institution
Spanish Inquisition
Inquisition
also: inkvizíció, the Inquisition, Holy Office
The Spanish Inquisition (established 1478) was the ecclesiastical tribunal used to enforce religious orthodoxy in Catholic Spain; in 'Ecce Homo', the fanatical Dominican friar Deodát uses it to destroy Count Conti on fabricated charges — a Gothic villainy-device drawn from Romantic anti-clerical fiction.
Reading notes
- Tales (Five Stories) §4 Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition (established 1478) was the mechanism of ecclesiastical terror in Counter-Reformation Spain; in Madách's tale, the Dominican friar Deodát uses it to destroy Count Conti — a Gothic villainy-device standard in European Romantic fiction of the 1830s–1840s.