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{{Short description|System of tribunals enforcing Catholic doctrine}}
{{Redirect|The Holy Office|the 1974 Mexican film|The Holy Office (film)}}
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{{Infobox Legislature Historic
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| name =Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain
| native_name = Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición
| transcription_name = Spanish Inquisition
| image =Seal for the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spain).png
| image size =
| caption =Seal for the Tribunal in Spain.
| type = ] under the election of the ], for upholding religious orthodoxy in their realm
| houses =
| entity_type =
| entity =
| year = 27 September 1480
| before =
| after =
| year2 = 15 July 1834
| leader1_type =
| leader1 =
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| leader2 =
| leader3_type =
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| leader4_type =
| leader4 =
| leader5_type =
| leader5 =
| leader6_type =
| leader6 =
| members =Consisted of a ], who headed the ''Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition'', made up of six members. Under it were up to twenty one tribunals in the empire
| committees =
| house1 =
| house2 =
| house3 =
| voting_system1 = Grand Inquisitor and Suprema designated by the crown
| voting_system2 =
| voting_system3 =
| last_election1 =
| last_election2 =
| last_election3 =
| session_room =
| session_res =
| location = ]
| see_also = ]
| website =
| notes =
}} }}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}
{{Infobox legislature
| name = Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
| native_name = Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición
| native_name_lang = es
| coa_pic = File:Inquisición española.svg
| coa_caption = Seal for the Tribunal in Spain<br>Flanking the cross is a sword, symbolising the punishment of heretics, and an olive branch, symbolising reconciliation with the repentant. In Latin, the inscription "Exurge Domine et judica causam tuam. Psalm 73." ("Arise, Lord, and judge your cause")
| house_type = ] under the ], for upholding religious orthodoxy in their realm
| established = 1 November 1478
| disbanded = 15 July 1834
| members = Consisted of a ], who headed the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, made up of six members. Under it were up to 21 tribunals in the empire.
| voting_system1 = Grand Inquisitor and Suprema designated by the crown
| meeting_place = ]
| footnotes = {{Plainlist|
* See also:
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]}}
}}
{{Catholic Church sidebar}}


The '''Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition''' ({{lang-es|Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición|links=no}}), commonly known as the '''Spanish Inquisition''' (''Inquisición española''), was a ] established in 1480 by ] ] and ]. It was intended to maintain ] orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the ] which was under Papal control. The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam. This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave. The '''Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition''' ({{langx|es|Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición}}) was established in 1478 by the ], King ] and Queen ]. It began toward the end of the '']'' and aimed to maintain ] orthodoxy in their kingdoms and replace the ], which was under ] control. Along with the ] and the ], it became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic ].

Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs' decision to fund the Inquisition such as increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing '']'', profiting from confiscation of the property of convicted heretics, reducing social tensions and protecting the kingdom from the danger of a ].


The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly as operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the ], the ],{{Citation needed|reason=It was often wrongly assumed that the Spanish Inquisition operated in Spanish Netherlands as well. Maybe the same is true for the Kingdom of Naples.|date=December 2019}} and all Spanish possessions in ] and ]. According to some modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7 percent of all cases.<ref name="Levack, Brian P. 1995">Data for executions for witchcraft: {{Cite book |last=Levack |first=Brian P. |year=199 |title=The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe |edition=2nd|location=London and New York |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0582080690 |oclc=30154582}} And see ] for more detail.</ref> The Inquisition, however, since the creation of the American courts, has never had jurisdiction over the indigenous. The King of Spain ordered "that the inquisitors should never proceed against the Indians, but against the old Christians and their descendants and other persons against whom in these kingdoms of Spain it is customary to proceed".<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cincuenta años de la inquisición en el Tribunal de Cartagena de Indias |last=Splendiani |first=Ana María |year=1997 |pages=86 |quote=the American Inquisition was never involved in the conversion and evangelisation of the Indians, as they were outside its jurisdiction from the very promulgation of the edicts founding the American courts.}}</ref>
The body was under the direct control of the ]. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of ], though it had ceased effective operation sometime earlier after a long decline.


The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify ] among those who converted from ] and ] to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified following ] ordering ] and ] to convert to Catholicism or leave ], or face death,<ref name=":5" /> resulting in ], torture and executions, the persecution of '']s'' and '']s'', and the ] and ].<ref name="Prien2012">{{cite book|author=Hans-Jürgen Prien|title=Christianity in Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kSAbYoBGmxQC|date=2012|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-22262-5|page=11}}</ref> The Inquisition was abolished in 1834, during the reign of ], after a period of declining influence in the preceding century.
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==Previous Inquisitions== ==Previous Inquisitions==
{{main|Medieval Inquisition}}
The ] was created through ], '']'', issued at the end of the 12th century by ] as a way to combat the ] in southern France. There were a huge number of ]s of the ] in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. In the ], a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of ''Excommunicamus'' of Pope ], in 1232, during the era of the ] heresy. Its principal representative was ]. With time, its importance was diluted, and, by the middle of the 15th century, it was almost forgotten although still there according to the law.
], 1491–1493]]


The Roman Emperor ] legalized Christianity in 312. Having been severely persecuted under previous emperors, the new religion now felt capable of commencing its program of persecution. From the moment it was recognised and empowered, there were persecutions against the adherents of other cults — pagans, Jews, and heretics. Though only in the fourth century of its existence, Christianity had spread widely and was already beginning to experience a multiplicity of schisms within itself. Among the most significant of the heresies at this time were ], ], ], the ], the ], the ], and ].{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=9-11}}
There was never a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition in ]. Members of the ] were charged with surveillance of the faithful and punishment of transgressors. During the Middle Ages, in Castile, little attention was paid to heresy by the Catholic ruling class. Jews and Muslims were tolerated and generally allowed to follow their traditional laws and customs in domestic matters. However, by law, they were considered inferior to Catholics and were subject to discriminatory legislation.


The ] issued on 27 February 380 by Emperor ] established ] as the state church of the Roman Empire. It condemned other Christian creeds as heresies of "foolish madmen" and approved their punishment.<ref>{{cite book
The Spanish Inquisition can be seen as an answer to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the ] of the ] from the Muslim ]. For almost 600 years, much of the Iberian Peninsula was dominated by the Moors following their invasion of the peninsula in 711 until the early 13th century. Following the Christian victory at the Battle of ] (1212), and the fall of Córdoba (1236) and Seville (1248), Christian rule was re-established for most of the peninsula. Only the small region of Granada remained under Muslim rule which also ended with a final Christian victory in 1492. However, the ] did not result in the total expulsion of Muslims from Spain, since they, along with Jews, were tolerated by the ruling Catholic elite. Large cities, especially ], ] and ], had significant Jewish populations centered in ], but in the coming years the Muslims were increasingly subjugated by alienation and torture. The Jews on the other had who thrived under Muslim rule now suffered similar maltreatment.
|page = 6-7
|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2WuMyEzani8C&pg=PA6
|title = Church and State Through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries
|isbn = 978-0-8196-0189-6
|last1 = Ehler
|first1 = Sidney Zdeneck
|last2 = Morrall
|first2 = John B
|year = 1967
| publisher=Biblo & Tannen Publishers |access-date =
|quote = This Edict is the first which definitely introduces Catholic orthodoxy as the established religion of the Roman world. Acknowledgment of the true doctrine of the Trinity is made the test of State recognition.
|url-status = live
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160515193906/https://books.google.com/books?id=2WuMyEzani8C&pg=PA6
|archive-date = 2016-05-15
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Edict of Thessalonica |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/edict-thessalonica |access-date= |website=History Today}}</ref>


In 438, under Emperor ], the '']'' (Theodosian Code), a compilation of laws of the Roman Empire, already provided for the confiscation of property and the death penalty for heretics.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=13}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pharr |first=Clyde |title=The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions |publisher=Princeton University Press |publication-date=1952 |pages=440–476}}</ref>
Post-reconquest medieval Spain has been characterized by ] and some other Iberianists as a society of "convivencia", that is relatively peaceful co-existence, albeit punctuated by occasional conflict among the ruling Catholics and the Jews and Muslims. However, as Henry Kamen notes, "so-called convivencia was always a relationship between unequals."<ref>Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition'', p. 4.</ref> Despite their legal inequality, there was a long tradition of Jewish service to the crown of Aragon and Jews occupied many important posts, both religious and political. Castile itself had an unofficial ]. Ferdinand's father ] named the Jewish ] to be Court ].


The Spanish ascetic and theologian ] was excommunicated in 380 after being accused of magic and libertinage. In response to the instigation of two Christian bishops, Emperor ] condemned Priscillian and his companions to death, though prominent figures such as ] and ] challenged this verdict. Priscillian has been described as the first martyr killed by a Spanish Inquisition.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=14}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Momigliano |first=Arnaldo |title=Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |publication-date=1977 |pages=113}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jedin |first=Hubert & Dolan, John |title=The Early church: an abridgment of History of the church (Volumes 1 to 3) |publisher=Wesleyan University Press |publication-date=1993 |pages=226–228 |chapter=41: The Priscillianist Movement}}</ref>
Nevertheless, in some parts of Spain towards the end of the 14th century, there was a wave of violent ], encouraged by the preaching of ], ] of ]. The ]s of June 1391 were especially bloody: in Seville, hundreds of Jews were killed, and the ] was completely destroyed. The number of people killed was also high in other cities, such as ], ] and Barcelona.<ref>Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition'', p. 17. Kamen cites approximate numbers for Valencia (250) and Barcelona (400), but no solid data about Córdoba.</ref>


After the ] in the 5th century, there followed almost seven centuries in which persecutions for heresy became very rare. Some of the old heresies survived, but in a weakened state, and they tended not to operate openly. No new schisms appeared to emerge during this period.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=17}}
One of the consequences of these programs was the mass conversion of Jews. Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism; this however was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism.<ref>], ''Summa'', lib. 1 p.33, citing D.45 c.5.</ref> After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion."<ref>Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition'', p. 10.</ref> Thus after 1391 a new social group appeared and were referred to as '']'' or ''New Christians''. Many ''conversos'', now freed from the antisemitic restrictions imposed on Jewish employment, attained important positions in 15th century Spain, including positions in the government and in the Church. Among many others, physicians ] and Francisco Lopez Villalobos (Ferdinand's court physician), writers ], ], ] and ], and bankers ] and Gabriel Sanchez (who financed the voyage of ]) were all ''conversos''. ''Conversos'' - not without opposition - managed to attain high positions in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, at times becoming severe detractors of Judaism.<ref>Notably Bishop ], author of ''Scrutinium Scripturarum'', ] (''Hebraomastix'') and ] (''Zelus Christi contra Judaeos''). All three were ''conversos''. (Kamen, op. cit., p. 39).</ref> Some even received titles of nobility, and as a result, during the following century some works attempted to demonstrate that virtually all of the nobles of Spain were descended from Israelites.<ref>Notably the ''Libro verde de Aragon'' and ''Tizón de la nobleza de España'' (cited in Kamen, op. cit. p. 38.</ref>

The ] was created through the ] '']'' ("To abolish")<ref>{{Cite web |title=Text of ad abolendam issued by Pope Lucius III, Synod of Verona 4th November 1184 |url=https://professor-moriarty.com/info/files/resources/verona1184.txt |access-date=2024-02-12 |website=Professor Moriarty}}</ref>{{sfnp|Thomsett|2010|p=13}} at the end of the 12th century by ], with the support of emperor ], to combat the ] in southern France. Heretics were to be handed over to secular authorities for punishment, have their property seized, and face excommunication. Holders of public office, counts, barons, and rectors in cities and other places were required to take responsibility for punishing heretics handed over to them by the Church; any authority who failed in this duty was to be excommunicated, removed from office, and stripped of all legal rights. Commercial boycotts would be imposed on cities that supported heretics and declined to participate. It was the start of a centralization process in the fight against heresy.{{sfnp|Frassetto|2007|p=68}}{{sfnp|Leff|1967|p=37}} There were a large number of tribunals of the ] in various European kingdoms during the ]. In the ], a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of '']'' of Pope ],{{sfnp|Leff|1967|p=42}} in 1231, during the era of the Albigensian heresy, as a condition for peace with Aragon. The Inquisition was ill-received by the Aragonese, which led to prohibitions against insults or attacks on it. Rome was particularly concerned that the Iberian Peninsula's large Muslim and Jewish population would have a 'heretical' influence on Catholic citizens. Rome pressed the kingdoms to accept the Papal Inquisition after Aragon. Navarra conceded in the 13th century and Portugal by the end of the 14th, though its 'Roman Inquisition' was famously inactive. Castile refused steadily, trusting in its prominent position in Europe and its military power to keep the Pope's interventionism in check. ] and ] were the only Western European kingdoms that withstood the establishment of the Inquisition in their realms by the end of the Middle Ages. England’s success was because of its distance and the voluntary compliance of its people, while Castile, which would later become part of Spain, resisted because of its people’s resistance and the power of the kingdom. {{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

==Creation==
Within the context of medieval Europe, there are several hypotheses of what prompted the creation of the tribunal after ].

===The "Too Multi-Religious" hypothesis===
The Spanish Inquisition is interpretable as a response to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the ] of the ] from the Muslim ]. The Reconquista did not result in the total expulsion of Muslims from Spain since they, along with Jews, were tolerated by the ruling Christian elite. Large cities, especially ], ], and ], had significant Jewish populations centered on ], but in the coming years, the Muslims became increasingly alienated and relegated from power centers.<ref name=":0">Brian Catlos "Secundum suam zunam": Muslims in the Laws of the Aragonese "Reconquista", Mediterranean Studies Vol. 7 (1998), pp. 13–26 Published by: Penn State University Press</ref>

Cultural historian ] has characterized post-reconquest medieval Spain as a society of relatively peaceful co-existence (''convivencia'') punctuated by occasional conflict among the ruling Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. As historian Henry Kamen notes, the "so-called convivencia was always a relationship between unequals."<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=4}}</ref> Despite their legal inequality, there was a long tradition of Jewish service to the Crown of Aragon, and Jews occupied many important posts, both religious and political. Castile itself had an unofficial ]. Ferdinand's father, ], named the Jewish ] Court ].{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

] attitudes increased throughout Europe during the late 13th century and into the 14th century. England and France expelled their ] populations in ] and ], respectively.{{sfnp|Peters|1988|p=79}} During the ], Spain's anti-Jewish sentiment steadily increased. This prejudice climaxed in the summer of 1391 when violent anti-Jewish riots broke out in Spanish cities like ].{{sfnp|Peters|1988|p=82}} To linguistically distinguish them from non-converted or long-established Catholic families, new converts were called ], or New Catholics.

According to Don ], persecution against Jews began in earnest in ] in 1391, on the 1st day of the lunar month ] (June).<ref name="Crescas">Letter of Hasdai Crescas, ''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' by ] (ed. Dr. M. Wiener), Hannover 1855, pp. 128–130 (pp. 138–140 in ); Fritz Kobler, ''Letters of the Jews through the Ages'', London 1952, pp. 272–275; {{cite book|last=Mitre Fernández|first=Emilio|title=Los judíos de Castilla en tiempo de Enrique III : el pogrom de 1391|language=es |trans-title=The Castilian Jews at the time of Henry III: the 1391 pogrom |publisher=Valladolid University| editor=Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial|year=1994|isbn=978-84-7762-449-3}}; ], , Lvov 1846, p. 76 in PDF.</ref> From there, the violence spread to ], and by the 17th day of the same lunar month, it had reached ] (called then by Jews after its Arabic name "Ṭulayṭulah") in the region of ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שבט יהודה -- וירגא, שלמה בן יהודה, 1460-1554 |url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/37804 |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=www.hebrewbooks.org}}</ref> Then the violence spread to ], and by the 1st day of the lunar month ], it had also reached the Jews of ] in ], where the slain was approximately two-hundred and fifty. Indeed, many Jews who resided in the neighboring provinces of ] and Gironda and the kingdom of ] had also been affected,<ref>{{Cite web |title=HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שבט יהודה -- וירגא, שלמה בן יהודה, 1460-1554 |url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/39487 |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=www.hebrewbooks.org}}</ref> as were the Jews of ] (Andalucía).<ref>{{Cite web |title=HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שלשלת הקבלה -- יחיא, גדליה בן יוסף אבן, 1515-1587 |url=https://www.hebrewbooks.org/6618 |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=www.hebrewbooks.org}}</ref> While many died a martyr's death, others converted to save themselves.

Encouraged by the preaching of ], ] of ], the general unrest affected nearly all the Jews in Spain, during which an estimated 200,000 Jews changed their religion or else concealed their religion, becoming known in Hebrew as ],<ref>], ''Sefer Yuchasin'', ] 1580 (q.v. , p. 266 in PDF) (Hebrew).</ref> meaning "those who are compelled ." Only a handful of the more principal persons of the Jewish community, those who had found refuge among the viceroys in the outlying towns and districts, managed to escape.<ref name="Crescas"/>

Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church and, theoretically, anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament but confined this to cases where it was administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism.<ref>], ''Summa'', lib. 1 p. 33, citing D.45 c.5.</ref> After the public violence, many of the converts "felt it safer to remain in their new religion."<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=10}}</ref> Thus, after 1391, a new social group appeared and was referred to as '']'' or ''New Christians''. Many ''conversos'', now freed from the anti-Semitic restrictions imposed on Jewish employment, attained important positions in fifteenth-century Spain, including positions in the government and the Church. Among many others, physicians ] and ] (Ferdinand's court physician), writers ], ], ], and Alonso de Palencia, and bankers ] and Gabriel Sánchez (who financed the voyage of ]) were all ''conversos''. ''Conversos''—not without opposition—managed to attain high positions in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, at times becoming severe detractors of Judaism.<ref>Notably Bishop ], author of ''Scrutinium Scripturarum'', ] (''Hebraomastix'') and ] (''Zelus Christi contra Judaeos''). All three were ''conversos''. ({{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=39}}).</ref> Some even received titles of nobility and, as a result, during the following century, some works attempted to demonstrate many nobles of Spain descended from Israelites.<ref>Notably the ''Libro verde de Aragon'' and ''Tizón de la nobleza de España'' (cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=38}}).</ref>

===The "Enforcement Across Borders" hypothesis===
]: Death of the Inquisitor ], painted by ] in 1664]]

According to this hypothesis, the Inquisition was created to standardize various laws and the numerous jurisdictions Spain was divided into. It would be an administrative program analogous to the ] (the “Holy Brotherhood”, ancestor to the ], a law enforcement body answering to the crown that prosecuted thieves and criminals across counties in a way local county authorities could not), an institution that would guarantee uniform prosecution of crimes against royal laws across all local jurisdictions.

The unusual authority wielded by the king over the nobility in the Kingdom of Castile contributed to the kingdom’s prosperity in Europe. This strong control kept the kingdom politically stable and prevented in-fighting that weakened other countries like England. Under the ], both kings of Castile and Aragon had lost power to the great nobles, who now formed dissenting and conspiratorial factions. Taxation and varying privileges differed from county to county, and powerful noble families constantly extorted the kings to attain further concessions, particularly in Aragon.

The main goals of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs were to unite their two kingdoms and strengthen royal influence to guarantee stability. In pursuit of this, they sought to unify the laws of their realms further and reduce the power of the nobility in certain local areas. They attained this partially by raw military strength by creating a combined army between the two of them that could outmatch the military of most noble coalitions in the Peninsula. It was impossible to change the entire laws of both realms by force alone, and due to reasonable suspicion of one another, the monarchs kept their kingdoms separate during their lifetimes. The only way to unify both kingdoms and ensure that Isabella, Ferdinand, and their descendants maintained the power of both kingdoms without uniting them in life was to find or create an executive, legislative, and judicial arm directly under the Crown empowered to act in both kingdoms. This goal, the hypothesis goes, might have given birth to the Spanish Inquisition.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005}}{{Page needed|date=October 2021}}

The religious organization capable of overseeing this role was obvious. Catholicism was the only institution common to both kingdoms and the only one with enough popular support that the nobility could not easily attack it. Through the Spanish Inquisition, Isabella and Ferdinand created a personal police force and personal code of law that rested above the structure of their respective realms without altering or mixing them and could operate freely in both. As the Inquisition had the backing of both kingdoms, it would exist independent of both the nobility and local interests of either kingdom.<ref>Pérez, Joseph (2012) . ''Breve Historia de la Inquisición en España''. Barcelona: Crítica. {{ISBN|978-84-08-00695-4}}.</ref>

According to this view, the prosecution of heretics would be secondary, or simply not considered different, from the prosecution of conspirators, traitors, or groups of any kind who planned to resist royal authority. Royal authority rested on the divine right and oaths of loyalty held before God, so the connection between religious deviation and political disloyalty would appear obvious. The disproportionately high representation of the nobility and high clergy among those investigated by the Inquisition supported this hypothesis, as well as the many administrative and civil crimes the Inquisition oversaw. The Inquisition prosecuted the counterfeiting of royal seals and currency, ensured the effective transmission of the orders of the kings, and verified the authenticity of official documents traveling through the kingdoms, especially from one kingdom to the other.<ref>Canessa De Sanguinetti, Marta. El Bien Nacer: Limpieza De Oficios Y Limpieza De Sangre : Raíces Ibéricas De Un Mal Latinoamericano. Taurus, Ediciones Santillana, 2000.</ref>{{sfnp|Pérez|2005}}{{page needed|date=February 2024}}

===The "Placate Europe" hypothesis===
At a time in which most of Europe had already ], the "dirty blood"{{Citation needed|reason=who said this? is this a quote? this entire section is unsourced!|date=December 2024}} of Spaniards was met with open suspicion and contempt. As the world became smaller and foreign relations became more relevant to stay in power, this foreign image of "being the seed of Jews and Moors" may have become a problem. In addition, the coup that allowed Isabella to take the throne from ] and the Catholic Monarchs to marry had estranged Castile from Portugal, its historical ally, and created the need for new relationships. Similarly, Aragon's ambitions lay in control of the Mediterranean and the defense against France. As their ] proved, the Catholic Monarchs were deeply concerned about France's growing power and expected to create strong dynastic alliances across Europe. In this scenario, the Iberian reputation of being too tolerant was a problem.

Despite the prestige earned through the reconquest ('']''), the foreign image of Spaniards coexisted with an almost universal image of heretics and “bad Christians” due to the long coexistence between the three religions they had accepted in their lands. Anti-Jewish stereotypes created to justify or prompt the expulsion and expropriation of the European Jews applied to Spaniards in most European courts, and the idea of them being “greedy, gold-thirsty, cruel and violent” because of the “Jewish and Moorish blood” was prevalent in Europe prior to the discovery of America. Chronicles by foreign travelers circulated through Europe, describing the tolerant ambiance reigning in the court of Isabella and Ferdinand and how Moors and Jews were free to go about without risk of forced conversion. Past and common clashes between the Pope and the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula regarding the Inquisition in Castile’s case and regarding South Italy in Aragon’s case also reinforced their image of heretics in the international courts. These accusations and images could have had direct political and military consequences, especially considering that the union of two powerful kingdoms was a delicate moment that could prompt fear and violent reactions from neighbors, more so if combined with the expansion of the Ottoman Turks on the Mediterranean.

The creation of the Inquisition and the expulsion of both Jews and Moriscos may have been part of a strategy to whitewash the image of Spain and ease international fears regarding Spain's allegiance. In this scenario, the creation of the Inquisition could have been part of the Catholic Monarchs' strategy to "turn" away from African allies and "towards" Europe, a tool to turn both actual Spain and the Spanish image more European and improve relations with the Pope.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Barea |first=María Elvira Roca |title=Imperiofobia Y Leyenda Negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos Y El Imperio Español |publisher=Siruela |year=2016 |language=es |author-link=Elvira Roca Barea}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2024}}

===The "Ottoman Scare" hypothesis===
The alleged discovery of Morisco plots to support a possible Ottoman invasion was a crucial factor in their decision to create the Inquisition. At this time, the ] was experiencing rapid growth, and the Aragonese Mediterranean Empire was crumbling under debt and war exhaustion. Ferdinand reasonably feared that he would not be capable of repelling an Ottoman attack on Spain’s shores, especially if the Ottomans had internal help. The regions with the highest concentration of Moriscos were those close to the common naval crossings between Spain and Africa. The weakness of the Aragonese Naval Empire combined with the resentment of the higher nobility against the monarchs, the dynastic ], and the two monarchs’ exterior politics that turned away from Morocco and other African nations in favor of Europe, created a fear of a second Muslim invasion, and in turn a second Muslim occupation, that was hardly unfounded. This fear may have been the base reason for the expulsion of those citizens who had either a religious reason to support the invasion of the Ottomans (Moriscos) or no particular religious reason to be against it (Jews). The Inquisition might have been part of the preparations to enforce these measures and ensure their effectiveness by rooting out false converts that would still pose a threat of foreign espionage.<ref>Abou Al Fadl, K. (1994). Islamic law and Muslim minorities: the juristic discourse on Muslim minorities from the second/eight to the eleventh/seventeenth centuries. Islamic Law and Society, 1.</ref><ref>Goosenes, A. (1997). Les inquisitions modernes dans les Pays-Bas meridionaux. 1520–1633. 2 vols. Bruselas</ref>

In favor of this view, there is the military sense it makes, the many early attempts of peaceful conversion and persuasion that the Monarchs used at the beginning of their reign, and the sudden turn towards the creation of the Inquisition and the edicts of expulsion when those initial attempts failed. The ] by the ] is also proof of an interest in Mediterranean expansion and re-establishment of Spanish power in that sea that was bound to generate frictions with the Ottoman Empire and other African nations. Therefore, the Inquisition would have been created as a permanent body to prevent the existence of citizens with religious sympathies with African nations now that rivalry with them had been deemed unavoidable.<ref>Boronat, P. (1901). Los moriscos españoles y su expulsión. 2 vols. Valencia.</ref>

{{anchor|Philosophical and religious reasons}}
===Renaissance ideas and implementation===
The creation of the Spanish Inquisition was consistent with the most important political philosophers of the ]{{dubious|date=November 2024}}, with whom the kings were known to have contact (], ], ], Segni, Pitti, Nardi, Varchi, etc.) Both Guicciardini and Machiavelli defended the importance of centralization and unification to create a strong state capable of repelling foreign invasions and also warned of the dangers of excessive social uniformity to the creativity and innovation of a nation. Machiavelli considered piety and morals desirable for the subjects but not so much for the ruler, who should use them as a way to unify its population. He also warned of the nefarious influence of a corrupt church in the creation of a selfish population and middle nobility, which had fragmented the peninsula and made it unable to resist either France or Aragon. German philosophers at the time were spreading the importance of a vassal sharing the religion of their lord.

The Inquisition may have just been the result of putting these ideas into practice. The use of religion as a unifying factor across a land that was allowed to stay diverse and maintain different laws in other respects, and the creation of the Inquisition to enforce laws across it, maintain said religious unity, and control the local elites were consistent with most of those teachings.

Alternatively, the enforcement of Catholicism across the realm might indeed be the result of simple religious devotion by the monarchs. {{Crossreference|selfref=no|(see {{slink|#purely religious reasons}})}} The recent scholarship on the expulsion of the Jews leans towards the belief of religious motivations being at the bottom of it.<ref>Stuart, Nancy Rubin. ''Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen''. New York: ASJA Press, 2004.</ref> However, considering the reports on Ferdinand’s political persona, that is unlikely the only reason. Machiavelli, among others, described Ferdinand as a man who didn’t know the meaning of piety, but who made political use of it and would have achieved little if he had known it. He was Machiavelli’s main inspiration while writing '']''.<ref>Black, Robert. Machiavelli. Abigdon, Oxon: Routledge, Tylor, 2013. pp. 83–120 (the quote is paraphrased)</ref>

===The "Keeping the Pope in Check" hypothesis===
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church had made many attempts during the Middle Ages to take over Christian Spain politically, such as claiming the Church's ownership over all land reconquered from non-Christians (a claim that was rejected by Castile but accepted by Aragon and Portugal). In the past, the papacy had tried and partially succeeded in forcing the ] out of Iberia. Its intervention had been pivotal for ].{{clarify|date=June 2019}} The ] was even stronger historically. In their lifetime, the Catholic Monarchs had ] ], a fervent proponent of absolute authority for the church over the kings. Carrillo actively opposed them both and often used Spain's "mixed blood" as an excuse to intervene. The papacy and the monarchs of Europe had been involved in a ] that Rome already won in other powerful kingdoms, like ].

Since the legitimacy granted by the church was necessary for both monarchs, especially Isabella, to stay in power, the creation of the Spanish Inquisition may have been a way to concede to the Pope's demands and criticism regarding Spain's mixed religious heritage, while simultaneously ensuring that the Pope could hardly force the second Inquisition of his own and create a tool to control the power of the Roman Church in Spain. The Spanish Inquisition was unique at the time because it was not led by the Pope. Once the bull of creation was granted, the head of the Inquisition was the Monarch of Spain. It was in charge of enforcing the laws of the king regarding religion and other private-life matters, not of following orders from Rome, from which it was independent. This independence allowed the Inquisition to investigate, prosecute, and convict clergy for both corruption and treason of conspiracy against the crown (on the Pope's behalf, presumably) without the Pope's intervention. The Inquisition was, despite its title of "Holy", not necessarily formed by the clergy, and secular lawyers were equally welcome to it. If it was an attempt at keeping Rome out of Spain, it was an extremely successful and refined one. It was a bureaucratic body that had the nominal authority of the church and permission to prosecute members of the church, which the kings could not do, while answering only to the Spanish Crown. This did not prevent the Pope from having some influence on the decisions of Spanish monarchs, but it did force the influence to be through the kings, making direct influence very difficult.<ref>{{Cite book |last=González |first=Óscar |date=2009 |title=El Rey Y El Papa: Política Y Diplomacia En Los Albores Del Renacimiento (Castilla En El Siglo XV) |publisher=Sílex}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=October 2021}}

===Other hypotheses===
Other hypotheses that circulate regarding the Spanish Inquisition's creation include:
* '''Economic reasons''': As one penalty that the Inquisition could enforce on the convicts was the confiscation of their property, which became Crown property, it has been stated that the creation of the Inquisition was a way to finance the crown. There is no solid reason for this hypothesis to stand alone, nor for the Kings of Spain to need an institution to do this gradually instead of confiscating property through edicts, but it may be one reason the Inquisition stayed for so long. This hypothesis notes the tendency of the Inquisition to operate in large and wealthy cities and is favoured by those who consider that most of those prosecuted for practising Judaism and Islam in secret were innocent of it.<ref name="Spain 1966">The Marranos of Spain. From the late XIVth to the early XVIth Century, 1966. Ithaca, 1999</ref> ], editor and translator of the Spanish state papers from 1485 to 1509, believed that revenue was the incentive for Ferdinand and Isabella's decision to invite the Inquisition into Spain.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/vol1/i-lxxiii|title=Introduction, Part 1 – British History Online|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref> Other authors point out that both monarchs were very aware of the economic consequences they would suffer from a decrease in population.

* '''Intolerance and racism''': This argument is usually made regarding the expulsion of the Jews or the Moriscos,<ref name="Spain 1966"/> and since the Inquisition was so closely interconnected with those actions, it can be expanded to it. It varies between those who deny that Spain was really that different from the rest of Europe regarding tolerance and openmindedness and those who argue that it used to be, but gradually the antisemitic and racist atmosphere of medieval Europe rubbed onto it. It explains the creation of the Inquisition as the result of the same forces as those that caused the creation of similar entities across Europe. This view may account for the similarities between the Spanish Inquisition and similar institutions but does not account for its many unique characteristics, including its time of appearance and its duration through time, so even if accepted it requires the addition of some of the other hypothesis to be complete.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005}}{{page needed|date=February 2024}}

{{anchor|purely religious reasons}}
* '''Purely religious reasons''': This view argues that the Catholic Monarchs had the Inquisition created to prosecute heretics and sodomites out of diligence of the laws of the Church, which clearly forbid both.<ref> (cf. CJC can. 1634 §1, ST IIa IIæ Q11 A3; CCC pp. 2357-8, Persona Humana 1975, ST IIa IIæ Q154 AA11, 12)</ref>


==Activity of the Inquisition== ==Activity of the Inquisition==
===The start of the Inquisition=== ===Start of the Inquisition===
]
], a ] friar from Seville, convinced Queen Isabel of the existence of ] among Andalusian ''conversos'' during her stay in Seville between 1477 and 1478.<ref>The terms ''converso'' and crypto-Jew are somewhat vexed, and occasionally historians are not clear on how, precisely, they are intended to be understood. For the purpose of clarity, in this article ''converso'' will be taken to mean one who has sincerely renounced Judaism or Islam and embraced Catholicism. Crypto-Jew will be taken to mean one who accepts Christian baptism, yet continues to practice Judaism.</ref> A report, produced by ], Archbishop of Seville, and by the Segovian Dominican ], corroborated this assertion.


Fray Alonso de Ojeda, a ] friar from Seville, convinced ] of the existence of ] among ] '']''<ref>{{cite web |last1=The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica |title=Spanish Inquisition Timeline |url=https://www.britannica.com/summary/Spanish-Inquisition-Timeline |website=] |access-date=15 December 2021}}</ref> during her stay in ] between 1477 and 1478.{{Efn|The terms converso and crypto-Jew are somewhat vexed, and occasionally historians are not clear on how, precisely, they are intended to be understood. For the purpose of clarity, in this article converso will be taken to mean one who has sincerely renounced Judaism or Islam and embraced Catholicism. Crypto-Jew will be taken to mean one who accepts Christian baptism, yet continues to practice Judaism.|name=a}}{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|pp=89-90}}A report, produced by ], Archbishop of Seville, and by the Segovian Dominican ]—of converso family himself—corroborated this assertion.
The monarchs decided to introduce the Inquisition to Castile to discover and punish crypto-Jews, and requested the Pope's assent. Ferdinand II of Aragon pressured Pope Sixtus IV to agree to an Inquisition controlled by the monarchy by threatening to withdraw military support at a time when the Turks were a threat to Rome. The Pope issued a bull to stop the Inquisition but was pressured into withdrawing it. On November 1, 1478, Pope ] published the Papal bull, ''Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus'', through which he gave the monarchs exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms. The first two inquisitors, ] and ] were not named, however, until two years later, on September 27, 1480 in ].


Spanish monarchs ] and ] requested a ] to establish an inquisition in Spain in 1478. ] granted the bull ''Exigit sincerae devotionis affectus'', permitting the monarchs to select and appoint two or three priests over forty years of age to act as inquisitors.{{sfnp|Peters|1988|p=85}}{{sfnp|Saraiva|2001|p=XXXV}} In 1483, ] established a state council to administer the inquisition with the Dominican Friar ] acting as its president, even though Sixtus IV protested the activities of the inquisition in ] and its treatment of the ''conversos''. Torquemada eventually assumed the title of Inquisitor-General{{sfnp|Saraiva|2001|p=40}}{{sfnp|Peters|1988|p=89}}
The first '']'' was held in Seville on February 6, 1481: six people were burned alive. From there, the Inquisition grew rapidly in the Kingdom of Castile. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].


] pressured Pope Sixtus IV to agree to an Inquisition controlled by the monarchy by threatening to withdraw military support when the Turks were a threat to Rome.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} The pope issued a ] to stop the Inquisition but was pressured into withdrawing it.<ref name="Cited in">Cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=49}}</ref> On 1 November 1478, Sixtus published the ], '']'' (''Sincere Devotion Is Required''), through which he gave the monarchs exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms. The first two inquisitors, Miguel de Morillo and ] were not named until two years later, on 27 September 1480, in ].{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=107-108}} The first '']'' was held in Seville on 6 February 1481: six people were burned alive. From there, the Inquisition grew rapidly in the ]. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. Sixtus IV promulgated a new ] (1482) categorically prohibiting the Inquisition's extension to ], affirming that:<ref name="Cited in">Cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=49}}</ref>
Sixtus IV promulgated a new bull categorically prohibiting the Inquisition's extension to Aragon, affirming that,


<blockquote>''many true and faithful Christians, because of the testimony of enemies, rivals, slaves and other low people—and still less appropriate—without tests of any kind, have been locked up in secular prisons, tortured and condemned like relapsed heretics, deprived of their goods and properties, and given over to the secular arm to be executed, at great danger to their souls, giving a pernicious example and causing scandal to many''.<ref>Cited in Kamen, op. cit., p. 49.</ref></blockquote> {{Blockquote |... in Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca and Catalonia the Inquisition has for some time been moved not by zeal for the faith and the salvation of souls, but by lust for wealth, and that many true and faithful Christians, on the testimony of enemies, rivals, slaves and other lower and even less proper persons, have without any legitimate proof been thrust into secular prisons, tortured and condemned as relapsed heretics, deprived of their goods and property and handed over to the secular arm to be executed, to the peril of souls, setting a pernicious example, and causing disgust to many.<ref name="Cited in">Cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=49}}</ref>}}


Outraged, Ferdinand feigned doubt about the bull's veracity, arguing that no sensible pope would have published such a document. He wrote the pope on May 13, 1482, saying: "Take care therefore not to let the matter go further, and to revoke any concessions and entrust us with the care of this question."<ref name=":1">{{harvp|Kamen|1998|pp=49–50}}</ref>
In 1483, Jews were expelled from all of Andalusia. Ferdinand pressured the Pope<ref>Kamen, ''The Spanish Inquisition'' op. cit., pp. 49-50.</ref> to promulgate a new bull. He did so on October 17, 1483, naming Tomás de Torquemada Inquisidor General of Aragón, Valencia and Catalonia. Torquemada quickly established procedures for the Inquisition. A new court would be announced with a thirty day grace period for confessions and the gathering of accusations by neighbors. Evidence that was used to identify a crypto-Jew included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays (a sign the family might secretly be honoring the Sabbath) or the buying of many vegetables before Passover or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher. The court employed physical torture to extract confessions. Crypto-Jews were allowed to confess and do penance, although those who relapsed were burned at the stake.<ref>Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press, 1976, pp. 588-590.</ref>


According to the book ''A History of the Jewish People'',<ref>Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. 1976. p. 588.</ref>{{Blockquote | In 1482 the pope was still trying to maintain control over the Inquisition and to gain acceptance for his own attitude towards the ]s which was generally more moderate than that of the Inquisition and the local rulers.}}
In 1484 Pope ] attempted to allow appeals to Rome against the Inquisition, but Ferdinand in December 1484 and again in 1509 decreed death and confiscation for anyone trying to make use of such procedures without royal permission.<ref>Kamen, ''The Spanish Inquisition'' op. cit., p. 157.</ref> With this, the Inquisition became the only institution that held authority across all the realms of the Spanish monarchy, and, in all of them, a useful mechanism at the service of the crown. However, the cities of Aragón continued resisting, and even saw revolt, as in ] from 1484 to 1485. However, the murder of ''Inquisidor'' ] in ] on September 15, 1485, caused public opinion to turn against the ''conversos'' and in favour of the Inquisition. In Aragón, the Inquisitorial courts were focused specifically on members of the powerful ''converso'' minority, ending their influence in the Aragonese administration.


In 1483, Jews were expelled from all of ]. Though the pope wanted to crack down on abuses, Ferdinand pressured him to promulgate a new bull, threatening that he would otherwise separate the Inquisition from Church authority.<ref name=":1"/><ref>], ''The Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia'', pp. 52–53. Quote: "Isabella's Confessor, ], had imbued her with the idea that the suppression of all heresy within her realms was a sacred duty. She had, therefore, in November 1478, obtained a bull from the Pope, Sixtus IV., for the establishment of the Inquisition in Castile. Many modern writers have sought to reduce her share in the introduction of this terrible institution, but it must be remembered that Isabella herself probably considered it a meritorious action to punish with inhuman barbarity those whom she looked upon as the enemies of the Almighty. In 1480, two Dominicans were appointed by her, as Inquisitors, to set up their tribunal at Seville. Before the end of the year 1481, 2,000 victims were burned alive in Andalusia alone. The Pope himself became alarmed and threatened to withdraw the bull, but Ferdinand intimated that he would make the Inquisition altogether an independent tribunal. This it became later for all practical purposes, and its iniquitous proceedings continued unchecked."</ref> Sixtus did so on 17 October 1483, naming ] Inquisidor General of Aragón, Valencia, and ].
The Inquisition was extremely active between 1480 and 1530. Different sources give different estimates of the number of trials and executions in this period; Henry Kamen estimates about 2,000 executed, based on the documentation of the '']'', the great majority being ''conversos'' of Jewish origin. He offers striking statistics: 91.6% of those judged in Valencia between 1484 and 1530 and 99.3% of those judged in Barcelona between 1484 and 1505 were of Jewish origin.<ref>Kamen, op. cit., p. 60.</ref> "In 1498 the pope was still trying to...gain acceptance for his own attitude towards the New Christians, which was generally more moderate than that of the Inquisition and the local rulers."<ref>Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. 1976. p. 588.</ref>


Torquemada quickly established procedures for the Inquisition. In 1484, based on ]'s '']'', he created a twenty-eight-article inquisitor's code, ''Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición'' (i.e. Compilation of the instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisition)'','' essentially unaltered for more than three centuries following Torquemada's death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Torquemada |first=Tomás de |url=https://ia903004.us.archive.org/22/items/BRes14068130Despacho/BRes14068130Despacho.pdf |title=Compilacion de las Instrucciones del Oficio de la Santa Inquisicion |publisher=Diego Diaz de la Carrera |publication-date=1667 |language=es}}</ref>{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|pp=142, 147}}{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|p=135}} A new court would be announced with a thirty-day grace period for self-confessions and denunciations, and the gathering of accusations by neighbors and acquaintances. Evidence that was used to identify a crypto-Jew included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays (a sign the family might secretly be honoring the Sabbath), the buying of many vegetables before Passover, or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher. The court could employ ]. Crypto-Jews were allowed to confess and do penance, although those who relapsed were executed.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|pp=135-136}}<ref>Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press, 1976, pp. 588–590.</ref>
===Expulsion of Jews and repression of ''conversos''===
The Spanish Inquisition had been set up in part to prevent ''conversos'' from engaging in Jewish practices, which, as Christians, they were supposed to have given up. However this remedy for securing the orthodoxy of ''conversos''' religion was eventually deemed inadequate, since the main justification the monarchy gave for formally expelling all Jews from Spain was the "great harm suffered by Christians (i.e. conversos) from the contact, intercourse and communication which they have with the Jews, who always attempt in various ways to seduce faithful Christians from our Holy Catholic Faith".<ref>quoted in Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition,''p. 20.</ref> The ], which ordered the expulsion, was issued in January 1492. The number of Jews who left Spain is not even approximately known. Historians of the period give extremely high figures: ] speaks of 800,000 people, and ] of 300,000. Modern estimates are much lower: Henry Kamen estimates that, of a population of approximately 80,000 Jews, about one half or 40,000 chose emigration.<ref>Kamen, op. cit., pp. 29-31.</ref> The Jews of the kingdom of Castile emigrated mainly to Portugal (from where they were expelled in 1497) and to North Africa. However, according to Henry Kamen, the Jews of the kingdom of Aragon, went "to adjacent Christian lands, mainly to Italy", rather than to Muslim lands as is often assumed.<ref>Kamen, op. cit. p. 24.</ref> The ] or ] descendants of Spanish Jews gradually migrated throughout Europe and North Africa, where they established communities in many cities. They also went to ], the ] and North America (the American Southwest), Central and South America.


