Quote:

Pariah said:
Ah. I see.

Still though, I'm not sure if Dave meant the reformation of the Vatican or simply creation of the Protestant sect.




I mean the Protestant Reformation that Luther began, when he broke away from the Catholic Church.


You make some good points, Pariah, about the bloody times in which the Inquisition occurred. Where it was not just the Catholic Church that used these methods of torture, but the (more secular) provincial rulers, and the invading Muslims as well.




Quote:


Wonder Boy said:
The Inquisition, under the Roman Catholic Church, was an abberation and temporary corruption of the church, where the average Christian didn't have access to Bible teachings themselves, and had to rely on the interpretation of a corrupt clergy,




Clarifying my own statements about Catholic leadership "corrupting scripture", it is a simple fact that there were not a lot of Bibles in that period, since Bibles were handwritten in that era, and largely inaccessible to the average person in Europe.
It was not until creation of moveable type, printing and the Gutenberg Bible that the Bible became accessible to the average person, and Catholic Church's representation of scripture could be weighed for accuracy. And allow Catholics to put an end to corruption among their own.

Some specific examples of "corruption" as I refer to it include extorting sums of money out of people, threatening to cause a dead or dying relative to remain in purgatory for eternity unless it was paid. (Pergutory is not something listed in the Bible, Protestants do not beleive in it.)

Or accusing a person of heretical crimes to seize their property.

Likewise, many other things said to be "in the name of God" to direct people in service to the Catholic Church were not necessarily true to Biblical scripture.

In the absence of easily accessible mass-produced Bibles, the accuracy of such doctrine was difficult for the average person to know, and they could more easily be misled.


No doubt there were corrupt Catholic clergy who manipulated people for power and profit, and simultaneously also Catholic leaders who were true to the Bible and their faith as well.