The 1567 Spanish Inquisition Horror Tale (Published in Heidelberg)

Where are the bloodstained torture chambers & mass graves?  Where are the blood-stained roads leading from the 20 Inquisition courts to the 20 mass graves that were never found, in the first place?  356 years of case files give an account much different than the 1567 horror story published in Heidelberg.  Approximately 130,000 Inquisition case files have been preserved.  Only one damning account was published, and it's easy to prove false.  It was pre-war propaganda that triggered the traumatic Eighty Years War.  Propaganda kills.  It's a Jeannie that does not go back into its bottle.

Intro 

This subject is extremely pertinent at present, due to [1] the recent 300+ acts of vandalism upon Catholic Church infrastructure in America alone, [2] the FBI targeting as inevitable terrorists those people who prefer the Latin Mass, [3] the endless defamation against the Catholic Church of centuries past which infer that today's Catholic Church is the evil evil Whore of Babylon which must be wiped off the face of the Earth,   [4] the sabotage of Catholic churches throughout France,  [5] people cheering the burning of Catholic churches in Canada, in 2021,  [6] the recent murder of priests, nuns, and laymen in Africa, by Boko Haram ... and the murder of Catholics elsewhere --- just for being Catholic --- such as in Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan) ... and Syria.

You would have to be an airhead or an avowed liar to deny that Catholicism is once again under attack, as it was in centuries prior, during the persecutions orchestrated by:  [1] Nero Caesar,  [2] Aurelius,  [3] Decius,  [4] Gallus,  [5] Valerian,  [6] Diocletian,  [7] Visigoth King Athanaric,  [8] Persia's Shapur II,  [9] the Huns --- and other power-wielding entities, including *Henry VIII, **the two British Cromwells, *Otto von Bismark (during the 1872-78 "Kulturalkampf,")  *the American "Know-Nothing" Party of the mid-1800s,  *the Orthodox Russians of the late 1800s,  *the 20th Century Soviet Union,  *the Boxers of Tientsin China during the 1900 Yihetuan Movement,  *Killer Extraordinaire Mao Tse Tung,  *the Chinese Communist Party,  and *Muslim terror groups such as the previously mentioned Boko Haram.  

Added to the list is the buffoonish, yet deadly, *Adolph Hitler* who let 2,579 Roman Catholic priests die with the Jews at Dachau, proving that Hitler did NOT see the Roman Catholic Church as his bosom buddy.

Plus, exculpatory Inquisition findings reported by the BBC 29 years ago goes ignored in America.  So, we can thank the American public school system and American TV evangelists for that wide gap of missing knowledge which stretches throughout the minds of Americans everywhere.  All in all, it took much longer for me to have researched and then to have written this 4-part discourse than it will ever take for you to read it ... if you're a native English speaker ... and if you are not a product of the farcical American public school system.

The BBC began the reality check

As far back as 1994, the world renown British Broadcasting Corporation produced a documentary which surmised that the Spanish Inquisition Horror Story of the anonymous writer(s), Reginaldus Gonslavius Montanus, was summarily bull crap. 

Before all else, directly below is the link to the 1994 BBC documentary titled, The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition.   Each case brought before the 356 year-long inquisition had a case file attached to it, and the case files were preserved in the Spanish Inquisition archives.  The fact that the case files were meticulously done and reserved as well as museum antiques indicates a disciplined people.  That immediately negates the claim that the 16th Century Spanish were vile, psychopathic, depraved,  terroristic, gore-ridden, & out-of-control people.   These were the People of a maritime empire.  There were very much in control ... in control of themselves and in control of many tracts of European land, as well as being in control of the Americas and the Philippines.

In fact, a historian could easily write-off the one (and only one) hyper-exaggerated Inquisition horror story, because Spain --- both Castile & Aragon, as well as Catalonia --- had vibrant & influential knightly orders in existence.  That translates into a culture of civility, bearing a code of honor.

The BBC Documentary, MYTH OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION:

                             See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhlAqklH0do    

Concerning present-day America and its recent vandalism of 300+ Catholic church buildings ... as well as the FBI's recent memo targeting Latin-Mass Catholics the same way in which the cold-blooded killers of Soviet Russia did ... there has been a super-failure to convey reality to people whose knowledge is limited to the fifteen-second sound bytes of commercial TV newscasts.  Concerning the present American inability to communicate ... as well as the suppression of factual information throughout Digital America ... remember this:  

A person who speaks three languages is tri-lingual.  A person who speaks two languages is bilingual.  And a person who speaks only one language is an American.  How ironic it is that those who know Latin in America get officially targeted by the American FBI, as if knowing more than one language is criminal conduct.   

American paranoia is alive and thriving.  It did not end with McCarthyism.  In fact, today's woke don't realize how much they emulate & imitate   [1] Thomas Cromwell,   [2] Oliver Cromwell,   [3] the Know-Nothing Party's Bill "the butcher' Poole,   [4] the KKK,   [5] Hitler's Brown Shirts,   [6] Mussolini's Henchmen, and [7] the CCP.  There is nothing enlightening about the Woke Movement.  It's the same ole same ole; namely, a faction of dime-a-dozen thugs (in both lying word & in violent deed)  pretending to be the martyrs, making all other people the real martyrs in the process.  Thus, the de-evolution of mankind is superseding the theory of evolution.  Mankind is going backwards.  Mankind is devolving.

In the mindset of today's American government officials, knowledge is a dangerous thing that must be suppressed.  Thus, we have the Era of the American Moron which replaced the previous Era of the American Muscle Car & the American Motor Head.  Motor heads of the 1960s & 1970s were not stupid people.  Let us proceed, unless of course, you believe that knowledge is a dangerous thing.  Shall we? =======>

Qualifying Statement intended to shut Anti-Catholics up, until they can fabricate new lies to tell about the Catholic Church

The matter of 15th & 16th Century Spanish-America is a discourse of its own.  None the less, even when there were reports of criminal conduct in the American colonies, it was Christopher Columbus who ended up indicted in 1500 (during his third voyage), prosecuted & convicted.  He appealed.  He then got to take a fourth voyage in 1502.  He died in 1506.  

The bottom line is that he was not given a carte blanch, enabling him to do whatever he wanted.  However, in Spanish law there was a matter of gathering physical evidence, in order to convict you.  There were neither cameras nor internet access in those days ... nor fax machines.   So, do the math here as to why Columbus didn't hang from the highest tree branch.  None the less, after a rocky start, Central and South America eventually became a new nation of intermingling cultures, as opposed to a vast land of segregation.  

In 1537, a pope issued a papal bull (bulletin) which banned slavery in Latin America & in French America.  However, when the cat is away the mice will play ... as in Haiti.  Then, Anglo America turned slavery into a divine right.  And of course, Protestant Anglo America which rationalized slavery despised the Roman Catholicism which banned slavery. 

One more thing that enrages haters of Catholicism:  A number of the Conquistadors were ====> Jewish, and NOT converted Jews.  BTW, the author of this discourse has Jewish ancestry.  So, cut it out with the alternate version of "Witch!  Witch!"  The alternate version is "Antisemite!  Antisemite!"  The author here IS a Semite with Italian & Greek ancestry ... and French & Irish ancestry ... as well as Spanish & Peruvian ancestry, as well as other ancestries, including  Gujarati Indian, according to his DNA test results.   So, you can take your fake & pompous self-righteousness and ... and ...  you can ... Well, you know the drill.

False Light Defamation against Catholicism

In fact, the Bishop of Mexico City wrote to the Spanish crown around 1530, reporting on the abusive events that needed halted.  That bishop did NOT look the other way.   And yes, I am well aware that the Encyclopedia Britannica people dispute the time line.  Well, the bottom line is that Mexico City houses a miraculous image on a common tilma that has no scientific explanation to it.  It caused a rapid spread of a Middle Eastern religion throughout much of the Americas.   See:  Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The papal act of banning slavery in newly found America, while it was inhabited by Spanish and/or Portuguese and/or French, is found in Sublimis Deus, June 2, 1537: Pope Paul III.  So, you must erase all of your online defamation which very falsely claims that the Catholic Church started slavery.  Or else we can discuss this matter which at least one federal magistrate.  and know that attorneys are outrageously expensive, these days.  It's your call.

Three different popes, at the different times, in three different geographic regions banned slavery.  Plus, the Catholic Church had established two religious orders dedicated to paying ransoms to Muslim captors, for pirated European kidnap-victims who were turned into sex-slaves, inter alia.  AND, the Dutch Calvinists were the masters of the Atlantic slave trade, at its outset.  No slave docks were in Rome, and no pope was selling slaves.  The true Church teaches that slavery is Defraudment of Laborors of their Wages, and such a thing is One of the Four Sins which Cry to Heaven for Vengeance.

BTW, when you read the words, papal bull, think "papal BULLETIN."

To Claim that slavery was started by the Catholic Church which forbade it three times is defamation

A pope ordered the end of slavery in the Philippines, on April 18, 1591, as well.  A number of subsequent popes condemned slavery, even while the very Anti-Catholic Confederate South lived off of chattel slavery.  But of course, the Protestant South declared all popes to be the Antichrist, even though the Sacred Script prophesies that only one Antichrist was left to come ... in the future.  There were over 260 popes since that prophecy.  

So, which pope was the Antichrist?  ANS:  None of them.   Protestants market Fear of Catholicism, in order to fill up their Protestant church pews and fill their tax-free collection baskets.  After all, American political candidates are known for defaming their opponents.  The anti-Catholicism of Protestant America has always been nothing more than political mudslinging.

Protestant Motive for Defaming Catholic Church:  Tax-free collection basket income

Incidentally, Protestant fanatics are liars obsessed with defaming the Catholic Church, so that Catholics will start going to a Protestant fanatic's "house of worship" and put lots of tax-free collection basket money into the fanatic preacher's baskets.  Now, back to the regularly scheduled discourse:

A  pope also intervened 16 years before Columbus was even born, concerning slavery in the Canary Islands.   Pope Eugene IV was the one who ordered it to be halted.  See:  Sicut Dudem, January 1435; Against the Enslaving of Black Natives in the Canary Islands.  

Note:  The ANTI-CATHOLIC propagandists claim that the aforementioned papal bulletin only freed Catholic slaves.  No.  That is yet another lie of those inciting violence against Roman Catholics.  The fact was that Roman Catholics were ordered to free all slaves. 

By the way, the anti-Catholic propaganda machine claims that all of slavery began with a pope's bulletin, in 1452.  Uhhhhm, it was a declaration of war against the Saracens who spent centuries invading Christian Europe, kidnapping European women for sex slavery, kidnapping children for other types of slavery, and inhabiting European lands as their conquering rulers.  This included Sicily, Bari Italy and surrounding terrain.  This included the "Saracens'" failed attempts to takeover certain lands they invaded, such as Sardinia.   

The papal order was to stop the marauding Saracens, and to then make them into prisoners of war, so that they will stop raping Catholic women.  After all, how would you like it if a bunch of Saracens marauded into your childhood neighborhood and raped your mama?  Yes, that's right ... Your Mama.

The Two Previously Mention Ransom Payed to Muslim Captors/Kidnappers

Throughout the Medieval & Renaissance Era, the two religious orders dedicated to freeing the captives of Muslim marauders, by paying ransom to the marauding Muslims, were the Trinitarians and Order of Our Lady of Mercy, also known as the Knights of Saint Eulaia.  Today, it's members are known as the Mercedarians.  That order was founded in 1218 by Peter Nolasco.  Now, the irony about the Trinitarians is that Muslims regarded as the worse trash ob Earth those who believed in the Holy Trinity.  Yet, the Muslim captors were not too good for the money shelled-out by the Trinitarians for the freedom of European kidnap victims.

