MGTOW TV: the uncensored video platform for the manosphere

Communist Strategies For Winning - With Jeff Nyquist, and Jimmy from Brooklyn (April 9, 2026 - Dynamic Independence Podcast)

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 15:09:24 +0000

https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/2daOIBAdTOhBmuY4m

Communist Economic Disasters - With Jeff Nyquist and Jimmy from Brooklyn (April 2, 2026 - Dynamic Independence Podcast)

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 14:54:05 +0000

https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/14enP6bBwqVB9kPKz

עם ישראל לא מפחד

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:25:57 +0000

מחרוזת שירי פורים הרבנות הצבאית ואיחוד הלהקות במחרוזת שתרים לנו את המורל

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 19:19:45 +0000

COURAGE: Trump Refuses To Cave To Iran, Launches Next Phase In War

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 18:58:57 +0000

After Iran refuses to take advantage of a ceasefire offer, President Trump’s negotiating team walks out of talks; America launches a blockade of Iran’s blockade; and we discuss Eric Swalwell’s political downfall.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/w5YFC2EYVOk?si=deAc3RBIOuDSj01o

Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today (Michael Waller) #2

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:54:18 +0000

https://cdnc.heyzine.com/files..../uploaded/v2/91c58c1

Secret Empire: The KGB in Russia Today (Michael Waller) #1

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 14:53:09 +0000

https://cdnc.heyzine.com/files..../uploaded/v2/91c58c1

Real reasons for Iran war buried under a lot of talk (Friends & Enemies - April 12, 2026)

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 13:31:13 +0000

https://youtu.be/0xUA0cVd4uE?si=YtMx-ghH4fWqEebB

Friends & Enemies episode from April 12th 2026 with Alex Benesch and Jeff Nyquist.
The Trump admin gave public reasons for the Iran war while being extremely vague about the expectations how it will play out realistically. Some interpreted this as not having a clear concept. Others, even previous MAGA influencers with huge audiences, accuse Trump of being controlled by the tiny state of Israel. The US government is known to have the best cadre schools for the brightest people who work out the policies in the background without getting the attention. In addition to this, AI models and algorithms allow for precise simulations of relevant scenarios beforehand.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/recentr
https://jrnyquist.blog
https://x.com/JRNyquist
https://candorintel.com
https://x.com/Recentr3

Hammerhand is live on Sun Apr 12 22:24 UTC 2026

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 22:24:58 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

JORDAN MAXWELL - SYCHRONICITY

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 01:13:37 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/@XVONE

The Serpent in Genesis Was NOT What You Think (Hebrew Text Reveals All)

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:32:11 +0000

5,135 viewa Apr 9, 2026 #BibleStudy #Genesis #HebrewText
The Serpent in Genesis Was NOT What You Think (Hebrew Text Reveals All)

What if the serpent in Genesis has been misunderstood for centuries? By examining the original Hebrew text, this video uncovers surprising meanings and hidden nuances that challenge the traditional interpretation. Discover what the Bible may really be saying—and why it changes everything you thought you knew.

#BibleStudy #Genesis #HebrewText #BiblicalTruth #AncientTexts

url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0I7Qmh9Eeo

Secretary Pompeo speech on “In Tribute to Human Freedom”

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:47:14 +0000

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo speech on “In Tribute to Human Freedom” at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, in Houston, Texas, on November 15, 2019.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/HcW_2gpX4sY?si=oS-csdRPUq6LcWpl

Kassach Medley | The IDF Military Rabbinate in a medley that will boost your morale

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:35:19 +0000

מחרוזת כסאח הרבנות הצבאית במחרוזת שתרים לכם את המורל

Nir Kriegel - UAV (Roni Meller Remix) ------ ניר קריגל - כטב"מ (רוני מלר רמיקס)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 15:25:46 +0000

ניר קריגל - כטב"מ (רוני מלר רמיקס)

The full-spectrum control over Marxism, democracy, libertarianism and rightwing extremism (Candor Intelligence Network)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 14:55:44 +0000

https://youtu.be/iydsbH5N4IY?si=M5Ry9A0uQvc1b3Bx

The Mystery Case of Parallel 33 -w- Jeff Nyquist ; Leah Shaper - The Alien Connection- Crowley's Lam

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:55:15 +0000

DONALD MARSHALL - VRIL

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 03:00:36 +0000

Ben Shapiro Reacts To Woke TikTok’s: #NoKings Edition

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:41:31 +0000

Ben Shapiro Reacts To Woke TikTok’s: #NoKings Edition>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/19x8Dm6MaL4?si=ofuYAAhk8gU7DXe7

DISMANTLING The "America is Terrible" Argument

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:36:13 +0000

This episode breaks down the escalating tension between American global strength and the new isolationist rhetoric from figures like Tucker Carlson as the 2026 election cycle brings the future of U.S. power to a breaking point.

Ben Shapiro>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/0JmlK42b-FY?si=jBlVR6z5xM18atAk

The REAL Behind the Scenes Story of Our New Movie with Jonathan Majors

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 23:34:44 +0000

Ben Shapiro talks with Dallas Sonnier, director of the new Daily Wire movie with Jonathan Majors starring, about the movie.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/xkE6FHb2e8o?si=7hM29vWmF_nwamzE

Hammerhand is live on Tue Apr 7 22:24 UTC 2026

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 22:24:59 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

“Muslim men are permitted to take non-Muslim women captive and rape them, even if they are married.”

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:09:24 +0000

“Muslim men are permitted to take non-Muslim women captive and rape them, even if they are married.”

— Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan

"I want the governor of Florida to be Muslim. I want Muslims in the House, Muslim senators. We don’t apologize about jihad"

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 16:04:22 +0000

Genesis 6:1 to 22 Fallen Angels Giants Nephilim and Demons or Devils #nephilim #biblestudy #giants

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 22:22:19 +0000

117,894 views Jan 18, 2026
Verse by Verse Bible Study on www.thecloudchurch.org through the book of Genesis, covering chapter 6 verses 1 to 22, from the King James Bible.

url: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIzzfES9Euc

Armageddon as Clown Show: Iran War Pratfalls (Part 4 of 5) – Jeffrey Nyquist - April 1, 2026

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:29:47 +0000

https://jrnyquist.blog/2026/04..../01/armageddon-as-cl

J.R. Nyquist books: https://www.abebooks.com/autho....r/b08dybqr2p/j-r-nyq
The Fool and His Enemy: Toward a Metaphysics of Evil. J.R. Nyquist: https://a.co/d/08YHLLmF
Origins of the Fourth World War. J.R. Nyquist: follow instructions on the site - Donate to Receive one of the last remaining copies of Origins of the Fourth World War - $30: https://jrnyquist.blog/2026/04..../01/armageddon-as-cl
Red Jihad: Moscow's Final Solution for America and Israel. Cliff Kincaid (Author), J.R. Nyquist (Author). https://a.co/d/0ibbbI88
The New Tactics of Global War: Reflections on the Changing Balance of Power in the Final Days of Peace. Benjamin Baruch (Author), J.R. Nyquist (Author) . https://a.co/d/00tnHClZ
Back from the Dead: The Return of the Evil Empire. https://a.co/d/0iNlI73U
The Lies We Believe In: China, Russia and the communist revolution in America

There's still work to be done to protect the entire civilized world from the threat posed by the Islamic Republic

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:43:50 +0000

America's achievements in Operation Epic Fury are astounding. But as President Trump has made clear, there's still work to be done to protect the entire civilized world from the threat posed by the Islamic Republic. Time for our allies to step up to the plate.

President Trump's speech reaffirmed the rationale for Operation Epic Fury to the American people

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:42:33 +0000

President Trump's speech last night reaffirmed the rationale for Operation Epic Fury to the American people. But he wasn't just speaking to the nation; he reassured our regional allies that we won't let them down, & rightly chided NATO allies for failing us in our hour of need.

Let's get the job done

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:40:36 +0000

No one likes war. But it is critical to the security of the American people and to the world that the gang of murderous theocrats running Iran are no longer able to hold the world hostage.

Let's get the job done.

"Victory in Iran ultimately depends on changing the shape of the regime so that it is no longer a threat" - Mike Pompeo

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 12:38:17 +0000

Victory in Iran ultimately depends on changing the shape of the regime so that it is no longer a threat. That doesn't mean we'll see some modern-day Thomas Jefferson take the reins; but we should create the space for the Iranian people to take back their country.

The Art of Worldly Wisdom: Maxims 61-70 of 300

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 15:04:04 +0000

Seventh instalment of Gracián.

Hammerhand is live on Sun Mar 29 22:25 UTC 2026

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 22:25:15 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

"Continued pressure to achieve our war aims is of the utmost importance" - Mike Pompeo

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 01:33:07 +0000

Is a negotiated settlement with the Islamic Republic possible? As a Christian, I live in hope - but the fact is, America's requirements and Iran's demands are nowhere near congruent. Continued pressure to achieve our war aims is of the utmost importance.

The Brainrot Right Has LOST Its Mind

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 01:25:57 +0000

The brainrot wing of the Right is saying insane things about Charlie Kirk, Russia, and Islam; President Trump announces negotiations with Iran; and we’re joined by Florida gubernatorial contender Byron Donalds.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/live/h....FwQUuCUeF0?si=hmD9B2

Why Are Americans Siding With Our Enemies?

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 01:22:35 +0000

As the war in Iran continues, Iran ups the ante by firing a long range missile capable of hitting Europe; President Trump hints at negotiations; and we examine the collaborationists who are rooting for the rise of China and Russia. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/live/e....ic5V5mXfq0?si=ub0nqU

Who Are America’s Real Allies?

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 01:19:17 +0000

America's international allies join our cause… by writing a strongly worded letter; the America-hating right and Left unite to undermine President Trump yet again; and California is spending all of its money on hospice fraud and mountain lion bridges.>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.youtube.com/live/p....TtbturjWjQ?si=RDnWaY

Nightcore - Mizrahi Hatikva

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 01:15:05 +0000

Nightcore - Mizrahi Hatikva>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/93UHDqgfN1I?si=zdT7QTQ3849UAPq-

"Breaking the back of this dictatorship will deliver long-term stability and prosperity to the region" - Mike Pompeo

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 12:54:49 +0000

The Islamic Republic has held the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz over our heads for almost fifty years. Breaking the back of this dictatorship will deliver long-term stability and prosperity to the region after years of disruption from this terrorist regime.

"Operation Epic Fury is inflicting significant damage on Iran's internal security apparatus" - Mike Pompeo

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 12:53:42 +0000

Operation Epic Fury is inflicting significant damage on Iran's internal security apparatus. We don't know the day or the hour, but with sustained pressure we can be confident that the opportunity for the Iranian people to break free from this wicked regime is coming.

"Defeating Israel means defeating the U.S. Defeating Israel means defeating Canada."

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 17:33:15 +0000

"We are the leaders of the world, the masters, and the teachers.”

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 17:31:12 +0000

"No one can stop Islam in America. This is NOT your country, this is OUR country"

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 17:29:54 +0000

“No one can stop Islam in America. This is NOT your country, this is OUR country. This is the land of Allah. If you want to live in a place with no Muslims, I suggest you go to hell.”

10 Places on Earth Where Reality Glitched Out

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 07:38:17 +0000

What if the map of the world you know is a lie? There are places on our planet that simply shouldn't exist—locations that defy science, shatter our understanding of history, and break the very rules of logic. In this deep dive, we journey to 10 such places to explain the planet's most impossible puzzles.

Join our investigation as we uncover:
► The truth behind a city so advanced, historians tried to erase its builders from memory.
► A perpetually burning crater opened by human error—the real-life Door to Hell.
► A massive, sunken structure that sparks a fierce debate: is it a lost civilization or a natural wonder?
► An ancient wall in the desert, so vast yet so mysterious its purpose and builders are completely unknown.
► A forest in Transylvania where visitors are physically affected and time itself seems to warp.
► ...and 5 other stunning locations that will make you question everything.

This isn't just a list of mysteries; this is an investigation into the flaws in our reality.

Which of these impossible places do you think holds the biggest secret?
Let us know your theory in the comments below!

If you're fascinated by the unexplained, make sure to SUBSCRIBE to Odd Why's and hit the bell to be notified of our next investigation.

#UnsolvedMysteries #AncientHistory #ForbiddenKnowledge #Explained #OddWhys

"The fall of this regime will be a blessing to mankind" - Mike Pompeo

Sun, 22 Mar 2026 04:48:43 +0000

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Iranian regime is continuing to murder its own people in the most brutal ways imaginable.

The fall of this regime will be a blessing to mankind.

FREEMAN FLY - THEY NEED A PLAGUE (2008)

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 08:19:41 +0000

The Cuban Regime Is OVER

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:17:45 +0000

The Cuban Regime Is OVER>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/z3r5cD6L4Gg?si=vYAc1QmfpQ61TUZM

These Nations AREN'T Allies

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 22:09:13 +0000

Ben Shapiro>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/MecvMZab7lY?si=mE3wyxI73sVhY7n9

Fictional Worlds So BRUTAL No Human Could Survive Them (Ranked by Pure Fear)

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:07:59 +0000

In this video we explore some of the most brutal and unforgiving worlds ever created in fiction. Each world is ranked by how hostile it truly is, based on its creatures, physical laws, and the fate that awaits any human who ends up there.

Timestamps:

00:00 - Introduction
00:28 - Silent Hill
03:59 - Attack On Titan
07:03 - Dark Souls
12:20 - The Mist
15:37 - The Matrix
17:47 - Warhammer 40K
21:18 - Blame!
25:26 - The Flood
29:20 - Area X
32:51 - The Warp
37:08 - All Tomorrows

H.P. Lovecraft stories, cosmic horror explained, Lovecraftian monsters, Cthulhu mythos lore, horror cosmic entities, Nyarlathotep story, the Necronomicon secrets, ancient alien horror, terrifying cosmic deities, eldritch horror creatures, Cthulhu explained, best Lovecraft stories, the Haunter of the Dark analysis, Lovecraftian cosmic dread, forbidden knowledge myths, mysterious horror gods, Great Old Ones lore, horror beyond human com

Hammerhand is live on Sun Mar 15 22:25 UTC 2026

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 22:25:04 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

The Art of Worldly Wisdom: Maxims 51-60 of 300

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 14:04:14 +0000

Finally got over the annual immigration headache and now I can catch up with everything!!!

Do you believe in demonic possession? Demon possession x mental illness ?

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:45:51 +0000

Explanation of the dialogue.

According to the words, “this spell was meant for you, they are jealous of you.” So the spell was intended for the mother, but it ended up affecting the daughter instead.

The mother responds, “Get out of her, leave her in peace,” and the girl says, “I can’t, this is my job.”

Mother: “What do you want?”

Daughter: “To kill her.” “Everyone says it’s depression.”

Mother: "I know it is not depression" “Speak up, how many are in there?”

Daughter: “Six thousand, six thousand.” “It’s going to hurt her, there are so many, so many, so many, so many…”

The mother asks, “Who is the head that’s in charge?”

Daughter: “Only the priest has authority.”

Mother: “Help my family!”

Daughter “I am Satan, demon, you think a demon would help? Hahahahaha”

Mother: “But tell me, why did Dora do this?”

Daughter: “Because of envy… she is envious… she and her husband.”

Mother: “And who did she send to do it?”

Daughter: “I can’t say…”

The video ends and the name of the girl is Drika Costa. From what i know she was sent to the psychiatrist but no problem was detected.

-----

Explicação do diálogo.
De acordo com as palavras, “era pra você esse feitiço, eles têm inveja de você”. Então o feitiço era para mãe, mas acabou indo para a filha.
A mãe responde “saia dela, deixe-a em paz”, a garota diz “não posso, esse é o meu trabalho”. “O que você quer?”, “matar ela”. “As pessoas tudo falam que é depressão”.”Fala, são quantos que estão aí nela?” “seis mil, seis mil”. “vai machucar ela, são muitos, muitos, muitos, muitos...”.
A mãe indaga “quem é o cabeça que dirige”. “Só o pastor tem autoridade”. “ajuda a minha família!” “eu sou satanás, demônio lá ajuda? Kkkkkkkkkkk”
“Mas fala, por que Dora fez isso?”
“Por inveja...ela tem inveja... ela e o marido dela”
“E ela mandou quem fazer?”
“Não posso falar...”

