You can learn the truth about the Inquisition for yourself in Vatican Secret Archives: Unknown Pages of Church History. So: don’t believe everything you read on the internet. The reason was that they were allies of the propagandists. Vatican Secret Archives also notes that the Portuguese (whose Inquisition was actually more severe than Spain’s) received no such treatment in the press. But most of the defendants were acquitted or given punishments-most of which were spiritual-such as a penance or pilgrimage. Īnother 1.7% were sentenced “in absentia” (the whereabouts of the accused being unknown, an effigy was burned in their place). The actual numbers of heretics condemned to death by the Spanish Inquisition are actually small, even considering the fact that the Spanish Inquisition was a state institution, rather than a Church institution, and was at times abused by the monarchs (and excoriated by the Holy See for politicized sentences).įurthermore, the Spanish Inquisition-reputed to be so severe-actually only condemned 1.8% of the accused to death in 130,000 heresy trials between 14 (that’s 356 years!) according to the meticulously-researched book Vatican Secret Archives: Unknown Pages of Church History. It was an anti-Spain, anti-Catholic historical thread that became known as the “Black Legend.” Much of the disinformation about the Spanish Inquisition has its roots in this “legend.” These propagandized calumnies spread through Europe via pamphlets and books (with the newly-invented printing press speeding this process along) and were adopted by later enemies of the Church, as well.
It included much disinformation about a lot of things, including the supposed cruelties of the Spanish Inquisition. Near the end of the 16th century, northern European Protestants began a conscientious propaganda campaign against their enemies, the Spanish. The notion that the Spanish Inquisition dealt out death sentences, torture, and cruel punishments to thousands of innocent, free-thinking heretics is traceable to a number of cultivated myths. Did the Spanish Inquisition really burn thousands of heretics at the stake?ĭid it issue draconian punishments to those who didn’t agree with the Church’s teachings?
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