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The Inquisition was a Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various medieval and reformation-era state-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat Christian heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and customs considered to be deviant, using this procedure. Violence, isolation, torture or the threat of its application, have been used by the Inquisition to extract confessions and denunciations. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of , but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment.Peters, Edwards. "Inquisition", p. 67.
Inquisitions with the aim of combatting religious sedition (e.g. apostasy or heresy) had their start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France, particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians. The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval Inquisition. Other banned groups investigated by medieval inquisitions, which primarily took place in France and Italy, include the Fraticelli, the Hussites, and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges.Peters, Edward. "Inquisition", p. 54.
Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition. The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Converso (the former Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution), the Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion), and on the Morisco ( who had been forced to convert to Catholicism), as a result of suspicions that they had secretly maintained or reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions, as had occurred in previous times (such as the First and Second Morisco Rebellions). Spanish Empire and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe, but also throughout their empires: the Goa Inquisition, the Peruvian Inquisition, and the Mexican Inquisition, among others. Inquisitions conducted in the Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition.
The scope of the inquisitions grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In 1542, a putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created. With the exception of the Papal States, ecclessiastical inquisition courts were abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The papal institution survived as part of the Roman Curia, although it underwent a series of name and focus changes, now part of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The opening of Spanish and Roman archives has caused some historians to substantially revise their understanding of the Inquisition, some to the extent of characterizing previous views as "a body of legends and myths". Many famous instruments of torture are now considered fakes and propaganda.
The term "Inquisition" comes from the Medieval Latin word inquisitio, which described a court process based on Roman law, which came back into use during the Late Middle Ages. It was a new, less arbitrary form of trial that replaced the denunciatio and accussatio process which required a denouncer or used an adversarial process, the most unjust being trial by ordeal and the secular Germanic trial by combat. Henry A. Kelly concludes that inquisition was "a brilliant and much-needed innovation in trial procedure, instituted by the greatest lawyer-pope of the Middle Ages" and that later "abusive practices" should be identified as a perversion of the original inquisitorial process.
Theoretically, the Inquisition, as a church court, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as such. Despite several exceptions, like the infamous example of the Holy Child of La Guardiathe Inquisition was concerned mainly with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts).Salomon, H. P. and Sassoon, I. S. D., and Saraiva, Antonio José. The Marrano Factory. The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians, 1536–1765 (Brill, 2001), Introduction pp. XXX.
Inquisitors 'were called such because they applied a judicial technique known as inquisitio, which could be translated as "inquiry" or "inquest". "In this process, which was already widely used by secular rulers (Henry II used it extensively in England in the 12th century), an official inquirer called for information on a specific subject from anyone who felt he or she had something to offer." "The Inquisition" usually refers to specific regional tribunals authorized to concern themselves with the heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts). As with sedition inquisitions, heresy inquisitions were supposed to use the standard inquisition procedures: these included that the defendant must be informed of the charges, has a right to a lawyer, and a right of appeal (to the Pope.) The inquisitor could only start a heresy proceeding if there was some broad public opinion of the "infamy" of the defendant (rather than a formal denunciation or accusation) to prevent fishing, or charging for private opinions. However, such inquisitions could proceed with minimal distraction by lawyers, the identity of witnesses was protected, tainted witness were allowed, and once found guilty of heresy there was no right to a lawyer. However, many inquisitors did not follow these rules scrupulously, notably from the late 1300s: many inquisitors had theological not legal training.
While the notational purpose of the trial itself was for the salvation of the individual soul, allegedly by persuasion, according to the 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum (a standard manual for inquisitions) the penalties themselves were preventative not retributive, thought to spread an example by terror: " ... quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur (translation: "... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from the evils they would commit").
Italian Renaissance history professor and Inquisition expert Carlo Ginzburg had his doubts about using statistics to reach a judgment about the period. "In many cases, we don't have the evidence, the evidence has been lost," said Ginzburg.
In the 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism, and other heresies, prosecution of heretics became more frequent. The Church charged councils composed of bishops and archbishops with establishing inquisitions (the Episcopal Inquisition). Pope Lucius III issued the bull Ad abolendam (1184), which condemned heresy as contumacy toward ecclesiastical authority. The bull Vergentis in Senium in 1199 stipulated that heresy would be considered, in terms of punishment, equal to treason ( Lèse-majesté), and the punishment would be imposed also on the descendants of the condemned.
The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The murder of Pope Innocent III's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by Cathars in 1208 sparked the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229 (Council of Toulouse), run largely by the Dominicans in Rome and later at Carcassonne in Languedoc.
In 1252, the Papal Bull Ad extirpanda, following another assassination by Cathars, charged the head of state with funding and selecting inquisitors from monastic orders; this caused friction by establishing a competitive court to the Bishop's courts.
In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order. By the end of the Middle Ages, England and Castile were the only large western nations without a papal inquisition. Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in the universities. They used inquisitorial procedures, a common legal practice adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures. They judged heresy along with bishops and groups of "assessors" (clergy serving in a role that was roughly analogous to a jury or legal advisers), using the local authorities to establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor headed but did not control each regional Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until the mid 19th century.