Communism Vs Capitalism (Dynamic Independence Podcast - March 12, 2026)

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:03:18 +0000

https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/0uTGb9Xwh3KwkfLpu

"If you are a rapist, a child abuser, a murderer, a terrorist, or a drug dealer, but you are a Muslim and pray, then you are morally superior"

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:05:49 +0000

The enemy is exposed: muslim refers to christians as rogue liars - "How can Muslims mix with these infidels?"

Wed, 11 Mar 2026 00:02:08 +0000

The Army WITHOUT a Country (That Could BREAK Iran)

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 19:47:16 +0000

Ben Shapiro>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/2dQN1zSJRaQ?si=lVZukKw8POc6uGDr

The Red Thread: A Search for Ideological Drivers Inside the Anti-Trump Conspiracy (Diana West)

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 00:59:03 +0000

Vladimir Bukovsky: The Power of Memory and Acknowledgement - Cato Institute Distinguished Lecture

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 21:53:34 +0000

https://youtu.be/1QaTBeLtrAI?si=qIRMGjXj2FuxECGA

The Power of Memory and Acknowledgement

DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
6:00 PM

Featuring Vladimir Bukovsky, Author and former Soviet political dissident.

The Cato Institute
1000 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001

Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, renowned Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky will reflect on the need for Russia to acknowledge the criminal nature of its communist past. The way in which the crimes of communism are remembered contrasts with the way in which Nazism was legally judged and more fundamentally condemned and reviled. The failure to pass an equivalent measure of moral judgment on communism has affected subsequent social and political developments in Russia and assured that dangerous characteristics of the communist system live on. Please join us as one of the world's foremost advocates of human rights explains the evolution of attitudes toward communism since its collapse.

9 Celebrities That Don’t Suck

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:13:19 +0000

In a world of woke Hollywood garbage, here is a list of 9 celebrities that don’t actually suck. Ben Shapiro>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/I9gAA80L1x0?si=qaJy5H1T_2Oa53Ua

Apocalyptic headspace (Friends & Enemies - J.R Nyquist and Alex Beensch - March 8, 2026)

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 22:03:25 +0000

https://youtu.be/fYfP2EdIR6o?si=crPcHBbmv_r5HGNs

Horrors Found on Abandoned YouTube Channels

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:38:33 +0000

Out of the millions of YouTube channels out there, an overwhelming amount remain inactive. Some of these accounts once provided endless hours of entertainment, only to be left behind with no warning. In this video we talk about a handful of these channels…and the disturbing reasons no one posts to them anymore.

…

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Are We Stuck In A Forever War?

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:18:13 +0000

Ben Shapiro Clips>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/lX1PbF-PCRY?si=W7IVV-5zS-VWN4jO

Dugin - "We are going to distribute nuclear weapons to everybody who can use it against the west"

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 15:14:24 +0000

Pompeo: Americans are safer, Iran is weaker than it was five days ago

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:35:31 +0000

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discusses the state of the war on Iran on 'America Reports.' #fox #media #breakingnews #us #usa #new #news #breaking #foxnews #americareports #mikepompeo #pompeo #iran #middleeast #nationalsecurity #foreignpolicy #war #terrorism #security #military #world #politics #political #politicalnews #government

FOX News Channel (FNC)>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/7Qr1o1BRagU?si=3Xh6Pv1RUFZTPd-B

Why These LOSERS Hate Winning

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 10:06:23 +0000

Cowards, liars and America-haters unite to try to undermine President Trump’s action against Iran; we talk about whether the war is a "distraction" from domestic priorities; and we bring you the state of play in the Middle East.

Ben Shapiro>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/W27C-w8mfAM?si=qWeLC68W9f9K-hKx

The age of assassins: the rise and rise of Vladimir Putin (Yuri Felshtinsky; Vladimir Pribylovsky)

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 03:03:45 +0000

Jordan Maxwell - Baal Worship

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 02:45:14 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/@XVONE

The Fayette Mall Incident

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 00:47:47 +0000

A yarn about an inexplicable occurrence which darkened the skies above Lexington, and the interior of an unfortunate shop inside the city's Fayette Mall.

Music by CO.AG Music

#horror #podcast #creepy

Switchel - The 18th Century Energy Drink

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:48:12 +0000

Need a tasty, all-natural energy drink? Switchel is the beverage for you! Learn How to Make Switchel, an 18th-century energy drink that's perfect to enjoy after exercise or hard work. ➡️SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/marysn....est?sub_confirmation ⬇️Click Video Title or "Show More" for Addit'l Info⬇️

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0:00 Introduction
0:45 How to Make Switchel

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▶Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor, a medical professional, a dietician, or a nutritionist. All content found on the MarysNest.com website, YouTube Channel, and related social media, including: text, images, videos, or other formats were created solely for informational purposes only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or proper nutritional advice. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have watched on this video or read on the corresponding website. Use caution when following the recipe in this video. The creator and publisher of this video will not be held responsible for any adverse effects that may arise from the use of this recipe and method or any other recipe and method on this channel and the corresponding website.

DIY Energy Drink - Save Money Train Harder

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:38:39 +0000

Check out my website for more blog posts, recipes or to get in touch for coaching https://www.willgirling.com/

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DIY Ayurvedic Mouthwash | Prevents Gingivitis, Cavities, Tooth Ache & Gum Diseases

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 08:28:47 +0000

An Ayurvedic Mouthwash with all natural ingredients, that can prevent and help treat Gingivitis, Bad breath, Tooth pain, Gum infections, Gum diseases, Plaque & Tartar accumulation. This kills bad bacteria and works like antibacterial and anticavity natural mouthwash. This mouthwash comes with several benefits and easy to make. This is very good to add to your dental routine,
Let’s prepare our own simple anti bacterial, anti cavity and anti plaque mouthwash which is safe, effective, inexpensive and works awesome. This also fights bad breath, sensitive gums and gingivitis.
#ayurvedicremedies #gingivitis #cavities #gumdisease
For this you need
1. Cloves – Research proves that Cloves can relieve from tooth pain, bad breath and help reduce gum infections. I am using Ground cloves. You can also get whole cloves and grind it. [show images]
2. Cinnamon – Cinnamon inhibits cavity causing bacteria and prevents tooth decay. I am using ground cinnamon. [show images]
3. Triphala powder – Triphala powder is most common ayurvedic remedy. When used as a mouth wash, research shows that it is as equally effective as prescription mouthwashes in preventing plaque, gingivitis, bad breath and inhibiting bad bacteria.
4. Himalayan Pink Salt – Salt is a cheapest antibacterial and anti-cavity home remedy. It fights off gingivitis and bleeding gums
5. Baking soda – Baking soda has ability to remove dental plaque and prevents cavities. Also, it helps to naturally get teeth whitening. Baking soda can be abrasive when used as tooth powder, but when used as mouthwash it is very safe and not abrasive.

Procedure:
1. In a glass jar, add 2 tablespoon of ground cloves.
2. Now toss in 1 tablespoon of Cinnamon powder.
3. Add 1/2 tablespoon of Triphala Powder. Triphala powder is one ayurvedic remedy that has numerous benefits.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of Himalayan Pink Salt. If you don’t have pink salt, you can also add regular salt.
5. Now add ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. Don’t add more, you just need quarter teaspoon.
Mix all of them together and store it. It remains good for upto 3 months.
Now, every time you want to do mouth wash, take a ½ cup of water. Add ½ teaspoon of this powder. Feel free to take less amount if it is strong for you. Heat it up slightly. I am using microwave to heat it up, you can also boil the water on the stove on low heat simmer.
Now, we prepared Mouthwash Tea. Keep it aside and let it cool down to lukewarm temperature. Once the temperature is slightly warm, use it as mouthwash. Let’s see how to use this.
After you eat food, for about 15 to 30 minutes, the saliva keeps doing the job of digestion and cleaning away the acidic surface on teeth. During this time, we should not do mouthwash and we should let the saliva do its job.
After about 30 mins of having a meal, take a sip of this mouthwash, swish & rinse all over the mouth for 1 minute and spit it away. Do this 2 or 3 times every day

Credits:
Music: https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free , https://www.bensound.com

The images and videos are referred from
https://pixabay.com/
https://www.pexels.com/

DISCLAIMER: The materials and the information contained in this video and on the Break The Snow channel are provided for general and educational purposes only and do not constitute any legal, medical or other professional advice on any subject matter. None of the information on our videos is a substitute for a diagnosis and treatment by your health professional. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider prior to starting any new diet or treatment and with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. If you have or suspect that you have a medical problem, promptly contact your health care provider. Do not try any remedy/suggestion in pregnancy or breast feeding period without doctor's advice. This video is not referring to any brand or any product. Its just a generic information on generic mouthwash solutions only.
The product reviews or judgement are solely a personal opinion and do not intended to influence the reputation of any product or company.

Epstein's mistake was not being a muslim

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 09:27:59 +0000

"If a loving father wants to marry off his nine-year-old daughter to a righteous man and all parties consent, what is the issue with that"

Some questions about the book "Revolution and Counter-Revolution" (Plínio Corrêa de Oliveira)

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 20:52:59 +0000

https://www.pliniocorreadeoliv....eira.info/ENT_198305

Hammerhand is live on Sun Mar 1 23:25 UTC 2026

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 23:25:02 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

"That wouldn't just benefit the people of Iran - it would be a blessing to the entire world" - Mike Pompeo

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:55:36 +0000

With sustained American leadership and the support of their neighbors in the Gulf, the Iranian people will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take power back into their own hands.

That wouldn't just benefit the people of Iran - it would be a blessing to the entire world.

"We must make sure we finish the job and completely destroy this regime" - Mike Pompeo

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:53:27 +0000

The decision to finally confront the threat posed by Iran was long overdue, and secures President Trump's place in history.

There's a lot more work to do. We must make sure we finish the job and completely destroy this regime so that the Iranian people can determine their own destinies.

Multiple layers of leadership have vanished

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:51:38 +0000

"Multiple layers of leadership have vanished."

Former Secretary of State
@mikepompeo
weighs in on Iran’s power structure after the strikes that killed Ayatollah Khamenei and dozens of top officials.

Marching Through Iran - Israeli Patriotic Song

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 21:47:44 +0000

Hebrew version of Marching Through Georgia

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/2-5v1Wv0XZo?si=vtwsyiiWEzgde-pS

Making Moloch Great Again (Part 3 of 5) – Jeffrey Nyquist – February 28, 2026

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:05:15 +0000

https://jrnyquist.blog/2026/02..../28/making-moloch-gr

Donald Marshall - Britney Spears

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 04:21:49 +0000

Communist Death Cult - With Jeff Nyquist, and Trevor Loudon (Dynamic Independence Podcast - February 27, 2026)

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 03:49:31 +0000

Communist Death Cult - With Jeff Nyquist, and Trevor Loudon (Dynamic Independence Podcast - February 27, 2026)
https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/0TXIRqcJrcNCHbAOW

https://jrnyquist.blog/

Hammerhand is live on Thu Feb 26 23:25 UTC 2026

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:25:03 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

Friendly Fire: State of the Union 2026 Address LIVE

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:28:25 +0000

Everyone else is gearing up for three hours of dramatic sighing and fake outrage. We’re throwing a party. Tonight is President Trump’s first official State of the Union of his second term, and we’re covering it the way it deserves to be covered: sharp, smart, and actually fun. Cabot Phillips kicks things off with our exclusive pre show, then when the speech ends Ben Shapiro, Andrew Klavan, and surprise guests light it up with a special Friendly Fire to break down what was said, what matters, and what happens next.

lINK>>>>>>>>>>>>https://www.youtube.com/live/a....YUd4bk4iKA?si=foYdSQ

This Got WAY Out Of Hand

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:21:24 +0000

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/wY5MK1r_jwA?si=mM5pdSuBX7jgSnaO

CHECKMATE: Omar, Tlaib HUMILIATE Themselves, Trump SOARS at SOTU - Ben Shapiro

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 06:08:07 +0000

President Trump draws a stark contrast with the Democrats at the State of the Union; Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the new faces of the Democratic Party, and that’s an awful thing for the Democrats; and the media meltdown over Trump’s big night.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/r3sutqWutUM?si=GJ1c75DMoztHgVAt

Ben Shapiro Reacts To Finance Bros

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 02:59:54 +0000

Ben Shapiro Reacts To Finance Bros

Hammerhand is live on Sun Feb 22 23:24 UTC 2026

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 23:24:54 +0000

This is a LIVE stream

Tucker Carlson puts out a statement admitting that he lied

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 03:55:08 +0000

Israeli President Herzog did not visit Epstein’s island

Communist Strategic and Sociological View - Jeff Nyquist (Dynamic Independence Podcast)

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 22:45:24 +0000

https://open.spotify.com/episo....de/16YFpliPiv8TJjgnq

Epstein uploaded consciousness...

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 00:14:28 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/@MindUnveiled

"Conservatives Are Jealous Of Trans People"

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:18:52 +0000

"Conservatives Are Jealous Of Trans People"

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.https://youtu.be/9YeEdzz76Ko?si=1GYLZWM-XwURre68

Trans Shooter Targets Wife And Child

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:15:34 +0000

LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos daily:
Link>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/JES6tSWna7s?si=CzcPwTiDKdJ1l5Kx

Iran Launches Missiles In Oil Route

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:11:20 +0000

Stop giving your money to woke corporations that hate you. Get your Jeremy’s Razors today:

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/7F00TjymKHM?si=EjV5ulNJZEFrpt-i

Prince Andrew Arrested - Ben Shapiro

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:09:08 +0000

Prince Andrew is arrested on suspicion of "misconduct in public office" -- and we explore what the evidence suggests; From James Talarico to Tucker Carlson, prominent people keep claiming they’re victims; and we analyze the massive US military buildup over Iran.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/t5Zu2pyv2hY?si=69HL7TK-7YCJcBkO

מיסטר פרזידנט - דונלד טראמפ שיר להיט מזרחית Mr. President

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:03:59 +0000

Thank you, Mr President,
For standing tall when we had none.
Thank you, Mr President,
With Israel, forever one.

ZIONIX!!!!!!

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/C2aE8qK_y8Y?si=GcOfqAcj6CRXYzMk

5 Myths About the Inquisition Refuted by a PhD in Medieval History (Phd Marian Horvat)

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 03:52:19 +0000

https://apologistascatolicos.c....om.br/5-mitos-sobre-

5 Myths About the Inquisition Refuted by a PhD in Medieval History
By Dr. Marian Horvat
PhD in Medieval History
Editor’s Note: Centuries of false propaganda have convinced most people – good Catholics included – that the Inquisition was one of the most evil institutions ever invented. What we present here is a defense in which Dr. Marian Horvat, PhD, professor of Medieval History, completely unmasks five of the most common myths about the Holy Inquisition.
INTRODUCTION
To the sensibilities of the twentieth century, speaking of “Holy” and “Inquisition” in the same sentence seems a contradiction. Never has there been a subject so written about – or whitewashed – as the Holy Inquisition. The modern mentality has a natural difficulty in understanding an institution such as the Inquisition, because the inquisitorial process was not based on liberal doctrines, such as freedom of thought, which became central in Western culture in the eighteenth century. The modern mind has difficulty in understanding religious belief as something objective, outside the scope of free private judgment. The modern mind cannot see the Catholic Church as a perfect and sovereign society, where orthodoxy must be maintained at any cost.
Religious intolerance is not an exclusive product of the Middle Ages: everywhere and at all times in the past, unbelieving men disturbed the common good and public peace as much as they caused religious dissensions and conflicts. In the Middle Ages, it became accepted that the most serious kind of crisis was that which threatened the unity and security of the Latin Church, and not to proceed against heretics with all the means at the disposal of Christian society was not only foolish, but a betrayal of Christ Himself. The modern concept of the secular State, neutral in relation to all religions, would have shocked the medieval mind.
Modern men experience difficulty in understanding this institution because they have lost sight of three facts. First of all, they have ceased to understand religious belief as something objective, as a gift of God and, therefore, outside the scope of free private judgment. Secondly, they no longer see in the Church a perfect and sovereign society, based substantially on a pure and authentic revelation, whose first and most important duty must naturally be to keep this original deposit of the faith immaculate. That orthodoxy should be maintained at any cost seemed self-evident to the medieval mind. Heresy, since it affected the soul, was a more dangerous crime than murder, since the eternal life of the soul was worth far more than the mortal life of the flesh.
Finally, modern man has lost sight of a society in which Church and State constitute a cohesive form of government. Spiritual authority was inseparably intertwined with the secular in the same way that the soul is joined to the body. To divide the two into separate compartments would have been unthinkable. The State cannot be indifferent to the spiritual well-being of its subjects without being guilty of treason to its first Sovereign, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Before the religious revolution of the sixteenth century, these views were common to all Christians.
As William Thomas Walsh observes in Characters of the Inquisition, the positive suppression of heresy by ecclesiastical and civil authorities in Christian society is as old as monotheism itself. (In the name of religion, Moses killed far more people than Torquemada condemned.) Nevertheless, the Inquisition, as such, as a distinct ecclesiastical tribunal, is of much later origin. Historically, it operated as a phase in the growth of ecclesiastical legislation that adapted certain elements of Roman legal procedure. In its own time, it certainly would not have been understood as it is presented today. For, as Edward Peters points out so well in his landmark study on the Inquisition, Inquisition, the legend of the inquisition was an “invention” of the religious disputes and political conflicts of the sixteenth century. It was later adapted to the causes of religious tolerance and philosophical and political enlightenment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This process, which was always anti-Catholic and generally anti-Spanish, became universalized. Thus, eventually, the Inquisition became representative of all repressive religions that opposed freedom of conscience, political liberty, and philosophical enlightenment.

