The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (Spanish: Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición) was created by Pope Sixtus IV in 1478. In 1480, the first inquisitors, Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín, were chosen by King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile, who later became known as the Catholic Monarchs. The Inquisition’s main goal was to keep Christian beliefs strong, but it also became a way for the government to control people by taking over from the older Inquisition, which was controlled by the Pope.
Over time, the Inquisition punished about 150,000 people for different crimes. Of these, between 3,000 and 5,000 were sent to the state for execution, especially during the first 50 years, often by burning at the stake. Other punishments included making people apologize publicly, whipping them in public, sending them to prison, forcing them to work on ships, or exiling them. Joseph Pérez noted that taking the victims’ property was often a reason for these punishments.
The Inquisition was first used to find people who had converted from Judaism or Islam to Catholicism but were suspected of still practicing their old religions. This effort became stricter after royal laws in 1492 and 1502 required Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism, leave Spain, or face death. Many people were forced to convert, and others were tortured or killed. The Inquisition also persecuted people who had converted to Catholicism (called conversos) and those who were Muslim converts (called moriscos). About 40,000 to 100,000 Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. Rules called "blood purity laws" (limpieza de sangre) later created racial discrimination and antisemitism that lasted into the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Inquisition spread to other areas ruled by Spain, such as southern Italy and the Americas. It also targeted people accused of beliefs like alumbradismo, Protestantism, witchcraft, blasphemy, bigamy, sodomy, and Freemasonry. A key event was the auto-da-fe, where people accused of crimes were publicly displayed, their sentences were read, and they were forced to confess. After this, those found guilty were handed over to the government to carry out their punishments.
Background
In 313, Roman Emperor Constantine passed the Edict of Milan, which made Christianity legal in the Roman Empire. Before this, Christians had been persecuted by earlier emperors. After becoming the official religion, Christianity opposed other beliefs, such as Arianism, Manichaeism, Gnosticism, Adamites, Donatists, Pelagians, and Priscillianists. In 380, Emperor Theodosius I declared Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. This religion considered other Christian beliefs as heresies and supported actions to stop them. In 438, Emperor Theodosius II’s Theodosian Code allowed the government to take property from and execute people who held beliefs considered heretical.
In 587, the royal family of the Visigoths in Spain converted to Catholicism. This led to harsher treatment of Jews, as the monarchy and church worked together to spread Catholicism. Church councils in Toledo imposed rules, such as banning Jewish people from marrying non-Jews or holding government jobs. In 613, King Sisebut ordered Jews to convert to Christianity or leave Spain, causing many to flee or change their religion. Later rulers and church leaders worsened the situation by banning Jewish religious practices, forcing conversions, seizing property, enslaving Jews after accusations of conspiracy in 694, taking Jewish children from their families, and imposing heavy economic burdens. These actions pushed many Jews to support the Muslim invasion of Spain in 711.
During the Crusades, Muslims in the Holy Land were the main targets. However, other groups seen as threats to Christianity were also persecuted. In 1184, Pope Lucius III created the Episcopal Inquisition to stop the Cathar religion in southern France. Heretics were to be handed over to government officials, lose their property, and be excommunicated. When this failed, Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade in 1209. This campaign led to the deaths of 200,000 to 1,000,000 Cathars, including massacres like the one at Béziers, and the burning of hundreds at the stake. This marked the start of a more organized effort to fight heresy. The Dominican Order was formed to preach against heresy and later became responsible for investigations across Europe. In 1252, Pope Innocent IV allowed inquisitors to use torture against suspected heretics.
European Jews faced persecution, including violence and forced expulsions. While some papal laws tried to protect Jews, other laws restricted their rights. Starting in the 1200s, Jews were banned from government jobs, required to wear special clothing, had their religious books burned, and were forced to live in separate areas called ghettos. They were also expelled from the Papal States. In 1231, Pope Gregory IX expanded the Papal Inquisition to Aragon, targeting Cathars, Jewish converts, and others seen as heretics. Spanish religious leaders wrote books that attacked Jews and Muslims. In Castile, the Church Synod of Zamora protested when the king gave Jews certain rights. Popes and government groups called for more restrictions on Jews. Some kings protected Jews because they relied on their taxes and services, but others, like Alfonso X, Sancho IV, and Henry II, limited Jewish rights and used anti-Jewish feelings for political purposes.
