Inquisition: The Infamous Torture and Punishment of Heretics

Perhaps you have heard of the horrible stories of the Spanish, Portuguese, or French inquisition, the Catholic body of persecutors who would arrest the supposed “heathens” and accuse them of witchcraft, heresies, blasphemy, adultery, and a whole list of other sins or crimes. Torture, interrogations, executions, burnings, and other inhumane methods were used to then force, coerce, or kill the victims of this Catholic organization within the church at the time.

We are talking mostly about medieval times, when the power of the Catholic church extended throughout Europe. The Inquisition, typically called the "Holy Inquisition" in middle ages clerical terms, was a series of organizations within the Catholic Church whose objective was to fight heresy. Research studies of the archives have exposed that the large bulk of sentences were penances, but that cases of repeat unrepentant apostates were given nonreligious courts, where they were normally executed or sentenced to life. The Inquisition was established in 12th-century France to fight spiritual variance (such as apostasy or heresy), particularly amongst the Cathars and Waldensians. The Middle ages Inquisition describes the inquisitorial courts that existed from this time till the mid-15th century.

Discover the pain, the frustration, the hypocrisy, and the drama behind the inquisition. Learn more about their motives, their methods, their superiors, and their murdering.