Symbol of the Inquisition. "The Holy Inquisition

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Origin of the term

An ecclesiastical tribunal charged with the "detection, punishment and prevention of heresies" was established in southern France by Gregory IX in 1229. This institution reached its zenith in 1478, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, with the sanction of Pope Sixtus IV, established the Spanish Inquisition.

The Congregation of the Holy Office was established in 1542, replacing the Great Roman Inquisition, and in 1917 the functions of the abolished Index Congregation were also transferred to it.

Goals and means

Torture applied to those accused of heresy. Engraving from 1508.

The main task of the Inquisition was to determine whether the accused was guilty of heresy.

IX. In the early days of the Inquisition there was no prosecutor responsible for indicting suspects; this formality of legal proceedings was carried out verbally by the inquisitor after hearing the witnesses; the consciousness of the accused served as accusation and response. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy, it was in vain that he asserted that he was innocent of the others; he was not allowed to defend himself because the crime for which he was being tried had already been proven. He was only asked whether he was disposed to renounce the heresy of which he pleaded guilty. If he agreed, then he was reconciled with the Church, imposing canonical penance on him simultaneously with some other punishment. Otherwise, he was declared a stubborn heretic, and he was handed over to the secular authorities with a copy of the verdict.

The death penalty, like confiscation, was a measure that, in theory, the Inquisition did not apply. Her job was to use every effort to return the heretic to the bosom of the Church; if he persisted, or if his appeal was feigned, she had nothing more to do with him. As a non-Catholic, he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, which he rejected, and the Church was forced to declare him a heretic and deprive him of its patronage. Initially, the sentence was only a simple conviction for heresy and was accompanied by excommunication from the Church or a declaration that the guilty person was no longer considered subject to the jurisdiction of the court of the Church; sometimes it was added that he was being handed over to a secular court, that he was being released - a terrible expression that meant that the direct intervention of the Church in his fate had already ended. Over time, the sentences became more extensive; often a remark begins to appear explaining that the Church can do nothing more to atone for the sins of the guilty, and his transfer into the hands of secular power is accompanied by the following significant words: debita animadversione puniendum, that is, “let him be punished according to his deserts.” The hypocritical appeal, in which the Inquisition implored the secular authorities to spare the life and body of the apostate, is not found in the ancient sentences and was never precisely formulated.

Inquisitor Pegna does not hesitate to admit that this appeal to mercy was an empty formality, and explains that it was resorted to only so that it would not seem that the inquisitors agreed to the shedding of blood, since this would be a violation of canonical rules. But at the same time, the Church vigilantly ensured that its resolution was not misinterpreted. She taught that there can be no talk of any leniency unless the heretic repents and testifies to his sincerity by betraying all his like-minded people. The inexorable logic of St. Thomas Aquinas clearly established that the secular power could not help but put heretics to death, and that only as a result of its boundless love the Church could turn to the heretics twice with words of conviction before handing them over to the secular power for their well-deserved punishment. The inquisitors themselves did not hide this at all and constantly taught that the heretic they condemned should be put to death; This is evident, among other things, from the fact that they refrained from pronouncing their sentence on him within the church fence, which would have been desecrated by condemnation to death, but pronounced it in the square where the last act of the auto-da-fe took place. One of their 13th-century doctors, quoted in the 14th century by Bernard Guy, argues: “The purpose of the Inquisition is the destruction of heresy; heresy cannot be destroyed without the destruction of heretics; and heretics cannot be destroyed unless the defenders and supporters of heresy are also destroyed, and this can be achieved in two ways: by converting them to the true Catholic faith, or by turning their flesh into ashes after they are handed over to the secular authorities.”

Main historical stages

Chronologically, the history of the Inquisition can be divided into three stages:

Pre-Dominican (persecution of heretics until the 12th century);
Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229);

In the 1st period, the trial of heretics was part of the functions of episcopal power, and their persecution was temporary and random; in the 2nd, permanent inquisitorial tribunals are created, under the special jurisdiction of Dominican monks; in the third, the inquisitorial system is closely associated with the interests of monarchical centralization in Spain and the claims of its sovereigns to political and religious supremacy in Europe, first serving as a weapon in the struggle against the Moors and Jews, and then, together with the Jesuit Order, being a fighting force of the Catholic reaction of the 16th century against Protestantism.

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century

The germs of the Inquisition can be found in the first centuries of Christianity - in the duty of deacons to seek out and correct errors in the faith, in the judicial power of bishops over heretics. The episcopal court was simple and not distinguished by cruelty; the strongest punishment at that time was excommunication.

Since the recognition of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, civil punishments have been added to church punishments. In 316, Constantine the Great issued an edict condemning the Donatists to confiscation of property. The threat of the death penalty was first uttered by Theodosius the Great in 382 against the Manichaeans, and in 385 it was carried out against the Priscillians.

In the capitularies of Charlemagne there are instructions obliging bishops to monitor morals and the correct profession of faith in their dioceses, and on the Saxon borders to eradicate pagan customs. In 844, Charles the Bald ordered the bishops to confirm the people in the faith through sermons, to investigate and correct their errors (“ut populi errata inquirant et corrigant”).

In the 9th and 10th centuries. bishops reach high degree power; in the 11th century, during the persecution of the Patarens in Italy, their activity was distinguished by great energy. Already in this era, the church more willingly resorted to violent measures against heretics than to means of exhortation. The most severe punishments for heretics even at that time were confiscation of property and burning at the stake. This is how Anna Komnena describes in the Alexiad the burning of Bogomil Vasily at the stake in 1118, saying about the emperor that he made a decision “new, unusual in its character, unheard of in its courage.”

Dominican period

The word "Inquisition", in the technical sense, was used for the first time at the Council of Tours in 1163 (English) Russian , and at the Council of Toulouse in 1229, the apostolic legate "mandavit inquisitionem fieri contra haereticos suspectatos de haeretica pravitate."

In Germany, the Inquisition was initially directed against the Steding tribe, who defended their independence from the Archbishop of Bremen. Here it met with general protest. The first inquisitor of Germany was Conrad of Marburg; in 1233 he was killed during a popular uprising, and the following year his two main assistants suffered the same fate. On this occasion, the Chronicle of Worms says: “thus, with God’s help, Germany was freed from a vile and unheard-of judgment.” Later, Pope Urban V, with the support of Emperor Charles IV, again appointed two Dominicans to Germany as inquisitors; however, even after this the Inquisition did not develop here. The last traces of it were destroyed by the Reformation. The Inquisition even penetrated into England to fight against the teachings of Wycliffe and his followers; but here its significance was insignificant.

Of the Slavic states, only Poland had an Inquisition, and then only for a very short time. In general, this institution took more or less deep roots only in Spain, Portugal and Italy, where Catholicism had a profound influence on the minds and character of the population.

Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition, which arose in the 13th century, as an echo of modern events in southern France, was revived with renewed vigor at the end of the 15th century, receives new organization and acquires enormous political significance. Spain represented the most favorable conditions for the development of the Inquisition. The centuries-long struggle with the Moors contributed to the development of religious fanaticism among the people, which the Dominicans who settled here successfully took advantage of. There were many non-Christians, namely Jews and Moors, in the areas conquered from the Moors by the Christian kings of the Iberian Peninsula. The Moors and the Jews who adopted their education were the most enlightened, productive and prosperous elements of the population. Their wealth inspired the envy of the people and was a temptation for the government. Already at the end of the 14th century, a mass of Jews and Moors were forced to convert to Christianity (see Marranos and Moriscos), but many even after that continued to secretly profess the religion of their fathers.

The systematic persecution of these suspicious Christians by the Inquisition began with the unification of Castile and Aragon into one monarchy, under Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand the Catholic, who reorganized the inquisitorial system. The motive for the reorganization was not so much religious fanaticism as the desire to take advantage of the Inquisition to strengthen the state unity of Spain and increase state revenues by confiscating the property of those convicted. The soul of the new Inquisition in Spain was Isabella's confessor, the Dominican Torquemada. In 1478, a bull was received from Sixtus IV, which allowed the “Catholic kings” to establish a new Inquisition, and in 1480 its first tribunal was established in Seville; He opened his activities at the beginning of the next year, and by the end of it he could already boast of the execution of 298 heretics. The result of this was general panic and a number of complaints about the actions of the tribunal addressed to the pope, mainly from the bishops. In response to these complaints, Sixtus IV in 1483 ordered the inquisitors to adhere to the same severity in relation to heretics, and entrusted the consideration of appeals against the actions of the Inquisition to the Seville Archbishop Inigo Manriquez. A few months later, he appointed the great gene. Inquisitor of Castile and Aragon Torquemado, who completed the work of transforming the Spanish Inquisition.

