History UsefulNotes / TheSpanishInquisition

* ''Goya's Ghosts'', starring Creator/NataliePortman as one of the victims of the Inquisition.

* Inspired the Quisition in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Small Gods''.

* Compared to the secular courts of the time both in Spain and abroad, and especially contrary to pop belief, the Spanish Inquisition was actually [[FairForItsDay fairer and more progressive]], not the opposite. Its courts had a decent Burden of Proof standard and investigative measures, and even gave the accused access to free legal defense in the form of a lawman who would assist him throughout the process, with the result that, even if prosecutions were common, a large majority of cases were either dismissed by insufficient evidence or imposed small punishments to keep up appearances.

* Torture was rarely used, reportedly having happened in just under 3% of all prosecutions, and it was limited to three methods, namely rack, water cure and strappado, none of them original to the Inquisition or unknown in lay justice. They could be used in sessions of less than 15 minutes, with the presence of doctors to ensure the thing didn't get out of hand (even merely bleeding could make them stop the process), and minors and pregnant women couldn't be tortured at all. Inquisitors were way fonder of psychological pressure, with prisoners being informed that they ''could'' be subjected to torture, as confession under torture was actually not admissible as a proof of guilt if the prisoner didn't also give it under normal conditions. An extra limitation was imposed in 1533, it being that nobody could be tortured if the suspected crime was not really serious. Those measures were quite revolutionary for the time and basically unthinkable in most courts virtually everywhere else, where there few if any limitations in the ways, amounts and legal implications you could be tortured.
* Inquisitions and witch hunts always become an easy way to screw your personal enemies by slandering them to the authority in charge, but the Spanish Inquisition took reasonable efforts to impede this. Accusations weren't automatically accepted, with a special official in the task of formally checking them up, and if he deemed the thing irrelevant or obviously false, the ''accuser'' would get in trouble for wasting their time. Even if the accusation was greenlit, the accused was offered the option to dictate a list of personal enemies or people who might gain something from slandering him; if the accuser was among those, the whole process could be terminated right there.
* Execution was actually the rarest form of punishment, usually reserved only for the cases where there was an orgy of evidence against the accused and he still refused to confess (if he did, he got out with comparatively minor punishment) or if the accused was declared guilty of a really grave heresy and it was not his first time (at this second time, repenting would only earn you being garroted so you would not burn alive). Historians now estimate that of all trials, only ''two percent'' may have actually ended with execution -- a study of the timeframe 1540 to 1700 found documents for 44,674 cases with roughly 1500 death sentences. Furthermore, as trials tended to be lengthy and security not very tight, a surprising number of the sentenced managed to flee the country before being sentenced, and so many executions resulted in burning in effigie, that is, burning a strawman because the convict was unavailable. Estimates for the total number of executions range between 1500 and 5000, with the real number being probably closer to the former than the latter, to the point historian Henry Kamen would synthesize it stating that for every 100 death sentences issued by European tribunals at the time, the Spanish Inquisition issued one.
* The Inquisition's popular reception varied heavily depending who you asked at the time, but it was generally not seen as a sort of absolute reign of terror - the majority of Spaniards at the time were Christians and/or had it relatively easy to pass as Christians, so common people often agreed with the ideas spoused by the Inquisition and voluntarily crowded the ''autos de fe'' to see them enforced. Moreover, the Inquisition's relative commodity for the accuser was widely acknowledged even in Spain. It was common for those arrested by civile justice to start shouting blasphemy or confessing one solely to get transferred over to the Inquisition, where they would obtain much better conditions.
* Unusually among the multiple Inquisitions established in different parts of Europe, final authority and control rested with the monarchs rather than the Church hierarchy. The Holy Office everywhere else reported directly to the Pope, while the Spanish branch reported to El Escorial first. It quite often functioned as a simple tool of repression, a sort of medieval secret police working for the Crown, rather than a religious tribunal. This rather ironically means you could argue it was the ''least'' religiously motivated of the Inquisitions, despite its image and reputation being the opposite.

