Council of Lyons Quotes
He has committed four very grave offences, which cannot be covered up by any subterfuge...he has abjured God on many occasions; he has wantonly broken the peace which had been established between the Church and the Empire; he has also committed sacrilege by causing to be imprisoned the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, and the prelates and clerics...coming to the council which our predecessor had summoned; he is also accused of heresy …. We absolve forever all who owe him allegiance in virtue of an oath of fealty.... Whoever shall in future afford him advice, help or goodwill as if he were Emperor or king, shall fall “ipso facto” under the binding force of excommunication.
The church was in constant roil with the Bishops, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor each striving for superiority over the other two, almost like branches of government fighting for power. This was the bishops attempt to “impeach” the Holy Roman Emperor who was never charged or given an opportunity to face or refute the charges. He was not even present at the Council. See {611260} for his reply.
Council of Lyons, Decree Against Holy Roman Emperor, King Frederick II, *-1250, June 1245
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The church was in constant roil with the Bishops, the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor each striving for superiority over the other two, almost like branches of government fighting for power. This was the bishops attempt to “impeach” the Holy Roman Emperor. (See {610981} ). The Emperor then wrote to all the kings of Christian Europe pointing out that if the Bishops could unseat the Holy Roman Empire by excommunicating any loyal subjects, then they could do so against any king.
This edict gave great support to the Inquisitors of all Catholic countries. See {617572}
While Aquinas brought much wisdom and good to the Church, this statement and others laid a foundation for murdering non-believers and organizing the Inquisition.
His positions presaged some of those of Protestants in the Reformation. In the great struggle of the time between the Pope and the Emperor, Marsilius was the leading advocate for the emperor’s superiority of authority. The Pope wrote a condemnation of these ideas.
Giovanni Battista Cibo. This quotation is one of the proofs that the Inquisition was not a rogue group of zealots but represented the mainstream of the Catholic Church of the time. Note the tone whereby having a zealous inquisition is perceived almost as a “right” of which no community ought be deprived.
At the time Islam was quite conflicted about the role of innovation, science and reform. Innovators were to many theologians as dangerous to society as heretics and had to be refuted. Al-Ashari’s school of thought has prevailed in much of the Muslim world to this day.
Ingersoll was considered to be the greatest orator and political thinker of his day, but his overt atheistic views curtailed his elected political career.
From what is now Turkey. Once the Christians had become established, critics or reformers, were hard to understand as the Christians were a few hundred years earlier.
The King, a religious exremist fanatic, was a great supporter of the Inquisition whose excesses were horrible during his reign.
Ivan the Terrible. He was referring to himself as God’s Chosen One. He and the Church were aligned against the Nobles, whose lands Ivan wanted. He would execute hundreds of “traitors” every month. He even executed the families of his enemies in very cruel ways. He claimed to be “cleansing” the land of sinners in preparation for the coming judgment day, and the church backed him up on this. The Church gave him carte blanche to “punish” all sinners and his paranoia eventually got around to the church fathers themselves who became the final victims.
Michael Servetus, 1511-1553, a Spanish theologian, was tried and burned at the stake in Switzerland. John Calvin drew up the charges and pronounced the sentence. However his ill health prevented him from personally officially reading the charges. De la Fontaine did it in his stead. Most people are familiar with the charges of questioning the doctrine of the Trinity. However, before those there were a series of more civilly oriented charges of which sever are given herein. Note the emphasis on his book. It was found do offensive that it was burned along with Servetus. See related quote.
After he wrote that there was no such thing as witches he was imprisoned.
This notice of Excommunication was promulgated to the Catholic clergy in Ireland in May of 1538. It required all Roman Catholic leaders to size the property of Protestants or Catholics who sympathized with them. Those who did were then regarded as traitors by the Protestant King. The anti-Protestant feeling culminated with the massacre of about 100 Protestants who were drowned in Bann a few years later.
William the Conqueror. This is one of the earliest government action separating some church functions from state functions.
Note the opposition to freedom of speech for contrary theological views. This has been typical of most religions whenever they could exercise or influence state power.
This statement in particular was extremely problematical. Sarbi is not just any old Mullah, but the Mufti of Jerusalem, on of the highest ranking Muslims in the World. This statement puts countries like Egypt and Jordan in a very difficult situation as the officials making treaties with the U. S. will be in effect excommunicated.
Luther’s attitude toward the Catholic mass was the main reason the Protestant churches abolished the mass.
Whoever teaches differently from what I have taught, … condemns God and must remain a child of hell.
Humility and doubt were not characteristics of Martin Luther.
The use of “despotic” did not imply cruelty or even poor management of the society. The term was used to indicate that Brigham Young, the then Mormon Leader, had the powers and authority of a dictator. At the time most Americans in the East knew little about the Mormons. Ludlow was one of the early observers of Mormon society in Utah who wrote about the Mormons in popular—albeit intellectual—magazines. Ludlow regarded Mormonism as it was then practiced as incompatible with, and dangerous for, America, not because of the plural marriage, but the conflicts with the concepts of democracy and self-government. The authority that Brigham Young and the church then exercised over civil life was what distressed him and many other Americans.
He had whipped the crowd up into a feverish pitch until someone rushed the bound and tied blacksmith and stabbed him to death. He had only criticized Mathias for being too harsh and stern a leader.
Olivi was a brilliant scholar who ran afoul of the religious authorities on several occasions. He was accused of being a heretic for his writings, but was exonerated after intensive trials and debates. In this quotation, he attributed the religious error of Jews and others, not to the anti-Christ, human venality, or even fault of character, but from a difference in human perspective. He was a pioneering original thinker, who while not well appreciated in his lifetime, had a significant cult following including several cardinals of The Church that arose after his death. However, other conservative forces then decided that he was a heretic after all. They burned his writings and destroyed his tomb. Today, there is a street in France named for him.
The Council of Lyon may refer to a number of synods or councils of the Roman Catholic Church, held in Lyon, France or in nearby Anse.
