Spanish Inquisition

Just before Winston Smith is tortured, O’Brien explains why previous totalitarian governments have failed as opposed to the success of Party. O’Brien points out how the Spanish government preserved heresy instead of expelling it. He also explains how the Soviet Union, who attempted to learn from the mistakes of the Inquisition, failed to prevent martyrs. He states that the Party is successful compared to totalitarian governments of the past because the Party doesn’t try to destroy heresy in…

The Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, established in fifteen-forty-two by Pope Paul III (the pontifical incumbent who was also responsible for the authorization of the Jesuit Order), was the primary institution to maintain and implement Papal bulls, in addition to their function of administering legalistic ramifications upon deviants of Catholic orthodoxy within the Papal States, and ostensibly exhibiting proper procedure to Catholic states in the process of…

to many as a break away from the old, outdated, and corrupt Catholic Church. If you look closer, you can see it was a rejecting of the Church, with flawed Philosophy and distorted logic that was filled with much bloodshed. On the other hand, the Inquisition is usually portrayed as an evil and secretive organization that tortured to get people to get confessions out of them, then burned them at the stake, but if you look closer at this as well, you can…

a warm June day in Rome. Francesco Niccolini, a Tuscan ambassador, and Galileo Galilei, an aging mathematician, sat in the Villa Medici awaiting their call to the Holy Office. It had been months since the beginning of his trial with the Roman Inquisition and Galileo was ready to be finished with the ordeal. He had been ill since the first session of his interrogation back in April and his condition had continued to worsen. Niccolini had already been informed of the old man’s sentence, but…

Those monsters. Those hypocrites. Those ungodly, corrupt, monstrous hypocrites. I had a town. I had a congregation. I had a community. They took that all away. The Inquisition massacred my town. What does massacring innocents show about the Catholic Church? Does it show that they are moral? Certainly not. Does it counter the accusations of corruption rife throughout the church? Not but in forever silencing the voices of the accusers. I am a servant of God. That fact will never change. I may have…

The Renaissance, which began in the 1300’s and lasted up until around the 1600’s, was a movement which sparked an enormous increase in artistic experimentation and emphasis on the human figure. During this time, many paintings contained Christian imagery and connotations, whether outright or implied. Two paintings during this time that illustrate several concepts and depictions are Sacred and Profane Love by Titian (or Tiziano in Italian) and Velazquez’s Venus with Her Mirror. These two…

Religious Hypocrisy in Candide The concept of religious hypocrisy exists throughout the history of civilization and has led to strong opposition against organized religion. This theme was commonly addressed in the Enlightenment period, when Europeans began to evaluate the consequences of oppression caused by the Roman Catholic Church. Among these Europeans was a rebellious intellectual, Voltaire, who openly criticized the religious system in his literature. An example of his work is…

were the center of the universe because they were made by God himself. The church would never let go of their narrow-minded idea because if they did, they would be giving up their own power. As the Catholic church threatened Galileo with the Inquisition, he stopped publically supporting his ideas because he knew it…

have contributed to the development of these conditions. Events that support these conditions are the Inquisition and Galileo, Thomas Hobbes and his theory of the state of nature, and art from artists like Vermeer. Each of the previously mentioned events has brought about great advancements influencing Western civilization. The first topic of interest is the Inquisition and Galileo. The Inquisition was a branch of the Catholic Church that was responsible for finding heresy among the communities…

Medieval Europe as a society greatly shunned deviations from cultural norms or established religious orthodoxy. From this denouncement, persecution of minority groups was commonplace, and possibly even a defining trait of European society at the time. Notably, mistreatment of Jewish communities and supposed Christian heresies were the more common forms of religious persecution. Furthermore, even Christians could be subject to persecution, if certain individuals were accused of breaking ethical…