The Lima Inquisition: The Plight of Crypto-Jews in Seventeenth-Century Peru

by Ana E. Schaposchnik

The Holy Office of the Inquisition (a royal tribunal that addressed issues of heresy and offenses to morality) was established in Peru in 1570 and operated there until 1820. In this book, Ana E. Schaposchnik provides a deeply researched history of the Inquisition’s Lima Tribunal, focusing in particular on the cases of persons put under trial for crypto-Judaism in Lima during the 1600s.
            Delving deeply into the records of the Lima Tribunal, Schaposchnik brings to light the experiences and perspectives of the prisoners in the cells and torture chambers, as well as the regulations and institutional procedures of the inquisitors. She looks closely at how the lives of the accused—and in some cases the circumstances of their deaths—were shaped by actions of the Inquisition on both sides of the Atlantic. She explores the prisoners’ lives before and after their incarcerations and reveals the variety and character of prisoners’ religiosity, as portrayed in the Inquisition’s own sources. She also uncovers individual and collective strategies of the prisoners and their supporters to stall trials, confuse tribunal members, and attempt to ameliorate or at least delay the most extreme effects of the trial of faith.
            The Lima Inquisition also includes a detailed analysis of the 1639 Auto General de Fe ceremony of public penance and execution, tracing the agendas of individual inquisitors, the transition that occurred when punishment and surveillance were brought out of hidden dungeons and into public spaces, and the exposure of the condemned and their plight to an avid and awestricken audience. Schaposchnik contends that the Lima Tribunal’s goal, more than volume or frequency in punishing heretics, was to discipline and shape culture in Peru.

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 13, 2015

Reviews

[Sasha (bahareads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lima Inquisition: Plight of Crypto-Jews in Seventeenth-Century Peru is an in-depth look at the Inquisition period in Lima, Peru. The key points Ana Schaposchnik lays out in her book is how crypto-Jews present themselves as Christians to the outside world while adhering to Jewish traditions and how they were able to get away with the pretense for so long. Schaposchnik also shows how crypto-Jews would stall their trials through various methods of false confession and recantation. This book surveyed crypto-Jews' perspectives and experiences in jail, their thought process during the torture sessions, and how the Inquisition changed societies on both sides of the Atlantic. The 1639 Auto General de Fe is analyzed by itself and in light of the evidence of the Lima Inquisition. Ana Schaposchnik lays The Lima Inquisition out in six chapters, laying the foundation with how heresy and Inquisitional issues are dealt with in the Iberian World and continuing to a microscopic look at the community of Portuguese new Christians and crypto-Jews in Peru before ending the book with a look at the condemned individuals that had been chartered throughout the entire book.

Ana Schaposchnik systematically approaches topics surrounding the Lima Inquisition. She takes a narrower approach using a micro-historical look towards the Lima Inquisition; it's there that the humanization of crypto-Jews and New Christians in her research sucks the reader into the world of the Inquisition. Assessing different scholarship interpretations of the events in Lima's Inquisition, she uses these theories to shape her research and show how her specific sample size faired in the Inquisition in Lima.
Synthesizing the vast scholarly bibliography and inquisitorial sources The Lima Inquisition is a dense read. Schaposchnik shows that the Inquisition, the accusers and the accusees were not monoliths for their social groups but that the subject is complex and intricate. Each of the chapters in The Lima Inquisition is broken down into sub-sections, touching issues out of the chapter's main topic. Schaposchnik shows the magnitude of the Inquisition network through the correspondence and records of Inquisitors and royal mandates. The network of Portuguese new Christians has demonstrated throughout this book and the large part they played in the economic and social communities they were a part of on both sides of the Atlantic. Schaposchnik looks at Portuguese New Christians across the spectrum of gender and age, as well as causes of imprisonment, making her book well rounded.

The Lima Inquisition has a thesis that can feel lost in the bog of information Schaposchnik gives the reader. The layout of the chapters and the information presented in them has the reader digesting a lot within the one hundred and eighty pages of the book. The overall body of scholarship within The Lima Inquisition shows the sizeable work Schaposchnik did in the book's research but when pointing back to the various theories or methodology used by previous researchers it can distract from the main narrative of The Lima Inquisition. The book can begin to feel like an informational book with no main point driving the narrative.

Ana Schaposchnik does not make broad assumptions but is clear to point out when there is no evidence or information for gaps in the narrative. With all the research shown there appear to be no more minor assumptions either; what is known is what Schaposchnik synthesizes in The Lima Inquisition. It would be fair to assume The Lima Inquisition is based on a PhD thesis, the way it is written is not for a broad audience but for those familiar with the subject of the Inquisition. The Lima Inquisition is a wonderful addition to the wider body of Inquisitional literature. Ana Schaposchnik goes beyond the general research done on the Lima Inquisition. She pays homage to the period with her work, and it is an excellent addition to the historiography of the time.

[John Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read three books on the Spanish Inquisition. This was the most informative and the easiest/smoothest to read. This is for a CCNY masters class on European Legal History.