What Really Happened in the Inquisition?

The Popular Picture

Mention the Inquisition and most people picture hooded torturers, dungeons, burning stakes and millions of victims. The Spanish Inquisition in particular has become a byword for religious fanaticism and cruelty. It is often presented as proof that the Catholic Church is inherently oppressive.

There is some truth in the picture. The inquisitions used coercion, torture and execution against people for their beliefs, and the Church has apologised for this. But much of the popular image is exaggerated or simply false. Honest history requires us to tell the truth on both sides.

There Was No Single Inquisition

First, there was not one Inquisition but several, in different times and places.

The medieval inquisition began in the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries, mainly in southern France and northern Italy, in response to the Cathar heresy. Popes appointed inquisitors, often Dominican or Franciscan friars, to investigate heresy.

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 at the request of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Although authorised by the Pope, it was controlled by the Spanish crown and operated largely as an instrument of the state. It was aimed at first mainly at converts from Judaism (and later from Islam) suspected of secretly practising their former religion, and later at Protestants and others. It was not finally abolished until 1834.

The Portuguese Inquisition was established in 1536, also under royal control.

The Roman Inquisition, established by Pope Paul III in 1542, dealt mainly with Protestantism in Italy and with questions of doctrine. It is the body that tried Galileo. It later developed into today’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Why Did It Exist?

To understand the inquisitions, we have to understand the world they arose in, without excusing them.

In medieval and early modern Europe, Church and state were deeply intertwined. Religious unity was seen as the foundation of social order. Heresy was treated not only as a religious error but as a crime against society, something like treason. Secular rulers, not just churchmen, regarded it as a threat to be punished, often severely and by mob violence.

The inquisitions were, in part, an attempt to bring order and legal procedure to this situation. Inquisitorial courts required evidence, heard testimony and kept careful records. Many historians note that they were often less arbitrary than the secular courts and lynch mobs of the time. This does not make them just. But it puts them in context.

How Many People Died?

This is where the myths are most extreme. Popular claims of millions, even nine million, victims have no basis in historical evidence.

Modern historians, with access to the Inquisition’s own detailed archives, have produced far lower figures.

For the Spanish Inquisition, historians generally estimate that several thousand people were executed over its 350-year history, with the most intense period in its first decades. A study presented at a Vatican symposium in 2004 reported that of about 125,000 people tried by the Spanish Inquisition between 1540 and 1700, around 1 per cent were executed.

The Roman Inquisition executed far fewer. Most people who came before the inquisitions received penances such as prayers, pilgrimages or fines, or were acquitted.

Every one of these deaths was a real person and a real wrong. But the true scale is a fraction of the popular myth.

What About Torture?

The inquisitions did use torture to obtain confessions, as did virtually every court in Europe at the time, both religious and secular. Inquisitorial rules generally limited its use in duration and method, and required confessions to be confirmed afterwards without torture. Some historians argue that inquisitorial courts used it less often than secular courts. None of this makes torture acceptable. The Church today teaches that torture is gravely contrary to human dignity (CCC 2297–2298).

Executions and the State

Inquisitors did not themselves carry out executions. Those condemned as obstinate or relapsed heretics were “relaxed” to the secular authorities, who carried out the sentence, usually burning. This was a legal fiction that did not remove the Church’s responsibility, but it shows how intertwined Church and state were.

The Witch Hunts

Many people assume the Inquisition was responsible for the great European witch hunts. In fact, most witch trials took place in secular and Protestant courts, especially in Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and elsewhere. The Spanish Inquisition was notably sceptical of witchcraft accusations. After investigating a witch panic in the Basque country in the early seventeenth century, its inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías concluded that there was no real evidence of witchcraft, and the Inquisition largely stopped executing people for it.

The Black Legend

Some of the exaggerated image of the Inquisition comes from what historians call the Black Legend: anti-Spanish and anti-Catholic propaganda produced in Protestant countries during the wars of religion. Lurid accounts were printed and circulated for political purposes. Some of these myths have proved remarkably durable.

The Church’s Apology

None of this context excuses what was done. The Catholic Church today does not defend the use of force in matters of faith. The Second Vatican Council taught that no one may be forced to act against their conscience in religious matters, and that the truth can only be accepted freely (Dignitatis Humanae 1–2).

In 1998, the Vatican opened the archives of the Roman Inquisition to scholars. On 12 March 2000, during the Great Jubilee, Pope St John Paul II led a Day of Pardon in St Peter’s Basilica, asking God’s forgiveness for sins committed by members of the Church, including “the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth.”

An Honest Reckoning

The Inquisition was a real wrong, committed by Christians in the name of the faith. It deserves to be remembered and regretted. But it also deserves to be remembered accurately. The truth is enough; it does not need to be exaggerated.