Falsely accusing Catholics as being the founders of Atlantic Slavery is ultra-insulting to Irish Catholics, being that the Irish were made slaves in their own land, while watching their forests get decimated.  For those in the American public school system, know that there used to be "a saying" which reminded Europe that "the British navy was built from Irish oak."  The British literally stole the forests of the Irish, doing so while Britain was a Protestant country.

 Missionaries of the Sword ... to the Christian Neck   

Muslims attacked and occupied Christian lands for hundreds of consecutive years --- long before the first crusade.   BTW, the first Crusade came about, because Greek-powers-that-be asked for help from the Roman Catholics, to divert the path of the Muslims from Greece.  At the time, the Muslims had a free route into Greece.  So, the original crusade was done to prevent Greece from becoming overrun by a religion whose main practice was that of invading lands and killing inhabitants who would not submit to the invaders' religion.

The Muslim Moors invaded Spanish land in 711, when Roman Catholics were minding their own business.  They were asked to invade Spain by the Basques who, historically, are not the most charitable people on Earth.  That was 385 YEARS before the first Crusade.  

The same Muslims invaded French territory, while Roman Catholics there were minding their own businesses there, also.  This invasion resulted in the famous Battle of Tours, in 732 A.D. (C.E.).  That was 364 YEARS before the first Crusade.  In fact, Muslims attacked Jerusalem and its Catholic king, in 638 A.D. (C.E.) --- 458 YEARS before the first Crusade .  So, Muslims were invading Christian lands -- and taking Christian slaves --- hundreds of years before the first Crusade (in 1095) ever happened.  

Thus, it is defamatory to claim that, in 1095, the Muslims were minding their own business ... polishing their halos ... when, all of a sudden, the evil evil white European Christians came a coming.  At the time, the Muslims were slowly approaching Constantinople, and the Muslims already had a track record of invading Northern African, Anatolia, Persia, and Southern European lands, starting in 632 C.E.  Incidentally,  Anatolia is Turkey and Persia is Iran. .  

The Muslims eventually conquered Constantinople and named it Istanbul ... in 1453.  Then came the First Siege of Vienna, in 1529 ... the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 ... and the Second Siege of Vienna, in 1638.  Muslims attacked and attacked and attacked Europe, over and over and over again, since the 711, (actually 661) under the Umayyad rulers.  The terrorism of the 20th & 21st Century was in keeping with Muslim tradition ... literally.  In fact, September 11, 2001 was a Muslim invasion upon New York and D.C.  The message was, "Submit or die."

New York, September 2001.  The Muslim Way.

In review, the Christians were already in Jerusalem when Muslims invaded it and started a siege upon its inhabitants, thereby ending Christian freedom-of-religion there.  You need to understand that Islam means "to submit," and the doctrinal goal of Muslims is to have the entire Earth "submit" to . . . you know whom.

For hundreds of years, Muslims invaded Christian lands, as well as having pirated ships occupied by Christian women who ended up being kidnap-victims and sex slaves.  This practice even endured into the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, necessitating him to act.  In as much, the very first military operation ever done by the United States Marine Corps was to free the victim-slaves of the marauding Muslims of Northern Africa.  This is why the Marine anthem mentions "the shores of Tripoli."  Moreover, in that exact same geographic region ... called Libya ... slavery still exists today.  

Pan Am Flight 103 wreckage.  Unarmed civilians murdered.  Also the Muslim Way.

News Flash:  Catholics were slaves in history

Protestant Idolatry

Take note that Protestantism identified itself with the names of mere 16th Century mortals, as if they were all the new messiahs.  The names included Luther, Calvin, Bezanson Hugues (the Huguenots), Menno Simons (the Mennonites), etc.  This adds to the Protestant hypocrisy of calling Catholic idolaters.  Even in 20th Century America, Southern Baptists often had a poster of the idol of their age on a wall.  His name was Elvis Presley.  

Take note that the Baptists of the Deep South damned Catholics for having paintings of the Virgin Mary in their homes.  But it was super-fine to prominently display a picture of Elvis Presley.  Needless to say, Roman Catholics do NOT believe that the Mother of Christ created the universe.  Likewise, no Southern Baptist believes that Elvis created the universe. 

Tragic end.

As a preview to a possible future discourse on early Spanish America: [1] a number of the conquistadors where Jewish ... not converted Jews.  [2] The Aztec Empire was still practicing human sacrifice, and that ongoing crime needed to be ended. [3] The Incan Empire practiced human sacrifice, also.  [4] Conquistadors were being payed a disappointingly lower-than-expected wage for their efforts, and this created animosity. [5] A miraculous event in 1531 changed Spanish/Native relations to the point of resulting in a new nation - new culture - even new race --- a mixed race.  [6] Even at that, people need to remember the axiom, "When the cat is away, the mice will play."  Spain's king and queen were far away.  [7] The great killer of 16th Century America was small pox ... not musket fire and/or swords.

White Anglo-Saxon Protestant Racism in Print

The 1567 Inquisition horror tale was extremely RACIST, in its generalizations of the Spanish People per se.  It was an ad hominid character assassination of an entire nation of people (two kingdoms and Catalonia) who are not the whitest people in existence.  By the way, that sole 1567 Spanish Inquisition horror story was pre-war propaganda for the Netherlands conflict which would turn into the 80 Years War.  At the time, the Netherlands was under Spanish Rule.

In fact, Calvinist fanatics were sneaking into the Netherlands (Walloon & Flanders & Holland) dressed as peasants.  They then committed acts of violence and sabotage during the same year when the Montanus Tale of the Spanish Inquisition was published.  That's very hypocritical, being that the Calvinists were were performing violence without warning.

In keeping with hypocrisy is the modern propagandists pointing out that, in 1565, Spanish Royal Army troops "massacred"  French Huguenots, at Matanzas Inlet, Florida ... without also mentioning that, in 1555, French Hugueonots executed 40 Roman Catholic clergy members in Brazil.   The Spanish acted directly under the orders of King Philip I, husband of British Queen Mary I.  The Spanish were defending its American clergy ... and were fighting against the invasion of the French government, in an invasion directly prohibited by a papal bulletin.  Then, after that military operation, Jean Ribault ... the French navy commander of the area ... ordered an assault upon the Spanish of Florida.  His French fleet was lost in a storm ... aka hurricane.  Jean Ribault was a Huguenot blown away by the wind.

Spanish Inquisition Timeline    

The Spanish Inquisition existed from 1478 to 1834.  It was established five years before Martin Luther was even born.  It was founded 43 years BEFORE Martin Luther was excommunicated for his unrepentant insistence on adhering to 41 doctrinal heresies, inter alia.   Thus, the Spanish Inquisition was NOT created to execute Lutherans.

(NOTE for those of you in the American public school system: This does NOT refer to the civil rights activist of the 1960s, named Martin Luther KING.  This discourse refers to the very white, antisemitic, overweight, admittedly flatulent & constipated ale drinker who had a documented "seizure disorder" in the 16th Century.  Therefore, when the Spanish Inquisition was founded, Lutherans didn't even exist.)

This was mentioned, because, when I was speaking of the very white 16th Century Martin Luther once, a product of the American public school system thought that I was referring to the civil rights activist who was shot to death on April 4, 1968.  That graduate was only 451 years off the mark.  In fact, that person had no idea that there existed a very white 16th Century German man named Martin Luther, in the first place.  Way to go, American Public School System.  Dumbing them down the American Way.

Inquisition Archives

Now, decades ago, the Spanish government opened the archives to the public the same way in which public library contents are made available to none other than . . . the Public.  The BBC took up the Spanish government on its open invitation, and payed credentialed historians to report on their findings, after they scoured --- sifted through --- the Inquisition archives.  

Now, there were 20 tribunals ... which were the same as 20 "district courts."  Thus, there were 20 archives to research.   Once again ... for the sake of convenience, the 1994 BBC documentary is once again linked directly below, for your convenience:

THE MYTH OF THE SPANISH INQUISITION:

                             See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhlAqklH0do     

Added Note:  Except for a couple of quick quotes, that which is mentioned in the BBC documentary is NOT addressed in this discourse, and that which is mentioned in this discourse is NOT addressed in the 1994 BBC documentary.

Simply remember that the BBC producers only had fifty-some commercial-free minutes to present their case.  So, there was still a lot to convey on the Spanish Inquisition, all of which shows that the 1567 horror story of Reginaldus Montaus was total bull crap & the defamation of an entire nation.

The Real Spanish Inquisition, Part 2

Above:  The Peace of Munster Oath, ending the 80 Yrs War.  The end of that war coincided with the end of the very traumatic 30 Yrs War.  Protestantism did NOT bring peace to 16th Century Europe, as St Francis of Assisi brought peace to 13th Century Italy.  Protestantism brought War.  The true church reformer was Francis.  Neither Luther nor Calvin nor Simons had the stigmata of Christ's crucifixion wounds.  Francis did, though.  Take a hint from God.

Thesis:

European governments of the 16th Century either began as ... continued as ... or transformed into ===> Theocracies.  There was no concept of individual choice in one's religion.  However, there was a major irony & contradiction in this, in that:

Catholics could individually make their own personal choice in spirituality, in choosing between [1] Franciscanism (taught by the Order of the Friars Minor), or [2] Dominicanism (taught by the Order of Preachers which ironically included the writings of a woman named Catherine of Siena) or [3] Carmelitism which included devotion to Elijah and John the Baptist, or [4] Augustinian Spirituality,  [5] the charity of the "ransom orders," such as the Trinitarians and the Mercedarians, which were dedicated to freeing captive & persecuted Catholics, [6] even the knightly orders, [7+] as well as other specific devotions.  

Yet, there would be an elaborately compiled  'official prayer of the Church' known as the Liturgy of the Hours ... or the Divine Office .. which gravitated around the Psalms, Book of Wisdom, Book of Sirach, and other Biblical texts.  Priests would be bound to pray a small fraction of this each day.  

None the less, in 16th Century Catholicism, there had been 1,450+ years of synods, ecumenical councils, theological writings and debate, to figure things out.  Protestantism had a handful of guys who said that things are going to be this way ... or that way ... in a profession of faith called "a confession," and if you don't publicly agree with that new profession of faith written by two or three well-fed guys (especially in Protestant Switzerland), then you die (died).  This included other Protestants, such as in Switzerland, where Anabaptists were drowned-to-death.

Plus, in Catholicism, there would be a specific theology on the nature of God and the nature of man.  The theology on the nature of man included moral theology which was taught as law and NOT as suggestion or opinion.  This was regarded as Natural Law.  

Even a person electing to become a monk would choose the monastic order of his choice, provided that the monastic order found him to be fit to serve.  However, when it came to Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Puritanism, there was a tight grip on the adherents of those religions.  Freedom of thought was thrown out the door.

In matters of faith and fidelity to the true God, there is a process.  There was even a process of God's Revelation to man, as was charted in Scriptural text.  After all, it took approximately one thousand year to complete the Old Testament.  With the New Testament, it was a matter of manpower --- in the number of people it took to complete the New Testament --- from Mark to Luke to Peter to Paul to James to Jude and then John, not to mention Matthew and all of the assistants involved.  