In 1484, Pope ] attempted to allow appeals to Rome against the Inquisition, which would weaken the function of the institution as protection against the pope, but Ferdinand in December 1484 and again in 1509 decreed death and confiscation for anyone making use of such procedures without royal permission.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=157}}</ref> With this, the Inquisition became the only institution that held authority across all the realms of the Spanish monarchy and, in all of them, a useful mechanism at the service of the crown. The cities of Aragón continued resisting and even saw revolt, as in ], from 1484 to 1485. The murder of ''Inquisidor'' ] (later made a saint) in ] on 15 September 1485 caused public opinion to turn against the ''conversos'' and in favour of the Inquisition. In Aragón, the Inquisitorial courts focused specifically on members of the powerful ''converso'' minority, ending their influence in the Aragonese administration.
Tens of thousands of Jews were baptised in the three months before the deadline for expulsion, some 40,000 if one accepts the totals given by Kamen: most of these undoubtedly to avoid expulsion, rather than as a sincere change of faith. These ''conversos'' were the principal concern of the Inquisition; being suspected of continuing to practice Judaism put them at risk of denunciation and trial.


The Inquisition was extremely active between 1480 and 1530. Different sources give different estimates of the number of trials and executions in this period; some estimate about 2,000 executions, based on the documentation of the ''autos de fé'', the great majority being ''conversos'' of Jewish origin. He {{Who|date=February 2024}} offers striking statistics: 91.6% of those judged in Valencia between 1484 and 1530, and 99.3% of those judged in Barcelona between 1484 and 1505 were of Jewish origin.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=60}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=February 2024}}
The most intense period of persecution of ''conversos'' lasted until 1530. From 1531 to 1560, however, the percentage of ''conversos'' among the Inquisition trials dropped to 3% of the total. There was a rebound of persecutions when a group of crypto-Jews was discovered in ] in 1588; and there was a rise in denunciations of ''conversos'' in the last decade of the 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, some ''conversos'' who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the ], founded in 1532. This led to a rapid increase in the trials of crypto-Jews, among them a number of important financiers. In 1691, during a number of '']'' in ], 36 ''chuetas'', or ''conversos'' of Majorca, were burned.


===False conversions===
During the 18th century the number of ''conversos'' accused by the Inquisition decreased significantly. ], tried in Córdoba in 1818, was the last person tried for being a crypto-Jew.
The Inquisition had jurisdiction only over Christians. It had no power to investigate, prosecute, or convict Jews, Muslims, or any open member of other religions. Anyone who was known to identify as either Jew or Muslim was outside of Inquisitorial jurisdiction and could be tried only by the King. All the Inquisition could do in some of those cases was to deport the individual according to the King's law, but usually, even that had to go through a civil tribunal. The Inquisition had the authority to try only those who self-identified as Christians (initially for taxation purposes, later to avoid deportation as well) while practicing another religion de facto. Even those were treated as Christians. If they confessed or identified not as ''judaizantes'' but as fully practicing Jews, they fell back into the previously explained category and could not be targeted, although they would have pleaded guilty to previously lying about being Christian.{{Citation needed|date=June 2019}}


Though not subject to the Inquisition, Jews who refused to convert or leave Spain were called heretics and at risk of being burnt to death at a stake.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}
The generally accepted number ] by the Inquisition (including all categories such as Protestants, blasphemers, bigamists and crypto-Jews) is below 5,000 (]).


====Expulsion of Jews and Jewish ''conversos''====
===Repression of Moriscos===
{{anchor|Explusion of Jews. Jewish conversos|reason=Old, mis-punctuated section title, to which there might be incoming links.}}
The Inquisition not only hunted for Protestants and false converts from Judaism, the '']s'' but also searched for false or relapsed converts among the ], forced converts from ]. The Moriscos were mostly concentrated in the recently conquered kingdom of ], in ], and in ]. Officially, all Muslims in the Crown of Castile had been forcibly converted to Christianity in 1502. Muslims in the Crown of Aragon were obliged to convert by ]'s decree of 1526, as most had been forcibly baptized during the ] (1519–1523) and these baptisms were declared to be valid.


The Spanish Inquisition had been established in part to prevent ''conversos'' from engaging in Jewish practices, which, as Christians, they were supposed to have given up. This remedy for securing the orthodoxy of ''conversos'' was eventually deemed inadequate since the main justification the monarchy gave for ] was the "great harm suffered by Christians (i.e., ''conversos'') from the contact, intercourse and communication which they have with the Jews, who always attempt in various ways to seduce faithful Christians from our Holy Catholic Faith" according to the 1492 edict.<ref>Quoted in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=20}}</ref>
Many Moriscos were suspected of practising Islam in secret, and the jealousy with which they guarded the privacy of their domestic life prevented the verification of this suspicion.<ref>S.P. Scott: History;Vol II, op cit; p. 259.</ref> Initially they were not severely persecuted by the Inquisition, but experienced a policy of evangelization without torture,{{Clarify|reason=How can one term being hauled in front of a blood-thirsty inquisition "peaceful"? The original sentence was garbled in any case.|date=September 2010}} a policy not followed with those ''conversos'' who were suspected of being crypto-Jews. There were various reasons for this. Most importantly, in the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon a large number of the Moriscos were under the jurisdiction of the nobility, and persecution would have been viewed as a frontal assault on the economic interests of this powerful social class.<ref>Kamen,''Spanish Inquisition'' p. 222.</ref> Still, fears ran high among the population that the Moriscos were traitorous, especially in Granada. The coast was regularly raided by ]s backed by Spain's enemy the ], and the Moriscos were suspected of aiding them.


The ], issued in January 1492, gave the choice between expulsion, conversion, or death.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |date=1492 |title=The Alhambra Decree-- Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews of Spain |url=https://www.fau.edu/artsandletters/pjhr/chhre/pdf/hh-alhambra-1492-english.pdf |website=Florida Atlantic University}}</ref> It was among the few expulsion orders that allowed conversion as an alternative and used as a proof of the religious, not racial, element of the measure. The enforcement of this decree was very unequal, with the focus mainly on coastal and southern regions—those at risk of Ottoman invasion—and more gradual and ineffective enforcement towards the interior.<ref name="Suárez Fernández 2012">Suárez Fernández, Luis (2012). ''La expulsión de los judíos. Un problema europeo''. Barcelona: Ariel.</ref>
In the second half of the century, late in the reign of Philip II, conditions worsened between ] and Moriscos. The 1568–1570 ] in Granada was harshly suppressed, and the Inquisition intensified its attention to the Moriscos. From 1570 Morisco cases became predominant in the tribunals of ], Valencia and Granada; in the tribunal of Granada, between 1560 and 1571, 82% of those accused were Moriscos.<ref>Kamen, op. cit. p. 217.</ref> Still, according to Kamen, the Moriscos did not experience the same harshness as judaizing ''conversos'' and Protestants, and the number of capital punishments was proportionally less.<ref>Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition'' p. 225.</ref>


Historic accounts of the number of Jews who left Spain were based on speculation, and some aspects were exaggerated by early accounts and historians: ] speaks of 800,000 people, and ] of 300,000. While few reliable statistics exist for the expulsion, modern estimates based on tax returns and population estimates of communities are much lower, with Kamen stating that of a population of approximately 80,000 Jews and 200,000 ''conversos'', about 40,000 emigrated.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|pp=29–31}}</ref> The Jews of the kingdom of Castile emigrated mainly to Portugal (where the entire community was forcibly converted in 1497) and to North Africa. The Jews of the kingdom of Aragon fled to other Christian areas, including Italy, rather than to Muslim lands, as often assumed.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=24}}</ref> Although the vast majority of ''conversos'' simply assimilated into the Catholic dominant culture, a minority continued to practice Judaism in secret and gradually migrated throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire, mainly to areas where Sephardic communities were already present as a result of the Alhambra Decree.{{sfnp|Murphy|2012|p=}}
In 1609 ], upon the advice of his financial adviser the ] and Archbishop of Valencia ], decreed the ]. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos were expelled, some of them probably sincere Christians. This was further fueled by the religious intolerance of Archbishop Ribera who quoted the Old Testament texts ordering the enemies of God to be slain without mercy and setting forth the duties of kings to extirpate them.<ref>H.C. Lea: The Moriscos of Spain; op cit; p. 308.</ref> The edict required: 'The ] to depart, under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange.... just what they could carry.'<ref>H.C. Lea: The Moriscos of Spain; op cit; p. 345.</ref> So successful was the enterprise, in the space of months, Spain was emptied of its ]. Expelled were the ] of ], ], ], ], ] and ]. As for the ] of ], such as the Herrador family who held positions in the Church and magistracy, they still had to struggle against exile and confiscation.<ref>H.C. Lea: The Moriscos of Spain; op cit; p. 375.</ref>


The most intense period of persecution of ''conversos'' lasted until 1530. From 1531 to 1560, the percentage of ''conversos'' among the Inquisition trials dropped to 3% of the total. There was a rebound of persecutions when a group of crypto-Jews was discovered in ] in 1588, and there was a rise in denunciations of ''conversos'' in the last decade of the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, some ''conversos'' who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the ], founded in 1536. This led to a rapid increase in the trials of crypto-Jews, among them numerous important financiers. In 1691, during a number of '']'' in ], 37 ''chuetas'', or ''conversos'' of Majorca, were burned.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=369}}</ref>
An indeterminate number of Moriscos remained in Spain and, during the 17th century, the Inquisition pursued some trials against them of minor importance: according to Kamen, between 1615 and 1700, cases against Moriscos constituted only 9 percent of those judged by the Inquisition.


During the eighteenth century, the number of ''conversos'' accused by the Inquisition decreased significantly. Manuel Santiago Vivar, tried in Córdoba in 1818, was the last person tried for being a crypto-Jew.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=370}}</ref>
====Demographic consequences====
In December 2008, a genetic study of the current population of the Iberian Peninsula, published in the '']'', estimated that about 10% have ] ancestors and 20% have ] as ancestors. Since there is no direct link between genetic makeup and religious affiliation, however, it is difficult to draw direct conclusions between their findings and forced or voluntary conversion.<ref>, Adams et al. 2008.</ref> Nevertheless, the Sephardic result is in contradiction<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201225|title=Reduced genetic structure of the Iberian peninsula revealed by Y-chromosome analysis: Implications for population demography|year=2004|last1=Flores|first1=Carlos|last2=Maca-Meyer|first2=Nicole|last3=González|first3=Ana M|last4=Oefner|first4=Peter J|last5=Shen|first5=Peidong|last6=Pérez|first6=Jose A|last7=Rojas|first7=Antonio|last8=Larruga|first8=Jose M|last9=Underhill|first9=Peter A|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=12|issue=10|pages=855–63|pmid=15280900}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmid=12627534|year=2003|last1=González|first1=AM|last2=Brehm|first2=A|last3=Pérez|first3=JA|last4=Maca-Meyer|first4=N|last5=Flores|first5=C|last6=Cabrera|first6=VM|title=Mitochondrial DNA affinities at the Atlantic fringe of Europe|volume=120|issue=4|pages=391–404|doi=10.1002/ajpa.10168|journal=American journal of physical anthropology}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1007/s00439-004-1168-9|title=Y chromosomal haplogroup J as a signature of the post-neolithic colonization of Europe|year=2004|last1=Giacomo|first1=F.|last2=Luca|first2=F.|last3=Popa|first3=L. O.|last4=Akar|first4=N.|last5=Anagnou|first5=N.|last6=Banyko|first6=J.|last7=Brdicka|first7=R.|last8=Barbujani|first8=G.|last9=Papola|first9=F.|journal=Human Genetics|volume=115|issue=5|pages=357–71|pmid=15322918}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|pmid=16500815|year=2006|last1=Sutton|first1=WK|last2=Knight|first2=A|last3=Underhill|first3=PA|last4=Neulander|first4=JS|last5=Disotell|first5=TR|last6=Mountain|first6=JL|title=Toward resolution of the debate regarding purported crypto-Jews ''in a'' spanish-American population: Evidence from the Y chromosome|volume=33|issue=1|pages=100–11|doi=10.1080/03014460500475870|journal=Annals of human biology}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.10.012|title=Identifying Genetic Traces of Historical Expansions: Phoenician Footprints in the Mediterranean|year=2008|last1=Zalloua|first1=Pierre A.|last2=Platt|first2=Daniel E.|last3=El Sibai|first3=Mirvat|last4=Khalife|first4=Jade|last5=Makhoul|first5=Nadine|last6=Haber|first6=Marc|last7=Xue|first7=Yali|last8=Izaabel|first8=Hassan|last9=Bosch|first9=Elena|journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=83|issue=5|pages=633|pmid=18976729|pmc=2668035}}</ref> or not replicated in all the body of genetic studies done in Iberia and has been later questioned by the authors themselves<ref>"'''''Despite alternative possible sources for lineages''' ascribed a Sephardic Jewish origin''", </ref><ref>"La cifra de los sefardíes puede estar sobreestimada, ya que en estos genes hay mucha diversidad y quizá absorbieron otros genes de Oriente Medio" ''('''"The Sephardic result may be overestimated''', since there is much diversity in those genes and maybe absorbed other genes from the Middle East")''. ¿Pone en duda Calafell la validez de los tests de ancestros? "Están bien para los americanos, nosotros ya sabemos de dónde venimos" ''(Puts Calafell in doubt the validity of ancestry tests? "They can be good for the Americans, we already know from where we come from)''.''''' ''" </ref><ref>"'''We think it might be an over estimate'''" "The genetic makeup of Sephardic Jews is probably common to other Middle Eastern populations, such as the Phoenicians, that also settled the Iberian Peninsula, Calafell says. "'''In our study, that would have all fallen under the Jewish label.'''"" http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/39056/title/Spanish_Inquisition_couldn%E2%80%99t_quash_Moorish,_Jewish_genes</ref><ref>"El doctor Calafell matiza que (...) los marcadores genéticos usados para distinguir a la población con ancestros sefardíes pueden producir distorsiones". "ese 20% de españoles que el estudio señala como descendientes de sefardíes podrían haber heredado ese rasgo de movimiento más antiguos, como el de los fenicios o, incluso, primeros pobladores neolíticos hace miles de años." "Dr. Calafell clarifies that (...) '''the genetic markers used to distinguish the population with Sephardim ancestry may produce distortions. The 20% of Spaniards that are identified as having Sephardim ancestry in the study could have inherited that same marker from older movements like the Phoenicians, or even the first Neolithic settlers thousands of years ago'''" http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/12/04/ciencia/.html</ref> and by ] who estimates that much earlier migrations, 5000 to 10,000 years ago from the Eastern Mediterranean might also have accounted for the Sephardic estimates: "They are really assuming that they are looking at his migration of Jewish immigrants, but the same lineages could have been introduced in the Neolithic".<ref>, ], December 4, 2008.</ref> The rest of genetic studies done in Spain estimate the Moorish contribution ranging from 2.5/3.4%<ref>{{cite journal|doi=}}</ref> to 7.7%.<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2008.258|title=Moors and Saracens in Europe: Estimating the medieval North African male legacy in southern Europe|year=2009|last1=Capelli|first1=Cristian|last2=Onofri|first2=Valerio|last3=Brisighelli|first3=Francesca|last4=Boschi|first4=Ilaria|last5=Scarnicci|first5=Francesca|last6=Masullo|first6=Mara|last7=Ferri|first7=Gianmarco|last8=Tofanelli|first8=Sergio|last9=Tagliabracci|first9=Adriano|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=17|issue=6|pages=848–52|pmid=19156170|pmc=2947089}}</ref>


====Expulsion of Moriscos and Morisco ''conversos''====
=== Control of Protestants ===
{{anchor|Expulsion of the Moriscos and Morisco conversos|reason=Old, longer section name, to which there may be incoming links.}}
Despite much popular myth about the Inquisition relating to Protestants, it dealt with very few cases involving actual Protestants, as there were so few in Spain. The first of the trials against those labeled by the Inquisition as "Lutheran" were those against the sect of ] known as the "]" of ] and ]. The trials were long, and ended with prison sentences of differing lengths, though none of the sect were executed. Nevertheless, the subject of the "Alumbrados" put the Inquisition on the trail of many intellectuals and clerics who, interested in ] ideas, had strayed from orthodoxy (which is striking because both Charles I and ] were confessed admirers of ]). Such was the case with the humanist ], who was forced to flee to Italy to escape the process that had been begun against him, and the preacher, ], who spent close to a year in prison.


The Inquisition searched for false or relapsed converts among the ], who had converted from ]. Beginning with a decree on 14 February 1502, Muslims in Granada had to choose between conversion to Christianity or expulsion.<ref name="Prien2012" /> In the Crown of Aragon, most Muslims faced this choice after the ] (1519–1523). The enforcement of the expulsion of the Moriscos was implemented unevenly, especially in the lands of the interior and the north. In these regions, coexistence had lasted for over five centuries and Moriscos were protected by the population; in many cases, expulsion orders were partially or completely ignored.{{Citation needed|date=February 2021}}
The first trials against ] groups, as such, took place between 1558 and 1562, at the beginning of the reign of Philip II, against two communities of Protestants from the cities of Valladolid and Seville numbering about 120.<ref>These trials, specifically those of Valladolid, form the basis of the plot of ''The Heretic: A novel of the Inquisition'' by Miguel Delibes (Overlook: 2006).</ref> The trials signaled a notable intensification of the Inquisition's activities. A number of '']'' were held, some of them presided over by members of the royal family and around 100 executions took place.<ref>Kamen, (op. cit. p. 99) gives the figure of about 100 executions for heresy of any kind between 1559 and 1566. He compares these figures with those condemned to death in other European countries during the same period, concluding that in similar periods England, under ], executed about twice as many for heresy: in France, three times the number, and ten times as many in the ].</ref> The '']'' of the mid-century virtually put an end to Spanish Protestantism which was, throughout, a small phenomenon to begin with.


The ] (1568–71), a general Muslim/Morisco uprising in Granada that expected to aid Ottoman disembarkation in the peninsula, ended in a forced dispersal of about half of the region's Moriscos throughout Castile and Andalusia as well as increased suspicions by Spanish authorities against this community.
After 1562, though the trials continued, the repression was much reduced, According to Kamen, only about 200 Spaniards were accused of being Protestants in the last decades of the 16th century. "Most of them were in no sense Protestants...Irreligious sentiments, drunken mockery, anticlerical expressions, were all captiously classified by the inquisitors (or by those who denounced the cases) as ‘Lutheran.’ Disrespect to church images, and eating meat on forbidden days, were taken as signs of heresy"<ref>Kamen p. 98.</ref>
and it is estimated that a dozen Spaniards were burned alive.<ref>Kamen, op. cit., pp. 99-100.</ref>


Many Moriscos were suspected of practising Islam in secret, and the jealousy with which they guarded the privacy of their domestic life prevented the verification of this suspicion.<ref>S.P. Scott: History, Vol II, p. 259.</ref> Initially, they were not severely persecuted by the Inquisition, experiencing instead a policy of evangelization,<ref>Absent records, the Inquisition decreed that all Moors were to be regarded as baptized, and thus were Moriscos, subject to the Inquisition. Secular authorities then decreed (in 1526) that 40 years of religious instruction would precede any prosecution. Fifty Moriscos were burnt at the stake before the Crown clarified its position. Neither the Church nor the Moriscos utilized the years well. The Moriscos can be stereotyped as poor, rural, uneducated agricultural workers who spoke Arabic. The Church had limited willingness or ability to educate this now-hostile group.{{harvp|Green|2007|pp=124–127}}</ref> a policy not followed by those ''conversos'' who were suspected of being crypto-Jews. There were various reasons for this. In the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon, a large number of the Moriscos were under the jurisdiction of the nobility, and persecution would have been viewed as a frontal assault on the economic interests of this powerful social class. Most importantly, the moriscos had integrated into Spanish society significantly better than the Jews, intermarrying with the population often, and were not seen as a foreign element, especially in rural areas.<ref>Trevor J. Dadson, The Assimilation of Spain's Moriscos: Fiction or Reality? Journal of Levantine Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 11–30</ref><ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=222}}</ref> Still, fears ran high among the population that the Moriscos were traitorous, especially in Granada. ]s backed by Spain’s enemy, the ], regularly raided the coast, and the Moriscos were suspected of aiding them.
Outside Spain, but in Spanish territories however, especially in the ], a large number (some suggest 6,000) of (alleged) Protestants were executed by the ]'s ]


In the second half of the century, late in the reign of Philip II, conditions worsened between ] and Moriscos. The ] in Granada in 1568–1570 was harshly suppressed, and the Inquisition intensified its attention on the Moriscos. From 1570, Morisco cases became predominant in the tribunals of ], Valencia, and Granada; in the tribunal of Granada, between 1560 and 1571, 82% of those accused were Moriscos, who were a vast majority of the Kingdom's population.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=217}}</ref> Still, the Moriscos did not experience the same harshness as Judaizing ''conversos'' and Protestants, and the number of capital punishments was proportionally less.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=225}}</ref>
=== Censorship ===
As one manifestation of the ], the Spanish Inquisition worked actively to impede the diffusion of heretical ideas in Spain by producing "Indexes" of prohibited books. Such lists of prohibited books were common in Europe a decade before the Inquisition published its first. The first Index published in Spain in 1551 was, in reality, a reprinting of the Index published by the University of Louvain in 1550, with an appendix dedicated to Spanish texts. Subsequent Indexes were published in 1559, 1583, 1612, 1632, and 1640. The Indexes included an enormous number of books of all types, though special attention was dedicated to religious works, and, particularly, vernacular translations of the Bible.


In 1609, King ], upon the advice of his financial adviser the ] and Archbishop of Valencia ], decreed the ]. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos were expelled. This was further fueled by the religious intolerance of Archbishop Ribera, who quoted the Old Testament texts ordering the enemies of God to be slain without mercy and setting forth the duties of kings to extirpate them.<ref>{{harvp|Lea|1901|p=308}}</ref> The edict required: "The ] to depart, under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange.... just what they could carry."<ref>{{harvp|Lea|1901|p=345}}</ref> Although initial estimates of the number expelled, such as those of Henri Lapeyre, reach 300,000 Moriscos (or 4% of the total Spanish population), the extent and severity of the expulsion in much of Spain has been increasingly challenged by modern historians such as Trevor J. Dadson.<ref name="bibliotecaspublicas.es">Trevor J. Dadson: {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130612121737/http://www.bibliotecaspublicas.es/villarrubiadelosojos/imagenes/Dadson_Assimilation_Reality_or_Fiction.pdf |date=12 June 2013 }}. Journal of Levantine Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 11–30</ref> Nevertheless, the eastern region of Valencia, where ethnic tensions were high, was particularly affected by the expulsion, suffering economic collapse and depopulation of much of its territory.
Included in the Indexes, at one point, were many of the great works of Spanish literature. Also, a number of religious writers who are today considered saints by the Catholic Church saw their works appear in the Indexes. At first, this might seem counter-intuitive or even nonsensical—how were these Spanish authors published in the first place if their texts were then prohibited by the Inquisition and placed in the Index? The answer lies in the process of publication and censorship in Early Modern Spain. Books in Early Modern Spain faced prepublication licensing and approval (which could include modification) by both secular and religious authorities. However, once approved and published, the circulating text also faced the possibility of post-hoc censorship by being denounced to the Inquisition—sometimes decades later. Likewise, as Catholic theology evolved, once-prohibited texts might be removed from the Index.


Of those permanently expelled, the majority finally settled in the Maghreb or the Barbary coast.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Boase|first=Roger|date=4 April 2002|title=The Muslim Expulsion from Spain|journal=]|volume=52|issue=4|quote=The majority of those permanently expelled settling in the ] or ], especially in Oran, Tunis, Tlemcen, Tetuán, Rabat and Salé. Many travelled overland to France, but after the assassination of Henry of Navarre by Ravaillac in May 1610, they were forced to emigrate to Italy, Sicily or Constantinople.}}</ref> Those who avoided expulsion or who managed to return were gradually absorbed by the dominant culture.<ref name="Susan M 2008">{{cite journal |last1=Adams |first1=Susan M. |last2=Bosch |first2=Elena |last3=Balaresque |first3=Patricia L. |last4=Ballereau |first4=Stéphane J. |last5=Lee |first5=Andrew C. |last6=Arroyo |first6=Eduardo |last7=López-Parra |first7=Ana M. |last8=Aler |first8=Mercedes |last9=Grifo |first9=Marina S. Gisbert |last10=Brion |first10=Maria |last11=Carracedo |first11=Angel |last12=Lavinha |first12=João |last13=Martínez-Jarreta |first13=Begoña |last14=Quintana-Murci |first14=Lluis |last15=Picornell |first15=Antònia |last16=Ramon |first16=Misericordia |last17=Skorecki |first17=Karl |last18=Behar |first18=Doron M. |last19=Calafell |first19=Francesc |last20=Jobling |first20=Mark A. |date=December 2008 |title=The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=83 |issue=6 |pages=725–736 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007 |pmc=2668061 |pmid=19061982|issn=0002-9297 }}</ref>
At first, inclusion in the Index meant total prohibition of a text; however, this proved not only impractical and unworkable, but also contrary to the goals of having a literate and well-educated clergy. Works with one line of suspect dogma would be prohibited in their entirety, despite the remainder of the text's sound dogma. In time, a compromise solution was adopted in which trusted Inquisition officials blotted out words, lines or whole passages of otherwise acceptable texts, thus allowing these expurgated editions to circulate. Although in theory the Indexes imposed enormous restrictions on the diffusion of culture in Spain, some historians, such as Henry Kamen, argue that such strict control was impossible in practice and that there was much more liberty in this respect than is often believed. And Irving Leonard has conclusively demonstrated that, despite repeated royal prohibitions, romances of chivalry, such as ], found their way to the New World with the blessing of the Inquisition. Moreover, with the coming of the ] in the 18th century, increasing numbers of licenses to possess and read prohibited texts were granted.


The Inquisition pursued some trials against Moriscos who remained or returned after expulsion: at the height of the Inquisition, cases against Moriscos are estimated to have constituted less than 10 percent of those judged by the Inquisition. Upon the coronation of ] in 1621, the new king gave the order to desist from attempting to impose measures on the remaining Moriscos and returnees. In September 1628, the Council of the Supreme Inquisition ordered inquisitors in Seville not to prosecute expelled Moriscos "unless they cause significant commotion."<ref> (In Spanish)</ref> The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices occurred in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. By the end of the 18th century, the indigenous practice of Islam is considered to have been effectively extinguished in Spain.<ref> (In Spanish)</ref>
Despite repeated publication of the Indexes and a large bureaucracy of censors, the activities of the Inquisition did not impede the flowering of Spanish literature's "Siglo de Oro", although almost all of its major authors crossed paths with the Holy Office at one point or another. Among the Spanish authors included in the Index are: ], ], ], ] and ], as well as the anonymous ] and the ] by ]. ], which was not included in the Indexes of the 16th century, was expurgated in 1632 and prohibited in its entirety in 1790. Among the non-Spanish authors prohibited were ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] and ] (known in Spain as Tomás Moro). One of the most outstanding and best-known cases in which the Inquisition directly confronted literary activity is that of ], noted humanist and religious writer of converso origin, who was imprisoned for four years (from 1572 to 1576) for having translated the ] directly from Hebrew.


===Christian heretics===
Some scholars indicate that one of the main effects of the inquisition was to end free thought and scientific thought in Spain. As one contemporary Spanish in exile put it: "Our country is a land of ... barbarism; down there one cannot produce any culture without being suspected of heresy, error and Judaism. Thus silence was imposed on the learned." For the next few centuries, while the rest of Europe was slowly awakened by the influence of the Enlightenment, Spain stagnated.<ref>Johnson, Paul, ''A History of Christianity'', Penguin, London 1976.</ref> However, this conclusion is contested. The censorship of books was actually very ineffective, and prohibited books circulated in Spain without significant problems. The Spanish Inquisition never persecuted scientists, and relatively few scientific books were placed on the Index. On the other hand, Spain was a state with more political freedom than in other absolute monarchies in the 16th to 18th centuries. The backwardness of Spain in economy and science can hardly be attributed to the Inquisition.<ref>Henry Kamen: ''Inkwizycja Hiszpańska'', Warszawa 2005, pp. 126-130. ISBN 83-06-02963-1.</ref>
==== Protestantism ====
], Anneken Hendriks, who was charged with heresy in ] (1571)]]


Despite popular myths about the Spanish Inquisition relating to Protestants, it dealt with very few cases involving actual Protestants, as there were so few in Spain.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=100}}</ref> Lutheran was a ''portmanteau'' accusation used by the Inquisition to act against all those who acted in a way that was offensive to the church. The first of the trials against those labeled by the Inquisition as "Lutheran" were those against the sect of ] known as the "]" of ] and ]. These trials were long and ended with prison sentences of differing lengths, though no person in the sect faced execution. The subject of the "Alumbrados" put the Inquisition on the trail of many intellectuals and clerics who, interested in ] ideas, had strayed from orthodoxy. Both Charles I and ] were confessed admirers of ].<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=94}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=126}}</ref>
=== Other offenses ===
Although the Inquisition was created to suppress heresy, it also occupied itself with a wide variety of offences that only indirectly could be related to religious heterodoxy. Of a total of 49,092 trials from the period 1560–1700 registered in the archive of the Suprema, appear the following: ''judaizantes'' (5,007); ''moriscos'' (11,311); ] (3,499); '']'' (149); superstitions (3,750); heretical propositions (14,319); ] (2,790); solicitation (1,241); offences against the Holy Office of the Inquisition (3,954); miscellaneous (2,575).{{Citation needed|date=April 2007}}


The first trials against ] groups, as such, took place between 1558 and 1562, at the beginning of the reign of Philip II, against two communities of Protestants from the cities of Valladolid and Seville, numbering about 120.<ref>These trials, specifically those of Valladolid, form the basis of the plot of '']'' by Miguel Delibes (Overlook: 2006).</ref> The trials signaled a notable intensification of the Inquisition's activities. A number of '']'' were held, some of them presided over by members of the royal family, and around 100 executions took place.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=99}} gives the figure of about 100 executions for heresy of any kind between 1559 and 1566. He compares these figures with those condemned to death in other European countries during the same period, concluding that in similar periods England, under ], executed about twice as many for heresy: in France, three times the number, and ten times as many in the ].</ref> The ''autos de fé'' of the mid-century virtually put an end to Spanish Protestantism, which was, throughout, a small phenomenon to begin with.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|pp=102–108}}</ref>
These data demonstrate that not only New Christians (''conversos'' of ] or ] descent) and ] faced investigation, but also ] could be targeted for various reasons as well.


After 1562, though the trials continued, the repression was much reduced. In the last decades of the 16th century, approximately 200 Spaniards were accused of being Protestant.
====Witchcraft====
The category "superstitions" includes trials related to ]. The ] in Spain had much less intensity than in other European countries (particularly France, ], and Germany). One remarkable case was that of ], in which the witches of ] in ] were persecuted. During the '']'' that took place in ] on November 7 and November 8, 1610, 6 people were burned and another 5 burned in effigy.<ref>These trials are the theme of the film ''Akelarre'', by the Spanish director Pedro Olea.</ref> In general, nevertheless, the Inquisition maintained a sceptical attitude towards cases of ], considering it as a mere superstition without any basis. ], who, after the trials of ] took the Edict of Faith to various parts of ], noted in his report to the Suprema that, "There were neither ] nor ] in a village until they were talked and written about".<ref>Cited in Henningsen, Gustav, ed. The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution. Vol 21, Cultures, Beliefs, and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples. Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2004. Second Report of Salazar to the Inquisitor General (Logroño, 24 March 1612): An account of the whole visitation and publication of the Edict with special reference to the witches’ sect, 352.</ref>


<blockquote>Most of them were in no sense Protestants ... Irreligious sentiments, drunken mockery, anticlerical expressions, were all captiously classified by the inquisitors (or by those who denounced the cases) as "Lutheran." Disrespect to church images, and eating meat on forbidden days, were taken as signs of heresy...<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=98}}</ref> </blockquote>
====Blasphemy====
Included under the rubric of ''heretical propositions'' were verbal offences, from outright ] to questionable statements regarding religious beliefs, from issues of sexual morality, to misbehaviour of the clergy. Many were brought to trial for affirming that ''simple fornication'' (sex between unmarried persons) was not a sin or for putting in doubt different aspects of ] faith such as ] or the virginity of ]. Also, members of the clergy itself were occasionally accused of heretical propositions. These offences rarely lead to severe penalties.


It is estimated that a dozen Protestant Spaniards were burned alive in the later part of the sixteenth century.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|pp=99–100}}</ref>
====Bigamy====

The Inquisition also pursued offences against morals, at times in open conflict with the jurisdictions of civil tribunals. In particular, there were numerous trials for ], a relatively frequent offence in a society that only permitted divorce under the most extreme circumstances. In the case of men, the penalty was five years in the ] (tantamount to a death sentence). Women too were accused of ]. Also, many cases of solicitation during confession were adjudicated, indicating a strict vigilance over the clergy.
Protestantism was treated as a marker to identify agents of foreign powers and symptoms of political disloyalty as much as, if not more than, a cause of prosecution in itself.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rodriguez-Sala |first=Maria Luisa |title=Los Protestantes y la Inquisión |publisher=UNAM |url=https://archivos.juridicas.unam.mx/www/bjv/libros/6/2905/6.pdf |language=es |access-date=14 January 2022}}</ref>

====Orthodox Christianity====
{{unreferenced section|date=May 2020}}
Even though the Inquisition may have had theoretical permission to investigate Orthodox schismatics, it rarely did. There was no major war between Spain and any Orthodox country, so there was no reason to do so. There was one casualty tortured by those "Jesuits" (though most likely ]) who administered the Spanish Inquisition in North America, according to authorities within the ]: St. ]. Even that single report has various numbers of inaccuracies that make it problematic, and has no confirmation in the Inquisitorial archives.

===Witchcraft and superstition===
The category "superstitions" includes trials related to ]. The witch-hunt in Spain had much less intensity than in other European countries (particularly France, Scotland, and Germany). One remarkable case was ], in which the witches of ] in ] were persecuted. During the '']'' that took place in Logroño on 7 and 8 November 1610, six people were burned and another five burned in ].<ref>These trials are the theme of the film ''Akelarre'', by the Spanish director Pedro Olea.</ref> The role of the Inquisition in cases of witchcraft was much more restricted than is commonly believed. Well after the foundation of the Inquisition, jurisdiction over sorcery and witchcraft remained in secular hands.<ref>Henry Kamen. ''The Spanish Inquisition A Historical Revision''. 1999</ref>{{Page needed|date=March 2024}} In general, the Spanish Inquisition maintained a skeptical attitude towards cases of witchcraft, considering it as a mere superstition without any basis. ], who took the Edict of Faith to various parts of Navarre after the trials of Logroño, noted in his report to the Suprema that "there were neither witches nor bewitched in a village until they were talked and written about".<ref>Cited in Henningsen, Gustav, ed. "The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution." ''Cultures, Beliefs, and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples'', Vol 21. Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2004. "Second Report of Salazar to the Inquisitor General (Logroño, 24 March 1612): An account of the whole visitation and publication of the Edict with special reference to the witches' sect". p. 352.</ref>

====Blasphemy====
Included under the rubric of ''heretical propositions'' were verbal offences, from outright ] to questionable statements regarding religious beliefs, from issues of sexual morality to misbehaviour of the clergy. Many were brought to trial for affirming that ''simple fornication'' (sex between unmarried persons) was not a sin or for putting in doubt different aspects of ] faith, such as ] or the virginity of ].<ref>{{harvp|Green|2007|pp=7, 223–224}}</ref> Also, members of the clergy themselves were occasionally accused of heretical propositions. These offences rarely led to severe penalties.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kamen |first=Henry |date=1981-02-02 |title=500 Years of the Spanish Inquisition |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/500-years-spanish-inquisition |access-date=2024-02-21 |website=History Today Volume 31 Issue 2}}</ref>


====Sodomy==== ====Sodomy====
] granted the Inquisition jurisdiction over sodomy within Aragon in 1524 in response to a petition from the Saragossa tribunal.<ref>{{harvp|Monter|1990|p=259}}</ref> The Inquisition in Castile declined to take the same jurisdiction, making sodomy the only major crime with such a significant regional discrepancy. Even within Aragon, the treatment of sodomy varied significantly by region because the pope's decree required that it be prosecuted according to each area's local law.<ref>{{harvp|Monter|1990|p=279}}</ref> For instance, contemporaries considered the tribunal of the city of Zaragoza unusually harsh.<ref>Kamen, Henry (2011). ''La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica''. pp. 192, 259 {{ISBN?}}</ref>
Inquisitorial repression of the sexual offence of ], considered, according to ], as a crime against nature, merits separate attention. This included cases of incidences of heterosexual and homosexual ], ], and separately ]. Civil authorities at times executed those convicted.


The first person known to have been executed by the Inquisition for sodomy was a priest, Salvador Vidal, in 1541. Others convicted of sodomy received sentences including fines, burning in effigy, public whipping, and the galleys.<ref>{{harvp|Monter|1990|pp=280-282}}</ref> The first burning for sodomy took place in Valencia in 1572.<ref name="harvp|Kamen|1998|p=277">{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=277}}</ref>
In 1506 at ] the Inquisition made a special investigation into sodomy, causing many arrests and many fugitives and burning 12 persons, but in 1509 the Suprema in ] declared that crime not within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition deciding that cases of sodomy could not be adjudicated, unless related to ]. Alleging that sodomy had been introduced to Spain by the ], in 1524 the Spanish Ambassador to Rome obtained a special commission from ] for the Holy Office to curb its spread by investigating laymen and clergy in ], whether or not it was related to heresy; and proceeding according to local, municipal law in spite of the resistance by local bishops to this usurpation of their authority.


Sodomy was an expansive term; while a 1560 decision ruled that lesbian sex not involving a ] could not be prosecuted as sodomy, bestiality routinely was, especially in Saragossa in the 1570s.<ref>{{harvp|Monter|1990|pp=281-283}}</ref> Men might also be prosecuted based on accusations of engaging in heterosexual sodomy with their wives.<ref>{{harvp|Monter|1990|pp=284-285}}</ref> For that time and place, the word "sodomy" covered several kinds of not procreative sexual acts denounced by the Church, like '']'', ], '']'', ] (whether heterosexual or homosexual), etc.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|p=91}}
The tribunal of ] distinguished itself for its severity in judging these offences: between 1571—1579, 101 men accused of ] were processed and at least 35 were executed. In total, between 1570 and 1630 there were 534 trials (incl. 187 for homosexuality, 245 for bestiality, and 111 with unknown specification of the charges) with 102 executions (incl. 27 for homosexuality, 64 for bestiality and 11 uncertain cases).


Those accused included 19% clergy, 6% nobles, 37% workers, 19% servants, and 18% soldiers and sailors.<ref name="harvp|Kamen|1998|p=277"/>{{Failed verification|date=February 2024}} Nearly all of almost 500 cases of sodomy between persons concerned the relationship ], often by coercion, with only a few cases where the couple were consenting ] adults. About 100 of the total involved allegations of child abuse. Adolescents were typically punished more leniently than adults, but only when they were very young (approximately below the age of twelve) or when the case concerned rape did they have a chance to avoid punishment altogether.<ref name="harvp|Monter|1990|pp=276-299">{{harvp|Monter|1990|pp=276-299}}</ref>
The first sodomite was burned by the Inquisition in Valencia in 1572, and those accused included 19% clergy, 6% nobles, 37% workers, 19% servants, and 18% soldiers and sailors.<ref>Kamen, ''op. cit.'', p. 259.</ref> A growing reluctance to convict those who, unlike heretics, could not escape by confession and penance led after 1630 to greater leniency. Torture decreased: in Valencia 21% of sodomites were tortured prior to 1630, but only 4% afterwards. The last execution ''in persona'' for sodomy by the Inquisition took place in Zaragoza in April 1633. In total, out of about 1,000 convicted of sodomy - 170 were actually burnt at the stake, including 84 condemned for bestiality and 75 for homosexuality, with 11 cases where the exact character of the charges is not known.


