Catholic Persecutions of the Late Medieval Period, Research Paper Example

The Catholic Church of the late Medieval period emerged from a series of crises unquestionably the leading political and spiritual power in Europe.  Lollardy, Waldensianism, Erasmianism and countless other “heresies” had come and gone.  An internal power struggle that moved the Holy See to Avignon had caused an unprecedented crisis of organizational integrity within the church.

Centuries of fighting to maintain its supremacy had left the church’s hierarchy in no mood to debate fundamental change or entertain opposing philosophies.  By the late 12^th century, the first of a network of councils, comprised of bishops and archbishops, was instituted to combat the spread of heresy throughout Europe.  Pope Gregory IX appointed the first “grand inquisitor” in the 13^th century and multiple inquisitions were implemented in Spain, France and Italy.

Jews had lived in European lands since Roman times.  Despite their persistent minority status, Jews in countries like France and Spain had long and honored traditions, living in peaceful concord with non-Jewish populations.  In Spain, Jews had flourished for centuries under Muslim rule, which began with the Islamic conquest in the 9^th century.

Persecution of Jews

In the Middle Ages, a less honored tradition began to take hold and eroded the security of the peninsula’s Jewish citizenry.  The belief that Jews were responsible for killing Christ began to gain significant numbers of adherents, with the result that many of the rights Jews had taken for granted under the Muslim Omayyad Caliphate began to dwindle.  Laws went into effect requiring Jews to attend Christian sermons with the intention of effecting conversions.  By the 13^th century, there were enoughJewish converts (conversos) to require legal protection be enacted on their behalf.  Conversos became integrated into all facets of Medieval Spain as the rights and opportunities of professed Jews continued to decline through the Middle Ages.

Concerted action against heretical beliefs began in Spain in the late 12^th century against the Waldensian heretics.  This persecution moved from the secular to the religious when the Inquisition became established in Spain in 1232.  In 1267, Clement IV issued the first papal bull that explicitly mentions Jews, accusing them of converting several Christians to their faith.  This encyclical followed Clement’s outright criticisms of the Talmud and censorship of books in Hebrew.

By the 14^th century, the Inquisition had formalized its anti-Jewish position, laying the groundwork for declaring Judaism a heresy.  The Directorium inquisitorum states that any Jews avowing beliefs not in accordance with Christian doctrine were subject to prosecution and punishment as heretics.  Jewish practice in Spain had long been under the titular jurisdictionof the papacy but the Directorium inquisitorum was the first official instrument through which such control was physically exerted.

The Inquisition also inflamed strife between Jews and conversos.  In the 15^th century, some Jews testified against conversos in the Toledo court as hostile witnesses.  Jews sometimes offered legal leverage against the converts.  There were numerous incidents of apparent score-settling between Jews and conversos.

The Inquisition played to growing sentiment for a “pure-blood” Christianity, unsullied by converted former Jews and Muslims.  Matters came to a head in 1492, when King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile issued the “Alhambra Decree,” also known as the “Edict of Expulsion.”All Jews were ordered to leave Spanish kingdoms by July 31 of that year.  During the “Reconquista,” in which Spain was retaken from the Islamic caliphate, Jews were suspected of being Muslim collaborators.  Of course, many Jews had officially converted to Christianity, but the sincerity of these conversions increasingly came into question and only aggravated suspicion of Jews in Spain.

Persecution of Muslims

The Spanish Inquisition also came to target Moriscos, Muslim converts to Christianity, in the same spirit that they attacked conversos.  The desire to “purify” Christianity made targets of former Jews and Muslims alike.  Most Muslims were located in the kingdoms of Castile, Granada and Valencia.  By 1502, those in Castile had all been forced to convert upon pain of prosecution.

