The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1930-05-05
THE NEW INQUISITION
By JOSEPH JACK.


and its clergy, to preserve the feudal system
against the then rising revolutionary bour-
geoisie the feudal ruling class, led by the
papal hierarchy instituted a regime of black
terror that became known as the Holy m
QUESTION.
The black terror of the Holy Inqusition,
1.-The Tribunal of Faith" became particularly
vicious as the peasantry, that is, the serfs, be-
gan to join the nascent bourgeoisie of the
cities against the churchly feudal lords. This
congregation of sadsts, Catholic clergy, priests,
monks and sisters" all included, was then
headed by his "holness" Pope Gregory TX.
In Altensee, Germany, there is a monument
which reminds The world as it is today of the
deeds of this dead sadist who applied "the
Sword of God" to several thousand tradition
ally independent peasants who refused to be-
come serfs to the bishops and feudal lords of
those days. These simple souls had the idea
that the results of their labor should go to
those that work and not TO the loafing clergy
and dukes. Hence, under terrible fortunes this
population of "heretics" was murdered almost
to the last man.
Inquisiton Harnesses Poor.
In the south eff France, north of Spain and
Lombardy, the Inquisition was used against
the poor but very numerous kdthererS, a peo-
pie of peasants and handicraftsmen who could
not understand that the clergy feudal lords
and their military are entitled to battle in lux
ury while the laboring people should starve
and suffer from cholera, pest and other dis
eases. They got it into their heads that the
church is headed not by "holy man, successor
of Christ" but by the devil himself-they
looked to Rome, where the high clergy lived
in the most sensual pleasures in the greatest
of luxury where the Vatican was one great
fancy bordello and where everything that they
thought that Christ condemned reigned su-
preme.
For 300 years the masters of Rome were
busy roofing out these dangerous ideas through
the most fiendish tortures The monuments
to their fantastic fendishness still lay all over
the southern part of France
No one should think that the Inqusition was
perchance one of the "visitations" of the Cath
ollc church, for it was upheld by all the popes
for 800 years. The high point of the Inuuisi-
ton in France was reached when the "holv"
Pope Gregory XIII opened the slaughter of the
Huguenots Q572) with Thank God" SER
vice and memorial Medaille
The sadistic fendishness and abysmaI de-
pravity OF the popes of Rome played its most
stupendous orgies however in the country of
their greatest reliance, Spain. Here his
Christian Majesty" Philip III, the strong
man of the pope in Spain, upheld the Inuuisi-
ton by Transforming the whole country into
phantasmagoria of slaughter and torture.
During the 300 years of the Inquisition in
SPAN, which was to crush the bourgeois oppo-
slt1on to feudalism, various bourgeois his.
torians estimate nearly 100000 persons. mostly
serfs, peasants and artisans, persisted in the
dungeons of the Inqusition and on the "chris-
lam convict ships of Queen Isabella.
Hide Class Character
The church always found a way, of course.
10 hide the true class character of it's regime
Inc black terror was supposed to be against
tne heathen, against the Jews, against the
Moors ETC. Never would the church admit
that 1t was against the laboring population
and for the preservation of the most barbarous
OF all systems of exploitation, Feudalisn. Re-
lglous hypocrisy was used to cover the class
character of the black terror just as the hour
geolsle today Expresses in the name of "nresar
Walton of democracy"
Toward the end of the black terror the weak
sex, the women, became the object of the sadis
tic pleasures of the clergy. witch" hunting
was introduced under the reign of Pope limo
cence VI chow innocentD Clemens w and
olxtus Nv. Thousands of women, Young and
oid' We're burned at the stake while the PONIES
maintained public brothels from which thew re-
celVed 10000 ducates of income per wear
sum Indirectly maintains many
brothels in Spain.)
In addition to the aforementioned ssbolv,'
men, the pope that acquired particular re-
noWn for their fendishness during the reion
OF faith were Popes Paul II and Paul "
who ruled during the reformation. partition.
larry the last mentioned one was such a fiend
that the embittered people of Rome threw his
cursed statue into the Tiber,
Only in 1881 did the world see the last death
sentence IN Spain under the rule of the In
QUESTION; that is about $50 years ago. Never
have the "infallible" rulers of the church Of
Rome repudated lnquisition as a policy. They
only suspended its application not having the
strength, with the rise of the peoples revou.
tionary movement, then led by the nascent
oonrgeolsle, to put this "holy law" anv longer
INTO effect Even today the popes of Rome are
sun committed to the papal bull of Gregory
IA Wnlcn lnaugurated the Inquisition in the
fourteenth century and which aims to remove
hefesy" from the earth by death
mat much about the history of the gentle.
men OF the Vatican who today in their bottom
less hypocrisy dare to speak about "fraedor,
OF conscience" and prosecutions" of their
dark breed in the Soviet Union What about
today? 0'
Where Faith Burns Hottest
We will take the most Catholic coprt,.ios
those countries where the faith burns hottest.
that is the Spanish-speaking countries. and
Illustrate by the practices there TO-DAY, what the