Paper Topic:

Political Aspects of the Spanish Inquisition of Spain.

They were allowed to remain if they converted to the Catholic faith and many of them exercised their option . Jewish converts came to be known as Marranos and Muslim converts as Moriscos

The ostensible reason for the authorisation and establishment of the inquisition was the belief that many converted Jews and Muslims practiced their original faiths in secrecy and remained unfaithful to the Catholic religion

At that point , when the entire peninsula was ruled by Christians resentment against Jews and Moslems grew . Most of the later fled to North Africa , but

this was less of an option for Jews who found themselves subject to widespread anti-Semitism . Many converted to Christianity but this merely changed prejudice against them from religious to racial and raised the problem of those who had only pretended to convert while continuing to practice their old faith behind closed doors (Hannam

Apparently , the Inquisition was established to ensure that Jewish and Muslim converts stayed true to their new faith and did not use the option for conversion to protect their social status and material belongings . The actual reasons , according to most historians , were more broad reaching and meant to satisfy specific political aims . These are stated below

To establish political and religious unity . The Inquisition allowed the monarchy to intervene actively in religious affairs , without the interference of the Pope . At the same time , Ferdinand and Isabella 's objective was the creation of efficient state machinery thus one of their priorities was to achieve religious unity to promote more centralized political authority

To weaken local political opposition to the Catholic Monarchs Strengthening centralized political authority also entailed weakening local political opposition . Resistance to the installation of the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Aragon , for example , was often couched in terms of local legal privileges

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