Although Montaigne was a Frenchman famous for his Enlightenment ideas, it is said that his lineage had its roots in Converso, Spain. Surprisingly, the history of Spain, where the Inquisition was rampant, had a great influence on Montaigne's thought.

The Inquisition, which sought to eliminate those with hostile ideas, ended up creating these more powerful entities. The trend of distrust, skepticism, and atheism gradually eroded the authority of the Church.

It was very interesting to see how the Inquisition had a major impact on how modern European philosophers were born.

The repression and exile by the Inquisition was not merely a political issue; it was also tremendously damaging to the economy. This quote is one of the most memorable in the book.

We are reminded here that eliminating others will ultimately strangle us. We may think that we have defeated the bad guys by letting our emotions get the better of us, but in reality, we have not solved any of the problems.

This is the same today. They make someone look bad, attack and eliminate them as they are responsible. Time goes by without discussing what really needs to be looked at and without taking any action...

The result is a terrible loss and a country in decline... The Spanish Inquisition is no stranger to this. This is exactly the problem we are facing now.

The Inquisition is often thought of as being caused by religious intolerance, but in the case of the Spanish Inquisition, the main reason was political.

The question of how to deal with the atmosphere of violence that pervades the country has always been a concern for political leaders.

In a society of heightened aggression, governance becomes impossible if that aggression cannot be repelled. Therefore, scapegoats are needed. The search for the bad guys is actively promoted, and they are held accountable so that the dissatisfaction will not be directed at the rulers. This has always been the case. I have talked about this before in my article on Stalin. We must also be careful.

It was in 1605 that "Don Quixote" was published by Cervantes.

It has been a little over 100 years since the fall of Granada in 1492 and the unification of all of Spain by Catholic forces. During this time, the Inquisition was at its height and Jews and Muslims were persecuted.

In response to this persecution, Cervández satirizes it with surprising skill and irony in his work. This is a level of irony that would not be noticed by the average reader. Without knowledge of the history of the time and further explanations, you would probably pass it by.

I myself rediscovered how great "Don Quixote" is after reading this book.

It was such a surprise to me that the biggest highlight of the book was the connection between this "Don Quixote" and the history of Spain, which is written at the end of the book.

When the Inquisition was first introduced, it was surprising that the townspeople rejected it. They sensed that the officials sent from the state, the Inquisition, would destroy the culture and society of the town.

As you will see in this article, there were converted Christians called "Converso" and converted Muslims called "Moriscos" in this city, and they lived together with the Christians, forming a society that was a mixture of various cultures with each other.

This is the important background to the Spanish Inquisition that we will be looking at. The book tells the story of people who lived together, but were torn apart by fear, hatred, jealousy, and mutual distrust.