The Product of Fanatical Orthodoxy is Heresy

The Case of the Witches of Zugarramurdi (1)

The witch hunt in the Navarran town of Zugarramurdi started in 1609 during the Spanish Inquisition. A year, later eleven individuals were burned at the stake in nearby Logroño where the Tribunal which conducted the investigations had been established.

In the period of 1609 to 1611 and in that particular area, Alonso de Salazar y Frías, the youngest member of this local Inquisition Tribunal and who opposed such extreme measures, secured 1,802 confessions of witchcraft. These confessions included those of 1,384 children between the ages of 7 and 14. In addition, he received accusations against more than 5,000 people for the same "crime".

After processiong this vast documentation a problem arose: Salazar had great disagreements with his co-Inquisitors as to the validity of said confessions and acusations.

The greatest problem for Salazar was to give any credence to the statements made by the accused:

"How can I document that a woman can exit through a hole not large enough for a fly; that another person make itself invisible before the eyes of those present, or that a person may be asleep and at the same time be somewhere else? Or that a witch can transform itself into whichever animal is desired - whether it is a fly or a crow? All of these claims are contrary to sane reason and many of them are beyond the limits placed in the power of the devil."

It seems that this "witch plague" reached its climax in the Summer and Fall of the year 1611. In this period when Salazar and his assistants traveled the entire area proclaiming an Edict of Grace. Every time said Edict was read in a parish, a fiery sermon was preached against witches in such realistic and suggestive terms.

Salazar then decided that absolute silence was the best remedy against the expansion of the heresy. From then on, collective hysteria started to decline and by 1613, a little over a year later, it had completely disappeared.

As the result of the psycho spiritual nature of the human being (2) and the clever work of satan, fanaticism only succeeds in fanning the fires which the fanatics are mercilessly (3) preaching against. Instead of leading the wayward sheep back to the fold, fanaticism drives them further away. At the same time, the unChristian behavior of the fanatics pushes others into the same error that the "culture warriors" are so vehemently denouncing. (4)

(A) The militancy against abortion (5) has propelled it to the level it finds itself at for the same reasons witchcraft reached its climax in Zugarramurdi. Instead of praying and offering sacrifices (6) for the conversion of those who promote and perform abortions and for Divine guidance so that the mothers-to-be choose not to abort, they take to the streets to protest (7) "pray." [These prayers are obviously not attended to by God for the same reasons that were stated in Chapter One of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah (7A).].

The programs from Planned Parenthood to avoid pregnancy, like oral and anal sex, are just the product of this perversion of the Evangelization effort.

(B) The same situation with the gay issue. The very offensive and self-destructive Gay Pride Parades are a logical response to the fanatical homophobia of those who think of themselves as holy. The extremely dangerous programs in school to enhance tolerance towards homosexuals are only inducing more individuals to such difficult and sad [by their own judgment - not ours (8)] lifestyle. These school programs are also in direct response to the homophobia spread by those who, most likely, are fearful of their own sexuality or are trying to hide something by calling everyone's attention to someone else's "terrible sin".

We thus repeat [Matthew 3:7-12]:

.... O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance: And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

EPILOGUE

How could anyone, who claims to be so illuminated and "book learned" as fanatics always do, be so blind and play into satan's hand so easily (9)? Even the Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar y Frías, who did not have many things right - for what he questioned then we could easily answer today through the Grace of Almighty God - had some very constructive illumination since he, the youngest of his group, went against the "norm" of his "illuminated and book learned" colleagues of those days and succeeded in eradicating witchcraft from his entire area of influence.

Quoting from a just published book, False Dawn (10):

As we face multiple global perils that may test us to extremity, I ask all to remember these two warnings:

"We can forget that our opponents need prayers more than maledictions"; and,
"If orthodoxy does not lead the hungry to the Bread of Life and the thirsty to the living waters, is it any better than heresy?"

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