MYTH 1
Myth: The medieval Inquisition was a suppressive, all-encompassing, and all-powerful centralized organ of repression maintained by the Catholic Church.
Reality: Except in fiction, the Inquisition as a single all-powerful, terrible tribunal “whose agents worked everywhere to thwart religious truth, intellectual freedom and political liberty, until it was overthrown at some point in the enlightened nineteenth century” simply did not exist. The myth of the Inquisition took shape in the hands of “anti-Hispanic and religious reformers in the sixteenth century.” It was an image assembled from a body of legends and myths, which took shape in the context of the intense religious persecution of the sixteenth century. Spain, the greatest power in Europe, which had assumed the role of defender of Catholicism, became the object of propaganda that degraded “The Inquisition” as the most dangerous and characteristic weapon of Catholics against Protestantism. Later, critics of any kind of religious persecution would adopt the term.
In fact, there was not one monolithic Inquisition, but three distinct inquisitions. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages began in 1184 in southern France in response to the Cathar heresy, and dissolved at the end of the fourteenth century when Catharism died out. More recent studies show conclusively that there is no clear evidence that people in medieval Europe conceived of the Inquisition as a centralized governing body. The popes of the time had no intention of establishing a permanent tribunal. For example, it was only in 1233 that the title inquisitor haereticae pravitatis appeared when the Dominican Alberic was sent to Lombardy.
Pope Gregory IX did not establish the Inquisition as a distinct and separate tribunal, but appointed permanent judges who carried out doctrinal functions in the name of the pope. When they sat, there was the Inquisition. One of the most harmful legends spread over the centuries is the image of an omniscient, omnipotent tribunal whose fingers reached into every corner of the earth. The small number of inquisitors and their limited reach thoroughly belie the exaggerated rhetoric. At the end of the thirteenth century, there were two inquisitors for the whole of Languedoc (one of the centers of the Albigensian heresy), two for the province of Provence, and four to six for the rest of France.
As for the accusation that the Inquisition was an omnipresent body throughout Christendom, the Inquisition did not even exist in northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, or in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland. The vast majority of cases in the thirteenth century were directed against the Albigensian heretics in southern France. It was not yet established in Venice until 1289, and the archives of that city show that the death penalty was inflicted by the secular power on only six occasions in total.
El Santo Oficio de la Santa Inquisición, better known as the Spanish Inquisition, began in 1478 as an institution of the State designated to uncover heresy and deviations from the true Faith. But Ferdinand and Isabella also instituted it to protect the conversos or new Christians, who had become victims of popular outrage, prejudice, fears and envy. It is important to note that the Inquisition had authority only over baptized Christians, and that the unbaptized were completely free from its disciplinary measures unless they violated natural law.
Finally, the Holy Office in Rome, initiated in 1542, was the least active and most benign of the three. A recent study carried out by John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy, deals with the Roman Inquisition and the procedures that followed after its constitution in the mid-sixteenth century in its struggle to preserve the faith and to eradicate heresy. The value of Tedeschi’s study is that it subverts long-held assumptions about the corruption, inhuman coercion, and injustice of the Renaissance Roman Inquisition, assumptions that Tedeschi admitted he himself harbored when he began his extensive work in the documents. What he “gradually” began to find was that the Inquisition was not a “rigid tribunal, a chamber of horrors, or a judicial labyrinth from which escape was impossible.” Tedeschi points out that the inquisitorial process included the provision of a defense attorney. Moreover, the accused was given the right to counsel and even to receive an authenticated copy of the entire trial (with the names of prosecution witnesses excluded) so that he could prepare a response. In contrast, in the secular courts of the time, the defense attorney was still assigned only a ceremonial role, and the criminal was denied the right to counsel (until 1836), and the evidence against the accused was read only in court, where he would have to make his defense on the spot. Tedeschi concluded that the Roman Inquisition dispensed legal justice in terms of early modern European jurisprudence and went even further to say:
“perhaps it is not too much to say, indeed, that in several respects the Holy Office was a pioneer in judicial reform.”

MYTH 2
Myth: The Inquisition was born of the intolerance, cruelty, and bigotry of the medieval world, dominated by the Catholic Church.
Reality: The Inquisition found its beginning in a calm, measured environment and sought to create a juridical instrument of conformity that would eliminate the caprice, anger, and intolerance of revolutionaries. Moreover, the medieval inquisitors were combating a social danger and not merely a theological one.
At the end of the twelfth century, the Inquisition was created in southern France in response to the Albigensian heresy, which found particular strength in the cities of Lombardy and Languedoc. It is important to emphasize the social dangers presented to the whole of society by this group, which was not merely a prototype of modern Protestant fundamentalism, which is the popular view of our day. The term Albigensian derives from the city of Albi in southern France, a center of Cathar activity. The Cathars (the name referring to the designation of their adherents as cathars, the Greek word for the “pure”) held that two divinities, one material and evil, and the other immaterial and good, were contending for the souls of men. All material creation was evil, and it was man’s duty to escape from it and to reject those who acknowledged it as good. The God of the Old Testament, who created the world, was evil and was repudiated. It was the New Testament, as interpreted by the Cathars, that acted as a guide for man to free his spiritual soul from evil matter, the body. A thirteenth-century authority, Rainier Sacconi, summarized the belief of the Cathars thus:
“The general beliefs of all the Cathars were as follows:
The devil made this world and everything in it. Moreover, all the sacraments of the Church, namely real water baptism and the other sacraments, are useless for salvation and they are not the true sacraments of Christ and His Church, but are deceptive and diabolical and belong to the Church of the wicked. . . . Also a common belief among all the Cathars is that carnal marriage has always been a mortal sin and that in the future life one will not suffer a greater penalty for adultery or incest than for legitimate marriage, nor even among them would anyone be more severely punished in this matter. Furthermore, the Cathars deny the future resurrection of the body. They also believe that eating meat, eggs, or cheese, even in pressing necessity, is a mortal sin; this for the reason that they are generated by coition. Also, taking an oath is in no case permissible; this consequently is a mortal sin. Also that secular authorities commit mortal sin in punishing heretical wrongdoers. Also that no one can attain salvation except in their sect.”
The Cathars thus asserted that the Mass was idolatry, the Eucharist a fraud, marriage evil, and the Redemption ridiculous. Before death, adherents received the consolamentum, the only sacrament permitted, and this allowed the soul to be free from matter and to return to God. For this reason, suicide by strangulation or by starvation was not only permitted, but could even be praiseworthy.
By preaching that marriage was evil, that all oaths were forbidden, that religious suicide was good, that man had no free will and therefore could not be held responsible for his actions, that civil authority had no right to punish criminals or defend the country by force, they struck at the very root of medieval society. For example, the simple refusal to take oaths would have undermined the entire fabric of feudal legal structures, in which the spoken word carried equal or greater weight than the written. Even Charles Henry Lea, an amateur Protestant historian of the Inquisition who strongly opposed the Catholic Church, had to admit:
“This was the belief whose rapid diffusion in Europe filled the Church with fully justified terror. However much horror the means employed to combat it may inspire in us, however much pity we must feel for those who died victims of their convictions, we cannot hesitate to recognize that, under the circumstances, the cause of orthodoxy was that of civilization and progress. If Catharism had become dominant, or even equal to Catholicism, there can be no doubt that its influence would have been disastrous.”
In response to the severity and frequent brutality with which the northern French waged the Albigensian Crusade, in which many heretics were killed without formal trial or hearing, Pope Innocent III instituted a process of investigation to expose the secret sects. Another problem faced by the papacy was the willingness on the part of the laity to take the harshest measures against heresy without much concern for the conversion and salvation of the heretics. Pope Gregory IX is considered the true father of the medieval institution, a friend of both St. Francis and St. Dominic. He would call upon the newly founded mendicant orders to assume the dangerous, arduous, and undesired task of inquisitors.
What Pope Gregory IX instituted was an extraordinary tribunal to investigate and judge persons accused of heresy. The unprecedented growth of the Albigensians in southern France certainly influenced his decision. In northern France as well, the Church was facing sporadic mob violence, which often fell upon the innocent. The practice of putting heretics to death by burning at the stake was assuming the force of an established custom. The Pope was also concerned about reports coming from Germany about a sect known as the Luciferians, a secret society with fixed rituals that profaned the sacred Host.
On the secular plane, the Pope was facing a formidable power, the emperor Frederick II, the supposedly “modern” and “liberal” Hohenstaufen, a ruler completely indifferent to the spiritual well-being of the Church and continually at odds with the Papacy. A Christian ruler in name only, Frederick II was strongly influenced by astrologers and Muslim customs (he kept a harem); he ruined two crusades and was excommunicated twice. As early as March 1224, he ordered that any heretic condemned in Lombardy should be burned alive (the ancient Roman penalty for high treason) or, as a lesser punishment, have their tongues torn out. Pope Gregory was concerned that Frederick was sending to the flames men who were not heretics, but merely his own personal enemies, and he sought to find a more measured way to deal with the problem.
In 1233, Pope Gregory IX responded with his own solution: to replace lynch law with a regular legal process, directed by the mendicant Dominicans and Franciscans. They would be specially trained examiners and judges for the detection and conversion of heretics, protected from avarice and corruption by their vow of poverty, and devoted to justice.
The first point, therefore, to be noted in connection with the mendicant Inquisition is that it arose in response to a definite need. In matters of heresy, it introduced law, system, and even justice where there had been unlimited scope for the satisfaction of political jealousy, personal animosity, and popular hatred. When we find a historian describing the introduction of the Inquisition as a “step forward in legal theory,” we must understand it in this sense. “Inquisitio” means investigation, and this was the Pope’s concern: a real investigation, a judicial process, instead of immediate lynching, instead of acts motivated by irrational emotions and private vengeance.
The second point is that the mendicant orders were entrusted with the task of preserving the integrity of the Faith as well as the security of society. The inability to contain the tide of this heresy would have allowed a collapse in Western Christendom. One of the most successful tribunals in all of history, it succeeded in extirpating the anti-social poison of the Albigensians and thus preserved the moral unity of Europe for more than three hundred years.

MYTH 3
Myth: The heinous procedures of the Inquisition were unjust, cruel, inhuman, and barbarous. The Inquisition burned its victims at the stake, walled them up to languish for all eternity, broke their joints with hammers, and flayed them on wheels.
Reality: Despite the compelling Gothic fictions, the evidence leads us to an entirely different conclusion. The procedures of the Inquisition are well known through a whole series of papal bulls and other official documents, but chiefly through such formularies and manuals as were prepared by St. Raymond of Peñafort (1180–1275 A.D.), the great Spanish canonist, and Bernard Gui (1261–1331), one of the most celebrated inquisitors of the early fourteenth century. The inquisitors were certainly interrogators, but they were theological specialists who followed the rules and instructions meticulously and were dismissed and punished when they showed too little regard for justice. When, for example, in 1223, Robert de Bourger joyfully announced his aim of burning heretics, and not converting them, he was immediately suspended and imprisoned for life by Gregory IX.
Inquisitorial procedures were surprisingly fair and even lenient. In contrast with other secular tribunals throughout Europe at the time, they appear almost enlightened. The process began with a summons of the faithful to the church where the inquisitor preached a solemn sermon, the Edict of Faith. All heretics were urged to come forward and confess their errors. This period was known as the “time of grace,” which generally lasted between 15–30 days, during which all transgressors had nothing to fear, since they were promised readmission to the communion of the faithful with a suitable penance after confession of guilt. Bernard Gui stated that this time of grace was a most wholesome and valuable institution and that many persons were reconciled in this way. For the principal aim of the process was to restore the heretic to the grace of God; only by persistent obstinacy would he be cut off from the Church and abandoned to the mercy of the State. The Inquisition was first and foremost a penitential and proselytizing office, and not a criminal tribunal. Unless this is clearly recognized, the Inquisition appears as an unintelligible and senseless monstrosity. In theory, it was a sinner, and not a criminal, who stood before the Inquisitor. If the lost sheep returned to the fold, the Inquisitor was successful. If not, the heretic died in open rebellion against God and, insofar as the inquisitor was concerned, his mission was a complete failure.
During this time of grace, the faithful were ordered to provide full information to the inquisitor about any heretics known to them. If he thought there were sufficient grounds to proceed against a person, a warrant was issued for him and ordered his appearance before an inquisitor on a specified date, always accompanied by a written statement full of the evidence held by the Inquisitor against him. Finally, a formal order of arrest could be issued. If the accused did not appear, which rarely occurred, he became excommunicated and an outlaw; that is, he could not be sheltered or fed by anyone under penalty of excommunication.
Although the names of witnesses against the accused were suppressed, the accused was given the opportunity to protect himself from false accusations by giving the inquisitor a detailed list of the names of personal enemies. By this, he would conclusively invalidate certain testimony against him. He also had the power to appeal to a higher authority, even to the papacy if necessary. The final advantage of the accused was that false witnesses were punished without mercy. For example, Bernard Gui describes a father who falsely accused his son of heresy. The innocence of the son quickly came to light, and the father was imprisoned and sentenced to life imprisonment.
In 1264, Urban IV further added that the inquisitor must submit the evidence against the accused to a body of periti [experts] or boni viri [good men] and await their judgment before proceeding to sentence. Acting more or less in the capacity of jurors, this group could consist of 30, 50, or even 80 persons. This served to lessen the enormous personal responsibility of the inquisitor. Again, it is important to emphasize that this was an ecclesiastical tribunal, which neither claimed nor exercised any jurisdiction over persons outside the family of the faith, that is, the professed infidel or the Jew. Only those who had been converted to Christianity and had subsequently reverted to their former religion were under the jurisdiction of the medieval Inquisition.
Torture was first authorized by Innocent IV in the bull Ad Extirpanda of May 15, 1252, with limits that it could not cause the loss of a limb or endanger life, could be applied only once, and only if the accused already appeared virtually convicted of heresy by multiple and certain proofs. Certain objective studies carried out by recent scholars have argued that torture was practically unknown in the medieval inquisitorial process. The record of Bernard Gui, the inquisitor of Toulouse for six years, who examined more than 600 heretics, shows only one instance in which torture was used. Moreover, in the 930 sentences recorded between 1307 and 1323 (and it is worth noting that meticulous records were kept by paid notaries chosen from civil courts), the majority of the accused were sentenced to imprisonment, or to the wearing of crosses, and penances. Only 42 were abandoned to the secular arm and burned.
Legends about the brutality of the Inquisition with regard to the number of persons sentenced to imprisonment and those abandoned to the secular power to be burned at the stake have been exaggerated through the years. Working carefully from existing records and available documents, Professor Yves Dossat estimated that in the diocese of Toulouse 5,000 persons were investigated during the years 1245–1246. Of these, 945 were found guilty of heresy or heretical involvement. Although 105 persons were sentenced to imprisonment, 840 received lesser penances. After careful analysis of all available data, Dossat concluded that in the mid-thirteenth century, only one out of every hundred heretics condemned by the Inquisition was abandoned to the secular power for execution, and only 10–12 percent received prison sentences. Moreover, inquisitors often reduced sentences to lesser penances. The large numbers of burnings detailed in various histories are generally unauthenticated, or are a deliberate invention of anti-Catholic propagandists of later centuries. From the growing body of evidence, it seems safe to affirm that the overall integrity of the Holy Office was maintained at an extraordinarily high level, far higher than that of contemporary or later secular tribunals.

