In religious history, the Inquisition is the strangest phenomenon that legends even talk about. She was a serious tool in anti-religious propaganda. What is it? This is an investigation by force. In the Middle Ages and until recently, the Holy Inquisition sought to condemn believers and excommunicate if they were considered heretics.
Its main purpose was to prove that the accused person is a heretic. In the 15th century, the history of the Inquisition was a mystery. The clergy had special rights: to blame and destroy. However, this was a struggle not only of the church, but also of the nobility for power and domination over ordinary people.
The Middle Ages was a unique era. People perceived the world in their own way, since they could not understand many of the phenomena that occurred in their lives. There was no scientific evidence of why it was raining or the sun was shining, why earthquakes were occurring, or there was a terrible drought. People tried to attribute all this to dark forces: gods, fairies, demons, ghosts. Residents in the Middle Ages most of all did not want to become victims of sorcerers and were afraid of the dark forces that, in their opinion, could interfere in their lives.
That is why sorcerers and witches enjoyed great attention not only of a simple person. The history of the Inquisition of the Witches shows that even at the height of the hunt for them, they lived quietly in the homes of wealthy people. Sorcerers and witches were needed by people, but if they were accused of exceeding their power, they were severely punished. The Witch Inquisition is a punishment that was used if they were found guilty of causing corruption in the process of witchcraft.
How were witches punished? The Holy Inquisition declared the sorcerer guilty and most often he was killed. In certain cases, they had to compensate for any specific damage. Scripture helped church officials act as executioners, since they referred to this particular source in the execution process.
The trial itself was interesting . First, in the presence of the secretary, the inquisitor interrogated witnesses. When a crime in heresy was considered proven at a preliminary hearing, the accused was locked up in a church prison. He was interrogated, but the heretic did not have the right to defense.
After this procedure, he was handed over to secular authorities already with a copy of the sentence. The Holy Inquisition set itself the goal of not destroying the individual, but returning him to the fold of the church. Since the heretic was not a Catholic, the church deprived him of his patronage.
The history of the Inquisition is closely connected with the history of society as a whole. In the struggle against heretics, the enmity of two classes — the bourgeoisie and the oppressed — intensified. It was a struggle for power, and the Inquisition was determined by the leading role.
The main stages of development of this punitive body: the pre-Dominican, Dominican, Spanish Inquisition. In the first period, the persecution of heretics was not permanent. In the second, specialized inquisitor tribunals are created. In the third, the Holy Inquisition is closely linked by the monarchical system and serves as an instrument of the struggle for power.
In general, it adversely affected the intellectual progress of Europe. In the XVI century, it began to influence the censorship of books, however, already in the XVII century the number of victims of the Inquisition became much less. In the eighteenth century, it was completely abolished in almost all European countries.
Inquisition Results:
The great scientist Giordano Bruno was burned in Rome, in the same place in 1633 Galileo Galilei was forced to renounce the teachings of Copernicus, but after a lot of time, Pope John Paul II decided to rehabilitate him.
It was recognized that the Inquisition over the years of its existence has made many irreparable mistakes.