I. Excerpts from:
The Golden Eagle and Its Sulphurous Smell.
The New Middle Ages

Pg. 48:

Pope Lucius III (1181-1185) undertook the next attempt: In an edict (1184) “to eradicate the various heretical teachings” he stipulated that the bishops ban the believers gone astray, to confiscate their possessions, to condemn them to eternal dishonor, yes, even to cleanse the Catholic cemeteries from the remains of heretics. (We are shaking our head? During the 20th century we will see how a Protestant-Lutheran congregation refuses to make available the only town cemetery for the burial of a “heretic” – p. 301) Even more notable than this edict is the fact that Lucius succeeded in securing the support of Emperor Friedrich Barbarossa who promised to follow the instructions of the papal legates in the fight against those who had broken away from their faith.”

Pg. 301:

Not Even a Dead Original Christian Is a Good Original Christian

It is easy to demonstrate against discrimination and racism that occurs in a far away place. But what is happening before our own doorstep? Even in 1986, right after the acquisition by Original Christians of the clinic became known, Pastor Bayer and his church board changed the by-laws of the Michelrieth cemetery, which was administered by the Protestant-Lutheran Church; whereby, “only Protestant-Lutheran and Catholic burials shall be permitted” was placed immediately into effect. The first family to feel the results of this ruling was in August of 1988 when the Michelrieth citizen Irmtraud M., a former Protestant-Lutheran, died of cancer at 46 years of age. They had to bury her mortal remains in the neighboring town of Altfeld, where the closest communal cemetery could be found. For the denominational cemeteries in Michelrieth, the medieval laws against heretics were immediately placed into effect, whereby the “remains of heretics” had no right to be there!

Order of the Cemetery Excerpt
1. The Protestant-Lutheran cemetery in Michelrieth is under the ownership and administration of the Protestant-Lutheran congregation of Michelrieth.
2. Only Protestant-Lutheran and Catholic burials are permitted there.
Order of the Cemetery: A Public Notice that hangs in the Michelrieth Cemetery.
___________________________________________________________________________________

And at the end of 1991, Aloisia S., deceased 68-year old Original Christian, was not permitted burial in Michelrieth. In a press notice, the Original Christians called attention to the fact that logically, Jesus of Nazareth also had no chance of being buried in Michelrieth – because, after all, he, too, was neither Protestant-Lutheran or Catholic. And, that would be, consistent, after all. Dostoyevski let the following be said to Christ in his story “The Great Inquisitor”: “Perhaps you, too, want to hear it come from my mouth so listen: We are not with you but with him [the adversary of God], that is our secret.” And toward the end he instructs the returned Messiah to leave the city: “Go and never come back.”

Pg. 66:

If the Inquisitor Comes

But nothing should be left to chance. So that the zeal of persecution of the inquisitional ground troops would not fall into sleepy laziness and routine, at regular intervals the boss himself went into action: The visit of the Inquisitor was announced. Upon his arrival, he gathered the church congregation together and explained during the sermon the “distinguishing features of various heresies, the characteristics, by which one could recognize a heretic, the tricks they could pull in order to diminish the alertness of the persecutors, and finally, the forms and methods of notice, that is, of placing accusations against them.

Despite all the changes that have taken place, how the images remain the same: Whoever has already experienced a lecture of a sect-watch agent in a small town, at which the active church members are usually all present, in order to hear all about the “dangerous false teachings” of our day, whoever has felt the mood swing between greedy expectation of the sensational and an aggressive, defensive posture, knows what is meant here. The atmosphere at the arrival of the Inquisitor during the Middle Ages must have been much more tense, for the not yet “exposed” or supposed heretics were also sitting in their midst on the hard church benches. And then, the believers were imposed upon to accuse all suspects before the Inquisitor within a set time. Whoever did not comply with this, although he “knew” something, would be treated like a heretic himself.

