38. The Spanish Inquisition

Nobody had expected Papal authorization woudld uleash three centuries of terror across the Spanish Empire. Systematic torture, bureaucratic persecution, and theatrical executions transform Spain into a theocratic police state that uses religious authority to serve political ends.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Calarogu Shark Media. November one, fourteen seventy eight, Pope Sixtus
the Fourth signed a papal bull that would unleash three
and a half centuries of terror across the Spanish Empire.
The bull, Exegete Sincera's devocones authorized the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand

(00:27):
and Isabella to establish their own inquisition, independent of Rome's control,
to root out heresy in their newly unified kingdom. What
began as a limited investigation into false converts from Judaism
and Islam would evolve into a vast machinery of persecution, torture,
and execution that would claim tens of thousands of lives.

(00:50):
The Spanish Inquisition would become synonymous with religious fanaticism, judicial corruption,
and the abuse of papal authority for political ends. Yet
this was no medieval relic of superstitious times. The Spanish
Inquisition operated with bureaucratic efficiency, maintained detailed records, and employed
the latest techniques of interrogation and punishment. It was a

(01:14):
thoroughly modern institution that used religious authority to serve the
political objectives of the Spanish crown. This is white smoke
episode thirty eight The Spanish Inquisition. The papal authorization that
created this system reveals the complex relationship between spiritual and
temporal power in early modern Europe. The pope who granted

(01:38):
Spain its inquisition would later try to limit its excesses,
but by then the monster he had unleashed was beyond
papal control. Today we examine how papal authority was manipulated
to create the most notorious religious tribunal in history, transforming
the Spanish Empire into a theocratic police state where religious
orthodoxy became the measure of political laws royalty. The origins

(02:02):
of the Spanish Inquisition lay in the unique religious circumstances
of the Iberian Peninsula, where centuries of Christian reconquest had
created a society divided between Old Christians, whose families had
always been Catholic, and New Christians, whose ancestors had converted
from Judaism or Islam under pressure or for economic advantage.

(02:25):
The conversion of Spanish Jews and Muslims had rarely been
voluntary or complete. Many conversos, as Jewish converts were known,
and mriscos as Muslim converts were called, maintained their ancestral
religious practices in secret while outwardly conforming to Catholic requirements.
This religious duplicity created suspicion and resentment among old Christians

(02:48):
who questioned the sincerity of forced conversions. Ferdinand and Isabella's
request for papal authorization to establish their own inquisition represented
a calculated political strategy rather than genuine religious concern. The
Catholic monarchs recognized that religious uniformity was essential for political
unity in their newly consolidated kingdom, and they needed papal

(03:12):
blessing to legitimate their persecution of religious minorities. The economic
motivations underlying the Spanish Inquisition were as important as its
religious justifications. Jewish conversos had accumulated significant wealth through banking,
trade and professional services, making them attractive targets for confiscation.

(03:33):
The Crown's chronic financial problems could be solved by seizing
the property of convicted heretics while simultaneously eliminating potential political opposition.
Pope sixt Us the Fourth's decision to grant Spain its
own inquisition reflected his desperate need for Spanish political support
in Italian affairs, rather than theological conviction about the necessity

(03:55):
of religious persecution. The pope who authorized the Spanishing Quisition
was primarily concerned with securing Spanish military assistance against his enemies,
not with purifying the faith. The papal Bull Exegete Sincere's Devotionists,
contained provisions that Sixtus apparently expected would limit inquisitorial abuses.

(04:18):
The Bull required that Spanish inquisitors be appointed by the
crown but confirmed by the Pope, maintaining theoretical papal oversight
over inquisitorial proceedings. Yet, Ferdinand and Isabella had no intention
of allowing papal interference in their domestic religious policies. Within
months of receiving papal authorization, they established procedures that effectively

(04:40):
eliminated Roman oversight while maintaining the fiction of papal approval.
The Spanish Inquisition became a national institution that used papal
authority while ignoring papal limitations. The appointment of Tomas de
Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor in fourteen eighty three marked the
beginning of systematic persecution that would define the Spanish Inquisition's

(05:03):
character for centuries. Torquamada, himself from a Converso family, brought
fanatical zeal and administrative efficiency to the task of identifying
and punishing suspected heretics. Under Torquamada's direction, the Spanish Inquisition
developed procedures that maximized both the likelihood of conviction and

(05:23):
the terror inspired by its proceedings. Accused heretics were arrested
in secret, held incommunicado, and subjected to interrogation techniques designed
to extract confessions regardless of actual guilt or innocence. The
use of torture became systematic and scientific, rather than merely brutal.
Inquisitors employed three primary methods, the garucha, which dislocated shoulders

(05:49):
through suspension with weights, the toka, which simulated drowning through
forced ingestion of water, and the potrow, which stretched victims
on a rack until joints separated. These torture techniques were
carefully regulated to avoid immediate death while maximizing pain and
psychological pressure. Inquisitors maintained detailed records of torture sessions, noting

(06:12):
the duration of suffering and the responses extracted from victims.
The systematic nature of inquisitorial torture represented a new level
of bureaucratised cruelty in European legal proceedings. The confiscation of
property from convicted heretics provided the economic foundation that sustained
inquisitorial operations while enriching both the Crown and inquisitorial officials.

(06:37):
Accused heretics lost their property upon arrest, creating incentives for
false accusations and ensuring that the Inquisition became financially self
sustaining through its own persecution. The Auto da Fey, the
public ceremony in which the Inquisition announced its sentences, became
a theatrical spectacle that combined religious ritual with political propaganda.

