Preview

The Purpose Of The Spanish Inquisition

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1008 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Purpose Of The Spanish Inquisition
During the time period of 1478-1834, Spain held an inquisition through the Christian government. The purpose of the Spanish Inquisition still remains a debate of whether it was enacted for political, government advances, or a religious cleansing. Spain wanted to purify the blood of the Christian race by banning interreligious marriage. The Jewish population was strongly encouraged to convert to Christianity with the threat of death. Although many Jews converted, their faith and belief was questioned greatly by the Christians, because they would in fact still practice their Jewish belief. The converted Jews were referred to as Conversos.
The prosecution of the minorities started with public hangings. However, the Grand Institutor and a council of five members decided to make the executions more brutal. The executions were then performed in front of large crowds containing royalty. The first Grand Institutor, Tomas de Torquemada, performed an estimate of two thousand public burnings at the stake. As reformation came to Spain, the Protestants were found to have the same fate as the Jews and Muslims.
An estimate of four thousand to six thousand people were executed during the Spanish Inquisition. In 1834, the Spanish
…show more content…
Above the pendulum is an hourglass. The clock is a reference to the passing of time. The narrator realizes that the pendulum is razor sharp and is a scythe, a long sharp tool used by farmers to cut large amounts of crops or grass at one time. However, in this short story it is being used the kill the narrator of the story instead of cutting corn. A combination of the clock and the falling pendulum or scythe represent the Grimm Reeper. As the narrator realizes this, he finds himself in a panic as he awaits his death. However, the scholarly narrator spreads meat on the ropes for the rats to chew through in order free

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    throughout the colonies for 40 yrs. His book the "A Short Account of the Destruction…

    • 325 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    belief in the Christian God and it was the responsibility of the Spaniards to spread Christian faith…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although the law was ultimately made to oppress the religious minorities of the Iberian Peninsula, it still gave these minorities protection. These protections included how Christians were not allowed to vandalize synagogues, put an animal in a synagogue, or loiter or hinder the synagogue in any way. Although Christians were actively against other religions in the Reconquista, they still had respect for other religions even if they were different. If someone were to…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Diction In The Rattler

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    As the snake dies it “strikes passionately once more at the hoe” and “there is blood in his mouth and poison dripping from his fangs.” The imagery dramatizes the image of the snake’s power being drained. The reader can visualize the transition from a once fierce snake to a lifeless carcass. In response to the killing of the snake, the man feels regret for the necessity of the circumstance, as “it was all a nasty sight, pitiful…” and “he could see it as he might have let it go, sinuous and self respecting in departure over the twilit sands.” This is a reflection of what could have been, and reveals the man’s conflicting feelings on what was necessary. The pitiful scene of the snake’s death adds to the man’s regret. The imagery in the passage emphasizes the idea of “what could have been” and therefore the man’s internal…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jose Lopez was the first individual executed by hanging at Florence on January 5, 1910. On Aug. 1, 1909, Lopez argued with Maria Espinoza, who owed his father $8. After Espinoza did not pay the debt, Lopez left the woman’s home, and later returned with a shotgun, While Espinoza and her seven children were sleeping. One of Espinoza’s sons heard Lopez enter the house, jumped out of bed and yelled. When Espinoza awoke to the commotion, Lopez shot and killed her. After the execution of Jose Lopez, 8 more individuals were executed. On December 8th 1916, an initiative measure went into effect eliminating the death penalty as punishment for convictions of first degree murder. The death penalty was restored December 5, 1918. Nineteen executions by hanging occurred between April 16, 1920 and June 20, 1931.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Spanish Inquisition was a movement begun in 1478 by the Spanish monarchs of the time: King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. It was meant to seek out non-catholics in Spain, because Ferdidand and Isabella wanted religious, and subsequently political unity in their country. Their first goal to begin the Inquisition was to appoint inquisitors over each region throughout Spain, to figure out who was Catholic, and who was not. In 1478, Ferdinand and Isabella received the reluctant permission of Pope Sixtus IV to appoint inquisitors, who began seeking out non-catholics. This Inquisition began in 1478, and continued all the way to it's final end in 1834.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Spanish Inquisition was a judicial intuition in a sense. It helped to unit power in the monarchy, although many researchers today, think otherwise. A few researchers today believe that the Spanish Inquisition formed for political, economic, and religious reasons. The Inquisition was established in 1478 by the church of Spain and operated mostly in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies. The Spanish Inquisition’s main objective, if you will, was to limit as much intertwining of Catholicism and traditional religion. During Henry III regnant, many Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, this was what the Inquisition was mainly sought out to do, punish the Jews that converted to Christianity and were not heartfelt in their conversions.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pit and the Pendulum

