Hello, and Welcome to Western SIV episode two hundred and seventy seven God's Fire.
Throughout the history of the Inquisition, historians and commenters constantly agreed on the
impressive support given to it by the people. Foreign visitors to the Iberian Peninsula
were appalled by the mass participation of the public in the acts of faith.
Subsequent defenders of the Tribunal felt that they could in part justify the Inquisition by
evidence of its roots in the authentic faith of Spaniards. Opponents of the Tribunal,
however, were equally impressed. Even some of the first modern historians of
the Tribunal were staggered by the lack of evidence for any opposition to it in
Spain. One declared quote, if in investigating what a nation thought about a
certain institution, we were to be guided solely by the testimony of public writers,
there is no doubt that the Spanish people had as much love as hate
for the Inquisition. You will hardly find a book printed in Spain from the
time of Charles the Fifth to our own days in which the institution of the
Inquisition is not cited with praise end quote. The apparent support given by the
people to the Inquisition has inevitably created problems of interpretation for us. Partisans of
the Inquisition have maintained that its popularity was based on its unswavering sense of justice
and that it responded to a profound religious need. Critics, on the other
hand, have presented it as a tyranny imposed by the state upon the free
consciences of Spaniards. Both extremes can easily be supported by contemporary evidence, but
neither is probably right. Let's face it, the state of bureaucracies in fifteenth
century Castile and Ergon were primitive. They were ill equipped, if they even
had the ability whatsoever, to impose a tyranny on the mass of the people,
and in reality, they never attempted to do so. If the Inquisition
acquired a broad base of support, on the other hand, then we need
to examine why this happened. Its support among the masses arose out of the
bitter social struggles of the late fifteenth century. To an extent, we already
talked about that, and it represented the interests of the vast majority of the
population, the old Christians, against those of a small conversal minority. But
those such support always remained the basis of the inquisition's power, it was seldom
more than passive. The Inquisition, as we will see in this episode,
was accepted, but no one ever loved it, and there can be little
doubt of the strong opposition to its introduction. The Aragonese had never fully accepted
their medieval inquisition and had no interest in accepting another one. Now the Castilians
were even worse. But how then, did the Spaniards come to accept a
tribunal that was so alien to their own traditions. Consider the following Jesuit quote
from the sixteenth century inquisitional procedural. Quote. At its inception, appeared very
oppressive to Spaniards. What caused the most surprise was that children paid for the
crimes of their parents, and that the accusers were not named or made known,
nor confronted by the accused, nor was their publication of witnesses, all
of which was contrary to the practice followed of old and other tribunals. Besides
this, it appeared in innovation that the sins of this sort should be punished
by death. And what was the most serious was that because of these secret
investigations, they were deprived of the liberty to listen and talk freely. Since
in all the cities, towns, and villages there were persons placed to give
information of Olanan. This was considered by some to be the most wretched slavery
and equal to death. So howel then did the Inquisition manage to gain a
foothold and then wield dramatic power throughout both Aragon and Castile. The answer is,
as I hinted two moments ago, the circumstances of the time, the
rebirth of the Inquisition happened to come just as wave after wave of conflict between
old Christians and Conversos struck urban centers like Toledo. In these urban centers,
old Christians saw the Inquisition as the means by which they might finally wrest power
from the Conversos. Likewise, Ferdinand saw the Inquisition as an excellent tool for
consolidating his power, and this I think is the key. The Inquisition returned
because Ferdinand wanted it to, and unlike previous Spanish monarchs, he was powerful
enough to make that happen. Ferdinand made the following statement to the town councilors
of Barcelona in fourteen eighty six. Quote before we decided on introducing this inquisition,
into any cities of our realms. We carefully considered and looked at all
the harm and ill that could follow from it, and that could affect our
taxes and revenue. But because of our firm intention and concern is to prefer
the service of God to our own, we wish the inquisition to be established,
regardless, putting all other interests aside. End quote. It is true
that the inquisition was going to cost the crown money, though Ferdinand probably didn't
grasp that at the time. It's also true that that statement was one hundred
percent self serving. The inquisition was both a crisis tool and it was a
political tool of the Crown. To many, the inquisition probably seemed like an
emergency measure. Certainly seems so in that statement until it wasn't. That is,
despite the King's support, there was a great deal of dissent in Spain.
