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History and Evolution:
By William E. Steinman:
Part 47, Inquisitions:
February 16, 2004:
One thing I must point out is the large degree of overlap of these various time periods I am dealing with. You saw one case of this when I discussed Gutenberg and printing in my last essay before I got to these inquisitions. Gutenberg is really part of the renaissance, while the inquisitions are clearly part of the dark ages. However, we have a fixed date for the printing press and a time period for the inquisitions. The point is, the inquisitions carried on long into the renaissance, but I can only discuss one item at a time. So be it. In this essay, I discuss the inquisitions.
The term inquisition by itself is a rather innocuous word. It means to investigate or inquire into some matter of interest. For most of us, however, the word holds connotations of dark and dire deeds in dungeons and torture chambers. We think of punishments for the evil deeds of heresy. This, of course, stems from the Holy Roman Church's inquiries into what were called heretical movements or activities.
It all began when Pope Gregory IX instituted the first of these inquisitions in 1231. Recall that this guy Gregory was also the Pope who had to deal with Frederick the Great and the sixth crusade. Well. it seems there were other heretics to deal with in Souther France. Some folks there who were called the Albigenses had different views of how Christianity should be understood and practiced. They disagreed with the established dogma of Rome. Hence, they were heretics by definition.
This was at a time when the church in Rome had pretty much solidified it's power in Europe. Innocent III tried to solve this heresy with what was called the Albigensian crusade in 1209. What that did was pit the Royal houses of Northern France, representing Rome, against the royal houses of Southern France, the heretics. It all resulted in a protracted and bloody war and the massacre of thousands of so called heretics. It finally ended with a treaty in 1229. This war did not end the heresies but it did destroy the budding civilization of Souther France. Southern France was reduced to the common European level of Barbarism.
Gregory's Inquisition, finally did succeeded in destroying the heretics though it took 100 years. This inquisition procedure became a pretty grizzly affair. First, it notified the person who was suspected of heresy. This gave him a chance to mend his ways, to confess, and absolve himself. If that did not have the desired effect, the heretic was brought before an inquisitor. Does that very word make you shudder? It should.
The inquisitor called witnesses for testimony and tried the heretic. At first this trial was just implemented through intimidation. Later, in 1252, good old Innocent IV authorized the use of torture to obtain confessions and the names of other heretics. We can be sure that made it much easier for the inquisitor to extract confessions. Punishment for a convicted heretic ran the gamut up to and including execution.
Now most of this earlier inquisition activity took place in Southern France and Northern Italy. That was evil enough, but the game changed in 1478 when Pope Sixtus IV authorized the Spanish Inquisition. Prior to that, Muslim Moors had occupied most of Spain and Portugal. In a struggle called the Reconquista the Moors were driven out or suppressed. Reconquista is just another name for a series of Christian wars to dominate Spain and Portugal.
Now the Catholic authorities in Aragon and Castile wanted to assure their religious and political authority. In short, they wanted to suppress and eliminate any remain Arabs or Jews from their territory along with any other so called heretics. Sixtus IV accommodated them and authorized an inquisition.
That first inquisition began in Seville. It quickly got out of hand and Sixtus IV found himself powerless to stop it. Of course, there is no convincing evidence that he tried very hard. In fact, in 1483 he acted to name a grand inquisitor for Castile. The first grand inquisitor was the Dominican Tomás de Torquemada. This guy was a real hard case. He receives credit for the burning at the stake of some 2000 alleged sinners. For sure, he also used torture as a routine method for extracting confessions. Kind of makes old Gregory IX look like a real nice guy. In addition to heresy, Tomas also added sorcery, sodomy, polygamy, blasphemy, usury, and many other offenses to his list of crimes.
Under Tomás de Torquemada's tenure the sentencing of convicted sinners became a public affair with elaborate rituals and celebrations. In addition, this inquisition spread to many other countries and colonies. These included Peru, Mexico, Sicily, and even the Netherlands. In other places it was tried and failed to take hold. This crap went on, especially in Spain, until it was finally suppressed in 1834. That's about 400 years of terror and horror. Just another grand time in the lives of the kindly clergy.
There was one other flavor of inquisition called the Roman inquisition. It was set up by Paul III in 1542 to deal with Protestantism. Think Martin Luther, 1483 to 1546. Luther protested a lot of the political gamesmanship that was going on in the church of Rome. He particularly protested the selling of indulgences which was common even in those days. This bad behavior in Rome, according to Lutheran theory, caused Luther to post his famous 95 theses on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg in 1517.
We can suppose the church was put off by this, but there were attempts at reconciliation. Luther's answer was to demand even more reforms including national control of the church in Germany. Now the church was really put off. A bull of condemnation was presented to him which he promptly burned in public. Of course, that got him excommunicated in 1521. Following that the church tried to capture him but he hid out with Frederick III in Saxony where he continued to work and write. Out of all that brouhaha came the Lutheran church.
Now, this Roman inquisition went on for a long time, sometimes gently and sometimes rather rigorous. It finally ended, more or less, in 1908 when Pious X changed the name of the institution of inquisition to the Holy Office. This group was still charged with maintaining the purity of the faith, but it had mostly to do with the purity of Catholics rather than the protestant heretics. Later it came to be called the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
It is not necessary for the purpose of this study to go into
the sordid details of the evils perpetrated in the name of Christ
and God by these inquisitions. Some of the tortures were truly
monstrous in nature, outdoing any of the later acts of the Nazis.
It could be a separate and painful study for someone else, lest
we ever forget. However, it is one which I do not have time to
undertake.
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