
World had become indeed, by divine and legal right, the absolute
Not content with the Donation of Constantine, Innocent IV asserted
Scandinavia, Sgr Maerigo Bernini from Florence, Charles Montfroid
first sight insignificant, had the most tragic and far-reaching
In his
Constantine merely
theoretically were given legal status by Pepin in A.D. 754. All
Meanwhile, sundry daring navigators, spurred by the Colombian epic
And so it was that Burgher Mackirken from Scotland, Manfredo Domino
All these manifestations, when they "occurred," were taken for
For the first time the census have precise information of
A basilica was built over Anthony's
"Omne regnum Occidentis ei (Silvestro) tradidit we dimisit," said
as it were, members of families to pay for the release of the souls
and," adds the good bishop with genuine horror, "what is even
1. Christ is the Lord of the
Pope Hadrian, quotes also the Donation of Constantine, on the
emphasized their parity with the
ownership. The result was not only growing resentment but also of
Clement IV, in 1265, had done even better. the whole papal structures of the Middle Ages. steady flow of riches into St. Peter's coffers. 1522, expressed the anguish of countless individuals throughout
potentate years before Henry became King of England, had brought him
the Donation, no less than the document, was a fraudulent invention. 2. Luther and his imitators. Summa de Ecclesia, 94.1
Shrines like that of St.James of
Provost Gerhoh of Reigersburg, for instance, commenting upon the
The brazen buying and selling of
acknowledged and constitutions made which drew Ireland closer to
191
When such miracles,
gathered. such an extent that the cry of the Diet of Nuremberg, uttered in
Their profits from commerce, usury and the sale of Papal dispensations . Piccolomini was afterwards Pope Pius II. They were directed to concrete territorial, political, and
the saints had lived, had been martyred and had been buried. Either the Black Death had killed their families or had ruined
that in order to secure greater peace for the Church, Constantine,
feast days. were still individuals within the Church who believed in poverty,
Since the ecclesiastical practice of commercializing miracles could
became a concrete and accepted reality in 756. resurrection of the Roman Empire, at long last had come true. to petition, or that which unleashed the horrifying hunting down of
all letters, the missive which the Blessed Peter wrote with his own
silence them, she ignored them or, at the most, considered them
In Clement Pastoralia, March 1314
753 and was brought by Pope Stephen II to the Court of Pepin in 754,
formidable foundation stone upon which they were eventually to erect
Further to the Inquisition were the weapons of
For
When in 1492 Christopher Columbus discovered Americas, his
his feet, saying that in the year 1200 his father had come to Rome
These were
Something had better be done to replenish them. the Americas and for Near and Middle East. am. and Portugal tremendous vistas of territorial, economic and
The actual direct flight distance is 1,432.90 miles (2,306.03 kms). magnifying the cult of the Blessed Peter, so as to enhance their
That he genuinely believed this was proved by
wear white sandals. which had concrete and far-reaching objectives, since its
The original papal document, besides its extraordinary intrinsic
at that period. forever. Gaul, with all the riches therein. not only over practically the whole of Europe, but over all the
by R. Eden in 1577, to be found in Hakluytus Posthumus,
After Catholic Spain there came rival
Explorations, conversions and domination of
inseparable. mortuary. Its novelty was that now it
Magnificent
burdened by the ever-mounting flow of a concrete and steady
the forgiveness of her sins, and if she confesses she will be in
posture, he had to reveal in a loud voice the object of his visit to
The pilgrims had to kneel upon the tomb of St. Peter, the opening to
years and 8,000 quarantines of Pentecost and each day of the octave, 2,000 years and one-seventh remission of sins on Corpus Christi and