ChronoFive
Play today’s puzzle
Setting the scene
The Spanish Inquisition was established by Pope Sixtus IV's bull Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus on November 1, 1478, at the request of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, the Catholic Monarchs who had united Spain through marriage in 1469. Unlike the medieval Papal Inquisition, the Spanish version was controlled by the crown, not Rome. Its initial purpose was to ensure the orthodoxy of conversos—Jews and Muslims who had converted to Christianity, often forcibly—whom many suspected of secretly practicing their former faiths.
What happened
The Inquisition began operations in Seville in 1480 under Tomás de Torquemada, appointed Inquisitor General in 1483. It used procedures including secret accusations, torture to obtain confessions, and public auto-da-fé ceremonies where the condemned were sentenced—those handed to secular authorities for execution were burned at the stake. The Inquisition's reach expanded after 1492, when Jews were ordered to convert or leave Spain, and 1502, when the same applied to Muslims. It targeted not only Judaizers and Moriscos but later Protestants, alleged witches, and those accused of blasphemy or sexual offenses.
Why it still matters
The Spanish Inquisition lasted until 1834, conducting perhaps 150,000 trials and executing 3,000-5,000 people—fewer than Protestant propaganda's 'Black Legend' claimed, but still a system of state terror. It created a culture of surveillance and conformity, expelled Spain's most economically productive minorities, and became a symbol of religious intolerance. Its archives provide unparalleled documentation of early modern Spanish society. Though often conflated with the medieval Inquisition, it was distinctively Spanish—an instrument of state-building as much as religious orthodoxy.【1579254570466921608†L5-L7】
Background
Its procedures became notorious for forced conversions. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.