The crime of blasphemy in correspondence between the Court of Madrid and the Inquisition Council

Abstract

Blasphemy, considered slanderous against the sacred figures (God, the Virgen and the Saints), was a crime prosecuted by three different courts: the ecclesiastic, the ordinary and, of course, the inquisitional. In this paper, we study firstly the concept and punishment of this crime, the condi-tions by which blasphemy was considered heresy, as well as considering how it differed from others acts, such as “proposiciones”; and secondly, in the main part of this article, we undertake a diplomatic analysis of the correspondence relating to blasphemy trials, which were sent to the Inquisition Coun-cil by the Court of Madrid upon resolution. We place special emphasis on the way this correspond-ence developed over the course of the 18th century.