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BOOK OF THE

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TOMÁS THE
T O RT U R E R
INQUISITIONS
AC R O S S T H E
GLOBE
EDITION
FIRST
 xx section title xx

Co n f e s s y o u r s i n s !
d
a Spa in’s Iberia n cou sin s soo n followe
Y ou the re! Who is your god? Are you in
just suit, wag ing the ir own campaign s
true believe r? I’m afraid I won’t zil
You destina tion s as far-flu ng as Bra
be able to take your word for it.
s an d Goa .
see, we in the In quisition have way
t Eve n tha t blaspheme r Ma rtin Luther
of exposin g heretics, an d I suspec ld
mit an d his tre acherous Reform ation cou
you ma y be hid ing something. Ad s
faith, not halt the spread of our agent
the truth, con vert to the one true
an d the mission to une arth eve ry
or face the con sequen ces. You only ce
r heretic we could fin d. Our inf luen
nee d to turn the page to discove nd,
eve n crossed the Cha nne l to En gla
wha t these are. to
whe re Bloody Ma ry did her utm ost
Fro m the Ca tha rs in the 12th ism.
anttism
esttan
Pro tes
fig ht the eme rge nce of Prot
century to the mig hty Knigh ts
Our battle to con vert the da mned
Templa rs an d Joa n of Arc, the
all an d save the ir ete rna l souls was
In quisition ruthlessly broug ht the m
to at times cruel, but not eve rythin g
to hee l, burnin g those who refuse d
you’ve rea d ring s true, as you will
yie ld on the sta ke.
lea rn in time. The history of the
Queen Is abe lla of Castile the n
Ca tholic Church ’s quest to force all
picked up the ma ntle, rid din g her e of
the into its embrace awa its you, a tal
kin gd om of heresy an d scourin g
men witchcraft, torture, revolution an d war
New World for the truth. Aid ed by d
tha t spa nne d ove r six centuries an
such as Tom ás de Torquem ad a, the
. cha nged the world for eve r.
rea ch of the In quisition was global

114
 BOOK OF THE

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Part of the

bookazine series
CONTENTS
THE WAR
ON HERESY
10 The origins of
the Inquisition
16 Crushing the Cathars
22 Betrayal of the
Knights Templar
30 Bernard Gui
32 Directorium
Inquisitorum
34 Joan of Arc
38 Witchcraft and
the Inquisition

THE SPANISH
INQUISITION
44 Heretic hunters
54 An officer of the
Spanish Inquisition
56 Los Reyes Católicos
64 Tomás the torturer
68 An auto de fé 56
70 Francisco de Cisneros

REFORMATION
38
AND RETRIBUTION
74 The birth of the
Reformation
80 The German
Peasants’ War
82 The Counter-
Reformation
86 The Roman Inquisition
90 A global conspiracy
96 Bloody Mary on trial
106 The Thirty Years’ War
114 The beginning of
the end?

ENDING THE
INQUISITION
120 How Napoleon ended
the Inquisition
124 Confessing the truth
 70 10

16

96

44
 THE WAR
ON HERESY
10 The origins of
the Inquisition
Centuries before its notorious
32
Spanish offshoot began rooting out
heretics, the first Inquisition was
established in France

16 Crushing the Cathars

The existence of a movement that
believed in two gods simply could
not be tolerated by the Church

22 Betrayal of the
Knights Templar
Once proud protectors of pilgrims
bound for the Holy Land, this
secretive group would be cruelly
brought to its knees

30 Bernard Gui
Meet the man who literally wrote
the book on how to conduct an
Inquisition in the name of god

32 Directorium
30
Inquisitorum
Explore the book that would become
the definitive guide for the agents of
the Spanish Inquisition

34 Joan of Arc
Visionary. Hero. Heretic. In life
Joan inspired her nation to cast off
the yolk of the enemy. In death she
became a martyr

38 Witchcraft and
the Inquisition
While the rest of Europe descended
into a witch-hunting frenzy, the
Inquisition remained superstitious
about the true nature of dark magic
 10 38

22 34
 The War on Heresy

10
 THE ORIGINS
OF THE
INQUISITION
Before the barbarity of the Spanish Inquisition, the
Catholic Church’s earliest counter-strikes against the
threat of heresy cast dark clouds over Europe.
This is the story of the first medieval inquisitions…
Written by Henry Yates

A
s an institution whose roots can be Illinois, writes, “This intrepid reformer finally
traced back to the early 2nd century sealed his testimony with his blood.”
– and a socio-political monolith In times gone by, the Church and its
that would come to dominate every missionaries had treated heretics as lost souls
facet of medieval life – the Roman to be saved rather than sinners to be hunted
Catholic Church would increasingly be called down and viciously corrected. But with the pope
upon to deal with pockets of spiritual dissent becoming an increasingly frontline figure in the
over the passing centuries. Now, as then, heresy fight against heresy as the 12th century unfolded,
has a steady definition, set out by the Code of the Catholic stance on renegade sects hardened to
Canon Law as “the obstinate denial or doubt after granite in November 1184.
the reception of baptism of some truth which is to
be believed by divine and Catholic faith”. Yet the
Church’s attitude towards the wayward religious
sects of Europe would change dramatically – and
darken considerably – over the course of the 12th
and 13th centuries.
Individual heretics were of no great import to
the Church. More troublesome were the growing
number of influential heretical figureheads, such
as the vocal French preacher of the early 12th
century Peter of Bruys, who publicly voiced his
opposition to the baptism of infants, the building
LEFT of new churches, the worship of the cross and
Saint Francis of prayers for the dead in the southern provinces of
Assisi founded the Daupiné and Languedoc.
Franciscan Order
Even faced with such brazen provocation,
RIGHT Dominic for now, the Church largely stayed its hand. In
of Caleruega was
the founder of
any case, when it came to Bruys, there was no
the Dominican need: while burning crosses in the commune of
Order, who would St Gilles in 1131, the outspoken priest would be
become feared
overseers of the hurled onto his own bonfire by an angry Catholic
Inquisition mob. As the Primitive Baptist Library of Carthage,

11
 The war on heresy

Seeking a more structured

approach to the pursuit of
heretics, in the 1230s Pope
Gregory IX enlisted the
Dominican Order

12
The origins of the Inquisition

Elected three years earlier at Velletri, Pope

Lucius III’s seismic Ad abolendam papal bull
– its title translating as ‘towards abolishing’ –
represented a strategy to counter the growing
threat of non-Catholic Christian practices that was
at once theologically motivated, politically astute
and highly practical for a body seeking to assert
its iron rule.
“Ad abolendam condemned all beliefs and
practices incompatible with the teachings of the
Roman Church, and excommunicated dissenters,”
writes the Polish historian Pawel Kras in his book
The System of the Inquisition in Medieval Europe.
“Excommunication applied to all who favoured or
supported heretics.”
The most important strand of Pope Lucius’
papal bull was to establish the first of the
medieval inquisitions, known as the Episcopal
Inquisition (so-called because it was administered
by bishops, or an ‘episcopus’ in Latin). Contrary
to our modern perception of cruelty above all
else, the Inquisition – at least in this early form

“The Inquisition – in
this early form –
was not necessarily
intended to harm”
– was not necessarily intended to harm. In fact,
the guiding principle was to better comprehend
the factors that led an individual to lapse
from Catholic orthodoxy and return them to a
righteous path. “The Inquisition was not born out
of desire to crush diversity or oppress people; it
was rather an attempt to stop unjust executions,”
writes the historian Thomas Madden. “The
simple fact is that the medieval inquisition saved
uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-
so-innocent) people who would otherwise have
been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.”
The Episcopal Inquisition had many moving
parts. By dividing responsibilities between the
clergy (who were tasked with verifying charges
and correcting heretics) and secular officers (who
assigned punishments for those who would not
recant their wayward beliefs), Ad abolendam
demanded synergy across every strata of
Catholic society.
“Heresy charges could be reviewed by
ecclesiastical courts alone,” writes Kras.
“Individuals suspected of heresy had to prove
their innocence through a procedure called
canonical purgation. Heretics who demonstrated
contrition and declared themselves willing to
reconcile with the Church had their sentence
of excommunication lifted and were given
Images: Getty Images; Alamy

appropriate penance. By contrast, those who

defended their views obstinately or returned to
heresy in spite of an earlier reconciliation were
to be excommunicated and handed over to the
secular authorities.”

13
 The war on heresy

LEFT even the notion of purgatory and the offering of

A torture chair
of the type used
prayers to the dead.
by medieval Perhaps most dangerous of all, the Waldensians
inquisitors. To shunned the veneration of saints and questioned
add to a heretic’s
agony, the steel the sacramental authority of the clergy. From the
nails could be movement’s epicentre, represented by Waldo and
heated from below his followers – dubbed the ‘poor of Lyon’ – arms
BOTTOM LEFT of the Waldensian movement were soon detected
In 1184, Pope in northern France, Flanders, Spain, Germany,
Lucius III issued
the Ad abolendam
southern Italy and even Eastern European
papal bull that enclaves like Hungary and Poland.
would lead to the For the Church, this proliferation could not
first Episcopal
Inquisition stand. Pope Lucius’ Ad abolendam of 1184 had
already excommunicated the Waldensians. By
BOTTOM RIGHT the turn of the century, Pope Innocent III began
The heretic
preacher Peter of turning words into brutal deeds; in 1211, over 80
Bruys – a thorn in members of the sect were burnt at the stake in
the Church’s side
in the early 12th
Strasbourg, and with the Fourth Lateran Council
century – is burnt of 1215 officially labelling the group as heretics,
by a Catholic mob the Waldensians would know no peace for years
to come. As for Waldo, he would be mockingly
immortalised as a gargoyle on Lyon Cathedral,
depicted as an empty-headed charlatan shouting
into the heavens rather than kneeling before God.
No heretical sect was spared condemnation had formed the spiritual world while a second
in Ad abolendam, with the Humiliati, Arnoldists nefarious deity had created the material world
and Josephines all singled out. (It should also – and rejected the physical realm to the point of
be noted that the consequences were severe poverty and near-starvation. Just as alarming
for public figures perceived not to throw their to the Church, the Cathars’ refusal to take oaths
support behind the papal bull, with counts, put them at odds with the religious homogeny of
barons, rectors and others threatened with the age. As covered in more detail elsewhere in
excommunication and the seizing of their these pages, in 1209, Pope Innocent III began a
territories). But of most pressing concern, and punishing 20-year campaign against the renegade
the chief impetus behind the decree, were the sect, known as the Albigensian Crusade.
Cathars (a religious movement first acknowledged However, as Mark Cartwright of World History
in southern France around the 1140s) and the writes, the Church would ultimately find the
Waldensians (whose influence in northern Italy pen mightier than the sword in the annihilation
was unacceptable to the Church by 1170). of the Cathars. “The Cathars were not wiped
Believed to have been founded by returning out [by the Albigensian Crusade] and their
crusaders who fell under the sway of the Bogomil churches and institutions continued in the
sect of Byzantine Bulgaria, the Cathars subscribed region, albeit on a reduced scale. An inquisition
to dualism – the notion that one benevolent God was launched but its aim was to convert through
argument, not violence; one of its effects being
the establishment of a university at Toulouse in
1229. This intellectual approach was slower but
far more successful than the crusades and by
the first quarter of the 14th century the Cathars
ceased to exist as an organised and distinct body
of believers.”
Originating in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
region of France, meanwhile, the Waldensian
movement was also a thorn in the Church’s
flesh that demanded plucking. Born in 1140,
and believed to have been at one time a
wealthy merchant, Peter Waldo had renounced
his possessions and begun preaching in 1170,
alarming the ecclesiastical authorities with his
lack of theological training and his translation of
the Bible from its original Latin text. Condemned
by the archbishop of Lyon and called to Rome for
an audience with Pope Alexander III that ended
in an impasse, the Waldensians had further
enraged the Church by rejecting some of the
seven sacraments, the use of indulgences, and

14
 The origins of the Inquisition

“The Dominican friar Robert Le Bougre cut

a swathe through the ranks of heretics in
northern France, sending 183 unbelievers to
the flames in a single week”
The Episcopal Inquisition had been intended preaching orders and posted these friars around
as a coordinated strike against heresy, yet in Europe to counter heretic movements by any
practice, the Church’s opening salvo had often means necessary.
been haphazard. With individual bishops Established in 1209 by the mystic Italian friar
responsible for heresy in their own diocese, Francis of Assisi, the Franciscan Order’s extreme
and each taking a different line, there was little degree of observance made them a natural choice
uniformity and no clear means for the Church for the pursuit of heretics. Founded in Toulouse
to gauge progress. With the rise to power of by the Spanish priest Dominic of Caleruega, and
Pope Gregory IX and the advent of his Papal approved by Pope Honorius III in December 1216,
Inquisition of the 1230s, however, the Church the Dominican Order is today celebrated for its
became ever more rigorous and precise in its intellectual tradition, due to the association with
pursuit of heretics. such famed scholars as Albertus Magnus and
Where the bishops had failed, Gregory drew Thomas Aquinas. Yet the Papal Inquisition would
a number of dedicated papal inquisitors from give the Dominicans far darker connotations.
the ranks of the Dominican and Franciscan Not for nothing was the order’s name adapted
to ‘domini canes’ (translation, God’s dogs) and
slathering canine statues placed on church roofs
across Europe to mark their involvement in the
nightmarish years ahead. Peter Waldo was the leader
of the heretic Waldensian
The process of inquisition was often only as sect who awoke the
violent as the heretic was resolute. In principle, a Church’s ire in the late
12th century
swift confession could result in a mild sentence,
with more serious punishments ranging from life
imprisonment to the seizure of possessions. But the instruments were frequently sprinkled with
in the more likely event that a heretic refused to holy water.”
acquiesce, the physical consequences knew no For those heretics who held out in the face of
limits. The first handbook of Inquisitorial such agonies, an existing papal statute prescribed
practice was issued in around 1248, and four burning at the stake. Priests would delegate this
years later Pope Innocent IV sanctioned his task to civil officers in order to remain one step
envoys to torture with impunity. In dimly lit, removed from the blood-letting. Even so, many of
blood-streaked chambers across the towns of the Church’s inquisitors carved themselves into
Europe, this was a licence seized with both hands the annals for the brutality of their methods. The
by the papal inquisitors, with heretics given a Dominican friar Robert Le Bougre cut a swathe
slender chance to recant their spiritual crimes through the ranks of heretics in northern France,
before the era’s most ghoulishly inventive torture sending 183 unbelievers to the flames in a single
methods began. week, while in Germany, Conrad of Marburg
Most often, the inquisitors’ opening gambit employed the stake almost indiscriminately,
was to stuff their victims’ mouths with cloth often without even hearing the defendants’
so as to muffle the agonised shrieks. Torture cases, and lived by the maxim that “I would burn
sessions could routinely last four hours. “The one hundred innocents if there was one guilty
thumbscrew was usually the first to be applied,” amongst them.”
writes the Swiss historian Walter Nigg. “The The first chapters of the Catholic Church’s
fingers were placed in clamps and the screws crackdown on heresy had been terrifying, yet
turned until the blood spurted out and the bones the Inquisitions would only grow more feverish
were crushed. and less morally disciplined in the years ahead.
“The defendant might be placed on the iron Soon to alight on myriad atrocities – from the
torture chair,” he continues, “the seat of which imprisonment and torture of thousands of
consisted of sharpened iron nails that could members of the Knights Templar in 1307 to the
be heated red-hot from below. There were the barbaric murder of Joan of Arc in 1431 – and with
so-called ‘boots’, which were employed to the malevolent buzz of the Spanish Inquisition
Images: Getty Images; Alamy

crush the shinbones. Another favourite torture growing deafening by 1478, the ‘abolition’ cited
was dislocation of the limbs on the rack or the by Pope Lucius III’s earth-shaking papal bull was
wheel on which the heretic – bound hand and becoming a reality faster than anyone had hoped
foot – was drawn up and down while the body or feared. In time it would come to consume the
was weighted with stones. During the procedure, lives of countless more souls.

15
 The War on Heresy

Arnaud Amalric
approaching Béziers
with the crusading
army in 1209

16
 CRUSHING
THE CATHARS
Concerned by a perceived wave of heresy
sweeping across southern France, Pope Innocent
III launched a brutal campaign that led to
widespread slaughter
Written by Callum McKelvie

F
rom 1209 to 1229, medieval France which they could financially support themselves,
became the site of a brutal campaign of a decision aimed at preventing the faith being
slaughter and destruction. The Catholic monetised. Some 50 per cent of the perfecti
Church was increasingly concerned were female (known as perfectae) and unlike
about the popularity of Catharism, a in Catholicism were able to preach their belief.
Gnostic movement that flourished in southern Also, unlike Catholicism, which delivered its
France and northern Italy. When the papal legate biblical teachings exclusively in Latin, preachers
sent to suppress the Cathars was murdered, Pope of Catharism were instead happy to preach in the
Innocent III launched a savage crusade to destroy language of the people, perhaps explaining why
these ‘heretics’ once and for all. This crusade the religion spread so quickly.
would lead to a wave of destruction across Many of these ideas and concepts were highly
France, with the Cathars’ ultimate extinction offensive to the Catholic Church. Additionally,
coming at the hands of the Inquisition. the growing popularity of Catharism began to
Catharism began in the Languedoc, a region in concern Pope Innocent III, as it was thought
southern France. Also known as ‘Albigensians’, that, if something was not done, then it could
due to many of its followers living in the city potentially replace Catholicism as the dominant
of Albi, the Cathars were a dualist religion and religion in Europe. Innocent III dispatched his
believed that there were two gods, one good papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, to speak to
and one evil. The former was the creator of the the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VI. The count
spiritual realm, while the latter had dominion was considered to not be treating the Cathars
over the Earth, and as such they viewed the firmly enough and allowing heresy to thrive on
material world as evil. While the Cathars followed his lands. As a result, in May of 1207, he had
the teachings of Jesus as the basis for how to been excommunicated.
live a spiritually fulfilling life, they rejected the De Castelnau met with Raymond in 1208
eucharistic notions of the Catholic Church and but the occasion quickly turned frosty. On his
the concept of Jesus having been human. To return to Rome following the meeting Pierre de
them he was a purely spiritual being. Castelnau was ambushed by an assassin and
Cathar priests were known as perfecti, or stabbed by a sword between his ribs. As he lay
perfects, lived a strict life of celibacy and were dying he is alleged to have murmured repeatedly,
pescatarian, meaning they were not allowed to “May God forgive you, even as I forgive you.”
consume animal products, including cheeses, Raymond VI was immediately blamed for de
eggs and fats, with the exception of fish. Castelnau’s death by Innocent III, though it was
Additionally, they had other occupations through never actually proven that he had played any

17
 The war on heresy

part. However, this appears to have been the Cathars, a direct threat had now been placed on
moment that Innocent III had been waiting for. their lands by the Pope.
De Castelnau was now a martyr whose death was Arnaud Amalric (also known as Arnaud
to be avenged and the heretics behind it wiped Amaury), the leader of the Cistercian Order and
out completely. the abbot of Cîteaux, was chosen to be the man
In order to achieve this, Innocent III unleashed in charge of the crusade. In 1209 he assembled
a crusade against the Cathars and attempted to his troops and by the summer of that year had
enlist the support of Philip Augustus, King of begun to push slowly into the Languedoc. One
France. Although Augustus declined, he did allow of the key knights on the crusade was Simon
several of the country’s more powerful barons de Montfort, who had taken part in the Fourth
and landowners to participate. Widespread Crusade in Jerusalem, notably being involved in
support was guaranteed by a papal decree, which the Siege of Zara.
stated that the lands of the supposed heretics The first major battle and the first key victory
once confiscated by the crusaders could then for the crusading army came in July of 1209 at
remain in their possession. Many French lords Béziers, a city in the Occitanie region, which had
in the south immediately became disturbed by become a major stronghold for the Cathars. The
this; while they themselves may not have been army easily captured the city, after which a brutal

18
 Crushing the Cathars

took their name. De Montfort was chosen as

“It was a savage the new leader of the crusade, but Amalric still
yielded a great deal of power and remained
episode in the conflict deeply committed to its cause, accompanying
the crusaders in their subsequent battles. With
that demonstrated a harsh winter drawing ever closer, de Montfort
slowed the campaign. With many of his crusaders
the greed of the returning home, he was obliged to concentrate
his forces on retaining the land they had already
crusading knights” conquered. By spring of the next year, with
a fresh force of crusaders at his disposal, he
their undergarments, or as one contemporary marched his army toward Lastours. The town of
chronicler put it, “carrying nothing but their sins”, Minerve, although not strategically important,
leaving all personal belongings for the crusaders. was treated particularly brutally, with de Montfort
It was a savage episode in the conflict that under pressure from Amalric to enact a harsh
demonstrated the greed of the crusading knights. punishment. Some 140 ‘heretics’ were burnt at
In 1209, following the fall of Carcassonne, and the stake.
just a year after the crusade had begun, a slew of According to Nils Visser, the crusade at this
important towns surrendered without conflict, point had become “a blatant attempt by de
including Albi, from which the Albigensians Montfort and Amaury to dispossess Raymond VI”,

LEFT
The walls of
the city of
Carcassonne,
attacked in 1209
as part of the
Albigensian
Crusade

INSET A
depiction of
Pope Innocent
III, who began
the Albigensian
Crusade

RIGHT A portrait
of Simon de
Montfort, who led
the Albigensian
Crusade

massacre took place, with some sources stating

that up to 20,000 people were slaughtered.
Amalric, when asked how his troops could
differentiate between the Cathars and Catholics,
is famously said to have stated, “Kill them all,
God will know his own."
Following the brutality at Béziers, Amalric
marched his army 45 miles to Carcassonne.
Unlike Béziers, this was a formidable fortress of
a town, well defended and prepared after the
horrific violence that had consumed the former
city. For over two weeks the crusaders laid siege
to the town, cutting off its access to the river
that supplied fresh water. Finally, terms for a
surrender were agreed. The inhabitants could
all leave Carcassonne with their lives. However,
they were instructed to do so wearing only

19
 The war on heresy

MASSACRE
AT BÉZIERS
The bloody opening to the
Albigensian Crusade led
to the slaughter of 20,000
inhabitants at Béziers

On 21 July 1209 the crusaders, led by Arnaud

Amalric, the Abbot of Cîteaux, arrived at the
city of Béziers. The city was placed under siege,
and when the defenders left their positions in
an attempted sortie, they were forced back.
Seeing their chance, a group of mercenaries
hired by the crusaders, also known as routiers,
forced their way into the city. They ran through
the streets, killing mercilessly and stealing
whatever they could find as those outside finally
broke the city’s defences. The mercenaries
found the churches where the innocent were
hiding in terror and slaughtered all inside – men,
women and children. The knights forced the
mercenaries to hand over their takings, and in “Some 200 perfects
retaliation the mercenaries ignited fires around
the city. refused to submit to
At one point during the onslaught the abbot
of Cîteaux is said to have been asked by a monk
how the crusaders could discern Cathars from
the demands of the
Catholics. The abbot responded coldly, “Kill
them all, God will know his own.”
Catholics and were
Following the barbarous attack the crusaders
fled the now-raging fires. Anyone who didn’t
burnt on a vast pyre”
manage to escape perished in the flames. In
all, some 20,000 people are said to have been In 1215, de Montfort was able to take Toulouse.
massacred within the city. The town was gifted to him, and he was even
named the Count of Toulouse. But for the
crusaders, trouble was on the horizon. By 1216
Raymond VI and his son had cobbled together a
force out of the survivors and begun a rebellion
designed to take back the lands that had been
lost to them. They had some success, humiliating
Simon by recapturing Toulouse. De Montfort laid
siege to the city for several months, seemingly
determined to win back his prize and perhaps
his pride. However, no man was indestructible,
with Amaury attempting to declare himself Duke and according to historian Christine Caldwell, on
of Narbonne, as well as its abbot, in 1212. The 25 June 1218, he was killed by a rock to the head.
Cathars now sought assistance from King Peter This was purportedly fired by a group of women
II of Aragon, the brother-in-law of Raymond VI. using a catapult, as legends state that much of
Peter had previously attempted to convince Pope the artillery during the battle was operated by
Innocent to intervene, pointing out the sheer batteries of women.
carnage the crusaders were unleashing. Realising For the following decade, the crusade appears
that his attempts were coming to nothing, Peter to have become something of a war between
arrived in Toulouse, took charge of all forces and feuding families. Simon’s son, Amaury de
marched on Muret, a fortified town. Despite the Montfort, led several armies alongside Prince
vast forces of the Albigensian coalition, chaos Louis as his father Philip refused to be personally
struck when Peter was killed. The battle was involved. In 1222, Raymond VI died and his son
A depiction of the chaos and slaughter during the another victory for de Montfort, one that left the Raymond VII became count. King Philip II died
Massacre at Béziers in July 1209 rebelling armies in confusion and forced both the following year, but his successor, King Louis
Raymond VI and his son, Raymond VII, to flee to VIII, continued the fight against the Cathars,
England in 1214. leading a new expedition to Languedoc in 1226.

20
 Crushing the Cathars

LEFT
Raymond
VII receiving
absolution from
King Louis IX of
France following
the Treaty of Paris

BELOW LEFT
The ruins of
Montségur
Castle as they
stand today

FAR RIGHT
During the fall
of Carcassonne
the inhabitants
were allowed to
live as long as
they fled with
nothing but their
undergarments

ABOVE
RIGHT Pierre
de Castelnau
chastising
Raymond VI for
not persecuting
the Cathars in
his lands

BELOW RIGHT
Simon de Montfort
is killed after
being hit by a rock
during the Siege of
Toulouse in 1218

He would perish in that same year, making his 400 people suspected to have been sheltering and all remaining Cathars were forced to go into
12-year-old son, Louis IX, king. For two more within its walls. On 2 March 1244, those inside hiding to evade the Church’s clutches.
years the war would drag out, with historian surrendered. If they swore an oath to the Church During the 1290s the powers of the Inquisition
Helen J Nicholson stating the crusaders used “a and submitted to questioning by the Inquisition, were limited by King Philip IV, but they
scorched-earth policy so that the Albigensians’ then they would be allowed to go free. However, returned when he became disturbed by rising
resources were gradually destroyed”. if they refused to recant then they would be anti-monarchist sentiment. In 1308, Bernard
In 1229, the Treaty of Paris officially brought burned as heretics. Some 200 perfects refused to Gui became the inquisitor of Toulouse. He
the conflict to an end. Under its terms Raymond submit to the demands of the Catholics, and on would imprison suspected heretics for many
VII was to give over half of his lands, pledge to 16 March they were burnt on a vast pyre erected years in order to obtain a confession, noted by
quell any further rebellion, and his daughter was outside of the castle walls. the historian James Given as an interrogation
to marry Louis’ brother. Following this event, there was little refuge technique that reached back to the early days of
Despite the military campaign having ended, for any remaining Cathars. Many were betrayed the Inquisition’s role in the Languedoc. Under
Pope Gregory IX was aware that there were still by their families, as happened to Peter Garcias, Gui, Catharism was essentially wiped out.
pockets of Cathars within France. By 1233, the who confided in his cousin over dinner only There are aspects of the Albigensian Crusade
Grand Inquisition had been established, its role to have a curtain whipped back to reveal his that continue to divide historians. Indeed, at the
to eliminate all heretics. In the Languedoc, the testimony being transcribed. Bernard of Caux and beginning of the 21st century, historians such
Dominican Order was placed in charge. Perceived John of St Pierre headed this brutal clampdown, as RI Moore and Mark Pegg questioned whether
heretics faced two choices they could repent and managing to obtain the services of perfects who Catharism existed as an organised religion at all
would then be punished and face charges such allowed fugitives to shelter in their homes and or whether there were multiple groups of dualists
as a pilgrimage, or they could deny the heresy. If immediately handed them over to the forces in the south of France. However, the crusade
this occurred they would be tortured, imprisoned of the Inquisition. Although there was still itself seems almost universally considered an
and lose their personal belongings and property. resistance the Inquisition proved too strong, extraordinarily brutal campaign, excessive in
If, even after this ordeal, they refused to repent, and even figures such as Raymond VII became its use of terror and violence. In his article The
Images: Getty Images; Alamy

then they would be burnt at the stake. vicious towards the heretics, burning them even Albigensian Crusades: Wars Like Any Other?,
During this period Montségur Castle became after they had confessed and repented. Malcolm Barber stated “the unavoidable
a stronghold for Cathars fleeing the flames of Quéribus, the final Cathar stronghold, which collective impression is that this was a conflict in
the Inquisition. From May 1243 to March 1244 had been managing to hold out despite the forces which all the normal conventions of warfare in
the castle was placed under siege, with some massing against it, eventually fell in August 1255 the early thirteenth century were abandoned.”

21
 BETRAYAL
OF THE
KNIGHTS
TEMPLAR
In seven years the Order was hunted,
dismantled and executed. Was this
justice for their sacrilegious practices, or
were they the victims of a twisted plot?

J
acques de Molay was calm. Through year you will answer for your crimes before
seven long years of accusations, the presence of god!” After these final words
trials, torture, denials and De Molay fell silent, and the flames claimed
confessions, he had been anything his soul.
but calm, but as the frail, bearded Before the year was over, Pope Clement
man was led out onto the Île aux and Philip IV were dead. Clement finally
Juifs on the Seine, he did not weep succumbed to a long illness on 20 April 1314,
or tremble. A crowd had gathered to watch the and the French king died after a hunting
old man die, and a pyre had been erected on accident on 29 November 1314, aged just 46.
the small island, ready to be lit and claim his De Molay’s order was all but extinct, but the
soul. De Molay was stripped of the rags that curse of the last Grand Master of the Knights
were once clothes, down to his threadbare Templar would live on in infamy.
shirt, then the guards strapped his thin, pale Jacques de Molay’s famous last words may
body to the stake. Finally, the silent man not have actually been spoken by the Grand
spoke. He asked to be turned to face the Master himself. Like so many aspects of the
cathedral of Notre-Dame and that his hands be Knights Templar, they have been distorted
freed so he could die in prayer. These requests by myth and legend, and today we just don’t
were granted, and De Molay bowed his head know if he cursed his betrayers with his
in silent prayer as the pyre was lit. The flames dying breath. Thanks to their sudden and
grew fast, and as the tongues of fire lashed dramatic fall, an array of rumours, myths
up around his body, he spoke once more, his and conspiracies have persisted about the
voice rising above the crackle of the flames. mysterious order, obscuring their true humble
“God knows who is in the wrong and has beginnings and devastating end that rocked
sinned!” he proclaimed. “Misfortune will soon 14th-century Europe.
befall those who have wrongly condemned us; After the city of Jerusalem was captured
god will avenge our deaths. Make no mistake, by Christian forces in the First Crusade,
all who are against us will suffer because of many European pilgrims chose to make the
us!” The flames rose higher, but the pain did journey to the Holy Land. However, this
not tell on his face. “Pope Clement, King Philip route was not safe for Christians to travel
– hear me now!” his voice roared. “Within a along, so several knights charged themselves

22
Betrayal of the Knights Templar
KEY
FIGURES
The men who destroyed
the Order, and those who
fought to defend it

Jacques
de Molay
1243 – 18 MARCH 1314
The 23rd and last Grand
Master of the Knights
Templar. Little is known
of De Molay’s early life, but
he subsequently became the
most well-known Templar. He
aimed to reform the Order, a goal he
was never able to fulfil.

