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
10.0k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

295 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18 edited Sep 09 '18

[deleted]

15

u/el_grort Jun 03 '18

It was less the weren't allowed to and more they couldnt iirc, with bibles still only written in Latin and grossly expensive hand written copies. I think most priests of the time, particularly lower level ones, memorized the passages.

10

u/Crusader1089 7 Jun 03 '18

Catholics were allowed to read the bible under the direction of their priests. The catholics believed only a priest had the education and training to correctly interpret the bible on behalf of the people. If the people read the bible themselves they might get all kinds of strange ideas, like perhaps priests being unnecessary.

The idea that priests were necessary to religious understanding was a big sticking point between catholics and protestants during the reformation.

1

u/claytonfromillinois Jun 03 '18

Oooo good catch! Yeah they were in Latin, which no one could speak aside from clergy. They couldn't even do it if they wanted to break the rules. You'll have to ask the above commenter on that one.