Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-77f85d65b8-2tv5m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-04-16T02:56:31.910Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Peru

from Part III - Geographical Reach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2025

Lu Ann Homza
Affiliation:
William & Mary
Get access

Summary

The inquisition tribunal in Lima, Peru, has received comparatively less scholarly attention because its sources are scattered and remain relatively incomplete. This chapter examines the inquisitorial jurisdiction in terms both of geography and of the Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans who attracted the inquisitors’ attention. It covers the lives and careers of prominent inquisitors, and addresses the variety of alleged offenders. It identifies different phases of tribunal activity, provides examples of the offenses that Lima’s inquisitors targeted in each phase, and delves into trials of faith for the heresy of crypto-judaism, the so-called “Great Complicity” of 1635–39. Inquisitors in Lima were interested in the same range of offenses as their counterparts in Spain. The tribunal worried about the presence of hidden Jews, Muslims, and Protestants in the Peruvian Viceroyalty and the effects they might have. They also were preoccupied with minor offenders such as visionaries, sorcerers, and bigamists.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Suggestions for Further Reading

Bodian, Miriam. Dying in the Law of Moses: Crypo-Jewish Martyrom in the Iberian World. Indiana University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guibovich Pérez, Pedro. The Inquisition and Book Censorship in the Peruvian Viceroyalty, 1570–1813. Congreso del Perú, 2000.Google Scholar
Lea, Henry Charles. The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies. The Macmillan Company, 1908.Google Scholar
Mannarelli, María Emma. Hechiceras, beatas y expósitas: Mujeres y poder inquisitorial en Lima. Congreso del Perú, 1998.Google Scholar
Millar Carvacho, René. Inquisición y sociedad en el Virreinato Peruano: Estudios sobre el Tribunal de la Inquisición de Lima. Ediciones de la Universidad Católica de Chile, 1998.Google Scholar
Schaposchnik, Ana E. The Lima Inquisition: The Plight of Crypto-Jews in Seventeenth Century Peru. University of Wisconsin Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Silverblatt, Irene. Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World. Duke University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Studnicki–Gizbert, Daviken. A Nation Upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal’s Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492–1640. Oxford University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suárez, Margarita. Desafíos transatlánticos: Mercaderes, banqueros, y el estado en el Perú Virreinal, 1600–1700. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Instituto Riva Agüero, Fondo de Cultura Económica, Instituto Francés de Estudios Andinos, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wachtel, Nathan. The Faith of Remembrance: Marrano Labyrinths. Trans. by Halpern, Nikki. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.Google Scholar

