The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765

This title argues that the Portuguese Inquisition’s stated intention of extirpating heresies and purifying Portuguese Catholicism was a monumental hoax; the true purpose of the Holy Office was the fabrication rather than the destruction of Judaizers . The caste or race of the New Christians was in reality synonymous with the Portuguese mercantile middle class which conservative Portuguese society would not tolerate. Most or nearly all of the New Christian Inquisitorial victims (some 40,000 between 1540 and 1765) were unremarkable Catholics who often had minimal Jewish ancestry. The Portuguese Inquisitorial procedure was not designed to distinguish between guilt and innocence, but considered any defendant, once categorized a New Christian, a Judaizer.