The Evolution of the Spanish Inquisition
From Religious Purity to Secular Tyranny
The prisoner was seized and stripped of his clothes, in readiness for the torture. And the fourth stage—that was showing him the instrument which was to be used, strapping his naked body upon it and giving him time to savour the terrible knowledge that his time of agony was at hand...The pulley was hoisted; the rack turned. The physical torture had begun.
The garrote, the stake, Red Hot pinchers, and the infamous “rack” were common vocabulary in Europe during the Middle Ages, and few were immune from having their name mentioned to those who wielded these devices. The Spanish Inquisition’s primary objective was to purify the Catholic faith but evolved into one of the most evil religious establishments in history, darkening and weakening Catholicism as a whole. There are many theories and reasons as to why the Inquisition turned out the way it did, but the primary rationale for this institution’s change was its evolution from a religious establishment to a secular one.
Although religious issues initiated the Spanish Inquisition, it was the economic, social, and political factors that fueled the violence for the next three hundred and fifty years. Not only would this establishment destroy hundreds of thousands of lives during the three and a half centuries after its commencement, it drastically affected the faith in the Catholic Church, along with escalating the social and economic problems of Spain today. Various inquisitions occurred all throughout Europe during the Middle Ages, and Spain’s version was originally nothing different than that in France or Italy. However, the thoroughness and brutality of the Spanish Inquisition differentiated itself from the rest of Europe. Many of the inquisitions occurring throughout the continent were half-hearted attempts to purify their country of the minority faiths. Spain, on the other hand, had a much more thorough purification which began with different origins.
In 1378, the Archdeacon Ferrant Martinez of Spain began to preach to his followers that the Jewish population was responsible for the ills of society. The Jewish population at this time was quite large in Spain, and with their strong business background, they held an enormous influence over the politics in the country. Martinez attracted the most zealous of followers, brainwashed about the “evils” of Judaism and jealous of the influence that they held over the country. His speeches pushed these zealous followers to the limit, and on Ash Wednesday in 1391, ignited a series of massacres that spread throughout Spain and killed approximately fifty thousand Jewish men, women, and children. These slaughters affected virtually every Jewish citizen in the country, and atrocities continued as zealous Christians hacked to death anyone affiliated with the Jewish synagogues, including women and infants.
These unspeakable horrors instantly forced many Jews to convert to Christianity, rather than face a gruesome death. Called conversos or marranos, those who converted to Christianity were at first portrayed as successful converts. However, over the next hundred years, many simply put on a facade of Christianity while still practicing their Jewish rites and rituals behind closed doors. Even more so, the conversos regained their previously lost power in society. The Christian peasant and middle class populations that saw the revival of “Closet Judaism” were obviously jealous over the reemergence of Jewish influence. Despite the violence that Christians began in order to gain back power in society, their work was all for naught as the converted Jews simply retook their place in society. Martinez’s followers resolved to take back their position at the top tiers of society. As anti-Semitism grew in Spain yet again, Ferdinand and Isabella’s marriage in 1469 solidified the Jewish fate.
Both rulers had strong Catholic backgrounds, especially Isabella, who admittedly dreamt of being the most pious, powerful queen in Europe. They married to unite a fractured and conflicted Spain, and with the various groups and ethnicities these new rulers had to pull together, they decided that Catholicism would be an effective agent to fulfill their objectives. After all, the majority of Spain was Catholic, and forcing out the overt Jewish and Muslim population would not be difficult, especially with strong anti-Semitism throughout. Pressure from zealous Catholic groups pushed Isabella to ask Pope Sixtus IV to issue a Papal Bull to begin the purge of heresy from the Spanish kingdom through an officially sanctioned inquisition. Their goal was to eradicate the converso population and inherit a thoroughly Catholic state.
In November 1478, Ferdinand and Isabella received the official Bull after several personal visits to the Pope himself. The Bull provided them with additional provisions to give the Spanish monarchy almost full supervision over the inquisition. They could add or remove priests, set the guidelines and objectives for the inquisition, and were only vaguely responsible to the Church. In theory, the Pope would hold complete oversight in the inquisition process, but the growth of Spanish power would subsequently destroy the Pope’s supremacy.
After a two-year period of leniency (to create the structure and policies of the inquisition and allow non-Catholics to leave), the inquisition began in full force in 1480. Even those who advocated for the inquisition could not imagine the evil establishment that would come to threaten almost every Spaniard. One major factor is that the inquisitors sought out heretics of Christianity and Catholicism, but not specifically other religions. There were outright Jews and Muslims who were not initially persecuted (although driven out of Spain in 1492). The inquisitors were able to identify and expose the conversos quickly by examining anyone with Jewish roots. However, rooting out heresy (any practice or belief not sanctioned by the Catholic Church) became quite difficult after the inquisitors decimated the initial converso population.
