Concordias hechas, y firmadas entre la Jurisdicion Real, y el Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion [“Agreement between the Royal Jurisdiction and the Holy Office of the Inquisition.”]

In what one might call an “unholy alliance,” the King of Spain, Felipe or Philip, empowered the Inquisition to assume responsibility for the souls of the city of Valencia. Having a large and dense Moorish population, Valencia was singled out for vigorous Inquisitorial action. Over the years, the Moriscos (the Moorish or Moslem analogue to the Jewish Marranos) came under especial scrutiny. The Arabic tongue and Arabic names, as well as Moorish dress, were outlawed; bathhouses (essential to Jewish and Muslim life, but nonessential to Christian life) were shut down and children were forcibly educated in Christian schools. These Inquisitorial excesses led to the Morisco rebellion in Granada to the south, staged on December 23rd, which was brutally suppressed. In the aftermath, Spain was purged of the Morisco threat, and the Holy Office turned to the persecution of “Judaizers.” See Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (1907) Vol. III, pp. 335-340, 345. Paragraph 49 of the present document provides that no inquisitor be received without proof of “Limpieza” (purity). This provision was designed to insure that no descendants of converts reach high office. Historians observe that the Church’s notion of “Limpieza” or racial purity set the pattern for modern Nazism.