Books on the Inquisition: which ones to choose?

1 • “Dark times”… yes, but which ones?

Ahhh, the Middle Ages…

That season of human history when everyone was ignorant, the “ius primae noctis” was in effect, people believed the Earth was flat, crusaders put chastity belts on maidens and then set off for Jerusalem (only to die or lose the key), and Romans used Tiber River rats instead of toilet paper (which was invented only in 1857 by Joseph Gayetty).

Too bad that:

• Quote: “The ius primae noctis is an extraordinary fantasy […], which originated at the end of the Middle Ages, and people believed in it so much that there was almost a risk that someone would really want to put it into practice, although there is no evidence that it ever happened. In reality, it’s a fantasy: it never existed“ (from this lecture by Professor Alessandro Barbero, at minute 56.51).
• The Earth being spherical was already known to Pythagoras in the 4th century BC, and belief in its round shape did not cease in the Middle Ages (doubters can check on Wikipedia).
• The “chastity belt” is a historical falsehood dating back to the 15th century (the specimens we see in museums were created in the 19th century); you can also verify this on Wikipedia.

Unfortunately, however:

• both due to the approximate information that abounds here and there…
• and because in the last 2-3 centuries, there has been a proliferation of fake news about the “Middle Ages” (many of which are still found in school books)…
• and because the Middle Ages was the period when the Church “was in power”, and speaking ill of one is a bit like speaking ill of the other…

…to this day, there is still some difficulty in dispelling these common misconceptions.

Fake news about the Inquisition, for example, are quite popular…

2 • What do scholars say about the Inquisition?

As they say in Rome:

“Scholars” is unfortunately a somewhat generic term. Indeed:

• There are books on the Inquisition that are born with a declared apologetic intent, where one gets the impression that the author’s goal is to “soften the blow” in presenting the practices of the tribunals.
• On the other hand, there are studies by anticlericals that are just as biased, where only judicial abuses are selected, and only the anomalies and malfunctions of the said tribunals are spotlighted.

I don’t know… I think this ideological war isn’t really the height of seriousness…

In short, in my utterly useless opinion, one should try to obtain information from the most honest source possible…

3 • And what would be an “honest source”?

Good question.

Granted that, to be picky, every source is partial, simply because it selects the documents to draw from, decides what to report, and what to omit, etc…

…however, scientific publications (*) are often better texts to deepen one’s knowledge compared to popular science books.

(*) (Explanation for Muggles: when talking about “scientific publication”, it doesn’t necessarily mean a biology/physics/chemistry text, but any publication for which analyses, studies, and research have been carried out rigorously; these are then published in the “communication channels” of the scientific community: university monographs, academic journals, etc.)

They are better – I was saying – for several reasons:

• A scientific publication (commonly) is written by a professor/researcher who (if they do their job well) provides footnotes – for every statement they make – with other sources certifying its veracity.
• Scientific journals (usually) critically review every text proposed for publication (in practice, they have
  an “anti-nonsense” filter); publishing houses (often) do not.
• (This is not always true) A scientific publication in the historical field (usually) describes historical events without providing an interpretation… or at least: the author’s opinion (if present) remains somewhat in the background.

However, I would like to advocate for some popular science books on the Inquisition because, all in all:

• They are easily obtainable (you don’t have to search for them in second-hand markets, on the secret shelf next to the “Pnakotic Manuscripts” or the “Necronomicon”).
• They are easier to read (there aren’t a thousand footnotes, references, cross-references, etc., that make your eyes cross).
• They have a relatively lower cost (being printed for the “general public”, mass production lowers production expenses and the cover price).
• They don’t have an excessive number of pages (you can start and finish a popular science book before your gonads dry up).

However, well, you know, books should always be chosen “cum grano salis”, as the Latins would say.

4 • Books on the Inquisition: a couple of examples

4.1 • A Clear Perspective…

I passionately love humble individuals.

Um… okay, thanks! But what does that have to do
with the Inquisition?”

It does, because humility goes hand in hand with intellectual honesty.

The quote I’ve mentioned above is from the first academic book I read on the Inquisition: it’s by John Tedeschi, who studied at Harvard (focusing his research on the Protestant Reformation in Italy and the procedures of the Roman Inquisition), was an associate professor at the Universities of Chicago, Illinois at Chicago, and Wisconsin, and founded numerous research centers.

I found his approach to inquisitorial documents very honest: there was no trace of the presumption that some “experts” with a “know-it-all” attitude sometimes exhibit, seeking in reality only confirmation of preconceived ideas…

…on the contrary, from the early stages of his investigation, he adopted a dialogical approach towards the documents he studied, unafraid to reconsider his opinions in the face of unexpected realities.

4.2 • The Humility of Changing Minds…

Another curious story that caught my eye is that of Henry Arthur Kamen.

If you read his Wikipedia page, you’ll discover that he too is a big shot (Ph.D. in History from Oxford, then a professor of Early Medieval History at Warwick for almost 30 years, then in the USA, etc.).

In 1965, Kamen published The Spanish Inquisition.

