Inquisitions

The Inquisition

As a means of reinforcing belief and retaining religious supremecy

"...heresy inquisitions involved the pursuit, arrest, interrogation, possible torture, and punishment (most notoriously, with the death penalty) of those who persistently, after attempts at correction, refused to "believe as the Roman church teaches and preaches." And many may concur that this effort constituted a "scandal," a "centuries-old blemish" on that church. Inquisition stands as a bold offense not only to modern thinking on toleration, diversity, and individualism but also, to some, to a Christian faith foundationally and inherently irenic, forgiving, and uncoercive"

- Ames, Christine Cadwell. "Does Inquisition Belong to Religious History." The American Historical Review, vol. 110, no. 1, 2005.

The Result of an Authoritarian Structure

Three factors compounded to create the Inquisition, a dark era in the Catholic Church’s history (the narrative of which has been systematically rewritten to separate this event from the faith that spawned it) that would seem quite at odds with its other teachings. One is inherent to most religions, a type of “us and them” mentality caused when a believer thinks themselves irrevocably right, and all non-believers irrevocably wrong. The latter two however, were largely unique to Catholicism. It had a highly hierarchical and evidently authoritarian structure, and it wielded enormous power over both the individual and European kingdoms as a whole.

14th-century miniature from William of Tyre's Histoire d'Outremer. National Library of France, Department of Manuscripts.

Berruguete, Pedro, Saint Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fe. 1493 - 1499. Museo Nacional del Prado.  

The Inquisition as it Relates to Communication

The Inquisition was largely a means of retaining power and religious supremacy. Such oppression of dissent served as a method of communicating and reinforcing the Catholic Church's ideology and teachings. Toby Green goes as far as comparing the system of the Inquisition with that of the totalitarian governments that would later ravage Europe, saying “A secret police and a thought police, the Inquisition produced a permanent state of fear and invented an atmosphere of paranoia and institutional persecutions that created the precedent for totalitarianism” (Green, 2009).

Pre-Inquisition Enviornment

Before the second millennium, the Catholic Church rarely, if ever, dealt with heresy and opposition on a massive scale. However, going into the High Middle Ages, various movements antithetical to the Catholic Church started springing up, some in response to the increasing moral corruption of the clergy. Different sects of Christianity gained popularity, most notably in this time period Catharism. Because these ideologies were spread and taught on a much larger scale, the Church began dedicating more and more resources to crushing them, formalizing the process and powers of the institutions within the Inquisition.

Colombe, Jean. Concile de Clermont en 1095. 1474. Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Example of a typical papal bull (Pope Urban VIII. Papal bull of Pope Urban VIII. 1637. University of Wales.)

Important Papal Bulls

Numerous papal bulls were issued by various popes during this time period. Most pertinent to this discussion was a papal bull titled "Ad abolendam" issued by Pope Lucius III in 1184, which detailed what measures were to be taken to combat the growing heresy (specifically Catharism) and dissent against the Catholic Church, and paved the way for what eventually became the Inquisition. As well as one named "Ad extirpanda" issued by Pope Innocent IV in 1252, which allowed Inquisitors the "limited" use of torture as a tool for getting confessions out of suspected heretics.

The Medieval Inquisition

Konrad von Marburg, a medieval inquistor known for being particularly unreasonable and unjust. Image citation: History.com Editors. (2017, November 17). Inquisition. Retrieved February 10, 2021, from https://www.history.com/topics/religion/inquisition.

The term Medieval Inquisition more accurately describes a series of several very similar inquisitions. In the beginning, the Church simply defined groups and ideologies that were to be considered heretical, as well as the methods bishops were required to root out this heresy, and actions to take once they found those they believed to be heretics. However, gradually the system of inquisition, and the position of papal inquisitor, became increasingly well-defined and established. Eventually resulting in papal inquisitors being allowed to use torture to elicit confessions for supposed heretics, setting a disturbing precedent of violence and torture for the inquisitions to come.

The Spainish Inquisition

Depiction of the Seal for the Tribunal in Spain (Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons) 

What differentiated the Spanish (as well the later Portuguese) Inquisitions from the other Catholic Inquisitions was the fact that it was established by the monarchy in 1478, rather than the papacy. Thus, it is typically considered more a political institution operating under the authority of the Christian royalty, rather than an ecclesiastical one, even though it was staffed by members of the clergy. The Spanish Inquisition is seen as being the deadliest Catholic Inquisition, as well as the most blatantly corrupt.

The Roman Inquisition

Perhaps the most famous trial during the Roman Inquisition, that of Galileo Galilei in 1633. Image citation: Robert-Fleury, Joseph-Nicolas. Galileo before the Holy Office. 1847. Musee du Louvre, Paris.

The Roman Inquisition was part of the Roman Catholic Church's reaction to the Protestant Reformation, and a manifestation of the Counter-Reformation. It was formed in 1542 by decree of Pope Paul III. Unlike previous Inquisitions, the Catholic Church was constrained by the justice systems in the nations that had officially adopted Protestantism, and thus was much more about attacking "heresy" on a larger scale, preemptively controlling the flow of ideas via the censorship of literature (the Index Librorum Prohibitorum), the charging prominent figures (Galileo's trial), and the like, rather than reactively persecuting the heresy of individuals.