32 KT1 - The Inquisition and the persecution of the Jews, 1478-92

Enquiry Frame and Chronology

Edexcel treats this as a Paper 3 depth key topic. That means you need close control of a short period, not a general history of medieval anti-Judaism. The specification asks you to explain three connected issues:

• the position of Jews and conversos in fifteenth-century Spanish society;
• why the Inquisition was founded in 1478-80, including the roles of Queen Isabella and Tomas de Torquemada, its methods, and its impact on conversos;
• why Jews were expelled in 1492, and the social and economic impact of that expulsion.

Use "Spain" carefully. In 1478, Spain was not yet a single centralised nation-state in the modern sense. Isabella ruled Castile and Ferdinand ruled Aragon, and their marriage joined two crowns while leaving many laws, institutions and privileges separate. The Inquisition was important partly because it was one of the few institutions that could operate across both crowns under royal influence.

Keep this chronology in view:

The central judgement is that the Inquisition was both religious and political. It was religious because it pursued heresy and claimed to protect Christian orthodoxy. It was political because the Crown used control over religious investigation to strengthen royal authority, discipline communities and define who could belong in the new monarchy.

Jews and Conversos in Society

Jews had lived in the Iberian Peninsula for centuries. By the fifteenth century they were a recognised religious minority in Christian kingdoms such as Castile and Aragon. Jewish communities, often organised through local aljamas, had their own communal structures, religious leadership, synagogues, schools, welfare arrangements and tax obligations. They were not equal citizens in a modern sense, but they were also not outside society. Kings valued Jewish taxpayers, doctors, translators, administrators, artisans, merchants and financiers.

This position was always vulnerable. Jews depended on royal protection, municipal agreements and local toleration. In many towns they faced legal restrictions, pressure to live in separate quarters, limits on office-holding, hostility from guilds, and preaching that presented Judaism as a danger to Christian society. Christian anti-Judaism was not new in 1478. It had deep medieval roots, and it could become violent when economic grievance, religious preaching and political uncertainty overlapped.

The violence of 1391 was a key background. Anti-Jewish riots and attacks across parts of Castile and Aragon forced or pressured many Jews into baptism. Their descendants became known as conversos, or "New Christians". Some conversions were sincere. Some families mixed Christian practice with memories of Jewish customs. Some people may have continued Jewish observance secretly. Many, however, were simply Christians of Jewish ancestry who lived under suspicion because of their origins.

This distinction matters. The Inquisition's language often treated suspected "Judaizing" as if it were clear proof of a hidden Jewish conspiracy. A historian has to be more careful. Inquisitorial records can show accusation, fear and prosecution, but they do not prove that all conversos were secretly Jewish. Many accusations came from neighbours, rivals, debtors, employers, servants, enemies or people trying to protect themselves.

Conversos occupied an awkward social position. Some became extremely successful. They entered royal administration, law, medicine, commerce, church careers, finance and urban elites. Converso families could marry into Old Christian families and rise socially. This success increased resentment. Some Old Christians saw conversos as competitors who had escaped Jewish restrictions through baptism while still benefiting from family networks, education and money.

Hostility to conversos therefore had several layers:

Jews and conversos were connected but not identical. Jews were an open religious minority. Conversos were baptised Christians, and therefore legally under Christian jurisdiction. That is why the Inquisition could investigate conversos as heretics: heresy meant error inside Christianity, not the practice of a different religion by an unbaptised Jew. The tragedy of 1478-92 is that suspicion of conversos helped justify pressure on Jews, and the presence of Jews was then blamed for continued suspicion of conversos.

Foundation of the Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was authorised in 1478 and first implemented in 1480. It was not the same as earlier medieval inquisitions that had operated elsewhere under more direct papal control. Ferdinand and Isabella wanted a tribunal that carried papal authority but was staffed and directed in practice by the monarchy. Pope Sixtus IV's bull gave them the power to appoint inquisitors, and this made the institution unusually useful to the Crown.

The first reason for founding it was the drive for religious orthodoxy. Isabella in particular saw herself as a Catholic reforming ruler. Her monarchy promoted the correction of clerical abuses, the defence of Christian morality and the strengthening of public religion. In this climate, accusations that conversos were secretly practising Judaism looked like a threat to the spiritual health of the realm.

The second reason was the problem of public order. In cities such as Seville, anti-converso feeling could become explosive. If local hostility was left unmanaged, it might produce riots, factional violence or attacks on royal authority. By creating a royal tribunal, the monarchs could claim to investigate suspicion lawfully rather than leave it to mob violence or municipal politics.

The third reason was state-building. Ferdinand and Isabella inherited a patchwork of privileges, local jurisdictions and regional political habits. A royal Inquisition allowed the Crown to extend authority through a network of tribunals, officials and procedures. It investigated belief, but it also normalised obedience to royal institutions. Confiscated property from condemned heretics could also support the machinery of prosecution, though money alone does not explain why the institution was created.

The fourth reason was the monarchy's desire to define the boundaries of the Christian community after a long period of religious diversity in Iberia. The war against Granada was still underway when the Inquisition was founded. The Crown's ideal of unity did not emerge only in 1492; it was being built during the 1470s and 1480s.

Queen Isabella's role was central because the first tribunals were established in Castile, her crown. She accepted the argument that false conversion endangered the Christian community, and she supported the request for papal authority. Her court also gave influence to religious advisers who wanted a more disciplined and orthodox society. Isabella should not be reduced to personal fanaticism: she was also acting as a ruler who saw religious reform, dynastic legitimacy and public obedience as connected.

Ferdinand also mattered. He was politically skilled and saw the advantages of an institution that could work across the crowns and strengthen royal authority. In Aragon, where local privileges were strong, the extension of the Inquisition was controversial because it seemed to threaten established liberties as well as suspected heresy.

The foundation unfolded in stages:

The key point is that the Inquisition was founded because religious suspicion, social tension and royal authority reinforced each other. It was not simply a spontaneous expression of popular anti-Jewish feeling. It was a decision by rulers to turn that suspicion into a centralised instrument of investigation and punishment.

Torquemada, Methods and Impact

Tomas de Torquemada was not the sole founder of the Spanish Inquisition, but he became its most famous early organiser. A Dominican friar and religious adviser linked to the royal court, he was appointed inquisitor general in 1483. His importance lies in turning the Inquisition from a set of early tribunals into a more disciplined institution with wider reach and harsher reputation.

Torquemada's role included:

• extending inquisitorial activity beyond its first centres;
• helping to issue instructions that standardised procedure;
• strengthening the authority of the inquisitor general over local tribunals;
• encouraging a severe approach to suspected converso heresy;
• contributing to the climate that linked Jewish communities with alleged converso backsliding.

The Inquisition's methods were designed to create pressure before, during and after trial.