Olavo de Carvalho and the Inquisition
By Julio Severo
The Inquisition is a myth and legend, insists Brazilian
philosopher Olavo de Carvalho, who said today,
“Without the black legend of the
Inquisition, Protestant churches would never have achieved the success they
did. Who does not want to run from the bloody hands of torturers to the arms of
Our Lord? A legend is an integral component of Protestant prestige and, if the
legend falls, Protestant prestige falls with it. This is the reason that so
many people cling to it not just without evidence, but against all evidence.”
Carvalho has many other pro-Inquisition comments and further
criticism against U.S. Protestants for their allegedly unfair anti-Inquisition “propaganda.”
All of his comments and criticism are published only in Portuguese, of course.
To Protestants, he said today,
“Do not try to clean yourselves in
another’s filth. Illuminatis and communists received the myth of the
Inquisition ready-made from Protestants’ hands and they only passed it on.”
In other comment published today, he compared the “war-like
propaganda” of Protestants against the Inquisition to the communist “cultural
revolution” waged against the military government in Brazil. So, in his view,
Protestants and communists are working hand in hand.
Carvalho often mentions revisionist writers, including
Edward Peters, as his main reference when attacking this “legend.” I wonder if
to talk about the Holocaust that Nazis committed against the Jews he refers to
a revisionist author, who likewise maintains that the Holocaust was a myth and a
legend…
Jews Also Were Victims
Why his insistence on portraying U.S. Protestants as
malignant propagandists, similar to communists, exclusively for the sake of the
Inquisition? Why not include the Jews too?
In 2013, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met
Pope Francis at the Vatican, and gave the leader of the Catholic Church “The
Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain,” a book that largely
revolves about Spanish Catholics questioning, torturing, and punishing the Jews,
exposing how thousands of them were expelled from Spain or burned at the stake.
The Jewish Journal said that “The Origins of the
Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain,” a scholarly magnum opus and in-depth
tome on the Spanish Inquisition, describes how the Catholic Church persecuted,
and often executed, masses of Jews.
Business Insider noted that “it is important to think
of the context of the book, which is written by Netanyahu’s father Ben-Zion
Netanyahu, a well-regarded historian who worked at both Hebrew University of
Jerusalem and Cornell University.”
CBS News said, “Netanyahu’s father, Ben-Zion Netanyahu,
was an Israeli historian… best known in academic circles for his research into
the Catholic Church’s medieval inquisition against the Jews of Spain.”
A Catholic Historian Exposes the Inquisition’s Reality
Renowned Catholic historian Paul Johnson, in his book
“A History Of Christianity” (published in the United Kingdom in 1976), said of
the Inquisition:
“Convictions of thought-crimes
being difficult to secure, the Inquisition used procedures banned in other
courts… The names of hostile witnesses were withheld, anonymous informers were
used, the accusations of personal enemies were allowed, the accused were denied
the right of defence, or of defending counsel; and there was no appeal. The
object, quite simply, was to produce convictions at any cost; only thus, it was
thought, could heresy be quenched.”
“Many countries would not admit the
Inquisition at all… There was the destruction of records.”
“In Spain, the Catholic crown,
through its instrument the Inquisition, exterminated Protestantism in the
1550s.”
“The Inquisition was a popular
instrument, directed against Jews…”
“The Inquisition was set up in
Rome, under the fanatical Neapolitan papalist Cardinal Caraffa (later Pope Paul
iv), whose watchwords were: ‘No man is to abase himself by showing toleration
towards any sort of heretic, least of all a Calvinist’; and ‘Even if my own
father were a heretic, I would gather the wood to burn him.’”
“The Inquisition… proved durable,
largely because it was self-financing from the confiscated property of the
condemned. The fact that it needed the money for its operations meant that it
had to secure convictions. Hence the use of torture.”
“The Inquisition finally ran out of
money in the late eighteenth century, and from that point it became moribund,
though it was not effectively abolished until 1834. The last official Spanish
execution for heresy was in 1826, when a schoolmaster was hanged for
substituting ‘Praise be to God’ in place of ‘Ave Maria’ in school prayers.”