Prosecutions for sodomy gradually declined, primarily due to decisions from the Suprema intended to reduce the publicity for sodomy cases. In 1579, public ''autos de fé'' ceased to include people convicted on sodomy charges unless they were sentenced to death; even the death sentences were excluded from public proclamation after 1610. In 1589, Aragon raised the minimum age for sodomy executions to 25, and by 1633, executions for sodomy had generally come to an end.<ref name="harvp|Monter|1990|pp=276-299"/>
Nearly all of almost 500 cases of sodomy between persons concerned the relationship between an older man and an adolescent, often by coercion; with only a few cases where the couple were consenting ] adults. About 100 of the total involved allegations of child abuse. Adolescents were generally punished more leniently than adults, but only when they were very young (under ca. 12 years) or when the case clearly concerned rape, did they have a chance to avoid punishment altogether. As a rule, the Inquisition condemned to death only those "sodomites" over the age of 25 years. As about half of those tried were under this age, it explains the relatively small percent of death sentences.<ref>Detailed account of repressions against "sodomy", related statistics and the profiles of defendants in Monter, ''Frontiers of Heresy'', pp. 276-299.</ref>


====Freemasonry==== ====Freemasonry====
{{Further|Papal ban of Freemasonry|In eminenti apostolatus}}
In 1815, ], the ] of the Spanish Inquisition and the ], suppressed ] and denounced the lodges as "societies which lead to atheism, to sedition and to all errors and crimes."<ref name="Denslow">William R. Denslow, ]: ''10,000 Famous Freemasons'', ISBN 1-4179-7579-2.</ref> He then instituted a purge during which ] could be arrested on the charge of being "suspected of Freemasonry".<ref name="Denslow" />

The Roman Catholic Church has regarded ] as heretical since about 1738; the ''suspicion'' of Freemasonry was potentially a capital offence. Spanish Inquisition records reveal two prosecutions in Spain and only a few more throughout the Spanish Empire.<ref>{{harvp|Green|2007|p=320}}</ref> In 1815, ], the ] of the Spanish Inquisition and the ], suppressed Freemasonry and denounced the lodges as "societies which lead to atheism, to sedition and to all errors and crimes."<ref name="Denslow">William R. Denslow, ]: ''10,000 Famous Freemasons'', {{ISBN|1-4179-7579-2}}.</ref> He then instituted a purge during which ] could be arrested on the charge of being "suspected of Freemasonry".<ref name="Denslow" />

===Censorship===
As one manifestation of the ], the Spanish Inquisition worked to impede the diffusion of heretical ideas in Spain by producing "Indexes" of prohibited books. Such lists of prohibited books were common in Europe a decade before the Inquisition published its first. The first Index published in Spain in 1551 was, in reality, a reprinting of the Index published by the ] in 1550, with an appendix dedicated to Spanish texts. Subsequent Indexes were published in 1559, 1583, 1612, 1632, and 1640.

Included in the Indices, at one point, were some of the great works of ], but most of the works were plays and religious in nature.<ref name="BleibergIhrie1993">{{cite book |last1=Bleiberg |first1=Germán |last2=Ihrie |first2=Maureen |last3=Pérez |first3=Janet |year=1993 |title=Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bsvkun_p3SgC&pg=PA374 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=374– |isbn=978-0-313-28731-2}}</ref> A number of religious writers who are today considered saints by the Catholic Church saw their works appear in the Indexes. At first, this might seem counter-intuitive or even nonsensical—how were these Spanish authors published in the first place if their texts were then prohibited by the Inquisition and placed in the Index? The answer lies in the process of publication and censorship in Early Modern Spain. Books in Early Modern Spain faced prepublication licensing and approval (which could include modification) by both secular and religious authorities. Once approved and published, the circulating text also faced the possibility of post-hoc censorship by being denounced by the Inquisition—sometimes decades later. Likewise, as Catholic theology evolved, once-prohibited texts might be removed from the Index.

At first, inclusion in the Index meant total prohibition of a text. This proved not only impractical but also contrary to the goals of having a literate and well-educated clergy. In time, a compromise solution was adopted in which trusted Inquisition officials blotted out words, lines, or whole passages of otherwise acceptable texts, thus allowing these expurgated editions to circulate. Although, in theory, the Indexes imposed enormous restrictions on the diffusion of culture in Spain, some historians argue that such strict control was impossible in practice and that there was much more liberty in this respect than is often believed. Irving Leonard has conclusively demonstrated that, despite repeated royal prohibitions, romances of chivalry, such as '']'', found their way to the New World with the blessing of the Inquisition. Moreover, with the coming of the ] in the 18th century, increasing numbers of licenses to possess and read prohibited texts were granted.

Despite the repeated publication of the Indexes and a large bureaucracy of censors, the activities of the Inquisition did not impede the development of Spanish literature's "]", although almost all of its major authors crossed paths with the Holy Office at one point or another. Among the Spanish authors included in the Index are ], ], ], ] and ], as well as the anonymous '']'' and the ''Cancionero General'' by Hernando del Castillo. '']'', which was not included in the Indexes of the ], was expurgated in 1632 and prohibited in its entirety in 1790. Among the non-Spanish authors prohibited were ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ] (known in Spain as Tomás Moro). One of the most outstanding and best-known cases in which the Inquisition directly confronted literary activity is that of ], noted humanist and religious writer of converso origin, who was imprisoned for four years (from 1572 to 1576) for having translated the ] directly from Hebrew.

One of the major effects of the Inquisition was to end free thought and scientific thought in Spain. As one contemporary Spaniard in exile put it: "Our country is a land of pride and envy ... ]; down there one cannot produce any culture without being suspected of ], error and ]. Thus silence was imposed on the learned."<ref name="Walkley2010">{{cite book |last=Walkley |first=Clive |year=2010 |title=Juan Esquivel: A Master of Sacred Music During the Spanish Golden Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RzDMukD8yYAC&pg=PA7 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |pages=7– |isbn=978-1-84383-587-5}}</ref> For the next few centuries, while the rest of Europe was slowly awakened by the influence of the Enlightenment, Spain stagnated.<ref>Johnson, Paul, ''A History of Christianity'', ], 1976.</ref> This conclusion is contested.{{according to whom|date=October 2021}}

The ] of books was very ineffective and prohibited books circulated in Spain without significant problems. The Spanish Inquisition never persecuted scientists, and relatively few scientific books were placed on the Index. On the other hand, Spain was a state with more political freedom than other absolute monarchies in the 16th to 18th centuries.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2005|pp=126–130}}</ref> The apparent paradox is explained by both the ] religious ideas of the Spanish church and monarchy and the budding seed of what would become ] taking shape in Spain. The list of banned books was not, as interpreted sometimes, a list of evil books but a list of books that lay people were very likely to misinterpret. The presence of highly symbolical and high-quality literature on the list was so explained. These metaphorical or parable-sounding books were listed as not meant for free circulation, but there might be no objections to the book itself and the circulation among scholars was mostly free. Most of these books were carefully collected by the elite. The practical totality of the prohibited books can be found now, as then, in the library of the ], carefully collected by ] and ]. The collection was "public" after Philip II's death and members of universities, intellectuals, courtesans, clergy, and certain branches of the nobility didn't have too many problems accessing them and commissioning authorised copies. The Inquisition has not been known to make any serious attempt to stop this for all the books, but there are some records of them "suggesting" the King of Spain to stop collecting grimoires or magic-related ones.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}}

===Family and marriage===
====Bigamy====
The Inquisition also pursued offences against morals and general social order, at times in open conflict with the jurisdictions of civil tribunals. In particular, there were trials for ], a relatively frequent offence<ref>{{harvp|Green|2007|p=296}}</ref> in a society that only permitted divorce under the most extreme circumstances. In the case of men, the penalty was two hundred lashes and five to ten years of "service to the Crown". Said service could be whatever the court deemed most beneficial for the nation, but it usually was either five years as an oarsman in a royal ] for those without any qualification<ref>{{harvp|Green|2007|p=298}}</ref> (possibly a death sentence)<ref>Statistics are not available for Spanish oarsmen, but the general state of Mediterranean oared galleys circa 1570 was grim; cf. {{cite book |last=Crowley |first=Roger |title=Empires of the sea: The siege of Malta, the battle of Lepanto, and the contest for the center of the world |publisher=Random House Trade Paperbacks |location=New York |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-8129-77646 |pages=77–78}}: "... galley slaves led lives bitter and short. ... One way or another the oared galley consumed men like fuel. Each dying wretch dumped overboard had to be replaced—and there were never enough."</ref> or ten years working maintained but without salary in a public Hospital or charitable institution of the sort for those with some special skill, such as doctors, surgeons, or lawyers.<ref>Lorenzo Arrazola, ''Enciclopedia Espanola De Derecho Y Administracion: Ciu-Col'' (Enciclopedia of Spanish Penal and Administrative Law). Madrid: Saraswati Press, 2012, pp. 572</ref> The penalty was five to seven years as an oarsman in the case of Portugal.

====Unnatural marriage====
Under the category of "unnatural marriage" fell any marriage or attempted marriage between two individuals who could not procreate. The Catholic Church, in general, and in a nation constantly at war like Spain,<ref>{{cite book |first=Fernando |last=Cc̀eres |title=Estudios Sobre Cultura, Guerra Y Polt̕ica En La Corona De Castilla |trans-title=Studies Over War Culture and Politics in the Kingdom of Castile |at=siglos xiv–xvii |publisher=Editorial Csic Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientf̕icas |year=2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kaler |first=Amy |title=Fertility, Gender and War: The culture of contraception |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |year=1998}}</ref> emphasised the reproductive goal of marriage.

The Spanish Inquisition's policy in this regard was restrictive but applied in a very egalitarian way. It considered any non-reproductive marriage unnatural and any reproductive marriage natural, regardless of gender or sex involved. The two forms of obvious male sterility were either due to damage to the genitals through castration or accidental wounding at war (capón) or to some genetic condition that might keep the man from completing puberty (lampiño). Female sterility was also a reason to declare a marriage unnatural but was harder to prove. One case that dealt with marriage, sex, and gender was the trial of ].

===Non-religious crimes===
Despite popular belief, the role of the Inquisition as a mainly religious institution is contested. Its main function was that of private police for the Crown, with jurisdiction to enforce the law in those crimes that took place in the private sphere of life.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}} The notion of religion and civil law being separate is a modern construction and made no sense in the 15th century, so there was no difference between breaking a law regarding religion and breaking a law regarding tax collection. The difference between them is a modern projection the institution itself did not have. As such, the Inquisition was the prosecutor (in some cases the only prosecutor) of any crimes that could be perpetrated without the public taking notice (mainly domestic crimes, crimes against the weakest members of society, administrative crimes and forgeries, organized crime, and crimes against the Crown).{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Examples include crimes associated with sexual or family relations such as ] and ] (the Inquisition was the first and only body who punished it across the nation), ], ] (often overlapping with sodomy), ], ] or ] and (as discussed) ]. Non-religious crimes also included ] (not ]), ], ], forgery or falsification of ], ] or ], tax ] (many religious crimes were considered subdivisions of this one), illegal weapons, ]s, disrespect to the Crown or its institutions (the Inquisition included, but also the church, the guard, and the kings themselves), ] for a foreign power, ], ].<ref>{{Cite web |title=INQUISICIÓN,L.960 - Libro de ejemplares del Tribunal de Valencia |url=http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/3241610 |access-date=2024-02-08 |website=PARES}}</ref><ref name=":3"/>

The non-religious crimes processed by the Inquisition accounted for a considerable percentage of its total investigations and are often hard to separate in the statistics, even when documentation is available. The line between religious and non-religious crimes did not exist in 15th-century Spain as a legal concept. Many of the crimes listed here and some of the religious crimes listed in previous sections were contemplated under the same article. For example, "sodomy" included paedophilia as a subtype. Often, part of the data given for prosecution of male homosexuality corresponds to convictions for paedophilia, not adult homosexuality. In other cases, religious and non-religious crimes were seen as distinct but equivalent. The treatment of public blasphemy and street swindlers was similar (since both involved "misleading the public in a harmful way"). Making counterfeit currency and heretic proselytism were also treated similarly; both of them were punished by death and subdivided in similar ways since both were "spreading falsifications". In general, heresy and falsifications of material documents were treated similarly by the Spanish Inquisition, indicating that they may have been thought of as equivalent actions.<ref name=":3"/>

Trials were often further complicated by the attempts of witnesses or victims to add further charges, especially ]. Like with ], charges for witchcraft done in this way, or in general, were quickly dismissed but they often show in the statistics as investigations made.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}


== Organization == ==Organization==
Beyond its role in religious affairs, the Inquisition was also an institution at the service of the monarchy. The Inquisitor General, in charge of the Holy Office, was designated by the crown. The Inquisitor General was the only public office whose authority stretched to all the kingdoms of Spain (including the American viceroyalties), except for a brief period (1507–1518) during which there were two Inquisitors General, one in the kingdom of Castile, and the other in ]. Beyond its role in religious affairs, the Inquisition was also an institution at the service of the monarchy. The Inquisitor General, in charge of the Holy Office, was designated by the crown. The Inquisitor General was the only public office whose authority stretched to all the kingdoms of Spain (including the American viceroyalties), except for a brief period (1507–1518) during which there were two Inquisitors General, one in the kingdom of Castile, and the other in ].


] in ], Viceroyalty of Peru (17th century)]]
The Inquisitor General presided over the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition (generally abbreviated as "Council of the Suprema"), created in 1483, which was made up of six members named directly by the crown (the number of members of the Suprema varied over the course of the Inquisition's history, but it was never more than 10). Over time, the authority of the Suprema grew at the expense of the power of the Inquisitor General.


The Inquisitor General presided over the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition (commonly abbreviated as "Council of the Suprema"), created in 1483, which was made up of six members named directly by the crown (the number of members of the Suprema varied throughout the Inquisition's history, but it was never more than ten). Over time, the authority of the Suprema grew at the expense of the power of the Inquisitor General.
The Suprema met every morning, save for holidays, and for two hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The morning sessions were devoted to questions of faith, while the afternoons were reserved for "minor heresies"<ref>Henningsen, Gustav: The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind, p. 220.</ref> cases of perceived unacceptable sexual behavior, ], ], etc.<ref>García Cárcel, Ricardo: La Inquisición, p. 21.</ref>

The Suprema met every morning, except for holidays, and for two hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The morning sessions were devoted to questions of faith, while the afternoons were reserved for "minor heresies"<ref>Henningsen, Gustav: The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind, p. 220.</ref> cases of perceived unacceptable sexual behavior, ], ], etc.<ref>{{harvp|García Cárcel|1976|p=21}}</ref>

Below the Suprema were the various tribunals of the Inquisition, initially itinerant, which installed themselves where they were necessary to combat heresy but later settled in fixed locations. During the first phase, numerous tribunals were established, but the period after 1495 saw a marked tendency towards centralization.


Below the Suprema were the different tribunals of the Inquisition, which were, in their origins, itinerant, installing themselves where they were necessary to combat heresy, but later being established in fixed locations. In the first phase, numerous tribunals were established, but the period after 1495 saw a marked tendency towards centralization.
] in ], Viceroyalty of Peru, 17th century]]
In the kingdom of Castile, the following permanent tribunals of the Inquisition were established: In the kingdom of Castile, the following permanent tribunals of the Inquisition were established:
* 1482 In ] and in ]. * 1482 In ] and in ]
* 1485 In ] and in ]. * 1485 In ] and in ]
* 1488 In ] and in ]. * 1488 In ] and in ]
* 1489 In ]. * 1489 In ]
* 1505 In ] (]). * 1505 In ] (])
* 1512 In ]. * 1512 In ]
* 1526 In ]. * 1526 In ]
* 1574 In ]. * 1574 In ]


There were only four tribunals in the kingdom of ]: ] and ] (1482), ] (1484), and ] (1488).<ref>Kamen, ''op. cit.'', p. 141.</ref> ] also established the Spanish Inquisition in ] (1513), housed in ] and ], in the town of ].<ref>In ], the Inquisition functioned until March 30, 1782, when it was abolished by King ]. It is estimated that 200 people were executed during this period.</ref> In the Americas, tribunals were established in ] and in ] (1569) and, in 1610, in ] (present day ]). There were only four tribunals in the kingdom of ]: ] and ] (1482), ] (1484), and ] (1488).<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=141}}</ref> ] also established the Spanish Inquisition in ] (1513), housed in ], and ], in the town of ].<ref>In ], the Inquisition functioned until 30 March 1782, when it was abolished by King ]. It is estimated that 200 people were executed during this period.</ref> In the Americas, tribunals were established in ] and in ] (1569) and, in 1610, in ] (present-day ]).


== Composition of the tribunals == ==Composition of the tribunals==
]
Initially, each of the tribunals included two inquisitors, a ''calificador'', an ''alguacil'' (bailiff) and a ''fiscal'' (prosecutor); new positions were added as the institution matured.


The inquisitors were preferably jurists more than theologians, and, in 1608, ] even stipulated that all the inquisitors must have a background in law. The inquisitors did not typically remain in the position for a long time: for the Court of ], for example, the average tenure in the position was about two years.<ref>García Cárcel, Ricardo, op.cit., p. 24.</ref> Most of the inquisitors belonged to the secular clergy (priests who were not members of ]), and had a university education. Initially, each of the tribunals included two inquisitors, ''calificadors'' (qualifiers), an ''alguacil'' (bailiff), and a ''fiscal'' (prosecutor); new positions were added as the institution matured. The inquisitors were preferably jurists more than theologians; in 1608, ] even stipulated that all inquisitors needed to have a background in law. The inquisitors rarely remained in the position for a long time: for the Court of ], for example, the average tenure in the position was about two years.<ref>{{harvp|García Cárcel|1976|p=24}}</ref> Most of the inquisitors belonged to the secular clergy (priests who were not members of ]) and had a university education.


The ''fiscal'' was in charge of presenting the accusation, investigating the denunciations and interrogating the witnesses by the use of physical and mental torture. The ''calificadores'' were generally theologians; it fell to them to determine if the defendant's conduct added up to a crime against the faith. Consultants were expert jurists who advised the court in questions of procedure. The court had, in addition, three secretaries: the ''notario de secuestros'' (Notary of Property), who registered the goods of the accused at the moment of his detention; the ''notario del secreto'' (Notary of the Secret), who recorded the testimony of the defendant and the witnesses; and the ''escribano general'' (General Notary), secretary of the court. The ''fiscal'' was in charge of presenting the accusation, investigating the denunciations, and interrogating the witnesses by the use of physical and mental torture. The ''calificadores'' were generally theologians; it fell to them to determine whether the defendant's conduct added up to a crime against the faith. Consultants were expert jurists who advised the court on questions of procedure. The court had, in addition, three secretaries: the ''notario de secuestros'' (Notary of Property), who registered the goods of the accused at the moment of his detention; the ''notario del secreto'' (Notary of the Secret), who recorded the testimony of the defendant and the witnesses; and the ''Escribano General'' (General Notary), secretary of the court. The ''alguacil'' was the executive arm of the court, responsible for detaining, jailing, and physically torturing the defendant. Other civil employees were the ''nuncio'', ordered to spread official notices of the court, and the ''alcaide'', the jailer in charge of feeding the prisoners.


In addition to the members of the court, two auxiliary figures existed that collaborated with the Holy Office: the ''familiares'' and the ''comissarios'' (commissioners). ''Familiares'' were lay collaborators of the Inquisition who had to be permanently at the service of the Holy Office. To become a ''familiar'' was considered an honor since it was a public recognition of '']''—Old Christian status—and brought with it certain additional privileges. Although many nobles held the position, most of the ''familiares'' came from the ranks of commoners. The commissioners, on the other hand, were members of the religious orders who collaborated occasionally with the Holy Office.
The ''alguacil'' was the executive arm of the court: he was responsible for detaining, jailing, and physically torturing the defendant. Other civil employees were the ''nuncio'', ordered to spread official notices of the court, and the ''alcaide'', jailer in charge of feeding the prisoners.


One of the most striking aspects of the organization of the Inquisition was its form of financing: devoid of its own budget, the Inquisition depended almost exclusively on the confiscation of the goods of the denounced.<ref name=":4">Cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=153}}</ref> It is not surprising, therefore, that many of those prosecuted were rich men. That the situation was open to abuse is evident, as stands out in the memorandum that a ''converso'' from ] directed to ]:
In addition to the members of the court, two auxiliary figures existed that collaborated with the Holy Office: the ''familiares'' and the ''comissarios'' (commissioners). ''Familiares'' were lay collaborators of the Inquisition, who had to be permanently at the service of the Holy Office. To become a familiar was considered an honour, since it was a public recognition of ''limpieza de sangre'' — Old Christian status — and brought with it certain additional privileges. Although many nobles held the position, most of the ''familiares'' many came from the ranks of commoners. The commissioners, on the other hand, were members of the religious orders who collaborated occasionally with the Holy Office.


One of the most striking aspects of the organization of the Inquisition was its form of financing: devoid of its own budget, the Inquisition depended exclusively on the confiscation of the goods of the denounced. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of those prosecuted were rich men. That the situation was open to abuse is evident, as stands out in the memorial that a ''converso'' from ] directed to ]: <blockquote>"Your Majesty must provide, before all else, that the expenses of the Holy Office do not come from the properties of the condemned, because if that is the case, if they do not burn they do not eat."<ref>Cited in Kamen, op. cit., p. 151.</ref></blockquote> <blockquote>Your Majesty must provide, before all else, that the expenses of the Holy Office do not come from the properties of the condemned, because if that is the case if they do not burn they do not eat.<ref name=":4"/></blockquote>


== Functioning of the inquisition == ==Mode of operation==
===Accusation===
Near the outset of the Inquisition, in a letter of April 14, 1482, ] instructed the Spanish to ensure due process, allow legal counsel and appeal to Rome.<ref name="crisismagazine.com">], , Crisis Magazine, September 2003</ref> King Ferdinand defiantly rejected Papal control, the Inquisition becoming thereafter a tool of the monarchy, rather than the church.<ref name="crisismagazine.com"/> In 1483, Ferdinand made Torquemada the Inquisitor General of most areas of Spain.<ref name="crisismagazine.com"/> Its procedures were set out in various ''Instrucciones'' issued by the successive Inquisitors General, Torquemada, Deza, and Valdés.
When the Inquisition arrived in a city, the first step was the ''Edict of Grace''. Following the Sunday Mass, the Inquisitor would proceed to read the edict, which described possible heresies and encouraged all the congregation to come to the tribunals of the Inquisition to "relieve their consciences". They were called ''Edicts of Grace'' because all the self-incriminated who presented themselves within a ''period of grace'' (usually ranging from thirty to forty days) were offered the possibility of reconciliation with the Church without severe punishment.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=57}}</ref>{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|pp=135,136}} The promise of benevolence was effective, and many voluntarily presented themselves to the Inquisition. These were encouraged to denounce others who had also committed offences, informants being the Inquisition's primary source of information. After about 1500, the Edicts of Grace were replaced by the ''Edicts of Faith'', which left out the grace period and instead encouraged the denunciation of those deemed guilty.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=174}}</ref>


The denunciations were anonymous, and the defendants had no way of knowing the identities of their accusers. This was one of the points most criticized by those who opposed the Inquisition. In practice, false denunciations were frequent. Denunciations were made for a variety of reasons apart from genuine concern. Some just went after non-conformists. Others wished to hurt a neighbor or get rid of an opponent.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|pp=139, 140}}
=== Accusation ===
When the Inquisition arrived in a city, the first step was the ''Edict of Grace''. Following the Sunday mass, the Inquisitor would proceed to read the edict; it explained possible heresies and encouraged all the congregation to come to the tribunals of the Inquisition to "relieve their consciences". They were called ''Edicts of Grace'' because all of the self-incriminated who presented themselves within a ''period of grace'' (usually ranging from thirty to forty days) were offered the possibility of reconciliation with the Church without severe punishment.<ref>Kamen, Henry; The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, p. 57.</ref> The promise of benevolence was effective, and many voluntarily presented themselves to the Inquisition and were often encouraged to denounce others who had also committed offenses, informants being the Inquisition's primary source of information. After about 1500, the Edicts of Grace were replaced by the ''Edicts of Faith'', which left out the grace period and instead encouraged the denunciation of those guilty.<ref>Kamen, Henry; The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, p. 174.</ref>


This method turned everyone into an agent of the Inquisition and made everyone aware that a simple word or deed could bring them before the tribunal. Denunciation was elevated to the rank of a superior religious duty, filled the nation with spies, and made each individual an object of suspicion to their neighbor, family, and any strangers they might meet.{{sfnp|Lea|1906|p=91 Volume 2}}
]


===Detention===
The denunciations were anonymous, and the defendants had no way of knowing the identities of their accusers.<ref>Though over the course of the trial, their identities likely became apparent.</ref> This was one of the points most criticized by those who opposed the Inquisition (for example, the ], in 1518). In practice, false denunciations were frequent. Denunciations were made for a variety of reasons, from genuine concern, to rivalries and personal jealousies.
] in his cell before his trial by the Inquisition Court of Cuenca (engraved by ])]]


After a denunciation, the case was examined by the ''calificadores'', who had to determine whether there was heresy involved. This was followed by the detention of the accused. In practice, many were detained in preventive custody, and many cases of lengthy incarcerations occurred, lasting up to two years before the ''calificadores'' examined the case.<ref>"In the tribunal of ], in 1699, various suspects (including a girl of 9 and a boy of 14) were jailed for up to two years with having had the least evaluation of the accusations presented against them" ({{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=183}}).</ref>
=== Detention ===
After a denunciation, the case was examined by the ''calificadores'' (qualifiers), who had to determine if there was heresy involved, followed by detention of the accused. In practice, however, many were detained in preventive custody, and many cases of lengthy incarcerations occurred, lasting up to two years, before the ''calificadores'' examined the case.<ref>"In the tribunal of ], in 1699, various suspects (including a girl of 9 and a boy of 14) were jailed for up to two years with having had the least evaluation of the accusations presented against them" (Kamen, ''op. cit.'', p. 180).</ref>


Detention of the accused entailed the preventive sequestration of their property by the Inquisition. The property of the prisoner was used to pay for procedural expenses and the accused's own maintenance and costs. Often the relatives of the defendant found themselves in outright misery. This situation was only remedied following instructions written in 1561. Detention of the accused entailed the preventive sequestration of their property by the Inquisition. The property of the prisoner was used to pay for procedural expenses and the accused's maintenance and costs. Often, the relatives of the defendant found themselves in outright misery. This situation was remedied only by following instructions written in 1561.<ref>], p. 184</ref> However, Llorente, despite having consulted numerous records of old Inquisition proceedings, did not find any record of such an agreement in favor of the children of condemned heretics.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=173}}


The entire process was undertaken with the utmost secrecy, as much for the public as for the accused, who were not informed about the accusations that were levied against them. Months, or even years could pass without the accused being informed about why they were imprisoned. The prisoners remained isolated, and, during this time, the prisoners were not allowed to attend ] nor receive the ]. The jails of the Inquisition were no worse than those of secular authorities, and there are even certain testimonies that occasionally they were much better.<ref>Walsh, Thomas William, ''Characters of the Inquisition'', P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1940, p. 163.</ref> Some authors, such as apologist ], stated that the entire process was undertaken with the utmost secrecy, as much for the public as for the accused, who were not informed about the accusations that were levied against them. Months or even years could pass without the accused being informed about why they were imprisoned. The prisoners remained isolated, and, during this time, they were not allowed to attend ] nor receive the ]. The jails of the Inquisition were no worse than those of secular authorities, and there are even certain testimonies that occasionally they were much better.<ref>Walsh, Thomas William, ''Characters of the Inquisition'', P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1940, p. 163.</ref> According to William Walsh, the miseries of the Jews "are not the result, fundamentally, of the hatred and misunderstanding of others, but the consequence of their own stubborn ] of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Walsh_letter_to_Roth.htm |url=https://www.jrbooksonline.com/HTML-docs/Walsh_letter_to_Roth.htm |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=www.jrbooksonline.com}}</ref>


=== The trial === ===Trial===
]'s engraving, 1722). In contrast to the Inquisitor's armchair, Eymeric's manual suggests that the accused be sat on a low bench.{{sfnp|Saraiva|2001|pp=69-70}}]]
The inquisitorial process consisted of a series of hearings, in which both the denouncers and the defendant gave testimony. A defense counsel was assigned to the defendant, a member of the tribunal itself, whose role was simply to advise the defendant and to encourage them to speak the truth. The prosecution was directed by the ''fiscal''. Interrogation of the defendant was done in the presence of the ''Notary of the Secreto'', who meticulously wrote down the words of the accused. The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation. In order to defend themselves, the accused had two possibilities: ''abonos'' (to find favourable witnesses, akin to "substantive" evidence/testimony in Anglo-American law) or ''tachas'' (to demonstrate that the witnesses of accusers were not trustworthy, akin to Anglo-American "impeachment" evidence/testimony).


The inquisitorial process consisted of a series of hearings in which both the denouncers and the defendant gave separate testimony. A ], a so-called lawyer, a member of the tribunal itself, was assigned to the defendant; his role was simply to advise the accused and to encourage them to speak the truth.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}} He was obliged to renounce the defense at the moment when he realized his client's guilt.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=195}}
In order to interrogate the accused, the Inquisition made use of ], but not in a systematic way. It was applied mainly against those suspected of ] and ], beginning in the 16th century. For example, Lea estimates that between 1575 and 1610 the court of ] tortured approximately a third of those processed for heresy.<ref>H. C. Lea, III, p. 33, Cited in Kamen, ''op. cit'', p. 185. García Cárcel, ''op. cit.'' p. 43 finds the same statistics.</ref> In other periods, the proportions varied remarkably. Torture was always a means to obtain the confession of the accused, not a punishment itself. Torture was also applied without distinction of sex or age, including children and the aged.


The prosecution was directed by the ''fiscal''. Interrogation of the defendant was done in the presence of the ''notario del secreto'', who meticulously wrote down the words of the accused. The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}
=== Torture ===
]. ''Mémoires Historiques'' (1716)]]
As with all European tribunals of the time, torture was employed.<ref name="crisismagazine.com"/><ref name="Kamenop">Kamen, ''op. cit.'', p. 190.</ref><ref name="books.google.com">Haliczer, Stephen, , p. 79, University of California Press, 1990</ref> The Spanish inquisition, however, engaged in it far less often and with greater care than other courts.<ref name="crisismagazine.com"/><ref name="books.google.com"/><ref>by Peters, Edward, ''Inquisition'', Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, pp. 92-93, University of California Press (1989), ISBN 0-520-06630-8.</ref> The scenes of sadism found in popular writers on the inquisition are not based in truth.<ref>Kamen, ''op. cit.'', p. 189.</ref> Modern scholars have determined that torture was used in only two percent of the cases, for no more than 15 minutes, and in only less than one percent of the cases was it used a second time, never more than that.<ref name="crisismagazine.com"/><ref name="books.google.com"/>


To defend themselves, the accused had two main choices: ''abonos'' (to find favourable and character witnesses) or ''tachas'' (to demonstrate that the witnesses of accusers — whose identity he did not know — were not trustworthy, and were his personal enemies.{{sfnp|Homza|2006|pp=XXIV}}
Although the Inquisition was technically forbidden from permanently harming or drawing blood,<ref name="Kamenop" /> this still allowed for methods of ]. The methods most used, and common in other secular and ecclesiastical tribunals, were ''garrucha'', ''toca'' and the ''potro''.<ref name="Kamenop" /> The application of the ''garrucha'', also known as the ], consisted of suspending the victim from the ceiling by the wrists, which are tied behind the back. Sometimes weights were tied to the ankles, with a series of lifts and drops, during which the arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated.<ref>Sabatini, Rafael, ''Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History'', p. 190, Kessinger Publishing (2003), ISBN 0-7661-3161-0.</ref> The ''toca'', also called ''interrogatorio mejorado del agua'', consisted of introducing a cloth into the mouth of the victim, and forcing them to ingest water spilled from a jar so that they had the impression of drowning (see: ]).<ref>Scott, George Ryley, ''The History of Torture Throughout the Ages'', p. 172, Columbia University Press (2003) ISBN 0-7103-0837-X.</ref> The ''potro'', the ], was the instrument of torture used most frequently.<ref>Carrol. James, ''Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History'', p. 356, Houghton Mifflin Books (2002), ISBN 0-618-21908-0.</ref>


The structure of the trials was similar to modern trials and, according to apologists, advanced for the time with regard to fairness. The Inquisition, "professional and efficient", was dependent on the political power of the King. The lack of separation of powers allows for assuming questionable fairness in certain scenarios. The fairness of the Inquisitorial tribunals is alleged by apologists to be among the best in early modern Europe when it came to the trial of laymen.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Madden |first=Thomas |date=October 1, 2003 |title=The Truth about the Spanish Inquisition |url=https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/madden/03481.html |access-date= |website=Mary Foundation |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220827232257/https://www.catholicity.com/commentary/madden/03481.html |archive-date= Aug 27, 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Martínez Millán |first=José |title=La Inquisición Española |publisher=Alianza Editorial |year=2007 |language=es}}</ref> There are also testimonies by former prisoners that, if believed, suggest that said fairness was less than ideal when national or political interests were involved.<ref>Kamen, Henry (2011). La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica. pp. 191–192.</ref>
The assertion that "confessionem esse veram, non factam vi tormentorum" (literally: ((a person's)) confession is truth, not made by way of torture.) sometimes follows a description of how, after torture had ended, the subject freely confessed to the offenses.<ref>by Peters, Edward, ''Inquisition'', Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, p. 65, University of California Press (1989), ISBN 0-520-06630-8.</ref> Thus, all confession acquired by means of torture were considered completely valid as they were supposedly made of the confessor's own free will.


The historian ] thinks very different:
Once the process concluded, the inquisidores met with a representative of the bishop and with the ''consultores'', experts in ] or ], which was called the ''consulta de fe''. The case was voted and sentence pronounced, which had to be unanimous. In case of discrepancies, the ''Suprema'' had to be informed.
:::There is hardly one item in the whole Inquisitorial procedure that could be squared with the demands of justice; on the contrary, every one of its items is the denial of justice or a hideous caricature of it its principles are the very denial of the demands made by the most primitive concepts of natural justice This kind of proceeding has no longer any semblance to a judicial trial but is rather its systematic and methodical perversion.{{sfnp|Saraiva|2001|p=61-62}}


]
According to authorities within the ], there was at least one casualty tortured by those Jesuits who administered the Spanish Inquisition in North America: St. ].


To obtain a confession or information relevant to an investigation, the Inquisition used ], as prescribed in the ''instrucciones''. It is impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy the number of cases in which it was employed during the Inquisition's existence.{{sfnp|Lea|1906|pp=32-33 Volume III}}
=== Sentencing ===

Torture would be applied if the alleged heresy was "half proven" and could be repeated, according to Article XV of Torquemada's instructions.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=162}} Henry Lea estimates that between 1575 and 1610, the court of ] tortured approximately a third of those processed for Protestant heresy. Nearly all of the accused in several cases tried by the Lima tribunal between 1635 and 1639 appear to have been tortured; the Valladolid tribunal report for 1624 reveals that in eleven cases involving Jews and one involving a Protestant used torture; in 1655, all nine cases involving Jews employed torture.<ref>H. C. Lea, III, p. 33, Cited in {{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=185}}. {{harvp|García Cárcel|1976|p=43}} finds the same statistics.</ref>

The recently opened Vatican Archives suggest lower numbers.<ref name=":2"/><ref>Messori, Vittorio (2000). Leyendas Negras de la Iglesia. Editorial Planeta (this source is a Catholic apologist)</ref>{{Page needed|date=February 2024}} "In truth," says Thomas Madden, "the Inquisition brought order, justice, and compassion to combat rampant secular and popular persecutions of heretics." And concludes: "The Spanish people loved their Inquisition. That is why it lasted for so long."<ref name=":2" /> In other periods, the proportions of torture varied remarkably.

===Torture===
]

]

]

Torture was employed in all civil and religious trials in Europe. The Spanish Inquisition allegedly used it more restrictively than was common at the time. Unlike both civil trials and other inquisitions, it had strict regulations in relation to when, what, whom, frequency, duration, and supervision.<ref name="Bethencourt, Francisco 1997">Bethencourt, Francisco. La Inquisición En La Época Moderna: España, Portugal E Italia, Siglos xv–xix. Madrid: Akal, 1997.</ref> {{Page needed|date=February 2024}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hassner|first=Ron E.|date=2020|title=The Cost of Torture: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09636412.2020.1761441|journal=Security Studies|volume=29|issue=3|pages=457–492|doi=10.1080/09636412.2020.1761441|s2cid=219405563|issn=0963-6412}}</ref> According to some scholars, the Spanish Inquisition engaged in torture less often and with greater care than secular courts.<ref name="Haliczer_79">{{Cite book |last1=Haliczer |first1=Stephen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crCQmS_85EEC |title=Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478-1834 |last2=Haliczer |date=1990-01-01 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06729-5 |language=en|page=79}}</ref><ref name="Peters, Edward pp. 92-93">Peters, Edward, ''Inquisition'', Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, pp. 92–93, University of California Press (1989), {{ISBN|0-520-06630-8}}.</ref>

Kamen and other scholars cite the lack of evidence for the use of torture. Their conclusions are based on research uncovered in newly opened files of the Spanish Inquisition's archives. Stories of torture and other maltreatment of prisoners appear to have been based on Protestant propaganda as well as popular imagination and ignorance.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Somers |first1=Michelle |title=Editor |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nEKPunno5K0 |website=Myth of the Spanish Inquisition |date=14 December 2019 |publisher=BBC Documentary |access-date=December 14, 2019}}</ref>

* '''When''': Torture was allowed when guilt was "half proven" or there existed a "presumption of guilt", as stated in Article XV of Torquemada's ''instruciones'' and in Eymerich's directions.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=162, 197,198}} However, Eymerich admits that information obtained through torment was not always reliable, and should be used only when all other means of obtaining "the truth" had failed.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=198}}
* '''What''': The Spanish Inquisition was not permitted to "maim, mutilate, draw blood or cause any sort of permanent damage" to the prisoner. Ecclesiastical tribunals were prohibited by church law from shedding blood. As a result of torture, many had broken limbs, or other definitive health problems, and some died.{{sfnp|Kamen|1998|pp=190–191}}
* '''Supervision''': A Physician was usually available in case of emergency.<ref name="Kamen2">{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=189}}</ref> It was also required for a doctor to certify that the prisoner was healthy enough to go through the torment without suffering harm,<ref>Crespo Vargas, Pablo L. La Inquisición Española Y Las Supersticiones En El Caribe Hispano. Madrid: Palibrio, 2011. pp. 120–130.</ref> which of course happened.{{sfnp|Kamen|1998|pp=190–191}}

Among the methods of ] allowed were ''garrucha'', ''toca'', and the ''potro'' (which were all used in other secular and ecclesiastical tribunals).{{sfnp|Kamen|1998|pp=190–191}} The application of the ''garrucha'', also known as the ], consisted of suspending the victim from the ceiling by the wrists, which are tied behind the back. Sometimes weights were tied to the feet, with a series of lifts and violent drops, during which the arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated.<ref>Sabatini, Rafael, ''Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History'', p. 190, Kessinger Publishing (2003), {{ISBN|0-7661-3161-0}}.</ref>

The use of the ''toca'' (cloth), also called ''interrogatorio mejorado del agua'' (enhanced ]), now known as ], is better documented. It consisted of forcing the victim to ingest water poured from a jar so that they had the impression of drowning.{{sfnp|Scott|1959|p=171}} The ''potro'', the ], in which the limbs were slowly pulled apart, was thought to be the instrument of torture used most frequently.<ref>Carrol. James, ''Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History'', p. 356, Houghton Mifflin Books (2002), {{ISBN|0-618-21908-0}}.</ref> The assertion that ''confessionem esse veram, non factam vi tormentorum'' (literally: ' confession is truth, not made by way of torture') sometimes follows a description of how, after torture had ended, the subject "freely" confessed to the offences.<ref>Peters, Edward, ''Inquisition'', Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, p. 65, University of California Press (1989), {{ISBN|0-520-06630-8}}.</ref> In practice, those who recanted confessions made during torture knew that they could be tortured again. Under torture, or even harsh interrogation, comments Cullen Murphy, people will say anything.{{sfnp|Homza|2006|p=XXV}}{{sfnp|Murphy|2012|p=89}} ], the Franciscan friar who was tortured by the Inquisition and ultimately died in prison as a result of the abuse, said the Inquisition's tactics would have proved ] and ] to be heretics.{{sfnp|Scott|1959|p=32}}

Once the process concluded, the inquisitors met with a representative of the bishop and with the ''consultores'' (consultants), experts in ] or ] (but not necessarily clergy themselves), which was called the ''consulta de fe'' (faith consultation/religion check). The case was voted and sentence pronounced, which had to be unanimous. In case of discrepancies, the ''Suprema'' had to be informed.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

===Sentencing===
The results of the trial could be the following: The results of the trial could be the following:
# Although quite rare in actual practice, the defendant could be '''acquitted'''. # Although quite rare in actual practice, the defendant could be '''acquitted''', but an acquittal was interpreted as a dishonourable reflection on the inquisitors.{{sfnp|Bergemann|2019|p=58}}
# The trial, itself, could be '''suspended''', in which case the defendant, although under suspicion, went free (with the threat that the process could be continued at any time) or was held in long-term imprisonment until a trial commenced. When set free after a suspended trial it was considered a form of acquittal without specifying that the accusation had been erroneous. # The trial could be '''suspended''', in which case the defendant, although under suspicion, went free (with the threat that the process could be reopened at any time). In the unusual instance of a defendant being declared not guilty during the trial, the decision was made in private.{{sfnp|Bergemann|2019|p=45}}
# The defendant could be '''penanced'''. Since they were considered guilty, they had to publicly abjure their crimes (''de levi'' if it was a misdemeanor, and ''de vehementi'' if the crime were serious), and accept a public punishment. Among these were '']'', exile, fines or even sentencing to the ]s. # The defendant could be '''penanced'''. Since they were considered guilty, they had to publicly abjure their crimes (''de levi'' if it was a misdemeanor, and ''de vehementi'' if the crime were serious), and accept a public punishment. Among these were '']'', forced church attendance, exile, scourging, fines or even sentencing to service as oarsmen in royal ]s.{{sfnp|Bergemann|2019|p=45-46}}
# 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. # 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. The reconciled were prohibited from working as advocates, landlords, apothecaries, doctors, surgeons, and other professions. They were banned from carrying weapons, wearing jewelry or gold, and from riding horses. The restrictions also applied to the offspring of the convicted.{{sfnp|Bergemann|2019|p=45-46}}
# The most serious punishment was '''relaxation''' to the secular arm for ]&mdash;the Church did not itself kill. 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 ]d before burning; if not, they were burned alive. # The most serious punishment was '''relaxation''' to the ], i.e. ]. 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 ]d before their corpse was burned; if not, they were burned alive. The victims were handed over to the secular authorities, who had no access to the process; they only administered the sentences and were obliged to do so on pain of heresy and excommunication.{{sfnp|Lea|1906|p=183-185 Volume III}}{{sfnp|Haliczer|1990|p=83-85}}{{sfnp|Bergemann|2019|p=46}}<br />


Frequently, cases were judged ''in absentia'', and when the accused died before the trial finished, the condemned were burned in effigy. Frequently, cases were judged ''in absentia''. When the accused died before the trial finished, the condemned were burned in effigy. The death of an accused did not extinguish the inquisitorial actions, even up to forty years after the death. When it was considered proven that the deceased were heretics in their lifetime, their corpses were exhumed and burned, their property confiscated and the heirs disinherited.{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=169-172, 222, 277-279, 432}}{{sfnp|Homza|2006|p=XIV}}{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|p=136}}


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 ] employed the death penalty in 40% of the processings before 1530, but later that percentage dropped to 3%).<ref>García Cárcel, '''op. cit.,''' p. 39.</ref> The distribution of the punishments varied considerably over time. It is believed that sentences of death were enforced most frequently in the early stages of the Inquisition. According to García Cárcel, one of the most active courts—the court of ]—employed the death penalty in 40% of cases before 1530, but later that percentage dropped to 3%.<ref>{{harvp|García Cárcel|1976|p=39}}</ref> By the middle of the 16th century, inquisition courts viewed torture as unnecessary, and death sentences had become rare.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spain – The conquest of Granada |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Spain/The-conquest-of-Granada |access-date=2022-05-25 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2024}}
] in Madrid, 1683]]


=== The ''autos-da-fé'' === === ''Auto de fé'' ===
{{details|Auto-da-fé}} {{Main|Auto-da-fé}}
] in Madrid]]
If the sentence was condemnatory, this implied that the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an '''''auto de fe''''' (more commonly known in English as an ''auto-da-fé''), that solemnized their return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic. The ''autos-da-fé'' could be private (''auto particular'') or public (''auto publico'' or ''auto general'').


