Before this most of the acts were not official church actions, but the common layman mobs would do much of the killing. This leads up to a despicable phase of the Roman Catholic Church and leading the charge in their behalf was one King Robert "The Pious" King of France, in 1022 A.D., who commanded heretics to be burned alive.
Mob actions in Milan burn unrepentant heretics, over objections of a local bishop. Then came Soissons in 1114 and Cologne in 1143, where commoners inquisitions resulted in the death of heretics at the stake, when angry mobs pulled unrepentant heretics out of ecclesiastical prisons.
A local priest named Peter de Bruis sermonized Rhone Valley, in the Alps. Peter refused infant baptismals and resisted reverence of the crucifixes that adorned churchs and clergy necks alike. He believed these were traditions of the Church, not found the doctrines of the Gospels. In 1140 he was killed at St. Gilles. Shoved into a blazing fire in which he was burning crucifixes.
A monk simply known as Henry, launched what the church deemed extreme preaching about 1116 at Le Mans. He was known as a Petrobrusian. Ordered to discontinue by the council at Pisa in 1133. Bernard of Clairvaux was dispatched by Pope Eugenius III, with men in 1145 to withstand Henry. Henry was imprisoned by the bishop of Toulouse and never heard from again.
Then Pope Lucius III in 1184, issued a bull against heretics, which would establish many of the guidelines later used in the Inquisitions. One principal was that anyone giving aid to heretics faced the same fate as the heretic. Another, that all unrepentants be handed over to governance forces for judgment and according punishment. Habitual offenders bore stiffer decrees.
With these realities in mind, once the papal bull of Lucius III issued at Verona condemned all heretics, including Cathars and Waldensians the pump of 'Papal Inquisitions' was prime.
Mendicant friars (monks/priest sworn to poverty who made a living by beseeching others) would become both the Inquisitors and the accused. Working for the pope and only answerable to the pope and not any local churches were the Domincans, this order was started by St. Domincan in the year 1217. And later would be joined by the Franciscans, an order started by St.Franciscan of Assisi in the year of 1209. On the other side of the stage was anyone else that didn't believe as the Pope did. Some of these orders were the Fraticelli, Waldensians, Cathar pefectis, and simple laymen as well. They had different degrees in doctrine belief and traditions, all of which were not permissible by the Papal authority. You either preached as Rome did, or face the fire in a lot of incidences.
Then in 1198, comes Pope Innocent III to the theological stage. Don't let the name fool you, and remember every pope was or is 'Vicar of Christ' Which in reality means, they speak for Christ, as Christ's words on earth. Now the Catholic Encyclopedia still list Pope Innocent III as 'One of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages' and he was one of the forerunners to push this title of Vicar of Christ. In truth though vicar means (Lat. vicarius, from vice, "instead of") and Christ means, (Christos, the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word , means "anointed.) So in reality the title means 'Instead of the anointed'
In 1200 hopes in the conquest and an eternal church reign of Palestine and the Holy Lands was waning fast. Pitting the enthusiasm of the crusaders against deemed heretics was inevitable. A new 'the fourth' crusade was instituted, in 1202 which recaptured Constantinople. The Pope then directed his attention against the Cathars in the Languedoc region of southern France. This bloodbath, forever known to history as the 'Albigensian Crusade,' would subsequently influence the allowance of the first Inquisition.
In 1203 the Pope designated Pierre of Castelnau to preach, later joined by the Cistercian abbot of Clairvaux, Arnald-Amalric. Commissioned to terminate those who declined to excommunicate heretics, they would purge the Church from within. The bishop of Béziers was suspended in 1203 and murdered by his own congregation in 1205. In 1208 the papal legate, Peter de Castelnau, was murdered, probably by an aid of Raymond VI of Toulouse, one of the chief Albigensian nobles. The pope proclaimed (1208) the Albigensian Crusade.
This Albigensian Crusade continued from 1209 to 1229, for two decades the blood would spill by the 'Holy Pontiffs' decree. Though it was launched by the pope, the killing shifted to the local secular detachments. One example is Simon de Montfort. Repression formulas on the heresy of the Cathars granted new methods. Noted above most was the dreadful day of July 22, 1209. On this day the city of Beziers was sacked, plundered and ravaged. Relentless butchering, of which it was, was once again rife, with estimations of over 20,000 inhabitants, including children, murdered by so called holy crusaders. During the attack, the Cistercian abbot Arnald-Amalric, when questioned if Catholics to should be 'liquidated' or perhaps absolved, retorted "Kill them all, for God knows His own". This is a man, commissioned by Papal authority, which is supposedly the authoritative representative of Christ on earth. The day after he wrote to Innocent III, "Nearly twenty thousand of these people were put to the sword, without regard for age or sex." Simon de Montfort play a major role in the massacre and was rewarded and selected as commander.
