Inquisition (n): an official investigation, especially one of a political or religious nature, characterized by lack of regard for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the examiners, and recklessly cruel punishments
(See “inquisition” Random House Dictionary, Random House Inc, 2013; See also Collins English Dictionary, 10th Edition, William Collins Sons & Co, 2009)
The very fact that I would bring up the Inquisition (13th – 19th century) will result in me being labeled a “Catholic-basher.” If the Catholic Church has done nothing wrong, then there should be no reason I can’t tell the truth about its history without ad hominem attack against me. (Ad Hominem is a logical fallacy of name-calling; attempting to thwart an argument by attacking the character of the one presenting the argument.)
Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?
-Galatians 4:16
I love Catholics enough to tell them the truth, and the truth is that the Catholic Church is responsible for the deaths of countless people. Though I will focus mostly on the Christian martyrs at the hands of the Catholic Church, they are also responsible for torturing and slaughtering Jews, Muslims, and anyone they labeled as a ‘witch’ (whether it was true or not).
The shocking part about this is that most Catholics seem either unaware of the Inquisition, or if they know about it, they have an excuse their priest teaches them that attempts to sweep it under the rug as if its no big deal. Whatever the reason, it’s obvious it does not want to be discussed by Catholics because it’s embarrassing that one would be involved in a religion that commits such heinous crimes.
“When the reformed religion began to diffuse the Gospel light throughout Europe,Pope Innocent III entertained great fear for the Romish Church. He accordingly instituted a number of inquisitors, or persons who were to make inquiry after, apprehend, and punish, heretics…”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Claxton, 1881, p. 77
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
-2 Timothy 2:24
Understand, a heresy is something that goes against the doctrines of a particular religion. The Catholic Church was the heresy in reality, but since they had a religious cult backing, they claimed anyone who differed from the papacy was a heretic.
“Courts of Inquisition were now erected in several countries; but the Spanish Inquisition became the most powerful, and the most dreaded of any. Even the kings of Spain themselves, though arbitrary in all other respects, were taught to dread the power of the lords of the Inquisition; and the horrid cruelties they exercised compelled multitudes, who differed in opinion from the Roman Catholics, carefully to conceal their sentiments.”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Claxton, 1881, p. 77
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
-2 Corinthians 10:4
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
-Ephesians 6:12
Most people in the European governments were not true Christians in obedience to God, they were bullied and threatened by the Catholic Church to be in obedience to the papacy! Even the kings of the earth feared the wrath of this Roman serpent, slithering its way through Europe with the carnal weapons of war. They threatened all who got in their way with torture, fire, and death.
“The most zealous of all the popish monks, and those who most implicitly obeyed the Church of Rome, were the Dominicans and Franciscans: these, therefore, the pope thought proper to invest with an exclusive right of presiding over the different courts of Inquisition, and gave them the most unlimited powers, as judges delegated by him, and immediately representing his person: they were permitted to excommunicate, or sentence to death whom they thought proper, upon the most slight information of heresy. They were allowed to publish crusades against all whom they deemed heretics, and enter into leagues with sovereign princes, to join their crusades with their forces.”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Claxton, 1881, p. 77-78
Christian Martyrs Among Thousands Executed by the Catholic Church
- John Badby was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church in 1410 because he said, “it was impossible that any priest should make the body of Christ, by words sacramentally spoken.”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, W. Grinton Berry Edition, 1998, p. 312, ISBN: 0-8007-8664-5 - John Stilman was burned alive by the Catholic Church in 1518 for, “speaking against the worshipping, praying, and offering unto images; as also for denying the carnal and corporal presence in the sacrament of Christ’s memorial. [which means he denied bread and wine to be the literal Body and Blood of Christ]”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, W. Grinton Berry Edition, 1998, p. 314, ISBN: 0-8007-8664-5 - Thomas Man, 1518, was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church because he, “denied the corporal presence of Christ’s body in the sacrament of the altar; he believed thatimages ought not to be worshipped,”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, W. Grinton Berry Edition, 1998, p. 315, ISBN: 0-8007-8664-5 - John Philpot was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church in 1555 for similar reasons, and telling the Catholic Bishops, “I thank God that I am a heretic out of your cursed church; I am no heretic before God. But God bless you, and give you grace to repent your wicked doings, and let all men beware of your bloody church.”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, W. Grinton Berry Edition, 1998, p. 341, ISBN: 0-8007-8664-5 - John Lambert was burned slowly and painfully [see below] by the Catholic Church in 1538 because when asked if the bread was the literal Body of Christ, he replied, “I deny it to be the body of Christ.”
