Inquisition

[Oik]

Hi, I love my catholic faith. I wan to know it all. So, starting off with the darker parts, what was the inquisition (esp. Spainish)?

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
5/28 - Seventh Friday of Easter

Oik,

Good question; let's examine the situation of Spain under the reign of King St. Ferdinand and see whether the Inquisition is as big of a "dark spot" as men like Edgar Allan Poe make it out to be.

Spain had been overrun by the Moors (Spanish Muslims), and the Spanish had fought a 700-year war to reconquer their nation. When the Moors are finally pushed off of the Spanish mainland by St. Ferdinand, they returned to North Africa; immediately after resupplying their troops, the Moors sacked the small Italian island of Otranto. Otranto had 24,000 citizens, half of whom they killed for being Christian. Every priest and bishop was killed, and the old archbishop was publicly sawed in half.

St. Ferdinand heard of this and, in modern terms, "went to DEFCON 5". After securing his territory, he found that there were Moors in his government. With this, [u]he had no problem[/u]. However, he later found that there were Moors [i]claiming to be Christians[/i] in his government who were working for the reinvasion of Spain by Muslims. This is high treason in any system of government. Spain, seeings this as a governmental problem, asked the Church to establish an "inquisitio" to root out these people. The Church reluctantly agreed to conduct an "inquisitio" under the rule of the Spanish government.

Without writing a book, here's what happened. Two witnesses would accuse someone of being a false Christian (be they Jewish or Muslim). This person would be questioned by the Inquisition. If they were found to be subversive in this way, they were given two choices: either confess the Christian faith (an [i]auto de fey[/i]) or leave Spain. If they were again accused by two different people, they were re-tried; if found guilty again, they were [i]handed over to the Spanish government[/i]. The Church never executed anyone.

Let's look at rough numbers. In the nearly 400 years that the Inquisition ran in Spain, about 100,000 people were accused of false profession. Of those, ~10% (~10,000) were actually found guilty. Of those 10%, only about 1,000 (~1% of the original) were convicted a second time, and [i][b]200[/b][/i] were executed by the Spanish government.

Of course, abuses crept into the system; but, for the critics of a system like the Inquisition, I challenge them to found a judicial system that lasts for 400 years without making mistakes.

For further information, read Henry Kamen's [i]The Spanish Inquisition[/i]. By the way, he's Jewish and ends up coming out on the side of the Church. Hope this helps.

Yours,
Pio Nono

[Pio Nono]

JMJ
5/29 - Vigil of Pentecost

Be it also known (I'm sorry that I forgot this) that the Protestants held their own Inquisitions of Catholics in the 16th and 17th centuries; though I don't extensively know the facts on these Inquisitions, I do know that they weren't nearly as merciful as Holy Mother Church; thousands of Catholics were killed in these "trials."