The Inquisition was a tribunal of the Catholic Church that carried out detective, judicial and punitive functions; It has centuries-old history. Its emergence is associated with the struggle against heretics - those who preached religious views that did not correspond to the dogmas established by the church. The first known heretic to be burned at the stake for his beliefs in 1124 was Peter of Bruy, who demanded the abolition of the church hierarchy. There has not yet been any “legal” basis for this act. It began to take shape at the end of the 12th - first third of the 13th centuries.

In 1184, Pope Lucius III convened a council in Verona, the decisions of which obliged the clergy to collect information about heretics and search for them. According to the papal bull, the bones of previously deceased heretics, as desecrating Christian cemeteries, were subject to exhumation and burning, and property inherited by someone close to them was subject to confiscation. This was a kind of prelude to the emergence of the institution of the Inquisition. The generally accepted date of its creation is 1229, when church hierarchs at their council in Toulouse announced the creation of an Inquisition tribunal intended to detect, try and punish heretics. In 1231 and 1233 Three bulls of Pope Gregory IX followed, obliging all Catholics to implement the decision of the Toulouse council.

Church punitive bodies appeared in Italy (with the exception of the Kingdom of Naples), Spain, Portugal, France, the Netherlands, Germany, in the Portuguese colony of Goa, and after the discovery of the New World - in Mexico, Brazil and Peru.

After the invention of printing by Johannes Gutenberg in the mid-15th century. the tribunals of the Inquisition actually took over the functions of censors. Year after year, the list of prohibited books was replenished and by 1785 it amounted to over 5 thousand titles. Among them are books by French and English enlighteners, Denis Diderot’s “Encyclopedia” and others.

The most influential and cruel Inquisition was in Spain. Essentially, ideas about the Inquisition and inquisitors were formed under the influence of information about the persecution and reprisals against heretics associated with the name of Thomas de Torquemada, with his life and activities. These are the darkest pages in the history of the Inquisition. The personality of Torquemada, described by historians, theologians, and psychiatrists, still arouses interest to this day.

Thomas de Torquemada was born in 1420. His childhood and adolescence left no evidence of serious emotional turmoil and mental deviations. IN school years he served as an example of integrity not only for his classmates, but even for his teachers. Having then become a monk of the Dominican order, he was distinguished by his impeccable attitude towards the traditions of the order and the monastic way of life, and thoroughly fulfilled religious ceremonies. The order, founded in 1215 by the Spanish monk Domingo de Guzman (Latinized name Dominic) and approved by a papal bull on December 22, 1216, was the main support of the papacy in the fight against heresy.

Torquemada's deep piety did not go unnoticed. Rumor about her reached Queen Isabella, and she more than once invited him to head large parishes. He invariably responded with a polite refusal. However, when Isabella wished to have him as her confessor, Torquemada considered it a great honor. In all likelihood, he managed to infect the queen with his religious fanaticism. His influence on the life of the royal court was significant. In 1483, having received the title of Grand Inquisitor, he practically headed the Spanish Catholic tribunal.

The verdict of the secret court of the Inquisition could be public abdication, a fine, imprisonment and, finally, burning at the stake - the church used it for 7 centuries. The last execution took place in Valencia in 1826. The burning is usually associated with auto-da-fé - the solemn announcement of the verdict of the Inquisition, as well as its execution. This analogy is quite legitimate, since all other forms of punishment were handled more casually by the Inquisition.

In Spain, Torquemada resorted to extreme measures much more often than inquisitors in other countries: over 15 years, 10,200 people were burned on his orders. The 6,800 people sentenced to death in absentia can also be considered victims of Torquemada. In addition, 97,321 people were subjected to various punishments. Primarily baptized Jews were persecuted - Marranos, accused of adhering to Judaism, as well as Muslims who converted to Christianity - Moriscos, suspected of secretly practicing Islam. In 1492, Torquemada persuaded the Spanish kings Isabella and Ferdinand to expel all Jews from the country.

This "genius of evil" is dead natural death, although, as the Grand Inquisitor, he was constantly shaking for his life. On his table there was always a rhinoceros horn, with the help of which, according to the belief of that era, it was possible to detect and neutralize poison. When he moved around the country, he was accompanied by 50 horsemen and 200 infantry.

Unfortunately, Torquemada did not take his barbaric methods of fighting dissent with him to his grave.

The 16th century was the century of birth modern science. The most inquisitive minds devoted their lives to understanding facts, comprehending the laws of the universe, and questioning centuries-old scholastic dogmas. Man's everyday and moral ideas were renewed.

A critical attitude towards the so-called unshakable truths led to discoveries that radically changed the old worldview. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) stated that the Earth, along with other planets, revolves around the Sun. In the preface to the book “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” the scientist wrote that for 36 years he did not dare to publish this work. The work was published in 1543, a few days before the death of the author. The great astronomer encroached on one of the main postulates of church teaching, proving that the Earth is not the center of the Universe. The book was banned by the Inquisition until 1828.

If Copernicus escaped persecution only because the publication of the book coincided with his death, then the fate of Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) was tragic. As a young man he became a monk of the Dominican order. Bruno did not hide his convictions and displeased the holy fathers. Forced to leave the monastery, he led a wandering lifestyle. Persecuted, he fled from his native Italy to Switzerland, then lived in France and England, where he studied science. He outlined his ideas in the essay “On Infinity, the Universe and Worlds” (1584). Bruno argued that space is infinite; it is filled with self-luminous opaque bodies, many of which are inhabited. Each of these provisions contradicted the fundamental principles of the Catholic Church.

While lecturing on cosmology at Oxford University, Bruno engaged in heated discussions with local theologians and scholastics. In the auditoriums of the Sorbonne, the French scholastics experienced the power of his arguments. He lived in Germany for 5 whole years. A number of his works were published there, causing a new explosion of rage of the Italian Inquisition, which was ready to do anything to get the most dangerous, in its opinion, heretic.

At the instigation of the church, the Venetian patrician Mocenigo invited Giordano Bruno as a home teacher of philosophy and... betrayed him to the Inquisition. The scientist was imprisoned in a dungeon. For 8 years, the Catholic tribunal unsuccessfully sought a public renunciation of Giordano Bruno from his scientific works. Finally came the verdict: to punish “as mercifully as possible, without shedding blood.” This hypocritical formulation meant burning at the stake. The fire started burning. After listening to the judges, Giordano Bruno said: “Perhaps you pronounce this sentence with more fear than I listen to it.” On February 16, 1600, in Rome on the Square of Flowers, he stoically accepted death.

The same fate almost befell another Italian scientist - astronomer, physicist, mechanic Galileo Galilei (1564 -1642). The telescope he created in 1609 made it possible to obtain objective evidence of the validity of the conclusions of Copernicus and Bruno. The very first observations of the starry sky showed the complete absurdity of the church’s statements. In the Pleiades constellation alone, Galileo counted at least 40 stars, invisible until then. How naive the works of theologians now looked, explaining the appearance of stars in the evening sky only by the need to shine for people!.. The results of new observations embittered the Inquisition more and more. Mountains on the Moon, spots on the Sun, four satellites of Jupiter, and the dissimilarity of Saturn to other planets were discovered. In response, the church accuses Galileo of blasphemy and fraud, presenting the scientist’s conclusions as a consequence of optical illusion.

The massacre of Giordano Bruno was a serious warning. When in 1616 a congregation of 11 Dominicans and Jesuits declared the teachings of Copernicus heretical, Galileo was privately advised to dissociate himself from these views. Formally, the scientist submitted to the demands of the Inquisition.

In 1623, the papal throne was occupied by Galileo's friend Cardinal Barberini, who was known as the patron of the sciences and arts. He took the name Urban VIII. Not without his support, in 1632 Galileo published “Dialogue on the two most important systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican” - a kind of encyclopedia of astronomical views. But even closeness to the Pope did not protect Galileo. In February 1633, the Dialogue was banned by the Roman Catholic court, its author was declared a “prisoner of the Inquisition” and remained so for 9 years until his death. By the way, it was only in 1992 that the Vatican acquitted Galileo Galilei.

Society had difficulty clearing itself of the infection of the Inquisition. Depending on historical, economic, national and many other reasons, the countries of Europe at different times were freed from the tribunals of the church. Already in the 16th century. under the influence of the Reformation they ceased to exist in Germany and France. In Portugal, the Inquisition operated until 1826, in Spain - until 1834. In Italy, its activities were banned only in 1870.

Formally, the Inquisition, under the name of the Congregation of the Holy Office, existed until 1965, when its services were transformed into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which continues to fight for the purity of the faith, but by other, not at all medieval, means.

GRAND INQUISITOR

In the middle of the 17th century. The German poet Friedrich von Logan, discussing the nature of sin, noted: “It is human to fall into sin, diabolical to persist in it, Christian to hate it, divine to forgive.” If we proceed from common sense, Thomas de Torquemada (circa 1420-1498) was characterized only by the “diabolical”. After all, everything that he did in the name of defending religion was a huge, endless sin against the man of the Renaissance, before his desire for knowledge.

The arsenal of tortures invented by the Inquisition over several centuries of its existence is terrible: burning at the stake, torture with the wheel, torture by water, walling up in walls. Torquemada resorted to them much more often than other inquisitors.

Torquemada's fevered imagination first invented opponents who trembled at the mere mention of his name, and then throughout his life the inquisitor himself feared the inevitable revenge of his victims.

Wherever he left his monastery cell, he was accompanied by a devoted bodyguard. Constant uncertainty about his own safety sometimes forced Torquemada to leave his not-so-safe refuge and take refuge in the palace. For some time he found refuge in the chambers of the most guarded building in Spain, but fear did not leave the inquisitor for a moment. Then he embarked on multi-day trips around the country.

But is it possible to hide from the omnipresent ghosts? They waited for him in the olive grove, and behind every orange tree, and even made their way into the temples. Both day and night they watched over him, always ready to settle scores with him.

I think psychiatrists call this condition melancholic epilepsy. All-consuming anxiety causes hatred, despair, anger in the patient, and can suddenly push him to murder, suicide, theft, or arson. Its victims can be immediate relatives, friends, and the first person they meet. That's how Torquemada was.

Outwardly always gloomy, overly exalted, abstaining from food for long periods and zealous in repentance during sleepless nights, the Grand Inquisitor was merciless not only towards heretics, but also towards himself. His contemporaries were amazed by his impulsiveness and the unpredictability of his actions.

Once, in the midst of the struggle for the liberation of Granada from the Arabs (80s of the 15th century), a group of wealthy Jews decided to give 300 thousand ducats to Isabella and Ferdinand for this purpose. Torquemada suddenly burst into the hall where the audience was taking place. Not paying attention to the monarchs, without apologizing, without observing any norms of palace etiquette, he pulled out a crucifix from under his cassock and shouted: “Judas Iscariot betrayed his Teacher for 30 pieces of silver, and Your Majesties are going to sell Christ for 300 thousand. Here it is, take it and sell it!” With these words, Torquemada threw the crucifix on the table and quickly left the hall... The kings were shocked.

