For centuries, the Jews were accused of the crime of Deicide ( in this instance, the murder of Jesus Christ).
They were segregated and often oppressed in several communities.
This finally reached a peak in 1478 A.D, when Pope Sixtus IV set up a committee in Spain to hunt down and flush out any forms of opposition to the teachings of the Catholic church.
Thus, the Spanish Inquisition officially began.
Although the Jews were a major target, other groups were targeted too.
Men, women and children were rounded up, then “tried” by the members of the inquisition, and then sentenced to death if they were found guilty of crimes against the church.
(most of the accused persons were always found guilty anyways).
In the streets of Spain, the Jews were given two choices: to become Baptised or to be put to death.
Initially, most of them refused.
But in the bloodbath that followed, they had no choice but to quickly convert to Christianity, although most of them still secretly held on to their Jewish beliefs.
The Inquisition lasted from 1478 to 1834.
At the end, it was officially estimated that about 32,000 men, women and children had been killed.
Today, many authorities dispute these figures by claiming that the death tolls were as much as 400,000.
Women were burnt at the stake for being “witches”.
Men were crushed on wheels of pain or beheaded for being “Heretics” and “unbelievers”.
It was really an eyesore.
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