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The Peruvian Inquisition
31 Plays21 days ago
Episode twelve of the new series of Pieces of History delves into the shadowy world of the Peruvian Inquisition, a chapter in colonial Latin American history often forgotten outside academic circles. This episode traces the complex layers of Peru’s past - from its rich geography and the legacy of powerful pre-Columbian empires, to the imposition of Spanish colonial rule and the creation of the Viceroyalty of Peru.
We explore how faith and fear intertwined in the workings of the Tribunal of the Holy Office, a tool of control cloaked in righteousness. Who were the inquisitors? Who stood accused? And how did this machine of secrecy and surveillance actually function?
We uncover the inner workings of the Inquisition - its procedures, its secrecy, and the machinery of control behind its solemn rituals. We meet the individuals, both feared and forgotten, who shaped and were shaped by this powerful institution. And we reflect on the lasting legacies of persecution and authority, considering how their echoes still reverberate through Peruvian history and cultural memory.
This is not just a story of trials and punishments - it's a deeper look at how power, belief, and silence shaped an entire society.
Email: piecesofhistorypod@outlook.com
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Transcript
The Inquisition's Shadow in Lima
00:00:13
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In the days when the Inquisition reigned over Lima, silence was safer than speech, and a whisper it could become a crime. The Holy Office moved in shadows, cloaked in piety but armed with chains.
00:00:25
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Its power was such that even the wind seemed to lower its voice as it passed the walls of its tribunal. Men and women alike walked carefully, for a careless word, a forgotten book, a wrong glance at a neighbour could end with her name whispered into the ears of the Inquisitors.
00:00:41
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And once inside those chambers, innocence was no shield.
Introduction to 'Pieces of History'
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Hello and welcome to Pieces of History, I'm Colin McGrath. In each episode I delve into some renowned and lesser known events throughout history.
00:00:54
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Today we journey to the heart of colonial South America, to a city of grand churches, tired courtyards and deep shadows, Lima. It was here in 1570 that the Spanish Crown established one of the most feared institutions in its empire, the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.
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A tool of religious control, political power and social conformity, the Peruvian Inquisition left an enduring mark on the people and cultures it touched.
Lima: Colonial Capital and Heart of Peru
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But before we step into the grand chamber of the inquisitors and listen to the whispers of accusations and fear, but we must first understand the world in which it operated.
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Because Lima was not just any colonial capital, it was the beating heart of the Vice-World Day of Peru, the duel of Spanish power in South America, and a place where Catholic orthodoxy and imperial ambition marched hand in hand.
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Let's first understand the land where the story unfolds, Peru. Situated on the western edge of South America, Peru is a country of striking geographic and cultural contrasts.
Geographic and Cultural Diversity of Peru
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shares borders with Ecuador and Colombia to the north, Brazil and Bolivia to the east, Chile to the south, and the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean to the west.
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Spanning an impressive 1.28 million square kilometers, Peru is the third largest country in South America after Brazil and Argentina. This immense territory hosts an astonishing variety of landscapes, coastal deserts that stretch for thousands of miles, the rugged Andean highlands, the lush Amazonian rainforest and the windswept Alta Plano, which is the most extensive high plateau on earth outside Tibet.
00:02:27
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Each region brings with it a distinctive climate, ecosystem and way of life, making Peru one of the most geographically diverse countries on earth. Along the western coast lies a narrow, arid strip of desert extending some 2,500 kilometres.
00:02:41
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Though it makes up just 10% of the nation's land, this desert is home to over half of Peru's population, drawn to the fertile river valleys and the proximity to the Pacific. It was here that ancient instant civilizations like the Nazca and Chimu once flourished, leaving behind geoglyphs and impressive adobe cities.
00:02:59
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To the east, the landscape gives way to the towering Andes, the second highest mountain range in the world. These mountains run the length of the country and have long shaped Peru's culture and history. Revered by the Inca as secret deities, their jagged peaks and deep valleys are both beautiful and forbidding.
00:03:16
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The hast of them, Mount Husqvaran, rises to 22,205 feet sentinel the land. ah stands as a silent sentinel over the land East of the Andes, the terrain plunges into the Amazon basin, a green sea of life known locally as the Silva.
