The Spanish Inquisition
In 1469, the marriage of Ferdinand V of Aragon to his cousin Isabella of Castile united the two most powerful provinces of Spain (Hauben, 23). During this time, Spain was becoming one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Much of Spain’s wealth was contributed by the Jewish population, which was very successful during this time period because of Christian church laws against usury, which is an illegal practice of charging unfair rates on loans. Prejudice against the Jews and strong feelings of anti-Semitism had also grown during this time, especially after a riot on Ash
Wednesday (March 15,1391), started by a Spanish archdeacon named Martinez. Martinez called out to all Spanish citizens to “purge themselves of the filthy Jews”. Martinez incited his congregation to riot. The crowd moved enmasse towards the Juderia (Jewish quarter). Some of the participants were captured by the police and flogged or beaten, but that was not enough to stop the mob. Although they did not succeed that day to destroy the Jews, the feelings that Martinez had evoked lay simmering until June 6th when the mob sacked the Juderia of Seville. It is believed that the victims numbered in the hundreds, if not thousands (C. Roth, 1964). The estimated number of victims for the riot is said to be a little over one thousand. After this ordeal, a number of Jews, called conversos, professed themselves as Christians to escape persecution. Many Christians were questioning the validity of these conversos as they began to grow in Spanish society. Many Christians believed that the conversos were not true to the faith and were acting blasphemous and deserved expulsion from Spain. In 1478, the Christians of Spain received the proof that they had wanted all along. A young man was courting a young Jewish girl. The young man was going to visit the young girl when he happened to stumble upon a congregation of Jews and conversos partaking in a “mysterious celebration”. This celebration was, in fact, the Jewish Passover. This issue was made even worse because the Passover occurred at the same time as the Catholic Holy Week. A few months later, after strong pleas from the Spanish Church, Pope Sixtus issued a Papal Bull, a letter from the pope to all Christian countries, giving authority to an Inquisition (Slade, 3); however, the Spanish Crown was given authorization (Lea, The Inquistion 443).
The expulsion of Judaism was only a pretext, not the true reason of the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition; Ferdinand and Isabella had ulterior motives (Slade, 3). Ferdinand was a devious king and wished to destroy local autonomy throughout Spain. He saw the Inquisition as a vehicle for furthering centralization and extending his political control. Ferdinand also saw the opportunity to force those imprisoned during the Inquisition to hard labor. The Spanish crown also had the chance to accumulate more wealth by retaking goods and property of the accused peoples. Both Ferdinand and Isabella had a strong religious piety and supported religious reform in Spain. They saw Jews, Muslims, and Protestants as big threats against the Catholic Church and its well being (Hauben, 17-18). Isabella was even to have vowed during her youth to eliminate the entire Jewish population in Spain if given the crown. This thought and idea of racial purity was very popular with Spanish Catholics who were fed up with Jews earning most of Spain’s income and establishing themselves in society. In 1478, Isabella I and Ferdinand officially established the Spanish Inquisition and went on their intense manhunt to rid Spain of all heretics.
The Inquisition was run by the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, also known as the Suprema. They had jurisdiction in all matters of heresy and blasphemy. An Inquisitor General was selected by the crown to supervise the meetings of the Suprema and lead the entire inquisition. In 1483, Isabella I elected the Dominican monk Tomas de Torquemada as the Inquisitor General. Torquemada was a fervent Catholic who had a very paranoid and bold belief that non-Catholics posed a threat to destroy the Church and the country of Spain. (Hauben, 19-21).
Thirteen local tribunals were set up all around Spain and were controlled by the Suprema. In each of these tribunals, there were two or three inquisitor-judges, a prosecutor, secretaries, and theological consultants. These local tribunals had dual duties of being judicial and enforcement. Unlike judicial courts, these tribunals had the right of investigation. Inquisitors issued Edicts of Faith, which were miniature questionnaires given to Christians under the threat of excommunication in order to denunciate heretics that visited each tribunal every year. When the tribunal saw something suspicious or something suspicious was reported, it would publish an Edict of Grace, which allowed a period of thirty to forty days to all those who wished to come forward to confess their sin. Confessors were usually pardoned or only given a light sentence. There was a catch, however: those who confessed must reveal his or her accomplices (23-25). This tactic essentially made the Christian society spies for the tribunals, which ended up creating less work for the tribunal. Once the period of the Edict of Grace ended, those who were accused had their possessions taken by the state and were brought to trial (Lea, Religious History 445).
