Prologue
Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with church dogma must be burned without pity.
Pope Innocent 111
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
Pope Leo X
Fear is the basis of the whole-fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand-in-hand.
Bertrand Russell
Holy Inquisitions were ecclesiastical courts and processes instigated by the Roman Catholic Church for the purpose of discovering and punishing all forms of heresy. It exercised immense power and wielded brutality throughout medieval and modern times. Its aim was to repress all so called nonconformists, taking not only their human rights, but their estates and assets, which became the property of the Catholic treasury. These acts were inflicted upon anyone who not only spoke against the Catholic Church, but even those that appeared to think differently to its ideals. This became a legal framework for close to six centuries throughout most of Europe, and at its height extended into Africa, Asia and the Americas.
The word ‘inquisition’ transformed from its original connotation of the verb ‘to inquire’ and became synonymous with other, more sinister terms such as murder, robbery, torture, hypocrisy and cupidity. No other single word conjured up such fear and abhorrence yet it was primarily affiliated to the Holy Church of Rome!
Once an inquisitor arrived in an alleged heresy-ridden district, there would be a 60 day period of grace on most occasions which allowed all who wished to confess by recanting their beliefs. After this time, the accused inhabitants would be summoned to appear before the inquisitor. Imagine the fear felt by those poor souls, called before the so called representative of God.
The earliest version of these atrocities was the ‘Papal Inquisition’ which began in the early part of the 13th century and was initially opened by Pope Innocent 111. The Council of Toulouse in 1229 adopted a number of cannons intended to give permanent character to the Inquisition as an institution, making this the starting point of what would become a protracted reign of terror. Pope Gregory 1X in August 1231, placed the Inquisition under the control of the Dominicans, an order especially created for the defence of the church against heresy. This lasted until the infamous ‘Spanish Inquisition’ took control in 1478 which in turn endured until 1834. This Spanish judicature remained under the approval of the Vatican, with Pope Sixtus 1V at the helm at its conception. The first Spanish inquisitors were appointed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who tasked them to unearth the wealthiest heretics before any other in order that their respective fortunes be shared between the Catholic throne and their own. Even if the unlucky victim were to be spared and released, enough of his or her property was taken to cover the inquisitor’s costs!
There was similarly a ‘Roman Inquisition’ which operated from 1542-1700. During this time, the Catholic Church underwent a reformation, in part to defy the Protestant Reformation opened by the German priest Martin Luther who dared to challenge the accepted Catholic dogma of the time, in particular the idea that God’s forgiveness could be purchased with money. Other conflicts of the period included the French civil war and the Dutch revolt which occurred as a direct result of the Catholic Church’s attempts to rid themselves of all Protestants.
As early as 1244 at the Council of Harbonne, it was decreed that if a man was to be found guilty of heresy, his wife would be also, and vice versa. Likewise, if a child were sentenced, the parents would suffer the same fate. A girl as young as nine and a half and a boy, ten and a half were considered old enough to be liable to inquiry. The inquisitors followed various manuals which used incriminating and leading questions which would often trick the uneducated victim into confessing to their supposed deviation.
In 1252, Pope Innocent 1V officially authorised the creation of the horrifying torture chambers. Acquittal of those imprisoned was almost impossible, and with a license from the Pope himself, the inquisitors were free to inflict the most inhuman acts of horror and cruelty. Dressed in black robes, cowls covering their heads, they could extract confessions from just about anyone. They invented every conceivable device to cause as much pain and suffering as possible, slowly dismembering and dislocating the body, all victims legally murdered by the Roman Catholic Church. In all, the total period of this torture and murder spanned 600 years. It cannot be calculated how many people died as a result of its various forms, but conservative estimates are around one million. However, this figure does not take into account the relatives of the accused that were also put to death and it is impossible to know how many perished as a result of the conflicts throughout Europe between Catholic and Protestant.
Conversely, it is easy to speculate that those at the pinnacle of the Catholic faith throughout the centuries must surely believe that their New Testament gospel stories are flawed and as a result, have taken many a drastic step over the years to ensure that the Christian populace does not deviate from the Catholic way of thinking.
In this book, I will put forward one hypothesis as to why that may be.
