...The head was not a common area to inflict torture. The inquisitors wanted a confession from the accused, but if the head was injured an acceptable confession could not be made. The head crusher, one of the most brutal devices made for the head, has a lower bar that the victim’s chin is set on and a cap that the cranium is set under (“The Horrors of the Church and its Holy Inquisition” 16). The inquisitors then cranked a handle located on the side of the trap, inflicting agony as the skull slowly crushes. Victims usually stayed entrapped in the head crusher for hours, being left to sit in pain (“The Horrors of the Church and its Holy Inquisition” 16). Another technique focusing on the head and neck is water torture. First the inquisitor immobilized the victim by strapping them to a flat surface and pinching the nostrils closed (“Atrocities of the Church: The Art of Medieval Torture” 7). Next, the inquisitors poured up to eight quarts of fluid, usually urine, vinegar, diarrhea, or boiling water, down the accused’s throat, forcing them to swallow the vile liquid and causing them to choke (“Atrocities of the Church: The Art of Medieval Torture” 7)....
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...The Grand Inquisitor JACKIE BARRIERE stc The Grand Inquisitor The Grand Inquisitor is a chapter in Dostoyevsky’s classic novel “The Brothers Karamazov.” The Greater novel itself is a philosophical debate on God, free will, human nature and morality written by Dostoevsky over 2 years and published in 1880. As with all of Dostoyevsky’s novels it is set in a modernizing Russia and it is a deep psychological study of faith and reason, as well as the doubt, psychology, moral decisions and the thought processes that occur during man’s journey to enlightenment and greater awareness. Although The Brothers Karamazov itself is a work of art and one of the greatest novels ever written the true genius of “The Grand Inquisitor” chapter is that it is a profound discussion on faith, reason and religion, on its own, and the chapter works as an independent study of the greater novels philosophical questions. Although I have done a lot of thinking myself on the topics discussed in “The Grand Inquisitor” I have been especially moved during the reading of this chapter and in my opinion it is the most profound discussions of religious philosophy I have ever read. Even as I write this paper my opinions on the complex questions Dostoyevsky examines, the irony that flows through much of the parable and the reasons for Dostoyevsky writing the parable are in constant change – as with all matters of deep philosophy these issues will probably never be fully resolved; that is why “The Grand Inquisitor”...
Words: 2110 - Pages: 9
...these rare occurrences, women could encounter faith miracles such as stigmatas, ecstasies, or the re-living of Christ’s Passion. During this period, Italy also experienced another intense spiritual movement labeled diabolic witchcraft (Tavuzzi 150). In the case of diabolic witchcraft, again experienced primarily by females, women underwent a concentrated level of worship and contractual relations with Satan. Historical examples show these women developing sexual relations with Satan, as well as maleficia or harmful magic (Tavuzzi 153). The women involved in diabolic witchcraft were pursued by the Church’s legal arm, the Dominican Inquisitors. They were put on trial, accused of heresy, and either imprisoned or killed. Similarly, the Dominican Inquisitors investigated women who were involved in mysticism and upon the examinations performed by the inquisitors; these mystics were authenticated and praised by the Church. Sometimes theses mystics were even beatified or canonized by the Church. Ironically, these two types of spirituality co-existed and paralleled each other. Despite their similarities, however, these two groups of women were subjected to two completely different destinies. Christian mystics and diabolic witches...
Words: 5189 - Pages: 21
... The accused was required to testify , and he didn't get a lawyer or of any assistance . If he refused to testify the inquisitor took this refusal as proof of his guilt . Anybody could testify against him including relatives and criminals and other heretics and he wasn't told who his accusers were . The accused usually didn't have any witness testify on his behalf because they could also fall under suspicion of being a heretic immediately informed of charges against him. The inquisitorial court traveled the country conducting tibornals . This court consisted of two inquisitors as well as secretaries and other members . A typical inquisition began with an addict of grace after catholic mass , in which the inquisitors explained what constituted heresy and encouraged the congregation to confess any transgressions . Those that confused escape torture and extreme punishment but were found to denounced any other heretics . Heresy could be definitely proven if accused was caught in heretical act , but the goal of the inquisitor was always to exact a confession or admission or guilt . Inquisitors were not only better educated and better versed in the bible than there subjects . There also specifically trained in how to question them in confusing or leading ways . often , the accused clever enough to answer the inquisitor question and prove his wor . But the inquisitor still needed a satisfactory confession and imprisoned for years until one was obtained. ...
