
By: LARRY SITES
Re: Xtan intolerance 1

Fundi fools often brag about the supposed staying power of their 
religious 
superstition and argure that this proves it "true". The facts are 
that its 
originators lied about a host of things to get it offically 
approved. Then 
they systematically opprossed all competion as the following posts 
show. 
From chapter 7:
                     FORGERY IN CHRISTIANITY

                      CHRISTIAN INTOLERANCE

     But no sooner had the priests of the new Superstition foisted 
themselves securely into power, and by their threats of hell-fire
dominated the superstitious minds of the ex-Pagan Constantine and
his sons and successors, than the old decrees of persecution under
which the Christians had themselves suffered, were revamped and
with fiendish ferocity turned by them into engines of fearful
torture and destruction of Pagans, Jews, and "heretic" Christians
alike; and religious intolerance became the corner-stone of the
Church Persecutrix. In the famous Code of Theodosius, about 384, it
was at priestly instigation enacted:

          "We desire that all the people under our clemency should
     live by that religion which divine Peter the apostle is said
     to have given the Romans. ... We desire that heretics and
     schismatists be subjected to various fines. ... We decree also
     that we shall cease making sacrifices to the gods. And if
     anyone has committed such a crime, let him be stricken with
     the avenging sword." (Cod. Theod. xvi, 1, 2; v, 1; x, 4.)

     What a shaming Christian contrast to the Pagan Edict of Milan,
granting religious liberty and tolerance to all! In these laws of
the now "Christian" empire priestly intolerance is made the law of
the land; the accursed words "Inquisition of the Faith" and
"Inquisitors" first appear in this Christian Code. "Theodosius I
was called the Great because he was the first Emperor to act
against heathenism, and also because he contributed to the victory
over the Arians." (CE. iii, 101.)

     Even the "Infidel" Moslem, in his crude Koran, teaches a
doctrine of tolerance to shame the Bible and the Christians: "Those
who follow the Jewish religion, the Christians, the Sabeans, and
whatever others believe in God and practice doing good, all these
shall receive their recompense from the Lord. ... Virtue does not
consist in turning the face towards the East nor towards the West
to pray, but in being tolerant." (Quran, ix, 59, 76; -- from
Spanish text.)

                FAITH ENFORCED BY LAWS OF MURDER

     Holy Fraud and Forgery having achieved their initial triumph
for the Faith, the "Truth of Christ" must now be maintained and
enforced upon humanity by a millennial series of bloody brutal
Clerical Laws of pains and penalties, confiscations, civil
disabilities, torture, and death by rack, fire and sword, which
constitute the foulest chapter of the Book of human history -- the
History of the Church!

     When the Christians were weak and powerless and subjected to
occasional persecutions as "enemies of the human race," they were
vocal and insistent advocates of liberty of conscience and freedom
to worship whatever God one chose; the Christian "Apologies" to the
Emperors abound in eloquent pleas for religious tolerance; and this
was granted to them and to all by the Edict of Milan and other
imperial Decrees. But when by the favor of Constantine they got
into the saddle of the State, they at once grasped the sword and 
began to murder and despoil all who would not pretend to believe as
the Catholic priest commanded them to believe. When today the
Church screams "Persecution!" and "Bigotry!" at every criticism and
every attempt to restrict it in some of its presumptuous
usurpations, let it recall a few of the laws of intolerance,
plunder and death which it procured and enforced from the moment it
got the prostituted power, so long as that power lasted.

     Beginning with Constantine, and under succeeding "Christian"
emperors, there is a series of scores of laws which the Christians
procured to be enacted for the suppression and persecution to death
of Pagans, heretics and Jews. These laws and edicts are to be found
in the Codes of Theodosius and of Justinian, the two famous
codifleations of Roman Law. To exhibit the progressive and
persistent system of proscription to which all but themselves were
persecutingly subjected by the "Orthodox" Christians, I shall
simply quote the titles of some of these laws, with indication of
the names of the Emperors issuing them, the dates and number of the
laws, and the Code or other source in which it is preserved.

                       LAWS OF CONSTANTINE

     The earliest laws of Constantine were those granting religious
toleration, as the Edict of Milan (313) already quoted, and laws
for the redress of injuries done to Christians; such as release of
prisoners and those in servitude, and the restoration of property;
chapter 36 declares that "The Church is the heir of those who leave
no kindred; and free gifts to it are confirmed"; chapter 41: "Those
who have purchased property belonging to the Church or received it
as a gift, are to restore it." (Eusebius, Vita Constantine, N&PNF.
Bk. II, chs. xxiv-xliii.)

