Origin of the term

An ecclesiastical tribunal charged with the "detection, punishment and prevention of heresies" was established in southern France by Gregory IX in 1229. This institution reached its zenith in 1478, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, with the sanction of Pope Sixtus IV, established the Spanish Inquisition.

The Congregation of the Holy Office was established in 1542, replacing the Great Roman Inquisition, and in 1917 the functions of the abolished Index Congregation were also transferred to it.

Goals and means

Torture applied to those accused of heresy. Engraving from 1508.

The main task of the Inquisition was to determine whether the accused was guilty of heresy.

IX. In the early days of the Inquisition there was no prosecutor responsible for indicting suspects; this formality of legal proceedings was carried out verbally by the inquisitor after hearing the witnesses; the consciousness of the accused served as accusation and response. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy, it was in vain that he asserted that he was innocent of the others; he was not allowed to defend himself because the crime for which he was being tried had already been proven. He was only asked whether he was disposed to renounce the heresy of which he pleaded guilty. If he agreed, then he was reconciled with the Church, imposing canonical penance on him simultaneously with some other punishment. Otherwise, he was declared a stubborn heretic, and he was handed over to the secular authorities with a copy of the verdict.

The death penalty, like confiscation, was a measure that, in theory, the Inquisition did not apply. Her job was to use every effort to return the heretic to the bosom of the Church; if he persisted, or if his appeal was feigned, she had nothing more to do with him. As a non-Catholic, he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, which he rejected, and the Church was forced to declare him a heretic and deprive him of its patronage. Initially, the sentence was only a simple conviction for heresy and was accompanied by excommunication from the Church or a declaration that the guilty person was no longer considered subject to the jurisdiction of the court of the Church; sometimes it was added that he was being handed over to a secular court, that he was being released - a terrible expression that meant that the direct intervention of the Church in his fate had already ended. Over time, the sentences became more extensive; often a remark begins to appear explaining that the Church can do nothing more to atone for the sins of the guilty, and his transfer into the hands of secular power is accompanied by the following significant words: debita animadversione puniendum, that is, “let him be punished according to his deserts.” The hypocritical appeal, in which the Inquisition implored the secular authorities to spare the life and body of the apostate, is not found in the ancient sentences and was never precisely formulated.

Inquisitor Pegna does not hesitate to admit that this appeal to mercy was an empty formality, and explains that it was resorted to only so that it would not seem that the inquisitors agreed to the shedding of blood, since this would be a violation of canonical rules. But at the same time, the Church vigilantly ensured that its resolution was not misinterpreted. She taught that there can be no talk of any leniency unless the heretic repents and testifies to his sincerity by betraying all his like-minded people. The inexorable logic of St. Thomas Aquinas clearly established that the secular power could not help but put heretics to death, and that only as a result of its boundless love the Church could turn to the heretics twice with words of conviction before handing them over to the secular power for their well-deserved punishment. The inquisitors themselves did not hide this at all and constantly taught that the heretic they condemned should be put to death; This is evident, among other things, from the fact that they refrained from pronouncing their sentence on him within the church fence, which would have been desecrated by condemnation to death, but pronounced it in the square where the last act of the auto-da-fe took place. One of their 13th-century doctors, quoted in the 14th century by Bernard Guy, argues: “The purpose of the Inquisition is the destruction of heresy; heresy cannot be destroyed without the destruction of heretics; and heretics cannot be destroyed unless the defenders and supporters of heresy are also destroyed, and this can be achieved in two ways: by converting them to the true Catholic faith, or by turning their flesh into ashes after they are handed over to the secular authorities.”

Main historical stages

Chronologically, the history of the Inquisition can be divided into three stages:

Pre-Dominican (persecution of heretics until the 12th century);
Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229);

In the 1st period, the trial of heretics was part of the functions of episcopal power, and their persecution was temporary and random; in the 2nd, permanent inquisitorial tribunals are created, under the special jurisdiction of Dominican monks; in the third, the inquisitorial system is closely associated with the interests of monarchical centralization in Spain and the claims of its sovereigns to political and religious supremacy in Europe, first serving as a weapon in the struggle against the Moors and Jews, and then, together with the Jesuit Order, being a fighting force of the Catholic reaction of the 16th century against Protestantism.

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century

The germs of the Inquisition can be found in the first centuries of Christianity - in the duty of deacons to seek out and correct errors in the faith, in the judicial power of bishops over heretics. The episcopal court was simple and not distinguished by cruelty; the strongest punishment at that time was excommunication.

Since the recognition of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire, civil punishments have been added to church punishments. In 316, Constantine the Great issued an edict condemning the Donatists to confiscation of property. Threat death penalty It was first uttered by Theodosius the Great in 382 in relation to the Manichaeans, and in 385 it was carried out over the Priscillians.

In the capitularies of Charlemagne there are instructions obliging bishops to monitor morals and the correct profession of faith in their dioceses, and on the Saxon borders to eradicate pagan customs. In 844, Charles the Bald ordered the bishops to confirm the people in the faith through sermons, to investigate and correct their errors (“ut populi errata inquirant et corrigant”).

In the 9th and 10th centuries. bishops reach a high degree of power; in the 11th century, during the persecution of the Patarens in Italy, their activities differ with great energy. Already in this era, the church more willingly resorted to violent measures against heretics than to means of exhortation. The most severe punishments for heretics even at that time were confiscation of property and burning at the stake. This is how Anna Komnena describes in the Alexiad the burning of Bogomil Vasily at the stake in 1118, saying about the emperor that he made a decision “new, unusual in its character, unheard of in its courage.”

Dominican period

The word "Inquisition", in the technical sense, was used for the first time at the Council of Tours in 1163 (English) Russian , and at the Council of Toulouse in 1229, the apostolic legate "mandavit inquisitionem fieri contra haereticos suspectatos de haeretica pravitate."

In Germany, the Inquisition was initially directed against the Steding tribe, who defended their independence from the Archbishop of Bremen. Here it met with general protest. The first inquisitor of Germany was Conrad of Marburg; in 1233 he was killed during a popular uprising, and the following year his two main assistants suffered the same fate. On this occasion, the Chronicle of Worms says: “thus, with God’s help, Germany was freed from a vile and unheard-of judgment.” Later, Pope Urban V, with the support of Emperor Charles IV, again appointed two Dominicans to Germany as inquisitors; however, even after this the Inquisition did not develop here. The last traces of it were destroyed by the Reformation. The Inquisition even penetrated into England to fight against the teachings of Wycliffe and his followers; but here its significance was insignificant.

Of the Slavic states, only Poland had an Inquisition, and then only for a very short time. In general, this institution took more or less deep roots only in Spain, Portugal and Italy, where Catholicism had a profound influence on the minds and character of the population.

Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition, which arose in the 13th century, as an echo of modern events in southern France, was revived with renewed vigor at the end of the 15th century, received a new organization and acquired enormous political importance. Spain represented the most favorable conditions for the development of the Inquisition. The centuries-long struggle with the Moors contributed to the development of religious fanaticism among the people, which the Dominicans who settled here successfully took advantage of. There were many non-Christians, namely Jews and Moors, in the areas conquered from the Moors by the Christian kings of the Iberian Peninsula. The Moors and the Jews who adopted their education were the most enlightened, productive and prosperous elements of the population. Their wealth inspired the envy of the people and was a temptation for the government. Already at the end of the 14th century, a mass of Jews and Moors were forced to convert to Christianity (see Marranos and Moriscos), but many even after that continued to secretly profess the religion of their fathers.

The systematic persecution of these suspicious Christians by the Inquisition began with the unification of Castile and Aragon into one monarchy, under Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand the Catholic, who reorganized the inquisitorial system. The motive for the reorganization was not so much religious fanaticism as the desire to take advantage of the Inquisition to strengthen the state unity of Spain and increase state revenues by confiscating the property of those convicted. The soul of the new Inquisition in Spain was Isabella's confessor, the Dominican Torquemada. In 1478, a bull was received from Sixtus IV, which allowed the “Catholic kings” to establish a new Inquisition, and in 1480 its first tribunal was established in Seville; he opened his activity at the beginning next year, and by the end of it he could already boast of the execution of 298 heretics. The result of this was general panic and a number of complaints about the actions of the tribunal addressed to the pope, mainly from the bishops. In response to these complaints, Sixtus IV in 1483 ordered the inquisitors to adhere to the same severity in relation to heretics, and entrusted the consideration of appeals against the actions of the Inquisition to the Seville Archbishop Inigo Manriquez. A few months later, he appointed the great gene. Inquisitor of Castile and Aragon Torquemado, who completed the work of transforming the Spanish Inquisition.

The Inquisitorial Tribunal initially consisted of a chairman, 2 legal assessors and 3 royal advisers. This organization soon turned out to be insufficient and in its place a whole system of inquisitorial institutions was created: the central inquisitorial council (the so-called Consejo de la suprema) and 4 local tribunals, the number of which was later increased to 10. The property confiscated from heretics formed a fund from from which funds were drawn for the maintenance of inquisitorial tribunals and which, at the same time, served as a source of enrichment for the papal and royal treasuries. In 1484, Torquemada appointed a general congress of all members of the Spanish inquisitorial tribunals in Seville, and a code was developed here (at first 28 decrees; 11 were added later) regulating the inquisitorial process.

