The Spanish Inquisition was imposed by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1478 to identify and punish (by torture and death) Marranos, those Jews who had officially converted to Christianity but were secretly still practicing Judaism. In 1502 the Inquisition was broadened to include covert adherents of Islam and (in the 1520s) of Protestantism. The Inquisition was finally abolished in 1834.
