Die spanische Inquisition und die Lutheraner im 16. Jahrhundert

Abstract

The number of Spanish Lutherans bore no relationship to the enormous attention and persecution that the Spanish Inquisition devoted to them in the sixteenth century. Around 1520 the Spanish Inquisition was actually in decline, and Luther appeared at a favorable moment to demonstrate its importance. Additionally, the change of dynasties and civil war in Spain made the first rumors about Luther into a revolutionary element. Correspondingly strong was the immediate rejection of Luther by the rulers and the leaders of the Church, as by the inquisitor general. In contrast, Spanish courtiers around Charles V and humanists at the university of Alacala de Henares, many of whom desired church reform in the Erasmian sense, ranged from ambivalent to positive in their estimation of Luther. In the beginning, even Charles V took a conciliatory approach to these strains of religious renewal. Since Cisneros's time, there had been inner-Spanish reform movements (alumbrados, recogidos, dejados) categorized as illuminists. These could be distinguished from Lutheranism only with difficulty. In the 1520s the Inquisition first went after alumbrados and some Lutherans. It still tolerated Erasmians. But early in 1527 the Convocation of Valladolid debated Erasmus's orthodoxy. When in 1529 Charles V went to Italy with the Erasmians of his court, the Inquisition brought Erasmus and inner-Spanish reform movements ever more into association with Luther. After Charles's return in 1533, a change in the situation in favor of the conservative defenders of Catholic orthodoxy became evident. With the expansion of Lutheranism, the Inquisition developed a structure for censoring heretical books, most of which came from outside Spain. Frankfurt and Antwerp were important transfer points for an international book-smuggling ring. During the Council of Trent an expanded body of Lutheran thought came to Spain via, for example, Archbishop Carranza. This stimulated in turn an ideological hardening. Signs of