Spanish Inquisition

 Replacing the medieval Papal Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition was established by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I in 1478 to place the Church apparatus for maintaining religious orthodoxy and persecuting heresy under royal control. One of the inquisition’s important roles was to ensure orthodoxy among Jewish and Muslim converts in Iberia in the context of mass forced conversions or Jews and Muslims fleeing Spain. The first Grand Inquisitor was Tomas de Torquemada, who set the precedent of the Inquisition’s use of torture and cultivation of a reputation of terror. The Spanish Inquisition also operated in Spain’s colonies, and was nominally in operation until 1834, although its influence had long since waned by that point.