Pg. 38:

Pope Leo forbade Catholics to have “any interaction” with non-Catholics. “He called for them to be despised, expressly in regard to their teaching. He commanded they take flight from such, ‘as a death-bringing poison! Abhor them, avoid them and avoid speaking to them.’ ‘Have no community with those who are the enemies of the Catholic faith and are Christian only in name!’” And the next step was to demand that the incited believers should denounce those of other faiths to their priests! “‘Therefore develop the holy zeal, which concern for religion requires of you!,’ he called, and … commanded that ‘you accuse the Manichaeians, who have hidden themselves everywhere, to your priests’; he demanded that they ‘discover all the hiding corners of the Godless and fight to destroy the devil in them.’” “Denounce, sniff out and show,” truly a “business which by destroying those of other faiths, ‘witches’ that is, should bring a flowering of blessing into the churches of the Middle Ages.”

Pg. 39

Here, too, Leo was way ahead of his time. With this, he anticipated the practice of the Inquisition during the height of the Middle Ages. But all of this, according to Leo, was in “true service of God”; after all, it was not for nothing that the Catholic liturgy of that time directed a prayer to God with the following words: “Hostes Romani nominis et inimicos catholicae religionis expugna” – destroy the adversaries of the Roman name and the enemies of the Catholic faith!”

Pg. 59

“The authorities were obligated by oath to do everything possible to track down the heretics. A magistrate who was too dilatory forfeited his office.” A few years later, in 1229, the Synod of Toulouse passed the following resolution: “The Lords of the different districts shall see that villas, houses and forests are diligently explored for heretics, and their hiding places destroyed. Whoever in the future still allows a heretic to linger in his region, whether for money or any other reason, will lose his possessions forever and his body will come under the due punishment inflicted by his superior.”

All these determinations may seem to the reader like dismal tones from the far distant past, which have nothing to do with today’s enlightened and democratic time. But they were deliberately cited here in some detail. It may very well be that there are no longer public executions using the fire or the sword. But there are “executions” done through mass media, through “character assassination.” And like a ghostly hand, there are also patterns of behavior that seem like automatic reflexes, which can be triggered in seconds by certain inciting words like “sect” in today’s time. As soon as a “magistrate,” for example, the mayor of a town, hears something about “sectarians,” who apparently wants to settle in “his” community area, he suddenly reacts like medieval times and forgets the constitution. Because the “sect” must disappear!
In chapter 3 (especially pg. 169ff) several such cases are described. Can it be that the fear before the legal requirements of the 13th century still lies deep in the bones or the genes, in the collective subconscious of a society that has been tyrannized and terrorized over centuries? Or, in case one believes in the possibility of reincarnation, as do the “heretics”: Can it be that the fear of the once terrible consequences of a behavior that deviated from Church guidelines lies in the soul of some of our politicians today? One need only think that even during the time of Emperor Frederick II, he himself was banned by the pope – and with him, on March 23, 1228, “all those places where the emperor had lingered.”

