The Inquisition was effective as a weapon against the Reformation. It has been estimated that the Church murdered an astounding 50 million human beings over the period of the Inquisition, which, shockingly, did not end until the 19th century.
That seems like a very high overestimation of deaths from the inquisition. Estimates range from 2,000 to 300,000, with most of them being on the lower end of that range.
"Finally, only 2,000 were executed, a small percentage of the 100,000 put on trial."
catholiceducation.org
(Note that estimate only includes the Spanish Inquisition)
That's an important note. Apparently, the Inquisition occurred all over Europe and went on for 600 years.
While 50 million may be high [I really have no idea], the 2000 figure cited by the Catholic Church sounds defensively low. I am sure many more than 2k died in the Spanish Inquisition.
Having said that, I really don't want to argue the issue. For many centuries, the Catholic Church was an incredibly corrupt and evil institution. Its pathetic that they were in the vanguard of Christianity. And even today, they continue shock us with unpleasant headlines like the molestation of altar boys.
ted |
