Inquisition

From Hispanopedia
Inquisition
Galileo before the Tribunal of the Inquisition.
TypeEcclesiastical tribunal
Founded13th century
Place of foundationLanguedoc (Kingdom of France)
CountriesPapal States, Kingdom of France, Hispanic Monarchy, Portugal
DependencyCatholic Church
Dissolved19th century

The Inquisition was a judicial institution created by the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages to investigate, try, and punish the crimes of heresy, apostasy, and blasphemy, among others.

It arose in the south of France at the beginning of the 13th century, in the context of the struggle against the Cathar or Albigensian heresy, when Pope Gregory IX formally instituted the so-called Papal Inquisition (1231–1233).[1][2] Its first tribunals were entrusted to the mendicant orders, especially the Dominicans, and they were particularly active in regions such as Toulouse and Carcassonne.

In the following centuries, the Inquisition spread through various European territories, adopting local forms. In Italy and the Holy Roman Empire it retained its papal character, while in the Iberian kingdoms versions under monarchical control emerged, such as the Spanish Inquisition (1478) and the Portuguese Inquisition (1536).[3]

Its operation continued, in various forms, into the Modern Age. Although its declared objective was the defense of Catholic orthodoxy, its judicial methods and its relationship with secular power have been the subject of extensive historiographical debate.[4][5]

Background

Main articles: Heresy, Cathars, and Waldensians

The early Christian Church already condemned doctrinal deviations, but it was in the 12th and 13th centuries that the persecution of heresy became institutionalized. Movements such as those of the Cathars and the Waldensians in the south of France tested ecclesiastical authority and prompted the creation of specialized tribunals.

In 1184, the bull Ad abolendam of Pope Lucius III ordered bishops to investigate the orthodoxy of the faithful. Under Gregory IX (1231) the Papal Inquisition was formally established, directed by Dominican and Franciscan friars under papal supervision.[6]

French Inquisition

Main articles: Inquisition in France, Cathars, and Medieval Inquisition

The French Inquisition was the first institutional one in Western Europe. It was born in the context of the Albigensian Crusade (1209–1229) and its aim was the eradication of Catharism in Languedoc. The popes entrusted its proceedings to the Dominicans, who established permanent tribunals in Toulouse, Carcassonne, and Albi.

Among the best-known inquisitors are Bernard Gui, author of the manual Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis (c. 1323), and Nicholas Eymerich, who wrote the Directorium Inquisitorum in 1376.[7][8]

During the reign of Philip the Fair, the French monarchy made use of the inquisitorial apparatus for political ends, especially in the trial against the Order of the Temple (1307–1314). The King, heavily indebted to the Templars and in conflict with the papacy, ordered the simultaneous arrest of all members of the order in the kingdom on October 13, 1307, accusing them of heresy, idolatry, and sodomy. The interrogations were conducted by Dominican inquisitors, theoretically dependent on the Papal Inquisition but de facto subject to royal authority.[9]

Pope Clement V, initially reluctant to accept the accusations, eventually yielded to the Monarch's political pressure and authorized the opening of a canonical trial. At the Council of Vienne (1312), the order was officially dissolved by the bull Vox in excelso, without the heresy of its members having been formally proven. The case revealed the progressive subordination of the French Inquisition to royal power and set a precedent for the instrumentalization of ecclesiastical tribunals for reasons of State.[10][11]

In the 14th and 15th centuries the French Inquisition declined, absorbed by the secular courts and by Gallicanism. With the Protestant Reformation its function was replaced by royal justice, and it disappeared definitively in the 18th century.[12]

Spanish Inquisition

Main article: Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, with the authorization of Pope Sixtus IV, as a tribunal dependent on the Crown. Its initial objective was to ensure the orthodoxy of converts of Jewish and Muslim origin, but it soon extended its competence to every form of heterodoxy or religious dissent.

