Host: Joan Neuberger, Professor, Department of History and Editor, Not Even Past
Guest: Miriam Bodian, Professor, Department of History, University of Texas at Austin
The Inquisition was established in Spain in 1480 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella who are better known for having supported Christopher Columbus’s voyages to America. They came to power with a problem on their hands. Almost a century earlier, there had been mass riots throughout Spain during the summer of 1391, and many thousands of Jews were forcibly baptized. After they were baptized, they were expected to live as Christians, but many of them continued to practice Judaism as well as they could in secret. The Inquisition was designed to expose cases of what they called “Judaizing”–that is, reverse conversion to Judaism among these forced converts and their descendants–in order to purify Spain of this ‘heresy.’
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Author: Miriam Bodian
Keywords: Buy or sell, Mark of the beast, Spanish Inquisition, Spanish inquisitor, Inquisition, Jewish converts, Heresy, Heretic, Religious intolerance, Spain
Bible reference(s): Matthew 10:17-19, Mat 23:34, Mark 13:9, Mark 13:11, Luke 12:11-14
Source: “Episode 10: The Spanish Inquisition,” 15 Minute History podcast.
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