While the Inquisition stands out among few other events in history as an example of the human capacity for intolerance and cruelty, its motivation was the preservation of doctrinal purity. From the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries the Roman Catholic Church in western Europe employed aspects of Roman legal procedure and appointed clergy to carry out the task of preserving orthodox beliefs from heresy. These tribunals were institutionalized, and the personnel and procedures were termed "inquisitions." In the beginning the inquisitors used persuasion to discover if those Christians suspected of heresy were, indeed, heretics. Over time, however, as heresy was feared to be increasing, persuasion gave way to coercion.
In Spain, from the fourteenth century on, economic and social transformations created political and economic upheaval. As a result non-Christians, Muslims, and Jews had new legal disabilities thrust upon them. Many Jews converted toward the end of.....
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