Sex, Murder & a Scheme: How the Pope Stole the World

The Crazy Untold History of the Papacy - There's always a reason they don't teach us this stuff...

Out of nowhere, it just appeared. It was presented by the Catholic Church as an official document, said to have been created by Roman Emperor, Constantine The Great, stating his desire to make a large donation to the Church - and by large donation, I mean a gift of biblical proportions. The Donation of Constantine stated the emperor wanted all successors of Peter (meaning the papacy, aka “The Chair of Peter”) to be the heirs to the Roman Empire, therefore gifted large territories of land in addition to other perks including:

This Donation not only put the papacy above the Senate, thus providing the Church immunity from all laws, but it included the gift of the lands belonging to Italy, France, Spain, Britain “and indeed the whole territory of Europe and beyond”. And since this was the living testament of the Great Emperor, the Vicar of God became the unquestionable heir of these physical lands of the world - I mean, you can’t argue with the Emperor’s desires, nor did anyone want to accuse the Pope of lying… the problem was, the undated document was indeed a forgery, created by the Pope himself, hundreds of years after the death of Constantine, but nobody knew it was a fabrication at this time…

Wanna listen to this mind-blowing article instead of read? Here you go:

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SYMBOLISM

In 786, King Charlemagne completed building the Aachen Cathedral in what we now call Germany.

Yes, 786, over 1,000 years pre-electricity. This incredible building features an octagonal two-story room inside of a second octagon.

Throughout the building is perfectly-cut marble and stone.

….beautiful mosaics, laid without error…

Every inch of the building was made to perfection…

This cathedral featured a lot of symbolism including eagles…

…pinecones…

…and the All Seeing Eye…

In full transparency, I suspect the symbolism, including the eye, was not part of the original build but history wishes to avoid discussing the topic. I suspect the eye was added on at a later time because many symbols would be added on as time progressed, such as this giant bat that would be installed onto the back of an eagle in the 15th century:

THE SET UP

Only a few years after the completion of Aachen Cathedral, around the same time the Donation of Constantine was presented, on Christmas Day of the year 800, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, something crazy happened; Pope Leo III crowned King Charlemagne as Roman Emperor - yes, a Pope, for the first time in history, crowned an emperor. When the crown was placed on the Emperor’s head, the crowd cheered and began praising the new ruler. The coronation marked the beginning of the Holy Roman Empire but the thing is, nobody knows exactly how this occurred. According to Charlemagne's biographer, Einhard, Charlemagne had no prior knowledge of the pope’s role in the coronation and would not have accepted the imperial crown if he had known about it in advance. It is said Charlemagne was both surprised and angry at this secret papacy plot. Having no way to undo what had been done and witnessed by the public gathering, it established the precedent that, in Western Europe, no man would be emperor without being crowned by a pope. With a single simple scheme, the role of pope had just become higher than the role of emperor and therefore higher than king…

Not long after, it officially began; the oath taken at the coronation of the sovereign in many countries included the monarch vowing to “be the protector and defender of the sovereign pontiff and the holy Catholic Church thus making their kingdoms feudatory [property] to the see of Rome.”

SEX, BACKSTABBING AND MURDER

Although the papacy “owned” the Roman Empire due to the Pope’s forgery, the Muslims were not keen to respect the Catholic leaders as rightful land owners. Muslim control of Sicily began in 827 (shown below in green). During this period, Sicily became a prosperous and influential commercial power in the Mediterranean. With success at hand in Sicily, the Muslims targeted Rome.

Pope John X was best known for defeating the Muslim army (Saracen) in the summer of 916 which stopped them from capturing the city, but what most people don’t know is his shocking backstory: A senatrix was a female senator. Two senatrix were Thedora and her daughter Marozia. These two women seized control over the Roman government through the papacy for a very long time - almost 500 years to be exact! How it happened is hidden history that history would like to remain hidden, so let me give you the scoop:

Theodora is described by historians as being a “shameless harlot” who strategically positioned her daughter Marozia to become the mistress of Pope Serguis III (Pope from 904-911). Together they had a child. Simultaneously, Theodora was having an affair with Pope John X (914-928). When the time was right, Marozia had Pope John X arrested and imprisoned in a dungeon. Here he would be smothered to death. This led to Marozia’s son with Pope Serguis III becoming Pope John XI (931-935). After that, two of Merozia’s grandsons, two great-grandsons, and one great-great-grandson all became Pope. So when people say “Most of the US Presidents share the same bloodline!”, tell them at least six Popes were literally in the same family - so closely related they could have spent holidays together!