Since then, the work of cleansing Spain from heretics and non-Christians began to move forward rapidly, especially after 1492, when Torquemada managed to get the Catholic kings to expel all Jews from Spain. The results of the extermination activities of the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada, in the period from 1481 to 1498, are expressed in the following figures: about 8,800 people were burned at the stake; 90,000 people were subjected to confiscation of property and church punishments; in addition, images, in the form of effigies or portraits, of 6,500 people who escaped execution by flight or death were burned. In Castile, the Inquisition was popular among the fanatical crowd, who happily gathered at auto-da-fe, and Torquemada was universally respected until his death. But in Aragon, the actions of the Inquisition repeatedly caused explosions of popular indignation; During one of them, Pedro Arbuez, the chairman of the inquisitorial court in Zaragoza, who was not inferior in cruelty to Torquemada, was killed in a church in the city. Torquemada's successors, Diego Des and especially Jimenez, the archbishop of Toledo and Isabella's confessor, completed the work of the religious unification of Spain.

Several years after the conquest of Granada, the Moors were persecuted for their faith, despite the provision of religious freedom to them under the terms of the 1492 capitulation treaty. In 1502 they were ordered to either be baptized or leave Spain. Some of the Moors left their homeland, the majority were baptized; However, the baptized Moors (Moriscos) did not escape persecution and were finally expelled from Spain by Philip III in 1609. The expulsion of the Jews, Moors and Moriscos, who made up more than 3 million of the population, and, moreover, the most educated, hardworking and rich, entailed incalculable losses for Spanish agriculture, industry and trade, which did not prevent Spain from becoming the richest country, creating a powerful fleet and colonizing large spaces in the New World.

Jimenez destroyed the last remnants of the episcopal opposition. The Spanish Inquisition penetrated the Netherlands and Portugal and served as a model for the Italian and French inquisitors. In the Netherlands it was established by Charles V in 1522 and was the cause of the breakaway of the northern Netherlands from Spain under Philip II. In Portugal, the Inquisition was introduced in 1536 and from here it spread to the Portuguese colonies in the East Indies, where its center was Goa.

Inquisition in the Russian Empire

In the Russian Empire, an organization with a similar name, the “Order of Proto-Inquisitorial Affairs,” was created in 1711 by decree of Peter I to supervise bishops in their ecclesiastical economic and judicial activities in matters of minor importance. The spiritual inquisitors included representatives of black and white clergy. All of them were subordinate to the provincial inquisitors of the cities where the bishop's houses were located. The provincial inquisitors were subordinate to the Moscow proto-inquisitor. Paphnutius, Archimandrite of the Danilov Monastery in Moscow, was appointed the first Moscow proto-inquisitor. In turn, he was subordinate to the Synod. Before sending his denunciation, the spiritual inquisitor had to notify the superior authorities of the person he accused or the local bishop. If the case ended in a fine, after it was imposed and paid, half of the money was due to the informer. In 1724, the Order of Proto-Inquisitorial Affairs ceased to exist, but the positions of inquisitors were abolished only on January 25, 1727.

Other countries

Modeled on the Spanish inquisitorial system, in 1542 a “congregation of the Holy Inquisition” was established in Rome, whose authority was unconditionally recognized in the duchies of Milan and Tuscany; in the Kingdom of Naples and the Republic of Venice, its actions were subject to government control. In France, Henry II tried to establish the Inquisition on the same model, and Francis II, in 1559, transferred the functions of the inquisitorial court to parliament, where a special department was formed for this, the so-called. chambres ardentes (fire chamber).

The actions of the Inquisition Tribunal were shrouded in strict secrecy. There was a system of espionage and denunciations. As soon as the accused or suspect was brought to trial by the Inquisition, a preliminary interrogation began, the results of which were presented to the tribunal. If the latter found the case subject to his jurisdiction - which usually happened - then the informers and witnesses were again interrogated and their testimony, along with all the evidence; were submitted to the consideration of Dominican theologians, the so-called qualifiers of the Holy Inquisition.

If the qualifiers spoke out against the accused, he was immediately taken to a secret prison, after which all communication between the prisoner and the outside world ceased. Then followed the first 3 audiences, during which the inquisitors, without announcing the charges to the defendant, tried by asking questions to confuse him in the answers and by cunning to wrest his consciousness of the crimes charged against him. In case of consciousness, he was placed in the category of “repentant” and could count on the leniency of the court; in case of persistent denial of guilt, the accused, at the request of the prosecutor, was taken to a torture chamber. After the torture, the exhausted victim was again brought into the audience hall and only now was he introduced to the charges to which an answer was required. The accused was asked whether he wished to defend himself or not, and, if the answer was affirmative, he was asked to choose a defense lawyer from a list of persons compiled by his accusers. It is clear that the defense under such conditions was nothing more than a gross mockery of the victim of the tribunal. At the end of the process, which often lasted several months, the qualifiers were again invited and gave their final opinion on the case, almost always not in favor of the defendant.

Then came the verdict, which could be appealed to the supreme inquisitorial tribunal or to the pope. However, the success of the appeals was unlikely. “Suprema”, as a rule, did not overturn the verdicts of the inquisitorial courts, and for the success of the appeal to Rome, the intercession of rich friends was necessary, since the convict, whose property was confiscated, no longer had significant sums of money. If the sentence was overturned, the prisoner was released, but without any reward for the torment, humiliation and losses experienced; otherwise, a sanbenito and an auto da fe awaited him.

Even sovereigns trembled before the Inquisition. Even such persons as the Spanish Archbishop Carranza, Cardinal Cesare Borgia and others could not avoid her persecution.

The influence of the Inquisition on the intellectual development of Europe in the 16th century became especially disastrous, when it, together with the Jesuit order, managed to master the censorship of books. In the 17th century, the number of its victims decreased significantly. 18th century with his ideas of religious tolerance was a time of further decline and finally the complete abolition of the Inquisition in many European countries: torture is completely eliminated from the inquisitorial process in Spain, and the number of death penalties is reduced to 2 - 3, or even less, per year. In Spain, the Inquisition was destroyed by decree of Joseph Bonaparte on December 4, 1808. According to the statistics collected in Loriente's work, it appears that there were 341,021 persons persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition from 1481 to 1809; of these, 31,912 were personally burned, 17,659 - in effigie, 291,460 were subject to imprisonment and other penalties. In Portugal, the Inquisition was greatly limited to the Ministry of Pombal, and under John VI (1818 - 26) it was completely destroyed. In France it was destroyed in 1772, in Tuscany and Parma - in 1769, in Sicily - in 1782, in Rome - in 1809. In 1814 the Inquisition was restored in Spain by Ferdinand Vll; destroyed for the second time by the Cortes in 1820, it is again revived for a while, until, finally, in 1834 it is abolished forever; its property was used to pay off the state debt. In Sardinia the Inquisition lasted until 1840, in Tuscany until 1852; in Rome the Inquisition was restored by Pius VII in 1814 (lasted until 1908)

Main historical dates

Victims of the Inquisition. Criticism

In his book Tales of Witchcraft and Magic (1852), Thomas Wright, corresponding member of the National Institute of France, states:

Of the many people who died for witchcraft at the stakes of Germany during the first half of the seventeenth century, there were many whose crime was their adherence to the religion of Luther<…>and the petty princes were not against seizing any opportunity to replenish their coffers... the most persecuted were those with significant fortunes... In Bamberg, as in Würzburg, the bishop was the sovereign prince in his domains. The prince-bishop, John George II, who ruled Bamberg... after several unsuccessful attempts to root out Lutheranism, glorified his reign with a series of bloody witch trials that disgraced the annals of that city... We can gain some insight into the exploits of his worthy agent (Frederick Ferner, Bishop of Bamberg) according to the most reliable sources, that between 1625 and 1630. at least 900 trials took place in the two courts of Bamberg and Zeil; and in an article published by the authorities at Bamberg in 1659, it is reported that the number of persons whom Bishop John George burned at the stake for witchcraft reached 600.

Thomas Wright also provides a list (document) of victims of twenty-nine burnings. In this list, people professing Lutheranism were designated as "outsiders". As a result, the victims of these burnings were:

There are 28 “foreign” men and women, that is, Protestants.
Townspeople, wealthy people - 100.
Boys, girls and small children - 34.

Among the witches were little girls from seven to ten years old, and twenty-seven of them were sentenced and burned. The number of those brought to trial in this terrible legal proceeding was so great that the judges did little to delve into the essence of the case, and it became common occurrence that they did not even bother to write down the names of the accused, but designated them as accused No.; 1, 2, 3, etc.