In 1320, the Shepherds' Crusade, which aimed to help reclaim Spain from Muslims, instead killed hundreds of Jews in France and Spain. In 1328, crowds inspired by a preacher named Pedro Olligoyen attacked Jewish communities in Navarre. Over time, religious leaders like Ferrand Martínez, an archdeacon in Ecija, spread anti-Jewish messages. This led to violent attacks in 1391, killing thousands of Jews in cities like Seville, Barcelona, Valencia, Toledo, and Mallorca. To survive, many Jews fled to North Africa, while about 100,000 Spanish Jews converted to Catholicism. After more anti-Jewish violence in 1435, the Papal Inquisitor Antonio Murta forced local Jews to convert. These converts, called conversos, faced suspicion that they still practiced Judaism secretly. During times of hardship, such as food shortages, disease, or inflation, conversos were attacked. For example, in 1449, conversos in Toledo were tortured and burned alive, and similar attacks happened in 1462, 1467, and 1473 in Cordoba, where mobs killed conversos of all ages and destroyed their homes.
Activity of the Inquisition
Queen Isabella believed that some people in Spain, called conversos, were secretly practicing Judaism even after being baptized. This belief was supported by a report from Pedro González de Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, and Tomás de Torquemada, a religious advisor to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The Catholic monarchs asked the Pope to allow an inquisition in Spain to investigate these claims. In 1478, Pope Sixtus IV gave them a document called Exigit sincerae devotionis affectus, which allowed them to punish people who had been baptized but returned to Jewish customs and beliefs. The document stated that these people were not only practicing their old religion but also influencing others to do the same. To stop this, the monarchs were allowed to choose three bishops or priests to act as inquisitors.
The first two inquisitors, Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín, were chosen in 1480. The first public execution, called an auto de fé, happened in Seville on February 6, 1481, when six people were burned alive. Many conversos fled Spain in fear, which hurt the economy and reduced government income. Queen Isabella, however, believed it was important to "cleanse the country of heresy."
As the inquisition grew, Pope Sixtus IV added more inquisitors in 1481, including Tomás de Torquemada. By 1492, inquisition courts were set up in eight cities in Castile: Ávila, Córdoba, Jaén, Medina del Campo, Segovia, Sigüenza, Toledo, and Valladolid. In 1482, King Ferdinand tried to take control of the inquisition in Aragon, but this caused problems because it upset local leaders. People complained about the harsh treatment of conversos to the Pope, who wanted to keep control of the inquisition.
On April 18, 1482, Pope Sixtus IV issued a new document called Ad Perpetuam Rei memoriam, which criticized the inquisition in Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, and Catalonia for being driven by greed rather than religious goals. The Pope said that many innocent Christians were wrongly imprisoned, tortured, and executed based on false accusations. He wanted to treat heresy like other crimes. However, King Ferdinand pretended to doubt the document’s truth and asked the Pope to stop the inquisition. The Pope then agreed to let Ferdinand take full control, appointing Torquemada as the leader of the inquisition in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia.
The inquisition spread to other parts of Spain, including Southern Italy (Sicily and Sardinia) and the Americas, with courts in Lima, Peru, Mexico City, and Cartagena. In 1484, Torquemada created a 28-article code for inquisition procedures, based on a book by Nicholas Eymerich. This code remained unchanged for over 300 years. The Spanish government treated heresy as treason, punishable by death. Courts gave people 30 days to confess or report others for attending Jewish meetings. Inquisitors gathered accusations from neighbors, and signs of secret Judaism included not smoking on Saturdays, buying vegetables before Passover, or buying meat from a converted butcher. Courts assumed the accused were guilty and did not reveal the names of people who made accusations. Trials often used torture, such as water torture, the rack, or hanging people by their wrists with weights on their feet.
Confessions were announced publicly during auto de fé ceremonies, which were as popular as bullfights. In 1680, King Charles II held an auto de fé in Madrid, where 50,000 people watched 118 individuals, mostly Jewish conversos, receive punishments like execution by burning, public flogging, exile, or servitude. Confessed individuals could face prison sentences or lose their property, even if they repented. Between 1536 and 1543, inquisition courts took 87 million maravedis from victims. People who were not punished or who relapsed faced execution.