The tribunal followed a strict “guilty until proven innocent” policy in court. The only way a person could save oneself from being convicted is if he or she made a list of personal enemies, and if it contained any of the accusers, then their evidence was discontinued. However, the biggest problem in thos legal procedure was that the accused never knew the identity his accusers and their witnesses. The accused was given a court appointed counselor, whose purpose was to convince the accused to make a sincere confession (25). If a confession was made, a punishment was dependent on the gravity of the offence. For example, in a case in Sevilla, a smith had the habit of saying: “May all of the apostles and their chief die in Heaven and six miles around it if anyone should happen to have gone out for asparagus, or whatever he might get a hold of.” This was considered blasphemy and he was sentenced to a public flogging, which was surprisingly only considered a mild punishment (Henningsen, Gustav, and Amiel 103). The most serious offense would be the practice of Judaism, Protestantism, Islam, or anything non-Catholic. A person accused of practicing these religions would be killed or expelled from the country. In 1492, Spain issued an Edict of Expulsion, which allowed for the expulsion of all Jews from Spain (Slade, 3). If any Jews were left in the country, they were instantly persecuted or imprisoned. Interestingly enough, many of the Jews that were imprisoned were sent to work on Christopher Columbus’ armada of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria, which is commonly known for its discovery of America in 1492.
Very often, if the accused did not confess, the court would use torture to garner one. These torture tactics were administered by Torquemada in 1483 and are the most famous aspects of the Inquisition. The two most popular torture devices were the strappado or pulley and the aselli or water torture. The strappado was a device that used ropes to strap a person by their arms and legs, and then weights were attached to the ends of these ropes. The person was raised to a certain level and then the ropes were released. This would make the body stretch painfully, sometimes enough to produce death. The aselli was when as a person was brought to lay down on a trestle with sharp edged spikes and strapped with an iron band. Their feet would be above their heads. Using a jar, water would be poured into the mouth and nose, producing a state of near-suffocation. Then, the cords binding the person to the trestle would be tightened until it seemed that the tortured person’s veins would explode (4). If a confession after torture is heinous enough then that person was sent to die at an auto de fe, Portuguese for “act of faith.” An auto de fe was a public execution, in which the sentence of the accused was announced along with a large celebration. The heretic was then burned at the stake to instill shock, awe, and fear of the Inquisition into the minds of the Faithful. The auto de fe’s became a depressing favorite with the public (Hauben, 25).
The auto de fe had an concealed motive, however. The purpose of the auto de fe was the church law that forbid the church to have a direct involvement in death or even the slightest shedding of blood (Lea, Religious History 345). As a result, the church “relaxed” or handed over the guilty to the secular authorities. Once handed over to secular authorities, they would be killed almost immediately. The victim’s families were also constantly harassed and were not safe from threats until they left the country (Sheriden, 268).
It is truly amazing that the Inquisition lasted over three hundred years and nine monarchs came into power during that span. Charles V, grandson of Ferdinand I, was convinced that the Inquisition was the only way to “prevent the heresy of Luther from penetrating into Spain.” Charles II kept the Inquisition because during his reign, Spain and Portugal briefly reunited. Working together they were successful in rounding up thousands of Jews who fled to Portugal. Lastly, Charles IV supported the Inquisition because it was a means of suppressing the possibility of a revolution. He greatly feared a revolution, like the one that took place in France during his reign (Hauben, 34). The Spanish Inquisition was broken up in 1808, however, when the French invaded Spain, but it was not completely suppressed until 1834 (37).
The Spanish Inquisition is generally a morbid and ignored part of Spanish and Catholic history for good reason. The actual statistics of those who died in the Inquisition is startling; before recent research found old manuscripts and recordings of the number of cases, the number hovered around three hundred thousand, with eighty-four thousand of these burned at the stake. Juan Antonio Llorente, a Spanish historian and self-professed liar, gave these figures to the Church (“The Spanish Inquistion, 3). Historians have found that the total number of cases is around forty-five thousand (Henningsen, Gustav, and Amiel 111-20). Either way you look at it, the Inquisition was a dark point of history in an otherwise rather glorious past for Spain. Approximately 200,000 Jews left Spain and its territories during the 320 years the Spanish Inquisition spanned. As a result, Spain lost a very large percentage of its population. The expulsion of the Jews also expelled most of Spain’s wealthiest taxpayers. As a result, Spain suffered a great financial loss, which they have yet to recover completely recover from. Not only that, Spain was one of the few diverse European countries, housing Jews, Moors, and many other ethnicities. After the ethnic purging of the Inquisition, however, Spain has become a very homogenous state (Peers, 54).
