Inquisition

by Toby Green

Everybody has heard of the Inquisition. This was an institution that pursued heretics, philandering priests and sexual deviants in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America for a period of over 350 years, changing its focus with the times and enduring stubbornly into the 19th century. Today the word implies dread, fear and a withheld threat of torture. But who were its targets? Why did it provoke such fear? How and where did it operate? Why was it founded, and why did it last for so long? Toby Green's incredible new book brings an extraordinary 350 year period vividly to life by focusing on the hitherto untold stories of individuals from all walks of life and every section of society. Because the Inquisition touched every aspect of society, it changed the people attending church had to look suitably devout, or they might be denounced; a curse at a game of cards, thrown out in the heat of the moment, could bring an investigation; stripping fat from a leg of lamb was enough to excite accusations of being a Jew. A secret police and a thought police, the Inquisition produced a permanent state of fear. This history, though filled with stories of terror and the unspeakable ways in which human beings can treat one another, is also one of hope and ultimately of the resilience of the human spirit. Instead of being cowed by their fear, countless people rebelled in small and big ways, paving the way for a more inclusive society. The story of the Inquisition is not, then, one to be hidden and avoided; it deserves to be told in all its human richness and complexity.

Genres: History, Religion, Nonfiction, European History, Christianity, Spain

Hardcover

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Toby Green is the author of five previous works of non-fiction, and his work has been translated into ten languages. He teaches the history and culture of Portuguese-speaking Africa at King’s College London.

Reviews

[Alexandru Nan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucrurile merg prost în Spania? E vina evreilor care nu mănâncă porc și nu muncesc sâmbăta!
Ba nu.... E vina maurilor ai naibii care ne-au fost stăpâni acum câteva sute de ani, dar care conspiră împotriva Sfântului Oficiu prin aducerea turcilor în Peninsula Iberică pentru a ne invada și pentru a ne relua pământurile ce le-am recâștigat pe drept în urma Reconquistei!
Stai, iar greșesc... E vina luteranilor ăia nenorociți care vin cu idei eretice și drăcești, care corup mințile tinerilor creștini. Prin urmare se supără Dumnezeu. Nu e voie! Ce facem aici? Ori suntem buni creștini, ori o lăsăm baltă.
Poftim? Cum adică nu sunt luteranii? Aaaa! E vina masonilor iluminiști și a francezilor care se adună noaptea în cine știe ce ascunzătoare și discută cum să insufle mai bine populației libertatea, egalitatea și fraternitatea. Păi ce-i asta? Trăim după dreptul divin, frate! Dumnezeu ne-a pus aici. Cine suntem noi să ne îndoim de autoritatea divină?
Cum putem rezolva toate aceste probleme? Haideți să ardem pe rug, să biciuim, să umilim, să anulăm carierele ibericilor impuri și să facem o mare listă unde scrie ce avem voie să citim și ce nu.

Dacă vi se pare absurd tot ce am scris aici, vi se pare foarte bine. Așa funcționa Inchiziția. Își alegea un țap îspășitor asupra căruia să-și exercite puterea și pe care să-l învinuiască pentru toate relele din Peninsula Iberică. În Spania toate aceste categorii de oameni au fost, la un moment dat, țapi ispășitori: începând cu evreii convertiți la creștinism (câteodată se converteau din proprie inițiativă, de cele mai multe ori era o consecință a pogromului din 1391 în care se striga „Vă convertiți sau muriți!”), apoi cu maurii convertiți la creștinism (idem aici), apoi cu luteranii, apoi iarăși maurii (până când au fost expulzați definitiv din Spania) și spre final susținătorii Iluminismului. Asta numai în Spania.
În Portugalia lucrurile stăteau puțin diferit: singurul lor țap ispășitor a fost comunitatea de evrei (numită și comunitatea de conversos în ambele state). Maurii erau deja asimilați în societatea portugheză.
Acest sistem de a tot da vina pe cineva și apoi pentru a-l persecuta a condus la două lucruri: în primul rând, epoca inchizitorială este un model pentru viitoarele state totalitare, mergând exact pe aceleași principii care îmbină paranoia cu populismul, sărăcia, lipsa de educație, epurări pe criterii atent stabilite, pe conspirații absurde, propagandă și „spectacole” grandioase în care instituția își arăta mușchii (așa numitele autodafes - acte de credință); în al doilea rând la un precursor al rasismului sistematic, fiind o premieră mondială din acest punct de vedere. („Faptul că această idee a impurității raiale era ceva cu totul nou este dovedit de reacțiile imediate care atacau acest statut al impurității sângelui. Papa Nicolae al V-lea a emis o bulă în 1451 prin care condamna statutul”)
Oamenii din Peninsula Iberică au tot trăit acest stil vreme de sute de ani, iar aceasta este o lecție importantă a istoriei pe care trebuie cu toții să o învățăm: totalitarismul a fost „la modă” în secolul trecut, iar el continuă și astăzi în statele comuniste ce-au mai rămas azi pe glob, dar și în state din Pen. Arabică și lumea a treia. Oamenii trebuie să invețe să recunoască un astfel de model, pentru a-l evita.
Din păcate, totalitarismul nu mai este ceva la nivel de stat - un sistem de guvernare. El acum se naște în individualitatea fiecăruia, apelând la natura omului de a-l urî pe cel de lângă el. El este în floare, și deja vedem pași repezi spre acceptarea lui în tendințe de tip Cancel Culture.

