All persons actually interested in the real history of the Inquisitions should read Dr. Edward Peters,Inquisition Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and a prominent historian in the field. Edwards wrote: "The Inquisition was an image assembled from a body of legends and myths which, between the twentieth and the sixteenth centuries, established the perceived character of inquisitorial tribunals and influenced all ensuing efforts to recover their historical reality."The popular (aka Protestant) view of the Inquisition is at best a myth and at worst a cynical manipulation of fact. In reality, the Inquisition was an attempt by the Catholic Church to stop unjust executions.
Heresy was a capital offense against the state. Rulers of the state, whose authority was believed to come from God, had no tolerance for heretics and heresies. Neither did common people, who saw heretics, like witches and pagans as dangerous outsiders who could bring down divine wrath.
Like any other crime, when someone was accused of heresy in the early Middle Ages, they were brought to the local lord for judgment. The sad result is that uncounted thousands across Europe were executed by secular authorities lacking in theological training (aka relying on YOPIS) without fair trials or a competent judge of the crime.
The Catholic Church's response to this problem was the Inquisition, an attempt to provide fair trials for accused heretics using laws of evidence and presided over by knowledgeable judges.
From the perspective of secular authorities, heretics were traitors to God and the king and therefore deserved death. From the perspective of the Church, however, heretics were lost sheep who had strayed from the flock. As shepherds, the pope and bishops had a duty to bring them back into the fold, just as the Good Shepherd had commanded them. So, while medieval secular leaders were trying to safeguard their kingdoms, the Church was trying to save souls. The Inquisition provided a means for heretics to escape death and return to the community.
With a conviction rate of about 2% the vast majority of people tried for heresy by the Inquisitions were either acquitted or had their sentences suspended. Those found guilty of grave error were allowed to confess their sin, do penance, and be restored to the Body of Christ. The underlying assumption of the Inquisition was that, like lost sheep, heretics had simply strayed.
If, however, an inquisitor determined that a particular sheep had purposely left the flock, or worse proselytized the heresy, there was nothing more that could be done. Unrepentant or obstinate heretics were excommunicated and given over to secular authorities. Despite popular myth, the Inquisition did not burn heretics. It was the secular authorities that held heresy to be a capital offense, not the Church. The simple fact is that the medieval Inquisition saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.
Where did this myth come from? After 1530, the Inquisition began to turn its attention to the new heresy of Lutheranism. It was the Protestant Reformation and the rivalries it spawned that would give birth to the myth. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured from the printing presses of Protestant countries at war with Spain accusing the Spanish Inquisition of inhuman depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World.
Also not to be ignored are the many, many Protestant Inquisitions that had far higher conviction rates and death toll in a much shorter period of time. These ranged from so-called witch trials to Catholic purges of England and the Scandinavian countries , Cromwell’s conquests of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and the atrocities committed by the Puritans in the New World.
bookmarking, thanks.