Thomas Wright, Tales of Witchcraft and Magic

Literature

Pre-revolutionary studies

V. Velichkina. Essays on the History of the Inquisition (1906).
N. N. Gusev. Tales of the Inquisition (1906).
N. Ya. Kadmin. Philosophy of Murder (1913; reprint, 2005).
A. Lebedev. Secrets of the Inquisition (1912).
N. Osokin. History of the Albigensians and their times (1869-1872).
M. N. Pokrovsky. Medieval heresies and the Inquisition (in the Reading Book on the History of the Middle Ages, edited by P. G. Vinogradov, issue 2, 1897).
M. I. Semevsky. Word and deed. Secret investigation of Peter I (1884; reprint, 1991, 2001).
Ya. Kantorovich. Medieval Witch Trials (1899)

Literature of the Soviet and post-Soviet period

N.V. Budur. Inquisition: geniuses and villains (2006).
M. Ya. Vygodsky. Galileo and the Inquisition (1934).
S. V. Gordeev. History of religions: the main religions of the world, ancient ceremonies, religious wars, Christian Bible, Witches and the Inquisition (2005).
I. R. Grigulevich.

The emergence and existence for many centuries of special papal tribunals (the Inquisition) is the most shameful and dark page in the history of the Catholic Church. For most modern people, the activity of inquisitors is usually associated with the “dark ages” of the early Middle Ages, but it did not stop even during the Renaissance and Modern times. The emergence of the Inquisition was associated with the activities of Dominic Guzman (a trusted employee of Pope Innocent III) and the monastic order he created.

Pope Innocent III

Dominic Guzman, portrait by an unknown artist, National Museum of Amsterdam

The first victims of church tribunals were the Cathars (also known as the Albigensians, from the city of Albi), the inhabitants of Aquitaine, Languedoc and Provence who had “fallen into heresy”. The name "Cathars" comes from Greek word“pure,” but the “apostates” themselves usually called themselves “good people” and their organization the “Church of Love.” In the 12th century, the Waldensian sect (named after the Lyon merchant Pierre Waldo), which was declared heretical at the Council of Verona in 1184, also appeared and gained great popularity in the south of France. Common to all such heretical sects was the condemnation of the money-grubbing hierarchs of the official church, the denial of pompous ceremonies and rituals. It is believed that the Cathar teachings came to Western Europe from the East, and are closely related to the Manichaean sects and Gnostic teachings. The immediate predecessors and “teachers” of the Cathars were probably the Byzantine Paulicians and the Bulgarian Bogomils. But, in general, there was no strict “canon” of the teachings of “good people,” and some researchers count up to 40 different sects and movements. It was common to recognize the creator god of this World as an evil demon who captured particles of divine light, which are human souls. The soul, made of light, is directed towards God, but his body is drawn to the Devil. Christ is neither God nor man, he is an Angel who appeared to show the only path to salvation through complete renunciation from material world. The Cathar preachers were called "weavers" because... It was this profession that they most often chose for naturalization in a new place. They could be recognized by their haggard appearance and pale faces. These were “perfect” - teachers, devotees of the faith, whose main commandment was the prohibition of shedding anyone’s blood. The hierarchs of the Catholic Church sounded the alarm: entire areas of Europe were falling out of the control of Rome because of a sect that preached some kind of not entirely Christian humility and abstinence. The most terrible thing seemed to be the shroud of secrecy that surrounded the heretics: “Swear and bear false witness, but do not reveal the secret,” read the Cathar code of honor. Dominic Guzmán, a trusted collaborator of Pope Innocent III, went to Languedoc to personal example strengthen the authority of the Catholic Church, but “one man in the field is not a warrior: Dominic lost the “perfect” competition in asceticism and eloquence. Embittered by the failure, he reported to his patron that the terrible heresy of the Cathars can only be broken military force and the Crusader invasion of Languedoc was decided. This unworthy act did not prevent the canonization of Dominic, but centuries passed and in the poem “The Virgin of Orleans” Voltaire was merciless, describing the hellish torment of the founder of the Dominican order:

...Eternal torment
I brought what I deserved upon myself.
I persecuted the Albigensians,
And he was not sent into the world to destroy,
And now I’m burning for the fact that I burned them myself.

The Languedoc Crusades are better known as the Albigensian Wars. They began in 1209. At first, the issue of reconciliation with the official Catholic Church could still be resolved through monetary payments: “those who voluntarily repented” paid a fine to the pope, people forced to “repent” at the episcopal court were sentenced to confiscation of property, the rest faced the fire. There were never too many repentants. From the beginning of hostilities, Dominic Guzman became an adviser to the military leader of the Crusaders, Simon de Montfort.

Dominic Guzman and Simon de Montfort

A terrible description of the assault on the Albigensian city of Beziers, left by Caesar of Heisterbach, has reached our time:

“Having learned from the shouts that there (in the captured city) there were Orthodox Christians along with the heretics, they (the soldiers) said to the abbot (Arnold-Amaury, abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Citeaux): “What should we do, Father? We do not know how to distinguish good from evil." And so the abbot (as well as others), fearing that the heretics, for fear of death, would pretend to be Orthodox, and subsequently return to their superstition, said, as they say: "Beat them all, for The Lord recognizes his own."

Despite the fact that the forces of the opposing sides were not equal, it was only in March 1244 that the last stronghold of the Cathars, Montsegur, fell.

Montsegur

274 “perfects” (they did not have the right to fight with their hands) then went to the stake; the enemies offered to save the lives of the other defenders of the fortress (of which there were about 100 people), recognizing the Holy Trinity, the sacraments and the pope. Some of them agreed, but a monk ordered to bring a dog and began to offer the Albigensians one by one a knife: to prove the truth of the renunciation, they had to hit the animal with it. None of them shed the blood of an innocent creature and all were hanged. After this, the “cleansing” of the rebel regions from heretics began. In identifying the secret Cathars, the crusaders were diligently helped by both devout Catholics and simply dishonest people who, with the help of denunciations, sought to get rid of their enemies or creditors. It is curious that all the thin and poorly dressed people, whom the crusaders often mistook for traveling Cathar preachers, were then under suspicion. In Spain, for example, five Franciscan monks were executed as a result of such a mistake. This situation required the creation of special commissions that would resolve the issue of a particular person’s involvement in heresy. Dominic often acted as an “expert” and, in recognition of his services, Simon de Montfort in 1214 transferred to him the “income” received from the sack of one of the Albigensian cities. That same year, the wealthy Catholics of Toulouse donated three buildings to him. These gifts became the basis for the creation of a new religious order of Dominican friars (1216). The main type of his activity was the fight against heresy in all its manifestations, which was expressed, first of all, in the collection of incriminating materials on the townspeople. Therefore, in 1235, the Dominicans were expelled from Toulouse (alas, they returned to it two years later) and were forced to seek refuge in other cities of France and Spain. However, even there, a climate of general hostility for a long time forced them to settle far beyond the city limits. Dominic Guzman was canonized in 1234 (thirteen years after his death). According to the testimony of the inquisitor Guillaume Pelisson, on this occasion the Dominicans of Toulouse held a gala dinner, during which a message was received that one of the women dying nearby had received a “consalumentum” - the Cathar equivalent of the rite of communion before death. The worthy successors of Saint Dominic immediately interrupted the meal and burned the unfortunate woman in the count's meadow.

At first, the Dominicans sought out heretics on their own initiative, but already in 1233, Pope Gregory IX issued a bull that officially held them responsible for the eradication of heresies. Moreover, the Dominicans were given the power to defrock suspected clergy. Somewhat later, the establishment of a permanent tribunal was announced, the members of which could only be Dominicans. This decision marked the beginning of the official history of the Papal Inquisition. The sentences passed by the inquisitors were not subject to appeal, and their actions were so unceremonious that they caused legitimate indignation even among local bishops. Their opposition to the actions of the inquisitors was so open at that time that the Council of 1248, in a special message, threatened disobedient bishops with exclusion from their own churches if they did not agree with the sentences of the Dominicans. Only in 1273, Pope Gregory X found a compromise: the inquisitors were ordered to act in cooperation with local church authorities and friction between them no longer arose. Interrogations of suspects were accompanied by the most sophisticated torture, during which the executioners were allowed everything except shedding blood. However, sometimes blood was still shed, and Pope Alexander IV in 1260 gave the inquisitors permission to absolve each other for any “unforeseen accidents.”

As for the legal basis for the activities of the Inquisition, it was the legislation of the Roman Empire: Roman law contained about 60 provisions directed against heresy. Consignment to the flames, for example, in Rome was the standard punishment for parricide, temple desecration, arson, witchcraft and treason. That's why greatest number The burned victims ended up in countries that were previously part of the Roman Empire: Italy, Spain, Portugal, the southern regions of Germany and France. But in England and Scandinavia, the actions of the inquisitors did not reach such a scale, since the laws of these countries were not taken from Roman law. In England, moreover, torture was prohibited (this does not mean that it was not used). However, trials against witches and heretics in this country were somewhat difficult.

