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The Spanish Inquisition by C Roth
No organization for religious persecution equalled the Spanish Inquisition in intensity, scope or efficiency. From 1478 until 1834, when it was abolished, the Inquisition pursued a bloody course whose goal was to eliminate non-Catholics. The history of this cruel regime is told in this text.
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First published January 1, 1964
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About the author
Cecil Roth
122 books8 followersCecil Roth (5 March 1899 – 21 June 1970),[1] was a British Jewish historian.
A prolific writer, Roth published more than 600 books and articles, which have been translated into many languages, including histories of the Jews in England (1941) and Italy (1946), A History of the Marranos (3d ed. 1966), The Jews in the Renaissance (1959), Jewish Art (1961), and The Dead Sea Scrolls (1965).
He was educated at Merton College, Oxford (Ph.D., 1924)[1] and later returned to Oxford as Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies from 1939 to 1964.[2] Thereafter he was visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel (1964–1965), and at the City University of New York (1966–1969).
Roth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1925 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1941.[1] He died, aged 71, on 21 June 1970 in Jerusalem.[2]
A prolific writer, Roth published more than 600 books and articles, which have been translated into many languages, including histories of the Jews in England (1941) and Italy (1946), A History of the Marranos (3d ed. 1966), The Jews in the Renaissance (1959), Jewish Art (1961), and The Dead Sea Scrolls (1965).
He was educated at Merton College, Oxford (Ph.D., 1924)[1] and later returned to Oxford as Reader in Post-Biblical Jewish Studies from 1939 to 1964.[2] Thereafter he was visiting professor at Bar-Ilan University, Israel (1964–1965), and at the City University of New York (1966–1969).
Roth was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1925 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1941.[1] He died, aged 71, on 21 June 1970 in Jerusalem.[2]
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 8, 2010
I’ve never read a history of the Inquisition before. My encounters were usually via footnotes, other histories, and of course Dostoevsky’s great “Grand Inquisitor” chapter from the The Brothers Karamazov. I expected any such history to be “bad,” but I was unprepared for just how bad the Inquisition was. This was one of the most repugnant histories I have ever read. But it’s also a necessary one. Cecil Roth’s effort was written in 1937, when the darkness falling over Europe was unmistakable. Clearly, Roth was writing both a history and sounding an alarm. By today’s dry-as-dust History writing standards, Roth’s effort would probably be frowned upon due to its sometimes purple prose. However, for me, such laced prose proved to be a strength of the book. Roth is outraged. I’m outraged. Jeez. Seriously, there’s no real dispute regarding the outlines of the story, and Roth does impress me as a historian who knows his story inside and out. There’s something so repugnant about people being paraded through the streets, half naked, abused, and led to the stake to be burned for religious reasons – no matter how trumped up. The religious trappings given such human bonfires (called Auto de fe’ (“Act of Faith”)) are particularly disgusting. And this went on for a few hundred years! In Europe, the New World, India, etc. Many of those killed or humiliated in these public demonstrations were “New Christians.” “New Christians” were usually Jewish or Muslim, who had been forced to convert to Roman Catholicism. But because their blood was not considered “pure,” the conversion not sincere, a cloud of suspicion always hung over them. In time the scope expanded to other non-conforming people, be they natives, Protestants, free-thinkers, or the poor crazy fool down on the corner who talks to himself. About as damning a book as I’ve ever read.
February 27, 2020
Written in the 30s with the shadow of the Nazi’s hanging over him, Roth’s book is bitterly funny. He does a very good job tracing the Inquisition and its activities, especially the three main groups involved (the Marranos or converts from Judaism, the Moriscos or converts from Islam and the Protestants). It is painful to laugh over the absurdities yet perhaps laughter is a better weapon than anger since fanatics take themselves so seriously.
August 24, 2015
When published out of London in September of 1937, Cecil Roth pleaded with his reader to believe this was a true history and not a work of satire based upon current conditions. The word "Aryan" had risen to the surface in certain sectors; persecution was in the air and, while satire may not have been the order of his day, Mr. Roth was most assuredly launching this labor toward warning of things to come. One can tell by the tone of the writing - its insistence, its outrage, its occasional florid turn of phrase - that he felt the public was drowsing and needed to be awakened to the danger. The Spanish Inquisition was his case in point.
