The Spanish Inquisition

Their Eminences, Cardinals Biggles, Ximinez (of Spain), and Fang.

MontyPython just weren't expecting it.

(Important tip for learning the PythonLanguage successfully.) Oddly enough, I thought Python's BigIdea was that everything is a sequence

No NO! Not the comfy chair.

(you can guess how well my work is going today...)

I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

NOBODY expects TheSpanishInquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise .... surprise and fear .... fear and surprise .... Our two weapons are fear and surprise .... and ruthless efficiency .... Our three weapons are fear, surprise and ruthless efficiency .... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope .... Our four .... no .... Amongst our weapons .... Amongst our weaponry .... are such elements as fear, surprise .... I'll come in again.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/script.html

For more counting fun, see HolyHandGrenade

''Ask yourself, what more familiar things is this problem like? Is it really like ordering coffee from a fancy coffee machine? Is it really mostly like steering (tacking) a sailboat across a lake? driving from Toronto to Paris? (just to avoid the AmericanCulturalAssumption)

I thought about driving from Toronto to Paris once, but the thought of paying $3,000 just to use the Trans-Atlantic Bridge put me off the idea.

Of course, Paris NY is closer than Paris ME, Paris PA or Paris OH or any of the 20 other Parises

Paris Ontario (same province as Toronto) may be a simpler way to drive from Toronto to Paris. Paris Ontario is a very nice town. Lovely place.

Every word processor needs a macro which will insert the number of items in the next bulleted list. It should be called the "spanish inquisition" operator. There is one good reason for it: convenience. Convenience and protection from embarrassment. There are two good reasons for it. Convenience, protection from embarrassment, and it's cool. OK, there are three good reasons for it...

See? You could just have written "There are {spanish-inquisition} good reasons for it..."

I certainly didn't expect this page here.

Not to interrupt the fun, but the real Spanish Inquisition was essentially a professional system for politely collecting sworn legal depositions, run by lawyers and not religious fanatics. Spain, with its Moorish influences, had one of the most advanced and enlightened legal systems in Europe. Inquisitors wanted the truth, and knew the best way to get it was to compare testimonies collected from many people without duress. They documented everything they did, and left very few records of torture, all brief.

The myth of fanatics running torture chambers arose in Protestant Europe as a "fair and balanced news" kind of thing, to excuse military campaigns against Spain.

Actually, it seems the truth lies on both sides of these stories, at least according to this article: http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Dossier/1112-96/article2.html

[The pertinent history is fairly complex and involves many equally complex issues (e.g. the Crusades, roles of the Knights Templar, etc) over many centuries and many geographical areas, and no single summary would accurately describe each era, as things certainly changed over time.]

[But picking two items from the above URL:]

It discusses the rights that the accused had (e.g. to have a lawyer, etc). The wording is ambiguous, but common sense says that any such rights and protections would usually only be afforded to the priests and noblemen that were discussed in the paragraph previous. There is no particular reason to think that commoners accused of heresy would enjoy anything like as high a level of legal protections.
"...we must stress the chronological track, because the bloody reputation of the Spanish Inquisition - though it formally existed for more than three centuries - was earned during its first decade and a half, even before, that is, the capture of Granada. During this unhappy period perhaps as many as 2000 persons were burnt as heretics. Though this number is only a small fraction of what the Black Legend routinely alleged, it is nevertheless sobering enough."
The URL in question doesn't say anything inaccurate, so far as I know, but it does strike me as a little bit of an apologia in what it leaves out or glosses over, and what it emphasizes versus what it de-emphasizes -- unsurprising considering the apparent source.

[The comment about the Moorish influence is certainly accurate (the middle east was the only civilized area and repository of advanced learning in the west between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance), it's just not the only statement to be made on a subject as complex as this.]

CategoryJoke