-John Foxe, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, W. Grinton Berry Edition, 1998, p. 321, ISBN: 0-8007-8664-5
John Lambert was executed by the Catholic Church in the following manner:
“As touching the terrible manner and fashion of the burning of this blessed martyr, here is to be noted, that of all others who have been burned and offered up at Smithfield, there was yet none so cruelly and piteously handled as he. For, after that his legs were consumed and burned up to the stumps, and that the wretched tormentors and enemies of God had withdrawn the fire from him, so that but a small fire and coals were left under him, then two that stood on each side of him, with their halbers pitched him upon their pikes, as far as the chain would read, after the manner and form that is described in the picture adjoined. Then he, lifting up such hands as he had, and his fingers’ ends flaming with fire, cried unto the people in these words, ‘None but Christ, none but Christ;’ and so, being let down again from their halberts, fell into fire, and there ended his life.”
-John Foxe, The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, R.B. Seeley & W. Burnside, 1838, p. 236
A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
-Matthew 7:18
I have run into Catholics that get enraged when I speak of these things, and have tried to proclaim that what John Foxe wrote about was not true, but even some Catholic authors have written of the atrocities of the papacy:
“John Paul presents the papacy as the champion of truth and the rights of man. He takes it for granted that popes have never contradicted one another on essentials or deviated from Gospel truth. This part on truth aims to show by numerous illustrations that these assumptions are false. Apart from the fact that the tenth-and-fifteenth century papacy was the heresy, the denial of everything Jesus stood for, many popes have made astonishing errors. They have repeatedly contradicted one another and the Gospel. Far from championing the dignity of man, they have, times without number, withheld the most elementary rights… History explodes the myth of the papacy lily-white in the matter of truth. In an age of barbarism, the popes led the pack; in an age of enlightenment, they trailed the field. And their record was worst when, contrary to the Gospel, they tried to impose the truth by force.”
-Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy, Poolbeg Press, 2000, p. 151, ISBN: 9781842230008
This Catholic author makes the mistake of holding on to Catholic doctrine, calling it “truth,” but as we have already seen earlier, the Catholic Church denies the true doctrines of Jesus Christ, but even in his holding on to the falsehoods of Rome, he still admits that the popes are NOT infalliable as many Catholics have proclaimed, and have repeatedly contradicted the Bible on many issues. We have already seen the Scriptural evidence of this, but we must also view in detail the atrocities the Catholic Church has committed so we can see the evil tree that is bearing this bloody fruit.
Another Catholic historian documented his findings, and though it is rarely spoken of today, he notes that the Inquisition is history’s greatest marker for the Catholic Church:
“The Inquisition is peculiarly the weapon and peculiarly the work of the popes. It stands out from all those things in which they co-operated, followed or assented as the distinctive feature of papal Rome. It was set up, renewed, and perfected by a long series of acts emanating from the surpreme authority in the Church. No other institution, no doctrine, no ceremony is so distinctly the individual creation of the papacy, except the dispensing power. It is the principal thing with which the papacy is identified, and by which it must be judged. The principle of the Inquisition is the Pope’s sovereign power over life and death. Whosoever disobeys him should be tried and tortured and burnt. If that cannot be done, formalities may be dispensed with, and the culprit may be killed like an outlaw. That is to say, the principle of the Inquisition is murderous, and a man’s opinion of the papacy is regulated and determined by his opinion of religious assassination.”
-Lord Acton, The Fortnightly Review, Vol. 81, Chapman and Hall, 1904, p. 1008
In case you didn’t fully understand what this Catholic author just said, he is explaining that the foundation of the popes rest on their own self-proclaimed authority. The popes are useless concerning the Gospel, and they have had more to do with developing the Inquisitors than anything else. Those who believe in the pope are those who also believe that religious assassination is acceptable in our society.
The popes, thoughout the years of the Inquisition, never fought against the anti-christ style of approach to torturing and murdering innocent people, but continued to add unto the horrors Catholicism produced:
“The record of the inquisition would be embarrasing for any organization for the Catholic Church, it is devastating. Today it prides itself, and with much justification [the authors dispute this judgment], on being the defender of natural law and the rights of man. The papacy, in particular, likes to see itself as the champion of morality. What history shows is that, for more than six centuries without a break, the papacy was the sworn evenmy of elementary justice. Of eighty popes in a line from the thirteenth century on, not one of them disapproved of the theology and apparatus of Inquisition. On the contrary, one after another added his own cruel touches to the workings of the deadly machine.”