     "Edict to the People of the Provinces Concerning the Error of
Polytheism." (Ib. chs. xlviii-xlix.)

     "Granting Money to the Churches." (Ib. Bk, x, ch. vi.)

     "Catholic Clergy exempt from Certain Civic Duties." (Code
Theod. xvi, 2, 1; 313.) "The Catholic Church freed from Tribute."
(Id. xi, 1, 1; 815.) "Clergymen freed from Financial Burdens." (Id.
xvi, 2, 2; 319.) "The Church allowed to Receive Bequests." (Id.
xvi, 2, 4; 321.)

     "Bishop's Powers as Judges and Witnesses": "Whatever may be
settled by a sentence of bishops shall ever be held as sacred and
venerable ... All testimony given, even by a single bishop, shall
be accepted without hesitation, by every judge, neither shall the
testimony of any other witness be heard, when the testimony of a
bishop is brought forward by either party"! (Const. Sirm. i; 333.)

     "The Day of the Sun a Time of Rest." "All judges, and city
folk and all craftsmen shall rest on the venerated day of the Sun."
(Cod. Just. iii, 12, 2; 321.)

     "As it has seemed most unworthy that the Day of the Sun,
famous by its venerable character, ... Therefore on the festive
day." (Cod. Theod. ii, 8, 1; 321.)

     A number of laws follow in favor of the Pagans, and while
prohibiting "private divination and soothsaying," and "Malevolent
Magic Prohibited, but Beneficial Magic Encouraged"; also exempting
Pagan Flamens, priests and magistrates from sundry restrictions and
disabilities. No law of Constantine seems to be preserved which
prescribes active persecution; he seems to have sought to hold an
even balance of toleration to Pagans and Christians. But that he
did enact such laws seems to be proved by recital in the first of
the laws of his sons, Constantius and Constans, who were Arian
heretics.

                LAWS OF CONSTANTIUS AND CONSTANS

     "Sacrifice Prohibited.": "Let superstition cease and the folly
of sacrifices be abolished. Whoever has dared in the face of the
law of the divine prince, our father [Constantine] ... to make
sacrifices, shall have appropriate penalty, and immediate sentence
dealt to him." (Cod. Theod. xvi, 10, 2; 341.)

     "All Temples Closed and Sacrifices Forbidden." "but if any one
commit any offense of this sort, let him fall by the avenging
sword," and his property forfeited; judges neglecting to "mete out
penalties for these offenses, they shall be similarly punished."
(Cod. Theod. xvi, 10, 4; 846.)

     "Sacrificing and Idolatry Punishable by Death." "We order that
all found guilty of attending sacrifices or of worshipping idols
shall suffer capital punishment." (Id. xvi, 10, 6; 356.)

                 LAWS OF GRATIAN AND THEODOSIUS

     "Wills of Apostate Christians to be Set Aside": "The right of
making a will shall be taken from Christians who become pagans; and
if such persons make wills, they shall be set aside without regard
to circumstances." (Cod. Theod. xvi, 7, 1; 381: 
cf. Cod. Justin. i, 7, 2; 382.)

     "The Right to Bequeath or Inherit Property Denied Apostates":
"We deny to Christians and the faithful who have adopted pagan
rites and religion all power of making a will in favor of any
person whatsoever, in order that they may be without the Roman law
[outlaws]; ... even of enjoying a will with the power of acquiring
an inheritance." (Cod. Theod. xvi, 7, 2; 383.) "The Right of Making
a Will Denied Christians Who enter Temples." ( Id. xvi, 7, 3; 383.)

               LAWS OF THEODOSIUS AND VALENTINIAN

     "Testamentary Disqualification for Christian Apostates," and
Outlawry as Witnesses. -- "Those who betray the sacred faith and
profane holy baptism are shut off from association of all and from
giving testimony. ... They may not exercise the right of making a
will, nor enter upon any inheritance; they may not be made anyone's
heir." (Id. xvi, 7, 4; 391.)

     "Sacrificing and Visiting Shrines Prohibited." (Id. xvi, 10,
10; 391.) -- "Sacrifices Forbidden and Temples Closed." (Id. xvi,
10, 11; 391.)