Philip IV
of France
1268 – 29 NOVEMBER 1314
Also known as the Iron
King, Philip led France
from a feudal country to
a centralised state. He had
great belief in an all-powerful
monarchy, and it was his ambition
to fill thrones worldwide with his relatives.
As well as destroying the Knights Templar, he
also expelled Jews from France.

Pope
Clement V
1264-1314
Born Raymond Bertrand
de Got, Clement was
made pope on 5 June
1305. There is some
dispute over his loyalty to
Philip IV, with some painting
him as nothing but a tool for the French
king, while others believe he showed
surprising resistance. Either way, he is now
remembered as the pope who suppressed
the Knights Templar.

Guillaume
de Nogaret
1260–1313
Keeper of the seal to
Philip IV of France,
Guillaume had previously
played a role in the dispute
between Philip and Pope
Boniface, apparently persuading
the king to kidnap the pope. He also had a
central part in the fall of the Knights Templar,
forcing members to give testimony against
the Order.

Geoffroi de
Charney
UNKNOWN – 1314
Serving as preceptor of
Normandy, Charney was
a member of the Knights
Templar from a young age
and rose through the ranks.
Like much of his order, he was
arrested, tortured and confessed to various
charges, then later retracted his statement.
Charney was the only one of the three senior
leaders arrested to rally by his master’s side
and deny the charges.

23
 The war on heresy

Grand
TEMPLAR Master
The Grand Master

HIERARCHY was the supreme

authority of the
Knights Templar
Although they’re remembered as and answered
only to the pope.
knights, the Templars were a slick The role of Grand
organisation, and each man had his Master was a
lifelong one, but
role to play to keep it operating Grand Masters
often fought and
died in battle,
Seneschal making the position
Also known as the anything but safe.
grand commander,
the seneschal was the
Grand Master’s right-
hand man and adviser.
He was responsible for
many administrative
duties; during peacetime
he would manage the
Order’s lands, and in war
he would organise the
movement of men
and supplies.

Marshal
The marshal was in control of everything to do with
war. He was responsible for all the arms and horses,
as well as a host of other military matters. The Grand
Master would consult with the marshal before going
ahead with any battle tactics.

Commanders
of lands
There were commanders
of three lands:
Jerusalem, Antioch and
Tripoli. The commander
of Jerusalem also acted
as treasurer, while the
other commanders
had specific regional
responsibilities
according to their cities.
They were responsible
for the Templar
houses, farms and
castles in their regions.

Commanders
of knights,
houses and
farms
Answering to the
commanders of lands,
these Templars were
responsible for various
estates, ensuring that
day-to-day operations
Knights and sergeants ran smoothly. The
The main bulk of the Order’s military might, knights were of noble position was filled by a
birth and donned the famous white mantle. Sergeants also fought knight or sergeant.
in battle but were not of noble birth and thus ranked lower than
knights, wearing a black or brown mantle instead.

24
 Betrayal of the Knights Templar

with protecting the roads from robbers and Templar presences began to feel uneasy . With
brigands. This guild of knights was founded their power, what was to stop the Templars
on Christmas Day 1119 on the spot that marks supporting baronial uprisings in their own
the place where Jesus was crucified. As their territories? The Templars had also been very
headquarters were located on the Temple vocal in their desire to form their own state,
Mount, they became known as ‘Knights of the similar to Prussia’s Teutonic Knights and the
Temple’, or the Knights Templar. Knights Hospitaller, another Catholic military
Although the Order began in virtual order in Rhodes.
poverty, relying on donations to survive, it In 1305, De Molay received a letter from
quickly became one of the most powerful Pope Clement V, then based in France,
monastic orders in the medieval world. concerning the possibility of merging the
With papal approval, money, land and Templars with the Hospitaller. De Molay was
eager young noblemen poured into the ardently against the idea, but in 1306 Clement
Templars’ resources. Serving as the West’s invited both Grand Masters to France to
first uniformed standing army in their white discuss the issue further, instructing them
tunics emblazoned with a fiery red cross, the to “come hither without delay, with as much
Templars achieved legendary status in battle. secrecy as possible”.
This reputation as god’s warriors was De Molay arrived in 1307, but Foulques de
encouraged by their victory at the Battle Villaret, the leader of the Hospitaller, was
of Montgisard, where 500 Templars helped either delayed or sensed something was
an army numbering a few thousand defeat amiss, as he did not arrive, and while the pope
26,000 of Saladin’s soldiers. and De Molay waited, an entirely different
As well as being a mighty subject of discussion was raised.
military force, they also Two years previously, an
controlled a vast financial
Holy Grail ousted Templar had accused
The Holy Grail is perhaps the
network, which has item that the Templars are most the Order of many criminal
been recognised as closely associated with. From Wolfram von charges, and although
Eschenbach’s medieval romance Parzival to Dan
the world’s first they were generally
Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, throughout history the
modern banking Templars have been linked to the mysterious relic. Often believed to be false,
system. Many in fiction the Templars are portrayed as the guardians of the King Philip IV of
nobles who cup that Jesus used in the Last Supper, or even a deep and France had recently
dramatic secret. Interestingly, the city in which the Templars
wished to join the were launched, Troyes, is also the place that the very first brought them back
crusades placed grail romance was written. Any actual link between the into discussion. De
their wealth under Templars and the grail likely emerged due to the fact that Molay, tiring of the
stories of the grail began to become popular in the 12th
the control of the and 13th centuries, when the Templars were at the
ludicrous accusations,
Templars, who then height of their power. Although they were part of asked Clement to look
issued them with society, the Templars were shrouded in secrecy into the matter to rid
letters of credit. This even in their day, so it is no wonder such him of the whole messy
a mysterious vessel was linked to
could be used at Templar the Order. situation. On 24 August,
houses around the world to Clement wrote to Philip,
‘withdraw’ their funds. By the saying that he did not believe the
13th century, the Templars were one of accusations but would start an inquiry “not
the most powerful and wealthy organisations without great sorrow, anxiety and upset of
in the world, entirely unaware that a dramatic heart,” and advised Philip to take no further
TOP Hundreds and terrible fate awaited them. However, it action. Philip did not listen. At dawn on Friday
of Templars would not be the Muslims in the East who 13 October, the king’s forces arrested every
were burned at would bring about their downfall but their Templar they could find in France.
the stake on the
orders of Philip IV fellow Christians in the West. Philip IV’s harsh actions were not
of France After the fall of Acre in 1291, the West lost unprecedented; he had a reputation as a
LEFT De Molay
its last Christian possessions in the Holy Land. rash and violent king. Philip had previously
was forced to sign The Templars were cast out from the lands clashed with Pope Boniface VIII and launched
a letter asking they’d once protected and lost their raison an anti-papal campaign against him. Believing
all Templars to
confess to the d’être. When Jacques de Molay ascended as France should have centralised royal power,
charges Grand Master in 1293, he had one goal in mind the feud escalated and ended with Philip
– to reclaim what the Templars had lost. De attempting to kidnap the pope in 1303 to
Molay travelled across the West to rustle up bring him to France to face charges of heresy.
support; he received it from Pope Boniface The shock ultimately killed Boniface, whose
and Edward I of England. But the crusade successor, Benedict XI, was then only in the
was a disaster, and De Molay lost 120 knights position for nine months before his own
trying to land in Syria. In 1306, the Templars death. This allowed the king to appoint his
supported a coup in Cyprus that forced Henry selection, Clement, to the papacy. Philip
II to abdicate in favour of his brother. had also previously arrested wealthy Italian
These actions did not go by unnoticed. bankers in the city, stripping them of their
Many monarchs in countries with powerful assets; then his target switched to the Jews,

25
 The war on heresy
Shroud of Turin
The rumour that the Knights Templar
secretly hid – and even worshipped – the

IN NUMBERS
Shroud of Turin has more basis in fact than that of
the Holy Grail legend. This length of cloth appearing
to bear the face of Jesus was first put on display by
the family of Geoffroi de Charney, who was burned
at the stake with De Molay, which instantly links it with

20,000
the Templars. An accused Templar, Arnaut Sabbatier, also
claimed that during his initiation ceremony he was shown
“a long linen cloth on which was impressed the figure of a
man” and instructed to venerate the image by kissing its
feet three times. This has led many to conclude that the
icon the Templars were accused of worshipping was,
members at their peak in fact, the Turin Shroud. Radiocarbon dating of

54
the Shroud has found it dates from 1260–1390,

15
witnesses gave which fits neatly alongside this theory and
evidence against has led many people to claim the
the Order before figure is not that of Christ but
12 May 1310 – compared of De Molay.
to 198 after

Templars burned to
597
witnesses defended the
Order before 12 May 1310
death in May 1310 – compared to 14 after

9 knights were originally

gathered to protect pilgrims

200,000
livres paid by the Knights Hospitallers to
the French king as ‘compensation’
This painting was created when
rumours were rife that De Molay
had re-captured Jerusalem

who were thrown out of the kingdom, a This did little to help the brothers of the with rope that ran up a pulley, raising him
common occurrence throughout Europe temple. Some 15,000 Templars now resided in the air, then dropping him rapidly. The
during the Inquisition. in the prisons of France, many of whom were soles of prisoners’ feet were greased then set
These actions can be easily explained – not nobles or knights but mere farmers and alight with flame, teeth were pulled and limbs
Philip had inherited a kingdom on the brink of shepherds. De Molay didn’t escape capture were flayed. The men were confined to cold,
financial crisis, and he also believed that his either; just a day after acting as pallbearer dark cells, and those who did not survive the
authority was above that of the pope. Not only at the funeral of the king’s sister-in-law, the torture were secretly buried. One anonymous
did he owe the Templars a great deal of money, Grand Master was arrested along with the writer in 1308 wrote of the conditions in the
but their link to the Church made them the rest of his order. Philip seized their land and cells: “The human tongue cannot express
perfect choice for establishing the power of property and set about ensuring he obtained the punishment, afflictions, miseries, taunts,
the monarchy. With their plans to form their the confessions he needed to and dire kinds of torture suffered by the said
own state, the Order had unwittingly sealed smash the Order to pieces. innocents in the space of three
their own fate. The Templars had to fall in There was one very months, since the day of their
order for Philip to rise. simple way of acquiring arrest, since by day and night
When the Templars in France were arrested, confessions, and Philip constant sobs and sighs
the charges put against them were heresy, employed it to great have not ceased in their
sodomy, blasphemy and denying Christ. By success: torture. Philip’s cells, nor have cries and
charging them with heresy, Philip could paint inquisitors utilised a gnashing of teeth ceased in
himself as a soldier of Christ, similar to that variety of horrific and their tortures… Truth kills
of his sainted grandfather Louis IX. But his demoralising methods them, and lies liberate them
actions were a violation of the Church and to break a man’s will. from death.”
Rome’s orders, and Clement was furious. Philip The rack, which stretched It is of no surprise that when
had likely believed the pope to be a frail and a victim’s body and the Templars were brought to
infirm old man and certainly not a threat, but dislocated his joints, was trial, many confessed to the
Clement wrote angrily to Philip, accusing him frequently used, as was various offences put against
of violating every rule in this “act of contempt strappado, which involved them. The Order was faced
towards the Roman Church”. binding a victim’s hands with five initial charges: the

26
 Betrayal of the Knights Templar

THE
TEMPLARS
ACROSS
EUROPE
When the pope ordered Christian
monarchs across Europe to arrest
Templars, not all were willing

British Isles
Edward II was initially sceptical about
the Templars’ guilt and had no reason
to view them as a threat. He wrote to
the pope in defence of the Order but
was eventually forced to arrest and try
many Templars. Initially, torture was
not allowed and all the Templars pleaded innocent,
but when the pope’s inquisitors took over confessions
came fast. However, they were spared burning and
simply forced to repent publicly. Those who refused
were incarcerated until death.

Italy
The situation in Italy varied. The Papal States
unsurprisingly acted at once, but in Lombardy there
was widespread support for the
Order. For the number of Templars
confessing to the accusations, there
were just as many claiming that the
others were lying. In Florence, despite
using torture, only six out of 13
Templars confessed.
Pope Honorius II recognised the
Order of the Knights Templar at Cyprus
the Council of Troyes in 1129 King Amaury de Lusignan
had earned his crown thanks
to the Templars, so he was
renouncement of and spitting on the cross about turn. Safely away from Philip’s control, understandably reluctant to
during initiation; the kissing of the initiate De Molay retracted his confession, claiming arrest them. However, the leading
Templars were eventually incarcerated after putting up
on the navel, mouth and posteriors; the he only gave it initially due to the torture he a brave resistance. At trial there were many witnesses
permitting of homosexual acts; that the cord suffered. The other Templars followed suit, who praised the Templars, but the king was murdered
they wore had been wrapped around an and Philip’s plans for a swift and brutal end to during the trial and Henry II, enemy of the Templars,
regained the throne. Torture began almost immediately
idol they worshipped; and that they did not the Order vanished.
and many perished while protesting their innocence.
consecrate the host during mass. During the In an attempt to convince Clement, Philip
trials, the charges against the Templars grew visited him at Poitiers and sent 72 Templars to Portugal
in number, ranging from burning infants confess before him. He had his forces dispense The Templars in Portugal got off lightly
to abusing virgins and even forcing young pamphlets and give speeches concerning compared to their counterparts elsewhere.
King Denis I refused to persecute the Order
brethren to eat the ashes of the dead. Although the depravity of the Templars. Philip warned but could not overrule the papal bull to
these charges seem outrageous and somewhat that if the pope didn’t act he would have to abolish the Templars. Instead, the Templars
farfetched today, Philip was operating be removed in order to defend Catholicism. re-branded themselves as the ‘Order of
Christ’ with the assured protection of Denis
at a time when paranoia and suspicion Harangued, bullied and now under virtual
I, who also negotiated with Clement’s
surrounding god and the devil was so rife house arrest, Clement gave in and ordered successor for the Order to inherit the Templars’ assets.
that it could be reasonably believed that such an investigation into the Templars. De Molay
devilish practices had infiltrated the Church. and the other senior members retracted their Iberian Peninsula
In hearings presided over by the inquisitors retractions and Philip’s grand plans were in Despite initial doubts, James II of Aragon ordered the
arrest of most of the Templars on 6 January 1308,
who had overseen the torture, 134 of 138 motion once again.
before the pope ordered him to do so. However, many
brothers confessed to one or more of the The Templars had nothing in the form of of the Templars set up defences in their castles and
charges. De Molay himself signed a confession legal council; De Molay expressed desires to appealed for help, which unfortunately did not come.
after undergoing the flaying of his limbs defend his order but was unable to as a “poor, All of the Templars pleaded
their innocence. With torture
and testicles. This was quickly followed by unlettered knight”. In 1310, two Templars prohibited no confessions were
matching confessions from all senior members with legal training made an impressive secured, and no Templar was
of the Order. However, when Clement insisted defence against the charges, insisting that condemned to death for heresy.
the confessions be heard before a papal the Templars were not only innocent but also
committee, De Molay and his men did an at the sharp end of a cruel plot. The tide was

27
 The war on heresy

GUILTY OR
INNOCENT?
Was there any truth to the charges levelled
against the Knights Templar?

FOR AGAINST
Although often written as one Although De Molay confirmed
of Philip’s many trumped-up that spitting on the cross took
charges, there is evidence that place, chalking this up to heresy
this accusation had basis in shows a lack of understanding.
fact. Not only did a number of De Molay said these practices
Templars confess to it, but were designed to harden a
Philip’s spies, who secretly Templar to the torture he
joined the Order, would be subjected
confirmed it. A to by Saracens,
recent discovery SPITTING ON training them to
of the ‘Chinon
Parchment’ in the
THE CROSS deny their faith
“with the mind
Vatican library further only and not with the
validates the charges. heart”. Philip’s spies may
Under questioning in 1308, very well have witnessed
Jacques de Molay admitted to such acts, but they likely
such practices. misunderstood their purpose.

The charge put against Only nine Templars in the Paris

the Templars read, “They trials admitted to head worship,
surrounded or touched each and descriptions of this ‘idol’
head of the idols with small differed across Europe. In one
cords, which they wore around version it was “covered in old
themselves next to the shirt or skin, with two carbunkles for
the flesh.” Unlike Philip’s other eyes”. In another it was made
charges, this accusation of gold and silver; one had
was so specific to the three or four legs, while
Templars that it’s in another account the
difficult to believe
he didn’t have
WORSHIP OF head had horns.
These conflicting
some inside AN IDOL CALLED accounts heavily
information. Many
knights did admit to
BAPHOMET indicate that these
confessions were
worshipping this idol, the result of torture.
which usually took the This idol was allegedly
form of a life-sized head. We named ‘Baphomet’, but it
know for a fact that the Knights may be the case that this was a
Templar possessed heads, such mistranslation of ‘Mahomet’, i.e.
as the head of St Euphemia of Muhammad. Either way, if the
Chalcedon. The fact that the Templars did indeed worship
Order kept these heads means such an idol, it seems unusual
that they certainly could have that their temples were not filled
worshipped them in some way. with clear symbols of this figure.

The charges the Templars This was the most common

faced were that “they told the accusation used during this
brothers whom they received era to discredit or ruin anyone.
they could have carnal relations Philip had already charged Pope
together… that they ought to do Boniface VIII with very similar
and submit to this mutually”. accusations, and it seemed
As the Templars took vows to be his favourite tool to
of celibacy and were not use against his enemies
permitted to wed, it as it was difficult to
was believed that disprove. However,
they engaged
in homosexual
HOMOSEXUALITY despite the
torture, only three
activity to satisfy Templars confessed
their desires. Although to sodomy in the Paris
few confessed, many trials. Although De Molay
testified that sexual activity was quick to confess to
was not prohibited. The fact that denying Christ, he vehemently
so many denied it under torture opposed this accusation, stating
is an indication of just how that the Templar rules clearly
shamefully sodomy was viewed, prohibit any such behaviour
giving the Templars all the more with harsh punishment, such as
reason to hide the truth. expulsion from the Order.

28
 Betrayal of the Knights Templar

LEFT Templars
would often
advance ahead
of the troops in
key battles of the
Crusades

RIGHT Pilgrims
risked being
robbed and
slaughtered on
their journey to
Jerusalem

BELOW LEFT
According to
legend, as he
burned at the
stake, Jacques de
Molay cursed King
Philip IV

BELOW The
Templars were
accused of
worshipping a
pagan idol called beginning to turn in the Templars’ favour, so protested their innocence. They denied their
Baphomet
Philip made a swift and brutal decision. On confessions, insisting their order was nothing
12 May 1310, 54 Templars who had previously but holy and pure. During seven years of
withdrawn their confessions were burned at imprisonment, De Molay had failed to defend
the stake as relapsed heretics and the two his order. Now he was doing it with his life.
Templar defenders disappeared from prison. This was completely unexpected and left
With nobody to defend them, the Templar the cardinals confused about what to do.
case crumbled. Under extreme pressure from When the news reached Philip, he was furious.
Philip and likely wishing to rid himself of He ruled that as the Templars were now
the whole matter once and for all, Clement professing their innocence, they were guilty
issued an edict that officially dissolved the of being relapsed heretics, the punishment
Order. This didn’t mean the brothers were for which was death. Before the end of the
guilty, but it was the end of the Knights day, De Molay and De Charney were dead.
Templar for good. Much to Philip’s Instead of living out his final days
annoyance, a second papal bull in disgrace, De Molay’s act of
was issued that transferred bravery led many to hail him
the Templars’ wealth to
French Revolution as a martyr.
When Louis XVI was executed by
the Hospitaller. Finally, the guillotine at the height of the French The remaining
the bull Considerantes Revolution, according to some sources a man Templars were not
jumped up onto the platform and dipped his fingers
Dudum allowed each in the blood. He then cried out “Jacques de Molay,
released from their
province to deal with thus you are avenged!” Then the crowd cheered. The monastic vows and
the Templars residing legend that the Templars would enact revenge upon many were subjected
there as they saw fit. the French monarchy who had damned them was a to penances such
popular rumour at the time, so speculation that they
The fate of the leaders, played a key part in starting the French Revolution as lengthy prison
however, was in the was rife. This legend works alongside the idea that sentences. Others joined
hands of the Church. the remaining Templars went underground to the Knights Hospitallers,
continue their work in secret, so it relies on
De Molay and three quite a leap of faith. But nevertheless,
and some were sent to live
of his senior members Jacques de Molay did indeed out their remaining days in
languished in prison, have his revenge. monasteries. Even with these
awaiting news of their fates. numbers accounted for, there are
Finally, on 18 March 1314, the leaders still questions over what happened
were led out to a platform in front of Notre to the tens of thousands of brothers across
Dame to hear their sentences. All four were old Europe. The Order’s archive was never found
men; De Molay was, by now, at least 70, while along with the majority of their treasures,
the others ranged from 50 to 60. Due to their leading many to believe that the Templars
earlier confessions, they were found guilty of received some sort of warning, allowing many
heresy and condemned to life imprisonment. to escape prior to the initial arrests.
© Alamy, Corbis, Getty Images, Joe Cummings

Two of the men silently accepted their fate, Various conspiracy theories regarding the
but faced with living out the rest of his life fate of the remaining Templars have been
starving in a dank, dark cell as the last leader concocted, from the proposition that they
of a humiliated and disgraced order, De escaped on a fleet of ships to western Scotland
Molay finally found his voice. To the shock to them becoming Swiss freedom fighters.
of the crowd and the horror of the cardinals, Although we do know the sad tale that ended
the Grand Master and his loyal master of the Order, the mystery of what became of the
Normandy, Geoffroi de Charney, loudly surviving Templars will likely never be solved.

29
 The War on Heresy

Gui wrote a number of

Latin works during the
Late Middle Ages

30
 BERNARD GUI
Meet the man who wrote the guidebook
for inquisitors everywhere
Written by Katharine Marsh

A
bove all else, Bernard Gui was a man was not to ask Christian heretics if they were
Gui died at Laroux Castle
of god. Born around 1261 or 1262 in subverting the true teachings of Christ, because in in 1331 (pictured), and his
the Limousin region of France, he their eyes they wouldn’t be lying if they said they body was transported
entered the Dominican monastery weren’t. Instead, he would question them on the to Limoges to be buried
in the Dominican
at Limoges in the early 1270s. individual tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, monastery there
His monastic career saw him study grammar, asking the heretic if they believe in them and
logic, philosophy and theology before taking on swear before God. If the question was dodged, the
administrative roles in Dominican houses across accused was indeed a heretic. If they swore falsely,
southern France. He became a prior in 1294 – and it became a legal matter with punishment handed
again at Carcassonne in 1297, Castres in 1301 and down by the secular institution.
Limoges in 1305. He would later become Bishop of When not in the pulpit, Gui was writing
Tui, but before that he had a more important role furiously. Alongside an illustrated genealogy of the
to play. kings of France and a list of sentences he handed
In 1307, Gui was given a monumental task: down through the inquisition, he penned Practica
heading up Toulouse’s inquisition as its chief inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, a comprehensive
inquisitor. That name wasn’t grand enough, manual for inquisitors. “A vigorous inquisitor
though – he styled himself ‘Friar Bernard Gui, must not allow himself to be worked upon…”
of the Order of Preachers, inquisitor of heretical he advises, “but proceed firmly till he make
depravity delegated to the kingdom of France by these people confess their error.” At a time when
the apostolic authority’. While everything in the inquisitors had no formal training, this five-part
title was true – he was asked to take up his mantle compendium – handily written in medieval Latin,
by popes Clement V and John XXII – it was still which educated inquisitors across Europe would
quite a mouthful. understand – contained interrogation guidance,
Travelling France and preaching hellfire for advice on penalties, and descriptions of the beliefs
sinners, Gui was known as one of the more zealous and practices of so-called heretics like the Cathars,
inquisitors of the time. His view was that the Waldensians, Pseudo-Apostles, Beguines and female. It was ritual chanting, conception magic
inquisition was more of a debate competition – the relapsed Jews. and fortune tellers who claimed to draw their
heretic wanted to conceal his wrongdoings, but the It seemed that converts to Judaism sparked a power from a pagan goddess.
inquisitor needed to convince an audience that the particular religious fervour in Gui. In his eyes, they In the Catholic crusade against heresy, Gui was a
heretic was really guilty. His signature technique threatened Christianity’s superiority with their general with God (and the pope, his representative
“intolerable blasphemy”. But some attention was on Earth) as his commanding officer. Below him
also given to “sorcerers, diviners and invokers of were inquisitors who he was all too ready to send
demons”, which has proven that inquisitions were into battle. In his eyes, perhaps the heretical
concerning themselves with witches more than resistance to the Catholic Church wouldn’t be so
150 years before the publication of the Malleus strong if kings didn’t keep interfering with the
maleficarum, or Hammer of Witches, by Kramer in Inquisition’s divine work.
1487. However, these weren’t the witches that had Today, Gui remains one of the most famous
orgies in the woods or baby-eaters – these were medieval inquisitors, and he was arguably one of
the people following pagan beliefs, “the weirding- the most influential thanks to his handbook. It was
women, called the good ones who, as they say, copied and read throughout medieval Europe and
go by night”. Necromancy was a big concern for it took 100 years for its contents to be superseded
the pope back in Rome, and guarding against – it was Catalan Nicholas Eymerich’s Directorium
that and invocations of demons was becoming Inquisitorum that would mostly replace it.
of utmost importance. Regardless, it seems as Gui saw prominence more recently as a
though Gui never actually tried a case of heretical secondary antagonist in Umberto Eco’s best-
sorcery himself. selling historical novel The Name of the Rose in
Six manuscripts of the Gender seemed to play a part in his rulings, 1980, adapted for TV as recently as 2019. While
Practica survive today.
They are housed in too. “Men are cross-examined in one way and inquisitions seem to be a part of the past, Gui’s
Toulouse, the Vatican women in another,” he wrote. We don’t know how name is nevertheless still bandied about today, as a
Images: Alamy

Library, the British

Museum and in Paris
differently they were treated, but the acts of folk book character, a brief reference in Les Misérables,
sorcery that seemed to be heretical were typically and even as a reference in a video game.

