1492 (Reconquista: 11th–15th c.; reform up to 1522)

The Completion of the Reconquista, the Unification of Spain, and the Spanish Religious Reform

The Reconquista began in Asturias and was reinforced by pilgrimage to the tomb of St. James (Santiago Matamoros). After the fall of Córdoba's last great caliph (1002), it advanced through the capture of Toledo (1085) and the rout of the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212). The marriage of Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon founded a unified Spain. In 1492 the last Muslim stronghold, Granada, fell, and Spanish national identity fused with the Catholic faith.

That same year, 1492, Jews were ordered to convert or leave the country, and some 200,000 were expelled. The conquered Moors, against the terms of capitulation, were forced into baptism.

Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Isabella's confessor, carried out a reform of the Spanish church even before Luther. He founded the University of Alcalá and published the "Complutensian Polyglot" Bible in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. At the same time, from 1478/1480, the Spanish Inquisition under Torquemada operated. It was subject to the crown rather than the pope. The combination of learning and harsh suppression of dissent left Spain almost untouched by later Protestantism.

By bulls of 1493–1510, Alexander VI and Julius II granted the Spanish crown "royal patronage" over the church in the New World. Christopher Columbus had arrived there on 12 October 1492.