# 50 Million dead in Inquisition



## SolaSaint (Oct 10, 2013)

http://arcticbeacon.com/books/Plaist...apacy-2006.pdf

I have never studied the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church and I listened to a radio show by Chris Pinto where he stated there was 68 Million killed entirely. I did a little research and found it couldn't be proved but many still believe over 50 million were put to death from 600 AD to mid 19th century by the Popery. WOW! I had no idea it was this many. I thought it may have been a few thousand or maybe even one million, but 50-68 million people, in a time where the entire population of Europe was not that many. 

Has anyone done a good study of this? If so what have you found about this? I would love to hear how many were really killed and what for. Thanks


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## timmopussycat (Oct 11, 2013)

SolaSaint said:


> http://arcticbeacon.com/books/Plaist...apacy-2006.pdf
> 
> I have never studied the Inquisition by the Roman Catholic Church and I listened to a radio show by Chris Pinto where he stated there was 68 Million killed entirely. I did a little research and found it couldn't be proved but many still believe over 50 million were put to death from 600 AD to mid 19th century by the Popery. WOW! I had no idea it was this many. I thought it may have been a few thousand or maybe even one million, but 50-68 million people, in a time where the entire population of Europe was not that many.
> 
> Has anyone done a good study of this? If so what have you found about this? I would love to hear how many were really killed and what for. Thanks



According to Professor Rodney Stark in his book The Triumph of Christianity, accounts like the one you cite are pure fiction. According to Stark, "'there is no excuse for ignoring or dismissing the remarkable research on the Inquisition that that has been accomplished in the past generation." Astonishing as it may seem,. . . in contrast with the secular courts all over Europe, the Spanish Inquisition was a consistent force for justice restraint, due process and enlightenment."

The historians that have put forward these startling conclusions have done so on the basis of "full access to the complete archives of the Inquisitions which together constituted the Spanish Inquisition." The two organizations "heard 44701 cases" "between 1540 and 1700." During these years "only 826 people were executed." In less documented earlier decades a generous estimate of annual executions would be "about 30 a year." The fact is that during "the entire period of 1480 through 1700 only about ten deaths per year were meted out by the Inquisition". (Quotes from pp 337, 338 of Stark op. cit.) To put these number in context, 3000 French Calvinists were executed in the St. Bartholemew's Day massacre alone. As for torture, church law limited it to one session no longer than 15 minutes and no danger to life or limb was allowed. "If torture was used its progress was carefully recorded by a clerk and this material was included with the record of the case. . . the inquisitors [seemed to have] resorted to torture in only 2 percent of all the cases that came before them." (Stark 339)


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## Matthew Willard Lankford (Oct 11, 2013)

I may not agree with everything in the article, but its references and analysis may be helpful: [DOC] Estimates of the Number Killed by the Papacy in the Middle Ages www.cs.unc.edu/~plaisted/estimates.doc‎ by DA Plaisted

I believe the numbers of people put to death for their profession of the Gospel and opposition to Rome is large indeed, but so is the number of souls Roman Catholicism leads to damnation.


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## kvanlaan (Oct 11, 2013)

I've heard that 7,000 were executed in those years, but I don't recall where I got that number from. I do know that they were given to sweeping condemnation, in that on February 16, 1568, the entire population of the Netherlands was sentenced to death for heresy by Philip II. They got about 20,000 of us before it was stopped, but the intent was there. Given enough time and money, I don't see any reason they would have stopped at 50 million.


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## RamistThomist (Oct 11, 2013)

And it is important to realize that the Inquisition isn't a monolithic beast. The Inquisition that butchered Albigensians is not necessarily the same entity that persecuted the Gospel during the Reformation. I think the numbers are higher than what Prof Stark says, largely because I think Stark is trying to rehabilitate some aspects of church history. On the other hand, I seriously doubt it is 50 million. An interesting line of research would be to focus on later periods of the Inquisition after the 1500s. The Lutheran champion Gustav II Adolf's victory at Breitenfeld supposedly halted the Inquisition's advance over Europe. When Napoleon entered Spain he supposedly found men in Inquisition dungeons. It's worth looking into.


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## Edward (Oct 11, 2013)

The larger number probably includes all of the natives killed during the colonial conquests, either through combat or disease. 

I have to get to work, but let's start with about 15 milliion in the Americas:



> In any case, judging by the bloody history of this period of colonization throughout the Americas, a democide of 2,000,000 would seem a rough minimum and 15,000,000 dead a maximum. Even if these figures are remotely true, then this still make this subjugation of the Americas one of the bloodier, centuries long, democides in world history.


