If you thought the Salem trials were ruthless, wait until you know what happened in Spain.
Although we usually associate Salem witches of New England with witch trials, the persecution of those believed to be witches does not come from the United States. In fact, the greatest and most ruthless trial for witchcraft was not carried out anywhere near the United States. On the contrary, it was in Spain.
The witch hunt in Spain
The trials for witchcraft in Spain and Salem, opposite places of the Atlantic Ocean, were carried out in the 17th century.
Religion was the detonator of both cases: in Salem, the settlers left the Church of England and practiced Puritanism, a religion they intended to be obeyed by all.
In Spain, the Catholic Church sought heretics to punish them and, as a consequence, religion was homogenized in Europe. For both groups, "witchcraft" became part of the profile of heretics, however, no trial in history can compete with those that occurred in the city of Zugarramurdi.
The Spanish Inquisition was fundamentally a joint effort between the Catholic Church and the courts to seek and persecute baptized members of the Church who did not follow their teachings - or those who were completely against them. It was mostly Jews who had become Catholics in order to survive the last Inquisition, which had specifically focused on murdering members of the Jewish faith.
The irony of the fact was that although the Catholic Church had commanded the Jews to become Catholics, in the next Inquisition the Church stated that the Jews had not converted of their own volition, and therefore had to be killed.
If it seems that the Church was simply looking for a reason to do away with the Jews, that was pretty much what happened.
Once people began to practice the Catholic faith, they became part of the community. Many Catholics did not appreciate this integration, and they resented new members as they progressed in Christian spaces.
The Church ordained those who were accused of heresy to testify in court. The accusation was equivalent to a condemnation: anything to testify against the accused, and the latter would never know who had accused him.
Because of what was at stake, It was very common that even the accused's own family testifies before the individual, as they did, they were also accused of being heretics. If the defendant refused to testify, the courts automatically assumed that the person practiced heresy and sentenced him to death.
The Church does not carry out the persecution of the heretics simply for the religious purposes: it also did for money. The Church to confiscate property and property of the accused, and thus earn money very much in court.
In this way, the Church extended its objective of persecuting not only dishonest Catholics but also any non-Catholic, Jewish and Protestant Muslims. And they, therefore, were witches.
It is true that in antiquity they were a little more closed-minded, either by the thousands of situations that were lived at the time, or by corruption in what is supposed to be the purest in the world, as is the church .
After so many episodes recorded against other religions, the mentality of society has been opened a little more and the freedom of faith is respected a little.
Fuente: www.historiasreales.net
