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104-512: Since the late seventeenth century, "Quietism" has functioned (especially within Catholic theology, though also to an extent within Protestant theology), as the shorthand for accounts which are perceived to fall foul of the same theological errors, and thus to be heretical. As such, the term has come to be applied to beliefs far outside its original context. The term quietism was not used until

208-673: A panegyric for his Requiem Mass in Westminster Cathedral . An essay in Knox's Essays in Satire (1928), "Studies in the Literature of Sherlock Holmes", was the first of the genre of mock-serious critical writings on Sherlock Holmes and mock-historical studies in which the existence of Holmes, Watson, et al. is assumed . Another of these essays, "The Authorship of In Memoriam ", purports to prove that Tennyson 's poem

312-552: A Catholic priest in 1918, continuing in that capacity his scholarly and literary work. Knox served as Catholic chaplain at the University of Oxford from 1926 to 1939. He completed the " Knox Bible ", a new English translation of the Latin Vulgate Bible that was used in Catholic services during the 1960s and 1970s. In 1951, Pope Pius XII appointed Knox protonotary apostolic ad instar , which entitled Knox to

416-460: A Quietist." One, therefore, should always bear in mind that many differences in style and emphasis (and in some cases even in rather essential beliefs) exist among the various mystics labeled Quietist. As Knox has shown, the teachings of Molinos are not necessarily synonymous with those of La Combe or Guyon, much less those of Fénelon. Although both Molinos and other authors condemned in the late seventeenth century, as well as their opponents, spoke of

520-489: A Saint . He also began a work of apologetics intended to reach a wider audience than the student one of his The Belief of Catholics (1927). In 1957, Knox suffered a serious illness that curtailed all his work. At the invitation of Harold Macmillan, Knox stayed at 10 Downing Street while consulting a medical specialist in London. The doctor confirmed that Knox had terminal cancer . Knox died on 24 August 1957, and his body

624-677: A competitive court to the Bishop's courts. Historians use the term "Medieval Inquisition" to describe the various inquisitions that started around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisitions (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisitions (1230s). These inquisitions responded to large popular movements throughout Europe considered apostate or heretical to Christianity , in particular the Cathars in southern France and

728-412: A forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force. A person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion". Thus, after 1391,

832-615: A form of quietism. This may be a tacit reference to the Cathars or Albigenses of southern France and Catalonia , and that they are not subject to any human authority or bound by the precepts of the Church. Similar assertions of individual autonomy on the part of the Fraticelli led to their condemnation by John XXII in 1317. Alternatively, it is likely to be a direct reference to the so-called Beguine, Margaret Porete , burned alive at

936-659: A government minister. It also mixed what it called band music from the Savoy Hotel with sounds of the hotel's purported destruction by trench mortars. The broadcast also claimed that the Houses of Parliament and the Clock Tower had also been destroyed. Because the broadcast occurred on a snowy weekend, newspaper delivery was unavailable to much of the United Kingdom for several days. The lack of newspapers caused

1040-510: A judicial technique known as inquisitio , which could be translated as "inquiry" or "inquest".' In this process, which was already widely used by secular rulers ( Henry II used it extensively in England in the 12th century), an official inquirer called for information on a specific subject from anyone who felt he or she had something to offer." "The Inquisition" usually refers to specific regional tribunals authorized to concern themselves with

1144-539: A minor panic, as people believed that the broadcast events in London were to blame. In May 1926, there was considerable public disorder during the General Strike , so people were previously open to the possibility of a revolution. In a 1980s interview for his biography This is Orson Welles (1992), Orson Welles says that the BBC broadcast gave him the idea for his own 1938 CBS Radio dramatization of " The War of

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1248-406: A new social group appeared and were referred to as conversos or New Christians . Over the centuries that it lasted, several procedure manuals for inquisitors were produced for dealing with different types of heresy. The primordial text was Pope Innocent IV's bull, Ad Extirpanda , from 1252, which in its thirty-eight laws details in detail what must be done and authorizes the use of torture. Of

1352-765: A private investigator by the Indescribable Insurance Company. In 1936, directed by his religious superiors, Knox started retranslating the Latin Vulgate Bible into English using Hebrew and Greek sources. His works on religious themes include: Some Loose Stones (1913), Reunion All Round (1914), A Spiritual Aeneid (1918), The Belief of Catholics (1927), Caliban in Grub Street (1930), Heaven and Charing Cross (1935), Let Dons Delight (1939) and Captive Flames (1940). When G. K. Chesterton died in 1936, Knox delivered

1456-463: A special socio-political basis as well as more fundamental religious motives. In some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of violent anti-Judaism , encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martínez , Archdeacon of Écija . In the pogroms of June 1391 in Seville , hundreds of Jews were killed, and the synagogue was completely destroyed. The number of people killed

