The Inquisition - Spain vs Portugal

The first image is from the museum in Branco or possibly Belmonte, Portugal. On the left, it shows some recreations of shirts worn by victims of the inquisition in Portugal as they were burned to death. On the right it shows stories of some Portuguese who left Portugal and reverted to Judaism in other countries.

The second image shows, at the bottom, a monument to the victims (new Christians, a.k.a., anusim, a.k.a., Jewish converts to Christianity) of a Portuguese version of a pogrom of 1506, a.k.a., the Lisbon Massacre. It was dedicated in 2006, the 500th anniversary of the event. In the background is the church whose priests instigated the pogrom. King Manuel I was unhappy with this and several priests were executed and that church was closed for 8 years after the pogrom.  This massacre (or pogrom) occurred before the Inquisition in Portugal.

There are a number of misconceptions and uncertainties about the Inquisition that I had before this trip (probably other people had similar misconceptions). Below is a discussion that attempts to begin to correct those based on information in Wikipedia, the Jewish virtual library, the Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906, the Encyclopedia Britannica and some other sources, typically sources referenced in the first group.

1. The Inquisition did not start in Spain.  It started in France in 1184 and was primarily against self identifying Christians (Albigensian, a.k.a., Cathars) who the Catholic church considered both heretical and dangerous (a papal legate was assassinated in the year 1208 and some blame heretics, although others blame Catholic factionalism or Count Raymond of Toulouse who, while Catholic, opposed heretic hunting). The Inquisition in France which was augmented by a Crusade against the Albigensian (a.k.a., Cather) version of Christianity (thought to be an offshoot of Gnosticism and anti clerical) was successful on its own terms as the Albigensian religion was eliminated by 1230.

2. The Spanish Inquisition did not start with the expulsion order in 1492, it started in 1478. It was formally ended in 1834, although it had begun to wind down from the late 16th century and by the 19th century it was essential inactive.   

Although historians of the 19th through the mid 20th century estimated the death toll in the tens or hundreds of thousands, actual investigation of inquisition records (including those in Spanish colonies, e.g. Mexico), resulted in an estimate of 2,000 to 5,000 (at one site on our tour the number of deaths was stated to be about 5500). 

In addition to the deaths, property was confiscated and a number of people were burned in effigy and people already dead were disinterred and burned. Torture was not done in public but in inquisition dungeons using, for example, the rack (third image) to get information.  The fourth and fifth images are from Inquisition Museums in Seville and Cordova respectively (we didn't go in them).

3. The Portuguese Inquisition did not start until quite a few years after the compulsory conversion order of 1497. At the time of the compulsory conversion order, new converts were told they would not be investigated for thirty years. This may have been an idea of Manuel I to make the conversions go more smoothly (if so, it worked because probably fewer than 100 people were killed in 1497 and there was little rioting) or because he hoped to abrogate the order before the 30 year period was over or because Catholic Doctrine doesn't give universal allowance for  conversion by force (it allowed conversion by force or coercion in a number of specific circumstances).  Since the Spanish Inquisition was already operating, no 30 year leniency rule took effect in that country.

In any case, the Portuguese Inquisition started in 1536.  It was formally ended in 1821, although no burning or property confiscation took place after 1774. Several of the local guides in Portugal asserted that the Portuguese inquisition was more vicious than the Spanish Inquisition (none of the guides in Spain opined on whose inquisition was more vicious). Although 'viciousness' is a subjective term, inquisition records indicate that the death count was about that of Spain and approached 2,000 (this includes colonies of the Portuguese, e.g., Brazil). Many others had property confiscated and there were significant numbers burned in effigy, and, as in Spain there were cases where the dead were disinterred and burned.  The records of the Portuguese inquisition did not survive as well as those of the Spanish inquisition.

There some other factors involved, e.g., many Spanish Jews came to Portugal in 1492, essentially about doubling the Jewish population of Portugal, also, the conversion order of 1497 did not allow expulsion as an option - it was convert or die.  Several Kings of Portugal allowed New Christians to leave during their reign (for example Manuel I allowed this after the pogrom of 1506) but generally this was not the case.  For the first 50 or so years of the Portuguese Inquisition, the victims were nearly all New Christians. In Portugal there were very few ex Moslems (as opposed to Spain where there were many).  By 1600 or so a number of self identifying Christians, who differed with the Catholic church on doctrine, were victims. 

4. Blood purity laws were enforced in both Spain and Portugal beginning before either inquisition (about 1450) but the enforcement actions were local (and enforcement was sometimes suspended).  In many areas, persons of Jewish or Moslem ancestry were not allowed to hold office, obtain guild membership or practice certain professions.  As an example of the spotty enforcement, the sixth image shows a statue of Fray Luis De Leon who was of Jewish ancestry but who was a famous poet and scholar (and friar in Salamanca in NW Spain - we didn't go there) in the 1500s. He was accused a number of times by the Inquisition but each time was acquitted. The image is from Getty images. 

Another famous case is that of Hernando de Talavera who was archbishop of Granada from 1493 to 1507 (he was the first archbishop of Granada). He was accused of having Jewish ancestry (and it is plausible that he did). In 1507, the year of his death, the pope declared that the accusers cease their activities against de Talavera (image from Wikipedia).


5. The Albigensian Inquisition and Crusade resulted in over 200,000 deaths (perhaps as many as 500,000). Almost all the deaths were because of the Crusade. 

The total deaths for all countries (including France post Albigensian, the Italian peninsula states, Spain, Portugal and their colonies, and everywhere else) in all centuries due to the Inquisition was probably fewer than 20,000 per recent estimates, however, earlier estimates were up to 300,000. In the seventh image (from wikipedia) Pope Innocent is (left of the image) declaring the inquisition against the Albigensian religion and on the right of the image, crusaders are about to slaughter them. The Vatican did a 700+ page study of this issue early in the 21st century. A report on that study is here.

One of the problems in getting an estimate is that capital punishment was relatively common and people were charged with many crimes including heresy and its not clear if capital punishments which used testimony from the Inquisition but were carried out outside Inquisition authority, should be attributed to the Inquisition.  Also many people whose property was confiscated by the inquisition died soon after that probably from hunger and/or disease. It is not clear whether those people should 'count' as victims of the Inquisition.

Apparently, being charged by the inquisition did not automatically result in conviction and conviction did not automatically result in execution.
 

6. The Inquisition followed a number of precedents.  In late December 1066, there was a massacre of Jews by Muslims in Granada. Recent estimates are that about 4,000 to 10,000 died in this massacre- all within a few days time. In 1391 there were pogroms in many Christian cities in Spain over a period of several months, beginning with Seville in March of that year. Recent estimates are that 8,000 to 12,000 died in these massacres. There were, of course, many persecutions of smaller scale.