"The Christian resolve to find the world evil and ugly, has made the world evil and ugly."
- Friedrich Nietzsche

We have all heard of the martyrs of Christians by the early Roman emperors; however, what many people don't know is that many millions more actually suffered similar fates at the hands of the catholic church for daring to oppose its doctrine.

Today, the Catholic church does not have the power it once had;  yet, we have witnessed
the Christian abuses of children, child rape, molestation and other vile
acts that reveal the true nature of many Christians and the effects their
"god" has upon his followers. The pedophilia scandals are just a small
sample of what some so-called Christians are capable of.

Years ago, when the catholic church had complete control over
government, human life and spirit, we can see from the inquisition, just
how sick these people were and just what lengths they would go to get one
to accept "Jesus."
Just as is seen in the numerous abuses of
children today, years ago, with the inquisition, girls as young as nine
and boys as young as ten were tried for witchcraft.
Children much
younger were tortured to extract testimony against their parents.¹
Children were then flogged while they watched their parents burn.
A
documented case in the Silesian town of Neisse reveals a huge oven was
constructed, which over a ten year period, more than a thousand
"condemned witches, some as young as two years old" were roasted alive.²
Many victims were also extremely old, some in their 80's. This made no
difference to the church.
The catholic church murdered, tortured, mutilated and destroyed millions
and millions of lives, both directly through the Inquisition and
indirectly through all of the wars they incited.
The damage and
destruction this religion has perpetrated against humanity is
almost beyond comprehension.
Most people aren't even aware of the facts.
Between the years of 1450-1600, the Catholic church was responsible for the
torture, and burning of some 30,000 alleged "witches."³
During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine CE 306-337 the
doctrines of the church were regarded as the foundation of law.⁴ Heretics (persons who opposed church teachings) were sought out,
tortured and eventually murdered. Heresy was an offense against the
state as well as the church. For hundreds of years, civil rulers tried
to stamp out all heresy.
As early as CE 430, the church leaders declared heresy punishable by
death. In CE 906, "The Canon Episcopi" was the first church body to
expressly forbid the use of witchcraft.⁵ Before the Inquisition was fully underway, the church accepted heretics
back into the fold, under terms it considered reasonable. The following
is an example:

For three Sundays, the heretic was stripped to the waist and whipped
from the entrance of the town/village all the way to the church door.
He/she was to permanently deny him/herself meat, eggs and cheese
except on Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, when he/she is to eat of them as a
sign of his/her penance. For twenty days, twice a year he/she was to
avoid fish and for 3 days in each week fish, wine and oil, fasting, if
his/her health would permit.
He/she was to wear monastic vestments with a small cross sewn on
each breast. He/she was to hear mass daily. Seven times a day, he/she
was to recite the canonical hours and in addition, at Paternoster ten
times each day and twenty times each night.

He/she was to observe total abstinence from sex. Every month he/she
was to report to a priest who was to keep the heretic under close
observation. He/she was to be segregated from the rest of the community.⁶

There is no actual date for the beginning of the Inquistion; but most
sources agree it manifested during the first 6 years of the reign of the
catholic pope, Gregory IX, between 1227 and 1233. Pope Gregory IX who
ruled from 1227-1241 is often referred to as the "Father of the
Inquisition."
The Inquisition was a campaign of torture, mutilation, mass murder
and destruction of human life perpetrated by the church. The church
increased in power until it had total control over human life, both
secular and religious.

The Vatican wasn't satisfied with the progress made by regional
leaders in rooting out heresy. Pope Innocent III commissioned his own
inquisitors who answered directly to him. Their authority was made
official in the papal bull of March 25th, 1199.⁷Innocent
declared "anyone who attempted to construe a personal view of god which
conflicted with the church dogma must be burned without pity."⁸

In 1254, to ease the job of the inquisitors, Pope Innocent IV decreed
that accusers could remain anonymous, preventing the victims from
confronting them and defending themselves. Many churches had a chest
where informants could slip written accusations against their neighbors.
Three years later, he authorized and officially condoned torture as a
method of extracting confessions of heresy. ⁹
Victims were tortured in one room,


then, if they confessed, they were led away from the chamber into another room to confess to the inquisitors.

