How did the Spanish Inquisition punish people?

How did the Spanish Inquisition punish people?

How did the Spanish Inquisition punish people?

Naked young women being brutally tortured by Spanish Inquisition. The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control.

The regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in popular literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression, and was not abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II.

Today's historical snippet comes from this date in 1481 when six people were burned alive in Seville as part of the first (but certainly not last) auto de fe of the Spanish Inquisition.  King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella had received permission from Pope Sixtus IV to appoint inquisitors to find and punish heretics, typically Jews who had been forcibly converted to Christianity and were thought to be secretly practicing Judism.   Public trials were held, after which the prisoners were led outside the city to the “burning place” (not yet knowing if they had been convicted) where a Catholic mass was held and their sentences were read.  Those who were acquitted were released, and those convicted were tied to the stake and burned.  More than 13,000 heretics were tried in the first twelve years of the Spanish Inquisition and hundreds of them were executed this way.  The Spanish Inquisition existed for 327 years until it was abolished in 1808, during which time more than 20,000 people had been accused of heresy and put on trial.   Other methods of execution included torture, decapitation, amputation of limbs, and strangulation.

Although records are incomplete, about 150,000 persons were charged with crimes by the Inquisition and about 3,000 were executed. Photogravure after Jose Brito, G. Barrie & Son, 1901.