If the sentence was ], this implied that the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an ''auto de fé'' (more commonly known in English as an ''auto-da-fé'') that solemnized their return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic. The ''autos de fé'' could be public (''auto publico'' or ''auto general'') or private (''auto particular'').
Although initially the public ''autos'' did not have any special solemnity nor sought a large attendance of spectators, with time they became solemn ceremonies, celebrated with large public crowds, amidst a festive atmosphere. The ''auto-da-fé'' eventually became a ] spectacle, with staging meticulously calculated to cause the greatest effect among the spectators.


The ''autos'' were conducted in a large public space (in the largest plaza of the city, frequently), generally on holidays. The rituals related to the ''auto'' began the previous night (the "procession of the Green Cross") and sometimes lasted the whole day. The ''auto-da-fé'' frequently was taken to the canvas by painters: one of the better known examples is the painting by ] held by the ] Museum in ] and which represents the ''auto'' celebrated in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid on June 30, 1680. The last public ''auto-da-fé'' took place in 1691. Although initially the public ''autos'' did not have any special solemnity nor sought a large attendance of spectators, with time they became expensive and solemn ceremonies, a display of the great power shared by the Church and the State, celebrated with large public crowds, amidst a festive atmosphere. The ''auto de fé'' eventually became a ] spectacle, with staging meticulously calculated to cause the greatest effect among the spectators. The ''autos'' were conducted in a large public space (frequently in the largest plaza of the city), generally on holidays. The rituals related to the ''auto'' began the previous night (the "procession of the Green Cross") and sometimes lasted the whole day.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martínez |first=Doris Moreno |date=1997 |title=Cirios, trompetas y altares. El auto de fe como fiesta |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342894899 |journal=Espacio. Tiempo y Forma, Serie IV História Moderna |pages=143–171}}</ref>{{sfnp|Sabatini|1930|p=270-280}}


The ''auto de fé'' frequently was taken to the canvas by painters: one of the better-known examples is the 1683 painting by ], held by the ] Museum in ] that represents the ''auto'' celebrated in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid on 30 June 1680. The last public ''auto de fé'' took place in 1691.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}
The ''auto-da-fé'' involved: a Catholic Mass; prayer; a public procession of those found guilty; and a reading of their sentences (Peters 1988: 93-94). They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours: ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. Artistic representations of the ''auto-da-fé'' usually depict torture and the burning at the stake. However, this type of activity never took place during an ''auto-da-fé'', which was in essence a religious act. Torture was not administered after a trial concluded, and executions were always held after and separate from the ''auto-da-fé'' (Kamen 1997: 192-213), though in the minds and experiences of observers and those undergoing the confession and execution, the separation of the two might be experienced as merely a technicality.


] (converted Jew), Mexico City, 1601]]
The first recorded ''auto-da-fé'' was held in Paris in 1242, during the reign of Louis IX.<ref>Stavans 2005:xxxiv.</ref> However, the first Spanish ''auto-da-fé'' did not take place until Seville in 1481; six of the men and women subjected to this first religious ritual were later executed. The Inquisition had limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821, although its influence was much weakened with the government of the Marquis of Pombal in the second half of the 18th century. ''Autos-da-fé'' also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru: contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo record them. They also took place in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of Inquisition there in 1562&ndash;1563.


The ''auto de fé'' involved a Catholic Mass, prayer, a public procession of those found guilty, and a reading of their sentences.{{sfnp|Peters|1988|pp=93–94}} They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours; ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. Artistic representations of the ''auto de fé'' usually depict torture and the burning at the stake. This type of activity never took place during an ''auto de fé'', which was in essence a religious act. Torture was not administered after a trial concluded, and executions were always held after and separate from the ''auto de fé'',<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|pp=192–213}}</ref> though in the minds and experiences of observers and those undergoing the confession and execution, the separation of the two might be experienced as merely a technicality.
The arrival of the ] in Spain slowed inquisitorial activity. In the first half of the 18th century, 111 were condemned to be burned in person, and 117 in effigy, most of them for ]. In the reign of ], there were 125 ''autos-da-fé'', while in the reigns of ] and ] only 44.


The first recorded ''auto de fé'' was held in Paris in 1242, during the reign of Louis IX.<ref>Stavans 2005: xxxiv.</ref> The first Spanish ''auto de fé'' did not take place until 1481 in Seville; six of the men and women subjected to this first religious ritual were later executed.
During the 18th century, the Inquisition changed: Enlightenment ideas were the closest threat that had to be fought. The main figures of the Spanish Enlightenment were in favour of the abolition of the Inquisition, and many were processed by the Holy Office, among them ], in 1776; ], in 1779; and ], in 1796; Jovellanos sent a report to Charles IV in which he indicated the inefficiency of the Inquisition's courts and the ignorance of those who operated them:


The Inquisition had limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821, although its influence was much weakened with the government of the ] in the second half of the 18th century. The Marquis, himself a ''familiar'', transformed it into a royal court, and the heretics continued to be persecuted, as so the "high spirits".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Azevedo |first=João Lúcio de |title=O Marquês de Pombal e a sua época |publisher=Annuario do Brasil |year=1922 |pages=285 |language=pt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Freitas |first=Jordão de |title=O Marquez de Pombal e o Santo Oficio da Inquisição (Memoria enriquecida com documentos inéditos e facsimiles de assignaturas do benemerito reedificador da cidade de Lisboa) |publisher=Soc. Editora José Bastos |year=1916 |pages=10, 106, 122 |language=pt}}</ref>
<blockquote>friars who take only to obtain gossip and exemption from choir; who are ignorant of foreign languages, who only know a little ]...<ref>Cited in Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado.'' Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario ''La Inquisición''; p. 81.</ref></blockquote>


''Autos de fé'' also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru: contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo record them. They also took place in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of Inquisition there in 1562–1563.{{Citation needed|date=March 2024}}
In its new role, the Inquisition tried to accentuate its function of censoring publications, but found that Charles III had secularized ] procedures and, on many occasions, the authorization of the ] hit the more intransigent position of the Inquisition. Since the Inquisition itself was an arm of the state, being within the Council of Castile, civil, rather than ecclesiastical, censorship usually prevailed. This loss of influence can also be explained because the foreign Enlightenment texts entered the peninsula through prominent members of the nobility or government,<ref>Members of the government and the Council of Castile, as well as other members close to the court, obtained special authorization for books purchased in France, the Low Countries or Germany to cross the border without inspection by members of the Holy Office. This practice grew beginning with the reign of Charles III.</ref> influential people with whom it was very difficult to interfere. Thus, for example, ] entered Spain thanks to special licenses granted by the king.


==Enlightenment era and the Inquisition's transformation==
However, after the ] the Council of Castile, fearing that revolutionary ideas would penetrate Spain's borders, decided to reactivate the Holy Office that was directly charged with the persecution of French works. An Inquisition edict of December 1789, that received the full approval of Charles IV and ], stated that:
The arrival of the ] in Spain slowed inquisitorial activity. In the first half of the 18th century, 111 were condemned to be burned in person, and 117 in effigy, most of them for ]. In the reign of ], there were 125 ''autos de fé'', while in the reigns of ] and ] only 44.{{Citation needed|date=February 2024}}


], 18th century]]
<blockquote>having news that several books have been scattered and promoted in these kingdoms... that, without being contented with the simple narration events of a seditious nature... seem to form a theoretical and practical code of independence from the legitimate powers.... destroying in this way the political and social order... the reading of thirty and nine French works is prohibited, under fine...<ref>Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado.'' p. 84.</ref></blockquote>
During the 18th century, the Inquisition changed: Enlightenment ideas were the closest threat that had to be fought. The main figures of the Spanish Enlightenment were in favour of the abolition of the Inquisition, and many were processed by the Holy Office, among them ], in 1776; ], in 1779; and ], in 1796; Jovellanos sent a report to Charles IV in which he indicated the inefficiency of the Inquisition's courts and the ignorance of those who operated them: "... friars who take only to obtain gossip and exemption from the choir; who are ignorant of foreign languages, who only know a little ]."<ref>Cited in Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado.'' Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario ''La Inquisición''; p. 81.</ref>


In its new role, the Inquisition tried to accentuate its function of censoring publications but found that Charles III had secularized ] procedures, and, on many occasions, the authorization of the ] hit the more intransigent position of the Inquisition. Since the Inquisition itself was an arm of the state, being within the Council of Castile, civil rather than ecclesiastical censorship usually prevailed. This loss of influence can also be explained because the foreign Enlightenment texts entered the peninsula through prominent members of the nobility or government,<ref>Members of the government and the Council of Castile, as well as other members close to the court, obtained special authorization for books purchased in France, the Low Countries or Germany to cross the border without inspection by members of the Holy Office. This practice grew beginning with the reign of Charles III.</ref> influential people with whom it was very difficult to interfere. Thus, for example, ] entered Spain thanks to special licenses granted by the king.
However, inquisitorial activity was impossible in the face of the information avalanche that crossed the border; in 1792


After the ] the Council of Castile, fearing that revolutionary ideas would penetrate Spain's borders, decided to reactivate the Holy Office that was directly charged with the persecution of French works. An Inquisition edict of December 1789, that received the full approval of Charles IV and ], stated that:
<blockquote>the multitude of seditious papers... does not allow formalizing the files against those who introduce them...</blockquote>


The fight from within against the Inquisition was almost always clandestine. The first texts that questioned the Inquisition and praised the ideas of ] or ] appeared in 1759. After the suspension of pre-publication censorship on the part of the Council of Castile in 1785, the newspaper '']'' began the publication of protests against the activities of the Holy Office by means of a rationalist critique and, even, ] published '']'', a plea in favour of freedom of expression that was avidly read in the salons. Also, ], in the same vein, wrote, On Toleration in ''El Censor'', '']'' and '']''.<ref>The argument presented in the periodicals and other works circulating in Spain were virtually exact copies of the reflections of Montesquieu or Rousseau, translated into Spanish.</ref> <blockquote>having news that several books have been scattered and promoted in these kingdoms... that, without being contented with the simple narration events of a seditious nature... seem to form a theoretical and practical code of independence from the legitimate powers.... destroying in this way the political and social order... the reading of thirty and nine French works is prohibited, under fine...<ref>Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado''. p. 84.</ref></blockquote>
The fight from within against the Inquisition was almost always clandestine. The first texts that questioned the Inquisition and praised the ideas of ] or ] appeared in 1759. After the suspension of pre-publication censorship on the part of the Council of Castile in 1785, the newspaper '']'' began the publication of protests against the activities of the Holy Office by means of a rationalist critique. ] published ''Espíritu de los Mejores Diarios'', a plea in favour of freedom of expression that was avidly read in the salons. Also, in the same vein, Manuel de Aguirre wrote On Toleration in ''El Censor'', ''El Correo de los Ciegos'' and ''El Diario de Madrid''.<ref>The argument presented in the periodicals and other works circulating in Spain were virtually exact copies of the reflections of Montesquieu or Rousseau, translated into Spanish.</ref>


==End of the Inquisition== ==End of the Inquisition==
], based in Lima, ended in 1820]]
During the reign of ], in spite of the fears that the ] provoked, several events took place that accelerated the decline of the Inquisition. In the first place, the state stopped being a mere social organizer and began to worry about the well-being of the public. As a result, they considered the land-holding power of the Church, in the '']s'' and, more generally, in the accumulated wealth that had prevented social progress.<ref>Church properties, in general, and those of the Holy Office in particular, occupied large tracts of today's ], ] and ]. The properties were given under feudal terms to farmers or to localities who used them as community property with many restrictions, owing a part of the rent, generally in cash, to the church.</ref> On the other hand, the perennial struggle between the power of the throne and the power of the Church, inclined more and more to the former, under which, ] thinkers found better protection for their ideas. ] and ] were openly hostile to an institution whose only role had been reduced to ] and was the very embodiment of the Spanish ], internationally, and was not suitable to the political interests of the moment:<blockquote>The Inquisition? Its old power no longer exists: the horrible authority that this bloodthirsty court had exerted in other times was reduced... the Holy Office had come to be a species of commission for book censorship, nothing more...<ref>Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el Pensamiento Ilustrado''. Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario ''La Inquisición''; pg. 88</ref></blockquote>

During the reign of ] (1788–1808), in spite of the fears that the ] provoked, several events accelerated the decline of the Inquisition. The state stopped being a mere social organizer and began to worry about the well-being of the public. As a result, the land-holding power of the Church was reconsidered, in the ''señoríos'' and more generally in the accumulated wealth that had prevented social progress.<ref>Church properties, in general, and those of the Holy Office in particular, occupied large tracts of today's ], ] and ]. The properties were given under feudal terms to farmers or to localities who used them as community property with many restrictions, owing a part of the rent, generally in cash, to the church.</ref> The power of the throne increased, under which ] thinkers found better protection for their ideas. ] and ] were openly hostile to an institution whose only role had been reduced to ] and was the very embodiment of the Spanish ], internationally, and was not suitable to the political interests of the moment:

<blockquote>The Inquisition? Its old power no longer exists: the horrible authority that this bloodthirsty court had exerted in other times was reduced... the Holy Office had come to be a species of commission for book censorship, nothing more...<ref>Elorza, ''La Inquisición y el Pensamiento Ilustrado''. Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario ''La Inquisición''; p. 88</ref></blockquote>

The Inquisition was first abolished during the domination of ] and the reign of ] (1808–1812). In 1813, the liberal deputies of the ] also obtained its abolition,<ref>See ], ''La Inquisición sin máscara'', Cádiz, 1811–1813.</ref> largely as a result of the Holy Office's condemnation of the popular revolt against French invasion. But the Inquisition was reconstituted when ] recovered the throne on 1 July 1814. ], who had been the Inquisition's general secretary in 1789, became a ] and published a critical history in 1817 from his French exile, based on his privileged access to its archives.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2014|p=382}}</ref>

Possibly as a result of Llorente's criticisms, the Inquisition was once again temporarily abolished during the three-year Liberal interlude known as the ], but still the old system had not yet had its last gasp. Later, during the period known as the ], the Inquisition was not formally re-established,<ref>Historians have different interpretations. One argument is that during the Ominous Decade, the Inquisition was re-established- because of a statement made by ] upon a visit to the Vatican that he would reintroduce it if the occasion arose, but the Royal Decree that would have abolished the order of the Trienio Liberal was never approved, or at least, never published. The formal abolition under the regency of Maria Cristina was thus nothing more than a ratification of the abolition of 1820.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}</ref> although, ''de facto'', it returned under the so-called Congregation of the Meetings of Faith (''Juntas da Fé'') , created in the dioceses by King Ferdinand VII. On 26 July 1826, the "Meetings of Faith" Congregation condemned and executed the school teacher ], who thus became the last person known to be executed by the Inquisition.{{sfnp|Pérez|2005|pp=100}}{{sfnp|Kamen|2014|pp=372-373}}

On that day, Ripoll was hanged in ], for having taught ] principles. This execution occurred against the backdrop of a European-wide scandal concerning the despotic attitudes still prevailing in Spain. Finally, on 15 July 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was definitively abolished by a Royal Decree signed by regent ], Ferdinand VII's liberal widow, during the ] of ] and with the approval of the President of the Cabinet ].


The ] that had expelled the Jews was formally rescinded on 16 December 1968 by the Spanish dictator, ], after the ] rejected the idea that Jews are ]s.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=Richard Ederspecial To the New York |date=1968-12-17 |title=1492 Ban on Jews Is Voided by Spain; 1492 BAN ON JEWS IS VOIDED IN SPAIN |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1968/12/17/archives/1492-ban-on-jews-is-voided-by-spain-1492-ban-on-jews-is-voided-in.html |access-date=2024-02-11 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
The Inquisition was abolished during the domination of ] and the reign of ] (1808–1812). In 1813, the liberal deputies of the ] also obtained its abolition,<ref>See ], ''La Inquisición sin máscara'', Cádiz, 1811&ndash;1813.</ref> largely as a result of the Holy Office's condemnation of the popular revolt against French invasion. But the Inquisition was reconstituted when ] recovered the throne on July 1, 1814. It was again abolished during the three year Liberal interlude known as the ]. Later, during the period known as the ], the Inquisition was not formally re-established,<ref>Historians have different interpretations. One argument is that during the Ominous Decade, the Inquisition was re-established, but the Royal Decree that would have abolished the order of the Trienio Liberal was never approved, or at least, never published. The formal abolition under the regency of Maria Cristina was thus nothing more than a ratification of the abolition of 1820.</ref> although, ''de facto'', it returned under the so-called Meetings of Faith, tolerated in the dioceses by King Ferdinand. These had the dubious honour of executing the last heretic condemned, the school teacher ], ] in ] on July 26, 1826 (presumably for having taught ] principles), all amongst a European-wide scandal at the despotic attitude still prevailing in Spain. ], who had been the Inquisition's general secretary in 1789, became a ] and published a critical history in 1817 from his French exile, based on his privileged access to its archives.
{{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}


The prohibitions, ] and eventual Jewish mass emigration from Spain and Portugal probably had adverse effects on the development of the ] and the ]. Jews and Non-Catholic Christians reportedly had substantially better numerical skills than the Catholic majority, which might be due to the Jewish religious ], which focused strongly on education. Even when Jews were forced to quit their highly skilled urban occupations, their ] advantage persisted. However, during the inquisition, spillover-effects of these skills were rare because of forced separation and Jewish emigration, which was detrimental for ].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Juif |first1=Dácil |last2=Baten |first2=Joerg |last3=Pérez-Artés |first3=Mari Carmen |title=Numeracy of Religious Minorities in Spain and Portugal During the Inquisition Era |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/revista-de-historia-economica-journal-of-iberian-and-latin-american-economic-history/article/numeracy-of-religious-minorities-in-spain-and-portugal-during-the-inquisition-era/F0B49AE7BA5AFA17406F3A6C734EA949 |journal=The Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History|year=2020 |volume=38 |pages=147–184 |doi=10.1017/S021261091900034X |hdl=10016/36127 |s2cid=214199340 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
The Inquisition was definitively abolished on July 15, 1834, by a Royal Decree signed by regent ], Ferdinand VII's liberal widow, during the minority of ] and with the approval of the President of the Cabinet ]. (It is possible that something similar to the Inquisition acted during the 1833&ndash;1839 ], in the zones dominated by the Carlists, since one of the government measures praised by ] was the re-implementation of the Inquisition to protect the Church). During the Carlist Wars it was the conservatives who fought the progressists who wanted to reduce the Church's power, amongst other reforms to liberalise the economy. {{Citation needed|date=June 2011}}


==Outcomes== ==Outcomes==
===Confiscations=== ===Confiscations===
It is unknown exactly how much wealth was confiscated from converted Jews and others tried by the Inquisition. Wealth confiscated in one year of persecution in the small town of Guadaloupe paid the costs of building a royal residence.<ref>Anderson, James Maxwell. Daily Life during the Spranish Inquisition. Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-31667-8.</ref> There are numerous records of the opinion of ordinary Spaniards of the time that "the Inquisition was devised simply to rob people. "They were burnt only for the money they had, a resident of Cuenca averred. "They burn only the well-off," said another. In 1504 an accused stated, "only the rich were burnt." …In 1484…Catalina de Zamora was accused of asserting that "this Inquisition that the fathers are carrying out is as much for taking property from the conversos as for defending the faith. "It is the goods that are the heretics." This saying passed into common usage in Spain. In 1524 a treasurer informed Charles V that his predessor had received ten million ducats from the conversos, but the figure is unverified. In 1592 an inquisitor admitted that most of the fifty women he arrested were rich. In 1676, the Suprema claimed it had confiscated over 700,000 ducats for the royal treasury (which was paid money only after the Inquisition's own budget, amounting in one known case to only 5%). The property on Mallorca alone in 1678 was worth ‘well over 2,500,000 ducats."<ref>Kamen, ''Spanish Inquisition'', p. 150.</ref> It is unknown exactly how much wealth was confiscated from converted Jews and others tried by the Inquisition. Wealth confiscated in one year of persecution in the small town of Guadaloupe paid the costs of building a royal residence.<ref>Anderson, James Maxwell. ''Daily Life during the Spanish Inquisition''. Greenwood Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-313-31667-8}}.</ref> There are numerous records of the opinion of ordinary Spaniards of the time that "the Inquisition was devised simply to rob people". "They were burnt only for the money they had", a resident of Cuenca averred. "They burn only the well-off", said another. In 1504 an accused stated, "only the rich were burnt". In 1484 Catalina de Zamora was accused of asserting that "this Inquisition that the fathers are carrying out is as much for taking property from the conversos as for defending the faith. It is the goods that are the heretics." This saying passed into common usage in Spain. In 1524 a treasurer informed Charles V that his predecessor had received ten million ducats from the conversos, but the figure is unverified. In 1592 an inquisitor admitted that most of the fifty women he arrested were rich. In 1676, the Suprema claimed it had confiscated over 700,000 ducats for the royal treasury (which was paid money only after the Inquisition's own budget, amounting in one known case to only 5%). The property on Mallorca alone in 1678 was worth "well over 2,500,000 ducats".<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|1998|p=150}}</ref>


===Death tolls=== ===Death tolls and sentenced===
], in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, on 21 May 1559]]
García Cárcel estimates that the total number processed by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700 — about 2% — the approximate total would be about 3,000 put to death. Nevertheless, very probably this total should be raised keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively. It is likely that the total would be between 3,000 and 5,000 executed.
García Cárcel estimates that the total number prosecuted by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 put to death. Nevertheless, some authors consider that the toll may have been higher, keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively, and estimate between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed.<ref name="Levack, Brian P. 1995"/> Other authors disagree and estimate a max death toll between 1% and 5%, (depending on the time span used) combining all the processes the inquisition carried, both religious and non-religious ones.<ref name="Bethencourt, Francisco 1997"/><ref>Eire, Carlos M. N. Reformations: The Early Modern World 1450–1650. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016 pp 640</ref> In either case, this is significantly lower than the ] of people executed exclusively ] during about the same time span as the Spanish Inquisition (estimated at c. 40,000–60,000).<ref name="Levack, Brian P. 1995"/>


Modern historians have begun to study the documentary records of the Inquisition. The archives of the Suprema, today held by the ] (Archivo Histórico Nacional), conserves the annual relations of all processes between 1540 and 1700. This material provides information on about 44,674 judgements, the latter studied by Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras. These 44,674 cases include 826 executions ''in persona'' and 778 ''in effigie''. This material, however, is far from being complete — for example, the tribunal of Cuenca is entirely omitted, because no ''relaciones de causas'' from this tribunal have been found, and significant gaps concern some other tribunals (e.g. Valladolid). Many more cases not reported to the Suprema are known from the other sources (e.g. no ''relaciones de causas'' from Cuenca have been found, but its original records have been preserved), but were not included in Contreras-Hennigsen's statistics for the methodological reasons.<ref>For full account see: Gustav Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition. The relaciones de causas project revisited'', in: Heinz Mohnhaupt, Dieter Simon, '''', Vittorio Klostermann, 1992, pp. 43-85.</ref> William Monter estimates 1000 executions between 1530–1630 and 250 between 1630–1730.<ref>W. Monter, ''Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily'', Cambridge 2003, p. 53.</ref> Modern historians have begun to study the documentary records of the Inquisition. The archives of the Suprema, today held by the ] (Archivo Histórico Nacional), conserves the annual relations of all processes between 1540 and 1700. This material provides information for approximately 44,674 judgments. These 44,674 cases include 826 executions ''in persona'' and 778 ''in effigie'' (i.e. an effigy was burned). This material is far from being complete—for example, the tribunal of Cuenca is entirely omitted, because no ''relaciones de causas'' from this tribunal have been found, and significant gaps concern some other tribunals (e.g., Valladolid). Many more cases not reported to the Suprema are known from the other sources (i.e., no ''relaciones de causas'' from Cuenca have been found, but its original records have been preserved), but were not included in Contreras-Henningsen's statistics for the methodological reasons.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mohnhaupt |first1=Heinz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A_Sdchs7yAkC |title=Vorträge zur Justizforschung: Geschichte und Theorie |last2=Simon |first2=Dieter |date=1992 |publisher=V. Klostermann |isbn=978-3-465-02627-3 |language=de}}</ref> William Monter estimates 1000 executions between 1530 and 1630 and 250 between 1630 and 1730.<ref>W. Monter, ''Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily'', Cambridge 2003, p. 53.</ref>


The archives of the Suprema only provide information surrounding the processes prior to 1560. To study the processes themselves, it is necessary to examine the archives of the local tribunals; however, the majority have been lost to the devastation of war, the ravages of time or other events. ] has studied those of Toledo, where 12,000 were judged for offences related to heresy.<ref>Jean-Pierre Dedieu, ''Los Cuatro Tiempos'', in Bartolomé Benassar, ''Inquisición Española: poder político y control social'', pp. 15-39.</ref> Ricardo García Cárcel has analyzed those of the tribunal of Valencia.<ref>Ricardo García Cárcel, ''Orígenes de la Inquisición Española. El Tribunal de Valencia, 1478&ndash;1530.'' Barcelona, 1976.</ref> These authors' investigations find that the Inquisition was most active in the period between 1480 and 1530, and that during this period the percentage condemned to death was much more significant than in the years studied by Henningsen and Contreras. Henry Kamen gives the number of about 2,000 executions ''in persona'' in the whole Spain up to 1530.<ref>H. Kamen, ''Inkwizycja Hiszpańska'', Warszawa 2005, p. 62; and H. Rawlings, ''The Spanish Inquisition'', Blackwell Publishing 2004, p. 15.</ref> The archives of the Suprema only provide information about processes prior to 1560. To study the processes themselves, it is necessary to examine the archives of the local tribunals, the majority of which have been lost to the devastation of war, the ravages of time or other events. Some archives have survived including those of Toledo, where 12,000 were judged for offences related to heresy, mainly minor "blasphemy", and those of Valencia.<ref>Jean-Pierre Dedieu, ''Los Cuatro Tiempos'', in Bartolomé Benassar, ''Inquisición Española: poder político y control social'', pp. 15–39.</ref><ref>{{harvp|García Cárcel|1976}} {{citation needed|date=February 2024}}</ref> These indicate that the Inquisition was most active in the period between 1480 and 1530 and that during this period the percentage condemned to death was much more significant than in the years that followed. Modern estimates show approximately 2,000 executions ''in persona'' in the whole of Spain up to 1530.<ref>{{harvp|Kamen|2005|p=15}}</ref>


====Henningsen-Contreras statistics for the period 1540–1700==== ====Statistics for the period 1540–1700====
The statistics of Henningsen and Contreras are based entirely on ''relaciones de causas''. The number of years for which cases are documented varies for different tribunals. Data for the Aragonese Secretariat are probably complete, some small lacunae may concern only Valencia and possibly Sardinia and Cartagena, but the numbers for Castilian Secretariat—except Canaries and Galicia—should be considered as minimal due to gaps in the documentation. In some cases it is remarked that the number does not concern the whole period 1540–1700.
The statistics of Hennigsen and Contreras, based entirely on ''relaciones de causas'', are following:


{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%" {|class="wikitable" style="text-align:right;"
|-
! width="28%" | Tribunal
!rowspan=3| Tribunal
! width="18%" | Number of years with preserved ''relaciones de causas'' from the period 1540–1700<ref>Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', p. 84.</ref>
!colspan=4| Documented by Henningsen and Contreras
! width="18%" | Number of cases reported in the preserved ''relaciones de causas''<ref name="Henningsen">Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', p. 58.</ref>
!colspan=2| Estimated totals
! width="18%" | Executions ''in persona'' reported in the preserved ''relaciones de causas''<ref name="Henningsen"/>
|-
! width="18%" | Executions ''in effigie'' reported in the preserved ''relaciones de causas''<ref name="Henningsen"/>
!rowspan=2 data-sort-type=number| Years<br>documented<ref name="Henningsen84">Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', p. 84.</ref>
!rowspan=2 data-sort-type=number| Number<br>of cases<ref name="Henningsen">Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', p. 58.</ref>
!colspan=2| Executions<ref name="Henningsen"/>
!rowspan=2 data-sort-type=number| Trials<ref name="Henningsen84"/>
!rowspan=2 data-sort-type=number| Executions<br>''in persona''
|-
!data-sort-type=number| ''in persona''
!data-sort-type=number| ''in effigie''
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|94 |94
|3047 |3047
|37 |37
|27 |27
|~5000
|53<ref name="Arag">W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 327.</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|130 |130
|4296 |4296
|85 |85
|59 |59
|~5200
|90<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|96 |96
|1260 |1260
|37 |37
|25 |25
|~2100
|38<ref>W. Monter, pp. 309, 329.</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|49 |49
|767 |767
|8 |8
|2 |2
|~2700
|At least 8
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|126 |126
|5967 |5967
|200 |200
|19 |19
|~7600
|250<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|101 |101
|3188 |3188
|25 |25
|25 |25
|~6400
|52<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|128 |128
|4540 |4540
|78 |78
|75 |75
|~5700
|At least 93<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] (established 1610) | style="text-align:left;"| ] (established 1610)
|62 |62
|699 |699
|3 |3
|1 |1
|~1100
|At least 3
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] (established 1570) | style="text-align:left;"| ] (established 1570)
|92 |92
|1176 |1176
|30 |30
|16 |16
|~2200
|31<ref>.</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] (established 1570) | style="text-align:left;"| ] (established 1570)
|52 |52
|950 |950
|17 |17
|42 |42
|~2400
|47<ref>See H. Ch. Lea, ''The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies'', London 1922, pp. 204 ff. and .</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|'''Aragonese Secretariat (total)''' !Aragonese Secretariat (total)
!
|'''930'''
|'''25890''' !25890
|'''520''' !520
|'''291''' !291
!~40000
!At least 665
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|66 |66
|695 |695
|1 |1
|78 |78
|~1500
|3<ref>Francisco Fajardo Spínola, ''La actividad procesal del Santo Oficio. Algunas consideraciones sobre su estudio'', Manuscrits 17, 1999, p. 114.</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|28 |28
|883 |883
|8 |8
|26 |26
|~5000
|At least 27<ref>One burned in 1567 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, pp. 41–42), 13 in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 48), 5 burned in 1627, another 5 burned in 1655 ({{harvp|Kamen|2005|p=266}}) and 3 burned alive in 1665 (Miriam Bodian, ''Dying in the law of Moses: crypto-Jewish martyrdom in the Iberian world'', Indiana University Press 2007, p. 219).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|0 |0
|0 |0
|0 |0
|0 |0
|5202<ref>cf. Henningsen, p. 68.</ref>
|At least 34<ref>Four burned between 1553 and 1558 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', pp. 37–38 n. 22), one in 1561 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 233), 19 others in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 48) and 10 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. V, 2009, p. 91).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] (established 1560) | style="text-align:left;"| ] (established 1560)
|83 |83
|2203 |2203
|19 |19
|44 |44
|~2700
|17<ref>Two persons condemned to death in 1678 were burned in the ''auto de fe'' celebrated in Madrid in 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 300). Therefore, they are included in the number of executions for Toledo/Madrid.</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|79 |79
|4157 |4157
|33 |33
|102 |102
|~8100
|At least 72<ref>This number includes 7 persons burned ca. 1545 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 189), 9 persons burned in 1550–52 (Flora García Ivars, ''La represión en el tribunal inquisitorial de Granada'', 1550–1819, ed. Akal, 1991, p. 194), 14 persons burned in the 1560s. (W. Monter, p. 44, 233), 24 burned between 1570 and 1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 12 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, ''History of the Jews'', Vol. V, 2009, p. 92) and 6 burned in 1672 (A. J. Saraiva, H. P. Salomon, I. S. D. Sassoon: ''The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536–1765''. Leiden, Boston, and Cologne: Brill, 2001, p. 217 n. 62).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|84 |84
|2851 |2851
|47 |47
|89 |89
|~5200
|At least 47
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|66 |66
|1735 |1735
|56 |56
|20 |20
|~4300
|At least 190<ref>154 burned between 1557 and 1568 (, s. 40), 11 executed in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, p. 48) and 25 between 1686 and 1699 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, ''El auto de fe'', Madryt 1992, p. 97).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|58 |58
|1962 |1962
|96 |96
|67 |67
|~6700
|At least 128<ref>This number includes 2 executions in the ''auto-da-fé'' in 1545 (W.Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 38), 114 executions in the ''autos da fe'' between 1559 and 1660 (Victoria González de Caldas, ''Judíos o cristianos?'', Universidad de Sevilla, 2000, p. 528) and 12 executions in the ''autos da fe'' between 1666 and 1695 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, ''El auto de fe'', Madrid 1992, pp. 99–100).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] (incl. ]) | style="text-align:left;"| ] (incl. ])
|108 |108
|3740 |3740
|40 |40
|53 |53
|~5500
|At least 66<ref>13 burned in the ''autos da fe'' between 1555 and 1569 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, p. 79–91.), 25 burned between 1570 and 1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 2 burned between 1648 and 1699 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. IV, New York 1907, p. 524; cf. Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet (ed.), ''Historia de la Inquisición en España y América'', vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395), and 26 burned in two ''autos da fe'' in Madrid w 1632 and 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. III, New York 1907, p. 228).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] | style="text-align:left;"| ]
|29 |29
|558 |558
|6 |6
|8 |8
|- valign="top"
|'''Castilian Secretariat (total)'''
|'''601'''
|'''18784'''
|'''306'''
|'''487'''
|- valign="top"
|'''Total'''
|'''1531'''
|'''44674'''
|'''826'''
|'''778'''
|}

The actual numbers, as far as they can be reconstructed from the available sources, are following:

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%"
! width="34%" | Tribunal
! width="33%" | Estimated number of all trials in the period 1540–1700<ref>Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', p. 84. Numbers in the table are given in approximation.</ref>
! width="33%" | The number of executions ''in persona'' in the period 1540–1700<ref>Data for the Aragonese Secretariat are probably complete, some small lacunae may concern only Valencia and possibly Sardinia and Cartagena, but the numbers for Castilian Secretariat - except Canaries and Galicia - should be considered as minimal due to gaps in the documentation. In some cases it is remarked that the number does not concern the whole period 1540–1700.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~5000
|53<ref name="Arag">W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 327.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~5200
|90<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~2100
|38<ref>W. Monter, pp. 309 i 329.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~2700
|At least 8
|- valign="top"
|]
|~7600
|250<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~6400
|52<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~5700
|At least 93<ref name="Arag"/>
|- valign="top"
|] (established 1610)
|~1100
|At least 3
|- valign="top"
|] (established 1570)
|~2200
|31<ref>.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|] (established 1570)
|~2400
|47<ref>See H. Ch. Lea, ''The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies'', London 1922, p. 204 ff. and.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|'''Aragonese Secretariat (total)'''
|'''~40000'''
|'''At least 665'''
|- valign="top"
|]
|~1500
|3<ref>Francisco Fajardo Spínola, ''La actividad procesal del Santo Oficio. Algunas consideraciones sobre su estudio'', Manuscrits 17, 1999, p. 114.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~5000
|At least 27<ref>One burned in 1567 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, p. 41-42), 13 in the period 1570&ndash;1625 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 48), 5 burned in 1627, another 5 burned in 1655 (H. Kamen, ''Inkwizycja Hiszpańska'', Warszawa 2005, p. 266) and 3 burned alive in 1665 (Miriam Bodian, ''Dying in the law of Moses: crypto-Jewish martyrdom in the Iberian world'', Indiana University Press 2007, p. 219).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|5202<ref>cf. Henningsen, p. 68.</ref>
|At least 34<ref>Four burned between 1553 and 1558 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 37-38 n. 22), one in 1561 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 233), 19 others in the period 1570&ndash;1625 (W. Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 48) and 10 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. V, 2009, p. 91).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|] (established 1560)
|~2700
|17<ref>Two persons condemned to death in 1678 were burned in the ''auto da fe'' celebrated in Madrid in 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 300). Therefore, they are included in the number of executions for Toledo/Madrid.</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~8100
|At least 72<ref>This number includes 7 persons burned ca. 1545 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 189), 9 persons burned in 1550-52 (Flora García Ivars, ''La represión en el tribunal inquisitorial de Granada'', 1550&ndash;1819, ed. Akal, 1991, p. 194), 14 persons burned in 1560s. (W. Monter, p. 44 i 233), 24 burned between 1570 and 1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 12 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, ''History of the Jews'', Vol. V, 2009, p. 92) and 6 burned in 1672 (A. J. Saraiva, H. P. Salomon, I. S. D. Sassoon: ''The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536–1765''. Leiden – Boston – Cologne: BRILL, 2001, p. 217 n. 62).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~5200
|At least 47
|- valign="top"
|]
|~4300
|At least 190<ref>154 burned between 1557&ndash;1568 (, s. 40), 11 executed in the period 1570&ndash;1625 (W. Monter, p. 48) and 25 between 1686&ndash;1699 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, ''El auto de fe'', Madryt 1992, p. 97).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~6700
|At least 128<ref>This number includes 2 executions in the ''auto-da-fé'' in 1545 (W.Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', p. 38), 114 executions in the ''autos da fe'' between 1559&ndash;1660 (Victoria González de Caldas, ''Judíos o cristianos?'', Universidad de Sevilla, 2000, p. 528) and 12 executions in the ''autos da fe'' between 1666&ndash;1695 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, ''El auto de fe'', Madrid 1992, pp. 99-100).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|] (incl. ])
|~5500
|At least 66<ref>13 burned in the ''autos da fe'' between 1555&ndash;1569 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, p. 79-91.), 25 burned between 1570&ndash;1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 2 burned between 1648&ndash;1699 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. IV, New York 1907, p. 524; cf. Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet (ed.), ''Historia de la Inquisición en España y América'', vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395), and 26 burned in two ''autos da fe'' in Madrid w 1632 and 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. III, New York 1907, p. 228).</ref>
|- valign="top"
|]
|~3000 |~3000
|At least 54<ref>This number includes 6 executions given by Henningsen and Contreras for the period 1620&ndash;1670 (Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', pp. 58 and 65), 26 burned in two famous ''autos-da-fé'' in 1559 (W.Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', pp. 41 i 44),2 burned in 1561 (W. Monter, pp. 41, 44 i 233),15 burned between 1562 and 1567 (E. Schäffer, ''Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus'', Bd. 3, Gütersloh 1902, p. 131) and 5 burned in 1691 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 197).</ref> |At least 54<ref>This number includes 6 executions given by Henningsen and Contreras for the period 1620–1670 (Henningsen, ''The Database of the Spanish Inquisition'', pp. 58 and 65), 26 burned in two famous ''autos-da-fé'' in 1559 (W.Monter, ''Frontiers of heresy'', pp. 41, 44),2 burned in 1561 (W. Monter, pp. 41, 44, 233),15 burned between 1562 and 1567 (E. Schäffer, ''Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus'', Bd. 3, Gütersloh 1902, p. 131) and 5 burned in 1691 (H. Ch. Lea, ''History of the Inquisition of Spain'', New York 1907, vol. III, p. 197).</ref>
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|'''Castilian Secretariat (total)''' !Castilian Secretariat (total)
!
|'''~47000'''
!18784
|'''At least 638'''
!306
|- valign="top"
!487
|'''Total'''
!~47000
|'''~87000'''
|'''At least 1303''' !At least 638
|- valign="top" class="sortbottom"
!Total
!
!44674
!826
!778
!~87000
!At least 1303
|} |}