The tribunal was characterized by its centralization and by the use of a secret procedure that included anonymous denunciation, torture as a means of obtaining evidence, and the confiscation of property. The death penalty was applied through the auto-da-fé, carried out by the civil authority.[13]

The institution had seats in Toledo, Seville, Valencia, Cartagena de Indias, and other cities of the Spanish Empire. In America, its jurisdiction extended to the Viceroyalties of New Spain and Peru, with tribunals in Mexico and Lima. It was suppressed in 1834 under the regency of María Cristina de Borbón.[14]

Portuguese Inquisition

Main article: Portuguese Inquisition

The Portuguese Inquisition was instituted in 1536 under John III of Portugal with the approval of Pope Paul III. Its structure imitated the Spanish one, with a General Council of the Holy Office and tribunals in Lisbon, Évora, Coimbra, and Goa (Portuguese India). It mainly persecuted New Christians and alleged heretics in the African and Asian colonies.[15]

It was definitively abolished in 1821, in the context of the Portuguese Liberal Revolution.

Roman Inquisition

Main articles: Congregation of the Holy Office and Roman Inquisition

The Roman Inquisition was created in 1542 by Pope Paul III through the bull Licet ab initio, as a response to the spread of Protestantism. It was directed by the Congregation of the Holy Office and acted under the direct control of the Pope.

Its most famous case was the trial of Galileo Galilei in 1633, who was accused of upholding the heliocentric system, contrary to the literal interpretation of the Scriptures.[16] The Roman Inquisition was transformed in 1908 into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Protestant inquisitions

Main article: Protestant inquisitions

Although the term Inquisition is associated mainly with the Catholic Church, some Protestant States developed similar institutions to repress heresy and religious dissent. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Reformed tribunals and consistories in England, Scotland, and the Netherlands persecuted Catholics, Unitarians, and Puritan dissenters.[17] Although they did not constitute a centralized Inquisition, their judicial methods—such as censorship and execution for blasphemy or witchcraft—bore analogies to inquisitorial procedures.

Estimates and historical comparisons

The figures for convictions and executions attributed to the inquisitorial tribunals vary considerably depending on the sources and periods analyzed. Contemporary studies agree that the traditional estimates (especially those spread by the Black Legend) were greatly exaggerated.[18][19]

According to the analysis of the database of the Holy Office carried out by Gustav Henningsen and Jaime Contreras, the Spanish Inquisition pronounced 1,346 death sentences between 1540 and 1700, out of a total of more than 44,000 recorded cases.[20] Over its entire period of existence (1478–1834), the most widely accepted estimates place the executions at between 2,000 and 3,000 people.[21]

By comparison, in the countries of northern and central Europe, especially in Protestant contexts, persecutions for witchcraft and heresy far exceeded those figures. In the Holy Roman Empire it is estimated that between 25,000 and 30,000 people were executed between the 15th and 17th centuries.[22]

In England and Scotland, where a formal Inquisition under papal jurisdiction never existed, religious persecutions were exceptionally cruel. The earliest documented case occurred during the Council of Oxford (1166), when a group of some 30 German Cathars was arrested, publicly flogged, branded on the face with a red-hot iron, and abandoned naked in the middle of winter, where they died of hypothermia before the eyes of the civilian population.

During the reigns of Mary I Tudor and Elizabeth I religious persecutions were especially intense. During the brief Marian return to Catholicism (1553–1558) around 300 Protestants were executed, most of them at the stake, for crimes of heresy documented in John Foxe's Book of Martyrs.[23]