Roth covers three and a half centuries of inquisitorial despotism in Spain, Portugal, and the New World. He treats primarily with the victimization of conversos - those who converted through promise or threat to the Roman Catholic faith as, frankly, any Jew or Muslim would have been forced to do if he wished to remain in the country. Once converted, these Marranos and Moriscos (as they were called) became subject to penalty for lapsing in Catholic practice and belief. Torture elicited confessions and long lists of co-conspirators. The arrest of the wealthy and the merchant class brought confiscated assets to enrich and perpetuate the operation. Eventually Protestants found themselves falling under suspicion too as the definition of what constituted a threat to the faithful was re-engineered over time.
This is not history as it is written today. It is not broad-based, complex or heavily financial. It's much more subjective and, because of this, uniquely personable. And on this particularly disheartening subject, I found that approach effective.
Roth covers three and a half centuries of inquisitorial despotism in Spain, Portugal, and the New World. He treats primarily with the victimization of conversos - those who converted through promise or threat to the Roman Catholic faith as, frankly, any Jew or Muslim would have been forced to do if he wished to remain in the country. Once converted, these Marranos and Moriscos (as they were called) became subject to penalty for lapsing in Catholic practice and belief. Torture elicited confessions and long lists of co-conspirators. The arrest of the wealthy and the merchant class brought confiscated assets to enrich and perpetuate the operation. Eventually Protestants found themselves falling under suspicion too as the definition of what constituted a threat to the faithful was re-engineered over time.
This is not history as it is written today. It is not broad-based, complex or heavily financial. It's much more subjective and, because of this, uniquely personable. And on this particularly disheartening subject, I found that approach effective.
August 4, 2019
This book, a comprehensive history of the Spanish Inquisition, was written in 1937 and there are several quite appropriate references in it to what was going on in Germany in the 30's. Hitler was out to get rid of the Jews. The Spanish Inquisition was out to get rid of any deviation from the Roman Catholic religion. Neither had any respect for the lives of their targets. Hitler failed in his attempt because his reach was limited and his power was destroyed. The Inquisition succeeded because it was essentially limited to Spain and had the necessary amount of time, centuries, to do its work.
There was a Papal Inquisition quite separate from that in Spain. It was the Papal Inquisition that brought Galileo up on charges. That organization was usually more lenient than the one in Spain.
It is not true that those convicted in Spain were all burned alive at the stake. Only those who were defiant to the end faced death by fire. Others, who were willing to confess they were wrong had the privilege of being strangled to death first and only then were their bodies burned. I would estimate from the figures given that less than ten percent were burned alive, though the spectacle of this was a big draw for the public, at least the equal of bull fights.
These "Acts of Faith", as the public proceedings were called, were announced well in advance with the added benefit that anyone who attended was granted a special blessing by the church. Those judged guilty were listed on posted bills. The convicts were forced to parade wearing garish gowns and caps with flames portrayed on them. If the flames were upside down, the person was not to die, if the flames were right side up, those wearing them would burn. Many were convicted in absentia or after death. Those absent would be burned in effigy, those who had died would have their remains disinterred and burned.
There was no justice as we understand it. Those charged were not allowed to know who had accused them. No one could be called by the defendant on his or her behalf. There was no appeal of a sentence. All possessions were confiscated, the proceeds going to the Inquisition. Could there be any greater incentive to run a network of spies to bring in suspects?
Torture was common. In a particularly powerful two page account the verbatim record of a woman under torture for refusing to eat pork is related. She continually asks her judges to tell her what they want her to say, which they refuse to do, only imploring her to "tell the truth" over and over again as more pain is given and she screams for relief. She tells the truth in saying that she does not like pork, but they are after her to say that she is following the Hebrew proscription of pork. Thus could torture continue indefinitely, or to death.
