The Bible has now come to be regarded as of so much importance to the clergy and people, that as many as fifty-five learned men during this 16th century devote their time and attention to its exposition and illustration; and twenty-seven new universities are established.
The Reformation is an insurrection or revolution against ecclesiastical monarchy and absolute power in the church, or spiritual matters. It establishes freedom of inquiry and liberty of mind in Europe. The Bible and theology occupy the attention of the greatest minds, and every question, whether philosophical, political or historical is considered from the religious point of view.
THE INQUISITION
In 1235, Pope Gregory IX, establishes the Inquisition, a cruel court of inquiry for the suppression of those who question the authority of the papacy to rule over them in the church. It becomes very active in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. It is not suppressed in France until 1834, after a period of six centuries.
In 1540, Ignatius Loy o la, an illiterate Spanish soldier and priest, with papal authority, organizes the society of the Jesuits, to require Christians to renounce whatever opinions may separate them, and, accepting the doctrines and worship of the Roman Catholic church to acknowledge the pope as Christ's sole vicegerent on earth.
The Inquisition had previously proved a bloody court but this order is intended to make it more effective in suppressing freedom of thought and action in matters relating to education and religion.
The events that occur during the period of the Inquisition are harrowing to relate. The historians of that period have recorded, among others, the following executions and massacres.
The duke of Alva, a Spanish general and persecutor who died in 1582, condemned 36,000 of his countrymen to be executed.
On the night of August 24, 1572, the anniversary of St. Bartholomew, Charles IX, of France, by offering his sister in marriage to the prince of Navarro, a Huguenot, assembles at the nuptials in Paris five hundred of the most prominent of the Huguenots, including Admiral Coligny, their venerable leader, and, at a given signal an unparalleled scene of horror ensues. Before the break of day, these noble leaders and 10,000 of their faithful followers, in Paris that night, are ruthlessly slaughtered. The horrid carnage, against these defenceless friends of truth and right, is extended to Lyons, Orleans, Rouen and other cities until 50,000 are massacred at this particular time. The total loss of France by the Inquisition has been estimated at 100,000 persons.
It is estimated that, during a period of seven years Pope Julius II effected the massacre of 200,000 persons. The Irish massacre at Ulster in 1641 cost Ireland the loss of more than 100,000 of her best citizenship. It is estimated that during a period of thirty years as many as 900,000 persons suffered martyrdom for the truth at the hands of the secret order of Jesuits. During the entire period of persecution by the papacy, a vast multitude, numbering many millions in addition to these, were proscribed, banished, starved, suffocated, drowned, imprisoned for life, buried alive, burned at the stake or assassinated.[1]