Not only did Spain lose its greatest source of income, it also suffered a great lose in the arts. The Inquisition slowed progress in arts and technology due to the general public’s fear of the repercussions of the creation of an invention or idea that was looked negatively by the crown (Henningsen, Gustav, and Amiel 134). When the majority of the Moors and Jews left Spain, they brought their pottery and glass-welding skills with them. Much of the beautiful and renowned Moorish architecture is no more in Spain, but much of it can be found places east of Spain such as Sicily and also in the West with some in Portugal. After the Inquisition, the Jews, Moors, and Muslims made a mass exodus to countries east of Spain, especially since the brief reunification of Spain and Portugal made it unsafe to reside in Portugal. The exiled ethnic groups, Moors and Jews in particular, flourished in Italy and other Eastern European countries. In fact, the Moorish glass-welding technique has been a staple in Italian art and jewelry for more than five hundred years (Peers, 113).
Many of the racial overtones that fueled the Spanish Inquisition still exist in Spain today. There have even been reports of small towns conducting “mini-Inquisitions” in which the townspeople torture and kill those who ere accused of heresy, especially Protestantism (“The Spanish Inquisition, 3). The Catholic Church declines to acknowledge these rumors, but it does argue that since Spain is 99% Catholic. It should be expected that bigotry will occur between Catholics and a conflicting religion. The Church, however, does acknowledge that the Inquisition was a grave mistake, but it also states that many of the statistics and reports of torture were greatly falsified and exaggerated (Sheridan, 259-60).
Many historians agree with the Church’s claim that the statistics are exaggerated. Some even say that there were not enough Jews, Moors and Protestants in Spain to account for the number of them tortured and killed. Recently, the Nation of Islam, a radical sect of the Muslim religion, published a book that questions the actual existence of the Spanish Inquisition. They further contend that the Spanish Crown and the Jews were on amicable terms and even traded Black slaves with each other. The book also accuses the Jews of bigotry and racism against Africans and the black race (Hunt, 1).
The Inquisition proved to be Spain’s biggest mistake, as its wealth has ceased since its suppression in the 19th century. It is one of the darkest periods in Spanish history. By far, the greatest number of cases tried was for Judaism (Peers, 54). These were also the cases that were tried the most severely. Although, it can be said that King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella executed the Spanish Inquisition for the purity of faith and state, the materialistic and religious desires of the crown, aristocracy, and church certainly factor into the reasons for the perpetuation of the Inquisition (Slade, 3). If there is one lesson to be learned from the Inquisition, it is to never tolerate prejudice, bigotry, and greed in any form. In retrospect, it seems very naïve and ignorant to allow for Spain to let its pride overshadow simple humanity. Hopefully, Spain would have learned its lesson by now, but judging from the utter hatred that modern Spain had practiced against different religions, it seems that they have not. The Spanish Inquisition is known for the terror it caused the inhabitants of the Iberian peninsula. Although the Inquisition originally began to purify the nation from heretics, it came to have more materialistic, racial, and political motives, instead of just purification. The beginning of the Inquisition is generally credited to the reign of Ferdinand V and Isabella. In truth, it began before that time, and carried on long after Ferdinand and Isabella passed away. In order to better understand the Inquisition and the reasons behind it, it is necessary to first examine the events that led up to it. They are often associated with wealth and with being a plague to the society to which they belong. Fourteenth-century Spain was no different. When Ferdinand V and Isabellawere married, it united Aragon and Castille, the two most powerful states in Spain. At the time, Spain was on the verge of becoming one of the wealthiest nations of the period. A large part of that was due to the Jewish community. After their ordeal with Archdeacon Martinez, many Jews had professed to believe in Christianity to free themselves from persecution. It is doubtful, however, that many of the conversos, as they were to become known, were truly converted to the Christian faith. However, these conversos came to enrich and perhaps dominate almost every aspect of Spanish society (Roth, 1964). The problem was that the Jews were getting all of the things the non-Jewish, Catholic people wanted. The Jews were able to gain wealth and positions of power and authority in the kingdom as new Christians. The Catholics, however, could not do anything to them because these new Christians were at least in profession Christian. The hierarchy of the Spanish church became concerned with the reports of heresy of some of its new members. Then in 1478, the time came that the "true Christians" had been waiting for. A young cavalier, who was trying to court a Jewish girl, went to meet the girl and came