The Unsuccessful Inquisition in Tudor England

Abstract

The Spanish Inquisition was tasked with finding heretics and either returning them to their faith or punishing them for their unfaithfulness. This institution lasted for hundreds of years and prosecuted thousands of cases across the Iberian Peninsula. When Mary Tudor took the throne, she instituted her own, smaller inquisition in her attempts to return her people to the Catholic faith. Yet while the Spanish Inquisition was a secretive organization, the trials and arrests in England were far more public and accessible. Much of the methodology and questioning processes were similar, yet Mary’s Inquisition met great resistance and died with her after only a few years. Martyrs were created from the “poor souls” trapped and killed by Bloody Mary and Bloody Bishop Bonner. Secrecy was the Spanish Inquisition’s main weapon and advantage, and Mary’s Inquisition could not and did not succeed without it