The Dark History Of The Catholic Inquisition | Secret Files Of The Inquisition | Parable

high in the pyrenees in the southwest of what is now france in a time when the church of rome proclaims itself the one true religion heresy has taken hold the pope sends the inquisitors of heretical depravity to exterminate the heresy unbelievers are hunted down condemned and burned in 1308 the entire village of montayu is taken prisoner of the inquisition no one is safe not even the village priest and the shadowland of its castle from the secret files the extraordinary revelations of village life under the inquisition so [Music] hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] on the slopes of the pyrenees in what is now southern france the autumn of the year 1308 is bountiful warm and calm this is the region of the langhadoc the fabled occitania land of the troubadours and the romantic tradition of courtly love [Music] the domain of independent shepherds whose flocks migrate with the seasons party men like pierre-mori fiercely protective of their liberty but pierre-mori's freedom and the tranquility of his beautiful mountain homeland are in their final hours [Music] when two travelers appear pierre-mori knows immediately who they are apostles of an alternative christian sect that has captivated the people of this region through more than a hundred years of secrecy and persecution wandering ascetics known as les parfei the good christians or simply the good men the visitors are the brothers pierre and guillermo t they are the last prelates of a faith without cathedrals bishops or treasure the touch of their hands is their only sacrament and the bread blessed by them is considered sacred their followers will keep it for the rest of their lives from the transcript of pierre mori they do not lie they do not take what belongs to others even if they found gold or silver lying in their path they would not lift it unless someone made them a presence of it salvation is better achieved in the faith of these men called heretics than any other faith at one time there may have been as many as a thousand good men scattered across what is now southern france and northern italy their belief is called catholicism they seem to echo ancient asian concepts of dual creation only the spiritual realm is the handiwork of god the good men say while everything else the physical world of men and women sex and labor churches and priests is satan's manufacture the denial of the goodness of creation the denial of the goodness of marriage i mean there were all kinds of elements in cathodes and which were truly not only alien but contrary to christianity in in a fundamental way to the roman catholic church the good men are traitors heretics who might poison others with their beliefs [Music] the ochee brothers are on their way to the village of montayu an isolated hamlet of laborers farmers and weavers without a single horse or wheeled cart only a handful of the people can read and write [Music] montague is the last stronghold of the cathars montaiu was fertile territory for the converts for a number of reasons to begin with the chatelaine who was the the noble woman of the village warmed to the faith quite early on also the catholic priest pierre clerk was sympathetic to the faith as well [Music] from the earliest files of the medieval inquisition comes the tale of a dangerous liaison between an aristocratic widow and a treacherous priest [Music] a tale of heresy condemnation and shame pierre clark is the village priest and the village casanova cleric has sworn to debauch every woman in town [Music] he has spent months courting this potential lover the wealthy widow beatrice de planisol the chatelaine of the castle of montague [Music] from the transcript of beatrice diplanasaur i said to him how can we do such a thing in the church of saint peter he replied oh what a great shame it will be to send peter he said we placed ourselves on the bend and slept together in the church even the most personal and private moments of the villagers of montague will be exposed there will be no secrets from the inquisitors the last stronghold of the gentle cathar heresy is about to suffer the full and terrible vengeance of the holy inquisition [Music] the judgment that the church made about catheterism or abegenzianism was that the doctrines taught by the cathers were in fact absolutely that there was no form of christianity which could encompass those doctrines [Music] the roman catholic church has been the only legitimate religion tolerated in the european kingdoms for nearly 700 years with europe slowly emerging from the dark ages the people have been loyal only to their immediate community and to god the keeper of god's word being the catholic church [Music] but the church is losing control over these people the peasants understand little of the rituals of the church [Music] their service is in latin a language they neither read nor understand the priests command everything there is to do for the peasants of montauk the catholic religion is a series of laws they must obey and fines they must pay some are disillusioned with the priests feeling that they are more concerned with collecting taxes for the church than with saving souls for god even cathars accept holy communion from pierre clegg they have been taught by the good men that a little biscuit never did anybody any harm [Music] from the transcript of pierre mori no one should say our father except our lords the good men who are on the path to truth the rest of us when we say the lord's prayer sin mortally because we are not on the path to truth for we eat meat and sleep with women one of the reasons why this heresy flourished when it did is because people were so yearning for a more direct relationship to the gospels and to god and the orthodox church at the time was unwilling to bend to expand to adapt really to the changing needs of the people a century earlier well before the development of the nation-state the political boundaries of europe in the 13th century are a patchwork of duchies principalities and fiefdoms all owing fealty to rome [Music] but here at the farthest extension of the holy roman empire catharism has been so widely adopted that it threatens the pope's hegemony we have to understand the political theory of the day heresy could become equated with with treason to the state very easily because rulers took an oath to protect the church and so any assault on the church could be deemed as an assault on the stability of government in 1233 pope gregory ix inherits the cathar resistance frustrated by the local bishop's lack of zeal in prosecuting heretics he turns to the dominicans a new order of itinerant friars to serve as his inquisitors april 20th 1233 pope gregory ix issues a bull that confirms on the dominicans the specific task of eradicating heresy we have therefore determined to send preaching friars against the heretics of france and the adjoining provinces and we beg warn and exhort you to receive them kindly the inquisition is born over the next 75 years it will attempt to completely eradicate the cathar heresy [Music] but the cathars are not dead they have gone underground [Music] by 1308 the inquisition irrevocably transforms the society of occitania changing the cathars from spiritual reformers to a secret movement and finally to a network of hunted fugitives word that the good men have returned reaches the inquisitor of toulouse bernardo guidonas an indomitable dominican who is writing a manual for inquisitors the conduct of inquiry concerning heretical depravity the manual is a lifelong endeavor bernardo guidonus will become the scourge of montayu everything changed for the people of montaiu in 1308 until that time they'd been living in relative obscurity they'd been allowed to follow their hearts really though quietly when it came to the heresy [Music] bernardo guidona sends his deputies from town to town house to house in a sinister investigation to hunt down the cathars [Music] not from the region the inquisitors are men with no allegiance to friend or family [Music] one truth will dominate the lives of those who follow any belief outside the dictates of the church they will face the inquisition [Music] september the 8th 1308 the events that are about to unfold here will be recorded and preserved for 700 years in the secret files of the inquisition [Music] on this september morning an old man is dying the otier brothers have been summoned to save his immortal soul to console him [Music] [Music] the ochie's return has sparked a revival of catharism in the pyrenees the good men are welcomed and sustained by the villagers but always in secret [Music] to the cathars it is enough to be blessed once by a good man just before death in an act known as the consolamentum to be assured entry into the kingdom of heaven and a seat at christ's right hand this forms the right of passage from the world of matter and corruption toward the heaven of light and spirit one brief ceremony to replace a lifetime of confession communion tithing pilgrimage and prayer when recovery seems impossible cathars vow to hasten their salvation by starving themselves to death a holy and agonizing hunger strike called the endura [Music] the ceremony takes place in secret if the inquisition learns of this ritual all will be captured and accused of heresy [Music] the brothers otier they are the ones who are responsible for the final resurgence the final rise and ultimately fall of of the catholic heresy in this region they're the ones who brought the heresy to montayu and could have been the ones to have converted the whole countryside if they'd had a chance [Music] the last of the good men the ota brothers were ordained during a stay in northern italy where catharism still holds out against the church from the transcripts of the inquisition we know that pierre and guillermo tie had been clerks they knew the law they had wives and children they were rich one day pierre said to his brother we have lost our souls and they concluded let us go in search of our souls salvation so they got rid of all their possessions and went to lombardy where they became good men there they received the power of saving the souls of others [Music] if the generosity of these villagers is discovered the inquisition will burn their home to the ground [Music] the good men are fugitives the inquisition their pursuer [Music] september the 8th 1308 is the feast of the nativity of the virgin mary the most important holy day of the year in montague even pierre mori comes down from his sheepfold he does not know it but this will be his last meal in his native village for more than 15 years [Music] but this year's feast becomes a cataclysm of fear before this day is over everyone in montague will be ensnared in the inquisition's web of arrest interrogation and torture for the villagers of montague it is a day of betrayal by the father of their flock [Music] beer clerk is a fascinating character as village priest he in fact had quite a lot of influence over the people of montanu early on his heart gave way to this heresy though he continued to preach the orthodox faith and to defend the heretics [Music] for the priest and the chatelaine it is another sunday to consummate their affair from the transcript of beatrice de planisol i asked him what shall i do if i become pregnant from you i will be dishonored and lost he told me that he had an herb and if a man carries his herb when he is with a woman he cannot engender nor can the woman conceive after this when he wished to possess me he carried something holed up in a sack and this thing which he said was an herb hung down between my breasts it was us that he united with me and know us our way cleric proclaims that god knows and sees all sins before they are committed making confession to a mere priest superfluous and making carnal desire a sacred gift he told me that i must not confess to another priest the sin that i was committing with him because it was enough to confess to god cleric is at his most seductive when he is preaching heresy he told me that only the good christians will be saved he said he had met several of these good men and there are such people that one one heard them speak one could never leave them and if i helped them just one time i would be theirs forever repeatedly you hear women um in these depositions talking about how pierre said to them you're the only woman in the world uh whom i love he said that to beatrice he said that to at least a couple of other women so he he focused attention on women the priest of course himself was considered a perfect one and a leader of the catholic movement yet he engaged in sexuality so he comes on i think as a double hypocrite a hypocrite to roman catholicism on the one hand and a hypocrite with regard to his cather constituency on the other [Music] while the lovers entwine a day of hell descends on montague [Music] the inquisitors order the entire village sealed off and conduct a house-to-house pursuit of all suspects pierre mori manages to elude the horsemen and bailiffs and disappear into the mountains [Music] amid the confusion guillermo and pierrot slipped silently away [Music] everyone in the village males over 14 females over 12 is rounded up each is summoned to appear before the inquisition the priest claire coordinates the summonses even the only noble woman beatrice