Spanish Inquisition

The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición) was authorized by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478 and the first inquisitors, Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín, were appointed by the future Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, in 1480. Although its stated aim was to maintain Christian orthodoxy, it became an effective instrument of state power by replacing the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. Over the course of the Inquisition, the Inquisition prosecuted an estimated 150,000 people for various offences. Of these, an estimated 3,000–5,000 were turned over to the state for execution, particularly in the initial 50 years, mostly by burning at the stake. Other punishments included penance and public flogging, exile, enslavement on galleys, and prison terms ranging from several years to life imprisonment. According to Joseph Pérez an important aspect of many of these punishments was the profit motive confiscation of all the victims' property. 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 intensified following the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1502 ordering Jews and Muslims to either convert to Catholicism, leave Castile or face death. 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 all followed. An estimated 40,000–100,000 Jews were expelled in 1492. Conversos were subjected to blood purity statutes (limpieza de sangre), which introduced racially-based discrimination and antisemitism, lasting into the 19th and 20th centuries. The inquisition expanded to other domains under the Spanish Crown, including Southern Italy and the Americas, while also targeting those accused of...