There are also fragmentary records of a good number of executions of people suspected of witchcraft in northern Italy in the 15th and early 16th centuries.Tavuzzi, Michael M. Renaissance inquisitors: Dominican inquisitors and inquisitorial districts in Northern Italy, 1474–1527. Leiden & Boston: Brill (2007). p. 197, 253–258; Del Col, p. 196–211. Wolfgang Behringer estimates that there could have been as many as two thousand executions.Behringer, W. Witches and Witch-Hunts: A Global History. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press Ltd (2004). p. 130 This large number of witches executed was probably because some inquisitors took the view that the crime of witchcraft was exceptional, which meant that the usual rules for heresy trials did not apply to its perpetrators. Many alleged witches were executed even though they were first tried and pleaded guilty, which under normal rules would have meant only canonical sanctions, not death sentences.Lea, vol. III, p. 515; cf. Tavuzzi, p. 150–151, 184–185. The episcopal inquisition was also active in suppressing alleged witches: in 1518, judges delegated by the Bishop of Brescia, Paolo Zane, sent some 70 witches from Val Camonica to the stake.Tavuzzi, p. 188–192; Del Col, p. 199–200, 204–209.
France has the best preserved archives of medieval inquisitions (13th–14th centuries), although they are still very incomplete. The activity of the inquisition in this country was very diverse, both in terms of time and territory. In the first period (1233 to c. 1330), the courts of Languedoc (Toulouse, Carcassonne) are the most active. After 1330 the center of the persecution of heretics shifted to the , while in Languedoc they ceased almost entirely. In northern France, the activity of the inquisitors was irregular throughout this period and, except for the first few years, it was not very intense.The characteristics of the activities of the Inquisition in France in the 13th–15th centuries are presented by .
France's first Dominican inquisitor, , working in the years 1233–1244, earned a particularly grim reputation. In 1236, Robert burned about 50 people in the area of Champagne and Flanders, and on 13 May 1239, in Montwimer, he burned 183 Cathars.Robert's activities are described by ; P. Kras, Ad abolendam..., pp. 163–165; and M. Lambert, The Cathars, pp. 122–125. Following Robert's removal from office, Inquisition activity in northern France remained very low. One of the largest trials in the area took place in 1459–1460 at Arras; 34 people were then accused of witchcraft and Satanism, 12 of them were burned at the stake.Richard Kieckhefer: Magia w średniowieczu, Cracovia 2001, págs. 278–279.
The main center of the medieval inquisition was undoubtedly the Languedoc. The first inquisitors were appointed there in 1233, but due to strong resistance from local communities in the early years, most sentences concerned dead heretics, whose bodies were exhumed and burned. Actual executions occurred sporadically and, until the fall of the fortress of Montsegur (1244), probably accounted for no more than 1% of all sentences.P. Kras, Ad abolendam..., p.412. In addition to the cremation of the remains of the dead, a large percentage were also sentences in absentia and penances imposed on heretics who voluntarily confessed their faults (for example, in the years 1241–1242 the inquisitor Pierre Ceila reconciled 724 heretics with the Church). Inquisitor Ferrier of Catalonia, investigating Montauban between 1242 and 1244, questioned about 800 people, of whom he sentenced 6 to death and 20 to prison.Wakefield, s. 184; M. Barber, Katarzy, p. 126. Between 1243 and 1245, Bernard de Caux handed down 25 sentences of imprisonment and confiscation of property in Agen and Cahors.M.D. Costen, The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, Manchester University Press, 1997, p. 170. After the fall of Montsegur and the seizure of power in Toulouse by Count Alfonso de Poitiers, the percentage of death sentences increased to around 7% and remained at this level until the end of the Languedoc Inquisition around from 1330.P. Kras: Ad abolendam..., p. 412–413.
Between 1245 and 1246, the inquisitor Bernard de Caux carried out a large-scale investigation in the area of Lauragais and Lavaur. He covered 39 villages, and probably all the adult inhabitants (5,471 people) were questioned, of whom 207 were found guilty of heresy. Of these 207, no one was sentenced to death, 23 were sentenced to prison and 184 to penance.Malcolm Lambert: Średniowieczne herezje, Wyd. Marabut Gdańsk-Warszawa 2002, p. 195–196. Between 1246 and 1248, the inquisitors Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre handed down 192 sentences in Toulouse, of which 43 were sentences in absentia and 149 were prison sentences.
In Pamiers in 1246/1247 there were 7 prison sentences 201 and in Limoux in the county of Foix 156 people were sentenced to carry crosses.M.D. Costen: The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, Manchester University Press, 1997, p. 171 Between 1249 and 1257, in Toulouse, the inquisitors handed down 306 sentences, without counting the penitential sentences imposed during "times of grace". 21 people were sentenced to death, 239 to prison, in addition, 30 people were sentenced in absentia and 11 posthumously; In another five cases the type of sanction is unknown, but since they all involve repeat offenders, only prison or burning at stake.Wakefield, p. 184. Between 1237 and 1279, at least 507 convictions were passed in Toulouse (most in absentia or posthumously) resulting in the confiscation of property; in Albi between 1240 and 1252 there were 60 sentences of this type.M.D. Costen: The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade, Manchester University Press, 1997, p. 171.
