Alumbradismo across the Atlantic

Alumbradismo remained one of the few brands of formal heresy specifically proscribed by the Spanish Inquisition in the early modern period as its jurisdiction expanded across the Spanish Empire. Officially codified and categorized as deviant in 1525, the heresy of alumbradismo was unique among the other formal heresies of Judaism, Islam, and Protestantism, because it’s reputed adherents never produced a formal statement of their beliefs. This left the Inquisition and its personnel with the onus of defining what exactly alumbrados believed. Unsurprisingly, the answer varied by location and time. This paper will examine the different ways alumbradismo was understood by inquisitors as accused individuals appeared before them during the closing decades of the sixteenth century. By comparing nearly contemporaneous cases from Andalusia, Spain and in and around Mexico City, this paper will demonstrate how different tribunals of the same institution confronted what supposedly was the same heresy. A careful sifting of the accusations, case summaries, theological judgments, and sentences from these two distinct sets of cases, will show that though the deployment of the charge of alumbradismo varied, it did so for very specific reasons relevant to each tribunal. It is clear that the Spanish Inquisition acted as a pivotal conduit to spread knowledge and ideas about heresy. How such information was deployed in differing locations, however, must be more closely examined to grasp how the Inquisition as an institution functioned as a key player in religious and intellectual networks in the early modern world.