Wide ranging study on Christian forgery?

[rgprice]

I have read Ehrman's Forgery and Counter Forgery, as well as Candida Moss' Myth of Persecution, both of which deal with forgery in a limited scope. But are there are good studies that document the full scope of Christian forgery from the earliest documents up through the modern era? I'd like to get some stats on stuff like forgery rates by period, by subject matter, by supposed source, etc., etc. Of course much is debatable and subjective, but surely there is some base of documents that are widely agreed to be forged, etc.

Who has identified the forgeries (Catholic vs Protestant), when were they identified, when were they widely accepted as such, etc., etc. Anyone know of a good source for something like this?

[Secret Alias]

Let's be honest. If upon our deathbeds most of us could rewrite our own histories, who wouldn't take advantage of that? Look at modern Judaism. I am Jewish. I honestly don't understand how Jewish people can read the Pentateuch and see the description of religion there and say "this is the religion I practice." In this case, Judaism was changed from without. Rome destroyed the temple and refused to allow Jews to rebuild their sacrificial altar. Fine. But why don't we see this as an example of what happened with Christianity? The idea that Christianity started in 30 CE and came down throughout the ages without the Roman government "suggesting" changes is ridiculous. The name "Christianos" is clearly influenced by Latin. So the religion's identity was modified through contact with the language of the oppressor. It's like the n-word among black people. This is a European terminology which describes darker skinned people. The idea that modern black self-identity wasn't shaped by the oppressors hand is just as ridiculous IMHO as claiming that early Christianity (with all the Latin-infused names of the various "bad sects" too) escaped being shaped by its oppressor.

I am still old enough to remember George W Bush declaring himself a religious expert on Islam, identifying "good" forms of Islam and "bad" ones (based solely on whether or not that particular sect was amenable to Western ideology). It's the job of the secular authorities to curb the sectarian impulses of its religious communities.

[dabber]

I would say Paul's seven authentic letters of Paul are genuine, and all the rest in and out of Canon are anonymous or fake, so it's only really Paul which is reliable.

[Secret Alias]

In what sense are they "genuine"? I own a dog. Rescuing a shelter animal is noble. But you're getting damaged goods. Buy a dog from a good breeder. You have a human being in terms of emotional potential. A shelter animal may love you but they're fucked in the head. They could bite you, your kids at any time. Not so with the "genuine" love of a dog from a breeder, a pet that hasn't been formerly abused. It's the same with texts. The Pauline epistles have been damaged and abused. All of them. The abused dog always manifests signs of its abuse. Can't truly love without letting memories of abuse enter into their mind. It's like dating a whore. There are advantages for sure. A virgin isn't going to know the things a whore knows. But a whore is almost certainly damaged goods (the comparison of texts to whores goes at least as far back as the Bible).

[rgprice]

I don't really care about that stuff, or even what "really is" or "really isn't" forgery. More I'm trying to get at what documents have been declared forgeries, by whom, and when. We can argue all day about what really is or isn't. I just want to know, who declared what a forgery and when, and I'm looking for the widest possible scope, like including the stories about saints, martyrs, church rolls, letters of correspondence, property records, government decrees, papal forgeries, etc., etc.

[Secret Alias]

Let's start with the Ten Commandments. It wasn't written by the author identified as the author. It all started from then.

[Leucius Charinus]

I have read Ehrman's Forgery and Counter Forgery, as well as Candida Moss' Myth of Persecution, both of which deal with forgery in a limited scope. But are there are good studies that document the full scope of Christian forgery from the earliest documents up through the modern era? I'd like to get some stats on stuff like forgery rates by period, by subject matter, by supposed source, etc., etc. Of course much is debatable and subjective, but surely there is some base of documents that are widely agreed to be forged, etc.

Who has identified the forgeries (Catholic vs Protestant), when were they identified, when were they widely accepted as such, etc., etc. Anyone know of a good source for something like this?

More I'm trying to get at what documents have been declared forgeries, by whom, and when. We can argue all day about what really is or isn't. I just want to know, who declared what a forgery and when, and I'm looking for the widest possible scope, like including the stories about saints, martyrs, church rolls, letters of correspondence, property records, government decrees, papal forgeries, etc., etc.

Even a brief study reveals sufficient evidence to support the proposition that forgery related to Christian history is rife in every century from at least the 4th. In general it has been admitted that the systematic studies of such forgery and pious fraud are quite rare. The extent of this such forgery (and pious fraud) applies to:

* literary (manuscript) forgery
* epigraphic forgery and
* the fabrication of artefacts and manuscripts subsequently used as evidence in fraudulent) support of the church organisation's historical discourse.