31
 DIRECTORIUM
INQUISITORUM
A GUIDE FOR INQUISITORS
Looking for some advice on how to get your
heretic to crack? Want to learn the ins and outs
of evil sorcery? One Spanish inquisitor had all the
answers you needed
Written by Katharine Marsh

I
f inquisitors were going to be able to do
their job properly, they needed a guide. In Eymerich touted the
benefits of torture for
Spain, it was the grand inquisitor of Aragon heretics and even found
who took this job upon himself, penning a loophole to allow
them to be tortured
the Directorium Inquisitorum around 1376. more than once
This man was Nicholas Eymerich, a Catholic
theologian native to northern Catalonia.
Influenced by other guides for inquisitors, like
the works of Bernard Gui, Eymerich was already a
known author, having written earlier in his life on
sorcery and the dangers it brought to society. His
hunt for witches came in handy when drafting
the Directorium Inquisitorum, in which he used
confiscated ‘magical’ texts to detail forbidden
practices that inquisitors needed to keep an
eye out for. This included putting salt on fires,
burning the bodies of animals, conjuring spirits
and chiromancy, or palmistry. There’s no doubt
that sorcery was considered a form of heresy at
the time – most Inquisitorial guides included it –
but Eymerich gave it special attention, splitting
it into three variants, drawing his ideas from the
Bible, Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas.
Making sacrifices and praying to or
worshipping devils was going to lead to a
conviction as the most serious form of heresy.
The second category involved talking about
devils alongside saints and angels, asking for heresy. In fact, he was one of the first to do so,
the intercession before God. Here, ‘Saracens’ and it kept the Directorium Inquisitorum in main
(or Muslims) were seen as heretics for their circulation in Europe well into the 17th century.
veneration of the prophet Muhammad – a His work would go on to influence texts like
hangover from the Reconquista. Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of the Witches)
Eymerich’s third category was reserved for and the European witch hunts.
any who sought help from a demon. Here he had But sorcery wasn’t Eymerich’s only topic of
the added benefit of being able to quote Pope fascination. His guide also delves into methods
Innocent V; according to him, if someone was able of extracting confessions from accused heretics –
to receive aid from a demon then they must have unfortunately for his victims, this involved some
entered into a pact with them. It was Eymerich outright torture as well as medieval psychological
who took this a step further and equated it to manipulation. Apparently “torture [was]

32
 Directorium Inquisitorum

Malleus Maleficarum found some inspiration from

Eymerich’s writings

deceptive and ineffectual”. Eymerich was also the

first to get around the Church’s ban on torturing
someone twice – for him, each instance of heresy
stood on its own, so the poor accused had to be
put through excruciating pain for each one.
He also detailed other groups that he
considered to be heretical. Jews and blasphemers
all fell under the jurisdiction of an inquisition,
following trends that had been started by others
and encouraged by Bernard Gui’s Practica
Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis, which was a
similar text written in the Languedoc region of
France half a century earlier.
But Eymerich also put forth yet more practical
advice: “The third part of this directory of the
office of inquisition is about the practice of that
office.” He details how to set up an inquisition
and how to carry out Inquisitorial duties, as
well as individual heresies. He also lays out
13 different ways cases can end, including the
suspect being absolved, canonically purged,
tortured or adjured.
Part of the reason Eymerich’s work remained
so popular over the centuries was its ability to
be used by an inquisitor anywhere in Europe.
Geographic terms were avoided, and Eymerich
looked at the heresies across the continent as a
whole rather than focusing on his area in Spain.
He also doesn’t consider other points of view – the
Directorium Inquisitorum is how he interprets the
heretical landscape and what he thinks should
be done about it, backed up by legal sources
that support his theological view. As a result, it
became a comprehensive guide as opposed to an
essay of arguments.
The Directorium Inquisitorum defined
the Spanish Inquisition. It was the definitive
handbook for inquisitors right into the 17th
century, reprinted several times over the years, The frontispiece of a 1607 edition of the
including one in Rome in 1578. Even when it fell Directorium Inquistorum, printed in Venice
out of circulation it still influenced texts about
witches and sorcery, keeping the fight against
that particular branch of heresy very much alive. “It was the definitive handbook for
It’s no wonder that his epitaph read, “Praedicator
veridicus, inquisitor intrepidus, doctor egregius.” inquisitors right into the 17th century,
A truthful preacher, an intrepid inquisitor, an
excellent teacher. reprinted several times over the years”
33
34
 JOAN OF
ARC
The teenage martyr who led the LIFE IN
French army and put the fear of THE TIME
God into the English OF J OAN
Written by Jonathan Hatfull OF ARC

A
young woman whose faith led Vaucouleurs and begged Robert de Baudricourt, THE BLACK DEATH
her to challenge kings and inspire the captain of the garrison, to give her a military From 1348 to 1350, the Black Death ravaged
armies, Joan of Arc’s devout belief escort to Charles’ court at Chinon. Baudricourt England, claiming the lives of some 1.5 million
that God had appointed her to replied that she should be taken home and people. Carried by fleas, in turn carried by
lead the French to victory against beaten. However, Joan would not be deterred and the rats infesting London, the bubonic plague
the English drove her from the village of her returned in January the next year. spread through overpopulated towns and cities.
birth and onto the battlefield. In her brief time She claimed she was the subject of a prophecy England’s economy and resources would suffer
she became a national figurehead, a symbol of from 1398 about a maid who would “deliver the its effects for decades to come.
resistance. It was an image she cultivated and one kingdom of France from the enemy.” Baudricourt
EMISSARIES FROM GOD
that would ultimately lead to her death. turned her down again, but her efforts were
Joan of Arc was not the first woman to claim the
Flames secured Joan’s martyrdom, just as gaining traction. She curried favour with local heavenly host had spoken to her. Hildegard of
they provoked her fierce patriotism. Jehanne nobility, particularly the Duke of Lorraine. Bingen (1098–1179) railed against corruption in
D’Arc, or la Pucelle (the Maid) as she Although Joan refused to attempt to the clergy, St Clare of Assisi (1194–1253) claimed
came to be known, was born in 1412 cure his gout, the Duke agreed to to be able to hear and see Mass on the wall of
in the village of Domrémy, located
She give her a small escort, and in her room when she was too ill to move, and
across the river from Burgundy claimed to have February she travelled in men’s Catherine of Siena (1347–1380) travelled Italy
territory. The Burgundians, her first vision at clothes to Chinon, where she urging states to make peace with Rome.
allies of the English, regularly the age of 12, when St was presented to the court.
attacked French territory. In Charles was cautious
FROM BOWS TO CANNONS
July 1428, Joan’s family fled a
Catherine, St Michael but curious. Taking advice
As the Hundred Years’ War raged on through
the decades, the technology of warfare began
raid and returned to find the and St Margaret from a mad heretic could be to change. The English longbows at Agincourt
enemy had burned their town, appeared to her devastating to his campaign, in 1415 were the difference between victory and
fields and church. Joan had heard but her story appealed to his love defeat, but as open battles were often replaced
in a field
angelic voices since the age of 12 of astrology and fortune-telling, by lengthy sieges, cannon fire became a deciding
or 13, urging her to remain pious, but and besides, he desperately needed factor. By the Siege of Orléans both sides
now they gave her a specific mission. The any help he could get. Joan immediately deployed cannons.
voices of Archangel Michael, St Catherine and St picked him out from the crowd and pledged her
Margaret directed her to go into France and find allegiance: “Most illustrious Lord Dauphin, I come HERESY TRIALS
The definition of heresy covers a great deal of
her king, the Dauphin Charles. and am sent from God to give assistance to you
sins, but the term boils down to denying any
The alliance between England and Burgundy and the kingdom.” He was impressed, but ordered
established Christian dogma. In the Middle
had kept Charles from claiming the French she be tested before giving any official credence Ages, heresy trials became more common and
crown. His enemies not only occupied Paris but to her claims. A key figure in these trials was the Catholic Church aggressively pursued any
also held the city of Reims, where coronations Yolande of Aragon, one of the true powers behind enemies. This continued into the 19th century,
took place. The crown would have to wait, Charles and an intelligent strategist. After Joan’s claiming countless victims.
however, as the French city of Orléans was in the maidenhood was proved, she faced questions
grip of a protracted siege. Orléans needed help from clergy and theologians and passed with THE BAVARIAN HUSSITES
and Joan believed she was the one to deliver flying colours. Whether or not they truly believed Czech religious reformer Jan Huss was burned
it. On 13 May 1428, the 16-year-old arrived in in her voices was irrelevant. Charles now had a at the stake in 1415 for heresy. After his death,
the Hussite movement was born, separating
itself from Rome. The Hussites declared that

“Her story appealed to his love of astrology communion should be given with bread and
wine, they believed in poverty of the priesthood,

and fortune-telling, and besides, he punishment of sinners and freedom of

preaching. Pope Martin V announced a crusade
against them in 1420.
desperately needed any help he could get”
35
 The war on heresy

messenger of God, and Yolande raised a convoy strategy. In her frustration she hurled insults at
for this messenger to lead. the English from the battlements.
In April 1429, Joan rode out, holding her When an attack was decided upon on 4 May
white standard and wearing a suit of armour 1428, Joan was not even told by the commanders
commissioned by Charles. She announced that and woke up as the fight was in progress. She
her sword would be found in the church of arrived just in time to rally her troops and
Sainte-Catherine-de-Fierbois, hidden behind the inspire them to capture their target: the small
altar. It was an old gift to the church from the fortress of Saint-Loup. It was their first victory
crusades, and the discovery was treated and Joan’s confidence grew. She dictated
as a miracle. Her pious conduct a fearsome final letter to the English,
became renowned; she forced her ordering them to leave, and on 6
THE soldiers to stop taking the Lord’s
name in vain and expelled
Joan sent many May another attack was mounted.
Inspired by Joan, the French

HUNDRED prostitutes from their camps.

She dictated letters to the
letters to British and routed the enemy. She joined
Burgundian troops but the advance the next day,
YEARS’ WAR, English, instructing them to
leave France or face the wrath
she was illiterate and claiming to be the first to storm
the ramparts at Les Tourelles,

1337–1453 of God. A canny propagandist,

the Dauphin ensured these letters
had to dictate them where she took an arrow to the
shoulder but surviving her wound.
were copied and widely distributed. The French commanders credited
After William the Conqueror defeated Harold However, Joan was still an untested her for inspiring the troops to victory.
at Hastings in 1066 and claimed the English military leader. She arrived at Orléans eager for Orléans hadn’t just been relieved; the English had
throne, English and Norman territories were battle but had not understood that her forces been routed.
combined. It was inevitably difficult to keep were there as support, nothing more. Although With Orléans free, Joan wanted Charles to
control of the taken land. By the start of English frustrated, she managed to get her men into the proceed immediately to Reims, but the Dauphin
King Edward III’s reign in 1327, only Gascony city, past the English troops and was rewarded was more cautious. He wanted to clear the
and Pontieu remained. When the French King
with the adulation of the citizens. They may have Loire Valley and began raising money for the
Charles IV died heirless, Edward believed his
been pleased to see her but her impatience to campaign. It would be a month before Joan
mother (and Charles’ sister) Isabella was the
next in line, meaning the crown should be his. attack was at odds with her fellow commanders’ would see combat again. Technically, the young
The French disagreed and chose Charles’ cousin
Philip. A furious Edward refused to pay homage
and when the Philip confiscated his lands in
“She dictated a fearsome final letter to the
Aquitaine in retaliation, Edward declared war.
The Edwardian era of the Hundred Years’ War English, ordering them to leave, and on 6
lasted until 1360. The English captured Philip’s
successor, King John II, but a compromise May another attack was mounted. Inspired
wasn’t reached until the Treaty of Brétigny, in
which Edward agreed to abandon his claim in
exchange for Aquitaine and Calais. War resumed
by Joan, the French routed the enemy”
in 1369 when Charles V of France responded to
Edward the Black Prince refusing his summons Defining moment
by declaring war. Charles successfully reclaimed First vision 1424
many of the territories his predecessor lost, and At just 12 or 13 years old, she first claims to hear
the Black Prince’s son Richard II would make the voices of angels speaking to her. At first the
peace with Charles VI in 1389. voices tell her to ‘govern’ her conduct. If she
War resumed in 1415 when Henry V invaded, feels she had not behaved properly, the voices
would admonish her. They also tell her to reject
leading to decades of conflict during which the
the marriage her family had arranged for her.
English would take Paris and claim kingship.
Joan soon identifies the main voice as Michael,
They would not be driven out until the Battle of the archangel who led the battle against Satan
Castillon in 1453, the official end of the Hundred in the Book of Revelation. As Joan grows older,
Years’ War. Michael’s messages continue to advise her
toward piety but gradually grow more political.
Finally, Michael and the other voices, those of
St Catherine and St Margaret, tell her to travel to
Timeline France and begin her mission.

1412
l Birth of a warrior l Domrémy burns l Journey to Vaucouleurs l Audience with the king l The sword is found
Joan is born to a The territory across the In 1428 Joan’s voices tell her Joan is granted a meeting After convincing the
farming family in the river from Domrémy is to travel to France and talk with the Dauphin Charles, clergy and theologians
town of Domrémy. Burgundian, and a raid to the Dauphin Charles. She who sees value in her of her gift, Joan is
She never receives into French territory travels to Vaucouleurs to for his military campaign allowed to lead a force to
formal education or proves a defining moment demand an escort, beginning to free Orléans. Joan Orléans. She announces
learns how to read and for Joan. Her family flees a series of attempts ending immediately identifies her sword can be found
write, instead learning to Neufchâteau and in success after convincing him in a room full of in the church of Sainte-
about religion from returns to find the enemy nobles that she is the people and impresses Catherine-de-Fierbois,
her mother Isabelle. have burnt their town. fulfilment of a prophecy. him with her fervour. which it is.
1412 1428 May 1428 6 March 1429 April 1429

36
 Joan of Arc

Joan dressed
in men’s clothes,
Duke of Alençon led the army, her hereditary nobility but made
but he was a firm believer in
claiming the spirits sure she stayed with him, which
Joan of Arc was burnt
at the stake in 1431
the young female warrior and told her to. She also wore frustrated Joan. It was her duty
frequently deferred to her. her hair short, but this is to be on the battlefield expelling
They swept quickly through often not depicted in the enemy from her home soil, not
the English resistance and laid rotting in court.
siege to Beaugency. The English
portraits By 1430, the English were
surrendered without realising a preparing a full-scale invasion of France
relief force was on its way, a force the to reclaim their recently lost territory. When
French promptly set off after. They met at Patay the city of Compiègne refused to surrender,
on 18 June, where the ill-prepared English were Joan rode to support them without Charles’
decimated, with over 2,000 dead and all but one authorisation. On 23 May she led an attack from
senior officer captured. Joan played little part in the city, but the English reinforcements cut her
this victory but by this point that mattered not, off at the rear and she could not retreat. She was
as her legend only grew stronger. By now, Charles pulled from her horse and forced to surrender
was ready to head for Reims and his coronation. to the Burgundians. She testified that constant
He led a grand procession, entered the city on sexual harassment was the reason she remained
16 July and was crowned the next day as Joan in men’s clothing, while the voices in her head
looked on proudly. She was desperate for the told her not to escape. Defying them, she leapt
king to attack Paris, but he chose to leave Reims from the tower but was injured in the fall and
instead, only to be barred from crossing the Seine promptly recaptured.
by English troops. Joan was ecstatic as the only The English needed to make an example of
remaining option was an attack on the capital. Joan, and the Parisian theologians, as dictated
After skirmishes throughout August and a by the rules of the Catholic Inquisition, wanted
truce with Burgundy, on 8 September Joan finally to try her for heresy, idolatry and witchcraft. She
witnessed the assault on Paris she had been needed to answer for the way in which she had
itching for. She stood on the moat, demanding circumvented the church by claiming to receive secular authorities that would carry out her death
surrender, but the only reply she received was her instructions from her ‘voices’, while her ability sentence. Joan wavered as the sentence began to
an English arrow through her leg. After hours to inspire followers had to be stopped. If she be read out. In front of the crowd, she recanted
of constant bombardment, her men reached were convicted by a foreign power the damage and was sentenced to life imprisonment and to
her under the cover of darkness, but she was to Charles’ reputation would be severe, so the wear women’s clothes.
determined to continue the fight the next day. French court paid the Duke of Burgundy £10,000 Two days later Joan changed her mind.
However, once Charles saw the number of French to hand his prize over. Demanding she be allowed to attend mass, Joan
casualties he ordered her to return to his side. Six rounds of questioning took place between was found in men’s clothes, claiming the voices
The attack had failed and Joan’s usefulness 21 February and 3 March 1431, with nine more had told her that her abjuration was treason. Now
was now suddenly cast into doubt. She needed a between 10 and 17 March, all conducted in her the only possible outcome was her execution.
victory to restore her reputation but in November cell. Joan never changed her story. On 24 May, On 30 May she was allowed to make her
1429 she failed to take the castle of La Charité she was taken to the scaffold and told that if confession and take communion before she was
after a long siege. On return to court, Charles gave she did not abjure, she would be given to the taken to the Old Market in Rouen and tied to
the stake. She was given a small crucifix and
a Dominican priest held a parish cross high so
she could see it even as the flames began to lick
Defining moment around her. The young warrior who had led her
country to such great victories over the English
Siege of Orléans 29 April – 8 May 1429 cried out “Jesus!” repeatedly before leaving this
Joan arrives at Orléans amid great fanfare from the citizens of the
city but is met with indifference by her fellow commanders. She is world. The king she had helped crown, Charles
determined to mount an attack as soon as possible but is told to wait VII, refused to intervene. She was merely a tool
for a relief effort. She is so poorly regarded by the other generals that that had stopped being useful. However, the
when a sortie takes place, she’s not told beforehand. Instead, she
legend of Jehanne la Pucelle only grew stronger
races out and joins the attack just in time to rally the flagging troops,
ultimately claiming a fortress. This will be the first in a series of with time. In 1456, after a lengthy investigation,
victories that would liberate Orléans and confirm her status for many the sentence was annulled, and in 1920, Joan of
as a heaven-sent hero. Arc was canonised by Pope Benedict XV.

1456
l Charles is crowned l A failed siege l Capture l Trial l Burned to death Late justice l
After swiftly clearing the Following Charles’ While leading an Needing to regain superiority, Having recanted her Charles orders that Joan’s
Loire region of English coronation, Joan is unsanctioned relief the church interrogates Joan, abjuration, Joan is trial be investigated,
resistance, Charles finally convinced that Paris will effort of Compiègne, telling her she can abjure or sentenced to be burned a process that takes
travels to Reims, where fall. However, the siege fails Joan decides to attack face a secular court that will at the stake. A Dominican roughly six years to
he is crowned King as 1,500 men are slain by the Burgundian troops execute her. She retracts her priest holds a cross up complete. Finally,
Charles VII of France. The the English bombardment, surrounding the city. She statement, only to change her high enough for her to see in 1456, the original
coronation fulfils another with Joan herself wounded, is cut off by the English mind days later, stating she’d from the flames. She calls verdict is found to be
part of the prophecy having to be pulled from the and pulled from her horse rather die than deny what she out “Jesus!” several times unjust and is annulled.
© Alamy

foretold by Joan’s voices. battlefield under nightfall. while trying to escape. knows to be true. as she burns to death. 1456
17 July 1429 8 September 1429 23 March 1430 9 January–24 May 1431 30 May 1431

37
 The War on Heresy

38
 The Beginning of the End?

WITCHCRAFT
AND THE
INQUISITION
The safest place to be accused of witchcraft
in early modern Europe were the lands
where the Inquisition held sway
Written by Edoardo Albert

“I
have not found the slightest evidence learned opinion, including university scholars,
from which to infer that a single act was absolutely certain of the existence of magic
of witchcraft has really occurred.” and witchcraft. Indeed, the parallel exploration
This statement, written at the of science and magic was a feature of the age:
height of the witch frenzy in 1612, a century later, Isaac Newton would spend as
when elsewhere in Europe thousands of women much intellectual energy on occult studies as
and men were being executed, was written not he did on the laws of universal gravitation and
by a sceptical scholar or rational scientist but by a motion. Magic was a given, accepted as totally
Spanish inquisitor named Alonso de Salazar then as climate change is today. What was more
Frías. What’s more, in his report to the Suprema, controversial was whether witches did actually
the governing council of the Inquisition, Salazar attend sabbats, gatherings of witches where they
Frías went on to say, “The evidence of the swore allegiance to the devil and indulged in all
accused alone, without external proof, is manner of perverted practices.
insufficient to justify arrest… three-quarters While the meeting convened by the Inquisitor
and more have accused themselves and their General voted by six to four that witches did
accomplices falsely.” attend sabbats in reality and not just in their
The Supreme Council of the Inquisition (or imagination, two of the four dissenting votes
Suprema) had sent Salazar Frías to investigate the belonged to the eminent jurist Hernando de
auto de fé that had taken place in Navarre on 7 Guevara and the future Inquisitor General,
November 1610. As a result of the auto de fé, six of Fernando de Valdés. Despite having voted
the 29 people accused of witchcraft were burned on the truth of witches’ sabbats, the meeting
in person and five in effigy. nevertheless concluded that it was more
This was so contrary to the Inquisition’s important to educate witches than to punish
previous practice that the Suprema ordered them. This was very different from the attitude
Salazar Frías to find out what had gone on and in northern Europe. Developing this view, the
why Navarre had, apparently, become the centre
of witchcraft in Spain. For up until this auto de
LEFT
Giving birth was
fé, Spain had remained largely free from the “Spain had
witchcraft hysteria that had gripped much of
dangerous. Should
the mother and
baby die, the
northern Europe. While the secular authorities in remained largely
Spain investigated allegations of witchcraft and,
midwife could
easily become when they did so, often applied the death penalty, free from the
a scapegoat, as the Inquisition had historically been much more
in this case of a
French midwife,
reluctant to do so. witchcraft hysteria
Louisa Mabree, This policy dated from a meeting in 1526
who was executed
by being burned
when the Inquisitor General convened a meeting that had gripped
to decide whether witches really did attend
in a cage full of
black cats witches’ sabbats. At this time in Europe all much of Europe”
39
 The war
War on heresy
Heresy

“Juana Izquierda confessed to murdering

local children – rather than burning her, the
inquisitor sentenced Izquierda to 200 lashes”
theologian Alfonso de Castro stated that, “There ordered the execution of seven women for
are many pagan superstitions and rites solely witchcraft. A witch hunter, Juan Mallet, had
because of the lack of preachers.” been called into the area by local people to
The findings of this meeting were sent to the search for witches. As Mallet processed through
offices of the Inquisition throughout Spain. the villages, local people were dragged from
When a spate of witchcraft accusations rocked their houses for Mallet’s inspection. If Mallet
Navarre in 1538, the Suprema told the local declared, simply by looking at them, that they
inquisitor to “speak to the principal people and were witches, then they were arrested. The local
explain to them that the loss of harvests and inquisitor, Sarmiento, intervened in order to stop
other ills are either sent by God for our sins or are this usurpation of his powers but then was faced
a result of bad weather, and that witches should with what to do with the accused. Sarmiento
not be suspected”. called together a panel of local luminaries and
In 1591, in Toledo, a local woman, Juana asked them whether witches did commit the vile
Izquierda, whom opinion unanimously acts at sabbats that popular legend said they did.
considered a witch, was brought before the The committee affirmed that witches did indeed
local Inquisition. Before the inquisitor, Izquierda attend sabbats in person and there commit the
confessed to murdering local children as part of murders and fornications that they were accused
magical rituals and 16 witnesses testified that of and therefore should be punished.
these children had indeed died recently. But Faced with this unanimous report, Sarmiento
even faced with such evidence, rather than ordered the burning of seven of the accused Inquisitor Sarmiento was fired and the remaining
burning her, the inquisitor sentenced Izquierda to women. Appalled, the Suprema sent another accused were freed. The Inquisition in Catalonia
200 lashes. Anywhere else in Europe, she would inquisitor, Francisco Vaca, to investigate. Vaca’s never punished another witch.
have burned. report was damning. To one of the documents Given the way the Suprema had set its face
When local inquisitors acted against these he appended the following comment: “I believe against witchcraft persecutions, it’s perhaps
instructions, the Suprema took action. In 1549, that most of the other cases are as laughable as more surprising that the Inquisition went ahead
Diego Sarmiento, the inquisitor of Barcelona, this one indicates.” As a result of Vaca’s report, with its punishments of accused witches in

40
 Witchcraft and the Inquisition

LEFT
Although the
Inquisition did
not generally take
part in the witch-
hunting frenzy,
the 1610 auto de
fé in Navarre was
an exception

LEFT INSET
The witch-hunting
frenzy seized
Europe from
1560 onwards.
This drawing by
Johann Jakob
Wick shows
three women
being executed
in Switzerland

LEFT BOTTOM
Goya painted an
earlier view of a
witches’ sabbat:
note the brighter
tones and cleaner
composition

RIGHT In the
early modern
period, magic
went from the
pages of romances
to being thought
of as practised accused a local woman, Isabel Amada, who had
in the next street refused to give them alms, of killing two of their
or house
mules and 30 sheep by witchcraft, the Inquisition
FAR RIGHT The ordered that Amada be released.
publication in While the Inquisition remained thoroughly
1486 of Malleus
Maleficarum sceptical of the existence of witchcraft throughout
prepared the the European witch craze, the secular authorities
ground for the
European witch
in Spain were more susceptible to the hysteria
frenzy by equating and continued to execute witches. However,
magic and sorcery because of the resistance of the Inquisition, the
with heresy
number of innocent people – mainly women –
executed in Spain was much fewer than in other
Navarre in 1610 that Alonso de Salazar Frías was from the experience that there were neither parts of Europe. Indeed, contrary to popular
sent to investigate. Looking at the events in more witches nor bewitched until they were talked and belief, a woman or man accused of witchcraft and
detail shows how the witchcraft panic could written about.” brought before the Inquisition had a far greater
spread, creating a frenzy of fear. If this seems In effect, Salazar Frías was saying that the chance of being acquitted and released in Spain
very far away, think of how various groups were entire witch frenzy was what we would call today than anywhere else in Europe.
falsely scapegoated for spreading the virus during a case of mass hysteria. The Suprema considered Scholars now estimate that between 40,000
the recent pandemic: these emotions are still his report and accepted it in its entirety. The and 60,000 people were executed in Europe
active today. Suprema then issued fresh instructions requiring and North America during the witch-hunting
Navarre borders on to France and there inquisitors to be sceptical about witches frenzy of the modern era. The vast majority
a notorious French judge, Pierre de Lancre, and to practise leniency when investigating of these people were innocent of any crimes
had led a witch hunt in 1609 that resulted in accusations. In effect, the Suprema had decided whatsoever. The prevalence and virulence of the
the execution of 80 supposed witches. The that all testimony of witchcraft was the result of trials are a salutary reminder of what people will
fear inspired by Pierre de Lancre’s witch hunt delusions – even in cases where the witness was do when in the grip of collective hysteria.
spread across the border, leading to widespread the witch herself. Almost alone among major European
accusations of witchcraft. The inquisitors of So certain was the Inquisition of the institutions, the Inquisition remained immune
Logroño in Navarre, swept up in the general delusionary nature of witchcraft that even when to this collective hysteria, staying true to its
hysteria, declared an auto de fé on Sunday 7 it had definite evidence of its practice it still did conviction that accusations of witchcraft, even
November 1610, which led to the executions not impose extreme penalties. In Barcelona in when given in confession by the supposed
detailed at the start of the article. 1665, the Inquisition investigated a coven of rich witch herself, were in fact delusions and fantasies
In response, the Suprema sent Salazar Frías Satanists who performed black masses, attempted rather than real events. As a result, Spain, and
to investigate. He spent nine months on his to summon demons and sacrificed goats during the territories where the King of Spain had
inquiries, and having examined all the evidence, their rituals. One of the coven was a priest: he was authority, were the safest places in all of Europe
he decided that it was all nonsense. suspended from holy order for five years. Another in which to be accused of witchcraft during those
“I also feel certain that… in the diseased state member was a surgeon who was whipped and terrible decades.
Images: Alamy

of the public mind every agitation of the matter banished for five years. None were executed. The Inquisition has many sins on its record.
is harmful and increases the evil… and reserve Lower down the social scale, when shepherds The persecution of witches was not one of them.

41
 THE SPANISH
INQUISITION
44 Heretic hunters
When it came to forcing non-
believers to confess their sins, the
44
Catholic Church would stop at
nothing. Even torture

54 An officer of the
Spanish Inquisition
Find out what daily life was like
for the men charged with exposing
heresy for the Church

56 Los Reyes Católicos

The marriage of Queen Isabella and
King Ferdinand laid the foundations
for the most ruthless and well-
known Inquisition in history

64 Tomás the torturer

Merciless state apparatus requires
an equally unflinching operator.
Even among zealots Tomás de
Torquemada stood out for his
merciless pursuit of heretics
68 54
68 An auto de fé
For those who refused to recant and
embrace the Church, the fires of
eternal damnation awaited

70 Francisco de Cisneros
They say that the only thing
necessary for evil to triumph is for
good men to do nothing. However,
sometimes a good man can act and
still leave the world worse off

“Many unfortunate
souls would be
hung from their
arms until their
shoulder joints
ruptured”
 56

70
 T H E S PA N I S H I N Q U I S I T I O N

HERETIC
HUNTERSDiscover the torture tactics and grisly
executions that terrorised a nation
Written by Ben Gazur

I
t is a Sunday in 1481 and you have just Spain under the Muslims (known as
been to church. After the celebration al-Andalus) became one of the foremost
of the mass a sermon is read out. The centres of learning in Europe. Scholarship
message of the priest is clear – every flourished and many Christians came to learn.
sinner in town has 30 days grace to Because many Greek texts were lost in Europe
come forward and confess their sins. If you but had been preserved in Arabic translations
fail to confess you may find yourself tied to there was much that could be learned in
a stake, screaming in agony as the flames lick al-Andalus that was otherwise unavailable.
up your scorching flesh. Everyone has been The French scholar Gerbert of Aurillac in the
warned. If you’re a sinner, a heretic, or are 10th century learned mathematics and science
simply deemed suspicious, then you should in al-Andalus. He reintroduced the abacus and
expect a call from the Spanish Inquisition. armillary spheres to Europe and encouraged
study of Greek and Arabic texts. When Gerbert
FOUNDING THE TERROR was elected to the papacy as Sylvester II,
The Iberian Peninsula of the 15th century however, some saw his Arabic education as a
was not unified under Spain as it is today. sign of devilry. He was suspected of witchcraft
Nor was it wholly Christian. In the early 8th – some said his vast knowledge was derived
century the Umayyad Caliphate conquered from a brazen head automaton that he could
the Visigothic Kingdom of Hispania and consult by using magic. Suspicion between
controlled almost the entire Iberian Peninsula. faiths was common at the time.
For over 700 years there would continue to be Yet in al-Andalus, Muslims, Jews and
sovereign Islamic states there. Christians managed to coexist in relative

44
 Illustrations by: Joe Cummings

45
 The Spanish Inquisition

peace. Some historians speak of La Convivencia and Waldensians had all been detected and
– a spirit of toleration that existed between the destroyed by inquisitors sanctioned by the pope.
faiths. This concept may be a simplification, but In Spain the Inquisition was to be run
it is true that many Christians adopted Muslim differently. A papal bull of 1478 granting the
habits of dress and speech, and Jewish people formation of an Inquisition in Spain also gave
did not face the persecution they experienced Ferdinand and Isabella unique control of their
elsewhere in Europe. investigations into potential heresy. Instead of
For many Christians, however, the presence acting directly under the pope, the inquisitors of
of Muslim forces in Europe was an affront. Spain were appointed by the monarchs.
Campaigns against al-Andalus began almost at
UNDER SUSPICION
MASTER OR
once. These wars, known as the Reconquista,
would not stop until the last remnants of the The Spanish Inquisition was a religious

MONSTER?
Muslim states in Grenada were finally captured institution that had authority only over
in 1492. Christians. Jewish and Muslim people faced so
The Iberian Peninsula by then was divided many impediments in Catholic Spain that many
The name Torquemada has into three main kingdoms: Portugal, Castile and had converted to Christianity. These conversos,
become synonymous with the Aragon. Castile was ruled by Queen Isabella (converts from Judaism), and moriscos, (converts
worst excesses of the Inquisition and Aragon by her husband King Ferdinand II. from Islam), were often treated as highly suspect
Together they ruled one of the great powers by their Christian neighbours. In fact it was to
of Europe and became known as the Catholic hunt down ‘crypto-Jews’ and secret Muslims
Tomás de Torquemada was born into a
Monarchs (los Reyes Católicos) among these converts that the Inquisition was
prominent Catholic family in 1420. Despite his
later campaigns targeting conversos, one of While these two were undoubtedly devout initially formed.
his ancestors had converted from Judaism. Catholics, a question remained; how to protect There had long been a strong anti-Semitic
Torquemada struck up a friendship with Princess Catholicism in a realm riddled with those streak in Christian thought, and in Spain this
Isabella and became her personal confessor, recently converted from Judaism and Islam? was revealed by writers such as Alfonso de
giving him access to the highest levels of The answer was an Inquisition. Inquisitions Espina. In a work of 1460 he openly accused
government when she ascended to the throne. had been used for centuries across Europe Jewish people of poisoning wells and murdering
It was during a royal visit to Seville that to root out heretics. Cathars, Anabaptists, children, but he also targeted the conversos.
Torquemada convinced the king and queen
of the dangers posed by the city’s large
population of former Jews and Muslims. When “If you’re a sinner, a heretic, or simply
the Inquisition was given papal approval it
was Torquemada who became the first Grand deemed suspicious, then you should expect
Inquisitor, governing the whole operation of
hunting down heretics. For his zeal he was called
‘the hammer of heretics, the light of Spain, the
a call from the Spanish Inquisition”
saviour of his country, the honour of his order’.
Torquemada created the handbook that would
shape Inquisition investigations and set out the
punishments doled out to heretics. He ruled that
torture could only be used once on a suspect,
though the Inquisition managed to get around
this by declaring a session of torture ‘suspended’
to allow them to restart it later. His work did say
that “reconciled heretics and apostates should
be treated with much mercy and kindness”, yet
many complained of his harshness.
Torquemada may have been less zealous than
some of those who followed him, but he was
decisive in getting his monarchs to expel all Jews
from Spain in 1492. Those Jewish people who
converted in order to stay in Spain then found
themselves under the tender ministrations of
Torquemada and his Inquisition.