The Inquisitorial Tribunal initially consisted of a chairman, 2 legal assessors and 3 royal advisers. This organization soon turned out to be insufficient and in its place a whole system of inquisitorial institutions was created: the central inquisitorial council (the so-called Consejo de la suprema) and 4 local tribunals, the number of which was later increased to 10. The property confiscated from heretics formed a fund from from which funds were drawn for the maintenance of inquisitorial tribunals and which, at the same time, served as a source of enrichment for the papal and royal treasuries. In 1484, Torquemada appointed a general congress of all members of the Spanish inquisitorial tribunals in Seville, and a code was developed here (at first 28 decrees; 11 were added later) regulating the inquisitorial process.

Since then, the work of cleansing Spain from heretics and non-Christians began to move forward rapidly, especially after 1492, when Torquemada managed to get the Catholic kings to expel all Jews from Spain. The results of the extermination activities of the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada, in the period from 1481 to 1498, are expressed in the following figures: about 8,800 people were burned at the stake; 90,000 people were subjected to confiscation of property and church punishments; in addition, images, in the form of effigies or portraits, of 6,500 people who escaped execution by flight or death were burned. In Castile, the Inquisition was popular among the fanatical crowd, who happily gathered at auto-da-fe, and Torquemada was universally respected until his death. But in Aragon, the actions of the Inquisition repeatedly caused explosions of popular indignation; During one of them, Pedro Arbuez, the chairman of the inquisitorial court in Zaragoza, who was not inferior in cruelty to Torquemada, was killed in a church in the city. Torquemada's successors, Diego Des and especially Jimenez, the archbishop of Toledo and Isabella's confessor, completed the work of the religious unification of Spain.

Several years after the conquest of Granada, the Moors were persecuted for their faith, despite the provision of religious freedom to them under the terms of the 1492 capitulation treaty. In 1502 they were ordered to either be baptized or leave Spain. Some of the Moors left their homeland, the majority were baptized; However, the baptized Moors (Moriscos) did not escape persecution and were finally expelled from Spain by Philip III in 1609. The expulsion of the Jews, Moors and Moriscos, who made up more than 3 million of the population, and, moreover, the most educated, hardworking and rich, entailed incalculable losses for Spanish agriculture, industry and trade, which did not prevent Spain from becoming the richest country, creating a powerful fleet and colonizing large spaces in the New World.

Jimenez destroyed the last remnants of the episcopal opposition. The Spanish Inquisition penetrated the Netherlands and Portugal and served as a model for the Italian and French inquisitors. In the Netherlands it was established by Charles V in 1522 and was the cause of the breakaway of the northern Netherlands from Spain under Philip II. In Portugal, the Inquisition was introduced in 1536 and from here it spread to the Portuguese colonies in the East Indies, where its center was Goa.

Inquisition in the Russian Empire

IN Russian Empire An organization with a similar name, the “Order of Proto-Inquisitorial Affairs,” was created in 1711 by decree of Peter I to supervise bishops in their church economic and judicial activities in matters of minor importance. The spiritual inquisitors included representatives of black and white clergy. All of them were subordinate to the provincial inquisitors of the cities where the bishop's houses were located. The provincial inquisitors were subordinate to the Moscow proto-inquisitor. Paphnutius, Archimandrite of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, was appointed the first Moscow proto-inquisitor. In turn, he was subordinate to the Synod. Before sending his denunciation, the spiritual inquisitor had to notify the superior authorities of the person he accused or the local bishop. If the case ended in a fine, after it was imposed and paid, half of the money was due to the informer. In 1724, the Order of Proto-Inquisitorial Affairs ceased to exist, but the positions of inquisitors were abolished only on January 25, 1727.

Other countries

Modeled on the Spanish inquisitorial system, in 1542 the “congregation of the Holy Inquisition” was established in Rome, whose authority was unconditionally recognized in the duchies of Milan and Tuscany; in the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice, its actions were subject to government control. In France, Henry II tried to establish the Inquisition on the same model, and Francis II, in 1559, transferred the functions of the inquisitorial court to parliament, where a special department was formed for this, the so-called. chambres ardentes (fire chamber).

The actions of the Inquisition Tribunal were shrouded in strict secrecy. There was a system of espionage and denunciations. As soon as the accused or suspect was brought to trial by the Inquisition, a preliminary interrogation began, the results of which were presented to the tribunal. If the latter found the case subject to his jurisdiction - which usually happened - then the informers and witnesses were again interrogated and their testimony, along with all the evidence; were submitted to the consideration of Dominican theologians, the so-called qualifiers of the Holy Inquisition.

If the qualifiers spoke out against the accused, he was immediately taken to a secret prison, after which all communication between the prisoner and the outside world ceased. Then followed the first 3 audiences, during which the inquisitors, without announcing the charges to the defendant, tried by asking questions to confuse him in the answers and by cunning to wrest his consciousness of the crimes charged against him. In case of consciousness, he was placed in the category of “repentant” and could count on the leniency of the court; in case of persistent denial of guilt, the accused, at the request of the prosecutor, was taken to a torture chamber. After the torture, the exhausted victim was again brought into the audience hall and only now was he introduced to the charges to which an answer was required. The accused was asked whether he wished to defend himself or not, and, if the answer was affirmative, he was asked to choose a defense lawyer from a list of persons compiled by his accusers. It is clear that the defense under such conditions was nothing more than a gross mockery of the victim of the tribunal. At the end of the process, which often lasted several months, the qualifiers were again invited and gave their final opinion on the case, almost always not in favor of the defendant.

Then came the verdict, which could be appealed to the supreme inquisitorial tribunal or to the pope. However, the success of the appeals was unlikely. “Suprema”, as a rule, did not overturn the verdicts of the inquisitorial courts, and for the success of the appeal to Rome, the intercession of rich friends was necessary, since the convict, whose property was confiscated, no longer had significant sums of money. If the sentence was overturned, the prisoner was released, but without any reward for the torment, humiliation and losses experienced; otherwise, a sanbenito and an auto da fe awaited him.

Even sovereigns trembled before the Inquisition. Even such persons as the Spanish Archbishop Carranza, Cardinal Cesare Borgia and others could not avoid her persecution.

The influence of the Inquisition on the intellectual development of Europe in the 16th century became especially disastrous, when it, together with the Jesuit order, managed to master the censorship of books. In the 17th century, the number of its victims decreased significantly. 18th century with his ideas of religious tolerance was a time of further decline and finally the complete abolition of the Inquisition in many European countries: torture is completely eliminated from the inquisitorial process in Spain, and the number of death penalties is reduced to 2 - 3, or even less, per year. In Spain, the Inquisition was destroyed by decree of Joseph Bonaparte on December 4, 1808. According to the statistics collected in Loriente's work, it appears that there were 341,021 persons persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition from 1481 to 1809; of these, 31,912 were personally burned, 17,659 - in effigie, 291,460 were subject to imprisonment and other penalties. In Portugal, the Inquisition was greatly limited to the Ministry of Pombal, and under John VI (1818 - 26) it was completely destroyed. In France it was destroyed in 1772, in Tuscany and Parma - in 1769, in Sicily - in 1782, in Rome - in 1809. In 1814 the Inquisition was restored in Spain by Ferdinand Vll; destroyed for the second time by the Cortes in 1820, it is again revived for a while, until, finally, in 1834 it is abolished forever; its property was used to pay off the state debt. In Sardinia the Inquisition lasted until 1840, in Tuscany until 1852; in Rome the Inquisition was restored by Pius VII in 1814 (lasted until 1908)

Main historical dates

Victims of the Inquisition. Criticism

In his book Tales of Witchcraft and Magic (1852), Thomas Wright, corresponding member of the National Institute of France, states:

Of the many people who died for witchcraft at the stakes of Germany during the first half of the seventeenth century, there were many whose crime was their adherence to the religion of Luther<…>and the petty princes were not against seizing any opportunity to replenish their coffers... the most persecuted were those with significant fortunes... In Bamberg, as in Würzburg, the bishop was the sovereign prince in his domains. The prince-bishop, John George II, who ruled Bamberg... after several unsuccessful attempts to root out Lutheranism, glorified his reign with a series of bloody witch trials that disgraced the annals of that city... We can gain some insight into the exploits of his worthy agent (Frederick Ferner, Bishop of Bamberg) according to the most reliable sources, that between 1625 and 1630. at least 900 trials took place in the two courts of Bamberg and Zeil; and in an article published by the authorities at Bamberg in 1659, it is reported that the number of persons whom Bishop John George burned at the stake for witchcraft reached 600.

