1.
Anti-Catholicism
–
Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy and adherents. In the Early modern period, in the face of rising powers in Europe. The fifth round of talks in the Lutheran–Roman Catholic dialogue notes, In calling the pope the antichrist, the early Lutherans stood in a tradition that reached back into the eleventh century. Not only dissidents and heretics but even saints had called the bishop of Rome the antichrist when they wished to castigate his abuse of power.6, and 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Article 26.4. In 1754, John Wesley published his Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament, in his notes on Revelation chapter 13, he commented, The whole succession of Popes from Gregory VII are undoubtedly antichrist. Protestants condemned the Catholic policy of celibacy for priests. Institutional anti-Catholicism in Britain and Ireland began with the English Reformation under Henry VIII, the Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared the English crown to be the only supreme head on earth of the Church in England in place of the pope. Any act of allegiance to the latter was considered treasonous because the papacy claimed both spiritual and political power over its followers and it was under this act that saints Thomas More and John Fisher were executed and became martyrs to the Catholic faith. Queen Mary, Henrys daughter, was a devout Catholic and as queen for five years tried to reverse the Reformation and she married the Catholic king of Spain and executed Protestant leaders. Protestants reviled her as Bloody Mary, the Recusancy Acts, making it a legal obligation to worship in the Anglican faith, date from Elizabeths reign. Assassination plots in which Catholics were prime movers fueled anti-Catholicism in England and these included the famous Gunpowder Plot, in which Guy Fawkes and other conspirators plotted to blow up the English Parliament while it was in session. The fictitious Popish Plot involving Titus Oates was a hoax that many Protestants believed to be true, the Glorious Revolution of 1688–1689 involved the overthrow of King James II, of the Stuart dynasty, who favoured the Catholics, and his replacement by a Dutch Protestant. For decades the Stuarts were supported by France in plots to invade and conquer Britain, finally after great political turmoil the Catholics were emancipated in the early 19th century—that is, freed from most of the penalties and restrictions they faced. Since World War II anti-Catholic feeling in England has abated somewhat, since then, dialogue has continued through envoys and standing conferences. Conflict and rivalry between Catholicism and Protestantism since the 1920, and especially since the 1960s, has centred in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Anti-Catholicism in Britain was long represented by the burning of an effigy of the Catholic conspirator Guy Fawkes at widespread celebrations on Guy Fawkes Night every 5 November and this celebration has, however, largely lost any anti-Catholic connotation. Only faint remains of anti-Catholicism are found today, as punishment for the rebellion of 1641, almost all lands owned by Irish Catholics were confiscated and given to Protestant settlers. Catholic / Protestant strife has been blamed for much of The Troubles, the English Protestant rulers killed many thousands of Irish people who refused to acknowledge the government and sought an alliance with Catholic France, Englands great enemy
2.
Persecution of Christians
–
Persecution of Christians can be traced historically based on the biblical account of Jesus from the first century of the Christian era to the present day. Early in the century, the religion was legalized by the Edict of Milan. Christian missionaries as well as converts to Christianity have been the targets of persecution ever since the emergence of Christianity, schisms of the Middle Ages and especially the Protestant Reformation, provoked severe conflicts between Christian denominations persecuting each other. During World War II members of some Christian churches were persecuted in Nazi Germany for resisting Nazi ideology, in more recent times the persecution of Christians has increased in India according to International Christian Concern. The Christian missionary organization Open Doors estimates 100 million Christians face persecution, particularly in Muslim-majority countries such as Pakistan, the early Christians preached the second coming of a Messiah which did not conform to their religious teachings. However, feeling that their beliefs were supported by Jewish scripture, despite individual conversions, the vast majority of Judean Jews did not become Christians. Claudia Setzer asserts that, Jews did not see Christians as clearly separate from their own community until at least the middle of the second century. Thus, acts of Jewish persecution of Christians fall within the boundaries of synagogue discipline and were so perceived by Jews acting and thinking as the established community, the Christians, on the other hand, saw themselves as persecuted rather than disciplined. Inter-communal dissension began almost immediately with the teachings of Stephen at Jerusalem, According to the Acts of the Apostles, a year after the Crucifixion of Jesus, Stephen was stoned for his alleged transgression of the faith, with Saul looking on. Peter and other early Christians were also imprisoned, beaten and harassed, luke T. Walter Laqueur argues that hostility between Christians and Jews spans generations. By the 4th century, John Chrysostom was arguing that the Pharisees alone, the first documented case of imperially supervised persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire begins with Nero. In 64 AD, a fire broke out in Rome, destroying portions of the city. Some people suspected that Nero himself was the arsonist, as Suetonius reported, claiming that he played the lyre, Suetonius however does not specify the reasons for the punishment, he just lists the fact together with other abuses put down by Nero. Contrary to popular misconception, the Church was not in a struggle for its existence during its first centuries, persecutions of Christians were sporadic and locally inspired, and almost never state-sanctioned. In the first two centuries Christianity was a small sect which was not a significant concern of the Emperor. The sole source for this event is early Christian historian Eusebius of Caesareas Church History, Tertullians Apologeticus of 197 was ostensibly written in defense of persecuted Christians and was addressed to Roman governors. The edict of Septimius Severus touted in the Augustan History is considered unreliable by historians, According to Eusebius, the Imperial household of Maximinus predecessor, Alexander, had contained many Christians. Eusebius states that, hating his predecessors household, Maximinius ordered that the leaders of the churches should be put to death
3.
Pope Pius XII and Russia
–
Most persecutions of the Church occurred during the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. The relations of the Vatican with Russia are one element of the topic Persecutions against the Catholic Church, equally destructive to the Church were the simultaneous persecutions in China. Pope Pius XII and the Church in China Relations between Soviet authorities and the Holy See were always difficult, although at times, both sides tries to show some flexibility. On January 23,1918, the Soviet government declared separation of Church and State and began with the dissolution of Catholic institutions. Two years later, in 1920, Pope Benedict XV issued Bonum Sana in which he condemned the philosophy, the persecution of the Catholic Church was a part of an overall attempt to eradicate religion in the Soviet Union. In 1940, after Germany occupied the Western part of Poland, persecution began at once, as large parts of Poland and the Baltic States were incorporated into the USSR. Almost immediately, the United Catholic Churches of Armenia, Ukraine, during the Second World War, Pius XII upholding the neutrality of the Holy See had abstained from any criticisms of the Soviet Union as it was attacked by Germany. Contrary to many rumours, the Pope never called the war a crusade against communism, in his letter to the Russian people Sacro Vergente, he wrote that despite of these Church persecutions during the war, he would not utter one word which could have been used unfairly. Despite growing pressure, he never condoned or approved a war against communism or against Russia in 1941, after the war, the Russian Orthodox Church was given some freedom by the government of Joseph Stalin, but not the Orthodox Oriental Churches which was united with Rome. Leaders of the Orthodox Oriental Churches faced intense pressure to break with Rome, Pope Pius addressed specifically the Ruthenian Catholic Church located in the Ukraine. They are closely related to the Ukrainians and speak a dialect of the same language, the traditional Rusyn homeland extends into northeast Slovakia and the Lemko region of southeast Poland. Until 1922, the area was largely a part of Austria-Hungary, after becoming Polish, which follows the Latin rite, Polonisation and significant problems for all Orthodox, including united Christians developed. Some Ruthenians, resisting Polonisation, felt deserted by the Vatican, but they were apprehended by the Soviet Army under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, and therefore, continued ties to Rome were made impossible. The new Patriarch Alexius I of Moscow called on all Catholics in the Soviet Union for a separation from Rome and you must break the Vatican chains, which throw you into the abyss of error, darkness and spiritual decay. Hurry, return to the true mother, the Russian Orthodox Church. Orientales omnes Ecclesias refers to United Nations resolutions of a world of tolerance, but, unfortunately, the events we have mentioned have grievously and bitterly weakened, have almost destroyed, our hope and confidence so far as the lands of the Ruthenians are concerned. The Pope knew not only about the attempts to separate the United Churches from Rome, some, including Bishop Nicetas Budka, perished in Siberia. Subjected to Stalinist Show Trials, they all received severe sentencing, the remaining leaders of the hierarchies and heads of all seminaries and Episcopal offices were arrested and tried in 1945 and 1946
4.