1560-509: A spiritual counsellor to Archbishop Fénelon of Cambrai. A commission in France found most of Madame Guyon's works intolerable and the government confined her, first in a convent, then in the Bastille , leading eventually to her exile to Blois in 1703. In 1699, after Fénelon's spirited defense in a press war with Bossuet , Pope Innocent XII prohibited the circulation of Fénelon's Maxims of

1664-471: A total of four people in various Baltic cities in 1402–1403. In the last decade of the 14th century, episcopal inquisitors carried out large-scale operations against heretics in eastern Germany, Pomerania, Austria, and Hungary. In Pomerania, of 443 sentenced in the years 1392–1394 by the inquisitor Peter Zwicker, the provincial of the Celestinians, none went to the stake, because they all submitted to

1768-695: Is at stake. Between 1237 and 1279, at least 507 convictions were passed in Toulouse (most in absentia or posthumously) resulting in the confiscation of property; in Albi between 1240 and 1252 there were 60 sentences of this type. The activities of Bernard Gui, inquisitor of Toulouse from 1307 to 1323, are better documented, as a complete record of his trials has been preserved. During the entire period of his inquisitorial activity, he handed down 633 sentences against 602 people (31 repeat offenders), including: In addition, Bernard Gui issued 274 more sentences involving

1872-434: Is misleading to speak of a Quietist School, if by this we mean a well thought-out set of beliefs that all members of a supposed Quietist heresy professed. Quietism, he maintains, is not a neat set of "conclusions." Rather, he asserts, Quietism, as it manifested itself in seventeenth-century Europe, ran the spectrum from almost completely orthodox teaching to extremely heterodox beliefs. "You can, he concludes, "be more or less of

1976-584: Is not known how many of them were actually carried out, only six people captured in 1382 are confirmed to be executed. In the 15th and 16th centuries, major trials took place only sporadically, e.g. against the Waldensians in Delphinate in 1430–1432 (no numerical data) and 1532–1533 (7 executed out of about 150 tried) or the aforementioned trial in Arras 1459–1460 . In the 16th century, the jurisdiction of

2080-570: The Marranos (people who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will by violence and threats of expulsion) and on Muslim converts to Catholicism , as a result of suspicions that they had secretly reverted to their previous religions, as well as the fear of possible rebellions and armed uprisings , as had occurred in previous times. Spain and Portugal also operated inquisitorial courts not only in Europe , but also throughout their empires:

2184-708: The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229). The Inquisition was permanently established in 1229 ( Council of Toulouse ), run largely by the Dominicans in Rome and later at Carcassonne in Languedoc. In 1252, the Papal Bull Ad extirpanda , following another assassination by Cathars, charged the head of state with funding and selecting inquisitors from monastic orders; this caused friction by establishing

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2288-612: The Bishop of Brescia , Paolo Zane, sent some 70 witches from Val Camonica to the stake. The Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) a crusade proclaimed by the Catholic Church against heresy, mainly Catharism , with many thousands of victims (men, women and children, some of them Catholics), had already paved the way for the later Inquisition. France has the best preserved archives of medieval inquisitions (13th–14th centuries), although they are still very incomplete. The activity of

2392-775: The Cathars and the Waldensians . The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval Inquisition . Other banned groups investigated by medieval inquisitions, which primarily took place in France and Italy , include the Spiritual Franciscans , the Hussites , and the Beguines . Beginning in the 1250s, inquisitors were generally chosen from members of

2496-683: The Dominican Order , replacing the earlier practice of using local clergy as judges. Inquisitions also expanded to other European countries, resulting in the Spanish Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition . The Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions often focused on the New Christians or Conversos (the former Jews who converted to Christianity to avoid antisemitic regulations and persecution),

2600-1047: The Goa Inquisition , the Peruvian Inquisition , and the Mexican Inquisition , among others. Inquisitions conducted in the Papal States were known as the Roman Inquisition . With the exception of the Papal States, ecclessiastical inquisition courts were abolished in the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and the Spanish American wars of independence in the Americas. The scope of

2704-472: The University of Oxford (1926–1939) and after his elevation to a monsignor in 1936, he wrote classic detective stories. In 1929 Knox codified the rules for detective stories into a "decalogue" of ten commandments . He was one of the founding members of the Detection Club and wrote several works of detective fiction, including five novels and a short story featuring Miles Bredon, who is employed as

2808-436: The Waldensians in both southern France and northern Italy. Other inquisitions followed after these first inquisition movements. The legal basis for some inquisitorial activity came from Pope Innocent IV 's papal bull Ad extirpanda of 1252, which authorized the use of tortures in certain circumstances by inquisitors for eliciting confessions and denunciations from heretics. By 1256 Alexander IV's Ut negotium allowed

2912-572: The bull Coelestis Pastor of 1687. However, theologian Bernard McGinn says that the particular errors condemned in the bull are not in the Spiritual Guide . Molinos' work was marked by imprecision and ambiguities that left it subject to unintended interpretations. From Molinos' teaching developed a less radical form known as Semiquietism, whose principle advocates were Fénelon and Madame Guyon . Quietism spread among Catholics through small groups into France. The most noted representative

