1492 - Religion

Religion

A decree issued March 31 by Ferdinand and Isabella extends the Spanish Inquisition begun by Isabella in Castile in 1478. It orders Granada's Jews to sell their assets and leave the country by July 31 "for the honor and glory of God." Thousands of the 80,000 to 150,000 Jews pretend to accept the cross (they will be called Marranos); others pay for the right to settle in Portugal (see 1496); still others are welcomed by the Ottoman sultan Bayazid II. Ferdinand decrees November 23 that all property and assets left by the Jews belong to the crown, even those now in Christian hands.

Pope Innocent VIII dies at Rome July 25 at age 60 after an 8-year reign in which he has condemned witchcraft but encouraged the Inquisition, ordered the execution of two clergymen who forged and sold papal documents, raised money by creating new offices that were sold to the highest bidders, and lived at the Vatican with his illegitimate son and daughter. A tool of the Della Rovere family, Innocent has pleaded on his deathbed for the cardinals to elect someone better than he as pope, but he is succeeded by Rodrigo de Borgia, a libertine nephew of the late Pope Callistus (or Calixtus) III, who will reign until his death in 1503 as Alexander VI.