====Autos da fe between 1701&ndash;1746==== ====Autos da fe between 1701 and 1746====
Table of sentences pronounced in the public ''autos da fe'' in Spain (excluding tribunals in Sicily, Sardinia and Latin America) between 1701 and 1746:<ref>Source: Teofanes Egido, ''Las modificaciones de la tipologia: nueva estructura delictiva'', in: Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet, ''Historia de la Inquisición en España y América'', vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395.</ref> Table of sentences pronounced in the public ''autos de '' in Spain (excluding tribunals in Sicily, Sardinia and Latin America) between 1701 and 1746:<ref>Source: Teofanes Egido, ''Las modificaciones de la tipologia: nueva estructura delictiva'', in: Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet, ''Historia de la Inquisición en España y América'', vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395.</ref>
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="width:100%" {| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="25%" | Tribunal
! Tribunal
! width="15%" | Number of ''autos da fe''
! Number of ''autos de fé''
! width="15%" | Executions ''in persona''
! width="15%" | Executions ''in effigie'' ! Executions ''in persona''
! Executions ''in effigie''
! width="15%" | Penanced
! Penanced
! width="15%" | Total
! Total
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] |]
Line 600: Line 696:
|161 |161
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] |]
|7 |7
|7 |7
Line 621: Line 717:
|452 |452
|- valign="top" |- valign="top"
|] |]
|5 |5
|1 |1
Line 670: Line 766:
|'''1463''' |'''1463'''
|} |}

===Abuse of power===
According to ], the great unchecked power given to inquisitors meant that they were "widely seen as above the law",<ref name="Green-2007-4"/> and they sometimes had motives for imprisoning or executing alleged offenders that had nothing to do with punishing religious nonconformity.<ref name="Green-2007-4">{{harvp|Green|2007|pp=}}</ref><ref>Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 63</ref><ref>Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 81A, n. 33</ref> Green quotes a complaint by historian Manuel Barrios<ref name="Green-2007-65">{{harvp|Green|2007|p=}}</ref> about one Inquisitor, ], who in Cordoba in 1506 burned to death the husbands of two women; he then kept the women as mistresses. According to Barrios

<blockquote>the daughter of Diego Celemin was exceptionally beautiful, her parents and her husband did not want to give her to , and so Lucero had the three of them burnt and now has a child by her, and he has kept for a long time in the ] as a mistress.<ref name="Barrios-1991-58">{{cite book|last=Barrios|first=Manuel|title=El Tribunal de la Inquisicion en Andalucia: Seleccion de Textos y Documentos|date=1991|publisher=J. Rodriguez Castillejo S.A.|location=Seville|page=58}}</ref></blockquote>

Some writers disagree with Green.<ref name=":3"/>{{Page needed|date=March 2024}}<ref>{{Cite news |last=Blanco |first=Patricia R. |date=2019-12-20 |title=Las citas tergiversadas del superventas sobre la leyenda negra española |url=https://elpais.com/cultura/2019/12/19/actualidad/1576745125_565402.html |access-date= |work=El País |language=es |issn=1134-6582}}</ref> These authors do not necessarily deny the abuses of power, but classify them as politically instigated and comparable to those of any other law enforcement body of the period. Criticisms, usually indirect, have gone from the suspiciously sexual overtones or similarities of these accounts with unrelated older antisemitic accounts of kidnap and torture,<ref name=":3"/>{{Page needed|date=March 2024}} to the clear proofs of control that the king had over the institution, to the sources used by Green,<ref>Contreras, Jaime y Gustav Henningsen (1986). "Forty-four thousand cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1700): analysis of a historical data bank", en Henningsen G., J. A. Tedeschi et al. (comps.), The Inquisition in early modern Europe: studies on sources and methods. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.</ref> or just by reaching completely different conclusions.<ref>Pérez, Joseph (2006). The Spanish Inquisition: a history. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press; p. 173</ref><ref>Juan Antonio Llorente: Historia crítica de la Inquisición en España (tomo IV, p. 183). Madrid: Hiperión, 1980.</ref>

=== Long-term economic effects ===
According to a 2021 study, "municipalities of Spain with a history of a stronger inquisitorial presence show lower economic performance, educational attainment, and trust today."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Drelichman|first1=Mauricio|last2=Vidal-Robert|first2=Jordi|last3=Voth|first3=Hans-Joachim|date=2021|title=The long-run effects of religious persecution: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|language=en|volume=118|issue=33|pages=e2022881118|doi=10.1073/pnas.2022881118|issn=0027-8424|pmid=34389666|pmc=8379970|bibcode=2021PNAS..11822881D |doi-access=free }}</ref>


==Historiography== ==Historiography==
<!--NOTE: This intro paragraph is a high-level summary of the content below. Please add specific new information to the main sub-sections below.--> <!--NOTE: This intro paragraph is a high-level summary of the content below. Please add specific new information to the main sub-sections below.-->
How historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time, and continues to be a source of controversy to this day. Before and during the 19th century historical interest focused on who was being persecuted. In the early and mid 20th century historians examined the specifics of what happened and how it influenced Spanish history. In the later 20th and 21st century, historians have re-examined how severe the Inquisition really was, calling into question some of the conclusions made earlier in the 20th century. How historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time and continues to be a source of controversy. Before and during the 19th century, historical interest focused on who was being persecuted. In the early and mid-20th century, historians examined the specifics of what happened and how it influenced Spanish history. In the later 20th and 21st centuries, some historians have re-examined how severe the Inquisition truly was, calling into question some of the assumptions made in earlier periods.


===19th to early 20th century scholarship=== ===19th to early 20th century scholarship===
Before the rise of professional historians in the 19th century, the Spanish Inquisition had largely been studied and portrayed by Protestant scholars who saw it as the archetypal symbol of Catholic intolerance and ecclesiastical power.<ref name=kagan/> The Spanish Inquisition for them was largely associated with the persecution of Protestants.<ref name=kagan/> The 19th century professional historians, including the Spanish scholar ], were the first to challenge this perception and look seriously at the role of Jews and Muslims.<ref name=kagan/> Before the rise of professional historians in the 19th century, the Spanish Inquisition had been portrayed primarily by Protestant scholars who saw it as the archetypal symbol of Catholic intolerance and ecclesiastical power.<ref name=kagan/> The Spanish Inquisition for them was largely associated with the persecution of Protestants.<ref name=kagan/> ] described the Inquisition as an "eye that never slumbered". Despite the existence of extensive documentation regarding the trials and procedures, and to the Inquisition's deep bureaucratization, none of these sources was studied outside of Spain, and Spanish scholars arguing against the predominant view were automatically dismissed. The 19th-century professional historians, including the Spanish scholar ], were the first to successfully challenge this perception in the international sphere and get foreign scholars to take note of their discoveries. Said scholars would obtain international recognition and start a period of revision on the ].<ref name=kagan/>


At the start of the 20th century ] published the groundbreaking ''History of the Inquisition in Spain''. This influential work saw the Spanish Inquisition as "an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas and the obstruction of progress."<ref name=kagan>, by ] in the '']'', April 19, 1998.</ref> Lea documented the Inquisition's methods and modes of operation in no uncertain terms, calling it "theocratic absolutism" at its worst.<ref name=kagan/> In the context of the polarization between Protestants and Catholics during the second half of the 19th century,<ref name=leabio/> some of Lea's contemporaries, as well as most modern scholars thought Lea's work had an ] bias.<ref name=leabio>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/mss/lea/leabio.html/ |title=Henry Charles Lea Papers - Biographical Sketch |work=Univ. of Penn.-Penn Special Collections |accessdate=2007-04-18 |date=January 11, 2003|last= |first=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Dossier/1112-96/article3.html |title=A New Industry: The Inquisition |work=Catholic.net |accessdate=2007-04-18 |date=November 12, 1996|last=Van Hove |first=Brian |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20070405150258/http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Dossier/1112-96/article3.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate=2007-04-05}}</ref> At the start of the 20th century ] published the groundbreaking ''History of the Inquisition in Spain''. This influential work describes the Spanish Inquisition as "an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas and the obstruction of progress."<ref name="kagan">{{Cite web |last=Kagan |first=Richard L. |date=19 April 1998 |title=A Kinder, Gentler Inquisition |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/reviews/980419.19kagent.html |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=Archive.nytimes.com}}</ref> Lea documented the Inquisition's methods and modes of operation in no uncertain terms, calling it "theocratic absolutism" at its worst.<ref name=kagan/> In the context of the polarization between Protestants and Catholics during the second half of the 19th century,<ref name=leabio/> some of Lea's contemporaries, as well as most modern scholars thought Lea's work had an ] bias.<ref name="leabio">{{cite web |date= |title=Henry Charles Lea Papers – Biographical Sketch |url=http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/mss/lea/leabio.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060910204659/http://www.library.upenn.edu/collections/rbm/mss/lea/leabio.html|access-date=18 April 2007 |website=Penn Libraries - University of Pennsylvania |publisher=Univ. of Pennsylvania. –Penn Special Collections|archive-date=10 September 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Dossier/1112-96/article3.html |title=A New Industry: The Inquisition |publisher=Catholic.net |access-date=18 April 2007 |date=12 November 1996|last=Van Hove |first=Brian |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070405150258/http://www.catholic.net/RCC/Periodicals/Dossier/1112-96/article3.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=5 April 2007}}</ref>
], the Boston historian, likened the Inquisition to an "eye that never slumbered".


Starting in the 1920s, Jewish scholars picked up where Lea's work left off.<ref name=kagan/> ]'s ''History of the Jews in Christian Spain'', ]'s ''History of the Marranos'' and, after World War II, the work of ] who for the first time published trial transcripts of cases involving conversos. Starting in the 1920s, Jewish scholars picked up where Lea's work left off.<ref name=kagan/> They published ]'s ''History of the Jews in Christian Spain'', ]'s ''History of the Marranos'' and, after World War II, the work of ], who for the first time published trial transcripts of cases involving conversos.

Contemporary historians who subscribe to the idea that the image of the Inquisition in historiography has been systematically deformed by the Black Legend include ], ], William S. Maltby, ], Margaret R. Greer, Helen Rawlings, ], ], ], Andrea Donofrio, ], ], ], and ]. Contemporary historians who partially accept an impact of the Black Legend but deny other aspects of the hypothesis include ], ] and ].{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

], while accepting that there was a certain demonization of the Spanish Inquisition in comparison with other contemporary persecutions, argues that the habitual use of torture should not be denied, and that correcting the "black legend" should not mean replacing it with a "white legend."{{sfnp|Green|2007|p=9-10}} Richard L. Kagan says that Henry Kamen failed to "enter the belly of the beast and assess what it really meant to the people who lived with it." Kamen does not, according to Kagan, "lead the reader through an actual trial. Had he done so, a reader might conclude that the institution he portrays as relatively benign in hindsight was also capable of inspiring fear and desperate attempts to escape, and thus more deserving of its earlier reputation." For Kagan, in order to reconstruct the world of those who were trapped in the Inquisition's net, studies that thoroughly examine the meticulous archives of the Inquisition are necessary.<ref name="kagan" />


=== Revision after 1960 === === Revision after 1960 ===
{{Main|Historical revision of the Inquisition}} {{Main|Historical revision of the Inquisition}}
The works of ] in (1913) and other Spanish scholars prior to him were mostly ignored by international scholarship until 1960.
One of the first books to challenge the classical view was ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1965) by ]. Kamen established that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed. The book was very influential and largely responsible for subsequent studies in the 1970s to try to quantify (from archival records) the Inquisition's activities from 1480 to 1834.<ref>See for example Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Los Cuatro Tiempos, in Bartolomé Benassar, Inquisición Española: poder político y control social, pp. 15-39 and Ricardo García Cárcel, Orígenes de la Inquisición Española. El Tribunal de Valencia, 1478&ndash;1530. Barcelona, 1976.</ref> Those studies showed there was an initial burst of activity against conversos suspected of relapsing into Judaism, and a mid-16th century pursuit of Protestants, but the Inquisition served principally as a forum Spaniards occasionally used to humiliate and punish people they did not like: blasphemers, bigamists, foreigners and, in Aragon, homosexuals and horse smugglers.<ref name=kagan/> There were so few Protestants in Spain that widespread persecution of Protestantism was not physically possible.{{Citation needed|date=May 2007}} Kamen went on to publish two more books in 1985 and 2006 that incorporated new findings, further supporting the view that the Inquisition was not as bad as once described by Lea and others. Along similar lines is ]'s ''Inquisition'' (1988).


One of the first books to build on them and internationally challenge the classical view was ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1965) by ]. Kamen argued that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed. The book was very influential and largely responsible for subsequent studies in the 1970s to try to quantify (from archival records) the Inquisition's activities from 1480 to 1834.<ref>See for example Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Los Cuatro Tiempos, in Bartolomé Benassar, Inquisición Española: poder político y control social, pp. 15–39 and {{harvp|García Cárcel|1976}}</ref> Those studies showed there was an initial burst of activity against conversos suspected of relapsing into Judaism, and a mid-16th century pursuit of Protestants, but, according to these studies, the Inquisition served principally as a forum Spaniards occasionally used to humiliate and punish people they did not like: blasphemers, bigamists, foreigners and, in Aragon, homosexuals, and horse smugglers.<ref name=kagan/> Kamen went on to publish two more books in 1985 and 2006 that incorporated new findings, further supporting the view that the Inquisition was not as bad as once described by Lea and others. Along similar lines is ]'s ''Inquisition'' (1988).
One of the most important works in challenging traditional views of the Inquisition as it related to the Jewish conversos or New Christians, was ''The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain'' by ]. It challenged the view that most conversos were actually practicing Judaism in secret and were persecuted for their crypto-Judaism. Rather, according to Netanyahu, the persecution was fundamentally racial, and was a matter of envy of their success in Spanish society.<ref>http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/38335/personal-history/</ref>

One of the most important works about the inquisition's relation to the Jewish conversos or New Christians is ''The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain'' (1995/2002) by ]. It challenges the view that most conversos were actually practicing Judaism in secret and were persecuted for their crypto-Judaism. Rather, according to Netanyahu, the persecution was fundamentally racial, and was a matter of envy of their success in Spanish society.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/38335/personal-history|title=Benzion Netanyahu's History|date=30 April 2012|website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref> This view has been challenged multiple times, and with some reasonable divergences the majority of historians either align with religious causes or with merely cultural ones, with no significant racial element.<ref>Vicente Ángel Álvarez Palenzuela. ''Judíos y conversos en la España medieval. Estado de la cuestión'' (Jews and converts in medieval Spain. Estate of the matter). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) eHumanista/Converso 4 (2015):156–191 </ref>


==In popular culture== ==In popular culture==
{{in popular culture|date=July 2023}}
].]]


===Literature=== ===Literature===
]'', 1797–98, by Francisco de Goya.]]
*1554: "La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes" shows hypocrisy and corruption of the medieval Spanish church.
* The literature of the 18th century approaches the theme of the Inquisition from a critical point of view. In '']'' by ], the Inquisition appears as the epitome of intolerance and arbitrary justice in Portugal and America. The literature of the 18th century approaches the theme of the Inquisition from a critical point of view. In '']'' by ], the Inquisition appears as the epitome of intolerance and arbitrary justice in Europe.

* During the ], the ], which was primarily a genre developed in Protestant countries, frequently associated Catholicism with terror and repression. This vision of the Spanish Inquisition appears in, among other works, '']'' (1796) by ] (set in Madrid during the Inquisition, but can be seen as commenting on the ] and ]); in '']'' (1820) by ] and in '']'' by ] author ].
During the ], the ], which was primarily a genre developed in Protestant countries, frequently associated Catholicism with terror and repression. This vision of the Spanish Inquisition appears in, among other works, '']'' (1796) by ] (set in Madrid during the Inquisition, but can be seen as commenting on the ] and ]); '']'' (1820) by ] and '']'' by ].
* 19th century literature tends to focus on the element of torture employed by the Inquisition. In France, in the early 19th century, the ] '']'', which has been attributed to Spaniard ], ferociously criticizes the Inquisition and its representatives. The Inquisition also appears in one of the chapters of the novel '']'' (1880) by ], which imagines an encounter between ] and the Inquisitor General. One of the best known stories of ], '']'', explores along the same lines the use of torture by the Inquisition.

*20th century literature. ''La Gesta del Marrano'' by the Argentine Author, ], portrays the length of the Inquisition's arm to reach people in Argentina during the 16th and 17th centuries. The ] series '']'' shows the Inquisition targeting ] for "blasphemy". The character ] also appears as the Grand Inquisitor.The ] novels by the Spanish writer ] are set in the early 17th century. The second novel, Purity of Blood, has the narrator being tortured by the Inquisition and describes an ]. ]'s novella, published in 1994, '']'' (''In the Last Blue'') is set during the repression of the ''chuetas'' (''conversos'' from ]) at the end of the 17th century. In 1998, the Spanish writer ] published the historical novel ''The Heretic'', about the Protestants of ] and their repression by the Inquisition.'']'', (1992) one of the '']'' Novels by ] centres around a small country - Omnia - in which all the inhabitants are (nominally) followers of the ]. One of the ways to ensure that all ]s follow the words of the Omnian prophets, is a torture body, known as the Quisition, whose methods are reminiscent of those ascribed to the Spanish Inquisition. Similarly, the '']'' series by ] includes an Inquisition-like body informally called "the Questioners" who employ torture to extract confessions from people who "sin against the Light". ]'s ] deals directly with the Spanish Inquisition during the first part of the novel.
The literature of the 19th century tends to focus on the element of torture employed by the Inquisition. In France, in the early 19th century, the ] ''Cornelia Bororquia, or the Victim of the Inquisition'', which has been attributed to Spaniard Luiz Gutiérrez, and is based on the case of ], ferociously criticizes the Inquisition and its representatives.

The Inquisition also appears in ]'s novel '']'' (1880) in the chapter "]".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Morsen |first1=Gary Saul |title=The Brothers Karamazov |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/The-Brothers-Karamazov |website=Britannica |access-date=September 5, 2024 |date=August 16, 2024}}</ref> A ], (several times published as a separate book) "The Grand Inquisitor" is a legend, composed and narrated by the character of Ivan Karamazov, that imagines an encounter between ] and the Inquisitor General. Jesus unexpectedly appears in Seville at the height of the Inquisition and is arrested by the Grand Inquisitor, an old Cardinal, who condemns him to die at the stake "like the worst of heretics". In the course of a long ] the Inquisitor tells Jesus "You have no right to add anything to what was said by You in former times. Why have You come to get in our way? For You have come to get in our way, and You yourself know it." Jesus remains silent throughout the speech, but when the Inquisitor finally concludes with the words "Tomorrow I shall burn thee", Jesus approaches him and, without a word, kisses him on the mouth. The Inquisitor releases him with the words: "“Go and do not come back... do not come back at all... ever... ever!” <ref>{{Cite book |last=Dostoyevsky |first=Fyodor |title=The Grand Inquisitor |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2009}}</ref>

One of the best-known stories of ], "]", explores the use of torture by the Inquisition.<ref>Alterton, Margaret. "An Additional Source for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum'" from ''Modern Language Notes'', Vol. 48, No. 6 (Jun., 1933), p. 349</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Pit and the Pendulum |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/206172.The_Pit_and_the_Pendulum |website=Goodreads |access-date=September 5, 2024}}</ref>

The Inquisition also appears in 20th-century literature. ''La Gesta del Marrano'', by the Argentine author ], portrays the length of the Inquisition's arm to reach people in Argentina during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first book in ]' "Don Sebastian Vampire Chronicles", ''The Black Castle'' (1978), is set in 15th-century Spain and includes both descriptions of Inquisitorial questioning and an ], as well as ], who is featured in one chapter. The ] series '']'' shows the Inquisition targeting ] for "blasphemy". The character ] also appears as the ]. The ] novels by the Spanish writer ] are set in the early 17th century. The second novel, ''Purity of Blood'', has the narrator being tortured by the Inquisition and describes an ]. ]'s novella, published in 1994, ''Dins el Darrer Blau'' (''In the Last Blue'') is set during the repression of the ''chuetas'' (''conversos'' from ]) at the end of the 17th century. In 1998, the Spanish writer ] published the historical novel '']'', about the Protestants of ] and their repression by the Inquisition. ]'s '']'' deals directly with the Spanish Inquisition during the first part of the novel.

In the novel ] by ], published in 2006 and set in the 14th century, there are scenes of inquisition investigations in small towns and a great scene in Barcelona.<ref>{{cite web |title=Magnificent Epic: Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones |url=https://thehistorylady.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/magnificent-epic-cathedral-of-the-sea-by-ildefonso-falcones/ |website=The History Lad |date=30 June 2012 |access-date=September 5, 2024}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=September 2024}}


===Film=== ===Film===
* The 1947 epic '']'' by ], starring ], uses The Inquisition as the major plot point of the film. It tells how powerful families used its evils to ruin their rivals. The first part of the film shows this and the reach of the Inquisition reoccurs throughout this movie following ] (played by Power) even to the 'New World'. * The 1947 epic '']'' by ], starring ], uses the Inquisition as the major plot point of the film. It tells how powerful families used their evils to ruin their rivals. The first part of the film shows this and the reach of the Inquisition reoccurs throughout this movie following Pedro De Vargas (played by Power) even to the 'New World'.
* The ] of the 1981 ] movie '']'' is a comedic musical performance based on the activities of the first ] of Spain, ].
* ]'s '']'' has been brought to the screen many times. Perhaps best known is the ] by ] in 1961. However, the film has much less to do with the Inquisition than the original story.
* The film '']'' (2006), by ], features the Spanish Inquisition as part of a plot in 1500 when the Grand Inquisitor threatens Queen Isabella's life.
* The Inquisition captures the main character in the 1965 Polish film ''Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie'' (''The ]'').
* '']'' (2006) by ] is set in Spain between 1792 and 1809 and focuses realistically on the role of the Inquisition and its end under Napoleon's rule.
* In both the stage and film versions of the musical play '']'', ] is arrested by the Spanish Inquisition and thrown into a dungeon, in which he and the other prisoners perform the story of ]. At the end of the musical, he and his manservant are escorted by the Inquisition to their trial.
* The film '']'' (2016) by ], starring ], is set in both modern times and Spain during the Inquisition. The film follows Callum Lynch (played by Fassbender) as he is forced to relive the memories of his ancestor, Aguilar de Nerha (also played by Fassbender), an Assassin during the Spanish Inquisition.
* The ] of the 1981 Mel Brooks movie '']'' is a comedic musical performance based on the activities of the first ] of Spain, ].
* The many film adaptations of the ] short story "]", including the ] and the ]
* The film '']'' (1984) by ], deals with the ] of the Witches of ] in ].
*'']'' (Pedro Olea, 1984), a film, about the ] trial of the Zugarramurdi witches.
* The beginning of the film '']'' (1992) by ] speaks of the fear induced by the Spanish Inquisition and shows several aspects of the relaxation to the secular arm.
*] is portrayed in '']'' (1992)
* In the 1998 film '']'', ] is tried before the Spanish Inquisition.
* The film '']'' (2006) by ], features the Spanish Inquisition as part of a plot in 1500 when the Grand Inquisitor threatens Queen Isabella's life.
* '']'' (2006) by ] is set in Spain between 1792 and 1809 and focuses realistically on the role of the Inquisition and its end under Napoleon's rule.
* The film '']'' (2006) is set in 16th century Spain at the height of the Inquisition's persecution of the hidden Jews.


===Theatre, music, television, and video games=== ===Theatre, music, television, and video games===
* The Grand Inquisitor of Spain plays a part in '']'', (1867) a play by ] (which was the basis for the ] in five acts by ], in which the Inquisitor is also featured, and the third act is dedicated to an ''auto-da-fé''). * The Grand Inquisitor of Spain plays a part in '']'' (1867), a play by ] (which was the basis for the opera '']'' in five acts by ], in which the Inquisitor is also featured, and the third act is dedicated to an ''auto de fé'').
* The 1965 musical '']'' depicts a fictionalized account of the author ]' run-in with Spanish authorities. The character of Cervantes produces a play-within-a-play of his unfinished manuscript, ], while he awaits sentencing by the Inquisition.
* In the ] comedy team's ], an inept Inquisitior repeatedly bursts unexpectedly into scenes after someone utters the words "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition", screaming "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" The Inquisition then uses ineffectual forms of ], including a dish-drying rack, soft cushions and a comfy chair.
*] members Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones performing "]" sketch during the 2014 Python reunion.]] In the ] comedy team's ], an inept group of Inquisitors repeatedly burst into scenes, after someone utters the words "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition", screaming "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" The Inquisition then uses ineffectual forms of ], including a dish-drying ], soft cushions and a comfy chair.
* The '']'' episode "Megalomaniacs!" featured a game show sketch based on the Spanish Inquisition titled "Convert or Die!" The sketch was later banned from the episode and replaced with a new sketch about ] in re-runs due to complaints from the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights that the sketch was teaching kids to reject Catholicism. However, it was restored when the episode was broadcast on ].
*The Spanish Inquisition features as a main plotline element of the 2009 video game '']''.
* The musical ] (1965) is set in a dungeon where ] awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.
* The Universe of '']'' borrows several elements and concepts of the Catholic church Imaginarium, including the notion of the Black Legend's ideal of a fanatic Inquisitors, for some of its troops in '']''.
* In the Gamecube game ] (2002) part of the story unfolds in a church during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. One of the playable characters is framed and put on trial for murdering a monk.
* The video game '']'' portrays a nightmarish version of the Spanish Inquisition, where the protagonist, named 'The Penitent one' wears a ] (cone-shaped hat). The Penitent one battles twisted religious iconography and meets many characters attempting to atone for their sins along the way.
*The Spanish Inquistion was parodied as the "Spinach Iinquisition" in the ] episode ''Codename: S.P.I.N.A.C.H.''.


===Expressions=== ==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=22em|
* '''Holding Someone's feet to the fire''': Torture with a view to the confession for heresy. The target was positioned in a manner that allowed the ] to apply flames to the feet & lower body of the accused. This was often done until the accused confessed or died.
* ]

* ]
== See also ==
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ] in ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ]
* ]
* ] * ] in the ]
* ] * ] in ]
* ]
* ] * ]
* ] * ] in the ]
* ]
* ]
}}
* ]
* ]


== Notes and references ==
==References==
===Notes=== === Explanatory notes ===
{{Notelist}}
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==<!-- Please order books alphabetically by the author's last name -->

=== Seminal classical works ===
{{Refbegin|24em}}
* {{cite book |last=Eymerich |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Eymerich |year=1821 |title=Manual de Inquisidores para uso de las inquisiciones de España y Portugal, ó Compendio de la Obra titulada Directorio de Inquisidores, de Nicolao Eymerico, Inquisidor general de Aragón (translated from French to Spanish by J. Marchena) |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_DLE2VMvh6xgC/mode/2up?q=manual+de+inquisidores | publisher=Imprenta de Feliz Aviñon }}
* Gui, Bernard , ''Manuel de l'Inquisiteur'', (1927)
* {{cite book |last=Lea |first=Henry Charles |year=1906 |title=A History of the Inquisition of Spain (4 volumes)|publisher=The MacMillan Co. }}
* {{cite book |last=Lea |first=Henry Charles |author-link=Henry Charles Lea |year=1901 |title=The Moriscos of Spain: Their Conversion and Expulsion |url=https://archive.org/details/moriscosspainth00unkngoog |publisher=Lea Brothers and Co. |location=Philadelphia }}
* {{cite book |last=Llorente |first=Juan Antonio| author-link = Juan Antonio Llorente |year=1817 |title=Histoire critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne (4 volumes)|language=fr|publisher= Imprimerie de Plassan }}
* Pastor, Ludwig von, History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the ] and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis, B. Herder 1898
* {{cite book| last = Pérez | first = Joseph | author-link = Joseph Pérez | date = 2005 | title = The Spanish Inquisition: A History | publisher = Yale University Press
}}
* {{cite book| last = Pérez | first = Joseph | date = 2009 | title =Breve Historia de la Inquisición en España|language=es | publisher = Crítica }}
* {{Cite book |last=Torquemada |first=Tomás de |url=https://ia903004.us.archive.org/22/items/BRes14068130Despacho/BRes14068130Despacho.pdf |title=Compilacion de las Instrucciones del Oficio de la Santa Inquisicion |publisher=Diego Diaz de la Carrera |publication-date=1667 |language=es}}
{{Refend}}


===Bibliography=== === Revisionist books ===
{{Refbegin|24em}}
<!-- Please order books alphabetically by the author's last name -->
* {{cite book | last = Barea| first = María Elvira Roca| author-link =Elvira Roca Barea| title = Imperiofobia Y Leyenda Negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos Y El Imperio Español | publisher =Siruela | year = 2016 }}
{{Refbegin|2}}
* '''Recent scholarship'''
*
* ], ''Isabel: the Catholic Queen'', Christendom Press (1991) * ], ''Isabel: the Catholic Queen'', Christendom Press (1991)
*{{cite book |last=García Cárcel |first=Ricardo |year=1976 |title=Orígenes de la Inquisición Española. El Tribunal de Valencia, 1478–1530 |location=Barcelona }}
* Homza, Lu Ann, ''The Spanish Inquisition, 1478&ndash;1614, An Anthology of Sources'', Hackett Publishing (2006)
* Graizbord, David L. ''Souls in Dispute: Converso Identities in Iberia and the Jewish Diaspora, 1580–1700''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2004.
* ], ''The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision'', Yale University Press (1997)
* {{cite book |last=Homza |first=Lu Ann|author-link= Lu Ann Homza |year=2006 |title=The Spanish Inquisition, 1478–1614, An Anthology of Sources|publisher=Hackett Publishing }}
* Monter, William, ''Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily'', Cambridge University Press (1990)
* {{cite book |last=Kamen |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Kamen |year=1998 |title=The Spanish Inquisition: a Historical Revision |url=https://archive.org/details/spanishinquisiti00henr |url-access=registration |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-07522-9 }}
* ], "Some Recent Work on the Inquisition in Spain and Italy", '']'' '''54''':3 (1982)
* {{cite book |last=Kamen |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Kamen |year=2005 |title=Inkwizycja Hiszpańska |trans-title=The Spanish Inquisition |language=pl |location=Warsaw |publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy |isbn=978-83-06-02963-5 }}
* {{cite book |last=Kamen |first=Henry |author-link=Henry Kamen |title=The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision |url=https://archive.org/details/spanishinquisiti0000kame |url-access=registration |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-300-18051-0}} Kamen has published 4 editions under 3 titles: "First edition published 1965 ... as ''The Spanish Inquisition''. Second edition published 1985 ... as ''Inquisition and Society in Spain''. Third edition published 1998 ... as ''The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision''. Fourth edition 2014."
*Kritzler, Edward, ''Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean''. Anchor Books 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-7679-1952-4}}
* {{cite book |last1=Monter |first1=E. William |title=Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily |date=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52259-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Nirenberg | first=David. |year=2013 |title=Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition |location=New York |publisher=W. W. Norton & Co. |isbn=978-0-393-34791-3 }} ch. 5 "Revenge of the Savior: Jews and Power in Medieval Europe", ch. 6 "The Extinction of Spain's Jews and the Birth of Its Inquisition"
*{{cite journal |last=Parker |first=Geoffrey |author-link=Geoffrey Parker (historian) |year=1982 |title=Some recent work on the Inquisition in Spain and Italy |journal=] |volume=54 |issue=3 |pages=519–532 |jstor=1906231 |doi=10.1086/244181 |s2cid=143860010 }}
* {{cite book |last=Peters |first=Edward |year=1988 |title=Inquisition |location=New York & London |publisher=Free Press Collier Macmillan |isbn=978-0029249802}}
* Rawlings, Helen, ''The Spanish Inquisition'', Blackwell Publishing (2006) * Rawlings, Helen, ''The Spanish Inquisition'', Blackwell Publishing (2006)
{{Refend}}
*
* '''Seminal classical works'''
*
* ], ''A History of the Inquisition of Spain'' (4 volumes), (New York and London, 1906–1907).
* ], "Historia crítica de la Inquisición de España"
* ], History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages; Drawn from the ] and other original sources, 40 vols. St. Louis, B.Herder 1898
*
* '''Old scholarship and polemics'''
*
* ], ''La Inquisición sin máscara'' (Cádiz, 1811–1813).
* ], ''Isabella of Spain'' (1930) and ''Characters of the Inquisition'' (1940). Both reprinted by TAN Books (1987).
* ], ''Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition'' (1913)
* ], ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1937)
* C. Roth, ''History of the Marranos'' (1932)
* ], ''Medieval History and the Inquisition'' (1920)
* A.S. Turberville, ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1932).
* ], ''La Inquisición de México'' (1906).
* Genaro Garcia, ''Autos de fe de la Inquisición de Mexico'' (1910)
* ], ''La Fee Triunfante'' (1691-reprinted 1931)
* ], ''Historia de la Inquisicion de Lima; de Chile; le la Plata; de Cartagena de las Indias; en las islas Filipinas'' (6 volumes), (1887–1899)
* ], ''Catálogo... de la Inquisición de Toledo'' (1903)
* ], ''History of the Inquisition'' (1736)
* ''History of the Inquisition from its origin under Pope Innocent III till the present time. Also the private practices of the Inquisitors, the form of trial and modes of torture'' (1814)
* ], ''A Review of the Bloody Tribunal'' (1770)
* ], ''Autos de fe and the Jew'' (1908)
* ], ''Discovery and Playne Declaration of Sundry Subtile Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne''
* ], ''De Origine et Progressu Sanctae Inquisitionis'' (1598)
* ], ''Procedimientos de la Inquisición'' (2 volumes), (1886)
* ], ''Libro Verde de Aragon'' (1929)
* ], ''La Inquisicion Espanola'' (1888)
* ], ''Catálogo Abreviado de Papeles de Inquisición'' (1914)
* ], ''Luis de Leon'' (1925)
* ], ''Torquemada'' (1935)
* Sir ], ''A Short History of the Inquisition'' (1933)
* ], ''The Inquisition'' (1929)
* ''Memoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur dans les Divers États de l'Europe'' (1738)
* ], ''La verdadera práctica apostólica de el S. Tribunal de la Inquisición'' (1735)
* ], ''A Short and True Account of the Inquisition and its Proceeding'' (1722)
* ], ''The Inquisition'' (1926)
* ], ''The Inquisition'' (1932)
* ], ''Un Complot Terrorista en el Siglo XV; los Comienzos de la Inquisicion Aragonesa'', (1927)
* ], ''Manuel de l'Inquisiteur'', (1927)
* ], ''Histoire des Tribunaux de l'Inquisition'' (1893)
* ], ''Antonio Homem e a Inquisicao'' (1902)
* ], ''A Inquisiçao em Portugal e no Brasil'' (1921)
* ], ''Historia da Origem e Estabelecimento da Inquisiçao em Portugal'' (English translation, 1926)
* ], ''Letters on the Spanish Inquisition'' (1822, composed 1815):— late defence of the Inquisition
* Cornelius August Wilkens: ''Spanish Protestants in the Sixteenth Century'' (1897), 218p. {{cite web | url=http://libro.uca.edu/title.htm | title=Title Catalog | publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources | accessdate=2006-05-17}}
*
* '''Other'''
*<!-- Can anyone verify if this works are up to the former? My quest into Amazon makes me suspicious about -->
* ], ''Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition'' (Creation Books, 2003).
* ], ''The Most Evil Men And Women In History'' (Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., 2002).


=== Old scholarship ===
{{Refbegin|24em}}
* Adler, Elkan Nathan – ''Autos de fe and the Jew'' (1908)
* Baião, António – ''A Inquisição em Portugal e no Brasil'' (1921)
* Baker, J. – ''History of the Inquisition'' (1736)
* Ballester, Vicente Vignau – ''Catálogo de las causas contra la fe seguidas ante el tribunal de Santo oficio de la inquisición de Toledo (,,,)'' (1903)
* Bell, Aubrey F.G. – ''Luis de Leon: A Study of the Spanish Renaissance'' (1925)
* Cappa, Ricardo – ''La Inquisicion Espanola'' (1888)
* Cardew, Alexander – ''A Short History of the Inquisition'' (1933)
* Castellano y de la Pena, Gaspar ''Un Complot Terrorista en el Siglo XV; los Comienzos de la Inquisicion Aragonesa'', (1927)
* Coulton, George Gordon – ''The Inquisition'' (1929)
* Garau, Francisco – ''La Fee Triunfante en quatro autos celebrados en Mallorca por el Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en que han salido ochenta y ocho reos (...)'' – (1691– reprinted 1931)
* García, Genaro, ''La Inquisición de México'' (1906).
* García, Genaro, ''Autos de fe de la Inquisición de Mexico'' (1910)
* Herculano, Alexandre , ''Historia da Origem e Estabelecimento da Inquisiçao em Portugal'' (English translation, 1926)
* Jouve, Marguerite – ''Torquemada'' (1935)
* Maistre, Joseph de – ''Letters on the Spanish Inquisition'' (1838)
* Maycock, Alan Lawson – ''The Inquisition'' (1926)
* Marchant, John – ''A Review of the Bloody Tribunal; or the horrid cruelties of the Inquisition (...)'' 1770)
* Marín, Julio Melgares – ''Procedimientos de la Inquisición'' (2 volumes), (1886)
* Medina, José Toribio – "Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la inquisición de Lima (1569–1820)" (1887)
* Meliá, Antonio Paz y – ''Catálogo Abreviado de Papeles de Inquisición'' (1914)
* Merveilleux, Charles Frédéric de – ''Memoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur dans les Divers États de l'Europe'' (1738)
* Montes, Raimundo González de – ''Discovery and Playne Declaration of Sundry Subtile Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne'' (1568)
* Nickerson, Hoffman – ''The Inquisition'' (1923)
* Páramo, Luis de – ''De origine et progressu Officii Sanctae Inquisitionis, eiusque, dignitate & utilitate '' 1598
* Perlas, Ramon de Vilana , ''La verdadera práctica apostólica de el S. Tribunal de la Inquisición'' (1735)
* Puigblanch, Antonio – ''La Inquisición sin máscara ó Disertacion En Que Se Prueban Hasta La Evidencia Los Vicios De Este Tribunal Y La Necesidad De Que Se Suprima... '' (1816)]
* Roth, Cecil – ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1937)
* Roth, Cecil – ''History of the Marranos'' (1932)
* {{cite book | last = Sabatini | first = Rafael | author-link = Rafael Sabatini | date = 1930 | title =Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition|edition=rev. | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Company }}
* Sime, William – ''History of the Inquisition from its origin under Pope Innocent III till the present time.'' (1834)
* Teixeira, António José – ''Antonio Homem e a Inquisicão '' (1895)
* Turberville, Arthur Stanley – ''Medieval History and the Inquisition'' (1920)
* Turberville, Arthur Stanley – ''The Spanish Inquisition'' (1932).
* Walsh, William Thomas, ''Isabella of Spain'' (1930) and ''Characters of the Inquisition'' (1940). Both reprinted by TAN Books (1987).
* Wilkens, Cornelius August : ''Spanish Protestants in the Sixteenth Century'' (1897), 218p. {{cite web | url=http://libro.uca.edu/title.htm | title=Title Catalog | publisher=The Library of Iberian Resources | access-date=17 May 2006}}
{{Refend}}


=== Other ===<!-- Can anyone verify if these works are up to the former? My quest into Amazon makes me suspicious about -->
{{Christian History|collapsed}}
{{Refbegin|24em}}
* {{cite book | last = Bergemann| first = Patrick| author-link = Patrick Bergemann| title = Judge thy neighbor: denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany | publisher =Columbia University Press | year = 2019}}
* {{cite book | last = Frassetto| first = Michael| author-link =Michael Frassetto| title = Heretic lives : Medieval Heresy from Bogomil and the Cathars to Wyclif and Hus | publisher =Profile Books | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-1-86197-744-1}}
* {{cite book | last = Green | first = Toby | author-link =Toby Green| title = Inquisition : the reign of fear | publisher = Thomas Books | location = New York | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-312-53724-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/inquisitionreign00gree }}
* {{Cite book |last=Haliczer |first=Stephen |author-link =Stephen Haliczer|title=Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478–1834 |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990}}
* {{Cite book |last=Leff |first=Gordon |title=Heresy in the Late Middle Ages: The relation of Heterodoxy to dissent c. 1250 – c. 1450 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1967}}
* {{cite book |last=Murphy |first=Cullen |year=2012 |title=God's jury: the Inquisition and the making of the modern world |url=https://archive.org/details/godsjuryinquisit0000murp |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-618-09156-0}}
* {{Cite book |last=Peters |first=Edward |title=Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe: Documents in translation |publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press|year=1980}}
* {{cite book | last = Plaidy | first = Jean | author-link =Eleanor Alice Burford | title = The Spanish Inquisition:its Rise, growth, and end (Three volumes in one)| publisher = Barnes & Noble | location = New York | year = 1994 }}
* {{cite book | last = Saraiva | first = António José | author-link =António José Saraiva| title = The Marrano factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536–1765 | publisher = Brill | location = Leiden | year = 2001 }}
* {{cite book | last = Scott | first = George Ryley | author-link =George Ryley Scott| title =The history of torture throughout the ages |edition=7th|publisher = Luxor Press| year = 1959 }}
* {{cite book | last = Thomsett | first = Michael | author-link =Michael Thomsett| title =The Inquisition: A History | publisher = McFarland & Company, Inc |year = 2010 }}
* {{cite book | last = Twiss | first = Miranda | author-link =Miranda Twiss| title =The Most Evil Men And Women In History | publisher = Michael O'Mara Books Ltd | year = 2002 }}
* {{cite book | last = Villacañas| first = José Luis | author-link =José Luis Villacañas| title =Imperiofilia y el populismo nacional-católico: Otra historia del imperio español | publisher = Editorial Lengua de Trapo| year = 2019}}
* {{cite book | last = Whitechapel| first = Simon | author-link =Simon Whitechapel| title = Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition | publisher = Creation Books | year = 2003 }}

{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last1=Hassner |first1=Ron E. |title=Anatomy of Torture |date=2022 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-1-5017-6205-5 |language=en}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Spanish Inquisition}}
* , ] discussion with John Edwards, Alexander Murray & Michael Alpert ('']'', 22 June 2006)
*
* (The first instructions of Torquemada for the guidance of the inquisitors)

{{Antisemitism footer}}
{{Christian History}}
{{Religious persecution}} {{Religious persecution}}
{{Authority control}}


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Latest revision as of 07:50, 13 December 2024

System of tribunals enforcing Catholic doctrine For other uses, see Spanish Inquisition (disambiguation).
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Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición
Coat of arms or logoSeal for the Tribunal in Spain
Flanking the cross is a sword, symbolising the punishment of heretics, and an olive branch, symbolising reconciliation with the repentant. In Latin, the inscription "Exurge Domine et judica causam tuam. Psalm 73." ("Arise, Lord, and judge your cause")
Type
TypeTribunal under the Spanish monarchy, for upholding religious orthodoxy in their realm
History
Established1 November 1478
Disbanded15 July 1834
SeatsConsisted of a Grand Inquisitor, who headed the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition, made up of six members. Under it were up to 21 tribunals in the empire.
Elections
Voting systemGrand Inquisitor and Suprema designated by the crown
Meeting place
Spanish Empire
Footnotes
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    The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición) was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. It began toward the end of the Reconquista and aimed to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under papal control. Along with the Roman Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition, it became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition.

