Member-only story
Nobody Expects These Myths About the Spanish Inquisition
And yet they persist
There have been countless tragedies, atrocities, and generally heinous things that have occurred (and still occur) in the history of mankind, and after they have ended a few questions always remain. How could this have happened? How can we keep it from ever happening again? What is myth and what is fact? How long do we have to wait before working it into a comedy sketch?
The first two questions are always complicated ones, but the last two not so much. In the case of the Spanish Inquisition, the answer to the last question is simple: 137 years, 2 months, and 7 days. That’s how much time passed from the date the Inquisition was officially disbanded by the Church to the date the Monty Python sketch “The Spanish Inquisition” aired. As for the myths, let’s take a look at a few that are so pervasive most people simply accept them as fact.
Let’s start with a definition of the Inquisition from The History Channel:
“The Inquisition was a powerful office set up within the Catholic Church to root out and punish heresy throughout Europe and the Americas. Beginning in the 12th century and continuing for hundreds of years, the Inquisition is infamous for the severity of its tortures and its persecution of Jews and Muslims.”