MYTH 4
Myth: The Spanish Inquisition surpassed all barbarities, terrorizing the whole of society with its tyrannical and cruel practices.
Reality: On November 6, 1994, the BBC of London broadcast an incredible testimony against the falsity of these claims in a documentary entitled “The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition.” In it, historians admitted that “this image is false. It is a distortion disseminated for 400 years and accepted ever since. Every case that came before the Spanish Inquisition in its 300-year history had its own file.” Now, these files are being gathered and properly studied for the first time. Prof. Henry Kamen, a specialist in the field, candidly admitted that the archives are detailed, exhaustive, and bring to light a very different version of the Spanish Inquisition.
Protestant antipathies fueled this campaign of propaganda against the Catholic Church and the powerful leader of the Habsburg dynasty who commanded the most powerful armies in Europe, Charles I of Spain. Their fears intensified especially after the battle of Mühlberg in 1547, where Charles’s enemies were virtually annihilated. The succession of Philip II to the Spanish throne and his own dedicated opposition to Protestantism spread such fears. As Philip wrote to his ambassador in Rome in 1566:
“You may assure His Holiness that rather than suffer the least damage to religion and the service of God, I would prefer to lose all my states and a hundred lives if I had them. For I do not propose nor desire to be ruler of heretics.”
Yet while the Spanish often triumphed on the battlefield, they were abject losers in the propaganda war. They made no defense against the legend of Spanish cruelty and barbarity created so that Europe would sympathize with the Protestant revolt in the Netherlands. Defaming the Inquisition became the most natural weapon of choice to achieve this end.
Many pamphlets and brochures, too numerous and too horrendous to enumerate here, have been written since the sixteenth century. It suffices to mention only a few: The Apology of William of Orange, written by the French Huguenot Pierre Loiseleur de Villiers in 1581, enshrined all the anti-Inquisition propaganda of the previous forty years in a political document that “validated” the Dutch revolt. In 1567, Reinaldo González Montano published his Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes aliquot detectae ac palam traductae, which was soon translated into all the major languages of Western Europe and widely disseminated. It contributed decisively to what became known as the “Black Legend,” which associated the Inquisition with the horrors of the torture chamber. These accounts were elaborated upon by other Protestant writers, such as Rev. Ingram Cobain in the nineteenth century, who described one of his fictitious torture devices: the beautiful life-sized doll that cut the victim with a thousand knives when he was forced to embrace it. The myth was created and assumed proportions bordering on the ridiculous in literature, travelers’ accounts, Masonic narratives, satires (Voltaire, Zaupser), plays and operas (Schiller, Verdi), histories (Victor Hugo), and Gothic novels of later centuries.
With regard to torture, Prof. Kamen recently said:
“In fact, the Inquisition used torture very rarely. In Valencia, I discovered that out of 7,000 cases, only two percent suffered any form of torture at all and generally for no more than 15 minutes… I did not find anyone suffering torture more than twice.”
Prof. Jaime Contreras agreed:
“We have found, in comparing the Spanish Inquisition with other tribunals, that the Spanish Inquisition used torture far less. And if we compare the Spanish Inquisition with tribunals in other countries, we see that the Spanish Inquisition has a virtually clean record with respect to torture.”
During this same period in the rest of Europe, heinous physical cruelty was common. In England, transgressors were executed for damaging shrubs in public gardens, poaching deer, stealing a woman’s handkerchief, and attempted suicide. In France, those who stole sheep were disemboweled. During the reign of Henry VIII, the recognized punishment for a poisoner was to be boiled alive in a cauldron. As late as 1837, 437 persons were executed in England in one year for various crimes, and until the passage of the Reform Act, death was the recognized penalty for forgery, horse theft, robbery, arson, burglary, interference with the postal service, and sacrilege. It is clear that in accusing the Spanish Inquisition on specific charges of physical cruelty and senseless brutality, we must proceed with some caution.
The myth of unlimited power and control exercised by the Spanish Inquisition is also unfounded. In sixteenth-century Spain, the Inquisition was divided into twenty tribunals, each covering thousands of square miles. Yet each tribunal had no more than two or three inquisitors and a handful of administrative officials. Prof. Kamen observed:
“… These inquisitors did not have the power to control society in the way historians have imagined they did. They had no power. They had no function; they did not have the tools to do the job. We, by reinforcing this image, have given them tools that never existed.”
In reality, the Inquisition’s limited contact with the population forms part of the reason why it did not attract the hostility of the Spanish people. Outside the large cities, villages saw an inquisitor once every ten years or even once in a century. One reason people supported the Inquisition was precisely because it was rarely seen, and even less frequently heard. Kamen also records that, in every period of history, there are records of strong and bitter opposition. Nevertheless, based on the exploration of inquisitorial documents first by Llorente, and later by Henry Charles Lea, scholars made the mistake of studying the Inquisition in isolation from all other dimensions of Spanish culture and society, as if it had played a central role in religion, politics, culture, and the economy, and as if no opposition or criticism had been permitted. The satire of Menéndez y Pelayo on those who blamed the tribunal for all the evils of Spain underscores this point of view:
“Why was there no industry in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why are we Spaniards lazy? Because of the Inquisition. Why are there bullfights in Spain? Because of the Inquisition. Why do Spaniards take a siesta? Because of the Inquisition.”
The Inquisition cannot be held responsible for the “decline of Spanish learning and literature,” asserts Peters in his acclaimed objective study Inquisition, despite the claims of the Protestant historian Charles Lea or the Catholic historian Lord Acton. “After the thunder of the Index of 1559,” he states, “which was directed primarily against vernacular piety, no attack was made against Spanish literature and no more than one hundred Spanish writers came into conflict with the Inquisition. In fact, long after the measures of 1558–1559, Spain continued to have an active intellectual life based on an experience of the wider world greater than that of any other European country.”
A final and most important myth remains to be examined.

MYTH 5
Myth: Man is more free and happy when the state or nation makes no public profession of any true religion. Therefore, true progress lies in the separation between Church and State.
Reality: This is the heart of the matter. The most dynamic element, the most essential question, is found in the attitude of the human spirit in relation to questions of religion and philosophy. To understand the answer completely, it is necessary to assume several presuppositions.
The Catholic concept of history is based on the fact that the Ten Commandments are fundamental norms of human behavior that correspond to natural law. To assist man in his weakness, to guide and direct him and preserve him from his own tendency toward evil and error resulting from original sin, Jesus Christ gave the Church an infallible magisterium to teach and guide the nations. Man’s adherence to the Magisterium of the Church is the fruit of faith. Without faith, man cannot know and entirely practice the Commandments.
Therefore, as man elevates himself in the order of grace by the practice of virtue inspired by grace, he elaborates a culture, a political, social, and economic order in consonance with the basic and immutable principles of natural law. These institutions and this culture thus formed in their entirety may be called Christian civilization. Furthermore, nations and peoples can only attain a perfect civilization, a civilization in complete harmony with natural law, within the framework of a Christian civilization and by means of correspondence with grace and the truths of faith.
For this reason, man must give his firm recognition to the Catholic Church as the one true Church of God and to its authentic universal Magisterium as infallible. Therefore, man must know, profess, and practice the Catholic faith.
Historically, one must ask when this Christian civilization came into existence. The answer may shock and even irritate many. There was a moment when a great part of humanity knew this ideal of perfection, knew it and tended toward it with fervor and sincerity. This period, sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Christianity, is the era of the 12th and 13th centuries, when the influence of the Church in Europe was at its height. Christian principles then dominated social relations more completely than in any other period before or since, and the Christian State then came closer to its full development. Leo XIII refers to this period in his encyclical Immortale Dei (1885) in the following terms:
“There was a time when the philosophy of the Gospel governed the States. In this period the influence of Christian wisdom and its divine virtue penetrated the laws, institutions, and customs of the peoples, all classes, all the relations of civil society. The religion instituted by Jesus Christ, solidly established in all the dignity that was due to it, flourished everywhere, due to the favor of princes and the legitimate protection of magistrates. At that time, the Priesthood and the Empire were united in a happy concord and the friendly exchange of good offices. Organized in this way, civil society produced fruits superior to all expectations, and its memory persists and will continue to persist, and no artifice of its enemies will be able to corrupt or obscure it.”
A portrait of Catholic society implies above all an exact idea of what the relationship between the Church and temporal society should be. The State, in principle, has the obligation to profess officially the truth of the Catholic faith and, as a consequence, to prohibit the functioning and the proselytism of heretics. Not only the Church, but all temporal society was created for the salvation of our souls, as Saint Thomas Aquinas showed conclusively in De Regimine Principum. In it, Saint Thomas shows us how absolutely all things created by God were created for the salvation of our souls and must be means that serve positively for our sanctification. Men themselves were created for the salvation of one another. That is why they live together in society. Thus, both temporal and spiritual society must contribute to the principal end of man’s existence, the salvation of his eternal soul.
This exposition of society implies an understanding of the hierarchy of values, in which spiritual values have a greater patrimony than material ones. For example, in the Summa Theologica (II, II, ii, 3), Saint Thomas observes that, if it is permissible to condemn counterfeiters to death, then certainly it is necessary to condemn to death those who have committed the much worse crime of falsification of the Faith. For eternal salvation must be regarded as greater than temporal property, and the good of all must be regarded as greater than the good of the individual.
These affirmations have painful consequences for the liberal spirit of our day. For, if the State proclaims that a single religion is the true one, it has the obligation in principle to prohibit the diffusion of sects of a heretical character. It is understood that in Catholic society the highest purpose of the State lies in recognizing the Catholic Church, in defending it, in applying its laws, in attending to it. In a Catholic society, the Pope has an indirect authority over everything that touches the interests of the Church. In this way, the Pope is elevated above all temporal powers. When a head of State is heretical, the Pope has the right to depose him, as in the case of Henry IV of France, the legitimate claimant to the French throne. In other words, a heretic does not have the right to govern a Catholic country.
As Father Denis Fahey points out, in the kingship of Christ, in the Middle Ages, the State fulfilled its obligation to profess the religion that God Himself had established and through which He wished to be adored and worshiped—the Catholic religion. When Catholics respond to the objections of non-Catholics concerning the Inquisition, they sometimes seem to lose sight of the formal principle of order animating the civilization of the Middle Ages. If a State proclaims a religion as being the true religion, it has an obligation as a matter of principle to prohibit the diffusion of heresy and heretical sects. This obligation is very painful for the liberal mentality to accept. Heresy was considered a crime because the State recognized the Catholic religion for what it objectively is, the true religion established by God, and not a simple temporary arrangement, here today, finished tomorrow.
In presenting the principles of the Social Reign of Christ, Father Denis Fahey says:
“The truth is that the State, then, grasped the formal principle of ordered social organization in the real world and that the Inquisition was created to defend the security of the world in order against the fomenters of disorder… That same principle is intended by God to shape the new matter and the new circumstances of all succeeding ages. Socially organized, man in the world redeemed by Our Lord is not as God wants him to be, unless he accepts the supernatural, supra-national Catholic Church.
The modern world has deviated from order and is suffering for its apostasy and disorder. This great truth must be proclaimed unequivocally, so that the interior life with which we celebrate the feast of the kingship of Christ may be deepened. It is infinitely better to fall fighting for the integral truth than to gain an apparent victory by half-truths.”
Darkening the name of the Holy Inquisition has, obviously, found root in this generalized tendency, even among the princes of the Church, to “gradually reduce” these principles of Catholic social order. While, at base, the problem of the Holy Inquisition must be examined at the philosophical level, there is also no doubt that over the centuries the “Inquisition” has assumed a monstrous dimension out of proportion with the facts.
The pens of Protestant propagandists during the Reformation began the process of creating the myth, describing the Inquisition as just another example of the evils of Rome. In their works the tribunal was presented as the supreme instrument of intolerance. Wherever Catholicism triumphed, according to them, not only religious freedom, but civil freedom, was extinguished. The Reformation, according to this interpretation, brought the liberation of the human spirit from the shackles of darkness and superstition. Propaganda along these lines proved surprisingly effective.
However, as scholars of the last decade began to examine the archives, studies showed that the interests of truth require that the Inquisition be reduced to its proper dimensions. Its importance can be greatly exaggerated if we rely on the highly fictitious images presented by propagandists, philosophers of the Enlightenment, and of the age of Romanticism and Liberalism that followed. These writers, which still include Lord Acton, falsely assume that the Inquisition was an integral part of a special philosophy of blatant intolerance and cruelty. In reality, it evolved as a product of the society that it served. In sum, objective Catholic minds that are militant against the errors of liberalism and modernism of our own era and that look with admiration upon the spirit and institutions of the Age of Faith may remain with a healthy admiration for the Holy Inquisition.

NOTES
The Lutheran ideal, recognized at the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, allowed each Protestant State to organize its particular form of religion as a department of State. This “peace,” said Rev. Denis Fahey, “has been aptly termed the funeral of the Catholic order of the world. Luther’s separation of the Christian from the Citizen prepared the way for the building of the State, accomplished in modern times, and the social influence of Protestant society thus facilitated the advent of the modern public man who may, as a private citizen, be Catholic, but as a public man be represented at a Protestant service or even participate on occasion.” The Kingship of Christ, 3rd ed. (Palmdale, Ca: 1990), 40–41.
(Rockford, Ill: 1987), pp. x–xi.
Around 1230 a substantial revolution in legal thought and procedure had occurred throughout most of Western Europe, which included the introduction of the Roman-inspired inquisitorial process, which in many respects could be considered a modernization of the legal practices of the time. Edward Peters, Inquisition (New York, London: 1988), pp. 52–57.
Peters, Inquisition, pp. 231, 3.
Kieckhefer noted that it would not even be appropriate to speak of an “Inquisition” in a medieval context. The sources themselves show that even the regional and local institutionalization of inquisitorial procedure was partial and fragile, depending chiefly on the dedication and organizational power of the individual inquisitor and on the concrete need for action perceived at a specific time and place. Richard Kieckhefer, “The Office of Inquisition and Medieval Heresy: The Transition from Personal to Institutional Jurisdiction,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History 46 (January 1995), 59; Kieckhefer, Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germany (Philadelphia-Liverpool: 1979), p. 5.
A. L. Maycock, The Inquisition from Its Establishment to the Great Schism (New York: 1969), 117.
Ibid., 100.
There were incidents of popular violence in Toledo in 1449, civil riots in 1470 in Valladolid, and the murders of conversos in Jaén and Córdoba three years later. The direct instrument of violence in all these cases was the populace. Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in Spain (Bloomington, Ind.: 1985), pp. 30–31.
Until the eighteenth century, the Congregation of the Holy Office had virtually no power or influence outside the Papal States. Its principal tasks were the censorship of the clergy and of printed books, which coincided with the Congregation of the Index. It was closed during the exile of the pope from Italy in 1809–1814; afterward it was restored with powers even further diminished. In 1965, Pope Paul VI changed its name to the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and in 1966 abolished the Index.
The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the Inquisition in Early Modern Italy. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Vol. 78 (Binghampton, NY: 1991), XI–XIV, 7–9.
Albert Clement Shannon gives a detailed explanation of Cathar beliefs and their biblical proofs drawn from one of the Albigensian treatises written toward the end of the century. For example, to prove that man comes from the devil, the Cathars cited John 8:44: “Your father is the devil” and 1 John 3:8: “He who commits sin is of the devil” – The Medieval Inquisition (Washington, D.C.: 1983), 2–19.
Summa of Rainerius Sacconi, trans. in Walter L. Wakefield and Austin P. Evans, Heresies of the High Middle Ages (New York: 1969), 330.
H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages, Vol. I (New York: 1906–08), 1064.
Maycock, The Inquisition, pp. 77, 52–53; Walsh, Characters of the Inquisition, 41–43.
Gustav Schnürer, Kirche und Kultur im Mittelalter (Paderborn, 1926), II, p. 434.
Maycock, The Inquisition, 128–29.
In 1323, the inquisitor Bernard Gui (unjustly defamed in Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose) produced the Practica officii Inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, an elaborate and balanced inquisitorial manual. The doctrines and procedures of the inquisitors derived both from theology and canon law, as well as from earlier works of the Church Fathers, general councils, and popes. Peters, Inquisition, pp. 60–64.
Despite the apparent prohibition of appeals (appelatione remota), Gregory IX and his successor Innocent IV repeatedly received appeals made by the author of the denunciation and overturned unjust decisions. Throughout this entire period it appears that appeals found their way to Rome for redress. In fact, following the model of the long-forgotten regulations of the Justinian Code, through the inquisitorial process the Church introduced the process of appeal into medieval legislation, since appeals were made outside the local feudal seignorial courts. The success of the Church’s system of justice was not lost on secular rulers, who eventually adopted appeals as a regular procedure in their own reorganized and centralized judicial systems. Shannon, The Medieval Inquisition, pp. 139–40.
Hamilton, Inquisition, pp. 150–51, 130–33, 140–41.