“[Protestant states] might have
state religions but they tended to be more tolerant. They rarely persecuted
systematically. They had no equivalent to the Inquisition. They were not
clericalist. They permitted books to circulate more freely. They did not burden
commerce with canon law. They accepted ‘private’ religion, and placed marriage
and the family at the centre of it. They were thus more congenial to the
capitalist community. As a result, Protestant societies appeared far more
successful than Catholic ones as the capitalist system developed.”
Would Carvalho care that the source of this material is
Catholic?
In a public video (https://youtu.be/Cpq8eaAy7JY), which I
have posted on my Brazilian Facebook, Carvalho stated that all the torture
tools of the Inquisition in the museums around the world were fabricated.
In the video, he explains about anti-Catholic,
especially anti-Inquisition, portrayals in the movie industry and that even
though most movie producers are Jews, their anti-Catholic and anti-Inquisition “bias”
is inspired by Protestants — as if Jews had never had their own history and had
never been tortured and murdered by the Inquisition.
At Least, the FBI Does Not Torture
If Carvalho loves to downplay the Inquisition and its
persecution, why did he bother about the FBI “persecuting” him? A WND report of
2011 said, “FBI suspected
of intimidation tactic” against Olavo de Carvalho.
At least, the FBI did not threaten to torture him or
burn him at the stake. Yet, Carvalho’s fear was baseless: the FBI officially
said that it had done nothing against him.
Did the Inquisition Not Torture?
Carvalho has downplayed the horrors of the Inquisition
in the following public comment:
“Even in the popular image of the
Inquisition fires, lies are predominant. Everybody believe that condemned
individuals ‘died burned,’ amid horrible suffering. The flames were high, more
than 16 feet high, to hinder suffering. The condemned individuals (less than
ten a year in two dozen nations) died suffocated in a few minutes, before the
flames could touch them.”
He also said:
“The myth of the Inquisition has
been the most extensive and lasting campaign of slander and defamation in
history to this day, with multi-million dollar funding, and it seems this campaign
will have no end. Those who created it were not Illuminatis or communists. It
was created by Protestants, who keep promoting it even today, and the irradiant
center is U.S. churches.”
He has said that Protestantism was the first
(Marxist-oriented) revolutionary movement in history. (Of course, in this
perspective, the Inquisition is completely justified against these “Marxist”
pioneers!)
His insistent reference to the Inquisition as a “myth”
and a “legend,” portraying U.S. Protestants as malignant propagandists, seems
calculated to sow chaos in the conservative relationship between Catholics and
Protestants in Brazil. Freemasons and other occultists also use chaos to impose
their order later.
Even though the most prominent members of his institute
— the Inter-American Institute — are
Protestant and he is dependent on them for the promotion of his name in the
U.S., he has publicly called Luther and
Calvin two “sons of bitches.”
Because of my opposition to the Inquisition and his
public advocacy of its revisionism, he has publicly called me dirtier names
than this.
Sadly, all of his pro-Inquisition stances and
name-calling against Luther and me are available only in Portuguese.
Whatever the case may be, a man who extols the virtues
of the Inquisition’s killing machine should never fear the FBI. At least, he would
be spared torture and death.
A Nebulous Esoteric History
Unsuspecting Catholic readers could misunderstand
Carvalho as a Catholic, but before choosing to present himself as a
conservative philosopher who predicts political trends and events, he was a
famous astrologer (and founder and director of the first Brazilian school of
astrologers) who predicted political trends and events.
Carvalho has a nebulous esoteric history, in particular
following the “conservatism” of the Traditionalist or Perennial Philosophy of
René Guénon, an Islamic sorcerer who used to predict political trends and
events. The first translation into Portuguese of a Guénon book was made by
Carvalho.
Two weeks ago, Reinaldo Azevedo, who, like Carvalho,
considers himself a Catholic, has in a Veja report
exposed Carvalho’s past as a professor of astrology and an adherent of the
Islamic mysticism of René Guénon. Azevedo is a columnist of Veja magazine (the
Brazilian counterpart of Time magazine). He exposed Carvalho particularly
because of his insistence on attacking Brazilian leaders who helped in the
massive campaigns to impeach Brazilian Marxist President Dilma Rousseff.
I disagree with the Catholic spiritual worldview, but
here a nominal Catholic is criticizing another nominal Catholic with a prominent
occultist background.