de planisol is served the first round of interrogations will begin just hours after the daylight ambush some villagers are permitted to return to their homes but with the summons to appear at a later date to face the charge of heresy and death beatrice she asked clerk why did you do this why did you turn against the people um whom you loved so much whom you once defended whom you once protected from the inquisition he answered um because he in so many words because he was losing power it was the only way to maintain his power in the village [Music] the holy inquisition has come to montague in just a few hours the solitude and secrecy of this tiny village have been shattered replaced by suspicion and fear the inquisitor zeal uh was related to this desire to save the souls of heretics the heretic was misguided the heretic was going to be condemned to hell it didn't the heretic did not follow the path laid laid for the individual by the roman catholic church [Music] the manhunt is relentless its mission is to capture and destroy the good men themselves to prevent the transmission of their teaching condemned as heresy once and for all to make this the last generation of cathars [Music] bernardo guidonas reviews the files of his inquisitors interrogations of the entire village but no one reveals the whereabouts of the good men [Music] pierre mori remains on the run in the high pyrenees bound for spain and exile in montauk he can never be safe again [Music] pierre claire smugly goes about his routine [Music] his sexual web enfolds many of the town's women his wealth and power as cleric and confessor keeps them from betraying his heresy to the inquisition [Music] her affair with pierre clarke is now over but like most of the villagers a file has been opened on the former shadow end beatrice de planasol in many ways beatrice was a modern woman she had several lovers including two priests who she said were the most ardent of lovers which was important to her apparently she was sympathetic to the heresy the good men vanished from sight guillotine is presumed dead early in 1310 18 months after the raid on montayu an informant betrays the presence of pierrot [Music] as a cathar goodman he is one of the most valuable prizes of the inquisition [Music] [Music] as he is led to the pyre pierrot proclaims if i only had time i would convert them all [Applause] [Music] even some villagers helped stoke the fire if only to prove their loyalty before the imposition [Music] by 1320 the rhythms of rural life have resumed for the 40 families of montauk in a society that values honor those condemned by the inquisition must wear the yellow cross of shame yet the heresy though diminished remains alive [Music] catharism survives only in whispers and the bitter memories of its victims few good men are to be seen or hidden [Music] as a new generation of girls falls victim to the depredations of the village priest [Music] priests with ambition discover that they can make a lucrative career and a name for themselves by enlisting with the inquisition [Music] one of them is jacques fournier a priest educated in paris he is appointed bishop of the region in 1317. after reviewing the files of bernardo guidonus on the village of montayu 10 years previously jacques fournier smells that the village is still infected he reopens the inquisition and summons the weary men and women of montague for yet another round of interrogation between 1318 and 1325 fournier will investigate 98 cases of heresy and he will conduct 578 interrogations of accused and witnesses case by case house by house soul by soul he will tear apart the hidden web of heresy that has enfolded monty you for five generations but fournier is not merely a crusading zealot he is a meticulous record keeper obsessed with documenting his place in history the transcripts of his courtroom sessions provide our richest surviving treasury of medieval life during the inquisition tu fournier the smallest details of everyday life are snares in which he may entrap much larger quarry jacques fournier urgently wanted to stamp out the heresy and because of this he made sure that his scribes wrote down every detail of what the villagers who were being deposed said he also made sure to question them relentlessly on every aspect of their lives saturday july 26 1320 fournier issues a citation to the former chatelaine beatrista planetsoft when she appears before him he admonishes her that she is suspected of heresy and demands to know if she has had contact with the good man she admits having met them more than two decades earlier [Music] i was only 17 years old when i had seen pierrot exercising his profession as a notary and in this capacity he had written the act of sale of an item for my husband the knight behringer rockfar i approved this sale by oath and pierre wrote up the bill of sale and ratified it this was 24 years ago or so he was not reputed to be a heretic at this time [Music] vournier commands beatrice to appear the following tuesday to testify under oath [Music] fearful of another encounter with fornier beatrice flees accompanied by a young priest she has taken as a lover [Music] as they quarrel they are apprehended by fournier's men jacques fournier places her under arrest [Music] from the transcript of beatrice de planisol i fled out of the fear that i had for my lord bishop because of what i had committed in the matter of heresy [Music] [Music] for pierre clerg it is a day to strut his piety and to threaten those who know his sins of the flesh not to utter them [Music] august 1 1320. the articles found in the chatelaine's possession at her arrest place her in dire peril with the inquisition which now suspects her of witchcraft fournier's court reporter describes certain objects strongly suggestive of having been used to cast evil spells such as two umbilical cords of infants found in her purse linens soaked with blood which seemed to be menstrual a seed of cold wart and seeds of incense slightly burned in a sack of leather a mirror and a small knife wrapped in a piece of linen and a dry piece of bread [Music] beatrice defends herself explaining the esoteric items as folk remedies and medicines fournier lets the explanations pass but curiously he doesn't press her about the dried crust of bread clear evidence of reverence for the good man he has a more important target in mind he sends beatrice to remand in the tower [Music] this time there will be no escape [Music] [Music] fournier continues one by one to interrogate the men and women of montague until finally one young woman shatters the code of silence grazied lizier declares herself innocent of capital treason because her instructor in heretical philosophy has been none other than the village priest himself her testimony reveals that pierre claire is not only a lecher but a cathar from the transcript of grazie de lis yeah he took my virginity in the grange where the straw is stored he did not do me any violence he knew me often after then i did not have a bad conscience that i slept with this peace because it was pleasing to us to him and to me [Music] it was very hard for fournier to to crack the code when it came to clerk to prove that he was a heretic or at least that he was a wayward priest when grazida finally spoke about her affair with him and more importantly spoke about how he had rationalized the affair to her how he his heretical ideas about sex about god about confession about adultery this opened the way for fournier and he was able to press beatrice more finally in her ninth session with fournier beatrice breaks the chatelaine corroborates grazied's portrait of a venal lying priest she tells fournier that she and pierre clarke had sex dozens of times even in the chapel of montague from the transcript of beatrice de planisol i often asked him how he could celebrate mass after having committed such a sin the preceding night he replied that the sole valid confession is that which one makes to god who knows the sin before it is committed and who alone can absolve it to forge it is further evidence of heresy by the priest fornia asks if she has heard him say that christ would judge good and evil in the last judgment said we will all come to the judgment of christ in which there will be many called and few chosen and those few chosen would be only the good christians and those who were received by them upon their death [Music] sunday march 8th 1321 the cemetery of saint jean-martier near the walls of palmier the most infamous plot of land in the langhadoc during the fournier persecutions this is where penitents are taken for public sentencing some will be punished with public humiliation ordered to wear the yellow cross the badge of shame others like beatrice are sentenced to confinement in the wall to be held in shackles fed only bread and water but they are the fortunate ones fournier is in fact among the most compassionate of inquisitors he will burn only five people [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the body after all in in medieval thought was really not very important it certainly wasn't important to the catheters and it wasn't very important to devout catholics it was the soul that was important [Music] the arrest of pierre clark follows within days he too is spared the fatal fires and how he dies whether by sickness starvation or his own hand we do not know [Music] but we do know that in january 1329 the case of montague's insatiable and treacherous priest is reopened by the holy inquisition and the bones of gare claire are ordered disinterred exhumed by the disgraced family with their bare hands and publicly incinerated as a final act of condemnation and shame [Music] a gruesome death after death ordained by the holy inquisition [Music] after one year in the tower grazied lisier and beatrice de planisol are set free assigned to wear the yellow crosses as a badge of their heresy and a banner of their pride [Music] fournier becomes a cardinal and seven years later jacques fournier achieves his ultimate ambition he is elected pope he takes the name benedict the 12th and begins construction of the great palais de pap in catharism is dead the holy faith triumphant it's extraordinarily difficult to understand the passion which was felt in this time for life after death and the consequences for life after death of what one does in the present life and this is one of the reasons why we find it hard to understand the disagreements that sometimes are so passionate and dangerous among religions from spiritual perspective the issues that the people of medieval montauk were grappling with when they were thinking about the heresy had a lot to do with spiritual issues percolating in our lives today in our world today specifically the relationship between spirit and flesh questions of how to be good questions of why we are here how we are meant to comport ourselves in this life what is the relationship between our world now here and the world after death all of these questions that they were entertaining are timeless questions really by 1323 only one cathar from montauk remains at large the shepherd pierre mori has been a fugitive for 15 years what was once the land of the good men now teems with far more enemies than friends late one night pierre-mori is apprehended betrayed by a man who had pretended to be a loyal cathartic despite his careful record-keeping the judgment that jacques fournier passes on pierre marie has been lost to history what fate befalls the shepherd the tower the fires or the freedom of the hills we will never know spain 1478 a land where christians muslims and jews have lived in tolerance for centuries but that time is ending a young king and queen bent on immortality proclaim themselves the catholic monarchs and start an inquisition [Music] jews who had converted to christianity are accused of secretly sabotaging the christian faith thousands perish in a ritual called the act of faith the assassination of the inquisitor sets off a wave of reprisals mothers will die to protect their children and the highest in the land will pay the ultimate price it is the beginning of the spanish empire and a long dark night that will last for centuries [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] the iberian peninsula in the middle ages is unique isolated from the rest of europe by the impassable mountains of the pyrenees for more than a thousand years iberia has been home to a rich intermingling of cultures [Music] christians muslims and jews have lived side by side in iberia for centuries tolerant of each other in their convivencia a practical coexistence they sing each other's songs they enjoy each other's cuisines and they all play chess a board game introduced by the muslims one 13th century king even calls himself the emperor of the three religions and he commissions a folio of chess problems that reflects the multicultural nature of his kingdom convivencia set iberia apart nowhere in europe has a nation been so enriched with the gifts of different cultures in education art science and medicine [Music] but by 1478 times are changing in iberia for the worse a storm of horror is about to descend on the people there will be no escape from its vicious web of interrogation betrayal torture condemnation and death soon jaime de montesa the highest judge in zaragoza will feel the terror of these changing times himself and for love sinfuh kasavi