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| This article is about one of the historical Inquisitions.For other uses, see Inquisition (disambiguation).The seal of the Spanish Inquisition depicts the cross, the branch and the sword.The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy.It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabel II.The Inquisition, as an ecclesiastical tribunal, had jurisdiction only over baptized Christians.However, since Jews (in 1492) and Muslim Moors (in 1502) had been banished from Spain, jurisdiction of the Inquisition during a large part of its history extended in practice to all royal subjects.The Inquisition worked in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts known as conversos or marranos.Activity of the Inquisition
2.The Inquisition and the Moriscos
2.Organization
4 Composition of the tribunals
5 Functioning of the inquisition
5.Decline of the inquisition
7 End of the Inquisition
8 Death tolls
9 Historiography
9.The Spanish Inquisition in the Arts
10.Summary
The Spanish Inquisition was an institution that had precedents in other Inquisitions.In the 15th century, as the kingdoms of Castille and Aragon united under the Catholic monarchs and concluded the Reconquista with the conquest of Granada, anxiety about the cultural unity of the country grew.Various motives have been proposed for the monarchs to start the Inquisition, such as increased political authority, weakening opposition, doing away with conversos and sheer profit.Ferdinand II of Aragon pressured pope Sixtus IV to agree to let him set up an Inquisition controlled by the monarchy by threatening to withdraw military support at a time when the Turks were a threat to Rome.Sixtus IV later accused the Spanish inquisition of being overzealous, accused the monarchs for being greedy and issued a bull to stop it, but he was pressured into withdrawing the bull.On both occasions Sixtus IV went along with Ferdinand II of Aragon.About 100 were burned as heretics.In time, converts from Islam, called Moriscos, were also persecuted by the Holy Office.The Spanish Inquisition was an institution at the service of the monarchy, but had to follow procedures set up by the Holy See.The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation.Sentences varied from fines to execution and those condemned had to participate in the ceremony of auto de fe (in English auto da fe means act of faith).The arrival of the 18th century slowed inquisitorial activity and it was definitively abolished on July 15, 1834.From 1476 to 1834 probably between 3,500 and 5,500 people were executed.Protestant strife, there began to appear from the pens of various European Protestant intellectuals, who generally had minimal or no direct access or experience of the Inquisition, what has come to be known as the Black Legend, as part of the Protestant polemic in support of the Reformationthe Protestant Revolution.With the gradual ebbing of religious hostilities professional historians began investigations, giving a detailed, nuanced and less exaggerated picture of the Inquisition.And, above all, showing also the same procedings between the accusers.Precedents
An inquisition was created through the papal bull Ad Abolendam, issued at the end of the 12th century by Pope Lucius III as a way to combat the Albigensian heresy in southern France.There were a number of tribunals of the Papal Inquisition in various European kingdoms during the Middle Ages.In the Kingdom of Aragon, a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition was established by the statute of Excommunicamus of Pope Gregory IX, in 1232, during the era of the Albigensian heresy.With time, its importance was diluted, and, by the middle of the 15th century, it was almost forgotten although still there according to the law.There was never a tribunal of the Papal Inquisition in Castile.Members of the episcopate were charged with surveillance of the faithful and punishment of transgressors.However, in Castile during the Middle Ages, little attention was paid to heresy.Spanish society following the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors (Muslims).There was a long tradition of Jewish service to the crown of Aragon.Jews occupied many important posts, religious and political.Castile itself had an unofficial rabbi.Judaism, encouraged by the preaching of Ferrant Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija.Before this date, conversions were rare and tended to be motivated more for social rather than religious reasons.But from the 15th century, a new social group appeared: conversos, also called New Christians, who were distrusted by Jews and Christians alike for their religious beliefs.By converting, Jews could not only escape eventual persecution, but also obtain entry into many offices and posts that were being prohibited to Jews through new, more severe regulations.But converting was a hard long process involving many crucial steps and could not be done overnight.Many conversos attained important positions in 15th century Spain.Some even received titles of nobility, and as a result, during the following century some works attempted to demonstrate that virtually all of the nobles of Spain were descended from Jews.Motives for instituting the Spanish Inquisition
Historians differ about Ferdinand and Isabella's motives for introducing the Inquisition into Spain.To establish political and religious homogeneity.The Inquisition allowed the monarchy to intervene actively in religious affairs, without the interference of the Pope.To weaken local political opposition to the Catholic monarchs.Strengthening centralized political authority also entailed weakening local political opposition.Resistance to the installation of the Inquisition in the Kingdom of Aragon, for example, was often couched in terms of local legal privileges (fueros).The Encyclopaedia Judaica of 1991 (Vol XI, p."It remains a fact that the Jews, either directly or through their correligionists in Africa, encouraged the Mohammedans to conquer Spain."Whether real or imagined there was a great fear among 15th Century Spaniards that they had a Fifth column living among them.Santangels, the Caballerias and the Sanchezes, were prosecuted in the Kingdom of Aragon.The property of people found guilty by the Inquisition was confiscated.The monarchs decided to introduce the Inquisition to Castile to uncover and do away with false converts, and requested the Pope's assent.At first the request was turned down for a number of reasons.One reason was that they had requested the Spanish Inquisition to be under the control of the monarchs of Spain.Ferdinand pressured Sixtus IV by threatening to withdraw militarily support during a time when the Turks were a major threat to Rome.On November 1, 1477, Pope Sixtus IV published the bull Exigit Sinceras Devotionis Affectus, through which the Inquisition was established in the Kingdom of Castile.At first, the activity of the Inquisition was limited to the dioceses of Seville and Cordoba, where Alonso de Hojeda had detected the centre of converso activity.The sermon was given by the same Alonso de Hojeda whose suspicions had given birth to the Inquisition.From there, the Inquisition grew rapidly in the Kingdom of Castile.In reality, Ferdinand did not resort to new appointments, he simply resuscitated the old Pontifical Inquisition, submitting it to his direct control.In addition, differences between Ferdinand and Sixtus IV prompted the latter to promulgate a new bull categorically prohibiting the Inquisition's extension to Aragon.With it, the Inquisition became the only institution with authority throughout all the kingdoms of the Spanish monarchy, and, in all of them, a useful mechanism at the service of the crown.Teruel from 1484 to 1485.Zaragoza on September 15, 1485, caused public opinion to turn against the conversos and in favour of the Inquisition.The Inquisition was extremely active between 1480 and 1530.The number of Jews who left Spain is not even approximately known.Much later the Sefardim, descendants of Spanish Jews, established flourishing communities in many cities of Europe, North Africa, and the Ottoman Empire.Many Jews were baptised in the three months before the deadline for expulsion, some 40,000 if one accepts the totals given by Kamen: probably most were to avoid expulsion, rather than a sincere change of faith.These conversos were the principal concern of the Inquisition; continuing to practice Judaism put them at risk of denunciation and trial.The most intense period of persecution of conversos lasted until 1530.Jews was discovered in Quintanar de la Orden in 1588; and there was a rise in denunciations of conversos in the last decade of the 16th century.At the beginning of the 17th century, some conversos who had fled to Portugal began to return to Spain, fleeing the persecution of the Portuguese Inquisition, founded in 1532.During the 18th century the number of conversos accused by the Inquisition decreased significantly.Repression of Protestants
Conversos saw the 1516 arrival of Charles I, the new king of Spain, as a possible end to the Inquisition, or at least a reduction of its influence.During the 16th century, however, the majority of trials were not focused on conversos.Instead, the Inquisition became an efficient mechanism to prune the few buds of Protestantism that had begun to appear in Spain.Some claim that a large percentage of these Protestants were of Jewish origin.Despite much popular myth about the Inquisition relating to Protestants, it dealt with very few cases involving actual Protestants, as there were so few in Spain.About 100 persons in Spain were found to be Protestants and turned over to the secular authorities for execution in the 1560s and in the last decades of the century, an additional 200 Spaniards were accused of being followers of Luther.Most of them were in no sense Protestants...The first of these trials were those against the sect of mystics known as the "Alumbrados" of Guadalajara and Valladolid.Nevertheless, the subject of the "Alumbrados" put the Inquisition on the trail of many intellectuals and clerics who, interested in the Erasmian ideas, had strayed from orthodoxy (which is striking because both Charles I and Philip II of Spain were confessed admirers of Erasmus).The first trials against Lutheran groups, as such, took place between 1558 and 1562, at the beginning of the reign of Philip II, against two communities of Protestants from the cities of Valladolid and Seville.The trials signaled a notable intensification of the Inquisition's activities.An image frequently misinterpreted as the Spanish Inquisition burning prohibited books.It depicts a legend of St Dominic's dispute with the Cathars: they both consign their writings into the flames, and while the Cathars' text burn, St Dominic's miraculously leaps from the flames.Reformation, the Spanish Inquisition worked actively to impede the diffusion of heretical ideas in Spain by producing "Indexes" of prohibited books.Such lists of prohibited books were common in Europe a decade before the Inquisition published its first.The first Index published in Spain in 1551 was, in reality, a reprinting of the Index published by the University of Louvain in 1550, with an appendix dedicated to Spanish texts.The Indexes included an enormous number of books of all