http://www.aish.com/jl/h/48951681.htmlThe Spanish InquisitionThe Inquisition we are going to cover now is the Spanish Inquisition, which began officially by papal bull issued by Pope Sixtus IV on November 1, 1478.
(We should note, however, that the very first Inquisition actually took place in 1233 under orders from Pope Gregory IX to combat a group of French-Christian heretics called "Albigenses." This first Inquisition was relatively mild and did not as a rule sentence people to death. Not so the Spanish Inquisition which was directed against Jewish heretics.)
Unlike its earlier version, the Spanish Inquisition sought to punish Jews who had converted to Christianity but were not really "sincere" in their conversions.
There is a great deal of irony in this. First you tell people they have to convert or die, then, when they do convert, you decide to kill them anyway because their conversions are not "sincere."
There was another reason for the Inquisition, which had little to do with the sincerity of conversions. Once Jews converted to Christianity they had an open access to the playing field, economically and politically. And, of course, they prospered mightily. That engendered a lot of hostility from the Christians ― a pattern we have seen in Jewish history ever since the enslavement of the Israelites by the Egyptians.
The Christians began to call converted Jews "New Christians" to distinguish them from the "Old Christians" i.e. themselves. Derogatorily, Jewish converts to Christianity were called converses meaning "converts," or worse yet marranos, meaning "pigs."
The basic accusation was that these Jews were not real converts to Christianity ― they were secretly practicing Judaism. That was certainly often the case. There were large numbers of Jews who would be outwardly Christian but who would continue to practice Judaism secretly.
Until this day, there exist Christian communities with clear Jewish roots dating back to this time. There are people in the United States (in New Mexico and Arizona) as well as in South and Central America, who are descended from Spanish or Portuguese settlers, and who have strange customs they cannot explain. For example, even though they are Catholics, on Friday night they go down to the cellar to light candles. They don't know the origins of the custom, but they do it. These people are clearly descended from Jews who pretended to be Christians and yet were practicing Jewish rituals in secret.
The job of the Inquisition was to find such people, torture them until they admitted their "crime," and then kill them.
Topic: Enough with the Catholic Bashing (Read 23975 times)