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Inquisition wasn't quite as bad as people think, says Pope (Except for GASP!! THE COMFY CHAIR!!)
Telegraph ^ | 6/16/04

Posted on 06/16/2004 9:46:03 AM PDT by areafiftyone

The Vatican sought to play down the terrors of the Inquisition yesterday, claiming that far fewer people were tortured and executed for heresy than was popularly believed.

The reassessment by Church historians was seized on by the Pope to qualify the apology he made for the Inquisition during the Church's millennium celebrations.

The research emerged from a conference of scholars convened in 1998 to help the Pope assess the impact of the Inquisition, which often used brutal methods to suppress alleged witchcraft and doctrinal unorthodoxy.

Church officials said that statistics and other data demolished myths about the Inquisition, including that torture and executions were commonly used.

"For the first time we studied the Inquisition in its entirety, from its beginnings to the 19th century," said Agostino Borromeo, a professor of history of Catholic and other Christian confessions at Rome's Sapienza University. Prof Borromeo said that while there were some 125,000 trials of suspected heretics in Spain, research found that about one per cent of the defendants were executed, far fewer than commonly believed. Many of the burnings at the stake were carried out by civil rather than religious tribunals.

Yesterday, the Pope reiterated his mea culpa but stressed that actions which had "disfigured the face of the Church" had to be viewed in their historical context.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: inquisition; vatican
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1 posted on 06/16/2004 9:46:05 AM PDT by areafiftyone
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To: areafiftyone

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!


2 posted on 06/16/2004 9:48:11 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
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To: areafiftyone

As a person of Catholic background (aunt a nun, uncle a priest, family recipient of papal blassing; 6 years of Catholic school education) I cannot accept the infallibility of the Pope in matters of the Church or anything else. I simply cannot, and the Inquisition is one reason, along with multiple others.


3 posted on 06/16/2004 9:50:14 AM PDT by Clara Lou
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To: ElkGroveDan

Compared for what happened in the totalitarian states of the 20th Century, the Spanish Inquisition was a picnic.


4 posted on 06/16/2004 9:50:56 AM PDT by RobbyS
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To: Clara Lou

The Pope wasn't speaking in this matter from Papal Infallibility. If you think you are supposed to take his every word as the Gospel itself, you were poorly raised in our tradition.


5 posted on 06/16/2004 9:52:39 AM PDT by pgyanke (Kerry spent more time this year on personal appearance than voting on legislation - Peach)
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To: areafiftyone; All

YEAHHHHH

Alright Rack History of the World reset LOLOL!

Yeah everybody know that Inquistation was worst thing history done on Jewish community in Spain do you notice after they expel Jews

SPAIN went downhill at that
took 100 years

WHO CARE

NICE GOIN SPAIN


6 posted on 06/16/2004 9:53:59 AM PDT by SevenofNine ("Not everybody , in it, for truth, justice, and the American way,"=Det Lennie Briscoe)
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To: RobbyS
I bet that's just what the people tied to the burning piles of firewood were thinking, "You know - this has to be a picnic compared to what's going to happen in the future. Yep - not so bad at all."

Either that or, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..."
7 posted on 06/16/2004 9:55:08 AM PDT by AD from SpringBay (We have the government we allow and deserve.)
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To: areafiftyone

Spain's "civil rights" record during the era of the inquisition compares favorably to most of the rest of Europe.


8 posted on 06/16/2004 9:55:19 AM PDT by Straight Vermonter (06/07/04 - 1000 days since 09/11/01)
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To: areafiftyone

Don't forget the soft pillows.


9 posted on 06/16/2004 9:56:00 AM PDT by CaptainK
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To: Clara Lou
What do you know???? A catholic who knows the truth. And I agree with you. Amazing though, most catholics won't even acknowledge there even was an inquisition.

When I was in the military I knew a catholic priest, a dominican, who told me all about the inquisition and how bad it actually was.

10 posted on 06/16/2004 9:59:15 AM PDT by pctech
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To: pgyanke
If you think you are supposed to take his every word as the Gospel itself, you were poorly raised in our tradition.
Did you notice the words in my post "in matters of the Church"? There's no need to get cross because I said something that you don't agree with.
11 posted on 06/16/2004 10:00:47 AM PDT by Clara Lou
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To: Clara Lou

What does the Inquisition, or the reassessment of it by the Pope, have to do with Papal Infallibility?


12 posted on 06/16/2004 10:02:29 AM PDT by babyface00
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To: areafiftyone
Oh, for Ghu's sake, this is like arguing that Bill Clinton is a virtuous man because he didn't grope 99.999+% of the women in the world.
13 posted on 06/16/2004 10:03:30 AM PDT by steve-b (Panties & Leashes Would Look Good On Spammers)
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To: areafiftyone

"But Abu Ghraib was much worse, of course..."


14 posted on 06/16/2004 10:03:46 AM PDT by talleyman (Moose lips sink ships)
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To: ElkGroveDan

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...


15 posted on 06/16/2004 10:05:01 AM PDT by evilC (I take some of the blame, for many years I was a Democrat - Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004))
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To: CaptainK

I just loved Monty Python and this article was just perfect for using their pictures.


16 posted on 06/16/2004 10:05:34 AM PDT by areafiftyone (Democrats = the hamster is dead but the wheel is still spinning)
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To: AD from SpringBay

The Inquisition killed fewer people than the civil authority in England. Burning is no worse than drawing and quartering, which was the peculiar little treat that the English provided for the crowds. But behind the talks against the Inquisition, there is the unspoken screed:" See what happens if you take religion seriously. Take all the power away from the priests and governmenst will make nice with their people." Then along came Lenin, who made Torquemado seem like a Quaker.


17 posted on 06/16/2004 10:05:40 AM PDT by RobbyS
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To: Clara Lou

Wow.

Refreshing post.


18 posted on 06/16/2004 10:08:22 AM PDT by k2blader (My parents are borderline Bushbots, but I love 'em anyway. :-)
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To: Clara Lou
I cannot accept the infallibility of the Pope in matters of the Church or anything else. I simply cannot, and the Inquisition is one reason

I think you're majorly confused. The topics of Papal infallibility and the Inquisition have practically nothing to do with one another.

And the worst of the Inquisitions, the Spanish, ran afoul of the Papacy many times. It was more a creature of the Spanish government than of the Papacy. In fact, when the Spaniards finally shut it down in the early 19th C., they didn't even bother to ask Rome for permission!

19 posted on 06/16/2004 10:09:07 AM PDT by Campion
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To: areafiftyone
the ancestor of a Jewish friend of mine became billionaires because of the Spanish Inquisition.

He was an advisor to the King of Portugal. The king told them that the Inquisition was coming and he couldn't save him. Instead, there was this new territory Angola how would he like a chunk of land the size of Connecticut. He said yes and the family was quite wealthy until the Cubans showed up, dragged them out of their homes and shot them in the middle of the street leaving their bodies to be picked at by dogs.

History moves in mysterious ways.

And for those of you who want ot blame Christianity for every ill treatment - How did a Spanish Jew like Maimonides end up in Cairo?

20 posted on 06/16/2004 10:10:16 AM PDT by FreedomSurge
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