Next week one of Melbourne's television stations is screening the horror film Black Sunday and a reviewer in the television guide had the following to write:
"The execution of witches throughout history was often part of the Church's desire to exterminate all Cathars, who claimed to be true Christians. The church helped turn people against the Cathars by falsely linking them with vampirism ... What is puzzling, though, is why the film so loudly proclaims the incredible powers and menace of Satan. If all he can do is wait 200 years for a girl to come along who looks like the executed Asa [the main character], then hope that someone will stumble by and cut their hand on a shard of broken glass so the dripping blood will revive Asa's corpse, and then wait even longer while a complex and lengthy transference of life-force takes place, then you have to conclude that Satan's powers have been seriously overstated."
Concerning the Cathari, it is sufficient to recall what their principal tenets were in order to see why the Church regarded them as a threat not only to her own welfare but also the whole of European society. First, the existence of a benevolent god of the spirit in perpetual conflict with a malignant god of matter. Second, the visible world as a work of evil, preservation of the human race and possession of private property as sinful, and food from animals as defiling the soul. Third, a spiritual baptism at the point of death for the remission of sin but if the patient recovered he was to be smothered or starved to death to assure his salvation. Fourth, Christ was only human, therefore a subject of the malignant god and incapable of redeeming humanity. Fifth, the church was an instrument of the malignant god, therefore her ministers were to be abused and her property desecrated.
Concerning the powers of Satan I would simply recommend reading the life of St. John Vianney, Fr Delaporte's The Devil: Does He Exist and What Does He Do or Leon Christiani's Evidence of Satan in the Modern World, which includes references to the Cure d'Ars.
"The execution of witches throughout history was often part of the Church's desire to exterminate all Cathars, who claimed to be true Christians. The church helped turn people against the Cathars by falsely linking them with vampirism ... What is puzzling, though, is why the film so loudly proclaims the incredible powers and menace of Satan. If all he can do is wait 200 years for a girl to come along who looks like the executed Asa [the main character], then hope that someone will stumble by and cut their hand on a shard of broken glass so the dripping blood will revive Asa's corpse, and then wait even longer while a complex and lengthy transference of life-force takes place, then you have to conclude that Satan's powers have been seriously overstated."
Concerning the Cathari, it is sufficient to recall what their principal tenets were in order to see why the Church regarded them as a threat not only to her own welfare but also the whole of European society. First, the existence of a benevolent god of the spirit in perpetual conflict with a malignant god of matter. Second, the visible world as a work of evil, preservation of the human race and possession of private property as sinful, and food from animals as defiling the soul. Third, a spiritual baptism at the point of death for the remission of sin but if the patient recovered he was to be smothered or starved to death to assure his salvation. Fourth, Christ was only human, therefore a subject of the malignant god and incapable of redeeming humanity. Fifth, the church was an instrument of the malignant god, therefore her ministers were to be abused and her property desecrated.
Concerning the powers of Satan I would simply recommend reading the life of St. John Vianney, Fr Delaporte's The Devil: Does He Exist and What Does He Do or Leon Christiani's Evidence of Satan in the Modern World, which includes references to the Cure d'Ars.
posted by Lactantius at
2:54 pm
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