Glossary

alfaqui – fortress

alfaqui – Islamic scholar

alfaqui – term given to communities of Muslims and Jews in Iberia

alfaqui – term for a religious sect which concentrated on internal devotion rather than ritual. Alumbrados became increasingly associated with sexual excesses

auto-da-fé – literally ‘trial of faith’ – ceremony of the punishment of heretics

alfaqui – secular holy woman living in the community and frequently attracting a large following

alfaqui – the fate of those convicted heretics who had died or escaped – their bones or an effigy were burnt at the stake

alfaqui – a person charged with assessing the orthodoxy of published books, and whether they should be censored by the Inquisition

alfaqui – income from a post in each diocesan cathedral of Spain which was given to the Inquisition and became a crucial part of the institution’s funding

commissary – paid official of the Inquisition resident in larger towns

alfaqui – name given to those who rebelled in Castile against Charles IV in 1521–22

alfaqui – descendant of Jews who converted to Christianity

alfaqui – the centuries of shared Christian, Jewish and Muslim life in Iberia

Cortes – parliament

crypto-Judaism – term for the faith of those who abandoned Catholicism and lived as secret Jews in lands governed by Portugal and Spain, from which the Jews had been expelled

alfaqui – mystic of the 16th century who held that giving oneself to God was enough for mystical union

edict of faith – pronounced by inquisitors on arriving in a town, giving people 30 days to come forward and confess their lack of orthodoxy or denounce the failings of others

alfaqui – zone of Portuguese control in the Indian Ocean, including parts of east Africa, Arabia, India and the Far East

familiar – spy of the Inquisition in towns and villages expected to keep an eye on behaviour and help with arrests and manhunts

germanías – name given to the brotherhoods which led the revolt in Aragon against Charles V 1520–22

alfaqui – cleanliness of blood – the absence of any Jewish or Muslim ‘impurities’ in lineage

alfaqui – descendant of Muslims who converted under duress to Christianity

Old Christian – ‘pure’ Catholic who had no Jewish or Moorish ancestry

alfaqui – someone who refused to confess their ‘crimes’ to the inquisitors

alfaqui – form of torture involving strapping victims to a trestle and forcing water down their throats

alfaqui – mystic of the 16th century who sought to find peace and union with God through contemplation

alfaqui – one who underwent more minor penances at the hands of the Inquisition such as lashing, imprisonment, the galleys and confiscation of goods, and was ‘reconciled’ to the Church

alfaqui – literally ‘relaxed’ – term used by the Inquisition for someone to be transferred to the secular authorities to be put to death, either through burning or by being garrotted and then burnt

alfaqui – the ‘Catholic Monarchs’, Ferdinand and Isabella, who united the kingdoms of Spain at the end of the 15th century

alfaqui – garb of a penitent of the Inquisition – usually a white shirt decorated with demons, and worn even after the penitent had been reconciled. Sanbenitos were then hung up in the parish church of the penitent as a warning to parishioners and often remained there for centuries

alfaqui – supreme council of the Spanish Inquisition

alfaqui – a form of head covering inherited from the Moors and used in Spain in the 15th century by all and in the 16th century by moriscas

alfaqui – a hole through which a torture victim’s legs were swung

alfaqui – charitable giving by Jewish people, regarded as a moral obligation

ultramontane – term used to describe those who support absolute papal authority