So this is the foundations of the Roman Catholic Church from it's growth out of the Great Roman Empire. The atrocities to come, some much more horrific then the past, are noted though out the annals of time. And some are listed below.
Crusaders beset Minerve in June 1210, after surrendering 140 perfecti were burned. A year later after a besiegement of one month Simon de Montfort commanded the Lavaur leaders, a brother and sister, and eighty knights murdered. Montfort reported over 400 heretics were burned to the delights of his men. Simon intentionally utilized terror tactics such as with a garrison at Bram. By order of Simon, their eyes were gouged out, excluding one man, that would have to lead them to Cabaret. At the University of Paris, in 1210, logic teacher Amalric implemented a bit of trickery, lecturing on a new age to come, one that would replace the Catholic Church. Nine unsuspecting clergy agreed with Amalric views. All nine were unceremoniously burned in the fiery flames of indignation.
Extensive burnings including 400 burnt after the fall of Lavaur in 1211, and 94 burnt after the fall of Casses in the same year. Then new Pope Gregory IX instituted the Papal Inquisition in 1227 to 31. The Albigensian Crusade wiped out most of the Cathard, much work was still to be done to stomp heretics out. They were to be stalked and hunted down like animals, and then burned alive. In 1233 Pope Gregory IX appointed Stephen de Burnin legate for northern Spain and southern France. Putting ultimate responsibility on the Dominican Order to launch the Inquisition against heretics. Inquisitors were the police, judge, and jury. The accused was afforded no rights at all, trials were held in secret, the accused wasn't allowed an attorney and infact if a lawyer tried to aid them, he himself could lose his right to practice law and perhaps his right to practice life! Dominicans sects created tribunals at Albi, Cahors, and Moissac, where 210 persons were burned to death.
The Inquisition having been validated at Barcelona in 1233, and in 1238 in Castille, Leon, and Navarre only helped to fuel the fire. Other horrifically gruesome instances of wholesale slaughter encompass the Count of Champagne, the King of Navarre, in 1239 with 16 bishops reigning over the burning of 183 Cathars at Montwimer (Marne), and 215 more Cathar perfecti at the Castle of Montsegur in 1244 (Know as the Massacre at Montsegur.)
The list is endless, the blatant atrocities by self appointed so call holy men, will forever blot the eye of Christianity toward the reconciliation of the humanistics and pagans to the one true loving Lord Jesus Christ. And all Catholics everywhere, must make a mends by watch guarding their Church Elders and not grant them autonomous sovereign rule over anybody, including their own perishes.
Up to 1248, inquisitors didn't seem to have places to hold these courts. Rather traveled the country side, executing their unquestionable judgments on the accused. In 1302 Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unum Sanctum, declaring that the pope had supreme and final authority in all matters, both civic and spiritual. Then the inquisitors were granted "houses" rightly named, "Courts of the Inquisition" Here they lived and would hold the very one sided proceedings. It is in these building where they imprisoned and tortured the condemned heretics.
With this establishment put into place guidelines were set by a variety of monks as to how to conducted a proper inquisition. Bernard Gui (or Bernard Guidonis, a Dominican who spent close to a quarter-century conducting investigations is one of the most noted. It is assumed he was born in the year 1261 and entered the order around 1279 and named an inquisitor in 1307 until 1324, when he was granted Bishop statutes. Throughout that span Bernard condemned at least 930 of heresy. While Bernard Gui was Inquisitor in Toulousel 1307-1323 the medieval inquisition was well underway since the reign of Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) 1231, with the constitution Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX, opened the flood gates. Gregory IX was inspired to do this for many reasons, one was because of concerns that the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II aimed to take on this effort for political gain. Then in 1252 Pope Innocent IV, appealing to the potency of the renewal of Roman Laws, officially approved the use of torture. Preceding this, the action was not in line with canonical doctrines, though widely used. The sentences for those who confessed or were found guilty were declared in a public form at end of the trial.
This was the "sermo generalis" Penances might consist of a pilgrimage quest, a scourging, the wearing of a cross or a hefty fine. The sanctions in grave cases were seizure of property or imprisonment. Life imprisonment and torture was the extent of their punishment capabilities. So when the church henchmen gave a heretic over to secular authorities, it was equivalent to demanding for that persons execution.
The Inquisitions principal reasoning was always to extract confessions by the accused. Bernard Gui recounts the methods used in inquiries in his book, "Inquisitorial Technique" (c.1307-1323) and "Inquisitors Manual." The manual, factually titled in Latin "Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis" (The Conduct of Inquiry Concerning Heretical Depravity), was completed by 1324. With five parts to the manual, the first three dealt with the actual trials. Then the 4th lists church documents, papal bulls, doctrines and decrees showing the inquisitor's authority is set by the Pope. The last part deals with what heresy was described as being in the current times.
Between 1335 and 1355 Inquisitor Havel of Hradec tried over 4,400 people, condemning about 5 percent to be burned at the stake.
The RCC perceived trouble to be brewing, and enacted this new form of inquisition focusing on widespread Italian and French 'spirituals'(Certain Franciscans demanding in strict observations of the poverty practices exercised by Francis of Assisi ) Then in 1312 Pope Clement V attempted to make peace by trying to make concessions but to no avail. Then the spirituals captured several convents and refused to give them back to the RCC. Then John XXII, the next pope made his stance clear. Pope John XXII demanded all to conform or reap the reward for heresy. Many refused, John XXII marked them heretical, sending the inquisitions to rain down terror upon them. With swiftness, in 1318 recalcitrant spirituals were condemned to burned alive at the stake.
In the year 1366 John Wyclif steps onto the theological stage as one of the King of England's chaplains and as immensely adverse to the papal dominance in the churchly affairs in England and the world.
In 1374, Wyclif made a quest to Bruges as a part of the commission designated by the king to negotiate a peace treaty with France. Upon his returning to England, he begins to preach religious reformations. He evangelized in Oxford, London, and other places against the pope's secular sovereignty. It wasn't long after (date uncertain), in a hand tract, he depicts the Pope of Rome as the anti-Christ.
Of course Rome would need to react to this and Gregory XI issued a determination condemning 19 sentences from Wyclif's works as "erroneous and dangerous" to the Roman Catholic Church. Gregory commanded the archbishop to place Wyclif in prison, bound, pending the papal courts final sentencing. Wyclif's appearance before the archbishop was disrupted by the citizens of London. Never the less, all heretical points were declared just that by the theologians at Oxford. Courtenay, archbishopric of Canterbury, assembled a synod, and condemned 24 articles by Wyclif. When Courtenay tried to levy the decisions of the synod on Oxford, Wyclif got support from the faculty and students on the matter. Nonetheless, King Richard II agreed with the bishop, Wyclif was condemned, and he was discharged of all duties at Oxford. Upon this forced retirement, he headed to Lutterworth, to his private rectory, finishing his translations of the bible into English. Wyclif died on Dec 29, 1384 after setting into motion the reformations acts.
His works, books, tracts and manuscripts were directed to be burnt by the Lateran ruling in 1413. At the Council of Constance he was posthumously excommunicated, his bones ordered to be dug up and burnt. Pope Alexander V issues a bull in 1409 banning evangelizing in unauthorized venues. A believer of Wyclif's teachings named Jan Hus, declined to observe the papal order and was promptly excommunicated by archbishop Zbynek but later the accusation was dismissed after Zbynek's death. Nevertheless, in 1412, the charge against Hus was resurrected. John Hus lived between 1373-1415, he was a reformer in the footsteps of John Wycliffe, and taught his sentiments in Bohemia.
As Wycliffe did, John Hus denounced abuses and dishonesty in the church, contending the Holy Scriptures to be above all mankind, including the pope. Hus worked his way to the head of the University of Prague, affording himself a exceedingly influential appointment with which he could institute his beliefs, and share them with the masses. In 1414 John Hus was then beckoned to the Council of Constance, which seeks to end the Great Schism, the embarrassment of having two or three popes competing for authority and power.
Also held in particular to confront Hus' arguments. Taking the words the Pope (BIG mistake on John Hus' part) for safe conduct passage, Hus agreed to attend, but he was arrested anyway and placed on trial.
Of course John Hus was convicted then burned at the stake. A bit of trickery on the papal's part, spelled the demise of John Hus, but would in no way erase his memory or teachings and beliefs. John became a martyr to many of those that believed the papal institution was not in accord with Holy Scripture. Rome launch a attack against Bohemia, as it had done with the Cathars, but was driven back five different times from the region. Un-prevailing with violence, the RCC turned to negotiations, a deal was struck, which allotted the Church of Bohemian to become part of the Roman Catholic Church once again. This set wrong with many of the Bohemian Christians, and some refused to join the RCC. A sect known as Union of Brethren (Unitas Fratrum) tasted very oppressive persecution.
Jerome of Prague, a critic of the "sale of papal indulgences", a good friend of Hus and a adherent of Wyclif, was condemned by the Council of Constance in 1416 and also burned alive in flames on the stake.
