Until death: self-sacrifice and inquisitorial apologetics in early modern Italy

The Papal Inquisition played a key role in the development of a new concept of sacrifice in the early modern period. The chapter examines how the apologists of the ecclesiastical court, and the Counter-Reformation Church more broadly, advocated the annihilation of the self and one's will as the primary means of achieving paradise. The Inquisition employed thousands of assistants to carry out a wide variety of tasks, from the notary to the soldier, from the barber to the wine merchant. Their only compensation was often economic-legal privilege and the promise of otherworldly rewards. Here, it will be analysed the brotherhoods in which these men served, the exemptions they enjoyed, their medieval precedents and their influence on subsequent society. Shaped in a context of spiritual crusade, this particular type of self-sacrifice embodied the spirit of an inquisitorial Church and helped mould many Catholics according to orders and obedience rather than evangelical and devotional precepts