Cartea are o mică problemă: nu e într-o ordine tocmai cronologică. Un capitol poate să vorbească despre secolul XV, iar următorul despre secolul XVIII, însă informația exactă și notele de subsol care trimit către context ajută.

Aveți grijă de voi!

[Constantin Beda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inchiziția a fost cea mai stridentă și odioasă pată din istoria religiei și a Bisericii Catolice. Înființată în Spania în 1478 și în Portugalia în 1536, probabil a fost prima instituție oficială organizată în scopul represiunii și reprimării credințelor care nu se aliniau canoanelor acelor vremuri. Oricine era bănuit de cea mai mică erezie era arestat, torturat ca să-și recunoască "păcatele" inventate și închis sau ucis, în funcție de gravitatea faptei. Și dacă nu își recunoșteau "vina" și trangresiunea, cei care cădeau în mâinile inchizitorilor erau ajutați s-o facă. Cele mai persecutate victime ale Inchiziției erau conversos și moriscos, descendenți ai evreilor și musulmanilor convertiți forțat la creștinism, însă în realitate nimeni nu era ferit de pericol. Ramificațiile și influența Inchiziției se întindeau până în Africa și continentul Americii, iar teroarea a luat sfârșit abia după trei secole, la începutul anilor 1800, când Iluminismul și știința au început să câștige teren în fața unei organizații primitive și depășite.

Am încercat să-mi imaginez cum ar fi fost să trăiesc în acele secole dominate de Inchiziție, și mi-am dat seama că n-aș fi rezistat nici măcar o zi. Aș fi fost catalogat eretic și necredincios de la primul cuvânt rostit, apoi aruncat pe rug fără drept de apel. Nimeni n-ar trebui să trăiască într-o lume lipsită de dreptul de a alege și de a hotărî pentru propria persoană. E treaba fiecăruia dacă crede în soare, într-un zeu oarecare sau dacă nu crede în nimic, și nimeni n-ar trebui să aibă putere de viață și de moarte asupra credințelor celorlalți, fie că sunt religioase sau nu. Însă nu trăim într-o lume ideală, și din păcate Inchiziția nu a dispărut complet, doar a mutat granițele și și-a schimbat numele și ideologia. Experiența șocantă și neașteptată prin care a trecut recent scriitorul Salman Rushdie m-a făcut să realizez că fanaticii extremiști religioși care ucid oameni doar pentru că au alte păreri sunt inchizitorii zilelor noastre.

"Libertatea ta se termină unde începe libertatea celuilalt." (John Stuart Mill)

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious narrative which sets out to document and dissect the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions from their inception (in the 15th century in Spain and the 16th century in Portugal) to their decline in the 18th century, and eventual abolition in the early 19th. It also includes the history of how these institutions operated in their overseas colonies in South America, Africa and India. The Inquisition in each territory, Spain and Portugal, differed in some respects although for much of the period the two countries came under the Spanish monarch, for example, the Portuguese Inquisition did not persecute the descendants of ex-Muslims because the Muslims in Portugal had been assimilated into the Christian majority centuries before, whereas in Spain a long war had been fought against them and they were forced to convert to Christianity and then viewed as a Fifth Column who were believed to conspire with external enemies, so they were targeted by the Spanish Inquisition until they were eventually expelled from the country.

Both countries oppressed conversos, Jews who had converted to Christianity, even if they had done so voluntarily and were devout Catholics. This persecution extended to remote descendants especially when the Inquisition's role had switched more to establishing people's genealogy to determine if they were allowed to be appointed to certain jobs or even get married. Another later role of the Inquisition was in maintaining lists of banned books, censoring books and visiting publishers and booksellers. Huge amounts of bureaucracy were required, and the banning of modern writers of the period and the scientific outlook all helped to contribute to the decline of Spain and Portugal, especially as the expulsion of the Muslims had resulted in the loss of most agricultural knowledge and labour in Spain.

The book makes use of the personal stories of various victims of the two Inquisitions and also makes clear the corruption among a lot of officials, which was not restricted to self enrichment but frequently involved sexual abuse of women. The knowledge that every town or even village had men, often of bad character, who were empowered to spy on and denounce neighbours who might end up being burned at the stake, sometimes with the 'mercy' of being garroted first, must have created a type of police state in which ordinary people lived in fear. Green makes the case for this being the blueprint for a lot of oppressive regimes of later centuries though oddly enough, he omits the obvious one of Nazi Germany which shared the Inquisition's obsession with 'purity of blood', was just as bureaucratic, encouraged people to denounce neighbours and even family members, and which also insisted on genealogical proof of a lack of Jewish forebears going back several generations for women who wanted to marry members of the SS.

The book, for me, merits only a three star rating because its style is a bit turgid and Green repeatedly makes the same points. Also he jumps about in the timeline a lot which doesn't help the clarity. Although there are page numbers in footnotes to go back to a previous section where a person, family or incident was covered before, I found at least one reference where the page number was wrong. Plus Green stresses the political nature of both these Inquisitions, subservient to the crown and minimises the earlier atrocities committed by the original Papal Inquisition, although from previous histories I've read, that was just as bad.

So it is quite a good overall history, especially for its inclusion of the overseas colonies, and makes some good suggestions about the psychology of the Inquisitions and their role in the decline of the two Iberian countries, but comes over as a bit dry and repetitive on occasion.

