Timeline of the Spanish Inquisition

Mobs fueled by anti-Semitic preachers carry out pogroms in Sevilla, a city recently incorporated into the Christian kingdom of Castile, devastating one of Europe’s most vibrant Jewish communities. Those Jews who ostensibly convert to Christianity, often to escape persecution, come to be known as conversos. Some conversos go on to achieve high positions within the church and the government, but the group becomes the target of hatred and persecution by “old” Christians.

Three days of riots against conversos begin in Córdoba, Castile. City authorities fail in their attempts to check the violence, and eventually they withdraw their protection from the converso community.

Pope Sixtus IV issues the papal bull Exigit sinceras devotionis affectus (”Sincere Devotion Is Required”), which authorizes the creation of the Inquisition in Castile. Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella of Castile soon spread the Spanish Inquisition throughout their domains. The Inquisition institutionalizes the persecution of conversos, and, within a year, hundreds are killed and their estates are claimed by the crown.

In Sevilla the first auto de fé (”act of faith”) of the Spanish Inquisition takes place. The public trials of alleged heretics become spectacular highly ritualized affairs that culminate in the sentencing of the convicted. Those who have been condemned to death are remanded to secular authorities, in accordance with the maxim Ecclesia non sitit sanguinem (”The church does not thirst for blood”).

The grand inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada convenes an assembly at Sevilla to codify the conduct and jurisdiction of inquisitors. Torquemada’s “28 articles” outline the crimes that may be investigated by inquisitors, as well as the methods to be used for interrogation and punishment. Torture and the confiscation of property are treated as matters of routine.

Ferdinand and Isabella issue the Alhambra Decree, which announces the expulsion of all Jews from Spain. The decree will not be formally rescinded until December 16, 1968, more than 476 years later.

Torquemada dies. During his 15-year tenure as grand inquisitor, approximately 2,000 people have been burned at the stake.

Francisco, Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros, is appointed grand inquisitor. He then pursues the persecution and suppression of Moriscos (Muslims who have nominally converted to Christianity) with the same zeal that Torquemada directed at conversos and Jews.

Pope Paul III issues the bull Licet ab initio (“It Is Allowed from the Beginning”), founding the Sacred Roman and Universal Inquisition, also known as the Holy Office. In 1965 the Holy Office will be reorganized by Pope Paul VI and renamed the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In this form the Inquisition will continue to exist into the 21st century.

Philip III, king of Spain and Portugal, signs a decree expelling the Moriscos from Spain. Approximately 300,000 of them are then forcibly relocated, primarily to North Africa. Contemporary accounts estimate that some 50,000 are killed while resisting expulsion while another 60,000 die before reaching their destinations.

The Spanish queen regent María Cristina de Borbón issues a decree abolishing the Spanish Inquisition.