1431 - French peasant woman Joan of Arc is burned at Rouen as a witch. Born on January 6th in the year 1412, the youngest of five children, to Jacques and Isabelle d'Arc in the village of Domremy, in the Barrois region. When she turned 12, Joan claimed to have visions of Saints Catherine and Margaret, two Christian martyrs and of St. Michael the Archangel as well.
Claiming a order from God to rid France of the English, Joan would be granted an audience of Charles of Ponthieu who would later become King Charles VII.
Acquiring authorization of the RCC, this 17 year old girl was given charge of an army and at breakneck speed lifted the siege of Orléans and conquered an English army at Patay. For her loyalty and servitude, King Charles VII bestowed her noble status. She responded to a call to return to battle, in spite of foretelling her own defeat. At Compiègne on May 23, 1430 Joan was captured and sent to the English. It wouldn't seem noble for the English to admit Joan bested them on the battle fields let alone execute her for it, so they fabricated lies and had Joan tried for being a heretic by Pierre Cauchon, bishop of Beauvais, a partisan for the English cause. She was placed on trial in Rouen by the RCC clergy who sided with the English. Condemned and executed on the same day, May 30, 1431, Joan was later proclaimed pure and a saint by the same RCC.
The apparitor of the archiepiscopal court, Maugier Leparmentier, was present and recorded that:
The day when Joan was burned, the wood was got ready to burn her before the sermon was finished or the sentence had been pronounced. And no sooner the sentence uttered by the bishop, without any delay, she was taken to the fire, and I did not see that there was any sentence pronounced by the lay judge. But was at once taken to the fire. And in the fire she cried more than six times "Jesus," and above all with her last breath she cried in a loud voice "Jesus!" so that all present could hear her. Almost all wept with pity, and I have heard say that the ashes, after her burning, were gathered up and cast into the Seine.
Usher, Jean Massieu, stated: The pious woman asked, requested, and begged me, as I was near her at her end, that I would go to the near-by church and fetch the cross to hold it raised right before her eyes until the threshold of death, that the cross with God hung upon be continually before her eyes in her lifetime. Being in the flames she ceased not until the end to proclaim and confess aloud the holy name of Jesus, imploring and invoking without cease the help of the saints in paradise. And what is more, in giving up the ghost and bowing her head, uttered to name of Jesus as a sign that she was fervent in the faith of God.
By the early 15th century the Iberian Peninsula has split into various realms, Kingdoms began conducting constant hostilities toward each other and mobilizing borderline crusades. The peninsula finally unifies.
The unification of the monarchy is made possible by the marriage and joint rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose devout Catholicism and advocating of the Inquisition shields the kingdom from the "Reformation Acts" engulfing many other realms of the RCC of Europe. In Spain, the Trastamaran Wars, a era of public discord and civil unrest was ending with the nuptials of Ferdinand and Isabella. (their true proper names were Ferran and Isabel)
Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella, infanta of Castile and heir to the throne, and are married at Valladolid, seat of Castilian royalty. By 1469, Castile and Aragon now unified, became the leading power in the peninsula and with the conquest of Granada in 1492, the Reconquest was completed. And with that Ferdinand and Isabella. shaped a strong coalition with the Roman Catholic Church. Back in 1478 Ferdinand and Isabella had already constituted the Inquisition in Spain for the converting of the Jews (conversos) accused of heresy. Muslims (moriscos) were next on the agenda and it happened. The Turks in 1480 assaulted the Italian city of Otranto. Some 11,000 - 12,000 people were murdered, the remainder sold into bondage. The enemy killed every priest they could find and actually sawed the archbishop in half. In 1480 it was clear it would happen again to the Spanish Monarchy. Eventually, all people are scrutinized. The accused are condemned, sentenced, often to public penance or death, at the auto-da-fé (literally, "act of faith").
In 1483, Tomás de Torquemada (1420–1498) the infamous inquisitor, renown by the RCC for his strictness, his unwavering implements, sever sentences and rigorous censorship is granted the title of Inquisitor General for Castile and Aragon, and other realms. Torquemada becomes the key figure in forced conversion of Jews to Christianity. Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517), Isabella's confessor and archbishop of Toledo leads a similar Champaign, though seemingly not as violent. The goal to purge the countryside of Jews, Muslims and heretics becomes well financed for the New World gold and other goods and would keep Spain a major Kingdom for the next 400 years.
Torquemada owes his reputation for cruelty to the harsh rules of procedure that he devised for the Inquisition and to the rigor with which he had them enforced. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2003 Columbia University Press.
Tomás de Torquemada
born 1420, Valladolid, Castile [Spain]
died September 16, 1498, Ávila, Castile.