[Liviu Mihai Irimia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the subject should have been captivating, I found myself reading one of the most tiring books I've come across lately. The Inquisition is through its wickedness, intolerance, ugliness and lack of intelligence, a historical subject that you want to read about in order to understand what its resources were, its motivation, its evolution. But, what is the interesting subject, the red thread of the book is completely lost in a sea of ​​details, of stories that are so similar that they become boring and at some point you feel stuck in reading ... You only have a little left from the red thread of the story: the decimation of the Muslim and Jewish populations of Spain and Portugal, the absurdity and meanness of the accusations, the ferocity of torture methods, the cynicism and falsity of the inquisitors, the fall of a global empire due to ignorance and intolerance, the deep wounds left in the hearts of peoples from South America, India, Africa and where the beasts of the Inquisition passed. Too bad for the subject. Reading this book is like mining for gold, from which you find with a lot of work, a little bit here and there, until you finally abandon the vein.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you don’t have a low opinion of humanity before reading this book, you will when you finish. Inquisition: The Reign of Fear by Toby Green is a history of The Spanish Inquisition and an analysis of why it happened. Some of the themes he covers are the use of fear for social engineering, the use of religion for the ideological unification of a society, and the Inquisition as a precursor to the totalitarian governments of the 20th century, namely Nazi Germany. He also gives a sufficient analysis of how scapegoating is used for the purpose of social cohesion.

The Spanish Inquisition began roughly in the 15th century. Papal Inquisitions had already taken place in the persecution of heretical groups like the Cathars and the Albigenses, as well as with the military order known as the Knights Templar. Green skips over most of the Papal Inquisitions and jumps straight into what happened in Spain and Portugal, which was part of the Spanish kingdom until the later war of separation. In their bid to unify the Iberian peninsula, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella established a bureaucracy to uproot elements of “cultural impurity” in their lands.

The first target of this Spanish Inquisition was the conversos, Jews who had converted to Catholicism for the sake of assimilating to Spanish culture. These conversos, who were usually wealthy, were accused of practicing Judaism in secret after being baptized. Many of these conversos fled to Portugal to escape the autos da fe, public spectacles in which these alleged heretics were burned alive in public to scare Spanish citizens into obedience. As the Portuguese set sail for distant lands, many of these conversos went abroad as colonialists to escape further persecution when the Inquisition took over in Lisbon. Later victims of this terrorist bureaucracy were Muslims, homosexuals, Lutherans, and people accused of practicing witchcraft.

Green does a good job of writing about the historical events and political context of the Spanish Inquisition. He also does an adequate job of analyzing the social and psychological forces that were related to it. He points out that the torture of the accused and the public autos da fe were effective tools of controlling the beliefs and behavior of the monarchy’s subjects; the threat of torture was enough to keep people submissive and obedient while the display of religious processions that ended with burning heretics alive gave visual proof of what could happen to anyone who stepped out of line. He also demonstrates the psychological impact of rigid ideological purity. When the Inquisition felt they held the ultimate truth, a truth that is so lofty that reaching it is impossible, they felt justified in doing whatever they saw fit to cleanse society of its impurities. The result was censorship, limitations on human rights, persecution of marginalized people, sadism, and mass murder. Being placed above the law, the Inquisition also became corrupt, adhering to a set of double standards by embezzling property from those they persecuted, and also indulging in quid pro quo sexual favors and bribery in exchange for freedom from punishment. Reading this can make you think that the writings of the Marquis de Sade were so scandalous in his time because he was merely articulating the atrocities the European aristocracy had been committing against the lower classes for thousands of years.

Some of the weaker parts of this book involve Green’s psychoanalysis of people subject to the oppression of the Spanish Inquisition. He uses Freudian concepts of hysteria, sexual suppression, paranoia, and neurosis to explain some of the bizarre behaviors indulged in by the religiously-minded in Spain. His analyses actually make sense, but he brushes over them with so little detail that they come off as a little sketchy and based on hasty conclusions. Despite being Freudian concepts, they still make sense in this narrative, but Green is no psychologist and this part of the book is an amateurish attempt at what he sets out to prove.

The biggest flaw in this history is the way the author almost leaves the Catholic church out of the story. It is true that the bishops gave control of prosecution for heretics over to the secular arm of the Spanish government, but little else is said about the church’s role in all this. Almost nothing is said about the Papal Inquisition that preceded the Spanish Inquisition and, by Green’s account, the church remained silent for the almost 400 years that the Spanish Inquisition existed. It is hard to imagine that an institutionalized form of torture and persecution would be ignored by the religious authorities it was meant to defend. The author appears to downplay the role of the church, emphasizing the political nature of the persecution, for the sake of avoiding indulgence in religious intolerance. The Catholic church obviously had opinions on the Inquisition and they were enablers at the very least, so leaving them out of the story is not fair to students of history who need to learn the whole story. What happened needs to be said and if Catholics and their apologists are offended, they should make the effort to reflect on why that might be so rather than attacking historians whose job it is to tell the truth.

