Spain was the seat of the Golden Age of Moslem-Jewish civilization for centuries. From the year 711 Common Era (C.E.) when Arabs began to rule there, to 1212 C.E. when their influence began its decline, the world saw and envied a progressive period second to none in all history, on this North Western Mediterranean realm. As the Church gained power and influence over Spain, the brilliance of the “Golden Period” dimmed to a “Dark Age” so extreme that no Spaniard would in the centuries to come make any significant scientific contributions to the world’s knowledge.

So outrageous was the influence of Church dogma over the kingdom that in 1305 C.E., Spain actually banned the study of all sciences. Any deliberation, investigation, contemplation, instruction on any discipline which might challenge, doubt or look upon Church doctrine as suspect, was, indeed considered heresy, punishable by death. Thus, the first victims of the Church Inquisitors were Christian men of science. This was not the case just in Spain. Galileo barely missed burning at the stake in Italy’s Inquisition by renouncing publicly his scientific discoveries, going on to study in secret and silence.

Ironically, only Christians could commit heresy in the eyes of the Church, so it was only they who died by torch at the stake. Jews, Moslems, non-believers were exempt from the Inquisition until in later years the Church began to lose control and some non-Christians did fall prey to the savagery.

Hardest hit by the Inquisition were the Conversos or Marranos. Conversos were converts to Christianity. Never fully accepted by the Church which often forced or coerced them to accept salvation, they were often suspect and easily accused of heresy by their neighbors. Arrest and torture by the Inquisitors would usually bring about a “confession,” sometimes by the youngest member of a family, the child’s affirmation then condemning the entire family to the stake and flaming death.

Marranos were Jews who had been forced to convert but who never embraced Christianity. They in fact, continued to practice their Judaism in secret. These “Secret Jews” were given the name Marrano, the Spanish word for “swine.” Discovery of their clandestine practices meant unquestioned death.

To regain better control of this salvation and slaughter, Spain and the Church in 1482, appointed all Inquisitional powers in the kingdom to one Thomas de Torquemada, to crush all heretical inclination from the land, wherever it lurked. For the next decade the black smoke and screams went heavenward as the torture chambers brought forth “confession after confession.”

If the Church was looking forward to converting Jews to Christianity, she surely picked a poor way to win proselytes. It was quite obvious that the Conversos and Marranos were the most likely victims of the Inquisition. Even those who baptized out of a true belief in their new creed were more likely than not to die on a pyre.

For centuries, the Church had been frustrated by the Jews’ steadfast resistance to accept Christianity; any Jew who gave up the security of his religion during the Inquisition would have to be insane. Finally dispirited by his failure to bring the Jews to “salvation” Thomas de Torquemada petitioned the Pope to let him expel the Jews from Spain, expressing his belief that they posed a clear threat to the Catholic faith.

The Pope refused!

Thomas de Torquemada then brought pressure upon Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to banish the heathens from Spanish soil. At first, they refused but his influence in the Spanish Church created such an uproar among the Christian majority of the royal couples’ subjects that they relented.