The inquisition was most active from 1480 to 1530, with about 2,000 executions, mostly Jewish conversos. In Valencia, 91.6% of those judged between 1484 and 1530 were Jewish, and 99.3% in Barcelona from 1484 to 1505. By 1531, trials of conversos dropped to 3%. Persecutions increased again in 1588 when crypto-Jews were found in Quintanar de la Orden and in the 1590s when more denunciations occurred.
In the early 1700s, some conversos fled from Portugal to escape its inquisition. Spanish inquisitors, like Antonio Zapata, reported finding evidence of Judaism, leading to more trials. In 1680, 21 immigrant Jewish conversos were executed in Madrid. Dominican Thomas Navarro blamed Jews for denying Christ, using old anti-Jewish ideas and racist terms. In 1691, 37 local conversos, called chuetas, were burned alive in Mallorca. Accusations of conversos declined in the 1700s. The last person tried for secret Judaism was Manuel Santiago Vivar in Córdoba in 1818.
The Spanish Inquisition aimed to stop conversos from practicing Judaism. Torquemada convinced the monarchs that unbaptized Jews remained a threat, leading to the inquisition’s expansion.
Organization
The Spanish Inquisition did more than deal with religious issues. It also worked for the king and queen. The Inquisitor General, who led the Holy Office, was chosen by the crown. This position was the only one with power across the entire Spanish empire, including the American colonies, except between 1507 and 1518, when one Inquisitor General handled Castile and another handled Aragon.
The Inquisitor General led the Council of the Spanish Inquisition, created in 1483. This group usually had six members, though sometimes up to ten, all chosen by the crown. Over time, the Council of the Suprema gained more power than the Inquisitor General.
By the 17th century, two members of the Royal Council of Castile helped oversee the Inquisition. They advised the monarchy on legal and religious matters. At this time, the Inquisition had six main members, two from the Royal Council of Castile, and one Dominican monk. A legal official managed trials and court cases. With the king’s approval, the Council changed its structure to work better, including dividing work into separate chambers for handling cases. Notable members included:
The Royal Council and the Inquisition worked closely together. They made sure people followed religious rules and helped the king and queen control the country.
The Council of the Suprema met every morning, except on holidays, and for two hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Morning meetings focused on religious beliefs, while afternoon meetings handled cases involving minor religious issues, unacceptable sexual behavior, bigamy, witchcraft, and other matters.
Below the Suprema were groups called tribunals, which fought heresy. These groups first traveled from place to place but later settled in fixed locations. After 1495, the number of tribunals decreased, and their work became more centralized.
In Castile, permanent tribunals were set up. In Aragon, four tribunals were created: Zaragoza and Valencia in 1482, Barcelona in 1484, and Mallorca in 1488. Ferdinand the Catholic started a tribunal in Sicily (in Palermo) in 1513 and another in Sardinia (in Sassari). In the Americas, tribunals were established in Lima and Mexico City in 1569, and in Cartagena (now in Colombia) in 1610.
Composition of the tribunals
Each tribunal started with two inquisitors, calificadores (theologians), an alguacil (bailiff), and a fiscal (prosecutor). Other roles were added as the institution grew. Inquisitors were usually jurists (legal experts) rather than theologians. In 1608, King Philip III required all inquisitors to have legal training. They typically served short terms, such as about two years in the Court of Valencia. Most were from the secular clergy and had university degrees.
The fiscal brought accusations, investigated complaints, and questioned witnesses, sometimes using physical or mental torture. Calificadores, who were usually theologians, decided if a person’s actions broke religious laws. Legal experts gave advice on court procedures. The court had three secretaries: the notario de secuestros (Notary of Property), who recorded the accused’s belongings when they were arrested; the notario del secreto (Notary of the Secret), who wrote down witness statements; and the Escribano General (General Notary), who acted as the court’s main recorder. The alguacil arrested, jailed, and tortured defendants. Other workers included the nuncio, who shared court notices, and the alcaide, who oversaw prisoner care.
Two groups helped the Holy Office: familiares and comissarios. Familiares were non-religious assistants who worked permanently. Their role was considered an honor, showing they were of Old Christian descent and gave them special rights. Most were common people, though some were nobles. Comissarios were religious order members who helped occasionally.