Ibid., p. 160.

Ives Dossat, Les Crises de l’inquisition toulousaine au XIIIe siècle (1233–1273) (Bordeaux: Imprimerie Bière, 1959), 247–268.

Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, pp. 252–54.

Peters, Inquisition, 131.

Foxe, The Book of Martyrs (London: 1863), p. 1060; Peters, Inquisition, 133; Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, p. 254; Peters, Inquisition, 152–54.

For a more detailed description of how the myth took shape in literature, see Peters, Inquisition, pp. 152–262.

“The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition,” BBC documentary, Nov. 1994.

Maycock, The Inquisition, p. 41, 259.

“The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition,” BBC documentary, Nov. 1994.

Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition, pp. 257–58.

La Ciencia Española (Madrid: 1953), pp. 102–3.

Peters, pp. 260–61.

Kingship of Christ according to the Principles of St. Thomas Aquinas (Palmdale, Ca: 1931; 1990 repr.), p. 38.

HORVAT, Marian. 5 Mitos sobre a Inquisição refutados por uma PHD em história. Disponível em: <http://apologistascatolicos.co....m.br/index.php/idade Desde: 18/02/2016. Traduzido por: Rafael Rodrigues.

Inquisition – The True Face (Rafael Rodrigues)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 21:58:51 +0000

https://apologistascatolicos.c....om.br/inquisicao-a-v

Inquisition – The True Face

The Inquisition was not created all at once, nor did it proceed in the same manner throughout the centuries. For this reason, the following are distinguished:
1) The Medieval Inquisition, directed against the Cathar and Waldensian heresies in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and against false mysticisms in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries;
2) The Spanish Inquisition, instituted in 1478 at the initiative of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella; aimed principally at Jews and Muslims, it became a powerful instrument of the absolutism of the Spanish monarchs until the nineteenth century, to the point that it can scarcely be considered an ecclesiastical institution (not infrequently the Spanish Inquisition acted independently of Rome, resisting the intervention of the Holy See, because the King of Spain opposed it);
3) The Roman Inquisition (also called the Holy Office), instituted in 1542 by Pope Paul III, in view of the rise of Protestantism.

