Inquisition
This article will help enumerate several of The Inquisitions around the world.
Goa Inquistion
- Wikipedia article: Goa Inquisition
The Goa Inquisition was a colonial-era Portuguese institution established by the Roman Catholic Holy Office between the 16th- and 19th-century to stop and punish heresy against Christianity in Asia. The institution persecuted Hindus, Muslims, Bene Israels, New Christians and the Judaizing Nasranis by the colonial era Portuguese government and Jesuit clergy in Portuguese India. It was established in 1560, briefly suppressed from 1774 to 1778, continued thereafter and finally abolished in 1820. The Inquisition punished those who had converted to Catholicism but were suspected by Jesuit clergy of practicing their previous religion in secret. Predominantly, the persecuted were accused of Crypto-Hinduism. A few dozen criminally-charged natives were imprisoned for numerous years, publicly flogged, or, dependent on criminal charge, sentenced to death, often by burning at the stake. The Catholic Christian missionaries also burnt any books written in Sanskrit, Arabic, Marathi, or Konkani that they could find in Goa, as well as restricted Protestant Christian books from entering Goa on Dutch or English merchant ships.
See also [ Goa ]
The setting up of the Goa Inquisition was requested by Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier from his headquarters Malacca in a letter dated 16 May 1546 to King John III of Portugal. Between the Inquisition's beginning in 1561 and its temporary abolition in 1774, at least 16,202 persons were brought to trial by the Inquisition. Almost all of the Goa Inquisition's records were burnt by the Portuguese when the inquisition was abolished in 1820. It is impossible to know the exact number of those put on trial and the punishments they were prescribed. The few records that have survived suggest that at least 57 were executed for their religious crime, and another 64 were burned in effigy because they had already died in jail before sentencing. Other records such as those left by the French physician Charles Dellon, who was also a victim of the Goan Inquisition, and others, suggest that nearly 70% of those found guilty of Crypto-Hinduism were executed, many prisoners starved to death and racial discrimination against Indians was rampant during the Goa Inquisition proceedings.
In Goa, the Inquisition also prosecuted violators of prohibitions against the observance of Hindu or Muslim rites, festivals or interfered with Portuguese attempts to convert non-Christians to Catholicism. The Inquisition was the judicial system over Indian Catholics, Hindus and of Portuguese settlers from Europe (mostly New Christians and Jews). The Inquisition laws made adherence to Hinduism, Islam and Judaism and the use of the Konkani language a criminal offense. The inquisition was also a method of confiscating property and enriching the Inquisitors. Although the Goa Inquisition ended in 1820, the religious discrimination and persecution of Indian Hindus and Muslims by the Portuguese Christian government continued in other forms such as the Xenddi tax.
Catholic Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Catholic Inquisition
The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. The Inquisition started in 12th-century France to combat religious dissent, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians. Other groups investigated later included the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites (followers of Jan Hus) and the Beguines. Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of the Dominican Order, replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. The term Medieval Inquisition covers these courts up to mid-15th century.
During the Late Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the concept and scope of the Inquisition significantly expanded in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. It expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The Spanish and Portuguese operated inquisitorial courts throughout their empires in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (resulting in the Peruvian Inquisition and Mexican Inquisition). The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions focused particularly on the issue of Jewish anusim and Muslim converts to Catholicism, partly because these minority groups were more numerous in Spain and Portugal than in many other parts of Europe, and partly because they were often considered suspect due to the assumption that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions.
With the exception of the Papal States, the institution of the Inquisition was abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The institution survived as part of the Roman Curia, but in 1908 it was renamed the "Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office". In 1965 it became the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Literary inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Literary_Inquisition
The Literary Inquisition (Chinese: 文字獄; pinyin: wénzìyù; literally: 'imprisonment due to writings') or speech crime (Chinese: 以言入罪) refers to official persecution of intellectuals for their writings in China. The Hanyu Da Cidian defines it as "the ruler deliberately extracts words or phrases from intellectual's writings and arbitrarily accuse him in order to persecute him". The Inquisition took place under each of the dynasties ruling China, although the Qing was particularly notorious for the practice. In general, there are two ways a literary inquisition could be carried out. First is that the conviction came from the writing itself. That is, the writing was the direct cause of the persecution. The second is that the writing was used as a tool to provide legitimate evidence for a predetermined conviction. Such persecutions could owe even to a single phrase or word which the ruler considered offensive. Some of these were due to naming taboo, such as writing a Chinese character that is part of the emperor's personal name. In the most serious cases, not only the writer, but also his immediate and extended families, as well as those close to him, would also be implicated and killed.
The Medieval Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Medieval Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition was a series of Inquisitions (Catholic Church bodies charged with suppressing heresy) 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 Christianity, in particular Catharism and Waldensians in Southern France and Northern Italy. These were the first inquisition movements of many that would follow.
The Cathars were first noted in the 1140s in Southern France, and the Waldensians around 1170 in Northern Italy. Before this point, individual heretics such as Peter of Bruis had often challenged the Church. However, the Cathars were the first mass organization in the second millennium that posed a serious threat to the authority of the Church. This article covers only these early inquisitions, not the Roman Inquisition of the 16th century onwards, or the somewhat different phenomenon of the Spanish Inquisition of the late 15th century, which was under the control of the Spanish monarchy using local clergy. The Portuguese Inquisition of the 16th century and various colonial branches followed the same pattern.
