How Did The Spanish Inquisition Punish Witchcraft?

The witch-hunt in Spain was less intense than in other European countries, such as France, Scotland, and Germany. One notable case was the Logroño witch trial, where the witches of Zugarramurdi in Navarre were persecuted. The Spanish Inquisition, established in 1478 to combat heresy in Spain, persecuted mainly Protestants, Conversos (baptized Christians), Jews, Muslims, and Protestants. Catalonia apologized for the more than 700 women condemned as witches over three centuries, based on research by historians and journalists.

Spanish witches were targeted on a smaller scale than the Jews and Muslims living in the regions, but they were still hunted, questioned, and tortured during the existence of the Spanish Inquisition. However, the Spanish did not hunt and kill witches with the same ferocity as the rest of Europe.

The age of witch trials lasted from 1450 to 1750 and encompassed most of Western Europe. Seventy-five percent of all witchcraft trials took place in these countries. This process became known as “The witch-hunt”, with Germany, France, and Switzerland seeing the most violent persecutions.

One notorious witch hunter of the period, Joan Malet, identified witches based on supposed invisible markings on their bodies. In 1638, she was found guilty of being a witch for a second time. Pérez de Lizarraga, the Bishop of Catalonia, was also persecuted under the accusations of witchcraft. The Spanish Inquisition played a significant role in the persecution of witches in Spain, leading to a miscarriage of justice in the Basque region.


📹 Ugly History: The Spanish Inquisition – Kayla Wolf

Dig into the era of the Spanish Inquisition, when the Catholic Church was charged with rooting out and punishing heresy.


What was the punishment for witchcraft?

The Witchcraft Act of 1604 was the primary English law for witchcraft, deeming it a felony. A witch convicted of a minor offense could be imprisoned for a year, while a witch found guilty twice was sentenced to death. In 1641, the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay wrote the Body of Liberties, the first legal code established in New England, which included witchcraft among its capital offenses. The Act stated that if any person was a witch, they would be put to death.

However, few witches were executed in Colonial America before the Salem Witch Trials, as clear and convincing proof of a crime was needed for conviction. Legal scholars argue that accused witches were largely “deprived of the rights to which they should have been entitled under English common law”.

How was witchcraft treated?
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How was witchcraft treated?

This resource contains legal documents related to witchcraft trials, where accused individuals were accused, witnesses were called, and confessions were made, sometimes with torture. Those found guilty would be executed. However, not all accusations of witchcraft were believed, as people were suspicious of attempts to pretend to be bewitched or be a witch. For instance, Katherine Malpas’ relatives pretended she was a witch for financial gain. Witchcraft caused fear within society but also became a normal part of life.

Newcomers to a community might be accused of witchcraft due to suspicion from their neighbors, or people might pretend to be bewitched for money. The harvest failed, and people became more suspicious of witchcraft. Witchcraft trials became a platform for grievances and disputes to be discussed, and people stood in testimony for or against their neighbors. Understanding the history of witchcraft reveals more about everyday life for ordinary people in early modern England than the supernatural.

What European country had the most witch trials?
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What European country had the most witch trials?

Witch hunting in Early Modern Europe was a frenzy that occurred in two waves: the first in the 15th and early 16th centuries and the second in the 17th century. The most significant area of witch hunting was southwestern Germany, where the highest concentration of trials occurred between 1561 and 1670. The 1692-1693 Salem Witch Trials were a brief outburst of witch hysteria in the New World, occurring when the practice was already waning in Europe.

In February 1692, a girl became ill and her playmates exhibited unusual behavior. A supernatural cause was suggested, leading to suspicions of witchcraft. Three townswomen were accused of witchcraft: Tituba, a slave, Sarah Good, a poor beggar, and Sarah Osborne, a quarrelsome woman. During the trial, Tituba declared herself a witch and flew through the air on poles, silenced skeptics, and witch hunting began in earnest.

How were witches punished?
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How were witches punished?

