The Spanish Inquisition

The Inquisition (from Latin "search", "investigation") is a special church court for the affairs of heretics, which was practiced in the 13-19 centuries. Already in the 12th century, Friedrich I Barbarossa and Pope Lucius III established a particularly strict order for the search of heretics and the investigation of their cases by the courts of bishops. The Inquisitor is a person who performed the role of a judge, the death sentences imposed were to be enforced by the secular authorities.

The Inquisition as an institution was discussed at the 3rd 4th Lateran Council (1215), which established "per inquisitionem" (the order of the persecution of heretics), the legal basis for which rumors were announced.

In the 13th century, Pope Gregory IX transferred the functions of persecuting heresies from bishops to inquisitors. In Europe, tribunals were established, whose powers included the investigation of cases, sentencing and execution against heretics.

The Spanish Inquisition was particularly cruel. It was supported by royal power, therefore it had the strongest positions in Europe. Only during the activities of the Chief Inquisitor of Spain Torquemada in the 15th century, more than ten thousand people were burned alive. The glory of the Inquisition of Spain eclipsed all others. Here it reached the apogee of development and became a model for imitation in other countries where the Inquisition existed. Torture was characterized by diversity, ingenuity and extreme cruelty.

In 1238 the Pope officially established the Inquisition in Aragon. In the 15th century, her activity was particularly active. By the end of the century, the situation had changed in the country under the influence of the unification of the Kingdom of Castile and Aragon in Spain , the liberation from the Moorish rule of the south of the Iberian Peninsula and its reunification with Spain and the conquest of America, which turned Spain into the largest colonial power.

The Spanish crown continued to strengthen its positions through counter-reforms, with the help of the Jesuit order. An ideal means for this was the Spanish Inquisition. The royal power found in the Inquisition a tool to intimidate and suppress opponents and did not part with it until the middle of the 19th century. The Inquisition deprived the estates and cities of medieval liberties.

In the 15th century, a "new" Inquisition was established (1478-1483). Isabella I and Ferdinand V united Aragon, Castile and Sicily, and then the entire south of Spain. The Sicilian inquisitor Barberis received confirmation of extraordinary powers from the married couple. In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV established the Inquisition in Castile (where it had not existed before). Mass executions began. Improved instruments of torture and techniques of death. In Seville, from overcrowding in prisons, the plague broke out. When the epidemic subsided, the "bloody harvest" continued.

The Spanish Inquisition took a new dimension with the appointment of the new inquisitor Thomas Torquemada. Ferdinand V at this time (1483) created the Supreme Council of the Inquisition (Suprema), which was engaged in confiscating the property of heretics.

The main victims of the Spanish Inquisition were the Jews, the Marran ("new Christians") and moriski (converted to Christianity Moors). They were officially accused of insincerity in relation to Christianity and the continuation of the preaching of the former faith (that is, in heresy). The purpose of their persecution was to seek to seize their property, to weaken the estate of peasants and artisans as support of influential grandees in order to undermine the power of the latter.

The Spanish Inquisition acted comprehensively, it combined the features of the church and state (political) police, which was ruled by Catholic monarchs.

Spanish absolutism resembled the cruelty of the despotism of the East. However, the Inquisition did not help achieve national unity of the country and eliminate all city liberties. This policy was essentially anti-national, it did everything possible to prevent the emergence between people of common interests, which are the basis for uniting the nation.