Estimates of the number killed by the Spanish Inquisition, which Sixtus IV authorised in a papal bull of 1478, have ranged from 30,000 to 300,000. Some historians are convinced that millions died.
But according to Professor Agostino Borromeo, a historian of Catholicism at the Sapienza University in Rome and curator of the 783-page volume released yesterday, only 1% of the 125,000 people tried by church tribunals as suspected heretics in Spain were executed.
Other experts told journalists at the Vatican yesterday that many of the thousands of executions conventionally attributed to the church were in fact carried out by non-church tribunals. Wiki.
This is undoubtedly true. The extensive research some years ago in the excellent, well-kept, Spanish Archives revealed the truth of the matter. Little consolation for the half dozen a year who perished - but 'false news' is nothing new - and there were many more burned for 'civil' crimes!