THE Y1K SWINDLE

You’ve heard of Y2K but have you ever heard of Y1K? As the year 1000 approached, the Roman Catholic Church went on a fear campaign; the world was ending. Because Doomsday was quickly approaching, temporal possessions would soon be meaningless, so people were encouraged to get rid of them. In fact, it was stated that entry to Heaven was achieved by the gifting of solid goods so people wanting salvation did what made the most sense, they donated their possessions, and where better to donate them than to the Church? The Church gladly accepted the generous gifts and was sure to provide legal documentation for each donation. Citizens of England, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia, Scotland and other locations voluntarily relinquished the rights to their land, homes, savings, estates and other assets, thus making the Church legal owner of a vast array of earthly riches spread out across the lands.

People trembled in fear as the clock counted down on the last day of the year 999, but then something nobody expected to happen happened… morning came, the sun rose and the world hadn’t ended. It was officially the year 1000 and everything was just as it was the day prior (except for the people who no longer had any assets, the world sure wasn’t the same for them).

When people discovered Judgement Day hadn’t come and that the Church was accidentally mistaken, they went to the Church to retrieve their assets. They felt they had essentially been deceived being that the only reason they surrendered them was due to the Church claiming the world would end. However, the Church was unwilling to give back any of the donations. The legal documentation was all the Church needed to remain in possession of every last gift.

RAKING IN MONEY

Stealing a large portion of the world through forgery and cementing ownership of assets through the Y1K swindle wasn’t enough; the Church was on a mission to expand into an empire.

“Church buildings, monasteries, ecclesiastical residences, and anything else belonging to the Roman Church had to be erected for free, the state as a rule having to furnish one-third or one-half of the funds required, while the population paid the other”. But getting tax-funded real estate wasn’t enough either.

In the year 1081 the Church kicked things up a notch by making tithing no longer optional. The Pope demanded that in France, every house inhabited by a baptized person must pay an annual tithing to “the Blessed Peter” - but it didn’t stop there. While financial gifts ranged from encouraged-to-required, assorted fees began being added onto services. The Church was enriched through “gifts and bequests of money and property, parochial fees for marriage, funerals, baptisms, confessions and for masses”. “Peters Pence”, a monetary donation program with all funds going directly to Rome, was established. There was so much money that chests were used for collection and transport:

The economic influence of the Roman Catholic Church continued to flourish. It was only a matter of time before the Church would own “an estimated one half of the total wealth of Mexico, Peru, Columbia, Paraguay and Ecuador, and almost that proportion in all the other Latin American countries, while most of the remaining half was controlled by the clergy through mortgages”.

Although the Church was gaining a stranglehold across the world, it lost control of Jerusalem to the Muslims. This was not acceptable. The Pope knew something needed to be done, but not just yet…

THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE WORLD

With their newfound power, Popes began appointing judges and “agents were sent by the pope at his whim and were given his authority to enact canon law in the localities”. Letters were sent by the papacy to lay rulers and court systems across Europe, providing them with instructions regarding what actions they must take. Pope Alexander II (Pope from 1061-1073) became involved with the military and even developed recruitment systems for them.

Pope Gregory VII became Pope immediately after Alexander II (1073-1085) and expanded Alexander’s military system across Europe. He also reaffirmed the mass power of the papacy in his Dictatus Papae. Authored in 1075, this decree stated the Pope had the right to get rid of any emperor he deemed “wicked”. Gregory VII also stated the Church had power over the entire material world. He accomplished this “through the reinterpretation of the story of Christ being granted these two swords (an analogy for lay and ecclesiastical power) by his disciples in the Bible”.

Flush with cash and armed with the fear of God, the support of governments, a rapidly growing congregation and the power of an emperor, the papacy was almost ready to take back Jerusalem.

With control over the military, Pope Urban II became Pope after Gregory VII and held the Council of Piacenza followed by the Council of Clermont. These meetings were to mobilize Western Europe to recapture the Holy Land from Muslim Rule.

The First Crusade began in 1099. Prior to arriving in Jerusalem for the siege, the Crusaders were met by their allies, the Byzantine Roman Empire. Together they embarked to the Holy Land where they proceeded to massacre many of the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants, thus capturing the land. Once captured, the slaughtering continued.

After the First Crusade, four Crusader states were established in the Holy Land: the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Tripoli.