Bibliography

Castañeda Delgado, Paulino, and Hernández Aparicio, Pilar. La Inquisición de Lima, Tomo 1 (1570–1635). Deimos, 1989.Google Scholar
Castañeda Delgado, Paulino, and Hernández Aparicio, Pilar La Inquisición de Lima, Tomo 2 (1635–1696). Deimos, 1995.Google Scholar
Contreras, Jaime. “Estructura de la actividad procesal del Santo Oficio.” In Villanueva, Joaquín Pérez and Bonet, Bartolomé Escandell, eds., Historia de la Inquisición en España y América. Vol. 2. Biblioteca de Autores Españoles & Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales, 1993.Google Scholar
Contreras, Jaime, and Henningsen, Gustav. “Forty-Four Thousand Cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1570): Analysis of a Historical Data Bank.” In Henningsen, Gustav and Tedeschi, John, eds., The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe. Northern Illinois University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Cook, Karoline. Forbidden Passages: Muslims and Moriscos in Colonial Spanish America. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio. Los Judeoconversos en España y en América. Istmo, 1971.Google Scholar
Escandell Bonet, Bartolomé. “Las adecuaciones estructurales: establecimiento de la Inquisición en Indias.” In Villanueva, Joaquín Pérez and Bonet, Bartolomé Escandell, eds., Historia de la Inquisición en España y América Vol. 1. Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos/Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales, 1984.Google Scholar
Fuentes, Manuel Atanasio. Lima: Apuntes históricos, descriptivos, estadísticos y de costumbres. Escolar, Librería e Imprenta, E. Moreno, 1925 [1867].Google Scholar
Guibovich Pérez, Pedro. Censura, libros e Inquisición en el Perú colonial, 1570–1754. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos, Universidad de Sevilla, Diputación de Sevilla, 2003.Google Scholar
Hampe Martínez, Teodoro. “Recent Works on the Inquisition and Peruvian Colonial Society, 1570–1820.” Latin American Research Review 31, no. 2 (1996): 4365.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Homza, Lu Ann. Village Infernos and Witches’ Advocates: Witch Hunting in Navarre, 1608–1614. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Israel, Jonathan. Empires and Entrepots: The Dutch, the Spanish Monarchy and the Jews, 1585–1713. The Hambledon Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Lea, Henry Charles. The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies. The Macmillan Company, 1908.Google Scholar
Lynn, Kimberly. Between Court and Confessional: The Politics of Spanish Inquisitors. Cambridge University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mannarelli, María Emma. “Inquisición y mujeres: Las hechicheras en el Perú durante el siglo XVII.” Revista Andina 3 (1985): 141–55.Google Scholar
Medina, José Toribio. Historia del Tribunal de la Inquisición de Lima, 1569–1820. 2nd ed. Vol. 2. Fondo Histórico y Bibliográfico J. T. Medina, 1956.Google Scholar
Millar Carvacho, René. Inquisición y sociedad en el Virreinato peruano. Ediciones Universidad Católica de Chile, 1998.Google Scholar
Millar Carvacho, René. La Inquisición de Lima, Tomo 3 (1697–1820). Deimos, 1998.Google Scholar
Mills, Kenneth. Idolatry and Its Enemies: Colonial Andean Religion and Extirpation, 1640–1750. Princeton University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaposchnik, Ana. “Exemplary Punishment in Colonial Lima: The 1639 Auto de Fe.” In de Chaparro, Martina Will and Achim, Miruna, eds., Death and Dying in Colonial Spanish America. The University of Arizona Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Schaposchnik, Ana The Lima Inquisition: The Plight of Crypto-Jews in Seventeenth Century Peru. University of Wisconsin Press, 2015.Google Scholar
Schaposchnik, AnaThe Dungeons of the Lima Inquisition: Corruption, Survival, and Secret Codes in Colonial Peru.” Colonial Latin American Review 29, no. 3 (2020): 398413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverblatt, Irene. “The Black Legend and Global Conspiracies: Spain, the Inquisition, and the Emerging Modern World.” In Greer, Margaret, Mignolo, Walter, and Quilligan, Maureen, eds., Rereading the Black Legend: The Discourses of Religious and Racial Difference in the Renaissance Empires. The University of Chicago Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Soyer, François. “The Extradition Treaties of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions (1500–1700).” Estudios de Historia de España 10 (2008): 201–38.Google Scholar
Stuczynski, Claude. “New Christian Political Leadership in Times of Crisis: The Pardon Negotiations of 1605.” In Orfali, Moises, ed., Leadership in Times of Crisis. Bar-Ilan University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Studnicki–Gizbert, Daviken. A Nation Upon the Ocean Sea: Portugal’s Atlantic Diaspora and the Crisis of the Spanish Empire, 1492–1640. Oxford University Press, 2007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wachtel, Nathan. The Faith of Remembrance: Marrano Labyrinths. Trans. Nikki Halpern. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Warshawsky, Matthew. “Manuel Bautista Pérez and the Complicidad Grande in Colonial Peru: Inquisitorial Hysteria or Crypto-Jewish Heresy?Journal of Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian Crypto-Jews 2 (2010): 132–50.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Peru
  • Edited by Lu Ann Homza, William & Mary
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition
  • Online publication: 04 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009456807.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Peru
  • Edited by Lu Ann Homza, William & Mary
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition
  • Online publication: 04 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009456807.014
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Peru
  • Edited by Lu Ann Homza, William & Mary
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Spanish Inquisition
  • Online publication: 04 December 2025
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009456807.014
Available formats
×