The activities of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse from 1307 to 1323, are better documented, as a complete record of his trials has been preserved. During the entire period of his inquisitorial activity, he handed down 633 sentences against 602 people (31 repeat offenders), including:
In addition, Bernard Gui issued 274 more sentences involving the mitigation of sentences already served to convicted heretics; in 139 cases he exchanged prison for carrying crosses, and in 135 cases, carrying crosses for pilgrimage. To the full statistics, there are 22 orders to demolish houses used by heretics as meeting places and one condemnation and burning of Jewish writings (including commentaries on the Torah).List of judgments from: James Given: Inquisition and Medieval Society, Cornell University Press, 2001, s. 69–70.
The episcopal inquisition was also active in Languedoc. In the years 1232–1234, the Bishop of Toulouse, Raymond, sentenced several dozen Cathars to death. In turn, Bishop Jacques Fournier of Pamiers (he was later Pope Benedict XII) in the years 1318–1325 conducted an investigation against 89 people, of whom 64 were found guilty and 5 were sentenced to death.P. Kras: Ad abolendam..., p. 413.
After 1330, the center of activity of the French inquisitions moved east, to the Alpine regions, where there were numerous Waldensian communities. The repression against them was not continuous and was very ineffective. Data on sentences issued by inquisitors are fragmentary. In 1348, 12 Waldensians were burned in Embrun, and in 1353/1354 as many as 168 received penances.Jean Guiraud: Medieval Inquisition, Kessinger Publishing 2003, p. 137. In general, however, few Waldensians fell into the hands of the inquisitors, for they took refuge in hard-to-reach mountainous regions, where they formed close-knit communities. Inquisitors operating in this region, in order to be able to conduct trials, often had to resort to the armed assistance of local secular authorities (e.g. military expeditions in 1338–1339 and 1366). In the years 1375–1393 (with some breaks), the Dauphiné was the scene of the activities of the inquisitor Francois Borel, who gained an extremely gloomy reputation among the locals. It is known that on 1 July 1380, he pronounced death sentences in absentia against 169 people, including 108 from the Valpute valley, 32 from Argentiere and 29 from Freyssiniere. It is not known how many of them were actually carried out, only six people captured in 1382 are confirmed to be executed.Marx: L'inquisition en Dauphine, 1914, p. 128 note. 1, pp. 134–135, and Tanon, pp. 105–106. Jean Paul Perrin: History of the ancient Christians inhabiting the valleys of the Alps, Philadelphia 1847, p. 64, gives figures of over 150 convicts from the Valpute valley and 80 from the other two, but cites the same document as Marx and Tanon.
In the 15th and 16th centuries, major trials took place only sporadically, e.g. against the Waldensians in Delphinate in 1430–1432 (no numerical data) and 1532–1533 (7 executed out of about 150 tried) or the aforementioned trial in Arras 1459–1460 . In the 16th century, the jurisdiction of the inquisitors in the kingdom of France was effectively limited to clergymen, while local parliaments took over the jurisdiction of the laity. Between 1500 and 1560, 62 people were burned for heresy in the Languedoc, all of whom were convicted by the Parliament of Toulouse.Raymond Mentzer: Heresy Proceedings in Languedoc, 1500–1560, American Philosophical Society, 2007, s. 122.
After the murder of Konrad of Marburg, burning at the stake in Germany was virtually unknown for the next 80 years. It was not until the early fourteenth century that stronger measures were taken against heretics, largely at the initiative of bishops. In the years 1311–1315, numerous trials were held against the Waldensians in Austria, resulting in the burning of at least 39 people, according to incomplete records.P. Kras: Ad abolendam..., s. 414. In 1336, in Angermünde, in the diocese of Brandenburg, another 14 heretics were burned.
The number of those convicted by the papal inquisitors was smaller. Walter Kerlinger burned 10 begards in Erfurt and Nordhausen in 1368–1369. In turn, Eylard Schöneveld burned a total of four people in various Baltic Germans in 1402–1403.
In the last decade of the 14th century, episcopal inquisitors carried out large-scale operations against heretics in eastern Germany, Pomerania, Austria, and Hungary. In Pomerania, of 443 sentenced in the years 1392–1394 by the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, the provincial of the Celestinians, none went to the stake, because they all submitted to the Church. Bloodier were the trials of the Waldensians in Austria in 1397, where more than a hundred Waldensians were burned at the stake. However, it seems that in these trials the death sentences represented only a small percentage of all the sentences, because according to the account of one of the inquisitors involved in these repressions, the number of heretics reconciled with the Church from Thuringia to Hungary amounted to about 2,000.The description of these persecutions is published by: ; and R. Kieckhefer: Repression of heresy, p. 55.
