Untitled - Shattering Denial

198
THE INQUISITION
"During this same period," says a contemporary his
torian,
"
fifteen thousand heretics did penance, and were
reconciled to the Church." l That makes a total of
seventeen thousand trials. We can thus understand
how Torquemada, although grossly calumniated, came
to be identified with this period, during which so many
thousands of converses appeared before the Spanish
tribunals. 2
The zeal of the Inquisitors seemed to abate after a time. 3
Perhaps they thought it better to keep the Jews and
the Mussulmans in the church by kindness. But kind
ness failed just
as force had failed. After one hundred
years, the number of obdurate conversos was as great as
ever. Several ardent advocates of force advised the
authorities to send them all to the stake. But the State
determined to drive the Moriscos from Spain, as it had
banished the Jews in 1492. Accordingly in September,
1609, a law was passed decreeing the banishment, under
penalty of death, of all Moriscos, men, women, and chil-
from 1481-1488; cf. Gams, Kirchengeschichte von Spanien, vol. iii, 2,
p. 69.
1 Pulgar, in Hefele, op. cit., p. 291.
2 Torquemada established the Inquisition in the different cities of Castile,
Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia.
a "The Inquisition of Valencia condemned one hundred and twelve con-
versos in 1538 (of whom fourteen were sent to the stake); at the auto de fe
of Seville, September 24, 1559, three were burned, and eight were reconciled
and sentenced to life-imprisonment; on June 6, 1585, the Inquisitors of Sara-
gossa in their account to Philip II speak of having reconciled sixty-three, and
of having sent five to the stake." Langlois, op. cit., p. 106.