The Inquisition was used by the Catholic Church (the dominant religion of the Europe) for 300 years and the subject was to ensure all of Europe was 100% believer in the Catholic Church so their minds and souls would go to heaven. If you were not a 100% believer you would be accused of being a heretic and likely found guilty unless you confessed. Over the years, what may have been a reasonable thing because an increasingly hard to justify for how do you know what the person is thinking because you are concerned about their thoughts. Are the thoughts daily? are the thoughts once a year? What is a good result? The book The Inquisition of the Middle Ages – its Organization and Operations by Henry Charles Lea published by Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, UK, 1963 focuses on how the Inquisition worked.

The Inquisition started because there was more than one method to look at the life of Christ. Peter and others helped institutionalized the church and the dominate religion was set as Catholic Church and over the years the Popes decided they made a monopoly on people’s beliefs. As an institution some subjects are left out, some subjects were changed to reflect the organization. There were and are many reasons why people may act according the universal values of being a Catholic, but could question the organization. The inquisition wanted no questions to be raised, you were supposed to accept on faith the interpretations of the Catholic Church or face the punishment.

In the book, Mr. Lea focuses on the organization and operations and given the task of a success is so loosely defined, many different methods were tried. One good thing about an institution is they all like to have policies and procedures and paperwork or documentation about the Inquisition is easily to be found in the church’s records. It also means someone had to approve what was going on and since the Inquisition reported directly to the Pope – it was his responsibility. Popes typically serve 10 years and some saw the threat of heresy as more important than others. In the beginning the leaders of the Inquisition wrestled with the policies and procedures and what punishments were to be given out? No one ever figured out how to determine if they worked or was the idea just to put a fear of the organization in the eyes of the faithful, for that it did. If you watch a movie such as the Hunchback of Notre Dame it is easy to see in the background.  Think about the secret police – trying to get neighbors to watch neighbor and report anything that was not perfect. In all communities there are people who do not like others, who want to change their relationship, who want to get ahead of the line. If you read the book from the aspect of do the policies and procedures make common sense? you may find yourself looking for something more. The fact that the Inquisition lasted 300 years meant the Church and the local population gave support to the process or for the upper leadership the Inquisition was a valued part of the church.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, all companies have policies and procedures and they are there for good reasons or were in the start. In most organizations there were be some policies and procedures which tend to exclude something. an example is “We will serve high income individuals ” (which means we have a threshold of income needed for our services) or we do not serve low income people. If the company can gather the clients, there is a select high competitive marketplace for it and many companies are successful doing it. The policies and procedures to control the mind to believe in one form of religion so their souls will go to heaven are much harder to do because no had the ability to control beliefs and who knows where souls go? Do souls go to hell for a lifetime of wrong decision making or making one bad one? who knows – we still do not. As you studied the companies you invest in: a question to ask is what do the policies and procedures not allow the company to do or should not be doing?

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.