Tomás de Torquemada,
Grand Inquisitor of the
Spanish Inquisition, with
King Ferdinand II and
Queen Isabella in 1478

46
He wrote, “I believe that if a real Inquisition LEFT & INSET
Following the
were introduced among us, countless numbers capture of Grenada
of them would be condemned to the stake; for in 1492 Ferdinand
countless numbers combine the adherence to and Isabella had to
decide how to deal
Jewish customs with the observance of the with their new
Christian religion.” Muslim subjects
This formed the basis of how the Inquisition
BELOW The
would operate – hunting down any converso or spread of the
morisco who still held on to practices from their Spanish Empire
into the New
former religions. When the inquisitors came to World furthered
a town or city they would read a sermon that the reach of the
enjoined people to either confess their sins or Inquisition
religious backsliding, or for neighbours to come
forward and report those they suspected.
The list of ways that people who were clinging
to Judaism could be detected was extensive.
Did your neighbour’s chimney not smoke on a
Saturday? That could be a sign that they were
observing the Jewish Sabbath. Did they cook
with olive oil instead of pork fat? Looks like they
might be observing Jewish dietary laws.
Those who converted to Christianity but
were suspected of continuing to be Muslim
could expect to meet the Inquisition if one of
their neighbours saw them keeping Friday as
a holy day, wearing clean clothes at suspicious
times, or failing to drink wine. Just giving your
child a Moorish name was enough to bring the
inquisitors calling.
Even death was not enough to escape the
attentions of the Inquisition – after you were
dead your sins and activities could still be
investigated. If you were found guilty then you
could be burned in effigy. No one escaped the
wrath of the Inquisition.
After the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492
following the issuing of the Alhambra Decree,
and the reneging on a promise to respect
Muslims’ faith in Grenada, many thousands
of people converted to Christianity to escape
deportation. Their conversions, however,
brought them under the watchful jurisdiction
of the Inquisition.

THE COMING OF
THE INQUISITORS
Once the Inquisition turned its attention to a
certain location the 30 days of grace began in
which you could either come forward to confess
any wrongdoing or tell them of a neighbour’s
crimes. Once the period of grace ended the
Inquisition would move swiftly. The first sign
that you were under suspicion might be a knock
on the door.
People who were taken by the Inquisition
simply disappeared. You might not see a
friend for a year or two before they suddenly
reappeared. The actions of the Inquisition were
kept entirely secret. Agents of the Inquisition
were told, “Keep silence as far as the king and
the Inquisition are concerned!” Even prisoners
were forbidden from revealing what they had
seen in Inquisition prisons once released.

47
 The Spanish Inquisition

The use of torture by the

Inquisition to elicit confessions
was exploited by their
opponents via propaganda

“People who were taken by the Spanish

Inquisition simply disappeared from society”
This veil of silence was necessary, according Inquisition bred further inquisition. Confession
to the Inquisition, to keep them independent was called “the queen of evidence” and was also
and fair in the operation of justice. But for those considered to be good for the soul.
living under their glare it only increased the If a person remained obdurate in their
fear. Thankfully, the Inquisition kept impeccable protestations of innocence then a trial would
records of their activities, so it’s possible to be called. The prisoner would have a defence
Public shame of those tried
by the Inquisition was a tool
reconstruct how it operated. counsellor, but one appointed by the Inquisition.
used to scare the population Once an accusation, or a confession, was heard While all inquisitors were supposed to be highly
towards orthodoxy by the Inquisition the charges were investigated. trained in the law, the process was not one that
If they felt that a hearing was warranted then would be called fair today.
Those dragged to an the suspect would be seized. Any goods the The prisoner was able to defend themselves
auto de fé were forced to suspect owned would also be taken to pay for through the use of whatever evidence they
wear distinctive clothes their period of incarceration. Once inside one of could gather, whether witnesses or written
that marked them out as
heretics and apostates the Inquisition’s prisons the suspect was held in proof. They could also offer explanations
solitary confinement, the better to consider the for why they may have been acting in an
state of their soul. ‘un-Christian’ way. One converso suspected for
During the course of several hearings over not eating pork when it was offered claimed
multiple weeks questions would be posed to their abstention was based on medical grounds,
the suspect by the inquisitors. The aim was to not religious.
discover whether the actions of the prisoner Accusations from others against the captive
pointed to a single lapse, a moral failing, or the were read out, but the names of accusers were
holding of heretical doctrines. Confession at withheld. It was all too easy for a person with
this stage would require the prisoner to name a grudge against a ‘New Christian’ to fabricate
any others they knew to hold similar beliefs. a charge against their neighbour. Of course,

48
 Heretic hunters

if a person failed to confess there was a final was named as a heretic and apostate. After the
weapon in the arsenal of the Inquisition: torture. presentation of witnesses and counter-witnesses,
It’s thought that around a quarter of those the inquisitors voted to put Gonzalez to the
who were accused of a major heresy, or of being ‘water torture’. After warning her that “if during
a secret Jew or Muslim, were tortured. Those the torture some evil, damage, wound, or death
who then confessed their crimes would be occurred to her, it would be her fault and not
questioned a day later to ensure they had not theirs”, she was stripped and put on the rack.
spoken out through pain alone. A hood was placed over her head and water
With all evidence gathered, a vote would be poured down her nose and throat. After several
taken by the inquisitors to decide on the guilt of rounds of this she named others as secret Jews
an individual and then on what the appropriate but would not confess her own crimes.
punishment would be. The official judgement Having been held longer in prison, Gonzalez
would only be revealed later to the accused in refused to eat. This was taken as an attempt
front of a crowd of spectators gathered to watch to kill herself – another sin. The Inquisition
justice being done in the town square. Looking was unanimous in its judgement: Gonzalez
at a single case in the Inquisition files can reveal was guilty. She was “a relapsed heretic and an
much about how ‘justice’ was administered by apostate”. She was excommunicated, stripped
this terrifying process. of all her possessions and handed over for
When the conversa Marina Gonzalez punishment. On 30 June 1494, Gonzalez was
confessed during a period of grace announced burned at the stake.
in Toledo in 1484, she was forced to admit all
the ways she still held to Jewish practices. These FIERY ACTS OF FAITH
ranged from observing the Sabbath all the way The auto de fé (the Portuguese auto-da-fé means
down to eating unleavened bread. As well as ‘act of faith’) was one of the most spectacular
naming her own sins she named the men she events that many Spanish people would see in
claimed had led her into sinful ways. Gonzalez their entire lives. Often held in the main square
was reconciled to the Church and let go. of a town the auto de fé was the final step in the
Unfortunately, the Inquisition never forgot process of the Inquisition. Although the guilty
what it had heard and a confession could be had already been sentenced, the first they might
used against a person years later. In 1494, hear of their fate would be there, before the eyes
Gonzalez was hauled in front of the Inquisition of a vast crowd.
once again. The prosecutor claimed she had The event was always held with great pomp.
returned to her sins “like a dog to its vomit”. She The auto de fé was not only designed to punish
the wicked but to warn those who observed
it of the consequences of heresy. They were
held on public holidays to ensure maximum
attendance, and heralds blew horns and paraded
through the streets with the banner of the
Inquisition to gather the crowd. There was
also the suggestion that to miss it would be
to risk excommunication. There would be an
unforgettable show for any with the desire (and
stomach) to watch.
Events began early with a mass held in
the local church. Next came the procession
of the sinners. One witness of an auto de fé
recalled, “The men were all together in a group,
bareheaded and unshod, and since it was
extremely cold they were told to wear soles
under their feet which were otherwise bare; in
their hands were unlit candles [a symbol of their
extinguished faith]. The women were together
in a group, their heads uncovered and their faces
bare, unshod like the men and with candles...
With the bitter cold and the dishonour and
disgrace they suffered from the great number
of spectators (since a great many people from
outlying districts had come to see them), they
went along howling loudly and weeping and
tearing out their hair, no doubt more for the
In this illustration, dishonour they were suffering than for any
monks with quill and offence they had committed against God.”
paper await the torture
victim’s confession The sinners were led into the square wearing
sanbenitos – sackcloth garments worn by

49
 The Spanish Inquisition

TORTURE FOR
THE TRUTH Strappado
The prisoner had their hands
tied behind their back and a rope
Torture was one of the means by which the was then attached to them.
Inquisition forced heretics to confess their sins They were then pulled upwards
by a pulley called the garrucha.
The prisoner was then dropped
suddenly. When the rope
Confession was the aim of the the accused could be tortured.
snapped taut the force dislocated
Spanish Inquisition. To return a Because the Inquisition was not
the arms from their sockets.
heretic or apostate to the Catholic supposed to draw blood or mutilate Should the prisoner’s arms
fold the Inquisition had to get the their prisoners their methods of remain in place then weights
wrongdoer to confess, otherwise torture were necessarily inventive. could be added to the feet and
they would forever remain outside With just three methods they the process repeated.
the Church. They also had to uncover managed to draw confessions from
the truth. Their handbook declared those who failed to provide them
that in cases that were “half proven” with proof of innocence.

Water torture
This method of torture, also known
as the toca, saw the accused tied
down and jar after jar of water forced
down their nose and throat. This was
The rack considered a ‘gentle’ torture and so
One of the most common forms was often used on women.
Thanks to Inquisitorial
of torture was to strap a prisoner
records we know
to the rack. While other forms
of torture on the rack pulled the exact words of
prisoners until their joints some of its victims.
snapped, the Spanish Inquisition One woman who
used constriction in their torture. was being tortured is
The ropes tying the accused down documented as saying,
could be twisted and tightened
“Gentlemen, for God’s
so they dug into the flesh of the
prisoner. This could be done on the sake, have mercy on
arms, legs and skull of the victim. me. Oh Lord! Take
these things off my
arms, sir, let go of me,
they are killing me!”

50
 Heretic hunters

prisoners to mark them out. Those of the For some the punishment would be
repentant were slashed with red; those who a sum of money. Others might get a
refused to confess their crimes were given public flogging. Some faced perpetual
sanbenitos decorated with the flames of hell. imprisonment while others were forced
In the square the prisoners were presented to move into a monastery for a period
before the inquisitors, who sat on a raised stage. of years. Perhaps the most fearsome
Each prisoner was then in turn addressed and sentence, other than death, was to be
every particular of their crimes was read aloud sent to work the oars on a galley. Terms
for the whole town to hear. Each was then of eight years at the oar might well prove to
given the penance that the Inquisition judged be a life sentence.
to be fair. Even if you escaped with your life Even once the penance was paid there
the penance may have had lifelong effects. One could be more punishments for those found
penance declared, “For the next six Fridays the guilty. To be found guilty a second time, after
penitents should promenade through city streets being reconciled to the faith, led to increased
wearing neither shoes nor hats, scourging penalties. The sanbenito that you had worn
bared shoulders with cords of hemp. And it was to the auto de fé would be hung in the local TOP Victims of
church, emblazoned with your name so that you the Inquisition
prescribed, moreover, that they should fast on were often
these Fridays, and that for the rest of the days would never forget your transgressions. After imprisoned for
of their lives they should hold no public office… Martin de Enzinas was executed in 1496 for long periods
nor wear silk, nor fine scarlet cloth or any secretly practising Islam it took his family until
LEFT The grisly
coloured fabric, nor gold or silver, nor pearls or 1550 for the sanbenito to be taken down and Inquisition
coral or any other jewels.” escape the shame. inspired Edgar
Allan Poe’s The Pit
The worst fates were meted out to those
and the Pendulum
guilty of major heresy who refused to repent
of their crimes – these people were known as
“It is thought relajados. Their crimes were too serious for
the Inquisition to punish so the prisoner was
that around 4,000 ‘relaxed’ to the secular arm of the state. Those
who were to be put to death were told of their
people were executed punishment the night before the auto de fé so
that they might have one final chance to repent.
for their heresy” Repentance at this point might mean you

This painting of an auto de

fé held in Madrid in 1680
shows the large crowds that
attended such events

51
The Spanish Inquisition

were mercifully strangled before the fire was lords limited the role of the Inquisition in RIGHT
The burning of
lit. Those who refused to repent were carried their domain and some religious groups also apostates and
to a place of execution on the outskirts of the opposed it. Friar Hernando de Talavera wrote heretics was
town where they were tied to the stake and that “neither the Jew nor the Moor should be officially done by
the secular arm
incinerated while still alive. punished for keeping their faith… nor should of the state
You could not escape by having fled the they be forced to adhere to the Catholic faith”.
country or dying before your punishment. Even the pope wrote once that the Inquisition BELOW LEFT
An 18th-century
Those who were absent from the auto de fé were needed reform, declaring, “Many true and engraving
burned in effigy, because the Inquisition knew faithful Christians, because of the testimony of depicting people
being burned in
what the true purpose of the auto de fé was: one enemies, rivals, slaves and other low people, and Lisbon, Portugal
Inquisition text stated that “the end of the trial still less appropriate, without tests of any kind,
and execution is not the salvation of the soul have been locked up in secular prisons, tortured BELOW MIDDLE
Those sentenced
of the accused, but it is to achieve the public and condemned like relapsed heretics, deprived to burn at the
good by terrorising the people”. of their goods and properties, and given over to stake were dressed
the secular arm to be executed, at great danger in sanbenitos
decorated with
THE END OF to their souls, giving a pernicious example and devils, dragons

THE TERROR causing scandal to many.”

Despite complaints about their brutal
and the flames
that awaited them
The Spanish Inquisition was one of the most
methods only two inquisitors were killed while BELOW RIGHT
feared arms of the state from 1480 until it Francisco Goya’s
doing their duties. One, Pedro de Arbues, was
was finally abolished in 1834. In that time Night Scene from
assassinated – apparently at the hands of a the Inquisition,
it is thought that around 4,000 people were
converso conspiracy. The other was Juan Lopez 1810
executed for their heresy, although records do
De Cisneros, who was killed by the monk he was
differ. Half of these deaths occurred in the first
interrogating when the prisoner angrily swung
few decades of the Inquisition’s ministry – it
his chains at the inquisitor.
seems that fear of the Inquisition may have
Over time, the role of the Inquisition changed.
been effective.
At first its targets were mainly the former
There were acts of resistance against the
actions of the Inquisition. Some powerful

H E B L AC K
T
L E GE N D
P rotesta nts
w e re q u ic k to exag ge
rate
ion
the Inquisit
the ev ils of
apter
ed a whole ch
M artyrs includ iti on of
the 16th cent
ury, ble Inquis
“The execra ations
Throughout ou t on d ill us tr
el y m an ag ed to keep Sp ay ne ”. Woodcuts an e
Spain la rg ation. e tortures th
ta nt s an d their Reform sp re ad images of th
Protes s on the ed.
on was alway Inquisition us
The Inquisiti an ag ed of years the
hunt for here
tics and m
ht For hundreds to paint Spai
n
ro y an y bo oks that soug In qu isiti on was used n.
to dest natio
thinking of Ca
lvin or ds and cruel
to bring the Ye t th e as a backwar m en t Voltaire
rie s. hten
er in to th eir territo D ur in g the enlig hi s novel
th in
Lu
ain ru le d vast domains clud ed an auto de fé
kings of Sp s. in how the
ed m an y Protestant nd id e and described to
that in clud mours Ca was believed
nd er Ph ilip II of Spain ru bu rn in g of heretics
U introduc e
he wished to hquakes.
spread that prevent eart questioned
is h In qu is ition to th e
So m e hi storians have
the Span mphlets view of the
Books and pa the common ure
Netherlands. ho rr or s ten was tort
n to sp re ad about th e
In qu is ition. How of ct im s
bega
ing. One, writ
ten How many vi
this would br really used? With
eudony m M on ta nu s,
it anti-Semitic?
under the ps Pl aine died? Was e In qu is ition’s
lle d A D is co very and be tter ac cess to th are
was ca ill e questions
la ra tio n of Sundry Subt ow n records thes .
Dec isition of be explored
the Holy Inqu beginning to
Practices of fa m ou s B oo k of
Foxe’s
Spain. John
 Heretic hunters

“Bigamy, sodomy and

simple fornication
all fell under the
Inquisition’s dominion”
Jewish and Muslim populations, but as they
integrated into the wider population minor
heresies and sins became its focus. Bigamy,
sodomy and simple fornication all fell under the
Inquisition’s dominion. In fact, over its entire
history the majority of cases brought before the
Inquisition were for sins such as these.
The Reformation gave the Inquisition a new
set of targets – those who tried to introduce
Protestant reforms to Catholic Spain. Ironically,
it may have been the Enlightenment that
extended the life of the Inquisition as the
doubts of the philosophes had to be stopped
from spreading into Spain.
The Inquisition was finally suppressed in
1834. There would be no more secret trials,
burnings or the compiling of dossiers against
suspected sinners. Even books that had been
banned by the Inquisition were now permitted
to be published and sold.
The stain of the Spanish Inquisition is one
that has yet to be washed out of the history
of the Catholic Church. A mixture of real-
life cruelty and mythologised atrocities have
combined to make the Inquisition a byword for
a dark, depraved, intolerant age, and no amount
of apologies will change that perception.

Images: Getty Images; Alamy

53
 D AY I N T H E L I F E “Inquisitors relied on
their spies as their
OF AN OFFICER eyes and ears, so
OF THE SPANISH maintaining a reliable
network was essential”
INQUISITION
Spain, 16th century

E
stablished in 1478 with the aim of ensuring the
‘orthodoxy’ of the Catholic faith – achieved by ordering
Muslims and Jews to convert or leave – the Spanish
Inquisition became infamous as a state-sanctioned
tool of repression and torture, a perception that
exists to this day. Although it was headed up by larger-than-
life individuals, like Tomás de Torquemada, as with many
repressive regimes throughout history, its enforcers
were for the most part normal people who believed
in what they were doing. Here we take a look
at how they did it.

STARTING THE DAY

Around this time, the working day for an officer of
the Spanish Inquisition would commence. During
the 16th century the majority of its members were
composed of people from the agrarian middle
class and wealthy bourgeoisie, with this hierarchy
eventually shifting more toward the aristocracy as
time progressed. By the 18th century, Inquisition
officers were almost exclusively recruited from the
ranks of nobility.

COLLECTING REPORTS
Much of the Inquisition’s knowledge came from a
network of informants. Spain was predominantly
rural at the time and the inquisitors relied on
their spies as their eyes and ears, so maintaining
a reliable network was essential. Once they
arrived in an area they would call for reports on
those suspected of heresy, with anyone providing
information generally being rewarded.
HOW DO WE
LEGAL WORK KNOW THIS?
The Rare Books & Special Collections section of the
Inquisitors were certified, university-trained Hesburgh Libraries of Notre-Dame website provided
lawyers, and as such they were required to keep on a particularly useful grounding in the subject
top of their game in this regard. Being an official in matter, giving information on the motivations and
responsibilities of officers, as well as an overview of
the Spanish Inquisition had its advantages, be they
their hierarchy. Similarly, The Spanish Inquisition:
financial or social, as well as in terms of power 1478-1614 by Lu Ann Homza details a series of
and influence. However, it also left them open to informative accounts of the tribunal process, as well as
resentment and conflict from their neighbours the various types of interrogation and torture methods
that were used during the time period.
and subjects, and as such they always had to be on
their guard.

54
An officer of the Spanish Inquisition

DENUNCIATION
After swearing a denunciation of a particular
individual or group who had caused offence, a
so-called ‘term of grace’ was routinely issued,
consisting of 30 to 40 days, during which time
the suspects were allowed to prepare their own
defence while the inquisitor prepared his case. The
accused was provided with a lawyer and was not
allowed to be officially questioned unless in the
company of two disinterred priests.

BRINGING A
SUSPECT IN FOR
QUESTIONING
The suspect was given the benefit of their own
lawyer, although they weren’t allowed to know
the identity of their accuser(s). Those accused
by Spanish Inquisition officers were effectively
considered guilty until they were found to be
innocent, which in the process greatly skewed the
odds of a fair trial.

CONDUCT TRIBUNAL
Inquisitors would travel the country conducting
tribunals, which comprised two inquisitors, a
secretary and other members. It usually began with
an edict of grace after a Catholic Mass, following
which the accused would be encouraged to confess
their transgressions. Officers were trained in
interrogation techniques, specifically in how to
question the accused in a confusing or misleading
manner, thus getting them to admit guilt.

INTERROGATION
& TORTURE
If the accused was unwilling to confess, various
methods of torture were used, either by the
inquisitors themselves or while they were
in attendance. These included starvation, as
well as instruments like the rack and methods
like strappado. Mutilation through the use of
thumbscrews, pincers and the like was officially
banned, although in 1256, Pope Alexander IV
had decreed that officers could clear each other
of using them, effectively creating a loophole
inquisitors would later exploit.

REPORTING TO THE
GRAND INQUISITOR
The hierarchy of the Spanish Inquisition was quite
rigidly structured. Officers from courts around the
country would report to one of the five members
of the High Council. The High Council’s members
reported to the grand inquisitor, who in turn was
chosen by – and answerable to – the king of Spain.
© Alamy

55
 LOS REYES
CATÓLICOS
They should have been obscure aristocrats. Instead
the unpredictable outcome of their dramatic love
story saw Ferdinand and Isabella unite the kingdoms
of Spain under Christian law
Written by April Madden

I
t was like the ending of a fairy tale. The Meanwhile, her beloved Ferdinand had crossed
young princess of Castile was radiant. hostile territory disguised as a servant, bearing
Isabella was everything a noble maiden a holy dispensation that would allow him to
should be: educated, artistic, devout, marry Isabella despite the obstacles against
and unlike many women of her class at their union. The lovers’ daring elopement had
the time, she was marrying for love. Her story succeeded against incredible odds, and now,
so far would have rivalled the ballads of any here in Castile’s justicial palace, they were
troubadour. After her father’s death, Isabella’s finally married. For thousands of their future
despotic half-brother had inherited his throne victims, though, the wedding of Ferdinand
as Henry IV of Castile. Trapping his half-siblings and Isabella would not be happy ever after, but
Isabella and Alfonso in a desolate fortress in instead the beginning of years of torment.
the city of Arévalo, where they were frequently While Isabella and Ferdinand were madly
short of food, fuel and clothing, Henry then tried in love, their marriage was still an arranged
to marry his younger sister off to a succession one, planned by their parents when the couple
of kings and princes in order to further his were children to cool the fractious relationship
pursuit of power, even though Isabella had been between the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon.
pledged to Ferdinand of Aragon since the two When Henry came to the Castilian throne,
were children. however, the union of his shrewd younger sister
In spite of Henry’s machinations, it was her with the increasingly volatile Aragonese royal
adored Ferdinand that stood beside her now family was a threat not only to his political
in the Sala Rica, the great hall of the Palacio ambitions but to his tenuous grip on power.
de los Viveros. Isabella had prayed, and God Known as the ‘Impotent’, Henry IV was not
had answered her. One by one the matches a well-liked king, and the young Alfonso of
that Henry had negotiated to benefit himself
had come to naught. It was 19 October 1469,
and a couple of nights ago Isabella had politely “The lovers’ daring
asked for and been given Henry’s permission
to journey from his court in Segovia to Avila, to elopement had
pay her respects at the grave of their younger
brother Alfonso, who had died the year before succeeded against
at the age of 14. Instead, she had ridden hard for
Valladolid, the seat of Castilian political power. incredible odds”
56
Los Reyes Católicos

57
 The Spanish Inquisition

Castile had died while prosecuting a civil

war against his older brother, backed by a
cabal of nobles. Henry had no sons, and his
daughter Joanna was widely reputed to be the
illegitimate child of another man. Isabella’s
marriage to Ferdinand had the potential to
topple Henry’s already unsteady throne, and
he did everything in his power to prevent it.
He reckoned without Isabella. Given power of
veto over her brother’s choices, she rejected
princes, kings and dukes from as far afield as
France and England and secretly restarted
negotiations with John II of Aragon for his son
Ferdinand’s hand. In retribution, Henry wiped
out her claim to Castile. Ferdinand, meanwhile,

“As king of Sicily,

Ferdinand ruled
over a nation
that had been a
cultural melting pot
for centuries”
though his stunning looks, knightly prowess
and fearsome intelligence had already made
him one of Europe’s most eligible bachelors,
had never been meant to ascend to the regal
heights he’d already scaled – he was from a cadet
branch of the House of Trastámara and at his
birth his father was a mere duke, the nephew of
Alfonso V of Aragon. A series of family feuds and
untimely deaths saw the young lordling go from The wedding portrait of
minor duke-in-waiting to ascending the Sicilian Isabella and Ferdinand. Their
throne the year before his marriage to Isabella. union would eventually see
them unify Spain and begin the
He was just 17. terror of the Spanish Inquisition
As king of Sicily, Ferdinand ruled over a
nation that had been a cultural melting pot for
centuries. Medieval and Renaissance Sicilian old Persian Empire. Cultural links with other
culture combined elements of Byzantine, Arabic-speaking or Islamic nations across the
Arabic and Norman traditions and arts, and Middle East and North and West Africa meant
its society was cheerfully multicultural, with that al-Andalus had access to scientific and
Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities philosophical information held in the great
all long established and co-existing in Muslim libraries of Baghdad, Alexandria
relative peace. Like Sicily, for centuries the and Timbuktu. Alchemy, the forerunner
multicultural kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula of modern chemistry, first made its way
had flourished under a system known as into Europe via Muslim Spain. Medicine,
Convivencia – ‘living together convivially’. It mathematics and astronomy flourished. It
wasn’t entirely peaceful and harmonious, but was a jewel of the Islamic Golden Age and as
in day-to-day life members of Christian, Jewish vital to the pan-European cultural flowering
and Muslim communities could live in the of the Renaissance as the rediscovery of
same cities or visit other kingdoms and expect, classical art and design in Italy.
if not an open-armed welcome, then at least The Church that influenced the Christian
tolerance. This made the area into a medieval kingdoms bordering al-Andalus, however,
intellectual powerhouse. Classical knowledge did not see it in quite the same light as
that had been forgotten by the rest of Europe history does. For them their southern
had been preserved by the Arab scholars of neighbours were a physical, spiritual
al-Andalus (the Muslim-ruled areas), who had threat. Every so often disputes would break
picked it up from the Arabian conquests of the out, sometimes fuelled by al-Andalusian

58
 Los Reyes Católicos

THE
PORTUGUESE
INQUISITION
Portugal's Inquisition targeted
Jewish refugees fleeing from
Spain, as well as Africans,
Muslims, Hindus and more

Isabella and Ferdinand’s relationship with the

Portuguese royal family had been somewhat
frosty since the War of the Castilian Succession,
but the marriage of two of their daughters into
the House of Aviz aimed to change that. Manuel
I of Portugal married first Isabella of Aragon and
then, when she died, her younger sister Maria.
The Catholic Monarchs set a condition on the
marriages: Manuel had to set up an Inquisition
of his own.
The General Council of the Holy Office of the
Inquisition in Portugal became a reality in 1536.
By then Manuel I had been dead for over ten
years. Portugal’s king was now John III, the son
of Manuel and Maria of Aragon. He had all the
fervent faith of his mother’s side of the family
and was known as John the Pious. The first
Grand Inquisitor of the Portuguese Inquisition
was his brother Henry, who would later become
Henry the Chaste, the Cardinal-King.
The Portuguese Inquisition initially focused
on Spanish Jewish refugees who had fled to
their nearest neighbour, as well as practitioners
of traditional African religions who had
been caught up in the Portuguese Empire’s
devastating slave trade. It then turned its
attention to Portugal’s territories overseas,
including Brazil, Cape Verde and the Indian state
of Goa, where it attacked Hindus with the same
ferocity it showed to Jews, Muslims, indigenous
LEFT The text South Americans and the African diaspora.
of the Alhambra
Decree, or Edict of
Expulsion, signed
by Ferdinand and
Isabella. They
feared that non-
Christians were
a threat to their
newly established
Christian Spain

RIGHT Royal
couple Isabella
of Castile and
Ferdinand of
Aragon became
the rulers of a
unified Spain
when they
inherited the
thrones of
their respective
kingdoms in The Portuguese Inquisition in 16th-century
the 1470s Goa, India, holds an auto de fé, burning
convicted heretics and non-believers in an
elaborate quasi-religious rite

59
 The Spanish Inquisition

The young Isabella took

charge of her own destiny
while still in her teens,
rejecting the marriages her
half-brother arranged for her
and eloping with Ferdinand
of Aragon

ABOVE Cardinal
Rodrigo Borgia,
who became Pope
Alexander VI,
was a powerful
influence on the
royal couple and
was instrumental
in their founding
of the Spanish
Inquisition

INSET The
young Ferdinand
was hailed as
a prodigy: a
brilliant knight,
master tactician,
politician and
diplomat, he was
also considered
dazzlingly
handsome

territorial expansion but mainly by the larger Catholicism. But the Spanish faith still retained soaring edifices and dark shadows of Gothic
Christian kingdoms like Castile, Aragon and the its unique flavour and fervour. While most of architecture, which is designed to create a
ill-fated Córdoba pushing back at the borders the Church concentrates on the image of the feeling of terrified awe. Gothic cathedrals were
of al-Andalus. Dubbed the Reconquista, this adult, crucified Christ the Redeemer, Spanish intended to evoke a similar emotional state to
‘reconquest’ of al-Andalusian territories had Catholicism’s Arian roots made its oldest being lost in the mighty forests of northern
been going on since the first Muslim invasion of iconography lean towards the image of the Europe, with people dwarfed by their inhuman
Iberia in the 8th century and was encouraged by Christ Child. Arians believed that Jesus was not scale and left trembling with fear and wonder.
the Church, who presented the later Crusades in a pre-existing, eternal aspect of God but only Nowhere in Spain is this more obvious than in
a similar light. Not only did Christian territorial came into being at the Nativity, which for them Toledo Cathedral.
expansion provide more worshippers and more was literally the birth of a new god. Dedicated to the Assumption of Mary (the
resources, but the idea of Holy War suited the This early focus on Jesus’ physical birth in idea that on her deathbed Mary was lifted
region’s unique approach to the Catholic faith turn predisposed later Spanish Catholicism bodily into Heaven and enthroned as its queen),
and its ambitious church leaders. to Marianism, an emphasis on the veneration its gloriously colourful and gilded interior is
The Iberian Peninsula had begun to of Christ’s mother, Mary. In medieval Spanish illuminated here and there by hidden windows
Christianise after the fall of Rome, as Visigothic iconography, parallels are drawn between the that light upon glimmering statues of the Holy
tribes swept through much of the lands of Christ Child and the human soul; both are cared Mother, as if random sunbeams just happen
the former empire. The Visigoths had initially for and led by the motherly love of Mary. Instead to be directing the faithful through a darkness
followed an outlawed branch of Christianity of one’s sins needing redemption by Christ, one full of half-seen presences towards the peace
called Arianism. They made their Iberian can place their hand in Mary’s to be guided by a and safety of Marian grace. This motherly,
capital at Toledo, and it was there, in 587 CE, strict but loving mother to do the right thing. mystical, manipulative version of Catholicism,
that their king, Reccared I, renounced the Meanwhile, Spanish Catholicism’s culturally highly focused on innocence, righteousness
heresy of Arianism and embraced mainstream Germanic roots gave it a propensity for the and the expansion of the faith, was the Church

60
 Los Reyes Católicos

conquest and conversion at home and abroad The Emirate of Granada was
“It was Rodrigo were the moral thing to do, but the beliefs, the last bastion of al-Andalus.
Ferdinand and Isabella’s forces
precepts and priests of the Church that they had
Borgia that had been raised in told them that this was the case.
captured it in 1491 and in
1492 it officially surrendered,
putting an end to Muslim
And nobody was more persuasive than Cardinal
procured the papal Rodrigo Borgia, later Pope Alexander VI.
rule in Spain

It was Rodrigo Borgia who had procured for

bull that had enabled the young Ferdinand and Isabella the papal bull
(a document containing an order from the Pope)
Ferdinand and that had enabled them to marry. The ambitious
churchman, a talented lawyer, came from a
Isabella to marry” powerful and well-connected family. His uncle
was Pope Callixtus III, although it was Rodrigo’s
that Ferdinand and Isabella were raised in and later papacy that made the name of the
devoted to. According to their religious thinking, Borgias a byword for licentiousness, nepotism
Ferdinand and Isabella were not so much driven and intrigue. He had several mistresses and
by the pursuit of expunging their sins before illegitimate children, although he gave them his
Christ but instead believed that the Blessed name, his financial and political support, and
Virgin had set them on the right course in the his blessing. He also gave his blessing to Isabella
first place. It’s breathtaking to us today that they and Ferdinand, and the gamble he took by tying
were firmly convinced that their missions of his star to theirs at their marriage paid off.

