Burning of heretics

[Will_S]

How does the church explain their burning of heretics in the past especially now that they condemn death penalty (in the Catholic Church in my country, at least)? And why did they even burn heretics alive? What was the reason behind it? Was it to save their soul from damnation or to damn it to hell right away?

The reasons for public execution of unrepentant heretics were:

1. To remove the heretic from society, so that he can not lead others into error and damnation.
2. To deter other people from committing the same crimes.
3. To attempt to move the heretic to repent of his crimes through fear of death.

As for the current position of the Catholic Church, the Church still recognizes the fundamental right of sovereign governments to impose the penalty of death for heinous crimes, but teaches that the use of the death penalty is unnecessary in modern society because all of the benefits society might gain from executing a criminal can be realized by other means (such as lifelong imprisonment) that do not require taking the life of the criminal, and that therefore the death penalty is morally objectionable.

 

[pjcsisabel]

Church and State were united back then so what some of you are saying is that the Church never really burned heretics but rather handed them over to the state because they know that the state do it themselves? But isn’t that somehow the same thing? If it was really the state who did all the executions by burning, why did they (the Church) sanction it or even allow?

I’m just curious as to the reason behind the burning of heretics. Does it have certain religious or spiritual background or meaning or was it just the way they do it at the time?

 

[MiserereMeiDeus]

It is important to remember in cases such as this the historical, cultural and political aspects of the time period. What others have thus said is true, the Church never burned anyone at the stake. It was the state which did so. If you are talking about the Inquisition, which has been vilified into something that it was not, then the Church’s role was to save and spare people. The state was attempting to root out heresy, for it was a capital crime. The Church, in order to ensure a fair trial stepped in. They did not want the state to be falsely accusing people.

 

[Kaninchen]

It is important to remember in cases such as this the historical, cultural and political aspects of the time period. What others have thus said is true, the Church never burned anyone at the stake. It was the state which did so. If you are talking about the Inquisition, which has been vilified into something that it was not, then the Church’s role was to save and spare people. The state was attempting to root out heresy, for it was a capital crime. The Church, in order to ensure a fair trial stepped in. They did not want the state to be falsely accusing people.

The thing is that the even the Church itself seems to think it was somewhat more complicated than that.