Spanish Inquisition Research Articles

Leonor Francesc, una conversa procesada por el tribunal inquisitorial de Valencia entre finales del siglo XV y el primer tercio del siglo XVI

En la Valencia tardomedieval se desarrolla la trayectoria vital de Leonor Francesc, esposa de Pere Coscolla, funcionario de la Hacienda Real de Fernando el Católico. La particular extensión en el tiempo durante el cual fue sometida a las autoridades del Tribunal Inquisitorial de Valencia, a lo largo de más de treinta años, y la extraordinaria actividad social que desplegó Leonor, nos permiten, a través de las actuaciones procesales de la Inquisición contra ella, reconstruir no solo su periplo vital sino también la comunidad de conversos a la que Leonor pertenecía, su dinámica, sus relaciones, sus conductas, sus aspiraciones, sus desvelos, su espiritualidad y sus sueños. En este trabajo se analizan las primeras actuaciones judiciales producidas en el proceso inquisitorial contra Leonor en el año 1500, fecha en que fue descubierta una sinagoga secreta en casa del converso Miquel Vives, en la ciudad de Valencia, y su supuesta vinculación con Vives y su familia, la cual provocó su primera entrada en las cárceles de la Inquisición. También se examina la asombrosa lista de testigos presentados por la defensa de Leonor, lo que nos permite, desde un primer acercamiento a este proceso inquisitorial, reconstruir dos redes de sociabilidad muy diferenciadas en la Valencia de fines del siglo XV y principios del XVI.

Judge Thy Neighbor: Denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany

Judge Thy Neighbor: Denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany

Lewis Rambo, Lucrecia de Leon, and the Politics of Conversion

This article considers the social and political impacts, both intended and unintended, of research in the psychology of religion. The article offers a detailed account of a violent historical encounter between a young woman with unusual dreams (Lucrecia de Leon) and the judicial officials of the Spanish Inquisition that revolved around issues of mental health and functioning that psychologists of religion are actively studying today. This case raises questions about how other works in the psychology of religion, such as Lewis R. Rambo’s book Understanding Religious Conversion, might be applied in different social and political contexts, with both positive and negative possibilities. Raising awareness of these possibilities and collectively thinking through the consequences will give scholars in this field a better chance of diminishing the malign effects and perhaps even preventing them from occurring in the first place.

Process and punishment: alleged alumbrados before the Mexican Holy Office, 1593–1603

On 14 March 1593 the Spanish Inquisition’s General Edict of Faith was read aloud from the pulpit of Mexico City’s main church. The assembled audience would have heard a catalog of heretical errors ...

Beyond index and auto de fe: new directions in the study of the Holy Office of the Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition has drawn both popular and scholarly attention since before its abolition in the early nineteenth century. While it has remained, for some, a medieval relic or stock element...

The Cost of Torture: Evidence from the Spanish Inquisition

Empirical evidence on contemporary torture is sparse. The archives of the Spanish Inquisition provide a detailed historical source of quantitative and qualitative information about interrogational torture. The inquisition tortured brutally and systematically, willing to torment all who it deemed as withholding evidence. This torture yielded information that was often reliable: witnesses in the torture chamber and witnesses that were not tortured provided corresponding information about collaborators, locations, events, and practices. Nonetheless, inquisitors treated the results of interrogations in the torture chamber with skepticism. This bureaucratized torture stands in stark contrast to the “ticking bomb” philosophy that has motivated US torture policy in the aftermath of 9/11. Evidence from the archives of the Spanish Inquisition suggests torture affords no middle ground: one cannot improvise quick, amateurish, and half-hearted torture sessions, motivated by anger and fear, and hope to extract reliable intelligence.

