Papal Inquisition - explain

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Hi I’m not Catholic, but have never talked to and would like the perspective of a well educated and well versed on the facts catholic about the papal inquisition.

How does the Catholic Church look back on it? Positive light? negative light?
 
There was never a Papal Inquisition, but there were local inquisitions such as the Spanish Inquisition. The Catholic Church gets a lot of criticism for this and rightly so. But, the Church wasn’t the only religious tradition involved in similar behavior. These inquisitions occured because church and state were synonymous.

When Calvinism became the religion of Switzerland non believers were put to death.
The same for English Catholics under Cromwell. Fortunately for the religious descendents of Calvin and Cromwell everyone forget about this. Probably because we are the big kids on the block Catholic inquisitions are not forgotten.
 
As the Inquisition has NEVER been part of Eastern Catholicism, nor of Orthodoxy, for that matter, why did you bring up the issue here on this forum?

However, if you REALLY want to know some information about the Inquisition, read Thomas Walsh’s book CHARACTERS OF THE INQUISITION.

Most of what everybody knows is the result of the Black Legend, which began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I–and is false.

The witchcraft trials of Salem Village were a Protestant, yea Puritan, version of the Inquisition.
 
While the Catechism doesn’t explicitly mention the Spanish Inquisition, it does have this:
2298 In times past, cruel practices were commonly used by legitimate governments to maintain law and order, often without protest from the Pastors of the Church, who themselves adopted in their own tribunals the prescriptions of Roman law concerning torture. Regrettable as these facts are, the Church always taught the duty of clemency and mercy. She forbade clerics to shed blood. In recent times it has become evident that these cruel practices were neither necessary for public order, nor in conformity with the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices led to ones even more degrading. It is necessary to work for their abolition. We must pray for the victims and their tormentors.
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We have to distinguish between practices used in an inquisition and “inquisition” as a concept in and of itself. That is, local bishops have both a prerogative and duty to ensure that the members of his diocese are practicing the authentic faith. But that doesn’t mean that they can do anything to do that.
 
bpbasilphx said:
As the Inquisition has NEVER been part of Eastern Catholicism, nor of Orthodoxy, for that matter, why did you bring up the issue here on this forum?

However, if you REALLY want to know some information about the Inquisition, read Thomas Walsh’s book CHARACTERS OF THE INQUISITION.

Most of what everybody knows is the result of the Black Legend, which began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I–and is false.

The witchcraft trials of Salem Village were a Protestant, yea Puritan, version of the Inquisition.
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How many different types of Catholicism are there? And are they all united? or do they stand alone from eachother? I really don’t know much at all regarding the structure/organization of Catholicism, please excuse my lack of knowledge. I became a member of this forum, in hopes of becoming more educated and aware of the subject. (I have a hard time just reading books out of the library and prefer to learn from people) thank you for sharing what you know
 
the point being that everyone has had their own version of the Inquisition, there’s even being an atheist “inquisition.” Just ask the Russians who survived Joseph Stalin. The Catholic Church in today’s popular media is just the easiest target.
 
Until some time in the 11th century Christianity was united. Then the bishop of Rome and another bishop in the East did not see eye to eye so Rome and the churches east of Rome split. That is where you get Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox. The Easter Orthodox churches are pretty much national churches; you have Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, etc. Even though they are lumped together as Eastern Orthodox each national church is independent of the other.

Now it gets confusing. In the 15th century a number of the Eastern Orthodox churches decided to accept the primacy of the Pope. These are called Eastern rite churches. They are in full communion with Rome, although their services and some disciplines are different. For instance, priests can be married.
 
\These are called Eastern rite churches.\

They are called Eastern CATHOLIC Churches sui juris, rep, not “Eastern rite”.
 
My but this thread seems to have gone far afield of the OP. A previous post had the right question:
bpbasilphx said:
As the Inquisition has NEVER been part of Eastern Catholicism, nor of Orthodoxy, for that matter, why did you bring up the issue here on this forum?
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malphono said:
My but this thread seems to have gone far afield of the OP. A previous post had the right question:
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HAHA I forgot this was Eastern Catholic forum, My bad. When i started the thread, I didnt know what forum to open it in, and I wasn’t sure of the differences in the division.
 
So Eastern (orthodox) Catholism run independent of one another, they share a common belief, but if per se Greek Orthodox began to change it’s beliefs, it would have no effect upon or be regulated in any way by the other Eastern Catholics correct?

And Western CAtholocism is organized under the hierarchy of the pope and Vatican?
 
