Gold, silver and Hellenizers

 

In a previous blog post, I mentioned the ultra-sedevacantist sect Mary´s Little Remnant and their leader, Richard Ibranyi. Whom I never heard about until earlier this week. Ibranyi argues that the papacy apostasized already in 1130 AD. Thus, for almost one thousand years, the Chair of Peter has been vacant. But why specifically 1130? No idea. The group´s website is difficult to navigate, so I only skimmed some of the material. 

Ibranyi has a huge problem with both the Church Fathers and the medieval Catholic Church. He seems to be a kind of "purist" who completely rejects absolutely all pagan/outside influences on Christianity. But many theologians and Church leaders both in the Roman Empire and in medieval Europe were so influenced. They made use of Greco-Roman philosophy and read Greco-Roman literature. Most notably Origen, who sounds almost like a Platonist. Indeed, many Church Fathers were sympathetic to some of Origen´s ideas (Origen wasn´t condemned as a heretic until centuries after his passing). Hence, they were heretics and apostates all. Jerome in particular is attacked, perhaps because the Catholic Church considers him a great teacher. Ibranyi also have a huge problem with high medieval and Renaissance art with its pagan motifs and gargoyles. 

The language of his works is frequently strident and extreme, as when he calls Thomas Aquinas "a monster born into this world" or refers to Albert the Great as "Albert the Great Wretch". Post-1130 popes are refered to as "Apostate Antipopes". The mystic Hildegard of Bingen was a "witch". The Black Death (which killed many clergy and monks) was God´s just punishment of the heretical Church. 

Somehow, Ibranyi seems to believe that the papacy nevertheless tried to suppress all these heresies until the 12th century. He likes Augustine (surprise) and also Constantine the Great, arguing that the Roman emperor was baptized already in 314 and didn´t die as an Arian heretic. A peculiar trait of Ibranyi´s message is that the Septuagint is considered the most reliable OT translation. This, of course, is the Eastern Orthodox position. The strident purism sounds "Protestant". So what is Catholic about this group, exactly?

Interestingly, when Ibranyi condemns Bernhard of Clairvaux, his line of attack is from the opposite side: 

>>>The apostate Bernard was a stoic. He condemned or abhorred good things and good passions that God has given men to enjoy. He abhorred most of the material world as if it were evil. Hence he attempted to become a pure spirit without any attachment to the body or material world, a pure spirit that destroys or totally suppresses good passions and good senses. 

>>>Therefore, he had much in common with the Gnostics and Manicheans. In the following quote Bernard condemns the five senses, sports, recreation, theater, actors, beauty, music, pleasant odors, silver, gold, and comely dress as intrinsically evil.  

>>>He was a heretic because he was an iconoclast. He abhorred gold, silver, and images. He was a schismatic for saying that he does not belong to good Catholics who like gold, silver, and images in holy places. He was guilty of mortal sins for saying that good Catholics who like gold, silver, and images in God’s churches were fools and incapable of spiritual things. 

>>>He was a sacrilegious blasphemer for stealing gold, silver, and gems from giving glory to God. He was guilty of the mortal sin of murder for trying to murder himself and his brothers by severe penances.

>>>One of Bernard’s complaints was the expense of the gold, silver, and images in churches and other Catholic places. He says that these things should have been sold and the money given to the poor and that poor Catholics should keep their money instead of spending it on gold, silver, and images to be used to give glory to God in his churches and other holy places:

>>>The apostate Bernard committed the same sin as Judas Iscariot when Judas wanted to withhold expensive things that give glory to God and instead give the money to the poor, and in Judas’ case to give it to himself because he was a thief.

Well, it´s good to hear that Ibranyi likes the silver and the gold in Christian churches, I mean, how can we *ever* be without *that*, huh? Mary´s Little Remnant reminds me of ultra-leftist Marxist groups which to their shock and utter dismay realize that even Marx and Lenin "supported" nationalism, reform struggles or great power geopolitics. 

Ibranyi is still a bit inconsistent, however, perhaps because he really does want to be a Roman Catholic. Somebody else might draw the conclusion that either Paul, James or Christ himself must have been "heretics", since they were either too Jewish or to pagan! And then it´s off to seeing pagan influences in the Torah itself...

We´re dealing with a certain kind of sectarian psychological mentality.