7. Ferdinand and Isabella prosecuted the inquisition in Spain
Although best remembered – especially in America – as the patrons of the voyages of Columbus, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon used authority bestowed upon them by the papacy, as well as funding from the same source, to aggressively battle religious beliefs which were foreign to the Catholic Church for decades. Jews who refused to convert to Catholicism were forcibly expelled from their realms, their property confiscated. Jews who claimed conversion falsely were tortured into confessions and executed. Protestantism was similarly treated, with those accused of heresy by the Office of the Inquisition subjected to death by burning at the stake. The same year Columbus left on his first voyage to the west, Ferdinand and Isabella issued the Alhambra Decree, banishing Jews from Spain if they did not convert to Catholicism within four months.