What Toby Green is successful in demonstrating is that the Spanish Inquisition was used as a tool of political domination by the Spanish monarchy. In Hannah Arendt’s masterwork The Origins of Totalitarianism, the defining characteristics of authoritarian government are laid out in the final section. Many of them overlap with, and are rooted in, the Spanish Inquisition. These include, infallible leadership, anti-intellectualism, scapegoating, conspiracy theories, censorship, control of information, purging of unwanted social elements, fear mongering, intolerance of dissenting opinions, and encouraging citizens to spy on each other. The connections are so easy to see that it is a surprise that Hannah Arendt had so little to say about the Inquisition, especially since anti-Semitism was such a rampant part of it, and it is also a surprise to see that Toby Green had nothing to say about Hannah Arendt, despite his opinion that the Spanish Inquisition was a form of proto-fascism that reached full fruition in 20th century Europe.

Sometimes it is all too easy to look at history and see parallels with our contemporary political climate. The human mind evolved to see patterns and sometimes those patterns are not real while at other times they are. Looking at America’s Republican party today, it is not hard to see elements of latent fascism in their mentality. We can see the presence of conspiracy theories, anti-intellectualism, and the scapegoating of immigrants, Muslims, scientists, and secular humanists. Most alarming is the conservative Christian idea that a national religion is necessary to unify the state. Arendt also said that the identification of one political party as the only legitimate representative of the nation is a symptom of fascism. In America that political party would be the Republicans and in the medieval Kingdom of Spain and Portugal that state would be the monarchy supported by the Catholic church. If that isn’t enough, remember that torture was used against Muslims in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those wars were wildly popular with the right-wing sector of America. That’s not to say the Democrats don’t have their authoritarian impulses because they certain do, but if another bureaucratic inquisition were to be established, it would be more likely to come from the right. Toby Green’s Inquisition: The Reign of Fear is not a book about contemporary politics, but considering it was written fairly recently, it can be looked at as a warning that we might be on the wrong path of making the same stupid mistakes the human race has continuously made. Just be careful of what you support.

[N.P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!...

…Except, it would seem, the poor inhabitants that had the misfortune to live within the borders of the Spanish (and Portuguese) empires between the late fourteenth and early nineteenth centuries and hold views that ran contrary to the perceived wisdom of the Catholic church. Such was the hold that the church had on all facets of society over this period that there was not one element of their daily life that they did not control.

The Inquisition, by Toby Green, tells the story of how the state in the form of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain and Portugal as well as the Spanish monarchy created an organisation to enforce their doctrine on millions of inhabitants in both the motherland and the colonies that were gained over time. The author paints a picture of a civilisation that has been repressed, at first socially by way of laws and the use of informers, and then physically by the use of stage managed events where people found guilty of heresy or who were just inconvenient to the church and state were burnt to death.

The pervasive dread this instilled into a people for whom the authority of the church was already inculcated from birth cannot be underestimated. It allowed the inquisition to get away with abuses that were at the same time cruel but viewed in the age that they took place in as nothing unusual. It also allowed individuals working for the Inquisition to abuse their position to such an extent that it wasn’t unusual for a ‘father’ of the church to be an actual father many times over. In fact, the corruption was so endemic that if anybody tried to shine a light on this, no matter how senior they were in the Church or state, a case was opened on them by the officials that were being accused and that person either escaped into exile or was conveniently found guilty of heresy after which they either rotted to death in jail or burnt to a cinder at the stake. Either way the message went out that it didn’t pay to question the methods or the morals of the Inquisition.

To Toby Green’s credit, he resists the temptation to draw parallels with events in today’s world, with the exception of a few well reasoned paragraphs in the final chapter, but there can be no question that the demonisation of Moors and Jews by the Inquisition in an effort to justify their existence by creating an enemy that never existed prior to their vilification only succeeded in creating resentment and hatred which can still be felt to varying degrees in today’s world.

This is a book that takes on the story of an organisation that spans several centuries, countries, continents and generations and I’m always a little worried when I start a book with this kind of scope that it will become a dry narrative spilling over with historical facts and figures but Toby Green has avoided this by highlighting individuals whose treatment proves a wider truth about an organisation that was an integral part of the life of such a large percentage of the world’s population for such a long time. His prose is concise and at times poetic and his research is always thorough and well presented, opening up a world and an organisation to the reader that is both fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.

For that reason, I’ve given this book 4 stars.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Be careful what you wish for. I wanted a book that would give me an overview of the Inquisition, a subject about which I knew very little, and that’s exactly what I got. The problem is that the Inquisition lasted for centuries and was established in every Spanish and Portuguese colony as well as the homeland, and during those three hundred plus years the Inquisition moved from one target to the next—Jews, Muslims, Lutherans, intellectuals, homosexuals, etc., etc., so there was a lot of ground to cover, so much ground that, though I was often interested in what I was reading, I was also lost at times as well as just plain bored.

[Bianca · Rating 5 out of 5]

O carte despre "eșecul terorii și teroarea eșecului":
"Faptele trebuie să fie totuna cu vorbele... Adevărata oglindă a ideilor noastre este drumul vieții noastre. "

"Din punctul de vedere al Inchiziției, tocmai independenta gândirii și a credinței era lucrul cel mai periculos și ea trebuia pedepsită."

Montagne: "adevărata religie nu ar trebui sa fie animată de patimă, pentru că astfel nu face decât să-i dezbine pe oameni".

