 At the beginning of the seventeenth century, some "conversos" who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the Portuguese Inquisition, founded in 1536.This led to a rapid increase in the trials of crypto-Jews, among them a number of important financiers.In 1691, during a number of "autos-da-fé" in Majorca, 37 "chuetas", or "conversos" of Majorca, were burned.