Another common misconception is that the Spanish Inquisition was deployed overseas -- it was not. There are contemporary, sensationalist, rumours of the Spanish Inquisition burning people left, right, and center in the Netherlands during the course of the Reformation and Eighty Years' war, but this the work of the ''Dutch'' Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands, whose members, usually Dutch and Central Europeans rather than Spaniards, were again in many cases using heresy as an excuse to deal with Dutch nationalists and other politically troublesome individuals. In the Indies, the local Inquisition could not legally judge indigenous, only Spaniards, with the amusing consequence that mestizos often resorted to pretend to be full-blooded natives in order to get immunity (and in turn, they would often pretend to be full-blooded Spaniards because those sometimes paid less taxes). It should also be pointed out that the Inquisition under Torquemada argued to ''save'' the books and documents taken in the Conquest of Mexico and South America, to sadly little avail.

!!Trivia facts that might surprise the reader

* Compared to the secular courts of the time both in Spain and abroad, the Spanish Inquisition was actually [[FairForItsDay fairer and more progressive]], not the opposite. Its courts had a decent Burden of Proof standard and gave the accused access to free legal defense in the form of three lawman that acted as public defenders, and confession under torture was not admissible as a proof of guilt if the prisoner didn't also give it under normal conditions. Torture itself was rarely used, reportedly in just under 3 percent of all cases, and it was limited to three methods (rack, waterboarding and strappado) and to be used only for less than 15 minutes, with the presence of doctors to ensure the thing didn't get out of hand; children and pregnant women couldn't be tortured at all. The result is that, even if prosecutions were common, a large majority of cases were either dismissed by insufficient evidence or imposed small punishments to keep up appearances. Those measures were quite revolutionary for the time and basically unthinkable in most courts virtually everywhere else, where there few if any limitations in the ways, amounts and legal implications you could be tortured.
* Execution was actually the rarest form of punishment, usually reserved only for the cases where there was an orgy of evidence against the accused and he still refused to confess (if he did, he got out with comparatively minor punishment) or if the accused was declared guilty of a really grave heresy and it was not his first time. Historians now estimate that of all trials, only ''two percent'' may have actually ended with execution -- a study of the timeframe 1540 to 1700 found documents for 44,674 cases with roughly 1500 death sentences. Furthermore, as trials tended to be lengthy and security not very tight, a surprising number of the sentenced managed to flee the country before being sentenced, and so many executions resulted in burning in effigie, that is, burning a strawman because the convict was unavailable. Estimates for the total number of executions range between 1500 and 5000, with the real number being probably closer to the former than the latter, to the point historian Henry Kamen would synthesize it stating that for every 100 death sentences issued by European tribunals at the time, the Spanish Inquisition issued one.
* The Inquisition's popular reception varied heavily depending who you asked at the time, but its relative commodity for the accuser was widely acknowledged even in Spain. It was common for those arrested by civile justice to start shouting blasphemy and confessing of one solely to get transferred over to the Inquisition, where they would obtain much better conditions. There's a record of at least one Inquisitor screaming at a gaoler for the horrible conditions his prisoners were kept in.
* Unusually among the multiple Inquisitions established in different parts of Europe, final authority and control rested with the monarchs rather than the Church hierarchy. The Holy Office everywhere else reported directly to the Pope, while the Spanish branch reported to El Escorial first. It quite often functioned as a simple tool of repression, a sort of medieval secret police working for the Crown, rather than a religious tribunal. This rather ironically means you could argue it was the ''least'' religiously motivated of the Inquisitions, despite its image and reputation.

Most of these people brought up on charges of heresy, heretical ideas and dangerous ideas, were asked to recant their sins and accept some religious re-education. The afterlife and one's (subjects') place(s) in it being prized above all else -- what's an earthly life of thirty years to eternity? -- this was big stuff. Contrary to pop belief, however, large-scale book-burning campaigns are mostly a myth, as the Inquisition was obssessed precisely with confiscating and classifying evidence. The stuff of their list of banned books was in fact widely available, as prohibition was practically symbolic due to a mix of little capability and interest to enforce it to its last consequences, and books often were even officially released by the Inquisition with just some expurgations or a stamped seal warning that the book you were going to read was something to judge carefully because it had been written by a condemned heretic. Most Protestant works from the Scientific Revolution would be read in Spanish universities with its appropriate label.

The Spanish Inquistion proper held one proper witch trial in 1610, the famous UsefulNotes/ZugarramurdiWitchTrials. The auto-da-fé of the supposed witches, promoted by two Inquisitors who basically went rogue and worsened by the Inquisition's failure at reacting quick enough, whipped up such a witch hunt hysteria in Navarre that the Inquisition ultimately had to ask one skeptical Inquisitor involved to reexamine the case. His results were so scathing of everyone involved, especially himself for having let them convince him not to act earlier, that not only did the Spanish Inquisition adopt his findings for any future witch trials, the Catholic Church itself did to.

