A question should be: world religions are doctrines that incite violence or simple tools by which people satisfy their pleasure of killing, with the excuse that serve a noble purpose?

10. Buddhists in Burma

In 1850, Buddhists in Burma monks still practiced ritual human sacrifice that is performing it. Once moved the capital to Mandalay, 56 people considered to be “blameless” were sacrificed and buried under the city walls to become protectors of new settlements. Soon, two of the graves were found empty, which made ​​him royal astrologers to give a verdict radical: 500 people have killed and buried under the walls, otherwise capital will be evacuated. By the intervention of British Governors sacrifices ended, 100 people had been killed already.

9. Mountain Meadows Massacre

With the onset of war in Utah, the Mormons from all over gathered in a short time to fight the U.S. military, which aims to eradicate suspected that the Mormon population. Amid these tensions, rumors appeared in the Fancher-Baker train, carrying emigrants from Arkansas to California, were enemies who participated in the persecution of many Mormons. Episode, remained in history as the “Mountain Meadows massacre”, ended with the execution of large numbers of immigrants, on September 11, 1857. Mormons train attacked by Indians Paiute tribe. Two of those who had important roles in local military organization, Isaac C. Haight and John D. Lee had orchestrated the attack, disguising his men so they look a Native American attack. After the siege, the Mormons have managed to convince immigrants to surrender. Unwilling to leave witnesses to their involvement in the attack, 120 people, men, women and children were executed. Of the latter, only 17 have been spared. Only 20 years later, on March 23, 1877, one of the two leaders, John D.Lee, would be convicted and even executed at the massacre.

8. Witch Hunt

Once they arrive in Massachusetts around 1600, the Puritans created a religious police who prosecuted and punished in any doctrinal deviance. ”Sinners” were whipped, put in the pillory, hanged, they were cutting ears are pierced with a hot iron languages. On the other side were religious followers Quaker faction, some of the biggest enemies of the Puritans, whose religion was considered a blasphemy. Quaker practitioners caught were hanged. In 1690, fear of magic and its effects has led to condemn 20 Puritan witch and throw in jail another 150 people suspected of witchcraft. Throughout the period of persecution, which lasted from 1484 until 1750, thousands of people were burned alive or hanged. According to official statistics, 80% of victims were women.

7. Thugee sect killings

In order to appease the goddess Kali nemiloasei blood, sect Thugee practitioners in India have developed since 1500 a religious practice that people were jertifi on its altar. Most victims were killed by strangulation during rituals. It approximates that 2 million people have fallen victim over time. Only in 1800 were claimed nearly 20,000 lives, until the intervention of the British authorities ended these practices. The number of victims has decreased, although in 1840 a member Thugee trial for killing 931 people. Today, some Hindu priests still practice this ritual, but instead people on the altar of sacrifice was made of goats.

6. Roman persecution

One of the first persecution against Christians occurred in AD 64., By order of Emperor Nero. The same year that Rome was engulfed in one of the largest fires in history. Because so many rumors it on himself accused Nero of the disaster, he ordered that all Christians should be arrested and murdered under the accusation to be caused devastating fire. Many have been torn by beasts in bloody spectacles during Roman or were burned alive. In coming years, actions against Christians continued, reaching a peak during the so-called “Great Persecution”. It began with a series of four edicts banning Christian religious practices and went to mass execution of practitioners. Persecution ceased with the enthronement of Emperor Constantine I in 306, who would legalize Christianity seven years later, in 313. 

5. Crusades

Defined as armed conflict with a religious character, medieval crusades were fought against both external enemies and to the internal. Not only Muslim or pagan Slavs were targeted, and Greek Orthodox Christians, Cathars, Hussites or anyone interest “status” the enemy of the Popes. The initial purpose of the Crusades was to recover the Holy Land from Turkish Muslims and preventing expansion. Crusades were fought against the pagans, heretics or those who were excommunicated for religious reasons, economic or political. But soon they began to serve other purposes, especially political. Organizing a crusade mean huge mobilization of military forces, and assumed a violent struggle outstanding, resulting in a large number of victims. The idea of ​​a religious war that serves a noble cause overheated minds of the laity, so it is that the late eleventh century, some of the people engaged in these battles, and after submission of an oath “soldiers of the church”. It seems that by 1291, the death toll had reached 20 million, but this is only an approximate figure, in the absence of accurate records. Figure is likely to be much larger, augmented by many crusades took place over a long period of time.

