1232... Pope Gregory IX decided to end heresy once and for all.

He set up a system of special religious courts:the Saint Inquisition. The word inquisition comes from the latin [inquisitio,inquisitionis] and it means inquirer, investigator. The meaning of inquisition is: an official investigation characterized by prejudice, lack of regard for human rights, and cruelty.

Gegory authorized the leaders of the Dominican religious order to send out friars to find and question heretics. Bernard Gui, an inquisitor in France described the purpose of the Inquisition this way:

"Heresy cannot be destroyed unless heretics are destroyed and . . .. Their defenders and [supporters] are destroyed, and this is effected in two ways: . . . they are converted to the true Catholic faith, or . . . burned."

Those who refused to stop with their heresy, were burned alive after terrible tortures (CLICK HERE to see a photo-gallery). During the Inquisition time many people (the most of them female) has been killed. One of the most 'curious' aspect of the inquisition was the witch-hunt; it started in 1320, when witchcraft was been added to the list of heresies.

The worst tortures occurred in France, Germany, Switzerland, Scotland and in the north of italy. Tortured changed by place to place, but the target of them was a common one... the witches-hunter and inquisitors had a guidebook which 'helped' them... the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer -1st edition was published in 1486).

By this time millions had been murdered at the hands of the inquisition woman children even babies not that babies could confess, even men didn't escape they to were tortured and murdered.
The reasons most of these people suffered at the inquisitions hand were they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or some one just held a grudge or didn't like the person. Just something being said, no real evidence against them.

 Just to give you an idea about how the inquisition worked in that time, click on the pictureof the witch (the one over here) and... good luck, hope to see you back alive!

Witches were usually country woman, experts with herbs. These individuals often were born having the mysterious gift of healing by touch, and many were adept in herbal lore that had been passed down through generations of their families. They diagnosed both human and animal ailments. Many of them followed pagan rituals (sabbats for example) and people accused them of black magick, during these rituals they dances and singing, often they used some hallucinogenes herbs (belladonna just to list one of them). The use of these herbs gave they some a trance-like status. They often represented the White Goddess and the Horned God (NOT Satan!). Hard to believe that they child-eating and they could transform themselves into animals (black cats or night birds mainly).