"FROM THOSE WONDERFUL FOLKS WHO BROUGHT YOU THE INQUISITION!"

"What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!"
Pope Leo X (Encyc. Brit., 14th Ed. xix, pg. 217) 

"A curse on him who is lax in doing the LORD's work! A curse on him who keeps his sword from bloodshed!"  -- Jeremiah 48:10, Motto of Pope Gregory VII.

"Kill them all. Let God sort them out!" -- Attributed to various sources, including Pope Innocent III, Abbot Arnold Amaury, and Saint Dominic, at the genocide of the Albigensians. 

"I am surrounded by priests who repeat incessantly that their kingdom is not of this world, and yet they lay their hands on everything they can get." -- Napoleon Bonaparte

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.
~ Stephen Roberts

Man is certainly stark mad: he cannot make a worm, yet he will make gods by the dozen.
~ Michel de Montaigne

We, on our side, are praying to Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray to Him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us?
~ Abraham Lincoln

Which is it, is man one of God's blunders or is God one of man's?
~ Nietzsche

Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot

Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of awesome mystical power. We know this because they manage to be invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.
~ Steve Eley

All great truths begin as blasphemies.
~ George Bernard Shaw

If you can conceive of morality without god, why can you not conceive of society without government?
~ Peter Saint-André

The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.
~ Denis Diderot

A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
~ Albert Einstein

If you talk to God, you are praying. If God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.
~ Thomas Szasz

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal god and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious, then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.
~ Albert Einstein

You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do.
~ [Usenet]

One man's magic is another man's engineering. Supernatural is a null word.
~ Robert Heinlein

We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty humans, and then blames them for his own mistakes.
~ Gene Roddenberry

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.
~ George Orwell

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
~ Napoleon

If child molestation is actually your concern, how come we don't see Bradley tanks knocking down Catholic churches?
~ Bill Hicks, 1993, referencing the Waco siege

Do you see now that your self-righteousness was nothing more than breeding and years of privilege? You know, we are one nation under a god. Yes, you were right. An angry, crack slinging god who decorates with bullets and spent condoms, a blind god whose eyes are just like yours.
~ Solipsist by Henry Rollins

Religion, comprises a system of wishful illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find in an isolated form nowhere else but in amentia, in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion.
~ Sigmund Freud

The ink of the scholar is holier than the blood of the martyr.
~ Prophet Muhammad

Men are not punished for their sins, but by them.
~ Elbert G Hubbard

I like your Christ; I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

The same people that wrote the bible thought the world was flat.
~ Unknown - (disputed)

If god created us in his image we have certainly returned the compliment.
~ Voltaire

The Bible devotes some 500 verses on prayer, less than 500 verses on faith, but over 2000 verses on money and possessions.

  Quite a few people have asked why I put this page together. They argue that even if I am correct, and that there are no gods, what can the harm be in letting others believe in gods and goddesses.

  My answer is that I have no problem with people believing what they want, so long as their beliefs are NOT used as an excuse to inflict harm upon others, extract wealth from them, enslave them, or to justify wars. My problem is with organizations created solely to exploit myths and beliefs for wealth and commercial power. History proves that religion is a tool of human enslavement. Even the Bible approves of slavery.

LEVITICUS 25:44-46

  As for your male and female slaves whom you may have; you may buy male and female  slaves from among the nations that are round you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their families that are with you, who have been born in your land; and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons and after you, to inherit as a possession forever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over the other, with harshness.

No religion has ever set its followers free from the oppressions of the organized hierarchy of that religion (with the possible exception of the historical Jesus himself). Religion teaches unquestioning obedience. Religion is slavery. I oppose such slavery as earnestly and staunchly as my ancestors opposed the slave ships and the slave policies of the Confederacy.

  I am not anti god (for one can hardly oppose something which does not exist). I simply wish to set people free from all forms of oppression and exploitation.

  The ruling elite loves a population trained from birth to confuse beliefs with the real world. It is much easier to rule a population, pillage them with taxes, or send them off to fight a war, if the ruler is not required to prove the reality of his or her propositions and statements. This is why, since the dawn of civilizations, governments encourage their people to be ruled by beliefs and not by reason. It takes chains of steel to enslave a rational human, but all the rest may be enslaved by a belief.

1. DOES BELIEF ALONE PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF THE GODS?

  Throughout history, a wide variety of religions worshiping Molech, Baal, Odin, Jupiter, Zeus, Ahura Mazda, Jehovah, Allah, Quetzalcoatl, Coatlicue, Vishna, and others far too numerous to elucidate here have come and gone.

  The followers of each of these religions believed that theirs was the true faith and contained within it the correct answers to life's great questions. All too often, as will be seen below, followers of a faith were ever eager to cut the throats of those who disagreed with them.

  But on many of the most basic aspects, mankind's multitude of religious thoughts contradict each other. On what would seem to be the most basic truth of all, just how many gods there are, the various religions throughout the world are in complete disagreement. It therefore follows that most of the world's religions, if indeed not all of them, do not have the correct answer to the basic question of how many gods there are. They cannot. For one to be correct means the others are incorrect. Yet the followers of each religion believe they are correct, even though this is impossible.

  Ergo, belief that one is correct is not in and of itself proof that one is correct.

2. PROOF THAT THERE ARE NO GODS.

If one posits the existence of a god or gods able to communicate their presence to human minds, then as an inevitable result of the existence of that god or gods, it would be expected that all humans, or at least the priests who claim communications with the god(s), would have a unanimity of opinion as to how many gods there are.

Likewise, if one posits the existence of a god or gods able to communicate their existence to human minds, then as an inevitable result of the existence of that god or gods, able to communicate to human minds, all theologies would be in accord, and there would be no need for missionaries, let alone inquisitions and holy crusades.

But there is a diversity of opinions as to how many gods there are. And there are missionaries, crusades, the inquisition, and the burning of a million heretics.

The world is not as it would be if there was a god or gods which could communicate their existence to the minds of humankind. None of the conditions which must inevitably follow the existence of a god or gods able to communicate their existence to the minds of humankind can be found anywhere on Earth.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum, no such gods exist.

3. WHAT IS THE TRUE NATURE OF RELIGION?

  Our knowledge of what we think the world to be is largely determined by what we are taught in our youth, usually at an age before we understand that there is such a thing as deception. Lessons learned at an early age become the core of emerging personality, and even when recognized as being in error, can be unlearned only through an intense effort of will.

  One of the most common devices used to teach falsehoods is the "everybody knows" method. Such lessons are above the need for proof and are never questioned because, after all, "everybody knows"...

  For example, "Everybody knows" that religion is generally a source of good. But those who hold such an opinion are woefully ignorant of the actual facts, which show that religion, throughout its long and bloodstained history, has been a tool of enslavement. The Egyptians built the pyramids by promising the workers a life after death. The Vikings made the price of the afterlife to die with a sword in ones hand. The families of the Crusaders gained heaven only through the bloody deeds of the Crusader himself.

  "Heresy" is a bad word to Christians. But to know why, you need to understand what the word actually means. "Heresy" comes from the Greek "hairesis", meaning "free choice". That's what religion opposes when it opposes heresy; free choice. Heretics are people who decide for themselves what to think and when to think it. Religions do not like that sort of behavior. They burn heretics.

  It is not possible to understand Christianity by reading only the Bible, no more than it is possible to understand the Nazis by reading only the propaganda written by Joseph Goebels. Just as Goebels' propaganda was prone to show the Nazis in the best possible light, so too is the Bible a work designed to convince the unwary that Christians are peaceful harmless individuals concerned only with the spiritual well being of all they encounter. The Bible is biased. The Bible is spin. The Bible presents less than the complete truth.

  To learn the reality behind Christianity, like the reality behind the Nazis, it is necessary to eschew what is said in favor of what is actually done.

4. JESUS, THE HERETIC

  Up to the time of the historical Jesus, communication with the gods was exclusively the province of the priests. The common folk were not allowed to look on the gods, or even to speak their names. Only the priests were empowered to intercede with the gods, for which service they extorted (as they do to this very day) a heavy toll.

  The historical Jesus introduced a daring new idea; that everyone could talk to their god directly, without a priest. Even in the canonical Bible, in Luke, the Lord's Prayer is introduced when one of Jesus' followers asks him how to pray. This is an important clue, since it reveals that the people of the historical Jesus' time did not know how to pray. It was a skill they had been told was forbidden to them. Likewise, in the Gospel of Saint Thomas (admitted even by the church to be the only surviving contemporaneous record of the words of the historical Jesus but still declared a heresy)  the historical Jesus speaks of God as being not in the sky, not hidden in mansions of wood or stone, but being everywhere, available to all people at all times.

  This one idea, that ordinary people could communicate to their gods directly without priests or temples, although quite acceptable today, was radical in the extreme in Jesus' time! The idea that common people could pray directly to the gods was a heresy and a dangerous threat to the power and wealth not only of the Jewish Sanhedron, but to the Roman temples as well. The historical Jesus broke the toll gate to heaven; giving to the people for free what the priests of the temples had always charged for, access to the gods!

  The historical Jesus himself lived in relative poverty. There is no indication that he ever passed a collection plate, or solicited money for his teachings. The incident with the money changers at the temple showed the disdain that the historical Jesus had for churches as financial operations.

  Jesus himself came from a moneyed family. While the church portrays Jesus and his father as poor carpenters as part of the program to persuade church followers to live poor lives (thereby donating the excess to the church), there is nothing in the original Biblical texts that refers to Joseph's actual occupation. He is described merely as a "Master of the craft" (meaning simply, "A scholarly person"), which early translators mistranslated into "Craftsman", then in English to "Carpenter".

  Following the departure of the historical Jesus, virtually everyone in the religion "business" would have immediately set about moving the gods back into a remote heaven, behind locked doors to which the priests alone held the keys. A vital clue to this agenda lies in the Lord's Prayer itself. The commonly accepted English translation of the first line goes, "Our Father, who art in Heaven...", yet an examination of the original Aramaic reveals that this is a deliberate mistranslation of, "Our Father, which art everywhere..."
 

5. THE "OTHER" CHURCH OF JESUS.

  There are numerous indications that, contrary to Catholic dogma, there was a Christian church that existed separate from the early Catholics, a church that was a major threat to the early Catholics because it laid a claim to the historical Jesus the Catholics could not compete with, one of blood lineage!

  This is a much stronger claim to the church of Christ than the Catholics could produce, since their claim to rulership is based on "Apostolic descent" in a supposed unbroken line from Saint Peter, who is popularly portrayed as the first Bishop of Rome. Yet an examination of the Vatican's own records shows that Peter was never a Bishop, of Rome or anywhere else for that matter. The real first Bishop of Rome, according to Vatican records, was Prince Linus of Britain, the son of Caractacus the Pendragon. He was installed by St. Paul in AD 58, during Peter's own lifetime. Peter never got a shot at that center seat.