3016-608: The canon law of the Catholic Church . Although the term "Inquisition" is usually applied to ecclesiastical courts of the Catholic Church, in the Middle Ages it properly referred to a judicial process, not any organization. The term "Inquisition" comes from the Medieval Latin word inquisitio , which described a court process based on Roman law , which came back into use during the Late Middle Ages . It

3120-429: The "infamy" of the defendant (rather than a formal denunciation or accusation) to prevent fishing, or charging for private opinions. However, such inquisitions could proceed with minimal distraction by lawyers, the identity of witnesses was protected, tainted witness were allowed, and once found guilty of heresy there was no right to a lawyer. However, many inquisitors did not followed these rules scrupulously, notably from

3224-428: The "secular arm", would then determine the penalty based on local law. Those local laws included proscriptions against certain religious crimes, and the punishments included death by burning in regions where the secular law equated persistent heresy with sedition, although the penalty was more usually banishment or imprisonment for life, which was generally commuted after a few years. Thus the inquisitors generally knew

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3328-617: The 15th to 18th centuries. Portugal and Spain in the late Middle Ages consisted largely of multicultural territories of Muslim and Jewish influence, reconquered from Islamic control , and the new Christian authorities could not assume that all their subjects would suddenly become and remain orthodox Catholics. So the Inquisition in Iberia , in the lands of the Reconquista counties and kingdoms like León , Castile , and Aragon , had

3432-416: The 17th century, so some writers have dubbed the expression of such errors before this era as "pre-quietism". Ronald Knox , in his study of heterodox Christian movements, including Quietism, points out, however, that Quietism is less a heresy or school of thought than a "tendency," a "direction of the human mind" to exaggerate concepts that otherwise could be considered perfectly orthodox. He suggests that it

3536-588: The 17th-century Western Quietists are not characteristic of Greek hesychasm." In early Christianity, suspicion over forms of mystical teaching may be seen as controversies over Gnosticism in the second and third centuries, and over the Messalian heresy in the fourth and fifth centuries. Likewise, the twelfth and thirteenth-century Brethren of the Free Spirit , Beguines and Beghards were all accused of holding beliefs with similarities to those condemned in

3640-672: The Chancellor's Prize for Latin Verse Composition in 1910. In 1910, he was elected a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford . Interested in Anglo-Catholicism , Knox became a key member of Maurice Child 's fashionable "set". He would not begin tutorials until 1911, so during his sabbatical, he accepted the job of classics tutor to Harold Macmillan , the brother of a friend from Eton. When Macmillan's mother requested that Knox not speak to him about religion, he stopped

3744-514: The Church. Bloodier were the trials of the Waldensians in Austria in 1397, where more than a hundred Waldensians were burned at the stake. However, it seems that in these trials the death sentences represented only a small percentage of all the sentences, because according to the account of one of the inquisitors involved in these repressions, the number of heretics reconciled with the Church from Thuringia to Hungary amounted to about 2,000. In 1414,

3848-680: The Dominican inquisitor Andrew reconciled many heretics with the Church in the town of Skradin, but precise figures are unknown. The border areas with Bohemia and Austria were under major inquisitorial action against the Waldensians in the early 15th century. In addition, in the years 1436–1440 in the Kingdom of Hungary, the Franciscan Jacobo de la Marcha acted as an inquisitor... his mission was mixed, preaching and inquisitorial. The correspondence preserved between James, his collaborators,

3952-502: The Empire. The inquisitorial tribunal in papal Avignon, established in 1541, passed 855 death sentences, almost all of them (818) in the years 1566–1574, but the vast majority of them were pronounced in absentia. The Rhineland and Thuringia in the years 1231–1233 were the field of activity of the notorious inquisitor Konrad of Marburg. Unfortunately, the documentation of his trials has not been preserved, making it impossible to determine

4056-524: The Hungarian bishops and Pope Eugene IV shows that he reconciled up to 25,000 people with the Church. This correspondence also shows that he punished recalcitrant heretics with death, and in 1437 numerous executions were carried out in the diocese of Sirmium, although the number of those executed is also unknown. In Bohemia and Poland, the inquisition was established permanently in 1318, although anti-heretical repressions were carried out as early as 1315 in

4160-590: The Jesuits. "Shall I put you to the torture until you confess, my friends?" One of the Jesuits was Friedrich Spee , who thanked God he had been led to this insight by a friend, not an enemy. Very little is known about the activities of inquisitors in Hungary and the countries under its influence (Bosnia, Croatia), as there are few sources about this activity. Numerous conversions and executions of Bosnian Cathars are known to have taken place around 1239/40, and in 1268