Eastern Catholic victims of Soviet persecutions
–
After World War II, the Russian Orthodox Church was given some freedom by the atheist government of Joseph Stalin, which held to the doctrine of Marxist–Leninist atheism. However, the Eastern Catholic Churches which were united with Rome, were persecuted, leaders of the Orthodox Oriental Churches faced intense pressure to break with Rome and unite with Moscow. Pope Pius addressed specifically the Ruthenian Catholic Church located in the Ukraine, Some Ruthenian Catholics call themselves Rusyns. They speak a dialect of the Ukrainian language, the traditional Rusyn homeland extends into northeast Slovakia and the Lemko region of southeast Poland. Until 1922, the area was largely a part of Austria-Hungary, after much of the area was added to Poland, which follows the Latin rite, Polonisation and significant problems for all Orthodox and Uniate Christians developed. Some Ruthenians, resisting Polonisation, felt deserted by the Vatican, but now they are liberated by the Soviet Army under the leadership of the incomparable Marshal Joseph Stalin and therefore, continued ties to Rome are no longer necessary. The new Patriarch, Alexius I of Moscow called on all Catholics in the Soviet Union for a separation from Rome and you must break the Vatican chains, which throw you into the abyss of error, darkness and spiritual decay. Hurry, return to your mother, the Russian Orthodox Church. Pope Pius XII replied, Who does not know, that Patriarch Alexius I recently elected by the dissident bishops of Russia, openly exalts, in a letter lately addressed to the Ruthenian Church, a letter, which contributed not a little to the persecution. Orientales omnes Ecclesias refers to United Nations resolutions of a world of tolerance, but, unfortunately, the events we have mentioned have grievously and bitterly weakened, have almost destroyed, our hope and confidence so far as the lands of the Ruthenians are concerned. Josyf Slipyj, Gregory Chomysyn, John Laysevkyi, Nicolas Carneckyi, Josaphat Kocylovskyi Some, subjected to Stalinist show trials, they all received severe sentencing. The remaining leaders of the hierarchies and heads of all seminaries, July 1,1945, some three hundred priests of the United Church wrote to Molotov. They protested the arrest of all bishops and large parts of the Catholic clergy, after the Church was thus robbed of all its leadership, a “spontaneous movement” for separation from Rome, and unification with the Russian Orthodox Church developed. In Lemko, some five hundred priests were jailed in 1945 or sent to a Gulag, officially called, the Catholic Church was annihilated, Church institutions were confiscated and expropriated, churches, monasteries and seminaries closed and looted. After the war, the Catholic Uniate churches were integrated under the Moscow Patriarchy, after all residing bishops, the Catholic Church of Ukraine was thus liquidated. All properties were turned over to the Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of Moscow, Pope Pius XII presents a comprehensive historical review of the reunion, to show the many trials and bloody persecutions but also the advantages of the union to the faithful in Ukraine. In Sacro Vergente this history is repeated with view to relations with Russia in general and he again rejects communism but not communists. Those who err, are always welcome, Orientales Ecclesias reviews the efforts of the Vatican of improving relations with the oriental Churches
5.
Persecution of Christians in the modern era
–
Anti-Christian sentiment is the hatred, prejudice, and bigotry against Christians. In many countries around the world, Christians are subject to restrictions on speech, arson attacks on churches have been seen in Norway and the United States. Some arson attacks are considered hate crimes perpetrated for racial reasons by people inspired by racial hate groups, headliners of the black metal genre have claimed responsibility for inspiring over fifty Norwegian church burnings from 1992 to 1996 alone. Among the most notable was Fantoft Stave Church, which the police believed was destroyed by the one-man band Burzum, Varg Vikernes, the burnt-out shell of the building is featured on the cover of his 1993 EP Aske. The vandalism or defacement of Christian property is one form of the expression of anti-Christian sentiment, the destruction of property held by churches and Christian individuals can be in violation of various criminal laws, and can violate hate speech laws if it is racially or religiously motivated. Former Lebanese president Amine Gemayel stated in 2011 that Christians had become the target of genocide after dozens of Christians were killed in attacks in Egypt. According to Israeli ambassador to the United States Michael Oren, in the years leading up to 2010 the Middle Easts Christian population dwindled from 20% to less than 5%. In Egypt, the government does not recognize religious conversions from Islam to Christianity, since the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in 2011, Egypts Coptic Christians have been the target of increasing opposition and discrimination. In 2011, anti-Christian activity in Egypt included church burnings, protests against the appointment of a Coptic Christian governor in Qena, on television Islamists referred to Christians as heretics and said they should be made to pay the jizya tax. In October 2011 a draft resolution passed by the European Parliament accused Egypt of persecuting the countrys Christian population, by mid-201210,000 Christians had fled the country. The consolidation of power in the hands of Shiite Islamists in Iraq since the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime has been to the detriment of Iraqs Assyrian and Armenian Christian communities, friction between rival sects in Iraq has frequently resulted in violence being directed against Christians in the country. Consequently, there has been a flight of Christians from some areas to Europe, between 2003 and 2012 more than 70 churches were bombed. In 2007 Al Qaeda militants killed a young priest in Mosul, during the Syrian Civil War and the spillover into Iraq, Persecution of Christians by ISIL and other militant groups has been ongoing. The Fall of Mosul and the Asyrian town of Qaraqosh in the 2014 ISIL advance in Iraq lead to an estimated 100,000 Assyrian Christian civilians being displaced. After the fall of Mosul, ISIL demanded Assyrian Christians in the city to convert to Islam, pay tribute, ISIL begun marking homes of Christian residents with the letter nūn for Nassarah. Thousands of Christians, Yazidis and other, mostly Shia Muslims have abandoned their homes, the destruction of cultural heritage by ISIL has included the Mosque of the Prophet Jonah, revered in all Abrahamic faiths. In Jerusalem, there have been instances of Christian churches being vandalized with spray-painted offensive remarks against Christianity and these are believed to be price tag attacks by extremist settlers. In Tel Aviv in 2008, three teenagers burned hundreds of Christian Bibles, a number of Ultra-Orthodox/Haredi youth have reportedly spat at Christian clergymen
6.
Roman Empire
–
Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
7.
Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire
–
The persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was carried out by the state and also by local authorities on a sporadic, ad hoc basis, often at the whims of local communities. Starting in 250, empire-wide persecution took place by decree of the emperor Decius, the edict was in force for eighteen months, during which time some Christians were killed while others apostatised to escape execution. These persecutions heavily influenced the development of Christianity, shaping Christian theology, among other things, persecution gave rise to many saints cults which may have contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity and sparked written explanations and defenses of the Christian religion. Anti-Christian policies directed at the church had occurred sporadically and in localised areas since its beginning. The first persecution of Christians organised by the Roman government took place under the emperor Nero in 64 AD after the Great Fire of Rome, with the passage in 313 AD of the Edict of Milan, anti-Christian policies directed against Christians by the Roman government ceased. There was no persecution of Christians until the reign of Decius in the third century. Provincial governors had a deal of personal discretion in their jurisdictions and could choose themselves how to deal with local incidents of persecution. For most of the first three hundred years of Christian history, Christians were able to live in peace, practice their professions, only for approximately ten out of the first three hundred years of the churchs history were Christians executed due to orders from a Roman emperor. Without agitation from the public, the Roman government had little motivation to persecute local Christians, Christians refusal to participate in public religion was as problematic to the populace as it was to the elites, and contributed to the general hostility toward Christians. Much of the pagan populace maintained a sense that bad things would happen if the established pagan gods were not respected and worshiped properly, Edward Gibbon wrote, By embracing the faith of the Gospel the Christians incurred the supposed guilt of an unnatural and unpardonable offence. As Christianity became more widespread and better understood, however, these suspicions faded away, Roman law was largely concerned with property rights, leaving many gaps in criminal and public law. Thus the process cognitio extra ordinem filled the void left by both code and court. All provincial governors had the right to run trials in this way as part of their imperium in the province. In cognitio extra ordinem, an accuser called a delator brought before the governor an individual to be charged with a certain offense—in this case, that of being a Christian. If the governor agreed to hear the case—and he was free not to—he oversaw the trial from start to finish, he heard the arguments, decided on the verdict, and passed the sentence. Christians sometimes offered themselves up for punishment, and the hearings of such voluntary martyrs were conducted in the same way, more often than not, the outcome of the case was wholly subject to the governors personal opinion. While some tried to rely on precedent or imperial opinion where they could, as evidenced by Pliny the Youngers letter to Trajan concerning the Christians, such guidance was often unavailable. In many cases months and weeks travel away from Rome, these governors had to make decisions about running their provinces according to their own instincts and knowledge
8.
Diocletianic Persecution
–
The Diocletianic or Great Persecution was the last and most severe persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Later edicts targeted the clergy and ordered all inhabitants to sacrifice to the Roman gods, the persecution varied in intensity across the empire—weakest in Gaul and Britain, where only the first edict was applied, and strongest in the Eastern provinces. Persecutory laws were nullified by different emperors at different times, but Constantine and it was not until the 250s, under the reigns of Decius and Valerian, that such laws were passed. Under this legislation, Christians were compelled to sacrifice to Roman gods or face imprisonment, when Gallienus acceded in 260, he issued the first imperial edict regarding tolerance toward Christians, leading to nearly 40 years of peaceful coexistence. Diocletians accession in 284 did not mark an immediate reversal of disregard to Christianity, in the first 15 years of his rule, Diocletian purged the army of Christians, condemned Manicheans to death, and surrounded himself with public opponents of Christianity. Diocletians preference for autocratic government, combined with his self-image as a restorer of past Roman glory, in the winter of 302, Galerius urged Diocletian to begin a general persecution of the Christians. Diocletian was wary, and asked the oracle of Apollo for guidance, the oracles reply was read as an endorsement of Galeriuss position, and a general persecution was called on February 24,303. Persecutory policies varied in intensity across the empire, where Galerius and Diocletian were avid persecutors, Constantius was unenthusiastic. Later persecutory edicts, including the calls for sacrifice, were not applied in his domain. His son, Constantine, on taking the office in 306, restored Christians to full legal equality. In Italy in 306, the usurper Maxentius ousted Maximians successor Severus, Galerius ended the persecution in the East in 311, but it was resumed in Egypt, Palestine, and Asia Minor by his successor, Maximinus. Constantine and Licinius, Severuss successor, signed the Edict of Milan in 313, Licinius ousted Maximinus in 313, bringing an end to persecution in the East. The persecution failed to check the rise of the church, by 324, Constantine was sole ruler of the empire, and Christianity had become his favored religion. Although the persecution resulted in death, torture, imprisonment, or dislocation for many Christians, the persecution did, however, cause many churches to split between those who had complied with imperial authority, and those who had remained pure. Certain schisms, like those of the Donatists in North Africa, the Donatists would not be reconciled to the Church until after 411. In the centuries that followed, some consider that Christians created a cult of the martyrs. These accounts were criticized during the Enlightenment and afterwards, most notably by Edward Gibbon, modern historians, such as G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, have attempted to determine whether Christian sources exaggerated the scope of the Diocletianic persecution, from its first appearance to its legalization under Constantine, for the first two centuries of its existence, Christianity and its practitioners were unpopular with the people at large
9.
Sasanian Empire
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
10.
Sasanian conquest of Jerusalem
–
Following the victory in Antioch, Shahrbaraz conquered Caesarea Maritima, the administrative capital of the province. Some 20,000 Jewish rebels joined the war against the Byzantine Christians, depending on the chronicler figures of either 20,000 or 26,000 are given. The Persian army reinforced by Jewish forces led by Nehemiah ben Hushiel, Jews and Samaritans were persecuted frequently by the Byzantines resulting in numerous revolts. Byzantine religious propaganda developed strong anti-Jewish elements, in several cases Jews tried to help support the Sasanian advance. A pogrom in Antioch in 608 would lead to a Jewish revolt in 610 which was crushed, Jews also revolted in both Tyre and Acre in 610. The Jews of Tyre were massacred in reprisal, unlike in earlier times when Jews had supported Christians in the fight against Shapur I, the Byzantines had now become viewed as oppressors. Following the Bar Kokhba revolt in 135 CE Jews were prohibited from entering the city, constantine allowed Jews to enter for one day each year, during the holiday of Tisha BAv. In 438 CE the Empress Eudocia removed the ban on Jews entering the city, However, following violent Christian opposition the ban was reinstated. The ban on settlement was maintained until the Arab conquest, except during the reign of the emperor Julian, due to these circumstances Jerusalem is thought to have had only a small Jewish population prior to the events of 614. Following the unopposed capture of Jerusalem, control of the city was handed to Nehemiah ben Hushiel, Nehemiah was then appointed the ruler of Jerusalem. He began making arrangements for the building of the Third Temple, after only a few months a Christian revolt occurred. Nehemiah ben Hushiel and his council of sixteen righteous were killed along with many other Jews, following the outburst of violence in Jerusalem the surviving Jews fled to Shahrbaraz’s encampment at Caesarea. Christians were able to retake the city before the walls were breached by Shahrbaraz’s forces who lay siege to the city. According to Antiochus Strategos, the abbot Modestos set out to Jericho where he mustered a force from the Byzantine troops which were garrisoned there. However, once the Byzantine troops caught sight of the overwhelming Persian army encamped outside the city walls, they fled, sources vary on how long the siege lasted. Depending on the source it lasted 19,20 or 21 days, according to Sebeos the siege resulted in a total Christian death toll of 17,000,4,518 prisoners were massacred near Mamilla reservoir per Antiochus. Christian sources later exaggerated the extent of the massacre, claiming a death toll as high as 90,000, in addition 35,000 or 37,000 people including the patriarch Zacharias are said to have been deported to Mesopotamia. The city is said to have burnt down
11.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
12.