00:03:32
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Covering nearly half of Peru's territory, the rainforest is among the most biodiverse places on the planet. A single 100 hectare patch can contain over 6,000 plant species. Hundreds of animal species found here are endemic, and the region may still harbour uncontacted indigenous tribes living in isolation.
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To safeguard this immense biological heritage, Peru has established numerous reserves and protected areas. The capital city, Lima, clings to the coastal cliffs and is often cloaked in sea mist.
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With over 10 million residents, it is the political, economic and cultural heart of the country. Spanish is the official language, but Peru's indigenous heritage lives on in the widespread use of Cuenca and Amara, especially in the Andean regions.
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Peru's population is a vibrant mix of cultures and histories. Descendants of the indigenous peoples who built the Inca Empire live alongside Peruvians of Spanish, African and Asian ancestry.
Peru's Early Civilizations and Inca Empire
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For centuries, the majority of the population lived in rural areas, but urbanisation has rapidly transformed the country.
00:04:32
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Today, over 70% of Peruvians reside in cities. Catholicism, brought by Spanish colonisers, remains a dominant religion, though it often blends with indigenous beliefs and customs.
00:04:44
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Politically, Peru is a constitutional republic with the President, Congress and Supreme Court. Voting is compulsory and presidents serve five-year terms with a maximum of two consecutive terms allowed.
00:04:55
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While Peru is rich in natural resources, gold, silver, copper, zinc, iron, oil and natural gas, it remains a country of economic contrasts. Despite its wealth in minerals and biodiversity, many Peruvians face poverty and job scarcity, especially in rural and indigenous communities.
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Now, let's get to the history. Peru's story stretches far beyond the pages of European Chronicles. It begins over 15,000 years ago, when the first peoples arrived in the region, drawn by its fertile valleys, abundant wildlife and coastal plains.
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Over millennia, these early settlers gave rise to sophisticated societies that would shape the foundations of Andean civilisation. By around 5000 years ago, complex cultures have begun to flourish along the arid western coast.
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Among the earliest was the Shaban, whose stone temples and carved iconography hinted at a deeply religious worldview. They were followed by the Nazca, famed for their sprawling geoglyphs. Mysterious line drawings etched into the desert floor, still visible from the sky today.
00:05:56
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These figures depicting animals, plants and abstract forms remain one of archaeology's greatest puzzles. Further north, the Moche civilization rose to prominence. Masters of irrigation and engineering, they transformed the coastal deserts into thriving agricultural zones.
00:06:13
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The Moche are remembered for their vivid ceramics, which depicted scenes of daily life, mythology and even medical procedures with extraordinary realism. Yet it was the Inca Empire that would leave the most lasting mark.
00:06:25
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Emerging in the early 15th century, the Incas built what would become the largest empire in pre-Colombian America, stretching from southern Colombia to central Chile. Their capital, Cusco, was a marble of urban planning, ceremonial architecture and astronomical alignment.
00:06:41
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At the height of their power, the Incas governed over millions through a complex system of roads, terraces and centralised administration. Their most enduring symbol is Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas, a citadel perched high on Andes, cloaked in cloud forest and mystery.
00:06:58
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Believed to have served as a royal retreat or ceremonial centre, for being brought to international attention in the early twentieth century. In 1532, the Inca world was irrevocably altered.
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Spanish conquistadors, led by Francisco Pizarro, arrived bearing unfamiliar weapons mounted on horses the Incas had never seen and carrying deadly diseases like smallpox that would devastate indigenous populations.
00:07:23
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The Incas, weakened by civil war and internal strife, fell quickly. Within a few years, the empire had crumbled.
Colonial Exploitation and New Order
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In its place rose a new and impressive order, the Viceroyalty of Peru, governed from afar by the Spanish crown but enforced through a network of colonial authorities, Catholic missionaries and local collaborators.
00:07:42
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Previous gold and silver mines, particularly those in the Andes, became lifelines for the Spanish empire. Indigenous peoples were compelled to work under these systems such as the Ecomendia, a Spanish labour structure that granted conquistadors the right to exploit the labour of non-Christian populations.