    The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly as operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North America and South America. According to some modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7 percent of all cases. The Inquisition, however, since the creation of the American courts, has never had jurisdiction over the indigenous. The King of Spain ordered "that the inquisitors should never proceed against the Indians, but against the old Christians and their descendants and other persons against whom in these kingdoms of Spain it is customary to proceed".

    The Inquisition was originally intended primarily to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism. The regulation of the faith of newly converted Catholics was intensified following royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave Castile, or face death, resulting in hundreds of thousands of forced conversions, torture and executions, the persecution of conversos and moriscos, and the mass expulsions of Jews and Muslims from Spain. The Inquisition was abolished in 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of declining influence in the preceding century.

    Previous Inquisitions

    Main article: Medieval Inquisition
    The Virgin of the Catholic Monarchs, 1491–1493

    The Roman Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity in 312. Having been severely persecuted under previous emperors, the new religion now felt capable of commencing its program of persecution. From the moment it was recognised and empowered, there were persecutions against the adherents of other cults — pagans, Jews, and heretics. Though only in the fourth century of its existence, Christianity had spread widely and was already beginning to experience a multiplicity of schisms within itself. Among the most significant of the heresies at this time were Arianism, Manichaeism, Gnosticism, the Adamites, the Donatists, the Pelagians, and Priscillianists.

    The Edict of Thessalonica issued on 27 February 380 by Emperor Theodosius I established Nicene Christianity as the state church of the Roman Empire. It condemned other Christian creeds as heresies of "foolish madmen" and approved their punishment.

    In 438, under Emperor Theodosius II, the Codex Theodosianus (Theodosian Code), a compilation of laws of the Roman Empire, already provided for the confiscation of property and the death penalty for heretics.

    The Spanish ascetic and theologian Priscillian was excommunicated in 380 after being accused of magic and libertinage. In response to the instigation of two Christian bishops, Emperor Magnus Maximus condemned Priscillian and his companions to death, though prominent figures such as Saint Martin of Tours and Saint Ambrose challenged this verdict. Priscillian has been described as the first martyr killed by a Spanish Inquisition.

    After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, there followed almost seven centuries in which persecutions for heresy became very rare. Some of the old heresies survived, but in a weakened state, and they tended not to operate openly. No new schisms appeared to emerge during this period.

    The Episcopal Inquisition was created through the papal bull Ad Abolendam ("To abolish") at the end of the 12th century by Pope Lucius III, with the support of emperor Frederick I, to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. Heretics were to be handed over to secular authorities for punishment, have their property seized, and face excommunication. Holders of public office, counts, barons, and rectors in cities and other places were required to take responsibility for punishing heretics handed over to them by the Church; any authority who failed in this duty was to be excommunicated, removed from office, and stripped of all legal rights. Commercial boycotts would be imposed on cities that supported heretics and declined to participate. It was the start of a centralization process in the fight against heresy. There were a large number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. In the Kingdom of Aragon, a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of Excommunicamus et anathematisamus of Pope Gregory IX, in 1231, during the era of the Albigensian heresy, as a condition for peace with Aragon. The Inquisition was ill-received by the Aragonese, which led to prohibitions against insults or attacks on it. Rome was particularly concerned that the Iberian Peninsula's large Muslim and Jewish population would have a 'heretical' influence on Catholic citizens. Rome pressed the kingdoms to accept the Papal Inquisition after Aragon. Navarra conceded in the 13th century and Portugal by the end of the 14th, though its 'Roman Inquisition' was famously inactive. Castile refused steadily, trusting in its prominent position in Europe and its military power to keep the Pope's interventionism in check. England and Castile were the only Western European kingdoms that withstood the establishment of the Inquisition in their realms by the end of the Middle Ages. England’s success was because of its distance and the voluntary compliance of its people, while Castile, which would later become part of Spain, resisted because of its people’s resistance and the power of the kingdom.

    Creation

    Within the context of medieval Europe, there are several hypotheses of what prompted the creation of the tribunal after centuries of tolerance.

    The "Too Multi-Religious" hypothesis

    The Spanish Inquisition is interpretable as a response to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors. The Reconquista did not result in the total expulsion of Muslims from Spain since they, along with Jews, were tolerated by the ruling Christian elite. Large cities, especially Seville, Valladolid, and Barcelona, had significant Jewish populations centered on Juderia, but in the coming years, the Muslims became increasingly alienated and relegated from power centers.

    Cultural historian Américo Castro has characterized post-reconquest medieval Spain as a society of relatively peaceful co-existence (convivencia) punctuated by occasional conflict among the ruling Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. As historian Henry Kamen notes, the "so-called convivencia was always a relationship between unequals." Despite their legal inequality, there was a long tradition of Jewish service to the Crown of Aragon, and Jews occupied many important posts, both religious and political. Castile itself had an unofficial rabbi. Ferdinand's father, John II, named the Jewish Abiathar Crescas Court Astronomer.

    Antisemitic attitudes increased throughout Europe during the late 13th century and into the 14th century. England and France expelled their Jewish populations in 1290 and 1306, respectively. During the Reconquista, Spain's anti-Jewish sentiment steadily increased. This prejudice climaxed in the summer of 1391 when violent anti-Jewish riots broke out in Spanish cities like Barcelona. To linguistically distinguish them from non-converted or long-established Catholic families, new converts were called conversos, or New Catholics.

    According to Don Hasdai Crescas, persecution against Jews began in earnest in Seville in 1391, on the 1st day of the lunar month Tammuz (June). From there, the violence spread to Córdoba, and by the 17th day of the same lunar month, it had reached Toledo (called then by Jews after its Arabic name "Ṭulayṭulah") in the region of Castile. Then the violence spread to Mallorca, and by the 1st day of the lunar month Elul, it had also reached the Jews of Barcelona in Catalonia, where the slain was approximately two-hundred and fifty. Indeed, many Jews who resided in the neighboring provinces of Lleida and Gironda and the kingdom of Valencia had also been affected, as were the Jews of Al-Andalus (Andalucía). While many died a martyr's death, others converted to save themselves.

    Encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon of Ecija, the general unrest affected nearly all the Jews in Spain, during which an estimated 200,000 Jews changed their religion or else concealed their religion, becoming known in Hebrew as Anusim, meaning "those who are compelled ." Only a handful of the more principal persons of the Jewish community, those who had found refuge among the viceroys in the outlying towns and districts, managed to escape.

    Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church and, theoretically, anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament but confined this to cases where it was administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism. After the public violence, many of the converts "felt it safer to remain in their new religion." Thus, after 1391, a new social group appeared and was referred to as conversos or New Christians. Many conversos, now freed from the anti-Semitic restrictions imposed on Jewish employment, attained important positions in fifteenth-century Spain, including positions in the government and the Church. Among many others, physicians Andrés Laguna and Francisco López de Villalobos (Ferdinand's court physician), writers Juan del Encina, Juan de Mena, Diego de Valera, and Alonso de Palencia, and bankers Luis de Santángel and Gabriel Sánchez (who financed the voyage of Christopher Columbus) were all conversos. Conversos—not without opposition—managed to attain high positions in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, at times becoming severe detractors of Judaism. Some even received titles of nobility and, as a result, during the following century, some works attempted to demonstrate many nobles of Spain descended from Israelites.

    The "Enforcement Across Borders" hypothesis

    Bartolomé Esteban Murillo: Death of the Inquisitor Pedro de Arbués, painted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in 1664

    According to this hypothesis, the Inquisition was created to standardize various laws and the numerous jurisdictions Spain was divided into. It would be an administrative program analogous to the Santa Hermandad (the “Holy Brotherhood”, ancestor to the Guardia Civil, a law enforcement body answering to the crown that prosecuted thieves and criminals across counties in a way local county authorities could not), an institution that would guarantee uniform prosecution of crimes against royal laws across all local jurisdictions.

    The unusual authority wielded by the king over the nobility in the Kingdom of Castile contributed to the kingdom’s prosperity in Europe. This strong control kept the kingdom politically stable and prevented in-fighting that weakened other countries like England. Under the Trastámara dynasty, both kings of Castile and Aragon had lost power to the great nobles, who now formed dissenting and conspiratorial factions. Taxation and varying privileges differed from county to county, and powerful noble families constantly extorted the kings to attain further concessions, particularly in Aragon.

    The main goals of the reign of the Catholic Monarchs were to unite their two kingdoms and strengthen royal influence to guarantee stability. In pursuit of this, they sought to unify the laws of their realms further and reduce the power of the nobility in certain local areas. They attained this partially by raw military strength by creating a combined army between the two of them that could outmatch the military of most noble coalitions in the Peninsula. It was impossible to change the entire laws of both realms by force alone, and due to reasonable suspicion of one another, the monarchs kept their kingdoms separate during their lifetimes. The only way to unify both kingdoms and ensure that Isabella, Ferdinand, and their descendants maintained the power of both kingdoms without uniting them in life was to find or create an executive, legislative, and judicial arm directly under the Crown empowered to act in both kingdoms. This goal, the hypothesis goes, might have given birth to the Spanish Inquisition.

    The religious organization capable of overseeing this role was obvious. Catholicism was the only institution common to both kingdoms and the only one with enough popular support that the nobility could not easily attack it. Through the Spanish Inquisition, Isabella and Ferdinand created a personal police force and personal code of law that rested above the structure of their respective realms without altering or mixing them and could operate freely in both. As the Inquisition had the backing of both kingdoms, it would exist independent of both the nobility and local interests of either kingdom.

    According to this view, the prosecution of heretics would be secondary, or simply not considered different, from the prosecution of conspirators, traitors, or groups of any kind who planned to resist royal authority. Royal authority rested on the divine right and oaths of loyalty held before God, so the connection between religious deviation and political disloyalty would appear obvious. The disproportionately high representation of the nobility and high clergy among those investigated by the Inquisition supported this hypothesis, as well as the many administrative and civil crimes the Inquisition oversaw. The Inquisition prosecuted the counterfeiting of royal seals and currency, ensured the effective transmission of the orders of the kings, and verified the authenticity of official documents traveling through the kingdoms, especially from one kingdom to the other.

    The "Placate Europe" hypothesis

    At a time in which most of Europe had already expelled the Jews from the Christian kingdoms, the "dirty blood" of Spaniards was met with open suspicion and contempt. As the world became smaller and foreign relations became more relevant to stay in power, this foreign image of "being the seed of Jews and Moors" may have become a problem. In addition, the coup that allowed Isabella to take the throne from Joanna of Castile ("la Beltraneja") and the Catholic Monarchs to marry had estranged Castile from Portugal, its historical ally, and created the need for new relationships. Similarly, Aragon's ambitions lay in control of the Mediterranean and the defense against France. As their policy of royal marriages proved, the Catholic Monarchs were deeply concerned about France's growing power and expected to create strong dynastic alliances across Europe. In this scenario, the Iberian reputation of being too tolerant was a problem.

    Despite the prestige earned through the reconquest (Reconquista), the foreign image of Spaniards coexisted with an almost universal image of heretics and “bad Christians” due to the long coexistence between the three religions they had accepted in their lands. Anti-Jewish stereotypes created to justify or prompt the expulsion and expropriation of the European Jews applied to Spaniards in most European courts, and the idea of them being “greedy, gold-thirsty, cruel and violent” because of the “Jewish and Moorish blood” was prevalent in Europe prior to the discovery of America. Chronicles by foreign travelers circulated through Europe, describing the tolerant ambiance reigning in the court of Isabella and Ferdinand and how Moors and Jews were free to go about without risk of forced conversion. Past and common clashes between the Pope and the kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula regarding the Inquisition in Castile’s case and regarding South Italy in Aragon’s case also reinforced their image of heretics in the international courts. These accusations and images could have had direct political and military consequences, especially considering that the union of two powerful kingdoms was a delicate moment that could prompt fear and violent reactions from neighbors, more so if combined with the expansion of the Ottoman Turks on the Mediterranean.

    The creation of the Inquisition and the expulsion of both Jews and Moriscos may have been part of a strategy to whitewash the image of Spain and ease international fears regarding Spain's allegiance. In this scenario, the creation of the Inquisition could have been part of the Catholic Monarchs' strategy to "turn" away from African allies and "towards" Europe, a tool to turn both actual Spain and the Spanish image more European and improve relations with the Pope.

    The "Ottoman Scare" hypothesis

    The alleged discovery of Morisco plots to support a possible Ottoman invasion was a crucial factor in their decision to create the Inquisition. At this time, the Ottoman Empire was experiencing rapid growth, and the Aragonese Mediterranean Empire was crumbling under debt and war exhaustion. Ferdinand reasonably feared that he would not be capable of repelling an Ottoman attack on Spain’s shores, especially if the Ottomans had internal help. The regions with the highest concentration of Moriscos were those close to the common naval crossings between Spain and Africa. The weakness of the Aragonese Naval Empire combined with the resentment of the higher nobility against the monarchs, the dynastic claims of Portugal on Castile, and the two monarchs’ exterior politics that turned away from Morocco and other African nations in favor of Europe, created a fear of a second Muslim invasion, and in turn a second Muslim occupation, that was hardly unfounded. This fear may have been the base reason for the expulsion of those citizens who had either a religious reason to support the invasion of the Ottomans (Moriscos) or no particular religious reason to be against it (Jews). The Inquisition might have been part of the preparations to enforce these measures and ensure their effectiveness by rooting out false converts that would still pose a threat of foreign espionage.

    In favor of this view, there is the military sense it makes, the many early attempts of peaceful conversion and persuasion that the Monarchs used at the beginning of their reign, and the sudden turn towards the creation of the Inquisition and the edicts of expulsion when those initial attempts failed. The conquest of Naples by the Gran Capitan is also proof of an interest in Mediterranean expansion and re-establishment of Spanish power in that sea that was bound to generate frictions with the Ottoman Empire and other African nations. Therefore, the Inquisition would have been created as a permanent body to prevent the existence of citizens with religious sympathies with African nations now that rivalry with them had been deemed unavoidable.

    Renaissance ideas and implementation

    The creation of the Spanish Inquisition was consistent with the most important political philosophers of the Florentine School, with whom the kings were known to have contact (Guicciardini, Pico della Mirandola, Machiavelli, Segni, Pitti, Nardi, Varchi, etc.) Both Guicciardini and Machiavelli defended the importance of centralization and unification to create a strong state capable of repelling foreign invasions and also warned of the dangers of excessive social uniformity to the creativity and innovation of a nation. Machiavelli considered piety and morals desirable for the subjects but not so much for the ruler, who should use them as a way to unify its population. He also warned of the nefarious influence of a corrupt church in the creation of a selfish population and middle nobility, which had fragmented the peninsula and made it unable to resist either France or Aragon. German philosophers at the time were spreading the importance of a vassal sharing the religion of their lord.

    The Inquisition may have just been the result of putting these ideas into practice. The use of religion as a unifying factor across a land that was allowed to stay diverse and maintain different laws in other respects, and the creation of the Inquisition to enforce laws across it, maintain said religious unity, and control the local elites were consistent with most of those teachings.

    Alternatively, the enforcement of Catholicism across the realm might indeed be the result of simple religious devotion by the monarchs. (see § purely religious reasons) The recent scholarship on the expulsion of the Jews leans towards the belief of religious motivations being at the bottom of it. However, considering the reports on Ferdinand’s political persona, that is unlikely the only reason. Machiavelli, among others, described Ferdinand as a man who didn’t know the meaning of piety, but who made political use of it and would have achieved little if he had known it. He was Machiavelli’s main inspiration while writing The Prince.

    The "Keeping the Pope in Check" hypothesis

    The hierarchy of the Catholic Church had made many attempts during the Middle Ages to take over Christian Spain politically, such as claiming the Church's ownership over all land reconquered from non-Christians (a claim that was rejected by Castile but accepted by Aragon and Portugal). In the past, the papacy had tried and partially succeeded in forcing the Mozarabic Rite out of Iberia. Its intervention had been pivotal for Aragon's loss of Rosellon. The meddling regarding Aragon's control over South Italy was even stronger historically. In their lifetime, the Catholic Monarchs had problems with Pope Paul II, a fervent proponent of absolute authority for the church over the kings. Carrillo actively opposed them both and often used Spain's "mixed blood" as an excuse to intervene. The papacy and the monarchs of Europe had been involved in a rivalry for power throughout the high Middle Ages that Rome already won in other powerful kingdoms, like France.

    Since the legitimacy granted by the church was necessary for both monarchs, especially Isabella, to stay in power, the creation of the Spanish Inquisition may have been a way to concede to the Pope's demands and criticism regarding Spain's mixed religious heritage, while simultaneously ensuring that the Pope could hardly force the second Inquisition of his own and create a tool to control the power of the Roman Church in Spain. The Spanish Inquisition was unique at the time because it was not led by the Pope. Once the bull of creation was granted, the head of the Inquisition was the Monarch of Spain. It was in charge of enforcing the laws of the king regarding religion and other private-life matters, not of following orders from Rome, from which it was independent. This independence allowed the Inquisition to investigate, prosecute, and convict clergy for both corruption and treason of conspiracy against the crown (on the Pope's behalf, presumably) without the Pope's intervention. The Inquisition was, despite its title of "Holy", not necessarily formed by the clergy, and secular lawyers were equally welcome to it. If it was an attempt at keeping Rome out of Spain, it was an extremely successful and refined one. It was a bureaucratic body that had the nominal authority of the church and permission to prosecute members of the church, which the kings could not do, while answering only to the Spanish Crown. This did not prevent the Pope from having some influence on the decisions of Spanish monarchs, but it did force the influence to be through the kings, making direct influence very difficult.

    Other hypotheses

    Other hypotheses that circulate regarding the Spanish Inquisition's creation include:

    • Economic reasons: As one penalty that the Inquisition could enforce on the convicts was the confiscation of their property, which became Crown property, it has been stated that the creation of the Inquisition was a way to finance the crown. There is no solid reason for this hypothesis to stand alone, nor for the Kings of Spain to need an institution to do this gradually instead of confiscating property through edicts, but it may be one reason the Inquisition stayed for so long. This hypothesis notes the tendency of the Inquisition to operate in large and wealthy cities and is favoured by those who consider that most of those prosecuted for practising Judaism and Islam in secret were innocent of it. Gustav Bergenroth, editor and translator of the Spanish state papers from 1485 to 1509, believed that revenue was the incentive for Ferdinand and Isabella's decision to invite the Inquisition into Spain. Other authors point out that both monarchs were very aware of the economic consequences they would suffer from a decrease in population.
    • Intolerance and racism: This argument is usually made regarding the expulsion of the Jews or the Moriscos, and since the Inquisition was so closely interconnected with those actions, it can be expanded to it. It varies between those who deny that Spain was really that different from the rest of Europe regarding tolerance and openmindedness and those who argue that it used to be, but gradually the antisemitic and racist atmosphere of medieval Europe rubbed onto it. It explains the creation of the Inquisition as the result of the same forces as those that caused the creation of similar entities across Europe. This view may account for the similarities between the Spanish Inquisition and similar institutions but does not account for its many unique characteristics, including its time of appearance and its duration through time, so even if accepted it requires the addition of some of the other hypothesis to be complete.

    • Purely religious reasons: This view argues that the Catholic Monarchs had the Inquisition created to prosecute heretics and sodomites out of diligence of the laws of the Church, which clearly forbid both.

    Activity of the Inquisition

    Start of the Inquisition

    Torquemada is buried in the monastery of Saint Thomas at Ávila, and left his own epitaph: “Pestem Fugat Haereticam” i.e. “drove away the pestilence of heresy".

    Fray Alonso de Ojeda, a Dominican friar from Seville, convinced Queen Isabella of the existence of Crypto-Judaism among Andalusian conversos during her stay in Seville between 1477 and 1478.A report, produced by Pedro González de Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, and by the Segovian Dominican Tomás de Torquemada—of converso family himself—corroborated this assertion.

    Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella requested a papal bull to establish an inquisition in Spain in 1478. Pope Sixtus IV granted the bull Exigit sincerae devotionis affectus, permitting the monarchs to select and appoint two or three priests over forty years of age to act as inquisitors. In 1483, Ferdinand and Isabella established a state council to administer the inquisition with the Dominican Friar Tomás de Torquemada acting as its president, even though Sixtus IV protested the activities of the inquisition in Aragon and its treatment of the conversos. Torquemada eventually assumed the title of Inquisitor-General

    Ferdinand II of Aragon pressured Pope Sixtus IV to agree to an Inquisition controlled by the monarchy by threatening to withdraw military support when the Turks were a threat to Rome. The pope issued a bull to stop the Inquisition but was pressured into withdrawing it. On 1 November 1478, Sixtus published the Papal bull, Exigit Sincerae Devotionis Affectus (Sincere Devotion Is Required), through which he gave the monarchs exclusive authority to name the inquisitors in their kingdoms. The first two inquisitors, Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín were not named until two years later, on 27 September 1480, in Medina del Campo. The first auto de fé was held in Seville on 6 February 1481: six people were burned alive. From there, the Inquisition grew rapidly in the Kingdom of Castile. By 1492, tribunals existed in eight Castilian cities: Ávila, Córdoba, Jaén, Medina del Campo, Segovia, Sigüenza, Toledo, and Valladolid. Sixtus IV promulgated a new bull (1482) categorically prohibiting the Inquisition's extension to Aragón, affirming that:

    ... in Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca and Catalonia the Inquisition has for some time been moved not by zeal for the faith and the salvation of souls, but by lust for wealth, and that many true and faithful Christians, on the testimony of enemies, rivals, slaves and other lower and even less proper persons, have without any legitimate proof been thrust into secular prisons, tortured and condemned as relapsed heretics, deprived of their goods and property and handed over to the secular arm to be executed, to the peril of souls, setting a pernicious example, and causing disgust to many.

    Outraged, Ferdinand feigned doubt about the bull's veracity, arguing that no sensible pope would have published such a document. He wrote the pope on May 13, 1482, saying: "Take care therefore not to let the matter go further, and to revoke any concessions and entrust us with the care of this question."

    According to the book A History of the Jewish People,

    In 1482 the pope was still trying to maintain control over the Inquisition and to gain acceptance for his own attitude towards the New Christians which was generally more moderate than that of the Inquisition and the local rulers.

    In 1483, Jews were expelled from all of Andalusia. Though the pope wanted to crack down on abuses, Ferdinand pressured him to promulgate a new bull, threatening that he would otherwise separate the Inquisition from Church authority. Sixtus did so on 17 October 1483, naming Tomás de Torquemada Inquisidor General of Aragón, Valencia, and Catalonia.

    Torquemada quickly established procedures for the Inquisition. In 1484, based on Nicholas Eymerich's Directorium Inquisitorum, he created a twenty-eight-article inquisitor's code, Compilación de las instrucciones del oficio de la Santa Inquisición (i.e. Compilation of the instructions of the office of the Holy Inquisition), essentially unaltered for more than three centuries following Torquemada's death. A new court would be announced with a thirty-day grace period for self-confessions and denunciations, and the gathering of accusations by neighbors and acquaintances. Evidence that was used to identify a crypto-Jew included the absence of chimney smoke on Saturdays (a sign the family might secretly be honoring the Sabbath), the buying of many vegetables before Passover, or the purchase of meat from a converted butcher. The court could employ physical torture to extract confessions. Crypto-Jews were allowed to confess and do penance, although those who relapsed were executed.

    In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII attempted to allow appeals to Rome against the Inquisition, which would weaken the function of the institution as protection against the pope, but Ferdinand in December 1484 and again in 1509 decreed death and confiscation for anyone making use of such procedures without royal permission. With this, the Inquisition became the only institution that held authority across all the realms of the Spanish monarchy and, in all of them, a useful mechanism at the service of the crown. The cities of Aragón continued resisting and even saw revolt, as in Teruel, from 1484 to 1485. The murder of Inquisidor Pedro Arbués (later made a saint) in Zaragoza on 15 September 1485 caused public opinion to turn against the conversos and in favour of the Inquisition. In Aragón, the Inquisitorial courts focused specifically on members of the powerful converso minority, ending their influence in the Aragonese administration.

    The Inquisition was extremely active between 1480 and 1530. Different sources give different estimates of the number of trials and executions in this period; some estimate about 2,000 executions, based on the documentation of the autos de fé, the great majority being conversos of Jewish origin. He offers striking statistics: 91.6% of those judged in Valencia between 1484 and 1530, and 99.3% of those judged in Barcelona between 1484 and 1505 were of Jewish origin.

    False conversions

    The Inquisition had jurisdiction only over Christians. It had no power to investigate, prosecute, or convict Jews, Muslims, or any open member of other religions. Anyone who was known to identify as either Jew or Muslim was outside of Inquisitorial jurisdiction and could be tried only by the King. All the Inquisition could do in some of those cases was to deport the individual according to the King's law, but usually, even that had to go through a civil tribunal. The Inquisition had the authority to try only those who self-identified as Christians (initially for taxation purposes, later to avoid deportation as well) while practicing another religion de facto. Even those were treated as Christians. If they confessed or identified not as judaizantes but as fully practicing Jews, they fell back into the previously explained category and could not be targeted, although they would have pleaded guilty to previously lying about being Christian.

    Though not subject to the Inquisition, Jews who refused to convert or leave Spain were called heretics and at risk of being burnt to death at a stake.

    Expulsion of Jews and Jewish conversos

    The Spanish Inquisition had been established in part to prevent conversos from engaging in Jewish practices, which, as Christians, they were supposed to have given up. This remedy for securing the orthodoxy of conversos was eventually deemed inadequate since the main justification the monarchy gave for formally expelling all Jews from Spain was the "great harm suffered by Christians (i.e., conversos) from the contact, intercourse and communication which they have with the Jews, who always attempt in various ways to seduce faithful Christians from our Holy Catholic Faith" according to the 1492 edict.

    The Alhambra Decree, issued in January 1492, gave the choice between expulsion, conversion, or death. It was among the few expulsion orders that allowed conversion as an alternative and used as a proof of the religious, not racial, element of the measure. The enforcement of this decree was very unequal, with the focus mainly on coastal and southern regions—those at risk of Ottoman invasion—and more gradual and ineffective enforcement towards the interior.

    Historic accounts of the number of Jews who left Spain were based on speculation, and some aspects were exaggerated by early accounts and historians: Juan de Mariana speaks of 800,000 people, and Don Isaac Abravanel of 300,000. While few reliable statistics exist for the expulsion, modern estimates based on tax returns and population estimates of communities are much lower, with Kamen stating that of a population of approximately 80,000 Jews and 200,000 conversos, about 40,000 emigrated. The Jews of the kingdom of Castile emigrated mainly to Portugal (where the entire community was forcibly converted in 1497) and to North Africa. The Jews of the kingdom of Aragon fled to other Christian areas, including Italy, rather than to Muslim lands, as often assumed. Although the vast majority of conversos simply assimilated into the Catholic dominant culture, a minority continued to practice Judaism in secret and gradually migrated throughout Europe, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire, mainly to areas where Sephardic communities were already present as a result of the Alhambra Decree.

    The most intense period of persecution of conversos lasted until 1530. From 1531 to 1560, the percentage of conversos among the Inquisition trials dropped to 3% of the total. There was a rebound of persecutions when a group of crypto-Jews was discovered in Quintanar de la Orden in 1588, and there was a rise in denunciations of conversos in the last decade of the sixteenth century. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, some conversos who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the Portuguese Inquisition, founded in 1536. This led to a rapid increase in the trials of crypto-Jews, among them numerous important financiers. In 1691, during a number of autos de fé in Majorca, 37 chuetas, or conversos of Majorca, were burned.

    During the eighteenth century, the number of conversos accused by the Inquisition decreased significantly. Manuel Santiago Vivar, tried in Córdoba in 1818, was the last person tried for being a crypto-Jew.

    Expulsion of Moriscos and Morisco conversos

    The Inquisition searched for false or relapsed converts among the Moriscos, who had converted from Islam. Beginning with a decree on 14 February 1502, Muslims in Granada had to choose between conversion to Christianity or expulsion. In the Crown of Aragon, most Muslims faced this choice after the Revolt of the Brotherhoods (1519–1523). The enforcement of the expulsion of the Moriscos was implemented unevenly, especially in the lands of the interior and the north. In these regions, coexistence had lasted for over five centuries and Moriscos were protected by the population; in many cases, expulsion orders were partially or completely ignored.

    The War of the Alpujarras (1568–71), a general Muslim/Morisco uprising in Granada that expected to aid Ottoman disembarkation in the peninsula, ended in a forced dispersal of about half of the region's Moriscos throughout Castile and Andalusia as well as increased suspicions by Spanish authorities against this community.

    Many Moriscos were suspected of practising Islam in secret, and the jealousy with which they guarded the privacy of their domestic life prevented the verification of this suspicion. Initially, they were not severely persecuted by the Inquisition, experiencing instead a policy of evangelization, a policy not followed by those conversos who were suspected of being crypto-Jews. There were various reasons for this. In the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon, a large number of the Moriscos were under the jurisdiction of the nobility, and persecution would have been viewed as a frontal assault on the economic interests of this powerful social class. Most importantly, the moriscos had integrated into Spanish society significantly better than the Jews, intermarrying with the population often, and were not seen as a foreign element, especially in rural areas. Still, fears ran high among the population that the Moriscos were traitorous, especially in Granada. Barbary pirates backed by Spain’s enemy, the Ottoman Empire, regularly raided the coast, and the Moriscos were suspected of aiding them.

    In the second half of the century, late in the reign of Philip II, conditions worsened between Old Christians and Moriscos. The Morisco Revolt in Granada in 1568–1570 was harshly suppressed, and the Inquisition intensified its attention on the Moriscos. From 1570, Morisco cases became predominant in the tribunals of Zaragoza, Valencia, and Granada; in the tribunal of Granada, between 1560 and 1571, 82% of those accused were Moriscos, who were a vast majority of the Kingdom's population. Still, the Moriscos did not experience the same harshness as Judaizing conversos and Protestants, and the number of capital punishments was proportionally less.

    In 1609, King Philip III, upon the advice of his financial adviser the Duke of Lerma and Archbishop of Valencia Juan de Ribera, decreed the Expulsion of the Moriscos. Hundreds of thousands of Moriscos were expelled. This was further fueled by the religious intolerance of Archbishop Ribera, who quoted the Old Testament texts ordering the enemies of God to be slain without mercy and setting forth the duties of kings to extirpate them. The edict required: "The Moriscos to depart, under the pain of death and confiscation, without trial or sentence... to take with them no money, bullion, jewels or bills of exchange.... just what they could carry." Although initial estimates of the number expelled, such as those of Henri Lapeyre, reach 300,000 Moriscos (or 4% of the total Spanish population), the extent and severity of the expulsion in much of Spain has been increasingly challenged by modern historians such as Trevor J. Dadson. Nevertheless, the eastern region of Valencia, where ethnic tensions were high, was particularly affected by the expulsion, suffering economic collapse and depopulation of much of its territory.

    Of those permanently expelled, the majority finally settled in the Maghreb or the Barbary coast. Those who avoided expulsion or who managed to return were gradually absorbed by the dominant culture.

    The Inquisition pursued some trials against Moriscos who remained or returned after expulsion: at the height of the Inquisition, cases against Moriscos are estimated to have constituted less than 10 percent of those judged by the Inquisition. Upon the coronation of Philip IV in 1621, the new king gave the order to desist from attempting to impose measures on the remaining Moriscos and returnees. In September 1628, the Council of the Supreme Inquisition ordered inquisitors in Seville not to prosecute expelled Moriscos "unless they cause significant commotion." The last mass prosecution against Moriscos for crypto-Islamic practices occurred in Granada in 1727, with most of those convicted receiving relatively light sentences. By the end of the 18th century, the indigenous practice of Islam is considered to have been effectively extinguished in Spain.

    Christian heretics

    Protestantism

    The burning of a Dutch Anabaptist, Anneken Hendriks, who was charged with heresy in Amsterdam (1571)

    Despite popular myths about the Spanish Inquisition relating to Protestants, it dealt with very few cases involving actual Protestants, as there were so few in Spain. Lutheran was a portmanteau accusation used by the Inquisition to act against all those who acted in a way that was offensive to the church. The first of the trials against those labeled by the Inquisition as "Lutheran" were those against the sect of mystics known as the "Alumbrados" of Guadalajara and Valladolid. These trials were long and ended with prison sentences of differing lengths, though no person in the sect faced execution. The subject of the "Alumbrados" put the Inquisition on the trail of many intellectuals and clerics who, interested in Erasmian ideas, had strayed from orthodoxy. Both Charles I and Philip II were confessed admirers of Erasmus.

    The first trials against Lutheran groups, as such, took place between 1558 and 1562, at the beginning of the reign of Philip II, against two communities of Protestants from the cities of Valladolid and Seville, numbering about 120. The trials signaled a notable intensification of the Inquisition's activities. A number of autos de fé were held, some of them presided over by members of the royal family, and around 100 executions took place. The autos de fé of the mid-century virtually put an end to Spanish Protestantism, which was, throughout, a small phenomenon to begin with.

    After 1562, though the trials continued, the repression was much reduced. In the last decades of the 16th century, approximately 200 Spaniards were accused of being Protestant.

    Most of them were in no sense Protestants ... Irreligious sentiments, drunken mockery, anticlerical expressions, were all captiously classified by the inquisitors (or by those who denounced the cases) as "Lutheran." Disrespect to church images, and eating meat on forbidden days, were taken as signs of heresy...

    It is estimated that a dozen Protestant Spaniards were burned alive in the later part of the sixteenth century.

    Protestantism was treated as a marker to identify agents of foreign powers and symptoms of political disloyalty as much as, if not more than, a cause of prosecution in itself.

    Orthodox Christianity

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    Even though the Inquisition may have had theoretical permission to investigate Orthodox schismatics, it rarely did. There was no major war between Spain and any Orthodox country, so there was no reason to do so. There was one casualty tortured by those "Jesuits" (though most likely Franciscans) who administered the Spanish Inquisition in North America, according to authorities within the Eastern Orthodox Church: St. Peter the Aleut. Even that single report has various numbers of inaccuracies that make it problematic, and has no confirmation in the Inquisitorial archives.

    Witchcraft and superstition

    The category "superstitions" includes trials related to witchcraft. The witch-hunt in Spain had much less intensity than in other European countries (particularly France, Scotland, and Germany). One remarkable case was that of Logroño, in which the witches of Zugarramurdi in Navarre were persecuted. During the auto de fé that took place in Logroño on 7 and 8 November 1610, six people were burned and another five burned in effigy. The role of the Inquisition in cases of witchcraft was much more restricted than is commonly believed. Well after the foundation of the Inquisition, jurisdiction over sorcery and witchcraft remained in secular hands. In general, the Spanish Inquisition maintained a skeptical attitude towards cases of witchcraft, considering it as a mere superstition without any basis. Alonso de Salazar Frías, who took the Edict of Faith to various parts of Navarre after the trials of Logroño, noted in his report to the Suprema that "there were neither witches nor bewitched in a village until they were talked and written about".

    Blasphemy

    Included under the rubric of heretical propositions were verbal offences, from outright blasphemy to questionable statements regarding religious beliefs, from issues of sexual morality to misbehaviour of the clergy. Many were brought to trial for affirming that simple fornication (sex between unmarried persons) was not a sin or for putting in doubt different aspects of Christian faith, such as Transubstantiation or the virginity of Mary. Also, members of the clergy themselves were occasionally accused of heretical propositions. These offences rarely led to severe penalties.

    Sodomy

    Pope Clement VII granted the Inquisition jurisdiction over sodomy within Aragon in 1524 in response to a petition from the Saragossa tribunal. The Inquisition in Castile declined to take the same jurisdiction, making sodomy the only major crime with such a significant regional discrepancy. Even within Aragon, the treatment of sodomy varied significantly by region because the pope's decree required that it be prosecuted according to each area's local law. For instance, contemporaries considered the tribunal of the city of Zaragoza unusually harsh.

    The first person known to have been executed by the Inquisition for sodomy was a priest, Salvador Vidal, in 1541. Others convicted of sodomy received sentences including fines, burning in effigy, public whipping, and the galleys. The first burning for sodomy took place in Valencia in 1572.

    Sodomy was an expansive term; while a 1560 decision ruled that lesbian sex not involving a dildo could not be prosecuted as sodomy, bestiality routinely was, especially in Saragossa in the 1570s. Men might also be prosecuted based on accusations of engaging in heterosexual sodomy with their wives. For that time and place, the word "sodomy" covered several kinds of not procreative sexual acts denounced by the Church, like coitus interruptus, masturbation, fellatio, anal coitus (whether heterosexual or homosexual), etc.

    Those accused included 19% clergy, 6% nobles, 37% workers, 19% servants, and 18% soldiers and sailors. Nearly all of almost 500 cases of sodomy between persons concerned the relationship between an older man and an adolescent, often by coercion, with only a few cases where the couple were consenting homosexual adults. About 100 of the total involved allegations of child abuse. Adolescents were typically punished more leniently than adults, but only when they were very young (approximately below the age of twelve) or when the case concerned rape did they have a chance to avoid punishment altogether.

    Prosecutions for sodomy gradually declined, primarily due to decisions from the Suprema intended to reduce the publicity for sodomy cases. In 1579, public autos de fé ceased to include people convicted on sodomy charges unless they were sentenced to death; even the death sentences were excluded from public proclamation after 1610. In 1589, Aragon raised the minimum age for sodomy executions to 25, and by 1633, executions for sodomy had generally come to an end.

    Freemasonry

    Further information: Papal ban of Freemasonry and In eminenti apostolatus

    The Roman Catholic Church has regarded Freemasonry as heretical since about 1738; the suspicion of Freemasonry was potentially a capital offence. Spanish Inquisition records reveal two prosecutions in Spain and only a few more throughout the Spanish Empire. In 1815, Francisco Javier de Mier y Campillo, the Inquisitor General of the Spanish Inquisition and the Bishop of Almería, suppressed Freemasonry and denounced the lodges as "societies which lead to atheism, to sedition and to all errors and crimes." He then instituted a purge during which Spaniards could be arrested on the charge of being "suspected of Freemasonry".

