Pedro de Arbués, also known as Peter of Arbués was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest and a professed Augustinian canon. He served as an official of the Spanish Inquisition until he was assassinated in the La Seo Cathedral in Zaragoza in 1485 by Jews and conversos. The veneration of him came swiftly through popular acclaim. His death greatly assisted the Inquisitor-General Tomás de Torquemada's campaign against heretics and crypto-Jews. His canonization was celebrated on 29 June 1867.
Death of the Inquisitor Pedro de Arbués (1664), by Murillo (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg).
The Martyrdom of Saint Peter of Arbués - Francesco Cecchini (late 17th century).
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition, was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella I of Castile. It began toward the end of the Reconquista and was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and to replace the Medieval Inquisition, which was under papal control. It became the most substantive of the three different manifestations of the wider Catholic Inquisition, along with the Roman Inquisition and the Portuguese Inquisition. The "Spanish Inquisition" may be defined broadly as operating in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Kingdom of Naples, and all Spanish possessions in North America and South America. According to some modern estimates, around 150,000 people were prosecuted for various offences during the three-century duration of the Spanish Inquisition, of whom between 3,000 and 5,000 were executed, approximately 2.7 percent of all cases. The Inquisition, however, since the creation of the American courts, has never had jurisdiction over the indigenous. The King of Spain ordered "that the inquisitors should never proceed against the Indians, but against the old Christians and their descendants and other persons against whom in these kingdoms of Spain it is customary to proceed".
The Virgin of the Catholic Monarchs.
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo: The martyrdom of San Pedro de Arbués (1664).
Torquemada is buried in the monastery of Saint Thomas at Ávila, and left his own epitaph: “Pestem Fugat Haereticam” i.e. “drove away the pestilence of heresy".
The burning of a Dutch Anabaptist, Anneken Hendriks, who was charged with heresy in Amsterdam,1571