what was the Spanish Inquisition?
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The Cathoic Church went around and inquired as to whether people were Christians. If they said no, they were tortured to death. The end.
Simplest answer is,
It was a catholic tribunal set up by the Spanish Monarchy to combat heresy in Spain and Spanish territories
So basically it was a Catholic jury that found, tried, and executed ‘heretics’. It was formed partially in response to the medival inquisition because the Medival inquisition was run by the roman catholic church
So, the Christians conquered Spain, which had previously been Muslim. They celebrated their victory by announcing that all Muslims and Jews (the Muslim rulers had been a lot more tolerant of Jews than the new regime was) were required to either convert or emigrate; and if emigrating, they were only allowed to take what they could carry. A bunch of the inhabitants of Spain chose to “convert” in order stay in Spain and keep their property; but although nominally Christian, they continued to practice their old faiths in secret.
The Spanish Inquisition was set up to deal with this problem: to *inquire* into the beliefs and practices of people who called themselves “Christian”, to make sure that they were genuine Christians and not fakes. Anyone found guilty of believing the wrong things or worshipping incorrectly would be executed.
It got just a teensy little bit out of hand. The problem was that the Inquisition was allowed to seize the property of anyone it executed, so had an incentive to convict as many people as possible. In general the pattern was that the Inquisition would come arrest you, inform you that you had already been proven guilty on the basis of someone else’s confession, and that you would be tortured until you also confessed and named at least N other co-conspirators. Once you named enough random people, it would execute you, seize your property, and arrest whoever you’d named.
Basically the same phenomenon as the “witch hunts” that would later plague America.
Unlike other inquisitions where the pope appointed inquisitors , the Spanish Catholic Kings (Isabel and Fernando) negotiated being able to appoint their own— so in a way the Spanish Inq. became an arm of the crown—some would say even more political than being an arm of the church.
It should also be known that the Inq.’s goal was to try to bring Catholics back to the fold. So they did not execute people lightly. They wanted repentance and orthodoxy. (Not an Inq. apologist here, just trying to be careful to not overstate things or fall into stereotypes).
Also, the Spanish Inq. didn’t do the actual executing. Those who would not repent were “relaxed” to the secular arm for execution.
Depending on the time Jews, moriscos, and Protestants were considered a threat to Catholic orthodoxy. The Inq only had authority over Catholics/ converts to Catholicism. Inquisitors were skeptical of converts and were vigilant to make sure converts did not retain dietary and other practices of their former religion.
Its power was at its highest in 15-17th centuries. Tribunals were located in major cities in Spain and viceroyalties of the “New World.”
The Spanish Inq. also produced lists of prohibited books.
Read Henry Kamen’s book on The Spanish Inquisition for more.
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