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The Inquisition: Hammer of Heresy
The Inquisition inspired fear for centuries. This clear and objective account of the most notorious institutions of medieval Europe now called "The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith" covers its activities in Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Latin America.
253 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1984
2 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Edward Burman
17 books3 followersEdward Burman nació en Cambridge en 1947.
Graduado en la Universidad de Cambridge, se licenció en Filosofía en la de Leeds.
Después de graduarse, impartió clases en diversas universidades italianas y más tarde trabajó como editor para el gobierno persa. Actualmente dirige una empresa financiera y reside en Pekín.
Entre sus obras destacan Los secretos de la Inquisición y El último templario, ambas grandes éxitos internacionales. Sus novelas se asientan en la historia y cultura europea, con buena documentación y ajuste a la realidad histórica.
Graduado en la Universidad de Cambridge, se licenció en Filosofía en la de Leeds.
Después de graduarse, impartió clases en diversas universidades italianas y más tarde trabajó como editor para el gobierno persa. Actualmente dirige una empresa financiera y reside en Pekín.
Entre sus obras destacan Los secretos de la Inquisición y El último templario, ambas grandes éxitos internacionales. Sus novelas se asientan en la historia y cultura europea, con buena documentación y ajuste a la realidad histórica.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
October 4, 2020
Los Secretos de la Inquisición es un libro muy serio, cuyo autor es un historiador muy renombrado en asuntos de este tipo, particularmente sobre el tema inquisitorio y de los caballeros templarios. Por serio, me refiero a que el libro no es de esos que suelen tener tonos amarillistas; es un libro histórico, en donde con total sagacidad se explica (los capítulos van en orden cronológico) los diversos eventos que pasaron de una institución religiosa, a una institución con un arma política.
Es importante conocer que el origen de esta institución como tal, se dio con el único fin de mantener la hegemonía (status quo) de la cristiandad, como religión predominante en Occidente, tal y como ocurrió entre los primeros 400 años después del nacimiento de Cristo, con los paganos politeístas que aún conservaban las creencias de los dioses del panteón grecorromano.
Posteriormente, con la demanda de recursos para fines escolásticos-monásticos, los cuales tenían como base la adquisición de terrenos y vivienda por medio de las condenas de la propia inquisición, pasó a convertirse en un arma de índole política, la misma que tuvo repercusiones en el ámbito económico, social, político, científico, sin mencionar en la construcción de una manera de pensar conservadora, ligada a actividades técnico-legales en deficiencia. Ciertamente con el Santo Oficio, esa máxima de "Ivs et veritas" no bastaba.
Un libro histórico y documental que contiene algunas ilustraciones, y narraciones de primera mano sobre las torturas que se cometían a los herejes, empezando por los cátaros, los valdenses, los judíos, los bienandantes, los moros y bueno, finalmente sobre la figura de la mujer convertida en ese despojo lleno de odio llamado "bruja".
Es importante conocer que el origen de esta institución como tal, se dio con el único fin de mantener la hegemonía (status quo) de la cristiandad, como religión predominante en Occidente, tal y como ocurrió entre los primeros 400 años después del nacimiento de Cristo, con los paganos politeístas que aún conservaban las creencias de los dioses del panteón grecorromano.
Posteriormente, con la demanda de recursos para fines escolásticos-monásticos, los cuales tenían como base la adquisición de terrenos y vivienda por medio de las condenas de la propia inquisición, pasó a convertirse en un arma de índole política, la misma que tuvo repercusiones en el ámbito económico, social, político, científico, sin mencionar en la construcción de una manera de pensar conservadora, ligada a actividades técnico-legales en deficiencia. Ciertamente con el Santo Oficio, esa máxima de "Ivs et veritas" no bastaba.
Un libro histórico y documental que contiene algunas ilustraciones, y narraciones de primera mano sobre las torturas que se cometían a los herejes, empezando por los cátaros, los valdenses, los judíos, los bienandantes, los moros y bueno, finalmente sobre la figura de la mujer convertida en ese despojo lleno de odio llamado "bruja".