Thomas Wright also provides a list (document) of victims of twenty-nine burnings. In this list, people professing Lutheranism were designated as "outsiders". As a result, the victims of these burnings were:

There are 28 “foreign” men and women, that is, Protestants.
Townspeople, wealthy people - 100.
Boys, girls and small children - 34.

Among the witches were little girls from seven to ten years old, and twenty-seven of them were sentenced and burned. The number of those brought to trial in this terrible trial was so great that the judges did little to delve into the essence of the case, and it became commonplace that they did not even bother to write down the names of the accused, but designated them as accused No.; 1, 2, 3, etc.

Thomas Wright, Tales of Witchcraft and Magic

Literature

Pre-revolutionary studies

V. Velichkina. Essays on the History of the Inquisition (1906).
N. N. Gusev. Tales of the Inquisition (1906).
N. Ya. Kadmin. Philosophy of Murder (1913; reprint, 2005).
A. Lebedev. Secrets of the Inquisition (1912).
N. Osokin. History of the Albigensians and their times (1869-1872).
M. N. Pokrovsky. Medieval heresies and the Inquisition (in the Reading Book on the History of the Middle Ages, edited by P. G. Vinogradov, issue 2, 1897).
M. I. Semevsky. Word and deed. Secret investigation of Peter I (1884; reprint, 1991, 2001).
Ya. Kantorovich. Medieval Witch Trials (1899)

Literature of the Soviet and post-Soviet period

N.V. Budur. Inquisition: geniuses and villains (2006).
M. Ya. Vygodsky. Galileo and the Inquisition (1934).
S. V. Gordeev. History of Religions: The World's Major Religions, Ancient Ceremonies, Wars of Religion, the Christian Bible, Witches and the Inquisition (2005).
I. R. Grigulevich.

Any deviation from the true faith accepted by the church was called. Moreover, this faith meant exactly as much as it was inherent in the concept of the church itself. Of course, heretics are traitors to the church faith. These are people who have committed sin in the eyes of the Lord. They also had their own government - the Inquisition. B was the most common thing! Read more about this in our article.

Everything is in the hands of the Pope

It was in the hands of the papal church, which could decide which faith and which statements about the Lord were considered correct and which were false (that is, heretical).

Heretics were hated more than gentiles (people of other faiths). They were despised even more than Muslims. And all this because the heretics considered themselves real Christians. These were especially dangerous internal enemies of the church, who undermined its authority and foundations.

History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages

What is the Inquisition?

The heretics did not leave the church any choice, so in the Middle Ages the fires of the Inquisition, a specially created organization that fought the secret enemies of Catholicism, were constantly burning.

In general, the word “inquisition” in the Middle Ages meant “search”, “search”. Nowadays this is called the secret police. However, not all so simple! The Inquisition was much more terrible and dangerous than any secret police! Why? Yes, because its power, influence and strength extended not to any one state, but to the whole of Europe!

The very first inquisitor, without any doubt, can be considered Pope Innocent III. It is curious that the very concept of “Inquisition” was introduced in the Middle Ages after the death of the pope.

"King of kings and lord of lords"

He developed vigorous activity to eradicate heretics as soon as he ascended the papal throne. Without a twinge of conscience, he considered himself the arbiter of the destinies of all mortals and the entire Christian world! Innocent the Third called himself "the king of all kings and the ruler of all rulers." In addition, the pope did not hesitate to call himself “a priest of all ages and peoples” and was not afraid to speak of himself as “the vicar of Christ himself on the sinful earth.” Can you imagine the scale of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages?

Torture by inquisitors

The setup was quite simple: turn your entire soul inside out. Torture until the heretic confesses his sin and realizes his wrongdoing. Monstrous torture forced even very harmless heretics to take the blame for committing monstrous crimes!

You can list brutal tortures until you are blue in the face, which is what medieval sadistic inventors did not come up with. The Inquisition spared virtually no heretic. Here is a list of the most sophisticated tortures:

gutting and quartering;
deadly pressure;
interrogation chair;
heretic's fork;
cat's paw;
hand saw;
"Stork";
roasting pan (grid);
breast rupture;
impalement (the favorite pastime of Vlad the Impaler, the ruler of Transylvania, the Romanian voivode);
wheeling (Peter the Great’s favorite method of execution).

The Inquisition was a tribunal of the Catholic Church that carried out detective, judicial and punitive functions; has a centuries-old history. Its emergence is associated with the struggle against heretics - those who preached religious views that did not correspond to the dogmas established by the church. The first known heretic to be burned at the stake for his beliefs in 1124 was Peter of Bruy, who demanded the abolition of church hierarchy. There has not yet been any “legal” basis for this act. It began to take shape at the end of the 12th - first third of the 13th centuries.

In 1184, Pope Lucius III convened a council in Verona, the decisions of which obliged the clergy to collect information about heretics and search for them. According to the papal bull, the bones of previously deceased heretics, as desecrating Christian cemeteries, were subject to exhumation and burning, and property inherited by someone close to them was subject to confiscation. This was a kind of prelude to the emergence of the institution of the Inquisition. The generally accepted date of its creation is 1229, when church hierarchs at their council in Toulouse announced the creation of an Inquisition tribunal designed to detect, try and punish heretics. In 1231 and 1233 Three bulls of Pope Gregory IX followed, obliging all Catholics to implement the decision of the Toulouse council.

Church punitive bodies appeared in Italy (with the exception of the Kingdom of Naples), Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, in the Portuguese colony of Goa, and after the discovery of the New World - in Mexico, Brazil and Peru.

After the invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. the tribunals of the Inquisition actually took over the functions of censors. Year after year the list of prohibited books was replenished and by 1785 it amounted to over 5 thousand titles. Among them are books by French and English enlighteners, Denis Diderot’s “Encyclopedia” and others.

The most influential and cruel Inquisition was in Spain. Essentially, ideas about the Inquisition and inquisitors were formed under the influence of information about the persecution and reprisals against heretics associated with the name of Thomas de Torquemada, with his life and activities. These are the darkest pages in the history of the Inquisition. The personality of Torquemada, described by historians, theologians, and psychiatrists, still arouses interest to this day.

Thomas de Torquemada was born in 1420. His childhood and adolescence left no evidence of serious emotional turmoil and mental deviations. During his school years, he served as an example of integrity not only for his classmates, but even for his teachers. Having then become a monk of the Dominican order, he was distinguished by his impeccable attitude towards the traditions of the order and the monastic way of life, and thoroughly performed religious rituals. The order, founded in 1215 by the Spanish monk Domingo de Guzman (Latinized name Dominic) and approved by a papal bull on December 22, 1216, was the main support of the papacy in the fight against heresy.

Torquemada's deep piety did not go unnoticed. Rumor about her reached Queen Isabella, and she more than once invited him to head large parishes. He invariably responded with a polite refusal. However, when Isabella wished to have him as her confessor, Torquemada considered it a great honor. In all likelihood, he managed to infect the queen with his religious fanaticism. His influence on the life of the royal court was significant. In 1483, having received the title of Grand Inquisitor, he practically headed the Spanish Catholic tribunal.

The verdict of the secret court of the Inquisition could be public abdication, a fine, imprisonment and, finally, burning at the stake - the church used it for 7 centuries. The last execution took place in Valencia in 1826. The burning is usually associated with auto-da-fé - the solemn announcement of the verdict of the Inquisition, as well as its execution. This analogy is quite legitimate, since all other forms of punishment were handled more casually by the Inquisition.

In Spain, Torquemada resorted to extreme measures much more often than inquisitors in other countries: over 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The 6,800 people sentenced to death in absentia can also be considered victims of Torquemada. In addition, 97,321 people were subjected to various punishments. Primarily baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adhering to Judaism, as well as Muslims who converted to Christianity - Moriscos, suspected of secretly practicing Islam. In 1492, Torquemada persuaded the Spanish kings Isabella and Ferdinand to expel all Jews from the country.

This “genius of evil” died a natural death, although, as the Grand Inquisitor, he was constantly shaking for his life. On his table there was always a rhinoceros horn, with the help of which, according to the belief of that era, it was possible to detect and neutralize poison. When he moved around the country, he was accompanied by 50 horsemen and 200 infantry.

Unfortunately, Torquemada did not take his barbaric methods of fighting dissent with him to his grave.

