Questions tagged [catholic-church]
The largest Christian Church and one of the oldest. The Catholic Church is overseen by a hierarchy led by the Pope.
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What is the history of "one nation under God"?
What is the history of the United States motto "one nation under God"?
I saw it claimed in § "History of the 🇺🇸" of
Campbell Phillip. 2019. The Story of Civilization : Vol. 4 - ...
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What ancient manuscripts were lost when the Huguenots destroyed the Cluny Abbey library?
I've heard that the destruction of the great Cluny Abbey library (in the Burgundy region of France) both by the Huguenots (1562) and later during the French Revolution meant that a massive number of ...
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What would have kept Clement V from instigating a popular revolt against Philip V?
I am reading this book, "Trial of the Templars" by Malcolm Barber.
I am not a historian, so I do not know to what extent Barber's thesis is right - that the Templars were arrested because ...
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Why were there more Catholics in Lancashire than other parts of England around the time of the Jacobite rebellions?
The abstract of this article begins "Historians are generally agreed that Lancashire was the most Catholic and the most Jacobite county in England at the time of the 1715 rebellion".
The ...
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Why didn't the Catholic Church invent new names for the classical planets? [closed]
The Roman Catholic Church had a strong policy of changing or destroying pagan names or other references from several things. Why they didn't rename the classical planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter ...
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Did the Pope's crossbow and archery bans have any effect?
One of the more famous and certainly curious decisions at the Second Council of the Lateran in 1139 was a ban on using missile troops against Christians. Specifically, Canon 29 states that:
We ...
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What caused the imposition of strict celibacy for Catholic priests during the 11th century?
At the Second Lateran Council in 1139, the Catholic Church implemented a rule requiring all priests to remain celibate. Although the Church has already talked about being celibate for the previous ...
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When did the Catholic Inquisition stop using torture?
At his trial in 1633 Galileo was threatened with torture. I was surprised that the Inquisition was still using such a barbaric practice at so late a date, I always associate it with the Medieval_ ...
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Why does the amount of days in an year on average of the Gregorian calendar only have 4 decimal places (365.2425)?
Alfonsine tables available at the time of the Gregorian reform provided enough information (however inaccurate) for the calendar to have been designed such that it expressed more precision regarding ...
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Is Islamic law largely derivative of Catholic canon law? [closed]
My understanding is that Islamic thought got its big boost in the "Al Andalusian paradise", which essentially consisted of the Muslim conquerors having the conquered peoples translate their ...
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What is the name of this author?
I'm a newbie here so please forgive me if this kind of questions are not allowed.
Couple days ago my friend wanted me to find an author and gave me some hints about it. I did lots of researches but ...
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When and where was William the Conqueror baptized or christened?
Encyclopedias give his birth as "about" 1028, but is there any information extant about when and under what circumstances he was made a Christian? A quick search turns up a print in the New ...
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When did England stop being a Papal fief?
In 1213, King John surrendered England to the papacy making it a Papal fief where the Pope would be paid annual tribute. However King Edward I did not act as a vassal to the Pope because he got into ...
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Is this anecdote about use of poison in guerrilla war mentioned by Schopenhauer based on facts?
In Schopenhauer's 1819 "The World as Will and Representation", volume 1, in the (only) footnote of chapter 64, we can read:
“That Spanish bishop, who in the last war simultaneously
poisoned ...
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Has there ever been an archbishop or bishop younger than the 16-year-old James of Nicosia?
In 1456, King John II of Cyprus appointed his illegitimate son James as Latin Archbishop of Nicosia. James was just 16 at the time.
James soon lost his position, being forced to flee the following ...
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How could a man be made a bishop of a place while not having received major orders?
This article on Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg, which cites this Catholic Encyclopedia article describes von Wartenberg as having been made a bishop of two different places before even being ordained a ...
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Who are the Cathari in the Canons of the council of Nicaea?
In Canon 8 of the Council of Nicaea – held in 325 – it states that
As for the so-called cathari, if they return to the catholic and apostolic church, the great and holy council decrees that any of ...