Muslim world
–
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, comprising all those who adhere to the religion of Islam, or to societies where Islam is practiced. In a modern sense, these terms refer to countries where Islam is widespread. In the modern era, most of the Muslim world came under influence or colonial domination of European powers. The nation states emerged in the post-colonial era have adopted a variety of political and economic models. As of 2015, over 1.7 billion or about 23. 4% of the population are Muslims including the 4. 4% who live as minorities. Muslim history involves the history of the Islamic faith as a religion, the history of Islam began in Arabia with the Islamic prophet Muhammads first recitations of the Quran in the 7th century in the month of Ramadan. However, Islam under the Rashidun Caliphate grew rapidly, a century after the death of last Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empire extended from Spain in the west to Indus in the east. The Islamic Golden Age coincided with the Middle Ages in the Muslim world, starting with the rise of Islam and establishment of the first Islamic state in 622. The end of the age is given as 1258 with the Mongolian Sack of Baghdad, or 1492 with the completion of the Christian Reconquista of the Emirate of Granada in Al-Andalus. The Abbasids were influenced by the Quranic injunctions and hadiths, such as the ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr, that stressed the value of knowledge. The major Islamic capital cities of Baghdad, Cairo, and Córdoba became the intellectual centers for science, philosophy, medicine. Between the 8th and 18th centuries, the use of glaze was prevalent in Islamic art. Tin-opacified glazing was one of the earliest new technologies developed by the Islamic potters, the first Islamic opaque glazes can be found as blue-painted ware in Basra, dating to around the 8th century. Another contribution was the development of fritware, originating from 9th century Iraq, other centers for innovative ceramic pottery in the Old world included Fustat, Damascus and Tabriz. The original concept is derived from a pre-Islamic Persian prototype Hezār Afsān that relied on particular Indian elements and it reached its final form by the 14th century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. All Arabian fantasy tales tend to be called Arabian Nights stories when translated into English, regardless of whether they appear in The Book of One Thousand and this work has been very influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, first by Antoine Galland. Imitations were written, especially in France, various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor and Ali Baba. A famous example of Arabic poetry and Persian poetry on romance is Layla and Majnun and it is a tragic story of undying love much like the later Romeo and Juliet, which was itself said to have been inspired by a Latin version of Layla and Majnun to an extent
13.
Early Muslim conquests
–
The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
14.
Armenian Genocide
–
Driven forward by military escorts, the deportees were deprived of food and water and subjected to periodic robbery, rape, and massacre. Most Armenian diaspora communities around the world came into being as a result of the genocide. Raphael Lemkin was explicitly moved by the Armenian annihilation to define systematic and premeditated exterminations within legal parameters, Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide as an accurate term for the mass killings of Armenians that began under Ottoman rule in 1915. It has in recent years been faced with repeated calls to them as genocide. To date,29 countries have recognized the mass killings as genocide, as have most genocide scholars. The western portion of historical Armenia, known as Western Armenia, had come under Ottoman rule following the Peace of Amasya, henceforth, the region was also alternatively referred to as Turkish Armenia or Ottoman Armenia. The Armenian community was made up of three denominations, Armenian Catholic, Armenian Protestant, and Armenian Apostolic, the religion of a vast majority of Armenians. Through the millet system, the Armenian community were allowed to rule themselves under their own system of governance with fairly little interference from the Ottoman government, Ottoman census figures clash with the statistics collected by the Armenian Patriarchate. According to the latter, there were almost three million Armenians living in the empire in 1878, in the Ottoman Empire, in accordance with the dhimmi system implemented in Muslim countries, they, like all other Christians and also Jews, were accorded certain freedoms. The dhimmi system in the Ottoman Empire was largely based upon the Pact of Umar, while the Pact of Umar prohibited non-Muslims from building new places of worship, it was not enforced in all regions of the Ottoman Empire. Since there were no laws concerning religious ghettos, the prohibition of non-Muslims building new places of worship led to their clustering around existing ones and it did not mean religious persecution, it meant unutterable contempt. They were dogs and pigs, and their nature was to be Christians, to be spat upon, if their shadow darkened a Turk, to be outraged, in addition to other legal limitations, Christians were not considered equals to Muslims and several prohibitions were placed on them. They were forbidden to carry weapons or ride horses and camels. Their houses could not overlook those of Muslims, and their religious practices were severely circumscribed, from 1839 to the declaration of a constitution in 1876, the Ottoman government instituted the Tanzimat, a series of reforms designed to improve the status of minorities. Nevertheless, most of the reforms were never implemented because the empires Muslim population rejected the principle of equality for Christians. By the late 1870s, the Greeks, along several other Christian nations in the Balkans, frustrated with their conditions, had, often with the help of the great powers. The Armenians remained, by and large, passive during these years, in the mid-1860s and early 1870s this passivity gave way to new currents of thinking in Armenian society. The Ottoman government considered these grievances and promised to punish those responsible, under growing pressure, the government of Sultan Abdul Hamid II declared itself a constitutional monarchy with a parliament and entered into negotiations with the powers
15.
Assyrian genocide
–
The Assyrian genocide took place in the same context as the Armenian and Greek genocides. Unlike the Armenians, there were no orders to deport Assyrians, the attacks against them were not of standardized nature and incorporated various methods of massacre, in some cities, all Assyrian men were slain and the others were forced to flee. These massacres were carried out upon the initiatives of local politicians and Kurdish tribes. Exposure, disease and starvation during the flight of Assyrians increased the death toll, estimates on the overall death toll have varied. Rudolph Rummel gives the number of Christian deaths in Assyrian-populated regions of Turkey as 102,000, the IAGS referred to the work of Gaunt and Travis in passing this resolution. The Assyrian name Qeṭlā ḏ-‘Amā Āṯûrāyā, which literally means killing of the Assyrian people, is used by groups to describe these events. The word Qṭolamo which means Genocide is also used in Assyrian diaspora media, the term used in Turkish media is Süryani Soykırımı. Nestorians, Syrians, Syriacs, and Chaldeans were names imposed by Western missionaries such as the Catholics, the Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire numbered about one million at the turn of the twentieth century and was largely concentrated in what is now Iran, Iraq and Turkey. However, researchers such as David Gaunt have noted that the Assyrian population was around 600,000 prior to World War I, there were also hundreds of thousands of Maronite Christians in Lebanon, with some Assyrian heritage but which are less often called Assyrians. There were significantly larger communities located in the regions near Lake Urmia in Persia, Lake Van and Mesopotamia, as well as the eastern Ottoman vilayets of Diyarbekir, Erzurum and Bitlis. Like other Christians residing in the empire, they were treated as second-class citizens, violence directed against them prior to the First World War was not new. The Hamidiye received assurances from the Ottoman Sultan that they could kill Assyrians and Armenians with impunity, in October 1914, the Ottoman Empire began deporting and massacring Assyrians and Armenians in Van. After attacking Russian cities and declaring war on Britain and France, the German Kaiser and the German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire directed and orchestrated the holy war, and financed the Ottomans war against the Russian Empire. The degree of the responsibility of the Ottoman government and whether the genocide had a systematic nature has been the subject of different scholarly opinions, when the Assyrians did not collaborate with Russians, any plans to deport them were cancelled. Kaiser wrote that the massacres of Assyrians were apparently not a part of the official Ottoman policy, dominik J. Massacres of Assyrians were often undertaken through the initiatives of local officials and groups. Nevertheless, they classified the campaign against Assyrians as having genocidal quality, tamcke wrote that documents such as these, along with oral traditions, are evidence of a systematic policy of extermination. According to historian David Gaunt, a primary characteristic was the targeting of the Assyrian population. The killing in rural regions was more extensive, while some survived the massacres in cities, the property, villages and animals of the villagers were destroyed totally to prevent their return
16.