4264-532: The Quietist controversy. Among the ideas seen as errors and condemned by the Council of Vienne (1311–12) are the propositions that humankind in the present life can attain such a degree of perfection as to become utterly sinless ; that the "perfect" have no need to fast or pray , but may freely grant the body whatsoever it craves. The Cathars ' denial of the need for sacerdotal rites has been perceived as

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4368-531: The Quietists (in other words, those who were devoted to the "prayer of quiet", an expression used by Teresa of Avila , John of the Cross and others), "Quietism" was a creation of its opponents, a somewhat artificial systematisation made on the basis of ecclesiastical condemnations and commentary upon them. No single author – even Molinos, generally seen as the main representative of Quietist thought – advocated all

4472-592: The Saints , to which Fénelon submitted at once. The Inquisition 's proceedings against remaining quietists in Italy lasted until the eighteenth century. Jean Pierre de Caussade , the Jesuit and author of the spiritual treatise Abandonment to Divine Providence , was forced to withdraw for two years (1731–1733) from his position as spiritual director to a community of nuns after he was suspected of Quietism (a charge of which he

4576-531: The Worlds ", which led to a similar panic among some American listeners. A 2005 BBC report also suggested that the Knox broadcast may have influenced Welles. The script of the broadcast is reprinted in Essays in Satire (1928) as "A Forgotten Interlude". The majority of novels of Knox's era, dubbed The Golden Age of Detective Fiction , were " whodunits " with codified rules to allow the reader to attempt to solve

4680-510: The adult inhabitants (5,471 people) were questioned, of whom 207 were found guilty of heresy. Of these 207, no one was sentenced to death, 23 were sentenced to prison and 184 to penance. Between 1246 and 1248, the inquisitors Bernard de Caux and Jean de Saint-Pierre handed down 192 sentences in Toulouse, of which 43 were sentences in absentia and 149 were prison sentences. In Pamiers in 1246/1247 there were 7 prison sentences [201] and in Limoux in

4784-575: The armed assistance of local secular authorities (e.g. military expeditions in 1338–1339 and 1366). In the years 1375–1393 (with some breaks), the Dauphiné was the scene of the activities of the inquisitor Francois Borel, who gained an extremely gloomy reputation among the locals. It is known that on July 1, 1380, he pronounced death sentences in absentia against 169 people, including 108 from the Valpute valley, 32 from Argentiere and 29 from Freyssiniere. It

4888-633: The bull Ad Abolendam (1184), which condemned heresy as contumacy toward ecclesiastical authority. The bull Vergentis in Senium in 1199 stipulated that heresy would be considered, in terms of punishment, equal to treason ( Lèse-majesté ) , and the punishment would be imposed also on the descendants of the condemned. The first Inquisition was temporarily established in Languedoc (south of France) in 1184. The murder of Pope Innocent III's papal legate Pierre de Castelnau by Cathars in 1208 sparked

4992-462: The county of Foix 156 people were sentenced to carry crosses. Between 1249 and 1257, in Toulouse, the inquisitors handed down 306 sentences, without counting the penitential sentences imposed during "times of grace". 21 people were sentenced to death, 239 to prison, in addition, 30 people were sentenced in absentia and 11 posthumously; In another five cases the type of sanction is unknown, but since they all involve repeat offenders, only prison or burning

5096-466: The episcopal inquisition, when more than 50 Waldensians were burned in various Silesian cities. The fragmentary surviving protocols of the investigations carried out by the Prague inquisitor Gallus de Neuhaus in the years 1335 to around 1353 mention 14 heretics burned out of almost 300 interrogated, but it is estimated that the actual number executed could have been even more than 200, and the entire process

5200-482: The evils they would commit"). Before the 12th century , the Catholic Church suppressed what they believed to be heresy , usually through a system of ecclesiastical proscription or imprisonment, but without using torture, and seldom resorting to executions. Such punishments were opposed by a number of clergymen and theologians, although some countries punished heresy with the death penalty . Pope Siricius , Ambrose of Milan , and Martin of Tours protested against

5304-622: The execution of Priscillian , largely as an undue interference in ecclesiastical discipline by a civil tribunal. Though widely viewed as a heretic, Priscillian was executed as a sorcerer. Ambrose refused to give any recognition to Ithacius of Ossonuba, "not wishing to have anything to do with bishops who had sent heretics to their death". In the 12th century, to counter the spread of Catharism , and other heresies, prosecution of heretics became more frequent. The Church charged councils composed of bishops and archbishops with establishing inquisitions (the Episcopal Inquisition ). Pope Lucius III issued

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5408-435: The expected fate of anyone so remanded. The "secular arm" didn't have access to the trial record of the defendants, only declared and executed the sentences and was obliged to do so on pain of heresy and excommunication. While the notational purpose of the trial itself was for the salvation of the individual by persuasion, according to the 1578 edition of the Directorium Inquisitorum (a standard manual for inquisitions)

