Catholic monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand. However, despite this, few countries in Europe could be considered as religiously accepting in this period as it was a universal goal to achieve religious uniformity. Due to this fact it would be naive to believe that the Inquisition was set up purely on the basis of religious intolerance and therefore there must be an underlying purpose of the Inquisition which was simply not as documented as the heresy led beliefs were. This is supported by the fact that when inquisitors began operations in locality they would have all of the locals be present for when they read out an edict which comprised a list of offences committed. Despite heresy being a recurring offence which would be read out, other moral offences were disclosed such as blasphemy, bigamy, sodomy and ‘solicitation’ (sexual advances made by a priest during confession), which were also known as minor heresies, this means that religious heresy was not the only target of the inquisition, as acts which were believed to be immoral were also targeted. This suggests that the Inquisitions initial purpose was to root out religious heresy and also highlights the fact that the Inquisitors targeted heresies in all forms, minor and major, in order to cleanse a fragmented Spain of deviant behaviour, which was the early modern notion of the role of the church.

Despite both Isabella and Ferdinand being coined the ‘catholic monarchs’ Isabella can be seen as the one who was arguably more catholic and therefore pushed the inquisition for more religious reasons. Therefore in the case of Ferdinand, he was less religiously led and focused on foreign policy and the economy. A key event which was led by Ferdinand himself, in a strive for power, is the Conquest of Granada (1482-92). The conquest of Granada saw an end to the Reconquista, which was a vital aspect to Medieval Spain. This saw the establishment of a Spanish army that was to fight effectively in the Italian Wars. This was considered as a demonstration against Islam, as supported by the fact that Isabella used religious imagery deliberately to ensure support for the war. However, despite the war being pivotal to foreign policy at the time, it placed a major financial strain on Castile and Aragon. The total cost of the war is estimated at 800 million maravedis. This