The Untold History of the Inquisition
By Richard Bennett
Most people at the present time have some knowledge of the Holocaust, the six years of
unspeakable horror and suffering to which the Jewish people were subjected under Hitler and the
Nazis during the Second World War. Few, however, are aware of the atrocities of systematized
torture and murder of Bible-believing Christians and Jews that took place during the 605 years of
the Inquisition.1
From the beginning of the Papacy to the present time, it is estimated by reputable and
trustworthy historians that tens of millions of people have been tortured and killed by Papal
persecutors for the crime of believing God’s word in the Bible, rather than the dogmas of the
Roman Catholic Church. While the majority of those who suffered were true believers, Papal
Rome also persecuted Jews, Muslims, Knights Templar, and those that she called “witches.
Through the Inquisition was demonstrated the grace and divine power that the Lord gave
to His people to survive those horrific years with their faith strengthened. Also shown was the
inner heart of ritualistic Catholicism and the lengths to which it will go to enforce its will. It is
truly a warning for succeeding generations.
In 1203, Pope Innocent III published a decree in France thatbegan the extermination of what the Pope called heresy. This
marked the start of the Inquisition as a distinctive Papal
institution. It was to endure until its final dissolution in Spain
and Portugal in 1808. Pope Innocent III began by
commanding armies of the Crusade to attack the Albigenses
in France. They were called Albigenses because many of
them resided in the city of Albi in southern France. They had
developed a committed Christian life, real estate, progressive
cities, and townships right across southern France. These
Christians were horrifically destroyed and butchered by the
armies of Papal Rome in their many cities, towns, and villages
across southern France. The Albigenses came from a group
that was originally known as the Paulicians, who took their
teaching from the Apostle Paul. Even their name, ‘Albigenses,’ has been deeply tarnished by
Roman Catholic sources. Not only were they slaughtered, but their memory has been practically
obliterated from the pages of history. However, from their fruits as Christians, we truly see the
character of these men and women who traced their faith back to the writings of Paul the Apostle
in the New Testament.
From the thirteenth century onwards, the machinery of the Papal Inquisition’s terrorism
was created. The Popes compelled secular authorities to co-operate under threat of drastic
penalties. Kings and princes who disobeyed the Popes’ orders were to be excommunicated and
1 The main historians that wrote on the Inquisition are Dowling, Lea, Vancandard, Maycock,
Coulton, Turberville and Scott
2
their subjects released from loyalty to them. In 1252, Pope Innocent IV devised in detail for the
many Inquisitors how torture was to be carried out. He did this in his decree called, At
Extirpanda. Confirmatory or regulatory decrees were later issued by Popes Alexander IV,
Clement IV, Urban IV, and Clement V. Torture was prescribed, but it was to stop short of
pulling off limbs or causing death. Disastrous punishments were enacted on all who protected or
gave help to believers. Those who applied the instruments of torture during the Inquisition were
following orders. The Popes themselves were wholly responsible for the instruments and how
they were used.
Then, in 1487, Pope Innocent VIII planned and ordered the persecution of the Vaudois
believers who had remained faithful to biblical faith since apostolic times.
Charles VIII of France agreed to raise an army for the destruction of the Vaudois.The Pope promised forgiveness of sins and a share in the goods to those who participated. The army was joined by thousands of gangsters urged on by the promise of forgiveness of sins and the
expectation of obtaining spoil from the Vaudois possessions. This army attacked the Vaudois mountain valleys in northern Italy. Thousands of Bible-believing Christians perished along with their homes while their crops were destroyed.Entire villages were demolished. Their women were raped and then viciously
murdered.True Believers: the Vaudois in Piedmont Valley For the most part, there is agreement among scholars about the history of the Inquisition.Lea’s great works, the History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages and the History of the Inquisition of Spain, embodied immense and careful research. There is little difference about facts in the writings of Dowling, Vancandard, Maycock, Coulton, and Turberville. The methods of the Inquisition were an outrage to elementary principles of justice. Anyone could be arrestedon suspicion. The trials were secret. The prisoner was not allowed to know the accusers or witnesses. The Bishops and priests who acted as judges had absolute power. The evidence of infamous persons, criminals, or perjurers was admitted so long as it was hostile. Children older than twelve were required to bear testimony. The prisoner was disallowed the help of an advocate, for anyone defending a prisoner was held guilty of the crime of heresy. A person tried by the Inquisition was scarcely ever acquitted. “In the register of Carcassonne from 1249 to 1258, comprising about two hundred cases, there is not a single case in which a prisoner was
discharged as innocent.” Tanon, a French investigator, wrote, “There is scarcely ever an acquittal, pure and simple, in the sentence of the Inquisition.”2 There were many accounts of burning at the stake across Europe. The ferocious Inquisitor, Robert le Bugre, who considered his mission was “not to convert but to burn,”
devastated much of France. In one period of about three months he is said to have thus
dispatched about fifty prisoners of either sex, and the whole number of his victims during the
several years of his unchecked career was very large.3 The notorious Conrad of Marburg caused a general panic in Germany where he was appointed Inquisitor by Pope Gregory IX. In 1520, Pope Leo X in his famous decree, Exsurge Domine, denounced the teachings of Luther with the following words, “That heretics should be burned is contrary to the will of the Spirit. The Roman Catholic scholar Lord Acton wrote,
“Rome taught for four centuries that no Catholic could be saved who denied that heretics ought
to be put to death.”