[Serg Borovkov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Після "Рейневана" Сапковського вирішив поповнити знання про інквізицію. Адже окрім шкільної програми (яку практично вже не пам'ятаю) та окремих вирваних шматків історії які трапляються в загальних потоках інформації нічого про дану організацію не знав, і загальне враження було: відьми-тортури-річка-вогнище.

Почерпнув для себе чимало нової інформації. Такі слова як аутодафе, санбеніто, потро тощо вже не лякають (в переносному значенні). Загалом інквізиція проіснувала приблизно 350 років, мала майже необмежену владу і відповідно була сильно корумпована. Більшість процесів в інквізиції ретельно документувались її бюрократизованим апаратом і завдяки цьому збереглося чимало рукописів які досить широко висвітлюють події тих часів.

Ця книга описує діяльність інквізиції в Іберії (Іспанія і Португалія, Піренейський півострів). Історично так склалося що інквізиція в цьому регіоні переважно переслідувала конверсос (хрещених євреїв) та морісків (хрещених маврів). Звісно діставалось не тільки цим групам населення, були випадки коли до лап інквізиції потряпляли і дворяни і навіть самі інквізитори. Всупереч намаганням інквізиції очистити суспільство від єресі, люди з переслідуваних груп навпаки повертались до юдаізму та ісламу, а чимала кількість взагалі зневірювалась в будь-якій релігії. Останній фактор став якщо не головним, то принаймні одним з рушійних сил зародження скептицизму і подальшому розвитку науки та культури в Європі.

Сама книга написана місцями нудно, місцями захопливо, вцілому хронологія прослідковується, але трапляються і часті флешбеки.

[Andrada Craciun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting to read about real events full in details that happened during Spanish Inquisition.
I now see Spanish and Portuguese places I've been to with other eyes.

[Socrate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciudad de México, 1649

În ziua de luni, 11 martie 1649, o procesiune a pornit de la sediul Sfântului Oficiu al Inchiziției din Ciudad de México. Înviorată de muzicanți îmbrăcați în mătăsuri de diferite culori, care cântau la trompete, timpane și diverse instrumente de suflat din lemn, parada de gală a defilat printre casele văruite în alb ale orașului. Caii muzicanților erau urmați de preoții Sfântului Oficiu și de cei mai importanți nobili ai orașului, preoții purtând însemnele Inchiziției, care oglindeau elocvent bătălia dintre pace și violență, care stătea chiar la baza acelei instituții ciudate: o cruce la mijloc, o ramură de măslin în dreapta și o sabie în stânga.
Procesiunea, a cărei coloană era încheiată de Don Juan Aguirre de Soaznava, temnicerul-șef al Inchiziției din Mexic, a șerpuit pe străzile unuia dintre cele mai importante orașe din America, anunțând, în hărmălaia stârnită de timpane și instrumente de suflat, că o mare încercare a credinței, numită și autodafé, se va ține peste o lună. Pe clădirile Sfântului Oficiu, la casa arhiepiscopului, în fața palatului viceregelui, la primăria orașului și pe diferite străzi din oraș s-au lipit anunțuri referitoare la acel eveniment.
În realitate, o lună era perioada minimă necesară în vederea pregătirii mărețului teatru pentru un autodafé. Trebuia construită o scenă lungă de aproximativ 37 de metri și lată de 24 de metri, în jurul căreia se plasau opt coloane de marmură, grupate câte două. În cheia de boltă a unei arcade situate deasupra podelei se afla pictura unui scut cu un blazon regal, iar alături era ridicată o piramidă decorată cu un scut al credinței. Deasupra ușilor făcute pentru intrarea și ieșirea de pe scenă erau pictați băieți care cântau la trompete, iar prizonierii urmau să fie găzduiți într-o structură deasupra căreia se găsea o cupolă. Locul execuției era acoperit de pânze de corabie prinse de capetele celor 43 de trunchiuri de copaci înalte de circa 18 metri, iar 30 de scări erau construite pentru a lega scena de apartamente și alte clădiri, astfel încât privitorii să se poată bucura și de puțină odihnă față de solicitările pe care le presupunea un autodafé. Totul era decorat fastuos, cu draperii din catifea, covoare și perdele de culoare stacojie, iar activitatea se dovedea atât de intensă, încât „oamenii se strângeau acolo în fiecare zi și rămâneau de la răsăritul soarelui până la sfârșitul zilei... aceștia admirau totul și simțeau că asistă la ceva ce putea să dăinuie de-a lungul secolelor“

[J.D. Steens · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an easy book to read for a couple of reasons.

First, the content is jarring - the torture (pre-burning confessions, and then the burnings at the stake) of masses of people by the Catholic church, which was often aligned with secular authorities. (1) The overt justification for such practices was heresy from church doctrine that, despite formalized trials, was based on biased, hearsay evidence. And, on top of this, came the abuse of power by priests for sexual favors, for women certainly, but also against men. (2)

Second, there is a lot of historical detail (12th to 19th centuries), with the book’s particular focus on the Inquisition as practiced in Spain and Portugal against converted Jews (3) and Muslims, which obscures the underlying lessons “of history.” Green here and there offers his opinion on this and that (4), but these can leave the reader feeling frustrated, as if this historian is missing the underlying drivers in history. Of course, per the book’s subtitle, Green attributes fear as the fundamental factor, but understandably, that fear is of those on the receiving side of these fundamentally abusive practices. What’s missing is why did the Church and its aligned secular authorities engage in such practices? Why did they instill fear as opposed to letting people just believe as they wanted to believe.