Pg. 260-61

In August, the Wertheim mayor “Stefan Gläser (of the CDU party) “feared” that followers of Universal Life wanted to acquire a second farm in the Höhefeld district of Wertheim. Through this, the “danger” of “infiltration” and “domination of town events” exists, because even clever people are “not immune” from “falling under the spell” of the organization. (How dangerous must such an organization be, when it can dominate a whole town simply through two farms!) The Original Christians see in this a parallel case to what happened in Hettstadt, which Gläser himself even referred to – but the administrative court of Stuttgart refused to forbid the mayor from expressing these slanderous remarks: These statements are “not substantiated” and there is “no danger of repetition” – a strange thing to say when one thinks of the fact that Glaser refused to sign a statement of omission and that he publicly declared that he “didn’t want to be misled” and that one wants to “intimidate” him. (The culprit always likes to pretend to be the victim). During the court case, which despite a motion for speed took 4 months to be held, the mayor argued that he did not make the statements objected to “in such a way.” It is only for this reason that he got away with it – but the papers published a notice to the press from Wertheim according to which the court “conclusively rejected” the appeal. According to the Tauber Newspaper of January 29, 1994, the mayor would “not have a muzzle put on.” Since the court at least expressed the hope that the town of Wertheim would “in the future avoid disparagement of the religious convictions of the followers of Universal Life,” the Original Christians saw the purpose of their appeal fulfilled and waived a long process of litigation. Nevertheless, the Protestant-Lutheran mayor, who, according to his own words, “is an office-holder of the church,” continued to discriminate unwaveringly against the Original Christians. On October 10, 1994, he complained in a letter to the Social Minister from Baden-Württemberg, Helga Solinger, of the “systematic proliferation” in the region “through a commerce and business structure that is not transparent and consists of multiple branches.” That a social service of the Original Christians has “deeply penetrated” and “competes” with other social services is a thorn in his side. He further insinuates that Universal Life has “access to thousands of patient data” via a computer firm run by Original Christians – thus imputing the firm of betraying secrets!

Pg. 68-69

The festive executions, also called “acts of faith,” don’t exist anymore. In most cases, they lasted the whole day, with several church masses and the reading of long-winded verdicts. And those who were not destined to be executed also had to be present, and found out, mostly at the last minute, what exactly to expect. After that, then the execution – and being allowed to contribute wood for the pyre was considered a mark of distinction and brought a certain dispensation of sin. According to church historian Karlheinz Deschner, the assembled Catholics sang the song, “Great God, we praise you” while the heretic, depending on wind direction, either suffocated or burned slowly at the stake.
Is there really no such thing today? We have to only transfer it into our time. Where do people assemble today when there is a great event to marvel at? Television delivers it to your house, free. Today, it is not for just a few television journalists and talk-show hosts, well-known or less well-known, a great honor to be able to really bring before the public eye a dangerous “sect” in a report, a magazine or a talk show. A corresponding high audience rating makes possible a perfect character assassination: Out of former public burnings at the stake – with all the dirty residues that come of this – emerges a clinically “squeaky-clean” public execution via mass media.

But we are jumping ahead. What still remains to be emphasized in terms of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages is that there was no escape from it, in terms of neither time nor space. Even without computers and networks of data transmission, all information was very exactingly written, down to the last “t.” In this way, very gradually, a gigantic “databank” came together which was constantly expanded upon through the records of further questionings…
Thus, one could still confront the suspect with offences and crimes that they committed 30 or 40 years before – or that were blamed on them at that time, anyway. Through the international organization of the Inquisition, “there existed no corner in Catholic Europe, where the pyres did not smoke, on which presumable or real heretics were burned.” According to Henry Charles Lea, “the Inquisition constituted an interregional police force … the Inquisition had a long arm and an unerring memory, so that we can very well understand the secret dread that it instilled in mankind through the secrecy of its activities and through it’s almost unnatural watchfulness … One single lucky catch, one single confession, extorted by torture, could bring the hounds on the tracks of hundreds of people, who until then presumed themselves to be fully secure, and every new victim expanded the circle of informers. Thus, the heretics lived constantly on a volcano that could swallow them up at every instant … For human fears, the papal inquisition was practically omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent.”

Pg. 135

Based on this background, one can understand why church agents of slander work intensely together with party representatives from the left as well as the right side of the spectrum. This does not lie simply with the politician’s connections to the churches: the probable Catholic in the CSU and the probable Protestant-Lutheran in the SPD. It probably lies in the fact that not only the churches, but also a certain “leftist” philosophy are in agreement in one point: Humans as such, are weak, “sinners,” and it should remain that way; for this reason, they need “caring supervision” from the church and the state. Every bit of ethics and morals that places higher demands on him is evil, since it would only hinder him in the “free development” of his weak and sinful personality. A spiritual-religious path that brings before the eyes of the people and gives as a goal the possibility to change themselves personally toward the better is to be fought at every turn, since, firstly, it isn’t possible, and secondly, would result in people presuming to think they could know better how they should shape their life than their religious or political teacher of salvation.