Subsequently, under the government of Elizabeth I (1558–1603), the monarchy established the Anglican Church and prohibited Catholic worship. Between 200 and 300 Catholic priests and several hundred laypeople were formally executed as traitors, although it is estimated that thousands more died as a consequence of the persecution without having been judicially executed, either dying in prison or under torture.[24][25] These victims—direct and indirect—were not the work of an ecclesiastical Inquisition, but of the secular courts of the State, which punished religious dissent under the laws of high treason.[26] The fierce repression caused more than 100,000 people who professed the Catholic faith to flee to the European continent.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Peters, Edward (1988). Inquisition. University of California Press. pp. 58–64. ISBN 978-0-520-06276-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  2. ↑ Lea, Henry Charles (1888). A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Vol. I. Macmillan. pp. 309–325.
  3. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1994). The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834. Cambridge University Press. pp. 35–40.
  4. ↑ Kamen, Henry (1998). The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-07818-4. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  5. ↑ Peters, Edward (1988). Inquisition. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-06276-1. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
  6. ↑ Lea, Henry Charles (1888). A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages. Vol. I. Harper & Brothers. pp. chap. IV–VII.
  7. ↑ Gui, Bernard (1323). Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis (in Latina) (ed. C. Douais, Paris, 1886 ed.). Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
  8. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1994). The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834. Cambridge University Press. pp. 45–52.
  9. ↑ Demurger, Alain (1998). Los templarios: una orden militar cristiana en la Edad Media (in español). Martínez Roca. pp. 331–345.
  10. ↑ Barber, Malcolm (2006). The Trial of the Templars (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 127–150.
  11. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1994). The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834. CUP. pp. 49–51.
  12. ↑ Peters, Edward (1988). Inquisition. University of California Press. pp. 132–140.
  13. ↑ Kamen, Henry (1998). The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. Yale University Press.
  14. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1994). The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834. Cambridge University Press.
  15. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1996). A Inquisição em Portugal, 1536–1821 (in português). Temas e Debates.
  16. ↑ Finocchiaro, Maurice A. (2005). Retrying Galileo, 1633–1992. University of California Press.
  17. ↑ Peters, Edward (1988). Inquisition. University of California Press. pp. 205–212.
  18. ↑ Kamen, Henry (1998). The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. Yale University Press. pp. 250–256.
  19. ↑ Bethencourt, Francisco (1994). The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834. Cambridge University Press. pp. 420–428.
  20. ↑ Henningsen, Gustav (1977). "El banco de datos del Santo Oficio. Las relaciones de causas de la Inquisición española (1550-1700)". Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia (in español). 174: 547–570.
  21. ↑ Kamen, Henry (1999). La Inquisición española: una revisión histórica (in español). Crítica. p. 253.
  22. ↑ Levack, Brian P. (2016). The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe (4th ed.). Routledge. pp. 21–28.
  23. ↑ Duffy, Eamon (2009). Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor. Yale University Press. pp. 3–8.
  24. ↑ Haigh, Christopher (1998). Elizabeth I. Longman. pp. 147–152.
  25. ↑ Haigh, Christopher (1993). English Reformations: Religion, Politics, and Society under the Tudors. Oxford University Press. pp. 234–240.
  26. ↑ Bossy, John (1975). The English Catholic Community 1570–1850. Darton, Longman and Todd. pp. 19–23.

Bibliography

  • Julio Caro Baroja: El señor inquisidor y otras vidas por oficio, Madrid: Editorial Alianza, 2006, ISBN 84-2066-009-4
  • Beatriz Comella (2004). La Inquisición española (in español) (4 ed.). Rialp. ISBN 9788432131653.
  • Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo: Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Madrid: CSIC, 2001, ISBN 84-0007-289-8
  • Julien Théry, "Fama: la opinión pública como presunción legal. Apreciaciones sobre la revolución medieval de lo inquisitorio (siglos XII-XIV)", in E. Dell'Elicine, P. Miceli, A. Morin (eds.), "De jure: nuevas lecturas sobre derecho medieval", Buenos Aires: Ad Hoc, 2009, pp. 201–243, online].
  • Emil van der Vekene: Bibliotheca bibliographica historiae sanctae inquisitionis. Bibliographisches Verzeichnis des gedruckten Schrifttums zur Geschichte und Literatur der Inquisition. Vol. 1 - 3. Vaduz: Topos-Verlag, 1982–1992, ISBN 3-289-00272-1, ISBN 3-289-00578-X - (7,110 titles on the Inquisition)
  • Emile van der Vekene: La Inquisición en grabados originales. Exposición realizada con fondos de la colección Emile van der Vekene de la Universidad San Pablo-CEU, Aranjuez, 4-26 de mayo de 2005, Madrid: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, 2005. ISBN 84-96144-86-0
  • Pérez Villanueva, Joaquín and Escandell Bonet, Bartolomé (eds.): Historia de la Inquisición en España y América, Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales, 1984–2000, 3 vols. ISBN 978-84-220-1157-6
  • (in Italian) André Vauchez, "Contestazioni ed eresie nella Chiesa latina" in Storia del cristianesimo, vol. VI. Un tempo di prove (1274-1449), Borla-Città Nuova, Rome 1998, ISBN 88-263-1024-6
  • La Inquisición, Ricardo García Cárcel, Biblioteca 'El Sol', ISBN 84-7969-011-9
  • La tortura en España, Francisco Tomás y Valiente, ISBN-13: 978-8434411180
  • Manual de Inquisidores, summary, by J. Marchena, of the 'Directorium Inquisitorum' by Nicolau Eymeric, available on Scribd and ResearchGate

See also

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