PURPOSE

The purpose of this historical document is to again disconnect the Holy Name of God from the horrors committed by the European religious and political leaders who claimed to be Christians. Who could possibly believe in the Word of God - Jesus Christ - in the face of this orgy of destruction and debauchery perpetrated by those who proclaimed, from every corner of the world, their Christianity.

This is another example of how faith is destroyed subconsciously - an ever increasing trend that God Wills to be reversed.


INTRODUCTION

This document is based on part of a historical article published in a Spanish magazine (1). The key individuals mentioned in it are the following:


We will not enter into the details as to why and how Juana and Felipe ended getting married, why Felipe died so soon and why Juana ended up locked up as if she were hopelessly insane, nor will we discuss the sordid story of the Borgia Popes (there were two of them, both Spaniards - Calixtus III and Alexander VI).

Those are revolting histories, but very typical of "Christian" Europe. However, to properly cover those subjects would result in a book.


DETAILS

In his last years of life, Christopher Columbus tried by all means to restore his prior benefits that had been taken away by the Catholic Monarchs - Ferdinand and Isabella - for his mistakes as Viceroy of the Indies (the New World). Columbus wrote to King Ferdinand and to Pope Julio II imploring pardon and justice, but every effort was useless - neither was forthcoming.

The discoverer of America died in Valladolid on May 20, 1506. In September of that same year, Felipe el Hermoso (son in law, and co-conspirator, of King Ferdinand) died suddenly in Burgos, which allegedly plunged his wife Juana (the daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella - the famed Catholic Monarchs) into such a state of mental alienation that she was conveniently locked up for life in a convent.

The daughter of Queen Isabella and heiress of the kingdom of Castille was referred to since then 'Juana la Loca' (Jane the Insane). Not only the Crown was taken away from her, but also the custody of her son Charles, whose care was placed into the hands of Marguerite, daughter of the Emperor of the Holy Germanic Empire - Maximilian I of Austria. Upon Maximilian's death in 1519, the title of Emperor of the Holy Germanic Empire was disputed by several candidates, among them, Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England.

Willing not to lose the opportunity of his life, the young Charles (grandson of the Catholic Monarchs - Ferdinand and Isabella) turned to the German bankers Welser and Fugger to obtain a considerable sum of money with which to bribe to the elector and to the bishop of Mainz, whose votes were indispensable to obtain the title. Once the votes were bought and Charles was named Emperor of the Holy Germanic Empire, Charles I of Spain and V of Germany, he became the most powerful monarch of the moment.

During his reign, Spanish explorers continued the work that Columbus had started. These immense territories enlarged the borders and riches of the powerful Empire of Charles V.

The successor of Pope Leo X was his nephew Clement VII, who has gone down in history for his excessive obsession with carnal pleasures. Reliable rumors said that he loved to organize masked balls and sumptuous banquets, in which they served more than sixty different dishes and gigantic puddings from which young men came out nude.

The second pontiff of the Medici family - Clement VII - had a son with a mulatto mistress who became the first hereditary Duke of Florence. Given its exotic physiognomy (dark skinned), the Florentines called him 'El Moro' ('The Moor').

During his papacy, Clement VII faced the wrath of Charles V, who sent troops to Rome to plunder the Vatican and placing the Pope in serious trouble. The offense of this Pope was to try to alter the balance of forces in the region and to free the papacy from the domination exercised by the emperor. In May of 1527, the imperial troops took Rome in reprisal, subjecting it to an orgy of blood and pillage.

For nine months, the emperor's soldiery looted the Roman churches and palaces. Clement VII had to take refuge in the Palace of Sant'Angelo. The Roman population, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the nobles suffered all kinds of humiliations. Many women were raped and many men tortured and killed. The scandal over this bestial imperial conduct was superlative in Europe.

Once recovered from the humiliation to which it was subjected, the Pontifical State was faced with the irruption of Martin Luther (1483-1546) and Protestantism, which seemed to threaten the Pope's position and influence in many European kingdoms.

In 1510, Luther made a trip to Rome, where he observed, scandalized, the splendors and the papal pomp of the 1500's. The disappointed German pastor presented his 95 theses against the Church at the door of the church of All Saints of Wittenberg. He also vehemently criticized the sale of indulgences, through which the sinner obtained the remission of his sins and faults.

In those turbulent times the decline of the Renaissance had already begun. In fact, its end is as imprecise as its beginning. Some scholars suggest that its decline commenced at the end of the 1400's. Others believe that the final blow to the Renaissance was given by Emperor Charles V in 1527 with the sack of Rome, which interrupted for two decades the power of the papacy as the main patron of Renaissance art and architecture.


CONCLUSION

May the True and Living God be Glorified and may the beacon of True Christianity - best exemplified by Catholicism - shine to the far ends of the Universe.






Published on October 12th, 2018 - Feast of Our Lady of El Pilar, Patroness of Spain