Inquisition

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave. In 1483, Jews were expelled from all of Andalusia. Evidence that was used to identify a Jew included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays or the buying of many vegetables before Passover or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher. The court employed physical torture to extract confessions.

England has a rich and bloody history when it comes to Religious Persecution. The religious persecutions started when Henry VIII split with Rome in 1534 and started his own Church of England with the King being its head. Suddenly, Catholics were persona non grata and arrested in large numbers, suspected of being behind Papist Plots to bring down King Henry. In a reversal of fortune, his daughter, Mary I was motivated by a religious zeal to purge this new heresy from her land, and during her short reign about 290 Protestants had been burned at the stake. Later, in another turnaround, Queen Elizabeth I hunted down Catholics once more, and executed hundreds for secretly practicing their faith.

There were many witch hunts in the 17th Century across Britain, with dozens of well known witch hunters scouring the land. The most famous of which was Mathew Hopkins, the witch finder general who was based in Essex. Witches were heretics to Christianity, and the act of witchcraft was considered a crime so foul that all normal legal procedures were superseded, and because the Devil was not going to confess, it was necessary to gain a confession from the human involved. By all and any means necessary.