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Has the concept of "annulment" of a putative marriage changed over time in the Roman Catholic Church?
I'm confused about the details of how the concepts of "putative marriage", "valid marriage", and "invalid marriage" are related in the context of Roman Catholic canon law ...
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Where is Hermodontus?
In Le liber censuum de l'église romaine, Volume 6, pages 96-97, at the very end of the first and start of the latter, it says:
As I understand them, from all of what I've read and seen up until now, ...
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Does the Catholic church have a long history of child abuse, or is it something that started in our time?
There has been a debate on the causes of clerical child abuse is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding Catholic sex abuse cases. However, I wonder what is the history of child abuse in ...
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Why didn't "Europe" support the Byzantine Empire against the Turks?
Why didn't Catholic Europe support the Byzantine empire against the Turks? Or did they? How? Yes, there were some differences between the Catholic and Orthodox interpretation of Christianity but the ...
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How unique was the ban of cousin marriage by the Catholic church? [closed]
How extreme was the ban of cousin marriage by the Catholic church compared to other countries? Did they manage to effectively enforce their ban of consanguinity up to 7 degrees in a way that's unique ...
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What sort of Cardinals were Richelieu and Mazarin?
Cardinals can belong to one of three orders:
Cardinal-deacon
Cardinal-bishop
Cardinal-priest.
What were the ranks of Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin?
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Where are the relics of Anthony the Great?
Anthony the Great, or Anthony of Egypt, is a Christian Saint who lived in the 4th century AD. The Wikipedia page states about its relics:
Anthony had been secretly buried on the mountain-top where he ...
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What was the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Carolingian emperors?
Charlemagne was crowned by the pope in the year 800. But was it Charlemagne's choice, or was he compelled to do so? Having conquered his lands, couldn't he just crown himself emperor? Moreover, did ...
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Which was the official position of the Catholic Church on the Atlantic Slave Trade?
The position of the Catholic Church (officially through the pope) regarding slavery of native Americans in the American continent is very clear. At the beginning of the European colonization of such ...
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Did Johann Tetzel really claim to be able to give indulgences even for the sin of violating the Mother of God?
Johann Tetzel was a Saxon Dominican friar and preacher who (in)famously granted indulgences on behalf of the Catholic Church in exchange for money, which were claimed to allow a remission of temporal ...
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What percentage of the population was in the clergy (chastity vows) in Europe *at its peak* between 500-1500)?
According to this Wiki.fr page, 90% of the population were peasants. Of the 10% remaining, what percentage of them were clergy people? And does it apply during peak time? And when was this peak time?
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Did Crusaders' siege Nablus and then massacre Muslims?
I remember that I have heard in some lecture about some form of a siege over Nablus that ended up in indiscriminate killings of Muslims in the city. I vaguely remember that the events were said to ...
MCW♦
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Could someone who had joined a monastery decide to leave?
Could a nun or monk that had been admitted to a monastery "quit" and (more or less) return to the life they lived before joining?
I am mostly interested in Europe and Christianity ...
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Should the Great Schism of 1054 be taken to be 1204 (or 1182) instead?
It seems that 1054 wasn't such a big deal: forty years later Pope Urban and Emperor Alexios were on such good terms that a crusade was initiated to save Constantinople and the Holy Lands; even in 1136 ...
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Did Thomas Aquinas's correspondent James of Tonengo become bishop of Vercelli?
Thomas Aquinas wrote the long letter/short treatise De Sortibus at the request of his friend James / Jacobus / Giacomo of Tonengo. James was a candidate to be bishop of Vercelli (Northwest Italy) but ...
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Why doesn't Eusebius of Caesarea mention Julian calendar in his Chronicle?
Why doesn't Eusebius of Caesarea even mention the Julian calendar in his Chronicle? Chronicle by Eusebius of Caesarea covers period till A.D. 325. Armenian translation of Chronicle ends with the ...
MCW♦
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What media did Irenaeus used to write his letters?