In 1414, the inquisitor Heinrich von Schöneveld arrested 84 flagellants in Sangerhausen, of whom he burned 3 leaders, and imposed penitential sentences on the rest. However, since this sect was associated with the peasant revolts in Thuringia from 1412, after the departure of the inquisitor, the local authorities organized a mass hunt for flagellants and, regardless of their previous verdicts, sent at least 168 to the stake (possibly up to 300) people. Manfred Wilde, Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen, Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2003, p. 100–101; K.B. Springer: Dominican Inquisition in the archidiocese of Mainz 1348–1520, w: Praedicatores, Inquisitores, Vol. 1: The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition. Acts of the 1st International Seminar on the Dominicans and the Inquisition, 23–25 February 2002, red. Arturo Bernal Palacios, Rzym 2004, p. 378–379; R. Kieckhefer: Repression of heresy, p. 96–97. mentions at least 135 executions in 1414 and another 300 two years later, but most likely the sources he cites speak of the same repressive action, with different dates ( Springer: p. 378 note 276; Kieckhefer: p. 378, note 276; : pp. 97 and 147). Inquisitor Friedrich Müller (d. 1460) sentenced to death 12 of the 13 heretics he had tried in 1446 at Nordhausen. In 1453 the same inquisitor burned 2 heretics in Göttingen.K.B. Springer: Dominican Inquisition in the archidiocese of Mainz 1348–1520, w: Praedicatores, Inquisitores, Vol. 1: The Dominicans and the Medieval Inquisition. Acts of the 1st International Seminar on the Dominicans and the Inquisition, 23–25 February 2002, red. Arturo Bernal Palacios, Rzym 2004, p. 381. The mass executions of flagellants in Thuringia in 1454 were the work of secular authorities, see Kieckhefer, Repression of heresy, p. 147; Manfred Wilde, Die Zauberei- und Hexenprozesse in Kursachsen, Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar, 2003, p. 106–107.
Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer, author of the Malleus Maleficarum, in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486).cf. Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at the stake. BBKL: Jacob von Hoogstraaten
A notable former inquisitor, Jesuit Friedrich Spee, published a book Cautio Criminalis (1631) which helped end witch-hunting and the reliance on torture, highly regarded in Catholic and Protestant circles.Pinker (2011, pp. 138–139). Mannix (1964, pp. 134–135). Mackay (1841 / 2009, p. 320).
In the lands belonging to the Kingdom of Poland little is known of the activities of the Inquisition until the appearance of the Hussite heresy in the 15th century. Polish courts of the inquisition in the fight against this heresy issued at least 8 death sentences for some 200 trials carried out.P. Kras, Ad abolendam..., p. 417.
There are 558 court cases finished with conviction researched in Poland from the 15th to 18th centuries.Pilaszek, Wislicz
In some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of violent anti-Judaism, encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon of Écija. In the of June 1391 in Seville, hundreds of Jews were killed, and the synagogue was completely destroyed. The number of people killed was also high in other cities, such as Córdoba, Valencia, and Barcelona.Henry Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, p. 17. Kamen cites approximate numbers for Valencia (250) and Barcelona (400), but no solid data about Córdoba.
One of the consequences of these pogroms was the mass conversion of thousands of surviving Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. However, this was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force. A person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism.Raymond of Peñafort, Summa, lib. 1 p.33, citing D.45 c.5. After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion".Henry Kamen, Spanish Inquisition, p. 10. Thus, after 1391, a new social group appeared and were referred to as or New Christians.
Under the Alhambra Decree of 1492, all Jews who had not converted were expelled from Spain in 1492. Tomás de Torquemada was chosen to be the first Grand Inquisitor, to oversee the Inquisition; and it is estimated that up to 2,000 Jews were burned at the stake during the reign of Queen Isabella.(See Jewish Encyclopedia).
All Muslims were ordered to convert in different stages starting in 1507 and culminating in 1614, when Muslims who had previously converted were now expelled . Breve historia de Isabel la Católica. Nowtilus, 320 pages. Those who converted or simply remained after the relevant edict became nominally and legally Catholics, and thus subject to the Inquisition.
The Spanish Inquisition was formerly ended by proclamation on July 15, 1834, by Maria Cristina de Bourbon, then queen regent of Spain, also known as Maria Cristina of Naples and Sicily.
The Portuguese Inquisition held its first auto-da-fé in 1540. The Portuguese inquisitors mostly focused upon the New Christians (i.e. conversos or marranos). The Portuguese Inquisition expanded its scope of operations from Portugal to its colonial possessions, including Brazil, Cape Verde, and Goa Inquisition. In the colonies, it continued as a religious court, investigating and trying cases of breaches of the tenets of orthodox Catholicism until 1821. King João III (reigned 1521–57) extended the activity of the courts to cover censorship, divination, witchcraft, and bigamy. Originally oriented for a religious action, the Inquisition exerted an influence over almost every aspect of Portuguese society: political, cultural, and social.
According to Henry Charles Lea, between 1540 and 1794, tribunals in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, and Évora resulted in the burning of 1,175 persons, the burning of another 633 in effigy, and the penancing of 29,590.H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. 3, Book 8 But documentation of 15 out of 689 autos-da-fé has disappeared, so these numbers may slightly understate the activity.