A key part of the Inquisition’s operation was how it funded itself. Without a fixed budget, the Inquisition relied almost entirely on taking property from people who were accused. Many of those accused were wealthy. This system allowed for misuse, as shown in a letter from a converso in Toledo to King Charles I:
"Your Majesty must ensure, above all else, that the costs of the Holy Office are not taken from the property of those condemned. If this happens, they will not eat unless they are burned."
Mode of operation
When the Spanish Inquisition arrived in a city, it issued the Edict of Grace. After Sunday Mass, the inquisitor read the edict to the people, explaining possible heresies and encouraging them to confess to the tribunals to "ease their consciences." These edicts, named for the time period (usually 30–40 days) during which people could confess, allowed individuals to reconcile with the Church without facing severe punishments. The promise of lighter consequences led many to confess voluntarily, often urging others to do the same. This made informants the main source of information for the Inquisition. After about the year 1500, the Edicts of Grace were replaced by Edicts of Faith, which removed the grace period and encouraged people to accuse others of guilt.
Denunciations were made anonymously, so accused individuals did not know who had accused them. This practice was criticized by opponents, as false accusations were common. People sometimes lied to harm neighbors, eliminate rivals, or target those who did not follow religious rules.
This system made everyone a potential informer, turning denunciation into a religious duty. It created a climate of suspicion, where people were watched by neighbors, family, and strangers.
After a denunciation, officials called calificadores decided whether heresy was involved. If so, the accused was taken into custody. Apologist William Thomas Walsh noted that the process kept all information secret, hiding accusations from both the public and the accused, who might never learn they had been suspected. Some people were held in jail for up to two years before being questioned. For example, in Valladolid’s tribunal in 1699, a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy were jailed for two years without their accusations being reviewed.
The Inquisition took the accused’s property to pay for their care, often leaving their families in poverty. Instructions from 1561 tried to address this issue, but Llorente found no evidence that children of condemned heretics were helped.
Prisoners were kept isolated and could not attend Mass or receive religious sacraments. Inquisition jails were similar to other prisons of the time, though some accounts suggest they were better.
During trials, accusers and the accused gave testimony separately. The tribunal assigned a lawyer to advise the accused and help them tell the truth. If the lawyer discovered the client was guilty, they had to stop defending them.
The fiscal led the prosecution, and the notario del secreto wrote down the accused’s words during questioning. Inquisition records are known for being detailed compared to other legal systems of the time.
Defendants could defend themselves by finding people who would vouch for them (abonos) or by showing that the accusers’ witnesses were untrustworthy or enemies (tachas). The identities of these witnesses remained unknown.
Trials followed a structure similar to later legal systems. Apologists claim the Inquisition was fair for its time, as it was professional and efficient. It relied on the king’s political power, without separating church and state. However, some former prisoners said fairness decreased when national or political interests were involved. Historian Walter Ullmann argued that the Inquisition’s procedures ignored basic ideas of justice and distorted legal processes.
The Inquisition used torture to get confessions or information, as allowed by its rules. How often this happened is debated. Torture was used when heresy was "half proven" and could be repeated, as stated in Torquemada’s instructions. Henry Lea estimated that 33.3% of those tried for Protestant heresy in Toledo between 1575 and 1610 were tortured. In Lima, nearly all accused in cases from 1635 to 1639 were tortured. In Valladolid, 11 Jewish cases and 1 Protestant case involved torture in 1624, and all 9 Jewish cases in 1655 used torture.
Vatican Archives suggest lower numbers of torture cases. Apologist Thomas Madden claimed the Inquisition brought order, justice, and compassion to stop unfair treatment of heretics, noting that many Spanish people supported it. However, the use of torture varied over time.
Torture was used in all European civil and religious trials, but the Spanish Inquisition used it more carefully than other courts, with strict rules about timing, methods, and supervision. Some historians, like Haliczer, argue the Inquisition used torture less often than secular courts. Others, like Kamen, say evidence of widespread torture is limited, possibly due to Protestant propaganda or misunderstandings.
One method of torture was the toca, or water interrogation, which forced victims to drink water from a jar, making them feel like they were drowning. Another was the potro, or rack, which stretched the victim’s limbs apart. Confessions were considered "true" even if they were obtained through torture, though refusing to confess could lead to more torture. Some claimed people would say anything under torture. A Franciscan friar named Bernard Délicieux, who was tortured by the Inquisition, died in prison and said the Inquisition’s methods could have unfairly accused even holy figures like St. Peter and St. Paul.