The history of the church has seen many cases of extreme fanaticism. How much sadism came, for example, from the Inquisition during the burning of Miguel Servetus (Latinized name Servetus), a Spanish physician and author of several works that questioned the theologians' reasoning about the Holy Trinity. In 1553 he was arrested by order of the High Inquisitor of Lyon. He managed to escape, but in Geneva the heretic was again captured by agents of the Inquisition and sentenced by order of John Calvin to be burned at the stake. For two hours he was roasted over low heat, and, despite the desperate requests of the unfortunate man to add more firewood for the sake of Christ, the executioners continued to prolong their own pleasure, enjoying the convulsions of the victim. However, even this barbaric act cannot be compared with the cruelty of Torquemada.

The Torquemada phenomenon is one-dimensional: cruelty, cruelty and more cruelty. The Inquisitor left behind neither treatises, nor sermons, nor any notes that would allow us to evaluate his literary abilities and theological views. There are several testimonies from contemporaries who noted Torquemada’s undoubted literary gift, which somehow manifested itself in his youth. But, apparently, he was not destined to develop, because the inquisitor’s brain, having fallen into the power of one idea, worked only in one direction. The Inquisitor was simply alien to intellectual demands.

Moreover, Torquemada became an implacable opponent of the printed word, seeing books primarily as heresy. Following people, he often sent books to the fire, surpassing all inquisitors in this regard.

Diogenes was truly right: “Villains obey their passions, like slaves to their masters.”

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Additional Information

Introduction

The term "Inquisition" comes from the Latin. inquisitio, meaning "inquiry". The term was widespread in the legal sphere even before the emergence of medieval church institutions with this name, and meant clarifying the circumstances of a case by investigation, usually through interrogation, often with the use of force. Over time, the Inquisition began to mean spiritual trials of anti-Christian heresies.

History of creation

Previously, Christianity and the Christian Church suffered both from an external enemy - the Roman emperors, and from internal strife based on theological differences: various 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 - correct point of view) began to be opposed to heresy (Greek - 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.

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.

In 1908 it was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The work of this institution was built in strict accordance with the legislation then in force in Catholic countries.

Goals and means

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 accusations of witchcraft.

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

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.

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:

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

2) Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229)

3) Spanish Inquisition.

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 .

The Inquisition in the Middle Ages in brief

against Protestantism.

Persecution of heretics until the 12th century.

We find the germs of the Inquisition back 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 state religion Roman Empire, civil punishments were added to church punishments. In 316, Constantine the Great issued an edict condemning the Donatists to confiscation of property. The threat of the death penalty was first uttered by Theodosius the Great in 382 against the Manichaeans, and in 385 it was carried out against 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.

Activities of the Inquisition in different European countries

Despite the apparent ubiquity of inquisitorial tribunals in Medieval Europe, its effect was unequal in different European countries. First of all, it should be noted that the most vigorous activity of the Inquisition was observed in the southern countries: Italy, France and the Iberian Peninsula. At the same time, as you move north, its activity and significance noticeably weakens. Although the popes made attempts to send brother inquisitors to the countries of Scandinavia, history has not preserved any traces of their actual activities in these lands. As we move east to the Slavic lands, the influence of the Inquisition also subsides.

The reasons for such an uneven spread of the Inquisition across Europe are the subject of a separate historical study. Here we indicate only the main ones. First, the Inquisition was most active where it was most needed: in the south of France, in the Christian lands of the Pyrenees and in Italy. These lands (mainly in the south of France and the Pyrenees) were home to an extremely mixed population - from white Catholic Europeans to black Muslim Arabs. The first consequence of such a mixture of cultures and religions was the exceptional tolerance of secular authorities and fertile ground for the emergence of all kinds of heretical sects and movements. At the same time, for the same reason, in these lands there was the most depraved, corrupt and indifferent clergy to matters of faith. In Italy there was a permanent struggle for investiture, and the cities very early received greater autonomy and became breeding grounds for free thought and enlightenment. The second reason for the wider spread of the Inquisition in the southern lands was purely material. The proceeds from fines and confiscations were divided between the spiritual and secular authorities, and a considerable share also went to the Inquisition. And the southern lands have always been rich, unlike the northern ones.

In the northern camps, the Inquisition felt less confident. On the one hand, the harsh climate was less conducive to heretical reflections, and more to work for their daily bread. After the Hohenstaufens left the political and historical arena under the blows of the popes, the autocracy of the emperor was forgotten in the lands of Germany. Many appanage rulers in the struggle for personal influence they did not always pay much attention to the issues of preserving the purity of the faith, and without their support the inquisitors could only do so much. In England, the nobility, outraged by the shameful submission of John the Landless to the will of the Roman high priest in 1215, demanded the “Charter of Liberty” and undivided autocracy in England also ended.

As for the eastern lands of Europe, these lands were only theoretically under the spiritual authority of Rome. The influence of Orthodoxy was strongly felt here, and later a real threat arose from the Ottoman Empire. In addition, in Slavic lands there were many autocratic rulers, on whose rivalry, of course, Rome could play, but in the end it could not rely on any of them in defending the purity of the Catholic faith. Due to these political reasons, all the tortures of the papacy (including the crusades) to establish Catholicism in the Slavic lands and instill the institution of the Inquisition for its protection ultimately were not crowned with noticeable success.

Inquisition in Germany

By 1235, heresies were rapidly spreading in Germany, and the fanatic Conrad of Marburg was appointed there as papal inquisitor. He took up the matter energetically in such a way that now simply a thoughtless statement or communication with someone suspected of heresy was enough to bring him before the papal inquisitor. The brutal persecution caused a wave of popular outrage and Conrad and his assistants were killed.

Pope Gregory IX was furious and made every effort to ensure that the murderers of his faithful servants were severely punished. However, the positions of the Inquisition were dealt a blow, and although it continued to formally exist, it did not become a real force in Germany. Pope Urban V, dissatisfied with the situation in Germany, sent the Dominicans there. Fearing excommunication, the emperor received the new inquisitors with honor and introduced censorship of the press. In the XV-XVI centuries. the influence of the Inquisition was further undermined. The time has come for such outstanding thinkers, like Johann Wessel and, most importantly, Martin Luther. He continued his preaching, and after his death in 1546 his followers formed a strong opposition to the Catholic Church. The Inquisition in Germany has lost all power.

Inquisition in France

In France, thanks to the victory in the Albigensian wars, the Inquisition had a stronger position. And yet, when the papal inquisitor, Guillaume Horno, appeared there, supported by Pope Gregory IX, his cruelty angered the people so much that he and his assistants were killed, like Conrad in Germany. However, the popes were determined to establish the Inquisition in France, and a long struggle began between the popes and the French kings for supremacy in this country.

It culminated under King Philip IV the Fair, who took the throne in 1285. He sought to limit the power and influence of the church in his kingdom. The king declared his desire to reform church legislation, and as a result a message was sent to Rome declaring that the pope was deprived of the right to interfere in the secular affairs of the state. After the death of Pope Boniface VIII, Philip became the most powerful man in Europe. Moreover, the new pope, Clement V, moved his residence from Rome to Avignon, which, although it was a papal possession, was in France, under the control of the king. This period (about 60 years) was called the “Avignon Captivity of the Popes.” Thus King Philip established the power of the French kings over the popes and made the Inquisition an obedient instrument for achieving his goals. The most striking illustration of this is the famous Templar case, when the “pocket pope” of the French king confirmed all the decisions of the Inquisitorial Tribunal that he needed to destroy the Templar Order and appropriate all the order’s wealth by the French crown.

In 1334, Philip VI confirmed the privileges of the Inquisition, provided that it carried out the will of the French crown. The brutal persecution of heretics and those suspected of heresy continued. Under Francis I, there was a bloody massacre of the Waldensians, but there had also been executions of heretics before. In 1534-1535 In Paris, 24 people were burned, and many others faced a worse fate. Francis I himself, for all that, was not a moralist. His cruelties were dictated by political considerations; in other cases, the persecution of dissidents was not so frequent. His persecution of the Waldensians received especially unpleasant notoriety 1 .

All these persecutions and murders in France are disgusting and criminal, but they were not committed by the Inquisition.

Inquisition in the Middle Ages

The “Fiery Chamber” (a special court under Henry II) was established by the state. Since the time of Philip the Fair's struggle with the papacy, the Holy Chamber of the Inquisition no longer had a strong position in France.

Inquisition in Italy

Venice refused to establish an Inquisition, and fugitives from other states began to flock there. Soon the pope demanded an end to this, and the Venetian authorities considered it better not to enter into conflict. True, there the Inquisition was subject to city laws, and property confiscated from heretics went to the city treasury, and this weakened the zeal of the inquisitors. Charles of Anjou, having captured Naples, created the Inquisition there, but made it clear that there it would be under the control of the state, which also limited the influence of the papacy.

However, in Italy the Inquisition had stronger roots and lasted longer than in France. Even in 1448, a crusade against heretics was organized. But he was not successful, and the Waldensians continued to flourish in the mountainous regions. The Inquisition in Italy was, however, weakened due to the opposition of the population, due to escapes from the areas it controlled, as well as due to the position of secular rulers, as, for example, in Naples or Venice.

Inquisition in the Pyrenees

During the Reconquista, several Christian kingdoms were formed on the Iberian Peninsula. But the Inquisition acted and developed differently in each of them.

The Kingdoms of Castile and León, which occupied most of the Iberian Peninsula, experienced little of the brunt of the medieval Inquisition. These states enjoyed greater independence from Rome than other European countries at that time. The Codes of Alphonse the Wise from 1255 and 1265 take into account the Inquisition and regulate the relations between the Church and secular authorities with the help of secular law. Heresy was within the jurisdiction of spiritual courts, but Alfons believed that concern for the purity of faith was the responsibility of the state, and the Church’s job was only to determine the guilt of the accused. Canon law did not apply in Castile and the provincial of the Dominican Order could not appoint an inquisitor here.

In Portugal before 1418 there is also no information about any significant activities of the Inquisition. When an independent Dominican province was formed in Portugal in 1418, all provincials, according to the bull of Boniface XI, became inquisitor generals. The series of these inquisitors continued until 1531, when a new state inquisition was founded.

The Inquisition was most active in Aragon, where by the middle of the 13th century the Waldenses were the most active heretics. In 1226, James II banned heretics from entering the state. In 1228, the king's confessor Raymond de Penaforte convinced him to ask Pope Gregory IX to send inquisitors to the country to cleanse it of heresy. But there was no talk of the papal Inquisition here yet. Dominican inquisitors appeared in Aragon at the insistence of Gregory IX in 1237: the Viscount of Castelbo, a lien of the Bishop of Urgell, gave the Inquisition complete freedom of action in his lands. In 1238, the Inquisition in Aragon was officially founded. Mendicant friars were ordered to vigorously investigate heresy, applying papal statutes and seeking assistance from secular authorities when necessary.

In 1242, the Council of Tarragona published a code defining the attitude of the Church towards heretics, which was used for a long time not only in Spain, but also in France. By 1262, Urban VI finally transferred the Inquisition in Aragon to the jurisdiction of the provincial of the Dominican Order. However, the Aragonese Inquisition managed to defend its independence. In 1351, the provincial of Aragon received from Clement VI the right to appoint and dismiss inquisitors.