Most interesting to me was the use of waterboarding, stuffing a rag into the mouth and then pouring water on the rag to give the victim the feeling of drowning. This is exactly the thing done by order of the government of the United States of America with the encouragement of the Vice President even as the technique was said not to be torture. In addition, the Inquisition required a person to be present to determine when to call a halt to torture if death was to be avoided, exactly the same practice used by the United States in the "special renditions" farmed out to foreign soil. The Inquisition came to an end in 1821, thoroughly reviled at that time. The US, founded by disciples of the Enlightenment, was conducting the same torture in the 21st century. Someone please explain this to me.
The Spanish Inquisition was quite serious in its intent. There was no hypocrisy in that those doing the work were convinced they were working for God, getting rid of heresy, apostasy, devil worship and all forms of mysticism not sanctioned by the church. Detailed records were kept of proceedings which could go on for years before sentencing. Multiple volumes of closely spaced text recorded every word said in the proceedings even down to, as above mentioned, torture sessions.
The Inquisition was not out to get practicing Jews and left them alone. Such were taken care of (expelled or harassed) by the civil authority. The Inquisition was out to expose those Jews ("New Christians") who had converted to Christianity and in this goal it was unrelenting. Was linen changed on a certain day of the week? Had a person been heard speaking even one word of Hebrew? Were assemblies being held on Saturdays out of the public eye? Had a person been heard to refuse a helping of pork? Any one of these could result in death or life in prison, but the Inquisition made a real effort to prove the charge true, even if torture was considered acceptable interrogation.
And with conviction the name went on a registry to which were added the names from new generations related to the convict. Just as with those of mixed race in the United States in the days of slavery, the amount of "Jewish blood" in a person was not just considered but made an official record.
And what of the Muslims? And what of Protestants? All were brought in based on the same level of detail and on the word of anyone who cared to bring a charge. It didn't matter whether a person was high or low in society, a courtier or a peasant, all alike were subject to sudden detention and likely conviction (there were acquittals, though infrequent).
It worked. The Inquisition was so effective in getting rid of any religious practice deemed unacceptable that it ended up after a couple of centuries with time on its hands for the lack of any fresh deviancy to discover. Spain found itself with a well earned reputation in Europe of intolerance and cruelty. It kept the Enlightenment out, it kept Judaism, Islam and Protestantism out and maintained the purity of practice that the church desired. It turned the country that dominated the world, awash in gold in the late 16th century into a backward, poverty stricken place by the late 1700's. Such was the price of the Inquisition's success.
Cecil Roth has written an astounding story, very well told because with only a few exceptions he is able to tell it on the Inquisition's own terms free of what must have been a temptation to use denunciation of it on every page. That can easily be supplied by the reader.
There was a Papal Inquisition quite separate from that in Spain. It was the Papal Inquisition that brought Galileo up on charges. That organization was usually more lenient than the one in Spain.
It is not true that those convicted in Spain were all burned alive at the stake. Only those who were defiant to the end faced death by fire. Others, who were willing to confess they were wrong had the privilege of being strangled to death first and only then were their bodies burned. I would estimate from the figures given that less than ten percent were burned alive, though the spectacle of this was a big draw for the public, at least the equal of bull fights.
These "Acts of Faith", as the public proceedings were called, were announced well in advance with the added benefit that anyone who attended was granted a special blessing by the church. Those judged guilty were listed on posted bills. The convicts were forced to parade wearing garish gowns and caps with flames portrayed on them. If the flames were upside down, the person was not to die, if the flames were right side up, those wearing them would burn. Many were convicted in absentia or after death. Those absent would be burned in effigy, those who had died would have their remains disinterred and burned.
There was no justice as we understand it. Those charged were not allowed to know who had accused them. No one could be called by the defendant on his or her behalf. There was no appeal of a sentence. All possessions were confiscated, the proceeds going to the Inquisition. Could there be any greater incentive to run a network of spies to bring in suspects?
