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To them it was revolutionary clap-trap but to us this new view is obvious ... Why believe anything unless you can prove. Our modern approach to learning starts here ... There was only one thing to do. Invent the Inquisition. And we all know what that got up to. Very nasty stuff. James Burke, Connections s1e5: Wheel of Fortune, BBC 1978
By 1440 Tomas Torquemada is top Spanish torturer – when he is on a winning streak he can burn 13,000 in one year. James Burke, Connections s3e4: An Invisible Object, BBC 1997
What havoc has been made of books through every century of the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as spurious by the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of Hebrew manuscripts burned in France, by order of another pope, because suspected of heresy? Remember the ‘Index Expurgatorius’, the inquisition, the stake, the axe, the halter and the guillotine. John Adams
I don’t believe that anybody has done terrible deeds in the name of atheism. Why would they? What would be the point? ... Neither of them were representing atheism. Atheism is not responsible for anything that they do. Religion was responsible for what the Spanish Inquisition did. Richard Dawkins, interview Have Your Say
The Inquisition makes its intentions unmistakably clear [Galileo]. Days that Shook the World s2e6: Reach For the Stars, BBC 2004
We must rank the Inquisition ... as among the darkest blots on record of mankind. Will Durant, The Story of Civilisation 4:78
Millions of people were killed and tortured during the Papal Inquisition. Satanic Vatican
What followed was an English version of the Inquisition. Simon Schama, A History of Britain: Burning Convictions, BBC 2000
In times to follow, however, the once revered knowledge of the Templars caused their persecution by the popes of other Orders, and by the savage Dominican friars of the Inquisition. It was at that point in the history of Christianity that the last vestige of free thinking disappeared. Neither special knowledge nor access to truths counted for anything against the hard new party line from Rome. Laurence Gardner, Bloodline of the Holy Grail p219
And at this time of relative peace the Knights Templar were about to pay a terrible price for decades of privilege in one of history’s greatest public scandals. It began in 1307 on Friday the 13th, a day henceforth considered unlucky. On that morning Templar headquarters throughout France found themselves under attack ... The Inquisition extracted its own answers. Decoding the Past e17: The Templar Code, History 2005
Established by the Church to root out heretics in southern France the Inquisition was a group of experienced interrogators and clergy placed at the disposal of any European monarch enjoying Papal favour. ibid.
Pope Innocent III created structures to deal with heresy – Inquisition ... It’s difficult for modern westerners to understand the mind of an inquisitor but we need to bear in mind they were clergy who saw what they were doing as an aspect of the pastoral role of a priest – to make society better. But there’s a fine line in any system between idealism and sadism. Inquisitions were no worse than most medieval courts. Torture might be used to extract confession. Those on trial had no right to defence counsel. Penalty raised from wearing a cross of penance to pilgrimage to imprisonment to death by burning at the stake. Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, BBC 2009
The Inquisition was an extraordinarily important time in human history in Europe. When anyone if you are for liberty and justice and freedom, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom to think, you were hunted down by the Vatican. Jordan Maxwell, interview Alex Jones 27th June 2009
A defence in the Inquisition is of little use to the prisoner, for a suspicion only is deemed sufficient cause of condemnation, and the greater his wealth the greater his danger. John Foxe
A prisoner in the Inquisition is never allowed to see the face of his accuser, or of the witnesses against him, but every method is taken by threats and tortures, to oblige him to accuse himself, and by that means corroborate their evidence. John Foxe
If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the Inquisition might have let him alone. Thomas Hardy
In medieval Britain anyone found communicating with spirits was in danger of being arrested by the many inquisitions organised by the Vatican. The costumes and wickedness of the Vatican’s inquisitions would later be copied by the Ku Klux Klan in the United States. Chris Everard, Illuminati III
The weak will always be led by the strong. Where the strong see purpose and act, the weak follow; where the strong cry out against fate, the weak bow their heads and succumb. There are many who are weak; and many are their temptations. Despise the weak for they shall flock to the call of the Daemon and the Renegade. Pity them not and scorn their cries of innocence – it is better that one hundred innocently fall before the wrath of the Emperor than one kneels before the Daemon. The Inquisition: The First Book of Indoctrinations
Some may question your right to destroy ten billion people. Those who understand realise that you have no right to let them live! ibid. In Exterminatus Extremis
So great has been the calamitousness of these times, and such the inveterate malice of the heretics, that there has been nothing ever so clear in our statement of faith, nothing so surely settled, which they, at the instigation of the enemy of the human race, have not defiled by some sort of error. For which cause the holy Inquisition hath made Its especial care to condemn and anathematise the principal errors of the heretics of our time, and to deliver and teach the true and Imperial doctrine; even as It has condemned, anathematised, and decreed. ibid. Declaration of Inquisitorial Mandate
Inquisitors? They’re sneaky bastards. Useful, yes, even necessary, but I wouldn’t buy a used aircar from any of them. Arbitrator General Bex van Sturm
Turning the weapons of the enemy against him is, of course, of grave danger to one’s soul. It is nonetheless a satisfying thing to see. Inquisitor Havelock Brundsted
We are at War with forces too terrible to comprehend. We cannot afford mercy for any of its victims too weak to take the correct course. Mercy destroys us; it weakens us and saps our resolve. Put aside all such thoughts. They are not worthy of Inquisitors in the service of Our Emperor. Praise His name for in our resolve we only reflect his purpose of will. Inquisitor Enoch
To consort with the heretic is to endanger one’s purity. But to lie to an Inquisitor is to forfeit your soul. Inquisitor Fazael
Look upon this hammer I hold before me, for it is far more than a weapon. It is a symbol of the Imperial justice that smites the diabolic enemies of the Imperium wherever they are found, just as I. Though it has banished even a mighty Greater Daemon to the hell from which it was spawned, it remains true and pure, just as I. Furthermore, it is a symbol of my order and my office, of the authority granted to me by the divine will of the Emperor. By that authority, I am commanding you and your entire regiment to obey me without question or hesitation. Advance, or it will not be daemonic blood that stains my hammer this day. Inquisitor Hephaestos, to Colonel Molian
There is no such thing as a plea of innocence in my court. A plea of innocence is guilty of wasting my time. Guilty. Inquisitor Lord Fyodor Karamazov