It is in Spain, Portugal, and their dependeneies that the Inquisition :attained its fullest develop ment. As II 11 ordinary tribunal similar to those of other countries it had existed in Spain from an early period. Its functions. however, in these times were little more than nominal: but early in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, in con sequence. it is said. of the alarms created by the alleged discovery of a plot among the Jews and the Jewish had been required either to emigrate or to conform to Christianity —to overthrow the Government, an applieation was made to Pope Sixtus IV. to permit its reorganization (1478) but in reviving the tri bunal the Crown assumed to itself the right of :appointing the inquisitors, and, in fact, of con I rolling the entire action of the tribunal. The establishment of the tribunal of the Inquisition was sanctioned by the Cortes at Toledo in 14SO, and from this date the Spanish Inquisition be came a State tribunal, a eharacter whip]) is roe ognized by Ranke. Guizot. Leo. and even the great anti•Papal authority Llorente. In order to prove that the (Introit generally, and the Roman See itself. was dissociated from that State tribunal, the hulls of l'ope Sixtus IV., which protest against it are cited. Notwithstanding this protest. how ever, the Spanish Crown maintained its control of the Inquisition. The work of the Inquisition be•an in 1481. when Miguel Morello and Juan Martin, member, of the Dominiean Order, were appointed for In I4S3 the Inquisition was extended over Aragon and Leon, and the Dominican T"Illals (le Torquernada (q.v.) became the first Grand Inquisitor. The popes attempted to control the arbitrary action of the royal tribunal and to mitigate the rigor and in justice of its proeeedings, hut these measures were ineffective to control the fanatical activity of the local judges. When. however. Spain sought to introduce its peculiar Inquisition into Naples also. Pope Paul III.. in 1546, exhorted the Neapolitans to resist its introduetion. severe the weight of the Inquisition may have been on heretics and unbelievers, the number of Its victims as given by Liorent(•, an historian of the linp.isition, is enormously exaggerated. Iris statement, deserve no credence o al though he had execilent opportunities of learn ing the truth, as he was the secretary of the Inquisition for a time. Ile was a violent par tisan, and hi, error. and exaggeration, been especially by Iletele in his 1,1/c of roe dinuf .Vinaen(s (Eng. trans., 2(1 ed., London, 1585); Ranke does not lte,it a 1 e, in his rartarn and th s sat/fie/it it Ettrnintm (411 It ed., Leipzig). to impeach his honesty. While he gives the number of exceutions as 311,012, the Catholic authority Gains states 4000 to have been the total. Protestant writers have usually given figures varying between the lowest and the high est. Charles V. (1516-56) and Philip 11. ( 155». 98) made attempts to transfer the Inquisition to the Netherlands, but there IS mo question that here it was political, intended to suppress a revolt rather than a heresy, The Spanish Inquisition is condemned by Protestants and non-Spanish Catholics alike. Spanish Catholics, however, are inclined to de fend it, and hold that its form of proceeding was not as usually stated, but was fair atoll equitable, considering what. a fearful crime heresy
was and is in the eyes of the Catholic Church. There is no doubt. moreover. that many of the crimes tried by the inquisitors in Spain were such as would now be brought into our ordinary civil courts.
The rigor of the Spanish Inquisition abated in the latter part. of the seventeenth century. In the reign of Charles III, it was forbidden to punish capitnlly without the royal warrant ; and in 1770 the royal authority was required as it condition even for an arrest. In 1808, under ling Joseph Bonaparte, the Inquisition was S1111 11 was revived under the Restoration. was again suppressed (»1 the establishment of the Constitution in 1820. but was partially restored in 1825, nor was it till 1834 that it was tinnily abolished in Spain. its property being applied two years later to the liquidation of the na tional debt.
From Spain the Inquisition was transplanted into all the Spanish-American countries, and it continued to exist in these countries until they be cam• independent. From Portugal the Inquisition was extended to the Portuguese colonies in India. The rigor of its process, however, was muela Mitigated in rho eighteenth eentury, and under .John VI. it fell entirely into disuse.
The Inquisition in Rome and the Papal States never ceased. from the time of it s establishment, to exercise a severe and watchful control over heresy, or the suspicion of heresy, which offense was punished by imprisonment. and civil dis abilities; but of capital sentences for heresy the history of the R0111:111 Inquisition presents few in• stances, and according to Bahnes, On ririfization. (tIth ed., Madrid, 18751. that tribunal "has never been known to order the exeention of a capital sentence" for the crime of heresy. The tribunal still exists under the direction of a congrega tion (rongregatio Anneti oflieii). originally found ed by Paid III. in 1542, and reorganized by Six tus V., but as by its very roost itution it nuts( call upon the State aid to enforce its decrees, and as quell State aid can nowhere be obtained at the present (lay, its action is limited to the imposi tion of spiritual punishments, such as excom munication.
Consult: Lea, History of the Inquisition of the Middle dyes (3 vols., New York, 1887-88), a standard work; French tKanslation, containing the author's latest revisions, by Reinach (Paris, 1900, ff.), with an excellent bibliographical in troduction by FriWrieq; L'inguisition duns le midi de la France ( Paris, 1880) ; Tanon, Histoirc des trilAunaux de inquisition en France (Paris, 18:)3) ; FrOd6rieq, Ileschiedenis der in quisitie in dc Nederlanden (2 vols., Ghent, 1802 90) ; Gams, Kirchengesehichte Npaniens, vol. iii. (Regensburg, 1802-79)'; Lea, Chapters from the Religious History of Spain (Philadelphia, 1890) ; Befele, Cardinal Ximcnes (Eng. trans., 2d ed., London, 1885) ; Rodrigo, Historia rcrdade•a de In Ingnisicion (a vols., Madrid, 1876) ; Orti y Lars, La inquisition (Madrid, 1877). The lit erature is voluminous, but these books represent all points of view now held by scholars, and will furnish more complete bibliographies.