PRE-20TH CENTURY GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER


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## Phil D. (Oct 11, 2013)

Here is Philip Schaff's account, which, given his main source, I would have reasonable confidence in:

The "ghastly total" of the victims consigned by the Spanish Inquisition to the flames or other punishments has been differently stated. Precise tables of statistics are of modern creation, but that it was large is beyond question. The historian, Llorente [Juan Antonio Llorente, a *Roman Catholic historian *and actually the general secretary of the office of the Inquisition from 1789-1808], gives the following figures: From 1480–1498, the date of Torquemada’s death, 8800 were burnt alive, 6500 in effigy and 90,004 subjected to other punishments. From 1499–1506, 1664 were burnt alive, 832 in effigy and 32,456 subjected to other punishments. From 1507–1517, during the term of Cardinal Ximines, 2536 were burnt alive, 1368 in effigy and 47,263 subjected to other penalties. *This writer gives the grand totals up to 1524 as 14,344 burnt alive, 9372 in effigy and 195,937 condemned to other penalties or released as penitents. *In 1524, an inscription was placed on the fortress of Triana Seville, running: "In the year 1481, under the pontificate of Sixtus IV. and the rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Inquisition was begun here. Up to 1524, 20,000 heretics and more abjured their awful crime on this spot and nearly 1000 were burnt." From records still extant, the victims in Toledo before 1501 are found to have numbered 297 burnt alive and 600 in effigy, and 5400 condemned to other punishment or reconciled. The documents, however, are not preserved or, at any rate, not known from which a full estimate could be made. In any case the numbers included thousands of victims burnt alive and tens of thousands subjected to other punishments. (HCC, 6:§60)​
By any reasonable standard Stark's statement that "the Spanish Inquisition was a consistent force for justice restraint, due process and enlightenment" is simply ridiculous.

In fairness I think it is worth noting that up through the early 17th Century even some Protestant countries that had state churches executed, and sometimes even tortured people for religious reasons (e.g. Catholics, Anabaptists). Some of these cases can partially be justified as having resulted from due process of existing socio-ecclesiastic laws, however archaic and wrong they may appear from our modern perspective and sensibilities, but others are clearly a shameful stain on Protestant history.


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## arapahoepark (Oct 11, 2013)

I heard only 4000 were killed, as it was not about killing but bringing under catholic doctrine. When you refused you were killed.


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## SolaSaint (Oct 12, 2013)

I listened to a guy named Kirsh (I think) who states the records kept during all the different Inquisitions were good but many were lost or destroyed. I don't think we will ever know how many.


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## FenderPriest (Oct 12, 2013)

NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!

[video=youtube;Tym0MObFpTI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tym0MObFpTI&feature=youtu.be&t=29s[/video]


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## Jack K (Oct 12, 2013)

Do some math, and the 50 million number is not sensible. It would mean about one execution every four minutes, at the hands of Catholic courts, kept up over a span of 1200 years. It seems more likely that those who come up with such numbers are including every death, everywhere in the world, that they might possibly blame on the Catholic church... including such things as natives killed in colonial conquests, as Edward suggested. To blame all this on the Catholic church is unfair, however evil the Inquisition may truly have been.

Oh, and don't think Rome will be the only one accused. In the future, I foresee us having to answer overblown charges such as "100 million people have been slaughtered in the name of Christ!"


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## arapahoepark (Oct 12, 2013)

Jack K said:


> Do some math, and the 50 million number is not sensible. It would mean about one execution every four minutes, at the hands of Catholic courts, kept up over a span of 1200 years. It seems more likely that those who come up with such numbers are including every death, everywhere in the world, that they might possibly blame on the Catholic church... including such things as natives killed in colonial conquests, as Edward suggested. To blame all this on the Catholic church is unfair, however evil the Inquisition may truly have been.
> 
> Oh, and don't think Rome will be the only one accused. In the future, I foresee us having to answer overblown charges such as "100 million people have been slaughtered in the name of Christ!"


One such thing would be the black death as well.


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## SolaSaint (Oct 12, 2013)

I do believe I heard somewhere that they counted those killed in wars. This may explain a higher number than should be. I too believe it must have been much lower, maybe a million and that is purely speculation as well.


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## Steve Curtis (Oct 12, 2013)

SolaSaint said:


> 68 Million killed *entirely*


Perhaps the number would be closer to the truth if we included those who were not entirely killed!


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## SolaSaint (Oct 12, 2013)

kainos01 said:


> SolaSaint said:
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> > 68 Million killed *entirely*
> ...



Do you mean all those that were tortured?


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## Hamalas (Oct 12, 2013)

From a historical perspective perhaps the big "take-away" from this discussion should be this: in questions like these there is *no such thing as a neutral commentator*.


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## RamistThomist (Oct 13, 2013)

Also not yet mentioned, which sort of makes the numbers question moot, is RCC teaching on the right to torture and purify heretics by fire. The fact that such is justified is the real problem, and not whether it was 10 million or 50 million. 

(While the 50 million number is probably unreasonable, so is the 4,000. More than 4,000 Huguenots died on St Bartholomew's day alone). Another thing to consider is the Anti-Christ's lieutenant, the Stuart Monarchy. While not officially Roman Catholics, Charles II and James II somewhat saw themselves as extended arms of French Catholicism.


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## Steve Curtis (Oct 13, 2013)

SolaSaint said:


> kainos01 said:
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> > SolaSaint said:
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No, I was just playfully interacting with the grammatical error


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## SolaSaint (Oct 13, 2013)

kainos01 said:


> SolaSaint said:
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> 
> > kainos01 said:
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Duh, I guess it is even worse that I didn't catch your pun.


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## Free Christian (Oct 24, 2013)

What gets me is that with the Bartholomew Day Massacre when they heard about it back in Rome they celebrated it and struck medallions in commemoration of the hideous act. So I am told and have seen. They even had a mural painted of it which, I am also told, still is on show in the Vatican to this day! A celebration of mass murder.


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