This resource contains legal documents related to witchcraft trials, where accused individuals were accused, witnesses were called, and confessions were made, sometimes with torture. Those found guilty would be executed. However, not all accusations of witchcraft were believed, as people were suspicious of attempts to pretend to be bewitched or be a witch. For instance, Katherine Malpas’ relatives pretended she was a witch for financial gain. Witchcraft caused fear within society but also became a normal part of life.

Newcomers to a community might be accused of witchcraft due to suspicion from their neighbors, or people might pretend to be bewitched for money. The harvest failed, and people became more suspicious of witchcraft. Witchcraft trials became a platform for grievances and disputes to be discussed, and people stood in testimony for or against their neighbors. Understanding the history of witchcraft reveals more about everyday life for ordinary people in early modern England than the supernatural.

Which of the following were persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition?
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Which of the following were persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition?

The Inquisition, a brutal persecution of Jews and Muslims, began in the 12th century and continued for hundreds of years. Its worst manifestation was in Spain, where it was a dominant force for over 200 years, resulting in 32, 000 executions. The Inquisition originated from the early organized persecution of non-Catholic Christian religions in Europe, with Pope Lucius III sending bishops to southern France in 1184 to track down heretics called Catharists.

The church also pursued the Waldensians in Germany and Northern Italy. In 1231, Pope Gregory charged the Dominican and Franciscan Orders to take over the task. Inquisitors would arrive in towns, announce their presence, and allow citizens to confess to heresy.

What are the methods of execution for witches?

Between the 15th and 18th centuries, the witch-hunt hysteria in Europe resulted in the execution of around 50, 000 people as witches. Many were executed first, but their bodies were typically incinerated to prevent postmortem sorcery. Some were still alive when they faced the flames, enduring an excruciating death by burning and inhaling toxic fumes. In Salem, Massachusetts, Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter Betty and his niece Abigail Williams began exhibiting strange symptoms, including convulsions, seizures, and barking like a dog.

Were witches killed in the Spanish Inquisition?

The Spanish Inquisition prioritized heresy over witchcraft and minimized witch trials, with only a few isolated cases known until the mid-17th-century. María Pujol was likely the last person executed for witchcraft in Spain in 1767, after a long period without witch trials. The Spanish Inquisition’s policy focused on prioritizing heresy over witchcraft and minimizing executions, leading to a significant decrease in witch trials in early modern Spain.

What religions were persecuted during the Spanish Inquisition?

The Spanish Inquisition, which primarily targeted Jews and Muslims, turned its attention to Roman Catholics, including Saint Ignatius of Loyola and the Dominican Archbishop of Toledo. The supreme council oversaw 14 local tribunals in Spain and several Spanish colonies, including the Americas. A similar inquisition was established in Portugal in 1547 and continued until 1821. Autos-da-fé continued into the mid-18th century, with the Inquisition being suppressed by Joseph Bonaparte in 1808, restored by Ferdinand VII in 1814, suppressed in 1820, and finally suppressed permanently by Spanish queen regent María Cristina de Borbón in 1834.

Did Spain have witch trials?

A local court in Pamplona, Northern Spain, smuggled over 150 people accused of witchcraft away from the Spanish Inquisition to conduct 30 independent trials in the 16th and 17th centuries. The court left behind a rich record of witch trials in Spain, with over 3, 000 pages of accounts from various groups. Kalamazoo College Assistant Professor of History Rochelle Rojas’ latest research project aims to uncover the voices of people, mostly women, who endured terror and execution due to being labeled a witch by others. The project is the first and only one dealing with witchcraft in Spain that isn’t based on Inquisition sources, bringing to life the experiences of those who were labeled witches.

How was one accused of witchcraft?
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How was one accused of witchcraft?

Rebecca Nurse and Martha Cory, both church members and high social standing, were accused of witchcraft based on “spectral evidence”, which involved disembodied spirits sent through dreams or visions by the accused with Satan’s help to harm victims through stabbing, choking, biting, and jabbing. The accused were interrogated in public, and during questioning, the purported victims exhibited dramatic reactions while townspeople watched.

