(7) If the latter is true, then – from the point of view of cultural and scientific progress – what objective role did the Inquisition play in the history of Europe? Will it not be similar to the role of the cruel reformer Peter (and, by the way, the founder of the Russian Inquisition61) in the history of Russia?

Without an evidential answer to these questions based on source studies, it is impossible to present the victims of the Inquisition as unconditionally progressive people.

For a modern secular person, witchcraft is an "imaginary crime". And therefore it is understandable that such a person will be indignant at the execution of people for those crimes that they did not actually commit. But from the point of view of Theosophists, witches were witches and magicians were magicians, devils were devils, and corruption was corruption. "And the devil can be made to dance. Devils can't stand light and noise. It is not for nothing that shamans beat tambourines to get rid of low spirits."64 "The ignorant laugh at the existence of Satan and thus confirm the correctness of what was said by one subtle thinker: "The victory of the devil is that he was able to convince people that he does not exist." For when we do not believe in something or deny it, we cease to be afraid of it, and the more easily we fall into the snares set by the numerous minions of darkness."65 "Questioner: But what do you really mean by 'black magic'? Theosophist: Simply the misuse of psychic powers or of some secret nature, the use of occult powers for selfish and sinful purposes. – Questioner: But this is a medieval belief in witchcraft and charms! Even the Law itself had ceased to believe in such things! – Theosophist: So much the worse for the Law, for because of this lack of distinction it has led him to commit more than one miscarriage of justice and crime. This is only the term that frightens you with its "superstitious" echo. Shouldn't the law punish the abuse of hypnotic powers? No, he has already punished similar actions in France and Germany; but he would indignantly deny that he had applied the punishment to a crime corresponding to obvious sorcery. You cannot believe in the efficacy and reality of the powers of suggestion of healers (or hypnotists) and then refuse to believe in the powers that use them for evil. But if so, then you believe in Witchcraft as well. You cannot believe in good and not believe in evil, accept real money and refuse to believe in such a thing as counterfeit coin."66 "Witchcraft is unacceptable as a crime against humanity. Witchcraft should not be understood as evil against one person. The consequence of sorcery is much more harmful—it disturbs cosmic manifestations, it brings confusion into the supermundane strata. If the sorcerer failed to defeat the enemy, this does not mean that his blow did not kill several people somewhere, perhaps in different countries. Perhaps the vibration of evil will has found affirmation in the most unexpected place. It is impossible to imagine how many deaths and illnesses have been caused by evil will. Clouds of claws are rushing across the space, no one will take into account where this poisonous pack will land. A strong spirit will protect itself from evil sendings, but somewhere a weak person will get their infection. It is impossible to take into account such cosmic harm. Even Grace will not reach the full extent if it is spent along the way to disperse evil. It is possible to warn mankind very much against any sorcery," says Roerich's treatise "Aum" (ch. 28).

And, therefore, if the Renaissance or modern European society committed a crime by executing these sorcerers, then it must still be taken into account that it was a retaliatory measure: retribution with crime for crime, harm for harm. And, besides, it was a crime committed in a state of passion. A crime committed by frightened people who were really afraid of witches, because they believed in the reality of witchcraft...

Yes, it is disgusting to burn people. "A heretic should not be killed," says St. John Chrysostom (Discourses on the Gospel of Matthew, 46:1). But the historian differs from the moralist in that he must understand the logic of events and the motives of the persons who made our history, and not just give them marks for their behavior...

If, on the other hand, a moralist condemns some criminals (inquisitors) in order to unconditionally whitewash another group of criminals (sorcerers), then the question arises whether this moralist has any moral right to be considered a moralist at all.

So it was not science that the Inquisition was at war with, but magical superstition.

Here are the characteristic figures that indicate the shift in the interests of the inquisitors and who they considered their opponent in the era of the scientific revolution: "About 80% of the Venetian Inquisition trials dating back to the period before 1580 were associated with accusations of Lutheranism and related forms of crypto-Protestantism. The 130 sentences reported to Rome between 1580 and 1581 from all parts of northern Italy show the Inquisition's constant attention to Protestantism. However, the various branches of the Roman Inquisition did not change their focus until 1600, when attention to heretics was supplanted by an obsession with eradicating magic and other superstitions. In Friuli, up to 10% of the trials (out of 390) held before 1595 involved magic, and for the next fifteen years half of the cases (558) fell under this heading. Elsewhere, the shift was less pronounced and more rapid; in Naples, magic was the only accusation that gave rise to a significant number of Inquisition trials in the 1570s, and remained so for decades, until the 1720s. In Venice the transition from heresy to magic was as abrupt as in Friuli, but it occurred twelve years earlier. During the seventeenth century, all forms of magic, from witchcraft to divination, became the subject of concern of the Roman Inquisition: in each tribunal, about 40 percent of the cases tried during that century could be classified as persecutions of superstition and magic."67

Among the other cases before the Inquisition, up to 15 percent were cases involving accusations of sexual harassment of priests, plus bigamy, homosexuality, and the like.

The Inquisition was born twice: in the 13th century in France (after a century-long discussion about the permissibility of the execution of heretics) and again at the end of the 15th century.

The French Inquisition of the 13th century was not looking for witches or free-thinking scientists. She fought against the Albigensian heresy. The Cathar-Albigensian doctrine by no means bears traces of scientific thought and deep philosophical work. Nor were they the bearers of higher morality: the pope declared an anti-Albigensian crusade in response to the assassination of the papal ambassador by the Cathars (1208). The Cathars taught about the evil demon as the creator of the material world. From this, conclusions were drawn about the undesirability of marriage and childbirth.68

Well, from the point of view of science studies, such a view of the world, with its triumph, would just exclude the birth of scientific natural science. Among the axioms, the dominance of which in society and in the minds of scientists, in order for the newborn science to acquire a high social status, and, therefore, funding, there must be an anti-Gnostic axiom. From the point of view of the Gnostics, Manichaeans, and their later successors, the Cathars (Albigenses) and the Bogomils, matter is an extreme degree of degradation of the spirit. The Albigensians said that carrying the body, staying on earth, is the hell with which the Scriptures frighten. Man's vocation is to get rid of corporeality.69

Whoever devotes his life to the study of matter will jeopardize his religious salvation: for if the world is the antipode of God, and you have fixed your gaze on the world, then you have turned away from God. In Christianity, the world was created by God and bears the trace of the Divine Plan. In Gnosticism and among the Cathars, God and the world are hostile. The world has an evil creator (demon). And devoting your life to studying the product of an evil author is somehow strange... So if the Albigenses had won, and science would have had to postpone its birth. But the Inquisition won. And people again gained the right to rejoice in the world and study it.

The Spanish Inquisition of the 13th century had a different field of study. The policy of state pressure on the Jewish population of Spain led to the fact that thousands of Jews were baptized. In many cases, this appeal was not sincere. But in the Jewish tradition, it is customary to value the life of a Jew above all, sometimes even above the Jewish faith itself (for the essence of this faith is in the special status of the Jew's soul and his mission in the world). And therefore, when "the Jews of Morocco, forced to renounce their faith and accept Islam, turned to Maimonides with the question: what to do? He advised them, in case of extreme danger, to repeat the words that the Muslims demanded of them. Maimonides explained that these words would be meaningless if their hearts remained faithful to Judaism."70