The 16th century was the century of birth modern science. The most inquisitive minds devoted their lives to understanding facts, comprehending the laws of the universe, and questioning centuries-old scholastic dogmas. Man's everyday and moral ideas were renewed.

A critical attitude towards the so-called unshakable truths led to discoveries that radically changed the old worldview. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) stated that the Earth, along with other planets, revolves around the Sun. In the preface to the book “On Appeals celestial spheres“The scientist wrote that for 36 years he did not dare to publish this work. The work was published in 1543, a few days before the death of the author. The great astronomer encroached on one of the main postulates of church teaching, proving that the Earth is not the center of the Universe. The book was banned by the Inquisition until 1828.

If Copernicus escaped persecution only because the publication of the book coincided with his death, then the fate of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was tragic. As a young man he became a monk of the Dominican order. Bruno did not hide his convictions and displeased the holy fathers. Forced to leave the monastery, he led a wandering lifestyle. Persecuted, he fled from his native Italy to Switzerland, then lived in France and England, where he studied science. He outlined his ideas in the essay “On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds” (1584). Bruno argued that space is infinite; it is filled with self-luminous opaque bodies, many of which are inhabited. Each of these provisions contradicted fundamental principles Catholic Church.

Lectures on cosmology in Oxford University, Bruno had heated discussions with local theologians and scholastics. In the auditoriums of the Sorbonne, the French scholastics experienced the power of his arguments. He lived in Germany for 5 whole years. A number of his works were published there, causing a new explosion of rage of the Italian Inquisition, which was ready to do anything to get the most dangerous, in its opinion, heretic.

At the instigation of the church, the Venetian patrician Mocenigo invited Giordano Bruno as a home teacher of philosophy and... betrayed him to the Inquisition. The scientist was imprisoned in a dungeon. For 8 years, the Catholic tribunal unsuccessfully sought a public renunciation of Giordano Bruno from his scientific works. Finally came the verdict: to punish “as mercifully as possible, without shedding blood.” This hypocritical formulation meant burning at the stake. The fire started burning. After listening to the judges, Giordano Bruno said: “Perhaps you pronounce this sentence with more fear than I listen to it.” On February 16, 1600, in Rome on the Square of Flowers, he stoically accepted death.

The same fate almost befell another Italian scientist - astronomer, physicist, mechanic Galileo Galilei(1564 -1642). The telescope he created in 1609 made it possible to obtain objective evidence of the validity of the conclusions of Copernicus and Bruno. The very first observations of the starry sky showed the complete absurdity of the church’s statements. In the Pleiades constellation alone, Galileo counted at least 40 stars, invisible until then. How naive the works of theologians now looked, explaining the appearance of stars in the evening sky only by the need to shine for people!.. The results of new observations embittered the Inquisition more and more. Mountains on the Moon, spots on the Sun, four satellites of Jupiter, and the dissimilarity of Saturn to other planets were discovered. In response, the church accuses Galileo of blasphemy and fraud, presenting the scientist’s conclusions as a consequence of optical illusion.

The massacre of Giordano Bruno was a serious warning. When in 1616 a congregation of 11 Dominicans and Jesuits declared the teachings of Copernicus heretical, Galileo was privately advised to dissociate himself from these views. Formally, the scientist submitted to the demands of the Inquisition.

In 1623, the papal throne was occupied by Galileo's friend Cardinal Barberini, who was known as the patron of the sciences and arts. He took the name Urban VIII. Not without his support, in 1632 Galileo published “Dialogue on the two most important systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican” - a kind of encyclopedia of astronomical views. But even closeness to the Pope did not protect Galileo. In February 1633, the Dialogue was banned by the Roman Catholic court, its author was declared a “prisoner of the Inquisition” and remained so for 9 years until his death. By the way, it was only in 1992 that the Vatican acquitted Galileo Galilei.

Society had difficulty clearing itself of the infection of the Inquisition. Depending on historical, economic, national and many other reasons, European countries in different terms freed from the tribunals of the church. Already in the 16th century. under the influence of the Reformation they ceased to exist in Germany and France. In Portugal, the Inquisition operated until 1826, in Spain - until 1834. In Italy, its activities were banned only in 1870.

Formally, the Inquisition, under the name of the Congregation of the Holy Office, existed until 1965, when its services were transformed into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which continues to fight for the purity of the faith, but by other, not at all medieval, means.

GRAND INQUISITOR

In the middle of the 17th century. The German poet Friedrich von Logan, discussing the nature of sin, noted: “It is human to fall into sin, diabolical to persist in it, Christian to hate it, divine to forgive.” Based on common sense, Thomas de Torquemada (circa 1420-1498) had only the “diabolical” in him. After all, everything that he did in the name of defending religion was a huge, endless sin against the man of the Renaissance, before his desire for knowledge.

The arsenal of tortures invented by the Inquisition over several centuries of its existence is terrible: burning at the stake, torture with the wheel, torture by water, walling up in walls. Torquemada resorted to them much more often than other inquisitors.

Torquemada's fevered imagination first invented opponents who trembled at the mere mention of his name, and then throughout his life the inquisitor himself feared the inevitable revenge of his victims.

Wherever he left his monastery cell, he was accompanied by a devoted bodyguard. Constant uncertainty about own safety sometimes she forced Torquemada to leave her not so reliable refuge and take refuge in the palace. For some time he found refuge in the chambers of the most guarded building in Spain, but fear did not leave the inquisitor for a moment. Then he embarked on multi-day trips around the country.

But is it possible to hide from the omnipresent ghosts? They were waiting for him in the olive grove, and behind every orange tree, and even made their way into temples. Both day and night they watched over him, always ready to settle scores with him.

I think psychiatrists call this condition melancholic epilepsy. All-consuming anxiety causes hatred, despair, anger in the patient, and can suddenly push him to murder, suicide, theft, or arson of a home. Its victims can be immediate relatives, friends, the first person they meet. That's how Torquemada was.

Outwardly always gloomy, overly exalted, abstaining from food for long periods and zealous in repentance during sleepless nights, the Grand Inquisitor was merciless not only towards heretics, but also towards himself. His contemporaries were amazed by his impulsiveness and the unpredictability of his actions.

Once, in the midst of the struggle for the liberation of Granada from the Arabs (80s of the 15th century), a group of wealthy Jews decided to give 300 thousand ducats to Isabella and Ferdinand for this purpose. Torquemada suddenly burst into the hall where the audience was taking place. Not paying attention to the monarchs, without apologizing, without observing any norms of palace etiquette, he pulled out a crucifix from under his cassock and shouted: “Judas Iscariot betrayed his Teacher for 30 pieces of silver, and Your Majesties are going to sell Christ for 300 thousand. Here it is, take it and sell it!” With these words, Torquemada threw the crucifix on the table and quickly left the hall... The kings were shocked.

The history of the church has seen many cases of extreme fanaticism. How much sadism came, for example, from the Inquisition during the burning of Miguel Servetus (Latinized name Servetus), a Spanish physician and author of several works that questioned the theologians' reasoning about the Holy Trinity. In 1553 he was arrested by order of the High Inquisitor of Lyon. He managed to escape, but in Geneva the heretic was again captured by agents of the Inquisition and sentenced by order of John Calvin to be burned at the stake. For two hours he was roasted over low heat, and, despite the desperate requests of the unfortunate man to add more firewood for the sake of Christ, the executioners continued to prolong their own pleasure, enjoying the convulsions of the victim. However, even this barbaric act cannot be compared with the cruelty of Torquemada.

The Torquemada phenomenon is one-dimensional: cruelty, cruelty and more cruelty. The Inquisitor left behind neither treatises, nor sermons, nor any notes that would allow us to evaluate his literary abilities and theological views. There are several testimonies from contemporaries who noted Torquemada’s undoubted literary gift, which somehow manifested itself in his youth. But, apparently, he was not destined to develop, because the inquisitor’s brain, having fallen into the power of one idea, worked only in one direction. The Inquisitor was simply alien to intellectual demands.

Moreover, Torquemada became an implacable opponent of the printed word, seeing books primarily as heresy. Following people, he often sent books to the fire, surpassing all inquisitors in this regard.

Diogenes was truly right: “Villains obey their passions, like slaves to their masters.”

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Additional Information

Introduction

The term "Inquisition" comes from the Latin. inquisitio, meaning "inquiry". The term was widespread in the legal sphere even before the emergence of medieval church institutions with this name, and meant clarifying the circumstances of a case by investigation, usually through interrogation, often with the use of force. Over time, the Inquisition began to mean spiritual trials of anti-Christian heresies.

