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"Under the Sign of Scorpion" by Juri - Gnostic Liberation Front

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a new coin to celebrate <strong>the</strong> massacre. This information comes from Buch-<br />

wald's book "The History <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Church".<br />

In 1198, <strong>the</strong> church established a commission to persecute and try<br />

heretics. This later developed into <strong>the</strong> Holy Inquisition. In 1483, Tomas<br />

Torquemada (1420-1498), a Marrano (baptised Jew), was appointed Grand<br />

Inquisitor <strong>of</strong> Castilia and Aragon. In 1492, he expelled all Jews who<br />

refused to become Marranos.<br />

Torquemada worked intensively for 18 years and burned people at <strong>the</strong><br />

stake. He is said to have executed many children personally. Symbolic<br />

straw dolls were burned in lieu <strong>of</strong> those who had been charged in absentia.<br />

Many people were imprisoned for life, and Torquemada sent thousands to<br />

<strong>the</strong> galleys.<br />

The terror <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Church in Spain was, however, substantially less than<br />

in <strong>the</strong> rest <strong>of</strong> Europe. Pr<strong>of</strong>essors Henry Kamen (Barcelona) and Stephen<br />

Haliczer (Illinois) have made important revisions to <strong>the</strong> information<br />

regarding <strong>the</strong> extent <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> administration <strong>of</strong> justice <strong>by</strong> <strong>the</strong> Inquisition.<br />

According to pr<strong>of</strong>essor Jose Alvarez-Junco at <strong>the</strong> University <strong>of</strong> Tuft, <strong>the</strong><br />

Inquisition only executed, at <strong>the</strong> most, 5000 Spaniards during 350 years,<br />

while at least 150 000 people ("witches") were burned at <strong>the</strong> stake as<br />

heretics in <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r Christian countries. He concludes that all historians<br />

have spread exaggerated information and even myths about <strong>the</strong><br />

Inquisition.<br />

This Grand Inquisitor made torture an efficient tool: certain parts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

body were burned, certain parts had nails hammered through <strong>the</strong>m, certain<br />

chosen victims were flayed alive. In order to secure <strong>the</strong>ir possessions, he<br />

accused o<strong>the</strong>r Marranos <strong>of</strong> faking <strong>the</strong>ir allegiance to Christianity. Ano<strong>the</strong>r<br />

Marrano, Isaac Abrabael, controlled Spanish finances at <strong>the</strong> time.<br />

In December 1917, a special commission for dealing with counter-<br />

revolutionaries was set up in Petrograd. This organisation was called <strong>the</strong><br />

Cheka in Soviet Russia, and was especially infamous under its subsequent<br />

abbreviations - OGPU, NKVD, and lastly as <strong>the</strong> KGB.<br />

The Inquisition encouraged children to betray <strong>the</strong>ir "heretical" parents<br />

and married couples to hand each o<strong>the</strong>r in. Each informer was paid four<br />

silver marks. The Soviet <strong>of</strong>ficials encouraged a similar type <strong>of</strong> betrayal.<br />

There are still more similarities between institutions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bolsheviks,<br />

<strong>the</strong> Roman Catholic Church, and <strong>the</strong> freemasons. High church figures had<br />

commissars bearing letters authorising <strong>the</strong>m to exercise <strong>the</strong> authority <strong>of</strong><br />

16

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