Based on the sources, the Spanish Inquisition was a powerful and ruthless institution that operated through deception, secrecy, and arbitrary authority. Individuals like Nicholas Burton, an English merchant trading peacefully, could be lured into arrest by agents using lies and then imprisoned without being told the charge. He was held in harsh conditions, prevented from communicating with others, and ultimately burned at the stake for his religious beliefs, his tongue forced out with a stick to silence him at his execution.

The Inquisition routinely seized the property of those arrested, including goods belonging to others. John Fronton, an attorney sent to reclaim his client's seized merchandise, faced months of deliberate delay and obstruction. The Inquisition assigned him useless advocates, charged him fees, and repeatedly demanded more documentation. When he persisted, they manufactured a heresy charge against him based on how he recited a prayer, seizing the goods permanently and imprisoning him.

In Arragon, the French commander M. de Legal challenged the Inquisition's authority directly. Ordered to levy contributions from the city, he demanded payment from religious orders. When the Dominicans refused, claiming their wealth was only in silver images and it would be sacrilege to remove them, Legal seized the images to be coined into money, stating they would be more useful that way. When the inquisitors tried to excommunicate him, he issued a counter-excommunication, used troops to expel the inquisitors from their building (the most commodious place for quarters), and released 400 prisoners, including women who appeared to be a "seraglio" for the inquisitors, exposing their corruption.

The sources highlight the Inquisition's financial motives, its ability to manipulate figures like King Philip II (leading to the death of his son Don Carlos, who opposed them), and the pervasive fear and superstition that allowed its power to persist despite its "enormities."

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