The Reconquista pushed the

boundaries of Muslim-ruled
al-Andalus further and further south
until only the Emirate of Granada
was left, which Ferdinand and
Isabella conquered in the early 1490s

61
 The Spanish Inquisition

ABOVE The
We think of the Borgias as Italian, and statue of the
indeed with a number of papacies in the Virgin Mary and
family line the dynasty soon moved east and Christ Child
illuminated
became Italianised, but they were originally against the
from Xàtiva, a town in Valencia, which in backdrop of the
the 15th century came under the dominion ornately Gothic
Toledo Cathedral
of Aragon. Rodrigo was raised in the same is an iconic image
branch of righteous, Reconquista-inflected of medieval and
Renaissance
Catholicism as Isabella and Ferdinand, Spanish
and like them he believed in the divinely Catholicism
motivated justice of his actions. Pope
LEFT Ferdinand
Sixtus IV had left the decision to order the and Isabella issued
dispensation for the marriage of Ferdinand the Alhambra
and Isabella to Rodrigo’s discretion; he chose Decree in 1492,
ordering the
to do so to further his aim of brokering peace expulsion of
between Aragon and Castile. Jewish people
from their
Rodrigo’s vision for Iberian unity reached kingdom
its apex in the 1470s. Isabella took her late
brother’s throne of Castile in 1474, although BOTTOM
RIGHT A page
she was embattled in a war for succession from a breviary
with Henry’s daughter Joanna, now married that belonged
to King Afonso V of Portugal, until 1476, when to the devoutly
Catholic Isabella.
the Portuguese forces were defeated at the It contains
Battle of Toro. prayers and
devotions to be
In 1479, John II of Aragon died, and made throughout
Ferdinand inherited his father’s throne. the day
Having accorded each other the rights and
privileges of co-ruler and regent, by 1480
Ferdinand and Isabella were no longer merely

62
 Los Reyes Católicos

“In 1491 Isabella and

Ferdinand achieved
one of their key aims:
their forces defeated
the last bastion of
Muslim Spain”
king and queen of Sicily but of a single conjoined
realm on the mainland. The unification of Spain
– named for the old imperial Roman Hispania –
had begun.
It was now that the Holy War ideology of the
Spanish Church became vitally important. There
were still tensions between the noble families of
Aragon and Castile, and the two kingdoms had
between them gobbled up a host of little city-
states (known as ‘taifa’) that had been created
by ongoing sectarian violence in the Córdoba
region. Factionalism was rife. By promoting the
Reconquista as a Christian mission for glory,
Isabella and Ferdinand could turn the attentions
of their knightly class outwards to the common
goal of a unified Christian Spain rather than
inwards to continuing intra-house skirmishes
among the aristocracy. This extended to the
peasantry too: after the War of the Castilian
Succession, Ferdinand and Isabella developed
Castile’s Christian city watches into a unified
organisation called the Santa Hermandad (Holy
Brotherhood). As historian Henry Kamen put
it, they “brought peace by the brilliant strategy Henry IV of Castile
of organising rather than eliminating violence”. presenting Isabella
The royal couple soon rolled out this Christian to the people of his
city of Segovia. Henry
police force throughout their unified realm. had a poor reputation,
In 1491, Isabella and Ferdinand finally whereas the young
achieved one of their key aims: their forces Isabella was well-liked
defeated the last bastion of Muslim Spain, the
Nasrid dynasty’s Emirate of Granada, in a last
stand at Granada’s famous Alhambra Palace. The
Reconquista against al-Andalus was over. But for
the king and queen, another war was beginning,
one not of territory but of ideas. sponsored Christopher Columbus’ first voyage
Anti-Semitism was on the rise throughout – that they issued the Alhambra Decree, which
Europe. Previous Christianising efforts in Iberia gave Jews in Spain four months to either convert
had compelled Muslims and Jews to convert to Christianity or leave the country.
to Catholicism, and in many places, especially Mere weeks after this deadline, Rodrigo
the Castilian and Aragonese courts, previously Borgia became Pope Alexander VI. A year later,
Jewish ‘conversos’ had risen to high civil service he would issue the papal bulls that gave Spain
positions and accrued significant wealth and control over the New World lands discovered
power. Ferdinand and Isabella feared that the by Christopher Columbus. The holy warriors
presence of practising Jews would woo these of the Reconquista would shortly become the
New Christians back to their former faith or Conquistadors, and in 1494 the Pope would
influence them to practise in secret. As early as issue his favourite rulers with the title we know
1478 they had petitioned Rome to allow them to them by today: Los Reyes Católicos, the Catholic
set up an inquisition into the perceived threat of Monarchs. The price of this divine favour was
‘Crypto-Judaism’ and had set up the Tribunal of a kingdom that was Catholic in thought, word
Images: Alamy

the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Spain, but and deed. The Inquisition became their way of
it wasn’t until 1492 – the same year that they making that a reality.

63
 Prisoners of the Spanish Inquisition
would often be hung by their arms
until their shoulder joints gave way

64
 TOMÁS THE
TORTURER
Even by the standards of the Spanish Inquisition,
Tomás de Torquemada was a fanatic. This is the
story of how an ambitious Dominican monk rose to
become the most feared of all the Grand Inquisitors

Written by Henry Yates

A
s chronicler of the early years of ambition that would one day propel him to the
the Spanish Inquisition, Sebastián heights of powers. In his youth he entered into the
de Olmedo once described Tomás San Pablo Dominican monastery and committed
de Torquemada as “the light of to his faith and studies of theology. This
Spain, the saviour of his country, serious, pious young man did not go unnoticed:
the honour of his order”. From our standpoint of Torquemada was promoted to become Prior of the
more enlightened times, that glowing assessment monastery of Santa Cruz at Segovia, a position he
is highly contestable, yet there is no refuting de would hold for 22 years. But he would gain still
Olmedo’s further thoughts on Spain’s first and more influence as the confessor and confidant of
most ferocious Grand Inquisitor. Torquemada, he Princess Isabella, advising the future Queen of
writes, was “the hammer of heretics”. Castile from her childhood and even helping to
More than any other 15th-century figure, engineer her unifying marriage of 1469 to King
Torquemada personified the Inquisition’s worst Ferdinand of Aragon.
excesses of sadism and cruelty, a bleak ringmaster From this position of trust and influence, in
mercilessly conducting this darkest era of which he could whisper into the royal court’s
medieval history. As Rafael Sabatini writes in his most important ears, Torquemada was perfectly
book, Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition, placed to benefit from – and even dictate – the
“The history of Tomás de Torquemada is not so kingdom’s shifting socio-political tides. While
much the history of a man as of an abstract genius Dominican inquisitors had patrolled the kingdom
presiding over a gigantic and cruel engine of its in search of heretics for the last few centuries, in
own perfecting. Through the records that survive 1477 the sovereigns successfully petitioned Pope
we may observe its cold, smooth action, and trace Sixtus IV for the creation of Spain’s Holy Office for
in this the awful intelligence of its architect.” the Propagation of the Faith. The resulting papal
Born on 14 October 1420 (most accounts bull issued on 1 November 1478 – Exigit sinceras
believe his birthplace to have been the Spanish devotionis affectus (translation: Sincere devotion
municipality of Valladolid in the Kingdom Of is required) – was effectively the sanctioning of the
Castile) Torquemada soon displayed the steel and kingdom’s own dedicated Inquisition.

65
 Torquemada depicted in
1478 with King Ferdinand
II and Queen Isabella I. The
sovereigns’ decisions were
heavily influenced by their
Grand Inquisitor

But who to lead it? Given Torquemada’s favoured continued to practise their original faith in secret
status with the sovereigns, his unbending and corrupt society by stealth.
commitment to Church orthodoxy and his white- “The attitude was poisoned further by the fact
hot animosity towards all those who strayed or that many conversos were very prominent,” the
falsely professed their faith, the Dominican was historian Cullen Murphy explained in an interview
the obvious choice. By 1483, Torquemada was with NPR. “They had positions in government.
duly installed as Grand Inquisitor of Spain and They had positions in finance. They had positions
he swiftly set to work casting the Inquisition in in the military and even in the Church. So the idea
his own image. A year later, at a general assembly that behind-the-scenes Judaising conversos were
in Seville, Torquemada unveiled the 28 crimes doing their deeds and undermining the state had a
to guide the investigations of his underlings powerful resonance.”
(these included heresy, apostasy and blasphemy, It was a paranoia amplified by Torquemada
plus offences spanning from sorcery to sodomy) himself, despite his own chequered ancestry (his
alongside the prescribed tortures that could be uncle, Juan de Torquemada, was a converso). “A
used to extract a confession. Jew, born into a family of converts,” writes Dan
Even before the Spanish Inquisition began, Graves on Christianity.com, “he turned most of his
Torquemada had been eyeing his quarry. During fury against his own people.”
this period, in the face of growing persecution, On 31 March 1492 – no doubt with a push
vast swathes of the country’s Jewish and Muslim from Torquemada – the sovereigns issued the
populations had renounced their faith and Alhambra Decree, which ordered the expulsion
converted to Catholicism in the hope of finding of all practising Jews from Spain. Some 40,000
peace. Yet these so-called ‘conversos’ – the Jews people of Jewish faith were forced out with little
now insultingly referred to as ‘marranos’, the more than the clothes on their backs, but as many
Muslims as ‘moriscos’ – remained deeply troubling as 50,000 marranos remained, regarded with
to Ferdinand and Isabella, who believed that many fierce suspicion by the religious establishment

66
 Tomás the torturer

FAR LEFT
One Inquisition
torture method
saw a chain pulled
ever-tighter across
a prisoner’s chest
until it began to
break bones

LEFT A depiction
of Jews pleading
for their lives with
Torquemada – to
no avail. Some
estimates state
that as many as
2,000 people died
during his reign

BOTTOM LEFT
Queen Isabella
I of Castile was
advised from
childhood by
Torquemada, and
her confessor
would become a
powerful influence
in her kingdom

turned from a valuable Catholic attack dog to an

“Many unfortunate souls would be hung unpredictable liability.
While he retained the title of Grand Inquisitor
from their arms until their shoulder until his death, Torquemada’s influence waned
as the 15th century neared its end. In 1494,
joints ruptured” Pope Alexander VI dispatched four junior
inquisitors to assist him in Spain, ostensibly due
and providing Torquemada with the principal Even then, as records of the interrogations to Torquemada’s fading health, but more likely to
target for his terrifying campaign. (Incredibly, the reveal, confession would often fall on deaf ears. edge him out after too many reports of appalling
Alhambra Decree would not be officially revoked “I have said that I did all that the witnesses say,” violence reached papal ears.
until December 1968.) one woman is quoted as pleading in a harrowing That same year, Torquemada withdrew to the
Torquemada’s strategy for treating the infection transcript. “Señores, release me, for I do not monastery of St. Thomas Aquinas in Ávil, his days
of heresy in Spain ran a terrible gamut. At the low remember it. For God’s sake, have mercy on me!” spent in the peaceful pursuits of an everyday
end of the scale was public humiliation: heretics For those who held out against torture, the monk but his mind still raging with the cause. In
might be ordered to wear garments marked with auto de fé awaited: a ritual execution that saw 1498, Torquemada’s final general assembly set
devils, flames, dragons and serpents to mark them heretics lashed to a stake and lowered shrieking out the roadmap for the Inquisition to continue
out from the devout populace. onto a bonfire, often watched by a baying mob and its work into the next century before he died that
As Cullen Murphy explains, heretics could be sometimes visiting dignitaries. It is said that the September at the ripe old age of 78, leaving behind
forced to fill the least desirable positions in the auto de fé was a more popular spectacle in Spain at his bleak ideological thumbprint. “If Spain hoped
medieval workforce. “One of the things that the this time than the bullfight. with his death for a cessation of brutality, they
monarchy needed was galley slaves. It’s probably If his appetite for sadism has become his chief hoped in vain,” writes Dan Graves on Christianity.
the worst punishment that can ever be meted out. legacy, Torquemada should also be noted for the com. “His apparatus lived on after him, crushing
Your life expectancy was not more than a couple administrative skills that massively expanded new victims long after he was gone.”
of years. The conditions were appalling. Disease the reach of the Spanish Inquisition. Having It was a peaceful end for a man who had sent
would carry off entire ships on a regular basis.” started with a single tribunal in Seville, the Grand an untold number of souls screaming into the
Torquemada’s favoured torture methods, Inquisitor would establish more than 20 Holy afterlife, yet Torquemada’s story had a more fitting
meanwhile, stood among the Inquisition’s most Offices across the kingdom, while the number postscript. More than 300 years later – as the
callous. Many unfortunate souls would be of secret police and informants in his pocket is Spanish Inquisition entered its death throes in
hung from their arms until their shoulder joints impossible to guess. Likewise, while estimates 1832 – the Grand Inquisitor’s tomb at St Thomas
ruptured. Others would be starved or, at the vary, it is feasible that as many as 2,000 people Aquinas monastery was robbed.
other extreme, have gallons of water forced down were killed during Torquemada’s 15-year reign of The whereabouts of Torquemada’s stolen bones
their throats. ruthless subjugation. have never been confirmed, but the consensus
Countless souls were bound to the rack, the Yet a man this divisive could not cling to power is that they were most likely incinerated in the
Images: Alamy; Getty Images

elaborate device stretching their bodies by indefinitely. Fiercely single-minded, flanked by fashion of the countless auto de fé executions he
agonising increments until their limbs were pulled bodyguards and refusing to bow even to the had himself sanctioned. A tribute to the forefather
from their sockets. The prosaic application of highest authority (he even continued his brutal of the Spanish Inquisition, or a long-awaited act of
chains to a heretic’s chest, or burning coals to their practices in the face of a papal bull issued by Pope revenge from the descendant of a victim? We will
bodies, could be just as effective. Sixtus IV pardoning the conversos), Torquemada probably never know.

67
 A detail from Francisco
Rizi’s painting, showing one
of the condemned wearing
the tall hat detailing his
crimes and the sanbenito,
with the monks still trying
to convince him to repent

AN AUTO DE FÉ
The reality behind the lurid legend of the auto de fé
Written by Edoardo Albert

F
irst, let us settle the terminology. Is it the image of people burned alive before an
auto-da-fé or auto de fé? Both phrases assemblage of religious and civic dignitaries. “An Inquisition
mean ‘act of faith’ but auto-da-fé is While not the entire truth, the popular image is
Portuguese and auto de fé is Spanish. not a lie. People did die, consigned to the flames, was declared when
Auto-da-fé is used more in English, at the end of an auto de fé.
even when people are talking about the Spanish An Inquisition was declared when intelligence intelligence reached
Inquisition, despite the Portuguese Inquisition reached the local inquisitor of possible heresy.
being less notorious and less deadly. As we are Having arrived in the city or town where heresy the local inquisitor of
looking at the Spanish Inquisition we will use was suspected, the inquisitor showed his
auto de fé. credentials to the local authorities, religious and possible heresy”
The auto de fé was the culmination of an secular, and then declared a feast day when all
Inquisition. Its name still evokes terror and the local people, with their children and servants,

68
 An auto de fé

had to attend Mass. Having preached a sermon, The auto de fé was declared on a feast day so
the inquisitor then held up a crucifix before the that everyone could attend. It began with a grand
congregation and required everyone present to procession of local dignitaries and – macabrely
raise their right hand, make the sign of the cross – the merchants who provided the fuel for the
and then swear to support the Inquisition. pyres to the square where the auto de fé was to
The people having sworn their support, take place. The inquisitorial standard was placed
the inquisitor read out the edict of grace. The on the scaffold and then everyone withdrew for a
Inquisition was concerned with extirpating night of prayer and preparation.
heresy and saving souls, not burning people. The following day began with the procession
By its own lights, the burning was simply the of the prisoners to the square. Those who had
consequence of heretics persisting in heresy escaped punishment by absconding or dying in
despite being given every chance to repent. prison were carried to punishment in the form Executions were not part of the main ceremony of the auto
Thus, at the start of an Inquisition, people of pasteboard effigies. Then came the procession de fé but rather normally occurred somewhere nearby,
where the pyres had been prepared
were given a period of grace, usually 30 or 40 of the condemned, men and women wearing
days, to confess their sins to the Inquisition and tall hats with their crimes written on them, and to the flames; those who remained stubbornly
be reconciled to the Church. If people confessed sanbenitos, the linen surplices that denoted unrepentant were burnt alive, a truly agonising
within the permitted time, they generally someone found guilty by the Inquisition. The end. If it sounds terrible, it was. It was designed
suffered little in the way of punishments. prisoners were paraded before the dignitaries and to be (although the burning was not a key part of
The main way that the Inquisition acquired then made to stand while the inquisitor made his the public spectacle).
information was from informers. However, the entrance, taking his place on a rostrum or balcony Previous estimates of the number of people
accused was not told the name of his or her overlooking the proceedings. burned by the Spanish Inquisition, numbers
accuser(s). Neither were the precise details of the With everyone present, they then celebrated ranging in the tens or hundreds of thousands,
accusation given to the defendant on the grounds Mass. After the Mass, the sentences were read have been shown by careful analysis of the
that it might help them identify their accuser out. Those who were condemned but not records to have been wild exaggerations. It now
– and have them assassinated. Anonymous executed were put on display so that all present seems clear that somewhere between three
accusations thus became an easy way of settling could see them. Those who were to be executed and ten thousand people were executed by the
personal grudges. were then taken from the square to the place of Inquisition through its centuries of operation.
Faced with this, many people, particularly if execution where the pyres were waiting for them. This is much fewer than what legend suggests,
they came from Jewish or Muslim backgrounds, Those who abjured their beliefs were granted the but it is still little comfort to those who were
decided it was safer to accuse themselves of a mercy of being strangled before being consigned condemned and consigned to the flames.
relatively minor crime than risk being subject
to anonymous accusations. It was this fear of Eugenio Lucas Velázquez’s
anonymous denunciations that fuelled the 19th-century painting
atmosphere of paranoia that surrounded the shows the pasteboard hat
and sanbenito that were
Inquisition. What was worse, an accuser could placed on the accused to
claim part of the accused’s property should he or mark them out during the
she be found guilty and condemned. It was an auto de fé

informers’ charter.
Sometimes, out of fear, people would accuse
friends and relatives to pre-empt any accusations
that might have been levelled against them. In
Granada, María Alvarez ‘revealed all that has
been discovered about her mother and sisters
and relatives’. Once arrested, the accused’s goods
were sequestrated until the case was concluded,
sometimes reducing dependants to poverty.
Torture was an accepted method of
interrogation, although in this the Inquisition was
merely following general practice in Europe and,
indeed, its use of torture was, relatively speaking,
more humane than that of the secular authorities.
Once the Inquisition had rendered judgement
on a sufficient number of people, it might declare
an auto de fé. This was the public expression
of the results of an inquisitorial visitation: the
solemn sentencing of those whom the Inquisition
had found guilty.
The auto de fé began as a public act of penance,
when the guilty confessed their sins and were
either reconciled to the Church or, if unrepentant
or repeat sinners, were condemned. But by the
mid-16th century it had become a public spectacle
Images: Alamy

designed to ‘achieve the public good and put fear

into others’.

69
 The Spanish Inquisition

Francisco Jiménez de
Cisneros, painted by
Juan de Borgoña

70
 FRANCISCO
DE CISNEROS
How a good man can leave the world
worse than the way he found it
Written by Edoardo Albert

F
ew men better illustrate the paradoxes
at the heart of the Inquisition than
Cisneros gave it all up and entered a Franciscan
friary, adopting the name Fray Francisco. As a friar, “With Isabella’s
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros.
Confessor to the queen, Grand Inquisitor,
he gave up all his personal wealth and voluntarily
adopted a notably ascetic life, sleeping on the support, he was able
statesman, university founder and
benefactor to the poor, Cisneros was incorruptible,
ground, fasting, and living for periods as a hermit.
Everything changed in 1492 when Cisneros was to force change on the
fearless and entirely disinterested in acquiring
personal wealth. But his religious zeal, which saw
recommended to Queen Isabella I as her personal
confessor. Taking this role, Cisneros found himself recalcitrant orders"
him push through reforms of Spain’s all-too-venal counselling the queen not just on her personal
clergy despite vigorous opposition, also led him spiritual life but the larger religious questions of the Byzantine Empire, had fallen to the Ottoman
to force conversion upon thousands of Muslims the realm. So impressed was Isabella that in 1495 Turks at the other end of the Mediterranean).
in the newly reconquered lands of Spain’s south, she tried to appoint him Archbishop of Toledo, the The new Archbishop of Granada, Hernando de
creating a problem that would endure for a century richest and most powerful episcopal post in Spain. Talavera, proceeded with the conversion of the
after his death. Cisneros ran away and resisted the appointment new Muslim subjects of Ferdinand and Isabella
Cisneros was born Gonzalo Jiménez de for six months, until finally a letter from the pope by peaceful persuasion, learning Arabic himself
Cisneros in 1436 to an impoverished hidalgo ordered him to accept the post. and encouraging his clergy to do so as well. But
(lower nobility). Having entered holy orders, As Archbishop of Toledo, Cisneros set about when this approach produced few converts, Queen
Cisneros went to Rome to study, where he became reforming the Church in Spain. He started with Isabella’s new confessor, Francisco de Cisneros,
impressed by the new humanist learning and his own order, the Franciscans. As he knew all who had taken over the post from Talavera,
gained the attention of Pope Paul II, who sent too well, the Franciscans in Spain had drifted a demanded a more aggressive approach.
him back to Spain with a letter stating that the long, long way from St Francis’ vision of an order The forced mass conversions that resulted
next bishopric in Toledo that fell vacant should wedded to poverty and chastity. Cisneros required produced a population of alienated people, the
be given to him. However, the archbishop ignored them to be faithful to their oaths of celibacy, to moriscos, who were nominally Catholic but who
the pope’s letter and, when Cisneros insisted, actually live in the parishes they were supposed were not accepted as such by other Spaniards
the archbishop had Cisneros thrown into prison. to serve, to go to confession and to preach on and many of whom wished to return to their
Cisneros spent six years languishing behind bars. Sunday. Although many Franciscans resisted, old cultural and religious practices. The problem
At any time he could have been released if he had some fleeing to North Africa with their concubines proved insoluble and, in the end, the moriscos
given up his claim to a bishopric but, in an early and becoming Muslim, Cisneros expanded his were expelled from Spain in 1609. Cisneros bears
display of the stubborn sense of right and wrong reforms to the other mendicant orders. With much of the responsibility for the suffering and
that would distinguish Cisneros throughout his Isabella’s support, he was able to force change on impoverishment this caused.
career, he refused to recant. the recalcitrant orders. Cisneros was appointed Grand Inquisitor in 1507,
In the end, the archbishop gave up and Cisneros However, the stern will that enabled Cisneros a post he held for ten years. He also sponsored one
was made Vicar General of Sigüenza. A brilliant to reform the Church in Spain also rendered of the great scholarly enterprises of the age, the
clerical career lay in front of him. Then, in 1484, him completely inflexible with respect to the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, in which the Greek,
Muslims living there. In 711 the first wave of Latin and Hebrew versions of the Old Testament
Cisneros overseeing the conversions of the Islamic conquests swept through Spain, and by were printed in parallel columns with the Aramaic
Muslims of Granada in a rather fanciful 718 the Visigothic Kingdom had been overthrown, at the bottom, and parallel versions of the Greek
19th-century painting by Edwin Long
with almost all of the Iberian Peninsula held and Latin texts of the New Testament.
by the invaders. It took Charles Martel’s victory Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros died on 8
at the Battle of Poitiers in 732 to stop Muslim November 1517 having ensured the peaceful
armies continuing their march into Europe. Thus accession to the throne of Charles V. He died a
began the long and slow war of reconquest (the faithful servant of Spain, a man of incorruptible
Reconquista) that witnessed the slow advance of personal morality who sought to help the poor
Christian realms southward until finally only the and foster learning. Yet he was stained by the
Emirate of Granada remained. The Emirate fell to fruits of his zeal, which were measured in lives lost
the King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I in 1492 and wasted – a tragic legacy of a good man who
(39 years after Constantinople, the last bastion of imposed his goodness on others.

71
 REFOR MATION
AND RETRIBUTION
74 The birth of the 106 The Thirty Years’ War “Suspecting a
Reformation In 1618 vast swathes of Europe
The gravest threat to the power of plunged into a savage conflict that lord of relapsing,
the Church would not originate on would claim millions of lives
the battlefield but in the minds of a particularly
pioneering thinkers who dared to 114 The beginning of fervent bishop
challenge the status quo the end?
80 The German
Inside the complex treaty that ended had his target
three decades of killing and fatally
Peasants’ War undermined the once powerful Holy tried and burned
Roman Empire
Inspired by the ideals of the
Reformation to seek the rights at the stake”
and freedoms denied to them,
thousands of peasants revolted
against the established powers that
ruled them. They would pay for
82
their courage in blood

82 The Counter-
Reformation
Far from willing to sit idly by as the
ripples of the Reformation spread,
the Church deployed various
means by which to try and stifle the
teachings of Protestantism

86 The Roman Inquisition

Does this less violent branch of the
Inquisition deserve its reputation
for attempting to stymie the march
of progress?