Christianity in Sudan
–
Christianity has a long history in the region that is now Sudan and South Sudan. Ancient Nubia was reached by Coptic Christianity by the 2nd century, the Coptic Church was later influenced by Byzantine Christianity. From the 7th century, the Christian Nubian kingdoms were threatened by the Islamic expansion, southern Sudan remained long dominated by traditional religions of the Nilotic peoples, with significant conversion to Anglicanism during the 20th century. Christianity reached the area of present-day northern Sudan, then called Nubia and it greatly developed under the influence of the Eastern Roman Empire. Indeed, Byzantine architecture influenced most of the Christian churches in lower Nubia, the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I made Nubia a stronghold of Christianity during the Middle Ages. By 580 AD Christianity had become the religion of the northern Sudan. During the 19th century, British missionaries re-introduced the Christian faith into South Sudan, British imperial authorities somewhat arbitrarily limited missionary activity to the multi-ethnic southern region. At the 2011 division which split off South Sudan, over 97% of the population in the remaining Sudan, in the north, religions followed by the South Sudanese include traditional indigenous religions, Christianity and Islam. The last census to mention the religion of southerners dates back to 1956 where a majority were classified as following traditional beliefs or were Christian while 18% were Muslim. The Anglicans through the Church Missionary Society had their base in Omdurman, while the Presbyterians began in Khartoum, the Sudan Interior Mission began working in the country in 1937. The Africa Inland Mission launched the Africa Inland Church in 1949, in 1964 all foreign missionaries were made to leave southern Sudan because of the civil war. A few groups maintained missionaries in the north, the Sudan Pentecostal Church, which has grown significantly in the south, was started later by the Swedish. As of 2011, prior to the division of the country, about 2,009,374 Sudanese practiced Roman Catholicism, nine catholic dioceses include two archdioceses in modern Sudan, with five Cathedrals. The patron saint of the Sudan is the former slave Saint Josephine Bakhita, about 100,000 people or 0. 25% of the population belong to various Protestant denominations in northern Sudan. Catholicism is practised by some thousand followers north of Sudans capital, Sudans Christians were persecuted under various military regimes. Sudans civil wars ended in 1972, but resumed in 1983. Four million people were displaced and two people died in the two-decade long conflict before a temporary six-year ceasefire was signed in January 2005. On 16 May 1983, Sudans Anglican and Roman Catholic clergy signed a declaration that they would not abandon God as God had revealed himself to them under threat of Shariah Law, lands laid waste and where all buildings were demolished included an area the size of Alaska
17.
Maspero demonstrations
–
In order to defuse tensions, the Aswan governorate organized a meeting between Salafist and Coptic leaders, wherein the Copts refused the latter demand of eliminating crosses and steeples. The threats eventually escalated to actual destruction of the church by the extremists and it was this incident that led to the protest, which is presented in the following details based on a number of credible sources. The march set out towards Maspiro from the downtown neighborhood of Shubra. Reporters agree that it was a sizeable demonstration comparable to the numbers at the 28 January protest, when the protests started, Egyptian state television anchor Rasha Magdy, urged honorable citizens to go protect the military. Reports suggest that the army began using violence even before the protesters reached Maspiro, gunshots were heard from the end of Shubra Street and rocks were thrown from a nearby bridge. The protesters responded in chants against the Field Commander, the attacks suddenly stopped as the protesters proceeded on Galaa Street. As they crossed the Al Ahram headquarters, one rock was thrown at the building, reports suggest this was in response to Al Ahram’s poor coverage of violence against Copts in a recent issue. Army attacks resumed when the protesters turned the corner at Ramsis Hotel, witnesses saw two armored personnel carriers crushing protesters to death, and soldiers firing wildly at the congregation, followed by riot police throwing tear gas. These incidents have been documented by video and later broadcast on CNN, reports count between 24 and 27 deaths, mostly Coptic civilians, and over 300 injured. Later, the Department of Health released another statement indicating that there were no military deaths, according to an official statement by the Egyptian military, it was the protesters who first attacked the army resulting in the death of three police officers. Human rights organisations have dismissed the Armys response as partial, several international media outlets, including BBC and CNN, picked up this version of the events. Egyptian state television later retracted the claims when it broadcast a report on the events the following day. Public figures, including prominent Muslim and Coptic leaders, demanded the prosecution of army generals, the military council then called for the civilian Prime Minister to investigate the incident and identified 15 suspects to be tried in military courts. The military council and state television remain targets of heated criticism from prominent activists and journalists, activists also blame state television for provoking sectarian tensions. Identical promises have been made following other similar incidents without any amend the laws that require only non-Muslims to receive permission to build houses of worship. 2011 Alexandria bombing 2011 Imbaba Church Attacks Human rights in Egypt under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces Carr, a firsthand account, Marching from Shubra to deaths at Maspero. Egypt’s Mubarak sends in army, resists demands to quit Reuters, social Media Accounts of Violence in Cairo Challenge Official Narrative. Outrage over state TV’s misinformation and anti-Coptic incitement, Ahram Online, experts say tougher measures needed after Maspero, slam state media coverage, The Daily News Egypt
18.
Genocide of Christians by ISIL
–
Persecution of Christian minorities climaxed following its takeover of parts of Northern Iraq in June 2014. According to US diplomat Alberto M. Fernandez, While the majority of victims in the raging in Syria and Iraq have been Muslims. On February 3,2016, the European Union recognized the persecution of Christians by Islamic State in Syria as genocide, the United States followed suit on March 15,2016, in declaring these atrocities as genocide. On April 20,2016, British Parliament voted unanimously to denounce the actions as genocide, a similar motion however failed in Canada when it was opposed by the majority of MPs in Justin Trudeaus Liberal government. The mass flight and expulsion of ethnic Assyrians from Iraq is a process initiated from the beginning of Iraq War in 2003. After the fall of Mosul, ISIS demanded Assyrian Christians in the city to convert to Islam, pay tribute, or face execution, by July 19,2014. ISIL leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi further noted that Christians who do not agree with those terms must leave the borders of the Islamic Caliphate within a specified deadline and this resulted in a complete Assyrian Christian exodus from Mosul, marking the end of 1600 years of continuous Christian presence. A church mass was not held in Mosul for the first time in 1,800 years, ISIL has already set similar rules for Christians for other cities and towns, including its de facto capital Raqqa. However, on 29 March 2016, ISIL issued a decree preventing Christians from leaving Raqqa, ISIS had also been seen marking Christian homes with the letter nūn for Nassarah. Several religious buildings were seized and subsequently demolished, most notably Mar Behnam Monastery, by August 7, ISIS captured the primarily Assyrian towns of Qaraqosh, Tel Keppe, Bartella, and Karamlish, prompting the residents to flee. More than 100,000 Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes and leave all their property behind after ISIS invaded Qaraqosh, in early November 2014, a price list for Yazidi and Christian females surfaced online. While human rights NGO Defend International immediately verified the documents authenticity, the men, who came from different villages in Egypt,13 of them from Al-Our, Minya Governorate, were kidnapped in Sirte in two separate attacks on December 27,2014, and in January 2015. Most of them remain in captivity with one account claiming that ISIS is demanding $22 million for their release, on 8 October, ISIL released a video showing three of the Assyrian men kidnapped in Khabur being executed. It was reported that 202 of the 253 kidnapped Assyrians were still in captivity, chaldean Catholic Father Douglas Al-Bazi has spoken out strongly against the genocide. In December 2015, at a Townhall event, the American presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called the systematic persecution genocide and its also a historical confirmation that the European Parliament recognized what is going on and that they are suffering from the most despicable crime in the world, namely genocide. Assyrian Genocide Christianity in the Middle East Genocide of Yazidis by ISIL Genocide of Shias by ISIL Syrian Civil War spillover in Iraq Collaboration with ISIL
19.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
20.
