In what ways do you feel the Spanish Inquisition influenced the competition, its participants and its audience, if at all?

In what ways do you feel the Spanish Inquisition influenced the competition, its participants and its audience, if at all? Were you surprised by its pervasive influence?

The Spanish inquisition influenced life on all levels during their reign of terror so the competition would be just one more aspect of life that would be distorted by their influence.

The Spanish Inquisition was a period of time when the smallest actions or utterances were scrutinized for possibly being heretical. It was a time when people were forced by torture to confess and implicate others, guilty or not. Therefore, the competitors had to be very cautious and try to demonstrate that their miraculous powers came to them from God not the devil or other religious sects. They tried to project an appearance of holiness, wore religious artifacts and created miracles that were compatible with Catholicism. The audience was very critical of miracles carefully observing to detect any hint that the devil was present and involved in any way.

I agree with the previous comments regarding the dangers posed by the Inquisition and am surprised that anyone would risk performing 'magical' acts that could easily be twisted to appear heretical by those with power. Luzia couldn't resist her nature although she knew it was very risky.

The Spanish Inquisition was a reign of terror! You walked a fine line during this time period of trying to advance yourself without drawing attention to yourself. Again, every decision had implications and costs!

I found Luzia’s situation particularly harrowing as she was walking such a tight line in all aspects of her life, where she went, what she ate, who she socialized with, if she went to church and where etc… add to that being caught doing magic as a scullery servant could get her killed then to end up in court at the whim of Royalty which tend to be fickle and destroy normal people at court on a whim , let alone people who were performing magic, whew, what a stressful life

The Spanish Inquisition influenced absolutely everything and everyone during it's reign. It was a way of live and your class determined how you lived, where you lived, your occupation, even down to what food you ate daily.

Prior to the Spanish Inquisition Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had been fighting in a 10 year long war to conquer the Kingdom of Granada. This ended the last Moorish Muslim territory in Iberia. The new vision of Isabella was to aggressively expand Catholicism power. Hence the financial backing of Christopher Columbus. Everyone was in a heightened sense of fear as they witnessed the torture, murder, and deportation of perceived Catholic enemies. Displaying anything unique or abnormal was always under suspect as being a heretic.