The final stage of the formation of the Inquisition in the Pyrenees is associated with the unification of lands under the rule of Ferdinand the Catholic and his wife Isabella. With the beginning of their reign in the mid-15th century, not the papal, but the Spanish Inquisition began to operate here, which served exclusively the religious and political interests of the Spanish crown. Under Isabella and Ferdinand, order in the country was restored. They managed to put an end to anarchy. They say that Isabella, as a woman of great piety, made a vow to her confessor Torquemada that if she came to power, she would devote herself to the eradication of heresies in the country. She was soon reminded of this vow. Catholic rulers believed that it was impossible to unite the country unless all subjects adhered to the same faith. They wanted to achieve this peacefully, and if that didn’t work out, then through violence.

INQUISITION

lat. inquisitio - search) In the Catholic Church in the XIII-XIX centuries. judicial-police institution for the fight against heresies. The proceedings were conducted in secret, with the use of torture. Heretics were usually sentenced to be burned at the stake.

The generally accepted date of the birth of the Inquisition is 1229, when church hierarchs announced the creation of a tribunal - the highest body of the Inquisition, designed to investigate, try and punish heretics. Now the Inquisition has quite legally spread its networks throughout Europe. But the Spanish Inquisition became famous for its cruelty.

In Spain, numb from fear, Ferdinand and Isabella reigned, But the Grand Inquisitor ruled over the country with an iron hand... He was cruel, like the lord of hell, the Grand Inquisitor Torquemada...

If Innocent III was the ideological inspirer of the fight against heretics, then Tommaso Torquemada (1420-1498) became the true creator of the system of extermination of heretics and dissenters.

During his school years he was an obedient and quiet boy. Then, having become a monk of the Dominican order, Tommaso was distinguished by impeccable behavior, respect for the traditions of the order and the monastic charter.

The Dominican Order was founded in 1216 by one Domenic de Guzman, a ruthless religious fanatic. Thirteen years after his death, for his bloody exploits in the fight against heretics, Domenik was elevated to the rank of saint, and his name was assigned to the order he created. Translated from Latin, the name Domenic is consonant with the expression “master's dog.” Therefore, the emblem of the order became a dog with a flaming torch in its teeth. And the Dominican brothers themselves began to call themselves “dogs of God.” There were many among those “dogs” who tasted human blood, but the most “biting” of all was Tommaso Torquemada. However, he started on the sly. Being the abbot of the monastery, he was distinguished by such strict piety that rumors about him reached the Spanish queen, who wished to become his spiritual daughter. So he appeared at the Spanish court, where he soon became not only a spiritual mentor, but also the main adviser to Queen Isabella (1451-1504).

Thanks to Isabella, Tommaso Torquemada was appointed to the post of Inquisitor General of Spain. And here the “genius of evil” showed himself to the fullest! Of course, even before him, the tribunals of the Inquisition did not sit idly by, and fires blazed before him, and heretics were interrogated in the dungeons of monasteries, extracting confessions with savage torture. But only with the arrival of Torquemada did the Spanish Inquisition reach its “highest” level of development, becoming a pan-European “standard of cruelty.”

At that time, the main victims of the Spanish Inquisition were the so-called “new Christians” - the Marranos and Moriscos. The Marranos are Jews who renounced Judaism, and the Moriscos are Moors who agreed that Muhammad was a “false prophet.” These were the ones that the “inquisitor dogs” started hunting for in the first place. Betrayal has become cardinal virtue in Spain. Fiscal informers were looking for someone to denounce. One Spaniard was burned at the stake due to the denunciation of his partner who lost to him at cards. He reported that during the game he said: “That’s it, my dear, even if God helps you, you will still lose...” It turns out that with the help of the Inquisition it was possible to win the most hopeless game.

But the Inquisition especially encouraged denunciations against the closest relatives!

And it was even worse for the Moriscos and Marranos - any of them, even without denunciation, could be accused of being an “insincere Christian”! How to prove the sincerity or insincerity of faith?

So Torquemada set out to create a system that would turn the soul inside out! The system was simple: torture until the person confesses that he was going to kill the Pope! Under torture, people confessed to committing heinous crimes...

One could go on and on about the brutal tortures invented by sadistic inventors. But it’s enough to remind you about the “Spanish boot”, torture on the wheel and with a hot iron...

Torquemada himself, who saw the main goal of his life in the extermination of apostates, was distinguished by devilish cruelty and treachery. Not only his victims, but also his supporters were in awe of him. He could suspect anyone of heresy! And to extract a confession of some secret intent was, as they say, “a matter of technique.”

Unbridled ambition, a thirst for fame, a desire for unlimited power - this is what led the “quiet boy” Tommaso Torquemada through life. And of course, inexplicable, pathological cruelty! And constant fear. When he moved around the country, he was accompanied by 50 horsemen and 200 selected infantrymen, and a rhinoceros horn was always at hand on his desk - then they believed that it could be used to detect poison. So he lived, killing others and shaking for his own life...

“Impeccable in every way,” the “Grand Inquisitor” Tommaso Torquemada had one “weakness”: most of all he liked to watch people burn alive in a fiery flame.

Following Warwick, the unfortunate Henry VI died in 1471. There is an assumption that he was killed. Almost all Lancasters were destroyed. The once powerful royal family did not have a single possible contender for the English throne. True, a distant relative of the Lancasters, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, survived, but he had long since taken refuge in France. It would seem that it was possible...

In the history of any country there were rulers whose reign was marked by great transformations that contributed to the strengthening of the state. For England, such a ruler was Elizabeth I Tudor (1533-1603). Elizabeth was the daughter of the quarrelsome and voluptuous king Henry VIII. He became famous for the fact that when he fell out of love with his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, in response to the fact that the Pope flatly refused to approve...

What are heresies and heretics? In short, heresy is any deviation from the true faith, as the church itself understands it. And heretics are, first of all, traitors to the true faith, that is, people who have committed an unforgivable sin before God. But only the papal church could decide which beliefs and which statements about God are correct and which are false, therefore...

Priests and Christian writers of the Middle Ages spoke of nine angelic choirs (or ranks) that surrounded the throne of the Most High and glorified the Creator with songs. According to them, these nine choirs constituted a hierarchical Heavenly ladder, on which the angels of the lower ranks were subordinate to the higher angels. In the image and likeness Heavenly hierarchy an earthly hierarchical ladder was also being built, at the very top of which were the popes...

There is a lot of evidence from contemporaries about how the heretic was executed. The auto-da-fé ritual was strict and at the same time magnificent and theatrical. The auto-da-fé is at once a religious ceremony, an execution, and a spectacle. Usually the auto-da-fé was timed to coincide with church holidays or the ascension to the throne of a new monarch... So, in 1680, an auto-da-fé took place in honor of the marriage of Charles II to the French princess Marie-Louise...

We have talked enough about devastating, often senseless wars. And medieval man was constantly haunted by hunger. Europe was covered with dense forests, there was little arable land, and it was poorly cultivated. Of course, he saved the forest. Here they collected acorns for fattening pigs, oak bark for tanning leather, resin for torches, honey from wild bees, brushwood for heating...

The famous brothers Cyril and Methodius, sometimes called the “Thessalonica brothers,” were born in the Byzantine city of Thessaloniki (in modern Greece) in the first half of the 9th century. Before becoming a monk in 865, Cyril bore the name of Constantine. The “Thessaloniki brothers” came from the family of a noble military man, an assistant to the governor of the province. From early childhood they were equally good at both Greek,…

During the Middle Ages, the vast majority of people could neither read nor write, and only a few books were handwritten. But as society and Christian and secular culture developed, literacy became increasingly higher value Consequently, the need for reproduction of texts grew. In the Middle Ages, manuscripts were created in monasteries and kept in monastery libraries. It's hard for us to imagine how much...

Many centuries different people thought about how to preserve the word, how to convey it to others... Johann Gutenberg (1400-1468) also thought about this. Because it was he who came up with the brilliant idea of ​​making a font from individual cast metal characters (letters). This invention (a typeface made of letters from which one could make as many impressions as desired) will last for centuries...

King Philip IV of France (1285-1314) had several nicknames, most often he was called Philip the Fair. Even Philip IV was sometimes called with respect, and sometimes with fear, “the iron king.” He had a strong will, remained calm under any circumstances and always knew how to achieve what he wanted. To strengthen his power and expand the territory of France, Philip needed neighboring...

In medieval times, the Roman Catholic Church wielded enormous power and severely punished dissent. Those who did not honor God and the church were automatically equated with devil worshipers and were called heretics. The function of punishing heresy was performed by the Inquisition, depriving all heretics of their rights, property, assets, and confiscating items of property for the Catholic treasury. For more than six centuries, in most of Europe, the Inquisition was a kind of system of existence of a legal framework.

The word inquisition itself means “questioning, inquiry, investigation,” which is why the spiritual courts of the Roman Catholic Church over dissidents came to be called this. Anyone who had an anti-Christian worldview faced robbery, arson, torture, betrayal and the prison of the Holy Inquisition. There were even manuals for inquisitors with the most sophisticated practices:

• how to ask the accused incriminating questions;
• how to lure or intimidate by deception;
• methods of property confiscation;
• torture, torment and other infallible methods of obtaining the truth.

In 1252, Pope Innocent IV officially sanctioned the creation of the horrific dungeons. The accused were placed for several months in prisons located underground, from where even screams could not be heard. Prisoners were often kept in medieval cages in the dark and without ventilation. The executioners of the Inquisition tortured, slowly dismembering the body, dislocating the limbs. Most, under bitter torture in the terrifying dungeons of the Inquisition, were broken and renounced their views, many went crazy or committed suicide. Out of fear, denunciations to the inquisitors could be made not only by friends and acquaintances, but also by close relatives - parents, children, brothers and sisters. To obtain confessions, they did not hesitate to use even children as witnesses. Those accused of witchcraft were declared witches and werewolves and burned alive at the stake. Sympathy for them was also interpreted as heresy.

Torture using the rack

The purpose of the torture of the Inquisition was not quick executions, but the conversion of dissidents to their faith, this explains the cruelty and sophistication of long torture. The executioners lifted the victim on a rope thrown over the rafters to the ceiling with his hands tied behind him, and iron weights weighing about 45 kg were tied to his legs. They lowered and raised the rope until the culprit confessed or lost consciousness. In most cases, vigorous shaking caused the victim to dislocate. If the heretic did not recant and endured the tortures of the Inquisition, he was led to the scaffold, tied to a wooden cross, nailed to his hands and feet, and left to slowly die. If he did not die for a long time, the executioner could strangle him or burn him alive.

Photograph of a preserved torture room in Nuremberg

Papal Inquisition (1233)

At the end of the 12th century, heretical views quickly spread in southern France. Pope Innocent III intensifies the severity of repressive measures in dissatisfied areas. The powers of papal legates are increased in order to attract dissenting bishops into their network. In each province, violations of the canons of the Lateran Council were severely punished. Any prince who did not clear his lands of heresy was excommunicated from the church. In 1229, Toulouse adopted a series of canons making the Inquisition a permanent institution. Anyone who allowed heretics to remain in their country, or even protected them, lost their land, their personal property, their vassals and their official position. The inquisitors responsible for the most tragic episodes of terror, burning at the stake and destroying both the living and the dead, were absolute dictators:

• Guillaume Arnault;
• Peter Sella;
• Bernard Co;
• Jean de Saint-Pierre;
• Nicholas Abbeville;
• Fulk de St. Georges.

