CATHOLIC 200

NEWSLETTER

INSIDE
THIS
ISSUE
PG. 2-3
Explore the history of early modern
THE INQUISITION
Spain including King Ferdinand, WORDS BY CHRISTINE GARCIA
Queen Isabella and Pope Gregory IX.
Inquisition, is by far, the most controversial event in the
PG. 4-7 th th
Catholic Church during the 13 to 17 century. In this
Brief overview of the Inquisition and
volume, we will dig deeper and explore how the Inquisition
how it started in Spain to the rest of was establish, who were the people involve and what were
Europe. the real motives of this scandalous event. At the last part,
we see various work of arts that are inspired by the
PG. 8-9 Inquisition.
The journey towards breaking the
Inquisition and the arts produced
during period of Enlightenment.
 Typical Iberian town back in the early centuries.

EARLY MODERN SPAIN

ONE FLOWERING CULTURE IN SPAIN

In the early centuries, Spain was filled with a multi-religious society made up of Jews, Muslims,
and Christians. This Iberian peninsula experienced a great challenge to have a single law and
governance throughout the country. Concurrently, Spain faced challenges of capitalism in
between the exploration and expansion of the American empire. It had been a place of near-
constant warfare and perhaps, the most diverse and tolerant place in medieval Europe.

Because borders shifts rapidly, the rising tensions of different religions particularly, between
Christians and Jews and the inevitable waves of anti-Semitism led the country in constant battles
and urban mobs. Jews were given a choice of baptism to Christianity or death. Most took baptism
and became conversos, yet many of them continued to live in Jewish cultures. By the mid-15th
century, a brand-new culture flourished in Spain. It was said that the conversos were soon to take
over the Spanish nobility and that fear started to grow in the minds of the Catholic nobilities.

Long after the marriage of King Ferdinand of Castile and Queen Isabella of Aragon, the Spanish
culture started to reconstruct along with the economic, social and political aspects over the
course of the next centuries. Undoubtedly, the wedding and the shared rule of the Catholic kings
slowly strengthened the monarch governance, re-conquest regions and enforced a religious
conformity.

THE REIGN OF KING
FERDINAND AND QUEEN
ISABELLA
WHAT ARE THE MOTIVES OF ESTABLISHING THE SPANISH
INQUISITION?

Although there were no concrete pieces of evidence

and historians do not have unanimity on the real
motives of the Spanish kings, they have suggested a
few possible reasons:

1) Spanish kings used inquisition to give the

monarchy the right and authorization in the
religious side of power ceasing the involvement
of the Pope. One of the said of objectives of King
Ferdinand and Queen Isabella was to create
efficient state machinery.

In the end, what they were after was to consolidate the
political authority and secure their wealth throughout
Spain.

2) By strengthening the monarchy also meant to

weaken local political opposition. They wanted to
control every local region in Spain. Given the
political power, they were able to remove all the
opposing and powerful converso minority.
3) The confiscations of property and fines gained
from the Inquisition were, undoubtedly, used to
pay the people behind these scandalous events
and to support the monarchy financially.

 Various representation of how Inquisition works.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION

WORDS BY CHRISTINE GARCIA

From the Latin noun inquisition or investigation , Inquisition is fundamentally a

legal procedure in ancient Rome that signified a trial for a public crime, conducted
by a single magistrate whose officials carried out the search for evidence. Officials
usually used to order torture to interrogate suspects. Heretics are people who were
baptized as Christian yet held varying opinions about the Catholic faith. Heretics
were tortured in different forms and penalized in either monetary or confiscation
of goods and property.

The year 1231 when the inquisition was established under the leadership of Pope
Gregory IX. He chose religious orders Franciscan and Dominicans to lead the
inquisition. According to the book Daily Life During the Spanish Inquisition,
Dominicans were chosen because of the reputation they had gained from their
founder Saint Dominic who once lead a war against the Cathars in southern France.
Because the Dominicans had been established to combat heretics and proclaim the
th
teachings of the Catholic faith in the early 13 century, this particular religious order
became active in the Inquisition. Pope Gregory IX gave the inquisitors papal legal
authorities to conduct trials a particular time or region they were assigned. In the
medieval Inquisition, if the defendants were able to confess quickly and
completely, they would have had the chance to be accepted back into the Church
only with punishment ‒ or to which the inquisitors referred to as penance. The next
level of punishments includes executions and life imprisonments that were carried
out by the secular authorities. The principles and practices from the medieval
inquisition were then adopted and governed in Spain ‒ though, with added motives.

Having the largest population of conversos or newly baptized Christians, Spanish

society had triggering suspicions on the religiosity and sincerity of the newly
converted Jews. Secular leaders saw them as a threat to the Catholic Church and
used the Inquisition as a way to solve this social conflict.

To solve this problem, King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille,
secular rulers during that time, asked Pope Sixtus IV for a bull or decree that would
grant them the privilege to name bishops or priest who will fulfill the inquisitorial
duties in their kingdom. It is important to note that through this request the
establishment of the Spanish inquisition was distinguishable from the medieval
inquisition because of the influential role of the secular leaders or Spanish Kings in
its institution.
th
By the 16 century, tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition were established in different
cities under the leadership of the appointed Dominican prior Tomas de
Torquemada. He was the first inquisitor-general of Spain and led the group of
counselors called the Council of the Supreme and General Inquisition or Suprema.
Scholars conclude that given the fact that Torquemada was chosen by the King, the
authority and loyalty of the inquisitor-general still depended upon the secular rulers
who gave him power rather than the papal authorities. As James Anderson (2002)
described it, Spanish kings consolidated their royal authority by bringing to heel
disobedient nobles, dismantling troublesome castles, and establishing governing
bodies loyal to them.

