Inquisition informants

There is a common misconception that government agencies that rely on whistleblowers and anonymous scammers are a relatively modern invention. However, similar organizations existed in antiquity. In the Middle Ages, the Inquisition relied on a system of espionage and denunciations to control the population. In Roman law, an extremely negative attitude towards anonymous denunciations and during the time of the persecution of Christians by pagans is noticeable. Delatator scammers were even denounced for excommunication. In the inquisition process, on the contrary, the denunciation served as the basis for initiating the investigation.

In the Middle Ages, the Christian church was essentially part of the state, and the judicial system came under its control to a large extent. Spain provided the most favorable conditions for the development of the Inquisition, which appeared in the XIII century . The centuries-old struggle with the Moors contributed to the development of religious fanaticism among the people, which the Dominicans who settled here successfully used. When the Spanish Inquisition arrived in the city in order to cleanse it of heresy, its first step was the so-called Decree on Amnesty . After the Sunday Mass, the inquisitor read this decree to those present, explaining what was considered heresy . The decree encouraged all members of the congregation to voluntarily turn to the tribunals of the Inquisition in order to “cleanse” their conscience by repenting. These edicts were called Decrees on Amnesty, because to all who surrendered to the mercy of the Inquisition during the Amnesty period (approximately one month), the Inquisitors offered the opportunity to forgive sins without serious punishment for them. Knowing what awaits the heretics in the hands of the Inquisition, many people voluntarily surrendered to the tribunals in order to avoid a possible charge of heresy, in the hope of the promised favor. However, repentance alone was not enough for the painless forgiveness of sins. To return to the bosom of the church, the heretic also had to extradite all his accomplices. As a result, the Spanish Inquisition had an endless source of informants.

The charges were anonymous , and the defendant was not able to find out the names of his accusers, which relieved the scammers of their responsibility for defamation . False accusations were often the result of envy or personal enmity, and a huge number of denunciations were made for completely insignificant reasons. Thus, the Spanish Inquisition encouraged fear and distrust not only among neighbors and acquaintances - accusations of heresy were also very common among relatives.

The Inquisition also existed in Venice, but, unlike the Spanish Inquisition, this organization monitored the political situation of the republic, and not the spread of heresy. The Venetian Inquisition also relied heavily on scammers to combat undesirable elements in society. Law 1539 appointed state inquisitors who later became known as the Supreme Tribunal . It consisted of three inquisitors. One of them was known as il rosso ( red ). He was elected from the ranks of the "Members of the Doge Council" who wore scarlet robes. Two other inquisitors were appointed from the ranks of the Council of Ten and were known as il negri ( black ). The Supreme Tribunal began its activities as a “vigilance committee” at a time difficult for Venice, when the republic felt surrounded by the Habsburg empire and gradually took over some of the powers of the Council of Ten ( doge control body). The Council of Ten was an anonymous authority, the list of members of which was not known to most residents of the city. One of the official goals of the council was to control the doge and other institutions of the republic. Through espionage and a regime of secret extrajudicial proceedings, they established a justice system in which the accused could be arrested , convicted in absentia by the tribunal and sentenced to imprisonment without an open trial and without giving the accused the opportunity to defend himself from the prosecutors. To gather incriminating information, they used a network of informants and “trustees” (secret agents). Anonymous allegations were encouraged, and special mailboxes were placed on the streets to collect complaints and denunciations.