Um refino, you do realize that as late as the 16th and early 17th centuries, the Catholic church had military capabilities the chantry could only dream of, don't you? Not only did they have armies and the treasury to hire mercs, but they had more than one Templar-like order and a secret police just like the seekers, answerable to the Pope alone (the Jesuits weren't always the lovable deans of Georgetown).
When, in the 16th century, the Schmalkaldic League (much of northern germany) - and several adjacent provinces (called "circles" interestingly enough) tried to break away to follow Protestantism and Martin Luther, the church levied war against them under the banner of the Catholic Lesgue, eventually defeating the heretics (and burning thousands of 'em). Eventually, it took the combined armies of France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, with British assistance, to defeat the armies of the Catholic League (backed by the HRE and Spain), over thirty years of the bloodiest warfare in human history. That war - which allowed the northern circles (conclaves of feudal domains) to separate themeselves from the Roman church, to follow Lutheranism and other Protestant denominations - saw the extermination of 1 out of every 5 central europeans. For example, By the time the Catholic League burned the heretic city of Magdeburg to the ground, only 450 people of 30,000 still lived, after weeks of raping, pillaging and human bonfires. Supposedly, the Elbe River ran red with human blood for weeks, and was nearly dammed and blocked by the shear mass of mutilated human corpses thrown into it.
Most of the most gruesome tortures of the late medieval era were dreamed up by the League for use on the rebel circles, during this period of time (although both sides committed wholesale atrocities.. After Magdeburg, the rebels refused to accept the surrender of League combatants anymore, instead, summarily executing them.
The Peace of Westphalia, by which the northern alliance of Protestant states plus France, dictated the terms of the Church's military defeat, left the church militarily defanged forevermore, but that came only after defeat on the battlefield.
In terms of shear murderous brutality, the Chantry and Templars have nothing on the historical real world church of that era.
Modifié par Cismontane, 02 mars 2012 - 05:13 .
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