Glossary
Useful terminology for navigating the JEMMAW site as well as the history of the Inquisition in the seventeenth-century Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic.[1]
- Abjuración
A renunciation of previous faith and recanting of past sins that must be completed before reconciliation to the Church. - Acusación
List of accusations gathered by the tribunal and presented to the accused, who must respond to each accusation - Alcalde
Magistrate or judge - Audiencia
Royal court administering justice within jurisdictions of the Spanish territories in America - Auto de fe
Translates literally to ‘Act of Faith’. Inquisitorial procession in which sentences were carried out before the king or viceroy. Those reconciled recanted their previous words and/or behavior, while those relaxed were passed to the secular branch for punishment. - Bienes secuestrados
Confiscated and sequestered goods taken from those imprisoned by the Tribunal. Goods were seized, inventoried, and in the event of conviction, auctioned off to cover the costs of imprisonment. The tribunals retained the remaining goods and/or profits. In some instances, the wives or families of the condemned could petition for a portion of the goods to be returned.
- Cabildo
Municipal council - Calificador
Theologian consulted by Inquisition tribunals to determine heresy - Casa de la Contratación
House of Trade. Created 1503. Oversaw trade between Spain and its empire. - Casta
Person of mixed race in Spanish America - Cirugião-mor:
Portuguese term for 'Chief Surgeon' - Comisario
Local representative of Inquisition tribunals. Recorded testimonies for inquisitorial record. - Confiscation of goods
Took place following arrest of one accused of judaizing to the Holy Office. - Consejo de Indias
Council of the Indies. Royal council overseeing administration of politics, labor and tribute, trade, as well as both civil and ecclesiastical affairs. - Consulta de fe
Inquisitors and ecclesiastical figures who deliberated and decided upon a prisoner’s sentence - Conversos
Former Jews having undergone a forced conversion to Christianity - Diminuto
Prisoner who either did not make or made an incomplete confession - Edict of faith
List of offenses punishable by the Holy Office read aloud in Church. In some instances, offered absolution for having committed said offense if confessed within a given time frame. - Estatuos de Limpieza de Sangre
Blood purity statutes requiring those wishing to enter ecclesiastical orders, guilds, and other professions to be Old Christians, free of Jewish or Moorish blood. - Fiscal
Inquisitorial prosecutor - Físico-mor:
Portuguese term for 'Chief Physician' - Inquisition
Originally a medieval institution aimed at punishing heresy. Revived in Spain in 1480 and Portugal in 1530s to target judaizing offenders. Tribunals were also established in Spanish America: Lima (1569), Mexico City (1570), and Cartagena (1610). All inquisition cases for Portuguese America remained under the purview of the Lisbon tribunal. - Judaizante
One who practices Jewish rites and rituals. Typically referred to those who practiced Judaism in secret during the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries. - Judio
Jewish person - Ladino
One conversant in Spanish language and culture - Letrado
Literally: lettered. An educated person. - Limpieza de sangre
Literally: cleanliness of blood. Refers to blood purity without Jewish or Moorish ancestry. - Marrano
“Probably derived from Arabic, the term refers to pork; it was applied antiphrasis as an offensive adjective for New Christians (or conversos) suspected of the heresy of judaizing.”[2] - Natural
Person native to a town or country - Negativo
Accused person who denied wrongdoing even in spite of evidence or testimony to the contrary. - New Christian [Cristiano nuevo]
See ‘Converso’. Former Jews having undergone a forced conversion to Christianity. - Oidor
Local judge - Old Christian [Cristiano Viejo]
Person with documented Christian ancestry without evidence of conversions. - Porto
Rack used to stretch limbs during torture sessions by inquisitors - Proceso
Trial or lawsuit of Inquisition tribunals
- Procurador
Advisor to the accused, an inquisition official - Quemadero
Place of public burning - Reconciliación
Formal acceptance back to the Church of a former heretic. See also: reconciliado. - Reconciliado
Literally: reconciled. Following a first offense, one could confess and repent before being reconciled to the Church. Reconciliation often accompanied a punishment such as wearing of the sambenito or confiscation of property. - Relación
Summary or account - Relajación
Transfer or ‘relaxation’ to secular branch of authority to execute a prisoner. - Relajado
Literally: ‘relaxed’. However, this is not the case in the Inquisitorial context. This referred to one sentenced to death, typically burning at the stake. The Church did not carry out executions itself, rather it ‘relaxed’ a prisoner to the secular arm so that a civil authority could carry out the execution.
- Relapso
One who ‘relapsed’ or converted to the ways of their previous faith following conversion. - Sambenito [Sanbenito]
Penitential garment worn by condemned heretics as punishment from the Inquisition. Garments differed in appearance based on the crime. After the punishment was carried out, the garment then hung in the cathedral with the wearer’s name, crime, and dates.
- Sentencia
Publicly read document detailing a prisoner’s sentence. - Suprema
Supreme Council of the Spanish Inquisition. Maintained jurisdiction over all tribunals in Spain and Spanish America. - Vecino
Citizen or legal resident
[1] See: Seymour Liebman, A Guide to Jewish References in the Mexican Colonial Era, 1521-1821 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964), 113-114; Nathan Wachtel, The Faith of Remembrance: Marrano Labrynths, trans. Nikki Halpern (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013), 285-287; Daviken Studnicki-Gizbert, A Nation Upon the Open Sea: Portugal’s Atlantic Diasopra and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492-1640 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 181-182; Karoline P. Cook, Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016), 191-194; Miriam Bodian, Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypto-Jewish Martyrdom in the Iberian World (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007), 201-202.
[2] Wachtel, 286.