The prisons of the Inquisition were some of the most common and atrocious places. The Inquisitors could leave people in their prisons indefinitely, without trial. The Inquisitor Eymeric, in his
records called Directorium, stated that a person believed guilty “shall be shut up in prison, strictly confined and in chains. If he shows no willingness to be converted there is no need for haste for the pains and privations of imprisonment often bring about a change of mind.”5 To quote Lea, “The dungeons of the
Inquisition were abodes of fearful misery, but where there were reasons for increasing their terrors there was no difficulty in increasing the hardships. The chains and starvation in a stifling
hole was a favorite device for extracting confession from unwilling lips.”
Historians give us some detailed information about some of the prisons of the Inquisition. Even some Catholic priests complained about the prison conditions in some towns in the south of France. Historians tell that the cells were fitted up with a variety of
instruments to cause severe suffering. Many prisoners, through the severity of their torments,
lost the use of their limbs and were rendered utterly helpless.
The burning at the stake was the standard way that the Papacy disposed of believers.
This was usually done with dramatic pomp and festivity before the massive gatherings of people.
It was as if the Roman Church believed that both their bodies and beliefs would disappear into
cinders. In England, Mary Tudor, known as “Bloody Mary,” a fervent Catholic beholden to the
Pope, employed the Inquisition to burn no fewer than 288 Bible-believing martyrs. Most of
them died because they denied the Catholic dogma that Jesus Christ is really present, flesh and
blood, body and soul, divinity and humanity in the communion bread. The burning back to back
of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley at the stake outside Balliol College Oxford, in
1555, is known to many people. So also are Latimer’s stirring last words an inspiration to
Christians over the centuries, “Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall
this day, by God’s grace, light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out.”
3Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, Vol. 11, p. 116
4 Lord Acton Correspondence, Vol. 1, p. 108
5Maycock, The Inquisition, p. 157
6Lea, History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, Vol. 1, p. 420
4
The Instruments of Torture
“The Rack” is one of the best known forms of medieval torture. This mechanism operated by
having the victim lie on a horizontal rack with his hands and ankles tied to rollers on opposite
The Inquisitors would perform the
interrogation while turning the rollers,
stretching the body of the suspect and
causing colossal pain.
They would stretch the body out until the joints were actually yanked from their sockets. The
ultimate intent was that of killing the victim either through shock or injuries. If the believer were
still alive, yet refused to submit, he or she was sent to be burned at the stake.
Besides the Rack, there was the torture of pulling the believer towards the ceiling with
ropes, and then with a weight on his or her feet, dropping him or her to the floor so that
excruciating pain ripped through the body.
The Inquisitors also used “Skull Crusher.” They ordered the believer’s chin to be
placed on a lower bar and a screw then forced an iron cap down on his or her head.Their teeth could be crushed. Their eyes could be squeezed from their sockets.
It was hoped that the believer was so overcome by the extreme pain of having his
head crushed would confess his alleged errors and believe in the Holy Mother
Church.
The Inquisitors also used the “Iron Maiden.” It was a tomb-sized containerwith folding doors. The spiked studded arms wrapped around the victim in such a way so as to
puncture parts of the entire body, including the ears and eyes.
The purpose of the use of Iron Maiden was to inflict pain by means of
vicious spikes and a slow death. The prickles inside were designed so that
the trapped believer was left to slowly die in the utmost pain.
A prisoner would be bidden to stand right in front of Iron Maiden prior to
torture. The spring would be touched by the executioner and the Iron
Maiden would fling open her arms, and the wretched victim would
straightway be forced within them. Another spring was then touched and the Iron Maiden closed upon her victim. Then spiky arms of the Iron Maiden slowly but irresistibly closed upon the man, cruelly goring him.