Although the OP probably leans towards literary (manuscript) forgery, it is worthwhile to consider the following observation in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy (pp. 42-65), concerning the study of epigraphic forgeries from 15th to 19th century.

Introduction

The issue of epigraphic forgeries is closely connected not only to the history of epigraphy, but also to the rediscovery and reuse of antiquity in the Middle Ages. Forgery is a field of study still in its infancy. For example, we lack an electronic database of all forged texts.

p.43 --- Forgeries Transmitted in Manuscripts or in Printed Works (Silvia Orlandi)

p.48 --- Forgeries Carved in Stone (Maria Letizia Caldelli)
The title of “supreme producer of epigraphic forgeries” unquestionably belongs to Pirro Ligorio (c. 1512–83).

p.54 --- Historical and Documentary Forgeries (Gian Luca Gregori)

p.61 --- Conclusion

It is difficult to identify a common type of behaviour among the various forgers. While in some cases their products appear rather sloppy and easy to detect, in other instances they managed to deceive even experts, though palaeography, onomastics, and the formulas used should have raised at least some doubts. As seen above, some alleged fakes have, on the other hand, recently been rehabilitated, since it has become clear that in reality they derive from the simple misunderstanding of an authentic text. For other documents, however, the debate continues between scholars taking opposing views, some favouring authenticity, and further research is needed. The most famous case is certainly the so-called ibula Praenestina (see n. 45).

This fascinating and still largely under-investigated chapter in the history of epigraphy would be worth a much more extensive survey. In particular, for several reasons this contribution has focused on Italy, but the phenomenon of forgeries and fakes was widespread in other places too. Some work has been done, but more is needed.

Forgeries and Fakes, in The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 2015, pp. 42-65
CHAPTER 3 -- FORGERIES AND FAKES
SILVIA OR LANDI, MARIA LETIZIA CALDELLI, AND GIAN LUCA GREGORI
https://www.academia.edu/9558799/Forger ... _pp._42-65

If such systematic studies are rare in epigraphic forgeries I'd suspect they are even rarer in the field of manuscript forgeries and in the study of manuscript interpolations. So IMO there may be no general studies of this stuff for people to simply review.

I have made some notes on some of these forgeries and studies of forgeries and am happy to present some of these in future posts if you are interested. However if this is the case I have one preliminary question:

This question relates to the book "Forgery in Christianity" by Joseph Wheless located here:
https://infidels.org/library/historical ... istianity/

I have previously directed your attention to this. Have you reviewed the work? If so what are your impressions?



9th century PSEUDO-ISIDORE CHURCH FORGERY MILL

Finally, to conclude this post I'd point out (again) that the greatest known pious forgery and fraud which has been exposed as such is known under the title of Pseudo-Isidore. The forgery was undertaken by the church in the 9th century and remained undetected for almost eight centuries until the 17th century when, in 1628, the Protestant Blondel published his decisive study, "Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus vapulantes".

The fact that this 9th century forgery was so influential for so long does not bode well for the level of confidence that may be placed upon the manuscripts of the so-called "Fathers" (both ante Nicene and post Nicene) because the earliest extant manuscripts for the entire field of partistics are dated after the 9th century. And many are dated much later.

In a separate thread I have presented some exmples of this forgery.
See: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10286
Examples of Pseudo-Isidore forged letters from Ante Nicene epoch
(See in particular the letter containing the hand-over of the church of Rome from Peter to Clement --- remembering that the church produced this document in support of their historical narrative about the Roman church between the 9th and 17th century.

The Decretals of the Pseudo-Isidore

False Decretals is a name given to certain apocryphal papal letters contained in a collection of canon laws composed about the middle of the ninth century by an author who uses the pseudonym of Isidore Mercator, in the opening preface to the collection. For the student of this collection, the best, indeed the only useful edition, is that of Hinschius, "Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianæ" (Leipzig, 1863). The figures in parenthesis occurring during the course of this article refer the reader to the edition of Hinschius. The name "False Decretals" is sometimes extended to cover not only the papal letters forged by Isidore, and contained in his collection, but the whole collection, although it contains other documents, authentic or apocryphal, written before Isidore's time.

