Inquisition

The Inquisition was a tribunal initiated by the Catholic Church to combat heresy. The Spanish Inquisition that started in the late 15th century was used to maintain Catholic orthodoxy and to convert Jews and Muslims. The edict of expulsion in 1492 forced Jews to convert or leave Spain. Due to the expulsion and persecution in previous years, thousands of Jews converted to Christianity and thousands were expelled. Sentencia-Estatuto written by Roman Catholic, Pedro Sarmiento in 1499, prohibited conversos (Jews that did convert to Christianity after persecution) from holding public or ecclesiastical offices and from being able to testify against Spanish Christians in court. Jews that converted back to Judaism were killed. In New Spain, the Spanish Empire in the New World, many Jews were executed for practicing the Jewish religion.

Many Spanish Jews left Spain for Portugal and were persecuted there too. A Portugal edict of expulsion targeted Jews to be expelled from Portugal or forcibly convert to Christianity. During the Portuguese Inquisition that started in the 16th century, Jews that converted to Christianity suspected of secretly practicing Judaism were killed.

Victims of the Inquisition
During the first year of the Spanish Inquisition, over 300 Jews were killed. 37 Jews from Mallorca were killed.

Some of the Jewish victims that were killed included:
 * Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal with her children, Isabel, Catalina, Leonor, and Luis, 1596
 * Francisco Maldonado da Silva, 1639
 * Isaac de Castro Tartas, 1647
 * Catalina Terongi, Rafael Valls and Rafael Benito, 1691
 * Maria Barbara Carillo, 1721
 * Ana de Castro, 1736
 * Antonio Jose da Silva, 1739