Was it justified or sheer cruelty, greed and Catholic terror? Aren't all men created in the image and likeness of God, so that disfiguring and mutilating any man's body is akin to disfiguring His image?
I don't see the theological justification behind the inquisition by torture, in fact even contemporaries remarked that it didn't produce truthful confessions, yet the Catholic Church continued undeterred:
>However, Nicholas Eymerich, the inquisitor who wrote the "Directorium Inquisitorum", stated: 'Quaestiones sunt fallaces et ineficaces' ("interrogations via torture are misleading and futile"). By 1256 inquisitors were given absolution if they used instruments of torture.[20]
The torture would've knowingly led to false confessions, costing the accused their lives, reputation and property at the benefit of someone else:
>Like Torquemada, Deza was accused of being overzealous in his work, and of showing excessive cruelty – his reputation was sufficient that in 1507, the Pope was forced to publicly request moderation. Accusations were also made that Deza used his position to enrich himself, confiscating the wealth of accused heretics for himself. A complaint about Deza, made to the royal secretary by Captain Gonzalo de Ayora (Ayora being a valuable Valencia town with numerous "moriscos" since before the 13th century), said that Deza and his lieutenants "have no regard either for God or for justice; they kill, steal, and dishonor girls and women to the disgrace of the Christian religion."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diego_Deza
To me this seems like a grave sin for all those involved, especially the Catholic Church itself.