Words: 1068 - Pages: 5
...Tasia Barefield PHIL 104 - 003 Professor Steinbock 2-19-13 What is the Meaning of Life? After reading A Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor R. Frankl and short story The Grand Inquisitor on the Nature of Man by Fyodor Dostoevsky, one may begin to question freedom and the meaning of life is. Both books give their readers an abundance of information for them to decide for themselves if these two things go hand in hand. After reading both books I came to realize that a person does not need to be free to have a meaning of life. A person can find happiness in any situation they are placed in when they just have to find a reason to be happy. The Grand Inquisitor on the Nature of Man is a short story from the novel The Brothers Karamazov. The story about human nature and freedom is told by Ivan to his younger brother Alyosha. Alyosha just so happens to be a Monk and Ivan questions if there is a God. Their discussion is very dramatic and causes its readers to assume Ivan’s standpoint on religious faith. It almost seems as if Ivan is trying to get Alyosha to really think about his faith. He never says what he truly believes in; he kept his role as storyteller throughout the whole story. Dostoevsky’s story is about Jesus returning to earth to the city of Seville, during the Spanish Inquisition. He explains that the people automatically recognized him when they first saw him. Ivan explains to Alyosha saying: He comes silently and unannounced;...
Words: 1515 - Pages: 7
...Professor: Class Name: Date of Submission The Concept of Transandence According to the Grand Inquisitor, majority of people are weak and are likened to sheep. Jesus gave it up all since he valued the freedom of faith above humanity happiness. As a result of this, the Catholic Church led by the Inquisitor reject Him. They believe that their faith is stronger than the ordinary people, and they attain a reward from God while the weak people exist for the sake. The weak cannot take the narrow road to heaven because they are afraid of freedom. (Reznor 117) Fyodor Dostoevsky is a novelist who bases his writings on Christianity. He puts themes of Christianity using an anthropological format: evil and righteous, belief and unbelief, innocence and guilt, determinism and freedom, hate and love are taken to be problems encountered by humans. He is a great thinker and a manipulator of intense philosophical questions regarding the existence of God and man. Critics argue that to him, it was purely neurotic to occupy himself in finding answers to the unanswerable. He makes a strong case against Jesus citing that He cared less about the good of humanity and that He has no love for them as He claims. In his book, Fyodor Dostoevsky depicts the grand inquisitor as an old, tall, and erect man almost in his ninety’s. The cardinal is the grand inquisitor. He burns people while the king, the cardinals, the knights, the court ladies and Seville population are all present...
Words: 2291 - Pages: 10
...The Night Battles Composing of most of the European population in the 1500’s and 1600’s, peasants played an important role in the development of Europe. In his book The Night Battles, Carlo Ginzburg gives a unique perspective on the lives of Friulian peasants through the analysis of inquisitorial records. During the inquisitions, peasants were categorized as witches or benandanti, which literally means well-farer. “The benandanti were a small group of men and women, who because they were born with a caul, were regarded as professional antiwitches. They told inquisitors that, in dreams, they fought ritual battles against witches and wizards to protect their villages and harvests from harm.” (Ginzburg. Back Cover) Although the lives of the benandanti were more exciting and dangerous, similarities do exist between ordinary peasants of early modern Europe and the Friulian benandanti. From the way they lived their lives and were uneducated, to the way they stuck together and were easily manipulated, the Friulian peasant and the ordinary early modern peasant share several characteristics. One of the major similarities between the benandanti peasants described by Carlo Ginzburg in The Night Battles, and the ordinary peasant from the early modern period is the importance of agriculture and farmland. Of the many characteristics that define a benandanti, perhaps the most reoccurring is that they are all defenders of their crops and farmland. The Friulian peasants revolved their lives...