  One clue lies in the story of the quest for the Holy Grail. Christians are taught that the Grail is the cup used for Passover by Jesus, which was then "the vessel that caught the blood" of the crucified Jesus. Throughout the years, the Catholic church has taught that "Grail" means "cup". But the word "Grail" does not appear in the Bible, nor even the story of the Passover cup being used to catch the blood of Jesus. It is not until the year 1207 that any literary works can be found that describe the Grail as a cup. Prior to that,  the "the vessel that caught the blood of Jesus" is always written as "Sangrael", which translates literally as "Blood royal", as in "bloodline", or lineage. Thus, the "the vessel that caught the blood" of the historical Jesus was not a drinking cup that grabbed a horrid souvenir of his crucifixion, but the woman who carried his heredity, Mary Magdalene!

  Clearly, a group of Christians led by the actual descendants of the historical Jesus was something the early Catholics would not have been able to compete with. So, the existence of such a lineage had to be hidden from the followers of the early Catholic church. The metaphor of the "the vessel that caught the blood royal" was popularly portrayed as a cup, something that wasn't a threat to the Catholics because no amount of searching would ever find it. If fools thought they were looking for a cup, then they were NOT looking for the historical Jesus' descendants. Meanwhile, to further discourage the idea of a dynastic lineage from Jesus, women were quickly excluded from any positions within the early orthodox Christian church, and the women in Jesus' life were made to seem as abnormal as possible, with Mary Magdalene portrayed as a whore, and Jesus' mother portrayed as bearing a child without sex.

  On examination of the claim of a virgin birth, we find yet another of the modern day Bible's egregious mistranslations.
The original Latin word describing Mary was, "Virgo", which means only that she was a young woman. The Latin words for a young women without sexual experience, "Virgo intacta" do not appear in the Latin biblical texts which predate the modern Bible. That the claim of a virgin birth was not in the original Bible is further revealed by the fact that Jesus' patriarchal lineage back to King David, which would be irrelevant in the context of a virgin birth without an earthly father, is listed in the Bible (That Jesus family were descendants of King David is another clue that their livelihood did not depend on carpentry).  

  The early Catholic church was a huge profit machine. The historical Jesus had taught that Christianity did not require an expensive priesthood or "mansions of wood and stone", and over time, the Catholic papacy attained an advantage in wealth and political power over the growing church of the descendants of the historical Jesus, then centered in Southern France, and set out to exterminate them.

  This is the story of the Cathars and the Merovingian Kings, declared en masse to be heretics by the Catholics and exterminated. The official pretext given was the failure by the Cathars to pay a tax to the Catholics. But in an age when the Catholics were regularly setting out to exterminate the Jews, one more group of non Catholics on the hate list did not seem strange.

  What was strange was the treatment of devout Catholics living in the Cathar lands. When Domingo De Guzman, commander of the Pope's forces, prepared to storm the city of Carcasonne, last stronghold of the Albigensians, a subordinate asked what was to be done to preserve the lives of the devout Catholics known to live within the city walls. Domingo De Guzman replied with the quote seen at the top of this page, "Kill them all, let God sort them out", which is exactly what the Pope's forces did.

  Most people would regard the killing of loyal followers of the invading church as a particularly psychotic act, but the Catholic church applauded this act of butchery and eventually made Domingo De Guzman into Saint Dominic.

  This massacre of devout Catholics within the city and the rewarding of their killer with a sainthood makes sense only if the Catholic church thought that the Catholics living with the Cathars had learned something from the Cathars that they were never supposed to know; such as the possability that Jesus had left living descendants. This was a knowledge so threatening to the Catholic church that even those who merely knew of it had to be exterminated!

  Eventually, the extermination of the Cathars resulted in the murder of half the population of Southern France. Following the war, the Catholics established the Office of the Holy Inquisition, and while its reign of terror touched many groups (including the Rivero family in Spain), and murdered many millions of people, its primary focus remained hunting down and killing every single Cathar, with the last known one being burned at the stake in 1324, taking with him (it was assumed) the terrible secret that the Catholic church, even as it exploited the image of the historical Jesus to enrich and empower itself, had hunted down and killed that same Jesus' descendants!

6. THE ORTHDOX NEW TESTAMENT WAS NOT WRITTEN BY ANYONE WHO KNEW THE HISTORICAL JESUS.

  The earliest known fragment of the Gospel of John dates from 130 C.E. The first collection of texts now called the Bible appears to have been assembled around 250 C.E. from texts written long after the historical Jesus died. None of the books of the new testament were written by the original apostles for whom they are named. Out of some 30 known gospels at the time, the early Christians chose only 4 to go in the Bible, not because of their literary merit, but because the Earth had four compass points, and (it was believed) four corners, and four winds. Strangely, there are texts which were written while the historical Jesus was still alive, but these were not only ignored but destroyed by early Christians during the struggle to define the orthodoxy. Fortunately, copies of these gospels which were hidden to protect them were discovered at Nag Hammadi. Still other texts, such as Moses' book on magic spells, were arbitrarily consigned to the "Apocrypha". All texts, the bible included, were withheld from the congregations. Only the priests could read them. The congregations were kept ignorant of the gospels and were fed stories of witches, demons, satyrs, incubi, sirens, cyclops, tritons, etc., to keep them in a permanent state of fear. The early church ruled the people by terror.

  Much of the history of the dark side of the church (to follow) was recorded by the clergy themselves, writing their journals in an age when the congregations were discouraged from learning to read. The hideous crimes and atrocities were set down by men confident that the common people would never be able to read their written words.

  The oldest texts in the accepted canonical Bible are those of Saul of Tarsus (Saint Paul), but he never met the historical Jesus (although Paul was convinced that Jesus would return to Earth in his lifetime), nor do his writings indicate the existence of the modern gospels as they are known today in his time. Saint Paul did not become Christian until he was 30, but had been raised as a Mithraist, which is why so much Mithraic influence is seen in his writings. Early Christians desired to separate theologically from the Jews as quickly as possible, so the "Paulist Doctrines" became the accepted heart of modern Christianity, Mithraic influence and all.

  It was at this time that the Essene word meaning "revive" was mistranslated to read "resurrect" and the myth of Jesus' coming back from the dead (an idea copied from the Mithraists, as well as Ishtar, Osiris, and other myths) was created. To the historical telling of the crucifixion was added the story of a Roman soldier stabbing Jesus in the side with a spear to make certain he was dead, but it's equally clear that this was written by someone with no knowledge of anatomy, Roman metallurgy, or how to handle a spear. Trying to stab through to the heart of someone on a cross from the side would be impossible because of the ribs. Someone who knew how to use a spear would stab through from the front, into the abdomen below the sternum and then thrust up. The tale of the spear through the side is a fiction invented years after the fact to counter questions raised by other aspects of the account of the "crucifixion" which suggested that the historical Jesus actually survived his ordeal.

  Much of the early Christian symbolism was copied from other then popular religions, apparently to make the new religion more acceptable. The ritual of the making of the sign of the cross predates the time of Jesus and is a symbol for the Mithraic god of good, represented by the sun. Early Christians, despite the old testament reference to the Sabbath being the 7th day of the week, placed their day of worship right on top of that of the Mithraists, the FIRST day of the week, The "Sun day" Likewise, ignoring the biblical reference that the historical Jesus was born in "lambing time", the early Christians placed their celebration for the birth of Jesus at the Winter Solstice, over the Roman feast of the Saturnalia and the major creation festival of Mithra. The "loaves and fishes" as a ritual meal was also Mithraic in origin, as was the story of a final day of judgment when the dead are all raised from the grave and the wicked sent to eternal fire. The "flesh and blood" ritual sacrifice at the heart of communion also has roots in Mithraic ritual, and evidence of the transition appears in the Epistle to the Hebrews. The spring festival of Ishtar became "Easter", and so on, the early Christians building their new religion by copying what worked in other, older religions. Whereas the old testament makes little mention of an separate afterlife for the wicked, or of an evil god, both concepts were copied from Zoroastrianism/Mithraism and into the New Testament.

7. THE BIBLE IS NOT SCIENCE

  There is in this nation, as there was in pre-Nazi Germany, pre-Mussolini Italy, and pre-Franco Spain, a battle being waged over whether the public tax funded schools should teach science in the classrooms, or religious indoctrination in the form of creationism.

  Let us be clear; the Bible is NOT in any way, shape, or form, a book of scientific truths. Among the numerous absurdities contained in the Bible is the claim that the Earth is flat, rests on gigantic pillars and does not move at all. Despite numerous space flights, and a simple experiment with a pendulum any high school student can perform, the Christians still insist that the Earth is flat, rests on gigantic pillars and does not move at all, because the Bible is the perfect word of their god, and cannot be in error. It is from among people of this mind set that we see hear claims that the entire space program is a fake, that the Apollo moon landings never really happened, and that NASA is concealing photos which would show the giant pillars supporting the Earth.

  The reason Christians are willing to cling to such outrageous nonsense is that were they to admit that the Earth DOES move, then the claims of the Bible being a perfect source of knowledge must evaporate, taking with it the story of human creation by their god.

  This strange intractability in the face of overwhelming evidence contradicting the biblical mythology becomes understandable when one realizes that the issue under debate is not truth or reality, but ownership of the human race.

  All religions teach that their gods created humans, with the implication that humans are therefore under an obligation to those gods which the priests are empowered to collect on their behalf. People who do not believe religious myths can no longer be exploited by the priests of that religion. Hence, priests will continue to teach that the Earth is flat, rests on gigantic pillars and does not move at all, because that is how they transform rational human beings into belief-slaves from which they can extract money.

03/24/02  Sidebar:  The "Big Bang" is Just Religion Disguised as Science

8. A QUICK NOTE ON THE WITCHCRAFT HYSTERIA

  The word "witch" comes from the same root word as "wit", meaning wisdom. The class of people targeted as witches by the Christian church were herbalists and folk healers. Able to effect cures among the sick, they were a direct threat to the church, which held that all illnesses were God's will and that cures were available only to those who prayed in their churches and tossed a few coins into the collection plates.

  The witch hysteria was the product of several overlapping phenomenon.

  First were the witches themselves, who along with their herbal cures, indulged in the recreational pharmaceuticals of their day. Chief among these was Ergot, a mold which grew on rye bread, then the most common bread to be found in Europe. In high doses it was highly toxic, often used as a murder weapon. In lower doses, it was a powerful hallucinogenic, and formed the core ingredient of all the various potions and mixes designed to induce visions and hallucinations. So prevalent was Ergot that it is even mentioned in Shakespeare's "Macbeth".

  The most common use of Ergot was in "flying ointment". This potion did not enable anyone to fly, it merely caused dreams of flying off to strange and magical places. To avoid the toxic side effects of the Ergot, the ointment was applied to the skin. Female witches would run the ointment on a smooth wooden pole, usually a broom handle, and rub themselves on it, adding powerful sexual gratifications to the drug induced hallucinations.
 

From Bayonne, an 17th century illustration of a witch applying "flying ointment".