The penances and sentences for those who confessed or were found guilty were pronounced together in a public ceremony at the end of all the processes. This was the sermo generalis or auto-da-fé. (not matters for the civil authorities) might consist of pilgrimages, a public scourging, a fine, or the wearing of a cross. The wearing of two tongues of red or other brightly colored cloth, sewn onto an outer garment in an "X" pattern, marked those who were under investigation. The penalties in serious cases were confiscation of property by the Inquisition or imprisonment. This led to the possibility of false charges to enable confiscation being made against those over a certain income, particularly rich marranos. Following the French invasion of 1798, the new authorities sent 3,000 chests containing over 100,000 Inquisition documents to France from Rome.
The inquisitorial tribunal in papally-ruled Avignon, established in 1541, passed 855 death sentences, almost all of them (818) in the years 1566–1574, but the vast majority of them were pronounced in absentia.Andrea Del Col: Inquisizione in Italia, p. 434, 780.
Black magic practitioners were generally dealt with through confession, repentance, and charitable work assigned as penance. In 1258, Pope Alexander IV ruled that inquisitors should limit their involvement to those cases in which there was some clear presumption of heretical belief but slowly this vision changed.
The prosecution of witchcraft generally became more prominent in the late medieval and Renaissance era, perhaps driven partly by the upheavals of the era – the Black Death, the Hundred Years War, and a gradual cooling of the climate that modern scientists call the Little Ice Age (between about the 15th and 19th centuries). Witches were sometimes blamed.Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, p. 49Heinrich Institoris, Heinrich; Sprenger, Jakob; Summers, Montague. The Malleus maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger. Dover Publications; New edition, 1 June 1971; Since the years of most intense witch-hunting largely coincide with the age of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, some historians point to the influence of the Reformation on the European witch-hunt. However, witch-hunting began almost one hundred years before Martin Luther's ninety-five theses.
In Portugal, several "Regimentos" (four) were written for the use of the inquisitors, the first in 1552 at the behest of the inquisitor Cardinal D. Henrique and the last in 1774, this sponsored by the Marquis of Pombal, himself a familiar of the inquisition. The Portuguese 1640 Regiment determined that each court of the Holy Office should have a Bible, a compendium of canon and civil law, Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, and Diego de Simancas' Catholicis institutionibus.
In 1484, Spanish inquisitor Torquemada, based in Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, wrote his twenty eight articles code, Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición (i.e. Compilation of the instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisitio n). Later additions would be made, based on experience, many by the canonist Francisco Peña.
In 1484 Kramer requested that Pope Innocent VIII clarify his authority to conduct inquisitions into witchcraft throughout North Germany, where he had been refused assistance by the local ecclesiastical authorities. They maintained that Kramer could not legally function in their areas.Kors, Alan Charles; Peters, Edward. Witchcraft in Europe, 400–1700: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000. . p. 177 Despite some support from Pope Innocent VIII,Darst, David H., "Witchcraft in Spain: The Testimony of Martín de Castañega's Treatise on Superstition and Witchcraft (1529)", Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 1979, vol. 123, issue 5, p. 298 he was expelled from the city of Innsbruck by the local bishop, George Golzer, who ordered Kramer to stop making false accusations.
Golzer described Kramer as senile in letters written shortly after the incident. This rebuke led Kramer to write a justification of his views on witchcraft in his 1486 book Malleus Maleficarum ("Hammer against witches"). The book distinguishes itself from other demonologies by its obsessive hate of women and sex, seemingly reflecting the twisted psyche of the author. Historian Brian Levack calls it "scholastic pornography".
Despite Kramer's claim that the book gained acceptance from the clergy at the University of Cologne, it was in fact condemned by the clergy at Cologne for advocating views that violated Catholic doctrine and standard inquisitorial procedure. In 1538 the Spanish Inquisition cautioned its members not to believe everything the Malleus said. Despite this, Heinrich Kramer was never excommunicated and even enjoyed considerable prestige till his death.
Many confessed alleged heresies for fear that a friend or neighbor might do so later. The terror of the Inquisition provoked chain reactions and denunciations even of spouses, children and friends.
If they confessed within a "grace period" — usually 30 days — they could be accepted back into the church without punishment. In general, the benefits proposed by the "edicts of grace" to those who presented themselves spontaneously were the forgiveness of the death penalty or life imprisonment and the forgiveness of the penalty of confiscation of property.
Anyone suspected of knowing about another's heresy and who did not make the obligatory denunciation would be excommunicated and then subject to prosecution as a "promoter of heresy." If the denouncer named other potential heretics, they would also be summoned. All types of complaints were accepted by the Inquisition, regardless of the reputation or position of the complainant. Rumors, mere suppositions, and even anonymous letters were accepted, "if the case were of such a nature that such action seemed appropriate to the service of God and the good of the Faith". It was foreseen that prison guards themselves could report and be witnesses against the accused.
This strategy transformed everyone into an Inquisition agent, reminding them that a simple word or deed could bring them before the tribunal. Denunciation was elevated to the status of a superior religious duty, filling the nation with spies and making every individual suspicious of his neighbor, family members, and any strangers he might met.
The real prevalence of torture is ignored. Some defend that victims were interrogated under physical torture only in extreme cases. The view of historian Ron E. Hassner is that 'inquisitors knew that information obtained through torture often was not reliable. So They built their cases patiently, gathering information from a variety of sources, using a variety of methods. With any given subject, they used torture only intermittently, in sessions sometimes months apart. Their main goal was not to compel a confession or a profession of faith, but to extract factual information that would confirm or corroborate information already in hand.'