types, though special attention was dedicated to religious works, and, particularly, vernacular translations of the Bible.Included in the Indexes, at one point or another, were many of the great works of Spanish literature.Spanish authors published in the first place if their texts were only to be prohibited by the Inquisition and placed in the Index?The answer lies in the process of publication and censorship in Early Modern Spain.Books in Early Modern Spain faced prepublication licensing and approval (which could include modification) by both secular and religious authorities.Likewise, as Catholic theology evolved, once prohibited texts might be removed from the Index.At first, inclusion in the Index meant total prohibition of a text, however this proved not only impractical and unworkable, but also contrary to the goals of having a literate and well educated clergy.In time, a compromise solution was adopted in which trusted Inquisition officials blotted out words, lines or whole passages of otherwise acceptable texts thus allowing these expurgated editions to circulate.Although, in theory, the Indexes imposed enormous restrictions on the diffusion of culture in Spain, some historians, such as Henry Kamen argue that such strict control was impossible in practice and that there was much more liberty in this respect than is often believed.And Irving Leonard has conclusively demonstrated that, despite repeated royal prohibitions, romances of chivalry, such as Amadis of Gaul, found their way to the New World with the blessing of the Inquisition.Despite repeated publication of the Indexes and a large bureaucracy of censors, the activities of the Inquisition did not impede the flowering of Spanish literature's "Siglo de Oro," although almost all of its major authors crossed paths with the Holy Office at one point or another.Lope de Vega, as well as the anonymous Lazarillo de Tormes and the Cancionero General by Hernando del Castillo.La Celestina, which was not included in the Indexes of the 16th century, was expurgated in 1632 and prohibited in its entirety in 1790.Song of Songs directly from Hebrew.The Inquisition and the Moriscos
The Inquisition did not exclusively target Jewish conversos and Protestants, but also the moriscos, converts to Catholicism from Islam.Officially, all Muslims in Castile had been converted to Christianity in 1502; those in Aragon and Valencia were obliged to convert by Charles I's decree of 1526.Many moriscos continued to practice Islam in secret.There were various reasons for this: in the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon, a large majority of the moriscos were under the jurisdiction of the nobility and persecution would have been viewed as a frontal assault on the economic interests of this powerful social class.In Granada, the principal problem was fear of rebellion in a particularly vulnerable region during an era when Ottoman Turks ruled the Mediterranean.In the second half of the century, late in the reign of Philip II, things changed.Morisco Revolt in Granada was harshly suppressed, and the Inquisition intensified its attention to the moriscos.Hundreds of thousands of converts from Islam to Catholicism were expelled, some of them probably sincere Christians.An indeterminate number of moriscos remained in Spain and, during the 17th century, the Inquisition pursued some trials against them of minor importance: according to Kamen, between 1615 and 1700, cases against moriscos constituted only 9 percent of those judged by the Inquisition.Two priests ask a heretic to repent as torture is administered.Although the Inquisition was created to halt the advance of heresy, it also occupied itself with a wide variety of offences that only indirectly could be related to religious heterodoxy.Suprema, appear the following: judaizantes (5,007); moriscos (11,311); Lutherans (3,499); alumbrados (149); superstitions (3,750); heretical propositions (14,319); bigamy (2,790); solicitation (1,241); offences against the Holy Office of the Inquisition (3,954); miscellaneous (2,575).Spain had much less intensity than in other European countries (particularly France, England, and Germany).Zugarramurdi in Navarre were persecuted.November 7 and November 8, 1610, 6 people were burned and another 5 burned in effigy.In general, nevertheless, the Inquisition maintained a sceptical attitude towards cases of witchcraft, considering it as a mere superstition without any basis.Edict of Faith to various parts of Navarre, noted in his report to the Suprema that, "There were no witches nor bewitched in the region after beginning to speak and write about them".Included under the rubric of heretical propositions were verbal offences, from outright blasphemy to questionable statements regarding religious beliefs, from issues of sexual morality, to behaviour of the clergy.Also, members of the clergy itself were occasionally accused of heretical propositions.The Inquisition also pursued offences against morals, at times in open conflict with the jurisdictions of civil tribunals.In particular, there were numerous trials for bigamy, a relatively frequent offence in a society that only permitted divorce under the most extreme circumstances.In the case of men, the penalty was five years in the galley (tantamount to a death sentence).Women too were accused of bigamy.Inquisitorial repression of the sexual offences of homosexuality and bestiality, considered, according to Canon Law, crimes against nature, merits separate attention.Homosexuality, known at the time as sodomy, was punished by death by civil authorities.It fell under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition only in the territories of Aragon, when, in 1524, Clement VII, in a papal brief, granted jurisdiction over sodomy to the Inquisition of Aragon, whether or not it was related to heresy.In Castile, cases of sodomy were not adjudicated, unless related to heresy.The tribunal of Zaragoza distinguished itself for its severity in judging these offences: between 1571 and 1579 more than 100 men accused of sodomy were processed and at least 36 were executed; in total, between 1570 and 1630 there were 534 trials and 102 executions.Organization
Beyond its role in religious affairs, the Inquisition was also an institution at the service of the monarchy.The Inquisitor General presided over the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition (generally abbreviated as "Council of the Suprema"), created in 1483, which was made up of six members named directly by the crown (the number of members of the Suprema varied over the course of the Inquisition's history, but it was never more than 10).Over time, the authority of the Suprema grew at the expense of the power of the Inquisitor General.Below the Suprema were the different tribunals of the Inquisition, which were, in their origins, itinerant, installing themselves where they were necessary to combat heresy, but later being established in fixed locations.In the first phase, numerous tribunals were established, but the period after 1495 saw a marked tendency towards centralization.In the kingdom of Castile, the following permanent tribunals of the Inquisition were established:
1482 In Seville and in Cordoba.In Toledo and in Llerena.In Las Palmas (Canary Islands).In Santiago de Compostela.Ferdinand the Catholic also established the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily (1513), housed in Palermo and Sardinia.Composition of the tribunals
Initially, each of the tribunals included two inquisitors, a calificador, an alguacil (bailiff) and a fiscal (prosecutor); new positions were added as the institution matured.The inquisitors did not typically remain in the position for a long time: for the Court of Valencia, for example, the average tenure in the position was about two years.Most of the inquisitors belonged to the secular clergy (priests, rather than members of the religious orders), and had a university education.The court had, in addition, three secretaries: the notario de secuestros (Notary of Property), who registered the goods of the accused at the moment of his detention; the notario del secreto (Notary of the Secreto), who recorded the testimony of the defendant and the witnesses; and the escribano general (General Notary), secretary of the court.The alguacil was the executive arm of the court: he was responsible for detaining and jailing the defendant.Familiares were lay collaborators of the Inquisition, who had to be permanently at the service of the Holy Office.Although many nobles held the position, most of the familiares many came from the ranks of commoners.The commissioners, on the other hand, were members of the religious orders who collaborated occasionally with the Holy Office.One of the most striking aspects of the organization of the Inquisition was its form of financing: devoid its own budget, the Inquisition depended exclusively on the confiscation of the goods of the denounced.Functioning of the inquisition
The Inquisition operated in conformity with Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church; its operations were in no way arbitrary.Accusation
When the Inquisition arrived in a city, the first step was the Edict of Grace.Following the Sunday mass, the Inquisitor would proceed to read the edict: it explained possible heresies and encouraged all the congregation to come to the tribunals of the Inquisition to "relieve their consciences".The promise of benevolence was effective, and many voluntarily presented themselves to the Inquisition.As a result, the Inquisition had an unending supply of informants.With time, the Edicts of Grace were substituted by the Edicts of Faith doing away with the possibility of quick, painless reconciliation.The denunciations were anonymous, and the defendant had no way of knowing the identity of his accusers.This was one of the points most criticized by those who opposed the Inquisition (for example, the Cortes of Castile, in 1518).In practice, false denunciations were frequent, resulting from envy or personal resentments.The Inquisition stimulated fear and distrust among neighbours, and denunciations among relatives were not uncommon.In practice, however, many were detained in preventive custody, and many cases of lengthy incarcerations occurred, lasting up to two years, before the calificadores examined the case.Detention of the accused entailed the preventive sequestration of his or her property by the Inquisition.Often the relatives of the defendant found themselves in outright misery.Months, or even years could pass without the accused being informed about why they were locked up.The prisoners remained isolated, and, during this time, the prisoners were not allowed to attend mass nor receive the sacraments.The jails of the Inquisition were no worse than those of civil society, and there are even certain testimonies that occasionally they were much better.The trial