* Compared to the secular courts of the time both in Spain and abroad, the Spanish Inquisition were actually [[FairForItsDay more progressive and humane]], not the opposite. Its courts had a decent Burden of Proof standard and gave the accused access to free legal defense in the form of three lawman that acted as public defenders, and confession under torture was not admissible as the sole proof of guilt. Torture itself was rarely used, reportedly in just under 3 percent of all cases, and it could be legally used only for less than 15 minutes, with the presence of doctors to ensure the thing didn't get out of hand (children were completely excluded). The result of a large majority of cases were either dismissed by insufficient evidence or imposed small punishments to keep up appearances. Those measures were quite revolutionary for the time and unthinkable in most courts virtually everywhere else.
* Execution was actually the rarest form of punishment, usually reserved only for the cases where there was an orgy of evidence against the accused and he still refused to confess and repent (if he did, he got out with comparatively minor punishment) or if the accused was declared guilty of a really grave heresy and it was not the first time. Historians now estimate that of all trials, only ''two percent'' may have actually ended with execution. A study of the timeframe 1540 to 1700 found documents for 44,674 cases with roughly 1500 death sentences. Furthermore, as trials tended to be lengthy and wardens poor, a surprising number of the sentenced managed to flee the country, and so the sentences resulted in 826 executions in persona, i.e. burning the heretic, and 778 in effigie, i.e. burning a strawman because the convict was unavailable. Estimates for the total number of executions in persona range between 1000 and 1500.
* The Inquisition's popular reception varied heavily depending who you asked at the time, but its relative commodity for the accuser was widely acknowledged. It was common for those arrested by civile justice to start shouting blasphemy and confessing of one solely to get transferred over to the Inquisition, where they would obtain much better conditions. There's a record of at least one Inquisitor screaming at a gaoler for the horrible conditions his prisoners were kept in.

!!Books and witches

Most of these people brought up on charges of heresy, heretical ideas and dangerous ideas, were asked to recant their sins and accept some religious re-education. The afterlife and one's (subjects') place(s) in it being prized above all else -- what's an earthly life of thirty years to eternity? -- this was big stuff. Contrary to pop belief, however, large-scale book-burning campaigns are mostly a myth, as the Inquisition was obssessed precisely with confiscating and classifying evidence. The stuff of their list of banned books was in fact widely available, as prohibition was practically symbolic due to a mix of little capability and interest to enforce it, and often were even officially released by the Inquisition with just some expurgations or a stamped seal warning that the book you were going to read was something to judge carefully because it had been written by a heretic. Most Protestant works from the Scientific Revolution would be read in Spanish universities with its appropriate label.

The Spanish Inquisition (known among Spaniards as "the Holy Inquisition" or "la Santa Inquisición") was a StateSec of the Catholic Church in the UsefulNotes/{{Spa|in}}nish Kingdom of Castile-Leon founded by [[UsefulNotes/TheCatholicMonarchs Queen Isabella]] in 1478. It was later given jurisdiction over the Crown of Aragon (a union of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and the pricipality of Catalonia) and the Lordship of Navarra as well and eventually[[note]] after the war of the Austrian Succession, in which Aragon and Navarra sided with the Austrian Habsburgs and were crushed[[/note]] the unified Kingdom of Spain. It was disbanded in 1834.

The Inquisition was founded by Isabella of Castile to stamp out {{heresy}} and enforce religious orthodoxy amongst her subjects, particularly in Granada -- the not-quite-complete conquest and subjugation of which was used as something of a rallying point which she used to smooth over the cracks caused by the somewhat-unexpected union of the Spanish Kingdoms brought about by her marriage to Ferdinand, King of Aragon (whom we'll mention in passing just long enough to [[HenpeckedHusband make it clear who wore the pants]], though he did come in handy at times and by all accounts was a decent husband who could be trusted to get things done). Ferdinand and Isabella are still Spain's most popular historical monarchs.

