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Posted on 10/09/2003 8:18:02 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
Since the epiphany of last September, we have heard countless comparisons between the murders by militant Mohammedans and various epochs of Western history, in a bizarre, masochistic, self-condemning attempt to extenuate the current jihad movement. Dominating the examples of a Western conduit for bloodthirsty religious fervor similar to that of the Osama Movement has been the Spanish Inquisition. Unfortunately for our media and this self-deprecating sequela, examination of the Spanish Inquisition reveals it to be none of the things it is alleged to be, but to be in fact the most just tribunal of its time.
The very word “Inquisition” (which actually comes from the verb ‘to inquire’) conjures up morbid notions of torture, lynch mobs, and oppressive totalitarian men in brown robes carrying out sadistic punishments for no proven cause. This is the image taught and depicted as an apodictic truth by mainstream society. Modern scholars, and a recent BBC expose, have found the truth to be quite to the contrary.
One must first realize why the Spanish Inquisition was founded. At the time (late 15th century), Spain was under attack by, believe it or not, Turkish Muslims set on their own jihad – as it turns out the Iberian Peninsula was also infringing on Muslim Holy Ground. False conversions to Christianity to avoid suspicion were common – producing converts who would later clandestinely aid their invading cohorts. The uprooting of these bogus conversions in an attempt to halt the invading Turks was the initial aim of the Spanish Inquisition.
Within this and all later purposes, the only persons the Spanish Inquisition had jurisdiction over were self-proclaimed Christians. Contrary to popular belief, the Inquisition could not, nor did, prosecute anyone for being Jewish or Islamic. In fact, one way to avoid the trial or punishment by the Inquisition was simply to say that you were not a Christian. One could believe whatever he or she cared to, as long as the person did not claim to be Christian.
A common vision of the Inquisition is a mob of ignoble churls throwing accusations at some poor widow for being a witch, as portrayed by Monty Python. William Thomas Walsh describes the purpose of the Inquisition as “…a judicial instrument of conformity, which would eliminate the caprice, the anger, and the misinformation of the mob.” This view as a stabilizing effect seems more founded, since the Inquisitors, who as Alphonsus Duran points outs “were university lawyers and not even always priests,” claimed that witchcraft was a figment of the imagination. No one could be tried or burnt for witchcraft under the Spanish Inquisition, however there were harsh punishments for false accusation. In contrast, as the BBC points out: in the 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition, only between 3,000 and 5,000 people were killed, while at the same time the rest of Europe burnt 150,000 women for witchcraft alone.
Some of the information used by the BBC came from the annals of the Catholic Church, which kept in-depth internal records of each case. Since these were internal, and hence secret (until recently), their veracity is held in high regard, as forgery would gain nothing.
These records give startling enlightenment with regards to the practice of torture, which was universal in the contemporary courts of Europe. Professor Stephen Haliczer of Northern University of Illinois found that the Spanish Inquisition used torture in only 2 percent of more than 7,000 cases studied, and never for more than 15 minutes. Less than 1 percent were tortured more than once, and he found no evidence that anyone was ever tortured more than twice. This during a time when damaging shrubs in a common garden was an offence punishable by death in England.
The dungeon-like, filthy jails of the Inquisition shown in movies such as “Man of La Mancha” are another fabricated slur against the Inquisition. Prof. Haliczer claims the Inquisition’s jails were superior to all other jails in Spain, and notes, “I found instances of prisoners in secular criminal courts blaspheming in order to get into the Inquisition prison.” This is a far cry from the Neanderthal brutality and insane religious fanaticism being alluded to by the media, let alone being analogous to Bin Laden, the Taliban and the Palestinian terror groups.
So if the Inquisition did not just go from town to town executing anyone accused of heresy, how did it operate? Here is the account given in Alphonsus Duran’s book “Why Apologize for the Spanish Inquisition,” with information provided by the BBC documentary: Upon coming into a district, the Inquisitors would announce a “period of grace.” During this time, anyone accused could freely repent, whereupon a penance would be given and the offender forgiven. After this the accused would appear before the court. At this time he would be given the incredible privilege of writing a list of all his enemies who might want to commit calumny against him, whose testimony would automatically be thrown out. At this point the trial would take place guided by strict procedures which were constantly reviewed and revised by the hierarchy. The defendant could seek the assistance of lawyers. A conviction needed the agreement of at least two witnesses (our courts only require one), and a judge thought to be biased could be rejected by the accused. If convicted, there were multiple levels of appeal available to the accused.