This way it could be claimed the confessions were given without the use
of force. The Inquisitional law replaced common law. Instead of
innocent until proven guilty, it was guilty until proven innocent.
Inquisitors grew very rich, accepting bribes and fines from the
wealthy who paid to avoid being prosecuted. The wealthy were prime
targets for the church who confiscated their property, land and
everything they had for generations.
The Inquisition took over all of
the victims' possessions upon accusation. There was very little if any
chance of proving one's self innocent, so this is one way the catholic
church grew very wealthy.
Pope Innocent stated that since "god" punished
children for the sins of their parents, they had no right to be legal
heirs to the property of their parents. Unless children came forth
freely to denounce their parents, they were left penniless.
Inquisitors
even accused the dead of heresy, in some cases, as much as seventy
years after their death. They exhumed and burned the accused's bones and
confiscated all property from their heirs, leaving them with nothing. ¹⁰
The actions of the inquisitors had devastating effects on the economy
that left entire communities totally impoverished while the church
glutted with wealth.
They also crippled the economy by holding certain
professions suspect. Inquisitors believed the printed word to be a
threat to the church and interfered with the communication brought about
by the invention of the printing press in the 15th century.
Maps,
cartographers, traveling merchants and traders were all placed under
intense suspicion; a threat to the church.
Although the church had begun murdering people it deemed heretics in
the 4th century and again in 1022 at Orléan, papal statutes of 1231
insisted heretics suffer death by fire.
Burning people to death
prevented spilling of blood.
John 15:6 "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and
is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they
are burned."
The Nazarene quote incited all of this.
The pedophilia witnessed today is just a small example of the
insanity and their twisted, warped minds and where any power
that they obtain leads to.
The Witch hunts, 1450-1750 were what R
H Robbins (The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft and Demonology) called "the
shocking nightmare, the foulest crime and deepest shame of western
civilization."
In this 300 year period, the church stepped up the mass
murder and systematic torture of innocent human beings. Torturers were
allowed as much time as they needed to torture their victims.
Most
courts demanded that prior to the torture, the victim be thoroughly
shaved, claiming that any Demon left undetected in the victim's body
hair might intervene to deaden the pain that the torturers inflicted or
answer for the victim.¹¹
Doctors would be in attendance if it seemed the victim might die from
the torture. The victim would then be allowed to recover a little
before more torture was applied. If the victim died during the torture,
inquisitors claimed the Devil intervened with the purpose of sparing the
victim further pain or preventing them from revealing his secrets.¹²
Those who fainted had vinegar poured into their nostrils to revive
them. The victim's families were required under law to reimburse the
courts for the costs of torture.
Entire estates were seized by the
church. Priests blessed the torture instruments prior to their being
used. Certain devices were employed to inflict the maximum pain.
Judas Cradle

The victim was pulled up by a rope or chain and then lowered to the
point. The torturer controlled the pressure by attaching weights to the
victim or rocking or raising and dropping the victim from various
heights.
Brodequin (The Boots)


The brodequin was used to crush the legs by tightening the device by
hand, or using a mallet for knocking in the wedges to smash the bones
until the bone marrow spurted out. People who passed out were further
condemned as the losing of consciousness to be a trick from the Devil in
order to escape pain.
Burning the feet. Oil, lard and grease were applied to the feet
before roasting them over a fire. A screen was used to control or
increase the pain as exposure to the fire was applied on and off for
maximum suffering. Also, as a variation, some victims were forced to
wear large leather or metal boots into which boiling water or molten
lead was poured.


Hanging and the Strappado


The victim's hands were bound behind the back. They were then yanked
up to the ceiling of the torture chamber by a pulley and a rope.
Dislocation ensued. 
Heavy weights were often strapped to the victim to
increase the pain and suffering.

Squassation was a more extreme form of the torture. This method
entailed strapping weights as much as hundreds of pounds, pulling limbs
from their sockets. Following this, the inquisitor would quickly
release the rope so they would fall towards the floor. At the last
second, the inquisitioner would again yank the rope. This
dislocated virtually every bone in the victim's body. Four applications
were considered enough to kill even the strongest of victims.

