Actually, the Inquisition only affected baptized Christians. One of the problems is that many of the Jews actually had converted (voluntarily) but had received very poor instruction and had a sort of syncretist version of Christianity. Remember, much of Spain had been under the Muslims for hundreds of years, and there had been dioceses without bishops and hence religious instruction that had kept functioning secretly but where the religion had gotten very confused.
The initial focus of the Inquisition were heretical movements, such as that of Luther, that had crept into various parts of the Catholic world. Jews were, in a sense, incidental, although they were more important in Spain because Spain had always had a large Jewish population, dating back to the Fall of the Temple. But even then, it was conversos that were the subject of the Inquisition, and the Inquisition was not seen as a missionary activity or an attempt to “convert” masses of anybody, Jews or otherwise.
The Court of Ferdinand and Isabella had many Jewish members, not even conversos, but Jews who were practicing Jews. Jews lived in their own separate areas of town, which they governed with their own law, but some of them also participated in city affairs and there were parts of Castilla where Jews were very influential.
Partly because of the clash of the nascent middle class with the hereditary nobility, Jews became the object of insane jealousy and were pawns, to some extent, in the fight between the merchant class, the nobility and the Crown. Being perceived as foreigners, they were a good target; in addition, the Visigothic (Germanic) kings who had invaded Spain after the fall of Rome had been extremely anti-Semitic and had placed many anti-Semitic laws on the books. These laws had rarely been enforced since the time of the Visigoths, but all of a sudden, they were “rediscovered.”
Isabella expelled the Jews (that is, not just conversos, but practicing Jews) quite unwillingly, but after a few truly hideous riots in some parts of Spain, she finally acknowledged that she was unable to protect them. She lost many valuable members of her court in the process, and she was well aware of this at the time.
As for the Inquisition, it essentially became nothing but a way of persecuting one’s political enemies. The Pope sent several bulls to Spain trying to stop it, but because of some powerful Inquisitors and their support by the royals (not Isabella, but subsequent Spanish rulers) he was simply ignored. It eventually ran out of steam, being reduced to things like burning somebody’s hat as a symbolic way of “executing” him and engaging in symbolic posthumous punishments as an attempt to tarnish political enemies who might have been that person’s descendants.
Don’t forget that Franco took in more refugee Jews than almost any other European country, and more than the US. He did so because he was very pious and regarded Jews as the people of Jesus Christ, and hence felt that it was his duty to offer them protection.
Thanks for you outline of the history on the Inquisition. I find blaming the Roman Catholic Church for ‘everything’ a King/Queen did over 1,000 years is as dishonest as blaming Protestant Kings/Queens or Presidents in the US or England for all the abortions that have happened in the last 100 years under their watch as a result of parliaments, congresses or courts. Churches can’t control or have influence over everything.
All in all, maybe its a good thing they lean on the Church. Deep down they want to lean on something solid.
Today we see alot of comments with the intention to disrupt the flow and content of the thread...return of the TLM in a limited fashion.
It’s meant to disrupt and disunify. How appropriate!!
Thank you for setting the record straight regarding the history of the Church vis-a-vis the Jews, and especially for your comments on Genm. Franco. I trust in God that someday he will be hailed as the hero he was rather than damned for the tyrant he was not.