4. Islamic Jihad

Meanings of “holy war” were born during the time a lot of controversy. Some Muslims understand the use of all resources to jihad from Islamic doctrine and to please Allah. Is a continuous process by which they learn to control our desires and fight evil thoughts. For them, jihad is within and is being materialized by bringing justice and remove evil from society. These precepts have known for a short extension, which materialized against unbelievers. 
But a passage from the Koran, Sura 25, verse 52 gave birth to so many debates in the Islamic world. Many have used in the past and now use it as an excuse to commit crimes hidden behind a religious doctrine: “Do not succumb to unbelievers, but fight against them vigorously.” 
holy war, mentioned in the Qur’an, made many victims for 12 centuries. It seems that historically, the number of victims killed in the name of Islam has approximately 200 million. In early years, Muslim armies spread rapidly: from eastern India to western Morocco. Soon, various religious factions and brought mutual accusations, declaring jihad against each other: Kharijis fought with Sunni death Azariqis said all sinners and their families. In 1850 a Sudanese mystic, ‘Umar al-Hajj, has initiated a jihad in order to convert pagan African tribes.

3.Sacrifice Aztec

Aztecs theocracy began developing around 1300, marking the golden era of human sacrifice. Approximately 20,000 people were sacrificed gods, especially the sun god, which had to be provided daily ration of blood. In the ritual, the heart was removed victims and their bodies were eaten. Other victims were drowned, beheaded, burned or thrown from above. In a ritual dedicated to the god of rain, children often used to cry because tears were slowly killed them to bring rain. To please her corn goddess, a virgin had to dance for 24 hours, then was killed and her skin was skinned. A note says that the king Ahuitzotl coronation, 80,000 prisoners were butchered gods get satisfaction.

2. Inquisition

The first inquisition movements were caused by the attitude of the masses to Christianity, particularly of the Cathars and valdensienilor. The torture began to be used after 1252. Who authorized the use of torture was Pope Innocent IV, by a bull known as Ad exstirpanda . But the decree forbade bloodshed, mutilation or death.One method commonly used was “strappado”, which involved tying the accused hand back and suspend it in air, arms up to fracture. Method known “improvements” in some cases, it adds weight to the legs, which implicitly led to their displacement. But things did not stop there. In 1568, the Spanish Inquisition Tribunal ordered extermination of 3 million people in the present territory of the Netherlands, the Spanish field, charges of rebellion. Another example of religious fervor is the famous Spanish Inquisitor Torquemada, who was the consciousness at least 10,220 people.

1. Hindus massacre

The conquest of India by the Mohammedans was described by W.Durant history as the bloodiest episode in history. In some parts of Europe and of Asia, conquered nations opted to convert to Islam instead of death who expect safe. In India it was not the way they wished Muslim conquerors, because Hindu religion, that its place in life and culture of the people with more than 4,000 years ago. Faced with an unusual strength, Muslim conquerors did not hesitate to burn entire cities and massacre their entire population. Each such campaign increased the number of victims with thousands of souls and all the many were thrown into the clutches of slavery. Each invader they could literally build a hill of Hindu skulls followers. The conquest of Afghanistan in 1000 resulted anihiliarea entire Hindu population of this territory. Bahman sultans in central India had made a rule to kill 100,000 a year for Hindus. In 1399, Teimur killed 100,000 people in one day and many more elsewhere. Professor Koenraad Elst calculates the number of Hindu population decreased from 1000 until 1525 with 80 million.

Fernando Alvarez de Toledo was born in 1510 and upon his father’s death became the third Duke of Alva. After many years of service in Italy Alva was made Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1567. He was given two main objectives, to wipe out Protestantism, and end the Revolt of the Netherlands. He set out to complete his mission with an eagerness verging upon zealousness.

In the late 16th century Spanish infantry were amongst the most feared fighting units across the globe, yet the way in which the Inquisition had ruthlessly persecuted Protestants had fuelled the Revolt of the Netherlands. Alva was certain that his armies could defeat the rebels if only the king could spare more men and money to finish the job properly.

