Expulsion of Non-Christians and Spanish Inquisition
Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the expulsion from Spain of all Jews and Muslims. People who converted to Catholicism were not subject to expulsion, but between 1480 and 1492 hundreds of those who had converted (conversos and moriscos) were accused of secretly practising their original religion (crypto-Judaism or crypto-Islam) and arrested, imprisoned, interrogated under torture, and in many cases burned to death, in both Castile and Aragon.
The Inquisition had been created in the twelfth century by Pope Lucius III to fight heresy in the south of what is now France. The Catholic Monarchs decided to introduce the Inquisition to Castile, and requested the Pope's assent. On 1 November 1478 Pope Sixtus IV published the Papal bull, Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus, through which the Inquisition was established in the Kingdom of Castile; it was later extended to all of Spain. The bull gave the monarchs exclusive authority to name the inquisitors.
During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and long afterwards the Inquisition was active in persecuting people for offences such as crypto-Judaism, heresy, Protestantism, blasphemy, and bigamy. The last trial for crypto-Judaism was held in 1818.
In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella ordered segregation of communities to create closed quarters which eventually became what were later called "ghettos". This segregation, common at the time, also furthered economic pressures upon the Jews and other non-Christians by increasing taxes and social restrictions. Finally, in 1492, with the Alhambra Decree Jews in Spain were given four months by the monarchs to either convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. Tens of thousands of Jews departed from Spain to other lands such as Portugal, North Africa, Italy and the Ottoman Empire. Later in 1492, Ferdinand issued a letter addressed to the Jews who had left Castile and Aragon, to invite them back to Spain if and only if they had become Christians.
Read more about this topic: Catholic Monarchs
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