5512-435: The fact he was not canonised until 1726 is largely due to seventeenth-century suspicions of beliefs similar to those termed "Quietist" later in the century. George Fox came to the conclusion that the only real spirituality was achieved by paying attention to the Holy Spirit (the Godhead) through silence, and founded the Quaker movement on this basis – one which shared much resemblance with "Quietist" thought. Quietist thinking

5616-414: The fall of Montsegur and the seizure of power in Toulouse by Count Alfonso de Poitiers , the percentage of death sentences increased to around 7% and remained at this level until the end of the Languedoc Inquisition around from 1330. Between 1245 and 1246, the inquisitor Bernard de Caux carried out a large-scale investigation in the area of Lauragais and Lavaur . He covered 39 villages, and probably all

5720-689: The fall of the fortress of Montsegur (1244), probably accounted for no more than 1% of all sentences. In addition to the cremation of the remains of the dead, a large percentage were also sentences in absentia and penances imposed on heretics who voluntarily confessed their faults (for example, in the years 1241–1242 the inquisitor Pierre Ceila reconciled 724 heretics with the Church). Inquisitor Ferrier of Catalonia, investigating Montauban between 1242 and 1244, questioned about 800 people, of whom he sentenced 6 to death and 20 to prison. Between 1243 and 1245, Bernard de Caux handed down 25 sentences of imprisonment and confiscation of property in Agen and Cahors. After

5824-419: The first few years, it was not very intense. France's first Dominican inquisitor, Robert le Bougre , working in the years 1233–1244, earned a particularly grim reputation. In 1236, Robert burned about 50 people in the area of Champagne and Flanders, and on May 13, 1239, in Montwimer, he burned 183 Cathars. Following Robert's removal from office, Inquisition activity in northern France remained very low. One of

5928-408: The first scholarship in 1900. At age 17, he privately vowed to remain celibate for life. Ronald proceeded to Balliol College, Oxford , where he won the first classics scholarship in 1904. He won several other scholarships and prizes during his time there: the Hertford Scholarship in 1907; the Craven and Ireland scholarships, as well as the Gaisford Prize for Greek Verse Composition in 1908; and

6032-419: The heretical behaviour of Catholic adherents or converts (including forced converts). As with sedition inquisitions, heresy inquisitions were supposed to use the standard inquisition procedures: these included that the defendant must be informed of the charges, has a right to a lawyer, and a right of appeal (to the Pope.) The inquisitor could only start a heresy proceeding if there was some broad public opinion of

6136-427: The honorific " monsignor ". Knox published extensively on religious, philosophical, and literary subjects. He also produced several popular works of detective fiction . He is remembered for his "Ten Commandments" for detective stories, which sought to codify a form of crime fiction in which the reader may participate by attempting to find a solution to the mystery before the fictional detective reveals it. Ronald Knox

6240-468: The initiative of bishops. In the years 1311–1315, numerous trials were held against the Waldensians in Austria, resulting in the burning of at least 39 people, according to incomplete records. In 1336, in Angermünde , in the diocese of Brandenburg, another 14 heretics were burned. The number of those convicted by the papal inquisitors was smaller. Walter Kerlinger burned 10 begards in Erfurt and Nordhausen in 1368–1369. In turn, Eylard Schöneveld burned

6344-439: The inquisition in this country was very diverse, both in terms of time and territory. In the first period (1233 to c. 1330), the courts of Languedoc ( Toulouse , Carcassonne ) are the most active. After 1330 the center of the persecution of heretics shifted to the Alpine regions , while in Languedoc they ceased almost entirely. In northern France, the activity of the inquisitors was irregular throughout this period and, except for

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6448-417: The inquisitions grew significantly in response to the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation . In 1542, a putative governing institution, the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition was created. The papal institution survived as part of the Roman Curia , although it underwent a series of name and focus changes. The opening of Spanish and Roman archives over

6552-410: The inquisitor Heinrich von Schöneveld arrested 84 flagellants in Sangerhausen , of whom he burned 3 leaders, and imposed penitential sentences on the rest. However, since this sect was associated with the peasant revolts in Thuringia from 1412, after the departure of the inquisitor, the local authorities organized a mass hunt for flagellants and, regardless of their previous verdicts, sent at least 168 to

6656-433: The inquisitors in the kingdom of France was effectively limited to clergymen, while local parliaments took over the jurisdiction of the laity. Between 1500 and 1560, 62 people were burned for heresy in the Languedoc, all of whom were convicted by the Parliament of Toulouse. Between 1657 and 1659, twenty-two alleged witches were burned on the orders of the inquisitor Pierre Symard in the province of Franche-Comté, then part of

6760-419: The inquisitors to absolve each other if they used instruments of torture. In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX (reigned 1227–1241) assigned the duty of carrying out inquisitions to the Dominican Order and Franciscan Order . By the end of the Middle Ages, England and Castile were the only large western nations without a papal inquisition. Most inquisitors were friars who taught theology and/or law in