Inquisition simply means what it sounds like, an inquiry. It’s basically the religious authorities investigating a person’s behavior or beliefs to determine if they are in line with the creed of that church. Seen that way, EVERY faith has something like an inquisition, though it often won’t be called that or be very formal. Let me put it this way: If you are Baptist and start using the New World Translation for your sermons, you can bet you are going to hear the phone ring from someone in charge of the congregation with a basic inquiry. Namely, “What the Hell are you doing?!” 😃
 
mrparker said:
How many different types of Catholicism are there? And are they all united? or do they stand alone from eachother? I really don’t know much at all regarding the structure/organization of Catholicism, please excuse my lack of knowledge. I became a member of this forum, in hopes of becoming more educated and aware of the subject. (I have a hard time just reading books out of the library and prefer to learn from people) thank you for sharing what you know
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There are 23 Churches Sui Iuris in union with the pope. THe Catholic Church is this amalgum of the 23 Churches.

There are 6 major rites: Roman, Alexandrian, Byzantine, Chaldean (aka East Syrian), Antiochene (aka West Syrian), Armenian. Within each Rite, there are multiple variations.
14 churches sui iuris use the Byzantine rite, falling into 3 broad groups: The Greco-Byzantines, Slavo-Byzantines, and Syro-Byzantines. The Armenian Church uses the Armenian Rite. The Coptic and Ethiopian Churches are Alexandrian, but are considerably different in their liturgies and praxis; the Eritrean is a subform of Ethiopian, but not a separate Church Sui Iuris. The Syrian Rites comprise 5 churches between the Antiochene and Chaldean Rites, including the Syrian Church, Chaldean Church, Syro-Malabar, Syro-Malankar and Maronites. The Roman Rite, like the Alexandrian and Byzantine Rites, has several distinct sub-rites; the Roman Church, unlike the others, has multiple sub-rites in a single hierarchy.

The Office of the Holy Inquisition has always (and under a different name, still does) protect the faith by investigation of heresy and/or schism and by examination of witnesses, inquired about the heretics and/or schismatics themselves. It’s goal always has been to silence the heretic by bringing them back to orthodox thinking and practice. The Holy Inquisition has been a functional arm of the Roman Church. In the other Churches in Union, the Holy Inquisition generally has had no need, since local bishops generally have resolved matters without need for the Inquisition, plus the fact that, excepting the Italian byzantines and the Maronites, the ECC’s post-date the heyday of the Inquisition.

Further, most of the executions blamed on the Holy Inquisition are not the Church’s fault. The vast majority were convicted, assigned a penance, then turned over to the Crown’s Justice (Spain, Gaul and Occitainia, later France, all made heresy a civil crime). In the Spanish and French waves of burnings, it was civil punishment for religious crimes.
 
mrparker;5908704 would like the perspective of a well educated and well versed on the facts catholic about the papal inquisition.:
I have never heard of a papal inquisition. Can you please give some specifics such as dates, names and locations? Specifically wat was the activity of the pope in this?
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mrparker said:
So Eastern (orthodox) Catholism run independent of one another, they share a common belief, but if per se Greek Orthodox began to change it’s beliefs, it would have no effect upon or be regulated in any way by the other Eastern Catholics correct?

And Western CAtholocism is organized under the hierarchy of the pope and Vatican?
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Eastern Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy (and for that matter, the non-Chalcedonian Churches) are NOT the same bodies. Apparently you think it’s just Catholic and Protestant–not so simple and never has been.

The history of these different churches is too complex for computer chat. Books, yea voluminous tomes, have been written on this subject. But here’s a summary about the Eastern Catholic Churches (NOT “rites”).

Eastern Catholic Churches (over 20 of them) have their origin in one or the other of the Orthodox or Non-Chalcedonian Churches that went into union with (NOTE: NOT UNDER) the Pope at various times. They retained most of their own discipline and spiritual practices, though some Latinisms were introduced over time. Most of the Eastern Catholic Churches have begun the process of removing them.

With the possible exception of the Syro-Malabar Catholics of India, they never went through anything like the Inquisitions of Europe.

(And, despite your original question, there’s no such thing as the “papel inquistion” and never was.)
 
Ignatius said:
I have never heard of a papal inquisition. Can you please give some specifics such as dates, names and locations? Specifically wat was the activity of the pope in this?
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Perhaps what is meant is the Roman Inquisition. 🤷

As an institution it had some authority across civil borders, but I am not really knowledgeable on that. The Spanish one, supposedly so notorious, was nothing so grand the claims against it but it’s authority was limited to the domains of the Spanish crown.
 