How were the activities of the inquisitors carried out in practice? Sometimes inquisitors arrived in a city or monastery secretly (as described in Umberto Eco's novel The Name of the Rose). But more often the population was notified about their visit in advance. After this, the secret heretics were given a “graceful time” (from 15 to 30 days) during which they could repent and return to the bosom of the church. As punishment, they were promised penance, which usually took the form of public flogging on Sundays for the rest of their lives(!). Another form of penance was pilgrimage. A person making the “Little Pilgrimage” was required to visit 19 local holy places, in each of which he was whipped with rods. The "Great Pilgrimage" involved traveling to Jerusalem, Rome, Santiago de Compostello or Canterbury. It lasted for several years. During this time, the heretic's affairs fell into decline and the family went bankrupt. Another way to earn forgiveness was to participate in the crusades (sinners had to fight from two to eight years). The number of heretics in the crusader armies gradually increased, and the Pope began to fear that the Holy Land would be “infected” with their teachings. Therefore, this practice was soon banned. Another very interesting and attractive (for the inquisitors themselves) form of penance was fines. Later, the bright idea came to the heads of the hierarchs of the Catholic Church that payment for sins could be taken in advance - and numerous “merchants of heaven” (as humanist writers of the Reformation era called the sellers of the notorious indulgences) traveled along the roads of Europe.

Having finished with the “volunteers,” the inquisitors began searching for secret heretics. There was no shortage of denunciations: the temptation to settle scores with old enemies was too great. If two witnesses denounced a person, he was summoned to an inquisitorial tribunal and, as a rule, taken into custody. Torture helped to obtain confession in almost all cases. Neither social position nor national fame saved him from being sentenced. In France, for example, the national heroine Joan of Arc and her comrade-in-arms, Marshal of France Baron Gilles de Rais (who went down in legends under the nickname “Duke Bluebeard”) were executed on charges of having intercourse with demons. But there were exceptions to the rules. Thus, the famous astronomer Kepler, after many years of litigation, managed to prove the innocence of his mother, accused of witchcraft. Agrippa of Nestheim, who became the prototype of Doctor Faustus, saved a woman sentenced to be burned at the stake for witchcraft, accusing the inquisitor himself of heresy: insisting on the re-baptism of the accused, he declared that the inquisitor with his accusation denied the great sacrament to which the defendant was subjected, and he was even sentenced to fine

Henry Agrippa of Nestheim

And Michel Nostradamus, who received a summons to the Inquisition, managed to escape from France. He traveled through Lorraine, Italy, Flanders, and when the inquisitors left the city of Bordeaux, he returned to Provence and even received a pension from the parliament of this province.

In Spain, the Inquisition was initially no more active than in other countries. Western Europe. Moreover, inquisitors appeared in Castile, Leon and Portugal only in 1376 - a century and a half later than in France. The situation changed in 1478, when Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, the future king of Aragon (from 1479) Ferdinand established their own Inquisition. In February 1482, the prior of the monastery in Segovia, Tomas de Torquemada, was appointed Grand Inquisitor of Spain. It was he who became the prototype of the main character of the famous “Parable of the Grand Inquisitor” in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel “The Brothers Karamazov”. In 1483, he was appointed head of the Supreme Council of the Inquisition (Suprema) - Inquisitor General, and it was he who had the dubious honor of becoming the personification of the Inquisition in its darkest manifestations.

Tomas de Torquemada

Torquemada's personality is very contradictory: on the one hand, he was a strict vegetarian, refused the rank of cardinal, and wore the rough robe of a Dominican monk all his life. On the other hand, he lived in luxurious palaces and appeared to the people, accompanied by a retinue of 50 horsemen and 250 soldiers. A feature of the Spanish Inquisition was its pronounced anti-Semitic orientation. Thus, of all those convicted by the Inquisition in Barcelona for the period from 1488 to 1505. 99.3% were “conversos” (forced baptized Jews caught performing the rites of Judaism), in Valencia between 1484-1530. these turned out to be 91.6%. The persecution of the Jews had dire consequences for the country's economy, King Ferdinand understood this, but was adamant: “We are going through this, despite the obvious harm to ourselves, preferring the salvation of our souls to our own benefit,” he wrote to his courtiers. The baptized descendants of the Moors (Moriscos) were also persecuted. Carlos Fuentes wrote that at the end of the 15th century, “Spain banished sensuality from the Moors and intellect from the Jews.” Science, culture, industrial production fell into decay, and Spain for many centuries turned into one of the most backward countries in Western Europe. The successes of the Spanish Royal Inquisition in the fight against dissidents were so great that in 1542, the Papal Inquisition was reconstructed on its model, which henceforth became known as the “Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Ecumenical Inquisition” or simply the “Holy Office”. The decisive blow to the Spanish Inquisition came in 1808, when the army of Napoleonic Marshal Joachim Murat occupied the country. Times have changed, but the inquisitors have not changed, who considered it possible to arrest Murat’s secretary, a famous philologist and militant atheist. Murat did not understand the humor of this situation and, instead of laughing merrily at the successful joke of the “holy fathers,” he sent his dashing cavalrymen to them.

Joachim Murat

In a short theological debate, the dragoons proved themselves to be worthy heirs of the great French philosophers: they easily proved to their opponents both the deep error of their position and the absolute uselessness of the existence of their archaic organization. On December 4, 1808, Napoleon signed a decree banning the Inquisition and confiscating its property. In 1814, Ferdinand VII of Bourbon, restored to the Spanish throne, issued a decree to restore the Inquisition, but this was like an attempt to reanimate an already decomposed corpse.

Ferdinand VII of Bourbon, king of Spain, who tried to revive the Inquisition in 1814

In 1820, residents of Barcelona and Valencia destroyed the premises of the Inquisition. In other cities, the “holy fathers” also felt very uncomfortable. On July 15, 1834, the royal ban on the Inquisition put an end to this agony.

While the “own” Inquisition of the monarchs of Spain was hunting secret Jews and Moriscos, the Papal Inquisition found a new enemy in Central and Northern Europe. Witches turned out to be the enemy of the church and God, and in some villages and cities of Germany and Austria there were soon almost no women left.

Victor Monzano y Mejorada. Inquisition scene

Until the end of the 15th century, the Catholic Church considered witchcraft to be a deception sown by the devil. But in 1484 the Pope recognized the reality of witchcraft, and the University of Cologne in 1491 published a warning that any challenge to the existence of witchcraft would entail prosecution by the Inquisition. Thus, if previously belief in witchcraft was considered heresy, now disbelief in it was declared such. In 1486, Heinrich Institoris and Jacob Sprenger published the book “The Hammer of the Witches,” which some researchers call “the most shameful and obscene in the entire history of Western civilization,” others call it “a manual on sexual psychopathology.”

"Witches Hammer"

“Where there are many women, there are many witches.” Heinrich Kramer, illustration for The Witches' Hammer, 1486

In this work, the authors stated that the forces of darkness are helpless on their own and are capable of doing evil only with the help of an intermediary, which is the witch. The 500 pages describe in detail the manifestations of witchcraft, various ways of establishing contact with the devil, copulation with demons is described, formulas and recipes for exorcism are given, and rules that must be followed when dealing with witches. The chronicles of those years are simply overflowing with descriptions of the executions of unfortunate women.

William Russell. Witch burning

Thus, in 1585, in two German villages, after the visit of the inquisitors, only one woman remained alive. And in Trier for the period from 1587 to 1593. One witch per week was burned. The last victims of the Witches' Hammer were burned in Szegedin (Hungary) in 1739.

A witch trial: illustration for V. Bryusov’s novel “Fire Angel”

In the 16th century, Protestants destroyed the centuries-old monopoly of the Catholic clergy on the knowledge and interpretation of the sacred texts of the Gospel and the Old Testament. In a number of countries, translations of the Bible into local languages were carried out; the rapid development of book printing sharply lowered the cost of books and made them accessible to wide sections of the population.

“Before printing, the Reformation was only a schism,– wrote V. Hugo, – printing turned it into a revolution.”

In an effort to prevent the spread of the ideas of the Reformation, the tribunals of the Inquisition introduced a new form of censorship. In 1554, the notorious “Index of Forbidden Books” appeared, which included the works of Erasmus of Rotterdam, Martin Luther, the tales of King Arthur, the Talmud, 30 translations of the Bible and 11 translations of the New Testament, works on magic, alchemy and astrology. The last complete edition of the Index appeared in the Vatican in 1948. Among the banned authors were Balzac, Voltaire, Hugo, father and son Dumas, Zola, Stendhal, Flaubert and many others. Only in 1966 did common sense triumph and the “Index of Prohibited Books” was abolished.

