The Inquisition and the Catholic Church

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Is the common man's understanding of the "Inquisition" rooted in fact or myth?

Were masses of innocent Bible-believers tortured and killed as heretics? Are such accusations against the Church made by those who parrot none other than Edgar Allen Poe, a man who fostered false imaginations that are easily conjured up in the minds of people looking for a reason to rebel against the Church?

Is it a common mistake to regard the "Spanish Inquisition" as representative of the "Inquisition"?

Was the medieval Inquisition of the 13th and 14th centuries brought to Spain, and if so, was it widely used? Or, did the Spanish Inquisition develop during the 15th century, focusing "not on heretics" but on Jews who secretly practicing their old faith after converting to Christianity? What resulted when Jews became ostensible Christians? Had they done so to acquire privileges and positions not open to them unless they converted, and did this result in ethnic anti-Semitism?

Have contemporary historians become revisionists of the Spanish Inquisition, painting a picture of "religious persecution " rather than "anti-semitism"?

Amd how often do those who revile the Church admit that Pope Sixtus IV protested against the activities and the manner of treatment towards converts that was taking place at the inquisition in Aragon?

What role did the request of for a Papal Bull by Ferdinand and Isabella play in the inquisition? Was the Inquisition expanded to protect Spain from the rise of Protestantism, and as a means to secure Royal authority in Charles V who succeeded Ferdinand and Isabella? What role did the Dominican Friar Tomas de Torquemada assume as the Inquisition was expanded? And what was the result of his influence?

What allowed the inquisition to stubbornly persist beyond its original objective in spite of continuing Papal complaints about the treatment of converts? Was the "union of the Inquisition with the State" the source of post-Reformation hatred towards the Church, and was this seized upon by Martin Luther?

And what about those who claim the Spanish Inquisition resulted in hundreds of thousands of Protestants being burned as perpetrators of falsehoods? Will such claims be exposed as having no basis in historical fact? After all, when one considers that not a single heresy came forth from Spain, it is hard to imagine how anyone can assert the "Spanish Inquisition" can be representative of what transpired in England, France, and Germany. Protestants numbered so few in Spain it would be impossible for such claims against the Church to have taken place.

A search for Protestantism did take place during the reformation period, but how many people know that less than 50 cases of Lutheranism among Spaniards came to the attention of the Spanish Inquisitors before 1858?

This trial will expose whether or not a false image of "Catholic Spain" has been created that has become the symbol of "religious and intellectual oppression" on the part of the Catholic Church.

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