Alva decided to act with great brutality against the Dutch. This strategy led to thousands of civilian deaths and was only partially successful in quashing the revolt. The massacres in Mechelan and Naarden cowered the Southern provinces into submission whilst making the Northern provinces determined to fight for independence. The Dutch fought to the death, burnt down their own towns, or flooded the land rather than surrender to the detested Duke of Alva. They also knew that if Alva spared them that the Inquisition would seek to execute them anyway.

Bibliography

Parker G, (1979) Spain and the Netherlands 1559 – 1659

Roberts J M (1996) The Penguin History of Europe

Born in 1420, to a wealthy and well-connected family, his uncle was Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, the religious life was always the one true way for Tomas, and at an early age he entered the Dominican Order of Friars. Indeed, his whole life he would insist that he was nothing more than the humble friar toiling in the fields of the Lord, though the vast wealth that he accrued for himself over the years would seem to say otherwise.

He did, to be fair, turn down many higher offices within the Catholic Church, even so he rose to be Prior of the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Segovia, and was the Confessor to Queen Isabella of Castille, and it was his connection to the Royal Court that was to secure for him, at the age of 63, the role of Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. For a man of little imagination, rigidly orthodox in his views, and intolerant of difference, it was the perfect role and he threw himself into it with a gusto and relish that left many of those working with him breathless. 

It was apparent from the outset that the campaign to root out heresy and religious unorthodoxy from Spain was little more than thinly veiled anti-Semitism. The main target of the Inquisition were the so-called conversos, Jews who had converted to Catholicism following the anti-Jewish pogroms of July, 1391. It is ironic, therefore, that the Inquisition, as a Christian body, had no jurisdiction over Jews, but only over those who had since been baptised as Christians. Those Jews who had converted to Catholicism to avoid persecution were now to be persecuted for having done so.

Torquemada was appointed Inquisitor General of Spain on 17 October, 1483, and was soon to earn the soubriquet ” Hammer of the Heretics .” He was a humourless man who had little respect for rank and would even talk down to and lambast the Queen on occasions. Though he by no means led a spartan lifestyle he was believed to be by those who knew him incorruptible, and was known to wear a hair-shirt under his fine robes.

There is also little doubt that he was hated and he travelled everywhere with a personal bodyguard of 300 men. Though being imbued with an unswerving religious fanaticism he took his responsibilities seriously. He would root out heretics but he would do so according to the law. Guidelines were issued to enable people to spot those Jews who had publicly converted to Christianity but continued to practice their religion in private: if your neighbours wear fancy clothes on a Saturday, they are Jews; if they clean their house on a Friday, they are Jews; if they light candles during the day, they are Jews; if they eat unleavened bread, they are Jews, and so on and so forth.

The Inquisition employed spies known as familiaries to discover if such heretical acts were indeed occurring. They would walk the streets, often at night, check on their neighbours and report their suspicions to the Inquisition. For this they were not only paid but acquired an elevated social status which they wore with pride. They were both hated and feared.

The Inquisition did not just prosecute Jews, however. It was also within its remit to root out Protestants, witches, bigamists, adulterers and blasphemers. Sometimes it would manufacture the crime to fit its purpose. For example, the practice of sodomy was claimed to have been imported by the Muslims thereby making it an heretical act. 

The Inquisition was a very formal organisation and it enacted its inquisitorial witch-hunts with considerable pomp and great solemnity, it was after all, carrying out God’s work. It operated according to the Edicts of Grace. The Inquisition would arrive in a town, invariably on a Sunday after Mass, and the various heresies would be explained to the packed congregations. All the people would then be encouraged to present themselves before the Tribunal to relieve their consciences, and they had one month in which to do this, hence the period of grace. Self-incrimination would lead to reconciliation with the Church and only a minor punishment would ensue.

However, one also had to denounce all ones accomplices. These denunciations would remain anonymous. This had the effect of ensuring that informants were never hard to come by, and many false denunciations were made out of jealousy, greed and hatred, all the human passions that make a mockery of our humanity. 