The inquisitorial process consisted of a series of hearings, in which both the denouncers and the defendant gave testimony.Interrogation of the defendant was done in the presence of the Notary of the Secreto, who meticulously wrote down the words of the accused.The archives of the Inquisition, in comparison to those of other judicial systems of the era, are striking in the completeness of their documentation.In order to interrogate the criminals, the Inquisition made use of torture, but not in a systematic way.It was applied mainly against those suspected of Judaism and Protestantism, beginning in the 16th century.For example, Lea estimates that between 1575 and 1610 the court of Toledo tortured approximately a third of those processed for heresy.Torture was always a means to obtain the confession of the accused, not a punishment itself.The methods of torture most used by the Inquisition were garrucha, toca and the potro.The toca, also called tortura del agua, consisted of introducing a cloth into the mouth of the victim, and forcing them to ingest water spilled from a jar so that they had impression of drowning.Some of the torture methods attributed to the Spanish Inquisition were never used.Thumbscrews on display in an English museum as Spanish were recently argued to be of English origin.Once the process concluded, the inquisidores met with a representative of the bishop and with the consultores, experts in theology or Canon Law, which was called the consulta de fe.The process could be suspended, in which the defendant went free, although under suspicion, and with the threat that his process could be continued at any time.Among these were the sambenito, exile, fines or even sentence to the galleys.The defendant could be reconciled.In addition to the public ceremony in which the condemned was reconciled with the Catholic Church, more severe punishments existed, among them long sentences to jail or the galleys, and the confiscation of all property.The most serious punishment was relaxation to the secular arm, that implied burning at the stake.This penalty was frequently applied to impenitent heretics and those who had relapsed.Frequently, cases were judged in absentia, and when the accused died before the trial finished, the condemned were burned in effigy.The distribution of the punishments varied much over time.For more details on this topic, see Auto de fe.If the sentence was condemnatory, this implied that the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an auto de fe, that solemnized his return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic.The autos de fe could be private (auto particular) or public (auto publico or auto general).The autos were conducted in a large public space (in the largest plaza of the city, frequently), generally on holidays.The last public auto de fe took place in 1691.They took place in public squares or esplanades and lasted several hours: ecclesiastical and civil authorities attended.The Inquisition enjoyed limited power in Portugal, having been established in 1536 and officially lasting until 1821, although its influence was much weakened with the government of the Marquis of Pombal, in the second half of the 18th century.Decline of the inquisition
The arrival of the Enlightenment in Spain slowed inquisitorial activity.In the first half of the 18th century, 111 were condemned to be burned in person, and 117 in effigy, most of them for judaizing.With the Century of Lights, the Inquisition changed: Enlightenment ideas were the closest threat that had to be fought.The main figures of the Spanish Enlightenment were in favour of the abolition of the Inquisition, and many were processed by the Holy Office, among them Olavide, in 1776; Iriarte, in 1779; and Jovellanos, in 1796.In its new role, the Inquisition tried to accentuate its function of censoring publications, but found that Charles III had secularized censorship procedures and, on many occasions, the authorization of the Council of Castile hit the more intransigent position of the Inquisition.Since the Inquisition itself was an arm of the state, being within the Council of Castile, it was generally civil censorship and not ecclesiastic that ended up prevailing.Thus, for example, Diderot's Encyclopedia entered Spain thanks to special licenses granted by the king.However, with the coming of the French Revolution, the Council of Castile, fearing that revolutionary ideas would penetrate Spain's borders, decided to reactivate the Holy Office that was directly charged with the persecution of French works.An Inquisition edict of December 1789, that received the full approval of Charles IV and Floridablanca, stated that:
having news that several books have been scattered and promoted in these kingdoms...The fight from within against the Inquisition almost always took place in clandestine form.Also, Manuel de Aguirre, in the same vein, wrote, On Toleration in El Censor, El Correo de los Ciegos and El Diario de Madrid.End of the Inquisition
During the reign of Charles IV and, in spite of the fears that the French Revolution provoked, several events took place that accentuated the decline of the Inquisition.On the other hand, the perennial struggle between the power of the throne and the power of the Church, inclined more and more to the former, under which, Enlightenment thinkers found better protection for their ideas.Galiano were openly hostile to an institution whose only role had been reduced to censorship and was the very embodiment of the Spanish Black Legend, internationally, and was not suitable to the political interests of the moment:
The Inquisition?Holy Office had come to be a species of commission for book censorship, nothing more...In fact, prohibited works circulated freely in the public bookstores of Seville, Salamanca or Valladolid.Holy Office's condemnation of the popular revolt against French invasion.But the Inquisition was reconstituted when Ferdinand VII recovered the throne on July 1, 1814.It was again abolished during the three year Liberal interlude known as the Trienio liberal.Meetings of Faith, tolerated in the dioceses by King Ferdinand.Juan Antonio Llorente, who had been the Inquisition's general secretary in 1789, became a Bonapartist and published a critical history in 1817 from his French exile, based on his privileged access to its archives.Death tolls
The historian Hernando del Pulgar, contemporary of Ferdinand and Isabella, estimated that the Inquisition had burned at the stake 2,000 people and reconciled another 15,000 by 1490 (just one decade after the Inquisition began).Modern historians have begun to study the documentary records of the Inquisition.This material provides information about 49,092 judgements, the latter studied by Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras.These authors calculate that only 1.The archives of the Suprema only provide information surrounding the processes prior to 1560.To study the processes themselves, it is necessary to examine the archives of the local tribunals; however, the majority have been lost to the devastation of war, the ravages of time or other events.Pierre Dedieu has studied those of Toledo, where 12,000 were judged for offences related to heresy.These authors' investigations find that the Inquisition was most active in the period between 1480 and 1530, and that during this period the percentage condemned to death was much more significant than in the years studied by Henningsen and Contreras.Inquisition throughout its history was approximately 150,000.Other documents, discovered in the Vatican Archives in 2004 put the toll of heresy cases tried by the Spanish Inquisition at 44,647, of which 1.If this information is correct, the death toll for the entire Spanish Inquisition lies closer to 800.Historiography
How historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time, and continues to be a source of controversy to this day.Before and during the 19th century historical interest focused on who was being persecuted.In the early and mid 20th century historians examined the specifics of what happened and how it influenced Spanish history.Inquisition really was, calling into question some of the conclusions made earlier in the 20th century.Protestants, there began to appear from the pens of various European Protestant intellectuals, an image of the Inquisition that exaggerated its negative aspects for propaganda purposes.The Book of Martyrs to the Spanish Inquisition.Other sources of the Black Legend of the Inquisition were the Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes, authored under the pseudonym of Reginaldus Gonzalvus Montanus (possibly an allusion to the German astronomer Regiomontanus), that was probably written by two exiled Spanish Protestants, Casiodoro de Reina and Antonio del Corro.The book saw great success, and was translated into English, French, Dutch, German and Hungarian and contributed to cementing the negative image that the Inquisition had in Europe.Other sources for the Black Legend of the Inquisition come from Italy.Spanish uprisings when it was believed that the Inquisition would be established.In Sicily, where the Inquisition was established, there were also revolts against the activity of the Holy Office, in 1511 and 1516.Many Italian authors of the 16th century referred with horror to the actions of the Inquisition.Professional historians
Before the rise of professional historians in the 19th century, the Spanish Inquisition had largely been studied and portrayed by Protestant scholars who saw it as the archetypal symbol of Catholic intolerance and ecclesiastical power.The Spanish Inquisition for them was largely associated with the persecution of Protestants.The 19th century professional historians, including the Spanish scholar Amador de los Rios, were the first to challenge this perception and look seriously at the role of Jews and Muslims.At the start of the 20th century Henry Charles Lea published the groundbreaking History of the Inquisition in Spain.This influential work saw the Spanish Inquisition as "an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas and the obstruction of progress."Lea documented the Inquisition's methods and modes of operation in no uncertain terms calling it "theocratic absolutism" at its worst.Yitzhak Baer's History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Cecil Roth's History of the Marranos and, after World War II, the work of Haim Beinart who for the first time published trial transcripts of cases involving conversos.One of the first books to challenge the now antiquated view was The Spanish Inquisition (1965) by Henry Kamen.Kamen established that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed.The book was very influential and largely responsible for subsequent studies in the 1970s to try to quantify (from archival records) the Inquisition's activities from 1480 to 1834.Inquisition served principally as a forum Spaniards occasionally used to humiliate and punish people they did not like: blasphemers, bigamists, foreigners and, in Aragon, homosexuals and horse smugglers.There were so few Protestants in Spain that widespread persecution of Protestantism was not physically possible.Kamen went on to publish two more books in 1985 and 2006 that incorporated new findings, further supporting the view that the Inquisition was not as bad as once described by Lea and others.Along similar lines is Edward Peters's Inquisition (1988).Criticism of the Inquisition is a constant in the work of painter Francisco de Goya, especially in Los Caprichos (The Whims).In this series of engravings, produced at the end of the 18th century, various figures penanced by the Inquisition appear, with biting legends underlining the frivolity of the motives in contrast to the criminal's expressions of anguish and desperation."For having been born elsewhere."Much later, between 1815 and 1819, Goya painted other canvases about the Inquisition.Literature
