They did try saying “Please just say you’re not a Christian and then we can let you go and not murder you” but Christians have always been allergic to shutting the fuck up
it’s against the Christian religious belief to deny that they hold it. You might as well ask why Muslims targetted by the Spanish inquisition didn’t just eat pork so they would be let go
If I was Muslim in inquisition era Spain and the inquisition said “We’re going to murder you if you don’t eat this ham sandwich” I would absolutely eat the sandwich.
This is mostly based on the fact that when I was Christian if someone had said they were gonna murder me if I didn’t deny I’m Christian I wouldn’t have hesitated.
Obviously that doesn’t make the person giving threats okay but when given the choice between a relatively small sin against your religion and being violently murdered, most people pick the first one.
loads of people didn’t though and they didn’t not because they didn’t understand that being killed was bad but because they didn’t accept that armed men could tell them not to practice their religion
fair enough but there are issues they have stuck to their guns on
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/oct/07/paellas-dark-role-in-the-spanish-inquisition