6864-407: The instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisitio n). Later additions would be made, based on experience, many by the canonist Francisco Peña. With the sharpening of debate and of conflict between the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation , Protestant societies came to see/use the Inquisition as a terrifying " other ", while staunch Catholics regarded the Holy Office as

6968-490: The largest trials in the area took place in 1459–1460 at Arras ; 34 people were then accused of witchcraft and satanism, 12 of them were burned at the stake. The main center of the medieval inquisition was undoubtedly the Languedoc. The first inquisitors were appointed there in 1233, but due to strong resistance from local communities in the early years, most sentences concerned dead heretics, whose bodies were exhumed and burned. Actual executions occurred sporadically and, until

7072-450: The last 50 years has caused historians to substantially revise their understanding of the Inquisition, some to the extent of viewing previous views as "a body of legends and myths". Many famous instruments of torture are now considered fakes and propaganda. Today, the English term "Inquisition" is popularly applied to any one of the regional tribunals or later national institutions that worked against heretics or other offenders against

7176-443: The late 1300s: many inquisitors had theological not legal training. The overwhelming majority of guilty sentences with repentance seem to have consisted of penances like wearing a cross sewn on one's clothes or going on pilgrimage . When a suspect was convicted of major, wilful, unrepentant heresy, canon law required the inquisitorial tribunal to hand the person over to secular authorities for final sentencing. A secular magistrate,

7280-423: The mid 19th century. Only fragmentary data is available for the period before the Roman Inquisition of 1542. In 1276, some 170 Cathars were captured in Sirmione , who were then imprisoned in Verona , and there, after a two-year trial, on February 13 from 1278, more than a hundred of them were burned. In Orvieto , at the end of 1268/1269, 85 heretics were sentenced, none of whom were executed, but in 18 cases

7384-539: The mid-sixteenth century and in the writings of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross . Both were very active reformers and cautioned against a simple-minded "don't think anything" ( no pensar nada ) approach to meditation and contemplation; further, both acknowledged the authority of the Catholic Church and did not oppose its teaching concerning contemplative prayer. Thus, their work was not condemned as heresy, being consistent with Church teaching. This did not stop John's work, however, coming under suspicion after his death;

7488-474: The mitigation of sentences already served to convicted heretics; in 139 cases he exchanged prison for carrying crosses, and in 135 cases, carrying crosses for pilgrimage. To the full statistics, there are 22 orders to demolish houses used by heretics as meeting places and one condemnation and burning of Jewish writings (including commentaries on the Torah). The episcopal inquisition was also active in Languedoc. In

7592-451: The mystery before the detective. According to Knox, a detective story must have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end. He expanded upon this definition by giving ten rules of writing detective fiction: Inquisition The Inquisition

7696-560: The number of his victims. The chronicles only mention "many" heretics that he burned. The only concrete information is about the burning of four people in Erfurt in May 1232. After the murder of Konrad of Marburg, burning at the stake in Germany was virtually unknown for the next 80 years. It was not until the early fourteenth century that stronger measures were taken against heretics, largely at

7800-454: The penalties themselves were preventative not retributive: ... quoniam punitio non refertur primo & per se in correctionem & bonum eius qui punitur, sed in bonum publicum ut alij terreantur, & a malis committendis avocentur (translation: "... for punishment does not take place primarily and per se for the correction and good of the person punished, but for the public good in order that others may become terrified and weaned away from

7904-508: The positions that formed the Quietism of later Catholic doctrinal textbooks; as such, at least one author suggests that it is better to speak of a Quietist tendency or orientation, one which may be located in analogous forms through Christian history. Quietism is particularly associated with the writings of Miguel de Molinos . He published the Spiritual Guide in 1675. Molinos recommended absolute passivity and contemplation in total repose of

8008-420: The rack and asked her, "You are a confessed witch. I suspect these two men of being warlocks. What do you say? Another turn of the rack, executioners." "No, no!" screamed the woman. "You are quite right. I have often seen .. . They can turn themselves into goats, wolves, and other animals. ... Several witches have had children by them. ... The children had heads like toads and legs like spiders." The Duke then asked

8112-458: The sacrament the bread is changed into the body of Christ (see transubstantiation ) and the value of internal actions, which are wrought by the Godhead abiding within us, have often been linked to later Quietist heresies. In early sixteenth-century Spain, concern over a set of beliefs held by those known as alumbrados raised similar concerns to those of Quietism. These concerns continued into

8216-414: The secular courts for the application of local law, which generally resulted in execution or life imprisonment . If the accused was known to be lying, a single short application of non-maiming torture was allowed, to corroborate evidence. Inquisitions with the aim of combating religious sedition (e.g. apostasy or heresy ) had their start in the 12th-century Kingdom of France , particularly among

