"Under the Sign of Scorpion" by Juri - Gnostic Liberation Front

of the Anabaptists. The Anabaptists also took part in the peasant uprising
and incited the poor to revolt in several cities in Germany and Holland.
The Soviet propagandists were particularly impressed by the political
terror, which was the basis of the Anabaptist tactics. Both Joseph Stalin
and Felix Dzerzhinsky were to have been ordained as priests, and had
examples at hand. In the 1930s, Stalin began to officially compare the
communist party with the Teutonic Knights of the Sword (Fratres Militiae
Christi) from the 13th century.
The Taborite religious fanatic, Thomas Muntzer, attempted to seize
power in central Germany during 1524-25 with the help of enraged pea-
sants. He believed Martin Luther's reforms to be insufficient and wanted
to abolish property and overthrow the aristocracy.
Descriptions of similar events from an even earlier date can also be
found. The Brothers of the Apostles, led by the fanatical Fra Dolcino,
seized power in Vercelli, northern Italy, in the early 1300s. Only poverty
seemed righteous to them, and so they killed every rich person in the city.
The terrorist regime of the Brothers of the Apostles lasted three years,
from 1304 to 1307. They did not achieve any form of social equality.
The roots of communism can also be found in the book "The Prince",
written by Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) who was the secretary of the
Council of Ten in the republic of Florence. The book presents techniques
of cynical manipulation and falsehood to support an unlimited dictator-
ship. It was published after his death, in 1532.
A Soviet joke goes: "The Christians only preached the advantages of
poverty, the communists enforced them."
The similarities between the histories of communism and Christianity
are sometimes shocking. Bolshevik leaders did not shy away from killing
nine innocent people if the tenth victim would be a true opponent.
Crusaders occupied the French town Beziers in the year 1208, and their
leader, Arnold Amalric, a baptised Jew, gave an order typical of that time:
"Kill everyone - God will recognise his own!"
When the Cheka's (political police's) chief, Felix Dzerzhinsky reported
to Lenin in the summer of 1918 that five hundred intellectuals (scientists
and cultural figures) had been executed, Lenin became ecstatic.
When Pope Gregory XIII learned that 60 000 Huguenots had been
murdered as heretics on the 24th-26th of August 1572, he was similarly
elated and held a great feast, conducted a church service, and even minted
15