90 A global conspiracy
The Spanish and Portuguese
empires wasted little time in trying
to ‘cleanse’ the souls of their new
subjects as their realms expanded

96 Bloody Mary on trial

Infamous for putting hundreds
of Protestants to the torch, Mary
is remembered as a wicked and
intolerant queen, but how accurate
is this portrayal?
 86 90

74
106 96
 Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms,
where he showed dedication to his
beliefs in the face of opposition

THE BIRTH OF
THE REFOR MATION
The greatest climacteric in Christian history
began 500 years ago with Martin Luther’s initial
protest. It would challenge the ideologies of
Catholicism and shake the Church to its core

W
e are apt to think of the late Christendom. There was excess and corruption, and tore the continent apart. It is always worth
medieval Church as a mire just as there always had been, but in many remembering, however, that this was not Luther’s
of abuses, crowded with ways the devotional life of Europe remained in original intention. At the outset, in 1517, he was a
disgruntled parishioners and tolerably good health. Many thought that change little-known professor at a lacklustre provincial
scandalous priests. From was necessary, but few anticipated a revolution, university who simply wanted to provoke
this perspective, the 16th-century Reformation and virtually nobody saw the Reformation that academic debate. By the time of his death, in
can seem inevitable, a necessary cleansing of the was to come. 1546, he would be lionised by one of his closest
stables. While it is true that dynamic figures such This makes the developments of the 16th friends as “the charioteer of Israel who has led
as the Bohemian Jan Hus and the Englishman century, inaugurated by Martin Luther’s protest, the Church in these last times”. A lot can certainly
John Wycliffe made urgent calls for reform all the more remarkable. In the past, dissent had happen in a little under 30 years.
during the 14th and 15th centuries, we should not been localised and ultimately snuffed out. This Born in Eisleben, Saxony, in 1483, Luther
assume that everything was rotten in the state of time around, it rapidly gathered momentum proved a gifted student and, after university

74
 The birth of the Reformation

studies, seemed destined for a legal career. Tied to such musings was Luther’s scepticism, in fact an entirely routine practice and, if Luther
Terrible weather intervened. In 1505, Luther was or outright dismay, regarding some of the followed suit in October 1517, it would not have
caught in a severe thunderstorm and, fearing for central beliefs and practices of the established caused a great stir.
his life, made a pledge to St Anne that, should he Church. Indulgences came in for particularly The truly significant move was sending
survive, he would take up a monastic vocation. sharp criticism. These documents, granted in copies of the theses, along with provocative
It seems likely this was simply the catalyst for a return for good deeds or even financial payment, letters, to two leading Churchmen: the bishop
decision that Luther was already edging towards, were held to provide remission for sins and of Brandenburg and, crucially, the archbishop of
but, sure enough, he headed for the strict reduce the period of punishment in purgatory. Mainz. Luther’s fundamental criticisms were not
Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. Luther found this notion, and particularly its especially novel, but the underlying theology held
He would be ordained, pursue commercialisation, deeply offensive, latent potential for disruption. Key issues about
theological studies, both at Erfurt not least when a wide-ranging ecclesiastical authority and topics as sensitive as
and Wittenberg, and embark indulgence-peddling campaign grace and salvation were at stake. Though Luther
During his
upon a teaching career. These, was launched in Germany, presumably did not anticipate the consequences,
though, were troubled years for career Luther chiefly aimed at raising funds his actions demanded a response, and over the
Luther. He found it impossible produced 544 books, for the rebuilding of Rome’s St coming two years he was summoned to Rome
to conceive how he, or any pamphlets and articles. Peter’s Basilica. (an invitation that he declined) and quizzed by
person, could merit the This was the spark for uneasy theologians.
precious gift of salvation. He
In 1523 alone he Luther’s famous Ninety-five Matters came to a head in Leipzig in 1519.
began to find answers through brought 55 works to Theses, penned in 1517. Though Johann Eck, a skilled debater, challenged Luther’s
his reading of Paul’s Epistle the presses routinely, and not unreasonably, ideas, made comparisons between Luther and
to the Romans. No matter how regarded as the starting gun of Jan Hus, and through his rhetoric pushed Luther
wretched and corrupt human beings the Reformation, the theses were towards outbursts he would probably have
might be, God still offered them the hope only intended to provoke scholarly preferred to avoid. “Are you the only one who
of eternal bliss. The single prerequisite was belief. discussion about the rectitude of indulgences. knows anything?” Eck asked at one point. “Except
“Faith alone,” Luther later wrote, “without works, Historians continue to argue over whether the for you, is all the Church in error?” Luther’s reply
justifies, frees and saves.” Luther did not reach his theses were nailed to the door of the castle was perilously blunt: “I want to believe freely and
conclusions in a single eureka moment, but this church in Wittenberg, and there is every chance be a slave to the authority of no one, whether
concept of being saved, not as a result of our puny that this seemingly epochal event was a later, council, university or pope. I will confidently
actions, but through faith and the extraordinary, mythologising concoction. The crucial point, confess what appears to me to be true, whether it
unmerited generosity of God, would emerge as however, is that advertising academic debating has been asserted by a Catholic or a heretic.” The
one of the cornerstones of Protestantism. points by displaying them on church doors was touchpaper had been lit.

75
 Reformation and retribution

The Lutherdenkmal (Luther Monument)

in Worms. The great reformer of
Wittenberg is flanked by other leading
figures of the Reformation

Luther,
nicknamed the
'Nightingale of
Wittenberg,' was
The papacy’s response was initially sluggish face the Holy Roman Emperor, known for his fine Luther held to the principle of sola
but was ultimately ferocious. By 1520 Luther was Charles V, at the Diet of Worms. singing voice scriptura: that scripture alone was
saying some withering things about the court of Luther had hoped for a meaningful the guide to faith and the blueprint
Rome: it had become “the most lawless den of debate but instead he was simply for every aspect of devotion and ritual.
thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the instructed to renounce the contents of his Such a precious commodity was to be
very kingdom of sin, death and hell”. In June of books. With no small courage he declared that available to all the faithful. Luther’s translation of
1520, the pope issued a bull, Exsurge Domine, if he did so “all I shall achieve is to add strength the complete Bible appeared in 1534 and, over the
which called on Luther to recant. “Foxes have to tyranny and open not the windows but the next 40 years, 100,000 copies were produced.
arisen” in the vineyard of the Lord, the document doors to this monstrous godlessness”. Declared The power of print reached far beyond Holy
warned, and “the wild boar from the forest seeks a heretic and an outlaw, Luther’s life and liberty Writ, of course. Luther began to compose
to destroy it”. In Germany, “lying teachers are were in peril, so, on the way back to Wittenberg, a influential and best-selling tracts in the late
arising… their tongues are fire, a restless evil, fake kidnapping was arranged with Luther being 1510s and he was responsible for a fifth of all
full of deadly poison. They have bitter zeal, transferred to the safe harbour of the formidable Protestant literary output during the 1520s. If
contention in their hearts, and boast and lie Wartburg Fortress. any single factor explains the startling success
against the truth.” Here, Luther completed his translation into of his movement, and all Protestant movements
Luther publicly burned the document in German of the New Testament. The idea of that followed, it is this alliance with the fledgling
December, and, in short measure, a bull of vernacular Scripture was not novel (the medieval technology of the printing press. No previous
excommunication arrived. It denounced the era had seen its share of Biblical translations) dissenting Christians had enjoyed such a tool
Wittenberg professor as an “accursed heretic” and but it gained new momentum during the 16th with which to spread their message.
the “slave of a depraved mind”. Strong stuff, but century and would go on to become another of It is crucial to stress that, even after the
Luther’s trials were far from over. He now had to the defining characteristics of the Reformation. showdowns with emperor and papacy, Luther

76
 The birth of the Reformation

LEFT The
Peasant’s War
of 1524–25 was
inspired, in
part, by Luther’s
theology. The
conflict came
to a bloody end
at the Battle of
Frankenhausen

BELOW Luther’s
1543 tract On the
Jews and their
Lies, marked the
height of his anti-
Semitic sentiment

LUTHER AND
JUDAISM
In his 1523 tract That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew, always tarnished his
Luther argued for the toleration of Germany's reputation: On the
Jewish population, going so far as to suggest that Jews and their Lies.
Jews should be able to pursue careers in any given In its pages,
profession they desired. Luther urged the razing of Jewish synagogues and
This did not signal affection or admiration of buildings, the destruction of Jewish books, and
Judaism, however. The goal was to treat Jewish the prohibition of rabbinical teaching. Jews, he
people with a modicum of dignity so that they barked, had proven stubborn through their refusal
might be more likely to convert to Christianity. to accept Christ: they were as hard as “a stick, as
Luther's profound theological distaste for Judaism stone, as iron, as the devil”. They remained the
was always unflinching. Tellingly, the suggestions of "bitter, virulent, and vicious enemies of Christians"
the 1523 tract were never enacted in any Lutheran and the wisest policy would be to expel them and
territories and, through the 1530s, Luther's “be rid of the unbearable, devilish burden.” Luther
attitudes hardened. By 1543 he was composing would still be making such pronouncements in his
one of his most vicious texts, and one that has very last sermon of February 1546.

was a long way from establishing a robust and rebellion between 1524 and 1525. At first, in
clearly defined new Christian denomination. his Admonition to Peace, Luther accepted that
At this early stage, hope of reconciliation was the rebels had some legitimate complaints
not lost and reform from within still seemed while regretting their tendency to justify
feasible. Events were quickly spiralling out disobedience through appeal to the Gospels.
of control, however, and Luther’s own By the time he wrote Against the
success made an irreversible schism Robbing and Murdering Hordes of
increasingly likely. Across the Luther once Peasants, Luther’s innate social
German-speaking parts of the conservatism was given full
empire, Luther’s ideas were
found a dog in his voice. The powers-that-be ought
winning influential support. In room and, thinking to “smite, slay and stab” the
Nuremberg, in 1521, reformed it to be Satan, threw insurgents, “remembering that
preaching was permitted and nothing can be more poisonous,
it out of the
other towns and cities, like Ulm hurtful or devilish than a rebel…
and Strasbourg, followed suit. window it is just as when one must kill a
Lofty princes such as Albrecht of mad dog.” Luther talked in terms
Brandenburg-Ansbach and Philipp of of two kingdoms – the secular and the
Hesse also joined the ranks. religious – but this did not excuse the rejection
Less welcome, from Luther’s point of view, of legitimate political authority. He believed
was the recruitment of his message by the in the liberty of Christians, but he could not
German peasants and farmers who rose in tolerate his ideas being hijacked by rebels. From

77
 Reformation and retribution

now on, the Lutheran Reformation was to be of for any hope of Protestant unity. To the as some over-philosophised magical change.
the magisterial variety: overseen by territorial south, in Zurich, Ulrich Zwingli had been Zwingli, by contrast, insisted that the Eucharist
and municipal rulers. forging a more radical vision since was a symbolic memorial of Christ’s
This need to sustain order permeated Luther’s 1522, marked by more radical sacrifice, no more no less, and that
activities during the 1520s and 1530s. He had theologising and iconoclastic Luther liked any notion of the Real Presence
returned to Wittenberg from the Wartburg in excess. In 1529 Luther met his beer, declaring was abhorrent. This seemingly
1522 precisely in order to check the radicalism of with Zwingli at the colloquy that the more you abstruse point of theology,
overly enthusiastic followers who, in his absence, of Marburg. It was a disaster. one among many differences,
had begun to behave as if they had “devoured The chief sticking point was
drink, the more you made any meaningful
the Holy Spirit, feathers and all.” Luther would the Eucharist. Luther had no sleep, and the more reconciliation between the two
always insist on being the custodian of his own time for the Catholic notion you sleep, the less men impossible and signalled
message. In the same spirit, he often took the of transubstantiation, in which you sin a division between Lutheranism
lead in defining the ecclesiastical structures and the substance of bread and wine and the so-called Reformed
devotional priorities of his emerging Church, and transformed into the substance of Churches, with Calvinism soon to
generations of Lutherans would be guided by the Christ’s body and blood, preferring the follow in Zwingli’s footsteps.
pithy, accessible catechisms he produced in 1529. idea of consubstantiation: the substance of the This sense of fragmentation would come
Luther’s was not the only version of Reform, bread and wine coexisting with the body and to define Protestantism. Differences over
however, and this posed daunting problems blood of Christ without what Luther regarded doctrines of salvation, ecclesiastical structures,

1521
The Diet of Worms
Following Luther's excommunication in January 1521, he
is summoned to the Diet of Worms, the empire's highest
legislative body. Here he faces the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V (pictured). Rather than the theological debate
anticipated by Luther, he is simply shown his books and
told to renounce them. After a day's consideration, Luther
refuses to comply.
Having been denounced as a heretic and an outlaw,
Luther's life is in danger and his protector, Frederick the
Wise of Saxony, stages a mock kidnapping on the route
back to Wittenberg. Luther is taken to the safety of the
Wartburg Fortress where he remains for 11 months.

1517
The Ninety-five Theses
Historians differ over whether Luther nailed his famous
theses to the door of the church at Wittenberg Castle
(pictured), but the posting of points for academic
debate was common practice and would not have
ruffled feathers. Printed editions of the theses had
begun to appear in Nuremberg, Leipzig and Basel
by December. A tract, in German, summarising his
arguments appeared in 1518 (the Sermon on Indulgence
and Grace) and had gone through 12 editions by the
end of the year. Luther was summoned to Augsburg in
August 1518 to be quizzed by the papal legate, Thomas
Cajetan, where his recantation was demanded but very
much not forthcoming.

Timeline
1483 1501 1505 1507 1519 1520

l Birth of Martin Luther l Luther enrols at l Luther enters the l Luther ordained as priest l Disputation at Leipzig l The first major works
Born in Eisleben, Saxony, 10 University of Erfurt monastery Also in this year, Luther The Ingolstadt theologian Three epochal tracts appear:
November, Martin was the Luther would study the Caught in a storm, Luther makes his first visit to Johann Eck engages with The Address to the Christian
son of Hans Luder, a copper liberal arts at this centre makes a pledge to St Anne the recently founded Luther and presses him to Nobility of the German
miner, and Margarethe. The of humanist thought and that he will become a monk Wittenberg University. He make bolder statements Nation, The Freedom of
couple would have eight other become Master of Arts if he survives. He goes to gains a lower theology than Luther likely intended, the Christian Man (both in
children. Martin later altered in 1505. He embarked on the monastery of the order degree in 1507 and his who is compared to 14th- German), and the Latinate
the spelling of his surname. higher legal studies. of Augustinian Eremites. doctorate in 1512. century heretic Jan Hus. Babylonian Captivity.

78
 The birth of the Reformation

the number and nature of sacraments, and political map meant that Catholic and Lutheran After Luther’s
countless other fault lines emerged. It was towns and principalities sat side by side bold stand at the
impossible to contain what Luther had and would shortly fall into conflict. Diet of Worms
in 1521, he was
unleashed within a single vision A compromise of sorts arrived in whisked off to
of what Protestantism ought Though a 1555 with the Peace of Augsburg. the safety of the
Wartburg Fortress
to be. Luther’s version claims sophisticated From now on, the local ruler was
primacy in terms of chronology, theologian, Luther at liberty to choose between
however, and while a product Catholicism and Lutheranism
of its time and place, it did displayed the common and impose it upon his
reach back to some of the touch in his writings, subjects. It was a messy
aspirations of the medieval with homely solution but one that would
firebrands. The difference was have been unthinkable just half
images
that it spread and endured. a century earlier, when almost
By the time of Luther’s death in everyone believed in the fiction of
1546, the religious landscape of Germany a united Christendom. Wittingly or not,
was in chaos. The patchwork nature of the Martin Luther had extinguished that dream.

THE REFORMATION EXPANDS

Born in Noyon, northeast France, in 1509, John Calvin through the work of the consistory court, morality was
abandoned early plans to enter the priesthood in order closely monitored and corrected. Calvin argued for
to study law. In Paris, he was carried by the reformist the untrammelled authority of Scripture, inaugurated
tides of Humanism and, by the early 1530s, had been new ecclesiastical structures which did away with the
won over to the Protestant message. Fearing for his old priestly caste, and developed a radical theological
safety, he left France in 1534 and, in 1536, produced vision. The centrepiece was the doctrine of double
the first version of his great theological work, The predestination. Flawed, corrupt human beings
Institutes of the Christian Religion. In the same year could expect to play no role in decisions about their
he arrived in Geneva, where the reformer Guillaume salvation. They were simply bound either for eternal
Farel convinced him to share in the work of creating bliss or perdition. Calvinism would become the most
his version of a godly city. Calvin’s rigour led to his influential of Protestant denominations, spreading
banishment in 1538 but, after a spell in Strasbourg, he as far as Scotland, the fringes of Eastern Europe,
was invited back in 1541. From then until his death in and North America. Debates about the specifics of
1564, Calvin took the leading role in Geneva’s religious Calvinist doctrine, with rigorists battling moderates,
transformation and helped to shape a culture in which, would rumble on for centuries.

1529 LEFT
An image from
Speyer and Marburg Luther’s German
translation of the
At the Colloquy of Marburg, the Lutheran New Testament.
prince Philipp of Hesse hopes to reconcile the For Luther,
leaders of the Swiss and German Reformations. scripture was the
Disagreements over the Eucharist make it true guide to faith
impossible for Luther to reach accord with
the leader of reform in Zurich, Ulrich Zwingli
(pictured). At the Diet of Speyer, five Lutheran
princes launch a formal protestation because
earlier freedom for rulers to determine how to
respond to the Reformation within their own
territories is rescinded. The use of the word
Protestant, referring to this event, comes into
use from this point.

1522 1524–25 1525 1530 1531 1546

l Return to Wittenberg l German Peasants’ War l Luther marries l Augsburg Confession l Formation of l Luther’s death
A rise in religious extremism, Though rooted in socio- Luther weds Katharina von The codification of Schmalkaldic League After preaching his final
notably the arrival of economic discontent, Bora, a former nun who Lutheran doctrines This defensive alliance of sermon on 14 February,
the Zwickau prophets in preachers loyal to the rebels arrived in Wittenberg in 1523. and worship, drafted Lutheran princes and towns Luther dies in his
December 1521, forces Luther appeal to Luther's concept The couple have six children. played a major role in the hometown of Eisleben on
Images: Alamy

by Melanchthon, is
to return to Wittenberg. of Christian liberty. The The death of a daughter, presented to Charles V at expansion of Lutheranism. the 18th of the month. He
He works to dampen the peasants' demands carry Magdalena, in 1542 sends the Diet of Augsburg and It came into conflict with is 46 years old and is buried
radicalism of reformers. echoes of Luther's ideas. Luther into despair. published the next year. Charles V. in Wittenberg.

79
 1 5 2 4 –2 5

THE GER MAN

PEASANTS’ WAR

Timeline
JUNE 1524 6–20 MARCH 1525 4 APRIL 1525 13 MAY 1525

The Countess of Lupfen Representatives from The peasants attempt The peasants attack
demands a harvest of the separate groups to attack the city of Weinsberg Castle,
snail shells from the of peasants meet Ulm in the Battle of achieving victory
count’s tenants on and discuss a set of Leipheim. Catching and taking the count
a holiday. Instead, common demands. sight of the Swabian prisoner. They execute
the peasants raise a They agree on League, they him along with 70 other
banner and create a list what is known as the attempt to retreat but nobles, but this causes a
of grievances. Twelve Articles. 1,000 are killed. divide among the peasants.

80
 The German Peasants’ War

WHAT WAS IT?

Following a period of unrest and economic trouble,
peasants in the German-speaking areas of the Holy
Roman Empire rose up against the Catholic Church
and landowners. The rebellion began in June 1524
at Stühlingen when approximately 1,000 men
created a list of grievances, but by October more
peasants had risen up in large numbers around
most of southwest Germany.
Representatives of the rebels came together in
Memmingen to find a common goal and created
the Twelve Articles. This list of demands included
free access to fish and game, release from serfdom
and the right for a community to choose and
depose its own pastor.
Published and printed widely, the Twelve
Articles spread rapidly throughout Germany,
sparking a series of battles and massacres. Most
ended in the peasants’ defeat. When the war
ended, more than 100,000 had been killed, and
the installation of harsh restrictions and terms
discouraged further rebellion.

WHY DID IT HAPPEN?

Conditions for peasants had been poor in the years
preceding the revolt, with complaints of increasing
workloads and high rent as nobles demanded
more and more from the tenants and serfs to offset
decreased land value. While the Reformation
played a large part in the revolt, it did not appear
in the first list of demands created by the peasants
to rise at Stühlingen. It wasn’t until the movement
expanded that more religious grievances began to
emerge and the rebels began to use the Lutheran
ideas already preached in the towns and villages to
find a common non-agrarian cause for war. Lines
in the Twelve Articles such as “The Bible proves
that we are free, and we want to be free” show
inspiration from Luther’s work.

WHO WAS INVOLVED?

Martin Luther
10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546
Translating the Bible into common
German, Luther helped inspire the
revolt. However, this was unintentional
and he actually condemned the
actions of the peasants.

Thomas Müntzer
1490 – 27 May 1525
Inspired by Luther’s ideas,
Müntzer became a leading radical
reformer and supporter of the
revolt, even personally leading
29 APRIL 1525 SEPTEMBER 1525 troops in battle.

Georg Truchsess
The Battle of The remains of the
Frankenhausen sees the rebellion are put
von Waldburg
peasants defeated in down and many 25 January 1488 – 29 May 1531
battle against the armies peasants return Known as “scourge of the peasants”,
of Phillip I of Hesse and to their farms.
the commander of the Swabian League
George, Duke of Saxony. The peasant
Müntzer is captured and movement has had a reputation for being harsh and
killed shortly after. ultimately failed. pitiless towards his enemies.

81
 Reformation and Retribution

82
 THE COUNTER-
REFOR MATION
The forces of Catholicism were neither willing nor
able to ignore the growing spread of Protestantism
Written by Ben Gazur

N
ewton’s third law of motion states
that “for every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction”. This
holds true in mechanical systems
but can be just as true for social
forces. The pressure of the Protestant Reformation
was met by a reaction from the Catholic Church.
The Counter-Reformation involved the forces of
states and the Church pushing back against the
theological revolution being unleashed in Europe.

THE COUNCIL OF TRENT

The initial reaction by the papacy to the threat
of schism, caused by Martin Luther, had been
to treat him as many heretical theologians had
been dealt with in the past. In 1520, Pope Leo X
had promulgated a bull titled Exsurge Domine,
which refuted 41 of Luther’s arguments and
threatened him with excommunication unless
he quickly and publicly recanted. When Luther
burned his copy of Exsurge Domine the pope
followed through with his threat, publishing a
bull of excommunication in which he “decree[d] Luther was unconvinced. He was right to be
the sentences of excommunication, of anathema, suspicious: many of the reforms were never put
of our perpetual condemnation and interdict” on into effect.
Luther and all who followed him. Under pressure from Emperor Charles V,
This might have been the end of the matter, a council was called which met at Trento in
but it proved radically insufficient in stemming northern Italy. It was Charles’ belief that once
the Protestant tide. Luther’s teachings were the Church was cleansed of the abuses that had
spreading widely. Pope Adrian VI attempted driven Luther to publish his theses Protestants
LEFT some reforms of the papacy by limiting the would return to the Catholic fold. Known as
The Council of number of indulgences granted but was stymied the Council of Trent, this meeting of cardinals,
Trent recognised
the power of art
by members of the Roman curia. His successor archbishops and bishops would meet in three
and architecture on the throne of St Peter, Clement VII, was faced sessions between 1545 and 1563. The emperor had
in spreading with crises of finances, war and the English intended this council to be open to Protestants so
Catholicism
and led to the Church breaking from Rome, which distracted that the schism could be healed, but in the event
development of from dealing with wider Reformation forces. It Protestant observers were denied a vote in the
the exuberant was only under his successor, Paul III, that the Council’s decisions and stayed away.
Baroque style
true Counter-Reformation could begin. Instead of reconciliation, the council saw a
RIGHT Pope Paul The pope’s first step was to create a retrenchment of Catholic doctrine. While some
III was the first
pope to recognise
commission to examine the financial abuses of the decrees of the Council of Trent did attempt
the threat of of the papacy. Their report, Consilium de to limit some abuses of clergymen, and the
the Protestant Emendanda Ecclesia, suggested many reforms. keeping of a concubine by priests was made an
Reformation and
acted decisively to When it was published some Protestants were excommunicable offence, in the main the council
quell it encouraged by its openness to change, though restated the traditional views of the Church.

83
 Reformation and retribution

Original sin was reconfirmed as a basis of

doctrine. The validity of the seven sacraments
was underlined. Crucially, the Lutheran idea that
a human could be saved by faith alone, without
good works, was utterly denied. The council listed
many of the most common Protestant beliefs
and gave a verdict on anyone who held to these
opinions: “Let him be anathema.” The outcome
of the Council of Trent was a widening of the gulf
between Catholics and Protestant reformers.
Charles V’s own attempts to impose orthodoxy
and unity on European Christianity through
military force came to an end with the Peace
of Passau in 1552 and the Peace of Augsburg in
1555. This guaranteed the rights of Lutherans
to worship as they wished in the Holy Roman
Empire. A compromise was reached that allowed
rulers to set their own religious policy. The
principle of cuius regio, eius religio (“whose
realm, their religion”) was adopted.

THE JESUIT ORDER

In 1540, Pope Paul III issued a bull titled To the
Government of the Church Militant. In it, he gave
official sanction to the creation of the Society of
Jesus – better known as the Jesuits. They were
given the authority to create schools and colleges
and to ensure that the masses were taught the
orthodox beliefs of the Catholic Church. Soon
their mission would be to educate princes and
kings, act as their advisors, and win back areas
that had been at risk of falling from the embrace
of Rome.
The Jesuits owed loyalty directly to the pope,
which led to some resistance. The order was only
slowly tolerated in France, where it was feared
their influence would remove the independence
of their church. Under Elizabeth I of England,
the Jesuits were feared as undercover enemies
who might spread religious dissent in England.
Indeed, Jesuit emissaries were sent into England,
Scotland and Ireland to stir up Catholics. Men
such as Edmund Campion entered England under
the guise of a jewel merchant but immediately
The Spanish Armada was
began to preach to Catholics. launched against England
The English fought back. Campion was caught in an attempt to force it
and questioned under torture then executed back into the Catholic fold
by being hung, drawn and quartered. In 1584
parliament passed ‘An act against Jesuits, “In many countries, obedience to the pope has
seminary priests, and such other like disobedient almost ceased, and matters are becoming so
persons’ that ordered all Jesuits to leave the critical that, if God does not interfere, they will
country within 40 days or face punishment for soon be desperate. Germany leaves little hope
high treason. of being cured. Poland is in almost as hopeless
Of course, soft power was not the only way that a state.” Yet Poland and Hungary were soon
Catholic monarchs struck back against Protestant brought back to Catholicism, largely through
states. The English throne had temporarily the subtle work of Jesuits in education. The
returned to Catholicism under Mary I and her University of Graz was founded in Austria in
Spanish husband Philip II. When Mary died the 1586 and counteracted the growing rise of
English throne had passed to the pragmatically Lutheranism there.
Protestant Elizabeth I. Philip attempted to retake The Jesuits and the centralised Catholic Church
England, but his armadas of 1588, 1597, and 1598 were often able to work in a united way to achieve
utterly failed. their goals. Protestant churches could not always
The Jesuits enjoyed greater success in other rely on each other for support as each held beliefs
areas. One writer of the time described how, that others considered heretical.

84
 The Counter-Reformation

LEFT
Pope Paul III
approved the
formation of the
Jesuit order, who
were employed
in fighting the
Reformation
through education
– and other means

INSET Charles
V, Holy Roman
Emperor,
attempted
to conquer
Protestant states
in his domain
but was forced to
acknowledge some
religious toleration

BELOW
The Index of
Prohibited Books
sought to keep
works that went
against Catholic
doctrine out of
the hands of
the faithful

“With the strong support of

Spain the Church was secured
against many outside enemies”
two former inquisitors would be elected pope in receded in many places, but in its attempts to
turn; Paul IV and Pius V. All inquisitors were put secure the power of the papacy and Church
in their positions by the pope and so could be doctrine in Catholic dominions, it succeeded. The
relied on to act according to his desires. What the Counter-Reformation also served to purify the
pope wanted was an end to Reformation forces Church and rid it of some of those practices that
within Italy. had first stirred the Reformation itself.
INTELLECTUAL STRIFE Writers whose work was found suspect might Although the extent of the Catholic lands
The infamous Spanish Inquisition had been find themselves included in the Index Librorum in Italy was diminished by the Reformation, it
founded in 1478 to put a stop to heresy in the Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books), which found itself, after the Counter-Reformation, in
kingdoms of Spain. Its main aim was to discover listed works both secular and religious that the a healthier position than it had for centuries
which of the ‘new Christians’ – those who had Church did not approve. Works by Martin Luther, previously. With the strong support of Spain
converted from Judaism and Islam – were John Calvin and other Protestants were banned. the Church was secured against many outside
returning to their previous faiths. Those found Later authors as diverse as Voltaire, Sartre and enemies. With new orders such as the Jesuits it
guilty of apostatism could find themselves being Thomas Hobbes were similarly banished from the was able to spread its word across the globe.
burned alive at an auto de fé. While the vigilance bookshelves of observant Catholics. The Peace of Augsburg had seen a recognition
of the Spanish Inquisition may have helped of the division between Protestant and Catholic
maintain religious orthodoxy there, Protestant AFTERMATH states. This peace, however, did not last. With
propagandists used the fear of their methods The Counter-Reformation both failed and Protestantism spreading to new areas, a renewed
to warn of the dangers of being ruled by a succeeded. In its aim of returning European religious conflict seemed inevitable. When it
Catholic state. Christianity to its pre-Luther state, it failed. came in the form of the Thirty Year’s War in
In 1542, it was Pope Paul III who established a Protestantism in all its forms spread in many 1618, religion and international politics sparked
body of inquisitors to act against heresy. In time countries and the reach of the Catholic Church destruction that caused millions of deaths.