In theory the process from accusation to interrogation to condemnation was a long and complicated one. Once discovered the accused would be denounced from the pulpit of his local Church. The accused neighbours would then be given the opportunity to inform on him. If two people of good character could be found to testify as to his heretical practices then formal charges could be made and the interrogation begin. In the meantime the accused would have the opportunity to confess his sins. In doing so, however, he would forfeit all his titles, wealth and property. But this long and complicated process could be short-circuited by a Bishop merely declaring the accused heretical and having him imprisoned.

Though children under the age of fourteen did not come under the Inquisitions jurisdiction there were no barriers as to who or who could not be tortured, so children, the elderly and infirm, and pregnant women, all could be legitimately tortured to force a confession. Once formal charges had been laid the interrogations could begin. They would invariably begin with some gentle questioning before moving on to more serious matters and what was known as the water cure, a torture not dissimilar to water-boarding today. If this did not fetch forth the required confession then the tortures would continue through gradation until the accused’s body was finally broken on the rack. 

Throughout the process, besides the torturers, there would be two priests present, one to take notes, the other to tend to the spiritual needs of the accused. A physician would also be in attendance to ensure that the accused did not die under torture. Torquemada’s own instructions that the interrogators should be, ” cautious, circumspect, and charitable, ” were more adhered to in the breach, even though Torquemada himself was known to actively participate in such interrogations.

Upon having received the confession they required the process of auto-da-fe ( trial by faith ) could begin. The auto-da-fe was a public execution usually carried out on a Sunday or during public holidays to maximise attendance. It was a long process and would take many hours. The condemned would be forced to wear a black hat (sambenito) with pictures of demons or flames on it to indicate the Hell that awaited them and then be paraded around the town to the jeers of the crowd. They would then be tied to a post atop a funeral pyre and the charges condemning them as heretics would be read out. As last minute confessions would often lead to the crowd demanding a reprieve the condemned would be gagged to prevent them from responding to the priests constant demands that they do so. If they nodded a recantation and made to kiss the cross they might be treated more mercifully and be garroted before being consumed by the flames. And it was indeed true that you could not escape the Spanish Inquisition. If you died before execution your corpse would be dug up and publicly burned, if you dared to escape you would be burned in effigy. The Inquisition did not carry out the executions themselves, however. Not wanting to have blood on their hands they would hand their prisoners over to the Civil Authorities to carry out the dirty work.

The activities of the Inquisition were not universally popular even amongst leading members of the Catholic Church. Pope Sixtus IV criticised it for, ” without observing juridicial prescriptions, it have detained many persons in violation of justice, punishing them by severe tortures and imputing to them, without foundation, the crime of heresy, and despoiling of their wealth those sentenced to death.” But such criticisms cut little ice with Torquemada. He was on a mission to rid Spain of Judaism, the Jews were his obs-session, and he was determined to end the plague of usury that saw them profiteering from the misery of their Christian neighbours. Frustrated by his inability to prosecute those Jews who openly practised their Hebrew religion he overcame this by demanding that the Jews be expelled from Spain altogether, and he worked hard to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to concede to this demand.

Hearing of this threat the Jews in Spain offered 300,000 ducats to be allowed to remain. On learning that Isabella had been tempted by the offer, Torquemada stormed into her chamber and throwing a gold crucifix to the ground screamed at her that Judas Escariot had betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, now she was willing to betray our Lord for 300,000 ducats. He got his way and the edict of expulsion was agreed and on 31 March, 1493, just 3 months after the last Muslim stronghold in Spain at Granada had fallen, the Alhambra Decree came into law. The Jews were permitted to take their belongings with them but they had to leave their money behind. They had the option of course, of converting to Christianity but given recent events leaving seemed the better option. Upwards of 130,000 Jews were forced to find homes in exile.

The expulsion of the Jews was the pinnacle of Torquemada’s career. The Inquisition continued, of course. It would liberally mete out punishments other than death. It could order public whippings, servitude in the galleys, and terms of imprisonment. It was not to be abolished until 1834, it would continue its work unfettered by the Civil Authorities until the very end.

As for Torquemada, he would die peacefully in his bed in 1498, at the age of 78, content that his work had been done. He had been responsible for more than 2,000 recorded executions, but the apparatus of torture and persecution he had established would be responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands more.    

