15th–17th centuries
First auto-da-fé of the Spanish Inquisition
6 févr. 1481·Séville
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
conversos burned on the Quemadero
The Spanish Inquisition, instituted two years earlier by papal bull at the request of the Catholic Monarchs, holds its first auto-da-fé in Seville. It does not judge Jews — over whom it has no jurisdiction — but *conversos*, Christians of Jewish descent suspected of secretly judaizing; the condemned are burned at the Quemadero, outside the city walls.
The procedure inaugurated in Seville — denunciation, prolonged detention, confiscation of property, coerced confession — would be applied for three centuries throughout the monarchy and its possessions. It targeted belonging by blood as much as belief, and made "purity of blood" a criterion of Spanish social life.
- Period :
- 15th–17th centuries
- Type :
- Trials and executions
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- Espagne
Henry Charles Lea, *A History of the Inquisition of Spain* ; Andrés Bernáldez, *Memorias del reinado de los Reyes Católicos* ; Yitzhak Baer, *A History of the Jews in Christian Spain*.