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Spanish Inquisition

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File:Inquisition2.jpg
Pedro Berruguete. Saint Dominic Presiding over an Auto-da-fe (1475).
Artistic representations usually depict torture and the burning at the stake occurring during the auto de fe.

The Spanish Inquisition was an historical institution founded under Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile in 1478 to suppress heresies against the Roman Catholic Church. The Inquisition was primarily under the control of the Spanish monarch, with only the Inquisitor General appointed by Rome.

In the history of the Catholic Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition is especially notorious, particularly in the nature of the auto de fe, or trials, of converted Muslims, Jews, and Illuminists. This Inquisition also gave rise to the Peruvian Inquisition and the Mexican Inquisition, which continued until those countries received their independence from Spain.

Context

In the 15th century, Spain was not a single state but a confederation of realms, each with their own administrations, such as the Crown of Aragon and the Crown of Castile, ruled by Ferdinand and Isabella, respectively. In the Crown of Aragon (a confederation of the Kingdoms of Aragon, Baleares, Catalonia and Valencia), there had been a local inquisition from the Middle Ages, as in the rest of the European countries. However, there had not been one in the Kingdom of Castile.

Much of the Iberian peninsula had been ruled by the Moors, and the southern regions, particularly Granada, were heavily populated by Muslims. Until 1492, Granada was still under Moorish rule. The large cities, especially Seville, Valladolid, capital of Castile, and Barcelona, capital of the Crown of Aragon, had large Jewish populations centered in Juderías.

There was a long tradition of Jewish service to the Crown of Aragon. Ferdinand's father, John II of Aragon, appointed Abiathar Crescas, a Jew, as his court astrologer. Jews held many prominent posts, both religious and political. Pedro de la Caballeria, a Marrano, or Jewish convert, played a major role in arranging Ferdinand's marriage to Isabella. Castile even had an unofficial Crown Rabbi, a professing Jew.

The Inquisition was an attack on this diversity of faith in Spain.

Origin

There were many motivations for Ferdinand to create the Inquisition. Wiping out the Jewish and Muslim religions in his domains would help him achieve better control over his people, and the Inquisition was his method of achieving that. Spain, historically an area with disparate religious traditions and ethnic groups, needed a common religion - Catholicism - if it was to have a sense of unity. Also, many historians believe the Spanish Inquisition was instituted as a way of weakening Ferdinand's primary political opposition at home. It is also possible that there was a financial motivation: Jewish financiers had lent Ferdinand's father many of the funds which he had used to pursue the alliance by marriage with Castile, and many of these debts would be wiped if the noteholder were condemned in court.

Ferdinand's main aim was to consolidate the independent realms that he had gained by his marriage to Isabella into a single state to be left to his heir. Ferdinand was an astute politician, and developed close ties with St. Peter's in Rome as part of his political manoeuvering. However, he did not want the Pope to control the Inquisition in Spain, as he was jealous of any other power within his borders.

The Pope did not want the Inquisition established in Spain at all, but Ferdinand insisted. He prevailed upon Rodrigo Borgia, then Bishop of Valencia and the Papal Vice-Chancellor as well as a cardinal, to lobby Rome on his behalf. Borgia was partially successful, as Pope Sixtus IV sanctioned the Inquisition only in the state of Castile. Later, Borgia was to have Spain's support for his own papacy as Pope Alexander VI.

Sixtus IV was Pope when the Spanish Inquisition was instituted in Seville. He worked against it, but bowed to pressure from Ferdinand, who threatened to withhold military support from his kingdom of Sicily. Sixtus issued a papal Bull establishing the order in 1478. Nevertheless, Sixtus was unhappy with the excesses of the Inquisition and took measures to suppress their abuses.

The Pope disapproved of the extreme measures being taken by Ferdinand, and categorically disallowed their spread to the kingdom of Aragon. He alleged that the Inquisition was a cynical ploy by Ferdinand and Isabella to confiscate the Jews' property. Despite his title of "Most Catholic King", and his ongoing attempts to woo the Pope to his side politically, Ferdinand continued to resist direct Papal influence in his lands. He decided to use strong-arm tactics against the Pope.

Ferdinand had some important levers he could use to bend the Pope to his will. Venice, traditionally the defender against the Turks in the East, was greatly weakened after a protracted war which lasted from 1463 to 1479. The Turks had taken possession of Greece and the Greek islands. France, as always, was looking for signs of weakness which it could use to its advantage. And in the midst of all these threats, in August of 1480 the Sultan of Turkey had attacked Italy itself, at the port of Otranto, with several thousand janissaries who pillaged the countryside for three days, largely unopposed.

Under these conditions, Ferdinand's position in Sicily — he was king of Sicily as well as Aragon and several other kingdoms — gave him the leverage he needed. He threatened to withhold military support for the Holy See, and the Pope relented.

Sixtus then blessed the royal institution of the Spanish Inquisition. Ferdinand had won everything he sought: the Inquisition was under his sole control, but had the blessing of the Pope, and the royal coffers were swelling with the loot of the Jewish and Moorish victims.

The Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews

See also: History of the Jews in Spain

Ferdinand and Isabella appointed Tomás de Torquemada in 1481 to investigate and punish conversos: Jews and Muslims who claimed to have "converted" to Catholicism but continued to practice their "former" religion in secret. Conversos were common in Spain. Some disguised Jews had been ordained as priests and even bishops. Detractors called converted Jews Marranos, a pejorative word that can also be translated as "pigs".

The Inquisition began by targeting conversos in Seville, and tribunals were established in quick succession at Cordova, Jaen, and Ciudad Real, followed by Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia. Between 1486-1492, 25 auto-de-fes (trials) were held in Toledo alone; there would eventually be over 464 auto-de-fes targeting Jews between 1481 and 1826. In total, more than 13,000 conversos were tried from 1480-1492. The Inquisition against the conversos culminated in the expulsion of all of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

In this context, the concept of limpieza de sangre ("cleanliness of blood") evolved, as those with Jewish ancestors were viewed with suspicion by the "Old Christians".

Muslim Spain had proved a safe haven for Jews, and quickly became the center of Jewish intellectual life. However, several months after the fall of Granada an edict of expulsion was issued against the Jews of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella on March 31, 1492. It ordered all Jews of whatever age to leave the kingdom by the last day of July, but permitted them to remove their property provided it was not in gold, silver, or money. The reason alleged for this action in the preamble of the edict was the relapse of so many conversos, owing to the proximity of unconverted Jews who seduced them from Christianity and kept alive in them the knowledge and practises of Judaism. No other motive is assigned, and there is no doubt that the religious motive was the main one. It is claimed that Don Isaac Abravanel, who had previously ransomed 480 Jewish Moriscos of Malaga from the Catholic monarchs by a payment of 20,000 doubloons, now offered them 600,000 crowns for the revocation of the edict. It is also said also that Ferdinand hesitated, but was prevented from accepting the offer by Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, who dashed into the royal presence and, throwing a crucifix down before the king and queen, asked whether, like Judas, they would betray their Lord for money (See: Warren Carroll's thoroughly documented Isabel: the Catholic Queen). Whatever may be the truth of this story, there were no signs of relaxation shown by the court, and the Jews of Spain made preparations for exile. Over 200,000 Jews were eventually expelled, many of whom fled to Turkey or North Africa, and tens of thousands died during the expulsion. The expulsion from Spain led to the creation of the Sephardic Jewish community, and was viewed as such a betrayal that Sephardic Jews were forbidden by tradition from ever resettling in Spain (which would have been impossible in any case until 1858, when the Edict of Expulsion was finally repealed)

With the expulsion of the Jews, the Inquisition had free reign, as its authority extended only to Christians, not Jews or Muslims, and every Jew in the King's states had been baptised (New Christians) or expelled. If they continued to practice the Jewish religion, they were sinful relapses ("fallen again").


Operation of the Inquistion

File:Homosexuality Spanish Inquisition.jpg
This picture is described as displaying Roman Catholic Church officials presiding over the torture of a man during the Spanish Inquisition.

Sixtus IV died in 1484, and was succeeded by Pope Innocent VIII. Innocent twice issued bulls asking for greater mercy and leniency for the conversos. He ordered all Catholic monarchs to extradite fleeing Jews back to Spain where they could stand trial.

The Inquisition was a religious court operated by Church authorities, but in contrast to other Inquisitions it did so under the supervision of the Spanish crown. If a person was found to be heretical, they were turned over ("relaxed") to the secular authorities to be punished, since "the Church does not shed blood". Torture was often used to gain confessions. Punishments ranged from public shame (dressing in the sambenito) to burning at the stake. Burning at the stake was carried out after death by garroting (strangulation) for those who repented; burning alive was for the unrepentant; and in effigy for those condemned in absentia. These punishments were conducted in public ceremonies called auto de fe that could last a whole day. The clerical members of the tribunal were assisted by civilians (familiares). The office of familiar of the Inquisition was very prestigious.

Many people made such accusations out of revenge, or to gain rewards from the Crown. The Crown itself may have been behind some of the allegations, in the desire to appropriate wealthy Conversos' lands, property and valuables.

The Inquisition was also used against focuses of early Protestantism, Erasmism and Illuminism and in the 18th century against Encyclopedism and French Enlightenment. In spite of the actions of the other European Inquisitions, witchcraft was a bigger concern for the Spanish people than for the Inquisition. Accused witches were usually dismissed as mentally ill.

The Inquisition was removed during Napoleonic rule (1808–1812), but reinstituted when Ferdinand VII of Spain recovered the throne. It was officially ended on 15 July 1834. Schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoli, garroted to death in Valencia on July 26 1826 (allegedly for teaching Deist principles), was the last person executed by the Spanish Inquisition.

