Far fewer witches were put on the stake and far fewer heretics were tortured during the dark period of the Inquisition than was commonly thought until now - this is what the Vatican claims in a new study
Far fewer witches were put on the stake and far fewer heretics were tortured during the dark period of the Inquisition than was thought until now - this is what the Vatican claims in a new study. In a statement issued yesterday, the Pope, John Paul II, admitted that the Inquisition - an investigative body established by the Church - is seen as one of the saddest phenomena in the history of the Church, and that its negative image, as reflected in thousands of paintings documenting torture throughout Europe, has taken on monstrous proportions. The Pope also asked for forgiveness for the crimes committed by Catholic Christians in the name of the Church.
In order to measure the events related to the Inquisition and the atrocities it perpetrated, on Tuesday the Vatican published a collection of articles on the subject, which summarized studies presented at the conference in 1998. According to the articles, the work of 50 theologians and historians specializing in the subject, the number of those killed or tortured by the Inquisition is much lower than previously thought. The 1998 research is based on documents from the Vatican archives, which discuss the trials of Jews, Muslims, witches, scientists, gentiles and other non-Catholics who lived in Europe between the 13th and 19th centuries. Their findings support the theories of historians published in recent years, according to which the media of the Inquisition's activities were exaggerated.
According to the estimates that have been accepted until now, the estimate of those killed by the Spanish Inquisition, which received the approval of Pope Sixtus VI in 1478, ranges from 30 thousand to 300 thousand people. However, according to Prof. Agostino Borromeo, a historian at "La Sapienza" University in Rome who specializes in Catholic Christianity, and edited the 783 pages summarizing the findings of the studies that were published yesterday, the rate of those killed in Spain did not exceed 1% of all 125 thousand people who were tried - that is, less than 1,500 man. "The use of torture and the imposition of death sentences was not as widespread as was thought for a long time," said Borromeo.
According to him, the studies show that a large part of the executions carried out in the centuries of the Inquisition's activity, were handed down in courts that were not subordinate to the church.
According to Prof. Miri Eliav-Feldon from Tel Aviv University, the research findings published by the Vatican are not a novelty. According to her, throughout the hundreds of years of the Inquisition's existence, the number of executions was small, certainly compared to the number of executions by the civil justice system. "The Inquisition is one of the myths that blow the facts out of proportion," she says.
The Inquisition (Latin, "investigation") was established at the beginning of the 13th century with the enormous spread of the Cathar (Albigensian) races in southern France. Pope Gregory IX then appointed inquisitors, mostly Dominican and Franciscan monks, and gave them judicial authority over all Christians in their area. In the 9th century, the Inquisition worked against the Protestants, but its power remained significant only in the papal state. One of the well-known examples is the burning of Giordano Bruno, a philosopher and scientist, in 16 in Rome on the charge of sex. In 1600, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei was banned for spreading Copernicus' theory, according to which the sun is the center of the universe and the earth revolves around it. The church officially declared his teachings to be heretical, and Galileo, fearing the death penalty, retracted his teachings and died under house arrest. According to Eliav-Feldon, throughout the 1663 years of activity of the Roman Inquisition (which operated in Italy), there is documentation of only 350 executions.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the Inquisition took on a new face in the second half of the 15th century, after the "Catholic kings" Fernando and Isabella, expressed increasing concern about the problem of converts (conversos) - Christians who converted from Judaism, but there was concern that they did so only out of fear and not True faith, and remaining Jews in secret. In 1478, the two kings received permission from Pope Sixtus VI to establish a new inquisition under the auspices of the government within their kingdoms. According to the data that was accepted in research until the last few years, 6% of the accused were handed over to the secular authorities for burning, but from the middle of the 40th century the number of death penalty cases dropped to about 16%. The conclusions of the study published by the Vatican greatly reduce these dimensions.
However, the findings of the study published by the Vatican are not accepted by everyone. "The findings are interesting, but they do not justify the action of the Inquisition, which instilled fear and led to the expulsion of thousands from their homes," said David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee.
Carlo Ginzburg, a renowned professor of medieval history, warns against relying on statistics. Ginzburg, who specializes in the study of the Inquisition, emphasizes that the historical research is based only on the documents of the authorities and does not have the testimonies of the interrogated for comparison. "In many cases we have no evidence at all," he said.
The Pope apologized
The Church does not deny its responsibility for the atrocities committed in its name by Catholics, and in 2000 the Pope, John Paul II, officially apologized for the actions of the Church and the unnecessary violence it used. Also yesterday the Pope apologized for the actions of the church. "We cannot accept the betrayal of the Christian gospel by some of our brothers, especially in the second millennium," the Pope said the other day about the crimes of the Inquisition. However, he is not ready to express remorse for injustices that the Vatican can prove he had no part in.
"To what extent is the accepted image of the Inquisition true to reality?", asked the Pope. "Before we ask for forgiveness, we need accurate information about the facts."
According to Yitzhak Minerbi, who served as ambassador to the Vatican, the fact that the Pope apologizes for the actions of his predecessors does not mean that he blames them for the actions. According to him, the current pope is apologizing because he wants to adapt the church to our time. "What the church has done in the past hundreds of years is not acceptable to many of its flock," explains Minerbi.
By: Galia Limor, Haaretz, Walla News!