The talons Iron Maiden, sometimes called the “Iron Virgin,” were not designed to kill outright. They trapped the prisoner who was left to slowly perish in the utmost pain. Beside these instruments of torture there were others for the tearing and ripping of one’s flesh.
The Catholic Church learned a human being could live until the skin was peeled down to the waist. Often the
torturers heated these instruments and then used them on
women’s breasts and the genital organs of both sexes.
There were also instruments for compressing the fingers until the bones would be squeezed into
splinters. There were instruments for probing below the fingernails until pain like burning fire
would run along the nerves.
There were instruments for tearing out the tongue, for scooping out the eyes, and for rooting out the ears. There was
a bunch of iron cords with a spiked circle at the end of every whip for tearing the flesh from the back until bone and sinew were laid bare.There were also iron cases for the legs, which were tightened upon the limb placed in them by means of a screw, till flesh and bone were reduced to a pulp.
The thumbscrews were also applied to crush prisoners’ toes, while larger, heavier devices based on the same design principle were applied to destroy knees and elbows.The Chair of Nails Torture
The chair nails, used by Inquisitors, was studded with spikes. The victim was strapped naked in the chair and a fire was lit beneath it. Heavyobjects were placed upon the victim to increase the pain of the spikes.
Blows with mallets were also used to inflict more pain.
There were also devices to slowly and painfully remove the intestines and
other organs from the body while keeping the person alive and conscious
of the pain. Anyone of those horrors could be inflicted on anybody, i.e.,
man, woman, or child over the age of 12 that did not agree with the
teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. The Inquisition was carried out in France, Holland, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
The Stocks Torture
The victims often had their feet placed in stocks. Thestocks comprised two pieces of timber clamped together,
over and under, across each leg above the ankles. The
soles of the victim’s feet were greased with lard and a
blazing brazier was applied to them. Their feet were first
blistered and then fried. At intervals, a plank was
interposed between the fire and their feet. This plank was
to be immediately removed if the victims failed to admit
that they were guilty as charged.
The Inquisition in Spain perpetrated horrors on a more terrific scale than in other
countries. Activities in Spain were more atrocious and its hecatombs of victims more numerous
than elsewhere. The atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition cannot be disputed. Torquemada, the
most infamous of the Inquisitors for ferocity, had full papal authorization. He was commissioned
by Pope Sixtus IV in 1483. He was re-commissioned by Innocent VIII in 1485. So far were the
popes from seeking to hold back Torquemada’s inhuman cruelties that we find them praising him
and encouraging him. Pope Sixtus IV wrote to him praised his zeal, saying “We commend you
in the Lord and exhort you, cherished son, to persevere with tireless zeal in aiding and promoting
the cause of faith, by doing which, as we are assured you will, you will win our special favor.”
In Spain the burnings of believers was called “Autos-da-fé” there they had peculiar pomp and
festivity. As late as 1680 there was a stunning Auto-da-fé at Madrid at which one hundred
believers were burned. The historian Turberville quotes Voltaire’s comment; “that an Asiatic
arriving in Madrid on such an occasion would be doubtful whether he was witnessing a festival,
a religious ceremony, a sacrifice, or a massacre; it was in fact all of these.”7 The Judas Chair was
also a torture device used in the Spanish Inquisition.
The Actual Judas Chair and the Art work showing Chair as it was usedThe Judas Chair, also known as the Judas Cradle, was a pyramid-shaped seat. The victim was placed on
top of it, with the point inserted into their orifices, then very slowly lowered by ropes.
The purpose was to Turberville,
The Spanish Inquisition, stretch the orifice over a long period of time in extreme pain in order that the victim would renounce his or her faith. Then bishops and priests of the Inquisition used a devise for breaking a believer’s faith as he was
An attempt to break a believer’s faith as he was tied to a wheel Then there was the commonly used torture technique called the “Strappado.’ All that was needed was a sturdy rafter and some rope. The victims wrists were bound behind their back and the rope tossed over the beam or on a pulley. The victim was repeatedly dropped from a height so their arms and shoulders would dislocate. This and many more torture devices were use to get the believer to renounce his or her Christian faith, and then profess his or her faith in the Roman Church. We rejoice that the believers for the most part, remained true to the Lord. We realize that Bible believers in those horrendous years were fortified by the power of
God through faith. They experienced what the Apostle Peter wrote that as believers we are “kept by the power of God through faith.” Consequently, kept by the power of God, their faith resounded at that time before the throne of God, and it still resounds on the pages of history for those who dare comprehend the true historical accounts. The torture chambers of the Inquisition lasted 605 years and were found throughout the nationscontrolled by Papal Rome. They had their beginning under Pope Innocent III in 1203 until the
Inquisition’s final dissolution in Spain and Portugal in 1808.
