Spanish Inquisition's "Professionalism" Sets it Apart

The Spanish Inquisition is one of the most notorious times in Medieval Christian history. But what made this period of time so fundamentally different from other inquisitions that it became the source of international ire and two tongue-in-cheek comedy routines? The answer: The Spanish Inquisition was simply more professional than others.

Perhaps equally surprising, with popular media portraying the institution as a brazenly anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, the target of Isabella and Ferdinand was a group of minorities known as the conversos. Following the Reconquista, a number of Jews were forced into baptism - however it was widely acknowledged that these held no binding authority. Those forced into conversion were allowed to return to their lives as Jews without being labeled apostates - a practice unheard of at the time - or were given the option of becoming conversos, Spanish for converts. The same practice befell many Muslims - and likewise many decided that the benefits of Christianity exceeded the benefits of retaining their native religion.

This minority group became highly influential in the newly liberated Spain, holding many important posts as high as the courts of Isabella herself. However, it would appear almost natural that many people became highly suspicious of the motives of these people. To add to the already high tensions of the region, many conversos bragged about their direct connection to Christ - being Jews, they were clearly more "Christian" than Catholics. This created a general friction between the local, natural born Christians and the Jewish converts.

Likewise, not unlike 9/11 Conspiracy Theories of today, many paranoids began to generate theories that the Jewish converts were not genuine - that they were simply biding their time and infiltrating the Church at its highest levels. Akin to the "Zionist bank rolling" schemes many Jews are accused of today, it was believed that wealthy conversos and their rabbis were influencing the Queen, strategically placing themselves in politically important positions and had even corrupted the Pope himself.

This only added to the already turbulent times of a Spain in transition. With the Gnostic Cathars rising in Spain, the Moors discontent with their ousting from their previously conquered lands, and upheaval against the now unified Spanish kingdom on the rise, it seemed that the easiest way to solidify royal power would be to create a branch of government that acted as an ecclesiastical arm of the Spanish Royalty. With the blessings of Pope Sixtus IV, Isabella and Ferdinand acquired the most learned minds in law and theology and set them to the task of ascertaining the guilt or innocence of the conversos.

Perhaps the most driving force of the Inquisition was to attempt to tame the culturally and religiously expansive Iberian Peninsula. Between imported Islamic slaves, natural born Christians, the Gnostics, Jews, Heretics, the beginnings of the Protestants, a crown in debt, and several Spanish subkingdoms that would have no qualms with attempting to oust the flimsy Aragonese-Castillans, an overarching Inquisition would be the easiest way to shape and mold everything together in one, single, Spanish slate.

While the idea of the Spanish Inquisition brings with it giant torture chambers, enormous pendulums, and Jews tied to stakes as they are flogged and burned, this is not entirely accurate. First and foremost, the Spanish Inquisition had absolutely no authority in dealing with Muslims and Jews, but solely with conversos. The idea of an inquisition was to tend to Christians who showed signs of apostasy or heresy. One already beyond or outside the cloth could not be legally tried by an inquisition.

The legal minds behind the Inquisition were highly trained - not simply in forcing culpability but in actual acquittals. As witch hunts raged across Europe, it wasn't all that uncommon for Spanish Inquisitors to be called in to investigate "bouts of heresy and witchcraft" only to find that the claims were exaggerated and acquit all those accused.

The professionalism of this organization is not meant to suggest that times were not hard - or inherently morally deviant. Indeed, as even Pope Sixtus IV (who distanced himself from the Spanish Inquisition entirely) pointed out, Isabella and Ferdinand were compiling the wealth of their victims for themselves.

Nevertheless, it is important to understand that there are many myths about the Spanish Inquisition - not the least of which being that "Jews and Muslims were fleeing the Spanish Inquisition to Muslim controlled lower Spain". Not only would this be incorrect since Jews and Muslims were not being persecuted, the time of the mass Jewish flight did not come until the end of the Reconquista. Indeed there was a massive ethnic purge (non-violently however) of Jews who refused to convert in the form of forced eviction in 1496 - this is the closest thing Spanish history has to "Jews fleeing to Muslim lands", where their goods would be confiscated and they'd be turned into dhimmis anyway.

The Spanish Inquisition remains, in many ways, a black mark on Iberian history - but it's important to understand that comparatively, it was actually one of the lightest periods of inquisitorial violence in the region. Perhaps most astoundingly is that this violence, low as it was, is often cited as Papal brutality, even though the Papacy fought hard to break up the Inquisition as it was no longer held by Roman standards.

In the case of the Spanish Inquisition, the Kingdom of Spain set approximately 1,700 persons to the stake for heresy - out of 49,000 trials, contrary to the belief that an accusation was the equivalent of a death sentence. This was all over the several hundred year history of the Spanish Inquisition, making it one of the most bloodless of the Inquisitions.