We explain what the Inquisition was, its origin and how it acted. Also, their goals and their link to the witch burnings.
What was the Inquisition?
It was known as the Holy Inquisition (or simply Inquisition), a set of institutions belonging to the Christian Church between the 12th and 19th centuries. The objective of the Inquisition was to maintain socio-religious order in Catholic territories.
The Inquisition acted against accusations of heresy, witchcraft, sorcery and other practices that were considered dangerous for the well-being of Christian societies. It served as a court of justice and sent representatives (called “inquisitors”) who carried out investigations and trials.
The trials of the Inquisition became famous for the cruelty of some inquisitors, who applied torture as a method to obtain confessions during interrogations. Such is the case of the Spanish inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada, a Dominican friar who dedicated himself to the persecution of Jews and Muslims who converted to Christianity during the 15th century.
The Inquisition is also known for its work against scholars, alchemists, and thinkers whose ideas about nature and the world challenged the precepts of the Church. For example, Galileo Galilei was accused of heresy for arguing that the Earth was not the center of the universe.
It is common for the Inquisition to be associated with a phenomenon called the “witch hunt.” Between the 15th and 17th centuries, thousands of women were sentenced to death at the stake under the accusation of witchcraft. However, this persecution was not organized by the Inquisition, but was an action carried out by secular authorities and popular initiatives.
Continue with: Protestant Reformation
The goal of the Inquisition
The main objective of the Inquisition was to maintain an orthodox order in the different Christian communities, that is, to ensure that social behavior remained within the values and parameters of the beliefs promoted by the Church.
In this framework, the different institutions that made up the Inquisition throughout the Middle Ages and the Modern Age focused on eradicate different types of practices that threatened the Christian status quo.
During the Middle Ages, the main struggle of European inquisitors was to eradicate “internal heresies.” They sought to avoid different interpretations of Christian dogma and maintain a unity of orthodox beliefs established by the Church of Rome.
The most important heresies repressed by the medieval Inquisition were that of the cathars (Christians rejected some of the sacraments and the authority of the clerics) and that of the waldenses (Christians who were against the material wealth of the Church).
On the other hand, at the beginning of the Modern Age The Spanish Inquisition was founded under the protection of the Catholic Monarchs. The work of this institution focused on the persecution of Muslims and Jews who had converted to Christianity but were accused of maintaining their original religious practices. In colonial America, he sought to eradicate pagan rituals and ceremonies from American societies that had been evangelized.
Furthermore, during the 17th century the Inquisition acted against the expansion of rational thought that threatened the elementary principles of Christian dogma. Under the accusation of heresy and witchcraft, scholars of nature and science were investigated.
How did the Inquisition act?
The Inquisition acted through representatives called inquisitors. The inquisitors traveled to the accused's town, conducted interrogations and looked for evidence for and against the accused.
Defendants who were found guilty were sentenced to different penalties of humiliation with the aim of disciplining them. Among the most common punishments were pilgrimage to sacred places, the use of insignia on clothing, ritual flagellation, payment of financial fines, confiscation of property and imprisonment.
The inquisitor had the duty to explain orthodox doctrine and correct the attitude of the accused. When the accused refused to show repentance, the Church handed him over to secular authorities, who applied their own laws. In these cases, the penalties could involve mutilations and different forms of death.
Origin of the Inquisition
The first formal appearance of the Inquisition took place in the 12th century, in the south of France. In the Languedoc region, a group known as “the Cathars” was spreading. The Cathars were dualistic Christians: they believed that there were two gods, one good and one bad. Furthermore, they denied the validity of some of the main Christian sacraments and the authority of priests.
To put an end to the Cathar heresy and reestablish Christian orthodoxy in southern France, Pope Lucius III issued the bull Ad abolindam in 1184 they gave local bishops the power to judge and condemn in his name. This organization was called the “Episcopal Inquisition.”
However, this first inquisitorial organization failed because it could not control the growth of the Cathar heresy or sentence its main exponents.
Decades later, Pope Gregory IX created the “Pontifical Inquisition” with the purpose of ordering the processes in which heretical practices were judged. In some places (such as the south of France), those charged with controlling orthodoxy were corrupt or ineffective, and in others (such as Germany) there was a tendency to punish the accused without even a trial.
To have greater control over these types of processes, the new Inquisition was organized as a court and responded to the direct authority of the pope. The inquisitors were sent from Rome to carry out the investigation and a local public trial in which they had to show evidence for and against the accused.
The Spanish Inquisition
In 1478, the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabel of Castile) founded the Spanish Inquisition with the protection and authority of Pope Sixtus IV. In this institution, the pope appointed an inquisitor general who observed the inquisitorial processes but the rest of the structure and organization remained under the influence of the Spanish monarchy.
The Catholic Monarchs had achieved the “Reconquista” of Spanish territory and to consolidate their power they especially persecuted non-Catholic groups. In 1492, the kings definitively expelled all Jews. In this context, many converted to Christianity.
The main objective of the Spanish Inquisition was the persecution of Jews and Muslims who had converted to Christianity (called “conversos” and “moriscos” respectively) but kept their original faith and ceremonies secret.
The first and best-known Spanish inquisitor was called Tomás de Torquemada. He was famous for his cruelty and for his use of torture to obtain confessions. Although the Spanish Inquisition had to act with the same procedures as the Inquisition of Rome (for example, it had to establish evidence for and against the accused), in the Torquemada trials almost all the accused were found guilty and sentenced to death by bonfire.
The abolition of the Spanish Inquisition was decreed in 1812, in the Cortes of Cádiz, but it did not take place in Spain until 1834. Already in the Latin American nations, mostly independent or in the process of becoming so, it had lost presence and power until it was formally abolished in 1820.
Continue with: Dogma
The inquisition and witch hunt
Between the 15th and 17th centuries, there was a systematic persecution called the “witch hunt.” It involved the execution of thousands of people, especially women under accusation of witchcraft, diabolical practices and satanic pacts. The persecution was carried out in the name of God and in defense of the Christian moral order.
The Inquisition is usually associated with the main instigator of the witch hunt, due to the publication of the Malleus maleficarum (“The Hammer of Witches”) in Germany in 1487, an exhaustive manual for the identification, persecution and hunt for witches.
However, the participation of the Inquisition within the general phenomenon of persecution was minor. In most cases, the courts that carried out the trials were secular.
References
- Ackermann, M.E., Schroeder, M.J., et al. (2008). “Inquisition”. Encyclopedia of World History. Vol II. Facts on File.
- Escudero, JA (2005). Studies on the Inquisition. Marcial Pons History.
- Hamilton, Bernard and Peters, Edward (2023). «Inquisition». Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/
