Christian History 1500 to 1599

1555

April, - June, ANCONA (Italy) - As part of his Counter-Reformation, Pope Paul IV supported the arrest of 51 Marranos. Twenty-five were burned. Donna Gracia Mendes Nasi tried to organize a boycott of the port of Ancona by Jewish merchants throughout the Ottoman empire but was opposed by some merchants and many rabbis who feared that the Pope would retaliate. [80] (57)

1556

In Poland, local Jews were accused of host desecration and three were condemned and executed despite the lack of evidence and the re-trial ordered by King Sigismund II Augustus. The accuser was the Bishop of Chelm.

In Ancona, Italy, under the orders of Paul IV, privileges granted to Jews were revoked and former Maarranos were forced back into Christianity. Twenty three men and women were burned for refusing. On March 9th, the Sultan Suleiman demanded that all Turkish Marranos be set free after  he complained that his Turkish Jewish subjects had been imprisoned causing him to lose a substantial amount of money.

1556

March, ANCONA (Italy) - Under orders of Paul IV, privileges granted to Jews were revoked. Former Marranos were forced back into Christianity. 23 men and woman were burned for refusing. The Sultan Suleiman complained (March 9th) that his Turkish Jewish subjects had been imprisoned, and that because of this he had lost a substantial amount of money. He demanded that all Turkish Marranos be set free. [80] (57)

1560

As recorded by historians as one of the most horrendous and barbaric inquisition, Xavier’s inquisition resulted in the torture and mutilation of thousands. Children were flogged and slowly dismembered in front of their parents whose eyelids had been sliced off to make sure they missed nothing.  Extremities were amputated carefully so that a person could remain conscious even when all that remained was a torso and a head.

The archbishop of Evora, Portugal eventually wrote: "If everywhere the Inquisition was an infamous court, the infamy, however base, however vile, however corrupt and determined by worldly interests, it was never more so than in Goa.”

No one knows for sure the exact number of Goans subjected to these diabolical tortures. Conservative estimates put the number in the tens of thousands while non-conservative estimates put the number to hundreds of thousands, perhaps even more. The abominations of these inquisitions continued from 1560 until a brief respite was given in 1774. Four years later, however, the inquisition was once more introduced and went on until 1812. It was the British presence in Goa that put an end to the terror of the Inquisition.

1568

The Spanish Inquisition Tribunal ordered the extermination of 3 million rebels in the Netherlands. Thousands were slain.

Many people assume that the crusades were holy wars to liberate holy lands from non-Christians, but few really knew that many of these crusades were against other Christian sects. These crusades were launched for other purposes such as the drowning of almost 6,000 Protestants by Spanish Catholic troops in the Netherlands in 1568, the sacking of the German city of Magdeburg in the 17th century, the slaying of 30,000 Protestants in which more than 40% if the population, mostly Germans, were decimated.

1571

An inquisition was set up in Mexico on October 18 of this year and remained in force until the end of the 18th century. During that period, 1,500 individuals were convicted of being judaizantes or of practicing Judaism. Approximately 200 people were either burned at the stake or died before being convicted. A similar number was sentenced to jail terms.