Despite their particular modalities, the Medieval and the Roman Inquisitions were driven by characteristic principles and mentality. We shall proceed to examine this mentality and the procedures of such an institution, especially as they are transmitted to us by medieval documents.
Antecedents of the Inquisition against the heretics
The early Church applied spiritual penalties, especially excommunication; it did not think of using brute force. When, however, the Roman Emperor became Christian, the situation of heretics changed. Christianity being the religion of the State, the Caesars wished to continue exercising over it the rights of the Roman emperors (Pontifices maximi) in relation to the pagan religion; when Arians, they persecuted the Catholics; when Catholics, they persecuted the heretics. Heresy was regarded as a civil crime, and every offense against the official religion as an offense against society; one should not be more lenient toward a crime committed against the Divine Majesty than toward crimes of lèse-majesté against human authority.
The penalties applied, from the fourth century onward, were generally the prohibition of making a will, the confiscation of goods, and exile. The death penalty was inflicted, by the civil power, upon the Manicheans and the Donatists; moreover, as early as 300, Diocletian seems to have decreed the death penalty by fire for the Manicheans, who were opposed to matter and material goods.
Augustine, at first, rejected any temporal penalty for heretics. Seeing, however, the harm caused by the Donatists (circumcelliones), he advocated floggings and exile, but not torture nor the death penalty. Since the State punishes adultery, he argued, it must also punish heresy, for it is not a lighter sin for the soul not to preserve fidelity (fides, faith) to God than for a woman to betray her husband (epist. 185, n. 21, to Boniface). He affirmed, however, that unbelievers must not be compelled to embrace the faith, but heretics must be punished and compelled at least to hear the truth.
The judgments of the Fathers of the Church regarding the death penalty for heretics varied. Saint John Chrysostom († 407), Bishop of Constantinople, basing himself on the parable of the tares and the wheat, considered the execution of a heretic to be a most grave fault; he did not, however, exclude repressive measures. The execution of Priscillian, ordered by Emperor Maximus at Trier (385), was generally condemned by the spokesmen of the Church, especially by Saint Martin and Saint Ambrose.
Among the penalties inflicted by the State upon heretics, imprisonment was not included; this appears to have originated in the monasteries, from where it was transferred to civil life. The Merovingian and Carolingian kings punished ecclesiastical crimes with civil penalties just as they applied ecclesiastical penalties to civil crimes.
Thus we arrive at the end of the first millennium. The Inquisition would have its origin shortly thereafter.
The Origins of the Inquisition
In ancient Roman Law, the judge did not undertake the search for criminals; he proceeded to judgment only after a denunciation had been presented to him. Until the High Middle Ages, the same occurred in the Church; the ecclesiastical authority did not proceed against offenses unless these had previously been brought before it. In the course of time, however, this practice proved insufficient. Moreover, in the eleventh century a new form of religious offense appeared in Europe, that is, a fanatical and revolutionary heresy such as had not existed until then: Catharism (from the Greek katharós, pure) or the movement of the Albigensians (from Albi, a city in southern France, where the heretics had their principal center).
Considering the matter in itself, the Cathars rejected not only the visible face of the Church, but also basic institutions of civil life — marriage, governmental authority, military service — and exalted suicide. Thus they constituted a grave threat not only to the Christian faith, but also to public life.
In fanatical bands, sometimes supported by noble lords, the Cathars provoked tumults, attacks on churches, etc., throughout the course of the eleventh century until approximately 1150, in France, in Germany, in the Low Countries… The people, with their spontaneity, and the civil authority undertook to repress them with violence: Not infrequently the royal power of France, on its own initiative and against the will of the bishops, condemned Albigensian preachers to death, since they undermined the foundations of the established order.
This occurred, for example, in Orléans (1017), where King Robert, informed of an outbreak of heresy in the city, appeared personally, examined the heretics, and ordered them to be cast into the fire; the cause of civilization and of public order was identified with the faith! Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical authority limited itself to imposing spiritual penalties (excommunication, interdict, etc.) upon the Albigensians, for until then none of the many known heresies had been combated by physical violence; Saint Augustine († 430) and ancient bishops, Saint Bernard († 1154), Saint Norbert († 1134), and other medieval masters were opposed to the use of force (“Let heretics be won over not by arms, but by arguments,” admonished Saint Bernard, In Cant., serm. 64).
The following are not isolated cases:
In 1144, in the city of Lyon, the people wished to punish violently a group of innovators who had introduced themselves there; the clergy, however, saved them, desiring their conversion, and not their death.
In 1077, a heretic professed his errors before the bishop of Cambrai; the crowd of common people then rushed upon him, without awaiting judgment, shutting him in a hut, to which they set fire!
Nevertheless, in the middle of the twelfth century, the apparent indifference of the clergy proved unsustainable: The magistrates and the people demanded more direct collaboration in the repression of Catharism.
Very significant, for example, is the following episode: Pope Alexander III, in 1162, wrote to the Archbishop of Reims and to the Count of Flanders, in whose territory the Cathars were causing disorders: “It is better to absolve the guilty than, through excessive severity, to attack the life of the innocent… Mildness is more fitting for men of the Church than harshness… Do not wish to be too just (noli nimium esse iustus).” Informed of this pontifical admonition, King Louis VII of France, brother of the said archbishop, sent the Pope a document in which discontent and respect were expressed simultaneously: “May Your prudence give most particular attention to this plague (heresy) and suppress it before it can grow. I beseech you, for the good of the Christian faith, grant all powers in this matter to the Archbishop (of Reims); he will destroy those who thus rise up against God; his just severity will be praised by all those in this land who are animated by true piety. If you proceed otherwise, the complaints will not easily be calmed and you will unleash against the Roman Church the violent recriminations of public opinion.” (Martene, Amplissima Collectio II 638 s.).
The consequences of this epistolary exchange were not long in coming: The Regional Council of Tours in 1163, taking repressive measures against heresy, ordered that its secret groups be inquired into (sought out). Finally, the assembly of Verona (Italy), at which Pope Lucius III, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, numerous bishops, prelates, and princes were present, issued in 1184 a decree of great importance: The ecclesiastical and the civil powers, which until then had acted independently of one another (the former imposing spiritual penalties, the latter resorting to physical force), were to combine their efforts in view of more efficient results: Heretics were henceforth not only to be punished, but also to be sought out (inquired into); each bishop was to inspect, personally or through trustworthy persons, once or twice a year, the suspect parishes; the counts, barons, and other civil authorities were to assist them under penalty of losing their offices or of seeing interdict placed upon their lands; heretics apprehended would either abjure their errors or be handed over to the secular arm, which would impose upon them the due sanction.
Thus was instituted the so-called “episcopal Inquisition,” which, as the precedents show, responded to real needs and to pressing demands both of monarchs and civil magistrates as well as of the Christian people; independently of the authority of the Church, the physical repression of heresies was already being practiced. In the course of time, however, it was perceived that the episcopal inquisition was still insufficient to restrain the innovators; some bishops, especially in southern France, were tolerant; moreover, their sphere of action was limited to their respective dioceses, which prevented an efficient campaign. In view of this, the Popes, already at the end of the twelfth century, began to appoint special legates, endowed with full powers to proceed against heresy wherever it might be found.
Thus arose the “Pontifical Inquisition” or “legatine” Inquisition, which at first still functioned alongside the episcopal one; gradually, however, it rendered it unnecessary. The papal Inquisition received its definitive character and its basic organization in 1233, when Pope Gregory IX entrusted the Dominicans with the mission of Inquisitors; henceforth there would be, for each nation or inquisitorial district, a Chief Inquisitor, who would work with the assistance of numerous subordinate officials (consultors, jurors, notaries…), generally independently of the bishop in whose diocese he was established. The norms of inquisitorial procedure were successively laid down by pontifical Bulls and decisions of Councils.
Meanwhile, the civil authority continued to act, with surprising zeal, against the sectarians. Noteworthy, for example, is the conduct of Emperor Frederick II, one of the most dangerous adversaries the Papacy had in the thirteenth century. In 1220 this monarch required all the officials of his government to promise to expel from their lands the heretics recognized by the Church; he declared heresy to be a crime of lèse-majesté, subject to the death penalty, and ordered that heretics be sought out. In 1224 he published a decree more severe than any of the laws cited by previous kings or Popes: The civil authorities of Lombardy were not only to send to the stake anyone who had been proven a heretic by the bishop, but also to cut out the tongues of sectarians whose lives, for particular reasons, had been spared. It is possible that Frederick II pursued his own interests in the campaign against heresy; the confiscated goods would accrue to the benefit of the crown.
No less typical is the attitude of Henry II, King of England: Having entered into conflict with Archbishop Thomas Becket, Primate of Canterbury, and with Pope Alexander III, he was excommunicated. Nevertheless, he showed himself to be one of the most ardent repressors of heresy in his realm: In 1185, for example, some heretics from Flanders having taken refuge in England, the monarch ordered them to be arrested, branded on the forehead with a red-hot iron, and exposed, thus disfigured, to the people; moreover, he forbade his subjects to give them shelter or to render them the slightest service.
These two episodes, which are not unique of their kind, clearly show that violent action against heretics, far from having always been inspired by the supreme authority of the Church, was not infrequently unleashed independently of it, by powers that were in conflict with the Church itself. The Inquisition, throughout its history, suffered from this usurpation of rights or from the excessive interference of civil authorities in matters that primarily pertain to the ecclesiastical forum.
In summary, the following may be said:
1. The Church, in its first eleven centuries, did not apply temporal penalties to heretics, but resorted to spiritual ones (excommunication, interdict, suspension…). Only in the twelfth century did it begin to subject heretics to corporal punishments. And why?
2. The heresies that arose in the eleventh century (those of the Cathars and Waldensians) ceased to be problems of school or academy, becoming anarchic social movements that opposed the established order and convulsed the masses with raids and pillaging. Thus they became a public danger.
3. Christianity was the patrimony of society, similar to what homeland and family are today. It appeared as the necessary bond among citizens or the great good of peoples; consequently, heresies, especially the turbulent ones, were regarded as social crimes of exceptional gravity.
4. It is not, therefore, surprising that the two authorities — civil and ecclesiastical — finally entered into agreement to apply to heretics the penalties reserved by the legislation of the time for major crimes.
5. The Church was led to this, departing from its former position, by the insistence exerted upon it not only by hostile monarchs such as Henry II of England and Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, but also by pious kings faithful to the Pope, such as Louis VII of France.
6. Moreover, the Inquisition was practiced by the civil authority even before it was regulated by ecclesiastical provisions. Many times the civil power prevailed over the ecclesiastical in the pursuit of its political adversaries.
7. According to the categories of the time, the Inquisition was a progress for the better in relation to the former state of affairs, in which populations took justice into their own hands. It is noteworthy that none of the medieval Saints (not even St. Francis of Assisi, regarded as a symbol of meekness) raised his voice against the Inquisition, although they knew how to protest against what seemed to them to depart from the ideal in the Church.
Procedures of the Inquisition
The tactics employed by the Inquisitors are known to us today, since manuals of practical instructions delivered for the use of the said officials have still been preserved. Whoever reads such texts verifies that the authorities aimed at making the inquisitorial judges authentic representatives of justice and of the cause of good. Bernard of Gui (fourteenth century), for example, regarded as one of the most severe inquisitors, gave the following norms to his colleagues:
“The Inquisitor must be diligent and fervent in his zeal for religious truth, for the salvation of souls, and for the extirpation of heresies. In the midst of difficulties he shall remain calm, he shall never yield to anger nor to indignation… In doubtful cases, let him be circumspect; let him not easily give credit to what seems probable and is often not true; nor let him obstinately reject the contrary opinion, for what seems improbable frequently ends by being proven true… Let the love of truth and the piety that ought to dwell in the heart of a judge shine in his eyes, so that his decisions may never appear to be dictated by cupidity and cruelty.” (Practica VI p… ed. Douis 232 s.).
Since such instructions are found more than once in the archives of the Inquisition, could one not believe that the proclaimed ideal of the Inquisitorial Judge, at once equitable and good, was realized more frequently than is commonly thought? One must not forget, however (as will be stated more explicitly below), that the categories by which justice was affirmed in the Middle Ages were not exactly those of the modern era…
Moreover, it must be taken into account that the role of the judge, always difficult, was particularly arduous in cases of the Inquisition: The people and the civil authorities were deeply interested in the outcome of the trials; thus, not infrequently, they exerted pressure to obtain a sentence more favorable to their whims or temporal interests; at times, the obsessed population anxiously awaited the day when the judge’s veredictum would hand over the proven heretics to the secular arm. In such circumstances, it was not easy for judges to maintain the desirable serenity. Among the tactics adopted by the Inquisitors, torture and the handing over to the secular power (death penalty) deserve particular attention.
Torture was in use among the pre-Christian Greeks and Romans who wished to compel a slave to confess his crime. Certain Germanic peoples also practiced it. In 866, however, addressing the Bulgarians, Pope Nicholas I formally condemned it. Nevertheless, torture was again adopted by the civil tribunals of the Middle Ages at the beginning of the twelfth century, given the revival of Roman Law. In inquisitorial proceedings, Pope Innocent IV eventually introduced it in 1252, with the clause: “Let there be no mutilation of limbs nor danger of death for the accused.” The Pontiff, in permitting such practice, said he was conforming to the customs prevailing in his time (Bullarum amplissima collectio II 326).
Subsequent Popes, as well as the Manuals of the Inquisitors, sought to restrict the application of torture; it would be lawful only after other means of investigating guilt had been exhausted and only in cases where there was already half-proof of the offense or, as the technical language put it, two “vehement indications” thereof, namely: the testimony of trustworthy witnesses, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the bad reputation, bad morals, or attempts at flight of the accused. The Council of Vienne (France) in 1311 likewise ordered that the Inquisitors resort to torture only after a judging commission and the diocesan bishop had approved it for each particular case. Despite all that torture presents as horrifying, it has been reconciled with the mentality of the modern world … it was still officially in use in eighteenth-century France and has been applied even in our own days…
As for the death penalty, recognized by ancient Roman Law, it was in force in the civil jurisdiction of the Middle Ages. It is known, however, that ecclesiastical authorities were opposed to its application in cases of lèse-religion. Nevertheless, after the rise of Catharism (twelfth century), some canonists began to judge it appropriate, appealing to the example of Emperor Justinian, who in the sixth century had inflicted it upon the Manicheans. In 1199 Pope Innocent III addressed the magistrates of Viterbo in the following terms:
“According to civil law, defendants guilty of lèse-majesté are punished with the capital penalty and their goods are confiscated. With much greater reason, therefore, those who, deserting the faith, offend Jesus, the Son of the Lord God, must be separated from Christian communion and stripped of their goods, for it is much more serious to offend the Divine Majesty than to injure human majesty.” (Epist. 2,1).
As can be seen, the Supreme Pontiff with these words wished only to justify the excommunication and confiscation of goods of heretics; he established, however, a comparison that would give rise to a new practice… Emperor Frederick II knew how to draw from it the ultimate consequences: Having recalled in a Constitution of 1220 the final phrase of Innocent III, the monarch, in 1224, openly decreed for Lombardy the death penalty against heretics and, since ancient Law prescribed fire in such cases, the Emperor condemned them to be burned alive. In 1230 the Dominican Guala, having ascended to the episcopal see of Brescia (Italy), applied the imperial law in his diocese. Finally, Pope Gregory IX, who maintained frequent exchange with Guala, adopted this bishop’s point of view: He transcribed in 1230 or 1231 the imperial constitution of 1224 into the Register of Pontifical Letters and soon issued a law by which he ordered that heretics recognized by the Inquisition be abandoned to the civil power, to receive the due punishment, a punishment which, according to Frederick II’s legislation, would be death by fire. The theologians and canonists of the time strove to justify the new practice; thus did St. Thomas Aquinas:
“It is far more serious to corrupt the faith, which is the life of the soul, than to falsify the coinage, which is a means of providing for temporal life. If, therefore, counterfeiters of money and other evildoers are, with good reason, condemned to death by secular princes, much more may heretics, once they are proven such, not only be excommunicated but also in all justice be condemned to death.” (Summa Theologica II/II 11,3c)
The argumentation of the Holy Doctor proceeds from the principle (undoubtedly authentic in itself) that the life of the soul is worth more than that of the body; if, therefore, someone by heresy threatens the spiritual life of his neighbor, he commits a greater evil than one who attacks bodily life; the common good then requires the removal of the grave danger (see also S. Theol. II/II 11,4c).
Nevertheless, capital executions were not as numerous as one might believe. Unfortunately, complete statistics on the matter are lacking; it is known, however, that the tribunal of Pamiers, from 1303 to 1324, pronounced 75 condemnatory sentences, of which only five ordered that the accused be handed over to the civil power (which was equivalent to death); the Inquisitor Bernard of Gui, in Toulouse, from 1308 to 1323, pronounced 930 sentences, of which 42 were capital; in the first case, the proportion is 1/15; in the second case, 1/22. One cannot deny, however, that there were injustices and abuses of authority on the part of inquisitorial judges. Such evils are due to the conduct of persons who, by reason of human weakness, were not always faithful fulfillers of their mission.
The Inquisitors worked at distances more or less considerable from Rome, at a time when, given the precariousness of postal services and communications, they could not be assiduously supervised by the supreme authority of the Church. The latter, however, did not fail to censure them duly when it received news of some abuse verified in this or that region. Famous, for example, is the case of Robert the Bugre, Chief Inquisitor of France in the thirteenth century.
Pope Gregory IX at first highly congratulated him for his zeal. Robert, however, having formerly adhered to heresy, showed himself excessively violent in repressing it. Informed of the excesses committed by the Inquisitor, the Pope removed him from his functions and had him imprisoned. Innocent IV, the same Pontiff who permitted torture in inquisitorial proceedings, and Alexander IV, respectively in 1246 and 1256, ordered the Provincial and General Fathers of the Dominicans and Franciscans to depose the Inquisitors of their Order who became notorious for their cruelty.
Pope Boniface VIII (1294–1303), famous for the tenacity and intransigence of his attitudes, was one of those who most repressed the excesses of the inquisitors, ordering that sentences pronounced by them be examined or simply annulled. The regional Council of Narbonne (France) in 1243 promulgated 29 articles aimed at preventing abuses of power. Among other norms, it prescribed to the Inquisitors that they pronounce a condemnatory sentence only in cases where they had securely ascertained some fault, “for it is better to leave a guilty person unpunished than to condemn an innocent one.” (canon 23). Addressing Emperor Frederick II, pioneer of inquisitorial methods, Pope Gregory IX on July 15, 1233 reminded him that “the weapon wielded by the Emperor ought not to serve to satisfy his personal resentments, with great scandal to the populations, to the detriment of truth and of imperial dignity.” (ep. saec. XIII 538–550).
Evaluation
Let us now attempt to formulate a judgment on the Medieval Inquisition. It is not necessary for a Catholic to justify everything that was done in its name. It is necessary, however, that the intentions and the mentality that moved the ecclesiastical authority to institute the Inquisition be understood. These intentions, within the framework of medieval thought, were legitimate and, one might even say, must have appeared to medieval men as inspired by holy zeal. The factors that decisively influenced the rise and development of the Inquisition may be reduced to four:
1) Medieval men had a profound awareness of the value of the soul and of spiritual goods. So great was their love for the faith (the foundation of spiritual life) that the distortion of the faith by heresy was considered one of the greatest crimes a man could commit (note the texts of St. Thomas and of Emperor Frederick II cited above); this faith was so living and spontaneous that it would hardly have been admitted that someone might deny with good intentions a single article of the Creed.
2) The categories of justice in the Middle Ages were somewhat different from ours: There was much more spontaneity (which at times amounted to roughness) in the defense of rights. It may be said that medieval men, in this matter, followed more the rigor of logic than the tenderness of sentiments; abstract and rigid reasoning in them at times prevailed over psychological sense (in modern times, almost the opposite is verified: Much appeal is made to psychology and sentiment, little adherence to logic; modern men do not believe much in perennial principles; they tend to judge everything according to relative and relativistic criteria, criteria of fashion and subjective preference).
3) The intervention of secular power exercised profound influence on the development of the Inquisition. Civil authorities anticipated the application of physical force and of the death penalty to heretics; they urged the ecclesiastical authority to act energetically; they provoked certain abuses motivated by greed for political or material advantages. Moreover, spiritual and temporal power in the Middle Ages were, at least in theory, so united with each other that it seemed normal to them to have recourse to one another in everything that concerned the common good. From the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Inquisition came increasingly to be exploited by monarchs, who made use of it to promote their particular interests, removing it from the directives of ecclesiastical power, even directing it against this power; this appears clearly in the Inquisitorial Process of the Templars, initiated by Philip the Fair of France (1285–1314) without the consent of Pope Clement V (cf. chapter 25).
4) The human weakness of Inquisitors and of the officials who collaborated with them will not be denied. It would not be lawful, however, to say that the supreme authority of the Church connived at these facts of weakness; on the contrary, there is the testimony of numerous protests sent by Popes and Councils to such or such officials, against such laws and such inquisitorial attitudes. The official declarations of the Church concerning the Inquisition fit well within the categories of medieval justice; injustice occurred in the concrete execution of the laws. It is said, moreover, that each period of history presents the observer with its own enigma: In remote Antiquity, what astonishes are the inhuman procedures of war. In the Roman Empire, it is the mentality of citizens, who did not know the world without their Empire (oikouméne — inhabited world — Imperium) nor conceived the Empire without slavery. In the contemporary age, it is public relativism or skepticism; it is the use of the refinements of technology to “wash the brain,” undo personality, foment hatred and passion. Would it not then be possible that medieval men, in good faith in conscience, resorted to repressive measures of evil that modern man, with reason, judges excessively violent? As for the Roman Inquisition, instituted in the sixteenth century, it was heir to the laws and the mentality of the Medieval Inquisition. With regard to the Spanish Inquisition, it is known that it acted more under the influence of the monarchs of Spain than under the responsibility of the supreme authority of the Church.
Origin of the Spanish Inquisition
King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, aiming at the full unification of their domains, were aware that there existed an ecclesiastical institution, the Inquisition, originating in the Middle Ages with the purpose of repressing a religious and civil danger of the eleventh and twelfth centuries (the Cathar or Albigensian heresy); to this danger seemed to resemble the activities of the marranos (Jews) and moriscos (Arabs) in fifteenth-century Spain.
1. The Medieval Inquisition, which had never been very active in the Iberian Peninsula, was more or less dormant in the second half of the fifteenth century. It happened, however, that during Holy Week of 1478 a conspiracy of marranos was discovered in Seville, which greatly exasperated the public. King Ferdinand then remembered to ask the Pope to revive in Spain the ancient Inquisition, and to revive it on new foundations, more promising for the kingdom, entrusting its direction to the Spanish monarch. Sixtus IV, thus solicited, finally resolved to grant Ferdinand’s request (to which, after hesitating for some time, Isabella had associated herself). He therefore sent to the kings of Spain the Brief of November 19, 1478, by which “he conferred full powers upon Ferdinand and Isabella to appoint two or three Inquisitors, archbishops, bishops, or other ecclesiastical dignitaries, commendable for their prudence and their virtues, secular or regular priests, at least forty years of age, and of irreproachable conduct, masters or bachelors in Theology, doctors or licentiates in Canon Law, who should satisfactorily pass a special examination. Such Inquisitors would be charged with proceeding against baptized Jews relapsed into Judaism and against all other persons guilty of apostasy. The Pope delegated to these ecclesiastical officials the necessary jurisdiction to institute proceedings against the accused according to the Law and custom; moreover, he authorized the Spanish sovereigns to depose such Inquisitors and appoint others in their place, should this be opportune.” (L. Pastor, Histoire des Papes IV 370) It should be carefully noted that, according to this edict, the Inquisition would extend its action only to baptized Christians, not to Jews who had never belonged to the Church; the institution was therefore conceived as an organ promoting discipline among the children of the Church, not as an instrument of intolerance in regard to non-Christian beliefs.