The book revolved around the description of various tortures, ecclesiastical obscurantism, corrupt judges, abuses, and so on…

I discovered that in the forty years following, Kamen rewrote this book four times, publishing it with major English and American academic publishers (the last two editions – 1998 and 2014 – are titled “The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision”).

Over time, as he revisited the study of inquisitorial documents and trial records during the reissues of the book, Kamen reconsidered many of his positions.

Why?

As he delved deeper into the study of inquisitorial documents and trial transcripts, he became aware of a fact: he was wrong (either because at the time he had studied a partial number of documents or due to common misconceptions about the Inquisition).

Oh, let’s be clear, it’s not like in the fourth edition Kamen turned the Inquisition into a court of roses distributing confetti and chocolates… what the historian describes is simply a judicial body of its time, which behaved similarly to other courts (secular or of other religious denominations).

5 • Three “guidelines” that I make an effort to follow

I’ll conclude this little page with three “rules” (let’s call them that) that I use as a guide whenever I want to honestly research the Inquisition, ecclesiastical tribunals, or anything else…

5.1 • #1: Understand the historical context

Given that I read books on the history of the Inquisition in my free time due to a masochistic personal interest, and thus my knowledge on the subject will always be rather approximate and limited compared to those who have immersed themselves in it at university (or in a serious research context) and in one way or another have internalized these concepts over years of study…

…however, I believe that understanding the historical context is crucial to avoid making hasty judgments about the Inquisition.

Let me provide a super-silly example:

Many people believe that the Inquisition in Catholic Mediterranean countries (primarily Italy and Spain) is guilty of “backward conduct” such as condemning the practice of witchcraft, bigamy, and so on…

…but these behaviors were also subject to condemnation in the countries north of the Alps and the Pyrenees, with the only difference being that in Northern European countries, they fell under local jurisdiction (meaning secular courts dealt with them, not ecclesiastical authorities).

5.2 • #2: Distinguish Between the Church’s Teaching and Folk Culture

Many times, I’ve heard approximate judgments about the Church, like:

In my opinion, this statement creates a bit of confusion because it overlaps/mixes/combines these three “elements”:

• The teaching of the Church
• The institution of the Inquisition
• Folk culture

What do I mean?

• The Catholic Church has its teaching, which includes all the teachings it has preserved, developed, and transmitted over the centuries.
• Then there’s the Inquisition (to be precise, there were three inquisitions – Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese – and only the first was founded by the Pope), which is a legal institution… whose behavior often was not in line with the teaching of the Church.
• Finally, there’s the folk culture of the 15th-16th-17th centuries, encrusted with residues of paganism, superstitions, animism, etc… which caused quite a few problems in the inquisitorial courts and beyond.

Now.

In the chaos of the society of the time, the clergy was exceedingly numerous but sometimes lacked proper education. Therefore, it often happened that popular beliefs seeped into the courts.

For example:

If this thing about the “folk culture of the time” seems a bit naïve, let me tell you an anecdote.

A few years ago, at the end of a midweek mass (average age of the attendees being a hundred and twelve, including me), an elderly lady asked me to walk her home. At the end of the journey, the little old lady said:

5.3 • #3: Do Not Use a Specific Case to Make General Considerations

As the saying goes:

It is not an honest approach to take only irregularly conducted Inquisition trials as examples to distort the statistical profile of the judgments (of course, the opposite is also true, filtering only the trials that followed the rules imposed by the Holy See).

Let’s take an example: one of the mainstays of certain anticlerical propaganda is the infamous Malleus Maleficarum, a fierce and ruthless manual published in 1487, which provides practical instructions on the capture, trial, detention, and everything related to witch hunting.

For some people (*) the actions of the Inquisition coincide with the content of the Malleus Maleficarum.

(*) (I mean those who have stumbled upon the “Malleus” page on Wikipedia and have suddenly become experts in three centuries of ecclesiastical history, the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, witch hunts, etc., and mention the “Malleus” as if playing their trump card)

A few months ago, I read a book by William Monter (Ph.D. from Princeton, and also a big shot professor around the world). I can assure you that in the text, he makes no concessions to the Inquisition when it comes to recounting distortions, malfunctions, etc. (read it if you don’t believe me; the title is in the bibliography at the bottom of the page).

Well, here’s what he says about witchcraft cases, and in particular about the Malleus:

Moreover, to return to the topic of “Rule #2” (“folk culture” ≠ “teaching”): it’s true that the Malleus Maleficarum was published by two German Dominican friars. However, even at the time, the Spanish Inquisition made it clear that, although the authors were two religious figures, the text certainly did not belong to the Church’s teaching.

At most, it could be considered a pre-modern supermarket book, written by someone with ideas in line with the frightened mindset of the people, still imbued with paganism, earthbound spirituality, and various superstitions.

But come on, a lot of water has to flow under the bridge before we start calling “magisterial teaching” every priest who talks just for the sake of talking.

(Disclaimer: this last thing I wrote applies not only to the past but also to our days)

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(Fall 2019)