Kangaroo Court: Difference between revisions
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* The Catholic Church Inquisition (''Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis'', "Inquisition over heretical depravities"), under a thinly veiled disguise of order, were mostly Kangaroo Courts. Despite the fact that the average Inquisitor never carried out his own sentences, but forced the local courts, under threat of excommunication or other ''unwanted attentions'' from the Holy See, you could basically be tried, especially if you were a woman, for anything ranging from being promiscuous to using magic to prevent someone from achieving a full erection. The ''[[Malleus Maleficarum]]'', the rough equivalent of a rulebook, explicitly said the fate of a witch was already sealed the moment she was interrogated by the Inquisitor. Just to give some [[Nightmare Fuel]] examples:
** Witches weren't allowed, under any condition, to know the names of people pressing charges over them, no matter how trivial or utterly ridiculous the charges were. This was because Satan could somehow harm the delator (accuser, informer).
*** Speaking of that, Kramer, the [[Ax Crazy|not so sane]] writer of the ''Malleus Maleficarum'', also believed that Satan was somehow unable to harm Inquisitors and Judges working with the Inquisition. He was convinced that if the delator was especially wealthy, he had to be trusted, because only [[Kill the Poor|poor people dabble in such things as witchcraft...]]
** Torture was described as a reasonable, necessary way to elicit a truthful confession - in fact, the ''only way'' to have a proper probing (so to speak) of the accused.
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*** Asking the accused, Helen Shuberin, irrelevant bits of information, such as the number of sexual encounters and the number of lovers she had, the exact number of times she masturbated, and other squicky bits of information.
*** When Mervais got so fed up that he risked excommunication by throwing Kramer out of his court, Kramer described the "Innsbruck Incident" in his ''Malleus'' in a really unflattering way towards Mervais and Helen.
▲*** Historical note: the actual Inquisition thought the ''Malleus'' was the ravings of a madman, and its author had been excommunicated from the Church before he'd even finished it. It's as famous and widely used as it is because it was a favorite of the ''secular'' witch hunters of Europe, and some of the Protestant ones. The Catholics wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole.
** It's also true, as some later historians would say, that not every witch was effectively sentenced to death. However, in the best case scenario the poor, misguided woman would be sentenced to a lifetime cycle of prayers and re-education. In the ''second worst'' scenario the offender would be be sentenced to wear [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|some kind of permanent marking on her clothes]], thus being shunned and reviled by anyone else, or get [[Tongue Trauma|her tongue cut out]] to prevent her from teaching her heresy. Either way, her trial was just a convenient excuse to screw with her.
** Also note that the offical records from the Catholic Church state quite few executions, for example, had Bernad Guis (= Bernado Gui of Name of the Rose fame) of 930 sentences 42 executions, 307 imprisoned. YMMV if you trust the records, though.
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