  To the uneducated common folk of the time, the sight of a young nude women writhing in ecstasy on her broom handle would have seemed strange and frightening, and is (with the addition of clothing and the pointed cap of the heretic) the origin of the traditional image of a witch riding her broomstick.
 

Hans Grun, exact date unknown. An old witch, using a pitchfork instead of a broom (any old pole in a storm) summons a young witch.

  The Ergot itself became a major health problem. Being so much in use by the herbalists, it began to infect all rye bread. Fresh baked rye bread was not a problem, but as European civilization moved from smaller villages to larger cities, the rye bread could sit for a day or more on the market shelf or in a wagon before being purchased and consumed, long enough for Ergot to grow. People began to suffer unplanned drug trips and did not understand what was happening to them.

  The final component for the witch hysteria was the church itself, which had been losing its iron grip on the populations of Europe. Villages which had been built around the churches and cathedrals in the 13th and 14th centuries were now being centered on the market places. IN order to reassert its dominion over the people. the church promoted the view that the unplanned drug trips from rye bread carrying the Ergot mold were actually demonic possessions, brought on by the witches, and curable only by total and complete submission to the church.

  To justify the persecutions of the witches, the church relied upon the Biblical quote, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." But this is yet another of the Bible's infamous mistranslations, for in the original Aramaic, the text reads, "Thou shalt not suffer a poisoner to live."

  There followed centuries of the most hideous bloodshed and atrocities imaginable as the church terrorized all of Europe with the witch trials and grew fabulously wealthy in the process from the confiscated lands.

  The vast majority of the condemned died without their names being recorded. In many areas of Europe the records of the witch trials have been destroyed as an embarrassment to the church. The few surviving names I have collected here are shown in a smaller typeface not because their deaths are unimportant, but simply because there are so many of them. The names cited in this list as having been tried and executed for heresy and witchcraft are representative only. Of the estimated half million victims of the witchcraft trials, only a few names and dates have survived. Most victims remain anonymous. Very few records remain naming those who were tortured and then released.

9. COLOR CODES

  Every once in a while, some Christian or other charlatan will announce that the world is soon to end, then ask for an "extra special effort" to help the ministry, with "extra special effort" meaning to send in money. There is nothing new to this practice; Christians have been predicting the end of the world and asking for donations based on those predictions since they opened for business. Some of the more notorious flops in the "End Of The World" prophecy biz are noted in red.

  Facts relating to the life of the historical Jesus (as opposed to the myth created by the Christian church) are noted in blue.

  Mistranslations of the original Greek, Essene, and Aramaic texts by the English version of the Bible are noted in orange.
 
 

THE HISTORY
( You may click on some images to see larger versions)

Moses/Akhenaton/Amenhotep IV

Moses, as a child in the home of Pharaoh, read the contents of the Pharaoh's library. Stories such as the Epic of Gilgamesh formed the basis for Moses' own writings which became the core of the Hebrew faith and the Christian Old Testament. Among the stories copied from the Epic of Gilgamesh was the story of the great flood and the building of the Ark. The Epic of Gilgamesh predates the old testament by at least 500 years. There is compelling evidence that the man known today as Moses was actually a Prince of Egypt himself, Amenhotep IV, who was overthrown and deposed for attempting to start a monotheistic religion. Setting aside the silly suggestion that a princess of Egypt would give a Hebrew name to a child hidden in Pahraoh's household, the name "Moses" is not a Hebrew word for "drawing out of", but is a common Egyptian appelation meaning "Prince", and appears in the names of many Pharaohs such as Tutmoses, Ahmoses and Ramoses (Ramses). Moses/Akhenaton was banished from Egypt, but following the death of Ramses, and being a legitimate heir to the throne, Moses/Akhenaton returned in a bid to retake the throne, but failed and had to flee Egypt a second time with his supporters. Political spin being the same thing back then as today, this defeat was re-written into a victory in what is now the Old Testiment story of the Exodus.

Jesus

Yeshua was born in the year 1 during the early spring (lambing time) and visited by three priests of the Mithraic or Zoroastrian religion, the Magi. They announced his birth as the fulfillment of prophecy, not of the Judeans, but of their own prophet Zarathustra.

Judas Escariot, in an attempt to force the Rabbi Yeshua (Jesus) to use his alleged divine powers to drive the Romans from Judea, informed on Jesus to the Romans in the year 33. The Jewish Court, the Sanhedron, long infuriated by Jesus' effect on their profits, did not intervene. Crucifixion normally took 3-4 days to kill someone. But Jesus was on the cross only a few hours when it was reported to Pontius Pilate that Jesus had died. According to the Bible, Pilate (who knows better than most how long crucifixion usually lasts) expressed some suspicion in the matter, but at the urging of his wife decided not to press the issue.

Two aspects of crucifixion forgotten in the present day is that it was not always a fatal punishment. Romans would crucify criminals as a warning and take them down after they had lost consciousness. And, the laws of Judea did not allow the crucified to remain on their cross during the Sabbath, which began at sun down Friday night. Hence, when Jesus was put up on the cross Friday mid-day, it was the law that he had to be taken down by sunset, whether alive or dead.

The Bible describes the post-crucifixion Jesus not as an immortal spirit, but as a normal human requiring food, sleep, and the tending of his wounds. Texts in the apocrypha give the formula for the "Wounds Of Christ" ointment as chiefly Aloe and Myrh. Islamic and Buddhist texts tell the story of how the historical Jesus, having barely escaped a sentence of death, then migrated east into India, searching for the lost tribes and teaching as he went. His tomb can still be seen in Srinagar.

While Jesus lived on in India, Jesus wife, Mary (a Benjamite) escaped to the South of France to an existing Benjamite colony. There she raised her children, who eventually intermarried with the Sicambrian Franks, engendering the Merovingian line of Sorcerer Kings.

Botched doomsday prophecies! In the year 156, the prophet Montanus and two followers, Priscilla and Maximilla, founded a cult that predicted the end of the world would occur in their lifetime. Despite the failure of that prediction, the cult survived several centuries until it was ordered exterminated by Pope Leo I.

Botched doomsday prophecies! In 247, Christian prophets declare that the persecutions by the Romans are a sign of the impending return of Jesus.
 

Constantine the Great

Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor of Rome, came to power in the year 306. According to Church Father Lactantius,
Constantine was "a model of Christian virtue and holiness." Among Constantine's achievements; the murders of two brothers-in-law, his son, and his wife.

Christianity became the official religion of Rome in 315. Christians started burning pagan temples and killing the pagan priests. The carnage continued non-stop into the 6th century. Temples destroyed by Christian mobs included the Sanctuary of Aesculap in Aegaea, the Temple of Aphrodite in Golgatha, Aphaka in Lebanon, and the Heliopolis. Christian priests such as Mark of Arethusa or Cyrill of Heliopolis were famous as "temple destroyers."

Much of the story of Constantine's devotion to the church is manufactured. The "Donation of Constantine", a form of will by which Constantine donated the regalia of the emperor to the church, and upon which is based the role of the church on conferring Kingship ever since, is not admitted to have been a forgery.

Constantius II, the second Christian Emperor of Rome, succeeded Constantine in 337, murdering both uncles and 7 cousins in the process.

Bishop Innocentius of Dertona in Northern Italy ordered the destruction of a synagogue about 350.

Saint Augustine of Hippo was born in 354. He called for use of force to convert people to Christianity and urged severe punishment for heresy. Saint Augustine declared that since men die anyway, they should die in wars fought for the benefit of the church. Augustine wrote, "Any violation of God's laws, and by easy extension, any violation of Christian doctrine, could be seen as an injustice warranting unlimited punishment ... of the enemy population without regard to the distinction between soldiers and civilians. Motivated by righteous wrath, the just warriors could kill with impunity even those who were morally innocent." And "I fail to see what use woman can be to man, if one excludes the function of bearing children."

Christian Rome made any non-Christian worship a crime punishable by death in 356. Christian Emperor Theodosius (408-450) had children executed because they had been playing with remains of pagan statues.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Hilary of Poitiers predicted the world would end in 365.

The philosopher Sopatros was executed by Christians in the fourth century.

Botched doomsday prophecies! The Donatists, a North African Christian sect, predicted the world would end in 380.

Priscillian and six followers were beheaded by Christians for magic and Manachean heresy in Trier, Germany in 385.

The Bishop of Kallinikon ordered a synagogue burned in 388.

Pope Leo I

Leo 1 became Pope in 440, and persuaded the civil government to order persecutions against the Pelagianists, the surviving Priscillianists in Spain, and the Manichaeans. Although supposedly a civil law, the text of the law was written in the papal offices. Following his death, Leo I is made a saint.

Hypatia of Alexandria

Hypatia of Alexandria was torn to shreds with broken glass and sea shells by a Christian mob in 415, led by a Christian minister named "Peter". Hypatia was dragged from her abode at the Great Library, and was murdered in a church as the highlight of a worship service. The same mob of Christians then destroyed the great Library at Alexandria. The Christian civil authorities used what remained of the library's books and scrolls to heat the public baths, erasing from the face of the Earth much of the classical heritage of the ancient world. The Christians destroyed the remaining Egyptian temples. With the murder of the Egyptian priests, all knowledge of the ancient written Egyptian language was lost, not to be re-discovered until Champolion decoded it with the help of the Rosetta stone discovered by Napoleon's invading troops. Only then is it discovered that locked away in Imhotep's surviving writings awere the cures to diseases that had devastated medieval Europe.

The Manichaeans are completely exterminated by 444.

Visigoths revolted and sacked Rome in 476. 150 years later, the Roman roads had fallen into ruin. The Christians, suppressing all knowledge not found in the bible, abandoned Roman mines and smelters. For the next 1000 years, possession of iron objects was the sign of wealth even more than possession of gold.
 

Botched doomsday prophecies! Roman theologian Sextus Julius Africanus (ca. 160-240) predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Hippolytus (died ca. 236)  predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.

Botched doomsday prophecies! The theologian Irenaeus  predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 500.

Non-Christians were stripped of all legal rights under the law in the 6th century.

754(?) The "Donation of Constantine" appears. This document purported to prove that the Emperor Constantine the regalia of the rule of Rome to the church. This allowed the church to claim the right to choose and create Kings from that time forward. The Donation also claimed to officially appoint the Bishop of Rome as the Vicar of Christ on Earth, creating the imperial papacy. The Donation was revealed as a forgery by the Papacy during the Renaissance.

The Council of Toledo enslaved all Jews, confiscated their property and ordered their children forcibly baptized in the 6th Century.

Emperor Charlemagne condemned 4500 Saxons, unwilling to convert to Christianity, to be beheaded in 782.

Botched doomsday prophecies! A Spanish monk, Beatus of Liébana, sparked a riot when he predicted on Easter Eve 793 the world would end that very night.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Sextus Julius Africanus predicted the second coming of Jesus in the year 800.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Beatus of Liébana, not having learned anything from the riot he started in 793, wrote in his Commentary on the Apocalypse, which he finished in 786, that the world would end in the year 800 at the latest.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Bishop Gregory of Tours predicted the world would end between 799 and 806.