History of creation

Previously, Christianity and the Christian church suffered both from an external enemy - the Roman emperors, and from internal strife based on theological differences: different interpretations of sacred texts, on the recognition or non-recognition of certain texts as sacred, and so on.

A reflection of one of the stages of the internal struggle was, apparently, the “Jerusalem Council” mentioned in Chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as many cases when the Apostle Paul defended his own apostolic ministry, convincing Christians to be wary of false shepherds or anything contrary to what he preached He.

Similar calls are contained in the epistles of John and the Epistle to the Jews, as well as in the Revelation of John the Theologian.

Starting from the 2nd century, Christian authorities (bishops and local synods), using the above sources, denounced some theologians as heretics, and defined the doctrine of Christianity more clearly, trying to avoid errors and discrepancies. In this regard, Orthodoxy (Greek - correct point of view) began to be opposed to heresy (Greek - choice; it is implied that it is erroneous).

A special ecclesiastical court of the Catholic Church called the Inquisition was created in 1215 by Pope Innocent III.

An ecclesiastical tribunal charged with the "detection, punishment and prevention of heresies" was established in southern France by Gregory IX in 1229.

This institution reached its zenith in 1478, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, with the sanction of Pope Sixtus IV, established the Spanish Inquisition.

The Congregation of the Holy Office was established in 1542, replacing the Great Roman Inquisition, and in 1917 the functions of the abolished Index Congregation were also transferred to it.

In 1908 it was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The work of this institution was built in strict accordance with the legislation then in force in Catholic countries.

Goals and means

The main task of the Inquisition was to determine whether the accused was guilty of heresy.

Since the end of the 15th century, when ideas about the massive presence of those who entered into an agreement with evil spirits witches among the general population, witch trials begin to fall within its purview.

At the same time, the overwhelming majority of witch convictions were made by secular courts in Catholic and Protestant countries in the 16th and 17th centuries.

While the Inquisition did persecute witches, so did virtually every secular government.

By the end of the 16th century, Roman inquisitors began to express serious doubts about most accusations of witchcraft.

Also, from 1451, Pope Nicholas V transferred cases of Jewish pogroms to the competence of the Inquisition. The Inquisition had to not only punish pogromists, but also act preventively, preventing violence.

The Inquisition did not allow extrajudicial killings. In addition to ordinary interrogations, torture of the suspect was used, as in secular courts of that time. Lawyers of the Catholic Church great value gave sincere recognition. In the event that the suspect did not die during the investigation, but admitted to his crime and repented, then the case materials were transferred to the court.

Judicial procedure

The inquisitor examined the witnesses in the presence of a secretary and two priests, who were instructed to see that the testimony was correctly recorded, or at least to be present when it was given in order to listen to it being read in full.

This reading took place in the presence of witnesses, who were asked whether they recognized what was now read to them. If a crime or suspicion of heresy was proven during the preliminary investigation, then the accused was arrested and imprisoned in a church prison, if there was no Dominican monastery in the city, which usually replaced it. After the arrest, the defendant was interrogated, and a case against him was immediately started according to the rules, and his answers were compared with the testimony of the preliminary investigation.

In the early days of the Inquisition there was no prosecutor responsible for indicting suspects; this formality of legal proceedings was carried out verbally by the inquisitor after hearing the witnesses; the consciousness of the accused served as accusation and response. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy, it was in vain that he asserted that he was innocent of the others; he was not allowed to defend himself because the crime for which he was being tried had already been proven. He was only asked whether he was disposed to renounce the heresy of which he pleaded guilty. If he agreed, then he was reconciled with the Church, imposing canonical penance on him simultaneously with some other punishment. Otherwise, he was declared a stubborn heretic, and he was handed over to the secular authorities with a copy of the verdict.

The death penalty, like confiscation, was a measure that, in theory, the Inquisition did not apply. Her job was to use every effort to return the heretic to the bosom of the Church; if he persisted, or if his appeal was feigned, she had nothing more to do with him. As a non-Catholic, he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, which he rejected, and the Church was forced to declare him a heretic and deprive him of its patronage. Initially, the sentence was only a simple conviction for heresy and was accompanied by excommunication from the Church or a declaration that the guilty person was no longer considered subject to the jurisdiction of the court of the Church; sometimes it was added that he was being handed over to a secular court, that he was being released - a terrible expression that meant that the direct intervention of the Church in his fate had already ended. Over time, the sentences became more extensive; often a remark begins to appear explaining that the Church can do nothing more to atone for the sins of the guilty, and his transfer into the hands of secular power is accompanied by the following significant words: debita animadversione puniendum, that is, “let him be punished according to his deserts.”

The hypocritical appeal, in which the Inquisition implored the secular authorities to spare the life and body of the apostate, is not found in the ancient sentences and was never precisely formulated.

Inquisitor Pegna does not hesitate to admit that this appeal to mercy was an empty formality, and explains that it was resorted to only so that it would not seem that the inquisitors agreed to the shedding of blood, since this would be a violation of canonical rules. But at the same time, the Church vigilantly ensured that its resolution was not misinterpreted. She taught that there can be no talk of any leniency unless the heretic repents and testifies to his sincerity by betraying all his like-minded people. The inexorable logic of St. Thomas Aquinas clearly established that the secular power could not help but put heretics to death, and that only as a result of its boundless love the Church could turn to the heretics twice with words of conviction before handing them over to the secular power for their well-deserved punishment. The inquisitors themselves did not hide this at all and constantly taught that the heretic they condemned should be put to death; This is evident, among other things, from the fact that they refrained from pronouncing their sentence on him within the church fence, which would have been desecrated by condemnation to death, but pronounced it in the square where the last act of the auto-da-fe took place. One of their 13th-century doctors, quoted in the 14th century by Bernard Guy, argues: “The purpose of the Inquisition is the destruction of heresy; heresy cannot be destroyed without the destruction of heretics; and heretics cannot be destroyed unless the defenders and supporters of heresy are also destroyed, and this can be achieved in two ways: by converting them to the true Catholic faith, or by turning their flesh into ashes after they are handed over to the secular authorities.”

Main historical stages

Chronologically, the history of the Inquisition can be divided into three stages:

1) Pre-Dominican (persecution of heretics until the 12th century)

2) Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229)

3) Spanish Inquisition.

The Inquisition in the Middle Ages in brief

against Protestantism.

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century.

We find the germs of the Inquisition back in the first centuries of Christianity - in the duty of deacons to seek out and correct errors in the faith, in the judicial power of bishops over heretics. The episcopal court was simple and not distinguished by cruelty; the strongest punishment at that time was excommunication.

Activities of the Inquisition in different European countries

Despite the apparent ubiquity of inquisitorial tribunals in Medieval Europe, its effect was unequal in different European countries. First of all, it should be noted that the most vigorous activity of the Inquisition was observed in southern countries: Italy, France and the Iberian Peninsula. At the same time, as you move north, its activity and significance noticeably weakens. Although the popes made attempts to send brother inquisitors to the countries of Scandinavia, history has not preserved any traces of their actual activities in these lands. As we move east to the Slavic lands, the influence of the Inquisition also declines.

The reasons for such an uneven spread of the Inquisition across Europe are the subject of a separate historical study. Here we indicate only the main ones. First, the Inquisition was most active where it was most needed: in the south of France, in the Christian lands of the Pyrenees and in Italy. These lands (mainly in the south of France and the Pyrenees) were home to an extremely mixed population - from white Catholic Europeans to black Muslim Arabs. The first consequence of such a mixture of cultures and religions was the exceptional tolerance of secular authorities and fertile ground for the emergence of all kinds of heretical sects and movements. At the same time, in these lands, for the same reason, there was the most depraved, corrupt and indifferent clergy to matters of faith. In Italy there was a permanent struggle for investiture, and the cities very early received greater autonomy and became breeding grounds for free thought and enlightenment. The second reason for the wider spread of the Inquisition in the southern lands was purely material. The proceeds from fines and confiscations were divided between the spiritual and secular authorities, and a considerable share also went to the Inquisition. And the southern lands have always been rich, unlike the northern ones.

In the northern camps, the Inquisition felt less confident. On the one hand, the harsh climate was less conducive to heretical reflections, and more to work for their daily bread. After the Hohenstaufens left the political and historical arena under the blows of the popes, the autocracy of the emperor was forgotten in the lands of Germany. Many appanage rulers, in the struggle for personal influence, did not always pay much attention to the issues of preserving the purity of faith, and without their support the inquisitors could only do so much. In England, the nobility, outraged by the shameful submission of John the Landless to the will of the Roman high priest in 1215, demanded the “Charter of Liberty” and undivided autocracy in England also ended.