and her husband will pay the ultimate price the time of tolerance has passed iberia is in turmoil iberia is not yet the nation we know as spain the north is divided among the christian kingdoms of aragon castile and navarre the moors control the muslim stronghold of granada in the south and there's a power struggle for the throne of castile [Music] one claimant to the kingdom of castile is the 18 year old princess isabella [Music] deeply pious isabella sees everything through the prism of her faith she will become known as isabella la catolica [Music] faith guides the citizens of the realm sinful kasavi is deeply pious too but she is a jew sinful's visit to the mikvah the ritual baths is a sacred jewish preparation for marriage she submerges herself six times to purify herself so that god will bless and sanctify her with health wisdom and prosperity the wedding was scheduled for the spring three days before my wedding i took my bride's back i purified myself [Music] sinfa is about to marry her childhood sweetheart [Music] isabella is about to marry someone she's never met it is a marriage she prays will unite the kingdoms of castile and aragon prince ferdinand of aragon runs a gauntlet of castles and forts held by enemy nobles for his personal safety the prince is disguised as a servant marrying ferdinand will strengthen isabella's chances to gain the throne of castile it will lead eventually to the unification of their kingdoms the wedding of isabella and ferdinand although politically motivated is charged with all the passion and intrigue of an illicit affair they are teenagers she's 18 he's 17. [Music] married first as christians in the cathedral but now they have a second secret wedding in the jewish tradition from the transcript of sinfuh kasabi that day we all met in my father's house all my family and my sweethearts family they brought many presents they filled my house with flowers and brought delicious meats for the meal of that day all this was the prelude to the happiness harmony and peace that were awaiting us in our life together the day i got married was the happiest of my life i was very pretty i was dressed in beautiful clothes i was radiant with happiness jews have lived in iberia for over a millennium since the first arrived with the roman legions but since the 14th century the jews have come under attack from catholic zealots 1391 priests call for the compulsory conversion of the jews riots against jews spread across the land [Music] facing the choice convert or die the jews must make life and death decisions on the spot many choose baptism and survival through the 1400s following further pogroms and a series of increasingly restrictive laws forcing the jews to live in ghettos and wear distinctive clothing nearly half the jews of iberia change faiths the jews who convert become known as new christians or conversos well some people converted because they had swords to their throats and they had a choice of converting or dying other people were offered the opportunity of social mobility or economic mobility many converted because they fell in love with someone who was catholic and the only way they could marry them was to convert to catholicism the distinction between conversos and old christians will be legally sanctioned in spain for the next three and a half centuries but in the 15th century conversion offers opportunities for advancement to positions of power and prominence in the royal court that had been denied to jews the old christians grow jealous of the conversos success by the 1450s spanish catholics discovered that the converts had become the new urban middle class they were dominant in business they were dominant in some of the the professions like being scribes and accountants and they felt that they were being railroaded by these upstarts [Music] 1478 a royal baptism [Music] finally isabella and ferdinand can look forward to the unification of their two kingdoms after eight years of marriage they have a long-awaited son prince juan heir to aragon and castile the event is seen as so important that chroniclers herald the baby juan as the second messiah [Music] in the home of conversos constanza de perpignan and manuel de albazon a secret ritual takes place their child was baptized in the christian manner at the cathedral when he was born now eight days later he is about to be circumcised according to jewish tradition but the ceremony is observed by an uninvited neighbor violent ferrer an old christian [Music] [Music] my [Applause] [Music] now constanzu de perpinyan's baby has a name his parents will call him yusei but beyond these walls he will be known by his christian name pedro de almazon in time the baby named this day will play a role in a defining moment of the spanish inquisition 1478 the monarchs take up residence in the alcazar of seville a palace built by the moors the muslim rulers in the 11th century isabella and ferdinand are the power couple of their day they dream of one state under one religion roman catholicism they have a big agenda to unite their kingdoms in the name of national salvation and to complete the christian reconquest against the muslims who still control the south after seven hundred years but there is trouble inside their kingdom a dominican priest tamastakamada a warning in these kingdoms are many blasphemers renegades from gods and the saints the culprits says torkamata are guilty of judaizing they are conversos the new christians who continue to practice their jewish traditions he proposes a scheme to root out the heretics and inquisition the monarchs agree november 1st 1478 pope sixtus iv issues a bull creating the spanish inquisition but ferdinand and isabella do not intend to let the pope in rome run their inquisition or share in the spoils the institutionalized inquisition came to be seen as a structure that could be adopted in varying ways by different countries see so in a way it was natural uh speaking again in this sense for the spanish government to create an inquisition of its own they appointed the inquisitors they appointed the uh the inquisitor general who ran the inquisition uh with some nominal approval from rome but basically the monarchy got a um a tribunal that was run by the state not by the church the monarchs will hold the keys to the powerful engine that becomes the spanish inquisition [Music] the record room is the memory of the inquisition three keys entrusted to three inquisitors are needed to open its free locks no file can be removed from this room without the knowledge of the others they contain the records of investigations of interrogations of torture sessions they are cross-referenced and they will survive centuries and there was an atmosphere of terror that took over in among the ranks of the converted jews because they were always afraid of being denounced may 1484 despite the opposition in aragon from the old christian nobility and conversos alike ferdinand sends two inquisitors to zaragoza the capital of aragon one of them pedro arbores will become a saint at least in the eyes of the church [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] like many spanish towns zaragoza has a large number of conversos and for the conversos every ritual in the cycle of life and death will come under scrutiny they will be charged with heresy if the inquisition hears that they are judaizers who continue to observe the jewish customs of their ancestors the inquisition files are just filled with data about life cycle events about how they buried their dead about issues of female hygiene of sexual practices of every imaginable part of people's daily lives i think it's very important to make the point that jews were never the object of the inquisition's investigations because jews were not christians the spanish inquisition dealt only with baptized christians cynthia kosavi and her husband jacob abankuka are denounced as judaizers by seven witnesses people they have lived and worked with all their lives the identities of their accusers will not be revealed [Music] foreign but sinfa has a clever defense the inquisition is charged with investigating christians suspected of heresy jews are beyond the inquisition's reach they cannot be heretics because to the church they are infidels unbelievers when the inquisitor demands she confess she is a heretic sinful insists she is a jew we are jewish we live with jews and we live as jews i was never baptized a christian [Music] and my husband is a jew [Music] frustrated the inquisitor orders that sinful be tortured torture is sanctioned to obtain confessions as long as it is performed according to the rules set out in the inquisitor's manual written a century earlier sinfa's feet are held to the fire smeared with pig grease to accelerate her suffering the crucifix in the inquisitor's chamber is veiled a holy procedure to protect jesus from witnessing what will be done in his name [Music] [Music] under torture sinful reveals exactly what the inquisitor wants to hear yes i am a christian i was born christian my name was juana and my father was juan gonzalez watching sinfus torture is too much for jacob the notary dutifully transcribes his words from the transcript of jacob avancooka remove her from the torture my wife speaks the truth release her from the torture inquisitor i will speak the truth as well i am from seville of the kingdom of castile and i was born a christian i had jewish friends who were engaged before getting married in the synagogue and i always dreamed of being able to do it myself we were then husband and wife according to the law of moses [Music] you just condemned yourselves your souls are already lost and now you will lose your bodies jacob has just sealed his own fate sinfa will be spared for now if i have been one christian i would have been happy now and the inquisition would not be after us sinfa gathers her strength and defiance that was the happiest day of my life and you can't take that away from me [Music] the inquisition said to people you must confess if you are guilty of any kind of judaizing you have to confess if you know of someone who may know of someone who is guilty of judaizing and if you don't you're guilty to the extent that they're guilty and that just tore society apart [Music] it will become normal for neighbor to spy upon neighbor for relatives to turn each other in scores of anonymous accusers appear before inquisitor pedro arbuez to denounce friends relatives even strangers [Music] constanza de perpinion is among the hundreds who are denounced there was salted pork lard at the table and she did not want to eat it when there were no maids around and they asked for wine they used to bless in the hebraic way when the corpus christi was raised at mass she always turned away from it [Music] the most damaging testimony comes from violent ferrer constanza's old christian neighbor she recounts the ritual she observed at the naming ceremony i've heard that her sons were baptized the judaic way what i can tell you is that constance's mother prayed while standing and turned towards the wall like the jews in the presence of everyone and constanza didn't say anything october 19 1484 the inquisition issues a citation compelling she cannot be located but constanza is spotted by a familyar one of the inquisition's network of informers in zaragoza's church of san anton from the testimony of juan de herrera i saw constantine barbinian the day before the citation inside the church of san anton i was sent by the belief of the holy inquisition to see if she was there and when i saw her i ran to tell the bailiff [Music] i told him and we ran together to the church of san anton and the bailiff looked for her everywhere but we did not find her later i heard that she had hidden in the sacristy of the church and then i heard that the accused had escaped for fear of the inquisition constanza and her daughters escaped the inquisition leaving the men and her family behind others will be less fortunate [Music] [Music] the people of zaragoza gather to witness the inquisition's most important ritual the otto dafe the act of faith ceremony [Music] many of the condemned are prominent conversos who only weeks earlier ran the city government for sinfa and her daughter it will be the most tragic day of their lives now zaragoza will witness its first public display of the awesome power of the inquisition the act of faith ceremony designed to strike the fear of god into all who witness it the inquisitors sentenced the convicted heretics one by one now they wear the san benitos the cloak of shame and the tall conical caps called corazons some will be exiled some are sent to serve as galley slaves some get life imprisonment those who wear the black san benitos are condemned to death the inquisition operates on a spiritual plane it turns the condemned over to the state for execution families and friends are forced to watch their loved ones being incinerated before their eyes but to some the downfall of the conversos is caused to celebrate one witness recorded now that the fire has been lighted it will burn to the last stick burn until every judaizer is dead and there remains no one over the age of 20 who is touched by that leprosy constanza de perpignan will burn today in effigy the consequences for her eldest son pedro and her husband manuel de almazon are the same as if constanza herself had been burnt the inquisition will