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 was the impact of the Index of Prohibited books by the Catholic church? [closed]
In the context of freedom of expression by the Church, the Index is something I have heard among discussions with my friends. I have checked the Wikipedia article, but the scope and impact didn't ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...
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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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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 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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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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 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 was the real name of Bishop Contumeliosus of Riez?
History has recorded the name of an allegedly badly-behaved bishop of Riez as Bishop "Contumeliosus of Riez" (he was later absolved of his accusations).
Now, Contumeliosus is definitely not the real ...
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What was the biggest region in the Holy Roman Empire that was never Protestant, if any?
It is well known that Germany is denominational divided. This comes from the time of Reformation and esp. the Peace of Augsburg 1555, when the right of each prince of the Empire to decide over the ...
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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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Where can I find historical statistics about Catholic monasticism? [closed]
I'm reading a book on monasticism (The World of Medieval Monasticism, by Melville) and the author very often makes statements like "by year X, there were Y monasteries in Europe with around Z members" ...
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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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What is the most severe punishment a priest could have in history for violating his vows of celibacy?
I am doing a research about this topic, because I wanted to know if at some point in the history of Chirstian Church (specially the Catholic Chuch) would have a punishment for priests violating their ...
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Did average church-goers understand mass in Latin?
Since around the 4th century AD, Latin is the official language of the Catholic Church. As such, most of this period, the official language of the Mass was Latin (there has been exceptions). A key ...
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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 was Pope Innocent VIII's reaction to the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews in 1492?
What was the reaction of the Pope of the Catholic Church to the Edict of Expulsion of the Jews of Spain on March 31, 1492?
Did Pope Innocent VIII (d. July 25, 1492) condemn publicly Spain's decree? ...
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To what extent is the Catholic church responsible for historical Antisemitism in Europe? [closed]
Jews faced a great deal of Antisemitism, as defined by radically different treatment compared to their Christian counterparts, with particular attention to violence, throughout their history. ...
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Which Catholic priests were given diplomatic missions?
Fernández de San Vicente was a high-ranking priest appointed by Mexico's government for a diplomatic mission to the Californias in 1822. Despite being nominally in the same country¸ the isolation of ...
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Were the islands/countries discovered by Hispanic explorers named after Mozarabic feast days? [closed]
The Spanish and Portuguese often named newly discovered countries and islands after the feast days they were discovered, especially during the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It is always assumed ...
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Did the early Christian community on Iceland require the import of wine for liturgy?
Roman Catholic liturgy requires wine, which cannot be produced in Iceland. Did the Christianisation of early Norse settlers entail a need to constantly import wine as a result?
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Did Pope Urban II issue the papal bull "terra nullius" in 1095?
Countless sources claim that the origin of the term terra nullius is from a papal bull issued by Pope Urban II in 1095 called "Terra nullius". Here are a two:
Pramod K. Nayar, The Postcolonial ...
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Is there a meaning in a name marked on the rear of a headstone rather than the front?
I have found a family headstone with the names of the deceased on the front (with many details), and a military cross (for their son) in front of the stone. On the rear of the stone is a name and age,...
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Was Deicide officially taught in American Catholic ("parochial") schools and if so, when did it officially end?
In the 1970s, which was after Vatican II by several years, the younger brother of a friend was attending a Catholic school -- he was 9 or 10 maybe. He told me that the Jews had killed Christ and went ...
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Were priests in politics in New Spain?
In the the Spanish Empire generally, the royal state and the state church were tightly coupled. One hierarchy supposedly answered to the Viceroy and then the King; the other to the Archbishop and the ...
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Were princes and other large landowners motivated to support the Reformation by the frequency of Church holidays?
Church holidays or holy days were very frequent in the middle ages. Here is one link Medieval Holidays that testifies this:
"The rural population of the Middle Ages had their days of rest and ...
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Did Popes publicly call for any assassinations other than that of Elizabeth I?
According to encyclopedia.com, following on the Protestant Reformation,
In 1580, outraged at the deaths of Catholic missionaries, Pope Gregory XIII made a pronouncement that encouraged Elizabeth's ...
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A question about the definition of heresy (13th. C)
I write considering a definition of heresy, given by Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln (fl. 1235), who's words are widely cited in regards to the history of the inquisition:
An opinion created by human ...
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Was there a priest on the Titanic who stayed on the ship giving confession to as many as he could?
In the fiction book Emily's Hope, by Ellen Gable, there is a passage set in 1912 that describes a news article about a priest on board the RMS Titanic:
She glanced down at the newspaper again and ...
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