Consider the following denouncing the resort to coercion at a time when evangelicalism had
not even been tried. The Royal secretary informed the Archbishop of Seville that thousands
of young conversos in Andalusia quote had never been out of their homes or heard
and learned any other doctrine, but that which they had seen their parents practice
at home. To burn all these would not only be cruel but difficult to
carry out. I do not say this, my Lord, in favor of
the evildoers, but to find a solution, which it seems to me,
would be to put in that province outstanding persons, who, by their exemplary
life and teaching of doctrine, would convert some and bring back others. Of
course, the inquisitors, Diego de Merlo and doctor Medina are good men,
but I know very well they will not produce such good Christians with their fire
as the bishops did with their water end quote. Many Spaniards were appalled by
the bloodshed inherent with the inquisition. Many believed firmly that people should not be
coerced into a faith to which they had never even been introduced. According to
another eyewitness quote, at the time of the inquisition, there were differing opinions.
Some felt that those who sinned in this way should not suffer the death
penalty, but apart from this, they admitted that it was just to inflict
any other kind of punishment end quote. And inherent in these criticisms was an
underlining critique of the expulsion in general. Even one of the early inquisitors,
Luis de Paramont, wrote despondently to Rome, that the the Expulsion had been
wrong on two counts. First, baptisms in the wake of the Expulsion had
not been performed properly, and so those baptized were essentially pagan. Second,
the expulsion was an implicit invitation to annihilate Jews, which was directly contrary to
Scripture. On both counts, it was right. In the early years of
the Inquisition, opposition was invariably promoted by conversos, given that they were the
number one target. Unable to secure support in Spain, they turned to Rome.
A bull issued by Sixtus the Fourth on the second of August fourteen eighty
three, and almost certainly obtained after significant converso bribes, ordered greater leniency to
be exercised in the Tribunal of Seville, and revoked all appeal cases to Rome.
Only eleven days later, however, the pope withdrew the bill after pressure
from the Spanish rulers. Sixtus the Fourth died in fourteen eighty four, to
be succeeded by Innocent the Eighth, a pope who followed his policy of intervening
in favor of the Conversos while taking care not to anger the Catholic monarchs.
The bulls issued by Innocent on the eleventh of February and fifteenth of July fourteen
eighty five, asking for more mercy and leniency and for greater use of the
secret practice of reconciliation, are typical of the efforts made by the papacy to
avoid lasting infamy. While Conversos may have been upset, we hear little of
any opposition from Old Christians during this period. Now, by no means does
this mean that they supported the institution. It simply means they were not adamantly
opposed to it, likely because they were benefiting from its actions. Now that
tended to change in some areas, depending on the level of inquisitor corruption.
In fourteen ninety nine, the Inquisitor of Cordoba was removed after being found guilty
of fraud and extortion. He was replaced by a new inquisitor, who shortly
thereafter became ensnared in his own legal troubles after trying to extort a few prominent
Old Christian families. Evidently, the Old Christians were fine with extortion so long
as it did not involve them Converso, witnesses later testified that said inquisitor forced
them to teach Jewish prayers to old Christians for the sole purpose of then prosecuting
those old Christians for allegedly becoming Jewish. An independent inquiry later into his actions
proved that the evidence against the accused was quote all fabricated. There's an interesting
exams sample of this that comes out of Granada. In Granada, the inquisitor
accused the archbishop of essentially having a synagogue in his palace. There, the
inquisitor arrested the archbishop and all his household, including his sister, two nieces,
their daughters, and all their servants. The relatives and servants were tortured
and duly produced denunciations against the archbishop. The papacy intervened and the archbishop was
acquitted of all charges in April of fifteen oh seven, and he and his
family were set free. Unfortunately, it was too late for the archbishop,
who was by then an old and broken man, walking barefoot and bare headed
through the streets of Granada in the procession of Ascension Day on the thirteenth of
May. He was seized by a violent fever, which the following day ended
his life. On his deathbed, he denounced the Inquisitor and his emplishments for
quote, trying to wipe out the conversos, which is clearly against the Holy
Catholic Faith, which requires that there be no distinction between jew and Greek end
quote. The archbishop's care for his flock had left him no time to care
for himself. He died in total poverty on the same day. There's an
interesting letter of protest that's written to the King's secretary that reads as follows quote,
the government had failed to exercise effective control over its ministers. As for
the Inquisition, the method adopted was to place so much confidence in the Archbishop
of Seville that they were unable to defame the whole kingdom, to destroy without
God or justice, a great part of it slaying and robbing and violating maids
and wives, to the great dishonor of the Christian religion. The damages which
the wicked officials of the Inquisition have wrought in my land are so many and
so great, that no reasonable person, on hearing of them would not grieve
sadly. The inquisitor in question received no punishment at all for his crimes.