The main discussion was whether the devil could impersonate someone with or without their permission, which was equivalent to Rebecca Nurse giving the devil permission to afflict the girls in her image.

In May, the new Massachusetts governor, Sir William Phips, established a special court to try the witchcraft cases, presided over by William Stoughton. Over half of the accused, around 70, were still in jail.

How were witches killed in Europe?
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How were witches killed in Europe?

Witch hysteria in Europe began in the mid-1400s, with accused witches confessing to wicked behaviors under torture. Witch hunts became common, with most accused executed by burning at the stake or hanging. Single women, widows, and women on the margins were targeted. Between 1500 and 1660, up to 80, 000 suspected witches were executed in Europe, with Germany having the highest execution rate. The publication of “Malleus Maleficarum” by two German Dominicans in 1486 likely spurred witch mania to go viral.

The book, often translated as “The Hammer of Witches”, was a guide on identifying, hunting, and interrogating witches. Labeled as heresy, it became the authority for Protestants and Catholics to eradicate witches. For over 100 years, the book sold more copies than any other book in Europe except the Bible.


📹 Did the Inquisition Conduct Witch Trials?

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How Did The Spanish Inquisition Punish Witchcraft?
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  • Recently, a group of Catholic Mexican decendents with interesting and unusual religious practices was studied. Turns out that they were descendents of Spanish conversos who were keeping alive some of their Jewish traditions long past the point at which the danger of discovery was over. And long past the time they knew the origins of the practices.

  • 3,000 people were “executed” in Spain across the entirety of the centuries of the Inquisition. That’s it. Of the 3,000 “executed” 1,500 were “executed in effigy.” That is, they built up a human-sized doll, and killed the doll, not the person, then expelled them from the country. That’s it. That’s the horror/terror of the Inquisition.

  • You may not expect the spanish Inquisition, BUT one thing u may not expect either is that this is quite biased. Remember! The Inquisition was NOT exclusive to Spain. The spanish Inquisition wasn’t even the harshest Inquisition of them all (you should see what the folks in Germany and England did, there the burning and witch hunting was a lot more common) although it had some particularities, mainly relating to burocratic procedures If I recall properly. Spain had many enemies back then, and they were good with propaganda. That’s why most common folk only remember the Spanish Inquisition and not the maleum maleficarum or the work of Matthew Hopkins

  • The Inquisition started in 12th-century France to combat religious dissent, particularly among the Cathars and the Waldensians. The inquisitorial courts from this time until the mid-15th century are together known as the Medieval Inquisition. Other groups investigated during the Medieval Inquisition, which primarily took place in France and Italy, including the Spiritual Franciscans, the Hussites (followers of Jan Hus), and the Beguines. (Wikipedia)

  • The Holy Inquisition had been around since the Crusades; the ones in which all of Christendom participated. So it didn’t pop into being in 1478, not was it established in all Spanish kingdoms as the narrator incorrectly states. It was Isabel; she was not Italian, so her proper name was not Isabella. It was often spelled as Ysabel as can be readily seen on documents and even the coat of arms of Puerto Rico. The Holy inquisition was first established in America and had its administrative centre in Cartagena de Indias and it was tasked with monitoring Europeans and enslaved Africans and any converted indigenous people; it was not sent to América to prosecute indigenous people because they were classified as soon-to-be Christians and therefore were not to be held responsible for matters of faith. Contrary to the narrator’s spurious claim, the inquisition in the Spanish kingdoms had various categories of falling out grace with the church. It differentiated between people who practiced witchcraft and people prepared and sold spells – the latter most often the purview of widows and older women. The church viewed as mostly harmless within the bounds of what people used it; attract love, fortune, etc. There was no entering in contract with Satan or selling their soul. By church law a physician had to be present whenever torture was undertaken – there are museums all over Europe displaying torture devices, so you cannot sanely claim that it was solely used by the Spanish monarchy or the church; two separate entities with mandates that did not overlap.

