Monday, 27 January 2014

A Gruesome Part Of History: The Inquisition

                The Inquisition, was a Church court established in the 13th century. The main purpose of the inquisitions creation was the Catholic Church wanted to investigate and trial those who are accused of heresy. The court was at the peak of its power during the medieval and early modern times. It was brutal and unjust. The Inquisition brought a lot of pain in different parts of Europe, gave birth to new methods of torture, and finally showed the people who were truly wolves in the Church as said in the bible that we should be aware of the wolves lurking, and hiding in our Church.
               
                Another name for the Inquisition was “ The Holy inquisitions”, but it was surely not holy. Everything in it was to the benefit of the corrupt officials during the church. Priests during this time abused their power and just the words they say scared the people so much. It also was very hard to accuse the corrupt church officials of their wrong doings. To even establish an accusation against a bishop itself required 72 witnesses; against a deacon was 27; against an inferior dignitary was 7, and for non-members of the clergy, 2 was sufficient to convict. Can you believe the power the priests had? They were like God himself! People feared their words. Most of the leaders of the church also did inquisitions as a  way to get money. The Inquisition did not actually glorify God, but instead used God’s name in the wrong reasons and way. To even establish an accusation against a bishop itself required 72 witnesses; against a deacon was 27; against an inferior dignitary was 7, and forcient to convict.
                The procedure of investigation was brutal. Even the slightest sign that you may be a heretic would bring you to trial and believe me, their trials were not fair.  Once you were convicted all your belongings were taken away to make up for the investigation and this is where the corrupt church officials got their money. It was dirty money, the  people they accused were innocent and if they would not admit they would use violent way to get them to confess what they want them to confess even if it wasn’t true. No one should ever go through this procedure of investigation, no matter how evil the deed.
               
                No one was spared. Children from the ages of two and up were not spared. Women with children were also not spared. The only ones who were probably exempted from the inquiry for the inquisition was the priest and higher ranked. People would not have dared to accuse them. The one of high rank who are also not spared are probably the royals since they have no power over the church. The church during this time didn’t really care just as long as they get their money.


The items used for torture brought a lot of pain and if used too much can cause death. Things like the rack, shocks, heretics fork, pear, branks, wheel, breast ripper, garrote, hanging cages, head crushers,  iron maiden, strappado, boots, Judas cradle, guillotine and methods like water torture and being burnt at the stake. All of this was made and used primarily for the torturing during the time of the inquisition. People who were accused were put into these kinds of torture in order to get them to confess things they did not do and confess thing the accusers want the accused to confess. Whenever they do confess they are told they are promised their lives but instead they are burnt at the stake. In some ways, of torture, it is done in public places to cause fear towards the people. A lot of innocent lives were killed on the things mentioned above and thankfully they are not here anymore.
               
There were a lot of different inquisition movements that mainly happened around Europe. Three movements were mainly led by the Spanish, Portugese, and Roman. The other movement was done in the Medieval times, it was called the Medieval Inquisition. And all of them are the same, though they have have different leaders for each movement.  They are the same because they have same goal to get money through accusing people who are innocent.

                The Inquisition also brought the terms witches, werewolves, and vampires came to light because of the inquisition. The witches were made to describe women were not only accused of heresy, but of witchraft as well. They were called witches. Wolves were used to describe the people who lusted for blood to be spilled. The last one, the term vampires was used for those people during that day who thanks to people from Europe before and their myths. The terms were made thanks to the people before and their myths.

                I view the Inquisition as a waste. The church’s name was put to shame. The actions of the people who claimed to have God on their side, but instead used God’s name to take advantage of the people is such a shame. God did not deserve it and the people should not have died. A lot of lives,dreams, and names were destroyed because of the Inquisition.


                Finally, the Inquisition is a new thing I  just learned. Me and my classmates were told to research about the Inquisition. So I researched about it and I was interested. Since this is my blog, I decided to put my knowledge and feelings about the Inquisition here. So I would like to say that in short the Inqusition was generally a bad thing.  A lot of innocent people were killed. New names that sounded bad were made. Things or I guess we should say, weapons were made by these bad people who wanted to do harm to their fellow people. The people in higher ranks used the Inquisition as a time to get rich because they actually gained a lot of profit from the brutality of it all. Now this is the end. Thanks for reading!

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