The summary of the Directorium Inquisitorum, by Nicolás Aymerich, made by Marchena, notes a comment by the Aragonese inquisitor: Quaestiones sunt fallaces et inefficaces ("The interrogations are misleading and useless"). In spite of this, Eymerich strongly recommends the use of torture and describes in detail the rules to be followed in order to recommend its use, which he considers very praiseworthy.
Defendants were punished if found guilty, with their property being confiscated to cover legal and prison costs and to maintain the heavy machinery of persecution. The victims could also repent of their accusation and receive reconciliation with the Church. The execution of the tortures was attended by the inquisitor, the doctor, the secretary and the torturer, applying them on the nearly naked prisoner. In the year 1252, the bull Ad extirpanda allowed torture, but always with a doctor involved to avoid endangering life, and limited its use to non-bloody methods that did not break bones:
According to Catholic apologists, the method of torture (which was socially accepted in the context of the time) was adopted only in exceptional cases, and the inquisitorial procedure was meticulously regulated in interrogation practices.
It is clear that after the proceedings the tortured were left in a sorry state. Some perished as a result.Despite the loss of thousands of documents over the years, many of the meticulous records of torture sessions have survived.
In the words of historian Helen Mary Carrel: "the common view of the medieval justice system as cruel and based on torture and execution is often unfair and inaccurate." As the historian Nigel Townson wrote: "The sinister torture chambers equipped with cogwheels, bone crushing contraptions, shackles, and other terrifying mechanisms only existed in the imagination of their detractors."
In fact, it seems likely that the inquisitors favoured simpler and "cleaner" methods, which left few apparent marks. Aymerich points out that canon law does not prescribe either this or that particular torture, so judges can use whatever they see fit, as long as it's not an unusual torture. Many types of torments have been chosen, but Eymerich think they seem more like the inventions of executioners than the works of theologians. "It is true that it is a very praiseworthy practice to subject the accused to torture, but no less reprehensible are those bloodthirsty judges who base their vain glory on the invention of crude and exquisite torments" – he adds. Also, Rafael Sabatini notes that the available records do not show these uncommon inventions. It seems that the inquisitors must have been satisfied with the devices already in use, or a limited number of the most efficient.
Many torture instruments were designed by late 18th and early 19th century pranksters, entertainers, and con artists who wanted to profit from people's morbid interest in the Dark Age myth by charging them to witness such instruments in Victorian era circuses.
However, several torture instruments are accurately described in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, including but not limited to the dry pan.
Some of the instruments that "the Inquisition" never used, but that are erroneously registered in various inquisition museums:
In many cases, it was common for false accusations to be made against New Christians and it was difficult to prove their innocence. It was therefore more convenient for many to make a false confession to the inquisitors, including a list of imaginary accomplices, in the hope that they would not receive extreme penalties, such as the death penalty, but only the confiscation of property or lesser penalties.
There was no trial in the modern sense of the term, but an interrogation; the prisoner was usually not told about the reasons for his arrest — often for months or years. There was no precise accusation and therefore little chance of a plausible defence. The prisoner was advised "to search his conscience, confess the truth, and trust to the mercy of the tribunal'". Eventually, the prisoner was informed of the charges against him — but omitting the names of the witnesses. After the interrogations, hearings and waiting periods came to an end, the sentence could be pronounced.
Walter Ullmann, a historian, summarises his evaluation of the trials: "There is hardly one item in the whole Inquisitorial procedure that could be squared with the demands of justice; on the contrary, every one of its items is the denial of justice or a hideous caricature of it ... its principles are the very denial of the demands made by the most primitive concepts of natural justice ... This kind of proceeding has no longer any semblance to a judicial trial but is rather its systematic and methodical perversion." Portuguese author A. José Saraiva points out the analogy of the trials with the absurdity of the Kafka's novel The Trial or the of Stalin's era.
Other punishments were exile, compulsory , fines, the , life imprisonment (in fact prison for some years) and in addition the confiscation of goods and property. The bull Ad extirpanda determined that the houses of heretics should be completely razed to the ground. Furthermore, the impact of the Inquisition's activity on the fabric of society was not limited to these penances or punishments. As under the terror of the Inquisition entire families denounced each other, they were soon reduced to misery, completed by the confiscation of property, public humiliation and ostracism.
Even dead people could be accused, and sentenced up to forty years after the death. When inquisitors considered proven that the deceased were heretics in their lifetime, their corpses were exhumed and burned, their property confiscated and the heirs disinherited.
