Vindicated at last

I've been saying it for years, but now it seems it's official: historians say Inquisition wasn't that bad

For centuries people were burned at the stake, stretched to death or otherwise tortured for failing to be Roman Catholic. But, if research released by the Vatican is right, the Inquisition was not as bad as one might think.

According to the documents from Vatican archives relating to the trials of Jews, Muslims, Cathars, witches, scientists and other non-Catholics in Europe between the 13th and the 19th centuries, the number actually killed or tortured into confession during the Inquisition was far fewer than previously thought.

Ever since I did a project on the subject at university many moons ago, I've been defending the Spanish Inquisition against its bad reputation. Those investigated in Catholic countries in Europe had a far better chance of survival than in the newly Protestant nations, where hysteria may have been linked in some way to the insecurity of a newly established religious system.

In Italy and Spain, a more likely punishment was to be made to parade in front of the church on a Sunday while holding a sign outlining the offender's heretical status, punishments designed more to shame the guilty party into rejoining the church community than to cast them out altogether.

The British and Germanic states were about the worst places to face accusation of witchcraft, with greater use of torture to extract a confession, and harsher punishments for people found guilty.

Of course, these inaccurate perceptions are all the fault of a bunch of comedians. Those naughty Monty Python boys have a lot to answer for, what with their duck's weight theories, and graphic use of cushion torture...