Botched doomsday prophecies! The Christian prophetess Thiota predicted the world would end in 848.

Pope Joan I

Pope Leo IV died in 855. Pope Benedict III succeeded him in 858. The three years between saw one of the most controversial characters ever to appear in the Vatican, Pope John VIII, who was secretly a woman, often referred to as Pope Joan I.

Born in the darkest of the dark ages, when women were declared to be the property of men by the church, Pope Joan (her real name remains unknown) impersonated a man in order to gain access to education, became a monk, and by virtue of a superior command of religious knowledge and political skill was eventually elected Pope.

Pope Joan's masquerade was undone by her own sexual appetites, which matched those of the other Popes (See Pope Alexander VI). She became pregnant and had the misfortune to go into labor during a Papal procession from the Patriarchum, the official Pope's Residence (now St. Lateran's) along the "Via Sacra" (The Sacred Road, now Via S. Giovanni) to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, suffering a miscarriage in full public view. The crowd, not quite willing to accept this particular "miracle", promptly stoned Pope Joan to death and she was buried in an unmarked grave with her baby.

Up until the 16th century, the Catholic church acknowledged Pope John VIII's (Pope Joan's) existence. In 1276, Pope John XX changed his name to Pope John XXI after discovering the existence of John VIII (Pope Joan) in the Vatican archives. Even though the Via Sacra was the shortest and most direct route between the Patriarchum and the Vatican, all later Papal Processions went by another path.

Following the stoning of Pope Joan and up until the 16th century, the Papal Consecration ceremony included a process politely called the "chair exam". Papal candidates were required to sit in the "Sella Stercoraria", an ornate version of an outhouse seat with a hole in the bottom through which their male genitals could be observed by an official examiner who would then proclaim, "Mas nobis nominus est" -- "Our nominee is a man." Only then was the newly crowned Pope handed the keys to St. Peter's.

The official position of the Catholic Church today is that Pope John VIII (Pope Joan) was an invention of Protestants intent on embarrassing the Catholics. However, despite efforts by the holy inquisition to erase any and all records of Pope John VIII (Pope Joan), more than 500 ancient manuscripts by acknowledged period authors (Petrarch and Boccaccio) and high ranking clergy have been uncovered describing the reign of Pope John VIII (Pope Joan).

Pope Joan's statue can be seen at the Cathedral of Sienna, labeled as being Pope Zacharias by order of Pope Clement VIII in 1601.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Lotharingian computists foresaw the End on Friday, March 25, 970, when the Annunciation and Good Friday fell on the same day. They believed that it was on this day that Adam was created, Isaac was sacrificed, the Red Sea was parted, Jesus was conceived, and Jesus was crucified.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Christian prophets predicted that the end would come in 992, when the Annunciation and Good Friday again fell on the same day.

Botched doomsday prophecies! When it didn't happen in 992, Christians revised the prediction to 995.

Botched doomsday prophecies! EVERY Christian predicted the end of the world in the year 1000.

The Bishop of Limoges, France had all Jews who would not convert to Christianity killed or banished in 1010.

Botched doomsday prophecies! When the world did not end in the year 1000, Christian prophets explained that they had forgotten to add in the length of Jesus' life and predicted the end of the world in 1033. The writings of the Burgundian monk Radulfus Glaber described a rash of mass hysterias during the period from 1000-1033.

Gregory I became Pope in 1073. He declared the catholic church as ruler of the world, that no king could be crowned other than by the Popes, and no property titles were valid unless blessed by the church. Gregory I Incited the Normans to wage war against Henry IV. Gregory I was made a saint after his death.

Urban II became Pope in 1088 and convened the council at Clermont in Auvergne/France regarding the "imprisonment" of Jerusalem. To start building his army, Urban II recruited Christian robbers to join in the rescue of Jerusalem by promising they could keep any wealth they stole from the Saracens.
 
 
 

The First Crusade to "rescue" the holy lands began on command of Pope Urban II in 1095. Crusaders slew thousands of non-Christians at Wieselburg, 6/12/1096. Crusaders slew thousands of non-Christians at Semlin, 6/24/1096. Crusaders slew thousands of non-Christians at Nikaia, Xerigordon, from 9/9/1096 to 9/26/1096.

 

40 cities and over 200 castles were sacked by the crusaders between 1095 and 1098. Jews living in Worms were killed in 5/18/1096, 1100 Jews were killed in Mainz 5/27/1096, Cologne, Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghoven, Xanten, Moers, Dortmund, Kerpen, Trier, Metz, Regensburg, & Prag.

Antiochia was conquered, and 50,000 killed, 6/3/1098. According to Christian chronicler Fulcher of Chartres, the crusaders ran their lances through the bellies of all the women they found.

Maraat An-Numan was captured and thousands killed on 12/11/1098. According to Chronicler Albert Aquensis, the Christian conquerors engaged in acts of cannibalism.
 
 
 

Jerusalem was conquered on 7/15/1099 and 60,000 non-Christians were killed. Bodies were slit open to search for gold coins they might have swallowed. Jews who had taken refuge in the city's synagogue were burned alive, thousands of muslims were chopped to death in Al-Aqsa mosque. According to the Archbishop of Tyre, who was an eye-witness, "It was impossible to look upon the vast numbers of the slain without horror; everywhere lay fragments of human bodies, and the very ground was covered with the blood of the slain. It was not alone the spectacle of headless bodies and mutilated limbs strewn in all directions that roused the horror of all who looked upon them. Still more dreadful was it to gaze upon the victors themselves, dripping with blood from head to foot, an ominous sight which brought terror to all who met them. It is reported that within the Temple enclosure alone about ten thousand infidels perished." Christian chronicler Eckehard of Aura noted that "even the following summer in all of Palestine the air was polluted by the stench of decomposition".   "Entering the city [Jerusalem, July 15, 1099], our pilgrims pursued and killed Saracens up to the Temple of Solomon, in which they had assembled and where they gave battle to us furiously for the whole day so that their blood flowed throughout the whole temple.  Finally, having overcome the pagans, our knights seized a great number of men and women, and the killed whom they wished and whom they wished they let live....  Then, rejoicing and weeping from extreme joy, our men went to worship at the sepulchre of jour Saviour Jesus and thus fulfilled their pledge to Him....  They also ordered that all the Saracen dead should be thrown out of the city because of the extreme stench, for the city was almost full of their cadavers.  The live Saracens dragged the dead out before the gates and made piles of them, like houses. No one has ever heard of or seen such a slaughter of pagan peoples since pyres were made of them like boundary marks, and no one except God knows their number."        [Histoire anonyme de la premiere croisade, L. Brehier, ed.         Paris:  Champion, 1924 (From The Portable Medieval Reader,         Ed. James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin)]

The Battle of Askalon results in 200,000 non-Christians killed "in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ", 8/12/1099.

Bernard of Clairvaux, at the request of Pope Eugenius III, preached a new crusade of, "Total extermination of the Heathen - or definitive conversion!" in 1115. Bernard is also famous for the Christian doctrine that all pursuit of knowledge was a sin unless directed by the church. The church, based on Ecclesiastes, declared that all that man needed to know was already known, and considered any new search for knowledge heresy.

The Second Crusade began in 1147 with the slaughter of Jews in French cities of Ham, Sully, Carentan, and Rameru. The Second Crusade failed to re-capture Jerusalem.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Various Christian prophets predicted the end of the world in the year 1184. Nobody seems to remember why.

Botched doomsday prophecies! John of Toledo, after calculating that a planetary alignment would occur in Libra on September 23, 1186 (Julian calendar), circulated a letter (known as the "Letter of Toledo") warning that the world was to going to be destroyed on this date, and that only a few people would survive.

The Third Crusade sacked Jewish settlements in England from 1189 to 1190. Jewish communities in London, Canterbury, Northampton, Lincoln, Cambridge, and others were exterminated.

Innocent III became Pope in 1198. During his coronation, Innocent described himself as the new Christ, then ordered a fourth crusade even as the third collapsed. Innocent III ordered Jews to live in ghettos, wear a yellow sign in public, forbade Jews to intermarry with other races, and banned Jews from certain occupations. The Nazis later cited Innocent III in their defense at Neuremburg.

Constantinople was sacked by crusaders during the Fourth Crusade on 4/12/1204. From 1095 until the fall of Akkon in 1291 probably 20 million victims in the Holy land and Arab/Turkish areas were killed by the Crusaders according to contemporary Christian chroniclers.
 
 
 

Albigensians, even though Christian (Cathars/Mithraists) refused to submit to the rule of Rome or to pay taxes levied by the Catholic church to pay for the disastrous Crusades. In retaliation, Pope Innocent III declared them to be heretics. 70,000 were killed in France on 7/22/1209, and thousands more were slain at Carcassonne on 8/15/1209. The genocide continued for 20 years, eventually killing over a million people, roughly 1/2 the population of Southern France. At the end of the war, the Holy Inquisition was founded to hunt down the last survivors of the heretics and erase them from the Earth. The last Cathar was burned at the stake in 1324. The Inquisition then went after other sects, including Waldensians, Paulikians, Runcarians, and Josephites. Brother Torquemada, a former Dominican friar, allegedly was personally responsible for 10,220 burnings. The Office Of The Holy Inquisition continued in power until 1832.

The Children's Crusade

At a time when popular support for the crusades was on the wane, a 12 year old boy, Stephen of Cloyes, approached the King of France bearing what he claimed is a letter written by Jesus Christ himself calling for yet another crusade to "rescue" the holy lands. King Philip Augustus, as tired of the crusades as was everyone else refused his blessing and permission and told the young boy to go home. Despite the lack of royal support, Christian priests encouraged the young boy, shamed the parents into supporting their quest, and soon 20000 children, some as young as 6 years old, marched for the holy land. However, the Children's Crusade never reached the Holy Lands. The priests returned, but the children were gone, sold to the Arabs as slaves. After 30 years, only a handful managed to return to their homes.

Saint Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225, and spent his career approving of slavery and death penalty for heretics. Aquinas also preached that women were "defective", and that one of the benefits of going to heaven was viewing those who suffered in hell.

At least 8000, and by one account 11,000 men, women, and children of Steding, Germany, who were unwilling to pay taxes imposed by the Christian church, were executed on 5/27/1234.

34 Jewish men and women were killed by Christians at Fulda, Germany in 1235.

180 people, their names unrecorded, were burned for the crime of witchcraft at Montwimer, France, on 29 May, 1239.

Saint Angela of Foligno, born in 1248, became famous for eating pieces that fell off of lepers to prove Jesus protected her. He didn't, but she was made a saint anyway.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Joachim of Fiore predicted the end of the world somewhere between 1200 and 1260. It did for him personally; he died in 1202.

Pope John XX found proof of the existence of Pope John VIII (Pope Joan) in the Vatican archives and changed his own name to Pope John XXI in 1276.

Barthe, Angela de la: was burned for heresy at Toulouse, France, in 1275.