Twentieth Century Inquisition in Croatia
In 1929, Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with Pope Pius XI officially conceding Vatican
Hill to the Pope. The Papacy once again became a sovereign civil state. The legal agreement
between Mussolini and the Vatican was just the beginning. Following this, the Papacy formed
alliances in the twentieth century with Roman Catholic dictators such as Adolph Hitler of
Germany, Francisco Franco of Spain, Antonio Salazar of Portugal, and Juan Peron of Argentina.
But the alliance that proved to be the most brutal and bloodthirsty of all was that between thePapacy and Anton Pavelic in Croatia. It was agreed that Anton Pavelic8 was to be head of the
new nation state of Croatia, which was carved out of Yugoslavia during the Second World War.
During Pavelic’s four-year reign, he and Roman Catholic
Prelate, Archbishop Alois Stepinac, pursued a “convert or
die” policy among the 900,000 Greek Othodox Serbs,
Jews, and others in Croatia. 200,000 were converted; the
700,000 who chose to die were tortured, burned, buried
alive, or shot after digging their own graves. This
appalling persecution carried out by the Ustashis included
many of the worst atrocities of history. The mutilations
were horrific, the tortures vicious, and the savagery
terrible. The Catholic Church did not leave the execution
of a religious war to the secular arm. She was there herself, openly ignoring precautions and bolder than she had been for a very long time. Wielding the hatchet or dagger, pulling the trigger, organizing the massacre, the Roman Anton Pavelic with Archbishop Stepina Catholic priests became their own instruments of the
Inquisition.Anton Pavelic with Franciscan Monks Many of the Ustashi
officers were priests or friars sworn to fight “withdagger or gun,” for the “triumph of Christ and Croatia.” Priests played a prominent role in the
closing or takeover of Serbian Orthodox Churches,
the seizure of church records and the interrogation of the Serbian Orthodox clergy. They
also supervised concentration camps and organized the torture of many of the victims.
Ante Pavelic b. July 14, 1889 – d. December 28, 1959
French author Edmond Paris, who was born a Roman Catholic and has written a very thorough
account of this terrible massacre in his book Convert or Die, has said,
“It is difficult for the world to believe that a whole people could be doomed to
extermination by a government and religious hierarchy of the twentieth century, just
because it happened to belong to another ethnical and racial group and had inherited the
Christianity of Byzantium rather than that of Rome.”
The creation of the entirely Roman Catholic, independent State of Croatia during the Second
World War was accompanied by a persecution so ferocious that it is difficult to find a parallel in
all of history. The Inquisition applied to the Serbian Orthodox by the Croatian Catholics
accounted for 700,000 Serbs being tortured and killed in just four years. So while the Inquisition
ended in the nineteenth century, the same procedures and mindset were evident in Croatia in the
twentieth century. In fact, the same mindset is still officially maintained by the Papacy in the
twenty-first century. The Roman Church to this day maintains the laws that she used as her
authority to torture and murder Bible believers for over 600 years. In her present-day laws she
states her right to coerce Christian people. Thus Canon law, Canon 1311, states,
“The [Catholic] Church has an innate and proper right to coerce offending members of
the Christian faithful by means of papal sanctions.”
The Catholic Church also holds to the fact that she can demand a submission of intellect and will
as she did in the years of the Inquisition. Consequently she states the following,
“A religious respect of intellect and will, even if not the assent of faith, is to be paid to
the teaching which the Supreme Pontiff or the college of bishops enunciate on faith and
morals.”
So to whatever the Supreme Pontiff or his college of bishops teach on faith and morals, a person
must submit their intellect and will. This is the same teaching that was upheld with the terrors of
the Inquisition for 600 years. While there are no sanctions in torture and death at the present
time, the same astonishing mindset is Roman Catholic law. The fact is that the Papacy still
claims the right to judge and impose chastening that has not changed since the days of the
Inquisition. In present-day Canon Law she also decrees,
Canon 1405 (Sect.1) “It is the right of the Roman Pontiff himself alone to judge in cases
mentioned in can. 1401: 1. those who hold the highest civil office in a state;...
Canon 1401 “By proper and exclusive right the Church adjudicates: 1. cases concerning
spiritual matters or connected with the spiritual; 2. the violation of ecclesiastical laws and all
those cases in which there is a question of sin in respect to the determination of culpability
and the imposition of ecclesiastical penalties.”
The Holy Spirit’s admonition to believers is to be remembered as these decrees are certified into
law, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
In past times, kings and princes and nations were supposed to tremble at her decrees.
