Misconceptions all around middle ages, it seems.
Inquisition is the most subject to that.
First of all, middle age is a long, long period. 30 generations of our ancestors lived in middle ages.
It lasted from 476 to 1492.
Inquisition was, in the beginning, tribunal oriented to process chatar heretics.
And with beginning i mean 1184. Before that, it did not existed. It was no more the carolingian middle age, it was almost the communal age. Not even 100 years later Dante would have been born.
Torture was forbidden until 1254 when a pope permitted it. That was pig Innocenzo IV. But do not calm him pig, he is an ex pope. I can because I despise chatolic church but if you believe..
... And it was not used.
Really.
Inquisition in middle age was a process where the best outcome for the church was to have the accused to abjure. It meant he recognized that church was right. Remember that those were all about heresy until 1284.
In Tolouse we had, at the start of 1300, almost 700 trials.
Only one time torture was used.
And when someone did not repent, the church... Raised hands and sent him to a regular tribunal.
"But, Mel, this means that tortures and stakes were a myth?" nope. They existed... But at the end of the so infamous dark age, which was not a dark age.
Do not confuse Inquisition with which hunting.
And even there, not even 100 years after the start, people already were starting to raise questions and doubts upon it.
People were not dumb as we think. Expecially since in the reign of Napoli there were no Inquisition tribunals because the population strongly opposed it.
Medieval peopleived not so much in the dark as we claim it to be.