One theory might be that humans are just bad-ass chimpanzees - the brutality engaged here is not dissimilar to some of the brutal accounts of Goodall’s chimps. Some modern-day primatologists have argued that humans could be most akin to the Eros-loving bonobos, but given our history, and the account Green puts forward, that’s unlikely. We might be even worse than our chimpanzee ancestors when the hominid line split from them. As to what the evolutionary explanation might be for such aggressive behavior, not to just punish “deviating” behavior, but to destroy perpetrators in the most violent way, an answer is not readily apparent.

To say, as Green does, that power in the hands of authorities and institutions is the culprit begs the question. Green makes power as an end in itself, but how did an “end in itself” evolve, versus, say, power that is employed as a means to a greater (evolutionary) end. Could it be that humans, with their capacity for abstraction, know that death is real, which is directly counter to the evolutionary need to survive forever? Seen that way, a world beyond this one needs to exist, and a full-suited worldview was constructed by the priests to preserve this necessary aspiration, and to the degree that any doubt whatsoever could not be tolerated. Might this be the reason for such fanatic (inhumane) enforcement of church doctrine?

A related dynamic is our primal attachment to group life, i.e. in-group coherence, including a religious worldview that secures the afterlife. With the group, the individual survives and thrives; without the group, the individual dies or doesn’t do well. Here, there needs to be strict - including the most fearful torture and extermination (death to infidels) practices - to ensure group coherence. Religion thus provides both a this- and an after-life prescription for survival. (5)

As the Inquisition moved into non-European worlds - Spanish Americas and parts of Africa, and Goa - Green notes that the secular institutions associated with the Church viewed native populations much as one would view animals: They existed to serve their masters, though Inquisition-like cruelty went along with it. (6) This too can be seen as a might-is-right, survival-of-the-fittest approach to ensure the well-being of one’s group, and it is supported by an ideology to justify such inhumane treatments. “Here,” Green writes, “the authorities followed Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in asserting that one part of mankind had been set aside by nature to be slaves in the service of masters, and that such slaves depended on their masters to exercise choices for them. There were natural slaves and natural masters; the condition of slavery benefited both….They allowed wealth and power to come with the sanction of God.”

In reference to Inquisitional torture, Green states that “of course one must be aware of the curious phenomenon of condemning this aspect of the past through the present’s more civilized values.” To this, I say, “What?” While it is true that there were tremendous pressures to “get with the program” and conform lest the Inquisition turn against them (similar to living in a Nazi society), under what circumstances can a historian call condemnation a “curious phenomenon?”

(1) These cruelties were not limited to the Church. Of the “punishments of the time,” Green writes that those published under the “English judicial system…could be disembowelled and castrated whilst still alive before being beheaded.”

(2) In the Caribbean, overseers raped Caribbean women “while their husbands dug for gold in the mines….Men tied hand and foot lay under the beds on which Spaniards slept with their wives.” In Africa, “masters and members of religious orders” frequently abused “their male slaves as soon as they had bought them.”

(3) The Reverend Inquisitor Lucero’s motto was, “‘Give me a Jew and I’ll give you him burnt.’”

(4) “Every authoritarian institution…possesses the seeds of the tendencies that would which would destroy it.”; “Like all institutions, the Inquisition was loathe to relinquish power….Power was too addictive to be sacrificed on the altar of morality”; “Human nature appears prone to creating scapegoats in times of crisis.”

(5) Green writes that Thomas Aquinas “held that total chastity was superior to any other condition, as it was the best route to perfection and a relationship with God.” On the surface, this preoccupation with perfection, which flows from Plato pre-Christian doctrine, might seem to be unrelated. However, the motivation might very well be the same: if dedication to God is a good thing for survival, extreme dedication, as warranted by extreme behavior (total chastity; asceticism), is even better.

(6) Green tells the story of a Brazilian plantation owner who killed two slaves for an offence, and one of them was “hung by his testicles until he was dead.” Also in Brazil, another Brazilian had “a three-year old slave girl brought to him, and held her face over the fire of hot coals. He then fanned the fire with his other hand.”

[Mircea Poeana · Rating 4 out of 5]

La 1 noiembrie 1478 Papa Sixtus IV punea bazele Inchizitiei.
Pana la 1834 acest mecanism odios de "purificare" avea sa faca nenumarate victime nu numai in Spania si in Portugalia.
Din Mexic pana in Insulele Capului Verde si din Peru pana in cele mai indepartate colonii au pierit arsi pe rug arhiepiscopi, oameni de rand, barbati, femei, arabi convertiti, evrei, prostituate, "vrajitoare"...
Au fost interzise nu numai vieti.
Au fost arse carti considerate de Sfantul Oficiu drept blasfemii.
Se murea usor in zilele acelei "dreptati".
Persecutia si teroarea au mers mana in mana cu "dreapta credinta".
Inchizitia a fost o "greseala istorica" din care omenirea nu a invatat nimic sau a invatat cele mai odioase metode de anihilare a fiintei libere si ganditoare.
De la Securitatea lui Ceausescu pana la Stasi, KGB si Sigurimi, Inchizitia a fost "talmacita" in limbile terorii si ale dictaturii.
O dovada in plus ca istoria este un sir fara de sfarsit al unor intamplari care nu trebuie sa se mai repete niciodata.