Mexican Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Mexican_Inquisition
The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition to New Spain. The Spanish Conquest of Mexico was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation and the Inquisition were in full force in most of Europe. The Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon had just re-conquered the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdom of Granada, giving them special status within the Roman Catholic realm, including great liberties in the conversion of the native peoples of Mesoamerica. When the Inquisition was brought to the New World, it was employed for many of the same reasons and against the same social groups as suffered in Europe itself, minus the Indians to a large extent. Almost all of the events associated with the official establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition occurred in Mexico City, where the Holy Office had its own “palace”, which is now the Museum of Medicine of UNAM on Republica de Brasil street. The official period of the Inquisition lasted from 1571 to 1820, with an unknown number of victims.
Although records are incomplete, one historian estimates that about 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition. Included in that total are 29 people executed as "Judaizers" between 1571 and 1700 (out of 324 people prosecuted) for practicing the Jewish religion.
The Inquisition of the Netherlands was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands, established during the reign of Charles V. Because the idea of an Inquisition was uncongenial to the Flemish temperament, the process of introduction was a slow and gradual one from the onset. In the year 1521 Francis Van der Hulst had been appointed the first Inquisitor General of the Provinces. He and his successors, like their Spanish counterparts, were empowered by the imperial edict to actively search out and rigorously punish all those guilty or even suspected of heresy, or of aiding a heretic in any way. Such a system was easily abused; in later times it was not uncommon for informers to impeach rich citizens, merely for the sake of obtaining a share in their confiscated wealth.
Inquisition of the Netherlands
- Wikipedia article: Inquisition of the Netherlands
Before the death of Charles V, the Netherlands were mainly Catholic and thus the Inquisition did not have a very drastic impact on people's lives in general. However, with the rapid spread of Calvinism in the early years of the reign of his son, Phillip II, its scope widened vastly. The Edicts of 1521 had banned all preaching or practice of the reformed religion, even in private dwellings, and this power was now brought into full swing. The greatest of the Inquisitors was Peter Titelmann, a man described by his contemporaries as being of a demon-like Goblin temperament, knowing neither fear nor mercy.
The people, protesting against the introductions of the Spanish Inquisitions in direct abeyance of all their charters and the oaths of Philip on his succession, were tranquilly told by that monarch that it was a Flemish, not a Spanish, Inquisition. Indeed, Philip had no cause to rue the fact that he had been unable to bring in the system of his own country, himself saying, "Wherefore introduce the Spanish inquisition? The inquisition of the Netherlands is much more pitiless than that of Spain."
In fact the new Inquisition was an extraordinarily efficient system; the highest court in the land, it bypassed all common forms of justice, was without the option of appeal, and spared neither rich nor poor. It had the unlimited ability from the king to arrest, torture and execute at will. The powers invested in the Inquisition had been ratified by Philip in the first month of his reign. There were hundreds of cases in these early days of luckless individuals being dragged from their families and subjected to the most gruesome tortures, before being burnt alive at the stake, were they of the masculine sex, or buried alive in the case of women.
Peruvian Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Peruvian Inquisition
The Peruvian Inquisition was established on January 9, 1570 and ended in 1820. The Holy Office and tribunal of the Inquisition were located in Lima, the administrative center of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
Unlike the Spanish Inquisition and the Medieval Inquisition, in the Peruvian Inquisition both the authorities and the church were dependent of the Crown's approval to carry out jurisdiction.
Although the Indigenous people were originally subject to the jurisdiction of the inquisitors, they were eventually removed from the control and not seen as fully responsible for deviation from faith. They were still subject to trial and punishment by the inquisition. In the eyes of the church the Indigenous were seen as gente sin razón, individuals without reason.
As a result, their trials were separate from other inquisition cases. In spite of that, it still did not stop other people that were of non-Indigenous descent from being accused of other crimes that were against the Church. These crimes could range from heresy, sorcery, witchcraft, and other superstitious practices.
People accused of these crimes were generally individuals who came from a lower status of Peruvian society. Among them were individuals of African descent, mestizos, women, and Jewish or Protestant Europeans seeking refuge from religious persecution.
In 1813 it was first abolished by virtue of a Cortes decree. In 1815 it was reconstituted but their target was now the ideas from the French Encyclopédistes and similar texts, and most people who were accused of crimes were only given probation. With the promotion of Freemason José de la Serna to the viceroyship, which coincided with the rise of the nationalist faction (as both factions prepared to fight each other in the Peruvian War of Independence), the Inquisition fell apart of its own volition.
Portuguese Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Portuguese Inquisition
The Portuguese Inquisition (Portuguese: Inquisição Portuguesa) was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. Manuel I had asked for the installation of the Inquisition in 1515 to fulfill the commitment of marriage with Maria of Aragon, but it was only after his death that Pope Paul III acquiesced. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition along with the Spanish Inquisition and Roman Inquisition.
Roman Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: The Roman Inquisition
The Roman Inquisition, formally the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was a system of tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, responsible for prosecuting individuals accused of a wide array of crimes relating to religious doctrine or alternate religious doctrine or alternate religious beliefs. In the period after the Medieval Inquisition, it was one of three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Spanish Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.
Spanish Inquisition
- Wikipedia article: Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly, operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America. According to modern estimates, around 150,000 were prosecuted for various offenses during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, out of which between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed (~2.7% of all cases).
The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Castile. The Inquisition was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of declining influence in the preceding century.
The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of religious intolerance and repression. Some historians have come to conclude that many of the charges levied against the Inquisition are exaggerated, and are a result of the Black Legend produced by political and religious enemies of Spain, especially England. See also [ History of the Spanish Inquisition ]
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