The Inquisition is a very interesting and controversial phenomenon in human history. If we recall the Inquisition, then usually we immediately have associations with the burning of witches and heretics at the stake, and we also recall such scientists as Giordano Bruno, who was burned by the Inquisition for his views, Galileo Galilei, who publicly renounced his views, and so on. However, few people know the history of the Inquisition itself. Let's fill in the gaps in this topic and consider the history of the Inquisition, as well as get acquainted with an interesting video file about the activities of Thomas de Torquemada, whose personality is closely connected with the Inquisition. But first things first.
The Inquisition was a tribunal of the Catholic Church that carried out detective, judicial and punitive functions; has a long history. Its emergence is associated with the struggle against heretics - those who preached religious views that did not meet 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 the church hierarchy. No "legal" basis has yet been laid down for this act. It began to take shape at the end of the 12th - the first third of the 13th centuries.
In 1184, Pope Lucius III convened a council in Verona, whose decisions 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 confiscated. It 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 organs 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 middle of the 15th century. the tribunals of the Inquisition actually took over the functions of the censors. Year by year, the list of banned books was replenished
and by 1785 had over 5,000 titles. Among them are books by French and English enlighteners, the Encyclopedia by Denis Diderot and others.
The most powerful and cruel Inquisition was in Spain. In essence, 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 work. These are the darkest pages in the history of the Inquisition. The personality of Torquemada, described by historians, theologians, psychiatrists, is of interest to this day.
Thomas de Torquemada was born in 1420. His childhood and adolescence left no evidence of serious mental upheavals and mental disorders. During his school years, he served as an example of integrity not only for classmates, but even for teachers. After becoming a monk of the Dominican order, he was distinguished by an impeccable attitude to the traditions of the order and the monastic way of life, thoroughly performed religious rites. 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 pillar of the papacy in the fight against heresy.
Torquemada's deep piety has not gone unnoticed. The rumor about her reached Queen Isabella, and she repeatedly offered him to head large parishes. He invariably responded with a polite no. 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 Inquisition's secret court could be public renunciation, 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. Burning is usually associated with an auto-da-fe - the solemn announcement of the verdict of the Inquisition, as well as its execution. Such an analogy is quite legitimate, since all other forms of punishment were furnished by the Inquisition more casually.
In Spain, Torquemada resorted to the extreme more often than the inquisitors of other countries:in 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The victims of Torquemada can also be considered 6800 people sentenced to death in absentia. In addition, 97,321 people were subjected to various punishments. First of all, baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adherence 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 of natural causes, although as a Grand Inquisitor he was constantly shaking for his life. There was always a rhinoceros horn on his table, with 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 foot soldiers.
Unfortunately, Torquemada did not take his barbaric methods of dealing with dissidents with him to the grave.
The 16th century marked the birth of modern science. The most inquisitive minds devoted their lives to comprehending facts, comprehending the laws of the universe, questioning centuries-old scholastic dogmas. The worldly and moral ideas of a person were updated.
A critical attitude towards so-called immutable truths led to discoveries that radically changed the old worldview. The 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 the Revolutions of the 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 simply because the publication of a book coincided with his death, then the fate of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was tragic. In his youth, he became a monk of the Dominican order. Bruno did not hide his convictions and aroused the displeasure of the holy fathers. Forced to leave the monastery, he led a wandering life. 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 the fundamental principles of the Catholic Church.
While lecturing on cosmology at Oxford University, Bruno had heated discussions with local theologians and scholastics. In the auditoriums of the Sorbonne, the strength of his arguments was tested by the French scholastics. He lived in Germany for 5 years. A number of his works were published there, which caused a new explosion of fury of the Italian Inquisition, ready to do anything in order to get the most dangerous, in her opinion, heretic.
At the instigation of the church, the Venetian patrician Mocenigo invited Giordano Bruno as his home philosophy teacher and… betrayed the Inquisition. The scientist was imprisoned in dungeons. For 8 years, the Catholic Tribunal unsuccessfully sought the public renunciation of Giordano Bruno from his scientific works. Finally, the verdict followed:to punish "as mercifully as possible, without shedding blood." This hypocritical wording meant burning at the stake. The fire blazed. 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, in the Square of Flowers, he stoically accepted death.
Another Italian scientist, astronomer, physicist, mechanic Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), almost suffered the same fate. 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 assertions. Only in the constellation Pleiades, Galileo counted at least 40 stars, invisible until then. How naive the writings of theologians looked now, explaining the appearance of stars in the evening sky only by the need to shine on people! .. The results of new observations embittered the Inquisition more and more. Mountains on the Moon, spots on the Sun, four satellites of Jupiter, Saturn's dissimilarity to other planets have been discovered. In response, the church accuses Galileo of blasphemy and fraud, presenting the scientist's conclusions as a result of an 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 told to dissociate himself from these views. Formally, the scientist obeyed the demand of the Inquisition.
In 1623, Galileo's friend Cardinal Barberini, known as the patron of the arts and sciences, took the papacy. He took the name of Urban VIII. Not without his support, in 1632, Galileo published "Dialogue on the two main 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, only in 1992 did the Vatican acquit Galileo Galilei.
Society was having a hard time clearing the taint of the Inquisition. Depending on historical, economic, national and many other reasons, the countries of Europe were exempted from the tribunals of the church at different times. Already in the XVI 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, called 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, by no means medieval means.
From the Historical Encyclopedia
Video file about the Inquisition and the activities of Thomas de Torquemada.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpfTZ8lgeHw&feature=related