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The entire documentary is available on Youtube. Free Essay: The black legend was the name given to the concept of cruelty and brutality spread by the Spanish during the 14th and 15th century. That averages, at most, about fourteen people per year throughout the entire continent over a period of 350 years.
Of all the Inquisitions together throughout Europe, scholars estimate that the number of people executed ranged somewhere between 3,000 and 5,000. In the entire sixteenth century, the Inquisition in Spain executed only about 50 people, which is contrary to the “Black Legend,” which numbers the executions in the hundreds of thousands. The Inquisition was virtually powerless in rural areas. No one could be tried for it or burned at the stake. The Inquisition, on the other hand, declared witchcraft a delusion. The accused were often burned at the stake. Criticisms of the Spanish Black Legend Based on the idea that Spain was an oppressive country, the Inquisition was considered an example of their past transgressions. Persecuting witchcraft was a craze in Europe at the time, and secular courts were not tolerant of these kinds of offenses. Prisoners of secular courts would actually blaspheme so that they could be transferred to Inquisition prisons and escape the maltreatment of the secular prisons. The Inquisition actually had the best jails in Spain. Stories about cruel torture methods used by the Inquisitors and the terrible conditions in which prisoners were kept were completely falsified.
It was used less by the Inquisition than it was in the tribunals of other countries throughout Europe at the time.
Contrary to popular belief, torture was rarely used. In fact, many of them were not priests at all but legal experts trained in Spanish schools. Inquisitors were not fanatical priests as they are often portrayed. The “Black Legend” began as an anti-Spanish propaganda campaign that succeeded largely because of the invention of the printing press. Here are just a few of the more interesting points covered in the documentary: At a little over forty-five minutes, it summarizes the most recent scholarship about the “ Black Legend,” how it began, and why it persists. If you have never seen the BBC documentary The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition, I highly recommend it. But was it really as brutal as it is often described? Many Catholics squirm at the very mention of the Spanish Inquisition, oftentimes conceding to claims that it was the most brutal time in Church history.