At the same time, many Dominicans and Franciscans, uncovering the nests of “devil worshipers,” had a motto: “I will gladly burn a hundred innocents if there is at least one guilty among them.” These included inquisitors such as Peter Verona in Italy, Robert Bulgara in northeastern France, and Bernardus Guidonis in Toulouse. So Guidonis condemned about 900 heretics over 15 years, who were given 89 death sentences. Their property was confiscated, their heirs were deprived of their inheritance, and fines were imposed on them.

Spanish Inquisition (1478-1834)

The implementation of the Reform in 1478 in Spain made its Inquisition the most famous and deadliest, since it was the most highly organized and more supportive of the death penalty than the Papal Inquisition. The first inquisitors in the districts of Seville, appointed in 1480 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, sought out the richest heretics so that their property could be divided equally between the Catholic throne and the Dominicans. The Catholic Spanish government personally paid the expenses of the Inquisition, receiving a net profit from the property of the accused. The Chief Inquisitor of Spain, Thomas, believed that punishing heretics was the only way to achieve political and religious unity in Spain. Those who refused to convert to Catholicism were led to the stake and burned alive. This ceremony was called the "act of faith." Huge public burnings awaited those convicted of heresy.

Roman Inquisition (1542-1700)

The Catholic Church was undergoing reformation in the early 1500s and 1600s. It consisted of two adjacent movements:

1. The Protestant movement started by Martin Luther in 1517 as a defense against the Reformation;
2. Catholic reform as a defense of Catholics from Protestantism.

In 1542, Pope Paul III established the Inquisition as the highest court of appeal in the fight against heresy. The Church has published a list of banned books. It was impossible to learn to read and write without the permission of secular werewolves. The purpose of the censorship was to eradicate Protestant influences in Europe. Wars broke out from religious conflicts, and Catholic governments tried to stop the spread of Protestantism. This led to civil war in France from 1562 to 1598, and revolts in the Netherlands in 1565 and 1648. Also on religious grounds, hostilities began between Spain and England from 1585 to 1604, and later the Thirty Years' War began in Germany.

Victor Hugo estimated the number of victims of the Inquisition at five million.

Medieval torture of the Inquisition

The Roman Catholic Church allowed the use of the most extravagant and depraved methods of torture, beatings, and burning.

For example, in the Cathedral of the Inquisition in Nuremberg there were such tortures of the Inquisition as:

• Cancer: The defendant's ankles and wrists were tied and pulled in opposite directions, twisting the joints;
• Sword: a hanging giant pendulum with a sharp blade at the end gradually lowered, swinging, moving closer to the eyes, and finally cut the accused deeper and deeper;
• Frying pan: the legs of the accused, shackled in wooden shackles, were lowered over a hot frying pan with lard, at first they became blistered from the splashes, and then fried;
• Funnel: water (sometimes boiling) or vinegar was poured through a funnel inserted into the accused's throat until the stomach ruptured;
• Fork: two sharpened forks dug into the flesh on both sides;
• Wheels: organs were broken using wheels with giant spikes;
• The Ripper: women convicted of heresy, adultery, and witchcraft had their breasts torn off from their torsos;
• Hanging cages: the victim was naked, in a hanging cage, slowly wasting away from hunger and thirst and dying from heatstroke in the summer or frost in the winter;
• Head crusher: a screw was used to clamp the shackles around the forehead or base of the skull and squeeze until the eyes began to pop out of their sockets, and the bones of a broken skull fell into the brain;
• Burning at the stake: the victim was tied to a stake and burned alive;
• Rack: on a rope thrown over the rafters, they hung the victim by his hands tied behind him and shook him until his limbs were dislocated;
• Guillotine: the fastest and most merciful execution - a heavy knife fell and beheaded the condemned person.

Instruments of torture used by the Inquisition

Witch-hunt. How to identify a witch?

Witchcraft was associated with apostasy. Of those persecuted for witchcraft, 80 to 90 percent were women. Often they could simply be openly slandered in witchcraft. Women were compared to God's mistake, to a bag of dung, and generally considered guilty of all sins. All witches faced the same fate - burning at the stake. One of the ways to identify a witch was this: her hands and feet were tied and thrown from a bridge into the water. If she floated, she was declared a witch; if she sank, she was declared innocent. Any warts, freckles and birthmarks on women's bodies. If a woman withstood severe torture and did not die from torture, she was sent to the stake. A criminal judge in Lorraine, Nicolaus Remigius, sentenced 900 people to death on charges of witchcraft over a 15-year period. In one year alone he killed 16 witches. The Archbishop of Trier burned 118 women. In 1518, 70 witches were burned in Valcamonica. In total, the Inquisition burned at least 30,000 witches.

Immediately after the brutal suppression of the Cathars in 1231 - 1232. Pope Gregory IX created the main church commission to defend the true faith - the papal inquisition. The Latin word inquisitio means "search." The implication was that the zealots of the faith sent by the pope should not wait for credible witnesses to accuse anyone of heresy. From now on, the inquisitors themselves were obliged to seek out heretics with all possible zeal. The Pope issued extremely cruel decrees. According to them, all believers were obliged to report any suspicious person to the Inquisition. The names of the witnesses were kept secret. Defense lawyers were not allowed to attend the trial. The trial itself took place in strict secrecy. It was led by an inquisitor who was both judge and prosecutor. The verdict could not be appealed. Defendants who confessed and repented of their crimes were sentenced to life imprisonment; those who persisted in their “crime” ended their lives at the stake. In 1252, Pope Innocent IV supplemented the rules for conducting inquisitorial trials with permission to use torture during the inquiry. The terror of the Inquisition had a negative impact on the attitude of the Church towards witchcraft, for when asked whether heretics, among other acts, also engaged in witchcraft, those accused under torture were increasingly forced to admit that they were indeed associated with devilish demons, renounced Christian teachings and with the help of the Devil they caused a lot of harm. The inquisitors collected these confessions and used them as evidence that the Devil not only incited his victims to abandon the Christian faith, but also rewarded them for this with supernatural powers. Thus, in the eyes of the inquisitors, heresy and witchcraft were combined into a single whole.

From now on the formula became unshakable: “heretic = sorcerer”,
"sorcerer = heretic." Truly invaluable assistance in the fight against witchcraft was provided to the Inquisition by the great scholastics - the so-called Christian theologians who in the XIII-XIV centuries. made an attempt to scientifically systematize the Christian worldview. Among the questions that the scholastics were concerned with at that time was the question of the nature of witchcraft. Thinking about this, they proceeded from the premise put forward by the Father of the Church Augustine the Blessed, who taught that any type of witchcraft is essentially an agreement between the sorcerer and the devilish demons. The so-called “deal with the Devil” is deeply offensive to God. Therefore, all sorcerers are traitors to the Christian faith and must be punished as heretics. This teaching also applied to superstitions that existed among common people. For even the most innocent witchcraft, according to the famous theologian Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274), is the same “deal with the Devil” that Augustine spoke about. And even if the sorcerer himself does not realize that he has become entangled with the devil’s spawn, he nevertheless enters into a kind of “tacit deal with the Devil” and, therefore, is guilty of heresy and is subject to trial by the Inquisition, as well as the one who consciously did so. In addition, the scholastics came to the conclusion that many of the ideas widespread among the people are not empty superstition, but the true truth.
Thus, it is true that demons are capable of taking on the guise of women and, in the form of so-called succubi, enter into communication with sorcerers, or appear in a male form, in the form of incubi, and connect with witches. In addition, with the help of demons, sorcerers are able to create new bodies by combining various elements, for example, from silt to generate frogs, snakes and worms. Demons also teach them to cause storms, thunderstorms and hail. This seed fell on the fertile soil of the Inquisition, which was looking for more and more reasons for accusations in the scientific works of the scholastics, to which the victims were forced to “confess” under torture. Thus, with the help of theological wisdom, crazy ravings about the machinations of the Devil, his demons and sorcerer minions were multiplied. The persecution of sorcerers by the Inquisition began in the first half of the 14th century. The arena for such processes was Southern France, Northern Italy and Southwestern Switzerland. The persecution began with Pope John XXII (1316-1334). Immediately after taking office, this elder, obsessed with witchcraft, ordered the bishop of his hometown of Cahors to be burned at the stake, because he allegedly bewitched him. Three years later (in 1320) he sent inquisitors to the southern French dioceses of Toulouse and Carcassonne in order to “drive out of the house of the Lord” all sorcerers, an order that in 1326 he extended to all lands administered by the Romans Catholic Church . From now on, the charge of “heretical witchcraft” increasingly appeared in death sentences handed down by the Inquisition. This happened in 1321 in the southern French city of Pamiers, in 1335 in neighboring Toulouse, from 1340 in Novara (Upper Italy) and around 1360 in Como. The Waldensians, who were pursued with particular zeal after the extermination of the Cathars, fled from the blazing fires into the valleys of the Swiss and Italian Alps, but the detectives of the Inquisition stubbornly followed their trail. Eventually, around 1400, trials against heretics and sorcerers reached Switzerland. After the successors of Pope John XXII tightened his decrees on the persecution of sorcerers, the acts of the Inquisition included testimonies of the accused who confessed under torture to the most incredible crimes. Such “confessions,” instilled in the victims and extracted from them under torture, strengthened the accusers in their obsession with witchcraft. And the longer and more persistently they interrogated, tortured and interrogated again, the clearer the picture of a demonic world emerged in their minds, clouded by superstition, where day after day and night after night tens of thousands of women, men and children entered into an alliance with the Devil and his minions, to debauch and commit crimes. However, what worried the fanatic judges most of all was the fact that these sorcerers and witches, rejected by God, apparently committed their atrocities not alone, but united in a kind of “witchcraft sect” created and directed by the Devil himself, a hellish army that declared war on the Christian Church. The inquisitors exposed the satanic goals and insidious methods of this sect in the so-called treatises on witches, the number of which multiplied with amazing speed. The authors of these works, relying on testimony obtained under torture from those accused of witchcraft, as well as on the fantasies of scholastic scholars, created a new demonology. The first significant work of this kind, Formicarius, created in 1437 by the Dominican abbot Johann Nieder, was based, among other things, on the results of the witch trial that ended the witch hunt in the Bernese Alps around 1400. This book combines individual elements of the emerging obsession with witchcraft: witches and sorcerers enter the witchcraft sect, fly through the air, take animal form, kill babies in the womb, prepare witchcraft ointment from children's corpses, copulate with succubi and incubi, sow hatred and discord, inflame lust and commit many other atrocities. Nieder's "Anthill" aroused great interest at the Council of Basel (1431 -1449). ), at which prelates and theologians gathered from all over Europe discussed church reforms and ways to combat heresy. The influence of this book was enormous. In 1437, when it appeared, and again three years later, the pope called on all inquisitors in Western Europe to look for exposed witchcraft sects and ruthlessly destroy them. Throughout the 15th century. The idea of ​​“devilish witchcraft sects” set forth by Johann Nieder in “The Anthill” was supplemented by a number of other treatises on witches. The authors of these truly fatal books were mostly the inquisitors themselves: Italians, French, Spaniards, Germans, such as Nicolas Jacquet, whose polemical work “The Scourge of Heretics,” published in 1458, became the first treatise on witches that most fully reflected possession witchcraft. Other authors, mostly cleric scholars, like Nieder, maintained close contacts with the judges who spoke at the witchcraft trials, and, accordingly, transferred into their books the experience of these trials, which took place more and more often. Treatises on witches of the 15th century. sometimes differed from each other in details. But overall, a similar image emerged of “the damned witch’s spawn and his criminal deeds.” Modern historical science identifies five key concepts, each of which will be considered separately: a deal with the Devil, intercourse with the Devil, the flight of a witch, the Sabbath and damage by witchcraft. Our ancestors imagined concluding a deal with the Devil like this: as soon as a woman, crushed by difficulties or for other reasons, became disillusioned with her life, the Devil appeared before her in an hour of solitude. He always appeared in the most attractive guise: as a handsome young man, hunter, soldier or noble gentleman, in black, green or colorful clothes. He always pretended to be her sincere friend. He put food on the table for the hungry, promised money to the poor, promised protection to the persecuted, comforted the unfortunate, and lured those greedy for earthly joys with promises of a cheerful life. And as soon as the woman trusted the tempter or failed to restrain her greed, the stranger named the price for the services offered: renunciation of God and the saints, joining the witch sect and carnal devotion to him, the generous comforter and helper. Here even the most naive simpleton should have discovered who was standing in front of her. And if she did not reject his services, then she would forever lose her soul. After all, the Devil immediately sealed the deal: frantically attacking the indecisive woman, with thousands of tricks and flattering promises he forced her to become his beloved. When an agreement with the Devil ended in this way, he also sealed it with a written document. To do this, he scratched the hand of the woman he seduced and forced her to sign a contract prepared in advance with her own blood. And finally, he left a “devil mark” on her body - a small dark spot that was completely insensitive. The inquisitors considered such a stain to be undoubted evidence of a connection with the Devil.