Torture was common. In a particularly powerful two page account the verbatim record of a woman under torture for refusing to eat pork is related. She continually asks her judges to tell her what they want her to say, which they refuse to do, only imploring her to "tell the truth" over and over again as more pain is given and she screams for relief. She tells the truth in saying that she does not like pork, but they are after her to say that she is following the Hebrew proscription of pork. Thus could torture continue indefinitely, or to death.
Most interesting to me was the use of waterboarding, stuffing a rag into the mouth and then pouring water on the rag to give the victim the feeling of drowning. This is exactly the thing done by order of the government of the United States of America with the encouragement of the Vice President even as the technique was said not to be torture. In addition, the Inquisition required a person to be present to determine when to call a halt to torture if death was to be avoided, exactly the same practice used by the United States in the "special renditions" farmed out to foreign soil. The Inquisition came to an end in 1821, thoroughly reviled at that time. The US, founded by disciples of the Enlightenment, was conducting the same torture in the 21st century. Someone please explain this to me.
The Spanish Inquisition was quite serious in its intent. There was no hypocrisy in that those doing the work were convinced they were working for God, getting rid of heresy, apostasy, devil worship and all forms of mysticism not sanctioned by the church. Detailed records were kept of proceedings which could go on for years before sentencing. Multiple volumes of closely spaced text recorded every word said in the proceedings even down to, as above mentioned, torture sessions.
The Inquisition was not out to get practicing Jews and left them alone. Such were taken care of (expelled or harassed) by the civil authority. The Inquisition was out to expose those Jews ("New Christians") who had converted to Christianity and in this goal it was unrelenting. Was linen changed on a certain day of the week? Had a person been heard speaking even one word of Hebrew? Were assemblies being held on Saturdays out of the public eye? Had a person been heard to refuse a helping of pork? Any one of these could result in death or life in prison, but the Inquisition made a real effort to prove the charge true, even if torture was considered acceptable interrogation.
And with conviction the name went on a registry to which were added the names from new generations related to the convict. Just as with those of mixed race in the United States in the days of slavery, the amount of "Jewish blood" in a person was not just considered but made an official record.
And what of the Muslims? And what of Protestants? All were brought in based on the same level of detail and on the word of anyone who cared to bring a charge. It didn't matter whether a person was high or low in society, a courtier or a peasant, all alike were subject to sudden detention and likely conviction (there were acquittals, though infrequent).
It worked. The Inquisition was so effective in getting rid of any religious practice deemed unacceptable that it ended up after a couple of centuries with time on its hands for the lack of any fresh deviancy to discover. Spain found itself with a well earned reputation in Europe of intolerance and cruelty. It kept the Enlightenment out, it kept Judaism, Islam and Protestantism out and maintained the purity of practice that the church desired. It turned the country that dominated the world, awash in gold in the late 16th century into a backward, poverty stricken place by the late 1700's. Such was the price of the Inquisition's success.
Cecil Roth has written an astounding story, very well told because with only a few exceptions he is able to tell it on the Inquisition's own terms free of what must have been a temptation to use denunciation of it on every page. That can easily be supplied by the reader.
April 25, 2014
Cecil Roth was wonderful. Oh, and nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.
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October 18, 2018I think a really good idea if you know somebody who's going to have a baby is to buy them this book but put on the dust jacket from What to Expect When You're Expecting.
January 19, 2016
Chilling period in history described by a master stylest.
May 9, 2025
An excellent, albeit disturbing, book. While the author is sometimes less detached from his subject than a careful historian should be, readers should be mindful of the fact that the book was published in 1937 and the author was Jewish. As he writes in the Preface: "The Spanish Inquisition was until yesterday an antiquarian diversion. The events of the past few years, and above all of the past few months, have converted it into a dreadful warning."
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January 18, 2021A classic history of the Spanish Inquisition written in the 1930s.
I read this a while ago, but here are two depressing takeaways that have stuck with me.
1. Antisemitism was the primary animus of the Spanish Inquisition. In the late middle ages, Spain forced its Jewish population to convert by the sword, and they converted by the thousands. However, the church did not trust these "New Christians" and unleashed the Inquisition to purge the church of secret Jews and Spain of Jewish culture. The edition I have includes a the original 1937 afterward by the author which contains a dire warning about Hitler.
