The Stomach-Churning Things Catholics Did to Gay Men

For 300 years, roaming from town to town, territory to territory, The Spanish Inquisition brought terror to Europe all in the name of God. Starting in the late 15th century, the monarchy of Spain ordered any heretical to Catholic eyes to be brought to account with the utmost severity. Religious in calling, the Inquisition’s prominent targets were protestants, Jews, Muslims, and homosexuals. Following trial and sentencing, they could face, public denouncement, imprisonment, whipping, and even execution. Welcome to History on Fleek, today we examine the stomach-churning things the Inquisition did to Gay men.

Detention by inquisition
When the Inquistion arrived in town, they announced their business through edicts of grace and then they openly encouraged ‘denunciation’ – or as some would call it, ratting people out. Should one be denounced, their case would be examined by the calificadores to discern its validity and this would be followed by being detained. Despite not being a secular authority, the Spanish Inquisition very much imprisoned people. Incarcerations of this kind could be considerably lengthy, in some cases up to two years as the inquisitors examined the case.
What is most staggering about the Inquisitions detention process was how it utterly crippled the individual’s autonomy and sense of reality. Not only were they incarcerated for an indefinite period, but the accused also stood to have their property seized by the Inquisition too. As if this wasn’t enough, the property could be used to pay for procedural expenses of the detention. Wouldn’t you know it, the accused’s family could be left destitute from this. Without a doubt, the most chilling element of the inquisitions detention process was the isolation the accused was kept in. Kept in total seclusion, even if the public weren’t informed of their detention, the accused would not be informed of accusations leveled against them. Years could pass for entirely innocent imprisoned without even being told why they were incarcerated.
The Inquisition
Established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs of unified Spain, the Spanish Inquisition was a powerful institution weaponized to enforce catholic orthodoxy and attack any against it. Operating in Spain and all its territories including the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and Spanish territories in South and North America, the Inquisition brought prosecution wherever it roamed. Contemporary estimates state around 150,000 people were prosecuted across the Inquisition’s 3-century run. Around 3 percent of those prosecuted were brought to execution, approximately 3-5,000 people.
The third of three substantial catholic inquisitions including the Roman and Portuguese, the Spanish Inquisition was regarded as one of the longest and most brutal. Its targets were inevitably selected on religious grounds and would lead to infamous events, including the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. So debased was the expulsion of Jews, it forms a major tragic chapter of Europe’s long mistreatment of the Jewish people. While Spain was the birthplace and progenitor of the Inquisition it would spill beyond Europe and into the Americas. It was not beneath the Inquisition to force the conversion of indigenous peoples to Christianity.
Come the 18th and into the 19th century, the Inquisition had lost power and influence. As ideas of Enlightenment rose and secularism began to challenge the authority of the Church, but not before religious persecution had befallen many an innocent party.
Witch hunters
In the early modern period, the Inquisition would also oppose and bring to trial those believed to be practicing witchcraft. Inquisition trials related to witchcraft were qualified under the category of ‘superstitions’. A handbook known as ‘Hammer of Witches’ or Malleus Maleficarum was used by inquisitors to prosecute and identify witches. Spain’s witch hunts were significantly less intense than those seen across Germany, Scotland, and France, and the inquisitions’ role is somewhat split.
Unlike areas of religious prosecution, long after the Inquisition was founded, sorcery and witchcraft were matters dealt with by secular authorities in the majority. It’s fair to say, that the Inquisition regarded cases of witchcraft with a degree of skepticism, seeing it as superstition – without a basis most of the time. That being said, the Inquisition would contend with witch trials. The Basque Witch Trials across the early 17th century saw the Inquisition examine some 7000 cases of witchcraft. Yet despite the thousands brought to accusation and trial, only around 11 were burned at the stake for their supposed crimes.