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The Inquisition in the Middle Ages and its fight against witchcraft

• Introduction
• Chapter 1. The Secret History of the Inquisition
• 1.1 The concept of the term “Inquisition”
• 1.2 Inquisition - causes
• 1.3 Inquisitorial system
• 2.1 Innocent III - first inquisitor
• 2.2 Inquisitorial court
• Chapter 3. The most famous victims of the Inquisition
• 3.1 Holy Witch of Orleans - Joan of Arc
• 3.2 “The Hammer of the Witches” by Heinrich Kramenra and Jacob Sprenger, as a treatise on demonology and the proper methods of persecuting witches
• Conclusion
• List of sources and literature used

Introduction

“Middle Ages” is a term coined much later than the time it denotes. It was introduced initially in order to determine the time of a strict ban on everything that was connected with Antiquity. This was the period that followed the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, and lasted until the beginning of the Renaissance. It is approximately limited to the 6th and 16th centuries, and this millennium is usually called the Middle Ages. Considering how brutal the Inquisition was in the Middle Ages, how cruelly it suppressed even a hint of dissent, then the end of this time must be considered equal in the rights of representatives of different faiths.

The Middle Ages were the reign of the church. It was the core of the entire Western civilization, it rallied peoples around itself, and it was also the center of culture.

This work will examine the history of the Inquisition of the late XIII - early XVI centuries. The main threat to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages were heretics - apostates who questioned the teachings of the Pope, the interpretation of the Gospel and the sanctity of the clergy. They carried their ideas to the people, causing unrest and outbreaks of uprisings everywhere. During this period, church investigation in the fight against heretics became one of the main tools for eliminating dissidents.

The Middle Ages were a period of prosperity and unprecedented power of the church. At the turn of the 12th-13th centuries, Innocent III was Pope. He proclaimed himself the vicar of Christ on earth and, being an educated, intelligent and dexterous diplomat, did his best to strengthen the position of his throne. He made the church investigation in the fight against heretics higher than the secular (royal) court, organized the Fourth Crusade, skillfully used the Franciscan order of mendicant monks and the Order of St. Dominic, which were very popular among the common people and the dexterity of Innocent III strengthened the authority of the church. Subsequently, the church investigation in the fight against heretics (the Inquisition) began to be used to eliminate enlightened, learned and simply objectionable persons. Children with physical disabilities were declared children of Satan, beautiful women- witches, healers and midwives were accused of conspiring with the devil. All of them also became victims of the Inquisition.

There are documents confirming that over several centuries, while the struggle of the church against heretics continued, 12 million inhabitants of Europe were destroyed.

The relevance of this work lies in the role of this period on world history, as well as the study and analysis of facts related to the activities of Pope Innocent III, as the first inquisitor in world history, and the significance of the treatise “The Hammer of the Witches” by Heinrich Kramenra and Jacob Sprenger, on demonology and on the proper methods of persecuting witches.

Purpose of the work: to study the historical facts of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, its fight against witchcraft.

In accordance with the goal, the following tasks are determined:

Define the concept of “inquisition”

Explore the causes of the Inquisition

Explore the goals and cruelty of the Inquisition

Analyze the activities of Innocent Sh

Investigate the activities of the inquisitorial court.

Explore the history of the inquisitorial trial of the Holy Witch of Orleans.

Analyze the treatise “The Hammer of the Witches” by Heinrich Kramenra and Jacob Sprenger

The study of the Inquisition is carried out through the analysis of historical materials and documents.

Scientific development degree. Almost no scientific periodization of the history of the Inquisition has been developed; there is no complete picture of the mass heretical movements of the Middle Ages, against which the terror of the Inquisition was primarily directed. We know little about the activities of the Inquisition in the colonies; the history of the Papal Inquisition - the congregation of the Holy Office - has not yet been written.

A number of works on the history of the Inquisition were used as sources when writing the work, sources: Arnoux A. History of the Inquisition, 1926, “History of the Inquisition” by the French author A. Arnoux introduces to the dark world of medieval “witch persecutions”, under the vaults of the courts, into the atmosphere torture and horror. Using documents from the Vatican archives, the author shows the necessity of any self-accusation in the face of the inquiry procedure.

Grigulevich I.R. History of the Inquisition 1980. Sprenger J., Institoris G. Hammer of the Witches / Translation from Latin by N. Tsvetkov. Preface by S. Lozinsky. Saransk, 1991.

The authors of the book are members of the Dominican Order, inquisitors Heinrich Kramer (Latinized Institoris) and Jacob Sprenger, and the reason for its writing can be considered the events that happened to Institoris in the city of Innsbruck in 1485. But even before these events (which are discussed below), Institoris and Sprenger carry out joint inquisitorial activities in the cities of Germany and face obstacles in the form of the population and the authorities. Due to the difficulties of legal proceedings, they send their complaints to Pope Innocent 8, who in response issues a bull called summis desiderantes in 1484. Some quotes from this bull may give a picture of what power this document had and what power it gave to its owners.

Monographs: Scourge and Hammer. Witch hunt in the 16th-18th centuries./ Comp. N. Gorelov. M., ABC-class, 2005. Budur N. Daily life of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages. M., 2011. Vygodsky M. Ya. Galileo and the Inquisition. M.-L. 1934, part I.

In 1911 -1912 a translation of the monograph by the American scientist Henry-Charles Lee “The History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages” was published, translated by A.V.

Bashkirov, edited by the famous historian S. G. Lozinsky, who, in turn, based on the archival materials he collected in Spain, wrote a valuable work on the history of the Spanish Inquisition. (Lozinsky S.G. History of the Inquisition in Spain. St. Petersburg, 1914). Book by M.M. Sheinman “With Fire and Blood in the Name of God”, Parnakh V. Spanish and Portuguese poets are victims of the Inquisition. M.-L., 1934; Vygodsky M. Ya. Galileo and the Inquisition. M.-L., 1934, part I; Rozhitsyn V.S. Giordano Bruno and the Inquisition. M., 1955; Shakhnovich M.I. Goya against the papacy and the Inquisition. M., 1955

Scientific significance: this topic has been repeatedly raised in the research of historians, but there are still aspects that have not been fully studied, for example, the influence of this period on further world development.

The practical significance of this work lies in the possibility of this material in history lessons in schools.

The structure and content of the work corresponds to the set goal and objectives. The work consists of an introduction, three chapters interconnected by paragraphs, a conclusion and a list of references.

Chapter 1. The Secret History of the Inquisition

1.1 The concept of the term “Inquisition”

In religious history, the Inquisition is the strangest phenomenon about which legends circulate. She was a serious instrument in anti-religious activities. Inquisition is an investigation through interrogation using force. In the Middle Ages, the Holy Inquisition sought to condemn believers and excommunicate them if they were considered heretics. Its main goal was to prove that the accused person was a heretic. Papal Church could decide which faith and which statements about the Lord are considered correct and which are false (that is, heretical).

The main threat to the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages were heretics - apostates who questioned the teachings of the Pope, the interpretation of the Gospel and the sanctity of the clergy. They carried their ideas to the people, causing unrest and outbreaks of uprisings everywhere. During this period, church investigation in the fight against heretics became one of the main tools for eliminating dissidents.

The Roman Catholic Church in the Middle Ages was one of the most powerful pan-European institutions. It was thanks to her efforts that it was possible to coordinate the conflicting interests of Western European countries, and the region in which they were located turned into a fairly integral and monolithic community.

The Church divided all people into classes. The clergy was declared the highest class, the king and nobility were the middle class, and the people were the lower class. The business of the upper class is to protect the soul of a layman from sin, to beg God for the forgiveness of all living on earth. The nobility was supposed to protect the king and the clergy from external enemies, and the task of the people was to feed and support both.

During their sermons, the clergy called on everyone to humility and meekness, taught them to “know their place” and not resist the will of the Almighty, not to collect wealth on earth, caring more about the salvation of the soul. Nevertheless, they themselves concentrated enormous wealth in their hands, dressed themselves in expensive clothes and surrounded themselves with comfort. The nobility did not suffer either. The people were dying in poverty. Such polarity could not but cause outrage. Those who loudly condemned the duplicity of “God’s servants” appeared and expressed doubts about their teachings and holiness. This greatly undermined the authority of the Pope. Such brave dissenters were declared apostates, heretics (they carried heresy, insulted Holy teaching). The real struggle of the Catholic Church with heretics began. They savagely destroyed not only the apostates themselves, but also their families, uprooting a potential threat.

Heretics were hated more than gentiles (people of other faiths). They were despised even more than Muslims. And all this because the heretics considered themselves real Christians. These were especially dangerous internal enemies of the church, who undermined its authority and foundations. In the Middle Ages Western Europe The fires of the Inquisition, a specially created organization that fought the secret enemies of Catholicism, were constantly burning.

In the Middle Ages, people's consciousness was very poor. They willingly believed in witches, dragons, sorcerers and other evil spirits. Science was not as developed as it is today. Every person who had his own view of the structure of this world, and also disagreed with the priests of the Middle Ages in some way, involuntarily received the stigma of “heretic.” The social status with which he was endowed - nobleman, genius, scientist, healer or clairvoyant - did not matter.