English knights played significant roles in the Crusades. What I find to be quite interesting is, although history tells us at this point in time the Jewish people were all living in ghettos in poverty, this cannot possibly be true of all Jewish people. Factually, many Jews had so much wealth that the Crusaders, including nobles, needed to borrow money from them, so much so that the Crusades led to a change of laws relating to land ownership (feudal England). “To obtain funds from Jews, nobles offered their land as collateral. Although the Jews, as aliens, could not hold land in fee simple, they could take security interests of substantial money value.”. A security interest is a legal right granted by a debtor to a creditor over the debtor's property (now referred to as collateral), so Jews were now permitted to be creditors in countries which they were not citizens with land as collateral. As creditors they would have the statutory right to execute against the debtor’s land. No longer would personal obligations and rights in land be rigidly separate, they would become one, meaning, if you had an unpaid personal debt, your land could be taken. - And if right about now you’re thinking “wait a second; you’re telling me Jews helped fund an invasion of their homeland which resulted in the slaughter of their fellow Jews?” - yep. War is very profitable for its investors. Investing in war isn’t a “Jewish thing”, it’s an everyone thing. Like the old saying goes, “it takes money to make money”, and there’s no money like war money (wait till I share the World War 1 figures with you, your jaw will be on the floor, but for now, let’s get back to the Crusade…)

Out of these Crusades the Knights Templar, a Christian military order, would be born. History claims they were just a “mysterious order of monks” who happened to also be “an elite fighting force of Europe” (because yeah, that makes sense…). “King Henry II of England was particularly supportive, providing financial and land grants to the Templars and even paying for the upkeep of 200 Templar knights in the Holy Land.”. The Knights of Malta were also established within the captured land as another Catholic military order.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II issued a Papal Bull that allowed the Knights Templar special rights. Amongst these privileges, the Templars were exempt from paying taxes and permitted to build their own oratories. Fun fact: The word oratorie has two meanings, the first is “churches”, the second is “a society of priests without vows”.

In addition to operating tax-free and having building rights, the Knights were held to no one’s authority except the Popes. With unbridled power, “The Knights Templar set up a prosperous network of banks and gained enormous financial influence. Their banking system allowed religious pilgrims to deposit assets in their home countries and withdraw funds in the Holy Land”.

Christian control of the Holy Lands wouldn’t last long. In only a few decades, the Muslim forces (depicted below in dark peach) had grown so large that they easily overran the Kingdom and took back Jerusalem…

… but it appears something deeper was going on; something with the Knights Templar… (we will get into the banks and the suspicious activity of the Knights later in this series)

THE POPE OWNS ALL ISLANDS

Come the mid 1100’s, the Pope made claims to owning Ireland as well as “all Christian islands”. Shortly after, in 1186, France, Rome, Italy, Gaul and all the riches therein became included in the Donation from Constantine. In a matter of time, this would expand to include the whole of Europe followed by “…his sovereign dominion over the whole world and hence all of the wealth to be found on earth”. As lawyers working for the Church became publishers and “defenders of the fiction”, belief in the Pope’s ownership over the lands grew.

As you can see, wherever Christianity was, the physical land was said to be owned by the papacy. This meant, by spreading the religion, control over the land and the wealth within became that of the papacy. This created the need to grow the faith, even if by force…

As the Pope’s territory expanded, with coffers overflowing, his ego grew too. The Pope now had luxuries equal to any prince or king. On his personal staff was a secretary, servants, clerks, butlers, doctors, surgeons, carpenters, barbers, chemists, masons and more. When the Pope disliked the actions of the Venetians or clergy, he threatened to sell them into the slave trade. The Vicar of God was no longer only the holiest man in Europe and other areas, he was now the most feared, for he had power to not only destroy lives, but to cause complete destruction of kingdoms.

POPE NOT SO INNOCENT THE III

Pope Innocent III was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1198 through 1216. He was considered to be the most powerful person in Europe who “exerted a wide influence over the Christian states of Europe, claiming supremacy over all of Europe's kings”. With power over so many kingdoms, the Pope was officially the most sovereign man in the world. This guy even stated “the Bishop of Rome is like the Sun, the only source of his own light, while the Emperor is like the Moon, which merely reflects lights and has no value without the Sun.” - that dude had some big balls, eh? But his huge balls were justified because his power was something previously unfathomable. Let me give you some examples of the level of control this bro had over society: Beyond controlling militaries and having his own private militaries and banking system, he excommunicated King Alfonso IX of Leon, annulled the marriage of the crown-prince Afonso II of Portugal, declared Magna Carta void, removed princes from the selection process of bishops, was involved in imperial elections and if that’s not convincing enough for ya, when rebels seized control of London in 1215, King John turned to the pope to be his feudal (property) overlord! And it just so happened that the most powerful man in Europe was also super into war, which he referred to as God’s will.