00:07:58
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While it was intended to include provisions like military protection and religious instruction, in practice it often led to exploitation. They were also subjected to the Midas system, with their societies and traditions disrupted and dismantled in the pursuit of wealth and religious conversion.
00:08:14
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Yet even in conquest, Peru's ancient spirit endured. The Highland communities preserved their languages, customs and agricultural techniques. The blend of indigenous and European influences gave rise to a distinct Peruvian identity, one that still honours its deep, diverse roots.
00:08:32
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Now, let's move on to the colonial rule and the vice royalty of Peru. Administered from Lima, the vice royalty of Peru governed vast territories that now comprise countries like Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.
00:08:45
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For nearly two centuries, Lima stood as the political, religious and economic heart of Spanish South America, its power fueled by the immense mineral wealth of the Andes. Central to this wealth was silver, especially from the rich veins of Putsai in present-day Bolivia, then under Perú's control.
00:09:03
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The Cerro Rico or Rich Hill became legendary for its output, generating vast fortunes that sustained the Spanish Empire. From Pacific ports, silver was shipped to Panama and then transported either to Spain or across the Atlantic to Asia via the Manila Galleons, making the Viceroyalty a linchpin in a truly global economy.
00:09:23
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The splendor of Lima in this era was undeniable. Grand Baroque churches rose alongside ornate palaces, many built directly atop the foundations of destroyed indigenous temples.
00:09:36
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Plazas became the ceremonial stages of colonial life, hosting possessions, religious festivals and public executions. The Catholic Church, empowered by both the Spanish Crown and the Inquisition, sought to reshape the spiritual lives of the indigenous people, replacing ancestral beliefs with Christianity.
00:09:53
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Yet behind the gilded facades of colonial prosperity lay a hoarse reality. Indigenous communities, already devastated by disease and displacement, were conscripted in their thousands to work in the mines under brutal conditions.
00:10:06
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Their traditional ways of life were suppressed, their languages discouraged and their autonomy extinguished.
00:10:13
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Africans, brought to Peru through the transatlantic slave trade, were forced to toil in fields, workshops households. Enslaved men and women became the invisible backbone of colonial labour in towns and villages and in agricultural haciendas along the coast.
00:10:28
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Their descendants would go on to shape Peruvian music, food and identity in powerful ways, even as they endured centuries of marginalisation. People of Spanish descent,
The Secretive Inquisition Arrives in Lima
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born in the Americas, occupied an uneasy place in this colonial hierarchy.
00:10:43
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While wealthier than most, they were denied the half-spositions of power, which were reserved for Spaniards born in Europe. Over time, resentment grew as they saw themselves as true heirs to the land but lived in the shadow of a distant monarch and his appointed bureaucrats.
00:10:58
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This complex and unequal society, held together by coercion, paity and wealth, was not without its tensions. Rebellions flour periodically, some inspired by economic hardship, others by lingering and indigenous resistance.
00:11:12
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As the Viceroyalties solidified its grip on the continent, a new institution arrived to ensure not just loyalty to the crown, but obedience to the church. Into the cobbled streets of colonial Lima, among the incense-laced cathedrals and some big plazas, stepped an institution as feared as it was secretive, the Inquisition.
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likely heard of the Spanish Inquisition, the accusations, secretive trials and public executions by far. While often shrouded legend, the reality was no less chilling. Established in 1478 by the Catholic monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, the Inquisition was designed to root out heresy and enforce religious conformity in Spain, particularly among converted Jews and Muslims suspected of secretly practicing their former faiths.
00:12:00
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Over time, it expanded its reach, becoming a powerful instrument of fair and orthodoxy across Europe. Established formerly in Lima in 1570, the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition operated from a grand building near the heart of the city.
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From its chambers, inquisitors conducted secretive proceedings and judging those accused of spiritual or social deviance, and the list of offences was long. Here's a whistle-stop tour of some of them.
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Heresy Beliefs are teachings contrary to Catholic doctrine. Crypto-Judaism Secret practice of Judaism by converted Jews. Crypto-Islam Secret practice of Islam by converted Muslims.