He returned to Seville, where he was allowed to die in peace. At
the death of Ferdinand on January the twenty third, fifteen sixteen, the crown
passed to his grandson Charles the Fifth. Technically, since the death of Isabella
in fifteen oh four, Castile had been under the rule of his daughter Juana
the Mad Despite the fact that she was technically queen, Juana was considered unfit
due to mental incapacity to rule, which some historians today now hotly debate.
Hence, Charles became the effective first king of a United Spain. While the
Spanish court waited for Charles to arrive, the Inquisition continued to function on its
own under the control of Cardinal cis Neros. Whatever since Narrow's views may have
been, many contemporaries thought that some reform in the judicial procedure of the Inquisition
was essential, even if they did not question the tribunal's existence. The arrival
of the seventeen year old king from Flanders set off a train of requests and
demands which constituted the last chapter in the struggle to subject the Inquisition to the
rule of law. When Charles, after his arrival in Spain fifteen seventeen,
held the first cortes of his reign in Vallalodid in February of fifteen eighteen.
His deputies petitioned, quote that your Highness provide that the Office of the Holy
Inquisition proceed in such a way as to maintain justice, and that the wicked
be punished and the innocent not suffer. They asked moreover, that the forms
of the law be observed, that the inquisitioners be chosen from reputable and learned
men. The main result of this was the series of instructions for the Inquisition,
drawn up principally by the initiative of jun de so Edge, who was
the Chancellor of the King, a man who was accused in being in the
pay of the Conversos. The preamble to these proposed instructions claims that accused people
have not been able to defend themselves fully, Many innocent and guiltless have suffered
death, harm, oppression, injury, and infamy. And many of our
vassals have absented themselves from these realms. And as events have shown in general,
these realms have received and receive great ill and harm, and have been
in our notorious throughout the world end quote. The proposed reforms therefore included provisions
that prisoners be placed in open public prisons, be able to receive visitors,
be assigned counsel, be presented with an accusation on arrest, and given the
names of witnesses. In addition, goods of the accused could not be taken
in sould before a verdict, nor could the salaries of the inquisitors be payable
out of confiscations. Prisoners should be allowed recourse to mass and the sacraments while
awaiting trial, and care should be taken not to let those condemned to perpetual
prison die of hunger. If torture were used, it should be in moderation,
and there should be no new quote inventions of torture as have been used
until now end quote. Each of these clauses points to the existence of evils
which the new Pragmatic Order was supposed to fix. Had the instructions ever been
approved, a totally different inquisition probably would have come into existence, secrecy would
have disappeared, and the opportunity for abuse largely removed. Unfortunately, in fifteen
eighteen, Cisneos, who was receptive to reforms, died and Charles replaced him
with his own tutor, the Dutch Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht, Bishop of Tortosa,
and he firmly opposed any reform or innovation whatsoever. Meanwhile, Charles had
gone to Aragon, where he accepted the allegiance of the Kingdom and the Cortes,
which opened at Saragosa in May of fifteen eighteen. Surprisingly, when the
Cortes offered to advance him a large sum of money in exchange for an agreement
to a list of thirty one articles which were substantially the same as those drawn
up by his chancellor, the king agreed. It soon became clear, though,
that he had no intention of observing the agreement. Once he had the
cash in hand, Charles let the treaty lapse. A subsequent message to the
Spanish ambassador in Rome asked him Charles to secure from the Pope revocation of the
articles and a dispensation from his oath to observe them. However, the Cortes
had already taken the step of having Charles's signature to the articles authenticated by Juan
Pratt, the notary of the Courts. All the relevant papers were then sent
to Rome in the hands of Diego de la Casas, a converso from Seville.
