Mercygate, notworthy, wildgraywolf, dosdog,
You all miss the point as to the number of victims of the inquisition. Btw if it was only 3000, that would be a very big mistake (reference please btw, you’re just asserting things willy nilly into thin air). This would mean only 5 victims a year during 600 years. In Europe this would mean that only one single heretic would pop his head up in a single European country once every 4-5 years.
Why in the whole wide world would the Inquisition then have to become
institutionalized (an instituition which btw exits to this very day).
It is a known fact that 62 million people were killed in the space of 8 years (world war 2). Also, estimates were made that in just 200 years 60 million bison were killed in North America. The point is that it is quite possible to kill living things at an extremely quick rate. During ww2, the death rate would have been 7,75 mil per year. During the inquisition, this was only 83000 a year. The difference is 93 to one, although the population of Europe was only one sixth it was back then compared to what it is now. Also take into account that since the inquisiton was spread out over many hundreds of years, this makes it possible for different parts of the population to recover from massive exterminations.
Another source which shows it is quite feasible:
cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/estimates.doc
But let’s actually cite some Roman Catholic theologians pertaining to the number of victims in the inquisition, which will lay this 3000 figure to rest:
Concerning the Cathari, who were similar to the Waldenses, near the end of the twelfth century “The Dominican Rainerius gave 4,000,000 as a safe estimate of their number and declared this was according to a census made by the Cathari themselves” [Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 8 volumes (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdman’s, 1910; reprint, 1978), Volume V, Chapter X].
Catholic historian Vergerius admits gleefully that during the Pontificate of Pope Paul IV (1555-1559) “the Inquisition alone, by tortures, starvation, or the fire, murdered more than 150,000 Protestants.”
Argument 2d. ’ Experience shows that terror is not effective.’ I reply, EXPERIENCE PROVES THE CONTRARY—FOR THE DONATISTS, MANICHEANS, AND ALBIGENSES WERE ROUTED, AND ANNIHILATED BY ARMS.
- Robert Bellarmine (Catholic), Disputationes de Controversiis, Tom. ii, Lib. III, cap. XXII, “Objections Answered,” 1682 edition.
Cardinal Hosius, a member of the Council of Trent, A. D. 1560, testified that:"…then the opinion and persuasion of no sect can be truer and surer than that of the Anabaptists since there have been none for these twelve hundred years past, that have been more generally punished … than these people" (Hosius, Letters Apud Opera, 112-113.
Also, Wesley in his diary of January 16, 1760 quotes Sir John Davis in his “Historical Relations Concerning Ireland” as stating that “from 1600 to 1641, the general massacre, with the ensuing war, again thinned their numbers; not so few as a million of men, women, and children, being destroyed in four years’ time.” The rebellion in 1641 killed more than 150,000 Protestants in Ireland, by the priests’ own computations, and many others died later.
Walter M. Montano,a former Catholic priest, asserts in his book, Behind the Purple Curtain that it has been estimated that fifty million people died for their faith during the twelve hundred years of the Dark Ages. (Citing Walter M. Montano, Behind the Purple Curtain, Cowman Publications, 1950, page 91.)
‘The church,’ says [Martin] Luther, has never burned a heretic.’ . . I reply that this argument proves not the opinion, but the ignorance or impudence of Luther. Since almost infinite" numbers were either burned or otherwise killed…-- Robert Bellarmine, Disputationes de Controversiis, Tom. ii, Lib. III, cap. XXII, “Objections Answered,” 1682 edition. (Bellarmine was a Roman Catholic.)
" We may kill anywhere a man proscribed by the Pope, because the Pope has at least an indirect jurisdiction over all the world, even in temporal things." (The R. F. Jesuit Busembaum- Theologia Moralis.)
Alexander Campbell, stated in debate with John B. Purcell, Bishop of Cincinnati, in 1837 that the records of historians and martyrologists show that it may be reasonable to estimate that from fifty to sixty-eight millions of human beings died, suffered torture,…by the Roman Catholic Church during the awful years of the Inquisition. Bishop Purcell made little effort to refute these figures. (Citing A Debate on the Roman Catholic Religion, Christian Publishing Co., 1837, p. 327.)
Also note that sometimes people were slaughtered on the street like during the St. Bartholomew’s massacre in Paris of the Hugenots when several thousand people were killed within hours, the massacre then spread to other parts of France.
Please note I don’t want to jab at you Catholics, but this is a real concern.