Procedures of the Spanish Inquisition
Supported by the Pontifical License, the kings of Spain on September 17, 1480 appointed as Inquisitors, with seat in Seville, the two Dominicans Miguel Morillo and Juan Martins, giving them as assessors two secular priests. The monarchs also promulgated a compendium of “Instructions,” sent to all the tribunals of Spain, constituting as it were a code of the Inquisition, which thus became a kind of organ of the civil State. The Inquisitors immediately entered into action, proceeding generally with great energy. It seemed that the Inquisition was at the service not properly of Religion, but of the Spanish sovereigns, who sought to reach criminals even of a merely political category. Soon, however, various complaints were heard in Rome against the severity of the Inquisitors. Sixtus IV then wrote successive letters to the monarchs of Spain, showing them profound dissatisfaction with what was happening in their kingdom and issuing instructions of moderation to both civil and ecclesiastical judges. Special mention deserves in this regard the Brief of August 2, 1482, in which the Pope, after promulgating certain rules restraining the power of the Inquisitors, concluded with the following words: “Since only charity makes us like unto God, we beseech and exhort the King and the Queen, by the love of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that they imitate Him whose characteristic it is always to have compassion and forgiveness. Therefore, be pleased to show yourselves indulgent toward your subjects of the city and the diocese of Seville who confess error and implore mercy.” Nevertheless, despite the frequent pontifical admonitions, the Spanish Inquisition was becoming more and more a powerful organ of influence and activity of the national monarch. To prove this, it suffices to recall the following: The Inquisition in Spanish territory remained a permanent institution for three successive centuries. In this it differed greatly from the Medieval Inquisition, which was always intermittent, having in view certain errors arising in such or such locality. The permanent maintenance of an inquisitorial tribunal imposed considerable expenses, which only the State could undertake; and this is what occurred in Spain: The kings attributed to themselves all the material revenues of the Inquisition (taxes, fines, confiscated goods) and paid the respective expenses; consequently, some historians, referring to the Spanish Inquisition, called it the “Royal Inquisition.”
Emancipated from Rome
In order to complete the picture thus far drawn, let us pass to another characteristic detail of it. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella aimed at strengthening the Inquisition, emancipating it even from the control of Rome… They then conceived the idea of giving the institution a single and plenipotentiary head — the Inquisitor-General — who would judge in Spain itself the appeals addressed to Rome. For this office, they proposed to the Holy See a Dominican religious, Tomás de Torquemada (Turrecremata, in Latin), who in October 1483 was indeed appointed Inquisitor-General for all the territories of Ferdinand and Isabella. Proceeding with the appointment, Pope Sixtus IV wrote to Torquemada: “Our most beloved sons in Christ, the king and queen of Castile and León, have supplicated us to designate you as Inquisitor of the evil of heresy in their kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, as well as in the principality of Catalonia.” (Bulla ord. Praedicatorum I/622) The gesture of Sixtus IV can only be explained by good faith and trust. The act was, in truth, little prudent… Indeed, the concession benignly made to the monarchs would be a pretext for new and further advances on their part: The successors of Torquemada in the office of Inquisitor-General were no longer appointed by the Pope, but by the Spanish sovereigns (according to criteria not always praiseworthy).
For Torquemada and his successors, the right was obtained from the Holy See to appoint the regional Inquisitors, subordinate to the Inquisitor-General. Furthermore, Ferdinand and Isabella created the so-called “Royal Council of the Inquisition,” a commission of advisers appointed by the civil power and intended, as it were, to oversee the proceedings of the Inquisition; they enjoyed deliberative vote in matters of civil Law, and consultative vote in questions of Canon Law. One of the most typical expressions of the arrogant autonomy of the Spanish Holy Office is the famous trial that the Inquisitors brought against the primatial archbishop of Spain, Bartolomew Carranza of Toledo. Without descending into the details of the event, we shall note here only that for eighteen continuous years the Spanish Inquisition persecuted the venerable prelate, opposing papal legates, the Ecumenical Council of Trent, and the Pope himself, in the middle of the sixteenth century. Emphasizing yet another particular, we shall recall that King Charles III (1759–1788) constituted another significant figure of royal absolutism in the sector we have been studying. He placed himself peremptorily between the Holy See and the Inquisition, forbidding the latter to execute any order from Rome without prior authorization from the Council of Castile, even if it concerned merely the proscription of books. The Inquisitor-General, having admitted a case without the king’s permission, was immediately banished to a locality situated twelve hours from Madrid; he only managed to return after presenting apologies to the king, who accepted them, declaring: “The Inquisitor-General has asked my pardon, and I grant it to him — I now accept the thanks of the tribunal — I shall always protect it, but let him not forget this threat of my anger directed against any attempt at disobedience.” (cf. Desdevises du Dezart, L’Espagne de L’Ancien Régime. La Société 101 s). History likewise attests that the Holy See repeatedly decreed measures aimed at defending the accused against the harshness of royal power and of the people. The Church in such cases clearly distanced itself from the Royal Inquisition, although the latter continued to be regarded as an ecclesiastical tribunal. Thus, on December 2, 1530, Clement VII granted to the Inquisitors the faculty of sacramentally absolving the crimes of heresy and apostasy; thus the Priest could attempt to withdraw from public trial and from the infamy of the Inquisition any accused who was animated by sincere dispositions toward good. On June 15, 1531, the same Pope Clement VII ordered the Inquisitors to undertake the defense of the moriscos who, crushed by taxes by their respective lords and masters, might conceive hatred against Christianity. On August 2, 1546, Paul III declared the moriscos of Granada eligible for all civil offices and all ecclesiastical dignities. On January 18, 1556, Paul IV authorized priests to absolve the moriscos in sacramental confession. It is understandable that the Spanish Inquisition, increasingly distorted by the sometimes petty interests of temporal sovereigns, could not fail to fall into decline. This indeed occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. As a consequence of a revolution, Emperor Napoleon I intervened in the government of the nation and abolished the Spanish Inquisition by decree of December 4, 1808. King Ferdinand VII, however, restored it in 1814, in order to punish some of his subjects who had collaborated with Napoleon’s regime. Finally, when the people emancipated themselves from the absolutism of Ferdinand VII, reestablishing the liberal regime in the country, one of the first acts of the Cortes of Cadiz was the definitive extinction of the Inquisition in 1820. The measure was, without doubt, more than opportune, for it put an end to a humiliating situation for the Holy Church.
Tomás de Torquemada
Tomás de Torquemada was born in Valladolid (or, according to others, in Torquemada) in the year 1420. He became a Dominican Religious, exercising for 22 years the office of Prior of the convent of Santa Cruz in Segovia. As early as February 11, 1482, he was designated by Sixtus IV to moderate the zeal of the Spanish Inquisitors. In the following year the same Pontiff appointed him First Inquisitor of all the territories of Ferdinand and Isabella. Extremely austere toward himself, the Dominican friar employed similar severity in his judicial procedures. He divided Spain into four inquisitorial sectors, which had as their respective seats the cities of Seville, Córdoba, Jaén, and Villa (Ciudad) Real. In 1484 he drafted, for the use of the Inquisitors, an “Instruction,” a booklet that proposed norms for inquisitorial proceedings, drawing inspiration from procedures already customary in the Middle Ages; this document was completed by two others of the same author, which appeared respectively in 1490 and 1498. The rigor of Torquemada was brought to the knowledge of the See of Rome; Pope Alexander VI, as some historical sources state, then thought of removing him from his functions; he may only have refrained from doing so out of deference to the court of Spain. The fact is that the Pontiff deemed it appropriate to reduce Torquemada’s powers, placing at his side four assessors endowed with equal faculties (Brief of June 23, 1494). As for the number of victims occasioned by Torquemada’s sentences, the figures reported by the chroniclers are so little coherent among themselves that nothing precise can be affirmed on the matter. Tomás de Torquemada has remained, for many, the personification of religious intolerance, a man with bloodstained hands… Modern historians, however, recognize exaggeration in this manner of characterizing him; taking into account Torquemada’s personal character, they judge that this Religious was moved by sincere love and true faith, whose integrity seemed to him compromised by false Christians; hence the extraordinary zeal with which he proceeded. Torquemada’s upright intention may have been translated in an unhappy manner. Moreover, the following episode contributes to unveiling another, less known, trait of the Dominican friar: On a certain occasion, a proposal was brought before the Royal Council of the Inquisition to impose upon Muslims either conversion to Christianity or exile. Torquemada opposed this measure, for he wished to preserve the classic principle that conversion to Christianity cannot be extorted by violence; consequently, the Inquisition should restrict its action to apostate Christians; these, and only these, by virtue of their Baptism, had a commitment to the Catholic Church. As can be seen, Torquemada, even in the fervor of his zeal, did not lose good sense on this point. He exercised his functions until his death, on September 16, 1498.
Royal Power and the Inquisition in Portugal
In summary: The Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute published the Regulations of the Inquisition in Portugal (also in force in Brazil) dated 1552, 1613, 1640, and 1774 (the latter signed by the Marquis of Pombal). They are accompanied by an Introduction written by Professor Sônia Aparecida de Siqueira, which highlights the fact that the Inquisition was never a merely ecclesiastical institution, but, by virtue of the law of the padroado, was increasingly directed by the Crown of Portugal in view of its political interests. The Holy See had to oppose more than once the proceedings of the Inquisition in order to protect the New Christians and other citizens judged by the Tribunal. The Inquisition is always in focus. It is a cause of accusations against the Church, often poorly founded or repeated as clichés, without the public having access to the basic documents that guided the Inquisition. Few people have direct contact with the archives and the written sources of the inquisitorial movement.
Thus it is that the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute (IHGB) published in number 392 (year 157) of its journal, corresponding to July/September 1996 (pp. 495–1,020), the Regulations of the Holy Office of the Inquisition of the Kingdom of Portugal dated 1552, 1613, 1640, 1774 (the latter signed by the Marquis of Pombal), in addition to an undated Regulation. Such edition was under the care of Prof. Sônia Aparecida de Siqueira, corresponding member of the IHGB in São Paulo, who wrote a lengthy Introduction to such documents. As noted by Prof. Arno Wehling, president of the IHGB in 1996, Dr. Sônia Aparecida situated the Inquisition and its successive regulations within the different historical moments, underscoring, moreover, the progressive expansion of royal power over the institution, culminating in the sectarian regime. (p. 495)
As is known, the Inquisition never (not even in the Middle Ages) was a merely ecclesiastical Tribunal. This was inconceivable in former times, since the State was officially Christian and, for this reason, considered itself responsible for the interests of the Christian faith; in this capacity it intervened in matters of religious forum, at times dictating norms to the Church. This reality became accentuated in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) from the sixteenth century onward, by virtue of the privileges of the padroado. Indeed, since the kings of Spain and Portugal were discoverers of new lands, to which they brought the Catholic faith, the Holy See granted them special powers to organize the life of the Church in the newly discovered regions; hence the great interference in religious matters, under the title of collaboration with the Church … a collaboration that gradually resulted in the suffocation of ecclesiastical authority in favor of the interests of the Crown.
In the following lines, we shall present the origins of the Inquisition in Portugal and some features of the exposition of Prof. Sônia Aparecida, which highlight the ever more overbearing intervention of the monarchs in inquisitorial matters.
Origins of the Portuguese Inquisition
King Dom João III of Portugal (1521–57) desired that the Pope establish the Inquisition in his kingdom, especially with a view to eliminating the Jews not fully converted to Christianity. For 27 years, His Majesty and the Holy See confronted each other, since the king requested powers, in religious matters, that the Pope did not wish to grant him: Thus, according to the monarch, the Inquisitor-General would be chosen by the king, as well as the other (subordinate) Inquisitors, and the latter could be not only clerics but also lay jurists, who would then have the same jurisdiction as ecclesiastics. Furthermore: According to the king’s desire, the Inquisitors would stand above the Bishops and the Superiors of the Religious Orders, so that they could prosecute and condemn ecclesiastics without consulting the respective prelates; the Bishops would be prevented from intervening in any case that the Inquisitors took upon themselves. Moreover: The Inquisitors could impose excommunications reserved to the Holy See and lift those that were imposed by the Bishops. As can be seen, the king thus wished to obtain total control over the Bishops and the Church in Portugal.
Finally, on 12/17/1531, Pope Clement VII granted the Inquisition in Portugal, but in terms contrary to the requests of Dom João III: Instead of granting the king powers to appoint the Inquisitors, the Pope directly appointed a Commissioner of the Apostolic See and Inquisitor in the kingdom of Portugal and its dominions. This Commissioner could appoint other Inquisitors, but his authority was not above that of the Bishops, who could also, on their part, investigate heresies.
The terms of this Bull or concession were never applied in Portugal. The Inquisitor appointed, Friar Diogo da Silva, was the king’s confessor; he did not accept the office, perhaps under pressure from the monarch. Despite this, amid great popular agitation, inquisitorial tribunals began to function anarchically in some dioceses. Consequently, the Pope suspended the Inquisition and, alleging that the king had deceived him (by concealing from him the forced conversion of Jews during the reign of Dom Manoel, 1495–1521), ordered amnesty for the Jews and the restitution of confiscated goods (Bull of 04/07/1535).
The reasons on which such decisions of Clement VII were based are quite significant: The conversion of unbelieving Jews must be fostered by persuasion and gentleness, of which Christ gave the example, always respecting human free will; the violent or extorted conversion of the Jews under the reign of Dom Manoel was regarded as a feat that should not be reproduced. The Holy See thus sought to defend and protect the New Christians, victims of royal power.
Pope Clement VII, who had resisted Dom João III, died in 1534, having as successor Paul III. The king again insisted with the Pontiff in order to obtain the type of Inquisition tribunal that met the interests of the Crown. He did not obtain it properly, but by Bull of 05/23/1536 Paul III reestablished the Inquisition in Portugal, appointing three Inquisitors and authorizing the king to appoint another; moreover, the Pontiff ordered that, for three years, the names of the witnesses for the accusation should not be covered by secrecy and that, for ten years, the goods of the condemned should not be confiscated; the Bishops would have the same faculties as the Inquisitors in the investigation of heresies. Through his Nuncio in Lisbon, the Pope reserved to himself the right to supervise the execution of the Bull, to examine the proceedings whenever he deemed fit, and to decide in the last instance.
It is from this Bull (05/23/1536) that the Inquisition in Portugal can be considered established. The king, who was not satisfied with the provisions of the Holy See, began to circumvent them. He wished, above all, to withdraw the Inquisition from the vigilance of the Pontiff and, to that end, raised numerous incidents to the point of forcing the departure of the Nuncio Capodiferro, who had powers to suspend the tribunal if the clauses protecting the New Christians were not respected. Furthermore, he appointed as Inquisitor the Infante Dom Henrique, his brother, then Archbishop of Braga, who at 27 years of age did not have the legal age to exercise such functions. Finally, he took advantage of or provoked occasions or pretexts to make the public believe in the bad faith of the converted Jews (New Christians): Thus a placard appeared on the doors of the cathedral and of other churches of Lisbon, announcing the imminent arrival of the Messiah… A tailor from Setúbal presented himself to the public as the Messiah, which was not taken seriously by the population, but it sufficed for the king’s agents to carry out great reprisals and attempt to convince Rome of the dangers of Judaism in Portugal.
Despite the king’s ill will, the Pope insisted on maintaining the Holy Office in Portugal under his control. Reinforcing previous norms, the Pontiff issued a new Bull on 10/12/1539, which prohibited adducing secret witnesses and granted other guarantees to the accused, among them the right of appeal to the Pope; he also determined that the emoluments of the Inquisitors should not be paid from the goods of the prisoners.
This Bull was also not observed in Portugal. The Pope then resolved to suspend the Inquisition by the Brief of 09/22/1544; he took the precaution of having this document published by surprise in Lisbon, secretly brought there by a new Nuncio. The king, deeply struck, played his last card; he requested the Pope to revoke the suspension and restore the Inquisition without any limitation, and added the threat: “If Your Holiness does not provide for this, as you are obliged and as is expected of you, I shall not be able to refrain from remedying it, trusting that not only will Your Holiness hold me without fault for what may happen, but also that the princes and the faithful Christians who learn of it will recognize that I am neither the cause nor the occasion of it.”
Such words contained the threat of formal disobedience to the Pope and of schism in the Church. Dom João III followed the advice that had been given to him by his two envoys to the Holy See in 1535: He would deny obedience to the Pope, imitating the example of King Henry VIII of England. Between obedience to the Pope, as a faithful Catholic, and declared rebellion that would allow him to institute a tribunal which was, at bottom, an instrument of royal policy, the king of Portugal was prepared to follow the second path.
The Pontiff found himself at that moment (1544/45) pressed by other grave concerns, such as the convocation and preparation of the Council of Trent, regarding which Emperor Charles V and other monarchs had their interests. Consequently, he ended up accepting the principal points of Dom João III’s request: By Bull of 07/16/1547, he appointed the Cardinal Infante Dom Henrique as Inquisitor-General and withdrew from the Nuncios in Lisbon the authority to intervene in matters within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition; the latter would follow its own procedures, different from those customary in ordinary trials. At the same time, however, the Pope mitigated his provisions: He promulgated a Brief that suspended the confiscation of goods for ten years; another Brief suspended for one year the handing over of the condemned to the secular arm (or the application of the death penalty). In yet another Brief, the Pope made recommendations tending to moderate the foreseeable excesses of the Inquisition and to allow the departure of New Christians to foreign lands. Shortly before dying, on 01/08/1549, Paul III issued a new Brief abolishing the secrecy of witnesses; this Brief was probably never applied in Portugal.
Here are some very significant passages from the Introduction written by Prof. Sônia Aparecida de Siqueira:
New Christians
It was urgent to calm the unrest caused by the presence of the New Christians, potential enemies because of their supranationalism. The combat against dissident minorities was an inescapable program. The neophyte Christians could be bearers of the heretical ferment because of their residual beliefs and their intimate contacts with Lutherans and Jews. Moreover: With the fruition of the discoveries, the exploitation of the colonial world that was being established, with overseas trade, with progressive urbanization, the New Christians gained economic strength and tended toward a solidarity that increased their power of action within the social milieu. The throne felt the threat they would represent if they were not good Christians. It reacted. The Inquisition was created and extended over New Christians, Old Christians, the people, the hierarchies. (pp. 502f.)
Certain determinations of Rome, avoking to itself, directly or through its Nuncios, jurisdiction over the New Christians, reveal that there still existed a certain indefiniteness in the judicial hierarchy, as well as the pontifical purpose of reserving superior jurisdiction to the Curia. In 1533, the Bull of Clement VII Sempiterno Regi revoked all the powers that had been granted to Friar Diogo da Silva, Inquisitor-General of Portugal, calling to itself all the causes of the New Christians, Moors, and heretics. In 1534, a Brief of Paul III addressed to Dom João III ordered that the Inquisitors suspend the proceedings against persons suspected of heresy. In 1535, a Pontifical Letter determined that the Nuncios of Portugal could hear the appeals of the New Christians.
In the same year, Paul III wrote to the king about the New Christians, and to the New Christians; intervening directly in the definition of the procedure, he granted that they might take as procurators and defenders any persons they wished.
The Bulls of general pardon that paralyzed the action of the Tribunal came from Rome, diluting, from time to time, the authority of the Inquisitors. Confirming the first pardon granted by Clement VII, Paul III granted a second in 1535 and, in 1547, by the Bull Illius qui misericors, granted a third. Thereafter, other general indults continued to be granted, and when the king himself negotiated them with the New Christians, he had to petition for them before the Roman Curia, as occurred with Philip III in 1605.
Indeed, the interventions of the Curia in the activities of the Inquisition continued, decreasing no doubt, but constant throughout time, given the nature of its justice. From 1678 to 1681, the Holy Office was even suspended in Portugal by decision of the Pontiff, which indicates that, despite the amplification of absolutism, the tribunals continued to require the acquiescence of Rome in order to operate. (pp. 506f.)
The Figure of the Inquisitor
Capable, suitable, of good conscience, the Inquisitor was to be: Requirements that would guarantee the application of justice with equanimity. Constancy was also required… (p. 526) The collective judgment about the Inquisition would depend on the behavior of its officials, on their capacity to correct their own imperfections, to immolate impulses and interests for the sake of the good name of the Tribunal. The truth is that, in practice, whether because of social vigilance, or institutional control, or perhaps the fusion of individual ideals with those of the Holy Office, we have no record of scandals or abuses by inquisitorial agents. Generally, the exceptions would only confirm the rule. Some Inquisitors, by their virtues or by sacrifice, were even raised to the altars.
In a note (74) the author says: “They did not belong to the Portuguese Holy Office, but the Inquisitors St. Raymond of Peñafort, St. Turibius of Mongrovejo, St. Peter of Verona, martyr, St. Pius V, St. Dominic of Guzmán, St. Peter of Arbués, St. John Capistrano were canonized. Beatified were Pedro Castronovo, Cistercian legate, Raymond, archdeacon of Toledo, Bernard, his chaplain. Also Inquisitors were two clerics, Fortanerio and Ademaro, nuncios of the Holy Office of Toulouse, martyred by the Albigensians, Conrad of Marburg, martyr, parish priest and Inquisitor of Germany, and the confessor of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, John of Salermo. The Inquisitor of Frisia and Holland in the sixteenth century, William Lindanus, was considered Venerable.” (p. 527).
The Pombaline Inquisition
“The idea of separation between a solely political State and a solely religious church germinates at this time.” A new religious policy is intended that uses tolerance as its instrument. Connection with Absolutism, still then alive as a political idea, was imposed. It was necessary to limit the jurisdictional power of the Church and to diffuse the lay spirit.
Amid this climate of the intended reforms, the religious question brought into relief the Holy Office, traditional defender of the orthodoxy of beliefs, faithful guardian of the unity of consciences. There was no thought of extinguishing it, but rather of reforming it, adapting it to the new times. It was urgent to draft a new Regulation that would render the Inquisition more inoffensive and would truly place the Tribunal in the hands of the Crown.
This new Regulation was ordered to be executed by Cardinal da Cunha. In its Preamble, its necessity is justified insofar as the laws that governed the Holy Office had, over the centuries, been distorted by the Jesuits, interested in granting the Pope supreme power over the Inquisition. From the government of the Cardinal Infante Dom Henrique (dominated, says Cardinal da Cunha, by his confessor, the Jesuit Leão Henriques) up to the Reign of Dom João V, the Tribunal had been escaping from the power of the king. The influence of the Company would have reached its maximum under the Inquisitor Dom Pedro de Castilho, who made the legislation more Jesuit than royal. (p. 562)
The times were different. The State was configured in another manner, defining different functions. Jealous of its power, it refused to share it with any institutions or estates. The necessity of limiting the jurisdictional power of the Church was imposed. Thus the Regulation of 1774 aimed at strengthening the power of the Crown, invoking the right of the Kingdom. Absolutist regalism was established as the ideal of Christian union in the civil order. (p. 563)
It is important to know the historical data to which the pages of this article refer only in a few brief traits. They contribute to restoring the truth to focus, showing the latent causes of the Inquisition in Portugal (as also in Spain). Scholars cannot fail to express their gratitude to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute for the publication of the work of Prof. Sônia Aparecida de Siqueira and of the Regulations of the Portuguese Inquisition (which were also in force in colonial Brazil).