A Christian priest persuaded several children to accompany him away from their village on 6/26/1284. The children were never seen again, but terrified parents found bloody body parts hanging in trees in the forest. The local church re-wrote the story to blame the vanished children on the sins of the villagers themselves and thus was born the story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin town. (See Nathanial Bar-Jonah)

Botched doomsday prophecies! Pope Innocent III predicted the end of the world in the year 1284, 666 years after the founding of Islam.

10,000 Jews were killed by Christians at Bohemia in 1290.

Botched doomsday prophecies! When Joachim of Fiore's predicted end of the world had not happened by 1260, members of his order (the Joachites) simply re-scheduled the end another 30 years later to 1290.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Gerard of Poehlde, believing that Christ's Millennium actually began when the emperor Constantine came to power,
predicts the end of the world 1000 years after the start of Constantine's reign, in 1306.

The Knights Templar

Start of the extermination of the Knights Templar by the King of France (who owed the Knights Templar a great deal of money and wished to evade the debt) and the church, which was jealous of the Templar's power. Both King and cleric coveted the Templars' vast wealth. 36 Knights Templar were tortured to death in France, following their arrest on Friday, the 13th of October, 1307. This is the origin of the belief that Friday the 13th is unlucky.

Following the arrest, the soldiers of the king broke into the Knights' treasury only to find it empty. The Templars' rumored treasure of gold has never been found. But just as the Holy Grail may not have been the drinking cup the church portrayed it as, the Treasure of the Templars may not have been mere gold, but a secret that even the Christian church feared to make public, the location of the blood descendants of the historical Jesus.
 
Templars in Scotland and Portugal escaped the pogrom. Descendants of the Templars fought with Robert Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn while their Portugese brethren  focused on maritime activities and renamed themselves the Knights of Christ.. Christopher Columbus' wife was a daughter of a Knight of Christ and the sails of Columbus' ships bore the Templar cross on the voyage to the New World, suggesting that Queen Isabella was not his sole investor. The KNights of Christ also supplied the "technology" behind Prince Henry the Navigator.
 

54 Knights Templar burned in France, on 12 May, 1310.

Pope Clement V secretly absolves the Templars of heresy in the Chinon Parchment, August 17, 1308. The Parchment is "Miscatalogued" in the Vatican Library and will not surface until 2002.

Albano, Peter of: died in prison serving a sentence for heresy circa 1310

39 Knights Templar burned in France, on 18 March 1314.

Jacques De Molay
 

After surviving several years of torture, Jacques De Molay, Grand Master of the Templars, was roasted alive by Christians in France on 14 March 1314. The deliberate slow manner of death was intended to force him to reveal where the treasure of the Templars was hidden. While it was popularly thought that the Treasure of the Templars was a vast wealth of gold, Jacques De Molay's willingness to endure his torments without surrender supports the theory that he was protecting a much more precious secret than mere gold; the location and identity of the descendants of the historical Jesus. Shortly after Jacques De Molay's death, the Shroud of Turin first appeared being used to swindle money from believers as a means to cure disease. Dismissed by the Pope as an obvious fraud, one theory is that the cloth is actually DeMolay's own burial cloth, planted on the church as the Templer's plan to discredit the church which was hunting the descendants of the historical Jesus in order to exterminate them.

 

Marigny, Enguerrand de: was hanged for heresy in France in 1315

Geraud, Hughes: burned for witchcraft in France in 1317
200 + burned at Carcassonne, France, between 1320-1350. Individual examples follow.
"Some" burned for witchcraft at Kilkenny, Ireland, 1323.
Nottingham, John of: died in custody, Coventry, England, 1324
Meath, Petronilla de: burned as a witch, the first such burning in Ireland, on 3 November, 1324
Andrius, Barthelemy: burned for heresy at Carcassonne, France in 1330
Andrius, Jean: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330
Andrius, Phillippe: burned at Carcassonne, France in 1330
Ciceron, Andre: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335
Rodier, Catala: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335
Rodier, Paul: burned alive at Carcassone, France, in 1335
Georgel, Anna Marie de: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335
Delort, Catherine: burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335
61 others, names not recorded, burned at Toulouse, France, in 1335

Botched doomsday prophecies! The Joachites again re-scheduled the end of the world, this time to the year 1335.

Christians in Deggendorf, Germany launched a "Jew killing craze" that spread to 51 towns in Bavaria, Austria, and Poland in 1337.
All Jews in Basel, Switzerland and Strasbourg, France were burned at the stake during 1348.

340,000 people died of plague in England, roughly 30% of the population in the winter of 1349. Christians had banned not only the study of medicine, but declared hygiene to be "sensuous" and therefore a sin. Average life expectancy, which had been 45-50 during Roman Pagan times, fell to 25-30 under Christian rule.

The "Jew killing craze" spread to 350 towns throughout Germany in 1349. All Jews were murdered, most by fire. More Jews died at the hands of Christians in this one year than Christians died during 200 years of Roman persecution.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Czech archdeacon Militz of Kromeriz claimed the Antichrist was alive and well and would show up no later than 1367, bringing the end of the world with him.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Jean de Roquetaillade, a French ascetic, predicted the Antichrist was to come in 1366, with the end of the world a few years after that.

Botched doomsday prophecies! The Joachites again re-scheduled the end of the world, this time to the year 1378.

3000 Jews were slaughtered in Prague in 1389.

Archbishop Martinez ordered the execution of 4000 Jews in Seville in 1391. Another 25000 were sold into slavery and the the church kept the money. Prior to the attack, all Jews over the age of 10 were required to wear identifying badges.

8 witches, names not recorded, burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1352.
31 witches, names not recorded, burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1357.
67 more witches, names not recorded, burned at Carcassonne, France, between 1387-1400
Brigue, Jehane de: burned alive at the Pig Market in Paris on 19 August, 1391
de Ruilly, Macette: burned alive at the Pig Market in Paris on 19 August, 1391
Witch burned in Berlin, 1399. Name not recorded.

Crusades against the Hussites, considered sorcerers by the church. Thousands were slaim during the 1400s.

"Several" witches, names not recorded, burned alive at Simmenthal, Switzerland, circa 1400.

Three Popes! The year 1410 was a unique point in Catholic history as no less then three senior church leaders had been crowned Pope at the same time! Gregory XII, John XXIII, and Alexander V.

John Huss: Burned in 1415 as a heretic for questioning the selling of indulgences by the Pope, and suggesting that Popes were capable of error. Of all the examples of Papal fallibility Huss presented at his trial, the only one not denounced as false by the presiding clergy was the existence of Pope Joan.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Czech Doomsday prophet Martinek Hausha of the radical Taborite movement warned that the world would end in February 1420, February 14 at the latest.

"Several" witches, names not recorded, burned at Carcassonne, France, in 1423.
200 + witches, names not recorded, executed in the Valais, France between 1428-1434.
167 witches, names not recorded, executed in l'Isere, France, between 1428-1447.

Joan Of Arc

Joan of Arc: accused of witchcraft and burned at Rouen, France, on 30 May, 1431

16 witches, names not recorded, executed in Toulouse, France, in 1432.
8 witches, names not recorded, executed in Toulouse, France, in 1433.
Johannes Nider writes "Formicarius" in 1435. It portrays witches as acting alone. There are no mentions of covens or sabbats.
150 witches, names not recorded, executed in Briancon, France, in 1437.

A witch, tied and suspended above a fire.

Greland, Jean: burned at Chamonix, France, in 1438, with 10 others
Vallin, Pierre: executed in France, in 1438
Mazelier, Hanchemand de: arrested at Neuchatel, Germany 1439
Corrillaut, Etienne: executed at Machecoul, France in 1440
Griart, Henri: executed at Machecoul, France in 1440
Rais, Gilles de: on charges of witchcraft, executed 26 October, 1440
Jordemaine, Margery: burned at Smithfield, England, on 27 October, 1441
Bolingbroke, Roger: hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, England, on 18 November, 1441
3 witches, names not recorded, burned in Savoy between 1446 and 1447.

Illustration of various forms of hanging used on heretics and witches. Like crucifixion, the goal was to prolong the suffering for as long as possible.

Inquisitor Jean Vineti writes "Tractatus contra Demonum Invocatores" in 1450, declaring for the first time that the practice of witchcraft is heresy against the Christian faith.

7 witches, names not recorded, killed at Marmande, France, in 1453.
1 witch, name not recorded, burned at Locarno, Italy, in 1455.

Illustration of a torture room of the Holy Inquisition.

Gutenburg

Gutenburg published his Bible in 1455. The church paniced. Up until that time, Christians were not encouraged to read the Bible (or to read at all), only to accept the authoritative word of the priests as to what it said.

Battle of Belgrade: 80,000 Turks who refused to convert to Christianity were slaughtered in 1456.

"Many" witches, names not recorded, burned in Arras, France in 1459 - 1460.
Jennin, (first name unknown): burned at Cambrai, France, in 1460.

Inquisitor Girolamo Visconti wrote "Lamiarum sive Striarum Opuscalum" in 1460, declaring that defending a witch is itself an act of heresy punishable by the church.

2 witches, names not recorded, burned in Burgundy, France, in 1470.
3 witches, names not recorded, burned at Forno-Rivara, Italy, in 1472.
2 witches, names not recorded, burned at Levone, in Italy, in 1474.
5 witches, names not recorded, burned at Forno, Italy, in 1475.
12 women and "several" men , names not recorded, burned at Edinburgh, in 1479.
4 witches, names not recorded, burned at Metz, Germany, in 1482.
48 witches, names not recorded, burned at Constance, between 1482-1486.
4 witches, names not recorded, burned at Metz, Germany, in 1482.
48 witches, names not recorded, burned at Constance, between 1482-1486.

Illustration of witch tortures, burning, tearing of the flesh by dogs, and breaking with the wheel.

2 witches, names not recorded, burned at Toulouse, France, in 1484.
2 witches, names not recorded, burned in Chaucy, France in 1485.
1 witch, name not recorded, died in prison, at Metz, Germany 1488.
3 witches, names not recorded, executed at Mairange, Germany, on 17 June, 1488.
2 witches, names not recorded, executed at Mairange, Germany, on 25 June, 1488.
3 witches, names not recorded, executed at Chastel, Germany, on 26 June, 1488.
3 witches, names not recorded, executed at Metz, Germany, on 1 July, 1488.
1 witch, name not recorded, executed at Salney, Germany, on 3 July, 1488.
2 witches, names not recorded, executed at Salney, Germany, on 12 July, 1488.
3 witches, names not recorded, executed at Salney, Germany, on 19 July, 1488.
1 witch, name not recorded, executed at Brieg, Germany, on 19 July, 1488.
2 witches, names not recorded, executed at Juxney, Germany, on 19 August, 1488.
5 witches, names not recorded, executed at Thionville, Germany, on 23 August, 1488.
1 witch, name not recorded, executed at Metz, Germany, on 2 September, 1488.
1 witch, name not recorded, executed at Vigey, Germany, on 15 September, 1488.
1 witch, name not recorded, executed at Juxney, Germany, on 22 September, 1488.
 