The 18th century brought new worries to the Inquisition: on July 25, 1737, a secret conference of the Holy Office was held in Florence, which was attended by the Pope, three cardinals and the Inquisitor General. The topic of discussion was the Freemasons: the highest hierarchs of Rome were convinced that Freemasonry was only a cover for a new and extremely dangerous heresy. 9 months later, Pope Clement XII issued the first of a long series of bulls condemning Freemasonry. However, even on this front, Catholic Rome faced failures and defeats, all the more offensive because the clergy themselves did not listen to the voice of the leadership. Threats and promises of punishment did not work: in Mainz the Masonic lodge consisted almost entirely of clergy, in Erfurt the lodge was organized by the future bishop of this city, and in Vienna two royal chaplains, the rector of a theological institution and two priests became active Freemasons. Individual Masons were arrested by the Inquisition (for example, Casanova and Cagliostro), but this did not affect the general trend of the spread of the “Masonic infection.”

The Inquisition, called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, still exists today. Moreover, this department is the most important in the Vatican hierarchy and is listed first in all documents. The official head of the Congregation is the pope himself, and the highest official (the modern Grand Inquisitor) is the prefect of this department. The head of the judicial department of the Congregation and at least two of his assistants are, by tradition, Dominicans. Modern inquisitors, of course, do not impose death sentences, but non-orthodox Christians are still excommunicated from the church. Father Häring, a German moral theologian, for example, found his trial by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith more humiliating than the four times he stood trial during the Third Reich. It may seem incredible, but in order to turn out to be not a devout Catholic, these days it is enough to openly speak out for birth control (abortion, modern methods contraception), get a divorce, criticize the activities of the local bishop or pope (the thesis about the infallibility of the Pope, adopted in 1870, has not been canceled), express doubt about the possibility of resurrection from the dead. The legitimacy of the Anglican Church, all parishioners of which the Vatican considers heretics, is still denied. Some of the most radical advocates environment from among the “greens” in the 80s of the twentieth century were accused of deifying nature and, therefore, of pantheism.

However, time moves forward, and encouraging trends are noted in the activities of the Vatican. So, in 1989, Pope John Paul II admitted that Galileo was right, the same pope, on behalf of the Catholic Church, publicly repented for the crimes it committed against dissidents (heretics) and Orthodox Christians. There are persistent rumors that Giordano Bruno will soon be recognized as right. These events give reason to hope that the processes of democratization of the Catholic Church will continue, and the Papal Inquisition will truly and forever cease its activities.

The Holy Inquisition (Latin: Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis Sanctum Officium, “Holy Department of Investigation of Heretical Sinfulness”) is the general name for a number of institutions of the Roman Catholic Church designed to combat heresy.

From lat. inquīsītiō, in the legal sense - “search”, “investigation”, “research”. The term was widespread in the legal sphere even before the emergence of medieval church institutions with this name and meant clarification of the circumstances of a case, an investigation, usually through interrogation, often with the use of torture. Over time, the Inquisition began to mean spiritual trials of anti-Christian heresies.

History of creation

Early Christianity and the Christian Church suffered both from an external enemy - the Roman emperors, and from internal strife based on theological differences: different interpretations sacred texts, on the recognition or non-recognition of individual texts as sacred, and so on.

A reflection of one of the stages of the internal struggle was, apparently, the “Jerusalem Council” mentioned in chapter 15 of the Acts of the Apostles, as well as many cases when the Apostle Paul defended his own apostolic ministry, convincing Christians to be wary of false shepherds or anything contrary to what he preached He. Similar calls are contained in the epistles of John and the Epistle to the Jews, as well as in the Revelation of John the Theologian.

Starting from the 2nd century, Christian authorities (bishops and local synods), using the above sources, denounced some theologians as heretics and defined the doctrine of Christianity more clearly, trying to avoid errors and discrepancies. In this regard, orthodoxy (Greek ὀρθοδοξία - correct point of view) began to be opposed to heresy (Greek αἵρεσις - choice; it is implied that it is erroneous).

A special ecclesiastical court of the Catholic Church called the Inquisition was created in 1215 by Pope Innocent III.

The Congregation of the Holy Office was established in 1542, replacing the Great Roman Inquisition, and in 1917 the functions of the abolished Index Congregation were also transferred to it.

In 1908, it was renamed the “Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith” (Latin: Sacra congregatio Romanae et universalis Inquisitionis seu Sancti Officii). The work of this institution was built in strict accordance with the legislation then in force in Catholic countries.

Goals and means

Torture applied to those accused of heresy. Engraving from 1508.

The main task of the Inquisition was to determine whether the accused was guilty of heresy.

Since the end of the 15th century, when ideas about the massive presence of those who entered into an agreement with evil spirits witches among the general population, witch trials begin to fall within its purview. At the same time, the overwhelming majority of witch convictions were made by secular courts in Catholic and Protestant countries in the 16th and 17th centuries. While the Inquisition did persecute witches, so did virtually every secular government. By the end of the 16th century, Roman inquisitors began to express serious doubts about most cases of witchcraft accusations.

Also, from 1451, Pope Nicholas V transferred cases of Jewish pogroms to the competence of the Inquisition. The Inquisition had to not only punish pogromists, but also act preventively, preventing violence. The Inquisition did not allow extrajudicial killings. In addition to ordinary interrogations, torture of the suspect was used, as in secular courts of that time. Lawyers of the Catholic Church attached great importance to sincere confession. In the event that the suspect did not die during the investigation, but admitted to his crime and repented, then the case materials were transferred to the court.

Judicial procedure

VIII. The inquisitor examined the witnesses in the presence of a secretary and two priests, who were instructed to see that the testimony was correctly recorded, or at least to be present when it was given in order to listen to it when it was read in full. This reading took place in the presence of witnesses, who were asked whether they recognized what was now read to them. If a crime or suspicion of heresy was proven during the preliminary investigation, then the accused was arrested and imprisoned in a church prison, if there was no Dominican monastery in the city, which usually replaced it. After the arrest, the defendant was interrogated, and a case against him was immediately started according to the rules, and his answers were compared with the testimony of the preliminary investigation.

IX. In the early days of the Inquisition there was no prosecutor responsible for indicting suspects; this formality of legal proceedings was carried out verbally by the inquisitor after hearing the witnesses; the consciousness of the accused served as accusation and response. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy, it was in vain that he asserted that he was innocent of the others; he was not allowed to defend himself because the crime for which he was being tried had already been proven. He was only asked whether he was disposed to renounce the heresy of which he pleaded guilty. If he agreed, then he was reconciled with the Church, imposing canonical penance on him simultaneously with some other punishment. Otherwise, he was declared a stubborn heretic, and he was handed over to the secular authorities with a copy of the verdict.

The death penalty, like confiscation, was a measure that, in theory, the Inquisition did not apply. Her job was to use every effort to return the heretic to the bosom of the Church; if he persisted, or if his appeal was feigned, she had nothing more to do with him. As a non-Catholic, he was not subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, which he rejected, and the Church was forced to declare him a heretic and deprive him of its patronage. Initially, the sentence was only a simple conviction for heresy and was accompanied by excommunication from the Church or a declaration that the guilty person was no longer considered subject to the jurisdiction of the court of the Church; sometimes it was added that he was being handed over to a secular court, that he was being released - a terrible expression that meant that the direct intervention of the Church in his fate had already ended. Over time, the sentences became more extensive; often a remark begins to appear explaining that the Church can do nothing more to atone for the sins of the guilty, and his transfer into the hands of secular power is accompanied by the following significant words: debita animadversione puniendum, that is, “let him be punished according to his deserts.” The hypocritical appeal, in which the Inquisition implored the secular authorities to spare the life and body of the apostate, is not found in the ancient sentences and was never precisely formulated.

Main historical stages

Chronologically, the history of the Inquisition can be divided into three stages:

Pre-Dominican (persecution of heretics until the 12th century);

Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229);

Spanish Inquisition.

Victims of the Inquisition. Criticism

In his book Tales of Witchcraft and Magic (1852), Thomas Wright, corresponding member of the National Institute of France, states:

“Of the scores of people who died for witchcraft at the stakes of Germany during the first half of the seventeenth century, there were many whose crime was their adherence to the religion of Luther<…>and the petty princes were not against seizing any opportunity to replenish their coffers... the most persecuted were those with significant fortunes... In Bamberg, as in Würzburg, the bishop was the sovereign prince in his domains. The Prince-Bishop, John George II, who ruled Bamberg... after several unsuccessful attempts to root out Lutheranism, glorified his reign with a series of bloody witch trials which disgraced the annals of that city... We can gain some idea of the exploits of his worthy agent (Frederick Ferner, Bishop of Bamberg) according to the most reliable sources, that between 1625 and 1630. at least 900 trials took place in the two courts of Bamberg and Zeil; and in an article published by the authorities at Bamberg in 1659, it is reported that the number of persons whom Bishop John George burned at the stake for witchcraft reached 600.”

Thomas Wright also provides a list (document) of victims of twenty-nine burnings. In this list, people professing Lutheranism were designated as “strangers.” As a result, the victims of these burnings were:

There are 28 “foreign” men and women, that is, Protestants.

Citizens, wealthy people - 100.

Boys, girls and small children - 34.

