FROM an article at Winter Watch, (not a Catholic website):
The Inquisition kept voluminous records of proceedings and on those it was keeping an eye. These records have been the subject of deep research in recent decades. Although the Inquisition had a chilling effect, in most parts of Spain — and especially small towns and rural areas — it had almost no authority or clout. The inquisitors would reluctantly roll into these towns once in a blue moon, but the local priests would not cooperate and would instruct their parishioners to speak no evil about their neighbors, cautioning even against gossip.
Juan Antonio Llorente (1756–1823), a fierce enemy of the Inquisition, whose “Critical History of the Inquisition” of 1817–1819 remains the most famous early work estimated the number of executions carried out during the whole of the period that the Spanish Inquisition existed, from 1483 until its abolition by Napoleon, at 31,912.
Recent scholars, such as Henry Kamen [“The Spanish Inquisition” 2014] conclude: “We can in all probability accept the estimate, made on the basis of available documentation, that a maximum of three thousand persons may have suffered death during the entire history of the tribunal” (p. 253).
Inquisitors did not believe torture produced the truth; therefore, it was rarely used. Research suggests about 1% of the more serious cases were subjected to lighter forms of torture and almost never prolonged or repeated torture. The only genuine iron maiden ever found came from Germany. Torture was widespread among Spain’s enemies. Its use in Spain was a myth.
Most of the Inquisition was, in fact, internal security measures taken during wartime conditions to deal with traitors, criminals and subversives, which were typically found in the crypto-conversos population in Spain and among rebellious Protestants in the Spanish Netherlands. Foreign Protestant agents operated in Spain as missionaries. For example, there was a surge between 1557 and 1562 (early stage of the Dutch Revolt) as the courts in Antwerp executed 103 heretics. There were many non-Catholics killed in religious wars, such as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), but that had little to do with Inquisition activities.
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