Inquisition

__**Spanish Inquisition**__
 * By: John Kopras**

The Spanish Inquisition was a war between the Spanish and the Jews in which the Jews were being persecuted because the country’s resources were draining. The Inquisition was also an institution to serve the monarchy. The Spanish government proclaimed the need for a pure and unified Spanish-Christian race. The Spanish blamed all of the Jewish community of draining their country’s resources because their population was growing in wealth and in power. The inquisition was started in 1478 by Ferdinand and Isabella. The purpose was to discover and punish converted Jews who were false, so they killed them, tortured them, or they were ran out of the country. The Spanish Inquisition is known as one of the deadliest inquisitions in history due to the fact that it was both political based and religious based. The first execution of converted Jews was in February of 1481 where six people were burned alive. The most applied way of punishment during the inquisition was burning the Jews that were guilty to the crime at the stake. The Jews that were trying to escape the burnings and executions attempted to immigrate to Portugal, but were usually killed in the long run, although there were a few that survived. In 1561, 36 converters were burned after returning to Spain from Portugal. They returned when the Jewish population started to rise back up after it had already fallen by 3 percent. It started to rise because the Spanish started killing witches because they didn't believe in their "superstitions". There was a riot in June of 1591 that was the most bloody. Thousands of Jews were killed, and the synagogue was destroyed, leaving nowhere for the living Jews to worship to their god in time of help or need. Denunciations were anonymous killings and the people killed had no clue what the identity of their accusers was. False denunciations were uncommon due to the grudge against other people, which those people were then tortured or persecuted.  Finally, the church tried to overpower the Spanish ruler and tried to stop the inquisition, but was unable to because the Spanish government was so powerful at the time. The Inquisition was abolished during the reign of Napoleon and Joseph I, at least that's what people thought. The Inquisition started up again after Ferdinand VII recovered the throne. Finally, on July 15, 1834 the Inquisition was definitively abolished by a Royal Decree signed by Regent Maria Cristina de Borbon, and with the approval of the President of the Cabinet Francisco Marinez de la Rosa. Bibliography: "Spanish Inquisition." 16 April 2009 <[]>.

"The Spanish Inquisition." 16 April 2009 <[]>.