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The InquisitionTHE INQUISITION Among the most diabolical devices of the Papacy, the Inquisition - founded in 1234 - should always be remembered. In autumn 1999, even Hindus recalled it as the Pope prepared to visit India, for the Inquisition had been active there in Goa, as well as in Latin America. Catholic reference works (such as the HarperCollins Encyclopaedia of Catholicism 1996 where it gets half a page out of 1,350 pages) gloss over its evil. So a volume explaining this tribunal for investigating heresy has obvious value. But these authors, of Holy Blood and Holy Grail fame, have their own agenda. In December 1744, while Wesley and Whitefield were still young, John Coustos, a British subject, escaped back to London from the Inquisition in Lisbon. He published a graphic (embroidered?) account of his tortures before expiring. Others of his Iberian brethren were sent to the galleys or executed. Coustos was a mason, and it is entirely right that we remember the atrocities of the Inquisition against Cathars, Jews, alleged witches, masons, and scientists like Galileo (who got off very lightly). On February 17 2000, the 400th anniversary will be marked of the burning of cosmologist Giordano Bruno. No FoxeOnly 20 pages are devoted directly to the Inquisition's fight against Protestantism. Foxe is not cited. The reign of terror radiating from Italy between 1542 (when the Roman inquisition or Holy Office was created) included not only the murder of scholars, but the publication in 1559 of the Index of prohibited books. It was still being added to in the 1950s, and was only abolished in 1966. (It once included the Book of Common Prayer, but that would not be necessary today.) However, this book is not very interested in the sufferings of biblical believers - it moves swiftly on to the renaissance magi. The European witchcraft persecutions are a great temptation to authors, for they offer convenient sensational material. The authors know nothing of the complexity disclosed by Robin Briggs' Witches and Neighbours (1996) or the summary of recent scholarship in B.P. Levack's The Witch Hunt in Early Modern Europe (2nd edition, 1995). It would come as a surprise to them to be told that the Inquisition was actually a moderating force in keeping witch executions down, but the numbers in the countries where it was powerful show this. The authors claim that the Inquisition continued to torture and execute their victims in the Italian Papal States until 1846. In 1859, the new Kingdom of Italy annexed these States except for Rome, where gross human rights abuses continued until Rome was occupied in 1870. For the next century, the Roman See harassed its victims in more subtle ways, and eventually the Holy Office was renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The dungeons of its palace are now offices and archives, but if you have an anonymous accusation to make about a theologian, they would be happy to hear from you. This is a wide-ranging book, but the authors sometimes scatter their ammunition thinly and wildly; it cannot be used without checking. Protestants should not be smug, for their own church discipline has also departed from biblical norms, being at times ferocious or feeble. Inquisition archives are still being opened, and there remains a need for a Christian book which reassesses the evil. Leslie Price© Evangelicals Now - January 2000 |