This set the stage for the “heresy” that was prevalent in the later years of the inquisition, where even the smallest infractions constituted sacrilege of Catholicism and resulted in a possible death sentence. One could be executed or imprisoned for such things as wearing clean clothes on Saturday, being named by a rival as a heretic, or working on the Sabbath. However, complications arose when determining what constituted heresy. The Spanish inquisitors and monarchy had secular reasons for continuing the inquisition, including political, economic, and social benefits. The political opportunities for the Spanish crown dwarfed any religious motives of the inquisition. Ferdinand and Isabella united the lands of Aragon and Castille by marriage in 1469, bringing together a country that still held a high level of religious toleration for centuries. There were Muslims, Jews, Catholics, and others living side by side with Gypsies and homosexuals. However, the Catholic community held a strong majority and both Ferdinand and Isabella had deeply Catholic upbringings. While looking for ways to unify their land, they concluded that Catholicism was perhaps their best answer. As Stanley Payne discussed in his book Spanish Catholicism, the Spanish crown wanted nothing more than a homogenous Catholic society. Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to go to any length to protect Spain from outsiders and dissent by crushing opposition and creating a common enemy.
Pressure grew from within Spain’s anti-Semitic groups to push out the conversos and Jews, a philosophy in line with that of Ferdinand and Isabella. With an overwhelming majority of the country pushing for unification, the Spanish royalty asked Pope Sixtus IV for assistance in the eradication of heresy from Spain. The 1478 Papal Bull gave Ferdinand and Isabella a wide range of authority, with an important provision to allow the Spanish crown to appoint their own inquisitors. The Pope initially wrote this to allow the Spanish crown independence to run the inquisition according to its own free will. With the Spanish crown in charge, the Pope was free to focus on other endeavors, and loosely oversaw the inquisition. However, in the following years after the Bull, the Spaniards used this provision to their advantage and established absolute control over the inquisition.
Pope Sixtus IV was virtually powerless within Spain after unwittingly ceding power, and even lost control over the affairs of his religious subordinates. At the same time, Ferdinand forced the inquisitors to follow his objectives, and as Henry Kamen explained in the book The Spanish Inquisition, Ferdinand took several steps between 1481 and 1482 to take control over the selection and payment of inquisitors. In essence, the inquisitors were completely dependent upon the Spanish monarchy rather than the Pope, shifting power away from the Church and to the Spanish crown. Ferdinand effectively established dominance over the inquisitors despite them officially being under the rule of the Pope. This caused a rift between Spain and the Church, along with an inquisition with no religious direction. The inquisitors were officially working for the Pope, but in a vulnerable situation where they had to fulfill Spanish objectives or lose their position. Pope Sixtus IV finally realized that the inquisition did not fulfill the stated objectives, and in 1482 he issued a Papal Bull ordering the Spanish Inquisition to stop. In the Bull, he wrote:
…that in Aragon, Valencia, Majorca and Catalonia the Inquisition has for some time been moved not by zeal for the faith and the salvation of souls, but by lust for wealth, and that many true and faithful Christians on the testimony of enemies, rivals, slaves and other lower and even less proper persons have without any legitimate proof been thrust into secular prisons, tortured and condemned as relapsed heretics, deprived of their goods and property and handed over to a secular arm to be executed, to the peril of souls setting a pernicious example and causing disgust to many. Theoretically, a Papal Bull written by the most powerful man in the religious world would be able to halt the religious persecution he authorized. However, the Pope was most likely writing this Bull under great pressure from the wealthy converso society and Jews throughout the world with strong political contacts. This letter is somewhat out of character for Pope Sixtus, because he rarely decried atrocities but chose the Spanish inquisition to spell out his concerns. This is possibly a biased letter, because he most likely received money and promises from the conversos in Spain.
However, Ferdinand refused to honor the Bull, and on 13 May 1482, Ferdinand replied to the Pope:
Things have been told me, Holy Father which if true, would seem to merit the greatest astonishment. It is said that Your Holiness has granted the conversos a general pardon for all the errors and crimes they have committed…To these rumors however, we have given no credence, because they seem to be things which would in no way have been conceded by Your Holiness, who have a duty to the inquisition…But if by chance concessions have been made through the persistent and cunning persuasion of the said conversos, I intend never to let them take effect. Take care therefore not to let the matter go further, and to revoke any concessions and entrust with us the care of this question.