After the disillusion of the Cortes in January fifteen nineteen, the inquisition stepped
in the inquisition was determined that these papers not go forward. They arrested Pratt
on the charge of having falsified the articles, which was ridiculous drawn up at
the courtes. The accusation was patently false, but both ecclesiastical and secular authorities
in Castile acted as though they were true. The new Chancellor urgently drew up
papers, which he sent to Rome in April, claiming that these were genuine
and that the official copy was a forgery. By now was a serious constitutional
argument in Aragon, and the deputies and nobility of the Realm, meeting in
conference in May, sent to Charles a request for the release of Pratt,
threatening not to grant any money now until their demands were met. They summoned
the courtes and refused to disperse until justice had been done. At this stage,
in what was now quite the quagmire, Pope Leo the tenth intervened in
favor of the Aragonese. In July fifteen nineteen. He issued three briefs,
one to Charles, one to the Inquisitor General, and one to the Tribunal
of Sarnagosa, reducing the powers of the Inquisition to the bounds of ordinary canon
law and revoking all the special privileges they had been granted. Charles and his
officials now played their hand. They refused to allow the publication of the brief
in Spain and sent a firm protest to Rome. The Pope, and this
is starting to look like a tennis match, now shifted his position and suspended
the briefs without revoking them. At this time, the Aragonese immediately discontinued payment
of any grant to the crown. Finally, in December of fifteen twenty the
Pope confirmed the concordat of fifteen eighteen, but in terms that didn't bother to
specify whether it was the original sent by Pratt or the corrected one. A
compromise was eventually reached in fifteen twenty one, wherein Cardinal Adrian of Utrecht accepted
the Aragonese version for the time being, and finally, after about two years,
let Pratt out of prison. The victory of the Aragonese, though was
an unsubstantial victory. The Inquisition at no time afterwards admitted the validity of the
Concordats of fifteen twelve or fifteen eighteen. So the struggles of all those years
to bring the Inquisition to heal, to give it some rules, to make
it fune, some law somewhere were in vain. At the Castilian Cortes in
fifteen twenty requests made of Valadi did for the reform and the procedure of the
Inquisition were repeated, but again to no avail. Later that same year,
while Charles was away in Flanders, another plan for reform was sent to him.
This and subsequent proposals fell through. On his return to Spain, a
cortes was held in Valado did in again in fifteen twenty three. Again the
old suggestions for reform were brought up. These were fortified by a request that
the salaries of the inquisitors should be paid by the Crown and not drawn from
confiscations. Sadly, failure again was the result, and the Inquisition continued totally
unreformed. At this time a consistent stream of opposition to the Inquisition continued to
flow out of Castile, but the frequency of said complaints was certainly less in
the mid sixteenth century than it had been in the late fifteenth The reason for
this was not that the Inquisition had gotten less corrupt. It was because the
population had grown accustomed to it and hence more tolerant of its abuses. By
fifteen fifty, the institution itself was effectively untouchable. All of this would not
have been possible without the implicit support of the Old Christian majority. Yet in
part it must be conceded that the Inquisition survived because of the unswerving support of
the Crown, which refused to abandon an institution which had proven so useful.
Like Ferdinand before him, Charles the Fifth was wholly dedicated to it and introduced
a similar tribunal in the Netherlands in fifteen twenty. But once again, support
of the Inquisition was extremely regional. Outside of cast deal, few local elites
supported the institution, and that had nothing to do with kindness or humanity.
It had everything to do with those elites jealousy of the special privileges inquisitors enjoyed.
Plus, said inquisitors tended to be outsiders, so local elites, even
if they were Old Christians, tended not to support the Inquisition out of purely
secular motivations, and so it was. For three centuries more the Inquisition would
continue to be a standard feature of the Spanish landscape, just as it had
been bitterly opposed by the Conversos. So in time it would earn the profound
hatred of other minorities in anti Muslim activity. Arguably, it even earned some
popularity among the Christians. The chief victims of the acts of Faith in the
Crown of Aragon were quote nearly always people for whom the general public had little
sympathy end quote. In Aragon and Valencia, the victims were almost certainly Moors.
In Catalonia they were always French immigrants. Despite this victimization of minorities,
the Inquisition still found it difficult to earn genuine popular support in the eastern realms
of the Iberian Peninsula. The rest of the Spanish population gradually came to accept
it, but in a spirit that could hardly be described as enthusiastic. In
one perspective, the Inquisition, though, cannot be seen as the imposition of
a sinister tyranny on an unwilling people, brought into being by a particular social
situation. It was inspired by a decisively old Christian ideology and controlled by men
whose outlook reflected the mentality of the mass of Castiday. Millions. Outside of
cast Deal, support for it remained grudging. Outside of Spain, opposition was
total. Within the Golden Age of Spain, little evidence exists of objections to
its existence from intellectuals or ordinary people. It fulfilled a role a guardian against
heresy, a keeper of public morality, an arbiter between factions, a tribunal
for small cases, and all of these were things that no institution other than
the Inquisition fulfilled. Frankly, it was also accepted because being honest here over
long periods of time and over substantial areas of the Iberian Peninsula, the Inquisition
quite simply did nothing. After an explosive entry into the course of Spain's history,
it simply slipped into the stream of daily life. Its impact and duration,
though, was to be much longer, longer than anyone could have imagined
in the beginning. As always, if you'd like additional content, or if
you'd be interested in supporting the show, check out the links in the show
notes. There are links there to the website, to the Patreon page and
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day free trial.