There was no one Martin-Luther-Only doing the job of defining Catholic dogma, as if Luther were a divine being unto himself.  There was no sole-John-Calvin in Catholicism, bringing forth all knowledge to all mankind.  There were ecumenical councils which involves every available bishop, time after time, along with one presider, the pope, to prevent confusion.

Then came a council where it was formally declared infallibly, that no pope could delete a single infallible statement established in any previous ecumenical council, once the presiding pope of that previous council signed it into doctrine.  Thus, no subsequent pope can change the doctrine declared as such by previous popes and their advisory --- and scholarly --- councils.  

If memory serves me correctly, that decisive council was the Council of Basel, in the 1430s.  It was  associated with the Councils of Florence and Ferrara which were councils intended to rid religious life and the priesthood of chaos and confusion.  That infallible statement was in one of those three councils, where a pope can NEVER invalidate, abrogate, repeal, delete, discard any previous infallible statement of an ecumenical council that was affirmed by the presiding pope.  God is changeless.  Thus, the doctrine of God, God's nature, & God's will are unchangeable.  Sort of like an evergreen tree.  For those uninformed, Germans used evergreens for Christmas trees to symbolize the changelessness of God.  So stated for the record.

Now, Protestantism was a case of one-man-shows, with an assistant here and an assistant there.  There are a number of examples of 15th & 16th Century Shape-Shifters of the Church, where Christianity was presented as a one-man show.  The one-man shows ended up splintering and becoming new one-man shows with a new preacher man, over and over again.  Protestantism came to be spiritual cell division.  Split after split after split after split.

Remember the theme of the anti-Catholics obsessed with perpetuating the Nightmarish Inquisition Tale which had long since been proven to be a myth:

It's very simple:  "The Catholic haters" are obsessed with clinging to the mostly fabricated 1567 Inquisition Tale so that, in 2023, "they" can officially declare the One Holy, Catholic & Apostolic Church founded by Jesus Christ to, instead, be the Whore of Babylon ... instead of being the only Bride of Christ.  Catholicism was the FIRST CHRISTIANITY, and God is changeless.  So, do the math on this topic.   

Protestants condemned and still condemn "tradition," because Protestantism had no tradition.  It was a new start-up religion in 1521 ... without a past and therefore zero tradition.  That amounted to approximately 1461 years AFTER the original surviving apostles ... and St. Matthias ... distributed their first official teaching on Christianity.  It was called, the Didache and it was/is 16 chapters in length.

Now, St. Paul ... in the Bible ... instructed his converts to also adhere to all that Paul taught them "orally" ... "in spoken word."  Spoken word is known as tradition.  Therefore, adhering to Tradition IS BIBLICAL.  

Catholicism has tradition.  Protestantism does NOT.  This makes Protestantism fake Christianity.  After all, Lutheranism didn't start until 1,493 years after the Star of Bethlehem was seen by learned Magi.  Protestantism is equivalent to the fraudulent marathon runner who sneaks into the race at the 25th mile mark, making it look as if the fraudulent competitor started at the beginning.

The same anti-Catholic propagandists who assert that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon also assert that there is very little evidence of the Inquisition, but that the Heidelberg text of one Reginaldus Gonslavius Montanus is true anyway.  Well, that assertion is a compound falsehood.  Take Note:::

[1] There is no evidence which supports the ridiculously hyped-up overkill of the Heidelberg publication.  But, there are literally TONS of pages of evidence attached to the Spanish Inquisition, in the form of case files; 356 years of such files.  Every case brought before the Inquisition (which operated from 1478 to 1834) had a case file attached to it.  

Spanish Inquisition case files were kept well-preserved in the Inquisition archive system throughout the centuries.  This amounts to the undeniable records of approximately 130,000 cases that were brought before the Inquisition.  In contrast, one and only one horror story was written by an anonymous person shortly before the start of the 80 Years War.  The whole thing was pre-war propaganda.

[2] Being that there has never been found any mass graves, any bloodstained torture chamber walls, any blood-soaked road that leads to any mass grave, and no bloodstained torture devices, the 1567 Inquisition horror story is most probably a fraud composed with malice aforethought --- and not an error made in good faith.  The reasonable person would conclude the that whole damn thing is a premeditated lie.  Moreover, that 1567 tale was sheer, hate-ridden racism, evidenced by the anonymous writer calling the Spanish (per se) "the children of Satan."

Now, it's hard to fathom Ricardo Montalban as being the Son of Satan.  None the less, according to Montanus, the Antichrist will be Spanish.  But in reality, the real antichrist will simply claim himself to be the Messiah prophesied by the ancient Jewish prophets.  HOWEVER, anyone who professes belief in the Nicene Creed is not possibly the Antichrist.  This is because the creed states that Jesus the Nazarene is the Christ.  The moment you state that Jesus the Nazarene is the Son of God made man, you disqualify yourself as a candidate for the long awaited Antichrist.

Dozens of popes came after Luther's bold "Antichrist accusation of 1520."  Yet, no pope claimed himself to be the Messiah, and no pope forced humanity to wear "the engraving of the Beast."  In fact, they all prayed the following: "I believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only son of the Father.  God from God.  Light from Light.  True God from true God.  Begotten, not made.  One in being with the Father.  Through him all things were made."  In as much, it's impossible to be the Antichrist if you can vocally pray the Apostle's Creed.

Now, Martin Luther claimed that the pope of 1520 (Leo X) was the Antichrist.   Well, Leo died in 1521 without ushering in the Great Apostasy and without declaring himself the Messiah.  Luther was a false prophet.  Then, the next pope (Adrian VI) died in 1523, making Luther a double false prophet.  This is because Adrian did NOT claim himself to be the Christ, either ... and he did not require anyone to wear the "Mark of the Beast."  (Actually, it's "the engraving of the Beast" --- the charagma, in Greek).  And Pope Adrian surely didn't make anyone worship the Beast.  Thus, he was NOT the Antichrist Luther made him out to be.  

Then came Clement VII who died in 1534 without ushering in the Age of the Antichrist, either.  This made Luther a triple false prophet.  Next came the Pope Paul III who faithfully adhered to Catholic Church marriage law.  He did NOT claim himself to be the Messiah, and he did NOT make anyone wear the "mark of the beast" on the forehead or on the hand, either.  This made Luther a QUADRUPLE FALSE PROPHET, invalidating the ornery Martin Luther completely. 

Luther spent his life doing nothing more than setting the stage of nearly two centuries of European warfare.  Luther died in 1546, and in the past 477 years, no pope turned out to be the Antichrist, and no pope presented to humanity any Antichrist, as messiah.  All popes until at least 2013 claimed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah prophesied by Isaiah and other Jewish prophets.  To claim Jesus to be the Messiah is to instantly disqualify yourself as the dreaded Antichrist. 

Luther was and is a defamatory liar.  Luther died in his defamatory sins and in his false prophesying.  If you are a follower of him, then you are wasting your life away.  BTW, the Elector of Saxony (Freddy III) and the King of Denmark (Christian III --- more like "anti-christian" III) did more to establish the Lutheran religion than did Luther and his academic confreres.  Through edict, Lutheranism was literally forced upon the people of [1] Norway, [2] Denmark, [3] Sweden, [4] Finland, [5] Saxony, and [6] Brandenburg.  Wherever there was Lutheranism, there was no freedom of religion.  In fact, wherever there was the 16th Century, there was no freedom of religion.  Religion was seen as a cultural identifier & the definer of a nation's boundaries.   Religion was like a sports team's uniform or a military uniform.  You weren't allowed to be out of uniform, back in those days.

Take note that these anti-Catholic propagandists state that the One Holy Catholic & Apostolic Church guided by God the Holy Spirit is the great persecutor of Holy Holy "Bible-Believing-People."  Well, Protestants stole the Bible from Jews & Catholics, with the New Testament being a sole Catholic production.   The Catholic Church has always used the Bible far far far more often than the Protestants ever did.  Here is a vivid example:

You have heard of the Gregorian Chant ... correct?  Well, what exactly are monks chanting when they do the Gregorian Chant?  ANS:  Passages of the Bible, in the Liturgy of Hours, also known as the Divine Office --- along with devotional reflections written after the New Testament texts.  The monks chanted the Psalms, among other things.   Catholics use and always have used the Bible far more often than do Protestants.  

The Protestant obsession with "Bible Only" is because they had no tradition

The claim that Catholics hid the Bible from humanity is like a candidate defaming his opponent in the upcoming election.  The big problem is that Christianity is a monarchy, and NOT a congress of politicians who use the art of lying to get elected.   Christ the King is not amused when the only church he ever founded is called invalid.  To claim such a thing is to claim that Christ and his Spirit committed gross dereliction of duty from 325 AD to 1517 AD --- or that evil evil popes stuffed God away and made God accessible to man, as if God weren't all-powerful.  You can see Bible passages, in picture-form, on stained-glass Medieval church, shrine, and cathedral windows.

Anglo America's original hatred of Catholicism dating back to backwoods hicks 

Anti-Catholic American Protestants simply hate anything as classical as the Gregorian Chant.  Those anti-Catholics simply prefer what a city slicker calls hick music -- hoopie music ... yee-haw music --- briar hopper music --- twanging guitar (pronounced ghi-tar & "ghit-tar," as in "Play this here ghittar.")  This is ironic, because at the start of Luther's rebellion, the European city slicker chose Protestantism, while the country folk of Europe retained Catholicism.  Today, it's quite the opposite, especially in America.

Protestantism is the act of taking the profane and calling it sacred.  It calls being "boldly sinful" salvation.  It's Orwellian, and it led to the consolidation of the Nazi Party.  And yes, Luther advocated that the Jews should have been expelled from Germany ... by government authorities and not by lynch mobs.  Well, a very deadly German government followed Luther's advice ... in the 1930s & 1940s.

All in all, if it were not for the Catholic Church's existence, from the Years 26 to 1517 C.E. (A.D.), no Protestant alive today would have even heard the name, Jesus.  The Catholic Church had been the promoter of ... the protector of ... the steward of ... the Holy name of Jesus & the New Testament, long before Luther had his first seizure.  Moreover, European Protestants all have ancestors who were Roman Catholic for 400, 600, and even 900 years running.  They can't deny that.  This means that shelf of the ancestors are burning in Hell for all Eternity ... either for being Roman Catholic, from the 500s to the 1400s ... or for being Protestants from 1521 to present. 

None the less, John Adams used to belittle the Catholic Mass, as if it were a superstitious ritual.  But, in reality it consisted in basic intellectual things.  The Mass comprises [1] An entrance song or the reading of one Biblical sentence,  [2] an opening prayer that acknowledged mankind's sinfulness as it applied to each individual present, followed by a repetition of 'Lord/Christ have mercy."  Such a thing is called, "the Confiteur, which means "I confess,"   [3] Then comes Bible reading.  [4] Then comes homily/sermon time.  [5]  Then comes the consecration of unleavened bread and grape wine.  

Apparently, John Adams had the hardest time believing in transubstantiation and the concept of "the Body, Blood, Soul, & Divinity of Jesus Christ" in a cosmological venue that is not instantly understand by man's very finite and very limited ... and often distracted ... mind.  Adams needed to meditate on the Biblical account of the Road to Emmaus.  All Catholic haters who read the Bible should do so.