  • Saying Spain did not experience Renaissance or the Separation of powers at min 4:29 is BS… It’s not knowing about Spain or it’s history and culture AT ALL. Spain was a complete participant of the iRenaissance (Velazquez, el Greco, Becket, Cervantes…. all contributed to it), and the oldest Parlament in the world is in the Kingdom of Leon, a literal separation of powers. But by the Catholic Monarchs onwards Spain, like most European countries, experienced the same separation of powers. Isolation of Spain began after Napoleon not before.

  • Under canonical law, only Catholics could be judged by the inquisition. This judgement would occur under the normal circumstances of judgement, where both the accuser and the accused would have to face each other (no anonymity) in trial, with evidence to support the accusation. People who then formally renounced their faith would be excommunicated, while repenting Catholics would be given confession and penance. It was only unrelenting Catholics who could be legally punished beyond excommunication. Anything that happened outside these bounds is analogous to what our justice system today experiences through corruption. Simply listing a few facts in this format does very little to provide the necessary context to understand it completely. Also, Spain suffered from a compete economic collapse due to inflation caused by the large quantities of gold imported from the colonies. Saying that they missed out on the enlightenment because of the inquisition is short sighted and inaccurate. It also assumes that “enlightenment” is a process by which a society progresses, but it was just a philosophical movement. Spain had their own cultural Revolution throughout the Golden Centuries (as they are known in Spanish history). I’m pretty disappointed a article like this was produced by Ted.

  • You forgot to say that in 7 centuries, Spanish Inquisition delivered less death sentences than US courts did between 1976 and 2000, or less than Pakistan, Egypt, China or Algeria… did in a just few decades in recent times. You have to look to serious and confirmed estimates (from the main historians/specialists like Botromeo). The Tribunal of the Holy Office was mainly a court of appeal, for people who were already sentenced, and was far less severe than civil courts. It was most of the time a way to get these sentences reduced. Long story short: YouTube infographic shows are entertaining, but have any reliable content.

  • However, in Spain it is said that the Inquisition killed in a very sadic way, with rough torture machines, but that´s not completly true, the inquisition acused many people as heretics, but eventually, the common hails were even worst than the Inquisition trials, infact, people who commited any crime, rather prefer to be tried by them just to avoid to be tortured so strict. It’s kinda a rumour that has been spread around Spain.

  • Animation 9/10, Historical accuracy 1/10, Analysis -2/10. Hald of the article is not even about the inquisition but the Spanish church. Seeing Umberto Eco at the beginning convinced me that this movie was made to shock not to educate. Also talking about inquisition without mentioning the one from middle ages….

  • Christianity went from: “We’re being prosecuted, so we don’t celebrate publicly” To “We’re celebrating publicly and persecuting heretics”. Truly one of the biggest table flips in history. (Don’t flame me, I’m a Christian too lmao. It’s just that the belief isn’t violent, It’s the people who issue it.)

  • The Holy Office was a repressive apparatus that caused a brutal delay in Spain, but its history is dotted with myths in a Europe where religious persecution was even more cruel. Compared to the 25,000 women burned at the stake as witches in Germany, to the tens of thousands hanged and then (while still breathing) dismembered in the England of Elizabeth I, it is well documented that during the three hundred years that the Spanish inquisition lasted they were 3000 sentenced to death. (Henry Kamen). The Spanish inquisitors are represented in films and novels as sadistic fanatics who made Spain the most backward territory in Europe and burned an endless number of Jews, witches, Muslims and especially Protestants. It is considered the most terrible and merciless episode of the Catholic Church. Not in vain, the Holy Office was a mechanism inherent to the Modern Age that, unlike the medieval inquisition, responded directly to royal authority, was used as an organ of social control and did not accept as valid the testimonies obtained by torture. And although the number of deaths caused by the activity of the Holy Office in the Iberian Peninsula was much lower than that produced by the religious wars, which bled France, Germany or England during the 16th and 17th centuries, in the popular imagination they are the Spaniards were the only ones who earned the reputation of bloodthirsty radicals.

