On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella of Spain issued the Alhambra Decree, which ordered the expulsion of Jews from Catholic Spain. . . . the Alhambra Decree declared that all Jews must leave Spain before the end of July.
“We order all Jews and Jewesses of whatever age they may be, who live, reside, and exist in our said kingdoms and lordships … that by the end of the month of July next of the present year, they depart from all of these our said realms and lordships … under pain that if they do not perform and comply with this command and should be found in our said kingdom and lordships and should in any manner live in them, they incur the penalty of death and the confiscation of all their possessions,” it stated.
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http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/March/Jews-Banished-From-Spain-During-Spanish-Inquisition.html
The deadly combination of religious authority and the power of the state has a long and consistent history of abusive and immoral acts -- all done in the name of one God or another. s. Obviously, anyone openly challenging religious authority is a primary target. However, in the case above, political authority is using religion to justify its immoral acts. Did the King and Queen really want to protect the Church?
My old banking background always tells me to follow the money. Something that is usually left out of history of religion discussions is any discussion about what happens to all of the money, valuables, land and other assets of those found guilty? Could it be possible that the opportunity to acquire wealth in the guise of "God's will" and doing what is "right" was the primary motivation? Of course, there have been times when people who hand loaned money to religious leaders, king and queens also found themselves in the same situation.
Combining religious authority with political power is like mixing gasoline and fire. If history reveals anything, someone is going to get burned and it won't be them. It doesn't make any difference as to which religion or which political power is involved.
“We order all Jews and Jewesses of whatever age they may be, who live, reside, and exist in our said kingdoms and lordships … that by the end of the month of July next of the present year, they depart from all of these our said realms and lordships … under pain that if they do not perform and comply with this command and should be found in our said kingdom and lordships and should in any manner live in them, they incur the penalty of death and the confiscation of all their possessions,” it stated.
Read complete article at --
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/March/Jews-Banished-From-Spain-During-Spanish-Inquisition.html
The Spanish Inquisition began with a papal bull issued by Pope Sixtus IV. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, the same ones who backed Christopher Columbus were behind the pope’s decree. Isabella was a "fervent" Christian and she asked the Pope for permission to set up an Inquisition to weed out heresy in the Christian world. The Pope obliged, issuing on November 1, 1478, a papal bull called Exigit Sincere Devotionis. Ferdinand and Isabella followed that up with a royal decree on September 27, 1480.
The royal decree explicitly stated that the Inquisition was instituted to search out and punish converts from Judaism who transgressed against Christianity by secretly adhering to Jewish beliefs and performing rites and ceremonies of the Jews. No other group was mentioned, no other purpose indicated ― a fact that in itself suggest a close relationship between the creation of the Inquisition and Jewish life in Spain. Other facts, too, attest to that relationship. Professor B. Netanyahu (p.3): Unlike other inquisitions, the Spanish Inquisition sought to only punish Jews who had converted to Christianity but were not really "sincere" in their conversions. The basic accusation was that they continued secretly to practice Judaism. The job of the Inquisition was to find such people, torture them until they admitted their "crime," and then kill them.
The deadly combination of religious authority and the power of the state has a long and consistent history of abusive and immoral acts -- all done in the name of one God or another. s. Obviously, anyone openly challenging religious authority is a primary target. However, in the case above, political authority is using religion to justify its immoral acts. Did the King and Queen really want to protect the Church?
My old banking background always tells me to follow the money. Something that is usually left out of history of religion discussions is any discussion about what happens to all of the money, valuables, land and other assets of those found guilty? Could it be possible that the opportunity to acquire wealth in the guise of "God's will" and doing what is "right" was the primary motivation? Of course, there have been times when people who hand loaned money to religious leaders, king and queens also found themselves in the same situation.
Combining religious authority with political power is like mixing gasoline and fire. If history reveals anything, someone is going to get burned and it won't be them. It doesn't make any difference as to which religion or which political power is involved.
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