Beginning in the 12th century, the Roman Catholic Church tried to get rid of what they called, heretics. They accomplished this by establishing a group of priests whose job was to find and punish heretics. This group was called the Inquisition.
The purpose of the establishment wasn’t really to help reform the heretical preachers, but to scare others into submission.
Before the Inquisition, the Church would only forbid certain teachings and sometimes imprison them. But with the establishment of the Inquisition, torture and other means of punishment were added to get rid of heretics and their teachings. Generally, the Inquisition would turn the heretics over to the church to await their sentence.
In 1484, the Inquisition even took measures to eliminate “witches” and “wizards.” People began blaming innocent people for poor harvests and bad weather.
Then in 1478, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain desired to outlaw Islam and Judaism. They did this through the Spanish Inquisition. In 1492, the Spanish Inquisition forced all the Muslims and Jews in Spain to leave the country or convert to Christianity. Some Jews fled from Spain to Portugal and were safe there for a time, but later a Portuguese Inquisition was established. Initiated by the pope, it persecuted the Jews and forced them to convert to Christianity. Instead of only affecting everyone within a certain religion, the Spanish Inquisition affected all conflicting religions to Catholicism.
The Inquisition lasted 7 or 8 centuries, from the 12th to 20th centuries. By the 19th century, the Inquisition was destroyed everywhere outside of the papal states.
Despite the truthfulness to the teachings and questions of the heretics, they were punished, often by death.
John Wycliffe and Jan Huss’ teachings led to the Reformation. Even though the church tried to halt the Reformation, it couldn’t be stopped. The Reformation has shaped the world into what it is today.
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