The clergy, hiding behind their position, constantly referred to the fact that only their interpretation of the Holy Scriptures, only their opinions on this matter, are the only true and correct ones. Hiding behind the Lord God and the “Holy Inquisition,” these people destroyed great amount those who disagree with them. Indeed, in the Middle Ages there was a strict rule that a heretic was almost always a person sentenced to execution. The label of a heretic in the vast majority of cases meant burning at the stake or hanging on the gallows of the Inquisition2.

The basis of this struggle was punitive measures. Dissidents were declared apostates (heretics), they were thrown into prison, kept in inhumane conditions, subjected to terrible torture, in the end, they were sentenced to a terrible execution - burning alive at the stake. As a rule, the church minister was a prosecutor, an investigator, and a judge in one person. Conducting a church investigation in the fight against heretics, the accusations were based mainly on denunciations, most of which were obtained, again, under torture. In 99 cases out of 100, those who ended up in the dungeons of the Inquisition did not come out alive. Their property was confiscated and divided mainly between the church and the king. Some part went to a local nobleman, from whose volost the heretic was from.

Information about when the first heretic appeared has not been preserved, but the most famous of them is Giordano Bruno. This is a medieval astronomer. He calculated that our planet is round, and not flat, as was then commonly believed. However, society did not share his views; moreover, his discovery aroused the anger of the clergy, for which the scientist was burned at the stake3.

The word “inquisition” in the Middle Ages meant “search”, “search”. Its power, influence and strength extended not to any one state, but to the whole of Europe.

At a certain stage in the 15th century, the history of the Inquisition became a secret. The clergy had special rights: to accuse and destroy. However, this was a struggle not only of the church, but also of the nobility for power and dominance 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 happened in their lives. There was no scientific evidence as to why it rained or the sun shone, why there were earthquakes, or why 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 dark forces who, in their opinion, could interfere with their lives.

That is why sorcerers and witches enjoyed great attention not only from ordinary people. The history of the witch inquisition shows that even at the height of the witch hunt, they lived quietly in the homes of rich people. People needed sorcerers and witches, but if they were accused of exceeding their power, they were severely punished. The Witch Inquisition was a punishment used if they were found guilty of causing hexes in the process of witchcraft.

The Holy Inquisition declared the sorcerer guilty and most often he was killed. In certain cases they had to reimburse. The Holy Scriptures helped church ministers act as executioners, since they referred to this very source during the execution process.

The main stages in the development of this punitive body: Pre-Dominican (persecution of heretics until the 12th century), Dominican (since the Council of Toulouse in 1229), Spanish Inquisition.

In the first period, the trial of heretics formed part of the functions of episcopal power. In the first period, the persecution of heretics was not constant. In the second, specialized tribunals of inquisitors are created. In the third, the Holy Inquisition is closely linked to the monarchical system and serves as a weapon in the struggle for power.

In general, it had a detrimental effect on the intellectual progress of Europe. In the 16th century, it began to influence book censorship.

The Inquisition in the Middle Ages spared virtually no heretic. If the inquisitors came to the general opinion that threats, persuasion and cunning did not work on the accused, then they had to resort to violence. It was believed that physical torture and torment would more clearly enlighten the mind of a dissenter. At that time, there was a whole list of tortures legalized by the Inquisition.

The torture of the Inquisition had about a hundred varieties. the sophistication of mind and invention of the inventors of that time is simply amazing in its cruelty.

Spiked boots. These are iron shoes with a sharp spike under the heel. The victim had to stand on his heels with the spike twisted upward until his strength ran out.

"The Heretic's Fork" This brutal device consisted of four sharp spikes - two on each side. The top two dug into the heretic's chin, and the bottom two into the sternum. This completely immobilized the victim, preventing her from making any head movements. My head started to go numb and my brain began to bleed.

"Witch's Chair" The potential witch was tied to a chair that was suspended from a long pole, lowering it into the water for a certain time. Then the witch was given the opportunity to take a small breath of air, after which she was again lowered under water... This torture was especially cruel in the winter. A hole was made in the ice, which allowed the witch not only to suffocate, but also to become covered with a crust of ice.

"Cat claw". It was thrust into the heretic, whose flesh was torn slowly and painfully. It got to the point that the same hook tore out not only the internal organs of the victim, but also the ribs. This was the most cruel ancient instrument of torture, with the help of which the servants of the Inquisition tried to obtain a confession from a heretic6.

Among other torture measures invented by sophisticated minds of that time was the so-called “Spanish boot”. This is a special fastening on the victim’s leg with a special fixing plate, which, with each refusal of the heretic to answer questions, was tightened even more. greater strength. Eventually, the bone in my leg broke. As a result, the heretic was left with crushed bones below the knee.

One of the medieval torture devices is the so-called “rack”. A person is suspended from the ceiling with his shoulder joints turned back, and a heavier load is gradually hung on his legs. As a result, unbearable hellish pain occurs, up to the rupture of the muscles and joints of the shoulder girdle.

The centuries-old torture of heretics was the most striking proof of the weakness of the medieval church in front of its ideological opponents. The priests could not win the victory with the Word of God. The easiest way to do this was by force of power and coercion. It was a time of eternal hunt for dissidents and witches.

In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX transferred the functions of prosecuting heresies from bishops to inquisitors. In Europe, tribunals were established whose powers included investigating cases, pronouncing sentences and executing them against heretics.

The Spanish Inquisition was especially cruel. It was supported by royal power, so it had the strongest position in Europe. During the activities of the chief inquisitor of Spain, Torquemada, in the 15th century alone, more than ten thousand people were burned alive.

The glory of the Spanish Inquisition eclipsed all others. Here it reached its apogee of development and became a model to be followed in other countries where the Inquisition existed. Tortures were varied, inventive and extremely cruel.

In the 15th century, its activity was especially active. By the end of the century, the situation in the country changed under the influence of the unification of Castile and Aragon into the Spanish Kingdom, the liberation of the south of the Iberian Peninsula from Moorish rule and its reunification with Spain and the conquest of America, which turned Spain into the largest colonial power7.

The Spanish crown continued to strengthen its position through counter-reform, with the help of the Jesuit order. The ideal means for this was the Spanish Inquisition.

The Inquisition deprived the city of medieval liberties. In the 15th century, a “new” Inquisition was established (1478-1483). Isabella I and Ferdinand V united Aragon, Castile and Sicily, and then the entire south of Spain. The Sicilian Inquisitor Barberis received confirmation of emergency powers from the couple.

In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV established the Inquisition in Castile (where it had not existed before). Mass executions began. Instruments of torture and death techniques were improved. Plague broke out in Seville due to prison overcrowding. When the epidemic subsided, the “bloody harvest” continued. The Spanish Inquisition took on new dimensions with the appointment of a new inquisitor, Thomas Torquemada. Ferdinand V at this time (1483) created the Supreme Council of the Inquisition (Suprema), which was responsible for the confiscation of the property of heretics. The main victims of the Spanish Inquisition were Jews, Marranos ("new Christians") and Moriscos (Moors who converted to Christianity). They were officially accused of being insincere in their attitude towards Christianity and continuing to preach the previous faith (that is, of heresy). The purpose of their persecution was to take possession of their property, to weaken the class of peasants and artisans as support for influential grandees, in order to undermine the power of the latter.

The Spanish Inquisition acted comprehensively; it combined the features of church and state (political) police, which were controlled by the Catholic monarchs. Spanish absolutism was reminiscent of the cruelty of the despotism of the East. However, the Inquisition did not help achieve the national unity of the country and eliminate all urban liberties. This policy was essentially anti-national; it did everything to prevent the emergence of common interests between people, which are the basis for the unification of the nation.

1.2 Inquisition - causes

The most humble priest possessed supernatural power, which placed him above the people around him. No matter how great his crimes were, he was not subject to the jurisdiction of a secular court - the hand of a layman could not touch him. The real estate of clergy, which was formed from the voluntary donations of many generations of devout laity, was in a similar exceptional situation; a significant part of the fertile lands of Europe belonged to the church. The seigneurial rights associated with these holdings included a very broad secular jurisdiction, which granted their users the same rights over personality that feudal lords had.

The vow of celibacy, which became mandatory after a long struggle, sharply separated the priests from the laity, completely assigned vast possessions to the church and provided at its service a countless army of ministers, for whom it became both family and home. A person who devoted himself to serving the church ceased to be a citizen; he had neither worries nor family connections; the church was a new fatherland for him, and its interests became his interests. As compensation for what they had lost, church ministers received confidence in tomorrow and were freed from all worries about their daily bread; All that was required of them was to remain in obedience.

The Church accepted any person into its ranks, without being interested in either his origin or his social position, whereas in feudal society with its class barriers, elevation and transition from one class to another was almost impossible. True, in the church, origin also facilitated access to higher positions, but it was still possible to advance in it thanks to energy and natural talents.

The Church, which stood so far from its ideal and was so negligent in its duties, found itself almost unexpectedly faced with new dangers that threatened to undermine its power at the root.

The heresy initially spread among the masses of the common people. The blows that put the existence of the church hierarchy in real danger were inflicted by people preaching among the poor and oppressed, who felt that the church was not fulfilling its purpose, saw that its ministers were vain, and understood that many errors had crept into its teaching.

Heresies that attracted crowds of followers were divided into two categories: sects that firmly preserved all the basic tenets of Christian teaching, but denied the priesthood; and Manichaeans, or dualists. We almost always draw information about them from the writings of opponents of heresy; with the exception of a few Waldensian treatises and the service book of the Cathars, all the literature of the heretics perished. One inquisitor, explaining the reasons for the success of the heresy, notes the moral filth of the clergy, his ignorance and errors, the hollowness of his sermons, the contemptuous attitude towards the sacraments and the hatred that almost many believers had towards him. The heretics' favorite arguments against the church were the arrogance, greed and licentiousness of the clergy.

The mendicant orders were quite suitable for work that was beyond the power of episcopal courts. After all, permanent courts were needed solely to suppress heresy, completely removed from the influence of local passions and personal accounts. Investigators and judges were to be people specially trained to uncover and convert heretics. The enormous popularity of the mendicant monks ensured the zealous assistance of the population, which the bishops, who were usually in hostile relations with their spiritual children, could not count on. The mendicant orders were especially devoted to the papacy, and they made of the Inquisition a powerful instrument for increasing the influence of Rome and destroying the last vestiges of independence of the local churches.

Secular legislation against heresy was gradually improved. In England and Aragon, corresponding edicts appeared already in the 12th century. Emperor Henry VI, in 1194, ordered the confiscation of the property of heretics, the infliction of severe punishments upon them, the destruction of their houses, and the heavy fines of communities and individuals unless they assisted in their apprehension; in 1210 these regulations were confirmed by Otto IV. In 1217, the Count of Rousellon outlawed heretics; in 1228 the King of Aragon followed suit. The French king Louis VIII ordered confiscation of property and deprivation of all rights for heresy, and government officials were ordered to punish everyone who was caught in heresy. According to the statutes of Florence that came into force in 1227, the bishop was required to act jointly with the city administration in all cases of persecution of heresy. In Milan in 1228, new laws were passed at the insistence of the papal legate Godfrey; heretics were to be expelled from the republic, their houses were to be destroyed, their property was to be confiscated; Each person who gave them shelter was subject to a large fine.