Nieprzerwany żywot inkwizycji hiszpańskiej – studium przypadku z Estremadury

The Neverending Story of the Spanish Inquisition – a Study of a Case from Extremadura The subject of this research is the book ‘El pecado nefando del obispo de Salamina’ (The deplorable sin of the bishop of Salamina) written in 2002 by the Spanish historian Francisco Núñez Roldán. In the context of post-memory I am interested in the origins of this book, which are connected with the Spanish Inquisition and the attempts to regard its author as a secondary witness. It is also important that the activities of the Holy Office (1478-1834) are not only the subject of continuing historical research but are also a rich source of inspiration for artists and scholars.

Judge Thy Neighbor: Denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany

Judge Thy Neighbor: Denunciations in the Spanish Inquisition, Romanov Russia, and Nazi Germany

Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States by Laura Limonic

Reviewed by: Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States by Laura Limonic Amalia Ran (bio) Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States. By Laura Limonic. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2019. viii + 256 pp. Recent scholarship on immigration stresses the various, often contradictory, ways in which processes of social integration, acculturation, [End Page 466] linguistic barriers and economic challenges shape individual and collective identities. The history of Jewish immigration to the Americas is well documented, beginning with sporadic and unorganized settlements of individual Jews in colonial Latin America following the Spanish Inquisition. During the modern era, Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Sephardic Jews from the declining Ottoman Empire arrived in growing waves of immigration due to socioeconomic and political unrest, as well as antisemitic persecutions in the Old World. Jewish immigrants were drawn to the United States by the principle of religious freedom inscribed in the US Constitution and by the hope of finding a tolerant society. From the 1960s onwards, new waves of Jewish immigration from the Southern Cone and Central America were drawn toward the northern neighbor on American shores. This historical context is at the core of Laura Limonic's research. Kugel and Frijoles: Latino Jews in the United States explores the different ways in which Jewish immigrants from Latin America (mostly from Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico) navigate the different ethnic and racial landscapes upon arriving in the US, where 39.5% of world Jewry currently resides. The book focuses on the processes of group construction within US society and the formation of a panethnic identity as Latino Jews. According to the author, this is an interesting case study, since Jewish immigrants from Latin America are not clearly identified in the US racial and ethnic classification system and instead are commonly viewed as white; i.e. as privileged newcomers who quickly acquire the status of insiders, unlike non-Jewish Latino immigrants. Limonic studies the in-between status of this group of immigrants: Although primarily classified as Jewish (i.e. white), in certain situations national identities overlap ethnic or religious identities as they correlate to fellow immigrants from their home countries. Moreover, a new panethnic identity emerges, as stated by the interviewees, as Latinos in the US, yet this social construct of Latin American identity is not embraced without conflict or doubt. Class, family status, prior social capital, and level of education are among the factors that determine their successful integration into the US and their affiliation with different groups. The book opens by reviewing the history of Jewish immigration to Latin America and the formation of ethnoreligious identity as a minority group within the wider Catholic society in Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela. The following chapter shifts to focus on the formation of the Jewish community in the United States as a "majority minority," a privileged group accepted by the mainstream despite its relatively small size in comparison to other racial and ethnic migratory groups (21). The author then shifts to examine the difficulties associated with defining a [End Page 467] Latino panethnic identity in the US as a post-migratory construct, which constitutes a secondary or tertiary identity for Latin American Jews. The analysis of the various circles of identification in which Latin American Jews affiliate with fellow Jews, Latinos or compatriots highlights the fluidity and ambiguity of such ethnic membership in the United States. Furthermore, as indicated in Chapter six, various institutional, informal, social and religious networks provide Latino Jews support and cater to different individual and collective needs. Institutions such as the Jewish Latin Center in New York or the various synagogues, Jewish schools and community centers in Aventura, Florida, emphasize the relevance of geographical proximity and of an identified tangible place to express these affiliations. This sociological research is based upon eighty-five in-depth interviews with Jewish immigrants from Latin America who settled in Southern Florida, New York and the Northeast, and California. It is based also on participant observations at Latino Jewish organizations and social events, conducted from 2010 to 2016, combined with quantitative data from the Pew Research Center's study on American Jews. By employing combined methodology, Limonic arrives at the following conclusions: Navigating...