 
 

Inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada staged the first "Auto-da-fe" ("Act of faith") in Seville in 1491. By the time the last Auto-da-fe was held in Spain in 1802, 340,000 people fell victim to the spectacle. 24,000 were burned. Others were required to flog and scourge themselves before the audience. Ostensibly a religious service held on All Saint's Day, the Auto-da-fe was a revival of Roman blood sports, complete with church concessionaires selling food, beverages, and souvenirs to the audiences. The best seats had the highest ticket prices. Auto-da-fes were held in the new world as well, with the last recorded one taking place in Mexico in 1815.

"Malleus Malificarum" was first published in 1486. Authored by two Dominicans, the Christians' authoritative book on witches eventually reached 28 editions in 5 languages over the next 200 years, all of which were cited as authority for the torture and execution of witches.

Alphonsus de Spina's "Fortalicium Fidei" was published in 1467. Citing it as authority, the monks of the Benedictine Monastery at St. Maximin at Treves executed over 300 people for the crime of withchraft, growing wealthy on the confiscated property of the condemned.
 
 
 

Innocent VIII became Pope in 1484. Immediately he launched the anti witch campaigns. Allowed church officials involved in the witch hunts to keep the wealth of the condemned. Greed fueled the holocaust to come. Innocent VIII held a wedding for his illegitimate son in the Vatican itself. The bride's mother was Innocent VIII's illegitimate daughter!

Christopher Columbus

Columbus, having quit the profession of slave trading to become an explorer, sailed for the new world in 1492. Within hours of landing, Columbus had kidnapped 6 natives in order to "christianize" them and make them his servants. Columbus incorrectly reported that the inhabitants of the New World had no religion. After planting a cross, Columbus would say the "Requerimiento", a prayer that officially made the newly found lands Catholic. Since nobody present objected (the natives did not speak latin), the new world became officially the domain of the Catholic church. Over the next hundred years, thousands of indians were burned to death for offending Christians.

A hundred Indians bundled together and set on fire by the Christian Conquestadores.

On Hispaniola alone, 50,000 Arawaks were killed, the rest were sent into slavery. Chief Hatuey declared that if heaven is where Christians go, that he would prefer to live in hell. He was burned alive for heresy. What happened to his people was described by an eyewitness: "The Spaniards found pleasure in inventing all kinds of odd cruelties ... They built a long gibbet, long enough for the toes to touch the ground to prevent strangling, and hanged thirteen [natives] at a time in honor of Christ Our Saviour and the twelve Apostles... then, straw was wrapped around their torn bodies and they were burned alive."

Pope Alexander VI brokered the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal in 1494. This treaty "authorized" both nations to claim any non-Catholic lands as their own and to stamp out the existing government in order to replace it with Catholic rule.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Several 15th Century prophets predict the end of the world for the year 1496.

Gracia la Valle, burned in Saragossa. First execution of a witch in Spain, in 1498.

Girolamo Savonarola was declared a heretic, arrested, tortured, hanged and then burned in the Plaza della Signoria in 1498 for publicly criticizing the wild orgies thrown inside the Vatican by Pope Alexander VI. According to Savonerola, "The Papal Palace had literally become a house of prostitution where harlots sit upon the throne of Solomon and signal to the passersby. Whoever can pay enters and does what he wishes."

Bragadini, Mark Antony: beheaded in Italy in the 1500's

1 witch, name not recorded, executed in France in 1500.
3 women, names not recorded, executed as witches in Spain in 1500.

Angelo of Verona was appointed Inquisitor over all of Lombardy in 1501 by Pope Alexander IV, who ordered him to seek out and punish heretics. The Pope gave Angelo authority to over-ride all other religious authority to do so.

The infamous "Ballet of the Chestnuts" was held in the Vatican on 10/30/1501. One of the wildest parties thrown in the Papal Palace by Pope Alexander VI, the Ballet of the Chestnuts was an old fashioned orgy featured 50 of Rome's most beautiful harlots, with the Pope handing out prizes to those men who displayed the most virility. Seated by the Pope's side for this revel was his own illegitimate daughter and occasional lover, Lucrezia Borgia.

The following are quoted from William Manchester's "A World Lit Only by Fire- The Medieval Mind and The Renaissance" .Little, Brown & Company, 1992
 

"Once he became Pope Alexander VI, Vatican parties, already wild, grew wilder. They were costly, but he could afford the lifestyle of a Renaissance prince; as vice chancellor of the Roman Church, he had amassed enormous wealth. As guests approached the papal palace, they were excited by the spectacle of living statues: naked, gilded young men and women in erotic poses. Flags bore the Borgia arms, which, appropriately, portrayed a red bull rampant on a field of gold. Every fete had a theme. One, known to Romans as the Ballet of the Chestnuts, was held on October 30, 1501. The indefatigable Burchard describes it in his Diarium. After the banquet dishes had been cleared away, the city's fifty most beautiful whores danced with the guests, "first clothed, then naked." The dancing over, the "ballet" began, with the Pope and two of his children in the best seats.

Candelabra were set up on the floor, scattered among them were chestnuts, "which", Burchard writes, "the courtesans had to pick up, crawling between the candles." Then the serious sex started. Guests stripped and ran out onto the floor, where they mounted, or were mounted by, the prostitutes. "The coupling took place," according to Burchard, "in front of everyone present." Servants kept score of each man's orgasms, for the Pope greatly admired virility, and measured a man's machismo by his ejaculative capacity. After eveyone was exhausted, His Holiness distributed prizes- cloaks, boots, caps, and fine silken tunics. "The winners", the diarist wrote, "were those who made love with the courtesans the greatest number of times."

About the Pope and his daughter, Lucrezia:
"His daughter had just turned seventeen and was at the height of her beauty. We now know that he was, in fact, her lover. ..Here, however, the tale darkens. Romans had scarcely absorbed the news that the father lusted for his daughter when they learned even more. Lucrezia was said to be unavailable to her father because she was already deeply involved in another incestuous relationship, or relationships- a triangular entanglement with both her handsome brothers. The difficulty, it was whispered, was that although she enjoyed coupling with both of them, each, jealous of the other, wanted his sister for himself.

On the morning of June 15, 1497, Juan Borgia's corpse was found floating in the Tiber mutilated by nine savage dagger wounds.

"Borgia's enjoyment of the flesh was enhanced when the woman beneath him was married, particularly if he had presided at her wedding. Breaking any commandment excited him, but he was partial to the seventh. As priest he married Rosa to two men. She may have actually slept with her husbands from time to time- since Borgia always kept a stable of women, she was allowed an occasional night off to indulge her own sexual preferences- but her duties lay in his eminence's bed. Then, at the age of fifty nine, he yearned for a more nubile partner. His parting with Rosa was affectionate. Later he gave her a little gift- he made her brother a cardinal." 

Botched doomsday prophecies! The Italian artist Botticelli captioned his painting, "The Mystical Nativity" with a message warning that the end of the world would occur within three years, based on the predictions of Girolamo Savonarola.

"Confessing under Torture", from "Bamberische Halsgerichtsordnung", published in 1508.

Pope Julias II amended the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal in 1506. This treaty "authorized" both nations to claim any non-Catholic lands as their own and to stamp out the existing government in order to replace it with Catholic rule.

Saint Teresa was born in 1515. Seduced by her father confessor (who died soon after from 'surfeit de femme') Teresa was drawn into the church. On entering the nunnary, she was given a whip and told to use it on herself twice a day. She did so. She gains fame as a poet, although much of her poetry, which described Jesus in lurid sexual mages, was kept hidden.
 

Martin Luther posted his "95 Theses" on the door to Wittenburg Castle Church on October 31, 1517, triggering the Protestant movement.

The following are quoted from William Manchester's "A World Lit Only by Fire- The Medieval Mind and The Renaissance" .Little, Brown & Company, 1992
 

The "Age of Faith", the 1000 years of the Dark Ages, was marked by a very low standard of living for most people. They lived in filth, sanitation being considered too sensual to be pious. The average life expectancy was only 25 or 30*, and Bubonic Plague, Typhus and a host of other diseases regularly decimated hundreds of thousands of people. In the winter of 1349, 120,000 people died in England, one out of every three. Continental Europe had similar death counts during the 1300's, recurring waves of plague sweeping the countrysides, whole towns dying in days. The church encouraged ignorance: "Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), the most influential Christian of his time, bore a deep distrust of the intellect and declared that the pursuit of knowledge, unless sanctified by a holy mission, was a pagan act and therefore vile."

"The distinction between devotion and superstition has always been unclear, but there was little blurring here. Although they called themselves Christians, medieval Europeans were ignorant of the gospels. The Bible only existed in a language they could not read. The mumbled incantations at Mass were meaningless to them. They believed in sorcery, witchcraft, hobgoblins, werewolves, amulets, and black magic, and were thus indistinguishable from pagans. Scholars as eminent as Erasmus and Sir Thomas More accepted the existence of witchcraft. The church encouraged superstitions, recommended trust in faith healers, and spread tales of satyrs, incubi, sirens, cyclops, tritons, and giants, explaining they were all manifestations of Satan."

*Compared wioth 50-60 at the height of the Roman Empire

START OF THE "LITTLE ICE AGE"

Starting in the mid 16th Century, Europe's climate starts a cooling spell which will last 300 years. Unaware that the sun's energy output has slightly decreased (The Maunder Minimum) Religious leaders of Europe blame human actions for climate change (not unlike the current tendancy to blame a warming planet solely on human activity), and add the deteriorating weather to the list of "crimes" of witches. As the cereals on which civilization depends succumb to the cold weather, the church declares the still-thriving potato the "food of the devil" because it grows in the ground. Asd a result, millions starve to death while standing on an ample food supply.

30 witches, names not recorded, burned in Calahorra, Spain, in 1507.
1 witch, name not recorded, burned in Saxony, Germany, in 1510.
60 witches, names not recorded, burned in Lombardia, Northern Italy, in 1510.
2 women, names not recorded, executed for witchcraft in Spain 1512.
500 + witches, names not recorded, burned in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1515. 

Kuhnlin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518
Paeffin, Elsa: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518
Thausser, Simon: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518
Thausser (wife of Simon, no name given): burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1518 

Hanging of a condemned witch, name not recorded, in 1520. 

64 witches, names not recorded, burned in Val Camonica, Italy between 1518-1521.
2 witches, names not recorded, burned in Besancon, France, in 1521.
100 witches, names not recorded, burned in Como, Italy, in 1523.
1000 + witches, names not recorded, in Como, Italy, in 1524.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Prophets in England predicted a flood on February 1, 1524 (Julian) to strike at London. 20,000 people abandoned their homes in fear. Yet another prophet, citing an alignment of planets in the constellation Pisces, set the date for the flood for February 20th. Both days turned out to be sunny with not even a drop of rain.
 
 

900 witches, names and dates not recorded, executed by Nicholas Remy during this time period.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Anabaptist Thomas Müntzer, thinking that he was living at the "end of all ages," in 1525, incited a spectacularly unsuccessful revolt of the peasantry.
 