upon a group of Jews and conversos in some mysterious celebration. That night was the Jewish Passover, and the assembled had come together to celebrate it. The problem was further exacerbated because that week was also the Holy Week for the Catholic church. News spread quickly of the blaspheme that had been done. A few months later, at the urging of the heads of the Spanish church, Pope Sixtus issued a Papal Bull giving authority for an Inquisition. However, the authorization was actually given to the Spanish crown. They were to be the ones who would appoint the bishops to complete the Inquisition. Thus, the Spanish Inquisition was founded to purify the nation from heretics (Roth, 1964). Although purification was the original intent for the Inquisition, it came to have more materialistic, racial, and political motives, which led to the terror for which it is infamous. The Spanish Inquisition was executed at the request of Isabella. She was a very pious and devout Catholic. One of her advisors, who would later become the first General Inquisitor, was Thomas de Torquemada. A rumor exists that while advising the queen in her youth, Thomas had her take a vow that should she ever reach the throne, she would devote herself to the termination of heresy and the persecution of the Jews (Roth, 1964), which at the time seemed unlikely. Now, however, she was in a position to do what she had vowed to do. Besides, the queen had already said she wanted "one country, one ruler, one faith" (N. Dirksen and M. Johnson, The Spanish Inquisition's Effect on the Church, 1996).the Catholic sovereigns were determined to have a united country, and they did not believe this ambition could be achieved unless all their subjects accepted one religion. This they were determined to bring about through persuasion, ifpossible, and if not, by force. Spain under Isabella and Ferdinand was ripe for the Inquisition; that was why the cruel institution was embraced so heartily and continued to survive until the nineteenth century (J. Plaidy, The Spanish Inquisition, 1967, p.86).
It is likely that Isabella truly wanted to end heresy within the Catholic faith. Ferdinand, however, was not as pious as his wife and probably saw the opportunity for wealth. It is highly likely that some of Spain's early triumphs abroad and at home were financed through the Spanish Inquisition. This idea of financing without increasing taxes could be seen as Machiavellian in nature. Machiavelli suggested that in order for a ruler to hold his principality, he must not overburden his people with taxes, yet he must not spendall of his funds either, or he would risk not being able to finance the maintenance of his kingdom (N. Machiavelli, The Prince, 1965). It is not likely, however, that Machiavelli would have been pleased with the attitude that the "Catholic Kings" had produced in their subjects.The Spanish Inquisition was particularly terrifying because of its inherent characteristics. The accused never knew who their accusers were. Once arrested, the accused heretic's properties were seized. These properties were then administered at first by the Crown, and later by the General Inquisitor. This fostered the means for anyone to accuse for personal reasons, or to get gain. In many areas, ". . . men began to wonder whether a man's worldly wealth, as well as his descent, was now become [sic] an incriminating circumstance" (Roth, 1964, p. 60). The Inquisition certainly did not limit itself to purifying only those of the Jewish faith. This was especially true if the accused was found to have any Jewish blood in his ancestry. Even if the accused was now a devout Christian, he was tried as severely as possible because of his roots. The accused was also not allowed to have a lawyer or counsel for his defense, and the names of all witnesses were kept secret from him (Roth, 1964).The punishments and tortures used to gain confessions are the most famous parts of the Inquisition. Because the trials were for spiritual matters, the Church handled them. However, the punishments were usually very much physical, so they were handled by the state. There were many means of this physical torture for confession. The two most famous or infamous were the strappado or pulley, and the aselli or water torment. The strappado was a device that used ropes to strap a person in by their arms and legs, and then weights were attached to the ends of these ropes. The person was raised to a certain level and then the ropes were released. This created a situation where the body would be stretched painfully, sometimes enough to produce death (see Figure 1). The aselli was accomplished as a person was brought to lay down on a trestle with sharp-edged rungs and secured with an iron band. Their feet would be elevated above their heads. The accused then had a small piece of linen forced into the gullet. Using a jar (jarra), water would be poured into the mouth and nose producing a state of semi suffocation. The process would be done repeatedly. While doing that process, the cords binding the limbs would be tightened until it would seem the very veins would explode (Roth, 1964). The torture would not be stopped, but a break could be taken. The difference is that if the torture were stopped, it could not be started again according to church law. But, if the torture was only suspended, it could be resumed at a later time.
