The Spanish Inquisition was established on 1 November, 1478, by Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castille, as an ecclesiastical tribunal designed to ensure religious orthodoxy in Spain. But it was always more than just a religious body becoming over time the political bulwark of the Spanish State preserving not just Sangre Limpia (clean blood) at home but also dictating policy both domestic and foreign.

Eugène Vintras was informed by spirits he had to found a new religious order together with the true king of France, Louis XVII, who had to be Nostradamus’ Great Monarch. And Joris-Karl Huysmans was writing a book on satanism with a defrocked priest in it, who performed black masses and was not inspired by the infamous abbé Boullan, but by the chaplain of the Holy Blood of Bruges…

The Inquisition was ruthless in their attempts to rid medieval Europe of heretical teachings. This essay describes the ways they held trials and gave punishments.