To search for heretics, who were to be interrogated and tried by the archbishop and city authorities, a half-secular, half-spiritual Inquisition was established; Anyone caught in heresy was to be sentenced to death within ten days. People who were only suspected of heresy had to undergo atonement. All heretics, regardless of their teachings, were outlawed; if they were condemned by the church, they were to be handed over to the secular authorities to be burned alive. If, out of fear of death, they deviated from their beliefs, they were to be imprisoned for the rest of their lives.

1.3 Inquisitorial system

Particularly famous were the activities of the papal inquisitors Premonstratensian Conrad of Marburg in Germany (appointed in 1227) and the Dominican Robert Bugra (Bulgarin) in Languedoc (appointed in 1233), subsequently. in Champagne, Picardy and Flanders. Both were repentant Cathars and became known for their cruelty in the fight against former co-religionists; in 1239, according to the verdict of Robert Bugre, 183 people were burned at one time in the castle of Mont-Aimé (Champagne). The papal inquisitors acted in close alliance with secular and local church authorities: Conrad of Marburg was supported by the Bishop of Hildesheim, Robert Bugra was supported by the French king Louis IX the Saint; it was probably at the insistence of the king that in 1239 Pope Gregory IX removed the inquisitor from office and sentenced him to imprisonment.

In 1233, Pope Gregory IX entrusted the investigation of cases related to heresies and the persecution of apostates to the Dominicans; in 1254, Pope Innocent IV, by the bull “Licet ex omnibus” of May 30, divided Innocent III into Dominican and Franciscan. These monastic orders seemed ideal candidates for the search for heretics due to their independence from local church hierarchs and their growing - thanks to the principles of poverty, unselfishness and asceticism professed by these orders - popularity among the people, which could compete with the popularity of heretical preachers and should ensure the cooperation of the population in the search heretics. Although the Dominicans and Franciscans were given jurisdiction in cases of heresy similar to that of episcopal courts, local bishops also retained responsibility for the eradication of heresies: they had to cooperate with the inquisitors and ratify inquisitorial sentences, especially those that sentenced heretics to imprisonment and death. executions. Inquisitors were endowed with extensive powers: answerable directly to the Pope, they were not subordinate to either local church authorities or papal legates; the leadership of the order could influence them only as monks, but not as inquisitors. Inquisitorial powers were given for life, and to the end. XIII century It became almost impossible to remove inquisitors from office or excommunicate them from the Church. I. were all subject to jurisdiction; however, in the case of condemnation of monarchs, bishops and papal nuncios, the decision could only be made by the Pope.

By the middle of the 13th century. In canon law, the provision was finally formalized that in order to carry out the death penalty, convicted heretics must be handed over to secular authorities, and the latter are obliged to make every effort to exterminate heretics identified by the Church. In case of refusal to fulfill these duties, the secular ruler was excommunicated from the Church, an interdict was imposed on his possessions, his vassals were released from the oath, and the lands were transferred to those who were ready to persecute heretics (3rd canon of the IV Lateran Council; bull of Pope Gregory IX “Excommunicamus "from Feb. 1231).

According to the Edict of Padua (1224) and the Melphian Constitutions of the Emperor. Frederick II Staufen, active in the North. Italy and Sicily, heretics were sentenced to be burned at the stake. By decision of the judge, this punishment could be replaced by having the tongue pulled out. In 1238, this norm (without the possibility of replacing it with a milder punishment) was extended to the German lands, and then entered the Saxon and Swabian mirrors. In 1226, the French king Louis VIII ordered that heretics be punished with deprivation of rights and confiscation of property, and by 1270 burning was established as the main punishment (Etablissements de St. Louis, 1269).

The bull of Pope Innocent IV “Ad extirpanda” of May 15, 1252, addressed to the cities of Lombardy, the Treviso March and Romagna, provided for the organization in the cities of councils to combat heresy from 12 “honest men” (boni viri), who were appointed by the bishop and priors mendicant orders in this area. According to the decree, podestas and city rulers who refused to fight heretics had no right to remain in their positions. The bull contained a demand that laws against heretics be included in the statutes of Italy. town-communes (the demand would be repeated by Pope Clement IV in 1266). Thus, according to the document, permanent inquisitorial tribunals were created in bishoprics.

The Dominican Inquisition was created and endowed with extensive powers to combat the northern French Waldensian heresy and the Albigensian heresy, which was widespread in southern France. After the crusades against the Albigenses, reprisals against heresiarchs and their patrons and the capture of the main strongholds of heretics in 1209-1244. the number of heretics decreased significantly, but heresy did not disappear completely.

A network of tribunals was created in Languedoc; the central one, in Toulouse, in 1307-1323. was headed by the Dominican Bernard Guy, the author of a manual for inquisitors, “Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis,” which described the main heresies of the time and gave instructions on how to pursue heretics, detect them, interrogate them, etc. Collections of records of interrogations have been preserved, which can serve as a historical source of information both about inquisitorial proceedings and about the worldview of heretics (for example, “The Register of Jacques Fournier”, 3 volumes of documents of inquisitorial hearings in the county of Foix - Le Registre de l"Inquisition de Jacques Fournier, йvкque de Pamier.

In Northern France, the inquisitorial activity of the Dominicans began in 1233 and was associated with the name of Robert Bugra. The Inquisition met passive resistance from the bishops, but enjoyed support, including financial support, from the French king Louis IX Saint, primarily in the territory of the royal domain. In the middle of the 13th century. a number of papal decrees reorganized the Dominican Inquisition in Southern and Northern France. Thus, by 1266, all inquisitors, including members of the tribunals in Languedoc, were subordinate to the Parisian provincial of the Dominican Order.

In addition to the Waldenses and Cathars, the French Inquisition persecuted apostates in Judaism from the 20s. XIV century - Begards and Beguines, free spirit brothers, spiritualists who made up the radical wing of the Franciscans, etc.

From the second quarter of the 14th century. The activities of the French Inquisition became less active than in previous years due to a reduction in the number of heretics due to the destruction of the main centers of the Albigensian heresy, due to financial unprofitability (the confiscation of the property of the condemned ceased to cover costs), as well as due to the hardships of the Hundred Years War ( 1337-1453).

In addition, the weakness of the papacy during the period of the “Avignon Captivity of the Popes” (1309-1378) and the subsequent schism in the Catholic Church (1378-1417) contributed to the subordination of the Dominican Inquisition to the French crown: due to conflicts with the local royal administration (seneschals), the inquisitors turned for help from the king and over time began to need the constant patronage of the monarch and the Parisian Parliament. The place of appointment of inquisitors was by the king, and not by the Pope14.

The French Inquisition participated in major medieval political trials: against the Templar Order, accused of heresy (in 1307-1314) and destroyed for political and financial reasons, and against Joan of Arc (in 1431), accused of heresy by order of the British.

In Northern Italy (Lombardy), in particular in Milan, there was one of the centers Cathar heresy; the Waldensian heresy also spread here, and at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th centuries. under the influence of the Franciscan spiritualists, numerous heretical movements: Fraticelli and Apostolic Brothers, supporters of Dolcino.

The political fragmentation of the Italian state and constant conflicts between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, supporters of the Pope and the German emperor, complicated the organization of regular persecution of heretics in Italy.

In the early 30s. XIII century Pope Gregory IX entrusted the search for heretics to representatives of the mendicant orders, and some inquisitors showed extreme activity in working with the productivity of the tribunals (for example, the inquisitor of Lombardy Peter of Verona, who died as a martyr in 1252, was subsequently canonized by the Roman Catholic Church).

In 1231, Emperor Frederick II introduced the Inquisition in Sicily. In 1252, Innocent IV ordered all secular rulers in Italy to include provisions on the persecution of heretics in their legislative codes (the bull “Ad extirpanda”).

The actions of secular authorities in the fight against heretics were to be controlled by the mendicant orders. The peninsula was divided between two orders: in Lombardy and Genoa the Dominicans were in charge of the affairs of Italy, and in Central and Southern Italy the Franciscans were in charge.

In 1268, under King Charles of Anjou, the Inquisition was established in the Kingdom of Naples, and in 1288 in Venice. In the XIV-XV centuries. The scope of I.'s activities in Italy, as in France, is decreasing. In the statutes of the Duchy of Milan from 1343 to 1495, I. is not mentioned even once; in some other Italian states it was completely subordinated to secular power (in Venice, in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies).

In the Kingdom of Aragon, where there were pockets of the Cathar and Waldensian heresies, on the initiative of the Dominican, canonist and royal confessor Raymond of Peñafort in the early 30s. XIII century Regular persecution of heretics began by representatives of the Catholic Church and secular officials, who were appointed by bishops and royal governors, respectively. In 1238, a permanent Inquisition was introduced in Aragon and Navarre on the southern French model, entrusted to the Dominicans and Franciscans.

The Navarrese Inquisition was soon subordinated to the Aragonese. In the XIV century. I. began to persecute spiritualists, which became the cause of protracted conflicts between the Dominicans and Franciscans. From the 2nd half. XIV century In Aragonese I. there is organizational instability of the tribunals and frequent conflicts with the king and the aristocracy. The Supreme Inquisitor of the Kingdom of Aragon, Nicholas Eymeric, in his treatise “The Path of the Inquisitors” (Directorium Inquisitorum, 1376) systematized the procedure of inquisitorial investigation; this systematization formed the basis of all later compilations.

The need to persecute heretics arose at the beginning of the 13th century, when a Waldensian community was discovered in Strasbourg, in addition to them in the 13th-15th centuries. in Germany, Begards and Beguines, brothers of the free spirit, Luciferians, flagellants, etc. were persecuted. Regular Dominican I. was not introduced in Germany, which is explained both by the lack of support from the central government due to the constant conflict between popes and emperors, and by the opposition of the imperial episcopate , who did not want to cede part of his powers to the Dominicans, as well as the fragmentation of the empire, when any initiative on the part of the pope and even the emperor had to receive the support of all the major secular and ecclesiastical princes of the empire. The most successful years for the German Inquisition were 1369-1378, when Emperor Charles IV obliged all secular and ecclesiastical authorities to assist the Dominican inquisitors, however, even during this period, permanent tribunals and prisons were not established. Absence in Germany at the beginning of the 16th century. The established institution of history is traditionally considered one of the factors that determined the success of the Reformation in the German lands.

In the Czech Republic, the Inquisition was introduced at the royal request in order to counter the spread of the Waldensian heresy. In 1257, 2 Franciscan inquisitors were sent to the Czech Republic. In the XIV century. Popes John XXII and Benedict XII repeatedly sent Dominicans and Franciscans there with inquisitorial powers, but the Inquisition did not establish itself there, and the persecution of heretics was carried out by the episcopate. When at the end of the 14th century. In the Czech Republic, a movement of followers of John Wycliffe arose, a circle of humanists was formed at the University of Prague, and the Hussite movement became widespread; episcopal history turned out to be ineffective. Inquisitorial trials of Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague were carried out at the Council of Constance (1414-1418), then to fight the Hussites and Moravian brothers, whose teachings spread throughout the Czech Republic, Moravia, Hungary and Poland, inquisitors came from Italy (for example, Jacob from Markiv 1435 -1439).