Indecent Theology: Sex and Female Heresy in Counter-Reformation Spain

In 1636, the Spanish Inquisition tried María de la Cruz for heresy and having made a pact with the devil. Examination of her trial in light of information about sexual misconduct on the part of Catholic clerics, however, reveals that what drove María to the emotional and behavioral extremes that her accusers described was neither heresy nor the devil the authorities had in mind. Theologians who evaluated her case and also met with María discerned what those who only read the accusations against her were unable to know: María's devils were human men taking advantage of a poor, illiterate woman for sex.

Литературно–исторические истоки темы плача в “Поэме о Йусуфе”

One of the most famous works of aljamiado literature (literature in Spanish in Arabic script) is the Poem of Yusuf (“Poema de Yúçuf” in Spanish). The poem was written by an anonymous Morisco poet at the end of the XIII – the beginning of the XIV centuries. The poem is based on the most common plot among the Moriscos – the twelfth sūrah of the Qur'an. The poem includes a scene of lament at the grave, which is not found either in the Qur'an or the Old Testament. Researchers of the middle nineteenth century considered the scene original. However, later it was defined that the scene had appeared due to the influence of the Jewish apocrypha. Modern researchers called into question the originality of the scene and the poem itself. Nevertheless, in the lament scene, we can trace not only the influence of the Qur'an or the Old Testament Apocrypha, but also the traditions of pre-Islamic Arabic poetry [A1], which were developed in Al-Andalus. The objective of this study is to show this influence. Undoubtedly, the author of The Poem of Yusuf created a touching image of the protagonist, which was appreciated by the Moriscos. The beginning of the poem was borrowed by the author from another aljamiado poem. Despite the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition, the poem has survived in several copies. Together, they represent a combination of traditions of Islamic, pre-Islamic and Christian versification. The article also contains the text of the lament at the grave in the original (Arabic) script and its scientific transcription by V. Menendez Pidal. It also includes a modern Spanish translation made by G. Ticknor. Thanks to his publication, the poem became known as a unique example of “amalgam elements of Eastern and Western civilizations, which were later reflected in Spanish poetry.”

En mala estrella: los pronósticos astrológicos y repertorios de los tiempos censurados por la inquisición española (1632-1707)

This paper deals with an aspect of the confrontation between astrology and inquisitorial censorship, which took place from the last third of the 16th to the 18th century: it focuses on the prognostications and astrological repertories that were censored by the Spanish Inquisition in the 17th century. This widespread literature in vernacular language was the target of the Holy Office due to its frequent incursions into the field of the prohibited judicial astrology. The paper investigates the passages that were subject to expurgation or inquisitorial suspicion and the motive of the censorship, in the light of the censorial files. This study aims to characterise the Spanish Inquisition attitude towards a popular astrological literature and to identify what is the rationale behind the control of its abundant editorial production.

Sin dios, rey ni ley. Excesos, crítica y reforma de la inquisición en la defensa de Macanaz a la <em>Historia civil de España</em>, de Belando

A mediados de 1744 la Inquisición estrechaba el cerco sobre la Historia Civil de España, obra de fray Nicolás de Jesús Belando. La identificación del autor con las posiciones más regalistas encarnadas por el polémico ex fiscal general del Consejo de Castilla, Melchor Macanaz, y las críticas al tribunal por su proceder durante el bienio reformista de 1713-1715, rebasaba con creces lo tolerado por las autoridades del Santo Oficio. En este artículo profundizamos en la interpretación que mereció para Macanaz el proceso inquisitorial de Belando, una oportunidad que le permitió insistir en la idea de una Inquisición subordinada al rey y dependiente de su jurisdicción como medio único de adecuación de la institución al Estado real absoluto.