Although the Inquisition was operated following the Canon Law of the Roman
Catholic Church, the procedures differed by the successive Inquisitor Generals in
Spain. Listed below were the brief description of procedures in the Spanish
Inquisition:

1) Accusation. When the Inquisitor arrived in a town, he would announce his

presence and read the Edict of Grace that explained possible heresies and
encouraged people to present themselves to the tribunals in order to cleanse
their sin and clear their consciences. Within a period of grace – approximately
one month – people who presented themselves were given the possibility to
do penance without drastic punishment. Besides, there were also anonymous
accusations and the defendant had no rights to know about the identity of his
or her accuser nor the whereabouts of their accusations.
2) Detention. After an accusation, the accused will be detained in preventive
custody and can remain injail lasting up to two years before the officials finally
examined the case. On top of that, the property of the accused was confiscated
and was used to pay for the maintenance and expenses inside the Inquisition.
Many times, the relatives of the defendant were found themselves in hardship
and distress. Since it took several months or years before the trial, some
prisoners died in prison.
3) The trial. The trial consisted of various procedural hearings and both the
denouncers and the defendant gave the testimony. The role of the defense
counsel was to advise the defendant and press him or her to speak the truth on
his heretical acts. One of the most common ways to interrogate the accused
was through torture. The methods included garrucha, toca and potro. Once the
process was done, the inquisidores consulted with a representative of the bishop
and with other experts in theology or canon law. Unanimously, the case was
voted and the sentence pronounced.
4) Sentencing. The defendant can be sentenced and could be acquitted,
suspended, penanced, reconciled or undergone relaxation. The most serious
punishment one can be in was the last option ‒ relaxation ‒ in which the
defendant was garroted and his body will be put to the flames, or he or she can
also be burned alive.
 A prisoner tortured by the Spanish inquisitors.

Approximately 2,000 conversos were killed in the first fifteen years of the Spanish
th
Inquisition. By the start of 17 century and the arrival of the Enlightenment, the
Spanish Inquisition activities slowed down and completely vanished.

But why is the Spanish Inquisition lasted for so long? Well, it is because the
Spaniards loved their Inquisition. It served to eliminate people, fought against what
they believed to be error and heretic, and most notably protected the power and
sustained the wealth of the Spanish monarch. But nothing lasts forever. Eventually,
the wealth and power shifted to France and England and new ideas spurted and the
start of the Enlightenment century. The Spanish Inquisition was then mocked and
questioned by Enlightenment scholars and identified as a “brutal weapon of
intolerance and ignorance” (Maden, 2003).

INQUISITION IN

THE ARTS

At the beginning of the

Enlightenment, various
representations and works inspired
by the Spanish Inquisition were made
in large oil paintings, novels, films
and theatre. Listed below are some
of the works made by notable artists:

• The Inquisition Tribunal or also

known as The Court of the Inquisition made by Francisco de Goya represented
the customs and acts of the tribunals of the Spanish Inquisition gathered inside
a church.
• Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin is a Gothic novel about a character
who sold his soul in exchange for extra
years of life while the character
searches the world. The novel is said
to be a social commentary on the
repression of the Catholic faith.
• The Heretic by Miguel Delibes an

historical novel that discussed about the

Protestants of Valladolid and explores the
reformation of the Spanish Inquisition.

• ThePit and the Pendulum is by far, one of the

best known stories of Edgar Allan Poe. It
explores the types of tortures in the Inquisition
and has been taken to big screen several times.

Bibliography:

Anderson, J. M. (2002). Daily life during the Spanish Inquisition. Greenwood Publishing Group.

Casey, James. Early Modern Spain : A Social History, Routledge, 1999. ProQuest Ebook Central,
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uregina/detail.action?docID=169711.

Homza, L. A. (2006). Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources. Hackett Publishing.

Kamen, H. (2014). The Spanish Inquisition: a historical revision. Yale University Press.

Kamen, H. (1965). Confiscations in the Economy of the Spanish Inquisition. The Economic History Review, 18(3),
new series, 511-525. doi:10.2307/2592562

Madden, T. (2011). The truth about the Spanish inquisition. Crisis Magazine. Retrieved on 1 April 1 2020 from
https://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/the-truth-about-the-spanish-inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition. [Web log post]. Retrieved on Mar 30 2020 from https://www.donquijote.org/spanish-
culture/history/spanish-inquisition/

Spanish Inquisition. (2007). English Wikipedia. Retrieved on 16 March 2020 from

https://ww/cs/mcgill.ca/~rwest/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/s/Spanish_Inquisition.htm

Credits to the owner of the following images:

[Cover photo of the newsletter]. Retrieved from https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/spanish-

inquisition.htm

[Typical Iberian town in the early centuries]. (2002). From the book Daily Life During Spanish Inquisition by James
Maxwell Anderson.

[Photograph of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella]. Retrieved from https://www.christianity.com/church/church-

history/timeline/1201-1500/ferdinand-and-isabellas-edict-against-jews-11629894.html

[Photograph of Pope Gregory IX] Retrieved from https://alchetron.com/Pope-Gregory-IX

[Various representations of how Inquisition works]. Retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.ca/photos/spanish-

inquisition?mediatype=photography&phrase=spanish%20inquisition&sort=mostpopular

[A prisoners tortured by Spanish inquisitors]. Retrieved from https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-

figures/spanish-inquisition.htm

[Inquisition in the arts]