July 14, 2010
When I teach the unit on Medieval Iberia for my "History of Games" class, I usually focus on the 13th and 14th centuries and tell my class that the Spanish Inquisition really took hold in the late 15th century (circa 1478). However, I was very unsatisfied with that point because I realized that I was unfamiliar with the history of the Inquisition as a whole. Edward Burman's The Inquisition: The Hammer of Heresy serves as a corrective to my ignorance.
Did you know that there is still a spiritual descendant to the Inquisition? In 1995, it's name was changed from the "Congregation of the Holy Office" to "The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" and the current pope was once in charge of it. Of course, we don't see the use of torture and persecution in the current office, but Burman (without being a Catholic apologist) observes that much of the abuse and horrifying torture we ascribe to the Inquisition was actually perpetrated by secular authorities who used the idea of preserving the faith as an opportunity for establishing their own power. Yet, Burman describes some horrifying statistics of heretic burnings that cannot be totally off-loaded to the secular authorities.
Certainly, one of my "take-away" lessons from the book is a warning to modern civilizations who too easily give away their civil liberties for some nice-sounding higher cause. The possibilities for corruption (of the Inquisitors) were ever-present. In the 14th century, Inquisitors were granted full indulgences (an opportunity for license to licentiousness?), allowed to sell off the confiscated goods of convicted heretics (even though the Dominicans and Franciscans were usually Inquisitors and had sworn a vow of poverty, there is ample evidence that this money was kept by aggrandizing Inquisitors), and able to accuse individuals of high social standing and high office with impunity (hence, the possibility of using an accusation for gaining political/social power or revenge). (See p. 53, also 201, 222, 223.)
While not dwelling on the techniques of torture, Burman cites the six most common types of torture used in the Inquisition: 1) the ordeal of water (sort of like medieval waterboarding except the victim was forced to drink jug after jug or skin after skin of water until they risked drowning), 2) the ordeal of fire (not what you think -- this isn't burning them up, it's placing portions of the body, greased with animal fat, close to the fire so that one is literally being gradually cooked), 3) the strappado (sometimes called the "pulley torture," a manacled prisoner with hands tied behind his/her back would be pulled up by those tied hands until suspended to hang heavily in the air, painfully by the wrists), 4) the wheel (again, not what you'd think, but one was tied to a cartwheel to be stretched out and exposed before being beaten with bars, clubs, and hammers), 5) the rack, and 6) the stivaletto (or brodequins, where thick boards are roped to the victim's legs as tightly as possible so that when metal wedges were hammered between the boards and the legs to cause the pressure to force the rope into the victim's flesh). The worst thing about these means of torture was that they were used on "suspects," not "convicted" heretics, used as a means to gain "confession." (see pp. 64-65)
I was also amused how some things never change. At one point, accused heretics sometimes "plea bargained" for the "lesser" charge of sorcery (p. 90). Burman also writes of how the Inquisition, much like any institution which wanted to continue justifying its existence, was sometimes guilty of creating heresies in order to fulfill its self-justifying need for heresies in order to exist (p. 104).
Prior to reading this book, I was unaware of Pope John XXII's fascination with and fear of magic (pp. 100-101), even to the attempt of using a curved silver horn to try to ward off evil spells. I also learned that St. Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between astrology (which he deemed acceptable) and necromancy (which he deemed reliant upon demonic forces and hence, unacceptable). What was interesting to me was that he felt the need to make this distinction in the Summa Theologica (citing from II-II, 96, 2 on p. 124).
Of course, I was fascinated by reading Burman's summary of the books banned by the Inquisition. My own short list of banned books that surprised me includes: An Enquiry into the Place and Nature of Hell (a 1743 work by an English Protestant); the entire works of Dumas, Hobbes, Hume, Voltaire, and Zola; Henri Bergson's Creative Evolution; Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason; John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Jean Jacques Rousseau's Du Contract Social; Daniel Defoe's History of the Devil; and Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And that's only a sampling (from pp. 211-212).