confiscate all the worldly goods of the families of the condemned the royal treasury will take its cut of the spoils [Music] jacob abbancuka is convicted of heresy for his secret jewish wedding the black san benito jacob wears is the sign that he is beyond [Music] in its first five years thousands of people are purified in the fires of the inquisition according to one spanish historian within a century the inquisition will touch the lives of more than 15 of the population of spain [Music] foreign [Music] yes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] literally it means an act of faith and it was a foretaste of hell it was a visible foretaste of the fact that their souls would be condemned forever again it was a cautionary kind of thing [Music] hey what about at least she goes through the motions her daughter is also baptized [Music] something [Music] but when they get home sinfa washes the church's holy water from her daughter's head to remove all traces of the baptism [Music] she continues to live as a jew for the next two years [Music] then she is denounced and thrown again into the cells of the inquisition this time there is no reprieve sinful kasavi is condemned she remains defiant to the very end from the transcript of sinfuh kasabi you are the ones who are lost and cheated and ask the fortunate one let the angels of moses guard me and don't call me juana that is not my name my name is sifa the power elite of aragon are predominantly conversos and they grow desperate they include the renowned jurist jaime de montesa the chief justice of zaragoza francisco de santa fe son of the firebrand priest geronimo to santa fe manuel de almazan father of pedro de almazan and husband of the condemned constanza all treasurers financiers even knights the conversos send an appeal to the king protesting that this is a kingdom of christians that there are no heretics in the realm and that heretics in any case should be approached with warnings and persuasion not force if there are so few heretics as is now asserted there should not be such dread of the inquisition it is not to be impeded be assured that no cause or interest however great shall be allowed to interfere with its proceedings february 1485 ferdinand responds with an order to all his officials in aragon asking them to raise arms and help the inquisitors the conversos try everything to stop the inquisition legal arguments appeals to rome petitions to the catholic monarchs but nothing works the inquisition's net his fast closing on the high and mighty [Music] even jaime de montesa the chief justice of zaragoza will find no protection under the law he is denounced by a nocturnal visitor from the testimony of garcia de jales i went there at night many times i was having an affair with the maid sometimes we talked and made love in the lower level of the house of senor di monteza i heard the converted jews meeting to put together some money to find a way of stopping the inquisition i saw many of these converted jews gathered with monteza in his house september 15 1485 inquisitor pedro arbuez will take the first step towards sainthood the inquisitor pedro arbuez is the most feared man in zaragoza the man with the full powers of church and state of life and death at his fingertips he's had death threats now he wears a steel cap and a coat of mail under his robes for physical protection [Music] the scourge of zaragoza is a devout man a graduate of divinity college in bologna [Music] he asks for divine guidance what he gets is a knife in the neck the one area not protected by armor [Music] inquisitor pedro aguez dies of his wounds exactly 48 hours later nearly four centuries later rome will make the assassinated inquisitor a saint the arboise assassination is a unique event it's the only time really when a group of converts uh organize to uh assassinate a high inquisition official as a way of trying to prevent the inquisition from being established in their area and it fails october 17 1485 one month after the assassination of the inquisitor the inquisition arrests the distinguished jurist jaime de montesa [Music] he is interrogated two days later [Music] the notary records monteza's denials he denies having given or received any money neither now nor at any time and he denies being ever in attendance in meetings during which the death of the inquisitor was discussed and he said that in the case of the death of pedro avoids only a crazy and desperate heritage could do such a thing for someone to jeopardize all the conversions is a huge betrayal jaime de mantesa is sent back to his cell he will stay there over the next 22 months [Music] the laws of the kingdom are suspended in the hunt for the assassins of pedro agueros [Music] vidal durango the man who first stabbed the inquisitor is the first to be captured durango is tortured he confesses money was offered he gives names implicating all the leading conversos in the conspiracy [Music] in the succession of otto's defeat 64 people burned the assassination of the inquisitor the leaders of commerce and industry the city government and the royal administration are decimated in the purge why would they punish those really well of course obviously they had committed treason they had attacked a royal representative a man appointed directly by ferdinand himself they were attacking royal authority in the crown of aragon and ferdinand was not going to stand for it [Music] pedro de almazan whose mother constanza has been burned in effigy is among the conversos caught in the dragnet the tribunal examines pedro to see if he is circumcised [Music] [Music] then he is thrown into a cell where he will be left for the next two years [Music] august 10 1487 after 22 months of incarceration the aged jurist jaime de montesa is interrogated for the second time tortured on the strappado a device designed to cause excruciating pain as the victim's arms are disloaded the notary describes the proceeding during this torture the sets in your montessori was pulled up with the rope of about six hands above the ground and then he stayed in such torture for the time of three break cradles tomorrowland the montessori tells the inquisitors what they want to hear from the transcript of jaime de monteza the only solution itself is to kill the inquisitor it took a long time to hire the right people we paid them 800 florence of gold to kill the inquisitor once arbus was killed i met with the others they were pleased the inquisition has its case against de montesso it's a mistake to torture people however torture was regarded as a perfectly justified legitimate uh way of of uh producing evidence and it was therefore legally justified august 20 1487. [Music] jaime de montesso is condemned for charges that have nothing to do with the assassination of pedro aguez [Music] we consider true that sheikh hamido monteza being a baptized christian converted to the judea rights and ceremonies because he praised the laws of moses and because he bought meat with his mother in the butcher shop of the jews and because he ate jewish food bread without yeast at the time of passover [Music] and because he attended jewish weddings and because it is suspicious to be circumcised i made de montesa is beheaded [Music] one of the outcomes of the arab waste affair was that the church and the monarchy together exerted such power that no challenges to the inquisition ever succeeded after that [Music] to renounce his faith and accept christ he is sentenced to exile a faith that lies in store for all his people at the end of the 15th century spain was coming together as the first modern state in europe under the able leadership of ferdinand and isabel it was intolerable that christian spain could countenance the presence of a practicing muslim minority on the peninsula so they cranked up the war against the muslims in granada in the south january 2nd 1492 after years of warfare the catholic monarchs complete the christian reconquest against granada ferdinand and isabella take possession of the great moorish palace the alhambra it is an extraordinary time in history christopher columbus a mariner from genoa is there to seize the moment flush with victory isabella decides to back his expedition columbus gets the title admiral of the ocean sea it is an opportune time for the inquisitor general thomas de tocamada proposes the final solution the expulsion of the jews majesty you know very well how determinate i am to eliminate the heresy from your kingdoms but this task is impossible to finish as long as there will still remain a single jew on your lands a delegation of highly placed jews appeals to isabella and ferdinand in a desperate effort to cancel the edict of expulsion they remind the king and queen of the loyalty of the jews of the 1500 year history of jews in iberia of how the jews fought in the royal armies against the muslims and financed the war but isabella does not relent do you believe that this comes from us the lord hath put this thing into the heart of the king at the height of her leadership bravery and determination queen isabella becomes the most powerful piece in the chess game [Music] she will be the inspiration for the figure of the queen in modern chess ferdinand and isabel were defining the new state as a religiously unified uniquely christian uniquely catholic organization and that really spent among other things spelled the end of the jewish presence [Music] april 30 1492 across siberia in towns and villages people gather to hear the royal proclamation the jews are ordered to leave the country in three months they can convert to christianity and stay or sell their homes and leave they can take personal property but not mules gold silver jewelry or precious metals every jewish home is inventoried by agents of the inquisition and the crown in desperation families must dispose of all they own at fire sale prices [Music] the explosion was a form of ethnic cleansing in terms of a group becoming less popular less accepted in society the wider society turning against that group excluding that group from trades professions regions areas making it difficult for that group to survive and finally expelling the group across the land jews visit their cemeteries to pay their respects to their ancestors for the last time the expulsion coincides with the fast of tisha b'av the saddest of jewish holy days a fast to commemorate the destruction of the temple in jerusalem for the jews of spain it is the beginning of a new diaspora [Music] isabella and ferdinand never see the full impact of the forces they unleash they leave a legacy of empire and of an institution that will keep spain in its grip for more than 300 years wherever the spanish flag is planted and the people's riches are plundered along with the men in robes follows the holy office of the spanish inquisition [Music] venice 1522 capital of tolerance and renaissance and the center for smugglers dealing in the banned literature of the protestant reformation the church's most powerful weapon will be a new type of inquisition controlled by the pope himself he will use it to curtail the spread of a competing religion and eliminate those who betray the faith it will stop the flow of new ideas let loose by the printing press and repress the birth of modern scientific thought a new campaign in the battle for the souls of europe's christians is about to begin [Music] [Music] so [Music] but yeah venice 1522 [Music] the central hub of europe's major trade routes the city of venice offers an open exchange of goods and ideas [Music] and it is a diverse society the tolerance of the venetians and their commitment to commerce encourages an influx of people from all religions and nationalities [Music] it is a republic among the collection of independent states that challenge the authority of the church in rome [Music] venice is also the publishing capital of europe millions of books are printed and sold here the unorthodox ideas spread by the new print medium will bring the wrath of the roman inquisition to venice the secret files of the inquisition reveal just how serious the consequences of independent thought could be for men like the franciscan friar baldo lupitino [Music] father lupitino's beliefs are shifting away from the roman catholic church from the transcript of father paul de lupitino i believe in the truth of the holy scriptures but i do not believe in the authority of the pope or his councils as they are merely human beings the pope is merely the bishop of his own church not all churches father lupitino has embraced the teachings of the dissident german monk martin luther martin luther is about to mount the protestant reformation he challenges the authority of the pope in rome he is highly dissatisfied with the papacy's obsession with material wealth and profits the 16th century is the period in which the uh exploration of the wider world begins and the protestant reformation divided western christianity rome 1522 the seat of power for the roman catholic church for pope leo the tenth in his court obsessed with worldly pleasures [Music] it is business as usual no extravagance is too large his most ambitious project is the rebuilding of saint peter's cathedral and its massive dome a monument to honor his papacy and the glory of rome the project will bankrupt the church preoccupied with the building of saint peter's leo the tenth dismisses luther's threat by