"Methods of German Torture", published in 1527.

Sattler, Michael: leader of a baptist community, burned at the stake in Rottenburg, Germany, 5/20/1527. His wife was burned at the stake a few days later.

Wachin, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1528

Botched doomsday prophecies! Prophets in England, having failed in their February 20th, 1524 prediction for a massive flood, reschedule the prediction to 1528.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Reformer Hans Hut predicted the end would occur on Pentecost (May 27, Julian calendar) 1528.

Pope Clement VII rewrote the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal into the Treaty of Saragossa in 1529. This treaty "authorized" both nations to claim any non-Catholic lands as their own and to stamp out the existing government in order to replace it with Catholic rule. 

Illustration of "Breaking with the wheel".

Manseneé, Desle la: executed at Anjux, France on 18 Dec. 1529
Mullerin, Elsbet: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1531

Botched doomsday prophecies! Bishop Frederick Nausea (yes, that is his name), predicted that the world would end in 1532 after hearing a single report of bloody crosses appearing in the sky alongside a comet.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Anabaptist prophet Melchior Hoffman predicted the end of the world in 1533. he also predicted that Jesus would reappear in Strasbourg, to save 144,000 people from the world's end.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Mathematician Michael Stifel, a devout Christian, calculated that the Day of Judgement would begin at exactly 8:00am on October 19, 1533.

The priest of the chapel at Aldington, Kent, encouraged Elizabeth Barton to fake a demonic possession in 1533 in order to create a shrine to attract pilgrimages and the financial benefits therefrom. Encouraged by the clergy to greater and greater displays, Elizabeth claimed visions opposing the remarriage of Henry VIII, helping to fan the religious wars that almost tore England apart.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Jan Matthys predicted that the Apocalypse would take place on Easter Day (April 5, Julian calendar) 1534 and only the city of Münster would be spared.

"A large number" of witches, names not recorded, executed at Saragossa, Spain, in 1536.

Botched doomsday prophecies! French astrologer Pierre Turrel, a devout Christian, hedges his bets and predicts the end of the world in 1537, 1544, 1801 or 1814.

Brigge, Mabel: executed in York, England,1538

Hubmaier, B.: University professor burned at the stake for heresy in Vienna, 1538.

Pope Paul III declared all of England to be "Apostate", all Englishmen to be slaves of the church, and launched a crusade, but died before he could invade.

deLarue, (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540

Morin (first name unknown): burned at Rouen, in 1540

Some excerpts:
 

"Their breath stinks for the gold and silver of the heathen; since no people  under the sun always have been, still are, and always will remain more avaricious than they, as can be noticed in their cursed usury. Therefore know, my dear Christians, that next to the Devil, you have no more  bitter, more poisonous, more vehement and enemy than a real Jew who earnestly desires to be a Jew...Do not  their Talmud and rabbis write that it is no sin to kill if a Jew kills a heathen, but it is a  sin if he kills a brother in Israel? It is no sin if he does not keep his oath to a heathen. Therefore, to steal and rob - as they do with their moneylending - from a heathen, is a divine service...Now what are we going to  do with these rejected, condemned Jewish people?"

"...to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn... I advise that their houses be razed and destroyed...  I advise that all their prayer books... in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be  taken from them... that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of  life and limb... that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews... that all their treasure  of silver and gold be taken from them... But if the authorities are reluctant to use force and restrain the  Jews' devilish wantonness, the latter should, as we said, be expelled from their country and be told to return  to ... Jerusalem where they may lie, curse, blaspheme, defame, murder, steal, rob, practice usury, mock,  and indulge in all those infamous abominations which they practice among us, and leave ... our Lord the  Messiah, our faith, and our church undefiled and uncontaminated with their devilish tyranny and malice."

In the era of the peasant wars, Luther supported the feudal authorities'  indiscriminate killing of inobedient, starving subjects in his infamous and incendiary writing "Against  the murderous and robbing rabble of Peasants". In this he...

"calls  upon the princes to slaughter the offending peasants like mad dogs, to stab, strangle and slay as best one
can, and holds out as a reward the promise of heaven."

Flogging a heretic.

7 witches, names not recorded, burned at Nantes, France, in 1549.
1 witch, name not recorded, burned at Lyons, France, in 1549.
Amalaric, Madeline: burned in France in mid-1500's. 

POTATOS!

Following the conquest of Peru by Pizarro, the potato is introduced to Europe. Far less vulnerable to the cooling of the "Little Ice Age" than the cerial crops being farmed at the time, the potato offers salvation from the famine sweeping over the lands. But church leaders declare the potato the food of the Devil due to its being grown underground, and millions starve to death as a result.

Various methods of execution, 1554.

Illustration of a witch being burned, dated 1555.

3 witches, names not recorded, burned alive at Derneburg, Germany, on 4 October, 1555.

Botched doomsday prophecies! French theologian Pierre d'Ailly predicted the end of the world in 1555. Christopher Columbus' own apocolyptic views were based on this prediction.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Rumors of the end of the world swept through the churches of Switzerland on Magdalene's Day in 1556, source unknown.

1 witch, name not recorded, burned alive at Bievires, France, in 1556.
Douglas, Janet: burned at Castle, Hill, Scotland, on 17 July, 1557.
Hezensohn, Joachim: beheaded at Waldsee, Germany, in 1557.
5 witches, names not recorded, burned at Verneuil, France, in 1561.

Dr. Johan Weyer, personal physician to Duke William and therefore safe from accusations of being in league with witches, published "De Praestigiis" in 1563 and "De Lamiis" in 1577, arguing that confessions obtained by torture were legally worthless.

17,000 + witches, names not recorded, in Scotland from 1563 to 1603.
4 witches, names not recorded, burned at Potiers, France, in 1564.

Illustration of the treatment of witches and heretics, floggings and disembowelment.

Waterhouse, (first name unknown): hanged as a witch in Dorset, England in 1565.

An unknown number of witches, names not recorded, burned at Vernon, Normandy, France, in 1566.

Matthew Hopkins, Witch Finder General in charge of executing witches in England, oversaw the prosecution of the "Chelmsford Witches".

Waterhouse, Agnes: executed in Chelmsford, England, 29 July, 1566 as the first "Chelmsford Witch".

Saint Magdalena dei Pazzi was born in Florence in 1566. While a Carmalite nun, she would lie on thorns and have hot wax poured over her body, then be whipped. Alternated between standing motionless for hours and running uncontrollably through the nunnary.

Mary Stuart (Mary Queen Of Scotts), although a Catholic, allowed Scottish people to freely choose how they would worship. Angered Protestant clergy forced Mary Stuart to abdicate in 1567.

Humphrey Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, in order to convince the Gaelic Irish to convert to Chritianity, ordered that "the heddes of all those (of what sort soever thei were) which were killed in the daie, should be cutte off from their bodies... and should bee laied on the ground by eche side of the waie", which effort to civilize the Irish indeed caused "greate terrour to the people when thei sawe the heddes of their dedde fathers, brothers, children, kinsfolke, and freinds on the grounde" in 1567. Knighted for his victory in 1570.

The Spanish Inquisition ordered extermination of 3 million religeous rebels in the Netherlands. 5000 Protestants were drowned by Catholic troops, their hats washing ashore at Emden in 1568.

Paris, (first name unknown): hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569
Steward, William: hanged at St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1569
"Many" witches, names not recorded, burned in France in 1571.
Trois-Echelles (pseud.): executed at Paris, France, in 1571 (or 1574)
Bowman, Janet: burned as a witch in Scotland in 1572
Pope Pius V orders the execution of 20,000 Huguenots in France in 1572.
Fief, Mary le: of Samur, France, accused of witchcraft, on 13 October 1573.
Following 1573 and lasting until the witch hunts ended, an estimated 70,000 people in England were executed for the crime of witchcraft.
80 witches, names not recorded, executed in one fire at Valery-en-Savoie, France, in 1574.
Arnold, (first name unknown): hanged at Barking, England, in 1574. 8
 Garnier, Gilles: burned as a werewolf in Dole, France 1574.
Dunlop, Bessie: burned at Castle Hill, Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1576.
Pajot, Marguerite: executed at Tonnerre, France, in 1576.
Doree, Catherine: executed at Courveres, France, in 1577.
3 witches, names not recorded, executed in Dorset, England, in 1578.
36 persons, names not recorded, executed for witchcraft at Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1578.
Harvilliers, Jeanne: executed in France, in 1578.
Frances, Elizabeth: executed in Chelmsford, England, 1579. 

Jean Bodin, witch hunt fanatic, published "De la Demonomanie des Sorciers" in 1580, in which he argued that a person merely accused of witchcraft could never be found innocent.

Beuchel, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581.
Buckh, Appollonia: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581.
Schwarz, Eva: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581.
Wuncil, Brigida: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581.
Einseler, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581
Isolin, Madlen: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581
Rosch, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581
Flieger, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 6 July, 1581
Scharber, Elsbeth: burned at Waldsee, Germany, in 1581
Kemp, Ursula: executed at St. Oyth, England in 1582
18 witches, names not recorded, killed at St. Oses, England, in 1582.
Bennet, Elizabeth: executed in St. Osyth, England in 1582
Gabley, (first name unknown): executed at King's Lynn, England, in 1582
Bonnet, Jean: burned alive at Boissy-en-Ferez, France, in 1583
Quattrino, Dominic: burned at Mesolcina, Italy, in 1583

Botched doomsday prophecies! Several astrologers and clergy cite a conjunction of Jupiter with Saturn as a sign that the second coming of Jesus will occur in London at noon on Apr 28, 1583.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Another astrologer revises the above prediction to 1584.

One of the first Christians to enter the Virginia territory, Arthur Barlowe, arrived in 1584. He described the Native Americans as, "...we were entertained with all love and kindness and with as much bounty, ...as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle loving, and faithfull, void of all guile and treason ... a more kind and loving people there cannot be found in the world, as farre as we have hitherto had triall."

Reginald Scott publishes "The Discovery of Witchcraft" in 1584, a major work that debunked Christian claims of witches and demons. Bowing to church pressure, King James I orders all copies destroyed. The book will not reappear until 1651.

Wirth, Trauben: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585.
Hacket, Margaret: executed at Tyburn, England, on 19 February, 1585
Reich, Maria: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585
Treher, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585
Lachenmeyer, Waldburg: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 5 July, 1585
Uhlmer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585
Sailler, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585
Rohrfelder, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 August, 1585
Marguerite, (last name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586
Martin, Marie: executed in France, in 1586
Mirot, Dominic: burned at Paris, France, in 1586
Erb, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586
Schultheiss, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586
Schneider, Felicitas: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 March, 1586
Weiss, Agatha: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586
Mayer, Christina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586
Isel, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586
Rauffains, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586
Stadelmann, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 7 November, 1586
Hoyd, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 24 November, 1586
Sechelle, (first name unknown): burned at Paris, France, in 1586
Dormar, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 9 October, 1586
Kleiss, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 30 October, 1586

Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen Of Scotts), was beheaded on 2/8/1587. On Elizabeth's death, Mary Stuart's son became King James I of England. Scotland lost the freedom won by William Wallace and Robert Bruce; apparently a small price to pay in the Protestant war against Catholicism.

