A court for belief, not acts
The Inquisition had nothing to do with theft, fighting, or murder - secular courts handled those. The tribunal examined one thing: whether you believed correctly. Its records used not "crime," but "error," "suspicion of heresy," and "careless statement."
Only baptized people were tried: an unbaptized Jew or Muslim did not fall under the tribunal's jurisdiction. The Spanish Inquisition, created in 1478, did not target Jews, but converts to Christianity and their descendants: they were suspected of returning to their former faith at home. Baptism opened the way into society and placed a person under surveillance at once.
of Spanish tribunal cases from 1540-1700 - for statements
Most often, people were tried for what they said aloud
The largest category in surviving reports from Spanish tribunals is "statements." Not theological debates, but remarks made before witnesses: that simple fornication was not a sin, that hell did not exist, a joke about saints tossed out over cards. Next on the list came bigamy, fortune-telling, and luck spells. A case could begin with a neighbor's report, recalling a conversation from years ago.
Reporting was built into the calendar. Once a year, the Edict of Faith was read aloud in church: a list of signs for spotting a secret apostate, and a demand to report everyone you could remember. Silence itself became a fault.
The punishment was almost never the stake: most often, it was public abjuration before the whole parish, penance, and more rarely whipping, prison, or the galleys. In 1540-1700 alone, around 150,000 cases passed through the tribunals, and only a few percent ended in execution; the bloodiest decades were the first half-century after 1478. But the sentence stained the family: children and grandchildren were barred from public office.
- Stake - rare peak
- Prison and galleys
- Shaming procession, whipping
- Penance, public abjuration
Witch hunts mostly bypassed the Inquisition
Mass witchcraft trials were mostly not its work. They peaked in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, and were most often run by secular courts in the German lands, Switzerland, and France, including Protestant areas. Where an inquisitorial tribunal handled the case under its procedures, the accused woman had, strangely enough, a better chance.
The wave of witchcraft trials in Europe: rise, peak around 1600, decline. Height shows approximate proportions.
The Spanish tribunal left this game early. After the Logroño trial in 1610, Inquisitor Salazar toured villages where nearly 2,000 people had confessed to witchcraft, and found not a single verifiable piece of evidence: testimony fell apart at the first question about details. From 1614, confessions without external evidence were no longer accepted. The wave stopped where someone slowed down and began checking the details.
Inhale 4 - exhale 6: pause before you believe
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Sources
- Shares of accusations are based on a summary of Spanish tribunal reports from 1540-1700 (Contreras and Henningsen)
- overall estimates are from Kamen
- witchcraft in Europe is from Levack