Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims. Its worst manifestation was in Spain, where the Spanish Inquisition was a dominant force for more than 200 years, resulting in some 32,000 executions.

Pope Gregory’s original intent for the Inquisition was a court of exception to inquire into and glean the beliefs of those differing from Catholic teaching, and to instruct them in the orthodox doctrine. It was hoped that heretics would see the falsity of the ir opinion and would return to the Roman Catholic Church.

The Roman Inquisition, an agency established in 1542 to combat heresy, was more successful in controlling doctrine and practice than similar bodies in those countries where Protestant princes had more power than the Roman Catholic Church.

The Inquisition in the early modern period was a permanent papal judicial institution of the Roman Catholic Church that was to eradicate heresies, originally dealing with alchemy, sorcery, and witchcraft, as well as dealing with heretical groups like the Cathars and subsequently with relapsed converts or “heretics” who …

32,000 individuals were executed under the Spanish Inquisition.

The Inquisition: Alive And Well After 800 Years : NPR. The Inquisition: Alive And Well After 800 Years The Inquisition was initially designed to deal with Christian heretics, but author Cullen Murphy says that “inquisitorial impulse” is still at work today. In fact, he says, it was the harbinger of the modern world.

So far, however, the Roman Catholic Church is holding the line on Giordano Bruno, a rationalist philosopher who was burned at the stake for heresy 400 years ago today. The pope has marked this Holy Year as a time for the church to apologize for past errors and excesses, from the Inquisition to the persecution of Jews.

The Inquisition, in historical ecclesiastical terminology also referred to as the “Holy Inquisition”, was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy. The Inquisition started in 12th-century France to combat religious dissent, particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians.

Pope Sixtus IV

Much of the brutality commonly associated with the Inquisition was actually previously common in secular courts, but prohibited under the Inquisition, including torture methods that resulted in bloodshed, miscarriages, mutilation or death. Also, torture could be performed only once, and for a limited duration.

Bologna

In 1532, he wanted to have his marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, annulled. When Pope Clement VII refused to consent to the annulment, Henry VIII decided to separate the entire country of England from the Roman Catholic Church. This parting of ways opened the door for Protestantism to enter the country.

The Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian denomination often known as The Kirk, is recognised in law as the national church of Scotland. It is not an established church and is independent of state control….Census statistics.

China is home to the world’s largest Protestant minority.

The Church of England is considered the original church of the Anglican Communion, which represents over 85 million people in more than 165 countries. While the Church upholds many of the customs of Roman Catholicism, it also embraces fundamental ideas adopted during the Protestant Reformation.

In the 2011 census, 16% of the population of Scotland described themselves as being Catholic, compared with 32% affiliated with the Church of Scotland. Owing to immigration (overwhelmingly white European), it is estimated that, in 2009, there were about 850,000 Catholics in a country of 5.1 million.

1559

The Church of England says about 26 million people have been baptised, the Catholic Church claims just over four million members in England and Wales – and another 695,000 in Scotland. Out of a total population of about 60 million, that means about one in 12 people in Great Britain is Catholic.

The UK’s official religion is Christianity, and churches of all denominations can be found throughout the UK, such as Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and Methodist. The main other religions are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism.

Sunday attendance at mass has dropped to about 10 percent of the population in France today, but 80 percent of French citizens are still nominally Roman Catholics. This makes France the sixth largest Catholic country in the world, after Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Italy and… the United States.

9.6 percent

Tony Blair – Anglican while in office, he converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007.

Brazil

Christianity is the largest religion in the United States, with the various Protestant Churches having the most adherents.

word Hindu

According to the records of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its membership has grown every decade since its beginning in the 1830s, that it is among the top ten largest Christian denominations in the U.S., and that it was the fastest growing church in the U.S. in 2012.

List of presidents by religious affiliation

When Reagan became president 32 years later, he became the first divorced person to assume the nation’s highest office.

Christian countries

• Costa Rica.
• Malta.
• Monaco.
• Some cantons of Switzerland (state religion): Appenzell Innerrhoden (declared “religion of the people of Appenzell Innerrhoden”) Aargau. Basel-Country. Bern. Glarus. Graubünden. Nidwalden. Schwyz. Thurgau. Uri.

Al Smith, Governor of New York, was a candidate for President of the United States in the 1928 election. His run was notable in that he was the first Catholic nominee of a major party, he opposed Prohibition, and he enjoyed broad appeal among women, who had won the right of suffrage in 1920.