The New Testament contains some sentences that the church could interpret for dealing with heretics. The excommunication of a deviant from the faith was equivalent to handing him over to the Devil: "When you have gathered together, and my spirit with you, in the power of our Lord Jesus, hand this man over to Satan for destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord." (The Pauline letters: 1 Corinthians, B. Incest in Corinth, 5:4 and 5:5)
The sentence of Paul could also be understood in this way: he handed over to the Devil those "who have suffered shipwreck in the faith ... so that they may be taught not to be blasphemous." (The Pastoral epistles: 1 Timothy – The first letter from Paul to Timothy—Timothy's responsibility: 1:19 and 1:20)
Paul's view reflects less the idea of punishment than the idea of isolation when he says: " After a first and second warning have nothing to do with a disputatious person, since you may be sure that such a person is warped and is self-condemned as a sinner." (The Pastoral epistles : Titus – The letter from Paul to Titus—3:10 and 3:11)
In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the apostates in a parable: "I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me, and I in that person, bears fruit in plenty; for apart from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a branch and withers. These branches are collected, thrown on the fire and burnt." This parable can be interpreted as the burning of stubborn heretics at the stake. (The Gospel according to John: The true vine—15:5 and 15:6)
The celebrated theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) supplied the theoretical foundation for the medieval Inquisition in his Summa Theologica II 2. 11. A heretic who repents, the first time, should be allowed penance and their life safeguarded by the church from the punishment of the secular authorities (who treated pernicious and public heresy as a kind of sedition.) A subsequent lapse into heresy would show insincerity that called for excommunication, leaving them to the secular authorities who could impose the death penalty on unprotected heretics: " Accipere fidem est voluntatis, sed tenere fidem iam acceptam est necessitatis" (i.e. "The acceptance of faith is voluntary, maintaining the accepted faith is necessary. So heretics should be compelled to keep the faith.")
Luis de Páramo, theologian and Inquisitor of then Spanish-ruled Sicily from 1584 to 1605, asserted that Jesus was "the first Inquisitor under the Evangelical law" and that John the Baptist and the apostles were also inquisitors.
However, another traditional stream of Catholic thought, for example championed by Erasmus, was that the Parable of the wheat and tares forbade any premature culling of heretics.
Saint Augustine (354–430) led a debate in Africa with the Donatism community, which had split from the Roman Church. In his works, he called for moderate severity or measures by secular power, including the death penalty, against heretics, however he did not consider it desirable: "Corrigi eos volumus, non necari, nec disciplinam circa eos negligi volumus, nec suppliciis quibus digni sunt exerci", meaning "We would like them to be improved, not killed; we desire the triumph of church discipline, not the death they deserve."
In 1242, a Cathar group armed with axes entered the castle of the town of Avignonet (southern France) and murdered the inquisitors Guillaume Arnaud and Étienne de Saint-Thibéry.
In 1252, the inquisitor Peter of Verona was killed by Cathars. Eleven months after his assassination, he was made a Catholic saint, the quickest canonization in history. As Christine Caldwell Ames writes, "Inquisition changed what it meant to be a martyr, to be holy, and to be an imitator of Christ."
In 1395 near Steyr, where the inquisitor Petrus Zwicker was quartered with associates, an assassination attempt on him failed: someone had tried to set fire to the place and burn him alive.
During French Inquisition, a Franciscan friar, Bernard Délicieux, opposed the actions of the Inquisition in Languedoc. The infamous Bernard Gui presented him as the commander-in-chief of the "iniquitous army" against the Dominicans and the Inquisition. Délicieux alleged the Inquisitiors were pursuing innocent Catholics for heresy, trying to destroy their towns. He stated that the methods of the inquisition would have condemned even Saint Peter and Paul as heretics if they appeared before the inquisitors. Délicieux later became one more victim of the Inquisition for his criticism. In 1317, Pope John XXII called him and other Franciscan Spirituals to Avignon, and he was arrested, questioned, and tortured by the Inquisition. In 1319, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Fragile and old, he died shortly thereafter.
In Spain, several bishops contended with inquisitorial tribunals. In 1532, the Archbishop of Toledo Alonso III Fonseca had to ransom converso Juan de Vergara (Cisneros' Latin secretary) from Spanish inquisitors. Fonseca had previously rescued Ignatius of Loyola from them. Far from being a monolithic institution, sometimes the tribunals threatened individuals protected by the Inquisitor-General, such as with the Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique de Lara and Erasmus.
In Portugal, Father António Vieira (1608–1697), himself a Jesuit, philosopher, writer and orator, was one of the most important opponents of the Inquisition. Arrested by the Inquisition for "heretical, reckless, ill-sounding and scandalous propositions" in October 1665, was imprisoned until December 1667. Under the Inquisitorial sentence, he was forbidden to teach, write or preach. Only perhaps Vieira's prestige, his intelligence and his support among members of the royal family saved him from greater consequences. Father Vieira led an anti-inquisition movement in Rome, where he spent six years. In addition to his humanitarian objections, he also had others: he realised that a mercantile middle class was being attacked that would be sorely missed in the country's economic development. He is believed to have been the author of the anonymous writing Notícias Recônditas do Modo de Proceder a Inquisição de Portugal com os seus Presos, which reveals a great deal about the inner workings of the Inquisitorial mechanism and which he delivered to Pope Clement X in favour of the cause of the persecuted of the Inquisition. The Inquisition was suspended by Clement X between 1674 and 1681.
In Portugal, in the wake of the Liberal Revolution of 1820, the "General Extraordinary and Constituent of the Portuguese Nation" abolished the Portuguese Inquisition in 1821.
