Papal Magic Occult Practices Within the Catholic Church

The history of the relationship between the Catholic Church and occult practices begins with the Three Wise Men - or Magi - who visited the Christ-child in Bethlehem, directed towards that place by a star. Ever since then, the relationship has had its ups and downs - its periods of intense rivalry matched by attempts at peaceful cooperation - as the Church tried to incorporate occult and magical practices into its own liturgies while at the same time banning other practices as satanic, demonic or heretic. Orders of monks and knights illustrate the history of the Church with their secret rituals, blasphemous theologies, and pretensions to mastery of the created world. The Knights Templar is the most famous - and notorious - of these secret cults within the Church, an Order that eventually gave rise to the Freemasons. The Magi are still with us. This book will explore the role that magic and occultism have played within the Church itself. The controversial author, Simon, offers the first English translation of The Grimoire of Pope Honorious--and investigates the claim that the saintly pope may have actually composed this dark and disturbing manuscript.Simon, Toby L. is the author of 'Papal Magic Occult Practices Within the Catholic Church', published 2007 under ISBN 9780061240836 and ISBN 0061240834.