excommunicating the german monk this weak reaction to luther's acts of heresy doesn't sit well with the most severe and rigid of the pope's servants bishop giovanni pietro carafa [Music] karafa is appalled at the moral and spiritual rot eating away the heart of the papacy he believes in the power of the church and its sacred duty to control its flock with an iron fist [Music] missiles for six years while in spain as the pope's ambassador karafa had seen firsthand how to deal with those like luther who stray from the flock [Music] bishop karafa is impressed by the power of the spanish inquisition to correct the errors of its people for almost 40 years it is held then in its grip heresy is the plague of the soul it must be rigorously crushed as we burn plague infected houses and clothes so we must drive out heresy and cleanse the soul which is so much more valuable than the body giovanni pietro carafa is a very good example of the kind of man who would eventually save the roman catholic church staunch catholic firm believer a man disgusted by the corruption at the court of successive popes he was an example of someone who really wanted to reform the catholic church on the one hand and restore it on the [Music] other karafa is concerned that the papacy under leo the tenth is weak and that the pope is too preoccupied to implement an inquisition on the spanish model [Music] a special order of men meet to discuss the state of the church a new order of monks the theateens organize they have one mission to attack the enemies who threaten the power of rome all members have taken a solemn oath to fight martin luther and all others who oppose the strict doctrines of the roman catholic church [Music] leading through example they also take an oath of complete poverty and rely solely on the grace of god for their needs they will stop at nothing to fight evil both outside and inside the church to their leader bishop karafa his destiny is clear he has been chosen by god to exterminate all heretics the worst is yet to come for men like karafa the zealots as they're called this was a personal mission to revive the roman catholic church they were people who felt very definitely that europe had taken a wrong turn that the barbarians were at the [Music] may gays 1527 the heretics come crashing through the gates germanic armies from the north attack rome now the threat is more than spiritual the pope's territories have been invaded after seven days of murder and pillage the capital of christendom is destroyed and twelve thousand romans are dead after controlling europe for more than a millennium the roman catholic church the most powerful religion on earth is on the brink of collapse venice 1529 the import of protestant literature through the port city threatens to infect the entire italian peninsula a cardinal writes to the pope today the city of venice which used to be truly christian is very much poisoned by the lutheran plague it has taken over the minds of those who govern of those who write or any order of persons the protestant heresy is even spreading among the ranks of the catholic clergy father lupitino is a regular customer of the venetian booksellers continually searching for the forbidden literature that fuels his spiritual quest he has even written his own 16 articles of faith [Music] bishop karafa has been sent to venice to investigate reports of rampant heresy [Music] karafa is distressed at what he finds this is exactly the heresy karafa seeks to destroy the spiritual friar lupitino will become the target of his vengeance and an example of the fate of heretics in the republic of venice the essence of the conflict between venice and rome really is a matter of venetian autonomy this is a republic it jealously guards its control over episcopal nominations within its land empire these are usually in the hands of the families of the ruling venetian patricia and it simply doesn't want to be dominated by rome on the other hand of course rome is alarmed by the spread of heresy within venice's land empire and it wants quick action against the heretics the university of padua 33 kilometers west of venice famous for academic excellence and intellectual freedom but to the church the university is a hotbed of heresy to be investigated and purged [Music] advances in science and particularly the teaching of anatomy contradict the most fundamental catholic beliefs [Music] at the university of padua students learn about the human body in a scientific and systematic way through dissection of the body [Music] what scholars embrace as the birth of modern medicine the church condemns as the work of the devil [Music] one of those enchanted by the possibilities of this new science is a medical student named girolamo danzelino [Music] is simply overwhelmed by the knowledge that is revealed in clandestine medical classes at the university [Music] his increasing thirst for forbidden knowledge will set donzelino on a collision course with the roman catholic church [Music] across the adriatic sea on a small island at the far reaches of the venetian republic protestant heresy has taken hold in just a few years father baldo lupetino has built a small and devoted congregation at the cathedral of charos his inspired and direct preaching style has won over most of the locals he tells his followers that they can talk directly to god but they do not need the clergy as middlemen his teachings are dangerously similar to those of martin luther the great enemy of the church confessing to a priest my brothers and sisters is good and useful but only god can forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wickedness without a sincere confession to god no other kind is valid even if it is to the pope lupetino's sermons betray important catholic dogmas to add insult to injury they are delivered not in latin the language of the church [Music] but in the local vernacular to the church it is an act of utter blasphemy [Music] not all locals are won over by luputino's lutheran preaching a member of his congregation jacopo kurzla denounces him to the authorities in rome from the testimony of jacob kurzla fra lupetino preached in the cathedral during the past lent with so much scandal that i am compelled to report to the judges of his heresy he turned the whole town upside down and only a little would have been required to make the entire population heretic [Music] at 60 years of age bishop karafa is promoted to the rank of cardinal after the pope qarafa holds the most powerful position in the catholic church and the church desperately needs his help in less than 20 years the protestant reformation has converted much of europe karafa convinces pope paul iii that it is critical to stamp out the protestant heresy he offers the new pontiff a solution an inquisition to eliminate heretics not in france or spain but at home in rome and throughout the italian peninsula and this is an extraordinarily important development for the first time you find institutionalized inquisition for the first time in the 16th century the holy see created a body for this purpose as one of the secretariats assisting the pope assumes leadership of the inquisition before funds are even released from the treasury he commandeers a large palace at his own expense across the river from the holy see he personally supervises the installation of interrogation chambers and prison cells [Applause] now backed by the power of the inquisition karafa appears unstoppable in his quest to protect the interests and morals of the church even if my own father were a heretic i would gather the wood to burn him the power of the inquisition will soon extend from rome to the farthest reaches of the italian peninsula in the venetian republic karafa's first victim his father baldo lupetino [Music] [Music] [Applause] he's taken to face the tribunal of the venetian inquisition october 27 1542 the inquisitor demands to know if luputino recognizes the pope as the head of the church in rome i believe in the truth of the holy scriptures but i do not believe in the authority of the pope or his councils as they are merely human beings the papal envoy demands a public execution to serve as a warning to other clergy [Music] should be tied between the columns of the piazza of saint mark's and beheaded his body should then be burned on the spot and then his ashes thrown into the sea for the honor and the glory of christ but the venetians are reluctant to execute the lutheran leaning monk it would send the wrong signal to the republic's trading partners it would simply be bad for business [Music] the venetian inquisition when it was formed was never of course fully under the control of rome rome appointed the venetian inquisitor usually from people suggested from the republic but the venetian inquisition really remained firmly under the control of venice's own patrician [Applause] [Music] as a compromise the tribunal sentences luputino to indefinite imprisonment [Music] he is sent to a remote isolated cell far from the city [Music] the inquisition has barely begun [Music] venice 1546 the long arm of the roman inquisition has created a climate of fear in the northern port city those who oppose the doctrines of the church are hunted down and silenced in venice the hub of european publishing and book selling this crackdown drives the trade of banned literature deep underground but illicit books still make their way into venice from northern europe one of the key links in the venetian book smuggling ring is the recent university of padua graduate giro lamo donzelino [Music] our own age is so curious about the religious questions that we are not dissatisfied with the beliefs of our elders and this is especially true of those of us who are well educated and interested in books because we are constantly seeking out new teachings it was much easier for the church to keep control of theology when books were extraordinarily costly and the only people who could afford to have many of them were the churches and monasteries as soon as the printing press made the pocketbook available to anybody with a couple of coins it was much much more difficult to keep the lid on this new media had emerged spewing out tens of thousands of books of all kinds including uh vernacular translations of scripture and stories of the saints and law books and other kinds of treatises and theological works and so on without any kind of limitation vincenzo valgriezi and his sons are among the most reputable publishers and booksellers in venice 450 years later valgriece additions will be worth thousands of dollars valgrieze regularly acquires heretical books from the physician donsellino and distributes them to a growing list of clients throughout the italian peninsula for donsellino and valgriezy the risks are enormous just one book could deliver them into the hands of the inquisition a high price to pay for the spread of knowledge [Music] a price known all too well by father baldo lupetino his last four years have been spent rotting away in his dank cell the princes of germany now followers of martin luther write to the pope protesting the degrading inhumane treatment of luputino karafa responds in a rage from his point of view lupetino's punishment is far from sufficient he is determined to make an example of the heretic fryer and soon there will be nothing to stop him [Music] may 23 1555 following the death of paul the third cardinal giovanni pietro carafa becomes pope paul iv [Music] the architect of the roman inquisition now holds all the power he wastes no time in using it protestant heretics are hunted down and executed blasphemy sexual misconduct failing to observe fasts all are fair game for the roving eye of the inquisition [Music] the pope turns his attention to the university of padua pope paul iv pressures the city to purge the heretics from its university the roman inquisition focuses on books on science on anything which would shake the church's traditional view of man as the center of the universe and as the catholic church in rome with the pope as its emperor many professors have already fled from the threat of investigation the inquisition suspects that their students have been tainted by their protestant poison one of these is civil law student pomponio algerio the 24 year old is ordered to present himself before the local inquisition tribunal the tribunal hears that pomponio has indeed been converted to the lutheran cause [Music] all cases the inquisition were documented in meticulous detail these were essentially legal proceedings and had to follow a certain kind of form and the church and the inquisitors were very conscious that it was crucial to follow that form wears his academic cap and gown to remind the tribunal that as a student he has the right to freely express his ideas from the transcript of pomponio algeria i say that the church deviates from the truth insofar as it says that a man can do anything in any way good on his own since nothing praiseworthy can proceed from our corrupt infected nature except to the extent that the lord god gives us his grace before the inquisition tribunal pomponio refuses to abdur the roman catholic is a particular church and no christian should restrict himself to any particular church since this roman church deviates in many things from truth [Music] he is sentenced to prison and told to reconsider his beliefs the inquisition sought to define the