As for the eastern lands of Europe, these lands were only theoretically under the spiritual authority of Rome. The influence of Orthodoxy was strongly felt here, and later a real threat arose from Ottoman Empire. In addition, in Slavic lands there were many autocratic rulers, on whose rivalry, of course, Rome could play, but in the end it could not rely on any of them in defending the purity of the Catholic faith. Due to these political reasons, all the tortures of the papacy (including the crusades) to establish Catholicism in the Slavic lands and instill the institution of the Inquisition for its protection ultimately were not crowned with noticeable success.

Inquisition in Germany

By 1235, heresies were rapidly spreading in Germany, and the fanatic Conrad of Marburg was appointed papal inquisitor there. He took up the matter energetically in such a way that now simply a thoughtless statement or communication with someone suspected of heresy was enough to bring him before the papal inquisitor. The brutal persecution caused a wave of popular outrage and Conrad and his assistants were killed.

Pope Gregory IX was furious and made every effort to ensure that the murderers of his faithful servants were severely punished. However, the positions of the Inquisition were dealt a blow, and although it continued to formally exist, it did not become a real force in Germany. Pope Urban V, dissatisfied with the situation in Germany, sent the Dominicans there. Fearing excommunication, the emperor received the new inquisitors with honor and introduced censorship of the press. In the XV-XVI centuries. the influence of the Inquisition was further undermined. The time has come for such outstanding thinkers as Johann Wessel and, most importantly, Martin Luther. He continued his preaching, and after his death in 1546 his followers formed a strong opposition to the Catholic Church. The Inquisition in Germany has lost all power.

Inquisition in France

In France, thanks to the victory in the Albigensian wars, the Inquisition had a stronger position. And yet, when the papal inquisitor, Guillaume Horno, appeared there, supported by Pope Gregory IX, his cruelty angered the people so much that he and his assistants were killed, like Conrad in Germany. However, the popes were determined to establish the Inquisition in France, and a long struggle began between the popes and the French kings for supremacy in this country.

It culminated under King Philip IV the Fair, who took the throne in 1285. He sought to limit the power and influence of the church in his kingdom. The king declared his desire to reform church legislation, and as a result a message was sent to Rome declaring that the pope was deprived of the right to interfere in the secular affairs of the state. After the death of Pope Boniface VIII, Philip became the most powerful man in Europe. Moreover, the new pope, Clement V, moved his residence from Rome to Avignon, which, although it was a papal possession, was in France, under the control of the king. This period (about 60 years) was called the “Avignon Captivity of the Popes.” Thus King Philip established the power of the French kings over the popes and made the Inquisition an obedient instrument for achieving his goals. The most striking illustration of this is the famous Templar case, when the “pocket pope” of the French king confirmed all the decisions of the Inquisitorial Tribunal that he needed to destroy the Templar Order and appropriate all the order’s wealth by the French crown.

In 1334, Philip VI confirmed the privileges of the Inquisition, provided that it carried out the will of the French crown. The brutal persecution of heretics and those suspected of heresy continued. Under Francis I, there was a bloody massacre of the Waldensians, but there had also been executions of heretics before. In 1534-1535 In Paris, 24 people were burned, and many others faced a worse fate. Francis I himself, for all that, was not a moralist. His cruelties were dictated by political considerations; in other cases, the persecution of dissidents was not so frequent. His persecution of the Waldensians received especially unpleasant notoriety 1 .

All these persecutions and murders in France are disgusting and criminal, but they were not committed by the Inquisition.

Inquisition in the Middle Ages

The “Fiery Chamber” (a special court under Henry II) was established by the state. Since the time of Philip the Fair's struggle with the papacy, the Holy Chamber of the Inquisition no longer had a strong position in France.

Inquisition in Italy

Venice refused to establish an Inquisition, and fugitives from other states began to flock there. Soon the pope demanded to end this, and the authorities of Venice considered it better not to enter into conflict. True, there the Inquisition was subject to city laws, and property confiscated from heretics went to the city treasury, and this weakened the zeal of the inquisitors. Charles of Anjou, having captured Naples, created the Inquisition there, but made it clear that there it would be under the control of the state, which also limited the influence of the papacy.

However, in Italy the Inquisition had stronger roots and lasted longer than in France. Even in 1448, a crusade against heretics was organized. But he was not successful, and the Waldensians continued to flourish in the mountainous regions. The Inquisition in Italy was, however, weakened due to opposition from the population, due to escapes from areas it controlled, and also due to the position of secular rulers, such as in Naples or Venice.

Inquisition in the Pyrenees

During the Reconquista, several Christian kingdoms were formed on the Iberian Peninsula. But the Inquisition acted and developed differently in each of them.

The Kingdoms of Castile and León, which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula, experienced little of the brunt of the medieval Inquisition. These states enjoyed greater independence from Rome than other European countries at that time. The Codes of Alphonse the Wise from 1255 and 1265 take into account the Inquisition and regulate the relations between the Church and secular authorities with the help of secular law. Heresy was within the jurisdiction of spiritual courts, but Alfons believed that concern for the purity of faith was the responsibility of the state, and the Church’s job was only to determine the guilt of the accused. Canon law did not apply in Castile and the provincial of the Dominican Order could not appoint an inquisitor here.

In Portugal before 1418 there is also no information about any significant activities of the Inquisition. When an independent Dominican province was formed in Portugal in 1418, all provincials, according to the bull of Boniface XI, became inquisitor generals. The series of these inquisitors continued until 1531, when a new state inquisition was founded.

The Inquisition was most active in Aragon, where by the middle of the 13th century the Waldenses were the most active heretics. In 1226, James II banned heretics from entering the state. In 1228, the king's confessor Raymond de Penaforte convinced him to ask Pope Gregory IX to send inquisitors to the country to cleanse it of heresy. But there was no talk of the papal Inquisition here yet. Dominican inquisitors appeared in Aragon at the insistence of Gregory IX in 1237: the Viscount of Castelbo, a lien of the Bishop of Urgell, gave the Inquisition complete freedom of action in his lands. In 1238, the Inquisition in Aragon was officially founded. Mendicant friars were ordered to vigorously investigate heresy, applying papal statutes and seeking assistance from secular authorities when necessary.

In 1242, the Council of Tarragona published a code defining the attitude of the Church towards heretics, which for a long time was used not only in Spain, but also in France. By 1262, Urban VI finally transferred the Inquisition in Aragon to the jurisdiction of the provincial of the Dominican Order. However, the Aragonese Inquisition managed to defend its independence. In 1351, the provincial of Aragon received from Clement VI the right to appoint and dismiss inquisitors.

The final stage of the formation of the Inquisition in the Pyrenees is associated with the unification of lands under the rule of Ferdinand the Catholic and his wife Isabella. With the beginning of their reign in the mid-15th century, not the papal, but the Spanish Inquisition began to operate here, which served exclusively the religious and political interests of the Spanish crown. Under Isabella and Ferdinand, order in the country was restored. They managed to put an end to anarchy. They say that Isabella, as a woman of great piety, made a vow to her confessor Torquemada that if she came to power, she would devote herself to the eradication of heresies in the country. She was soon reminded of this vow. Catholic rulers believed that it was impossible to unite the country unless all subjects adhered to the same faith. They wanted to achieve this peacefully, and if that didn’t work out, then through violence.

