Hello and Welcome to Western CIV. Episode two hundred and seventy eight. The Inquisition and the Reformation. It's likely, if not certain, that the Inquisition would have led a much more sheltered existence had it not been for one thing, the Reformation. Suddenly there was heresy, real heresy, a lot of
heresy, at least from the perspective of the Roman Catholic Church. The Church, i guess, really, for the first time ever, or at least for the first time in about twelve hundred years, found itself on the defensive. Anything that was not strictly orthodoxy had to go. Heresy had to be exercised from the land, root and branch. For example, there was a movement in fifteenth century Spain that emphasized a passive union between God and the soul.
The method was known as abandonment, but this highly mystical movement was much more often referred to as Illuminism and its followers Illuminists absent the Reformation and Martin Luther. This movement probably just escapes the notice of Rome, and it did for a long time. No one cared. But with everything and everyone on a high alert, the Inquisition stepped in and completely eviscerated the Illuminists in fifteen
twenty four. Or I mentioned this during the Galileo episodes, but it is worth remembering that the Reformation impacted all of Europe, whether or not there were any Protestants in said kingdom. The elimination of the Illuminists is a great example
of this phenomenon. Oh and by the way, nearly every person charged with heresy in the Illuminist controversy was a converso to be clear, there had been nothing remotely Jewish about the Illuminist movement, which is interesting because stamping out secret Judaism was ostensibly what the inquisitors were supposed to do. The threat, it
seemed, had changed. The threat was now Lutheranism, and as a result, one of Europe's leading intellectuals found his works under increasing scrutiny in Spain Erasmus. His last surviving letter, directed to the Spanish was in fifteen thirty three. He died three years later. While never expressly banned, Erasmuicism was looked upon with suspicion by the Spanish Inquisition. To many, his movement and his ideas smacked too much of Protestantism to be tolerated. This Lutheran threat, however,
took a long time to develop. In fifteen twenty, Luther had probably never been heard of in Spain. Lutheran books were first sent to the Peninsula, with what result we do not know, by Luther's publisher in fifteen nineteen. The first Spaniards to come into contact with his teachings were those who accompanied the emperor to Germany. Some of them, seeing him only as a reformer, were actually favorable to his ideas. However, a full generation went by
and Lutheranism failed to take brute in Spain. There was in those years no atmosphere of restriction or repression. Before fifteen fifty eight, possibly less than fifty cases of alleged Lutheranism among Spaniards came to the notice of the inquisitors. In most of them it's difficult to identify specifically Protestant beliefs. There was some curiosity about the heresies that Lutheran was propounding, but there was little sign that anyone
took an active interest in his notions. What explanation can be offered for this astonishing inability of Protestant ideas to ever come to Spain with its unreformed church A somewhat backward clergy, and a decidedly medieval institution i e. The Inquisition in full force. Spain should have been ripe for conquest by the Reformation, but in one major respect, Spain was peculiarly unfertile ground. Unlike England, France and Germany, Spain had not, since the early Middle Ages experienced a single
popular heresy. All its ideological struggles since the reconquest had been directed against the minority religions Judaism in Islam. There was consequently no native heresy like the followers of John Wycliffe in England, on which German ideas could be built. Moreover, Spain was the only European country to possess a national institution the Inquisition dedicated
to the elimination of heresy. Because of its vigilance and by coordinating its efforts throughout the peninsula, it's possible that the Inquisition checked the seeds of heresy Lutheranism before they could be sown. In the fifteen forties, possibly the only Spanish
intellectuals to come directly into contact with Lutheranism were those in foreign universities. Certainly, i'mong the peasant class Spaniards would occasionally come into contact with immigrant workers from someplace like France or perhaps the Netherlands, who had direct contact with these new beliefs. But it seems that ideas transmitted at this level were either confused,
disorted, or just frankly unlikely to strike root anywhere. But to Charles the Fifth, who by the middle of the century was living in retirement, the threat was real. In May fifteen fifty eight, he wrote a scathing letter to Juana, his daughter and regent in the absence of Philip IOND in the Netherlands, that the only answer to the Protestant menace was repression. I think