Ferdinand replied with utter contempt and disobedience, because the inquisition was no longer a religious institution, but rather Ferdinand’s own project. He paid and appointed the inquisitors, and was in the position to force a repeal of the Papal Bull. Ferdinand’s response to the Pope cemented his role in Spain and ensured he kept the upper hand. Ferdinand most likely realized that the conversos bribed the Pope, and is either disrespectful or truly believes that he is destined to carry out the institution that Pope Sixtus started.
It is evident that there was a religious base to the inquisition, but rooting out heresy was not the true purpose. The objective had now switched to unifying Spain through intense persecution in an attempt to terrify the citizens of Spain into loyal following of Catholicism and Spanish royalty. Ferdinand’s message to the Pope displays his newfound power and influence, evident when Pope Sixtus relented and rescinded his previous letter. Although Pope Sixtus rescinded the Bull to save face with the Church, he lost prestige and power in his relationship with the Spanish crown. The royal government manipulated the Spanish Inquisition to bring unprecedented power to the crown. However, the institution itself was weak, because the priests needed secular authorities to provide the ultimate justice to those they considered heretics. Church doctrine forbade the clergy to execute anyone, so once a heretic was tortured and either confessed or was convicted of heresy, the Church would then turn over the condemned criminal to the secular authorities. The government would be the final authority to carry out the capital punishment, which normally meant burning at the stake.
Jean Plaidy described the brutality and hypocrisy of the Catholic Church in her book The Spanish Inquisition. These “holy priests,” whose supposed purpose was to guide people to Christianity, tortured their suspects to the point of death. To prevent the sin of murder, a high-ranking priest would sanctify the victim if he or she was about to die. This way, the clergy could simply absolve themselves of all guilt in the murder, and torture and kill without the fear of sin. However, in most cases, they transferred responsibility for the prisoner's demise to the secular authorities, who would carry out the execution. Even if the prisoner died suddenly before being handed over to the secular authorities or sanctified, the priests would simply blame Satan himself for hardening the victim’s heart from the truth. Plaidy described the entire institution as a group of hypocritical individuals who excused themselves from every sin they committed in the torture chambers by shifting responsibility to others.
If Spain did not wish to continue the inquisition, the crown could have simply instructed all state officials not to carry out the Church’s death sentence. However, the inquisition lasted for over three hundred years, and it is evident that Spain wanted to keep this lucrative institution strong. A simple edict could have ended the entire establishment, but the political policies that created the inquisition carried over into subsequent generations, where secular greed propelled the inquisition. The Spanish government set up several economic policies that only whetted the desire of the inquisitors to widen persecution to different groups. The inquisition had many political objectives, but without a way to continually motivate the inquisitors, the institution would ultimately fail. Ferdinand had already broken from the Pope with blatant disobedience, but enticed the inquisitors (who were officially subordinate to the Pope) through different means. Initially, Ferdinand and Isabella simply appointed those they felt would best fulfill Spanish political objectives. Once appointed, they had no choice but to follow the will of the Spanish crown because their future was in the hands of the Spanish Crown. An inquisitor’s entire life and career were dependent on how well they upheld Spanish objectives because Ferdinand and Isabella kept the power to appoint and remove anyone they felt necessary. Although the church paid the clergy, Ferdinand worked to assert royal control over inquisitor pay, along with set policies that benefitted the inquisitors.
The most powerful of these policies allowed the inquisitors to seize land and property of those named by a witness. The Lateran Council in 1215 created this policy, and in Canon Three decreed that “such people should forfeit their property, which should be confiscated by lay rulers, except in the case of convicted clergy, whose property should be given to the Church.” Even if a victim was found innocent by a panel (a rare occurrence, normally only after appropriate bribes), they never received their property back, because those who seized it would be hard-pressed to relinquish it. Theoretically, the inquisitors were expected to give the proceeds from the seized property back to the Church, but in reality, only a small percentage ever arrived. The inquisitors became some of the richest men in the country, and were not willing to lose this wealth or the ability to make more. As a Venetian ambassador living in Madrid wrote back to Italy:
A fortnight ago last Sunday, an act was performed at Murcia, which is called at Toledo an act of the Inquisition, whereat twenty-nine individuals were burned as Jews. Among them were some chief personages, so that the confiscation of their property will yield the King upwards of 4,000,000 ducats... The twenty-nine persons who were lately burned were all impenitent; but, if they had recanted and demanded mercy even at the last, their lives would have been spared, though with loss of their property and freedom, by virtue of a privilege to this effect which is enjoyed... An interesting point the ambassador noticed was the amount of money that the priests yielded in the execution of these twenty-nine people, and he specifies that some of it went to the king. There was nothing preventing the inquisitors from targeting the wealthiest individuals, and in actuality, it even enhanced the priests’ greed. Another man named Bernadez further discussed the secularization of the inquisition:
A few days after this they burnt three of the richest leaders of the city, namely Diego de Susan, who was said to be worth ten million maravedis and was a chief rabbi, and who apparently died as a Christian...And many other leading and very rich citizens, who were burnt. Bernadez shows that many of the executed were very rich and powerful, which further proves that the inquisitors were not primarily concerned with heresy. In one example, the converso Diego de Susan was burnt alive despite being an actual Christian missionary, forcing anyone to question the purpose of the inquisition. By persecuting those with money, both the inquisitors and the royalty saw secular benefits with virtually nothing to lose.