"Among the witches," says Wright, "were little girls from seven to ten years of age, and twenty-seven of them were condemned and burned," in other brande, or burnings. “The number of those brought to trial in this terrible trial was so great that the judges did little to delve into the essence of the case, and it became commonplace that they did not even bother to write down the names of the accused, but designated them as accused No.; 1, 2, 3, etc.”

Professor D. W. Draper, in The History of the Conflict between Religion and Science (1874), writes:

“The families of the convicts were subjected to complete ruin. Llorente, the historian of the Inquisition, estimated that Torquemada and his henchmen burned 10,220 people at the stake over the course of eighteen years; human images burned 6819; 97,321 people were punished in other ways. The papal government obtained large sums of money by selling to the rich licenses freeing them from the encroachments of the Inquisition."

Inquisition during the Renaissance

The Inquisition had a particularly hard time during the Renaissance, because the culture of the Renaissance itself was destroying the sole dominion of the Church over the minds of people. This culture taught people to believe in themselves and turn to exploring nature. The most important discoveries in all areas of science date back to the Renaissance.

The Renaissance occurs in the 14th century in Italy, and in other European countries at the end of the 15th century. In Spain, the formation of the Renaissance culture coincided with the fall of Granada and the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus, the rise of the country's economy and the conquest of newly discovered territories. These important events prepared the way for the flourishing of a new culture in the country.

But this is not only the time of the development of the Renaissance in Spain. This was also the most difficult period of persecution of dissidents by the Inquisition, which could not but leave its mark on the entire Spanish culture.

The Inquisition diligently fights the slightest manifestations of religious dissent, literally burning out the Protestantism that appeared in Spain with fire. The Reformation entered Spain in 1550. And after 20 years there was no trace of her there.

The first beginnings of Protestantism were brought to Spain by Charles V, who was not only the King of Spain, but also the German Emperor. There were many Lutherans who served in the ranks of the army of Charles V, who could not help but talk about their faith to their brothers in arms. Many nobles followed the emperor from Spain to Germany; there they heard sermons from Protestant pastors. In short, new knowledge somehow found its way to Spain.

In addition, missionaries began to come to the country and preach Protestantism. In many cities, communities of people who accepted the new faith even appeared. The heresy spread with amazing success. In many provinces - Leon, Old Castile, Logrono, Navarre, Aragon, Murcia, Granada, Valencia - soon there was almost not a single noble family among whose members there were no people who had secretly converted to Protestantism. Never before has Spanish Catholicism been in such danger.

And the Inquisition began to act - fires flared throughout the country, where people were burned only because they dared to accept a different, albeit Christian, faith.

In 1557, the inquisitors managed to arrest a poor peasant from Seville named Giulianilo, which means “little Julian.” Julian was indeed very short. “Small, but remote,” for for several years he successfully transported Bibles and other Lutheran theological books in Spanish in double-bottomed barrels filled with French wine. Giulianilo was betrayed by a blacksmith, to whom he gave the New Testament. Perhaps he would have been able to save his life if he had betrayed his accomplices and co-religionists, but he was unshakable.

Then a struggle began between the prisoner and his judges, which has no equal in the annals of the history of the Inquisition. We find information about this in the books of researchers of that time. For three years, the most sophisticated tortures were applied to the unfortunate man in vain. The accused was barely given time to rest between the two tortures. But Giulianilo did not give up and, in response to the impotent rage of the inquisitors, who could not extract confessions from him, sang blasphemous songs about the Catholic Church and its ministers. When, after the torture, they carried him, exhausted and bloodied, to his cell, in the corridors of the prison he triumphantly sang a folk song:

The evil clique of monks has been defeated!

The entire wolf pack is subject to expulsion!

The inquisitors were so frightened by the courage of the little Protestant that at the auto-da-fé he, completely crippled by torture, was carried gagged. But Giulianilo did not lose heart even here and encouraged those who sympathized with him with gestures and glances. At the fire, he knelt down and kissed the ground on which he was destined to unite with the Lord.

When they tied him to a stake, they removed the bandage from his mouth to give him the opportunity to renounce his faith. But he took advantage of this precisely in order to loudly profess his religion. Soon the fire blazed, but the martyr’s firmness did not leave him for a minute, so the guards became furious, seeing how a man of tiny stature was challenging the Great Inquisition, and they stabbed him with spears, thereby saving him from his last torment.

Meanwhile, Pope Paul IV and the Spanish King Philip II tried to rekindle the cooling zeal of the inquisitors. A papal bull of 1558 ordered the persecution of heretics, “whether they be dukes, princes, kings or emperors.” By royal edict of the same year, anyone who sold, bought or read prohibited books was sentenced to be burned at the stake.

Even Charles V himself, who had already entered a monastery, on the eve of his death found the strength to break his silence in order to recommend vigilance and demand the use of the most drastic measures. He threatened to rise from his self-imposed premature grave to personally take part in the fight against evil.

The Inquisition heeded the calls of its leaders, and a day was set for the extermination of the Protestants, but until the last minute the plan was kept secret. On the same day, in Seville, Valladolid and other cities of Spain, into which heresy had penetrated, all those suspected of Lutheranism were captured. In Seville alone, 800 people were arrested in one day. There were not enough cells in the prisons; those arrested had to be placed in monasteries and even in private houses. Many who remained free wished to surrender themselves into the hands of the tribunal in order to earn leniency. For it was clear that the Inquisition had once again won.

A similar bloody massacre of Protestant Huguenots was committed by Catholics several years later in France, in Paris, on the night of August 24, 1572, when the feast of St. Bartholomew was celebrated. After the name of this saint, the extermination of the Huguenots was called the Night of Bartholomew. The organizers of the massacre in France were the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici and the leaders of the Catholic Party of Giza. They wanted to destroy the leaders of the Protestants and used a convenient excuse for this - the wedding of the Protestant leader Henry of Navarre, which was attended by many of his associates. As a result of the massacre, which continued throughout France for several weeks, about thirty thousand people were killed!

But let's return to Spain. Between 1560 and 1570, at least one auto-da-fé was held annually in each of the twelve provinces of Spain under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, making a total of at least 120 auto-da-fés exclusively for Protestants. Thus Spain got rid of the pernicious heresy of Luther.

However, although Protestantism was scorched with a hot iron, in the 16th century opposition to Catholicism appeared - primarily the movement of the so-called “Illuminati” - the “enlightened”. They sincerely considered themselves true Catholics, but sought to establish the priority of the individual in the knowledge of God. The official Catholic Church, which denied the importance of personality in history and religion, did not like the new doctrine, and in 1524 most of the Illuminati were burned at the stake.

The ideas of Erasmus of Rotterdam, an outstanding figure of the Northern Renaissance, humanist, thinker and writer, became much more widespread in Spain. As a Catholic, he condemned the greed, licentiousness and lack of education of most Catholic priests and demanded a return to the simplicity of the early christian church, that is, the rejection of magnificent cult, rich decoration of churches, called for a truly virtuous life based on the ideals of mercy and compassion. But almost all the followers of Erasmus in Spain were waiting for the fire.

The works of Erasmus of Rotterdam himself were strictly prohibited in Spain. The books of Erasmus and other great writers were subject to strict censorship by the Inquisition. Even the famous Spanish playwright Lope de Vega (1562 - 1635) was not ignored by the “zealots of the faith”; his plays were more than once cut with inquisitorial scissors, and sometimes even removed from production.

Control was exercised by the Catholic Church in almost all areas of art, including painting. The church was the main customer for works of art. And at the same time, she introduced bans on certain subjects and topics. Thus, the image of the naked human body was prohibited - except for the image of Jesus Christ on the cross and cherubs. Talent did not save him from persecution by the Inquisition. Thus, when the great artist Velazquez depicted a naked Venus, he was saved from the “zealots of the faith” only by the king of Spain himself, who valued Velazquez as an excellent portrait painter. And for the no less great and famous Francisco Goya, it is not known how his fate would have turned out if not for his influential patrons at court. After painting the painting “Macha Nude,” which is now known to every educated person, he was threatened with the fire of the Inquisition. And the threat seemed real - in 1810, 11 people were burned in Spain on charges of witchcraft.

Yes, yes, the Inquisition in the Pyrenees was still rampant in the 19th century, continuing to exterminate people. For many centuries, it dominated Spain, exercising its rule according to a single scheme: “denunciation – investigation – torture – prison – sentence – auto-da-fé.” Centuries changed, wars began and ended, new lands were discovered, books and paintings were written, people were born and died, and the Inquisition still ruled its bloody ball.

The total number of victims of the Inquisition in Spain for the period from 1481 to 1826 is about 350 thousand people, not counting those who were sentenced to imprisonment, hard labor and exile.

But in the last 60 years of its existence, the Inquisition carried out mainly censorship, so Goya would hardly have been sent to the stake, although, like many other cultural figures of that time, he was threatened with a short-term exile to a Catholic monastery, deportation from large cities to the provinces, or a multi-day church repentance.