the letter speaks for itself. Quote, I'm very satisfied with what you have written to the King informing him of what is happening about the people imprisoned as Lutherans, more of whom are being daily discovered. But believe me, my daughter, this business has caused and still causes me, more anxiety and pain than I can express. For while the King and I were abroad, these
realms remained in perfect peace, free from calamity. But now that I have returned here to rest and recuperate and serve our Lord, this great outrage and treachery implicating such notable persons occurs in my presence and in yours. You know that because of this I suffered, and I went through great trials and expenses
in Germany, and lost so much of my good health. Were it not for the conviction I have that you and members of your councils will find a radical cure to this unfortunate situation, punishing the guilty throughout, to spreading and prevent it. I do not know whether I could restrain myself leaving here to
settle the matter. Since this affair is more important for the service of our Lord and the good preservation of these realms than any other, and since it is only in its beginnings with such small forces that they can easily be put down, it is necessary to place the greatest strength and weight on a quick
renemedy and exemplary punishment. I do not know whether it will be enough in these cases to follow the usual practice by which, according to common law, all those who beg for mercy and have their confession accepted are pardoned with a light penance. If it is a first offense. Such people, if set free, are at liberty to commit the same offense, particularly if they are
educated persons. One can imagine the evil consequences, for it is clear they cannot act without armed organization and leaders, and so it must be seen whether they can be preceded against as creators of sedition, upheaval, riots and disturbance in the state. They would then be guilty of rebellion and could not expect any mercy in this connection. I cannot omit to mention what was and is the custom in Flanders. I wanted to introduce the inquisition to punish the heresies
that some people had caught from neighboring Germany and England and even France. Everyone opposed this on the grounds that there were no Jews among them. Finally, an order was issued declaring that all people of whatever state and condition, who came under certain specified categories were to be ipso facto burnt and their goods confiscated.
Necessity obliged me to act in this way. I do not know what the King, my son, has done since then, but I think that the same reason will have made him continue as I did, because I advised and begged him to be very severe in dealing with these people. Leave me, my daughter. If so great an evil is not suppressed and remedied without distinction of persons from the very beginning. Cannot promise that the King or anyone
else will be in a position to do it afterwards. End quote. This letter marks a turning point in Spanish history, and frankly a turning point when we're talking about the relationship between governments and religion. Thanks to the fear Charles expressed, anything outside one hundred percent Catholic Orthodoxy was to be considered a dire threat and must be destroyed. Charles just poured gasoline on the fires of the Inquisition, and the effect was rather immediate. In fifteen sixty two alone,
the Inquisition pursued eighty eight cases against Protestants or alleged Protestants. Of these, eighteen were burned, a whopping twenty point four percent of those charged. I suppose the proof was in the pudding, though from the Inquisition's perspective. With those burnings, Protestantism was almost completely extinguished in Spain. The fifteen sixty two
burnings also instilled within the Spanish population a tremendous fear of Lutherans. They saw Lutherans everywhere, and they were not shy about coming forward with accusations against their neighbors, especially if they were cavalier enough to make anti clerical statements. Now they needn't be. Of course, by the late fifteen sixties, neither Judaism
nor Protestantism was much of a threatn in Spain. Somewhat ironically, I suppose less people died in Spain as a result of religious conflict in those years than elsewhere in Europe. The Spanish Inquisition condemned to die just under one hundred people between fifteen fifty nine and fifteen sixty six, and of those, remember, eighteen died in fifteen sixty two. Bloody Mary executed three times that number in England, Henry the second twice as many in France, and in the Netherlands
over ten times that number would die. So oddly, I guess the Inquisition worked, though the real answer was probably that Spanish society was simply more insular at this point than elsewhere in Europe. There were just less Protestants to begin with. Protestantism never developed in Spain. There were Spanish Protestants, of course, but most emigrated. You could find pockets of Spanish Protestants dotted throughout Europe. The just weren't any in Spain, at least none that we know of.
