In some cultures and eras, apostates face certain death. In America, it's the church that's dying from apostasy.
Apostate — it's not exactly a common word. But for those doomed to hear its rare pronouncement, it can mean imminent death or serious eternal consequences.
Like repentance, apostasy implies a rejection or abandonment of a practice, ideal, or belief. And one religion's penitent is another one's apostate.
This irony became apparent in the first formal court case involving charges of apostasy in Kuwait. The court found Hussein Qambar Ali guilty for converting from Islam to Christianity in December 1995. Since Shari'ah law in Kuwait (and many other Islamic societies) prescribes the death sentence for apostasy, the court called for Ali's execution, along with the termination of his marriage and the distribution of his possessions to heirs.
"Apostasy in the Islamic world is serious," said Ali. "Anyone, even an ordinary person, has the right
A group commonly called Cathari, meaning "pure ones." Since they were especially influential in and about the town of Albi in southern France some people called them Albigenses. Although most of what we know about the Albigenses comes from their enemies, it is likely that they filtered into Europe from Bulgaria. Like the gnostics in the early church, the Cathari held that the universe is the scene of an eternal conflict between two powers, the one good, the other evil. Matter, including the human body, is the work of this evil power, the god of the Old Testament. He had imprisoned the human soul in its earthly body. To escape from the power of the flesh the true Cathar was supposed to avoid marriage, sexual intercourse, eating of meat, and material possessions. Here was a radical poverty, but not one based on the example of Jesus so much as on
Founded by Spaniard Dominic Guzman (1170-1221), and given official approval in 1220, the preaching order was called "mendicant" meaning "begging" and the term "friar" (or brother) distinguished them from monks because, unlike monks, they went forth to live among people to preach and teach. Just as monastic housed had once arisen to minister in the countryside, so the mendicant friars now emerged to meet the spiritual needs of townspeople. In the same year that the Dominican order was formed, Pope Innocent III took the Inquisition from the hands of the bishops and turned it over to the newly formed Dominicans. (If you ask me, I think that was a real crass move. Ruined the Dominicans for whatever good they may have been worth. Just thought you'd like to know that.)
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, Dominicans, history, Innocent-III, Inquisition[/tags]
The Czech reformer from southern Bohemia (Husinetz). He studied theology at the University of Prague, earning both a B.A. (1394) and the M.A. (1396) before beginning his teaching in the faculty of arts and plunging into the reform cause. After his ordination and appointment as rector and preacher at Bethlehem Chapel he came upon Wycliffe's religious writings. He adopted at once the English reformer's view of the church and began to circulated Wycliffe's teachings, including his criticisms of the abuses of power in the papacy. Drawing heavily upon Wycliffe, he wrote his major work, On the Church. On his arrival at the Council of Constance he found himself a victim of the Inquisition. He lay imprisoned in Constance for eight months. On July 6, 1415 Hus was burned for heresy.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, ChurchRodent, history, Inquisition, John-Hus, Wycliffe, Reformation[/tags]
In dealing with heretics the church had two objectives: first, the conversion of the heretic and, second, the protection of Christian society. Heresy eventually drove the Roman Catholic church to her most serious internal conflict: How can the church employ violence to safeguard a peaceful society? The church deliberately accepted a line of action impossible to reconcile with the eternal kingdom toward which she aspired. She created the Inquisition, not only to execute heretics, but to subject them to deliberate, prolonged torture.
The earliest form of the Inquisition appeared in 1184 when Pope Lucius III required bishops to "inquire" into the beliefs of their subjects. In short, they held an "inquiry" or inquest. Heresy or harboring a heretic brought immediate excommunication. The spread of the Waldenses and Albigenses, however, called for stricter measures. In 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council, under Innocent III's leadership, provided for the state's punishment of
(1534-1549)
The first pope to make a serious attempt at reforming the disorder in the Catholic Church. His reform started in the College of Cardinals, he appointed to the college a number of champions of reform, including leaders from the Oratory of Love: adoleto, Pole, and Caraffa. Also appointed a reform commission to study the conditions in the Church of Rome which issued a report in 1537. Called for a general council of the Church at Trent, Italy in 1545-53 decades after Luther's theses appeared. Instituted the Roman Inquisition and the Index of prohibited books. Approved the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) as an official order, spiritual soldiers in his service.
[tags]BlogRodent, church-history, Church-of-Rome, ChurchRodent, history, Inquisition, Jesuits, Jesus, Pope-Paul-III[/tags]
