Thank God the thought police of today do not have the power to execute people!
The total number is less than 15,000 and that is over what is probably a little less than 500 years (let’s say 470 years). That means an average of 31 a year. Clearly executions were very, very rare.
I have a friend who is doing his doctoral research on the Spanish Inquisition. He says MAYBE in a century or two, 1k-2k people died in Portuguese,Spanish, and Italian Inquisitions.
This wide divergence of figures suggests to me that the term is being used in different ways by either side.
For example, I would distinguish between the inquisition of Albigensians and the War against them. If the latter were included in thhe former, which I think would be unjustified, since it's unclear how/whether piety motivated de Montfort, that would bump the figures up right smart.
I think exaggerated description and figures about thhe various inquisitions, along with the tendency to lump them all together as "the" inquisition, serve as a "reinforcing myth," like the myth that secualrrulers were in the pocket of the Church. Tell that to Thomas a Becket the martyred bishops of Europe, or the Guelphs and Ghibellines. It's handy, but it's just not true. Even the dread Unam Sanctam arose, I believe, because of strife between secular and religious leaders.