The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (The Folio Society)

The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen is a balanced overview of this sad part of Spanish History. At 300 plus pages the author shows the motivation behind the Spanish Inquisition and that this inquisition was just that, "Spanish." By sourcing Inquisition, Spanish, and other documentation author Kamen traces the roots and history of the Spanish Inquisition. He shows how this was a tool of the unified Spanish Crown that resulted in its own fear of it past and inability, at times, to deal with contemporary Spain, which came to be at the end of the Muslim domination of Spain and rise of the Protestant Reformation in the rest of Europe. The author does not gloss over the suffering it caused to both Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity, but shows that overall people were better treated by "The Holy Office" aka the Spanish Inquisition than the secular courts. Remember, heresy was a secular crime, punishable only by the secular authorities. And while those Jews and Muslims who did not convert might be considered heathens they could not be heretics. So, those who suffered at its hands were Catholics. The author also shows that, for its time, the Spanish Inquisition acted rationally. For example, when the great witchcraft scare was dominating Europe and its colonies (lets not forget the Salem Witch Trials) for its part the Spanish Inquisition so this phenomena as mental illness or an overactive imagination. In other words Witch hunting stopped dead in its tracks when it got to Spain. Henry Kamen does not gloss over the torture or burnings of the inquisition's victims, but does show that for all of Europe, Catholic and Protestant, this was not uncommon for most crimes. And, many of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition were burnt and punished in effigy. Kamen shows how the Spanish Crown used the Inquisition to deal with its fear of an Andulus (former Muslim rulers of Spain) Fifth column and the rise of Protestantism in Western Europe. Remember Spain controlled a good part of the present day Netherlands and Belgium as well as Parts of Germany. So some Lutheran ideas did make their way to Spain. But, Kamen also shows that much of Spain, mainly the rural areas, was never even touched by the Inquisition. And that the Inquisition never had whole hearted support from the crown, those in positions of power, and the common folk. It was not the Gestapo like machine painted by many of its critics. But, criticized it should be and author Kamen shows the sad effects of the Inquisition not only on its victims, but on Spain itself. The author concludes by showing that people's view of the Spanish Inquisition is not based on the historical data available but on the imaginations of those who have not reviewed or studied this data. Overall a great work of history is this book.

I'm not much a holocaust studies guy, not much of a fan of accounts of genocide either, but I am fascinated by the Spanish Inquisition. I think the modern conventional wisdom is to see the Inquisition as a kind of special antecedent of the Holocaust itself, but as Kamen's carefully researched book goes to show, the role of racialism was similar but the means and methods were not. The Spanish Inquisition was not a whole-sale, extra-judicial slaughter of millions of people, rather it was a travelling court, with rules and procedures. "Revising" the history of the Spanish Inquisition requires a basic understanding of the entirely negative views that scholars have held about the Inquisition forever. I would say it's understandable, considering the racism, scapegoating and violations of what we call human rights (like torture.) On the other hand, the desire of a State to discipline a potentially restive minority is something that many Government's grapple with in ways similar to how the Spanish handled Jews and Muslims after the Conquest. Key to a non-prejudiced/rational view of the Spanish Inquisition is the understanding that during the time of Inquisition- at it's origination- the Spanish monarchs ruled over a fractious and restive nation. The Inquisition was directly inspired by the French inquisition against the so-called Cathars- which at the time was adjacent to the Spanish realm of Aragon. Thus, Spain's first taste of inquisition was with French refugees and it was this model that was directly adapted for the Spanish inquisition.Second, the Inquisition was a Royal- not Papal institution that took orders from the King, and generally acted against powerful local Conversos- Jews who had theoretically adopted Christianity. Ironically, Jews that remained Jews and somehow managed to work around the numerous expulsions of the period were not the subject of Inquisitional excess. Ironically, Jews often testified for the Inquisition against Conversos who were being prosecuted. Third- the Crown and the Inquisition did not have the kind of omnipotence one associates with a 20th century secret police. They mostly worked by way of complaint- i.e. someone had to accuse someone else of being a secret "Judaizer," protestant, etc before the Inquisition would act. This makes the history of the Inquisition more like a gossip session at the local then the kind of monstrous institutional murder of millions of people during the Holocausts (German & Russian among others) of the 20th century. After the main Jewish communities were wiped out in the first 50-100 years, the rest of the Inquisition (it went on for 300 years, more or less) was more focused on Protestantism then Judaism, and perhaps it's because the Spanish were burning English sailors well into the 18th century that got the Inquisition such a bad rap from (English) historians. It's understandable, even if they had certain facts wrong. Though perhaps it's unfair to label the Spanish Inquisition as a rehearsal for the Holocaust, it does share a brutal exercise of state power, racialism and scapegoating with those events.

In my History A Level course of many years ago the 'Golden Age" of Spain did not enjoy a good press. From the perspective of the very angloc-centric view of history that was served to us, the Spanish along with 'Bloody Mary' threatened to plunge England back into medieval darkness and were of course the unrepentant villains of the Armada, from which we were rescued by 'Good Queen Bess'. Beyond Britain the arrival and efficient use of the printing press in the Protestant Northern Europe of this time, ensured that the 'Black Legend' was shared by all right thinking people. Within this received view it was hardly surprising that the dark deeds of the Spanish Inquisition only served to confirm all our worst fears, as was made iconically clear for a whole generation by the Monty Python team.But History is surely interesting precisely because time moves on and we are eventually forced to take a longer view. Henry Kamen needs little introduction as one of the great scholars of Spanish history. The history of the Catholic Church in Spain is still painfully intertwined with recent history , so it is good that it is an outsider who approaches this difficult subject. This is revisionist history but is not an attempt at whitewash. It would be difficult to claim too positive a re-reading of the Inquisition, and he does not in my opinion try to seduce us with this. What Kamen does seek to do is to set his subject in the context of the excessive religiously inspired violence going on at this time throughout Europe in both Catholic and Protestant countries. Nowhere is this a pretty picture. The study does not just deal with punishment. It sets the Inquisition in the political picture of the time, the perceived risks of the Reformation, the impact it made on humanism and science in the Peninsular and its relation to ordinary people. It was of value to me to understand better the procedures of the Inquisition and to realise that death sentences were not the automatic outcome presented by popular prejudice.Why then only four stars? This is no comment on the clarity of the research or its presentation but rather a warning that the average reader may find too much detail. For the specialist in this field I would however have no hesitation in recommending this excellent book.

Rather heavy going. Author seems to be an apologist for the Roman Catholic church: How can the Vatican justify treating heretics in such a brutal manner - Jesus would hardly have behaved like this or have approved of this solution - after all he replaced the high priests' servants' ear when Peter had cut it off. I think that Christs' message and examplemust have been lost within about five minutes of the Ascension.

With all the false history that has been written about the Spanish inquisition - it is very useful to read a book written by a Jewish author with no axe to grind other than write what is truthful based upon the sources he used and the time it took to evaluate these same sources.

Has a lot of information about the Inquisition the mainstream doesn't reveal. Worth a read.

Excellent book as it demolishes many of the points raised about this organisation.