Race and Science in Global Histories

Race and Science in Global Histories

NUMERACY OF RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL DURING THE INQUISITION ERA

ABSTRACTWe assess the numeracy (age heaping) of religious minorities, particularly Jews, and other defendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, and compare it with the general Iberian population. Our database includes 13,000 individuals who took part in Inquisition trials, and 17,000 individuals recorded in censuses and parish registers who serve as a control group. We thoroughly discuss the representativeness of our samples for the populations we aim to capture. Our results point at a substantial numeracy advantage of the Judaism-accused over the Catholic majority. Furthermore, Catholic priests and other groups of the religious elite who were occasional targets of the Inquisition had a similarly high level of numeracy.

Mujer y matrimonio. El interés de la Inquisición por la persecución de la bigamia

La Inquisición española puso especial interés en poner bajo su jurisdicción la persecución de la bigamia. Si bien se trató de un delito cometido mayoritariamente por hombres, existió un número de mujeres bígamas que merecen atención. En general, fueron las víctimas de una situación social, económica y/o afectiva. En cierta manera, los inquisi­dores tuvieron en consideración estas cuestiones cuando dictaron sentencia.

The Crucible (Czarownice z Salem)

The Crucible (Czarownice z Salem)

The Morisco question: Methodology and historiography

AbstractThe first half of this essay offers an introduction to the history of the Moriscos, from their forced conversion from Islam to Christianity in the early 16th century to their expulsion from the Crowns of Castile and Aragon in the early 17th century. The Morisco period begins a decade after the fall of Nasrid Granada in 1492, which brought the centuries‐long history of al‐Andalus to a close, but which did not, however, mark the definitive end to Iberian Islam. Although some Moriscos came to embrace Christianity, a significant portion of the Morisco community found ways privately to maintain aspects of their Muslim identity even while publicly participating in the life of the Church. This was a state of affairs that aroused the interest of the Spanish Inquisition, as well as a host of other civil and ecclesiastical authorities. The second half of this essay focuses on recent scholarship that draws connections between this community of peninsular New Christians and broader debates in both the early and late modern periods about interreligious relations, religion and governance, and the mass movement of peoples across political borders.

Invisible enemies: the devastating effect of gossip in Castile at the end of the fifteenth century

ABSTRACTThis article explores the content, examples, audience and aims of Hernando de Talavera’s “Treatise on gossip”. By locating the work in the overall context of the author’s production and in its time-space coordinates, the objective is to emphasise the meaning and relevance of the treatise in the turbulent events of the last quarter of the century. Working on the effects of “slanderous rumours” on “publica fama”, we will explore the consequences of gossip and distrust after the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in order to show how social practices reflected the cultural, religious and political debates and developments in the construction of the “monarquía católica” at the turn of the century.

La passion de Torquemada et le terrorisme islamique : quelques points de comparaison

This original research compares the doctrinal, psychopathological and operational standpoints of the 15th century Spanish Inquisition (Torquemada) with those of radical Islamism from 1988 to 2005 (Al-Qaeda). The following are reviewed: (a) the main texts codifying the procedure for conducting the criminal investigation of a Holy Office trial (Directorium inquisitorum); (b) the life and work of the grand inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada (1420–1498); (c) the psychopathological relations between passion (passionate psychoses, passionate idealism, paranoid personality) and fanaticism; (d) “the madmen, the enlightened and the criminals” of Islamic terrorism; (e) the cognitive and emotional motives for engagement in the jihadist radicalization of young people; (f) the common principles of monotheistic fanaticism (Inquisition, Al-Qaeda) and the particular dogmas of Islamic terrorism in our time; (g) the operating modes of the Inquisition and the Jihadist holy war. The author concludes that the rigour and seriousness of the inquisitorial judicial procedure, which was precise, individual and personalized, contrasts with the revolutionary pamphlets of Al-Qaeda, which only provide broad guidelines for the modus operandi of the fight against infidels, who are usually random victims.