Of course, there must have been some, we just don't know about them. The real brunt of the attack of so called Lutheranism was born by foreign visitors like traders and sailors, and by foreign residents in Spain. The heresy scare intensified xenophobia among many sections of the population, and it made Spain, at least for a time, unsafe for foreigners. The hole the Office had been active against foreigners from as early as fifteen thirty. Spain's extensive trade
with Northern Europe made contact with outsiders inevitable, especially in the ports. The first Protestant foreigner to be burnt by the Inquisition was young John Tack, an Englishman of Flemish origin. He was burnt in Bilbao in May of fifteen thirty nine. Up until fifteen sixty nine, other foreigners were arrested and quote unquote reconciled by the inquisitioners. Throughout its existence, the Spanish Inquisition remained almost inherently
racist and xenophobic. It once pointed the finger exclusively at the Moor, then the Jew, then at the Converso, and finally at the foreign Protestant though again, of course I hate to keep pointing this out, but this was mainly in Castile. Even in Aragon, most of the inquisitors were Castilian, and there they tended to treat even the native Aragonese with suspicion, especially those
from Catalan or the Basque region. Now, the failure of the Protestant cause in the Mediterranean inevitably raises the question of why no Reformation occurred in Spain. Efficiency of repression can't be the only answer. Of course, repression was, as we'll see, more efficient and more brutal in some other countries, notably
the Netherlands, but the persecution there didn't end the Reformation. Now, Philip the second was convinced that it was timely repression and continuous vigilance that kept the inquisition in Czech Consider what he wrote in fifteen sixty nine quote, had there been no inquisition, there would be many more heretics in the country would be much more afflicted, as are those where there is no inquisition, as in
Spain end quote. Perhaps this is what the Spanish king believed, but historians don't think it's true, nor is there any possibility to maintain that Spain was simply sealed off from heresy sort of fortress Spain. The outdated image of an iron curtain or a great firewall of China back in the sixteenth century of the Inquisition descending on the country and cutting it off from the rest of the world simply bears no relation to reality. In the fifteen sixties and fifteen fifties,
very many Spaniards were traveling abroad. More Spaniards than ever before, published, most of them their books in foreign areas. Tens of thousands, mainly Castilians, served overseas in the army, where they often rubbed shoulders with people of other faiths. The land frontier and the Pyrenees was occasionally watched, sometimes because of the danger of military intervention by the French, but it was never and it could never be closed. Indeed, there was never any great wall,
nor ever even any Hadrian's wall across the Pyrenees. Throughout the late sixteenth century, Spaniards drifted at will over the frontier. Some went to trade, some to be educated, some even wanted to join the Calvinists in Geneva. At the same time, many foreigners, principally artisans, came to Spain it was a handful of these men, through careless actions, often on their part, again criticizing the clergy and open who fell into the hands of the Inquisition.
Now, the difficulty in controlling the Pyrenees Frontier, which was Spain's chief overland link with the outside world, comes through in the anxious correspondence of the ambassador of France in the fifteen sixties, a man by the name of Francis Dealva. In fifteen sixty four and fifteen sixty five, he sent reports to the King about booksellers in Saragosa, men who had come to Leon and to loose to purchase books on law and philosophy and then take them home. In one
of the cases, he said the bookseller had links to Geneva. This importation of foreign books, as we may observe, was carried out in contravention of the laws of Castile. Alva also confirmed that quote many books, catechisms and psalters in Basque had passed through to loose to Spain end quote. I suppose, somewhat ironically, de Alva was a Basque, so he understood what he was talking about. Books in Catalan, he also reported, had been taken
into Catalonia and other heretical books had gone to Pamblona. In those same weeks, the Archbishop of Bordeaux border a report on a citizen of Burgos who had quote taken four or five loads of heretical books in Spanish and in Latin through the mountains of Jaca. Despite the open frontier, heresy failed to penetrate it all. The Reformation in the end, for Spaniards remained a phenomenon that did not affect them. For the balance of today's show, I want to talk
about the Inquisition and its relationship to the arts and sciences. Obviously the latter has a lot of relevance when it comes to Galileo. Now. Early on, there's some evidence of major book confiscations throughout Spain, especially in a place like Salamanca. Clearly Hebrew books were off limits and would be seized by the Inquisition. The inquisitors also seemed to have frowned on magic and astrology, though it's not clear why. But it was the printing press again I know again
that really changed the game. Quickly the Church and especially the Inquisition realized it had to be involved with the printing process. Given the changes in scale, you could just produce so many more books, so much quicker, And this was new. The advent of the printing press brought the invention of pre publication censorship. It just didn't exist in Europe prior to that invention. It didn't