8320-530: The sentence concerned people who had already died. In Tuscany , the inquisitor Ruggiero burned at least 11 people in about a year (1244/1245). Excluding the executions of the heretics at Sirmione in 1278, 36 Inquisition executions are documented in the March of Treviso between 1260 and 1308. Ten people were executed in Bologna between 1291 and 1310. In Piedmont , 22 heretics (mainly Waldensians ) were burned in

8424-471: The spirit. He was aware of the focus in the writings of Ignatius of Loyola on meditation, and the likelihood that Jesuit writers would react poorly to any perceived attack on Ignatius’s thought. He said the meditation was an important stage of the spiritual life, but that it was well-established that in order to pass to the state of contemplation one must leave behind meditative practices. The doctrines of quietism were finally condemned by Pope Innocent XI in

8528-590: The stake (possibly up to 300) people. Inquisitor Friedrich Müller (d. 1460) sentenced to death 12 of the 13 heretics he had tried in 1446 at Nordhausen. In 1453 the same inquisitor burned 2 heretics in Göttingen . Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer , author of the Malleus Maleficarum , in his own words, sentenced 48 people to the stake in five years (1481–1486). Jacob Hoogstraten, inquisitor of Cologne from 1508 to 1527, sentenced four people to be burned at

8632-747: The stake in Paris in 1310 formally as a relapsed heretic, but also on account of her work " The Mirror of Simple Souls ", written, importantly, in the French vernacular. Margaret is truly unique in her thought, but that the perfected soul becomes free of virtue and of its obligations and of those of the church she states clearly in her work, which is a theme throughout. The condemnation of the ideas of Meister Eckhart in 1329 may also be seen as an instance of an analogous concern in Christian history. Eckhart's assertions that we are totally transformed into God just as in

8736-503: The stake. A duke of Brunswick in German was so shocked by the methods used by Inquisitors in his realm that he asked two famous Jesuit scholars to supervise. After careful study, the two 'told the Duke, "The Inquisitors are doing their duty. They are arresting only people who have been implicated by the confession of other witches."' The Duke then led the Jesuits to a woman being stretched on

8840-619: The tutoring. Knox was ordained an Anglican priest in 1912 and was appointed chaplain of Trinity College. During World War I , he served in military intelligence for the British Armed Forces. In 1915, Cyril Alington , the headmaster of Shrewsbury School , invited Knox to join the teaching staff. Knox was long remembered at Shrewsbury as the highly dedicated and entertaining form master of Vb. In 1917 Knox converted to Catholicism and resigned as Anglican chaplain, prompting his father to cut Knox out of his will. In 1918, Knox

8944-486: The universities. They used inquisitorial procedures , a common legal practice adapted from the earlier Ancient Roman court procedures. They judged heresy along with bishops and groups of "assessors" (clergy serving in a role that was roughly analogous to a jury or legal advisers), using the local authorities to establish a tribunal and to prosecute heretics. After 1200, a Grand Inquisitor headed but did not control each regional Inquisition. Grand Inquisitions persisted until

9048-805: The use of the inquisitors, the first in 1552 at the behest of the inquisitor Cardinal D. Henrique and the last in 1774, this sponsored by the Marquis of Pombal . The Portuguese 1640 Regiment determined that each court of the Holy Office should have a Bible, a compendium of canon and civil law, Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, and Diego de Simancas ' Catholicis institutionibus . In 1484, Spanish inquisitor Torquemada, based in Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum , wrote his twenty eight articles code, Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición (i.e. Compilation of

9152-422: The various manuals produced later, some stand out: by Nicholas Eymerich, Directorium Inquisitorum, written in 1376; by Bernardo Gui, Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, written between 1319 and 1323. Witches were not forgotten: the book Malleus Maleficarum ("the witches' hammer"), written in 1486, by Heinrich Kramer, deals with the subject. In Portugal, several "Regimentos" (four) were written for

9256-537: The years 1232–1234, the Bishop of Toulouse, Raymond, sentenced several dozen Cathars to death. In turn, Bishop Jacques Fournier of Pamiers (he was later Pope Benedict XII) in the years 1318–1325 conducted an investigation against 89 people, of whom 64 were found guilty and 5 were sentenced to death. After 1330, the center of activity of the French inquisitions moved east, to the Alpine regions, where there were numerous Waldensian communities. The repression against them

9360-548: The years 1312–1395 out of 213 convicted. 22 Waldensians were burned in Cuneo around 1440 and another five in the Marquisate of Saluzzo in 1510. There are also fragmentary records of a good number of executions of people suspected of witchcraft in northern Italy in the 15th and early 16th centuries. Wolfgang Behringer estimates that there could have been as many as two thousand executions. This large number of witches executed

9464-453: Was Madame Guyon, especially with her work A Short and Easy Method of Prayer , who claimed not to have known the teaching of Molinos directly, but certainly did have contact with François Malaval, a proponent of Molinos. Madame Guyon won an influential convert at the court of Louis XIV in Madame de Maintenon , and influenced the circle of devout Catholics in the court for a time. She was also