The literature of the 18th century approaches the theme of the Inquisition from a critical point of view.In Candide by Voltaire, the Inquisition appears as the epitome of intolerance and arbitrary justice in Portugal and America.During the Romantic Period, the gothic novel, which was primarily a genre developed in Protestant countries, Catholicism was frequently associated with terror and repression.This vision of the Spanish Inquisition appears in, among other work, The Monk (1796) by Matthew Gregory Lewis (set in Madrid during the Inquisition, but can be seen as commenting on the French Revolution and the Terror); in Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles Robert Maturin and in The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Polish author Jan Potocki.Samuel Shellabarger's Captain from Castile deals directly with the Spanish Inquisition during the first part of the novel.One of the best known stories of Edgar Allan Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum, explores along the same lines the use of torture by the Inquisition.Inquisition and its representatives.The Inquisition also appears in one of the chapters of the novel The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which imagines an encounter between Jesus and the Inquisitor General.One of the ways to ensure that all Omnians follow the words of the Omnian prophets, is a torture body, known as the Quisition, whose methods are reminiscent of those ascribed to the Spanish Inquisition.Carme Riera's novella, published in 1994, Dins el Darrer Blau (In the Last Blue) is set during the repression of the chuetas (conversos from Mallorca) at the end of the 17th century.In 1998, the Spanish writer Miguel Delibes published the historical novel The Heretic, about the Protestants of Valladolid and their repression by the Inquisition.Reverte are set in the early seventeenth century.The Argentine Author, Marcos Aguinis, produced a work titled "La Gesta del Marrano", which portrays the length of the Inquisition's arm to reach people in Argentina during the 16th and 17th centuries.The Marvel Comics series Marvel 1602 shows the Inquisition targeting Mutants for "blasphemy".Film
Egdar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum has been taken to the screen many times.The Inquisition appears in a musical segment of Mel Brooks' movie History of the World, Part I (1981).Witches of Zugarramurdi in Navarre.The Inquisition captures the main character in the Polish film Rekopis Znaleziony w Saragossie (The Saragossa Manuscript).The film The Fountain (2006) by Darren Aronofsky, features the Spanish Inquisition as part of a plot in 1500 when the Grand Inquisitor threatens Queen Isabella's life.The beginning of the film 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) by Ridley Scott speaks of the fear induced by the Spanish Inquisition and shows several aspects of the relaxation to the secular arm.Goya's Ghosts (2006) by Milos Forman is set in Spain between 1792 and 1809 and focuses realistically on the role of the Inquisition and its end under Napoleon's rule.Theatre and television
The Grand Inquisitor of Spain plays a part in Don Carlos, (1867) a play by Friedrich Schiller (which was the basis for an opera in five acts by Giuseppe Verdi, in which the Inquisitor is also featured).In the Monty Python comedy team's Spanish Inquisition sketch, an inept Inquisition repeatedly burst unexpectedly into scenes after someone utters the words "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition", screaming "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"Spanish Inquisition titled "Convert or Die!"The musical Man of La Mancha (1965) is set in a dungeon where Miguel de Cervantes awaits a hearing with the Spanish Inquisition.THE ROLE OF THE VATICAN IN THE ENCOUNTER, by RICHARD W.Kamen, Henry, The Spanish Inquisition, p.Kamen cites approximate numbers for Valencia (250) and Barcelona (400), but no solid data about Cordoba.The rapid rise of the Ottoman Empire following the 1453 conquest of Europe's greatest city, Constantinople, laid the basis for the rapid expansion of that Islamic empire into Europe's southeast and made it a massive menace in the Mediterranean basin as it expanded quickly into North Africa.Christian lands on the European side.Europeans were captured by North African pirates and sold as slaves between the 16th and 17th century.It should be noted that the Ottoman caliphate claimed sovereignty over all lands previously under Islamic rule, which included most of Spain.Jew are somewhat vexed, and occasionally historians are not clear on how, precisely, they are intended to be understood.Valencia between 1484 and 1530 and 99.The Cortes of Castile asked the king to reform the inquisitorial process no fewer than four times, in 1518, 1520, 1523 and 1525.Kamen, The Inquisition: An Historical Revision, pp.He compares these figures with those condemned to death in other European countries during the same period, concluding that in similar periods England, under Mary Tudor, executed about twice as many for heresy: in France, three times the number, and ten times as many in the Low Countries.In Sicily, the Inquisition functioned until March 30, 1782, when it was abolished by King Ferdinand IV.It is estimated that 200 people were executed during this period.Though over the course of the trial, their identities likely became apparent."In the tribunal of Valladolid, in 1699, various suspects (including a girl of 9 and a boy of 14) were jailed for up to two years with having had the least evaluation of the accusations presented against them" (Kamen, op.Sabatini, Rafael, Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History, p.Scott, George Ryley, The History of Torture Throughout the Ages, p.James, Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History , p.Peters, Edward, Inquisition, Dissent, Heterodoxy and the Medieval Inquisitional Office, p.Members of the government and the Council of Castile, as well as other members close to the court, obtained special authorization for books purchased in France, the Low Countries or Germany to cross the border without inspection by members of the Holy Office.The argument presented in the periodicals and other works circulating in Spain were virtually exact copies of the reflections of Montesquieu or Rousseau, translated into Spanish.Historians have different interpretations.Royal Decree that would have abolished the order of the Trienio Liberal was never approved, or at least, never published.Kinder, Gentler Inquisition", by Richard Kagan in the New York Times, April 19, 1998.New Industry: The Inquisition.Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision.Yale University Press, 1999).William Thomas Walsh, Isabella of Spain (1930) and Characters of the Inquisition (1940).History of the Inquisition from its origin under Pope Innocent III till the present time.Simon Whitechapel, Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (Creation Books, 2003).Miranda Twiss, The Most Evil Men And Women In History (Michael O'Mara Books Ltd.History of the Inquisition of Spain, Vol.Lea, Henry Charles (October 1905).History of the Inquisition of Spain, Vol.Lea, Henry Charles (October 1905).History of the Inquisition of Spain, Vol.Lea, Henry Charles (October 1905).History of the Inquisition of Spain, Vol.Letters on the Spanish Inquisition Joseph de Maistre.Fact v Fiction
An Overview
Catholic Encyclopedia: "Inquisition"
Catholic Answers: "The Inquisition"
L.Barnett, "Two Documents of the Inquisition", in The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.Abilgenses, a religious sect in France.In the beginning, the Inquisition dealt only with
Christian heretics and did not interfere with the affairs of Jews.In 1288, the first mass burning of
Jews on the stake took place in France.Inquisition, in both scope and
intensity.Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand to write a petition to the Pope
asking permission to start an Inquisition in Spain.Seville more than 700 Conversos were burned
at the stake and 5,000 repented.Real, where 100 Conversos were condemned, and
it was moved to Toledo in 1485.Toledo, 467 people were
burned at the stake and others were imprisoned.Spanish Conversos in the economy
and society.More than 13,000 Conversos were put on trial
during the first 12 years of the Spanish Inquisition.Pope Leo X extended the Inquisition to Portugal.Joseph Bonaparte, was the Inquisition abolished in Spain.New World seeking greater security and
economic opportunities.Branches of the Portugese
Inquisition were set up in Goa and Brazil.Mexico, the Philippine Islands, Guatemala,
Peru, New Granada and the Canary Islands.By the late 18th century, most
of these were dissolved.By this term is usually meant a special ecclesiastical institution for combating or suppressing heresy.Its characteristic mark seems to be the bestowal on special judges of judicial powers in matters of faith, and this by supreme ecclesiastical authority, not temporal or for individual cases, but as a universal and permanent office.On the one hand they have ceased to grasp religious belief as something objective, as the gift of God, and therefore outside the realm of free private judgment; on the other they no longer see in the Church a society perfect and sovereign, based substantially on a pure and authentic Revelation, whose first most important duty must naturally be to retain unsullied this original deposit of faith.However, while the positive suppression of heresy by ecclesiastical and civil authority in Christian society is as old as the Church, the Inquisition as a distinct ecclesiastical tribunal is of much later origin.The Suppression of Heresy during the first twelve Christian centuries; II.The Suppression of Heresy by the Institution known as the Inquisition under its several forms: (A) The Inquisition of the Middle Ages; (B) The Inquisition in Spain; (C) The Holy Office at Rome.THE SUPPRESSION OF HERESY DURING THE FIRST TWELVE CENTURIES