How the Spanish Inquistion helped the Jews

Well there are any number of accusations about the evils of the Spanish Inquisition. Most all come to us from Protestant writers in England who inflated both the numbers who were tortured and killed by it. Some historians have seen it as a tactic to strike fear in the minds and hearts of Protestants and to distract them from the excesses of the Star Court, where which was often held without the right to confront one’s accusor.

The facts are a bit different, to the extent that in many places people tried to have their civil court cases transferred to the Inquistion because it was seen as more fair than the civil courts who’s standards were based more on what the judge thought than what the law said.

The Inquisition in Spain was established 20 years before Columbas left Spain in 1492 to find the decendents of Jews who had converted to Catholicism and either relapsed into Judaism (in secret) or those who had converted (secretly) to Lutheranism, were guilty of moral lapses such as adultary, or preaching heretical doctrines, (including importing prohibited books.) Now in our pluralistic society is seems to be intollerable, but at the time keeping the peace would mean to the Civil authorities that everyone believe and live by the same religous and moral standards. This was the case in Protestant kingdoms as well as Catholic.

In the majority of cases the person who was brought before the Inquisitions tribunal who was found guilty of the crime was if they expressed sorrow and penitance was given a fine to pay the civil authroties, and would have a religious penance, it could include something very mild, from not being allowed to wear silk or ride on horesback to having to wear a sabana, sort of an outer tunic that had the symbols of the sin or crime that the person was found guilty of, which they had to wear for a period of time. At the end of the time served there was a procession in which the people who were penanced and relaxed, would carry tapers, (Large candles) to the Church and be given a public absolution. The Sabana would be removed and placed in the rafters of the Cathedral to show that the penance was absolved and the person was now back in the regular community. Pretty much a hold over from the strict penances of the Early Church, (another subject). Usually not as strickt as what was happening to Catholics in those Protestant places (most commonly among select Calvinists) where the idea that one was either Elect, as proved by being Protestant, in good health and having wealth. Or one was damned, by not joining Protestantism and being impovereshed and in ill health as a sign of one’s curse from God.

Now how the Jews were helped by the Spanish Inquisition. After 1492 when all Jews who had not converted to the Catholic Faith were expelled from Spain, (a mass exodus) those who were left behind were a combination of true converts and those who practiced Judaism in secret, (Anusim in Hebrew, or those forced or compelled to convert) With no Jewish community for these Anusim to learn from the sucsessive generations would have fallen into a near complete ignorance of what Jewish practices were. In comes the Inquistion to the rescue. Not as an effort to help these secret Jews, but in order to instruct Catholics what to look out for, the Inquistion published tracts and sermons to be read from the pulpit on what Jews did, everything from how Jews observed the Sabbath, what Kosher cooking and the proper manner of slaughtering and butchering animals, and prior to major Jewish Feasts, like Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah what Jews would be doing, and when they would do it.

Many Secret Jewish families were instructed by these tracts and Sermons, making them capable of not only learning what they were supposed to do as Jews, but when the festivals were going to occur, or what to hide from the neighbors or servants. This kept the Secret Jewish communities in Spain and former Spanish territories informed for several centuries. There are stories in Cecil Roth (late Jewish Historian from Oxford University) book, A History of the Marranos about not only the down side of the Inquisition, but how Judaism was preserved in Secret in the Spanish and Portugese world even up until the early to middle 20th Cnetury when some families reverted to the public practice of Judaism.
 
Hesychios said:
Perhaps what is meant is the Roman Inquisition. 🤷

As an institution it had some authority across civil borders, but I am not really knowledgeable on that. The Spanish one, supposedly so notorious, was nothing so grand the claims against it but it’s authority was limited to the domains of the Spanish crown.
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Perhaps the OP could provide the details I requested:
"Can you please give some specifics such as dates, names and locations? Specifically wat was the activity of the pope in this? " Also, why are you asking this in the Eastern Catholic forum?
 
Ignatius said:
Perhaps the OP could provide the details I requested:
"Can you please give some specifics such as dates, names and locations? Specifically wat was the activity of the pope in this? " Also, why are you asking this in the Eastern Catholic forum?
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I dont have any specifics, it was an honest curiosity, not an accusation. I have just heard non-Catholics talk about it, but i was never good at paying attention to history type of stuff, so i’ll just tell you all i heard was that “the Papal inquisition was when individuals or common people were being executed and killed or tortured because they would have their own bible, when it was prohibited for anyone but priests(or some leader i cant remember) to read from the scriptures” Something along those lines, i didnt extract that from anywhere just put in quotes a paraphrase of stuff i’ve heard. But again, i didnt know what is true and what is not, and mistakenly asked it in the eastern Catholic forum not knowing the difference between eastern and western
 
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