Roman Inquisition

Last updated

The Roman Inquisition, formally Suprema Congregatio Sanctae Romanae et Universalis Inquisitionis ( Latin for 'the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition'), was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes according to Catholic law and doctrine, relating to Catholic religious life or alternative religious or secular beliefs. It was established in 1542 by the leader of the Catholic Church, Pope Paul III. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition, the other two being the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.

Contents

Function and functioning

The main function of the institution was to maintain and implement papal bulls and other church rulings, in addition to their function of administering legalistic ramifications upon deviants of Catholic orthodoxy within states that cooperated with the pope and ostensibly exhibiting proper procedure to Catholic states in the process of formulating the Counter-Reformation. [1] The papal bull Ad abolendam, by Lucius III, prescribed penalties for heretical clerics and laymen and established a procedure of systematic inquisition by bishops; the third canon of the fourth Lateran Council (1215) specified procedures against heretics and their accomplices. Clerics were to be degraded from their orders, lay persons were to be branded as infamous and not be admitted to public offices or councils or to run a business, will not have the freedom to make a will nor shall succeed to an inheritance, goods were to be confiscated. A secular leader who "neglects to cleanse his territory of this heretical filth" would be excommunicated and the supreme pontiff could declare his vassals absolved from their fealty to him and make the land available for occupation by Catholics who would possess it unopposed and preserve it in the purity of the faith. [2]

The organisational system of the Roman Inquisition did differ essentially from that of the Medieval Inquisition. Typically, the pope appointed one cardinal to preside over meetings of the Congregation. Though often referred to in historical literature as Grand Inquisitors, the role was substantially different from the formally appointed Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. There were usually ten other cardinals who were members of the Congregation, as well as a prelate and two assistants all chosen from the Dominican Order. The Holy Office also had an international group of consultants; experienced scholars of theology and canon law who advised on specific questions. The congregation, in turn, presided over the activity of local tribunals.

History

The Roman Inquisition began in 1542 as part of the Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation against the spread of Protestantism, but it represented a less harsh affair than the previously established Spanish Inquisition. [3] In 1588, [4] Pope Sixtus V established, with Immensa Aeterni Dei , 15 congregations of the Roman Curia of which the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was one. In 1908, the congregation was renamed the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, in 1965 it was renamed again to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in 2022 it was renamed once again to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. [5]

While the Roman Inquisition was originally designed to combat the spread of Protestantism in Italy, the institution outlived that original purpose and the system of tribunals lasted until the mid 18th century, when pre-unification Italian states began to suppress the local inquisitions, effectively eliminating the power of the church to prosecute heretical crimes.

Notable subjects of investigation

Copernicus

Nicolaus Copernicus circulated for scholarly discussion his hypothesis of a cosmos that was heliocentric and an Earth that rotated around its own axis, first, in 1514 in a manuscript essay, "De hypothesibus motuum coelestium commentariolus" (Brief Commentary on the Hypotheses of Heavenly Movements), and then more robustly in the book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), in 1543. The book was dedicated to Pope Paul III, who was known for his interests in astronomy. Both works were known in Rome, and neither attracted adverse theological responses in the sixteenth century.

Some seven decades following Copernicus's death, specialists in mathematics, philosophy, and Catholic theology, whom the Roman Inquisition consulted in response to complaints made against Galileo in 1616, judged the proposition that the sun is immobile and at the center of the universe and that the Earth moves around it, to be "foolish and absurd in philosophy" and that the first was "formally heretical" while the second was "at least erroneous in faith". [note 1] [6]

While the Inquisition refrained from condemning either Copernicus or his book (or Galileo) on the basis of this assessment, several theological claims in De revolutionibus were ordered to be excised in future publications. Unexpurgated versions of On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres were placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books).

