A History of the Inquisition of Spain (Vol I)

"Yes. It’s the classic history of the Inquisition, which is why I’ve included it here. Lea was an American historian of the medieval church and had previously written about the medieval Inquisition. And then he wrote this four-volume history of the Spanish Inquisition based on what, for the time, was a really a remarkable amount of new archival research in Spanish archives. And it’s stood the test of time. It’s over 100 years old now but, if you if you want a four-volume history of the Inquisition, this is the book for you, because it does have a lot of original sources and original stories. And at the same time, it gives a strong narrative and a comprehensive overview. I think historically, it’s a significant book, because it marks the beginning of the end of the ‘black legend’—this idea that Spain was a particularly barbarous country and that its barbarity was epitomised by the Inquisition. That was a story that did the rounds in Protestant Europe in the late 16th and early 17th century in particular. That narrative was then revitalised in the 19th century. The Inquisition comes to an end with the end of absolutism. It’s finally abolished for good in 1834. And its final Inquisitor General Llorente, wrote this very controversial and provocative history of the Inquisition, after he had fled Spain, denouncing its crimes. That revitalised the legend. But Lea’s is a more measured, and complete history. And so that’s really where the modern historiography of the Inquisition starts. It’s also a readable book. There are lots of reasons to start with this one. The Spanish Inquisition was founded in the 1470s because of long-running tensions within Spain . Spain had been in a process of civil conflict for 15 or 20 years. There were also conflicts over whether Isabel was the rightful heir to the Castilian throne, or her sister Juana, who was allied to the Portuguese crown. Anyway, there’d been a lot of conflict. And at the same time there were the New Christians, the Conversos, Jews who had converted to Christianity at the end of the 14th century and into the 15th century, often under duress. There were many who felt that they weren’t faithful Catholics and that they still practiced aspects of the Jewish faith, which was heresy. So a lot of things came together, and the Conversos, who generally lived in urban areas, had quite a lot of political and commercial influence. They were a target for frustrations. There were also lots of social and political reasons why creating a sense of unity by conducting a campaign against a generally unpopular group was not a bad idea, particularly in a situation where Isabella had not been universally claimed as the rightful heir to the throne and had unified Castile with Aragon. “It’s over 100 years old now but, it’s stood the test of time” Those were the some of the things which went into the foundation of the Inquisition. Why did the Papacy grant permission for a new tribunal to be established? Well, it was requested by Ferdinand and Isabella in the first place, but I think there is a context of a broader crisis of Christendom, which had been growing since the fall of Constantinople in the 1450s. Allied to that was the reality of Spain increasingly becoming a more powerful player in Europe. The late 15th century was a time of change and all those factors contributed towards Spain establishing its own tribunal. Of course, once you’ve founded an institution and given it lots of powers, it’s then quite hard to rein it in. There was a Council of the Inquisition. But the Inquisitor General was appointed by the crown in consultation with the most important churchmen in the state. The Council of the Inquisition was responsible for appointing the other inquisitors. It certainly did. Some of them were burned, during the Revolutionary era of the early 19th century, during the Napoleonic invasions, but a lot of them have survived. Most of the Portuguese Inquisition material has survived. But sadly for historians, the Goan Tribunal archive was burned in its entirety in the early 19th century, so the only things that have survived from Goa are letters sent to the Council of the Inquisition in Lisbon. And that’s particularly sad because Goa was responsible for areas like Mozambique, and Portuguese possessions in Asia, so quite a lot is lost to history."