What happened in the Spanish Inquisition?

Question

How bad was the spanish inquisition and dose the church denie that it happend or not?

Answer 1

The Holy Inquisition was established as some sub-order from the Dominican order in 1234.Since then the inquisition started its bloody history.The worst inquisition was The Spanish inquisition which was founded in 1470s and lasted until the Napoleons conquerings of Spain.The Inquisition was "officially" revoked in 1821 but it is known that Inquisition exists even today but under the different name i.e.The Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith and it is known under that name since 1910.Even the present Pope had been in charge of this Congregation until chosen for the Pope.Finally the Inquistion is remembered as the worst institution of the middle ages and it can easily be said that they are the creators of first Holocaust on the territory of Europe during their banishments of the Jews from Spanish penninsula.The most notorious inquisitor of that time was Tomas de Torquemada.

Answer 2

Many of the horror stories about the inquisition are merely propoganda created by early Protestant leaders. The inquisition was chiefly performed as a civil body. Spain was official a Catholic nation, so heresy was not only a serious offense against God but treason against the state. Suprisingly to many modern people, the inquisition's techniques were far more humane than most interrogation methods in use at the time.

The Catholic Church does NOT deny the inquisition occured, it has even appologized for it.

Answer 3

The answer is that the Inquisition itself was not a particular event but was created as a goverment body after the Council of Trent in the early 1600's to keep the Catholic faith "pure." Those who were watched for the most part by the inquisition were New Christians, Jews who converted to Christianity, and Moriscos, Muslims who converted to Christianity after the final conquest of Granada.

The Inquisition existed in all parts of the Spanish Empire from Latin America to Portuguese Outpost in Southeast Asia.

While we generally think of the inquisition as being very aggressive and torturing people to death, in reality it did not. Most people brought before the Inquisition were asked for a confession and were generally freed afterwords.

If you are interested in reading more about the Inquisition and about the story of mentally ill man brought before it I suggest, Mad For God by Sarah Nalle.

Hope This helps


Looking at some of the other responses I wanted to further add that the while forms of inquisitions existed previous to the Council of Trent, the Spanish Inquitition as a political and religious body, but can you really seperate the two, did not come into existence till AFTER this event. Henry Kamen makes this point very clear in his book The Spanish Inquisition. I recommend this as well if you want a general history of the Spanish Inquisition.

Answer 4

As far as I know, the inquisition is MUCH older than the 1600s. Actually, it came up parallel to the idea of heresy, i.e. around 900. However, the name itself was probably coined in the 16th century.

Answer 5

Well, my family fled Spain during the Inquisition (they were Jewish) and the stories handed down since then describe it as a pretty horrifying time.

Answer 6

People were very inquisitive back then.