The wars of independence of the former Spanish colonies in the Americas concluded with the abolition of the Inquisition in every quarter of Hispanic America between 1813 and 1825.
The last execution of the Inquisition was in Spain in 1826. This was the execution by garroting of the Catalonia school teacher Cayetano Ripoll for purportedly teaching Deism in his school. In Spain the practices of the Inquisition were finally outlawed in 1834.
In Italy, the restoration of the Pope as the ruler of the Papal States in 1814 brought the Inquisition back to the Papal States. It remained active there until the late-19th century, notably in the well-publicised Mortara affair (1858–1870).
A putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created in 1542 in the Vatican. This office survives to this day as part of the Roman Curia, although it underwent a series of name changes. In 1908, it was renamed the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. In 1965, it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In 2022, this office was renamed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, as retained to the present day.
John Paul II's apology was considered imperfect by several critics, including Jewish figures, who among other points raised the issue of the beatification, at the same time, of Pope Pius IX, known for his anti-Judaism and his approval of the abduction of Mortara case as the then six-year-old child had been forcibly taken from his Jewish family by Papal States police, under orders of the Inquisitor of Bologna, and was eventually raised in the papal household.
Several inquisitors are considered saints by the Catholic Church, such as Peter of Verona, Pedro de Arbués, or John of Capistrano; some were even Popes, such as Michele Ghislieri, who would later become Pope Pius V, and Jacques Fournier—later Pope Benedict XII. Raymond of Penyafort, author of one of the first manuals for use by inquisitors—the Directorium inquisitoriale (1242) -- is also a Catholic saint.
Inquisition Proceedings
Denunciations
The usual procedure began with the visitation by the inquisitors in a chosen location. The so-called heretics were then asked to be present and denounce themselves and others; it was not enough to denounce himself as a heretic.
Methods of torture used
The primary method of torture was psychological: solitary confinement and indefinite incarceration.
Fake instruments of torture
Despite what is popularly believed, the cases in which torture was used during the inquisitorial processes were rare, since it was considered (according to some authors) to be ineffective in obtaining evidence. Before torture, some inquisitors may have displayed the instruments mainly on the purpose of intimidation of the accused, so he could understand what to expect. If he wished to avoid punishment, he should only confess his faults.
Trials
The Inquisition's trials were secret and there was no possibility of appealing the decisions. The defendant was pressured to confess to the "crimes" assigned to him. The Inquisitors kept the accusations made and evidence they possessed hidden, to achieve a confession without announcing the accusation. The main goal was to make the defendant confess. When a lawyer was assigned to him, he was an employee of the Inquisition and worked for it, not in the defense of the accused. Each court had its own staff (lawyers, prosecutors, notaries, etc.) and prison. The guards who served the inquisition spied the accused in their cells; if they refused to eat for example, this could be considered a fast, a Jewish custom.
Punishments
The Inquisition's sentences could be simple penances, for example private devotions, or heavy punishments. One of the Inquisition's punishments was the forced wearing of distinctive clothing or signs such as the Sanbenito, sometimes for an entire life.
Legitimation by the texts
The Inquisition always referred to biblical passages, as well as to Church Fathers, like Augustine of Hippo, to legitimise his actuation.
Opposition and resistance
In many regions and times, there was opposition to the Inquisition.
Assassinations
In some cases, heretics and other targets did not hesitate to attempt to murder the inquisitors, or destroy its voluminous archives, because they had much to lose in the face of an inquisitorial investigation: their freedom, their property, their lives.
The much hated Inquisitor Konrad von Marburg, who also initiated inquisition trials against nobles, was murdered in 1233 by six mounted men on an open country road on the way to Marburg.
Clergy opposition
Opposition to Inquisition power and abuses sometimes came from within the clergy: including friars, priests and bishops.
Ending of the Inquisition in the 19th and 20th centuries
By decree of Napoleon's government in 1797, the Inquisition in Venice was abolished in 1806.
Current position of the Catholic Church
Reflection on the inquisitorial activity of the Catholic Church began to be seriously undertaken in the period of preparation for the Great Jubilee, on the initiative of John Paul II, who called for repentance for "examples of thought and action that are in fact a source of anti-witness and scandal". On 12 March 2000, during the celebration of the Jubilee, the Pope, on behalf of the entire Catholic Church and all Christians, apologized for these acts and in general for many others. The Pope asked for forgiveness for seven categories of sins: general sins; sins "in the service of truth"; sins against Christian unity; sins against the Jews; against respect for love, peace and cultures; sins against the dignity of women and minorities; and against human rights. Some theologians were of the opinion that this unprecedented apology would undermine the authority of the Church. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger gave an apology on behalf of his office, the successor to the Roman Inquisition: "Even men of the church, in the name of faith and morals, have sometimes used methods not in keeping with the Gospel."
See also
Documents and works
Notable inquisitors
Notable cases
Repentance
Bibliography
External links
Categories: Anti-islam Sentiment In Europe, Anti-judaism, Antisemitism In Europe, Christianity-related Controversies, Counter-reformation, Islamophobia In Europe, Persecution Of Muslims By Christians, Tribunals Of The Catholic Church, Violence Against Muslims, Ethnic Persecution, Political And Cultural Purges
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