85
 Reformation and Retribution

86
 THE ROMAN
INQUISITION
The Inquisitorial arm of the pope has a largely
undeserved reputation for repressing the
advance of science
Written by Edoardo Albert

I
n 1542, Europe was splitting apart into that both sides, Catholic and Protestant, spent the
the rival political and religious camps better part of 100 years attempting to extirpate
produced by the Reformation. The old the rival religion.
religion, which had encompassed the Within the context of this calamitous conflict
whole continent, had fractured, but the Roman Inquisition was actually a relatively
quite where the borders would lie remained an mild influence. Pope Paul III founded the Roman
open question. Both sides, the Catholic and the Inquisition in 1542 as an office of the Catholic
Protestant, were convinced of the truth of their Church, dedicated to ensuring that states in
causes and believed that they would prevail and union with the Church carried out papal bulls as
Europe would again confess one religion, with well as rooting out heresy and acting as part of
the heretics or the papists purged. the wider Catholic Counter-Reformation.
It is important to remember that neither side In practice, the Roman Inquisition operated
of this conflict believed in an individual right to mainly within the states of the Italian
freedom of conscience or religion. This was not Peninsula (Italy would not become a single
because they were stupid or moral imbeciles, unified country for another 300 years) acting
but rather flowed from the world view that both to remove Protestant influence and maintain
sides shared: they were dealing with the fates of Catholic orthodoxy. Pope Sixtus V developed
men’s immortal souls. Against that, neither side the organisation of the Inquisition further in
brooked the right of people to persist in what 1588 when he published Immensa aeterni Dei,
they saw as heresy. Both sides also believed
fervently in the ideal of social unity, of a state,
under its monarch, confessing a single faith in
LEFT
one god. The idea that we have now come to
Galileo Galilei (1564–
1642) was impatient accept, that rival political and social strands of
with fools and sure society should form ‘parties’ and take it in turns
of his own opinions,
even if he was to run countries following elections to see which
wrong. But he was was currently more popular, would have seemed
also the founder of absurd to our forebears, not to mention a recipe
modern astronomy
and one of the for endless civil wars.
most important It was only the dreadful toll of the Wars of
thinkers in history,
Religion in France, as well as the Thirty Years’
so his arrogance was
largely justified War in central Europe and Germany, that
convinced both parties that trying to bring
RIGHT Despite
being under house Europe back to confessional unity by force
arrest, Galileo was was futile. Exhausted by conflict, the rival
not prevented from factions signed the Peace of Westphalia in 1648,
seeing visitors. Of
these, perhaps the effectively ending the European wars of religion.
most unexpected The Roman Inquisition was one of the agencies
was the young
that exacerbated the tensions of the 16th and 17th
English poet John
Milton, future author centuries, but it is important to remember that it
of Paradise Lost was only a small part of the overall conflict and

87
 Reformation and retribution

“The Roman Inquisition was, despite its

reputation, a comparatively mild force GIORDANO
for repression” BRUNO
giving it the official title of the Supreme Sacred So notorious has this case become that some Meet the wandering ‘heretic’
Congregation of the Roman and Universal people genuinely believe the Church burned who refused to denounce his
Inquisition. Thus it remained for three and a half Galileo at the stake for saying the Earth orbits the beliefs and instead defended
centuries, until 1908, when it was renamed the Sun. The trial was held up as positive proof that
himself to an agonising end
Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, the Church was a force against progress and set
which it stayed as until 1965, when its name upon stifling free inquiry.
was changed again to the Congregation for the In fact, the trial was a result of scientific
Doctrine of the Faith. rivalries and Galileo’s arrogance. As one of the
During its long history, the Roman Inquisition pioneers of astronomy, Galileo used his telescope
was, despite its reputation, a comparatively to observe the phases of the planet Venus and
mild force for repression. Being thoroughly four satellites of Jupiter. The accepted model of
sceptical towards claims of witchcraft, it acted the time was the Ptolemaic geocentric model,
to counteract the wider European witch-hunting with the Earth fixed at the centre and the Sun
frenzy of the 16th and 17th centuries. The and planets revolving around it. However,
Inquisition remained firm in its belief that witch Nicolaus Copernicus, a Polish cleric, had already
sabbats were delusions rather than real events, developed an alternative model of the universe
insisted that witches could not be convicted with the Sun at the centre and the planets in
solely on the basis of witnesses who might have orbit around it.
held grudges against the accused, and generally The problem was that neither model fitted
held back from torture as a means of forcing the observations of what the planets and Sun
confessions. As a result, Italy saw considerably actually did. This was because Copernicus’ model
fewer witch trials and executions than other wasn’t right: planetary orbits are elliptical, not
parts of Europe, although, as elsewhere on spherical, and the Sun itself is not static but
the continent, the secular authorities pursued moving within the wider universe. However, as While Bruno’s reputation as a scientific
martyr is no longer tenable, he has become
witches with less legal restraint. Copernicus presented his ideas as a theory, not as a major figure in the history of Western
However, despite its record of general restraint, established fact, this was not a problem, and both occultism and now has a statue in the
the Roman Inquisition became notorious as models had their adherents. square where he was executed
a symbol of the Catholic Church’s supposed However, Galileo was a convinced follower
repression of the freedom of thought. The reason of the heliocentric model. He rubbished the Giordano Bruno (1548–1600) was a Dominican
for this notoriety is a single case: the trial of objections to the theory, which were actually well friar who became a Calvinist and a magician. He
Galileo Galilei. founded, and despite having many supporters was a scientist who embraced the occult. He
was a wanderer through Europe in dangerous
times, finding and losing powerful patrons
even more quickly than his contemporary,
Galileo. Within the context of the era, Bruno’s
ideas, which included reincarnation, an infinite
universe and an even more strident belief in his
version of heliocentrism, were dangerous and
certain to provoke resistance. Indeed, much
of Bruno’s wanderings around Europe were
the result of him having to leave places where
he had provoked his friends into becoming
enemies, including fleeing Germany when he
was excommunicated by the Lutherans.
In 1591, Bruno returned to Italy, where he
hoped to take the chair of mathematics at the
University of Padua. However, Galileo took the
post and Bruno moved to Venice, where he was
denounced by his erstwhile host, the nobleman
Giovanni Mocenigo. The Venetians turned Bruno
over to the Roman Inquisition, before which he
defended himself for seven years.
In the end, he was condemned for his
philosophical and religious beliefs rather
than his scientific ones and, on 17 February
Among the key moments in scientific
history were the nights Galileo turned 1600, having been turned over to the secular
his telescope to the sky and observed the authorities, he was burned to death on the
craters on the Moon, four of the satellites of Campo de’ Fiori in Rome.
Jupiter and the phases of Venus

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 The Roman Inquisition

LEFT
Galileo’s trial before
the Inquisition
became a key part
of the 19th-century
idea of the war
between science
and faith

INSET Pope Urban

VIII was pontiff
for nearly 21 years,
during which time
he sponsored the
arts and massively
increased the debts
of the Papal States

BOTTOM A
key figure in
the Counter-
Reformation,
Cardinal Robert
Bellarmine played
a crucial role in the
condemnation of
Giordano Bruno and
the exoneration of
Galileo in his first
Inquisitorial trial

for his work among the Jesuits in Rome he went yet it moves”) after his formal recantation appears
ahead and published his Dialogue Concerning to be a later invention, first appearing a century
the Two Chief World Systems in 1632. Galileo after Galileo’s death.
had been encouraged to write the book by the The Inquisition sentenced Galileo to house
pope himself, Urban VIII, who had been a strong arrest rather than imprisonment, and he spent
supporter of Galileo’s work despite being attacked the remaining ten years of his life at his villa,
for his patronage by parts of the Church. Pope although he was allowed to travel to Florence for
Urban VIII asked Galileo to set out in the book medical advice. The Galileo Affair was used by
the arguments for and against the two competing polemicists in the 19th century to advance the
systems and ensured that Galileo had formal idea that religion and science were fundamentally
permission from the Roman Inquisition to at odds. However, modern historians have
publish the book. showed that the case had nothing to do with
So, at the express request of the pope, Galileo repressing scientific knowledge and everything
wrote the Dialogue. He put the arguments for to do with clashing personalities acting against
heliocentrism into the mouth of a philosopher a backdrop of political conflict. If Galileo was
named Salviati, and the arguments against he a martyr to anything, it was to his inability to
gave to a character he named Simplicio, a pun refrain from insulting his own supporters.
on the Italian word ‘semplice’, meaning ‘simple- The Roman Inquisition remained, issuing an
minded’. Far from being even-handed, Galileo index of forbidden books (on which it had placed
completely loaded the argument in favour of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief
his desired conclusion. What was worse, from World Systems) but its position within Italian life
the point of view of the pope, was the fact that was ended by the reunification of Italy in 1861,
Galileo seemed to be identifying him with the when the Papal States were conquered by the
character of Simplicio. new country. Within the Roman Catholic Church
At a stroke, Galileo had managed to lose his the Inquisition was renamed the Holy Office, The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith
single most powerful and influential supporter becoming the official watchdog of orthodoxy. was renamed the Dicastery for the Doctrine of
Images: Getty Images; Alamy

– and he did so entirely unnecessarily. He was It became involved in the controversy over the the Faith in 2022, but it remains what it was: the
hauled up before the Inquisition, his views were liberation theology of the 1960s and ’70s, ruling arbiter of what is and is not possible within the
condemned and he was required to formally that while the Church fundamentally chose the purview of Catholic teaching. As an institution,
renounce them on pain of punishment. The story poor, it could not support liberation theology’s however, it is a long way from the days of Galileo
that Galileo muttered, “Eppur si muove,” (“And adoption of Marxist class analysis. Galilei and Giordano Bruno.

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 Reformation and Retribution

A heretic is garroted to death by

agents of the Spanish Inquisition

A GLOBAL
CONSPIRACY
With the New World now within its reach, the
Inquisition wasted little time in unearthing heretics
throughout Spain and Portugal’s new territories
Written by Bee Ginger

B
y the time Spanish and Portuguese bubbling away at home, spreading the reach and
soldiers were landing on the wrath of the inquisitions into newly conquered
beaches of the New World in the late territories was a tragic but natural next step on
15th century, populations in their the road to forcibly converting minorities to the
respective homelands had already Catholic cause. From the villages of Mexico to
suffered extensively at the hands of inquisitions the jungles of Brazil and the shores of Goa, the
determined to crush even the slightest hint tentacles of the Inquisition stretched far and
of religious dissent. With such religious zeal wide, with varying degrees of devastation.

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 A global conspiracy

The former headquarters of the

Mexican Inquisition (building
on the right) looms over a
public square in Mexico

MEXICO
The Mexican Inquisition was orchestrated by Catholic Church, which in turn saw the Spanish
the Holy Office of the Inquisition, established afford their new subjects a degree of leniency.
in New Spain in 1571. Initially spearheaded by In response, many natives acquiesced and
an archbishop named Pedro Moya de Contreras, converted. Their sheer numbers also prevented
who founded the ominously named Tribunal the Spanish from utilising harsher methods.
of the Faith in Mexico City, the Inquisition was Even so, not everybody was as easily brought
an extension of the draconian methods already into the fold. For them, certain punishments
long deployed in Spain to root out heretics and were reserved. A particularly fervent bishop by
extract confessions. the name of Juan de Zumárraga, suspecting a
Backed by the papacy, the Spanish monarchy baptised former Nahua lord of relapsing into his
was determined to cleanse its new territories old religious ways, had his target tried and then
and instil the ways of Catholicism in the natives. burned at the stake.
However, unlike other such religious campaigns,
the Inquisition in Mexico was not particularly
violent, with approximately 50 people (mainly
“Their sheer numbers
those who practised Judaism) executed between
1571 and 1820, an average of less than five a year.
also prevented the
This was due to a myriad of reasons, one
being the many similarities between native
Spanish from utilising An unfortunate soul by the name of
Simon Lopez is singled out by the
religious beliefs and practices and those of the harsher methods” Mexican Inquisition, 1642

91
 Reformation and retribution

PERU
Executed from a Holy Office based in Lima,
the Peruvian Inquisition relied on a variety of
methods to expose Muslims, Lutherans and Jews,
ranging from a series of tests used to unearth the
truth about a person’s religious views to clamping
down on the circulation of books.
Paranoid by thoughts of Protestant ideas being
disseminated throughout its precious overseas
territories, the Spanish crown charged inquisitors
with routinely examining ships and luggage
at Peruvian ports in a bid to locate and seize
any inflammatory tomes being smuggled into
the New World. Further measures were taken
in 1605 in the form of an order that compelled
booksellers to furnish inquisitors with full
inventories. People were also forced to denounce
anyone they suspected of possessing books
deemed heretical, including the Quran or any
title that furthered the views of Martin Luther.
Refusal to condemn a known rule-breaker could
result in excommunication.
Yet, despite the Holy Office’s zealous efforts
(which extended to expunging offensive words
and passages from certain books), banned books
continued to circulate, their prevalence aided by These models, housed in the Museo de la
the lack of money and manpower afforded to the Inquisición in Peru, depict an inquisitor
interrogating an unfortunate prisoner
Inquisition in Peru.

Many native people in South America were

enslaved and treated abhorrently, as shown
BRAZIL
in this illustration of a slave owner beating a Unlike its Spanish counterpart, and then affixed on the doors of
trussed-up slave
which insisted on establishing the church, remaining there until
Inquisitorial headquarters in a new edict was released.”
newly conquered territories, the The edicts were distributed
Portuguese Inquisition conducted throughout the parishes by a
in Brazil relied on a network ‘cleansweep vicar’. Priests then
of enforcers based in the New sent the edicts out to the chapels
World who reported back to a in their jurisdiction, and once a
head office located in Lisbon. chaplain had read it aloud, he had
However, the distance between to sign a receipt to confirm it had
the two was no impediment to been read to the congregation,
the creation and maintenance of sometimes even making a note of
a thoroughly efficient machine, the time the edict was read.
as explained by Aldair Carlos This detailed process enabled
Rodrigues from the Department the authorities in Lisbon to track
of History at the Universidade de the process of each edict and
São Paulo. ensure that accusations of heresy
“Each diocese was split into were being gathered properly. It
several ecclesiastical counties, was an operation that attracted
which did not necessarily many members of the colonial
coincide with civil counties. elites, who wished to prove
The counties, on the other their ‘blood purity’ and distance
hand, split into parishes, and themselves both morally and
the parishes into chapels. When biologically from Jews, natives
the Inquisition distributed a and Muslims. Navigating the
printed edict with the objective of Inquisition’s taxing induction
collecting accusations, this edict process provided a new recruit
had to be read at the end of mass with said ‘proof’.

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 A global conspiracy

A descendant of Ferdinand and Isabella, King

Joao III established the Inquisition in Portugal
CAPE VERDE
and oversaw the expansion of the Portuguese Records pertaining to the Portuguese Inquisition
Empire, which stretched 1.5 million square
miles by the time of his death in 1557 waged in Cape Verde are scarce, but the trial of an
African slave-trader does afford us a brief insight.
Married to the Governor of Cacheu, Crispina Peres
would have been a woman of status on the small
west African island nation once ruled from Lisbon.
She was also an integral figure when it came to
the flow of trade between Portugal and native
merchants, overseeing the buying and selling of
commerce and standing in as a mediator when
required. Neither position afforded her much
protection when she was suddenly accused of
practising Paganism. One of very few indigenous
people to be transported from another continent
to Portugal to face trial by order of the Inquisition,
Peres was ultimately labelled a poor Catholic
convert (as opposed to a relapsed heretic) and
ordered to publicly repent before journeying home.

“Neither position
afforded her much
protection when she
was suddenly accused of
practising Paganism”

GOA
In the wake of Vasco da Gama were often snatched away
discovering a route to India from their parents and banned
via the Cape of Good Hope, from inheriting their father’s
Portugal was desperate to property. For those even just
colonise the western coast suspected of continuing to
of this vast and exotic land. adhere to their original faith,
In order to aid this quest, barbaric punishments awaited.
Pope Nicholas V granted the Victims could be flogged,
Portuguese crown the authority placed in a rack, have their
to impose Christianity upon eyeballs crushed, or be burned
the local populace. Upon at the stake. On occasions
seizing Goa, the Portuguese when more extreme methods
swiftly started to shut down were deemed expedient,
places of worship used by entire settlements were put
the local Hindu, Muslim and to the torch and sometimes
Jewish populace. In time, a parent was forced to watch
350 temples were razed to as their child was burned.
the ground. Only forswearing their faith
Forbidding any resident of and converting to Catholicism
Goa from practising any faith could spare the child being
except Catholicism, the settlers totally incinerated.
confiscated religious texts Few historians would argue
and books written in various that the Inquisition in Goa
languages previously spoken was not the most ruthless and
in Goa. Hindus were prevented bloodsoaked campaign waged A curious crowd masses in
Portuguese-occupied Goa to watch
from accessing high office or by the Portuguese crown in the the burning of 20 doomed souls
testifying in court, and children supposed battle against heresy.

93
 Reformation and retribution

A WORLDWIDE MISSION
The kingdoms of Spain and Portugal were determined to convert the
New World to Catholicism, by any means necessary

E
ncouraged by the funding and
ambitions of Queen Isabella I and
King Ferdinand II, in 1492 an explorer
from Genoa named Christopher Columbus
traversed the vast expanse of the Atlantic
Ocean in search of new lands. He would
in time reach the shores of the Caribbean,
Central and South America, strange, exotic
places that would rapidly be colonised
by the rapacious forces of the Spanish
and Portuguese crowns. But it wasn't just
soldiers who crossed the ocean to help
subjugate the natives dwelling in these
lands. Priests, bishops and, of course,
inquisitors, sailed for the Americas, where
they worked tirelessly to convert local
populations to Catholicism. Often this
process proved to be relatively peaceful,
but this wasn't always the case. Never to be
described as squeamish, the forces of the
Inquisition had no qualms about deploying a
variety of malicious methods in their efforts
to make it abundantly clear to friend and foe
alike that only one faith would be tolerated
by the Iberian crowns.

94
 A global conspiracy

– TERRITORY RULED BY SPANISH

& PORTUGUESE CROWNS

Images: Alamy; freevectormaps.com; Wiki/Jean-Baptiste Debret

95
 Reformation and Retribution

BLOODY MARY
ON TRIAL
Scourge of England’s Protestants, does
Mary deserve her infamous title?
Written by Nicola Tallis

W
hen a princess was born
to Henry VIII and his wife
Katherine of Aragon on 18
February 1516, the royal
couple were overjoyed.
Named Mary, she was to be the couple’s only
surviving child, and as such her parents doted on
her. Nevertheless, she was not the male heir that
her father desperately needed to succeed him – a
circumstance that would prove to be pivotal not
only in her life but in the life of all English citizens.
However, for the first years of her life, Mary’s
childhood was a happy one. She was brought
up surrounded by all the luxurious trappings of
royalty and was given a splendid Renaissance
education befitting her status. She was an able
pupil and particularly excelled in languages.
In 1527, Mary’s happy family life was shattered
when her father loudly declared his intention to
separate from her mother. He had fallen in love
with one of the queen’s ladies, Anne Boleyn,
and Henry was certain she could give him what
Katherine could not: a son. This was to be the
start of the unhappiest period of Mary’s life, and
the effects on her would be permanent. As Henry
began proceedings to have his marriage annulled
in order to marry Anne, both he and his new love
treated Mary with increasing unkindness.
Despite being separated from her mother,
Katherine’s strength gave Mary courage and,
in the face of persistent bullying from the king,
both mother and daughter refused to bow to
his demands. They refused to acknowledge that
Katherine and Henry’s marriage had been invalid,
making Mary illegitimate. This angered Henry
greatly and caused a rift between father and
daughter that was to continue for many years.
On top of this, the effect that the psychological
stress had on Mary was staggering: she suffered
from bouts of ill health and her emotions were

96
Bloody Mary on trial

97
 Reformation and retribution

in constant turmoil. Her father was unmoved by as the queen of England. This caused Anne
the fragile state of his daughter, and as the years great frustration, and she ordered her aunt
passed and the annulment proceedings dragged to “box her ears as a cursed bastard” if Mary
on, life showed no signs of improving for Mary. continued to refer to herself as princess, but it
“Few other women in the world of her rank ever did not come to that.
lived more wretchedly,” a Venetian ambassador Worse was to come for Mary, when, on
would later remark. 7 January 1536, her mother died. She was
In January 1533, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, distraught and fell ill shortly afterwards. Anne
who was pregnant, were secretly married. Shortly Boleyn was elated, but her triumph was short-
after, having endured seven years of frustration lived. On the day of Katherine’s funeral, Anne
during which time the pope refused to annul miscarried a child that had the appearance
his first marriage, Henry’s authority as supreme of being male. Like Katherine before her,
head of the Church of England was formalised Anne had failed to produce a living son, and the
in parliament. In May, the king’s archbishop of king’s patience was exhausted. In May, Anne was
Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, officially declared executed on trumped-up charges of adultery and
his marriage to Katherine to have been null incest, and, like her sister before her, Elizabeth was
and void: Mary was now formally disinherited. declared illegitimate.
Neither Mary nor her mother accepted this At the end of the month, the king married for
pronouncement, but there was little that either of a third time, taking as his wife one of Anne’s
them could do. ladies, Jane Seymour. Unlike Anne, Queen Jane

“‘Few other women in the world of her

rank ever lived so wretchedly,’ a Venetian
ambassador would later remark”
On 7 September, much to the king’s was sympathetic to Mary, and through her efforts,
disappointment, Anne Boleyn gave birth to a father and daughter were reconciled. But it came
daughter. Named Elizabeth, her birth had profound at a cost: Henry demanded that Mary acknowledge
consequences for the 17-year-old Mary, and the him as supreme head of the Church of England
seeds of the half-sisters’ turbulent relationship and admit that her mother’s marriage had
were sown here. Shortly after Elizabeth’s birth, been, “by God’s law and man’s incestuous and
Mary’s household was broken up and she was unlawful,” making herself illegitimate.
sent to join the household of her infant sister at On the advice of the Spanish ambassador,
Hatfield, where Anne Boleyn’s aunt, Lady Shelton, Mary finally agreed to do so. She never forgave
supervised her. To make matters worse, on 23 herself for what she perceived to be the betrayal
March 1534, the Act of Succession was passed of her mother, but her circumstances immediately
through parliament, legally disinheriting Mary and improved. She was welcomed back to court and
depriving her of the title princess. From now on into her father’s favour, and she soon became close
she was to be referred to as the Lady Mary. to her stepmother. Furthermore, she was chosen
Throughout this time Mary clung to her Catholic as godmother to the longed-for son, Edward, that
faith, which gave her strength and brought her Queen Jane gave birth to in October 1537. Her
Mary uses her ‘royal touch’ to cure a
comfort. She was frequently plagued by ill health, restoration to favour, however, was only successful subject’s scrofula. English monarchs were
yet she still refused to acknowledge Anne Boleyn in personal terms, and Mary remained legally thought to possess healing powers

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY

Get to know the other Marys in the House of Tudor

MARY MARY OF MARY, MARY GREY

C.1545–78
TUDOR GUISE QUEEN STATUS: THE QUEEN’S SECOND COUSIN
1496–1533 1515–60 OF SCOTS Mary Grey was the youngest
STATUS: HENRY VIII’S SISTER STATUS: CONSORT OF JAMES V 1542–87 sister of the executed Lady
The first Mary Tudor was OF SCOTLAND AND REGENT STATUS: QUEEN OF SCOTS AND Jane Grey and may have been
Henry VIII’s younger sister, The French-born second wife MARY’S SECOND COUSIN named in honour of her second
of whom he was extremely fond. It of James V of Scotland was mother to Mary, Queen of Scots, is arguably one of cousin. Mary I treated her and her elder
is often claimed that Henry’s famous Mary, Queen of Scots. Following the the worst monarchs ever to have ruled. sister, Katherine, with kindness, but
ship, Mary Rose, was named in her death of her husband six days after her She was the granddaughter of Henry both sisters would later experience
honour, but there is no evidence for daughter’s birth, Mary acted as regent VIII’s elder sister, Margaret Tudor, and Queen Elizabeth I’s wrath when they
this. Mary was the namesake of Mary I. of Scotland on her daughter’s behalf. her husband James IV of Scotland. each married without royal consent.

98
 Bloody Mary on trial

MONARCHS WITH A
TASTE FOR MURDER

CHRISTIAN II MARY I CHARLES IX

OF DENMARK REIGN: 1553–58 OF FRANCE
REIGN: 1513–23 Mary’s estimated kill count REIGN: 1560–74
When Christian invaded Sweden includes not only the 284 It was during Charles’ reign that the
in 1520, the king broke his Protestants that were burned mass murder of French Huguenots
promise of a general amnesty at the stake but also Lady Jane known as the Saint Bartholomew’s
by ordering the execution of Grey and her supporters, as well Day Massacre was committed.
between 80 and 90 members as many of those who had joined Although estimates of the number
of the Swedish nobility. This the Wyatt Rebellion. Despite her killed vary and Charles was not
atrocity became known as the nickname of Bloody Mary, she responsible for all of these, he did
Stockholm Bloodbath, and was by no means as ruthless as order the murder of the leaders,
Christian was later deposed. many of her fellow monarchs. which began the massacre.

ESTIMATED KILLS
80–90 ESTIMATED KILLS ESTIMATED KILLS
300–380 2,000–30,000

ISMAIL ‘THE IVAN THE HENRY VIII

BLOODTHIRSTY’ TERRIBLE REIGN: 1509–47
OF MOROCCO REIGN: 1547–84 The number of people killed
during the reign of Mary’s father
REIGN: 1672–1727 Ivan only admitted to killing
3,750 people during his reign, has almost certainly been grossly
Also known as the Warrior King, exaggerated, but it is true that the
Ismail acquired a reputation but the reality was far worse. He
ruled Russia with ruthlessness king ordered the executions of a
for the torture and execution number of people close to him,
of his enemies. He also had the and even killed his own son. As
a child he tortured animals and including two of his wives.
severed heads of up to 10,000
of his enemies displayed on the in adulthood raped and mass
city gates of Fez as a gruesome murdered a number of his
warning to his people. subjects.

ESTIMATED KILLS ESTIMATED KILLS ESTIMATED KILLS

30,000 60,000 57,000–72,000
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 Reformation and retribution

disinherited by her father. There is no doubt that Mary under Edward’s rule. He was as fervently

MATCH- Mary’s tumultuous childhood had caused deep

and permanent scars – her father would later
Protestant as Mary was Catholic, and he was
utterly determined to ensure that his realm

MAKING AND acquire a reputation as a tyrant, and it is fair to say

that Mary was one of his victims.
became a wholly Protestant nation. Mary had
compromised her faith once during the reign

MATRIMONY FIGHTING FOR

of her father and was determined not to do so
again. She steadfastly refused to conform to any

How Philip and Mary HER RIGHTS other religion than Catholicism, but her defiance
would ultimately cause a permanent rift in her
made it to the altar Henry VIII died on 28 January 1547 and was relationship with her half-brother.
succeeded by his nine-year-old son, Edward VI. When the 15-year-old Edward died childless in
Mary’s mother, Katherine of Aragon, had always Despite his earlier treatment of his daughter, in the July 1553 following a period of ill health, it was
hoped that her daughter would make a Spanish latter years of Henry’s reign life had become more discovered that rather than honouring the terms
match. It was a wish that Mary also cherished, settled for Mary. She had a privileged lifestyle, set out in his father’s will, he had named his
but she had never met her future bridegroom,
Philip, and in a similar manner to other foreign
royal marriages, there was a protocol to be
adhered to. “Mary had compromised her faith once
EXCHANGE PORTRAITS
In the case of foreign
during the reign of her father, and was
marriages, when it was not
always possible to see your
determined not to do so again”
future spouse in person, it
was common for portraits to
be sent to your intended. In and her accounts reveal that she appreciated fine Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as his heir to the
some instances this did not food, was fond of clothes and jewels, and loved throne. Once again an attempt had been made to
work out well, the most famous music. She also liked to ride and hunt and gambled deprive Mary of her rights.
example being that of Mary’s at cards. She had enjoyed good relationships On 10 July, Lady Jane Grey was publicly
father and Anne of Cleves – he
fell in love with her portrait but was repulsed by
with most of her stepmothers, particularly her proclaimed queen. Mary, meanwhile, had learned
her in person. Mary had no such worries and was father’s last wife, Katherine Parr. Furthermore, of her half-brother’s death and the attempts to
besotted with Philip’s portrait by Titian. though both she and Elizabeth remained legally oust her from her place in the succession, but
illegitimate, her father had restored them both rather than bowing down she was determined
to their place in the succession should their half- to fight. She fled into East Anglia where she was
CONCLUDE brother, Edward, die childless. Despite the fact they a major landowner and incredibly popular; this
NEGOTIATIONS had both been raised as Protestants she was fond proved to be a wise move. Making her way to her
In January 1554,
representatives of Philip’s of her younger siblings and often lavished them stronghold of Framlingham Castle, Mary was able
father, the Emperor Charles V, with gifts. to rally her supporters, who flocked to her banner
arrived in London in order to But life would become increasingly difficult for in the coming days. Though Lady Jane Grey’s
finalise the negotiations for
Philip and Mary’s marriage.
At this time it was agreed that
Philip would not be given any
authority above the queen and would merely
assist her in her duties as her consort.

WRITE LETTERS AND

SEND GIFTS
Once the negotiations had
been concluded, it was
common to write letters
and send lavish gifts to
your intended. Philip and
Mary exchanged gifts of
diamonds, and Philip also
presented Mary with the
world-famous La Peregrina pearl.

THE WEDDING
On 25 July 1554, Philip
and Mary were married
in a splendid ceremony at
Winchester Cathedral. It
was conducted in Latin,
and after the wedding
the couple spent ten days Seen here renewing a gifted
honeymooning in the city, residing in luxury at hospital to the City of London,
Wolvesey Palace. Edward VI was committed to
continuing his father’s work

100
 Bloody Mary on trial

father-in-law, the Duke of Northumberland, set

out to apprehend her, his mission proved to be
fruitless. Rather than gaining support as he had
hoped, Northumberland’s forces began to desert
him in favour of Mary. As soon as he left London,
sensing the mood of the people and hearing of
the increased support for Mary, the Privy Council
finally decided to abandon Jane.
By 19 July, Mary had won the day without a
drop of bloodshed: Lady Jane was deposed and
Mary was proclaimed queen to the great joy of
her subjects. Jane was imprisoned in the Tower of
London, and, on 3 August, Mary entered London
in triumph: the dark days of uncertainty and
turmoil she had experienced throughout her life
now appeared to be at an end, and she had at last
come into her rightful inheritance.

QUEEN MARY
On 1 October, Mary’s achievements seemed to be
complete when she succeeded in becoming the
first queen regnant of England to be crowned. A
queen regnant reigning supreme in England was
unprecedented, and thus Mary had no example
from which to follow. This certainly later worked
in her half-sister Elizabeth’s favour, as she was able
to learn from Mary’s mistakes. Mary, however, had
Mary’s entry into London, accompanied by over
800 followers, proved very popular with the crowds good reason to believe that a woman could rule
successfully. Her maternal grandmother, Isabella
of Castile, had been an effective monarch in her
own right, and Mary’s mother had always believed
that her daughter could do the same.
Four days after the coronation, Mary’s
parliament met and passed the First Statute of
Repeal. This erased all of the religious policies that
had been put in place by Edward VI, for Mary was
determined that England ought to be returned
to the Catholic Church under the jurisdiction of
the pope. At the same time she was given the
opportunity to correct a wrong that had remained
with her for many years: the marriage of her
parents, which had been denounced by Thomas
Cranmer, was declared to be valid, finally securing
her own legitimacy.
An extract from Edward VI’s diary about his In a further step to secure her position, in April
father’s attempt to change Mary’s religious views 1554, parliament passed the Act for Regal Power.

THE LOSS OF CALAIS

The recapture of England’s last continental possession stung

With her husband Philip’s could not be said of the English Machyn recorded that it was, “…
encouragement, Mary finally garrison stationed at Calais, and the heaviest tidings to London and
agreed to lend English support on New Year’s Day 1558, 27,000 to England that ever was heard of”.
to Spain’s war against France in French troops attacked the town. Moreover, plans to try to regain
March 1556. It was an unpopular On 7 January it surrendered and was possession came to nothing. For
move and stretched the country’s declared a reclaimed land. centuries blame for the loss of
already strained resources to the Calais was the last English Calais has been aimed squarely at
limit. Under the leadership of the possession in France and had been Mary. This is too simplistic a view,
Earl of Pembroke, the English army in its hands since 1347 when Edward however, and at the time it was
fought well and achieved a decisive III captured the town. The loss was not seen in this way. It is therefore
victory against the French at Saint both disastrous and humiliating unfair to attribute it wholly to
Quentin in 1557. However, the same for England, and the diarist Henry Mary’s actions.

