Here is a bit of trivia about Francesco del Giocondo (Mona Lisa's husband) from Leonardo's biography.
I mean how is this possible? African slave trade in Catholic Italy surrounded by popes and Catholic bishops? Why aren't all these clergymen and other devoted Christians saving these people when they are obviously anti-slavery?
Quote:Having become the purveyor of silks to the Medici, he was increasingly prosperous, with clients throughout Europe, and he bought a few women Moors from North Africa to serve as his household slaves.
I mean how is this possible? African slave trade in Catholic Italy surrounded by popes and Catholic bishops? Why aren't all these clergymen and other devoted Christians saving these people when they are obviously anti-slavery?
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"