Eusebius of Caesarea (AD 260/265 – 339/340) in his work Church History (Book V, Chapter 20 "The Writings of Irenaeus against the Schismatics at Rome") said:
Irenaeus wrote several letters ...
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Why did the French Revolution bring secularism?
The Roman Catholic Church was one of the victims of the French Revolution. Many of the priests, nuns, and other clergyman were abolished. Why did the revolutionaries "hate" the Roman Catholic Church?
MCW♦
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How were Father-Presidents of California Missions chosen?
During the Spanish Colonial period, the California missions were run by a priest with the title of Father-President (padre-presidente). I'm trying to find more information about this office, ...
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Who revoked their signatures from the union agreement at the Council of Florence?
In many Byzantine history books, a general statement is made that from the 700 strong delegation to the Council of Florence, "many Orthodox bishops revoked their signatures" after the ...
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Is history of Polish Catholicism exceptional? [closed]
Zygmunt Zieliński in his study called "The myth of a Catholic Pole" in the book Polish political myths of the 19th and 20th centuries observes:
(…) the criterion for distinguishing the ...
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Why was William Tyndale burnt at the stake?
I read here that the main reason Tyndale was executed by the church was because he translated the Greek bible into English.
Somewhere else I read that this is not true. Tyndale was charged with ...
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Was there Church opposition to heliocentrism in 1600?
According to the Stanford encyclopedia (entry: Copernicus):
Pope Clement VII (r. 1523–1534) had reacted favorably to a talk about Copernicus’s theories, rewarding the speaker with a rare manuscript. ...
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When was the last time the Catholic Church excommunicated a government official for political reasons?
The Roman Catholic Church has a long history of excommunicating people.
These days it is mostly constrained to excommunicating bishops who break with doctrine.
The Pope regularly sends letters to ...
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Did Henrietta Maria leave any writings in which she described her thoughts with respect to Charles I's afterlife?
Henrietta Maria, Charles I's queen consort, was a famously strident Roman Catholic. She outraged her husband's subjects by praying publicly under the gallows at Tyburn, where many Roman Catholics had ...
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Did the Catholic Church ban adoption in the Middle Ages?
In the book Contours of the World Economy (2007), by Angus Maddison, it says:
The adoption of Christianity as a state religion in 380 AD led to basic changes
in the nature of European marriage, ...
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What is the first instance of a Pope denouncing syncretism with non-Christian faiths in the modern era?
Modern era being 1500 CE and onward. Religious syncretism is an overlapping of faiths. For example, Santa Muerte is a Mexican folk saint that blends a Catholic icon with a native reverence of death. ...
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Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were not motivated as a distraction from internal conflicts?
I was just debating with a Catholic acquaintance. He ascribed merit to the Catholic crusades and said that many historians agreed with him.
Are there any historians who believe that the crusades were ...
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Are there churches that belong to the German Armed Forces?
Yesterday, while walking through Graz, in southern Austria, I noticed an old church. I noticed it because it had a big symbol painted over its entrance door. You might have seen this symbol in WWI and ...
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What authority did the Catholic Church have over European monarchs from 900–1450?
I recently described the Catholic Church as a superpower during the Middle Ages and was surprised a respected member of the board (LangLangC) objected to that characterization and thought the Catholic ...
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What is the relevance of the Confession of Augsburg to the Colloquy at Poissy?
According the wikipedia article Colloquy at Poissy
Catharine [de' Medici] appointed a smaller committee of five Calvinists and five Roman Catholics. Their task was to devise a formula on which the ...
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Did Freemasons motivate Spain's expulsion of Jesuits?
Carlos III of Spain was a Catholic, but an anticlerical one. After riots in Madrid, he expelled the Society of Jesus (and was followed in this by Pope Clement XIV). The same year, 1767, the first ...
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Were the popes during the Avignon era still considered bishop of Rome?
The Catholic pope is also the bishop of Rome, since St Peter. However, the Papacy moved to Avignon from 1309 to 1376. Were these popes (seven in all) still considered bishops of Rome? Bishops are ...
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