The Inquisition: The Hammer of Heresy is a well-documented summary of the uses and abuses of a historical institution that has been rightfully maligned and denigrated, but rarely understood within its context. Burman offers an easy-to-read approach that is both sound and objective in its approach. He neither vilifies nor sanctifies this sad institution designed to enforce orthodoxy.
Did you know that there is still a spiritual descendant to the Inquisition? In 1995, it's name was changed from the "Congregation of the Holy Office" to "The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith" and the current pope was once in charge of it. Of course, we don't see the use of torture and persecution in the current office, but Burman (without being a Catholic apologist) observes that much of the abuse and horrifying torture we ascribe to the Inquisition was actually perpetrated by secular authorities who used the idea of preserving the faith as an opportunity for establishing their own power. Yet, Burman describes some horrifying statistics of heretic burnings that cannot be totally off-loaded to the secular authorities.
Certainly, one of my "take-away" lessons from the book is a warning to modern civilizations who too easily give away their civil liberties for some nice-sounding higher cause. The possibilities for corruption (of the Inquisitors) were ever-present. In the 14th century, Inquisitors were granted full indulgences (an opportunity for license to licentiousness?), allowed to sell off the confiscated goods of convicted heretics (even though the Dominicans and Franciscans were usually Inquisitors and had sworn a vow of poverty, there is ample evidence that this money was kept by aggrandizing Inquisitors), and able to accuse individuals of high social standing and high office with impunity (hence, the possibility of using an accusation for gaining political/social power or revenge). (See p. 53, also 201, 222, 223.)
While not dwelling on the techniques of torture, Burman cites the six most common types of torture used in the Inquisition: 1) the ordeal of water (sort of like medieval waterboarding except the victim was forced to drink jug after jug or skin after skin of water until they risked drowning), 2) the ordeal of fire (not what you think -- this isn't burning them up, it's placing portions of the body, greased with animal fat, close to the fire so that one is literally being gradually cooked), 3) the strappado (sometimes called the "pulley torture," a manacled prisoner with hands tied behind his/her back would be pulled up by those tied hands until suspended to hang heavily in the air, painfully by the wrists), 4) the wheel (again, not what you'd think, but one was tied to a cartwheel to be stretched out and exposed before being beaten with bars, clubs, and hammers), 5) the rack, and 6) the stivaletto (or brodequins, where thick boards are roped to the victim's legs as tightly as possible so that when metal wedges were hammered between the boards and the legs to cause the pressure to force the rope into the victim's flesh). The worst thing about these means of torture was that they were used on "suspects," not "convicted" heretics, used as a means to gain "confession." (see pp. 64-65)
I was also amused how some things never change. At one point, accused heretics sometimes "plea bargained" for the "lesser" charge of sorcery (p. 90). Burman also writes of how the Inquisition, much like any institution which wanted to continue justifying its existence, was sometimes guilty of creating heresies in order to fulfill its self-justifying need for heresies in order to exist (p. 104).
Prior to reading this book, I was unaware of Pope John XXII's fascination with and fear of magic (pp. 100-101), even to the attempt of using a curved silver horn to try to ward off evil spells. I also learned that St. Thomas Aquinas made a distinction between astrology (which he deemed acceptable) and necromancy (which he deemed reliant upon demonic forces and hence, unacceptable). What was interesting to me was that he felt the need to make this distinction in the Summa Theologica (citing from II-II, 96, 2 on p. 124).
Of course, I was fascinated by reading Burman's summary of the books banned by the Inquisition. My own short list of banned books that surprised me includes: An Enquiry into the Place and Nature of Hell (a 1743 work by an English Protestant); the entire works of Dumas, Hobbes, Hume, Voltaire, and Zola; Henri Bergson's Creative Evolution; Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason; John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Jean Jacques Rousseau's Du Contract Social; Daniel Defoe's History of the Devil; and Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And that's only a sampling (from pp. 211-212).
