Changes

The tribunals were overseen by ''visitadores'' ("travelling inspectors") who reported to the ''Suprema''. The "familiars" were the spies and informers of the Inquisition. These posts could be bought and sold and were often herditary. Their number was vast - in the 16th century there were 805 in [[Toledo]], 805 in Granada and 1,009 in [[Santiago]].

The tribunals were overseen by ''visitadores'' ("travelling inspectors") who reported to the ''Suprema''. The "familiars" were the spies and informers of the Inquisition. These posts could be bought and sold and were often herditary. Their number was vast - in the 16th century there were 805 in [[Toledo]], 805 in Granada and 1,009 in [[Santiago]].

==Procedure of the Inquisition==

 

==Accusation==

When targeted by the Inquisition, a particular village or locale would receive notice from the familiars of a "period of grace" - heretics were urged to come forward or denounce others known to them. This remained the basic method of locating suspected heretics. Suspects could be denounced for activities as varied as "''smiling at the mention of the Virgin Mary, eating meat on a day of anstinence, or non-heretical offences such as urinating against a church wall or assertions to a man's wife that he did not believe fornication was a sin.''"<ref>'''Kamen''', ''op cit.''</ref> Many people denounced themselves for fear that a friend or neighbour would do so anyway, and such fears, counter-accusations and chain reactions of denounciations within small communities vastly increased the terror of the Inquisition.

 

 

==Trial==

A clear picture of their activities can be seen in this account:

A clear picture of their activities can be seen in this account:

The interrogation in the tribunal chamber might also be cut abruptly short by the ''fiscal'', saying that, in spite of his continued advice to tell the truth he felt that the prisoner was being reticent and that he would therefore ask that the prisoner be "questioned" - that is, tortured. Llorente describes that prisoners spent the entire trial in anxious expectation of the ''fiscal'' making this request. this further underlines the extent to which secrecy and fear were the main weapons of the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps even more than the torture itself.<ref>'''Llorente, D. Jean-Antoine''', ''Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne''. Paris: Treuttel et Wurtz (1818)</ref>

The interrogation in the tribunal chamber might also be cut abruptly short by the ''fiscal'', saying that, in spite of his continued advice to tell the truth he felt that the prisoner was being reticent and that he would therefore ask that the prisoner be "questioned" - that is, tortured. Llorente describes that prisoners spent the entire trial in anxious expectation of the ''fiscal'' making this request. this further underlines the extent to which secrecy and fear were the main weapons of the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps even more than the torture itself.<ref>'''Llorente, D. Jean-Antoine''', ''Histoire Critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne''. Paris: Treuttel et Wurtz (1818)</ref>

==Accusation==

 

When targeted by the Inquisition, a particular village or locale would receive notice from the familiars of a "period of grace" - heretics were urged to come forward or denounce others known to them. This remained the basic method of locating suspected heretics. Suspects could be denounced for activities as varied as "''smiling at the mention of the Virgin Mary, eating meat on a day of anstinence, or non-heretical offences such as urinating against a church wall or assertions to a man's wife that he did not believe fornication was a sin.''"<ref>'''Kamen''', ''op cit.''</ref> Many people denounced themselves for fear that a friend or neighbour would do so anyway, and such fears, counter-accusations and chain reactions of denounciations within small communities vastly increased the terror of the Inquisition.  

==Torture==

The modern concept of the inquisition torture-chamber as a place of deviously refined cruelty is "''an error due to sensationalist writers who have exploited credulity.''"<ref>Henry Charles Lea, quoted in '''Kamen''', ''op cit.''</ref> The historian Henry Charles Lea estimated that between 1575 and 1610 only around 32% of those prisoners whose offences made them liable for torture were actually tortured.

 

The Spanish Inquisition's use of torture was subject to strict rules laid down long before by [[Clement V]] - but these were usually bent. For example, a prisoner could only be turtured once, so the Inquisitor would state clearly at the end of session that torture was being "suspended", not ended, so that the records would show the continuation of a single application of toture rather than a second session.

 

Torture was applied by a public executioner in the presence of an Inquisitor, a representative of the local bishop, and usually a doctor. few victims appear to have died under torture, and cases of permanent injury or loss of a limb were, comparitively, rare. The three most common methods were the ''garrucha'', similar to the strappado; the ''toca'', or ordeal of water; and the ''potro'', a form of the rack. the use and number of torture implements is much smaller than is imagined, and usually a free confession in the chamber was sufficient to avoid torture altogether.

 

While there are examples of prisoners being mutilated, losing toes and fingers and having limbs broken, it appears that merely the sight of the instruments in the chamber were enough to produce confession. Only the most obstinate prisoners received the full application of torture. torture was also used fully against witnesses who gave contradicting testimony or retracted accusations thay had made earlier.

 

As the arrest took place after assessment of the evidence, the prisoner was effectively found guilty at the instant of his arrest. Interrogation served not to prove guilt or innocence, merely to obtain a confession, after which penance could be assigned. Kept in ignorance of the precise charge and so unable to formulate a plausible defence, the prisoner was advised "''to search his conscience, confess the truth, and trust to the mercy of the tribunal.''"<ref>'''Kamen''', ''op cit.''</ref> Theoretically this could last for months, even years, before finally the prisoner was informed of the charges. There were defence lawyers available, known as ''abogados de los presos'', but as they were themselves full-time officials of the Inquisition, they were particularly ineffective and distrusted by prisoners.

 

 

''Sanbenito'' was to wear a yellow-crossed garment as a sign of infamy. Sentencing to the galleys could be for a period up to 10 years or more. Scourging consisted of a public whipping through the streets, either on foot or on a donkey; the usual number was 100 lashes, up to a maximum of 200.

 

The ultimate penalty was "Relaxation" - a misleading term which actually means "burning at the stake". Heretics who had either died in confinement or escaped justice were "relaxed in effigy", while the less fortunate were handed to the secular authorities for execution. This sentence was reserved for unrepentant or relapsed heretics, and the Inquisitors would attempt until the last moment to get a confession, saving the prisoners life. Even a confession as late as at the ''auto de fe'' would earn the benefit of death by strangulation prior to the stake; those who still did not confess were burned alive.