The Hypocrisy of Brazilian Activists
A common feature in Brazilian activists is hypocrisy.
During the military rule in Brazil, leftist activists, who complained against
capitalism, chose exile in England, Sweden and even the United States, the most
capitalist nation in the world. Thus these anticapitalists chose to live in the
most capitalist nations in the world.
Carvalho frequently complains about Protestantism (not just
liberal Protestantism, but Protestantism on the whole, especially U.S.
Protestantism), but he chose exile in the largest Protestant nation in the
world. Why does a man who complains about Protestantism choose to escape from
the largest Catholic nation in the world and live in the most Protestant nation
in the world?
The Inter-American Institute and Its Potty-Mouthed Director
In fact, why would he choose to found, with the help of U.S. Protestants, the
Inter-American Institute, composed of an approximately 50/50 mix of Protestants
and Catholics? A member of his institute, who shall remain unnamed, said to me
that to excuse the Inquisition and its torture and murder of Jews and
Protestants is the same thing as excusing Planned Parenthood and its torture
and murder of unborn babies.
How will these members learn of his ideas if he
expresses publicly his nonsense only in Portuguese, a language they do not
speak?
He usually uses profanity and curse word to criticize
socialists and conservatives. He has excused his dirty and foul language by
saying:
“In the U.S., only the Left uses
profanity and curse words. This is enough to explain why conservatives, even
when they are majority, are always at a disadvantage.”
“In Hollywood movies, two out of
three words are “fuck.” This is what is isolating and weakening conservatives.”
“Lenin already knew that, in
politics, he who reviles more always runs ahead.”
For Carvalho, U.S. conservatives are losing the
cultural war because they refuse foul language!
He excuses his foul mouth as a “strategy” because,
according to him, Vladimir Lenin used it successfully to spread Soviet Marxism,
and he hopes to achieve the same success by employing the same dirty tricks and
language to spread his “conservatism.” Between following Lenin and U.S.
conservatives, he prefers the former. In fact, foul-mouthed “conservatism” is
his hallmark in Brazil.
But his “strategy,” allegedly a weapon against socialists,
is also used to attack Brazilian conservatives that he feels threaten his
views. When I, a conservative evangelical, disagreed with him about the
Catholic Inquisition, which he says did not torture Jews and Protestants for
the “crime” of different views, his potty mouth did not spare me any public
abuse, insult and revilement.
Anti-Marxist Stridency: a Cover?
He has other inconsistencies. For example, his
virulently anti-Russian stances sharply contrast with his opportunistic
endorsement of the Republican presidential candidate pro-Putin Trump. It is
opportunistic because usually he implacably accuses pro-Russia conservatives of
“KGB agents.” His speech is very similar to neocon speeches. I have exposed
this inconsistency in my article “Is
Trump a KGB Agent?”
If his “philosophical” stridency were reserved only to
Russians, he would never compare U.S. Protestants against the Inquisition to
communists.
Is all of this stridency aimed at defending Catholicism
or using it? Last month, Carvalho said that the only serious effort to
understand the communist strategy in Latin America was the Ibn Khaldun Study
Group, in the honor of an Arab Muslim. This secretive group was created by
Carvalho in 2003. Has an anti-Marxist strategy that at the same time pays
homage to Muslims a Catholic appearance?
I wonder what he is going to do after he and his
Inter-American Institute “save” Brazil from Marxism and U.S. Protestants and their
anti-Inquisition “propaganda.” Will he lead Catholics to the “conservatism” of
the Traditionalist or Perennial Philosophy of René Guénon? Will he found a new
Islamic study group to fight Marxism?
Occultist Guénon was anti-Marxist. By the way, Adolf
Hitler, who was an occultist masked as a Catholic, was also stridently against
the Soviet Marxism. He was seen as a “prophet” and “savior,” but his
anti-Marxism did not save Germany.
Carvalho has been seen as a “prophet” and “savior” by
his Brazilian adherents, but will his anti-Marxism save Brazil?
Read also “Olavo de Carvalho” in Conservapedia.
Portuguese
version of this article: Olavo de Carvalho e a Inquisição
Source: Last Days Watchman
Recommended Reading on Olavo de
Carvalho:
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