The Sacred vs the Secular (synonymous with the "profane")

In Protestantism, there is no such thing as differentiating the sacred from the secular.  So, they claim secular hillbilly hick music to be the sacred music played by angels in Heaven.  They claim secular hoopie music of briar hoppers to be the choice of the very Jewish Jesus Christ who, instead hearing a hick guitars, heard Greek chants in his lifetime.  After all, Nazareth was a heavily Greek-influenced city.  In fact, the renown St Paul of Tarsus was known as a "Hellenistic Jew," aka a "Greek Jew."  In fact, the author of this discourse has Greek ancestry.  This shows that the world really is round and its trails intersect each other.

None the less, Protestantism is a very profane religion that has no concept of consecrating anything or anyone.  After all, its preachers wear business suits, and NOT consecrated garments as did the ancient Jewish religion and all forms of sacramental Christianity which includes Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

The sacred Music of the middle & western Mediterranean regions is regarded as Satanic by more rural American Anglo factions of humanity --- because it's foreign to them, and anything foreign is not seen as fascinating, but rather, it's seen as evil.  That's the mindset of the Isolationist.

At this point, remember the following: The lower the education level of the person the more fear the person carries.  Greta Thunberg and her complete absence of knowledge in Atmospheric Science & Meteorology is today's brightest example --- the example of Fear in the Place of Ignorance.  This is especially the case in 2023, being that, in merely 7 months after the "perpetual 'climate change' drought prediction" was consolidated by the media & UN, Planet Earth instead enjoyed record snowpacks, ample rain, the opposite of global warming, and the bountiful replenishment of dams.  It didn't take 7 year for that doomsday prediction to be proven false.  It took only 7 months.  In her uneducated state and in crippling fear, Greta was suckered into believing such predictions which have now quickly blown away with the wind.

So, Anglo-Saxons of low education hate the concept of Latin.  The great irony with them is that the English language is half Latin, being that the Roman Empire ruled parts of England for centuries.  Way to go, Anglo-Saxon Roman Haters.  If you hate Italians that badly, then you need to stop speaking zee Englishia which happens to be semi-Latin.

For the record, the music of the Eastern Mediterranean region is in 2/4 time, and it's very much different than the Greco-Roman "sound modes" of the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydia, etc, "tonalities."  2-4 time is called, "Tribal Time" in music school.  The Jews identified as tribes.  The Greeks and Romans were a bit more sophisticated in managing their societies.  I'll stop here, before turning this text into a music history class. 

Concerning the 1567 horror story of "Montanus," it's an easily understood premise that, before one goes to war, one needs to make sure that he does it when his enemy has a full schedule --- when the enemies' hands are full and are unable to dedicate their full strength to the war you are trying to hatch.  And coincidentally enough, Spain was  [1] in its tenth year of war against France,  [2] while the Habsburg Dynasty which controlled Spain & the Netherlands was in its 40th consecutive year of warfare against the Ottoman Empire.  

Plus, there was [3] Spain's Conquest of the Inca Empire [4] and trouble in the Philippines with the "Dagohoy Rebel Group" there.   This caused a distancing between England and Spain.  So, that alliance was fading away.  After all, Spain was really really busy in those days and didn't have time for England, even though it really could have used England against the rebellions in the Netherlands.

The Final Muslim/Catholic War in Spain

And yes, I'm well aware of the 77 executions per year, in the last six years of the Granada War against the occupier Moors.  Divide 77 by 20 tribunals, aka "district courts," and it only amounts to 4 executions per year per district tribunal, on the average.  But of course, the executions would logically have been concentrated at the one tribunal (district court);the one nearest to Granada, the former capital of Andalusia ... aka Moorish Spain.   This would translate into approximately 5 1/2 executions per month in one district court throughout the duration of that war.  War brings an increase in executions anywhere there is war.  However, this number isn't anywhere near the number used by anti-Catholics in 19th & 20th Century America, when anti-Catholicism was a religion onto itself.

Even in the newly formed British American colonies, you could be put to death for stealing a horse in New England.  You could even be put to death in South Carolina, for wrecking a tobacco crop.  This is because, at one time, tobacco leaves were colonial currency.   In fact, in the Wild Wild West, a person could get hung for stealing a horse.

The thesis statement is that Spain did nothing more violent than any other European sovereignty at the time.  Moreover, the Spanish Inquisition did NOT perform any of the sick & twisted tortures mentioned in the one Reginaldus Montanus tale published in 1567.  The French, British, Scottish, etc individually had their executions too, relatively close to the same statistical number as did the Spanish.  The nation which went overboard in executions was none other than . . . Russia.

And of course, neither in British America nor in Spain were there iron maidens, plums of agony, or similar torture devices of a sick & twisted nature. 

29 Years Later

It has now been 29 years since the production of the the BBC Spanish Inquisition documentary.  The most important point at this point is that, in the past 28 years, numerical statistics on the Spanish Inquisition have become much more exact ... concise ... like a major league team's scorecard ... like an accountant's tax return ... like an almanac author's weather history report.  This included the number of executions which occurred in the Inquisition's 356 year history, as well as the number of people investigated and brought to trial ... and even the categories of cases.  

For example, the number of people who were investigated for advancing the Lutheranism which stole Roman Catholic real estate in Northern Europe ... done under the guise of being moved by the Holy Spirit ... were 3,499, between 1560 and 1700.   That also amounts to an average of 25 Lutheran cases per year, in a 140 year period.  That also amounts to an average of  ONLY 1.25 Lutheran cases a year, per tribunal court.  

The reality was that accusations of secret Lutherans undermining the Church occurred mostly in the Valladoid and Seville regions of Spain, starting in 1558, where there already were Protestant communities.  The reality was 25 cases per year at Seville.  It was NOT the 100,000 that were asserted during the early decades of Anti-Catholic 20th Century.  

In the 1550s, Catholic Spain and Protestant England were allies against Catholic France.  England regarded Lutherans as the enemy to the Church of England, founded by Henry.  Thus, both Spanish Catholics and British Anglican Church authorities saw Lutherans as a very hostile enemy.  After all, Lutherans successfully stole Roman Catholic Church property in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Saxony, and Brandenburg.  For some reason, 16th Century Lutherans did NOT have the concept of building their own churches.  Ironically, the Church of England which stole all Roman Catholic Church real estate didn't want Lutherans taking over their turf.

The daughter of Henry VIII, namely Elizabeth, put Lutherans to death during her reign.  In like manner, approximately 100 Lutherans were executed by the Seville tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition ("district court") between 1558 and 1562.  And of course, 1558 was the year when Elizabeth I became  Queen of England.  Thus, the Spanish Inquisition was acting in tandem with Elizabeth I.  The goal was to keep the Lutherans of Central Europe out of Western Europe.   

Only in the 1580s did Elizabeth end friendly relations with Spain.  She then ordered a full persecution of Catholicism in England.  It came as a result of Elizabeth knowing that Catholics wanted England to return to the Roman Catholic status it had since 597 A.D.  This would include deposing her ... overthrowing the House of Tudor.  Elizabeth was not going to have anything to do with that.  So, the persecution which was started by her father was resumed by her.

Q ::: Concerning the Lutherans in the Seville area, here is a question:  Who would have reported them to the Inquisition?  ANS:  The Moriscos (Muslim converts.)  Seville was thriving.  It was an Indies Trade post, 25 miles from the Gulf of Cadiz.  Yet, it was a refuge for the poor and the displaced.  So, "runaway Lutherans" would find their ways there.

Moriscos knew how Luther advocated the ousting of the Jews from Germany.  Moriscos were not too far away from that destiny in Europe.  Lutherans in Spain could easily sabotage the hopes of the Moriscos and have them be treated like Jews.  So, the Lutherans had to go away --- the hard way.  Yet, the Inquisition was actually marked with numerous cases where leniency was granted --- even to Lutherans.

It was the BBC who claimed that Leniency was the Policy of the Spanish Inquisition 

Now, the 1994 BBC documentary's mentioned that the Spanish Inquisition employed a lot of leniency.  An example I found is that, from 1563 to the end of the 16th Century, an additional 200 persons were put on trial in Spain for propagating the Lutheran Agenda.   Yet, only 12 of those 200 people were executed.  Thus, 15 out of 16 Lutheran-promoters were allowed to live, after a Spanish Inquisition judgment was rendered.  This is fact, and this is opposite of the asininity hyper-exaggerated Montanus Tale.

Executions came in waves,  usually during wartime.  But, at no time did the Spanish use the ridiculously narrated torture chamber antics mentioned in the very fraudulent 1567 tale.  War propaganda & pre-war propaganda is expected to be a hyper-exaggerated lie.  But, that lie has been used by Catholic-hating Protestants for 400+ years, and the incessant lying about the Inquisition needs to stop. 

Concerning Seville, the Montanus Tale was asserted to have been written by a Spaniard once stationed near Seville, as a monk.  Well, this Spaniard was burnt in effigy three or four year prior to the publication of the Montanus Tale.  

Q:: Do you know what it means to be burnt in effigy in 16th Century Spain?  ANS:  It means that they haven't caught up to you and did NOT burn the real you.  It means that you evaded capture --- that you "got away" and were free.  Thus, a person burnt in effigy is one who never appeared before Inquisition lawyers or judges.  In as much, if that certain Spanish person did write the 1567 Montanus Tale, it was NOT written from personal experience, being that he was never caught by the Inquisition.  It was NOT an eyewitness account.  It was deliberate pre-war propaganda.

The Newly  Found Letter

I mentioned a newly found and authenticated letter of the 16th Century which reported that the former inhabitant and monk of Seville was gone --- went awol ---  having left Spain with 16 other monks.  It was one of TWO newly found 16th Century letters, concerning 16th Century Seville.  

The letter also mentioned that the authorities intended on searching for him and the 16 other ex-monks . . . in Northern Europe.  Thus, he would have been taken to the Netherlands Inquisition, if he were ever caught.  Rather, he ended up healthy and alive in Geneva, in 1568.  He eventually moved to Frankfort, to work and make his livelihood.   He died in 1594, if memory serves me correctly.   So, he had a long life.  If he were tortured by the Inquisition, he would have died a bit earlier.  He would have died a lot earlier.

The truth about 1567 is that the Dutch wanted to declare Independence from Spain.  So, they incited severe hatred of the Spanish, instead of promoting the concept of civil rights and a nation's right to self-determination.  The concept of allowing freedom of religion was going to have to wait for the births of John Adams, John Jay, and Ben Franklin, apparently.  The Dutch were going to have none of that civilized stuff.  Nor were the Swedes.  In fact, the Swedes were the demons of the 30 Years War.  It would necessitate the Reign of Napoleon to allow freedom of religion in Western Europe.  The Dutch and Swedes were simply going to demonize the Spanish, attack them, and kill as many as they could.  How Christian of them!  BTW, during the 30 Years War, it was the Swedes who were the demons ... in a very sick & twisted way.  If there were a Nuremberg Trial at the end of that war, numerous Swedes would have ended up there.  The Swedes were horrifying at the time.

Now, keep in mind that the 1567 horror story led people to believe that executions were occurring at a rate of dozens a day.  So, in the early 20th Century, media outlets claimed that the number of people executed by the Spanish Inquisition was between 100,000 to 1,000,000 people.  Then, by the time the 21st Century came into existence, even the most hate-filled anti-Catholic propagandist knew that the number of executions were nowhere near that numerical range.  They concluded that 32,000 people were executed, in 356 years.  Well, that number turned out to be 12 times higher than the reality.

The actual number turned out to be 2,600 persons (approximately), in 356 years.  This amounts to ONLY SEVEN executions per YEAR.   This means that there was an average of ONE execution in any one tribunal court every THREE years ... approximately speaking, of course.  

The 1994 BBC documentary estimated that 3,000 to 5,000 persons were executed in the Inquisition's 356 years of operation.  The BBC was close.  Yet, even the BBC's highest estimated number averaged only 1 and a half executions every TWO years, for each of the 20 tribunal courts.  Observe:  5000 divided by 356 years = 14.4, divided by 20 court jurisdictions = 0.7 =  2.1 executions every three years ... or 1.5 executions every two years.   None the less, the average number of executions per year ... for all 20 tribunals combined ... was 9 to 14.

When reducing the estimate of executions to 3,000, the average becomes 3,000 divided by 356 = 8.4, divided by 20 jurisdictions = 0.42 (or 1 execution per jurisdiction, every TWO years.)  Thus, the horror story told by the anonymous "Montanus" in 1567 was one huge insult to the intelligence of the average modern human.   

Now, if you insist on believing in the claim of 32,000 executions, this only amounts to 4.5 (four and a half) executions per year for each tribunal, individually.  Observe:  32,000 divided by 356 years = approx 90 per year divided by 20 tribunals =  4.5 executions per year per tribunal (otherwise known as "per district court.")

Even the anti-Catholic's high number is actually a low number.  Now, divide that exaggerated number by 12, and you have approximately the real number.  This is why you cannot find bloodstained torture chambers, or mass graves, or bloodstained streets leading to any cemetery.  It's because they didn't exist in the first place. 

In conclusion, the tales of torture chambers and iron maidens were myth ... false ... bull crapola ... a class-action-defamation-lawsuit-waiting-to-happen, etc.   This is because that mythical version of the Spanish Inquisition is said to be a reflection on Catholicism today, and such defamation incites violence.  There has been enough violence done to Catholic churches recently.

In conclusion, the Number One Killer of 16th & 17th Century Europe was NOT the Spanish Inquisition.  Next to war, the Number 1 Killer of Europeans was . . . 

THE BUBONIC PLAGUE.   Observe:::   [1563, London  |  1582, Tenerife Spain  |  1592, Malta  |  1592, also London  |  1596, Spain (second plague pandemic --- 600,000+ losses)  |  1603, London (40,000 losses)  |  1629, Italy (one million losses)  |  1632, Augsburg Germany  |  1636, London again  |  1647, Seville (500,000 losses)  |  1656 Naples Italy (1,250,000 losses)  |  1663, Amsterdam  |  1665 London again (100,000+ losses)  |  1668, France (40,000 losses)  |  1675, Malta again  |  1676 Spain again  |  1679, Vienna (76,000 losses)  |  1681 Prague (83,000 losses).]  

Note About 1527 Wittenberg and Luther's 14-page note on the Plague

NOTE:  Protestants claim that the plague reached Wittenberg in vast casualty numbers in 1527, and that the holy holy divinely inspiring Martin Luther opened his home to the plague sufferers, all the while issuing a writing which stated that he'll trust in God and go about freely.  HOWEVER:

[1] The Protestant propaganda squad failed to mention the entire content of that letter, especially the part where he warned people to not go about freely, lest they become contagious.  He even stated to be irresponsible with infectious disease equaled suicide or murder.

[2]  His "home" was sizable Roman Catholic Church property stolen by the corrupt actions of Frederick III, elector of Saxony.   It wasn't a small cottage.

[3a] Secondly, I could not find one statistical plague timeline chart (or graph ... or numerical table) which mentioned Wittenberg.  There was NEVER a plague outbreak in Wittenberg that resulted in large numbers of patients or deaths.   IF there were an outbreak in Wittenberg, it was too small for the records.  So, we again have predictable exaggerated Protestant propaganda. 

[3b] Ironically enough, in 1505, as a student, Luther was amidst the plague  in Erfurt, Germany.  The added irony to this is that Erfurt is the place where 3,000 Jews were killed by Germans, in a lynch-a-thon, in March of 1349.  This was during the massive version of the Bubonic Plague, and of course, in Germany, the Jews were blamed for causing & spreading the Plague.  

[3c] For those unaware, Luther wrote that the Jews needed to be expelled from all of Germany in the 16th Century.  His qualifying statement was that the expulsion needed to be done by government officials and NOT lynch mobs.  But, Luther was extremely antisemitic, even calling the Jews the Children of Satan in his writings.  So, this would make Jesus Christ a son of Satan too, being that Jesus was quite Jewish. 

Back to the Spanish Inquisition's 20 district courts (aka "tribunals.")

As far as record keeping goes, 20 tribunals (district courts) each had 356 yearly time segments, for record-keeping purposes.  This translates into boxes - windows -cells.  Now, 356 years x 20 tribunals = 7,120 time segments, for the record-keeping purposes.   In as much ...

The statistical summary of the number of cases brought before the entire Spanish Inquisition, in its 356 year history is approximately 131,000.  It sounds like a lot to a member of the American public school system.  HOWEVER, 131,000 cases divided by 356 years of operation =  an average of  368 cases per year.  

Now divide 368 yearly cases by 20 tribunals (district courts).  This equals 368 DIVIDED BY the 20 tribunals = 18 and a third cases per year per tribunal.  18.333 divided by 365  = 1 Spanish Inquisition case every 20 days.   This means that there were years when the Spanish Inquisition was basically on vacation.  So, you Dan-Brown-Types can take your paranoiac tales and . . . Well, you know the drill.

Now, in the last six years of the Granada War which ended in 1491, there was an average of 77 executions --- wartime executions --- in Spain's effort to win back all of Spain to the Spanish, for the first time in 767 years.  The Granada War was the effort to finally defeat the final Moorish stronghold in Spain.  Thus, you would expect a higher number of executions during wartime.  

This stat also means that there were many years when there were NO EXECUTIONS ordered by the Spanish Inquisition.   Plus, the BBC pointed out that the number of executions in 16th & 17th Century Spain was not greater than those which individually occurred in any other European nation, be it France individually, England individually, etc.

The Pertinence

Perhaps you saw a smug-faced anti-Catholic gloat with certainty that the one ... and only one ... Spanish Inquisition horror story narrative was 100,000 % true.  Perhaps you saw the arrogant & smirking facial expression of someone who believes he has all Catholics "busted" --- that he has all the proof needed to declare Catholicism a fraud that has to be  wiped off the Planet Earth.  This has occurred amongst anti-Catholic Atheists and Protestants and Neo-Pagan New Agers alike.  The Montanus Tale is their "Gotcha Moment."  There is one huge problem to this arrogance.

If you ever do come to read the Montanus Horror Story that was first published in Heidelberg in 1567, you will immediately see --- in your technologically advanced & psychologically advanced 21st Century mind --- that only an easily fooled buffoon would fail to instantaneously catch the contradictions and logistic problems in the uncorroborated account.   Rather, these smug faced anti-Catholics never asked to learn of the evidence.  

Example:  The Montanus Tale claims that the remains of gore and shredded flesh were all over the torture devices which Montanus claimed existed.  This includes the mention of an Iron Maiden.  Okay then.  Which humans had the capability to constantly clean human gore & carnage off of torture machines ... or to even endure such a repulsive sight ... throughout full-time employment?  

Plus, how could someone be so stupid as to believe that young Spanish males were too idiotic to detect a mechanical woman at least 20 to 30 feet away. 

The biggest indictment of the hate-filled anti-Catholics is that the Montanus Tale is sheer racism, to the depths of the definition of racism.  It calls the Spanish vile animals, low-lifes, and the children of Satan.  Okay then.  Ricardo Montalban, Antonio Banderas, Plácido Domingo, neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, famed math teacher Jaime Escalante, Nobel Prize Winner Luis Alvarez, NASA Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, etc, etc, etc, are all vile trash and the sons of Satan simply because they have the Spanish DNA . . . according to anonymous Montanus.   Well, people with common sense don't think so.

Concerning Montanus' identity, the anti-Catholics did name a person.  I addressed that particular person in this discourse.  Well, if he were dragged into the Spanish Inquisition, then the anti-Catholics can hire a historian to go to Seville's meticulously kept Inquisition case files, find that particular person's case file, make copies of it, and show it to the world. 

The interesting thing about those who believe the Montanus' Tale is that they claim that the Spanish Inquisition dragged people into torture chambers, to force them to become Catholic.  Observe the asininity of these super smug buffoons:  

To become Catholic, you have to go through the "Rite of Christian Initiation."  It used to be called "the Catechumenate."  This means that you have to go to a series of catechism classes and then show that you have at least a minimum-marginal understanding of the articles of the Faith ... in the Faith of Peter.  In years past, the catechumens would leave Mass before the Consecration of the bread & wine and then go to another room for classroom instruction on the Faith.  That is not going to happen in any torture chamber.

Next, you had to wait until the soonest Palm Sunday, where you would be introduced at a Mass.  Oh, and you also had to find a "catechumen's sponsor," and I don't think that you'll being walking into a Catholic man's house all bloody and chained-up with hooded torturers dragging you into that house, just so that you can ask that man to be your sponsor.  

 In fact, you wouldn't be going to the Palm Sunday Mass all bloody and chained-up to a torture wheel, either.  Nor do I think that you would go to catechism classes all bloody and chained up.

Here is the other asininity:  Jews who refused to become Catholic were expelled from Spain ... NOT tortured in a torture chamber and forced to become Catholic.  This, alone, proved the Montanus Tale to be complete bull crap.  Jews got the Pink Slip.  They got fired.  They weren't set on fire.  They were told to leave Spain.

PLUS ... if you were a Catholic who publicly denounced the Faith of Peter and joined another religion such as Lutheranism or Calvinism or Anabaptism, then you were AUTOMATICALLY EXCOMMUNICATED and you were banned from walking into a Church and joining in the sacraments.  There was an entirely different process to observe, for you return to the Faith, and it had nothing to do with whips, chains, torture wheels, iron maidens, and hooded monks with vampire fangs.

You need to understand that Catholicism is a process, and the ultimate process is that of transforming into Christ.  All other processes in Catholicism are designed to get you to achieve the ultimate process of transforming into the Divine Nazarene who was born in the City of David, namely in Bethlehem.  Actually, Bethlehem means "City of Bread." 

There's a process for becoming Catholic, as well as a process for returning to the church after you left it for whatever reason.  There was a process in 382 A.D. to have those ancient writings of the Bible be declared the Inspired Word of God, too.   There is a process to ordination ... confirmation ... marriage ... canonization, etc.   There is NO rite in the Catholic Church where a monk puts a gun to your head and says, "Become Catholic right now or I'm gonna blow your brains out."  

That scene is basically the 1567 Spanish Inquisition horror story.  Whoever wrote it and published thought that people were really stupid and gullible in the 16th Century.  Today, only a hick from the sticks would believe such a story.  The problem in the 16th Century was that hicks from the stick couldn't read, in the first place.  So, there only heard the rumors and instantly believed them, instead of reading the text and judging for themselves.

The Catholic Church does the opposite of those Tent Revival Protestants who do commit bully tactics in their services, as in literally pushing a person to walk up to the front of the tent and do what Protestants call "an altar call."  

For the record, there is no altar at the front of those tents.  You are then coaxed into suddenly declaring the Nazarene as your Lord and "personal savior," followed by you being instantly declared "saved" for all time and eternity  This is followed by you hearing the echoing of "Praise the Lord."  

The Catholic Church knows that we live in time & space ... and that God is the God of providence ... not the God of pushy & impatient Born-again Tent Revivalists whose final goal is an increase of tax-free collection basket revenue ... and an increase in donations-through-the-mail or through paypal or through venmo.  

All in all, no monk is going to pull you into a torture chamber, if you're excommunicated.  He will instead give you the address of the church official who can lift the sanction of excommunication from you.  Thus, the Montanus Tale is instantly recognized as bull crap yet again, being that no amount of torturing done by any monk is going to get the sanction of excommunication lifted from you or anyone else.  

Rather, the monk would need the approval of the Vatican to grant absolution for a "reserved sin" and to bring you "back into communion with the See of Peter."  Thus, the main weapon of a Spanish clergy member was a quill and ink well ... along with a new commodity called paper ... which replaced vellum and parchment ... and smoke signals.

Moreover, there are people perceived as so vile that no self-respecting Catholic wants him anywhere near Catholic Church property.   No monk is going to be forcing that type of guy to "become a Catholic," being that such a person will only sabotage and vandalize the Faith, in one way or another.

By the way, inquisitions weren't operated by "monks."  They were operated by commissioned laymen and "friars."  The laymen were law school grads, usually.  I mentioned previously that there is a huge difference between a friar and a monk.   So, when you hear a nightmarish Spanish Inquisition tale by a guy constantly using the word, "monk" "monk" "monk," he's full of crap and doesn't know what he's talking about.  He's trying to get Catholics appalled, so that they will leave the True Church and join one of Protestantism's many Fake Churches.  

Those fake churches do NOT have absolution from sin.  They do not have the consecration of the Eucharist.  They do NOT have the Sacrament of Confirmation.  They do not have Christ's priesthood.  And they certainly do NOT have the Power of the Keys that Christ gave to Peter and his successors until the End of Time.  Their Spanish Inquisition horror tales are as fake as their Protestant Churches.

Moreover, throughout the history of Catholicism, the technique that the Church used to get people to become Catholic is called "going out and talking to people."  This is traditionally called "missionary work."  

For example, a priest rents a place and invites people to come and listen to him.  If he is convincing enough, they will eventually become Catholic.  Sometimes, it will take more people to convince someone to become Catholic.  In fact, it might take a bit of book reading to convince that person.  So, how many books are mentioned in the Montanus Tale?

So, in review, the thing that Catholics do to convince you to become Catholic is called "writing books" and "publishing books." ... not torture in Spain.  In order to get someone to become Catholic, you first have to teach him what Catholicism is.  You don't merely drag him into a torture chamber and force him to become something he knows nothing Catholicism.  That's like forcing someone to sing a song when he doesn't know the lyrics.  Such a person first needs to read ... or have read to him ... a catechism book ... even a penny catechism pamphlet.  There are no torture wheels or iron maidens on Roman Catholic altars, and there never was.

As you can now see, the anti-Catholics who rest their condemnation of Catholicism upon the blatantly fictitious "Montanus Tale" are so easily deceived ... and so void of common sense ... that they literally are a danger to society.  After all, look what happened to the easily deceived Germans of the 1930s as soon as Hitler was granted a few "speaking engagements."   He ended up owing the German radio airwaves.

Ironically, Germany was the first place where the Montanus Tale was published.  Germany is the same place where millions of people were deceived by Adolph Hitler.  The same nationality of people who accepted the Montanus Tale also accepted the Hitler Tale.  

Montanus damned the Spanish and Hitler damned the Jews.  Racist hatred prevailed in Germany throughout all those centuries, until the rest of the Western world got sick of it all and then turned Germany into the craters of the Moon, compliments of the B-17, the B-24, British Lancasters, the P-51, the P-38, and the P-47, as well as other airborne vehicles that did NOT drop cotton candy and balloons from their bombers and "pursuit aircraft."

White Anglo-Saxon Prejudice Across the Atlantic, in America

Jimmy Swaggart called the religion of intellectuals and scholars such as Aquinas, Liguori, von Hildebrand, Chesterton, Garrigou-Lagrange, Bede the Venerable, and Luis de Molina a church of superstition.  It's also a religion followed by many an Italian-American engineer, lawyer, and architecture, as well as followed by Hispanic teachers and professors.  Thus, Swaggart is simply a liar marketing fear of Latin People.

Jimmy Swaggart's biggest lie is in him denying that the Bible came from the Catholic Church.  Well, Martin Luther said the opposite.  He said that his Lutheran people needed to give credit to the Catholic Church for preserving and passing on the Bible.  After all, it was Catholic monks who made copies of the Bible.  Protestants didn't have anyone man-enough --- or disciplined enough -- to be a monk, as well as being literate enough to read the Psalms in the Catholic Church's official prayer.  The official prayer of the Catholic Church is the Divine Office ... the Liturgy of the Hours.  The central prayer is the Mass.  And the most advocated prayer by popes and canonized saints ... and yours truly ... is the Rosary and rosary-like devotions, such as honoring the 7 Sorrows and 7 Joys of St. Joseph.

As a quick note, in the 1520s & 1530s, it was the rural people --- the country folk --- who remained Roman Catholic.  The Northern European city slickers were the ones supporting the Protestant takeover of Catholic Church real estate.  Today, country folk in America are usually Protestant, and the American city slickers who have any faith in Christ are are usually Catholic ... or Episcopalian ... or Presbyterian ... or Orthodox.  For some reason the urban blacks in America decided to adhere to the religion of their great grandparents' slave owners.  Well, "the slave Bible" was very much truncated.   It omitted all Biblical passages dealing with becoming free from slavery.

None the less, the collection of writings known as the Bible was declared "the Inspired word of God" in 382 C.E., long before Hus, Luther, and Jimmy Swaggart were even born.  Swaggart is simply a feisty guy with a brawler's mindset.  He's a spiritual thug.  HOWEVER, do NOT bother him.  If you see him in a public venue, such as in a restaurant, leave him alone.  Do NOT harass him.  Do NOT publish any address or phone number of his.  NEVER make the enemies of God look like martyrs.

There is a civilized reason why there exists the written word and audio recording devices.  You can do videos exposing his doctrinal untruths.  You are not going to get him to do it, for you.  So, don't waste your time, unless you are going to pray and offer sacrifices for his conversion.  And that is a legit thing to do with any enemy of the Church, be it Jimmy Swaggart, fake Catholics, corrupt politicians as anti-Catholic you-know-whom, and bully celebrities who get to sit and B.S. away on a TV talk show, thereby wasting people's time every weekday.

Now, concerning today's Protestant attacks against Catholicism, in the 450 year tradition of Protestants defaming the only church ever founded by Christ, the motive has been this:  The renewed defamation is the attempt to create a horror for Catholicism in the minds of Catholics, in the hope that Catholics will leave the True Church, then join a fake church, and then put disposable income into the tax-free collection baskets of the defamer Protestants.  It's business.  It's all business.   After all, these Protestant TV preachers do wear business suits at their pulpits, as they pretend to be Biblical scholars.

Catholicism is the largest and oldest Christianity ever.  This means that Catholicism is the lead competitor of the product being sold by TV preachers.  Now, these defamatory preachers approach their pulpits in business suits ... when not dressed in graduation gowns.  So, the Catholic Church has the greatest number of potential customers. The constant defaming of Catholicism is an element of Business Suit Protestantism.   It's their way of saying that their product is better than the product of the leading competitor.  It's their way of getting more customers ... and more income.  

You gotta admit that these TV evangelists are really really really rich, thereby showing humanity that Americans are not very bright.  Americans have a way of throwing away their money.

And remember, Protestantism began in the 1520s & 1530s by stealing Catholic Church real estate and infrastructure.  This was done, by means of a king's decree here and an elector's decree there, to the point where a new Protestant religion was suddenly declared the official state religion in England, Scotland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Jurisdiction of Saxony, the Jurisdiction of Brandenburg, the City of Zurich, etc.  Even Munster Germany was temporarily commandeered by a cult of Anabaptists who had the reputation of a sex cult . . . like the Ranters (which see) 

Protestantism was NOT the people's choice, being that it was too new to have been test-driven by any 16th Century Northern European nation.  The only place where it showed itself to exist according to the People's will was in a pocket or two of Southern France, where the Huguenots lived ... and in Zurich, as well as in Geneva.   Protestantism elsewhere was imposed upon the People by the sword.  This has been already outlined, in other articles at this site.

The fact that there were Catholic-Protestant wars throughout the 16th & 17th Centuries shows that Protestantism wasn't as popular as the propagandists make it out to be.  Luther advocated the death penalty for anyone who didn't believe his specific heretical doctrines, and he did the OPPOSITE of allowing for freedom of thought.   Yet, people claim that he was the champion of freedom of thought.  This is why this site is here.  Luther was not what his propagandists made him out to be, and even his medical condition was "well-documented,"  including his "seizure disorder."  But, his followers won't admit that he was a pathological mess.

There's more.  That's why there is now need to address all of the anti-Catholic propaganda.  It has quickly become the anti-Catholic 1800s in America, again.   See:  Know-Nothing Party (Political Party).

As an example of misunderstanding & false light defamation, the statue of St. Louis was vandalized under the claim that Louis was a white racist.  King Louis was half Hispanic, and in today's America, Hispanics are regarded as a racial minority, by American society ... as opposed to the Census Bureau.  So, people vandalized the statue of a minority person who actually began the free-of-charge hospital system in Western Europe.  That's the thanks Louis got ... for his charity.

The Real Spanish Inquisition, Part 3

Toledo branch of the Inquisition.  Okay, where are the blood stained torture chamber walls?  Where are the mass graves?  Where are the remnants of torture devices?  Where are the hand-written accounts of local citizen's hearing screams?  And where are the nighttime haunting poltergeist sounds of the torture chamber victims, today? 

ONE anonymous tale, refuted by the THOUSANDS of Spanish Inquisition case files

All the nightmarish accusations of the Spanish Inquisition came from one 1567 writing published in Heidelberg ... and one 1570 letter proven to be a forgery.  The letter claimed that the Inquisition targeted entire European populations for annihilation.   That was it.  There was nothing more than --- tabloid newspaper gossip.  

Of course, anti-Catholic propagandists will deceive you into thinking that numerous people witnessed horror and wrote about the Inquisition, when the truth is that people who never experienced the Inquisition wrote about it hundreds of years after 1567.  They wrote as if the horror stories which are easy to refute were still occurring hundreds of years later.  This included Voltaire.  Voltaire was an arrogantly presumptive person who like to belittle people.

The Spanish Inquisition horror story has zero physical evidence attached to it and zero documentation attached to it, as well.  It was overly theatrical pre-war propaganda for the upcoming war which intended to be a war of succession from Spain --- for the Netherlands.  It turned out to be the dreaded 80 Years War spanning from 1568 to 1648.  

Actually, the war began in 1567, when Calvinists secretly entered the Netherlands as peasants.  It was the European version of the 1968 TET Offensive of Vietnam.  Thus, Martin Luther's Protestants & John Calvin's Protestants ... along with Zwingli's Protestants ... and the Puritans who had no objection to massacring Irish Catholics on Irish land ... were the opposite of peace-loving Christians.  As a reminder, it was Francis of Assisi, Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, Raymond of Pentafort, and Dominic Guzma who were the peace-loving Christians.  They brought who did bring peace to their regions of Europe in the 13th Century.  

Amongst the aforementioned saints, Raymond of Penyafort is the most forgotten.  He is underrated and unappreciated in the modern Church.  Yet, he was as much as a shaker, a mover, and a rebuilder of a church falling apart as were the Franciscans and St. Dominic.  In fact, Saint Raymond was a Dominican.  Moreover, the most influential saint of the following century would also be a Dominican.  Her name is Catherine of Siena.

