Inquisition, pouvoir, société

Analyzes the Inquisition as a tool for the political and economic consolidation of the Spanish monarchy in its early years (1480-92), in the province of Sevilla, and the fate of the Conversos in the process. They were caught in the middle of the struggle over municipal hegemony between the local nobility, patrician oligarchies ("bandos"), and the Inquisition, viewed as a faction of monarchic power. Discusses the dynamics of the conflict in Jerez de la Frontera and in the city of Sevilla. In Jerez, the local government defended the Conversos in an attempt to resist monarchial interventionism; in Sevilla, Converso elites were supplanted from positions of power for the benefit of royalist supporters. Emphasizes that the Inquisition was guided not just by Catholic ardor and racial exclusion, but also by opportunism. It showed leniency towards a small minority of established Conversos, but relentlessly repressed Converso oligarchies, artisans, and small merchants. Discusses the socioeconomic status of the New Christians and to what extent their economic activities set them up as rivals to the Old Christians.