thumb|Convent of San Diego which contains a plaque in memory of Inquisition victims that were burned alive here.
thumb|The plaque reads "In front of this place was the [[quemadero (burning place) of the Inquisition. 1596–1771"]]
The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the Spanish Inquisition into New Spain. The Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire was not only a political event for the Spanish, but a religious event as well. In the early 16th century, the Reformation, the Counter-Reformation, and the Inquisition were in full force in most of Europe. The Catholic Monarchs of Castile and Aragon had just conquered the last Muslim stronghold in the Iberian Peninsula, the kingdom of Granada, giving them special status within the Catholic realm, including great liberties in the conversion of the native peoples of Mesoamerica. When the Inquisition was brought to the New World, it was employed for many of the same reasons and against the same social groups as suffered in Europe itself, minus the Indigenous to a large extent. Almost all of the events associated with the official establishment of the Palace of the Inquisition occurred in Mexico City, where the Holy Office had its own major building (which is now the Museum of Medicine of UNAM on República de Brasil street). The official period of the Inquisition lasted from 1571 to 1820, with an unknown number of individuals prosecuted.
Although records are incomplete, one historian estimates that about 50 people were executed by the Mexican Inquisition. Included in that total are 29 people executed as "Judaizers" between 1571 and 1700 (out of 324 people prosecuted) for practicing Judaism.
Spanish Catholicism
The Mexican Inquisition was an extension of the events that were occurring in Spain and the rest of Europe for some time. Spanish Catholicism had been reformed under the reign of Isabella I of Castile (1479– 1504), which reaffirmed medieval doctrines and tightened discipline and practice. She also introduced the Holy Office of the Inquisition in 1478 with the permission of Pope Sixtus IV, combining secular and religious authority. Much of the zeal to reaffirm traditional Catholic tenets came from the history of the Reconquista. Those who overthrew Muslim domination of the peninsula were very committed to the goal of making Catholicism completely dominant wherever they could.
Introduction of Christianity to New Spain
The Spanish crown had total domination of political and religious matters in New Spain. Pope Alexander VI in 1493 and later Pope Julius II in 1508 gave the crown extensive authority over New Spain, with the goal of converting the Indigenous peoples to Catholicism. Spanish officials appointed religious authorities in Mexico and even had the authority to reject papal bulls there. This early case prosecuting a Nahua holy man attracted the attention of scholars.
Another of Bishop Zumárraga's inquisitorial prosecutions was that of Nahua lord of Texcoco, who took the name of Carlos upon baptism. He is known in the historical literature as Don Carlos Ometochtzin. The trial record was published in 1910. It is the main source for this high-profile case. Don Carlos was likely a nephew of Nezahualcoyotl. Zumárraga accused this lord of reverting to worship of the old gods. Following a trial with indigenous witnesses and Don Carlos's own testimony, the Texcocan lord was declared guilty.
For a number of reasons persecution of the Indians for religious offenses was not actively pursued. a large majority of cases brought to the Inquisition concerned sorcery or magic, and thus blasphemy and collusion with the Devil. Most of these cases were brought against female actors, rather than males, although there were cases of male sorcery brought before Inquisitors.
The Inquisition in peninsular Spain was generally uninterested in and highly skeptical of accusations of witchcraft. In Spanish America, however, Inquisitors were concerned with delegitimizing women who were accused of and confessed to crimes of witchcraft. Some upper class women tried to avoid conviction by "proving" that the supposed magic of which they were accused was in fact a female delusion. While this was a somewhat successful endeavor on the elite level, the prosecution of these women in fact created the environment for lower- and middle-class women to claim outlandish abilities and thus brought them a degree of power within their local communities.
Within ethnically mixed communities, the types of "magic" women of Hispanic America would use with a fair amount of frequency were, to an extent, a folkish variation of Catholicism. Cultural influences on these practices derived from Spanish, indigenous, and African traditions. The use of "day to day magic" was not unusual. The types of magic practiced included "sorcery," which authors such as Laura de Mello e Souza define as needing a pact with the Devil. Other "magical practices" that do not require a pact with the Devil are incredibly vast and based upon race and socioeconomic standing. These types of magic were used by people who were oppressed. Many enslaved people would use magic or expressions of blasphemy as a way to exert power against their masters. It was a way to take back some agency. By using magic, they felt they could create negative consequences for their masters' actions. Enslaved people would often use blasphemous cries as an opportunity to speak with Inquisitors and voice their complaints against their masters.
For women, across class and ethnicity, an aim of magic was frequently to change the balance of power within the marital sphere or create a situation where one might find a husband. Sometimes this was a simple kind of magic meant to make a husband stay "true" to his wife. Other times, the purposes of magic spells included aims of making the man impotent or obedient. Some women used their menstrual blood or water previously used to clean their genitals to "ensorcell" food. This approach played on powerful gender role restrictions regarding a woman's place in the private sphere. The approach also represented a metaphorical penetration of the male by the female as a way to hold power over the husband.