European wars of religion
–
The European wars of religion were a series of religious wars waged in Europe from 1524 to 1648, following the onset of the Protestant Reformation in Central, Western and Northern Europe. The wars were influenced by the religious change of the period. Nevertheless, the combatants cannot be categorised by religion, nor were they divided by religion alone. Purely political motivations and cross-religious alliances were also significant in many of the earlier wars, the Holy Roman Empire, encompassing present-day Germany and surrounding territory, was the area most devastated by the wars of religion. The Empire was a collection of semi-independent states with an elected Holy Roman Emperor as its head, after the 14th century. The Austrian House of Habsburg was a major European power in its own right, ruling over some eight million subjects in present-day Germany, Austria, Bohemia and Hungary. A vast number of minor independent duchies, free cities, abbeys, bishoprics. Lutheranism, from its inception at Wittenberg in 1519, found a reception in Germany. The preaching of Martin Luther and his followers raised tensions across Europe. In Northern Germany, Luther adopted the stratagem of gaining the support of the princes in his struggle to take over. Church property was seized, and Catholic worship was forbidden in most lands that adopted the Lutheran Reformation, the political conflicts thus engendered within the Empire led almost inevitably to war. The first large-scale violence was engendered by the radical of Luthers followers. This was a step that the princes supporting Luther were not willing to countenance, the German Peasants War of 1524/1525 was a popular revolt inspired by the teachings of the radical reformers. It consisted of a series of economic as well as revolts by peasants, townsfolk. The conflict took place mostly in southern, western and central areas of modern Germany but also affected areas in neighboring modern Switzerland, at its height, in the spring and summer of 1525, it involved an estimated 300,000 peasant insurgents. Contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000 and it was Europes largest and most widespread popular uprising before the 1789 French Revolution. Because of their political ideas, radical reformers like Thomas Müntzer were compelled to leave the Lutheran cities of North Germany in the early 1520s. They spread their religious and political doctrines into the countryside of Bohemia, Southern Germany
21.
Thirty Years' War
–
The Thirty Years War was a series of wars in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648. It was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, as well as the deadliest European religious war, resulting in eight million casualties. Initially a war between various Protestant and Catholic states in the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, it developed into a more general conflict involving most of the great powers. These states employed relatively large mercenary armies, and the war became less about religion, in the 17th century, religious beliefs and practices were a much larger influence on an average European than they are today. The war began when the newly elected Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand II, tried to impose uniformity on his domains. The northern Protestant states, angered by the violation of their rights to choose that had granted in the Peace of Augsburg. Ferdinand II was a devout Roman Catholic and relatively intolerant when compared to his predecessor and his policies were considered strongly pro-Catholic. They ousted the Habsburgs and elected Frederick V, Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate as their monarch, Frederick took the offer without the support of the union. The southern states, mainly Roman Catholic, were angered by this, led by Bavaria, these states formed the Catholic League to expel Frederick in support of the Emperor. The Empire soon crushed this rebellion in the Battle of White Mountain. After the atrocities committed in Bohemia, Saxony finally gave its support to the union, Spain, wishing to finally crush the Dutch rebels in the Netherlands and the Dutch Republic, intervened under the pretext of helping its dynastic Habsburg ally, Austria. No longer able to tolerate the encirclement of two major Habsburg powers on its borders, Catholic France entered the coalition on the side of the Protestants in order to counter the Habsburgs. Both mercenaries and soldiers in fighting armies traditionally looted or extorted tribute to get operating funds, the war also bankrupted most of the combatant powers. The Thirty Years War ended with the treaties of Osnabrück and Münster, the war altered the previous political order of European powers. Lutherans living in a prince-bishopric could continue to practice their faith, Lutherans could keep the territory they had taken from the Catholic Church since the Peace of Passau in 1552. Those prince-bishops who had converted to Lutheranism were required to give up their territories and this added a third major faith to the region, but its position was not recognized in any way by the Augsburg terms, to which only Catholicism and Lutheranism were parties. The Dutch revolted against Spanish domination during the 1560s, leading to a war of independence that led to a truce only in 1609. This dynastic concern overtook religious ones and led to Catholic Frances participation on the otherwise Protestant side of the war, Sweden and Denmark-Norway were interested in gaining control over northern German states bordering the Baltic Sea
22.
France
–
France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
23.
Mexico
–
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
24.
Cristero War
–
The rebellion was set off by enactment under President Plutarco Elías Calles of a statute to enforce the anticlerical articles of the Mexican Constitution of 1917. Calles sought to eliminate the power of the Catholic Church and organizations affiliated with it as an institution, the massive, popular rural uprising was tacitly supported by the Church hierarchy and was aided by urban Catholic support. US Ambassador Dwight W. Morrow brokered negotiations between the Calles government and the Church, the government made some concessions, the Church withdrew its support for the Cristero fighters and the conflict ended in 1929. The Mexican Revolution remains the largest conflict in Mexican history, the overthrow of dictator Porfirio Díaz unleashed disorder, with many contending factions and regions. Having a change of leadership or a wholesale overturning of the order was potentially a danger to the Churchs position. In the democratizing wave of activity, the National Catholic Party was formed. Francisco Madero was overthrown and assassinated in a February 1913 military coup led by Gen, the Constitutionalist faction won the revolution and its leader, Venustiano Carranza, had a new revolutionary constitution drawn up. The Constitution of 1917 strengthened the anticlericalism of the previous document, neither President Carranza nor his successor, Gen. Alvaro Obregón, enforced the anticlerical articles. The Calles administration felt its revolutionary initiatives and legal basis to pursue them were being challenged by the Catholic Church, on the opposing side was an armed professional military sponsored by the government. Calles’ Mexico has been characterized as an atheist state, and his program as being one to religion in Mexico. A period of resistance to the enforcement of the anticlerical provisions of the constitution by Mexican Catholics brought no result. Skirmishing broke out in 1926, and violent uprisings began in 1927, the rebels called themselves Cristeros, invoking the name of Jesus Christ under the title of Cristo Rey or Christ the King. The rebellion eventually ended by diplomatic means brokered by the U. S. Ambassador to Mexico Dwight Whitney Morrow, with financial relief, the rebellion attracted the attention of Pope Pius XI, who issued a series of papal encyclicals between 1925–37. On December 11,1925, the pontiff issued Quas primas, on November 18,1926, he issued Iniquis afflictisque, denouncing the violent anti-clerical persecution in Mexico. Despite the governments promises to the contrary, it continued the persecution of the Church, in response, Pius issued Acerba animi on September 29,1932. The Political Constitution of the United Mexican States was drafted by the Constitutional Congress convoked by Venustiano Carranza in September 1916, the new constitution was based in the previous one instituted by Benito Juárez in 1857. Three of its 136 articles—Article 3, Article 27 and Article 130—contain heavily secularizing sections, restricting the power, the first two sections of article 3 state, I. According to the liberties established under article 24, educational services shall be secular and, therefore
25.
Acerba animi
–
Acerba animi is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI promulgated on September,29,1932, to denounce the continued persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico. It was the second of three encyclicals concerning persecution in Mexico, including Iniquis afflictisque and Firmissimam constantiamque, the Pope criticized the states continued persecution noting that the Mexican people had been so long harassed by grievous persecutions. The Pope chided the Mexican government for breaking its promise not to apply the anticlerical provisions, the Pope recalls that the government of Plutarco Calles then enacted a law which allowed the states to regulate the number of priests in their territory. The persecution led to the known as the Cristero War. The government continued to close seminaries and exhibit an intention to destroy the Church, the persecution differed little for that going on in the U. S. S. R. at the time. It also urged instituting and furthering to a greater extent Catholic Action, recourse to the Sacraments, sources of grace and strength. Rejecting further rebellion, the letter counseled laymen to the closest union with the Church, the reaction of the government was hostile, the President at the time, Abelardo Rodriguez, called the encyclical insolent and defiant. Some rebellious faithful did not heed the encyclical either, renewing hostilities with guerrilla action, on the other hand, substantial efforts were made to comply, in the least overtly political way possible, the goals of Acción Católica Mexicana,1. To again place Jesus Christ in the middle of the family school, to combat by all just and legal means anti-Christian civilization. To repair by the means the grave disorders in our society. To reestablish the principle that human authority is representative of that of God, still, during most of the Maximato membership was not high and action was limited
26.
