<Li> The defendant could be reconciled . In addition to the public ceremony in which the condemned was reconciled with the Catholic Church, more severe punishments were used, among them long sentences to jail or the galleys, plus the confiscation of all property . Physical punishments, such as whipping, were also used . </Li> <Li> The most serious punishment was relaxation to the secular arm for burning at the stake . This penalty was frequently applied to impenitent heretics and those who had relapsed . Execution was public . If the condemned repented, they were shown mercy by being garroted before burning; if not, they were burned alive . </Li> <P> Frequently, cases were judged in absentia, and when the accused died before the trial finished, the condemned were burned in effigy . </P> <P> The distribution of the punishments varied considerably over time . It is believed that sentences of death were enforced in the first stages within the long history of the Inquisition . According to García Cárcel, the court of Valencia employed the death penalty in 40% of the processings before 1530, but later that percentage dropped to 3% . </P>

What was the cause of the spanish inquisition