After the inquisitors eradicated the converso population in Spain, they could have halted the inquisition, but knew that this would also end their elegant lifestyle at the top of society. Therefore, the priests continued the inquisition by finding the most negligible types of heresy and exposing them. The grounds for sacrilege were often so stringent that even the most devout Catholics were brought in and persecuted. Those being tortured would shout out names simply to end the pain, and this evidence alone could lead to a death sentence.
In one notorious example, an unordained preacher was giving a sermon on the street. Police loyal to the inquisition arrested this man for preaching without the consent of the Catholic Church and detained any person in the vicinity for “hearing heresy.” Everyone in custody was burnt at the stake, and the inquisitors seized all of their property. Events such as these were not uncommon, and portray the ludicrous policies of this malevolent institution. Ferdinand and Isabella believed that by exiling all non-Catholic persons from the country, they would achieve a sense of unity that would carry over to the economic realm. Ferdinand and Isabella ardently continued the inquisition for economic, as well as political benefit. Spain suffered as a result of the lost Jewish population and the reduced population. The Jews and conversos made up the majority of Spain’s upper-middle class, and were very well educated. Many dealt in loans and banking, and in reality controlled the money of Spain. With their expulsion, few could adequately fill their specified roles as bankers. Jews were also well educated, and when they no longer worked in Spain, the common people who were previously poor and uneducated were not fit to fill their void. Spain’s economy would never fully recover, yet it was Spain itself that set up the policies that led to its own downfall. A large portion of the persecuted groups were targeted for their societal status. Traditionally, race relations in Spain had been quite peaceful. Under Muslim rule of Spain from 711 until 1032, the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic population lived together and thrived. Comparatively, the province of Andalucia was perhaps the most advanced area in the world, and incredible leaps in medicine, art, and literature created a population well-versed in education. Even under Muslim control, many policies allowed Muslims to thrive side by side with the other two main religions. Although the Muslims were on top of the political and social hierarchy, there was little strife in daily affairs. However, between the years of 1035 and 1250, the Christians regained control of most of Spain and drove the Muslim leadership out.
Seemingly overnight, the Christian community asserted their control and separated the races and religions into their independent communities. The severance of communities was a policy of the prideful Spanish citizens, especially the “Old Christians.” Their sense of honor was driven by the re-conquest of Spain from the Muslims and domination of global affairs. Virtually all the Catholics felt they had a role in regaining Spanish land for the crown and church. For instance, a famous Spanish historian wrote, “the common people looked upwards, wishing and hoping to climb, and let themselves be seduced by chivalric ideals: Honor, dignity, glory and the noble life.” Being convicted of heresy was a great shame to one’s family and country, which explains the Spaniards’ desire to root out heretics to cleanse their “great nation” from evil.
Those not considered “Old Christians” were outsiders, and despite the Jewish social status, racial discrimination grew because of the differences between the groups. There was always animosity between Christians and Jews, especially since they had similar roots. The Christians blamed the Jews for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, while the Jews considered Christians as a sect that lost its way from the true religion. However, of the two groups, the Jews were more peaceful, and actually thrived within the Christian community. They comprised the middle class and for the most part became influential bankers and merchants. Although the Jews had wealth and power, the hatred from their compatriots overpowered their economic and social assets. Spain was segregated socially, culminating with anti-Semitic speeches by Archdeacon Martinez. The slaughters on Ash Wednesday further reinforced the social strata and fueled the inquisition. The Christian community despised seeing “lesser races” such as Jews and Muslims living above them on the social ladder, especially because they felt responsible for the sacrifices that went into the reconquest and rebuilding of Spain. Henry Kamen explained that the inquisition was created to solve the problem of Jews in society. Each separate class used the inquisition to their own advantage, but the upper middle class took the most damaging hits. The lower classes attacked the Jews and conversos because of jealousy, and the upper classes wanted to rid themselves of social rivals. The Jews were in the middle of two groups that wanted to take their position, and were at a disadvantage of being the minority.
