What is heresy? What are heretics? Briefly speaking, heresy in the Middle Ages was any deviation from the true faith accepted by the church. Moreover, this faith meant exactly as much as it was laid down in the concept of the church itself. Heretics, of course, are traitors to the church faith. These are people who committed sin in the sight of the Lord. They had their own rule - the Inquisition. In the Middle Ages, this was the most common thing! More about this in our article.
All in the hands of the papal
It was in the hands of the papal church, which could decide which faith and which statements about the Lord were considered correct and which were false (i.e. heretical).
Heretics were hated more than Gentiles (people of a different faith). They were despised even more than Muslims. And all this because heretics considered themselves to be true Christians. These were especially dangerous internal enemies of the church, which undermined its authority and foundations.
History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages
What is the Inquisition?
Heretics left no choice for the church; therefore, in the Middle Ages, the bonfires of the Inquisition, a specially created organization that fought against the secret enemies of Catholicism, constantly burned.
In general, the word "inquisition" in the Middle Ages meant "wanted," "wanted." Nowadays this is called the secret police. However, not all so simple! The Inquisition was much worse and more dangerous than any secret police! Why? Yes, because its power, influence and power did not extend to any one state, but to the whole of Europe!
The very first inquisitor, without any doubt, can be considered Pope Innocent the Third. It is curious that the very concept of "inquisition" was introduced in the Middle Ages after the death of the pope.
"King of kings and the lord of lords"
Innocent the Third developed a vigorous activity to eradicate heretics as soon as he entered the papal throne. Without a twinge of conscience, he considered himself the arbiter of the fate of all mortals and the entire Christian world! Innocent the Third called himself "the king of all kings and the lord of all lords." In addition, the pope did not hesitate to call himself "a priest of all ages and nations" and was not afraid to talk about himself as "the vicar of Christ himself in the sinful land." Can you imagine what scale the Inquisition had in the Middle Ages?
Inquisitor Torture
The installation was quite simple: turning the whole soul inside out. Torture until the heretic confesses his sin, is not aware of his misconduct. Monstrous tortures forced even very harmless heretics to take the blame for the commission of heinous crimes!
Brutal torture can be listed until blue in the face, something that medieval sadistic inventors did not invent. The Inquisition in the Middle Ages did not spare almost any heretic. Here is a list of the most sophisticated tortures:
- gutting and quartering;
- deadly pressure;
- interrogation chair;
- heretic's fork;
- cat's paw;
- hand saw;
- "Stork";
- roasting pan (grate);
- rupture of the chest;
- landing on a stake (a favorite pastime of Vlad Tepes - the ruler of Transylvania, the Romanian governor);
- wheeling (a favorite way of execution by Peter the Great).