The Collection of Isidore falls under three headings:

(1) A list of sixty apocryphal letters or decrees attributed to the popes from St. Clement (88-97) to Melchiades (311-314) inclusive. Of these sixty letters fifty-eight are forgeries; they begin with a letter from Aurelius of Carthage requesting Pope Damasus (366-384) to send him the letters of his predecessors in the chair of the Apostles; and this is followed by a reply in which Damasus assures Aurelius that the desired letters were being sent. This correspondence was meant to give an air of truth to the false decretals, and was the work of Isidore.


(2) A treatise on the Primitive Church and on the Council of Nicæa, written by Isidore, and followed by the authentic canons of fifty-four councils. It should be remarked, however, that among the canons of the second Council of Seville (page 438) canon vii is an interpolation aimed against chorepiscopi.

(3) The letters mainly of thirty-three popes, from Silvester (314-335) to Gregory II (715-731). Of these about thirty letters are forgeries, while all the others are authentic. This is but a very rough description of their contents and touches only on the more salient points of a most intricate literary question.


Their apocryphal character

Nowadays every one agrees that these so-called papal letters are forgeries. These documents, to the number of about one hundred, appeared suddenly in the ninth century and are nowhere mentioned before that time. The most ancient Manuscripts of them that we have are from the ninth century, and their method of composition, of which we shall treat later, shows that they were made up of passages and quotations of which we know the sources; and we are thus in a position to prove that the Pseudo-Isidore makes use of documents written long after the times of the popes to whom he attributes them. Thus it happens that popes of the first three centuries are made to quote documents that did not appear until the fourth or fifth century; and later popes up to Gregory I (590-604) are found employing documents dating from the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, and the early part of the ninth. Then again there are endless anachronisms. The Middle Ages were deceived by this huge forgery, but during the Renaissance men of learning and the canonists generally began to recognize the fraud. Two cardinals, John of Torquemada (1468) and Nicholas of Cusa (1464), declared the earlier documents to be forgeries, especially those purporting to be by Clement and Anacletus. Then suspicion began to grow. Erasmus (died 1536) and canonists who had joined the Reformation, such as Charles du Moulin (died 1568), or Catholic canonists like Antoine* le Conte (died 1586), and after them the Centuriators of Magdeburg, in 1559, put the question squarely before the learned world. Nevertheless the official edition of the "Corpus Juris", in 1580, upheld the genuineness of the false decretals, many fragments of which are to be found in the "Decretum" of Gratian. As a partial explanation of this it is enough to recall the case of Antonio Agustin (died 1586), the greatest canonist of that period. Agustin seriously doubted the genuineness of the documents, but he never formally repudiated them. He felt he had not sufficient proof at hand, so he simply shirked the difficulty. And it is also to be remembered that, owing to the irritating controversies of the time, anything like an impartial and methodical discussion of such a subject was an utter impossibility. In 1628 the Protestant Blondel published his decisive study, "Pseudo-Isidorus et Turrianus vapulantes". Since then the apocryphal nature of the decretals of Isidore has been an established historical fact. The last of the false decretals that had escaped the keen criticism of Blondel were pointed out by two Catholic priests, the brothers Ballerini, in the eighteenth century.


How the forgery was done

Isidore was too clever to invent these documents in toto out of his own head. For the most part he plagiarized them in substance, and often in form. For the background he made use of certain data such as the "Liber Pontificalis", a chronicle of the popes from St. Peter onward, which was begun at Rome during the first twenty years of the sixth century. For instance, in the "Liber" it is recorded that such a pope issued such a decree that had been lost or mislaid, or perhaps had never existed at all. Isidore seized the opportunity to supply a pontifical letter suitable for the occasion, attributing it to the pope whose name was mentioned in the "Liber". Thus his work had a shadow of historical sanction to back it up. But it was especially in the form of the letters that the forger played the plagiarist. His work is a regular mosaic of phrases stolen from various works written either by clerics or laymen. This network of quotations is computed to number more than 10,000 borrowed phrases, and Isidore succeeded in stringing them together by that loose, easy style of his, in such a way that the many forgeries perpetrated either by him or his assistants have an undeniable family resemblance. Without doubt he was one of the most learned men of his day. From Blondel in the seventeenth century to Hinschius in the nineteenth, even up to quite recently, efforts have been made to discover all the texts made use of in the False Decretals. They make up quite a library. It is clear that the forger could not have had at hand the entire text from which he drew. He must have been content with extracts, selections, florilegia. But thereon we can only fall back on conjecture.