2. The tortures of the Inquisition, though cruel and sadistic, were not as creative or baroque as they are often depicted. One type of torture described did stick out to me though. It was called "the water torture". It was exactly like modern waterboarding. That's right, the "enhanced interrogation technique" the Bush administration assured us was definitely not torture was actually a torture used by the Spanish Inquisition.
I read this a while ago, but here are two depressing takeaways that have stuck with me.
1. Antisemitism was the primary animus of the Spanish Inquisition. In the late middle ages, Spain forced its Jewish population to convert by the sword, and they converted by the thousands. However, the church did not trust these "New Christians" and unleashed the Inquisition to purge the church of secret Jews and Spain of Jewish culture. The edition I have includes a the original 1937 afterward by the author which contains a dire warning about Hitler.
2. The tortures of the Inquisition, though cruel and sadistic, were not as creative or baroque as they are often depicted. One type of torture described did stick out to me though. It was called "the water torture". It was exactly like modern waterboarding. That's right, the "enhanced interrogation technique" the Bush administration assured us was definitely not torture was actually a torture used by the Spanish Inquisition.
November 27, 2017
well-researched and informative, this book has a very fluid discussion of the Spanish Inquisition. However, I can see that it has a potential to annoy some readers by frequent comparisons of the persecution conducted by the Inquisition with that of Hitler persecution of Jews (Hitler and the Nazis were not mentioned by name but one can immediately infer that they are the ones being alluded to) Overall a good book, (contains interesting documents and some first hand accounts), on a topic where there are few options to select from.
March 27, 2025
Un libro, muy crudo, donde se deja ver las atrocidades de la Inquisición española y portuguesa, junto con su actuar en las colonias americanas. El libro fue escrito, dependiendo el caso, menos de 100 años después de eliminado el Santo Oficio.
September 7, 2019
3.5 stars
May 31, 2024
We both read this prior to a trip to Madrid where we'd booked a "Spanish Inquistion Walking Tour!" No small thanks to Monty Python, lol. Well, as it turns out, our personable part-time actor tour guide apparently read this book as well, because he quoted certain parts of it nearly verbatim. While it validated our reading choice, it made the tour dull. What a day for an auto-da-fe!
This is somewhat of a scholarly work, originally published at the very beginning of the rise of Fascism in 1930s and 1940s Europe. It really has everything you need to learn if you're interested in this subject.
Parts of it are harrowing; I had no idea of the length and scope that these abominations encompassed, endorsed at the highest levels of society.
So when an anti-Columbus naysayer proclaims "he was so awful even the Catholic monarchs of Spain rejected him!" Just remember that those same monarchs were heartily engaging in property-grabbing, torturing, and burning at the stake of anyone who happened to be of a different religion. Or was a political opponent, or a wealthy landowner whose home someone coveted. This went on for nearly four hundred years. No wonder Goya lost his mind.
This is somewhat of a scholarly work, originally published at the very beginning of the rise of Fascism in 1930s and 1940s Europe. It really has everything you need to learn if you're interested in this subject.
Parts of it are harrowing; I had no idea of the length and scope that these abominations encompassed, endorsed at the highest levels of society.
So when an anti-Columbus naysayer proclaims "he was so awful even the Catholic monarchs of Spain rejected him!" Just remember that those same monarchs were heartily engaging in property-grabbing, torturing, and burning at the stake of anyone who happened to be of a different religion. Or was a political opponent, or a wealthy landowner whose home someone coveted. This went on for nearly four hundred years. No wonder Goya lost his mind.
September 25, 2015
Organization was straightforward: Origins, Persecuted groups, Domestic and Colonial spread, slow demise. It never fails to impress me just how war fearful men will go to insist on their rightness and their need to destroy any opposition. Monty Python had it backwards: One should Always Expect an Inquisition!
January 8, 2008
There are several books on the Inquisition that pale in comparison to Roth's. Cecil Roth is a Jew and this was first published in 1944 or 45 (I can't recall exactly) which again was a less than happy time for Jews.
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