  • It worked and it is what was needed to restore Spain. Before you all complain, this practice still exists and it is practiced most by the Islamic religion. Sharia police ring a bell? How about mercy killings? They follow essentially the same beliefs, processes and practices in their home countries as the Spanish Inquisition. You have people secretly alerting authorities, authorities with no uniforms door knocking, unfair trails and biased/partisan legal system. That is how they keep other religions out and why their culture, way of thinking is essentially untouched while that of the West has been eroded. This practice is what is needed to restore and what is needed to maintain Europe if there is such a unity in the will and unity in the preservation of Europe that was just in the last couple of centuries ago.

  • A lot of the north African population are actually “moors” that had to run or/and were exiled, a lot of them came with the clothes on their backs, some even were forced to let go of their children before leaving their own homes, but they established a second home in north Africa and were welcomed by the people, mostly modern day Morocco

  • I’m from Portugal and we too had an Inquisition there; because of that aberration, Portugal remained one of the poorest countries in Europe ( at least till the last quarter of XX century ) . Yes, a flux of wealth arrived in Portugal coming from India or Brasil but it was spent in churchs and monasteries where thousands of religious men and women lived without working . Meanwhile we also expelled jews and moors, people with culture nedded to boost the economy ; most of the portuguese jews fled to Flanders or Holland where they became a rich and respected part of the society ( the philosopher Espinosa descended from portuguese jews ) . To exclude or expell someone or somepart of the society of a country provokes very often poverty .

  • The figures of those killed by the Inquisition are established by Swedish and American authors between 800 and 2000. And in the case of Latin America, 46 (most of them foreigners). Regarding the number of slaves, it is estimated that during the 8 years in which slavery was legal, 2600 people were trafficked. And with respect to gold, it is estimated that Spain extracted a fifth of what is extracted today in a single year for 300 years. And Spain kept just over a fifth of all the gold it extracted.

  • Fun facts about the inquisition that they didn’t tell you in the article: Most of the people accused were convinced of having mistaken beliefs for which a priest simply corrected them. Inquisitions are a basic element of Christianity, deemed necessary to root out false beliefs before they became wide spread. Clergy were not present during torture, torture devices that would kill or permanently scared were forbidden, a doctor was always present and people knew that it was ineffective, so they didn’t want to use it. Spain at that time wasn’t as diverse as presented, infact being majority Christian already. Medieval inquisitions were a reaction to a bloody conflict between Christians and the Catharists People actually wanted worse punishments for those convicted.

  • Isabel II was born in 1833, so it is imposible for her to end the inquisition in 1834. I´m Spanish and of course I´m not proud of the inquisition and other several aspects of the Spanish history, but remember we cannot judge the Inquisition from the modern point of view. Much easier would be to talk about how the native North American were extinguished much more years later. Or even to talk about the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Remember that 100,000 people were killed there by the United States. I think it is difficult to find a ugliest history to talk about in the recent history.

  • Please revise the content of this article. There are huge confusions made between inquisitorial courts and secular courts in Spain. Unlike what is depicted here, the inquisition in Spain was relatively lenient, cautious in distributing harsh sanctions, and only used torture in a minority of cases. This behavior is explained by the educated background of inquisitors, and contrasts what the Spanish archives recount of trials led by secular authorities, much more brutal and unqualified to administer sanctions in legal courts. Due to the inactivity of the Spanish Inquisition in some regions of Spain, notably Catalonia in the 16th and 17th centuries, these secular courts ended up leading most of the trials for supercticiones and were the ones who forced prisoners into confessions through the use of torture. Chains of witchcraft trials were thus formed as under the pain of torture, witches gave the names of their alleged accomplices, who were then arrested and tried for the same crimes of maleficium.