Starting Point 

Did you believe in the Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction?  Almost everyone did, due to the relentless propaganda promoted by the one-sided, corporate-sized media.  Yet, after hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars and years of warfare, none were found.  However, that wasn't the only fraud forced upon humanity throughout the ages. 

We now adjourn to the modern-era reputation of the Spanish Inquisition.  People have been led to believe in the horror story version of that judicial system as much as they were led to believe in the Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Being that your mind probably carries a cemented conclusion about the over-exaggerated Spanish Inquisition, take a moment to answer this question:

Firstly, you can find numerous pieces of evidence to prove the existence of the Nazi German mass-murder industry, to the point of touring the gas chambers and walking past the mass grave-sites, as well as seeing photographs of all the jewelry taken from the mass-murdered Jews, Gypsies, and even Roman Catholic priests who wore metal crosses and religious medals.  Well, where can you find the evidence to support the horror-story version of the Spanish Inquisition?  

You can definitely find evidence for the 20th Century Spanish Civil War.  But what evidence can you produce about the Darth Vader version of 16th Century Spain?  The Darth Vader version turned out to be merely the pre-war propaganda of 1567, just like the pre-war propaganda of 2003.

Now, it's important to note that each individual case which was brought before the Spanish Inquisition had a case file attached to it.  Each case file was then consigned to the Spanish Inquisition Archive System.  The archive system remained well-preserved throughout the centuries.  

Decades ago, the Spanish government opened to the public the Spanish Inquisition archives.  And of course, the world renown BBC took up the Spanish government on its open invitation and payed credentialed historians to report on their findings, after scouring through the Spanish Inquisition case files.  That amounted to 356 years of case files, minus the few years when Napoleon put the Spanish Inquisition out of operation. 

Directly below is the link to the 1994 documentary on the Spanish Inquisition, produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation.  It's titled, the MYTH of the Spanish Inquisition, with the accent being on "myth."  I would have called the documentary the Intelligence-insulting Farce of ... or the Hyper-exaggeration of ...  or the False Light Defamation of ...  or the Entirely Distorted Image of  ... the Spanish Inquisition.   

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY-pS6iLFuc

The Inquisition, itself, comprised 20 branch offices, otherwise known as tribunals ... otherwise equal to "district courts."  The number of judges, aka Inquisitors, per tribunal was no more the two or three.   

Technically speaking, it wasn't a church court operation.  It was a secular branch of the Castile & Aragon crowns, with imperial immediacy attached to its jurisdiction.  This meant that the operators of the Inquisition had immediate recourse to and from the Spanish crown, without having to go through a chain of command.  It was equal to going straight to the U.S. Supreme Court, without having to go through district and then federal circuit appeals court.

None the less, the Spanish Inquisition was founded in 1478 by Queen Isabella, as an aid in her final war against Spain's Muslim invaders & occupiers of the previous 767 years.  That inquisition was also useful in discerning the activities of the four major knightly orders in Spain.  Thus, it was originally established to spy on the Moors and the Roman Catholic knights.  [1] Martin Luther wasn't even born, yet (1483).  [2] John Calvin was not yet born, as well (1509.)  In fact, the Spanish Inquisition was established before the births of [3] John Knox (1514), [4] Menno Simons (1496), [5] Besançon Hugues (1487), [6] Huldrych Zwingli (1484), [7] Philip Melanchthon (1497), [8] Martin Bucer (1491), [9] Andreas Karlstadt (1986), [10] Thomas Müntzer (1489), William Farel (1489), etc, etc, etc.   .  

Queen Isabella asked the pope to grant official approval of this Spanish Inquisition, so that she could use official Catholic Church theologians to judge the cases there.  These members of the Catholic Hierarchy were the final judges of each case brought before them.  Yet, the Spanish Inquisition was a State Court that was granted autonomy.  This means that laymen lawyers were also involved in investigating & presenting the cases.  None the less, Catholic theologians were the  judges.  But, they were judges in the name of the queen and NOT in the name of the Roman Catholic Church.  

There simultaneously existed the Roman Inquisition.  That WAS the official Church inquisition.  But, it didn't have attached to it the nightmarish torture chamber stories attached to the Spanish Inquisition.  This is because Spain was the great imperial power of Europe at the time, and to defeat a massive power, you must employ the use of lying propaganda and concentrate on the enemy, keeping attention away from anything or anyone else.  The goal was to outrage the citizenry into rebelling for your cause.  The citizens of the Netherlands were manipulated to rebel against Spain who was the sovereign power at the time; not Rome.

Stats

Concerning statistics, the Spanish Inquisition endured for 356 years.  Throughout the 356 year history of the Spanish Inquisition, there was an average of no more than 9 to 14 executions per year.  Throughout this time, the population of Spain went from approx 9 million to 13.4 million.  This makes the former claim of 100,000 executions beyond ridiculous.  Even the modern Protestant claim of 32,0000 deaths is 6.5 to 10 times higher than the reality.

Now,  during the last six years of the final war between the invader-occupier Muslims and the Catholics of Spain, there was an average of 77 executions per year, until 1492.  This was 15th Century statistics.  So, beware of how a stereotypical propagandist can twist the stats.  None the less, Spain was at war with an opponent who occupied Spain for 767 years.  So, the executions were not a matter of a crazed maniac with torture engines all around him.

All in all, it got to a point in time, when all Spanish Inquisition executions ceased for the most part.  In fact, Napoleon and the Cortes Cadiz (which see) suspended inquisition operations from 1808 to 1814.  All in all, the last execution was that of of a teacher who used Catholic Church property to advocate Deism.  Deism claims that everything about the Catholic Faith is worthless, meaning that the Catholic Church should be dissolved and its property used for other things.  This was in the Year 1826.

Now, experience in Europe was that the preacher of any anti-Catholic doctrine is eventually accompanied by armed persons ready to engage in warfare and commandeer Catholic Church real estate.  The same was the case for the Orthodox religion, namely in Russia.

In conclusion, the true nightmare of Spanish History was [1] Napoleon's invasion of Spain in 1808 and [2] the 20th Century Spanish Civil War, where even nuns were executed ... and where even statues of Christ were the targets of firing squads. 

In review, the closest iron maiden was discovered to have been in Germany; a very long jog from Spain.  The Spanish Inquisition archives proved that 16th Century Spain was NOT any worse than France or Austria or Italy or Greece in matters of capital punishment, concerning the number of those executed.  And it certainly wasn't worse than Russia which was, by far, worst in that department.  

In fact, England was the monster of 16th Century Western Europe, in alternating intervals of time.  Sometimes the British monster awakened.  At other times, it was put to rest,  When it came to executions, 16th Century England had low tide and high tide.  And concerning the proverbial high tide, 200 to 300 Catholic martyrs of the Tudor reign ended up being beatified by the end of the 19th Century, in Vatican City.  That is one step away from canonization.  

Then came the Irish who were victimized by Oliver Cromwell.   The estimate is that approx 520 Roman Catholics were put to death by the Tudor and Cromwell reigns, with much less of a number of Protestants being executed by the same British.  Yet, the Spanish Inquisition gets the attention, even though Protestant England executed Protestant Lutherans ... and even though Protestant Switzerland executed Protestant Anabaptists.  This included the execution of Mennonite, Felix Manz.  

In sequence, seven years later, an Anabaptist cult took over the entire German city of Münster, and that resulted in warfare tactics being employed against the cult.   Protestants were not reforming the Church.  Protestants were killing each other, and constantly striving to take over Northern European Roman Catholic Church real estate & infrastructure.  

The 16th Century was a time of chaos and bloodshed ... NOT freedom of thought.  After all, wherever there is insanity, there is never any freedom of thought.  Luther was nobody's liberator, especially the German peasants who were vehemently condemned by Luther ... after he previously wrote a piece that made him sound like their great protector.  Well, 300,000 German peasants were NOT protected by Luther or anyone else.   Approximately 100,000 of them died in the process of Luther seeing to it that the Elector of Saxony would ... would ... "push back" the advance of the primitively-equipped peasant army which was annihilated by a much smaller, yet more modernized alliance of [1] Swabians, [2] Hessians, [3] Saxons, and soldiers from Brunsewick-Wolfenbuttal.

In as much, you will find 16th Century mass graves in Luther's Germany, but you will NOT find them in Renaissance Spain.  You will especially NOT see any near any district court of the Spanish Inquisition.  This is super ironic for the anti-Catholic pro-Lutheran folks out there who have a seething hatred toward Roman Catholicism and Romans per se.  HOWEVER, you need to understand that Martin Luther suddenly became terrified over the concept of Mob Rule in 1524, being that a mob of peasants was literally headed his way.  All in all, the nightmare of Spain was the 20th Century Spanish Civil War and NOT the 16th Century Spanish Inquisition.

The accusation against Catholicism has been that it's "adherents" (church members) were mindlessly superstitious and anti-progress, as well as anti-science.  At this point, observe the following list of Roman Catholic mathematicians, scientists & inventors.  It includes several Catholics who are regarded as the "father of "this science and "the father of" that science.  This includes Nobel Prize winners in one science category or the other.  It shows that Catholicism was the opposite of the dark oppressor of invention and the suppressor of intellectual thought.  It shows that the very stiff-necked Jimmy Swaggart (born in 1945) to be all wrong, along with the ultimate objector-to & skeptic-of Catholicism, John Ankerberg (born in Chicago, 1945):

[1] Antoine Lavoisier (father of modern chemistry who was executed during the French Revolution),  [2] Borelli (father of biomechanics),  [3] Fabricius (father of embryology),  [4] Agricola, along with [5] Anselmus de Boodt (co-founders of mineralogy),  [6] Andre Ampere (co-formulator of the laws of Electromagnetism),  [7] Marcello Malpighi (father of comparative physiology),  [8] Luca Pacioli (father of accounting & bookkeeping),  [9] Gregor Mendel (father of genetics),  [10] Giuseppi Zamboni (inventor of the first electrostatic battery,  [11] Benito Vines (founder of hurricane science), [12] Nicolas Steno (father of geology & stratigraphy, as well as Steno's Principles), [13] Antonio Neri (glass-making treatise), [14] Giuseppi Mercalli (Volcanology & the Mercalli Scale for measuring earthquakes),  [15] Christian Mayer (pioneer in Binary Star Science).

Now, over 200 more names of Catholics can be added to the list.  In as much, show me the discoveries, inventions, and/or scientific treatises of the anti-Catholic TV evangelists and their 16th Century Northern European Protestant counterparts.  The Catholic Church is NOT the hider of the Bible.  It's NOTthe oppressor of knowledge.  It's the church of prolific writers ... and societal organizers ... and inquisitive scientists.

Note: John Hagee apologized for his assertions against Catholicism.  So, we act as if it never happened when it comes to him, and we move on.  That's called, "forgiveness."  Try it some time in the near future.

The Jews of Spain:  Both sides of the story

Whereas the Horror Story of the Inquisition detailed horrendous torture against Protestants, there wasn't enough Protestants in Spain to keep 20 district court tribunals busy.  The true inquisition predominately focused on Jews, to see if those who went through public conversion to Catholicism secretly remained Jews, instead --- and to see if any Jews were still giving financial support to the Moors.  

At this point stop and acknowledge in your mind the predominate reason why Spaniards did NOT trust Jews.  It's simple.  Jews were seen as the funding source of the Moorish invaders and occupiers of Spain, especially in Granada where they excelled economically.  BUT ... the Moorish occupation was basically in three different modes of time, with the middle era being "warfare renewed." 