Many were hung upsidedown as well until strangulation ensued.
Heretic's Fork



This device was often used to silence the victim on the way to the
burning stake, so they could not reveal what had occurred in the torture
chamber or defend themselves in any way.
Ripping the flesh


The
Catholic church learned a human being could live until the skin was
peeled down to the waist when skinned alive. Often, the rippers were
heated to red hot and used on women's breasts and in the genitalia of
both sexes.
Breast Rippers


The Iron Torture Chair was studded with spikes. The victim was
strapped in nude and a fire was lit beneath the chair. Heavy objects
were also be used. They were placed upon the victim to increase the pain
of the spikes. Blows with mallets were also inflicted. Often, other
torturous devices were applied with the chair such as the flesh ripping
pincers, shown above and leg crushing vices.


Skull Crusher

This one speaks for itself. Christian clergy preferred this device
because it did not leave visible marks, unless the skull was completely
crushed, which happened.


The Rack


The Rack, aka the Ladder was another device that was used
extensively. The procedure was to place the nude or near nude victim
horizontally on the ladder or rack. Ropes were used to bind the arms and
legs like a tourniquet. The knot could be steadily twisted to draw
tight the ropes and stretch the victim to where the muscles and
ligaments tore and bones broke. Often, heavy objects were placed upon
the victim to increase the pain. This was considered by the church to be
"one of the milder forms of torture."
The Wheel


The nude victim, was stretched out, lying face downward on the
ground or on the execution dock, with his or her arms and legs spread,
and tied to stakes or iron rings. Wooden crosspieces were placed under
the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and hips. The inquisitor then smashed
limb after limb and joint after joint, including the shoulders and hips,
with the iron-tyred edge of the wheel, taking care not to bring about
the death of the victim. There were splinters of smashed bones, blood
spurted everywhere and the victim's entire skeleton was crushed and
smashed. Thereafter the shattered limbs were “braided” into the spokes
of the large wheel. The wheel has to be one of the most gruesome of all
torture devices. The idea is, that the victims' limbs are shattered and
entwined around the spokes of the wheel, attaching them to it.

The Thumbscrew


The
thumbscrew was a device where the victim's thumbs were placed and
systematically crushed. Similar devices were used on the toes.
Thumbscrews were often applied at the same time as the strappado and
other torture devices to inflict more pain.
The Water Torture


The victim was stripped and bound to a bench or table and a funnel
was inserted and pressed down into his throat. Water was poured into the
funnel in jug fulls with his/her nose being pinched, forcing him/her to
swallow. After this was repeated enough times to where the victim's
stomach was almost to burst, the bench or table was then tilted, with
the victim's head pointing to the floor. The water in the stomach put
painful pressure on the victim's lungs and heart. There was not only the
incredible pain with this, but also, the feeling of suffocation.
Inquisitors would also beat upon the stomach with mallets to the point
of internal rupture.


In another variation, the victim was forced to swallow large
quantities of water together with lengths of knotted cord. The cords
were then violently yanked from the victim's mouth resulting in
disemboweling.
The Iron Maiden aka the "virgin mary"


Covering the front side of this device was a statue of the virgin
bitch, inside were spikes, sharp knives or nails. Levers would move the
arms of the statue, crushing the victim against the knives and nails.
Other devices and methods:

• Forced feeding of overly salted foods that resulted in extreme thirst, then, the denial of water.


• Immersion in scalding water laced with Lime.


• Yanking back and forth by 2 or more inquisitors with
  ropes attached to a spiked iron collar. This tore the flesh on the
  victim's neck. Variations used screws that could be tightened.


• The prayer stool. A spike board on which the victim was forced to kneel.


• Stocks which were fitted with iron spikes


• Slowly roasting victims over fire.


• "Walking a Witch" entailed forcing a victim to walk back
  and forth for days on end until completely exhausted. A variation of
  this was having the victim sit cross legged upon a wooden stool, being
  deprived of movement or sleep. Some victims were as much as 80 years
  old.