-Peter De Rosa, Vicars of Christ: The Dark Side of the Papacy, Poolbeg Press, 2000, p. 244, ISBN: 9781842230008
One of the most common examples to demonstrate the shameless torture of the Catholic Church is “The Judas Chair.” A prisoner (male or female) would be taken to a room, stripped naked, put into a harness above a pyramid-shaped stool, and lowered down onto it until it was inserted into the rectum. After that, just let gravity do its job. An inquisitor would sit comfortably in a normal chair and wait for the “heretic” to confess allegiance to the pope.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
-2 Timothy 3:12
“The Rack” was another commonly used method, attaching the wrists and ankles each to individual gears that would stretch one’s limbs out to the point that it would dislocate the joints at the hips and shoulders. The inquisitor stands patiently aside and watches, waiting for a confession from the “heretic.”
The Skull Crusher involved putting a Christian’s chin on a metal bar, and then locking the top of the head inside a metal cap. Attached to the skull cap was a large screw that was attached to a crank above the victim. The Catholic torturer would then slowly turn the crank onto the Christian’s head, eventually crushing his/her teeth and popping their eyes out of socket before completely crushing their skull, and all the while an inquisitor stands by in hopes to hear the believer renounce his/her faith in Jesus Christ and declare conversion to Catholic rule.These are but a few of the many painful devices used to crush bones and rip skin, using Christian martyrs to attempt to gain converts through fear, and killing off anyone would tell the truth about the Catholic Church. This is one of the biggest reasons why, in countries that are primarily Catholic (like Mexico for example), it is almost impossible to get a Christian mission and/or church started because to this day, the people still fear the oppression of the Catholic Church.
In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
-Psalm 56:11
Many Catholics may not want to believe that the Catholic Church has committed these crimes and heresies against the Gospel, but even Pope John Paul II offered an official “apology” for the 600 years of the Inquisition:
“Pope John Paul II put it this way, ‘We forgive and we ask forgiveness.’ And with that, he led church leaders and followers in sweeping confession, seeking repentance for sins that may have been committed over the past 2,000 years in the name of the church. They fell into seven general categories of wrongs which include, without being too specific, everything from the Crusades to the Inquisition, the forced conversions, to sins against women and anti- Jewish acts. It was a first for the church, which has only rarely and only in specific instances confessed errors in the past. The pope’s sermon offered an explanation for today’s day of pardon:
‘We humbly ask for forgiveness for the part that each of us with his or her behaviors has played in such evils thus contributing to disrupting the face of the church. At the same time, as we confess our sins let us forgive the faults committed by others towards us.'”
-CNN.com Transcripts, “Pope John Paul II Makes Unprecedented Apology For Sins of Catholic Church,” Mar 12, 2000, retrieved Nov 14, 2013, [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0003/12/sm.06.html]
The Catholic Church has to admit to the crimes if they are going to apologize for them, so before a Catholic tries to deny that these things took place, remember that the pope himself has admitted they did. However, this apology is completely deceptive because in 1991, Pope John Paul II re-established the Office of Inquisition under a new name:
“Pope John Paul II revived the ‘Congregation for Doctrine and Faith’, a new name for the organziation of the Inquisition, presided over by German-born Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.”
-Walter J. Veith, Truth Matters, Amazing Discoveries, 2002, p. 277, ISBN: 9780968236338
Those of you unfamiliar with the Catholic Church might not know who Joseph Ratzinger is, but he is none other than Pope Benedict XVI, who took over for John Paul II when he died. Benedict held the office of the “Grand Inquisitor” for a number of years, and worked closely with John Paul to revive the Inquisition with the same oaths.
“Pope John Paul II and his grand inquisitor Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) have renamed the Holy Office as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faithand have revived the antimodernist oath in a new guise.”
-Shadia B. Drury, Aquinas and Modernity, Rowman & Littlefield, 2008, p. 36, ISBN: 9780742522589
Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.
