La prueba procesal en el derecho de la Inquisición

Abstract

Despite of the fact that Spanish Inquisition had been previously addressed from many different perspectives, until this moment procedural evidences hadn�t been exhaustively treated in a global work which allowed for getting an overview of the Evidentiary System. Inside this framework, this thesis has carried out a further approach to offer a unitary perspective of Holy Office�s evidence system. The principles that had been used for the theory of evidences in Secular Court have been the starting point of this analysis since they supported the development of Inquisitorial Doctrine. However, legal authors added their own nuances in order to solve a couple of vital issues for the Inquisition: the removal of heresy in one hand and salvation of the offender�s soul in the other. So, once the general criteria about evidences have been settled, this work has focused on establishing the legal validity of every single kind of evidence thorough the analysis, not only of the judicial procedure phases but its development as well. To finish the study of act evidences we have related their development to the procedural framework of the Inquisition that was built upon three guiding principles: Defense of Faith, Secrecy of procedural actions and offender�s Repentance, though they were extrinsic to evidence, had significant effects on the progress of trials. The findings obtained from this work focus on the importance of evidence, which can be considered the backbone where procedure is structured and always oriented to show the defendant�s guilty. Attention should also be drawn to its compulsory nature for both prosecutor and defendant, its exact managing in length of proceedings (except Judicial Confession), but primarily its submission to the principle of �Defense of Faith�, that carries an important lessening in procedural safeguards for the accused.