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18. Inquisition under the Bourbons If Philip did not recognize the omnipotence of the Inquisition, it was not at all for humane reasons. He was brought up in the spirit of the principles of the "Sun King" and had no doubt that the monarch could be the only head of state. However, taking into account

From the book Albigensian drama and the fate of France by Madolle Jacques

THE INQUISITION Indeed, up to this point the procedure, as the canonists put it, was accusatory: in principle, it was based on the fact that it was necessary to receive a denunciation of heretics in order to begin to act against them. It even happened (and we saw this in the agreement in Mo) that

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From the book Book II. New geography of antiquity and the “exodus of the Jews” from Egypt to Europe author Saversky Alexander Vladimirovich

The Great Inquisition and the Great Renaissance The Inquisition formally began in the 12th century. against the backdrop of numerous Crusades. And, in general, we can say that there were two waves of the Inquisition. The peak of the first wave can be called the Fourth crusade, ended

Inquisition(from lat. inquisitio- investigation, search), in the Catholic Church there is a special church court for heretics, which existed in the 13th-19th centuries. Back in 1184, Pope Lucius III and Emperor Frederick 1 Barbarossa established a strict procedure for the search by bishops of heretics and the investigation of their cases by episcopal courts. Secular authorities were obliged to carry out the death sentences they passed. The Inquisition as an institution was first discussed at the 4th Lateran Council (1215), convened by Pope Innocent III, which established a special process for the persecution of heretics (per inquisitionem), for which defamatory rumors were declared sufficient grounds. From 1231 to 1235, Pope Gregory IX, through a series of decrees, transferred the functions of persecuting heresies, previously performed by bishops, to special commissioners - inquisitors (initially appointed from among the Dominicans, and then the Franciscans). In a number of European states (Germany, France, etc.) inquisitorial tribunals were established, which were entrusted with investigating cases of heretics, pronouncing and executing sentences. This is how the establishment of the Inquisition was formalized. Members of the inquisitorial tribunals had personal immunity and immunity from the jurisdiction of local secular and ecclesiastical authorities and were directly dependent on the pope. Due to the secret and arbitrary proceedings, those accused by the Inquisition were deprived of all guarantees. The widespread use of cruel torture, the encouragement and reward of informers, the material interest of the Inquisition itself and the papacy, which received huge funds through the confiscation of the property of those convicted, made the Inquisition the scourge of Catholic countries. Those sentenced to death were usually handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake (see Auto-da-fe). In the 16th century I. became one of the main weapons of the Counter-Reformation. In 1542, a supreme inquisitorial tribunal was established in Rome. Many outstanding scientists and thinkers (G. Bruno, G. Vanini, etc.) became victims of the Inquisition. The Inquisition was especially rampant in Spain (where from the end of the 15th century it was closely connected with royal power). In just 18 years of activity of the main Spanish inquisitor Torquemada (15th century), more than 10 thousand people were burned alive.

The tortures of the Inquisition were very varied. The cruelty and ingenuity of the inquisitors amazes the imagination. Some medieval instruments of torture have survived to this day, but most often even museum exhibits have been restored according to descriptions. We present to your attention a description of some famous instruments of torture.

The "interrogation chair" was used in Central Europe. In Nuremberg and Fegensburg, until 1846, preliminary investigations using it were regularly carried out. The naked prisoner was seated on a chair in such a position that at the slightest movement, spikes pierced his skin. Executioners often intensified the agony of the victim by lighting a fire under the seat. The iron chair quickly heated up, causing severe burns. During interrogation, the victim's limbs could be pierced using forceps or other instruments of torture. Similar chairs had various shapes and sizes, but all of them were equipped with spikes and means of immobilizing the victim.

rack-bed

This is one of the most common instruments of torture found in historical accounts. The rack was used throughout Europe. Usually this tool was a large table with or without legs, on which the convict was forced to lie down, and his legs and arms were fixed with wooden blocks. Thus immobilized, the victim was "stretched", causing him unbearable pain, often until the muscles were torn. The rotating drum for tensioning the chains was not used in all versions of the rack, but only in the most ingenious “modernized” models. The executioner could cut into the victim's muscles to speed up the final rupture of the tissue. The victim's body stretched more than 30 cm before exploding. Sometimes the victim was tied tightly to the rack to make it easier to use other methods of torture, such as pincers for pinching nipples and other sensitive parts of the body, cauterization with a hot iron, etc.

This is by far the most common torture and was initially often used in legal proceedings as it was considered a mild form of torture. The defendant's hands were tied behind his back, and the other end of the rope was thrown over the winch ring. The victim was either left in this position or the rope was pulled strongly and continuously. Often, additional weights were tied to the victim's notes, and the body was torn with tongs, such as a "witch spider", to make the torture less gentle. The judges thought that witches knew many ways of witchcraft, which allowed them to calmly endure torture, so it was not always possible to obtain a confession. We can refer to a series of trials in Munich at the beginning of the 17th century involving eleven people. Six of them were constantly tortured with an iron boot, one of the women had her chest dismembered, the next five were wheeled, and one was impaled. They, in turn, reported on another twenty-one people, who were immediately interrogated in Tetenwang. Among the new accused was one very respectable family. The father died in prison, the mother, after being tried on the rack eleven times, confessed to everything she was accused of. The daughter, Agnes, twenty-one years old, stoically endured the ordeal on the rack with additional weight, but did not admit her guilt, and only said that she forgave her executioners and accusers. It was only after several days of continuous ordeal in the torture chamber that she was told of her mother's full confession. After attempting suicide, she confessed to all the terrible crimes, including cohabiting with the Devil from the age of eight, devouring the hearts of thirty people, participating in the Sabbath, causing a storm and denying the Lord. Mother and daughter were sentenced to be burned at the stake.

The use of the term "stork" is attributed to the Roman Court of the Holy Inquisition in the period from the second half of the 16th century. until about 1650. The same name was given to this instrument of torture by L.A. Muratori in his book “Italian Chronicles” (1749). The origin of the even stranger name "The Janitor's Daughter" is unknown, but it is given by analogy with the name of an identical device in the Tower of London. Whatever the origin of the name, this weapon is a magnificent example of the vast variety of coercive systems that were used during the Inquisition.

The victim's position was carefully thought out. Within a few minutes, this body position led to severe muscle spasms in the abdomen and anus. Then the spasm began to spread to the chest, neck, arms and legs, becoming more and more painful, especially at the site of the initial occurrence of the spasm. After some time, the one attached to the “Stork” passed from a simple experience of torment to a state of complete madness. Often, while the victim was tormented in this terrible position, he was additionally tortured with a hot iron and other means. The iron bonds cut into the victim's flesh and caused gangrene and sometimes death.

The "chair of the inquisition", known as the "witch's chair", was highly valued as a good remedy against silent women accused of witchcraft. This common instrument was especially widely used by the Austrian Inquisition. The chairs were of various sizes and shapes, all equipped with spikes, with handcuffs, blocks for restraining the victim and, most often, with iron seats that could be heated if necessary. We found evidence of the use of this weapon for slow killing. In 1693, in the Austrian city of Gutenberg, Judge Wolf von Lampertisch led the trial of Maria Vukinetz, 57 years old, on charges of witchcraft. She was placed on the witch's chair for eleven days and nights, while the executioners burned her legs with a red-hot iron (insleplaster). Maria Vukinetz died under torture, going crazy from pain, but not confessing to the crime.

According to the inventor, Ippolito Marsili, the introduction of the Vigil marked a turning point in the history of torture. The modern system of obtaining a confession does not involve the infliction of bodily harm. There are no broken vertebrae, twisted ankles, or shattered joints; the only substance that suffers is the victim's nerves. The idea of the torture was to keep the victim awake for as long as possible, a kind of insomnia torture. But the Vigil, which was not initially viewed as cruel torture, took various, sometimes extremely cruel, forms.

The victim was raised to the top of the pyramid and then gradually lowered. The top of the pyramid was supposed to penetrate the area of the anus, testicles or coccyx, and if a woman was tortured, then the vagina. The pain was so severe that the accused often lost consciousness. If this happened, the procedure was delayed until the victim woke up. In Germany, “vigil torture” was called “cradle guarding.”

This torture is very similar to the “vigil torture.” The difference is that the main element of the device is a pointed wedge-shaped corner made of metal or hardwood. The interrogated person was suspended over a sharp corner, so that this corner rested on the crotch. A variation of the use of the "donkey" is to tie a weight to the legs of the interrogated person, tied and fixed at a sharp angle.

A simplified form of the “Spanish Donkey” can be considered a stretched rigid rope or a metal cable called a “Mare”, more often this type of weapon is used on women. The rope stretched between the legs is lifted as high as possible and the genitals are rubbed until they bleed. The rope type of torture is quite effective as it is applied to the most sensitive parts of the body.

brazier

In the past, there was no Amnesty International association, no one intervened in the affairs of justice and did not protect those who fell into its clutches. The executioners were free to choose whatever they wanted from their point of view. suitable remedy to get confessions. They often also used a brazier. The victim was tied to the bars and then "roasted" until they received genuine repentance and confession, which led to the discovery of new criminals. And the cycle continued.