(1) Though the Apostles were deeply imbued with the conviction that they must transmit the deposit of the Faith to posterity undefiled, and that any teaching at variance with their own, even if proclaimed by an angel of Heaven, would be a culpable offense, yet St.Church sufficient (1 Timothy 1:20; Titus 3:10).Sed nec religionis est religionem colere, quae sponte suscipi debeat, non vi.Cyprian of Carthage, surrounded as he was by countless schismatics and undutiful Christians, also put aside the material sanction of the Old Testament, which punished with death rebellion against priesthood and the Judges.Lactantius was yet smarting under the scourge of bloody persecutions, when he wrote this Divine Institutes in A.Naturally, therefore, he stood for the most absolute freedom of religion.Hilary of Poitiers (Liber contra Auxentium, c.Christianity or for preservation of the Faith.Donatists, asserts for the first time that these heretics ought to be put on the same plane as transgressors against the sacred majesty of the emperor, a concept to which was reserved in later times a very momentous role.In the attitude of the representatives of the Church towards this legislation some uncertainty is already noticeable.At the close of the forth century, and during the fifth, Manichaeism, Donatism, and Priscillianism were the heresies most in view.Though they were found guilty of abominable teachings and misdeeds (St.Church refused to invoke the civil power against them; indeed, the great Bishop of Hippo explicitly rejected the use force.However, they fared like Daniel's accusers: the lions turned upon them.State intervention not answering to their wishes, and the violent excesses of the Circumcellions being condignly punished, the Donatists complained bitterly of administrative cruelty.Yet was it not in the name of God that Moses and Phineas consigned to death the worshippers of the Golden Calf and those who despised the true religion?This was the first time that a Catholic bishop championed a decisive cooperation of the State in religious questions, and its right to inflict death on heretics.Finally, however, he changed his views, whether moved thereto by the incredible excesses of the Circumcellions or by the good results achieved by the use of force, or favoring force through the persuasions of other bishops.Apropos of his apparent inconsistency it is well to note carefully whom he is addressing.He appears to speak in one way to government officials, who wanted the existing laws carried out to their fullest extent, and in another to the Donatists, who denied to the State any right of punishing dissenters.In his correspondence with state officials he dwells on Christian charity and toleration, and represents the heretics as straying lambs, to be sought out and perhaps, if recalcitrant chastised with rods and frightened with threats of severer but not to be driven back to the fold by means of rack and sword .On the other hand, in his writings against the Donatists he upholds the rights of the State: sometimes, he says, a salutary severity would be to the interest of the erring ones themselves and likewise protective of true believers and the community at large (Vacandard, 1.As to Priscillianism, not a few points remain yet obscure, despite recent valuable researches.It seems certain, however, that Priscillian, Bishop of Avila in Spain, was accused of heresy and sorcery, and found guilty by several councils.Ambrose at Milan and St.Damascus at Rome seem to have refused him a hearing.At length he appealed to Emperor Maximus at Trier, but to his detriment, for he was there condemned to death.Martin of Tours, then at Trier, exerted himself to obtain from the ecclesiastical authority the abandonment of the accusation, and induced the emperor to promise that on no account would he shed the blood of Priscillian, since ecclesiastical deposition by the bishops would be punishment enough, and bloodshed would be opposed to the Divine Law (Sulpicius Severus, "Chron."Ambrose, described that execution as a crime.In this way the severe judgments of St.Jerome against Priscillianism become intelligible.Church was content with a spiritual sentence on the part of its bishops and was averse to the shedding of blood, nevertheless it was aided by the imperial severity, inasmuch as the fear of corporal punishment drove the guilty to seek a spiritual remedy (Ep.The ecclesiastical ideas of the first five centuries may be summarized as follows: the Church should for no cause shed blood (St.As late the seventh century St.Isidore of Seville expresses similar sentiments (Sententiarum, III, iv, nn.How little we are to trust the vaunted impartiality of Henry Charles Lee, the American historian of the Inquisition, we may here illustrate by an example.Priscillian and his followers had excited so much horror, that Leo I, when the heresy seemed to be reviving in 447, not only justified the act, but declared that, if the followers of a heresy so damnable were allowed to live, there would be an end to human and Divine law.The final step had been taken and the church was definitely pledged to the suppression of heresy at any cost.For centuries this was the ecclesiastical attitude both in theory and in practice.Bulgaria, under various names, spread over Western Europe.They were numerous in Italy, Spain, Gaul and Germany.Christian popular sentiment soon showed itself adverse to these dangerous sectaries, and resulted in occasional local persecutions, naturally in forms expressive of the spirit of the age.Elsewhere similar acts were due to popular outbursts."An terrenae potestatis gladio in eos sit animadvertendum necne" ("Vita Wasonis", cc.Catalaunens", and "Anselmi Gesta episc.Other Catharists, in spite of the archbishop's intervention, were given their choice by the magistrates of Milan between doing homage to the Cross and mounting the pyre.In 1114 the Bishop of Soissons kept sundry heretics in durance in his episcopal city.Catharists to better knowledge through the grace of God, but the people, less indulgent, assailed the unhappy creatures and only with the greatest trouble did the bishop succeed in rescuing some of them from death by fire.In short, no blame attaches to the Church for her behavior towards heresy in those rude days.Peter Canter, the most learned man of his time, and St.The former says ("Verbum abbreviatum", c.CCV, 231): Whether they be convicted of error, or freely confess their guilt, Catharists are not to be put to death, at least not when they refrain from armed assaults upon the Church.Throw them into prison, if you will, but do not put them to death (cf.Geroch von Reichersberg, "De investigatione Antichristi III", 42).There were already, it is true, canonists who conceded to the Church the right to pronounce sentence of death on heretics; but the question was treated as a purely academic one, and the theory exercised virtually no influence on real life.Moreover, he forbade anyone to give them shelter or otherwise assist them, so that they died partly from hunger and partly from the cold of winter.In 1197 Peter II, King of Aragon and Count of Barcelona, issued an edict in obedience to which the Waldensians and all other schismatics were expelled from the land; whoever of this sect was still found in his kingdom or his county after Palm Sunday of the next year was to suffer death by fire, also confiscation of goods.Ecclesiastical legislation was far from this severity.According to the agreement made by Lucius III and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at Verona (1148), the heretics of every community were to be sought out, brought before the episcopal court, excommunicated, and given up to the civil power to he suitably punished (debita animadversione puniendus).IX, 542) accurately describes the condition of heretics at this time when it says that the pope excommunicated them, and the emperor put them under the civil ban, while he confiscated their goods (papa eos excomunicavit imperator vero tam res quam personas ipsorum imperiali banno subiecit).Under Innocent III nothing was done to intensify or add to the extant statutes against heresy, though this pope gave them a wider range by the action of his legates and through the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).The Inquisition of The Middle Ages
(1) Origin
During the first three decades of the thirteenth century the Inquisition, as the institution, did not exist.But eventually Christian Europe was so endangered by heresy, and penal legislation concerning Catharism had gone so far, that the Inquisition seemed to be a political necessity.That these sects were a menace to Christian society had been long recognized by the Byzantine rulers.As early as the tenth century Empress Theodora had put to death a multitude of Paulicians, and in 1118 Emperor Alexius Comnenus treated the Bogomili with equal severity, but this did not prevent them from pouring over all Western Europe.Moreover these sects were in the highest degree aggressive, hostile to Christianity itself, to the Mass, the sacraments, the ecclesiastical hierarchy and organization; hostile also to feudal government by their attitude towards oaths, which they declared under no circumstances allowable.Nor were their views less fatal to the continuance of human society, for on the one hand they forbade marriage and the propagation of the human race, and on the other hand they made a duty of suicide through the institution of the Endura (see CATHARI).It has been said that more perished through the Endura (the Catharist suicide code) than through the Inquisition.To seek to trace in these measures the influence of imperial or papal ordinances is vain, since the burning of heretics had already come to be regarded as prescriptive.Louis et coutumes de Beauvaisis", ch.In Italy Emperor Frederick II, as early as 22 November, 1220 (Mon.II, 243), issued a rescript against heretics, conceived, however quite in the spirit of Innocent III, and Honorius III commissioned his legates to see to the enforcement in Italian cities of both the canonical decrees of 1215 and the imperial legislation of 1220.From the foregoing it cannot be doubted that up to 1224 there was no imperial law ordering, or presupposing as legal, the burning of heretics.The rescript for Lombardy of 1224 (Mon.That Honorius III was in any way concerned in the drafting of this ordinance cannot be maintained; indeed the emperor was all the less in need of papal inspiration as the burning of heretics in Germany was then no longer rare; his legists, moreover, would certainly have directed the emperors attention to the ancient Roman Law that punished high treason with death, and Manichaeism in particular with the stake.The imperial rescripts of 1220 and 1224 were adopted into ecclesiastical criminal law in 1231, and were soon applied at Rome.It was then that the Inquisition of the Middle Ages came into being.Contemporary sources afford no positive answer.Bishop Douais, who perhaps commands the original contemporary material better than anyone, has attempted in his latest work (L'Inquisition.For this purpose it would seem necessary for the pope to establish a distinct and specifically ecclesiastical court.From this point of view, though the hypothesis cannot be fully proved, much is intelligible that otherwise remains obscure.On the other hand, to meet the emperor's wishes as far as allowable, the penal code of the empire could be taken over as it stood (cf.The New Tribunal
(a) Its essential characteristic