9568-451: Was a medieval Catholic judicial procedure where the ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases, and later a name for various State-organized tribunals whose aim was to combat heresy , apostasy , blasphemy , witchcraft , and other dangers, using this procedure. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances , but convictions of unrepentant heresy were handed over to

9672-420: Was a new, less arbitrary form of trial that replaced the denunciatio and accussatio process which required a denouncer or used an adversarial process, the most unjust being trial by ordeal and the secular Germanic trial by combat . These inquisitions, as church courts, had no jurisdiction over Muslims and Jews as such, to try or to protect them. Inquisitors 'were called such because they applied

9776-683: Was acquitted). Apatheia to the Stoics meant " equanimity ", the characteristic of the sage . The Stoics thought that living virtuously provided freedom from the passions , resulting in apatheia . In the Eastern Orthodox Church, an analogous dispute might be located in Hesychasm in which "the supreme aim of life on earth is the contemplation of the uncreated light whereby man is intimately united with God". However, according to Bishop Kallistos Ware , "The distinctive tenets of

9880-838: Was actually written by Queen Victoria . Another satirical essay, "Reunion All Round", mocked Anglican tolerance by appealing to the Anglican Church in Swiftean literary style to absorb Muslims, atheists, and even Catholics who had murdered Irish children. In 1954 Knox visited Julian Asquith and Anne Asquith in Zanzibar and John and Daphne Acton in Rhodesia. While in Africa, Knox began his translation of The Imitation of Christ . After returning to Mells in England, he started translating Thérèse of Lisieux's Autobiography of

9984-436: Was also high in other cities, such as Córdoba , Valencia , and Barcelona. One of the consequences of these pogroms was the mass conversion of thousands of surviving Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. However, this was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that

10088-649: Was also influential among the British Quakers of the later 19th century, when the tract A Reasonable Faith, by Three Friends ( William Pollard , Francis Frith and W. E. Turner (1884 and 1886)) caused sharp controversy with evangelicals in the society. The Capuchin friar Benet Canfield (1562–1611), an English Catholic living in Belgium , espoused quietism in a tract called Way of Perfection , on deep prayer and meditation. Ronald Knox Ronald Arbuthnott Knox (17 February 1888 – 24 August 1957)

10192-459: Was an English Catholic priest, theologian , author, and radio broadcaster. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford , where he earned a high reputation as a classicist , Knox was ordained as a priest of the Church of England in 1912. He was a fellow and chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford until he resigned from those positions following his conversion to Catholicism in 1917. Knox became

10296-567: Was born into an Anglican family in Kibworth , Leicestershire , England. His father was the Rev. Edmund Arbuthnott Knox , who later became the Bishop of Manchester in the Church of England , and who was related by marriage to the 8th Viscount of Arbuthnott . Ronald was educated at Eaton House School in London and Summer Fields School in Oxford. He then entered Eton College , where he took

10400-460: Was brought to Westminster Cathedral . Bishop George L. Craven celebrated the requiem Mass and Fr Martin D'Arcy preached the panegyric. Knox was buried in the churchyard of St Andrew's Church, Mells . In January 1926, on BBC Radio , Knox presented Broadcasting the Barricades, a simulated live report of revolution in London. The broadcast reported the lynching of several people, including

10504-541: Was covered to varying degrees by some 4,400 people. In the lands belonging to the Kingdom of Poland little is known of the activities of the Inquisition until the appearance of the Hussite heresy in the 15th century. Polish courts of the inquisition in the fight against this heresy issued at least 8 death sentences for some 200 trials carried out. There are 558 court cases finished with conviction researched in Poland from

10608-532: Was not continuous and was very ineffective. Data on sentences issued by inquisitors are fragmentary. In 1348, 12 Waldensians were burned in Embrun , and in 1353/1354 as many as 168 received penances. In general, however, few Waldensians fell into the hands of the inquisitors, for they took refuge in hard-to-reach mountainous regions, where they formed close-knit communities. Inquisitors operating in this region, in order to be able to conduct trials, often had to resort to

10712-604: Was ordained a Catholic priest and in 1919 joined the staff of St Edmund's College in Ware, Hertfordshire, remaining there until 1926. Knox explained his spiritual journey in A Spiritual Aeneid , published by Longmans in 1918. Knox stated that his conversion was influenced in part by G. K. Chesterton , who was a High Church Anglican at the time, but not yet a Catholic. In 1922, Chesterton converted to Catholicism and said that Knox had influenced his decision. Knox wrote and broadcast on Christianity and other subjects. While chaplain at

10816-465: Was probably because some inquisitors took the view that the crime of witchcraft was exceptional, which meant that the usual rules for heresy trials did not apply to its perpetrators. Many alleged witches were executed even though they were first tried and pleaded guilty, which under normal rules would have meant only canonical sanctions, not death sentences. The episcopal inquisition was also active in suppressing alleged witches: in 1518, judges delegated by

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