Remember, if a land can be labeled a Christian State, the pope can claim ownership over it, and Pope Innocent III had the desire to enforce religion through war. He ordered crusades against Muslim Iberia, the Holy Land (Israel, Jerusalem) as well as the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in southern France. On top of having beef with Muslims (who didn’t practice Christianity), Carthars (Christians who didn’t practice the Pope-approved version of the religion) and Jews (who the Pope saw as terrible people), the Pope also had a problem with Germany, specifically Henry VI.

Henry VI had quite an impressive resume. He was King of Germany from 1169 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 until his death. From 1194 he was also King of Sicily because he was the husband of Queen Constance I. Because of this, he expected his son to bring Germany, Italy, and Sicily under a single ruler. Should this happen, it would have left the Papal States exceedingly vulnerable, therefore, something had to be done about it. The Pope began meddling in German elections. The Pope’s choice of candidate won the election (Otto of Brunswick) because his opponent, Philip of Swabia, happened to be assassinated.

Then there was the war on Jerusalem that went like this:

The Muslims had recaptured it in 1187 and Pope Innocent III insisted it be taken back. Although England and Germany were not interested in supporting this invasion, France assisted the Pope by lending resources for the war. Additionally, funds were raised through a new papal decree which required all clergy to donate 25% of their income! Once this decree was issued, King John of England pledged to tax clergy in his country to aid the battle.

Now funded and staffed, Innocent III organized the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, which was supposed to begin with conquering the Sultanate of Egypt thus leading to the ability to reclaim the Holy Lands, but it somehow ended in the complete destruction of Constantinople, which was the home of fellow Christians. In this event, Christian Crusaders looted and vandalized Latin Christian Constantinople for three days. This included destruction of “city's holy sanctuaries, destroying or seizing all that was deemed remotely of value; little was spared, even the tombs of the emperors interned in the Church of the Holy Apostles were pillaged. Of the civilian population of Constantinople, it is estimated 2,000 were killed”… “Crusaders even sacked churches, monasteries and convents. Church altars were smashed and torn to pieces for their gold and marble. The Venetians stole religious relics and works of art, which they took back to Venice”. Pope Innocent III ultimately called this horror show God’s will.

In 1215, Pope Innocent III convened the Fourth Lateran Council which was considered to be the most important Church council of the Middle Ages. Out of this came many things that we see today. Let me share some of the more interesting new “laws” (canons) with you:

• After the Pope, foremost important patriarchs in Christianity are in the following order: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, then Jerusalem

• Princes were to swear that they would banish any and all whom the church points out as heretics

• It was ruled that tithe payments have priority over all other taxes and dues

• Physicians would be exiled from the church if they did not tell their patients to call in a priest prior to prescribing medicine. The priest will then “provide for their spiritual welfare”

• Annual confession of sins (aka blackmail done under the guise of forgiveness from God) was now required

• Eucharist was to be the transformation to the literal body and blood of Christ, no longer would it be a representation of such

• Jews were prevented from charging "extortionate and excessive interest"

• Canon 68 required Jews and Muslims to wear special clothing which would enable them to be distinguished from Christians “so that no Christian shall come to marry them ignorant of who they are.”

• This was followed by Canon 69 which forbade Jews from being appointed to public offices because "this offers them the pretext to vent their wrath against the Christians." (Because Jews do not believe in the resurrection of Jesus, they were deemed blasphemous, therefore, it would be "too absurd for a blasphemer of Christ to exercise power over Christians", per the Pope)

• And also, June 1, 1217 was designated as the start of the Fifth Crusade. (The fourth crusade failed at taking over Jerusalem but sure did succeed at demolishing Constantinople, so now a new crusade was needed to take back the lands, thus expanding the Pope’s territory while greatly enriching the war investors)

Come the 1220s, the Pope was so mighty that just the threat of excommunication was enough to make rulers jump to accommodate his every wish; if the Pope told you to send your troops to fight a religious war, you’d better do it or you will end up like the powerful Holy Roman emperor Frederick II who was excommunicated for refusing to participate in a crusade - but excommunication was small potatoes compared to the real punishment which followed. Not long after the excommunication, Frederick would suffer “misfortunes”. What kind of misfortunes?, you ask. I reply, He was enjoying hunting when he was blindsided by an attack, his own advisor then betrayed him, his wife died, his son was captured and held prisoner (never allowed to leave, even dying in prison), the Empire then lost Como and Modena due to invasion, then he became horribly ill and died. Are those enough misfortunes for you?

While all of this was going on, something suspicious was taking place…

NEXT READ: THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR CONSPIRACY [Part 1]

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