Galileo

Galileo Galilei revised the Copernican theories and was admonished for his views on heliocentrism in 1615. The Roman Inquisition concluded that his theory could only be supported as a possibility, not as an established fact. [7] Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632), which attacked Pope Urban VIII and thus alienated him and the Jesuits, who had both supported Galileo up until that point. [7]

He was tried by the Inquisition in 1633. Galileo was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", forced to recant, and the Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Index of Forbidden Books). He spent the rest of his life under house arrest at his villa in Arcetri near the city of Florence. [8]

John Bargrave

17th century English traveler and author, John Bargrave, gave an account of his interactions with the Roman Inquisition. [9] Arriving in the city of Reggio (having travelled from Modena), Bargrave was stopped by the city guard who inspected his books on suspicion some may have been on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Bargrave was brought before the city's chief inquisitor who suggested they converse in Latin rather than Italian so that the guards might be prevented from understanding them. The inquisitor told him that the inquisition were not accustomed to stopping visitors or travellers unless someone had suggested they do so (Bargrave suspected that Jesuits in Rome had made accusations against him). Nonetheless, Bargrave was told he was required to hold a license from the inquisition. Even with a license, Bargrave was prohibited from carrying any books "printed at any heretical city, as Geneva, Amsterdam, Leyden, London, or the like". [9] Bargrave provided a catalogue of his books to the inquisition and was provided with a license to carry them for the rest of his journey.

Others

Among the subjects of this Inquisition were Franciscus Patricius, Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, Gerolamo Cardano, Cesare Cremonini and Camilla Erculiani an Italian apothecary, writer, natural philosopher, and a women's advocate. Of these, only Bruno was executed, in 1600. The miller Domenico Scandella was also burned at the stake on the orders of Pope Clement VIII in 1599 for his belief that God was created from chaos. [10] The friar Fulgenzio Manfredi, who had preached against the pope, was tried by the Inquisition and executed in 1610.

The Inquisition also concerned itself with the Benandanti in the Friuli region, but considered them a lesser danger than the Protestant Reformation and only handed out light sentences.

Inquisition in Italy and Malta

The Inquisition in Malta (1561 to 1798) is generally considered to have been gentler. [11]

Italian historian Andrea Del Col estimates that out of 51,000–75,000 cases judged by Inquisition in Italy after 1542, around 1,250 resulted in a death sentence. [12]

Historiography and witchcraft accusations

The Inquisitions have long been one of the primary subjects in the scholarly debates regarding witchcraft accusations of the early modern period. Historian Henry Charles Lea places an emphasis on torture methods employed to force confessions from the convicted. [13] Carlo Ginzburg, in The Night Battles, discussed how Inquisitorial propaganda of demonology distorted popular folk beliefs. [14] In similar light, Elliott P. Currie saw the Inquisitions as one singular, ongoing phenomenon, which drove the witch-hunt to its peak. Currie argued that the methods pioneered by the Inquisition indirectly guided continental Europe to a series of persecutions motivated by profit. Second-wave feminism also saw a surge of historical interpretation of the witch-hunt. [15] A number of 100,000 to 9,000,000 executions was given, all of which was attributed to the Inquisition. Feminist scholars Claudia Honeger and Nelly Moia saw the early modern witch-craze as a product of Inquisitorial influence, namely the Malleus Maleficarum . [16] [17] Feminist writers Mary Daly, Barbara Walker, and Witch Starhawk argued that the Inquisitions were responsible for countless, "hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions", deaths, most of them women. This notion was similarly echoed by Third-wave feminist writer Elizabeth Connor, who agreed with the notion of "gynocide", or "woman hunting", inaugurated by the Malleus. [13] The same sentiment regarding the Inquisition's notorious reputation of torture was shared by American writer and attorney Jonathan Kirsch. In his book, The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God, Kirsch argued that the Inquisition's use of torture not only applied to the witch-craze which peaked in early 17th century, but also to the Salem witch trials. This model of repressive system, Kirsch argued, was also applied in Nazism, Soviet Russia, Japanese internment camps, McCarthyism, and most recently, the War on Terror. [18]

Through further research and available evidence, the Roman Inquisition was seen in a different light. In contrast with feminist arguments historians like Clarke Garrett, Brian P. Levack, John Tedeschi, Matteo Duni, and Diane Purkiss pointed out that most witch trials and executions were conducted by local and secular authorities. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] Clarke Garrett mentioned the quick decline and insignificance of the Malleus Maleficarum. In-depth historical research regarding minor details of different types of magic, theological heresies, and political climate of The Reformation further revealed that Inquisitorial procedures greatly restrained witch hunting in Italy. Scholars specializing in the Renaissance and Early Modern period such as Guido Ruggiero, Christopher F. Black, and Mary O'Neil also discussed the importance of proper procedures and sparse use of torture. The low rate of torture and lawful interrogation, Black argued, means that trials tended to focus more on individual accusation, instead of groups. For the same reason, the notion of the Black Sabbath was much less accepted in contemporary Italian popular culture. [24] [25] [26] The Holy Office's function in the disenchantment of popular culture also helped advance rationalism by getting rid of superstitions. Jeffrey R. Watt refutes the feminist claim that the Inquisition was responsible for the death of so many women. Watt points out that in 1588 the Roman Curia stated it would only allow testimony about participation in a Sabbath by the practitioners themselves and not by outside witnesses. Additionally, the Inquisition would eventually ban torture for the procurement of a witchcraft confession. The Holy Office also began seeking less harsh punishment for witches and viewed witches as those who had simply lost their way and who could be redeemed, not as apostates deserving death.[ when? ] [27]

Historians who leaned toward the witch-hunt-restraining argument were more inclined to differentiate different Inquisitions, and often drew contrast between Italy versus Central Europe. The number of executed witches is also greatly lowered, to between 45,000 and 60,000. Those who argued for the fault of the Inquisition in the witch-craze are more likely to contrast continental Europe to England, as well as seeing the Inquisitions as one singular event which lasted 600 years since its founding in the 11th or 12th century. The significance and emphasis of the Malleus Maleficarum is seen more frequently in arguments which hold the Inquisition accountable for the witch-craze.

Notes

  1. ↑ The original assessment document from the Inquisition was made available to the public in 2014.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inquisition</span> System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

The Inquisition was a Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various medieval and reformation-era State-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, witchcraft, and other dangers, using this procedure. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to the secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment. If the accused was known to be lying, a single short application of non-maiming torture was allowed, to corroborate evidence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medieval Inquisition</span> System of tribunals enforcing Catholic orthodoxy

The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). The Medieval Inquisition was established in response to movements considered apostate or heretical to Roman Catholicism, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy. These were the first movements of many inquisitions that would follow.

<i>Malleus Maleficarum</i> Treatise on the prosecution of witches, 1486

The Malleus Maleficarum, usually translated as the Hammer of Witches, is the best known treatise about witchcraft. It was written by the German Catholic clergyman Heinrich Kramer and first published in the German city of Speyer in 1486. Some describe it as the compendium of literature in demonology of the 15th century. Kramer presented his own views as the Roman Catholic Church's position.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Paul IV</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1555 to 1559

Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559. While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed an anti-Spanish outlook that later coloured his papacy. In response to an invasion of part of the Papal States by Spain during his papacy, he called for a French military intervention. After a defeat of the French and with Spanish troops at the edge of Rome, the Papacy and Spain reached a compromise: French and Spanish forces left the Papal States and the Pope thereafter adopted a neutral stance between France and Spain.

<span title="Latin-language text"><i lang="la">Index Librorum Prohibitorum</i></span> Books prohibited by the Catholic Church (16th–20th centuries)

The Index Librorum Prohibitorum was a changing list of publications deemed heretical or contrary to morality by the Sacred Congregation of the Index ; Catholics were forbidden to print or read them, subject to the local bishop. Catholic states could enact laws to adapt or adopt the list and enforce it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heinrich Kramer</span> German inquisitor (c. 1430–1505)

Heinrich Kramer, also known under the Latinized name Henricus Institor, was a German churchman and inquisitor. With his widely distributed book Malleus Maleficarum (1487), which describes witchcraft and endorses detailed processes for the extermination of witches, he was instrumental in establishing the period of witch trials in the early modern period. Professor Malcolm Gaskill has described Kramer as a "superstitious psychopath."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Sprenger</span> Dominican inquisitor

Jacob Sprenger was a Dominican inquisitor and theologian principally known for his association with a well-known guide for witch-hunters from 1486, Malleus Maleficarum. He was born in Rheinfelden, Further Austria, taught at the University of Cologne, and died in 1495 in Strasbourg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inquisitor</span> Official (usually with judicial or investigative functions) in an Inquisition

An inquisitor was an official in an inquisition – an organization or program intended to eliminate heresy and other things contrary to the doctrine or teachings of the Catholic faith. Literally, an inquisitor is one who "searches out" or "inquires".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witches' Sabbath</span> Gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft

A Witches' Sabbath is a purported gathering of those believed to practice witchcraft and other rituals. The phrase became especially popular in the 20th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ulrich Molitor</span>

Ulrich Molitor was a lawyer who wrote a treatise offering qualified support, joined to clarifications and methodological critiques derived Canon Law, to the recent witch-phobic efforts by Heinrich Kramer represented in Krämer's then-recently-published manual for the interrogation and prosecution of witchcraft Malleus Maleficarum.

<i>Summis desiderantes affectibus</i> 1484 papal bull on witchcraft

Summis desiderantes affectibus, sometimes abbreviated to Summis desiderantes, was a papal bull regarding witchcraft issued by Pope Innocent VIII on 5 December 1484.

<i>Directorium Inquisitorum</i> 1376 book by Nicholas Eymerich

The Directorium Inquisitorum is Nicholas Eymerich's most prominent and enduring work, written in Latin and consisting of approximately 800 pages, which he had composed as early as 1376. Eymerich had written an earlier treatise on sorcery, perhaps as early as 1359, which he extensively reworked into the Directorium Inqusitorum. In compiling the book, Eymerich used many of the magic texts he had previously confiscated from accused sorcerers. It can also be considered as an assessment of a century and a half of official Inquisition in the "albigensian" country.

The historical revision of the Inquisition is a historiographical process that started to emerge in the 1970s, with the opening of formerly closed archives, the development of new historical methodologies, and, in Spain, the death of the ruling dictator Francisco Franco in 1975. New works of historical revisionism changed our knowledge of the history of the Roman and Spanish Inquisitions.

In the early modern period, from about 1400 to 1775, about 100,000 people were prosecuted for witchcraft in Europe and British America. Between 40,000 and 60,000 were executed, almost all in Europe. The witch-hunts were particularly severe in parts of the Holy Roman Empire. Prosecutions for witchcraft reached a high point from 1560 to 1630, during the Counter-Reformation and the European wars of religion. Among the lower classes, accusations of witchcraft were usually made by neighbors, and women made formal accusations as much as men did. Magical healers or 'cunning folk' were sometimes prosecuted for witchcraft, but seem to have made up a minority of the accused. Roughly 80% of those convicted were women, most of them over the age of 40. In some regions, convicted witches were burnt at the stake, the traditional punishment for religious heresy.

Nicholas Jacquier was a French Dominican and Inquisitor. He became known as demonologist and proponent of witch-hunting.

Giovanni Romeo is an Italian historian.

Strixology is a genre of writing about the reality and dangers of witches, their origins, character and power; often in the context of theology or of demonology.

Helena Scheuberin was an Austrian woman who stood trial accused of witchcraft in 1485. Her trial and acquittal led Heinrich Kramer to write Malleus Maleficarum, which was published two years later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire</span>

In the Holy Roman Empire, witch trials composed of the areas of the present day Germany, were the most extensive in Europe and in the world, both to the extent of the witch trials as such as well as to the number of executions.

The Venetian Inquisition, formally the Holy Office, was the tribunal established jointly by the Venetian government and the Catholic Church to repress heresy throughout the Republic of Venice. The inquisition also intervened in cases of sacrilege, apostasy, prohibited books, superstition, and witchcraft. It was established in the 16th-century and was abolished in 1797.

References

  1. ↑ Catholic Encyclopedia. "Fourth Lateran Council (1215)". ewtn.com. Eternal Word Television Network, Inc.
  2. ↑ Steven Kreis, Fourth Lateran Council (1215): Canon 3 – On Heresy, The History Guide – Lectures on Ancient and Medieval European History, 2006.
  3. ↑ "Hsu, Jeremy. "Sloppy Records Cast Galileo's Trial in New Light", Live Science, September 30, 2010". Live Science . 30 September 2010.
  4. ↑ Archived 2015-01-22 at the Wayback Machine Dissertation C. Beaudet, The Catholic University of America, 2010
  5. ↑ ""Praedicate Evangelium" on the Roman Curia and its service to the Church and to the World (19 March 2022) | Francis". www.vatican.va. Retrieved 2023-02-14.
  6. ↑ Domínguez, Nuño (28 Feb 2014). "Una errata reproducida durante siglos cambia la censura de la Iglesia a Galileo". EsMateria.com.; also arXiv:1402.6168
  7. 1 2 Hannam, James. "The Genesis of Science". 2011. pp. 329–344.
  8. ↑ Finnocchiaro, Maurice (1989). The Galileo Affair. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press. p. 291.
  9. 1 2 Pope Alexander the Seventh and the College of Cardinals by John Bargrave, edited by James Craigie Robertson (reprint; 2009)
  10. ↑ Ginzburg, Carlo (1980) The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth Century Miller (translated by John and Anne Tedeschi), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, ISBN   0-8018-4387-1
  11. ↑ "The Archives of the Roman Inquisition in Malta". Archived from the original on 2008-07-20. Retrieved 2008-08-27.
  12. ↑ Andrea Del Col: L'Inquisizione in Italia. Milan: Oscar Mondadori, 2010, pp. 779–780. ISBN   978-88-04-53433-4.
  13. 1 2 Connor, E. (January 31, 1990). "Burning times: The inquisition's reign of terror". WomenWise, 12, 5
  14. ↑ Ginzburg, Carlo. 1983. The Night Battles: Witchcraft & Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth & Seventeenth Centuries. London; Melbourne: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  15. ↑ Currie, Elliott P.. 1968. "Crimes Without Criminals: Witchcraft and Its Control in Renaissance Europe". Law & Society Review 3 (1). [Wiley, Law and Society Association]: 7–32
  16. ↑ Honegger, Claudia. 1979. "Comment on Garrett's 'women and Witches'". Signs 4 (4). University of Chicago Press: 792–798
  17. ↑ Moia, Nelly. 1979. "Comment on Garrett's 'women and Witches'". Signs 4 (4). University of Chicago Press: 798–802.
  18. ↑ Kirsch, Jonathan. 2008. The Grand Inquisitor's Manual: A History of Terror in the Name of God. New York: HarperOne.
  19. ↑ Tedeschi, John (1983). "The Roman Inquisition and Witchcraft: An Early Seventeenth-century 'Instruction' on Correct Trial Procedure". Revue de l'Histoire des Religions. 200 (2). Armand Colin: 163–188. doi:10.3406/rhr.1983.4520.
  20. ↑ Garrett, Clarke. 1979. "Reply to Honegger and Moia". Signs 4 (4). University of Chicago Press: 802–804.
  21. ↑ Purkiss, Diane. "A Holocaust of one's own: The myth of the Burning Times". The Witch in History. Routledge, London: 1996.
  22. ↑ Bailey., Michael D. (2009). "Under the Devil's Spell: Witches, Sorcerers, and the Inquisition in Renaissance Italy (review)". Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft. 4 (1): 104–107. doi:10.1353/mrw.0.0133. S2CID   54861464.
  23. ↑ Bailey, Michael D. (2007). "The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (review)". Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft. 2 (1): 101–103. doi:10.1353/mrw.0.0133. S2CID   54861464.
  24. ↑ Black, Christopher F. 2009. The Italian Inquisition. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  25. ↑ Ruggiero, Guido (1993). Binding Passions: Tales of Magic, Marriage and Power at the End of the Renaissance. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
  26. ↑ Haliczer, Stephen (1986). Inquisition and Society in Early Modern Europe. London: Croom Helm.
  27. ↑ Watt, Jeffrey (2012). "Review of The Italian Inquisition by Christopher F. Black". The English Historical Review. 524: 164.

Short bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.