Trial you say? Trial by the Spanish Inquisition contained an array of hearings, where both defendants and denouncers would give their testimony. The defendant would be assigned a defense council… but they were a member of the tribunal and they were primarily there to tell the defendant to speak the truth. In defense, an individual had two choices – one, to provide liable evidence that their accusers could not be trusted. Two, to find witnesses who were favorable to the tribunal who could state their innocence.
Obtaining information or confession, the Inquisition could use physical punishment but only as a last-ditch effort. Its main use was against those practicing Protestantism and Judaism in the early 16th century, both parties the Inquisition would regard as enemies of the state. Make no mistake, so much of these trails were to persecute entirely innocent parties on the basis of their faith. In other cases, sentencing had nothing to do with faith but their identity, their sexuality, who these people were.
Inquisition punishment
Physical punishment was dealt out by the Inquisitions trials across Europe. Interestingly, at a time when it was used across any religious trials in Europe at the time, the Inquisition was more restricted in its use than many contemporaries. The courts of the Inquisition were far more careful and reserved in how they used punishment as they faced firm regulations in doing so.
Physical punishment would only be dished out when all other avenues of negotiation had run dry, the inquisition also understood that gaining confessions through this way was wholly unreliable. Confessions gleaned through physical punishment could not be used to sentence or convict. Ecclesiastical tribunals had forbidden any church authority from drawing blood in physical punishment, and ‘torment’ could only be applied for 15 minutes at a time. The Inquisition would have its own closed doors list of physical punishments.
The three most common methods used by the Inquisition were Garrucha, toca and the potro. The use of garrucha was gravity based, suspending the accused from the ceiling and applying weight and torque to inflict punishment. Using toca, meant placing a cloth over the victim’s mouth and pouring water over them, to give the accused a sense their body was drowning. Finally, the potro, known in English as the rack, was thought to be the implement of choice in Inquisition punishment.
Sentencing
Sentencing by the Inquisition could go 1 of 5 ways. Highly rare but no less a possible outcome, the defendant in question could be acquitted. Though at the Inquisitor’s behest, the case could be re-opened at a later date, even on old evidence. A trial itself could be suspended, which would mean the defendant could go free (for now at least…) or just be placed in a long-term, anonymous detention. It’s understood, if one was set free after a trial suspension, the accusation may well have been misplaced or inaccurate.
A defendant could be given penance. Those found guilty were allowed to renounce their crimes and face public punishment to be penanced. Punishments included fines and a sentence as an oarsman for the royal galleys. Defendants could face reconciliation as a sentence, and er, its not as pleasant as it sounds. The sentenced would be publicly reconciled with the catholic church…and publicly punished. Long imprisonments, galley stints, and whipping were all used.
Of all five sentences, relaxation was the most severe… ironically. With no power to execute the convicted, that was only in the jurisdiction of the crown. Execution was always a public matter, and typically saved for heretics who had ‘relapsed’ in the Inquisitions eyes. While not consistent or common, executions were a grisly matter, with the condemned delivered the most virulent of physical punishment before being burned.
Persecution of homosexuals
The Inquisition had a profound streak of prosecuting homosexuals. The first instance of prosecuted sodomy was an individual burned alive by the Inquisition in Valencia, in 1572. Sodomy did not receive universal treatment across Spain. The Kingdom of Castile for example, would not permit the inquisition anywhere near crimes of sodomy unless they had tangible links to practices of beliefs heretical.
Many other regions considered sodomy an issue for civil authorities and were not frequently followed through with an investigation. In fact, the Crown of Aragon was the only region that permitted cases of sodomy to be investigated by under the Inquisition, with the city of Zaragoza being a hotspot of severe prosecution.
Of the inquisition investigations into crimes of sodomy, nearly all 500 cases were over relationships between a man of age and an adolescent. The adolescents in question would receive more lenient punishment than the adults, but this was particularly when they were 12 years old or younger. The Inquisition, by their own rule, would only place a death sentence for sodomy when those accused were aged 25 or older. Around half put to trial were under this age, a primary reason for the relatively low death rate of the inquisitions trials.