The religious and ideological rise of the Church during the Middle Ages distinctly marked Europe between the 5th and 15th centuries. Counting on churches, monasteries and cathedrals scattered throughout this territory, and supported by various political authorities of the time, Catholicism seemed to have complete hegemony in this period. Despite this, we cannot think that the Middle Ages was the period where a type of absolute subservience was silently experienced.
At that time, especially in the Late Middle Ages, heretics faced the rigid doctrinal orientation of the Catholic clergy. Influenced by ancient pagan religions or giving different interpretations to Christian ideas, many aspired to a different type of religious experience. As a result, from the 13th century onwards, the first investigations were authorized by the Church against those who represented a threat to the “Body of Christ”.
Soon after, the so-called “Militia of Jesus Christ” was the first prominent group of clerics responsible for persecuting the “disobedient”. Counting on the help of local authorities, these “faith inspectors” already used torture and the bonfire as ways to veto the advance of other religiosities. One of its most notorious members was Nicolau Aymerich, author of an Inquisition manual that guided efficient methods of investigation and punishment of heretics.
During the 15th century, the inquisitorial movement suffered a relative decline, taking effect years later with the intense participation of the Hispanic kingdoms. The revival of the Inquisition took place thanks to the interest of Spanish Catholic kings in taking possession of the wealth accumulated by Jews who, traditionally, were engaged in commercial activities.
This economic motivation unfolded precisely when that nation was dealing with the expulsion of Muslims from the Iberian Peninsula and with the first phases of the maritime-commercial expansion project. In this way, the religious motivation, which over the centuries demonized the Jews, was allied to the economic interests of the national state in formation. As a result, we note that in the Modern Inquisition several investigators were appointed by the State itself.
In Portugal, where the presence of Jews in commerce was very strong, King Manuel I preferred to establish the forced conversion of Jews in 1497. This measure, instead of pacifying the process, only intensified the tempers between Christians and Christian- new (ex-Jews). Born Catholics viewed the religious conversion of Jews with suspicion. As a result, several episodes of violence occurred in the early 16th century.
No longer sustaining this conflicting situation, King Dom João III preferred the authorization to install the domains of the Tribunal do Santo Oficio in Portugal. In this way, the Iberian countries became one of the main focuses of the Inquisition's activities. As they were nations that had a large number of colonial domains in America, the Court was also installed on the continent in order to regulate religiosity in the colonies.
Even with a series of values far removed from the current ones, this practice marked one of the bloodiest episodes of religious intolerance in all of history. The trials and sentences announced by the Church were responsible for more than 50,000 deaths around the world. The vast majority of victims were women, who were usually convicted of practicing witchcraft.
In seeking the hegemony of the faith, the Catholicism of that time used means that today cause shame, even to Catholics themselves. Physical punishment and deaths at that time were disconnected from individualism and humanism, values that prevailed in many contemporary Western societies.
Punishment was considered an instrument of revelation by which the defendant would have a dimension of his sins or guarantee his spiritual salvation. In this way, we must be careful when summarizing the acts of the Inquisition as a type of violence endowed with values corresponding to the concepts of perversity or inhumanity commonly recognized by the current world.
With that, we must see the Inquisition as a kind of historical experience regrettable in its consequences. The very action of the Church in recognizing, in the year 2000, the disastrous nature of its actions, shows us how we must relativize our gaze through a world of values and ideas that, however horrifying, is visibly distant from our present.