The Spanish Inquisition
THE SPANISH INQUISITION
The Inquisition of the Church of Rome was, in its days, one of the most terrible engines of tyranny ever created by man. It may be said to date from about the year 1200, when Pope Innocent III sent his inquisitors among the Waldenses and other sects differing from the church, and continued until 1808. In its course, it totally crushed any Protestants living in Spain: its final count numbered 31,912 people burned alive and 291,450 imprisoned. In the eighteen years that the Dominican monk Thomas of Torquemada led the Inquisition, 10,220 people were burned and 97,322 punished with the loss of property or imprisonment. Although its main victims were citizens of Spain, there were others who became its victims, too.
The Inquisition continued until the invasion of Spain by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808 and the abdication of the throne by Charles IV in favor of his son, Ferdinand VII. On February 22, 1813, the Cortes General of the kingdom assembled in Madrid and decreed that the existence of the Inquisition was no longer in accord with the political constitution that had been adopted by the nation. The bishops and civil courts were returned to their ancient powers, and the oppression of the people of Spain finally ended.