The medieval Spanish Inquisition was an extremely brutal and reckless phenomenon. Positioning themselves as defenders of the Catholic faith, the inquisitors committed atrocities that were contrary to Christian charity and love - what they preached so zealously. They looked for "heretics" not only among adherents of other religious movements, but also among opponents of the existing government, and among the rich, at the expense of which the clergy could profit, and often completely random people were registered as "heretics".
However, church courts, prisons and bonfires are not the worst thing that the Inquisition could create. People often went to serve in this organization, whose cruelty exceeded all the limits of reason (if cruelty can be considered reasonable at all). These were mentally ill people who, apparently, simply enjoyed torturing other people. And they did it sometimes with a refined aesthetic taste.
One of them was Pedro de Arbuez de Epila. He was appointed to the post of inquisitor by Torquemada himself, the founder of the Spanish Inquisition. At first, it was impossible to see in him a brutal tyrant, sending hundreds of condemned to the stake: Arbues was known for his righteousness, love of prayer solitude, and also had a good education and knew the "Holy Scriptures" very well. However, it was he, according to numerous stories, who invented one of the most sadistic methods of executing heretics.
He invited them to play chess. For this, a suitable number of criminals (real or imaginary) were selected, they were forced to put on black and white clothes and were placed on a checkered field. The players were two monks who alternately named the moves. When one figure ate another, an executioner appeared who destroyed the killed “figure” - pierced it with a spear or chopped off its head. By the end of the game, the entire field was littered with corpses. The figures of the victorious side, however, did not get rid of the punishment - they were solemnly sent to the fire.
It is believed that by his actions Arbuez destroyed a fifth of the population of Zaragoza. In the end, a conspiracy was drawn up against him, and the bloody inquisitor was killed - at night, while he was kneeling in front of the altar and reading prayers. It is curious, however, that the Catholic Church recognized him as a martyr. And in the 19th century, Arbues was completely canonized. Pope Pius IX, who did this, however, was himself known for his eccentricities, inclination to obscurantism and obscurantism. It was he, in particular, who introduced the dogma of the pope's infallibility. John Paul II, who in 1985 ranked Pius as a blessed one, was not without "oddities".