Analysis Of Ferdinand And Isabell Political And Religious Reform

The Spanish Inquisition lasted from 1478 to 1834. The goal of the Spanish Inquisition was to expel, convert or kill all Non-Catholics from Spain in Spain. When people were accused heresy they would be pit on trial, but before they could be on trial they had to sit in jail which most of them were unsanitary and people were given little food to eat. The punishments people received if they were found guilty were: torture, public humiliation, and death. The trials were unfair, unjustified and not necessary. The Spanish Inquisition did not help spread Catholicism and in fact slowed the spread because of the fear that it instilled in Non-Catholics.

What was Spain like before the Golden Age? King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ruled the kingdoms that eventually became the country of Spain. Ferdinand and Isabella were intent on having a kingdom free of any faith other than Christianity. Many people were killed or even banished from the country. King Ferdinand and Isabella moved their kingdom into a great age for Spain, but did not achieve this in the best way.

The actual person who started this movement was a man named Tomas de Torquemada. He wanted to show everyone how devoted he was to the Catholic Church so he gave away his family fortune, sent his sister away to a Covent, wouldn’t eat meat, and wore a sackcloth vest against his skin. He did this for a while until he found out a terrible secret about his family, his grandfather married a Jew! He was so mad that he pulled some strings with Pope Sixtus IX and started the movement that we call The Spanish Inquisition. Tomas wrote 28 Articles for fellow inquisitors to follow about what makes you a heresy and what to do to the heretics when you find them. The inquisitors would ask the same question every time they tortured the prisoners and wouldn’t, sometimes, let the prisoners speak before torturing them. The goals of the Spanish Inquisition were to keep the people from losing faith in The Catholic Church, to turn people back to the church, and to punish the heretics in Spain.

Ferdinand and Isabella knew that in order to bolster Spain they needed new sources of funding themselves. They turned to the pope and he gave them rights to build the Catholic Church in areas where the Moors had been driven from. He also published decrees giving them control over the funds in the Americas. The Church became a crucial utensil in developing royal absolutism. The New World also proved to be a great source of revenue for Spain (“Ferdinand V”).

The Counter-Reformation sought to reform four major elements; ecclesiastical reconfiguration, religious orders, spiritual movements, and political dimensions. Seminaries for proper training of priests, returning of orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on ones devotional life and relationship with Christ. Among these reforms was the Inquisition. The Inquisition was responsible for the "purifying" of Christians. They were mostly peaceful but were also known for burning many people at the stake. At times as many as two hundred in one day were burned under accusations of witchcraft. They aimed to retake areas that had previously been converted to

Alternately, behind the movement for converting Indians lay some important influences in Spain. The Spanish Crown established royal controls over the ecclesiastical benefices and over the immense wealth of the church.[ii] Two papal bulls were issued in the year of 1493 that established the

Although the Spanish Inquisition does not start until around 1480, it has its roots in the late fourteenth century. Anti-Semitism began in the fourteenth century during a period of plague and economic hardship in Europe. The resulting violence and hatred along with campaigns to get Jews to convert to Catholicism persuaded many Jews to convert. However, these New Christians once again became the object of hatred because it was believed that many of them were faking being Christian and still practicing Judaism. It was during this period that the Spanish Inquisition began. The Inquisition’s main goal was to rid Spain of all Jews in an effort to keep the New Christians from reverting back to their Jewish ways. Disregarding the fact that the inquisition was completely immoral, it was successful in ridding Spain of Jews and the uniting the country in Catholicism; but, the goal was also to end anti-Semitism, and the inquisition only strengthened and extended the reign of the anti-Semitic ideology.

The rise of a powerful government and the enforcement of religious orthodoxy were factors that help established the Spanish Empire.