After trials, inquisitors, a bishop’s representative, and theological or legal experts (consultores) met to decide the sentence. If there were disagreements, they had to report to the Suprema.
Trial outcomes included cases where the accused were not present. If someone died before their trial, they were burned in effigy (a symbolic statue). Even after death, inquisitors could punish their families by seizing property and disowning heirs.
The use of death sentences changed over time. García Cárcel noted that in Valencia, 40% of cases before 1530 resulted in death, but by later years, only 3% did. By the mid-16th century, courts rarely used torture, and death sentences became uncommon.
A guilty verdict required the person to participate in an auto de fe, a ceremony where they publicly returned to the Church or faced punishment as unrepentant heretics. These could be public (auto publico or auto general) or private (auto particular).
Initially, public autos were simple, but they later became grand, costly events meant to show the power of the Church and state. These ceremonies were held in large city squares, often on holidays, and included a Catholic Mass, prayers, and a procession of the accused. The event could last hours, with religious and civil leaders present. Artistic depictions sometimes show torture or burning, but these happened separately from the auto de fe, which was a religious act.
The first recorded auto de fe took place in Paris in 1242 under King Louis IX. In Spain, the first occurred in Seville in 1481, where six people were later burned alive. The last public auto de fe in Spain happened in 1691. A famous painting by Francisco Rizi, held in Madrid’s Prado Museum, shows an auto
Transformation in the Enlightenment
During the Enlightenment in Spain, the Inquisition's activities decreased. In the early 1700s, courts punished 111 people by burning them alive and 117 by burning effigies (representations of people), mostly because they practiced Judaism secretly. Under King Philip V, 125 public ceremonies called autos de fe occurred, but only 44 happened during the reigns of King Charles III and King Charles IV.
In the 1700s, Enlightenment ideas caused major changes. Spanish Enlightenment leaders like Olavide (1776), Iriarte (1779), and Jovellanos (1796) were tried by the Inquisition. Jovellanos pointed out that the courts were not working well and that some officials were uneducated, calling them "monks who take the job only to gossip and avoid choir duties; they know little about foreign languages and only some basic theology."
The Inquisition began focusing on controlling books, but it struggled when King Charles III made censorship controlled by the government instead of the Church, which was less strict. As part of the government, the Inquisition lost power. Wealthy nobles and officials imported Enlightenment books, such as Diderot's Encyclopedia, without the Inquisition's approval, weakening its control further.
After the French Revolution, the Council of Castile, worried about revolutionary ideas, restarted the Inquisition to stop French books. In December 1789, King Charles IV and Floridablanca supported a law banning 39 French works for encouraging "independence from rulers" and "destroying political and social order," with fines as punishment.
People opposed the Inquisition secretly. Books praising Voltaire and Montesquieu appeared in 1759. After the Council of Castile stopped requiring approval before books were published in 1785, a newspaper called El Censor shared ideas against the Inquisition. Valentin de Foronda’s Espíritu de los Mejores Diarios promoted freedom of speech and was widely read. Manuel de Aguirre also supported tolerance in El Censor, El Correo de los Ciegos, and El Diario de Madrid.
End of the Inquisition
During Charles IV's rule (1788–1808), even though people were worried about the French Revolution, several changes caused the Inquisition to lose power. The government focused more on helping people than on controlling society, and questioned the Church's large landholdings in areas like Castile and León, Extremadura, and Andalucía. These lands, including those owned by the Holy Office, were given to farmers or communities under old system rules, with rent often paid in cash. The king's growing power allowed Enlightenment thinkers like Manuel Godoy and Antonio Alcalá Galiano to share their ideas more safely. These thinkers opposed the Inquisition, which had become mainly focused on censorship and was seen as a symbol of the Black Legend, because it conflicted with new political goals.
The Inquisition? Its old power no longer exists: the strong control this group once had was reduced… the Holy Office had become a group that only censored books, nothing more…
The Inquisition was abolished during Napoleon's rule under Joseph Bonaparte (1808–1812). In 1813, the liberal Cortes of Cádiz also ended the Inquisition, partly because the Holy Office had criticized the rebellion against French forces.