  • In 2004, the “Acts of the international symposium: The inquisition” were published, thanks to the opening of the secret archives of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ordered by John Paul II in 1998. These minutes contain the entire Catholic position in matter of documentation on the inquisitorial processes in Catholic Europe where the Holy See ruled in the spiritual field. Thus, the following data was disseminated to the public about people who were burned at the stake for accusation of witchcraft: Germany: 25,000 (over 16 million inhabitants) Poland – Lithuania: 10,000 (about 3 million and 400,000 inhabitants, respectively) Switzerland: 10,000 (over 1 million inhabitants) France: 4,000 (from the 15th to the 18th centuries) United Kingdom: 2,500 Denmark – Norway: 1600 (over 970,000 inhabitants) Spain: 49 Italy: 36 Portugal: 4

  • No one is surprised that an American website speaks badly of Spain, knowing that your ancestors are the English and that England was and is one of Spain’s greatest enemies. Surely you think that my vision is biased because I am Spanish and that everything I am going to say I say from a patriotic feeling. However, the history of Spain is very confusing and veryyyyyy long. In many cases, full of bloody conflicts and ethnic and religious purges. However, the Holy Inquisition is not one of them. To introduce you a little, at that time, Spain and Portugal inherited the Muslim advances and had their most prosperous centuries, in which they accessed the Asian trade markets and acquired, for example, the necessary instruments to be able to undertake great journeys maritime, such as reaching India bordering Africa, reaching America or going around the world. All this progress leads to the emergence of a wave of illustrious writers such as Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote and many others who shape Spanish society into a cultured and diverse society for the time. As the article says, in Spanish society there were many ethnicities, religions and cultures, for example, the Arabs brought with them inhabitants from all over the world, sub-Saharans, Indians, Chinese, Jews and of course, one of the ethnicities that had the greatest impact left in Spanish society and folklore, the gypsies who fled from persecution around the world. For most of the time, there were no problems, the only thing that changed was who was king in the region you lived in.

  • That’s a pretty big gap of supposed deaths, 2,000 – 30,000 deaths over the course of 350 years. Also, at most that would equate to 85 people dying a year which really isn’t that many. Also the inquisitors did not punish those who were unrepentant. If they didn’t repent they were handed over to the city’s courts and their punishment was decided by the government not the inquisitors.

  • The ‘Holy” Inquisition was started in France, I don’t recall when but in fact many Templars Knight’s along with their Master’s were persecuted and then executed by the French Inquisition with the okay of the King which he wrongfully accused them of being heretics along with others who didn’t wanted to convert

  • I know some people might read this so don’t hate the Catholic Church. After all the punishments weren’t done by the church. It goes against church law that any priest, bishop,etc. to participate in any violence. Now I’m not gonna say that there wasn’t a rogue priest or bishop participating in these because if they had that would be the most un-Christian to do also breaking church laws/code.

  • The Spanish inquisition started with the fall of Al Andalus or Andalusia. They mainly wanted to get rid of all Muslims. Jews and other Christian sects were secondary. They didn’t just fight other religions, they also fought Arab culture, language, clothing, books, anything that had to do with al andalus.

  • It was the secular rulers of Spain who pushed for and bullied the church to agree to the Spanish Inquisition. This was in response to Muslim attacks from north Africa. For examples a few years immediately before the start of the inquisition Muslim pirates pillaged the Spanish coastal cities. In one town alone 10,000 of the locals were killed by the invaders. The allegations were that some local people, mainly in the Jewish communities were working with the Muslim pirates to plan the attacks. Over the next 350 years of the inquisition less than 4000 people were sentenced to death in those courts and less again were actually executed. I think much of the propaganda against the inquisition was first anti Catholic and then anti Christian in nature.

  • Do you know what I expected? For Ted-ed not to rely on tired old myths. The Spanish Inquisition is probably one of the most exaggerated myths throughout history. It was not the reason why Spain declined as an empire. While people might remember th British Empire as the Empire where the sun always shined, that empire was only able to do that after years of wresting control of various territory from the Spanish Empire. Bad leadership and other factors are far more likely to have caused Spain’s decline. For those here who want to truly know about the Spanish Inquisition, there’s this history website called History Matters that did a article on the Spanish Inquisition and debunked the various myths that is usually said about it. I’m seriously disappointed that an educational website like Ted-Ed would just repeat long debunked myths about the Inquisition when what the Inquisition did was far less horrible and severe as compared to other similar phenomena of the time. For crying out loud, if the Spanish Inquisition existed today, you’d be better off being tried by them than the legal systems of other modern nations.

