It is not strange that the New Christians, wealthy as they were and allied with some of the best blood in Spain, should have sought to avert the storm descending on them by appeals to Rome.  In person or by procurators, they carried their complaints to the Papal Curia, imploring the relief of private reconciliation with the Church, special exemption from the jurisdiction of the Holy Office, rehabilitation after the loss of civil rights and honors, dispensation from humiliating penances, and avvocation of causes tried by the Inquisition, to less prejudiced tribunals.  The object of these petitions was to avoid perpetual infamy, to recover social status, and to obtain an impartial hearing in doubtful cases.  The Papal Curia had anticipated the profits to be derived from such appeals.  Sixtus IV. was liberal in briefs of indulgence, absolution and exemption, to all comers who paid largely.  But when his suitors returned to Spain, they found their dearly-purchased parchments of no more value than waste paper.  The Holy Office laughed Papal Bulls of Privilege to scorn, and the Pope was too indifferent to exert such authority as he might have possessed.

Meanwhile, the Inquisition rapidly took shape.  In 1483 Thomas of Torquemada was nominated Inquisitor General for Castile and Aragon.  Under his rule a Supreme Council was established, over which he presided for life.  The crown sent three assessors to this board; and the Inquisitors were strengthened in their functions by a council of jurists.  Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Toledo, became the four subordinate centers of the Holy Office, each with its own tribunal and its own right of performing autos da fe.  Commission was sent out to all Dominicans, enjoining on them the prosecution of their task in every diocese.

In 1484 a General Council was held, and the constitution of the inquisition was established by articles.  In these articles four main points seem to have been held in view.  The first related to the system of confiscation, fines, civil disabilities, losses of office, property, honors, rights, inheritances, which formed a part of the penitentiary procedure, and by which the crown and Holy Office made pecuniary gains.  The second secured secrecy in the action of the tribunal, whereby a door was opened to delation, and accused persons were rendered incapable of rational defense.  The third elaborated the judicial method, so as to leave no loophole of escape even for those who showed a wish to be converted, empowering the use of torture, precluding the accused from choosing their own counsel, and excluding the bishops from active participation in the sentence.  The fourth multiplied the charges under which suspected heretics, even after their death might be treated as impenitent or relapsed, so as to increase the number of victims and augment the booty.

The two most formidable features of the Inquisition as thus constituted, were the exclusion of the bishops from its tribunal and the secrecy of its procedure.  The accused was delivered over to a court that had no mercy, no common human sympathies, no administrative interest in the population.  He knew nothing of his accusers; and when he died or disappeared from view no record of his case survived him.