As with many conversos, Moriscos were also suspected of practicing their native religion in secret.  Conditions worsened later in the 16^th century as an increasingly punitive reign of Philip II, in tandem with the Inquisition, made conditions nearly unbearable for Moriscos throughout Spain.  By the time Philip III came to power, the Spanish kingdoms had been largely emptied of Moriscos, the ethnic descendants of the caliphate, one of the most enlightened and progressive rules that Europe would see from the time of the Romans and the advent of the Enlightenment. By the latter half of the 16^th century, Moriscos were almost under constant pressure from church officials in Granada.

Persecution of the Huguenots

France produced John Calvin, one of the Reformation’s most influential thinkers and a writer and philosopher who influenced the development of the Protestant faith in countries throughout Europe.  French Protestants, known as Huguenots, wee influential through much of the 16th century, particularly in the southern part of the country.  By the mid-1500s, a French Inquisition was empowered to weed out heresies and the days of Protestantism in France were numbered.

French noblemen in the southern regions, who had a history of semi-independence from the French kings, early on adopted the Protestant faith.  These nobles, particularly those in Languedoc, were in the vanguard of the Huguenot movement and established what would become a rich tradition of French Protestantism.

Catholic persecution of Protestants was lessened, however briefly, by the Edict of Nantes, passed in 1598 by King Henry IV.  The edict made Roman Catholicism the state religion of France but initially protected the basic rights of Protestants.  By the time Louis XIV ascended to the throne, Protestant rights had eroded to the point that, barely 20 years after the Edict of Nantes, the Huguenots were being forced to convert to Catholicism.

The precepts of Lutheranism had been introduced into France during the reign of Francis I, who followed a papal bull outlawing the preaching of Lutheran doctrine with a royal decree to that effect in 1525. Francis became more punitive toward the Huguenots throughout the 16^th century and, in 1551, heretics were banned from holding office under the government.

Less than 100 years after the Edict of Nantes, a law was passed requiring all Protestants to convert. A projected Huguenot population ranging anywhere from 500 thousand to one million was forced to flee their native country for Protestant European lands or to emigrate to North America, South Africa and many other foreign havens.  The final blow against French Protestantism cost France a skilled labor force, particularly in the lucrative textile and weaving trades.

Tensions between Catholic and Protestant flared into armed conflict beginning in the 1560s.  In spite of the Catholic Church’s consolidation of power in France during this period, Huguenots sought to maintain their increasingly tenuous position.  They held on through the 1600s but by the late 17^th century, the Huguenots had largely disappeared as a distinctive population in France.

The church consolidates its power

Heretical movements (such as the Cathars) dating from the 13^th century began a long struggle against Catholic supremacy in Europe.  By 1200, the church was reorganizing to address the challenge, which reached a flash point with the advent of Lutheranism and the rise of the Protestant Reformation.  Drawing on traditional regional prejudices, such as those against Jewsand Muslims in Spain, the church was able to leverage local authority, which combined with the institution of regional Inquisitions to force non-Catholics to convert or flee their native lands.

In 1252, Pope Innocent IV announced in a papal bull that torture would be approved in extracting confessions of guilt from suspected heretics.  It was not until 1542 that the Catholic Church established a body responsible for overseeing activities of the various Inquisitions throughout various parts of Europe.

The Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, however, rather than policing and reining in extremist activities of over-zealous cardinals, was responsible for defending the church and for coordinating the investigation of suspected crimes against the faith.  As such, it was under pressure to ensure that all local councils were acting with sufficient vigor in the investigation and prosecution of heresies.

The loss to European culture resulting from the forced exile of Jews, Muslims and Protestants was incalculable.  Jews and Muslims had for centuries lived in harmony and cooperation in pre-Reconquista Spain, contributing to a civilization that enriched western civilization with developments in the fields of medicine, science, mathematics and architecture. France’s Huguenot population took their skills as administrators, businessmen and craftsmen to the four corners of the globe. The Spanish Inquisition pursued Protestant adherents anywhere (especially in the Spanish Netherlands) they came into conflict with Catholic practices.