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Stripped of extraneous detail, the story focuses on what horror truly is: not the physical pain of death, but the terrible realization that a victim has no choice but to die. Whether the narrator chooses to jump into the pit or get sliced in half by the pendulum, he faces an identical outcome—death…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What was the Spanish Inquisition? 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 in New Spain and Peru (24, 25).…

    • 1167 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Dbq Witch Hunt

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages

    In Germany, if you were accused of being a witch, you were arrested and investigated. And more likely than not, you were a witch. In Spain, you had to be accused by two independent sources and have an actual case, with rigorous evidential standards to be committed of witchcraft. Not only did the Spanish have high standards for admissible evidence but they had many stipulations that had to be met before torture could be used or applied. Germany did not. In some extreme cases, such as Hexenbischof, the Witch Bishop, the accused weren’t even allowed to defend themselves. He ordered a special prison to be built for the accused to wait until being hung. There was no chance for defense, guaranteeing the death penalty in every single case (Encyc. Unusual site). While these cases were extreme, they showcase how emotionally involved people got. In Germany, where so many of the accused was executed, 60% of those accused were killed. In Spain, you had to be fed, questioned multiple times, have two reliable accusers willing to testify, and have some sort of proof to be a candidate for torture. However, superstition was legally backed until 1936, Spain’s last legal witch burning(expatica). It had full approval of both the church and the local government; the woman had confessed to being a witch and was mercifully strangled before her body was…

    • 1683 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Capital punishment has been in force for centuries and there are many forms, some are still administered today. Socrates was condemned to death and chose to execute himself by partaking of a deadly mouthful of poison. Slaves who were condemned to death would be beaten to death. Some methods over the centuries of execution of criminals were meant to apply tremendous pain and suffering. Back in medieval times the thief would be chained to heavy cartwheels and rolled around the streets where they were battered with stones and eventually crushed to death. Many others suffered a slow and agonizing death through strangulation. Then there were the executions that few have been aware of and are most likely one of the cruelest of all were the ones of a person convicted of patricide. They would be “tied to a sack with a cockerel, a poisonous snake and a dog, and then thrown into the river, or sea.” (Jerome, 2012).…

    • 4499 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The death penalty was one of the main ways a person was punished. The first person executed for murder was John Billington. He had shot and killed a man during a quarrel. After the incident he was accused of murder and was…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enlightenment elaborated on the controversy of whether or not certain punishments were barbarous. One man, named Caesare Beccaria yearned to abolish malevolent punishments. “Is the death penalty really useful and necessary for the security and good order of society? Are torture and torments just, and do they attain the end for which laws are instituted” (Beccaria). Beccaria essentially sought for just indictments of respective crimes, as opposed to death and torture. In modern society in the US, the eighth amendment protects the citizens from undergoing cruel and unusual punishments as a way to indict someone for committing a crime. However, in certain places, cruel and unusual punishments still exist. Many terrorist groups will perform beheadings or lynch people, as a way of punishment. In the Philippines, “... a Malaysian kidnap victim was beheaded by Abu Sayyaf militants in the southern Philippines on Tuesday after a large ransom demand was not paid, two military officials said.” ( ). Due to the failure of the Philippine government to make payment to the militants, they responded by punishing a man, which they kidnapped, by means of execution. The Enlightenment was able to essentially revoke the cruel and harsh punishments imparted upon people, however, only to a certain extent, as in certain parts of the world, hellish punishments still…

    • 773 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Capital punishment, known as the death penalty is punishment by death and is reserved for the most heinous of crimes. The first known death penalty execution in what would later become the United States, was in 1608, when Captain George Kendell was executed by firing squad for being a spy for Spain (Waksman, 2012).…

    • 2185 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The case was that those people were hated by the catholic church, so they were persecuted…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays