Many, many awful things have been done in the name of religion.
For Christianity, the Spanish Inquisition is near the top of the list.
The Spanish Inquisition was terrible, but the worst part wasn't even the thing most
people think of.
As the Monty Python sketch says:
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Our chief weapon is surprise!"
But in this case, the parody version is more popular than the truth.
That's probably one reason why people thought that the Inquisition was a sort of shadowy
entity that could show up unexpectedly any time in any place.
But that's pretty much the opposite of true.
Inquisitors would move from town to town, and the first thing they did was publicly
announce they were there and designate a day for all the faithful to gather at the local
church for a sermon.
That sermon would be part Mass and part warning.
Townsfolk would be instructed to come forward and admit heresy if they wanted leniency.
The next 30 or 40 days would be essentially a grace period.
People could confess to inquisitors to avoid punishment.
So the surprise nature of the Inquisition wasn't the worst part.
It was when people didn't seek forgiveness that the problems started.
Researchers have now confirmed that torture just doesn't work when it comes to getting
the truth.
Most people will just say whatever their interrogators want to hear in order to get the pain to stop.
And inquisitors knew that, even in the 15th century.
"Confess, woman.
Confess!
CONFESS!"
"Oh, I confess!"
So to procure honest confessions, there was a two-step process.
The evidence the person gave while they were being tortured was recorded, and when the
session stopped, they were given a choice: ratify their words or retract them.
That ratification of testimony was considered more of an honest confession because it wasn't
done under duress.
But of course, anyone who retracted their testimony would just be tortured again.
The Spanish Inquisition had a specific set of rules regarding torture.
The biggest one was that inquisitors couldn't spill blood, and that meant that they had
to get a little creative.
One popular workaround was a method called strappado.
This consisted of binding the accused's hands and tying them to a pulley that hoisted them
off the ground.
Weights might also be attached to them.
Applying pressure was also popular, as was burning with hot tools.
Burning would seem to present a problem, as it could draw blood, but it turns out there
was a loophole.
During a 1256 precursor to the Spanish Inquisition, Pope Alexander IV had written that inquisitors
could act as witnesses to each other and clear their colleagues of wrongdoing during torture
sessions.
One might think that children would've gotten a pass from the worst excesses of the Spanish
Inquisition, but that doesn't appear to have been the case.
Consider the example of Ines Esteban, a Spanish girl born in 1488.
She was just 12 years old when she attracted the attention of the Inquisition.
Ines began sharing stories of the conversations she regularly had with her deceased mother,
who she claimed spoke to her from heaven.
She also claimed to have even ascended to heaven where she saw angels and was given
small tokens as proof she'd been in the divine realm.
People gathered to hear the messages she brought back, and they followed her teachings, too,
which included things like observing Shabbat and believing the words of the Torah.
Ines was arrested in April 1500.
Official records of what happened to her no longer exist, but the writings of her followers
suggest she was burned at the stake by August 1500.
Inquisitors never swung their own swords, or, more accurately, they didn't light their
own bonfires.
Instead, the Inquisition held a ritual called "auto-da-fe" after people were convicted.
This was the final step in the process, and it was essentially fulfilling a person's penance
in public.
There was usually a sermon in a town or city square, parading of the guilty, reading of
the sentences and prayers, but executions and floggings weren't on the schedule.
Inquisitors weren't allowed to shed blood, and that included doing the actual killing.
The Church didn't actually want to be associated with killing the faithless, either.
That was left up to secular authorities, who stepped up to do the killing and burning after
the guilty parties were publicly scorned and humiliated.
The transfer of prisoner from Inquisition custody to secular was called "relaxing" the
guilty party, who would then be taken out of the church's line of sight and disposed
of.
Check out one of our newest videos right here!
Plus, even more Grunge videos about your favorite stuff are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel, and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.