Image via Wikipedia

Vintas started out together with the political organization of the “Saviours of Louis XVII”, wich later took a mystical turn. He apparently also had some kind of a “mentor”, a certain Madame Bouche who went under the name of Sister Salomé and lived in the Place St. Sulpice in Paris. Together with this “visionary”, he formed his own “Church of Carmel”.  Vintras traveled through the French countryside, wearing an inverted cross on his vestments, and he acquired many followers. His masses included visions of a Black Madonna, lilies steeped in blood, saints disguised as troubadours and angels habited like knights. Vintras had bloody sweats and his blood also appeared on hosts, where it pictured often a heart with an inscription in his own handwriting, spelling his own name. And empty chalices were suddenly filled with wine, leaving stains of blood…

By 1848, the Church of Carmel was condemned by the pope and in 1851, Vintras was accused of homosexuality, conducting black masses in the nude and masturbating while praying at the altar. At that time, he had already followers in England and Belgium, and they had set up “religious houses” at St. Odile in Alsace and at Sion-Vaudemont in Lorraine. 

Shortly before his death, Vintras befriended Joseph-Antoine Boullan (1824-1893), a defrocked priest and also a supporter of the Naundorff claim. Boullan became the successor of Vintras in Lyon, outwardly maintaining pious practices, but conducting satanic rituals in secret. Boullan would soon become the most famous satanist of the 19th century. He claimed to be a “Missionary of the Holy Blood”, the reincarnated St. John the Baptist.

In the 1850’s and together with the former nun Adèle Chevalier, “abbé Boullan” founded the “Society for the Reparation of Souls”. Boullan had met Adèle at La Salette. She was a friend of the visionary Melanie Calvat. Adèle bore the abbé two children and now they specialized in “exorcising demons by unconventional means” and “curing devilish illnesses”. They gave possessed victims human excrement to eat, mixed with the Eucharist. And they performed black masses, in which they even would have sacrificed one of their children.

Boullan said the original sin of Adam and Eve could be redeemed by sexual intercourse with incubi or succubi and he taught his followers all sorts of sexual techniques and how to copulate with the spirits of the dead. He  soon got convicted for fraud and was suspended from his priestly duties. After serving his time in jail, he voluntarily presented himself at the Holy Office in Rome – also known as the Inquisition – which reversed its former decision. He wrote down his doctrines in the “Cahier Rose” which after his death was found by Joris-Karel Huysmans, the novelist who published in 1891 “Là-Bas”, a “history of satanism” (translated as “Down There” or “The Damned”).  Huysmans, by that time converted into a Catholic, apparently saw to it that this “shocking document” was locked away in the Vatican Library.

Image via Wikipedia

Around 1889 the sect of Boullan was infiltrated by the Rosicrucian Stanislas de Guaita, who published a pamphlet, titled “The Temple of Satan”. Boullan and de Guaita now engaged in magical warfare. At that time, being portrayed as “the good magician Dr. Johannes” in the scandal raising novel of his friend Huysmans, Boullan suddenly rose to stardom. He and Huysmans both claimed to be attacked by demons. When Boullan in 1893 died of a heart attack, Huysmans published an article in which he said this was due to an evil spell cast by de Guaita. The Rosicrucian challenged the writer to a duel, but Huysmans declined and apologized.

Some were saying the character of the demonic canon Docre was inspired by abbé Boullan, but Huysmans stated more than once this was not true: in his novel he depicted the chaplain of the Holy Blood of Bruges, Louis Van Haecke, as the satanist Docre. In an article published on a site dedicated to the French Gnostic Tradition it is said that both Boullan and Louis Van Haecke were ordained Pontifs Divines of communities on the model of the Carmelite Order, developing their own theology.

Van Haecke associated his group with occultists who believed in the efficacy of Black Magic; he developed a rather dark “Luciferian Theology”. In his “Gnostic Dictionary”, André Wautier says about Louis Van Haecke that he was a Flemish priest who followed the defrocked abbé Boullan after his breaking-up with the Catholic Church. Van Haecke eventually found his own way, which was typically anti-gnostic and included satanism and black masses. For Van Haecke,  Jesus of Nazareth had not kept the promises he made in proclaiming himself the Son of God, since he did not ban evil from the world. On the contrary, the religion that claimed his name, did not follow his ideal of love and poverty, but saw its leaders compromise themselves and their church with the political and military leaders and with the powers of money, thus helping to reign injustice, misery and war over the world. Therefore, it was the enemy of the Father and the Son who had to be worshipped: Satan, who allowed the act of giving love and joy and helped his disciples to get through the bad times of life.

