The Spanish Inquisition - Root causes and underlying motivations

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The Spanish Inquisition

The Spanish Inquisition represents one of the darkest periods of terror and bloodshed that our world has ever seen. Many scholars have tried to explain the reasoning behind the implementation of the Inquisition and none can produce a definitive answer. Most suggest that the Spanish Inquisition, like all other inquisitions before it was implemented for the sole purpose of eliminating deviation from the Catholic faith. The purpose of this essay is to show that this is certainly not the main purpose for its use, but rather, that the Inquisition had more sinister racial, political, social and economic motives behind it.

The origins of the Inquisition is a question that has been asked by many historians. The most accepted theory is that during 11 ce - 141 ce, in Spain, strong feelings of anti-semitism (hatred of Jews) existed in Europe. In these years, many Jews were killed and Jewish people were ultimately forced to convert to Catholicism to avoid persecution . These Jews became know as New Christians or conversos. Over the years the conversos became powerful, held influencial positions and married their sons and daughters to Spanish nobles. It was thought that these conversos, because they were forced to convert, were secretly practicing Judaism and teaching it to their children. When the Spanish Crown realized that these conversos were tainting the Spanish nobility's bloodline, they asked Pope Sixtus IV in 1478 to sanction the use of the Inquisition in Spain to root out the heretics and purify them before God.

This view of the origins of the Inquisition was widely accepted, until the turn of the 18th century, when modern methods of viewing history replaced it with another theory. This theory included many details, which contradicted the old explanation. They found that, unlike all the other inquisitions, the Spanish Inquisition was ruled more by King Ferdinand, and not the Pope . The King was given more papal powers, such as appointing inquisitors and cardinals. He rejected the Pope's condemnation of the excessive persecutions and he used the confiscated income from the Inquisition for his own needs, rather than the needs of the Catholic Church. "Thus they concluded that the Spanish Inquisition was a royal rather than a papal Inquisition, that its real aims were secular rather than religious, and that it was actually introduced to finance the King's ventures and promote his absolute power." This theory was, however regected by historians as it failed to explain why King Ferdinand would dream up a plan so needlessly complicated to promote his power in government.

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In 144, novelist and historian Benzion Netanyahu found documents that discredited the above view of the Inquisition. The documents he discovered showed that around the year 1460 ce, many of the conversos were actually practicing Christians and intended to teach their children Catholic values, not secretly practicing Judaism as many thought . The number of Christian conversos was rising from generation to generation and the number of Jews was rapidly decreasing to the vanishing point. In 1481 when the Inquisition began, the Jews represented only a small minority at the time. What would be the reason to implement force to eliminate something that was being naturally eliminated in only a matter of time? The establishment of the motives of the conversos is difficult because it involves finding some documentation from the period that was free from the Inquisition's influence. Only after finding these answers could a definitive conclusion about the origins of the Inquisition be reached. Jewish sources from 1481 were free from the Inquisition's threats. These books establish that the conversos were regarded by Jewish authorities as renegades and traitors to their religion. If the conversos really were practicing their religion secretly, the writers would have written that this was the case. Although some writers indicated this to be the case, as their works progressed, they described them as traitors because in the Jewish writers' minds this was what they were. Old Christian writings from the time also state that most old Christians accepted the conversos and genuinely believed in their conversion. If the reason for the implementation of the Inquisition does not prove to be religious, then I believe that the reasons behind it are seeded in political and social reasons.

Given that the facts seriously question the religious motives for the inquisition, we must look at the social and economic reasons that would explain the Inquisition's use. At the turn of the 1th century, tensions between old Christians and conversos grew to an unprecedented level . Old Christians were jealous of the success the conversos were having and the amount of the country's wealth they possessed. Conversos held positions of importence and high social standing such as clerical and even royal positions. Conversos commonly worked as royal treasurers and were more often accused of economic crimes rather than religious ones .

The first extreme example of tensions between old and new Christians came in 144 ce in the town of Toledo when they passed the Sentencia-Estatuto which barred all conversos from holding current and future public office. By the 15th century, conversos made up 1/ of the entire population of Castile. Since conversos were not allowed to hold public office, they were forced to work in private practice such as law or medicine. The old-Christians felt that they were stealing their jobs in law and medicine, so the government passed a bill that changed the sentencia-Estatuto from not only barring conversos from public office, but private office also. All this lead to stiff opposition from the conversos and skirmishes broke out between conversos and old-Christians. The Spanish Crown needed a way to appease the old-Christians and make sure civil war did not occur, which no doubt would have been very costly to the Crown. Even though there is evidence of extreme tensions between old-Christians and conversos, there is not enough evidence to draw conclusions as to why the Spanish Crown would step in and use such drastic measures to calm what was nothing more than a petty rivalry between the two groups.

