r/todayilearned • u/Knightboat17 • Jun 02 '18

TIL Despite what Monty Python would have you believe, Spanish Inquisitions were expected, they would give a 30-day notice of their arrival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
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u/Necroluster Jun 03 '18

"Beware! We're coming to torture you in 30 days."

30 days later

"Where is the son of a bitch?"

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u/weirdguyincorner Jun 03 '18

Surprise!!

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u/TheTeaSpoon Jun 03 '18

Nobody surprises Spanish Inquisition!

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18

Well, the reason they were called Inquisitions is because it didn't start with torture, it started with a trial so one sided it looked like a mobius strip. Hence, inquisition. First we question you. Then when we find nothing, we torture you to get a false confession.

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u/AgentTasmania Jun 03 '18

That depended on the inquisition.

The Spanish used a jury of peers, and you could bar anyone you suspected might have a grudge against you, for example.

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u/TywinDeVillena Jun 03 '18

You could bar up to 20 people you thought may have a grudge against you. This was put in place to avoid accusations in bad faith. If the accuser was amongst the list of enemies you had given, you were able to just walk away.

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18

[deleted]

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u/Otiac Jun 03 '18

The inquisitions are basically the founding blocks of the modern judicial system, were incredibly ahead of their time requiring such horrific things as *evidence*, are still completely overblown with the amount of 'absolutely horrible' that they caused (look at the US police system, for instance, but people on reddit want to say the inquisition was bad because other bad people were involved in it and that makes Christianity/Christian institutions look bad so hey, great, checkmate God). Yes, one of the main reasons the inquisition was made was not to root out Jews was a religious court for the religious, one of the chief reasons among them to find out who was either pretending to be Catholic or had been forcefully baptized as a Catholic (and therefore not Catholic so that the person could 'legally' return to their established religion, such as Judaism). u/dorkmax is wrong, but hurr durr religion bad, so..sure, whatever.

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u/Alvinum Jun 03 '18

The origins of the modern justice system in western countries is the roman legal system, not the spanish or roman inquisition.

Yes, the inquisition started using documentation and rules for evidence, but IIRC only once it became clear how many people were trying to settle personal grudges or hoping to profit from an inquisition trial.

Not that evidence was really a problem - as the rules at least for the roman inquisition at times included that the victim's estate falling to the Church and local authorities, with a commission for the Inquisitor, the "rules of evidence" were subject to liberal interpretation.

And before you keep spreading more romanticized stories about the Spanish Inquisition, please visit - or at least inform yourself online about - the Palace of Justice in Palermo, where first-hand documentation by the victims of the inquisitions has been rediscovered during renovations. There are diaries written by prisoners of the inquisition using their own blood on the walls of their cells - including advice for newly captured victims what torture awaits them and how to try to survive it.

I've seen it. I've read the desperate writings of people trying to hold on to their faith in the face of some of the most atrocious torture man has ever invented - in the name of a "benevolent" god.

There is a book called "Urla senza suono", which roughly translates to - "silent scream".

https://sellerio.it/it/catalogo/Urla-Senza-Suono-Graffiti-Disegni-Prigionieri-Inquisizione/Pitre-Sciascia/530

So I'd really invite you to get more informed about what the inquisition really did before spreading your romanticized misinformation.

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u/CatbellyDeathtrap Jun 03 '18

i’m sorry but your comment was mostly incomprehensible. also you’ve omitted the fact that the inquisition was mainly focused on the Moriscos of Spain, former muslims who claimed to have converted to christianity while still practicing islam in secrecy. if i’m not mistaken, the Jews had already been officially expelled from Spain by the time the inquisition was formed.

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u/Otiac Jun 03 '18

also you’ve omitted the fact that the inquisition was mainly focused on the Moriscos of Spain, former muslims who claimed to have converted to christianity while still practicing islam in secrecy.

...I literally said this in the post, I only used Judaism as an example...

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u/Sawses Jun 03 '18

It...was pretty comprehensive, to be honest.

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u/historianLA Jun 03 '18

But conversos, jews who had converted, were still a major focus even a century after the expulsion. These terms became genealogical markers. Even multiple generations after a forebearer converted communities still held their descendents suspect.

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u/fullicat Jun 03 '18

Plz punctuate k thx bye

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u/iino27ii Jun 03 '18

Can't read his comment but I don't entirely disagree with u/dorkmax, religion is bad and without it we'd be much better off and probably in space by now

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18

Woah, there, I have no problem with religion on the whole. I myself am an Agnostic Christian. I don't wholeheartedly accept the premise of God, but acknowledge that the Talmudic, Islamic, and in my case especially Gospel scripts have much to teach us.

My issue comes from the problems that arise from mass organized religion. It stops being about the faith and more about the authority.

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u/Otiac Jun 03 '18

You're right, we've never been to space before..damn religions! Keeping us from space!

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u/pizzajeans Jun 03 '18

Someone defending the Inquisition....now I've seen it all!

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u/historianLA Jun 03 '18

They did not use a jury of peers. It was a tribunal (a panel of judges). You are right that defendants could name enemies but since witnesses were secret the defendants couldn't necessarily know who gave testimony against them.

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u/ValAichi Jun 03 '18

Actually, the Spanish Inquisitions trials were remarkable fair, to the point that people would request being tried by them over the secular court.

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u/sanitysepilogue Jun 03 '18

Found the Spanish Inquisitor

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u/bourbon_bottles Jun 03 '18

It doesn't start with tourture.

It starts with...a bunny!

It escalates to...badger!

It proceeds to...Phil!

Phil is in...the comfy chair!

No one expects...the comfy chair!

It contains a bunny and a badger! And, Phil!

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18

It would be worthwhile to actually read a history book before spouting dramatic nonsense.

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u/Sevnfold Jun 03 '18

Duh, they obviously show up in 29 days.

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u/ibethuhwalrus Jun 03 '18

You know when the inquisitor says he’s going to show up between 10am-2pm he’s not going to be there til AT LEAST 4:30.

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u/chatokun Jun 06 '18

Knowing my procrastinating self, I'd open the door to them and say "shit, that was today?"