Image Source, Used With Permission

Read also:

The Satanist Chaplain of the Holy Blood of Bruges

Down There: A History of Satanism

The Code of the Holy Blood

Rennes-le-Château and the Holy Blood of Bruges

Before any trials or punishments were handed out by the Inquisition, the heretics first had to be found. When in a town an inquisitor would preach on how to spot a heretic, and would then leave it up to the population to either turn themselves in or to name someone they suspected of heresy. People who turned other people in were called denouncers and it required two witnesses to denounce somebody. Those that turned themselves in within a period of time set by the inquisitor (usually several weeks) usually were given little to no punishment and were forgiven. After the set period of time, those who had not come forward were sought out and were held on trial.

Those that were suspected of heresy were asked to come before the Inquisition for questioning. Attendance was not required but those who did not attend were generally treated as guilty. Lawyers were usually not allowed. Where it was allowed there rarely was one because the lawyers representing a person found guilty, they would be punished along with the heretic. The actual trial was quite simple. The accused were asked for names of people who would want them to be taken away. If the denouncers were named then the accused were usually let go. It was seen that the accused was actually innocent and the denouncer just wanted to get rid of them. If the denouncer was not named then it was taken that the accused actually was a heretic. Contrary to the popular belief that heretics were immediately killed and tortured, the accused was offered the chance to confess. Those who did so were let off with less severe punishments. Those who did not were not necessarily killed, but received less harsh punishments.

The punishments for those who confessed to heresy were called penances and would be something like going to a shrine, wearing a yellow cross on clothes or a short term in prison or if in Spain, lashings. The punishments for those who refused to confess were the more serious ones. They could be sent to prison for up to seven years, fined or lashing. At the very least in a case like this the Inquisition would confiscate all of the heretics property. At this point they still did not kill heretics. Their mission to save people from heresy also extended to the heretics themselves, so they still urged the heretics to confess and seek forgiveness.

The use of torture was only used in the case of a repeat heretic, one who has already been tried, found guilty, served their punishment and then proceeded to commit heresy again. Torture was approved as a method by Pope Innocent IV’s bull Ad extirpandum in 1252, but inquisitors were not allowed to torture heretics themselves. A heretic had to be turned over to secular authorities to be tortured or killed. Torture was used to get heretics to confess to their heresy. The most popular tortures were flogging, the rack, putting feet into hot coals and tying the hands behind the back and lifting them up with rope attached to the wrists and a pulley called the garrucha, used mainly in Spain and Italy. Confessions given under torture had to be re confessed outside of torture to make sure the confession was not given just to make the torturers stop the torture. If the heretic refused to give confession, then he would be tortured again.

Burnings were also only used in the case of a repeat heretic. The heretic would be told the day before the execution took place. Often multiple people were burned on the same day. These were always held in public and many people often showed up to watch. It started with reading the charges brought against each heretic. This was the longest part of the ordeal. The heretics were given a last chance to confess. If they did they were garroted to death before having their bodies be burned. Garroting is fastening somebody to a chair or vertical board with a ring of malleable metal or rope around their necks. At the back of the chair or board is a crank that when turned tightens the metal or rope until the victim is strangled to death. This causes less pain than being burned alive. The ones who refused to confess were burned alive at the stake. As further punishment, already burnt corpses would be placed next to others who had not been burned yet.

While the tortures and burnings may seem cruel, it is important to remember that heretics were given many chances to confess and be forgiven before they were killed. Those who did not seemed intent on killing themselves. Also only one third of all cases ended with some sort of punishment being given, even less being tortured or burnt which comes to a very small amount. With all the chances given by the Inquisition to heretics to repent it is clear that they were merciful and only punished the few to help save the many people who could have been swayed away from faith by a heretic. The cruelty portrayed to be common in the Inquisition is completely false, it should instead be thought of as a group dedicated to saving the public, not burning it.

The garrucha being used by the Inquisition

Torture on the rack

A mass burning with spectators