This brings us to our final topic area, where we explore the racial reasons for the Inquisition. The racial reasons for the Inquisition seem to be more compelling than any other reasons. One of the first theories about the rise of racism in Spain came from the Spanish scholar Americo Castro. His theory was that Spanish racism actually stemmed from the Jewish treating the Spanish as inferior because they believed they were God's chosen. In response, the Spanish simply reversed these feelings . This theory has been seriously doubted because Jewish writings from the period do not describe the Jewish people as superior to the Spanish. In 147 , a letter adressed to Pope Eugene IV from conversos in Spain, claimed that the old-Christians were refusing to establish congugal ties with them based on the presumption they were inferior. It appears obvious now that the Spanish felt the Jewish were inferior but we must ask the question why did they feel the Jewish were inferior? And what led to them thinking this way?

In the 14th and 15th century, there were groups of writers who wrote "atrocity propangda", which meant they wrote about horrible things and acts that the Jews were alleged to be doing. As a result, the general public reading this would condemn the Jews and the writers would gain support for their campaign. There were three racist theories that the writers used to gather support for the cause. The first was that all the conversos were conspiring to overtake the government of Spain. The second was that the conversos were polluting the Spanish bloodlines. The third was that the only way to deal with these dangers was to use a genocidal solution like the Inquisition. The Spanish racist attitude towards the Jews came from historical rivalries between Christians and Jews and regardless of whether or not they genuinely practiced it, the Spanish still saw them as Jews.

With all of this information, we can draw some conclusions and begin to identify explanations as to why the Inquisition was deemed necessary. When the Jews became conversos, the job market was opened up to them. Previously Jews, were only fit to do two jobs (money lending and tax farming). When they became conversos, they could hold jobs in trade and other professions. The old-Christians felt they were being muscled out of jobs they deserved and that their everyday lives were being threatened by the presence of the conversos. Politically, the old-Christians had successfully banned Jews from office and royal positions, but these laws did not yet apply to the conversos and the number of conversos who had government positions was rapidly increasing. With these positions, the conversos attained a higher social standing. Political leaders such as King Juan II opted to appoint new-Christians to administrative duties because he trusted them more that the old-Christians, in whom he had little faith . Many old- Christians believed that if the Crown had its way, all old- Christians would be under the authority of new Christians. This obviously raised opposition to the social position of conversos in everyday Spanish life. After the rebellion in Toledo in 144, anti-conversos feelings spread throughout Spain. It was theorized that the Jews were so evil and immoral by nature that it would be impossible for them to convert to Christianity, which was seen to be the most moral religion.

The old-Christians saw that the conversos were rapidly gaining power in every aspect of their society and that something had to be done to stop them before they completely took over. However, they remained protected from persecution as long as they were Catholic. The old- Christians used the claim that some conversos still secretly practiced the Jewish faith to rally public support for their cause. There is significant evidence indicating that the Inquisition could not have been launched without this claim.

As this essay suggests, there have been many different reasons and explanations for the use of the Spanish Inquisition. It seems that the Spanish Inquisition was motivated more by greed and hate than anything else. My research should not be taken as the final word on this subject, I have attempted to highlight some important writings that explain a summary of some facts I have found during my research of the real reasons behind the use of the Inquisition. As I stated at the beginning of my essay, the Inquisition is a very fascinating period in history. The readings that were part of my research have given me a good appreciation of this difficult and troubling period. I would strongly recommend you to take a look at them before you make up your mind regarding this sometimes touchy, but always interesting topic.

Bibliography

1. Spielvogel, Jackson J, Western Civilization Fourth Edition, Scarborough, Canada, Nelson/Thomson Learning, 000.

. Not Cited. The Spanish Inquisition. [Online] Available http//www.bbc.co.uk/dna/hg/alabaster/A6008, 11/7/00

. Slade, Jason L. The Spanish Inquisition-A bible study. [Online] Available http//www.bibletopics.com/biblestudy/64.htm, August 6, 16

4. Kreger, Kristan. The Spanish Inquisition. [Online] Available http//campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/ May 5, 17

5. Netanyahu, Benzion. The Origins of the Inquisition, New York, Random House Inc. 15

6. Mariejol, Jean. The Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella, New Jersey, Rutgers University Press, 161

7. Parker, Geoffrey. Philip II, Toronto, Little, Brown and Co., 178

8. Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition An Historical Revision, Great Britain, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 17

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