need to. The Council of Trent gave bishops the right to oversee book production starting in fifteen sixty four, but by then the various European states were already deeply invested in the policy of censorship. England passed censorship laws in fifteen thirty eight, and throughout Italy censorship had become a mainstay by the end of the fifteen forties. Now, technically the institution itself of the Inquisition had no power
to license or prevent the licensing of books. Everything it did was through other institutions. But it was very aggressive in coming after books with which it disagreed. Now, generally, in what I'm meant there, we're really talking about post publication. Starting in the fifteen thirties and fifteen forties, the Inquisition attempted to stop the entry of heretical literature into the Peninsula. And I hope it goes without saying, but every time I say the word heretical literature throughout the
rest of this episode. I mean subjectively from the perspective of the Inquisition. As the only Spanish tribunal with authority over all of Spain, it was able to act in areas like seaports where state officials could not. The government took no direct initiative over controlling literature until the shock discovery of multiple Protestants in Spain in fifteen fifty eight. That event stung the Regent Juana because Charles was absent
into action. On the seventh of September fifteen fifty eight, she issued a radical decree of control. The law banned the introduction into cast Deal of all books printed in other realms in Spanish, obliged printers to seek licenses from the Council of cast Deal, and laid down a strict procedure for the operation of censorship. Contravention of any of these points would be punished by death and confiscation,
not that you would care about the latter given the former. At the same time, the Inquisition was allowed to issue licenses when printing for its own purposes. According to the new rules, manuscripts were to be checked and censored both before and after publication, and all booksellers were to keep by them a copy of the Index of prohibited books. So wide ranging was the decree of
fifteen fifty eight that it remained theoretically in force until the nineteenth century. Now Philip was in Brussels, Philip the King of Spain, from which he wrote approvingly about all these measures taken by his sister. Heresy was spreading, he said, throughout the European universities, and so as a consequence, just before returning to Spain, the king banned the Netherlands subjects from studying in France.
When he arrived in the peninsula in fifteen fifty nine, he issued an order on the twenty second November to all subjects of the Crown of Castile studying abroad or teaching abroad, that they must return within four months. Of course, there were a few chinks in the armor of this censorship, and it's really
almost idea censorship legislation. First, it only impacted Castilians. Philip could just order the legislation to be carried out in Castile, but to do so in Aragon he would need to summon the courtes which he refused to do so. The entire eastern half of the Iberian Peninsula was exempt from all of these laws. Second, control over imports again applied to Castile and Castile alone. Outside Castile, the government had to rely solely on the inquisition and the methods within
its disposal to oversee the book trade. Third, the fact of the matter remained that even in the sixteenth century, Spain had virtually no printing industry of its own. It relied almost exclusively on foreign imports for books. Hence, the Spanish government had a lot less control over book printing because no books were actually being printed in Spain. And reality, as you can probably tell, all of these laws amount to little bit more than a trade embargo. But
of course the biggest problem was enforcement. Most Spaniards simply ignored the law. It was an easy law to get around, especially because it had a huge loophole. It did not cover reprints, so if you wanted to import a banned book, all you had to do was branded as a reprint and it was exempt from censorship laws. So you could make substantial changes to a book,
call it a reprint, and you were good. Imagine this, You could have a sixteenth century cookbook that's been approved and then you just stuff Protestant literature into it, call it a reprint, and you get exempted. You can see why this didn't work, and in the end, of course, it didn't. Throughout Europe, the Reformation generated both hopes and fears, ushering in a period of precaution. One of the biggest changes the Reformation brought was
the end of academic unity. The old idea of an international, pan European community of men of letters simply melted away. Academics now never left their home countries, and what was tolerated varied dramatically from kingdom to kingdom. Institutions began to give classes in the vernacular now rather than Latin, because there was no need for a universal language. The frontiers, of course, between France and Spain in reality, never really closed, given that Castilians were the only ones
ever subject to these new restrictions. Hence, in the late fifteen forties, a veritable storm of unlicensed Bibles flooded into Spain. Between fifteen fifty one and fifteen fifty two, the Inquisition finally stepped in and it tried to crack down on these unlicensed publications, and the sheer scale of what they found proved how pointless the endeavor was. In Seville alone, the inquisitors rounded up four hundred and fifty illegal volumes, and clearly this was a tip of the Iceberg situation.