Sometimes the idea of magic or mystical powers didn't play off Christian concepts of the Devil, but rather played off religious ideas of Jesus and God. A woman who could claim a special connection to Christ found herself uniquely able to advance her social and economic position. People in her community could come to her for advice and help. Many men of greater wealth would wish to spend time with such women to gain insights. An example of this is Marina de San Miguel, who was brought before the Mexican Inquisition in 1599. Marina, as a beata (a woman who was beatified), was well known in her neighborhood for experiencing religious raptures and trances in which she communicated with saints and Christ himself. For that reason members of her community, "devoted laymen," and even clergy would come to Marina for advice. While these experiences at first gained her credibility, Marina's preoccupation with material gain, her involvement in a religious group defined as part of alumbradismo, and her sexual exploits eventually made her a target for the Mexican Inquisition.
It should be stated that while many women in lower- or middle-class backgrounds were able to use the concepts of magic and satanic pacts as a way to create a sense of power or authority, some women did in fact experience the opposite effect. When women would use these magic practices, often they would be so moved by the "evil" of their actions they would turn themselves in through confession, coming before Inquisitors crying in such a way they were frequently forgiven for their crimes. One was located in the city of Mexico, covering the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Historian Luis González Obregón estimates that 51 death sentences were carried out in the 235–242 years that the tribunal was officially in operation. However, records from this time are very poor and accurate numbers cannot be verified.
One group that suffered during this time were the so-called “crypto-Jews” of
Portuguese descent. Jews who refused to convert to Christianity had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. When Spain and Portugal united shortly thereafter, many converted Portuguese Jews came to New Spain looking for commercial opportunities. Following the voluntary confession of one Crypto-Jew, Gaspar Robles, a younger member of a merchant family, his closest kin and other members of Mexico City's merchant families came under suspicion. In 1642, 150 of these individuals were arrested within three or four days, and the Inquisition began a series of trials. These people were accused and tried for being "judaisers," meaning they still practiced Judaism. Many of these were merchants involved in New Spain's principal activities. On 11 April 1649, the viceregal state staged the largest ever auto de fe in New Spain, in which twelve of the accused were burned after being strangled and one person, Tomás Treviño de Sobremontes, was burned alive, since he refused to renounce his Jewish faith. The Inquisition also tried accused Crypto-Jews who had already died, removing their bones from Christian burial grounds. At the Gran Auto de Fe of 1649, these deceased convicted Crypto-Jews were burned in effigy, along with their earthly remains.
thumb|right|Torture of [[Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal at Mexico, from El Libro Rojo, 1870]]
The best known case of a Crypto-Jew prosecuted by the Inquisition was that of Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva. Born Jewish in Mogadouro, Portugal in 1537, from what may have been an old, Spanish converso family. However, he was married to a woman, Guiomar de Rivera, who would not give up her Hebraic faith even though he tried to convert her. Finally, when she decided to stay behind as he went to the West Indies to trade wine, he moved on to New Spain. There he became a businessman but was more noted as a soldier. He fought for the Spanish against the Indians in Xalapa and the Huasteca areas. Having made a name for himself, he brought a number of his family members over from Spain to live in the frontier state of Nuevo León. Raiding in that area, he was alleged to have made a fortune capturing and selling Indian slaves. It was rumored that the family were secretly practicing Judaic rites.
Another case was that of Nicolás de Aguilar. Aguilar was a mestizo, the descendant of a Spanish soldier and a Purépecha. He was appointed as a civil official in a district in New Mexico. He attempted to protect the Tompiro Indians from abuses by Franciscan priests. In 1662, due to complaints about him by the Franciscans, he was arrested, imprisoned, and charged with heresy. Tried in Mexico City, Aguilar vigorously defended himself but was convicted and sentenced to undergo a public auto de fe and banned from New Mexico for 10 years and government service for life.
After a series of denunciations, authorities arrested 123 people in 1658 on suspicion of homosexuality. Although 99 of these managed to disappear, the Royal Criminal Court sentenced fourteen men from different social and ethnic backgrounds to death by public burning, in accordance to the law passed by Isabella the Catholic in 1497. The sentences were carried out together on one day, 6 November 1658. The records of these trials and those that occurred in 1660, 1673, and 1687 suggest that Mexico City, like many other large cities at the time, had an active gay underworld.
Those sentenced under the Inquisition usually were punished. The most extreme punishment was execution, carried out in a ceremony called the auto de fe, almost all of which were carried out in Mexico City. For these events, notables and most of the populace turned out in their finest garb. The Church set up a stage with pulpits and rich furnishings for the noble guests. Tapestries and fine cloth served as decorative canopies over the stage. No expense was spared in order to show the power and authority of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. In addition, all nobles from the viceroy himself, his court, and all others in position of authority would be conspicuously in appearance.