This strict and just method defies our inherited notions of the Spanish Inquisition, but the statistics collaborate this. The BBC research shows that more men and women were executed by the guillotine of the French Revolution in one day than by the Spanish Inquisition during the entire 16th century. In the vast majority of cases, an Inquisition ended in absolution, penance, or a warning – not an execution.
With the chimera of the monolithic, nefarious Spanish Inquisition now debunked, one might still raise the question as to whether it is acceptable to punish, and in particular execute, in the name of God at all; even when done in this comparatively just and benevolent manner.
Is it justifiable to kill for the good of a society or an institution (for a church is an institution, divinely ordered or not)? Our own penal code says yes. Timothy McVeigh can attest to that. If the institution is a church instead of a state, heresy becomes equivalent to treason. American law holds execution as the standard punishment for treason, so the “malodorous” and “fanatical” Inquisitors can not be vilified by our own standards. Would we be better off if Bin Laden and company had been sent to a Muslim Inquisition and made to recant or die, stopping him before he spread his evil ideology? The U.S. response in Afghanistan seems to allude to such a sentiment, making the pathos of the Inquisition more similar to our War on Terror than to the attack on America.
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Heresy! Next thing you'll be telling me is that I won’t need to know the unladen air speed of an African swallow!
Furthermore, the BBC production does an excellent job of explaining how the myth of the Spanish Inquisition arose in the first place. Anti-Spanish Protestants, mostly Lutherans, were master propagandists, printed and distributed copies of fabricated first-person accounts of Spanish Inquisition trials, and thus effectively whipped up sentiment against the Spanish crown. These propaganda pieces were the primary evidence that historians later used in constucting their accounts of the Inquisition (and most of those historians were Protestant). It was not until the late 1970's that the Vatican released the actual depositions from the Spanish Inquisitorial proceedings, and secular historians were literally SHOCKED by what they found. Strict, fair, and balanced procedures (relative to other courts of the day). Little use of torture, rarely were people handed over to criminal courts, and even more rarely did the state execute them for heresy(clerics have never executed or sentenced to execution, the purpose of the inquisition was to serve findings on heresy and blasphemy to civil courts to convict and sentence).
It is also important to remember differences between Continental and Anglo judicial practices. The English system is adversarial -- prosecutor, defense, neutral judge and jury. That is what we are accustomed to, but this sort of trial was never customary on the Continent. The Continental system, descending from Roman practices, was inquisitorial. The judge was investigator and prosecutor. Whence the practices of grace periods, investigations, etc. This was common stuff throughout the continent in secular affairs as well. It is foreign to English and Americans, but not obviously therefore unjust.
The conclusion of contemporary, historical research, carried out by secularists, is roughly this: the Spanish Inquisition was the most enlightened legal proceeding in Europe at the time.
These historians also openly admit that they really do not WANT to come to this conclusion. It shatters their image of an "oppressive medieval Church" from which Luther and Reason "set us free". The whole secularist, Enlightenment, historical self-conception is at stake in this research.
It would also be interesting to find out what some of the non-Catholic posters have to say about this BBC investigation.
These historians also openly admit that they really do not WANT to come to this conclusion. It shatters their image of an "oppressive medieval Church" from which Luther and Reason "set us free". The whole secularist, Enlightenment, historical self-conception is at stake in this research.
An indication of the success of this propaganda is the fact that most Catholics are unaware of the truth regarding the Inquisition.
It's also interesting to note that this information is difficult if not impossible to find on the BBC website. I went to their site and did a search on the Inquisition and what did I find? Stories including the usual propaganda. But I couldn't find the program containing scholarly information. I'm shocked. Shocked!
Maybe NPR will do a program soon that will set the record straight...
It certainly would be. < /crickets chirping>
Hmmm...
Yah, everyone knows that he BBC is a propaganda arm for the Vatican...
Link to Catholic Answers Radio Show on the Inquisition
As for the BBC video, I believe it is only available for purchase to Colleges and Universities. Someone needs to push to make the video more widely available.
It will probably never come up, just don't forget your favorite color and you'll be fine.
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