The Inquisition's surveillance exclusively focused on people in urban centres, particularly people of prominence or importance -- a strategy of limited resources more than anything else. The Inquisition was to some extent used as a political weapon by the Crown, which had few other means of dealing with its political enemies amongst the Clergy and the Civic Authorities, who administered over two-thirds of the urban population of Spain virtually independently from the Crown. To this end, cultural hang-overs like daily bathing (a Moorish custom) or not eating pork were (infamously) used as the basis for accusations of false conversion. In the same manner, the possession of certain texts -- a list of banned books was eventually drawn up to this end -- was used to support accusations of heresy, Protestantism and anti-monarchism. This had the effect of getting many relatively harmless intellectuals into trouble, but the Inquisition's role in preventing the outbreak of Protestantism in Spain has been called everything from 'marginal but useful' to 'critical and essential'.

Most of these people brought up on charges of heresy, heretical ideas and dangerous ideas, were asked to recant their sins and accept religious re-education. The afterlife and one's (subjects') place(s) in it being prized above all else -- what's an earthly life of thirty years to eternity? -- this was big stuff. The Inquisition witnessed very few [[WitchHunt witch trials]]; this is not just because they dealt only with a small proportion of the peninsula's (minority) urban population at intervals of decades or more -- some towns for which there exist records were not visited more than a few times during the entire period of the Inquisition's existence -- but because what trials there were ceased in the latter 16th Century.

The concept that the Inquisition [[BurnTheWitch burned witches]], however, is a myth. The Inquisition ruled, at the time, that so-called witchcraft did not exist and that anyone claiming to possess "magical powers" was lying or insane. Actual self-professed "witches", who typically dealt in love philters, magic amulets and such, were seen as mere charlatans and punished accordingly, i.e. by whipping and public shame rather than burning. Historically, witch hunts were much more common in Protestant countries, and the Inquisition denounced them as backward and unorthodox -- the Inquisition was not so much interested in enforcing 'old' Catholicism as it was in promoting the 'new' Catholicism of the Catholic Reformation or Counter-Reformation.

Unfortunately, this did not stop civic authorities -- who had their own court systems independent of the Church and the Crown -- and groups of angry villagers from rounding up 'witches' and hanging them anyway. Said authorities and mobs did not, sadly, keep records, so the actual number of Spanish people killed as witches remains unknown. That said, it is generally assumed to be lower than that in, say, France.

The Spanish Inquistion proper held one proper Witch Trial in 1610. The auto de fe of the supposed witches whipped up such a Witch Hunt hysteria in Navarre that the Inquisitor General asked the one skeptical Inquisitor involved to reexamine the case. It took Alonso de Salazar Frías around 4 years to finalize his conclusions. The results were so scathing of everyone involved, especially himself, that not only did the Spanish Inquisition adopt his findings for any future Witch Trials, the Catholic Church itself did to. The Spanish Inquisition actually ''prevented'' Witch Trials from happening in Catholic Europe, or at least prevented mass executions of those found guilty. At one point in 1619, the Spanish Inquisition actually barged in and prevented secular authorities from hanging over 300 convicted witches.

Another common misconception is that the Spanish Inquisition was deployed overseas -- it was not. There are contemporary, sensationalist, rumours of the Spanish Inquisition burning people left, right, and center in the Netherlands during the course of the Reformation and Eighty Years' war. This was, however, the work of the Dutch Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands, who were again in many cases using heresy as an excuse to deal with Dutch Nationalists and other politically troublesome individuals. It should also be pointed out that the Inquisition under Torquemada argued to ''save'' the books and documents taken in the Conquest of Mexico and South America, to sadly little avail.

Some points about the actual Spanish Inquisition:

** Torture itself was used in just under 3 percent of all cases and even then for less than 15 minutes, [[FairForItsDay which puts them under the secular courts of the time.]]
* Historians now estimate that of all trials, only two percent may have actually ended with execution. A study of the timeframe 1540 to 1700 found documents for 44,674 cases with roughly 1500 death sentences. Furthermore, as trials tended to be lengthy and wardens poor, a surprising number of the sentenced managed to flee the country, and so the sentences resulted in 826 executions in persona, i.e. burning the heretic, and 778 in effigie, i.e. burning a strawman because the convict was unavailable. Estimates for the total number of executions in persona range between 1000 and 1500.
* They didn't really burn books, and the stuff that was on their banned list was still widely available. Most Golden Age authors ran into them at least once.
* Unusually among the multiple Inquisitions established in different parts of Europe, final authority and control rested with the monarchs rather than the Church hierarchy. It quite often functioned as a simple tool of repression, a sort of medieval secret police working for the Crown. This rather ironically means you could argue it was the ''least'' religiously motivated of the Inquisitions, despite its image and reputation.

