What do we know about the inquisition?

Question

As recent scholarship has shown, both Protestants and secularists, from the sixteenth century to the present, have wildly exaggerated the evils of the Inquisition in order to further their own ends, creating straw demons of Inquisitors and popes alike. Sadly, these errors have been repeated so often that they have become “facts.”
Although such exaggerations have made “facts” from fiction, there is some truth about abuses that Catholics must admit. Unrepentant men found guilty of heresy were handed over to the State for punishment, even though Church authorities did not always agree with the punishments inflicted. We must realize that in handing over the condemned heretic to the secular power, the Church knowingly was handing over the condemned for punishments ranging from imprisonment to burning at the stake.

Furthermore, even with all the procedural precautions, there were Inquisitors who did not follow the laws of the Church and all to readily handed over a significant number of “heretics” to be burned alive. However, anti-Catholic pamphleteers and historians have grossly exaggerated the numbers, asserting that millions died at the stake. Though the actual numbers are far less (3000 - 5000), these fiery deaths were quite real and regrettable.
It is also true, sadly enough, that the Church, following the judicial customs of the day, allowed for torture as a part of the judicial procedure. The approval of torture went all the way to the top, as Pope Innocent IV’s bull Ad Exstirpanda (1252) attests. However, the use of torture during judicial inquiry was not, contrary to many detractors of the Church, the invention of the Inquisition.
Just prior to the time of the Inquisition, Roman law had begun to displace the local judicial customs of Western Europe.

Under the medieval understanding of law, the accused in a capital crime could only be convicted if there were full proof of his guilt. This entailed either the testimony of two witnesses, being caught in the act, or personal confession. If the first two were lacking, and everything else pointed to the guilt of the accused, torture was used to extract his confession. To be considered a valid confession, the accused had to confess freely the next day.
In regard to the use of torture as well as capital punishment, the Church did not invent, but regulated and codified these existing civil, judicial practices. In addition, it is important that the overwhelming effect and goal of the Church was to soften the punitive harshness of the secular powers, and correct the abuses of individual Inquisitors who were arbitrary and cruel.
Learning from Our Mistakes
Despite these facts, Pope John Paul II warns us:

Yet the consideration of mitigating factors does not exonerate the Church from the obligation to express profound regret for the weakness of so many of her sons and daughters who sullied her face, preventing her from fully mirroring the image of her crucified Lord, the supreme witness of patient love and humble meekness. From these painful moments of the past a lesson can be drawn for the future, leading all Christians to adhere fully to the sublime principle stated by the Council: ‘The truth cannot impose itself except by virtue of its own truth, as it wins over the mind with both gentleness and power.’
MY POINT
It may be a waste of time arguing about statistics. Instead, what is it do you think the existence of the Inquisition demonstrates. You would not bring it up in the first place unless you thought it proves something about the Catholic Church. And what is that something? That Catholics are sinners? Guilty as charged.

That at times people in positions of authority have used poor judgment? Ditto. That otherwise good Catholics, afire with zeal, sometimes lose their balance? All true, but such charges could be made even if the Inquisition had never existed and perhaps could be made of some Fundamentalists.

God Bless
Robin

Answer 1

Catholic bashers love the Inquisition. Unfortunately, like CJ, who imagines the Pope on a rampage, killing millions, almost everything they "know" didn't happen. The myth of the Inquisition comes from forged documents and anti-Catholic propaganda.

The word "inquisition" means asking questions. The questions were asked by courts, under rules established by the Church. The defendants had defense lawyers, and the punishments were usually no more than a penance, such as charity, a pilgrimage, or abstinence.

The most important inquisition was against the Albigensians, a heretical sect that encouraged suicide, euthanasia, abortion, sodomy, fornication, and other destructive behaviors. The alternative to peaceful trials in court was war against the Albigensians; thus, this inquisition saved many lives, especially among the Albigensians.

Of course, the Spanish Inquisition was better known. The Spanish government ran the inquisition, and the Church’s role was to act as a brake of responsibility, fairness, and justice. Spain had been ruled for centuries by Muslim invaders, and the government was intent on finding remaining pockets of heterodoxy and disloyalty.

The courts of the Spanish Inquisition were probably the fairest, most lenient, and most progressive in Europe. In an average year, the number of executions ordered by the Spanish Inquisition was less than the number of people put to death annually by the state of Texas. At the time, heresy was universally considered a capital crime throughout Europe.

Cheers,
Bruce

Answer 2

Here is a religion based on violence, "mirroring the image of her crucified Lord" which in its most common ceremony looks to eat the body and drink the blood of its most revered figure.

And you ask if it is responsible for gratuitous violence? With totalitarian destruction activities such as chattel slavery of blacks, pogroms against Jews, Islamists, scientists, heathens and pagans to its credit, the excessive violence and cruelty of the various Inquisitions just adds more to the merry pot.

I like how you attempt to distance the 'secular authorities' from the Church. Isn't the most important fact about the Inquisition (as well as the other annihilation programs) the fact that the European governments of the time followed Rome's lead, but only during the periods when they were not dictated to by Rome? There was no 'secular' anything during the period when there were Inquisitions. Everyone was expected to obey "God, King, and country" in that order, and 'God' was represented by the Church.

Answer 3

I'm not aware of historical scholarship which shows that the excesses of the Inquisition have been exagerrated. I suspect your sources on this scholarship are akin to the so-called "scholarship" of Holocaust denial or Global warming denial. I have read several scholarly papers about the Inquisition as well as visited the Museum of the Inquisition in Lima, Peru. What I have seen in the way of torture devices displayed in Museums, as well as what I've read is so horrific that to engage in any form of denial is truly an immoral enterprise.

Answer 4

The facts are it was a brutal time in history. Both sides didn't seem to mind torture and burning each other at the stake.

Answer 5

Everything I've learned about the Inquisition has come from Mel Brooks.

Answer 6

it is still a very dark period in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, one which should never be forgotten and never repeated.

Answer 7

It apparently was inquisitive. And regardless of why the deeds were done or by whom, they were wrong.

Answer 8

You're similar to those that speak Holocaust denials. Purely disgusting.

Millions died at the hands of the genocidal Vatican. Many for simply owning a Bible.

Answer 9

INQUISITION:

another TOOL TO STEAL MONEY AND PROPERTY AWAY FROM THE PEOPLE

Authorized by the Pope, so he could have money to pay his army, to go out and covert people by the Sword

Answer 10

It wasn't long enough, let me tell you that!