In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen. Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again, and the process was repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture.

The idea of mechanizing torture was born in Germany and nothing can be done about the fact that the Maid of Nuremberg has such origins. She got her name because of her resemblance to a Bavarian girl, and also because her prototype was created and first used in the dungeon of the secret court in Nuremberg. The accused was placed in a sarcophagus, where the body of the unfortunate man was pierced with sharp spikes, located so that none of the vital organs were affected, and the agony lasted for quite a long time. The first case of legal proceedings using the "Maiden" dates back to 1515. It was described in detail by Gustav Freytag in his book "bilder aus der deutschen vergangenheit". Punishment befell the perpetrator of the forgery, who suffered inside the sarcophagus for three days.

Wheeling

A person sentenced to be wheeled was broken with an iron crowbar or wheel, all the large bones of his body were then tied to a large wheel, and the wheel was placed on a pole. The condemned person found himself face up, looking at the sky, and died this way from shock and dehydration, often for quite a long time. The suffering of the dying man was aggravated by the birds pecking at him. Sometimes, instead of a wheel, they simply used a wooden frame or a cross made of logs.

Vertically mounted wheels were also used for wheeling.

Wheeling is a very popular system of both torture and execution. It was used only when accused of witchcraft. Typically the procedure was divided into two phases, both of which were quite painful. The first consisted of breaking most of the bones and joints with the help of a small wheel called a crushing wheel, equipped on the outside with many spikes. The second was designed in case of execution. It was assumed that the victim, broken and mutilated in this way, would literally, like a rope, slide between the spokes of a wheel onto a long pole, where he would remain to await death. A popular version of this execution combined wheeling and burning at the stake - in this case, death occurred quickly. The procedure was described in the materials of one of the trials in Tyrol. In 1614, a tramp named Wolfgang Zellweiser from Gastein, found guilty of intercourse with the devil and sending a storm, was sentenced by the court of Leinz to both be thrown on the wheel and burned at the stake.

Limb press or “Knee crusher”

A variety of devices for crushing and breaking joints, both knee and elbow. Numerous steel teeth, penetrating inside the body, inflicted terrible puncture wounds, causing the victim to bleed.

The “Spanish boot” was a kind of manifestation of “engineering genius”, since the judicial authorities during the Middle Ages took care that the best masters They created more and more advanced devices that made it possible to weaken the prisoner’s will and to achieve a confession faster and easier. The metal “Spanish Boot,” equipped with a system of screws, gradually compressed the victim’s lower leg until the bones were broken.

The Iron Shoe is a close relative of the Spanish Boot. In this case, the executioner “worked” not with the lower leg, but with the foot of the interrogated person. Using the device too hard usually resulted in broken tarsus, metatarsus, and toe bones.

This medieval device, it should be noted, was highly valued, especially in northern Germany. Its function was quite simple: the victim's chin was placed on a wooden or iron support, and the cap of the device was screwed onto the victim's head. First, the teeth and jaws were crushed, then, as the pressure increased, brain tissue began to flow out of the skull. Over time, this instrument lost its significance as a murder weapon and became widespread as an instrument of torture. Despite the fact that both the cover of the device and the lower support are lined with a soft material that does not leave any marks on the victim, the device brings the prisoner into a state of “readiness to cooperate” after just a few turns of the screw.

The pillory has been a widespread method of punishment at all times and under any social system. The convicted person was placed in the pillory for a certain time, from several hours to several days. Bad weather during the punishment period aggravated the situation of the victim and increased the torment, which was probably considered as “divine retribution.” The pillory, on the one hand, could be considered a relatively mild method of punishment, in which the guilty were simply exposed in a public place to public ridicule. On the other hand, those chained to the pillory were completely defenseless before the “court of the people”: anyone could insult them with a word or action, spit at them or throw a stone - quiet treatment, the cause of which could be popular indignation or personal enmity, sometimes led to injury or even the death of the convicted person.

This instrument was created as a pillory in the shape of a chair, and was sarcastically named "The Throne". The victim was placed upside down, and her legs were strengthened with wooden blocks. This type of torture was popular among judges who wanted to follow the letter of the law. In fact, the laws governing torture only allowed the Throne to be used once during interrogation. But most judges circumvented this rule by simply calling the next session a continuation of the same first one. Using "Tron" allowed it to be declared as one session, even if it lasted 10 days. Since the use of the Tron did not leave permanent marks on the victim's body, it was very suitable for long-term use. It should be noted that at the same time as this torture, prisoners were also tortured with water and a hot iron.

It could be wooden or iron, for one or two women. It was an instrument of mild torture, with rather psychological and symbolic meaning. There is no documented evidence that the use of this device resulted in physical injury. It was applied mainly to those guilty of slander or insult to personality; the victim’s arms and neck were secured in small holes, so that the punished woman found herself in a prayer position. One can imagine the victim's suffering from poor circulation and pain in the elbows when the device was worn for a long period of time, sometimes for several days.

A brutal instrument used to restrain a criminal in a cross-like position. It is credible that the Cross was invented in Austria in the 16th and 17th centuries. This follows from the book “Justice in Old Times” from the collection of the Museum of Justice in Rottenburg ob der Tauber (Germany). A very similar model, which was located in the tower of a castle in Salzburg (Austria), is mentioned in one of the most detailed descriptions.

The suicide bomber was seated on a chair with his hands tied behind his back, and an iron collar rigidly fixed the position of his head. During the execution process, the executioner tightened the screw, and the iron wedge slowly entered the skull of the condemned man, leading to his death.

Neck trap - ring with nails on inside and with a device resembling a trap on the outside. Any prisoner who tried to hide in the crowd could be easily stopped using this device. After being caught by the neck, he could no longer free himself, and he was forced to follow the overseer without fear that he would resist.

This instrument really resembled a double-sided steel fork with four sharp spikes piercing the body under the chin and in the sternum area. It was tightly fastened with a leather belt to the criminal's neck. This type of fork was used in trials for heresy and witchcraft. Penetrating deeply into the flesh, it caused pain with any attempt to move the head and allowed the victim to speak only in an unintelligible, barely audible voice. Sometimes the Latin inscription “I renounce” could be read on the fork.

The instrument was used to stop the victim's shrill screams, which bothered the inquisitors and interfered with their conversation with each other. The iron tube inside the ring was pushed tightly into the victim's throat, and the collar was locked with a bolt at the back of the head. The hole allowed air to pass through, but if desired, it could be plugged with a finger and cause suffocation. This device was often used in relation to those sentenced to be burned at the stake, especially in the large public ceremony called Auto-da-Fé, when heretics were burned by the dozen. The iron gag made it possible to avoid a situation where convicts drown out spiritual music with their screams. Giordano Bruno, guilty of being too progressive, was burned in Rome in the Campo dei Fiori in 1600 with an iron gag in his mouth. The gag was equipped with two spikes, one of which, piercing the tongue, came out under the chin, and the second crushed the roof of the mouth.

There is nothing to say about her, except that she caused death even worse than death at the stake. The weapon was operated by two men who sawed the condemned man suspended upside down with his legs tied to two supports. The very position itself, which caused blood flow to the brain, forced the victim to experience unheard-of torment for a long time. This instrument was used as punishment for various crimes, but was especially readily used against homosexuals and witches. It seems to us that this remedy was widely used by French judges in relation to witches who became pregnant by the “devil of nightmares” or even by Satan himself.

Women who had sinned through abortion or adultery had a chance to become acquainted with this subject. Having heated its sharp teeth white-hot, the executioner tore the victim's chest into pieces. In some areas of France and Germany, until the 19th century, this instrument was called the “Tarantula” or “Spanish Spider”.

This device was inserted into the mouth, anus or vagina, and when the screw was tightened, the segments of the “pear” opened as much as possible. As a result of this torture, internal organs were seriously damaged, often leading to death. When opened, the sharp ends of the segments dug into the wall of the rectum, pharynx or cervix. This torture was intended for homosexuals, blasphemers and women who had abortions or sinned with the Devil.

Cells

Even if the space between the bars was sufficient to push the victim into it, there was no chance for it to get out, since the cage was hung very high. Often the size of the hole at the bottom of the cage was such that the victim could easily fall out of it and break. The anticipation of such an end aggravated the suffering. Sometimes the sinner in this cage, suspended from a long pole, was lowered under water. In the heat, the sinner could be hung in it in the sun for as many days as he could endure without a drop of water to drink. There are known cases when prisoners, deprived of food and drink, died in such cells from hunger and their dried remains terrified their fellow sufferers.

Papal Inquisition. Holy Inquisition: when, where and how

Origin of the term

Goals and means

Main historical stages

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century

Dominican period

Spanish Inquisition

Inquisition in the Russian Empire

Other countries

Main historical dates

Victims of the Inquisition. Criticism

see also

Literature

rack-bed

brazier

Wheeling

Limb press or “Knee crusher”

Cells