The Inquisition Defended Faith While Consolidating Royal Authority

The Spanish Inquisition is remembered for torture chambers and public burnings. Yet its primary function was bureaucratic—investigating ancestry, interrogating neighbors, recording confessions, confiscating property, and maintaining dossiers on entire communities. Established by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1478, the tribunal served dual purposes: enforcing Catholic orthodoxy after the Reconquista and extending monarchical power through religious surveillance. This book traces the Inquisition as institutional machinery. It examines the targeting of conversos—Jewish converts to Christianity suspected of secret Judaism—through genealogical investigations and neighbor denunciations. It follows moriscos—converted Muslims—facing similar scrutiny despite formal baptism. It reveals how the tribunal expanded beyond religious minorities to police Old Christian populations for blasphemy, sexual deviance, possession of prohibited books, and ideological nonconformity.