(07:01):
These events, attended by thousands of spectators, including the highest nobility,
transformed the punishment of heretics into public entertainment while demonstrating
royal power over religious and political dissent. The expansion of

(07:21):
inquisitorial jurisdiction beyond cases of religious heresy revealed the political
objective's underlying Spanish religious persecution. The Inquisition claimed authority over
sexual morality, blasphemy, witchcraft, and eventually, any behaviour that could
be construed as disloyal to Catholic monarchy. Papal attempts to
limit inquisitorial excesses proved ineffective against Spanish determination to maintain

(07:46):
complete control over their religious tribunal. When Pope Sixtus the
Fourth tried to restrict inquisitorial procedures in fourteen eighty two,
Ferdinand and Isabella threatened to withdraw Spanish obedience from Rome,
forcing papal retreat. The success of the Spanish Inquisition in
eliminating religious diversity created a model that other Catholic monarchs

(08:10):
sought to emulate. Portugal established its own Inquisition in fifteen
thirty six, while Spanish territories in Italy and the Americas
received inquisitorial tribunals that extended the system across the Spanish Empire.
The American inquisitions in Mexico and Peru demonstrated how religious
persecution could be adapted to colonial circumstances, targeting indigenous religious practices,

(08:35):
Protestant infiltration, and any challenge to Spanish colonial authority. The
papal authorization that had created the Spanish Inquisition thus became
the foundation for centuries of religious persecution across two continents.
The Inquisition's treatment of Mariscos, Spanish Muslims who had converted
to Christianity, revealed the ultimately racist character of Spanish religious persecution.

(08:59):
Even after generationtions of Catholic practice, Morisco families remained suspect
because of their ancestral religion, demonstrating that religious conversion could
not overcome ethnic prejudice. The final expulsion of Mariscos from
Spain in sixteen oh nine represented the logical conclusion of
inquisitorial policy, the elimination of religious minorities, regardless of their

(09:23):
apparent orthodoxy. The papal authorization that had begun with investigating
false converts had evolved into a program of ethnic cleansing
justified by religious authority. The intellectual effects of the Spanish
Inquisition extended far beyond its direct victims, to create a
climate of fear that stifled creative thought and scientific inquiry

(09:45):
throughout the Spanish Empire. The index of prohibited books maintained
by Spanish inquisitors was more extensive than its Roman counterpart,
effectively isolating Spanish intellectual life from European developments. Spanish universities,
once centres of learning that had preserved classical knowledge during

(10:06):
the medieval period, became intellectual backwaters where conformity was valued
above creativity. The brain drain caused by inquisitorial persecution contributed
to Spain's economic and cultural decline during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. The persistence of the Spanish Inquisition, long after

(10:26):
other European countries had abandoned religious persecution, demonstrated how institutions
created during periods of fanaticism could become self perpetuating through
bureaucratic inertia and vested interests. The last auto da fe
occurred in eighteen twenty six, nearly three and a half
centuries after papal authorization. The abolition of the Spanish Inquisition

(10:49):
by liberal governments in the nineteenth century represented the final
triumph of Enlightenment principles over medieval religious persecution. Yet the
damage inflicted on Spanish sociasciety by centuries of systematic intolerance
would require generations to heal. The Spanish Inquisition's legacy raises
fundamental questions about the relationship between religious authority and political power.

(11:13):
The papal authorization that created this system demonstrates how spiritual
claims can be manipulated to serve purely temporal objectives when
institutional safeguards are inadequate. More troubling, the Spanish Inquisition reveals
how ordinary people can be transformed into agents of persecution
when religious authority sanctions violence against designated enemies. The inquisitors

(11:37):
who tortured suspected heretics believed they were serving God while
actually serving the political interests of the Spanish crown. The
bureaucratic efficiency of inquisitorial persecution anticipated the administrative techniques that
would characterize twentieth century totalitarian regimes. The detailed record keeping,
systematic torture, and theatrical propaganda of the Spanishing cres pquosition

(12:00):
provided a template for later forms of ideological persecution. Yet
the Spanish Inquisition also demonstrated the ultimate futility of attempting
to impose religious uniformity through violence and terror. Despite centuries
of persecution, Spain remained religiously diverse beneath the surface of
enforced conformity, while the economic and intellectual costs of intolerance

(12:23):
weakened the very state that the Inquisition was designed to strengthen.
The papal authorization that created the Spanish Inquisition serves as
a permanent reminder of how religious authority can be corrupted
when subordinated to political objectives. The Pope who granted Spain.
Its inquisition unleashed forces that would torture and kill in

(12:44):
the name of Christ for over three centuries. The Spanish
Inquisition stands as perhaps the most damaging abuse of papal
authority in Catholic history, demonstrating how spiritual claims can be
perverted to justify systematic cruelty when institutional checks on power
are eliminated through political manipulation. The thousands who died in

(13:06):
inquisitorial prisons and the hundreds who burned at inquisitorial stakes
remain permanent witnesses to the dangers of combining religious fanaticism
with political power, reminding every generation that the defense of
human dignity requires eternal vigilance against those who would use
God's name to justify their own cruelty. White Smoke is

(13:29):
a production of Calaroga Shark media, portions of which were
made with the help of aerration, but still written and
produced by real podcasters Mark Francis and John McDermott.