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Proleticism Particularly feared as a foreign threat to Catholic Orthodoxy. blasphemy Speaking about God, the Virgin Mary or the saints. sacrilege Desecration of the sacraments or sacred objects.
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Witchcraft or sorcery. be of me Superstation of folk practices. Criticism of the church. Failure to attend mass or confession. Contact with foreigners or foreign ideologies.
00:13:06
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Officially, the Inquisition sought to root out heresy among baptised Christians, especially converted Jews, Muslims and Protestants. But in Lima, these targets were rare. Instead, the Peruvian Inquisition focused its gaze on a broader range of suspects, individuals practising indigenous rituals, those engaged in folk healing, women accused of rich craft, even people who simply questioned the authority of the church.
00:13:31
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For the indigenous population who had already endured forced conversion and the erasure of ancestral beliefs, the inquisition represented yet another tool of cultural suppression. Ancient ceremonies were rebranded as paganism, knowledge of plants and healing as sorcery.
00:13:47
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Even private doubts whispered at home cooed, if overheard, spark an investigation. The process was as theatrical as it was terrifying. Suspects were arrested in secrecy, held for months or even years without knowing their accusers.
00:14:02
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Trials relied heavily on anonymous denunciations and confessions extracted under duress. If convicted, the punishment could range from penance and public shaming to flogging, exile or in the most severe cases, execution by fire.
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These executions took place during public spectacles known as autos de fe, acts of faith, held at Lima's grand plazas. They were meant to be spiritual reckonings, but they also served as grim warnings to the colonial populace.
00:14:32
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Attended by clergy, nobles and commoners alike, these events combined the pomp and religious ceremony with a cold efficiency of punishment.
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Victims, often dressed in a conical hat called a sambito, were paraded before the crowd before facing their sentence.
00:14:50
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But the inquisitor's reach didn't end at the scaffold. It bred a culture of suspicion where neighbours spied on neighbours, where private thoughts became public risks, and where the written word, a poem, a letter, a prayer, could become evidence of treason.
00:15:06
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It policed not just belief, but speech, conduct, even imagination. All the while, the Inquisition strengthened colonial hierarchies. It reinforced the supremacy of Spanish-born clergy over indigenous and local populations.
00:15:21
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It gave local elites tools to settle personal scourge under the guise of parity. And it reminded everyone, from the richest merchant to the humblest labourer, that in the city of kings, faith was law and the law was watching.
00:15:34
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Now that we've explored the region's history, from colonial rule and the powerful viceroy of Peru, to the intertwining forces of faith, fear and the tribunal, it's time to turn our focus to the people behind it all.
00:15:47
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The Peruvian Inquisition was never just an impersonal institution.
Corruption and High-Profile Inquisition Cases
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It was shaped and sustained by individuals, some zealous, always calculating, and a few perhaps torn between duty and doubt.
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Each played a part in a shadowy system built on secrecy, ritual and control. Let's meet a few of the inquisitors who led this grim institution. Serván de Cirozela was among the first to arrive in Lima, appointed directly by the Spanish Crown.
00:16:18
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Alongside him came Antonio Guterres de Ola, who stepped in after a predecessor perished at sea before reaching the New World. Together, Surizela and Uella helped solidify the tribunal's early structure, laying both the literal foundations of the Lima headquarters and the legal mechanisms that we define over two centuries of persecution.
00:16:39
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They were soon followed by others like Pedro de Ortega Sotomayor, remembered for his anti-semitism. He played a lead role in the 1639 auto de fe one the most brutal spectacles in colonial Latin America, during which 37 new Christians were sentenced, 12 were burned alive.
00:16:58
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Cristobal Sanchez Calderón stands out as a particularly notorious figure. Serving as an inquisitor in Lima during the early eighteenth century, Calderón's tenure was marked by a vervement commitment to rooting out heresy, often blurring the lines between justice and personal vendetta.
00:17:15
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One of his most famous cases was that of Ana de Castro, ah Spanish immigrant renowned for her beauty and social standing in Lima. In 1726, Ana was arrested on charges of Judaizing, or secretly practicing Judaism, a grave accusation in colonial Peru.
