Catholic Word of the Day: INQUISITION, 07-11-09

CatholicReference.net ^ | 07-11-09 | Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary

[Salvation]

Featured Term (selected at random):

INQUISITION

The special court or tribunal appointed by the Catholic Church to discover and suppress heresy and to punish heretics. The Roman Inquisition of the middle twelfth century, with its ecclesiastical courts for trying and punishing heretics, arose during the ravages of the anti-social Albigensian sect, whose doctrines and practices were destructive not only of faith but of Christian morality and public order. While Church authorities would condemn a person found guilty of heresy, it was the civil power that actually inflicted the penalty. The reformation of the heretic was first sought. By exhortations and minor punishments he was urged to give up his heresy. Many did. Only the relapsed heretics who were found guilty were turned over to the civil government for punishment required under civil law. The fact that secular law prescribed death must be understood in the light of those days when heresy was anarchy and treason and leniency in criminal codes was unknown. Like all institutions that have a human character abuses crept in.

The Spanish Inquisition, set up by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1478 and empowered by Pope Sixtus IV, was directed against the lapsed converts from Judaism, crypto-Jews, and other apostates whose secret activities were dangerous to Church and State. The civil government has great influence in the administration of this Inquisition, and the Spanish ecclesiastical tribunal accused of scandalous cruelty must share its condemnations with them. The latter worked during these days in defiance of the Holy See, which often condemned inquisitors because of their cruelties. Even so, these cruelties have been grossly exaggerated, and the fact that the Inquisition did tremendous good in saving the Latin countries from anarchy has been forgotten. Much falsehood surrounds the events of this period, which should be judged by the standards of those times, not by modern ideas of the human person and of religious freedom.

All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

[Salvation]

This post should garner a lot of comments. I sincerely request that those who do comment read the ENTIRE post first (and just post their usual hyperbole about the Catholic Church.)

[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day – not linked – but you can do a search to find them.

 

Proclamation	Consecration to the Sacred Heart	Nominalism
Rules of Conscience	St. John Lateran	Hermeneutics
Doctrinal Universalism	Good Friday	Our Father
Soul of the Church	Latin Cross	Book of Sentences
Liber Pontificalis	Paraclete	People of God
Bodily Resurrection	Cardinal Electors	Subsidiarity
Striking the Breast	Transfinalization	Ordinary
Titular Sees	Wake	Knowledge
Polygenism	Sede Vacante	Peace Plate or Tablet
Heroic Act	Abbey Nullius	Vulgate
Founder	Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples	Vow
Impassibility	Vitandus	Dedication of the Months
Solemn Vows	Species	Dark Night of the Soul
Social Sin	Dialectical Materialism	Pharisaical Scandal
Inquisition

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[Salvation]

Catholic Word of the Day -- first 48 selections.

[Texas Fossil]

Even so, these cruelties have been grossly exaggerated, and the fact that the Inquisition did tremendous good in saving the Latin countries from anarchy has been forgotten.

Gentlemen, you really do not want to go there!

This is not twisted history day. And I am not buying.

[Popman]

Popcorn time!!!

[aimhigh]

For the Catholic Church to rewrite history is as shameful as Turkey to claim the Armenian death march never happened, or modern day Nazis to say the Holocaust never happened. They have no credibility.

[Poe White Trash]

>>> For the Catholic Church to rewrite history is as shameful as Turkey to claim the Armenian death march never happened, or modern day Nazis to say the Holocaust never happened. They have no credibility. <<<

Hyperbole alert!

For fellow Freepers to compare the Armenian genocide and the Nazi Holocaust to what the several inquisitions or _inquisitios_ did in Europe (and elsewhere) during the 13th-17th centuries is both silly and sad.

Such Freepers are not credible as students of history.

This above “word of the day” entry is too brief and doesn’t give a clear enough picture of what the revived institution of the _inquisitio_ did when it persecuted heretics. It’s too defensive.

That being said, it presents an account of the inquisitions which is much closer to modern-day serious historiography (Lea and afterwards) than the anti-Catholic bilge and Monty Python inspired blather that will doubtless soon engulf this thread.

[Salvation]

**This above “word of the day” entry is too brief and doesn’t give a clear enough picture of what the revived institution of the _inquisitio_ did when it persecuted heretics. It’s too defensive**

I agree that it’s brief. It’s from a dictionary. I don’t expect pages and pages when I post them.

[Poe White Trash]

Yup. It’s a dictionary entry, not an encyclopedia entry, so it _by definition_ can’t be comprehensive. My point was that to say it constitutes some revisionism or Catholic cover-up is false and silly. Sorry if I didn’t make that clear enough in my first post.