Saints of the Cristero War
–
On May 21,2000, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 25 saints and martyrs arising from the Mexican Cristero War. The vast majority are Catholic priests who were executed for carrying out their ministry despite the suppression under the anti-clerical laws, priests who took up arms, however, were excluded from the process. The group of saints share the feast day of May 21, November 20 is the official anniversary in the Mexican civil calendar of the start of the Mexican Revolution with the promulgation of the Plan of San Luis Potosí in 1910 by Francisco Madero. F. M. Leonardo Perez Larios Darío Acosta Zurita Luis Bátiz Sainz was born on September 13,1870 and he attended a minor seminary from age 12, and was ordained on January 1,1894. He worked as director of the seminary and as parish priest in Chalchihuites, Zacatecas. He was noted for his zeal and capacity to organize the parish. He founded a workshop for Catholic workers and a school and he spent a great part of his time on the catechesis of children and adults and was very fervent in his Eucharistic adoration. He is reported to have said, Lord, I want to be a martyr, though I am your unworthy minister, I want to shed my blood, drop by drop, Bátiz spoke at this meeting and was denounced to the government. When the churches were closed, he moved to a private house, although there was a public outcry, the government decided to execute the priest. The next day, on the pretext of transferring him to Zacatecas, underway, they were taken from the car and shot on the side of the road before a firing squad. Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán was born on May 13,1875, after his seminary training in Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco, he was ordained a priest in 1905. He was known for his abilities, writing both prose and poetry. He was a Knight of Columbus and a member of Council 2330 and he was the parish priest in La Union de Tula, Mexico. After a warrant was issued for is arrest, he took refuge at the Colegio de San Ignacio in Ejutla, celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments. Rather than escape when soldiers arrived, Father Aguilar Alemán remained at the seminary to burn the list of seminary students, on October 28,1927, the day after his arrest, Father Alemán was led to the main plaza of Ejutla for execution by hanging. He blessed his captors and gave them his pardon, giving his rosary as a gift for one of the executioners, however, his captors decided to toy with Father Alemán and put his convictions to the test. After placing the noose on his neck from the rope on a tree, they repeatedly asked him. Expecting an answer of Long live the supreme government, but instead, he shouted the Cristero motto, Long live Christ the King and they pulled on the rope and suspended him before lowering him and repeating the question again
27.
Miguel Pro
–
Pros arrest, lack of trial, and evidential support gained prominence during the Cristero War. Known for his religious piety and innocence, he was beatified on September 25,1988 by Pope John Paul II as a Catholic martyr, killed in odium fidei. Miguel Pro, whose name was José Ramón Miguel Agustín, was born into a mining family on January 13,1891, in Guadalupe. He was the third of children, four of whom had died as infants or young children. Since a young age, he was called Cocol as a nickname, two of his sisters joined the convent. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at El Llano on August 15,1911, pulido, said that he had never seen such an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling. He was noted for his charity and ability to speak about subjects without boring his audience. Pulido remarked that there were two Pros, the playful Pro and the prayerful Pro and he was known for the long periods he spent in the chapel. Long-time President of Mexico Porfirio Díaz was ousted in 1911 after staging a rigged reelection, Pro studied in Mexico until 1914 when a massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve and the Jesuits to flee to Los Gatos, California, in the United States. He then went to study in Granada, Spain, and then taught in Nicaragua from 1919 to 1922, back in Mexico, a new constitution for the country had been signed. Five articles of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico were particularly aimed at suppression of the Catholic Church, Article 3 mandated secular education in schools, prohibiting the Church from participating in primary and secondary education. Article 5 outlawed monastic religious orders, Article 24 forbade public worship outside of church buildings, while Article 27 restricted religious organizations rights to own property. Most of the provisions of the constitution were removed in 1998. For his theological studies Pro was sent to Enghien, Belgium where the French Jesuits had their faculty of Theology, there he was ordained a priest on August 31,1925. He wrote on occasion, How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the Holy Spirit. I could not hold back the tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounced, together with the bishop, after the ceremony the new priests gave their first blessing to their parents. I went to my room, laid out all the photographs of my family on the table and his first assignment as a priest was to work with the miners of Charleroi, Belgium. Despite the socialist, communist and anarchist tendencies of the workers, he was able to win them over, three months after ordination, he was forced to undergo several operations because of his ulcers
28.
Spain
–
By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
29.
Umayyad conquest of Hispania
–
The Umayyad conquest of Hispania was the initial expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate over Hispania, largely extending from 711 to 788. The conquest marks the westernmost expansion of both the Umayyad Caliphate and Muslim rule into Europe, forces commanded by Tariq ibn Ziyad disembarked in early 711 at Gibraltar at the head of an army consisting of Berbers. He campaigned his way northward after the decisive Battle of Guadalete against the usurper Roderic, by 717, the combined force had crossed the Pyrenees into Septimania and Provence. Precisely what happened in Iberia in the early 8th century is uncertain, there is one contemporary Christian source, the Chronicle of 754, regarded as reliable but often vague. There are no contemporary Muslim accounts, what Muslim information there is comes from later compilations subject to contemporary ideological influence. The most prominent such compilation is that of Al-Maqqari, which dates from the 17th century and this paucity of sources means that any specific or detailed claims need to be regarded with caution. Numismatic evidence suggests a division of authority, with several coinages being struck. There is also a story of one Julian, count of Ceuta, whose wife or daughter was raped by Roderic, however, these stories are not included in the earliest accounts of the conquest. According to the later chronicler Ibn Abd-el-Hakem, in 711, Tariq Ibn Ziyad led an approximately 1, however,12,000 seems a more accurate figure. They defeated the Visigothic army, led by King Roderic, in a battle at Guadalete in 712. Tariqs forces were reinforced by those of his superior, the wali Musa ibn Nusair. According to the Muslim historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, Iberia was first invaded some sixty years earlier during the caliphate of Uthman, however, this putative invasion is not accepted by modern historians. The conquering army was made up mainly of Berbers who had only recently come under Muslim influence. Both the Chronicle of 754 and later Muslim sources speak of raiding activity in previous years, the Chronicle of 754 stated that the entire army of the Goths, which had come with him fraudulently and in rivalry out of hopes of the Kingship, fled. This is the contemporary account of the battle and the paucity of detail led many later historians to invent their own. The location of the battle is not totally clear but was probably the Guadalete River, Roderic was believed to have been killed and a crushing defeat would have left the Visigoths largely leaderless and disorganized. The resulting power vacuum, which may have indeed caught Tariq completely by surprise, in 714, Musa ibn Nusayr headed north-west up the Ebro river to overrun the western Basque regions and the Cantabrian mountains all the way to Gallaecia, with no relevant or attested opposition. During the period of the second Arab governor Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa, the northern areas of Iberia drew little attention to the conquerors and were hard to defend when taken
30.
Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War
–
Martyrs of the Spanish Civil War is the name given by the Catholic Church to the people who were killed by Republicans during the war because of their faith. As of March 2017,1699 Spanish martyrs have been beatified,11 of them being canonized, for some two thousand additional martyrs, the beatification process is underway. Pope John Paul II beatified a total of about 500 martyrs in the years 1987,1989,1990,1992,1993,1995,1997 and 2001, some 233 executed clergy were beatified by John Paul II on 11 March 2001. In 1999 he also canonized a Christian Brother and the nine Martyrs of Turon, in this group of people, the Vatican has not included all Spanish martyrs, nor any of the 16 priests who were executed by the nationalist side in the first years of the war. This decision has caused numerous criticisms from surviving members and several political organisations in Spain. The beatification recognized the extraordinary fate and often brutal death of the persons involved, some have criticized the beatifications as dishonoring non-clergy who were also killed in the war, and as being an attempt to draw attention away from the churchs support of Franco. Within Spain, the Civil War still raises high emotions, the act of beatification has also coincided in time with the debate on the Law of Historical Memory promoted by the Spanish Government. Responding to the criticism, the Vatican has described the October 2007 beatifications as relating to personal virtues and holiness and they are not about resentment but. The Spanish government has supported the beatifications, sending Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos to attend the ceremony, among those present was Juan Andrés Torres Mora, a relative of one of the martyrs and the Spanish MP who had debated the memory law for PSOE. The October 2007 beatifications have brought the number of martyred persons beatified by the Church to 977, because of the extent of the persecution, many more cases could be proposed, as many as 10,000 according to Catholic Church sources. The process for beatification has already been initiated for about 2,000 people, at the 28 October 2007 beatifications, Pope Benedict underscored the call to sanctity for all Christians, saying it was realistic possibility for the entire Christian people. He also noted, This martyrdom in ordinary life is an important witness in todays secularized society. Francis also approved additional beatifications for Spanish martyrs that took place for a priest on 1 November 2014 as well as two sets of group martyrs on both 5 September 2015 and 3 October 2015. The pope also approved the beatification of 26 Capuchin martyrs, which place on 21 November 2015. The beatification for Valentín Palencia Marquina and his four companions took place on 23 April 2016 in Burgos, the 114 Almerian martyrs were beatified on 25 March 2017, and Antonio Arribas Hortigüela and his six companions shall be beatified on 6 May 2017 in Girona. The martyrs of Turon were a group of eight De La Salle Brothers, and the Passionist priest who was with them and they were beatified by Pope John Paul II on 29 April 1990, and were canonized by him on 21 November 1999. He was beatified on 29 April 1990 and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 November 1999, Jaime Hilario Barbal, born Manuel Barbal Cosán, was raised in a pious and hardworking family near the Pyrenees mountains. Entered the seminary at age 12, but when his hearing began to fail in his teens, joined the Brothers of the Christian Schools at age 19, entering the novitiate on 24 February 1917 at Irun, Spain, taking the name Jaime Hilario
31.
Red Terror (Spain)
–
The Red Terror in Spain is the name given by historians to various acts of violence committed from 1936 until the end of the Spanish Civil War by sections of nearly all the leftist groups. The violence consisted of the killing of tens of thousands of people, as well as attacks on landowners, industrialists, and politicians, electorally, the Church had identified itself with the Right, which had set itself against social reform. Some estimates of the Red Terror range from 38,000 to 72,344 lives, Paul Preston, speaking in 2012 at the time of the publication of his book The Spanish Holocaust, put the figure at a little under 50,000. Historian Julio de la Cueva has written that, despite the fact that the Church, analysts such as Helen Graham have linked the Red and White Terrors, pointing out that it was the military coup that allowed the culture of brutal violence to flourish. Graham wrote of the coup. its original act of violence was that it killed off the possibility of other forms of political evolution. The revolution of 1931 that established the Second Republic and the Spanish Constitution of 1931 brought to power an anticlerical government, the relationship between the new secular Republic and the Catholic Church, who resented it, was fraught from the start. Cardinal Pedro Segura, the primate of Spain, urged Catholics to vote in future elections against an administration which in his wanted to destroy religion. The controversial articles 26 and 27 of the strictly controlled Church property. One legal commentator has stated plainly the gravest mistake of the Constitution of 1931—Spains last democratic Constitution prior to 1978—was its hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church, following the general election of February 16,1936, political bitterness grew in Spain. Leading up to the Civil War, the state of the establishment had been brutal. In the 1933 elections to the Cortes Generales, the CEDA won a plurality of seats and it was however not enough to form a majority. CEDA supported the Lerroux government, it later demanded and, on October 1,1934, hostility between both the left and the right increased after the formation of the Government. Spain experienced general strikes and street conflicts, noted among the strikes was the miners revolt in northern Spain and riots in Madrid. Nearly all rebellions were crushed by the Government and political arrests followed, lerrouxs alliance with the right, his harsh suppression of the revolt in 1934, and the Stra-Perlo scandal combined to leave him and his party with little support going into the 1936 election. The murder of 37 priests, brothers and seminarians by leftists in Asturias marks what some see as the beginning of the Red Terror. In October 1934, the Asturian Revolution was strongly anticlerical and involved violence against priests and religious, turón, one of the locales of anticlerical violence, a coal-mining town in the Asturias Province, was a hub of anti-government and anticlerical agitation. On October 5,1934, the agents of the rebel government invaded the orders residence on the pretext that they had concealed weapons. Inocencio, now Saint Innocencio of Mary Immaculate, who had arrived the evening of October 4 was about to say Mass for the brothers and he and the brothers were taken and held without trial, then summarily shot in the middle of the night in the cemetery
32.
Martyrs of Daimiel
–
The Passionist Martyrs of Daimiel were a group of priests and brothers of the Passionist Congregation killed by anti-clericalist forces during the Spanish Civil War. At 11,30 pm on the night of 21 July 1936, the members of the community were gathered for prayer when the superior of the community, Father Niceforo of Jesus, upon hearing the armed men exclaimed Gethsemane – this is our Gethsemane. I am going to give you He who is the strength of the weak, Jesus was comforted by an angel, it is Jesus himself who comforts and sustains us… Within a few moments we will be with Christ… Citizens of Calvary, take heart. It is my duty to encourage you and I myself am encouraged by your example, Father Nicefore then gave the community absolution and Holy Communion. The Passionists were ordered out of the church and led to the cemetery under armed guard. One of the five survivors later remarked, Our imagination ran wild as we saw the already dug graves, would they bury us alive…or dead. The thought of death frightened us, but the idea of being buried alive was even more terrifying, the armed men split the Passionists into groups and headed in different directions. Nine others were placed on a train to Ciudad Real and they were put in gaol, accused of being religious who were killing people. Then they were led down the street to be mocked and stoned by crowds and these Passionists were shot dead and buried in a mass grave, their alleged crime written on their wrists ‘For being Passionist religious from Daimiel’. Ten other Passionists tried to get to Madrid by train or walking and they were taken off the train at Urda station and there, on the morning of July 25, shot dead. Two others, Father Juan Pedro of Saint Anthony and the elderly Brother Pablo Maria of Saint Joseph managed to walk to Carrion de Calatrava in Ciudad Real where they hid for two months. They were discovered and shot as they kissed their crucifixes and exclaimed “Long Live Christ the King. ”Eyewitnesses reported that all of the Passionists had forgiven their murderers before they died. A witness to the murder of Father Niceforo reported that after being shot the priest turned his eyes to heaven then turned and smiled at his murderers. At this point one of them, now more infuriated than ever, shouted and those who died were, Father Nicéforo of Jesus and Mary provincial superior, who had previously suffered persecution and exile in Mexico, born 17 February 1893 in Herreruela, Cáceres, Spain. Father Germán of Jesus and Mary, superior of the community, born 7 September 1898 in Cornago, La Rioja, Father Felipe of the Child Jesus, born 26 May 1874 in at San Martín de Rubiales, Burgos, Spain. Father Ildefonso of the Cross, born 15 March 1898 in Becerril del Carpio, Palencia, Father Pedro of the Heart of Jesus, born 19 May 1907 in Alba de los Cardaños, Palencia, Spain. Father Justiniano of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, born 19 August 1910 in Alba de los Cardaños, Palencia, Brother Pablo Maria of Saint Joseph, born 17 February 1882 in Leoz, Navarra, Spain. Brother Benito of the Virgin of Villar, born 17 February 1882 in Cintruénigo, Navarra, Brother Anacario of the Immaculata, born 23 September 1906 in Becerril del Carpio, Palencia, Spain
Catholicism portal
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Japanese Martyrs". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). 