The pope did not establish the Inquisition as a distinct and separate tribunal; what he did was to appoint special but permanent judges, who executed their doctrinal functions in the name of the pope.Where they sat, there was the Inquisition.It must he carefully noted that the characteristic feature of the Inquisition was not its peculiar procedure, nor the secret examination of witnesses and consequent official indictment: this procedure was common to all courts from the time of Innocent III.Nor again was it the torture, which was not prescribed or even allowed for decades after the beginning of the Inquisition, nor, finally, the various sanctions, imprisonment, confiscation, the stake, etc.Many regarded it, as providential that just at this time sprang up two new orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, whose members, by their superior theological training and other characteristics, seemed eminently fitted to perform the inquisitorial task with entire success.In addition, there was reason to hope that, because of their great popularity, they would not encounter too much opposition.It is to he noted, however, that the inquisitors were not chosen exclusively from the mendicant orders, though the Senator of Rome no doubt meant such when in his oath of office (1231) he spoke of inquisitores datos ab ecclesia.The Dominican Alberic, in November of 1232, went through Lombardy as inquisitor haereticae pravitatis.In 1233 a rescript of Gregory IX, touching these matters, was sent simultaneously to the bishops of Southern France and to the priors of the Dominican Order.Toulouse, in Sicily, Aragon, Lombardy, France, Burgundy, Brabant, and Germany (cf.The popes always upheld with earnestness the episcopal authority, and sought to free the inquisitional tribunals from every kind of arbitrariness and caprice.Faith, the salvation of souls, and the extirpation of heresy; that amid all difficulties and dangers he should never yield to anger or passion; that he should meet hostility fearlessly, but should not court it; that he should yield to no inducement or threat, and yet not be heartless; that, when circumstances permitted, he should observe mercy in allotting penalties; that he should listen to the counsel of others, and not trust too much to his own opinion or to appearances, since often the probable is untrue, and the truth improbable.Somewhat thus did Bernard Gui (or Guldonis) and Eymeric, both of them inquisitors for years, describe the ideal inquisitor.There is absolutely no reason to look on the medieval ecclesiastical judge as intellectually and morally inferior to the modern judge.The inhabitants were summoned to appear before the inquisitor.On those who confessed of their own accord a suitable penance (e.If the accused at once made full and free confession, the affair was soon concluded, and not to the disadvantage of the accused.Legally, there had to be at least two witnesses, although conscientious judges rarely contented themselves with that number.The principle had hitherto been held by the Church that the testimony of a heretic, an excommunicated person, a perjurer, in short, of an "infamous", was worthless before the courts.But in its destination of unbelief the Church took the further step of abolishing this long established practice, and of accepting a heretic's evidence at nearly full value in trials concerning faith.It was only in 1261, after Alexander IV had silenced their scruples, that the new principle was generally adopted both in theory and in practice.This grave modification seems to have been defended on the ground that the heretical conventicles took place secretly, and were shrouded in great obscurity, so that reliable information could be obtained from none but themselves.Even prior to the establishment of the Inquisition the names of the witnesses were sometimes withheld from the accused person, and this usage was legalized by Gregory IX, Innocent IV, and Alexander IV.Boniface VIII, however, set it aside by his Bull "Ut commissi vobis officii" (Sext.Witnesses for the defence hardly ever appeared, as they would almost infallibly be suspected of being heretics or favourable to heresy.This, however, was also no innovation, for in 1205 Innocent III, by the Bull "Si adversus vos" forbade any legal help for heretics: "We strictly prohibit you, lawyers and notaries, from assisting in any way, by council or support, all heretics and such as believe in them, adhere to them, render them any assistance or defend them in any way."First he could make known to the judge the names of his enemies: should the charge originate with them, they would be quashed without further ado.Furthermore, it was undoubtedly to the advantage of the accused that false witnesses were punished without mercy.The son's innocence quickly coming to light, the false accuser was apprehended, and sentenced to prison for life (solam vitam ei ex misericordia relinquentes).In addition he was pilloried for five consecutive Sundays before the church during service, with bare head and bound hands.The documents of the trial were either in their entirety handed to them, or a least an abstract drawn up by a public notary was furnished; they were also made acquainted with the witnesses' names, and their first duty was to decide whether or not the witnesses were credible.Substantially they were always called upon to decide two questions: whether and what guilt lay at hand, and what punishment was to be inflicted.That they might be influenced by no personal considerations, the case would be submitted to them somewhat in the abstract, i.In these dispositions surely lay the most valuable guarantees for all objective, impartial, and just operation of the inquisition courts.He himself as inquisitor had on one occasion to go to Rome to defend in person his own position, but he advises other inquisitors against that step, as it simply meant the loss of much time and money; it were wiser, he says, to try a case in such a manner that no fault could be found.Seemingly, appeals to Rome were in great favour; a milder sentence, it was hoped, would be forthcoming, or at least some time would be gained.It was certainly customary to grant the accused person his freedom until the sermo generalis, were he ever so strongly inculpated through witnesses or confession; he was not yet supposed guilty, though he was compelled to promise under oath always to be ready to come before the inquisitor, and in the end to accept with good grace his sentence, whatever its tenor.If the accused person kept it, the judge was favourably inclined; on the other hand, if the accused violated it, his credit grew worse.Besides the oath, the inquisitor might secure himself by demanding a sum of money as bail, or reliable bondsmen who would stand surety for the accused.Curiously enough, torture was not regarded as a mode of punishment, but purely as a means of eliciting the truth.Nor was it originally an important factor in the inquisitional procedure, being unauthorized until twenty years after the Inquisition had begun.It was first authorized by Innocent IV in his Bull "Ad exstirpanda" of 15 May, 1252, which was confirmed by Alexander IV on 30 November, 1259, and by Clement IV on 3 November, 1265.In general, this violent testimony (quaestio) was to be deferred as long as possible, and recourse to it was permitted in only when all other expedients were exhausted.Conscientious and sensible judges quite properly attached no great importance to confessions extracted by torture.Had this papal legislation been adhered to in practice, the historian of the Inquisition would have fewer difficulties to satisfy.Therefore on 27 April, 1260, Alexander IV authorized inquisitors to absolve one another of this irregularity.The inquisitors manuals faithfully noted and approved this usage.But what was to be done when the accused, released from the rack, denied what he had just confessed?Some held with Eymeric that the accused should be set at liberty; others, however, like the author of the "Sacro Arsenale" held that the torture should be continued, because the accused had too seriously incriminated himself by his previous confession.When Clement V formulated his regulations for the employment of torture, he never imagined that eventually even witnesses would be put on the rack, although not their guilt, but that of the accused, was in question.On the one hand, the torture was continued until the accused confessed or intimated that he was willing to confess.On the other hand it, is historically true that the popes not only always held that torture must not imperil life or but also tried to abolish particularly grievous abuses, when such became known to them.Thus Clement V ordained that inquisitors should not apply the torture without the consent of the diocesan bishop.From the middle of the thirteenth century, they did not disavow the principle itself, and, as their restrictions to its use were not always heeded, its severity, though of tell exaggerated, was in many cases extreme.When Alexander VI showed discontent with the delays of the trial, the Florentine government excused itself by urging that Savonarola was a man of extraordinary sturdiness and endurance, and that he had been vigorously tortured on many days (assidua quaestione multis diebus, the papal prothonotary, Burchard, says seven times) but with little effect.It is to be noted that torture was most cruelly used, where the inquisitors were most exposed to the pressure of civil authority.Frederick II, though always boasting of his zeal for the purity of the Faith, abused both rack and Inquisition to put out of the way his personal enemies.The tragical ruin of the Templars is ascribed to the abuse of torture by Philip the Fair and his henchmen.And the excesses of the Spanish Inquisition are largely due to the fact that in its administration civil purposes overshadowed the ecclesiastical.Most of the punishments that were properly speaking inquisitional were not inhuman, either by their nature or by the manner of their infliction.Most frequently certain good works were ordered, e.Other works partook more of the character of real and to some extent degrading punishments, e.The hardest penalties were imprisonment in its various degrees, exclusion from the communion of the Church, and the usually consequent surrender to the civil power.Naturally enough, punishment as a legal sanction is always a hard and painful thing, whether decreed by civil or ecclesiastical justice.There is, however, always an essential distinction between civil and ecclesiastical punishment.In the records of the Inquisition we very frequently read that because of old age, sickness, or poverty in the family, the due punishment was materially reduced owing to the inquisitor's sheer pity, or the petition of a good Catholic.Imprisonment for life was altered to a fine, and this to an alms; participation in a crusade was commuted into a pilgrimage, while a distant and costly pilgrimage became a visit to a neighboring shrine or church, and so on.If the inquisitor's leniency were abused, he was authorized to revive in full the original punishment.On the whole, the Inquisition was humanely conducted.Thus we read that a son obtained his father's release by merely asking for it, without putting forward any special reasons.Rome itself censured inquisitioners or deposed them because they were too harsh, but never because they mere too merciful.It was known as immuration (from the Latin murus, a wall), or incarceration, and was inflicted for a definite time or for life.Members of a religious order, when condemned for life, were immured in their own convent, nor ever allowed to speak with any of their fraternity.The dungeon or cell was euphemistically called "In Pace"; it was, indeed, the tomb of a man buried alive.There was little regard for cleanliness.In some cases there was no light or ventilation, and the food was meagre and very poor.Occasionally the popes had to put an end through their legates to similarly atrocious conditions.The local bishop was expected to provide food from the confiscated property of the prisoner.Officially it was not the Church that sentenced unrepenting heretics to death, more particularly to the stake.As legate of the Roman Church even Gregory IV never went further than the penal ordinances of Innocent III required, nor ever inflicted a punishment more severe than excommunication.Not until four years after