  • In India, a similar Inquision also took place in the Portugese colony of Goa, known as the Goan Inquisition, with had persecuted hundreds of People, mostly local Hindus and Konkani Speakers as well as local Muslims in the name of blastphemy and heresy even going as far to ban Konkani language in that region, but sadly a small part of our Population have an idea of such horrendous crimes committed by the Portugese!!!

  • very weird, TED articles tend to be very good and of quality. after this articles seems, as usual, Spanish Inquisition was the worst. far from truth first, all or most trials are recorded and still accessible. second, the relatively small amount of cases, specially specially if you compare to other regions/countries. we didn’t have witch hunt, since it was not believed possible. in addition, if you know JUST a little about Spanish history you can understand that happened in fact twice: someone (first morish, then Christians) conquer the land. let people from other religion to live there, BUT with higher taxes. little by little people were converted. anyway, leyenda negra. bad for TED, expected more accuracy

  • This is a poorly researched anti-catholic spew. The Inquisition was a fair system, meant to protect the Spanish state from hostile populations of Protestants, Muslims and Jews. When Isabela and Fernando reconquered their homeland, they literally released Catholic slaves from the dungeons of Jewish and Muslim Granada (which had no free Christian population. (source: Mozarabic Chronicle, contemporaneous with events). Wolf needs to explain why she thinks the Spaniards should have been inclusive of populations who had kidnapped and enslaved their people, helped to restrict the Christian faith in Spain or, in the case of heretics, would seek to undermine the basis for the defense, and re-establishment, of Christian hegemony in Iberia.

  • All public history regardless of form has an Agenda. Let’s present the information from the article in a different light. Using the suggested death count of 2000 it can be seen that inquisition caused 6 deaths a year for the 350 years in its operation. In perspective deaths from falling from ladders per year within the UK is 14. The whole Living in fear is also an emotive response to influence peoples opinion on the event, with the inquisition recording be very understanding to those who could not read or write, also gave individuals a month warning before their arrivals. You also mention it being a trial yet downplay it. this was no witch trial of Salem but a well regulated and recorded event. they would not punish you for being a heretic but try to convince you to follow the church canon, with punishment reserved for those whose views did not change their ways. Another point talks about how the disassociation between the church and state granted the enlightenment to the rest of Europe when that is inherently not true. Looking at the UK which used Anglacasim as a unifying tool targeting in much the same method as the inquisition purging the population whose religion was not in line with them. this further seen with the Penal Laws. Don’t forget that the Enlightenment was directly responsible for the deaths of 40,000 during the reign of terror.

  • Most of those who suffered in these courts were the Muslims. They were the first target of the courts, after the fall of the last Islamic kingdom, the Kingdom of Granada. Despite that, their suffering was not sufficiently explained as if they were something marginal. Is this evidence of the bias of your website, although you explained the suffering of the Jews, which I do not disagree with you about? They suffered like this, but the Muslims suffered the most because of their numbers and the hatred of the kings of Seville against them

  • What an awesome anti-Catholic article completely lacking historical context. Mission accomplished. How come you don’t mention the numbers of Catholics killed in Protestant England, or the Peasant revolt, or the French Revolution? I commend you on your production value but this is as anachronistic as it gets. History without context is just a story and not a very good one at that.

  • London has all the atmosphere of a medieval execution that took set on it several years ago when the regeneration building started up. Its currently in the grip of a disasterous human trafficking relocations program, moving people who don’t want to be moved out of London, and keeping people who are desperate to get out. Its basically being run by tyrants who only favour their family members. That is now leading to people being victimised if they dare to speak out. Sections of the region dominated by Spanish and Latin Americans. Its an offshoot of the inquisitions. Total disaster in the making!

