Reply to Buffet Catholicism?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Buffet Catholicism?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

Yes, indeed!  Many of the practices started as money-makers for the monasteries.  And it gave the  Catholic Church more power over the citizenry.  A lot of the practices started during and after each plague (1330 - 17th century).  In the 1330-1337 plague more than 1/3 of Europe's population died (25 million).  The Catholic Church created a number of its practices during those years because the populace was desperate for any cure and would pay for anything.  The image of Hell created by Dante's Inferno (1331) was also used by the C. Church to frighten the congregations into paying indulgences for the dying and the dead.  The practice of paying for Masses continues to this day.[/quote]

Have you read The Inferno? I don't mean Dan Brown's novel. Dante actually goes after many of the popes of the era, by name, and subjects them to creative punishments. I think he had one pope upside down in a pot, but I could be remembering wrong. The Vatican played a role in exiling him from his beloved Florence. Your argument that the Catholic Church waved the Inferno around as an excuse to start charging for burying the plague dead also doesn't hold water for a second reason, that lots of the plague dead were dumped in mass graves without expensive ceremonies. Dante's images of Hell certainly crept into peoples' imaginations and inspired revived/different type religiosity. You could argue that the Church started charging for various things to pay for building St. Peters, and many historians have made this argument, also there's a good book on the subject (probably more books on the subject, but I've only read the one).

This is one of the perils of cutting and pasting from hysterial atheist websites.  No, I'm not Catholic, but I know a thing or two about history and literature.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics