enforced and offenders punished. Thus came about the establishment of
either religious or secular courts of inquiry, or inquisitions.
The Medieval Inquisition
During the 12th and 13th centuries, violent Gnostic sects appeared in
southern Europe, attacking the Church and encouraging revolt against civil
authorities. These sectarians claimed to possess a secret source of religious
knowledge, considered the material world to have been created by an Evil
Principle and so believed all matter to be evil, scorned marriage,
encouraged suicide, and forbade the taking of oaths which bound the fabric
of Feudal society.
Modern Fundamentalists claim an affinity with these Gnostics simply
because they possessed a vernacular translation of the Scriptures. They
conclude from this fact that the Catholic Church was persecuting them
because they were “Bible-Believers.” One such person is Dave Hunt, who
in recent years, has written: “It is quite clear that the Vaudois, Albigenses,
Waldenses, and other similar groups were heretics to Rome only. In fact,
their beliefs were much like those of the Reformers, of whom they were, in
a sense, the forerunners.”² Yet, even Henry C. Lea, the most anti-Catholic
writer on the Inquisition had to admit that “the cause of orthodoxy was the
cause of progress and civilization. Had Catharism become dominant, or
even had it been allowed to exist on equal terms, its influence would have
been disastrous.”
The Church, together with secular governments, established the Medieval
Inquisition in 1184. Its object was to try charges of heresy. If the person
charged was prepared to recant his errors, a public penance was imposed on
him; if he remained obdurate, he was declared guilty of heresy and handed
over to the State for punishment. Its punishments were severe and ranged
from loss of property, to imprisonment or death. The Church approved the
severe repression of heresy and believed that, under the circumstances, it
was justified in her approval.
2
Dave Hunt, A Woman Rides the Beast, Harvest House, 1994, p. 257.
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