Pg. 413ff

Dissociate Yourselves from the Heretics!

Wherever boycotts are called for, whether openly or underhandedly, a deliberately instigated isolation brings in its hysteria very strange fruits over and over again – for example, it hits, the “wrong ones,” that is, the non-heretics. Just as during the Middle Ages in such cases, craftsmen or grocers protested that they weren’t “heretics,” just as in Germany during the 30’s doctors, lawyers or business proprietors assured the public in public advertisements that, for example, “Dr. Sommer is not Jew,” so did firms and businessmen dissociate themselves from the Original Christians in Lower Franconia at the end of the 20th century again and again. Thus, the bakery Götz hung up in its various shops in Würzburg and the surrounding area posters saying: “We are not a part of the Homebringing Mission. Any gossip to the contrary lacks every foundation and truth.” In the Café Tophoven in Wertheim the same firm let their customers know the following: “We are practicing Catholics! The management of Götz, the fresh and crisp Kilians baked goods.” And restaurants like “Steinburg” in Würzburg, dissociated themselves per ads in the newspaper: “For all those who know from their sources – we know better! We do not belong to Universal Life – and this is how it will remain.” A reason for the gossip apparently was the fact that the Original Christians had often eaten at this restaurant (– whereby after this dissociating statement they, of course, no longer did so and informed the public via an ad in the same newspaper of the same.) The medical doctors, Dr. Karl and Dr. Roland Eichler, who have their practice in the house next to the House of Universal Life in Würzburg, put up a sign on their building: “Based on conditions of space and placement, we would like to indicate that there is no connection between us and Universal Life.”

In the year of 1994, these dissociating statements were coming so thick and fast, that the Franconian People’s Sheet reported about it on September 10, 1994:
“They keep showing up: advertisements, flyers and posters, with which the business people of Würzburg want to make things clear – clear that they are not a part of Universal Life – despite all gossip to the contrary. Hit by this are not only the stores from the alternative or organic scene. Meanwhile, a renown hotel in Wurzburg has to fight against this as much as a bookstore, a bakery and a sports center.”

Apparently, the article was supposed to awaken sympathy for the firms hard hit. That behind these statements of dissociation a years-long smear campaign by the church against respectable citizens was the cause, is, of course, not a topic of discussion for the Catholic People’s Sheet. Nevertheless, what is mentioned is that it was apparently the positive aspects, like friendly service or a modern, open decoration of the show window that led to the gossip of being heretics and perhaps even a lull in profits. It was also like this during the Middle Ages: Whoever lived particularly in an upright manner, who never clung to vices, didn’t swear, not seldom became a suspect heretic. But we live today in the 21st century. That the discrimination and isolation of a minority should be considered a danger for a democratic state doesn’t occur to the business people who dissociate themselves or to the media. Everyone is apparently in agreement that the Original Christians should not work and should not earn anything – but, of course, this should not hit the Catholics and the Protestant-Lutherans.

There are even worse cases. For example, an advertisement of the farming family of Jessberger in Kreuzwertheim, who, apparently to avoid a loss of sales directly from their farm, announced in the community paper the following:
“Honored customers! Often and on different occasions we have been asked whether we make purchases at Universal Life. I must decisively defend myself against this gossip; it does not correspond to the facts.”

The stimulus for such advertisements is that kind of medieval thinking that the churches have hammered into the minds of their faithful over the centuries: “I not only do not buy from those who are “heretics” – I also avoid anyone who has anything to do with a “heretic,” for example, who purchases something from him! A totally Catholic distributor of heating oil from the area of Marktheidenfeld experienced something similar, when various customers of his refused to continue purchasing their heating oil from him because “he also sold it to those “ULers.”