WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Inquisition was a powerful office set up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas. Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Spanish Inquisition is interpretable as a response to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors.

Detailed explanation-3: -But that changed in 1492, when the Catholic monarchs, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, expelled them. Some 300, 000 Jews-up to a quarter of the Spanish population-had to convert to Catholicism or flee Spain, or were killed in the Spanish Inquisition.

Detailed explanation-4: -The persecution of Muslims accelerated in 1507 when Jiménez was named grand inquisitor. Muslims in Valencia and Aragon were subjected to forced conversion in 1526, and Islam was subsequently banned in Spain. The Inquisition then devoted its attention to the Moriscos, Spanish Muslims who had previously accepted baptism.

Detailed explanation-5: -It was a special court set up by the Catholic Church to stop the spread of the Protestant faith especially in Spain, Portugal and Italy. The leaders of the Catholic Church considered all Protestants to be heretics so in these countries they were put on trial for their religious beliefs.

Detailed explanation-6: -In reality, the purpose of the Spanish Inquisition stemmed from the Christians’ fear that the growing Jewish population would become more powerful than them. The Jews were a threat to the monarchy, and the Catholic Monarchs saw the Inquisition as a way to root out the source of one of their biggest problems.