INQUISITION

lat. inquisitio - search) In the Catholic Church in the XIII-XIX centuries. judicial-police institution for the fight against heresies. The proceedings were conducted in secret, with the use of torture. Heretics were usually sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Source: Dictionary of terms on the history of state and law of foreign countries

INQUISITION

from lat. inquisitio - search) - in the Roman Catholic Church in the XIII-XIX centuries. special courts of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, independent of bodies and institutions of secular power. They mainly fought against dissent (heresies). An inquisition process developed, and torture was widely used as the most important source of obtaining evidence. Convicts were often sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Source: Big Legal Dictionary

INQUISITION

lat. inquisitio investigation, search), a judicial and police institution of the Catholic Church, created in the 13th century. to combat heresies. It took organizational form during the reign of Pope Gregory IX, who in 1232 entrusted the persecution of heresy to the monastic order of the Dominicans. From the 13th century I.'s savage activities became widespread in a number of Western European countries. The proceedings were conducted by special inquisitorial tribunals secretly and completely arbitrarily. Members of the inquisitorial tribunals, who had personal immunity and immunity from the jurisdiction of local secular and ecclesiastical authorities, received unlimited powers, punishing not only “heretical” offenses, but also “heretical” thoughts and sentiments, patronage of heretics and communication with them, etc. The main means of obtaining a “confession” of heresy was cruel and sophisticated torture. The resulting “confession” - the “queen of evidence” - was enough to bring a guilty verdict. The only way to avoid the death penalty for the accused was to admit all the charges against him and repent: the repentant person was usually sentenced in this case to life imprisonment and confiscation of property. Those who refused to confess to heresy or renounce it after pronouncing the sentence were handed over to the secular authorities for public burning, which was preferred to other types of execution due to the hypocritical statement of the church about its reluctance to shed blood. In the event of a suspect escaping, the image of the fugitive was burned; in the case of a posthumous process, the remains of the deceased were burned, and the property of the heirs was confiscated. Confiscation of property, which was an inevitable consequence of the imprisonment or execution of the defendant, was one of the incentives for I.’s intensified activity, since it gave enormous funds into the hands of the papacy, I. herself, and secular power, which claimed its share of the power. I. was especially rampant in Spain, where it was destroyed only in 1834, while in other Catholic countries it was eliminated bourgeois revolutions back in the 18th century.

The existence of witches different eras was confirmed by many seemingly indisputable evidence. Most people accused young and calm girls no heavier than 50 kilograms of witchcraft. They blamed almost all the troubles, sudden changes in weather, deaths, bad harvests, and so on. It was believed that the existence of such powerful creatures would call into question the rule of the church and man, so they decided to destroy such women for the sake of the common good.

When did the Inquisition appear?

There is an opinion that such a phenomenon as witchcraft and witches is a purely medieval concept. But many sources, including ancient finds with writing, indicate that before the birth of Christ there were “nice” ladies who demanded tribute from people, otherwise troubles would befall them. A witch is one of the most ancient designations for an evil dish that appears in the form of an elderly woman. Over time, values changed, and with them the images of real evil. The peak of popularity falls on the period of the 5th–15th centuries. It was during this period that the great generation of witches occurred. The history of the Inquisition begins from these times.

The word "Inquisition" from Latin means search, investigation. Before the advent of the medieval cult of the church, until the 5th century AD, the Inquisition called certain investigations and searches for truth in the dubious affairs of people. Sometimes, in order to beat out the real truth, they resorted to cruel torture. Inquisitors were people who tried to understand the violations of society.

A little later, when God and the church turned the world into a large area for prayer, similar measures were applied, most often to non-believers. And over time, to everything negative that existed in the world, according to the church. In modern times, this word has become synonymous with death to witches and pagans. Many historians have theorized how many people were killed due to the activities of such a movement.

The most prominent representatives propagated the power of the church throughout Europe, were:

England.
Holy Roman Empire.
France.
Spain.

Why did the Inquisition become so powerful?

Due to the fact that incessant wars occurred during the Middle Ages, historians decided to call this period Dark Ages. What makes this period of history special:

The appearance of the knights.
The Church became the head of power.
Creation of the Cult of God.
History of the Inquisition.

Along with the church, gradual power was formed behind the Inquisition. God became the main source of strength, desires and love. An incredible cult declared man to be nothing compared to God. All values Ancient world were destroyed, and there was a need to create new ones. Belief in God instantly became the leader throughout Europe.

The cult of God was perceived as an axiom. Nobody discussed it, it was a fact, and everyone had to accept it. Due to the fact that in the Middle Ages they began to massively promote faith in the One Supreme One, the number of people who abandoned this faith in favor of their past views increased. Exactly During this period the Inquisition began to actively operate.

Almost all people who resisted were forcibly converted into new faith. Among them were people who sacredly and firmly believed in their own gods, heretics or pagans. If it was not possible to convert a person into new beliefs, then this led to bad consequences. Because of the incredible support of the church, the royal power of most European states, the Inquisition gained incredible power.

People who called themselves Inquisitors had every right accuse any person of not believing. And he succumbed to the trial. The words of the Inquisitors were not condemned, and almost all trials ended in tears for the victims. Most often, the punishment was confiscation of property, physical violence, and ridicule in public. Then the person was given another chance. He was released. If he fell for those same delays a second time, then he had to use radical measures.

It is generally accepted that when you hear the word Inquisition, associations immediately appear in your head about the fires of the Inquisition, Joan of Arc and mortal torture. However, all this has long been refuted by historians, even verified information on Wikipedia. But let's take things in order.

In fact, in most cases the Inquisition's struggles against heretics and pagans are omitted a little. The former forcibly brought the latter into their faith. If they refused, then the Inquisition sentences were used: painful torture and confiscation of property. This was necessary in order to show the steadfastness of a believer who is destined for a place in Paradise, even after committing a crime. In 95% of cases, people surrendered, and in exchange for their property, and sometimes these were children, they believed in a new religion. However, those same 5% who refused to betray their own gods were subjected to severe torture. It is difficult to describe them, as this is not an easy job.

One of the most striking examples of the sentence of the Inquisition is torture with incredible painful sensations on the part of the heretic. The man was tied to a chair so that he could not move his arms and legs. Then small tongs were gradually heated until red. Then they tore off one nail at a time until the person surrendered and recognized the power of God. It is worth admitting that this was not the worst torture. History has seen worse cases. However, lethal torture was resorted to extremely rarely. The sentence was often limited to painful torment.

Joan of Arc and the Sacrifice is considered the most famous myth about the terrible Inquisition. After the girl was able to save France from the irreparable pressure of England after the Hundred Years' War, she was captured by the Burgundian tribes. They handed her over to the authorities of the English kingdom. Then she was condemned as a simple heretic and then burned at the stake. But is this true?

More and more historians believe that this is nothing more than a myth. The heroine of France was not burned at the stake like a heretic. She, like all other people, was strangled by force by the new religion. And all the arguments that she was burned, at the moment, seem to be nothing more than a fairy tale.

There are not only scientific works of the era pointing to the contrary, but also a lot of supposed material evidence. For example, the skeleton of an unidentified person was excavated. Using the latest technology, it was possible to confirm that this is the skeleton of a girl, 18–19 years old. And from the fossils, the age of the bones was easily determined. Almost everything fits the world-famous myth of the burned Joan of Arc. Therefore, the sentence of burning at the stake can be safely considered unrealistic.

There are a large number of articles on the Internet that the number of victims of the Inquisition is comparable to the total number of deaths in World War II. This is all nothing more than hyperbolic chatter. Over the 400 years of active activity of the Inquisition, it is assumed that the approximate number of victims does not exceed 40 thousand.

Many modern technologies have managed to achieve excellent results in maximizing the truthfulness of history. That is, most of the assumptions that were considered true and perceived as fact now have no historical value.

Salem Witches Phenomenon

The story of the Salem Witches is no less controversial. At the end of the 17th century, in the small town of Salem in England, sudden outbreaks of witchcraft and weather control began. All this provoked the church to seek an explanation through the punishment of imaginary women capable of witchcraft.

Priest Samuel Parisse noticed strange things happening to girls playing with a crystal ball. All night they imagined coffins and barking dogs. This did not stop until the morning. The priest decided that this was the work of an evil witch, so he began to look for her. It seemed like similar things were happening almost everywhere. But the point is that because of the imaginary game of three girls, more than 160 people were put on trial by the Inquisition. And the worst thing about this is that not a single defendant was acquitted; everyone was sentenced. About 150 people ended up behind bars for the rest of their lives, and more than ten had to wear a noose around their necks.

A little later, the process was stopped, as Governor Phipps, from the words of the theologian Increase Mather, criticized the incompetence of the created court. Until now, scientists are looking at the strange and mysterious events of those 10 months when so many people suffered because of the strange behavior of three girls. Who was actually guilty in this story?

AND similar stories among the thickness of centuries, thousands can be counted. The Inquisition publicly punished heretics to demonstrate its superiority. It was necessary for the sake of establishing a totalitarian regime, and in further creation cult of God.

It is generally accepted that the Inquisition is a thing of the past, and not the slightest trace remains of it. However, all this can also be considered a myth. IN modern world there is a movement that professes the same principles and views as the Inquisition, but all this has acquired a different name - Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The history of mankind contains many sad events, the cruelty of which still amazes contemporaries. Unfortunately, many of them are related to religious views. The most striking example is the Holy Inquisition, which operated during the Middle Ages. What is the Inquisition and why these pages are considered dark in the history of the church - the answers to these questions can be found in this article.

The history of the Christian church is full of references to various councils - meetings of the clergy at which they affirmed the dogmas of the faith and criticized heretics.