However, Ferdinand VII brought it back on 1 July 1814. Juan Antonio Llorente, who was the Inquisition's general secretary in 1789, supported Napoleon and wrote a critical history of the Inquisition in 1817 while living in France, using his access to its records.
The Inquisition was abolished again during the Trienio Liberal (1820–1823), but it continued in a less formal way during the Ominous Decade through the Congregation of the Meetings of Faith (Juntas da Fé), created in dioceses by Ferdinand VII. The last execution for heresy, of schoolteacher Cayetano Ripoll for teaching deist ideas, happened on 26 July 1826 in Valencia, causing a scandal in Europe over Spain's strict practices.
On 15 July 1834, regent Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, Ferdinand VII's liberal widow, abolished the Inquisition by Royal Decree during the time when Isabella II was too young to rule, with approval from Cabinet President Francisco Martínez de la Rosa.
The Alhambra Decree was canceled on 16 December 1968 by Francisco Franco, after the Second Vatican Council rejected the idea that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus.
Outcomes
The exact amount of wealth taken during the Spanish Inquisition is not known. In one year, money seized in the small town of Guadaloupe helped fund a royal home. Many Spaniards believed the Inquisition's main goal was to take property. A person from Cuenca said, "They were burnt only for their money," while another claimed, "They burn only the well-off." In 1504, an accused person stated, "Only the rich were burnt." In 1484, Catalina de Zamora said, "The fathers carry out this Inquisition to take property from conversos as much as to defend the faith. The goods are the heretics." This phrase became common in Spain. In 1524, a treasurer reported to Charles V that his predecessor collected ten million ducats from conversos (this number is unverified). In 1592, an inquisitor noted that most of the fifty women he arrested were wealthy. In 1676, the Suprema claimed over 700,000 ducats for the royal treasury after covering its own budget, which in one case was just 5% of the amount seized. In 1678, confiscated property in Mallorca exceeded 2,500,000 ducats.
Cárcel estimated a total of 150,000 prosecutions throughout the Inquisition's history. Using a 2% execution rate from 1560–1700 trials, about 3,000 people were put to death. Some scholars, using data from Toledo and Valencia, suggest 3,000–5,000 executions. Others estimate a 1–5% death rate, including religious and non-religious cases, depending on the period. This number is lower than the 40,000–60,000 people executed for witchcraft in Europe during a similar time. The Suprema's archives, held in the National Historical Archive of Spain, document 44,674 judgments from 1540–1700, including 826 executions in person and 778 in effigie. These records are incomplete, missing some tribunals like Cuenca and showing gaps for others, such as Valladolid. Additional cases, not reported to the Suprema, appear in other sources but are excluded from Contreras-Henningsen's statistics for methodological reasons. Monter estimates 1,000 executions from 1530–1630 and 250 from 1630–1730.
Before 1560, data relied on local tribunal archives, many of which were lost. Surviving records from Toledo (12,000 heresy-related judgments, mostly minor "blasphemy") and Valencia show the Inquisition was most active from 1480–1530, with a higher execution rate then. Modern estimates suggest about 2,000 executions in person in Spain up to 1530.
Henningsen and Contreras' statistics 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, while gaps may exist for Valencia and possibly Sardinia and Cartagena. Numbers for the Castilian Secretariat—except for Canaries and Galicia—are considered minimal due to documentation gaps. In some cases, the number does not cover the entire period 1540–1700.
Table of sentences pronounced in the public autos de fe in Spain (excluding tribunals in Sicily, Sardinia, and Latin America) between 1701 and 1746:
According to Toby Green, the unchecked power given to inquisitors made them "widely seen as above the law." They sometimes acted for reasons unrelated to punishing religious nonconformity. Green quotes a complaint by historian Manuel Barrios about an inquisitor, Diego Rodriguez Lucero, who in Cordoba in 1506 burned to death the husbands of two women and then kept the women as mistresses. Barrios wrote:
"…the daughter of Diego Celemin was exceptionally beautiful, her parents and her husband did not want to give her to [Lucero], 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 motivated and comparable to those of other law enforcement bodies of the time. Criticisms, usually indirect, include suspiciously sexual overtones or similarities to unrelated older antisemitic accounts of kidnapping and torture, and proofs of control that the king had over the institution, to the sources used by Green, or just by reaching completely different conclusions.