** Though the Holy Office per se only had direct jurisdiction over the Italian peninsula at most The Holy Office reported directly to the Pope, while the well-known Spanish office, as said above, reported to El Escorial first.
* One of the main reasons for the villain status of the Inquisition: Their host country was nearly continually at war with primarily Protestant nations such as England and the Netherlands, where there was more freedom of speech (for its time) while printing presses and popular literature were much more common. This meant that at the beginning they criticized the Spanish Inquisition's poor job on executions and conversions. When the Inquisition became a bit harsher, they went [[BerserkButton apeshit]] and exaggerated its reputation of being a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName blood-thirsty totalitarian organization]]. Then the Spanish Empire lost ground to the British Empire, France, its former South American colonies and the USA - [[WrittenByTheWinners the result of this]] meant that this demonization was immortalized as the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Legend Black Legend]]."
* The courts had many more rights for the accused then the secular courts at the time. It was common for those arrested to start shouting blasphemy solely to get transferred over to the Inquisition. There's a record of at least one Inquisitor screaming at a gaoler for the horrible conditions his prisoners were kept in.
** On that note, the Inquisition courts actually had a decent Burden of Proof standard. The Inquisitions own records show that a slim majority of all cases brought before them were ruled the equivalent of "Not Guilty" or "Not Proven".

* In ''Franchise/MutantChronicles'', The Brotherhood's Second Directorate is the Inquisition. The Inquisition is pretty much the common view of the Spanish one taken UpToEleven. However the grimdark nature of the world makes the Inquisition come off as [[TheExtremistWasRight harsh but justified]] more than anything else. Inquisitors not only conduct interrogations and torture heretics, but also investigate heresy-related crime and fight heretics and demons in the field, and are generally (though not without exception) heroic figures.

The Spanish Inquisition (known among Spaniards as "the Holy Inquisition" or "la Santa Inquisición") was a StateSec of the Catholic Church in the UsefulNotes/{{Spa|in}}nish Kingdom of Castile-Leon founded by Queen Isabella in 1478. It was later given jurisdiction over the Crown of Aragon (a union of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and the pricipality of Catalonia) and the Lordship of Navarra as well and eventually[[note]] after the war of the Austrian Succession, in which Aragon and Navarra sided with the Austrian Habsburgs and were crushed[[/note]] the unified Kingdom of Spain. It was disbanded in 1834.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'', [[OlderThanTheyThink way before]] ''Warhammer 40K'', had the Witch Hunters, agents who hunted down Chaos activities, unlicensed magic users, mutants, and whatever else they don't like much. Their authority might come from local authorities, the official [[KnightTemplar State Cult]], or simply [[VigilanteMan be acting on their own]]. The broad-brimmed {{Nice Hat}}s are also there.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' has the Inquisition, a [[ChurchMilitant religious]] [[StateSec paramilitary security force]] that protects the Imperium from its enemies within and enemies without. One branch (Ordo Malleus) deals with [[TheLegionsOfHell daemons of Chaos]], another (Ordo Hereticus) with [[SuperPowerMeltdown rogue psykers]] or [[TheHeretic outbreaks of heresy]], and a third (Ordo Xenos) from [[FantasticRacism alien corruption]]. Every full-fledged Inquisitor infamously has the authority to practically order an EarthShatteringKaboom (technically, the actual planet will remain intact, but literally all life on it will be extinguished) if they deem it necessary, and will be almost definitely be [[ColdBloodedTorture torturing the entire way]] before-hand. The Inquisition's members also have a fondness for [[NiceHat broad-brimmed hats]] (when they're not in full-blown PowerArmor), and helped provide most of the ''[=40K=]'' contributions on the QuotesWiki on the subject of HangingJudge.

* The protagonist of the Creator/EdgarAllanPoe story "Literature/ThePitAndThePendulum" is a prisoner of the Spanish Inqusition. It's worth noting that at no time during the Inquisition did the Inquisitors subject any of their condemned to the sadistic {{Death Trap}}s (including the eponymous PendulumOfDeath) employed against the protagonist. It's also noted for taking place during the Peninsular War of 1807-14, centuries after the height of the Inquisition.

