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Title: The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision
ISBN: 0300075227
Author:
Henry Kamen
Publicate Date: 1998-03-30
Publish: 1998-03-30
List Price: $48.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $9.75
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $3.50
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Eye opener - but could have been edited better
We in the United States have inherited the vestiges of the "Black Legend," which was basically anti-Spanish propaganda generated by the English. In casual conversation the Spanish Inquisition is assumed to be one of the greatest horrors of history. For those who unwittingly (or unconciously?) accept this notion, Kamen's book is an eye opener. He goes into great detail, allowing the reader to appreciate better the complexities and complexion of the times. It makes one wonder how well we can appreciate what happens in our own lifetimes, let alone what happened hundreds of years ago. With no apparent ax to grind one way or the other, Kamen carefully explores events as revealed through an extraordinary wealth of documents (much as one might expect from a judicial procedure). It's fascinating to find out what was really going on in 16th & 17th century Spain (and Europe). Real history bears little resemblance to the vestiges of the Black Legend. I wish Kamen had edited it better better there are some points and issues which come up several times. Maybe that was his plan, sort of like examening a diamond facet by facet. Don't expect any overarching conclusions, just insightful writing about the affairs of men and women.
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2: A BALANCED STUDY OF THIS PART OF SPAIN'S HISTORY
The Spanish Inquisition by Henry Kamen is a balanced overview of this sad part of Spanish History. At 300 plus pages the author shows the motivation behind the Spanish Inquisition and that this inquisition was just that, "Spanish." By sourcing Inquisition, Spanish, and other documentation author Kamen traces the roots and history of the Spanish Inquisition. He shows how this was a tool of the unified Spanish Crown that resulted in its own fear of it past and inability, at times, to deal with contemporary Spain, which came to be at the end of the Muslim domination of Spain and rise of the Protestant Reformation in the rest of Europe. The author does not gloss over the suffering it caused to both Jewish and Muslim converts to Christianity, but shows that overall people were better treated by "The Holy Office" aka the Spanish Inquisition than the secular courts. Remember, heresy was a secular crime, punishable only by the secular authorities. And while those Jews and Muslims who did not convert might be considered heathens they could not be heretics. So, those who suffered at its hands were Catholics. The author also shows that, for its time, the Spanish Inquisition acted rationally. For example, when the great witchcraft scare was dominating Europe and its colonies (lets not forget the Salem Witch Trials) for its part the Spanish Inquisition so this phenomena as mental illness or an overactive imagination. In other words Witch hunting stopped dead in its tracks when it got to Spain. Henry Kamen does not gloss over the torture or burnings of the inquisition's victims, but does show that for all of Europe, Catholic and Protestant, this was not uncommon for most crimes. And, many of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition were burnt and punished in effigy. Kamen shows how the Spanish Crown used the Inquisition to deal with its fear of an Andulus (former Muslim rulers of Spain) Fifth column and the rise of Protestantism in Western Europe. Remember Spain controlled a good part of the present day Netherlands and Belgium as well as Parts of Germany. So some Lutheran ideas did make their way to Spain. But, Kamen also shows that much of Spain, mainly the rural areas, was never even touched by the Inquisition. And that the Inquisition never had whole hearted support from the crown, those in positions of power, and the common folk. It was not the Gestapo like machine painted by many of its critics. But, criticized it should be and author Kamen shows the sad effects of the Inquisition not only on its victims, but on Spain itself. The author concludes by showing that people's view of the Spanish Inquisition is not based on the historical data available but on the imaginations of those who have not reviewed or studied this data. Overall a great work of history is this book.
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3: Immense detail uncovers a myth
Henry Kamen's The Spanish Inquisition is an amazing experience. It is a highly detailed, supremely scholarly and ultimately enlightening account of an historical phenomenon whose identity and reputation have become iconic. So much has been written about it, so many words have been spoken that one might think that there is not too much new to be learned. But this is precisely where Kamen's book really comes into its own, for it reveals the popular understanding of the Inquisition as little more than myth.
He explodes the notion that the busy-bodies of inquisitors had their nose in everyone's business. It was actually quite a rare event for someone to be called before it. And in addition, if you lived away from a small number of population centres, the chances were that that you would hardly even have known of its existence.
Also exploded is the myth of large numbers of heretics being burned at the stake. Yes, it happened, but in nowhere near the numbers that popular misconceptions might claim. Indeed, the more common practice was to burn the convicted in effigy, since the accused had fled sometimes years before the judgment, or they might have died in prison while waiting for the case to reach its conclusion. The intention is not to suggest that the inquisition's methods were anything but brutal, but merely to point out that perceptions of how commonly they were applied are often false.
Henry Kamen skilfully describes how the focus of interest changed over the years. Initially the main targets were conversos, converts to Christianity, families that were once Jewish or Muslim who converted to Christianity during the decades that preceded the completion in 1492 of Ferdinand and Isabella's reconquest. Protestants were targeted occasionally in the following centuries, but it was the families of former Jews that remained the prime target, sometimes being subjected to enquiry several generations after their adoption of their new faith. A focus on converts to Christianity gave rise to a distinction between Old and New Christianity, an adherent of the former being able to demonstrate no evidence of there having been other faiths in the family history.
What consistently runs through arguments surrounding Old and New Christianity, a distinction that was also described as pure blood versus impure blood, is that at its heart this apparent assertion of religious conformity was no more than raw xenophobia and racism. Henry Kamen makes a lot of the contradiction here, since Spain at the time was the most "international" of nations, having already secured an extensive empire and sent educated and wealthy Spaniards overseas to administer it. In addition, of course, Spain was emerging from a long period when Muslims, Jews and Christians lived competitively, perhaps, but also peacefully under Moorish rule. It is worth reminding oneself regularly that the desire and requirement for religious conformity during the reconquest was imposed from above.
Completing Henry Kamen's The Spanish Inquisition prompts the reader to reflect on which other major historical reputations might be based on reconstructed myth. One is also prompted to speculate on the future of an increasingly integrated Europe, a continent forcibly divided for half a century where xenophobia and religious intolerance might be closer to the surface than most of us would want to admit.
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4: Excellent history book
Contrary to some prejudiced reviewers who erroneously think that Kamen is attempting to justify or downplay the Spanish Inquisition, this book is actually a major work of historical scholarship. It is fascinating to learn the real story of what happened (and yes, it is quite barbaric by modern standards, though not nearly so horrific as the Black Legend would have us believe) since the Spanish Inquisition holds such a place of horror in the minds of average people today, who don't read history books. The book is very long and erudite, but if you are interested in learning about the facts of the Spanish Inquisition, you pretty much have to read this book.
As for putting to death the Black Legend, I'm afraid this book will do little, because mostly only scholars are going to read it. Certainly not anti-Catholics who twist history to suit their agenda.
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5: superior
the votes for how helpful this review is are for a previous review that i have since deleted. this book is simply fascinating. especially for the reader with a generalized understanding of the spanish inquisition, it offers innumerable corrections to common misconceptions about the roles jews played in spain, the history of the new christians and the conversos and many other details. i guarantee that any student of history, after reading this book, will rank it among their favorites.
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