Why did Philip II of Spain start the inquisition?

Answer 1

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition(Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (Inquisición española), was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragonand Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval Inquisition which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the widerChristian Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition.

The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam. This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave.

Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs' decision to fund the Inquisition such as increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing conversos, profiting from confiscation of the property of convicted heretics, reducing social tensions and protecting the kingdom from the danger of a fifth column.

The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign ofIsabella II, after a period of declining influence in the previous century.

Answer 2

The Inquisition was created by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate religious and spiritual expressions that deviated from the official teachings of that church. It was first directed towards the medieval Cathars, then expanded to other countries and peoples.

The term "Cathars" derives from the Greek word Katheroi and means "Pure Ones". They were a gnostic Christian sect that arose in the 11th century, an offshoot of a small surviving European gnostic community that emigrated to the Albigensian region in the south of France.The medieval Cathar movement flourished in the 12th century A.D. throughout Europe until its virtual extermination at the hands of the Inquisition in 1245.

There are an ever increasing number of historians and other academics engaged in serious Cathar studies. Interestingly, to date, the deeper they have dug, the more they have vindicated Cathar claims to represent a survival of the Earliest Christian Church.

Thank you!

Brad Hoffstetter

Communications Division

Assembly of good Christians

http://www.cathar.net

May we suggest the following scholarly sources:

http://www.wmich.edu/medieval/congress/

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbook.html

http://www.languedoc-france.info/1212b_moreinfo.htm

cause they felt like it cause they felt like it

Answer 3

A:

The medieval Church was highly intolerant of dissent, particulary what it considered heresy as this undermined the power of the Church. It was in an attempt to wipe out heresies that Pope Grregory IX instituted the papal Inquisition.

Answer 4

Phillip II of Spain did not create the Inquisition. His great-grandparents, the Catholic Monarch's, Fernando and Isabel, created the Inquisition to help unite Catholic Spain. Phillip II exercised the Inquisition because he was devoutly religious and was trying to fight against the Protestant movements in Europe.

Answer 5

First of all, Pope Paul III set up the Portuguese Inquisition in order to deal with Jews who, having been forced to convert to Christianity, were suspected of covertly continuing in Judaism.

Secondly, he set up the Congregation of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Rome, as a permanent congregation staffed with cardinals and other officials. It had the purpose of examining and proscribing what the Catholic Church considered to be errors and false doctrines.

Answer 6

Catholic AnswerThere have been several Inquisitions over approximately six centuries, not just one single "Inquisition" although the Spanish Inquisition has become so famous due to popular films and whatnot that it seems as if that was the only one. Various inquisitions have been formed for various reasons, although the primary reasons are always the suppression of heresy. The Catholic Church is the Body of Christ and is very concerned for the salvation of her children. She does everything in her power to try to ensure that they receive the message of the Gospel pure and unadulterated.

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from

Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Inquisition. The special court or tribunal appointed by the Catholic Church to discover and suppress heresy and to punish heretics. The Roman Inquisition of the middle twelfth century, with its ecclesiastical courts for trying and punishing heretics, arose during the ravages of the anti-social Albigensian sect, whose doctrines and practices were destructive not only of faith but of Christian morality and public order. While Church authorities would condemn a person found guilty of heresy, it was the civil power that actually inflicted the penalty. The reformation of the heretic was first sought. By exhortations and minor punishments he was urged to give up his heresy. Many did. Only the relapsed heretics who were found guilty were turned over to the civil government for punishment required under civil law. The fact that secular law prescribed death must be understood in the light of those days when heresy was anarchy and treason and leniency in criminal codes was unknown. Like all institutions that have a human character abuses crept in.

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The Spanish Inquisition, set up by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1478 and empowered by Pope Sixtus IV, was directed against the lapsed converts from Judaism, crypto-Jews, and other apostates whose secret activities were dangerous to Church and State. The civil government had great influence in the administration of this Inquisition, and the Spanish ecclesiastical tribunal accused of scandalous cruelty must share its condemnations with them. The latter worked during these days in defiance of the Holy See, which often condemned inquisitors because of their cruelties. Even so, these cruelties have been grossly exaggerated, and the fact that the Inquisition did tremendous good in saving the Latin countries from anarchy has been forgotten. Much falsehood surrounds the events of this period, which should be judged by the standards of those times, not by modern ideas of the human person and of religious freedom.

Answer 7

There were many Inquisitions, but regardless to which one you are referring, any Inquisition is an attempt to "legally prosecute" heretics under God.