Sadly
Dr. Savage apparently buys into the discredited “Black Legend” of
the Spanish Inquisition. In his newest best-selling book, God,
Faith, and Reason,
the
conservative commentator makes such outrageous statements as “ . .
. Either you believed in what Catholics believed in or they killed
you . . . They were very similar to Isis.”
He
writes the following on page 132 of his book:
“The
Maranno Jews lived during the Inquisition, when the Catholics were
killing anyone who didn't follow their way. They were very much like
the radical Muslims today. Yes, there is a precedent for what the
radical Muslims are doing today. Either you believed in what
Catholics believed in or they killed you. They'd let you convert,
but if you didn't they burned you at the stake or had you drawn and
quartered. They were very similar to Isis.”
On
the contrary, never has the Catholic religion taught or mandated that people must
be forced to convert upon pain of death or torture. Dr. Savage's sensationalist
rhetoric is entirely misleading and grossly exaggerated. During the
350 years the Inquisition lasted, of course there were abuses. But comparing them
to the excesses of what “radical Muslims are doing today” is
absurd. Excerpts from three sources are presented below in order to
shed some truth and light on what really happened during that period of history. Like the Crusades, the Inquisition in its concept was essentially good and not evil.
“As
the father of Christendom, Pope Gregory IX was anxious to correct the
many errors of his time that were poisoning society spiritually and
causing people to go astray from the Catholic Faith [Gregory
IX reigned from 1227 to 1241.]"
 |
| Scene of the Inquisition - Francisco de Goya |
“Like
Moses in the Old Testament, Gregory IX desired to protect the
children of God from error. Like Moses, he ordered an Inquiry,
or Inquisition,
to be made with all diligence, and he demanded the testimony of at
least two witnesses. Like Moses, he insisted that crimes against God
should not go unpunished. The parallel stops here. Moses, in much
earlier times, had no interest in distinguishing between the penitent
and the obstinate, the deceiver and the deceived. He simply commanded
the guilty to be stoned to death. Gregory IX’s principal desire was
to draw the heretic back into the grace of God. Only in the cases
where he insisted on remaining an enemy of God - and, therefore, of
society - was he to be cut off from the Church and handed over to the
discretion of the State.”
However,
when abuses came to the attention of Pope Sixtus IV, he put an end of
the Papacy's role in the Inquisition.
Thomas
F. Madden writes in Crisis Magazine, in his article “TheTruth about the Spanish Inquisition, that
the Inquisition then became an “. . . arm of the Spanish monarchy,
separate from ecclesiastical authority. It is odd, then, that the
Spanish Inquisition is so often today described as one of the
Catholic Church’s great sins. The Catholic Church as an institution
had almost nothing to do with it."
“What about the
dark dungeons and torture chambers? The Spanish Inquisition had
jails, of course. But they were neither especially dark nor
dungeon-like. Indeed, as far as prisons go, they were widely
considered to be the best in Europe. There were even instances of
criminals in Spain purposely blaspheming so as to be transferred to
the Inquisition’s prisons. Like all courts in Europe, the Spanish
Inquisition used torture. But it did so much less often than other
courts. Modern researchers have discovered that the Spanish
Inquisition applied torture in only 2 percent of its cases. Each
instance of torture was limited to a maximum of 15 minutes. In only 1
percent of the cases was torture applied twice and never for a third
time. The inescapable conclusion is that, by the standards of its time, the Spanish Inquisition was positively
enlightened. That was the assessment of most Europeans until 1530. . ."
“No
major court in Europe executed fewer people than the Spanish
Inquisition. This was a time, after all, when damaging shrubs in a
public garden in London carried the death penalty. Across Europe,
executions were everyday events. But not so with the Spanish
Inquisition. In its 350-year lifespan only about 4,000 people were
put to the stake [half of those occurred after the Spanish monarchy took control]."
“Although
the Spanish defeated Protestants on the battlefield, they would lose
the propaganda war. These were the years when the famous “Black
Legend” of Spain was forged. Innumerable books and pamphlets poured
from northern presses accusing the Spanish Empire of inhuman
depravity and horrible atrocities in the New World. Opulent Spain was
cast as a place of darkness, ignorance, and evil. Although modern
scholars have long ago discarded the Black Legend, it still remains
very much alive today."
“A
new, fictional Spanish Inquisition had been constructed, designed by
the enemies of Spain and the Catholic Church.”
 |
ISIS Inquisitors
The
Traditionin Action
website reviewed the BBC film “Timewatch – the Myth of the
Spanish Inquisition,” which demonstrated that the anti-Catholic
arguments have no basic in historical evidence. The
46-minute film, produced in 1994, outlines the history and facts of
the Spanish Inquisition, basing its information on a systematic study
of its private official records. View the movie Here
Reviewer
Phillip Mericle writes: “Inquisition
courts and prisons were the envy of the land, and criminals would
actually blaspheme in secular courts in the hope that they would be
brought before the Holy Inquisition instead. The sentences of the
Spanish Inquisition were much more lenient than those of the courts
of France, England, the Holy Roman Empire, and other European
countries."
|
“It
is this Black Myth that continues to be spread by partisans of the
French Revolution, Freemasons, and Hollywood film makers today. This
is why to this day those initial falsities continue to live in the
public’s mind.”