Isidore might have united the hundred documents he had forged in one single homogeneous collection, which would have been exclusively his work, and then secured its circulation, but, clever man that he was, he chose a different plan. To baffle suspicion he inserted or interpolated all his forgeries in an already existing collection. There was a genuine canonical collection which had been drawn in Spain about 633, and was known as the "Hispana", or Spanish. It contained (cf. Migne, P.L., LXXXIV, 93-848) first of all the texts of the councils from that of Nicæa; secondly the decretals of the popes from Damasus (366-384). Isidore took the volume and prefixed to it the first sixty of his forged decretals from Clement to Miltiades inclusive; these now became the first part of the collection of Isidore. As part II of his collection he retained part I of the Hispana collection, i.e. the genuine collection of councils since Nicæa (325). And as part III of his new volume added part II of the old Hispana, i.e. the genuine pontifical letters since Pope Damasus, but he inserted here and there among them the letters he had forged under the names of the various popes between Damasus and Gregory I (590-604). He was not yet safe, however. So, in order to give a more imposing appearance to the work, he inserted other documents not forged by him, but borrowed bodily from other collections of canon laws. Besides all this he interpolated many additions to authentic documents and added several prefaces to bolster up the fraud. To simplify this description it has been assumed that the forger made use of the unadulterated text of the Hispana. But as a matter of fact he used a French edition, and a very incorrect one at that, of the Hispana, and which was known on that account as the "Hispana Gallica", or French Hispana, which has never been edited, and which is to be found in the Manuscript 411 of the Latin Documents in the Library of Vienna. Furthermore, the forger tampered with the text of this French Hispana, so that his copy becomes, so to speak, a third edition or revision of the old Hispana. This is known as the "Hispana Gallica Augustodunensis", or "of Autun", so called because the Latin Manuscript, 1341, of the Vatican, which contains it, came from Autun. This collection likewise has remained unedited.

The Isidorian collection was published between 847 and 852. On the one hand it must have been published before 852, because Hincmar quotes the false decretal of Stephen I (p. 183) among the statutes of a council (Migne, P.L., CXXV, 775), and on the other hand it cannot have been published before 847, because it makes use of the false capitularies of Benedict Levitas, which were not concluded until after 21 April, 847. As to the place where the Decretals were forged, critics are all agreed that it was somewhere in France. The documents used by the forger, and especially those relating more nearly to his own epoch, are nearly all of French origin. And, as we have already pointed out, the frame chosen for the forgeries was the French edition of the Hispana. He also makes use of the "Dionysio-Hadriana" collection, which was the code of the Frankish Church, and of the Quesnel collection, which had a French origin. Moreover, he refers to the Councils of Meaux and of Aachen of 836, and to that of Paris of 829, etc. On Legal matters he quotes the "Breviarium" of Alaric. When he refers to civil affairs it is those of France he illustrates by. Lastly, it was in France that his work was first quoted, and there it had its greatest vogue. But while critics are all agreed that the forgery was done in France, they differ very widely when it comes to fixing the locality. Some are in favour of Le Mans and the province of Tours; others incline towards the province of Reims. We shall have occasion to refer to these differences later on; for the present we may be satisfied that the false decretals were forged in the North of France between 847 and 852.

Now, what was the condition of the Church in France at that time? It was but a few brief years after the Treaty of Verdun (843), which had put a definitive close to the Carlovingian empire by founding three distinct kingdoms. Christendom was a prey to the onslaught of Normans and Saracens; but on the whole the era of civil strife was over. In ecclesiastical circles Church reform was still spoken of, but hardly hoped for. It was especially after the death of Charlemagne (814) that reform began to be considered, but the abuses to be corrected dated from long before Charlemagne's time, and went back to the very beginnings of the Frankish church under the Merovingians. The personal government of the king or emperor had many serious drawbacks on religious grounds. In the mind of the bishops reform and ecclesiastical liberty were identical, and this liberty they required for their persons as well as for the Church. Doubtless Charlemagne's government had been advantageous to the Church, but it was none the less an oppressive protection and dearly bought. The Church was frankly subject to the State. Initiatives which ought to have been the proper function of the spiritual power were usurped by Charlemagne. He summoned synods and confirmed their decisions. He disposed largely of all church benefices. And in matters of importance ecclesiastical tribunals were presided over by him. While the great emperor lived these inconveniences had their compensating advantages and were tolerated. The Church had a mighty supporter at her back. But as soon as he died the Carlovingian dynasty began to show signs of ever-increasing debility, and the Church, bound up with, and subordinate to, the political power, was dragged into the ensuing civil strife and disunion. Church property excited the cupidity of the various factions, each of them wished to use the bishops as tools, and when defeat came the bishops on the vanquished side were exposed to the vengeance of their adversaries. There were charges brought against them, and sentences passed on them, and not canon law, but political exigencies, ruled in the synods. It was the triumph of The lay element in the Church. Success, even when it came, had its drawbacks. In order to devote themselves to political questions the bishops had to neglect their spiritual duties. They were to be seen more often on the embassies than on visitations. As supplies in their dioceses they had to call in auxiliaries known as chorepiscopi. What wonder, then, that these abuses gave rise to complaints? Especially after 829 the bishops were clamouring for ecclesiastical liberty, for legal guarantees, for immunity of church property, for regularity of church administration, for the decrease of the number of chorepiscopi and of their privileges. But all in vain; the Carlovingian nobles, who profited by these abuses, were opposed to reform. Powerless to better itself, could the Frankish Church count on Rome? At this very time the situation of the papacy was by no means inspiring; the Church at Rome was largely subject to the lay power in the hands of the imperial missi. Sergius II (844-847) has not escaped the reproach of Simony. Leo IV (847-855) had to defend his person just like any simple Frankish bishop. In the face of such a wretched situation the juridical prescriptions of Isidore are ideal.