[Tighy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inchiziția spaniolă este asociată în mod obișnuit cu tortura, cruzimea și opresiunea; iar autorul cărții de față o vede și ca un precursor al poliției secrete a dictaturilor moderne. Inchiziția poate fi privită în mai multe moduri diferite: ca un mecanism nemilos de impunere a uniformității religioase și de eradicare a oricăror urme de erezie din Spania; ca parte a aparatului de întărire a puterii regale; ca instrument didactic și educațional pentru subiecții catolici din Spania; ca factor de decădere culturală; și în sfârșit ca bază de putere în sine. În mod clar, originile sale se află în determinarea de a se ocupa de problemele religioase/rasiale și, direct sau indirect, a jucat un rol esențial în asigurarea faptului că Spania rămâne aproape exclusiv catolică. Evreii, musulmanii și protestanții au reprezentat o mare parte din victimele sale. Într-un sens cât se poate de real, Inchiziția spaniolă nu ar fi putut exista în altă parte decât în Spania.

[Allysmom · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I expected a little more from this book. I gave it 2 stars because I'm not done with it yet. It's fairly descriptive when discussing the torture techniques and seems to have some good source information. So far, I've gathered that the book is mostly concentrating on Spain and Portugal Inquisition, which, to be honest the inquisition was spread through a large area. I just haven't gotten to that in the book yet. I'll be disappointed if I get to the end and it never really covers the expanse of the inquisition. Well see.....

[Krelnick · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish it. Not very well put-together. It bounced around in time too much. It also seemed like a Catholic apologist take on the Inquisition. The author makes the point that the Spanish and Portugese Inquisitions were more about politics than religion. Over and over and over again. Tedious.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tremendous historical and intellectual accomplishment. The research heft alone is worth 3 stars.
Unfortunately, too much of the resulting text and story-telling was plodding, repetitive, and overly preachy. Green made the same (valid) point 300 times, and it got tiresome quickly. But I'm still glad I read it, for the sheer knowledge dump and the depth and breadth of the account.

[Bobby Bobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

O carte destul de greu de citit, adresată, mai mult istoricilor decât cititorilor ocazionali. Prezintă multe cazuri ale Inchizitiei spaniole și portugheze, iar pentru cel ce vrea să afle cum a apărut, funcționat și decăzut acest mecanism diabolic, această carte, extrem de bine documentată dealtfel, este un must-have.

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toby Green has written an excellent history of the inquisition in Spain and Portugal as well as touching on its role in their overseas territories. It is a joy to pick up an English language work on the inquisition by an author who actually reads Spanish and Portuguese as well as knowing the history and cultures of the countries. Too many books simply recycle old stories from the days of the 'Black Legend'. But that does not mean that Professor Green is in any way trying to rehabilitate the Inquisition

The Inquisition was about power, not religion, and was used by Iberian monarchs to create a fictitious enemy within to channel the forces of popular unrest away from the throne. After the conversos, converted Jews, their attention turned to the moriscos, descendants of Muslims who were forced to convert to Christianity. Once they were goner there was always 'protestant' and other heretics to justify their existance.

Just as Arthur Miller used the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 to comment on McCarthyite America, Professor Green appears to be using the Inquisition to comment obliquely on the "war on terror". He makes no explicit comparison, leaving the parallels to speak for themselves which saves his book from becoming tendentiously outdated like Niall Ferguson's absurd books on empire.

But while avoiding making glib analogies Green does argue persuasively that the Inquisition's vast bureaucratic reach into the private lives of its citizens made it a forerunner of the modern totalitarian state while its obsession with limpieza de sangre or "purity of blood" is still a basis for the de fault antisemitism that infected the Vatican and national catholic churches well into the late twentieth century (see 'The Popes Against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism' by
David I. Kertzer).

[Helena Rodrigues · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A atitude genérica em relação ao acusado era resumida por Eymeric ao declarar a morte na câmara de tortura uma forma de bruxaria rancorosa destinada a frustrar o inquisidor”

Este livro cumpriu com aquilo que eu esperava dele. Pude não só aprofundar os meus conhecimentos acerca do processo de instalação da Inquisição em Portugal e em Espanha e das motivações socioeconómicas da perseguição aos judeus, mas também aprender que os acusados mortos ou fugidos eram queimados em efígie, que existiam casos bizarros de beatas e exorcistas, e que não era preciso uma justificação fundamentada para todo um novo bode expiatório começar a ser perseguido (fossem mouriscos, bígamos, feiticeiras ou maçons).

Mais do que um livro que descreve a forma como as raízes da Inquisição grassaram em solo peninsular enquanto instituição persecutória de minorias em nome da pureza, segurança ou sacralidade de um povo, este é um livro sobre a sede de poder. Desde a asserção do poder através do medo irracional e permanente aos abusos de poder por parte de inquisidores, familiares da Inquisição e confessores, este corruptor da sociedade encontrava-se na base do estabelecimento de relações sociais em solo ibérico e colonial. O que me pareceu mais interessante e de maior relevo no que se refere a este fenómeno foi a forma como o comportamento dos judeus fugidos para as colónias se alterava no seu destino: chegados a uma terra em que os alvos da perseguição eram outros (os escravos e os indígenas), os anteriores oprimidos assumiam rapidamente o papel de opressores. A crueza de caráter que atravessa as histórias compiladas neste volume põem à prova a fé do leitor na bondade humana.