    Censorship

    As one manifestation of the Counter-Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition worked to impede the diffusion of heretical ideas in Spain by producing "Indexes" of prohibited books. Such lists of prohibited books were common in Europe a decade before the Inquisition published its first. The first Index published in Spain in 1551 was, in reality, a reprinting of the Index published by the University of Leuven in 1550, with an appendix dedicated to Spanish texts. Subsequent Indexes were published in 1559, 1583, 1612, 1632, and 1640.

    Included in the Indices, at one point, were some of the great works of Spanish literature, but most of the works were plays and religious in nature. A number of religious writers who are today considered saints by the Catholic Church saw their works appear in the Indexes. At first, this might seem counter-intuitive or even nonsensical—how were these Spanish authors published in the first place if their texts were then prohibited by the Inquisition and placed in the Index? The answer lies in the process of publication and censorship in Early Modern Spain. Books in Early Modern Spain faced prepublication licensing and approval (which could include modification) by both secular and religious authorities. Once approved and published, the circulating text also faced the possibility of post-hoc censorship by being denounced by the Inquisition—sometimes decades later. Likewise, as Catholic theology evolved, once-prohibited texts might be removed from the Index.

    At first, inclusion in the Index meant total prohibition of a text. This proved not only impractical but also contrary to the goals of having a literate and well-educated clergy. In time, a compromise solution was adopted in which trusted Inquisition officials blotted out words, lines, or whole passages of otherwise acceptable texts, thus allowing these expurgated editions to circulate. Although, in theory, the Indexes imposed enormous restrictions on the diffusion of culture in Spain, some historians argue that such strict control was impossible in practice and that there was much more liberty in this respect than is often believed. Irving Leonard has conclusively demonstrated that, despite repeated royal prohibitions, romances of chivalry, such as Amadis of Gaul, found their way to the New World with the blessing of the Inquisition. Moreover, with the coming of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18th century, increasing numbers of licenses to possess and read prohibited texts were granted.

    Despite the repeated publication of the Indexes and a large bureaucracy of censors, the activities of the Inquisition did not impede the development of Spanish literature's "Siglo de Oro", although almost all of its major authors crossed paths with the Holy Office at one point or another. Among the Spanish authors included in the Index are Bartolomé Torres Naharro, Juan del Enzina, Jorge de Montemayor, Juan de Valdés and Lope de Vega, as well as the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes and the Cancionero General by Hernando del Castillo. La Celestina, which was not included in the Indexes of the 16th century, was expurgated in 1632 and prohibited in its entirety in 1790. Among the non-Spanish authors prohibited were Ovid, Dante, Rabelais, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Erasmus, Jean Bodin, Valentine Naibod, and Thomas More (known in Spain as Tomás Moro). One of the most outstanding and best-known cases in which the Inquisition directly confronted literary activity is that of Fray Luis de León, noted humanist and religious writer of converso origin, who was imprisoned for four years (from 1572 to 1576) for having translated the Song of Songs directly from Hebrew.

    One of the major effects of the Inquisition was to end free thought and scientific thought in Spain. As one contemporary Spaniard in exile put it: "Our country is a land of pride and envy ... barbarism; down there one cannot produce any culture without being suspected of heresy, error and Judaism. Thus silence was imposed on the learned." For the next few centuries, while the rest of Europe was slowly awakened by the influence of the Enlightenment, Spain stagnated. This conclusion is contested.

    The censorship of books was very ineffective and prohibited books circulated in Spain without significant problems. The Spanish Inquisition never persecuted scientists, and relatively few scientific books were placed on the Index. On the other hand, Spain was a state with more political freedom than other absolute monarchies in the 16th to 18th centuries. The apparent paradox is explained by both the hermeticist religious ideas of the Spanish church and monarchy and the budding seed of what would become enlightened absolutism taking shape in Spain. The list of banned books was not, as interpreted sometimes, a list of evil books but a list of books that lay people were very likely to misinterpret. The presence of highly symbolical and high-quality literature on the list was so explained. These metaphorical or parable-sounding books were listed as not meant for free circulation, but there might be no objections to the book itself and the circulation among scholars was mostly free. Most of these books were carefully collected by the elite. The practical totality of the prohibited books can be found now, as then, in the library of the Monasterio del Escorial, carefully collected by Philip II and Philip III. The collection was "public" after Philip II's death and members of universities, intellectuals, courtesans, clergy, and certain branches of the nobility didn't have too many problems accessing them and commissioning authorised copies. The Inquisition has not been known to make any serious attempt to stop this for all the books, but there are some records of them "suggesting" the King of Spain to stop collecting grimoires or magic-related ones.

    Family and marriage

    Bigamy

    The Inquisition also pursued offences against morals and general social order, at times in open conflict with the jurisdictions of civil tribunals. In particular, there were trials for bigamy, a relatively frequent offence in a society that only permitted divorce under the most extreme circumstances. In the case of men, the penalty was two hundred lashes and five to ten years of "service to the Crown". Said service could be whatever the court deemed most beneficial for the nation, but it usually was either five years as an oarsman in a royal galley for those without any qualification (possibly a death sentence) or ten years working maintained but without salary in a public Hospital or charitable institution of the sort for those with some special skill, such as doctors, surgeons, or lawyers. The penalty was five to seven years as an oarsman in the case of Portugal.

    Unnatural marriage

    Under the category of "unnatural marriage" fell any marriage or attempted marriage between two individuals who could not procreate. The Catholic Church, in general, and in a nation constantly at war like Spain, emphasised the reproductive goal of marriage.

    The Spanish Inquisition's policy in this regard was restrictive but applied in a very egalitarian way. It considered any non-reproductive marriage unnatural and any reproductive marriage natural, regardless of gender or sex involved. The two forms of obvious male sterility were either due to damage to the genitals through castration or accidental wounding at war (capón) or to some genetic condition that might keep the man from completing puberty (lampiño). Female sterility was also a reason to declare a marriage unnatural but was harder to prove. One case that dealt with marriage, sex, and gender was the trial of Eleno de Céspedes.

    Non-religious crimes

    Despite popular belief, the role of the Inquisition as a mainly religious institution is contested. Its main function was that of private police for the Crown, with jurisdiction to enforce the law in those crimes that took place in the private sphere of life. The notion of religion and civil law being separate is a modern construction and made no sense in the 15th century, so there was no difference between breaking a law regarding religion and breaking a law regarding tax collection. The difference between them is a modern projection the institution itself did not have. As such, the Inquisition was the prosecutor (in some cases the only prosecutor) of any crimes that could be perpetrated without the public taking notice (mainly domestic crimes, crimes against the weakest members of society, administrative crimes and forgeries, organized crime, and crimes against the Crown).

    Examples include crimes associated with sexual or family relations such as rape and sexual violence (the Inquisition was the first and only body who punished it across the nation), bestiality, pedophilia (often overlapping with sodomy), incest, child abuse or neglect and (as discussed) bigamy. Non-religious crimes also included procurement (not prostitution), human trafficking, smuggling, forgery or falsification of currency, documents or signatures, tax fraud (many religious crimes were considered subdivisions of this one), illegal weapons, swindles, disrespect to the Crown or its institutions (the Inquisition included, but also the church, the guard, and the kings themselves), espionage for a foreign power, conspiracy, treason.

    The non-religious crimes processed by the Inquisition accounted for a considerable percentage of its total investigations and are often hard to separate in the statistics, even when documentation is available. The line between religious and non-religious crimes did not exist in 15th-century Spain as a legal concept. Many of the crimes listed here and some of the religious crimes listed in previous sections were contemplated under the same article. For example, "sodomy" included paedophilia as a subtype. Often, part of the data given for prosecution of male homosexuality corresponds to convictions for paedophilia, not adult homosexuality. In other cases, religious and non-religious crimes were seen as distinct but equivalent. The treatment of public blasphemy and street swindlers was similar (since both involved "misleading the public in a harmful way"). Making counterfeit currency and heretic proselytism were also treated similarly; both of them were punished by death and subdivided in similar ways since both were "spreading falsifications". In general, heresy and falsifications of material documents were treated similarly by the Spanish Inquisition, indicating that they may have been thought of as equivalent actions.

    Trials were often further complicated by the attempts of witnesses or victims to add further charges, especially witchcraft. Like with Eleno de Céspedes, charges for witchcraft done in this way, or in general, were quickly dismissed but they often show in the statistics as investigations made.

    Organization

    Beyond its role in religious affairs, the Inquisition was also an institution at the service of the monarchy. The Inquisitor General, in charge of the Holy Office, was designated by the crown. The Inquisitor General was the only public office whose authority stretched to all the kingdoms of Spain (including the American viceroyalties), except for a brief period (1507–1518) during which there were two Inquisitors General, one in the kingdom of Castile, and the other in Aragon.

    Auto de fé, Plaza Mayor in Lima, Viceroyalty of Peru (17th century)

    The Inquisitor General presided over the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition (commonly abbreviated as "Council of the Suprema"), created in 1483, which was made up of six members named directly by the crown (the number of members of the Suprema varied throughout the Inquisition's history, but it was never more than ten). Over time, the authority of the Suprema grew at the expense of the power of the Inquisitor General.

    The Suprema met every morning, except for holidays, and for two hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The morning sessions were devoted to questions of faith, while the afternoons were reserved for "minor heresies" cases of perceived unacceptable sexual behavior, bigamy, witchcraft, etc.

    Below the Suprema were the various tribunals of the Inquisition, initially itinerant, which installed themselves where they were necessary to combat heresy but later settled in fixed locations. During the first phase, numerous tribunals were established, but the period after 1495 saw a marked tendency towards centralization.

    In the kingdom of Castile, the following permanent tribunals of the Inquisition were established:

    There were only four tribunals in the kingdom of Aragon: Zaragoza and Valencia (1482), Barcelona (1484), and Majorca (1488). Ferdinand the Catholic also established the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily (1513), housed in Palermo, and Sardinia, in the town of Sassari. In the Americas, tribunals were established in Lima and in Mexico City (1569) and, in 1610, in Cartagena de Indias (present-day Colombia).

    Composition of the tribunals

    Structure of the Spanish Inquisition

    Initially, each of the tribunals included two inquisitors, calificadors (qualifiers), an alguacil (bailiff), and a fiscal (prosecutor); new positions were added as the institution matured. The inquisitors were preferably jurists more than theologians; in 1608, Philip III even stipulated that all inquisitors needed to have a background in law. The inquisitors rarely remained in the position for a long time: for the Court of Valencia, for example, the average tenure in the position was about two years. Most of the inquisitors belonged to the secular clergy (priests who were not members of religious orders) and had a university education.

    The fiscal was in charge of presenting the accusation, investigating the denunciations, and interrogating the witnesses by the use of physical and mental torture. The calificadores were generally theologians; it fell to them to determine whether the defendant's conduct added up to a crime against the faith. Consultants were expert jurists who advised the court on questions of procedure. The court had, in addition, three secretaries: the notario de secuestros (Notary of Property), who registered the goods of the accused at the moment of his detention; the notario del secreto (Notary of the Secret), who recorded the testimony of the defendant and the witnesses; and the Escribano General (General Notary), secretary of the court. The alguacil was the executive arm of the court, responsible for detaining, jailing, and physically torturing the defendant. Other civil employees were the nuncio, ordered to spread official notices of the court, and the alcaide, the jailer in charge of feeding the prisoners.

    In addition to the members of the court, two auxiliary figures existed that collaborated with the Holy Office: the familiares and the comissarios (commissioners). Familiares were lay collaborators of the Inquisition who had to be permanently at the service of the Holy Office. To become a familiar was considered an honor since it was a public recognition of limpieza de sangre—Old Christian status—and brought with it certain additional privileges. Although many nobles held the position, most of the familiares came from the ranks of commoners. The commissioners, on the other hand, were members of the religious orders who collaborated occasionally with the Holy Office.

    One of the most striking aspects of the organization of the Inquisition was its form of financing: devoid of its own budget, the Inquisition depended almost exclusively on the confiscation of the goods of the denounced. It is not surprising, therefore, that many of those prosecuted were rich men. That the situation was open to abuse is evident, as stands out in the memorandum that a converso from Toledo directed to Charles I:

    Your Majesty must provide, before all else, that the expenses of the Holy Office do not come from the properties of the condemned, because if that is the case if they do not burn they do not eat.

    Mode of operation

    Accusation

    When the Inquisition arrived in a city, the first step was the Edict of Grace. Following the Sunday Mass, the Inquisitor would proceed to read the edict, which described possible heresies and encouraged all the congregation to come to the tribunals of the Inquisition to "relieve their consciences". They were called Edicts of Grace because all the self-incriminated who presented themselves within a period of grace (usually ranging from thirty to forty days) were offered the possibility of reconciliation with the Church without severe punishment. The promise of benevolence was effective, and many voluntarily presented themselves to the Inquisition. These were encouraged to denounce others who had also committed offences, informants being the Inquisition's primary source of information. After about 1500, the Edicts of Grace were replaced by the Edicts of Faith, which left out the grace period and instead encouraged the denunciation of those deemed guilty.

    The denunciations were anonymous, and the defendants had no way of knowing the identities of their accusers. This was one of the points most criticized by those who opposed the Inquisition. In practice, false denunciations were frequent. Denunciations were made for a variety of reasons apart from genuine concern. Some just went after non-conformists. Others wished to hurt a neighbor or get rid of an opponent.

    This method turned everyone into an agent of the Inquisition and made everyone aware that a simple word or deed could bring them before the tribunal. Denunciation was elevated to the rank of a superior religious duty, filled the nation with spies, and made each individual an object of suspicion to their neighbor, family, and any strangers they might meet.

    Detention

    Diego Mateo López Zapata in his cell before his trial by the Inquisition Court of Cuenca (engraved by Francisco Goya)

    After a denunciation, the case was examined by the calificadores, who had to determine whether there was heresy involved. This was followed by the detention of the accused. In practice, many were detained in preventive custody, and many cases of lengthy incarcerations occurred, lasting up to two years before the calificadores examined the case.

    Detention of the accused entailed the preventive sequestration of their property by the Inquisition. The property of the prisoner was used to pay for procedural expenses and the accused's maintenance and costs. Often, the relatives of the defendant found themselves in outright misery. This situation was remedied only by following instructions written in 1561. However, Llorente, despite having consulted numerous records of old Inquisition proceedings, did not find any record of such an agreement in favor of the children of condemned heretics.

    Some authors, such as apologist William Thomas Walsh, stated that the entire process was undertaken with the utmost secrecy, as much for the public as for the accused, who were not informed about the accusations that were levied against them. Months or even years could pass without the accused being informed about why they were imprisoned. The prisoners remained isolated, and, during this time, they were not allowed to attend Mass nor receive the sacraments. The jails of the Inquisition were no worse than those of secular authorities, and there are even certain testimonies that occasionally they were much better. According to William Walsh, the miseries of the Jews "are not the result, fundamentally, of the hatred and misunderstanding of others, but the consequence of their own stubborn rejection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ".

    Trial

    Two priests and a suspected heretic in a Spanish Inquisition interrogation chamber (Bernard Picart's engraving, 1722). In contrast to the Inquisitor's armchair, Eymeric's manual suggests that the accused be sat on a low bench.

    The inquisitorial process consisted of a series of hearings in which both the denouncers and the defendant gave separate testimony. A defense counsel, a so-called lawyer, a member of the tribunal itself, was assigned to the defendant; his role was simply to advise the accused and to encourage them to speak the truth. He was obliged to renounce the defense at the moment when he realized his client's guilt.

    The prosecution was directed by the fiscal. Interrogation of the defendant was done in the presence of the notario del secreto, who meticulously wrote down the words of the accused. The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation.

    To defend themselves, the accused had two main choices: abonos (to find favourable and character witnesses) or tachas (to demonstrate that the witnesses of accusers — whose identity he did not know — were not trustworthy, and were his personal enemies.

    The structure of the trials was similar to modern trials and, according to apologists, advanced for the time with regard to fairness. The Inquisition, "professional and efficient", was dependent on the political power of the King. The lack of separation of powers allows for assuming questionable fairness in certain scenarios. The fairness of the Inquisitorial tribunals is alleged by apologists to be among the best in early modern Europe when it came to the trial of laymen. There are also testimonies by former prisoners that, if believed, suggest that said fairness was less than ideal when national or political interests were involved.

    The historian Walter Ullmann thinks very different:

    There is hardly one item in the whole Inquisitorial procedure that could be squared with the demands of justice; on the contrary, every one of its items is the denial of justice or a hideous caricature of it its principles are the very denial of the demands made by the most primitive concepts of natural justice This kind of proceeding has no longer any semblance to a judicial trial but is rather its systematic and methodical perversion.
    A fictional scene of a jail of the Spanish Inquisition, with a priest supervising his scribe while men and women are suspended from pulleys, tortured on the rack or burnt with torches (Etching, date unknown)

    To obtain a confession or information relevant to an investigation, the Inquisition used torture, as prescribed in the instrucciones. It is impossible to determine with any degree of accuracy the number of cases in which it was employed during the Inquisition's existence.

    Torture would be applied if the alleged heresy was "half proven" and could be repeated, according to Article XV of Torquemada's instructions. Henry Lea estimates that between 1575 and 1610, the court of Toledo tortured approximately a third of those processed for Protestant heresy. Nearly all of the accused in several cases tried by the Lima tribunal between 1635 and 1639 appear to have been tortured; the Valladolid tribunal report for 1624 reveals that in eleven cases involving Jews and one involving a Protestant used torture; in 1655, all nine cases involving Jews employed torture.

    The recently opened Vatican Archives suggest lower numbers. "In truth," says Thomas Madden, "the Inquisition brought order, justice, and compassion to combat rampant secular and popular persecutions of heretics." And concludes: "The Spanish people loved their Inquisition. That is why it lasted for so long." In other periods, the proportions of torture varied remarkably.

    Torture

    A rack on display at the Torture Museum in Toledo, Spain
    An engraved depiction of water torture (1556)
    In the strappado torture, the victim's hands are tied behind their back and the body is suspended by the wrists, resulting in dislocated shoulders. Weights can be added to the feet (engraving, 1768)

    Torture was employed in all civil and religious trials in Europe. The Spanish Inquisition allegedly used it more restrictively than was common at the time. Unlike both civil trials and other inquisitions, it had strict regulations in relation to when, what, whom, frequency, duration, and supervision. According to some scholars, the Spanish Inquisition engaged in torture less often and with greater care than secular courts.

    Kamen and other scholars cite the lack of evidence for the use of torture. Their conclusions are based on research uncovered in newly opened files of the Spanish Inquisition's archives. Stories of torture and other maltreatment of prisoners appear to have been based on Protestant propaganda as well as popular imagination and ignorance.

    • When: Torture was allowed when guilt was "half proven" or there existed a "presumption of guilt", as stated in Article XV of Torquemada's instruciones and in Eymerich's directions. However, Eymerich admits that information obtained through torment was not always reliable, and should be used only when all other means of obtaining "the truth" had failed.
    • What: The Spanish Inquisition was not permitted to "maim, mutilate, draw blood or cause any sort of permanent damage" to the prisoner. Ecclesiastical tribunals were prohibited by church law from shedding blood. As a result of torture, many had broken limbs, or other definitive health problems, and some died.
    • Supervision: A Physician was usually available in case of emergency. It was also required for a doctor to certify that the prisoner was healthy enough to go through the torment without suffering harm, which of course happened.

    Among the methods of torture allowed were garrucha, toca, and the potro (which were all used in other secular and ecclesiastical tribunals). The application of the garrucha, also known as the strappado, consisted of suspending the victim from the ceiling by the wrists, which are tied behind the back. Sometimes weights were tied to the feet, with a series of lifts and violent drops, during which the arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated.

    The use of the toca (cloth), also called interrogatorio mejorado del agua (enhanced water interrogation), now known as waterboarding, is better documented. It consisted of forcing the victim to ingest water poured from a jar so that they had the impression of drowning. The potro, the rack, in which the limbs were slowly pulled apart, was thought to be the instrument of torture used most frequently. The assertion that confessionem esse veram, non factam vi tormentorum (literally: ' confession is truth, not made by way of torture') sometimes follows a description of how, after torture had ended, the subject "freely" confessed to the offences. In practice, those who recanted confessions made during torture knew that they could be tortured again. Under torture, or even harsh interrogation, comments Cullen Murphy, people will say anything. Bernard Délicieux, the Franciscan friar who was tortured by the Inquisition and ultimately died in prison as a result of the abuse, said the Inquisition's tactics would have proved St. Peter and St. Paul to be heretics.

    Once the process concluded, the inquisitors met with a representative of the bishop and with the consultores (consultants), experts in theology or Canon Law (but not necessarily clergy themselves), which was called the consulta de fe (faith consultation/religion check). The case was voted and sentence pronounced, which had to be unanimous. In case of discrepancies, the Suprema had to be informed.

    Sentencing

    The results of the trial could be the following:

    1. Although quite rare in actual practice, the defendant could be acquitted, but an acquittal was interpreted as a dishonourable reflection on the inquisitors.
    2. The trial could be suspended, in which case the defendant, although under suspicion, went free (with the threat that the process could be reopened at any time). In the unusual instance of a defendant being declared not guilty during the trial, the decision was made in private.
    3. The defendant could be penanced. Since they were considered guilty, they had to publicly abjure their crimes (de levi if it was a misdemeanor, and de vehementi if the crime were serious), and accept a public punishment. Among these were sanbenito, forced church attendance, exile, scourging, fines or even sentencing to service as oarsmen in royal galleys.
    4. 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. The reconciled were prohibited from working as advocates, landlords, apothecaries, doctors, surgeons, and other professions. They were banned from carrying weapons, wearing jewelry or gold, and from riding horses. The restrictions also applied to the offspring of the convicted.
    5. The most serious punishment was relaxation to the secular arm, i.e. 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 their corpse was burned; if not, they were burned alive. The victims were handed over to the secular authorities, who had no access to the process; they only administered the sentences and were obliged to do so on pain of heresy and excommunication.

    Frequently, cases were judged in absentia. When the accused died before the trial finished, the condemned were burned in effigy. The death of an accused did not extinguish the inquisitorial actions, even up to forty years after the death. When it was considered proven that the deceased were heretics in their lifetime, their corpses were exhumed and burned, their property confiscated and the heirs disinherited.

    The distribution of the punishments varied considerably over time. It is believed that sentences of death were enforced most frequently in the early stages of the Inquisition. According to García Cárcel, one of the most active courts—the court of Valencia—employed the death penalty in 40% of cases before 1530, but later that percentage dropped to 3%. By the middle of the 16th century, inquisition courts viewed torture as unnecessary, and death sentences had become rare.

    Auto de fé

    Main article: Auto-da-fé
    Rizi's 1683 painting of the 1680 auto de fé, Plaza Mayor in Madrid

    If the sentence was condemnatory, this implied that the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an auto de fé (more commonly known in English as an auto-da-fé) that solemnized their return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic. The autos de fé could be public (auto publico or auto general) or private (auto particular).

    Although initially the public autos did not have any special solemnity nor sought a large attendance of spectators, with time they became expensive and solemn ceremonies, a display of the great power shared by the Church and the State, celebrated with large public crowds, amidst a festive atmosphere. The auto de fé eventually became a baroque spectacle, with staging meticulously calculated to cause the greatest effect among the spectators. The autos were conducted in a large public space (frequently in the largest plaza of the city), generally on holidays. The rituals related to the auto began the previous night (the "procession of the Green Cross") and sometimes lasted the whole day.

    The auto de fé frequently was taken to the canvas by painters: one of the better-known examples is the 1683 painting by Francisco Rizi, held by the Prado Museum in Madrid that represents the auto celebrated in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid on 30 June 1680. The last public auto de fé took place in 1691.

    Execution of Mariana de Carabajal (converted Jew), Mexico City, 1601

    The auto de fé involved a Catholic Mass, prayer, a public procession of those found guilty, and a reading of their sentences. They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours; ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended. Artistic representations of the auto de fé usually depict torture and the burning at the stake. This type of activity never took place during an auto de fé, which was in essence a religious act. Torture was not administered after a trial concluded, and executions were always held after and separate from the auto de fé, though in the minds and experiences of observers and those undergoing the confession and execution, the separation of the two might be experienced as merely a technicality.

    The first recorded auto de fé was held in Paris in 1242, during the reign of Louis IX. The first Spanish auto de fé did not take place until 1481 in Seville; six of the men and women subjected to this first religious ritual were later executed.

    The Inquisition had limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821, although its influence was much weakened with the government of the Marquis of Pombal in the second half of the 18th century. The Marquis, himself a familiar, transformed it into a royal court, and the heretics continued to be persecuted, as so the "high spirits".

    Autos de fé also took place in Mexico, Brazil and Peru: contemporary historians of the Conquistadors such as Bernal Díaz del Castillo record them. They also took place in the Portuguese colony of Goa, India, following the establishment of Inquisition there in 1562–1563.

    Enlightenment era and the Inquisition's transformation

    The arrival of the Enlightenment in Spain slowed inquisitorial activity. In the first half of the 18th century, 111 were condemned to be burned in person, and 117 in effigy, most of them for judaizing. In the reign of Philip V, there were 125 autos de fé, while in the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV only 44.

    Auto-da-fé, Viceroyalty of New Spain, 18th century

    During the 18th century, the Inquisition changed: Enlightenment ideas were the closest threat that had to be fought. The main figures of the Spanish Enlightenment were in favour of the abolition of the Inquisition, and many were processed by the Holy Office, among them Olavide, in 1776; Iriarte, in 1779; and Jovellanos, in 1796; Jovellanos sent a report to Charles IV in which he indicated the inefficiency of the Inquisition's courts and the ignorance of those who operated them: "... friars who take only to obtain gossip and exemption from the choir; who are ignorant of foreign languages, who only know a little scholastic theology."

    In its new role, the Inquisition tried to accentuate its function of censoring publications but found that Charles III had secularized censorship procedures, and, on many occasions, the authorization of the Council of Castile hit the more intransigent position of the Inquisition. Since the Inquisition itself was an arm of the state, being within the Council of Castile, civil rather than ecclesiastical censorship usually prevailed. This loss of influence can also be explained because the foreign Enlightenment texts entered the peninsula through prominent members of the nobility or government, influential people with whom it was very difficult to interfere. Thus, for example, Diderot's Encyclopedia entered Spain thanks to special licenses granted by the king.

    After the French Revolution the Council of Castile, fearing that revolutionary ideas would penetrate Spain's borders, decided to reactivate the Holy Office that was directly charged with the persecution of French works. An Inquisition edict of December 1789, that received the full approval of Charles IV and Floridablanca, stated that:

    having news that several books have been scattered and promoted in these kingdoms... that, without being contented with the simple narration events of a seditious nature... seem to form a theoretical and practical code of independence from the legitimate powers.... destroying in this way the political and social order... the reading of thirty and nine French works is prohibited, under fine...

    The fight from within against the Inquisition was almost always clandestine. The first texts that questioned the Inquisition and praised the ideas of Voltaire or Montesquieu appeared in 1759. After the suspension of pre-publication censorship on the part of the Council of Castile in 1785, the newspaper El Censor began the publication of protests against the activities of the Holy Office by means of a rationalist critique. Valentin de Foronda published Espíritu de los Mejores Diarios, a plea in favour of freedom of expression that was avidly read in the salons. Also, in the same vein, Manuel de Aguirre wrote On Toleration in El Censor, El Correo de los Ciegos and El Diario de Madrid.

    End of the Inquisition

    The Peruvian Inquisition, based in Lima, ended in 1820

    During the reign of Charles IV of Spain (1788–1808), in spite of the fears that the French Revolution provoked, several events accelerated the decline of the Inquisition. The state stopped being a mere social organizer and began to worry about the well-being of the public. As a result, the land-holding power of the Church was reconsidered, in the señoríos and more generally in the accumulated wealth that had prevented social progress. The power of the throne increased, under which Enlightenment thinkers found better protection for their ideas. Manuel Godoy and Antonio Alcalá Galiano were openly hostile to an institution whose only role had been reduced to censorship and was the very embodiment of the Spanish Black Legend, internationally, and was not suitable to the political interests of the moment:

    The Inquisition? Its old power no longer exists: the horrible authority that this bloodthirsty court had exerted in other times was reduced... the Holy Office had come to be a species of commission for book censorship, nothing more...

    The Inquisition was first abolished during the domination of Napoleon and the reign of Joseph Bonaparte (1808–1812). In 1813, the liberal deputies of the Cortes of Cádiz also obtained its abolition, largely as a result of the Holy Office's condemnation of the popular revolt against French invasion. But the Inquisition was reconstituted when Ferdinand VII recovered the throne on 1 July 1814. Juan Antonio Llorente, who had been the Inquisition's general secretary in 1789, became a Bonapartist and published a critical history in 1817 from his French exile, based on his privileged access to its archives.

    Possibly as a result of Llorente's criticisms, the Inquisition was once again temporarily abolished during the three-year Liberal interlude known as the Trienio liberal, but still the old system had not yet had its last gasp. Later, during the period known as the Ominous Decade, the Inquisition was not formally re-established, although, de facto, it returned under the so-called Congregation of the Meetings of Faith (Juntas da Fé) , created in the dioceses by King Ferdinand VII. On 26 July 1826, the "Meetings of Faith" Congregation condemned and executed the school teacher Cayetano Ripoll, who thus became the last person known to be executed by the Inquisition.

    On that day, Ripoll was hanged in Valencia, for having taught deist principles. This execution occurred against the backdrop of a European-wide scandal concerning the despotic attitudes still prevailing in Spain. Finally, on 15 July 1834, the Spanish Inquisition was definitively abolished by a Royal Decree signed by regent Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand VII's liberal widow, during the minority of Isabella II and with the approval of the President of the Cabinet Francisco Martínez de la Rosa.

    The Alhambra Decree that had expelled the Jews was formally rescinded on 16 December 1968 by the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, after the Second Vatican Council rejected the idea that Jews are deicides.

    The prohibitions, persecution and eventual Jewish mass emigration from Spain and Portugal probably had adverse effects on the development of the Spanish and the Portuguese economy. Jews and Non-Catholic Christians reportedly had substantially better numerical skills than the Catholic majority, which might be due to the Jewish religious doctrine, which focused strongly on education. Even when Jews were forced to quit their highly skilled urban occupations, their numeracy advantage persisted. However, during the inquisition, spillover-effects of these skills were rare because of forced separation and Jewish emigration, which was detrimental for economic development.

    Outcomes

    Confiscations

    It is unknown exactly how much wealth was confiscated from converted Jews and others tried by the Inquisition. Wealth confiscated in one year of persecution in the small town of Guadaloupe paid the costs of building a royal residence. There are numerous records of the opinion of ordinary Spaniards of the time that "the Inquisition was devised simply to rob people". "They were burnt only for the money they had", a resident of Cuenca averred. "They burn only the well-off", said another. In 1504 an accused stated, "only the rich were burnt". In 1484 Catalina de Zamora was accused of asserting that "this Inquisition that the fathers are carrying out is as much for taking property from the conversos as for defending the faith. It is the goods that are the heretics." This saying passed into common usage in Spain. In 1524 a treasurer informed Charles V that his predecessor had received ten million ducats from the conversos, but the figure is unverified. In 1592 an inquisitor admitted that most of the fifty women he arrested were rich. In 1676, the Suprema claimed it had confiscated over 700,000 ducats for the royal treasury (which was paid money only after the Inquisition's own budget, amounting in one known case to only 5%). The property on Mallorca alone in 1678 was worth "well over 2,500,000 ducats".

    Death tolls and sentenced

    Contemporary illustration of the auto de fé of Valladolid, in which fourteen Protestants were burned at the stake for their faith, on 21 May 1559

    García Cárcel estimates that the total number prosecuted by the Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000; applying the percentages of executions that appeared in the trials of 1560–1700—about 2%—the approximate total would be about 3,000 put to death. Nevertheless, some authors consider that the toll may have been higher, keeping in mind the data provided by Dedieu and García Cárcel for the tribunals of Toledo and Valencia, respectively, and estimate between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed. Other authors disagree and estimate a max death toll between 1% and 5%, (depending on the time span used) combining all the processes the inquisition carried, both religious and non-religious ones. In either case, this is significantly lower than the number of people executed exclusively for witchcraft in other parts of Europe during about the same time span as the Spanish Inquisition (estimated at c. 40,000–60,000).

    Modern historians have begun to study the documentary records of the Inquisition. The archives of the Suprema, today held by the National Historical Archive of Spain (Archivo Histórico Nacional), conserves the annual relations of all processes between 1540 and 1700. This material provides information for approximately 44,674 judgments. These 44,674 cases include 826 executions in persona and 778 in effigie (i.e. an effigy was burned). This material is far from being complete—for example, the tribunal of Cuenca is entirely omitted, because no relaciones de causas from this tribunal have been found, and significant gaps concern some other tribunals (e.g., Valladolid). Many more cases not reported to the Suprema are known from the other sources (i.e., no relaciones de causas from Cuenca have been found, but its original records have been preserved), but were not included in Contreras-Henningsen's statistics for the methodological reasons. William Monter estimates 1000 executions between 1530 and 1630 and 250 between 1630 and 1730.

    The archives of the Suprema only provide information about processes prior to 1560. To study the processes themselves, it is necessary to examine the archives of the local tribunals, the majority of which have been lost to the devastation of war, the ravages of time or other events. Some archives have survived including those of Toledo, where 12,000 were judged for offences related to heresy, mainly minor "blasphemy", and those of Valencia. These indicate that the Inquisition was most active in the period between 1480 and 1530 and that during this period the percentage condemned to death was much more significant than in the years that followed. Modern estimates show approximately 2,000 executions in persona in the whole of Spain up to 1530.

    Statistics for the period 1540–1700

    The statistics of Henningsen and Contreras are based entirely on relaciones de causas. The number of years for which cases are documented varies for different tribunals. Data for the Aragonese Secretariat are probably complete, some small lacunae may concern only Valencia and possibly Sardinia and Cartagena, but the numbers for Castilian Secretariat—except Canaries and Galicia—should be considered as minimal due to gaps in the documentation. In some cases it is remarked that the number does not concern the whole period 1540–1700.

    Tribunal Documented by Henningsen and Contreras Estimated totals
    Years
    documented
    Number
    of cases
    Executions Trials Executions
    in persona
    in persona in effigie
    Barcelona 94 3047 37 27 ~5000 53
    Navarre 130 4296 85 59 ~5200 90
    Majorca 96 1260 37 25 ~2100 38
    Sardinia 49 767 8 2 ~2700 At least 8
    Zaragoza 126 5967 200 19 ~7600 250
    Sicily 101 3188 25 25 ~6400 52
    Valencia 128 4540 78 75 ~5700 At least 93
    Cartagena (established 1610) 62 699 3 1 ~1100 At least 3
    Lima (established 1570) 92 1176 30 16 ~2200 31
    Mexico (established 1570) 52 950 17 42 ~2400 47
    Aragonese Secretariat (total) 25890 520 291 ~40000 At least 665
    Canaries 66 695 1 78 ~1500 3
    Córdoba 28 883 8 26 ~5000 At least 27
    Cuenca 0 0 0 0 5202 At least 34
    Galicia (established 1560) 83 2203 19 44 ~2700 17
    Granada 79 4157 33 102 ~8100 At least 72
    Llerena 84 2851 47 89 ~5200 At least 47
    Murcia 66 1735 56 20 ~4300 At least 190
    Seville 58 1962 96 67 ~6700 At least 128
    Toledo (incl. Madrid) 108 3740 40 53 ~5500 At least 66
    Valladolid 29 558 6 8 ~3000 At least 54
    Castilian Secretariat (total) 18784 306 487 ~47000 At least 638
    Total 44674 826 778 ~87000 At least 1303

    Autos da fe between 1701 and 1746

    Table of sentences pronounced in the public autos de fé in Spain (excluding tribunals in Sicily, Sardinia and Latin America) between 1701 and 1746:

    Tribunal Number of autos de fé Executions in persona Executions in effigie Penanced Total
    Barcelona 4 1 1 15 17
    Logroño 1 1 0 0? 1?
    Palma de Mallorca 3 0 0 11 11
    Saragossa 1 0 0 3 3
    Valencia 4 2 0 49 51
    Las Palmas 0 0 0 0 0
    Córdoba 13 17 19 125 161
    Cuenca 7 7 10 35 52
    Santiago de Compostela 4 0 0 13 13
    Granada 15 36 47 369 452
    Llerena 5 1 0 45 46
    Madrid 4 11 13 46 70
    Murcia 6 4 1 106 111
    Seville 15 16 10 220 246
    Toledo 33 6 14 128 148
    Valladolid 10 9 2 70 81
    Total 125 111 117 1235 1463

    Abuse of power

    According to Toby Green, the great unchecked power given to inquisitors meant that they were "widely seen as above the law", and they sometimes had motives for imprisoning or executing alleged offenders that had nothing to do with punishing religious nonconformity. Green quotes a complaint by historian Manuel Barrios about one Inquisitor, Diego Rodriguez Lucero, who in Cordoba in 1506 burned to death the husbands of two women; he then kept the women as mistresses. According to Barrios

    the daughter of Diego Celemin was exceptionally beautiful, her parents and her husband did not want to give her to , and so Lucero had the three of them burnt and now has a child by her, and he has kept for a long time in the alcazar as a mistress.

    Some writers disagree with Green. These authors do not necessarily deny the abuses of power, but classify them as politically instigated and comparable to those of any other law enforcement body of the period. Criticisms, usually indirect, have gone from the suspiciously sexual overtones or similarities of these accounts with unrelated older antisemitic accounts of kidnap and torture, to the clear proofs of control that the king had over the institution, to the sources used by Green, or just by reaching completely different conclusions.

    Long-term economic effects

    According to a 2021 study, "municipalities of Spain with a history of a stronger inquisitorial presence show lower economic performance, educational attainment, and trust today."

    Historiography

    How historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time and continues to be a source of controversy. Before and during the 19th century, historical interest focused on who was being persecuted. In the early and mid-20th century, historians examined the specifics of what happened and how it influenced Spanish history. In the later 20th and 21st centuries, some historians have re-examined how severe the Inquisition truly was, calling into question some of the assumptions made in earlier periods.

    19th to early 20th century scholarship

    Before the rise of professional historians in the 19th century, the Spanish Inquisition had been portrayed primarily by Protestant scholars who saw it as the archetypal symbol of Catholic intolerance and ecclesiastical power. The Spanish Inquisition for them was largely associated with the persecution of Protestants. William H. Prescott described the Inquisition as an "eye that never slumbered". Despite the existence of extensive documentation regarding the trials and procedures, and to the Inquisition's deep bureaucratization, none of these sources was studied outside of Spain, and Spanish scholars arguing against the predominant view were automatically dismissed. The 19th-century professional historians, including the Spanish scholar Amador de los Ríos, were the first to successfully challenge this perception in the international sphere and get foreign scholars to take note of their discoveries. Said scholars would obtain international recognition and start a period of revision on the Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition.

    At the start of the 20th century Henry Charles Lea published the groundbreaking History of the Inquisition in Spain. This influential work describes the Spanish Inquisition as "an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas and the obstruction of progress." Lea documented the Inquisition's methods and modes of operation in no uncertain terms, calling it "theocratic absolutism" at its worst. In the context of the polarization between Protestants and Catholics during the second half of the 19th century, some of Lea's contemporaries, as well as most modern scholars thought Lea's work had an anti-Catholic bias.

    Starting in the 1920s, Jewish scholars picked up where Lea's work left off. They published Yitzhak Baer's History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Cecil Roth's History of the Marranos and, after World War II, the work of Haim Beinart, who for the first time published trial transcripts of cases involving conversos.

    Contemporary historians who subscribe to the idea that the image of the Inquisition in historiography has been systematically deformed by the Black Legend include Edward Peters, Philip Wayne Powell, William S. Maltby, Richard Kagan, Margaret R. Greer, Helen Rawlings, Ronnie Hsia, Lu Ann Homza, Stanley G. Payne, Andrea Donofrio, Irene Silverblatt, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Charles Gibson, and Joseph Pérez. Contemporary historians who partially accept an impact of the Black Legend but deny other aspects of the hypothesis include Henry Kamen, David Nirenberg and Karen Armstrong.

    Toby Green, while accepting that there was a certain demonization of the Spanish Inquisition in comparison with other contemporary persecutions, argues that the habitual use of torture should not be denied, and that correcting the "black legend" should not mean replacing it with a "white legend." Richard L. Kagan says that Henry Kamen failed to "enter the belly of the beast and assess what it really meant to the people who lived with it." Kamen does not, according to Kagan, "lead the reader through an actual trial. Had he done so, a reader might conclude that the institution he portrays as relatively benign in hindsight was also capable of inspiring fear and desperate attempts to escape, and thus more deserving of its earlier reputation." For Kagan, in order to reconstruct the world of those who were trapped in the Inquisition's net, studies that thoroughly examine the meticulous archives of the Inquisition are necessary.

    Revision after 1960

    Main article: Historical revision of the Inquisition

    The works of Juderias in (1913) and other Spanish scholars prior to him were mostly ignored by international scholarship until 1960.

    One of the first books to build on them and internationally challenge the classical view was The Spanish Inquisition (1965) by Henry Kamen. Kamen argued that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed. The book was very influential and largely responsible for subsequent studies in the 1970s to try to quantify (from archival records) the Inquisition's activities from 1480 to 1834. Those studies showed there was an initial burst of activity against conversos suspected of relapsing into Judaism, and a mid-16th century pursuit of Protestants, but, according to these studies, the Inquisition served principally as a forum Spaniards occasionally used to humiliate and punish people they did not like: blasphemers, bigamists, foreigners and, in Aragon, homosexuals, and horse smugglers. Kamen went on to publish two more books in 1985 and 2006 that incorporated new findings, further supporting the view that the Inquisition was not as bad as once described by Lea and others. Along similar lines is Edward Peters's Inquisition (1988).