etc etc etc

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05773a.htm

[rgprice]

@Leucius Charinus Thanks for this, very helpful.

This question relates to the book "Forgery in Christianity" by Joseph Wheless located here:
https://infidels.org/library/historical ... istianity/

I have previously directed your attention to this. Have you reviewed the work? If so what are your impressions?

Yes. It has some helpful nuggets. It's obviously a bit polemic and suffers from many of the same problems as other works of this era, but its a useful resource for sure.

[Leucius Charinus]

@Leucius Charinus Thanks for this, very helpful.

This question relates to the book "Forgery in Christianity" by Joseph Wheless located here:
https://infidels.org/library/historical ... istianity/

I have previously directed your attention to this. Have you reviewed the work? If so what are your impressions?

Yes. It has some helpful nuggets. It's obviously a bit polemic ...

Polemic is defined as "a strong verbal or written attack on someone or something".

The historian Momigliano writes about the condemnation of forgeries in this manner:

"only a historian can be guilty of forging evidence or of knowingly used forged evidence in order to support his own historical discourse. One is never simple-minded enough about the condemnation of forgeries. Pious frauds are frauds, for which one must show no piety - and no pity.

p.3; ON PAGANS, JEWS, and CHRISTIANS (1987)

Therefore IMO the polemic of Joseph Wheless is completely justified. Of course there will always be those who, as a result of their inculcation, bloated by the willingness to believe in the sanctity of the church sources, will falsely attribute prejudice, malice and all sorts of negative connotations to such polemical expression.

... and suffers from many of the same problems as other works of this era ...

The 1930 work relentlessly cites its primary sources which cannot be classed as a problem. Yes it is old. Yes it is relentlessly polemical about the "Falsifying Fathers" of the church. But so it should be since it is quite evident that into many of these primary sources there has been inserted blatant forgeries. Take for example Wheless' introduction to Father Justin:

JUSTIN MARTYR: (c. 100-165): Saint, Martyr, a foremost
Christian Apologist. A Gentile ex-Pagan of Samaria, turned
Christian, and supposed to have suffered martyrdom in the reign of
Marcus Aurelius, in whose name he forged a very preposterous
rescript. His principal works, in Greek, are his two Apologies, the
first addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, whose reply he also
forged; the second to "the sacred Senate" of Rome; his Dialogue
with Trypho the Jew, and his Hortatory Address to the Greeks.

The facts remain that the Apologies of Justin Martyr contain at least two forged documents supposedly authored by Roman emperors. This does not seem to trouble some academics from citing Justin as a reliable historical source related to the history of the early Christian church organisation including the supposed history and supposed beliefs of the supposed Marcion.

... but its a useful resource for sure.

Indeed it represents a useful resource which may be used in a preliminary identification of forgeries within the preserved manuscripts supposedly authored by the "Fathers".

There are other works in this category. One work which is even older is:

Crimes of Christianity (1887) - G.W. Foote and J.M.Wheller
https://www.ftarchives.net/foote/crimes/contents.htm

Chapter 4: Pious Forgeries --- https://www.ftarchives.net/foote/crimes/c4.htm
Chapter 5: Pious Frauds ------ https://www.ftarchives.net/foote/crimes/c5.htm

This work does not often cite the primary sources and as a result may suffer from "the same problems as other works of this era" as you have written above. Instead the work cites secondary and tertiary sources that have been gathered in condemnation of pious forgery and fraud. One therefore has to refer back to these secondary and tertiary sources in order to reach the primary sources upon which the condemnations are based.