When Umayyad Caliphate Commander Ṭāriq ibn Ziyād first captured Granada, Cordorba, and Astorga (in 711 C.E.), the Jews saw themselves as being relieved of the stress and oppression imposed by the Visigoths.  As long as the Jews payed the Jizya tax to the Moors ... and as long as they abided by certain Muslims laws ... they could enjoy an affluent lifestyle.  Yet, they and the Catholics were to be regarded as second class citizens, under Muslim Rule.  Yet, the Jews in Granada were an effective source of income for the Moors, and they thrived with the Moors.  The Moorish capital was Granada, and the Moors remained in Spain for 767 years, even calling Spain, Andalusia.  

The great animosity from the Jews came from the period when the Visigoths were forcing baptism upon them.  Yet, a Visigoth king recognized that it was a wrong thing to do, so he put it to an end.  The official Catholic Church teaching on forced baptism appears in Vatican II and in the Pope Pius XII encyclical, Mystici Corporis Christi.  To make a long story short, you cannot force doctrinal beliefs on a person.  You can enforce the natural law of moral conduct, though.  Thus, you can prohibit dangerous activities and unsafe practices.  You can punish a person for violent acts not done in self-defense or in the defense of a third person.  You can even inspect things, such as road vehicles, to make sure they are not a danger to anyone.  But, you cannot tell a person whom to believe is God ... or to believe in the existence of the Great Spirit ... or the godhead ... or the Unmoved Mover .. or Thor ... or Odin ... or Jupiter ... or Pachama, etc.

Ironically, the non-Christians Moors were allowed to stay in Spain, after the 1492 liberation of the Moors.  Then, in 1609, even Roman Catholic Moors were expelled.  They were all under suspicion of aiding the Berber pirates in the Mediterranean Sea.  The bottom line is that the Spaniards dreaded a return invasion of the Moors. And they were sure that the Jews would re-welcome them, due to the Moors not being as harsh as were the Visigoths.   The Visigoths should have let the matter of religion be in the hands of unarmed missionaries who were more teachers than sales professionals or census takers. 

The forged letter of 1570

As far as goes the forged letter, it stated that the Inquisition targeted entire Western European populations for extermination.  In addition to proving the letter a fraud through forensic science, the circumstance of the day proved it to be the most asinine of allegations.  This is because Spain had its hands full with none other than the FOURTH Ottoman-Venetian War.  This necessitated the Spanish, Sicilian, and Neapolitan navy fleets to sail to Cyprus and to the Gulf of Patraikos.   There wasn't the time or the resources to exterminate Protestant Europeans.

The Fourth Ottoman-Venetian War was the war of the famous Battle of Lepanto of 1571 (which see.)  Europe was about to be overrun by Muslim invaders who would have turned all the churches into mosques ... and many a young lady into harem girls ... against the ladies' wills.  Yet, none of the official Protestant nations cared to join in the defense of Europe, as if they were hoping that the Ottomans would destroy the Catholic armies and end the Holy Roman Empire ... and to end the Habsburg Dynasty. 

At the same time, the dreaded 80 Years War was transpiring in the Netherlands.  It involved a trade embargo against England & those English "privateers" who were pirating Spanish & Portuguese ships.  Thus, there wasn't the time and the resources to even think of exterminating entire Protestant populations within Europe.  The letter was a complete fake which caused an uproar.

The Montanus Nightmare Tale included racist name-calling, all the while accusing the common Spaniard of being the most depraved & most vile low-life that humanity had to offer.  Thus, you were considered to be the worst of the worst dregs, simply because you were Spanish.  That's racism.

Plus, the reasonable person would realize that the horrific tortures of the Montanus Tale involve repulsively shredded gore ... repulsive displays of carnage.  Now, no human can endure the work of cleaning torture engines laced with torn human carnage, day after day after day.  

Nearby Spanish residents would have eventually learned of this torture, if the tortures had been occurring.  There would have then been an uproar and lots of writings on the subject would have been addressed to civil and religious leaders.  The Vatican would have intervened as much as it did during the official banning of slavery in [1] the Canary Islands,  [2] the Philippines, and [3] Latin America.  The pope surely would have heard of it and then he would have commented on it ... or else he would have issued a papal bulletin, banning such conduct.  Well, there is no physical evidence of any such tortures, and no evidence of letters to Rome, and no evidence of statements by any Vatican official at the time.  This would logically mean that "it" wasn't happening the way Montanus stated that it was.  Such a thing is usually called, False Light Defamation.

This means that there would be mass graves of chaotically arranged human bones near each of the 20 district courts of the Spanish Inquisition, if that horror story were true.  So, where are these mass graves?  The people who still promote the hyper-exaggeration of the Spanish Inquisition need to become defendants in a multi-million dollar class action defamation lawsuit --- simply to finally shut them up.  Their tale defames Catholics today, and it incites violence against Catholics.  And of course, approximately 300 attacks upon Catholic Church infrastructure had recently occurred in America, along with church burnings in Canada, to the accompaniment of cheering voices.  There was also the French churches that were sabotaged, as well. 

At this point, one needs to acknowledge that those recent acts of American vandalism were suspected to have been done by pro-abortion political fanatics.  Well, those fanatics were brainwashed at a young age to believe that the Catholic Church is equal to the Spanish Inquisition Horror Story.  Yet, the history of Catholicism is marked by expanded undertakings of charity and the de-animalizing of man.  Hospitals and schools of every academic grade were established.  Mankind was being taken out of the darkness of ignorance is those many Roman Catholic cases.  The illiterate were being educated.  Religious orders emerged according to need.  This included a religious order dedicated to paying ransom to Muslim pirates, for kidnapped European Christians.  This also included a French religious order dedicated to giving formal education to orphans in France.  

In addition, the Spanish were well known to be sensitive enough to make notable artwork.  Sensitive people abhor gore.  Moreover, the only known iron maiden of the era was in . . . Germany ... not Spain.  Plus, Spain was a Roman Catholic country, and Roman Catholicism forbade bodily mutilation of any kind.  Yes, the tortures described in the 1567 horror tale was a violation of canonical law.  Spo, according to Montanus, the Catholic Church was breaking Catholic Church law, in order to make people become Catholic ... so that they could break Catholic Church law.  Real smart there, Monty.

The real nightmare of Spain was in its 20th Century civil war.  Nuns, priests, and Catholic laity were executed at the time.  They weren't the oppressive "Bible-hiding" executioners.  They were the executed.  In fact, an order of priests martyred during that war were beatified at Vatican City in October of 1989.  They were priests of the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, also known as the Passionists.  Each priest was placed one step away from the status of a canonized saint.

The Renaissance Era Spanish did NOT arbitrarily kill people.  There had to be a writ of execution involved with every execution, being that the most powerful empire in Western Europe always had due process of the law and record-keeping.  The Spanish kept a meticulous archive system.   There is no evidence of more than an average of 9 to 14 executions per year in the Spanish Inquisition, and those people were burnt in flames.  There weren't killed on torture engines.

Also to be addressed is the fact that today's more subtle anti-Catholic propagandists attribute the Montanus Horror Story to a certain Spaniard who was an ex-monk versed in Hebrew and Greek.  Well, no sensible human would write so repulsively of his own people, because to do so is to indict yourself.   Since when does a sane Spaniard call all the Spanish "the children of Satan"?  Hello?  Is anybody home, upstairs?

No Spaniard would call his own people and own self the most sexually perverted, most murderous, and lowest of all animals who walk the Earth.  In fact, how could the ultimate super power of Western Europe be a nation of brutal & mindless dregs, as well as sexually perverted animals?  That, alone, shows that the Montanus Horror Story was hyped-up pre-war propaganda.  Yet, the specific facts about the one Spaniard whom the anti-Catholics claim to be Montanus shows instantly that they are either deliberately lying or they are void of intelligence.  

To make a long story short, that particular Spanish person would have been taken to the Netherlands Inquisition and NOT to the Spanish Inquisition as Montanus claimed to have been taken.  Plus, the Spanish ex-monk would had exactly sixteen witnesses to corroborate at least part of his story.  This is because 16 other monks simultaneously left the monastery with the Spanish gentleman claimed to be Montanus in disguise.  Yet, no one ever corroborated anything that the Montanus Tale stated.   

Plus, the Spanish man whom Protestants claim to be Montanus appeared in Geneva Switzerland healthy and enthusiastic, in 1568.  By 1571, the same man became a citizen of Frankfort and then became a successful silk merchant.  He lived to the age 74.  If he were beaten badly at a horrific Spanish torture chamber, he would have died at a much younger age.  

It is always wrong to present your hate-filled prejudice as documented fact.  And concerning the man claimed to be Montanus, it was the Spaniard who translated the Bible into Spanish.  The hate-filled propagandists wanted to make it appear that Casiodoro de Reina was tortured for translating the Bible into Spanish.  This is where the greatest lie of Protestant propagandists come to the fore.  It's simular to the claim made of Wycliffe.  For the record, John Wycliffe was NEVER burnt at the stake.  John Wycliffe was NEVER executed.  He died from a stroke, during the Christmas season.

Their great lie is the claim that the Catholic Church hid the Bible from humanity, and that the Protestants liberated mankind by distributing the Bible everywhere, beginning with the Gutenberg Bible.  This is a 100,000% lie.  

Firstly, Gutenberg was a devout Roman Catholic given ranking by the Bishop of Mainz, Germany.  It has always been the case that the Catholic Church used & still uses the Bible far more often than the Protestants ever did . . . to the point where numerous Roman Catholic stained-glass windows ARE Biblical passage scenes in picture form . . . manufactured for the sake of the illiterate.  Observe:

During any day, the Roman Catholic Church uses the Bible in its official prayers [1] EIGHT times everyday in the Divine Office, also known as the Book of Hours,  [2] THREE times per every Sunday Mass,   [3] TWO times per every weekend Mass . . . and in  [4] numerous theology courses, being that the Roman Catholic Church has far more academic institutions of all academic levels than Protestantism ever had, [5] and the Bible is also used during official Catholic weekend retreats, depending on the discretion of the priest conducting the retreat.  

[6]  Moreover, the Roman Catholic Church grants a complete remission of the TEMPORAL PUNISHMENT due to sin (AFTER receiving priestly absolution) at the hour of death to those who spent their lives devoutly reading the Bible approximately a quarter-hour per day.  This means that the Roman Catholic Church ENCOURAGES the reading of the Bible, "for devout purposes."  [7]  Also remember that the greatest Bible teacher of them all were the numerous Catholic Church stained-glass windows which each portray a Biblical scene on each window, be it the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity of Christ, St. Peter's commission, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Archangel Michael, Elijah, John the Baptist, etc, etc, etc.  

Protestant preachers who wear business suits at the pulpit lie about the Catholic Church as a business tactic.  They defame the Catholic Church, in the hope that Catholics will leave the True Church and join the preachers' Protestant sect, so that the Catholics will start putting their tax-free collection basket money into the Protestant sect's collection baskets.  For a Protestant preacher, defaming Catholics is profitable.  That is equivalent to stealing money via "theft by deception."  Those types of preachers are liars & thieves, for the sake of your "disposal income;" of your tax-free collection basket allowance money.

In this way, the Protestant preachers can buy more business suits ... and personal items.  It's business to them.  It's all business.  It's how they make their income; killing off the Catholic Church so that they can live really really well.  They are constantly looking for their Thirty Pieces of Silver, over and over, again and again.