-Jeremiah 17:5
Though the Inquisition may have ended in the 19th century, the Office of Inquisition has always been active in the Catholic Church. John Paul II only renamed it to something sounding more light and fluffy so people wouldn’t think so poorly of it, but as the Bible tells us concerning mankind, there is no new thing under the sun, and the papal tyrants will come again one day to hunt the underground Christians.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
-Ecclesiates 1:9
The persecution of the Catholic Church against the Bible-believing Christians sparked the reformation, and although not everything the reformers taught was 100% accurate (because many of them grew up with Catholic doctrines), they sought to separate themselves from anything to do with Catholicism. Many men sacrificed their lives to make sure the public was warned about the bloody warmongering of the papacy.
Martin Luther, a famous preacher in the Reformation, was a former Catholic that narrowly escaped martydom after leaving the Catholic Church:”We here are of the conviction that the papacy is the seat of the true and real Antichrist… personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist.”
-Martin Luther, Aug 18, 1520, quoted in The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, LeRoy Froom, Vol. 2, p. 121
The Catholic Church, during the Dark Ages, long sought to prevent the reading of God’s Word. I’ve taken testimonies from former Catholics, turned Christian, that in Catholic school, they were not allowed to read the Bible, but instead studied the philosophies of unbelievers. Discoveries have also been made to find that the Catholic church, during the Dark Ages, put the Bible on a blacklist of banned reading material.
(Read “Why I Use a King James Bible – History of Bible Versions” here at creationliberty.com for more details)
This, though shocking to some, is not surprising when you view the history of the Catholic Church. For example, as soon as Queen Mary I (aka “Bloody Mary”) took the throne (Oct 1, 1553), and re-established the pope’s ruling authority, all Bibles were removed from churches, and all Bible printing was prohibited by law.
(See Christopher Haigh, English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society Under the Tudors, Clarendon Press, 1993, ISBN: 9780198221623)
“Some persons think us too severe and censorious whenwe call the Roman pontiff [the pope] Antichrist. But those who are of this opinion do not consider that they bring the same charge of presumption against Paul himself, after whom we speak and whose language we adopt… I shall briefly show that (Paul’s words in II Thess. 2) are not capable of any other interpretation than that which applies them to the Papacy.”
-John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, published H. Howe, 1816, Vol. 3, p. 149
John Knox wrote about “that tyranny which the pope himself has for so many ages exercised over the church.” He also concluded that the Pope is “the very antichrist, and son of perdition, of whom Paul speaks.”
-John Knox, quoted by John Hunter & Hastings Robinson, The Zurich Letters, University Press, 1842, p. 199
“Whereof it followeth Rome to be the seat of antichrist, andthe pope to be very antichrist himself. I could prove the same by many other scriptures, old writers, and strong reasons.”
-Thomas Cranmer & John Edmund Cox, The Works of Thomas Cranmer, University Press, 1846, Vol. 16, p. 63
“There is no other head of the church but the Lord Jesus Christ: nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be head thereof; but is that Antichrist, that man of sin, and son of perdition, that exalteth himself in the church against Christ, and all that is called God.“
-James Stark, Westminster Confession, published Roberts & Green, 1863, p. 289
“The oracles of God foretold the rising of an Antichrist in the Christian Church: and in the Pope of Rome, all the characteristics of that Antichrist are so marvelously answered that if any who read the Scriptures do not see it, there is a marvelous blindness upon them.”
-Cotton Mather, The Fall of Babylon, quoted by LeRoy E. Froom, The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 3, p. 113
“Of all the dreams that ever deluded men, and probablyof all blasphemies that ever were uttered, there has never been one which is more absurd and which is more fruitful in all manner of mischief than the idea that the Bishop of Rome can be the head of the Church of Jesus Christ! No, these popes die, and are not! And how could the Church live if its head were dead? The true Head ever lives and the Church ever lives in Him!”
-Charles Spurgeon, quoted by Tom Carter, Spurgeon at His Best: Over 2200 Sriking Quotations, Baker Book House, 1988, p. 140, ISBN: 9780801082870
Though the Inquisition was led by anti-Gospel men who sought to destroy the faith of Christians, it ended up having the opposite effect as the Christian martyrs would, on pain of torture and death, refused to deny the Lord Jesus Christ as King. The Christians sought to flee Europe and be free of the persecution from the papacy by colonizing a new nation.
Please consider reading all sections of Corruptions of Christianity
| If you are a Catholic, we must recognize that this is the true history of the church with which you are involved. If their actions trouble you, then it would be wise to disassociate yourself with that religion, and get involved in a church that believes the New Testament Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. |
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