The Spanish Inquisition: A Religious Phenomenon

Miguel de Unamuno’s short story San Manuel Bueno, Mártir and Albert Camus’s tour de force The Plague describe towns whose leaders employ drastically different methods to combat their communal maladies. The Plauge’s Dr. Bernard Rieux relies on an unrelentingly harsh process of physical healing, driven not by his empathy for the individual but by his compassion for humanity. Unamuno’s priest Don Manuel shrouds his village in the warm embrace of religious serenity, complicated by only one fact: the priest does not believe in God. Despite these divergent philosophies, both characters aspire to their own notions of what constitutes “secular sainthood.” Because of the inherent imprecision of such a phrase, the reader is asked to determine what truly determines a “secular saint.” Is it someone who is portrayed by the populace as a religious martyr but who actually is quite secular (hereafter known as the “Don Manuel interpretation”) or someone who is seen by the populace as cruelly detached and unemotional but is actually a hero (Rieux’s guiding philosophy)? Alternatively, one could be drawn to the possibility, as I am, that neither truly constitutes secular sainthood.

The book Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World was written by Irene Silverblatt. This book described the medieval civilization of Peru and colonial Andes. It also went into great detail about the inquisitions of the Roman Catholic church. Irene Marsha Silverblatt was born on September 14, 1948 in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated college from the University of Michigan. She is now a Professor at Duke University.

To investigate the history and impact of the Spanish Inquisition focus on the process and punishment of blasphemy trials will improve an understanding of the effect of these institutions. The Catholic Monarchs King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella justified the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain and The New World by constructing it as a form of religious purification. The history of the Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición, or as it is more commonly known the Spanish Inquisition began during the 15th century and did not end until the early 19th. The Episcopal Inquisition was established in 1536 and was the first religious court. Fray Juan de Zumarraga was a Bishop and a member of the Franciscan Order.

Religion played a big role in shaping the values, attitudes, and conduct of the Spanish during the Age of Discovery and Conquest (1492-1579). The colonial church provided control and a standard of conduct and living for the new world. In fact, the colonial church had even more power in Spanish America then it did in Spain. Why this is important though, is because it limited the possibility of rebellion and opposition. As long as the church was in place, there was Spanish order, and as long as there was Spanish order, the colonization process could continue to run smoothly and prosper.

The arrival of the Inquisition was swift and powerful, the decline of the Inquisition was drawn out and pathetic. Laws slowly began to be abolished around the eighteenth century. The distinction between Old and New Christians was no longer legally binding, the Moriscos had all but been erased from Spain, and Judaism had no influence. The job was done. Over hundreds of years and a multitude of rulers hellbent on eradicating religious diversity, a mild amount of success had been achieved. As the decades rolled on, however, rulers became more and more disinterested with the inquisitorial rule. The looming French Revolution severely hurt the seemingly dormant Inquisition. The Revolution brought new condemnation for the movement, and more specifically, condemnation for the unnecessarily violent actions of the church. The Inquisition was truly crippled early in the nineteenth century as a Constitution was being constructed by Rafael Riego, an Asturian battalion commander. Through this, and various civil wars and revolts within the nineteenth century, the Spanish Inquisition was officially demolished. The movement that had thousands tortured, imprisoned, and murdered had finally

2) Spanish Inquisition- the Spanish inquisition term is, described as a group of people going around converting people to Christianity, the ones they couldn't convert they tortured or killed. The Spanish inquisition is important because, In Spain the inquisition was held at the request of the king of Spain who used the

I chose to write topic number 2, which is to explain how different examples come together to build a distinct impression or message about the concept. I picked three entrees from long journal #04. To start with, page 17, “ His very presence in the procession was enough to make the scene seem surreal. It was a page torn from a book, a historical novel, perhaps, dealing with the captivity in the Babylon or the Spanish Inquisition.” This metaphor describes how hope is leaving the Jews as time passed. The author compares the event to things that happened in the past. As I was reading the book I realized that most Jews people, then believed that German invading other countries like something that happens and Germans treatment of Jews will probably

Religion played a key role in the captive lives of the writers of the three captivity

The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision by Henry Kamen, was released in 1997 and is the third edition of the acclaimed book centered around the infamous tribunal. The years following the first publication saw increases in the quality of scholarship and an influx of research.  New historical interpretations subsequently began to demonstrate an enhanced insight, as works like Benzion Netanyahu’s The Origins of the Inquisition presented original perspectives. Kamen was consequentially compelled to reevaluate the evidence surrounding the Inquisition, ultimately causing him to divert from his previous conclusions and adopt a revisionist perspective exploring historical causation. The Spanish Inquisition has been repeatedly studied for

The history of the Jewish people in Spain is certainly a pivotal time period that changed the future of the Jews and specifically, the Sephardic Jews. At the time of the issuing and signing of the Edict of Expulsion on March 31, 1492, Spanish Jews were experiencing the most persecution that had been felt in the many centuries of which the Jews had been in Spain. Spanish Jewry came to a dramatic end after almost a millennium of Jewish presence in the country. Spanish Jewry’s golden age, however, the Jews experienced almost no persecution, resulting in a new centre of Talmudic study, before suffering from a relapse of anti-Semitism that eventually led to the Inquisition and the Edict of Expulsion. (SOURCE 1) This essay will discuss and analyze

Religious beliefs are one of the key factors that have shaped our world society today. The Spanish religious conquest was one of the first early history examples that played a big role in America. As soon as the Spanish landed in New Spain it changed the Native Mexican culture. The consequence of the spiritual conquest was the loss of the native people beliefs, buildings, and customs. However, the Native Mexicans did not respond well to the conquest, it caused them to rebelling against the Spanish, but with time they started to accept the Spanish ways.

The inquisition as an institution was enough to force people to conform and at the heart of the Spanish Inquisition was conformity. However, if we were to refer to specific tools of the inquisitors to enforce outward conformity there is a plethora. Confiscation of property would certainly be a motivator. Public sentencing and obligatory garments would cause most to conform. We can guess that doing business with a convicted heretic could look bad for the customer. Heretics could be deemed “infamous,” and their descendants would be barred from public office and the middle or upper-class lifestyle.7 Anyone of these punishments could deter heretic from practicing publicly. Considering the very basis of the inquisition was witnesses testimony,

The formal and informal onboarding program both send a distinct message to the new hire so it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages of both. First, informal plans are unstructured and without an explicit plan. An advantage of the informal plan is your company will be able to see right away if the new employee can adjust and learn quickly on their own. It is a sink-or-swim tactic that puts pressure on the employee to learn quickly without devoting any money or resources to training the new hire. Disadvantages of this approach is that the onboarding is very loose without any support or direction. It does not consider their needs and the process can vary for every new hire because there is not a system that has the steps

The role of the Roman Catholic Church in Spain’s conquest and colonization of continental America was a two-fold process whereby under the façade of conversion and control lay the primary goal of gaining wealth, enforcing laws and the inevitable extension of control while condoning the beginnings of European slavery in the Caribbean.[i]

1. The Crusades are probably the greatest symbol of the religious enthusiasm of the age. What were the goals of the Crusades? Targets? What motivated people to go on crusade besides religious zeal? How do we account for their general failure? How were the Crusades viewed by the Muslims? What was the lasting impact of the Crusades?