The Inquisition: The Hammer of Heresy is a well-documented summary of the uses and abuses of a historical institution that has been rightfully maligned and denigrated, but rarely understood within its context. Burman offers an easy-to-read approach that is both sound and objective in its approach. He neither vilifies nor sanctifies this sad institution designed to enforce orthodoxy.
March 7, 2014
Excellent overview of the history of the Inquisition from its inception in the 12th century to its eventual dissolution in the 1700's. The focus of my research is specifically the Spanish Inquisition of the late 15th century, but it is useful to have a decent sense of the big picture, i.e., the full sweep of the inquisition from start to finish. Excellent writing style, very readable.
March 31, 2013
gotta love a book about the inquisition.... 'The Inquisition burns and tortures in order to perpetuate a creed, a ritual and an ecclesiastico-politico-financial organization regarded as necessary to man's salvation' Aldous Huxley nailed it!
June 5, 2023
For claiming to be objective it comes across as overly apologetic for the inquisition at times. And there's just oddities like yes, technically the inquisition didn't participate in the witch hunts in Protestant countries, but the book also points out the inquisition both created and validated the existence of witchcraft on which the whole enterprise was based, so I would think that implies some culpability. Fundamentally the author asks at the end, was maintaining the Christianity worth it? Which I think tips the hand so to speak since the purpose was specifically to maintain one type of Christianity i.e temporal Catholicism. And while the author might prefer to leave that an open question... I rather think this serves to make it quite clear that Christianity as an organized political force has outstayed it's expiration date by at least 800 years.
October 19, 2018
A superb and thorough work on the history of the Inquisition in thirteenth century Europe. Burman's writing style is quite matter-of-fact, but this doesn't water down the seemingly appalling nature of the events he writes about. This book will certainly shed a great degree of light onto the Inquisition for the uninitiated including the economical, political, and scientific repercussions of the nearly 4 decade long Inquisition.
July 23, 2019
A rather dry, yet well-researched exploration into one of the Catholic Church's most embarrassing eras. And now it's dealing with another embarrassment.
July 9, 2013
Extremely dry text. It's not terribly long, but it feels even longer when you are slogging through it. I found the author's position confusing - he seemed to vascillate between admonishing the Inquisition apologists and being an apologist himself. For example, he calls the inquisitors "honest men working painstakingly for their faith" while in another part giving examples of how some of these inquisitors would confiscate the accused's property for their own enrichment. And how 'painstaking' was their job when they were the inflictors of pain? Reminds me of my dad telling me that the spanking I just got hurt him more than it hurt me. Elsewhere, he talks about the leniency of the inquisitors, saying they would give rewards to penitent heretics, but if that reward is given just to encourage people to accuse others, sometimes falsely, is that really lenient? He calls the most atrocious practice that of digging up the bodies of heretics who managed to escape the inquisition by dying and burning the corpses, sometimes multiple times. Granted, that's taking the whole zealot thing to a new level, but to say that was worse than the torture inflicted on living, feeling human beings is crazy. He also says the Inquisition courts are no worse than the secular courts of the same age. One would assume that a secular court would be trying mostly criminals, not a woman who just refused to eat pork and changed her linens on a Saturday, for example. I found myself just wanting the guy to pick a side - maybe I would have preferred if he would have chosen my side, but I don't feel that he was being as noncommital as he thought he was being.
March 29, 2011
At times fair-minded, but mostly sympathetic to the idea of under-emphasizing the role of the Catholic Church in the Inquisition. Interesting to learn that up until his recent election, the current Pope was the head of the Inquisition.
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September 21, 2010This is a more even-handed treatment of the Spanish Inquisition that much else that I had read before. It includes information about the Inquisition and witch hunts in other countries.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews