By Dr. Jagadish : Those who know history; know their future, sometimes what we experience now has already been seen in the past and if we are lucky documented. If you are an avid reader, I suggest you pick up a book on papal history and know more about a certain Theophylacti family and their influence on pope during what is called the Saeculum Obscurum or Dark Age of papacy and christian Europe. It started in the year 904 with installation of Sergius III as pope (pope during that time unlike now was just bishop of Rome) and ended in the year 964 with the death of pope John XII. This period has been called Pornocracy or Pornokratia (rule of prostitutes), Hetaerocracy (rule of mistresses) and Hurenregiment (rule of harlots) by various protestant theologians in 19th century. This period was followed by another dark period called Crescenzi era where members of cresenzi family ruled papacy and Christian world through pope.

The Woman who Ruled the Papacy

Has the Christian world order changed today? It is for them to decide, I can only comment with an outsiders perspective that ‘simony’ exists even today at various levels of the church including the upper echelons, however; church has learnt to manage general public perception better by using omerta, secrecy and better PR.

To interest you to read more, here is a small gist on Saeculum Obscurum: Theophylacti family was roman nobility in 9th century Rome, holding various positions of importance. Theophylact’s wife Theodora and her sister Marozia controlled almost all activities of the Vatican and Christian world, including selection of pope and its religious affairs. Marozia was the lover of Pope Sergius III and started influencing papal affairs at a young age of 15 years along with her mother and sister. It is assumed that Marozia arranged for the murder of Pope John X to ensure her son John became Pope John XI. Theodora and Marozia ruled the christain world for 60 odd years, according to history as documented by Liutprand, the then bishop of Cremona. Marozia is sometimes referred to as the satanic female pope or lucifer’s queen. Her bastard son, two grandsons, two great grandsons and one great great grandson were popes; indeed a great genealogy.

Déjà vu anyone!!!

This article is to draw the similarities on how the role played by church then is very similar to role played by judiciary today in India. Western Europe for a period of 600 to 800 years during medieval period remained a primitive culture, albeit one that uniquely superimposed itself on the complex elaborate culture of Roman Empire. Church was the only universal European institution with all the power in the church in the hands of local bishops.

The number of crimes committed by the church and its hierarchy which controlled vast amounts of wealth and power within itself are; innumerable. Bishops and abbots acted as advisors to Kings and emperors. The pope used his power to excommunicate those kings or emperors who were secular and would tolerate paganism among his subjects. All kings and rulers were forced to follow the diktat of the church or pope and eradicate paganism and pagan rituals. All this was claimed to be done as per the word of god; as it was claimed to be in the bible. They claimed earth was the centre of universe and sun, moon, planets and stars revolved around it. Until mid-17th century most of church even claimed earth was flat as bible said so. Galileo’s numerous altercations with church were some of my fancy readings many years ago, as a youngster interested in science.

Furthermore, the church using “Cannon law” claimed and exercised jurisdiction over wide range of issues which included problems like incest, adultery, bigamy, matrimonial disputes, declaring children as legitimate or as bastards, land ownership disputes, usury, failure to keep promises, oaths and vows etc. All these cases were decided by clergy or clerks of the church claiming knowledge and power of god using bible. This jurisdiction was extended to include pagan practices as church became all powerful by 6th/7th century in Europe. Pagans who were basically non-believers were judged using cannon law. Cannon law was used to stymie even science and medicine as men of science were basically suspect according to church due to their very nature. So the all-powerful church held sway over Europe and the Christian world by using cannon law and claiming to be the sole proprietor on the word of god i.e. the bible and its interpretation.

This continued till mid-15th to early 16th century until the tipping point was breached leading to Martin Luther led (protestant) reformation and later renaissance to which even players inside the church contributed.

Are you now able to appreciate when I say thus:

Today as an ordinary citizen going through the rigors of life in India, working to earn a living and to provide for my family what perturbs me is the similarity the cannon law has to the constitution; the church clergy to the judiciary. Church during medieval period claimed supremacy over all using bible and cannon law; the clerks (clergy) who interpreted it drew a lot of power from it and abused it as a rule, especially against pagans and paganism.

Judiciary in India is in the same position today; it derives lot of powers by claiming to be the sole and final arbiter to interpret the constitution. The clerks who interpret it (call themselves Judges) are very similar to the medieval Christian clergy and retain the power to interpret it among themselves and their family members using the powers of the collegium which they have usurped from the executive parliament and we the people’s representatives.

The Judges have defended their sole powers as final arbiters to interpret the constitution with utmost disdain to what “we the people” think about them. Any act of parliament which represents “we the people”, to reform judiciary like the National Judicial Appointments Commission has been overthrown by themselves as the final arbiters of the constitution.

Recent deeds and manoeuvres of judicial activism where judiciary, especially in those circumstances where supreme court has behaved like it is the backyard of certain unwanted groups like urban naxals, terror sympathizers, PIL manufacturers etc., where courts are opened for them in the middle of night, bails given over phone, etc., ostensibly to interpret the acts of executive under the constitution are not being viewed kindly by “we the people” of India.

Maybe the growing momentum of Hindu Charter which exposes the flaws in articles 25 to 30 of constitution which treats Hindus as second class citizens in their own country will force redrafting or amendments pertaining to those articles of constitution. Yours truly sincerely hopes and believes that the #Sabarimala verdict where unrelated people were entertained as petitioners and constitution was interpreted at their behest to change centuries of Hindu tradition like a whim will become the tipping point for judicial reformation.

PS: I do not accuse judiciary of being under pornocratic influence (albeit few #Metoo charges do indicate to such a possibility) but I opine that judicial activism in interpreting the constitution especially regarding Hindu causes and issues lacks Dharmic empathy and it is behaving like medieval christian clergy interpreting cannon law against pagans & paganism.

Dr Jagadish J Hiremut is a superspecialist medical doctor based out of Bangalore, a medical author, blogger, medical technology expert and is a proponent of Value Based Ethical Medical practice.

You can follow him on twitter @Kaalateetham or mail to [email protected]