The Evil Spirit of the Inquisition and Its Backlashes

By Julio Severo

The crimes of the Inquisition were real, and no honest historian would try to whitewash them. Among honest Catholics, Pope John Paul 2 and Pope Francis have asked forgiveness for the crimes of the Inquisition. Conservapedia, a conservative Catholic platform, condemns the Inquisition.

Yet, Catholic revisionists have, much like the revisionists of the Holocaust, grossly understated the numbers of its victims and excused it in every way possible, including by using the expediency that Protestantism had several “inquisitions” against dissenters. For them, one crime of Calvin is equal to all the crimes of the Catholic Inquisition.

Other expediency is to allege that the horrors of the Inquisition were invented by Protestant writers. But the fact is that the cruelties of the Inquisition were recorded not exclusively by Protestant historians, but especially by Jewish historians. For example, one of the most important and extensive books against the Inquisition is the 1,400-page “The Origins of the Inquisition,” written by the father of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He mentions thousands and thousands of Jewish victims of the Inquisition. Is it necessary to add that there were also non-Jewish victims?

Anyway, the main Protestant writers against the Inquisition were Americans who were very supportive of the Jews in their suffering. It makes no sense to attack Americans who were defending the victims of the Inquisition.

To understate the horrors of the Inquisition only helps the enemies of the Christianity who do not blame Catholicism for the Inquisition, but blame Christianity in general. So it is necessary to condemn the Inquisition revisionists just as we condemn the Holocaust revisionists.

The persecution, torture and murder against heretics backfired in the long run in Catholic nations themselves. For instance, in Spain and France, where the Inquisition fiercely persecuted dissenters from the Catholic Church, anti-Catholic movements, which had nothing to do with Jews and Protestants, rose to power and used the cruelties of the Inquisition to justify similar attacks on Catholic bishops and priests. That is, the Catholic French and Spanish people eventually were so enraged over the crimes of the Inquisition that they extravasated their fury at the Catholic Church.

Catholics who were oppressed under communist regimes in Poland and other Catholic nations begged for religious freedom — and were answered by their communist oppressors that their own Catholic Church did not believe in freedom as a principle. In this point, communists were right.

In the 20^th century, under the right-wing dictatorship of devout Catholic Francisco Franco in Spain Protestant churches were outlawed. In the Catholic Latin America, for centuries Protestants were considered outlaws and criminals, and Jews were persecuted by the Inquisition. As a reminder of its sad past, Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world, has the Museum of the Inquisition and the Brazilian state of Pernambuco has an annual Memorial Day of the Jewish victims of the Inquisition.

Persecution against Jews and Protestants in Catholic nations was the spirit of the Inquisition. So revisionists painting a not so wicked or even sanitized Inquisition should be exposed and condemned.

Intelligent Catholics today, including Pope John Paul 2 and Pope Francis, have sought to distance themselves from the horrors of the Inquisition and its evil spirit that dominated Catholic nations — from Spain to Latin America.

The important lesson is that Jesus and his apostles never needed and wanted to punish, torture and murder people who disagreed with the Gospel. His mission was to preach the Gospel and heal the sick and cast out demons.

The Inquisition was at the service of Satan, who came to steal, murder and destroy. And Jesus came to destroy the works of darkness. So the Inquisition and its works of darkness had nothing to do with Jesus.

With information from The Politically Incorrect Guide to Catholicism by John Zmirak. Regnery Publishing.

Portuguese version of this article: O espírito maligno da Inquisição e suas repercussões violentas

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading about the Inquisition:

Abortion, the Inquisition and Revisionism in the Encyclopedia Britannica

Using Trump As a Platform to Glorify The Inquisition?

The Holocaust and the Misdirected Criticism of a Brazilian Jew against Conservatives in Europe and America

Halley’s Bible Handbook and the Inquisition

Conservapedia and the Inquisition

Brazilian State Legislature of Pernambuco Establishes Memorial Day of Jewish Victims of the Inquisition

Olavo de Carvalho and the Inquisition

Bible Ignorance, Clergy Corruption and the Inquisition in England before the Reformation