The Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition started was when Pope Sixtus the IV approved it in 1478. Their early goals

It was in the year 1800 that the inquisition became suspicious of Hidalgo. He was denounced by Fray Joaquin Huesca for unorthodox utterances. A report issued thereafter by the Michoacan commissioner claimed that “Hidalgo was a most learned man who had ruined himself with gambling and women, that he had read prohibited books and while a professor of theology he had taught from Jansenist works.”[15] As no hard evidence of these accusations surfaced, the paperwork was filed away for future reference.

“Tomacaúna” formally known as Domingos Fernandes Nobre was a famous go-between slave trader in Brazil in the late 1500s. He was born a mameluco, meaning he is half of Portuguese and half of Indian descent. He lived a dual life because he traveled from the capital to the wilderness migrating the Indian slaves into the local Portuguese sugar plantations in the colonies. It was an effortless act due to his skin complexion and his relationship between the Indians. However, a problem soon erupted from Portugal’s Holy Office in 1591 when the bishop of Bahia and several members of the city council created a document denouncing anything or anyone that defies the holy Catholic faith within a thirty-day period. By the time of the inquisitor’s arrival

Within Spain, for a time Jews were accepted as productive and unthreatening members of society. This continued until it was decided that the Jewish community was not doing what was expected of them, at which time the Inquisition began. Jews had become accepted because they practiced and accepted the Christian faith in the public eye, however in private they

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

To begin, the Protestant Reformation began in reaction to the Catholic Church’s rather corrupt practices. Prior to the Reformation, the only major Christian denomination in Western Europe at the time was Catholicism, headed by the Pope in Rome. Through many acts of violence such as the formation of the Spanish Inquisition and the slaughter of the Cathars, amongst others, Europe’s Monarchs had wiped out and suppressed any form of religious competition. With the Catholic Church holding a tight stranglehold over Europe, Catholicism was the only option. This allowed

The arrival of the Inquisition was swift and powerful, the decline of the Inquisition was drawn out and pathetic. Laws slowly began to be abolished around the eighteenth century. The distinction between Old and New Christians was no longer legally binding, the Moriscos had all but been erased from Spain, and Judaism had no influence. The job was done. Over hundreds of years and a multitude of rulers hellbent on eradicating religious diversity, a mild amount of success had been achieved. As the decades rolled on, however, rulers became more and more disinterested with the inquisitorial rule. The looming French Revolution severely hurt the seemingly dormant Inquisition. The Revolution brought new condemnation for the movement, and more specifically, condemnation for the unnecessarily violent actions of the church. The Inquisition was truly crippled early in the nineteenth century as a Constitution was being constructed by Rafael Riego, an Asturian battalion commander. Through this, and various civil wars and revolts within the nineteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition was officially demolished. The movement that had thousands tortured, imprisoned, and murdered had finally

     The union of Aragon and Castile showed the establishment of the New Monarchy in Spain in 1469. The marriage of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile joined Aragon, which included the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, Sicily, and Naples, and Castile, the Americas, in a “personal union” only. Both kingdoms recognized the monarchs, but there were few common institutions. The church court, or Inquisition, was common however. Also, the church was reformed early on so it was free from the corruption that occurred in the church in the rest of Europe. The reconquista was also completed when Granada was taken over from the Moors in 1492. The church was at the center of unification efforts. Palmer states it best as “(t)he rulers, though they

Like the Holocaust in the 1930s-1940s, Jews during this time were treated with brutality. Manchester describes it as, “Jewry was luckier - slightly luckier - than blacks. If the pogroms of the time are less infamous than the Holocaust, it is only because anti-Semites then lacked twentieth-century technology” (35). In the year 1492, the Spanish had regained control of Spain. The rule of Spain was now under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. They were not fond of Jews in their nation. The Jews in Spain were given three months to convert to christianity or to leave. After seeing what the Spanish were doing in Spain, the king of Portugal ordered the expulsion of all Portuguese Jews. Any Jews who wouldn’t leave or were slow to leave were massacred. Around four thousand Lisbon Jews were killed during a single night in 1506. Only three years later persecution of Jews in Germany began. Jews throughout history have been treated badly but during the medieval period it was especially hard if you were a Jew.

The Age of Exploration took place began in the 15th century and continued into the early 17th century. During this time many European and Spanish explorers navigated themselves to the New World. Upon arrival, they discovered the native people that populated the Americas. The Age of Exploration negatively affected the native people of the New World because Europeans and Spaniards forced Catholicism onto them, sold them into slavery, and tortured and killed them.

The background to the Edixt of Expulsion extended for more than 700 years prior to the Expulsion itself. The background begins with the conquering of the Iberian Peninsula by Berber Muslims arriving from North Africa in around 711-718, from the Visigoth kingdom, which had ruled the land prior to Muslim conquest. Almost immediately after the Muslim conquest, the Reconquista began, in which Christian people fought to retrieve the land of which the Muslims had conquered. The overall goal of the Reconquista was to retrieve territory on the Iberian Peninsula and convert or isolate people of different faiths such as the Jews and Muslims. (Source 5) The Reconquista continued from the beginning of the Muslim kingdom in the region, finally ending after the conquest of the city of Granada in 1492. (Source 6) Preceding the conquest of Granada, the newly wed Spanish monarchs King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, looking for religious uniformity, established the Inquisition, in which the Inquisitors demanded that all Monarchs ruling different regions of land punish all the Maranos (Jews who converted to Christianity yet continue to practice Judaism in secret) by confiscating their property. (Source 7) However, the Inquisition faced a challenge in their battle against heresy. Conversos, influenced by Jewish family in which

This was the start of the first inquisition. After that, it was a common practice in much of Europe to take Heretics before a trial, then inflict torture on them forcing them to convert. Those that did not convert were sent to a public burning or hanging. In 1252 AD, Pope Innocent IV agreed to use inquisitors to torture sinners who would not repent their sins and confess. By the fifteen hundreds, the Inquisition became corrupt, powerful, and greedy.

The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen, was released in 1997 and is the third edition of the acclaimed book centered around the infamous tribunal. The years following the first publication saw increases in the quality of scholarship and an influx of research.  New historical interpretations subsequently began to demonstrate an enhanced insight, as works like Benzion Netanyahu’s The Origins of the Inquisition presented original perspectives. Kamen was consequentially compelled to reevaluate the evidence surrounding the Inquisition, ultimately causing him to divert from his previous conclusions and adopt a revisionist perspective exploring historical causation. The Spanish Inquisition has been repeatedly studied for

The Inquisition executed Jews and Muslims. However, even the ones who converted to Christianity or born Christian were tortured if they once were of another faith or if it could be traced back in their roots. The ones who had the Jewish blood, or of any other faith and were born Christian, were tortured more severely. The accused was not allowed to have a lawyer or counsel for their defense.

Catholicism was a prominent religion for over 1,000 years. Before the Reformation of the 1500s, anyone who was Christian belonged to the Catholic Church— any other form of Christianity was considered a denomination. To eliminate denominations, the Church turned to inquisition. The Papal Inquisition began in the late 12th century, when Pope Innocent III sent cardinals to Southern France, where heresy was popularizing. However, the official inauguration is considered 1231, when Pope Gregory IX sent Dominicans to Southern France, Germany, Austria, Lombardy, and Aragon to convict heretics. Heretics were granted the chance to admit their deceit and return to the Roman Catholic Church. If their heresy was sustained,