Originally posted by carpedm9587
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Seriously though, such numbers (especially those on the higher end) for the Inquisition are almost certainly highly exaggerated. As William D. Rubinstein (who has held chairs of history at Deakin and Aberystwyth Universities, and is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, the Australian Academy of the Social Sciences, and of the Royal Historical Society) noted in his Genocide: A History:
Critical History of the Inquisition
And on a BBC program produced by the BBC, Spanish historian Jaime Contreras (who wrote El santo oficio de la Inquisicion de Galicia [The holy office of the Inquisition of Galicia] and with Gustav Henningsen wrote Forty-Four Thousand Cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540-1700): Analysis of a Historical Data Bank) said "We find when comparing the Spanish Inquisition with other tribunals that the Spanish Inquisition used torture much less. And if we compare the Spanish Inquisition with tribunals in other countries, we find that the Spanish Inquisition has a virtually clean record in respect to torture."
Let me emphasize this is not to excuse the brutality that they inflicted, but the fact is that the Inquisition almost always tended to be less brutal than the secular courts and methods they employed during this time. Secular courts usually started the process by trying to extract a confession through torture. As barbaric as the Inquisition was they saw torture only as a last resort. Still, killing people who disagree with us is indefensible. 3000 to 10,000 victims are 3000 to 10,000 too many.
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