The Spanish Inquisition

1478 to 1834

The Spanish leaders of the day (Ferdinand and Isabelle of Christopher Columbus fame) originally obtained permission to set-up and conduct an inquisition from the Catholic Pope as early as 1478 but it didn’t establish its notoriety for torture and death until they appointed Tomas de Torquemada as its General-Inquisitor in 1483.

An inquisition can be established and operated by either or both civil and church authorities and its purpose is generally an attempt to remove non-believers from a nation or a specific religion. Although the Spanish Inquisition was one of the most deadly inquisitions in history it was modeled after several earlier versions called the Medieval Inquisitions, the first of which began as early as 1184.

The Spanish Inquisition primarily revolved around a religious foundation although it was independent of the Catholic Church.  In other words, the Catholic Church had no say so in the day to day operations of the Spanish Inquisition and that included the Pope. It was the job of the General-Inquisitor alone, to shape the Inquisition into the extremely organized, ruthless, torturing witch-hunt that it turned in to.

Tomas held the leadership position for the first fifteen years and is believed to be responsible for the execution of around 2,000 Spaniards. The Catholic Church under the direction of the Pope attempted to intercede in the bloody Inquisition but was unable to pull the extremely useful political tool from the hands of the Spanish rulers.

This little known fact is evidence enough that The Spanish Inquisition was used for both political and religious reasons.  You see, Spain as a nation-state of the era was born out of religious struggle between several different belief systems including Catholicism, Islam, Protestantism and Judaism.   Ferdinand and Isabella decided to use Catholicism to unite Spain as I stated above, so they could “purify” the people of Spain. They kicked this action off by forcing Jews, Protestants and other non-believers out of the country.

I guess the system worked pretty well for the few who were in charge; all in all, the Inquisition was run or implemented by the inquisitor-general’s plan who also would have established local tribunals for each of the various cities located throughout the land.

“Heretics”, who could be about anyone who held views opposing the church or state, were identified by the general population (their neighbors) and brought before the tribunal. They were typically given the chance to confess their heresy against the Catholic Church or the state shortly after a brief torture session.   In the mix of things the heretic was encouraged to indict other heretics. If they admitted to their evil ways and turned in other agitators they were occasionally released  but they were usually sentenced to a rather stiff prison term.   If, on the other hand, they would not admit their heresy or indict others the accused were publicly paraded in a large ceremony before they were publicly killed, often times by fire at the stake, or sentenced to a lifetime in prison.

The nightmare began in began in 1478 and lasted until 1834, spanning over a period of 350 years.  Naturally, there were no "alleged" heretics; only those who confessed and repented and those who did not.  

Sources …

http://www.thenagain.info/webchron/westeurope/spaninqui.html           http://www.enforex.com/culture/spanish-inquisition.html