The tortures were used on old and young alike to get confessions and to learn of accomplices. In this way, the Spanish tried to ensure they would be pure. Once a confession was reached, if it was heinous enough, the perpetrator would be sentenced to death.The sentence of death was carried out as the accused was thrown into a fire as an auto de fe (act of faith). The fire was reserved for those who would not admit their heresy, those who relapsed in their heresies, and to other dissenters. The guilty were burned because the church believed they (the church) should not be a direct party in the shedding of blood. To remain free of blood, the church "relaxed" or handed over the guilty to the secular arm. Once handed over, the church would recommend mercy with the qualifier that if the accused was guilty, they be punished by death. It was understood that the secular authorities would immediately condemn those with "relaxed" status to death (Roth, 1964). If the guilty were fortunate enough to die in the prisons instead, they and their families were still not safe. Their dead bodies, along with effigies of those that had escaped to other lands, would be taken along with the living and thrown into the fire. This allowed the lands of all of those people to be confiscated, if that had not already been done. There truly was no escape from the fanaticism of the Spanish Inquisition.It has been suggested that this was an ethnic, as well as religious, purification. The difference between the Spanish Inquisition and the Papal Inquisition was that the Spanish Inquisition was turned over to secular authorities. The secular authorities were the ones who were in charge of the maintenance and perpetuation of the Inquisition. It was therefore a primary instrument of Spanish absolutism. Moreover, its independent status enabled it to amass wealth, heaped up by repeated confiscations, and this in itself rendered it a force to be reckoned with in the affairs of the country (Roth, 1964, p. 73). From the actions of the Spanish Inquisition, it is apparent it was an ethnic cleansing. The Spanish Inquisition and its actions caused 200,000 loyal, but Jewish, Spaniards to leave the country. Surely, the Spanish Inquisition was about more than just religious purity.The crown gained in many ways due to the SpanishInquisition. Ferdinand and later monarchs were able to use the guilty as rowers for their war ships. Also, besides increasing in wealth because of the Inquisition, the Spanish crown gained a certain amount of control over the Catholic church in Spain. Because Pope Sixtus gave the authority to the crown, the Catholic church lost some authority and control of Spain.In summary, the Inquisition in Spain began in 1478 and officially ended in 1808. During that time, 323,362 people were burned and 17,659 were burned in effigy. It is one of the darkest periods in Spanish history. By far, the greatest number of cases tried were for Judaising (Roth, 1964). These were also the cases that were tried the most severely. There were other minorities, of course, that were persecuted, but the majority were Jews. The Inquisition definitely had racial overtones. Although, it can be said that Queen Isabella officially initiated the Spanish Inquisition for the purity of faith, nation, and people, this is probably not the case. The materialistic desires of the aristocracy certainly factor into the reasons for the perpetuation of the Inquisition.The inquisition is likemost other dark periods of history. It was primarily brought on because of prejudices and greed. When one people excel within a society and they make up the minority, they historically are labeled as scapegoats for the problems of the rest of society. The Renaissance period was obviously the same. It seems strange that in the history of man we still have not found a way to deal with our own petty jealousies.
The Spanish Inquisition persecuted and discriminated against minorities in the Iberia Peninsula who opposed to the practice and ideologies of the Catholic Church. Between 1480 to 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was placed under the authority of the royal power in Spain; the Inquisition was created in order to resolve the particular problem presented by the presence of thousands of converted Jews in the Iberian Peninsula. At the same time, the inquisition extended its authority to other minorities and become implanted in other geographical regions. This “institution” operated and was expanded to other territories under the crown of Castile—the Canaries and the territories ruled by viceroys and Peru (24, 25). Joseph Pérez not only described by summarizing the contents of this “regime,” but also his main thesis and interpretation are based on criticizing the origins of anti-Semitism, how the Spanish Inquisition “defended” against Jews, Muslims, Protestantism, and witchcraft. Also, Pérez continues his thesis and interpretations when he argued against the trials and organization of “the Holy Office”—the Inquisition. Finally, Pérez reinforced his main thesis by arguing and comparing the Spanish Inquisition with modern regimes, such as Nazi Germany and Communist regimes that used similar procedures of “torture” and “persecution” to those who opposed Nazism and Communism ideologies. Therefore, Pérez’s interpretation and explanation not only make sense, but they are well presented.
