A Book Review . . . Anti-Catholic Myths Exploded

By DONAL ANTHONY FOLEY

Bearing False Witness: Debunking Centuries of Anti-Catholic History by Rodney Stark (Templeton Press, 280 pages, hardcover $27.95; call 800-621-2736 or 773-702-7000). Also available at amazon.com.

In this, his latest book, social sciences professor Rodney Stark, sets out to show how centuries of anti-Catholic prejudice have done great harm to the Catholic cause, and to that of truth.
The book consists of ten chapters, and in each of these the author takes an anti-Catholic myth, and shows how over a period of time this myth became the “conventional wisdom.” Then he proceeds to establish what the actual truth of the matter is.
There is an extensive bibliography running to 14 pages, and numerous endnotes to back up his case, but the book begins with an introduction entitled, “Confronting Distinguished Bigots.”
In this, Stark demonstrates that the myth that Catholics before Columbus believed that the earth was flat, was just that, a myth, and that it originated in a work by the novelist Washington Irving more than 300 years after Columbus’ epic voyages. This idea was taken up by some anti-Catholic historians and before long it had become the conventional wisdom.
This anti-Catholic mentality grew out of the post-Reformation propaganda campaign waged by Protestant Britain and Holland against Catholic Spain, the creation of the so-called Black Legend.
It was later embellished by writers such as Edward Gibbon, whom Stark describes as the first of a long line of “distinguished bigots” — some of whom are still living — who have attacked the Church. They now include among their ranks alienated Catholics such as John Cornwell, responsible for the description of Pope Pius XII as “Hitler’s Pope.”
Stark points out that he is not out to “whitewash” history but rather to set the record straight, and deal with the “extreme exaggerations, false accusations, and patent frauds” which are a significant part of the anti-Catholic literature of recent centuries.
As he notes, “I am not a Roman Catholic, and I did not write this book in defense of the Church. I wrote it in defense of history.”
Stark points to a recurring problem that arises when there is an attempt to ensure that the truth about a particular issue comes out. What tends to happen is that every so often a spate of books will appear, as for example works arguing that Pius XII was a Nazi sympathizer — which in this instance Stark describes as displaying “remarkable ignorance as well as self-indulgence” — and these books mostly get very positive reviews in the popular press.
Then qualified historians write scathing reviews but these don’t get the same circulation — and so the anti-Catholic position is the one which remains in the public consciousness.
The first chapter of Bearing False Witness deals with accusations that the Church was complicit in anti-Semitism. But as Stark points out anti-Semitism was a part of ancient culture, and arguably at least in part a consequence of Jewish exclusivity and unpopularity.
And in fact, it was the tiny early Christian communities who were most in danger of persecution from Jewish believers, who numbered many millions in the Roman Empire. As Stark says, “there are compelling reasons to believe that [such] persecution was common and that it continued for several centuries.” In addition there was a good deal of Talmudic antagonism toward Christians and Christ.
Later on, during the Middle Ages, there were attacks on Jews, mainly in the Rhine valley, but these were strenuously combated by great figures such as St. Bernard. In concluding this particular chapter, Stark says, “The Roman Catholic Church has a long and honorable record of stout opposition to attacks upon Jews. And Pope Pius XII fully lived up to that tradition.”
Stark also deals with issues such as supposedly intolerant Christians persecuting pagans once they had become the majority in the Roman Empire, a falsehood imposed on the facts by Edward Gibbon among others. As he points out, modern scholars, such as H.A. Drake of the University of California, have shown that Constantine’s conversion to Christianity was not bogus, and that there wasn’t a Christian backlash against paganism. In fact, paganism gradually ebbed away over the centuries, and the Christian emperors were largely tolerant of it. Not so Julian the Apostate, who rejected Christianity and who wanted to return the Empire to paganism — and in the process, condoned various massacres of Christians.
Stark likewise deals with the so-called Dark Ages, a term applied during the 18th-century Enlightenment period, to the conditions in European society after the fall of the Roman Empire. Writers at that time, such as Voltaire, saw the Renaissance as a rebirth of society from the slumbers of the Dark Ages.
But as Stark points out, there never really were any Dark Ages — the whole idea is an anti-Christian myth. As he says, “In fact, it was during the Dark Ages that Europe took the great technological leap forward that put it ahead of the rest of the world.”
In particular, Stark cites the great progress in music, art, literature, education, and science, but also the moral progress involved in the gradual elimination of slavery.
Regarding the Crusades, Stark shows that the claims traditionally made about them by secular and anti-Catholic historians, in which they see them as examples of expansionist and imperialistic Christian attacks on a tolerant and peaceful Islam, as having “been utterly refuted by a group of distinguished historians.” Rather the Crusades were a reaction to centuries of Islamic provocations.
Similarly he deals with the numerous falsehoods perpetrated about the Inquisition, saying, “the standard account of the Spanish Inquisition is a pack of lies . . . repeated ever after by . . . malicious or misled historians.”
In fact, in contrast to secular European courts, the Spanish Inquisition was “a consistent force for justice, restraint, due process, and enlightenment.” From 1480 through 1700 only about ten deaths per year were meted out by the Inquisition in Spain, a small fraction of those killed for religious reasons in the rest of Europe. In addition, the Inquisition was a restraining factor against the craze for witch burning which swept across Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries.

Clergy And Science

Stark also deals with the great scientific achievements of the 17th and 18th centuries, which were the culmination of centuries of research in Church-founded universities, pointing out that about half of the leading figures in the scientific revolution were Catholics, many of them clergy.
The charge that slavery was promoted by the Church also comes in for short shrift, since it was the Popes who did the most to oppose the re-establishment of slavery in the New World; but ultimately they lacked the power to impose their will.
Stark also deals with the charge that the Church has been too close to authoritarian governments, and that it has favored tyrants, pointing out that it has often been in the forefront of opposition to tyranny.
This book is a timely and necessary corrective to the pervasive anti-Catholic mindset amongst many academics and popular writers. It is unashamedly politically incorrect, and Rodney Stark’s robust style is a pleasure to read. But, more important, he sets the record straight about the evil effects of centuries of anti-Catholic historical writing.

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(Donal Anthony Foley is the author of a number of books on Marian apparitions, and maintains a related website at www.theotokos.org.uk. He has also a written a time-travel/adventure book for young people — details can be found at: http://glaston-chronicles.co.uk/.)