Exasperated, the Inquisition simply issued a blanket prohibition of sixty five unlicensed editions in fifteen fifty four. Once again, the evidence suggests this did nothing to stem the tide of new bibles, and censorship encouraged a practice which soon became common, the burning of books. Book burning was not new, and Burr Constantine had burned all Aryan books that he could find in the fourth century CE. The Medieval Inquisition had followed suit. In the sixteenth century. The practice
of book burning was common in both France and Italy. In fifteen sixty one, an inquisitor wrote a letter asking what to do with all the books that he had rounded up. There were many books of hours, he said, which could be easily corrected and resold, But the inquisition replied, quote, burn them. And what of the bibles? Burned them? And the books of medicine, many with superstitious materials, burn them end quote. This drastic
solution, luckily, was not always applied. As I mentioned, the flow of books was impossible to stop completely, since Spain depended on imports for much of its literature. Quote. From one hour to the next, books keep arriving from Germany end quote, commented the Inquisition. In fifteen thirty two, its officials were ordered to keep watch at seaports. Special attention was paid to
the Basque coast. In fifteen fifty three, for perhaps the first time, detailed instructions were issued to inquisitors about how to carry out visits to foreign ships in Spanish ports, but few heretical books were ever found. The real victims of the vigilance were the booksellers. From fifteen fifty nine, when a shipment of three thousand books destined for Alcala was seized on a French vessel in San Sebastian, booksellers in Spain had to put up with wholesale embargoes of their imports.
In general, the shipments were neither confiscated nor censored. They were simply delayed until the bureaucracy had decided that no illegal imports were taking place. In fifteen sixty four, the Inquisition ordered its officials in Bilbao and San Sebastian to send on to booksellers in Medina two hundred and forty five bales of books imported from Lyon three years later. Both books hadn't moved, they were still in
their ports. Hence, the impact on Spaniards on the ability to acquire literature and books was dramatic, while the impact on howretical literature was negligible to nil. The greatest damage of all in any system of censorship, or this one,
was suffered by the book itself. Some books probably disappeared altogether, exclusively through the fault of the Inquisition. A report drawn up for them at the end of the sixteenth century says that quote many, to avoid taking their books to the inquisitors, burn not only those prohibited and to be expurged, but even those that are approved and harmless, or else get rid of them or sell them for a pittance. In this way, an infinite number are neither
examined nor corrected, but are eventually lost to nobody's advantage. For their owners suffered the great losses, and what is more important, a great many books disappear end quote. And this brings us to one of the myths of the Inquisition, that it's set out to crush intellectuals. Sure, it was inevitable that an independent minded thinker and a body designed to ensure a unitary system of thought would have conflict, as it's going to with Galileo. But those conflicts
were surprisingly few and far between. And I have to admit, after reviewing all the evidence on the Inquisition, by and large, which science wasn't its target, Protestantism was now in part, the lack of conflict was because writers simply steered clear of the Inquisition, while its inquisition tried to deal sensibly with most authors. As we're going to see with Galileo, he met multiple times with different officials and had every opportunity to publish his book from their perspective the
correct way. He simply didn't. And so in that way, Galileo is very much an exception to the rule. There are two distinct opinions about the impact of the Inquisition on literature. One, strongly supported by traditionalists, denies any negative influence at all. Historian Menendez de Perro asserted that quote never was there Moore written in Spain, or better written then in the two golden centuries of the Inquisition end quote. The other, reflected in many modern studies claims
that the Spaniards virtually ceased to write and think. Another historian argued, quote, it would seem superfluous to insist that a system of severe repression of thought by all the instrumentalities of the Inquisition and state is an ample explanation for the decadence of Spanish learning and literature end quote. For the English Catholic historian Lord acton the injury inflicted on literature by the Inquisition, quote was the most obvious
and conspicuous fact of modern history. End quote. Another historian put it rather succinctly that quote not to think, or learn or read became habitual for Spaniards faced by the sadism and lust for plunder of those of the Holy Office end quote. These, of course, are extreme views, and the evidence doesn't support either one of them. Both assume, of course, that censorship functioned
effectively in Spain, which it didn't. One view claims it worked for the better purging heresy, the other that it worked for the worse, suppressing creativity. In reality, it did neither. It simply wasn't effective or efficient enough to do so in the early modern period. Next time we start to take a look at the Inquisition, itself, how did it function, what were its systems like? And that will allow us to segue back to Galileo and
his infamous trial. As always, if you'd like more content, check out the links in the show notes. Got a link to the website there, Got to link to all kinds of free trials of Patreon pages in westerns of two point zero, All kinds of good stuff which is there for the taking if you so choose. No