medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I have pasted in here an alternative account, undoubtedlly basesd on the
same press release that Jason HNorowitz used for his IHT/NYTimes piece
(included below). The NTimes piece editorializes by using loaded
language ("stitched together"). The Zenit.org piece chooses to include
a quotation about the international scholarly standing of those whose
papers are included in the proceedings. From Henry Kamen's speculative
language in the quote attributed to him in the NYTimes piece, he
apparently has not seen the papers. Perhaps he has reason to believe
that the Vatican conference was a rear-guard, damage control operation,
but he couches his opinion in speculative language. He may well have
said other things that would shed a very different light on things--one
cannot know the rest of the context out of which Horowitz has taken the
quote. We are supposedly trained to read critically. The NYTimes needs
to be read critically, as well as Vatican press releases. I am not
defending the Vatican-issued volume nor presenting the Zenit news item
as the gospel truth because I haven't seen the 700-page volume yet
(yesterday I had already asked our university library to try to track it
down and order it ASAP). Can you help us, Tom Izibicki?
I do not wish to prolong this thread but I am adding this alternate
news story because I think it does illustrate how our presuppositions (I
include myself here) affect the degree of objective and critical rigor
with which we read not only medieval sources but contemporary news
accounts.
Dennis Martin
==================================================
ZENIT News Agency, The World Seen from Rome
==================================================
Crucial to Have the Facts About Inquisition, Says Pope
Writes a Letter for the Publication of Minutes of 1998 Congress
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 15, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II reiterated the
importance of historical research so that the Church can purify her
memory of the sins of her children, in particular, the Inquisition.
The Pope explained this in a letter sent to Cardinal Roger Etchegaray,
former president of the Committee for the Great Jlibrary order
ubilee of the Year 2000, on the occasion of the publication of the
"Minutes of the International Symposium 'The Inquisition,'" held in
October 1998.
"It is appropriate that ... the Church should become more fully
conscious of the sinfulness of her children, recalling all those times
in history when they departed from the spirit of Christ and his Gospel,"
the papal letters affirms, read today by the cardinal when presenting
the volume to the press in the Vatican.
"Instead of offering to the world the witness of a life inspired by the
values of faith," the Pope continued, Christians on occasion "indulged
in ways of thinking and acting which were truly forms of counter-witness
and scandal."
John Paul II had asked the Historical-Theological Commission of the
Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 to hold a congress on
the Inquisition to prepare for the Day of Forgiveness of the Holy Year,
on March 12, 2000. On that day, the Pontiff asked for forgiveness for
the errors committed in the service of truth.
"The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as
it wins over the mind with both gentleness and power," the Holy Father
said in his new letter, quoting from the Second Vatican Council
declaration on religious freedom, "Dignitatis Humanae."
The minutes of the symposium were presented in the Vatican press office
by Cardinals Etchegaray; Jean-Louis Tauran, archivist and librarian of
the Holy Roman Church; and Georges Cottier, Papal Household theologian;
as well as by historian Agostino Borromeo, an expert on the Inquisition
and coordinator of the volume.
The 783-page book publishes the addresses in the languages in which
they were delivered at the symposium. The congress was attended by
historians "whose scientific competence is universally recognized," as
the Pope had requested, without taking into consideration their
religious confession.
The book is now a reference for historians, Cardinal Etchegaray said.
Borromeo explained that Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) was the first to
establish "inquisitors," "delegates of the Apostolic See with the task
of combating heresy in certain areas."
In time, the papacy created a stable organization until the last
tribunal of these characteristics was abolished in Spain in 1834,
Borromeo added.
Cardinal Cottier explained that this historical study is useful for
theologians to be able to answer questions such as "What is the meaning
of the paradox: Holy Church embraces sinners to her bosom? What is the
meaning of the evangelical testimony as a dimension of Christian life
and of the antithetical behavior of counter-witness and scandal?"
"Obviously, a request for forgiveness can only affect real and
objectively recognized events. Forgiveness is not asked for images
spread by public opinion, which are part of a myth and do not correspond
to reality," he said.
Cardinal Cottier said that the minutes have been published after a long
delay due to a series of health problems affecting the scholars.
ZE04061509
Visit our web page at http://www.zenit.org/
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>>> [log in to unmask] 6/16/2004 12:30:12 AM >>>
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
Vatican Downsizes Inquisition
By Jason Horowitz
NY Times (in IHT), June 17, 2004
VATICAN CITY--The Vatican said Tuesday that fewer witches were
burned at the stake and fewer heretics tortured into conversion
during the dark centuries of the Inquisition than is generally
believed, but it also sought renewed forgiveness for sins
committed by Roman Catholics in the name of church doctrine.
.
In a statement, Pope John Paul II acknowledged that the
Inquisition was widely viewed as one of the church's bleakest
periods and that it loomed as a symbol of scandal.
.
But he also asked, "To what degree is that image faithful to
reality? Before seeking forgiveness it is necessary to have
precise knowledge of the facts."
.
To better understand the causes and damage of the Inquisition,
the Vatican published a collection of scholarly essays on
Tuesday about the Inquisition, stitched together from a 1998
symposium of leading theologians and scholars.
.
Two years after the symposium, the pope made a sweeping apology
for the church's errors over the last 2,000 years.
.
"We cannot not recognize the betrayal of the Gospel committed by
some of our brothers, especially in the second millennium," he
said.
.
The Inquisition is widely considered to be among the deepest of
those betrayals.
.
It began in 1231 under Pope Gregory IX as a legal procedure to
root out heretics, but in later decades and centuries, the Roman
Catholic authorities began employing torture and execution to
enforce orthodoxy.
.
The Inquisition wreaked particular havoc in Spain, where
thousands were burned at the stake during the 15th and 16th
centuries.
.
But Agostino Borromeo, who edited the 783-page volume of essays
published Tuesday and who teaches history at Sapienza University
in Rome, said at a press conference here that of Spain's 125,000
heresy trials, only about 1 percent of the defendants were
condemned to death.
.
"Resorting to torture and sentences of death were not as
frequent as have long been thought," Borromeo said.
.
He and the cardinals who also participated in a panel on Tuesday
afternoon referred to hundreds of pages of research and tables,
including one that broke down the number of witches burned, per
capita, in European countries.
.
They said the numbers were relatively modest and countered what
they described as a widespread misconception about the extent of
Inquisition violence.
.
"You can't ask forgiveness for images that have been spread
throughout public opinion, that are more myth than reality,"
said Cardinal Georges Cottier, a Vatican theologian.
.
While many experts agree that the number of executions commonly
attributed to the Inquisition is inflated, some wondered if the
Church was practicing a sort of damage control on a
centuries-old blemish.
.
"Common perception is always exaggerated in terms of numbers,"
said Henry Kamen, author of the study "The Spanish Inquisition"
and a visiting history professor at the University of Chicago.
.
"But there are those who in reaction and self-defense
deliberately downplay the figures," he continued. "The Vatican
clergy might be in that category."
.
Other Cardinals present at the news conference said that it was
hard to judge the events of history from the perch of hindsight
and argued that getting to the fact of the matter was no easy
task.
.
"We are looking for a truth that has never fully been known,"
said Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a high-ranking member of the
Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
.
"Historical truth," he added, "is not easy to grasp in one's
hands."
.
The New York Times
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