Trials and sentencing

Thousands of trial transcripts and related documents have been preserved to record the day-to-day judicial work of the various inquisition tribunals. Though most remain in unique manuscript copies held by major national or ecclesiastical collections in countries of origin as Spain, Portugal, Italy and Mexico, exemplars of several documentary types are also available in the McDevitt Collection.

Essay: "Introduction to inquisition trial transcripts and records"

Among the most fascinating and disquieting episodes in inquisition history are the tens of thousands of trials in which accused individuals or reos faced questioning, sometimes torture, and ultimately sentencing (when found guilty) at the hands of inquisitorial functionaries. Such exercises in the judgment of heretical behavior were after all [Read the complete essay]

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Relación de los méritos del proceso de Ana Méndez, doncella portuguesa, hija ...

Relación de los méritos del... [Cuenca]: 1596; 1600; [?]. Inquisition 118

Spanish. Summary of 1594 trial, with secret evidence of numbered witnesses. Ana was condemned to death for Judaizing practices, with sentence commuted after reconciliation at a 1596 Auto de fe to confiscation of goods and perpetual prison. The document notes she was a good prisoner and recommends further commutation; a marginal note declares she was released in 1600. A later transcription of the document is included.

Diligencias contra el Reo Atanacio de la Crus, por haver echo pacto, con el D...