The Inquisition was founded by Isabella of Castile to stamp out {{heresy}} and enforce religious orthodoxy amongst her subjects, particularly in Granada -- the not-quite-complete conquest and subjugation of which was used as something of a rallying point which she used to smooth over the cracks caused by the somewhat-unexpected union of the Spanish Kingdoms brought about by her marriage to Ferdinand, King of Aragon. Whom we'll mention in passing just long enough to [[HenpeckedHusband make it clear who wore the pants]], though he did come in handy at times and by all accounts was a decent husband who could be trusted to get things done. Ferdinand and Isabella are still Spain's most popular historical monarchs.

Granada was the last remnant of the [[UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} Muslim]] kingdom of Al-Andalus, which had once spanned very nearly the entire Iberian peninsula. With its conquest, the ''[[UsefulNotes/SpanishReconquista Reconquista]]'' -- the reclamation of Spain for UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} -- was complete. Shortly afterwards, the Muslim population of Spain was given a choice: convert to Christianity, or leave for North Africa. Many tens of thousands left, or were forcibly evicted. The Jewish population was later given the same choice. Isabella thought that it was only fair that those subjects who had effectively agreed to be loyal, Christian subjects would take a generation or so to learn the new ways. After that, the Inquisition could be used to educate the ethnically Moorish population about Catholic orthodoxy if need be. Until then, the Inquisition got started handling its standard fare of cases, the bread and butter it would chew on for the next three hundred years. That is to say, the Inquisition would tour around the cities and larger towns and address the issues that were generally the reserve of Ordinaries (church courts) everywhere -- blasphemy, immorality, sexual immorality, and religious ignorance generally, and ignorance, illiteracy, corruption, and (sexual) immorality amongst the clergy.

The Spanish Inquistion proper held one proper Witch Trial in 1610. The auto de fe of the supposed witches whipped up such a Witch Hunt hysteria in Navarre that the Inquisitor General asked the one skeptical Inquisitor involved to reexamine the case. It took Alonso de Salazar Frías around 4 years to finalize his conclusions. The results were so scathing of everyone involved, especially himself, that not only did the Spanish Inquisition adopt his findings for any future Witch Trials, the Catholic Church itself did to. The Spanish Inquisition actually ''prevented'' Witch Trials from happening in Catholic Europe, or at least prevented mass executions of those found guilty. At one point in 1619, the Spanish Inquisition actually barged in and prevent secular authorities from hanging over 300 convicted witches.

Another common misconception is that the Spanish Inquisition was deployed overseas -- it was not. There are contemporary, sensationalist, rumours of the Spanish Inquisition burning people left right and centre in the Netherlands during the course of the Reformation and Eighty Years' war. This was, however, the work of the Dutch Inquisition in the Spanish Netherlands, who were again in many cases using heresy as an excuse to deal with Dutch Nationalists and other politically troublesome individuals. It should also be pointed out that the Inquisition under Torquemada argued to ''save'' the books and documents taken in the Conquest of Mexico and South America, to sadly little avail.

** Torture itself was used in just under 3 percent of all cases and even then for less than 15 minutes. [[FairForItsDay Which puts them under the secular courts of the time.]]
* Historians now estimate that of all trials only two percent may have actually ended with execution. A study of the timeframe 1540 to 1700 found documents for 44,674 cases with roughly 1500 death sentences. Furthermore as trials tended to be lengthy and wardens poor a surprising number of the sentenced managed to flee the country and so the sentences resulted in 826 executions in persona, i.e. burning the heretic, and 778 in effigie, i.e. burning a strawman because the convict was unavailable. Estimates for the total number of executions in persona range between 1000 and 1500.
* They didn't really burn books and the stuff that was on their banned list was still widely available. Most Golden Age authors ran into them at least once.

* In ''Manga/{{Radiant}}'' the Inquisition was made to fight sorcerers hundreds of years ago in the world of [[WorldInTheSky Pharenos]] when it was ruled by magic users, but its influence itself has contributed to the negative view of the infected by Nemeses in the present day acting as a ruthless army even against innocents, curiously while their armmor and ships look medieval, their home kingdom Bome is based on ancient Greece.