Finally there is a more modern general treatment of forgery and fraud that may be worthwhile looking at if it can be obtained. This is Volume 3 of the "Criminal History of Christianity" by the author and church critic Karlheinz Deschner.

Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums (In English Criminal History of Christianity) is the main work of the author and church critic Karlheinz Deschner. It describes the misconduct attributed to various Christian churches, denominations, sects, and leagues, as well as its representatives and Christian sovereigns during Christian history. The work covers the entire history of Christianity from its biblical beginnings until the present. It was published in ten volumes beginning in 1986, with the final volume appearing in March 2013.[1]

Partial or complete translations of this work have been published in Italian,[2] Spanish, Greek, Polish, Russian and English.[3]

Summary
In the introduction to the complete works, which is the beginning of the first volume, Deschner explains his intention by starting with what is not to be found in his work: an answer to the question "What is Christianity good for?". According to the sentence Audiatur et altera pars ("one should listen to the other side, too") he wants to counterbalance the gigantic ascendence of the existing glorification of Christianity. Also, he does not want to write about the alleged or - exceptionally - really positive effects of Christianity. Instead, he wants to demonstrate that the advocates of a primary moral instance not only partially but permanently failed their own ideals.

Deschner anticipates the main criticism at his work, namely the one-sidedness of selection of facts, and responds with a clear counter. His aim was not a history of churches, but an illustration of all (including non-church) phenomena of Christianity. These would be measured up to not only generic terms, like crime or humanity, but also to the central ethical ideas of the synoptics, as well as to the Christian self-conception as the religion of glad tidings, love, peace, etc., and also the ignored demands of the later church, like prohibition of military service (first for all Christians, then for the clergy, only), ban on simony, interest-taking, usury and many more.

List of volumes with abstracts
In the following, all volumes are listed with an abstract for each of them. The English titles were taken from the author's English web-site[4] where available. Where not available, they are marked as (translation).


Vol. 1: Die Frühzeit (The Early Period)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1986). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.1, Die Frühzeit. Von den Ursprüngen im Alten Testament bis zum Tod des heiligen Augustinus (430). Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt. ISBN 3-498-01263-0.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 1. The Early Period. From Old Testament origins to the death of Saint Augustine (430).

This first volume was published after 16 years of preparatory work. It illustrates the genesis of Christianity and its ascension to the Roman state religion.

It starts with a look into the Old Testament. Deschner describes the land seizure of the Israelites after the crumbling Egyptian power in Palestine in the 14th and 13th century B.C.E. and the destruction of the Canaan city-state system. This beginning, which does not directly concern Christianity, but ancient Judaism, demonstrates the relation between religious rhetoric and violent political reality: This is where Deschner sees the origin of a tradition of holy wars, following which Christians later commit numerous mass murders in the name of Israel's God, too. He describes the many death penalties the Torah stipulates for religious offences, King David's policy of conquest, the ruling and corruption of the priests, and finally the decline of the state of Israel in Roman times.

Only this decline made the ascension of Christianity in the Roman empire possible, because Christians could see themselves as the true Israel of God. Christian Anti-Judaism begins with the New Testament (see Antisemitism and the New Testament) and continues with the Church being interpreted as new Israel. Based on selected quotations, Deschner demonstrates the antisemitism of the Doctors of the Church Ephrem, John Chrysostom, Jerome and Hilary of Poitiers.

Likewise, the Church Fathers - according to Deschner - agitated against heretics and misbelievers. Deschner defends only Origen, whom he numbers among the most noble Christians at all. One whole chapter is dedicated to the attacks against paganism. He then analyses the persecution of Christians in the mirror of partially exaggerating martyr legends from Christian historiography as well as the retrospective Christian view of pagan emperors. Furthermore, Deschner looks at the first significant adversaries of Christianity, Celsus and Porphyrios.

According to Deschner, emperor Constantine I turned "the church of pacifists into a church of battlefield-shavelings". In Deschner's eyes, giving up the central pacifist values of pre-Constantine Christianity means "a bankruptcy of Jesus' teachings". Furthermore, Deschner describes Constantine's actions in the battle against Jews, "heretics" and Pagans. He also does not spare the kingdom of Armenia, the first state in the world to make Christianity a state religion (in 301), by asserting that "this immediately began with massive persecution of Pagans".

