Room IV — Segmental arch
Inquisition and diaspora
The adaptation for survival that followed the massacre of the Jewish quarter in 1391 gave rise to a larger group of conversos, also called marranos, who would be viewed by Christians as suspected of judaizing.
In the summer of 1477 Isabella I arrived in Seville, where she would remain with her court until the winter of 1478. It was then, upon learning of the growing Judaism and the great number of conversos, and under the pressure exerted by members of the Church for measures to be taken, that in 1478 the queen asked the Pope to establish a new Inquisition that would depend on the State, and Seville would be the first city to have this Tribunal. The prison was set up in the Castle of San Jorge, where today there is an interpretation centre next to the entrance of the Triana Market, which can be visited for more information.
זָכוֹר Zachor - Remember
The expulsion of 1492
In Seville, Cádiz and Córdoba a general rehearsal for the expulsion of the Jews towards Extremadura took place in 1483, under the influence of the inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada — a rehearsal that would finally take shape in the Expulsion Decree of 1492, in which the Catholic Monarchs ordered Jewish families to separate themselves definitively from the Christian kingdoms unless they converted within three months.
The number of exiles is not clear, but it is estimated at around one hundred thousand people from across the kingdom, who had to settle their debts and sell their possessions before leaving. Most fled to Portugal and North Africa.
Read: 1391: the year that changed Seville's Jewish quarter · 1492: the edict, the port of Seville and the birth of Ladino
- Name
- Royal Decree suppressing the Inquisition (digitised copy).
- Dimensions
- 30 cm × 21 cm (each page of the copy).
- Description
- Gaceta de Madrid issue 150, of 17 July 1834, in which the suppression of the Tribunal of the Inquisition is published by Royal Decree for the fourth and final time. Regency of María Cristina de Borbón.
- Dating
- 1834.
- Provenance
- Boletín Oficial del Estado.
A dictionary of the Inquisition
Auto-da-fé: A public ceremony held by the Inquisition at which the sentences of those accused of heresy and other offences against the Catholic faith were announced.
Convert: A person of Jewish origin who converted to Christianity, generally in the medieval period, whether of their own free will or under social, economic or political pressure.
Crypto-Jew: Jews who, after converting to Christianity, went on practising Judaism in secret. They appeared to be Christians in order to escape persecution, but privately kept up Jewish practices and beliefs.
Garrotte: An instrument of execution used in Spain: a chair to which the condemned was fastened by the neck with an iron loop or collar, tightened with a screw until death came by asphyxiation or the severing of the spinal cord.
The stake: A method of execution in which the condemned was burned alive. It was used by the Spanish Inquisition to punish heretics and others deemed enemies of the Catholic faith.
Marrano: A pejorative term used in medieval and Renaissance Spain for Jews who had converted to Christianity, often under duress, yet went on secretly practising Judaism.
Sambenito: A tunic and cone-shaped cap that those condemned by the Inquisition had to wear as a sign of penance. It is not a cap as such, but a kind of scapular worn during execution or public humiliation.