The word “inquisition” means to examine. Inquisitors would “examine” suspected Heretics, people whose ideas do not match those of the Roman Catholic Church, and punish them accordingly. This included torture and burning. The great inquisition movement that took place in Spain, or Hispania as it was called before Spain united. It was called The Spanish Inquisition. It took place for approximately five hundred years, from the late 15th century to mid 19th century. Many ironic elements were involved in the history of the Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition lasted longer than any other preceding it, and was the most cruel, bloodthirsty, and festive of all. The objective of the inquisition, in its early state, was to

Before Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492, The Spanish Inquisition made it known to anyone within Spain’s domain of influence that if a person was not of the Catholic religion, they were to be punished severely and sometimes even fatally. This influence would undoubtedly be brought over to the Americas a century later, as the colonization of the New World would begin by then. While it was very essential for the Spanish (as well as the Portuguese) to improve their economy by using the resources they found in Latin America, it seemed to a number of them as if that was the only reason for being there, or the main reason at the very least. During the Spanish Inquisition and from that point after, it was the Pope’s main goal, to

Ferdinand and Isabella made the Spanish Inquisition exceptionally linked to the government when they petitioned for, and were granted, a bull by Pope Sixtus IV to allow them to appoint inquisitors. This was an unprecedented role held by a monarchy and ensured that politics would be ever present in the Inquisition.3 The inquisitors were thus subject to the monarch and the church. The inquisitors could not have acted in regions without the support of the king. In Seville after the inquisitors arrived and posted their edict of grace, the Conversos reacted by fleeing the city. Ferdinand and Isabella reacted by ordering the citizens to remain in their homes.4 The Inquisitors and the monarchs worked hand in hand in the inquisition. In the late fifteenth

During the Inquisition, hundreds of thousands of Jews and Muslims were either converted to Catholicism by force, tortured, or killed. These massive groups of people were conquered and controlled by Spain. This fact gave the monarchs the idea that if they could convert these people to their religion, maybe they could discover other societies and convert their people. The Spanish went on to conquer the Incas and the Aztecs in the 1500s, two South American peoples (Herbut). Although no one can say whether or not these events would have happened even if the Inquisition did not, the Inquisition certainly inspired the Spanish to set out exploring and to conquer new territories. Exploration and expanding their empire made Spain a more prominent and stronger global power. Spain was also able to gain knowledge and insight from visiting these empires. The conquered civilizations, the Aztecs and Incas, used a form of government that combined religion and politics. In their government, there was no main leader of all citizens. Instead, missionaries from various cultures were granted control over areas of land which are now known as parts of Mexico and the American Southwest (Spanish Colonization). Even though the original reason to come to these areas was to convert both societies to Catholicism, Spain ended up benefiting from learning this style of government and they were able to use it to their own political benefits

Wendy Wu Ms. Buffum World History - Period 3 14 May 2015 Ask any elementary school kid in the United States and they will probably be able to tell you that Queen Isabella sent Christopher Columbus to find America. An iconic figure of the Renaissance, she is often discussed on the subject matter of exploration; however, her prestige and significance go far beyond that single act. Also commonly known as Queen Isabella the Catholic, she reigned from 1474 to 1504 and together with her husband King Ferdinand II of Aragón, united the Spanish kingdoms and helped pave the way for Spain’s golden age. Yet despite the importance of her marriage to Ferdinand, Isabella was a sovereign queen in her own right, wielding immense power and accomplishing tasks

This relative opportunity came about because of the craving of Christian minorities-Puritans, Separatists and Catholics-to get away from the strength of the congregation of England. The Spanish settlements, conversely, were under stricter religious control by the government. Catholicism was set up as the official religion and was entirely implemented in the Spanish provinces. Catholic evangelists, unmistakable among them individuals from the general public of Jesus-Known as Jesuits-tried to implement the religious discussion and instruction of

Lower down on the map of North America were the Spanish colonies. After Columbus discovered the New World, the Spanish Crown began governing the area. With the arrival of various explorers and colonizers like Columbus, there were rivalries for the land within the South. By the middle of the 1500s, Spain organized themselves politically and economically in the Southwest and the Spanish gained a tight hold on their land of New World. Until the 19th century, Spanish America was divided into viceroyalties and governed through a Council of the Indies in Spain. The viceroys were not just governors, they were the king of Spain’s representative and therefore, were treated as royalty. This system of “under-kings” was developed by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He also organized judicial courts of appeal throughout the Spanish lands with appointed judges to ensure justice was dispensed throughout the New World, the King's rights were upheld, and that taxes were collected. There was a vast military presence in the Spanish colonies to protect them intrusion by other world powers (Politics in Spanish Colonization).