Centuries of  Terror

The Inquisition was created to punish back sliding Christians. (This included the newly forcibly converted Jews to Christianity)

But when the Catholic monarchs (Ferdinand and Isabel) saw it could become a money maker for the crown to fund the wars they explicitly focused on the wealthy Jews. The means they used to extract confessions with torture of many different types.

The accused was forced to give up names of his/her family member; parents, siblings, children, grandparents, cousins, aunts uncles, and anyone they could remember.

The secret prisons were set up that no one could find them. And the neighbors were enlisted to spy on everyone often being rewarded if someone was caught doing Jewish stuff and reported.

No one was allowed to know who informed on them, making a deadly situation where they couldn’t properly defend themselves.

The first thing that was done; the money, goods, houses, land and anything else was frozen and then confiscated.

And if someone was accused and died before a conviction, then the Inquisition would dig up their bones and burn them, by doing this it gave them the permission to continue the investigation and let the (the Inquisition & crown) take the victims money, property ect.

If someone was penitent enough he/she was forced to wear the sambenito (penitent garb that went over the head and was sleeveless. Yellow with different insignias on it.) On the back of the sambenito was the family tree of the victim and when the victim was finished with it, the sambenito was taken and hung up in the local church for all to see. And the victim and his/her family were subject to lasting humiliation. So the local population would know who was accused of being a Jew, and then often boycott their business and the victim themselves.

Some of the punishments were if they were caught being Jewish were;

1)Admitting to guilt for the first offence, the punishment was a monetary tax.

Some harsher punishments were;

2)rowing in the galleys (which was a death sentence, the rigors of forcibly rowing the king’s boats caused most people to die within the year)

3)whipping which was also death sentence (no one could survive over 10 lashes; many punishments were 100 lashes)

4) burning at stake (auto de fete act of dying for one’s belief’s in God) (Even with all of these things most people did not give up their Jewish religion.)