The Myth of the Torture Instruments Attributed to the Inquisition (Rafael Rodrigues)

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 20:01:47 +0000

https://apologistascatolicos.c....om.br/o-mito-dos-ins

The Myth of the Torture Instruments Attributed to the Inquisition

INTRODUCTION

The lies and hatred that certain people harbor toward the Catholic Church reach the borders of irrationality—hatred filled with foolish, idiotic, absurd, childish, and irrational accusations, along with unjustified outbursts of fury, reinforced by false propaganda aimed at defaming the Church. One example of this is the so-called “torture instruments used in the Inquisition,” present on numerous websites and videos across the Internet. Without any historical references, the propagators of this myth use illustrations and explanations of how these instruments were allegedly used, attributing them to the “evil and terrifying Inquisition.”
Most of the alleged instruments did not even exist at the time the Inquisition was operating, such as the “Iron Maiden,” which appeared at the end of the 18th century—long after the Inquisition was ending—created by an artist and never actually used to torture anyone at any time, yet it is claimed to have been used in the Inquisition.
In this text, we aim to demonstrate to the reader the falsehood of the main instruments attributed to torture in the Inquisition, as well as to demystify the black legend of deliberate torture in the courts of this institution.

THE USE OF TORTURE IN THE INQUISITION

Although inquisitorial courts did resort to torture, it was rarely applied. Several studies conducted by recent scholars have argued that torture was practically unknown in the medieval inquisitorial process. The records of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse for six years, who examined more than 600 heretics, show only one case in which torture was used. Furthermore, among the 930 sentences recorded between 1307 and 1323 (and it is worth noting that meticulous records were kept by notaries chosen from civil courts), most of the accused were sentenced to imprisonment, the use of crosses, or penances, without any torture.
That the Inquisition rarely used torture in its proceedings, contrary to the claims of its defamers, is affirmed by nearly all of the leading modern authorities on the Inquisition. Professor Henry Kamen (the world’s leading living authority on the Spanish Inquisition), in his book Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, states:
“Torture was used normally as a last resort and applied in only a minority of cases. Often, the accused was merely placed in conspectu tormentorum, where the sight of the instruments of torture alone would provoke a confession. Confessions obtained under torture were not accepted as valid because they had obviously been obtained under duress. It was therefore essential for the accused to ratify his confession the day after the ordeal.” (Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, p. 188)
In the BBC documentary on The Legend of the Spanish Inquisition, he provides more precise numbers:
“In fact, the Inquisition used torture very rarely. In Valencia, I discovered that of 7,000 cases, only two percent suffered any form of torture at all, and generally for no more than fifteen minutes… I did not find anyone tortured more than twice.” (The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition, BBC Documentary, Nov. 1994)
Professor Jaime Contreras agreed:
“When we compared the Spanish Inquisition with other courts, we found that the Spanish Inquisition used torture far less. And if we compare the Spanish Inquisition with courts of other countries, we see that the Spanish Inquisition has an almost clean record regarding torture.” (The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition, BBC Documentary, Nov. 1994)
Historian Rino Camilleri, in his La Vera Storia dell’Inquisizione, explains:

“The [historical] sources demonstrate very clearly that the Inquisition resorted to torture very rarely. The specialist Bartolomé Benassa, who studied the harshest Inquisition, the Spanish one, speaks of a use of torture that was ‘relatively infrequent and generally moderate; recourse to the death penalty was exceptional after the year 1500.’ The fact is that inquisitors did not believe in the efficacy of torture. Manuals for inquisitors advised skepticism because the weak would confess anything under torture, and the ‘strong’ would easily resist it. Moreover, because those who resisted torture without confessing were automatically released, it follows that as a means of proof, torture was of little use. Furthermore, confessions obtained under torture had to be later confirmed in writing by the accused, without torture (only in this way could any admissions of guilt be taken to court).” (Rino Camilleri, La Vera Storia dell’Inquisizione, pp. 46–47)

Historian Jean Dumont states:

“And the same inquisitors—who used torture very little—as we will see in chapters dedicated to the Inquisition, explicitly rejected it in their great Directorium, that of Eimerico, who writes: ‘Torture is deceptive and ineffective.’ And they rejected it so thoroughly that, as we will see, the actual decline of Roman torture historically begins with the canonical courts of the Inquisition.” (Jean Dumont, La Iglesia Ante El Reto de la Historia, p. 58)

The Medieval history professor Marian Horvat agrees:

“Torture was first authorized by Innocent IV in the bull Ad Extirpanda of May 15, 1252, with limits that could not cause the loss of a limb or endanger life; it could only be applied once, and only if the accused already appeared practically convicted of heresy by multiple and conclusive evidence. Certain objective studies conducted by recent scholars have argued that torture was practically unknown in the medieval inquisitorial process. The records of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse for six years, who examined more than 600 heretics, show only one instance in which torture was used. Furthermore, among the 930 sentences recorded between 1307 and 1323 (and it is worth noting that meticulous records were kept by paid notaries chosen from civil courts), most of the accused were sentenced to imprisonment, the use of crosses, and penances. Only 42 were handed over to the secular arm and burned.” (Marian Horvat – Inquisition: Myth and Reality)
Nicholas Eymerich (whom we will address specifically in another text), in his Directorium, as mentioned by Jean Dumont, despite accepting torture, states that it is ineffective and deceptive, and exclaims: “Let this be done without cruelty; we are not executioners.” He explains that torture should only be applied when all other means to discover the truth have been exhausted:

“Torment should not be used until all other means of discovering the truth have been employed, because often gentle methods are sufficient to make the defendant confess—the manner, his own reflections, the exhortations of well-intentioned individuals, and the discomforts of the prison. Torture is not an infallible means of ascertaining the truth. Weak men confess crimes they have not committed at the first pain; other brave and robust men endure the cruelest torments.” (Adnotat. Lib III)

When torture was used, the methods employed by the inquisitorial courts were the strappado, the toca, and the rack. The application of the strappado, also known as the garrucha, consisted of suspending the criminal from the ceiling by a pulley with weights tied to the ankles, with a series of lifts and drops, during which the arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated. The toca, also called water torture, involved inserting a cloth into the victim’s mouth and forcing them to ingest water poured from a vessel, giving the impression of drowning, which according to Henry Kamen “was the most common procedure until the 16th century.” (The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, p. 186)

The rack, or potro, was the torture instrument most frequently used after the 16th century. It consisted of a board on which the accused was placed, with limbs tied by ropes; as the torture continued, the ropes were tightened, causing pain to the accused. In some cases, these boards had nails that injured the victim.

Henry Kamen defines it as follows:

“The basic rule in torture was that the accused should not suffer any risk to life or severe injury. By Church law, ecclesiastical courts could neither kill nor shed blood. No distinct tortures were used by the Inquisition. The most frequently employed methods were commonly used in other secular and ecclesiastical courts, and any complaints about new tortures certainly refer to rare exceptions. The three main methods were the strappado, the toca, and the rack. The strappado or pulley consisted of suspending the accused by the wrists from a ceiling pulley, with heavy weights attached to the feet. The accused was slowly raised and suddenly dropped with a jerk. The effect was to stretch and perhaps dislocate arms and legs. The toca or water torture was more complicated. The accused was secured on a board, their mouth forcibly held open, and a cloth or linen (toca) was placed in the mouth to channel water poured slowly from a vessel. The severity of the torture varied with the number of vessels of water used. The rack, which became most common after the 16th century, consisted of tying the accused to a board with ropes passed around the body and limbs, controlled by the executioner, who tightened the ropes by knots at the ends. With each tightening, the ropes cut into the body and compressed the flesh.” (Henry Kamen – The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, p. 190)

THE LEGEND OF THE INSTRUMENTS

To refute the use of all these instruments, it would suffice to deny their use, since all the websites and propagators of these instruments provide no reference or document proving their use by the Inquisition. Therefore, what is asserted without evidence can be denied without evidence. However, for the scholar of the Inquisition, this method is unsatisfactory; it is necessary, therefore, to analyze the history of these instruments. Beyond the instruments, it is also necessary to remember the various engravings that are circulated about torture sessions, which are the work of artists who never witnessed any session. The historian Jean Dumont, currently the foremost defender of the Inquisition, emphasizes that 16th-century engravings depicting Autos de Fe (public announcements of sentences of those investigated by the Inquisition) displayed buildings with triangular roofs. This type of architecture was common in the Netherlands and the Rhine Valley, regions that are Protestant, not in Spain. This detail reveals the Protestant origins of the engravings.

THE IRON MAIDEN

The Iron Maiden is probably the most famous torture instrument in history. The Iron Maiden is neither medieval nor from the Inquisition, nor is it a torture device. There is no historical record of an “Iron Maiden” before 1793. In the 19th century, the Iron Maiden was cataloged as a medieval instrument and was exhibited in several museums around the world. The San Diego Museum of Man and the Meiji University Museum also displayed it, but contradictorily, a columnist from the San Diego Museum of Man’s own website published, on July 25, 2012, an article called “Medieval Imposter: The Iron Maiden.” In this text, the columnist refutes the supposed use of such an instrument in an execution carried out on August 14, 1515; the story was a tale, a fable, with little or no historical value. Dr. Vortrag Klaus Graf states: “The execution device, ‘Iron Maiden,’ is a 19th-century fiction, since only from the 19th century onwards were the so-called ‘rishard cloaks,’ also called ‘maidens,’ equipped with iron spikes; in this way, the objects were adapted for terrifying fantasies in literature and legends.” (Mordgeschichten und Hexenerinnerungen – das boshafte Gedächtnis auf dem Dorf, June 21, 2001)

THE GUILLOTINE

The guillotine is another case of an instrument that appeared after the Inquisition but is falsely attributed to it. There is no report of this instrument being used by the Inquisition, especially because one of the rules of the Inquisition was not to shed blood. There is also no historical evidence that the guillotine was used before the French Revolution. However, the history of the guillotine began much earlier, though when and where exactly, no one knows. After 1577, some stories claim that machines similar to the guillotine were used in Germany, Great Britain, and Italy in the 1300s by some secular courts, but there is no clear evidence to prove this. Only in 1789 did the French parliament, following the advice of Dr. Guillotine (hence the name guillotine), recommend that the axe and sword be replaced by this instrument, to avoid the suffering of the defendant, who often endured multiple blows of axe and sword until fully decapitated.

THE PEAR

The “Pear” or “Pear of Anguish” is another instrument falsely attributed to the Inquisition. Besides there being no historical record of it ever being used by the Inquisition, there is no reference to it before the 17th century, and there is no record of it being used by anyone, except for some Dutch thieves who supposedly used this instrument to torture their enemies. Another myth is that this instrument would be used to “tear” the anus or genitals of people; there is no basis for this, as even the Dutch thieves only used it to open people’s mouths.

THE SPANISH CHAIR

Another myth is the “Spanish Chair” or “Witches’ Chair.” It resembled an armchair studded with nails. Supposedly, a person was tied to this metal monster, the nails pressed against their body, and then their bare feet were set on fire until they spoke. Sounds gruesome, doesn’t it? Fortunately, the Spanish never hired any furniture makers to construct this “resting” device. There is absolutely no record of it before it appeared in a museum to frighten visitors in 1800. It is a hoax. No one was depraved enough to actually use this on a living person, much less the Spanish Inquisition.

JUDAS’ CRADLE

The Judas’ Cradle, also known as culla di Giuda, was invented in the 17th century, and there is no record of its use by the Inquisition, except in engravings falsely attributed to it. In this method, the condemned was hoisted atop the pyramid and repeatedly and violently lowered, injuring the anus or vagina. The invention of this instrument is attributed to Ippolito Marsili, a professor of canon and penal law who lived between the 15th and 16th centuries. It is falsely attributed to Marsili simply because he opposed corporal torture by secular courts, where the defendant was at the mercy of the judges. He invented the “torment of sleep,” which consisted of placing the accused in a chair and not allowing them to sleep until they confessed. For him, sleep deprivation was a more “humane” form of torture, since it did not inflict any physical harm. It was an advancement toward abolishing cruel tortures. After the creation of the “Judas’ Cradle,” which also employed sleep deprivation as part of the procedure, the association arose between Marsili’s sleep deprivation method and the 17th-century Judas’ Cradle.

THE SAW

This “technique” consisted of suspending the accused by the legs and sawing them vertically. It is a very ancient practice dating back to the Persian kingdom, yet there is no record of it occurring during the Inquisition. Inquisitorial courts did not use anything that caused bleeding; therefore, those condemned to death for heresy were sent to the stake. The only recorded case of this instrument being used in Catholic Europe occurred in Spain during the Morisco revolt, where a Morisco was reportedly sawed in 1568.

CONCLUSION

Here we have addressed only the most famous instruments; there are others, such as the head crusher, knee crusher, breast crusher, “heretic’s fork,” breaking wheel, and other devices that have no record of ever being used in Inquisition courts. Hatred of the Church and the laziness to study history as it truly happened lead people to act irrationally, shouting accusations against the Church without realizing the falsehood and the lamentable role they play.

NOTES
[1] Credits to the page Repensando a Idade Média
[2] History of the Guillotine: http://www.guillotine.dk/pages/history.html
[3] Francis Grose (1811). Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue http://www.fromoldbooks.org/Gr....ose-VulgarTongue/c/c
[4] Biography of Ippolito: http://www.treccani.it/enciclo....pedia/ippolito-marsi
[5] https://books.google.no/books?....id=CCRDAAAAcAAJ&

RODRIGUES, Rafael. Instruments of Torture Attributed to the Inquisition. Available at: http://apologistascatolicos.co....m/index.php/idade-me

The Dragon and Serpent Gods of Ancient Mythology

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 19:16:01 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/@Kinni....niganTheBookofReptil

Steven Colbert DESPERATELY Wants To Be Fired - Ben shapiro

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:06:38 +0000

Steven Colbert DESPERATELY Wants To Be Fired

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/9lFOJSfN0RY?si=LCCSgT4Pf2HqUWPA

Dave Chappelle Has LOST IT - Ben Shapiro

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 07:02:36 +0000

The media refuse to cover the SS-loving trans shooter who murdered his family; Dave Chappelle lays flowers at a memorial for anti-ICE agitator Alex Pretti in yet another act of Hollywood virtue signaling; and Steven Colbert melts down over an unaired interview with a liberal Texas Senate candidate.

Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>https://youtu.be/ahMu_7K1SXM?si=9VTLds0Jpzp2gWGt

Hillary's HUMILIATING Press Conference - Ben Shapiro

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 06:58:23 +0000

Hillary's HUMILIATING Press Conference
Link>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://youtu.be/ZVCNZYZ0NV0?si=08IrQ1Y7Y7QBed7X