Evidence shows that there was a strong bias as to who was persecuted. One of the most powerful groups that determined the unpredictability of the inquisition was a cult that promoted limpieza. Limpieza means purity, and it relates to whether a person has a purely Christian bloodline. This cult grew in popularity to the point that almost every school, business, and institution required an official family tree to be analyzed for Jewish blood. Without the document, one could not get a job, attend to official business, or be a member of any authorized society. In reality, limpieza punished much of the country with its stringent rules, but allowed the poor to move up the social ladder. Because peasants did not have their family roots documented, it was impossible to produce a document like this, and they were mainly exempted. Only the nobles and middle class were able to trace their roots, and virtually all of them had Jewish blood at some point. Spain as a whole suffered, because many educated or gifted people that could have held important jobs or made great decisions were denied their opportunity because of their bloodline that spanned hundreds of years before they were born. Limpieza destroyed many of the rich and powerful in society, taking both their money and their influence. The middle and lower classes saw the inquisition as a way to increase their societal wealth by attacking those above them in the social hierarchy. The policies of the inquisition helped, because by simply mentioning a name to the right person, the persecuted individual’s life and status would end. The inquisition also helped expel the Jews from Spain, and the reduced population needed to replace Jewish power and influence. The poor and middle class had everything to gain from the inquisition, as long as their name was not mentioned, while society’s leaders were suffering. The racial animosity between the “old Christians,” conversos, and Jews was a hatred without bounds, and the Christians with the power were prepared to end the Jewish population’s affluence. Benzion Netanyahu further deepens the aspect of racial relations in the inquisition. Netanyahu spent a lifetime researching the origins of the Spanish Inquisition and focuses on the racial relations of the time. In his book The Origins of the Inquisition in 15th Century Spain, he states:
Inevitably, to induce a Christian to employ them the converts would reduce the cost of their labor; and this would require them to work longer hours and often do their work in Christian neighborhoods. This meant that during much of the day, as well as in the early hours of the evening, they had to avoid the performance of the commandments, ignore the Jewish dietary laws, behave in all other respects like Christians…It is evident that in such circumstances little time and opportunity were left to the converts to observe Jewish law. No doubt at first many among them, determined to perform the Commandments secretly, would rise early to recite the Jewish prayers before they went to work for their Christian employers and would fulfill other religious duties when they returned to their homes in the evening. But the strain involved in leading a double life and the tension caused by fear of discovery would inevitably take their toll…Thus, Judaism among the converts receded, while attachment to Christianity was on the rise. Netanyahu states that the conversos who were supposedly still Jewish on the inside had actually begun to embrace Christianity. The first generation of conversos most likely stayed close to the Jewish faith, but because they were afraid of being found out by their Christian neighbors, they stopped practicing the faith and rituals that their ancestors had. There was less opportunity as well, because they were working for Christian employers at the beginning, and by the time conversos regained their place in society several generations later, most had simply adopted the Christian rituals that they were used to doing.
In essence, Netanyahu proposes that the inquisition was not really about religion at all, because the heresy of Judaism had virtually died out by the time it began in 1480. Adding to this, many of the convicted heretics of the time were punished for their bloodline, and not by their own acts. The Spaniards may have believed that the conversos were possibly still Jewish, and several cases substantiated their beliefs. However, the vast majority of the conversos gave up Judaism and were as Christian as any other citizen in the land. It was the social jealousy of the Christians in Spain who refused to allow any group other than themselves to grow in importance, and it was their doing that allowed the inquisition to continue the way it did. Had the Christians not gained any social status, they most likely would have stopped their adamant support of the inquisition, and the inquisition’s fury would have died. The Spanish Inquisition was an institution set up by the Pope with righteous tendencies to strengthen the Catholic Church and help the country of Spain. However, only a few years after its inception, the Inquisition had turned into one of the most brutal, secular institutions this world has ever seen. The inquisition was not in itself an evil thing through creation, for it was simply a measure to strengthen the Catholic Church. However, the inquisition ran rampant and drastically changed into a secular, greed-induced hysteria that would ruin the lives of millions. Its reign for over three hundred and fifty years abruptly ended in 1834 after a growing resentment over inquisition policies.
Despite the religious beginnings, the inquisition quickly turned into an institution with political, economic, and social objectives. The after-effects of the Spanish Inquisition were devastating to the country and the Catholic Church, and affect political, religious, and racial interaction to this day.