• "Thrawing." Similar to the spiked iron collar, only a
  rope was tied tightly around the head and the victim was yanked back and
  forth.


• "Turkas." These were a variation of pincers used to pull out fingernails.


• Many were thrown in filthy dungeons with no light or human contact, in addition, often being chained or confined in the stocks.


• "Scoring above the Breath" the ancient belief that
  bleeding a witch above the mouth and nose would break a spell incited
  inquisitors to tear flesh, stick with needles and other instruments upon
  the victim's face.

Galileo Galilei,the
famous Italian astronomer and physicist was one of the most noted
victims of the inquisition. A letter in which he attempted to
demonstrate the Copernican theory, that the Earth is not the center of
the universe, was forwarded by some of his enemies  to the
inquisitors in Rome. He was tried in 1633 and found guilty of heresy. He
was forced to recant (publicly withdraw his statement) and was
sentenced to life imprisonment under house arrest.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II declared that the Roman Catholic Church
"may have been mistaken in condemning him," and he established a
commission to study the case.¹³
In 1993, the Catholic Church "officially" pardoned Galileo. In other
words, they forgave him for teaching that the planets revolve around
the Sun, not the Earth. (See the above link).


Loss of human life:

• Salzburg, Austria, 1677-1681 over 100 murdered


• Basque region of the Pyrenees; 1608, Lawyer Pierre de
  Lancre was sent to the region to "root out and destroy those who
  worshipped Pagan Gods." Over 600 tortured and murdered.


• Witch judge Henri Boguet c. 1550-1619 sent some
  600 victims to their deaths in Burgundy, many of them young children who
  were systematically tortured and then burned alive.


• A pregnant woman was burned alive and from the trauma, she gave birth before she died. The baby was tossed back into the flames.


• Swedish town of Mora, 1669, more than 300 murdered.
  Among them, 15 children. 36 children between the ages of 9 and 15 were
  made to run the gauntlet and were beaten with rods upon their hands once
  a week for an entire year. Twenty of the youngest children, all under
  the age of 9 were whipped on their hands at the church door for 3
  sundays in succession. Many more were severaly beaten for witchcraft
  offenses.


• In Scotland, under the rule of Oliver Cromwell, a total
  of 120 in a single month were murdered in 1661. Estimates of the total
  dead have been as high as 17,000 between 1563 and 1603.


• In Würzburg, Germany, the Chancellor wrote a graphic account in the year of 1629:
  
  "...there are three hundred children of three or four years, who are
  said to have had intercourse with the Devil. I have seen children of
  seven put to death, and brave little scholars of ten, twelve, fourteen
  and fifteen years of age..."
  
  Between the years of 1623 and 1633, some 900 "witches" were put to
  death throughout Würzburg. This was largely maintained by the Jesuits.


• The Chronicler of Treves reported in 1586 that the
  entire female population of two villages was wiped out by inquisitors.
  Only two women were left alive.


• Noted cases included the Knights Templar, Joan of Arc
  who was chained by the neck, hands and feet and locked in a cramped iron
  cage, Galileo, who stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun and
  was not the center of the universe as the church taught(See above).

The above accounts were taken from Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering.

On Sunday, March 12th, 2002, the Pope John Paul II apologized for the "errors of his church for the last 2000 years."

---

REFERENCES:
¹The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe, page 124

²Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering, article on "Germany", page 108

³Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering, article on "Inquisition", page 146

⁴ World Book Encyclopedia article on "Inquisition."
©1989

⁵ Wizards and Sorcerers by Tom Ogden, article on "Inqusition."

⁶ The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe, page 77

⁷Wizards and Sorcerers by Tom Ogden, article on "Inquisition."

⁸The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe, page 77

⁹Wizards and Sorcerers by Tom Ogden

¹⁰The Dark Side of Christian History by Helen Ellerbe, page 80

¹¹Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering article on "Torture."

¹²Cassel Dictionary of Witchcraft by David Pickering, article on "torture."

¹³World Book Encyclopedia article on "Galileo."
©1989