About emperor Julian Deschner writes that he "towers over his Christian antecessors in all aspects: in character, ethical and intellectual.". Julian's attempt to re-legitimate Pagan religions is commented as follows:
Vielleicht, wer weiß, wäre eine nichtchristliche Welt in genauso viele Kriege gestürzt – obwohl die nichtchristliche Welt seit siebzehn Jahrhunderten weniger Kriege führt als die christliche! Schwer vorstellbar aber in einer heidnischen Welt: die ganze Heuchelei der christlichen. Und noch schwerer denkbar deren religiöse Intoleranz.

— Kriminalgeschichte Bd. 1, S. 317 und passim

English translation: Maybe, who knows, a non-Christian world would have tumbled into as many wars – though, during the last 17 centuries, the non-Christian world fought fewer wars than the Christian! But it is very hard to imagine in a Pagan world: all the hypocrisy of the Christians. And even less thinkable is their religious intolerance.
The volume closes with an evaluation of the Church Fathers Athanasius, Ambrose and Augustine. Deschner accuses Athanasius of "unscrupulousness" as well as "striving for prestige and power". Ambrose is in Deschner's words a "fanatic antisemite". Thanks to his church policies, "adamant and intolerant, but not so direct; versed, smoother", he set an "example for the Church until today" (page 400 and passim). And finally, Augustine, who positioned "patriotism above the love of a father for his son" (page 520) and sanctioned "just war" as well as "holy war".


Vol. 2: Die Spätantike (Late Antiquity)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1989). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.2, Die Spätantike. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01277-0.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 2. Late Antiquity. From the Catholic "children emperors" to the extermination of the Arian Vandals and Ostrogoths under Justinian I (527-565).

Deschner writes, the "conditions as in ancient Rome" (German "Zustände wie im alten Rom" is a proverb meaning decadent, chaotic, irresponsible, violent etc. - a civilisation in decline) were characteristic for the conditions of the Roman Church. The atrocities committed by Christian leaders in late antiquity are mostly euphemised and concealed by Church-historians until today.


Vol. 3: Die Alte Kirche (The Ancient Church)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1990). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.3, Die Alte Kirche. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01285-1.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 3. The Ancient Church. Forgery, Brainwashing, Exploitation, Annihilation.

Unlike the other volumes, which used a chronological approach, Deschner organised this volume according to so-called crime key aspects, which he identifies in the following areas:

The Christian forgery
The miracle and relic cheating
The pilgrimage economy
The brainwashing, dumbing down and ruin of the ancient education
The Christian book burning and the annihilation of Paganism
The preservation, stabilisation and expansion of slavery
The double-tongued social doctrine and the actual social policy of the main Church


Vol. 4: Frühmittelalter (Early Middle Ages)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1994). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.4, Frühmittelalter. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01300-9.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 4. Early Middle Ages. From King Clovis (ca. 500) to the death of Charles "the Great" (814).
In the early Middle Ages, the split-off from Byzantium happened, the war against the Islam began and the popes in Rome became powerful rulers. Deschner considers pope Gregor I as a man of double morale, who consistently called to repentance and preached the close apocalypse, but himself pursued the extension of his power at any cost, recommending dungeon, torture, hostage-taking and pillaging, and also knew using bribery well. Deschner calls the Donation of Constantine "the biggest forgery of documents in world history". In the end of the volume, Charlemagne is accused of opportunistic relations to the popes, as well as blamed for his excessively bloody "sword mission" with the Saxons and his annihilation of the kingdoms of the Lombards and of the Avars.


Vol. 5: 9. und 10. Jahrhundert (9th and 10th Centuries)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1997). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.5, 9. und 10. Jahrhundert. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01304-1.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 5. 9th and 10th Centuries. From Louis the Pious (814) to the death of Otto III (1002).

Before the volume's actual beginning, a reply to the anthology Criminalisation of Christianity? and an editorial written by Hermann Gieselbusch (lector with Rowohlt publishing house) has been put.

In the then following description of the 9th and 10th century, Deschner illustrates the deep entanglement of secular and church power. Clerical principalities came into existence and the military service of the high clergy prospered. Under the Ottonian dynasty, the Church in the Holy Roman Empire was completely militarised; dioceses and abbeys controlled a major military potential. Even popes entered wars: Leo IV in the naval Battle of Ostia (849) and John X in the Battle of Garigliano (915). Popes excommunicated each other, some were thrown in prison, strangled, mutilated, poisoned. Sergius III had even two other popes murdered. Chapter 3 discusses the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, which are the most important forgery in Carolingian times (Dawson).


Vol. 6: Das 11. und 12. Jahrhundert (11th and 12th Centuries)
Deschner, Karlheinz (1999). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.6, Das 11. und 12. Jahrhundert. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01309-2.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 6. 11th and 12th Centuries. From Emperor Henry II "the Holy" (1002) to the end of the Third Crusade (1192).

This volume covers emperor Henry II the Holy, who, in alliance with Pagans, fought three wars against Catholic Poland, the momentous pontificate of Gregory VII, an "aggressive Satan", who led the Holy See to victory over the emperor's throne in the Investiture Controversy (Canossa), the East-West Schism, the First Crusade with the massacre of Jerusalem's inhabitants as well as the Second and Third Crusade.


Vol. 7: Das 13. und 14. Jahrhundert (13th and 14th Centuries)
Deschner, Karlheinz (2002). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.7, Das 13. und 14. Jahrhundert. Rowohlt, Reinbek. ISBN 3-498-01320-3.
English title: Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 7. 13th and 14th Centuries. From Emperor Henry VI (1190) to the death of Louis IV of Bavaria (1347).

Deschner writes about the Staufer-emperor Henry VI, who aimed for global dominance even without papal blessing, and about the most powerful pope of history, Innocent III. During the time covered by this volume, crusades to all directions happened, including the Fourth Crusade, the crusade of Frederick II, the crusades of Louis IX to Egypt and Tunis, the grotesque Children's Crusade, the crusades of Christians against Christians, the Sicilian Vespers, the extermination of the Templars, the annihilation of the Pagans in the northeast, the Christian murders of Jews and last but not least the totalitarian Inquisition, which aimed for the repression of any liberal mind.


Vol. 8: Das 15. und 16. Jahrhundert (The 15th and 16th century)
Deschner, Karlheinz (2004). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.8, Das 15. und 16. Jahrhundert. Vom Exil der Päpste in Avignon bis zum Augsburger Religionsfrieden. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH. ISBN 3-498-01323-8.
English title (translation): Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 8. The 15th and 16th century. From the exile of the popes in Avignon till the Peace Of Augsburg.

Deschner describes the beginning witch-hunt, the Western Schism, the Renaissance popes, the fight against intra-Christian opposition (Wycliffe, Hus and the Council of Constance, Luther and the German Peasants' War).


Vol. 9: Mitte des 16. bis Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts (Middle of 16th century till beginning of 18th century)
Deschner, Karlheinz (2008). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.9, Mitte des 16. bis Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts. Vom Völkermord in der Neuen Welt bis zum Beginn der Aufklärung. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3-498-01327-1.
English title (translation): Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 9. Middle of 16th century till beginning of 18th century. From genocide in the New World till the beginning of the Enlightenment.
Volume 9 covers the following topics:

The "American Holocaust"; the genocide in connection with the conquest and the Christianization of the American continent.
The reformation in Switzerland; Zwingli and Calvin
The Counter-Reformation
Ignatius of Loyola
The Confessionalization
Society of Jesus; here, Deschner focuses on the religious order's influence on the political rulers of their time.
Events, political players and their interests as well as their combination in the forefront of the Thiry Years' War.
The Thirty Years' War. The ostensibly religiously motivated events are analysed in the context of the European nobility's worldly oriented ambition for power and conquest.
The war continued; the misery of the Pax Christiana; the time after the Thirty Years' War.


Vol. 10: 18. Jahrhundert und Ausblick auf die Folgezeit (18th century and outlook onto the aftermath)
Deschner, Karlheinz (2013). Kriminalgeschichte des Christentums, Bd.10, 18. Jahrhundert und Ausblick auf die Folgezeit. Könige von Gottes Gnaden und Niedergang des Papsttums. Rowohlt Verlag GmbH. ISBN 978-3498013318.
English title (translation): Christianity's Criminal History. Volume 10. 18th century and outlook onto the aftermath. Kings by grace of God and decline of papacy.
More than a quarter century after the first volume's publication, Deschner completed this work: The 10th and last volume of the Criminal History was published in March 2013. This volume covers:

The decline of papacy.
The gradual separation of church and state.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kriminalg ... ristentums


[4] English website: http://www.deschner.info/index.htm?/en/ ... istory.htm