Words: 893 - Pages: 4
...Lorenzo was invited to dinner held at Thomas’s house, which escalated quickly and ended with Lorenzo being tortured. Lorenzo went to the dungeon where Ines was held captive and forced himself on her multiple times. He went to see the inquisitor general and pleaded for Thomas to release his daughter. However, the inquisitor general thought that if he let Ines free, he would be breaking a rule that would go against God. Fifteen years had passed and Napoleon had conquered Spain. Napoleon tried to abolish the Inquisition, so Lorenzo left Spain and tried to work for Napoleon. Lorenzo came back to Spain as a prosecutor for Napoleon and put the Inquisitor General in jail. I thought that Lorenzo trying to switch teams was pretty smart because he would have been put in jail just like the general. The prisoners held in the dungeon were now released. Thinking that Ines was now free and will have a good life from now on, she came out of the dungeon in terrible condition and was pregnant during her time in the...
Words: 656 - Pages: 3
...Life of Galileo, Scene 7: Brecht delineates the important episodes of the life of Galileo Galilei. The main matter of his life was the conflict between him and the Church. The church ultimately did shut him up but Galileo was still adamant to send his theory wherever he could. He wanted every person in the marketplace to know what he had discovered. And that is why in the very beginning when he faked the telescope he had allowed anyone and everyone who wanted to see the telescope to come and see it. Nicholas Copernicus gave a theory that he earth and the planets revolve around the sun. No one believed him and thought that his theory was not sensible enough. But Galileo through his experiments proved the Copernican theory to be accurate. He wasn’t afraid to express his views regarding the theory despite of the consequences it may lead to. The church thought that Galileo’s and the Copernican system challenged a normal man’s concept of the universe he was living in and the God they worshiped. This was not acceptable by the Church as it contradicted their teachings. In the 17th century the church was had the power of authority. It was the ideology of the ruling class. Why did the church silence Galileo? Because realist Galileo challenged the power and he was true. The church’s attitude and behavior is juxtaposed. They wanted Galileo to completely stop his research on the Copernican system but at the same time they want to make profit out of him. Besides, Galileo wasn’t even...
Words: 1724 - Pages: 7
...English 212-2-50 Prof. Thomas Carlisle 28 July 2015 Religious Hypocrisy in Voltaire’s Candide Voltaire’s Candide, a satire literature, was written in 1759 during the Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement of the 17th and 18th centuries in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than the traditional lines of authority. Candide is the story of a young man’s adventures throughout the world, where he witnesses much evil, disaster and sufferings. Throughout his travels, he adheres to the teaching of his tutor, believing that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” Candide is Voltaire’s answer to what he saw as an absurd belief proposed by the Optimists-an easy way to rationalize evil and suffering. Throughout Candide, Voltaire uses satire as a tool to reveal his controversial views on religion. Voltaire takes aim at organized religion and other organization to prove the point that all were completely corrupt in thoughts and actions. He criticized many aspects of humanity at that time. Throughout Candide religious leaders are portrayed as hypocrites who do not live up to the religious standards that they set for others. Religious leaders ought to be the epitome of goodness and morality and are supposed to live lives worthy of emulation, but in this play, the church is found to be infested with hypocrisy and its leaders, hypocritical, greedy, and immoral....
Words: 1223 - Pages: 5
...Running head: HISTORY OF Al-ANDALUS History of Al-Andalus: Tales of Harmony, Extermination & Vengeance Maddah Hussain History of Al-Andalus: Tales of Harmony, Extermination & Vengeance There is much of the debate going on about the history of Al-Andalus or Muslim Spain. Many historians David Fintz Altabé, Mark R. Cohen, Henry Kamen, Erin Morris, Mary Elizabeth Perry, Rukhsana Qamber, Saey, Tina Hesman Saey, Matthew E. Falagas, Effie A. Zarkadoulia, George Samonis, Hugh Kennedy and Maya Soifer, with their different views have tried to solve the mystery to what exactly happened? What were the conditions in Al-Andalus? Did people of different religious faiths coexisted at that time under Muslims’ rule? What caused the massacre and conversion of Jews and Christians into Islam? What led to the Spanish Inquisition? This paper is focused on the Spanish Inquisition, its causes and its consequences which includes the conquest of Spain by Muslims, the co-existence of Muslims, Christians and Jews, the fall of Al-Andalus leading to the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of Muslims from Spain beginning in 1478. This paper will also distinguish between religion and the wrongdoings of men, staining it for their ulterior motives. This paper will include different views of historians and their arguments about all of the incidents stated above. The central argument of this paper is, history of Al-Andalus, through many historians is biased; with little evidence, many of historians...
