In 1232, Pope Gregory IX appointed the newly formed Dominicans and
Franciscans as specialist and permanent inquisitors. These religious were
dispassionate, unselfish, highly popular, fearless, beyond corruption, and
desired solely to serve the interests of the Church and the salvation of souls.
In appointing such men, Pope Gregory was motivated by various factors,
including stemming the encroachment of secular courts into religious
affairs. However, his chief desire was to protect the children of God from
error while insisting that the misguided heretic be brought back into the
grace of God. Court procedures and rules were also improved and unjust
inquisitors removed and punished.³
It was deemed a failure for an inquisitor if he could not convert a heretic
and had to hand him over to the secular arm to be executed. One popular
myth is that the vast majority of those who appeared before the Inquisition
were sentenced to death. In fact, extant records indicate otherwise. For
example, out of the 930 cases that appeared before the tribunal in Toulouse,
France only 42 were abandoned to the secular arm to be executed, 307
imprisoned, while 271 were released from punishments.
4
Other penalties
included the confiscation or destruction of property, to hear Mass and
religious services, to abstain from manual labor, to receive Communion, to
forsake soothsaying and usury, to give alms, or to go on pilgrimage or
crusade.
Torture was sanctioned by Popes Innocent IV, Alexander IV and Clement
IV, not as punishment but to elicit the truth. It was to be used only once and
with the consent of the local Bishop. It was not to cause “loss of limb or
imperil life.” It is true, however, that restrictions were not always heeded
and its application was in many cases extreme. The Catechism of the
Catholic Church says, “Torture which uses physical or moral violence to
extract confessions … frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to
respect for the person and for human dignity … In recent times it has
become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public
order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person”
(CCC # 2297-8).
3
William Thomas Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, TAN Books, 1987, pp. 47-
48.
4
Ibid., p. 55.
 |
 |
 |