The Spanish Inquisition gave rise to the Mexican Inquisition and the Lima Inquisition, which pursued those who fled from the original Inquisitors to the Americas with the help of various explorers and conquistadors.

Torture techniques used

Myths about the Inquisition have developed and have been investigated by Edward Peters and Henry Kamen, among others. It is possible that the amount of torture used has been exagerrated.

According to a joint BBC/A&E documentary entitled Myths of the Spanish Inquisition (1994), torture chambers did not exist during the Spanish Inquisition, and the Inquisition used torture "very infrequently". For example, in Valencia, out of over 7,000 documented cases, less than 2% experienced any torture at all, usually for no more than fifteen minutes. Less than 1% experienced torture more than once. Researchers found no cases of victims who experienced torture more than twice.

Many of the torture methods attributed to the Spanish Inquisition were never used. For example, the "Iron Maiden" never existed in Spain, and was a post-Reformation invention of Germany. Thumb-screws on display in an English museum as Spanish were only recently attributed to their true origin: William Cecil's persecution of Catholics during Elizabeth I's reign.[citation needed]

The use of torture was common at the time and there is a tendency for any medieval torture technique to be automatically attributed to the Spanish Inquisition. Many techniques commonly attributed in popular fiction were probably never used:

  • Bricking a defendant up to starve to death.
  • Smashing a defendant's joints with hammers.
  • Flailing a defendant on the wheel.
  • Raping female defendants.

Torquemada documented some of his techniques. A favorite was tortura del'agua (water torture), in which the victim was strapped to a rack, his mouth forced open with a rag, and water was then forced down the throat so that the victim felt he was drowning. In another technique, the garrucha, the victim's hands were tied behind his back at the wrists; the victim was then lifted off the ground by the wrists. The 'Spanish chair', a device used to hold the victim while the soles of their feet were roasted, was certainly in existence in Spain during the period of the Inquisition. It is uncertain, however, whether it was actually used by the Inquisition.

Death tolls

Some statistics of large death tolls are given by historians such as Will Durant, who, in, The Reformation (1957) cites Juan Antonio Llorente, General Secretary of the Inquisition from 1789 to 1801, as estimating that 31,912 people were executed from 1480-1808. He also cites Hernando de Pulgar, a secretary to Queen Isabella, as estimating 2,000 people were burned before 1490. Philip Schaff in his History of the Christian Church gave a number of 8,800 people burned in the 18 years of Torquemada. Matthew White, in reviewing these and other figures, gives a median number of deaths at 32,000, with around 9,000 under Torquemada [1]. R. J. Rummel describes similar figures as "most realistic," though he cites some historians who give figures of up to 135,000 people killed under Torquemada. This number includes 125,000 who are claimed to have died in prison due to poor conditions, leaving 10,000 sentenced to death.

The Spanish Inquisition maintained extensive records that are now being sifted through by historians. They paint a very different picture of sentencing patterns to traditional historians, although, like any historical document their accuracy can be disputed. Geoffrey Parker analyzed 49,000 trial records between 1540 and 1700, representing one third of the total, and found 776 executions. This suggests a total of about 2,250 in the period reviewed. Earlier records are less well preserved but do not support the usual picture of a bloodbath. In The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, Henry Kamen does not believe more than a thousand executions took place in the earlier period (p. 60). However, he points out that the Inquisitors' activities were heavily slanted towards Jewish and Muslim communities who would have suffered far more than most from their activities. Recent work, sponsored by the Catholic Church, also points to a significantly lower death toll. Professor Agostino Borromeo, an historian of Catholicism at the Sapienza University in Rome, writes that about 125,000 people were tried by church tribunals as suspected heretics in Spain. Of these, about 1,200 - 2,000 were actually executed, although more killings were performed by non-church tribunals.

Some historians and Spanish schololors suggest that that the death toll has been exagerated over time as part of the anti-Spanish Black Legend.

The Spanish Inquisition in the arts

The Spanish Inquisition has often been represented in art, literature, movies, and television:

See also

References

  • Henry Kamen, The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. (Yale University Press, 1999). ISBN 0300078803
—This revised edition of his 1965 original contributes to the understanding of the Spanish Inquisition in its local context.
  • Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain (4 volumes), (New York and London, 1906-1907)
  • Simon Whitechapel, Flesh Inferno: Atrocities of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition (Creation Books, 2003). ISBN 1840681055
  • B. Netanyahu, The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain, (New York : New York Review Books, 2001). ISBN 0940322390
  • Miranda Twiss, The Most Evil Men And Women In History (Michael O'Mara Books Ltd., 2002). ISBN 1-85479-488-4
  • Geoffrey Parker “Some Recent Work on the Inquisition in Spain and Italy” Journal of Modern History 54:3 1982
  • Warrenn Carroll, "Isabel: the Catholic Queen" Front Royal, Virginia, 1991 (Christendom Press) 385 pp., ASIN: 0931888433
  • Myths of the Spanish Inquisition (Television Documentary produced by the BBC) 1994 BBC/A&E
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