the commencement of his pontificate did he admit the opinion, then prevalent among legists, that heresy should be punished with death, seeing that it was confessedly no less serious an offence than high treason.The Church, thenceforth, expelled from her bosom the impenitent heretic, whereupon the state took over the duty of his temporal punishment.Not so the succeeding popes.Moreover, he directs that this Bull and the corresponding regulations of Frederick II be entered in every city among the municipal statutes under pain of excommunication, which was also visited on those who failed to execute both the papal and the imperial decrees.The civil authorities, therefore, were enjoined by the popes, under pain of excommunication to execute the legal sentences that condemned impenitent heretics to the stake.It is to he noted that excommunication itself was no trifle, for, if the person excommunicated did not free himself from excommunication within a year, he was held by the legislation of that period to be a heretic, and incurred all the penalties that affected heresy.How many victims were handed over to the civil power cannot be stated with even approximate accuracy.We have nevertheless some valuable information about a few of the Inquisition tribunals, and their statistics are not without interest.We may add, also, that this was the most active period of the institution.These data and others of the same nature bear out the assertion that the Inquisition marks a substantial advance in the contemporary administration of justice, and therefore in the general civilization of mankind.It is impossible to imagine any such trials before the Inquisition courts.The large numbers of burnings detailed in various histories are completely unauthenticated, and are either the deliberate invention of pamphleteers, or are based on materials that pertain to the Spanish Inquisition of later times or the German witchcraft trials (Vacandard, op.Once the Roman Law touching the crimen laesae majestatis had been made to cover the case of heresy, it was only natural that the royal or imperial treasury should imitate the Roman fiscus, and lay claim to the property of persons condemned.Confiscation was also decreed against persons deceased, and there is a relatively high number of such judgments.The sermo, a short discourse or exhortation, began very early in the morning; then followed the swearing in of the secular officials, who were made to vow obedience to the inquisitor in all things pertaining to the suppression of heresy.This announcement began with the minor punishments, and went on to the most severe, i.Thereupon the guilty were turned over to the civil power, and with this act the sermo generalis closed, and the inquisitional proceedings were at an end.The chief scene of the Inquisition's activity was Central and Southern Europe.It appears in England only on the occasion of the trial of the Templars, nor was it known in Castile and Portugal until the accession of Ferdinand and Isabella.On the other hand, the Inquisition, whether because of the particularly perilous sectarianism there prevalent or of the greater severity of ecclesiastical and civil rulers, weighed heavily on Italy (especially Lombardy), on Southern France (in particular the country of Toulouse and on Languedoc) and finally on the Kingdom of Aragon and on Germany.The inquisitors were, as a rule, irreproachable, not merely in personal conduct, but in the administration of their office.Later, when Rome found that the complaints against him were justified, he was first deposed and then incarcerated for life.How are we to explain the Inquisition in the light of its own period?For the true office of the historian is not to defend facts and conditions, but to study and understand them in their natural course and connection.It is thus evident what little justification there is for regarding intolerance as a product of the Middle Ages.Everywhere and always in the past men believed that nothing disturbed the common weal and public peace so much as religious dissensions and conflicts, and that, on the other hand, a uniform public faith was the surest guarantee for the State's stability and prosperity.The first Christian emperors believed that one of the chief duties of an imperial ruler was to place his sword at the service of the Church and orthodoxy, especially as their titles of "Pontifex Maximus" and "Bishop of the Exterior" seemed to argue in them Divinely appointed agents of Heaven.Emperor Frederick II emphasized this view more vigorously than any other prince, and enforced it in his Draconian enactments against heretics.The representative of the Church were also children of their own time, and in their conflict with heresy accepted the help that their age freely offered them, and indeed often forced upon them.Theologians and canonists, the highest and the saintliest, stood by the code of their day, and sought to explain and to justify it.The learned and holy Raymund of Pennafort, highly esteemed by Gregory IX, was content with the penalties that dated from Innocent III, viz.But before the end of the century, St.Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theol.The Angelic Doctor, however speaks only in a general way of punishment by death, and does not specify more nearly the manner of its infliction.Decree "Ad abolendam" of Lucius III, take debita animadversio (due punishment) as synonymous with ignis crematio (death by fire), a meaning which certainly did not attach to the original expression of 1184.And lest some should urge that those ordinances were abrogated by Christianity, the words of Christ were recalled: "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17); also His other saying (John 15:6): "If any one abide not in me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" (in ignem mittent, et ardet).Blatter, CXL, (1907), p.Is there no longer any inclination to persecution?In forming an estimate of the Inquisition, it is necessary to distinguish clearly between principles and historical fact on the one hand, and on the other those exaggerations or rhetorical descriptions which reveal bias and an obvious determination to injure Catholicism, rather than to encourage the spirit of tolerance and further its exercise.It is also essential to note that the Inquisition, in its establishment and procedure, pertained not to the sphere of belief, but to that of discipline.The dogmatic teaching of the Church is in no way affected by the question as to whether the Inquisition was justified in its scope, or wise in its methods, or extreme in its practice.The Church established by Christ, as a perfect society, is empowered to make laws and inflict penalties for their violation.Heresy, in consequence, was a crime which secular rulers were bound in duty to punish.Hence the severity with which heretics were treated by the secular power long before the Inquisition was established.The heretic, in a word, was simply an outlaw whose offence, in the popular mind, deserved and sometimes received a punishment as summary as that which is often dealt out in our own day by an infuriated populace to the authors of justly detested crimes.In Geneva the pernicious theory was put into practice by state and church, even to the use of torture and the admission of the testimony of children against their parents, and with the sanction of Calvin.To suggest that this was inconsistent is trivial in view of the deeper insight it affords into the meaning of a tolerance which is often only theoretical and the source of that intolerance which men rightly show towards error, and which they naturally though not rightly, transfer to the erring.The Inquisition in Spain
(1) Historical Facts
Religious conditions similar to those in Southern France occasioned the establishment of the Inquisition in the neighboring Kingdom of Aragon.Raymund of Pennafort, he asked Gregory IX to establish the Inquisition in Aragon.Inquisition was formally confided to the Dominicans and the Franciscans.At the Synod of Tarragona in 1242, Raymund of Pennafort defined the terms haereticus, receptor, fautor, defensor, etc.Although the ordinances of Innocent IV, Urban IV, and Clement VI were also adopted and executed with strictness by the Dominican Order, no striking success resulted.The Spanish Inquisition, however, properly begins with the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella.Judaism (Marranos) and Mohammedanism (Moriscos).On 1 November, 1478, Sixtus IV empowered the Catholic sovereigns to set up the Inquisition.The judges were to be at least forty years old, of unimpeachable reputation, distinguished for virtue and wisdom, masters of theology, or doctors or licentiates of canon law, and they must follow the usual ecclesiastical rules and regulations.They were at first admonished to act only in conjunction with the bishops, and finally were threatened with deposition, and would indeed have been deposed had not Their Majesties interceded for them.Avila, 16 September, 1498) was the true organizer of the Spanish Inquisition.At the solicitation of their Spanish Majesties (Paramo, II, tit.Sixtus IV bestowed on Torquemada the office of grand inquisitor, the institution of which indicates a decided advance in the development of the Spanish Inquisition.Villareal, and Toledo, About 1538 there were nineteen courts, to which three were afterwards added in Spanish America (Mexico, Lima, and Cartagena).Attempts at introducing it into Italy failed, and the efforts to establish it in the Netherlands entailed disastrous consequences for the mother country.It was definitely abolished by the Revolution of 1820.Organization
At the head of the Inquisition, known as the Holy Office, stood the grand inquisitor, nominated by the king and confirmed by the pope.The officials of the supreme tribunal were appointed by the grand inquisitor after consultation with the king.The former could also freely appoint, transfer, remove from office, visit, and inspect or call to account all inquisitors and officials of the lower courts.Inquisition, and once a month a financial report.Everyone was subject to it, not excepting priests, bishops, or even the sovereign.Procedure
The procedure, on the other hand, was substantially the same as that already described.Imprisonment resulted only when unanimity had been arrived at, or the offence had been proved.Historical Analysis
The Spanish Inquisition deserves neither the exaggerated praise nor the equally exaggerated vilification often bestowed on it.San Benito has its counterpart in similar garbs elsewhere; the cruelty of St.Peter Arbues, to whom not a single sentence of death can be traced with certainty, belongs to the realms of fable.However, the predominant ecclesiastical nature of the institution can hardly be doubted.Joseph de Maistre introduced the thesis that the Spanish Inquisition was mostly a civil tribunal; formerly, however, theologians never questioned its ecclesiastical nature.Only thus, indeed, can one explain how the Popes always admitted appeals from it to the Holy See, called to themselves entire trials and that at any stage of the proceedings, exempted whole classes of believers from its jurisdiction, intervened in the legislation, deposed grand inquisitors, and so on.The Holy Office at Rome