After the eradication of the southern French and Italian heresies, there was a slight decline in the activity of the Inquisition: many tribunals were closed, others were almost inactive. The intensification of the activities of the Inquisition was associated with the introduction of the “new” Inquisition in the Iberian kingdoms at the end. XV century, the main difference of which was a clearly expressed state character. During the European pogroms in Castile and Aragon in 1391, as a result of forced mass baptisms, a large group of baptized Jews (conversos, or Maranos) was formed, who were rightly suspected of secretly following Judaism (in crypto-Judaism, the “Mosaic heresy”). Based on accusations that the conversos only outwardly accepted Christianity and secretly observed the precepts of their religion, at the Council of Toledo in 1499 a resolution was adopted according to which they were prohibited from holding public positions and acting as accusers of “old” Christians in court. However, Pope Nicholas V, with the bull “Humani generis inimicus” (1449), confirmed the equality in rights of “old” and “new” Christians. In response to the bull of Pope Nicholas V cor. Enrique IV of Castile appointed the first inquisitors under his authority. With the consent of Pope Sixtus IV, who established Egypt in Castile and Aragon in 1478, the right to appoint inquisitors became the responsibility of the Spanish. rulers Ferdinand V and Isabella I (in 1496 they received the title “Catholic kings” (Reyes Católicos) from Pope Alexander VI). In 1481, the 1st auto-da-fé took place in Seville.

The “new” Inquisition in Spain, in terms of the specifics of its administration, differed from the “old” Dominican Inquisition. In the distribution of income and the appointment of inquisitors, the Spanish monarchs dominated the Papal Throne, therefore the “new” Innocent III is sometimes also called “royal”.

The governing body, established in 1483, was the Council of the Supreme and General Innocent III (Consejo de la Suprema y General Inquisición), consisting of 6-10 members appointed by the crown. The council was headed by the general (or great) inquisitor, who was appointed by the king and confirmed in office by the Pope. The first inquisitor general was the Dominican Thomas Torquemada (1483-1498). From 1507 to 1518 there were 2 inquisitors general - for Castile and for Aragon.

The functions of the Council were to supervise the work of the inquisitorial tribunals, protect them from interference by local authorities, issue general rules and manage financial resources, which were replenished from the confiscated property of convicted heretics, fines and payments for commutation of punishment; these funds were distributed between the Inquisition and the royal treasury. The first tribunals opened in 1481 in Andalusia (Seville and Cordoba); at the end of the 15th - beginning of the 16th century. 9 more tribunals were created in the Kingdom of Castile (in Toledo, Llerena, Murcia, Valladolid, Cuenca, Las Palmas, Logroño, Granada, Santiago de Compostela), the fourth in the Kingdom of Aragon (in Zaragoza, Valencia, Barcelona and Mallorca) , as well as in Sicily and Sardinia.

The Portuguese Inquisition was established following the example of the Spanish. Since 1515 Portuguese. The monarchs tried to get a bull from the Papal Throne to introduce the Inquisition in the country, motivating the request by the presence in the Catholic country of a large Converso community, who apparently remained committed to their former religion. This community was formed as a result of the forced baptism in 1497 of all Jews who remained in the country after the expulsion of Jews from Portugal in 1496, including emigrants from Spain. The envoys of this community informed the Roman throne about the fact of forced baptism. Having received this information and having discovered the active resistance of the converso to the introduction of the Investment, the popes hesitated in issuing the corresponding bull.

Although the 1st auto-da-fé in Lisbon took place in 1540, it was only in 1547 that a papal bull was promulgated, according to which an inquisitorial tribunal was created in Portugal on the Spanish model with a certain independence from Rome: an inquisitor general who appoints local inquisitors and is the highest court of appeal instance according to the verdicts of local tribunals, was limited in its powers by the Supreme Council of St. service (Conselho Geral do Santo Oficio), whose members were appointed by the king. From time to time, the Portuguese converso managed to soften the inquisitorial policy with the help of large bribes: in 1605, the community bought a general amnesty for all past sins. The Portuguese Inquisition had 4 tribunals: in Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra and, from 1561, in Goa (India).

Chapter 2. The goals and cruelty of the Inquisition

2.1 Innocent III - first inquisitor

In the first months of his pontificate, Innocent took measures to restore the Papal States.

Under Innocent III, the doctrine of papal primacy, formulated in correspondence with European sovereigns, the Byzantine emperor and the Orthodox Church, was developed. patriarchs. During the pontificate of Innocent III, the title “Vicar of Christ” in papal documents finally replaced the title “Vicar of St. Peter,” which meant the higher position of the spiritual power of the Pope in relation to the temporal power of the ruler.

As the Vicar of God, the Pope is supposed to oversee the establishment of a just peace and the resolution of conflicts. In essence, Innocent III developed the ideas of the movement " God's peace“, but with an emphasis on the reconciling role of the papacy (thus, the purpose of the crusades, according to Innocent III, was to achieve and strengthen peace and justice). Innocent III found the justification for such a role of the papacy in the world in Holy Scripture. According to Innocent III, the Pope is responsible before God for the entire Christian world. It was in the violation of God's commandments that Innocent III saw the causes of many troubles. First of all, this applied to Christian sovereigns, whose sins, in their consequences, were much more serious than the sins of ordinary people. Following the ideas of the Gregorian reform, Innocent III sought to distinguish between the rights of secular rulers and the Pope. In his opinion, the pope could intervene in political affairs when necessary, especially in cases where there were sins of the sovereigns. At the same time, he argued that the Roman Church is completely free in both temporal and spiritual affairs. The coronation and anointing of emperors, according to Innocent III, was not the responsibility of the popes, but was carried out by them of their own free will.

As the “Vicar of Christ,” the Pope had unlimited power over the entire Church. Innocent III justified the primacy of the pope in the Catholic Church by succession from the Apostle Peter. Only the Apostle Peter, according to the pope, received full power in the Church, while the other apostles only had power over individual provinces. Consistent approval of the idea of ​​succession from the “prince of the apostles” was carried out in many ways. areas of church policy - diplomatic correspondence, urban planning activities (under Innocent III, the arrangement of the papal residence near the Vatican Basilica began, and St. Peter's Cathedral in one of the mosaics laid out there by order of the pope was named

“Mother of all Churches” - “Mater cunctarum decor et decus ecclesiarum”), innovations in ceremonial and liturgy (the enthronement of Innocent Sh. took place on February 22, on the day of the feast of the department of St. Apostle Peter). In Innocent III one can find the idea of ​​papal infallibility in matters of faith: he interprets Luke 22.32 in the sense that Christ Himself prays for the firmness and immutability of faith (constantia fidei) of the vicar, the Apostle Peter. The claims of Innocent III also extended to the supreme judicial and legislative powers. I. carried out a reform of the papal office, strengthening control over the work of notaries and the protection of letters from forgery. The result was the first surviving more or less complete papal register. Innocent III was the first pope to issue a set of decretals, which included the letters of both Innocent III (Compilatio III, 1209-1210) and Clement III and Celestine III (Compilatio II, 1210-1212).

Innocent III introduced the inquisitorial process (inquisitio) as a tool for investigating the crimes of clergy. The investigation could begin on the basis of rumors or written complaints; the court was able to use material evidence collected ex officio (by virtue of his position), i.e., the judge was entrusted with the investigation, search for evidence and sentencing.

Certain aspects of the inquisition process were specified in a number of papal decrees of 1198-1213. it was fully approved in 1215 by the 8th canon of the IV Lateran Council. The beginning of active activity of inquisitorial tribunals dates back to the 30s. XIII century21.

The activities of Innokenty Sh were aimed at establishing the highest administrative power The Pope in the Church, whose prelates were only supposed to fulfill the role of representatives of the Pope. Often I. appointed bishops and archbishops, regardless of the opinion of the chapter; characteristic feature The policy of Innocent III was the desire for the direct approval by the Pope of episcopal elections without the consent of archbishops, transfers of bishops from one see to another, and deprivation of their powers.

Among the monastic orders, the order of the Cistercians enjoyed the greatest attention and respect of Innocent III. Many of the pope's confidants and his legates belonged to this order. Probably, I. was attracted not only by the spirituality of the order, but also by its internal organization. On the initiative of the pope, similar general chapters began to be created in other monasteries that followed the Benedictine Rule (for example, in the monasteries of Denmark in 1205, in Rouen in 1210). The establishment of such a governing body was prescribed by the 12th canon of the IV Lateran Council to all ecclesiastical provinces (this was fully implemented only in England).

Creation of mendicant orders in the 1st decade of the 13th century. became one of the key measures in papal policy to eradicate heresies, which had become widespread by the beginning of the 13th century. widespread in Western Europe.

Innocent III divided heretical movements into 2 categories. The 1st group included the Cathars, who created their own church in Languedoc and took the path of open opposition to the Roman Church: it was intended to eradicate them by force. In the 2nd category, Innocent III included movements that were excommunicated from the Church by the Verona Decretal, issued by Lucius III in 1184: they did not oppose the Church and therefore, from the point of view of Innocent III, could be returned to its fold.

Thanks to this position of the pope, the Humilians were reconciled with the Church in 1201, and 2 groups of Waldensians in 1208 and 1210 (the 1st was led by Durand da Osca, the 2nd by Bernard Primo); all 3 movements were able to create their own religious orders that followed the ideal of evangelical poverty (the order of the Humilians, “pauperes catholici” by Duranda da Osca and “pauperes reconciliati” by Bernard Primo).

The key role in the fight against heretics, according to the pope, was to be played by secular rulers. In March-April 1198, in messages addressed to the secular and ecclesiastical authorities of Southern France, Innocent III reported that he sent his legates Raineri and Guido to fight the heretics. When in 1199 Archbishop Sansa informed the pope that heresies began to spread not only in the south, but also in the north of France, Innocent III ordered the confiscation of the property of the perpetrators, just as, according to Roman law, traitors were to be dealt with. In another message, the pope condemned those overzealous laymen of Metz who, accusing the local clergy of ignorance, began to organize secret meetings during which sermons and translations of the Bible into the vernacular were read. inquisition torture innocent cleric

Innocent III strove to ensure that trials of those accused of heresy were carried out properly and that their faith was thoroughly examined (in particular, the pope punished the Archpriest of Verona for illegally excommunicating the humiliates).

Those accused of various heresies began to arrive in Rome in large numbers, wanting to be justified and receive the protection of the Pope. In 1205, the pope withdrew charges of demonic possession against a group of men and women brought against them by the bishop of Bologna: according to the pope, the case involved mental disorders, not possession. To solve problems with the humiliates, condemned in 1184 at the Council of Verona, Cardinal Gregory was sent to Northern Italy. In 1200-1201 different groups of humiliates received papal patronage.

In 1204, new legates were sent to France to fight heretics - the Cistercian monks Peter de Castelnau and Raoul de Fontfroud. The main stronghold of heretics was Languedoc, where gr. Raymond VI of Toulouse patronized the Cathars. Negotiations with him by the papal legate Peter de Castelnau did not bring results; On January 15, 1208, the legate was brutally killed. When news of the legate's martyrdom reached Rome, the pope called on all French lords to a crusade against the heretics. The crusaders were promised complete indulgence and release from debt obligations, and the lands of the participants in the campaign received papal protection. To support the campaign, a tax (10%) was collected throughout the year. The Pope made efforts to involve the French king in this fight.

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