00:17:32
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The case against her was reportedly instigated by a former lover, who, driven by jealousy, bribed Améa to plant a crucifix under her mattress and then accused her of desecrating it.
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Despite the dubious nature of the evidence, Calderon pursued the case with zeal. Anna was subjected to repeated torture sessions over a 10 year imprisonment. She confessed to absorbing certain Jewish customs from her childhood, believing them compatible with Catholicism.
00:17:59
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However, this omission sealed her fate. In 1736, disregarding a directive from Spain to spare her life, called her unsentenced Anna to death. On December 23rd, she was executed by burning at
Stories of the Condemned by Ricardo Palma
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a stake during a public auto de fe in Lima's Plaza Mayor, witnessed by a crowd of approximately 10,000 people.
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This case exemplifies the powerless intersection of personal vendettas and institutional power within the Inquisition. Calderon's actions not only led to the unjust execution of Ana de Castro, but also highlighted the broader issues of corruption and abuse of authority within the tribunal.
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Another notable name is Juan de Mazunca y Samora, who served as both Inquisitor and later Archbishop of Mexico. Before his eclastical promotion, he had worked as a fiscal prosecutor in Lima, known for his aggressive legal manoeuvring and flore for public spectacle during auto-defe.
00:18:56
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Not all Inquisitors were cut from the same cloth. Some are more hesitant. Dr José de Amorés Vice-Royal Peru from 1724 to 1736 reportedly expressed concern at the severity of the tribunal's procedures and its corrosive effect on society, though his objections had little effect.
00:19:16
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Ultimately, the Inquisition was a self-sustaining machine, and even those within it were powerless to halt its wheels once set in motion. And let us not forget Ricardo Palma himself, not a man of the inquisition's era, but its reluctant chronicler.
00:19:31
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Writing in the 19th century, long after the last flames had been extinguished, Palma compiled legends, official records and whispered tales into his Tradiciones Perunianis.
00:19:44
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Through him the voices of the condemned and those who are condemned are preserved, not as abstractions but as human stories. He captured it best when he wrote, quote, True he history is not what the victors write, but what the ghosts whisper on Lima's quiet nights.
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So how did the Inquisition actually work? It began, as many horrors do, in the quiet, with a whisper, a letter, a name scribbled on parchment and slid across a desk.
00:20:13
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You didn't need evidence. You didn't even need honesty. Anyone, a neighbour with a grudge, a servant seeking favour, a rival with ambition, could denounce someone to the tribunal.
00:20:26
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and if the inquisitors judged the claim credible, things moved quickly. The accused would be arrested, often under the cover of night. They were taken not to a courtroom, but to the secret chambers of the inquisition, a hidden world behind lemas ornate facades.
00:20:42
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From that moment on, they would vanish from public life. No lawyer, no contact with the outside world, no idea of the full charges laid against them.
Public Spectacle of the Auto de Fe
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What followed was a process designed not for justice, but for obedience.
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Interrogation was relentless, sometimes formal, often subtle. In the cold stone rooms of the tribunal, psychological pressure did most of the work. Prisoners were kept in isolation, their uncertainty stressed over days, weeks and months.
00:21:13
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The inquisitors asked questions again and again, noting contradictions, searching for weakness, sowing fear. And while torture was officially regulated and often used less frequently in Peru than in Spain,
00:21:26
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and was not unheard of. But more powerful than the rack or the cords was the machinery of doubt. Prisoners came to doubt their memories, their words, even their innocence.
00:21:38
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When the tribunal was ready to pass sentence, the next phase began, and this, this was the part the public never forgot. The auto de fe or act of faith was the Inquisition's grand finale, a fusion of courtroom, mass and theatre, all staged in Lima's central square.
00:21:56
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It was choreographed to perfection. The condemned were led out in long processions, dressed in sambinatos. Coarse garments covered in painted flames, crosses or devils, symbols of their alleged sins.
00:22:09
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The city turned out in full, nobles, clergy, merchants and soldiers. Even the Viceroy might attend. This wasn't just about punishment, it was a moral spectacle, a sermon on obedience, projected in human form.