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."
A 2025 study found that the Spanish Inquisition "had important chilling effects, reducing scholars' willingness to interact with others and inducing them to divert their efforts away from STEM fields (or to pursue them outside Spain)." It led to "reversals in previously upward trends in university attendance and book output in STEM fields." Scholars in STEM fields typically left Spain or reduced their scientific output in areas that might draw the attention of the inquisitors.
Causes
The Spanish Inquisition developed because of many social, political, and religious reasons. The "multi-religious hypothesis" explains that Spain had a society with Catholics, Jews, and Muslims living together, though they had different legal rights. This changed in 1391 when anti-Jewish riots caused many Jews to convert to Christianity. The "enforcement across borders hypothesis" suggests the Inquisition helped the Catholic Monarchs strengthen their power over divided noble groups by promoting Catholicism as a shared identity. The "placate Europe hypothesis" states that the Inquisition and the expulsion of Jews and Moriscos aimed to improve Spain’s reputation as a place with "pure" religious identity, helping it form alliances with other European countries. The "Ottoman scare hypothesis" notes fears that Moriscos might support the growing Ottoman Empire. The "Renaissance hypothesis" links the Inquisition to ideas about centralizing political power, while the "checking the Pope hypothesis" views it as a way for Spain’s rulers to reduce the Pope’s influence by controlling the Inquisition themselves. Economic concerns and increasing intolerance, similar to trends in other European nations, may have also influenced the Inquisition. However, religious devotion alone is not certain, as King Ferdinand was known for his practical political decisions.
Historiography
The way historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time and still causes disagreement among people. In the 19th century and before, historians mainly focused on who was being targeted. In the early and mid-20th century, historians looked closely at the details of what happened and how it affected Spanish history. In the late 20th and 21st centuries, some historians have studied again how serious the Inquisition was, challenging some of the ideas that were believed earlier.
In popular culture
During the 18th century, literature criticized the Spanish Inquisition, showing it as a sign of intolerance and unfair justice. In Voltaire's Candide, the Inquisition represents European oppression.
During the Romantic Period, Gothic novels, which were mostly written by Protestants, often connected Catholicism with fear and control. This idea appears in works like Matthew Gregory Lewis's The Monk (1796), set in Madrid during the time of the Inquisition but reflecting on the French Revolution and its violent events; Charles Robert Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820); and Jan Potocki's The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.
In the 19th century, literature focused on the Inquisition's use of torture. The French epistolary novel Cornelia Bororquia, or the Victim of the Inquisition, written by Spaniard Luiz Gutiérrez and based on the life of María de Bohórquez, strongly criticizes the Inquisition.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov (1880), the chapter "The Grand Inquisitor" describes Jesus Christ appearing in Seville during the Inquisition. He is arrested by an old Cardinal called the Grand Inquisitor and accused of being a heretic. The Inquisitor asks, "Is it You? […] Don't answer, remain silent. You have no right to add to what You've said. Why have You come to disturb us? You know You have." Christ silently kisses him, and the Inquisitor lets him go, saying, "Go and don't come back… never, never, never!"
Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Pit and the Pendulum" describes torture used by the Inquisition.
In the 20th century, books continued to explore this theme. Marcos Aguinis's La Gesta del Marrano shows the Inquisition's influence in 16th- and 17th-century Argentina. Les Daniels's The Black Castle (1978), part of the "Don Sebastian Vampire Chronicles," is set in 15th-century Spain and includes scenes of Inquisitorial questioning, an auto de fe, and references to Tomás de Torquemada. In Marvel 1602, a Marvel Comics story, the Inquisition targets Mutants for "blasphemy," with Magneto as the Grand Inquisitor. The second novel in Arturo Pérez-Reverte's Captain Alatriste series includes a scene where the narrator is tortured by the Inquisition. Miguel Delibes's 1998 novel The Heretic shows the Inquisition's suppression of Protestants in Valladolid. Samuel Shellabarger's Captain from Castile directly addresses the Inquisition. Ildefonso Falcones's 2006 novel La Catedral del Mar, set in 14th-century Spain, describes Inquisition investigations in small towns and a major scene in Barcelona.