17th-century Spanish Inquisition

Timeline

1. 1651–1655Madrid, Seville, Toledo (major tribunal centers) · SpainBetween 1651 and 1655 the Spanish Inquisition maintained regular trial operations in tribunals across the country, with cases focused on examining the religious loyalty of New Christians (conversos descended from Jewish converts and moriscos descended from Moorish converts), alongside moral offenses (bigamia, witchcraft, etc.) and banned book censorship. The Suprema (Consejo de la Suprema) coordinated the various tribunals and reported major cases to Philip IV.
2. 1655–1659Inquisitions of Granada and Seville · AndalusiaIn the mid-17th century, large numbers of Portuguese New Christians (conversos) migrated to Castile to escape the Portuguese Inquisition, and the Spanish Inquisition promptly intensified surveillance and scrutiny of them. Between 1655 and 1659 concentrated trials occurred in many places, with some cases convicted on charges of secret Judaism (judaizante) and autos de fe of varying scale held. Such trials heightened society's concern for religious purity while also suppressing New Christian groups within the commercial elite.
3. 1656–1660Madrid · CastileThe Inquisition also maintained regularly updated indexes of prohibited books (the Spanish edition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum), blocking Northern European new currents of thought such as Descartes and Bacon from entering Spanish scholarly circles, to some extent contributing to the delay of Spain's Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment currents. Meanwhile, the Inquisition's suppression of royal political rivals also served court power struggles, possessing both religious and secular dimensions of control.