Words: 4726 - Pages: 19
...boy had been possessed by witches, but at the time of the witchery, the vagabonds were about and they snatched him away from the witches’ hands, and if they had not done so he would have died,” (Ginzburg 6). Gaspurotto continued to detail the fantastical practices and motivations of the benandanti. He detailed to the fascination of the priest, triumphs over witches won with stalks of fennel, accounts of riding wild animals, and trances where they left their bodies altogether. The assembly in the Monastery, perhaps shocked, maybe bemused at the ramblings of peasants, “Must have agreed with the scornful conclusion of the nobleman of Civadale; tall tales and nothing more,” (Ginzburg 10). The interrogations were halted, until 1580 when the Inquisitor Fra Felice da Montefalco resumed the case. Gaspurotto and another suspect, Battista Moduco of the town of Cividale, would be interrogated until they confessed to being deceived by the devil into traveling on nocturnal spirit journeys. For this offense, the men received six months imprisonment for heresy that was later remitted by the church. In these first sets of investigations, the outsider Venetian priests struggled to determine whether the off kilter Friuli peasants were truly a threat to the church. For the course of the next century, the leaders of the Inquisition would wrestle with how to discipline such God faring mystics. These men practiced the same religion, yet sounded exactly like the witches they recounted fighting. They...
Words: 1679 - Pages: 7
...Also, there are many used of transition words show the time had passed. Such as “then...”, “Soon...”. Likewise, The quote in the second paragraph “...would they keep me for months in the dark dungeon?” shows the time passed and the narrator had been imprison for a long period. Moreover, “When I woke.There was a dim light in the room.” in paragraph eight reveals time is passing. The narrator uses the uncertain time to create the feeling of time passing. It suggest that as time is passing in the dungeon, He’s just waiting for his death to come. In addition, In paragraph eleven, “ I slept, I woke, Days passed.” tells that time passed in six words only. The punishment was passing very slowly. The inquisitors’ punishment was the slowest, most painful, and terrifying death at all. Those inquisitors are doing what exactly they wanted. Furthermore, the narrator uses sensory detail of sight and imagery to tell that time is passing in another way. Here’s the quote:” There was a painted figure of father time.” It shows that his life is passing because father time symbolizes death. All in all. Here are several quotations that show references to time witch is important to the...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...Chapter 3: Bulgars massacring the German countryside Chapter 5: Sailor throwing Jacques the Anabaptist overboard Chapter 9: Candide kills the Grand Inquisitor and Don Issachar Chapter 15: Candide (the innocent and pure character) stabs Cunegondes brother only because he said he wouldn't let Candide marry her Chapter 23: Execution of Admiral John Byng because he didn't fight the French well enough Body IV: Poor Treatment and Perception of Women Topic Sentence: Chapter 3: Women were raped and disemboweled by the armies Chapter 8: Cunegonde being raped by a Bulgar soldier, then being sold to the Jew Don Issacar by the Bulgar capitan after he was tired of her; she was being "shared" by Don and the Grand Inquisitor Chapter 11: old woman taken as...
Words: 1072 - Pages: 5
...forces of witches, as well as their historical influence. The benandanti offer a refreshingly positive twist on the relationship between Christianity and magic that is different from the typical cynicism of the Church . The Night Battles maintains that the benandanti exist as a concentration of previous widespread Central European beliefs , as well as faded out because of their progressive manipulation to fit into the Church’s mold of witches . As stated, The Night Battles expresses two major arguments. The first and foremost of these arguments regards the assimilation of the benandanti. Their compulsive sense of duty is something Inquisitors were incapable of understanding due to the notion of free will in Christianity , so their beliefs were rejected. Importantly, they could not be persecuted unless explicity heretical, so over time Inquisitors tried to manipulate them into admitting to demonic witchery . Constant haranguing ultimately led not only to the erosion of their beliefs and strange amalgamations of individuals with witch practices, but their eventual disappearance. Ginzburg’s secondary argument is one that breaks through this overarching argument, concerning the roots of the benandanti. Ginzburg provides evidence of earlier European pagan cults with similar agrarian rituals, as well as similar traditions in the purported werewolves of Livonia, in northeastern Europe . Ginzburg also goes off on a tangent about a subsect of the benandanti that are funereal in nature...
Words: 957 - Pages: 4