Woe to him who resisted! Subjects were released from their oaths of allegiance; whole states
were placed under interdict. By deception regarding the Gospel and, subsequently, by force the
Papacy has held her domain together. She has only external unity, as any one who has lived
within her system and studied her decrees and history knows. It is of signal importance to realize
that the Roman Catholic Church has no other way to maintain her life than by imposition of her
external laws, because she lacks the life giving power of the Holy Spirit and unity of the One
9 Galatians 5:1.
Body of the Lord Jesus Christ. She must legislate to exist, and she needs civil powers to enforce
her decrees. It is crucial to understand that suppression and control are her main stratagems,
although at the time such are not apparent. If control by her is to be avoided, her paradigm must
be understood.
The Lord’s Final Victory
Papal Rome has asked pardon for the wrongs of the Inquisition. During a Mass on March 12,
2000, Pope John Paul II asked pardon for wrongs committed in the past by members of the
church. It was not individual members of the church, but as Lord Acton observed, it was “the
Popes in particular that caused and instigated the sufferings and persecutions, involving
themselves in detail even in the minute ways that believers were to be tortured.”
We have seen how the institutionalized Papacy and the powers of darkness have conspired
against Christ’s kingdom and His people. It is most important to know what the Lord’s anointed
has to say about His kingdom and to know that all the powers on earth cannot challenge Him.
As Psalm 2 reminds us, the Messiah reigns and His Throne is not moved, nor has His plans
changed, whatever may be the turmoil and schemes against Him. While the enemies of the
Gospel are plotting and planning how to break His bands asunder and cast His cords from them,
He has already defeated their devices and He says to them, “yet have I set my king upon my holy
hill of Zion.”10 All events are in His hands. Who can stand against the Almighty?
Things are not as they seem. It looks as if the powers that designed and implemented the
Inquisition still govern the hearts of much of mankind at the present time. The Lord God’s fixed
decrees remain and all the schemes of hell cannot efface a single part of His purpose. He reigns
by inheritance, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”11 The Lord God owns Him, and
declares Him Lord and Head of the Church. The supreme government of the Church is His
responsibility and He will bring it to complete success including the punishment of His enemies.
It necessarily follows that though Papal Rome has been a rebel against the government of Christ
Jesus, the Lord God has nonetheless fulfilled His purpose through all the terrible evil that has
taken place. The truth is that through all the dreadful deeds of Papal Rome, the Sovereign Lord
Jesus Christ was entirely with His people, and He was in control of all events so that the faith
and witness of millions shone forth both in this world and before the throne of God; and will
shine forth throughout all the ages of the world to come.
From the beginning the Lord God purposed to glorify Himself “in the Church by Christ Jesus,
throughout all ages, world without end.”12 He has glorified Himself in the faith and suffering of
true believers throughout the 605 years of the Inquisition, as His Word proclaims, “the Lord
reigneth; let the people tremble.”13
The voice of the Lord thunders from the final chapters of the Bible and reverberates throughout
the world, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues.”14 While the Papacy from the city of Rome continues to wax strong her final
condemnation is already written, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made
all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”15 The Lord God’s reserved wrath,
His punishing justice, and His enmity to sin, will be revealed to the entire world. The destruction
of Papal Rome will proceed from the glory of His power. “The same shall drink of the wine of
the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.”16 The
certainty of the final triumph should animate us in our efforts, and true believers in their
struggles.
The frequently quoted maxim that “peoples ignorant of history are destined to repeat it” is true.
Without the knowledge of the systematic murder of believers during the Inquisition, we can fail
to see that the true Gospel is a matter of life. True believers are in real danger of compromise
with the Church of Rome. As the Apostle Paul told believers, “All who live godly in Christ Jesus
will suffer persecution.”17 The victory of the faith and courage of believers over the severest
trials is repeatedly recorded in the pages of history. As the Lord Himself proclaimed, “Be not
afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Also I say unto
you, whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the
angels of God.”18 Where there is true faith and love of the Lord, there is in the midst of all
afflictions a joy unspeakable and full of glory. God is the only Holy Father, the All Holy One.
His holiness is the distinguishing factor in all His essential characteristics. This is the reason
why we need to be in right standing before the one and only All Holy God on the terms He
prescribes. Turn to God in faith alone, in Christ alone, for the salvation that He alone gives, by
the conviction of the Holy Spirit, based on Christ’s death and resurrection for His own, and
believe on Him alone, “to the praise of the glory of his grace.”
Source : http://www.bereanbeacon.org/SMBe.pdf
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