actual nature of the crime to bring forth evidence to have procedures for interviewing witnesses and the accused and so on so in in a certain sense you could say the inquisition provided a model uh for proper legal procedures [Music] but in prison pomponio's beliefs his lutheran convictions only grow stronger [Music] he writes secretly to his fellow students [Music] to my most beloved brothers fellow servants of christ i must tell you that i have found comfort in a dark cave serenity and hope in a place of bitterness and death for he who had been far away is with me now and offers me his hand i am in the company of those who have been crucified stoned hunted blinded beheaded or sent to the flames [Music] it has been written if we are accused in the name of christ we will be blessed for the honor and virtue of god rest on ye [Music] goodbye fellow servants of god strong and pray for me unceasingly the roman inquisition is about to transform the idealistic student into a martyr and a legend [Music] in the midst of the protestant attack paul iv opens a second front with an attack on an historic scapegoat of the church the jews [Music] it is absurd that the jews who have been condemned to eternal slavery through their own fault can show such effrontery that they venture to not only dwell among christians but even near their churches and without dressing to distinguish themselves according to christian theology traditionally the jews were cast out were seen as the people who would wander the face of the earth forever without a land of their own and their own miserable existence would testify to the fact that they were following a failed theology we're not in fact recognizing the true god the true theology of the christian faith 23 pontiffs prior to paul iv had guaranteed protection of the jews and upheld their special place in catholic theology under paul iv's regime that protection is no more july 12 1555 barely two months into his reign pope paul iv issues an extraordinary papal bull that overturns centuries of tolerance towards the jews of italy sixty years earlier close to nine thousand jews fleeing the inquisition in spain and portugal had been welcomed into the papal states by the pope himself my family escaped from spain in 1492 they came to iran invited by the pope alexander the sixth voter the pope at the time the church encourages the jews to set up businesses their skills are seen as a boon to local economies [Music] but now with paul the fourth's bull those once welcomed jews are condemned to live in walled ghettos identified by distinctive hats and badges every night at sundown they are to retreat to the ghetto and remain there under lock until the next day [Music] and inside inside in the ghetto the pope closed 3900 people the jews they were allowed to go outside but with special permission my family remained closed in ghetto area for 300 years 300 years 300 years of difficult periods the inquisition publishes an edict ordering the collection and burning of all copies of the talmud a book of interpretations of the hebrew bible thousands of rare and ancient manuscripts are reduced to ashes in 1557 jews are forbidden to own any hebrew books except their bible known to christians as the old testament the edict states once these books are removed it will soon result that the more the jews are without that wisdom of their rabbis so much the more will they be prepared and disposed to receiving the faith and the wisdom of the word of god the talmud is seen by the church as a dangerous document because the interpretation that it gives to many of the stories and the prophecies in the hebrew bible run contrary to later christian interpretation of those prophecies particularly with regard to the divinity of jesus his miraculous birth the salvation of the soul and a variety of those kinds of things from this point the inquisition becomes the most powerful institution of the church we are of the opinion that no tribunal is more honorable or works with greater zeal for the glory of god than the inquisition and we have therefore resolved to refer everything to it that is connected with the articles of faith or can be brought into relation with them the inquisition comes about as part of the counter-reformation and the major part of this is to introduce greater central control from rome over all of christendom [Music] in september 1556 in his quest to restore the unity of christendom pope paul iv takes care of some unfinished business after spending the last 14 years of his life in solitary confinement for preaching lutheran heresy father baldo lupetino is taken out of his cell pope paul iv calls for his public execution but the venetian leaders fearing a public execution would threaten commerce with northern europe request that the friars execution be carried out in secret making it easier to deny later the condemned man is taken in a gondola attended only by a sailor and a priest out in the venetian lagoon the prisoner chained and attached to a heavy stone is forced onto a plank between two gondolas then on a signal the sailors row away from one another and return to venice without looking back father baldo lupetino's long ordeal has come to an end [Music] next on the pope's list is the student from padua pomponio algeria who has spent the last year of his life behind bars because venetian authorities will not consent to an execution paul iv forces officials to extradite pomponio to rome where he will be handed over to the secular authorities the church itself never executes anyone when the inquisition flourished as an institution it was in societies almost all of which depended absolutely on religious a kind of religious uniformity as well as uniformity of the matters so the state saw itself as having an interest in enforcing orthodoxy this to us is now practically unthinkable and for most of us undesirable [Music] august 21 1555 [Music] a monk from the brotherhood of saint john the beheaded visits the young student urging him to repent [Music] if he renounces his heretical beliefs he will be strangled before burning to spare him the excruciating death [Music] father francesco pagini records the encounter although having been exhorted to repent was increasingly perfidious in his obstinacy he did not wanted to confess his sins nor that he wanted to listen to the holy mass [Music] august 22nd 1556 [Music] is taken to piazza navona [Music] [Music] the inquisition has devised a new method of execution he's to be boiled alive in a container of oil tar and turpentine [Music] this is what i've always saw from my lord may he live forever receive me o lord your servant and martyr he survives for 15 minutes before death finally takes him the venetian ambassador files a report on the event on this day the student pomponio went to his death in piazza navona he displayed so much steadfastness in the face of death that everyone was in awe [Music] the notion of freedom of conscience is highly refined at our time in history it wasn't as clear in the past you see in the past because so much was at stake for the person that is attaining salvation or not they it was felt that one had to enforce orthodoxy even if people were resisting it as we would say for their own good [Music] august 18th 1559 church officials and dignitaries gather in the papal chambers to pay their final respects to the 83 year old pontiff a cardinal witnesses his last moments on earth at the twelfth hour he called all the cardinals together about him and commended to their care the inquisition in the name of jesus christ the pope's heart is barely stopped when the people of rome pour onto the streets to celebrate his demise the devil who brought the violence and the torture of the inquisition to italy is no more [Music] the mobs of romans attacked the palace of the inquisition freeing dozens of prisoners from their cells the mob breaks into the archives of the inquisition and destroys many of its secret files the likeness of pope paul iv father of the deadly roman inquisition is dispatched to the bottom of the tiber river where it will lie undisturbed for the next 300 years but the pope's legacy is very much alive months before his death paul iv publishes a specific list of books banned by the church the index librorum prohibitor seeks to put an end to the reading of books that could potentially corrupt the faithful only catholic texts and approved secular books are to be bought sold and read no new book is to be published anywhere in italy without the church's approval the index of prohibited books of course was a major instrument of thought control and of restricting the flow of of information and ideas particularly of course cracking down on this new instrument the printing press and there really hadn't been any kind of sense of systematic censorship in place anywhere in europe but you see in a way it's preferable to make a judgment about a book rather than to make a judgment about a person so that's to say you see the inquisition tended to concentrate on whether a person was a heretic the index of the index concentrated on the content of their book in venice at the heart of european printing and publishing the holy office has been able to enforce the index of prohibited books with great success [Music] following the creation of the list the inquisition steps up its efforts by conducting random searches of venetian bookshops [Music] an informer's tip leads the holy office to the publishing house of al griese and sons the files of the venetian inquisition contain this denunciation i was at the bookshop when donzelino and giorgio valgresi were discussing prohibited books giorgio put his finger to his lips as a signal that he should be quiet but don zelino boasted that he held on to his despite the holy office [Music] [Music] more than 1 100 prohibited volumes are found enough evidence to put both men away for life among the confiscated volumes are editions of the bible translated from the church-approved latin into german and italian and the parish priest testify that he is a good catholic ironically he uses as part of his defense that he was the first in venice to publish the index librorum prohibitor [Music] in response the tribunal decides to merely find him and order him to perform penance the inquisition's seizure of inventory and the forced closure of his shop for six months proves too much for valgriezy he chooses to retire and leaves the business to his sons a few months later for the fifth time in his smuggling career don zelino is brought to trial [Music] girolamo danzalino has made his final delivery [Music] in the past he had been freed after a jury [Music] at this time the inquisition tribunal finds donzelino guilty of heretical activities [Music] they turn him over to the secular authorities he will never be seen again killing people doesn't seem to us generally speaking over ideas seems to us not to be a very good idea after 2 000 years of of history i mean of the history of the west as we know it that is and generally um uh so we disapprove deeply of this this kind of progression but it seems to me it is possible to understand it within the context of its times and also to understand that within the context sort of sociological sociology of religion context understanding how communities react to threats which they regard to be dire or fatal people have defended the inquisition on the grounds that it must be judged in its proper historic context so that if for example people were being burned at the stake in 1500 this can't be viewed from today's perspective but has to be viewed in a society where this was not that uncommon yet we have to realize that not only that were they being burned at the stake but they were being burned because of their opinion the crime for which the church was putting them to death in this horrible fashion was that they disagreed with the official interpretation of church doctrine and this is in a way the many many tragedies of the inquisition continued pressure shuts down most of the presses in venice [Music] the flow of illicit books coming into the italian peninsula all but runs dry all books written by protestants are placed on the list so is the bible in common languages in 1606 the entire city of venice is excommunicated the index of prohibited books will not be abolished until 1960 [Music] [Music] bologna 1858 a jewish boy is kidnapped by the inquisition his father takes up a struggle begun by napoleon 60 years earlier the emperor nearly succeeds in dismantling the inquisition and securing its secret files but the popes regain their earthly powers decades later a desperate father will fight to get back his son the boy becomes a symbol for an embattled pope the jewish father and the emperor unleash the forces that bring about the end of the inquisition [Music] [Music] [Music] three [Music] [Music] [Music] in the spring of 1940 at a belgian abbey an aged monk reflects on a lifetime he can almost hear german troops marching at the border 88 years old father pio maria is one of the last critical figures of the inquisition the devout father's early life had been the center of a firestorm of controversy in the 19th century the nazis will soon begin rounding up all those tainted with jewish blood [Music] pio maria thinks back to the time more than 80 years earlier when he was born to a jewish family in bologna in what was then the papal states [Music] um [Music] [Music] edgardo is the child of mariana and momolo mortara a middle-class family with an upholstery shop the mortars are among the 200 jews who live in bologna illegally it has been almost 300 years since the jews of bologna were banished from the city by the catholic church and ordered never to return the jews who inhabit bologna live in fear of the pope's deputy the inquisitor of bologna when i talk about the mortar case i often hear it said but the inquisition was back in the 1500s or maybe the 1400s in spain or 1600s but how could there been an inquisition in the second half of the 19th century and people also at the same time don't realize that where the pope had power as he did in rome in up to 1870 the jews are confined to ghettos [Music] in the middle of the 19th century italian jews are forced to live in cramped ghettos forbidden to associate with any christians to own property to attend university or to travel freely they are even required to attend sermons urging them to convert these laws are enforced by the holy office of the inquisition the italy we know today doesn't exist in 1858 the north is dominated by austria the south ruled by spain across the middle of the italian peninsula the pope rules as king of the papal states the existence of the papal state was one reason why the popes opposed italian nationalism that raises for the first time the possibility of one unified italy [Music] bologna has always posed a threat to the power of rome in 1858 bologna is a hotbed of political descent where covert groups of revolutionaries aimed to overthrow the pope king and create a unified italy [Music] june 24 1858 a search is underway but the papal police are not looking for revolutionaries they are looking for a little jewish boy named edgardo mortara [Music] the actions of this evening represent a desperate last attempt at exerting the power of the inquisition an institution napoleon and others had tried to abolish more than six decades previously [Music] june 1796 outside the city of ferrara [Music] french general napoleon bonaparte and his army have successfully swept across northern italy capturing city after city in the name of france he brings the spirit of descent revolt and enlightenment to italy when he learns of the restrictions on the jews napoleon immediately issues an edict ordering the gates of the ghettos demolished old laws demanding jews to identify themselves with yellow bonnets are abolished the jews are now free to live anywhere and to practice their religion openly the jews now full citizens revere napoleon as a great liberator and create a special prayer in his honor the jews of the papal states are no longer subject to persecution for the time being from napoleon's perspective the inquisition represented all that was wrong with the asylum regime with the old regime the old political forces the papacy was a product of the middle ages napoleon believed and in particular the inquisition which embodied the power of religion over the state from his perspective was something that no modern state and certainly no state that he led would tolerate [Music] madrid 1796 spain is repressed and terrorized by the inquisition napoleon will find a surprising ally here deep inside the apparatus of the spanish inquisition a priest opposed to the inquisition's brutal regime spends late hours examining the church's most secret documents father juan antonio yorente scrutinizes thousands of documents of secret confessions trials and executions materials covering more than 300 years of the spanish inquisition my firm conviction that the inquisition was vicious in principle in its constitution and in the laws induced me to collect every document i could procure to give the world a true code of the secret laws of the inquisition which were veiled by mystery from all mankind [Music] but it would be far too dangerous for him to share these opinions and openly criticize the church and its methods even more so since father juan antonio yorente is secretary general of the madrid inquisition for his views jorente could be brought to trial himself instead he bides his time seeking the opportunity to reveal to the world the horrors locked in the archives we are all most of us products now of hugely diverse pluralistic societies and the notion that a particular religious belief would be essential for the functioning of the society seems to us quite foreign it's extraordinarily difficult for us to grasp june 24 1858 the papal police knock at the door of the jewish family of momolo and mariana mortara in the central part of bologna [Music] the marshall of the papal carabinieri informs the mortars that they are the victims of a betrayal their accuser is not named producing a list of family members he demands custody of their son edgardo his orders are to take the boy a papal law has been broken and the jewish boy has now become property of the church [Music] powerless his parents can do nothing more than watch [Music] edgardo's sister ernesta will be scarred for life [Music] the abduction of edgardo mortara not only shatters a family it will help trigger the collapse of church powers and bring more than 600 years of brutal inquisitions to a halt one of my great grandmothers ernest mortar was his sister i've heard a lot of stories about her and other members of the matara family including the fact that when she was older she was often having nightmares about the police coming into the house to to take the child [Music] 24 hours have passed since young edgardo mortara was ripped from his parents arms by the papal police all they have left of edgardo is the receipt signed by the marshall no one knows where the child was taken no one can be sure if they will ever see edgardo again [Music] ophelia [Music] only one thing is certain his son was abducted by order of the holy office of the inquisition the order was issued because in the eyes of the church the boy is no longer jewish he has been secretly baptized and is now deemed a christian the parents are amazed horrified they say we're a jewish family we don't even let our child go into a church we don't let our child set eyes on a priest he of course hasn't been baptized for momola mortara nothing is quite clear who claimed to have baptized his boy when had the act taken place with what intent how could it even be proven that the baptism had happened at all i was struck as if by a bolt of lightning surely there must have been some misunderstanding some mistake behind it all not knowing what to do momolumartara works up the nerve to confront the one man capable of shedding light on the mystery [Music] father pierre gaetano felleti the man responsible for ordering the abduction of edgardo charged by the congregation of the holy office in rome with combating heresy and defending the faith father felletti is the chief inquisitor of bologna every inquisitor in bologna has lived and worked in these quarters since the first in 1273 and one day he hears a report that a child in the jewish family of the mortars has been in the past sometimes secretly baptized because it's the position of the inquisition that any baptized jewish child bc's from their jewish family he orders an investigation [Music] bonjour [Music] where the boy is being kept for the church freeing edgardo mortara is simply not an option more importantly for the mortars the inquisitor refuses to share the information in edgardo's file evidence that might give momolo a clue to locating his son the files of the inquisition are not accessible to this jewish father or anyone else [Music] the secret files of the inquisition had been napoleon's obsession 50 years earlier [Music] spain 1808 napoleon's armies occupy madrid depose the former rulers and install his brother as king after 330 years of violent rule the french waste no time in abolishing the inquisition in spain a polish colonel attached to napoleon's army attacks the offices of the madrid inquisition seizes its files and liberates the unfortunate inmates of its prison from the diary of colonel vladislav lemanovsky we found living sufferers of both sexes and of every age from three scorers and 10 down to 14 or 15 and all in shines here we found old men and aged women who had been shut up for many years we then proceeded to explore another room here we found the instruments of torture of every kind which only the ingenuity of men or devils could invent [Music] these images of the horrors of the inquisition are the work of francisco de goya considered one of the greatest artists in the history of spain the french occupation ends the spanish inquisition goya is now free to portray the terror of the inquisition in this famous series of drawings fantasy abandoned by reason produces impossible monsters the inquisition is a brutal and absurd organization which its efforts to quell civil disobedience has now created obstacles to a freer society [Music] is not the only one now free to express himself with the backing of napoleon bonaparte juan antonio yorente digs deeper into the files of the spanish inquisition and publishes its horrors to the world [Music] jorente's research leads him to the startling discovery that of nearly 85 000 accused of heresy between 1547 and 1699 more than 12 000 or 15 percent were burned at the stake [Music] for the church already standing on shaky ground these revelations are nothing short of devastating for compiling the first history of the inquisition and giving its victims a voice cannon juan antonio yorente is awarded the order of spain by joseph bonaparte [Music] fifty years later the jewish father from bologna sets out to expose the iniquities of the inquisition june 30 1858 six days after the abduction of his son ed gardo momolo mortara makes a startling discovery of his own a neighbor reveals that a carriage was spotted carrying edgardo and his captors [Music] it was seen speeding out of the city their son is no longer in bologna [Music] he has been taken to rome a journey of six days by carriage the inquisitor refuses to tell the mortars on what basis he's taking the children in other words who is it who claims to have baptized their child they say their child was never baptized but they can't prove it unless they find out who it is who is supposed to have baptized him trying to determine who could have baptized edgardo suspicion turns to a former nursemaid [Music] [Music] an illiterate catholic woman who seven years earlier had been employed as a servant by the mortars [Music] anna morrissey recounts that she indeed had baptized young edgardo because he had been sick and she had feared that the boy might die as a good christian she had tried to save his soul she came up with a bit of water and baptized him by sprinkling pronouncing the sacramental formula [Music] the boy had not died and she had thought nothing more of it years later she told another servant about the incident and soon the rumor of the secret baptism reached the inquisitor [Music] a fearful anna is summoned to the offices of father falletti [Music] the holy inquisitor interrogated me about what i had done with edgardo forcing me to tell him everything i dare do it because even if they had surprised me they would have just found me with a glass of water in my hand and they probably wouldn't have understood what i was doing [Music] there's actually a big drama here in terms of was this boy actually ever baptized ana marizzi has been working for years as a servant in bologna to make enough money so she can have a dowry to return to the rural town she came from in order to marry settle down half her own family she hasn't been able to make that amount of money but she does hear that the church is giving money to needy deserving christian girls for dowry who is the person in bologna in charge of giving those funds well it happens it's father faletti the inquisitor and the inquisitor made me swear on the crucifix to say nothing he told me that i acted excellently in baptizing the boy because that way if he died he'd go to heaven [Music] anna morrissey agrees to repeat her account in the presence of witnesses but while momolo has gone to find a notary anna slips away and leaves town [Music] well in the first months after edgardo is taken his father is ceaseless in his activities to gather the material that he's convinced will get the pope to agree to return his son to him so that he wants first of all to show that his son had not been baptized and does all he can to get evidence that anamorizi the servant who says she has baptized him was lying the taking of jewish children by the church is a common occurrence in 19th century italy but for momolo a clandestine baptism can't be an acceptable answer to the abduction of his son momolo mortara prepares his own formal request to free edgardo he writes to the inquisitor father gaetano faletti pleading for his son's release he also writes to the secretary of state of the holy see and to the pope himself pope pius ix pio nono interestingly he remained at this time convinced that if the pope only knew the full story the pope and his goodness would allow his son to come back to his parents it is inconceivable for me that a child can be taken away like this surely there must be some misunderstanding some mistake behind it all in response to his desperate plea the pope grants momolo a rare privilege permission to visit his son in rome at the house of katakumans a secret church