The Death Penalty and the Inquisition

From the High Middle Ages, Europe developed into a “persecuting society,” obsessed with stamping out the “cancer” of heresy. But questions about how this was accomplished — and the consequences of these developments — abound:

• Why did popes and secular rulers shift from persuasion to persecution of heretics?
• Why was human choice in matters of religious belief considered a mortal threat to Christendom itself?
• Why did bookish inquisitors armed with legal procedure, interrogation manuals, data and archives succeed where bloody crusades and mass slaughter failed?
• How did the “machinery of persecution” developed in the Late Middle Ages affect other minority groups such as Jews?
• Are inquisitions a thing of a past and dark hyper-religious age, or a timeless instrument with appeal to the “righteous mind” whether secular or religious?
• What are the similarities between medieval laws against heresy and modern laws against hate speech?

We try to answer these questions — and more — in the latest episode of our Clear and Present Danger podcast.

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