  • The Inquisition was abolished in 1812. When the illegal courts in Cádiz made a constitution that abolished all the Old Regime institutions. 90% of spaniards at the time didn’t like the constitution and tried to fight against liberalisim in four occasions. Some people even asked Fernando II to create again the constitution in 1820. The Inquisition couldn’t judge people that were not christian. It was quite common for people in civil prisions to commit blasphemy to be imprisioned by the inquisition since its jails had much better conditions. Also most acusations were treated sceptically and people being judged had a lot of guaranties which didn’t have catholics judged by protestants in other europeans countries at the time. I woldn’t take this article very seriously. They could have called it: “La leyenda negra”

  • Sunday was another work day in the Roman Empire. On March 7, 321, however, Roman Emperor Constantine I issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating: All judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest upon the venerable day of the sun. Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478. The “Hanging linen on Saturday” mentioned in this article should have said Sunday as only the Jews kept Saturday at that time. @2:20 to 2:30. SDA’s came much later, in America.

  • I was told for years that millions were killed by the inquisition. Less people died in it than on 9/11 it seems. The main tragedy was the forcible conversion / removal of people.. reminds me of the early days of Islam when the Prophet vowed only Muslims would remain in the Arabian peninsula, leading to wars of ‘ridda’ by Abu Bakr to convert or kill non-Muslim pagans.

  • The Spanish Inquisition was the newly liberated Spanish people’s response to finally ridding themselves of over 700 years of islamic North African conquest, occupation and oppression. And yes it was to punish the occupiers and their jewish collaborators. If you were an indigenous European in the sovereign Iberian peninsula, you would want a reckoning against the invading muslim force and justice done to the tiny group of semites that you allowed to live in your lands, only to have them turn on you and collaborate with the invaders against you.

  • At the time of Al-Andalus, their land was purified, Unfortunately, they Spanish and purtugal they did not preserve the grace and blessing of Islam but now the infidels and polytheists have multiplied, and the people of Lot, (LGBTQ) (Indeed, you give men lust rather than women, but you are an extravagant people. The glorious Quran Al-araf Say: He is God, one God, the Eternal He begets not, nor was He begotten And there is none equal to Him May God curse them until the Day of Judgment

  • Portugal also had an Inquisition, due to the marriage of Princess Isabela of Spain to the portuguese king D. Manuel I, mostly targeting jews (many who had just years prior fled from Spain) it lead to an enormous immigration to the UK and the conversition to Christianism, called “cristãos-novos” (new christens) which lead to the criation of “alheira” a sausage without pork that hiddew jews used as a way to disguised themselves and a huge wave of new last names such as Oliveira, Pereira, Lopes and many others

  • The inquisition in Spain was controlled from the Spanish Crown not directly from Rome, in fact it is known from historical reports that the Popes didn’t like this at all when it developed. From Rome they ran their Inquisition, the original one, which deeply affected as it is obvious, expecially people of the italian states over centuries.

  • More people died of religious prosecution in France than ever did in Spain. The reason for Spain’s decline was its bad karma in annihilating the people and cultures of central and south america. Or more directly speaking, the vast mountains of gold and silver from the americas wrecked Spain’s economy for hundreds of years.

  • Judging Spain by modern standards and forgetting Spain was under an Islamic thumb for several hundred years. Is there a like article made by Ted talks that discusses Islamic brutality? Unlikely. And not because certainly there wasn’t any such brutality. It’s because a favoured pass time of the post modern left is to pick on the Catholic Church.

  • You may not expect the Spanish Inquisition! Sadly, as spanish I have to tell you that this has more myth than truth. The Spanish Inquisition was indeed brutal but not as half as often as we tend to think. I understand that is fun to imagen those crazy christian spanish people burning young ladies without control, but well, history is way more complex than that. We had the muslims 700 years conquering the peninsula, and after that there was a great mix of people that practised other religions, and seem to be a trend to expulse jews from your country those years in all Europe. So yeah, many people will tell you that they were just taken what was stolen from them in the first place… it’s complex.

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