It was the fight against heresy and near-religious movements, which were considered false by the clergy, that led the leadership of the church to the understanding that it, as an organization, needed a body of faith that would deal with the issues of defining heresy and punishing its spread.

This is how the Holy Inquisition appeared - the body of the Roman Catholic Church, which was engaged in identifying and punishing religious crimes against faith. The date of its foundation is considered to be 1215, when Pope Innocent III created a special court called the “Inquisition”.

Later, the Inquisition appeared in France (1229), Spain (1478) and other European countries.

The founders and active supporters of the movement are:

Pope Innocent III;
Gregory IX;
Spanish King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella;
Pope Sixtus IV;
Thomas Torquemada.

Thanks to the sanction of the popes and the assistance of the royals, the Congregation flourished in 1483, and at the same time its first code was published. In 1542, the body of faith changed somewhat and became known as the Congregation of the Holy Office, while all local authorities and world authorities were subordinate to it. The essence of the Inquisition soon changed - it became not just a governing body, but the highest theological authority, and without its conclusions and permissions, Catholics could not resolve issues of faith or approval of theological canons.

It is important to know! The history of the Inquisition is notable for the fact that during the entire period of its existence, only monks from the Dominican order were appointed to the position of senior leaders.

The work of the Inquisition particularly flourished in the 1400s, when the body of faith had unlimited power and began to persecute with all cruelty people whose faith, according to investigators, was not pure or sinless. Censorship of books began, Jews were persecuted, women who were suspected of witchcraft were burned, churches ceased to be a place for sinners, but became a punishing finger from which it was impossible to hide.

The history of the Inquisition is divided into three stages:

XIII-XV centuries – fight against widespread popular sectarian movements;
Renaissance - struggle with cultural and scientific figures;
the Age of Enlightenment - confrontation with supporters of the French Revolution.

The Inquisition was abolished as an investigative body at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, first in Italy, and then everywhere. With the rise of Protestantism, Catholics lost their influence and could not act in a similar way. By 1908, the Inquisition was transformed and renamed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and operated strictly within the framework of the law. Today it is a body within the church that is governed by a cardinal and deals with issues of faith and morals. Thus, we have briefly examined the history of the Holy Inquisition.

Inquisition

Causes

In the 13th century, the Roman Catholic Church was in serious crisis. Various heretical teachings spread, people began to leave the church, and a split emerged in the body itself.

The previous crusades not only did not bring the papacy the expected success and glory, but also caused a number of condemnations and a decline in their authority among the people.

The outflow of people and their movement to other denominations had a negative impact on the welfare of the papacy and caused alarm.

Pope Innocent III took charge of the crumbling body of faith and realized that the church needed internal reorganization and the peaceful expansion of its influence. He convened the IV Lateran Council, which adopted 70 canons, including canons on heretics. This event is considered the beginning of the creation and operation of the Holy Inquisition.

Thus, the reasons for its creation were:

Spread of heretical teachings.
The decline of the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.
The origin and spread of Protestantism.
Outflow of people and drop in church income.

It is worth noting that Pope Innocent III himself actively advocated the peaceful spread of Christian faith and conflict resolution.

Goals

The main task of the Inquisition is considered to be the fight against all kinds of heresies that arose everywhere. However, instead of teaching the people, the organ and church leaders tried to forcibly instill in people faith in God and force them to turn to the true path.

To do this, the monks used violence, tortured people and could carry out executions. Most often, heretics were killed by burning.

In addition, the monks had to fight witchcraft. What it is and how to deal with it was explained in the famous document “The Hammer of the Witches” by Heinrich Kramer, a German Dominican monk.

Today, historians claim that most of the women and men who were tortured and burned as witches and sorcerers at that time were innocent. But the Congregation considered the fight against witchcraft one of its main directions.

With the spread of Protestantism, Catholics began to persecute the followers of this faith, because they considered them heretics.

Thus, a number of main goals can be identified:

Strengthening the authority of the Catholic Church and its widespread expansion.
Destruction of heretical movements and their distributors.
Forced repentance of people who were noticed in witchcraft, or their execution;
Persecution of Protestants.
Destruction of heretical books and their distributors;
Conversion of Jews to Catholicism.

Perhaps the papacy initially pursued positive goals, but the unlimited power of the Congregation, which it was granted everywhere, negatively influenced the leaders of the body and lit the so-called “bonfires of the Inquisition” - massive and regular burnings and executions of people.

Useful video: what is the Inquisition?

Judicial procedures

The Congregation issued a document called the "Act of Faith", which outlined the need to hand over for trial anyone suspected of heresy. Most of the accused were brought to trial only because of someone's denunciation or rumor.

Anyone who refused to testify against the accused or inform on others could be excommunicated.

Heresy was understood as all Jewish traditions, witchcraft, witchcraft and others that differed from the official dogmas of the church, position and movement. In Spain, Jews were also especially harshly persecuted if they refused to abandon their Jewish traditions and convert to the Catholic faith.

When a person was reported on, he was quickly captured and sent to prison, where he awaited trial. Before him, the arrested person had to not only answer all the questions of the investigators, but also name people who could speak in his defense at the trial, which was usually headed by the chief monk in the region, who accepted final decision about the fate of the accused. For heretics, conversion was usually practiced by force with confiscation of property or voluntarily.

If the judge was not satisfied with the answers of the arrested person and his witnesses, then he made a decision on torture. The executioner had many tools in his arsenal with which he extracted confessions of committing actions or uttering words that were regarded as heretical. The goal of the investigators was a sincere confession, and for the sake of this the arrested person was stretched on the rack, bones were broken, nails were pulled out, or they were tortured with fire and water.

The Inquisition court banned Copernicus's work "On the Revolution of the Celestial Spheres"

It should be mentioned that cruel torture was not always resorted to, but its presence in the judicial system still indicates its inconsistency. Usually, the arrested person sooner or later confessed to heresy, only to end the torment, and he was returned to trial, where the judge decided on execution. Usually it was carried out by burning or hanging, but sometimes for particularly serious criminals they could be quartered or other terrible death.

It is important to know! The Holy Inquisition also operated on the territory of the Russian Empire, although not for long, from 1711 to 1721.

The Church tried to justify its actions and multiple manifestations of cruelty with quotations from the Holy Scriptures and the works of famous theological authorities such as Thomas Aquinas, which spoke of the right and need to punish people not only with spiritual, but also with corporal punishment if they resist the Church and engage in immoral behavior. Lifestyle.

Victims of the Inquisition

Among them, most of them were women and children, who were most often suspected of witchcraft. Children under 14 were usually punished with lashes to get rid of any dirt, but women were usually executed or sent away from the country.

One of the youngest victims is a 9-year-old girl from Rintel, accused in 1689 of having intercourse with the devil. She was flogged and at the same time forced to watch her grandmother being burned.

Another brutal incident occurred in 1595, when farmer Volker Dirksen and his daughter were accused of killing livestock in the form of wolfdogs. Under severe torture, they confessed, and they were sentenced to be burned, and their three sons (from 8 to 14 years old) were pardoned and only punished with flogging.

But after this the judge regretted not having burned the whole family, and the king's lawyer, George Mackenzie, declared, "It all depends on our whim," which gives an idea of the judicial procedures of the church at that time.

Despite numerous articles on the Internet that describe the horrors and list millions of victims, the total number of victims is still not that large - there are about 40,000 of them over the 400 years of active activity of the Inquisition. This is confirmed by numerous historical documents of that time.

Useful video: the fight of the church against heresy

Conclusion

The fires of the Inquisition burned all over the world, especially affecting Europe, where the Catholic Church was especially strong. Today, representatives of the clergy regret those pages of church history, but their presence and memory of this prevents the return of those dark times.

Sections

Symbol of the Inquisition. "The Holy Inquisition

Origin of the term

Goals and means

Main historical stages

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century

Dominican period

Spanish Inquisition

Inquisition in the Russian Empire

Other countries

Main historical dates

Victims of the Inquisition. Criticism

see also

Literature

GRAND INQUISITOR

Additional Information

Introduction

History of creation

Goals and means

Judicial procedure

Main historical stages

The Inquisition in the Middle Ages in brief

Activities of the Inquisition in different European countries

Inquisition in the Middle Ages

INQUISITION

INQUISITION

INQUISITION

When did the Inquisition appear?

Why did the Inquisition become so powerful?

Salem Witches Phenomenon

Causes

Goals

Useful video: what is the Inquisition?

Judicial procedures

Victims of the Inquisition

Useful video: the fight of the church against heresy

Conclusion