Peruvian Inquisition

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The Peruvian Inquisition, established on January 9, 1570 and ended in 1820^[1]. It was reinstated under King Felipe II of Spain in 1569. The Holy Office and tribunal of the Peruvian Inquisition were located in Lima, Peru.

Unlike the Spanish Inquisition and the Medieval Inquisition, in the Peruvian Inquisition both the state and church were dependent of the Crown’s approval to carry out jurisdiction.

Diego de Landa was one of the main priests to investigate and chronicle the cultures of the Indigenous of Latin America. He collected their sacred texts to learn about the people. Then, he promptly burned the sacred texts and killed dissenters in the name of God and conversion to Catholicism. Natives were renamed forcefully and names were chosen randomly from the Spanish culture. Language and writing were restricted to Spanish only.

However, even though the Indigenous people were originally subject to the jurisdiction of the inquisitors, they were eventually removed from the control and not seen as fully responsible for deviation from faith. They were still subject to trial and punishment by the Episcopal inquisition^[2]. In the eyes of the church the Indigenous were seen as gente sin razón, individuals without reason.

As a result their trials were separate from other inquisition cases. In spite of that, it still did not stop other people that were of non-Indigenous descent from being accused of other crimes that were against the Church. These crimes could range from heresy, sorcery, witchcraft, and other superstitious practices.

People accused of these crimes were generally individuals who came from a lower status of Peruvian society. Among them were individuals of African descent, mestizos, women, and Jewish or Protestant Europeans seeking refuge from religious persecution.

^ Teodoro Hampe-Martinez, p. 43.
^ Benjamin Keen and Keith Haynes, p. 106.

Benjamin Keen and Keith Haynes. A History of Latin America Volume 1 Ancient America to 1910. 7th Edition. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004.
Henry C. Lea. The Inquisition in Spanish Dependencies; Sicily, Naples, Sardina, Milan, the Canaries, Mexico, Peru, New Granada. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1908.
Teodoro Hampe-Martinez. "Recent Work on the Inquisition and Peruvian Colonial Society,1570-1820". Latin American Research Review. Vol. 31 No.2 (1996).
Cecil Roth. The Spanish Inquisition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1964.