Page 5, 25th June 2004

25th June 2004

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Page 5, 25th June 2004 — Inquisition myths debunked
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Inquisition myths debunked

BY FREDDY GRAY AND EDWARD PENTIN
THE HORRORS of the Inquisition were often fabricated by Protestant myhtologists, a Vatican studied has found.
A large volume about the reality of the Inquisition was published last week, containing 31 essays from European and American scholars.
The Pope applauded the authors of the study, and emphasised the need for the Inquisition to be properly understood. Pope John Paul has acknowledged “errors committed in the service of truth” by the Inquisition but added that this should not mean that the truth is obscured.
“In public opinion the image of the inquisition represents in some way the symbol of counter witness and scandal,” he said. “In what measure is this faithful to reality?” Professor Agostino Borromeo, an indirect descendant of St Charles Borromeo, edited the 731-page work, entitled “Minutes of the International Symposium the Inquisition”.
“The recourse to torture and the death sentence weren’t so frequent as it long has been believed,” he said, “The acts of the symposium are a point of reference.” Leading historians were specially chosen by the Holy See to investigate the impact of the Inquisition in Europe, as well as general aspects of reli gious persecution. Professor Eamon Duffy, who wrote The Stripping of the Altars, a seminal book about the Reformation in England, was commissioned to write a piece for the symposium about the burning of Protestants under the Catholic Queen Mary in England.
The new study explains that of the 125,000 trials for heresy carried out by the Spanish Inqusition, less than one per cent of those accused of heresy were actually burned. Furthermore, the Inquisition did not carry out the executions, but handed over convicts to the secular authorities.
The idea that the Inquisition’s brutality was greatly exaggerated is nothing new. In 1985, historian Philip Kamen wrote “The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Review”, a book that sought to counter the myth that inquisitors were mad zealots with penchants for torture.
He pointed out that most inquisitors were intelligent, and highly trained lawyers, not crazed fanatics.
Professor Michael Walsh of Heythrop College in London has long believed that most of the myths about the Inquisition are a result of “black propaganda” perpetrated by Protestants in Britain after the Reformation to quell the threat of a Catholic revival.
“The truth must likewise be presented,” he said.
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