What a wonderful read!
Have you ever read about an author a thousand times in the books of others, who quote the person as they like, to their own use, and then discover that many things were taken out of context when you read the books by yourself?
Well, that was pretty much the case here. Don’t get me wrong, I disagree with many of the things he said, but Too much blame has been placed on this one man in regards to the Inquisition.
His entire compelling was one of economic sanctions and against the Death Penalty.
What is interesting in the end is that it is not what an author writes, but what the author sets in motion by what he writes.
- The fathers of the American Nation were slave owners who had a particular idea of “man” in mind when they wrote that “All men are created equal”. while the intention might not have been to extend to all races of men, the words set in motion what they had perhaps never intended.
- Nietzsche was not a Nazi in his own mind, but the words he wrote down nevertheless were to set in motion part of the reich’s propaganda machine, helped of course, greatly by the machinations of his sister; but even then, the text was pliable enough to allow such exchange of meaning.
- So too with St Augustine. He may not have intended stakes for the unbelievers, but his interpretation of scripture set in motion indirectly the wheels of the Inquisition.
How small is our control of our legacy…