institution where young jewish girls and boys are regularly cleansed of their names their identities and their religion [Music] napoleon had been the foremost opponent of the church's power over citizens lives [Music] in 1809 he abolished all political powers of the papacy and crowned himself emperor then he ordered the entire vatican archive sent to paris and directed his archivists to search for evidence damning the church [Music] 1810 napoleon's dream of humiliating the church is well underway over the steep trails and deep gorges of the italian alps convoys leave for paris weighed down with the pillaged archives of the vatican in all the convoys carry more than three thousand crates crammed with inquisition trials sentences decrees correspondence and doctrinal pronouncements enough detailed evidence in the eyes of napoleon bonaparte to turn the conquered people of italy away from the church and the corruption of the papacy for those transporting the prized documents the difficult terrain is fraught with peril and valuable evidence is lost along the way two wagon loads are lost at vorgo san donino near parma eight cases disappear into a canal between turin and susa [Music] despite these setbacks a total of three thousand two hundred and thirty nine chests containing more than one hundred thousand volumes arrive in paris [Music] among many extraordinary discoveries pierre claude d'ono napoleon's archivist uncovers files describing the absurdity of the trial of galileo in a letter found in the stolen files of the inquisition galileo sends the church and its members a stern warning if anyone maintained that the opinion that the earth moves is heresy and if afterward demonstration and observation would prove that it does move into what embarrassment he would have brought himself and the holy church it is precisely this embarrassment with which napoleon hopes to undermine the papacy but the return of the old order in europe will intervene [Music] [Music] since jews are not allowed to fix their eyes on the house of katakumans much less knock on its door and expect to be admitted momolo's visit must have had an unimaginable impact [Music] still the father's attitude is righteous i am in the firm belief that justice will be done to me trusting that i have been heard i raise my prayers to the highest authority that my hopes are not in vain [Music] with its origins in the third century the house of the catacombs has but one goal to convert jews and muslims to catholicism to make conversion more likely friends and family members are refused access the emotions of family contact can easily sabotage the conversion of an unbeliever what happens if this encounter is a matter of dispute according to the mortars young edgardo pleads to return to his family but both father and son are intimidated by the intensity of their surroundings and the religious officials who hold all the power [Music] although momolo has now freed him to see him and to talk to him the boy is never left alone with his father but many decades later edgardo has a different recollection needless to say they tried every means to get me back caresses tears please and promises despite all this i never showed the slightest desire to return to my family a fact which i do not understand myself except by looking at the power of supernatural grace throughout the meetings officials of the catacombs offer momolo a simple solution to his problem convert and you will again be able to be with your son under the inquisition and in the papal states where the inquisition was being fully enforced you couldn't agree to be baptized and then become jews again it was not an option just to go through the ritual which to them might have been an empty ritual of baptism and then continue to be jews then the full force the inquisition would have come down on their heads momolo's encounter with his son in the house of the catechumens is used for propaganda by catholic newspapers as they reported it on edgardo's journey to rome a miraculous conversion occurred the boy is said to have declared i am baptized and my father is the pope according to the catholic press edgardo mortara's father is now pius ix many years later edgardo testifies about the pope he always showed me the most fatherly demonstration of affection wise and very useful lessons and blessing me tenderly he often told me that i had cost him much pain and tears hounded by the forces of change sweeping across europe the pope sees the mortara case as an opportunity to assert the power of an ailing church but the pope is in for the fight of his life [Music] the mortar case comes as almost manna from heaven for the forces for unification because they are able to use it to argue that there needs to be separation of church and state that the pope should not have a police force should not have his own army that this is a vestige of medieval times that modern times the times of enlightenment no longer allow this the greatest champion of the separation of church and state had been napoleon but in 1814 napoleon is defeated in france itself and his occupying armies are forced to leave spain after napoleon's defeat the laws permitting equality liberty and fraternity are retracted in many countries may of 1814 in spain a royal proclamation states that anyone who supported the french during their occupation will be executed the king of spain vows that every heretic will have his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron the dark days of the inquisition return with a vengeance march 16th 1815 francisco de goya is dragged before the inquisition and accused of obscenity charges for painting a naked woman himself is forced to wear the cloak of shame at his trial [Music] he is also accused of collaborating with the french he escapes both charges through the mercy of the king goya escapes to bordeaux in france where he continues to paint until his death in 1828. his friend jorente also flees to france where in 1818 he publishes his greatest work on the inquisition in italy a new pope returns as the head of the papal states and the roman catholic church he orders that the archives stolen by napoleon be returned to rome but the french are unwilling to pay for more than one quarter of the transportation costs [Music] to reduce delivery costs some inquisition files deemed unimportant are left behind in paris and sold to cardboard makers and fishmongers in all nearly two-thirds of the materials originally stolen by napoleon are deemed expendable and are sold some even fall into the hands of french bankers who blackmail the church into buying them back at exorbitant prices worse for the jews of italy they are herded back into the ghettos and again forced to wear the yellow bonnet in the papal states the inquisition will endure for another four decades [Music] momolo mortara writes to anyone who can possibly help to get back his son including politicians and jewish leaders in england and america [Music] through the new electronic media the campaign draws the attention of newspapers in the world's democracies in the month of december 1858 alone the new york times publishes more than 20 articles on the case [Music] momola was quite an admirable person a person with a lot of personal courage he was able to transform a private case of suffering into a into a public problem really of the most powerful and influential men called on to support the return of the boy to his parents is the jewish banker to the church james de rothschild he writes to the pope i am certain that this fact can only be an abuse of power or a miscalculated excess of zeal since your eminence's reputation for justice is for me a guarantee that the procedure such as this which has thrown an entire family into despair would not be tolerated in fact uh the pope himself pius ix has been dependent on loans from the rothschild banking family to keep the papal states afloat which is one of the great ironies of this story yet even in the face of requests from his own financier pius ix refuses to budge but although they tried the pope says this is a matter of deep principle of deep catholic principle on which i cannot bend both the powerful and the powerless tried to steal this boy from me and accused me of being barbarous and pitiless they cried for his parents but they failed to recognize that i too am his father i had the right and duty to do what i did for this boy and if it weren't necessary i would do it again pope pius ix stands fast but even he cannot stop the larger forces at work the mortar case comes at a crucial time in history for european history and also for italian history and the history of the catholic church it comes at a time when the risargimento the movement to unify italy is gaining steam it's a movement to create what there hadn't previously been a single italian state for almost half a century revolutionaries had dreamed of a unified italy that dream had finally arrived after protecting the papal states for 250 years the austrian army is forced to withdraw from italy and leaves pope pius ix regime vulnerable to attack father felletti the inquisitor responsible for the kidnapping of edgardo mortara is arrested in the middle of the night by the former papal police who now work for the new civilian government they demand the inquisition's secret files in the mortara case but falletti refuses to hand them over the inquisitor is brought to trial on kidnapping charges but that doesn't get edgardo back well the tables had been turned and this there was nothing maybe more as a dramatic illustration of this than the fact that the inquisitor could be arrested and charged with a crime when all he had done was obey the orders of the pope and of course this was his defense [Music] in 1861 all that is left of the pope's temporal kingdom is rome and the area immediately around it throughout the peninsula a new secular kingdom of italy has been proclaimed for the pope the collapse of the papal states is but another trial sent by god but this time no help will come in 1870 the italian army reduces pius ix kingdom to the vatican buildings for his refusal to bend in the face of change the last bastion of orthodoxy comes down pius ix has lost his entire earthly kingdom he writes to edgardo i acquired you for jesus christ at a high price so it is i paid dearly for your ransom no one showed any concern for me father of all the faithful pius ix is the first pope to be photographed and the last to set foot outside the vatican for the next 59 years the pope resigns himself to his own ghetto a swath of land a mere hundred acres [Music] september 20th 1870 is a historic date in italian history it is the day when the italian army would break through the walls of rome the last part of italy ruled by the pope the pope would retreat to the buildings of the vatican and rome would become the capital of the new italian state mama lamortara had been waiting for 12 years for this to happen [Music] with the end of papal rule and the inquisition momolo mortara is now free to bring his son home twelve years have passed since his abduction edgardo learns that his father has come to rome to take him back his reaction is unexpected from the letters of edgardo mortara on october 22nd 1870 at 10 at night accompanied by one of the friars both of us dressed in street clothes we made our way to the central train station where my mentor told me he spotted my father deeply frightened i begged in my heart that i bespared the encounter and in fact my prayer was answered and without any incident i got on the train for bologna [Music] in the battle for the soul of edgardo mortara the church emerges victorious after 12 years of fighting for his son momola mortara is forced to return to his family empty-handed never would he hold edgardo again [Music] he spent much of his uh life after the the case in in trying to to to move public opinion and i think that needed a lot of uh courage and also of a sense of civic responsibility so i think momolo is a person who's well worth remembering only a few letters will be exchanged in which edgardo tries to convince his parents of the truth of the catholic church [Music] at the age of 21 pio edgardo mortara is ordained a priest and dedicates his life to spreading the faith he will spend his last years in quiet contemplation and prayer in a belgian abbey [Music] for 1 000 years papal power struggled to preserve the catholic church as the world's only true religion through rigid doctrine enforced by the powers of the holy office of the inquisition the church has reigned supreme [Music] now that reign has come to an end its powers rendered impotent by the forces of a changing world [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Parable - Religious History Documentaries

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Keywords: parable, parable channel, parable documentary, religious history, religious history documentary, the inquisition, the holy inquisition, the holy inquisition in europe, the spanish inquisition, the spanish inquisition history of the world, the roman inquisition, the roman catholic inquisition, the inquisition documentary, secret files of the inquisition documentary, full history documentary, what was the inquisition, what was the spanish inquisition, ugly history, religion war

Id: 8Umg4htFNEc

Length: 194min 56sec (11696 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 30 2021