Los familiares formales e informales del Santo Oficio italiano : aspectos económicos (siglos XVI-XVIII)

The article is intended to be a first introduction to the role of family members in consolidating the power of the Roman Inquisition of the modern era. The thesis supported is that the family system of the Holy Office operated in a very flexible way, with effects on soci- ety that exceeded those, albeit significant, carried out through the presence of the Confraterni- ties of the Crocesignati, which constituted the formal institutional aggregation of the family members themselves. It is rather through the plurality of informal and personal ties that were established between inquisitors and family members, the article argues, that the Roman Inqui- sition could make its ability to intervene in society more profound and diversified.