* In ''Manga/{{Radiant}}'' the Inquisition was made to fight sorcerers hundreds of years ago in the world of [[AlternateEarth Pharenos]] when it was ruled by magic users, but its influence itself has contributed to the negative view of the infected by Nemeses in the present day acting as a ruthless army against even innocents, curiously its come kingdom Bome is based on Greece.

[[caption-width-right:280: Bet he didn't expect that.]]

->''"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"''
-->-- ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''

* Henry was pursued by a priest in ''Series/BloodTies''. In two different eras.

* In the first episode of ''Series/{{Ultraviolet}}'', the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is assumed by a vampire to be behind the secret VampireHunter squad. It turns out to be the [[GovernmentConspiracy British Government instead]].

The Spanish Inquisition (known among Spaniards as "the Holy Inquisition" or "la Santa Inquisición") was a StateSec of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Castile-Leon founded by Queen Isabella in 1478. It was later given jurisdiction over the Crown of Aragon (a union of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and the pricipality of Catalonia) and the Lordship of Navarra as well and eventually[[note]] after the war of the Austrian Succession, in which Aragon and Navarra sided with the Austrian Habsburgs and were crushed[[/note]] the unified Kingdom of Spain. It was disbanded in 1834.

The Inquisition was founded by Isabella of Castile to stamp out {{heresy}} and enforce religious orthodoxy amongst her subjects, particularly in Granada -- the not-quite-complete conquest and subjugation of which was used as something of a rallying point which she used to smooth over the cracks caused by the somewhat-unexpected union of the Spanish Kingdoms brought about by her marriage to Ferdinand, King of Aragon. Whom we'll mention in passing just long enough to [[HenpeckedHusband make it clear who wore the pants]], though he did come in handy at times and by all accounts was a decent husband who could be trusted to get things done. Ferdinand and Isabella are still Spain's most popular monarchs.

Granada was the last remnant of the Muslim kingdom of Al-Andalus, which had once spanned very nearly the entire Iberian peninsula. With its conquest, the ''Reconquista'' -- the reclamation of Spain for Christianity -- was complete. Shortly afterwards, the Muslim population of Spain was given a choice: convert to Christianity, or leave for North Africa. Many tens of thousands left, or were forcibly evicted. The Jewish population was later given the same choice. Isabella thought that it was only fair that those subjects who had effectively agreed to be loyal, Christian subjects would take a generation or so to learn the new ways. After that, the Inquisition could be used to educate the ethnically Moorish population about Catholic orthodoxy if need be. Until then, the Inquisition got started handling its standard fare of cases, the bread and butter it would chew on for the next three hundred years. That is to say, the Inquisition would tour around the cities and larger towns and address the issues that were generally the reserve of Ordinaries (church courts) everywhere -- blasphemy, immorality, sexual immorality, and religious ignorance generally, and ignorance, illiteracy, corruption, and (sexual) immorality amongst the clergy.

'''The Spanish Inquisition''' (known among Spaniards as "the Holy Inquisition" or "la Santa Inquisición") was a StateSec of the Catholic Church in the Kingdom of Castile-Leon founded by Queen Isabella in 1478. It was later given jurisdiction over the Crown of Aragon (a union of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and the pricipality of Catalonia) and the Lordship of Navarra as well and eventually[[note]] after the war of the Austrian Succession, in which Aragon and Navarra sided with the Austrian Habsburgs and were crushed[[/note]] the unified Kingdom of Spain. It was disbanded in 1834.

** Protestant Nations themselves executed witches and dissidents en masse, so their criticism was mostly just propaganda against their religious opponents, with each side considering the other heretics. And then atheist writers started to put pens to paper [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade and]], [[{{Demonization}} well]]...

** Protestant Nations [[NotSoDifferent themselves executed witches and dissidents en masse]], so their criticism was mostly just propaganda against their religious opponents, with each side considering the other heretics. And then atheist writers started to put pens to paper [[HistoricalVillainUpgrade and]], [[{{Demonization}} well]]...

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'', [[OlderThanTheyThink way before]] ''Warhammer 40K'', had the Witch Hunters, agents who hunted down Chaos activities, unlicensed magic users, mutants, and whatever else they don't like much. Their authority might come from local authorities, the official [[KnightTemplar State Cult]], or simply [[{{Vigilante}} be acting on their own]]. The broad-brimmed {{Nice Hat}}s are also there.