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The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition (), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition (''Inquisición española''), was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under Papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Christian Inquisition along with the Roman Inquisition and Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly, operating "in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North, Central, and South America." For the period during which Portugal and Spain were under common rule consult Portuguese Inquisition and Goa Inquisition. The Inquisition was originally intended in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of those who converted from Judaism and Islam. This regulation of the faith of the newly converted was intensified after the royal decrees issued in 1492 and 1501 ordering Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain. Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs' decision to found the Inquisition such as increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing ''conversos'', profiting from confiscation of the property of convicted heretics, reducing social tensions, and protecting the kingdom from the danger of a fifth column. The body was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabella II, after a period of declining influence in the previous century. The Spanish Inquisition is often cited in literature and history as an example of Catholic intolerance and repression. Modern historians have tended to question earlier and possibly exaggerated accounts concerning the severity of the Inquisition. Henry Kamen asserts that the 'myth' of the all powerful torture mad inquisition is largely an invention of nineteenth century Protestant authors with an agenda to discredit the Papacy. 〔 Henry Kamen: The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. 1999 〕 According to actual records the Spanish Inquisition was widely hailed as the best run, most humane court in Europe. There are records of people committing blasphemy in secular courts so they could have their case fall under the Inquisition’s jurisdiction. Further, the Inquisition was the first to pronounce Europe’s witch hunt a delusion and prohibited anyone from being tried or burnt for witchcraft. 〔Doug Beaumont:The Spanish Inquisition: Debunking the Legends 〕 Although records are incomplete, estimates of the number of persons charged with crimes by the Inquisition range up to 150,000, with 2,000 to 5,000 people executed. A symposium commissioned in 1998 to study the Inquisition released its findings: the total number of accused heretics put to death during the Spanish Inquisition comprised 0.1 percent of the more than 40,000 who were tried. In some cases the Inquisition saved heretics from secular authorities. 〔Doug Beaumont:The Spanish Inquisition: Debunking the Legends 〕 . ==Previous inquisitions== The Inquisition was created through papal bull, ''Ad Abolendam'', issued at the end of the twelfth century by Pope Lucius III as a way to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France. There were a huge number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages. In the Kingdom of Aragon, a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of ''Excommunicamus'' of Pope Gregory IX, in 1232, during the era of the Albigensian heresy. Its principal representative was Ramon de Penyafort. With time, its importance was diluted, and, by the middle of the fifteenth century, it was almost forgotten although still there according to the law. There was never a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition in Castile. Members of the episcopate were charged with surveillance of the faithful and punishment of transgressors. During the Middle Ages, in Castile, little attention was paid to heresy by the Catholic ruling class. Jews and Muslims were tolerated and generally allowed to follow their traditional laws and customs in domestic matters. However, by law, they were considered inferior to Catholics and were subject to discriminatory legislation. The Spanish Inquisition can be seen as an answer to the multi-religious nature of Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors. After invading in 711, large areas of the Iberian Peninsula were ruled by Muslims until 1250, when they were restricted to Granada, which fell in 1492. However, the Reconquista did not result in the total expulsion of Muslims from Spain, since they, along with Jews, were tolerated by the ruling Christian elite. Large cities, especially Seville, Valladolid and Barcelona, had significant Jewish populations centered in Juderia, but in the coming years the Muslims were increasingly subjugated by alienation and torture. The Jews, who had previously thrived under Muslim rule, now suffered similar maltreatment. Post-reconquest medieval Spain has been characterized by Americo Castro and some other Iberianists as a society of "convivencia", that is relatively peaceful co-existence, albeit punctuated by occasional conflict among the ruling Catholics and the Jews and Muslims. However, as Henry Kamen notes, "so-called convivencia was always a relationship between unequals." Despite their legal inequality, there was a long tradition of Jewish service to the crown of Aragon and Jews occupied many important posts, both religious and political. Castile itself had an unofficial rabbi. Ferdinand's father John II named the Jewish Abiathar Crescas to be Court Astronomer. Several responses bearing on the widespread persecution of Spanish Jewry between the years 1390 and 1391 can be found in contemporary Jewish sources, such as in the ''Responsa'' of Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet (1326 – 1408),〔Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet, in his ''Responsa'', treats mainly on the status of Jews (Anūsim) who were compelled to hide their religion in face of persecution in ''responsa'' no's. 6, 11, 12 and 14 of (''Questions and Responsa of Ben Sheshet'' ), Vilnius 1879, pages 13, 15 and 16 in PDF (Hebrew); On Rabbi Isaac ben Sheshet’s own forced conversion, see: Isaac ben Sheshet Perfet, ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'' (ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik), vol. 10, 2nd ed., Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, p. 49.