00:22:25
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The sentences were read aloud, each one more chilling than the last. Some were fined, others banished. A few were relaxed to the secular arm, a euphemism for execution, usually by burning.
00:22:37
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These were rompery, but not unknown. And whether you watched in silence or in awe, the message was clear, the Inquisition was always watching. That fear did more than the flames ever could.
00:22:49
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A disciplined thought. People hid their books. They chose their words carefully. They watched their neighbours and feared their neighbours would watch them.
The Decline and Abolition of the Inquisition
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The tribunal didn't have to arrest anyone.
00:23:01
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The threat was enough. But this institution, the slow grinding engine of belief and fear, was not without its limits. As the Enlightenment started in Europe, cracks began to appear in Lima's sacred walls.
00:23:15
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Local elites, educated and proud, began to question the oversight of distant monarchs and inquisitors. Foreign sailors brought not only but ideas. but not only goods but ideas Smuggled books made their way into the hands of the curious, and even within the church, some began to murmur doubts about the righteousness of it all.
00:23:36
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It wasn't open rebellion, not yet, but the silence was no longer total. Still, the Inquisition endured. It adapted, it adjusted, it continued.
00:23:48
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For more than 200 years, it was part of the architecture of colonial Peru, not just in law, but in stone and psyche. Its records now housed in archives, stretched thousands of pages deep.
00:24:00
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Its reach touched hundreds of lives, many ruined, some lost, others scarred forever. Tucked just off Lima's Plaza Boliviar stands the Inquisition Museum, a building that once held real prisoners and now houses reconstructed cells, mock tribunals and replicas of the grim tools once used to extract confessions.
00:24:21
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These aren't preserved to shock or glorify, but to remind. to bear witness to the power of fear and the price of defiance. For centuries, the Holy Office seemed immovable, embedded deep within the machinery of empire, but history is never static.
00:24:37
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As the age of monarchs yielded to the age of revolutions, even the Inquisition found itself exposed to the winds of change. The American Revolution had lit a spark, the French Revolution fanned it into flame, and across the Atlantic, the old certainties of Spain were beginning to crumble.
00:24:54
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In 1812, under mounting pressure and with Napoleon's forces advancing, reformers in Cadiz drafted a new constitution, a bold liberal document that curtailed the privileges of the church and called for the suppression of the Inquisition.
00:25:09
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In Lima, the tribunal was suspended in 1813 under a new constitutional order, but the old machinery wasn't so easily dismantled. It returned briefly in 1815, clinging to its authority in the face of mounting resistance.
00:25:23
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Then came José de San Martín, the Argentine general whose campaign struck at the heart of Spanish control in South America. In 1821, as his forces entered Lima and proclaimed the independence of Peru, he issued a decree abolishing the Inquisition once and for all.
00:25:40
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Its doors were closed, its archives sealed, its instruments of fear cast aside, but its memory endured. Peruvian writer Ricardo Palma once again, quote, The shadows of the Holy Office still walk through Lima on quiet nights, reminding us that truth needs no executioners.
00:25:58
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Today, those shadows still linger, not in terror, but in testimony. Over 251 years, the Tribunal of Lima processed nearly 1500 individuals, 32 were executed.
00:26:11
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While its bloodshed was
Conclusion and Listener Invitation
00:26:12
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less than Sevilla Madrid, its psychological grip was immense. It engineered a society governed by silence, by surveillance, suspicion and submission. The Inquisition wasn't just about religion, it was about control.
00:26:26
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Spiritual, societal and political. It influenced colonial governance, dictated moral codes and shaped generations. Even now, its legacy is woven in into Peru's cultural memory, preserved in stone, in scripture and in the stories of those who endured.
00:26:44
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Thank you for joining me on this journey into the history of the Peruvian Inquisition. Stay tuned for the next episode where we'll continue to uncover more hidden corners of history. Make sure to subscribe and rate Pieces of History podcast on Spotify and iTunes and you can contact me at piecesofhistoryatoutlook.com or on Instagram and Facebook at Pieces of History.
00:27:05
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Thanks for listening.