Botched doomsday prophecies! The sage Johann Müller (aka Regiomontanus) predicts the second comiong of Christ in 1588.

Execution of a witch by "pressing", the slow piling on of heavy rocks, 1587.

368 persons killed for witchcraft between 18 January, 1587, and 18 November, 1593, in the diocese of Treves.
Fray, Ursula: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587.
Kless, Catharina: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 12 June, 1587.
Pearson, Alison: burned in Scotland on 28 May, 1588.
133 persons burned in one day at Quedlinburg, in Germany, in 1589. 

Joan Prentice, Joan Cony, and Joan Upney, three of the "Chelmsford Witches", hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589.

Flade, Dietrich: executed at Treves, 1589.
Huebmeyer, Barbara: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589.
Huebmeyer, Appela: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589.
Schnelling, Anna: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 11 September, 1589.
Cunny (Coney), Joan: hanged in Chelmsford, England, in 1589.
Upney, Joan: hanged in Chelsford, England, in 1589.
Stubb, Peter: executed as a werewolf near Cologne, Germany, in 1589.
48 witches, their names unrecorded, burned in Wurttemberg, Germany, in 1589.
54 witches, their names unrecorded, burned in Franconia in 1590.
32 witches, their names unrecorded, executed in Nordlingen, Germany in 1590.
From 1590 to 1600, an average of 10 witches per day were burned in the Duchy of Brunswick.
Robson, Donald: executed at North Berwick, England in 1590
Tod, Christian: executed at North Berwick, England in 1590
Lemp, Rebecca: executed in Nordlingen, Germany, on 9 Sept. 1590
Stuell(?), Gertrud (of Klaferd in the Oberholzklau Parish): burned at the stake in Alchen, Gemany, 1590
Cunningham, John: burned at Edinburgh, in January, 1591
Napier, Barbara: hanged in Scotland in 1591
Macalzean, Euphemia: burned alive in Scotland for witchcraft, on 25 June, 1591
 
 

Sampsoune, Agnes: tried, strangled, and burnt for a witch in Scotland 1591

Fian, John: hanged at Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1591

"Tractatus de Confessionibus Maleficorum et Sagarum" was published in 1591 by Peer Binsfeld. Mostly the product of the author's imagination, the book purported to be a scholarly study of witches and how to prosecute them. Catholics and Protestants alike relied on the book as the authoritative source on witches for the next 100 years.

Duncan, Gellie: hanged in Scotland in 1591
Rue, Abel de la: of Coulommiers, France, accused of witchcraft on 20 July, 1592
Samuels, (family of 3): condemned to death for witchcraft in Warboys, England, on 4 April, 1593
Rosseau, (father,and daughter): of France, accused of witchcraft on 2 October 1593
Birenseng, Agata: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594
Fray, Margaret: burned at Waldsee, Germany, on 25 June, 1594
Balfour, Alison: burned at Edinburgh, Scotland, on 16 December, 1594
Crierson, Robert: executed at North Berwick, England in 1594
Calles, Helen: executed at Braynford, England, on 1 December, 1595
Newell, John: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595
Newell, Joane: executed at Barnett, England, on 1 December, 1595
Cockie, Isabel: burnt as a witch, at a cost of 105 s. 4 p., in England 1596
Jollie, Alison: executed in Scotland, in October, 1596
Beaumont, Sieur de: accused of witchcraft on 21 October, 1596
Stewart, Christian: strangled and burned in Scotland, in November, 1596
Belon, Jean: executed in France, in 1597
Porte, Vidal de la: condemned at Riom, France, in 1597
Bean, Margrat: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Leyis, Thomas: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Gerard, Katherine: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Grant, Jonet: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Gwinner, Else: executed in Germany, 21 Dec, 1597
Spaldarg, Jonet: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Grant, Marion: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Man, Andro: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Wisherr, Jonet: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Og, Margrat: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Oige, Issobell: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Richie, Issobell: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Reid, Christen: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Rogie, Helen: executed at Aberdeen, Scotland in 1597
Goodridge, Alse: executed at Darbie, England, in 1597
Laubbach (wife): executed at Eichstatt, Germany, in 1597
Roulet, Jacques: burned alive for being a were-wolf, at Angiers, France, in 1597
Chamoulliard, (first name unknown): burned in France, in 1597
Aupetit, Pierre: burned at Bordeaux, France, in 1598
Hoppo, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599
Kerke, Anne: executed at Tyburn, England, in 1599
Stadlin, (first name unknown): executed in Germany in 1599
77 witches, their names unrecorded, burned in Vaud, Switzerland, in 1599.

Botched doomsday prophecies! Martin Luther predicted that the world would end no later than the year 1600.

The "Water Ordeal" shown in a 17th century engraving. In this form of torture, the condemned was forced to drink large amounts of water until their bowels ruptured, resulting in a slow and painful death.

Conquest of the Americas

By the year 1600, Spanish Christians had looted and plundered across the new world bringing the benefits of Christianity to the indigenous people, 60,000,000 of whom were killed in the process.

Pappenheimer, Anna: executed in Bavaria, 1600
Bruno, Giordano: Following 7 years in prison for heresy, burned at the stake in Rome on 2/17/1600.

Pope Clement VIII ordered the statue of Pope John VIII (Pope Joan) at the Cathedral of Siena to be altered into a statue of Pope Zacharias in 1601.

Gwinner, Else: executed in Germany on 21 Dec. 1601
Pannel, Mary: executed in Yorkshire, England, in 1603

Botched doomsday prophecies! Dominican monk Tomasso Campanella wrote that the sun would collide with the Earth in 1603.

April 10, 1606, the Charter for the Virginia Colony was signed. It reads in part, "To the glory of His divine Majesty, in propagating of the Christian religion to such people as yet live in ignorance of the true knowledge and worship of God." Less than 20 years before, Arthur Barlowe had described the Native Amercans with greatest praise for their kindness and charity. In the campaign to force Christianity on the Native Americans, the Virginia Christians reported, "...we burnt, and spoyled their corne, and Towne, all the people beeing fledde."

Harrisson, Joanna: executed in Hertford, England, in 1606
Harrisson, (daughter of Joanna): executed in Hertford, England, in 1606
Francoise (last name unknown): burned in France on 30 July, 1606
Grierson, Isobel: burned in Scotland in March, 1607
Tod, Beigis: burned at Lang Nydrie, Scotland, on 27 May, 1608
Dorlady, Mansfredo: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's banker, on 18 January, 1610
Dorlady, Fernando: burned at Vesoul, France as being the Devil's banker, on 18 January, 1610

The invention of cheap printing created a crises in religion in that each region had its own version of the Bible biased to serve its own perceived interests. Worse, many versions were in direct conflict with each other. King James solved the crises by issuing a "standard" King James Bible, translated into English, in 1611.

Gaufridi, Louis: burned at Marseilles, France, at 5:00 pm on 30 April, 1611

Colonists tired of religious persecutions left Jamestown to go live among the indians. Governor Thomas Dale hunted them down and executed them for daring to leave the church.
 
 

The Pequod wars. A member of the Massachussetts Bay Colony was found dead, apparently at the hands of the Narragansett indians. Puritan leader John Mason told the puritans that God had ordered war on the indians, but picks the wrong tribe. The Pequod, friendly to the puritans and enemies of the Narragansett were attacked. Citing Deuteronomy 20, the women and children were killed as well. The few survivors were taken as slaves.

Preston, Jennet: executed in York, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Redfearne, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Robey, Isobel: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Nutter, Alice: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Device, Elizabeth: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Device, James: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Bulcock, John: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Bulcock, Jane: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Demdike, Elizabeth: convicted of witchcraft, but died in prison, in Lancaster, England, in 1612
Device, Alizon: (age 11 years) executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Hewitt, Katherine: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612
Whittle, Anne: executed in Lancaster, England for witchcraft, in 1612 

Sutton, Mary: executed in Bedford, England for witchcraft in 1613. The above illustration shows the "swimming" of Mary, a torture method involving partial drowning to extract a confession.

Barber, Mary: executed in Northhampton, England for witchcraft, on 22 July, 1612
Bill, Arthur: executed in Northhampton, England for witchcraft, on 22 July, 1612
Browne, Agnes: executed in Northhampton, England for witchcraft, on 22 July, 1612
Browne, Joan: executed in Northhampton, England for witchcraft, on 22 July, 1612
Jenkenson, Helen: executed in Northhampton, England for witchcraft, on 22 July, 1612
Sutton (mother) (first name unknown): executed in Bedford, England for witchcraft in 1613
Hunt, Joan: hanged in Middlesex, England for witchcraft in 1615
Coligny, Gaspard de: Protestant leader executed by the Catholics, his mutilated body left to rot on a gallows.

Catholics sack the city of Magdeburg, Germany, killing 30,000 Protestants. According to a witness, poet Friedrich Schiller, 50 women were beheaded inside a church.

The 30 years' war. 40% of the population of Germany is killed.

Leclerc, (no first name given): condemned for witchcraft, in France 1615
de la Plaine, Sylvanie: burned at Pays de Labourde, France, 1616
Leger, (no first name given): condemmned for witchcraft in France, on 6 May, 1616
Berrye, Agnes: hanged at Enfield, England, in 1616
Smith, Mary: hanged at King's Lynn, England, in 1616
Rutter, Elizabeth: hanged in Middlesex, England in 1616
Galigai, Leonora: beheaded at the Place de Grieve, France, on 8 July, 1617
Audibert, Etienne: condemned for witchcraft in France, on 20 March 1619
Baker, Anne: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619
Green, Ellen: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619
Willimot, Joan: executed in Leicester, England, in 1619
Flower, Joan: died before trial, at Lincoln, England, 1619
Flower, Margaret: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619
Flower, Phillippa: executed at Lincoln, England, in March, 1619
Boulay, Anne: burned at Nancy, France, in 1620
Poiret, (first name unknown): burned at Nancy, France, in 1620

November 3, 1620 - King James I granted the Charter of the Plymouth council. "In the hope thereby to advance the enlargement of the Christian religion, to the glory of God Almighty."

November 11, 1620 - The Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact aboard the Mayflower, in Plymouth harbor. "In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, by the Grace of God, of England, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, e&. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord, King James of England, France and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620." A Puritan Minister will soon complain to leader William Bradford that while indians deserve to be killed, some effort should be made to force conversion upon them first so that they may go to heaven.

Mundie, Beatrice: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Harlow, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Hamyltoun, Christiane: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Kent, Margaret: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Chalmers, Bessie: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Chatto, Marioun: tried for witchcraft in Inverkiething, Scotland 1621
Sawyer, Elizabeth: hanged at Tyburn, England, on 19 April, 1621
Couper, Marable: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622
Dyneis, Jonka: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622
Jones, Katherine: burned in the north of Scotland in 1622