    One of the most important works about the inquisition's relation to the Jewish conversos or New Christians is The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain (1995/2002) by Benzion Netanyahu. It challenges the view that most conversos were actually practicing Judaism in secret and were persecuted for their crypto-Judaism. Rather, according to Netanyahu, the persecution was fundamentally racial, and was a matter of envy of their success in Spanish society. This view has been challenged multiple times, and with some reasonable divergences the majority of historians either align with religious causes or with merely cultural ones, with no significant racial element.

    In popular culture

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    Literature

    There was no remedy, from Los Caprichos, 1797–98, by Francisco de Goya.

    The literature of the 18th century approaches the theme of the Inquisition from a critical point of view. In Candide by Voltaire, the Inquisition appears as the epitome of intolerance and arbitrary justice in Europe.

    During the Romantic Period, the Gothic novel, which was primarily a genre developed in Protestant countries, frequently associated Catholicism with terror and repression. This vision of the Spanish Inquisition appears in, among other works, The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis (set in Madrid during the Inquisition, but can be seen as commenting on the French Revolution and the Terror); Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin and The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki.

    The literature of the 19th century tends to focus on the element of torture employed by the Inquisition. In France, in the early 19th century, the epistolary novel Cornelia Bororquia, or the Victim of the Inquisition, which has been attributed to Spaniard Luiz Gutiérrez, and is based on the case of María de Bohórquez, ferociously criticizes the Inquisition and its representatives.

    The Inquisition also appears in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov (1880) in the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor". A story within a story, (several times published as a separate book) "The Grand Inquisitor" is a legend, composed and narrated by the character of Ivan Karamazov, that imagines an encounter between Jesus and the Inquisitor General. Jesus unexpectedly appears in Seville at the height of the Inquisition and is arrested by the Grand Inquisitor, an old Cardinal, who condemns him to die at the stake "like the worst of heretics". In the course of a long diatribe the Inquisitor tells Jesus "You have no right to add anything to what was said by You in former times. Why have You come to get in our way? For You have come to get in our way, and You yourself know it." Jesus remains silent throughout the speech, but when the Inquisitor finally concludes with the words "Tomorrow I shall burn thee", Jesus approaches him and, without a word, kisses him on the mouth. The Inquisitor releases him with the words: "“Go and do not come back... do not come back at all... ever... ever!”

    One of the best-known stories of Edgar Allan Poe, "The Pit and the Pendulum", explores the use of torture by the Inquisition.

    The Inquisition also appears in 20th-century literature. La Gesta del Marrano, by the Argentine author Marcos Aguinis, portrays the length of the Inquisition's arm to reach people in Argentina during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first book in Les Daniels' "Don Sebastian Vampire Chronicles", The Black Castle (1978), is set in 15th-century Spain and includes both descriptions of Inquisitorial questioning and an auto de fé, as well as Tomás de Torquemada, who is featured in one chapter. The Marvel Comics series Marvel 1602 shows the Inquisition targeting Mutants for "blasphemy". The character Magneto also appears as the Grand Inquisitor. The Captain Alatriste novels by the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte are set in the early 17th century. The second novel, Purity of Blood, has the narrator being tortured by the Inquisition and describes an auto de fé. Carme Riera's novella, published in 1994, Dins el Darrer Blau (In the Last Blue) is set during the repression of the chuetas (conversos from Majorca) at the end of the 17th century. In 1998, the Spanish writer Miguel Delibes published the historical novel The Heretic, about the Protestants of Valladolid and their repression by the Inquisition. Samuel Shellabarger's Captain from Castile deals directly with the Spanish Inquisition during the first part of the novel.

    In the novel La Catedral del Mar by Ildefonso Falcones, published in 2006 and set in the 14th century, there are scenes of inquisition investigations in small towns and a great scene in Barcelona.

    Film

    Theatre, music, television, and video games

    • The Grand Inquisitor of Spain plays a part in Don Carlos (1867), a play by Friedrich Schiller (which was the basis for the opera Don Carlos in five acts by Giuseppe Verdi, in which the Inquisitor is also featured, and the third act is dedicated to an auto de fé).
    • The 1965 musical Man of La Mancha depicts a fictionalized account of the author Miguel de Cervantes' run-in with Spanish authorities. The character of Cervantes produces a play-within-a-play of his unfinished manuscript, Don Quixote, while he awaits sentencing by the Inquisition.
    • Monty Python members Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin and Terry Jones performing "The Spanish Inquisition" sketch during the 2014 Python reunion.
      In the Monty Python comedy team's Spanish Inquisition sketches, an inept group of Inquisitors repeatedly burst into scenes, after someone utters the words "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition", screaming "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" The Inquisition then uses ineffectual forms of torture, including a dish-drying rack, soft cushions and a comfy chair.
    • The Spanish Inquisition features as a main plotline element of the 2009 video game Assassin's Creed II: Discovery.
    • The Universe of Warhammer 40,000 borrows several elements and concepts of the Catholic church Imaginarium, including the notion of the Black Legend's ideal of a fanatic Inquisitors, for some of its troops in Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr.
    • The video game Blasphemous portrays a nightmarish version of the Spanish Inquisition, where the protagonist, named 'The Penitent one' wears a capirote (cone-shaped hat). The Penitent one battles twisted religious iconography and meets many characters attempting to atone for their sins along the way.

    See also

    Notes and references

    Explanatory notes

    1. The terms converso and crypto-Jew are somewhat vexed, and occasionally historians are not clear on how, precisely, they are intended to be understood. For the purpose of clarity, in this article converso will be taken to mean one who has sincerely renounced Judaism or Islam and embraced Catholicism. Crypto-Jew will be taken to mean one who accepts Christian baptism, yet continues to practice Judaism.

    Citations

    1. ^ Data for executions for witchcraft: Levack, Brian P. (199). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (2nd ed.). London and New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0582080690. OCLC 30154582. And see Witch trials in Early Modern Europe for more detail.
    2. Splendiani, Ana María (1997). Cincuenta años de la inquisición en el Tribunal de Cartagena de Indias. p. 86. the American Inquisition was never involved in the conversion and evangelisation of the Indians, as they were outside its jurisdiction from the very promulgation of the edicts founding the American courts.
    3. ^ "The Alhambra Decree-- Edict of the Expulsion of the Jews of Spain" (PDF). Florida Atlantic University. 1492.
    4. ^ Hans-Jürgen Prien (2012). Christianity in Latin America: Revised and Expanded Edition. Brill. p. 11. ISBN 978-90-04-22262-5.
    5. Sabatini (1930), p. 9-11.
    6. Ehler, Sidney Zdeneck; Morrall, John B (1967). Church and State Through the Centuries: A Collection of Historic Documents with Commentaries. Biblo & Tannen Publishers. p. 6-7. ISBN 978-0-8196-0189-6. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. This Edict is the first which definitely introduces Catholic orthodoxy as the established religion of the Roman world. Acknowledgment of the true doctrine of the Trinity is made the test of State recognition.
    7. "The Edict of Thessalonica". History Today.
    8. Sabatini (1930), p. 13.
    9. Pharr, Clyde (1952). The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions. Princeton University Press. pp. 440–476.
    10. Sabatini (1930), p. 14.
    11. Momigliano, Arnaldo (1977). Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography. Wesleyan University Press. p. 113.
    12. Jedin, Hubert & Dolan, John (1993). "41: The Priscillianist Movement". The Early church: an abridgment of History of the church (Volumes 1 to 3). Wesleyan University Press. pp. 226–228.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
    13. Sabatini (1930), p. 17.
    14. "Text of ad abolendam issued by Pope Lucius III, Synod of Verona 4th November 1184". Professor Moriarty. Retrieved 12 February 2024.
    15. Thomsett (2010), p. 13.
    16. Frassetto (2007), p. 68.
    17. Leff (1967), p. 37.
    18. Leff (1967), p. 42.
    19. Brian Catlos "Secundum suam zunam": Muslims in the Laws of the Aragonese "Reconquista", Mediterranean Studies Vol. 7 (1998), pp. 13–26 Published by: Penn State University Press
    20. Kamen (1998), p. 4
    21. Peters (1988), p. 79.
    22. Peters (1988), p. 82.
    23. ^ Letter of Hasdai Crescas, Shevaṭ Yehudah by Solomon ibn Verga (ed. Dr. M. Wiener), Hannover 1855, pp. 128–130 (pp. 138–140 in PDF); Fritz Kobler, Letters of the Jews through the Ages, London 1952, pp. 272–275; Mitre Fernández, Emilio (1994). Secretariado de Publicaciones e Intercambio Editorial (ed.). Los judíos de Castilla en tiempo de Enrique III : el pogrom de 1391 [The Castilian Jews at the time of Henry III: the 1391 pogrom] (in Spanish). Valladolid University. ISBN 978-84-7762-449-3.; Solomon ibn Verga, Shevaṭ Yehudah (The Sceptre of Judah), Lvov 1846, p. 76 in PDF.
    24. "HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שבט יהודה -- וירגא, שלמה בן יהודה, 1460-1554". www.hebrewbooks.org. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
    25. "HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שבט יהודה -- וירגא, שלמה בן יהודה, 1460-1554". www.hebrewbooks.org. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
    26. "HebrewBooks.org Sefer Detail: שלשלת הקבלה -- יחיא, גדליה בן יוסף אבן, 1515-1587". www.hebrewbooks.org. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
    27. Abraham Zacuto, Sefer Yuchasin, Kraków 1580 (q.v. Sefer Yuchasin, p. 266 in PDF) (Hebrew).
    28. Raymond of Peñafort, Summa, lib. 1 p. 33, citing D.45 c.5.
    29. Kamen (1998), p. 10
    30. Notably Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria, author of Scrutinium Scripturarum, Jeronimo de Santa Fe (Hebraomastix) and Pedro de la Caballeria (Zelus Christi contra Judaeos). All three were conversos. (Kamen (1998), p. 39).
    31. Notably the Libro verde de Aragon and Tizón de la nobleza de España (cited in Kamen (1998), p. 38).
    32. ^ Pérez (2005).
    33. Pérez, Joseph (2012) . Breve Historia de la Inquisición en España. Barcelona: Crítica. ISBN 978-84-08-00695-4.
    34. Canessa De Sanguinetti, Marta. El Bien Nacer: Limpieza De Oficios Y Limpieza De Sangre : Raíces Ibéricas De Un Mal Latinoamericano. Taurus, Ediciones Santillana, 2000.
    35. ^ Barea, María Elvira Roca (2016). Imperiofobia Y Leyenda Negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos Y El Imperio Español (in Spanish). Siruela.
    36. Abou Al Fadl, K. (1994). Islamic law and Muslim minorities: the juristic discourse on Muslim minorities from the second/eight to the eleventh/seventeenth centuries. Islamic Law and Society, 1.
    37. Goosenes, A. (1997). Les inquisitions modernes dans les Pays-Bas meridionaux. 1520–1633. 2 vols. Bruselas
    38. Boronat, P. (1901). Los moriscos españoles y su expulsión. 2 vols. Valencia.
    39. Stuart, Nancy Rubin. Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen. New York: ASJA Press, 2004.
    40. Black, Robert. Machiavelli. Abigdon, Oxon: Routledge, Tylor, 2013. pp. 83–120 (the quote is paraphrased)
    41. González, Óscar (2009). El Rey Y El Papa: Política Y Diplomacia En Los Albores Del Renacimiento (Castilla En El Siglo XV). Sílex.
    42. ^ The Marranos of Spain. From the late XIVth to the early XVIth Century, 1966. Ithaca, 1999
    43. "Introduction, Part 1 – British History Online". www.british-history.ac.uk.
    44. (cf. CJC can. 1634 §1, ST IIa IIæ Q11 A3; CCC pp. 2357-8, Persona Humana 1975, ST IIa IIæ Q154 AA11, 12)
    45. Gorsky, Jeffrey (2015). Exiles in Sepharad : The Jewish Millennium in Spain. University of Nebraska Press. p. 246.
    46. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Spanish Inquisition Timeline". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 15 December 2021. {{cite web}}: |last1= has generic name (help)
    47. Sabatini (1930), pp. 89–90.
    48. Peters (1988), p. 85.
    49. Saraiva (2001), p. XXXV.
    50. Saraiva (2001), p. 40.
    51. Peters (1988), p. 89.
    52. ^ Cited in Kamen (1998), p. 49
    53. Sabatini (1930), p. 107-108.
    54. ^ Kamen (1998), pp. 49–50
    55. Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. 1976. p. 588.
    56. Archbishop Arnold H. Mathew, The Life and Times of Rodrigo Borgia, pp. 52–53. Quote: "Isabella's Confessor, Torquemada, had imbued her with the idea that the suppression of all heresy within her realms was a sacred duty. She had, therefore, in November 1478, obtained a bull from the Pope, Sixtus IV., for the establishment of the Inquisition in Castile. Many modern writers have sought to reduce her share in the introduction of this terrible institution, but it must be remembered that Isabella herself probably considered it a meritorious action to punish with inhuman barbarity those whom she looked upon as the enemies of the Almighty. In 1480, two Dominicans were appointed by her, as Inquisitors, to set up their tribunal at Seville. Before the end of the year 1481, 2,000 victims were burned alive in Andalusia alone. The Pope himself became alarmed and threatened to withdraw the bull, but Ferdinand intimated that he would make the Inquisition altogether an independent tribunal. This it became later for all practical purposes, and its iniquitous proceedings continued unchecked."
    57. Torquemada, Tomás de (1667). Compilacion de las Instrucciones del Oficio de la Santa Inquisicion (PDF) (in Spanish). Diego Diaz de la Carrera.
    58. Sabatini (1930), pp. 142, 147.
    59. Pérez (2005), p. 135.
    60. Pérez (2005), pp. 135–136.
    61. Ben-Sasson, H.H., editor. A History of the Jewish People. Harvard University Press, 1976, pp. 588–590.
    62. Kamen (1998), p. 157
    63. Kamen (1998), p. 60
    64. Quoted in Kamen (1998), p. 20
    65. Suárez Fernández, Luis (2012). La expulsión de los judíos. Un problema europeo. Barcelona: Ariel.
    66. Kamen (1998), pp. 29–31
    67. Kamen (1998), p. 24
    68. Murphy (2012), p. 75.
    69. Kamen (2014), p. 369
    70. Kamen (2014), p. 370
    71. S.P. Scott: History, Vol II, p. 259.
    72. Absent records, the Inquisition decreed that all Moors were to be regarded as baptized, and thus were Moriscos, subject to the Inquisition. Secular authorities then decreed (in 1526) that 40 years of religious instruction would precede any prosecution. Fifty Moriscos were burnt at the stake before the Crown clarified its position. Neither the Church nor the Moriscos utilized the years well. The Moriscos can be stereotyped as poor, rural, uneducated agricultural workers who spoke Arabic. The Church had limited willingness or ability to educate this now-hostile group.Green (2007), pp. 124–127
    73. Trevor J. Dadson, The Assimilation of Spain's Moriscos: Fiction or Reality? Journal of Levantine Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 11–30
    74. Kamen (1998), p. 222
    75. Kamen (1998), p. 217
    76. Kamen (1998), p. 225
    77. Lea (1901), p. 308
    78. Lea (1901), p. 345
    79. Trevor J. Dadson: The Assimilation of Spain's Moriscos: Fiction or Reality? Archived 12 June 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Journal of Levantine Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 2011, pp. 11–30
    80. Boase, Roger (4 April 2002). "The Muslim Expulsion from Spain". History Today. 52 (4). The majority of those permanently expelled settling in the Maghreb or Barbary Coast, especially in Oran, Tunis, Tlemcen, Tetuán, Rabat and Salé. Many travelled overland to France, but after the assassination of Henry of Navarre by Ravaillac in May 1610, they were forced to emigrate to Italy, Sicily or Constantinople.
    81. Adams, Susan M.; Bosch, Elena; Balaresque, Patricia L.; Ballereau, Stéphane J.; Lee, Andrew C.; Arroyo, Eduardo; López-Parra, Ana M.; Aler, Mercedes; Grifo, Marina S. Gisbert; Brion, Maria; Carracedo, Angel; Lavinha, João; Martínez-Jarreta, Begoña; Quintana-Murci, Lluis; Picornell, Antònia; Ramon, Misericordia; Skorecki, Karl; Behar, Doron M.; Calafell, Francesc; Jobling, Mark A. (December 2008). "The Genetic Legacy of Religious Diversity and Intolerance: Paternal Lineages of Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula". The American Journal of Human Genetics. 83 (6): 725–736. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.11.007. ISSN 0002-9297. PMC 2668061. PMID 19061982.
    82. Michel Boeglin: La expulsión de los moriscos de Andalucía y sus límites. El caso de Sevilla (1610–1613) (In Spanish)
    83. Vínculos Historia: The Moriscos who remained. The permanence of Islamic origin population in Early Modern Spain: Kingdom of Granada, XVII–XVIII centuries (In Spanish)
    84. Kamen (2014), p. 100
    85. Kamen (2014), p. 94
    86. Kamen (2014), p. 126
    87. These trials, specifically those of Valladolid, form the basis of the plot of The Heretic: A Novel of the Inquisition by Miguel Delibes (Overlook: 2006).
    88. Kamen (1998), p. 99 gives the figure of about 100 executions for heresy of any kind between 1559 and 1566. He compares these figures with those condemned to death in other European countries during the same period, concluding that in similar periods England, under Mary Tudor, executed about twice as many for heresy: in France, three times the number, and ten times as many in the Low Countries.
    89. Kamen (2014), pp. 102–108
    90. Kamen (1998), p. 98
    91. Kamen (1998), pp. 99–100
    92. Rodriguez-Sala, Maria Luisa. "Los Protestantes y la Inquisión" (PDF) (in Spanish). UNAM. Retrieved 14 January 2022.
    93. These trials are the theme of the film Akelarre, by the Spanish director Pedro Olea.
    94. Henry Kamen. The Spanish Inquisition A Historical Revision. 1999
    95. Cited in Henningsen, Gustav, ed. "The Salazar Documents: Inquisitor Alonso de Salazar Frías and Others on the Basque Witch Persecution." Cultures, Beliefs, and Traditions: Medieval and Early Modern Peoples, Vol 21. Boston: Koninklijke Brill, 2004. "Second Report of Salazar to the Inquisitor General (Logroño, 24 March 1612): An account of the whole visitation and publication of the Edict with special reference to the witches' sect". p. 352.
    96. Green (2007), pp. 7, 223–224
    97. Kamen, Henry (2 February 1981). "500 Years of the Spanish Inquisition". History Today Volume 31 Issue 2. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
    98. Monter (1990), p. 259
    99. Monter (1990), p. 279
    100. Kamen, Henry (2011). La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica. pp. 192, 259
    101. Monter (1990), pp. 280–282
    102. ^ Kamen (1998), p. 277
    103. Monter (1990), pp. 281–283
    104. Monter (1990), pp. 284–285
    105. Pérez (2005), p. 91.
    106. ^ Monter (1990), pp. 276–299
    107. Green (2007), p. 320
    108. ^ William R. Denslow, Harry S. Truman: 10,000 Famous Freemasons, ISBN 1-4179-7579-2.
    109. Bleiberg, Germán; Ihrie, Maureen; Pérez, Janet (1993). Dictionary of the Literature of the Iberian Peninsula. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 374–. ISBN 978-0-313-28731-2.
    110. Walkley, Clive (2010). Juan Esquivel: A Master of Sacred Music During the Spanish Golden Age. Boydell & Brewer. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-1-84383-587-5.
    111. Johnson, Paul, A History of Christianity, Penguin, 1976.
    112. Kamen (2005), pp. 126–130
    113. Green (2007), p. 296
    114. Green (2007), p. 298
    115. Statistics are not available for Spanish oarsmen, but the general state of Mediterranean oared galleys circa 1570 was grim; cf. Crowley, Roger (2009). Empires of the sea: The siege of Malta, the battle of Lepanto, and the contest for the center of the world. New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks. pp. 77–78. ISBN 978-0-8129-77646.: "... galley slaves led lives bitter and short. ... One way or another the oared galley consumed men like fuel. Each dying wretch dumped overboard had to be replaced—and there were never enough."
    116. Lorenzo Arrazola, Enciclopedia Espanola De Derecho Y Administracion: Ciu-Col (Enciclopedia of Spanish Penal and Administrative Law). Madrid: Saraswati Press, 2012, pp. 572
    117. Cc̀eres, Fernando (2007). Estudios Sobre Cultura, Guerra Y Polt̕ica En La Corona De Castilla [Studies Over War Culture and Politics in the Kingdom of Castile]. Editorial Csic Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientf̕icas. siglos xiv–xvii.
    118. Kaler, Amy (1998). Fertility, Gender and War: The culture of contraception. University of Minnesota Press.
    119. "INQUISICIÓN,L.960 - Libro de ejemplares del Tribunal de Valencia". PARES. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
    120. Henningsen, Gustav: The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind, p. 220.
    121. García Cárcel (1976), p. 21
    122. Kamen (1998), p. 141
    123. In Sicily, the Inquisition functioned until 30 March 1782, when it was abolished by King Ferdinand IV of Naples. It is estimated that 200 people were executed during this period.
    124. García Cárcel (1976), p. 24
    125. ^ Cited in Kamen (1998), p. 153
    126. Kamen (1998), p. 57
    127. Pérez (2005), pp. 135, 136.
    128. Kamen (1998), p. 174
    129. Pérez (2005), pp. 139, 140.
    130. Lea (1906), p. 91 Volume 2.
    131. "In the tribunal of Valladolid, in 1699, various suspects (including a girl of 9 and a boy of 14) were jailed for up to two years with having had the least evaluation of the accusations presented against them" (Kamen (1998), p. 183).
    132. Kamen (1998), p. 184
    133. Sabatini (1930), p. 173.
    134. Walsh, Thomas William, Characters of the Inquisition, P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1940, p. 163.
    135. "Walsh_letter_to_Roth.htm". www.jrbooksonline.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
    136. Saraiva (2001), pp. 69–70.
    137. Sabatini (1930), p. 195.
    138. Homza (2006), pp. XXIV.
    139. ^ Madden, Thomas (1 October 2003). "The Truth about the Spanish Inquisition". Mary Foundation. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022.
    140. Martínez Millán, José (2007). La Inquisición Española (in Spanish). Alianza Editorial.
    141. Kamen, Henry (2011). La Inquisición Española. Una revisión histórica. pp. 191–192.
    142. Saraiva (2001), p. 61-62.
    143. Lea (1906), pp. 32-33 Volume III.
    144. Sabatini (1930), p. 162.
    145. H. C. Lea, III, p. 33, Cited in Kamen (1998), p. 185. García Cárcel (1976), p. 43 finds the same statistics.
    146. Messori, Vittorio (2000). Leyendas Negras de la Iglesia. Editorial Planeta (this source is a Catholic apologist)
    147. ^ Bethencourt, Francisco. La Inquisición En La Época Moderna: España, Portugal E Italia, Siglos xv–xix. Madrid: Akal, 1997.
    148. Hassner, Ron E. (2020). "The Cost of Torture: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition". Security Studies. 29 (3): 457–492. doi:10.1080/09636412.2020.1761441. ISSN 0963-6412. S2CID 219405563.
    149. Haliczer, Stephen; Haliczer (1 January 1990). Inquisition and Society in the Kingdom of Valencia, 1478-1834. University of California Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-520-06729-5.
    150. Peters, Edward, Inquisition, Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, pp. 92–93, University of California Press (1989), ISBN 0-520-06630-8.
    151. Somers, Michelle (14 December 2019). "Editor". Myth of the Spanish Inquisition. BBC Documentary. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
    152. Sabatini (1930), p. 162, 197,198.
    153. Sabatini (1930), p. 198.
    154. ^ Kamen (1998), pp. 190–191.
    155. Kamen (1998), p. 189
    156. Crespo Vargas, Pablo L. La Inquisición Española Y Las Supersticiones En El Caribe Hispano. Madrid: Palibrio, 2011. pp. 120–130.
    157. Sabatini, Rafael, Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History, p. 190, Kessinger Publishing (2003), ISBN 0-7661-3161-0.
    158. Scott (1959), p. 171.
    159. Carrol. James, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History, p. 356, Houghton Mifflin Books (2002), ISBN 0-618-21908-0.
    160. Peters, Edward, Inquisition, Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, p. 65, University of California Press (1989), ISBN 0-520-06630-8.
    161. Homza (2006), p. XXV.
    162. Murphy (2012), p. 89.
    163. Scott (1959), p. 32.
    164. Bergemann (2019), p. 58.
    165. Bergemann (2019), p. 45.
    166. ^ Bergemann (2019), p. 45-46.
    167. Lea (1906), p. 183-185 Volume III.
    168. Haliczer (1990), p. 83-85.
    169. Bergemann (2019), p. 46.
    170. Sabatini (1930), p. 169-172, 222, 277-279, 432.
    171. Homza (2006), p. XIV.
    172. Pérez (2005), p. 136.
    173. García Cárcel (1976), p. 39
    174. "Spain – The conquest of Granada". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
    175. Martínez, Doris Moreno (1997). "Cirios, trompetas y altares. El auto de fe como fiesta". Espacio. Tiempo y Forma, Serie IV História Moderna: 143–171.
    176. Sabatini (1930), p. 270-280.
    177. Peters (1988), pp. 93–94.
    178. Kamen (1998), pp. 192–213
    179. Stavans 2005: xxxiv.
    180. Azevedo, João Lúcio de (1922). O Marquês de Pombal e a sua época (in Portuguese). Annuario do Brasil. p. 285.
    181. Freitas, Jordão de (1916). O Marquez de Pombal e o Santo Oficio da Inquisição (Memoria enriquecida com documentos inéditos e facsimiles de assignaturas do benemerito reedificador da cidade de Lisboa) (in Portuguese). Soc. Editora José Bastos. pp. 10, 106, 122.
    182. Cited in Elorza, La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado. Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario La Inquisición; p. 81.
    183. Members of the government and the Council of Castile, as well as other members close to the court, obtained special authorization for books purchased in France, the Low Countries or Germany to cross the border without inspection by members of the Holy Office. This practice grew beginning with the reign of Charles III.
    184. Elorza, La Inquisición y el pensamiento ilustrado. p. 84.
    185. The argument presented in the periodicals and other works circulating in Spain were virtually exact copies of the reflections of Montesquieu or Rousseau, translated into Spanish.
    186. Church properties, in general, and those of the Holy Office in particular, occupied large tracts of today's Castile and León, Extremadura and Andalucia. The properties were given under feudal terms to farmers or to localities who used them as community property with many restrictions, owing a part of the rent, generally in cash, to the church.
    187. Elorza, La Inquisición y el Pensamiento Ilustrado. Historia 16. Especial 10º Aniversario La Inquisición; p. 88
    188. See Antonio Puigblanch, La Inquisición sin máscara, Cádiz, 1811–1813.
    189. Kamen (2014), p. 382
    190. Historians have different interpretations. One argument is that during the Ominous Decade, the Inquisition was re-established- because of a statement made by King Alphonso upon a visit to the Vatican that he would reintroduce it if the occasion arose, but the Royal Decree that would have abolished the order of the Trienio Liberal was never approved, or at least, never published. The formal abolition under the regency of Maria Cristina was thus nothing more than a ratification of the abolition of 1820.
    191. Pérez (2005), pp. 100.
    192. Kamen (2014), pp. 372–373.
    193. Times, Richard Ederspecial To the New York (17 December 1968). "1492 Ban on Jews Is Voided by Spain; 1492 BAN ON JEWS IS VOIDED IN SPAIN". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
    194. Juif, Dácil; Baten, Joerg; Pérez-Artés, Mari Carmen (2020). "Numeracy of Religious Minorities in Spain and Portugal During the Inquisition Era". The Revista de Historia Económica – Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History. 38: 147–184. doi:10.1017/S021261091900034X. hdl:10016/36127. S2CID 214199340.
    195. Anderson, James Maxwell. Daily Life during the Spanish Inquisition. Greenwood Press, 2002. ISBN 0-313-31667-8.
    196. Kamen (1998), p. 150
    197. Eire, Carlos M. N. Reformations: The Early Modern World 1450–1650. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016 pp 640
    198. Mohnhaupt, Heinz; Simon, Dieter (1992). Vorträge zur Justizforschung: Geschichte und Theorie (in German). V. Klostermann. ISBN 978-3-465-02627-3.
    199. W. Monter, Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily, Cambridge 2003, p. 53.
    200. Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Los Cuatro Tiempos, in Bartolomé Benassar, Inquisición Española: poder político y control social, pp. 15–39.
    201. García Cárcel (1976)
    202. Kamen (2005), p. 15
    203. ^ Henningsen, The Database of the Spanish Inquisition, p. 84.
    204. ^ Henningsen, The Database of the Spanish Inquisition, p. 58.
    205. ^ W. Monter, Frontiers of heresy, p. 327.
    206. W. Monter, pp. 309, 329.
    207. Museo de la Inquisición y del Congreso.
    208. See H. Ch. Lea, The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies, London 1922, pp. 204 ff. and The Catholic Encyclopedia: Mexico.
    209. Francisco Fajardo Spínola, La actividad procesal del Santo Oficio. Algunas consideraciones sobre su estudio, Manuscrits 17, 1999, p. 114.
    210. One burned in 1567 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, pp. 41–42), 13 in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, Frontiers of heresy, p. 48), 5 burned in 1627, another 5 burned in 1655 (Kamen (2005), p. 266) and 3 burned alive in 1665 (Miriam Bodian, Dying in the law of Moses: crypto-Jewish martyrdom in the Iberian world, Indiana University Press 2007, p. 219).
    211. cf. Henningsen, p. 68.
    212. Four burned between 1553 and 1558 (W. Monter, Frontiers of heresy, pp. 37–38 n. 22), one in 1561 (W. Monter, Frontiers of heresy, p. 233), 19 others in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, Frontiers of heresy, p. 48) and 10 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. V, 2009, p. 91).
    213. Two persons condemned to death in 1678 were burned in the auto de fe celebrated in Madrid in 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, History of the Inquisition of Spain, New York 1907, vol. III, p. 300). Therefore, they are included in the number of executions for Toledo/Madrid.
    214. This number includes 7 persons burned ca. 1545 (H. Ch. Lea, History of the Inquisition of Spain, New York 1907, vol. III, p. 189), 9 persons burned in 1550–52 (Flora García Ivars, La represión en el tribunal inquisitorial de Granada, 1550–1819, ed. Akal, 1991, p. 194), 14 persons burned in the 1560s. (W. Monter, p. 44, 233), 24 burned between 1570 and 1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 12 burned in 1654 (Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews, Vol. V, 2009, p. 92) and 6 burned in 1672 (A. J. Saraiva, H. P. Salomon, I. S. D. Sassoon: The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536–1765. Leiden, Boston, and Cologne: Brill, 2001, p. 217 n. 62).
    215. 154 burned between 1557 and 1568 (J. L. Morales y Marin: El Alcazar de la Inquisicion en Murcia, s. 40), 11 executed in the period 1570–1625 (W. Monter, p. 48) and 25 between 1686 and 1699 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, El auto de fe, Madryt 1992, p. 97).
    216. This number includes 2 executions in the auto-da-fé in 1545 (W.Monter, Frontiers of heresy, p. 38), 114 executions in the autos da fe between 1559 and 1660 (Victoria González de Caldas, Judíos o cristianos?, Universidad de Sevilla, 2000, p. 528) and 12 executions in the autos da fe between 1666 and 1695 (Consuelo Maqueda Abreu, El auto de fe, Madrid 1992, pp. 99–100).
    217. 13 burned in the autos da fe between 1555 and 1569 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 2, Gütersloh 1902, p. 79–91.), 25 burned between 1570 and 1625 (W. Monter, p. 48), 2 burned between 1648 and 1699 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. IV, New York 1907, p. 524; cf. Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet (ed.), Historia de la Inquisición en España y América, vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395), and 26 burned in two autos da fe in Madrid w 1632 and 1680 (H. Ch. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. III, New York 1907, p. 228).
    218. This number includes 6 executions given by Henningsen and Contreras for the period 1620–1670 (Henningsen, The Database of the Spanish Inquisition, pp. 58 and 65), 26 burned in two famous autos-da-fé in 1559 (W.Monter, Frontiers of heresy, pp. 41, 44),2 burned in 1561 (W. Monter, pp. 41, 44, 233),15 burned between 1562 and 1567 (E. Schäffer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, Bd. 3, Gütersloh 1902, p. 131) and 5 burned in 1691 (H. Ch. Lea, History of the Inquisition of Spain, New York 1907, vol. III, p. 197).
    219. Source: Teofanes Egido, Las modificaciones de la tipologia: nueva estructura delictiva, in: Joaquín Pérez Villanueva & Bartolomé Escandell Bonet, Historia de la Inquisición en España y América, vol. 1, Madrid 1984, p. 1395.
    220. ^ Green (2007), pp. 4–5
    221. Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 63
    222. Archivo General de las Indias, Seville, Santa Fe 228, Expediente 81A, n. 33
    223. Green (2007), p. 65
    224. Barrios, Manuel (1991). El Tribunal de la Inquisicion en Andalucia: Seleccion de Textos y Documentos. Seville: J. Rodriguez Castillejo S.A. p. 58.
    225. Blanco, Patricia R. (20 December 2019). "Las citas tergiversadas del superventas sobre la leyenda negra española". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582.
    226. Contreras, Jaime y Gustav Henningsen (1986). "Forty-four thousand cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1700): analysis of a historical data bank", en Henningsen G., J. A. Tedeschi et al. (comps.), The Inquisition in early modern Europe: studies on sources and methods. Dekalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
    227. Pérez, Joseph (2006). The Spanish Inquisition: a history. New Haven, CT : Yale University Press; p. 173
    228. Juan Antonio Llorente: Historia crítica de la Inquisición en España (tomo IV, p. 183). Madrid: Hiperión, 1980.
    229. Drelichman, Mauricio; Vidal-Robert, Jordi; Voth, Hans-Joachim (2021). "The long-run effects of religious persecution: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (33): e2022881118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11822881D. doi:10.1073/pnas.2022881118. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 8379970. PMID 34389666.
    230. ^ Kagan, Richard L. (19 April 1998). "A Kinder, Gentler Inquisition". Archive.nytimes.com. Retrieved 11 February 2024.
    231. ^ "Henry Charles Lea Papers – Biographical Sketch". Penn Libraries - University of Pennsylvania. Univ. of Pennsylvania. –Penn Special Collections. Archived from the original on 10 September 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
    232. Van Hove, Brian (12 November 1996). "A New Industry: The Inquisition". Catholic.net. Archived from the original on 5 April 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2007.
    233. Green (2007), p. 9-10.
    234. See for example Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Los Cuatro Tiempos, in Bartolomé Benassar, Inquisición Española: poder político y control social, pp. 15–39 and García Cárcel (1976)
    235. "Benzion Netanyahu's History". Tablet Magazine. 30 April 2012.
    236. Vicente Ángel Álvarez Palenzuela. Judíos y conversos en la España medieval. Estado de la cuestión (Jews and converts in medieval Spain. Estate of the matter). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) eHumanista/Converso 4 (2015):156–191 It can be checked for free here.
    237. Morsen, Gary Saul (16 August 2024). "The Brothers Karamazov". Britannica. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
    238. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (2009). The Grand Inquisitor. Penguin Books.
    239. Alterton, Margaret. "An Additional Source for Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum'" from Modern Language Notes, Vol. 48, No. 6 (Jun., 1933), p. 349
    240. "The Pit and the Pendulum". Goodreads. Retrieved 5 September 2024.
    241. "Magnificent Epic: Cathedral of the Sea by Ildefonso Falcones". The History Lad. 30 June 2012. Retrieved 5 September 2024.

    General and cited references

    Seminal classical works

    Revisionist books

    • Barea, María Elvira Roca (2016). Imperiofobia Y Leyenda Negra: Roma, Rusia, Estados Unidos Y El Imperio Español. Siruela.
    • Carroll, Warren H., Isabel: the Catholic Queen, Christendom Press (1991)
    • García Cárcel, Ricardo (1976). Orígenes de la Inquisición Española. El Tribunal de Valencia, 1478–1530. Barcelona.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
    • Graizbord, David L. Souls in Dispute: Converso Identities in Iberia and the Jewish Diaspora, 1580–1700. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2004.
    • Homza, Lu Ann (2006). The Spanish Inquisition, 1478–1614, An Anthology of Sources. Hackett Publishing.
    • Kamen, Henry (1998). The Spanish Inquisition: a Historical Revision. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07522-9.
    • Kamen, Henry (2005). Inkwizycja Hiszpańska [The Spanish Inquisition] (in Polish). Warsaw: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy. ISBN 978-83-06-02963-5.
    • Kamen, Henry (2014). The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-18051-0. Kamen has published 4 editions under 3 titles: "First edition published 1965 ... as The Spanish Inquisition. Second edition published 1985 ... as Inquisition and Society in Spain. Third edition published 1998 ... as The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. Fourth edition 2014."
    • Kritzler, Edward, Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean. Anchor Books 2009. ISBN 978-0-7679-1952-4
    • Monter, E. William (1990). Frontiers of Heresy: The Spanish Inquisition from the Basque Lands to Sicily. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52259-5.
    • Nirenberg, David. (2013). Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-34791-3. ch. 5 "Revenge of the Savior: Jews and Power in Medieval Europe", ch. 6 "The Extinction of Spain's Jews and the Birth of Its Inquisition"
    • Parker, Geoffrey (1982). "Some recent work on the Inquisition in Spain and Italy". Journal of Modern History. 54 (3): 519–532. doi:10.1086/244181. JSTOR 1906231. S2CID 143860010.
    • Peters, Edward (1988). Inquisition. New York & London: Free Press Collier Macmillan. ISBN 978-0029249802.
    • Rawlings, Helen, The Spanish Inquisition, Blackwell Publishing (2006)

    Old scholarship

    • Adler, Elkan Nathan – Autos de fe and the Jew (1908)
    • Baião, António – A Inquisição em Portugal e no Brasil (1921)
    • Baker, J. – History of the Inquisition (1736)
    • Ballester, Vicente Vignau – Catálogo de las causas contra la fe seguidas ante el tribunal de Santo oficio de la inquisición de Toledo (,,,) (1903)
    • Bell, Aubrey F.G. – Luis de Leon: A Study of the Spanish Renaissance (1925)
    • Cappa, Ricardo – La Inquisicion Espanola (1888)
    • Cardew, Alexander – A Short History of the Inquisition (1933)
    • Castellano y de la Pena, Gaspar Un Complot Terrorista en el Siglo XV; los Comienzos de la Inquisicion Aragonesa, (1927)
    • Coulton, George Gordon – The Inquisition (1929)
    • Garau, Francisco – La Fee Triunfante en quatro autos celebrados en Mallorca por el Santo Oficio de la Inquisición en que han salido ochenta y ocho reos (...) – (1691– reprinted 1931)
    • García, Genaro, La Inquisición de México (1906).
    • García, Genaro, Autos de fe de la Inquisición de Mexico (1910)
    • Herculano, Alexandre , Historia da Origem e Estabelecimento da Inquisiçao em Portugal (English translation, 1926)
    • Jouve, Marguerite – Torquemada (1935)
    • Maistre, Joseph de – Letters on the Spanish Inquisition (1838)
    • Maycock, Alan Lawson – The Inquisition (1926)
    • Marchant, John – A Review of the Bloody Tribunal; or the horrid cruelties of the Inquisition (...) 1770)
    • Marín, Julio Melgares – Procedimientos de la Inquisición (2 volumes), (1886)
    • Medina, José Toribio – "Historia del Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la inquisición de Lima (1569–1820)" (1887)
    • Meliá, Antonio Paz y – Catálogo Abreviado de Papeles de Inquisición (1914)
    • Merveilleux, Charles Frédéric de – Memoires Instructifs pour un Voyageur dans les Divers États de l'Europe (1738)
    • Montes, Raimundo González de – Discovery and Playne Declaration of Sundry Subtile Practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne (1568)
    • Nickerson, Hoffman – The Inquisition (1923)
    • Páramo, Luis de – De origine et progressu Officii Sanctae Inquisitionis, eiusque, dignitate & utilitate 1598
    • Perlas, Ramon de Vilana , La verdadera práctica apostólica de el S. Tribunal de la Inquisición (1735)
    • Puigblanch, Antonio – La Inquisición sin máscara ó Disertacion En Que Se Prueban Hasta La Evidencia Los Vicios De Este Tribunal Y La Necesidad De Que Se Suprima... (1816)]
    • Roth, Cecil – The Spanish Inquisition (1937)
    • Roth, Cecil – History of the Marranos (1932)
    • Sabatini, Rafael (1930). Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (rev. ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company.
    • Sime, William – History of the Inquisition from its origin under Pope Innocent III till the present time. (1834)
    • Teixeira, António José – Antonio Homem e a Inquisicão (1895)
    • Turberville, Arthur Stanley – Medieval History and the Inquisition (1920)
    • Turberville, Arthur Stanley – The Spanish Inquisition (1932).
    • Walsh, William Thomas, Isabella of Spain (1930) and Characters of the Inquisition (1940). Both reprinted by TAN Books (1987).
    • Wilkens, Cornelius August : Spanish Protestants in the Sixteenth Century (1897), 218p. read online at archive.org"Title Catalog". The Library of Iberian Resources. Retrieved 17 May 2006.

    Other

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