     "PAGANISM OUTLAWED." -- "IF any one dares [to sacrifice,
etc.], let any man be free to accuse him and let him receive, as
one guilty of lese majeste, ... for it is sufficiently a crime."
(Id. xvi, 10. 12; 392.)

                  LAWS OF HONORIUS AND ARCADIUS

     "Pagan Holidays Abolished." (Cod. Theod. ii, 8, 22; 895.) --
"Privileges of Pagan Priests Abolished." (Id. xvi, 10, 14; 396.) --
"Rural Temples to be Destroyed." (Id. xvi. 10, 16; 399.) --
"Temples to be Appropriated by the Churches." (Id. xvi, 5, 43;
408.) -- "Temples to be Appropriated by the Churches. Temple
Buildings and their Revenues to be Confiscated and idols and
Shrines to be Destroyed." (Id. xvi, 5, 43; xvi, 10, 19; 407.)

     "Only Catholics to Serve as Palace Guards." (Cod. Theod. xvi.
5, 42; 408.)

     "Laws Against the Pagans to be Enforced": "The Donatists and
other vain heretics and those others who cannot be converted to the
worship of the Catholic communion, Jews and Gentiles who are
vulgarly known as pagans; ... Let all judges understand, and not
fail to carry out all decrees against such persons." (Id. xvi,. 5,
46; 409.)

     "Pagans Barred from Civil and Military Offices." (Id. xvi, 10,
21; 416.)

     "Existing Laws against Pagans to be Enforced." (Id. xvi, 10,
22; 423.) -- "Pagans Who Sacrifice Shall Lose their Property and be
Exiled"' (Id. xvi, 10, 23; 423.)

     "Pagan Superstition to be Rooted Out": "We are extirpating all
heresies and all falsehoods, all schisms and all superstitions of
the pagans and all errors that are inimicable to the Catholic
religion. ... And since all attempt at supplication is denied
forever, they will be punished with the severity befitting crimes."
(Id. xvi, 5, 63; 423.)

     "Pagans Barred from Pleading a Case or Serving as Soldiers":
"... and every sect unfriendly with the Catholics should be driven
out of every city in order that they may not be sullied by the
contagious presence of criminals. We deny to Jews or pagans the
right of pleading a case in court or of serving as soldiers."
(Const. Sirm. No. 6; 425.)

                   LATER LAWS AGAINST PAGANISM

     "Pagan Rites Forbidden and Bequests for Pagan Cults
Prohibited." (Cod. Just. i, 11, 9; 472.)

     "Baptized Persons who follow Pagan Practices to Suffer Death.
Provisions for the Conversion of the Unbaptized. Pagans Forbidden
to Give Instruction." (Cod. Just. 1, 11, 10; no date given.)

     "Pagans Barred from Office and their Real Property
Confiscated." "The Emperors Justin and Justinian. ... It is our 
intention to restore the existing laws which affect the rest of the
heretics of whatever name they are, (and we label as heretic
whoever is not a member of the Catholic Church and of our orthodox
and holy faith); likewise the pagans who attempt to introduce the
worship of many gods, and the Jews and the Samaritans. ... We
forbid any of the above-mentioned persons to aspire to any dignity
or to acquire civil or military office or to attain to any rank."
(Id. i, 5, 12; 527.)

     Thus was Pagan Superstition proscribed and destroyed by
Christian law and sword; and the identical Pagan Superstitions
under the veneer of the name of Christian established and
enthroned. The subject is thoroughly examined by Prof. Maude A.
Huttmann, in The Establishment of Christianity Through the
Proscription of Paganism; (Columbia University Press, 1914).

                      BLOODY RECORD BOASTED

     A graphic sketch of the origin, the universal scope, and the
crushing effect of the early imperial laws, supplemented and
expanded by those of medieval and more modern times, is given by
CE., related with all the sinister and cynical insolence, sophistry
and hypocrisy of intolerant bigotry. To its Christ it imputes the
horrid justification of the sword and the infernal principles of
butchery whereby the Church Murderess has "made a hell of earth to
merit heaven." This recital is not alone of ancient sacred history;
CE. admits: "These primitive views on heresy have been faithfully
transmitted and acted on by the Church in subsequent ages; there is
no break in the tradition from St. Peter to Pious X." (vii, 259.)
The principles are yet alive and cherished, their practical
application has only for the time being "fallen into abeyance,"
only, for the reason that in these modern times "the power to apply
more severe measures is wanting." he admitted ecclesiastical record
of repression and murder in its forged and fraudulent faith:

          Constantine had taken upon himself the office of lay
     bishop (episcopus externus) and put the secular arm at the
     service of the Church, the laws against heretics became more
     and more rigorous. Under the purely ecclesiastical discipline
     no temporal punishment could be inflicted on the obstinate
     heretic, except the damage which might arise to his personal
     dignity through being deprived of all intercourse with his
     former brethren. But under the Christian emperors rigorous
     measures were enforced against the goods and persons of
     heretics. From the time of Constantine to Theodosius and
     Valentinian III (313-424) various penal laws were enacted
     against heretics as being guilty of crime against the State.
     In both the Theodosian and Justinian codes they were styled
     infamous persons; all intercourse was forbidden to be held
     with them; they were deprived of all offices of profit and
     dignity in the civil administration, while all burdensome
     offices, both of the camp and of the curia, were imposed upon
     them; they were disqualified from disposing of their own
     estates by will, or of accepting estates bequeathed to them by
     others; they were denied the right of giving or receiving
     donations, of contracting, buying, and selling; pecuniary
     fines were imposed upon them; they were often proscribed and
     banished, and in many cases scourged before being sent into 
     exile. In some particularly aggravated cases sentence of death
     was pronounced upon heretics, though seldom executed in the
     time of the Christian emperors of Rome. Theodosius is said to
     be the first who pronounced heresy a capital crime; this law
     was passed in 382 against [several named sects of heretics].
     Heretical teachers were forbidden to propagate their
     doctrines, publicly or privately; to hold public disputations;
     to ordain bishops, presbyters, or other clergy; to hold
     religious meetings; to build conventicles or to avail
     themselves of money bequeathed to them for that purpose.
     Slaves were allowed to inform against their heretical masters
     and to purchase their freedom by coming over to the Church.
     The children of heretical parents were denied their patrimony
     and inheritance unless they returned to the Catholic Church.
     The books of heretics were ordered to be burned. (Vide Codex
     Theodosianus, lib. XVI, tit. 5, "De Hereticism")

     "This legislation remained in force and with even greater
severity in the Kingdoms formed by the victorious barbarian
invaders on the ruins of the Roman Empire in the West. The burning
of heretics was first decreed in the eleventh century. The Synod of
Verona (1184) imposed on bishops the duty to search out heretics in
their dioceses and hand them over to the secular power. Other
Synods, and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) under Pope Innocent
III, repeated and enforced this decree, especially the Synod of
Toulouse (1229), which established inquisitors in every parish (one
priest and two laymen). Everyone was bound to denounce heretics,
the names of the witnesses were kept secret; after 1243, when
Innocent III sanctioned the laws of Emperor Frederick, II and of
Louis IX against heretics, torture was applied in trials; the
guilty persons were delivered up to the civil authorities and
actually burnt at the stake.

     "Paul III (1542) established, and Sixtus V organized, the
Roman Congregation of the Inquisition, or Holy Office, a regular
court of justice [!] dealing with heresy and heretics. (See Roman
Congregations.) The Congregation of the Index, instituted by St.
Pius V, has for its province the care of faith and morals in
literature; it proceeds against, printed matter very much as the
Holy Office proceeds against persons (see Index of Prohibited
Books). The present pope, Pius X (1909), has decreed the
establishment in every diocese of a board of censors and of a
vigilance committee whose functions are to find out and report on
writings and persons tainted with the heresy of Modernism (Encycl.
'Pascendi,' 8 Sept. 1907). -- [At another place the pious clerical
reason for this flagrant attempt against the mind and its liberty
of inquiry is thus with unctuous priestly speciousness stated: "for
it is notorious that clever sophistry coated with seductive
language may render even gross errors of faith palatable to a
guilele and innocent heart"! (CE. xiv, 766).] -- The present-day
legislation against heresy has lost nothing of its ancient
severity; but the penalties on heretics are now only of the
spiritual order; all the punishments which require the intervention
of the secular arm have fallen into abeyance. ...

     "The Church's legislation on heresy and heretics is often
reproached with cruelty and intolerance. Intolerant it is; in fact
its raison d'etre is intolerance of doctrines subversive of the 
Faith. Cruelty only comes when the punishment exceeds the
requirements of the case. ... It suffices to remark that the
inquisitors only pronounced on the guilt of the accused and then
handed him over to the secular power to be dealt with according to
the laws framed by emperors and kings -- [at the instigation of the
Church!].

