Suppressed knowledge claims
Speculative topic. The main subject of this page is a fringe, popular or unfalsifiable claim. The page reports the claim and sets out what the evidence shows. See Help:Claim labels.
This method page sets out how the wiki handles claims of suppressed knowledge, with case studies of real, documented suppression and of a speculative claim.
Method
Each claim is set out in a fixed outline: the claim (who makes it and since when); what would be suppressed, by whom and how; what the evidence shows; assessment, with each part labelled; further reading on both sides. See the editorial policy.
Documented suppression (case studies)
- Established Index of Prohibited Books. The Catholic Church issued an Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1559 under Paul IV; editions continued until it was abolished in 1966.[1]
- Established The Templars. Members of the Knights Templar in France were arrested on 13 October 1307 on the orders of Philip IV; Pope Clement V suppressed the order in 1312; the grand master Jacques de Molay was burned in 1314.[2][3]
- Established The Cathars. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) and later inquisitorial campaigns destroyed the Cathar church in southern France; the fortress of Montségur fell in 1244.[4]
A speculative claim (case study)
- Tradition / belief Atlantis. Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias (fourth century BCE) describe Atlantis as a sea power that sank 9,000 years before Solon.[5]
- Speculation Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) argued it was a real lost civilisation and the source of later cultures.[6]
- Established No archaeological or geological evidence supports a sunken Atlantic continent; most classicists read Plato's account as a philosophical myth.[7]
Why such claims spread
Established Charles Mackay's Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (1841) is an early study of how popular beliefs spread.[8]
References
- ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia, "Index of Prohibited Books" (1910). vol. 7; public domain; New Advent and Wikisource.
- ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia, "Templars" (1912). vol. 14; public domain.
- ↑ Jules Michelet (ed.), Procès des Templiers (1841–1851). 2 vols; public domain.
- ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia, "Albigenses" (1907). vol. 1; public domain.
- ↑ Plato, Timaeus; Critias (c. 360 BCE). trans. B. Jowett (1871); public domain.
- ↑ Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882). public domain.
- ↑ Discussion in modern classical scholarship. Cited only.
- ↑ Charles Mackay, Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions (1841). public domain.
Independent educational project. Not affiliated with the Latin Mass Society (UK) or any church body. Claims are labelled per Help:Claim labels.