Os únicos aspetos negativos que tenho a apontar a este livro são o facto de partir de um projeto tão ambicioso que impede que se siga uma linha cronológica sem avanços e recuos, e a qualidade da tradução, que apresenta algumas gralhas e erros, questões que podem interferir com uma leitura fluida.

Em suma, apesar dos ziguezagues da linha temporal (necessários para abarcar todas as facetas da instituição que o autor se propôs explorar), este é um livro que recomendaria aos interessados por História europeia, particularmente pelo período (demasiado longo) em que a Inquisição vigorou na Península Ibérica. Não é uma leitura reconfortante, mas apenas sendo confrontados com a realidade mais desagradável do nosso passado podemos compreender o presente e preparar o futuro.

[Constantin Vasilescu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dezlânată şi uşor incoerentă. Deşi Green se străduieşte să îmbine poveşti individuale cu istoria macro, rezultatul nu este tocmai cel mai fericit. Las la o parte prejudecăţile postmoderne ale unui anglican privind Inchiziţia...

[laurentiu]

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[laurentiu]

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[Jorge Schumacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Um bom livro sobre este período negro da história da Igreja Católica.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book steers the middle path between rabid anti-Catholicism and those who decry revisionist history and suggest that the Inquisition was not as perfidious as has been made out.

[Damien A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. So much detail.

[Radu Popovici · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 *

[Changeling72 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green, a Lecturer in Lusophone African History and Culture at King's, has clearly done his research in this wide-ranging study. Ostensibly a tool of the Roman Catholic Church, Green's research soon makes it clear that the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions were, in fact, political devices of the Iberian monarchies. Thus, although rooting out heresy on the face of things, the Inquisitions' real purpose was to identify and entinguish any threat to the political stabliliy of Spain and Portugal. First focusing on the Conversos (Jews who had converted to Christianity and their descendants) and later Moriscos (Muslim converts and their descendants) and Lutherans, the Inquisition essentially created threats where there were none, thus satisfying the need of the masses to blame someone or something for all their ills and discontent. Humans being humans, many of us like to destroy what is different or we don't understand - and using the Conversos, Moriscos and Lutherans as scapegoats, the Inquisition diverted this away from the political elite. Needless to say, the Inquisitions' tentacles spread to the colonies in the New World. Interestingly, unlike much of Europe, where there were large scale witch hunts in the sixteenth- and seventeenth-centuries, Spain and Portugal had very few: they didn't need them. One thing I found chilling was the term of 'relaxing' for turning over those found guilty of heresy to the secular authorities to be burnt in the highly theatrical autos de fe. The Inquisition didn't dirty its hands by undertaking executions itself, though it wasn't above torture to extract (often false) confessions. The Inquistion wasn't all bad, though - some victims were garroted before being burnt. As for those who escaped the Inquisition's clutches, well, they were burnt in effigy. Green makes the point that the actions of the Inquisition, the (metaphorical) witch hunts of the Conversos, Moriscos and Lutherans actually made a threat of peoples who had lived in harmony with 'pure' Iberians for decades if not centuries. Another effect of the Inquisition, which in its later history essentially became little more than a state censor, was to stifle Spanish society, holding it back from the Enlightenment and scientific discovery experienced by the rest of the continent. And much like the great empires of past and present, the Inquisition ultimately sowed the seeds for its own destruction, finally, in the nineteenth century.

[Margarida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma obra extensa, com muitas notas e bibliografia, sobre um dos temas mais interessantes da História. A Inquisição existiu em Portugal e Espanha, bem como nas suas colónias por mais de 200 anos. Só foi abolida no início do século XIX, com o emergir dos ideais liberais e com as movimentações políticas que surgiram (Napoleão Bonaparte e as Invasões Francesas, por exemplo). Os alvos da Inquisição eram todos aqueles que eram "hereges", "inimigos da fé cristã" ou simplesmente aqueles que eram denunciados por vizinhos ou pela corrupção dos inquisidores. Nem todos os acusados eram judeus ou cristãos-novos. Também houve a perseguição a mouros, bruxas, homossexuais, bígamos, blasfemos, Jansenistas, protestantes e tantos outros. Fala-se nos capítulos finais da paranóia que assolou a sociedade destes países, que não foi só a Inquisição que impulsionou os bodes expiatórios e as acusações e torturas para eliminar os seus inimigos, as populações e Governos também o fizeram. Já no final do séc. XVIII, em Portugal, após o Terramoto de 1755, o Marquês de Pombal toma como alvo os Jesuítas (Companhia de Jesus), que tanto tinha ajudado o Tribunal do Santo Ofício e este não se opõe, chegando a queimar em auto-de-fé (dos últimos efectuados) um padre jesuíta (Padre Malagrida) e com isso caminhar para o seu fim anunciado.

[JEAN-PHILIPPE PEROL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without great additions to the master work of Bartolomé Benassar, Toby Green had made an interesting review of some pathetic individual stories of Inquisition's victim. Unfortunately unable to have a larger view, forgetting to put these events in their larger context, trying to stick slavery or torture as Iberic innovations, he finally fall in the most ridiculous anti-catholic and anti-latin clichés...
His conclusion about the terrible impact of Inquisition on the cultural and even economic decline of Spain and Portugal is howewer a great point.