     "Toleration came in only when faith went out; lenient measures
were resorted to ONLY WHERE POWER TO APPLY MORE SEVERE MEASURES WAS
WANTING. ... Christ says: 'Do not think that I am come to send
peace upon earth,: I came not to send peace, but a sword.' The
history of heresy verifies this prediction"! (CE. vii, 256-262,
passim.)

     The Church Persecutrix, under this forged Christ-Lie, has shed
oceans more of blood than of its boasted "light" upon religion-
cursed Christendom. The only "light" it has diffused has been from
the flames of "heretic" cities, and the lurid fires of myriads of
Autos-da-Fe, kindled by hypocrite priests, burning in agony the
bodies of countless heroic men and women who scorned to prostitute
their minds to the sinister lies of priestcraft, and who have dared
defy with their lives the blighting "rule and ruin" dominion of the
power-lusting Church.

     With a shudder of undying loathing for the cruel cynical
Hypocrite, we may admire the sweet charity of tender mercy
displayed by the Holy Church of the Christ, exampled in the
sanctimonious Formula of Judgment whereby its Holy Inquisition
handed over the racked and broken errant Child of Faith to the
prostituted Secular Arm for the final Act of Murder -- the blessed
Auto-da-Fe, with a prayer for the hated heretics: "Ut quam
clementissime et sine sanguinis effusionem puniretur -- should be
punished as mildly as possible and without the shedding of blood"!
The while Their Holinesses kept a standing Decree of Indulgences
from the pangs of Purgatory for all the hoodlum Faithful who would
please and glorify God by attending the sacred ceremonials of
Burning, and especially to those who would aid God and the priests
by fetching fagots for the consecrated fires, and throw water on
the wood so that the priest-set flames would be slower in their
purifying work and allow the wrathing "Obstinate" longer time to
make Peace with God and Holy Church by meet Repentance; in which
event, the "reconciled" Child of Faith would be dragged from the
flames only partly cremated, and returned to prison cell there to
agonize out the remainder of his life in rapt contemplation of the
beauties and sweetness of the blessed Christian Religion, crooning
"Praise God from whom all blessings flow!"

     The foregoing loathsome boasted record of the Church, sinister
and infamous as it is, may be complemented by the following cynical
and sophistical recital of the mental and moral debauch of
ignorance imposed by the Church, concluding with the formal
admission that "the theocratic State was called upon [by its
prostituted mistress the Church] to avenge with the pyre" defiance
of the lying fraudulent pretensions of the Church:

          "During the Middle Ages the Church guarded the purity and
     genuineness of her Apostolic doctrine through the institution
     of the ecclesiastical (and State) Inquisition. ... Following
     the example of the Apostles, the Church today watches
     zealously over the purity and integrity of her doctrine, since
     on this rests her whole system of faith and morals, the whole
     edifice of Catholic thought, ideals, and life. For this
     purpose the Church instituted the Index of Prohibited Books,
     which is intended to deter Catholics from the unauthorized
     reading of books dangerous to faith or morals, for it is
     notorious that clever sophistry coated with seductive language
     may render even gross errors of faith palatable to a guileless
     and innocent heart. (p. 766.) ... Now, formal heresy was
     likewise strongly condemned by the Catholic Middle Ages; and
     so the argument ran: Apostacy and heresy are, as criminal
     offenses against God, far more serious crimes than high
     treason, murder, or adultery. ... But, according to Romans
     xiii, 11, seq., the secular authorities have the right to
     punish, especially grave crimes, with death; consequently,
     heretics may be not only excommunicated, but also justly
     (juste) put to death' (St. Thomas, II-II, Q; xi, a, 3). ...
     The earliest example of the execution of a heretic was the
     beheading of the ring leader of the Priscillianists by the
     usurper Maximum at Trier (385). Even St. Augustine, towards
     the end of his life, favored State reprisals against the
     Donatists. ... Influenced by the Roman code, which was rescued
     from oblivion, Frederick II introduced the penalty of burning
     for heretics by imperial law of 1224. The popes, especially
     Gregory IX, favored the execution of this imperial law, in
     which they saw an effective means for the preservation of the
     Faith. ... Unfortunately, neither the secular nor the
     ecclesiastical authorities drew the slightest distinction
     between dangerous and harmless heretics, seeing forthwith in
     every (formal) heresy a 'contumelia Creatoris,' which the
     theocratic State was called upon to avenge with the pyre."
     (CE. xiv, 766, 768.)


