A real witches' hammer: myths and truth about the medieval Inquisition (5 photos)

It is generally accepted that inquisitors are sadists and executioners. But in reality, everything was not so simple.





From books and films, we know inquisitors as the main hunters of witches and sorcerers. They constantly caught followers of the dark forces, cruelly tortured and burned them at the stake. And if they saw a red-haired girl, they automatically wrote her down as a worshiper of Satan and sent her to the next world.

But these are all tales.



The main task of the Inquisition was to combat heresy. The stern fathers of the church understood this as any deviation from Catholic teaching. And witches, sorcerers and other wizards were dealt with by secular courts. This work was carried out most intensively in Central and Northern Europe, where there was no Inquisition at all.





Another stereotype is that the Inquisition feared and hated scientists. They persecuted and tortured them with particular sadism. They burned Bruno and Copernicus, and forced Galileo to renounce his views under torture. That's also not true: Copernicus died at the age of 70 from a stroke. Bruno was executed - that's true. But not for his scientific work, but for heresy. The extravagant scientist studied the issues of the transmigration of souls and shocked the public with statements that Moses was a sorcerer and even made fun of the Pope. For this he suffered. Like Galileo - perhaps this is the only confirmed example of a person who clashed with the holy fathers and gave his life for his scientific views. Otherwise, the inquisitors lived peacefully side by side with European universities and did not burn anyone there.



Another myth - terrible torture. Here we must immediately make a reservation: morality was different then and what was considered the norm now seems like some kind of wildness. But even here the inquisitors were more humane than the secular authorities. For example, they forbade torture more than once a day and no more than two days in a row. They did not cripple the suspect - this is important, because if the court took up the case, then the person could easily be made disabled or tortured to death. And the inquisitors didn't even have their own executioners - the verdict was carried out by secular authorities.



The word "inquisitio" itself, translated from Latin, means investigation. So the inquisitors were the medieval equivalent of modern investigators. And all the horror stories that are told about them are just myths or outright lies.