Philip II ordered Holy Office tribunals to be established in Spanish America in 1570. His directive extended the Spanish Inquisition’s institutional reach into the colonies, including New Spain and Peru.
The move reflected the monarchy’s effort to enforce Catholic orthodoxy across its expanding empire. Earlier inquisitorial activity in the Americas had been handled by bishops or temporary authorities, but the new arrangement created permanent tribunals answerable to the wider Holy Office. The tribunal in New Spain was formally operating by 1571.
In Mexico City, Pedro Moya de Contreras became the first official inquisitor of the tribunal of New Spain and established the Tribunal de la Fe. Its jurisdiction generally focused on non-Indigenous populations, including Spaniards, Africans, mixed-race people, foreigners, and suspected Judaizers or Protestants; Indigenous people were largely outside its ordinary jurisdiction.
The date and monarch are easy to mix up. Philip II gave the instruction in 1570, while Philip III ruled later, and Charles I belonged to the earlier generation. Ferdinand VII was a nineteenth-century king, long after the colonial tribunals were founded.