Page 32 - All About History - Issue 38-16

Isabella of Castile’s Spanish Inquisition

devout queen greatly; the threat they posed to Although defendants were assigned
the religious unity and wellbeing of her kingdom counsel for trial, they were a member
would have been a very real concern. of the Inquisition and their role was to
There were those who advocated an aggressive encourage the accused to tell the truth
approach from the start, but it seems Isabella
was not initially inclined to follow such a course.
Despite a Papal Bull granted in 1478 by Pope Sixtus
IV giving permission to establish the Inquisition
within Castile, Isabella was in no hurry to put it
into practice. Ignoring the advocates of a high-
handed approach, Isabella instead concentrated
attention on religious education, or rather the lack
of it; certain that poor training was the reason
conversos were failing to follow their new faith,
she embarked upon a programme of education to
establish the religious conformity essential for the
security of her reign.
Two men greatly trusted by Isabella – Cardinal
Mendoza and her confessor, the eventual
Archbishop of Granada, Hernando de Talavera –
were entrusted with this vital task. Arriving in
Seville, they set to work, organising priests into
enlightening the misguided conversos. They did
not make much headway, however, and it soon
became clear that they could do little to penetrate
the religious ignorance that plagued the town.
For two years attempts were continued, with
little success. Despite her own reservations, there
were those close to Isabella who continued to
advocate the introduction of an inquisition. Even
her husband Ferdinand, ever the pragmatist, was
all for it; if nothing else, it would prove a good
way of inflating the royal coffers through the
confiscation of converso property. With a heavy
heart and steely resolve, Isabella had to concede
that her attempts to bring religious conformity and Confession
peace to her realm had failed. By a royal decree of
27 September 1480, the Spanish Inquisition – or under torture
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition – was not legally
was unleashed upon Castile. binding: the suspect

Isabella’s initial aim was simple: root out the had to con rm their
false converts among the converso population and confession after for
get rid of the heretics jeopardising her beloved
kingdom. Although popularised in Spain, it was it to stand
not an entirely novel idea, and the new inquisition
was modelled closely on the older Medieval
or
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k
i
ow
W
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Inquisition. Under Isabella and Ferdinand, How it Worked
however, the inquisitorial method was given new What happened for a suspect to go from
life, fuelled by Isabella’s conviction that religious being accused to convicted, and what
unity must be achieved whatever the cost. outcome could they hope for?
Denouncement
With the offer of grace if confession was
made within a certain amount of time,
people were encouraged to come forward
to confess their sins and to name others in
the process.
Trial
Detention The defendant testi ied, and those
The suspect was relieved of their property who denounced them did likewise.
and imprisoned, their family left in Finding witnesses to absolve them
inancial ruin. The process was secret, the or to prove that their accusers were
accused not informed of the nature of the untrustworthy were a suspect’s only
accusations against them. means of defence.
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