On This Day in History: March 7

The Catholic Condemnations

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For millennia many have seen faith as the only true way of knowing anything. If the Bible says it, it must be true. If my preacher says it, it must be true. If Trump says it, it must be true … In 13th century Paris some philosophers began toying with the idea that reason was the path to truth, and the Catholic Church was all we don’t fucking think so.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: March 7, 1277--

The Church sure can hold a grudge. In this case, it was the Faculty of Arts at the University of Paris that was the target of Catholic ire. Beginning in 1210, over the next 67 years they issued three “condemnations,” which were laundry lists of heretical thoughts they said couldn’t be taught.

It’s really all about power, not faith. The Church had a lot of power, and those who possess control over others are usually reluctant to relinquish it. So when another group comes along and says a bunch of what you’re saying to control the masses is bullshit, you’re likely to fight back.

The first condemnation was in 1210, saying hey you’re not allowed to read this shit because it suggests there is more than one god. Especially don’t read that Aristotle guy. Fuck him. You read that shit, you’re excommunicated. But the university didn’t listen, and in 1270 the Church was all didn’t you fucking listen? They got more forceful and specific, going after the teachings of a Muslim philosopher, Averroes, who interpreted Aristotelian physics. Some of the banned teachings that had surfaced involved setting limits on God, like saying he didn’t know shit except his own self, and that he didn’t create the world, didn’t create the first humans, and doesn’t rule human acts. Yeah, I can see why the Church would misplace their excrement over that.

Seven years later those at the university were still saying fuck you to the Church and the pope had had enough. He sent Stephen Tempier, the Bishop of Paris, to lay down some ecclesiastical law. On March 7, 1277, Tempier published a list of 219 things he condemned, saying they weren’t allowed to believe this shit. What shit? A lot of it boiled down to denying that God had absolute power to do whatever the fuck he wanted.

And Tempier’s efforts kind of backfired. Aristotle had been dead for over a thousand years, and yet among philosophers there had been a lot of dogmatic acceptance of his teachings. With Tempier saying dude was full of shit, people started to think that yeah maybe he was full of shit on some things, but not in the way the Church wanted. Philosophers started to become more and more skeptical, even doubting the ability of the mind to know things. This tendency for doubt culminated in the birth of modern philosophy under René Descartes. Meanwhile, the Church went hard in the other direction saying faith was the be all end all, fuck evidence and fuck reason. This eventually led to the Protestant Reformation two centuries later.

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