To initiate, Pérez’s thesis began by introducing the creation of the “anti-Semitism” against Jews; as well as discrimination against Muslims who opposed to the Catholic doctrine during the beginnings the Spanish Inquisition. First, Pérez criticized and analyzed the procedures and manipulations that the Inquisitions imposed to Jews and Muslims to convert them to Catholicism; these procedures and manipulations that Pérez criticized were the oppression to converted these two groups to Catholicism or expel them out from Spain if they remained their faith—many chose the exile (35). Also, Pérez admired the resistance that the majority of Jews had to preserve their faith in “secret” and maintained loyal to their faith even though they faced persecution, discrimination, oppression, and expulsion during the Inquisition (51).
Then, Pérez continued to develop his thesis and interpretation by arguing that the Inquisition expanded their injustices by applying their policies not only to Jews and Muslims, but also to against Protestants, Illuminists, and witchcrafts. Pérez, argued that the Inquisition justified their atrocities against Protestants and Illuminist because they were introducing new ideologies that were against the Catholic Church. Pérez, described these injustices that the Inquisition committed by criticizing the different methods of persecutions and executions on Protestants and Illuminist; these methods were also imposed to those who practiced witchcraft during the Inquisition. However, these examples that Pérez described was to reinforce his interpretation that the Inquisition was concerned with what people believed, not what they did; with faith, not with behavior (85). In other words, Pérez interpretation on the injustices and the procedures that the Inquisition committed were base on “autos de fe”—defending the Catholic faith, and there were not base on how the Inquisition’s victims behaved.
Subsequently, Pérez emphasized in his thesis and interpretations by continuing to criticizing the organization of “the Holy Office”—the Spanish Inquisition—as an ecclesiastical court placed under the authority of the State; but most important, Pérez’s criticism are based on how corrupted the Inquisition was in terms of the finances and privileges. Pérez mentioned some cases in which the Inquisitors took advantages of their “administrative positions” to get some of their victims’ wealth (109). Also, Pérez interpreted and affirmed that the Inquisition’s trials were corrupt because in some cases charges against clerics were quite different and the Inquisition showed far greater indulgence: the penalties for soliciting priests, for instance, were extremely discreet (170). Overall, the trials and the administrative apparatus of the Holy Office are analyzed by Pérez’s thesis as “infamous procedures against humanity” (192).
At the same time, Pérez expanded his thesis and interpretation when he concluded that the Spanish Inquisition had in some ways constituted an anticipation of modern totalitarianism. Pérez argued the following comparison:
In Nazi Germany and in the Communist regimes, to be considered a good citizen it was not enough to pay one’s taxes and obey the country’s laws; it was also necessary to adhere to the dominant ideology, on pain of being regarded as suspect. Similarly, in the Spain of the Ancient Regime—the Spanish Inquisition, it was inadvisable to stray from Catholic doctrine. A good Spaniard obviously had to be a good Catholic; woe betides anyone who forgot that! (Pérez, 222)

Then, Pérez continued his interpretation by comparing the Spanish Inquisition to the Soviet secret police known as the GPU (an earlier form of the NKVD, which later became the KGB. Consequently, Pérez compared the anti-Semitism that the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazi Germany had on Jews. Moreover, Pérez compared and contrasted the atrocities that the Waffen-SS and the Spanish Inquisition made against Jews and other opponents of these two regimes; he even compared the inquisitors with Heinrich Himmler head of the Schutzstaffel (SS) who coordinated the killing of millions of Jews and many prisoners of war (225).
To conclude, even though most of the Joseph Pérez’s book summarized the main events the Spanish Inquisition performed against Jews, Muslims, Protestants and those who opposed to Catholicism in Spain and the territories that were governed by the Spanish Crown, Pérez’s interpretation on the Spanish Inquisition is very simple; he make very clear his thoughts against this regime. He criticized and analyzed the anti-Semitism against Jews. Also, Pérez criticized how the Inquisition condemned Muslims, Protestants, and those who practiced witchcraft.
Furthermore, it seems that Pérez holds a strong opposition on how the Holy Office tortured their victims in trials. Then, his conclusion is very interesting because he wanted to compare the Inquisition with modern totalitarianism, such as Nazi Germany and Communist regimes that used similar procedures of “torture” and “persecution” to those who opposed Nazism and Communism ideologies. Although Pérez gave few examples on how the Inquisition was similar with these two regimes, he gave specific examples on how these regimes were similar in terms of torture, persecution, and oppression against their victims. Overall, Joseph Pérez was clear, organized and his presentation make sense because the evidences that he presented did not contradicts his interpretation on how the Spanish Inquisition imposed not only Catholicism, but also how the Inquisition imposed discrimination, cruelty, and terror.