Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition

According to its advocates, Protestant propaganda depicted inquisitions of Catholic monarchs as the epitome of human barbarity with fantastic scenes of tortures, witch hunting and evil friars.

[1] Supporters of the theory argue that the context was ignored: both religious intolerance and torture were common practices all across Europe, and among the manifestations of it the Spanish inquisition proved itself, according to the theory, among the most mellow ones;[2][3] ignoring any positive traits (it was the first judicial body in Europe that operated according to a system and not to judicial discretion, torture was restricted to 15 minutes per session and only allowed on adults under very specific conditions for a set number of times,[4] inquisitors couldn't draw blood, mutilate or cause any permanent harm to victims[5] so waterboarding was the most common method as opposed to the fantastic devices portrayed in propaganda,[6] a doctor had to be present, (most inquisitors didn't believe in witchcraft[4] etc...); and finally systematically neglecting to mention similar actions by other institutions or nations).

In Kamen's view this construction, the Black Legend, turns a relatively regular or unremarkable event into something exceptional in scope and nature, attached to one nation alone.

[8] The increasing influence during the sixteenth century of the Aragonese Crown and later of the Spanish one on the Italian Peninsula led public opinion, and the Papacy, to see the Spaniards as a threat.

Revolts against the Inquisition in Spanish Crown territories in Sicily occurred in 1511 and 1526 and mere rumors of the future establishment of tribunals caused riots in Naples in 1547 and 1564.

This sectors of society had the power to dispute, or dodge, the authority of the king at a local level, and were also the demographics with higher literacy rates, wealth, and international relationships.

[12] In Northern Europe, the religious confrontation and the threat of Spanish imperial power gave birth to the Black Legend, as the small number of Protestants who were executed by the Inquisition would not have justified such a campaign.

The largely fabricated story relates the tale of a prisoner who passes through all the stages of the process and above all the interrogation, allowing the reader to identify with the victim.

He was convinced that the Dominican friars had converted the Inquisition into something execrable, that Philip II was not aware of the true proceedings and that the Spanish people were opposed to the sinister organization.

The reaction was one of resentment and further polarization of Spanish society as the high nobility and the church, happy with the new acquisition of power, sided and supported the French monarchy ("afrancesados") while other sectors became polarised into growing antimonarchic and anti-French hostility.

Eventually, anti-monarchic intellectuals and Spaniards resenting the new rule started identifying the alleged cruelties of the medieval church and the Inquisition as reflections of their own perceived oppression under the Bourbons.

The Black Legend of the Inquisition, already created and packed for consumption through the 16th and 17th century by anti-Catholic writers in Protestant countries, and introduced in Spain through France, was adopted by both sides.

Since the legend used the alleged cruelty of the Inquisition to diminish both Spain and Catholicism, each side picked half of it and used it to either defend the "illustrated" French rule or to attack absolutism.

John Story, an English MP and lawyer was kidnapped under orders from Elizabeth from the Dutch Republic where he was beheaded on charges of treason, which was influenced by allegations he still held onto his Catholic faith.

[24] A leaflet published by Antonio Pérez in 1598 entitled A treatise Paraenetical repeated William of Orange's claims conferring a tragic aspect to Prince Carlos of Asturias and one of religious fanaticism to Phillip II and the Inquisition that survived into modern era.

This supposed weakness of spirit combined with the strength of the Inquisition in these countries was predicted to lead to a lack of imagination and learning as well as hindering advances in science, literature and the arts.

Spain, despite the golden age of the Siglo de Oro and although the Inquisition generally only focused on doctrinal matters, is represented after the 17th century as a country without literature, art or science.

Once again the Inquisition was deemed to be guilty of the economic ruin of nations, the great enemy of political freedom and social productivity, and not just in Spain and Portugal, there were signs throughout Europe that other countries could come to be "infected" with this contagion.

Voltaire did not have a deep knowledge of the Inquisition until later in life, but he often used it to sharpen his satire and ridicule his opponents, as shown by his Don Jerónimo Bueno Caracúcarador, an Inquisitor who appears in Histoire de Jenni (1775).

The text is a ferocious attack against Spain:[35] It is the genius of the Spanish to have something more ruthless than other nations...which is seen above all in the excess of atrocities they use in the exercise of an institution into which the Italians, its inventors, put a lot of sweetness.

Repeating what Voltaire had already said: «The Inquisition would be the cause of the ignorance of philosophy that Spain lives in, thanks to which Europe and "even Italy" had discovered so many truths.» After the publication of L'Encyclopédie came an even more ambitious project, that of the "Encyclopédie méthodique" which comprised 206 volumes.

A semicircle was drawn on the ground around it and the person that crossed this deadly mark touched a spring that caused the opening of the demonic machine, its arms grasped the victim and thousands of knives tore him to pieces.In the same way that Protestant Europe had used the Black Legend as a political weapon in the 16th century, the United States used it during the Cuban War of Independence.

The result was that a great darkness settled over Spain, pierced by no star and shone upon by no rising sun.In America in the 19th century, knowledge of the Inquisition was spread by Protestant polemical writers and historians such as Prescott and John Lothrop, whose ideology influenced the story.

Carey McWilliams published Witch Hunt: The Revival of Heresy in 1950 which was a study of the Committee of Un-American Activities in which wide use was made of the term Inquisition to refer to the contemporary phenomenon of anticommunist hysteria.

The term inquisition has become so widely used that it has come to be a synonym for "official investigation, especially of a political or religious nature, characterized by its lack of respect for individual rights, prejudice on the part of the judges and cruel punishments".

Public opinion slowly started to change after the 18th century thanks to contacts with the outside world, as a consequence the Black Legend began to appear in Spain.

The mistake comes from the high trial-conviction ratio in cases of heresy observed in Northern Europe in the same period, where verdict was not based on a system but left to individual discretion.

Due to its reputation of relative impartiality during its first two centuries of existence, Spanish citizens preferred the inquisitorial tribunal to the secular courts and presented their cases to them whenever possible.

Even serious researchers who didn't take the time to investigate the Spanish legal system as a whole tend to make the mistake of attributing him more power in the final verdict than he held.

They that begyn to encrease in honor and dignitie, leste they beyng in authoritie, should worke them some shame, or dishonor... yea and thoughe no worde bee spoken, yet if they beare any grudge or euill will agaynst the partie, incontinent they commaunde him to be taken, and put in an horrible prison, and then finde out crimes agaynst him at leasure, and in the meane tyme no man liuyng so hardye once to open his mouth for him.