The great apostasy of the sixteenth century, the filtration of heresy into Catholic lands, and the progress of heterodox teachings everywhere, prompted Paul III to establish the "Sacra Congregatio Romanae et universalis Inquisitionis seu sancti officii" by the Constitution "Licet ab initio" of 21 July, 1542.This inquisitional tribunal, composed of six cardinals, was to be at once the final court of appeal for trials concerning faith, and the court of first instance for cases reserved to the pope.Pius IV (by the Constitutions "Pastoralis Oficii" of 14 October, 1562, "Romanus Pontifex" of 7 April, 1563, "Cum nos per" of 1564, "Cum inter crimina" of 27 August, 1562) and Pius V (by a Decree of 1566, the Constitution "Inter multiplices" of 21 December, 1566, and "Cum felicis record."By his Constitution "Immensa aeterni" of 23 January, 1587, Sixtus V became the real organizer, or rather reorganizer of this congregation.Its personnel includes judges, officials, consultors, and qualificators.Their actual number depends on the reigning pope (Benedict XIV, Constitution "Sollicita et Provida", 1733).The solemn plenary session on Thursdays is always preceded by a session of the cardinals on Wednesdays, at the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, and a meeting of the consultors on Mondays at the palace of the Holy Office.He acts as the proper judge throughout the whole case until the plenary session exclusive, thus conducting it up to the verdict.The assessor sancti officii, always one of the secular clergy, presides at the plenary sessions.The duty of the consultors is to afford the cardinals expert advice.In practice, however, the latter are held exempt.Nihil Obstat, October 1, 1910.Hosted by Trinity Consulting.Catholic Church charged with the eradication of heresies.Church from the beginning.Hussites, Lutherans, Calvinists, and Rosicrucians.Isabel, the Spanish inquisition became independent of Rome.Curia, became the supervisory body of local Inquisitions.It was this same body in 1633 that tried Galileo.Until recently, Protestant literature on the Inquisition tended to be hostile
to the Catholic Church, while Catholic literature tended to be apologetic and
justificatory.For a frank Catholic discussion of the Inquisition and its problems,
see John A.For the Inquisition and its procedures in Italy during Galileo's time,
see John Tedeschi, The Prosecution of Heresy: Collected Studies on the
Inquisition in Early Modern Italy (Binghamton, NY: Center for Medieval and
Early Renaissance Studies, 1991).During that period he passed sentence on 930 people that we know of.That was rather scary for the church.What gave them the courage to continue?Suddenly a new set of possibilities emerges.He intends to expand the number of translations, so keep a note of his home page.Sooner or later, any discussion of apologetics
with Fundamentalists will address the Inquisition.This tract will set the record straight.There have actually been several different inquisitions.The first was established in 1184 in southern France as a response to the
Catharist heresy.This was known as the Medieval Inquisition, and it was
phased out as Catharism disappeared.Quite separate was the Roman Inquisition, begun
in 1542.It was the least active and most benign of the three variations.More importantly, its job was also to clear the good names of many people
who were falsely accused of being heretics.It was the Spanish Inquisition
that, at least in the popular imagination, had the worst record of fulfilling
these duties.The various inquisitions stretched through the
better part of a millennia, and can collectively be called "the Inquisition."Fundamentalists writing about the Inquisition rely
on books by Henry C.Each
man got most of the facts right, and each made progress in basic research,
so proper credit should not be denied them.Catholic writers, particularly those less interested in digging for truth
than in diffusing a criticism of the Church, have glossed over incontrovertible
facts and tried to whitewash the Inquisition.Lea, Coulton, and contemporary Fundamentalist writers.They fear, while
the others hope, that the facts about the Inquisition might prove the illegitimacy
of the Catholic Church.The Church has nothing
to fear from the truth.What must be grasped is that the Church contains
within itself all sorts of sinners and knaves, and some of them obtain
positions of responsibility.Paul and Christ himself warned us that there
would be a few ravenous wolves among Church leaders (Acts 20:29; Matt.Fundamentalists suffer from the mistaken notion
that the Church includes only the elect.Locate sinners, and you locate another place where the Church
is not.Thinking that Fundamentalists might have a point
in their attacks on the Inquisition, Catholics tend to be defensive.Catholics,
each of whom, it seems, tries to come up with the largest number of casualties.In fact, no one knows exactly how many people perished through
the various Inquisitions.We can determine for certain, though, one thing
about numbers given by Fundamentalists: They are far too large.One book
popular with Fundamentalists claims that 95 million people died under the
Inquisition.Not
until modern times did the population of those countries where the Inquisitions
existed approach 95 million.Inquisitions did not exist in Northern Europe,
Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, or England, being confined mainly to southern
France, Italy, Spain, and a few parts of the Holy Roman Empire.The Inquisition
could not have killed that many people because those parts of Europe did
not have that many people to kill!In fact, recent studies
indicate that at most there were only a few thousand capital sentences
carried out for heresy in Spain, and these were over the course of several
centuries.Instead, ask Fundamentalists just what they think the existence
of the Inquisition demonstrates.They would not bring it up in the first
place unless they thought it proves something about the Catholic Church.That at times people in positions of authority have used poor judgment?That otherwise good Catholics, afire with zeal, sometimes lose their
balance?All true, but such charges could be made even if the Inquisition
had never existed and perhaps could be made of some Fundamentalists.Fundamentalist writers claim the existence of the
Inquisition proves the Catholic Church could not be the Church founded
by our Lord.They think this shows that the Catholic Church is illegitimate.At first blush it might seem so, but there is only so much mileage in a
ploy like that; most people see at once that the argument is weak.One
reason Fundamentalists talk about the Inquisition is that they take it
as a personal attack, imagining it was established to eliminate (yes, you
guessed it) the Fundamentalists themselves.Fundamentalists and that Catholics did to them what they would do to Fundamentalists
today if they had the political strength they once had.In fact, theirs was a curious religion that apparently (no one
knows for certain) came to France from what is now Bulgaria.Catharism
was a blend of Gnosticism, which claimed to have access to a secret source
of religious knowledge, and of Manichaeism, which said matter is evil.The ramifications of such theories are not hard
to imagine.Many discussions about the Inquisition get bogged
down in numbers and many Catholics fail to understand what Fundamentalists
are really driving at.As a result, Catholics restrict themselves to secondary
matters.Instead, they should force the Fundamentalists to say explicitly
what they are trying to prove.Spanish Inquisition were similar to (actually, even lighter
than) those meted out by secular courts.In fact, historians have
found records of people blaspheming in secular courts of the period so
they could have their case transferred to an ecclesiastical court, where
they would get a better hearing.The crucial thing for Catholics, once they have
obtained some appreciation of the history of the Inquisition, is to explain
how such an institution could have been associated with a divinely established
Church and why it is not proper to conclude, from the existence of the
Inquisition, that the Catholic Church is not the Church of Christ.To that end, it is helpful to point out that it
is easy to see how those who led the Inquisitions could think their actions
were justified.Like Israel, medieval Europe was a society of Christian kingdoms that were
formally consecrated to the Lord Jesus Christ.Paul
repeats this principle in 1 Corinthians 5:13.In fact, Calvin not
only banished from Geneva those who did not share his views, he permitted
and in some cases ordered others to be executed for "heresy" (e.Michael Servetus, burned at the
stake in 1553).In England and Ireland, Reformers engaged in their own
ruthless inquisitions and executions.Bible to require
the use of penal sanctions to root out false religion from Christian society.The fact that the Protestant Reformers also created
inquisitions to root out Catholics and others who did not fall into line
with the doctrines of the local Protestant sect shows that the existence
of an inquisition does not prove that a movement is not of God.Protestants
cannot make this claim against Catholics without having it backfire on
themselves.Neither can Catholics make such a charge against Protestants.The truth of a particular system of belief must be decided on other grounds.INQUISITION REUNION CONFIRMED LINEUP FOR BOTH SHOWS!!Inquisition made a dent in the underground punk community in their heyday, when they should have been a full blown car crash.""Inquisition had it all, the energy, the desperation, political lyrics.Inquisition), the resonance of Inquisition
remains a dear relative to the music he and his band mates are creating
today.In fact, Thomas' current band, Strike Anywhere, is named from a song by Inquisition.Body Table, Td table table table table table table table .Small:visited a, a:link, a:visited, a.We're Japanese melodic hardcore band!!Definitely one of the best shows I have ever seen and possibly will.Thanks for the memories.Damn living in Australia and all...Thanks for the great weekend, not just to the band but for everyone from Richmond that I meant.One of the best show(s) I have ever been too!Saturday's show was incredible."Urgent Security Alert","Warning: You are submitting information to an outside site.This is not a MySpace login page, please do not enter your MySpace login information (email address or password).Do you wish to continue your form submission?"The keeper of God's word was the Catholic Church, the only
religion in all of Christendom.Emperors no longer submitted to being crowned by the Pope and
across Europe Kings demanded the right to select their own Bishops.Pope, the Church began to crack down on
all dissenting with a new weapon: the Inquisition.For over half a
millennium a system of mass terror reigned.Thousands were subject to
secret courts, torture and punishment.Church authorities advise on the handling of this
controversial subject matter.Secret Files of the Inquisition is a production of Inquisition Productions, Inc..Copyright Inquisition Productions, Inc.Spain in the year 613 CE.Spanish Inquisition Really Did Occur!Jews, Muslims, and "heretical" Christians.Inquisition's decline in the 19th century.Spanish Inquisition to purify the people of Spain.Inquisition in various cities. |
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