This study examines Inquisitorial trials against health care practitioners from 1667 to 1697 in the largest cities of colonial Spanish America: Lima, Cartagena de Indias and Mexico. It argues that the victims of medical malpractice employed available political and ideological mechanisms of the Inquisition, using accusations such as sorcery, witchcraft, heresy or Lutheranism, as a means to claims justice. At the same time, it argues that the Inquisition tried to identify alternative levels of knowledge and distinguish skillful health care professionals from impersonators, which require a...