〕 and in the seminal writing of Gedaliah Ibn Yechia, ''Shalshelet Ha-Kabbalah'' (written ca. 1586),〔Gedaliah Ibn Yechia, (''Shalshelet Ha-Kabbalah'' ) Jerusalem 1962, pp. רסז – רסח , in PDF pp. 276–278 (Hebrew)〕 as also in Abraham Zacuto’s ''Sefer Yuchasin'',〔Abraham Zacuto, ''Sefer Yuchasin'', Cracow 1580 (q.v. (''Sefer Yuchasin'' ), pp. 265-266 in PDF)〕 in Solomon ibn Verga’s ''Shevaṭ Yehudah'',〔; Solomon ibn Verga, (''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' (The Sceptre of Judah) ), Lvov 1846, p. 76 in PDF)〕 as well as in a Letter written to the Jews of Avignon by Don Hasdai Crescas in the winter of 1391 concerning the events in Spain in the year 1391.〔Printed in the book ''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' by Solomon ibn Verga (ed. Dr. M. Wiener), Hannover 1855, pp. 128 – 130, or pp. 138 - 140 in (PDF ), and which history concerns only the year 1391, although the Gregorian date mentioned here is represented in his account by two dates in the Anno Mundi counting, i.e. 5,152 and 5,151, owing to the change of the Hebrew year in the Fall of that same year. For English translation, see: Fritz Kobler, ''Letters of the Jews through the Ages'', London 1952, pp. 272–75.〕 According to Don Hasdai Crescas, persecution against Jews began in earnest in Seville in 1391, on the 1st day of the lunar month Tammuz (June).〔Letter of Hasdai Crescas, ''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' by Solomon ibn Verga (ed. Dr. M. Wiener), Hannover 1855, pp. 128 – 130, or pp. 138 - 140 in (PDF ); Fritz Kobler, ''Letters of the Jews through the Ages'', London 1952, pp. 272–75; ; Solomon ibn Verga, (''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' (The Sceptre of Judah) ), Lvov 1846, p. 76 in PDF.〕 From there the violence spread to Córdoba, and by the 17th day of the same lunar month, it had reached Toledo (called then by Jews after its Arabic name "Ṭulayṭulah") in the region of Castile.〔Letter from Hasdai Crescas to the congregations of Avignon, published as an appendix to Wiener's edition of (''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' ) of Solomon ibn Verga, in which he names the Jewish communities affected by the persecution of 1391. See pages 138 – 140 in PDF (Hebrew); Fritz Kobler, ''Letters of the Jews through the Ages'', London 1952, pp. 272–75.〕 From there, the violence had spread to Majorca and by the 1st day of the lunar month Elul it had also reached the Jews of Barcelona in Catalonia, where the slain were estimated at two-hundred and fifty. So, too, many Jews who resided in the neighboring provinces of Lérida and Gironda and in the kingdom of València had been affected,〔Solomon ibn Verga, (''Shevaṭ Yehudah'' (The Sceptre of Judah) ), Lvov 1846, pp. 41 (end) – 42 in PDF); . Kamen cites approximate numbers for Valencia (250) and Barcelona (400), but no solid data about Córdoba.〕 as were also the Jews of Al-Andalus (Andalucía),〔According to Gedaliah Ibn Yechia, these disturbances were caused by a malicious report spread about the Jews. See: Gedaliah Ibn Yechia, (''Shalshelet Ha-Kabbalah'' ) Jerusalem 1962, p. רסח, in PDF p. 277 (top) (Hebrew); Solomon ibn Verga, ''Shevat Yehudah'', Lvov 1846 (p. 76 in PDF) (Hebrew).〕 whereas many died a martyr’s death, while others converted in order to save themselves. Encouraged by the preaching of Ferrand Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija, the general unrest affected nearly all of the Jews in Spain, during which time an estimated 200,000 Jews changed their religion or else concealed their religion, becoming known in Hebrew as "Anūsim,"〔Abraham Zacuto, ''Sefer Yuchasin'', Cracow 1580 (q.v. (''Sefer Yuchasin'' ), p. 266 in PDF) (Hebrew).〕 meaning, "those who are compelled (hide their religion )." Only a handful of the more principal persons of the Jewish community managed to escape, who had found refuge among the viceroys in the outlying towns and districts.〔 Forced baptism was contrary to the law of the Catholic Church, and theoretically anybody who had been forcibly baptized could legally return to Judaism; this however was very narrowly interpreted. Legal definitions of the time theoretically acknowledged that a forced baptism was not a valid sacrament, but confined this to cases where it was literally administered by physical force: a person who had consented to baptism under threat of death or serious injury was still regarded as a voluntary convert, and accordingly forbidden to revert to Judaism.〔Raymond of Peñafort, ''Summa'', lib. 1 p.33, citing D.45 c.5.〕 After the public violence, many of the converted "felt it safer to remain in their new religion." Thus, after 1391, a new social group appeared and were referred to as ''conversos'' or ''New Christians''. Many ''conversos'', now freed from the anti-Semitic restrictions imposed on Jewish employment, attained important positions in fifteenth century Spain, including positions in the government and in the Church. Among many others, physicians Andrés Laguna and Francisco Lopez Villalobos (Ferdinand's court physician), writers Juan del Enzina, Juan de Mena, Diego de Valera and Alonso de Palencia, and bankers Luis de Santangel and Gabriel Sanchez (who financed the voyage of Christopher Columbus) were all ''conversos''. ''Conversos'' - not without opposition - managed to attain high positions in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, at times becoming severe detractors of Judaism.〔Notably Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria, author of ''Scrutinium Scripturarum'', Jeronimo de Santa Fe (''Hebraomastix'') and Pedro de la Caballeria (''Zelus Christi contra Judaeos''). All three were ''conversos''. ().〕 Some even received titles of nobility, and as a result, during the following century some works attempted to demonstrate that virtually all of the nobles of Spain were descended from Israelites.〔Notably the ''Libro verde de Aragon'' and ''Tizón de la nobleza de España'' (cited in ).〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Spanish Inquisition」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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