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 Reformation and retribution

1553: THE YEAR OF THREE SOVEREIGNS

Henry VIII’s heirs and the struggle for the throne
Early in 1553, Edward VI lay dying. previously declared illegitimate Devise For The Succession. In
The 15-year-old king was unmarried and never formally legitimated. this, Edward named his second
and had no children, thus thoughts Moreover, Edward was determined cousin, the Protestant Lady Jane
turned to the succession. By the to ensure a Protestant succession, Grey, as his heir. Jane had already
terms of the late King Henry VIII’s which would be impossible should been named as the next heir by
will, passed in parliament, should Mary succeed. Henry VIII should his children die
Edward die childless then the Realising he could not exclude childless, but at the stroke of a pen
throne should pass first to the one half-sister without also she superseded both of the king’s
king’s eldest daughter, Mary, and excluding the other, Edward cut daughters. There was no time for
her heirs, followed by his youngest both Mary and Elizabeth out of Edward to pass his Devise through
daughter, Elizabeth, and her heirs. the succession by means of an parliament, so when he died on 6
Both daughters had, however, been extraordinary document: My July 1553, the Devise was illegal.

This consolidated the queen’s power “as fully and Though various candidates were suggested, the The idea of a Spanish marriage was unpopular in
absolutely” as it had been for any of Mary’s male most popular being Mary’s English cousin, Edward England, but the queen was blind to the concerns
predecessors: despite her sex, her authority was to Courtenay, in Mary’s mind the decision had of her subjects. Not only was Philip a Catholic, he
be on a level with theirs. already been made. She declared her intention to was also a foreigner; the English were suspicious
Though Mary was queen in her own right, wed her second cousin, Philip of Spain. He was the of foreigners, and it was greatly feared that
it never occurred to her that she would rule son of the emperor and was 11 years Mary’s junior. Philip would try to embroil England in Spain’s
alone. From her infancy she had been primed He was an attractive prospect to Mary because of wars. Unknown to Mary, there were those in the
for marriage, and it had always been anticipated his Spanish heritage and his familial links with her country who were determined to protest against
that she would marry abroad. She had been mother, but she was naïve if she thought that her the marriage, and a plot was afoot that would test
briefly betrothed to her cousin, the Holy Roman decision would be accepted without protest: her the loyalty of her subjects and threatened to undo
Emperor Charles V, when she was only six years personal wishes overruled her political judgement. everything she had fought for.
old, but the negotiations had come to nothing. Under the leadership of Sir Thomas Wyatt, a
Almost immediately after her accession, therefore, REBELLION, DEATH Kentish gentleman, a rebellion was planned that
thoughts of matrimony began to occupy not only
Mary’s mind but those of her councillors too.
AND IMPRISONMENT sought not only to prevent Mary’s marriage to
Philip but also to deprive Mary of her throne.
Instead, she would be replaced with her Protestant
half-sister, Elizabeth, who almost certainly had
“Under enormous pressure from her some prior knowledge of the plot. More crucially,
one of the key conspirators was Henry Grey, Duke
advisers she had no choice but to of Suffolk, the father of Lady Jane Grey who had
been incarcerated in the Tower since Mary’s
order Jane’s execution” accession. Upon learning of the rebellion, Mary
took matters into her own hands. Standing in
front of her subjects at London’s Guildhall, she
beseeched her people to stand firm against the
traitor Wyatt and his followers and to remain true
to their anointed sovereign. Her powerful words
had the desired effect, and Mary’s people remained
loyal to their queen. The rebellion was a washout
and Wyatt and his followers were captured. Mary
had been victorious once again.
The failure of the Wyatt Rebellion had
disastrous consequences for Lady Jane Grey, and
her father’s involvement sealed her fate. Mary’s
hand was now forced, and under enormous
pressure from her advisers she had no choice but
to order Jane’s execution. Mary agonised over
the decision and tried to find a way around it, but
there was none. On 12 February 1554, 17-year-old
Jane was executed.
It was not just Jane who was to suffer as a result
of Wyatt’s treason. Before long, Mary’s officers had
arrived at Elizabeth’s door in order to summon
her to London for questioning over her role in the
Lady Jane Grey spends rebellion. Pleading ill health, upon her arrival in
her last moments praying
before the fall of the the capital Elizabeth had the curtains of her litter
executioner’s axe drawn back so that the citizens could witness the

102
 Bloody Mary on trial

Philip II was a

SISTER ACT
powerful monarch
who controlled
territory on each
continent then
known to Europeans Mary I and Elizabeth I: just how similar
were the two Tudor queens?

VS
MARY I ELIZABETH I
LENGTH OF REIGN
5 YEARS 45 YEARS
INTELLIGENCE
Both Mary and her half-sister were Elizabeth was highly praised for
given an excellent education. Though her intellect, and her tutors were
her abilities as a scholar were never unanimously impressed with her. She
exclaimed as highly as Elizabeth’s, Mary took great pleasure in showcasing her
was an intelligent woman. A contemporary skills by translating work into various
observed that, “…she is skilled in five languages and presenting it as gifts,
languages,” speaking four fluently. notably to her father and Katherine Parr.

POPULARITY
LOVED IN HER LIFETIME STILL LOVED TODAY
At the time of Mary’s accession, she Although Mary had initially been popular,
was so popular that many remarked on this was nothing in comparison to
the commotion in London when her Elizabeth. In addition, Elizabeth had the
proclamation was read out. However, by her common touch that her sister lacked and
death her popularity had long since faded. was able to retain the love of her people.

LOVE
UNHAPPILY MARRIED THE VIRGIN QUEEN
Mary was deeply in love with her husband, Elizabeth never married, and the closest
Philip of Spain, and always felt great she came to love was with her friend Robert
sorrow when he left England. Although her Dudley. Rumours circulated,but it seems
feelings were not reciprocated, Philip did at likely that, by her death, Elizabeth was still
least treat his wife with courtesy. the ‘Virgin Queen’.

MILITARY ACHIEVEMENTS
LOST CALAIS DEFEATED THE SPANISH ARMADA
Mary succeeded in asserting her right to The most famous victory of Elizabeth’s
the throne following the death of Edward reign was the defeat of the Spanish
VI, raising a large army of supporters. But Armada, sent by Mary’s former husband,
when England declared war on France early Philip, in 1588. After this she was hailed
success was followed by the loss of Calais. as the saviour of the English people.

KILLINGS
300–380 200+
Not only did Mary order the execution of Although Elizabeth did not burn Catholics
Lady Jane Grey and many of those close to in the way Mary had Protestants, she
her, she also sentenced 284 Protestants to did order the disembowelment of more
be burned at the stake, including the man than 200. She also famously ordered the
who had annulled her parents’ marriage, execution of another anointed queen,
Thomas Cranmer. Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587.

103
 Reformation and retribution

pitiful state she was in. Dressed in white, she made England for the last time in 1557. Mary was alone.
a startling impression against the blood-red livery
of her guards. It was a clever ploy, one designed PROTESTANT BURNINGS
to move the citizens to sympathy on Elizabeth’s Shortly after Mary’s succession, she began to take
behalf, and it worked. It was precisely the type of steps to restore the old religion to her land, and it
display that Queen Mary had hoped to avoid. was not long before it became clear that those who
Taken to the Palace of Whitehall for questioning, adhered to Protestantism were not safe. Many fled
evidence against Elizabeth was not forthcoming. abroad to avoid persecution, but for some this was
Convinced of her complicity in the rebellion, simply not an option, and they were forced to pay
however, Mary was hopeful that a spell in the the ultimate price for their beliefs.
Tower of London would break her sibling’s resolve In February 1555, the first burnings of Mary’s
and expose her claims of innocence to be lies. reign began: a total of 284 Protestants were
Though Elizabeth protested that she was Mary’s burned, 56 of whom were women. During the
“most faithful subject”, Mary was unmoved, and reign of Elizabeth, the historian William Camden
in March her half-sister was imprisoned. She would write that Mary’s, “…days have been ill
remained there until May, when a lack of evidence spoken of, by reason of the barbarous cruelty of
forced Mary to release her. This was not the end the Bishops, who with a most sad spectacle, in all
of the matter, however, and Elizabeth was sent places polluted England by burning Protestants
to Woodstock under house arrest, where she alive”. It is interesting to note that Camden did not
remained for nearly a year. Mary never trusted attribute the blame for the atrocities directly to
Elizabeth again and was always suspicious of her. Mary proudly displays the La Mary but rather her advisers.
Peregrina pearl, a gift from Philip
The Wyatt Rebellion did not prevent plans for Much of the tarnish on Mary’s reputation,
Mary’s marriage, and in July 1554 Philip landed however, has come from the martyrologist John
in England. That same month, the two were she was pregnant, and proudly announced her Foxe. His Acts and Monuments highlighted the
married in a magnificent ceremony at Winchester happy news. Yet despite showing many signs suffering of the victims and became the most
Cathedral. For Mary, the marriage was the of pregnancy, by June 1555 it became clear that widely read book written in English after the Bible:
fulfilment of all of her hopes, for she loved her there was no baby. It was the first of two phantom it damned Mary’s reputation.
new husband dearly. However, her feelings were pregnancies she would suffer, dashing all of her Burning was the rarest form of Tudor
unrequited and though Philip treated Mary with hopes for a Catholic heir to succeed her. To make punishment, and executions like these were
courtesy, the marriage was based on politics. matters worse, Philip, the husband she loved so designed to shock people into conforming. In
Nevertheless, by the autumn Mary believed that dearly, abandoned her on both occasions, leaving some cases it worked: Thomas Cranmer, former
archbishop of Canterbury, recanted his beliefs six
times. In spite of this, Mary insisted that he must
“The former archbishop of Canterbury burn. She still bore a deep grudge for the role he
had played in the unhappiness of her early life, but
recanted his beliefs six times. In spite his death was one of her greatest mistakes. Had he
been spared, his recantation would have served as
of this, Mary insisted that he must burn” excellent propaganda for the new regime, but dead
he was a martyr. Cranmer was burned on 21 March
1556 at Oxford.

DEATH AND LEGACY

In November 1558, Mary lay dying. Her husband
was far away, and she was childless and estranged
from her half-sister. Though she could not bring
herself to say her name, Mary had accepted that
25-year-old Elizabeth would succeed her. On 17
November, Mary died at Saint James’ Palace, and
Elizabeth’s succession was greeted with the wave
of popular enthusiasm that had greeted Mary
just five years earlier. Though Mary undoubtedly
made mistakes, notably the imprisonment of
Elizabeth and the burning of Cranmer, she also had
strengths. She had survived the many adversities
that had been placed in her path since childhood
and had ultimately triumphed over her enemies
on many occasions. As queen she had asserted
her authority as the first female monarch to reign
supreme. With no template to work from, however,
it was easy for Elizabeth to capitalise on her
Mary’s execution mistakes. Furthermore, had it not been for Foxe’s
of Protestants has
coloured our historical dramatic work, she would not have earned the
perception of her nickname Bloody Mary, and she may have been
remembered with greater sympathy.

104
EXPLORE THE LIFE AND LEGACY
OF THE INCA EMPIRE
From the origins of its people to the rulers who shaped it and the wars that
destroyed it, unearth the story of South America’s greatest kingdom.

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 1618–1648
THE
THIRTY
YEARS’ WAR
The death throes of the Holy Roman
Emperor’s authority initiated the
ultimate battle for religious freedom,
ensnaring Europe and costing
millions of lives
Written by James Horton

A
t the beginning of the 17th century Protestantism. Yet within national borders the
Europe was poised for war. The semi-independent regions practised conflicting
Kingdom of Spain was intent Christian religions to that of the state.
on conquering the northern Nowhere was this so hotly contested than in
Netherlands, and France was the Holy Roman Empire. The six German princes
determined to stop it. Both Spain and the Holy who served and elected the emperor (alongside
Roman Empire – which primarily covered the Elector of Bohemia) were evenly divided
modern-day Germany – were being ruled by between Catholicism and Protestantism. In
members of the formidable House of Habsburg. fact, the divisions had grown so deep that the
The Kingdom of France was ruled by a rival princes had split into opposing forces named
dynasty and found itself sandwiched between the Protestant Union and the Catholic League.
Habsburg Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The reigning Emperor Matthias and his chosen
France watched Spain’s army with a suspicious successor, Archduke Ferdinand II, did not
eye, resolving to stop it from advancing on the appreciate the growing threat of the Protestants
Netherlands and gaining yet more territory near and plotted to oppress their religious freedoms.
France’s own border. So while Europe was watching France, Spain
As well as the territorial struggles between and the Netherlands nervously, expectant of an
kingdoms, religiosity added another layer of impending war, they were caught by surprise
friction to the situation in Europe. Since the when conflict broke out not to the west but
Reformation in 1517, Protestantism and its two in Prague, the violence sparked by an angry
major sub-religions, Lutheranism and Calvinism, mob hurling some imperial advisors out of a
had spread throughout the continent. The surge window in an event that became known as the
of Protestants had fractured relationships both Defenestration of Prague.
between countries and within their own borders. As Matthias’ successor, Ferdinand was set
Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Hungary and others to inherit the Kingdom of Bohemia, which sat
maintained traditional Catholicism as their state roughly on the modern Czech Republic–Slovakia
religion. Meanwhile, England, Denmark, Sweden border. Aware of Ferdinand’s radical Catholic
and the northern Netherlands had converted to policies, the population – which included a

106
The Thirty Years’ War

107
 Reformation and retribution

GUSTAVUS
ADOLPHUS
The Swedish king earned
the title of Father of Modern
Warfare for his military
innovations and exploits

Gustav II Adolf – known to history as Gustavus

Adolphus – ascended to the Swedish throne
in 1611. Gustavus inherited a poor country and
an even poorer army, but he swiftly morphed
his peasant farmer conscripts into one of
Europe’s most elite fighting forces. Aware that
his cavalry was a weakness, he reorganised his
army to maximise the firepower of his infantry
and artillery. He packed his frontline full of
The Thirty Years’ War
musketeers and drilled them to alternate their began after the Second
volleys for maximum firing efficiency. Each Defenestration of
infantry regiment was additionally equipped Prague in 1618
with a small, mobile artillery battery that could
be moved with the men across the battlefield
as required. Gustavus also placed musketeers
among his cavalry ranks, where they’d drive off
“The Spanish wasted little time in
enemy charges with point-blank volleys.
Adolphus hardened his professional army
establishing their foothold in Frederick’s
in the Polish–Swedish war of 1626–1629 and
received border security and an economic Palatinate region”
boon from the resulting peace treaty. This left
him well prepared to enter the Thirty Years’ mixture of Catholics and Protestants – sought freedom, so it made efforts to woo Protestant
War with Emperor Ferdinand and the Catholic assurances in 1618 that they should be granted lords into taking the kingship. The Elector
League, and he used his veteran troops and the right to continue practising whichever Palatine and German Prince Frederick V was one
innovative tactics to reverse the fortunes of religion they saw fit. Their impending new king such man. As a Protestant he was sympathetic to
the Protestant cause in Germany. After winning
and emperor-elect agreed to sign the Letter of the Bohemians’ plight and was no supporter of
multiple major battles, he met his death at
Majesty confirming this right, which it was hoped the Catholic emperor-elect Ferdinand. Frederick
the Battle of Lützen in 1632 while fighting on
the frontline with his men. Legend says that would assuage the masses and prevent rioting. decided to accept the offer and made for Prague
when an enemy soldier placed a firearm to The imperial governors soon proved towards the end of 1619, just after Emperor
the wounded king’s temple and asked him his themselves disingenuous, however, at first Matthias had finally succumbed to illness.
name, he accepted his fate with the final words, preventing Bohemian villagers from erecting Frederick’s court had hoped that with him
“I was the King of Sweden.” Protestant churches and then imprisoning them championing the Protestant cause in the face
for attempting to do so. The populace was quickly of Ferdinand’s impending coronation, the other
united in its dismay and resolved to cast off the European Protestant leaders would heed his
yolk of the House of Habsburg. rallying cry. Disappointingly, the other nations
The angry citizenry fell on the capital of initially offered very little support, and even the
Prague, and an overly eager contingent decided German Protestant Union met his pleas with
that murdering Matthias’ agents was the best reluctance. But the new king was not alone.
way to send their message to the emperor. They A local Bohemian leader named Thurn had
ascended the stairway to their offices and tossed conscripted men and raised an army; the prince
their victims kicking and screaming out of the Bethlen Gábor of Transylvania would soon pledge
window. Despite falling around 20 metres, all his support; and the Duke of Savoy offered to
three men survived, although whether their divide the costs of equipping a professional
salvation was owed to divine intervention mercenary army. This new force was placed
(as the Catholics later jubilantly claimed) or under the command of Ernst von Mansfeld, who
their fortuitous landing in soft dung is lost to wasted little time in successfully besieging Pilsen
history. Either way the men retreated, leaving on behalf of Frederick.
The Swedish success at
the Protestants to seize power and declare their As had been planned, Archduke Ferdinand
the Battle of Breitenfeld independence in the following days. The rebellion was elected emperor on 28 August 1619, and one
breathed new life into had begun. of his first acts upon his ascension was to award
the Protestant cause
What came next would prove pivotal for the the leader of the Catholic League – the Elector
future of Europe. Alone and without leadership, of Bavaria, Maximilian – a significant sum and
Bohemia stood little chance of maintaining its Frederick’s stripped electoral title to lead an

108
 The Thirty Years’ War

invasion of Bohemia on his behalf. Meanwhile, LEFT These

crosses in Prague’s
the Spanish wasted little time in establishing Old Town Square
their foothold in Frederick’s abandoned Palatinate represent the
region. Their army invaded in a surprise attack, 27 rebellious
ringleaders
and before long they had besieged Mainz and executed by
established themselves in the crucial territory, Ferdinand’s forces
positioning themselves to invade the Protestant after the city was
retaken
Netherlands at any moment.
Maximilian’s forces, under the command INSET A talented
general who won
of one Count Tilly, entered Bohemia on many battles,
26 September 1620. Ernst von Mansfeld, whose Tilly’s legacy was
troops had not been paid by Frederick for some tarnished by the
Sack of Magdeburg
time, were reluctant to march to their employer’s
aid and instead waited patiently at Pilsen for a BELOW Matthias’
new contract. This left Thurn’s forces, reinforced governors
miraculously
by contingents of Hungarians, to face Count survived the fall
Tilly’s and the imperial forces at White Hill on 8 of 20 metres from
the top window
November just outside the Bohemian capital of
Prague. The conscripted Bohemians proved no
match for their imperial counterparts and rapidly
dissolved after seeing their mounted vanguard
retreat. In the wake of his defeat Frederick fled
the capital that night. Maximilian occupied
Prague and promptly sent word of his victory to
the emperor.
Frederick’s coup may have been unsuccessful,
but his fateful decision to abandon the Palatinate
had opened the door to the House of Habsburg’s
broad ambition to invade the Netherlands. The
exiled king also helped to prolong the war by
refusing to renounce his claim on Bohemia. He
managed to inspire new followers to raise forces
on his behalf, but these were ruthlessly defeated
by Count Tilly before they could merge into a
credible threat.
Although Maximilian’s army under Tilly was
proving invaluable for Emperor Ferdinand, he
was unhappy at being so reliant on the Catholic
League. Fortunately for him, a man named
Albrecht von Wallenstein offered a way out of his
predicament. Wallenstein was a minor noble who
had amassed significant wealth through marriage
to a wealthy widow, a woman who had left her
fortune to him upon her death. But he had also
garnered acclaim as a commander, and Ferdinand
requested that he raise and lead an army in his
name. Wallenstein accepted his offer and wasted
little time in first cutting off and then defeating
Mansfeld at Dessau Bridge (today located in
eastern Germany) before sending the commander
fleeing south. The now old and fatigued general
succumbed to illness in the following weeks,
ending the hopes of Frederick’s forces in the field.
Pouring fuel onto an already raging fire,
Denmark had decided to join the war in 1625
under King Christian IV. The Danish monarch
feared that his rival Sweden would take up the
Protestant fight and eventually claim dominion
over the entire Balkan Sea, so he determined to
beat them to it. While Wallenstein was chasing
Mansfeld, Christian’s forces were engaged in a cat-
and-mouse chase with Tilly. The King of Denmark
found himself outmanoeuvred by the Bavarian
commander and was forced to give battle as he

109
 Reformation and retribution

attempted a retreat. The Danish forces had more defeat the Danish king was forced to sign the Although not yet prepared to engage in actual
cannons than their adversaries but failed to make lenient Peace of Lübeck, which left him with all combat, France agreed to send funds to support
good use of them, and after the infantry made his titles provided that he remained neutral for the Swedish war effort. This sudden influx of
contact, Tilly’s cavalry managed to outflank the rest of the war. wealth saw Adolphus’ army swell to over 36,000.
Christian’s men on both sides, obliterating them With the Catholic forces riding high, Emperor For their part, the German Protestants were
in a pincer movement. Ferdinand decided that 1629 was an excellent unsure of how to react to Sweden’s intervention.
Christian fled northward with his shattered time to enact the Edict of Restitution. This text They weren’t happy with Emperor Ferdinand’s
army as Wallenstein returned triumphant from was an aggressive move against Protestants new edict, but neither were they pleased about
harrying Mansfeld. He joined forces with Tilly but within the empire, as it forbade them from the presence of a foreign ‘liberator’, who they saw
refused to play the role of his subordinate. The governing over Catholic lands. The Protestant simply as an invader. Then, on 20 May 1631, Tilly
two Catholic armies moved in pursuit, entered German princes were disgusted by this affront inadvertently helped his enemies to put aside
the northern Danish-held duchy of Holstein and to liberty. They called for a diet to discuss the their differences when he ordered the brutal Sack
overran it. Wallenstein was awarded the title of edict, which was held in Regensburg in 1630. of Magdeburg.
Duke of Mecklenburg for his trouble, much to Ferdinand was adamant that the edict remain Over four days his troops rampaged throughout
Tilly and Maximilian’s chagrin. but he paid for it dearly, as the princes demanded the city, ruthlessly cutting soldiers and civilians
Nearly a decade after the Thirty Years’ War had that Wallenstein be stripped of his command down and torching buildings. Appalled by such
begun, the Protestants had yet to win any major and the imperial army be mostly dissolved. Such wanton cruelty, Protestants and moderates
encounters. But the tide was soon to change. was Ferdinand’s iron resolve when it came to across Europe came together in their outrage, a
Wallenstein had his eyes set on the port town restricting religious freedoms that he agreed to move that ultimately encouraged the Protestant
of Stralsund (in northeast Germany), which he these draconian terms. German princes to combine their forces with the
set to besieging in July 1628. Stralsund was well The Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus had Swedish, thereby inflating their joint army to
guarded by a force of 5,000 mercenaries, levies political as well as religious motives to enter the approximately 60,000 men.
and citizens and reinforced by Sweden during the war. He was a Protestant, but more pressingly he Despite his inferior numbers of approximately
siege, marking the kingdom’s entry into the war. feared that the House of Habsburg would help 35,000 soldiers, Tilly eagerly met the Swedish-
The weather also conspired against Wallenstein, the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth push their German forces near the village of Breitenfeld
the arrival of heavy rains washing away his claim on the Swedish throne, a mortal threat to (north of Leipzig). The Swedes and allied
dreams of seizing the city, his men unable to his own personal wellbeing. He resolved to seize Germans arranged themselves separately, with
launch an effective assault in the deluge. the initiative and swiftly established a foothold the Germans occupying the left flank. Wary of
Sweden’s entry into the maelstrom came at a on the German side of the Balkans, signing the the skilled Swedish soldiers, Tilly sent most of his
fortunate time for the Protestants, as Christian Treaty of Stettin at the end of summer 1630 in men to engage the Germans, essentially ignoring
and his 6,000 troops were about to be beaten order to gain formal control of Pomerania, which the Swedish line. His plan was initially successful,
once again, this time by Wallenstein. Upon his bordered the sea. as the Protestant Germans crumbled under the
imperial advance. However, the professional
Swedish army swiftly wheeled around to face
“Wary of the skilled Swedish soldiers, Tilly’s forces and moved forwards to engage them
with confidence.
Tilly sent most of his men to engage Meanwhile, Adolphus personally led a daring
charge to capture Tilly’s artillery and set it firing
the Germans” on the imperial lines. Sweden’s own artillery was

110
 The Thirty Years’ War

THE BATTLE
OF ROCROI
Duke d’Enghien’s crowning glory

Duke d’Enghien was a young French noble

of just 21 years on 19 May 1643. He had just
received news that the King of France had died
from an illness, but his bigger concern was the
18,000 Spanish infantry and 8,000 cavalrymen
that stood between him and the town of Rocroi.
The French and Spanish forces had lined up in
the pre-dawn gloom, and d’Enghien signalled
the advance at sunrise.
The Spanish commander, Melo, had placed a
contingent of musketeers in a strip of woodland
to cover his left flank. These were easily ousted,
and d’Enghien attacked the now unguarded
flank while his infantrymen engaged the centre
and charged the enemy’s right. D’Enghien
routed his opposition but noticed the other
flank’s charge had been repulsed and the centre
was struggling. The young commander sent
some of his troops in pursuit of the defeated
In the early years of the war,
Albrecht von Wallenstein was enemy while he himself led a bold charge
Emperor Ferdinand’s favourite against the centre. His horse crashed through
commander, but he fell from the leading Spanish line and into the novice
favour after entering into secret German, Italian and Walloon troops. These men
peace talks with the Protestants
quickly withdrew, allowing d’Enghien to smash
into Melo’s right flank.
Realising he was being enveloped, Melo fled.
dragged onto the other flank, and soon a hail of imperial forces, who were now without a loyal His veteran infantry fought on despite being
cannonballs and musket fire was raining down on standing army in the empire. abandoned by their commander, but their
the pinned imperial forces, causing devastating As the Spanish forces were still engaged in the cause was hopeless. Spain’s military had been
losses. Tilly had been resoundingly defeated. Netherlands, the emperor had little choice but decapitated. The road to peace had opened.
The Protestants followed up this monumental to call on Wallenstein. The veteran accepted his
success by capturing Frankfurt, Mainz and summons, raised an army in a matter of weeks
Heidelberg before the end of 1631, while one of and by May 1632 had liberated Prague from the
the Protestant German generals also successfully Protestants. He then moved west with 32,000 Relying on the element of surprise, the Swedish
invaded Bohemia and recaptured Prague. men to face the Swedes, absorbing the remnants commander marched his forces towards Lützen,
When the campaigning season resumed in the of Tilly’s army as he moved to engage. Adolphus intent on taking the town. However, his efforts
spring of 1632, Adolphus vigorously pursued Tilly and Wallenstein first met at Nuremberg, but their at deception were rendered futile when word
and found his army entrenched near the city of decisive encounter would take place at Lützen in reached Wallenstein of the Swedish advance.
Rain (in modern-day Bavaria). A river separated November 1632. Fearful that Lützen would fall into Swedish
Adolphus from the opposing army, but his talent By the winter of 1632, Wallenstein had already hands, Wallenstein ordered that the town be
as a shrewd tactician enabled him to exploit the sent some of his men into winter quarters, set ablaze. He then arranged his cavalry into a
terrain to his advantage. confident the Swedish would make no further defensive concave shape and retained his elite
Adolphus used a decoy force to trick Tilly movements so late in the year. Having withdrawn musketeers in reserve to reinforce as necessary.
into thinking he was making a straight crossing to Lützen to see out the coldest months, The two sides entered combat, and
while simultaneously crossing other contingents Wallenstein reinforced his position with trenches Wallenstein’s artillery quickly began to inflict
at two separate points along the river. The plan and placed his artillery in strong defensive heavy losses on the Swedes. Adolphus could
was a success, and Tilly was mortally wounded positions. Protected by his 16,000 remaining see that his right flank was wavering, so he
by a cannonball in the fighting. It was another troops, the town represented a formidable personally led a charge to reinforce it. The
Swedish victory and another crushing defeat for obstacle. But Adolphus was not to be deterred. burning of Lützen had rendered visibility low as

111
 Reformation and retribution

smoke filled the air, and Adolphus was soon lost newly formed Heilbronn League and instead form
in the melee. Separated from his men, he received a unified army under the Emperor’s control. In
a gunshot wound, as did his horse. Struggling to return for power over the military, Ferdinand
control it, he rode into enemy lines, where he was agreed that the north of the empire would be free
shot again, this time fatally. once again to practice moderate Protestantism.
News of Adolphus' demise rippled through These concessions essentially ended the religious
the Protestant ranks, causing them to lose heart civil war that had initiated the conflict in the Holy
and withdraw by mid-afternoon. But their new Roman Empire.
commander, Prince Duke Bernard of Saxe- One last German prince remained defiant,
Weimar, brought up the reserve and urged the however – Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar. The
men onwards. The Swedish were ultimately former commander of the Swedish forces
triumphant, but theirs was to be a Pyrrhic victory; aligned himself with the French, who declared
they had suffered approximately 10,000 losses war on Spain in 1635. From this moment on,
compared to the enemy’s 12,000 and their the primacy of religion, the cause of the divide
industrious and inventive king now lay dead on between the Catholic and Protestant states and
the battlefield. the driving force behind the Thirty Years’ War,
Sweden was bruised by the loss Adolphus, was usurped by international politics. The two

THE but it had not lost its resolve. In 1633 it entered a

formal alliance with the French and Protestant
major forces of France and Spain were both
Catholic, but unfortunately for the long-suffering

MASSACRE German princes as part of the Heilbronn League.

At first Sweden remained the dominant military
Germans they had chosen their country as the
battleground to decide who was the major power

OF partner in this arrangement, but this dynamic

would change after the Battle of Nördlingen in
on the continent.
The French war effort didn’t get off to an

MAGDEBURG September 1634.

Without their king, the ill-disciplined Swedish
troops committed one reckless charge after
excellent start. Their troops were poorly trained
and their commanders lacked the ingenuity of the
Swedes. Seeing the vulnerability of the French,
Count Tilly’s mistake cost another into the Catholic forces led by Emperor the Cardinal-Infante moved across the Rhine
thousands of innocent lives Ferdinand’s son – the King of Hungary – and the with a mind to invade Paris. He was supported
and turned many against the Cardinal-Infante of the Spanish Netherlands, who to the south by another imperial force, but its
Catholic cause had come to reinforce his cousin. The Protestants movement across the Rhine was obstructed by
all but annihilated their own forces thanks to Duke Bernard. Reports of Swedish threats to the
their lacklustre tactics, and their carelessness rear then pulled the imperials back into Germany.
In April 1631, Count Tilly of the Catholic League ended Sweden’s involvement as a major military The Cardinal-Infante was reluctant to invade
joined his lieutenant, Gottfried Pappenheim, player for several years. without aid, so he too turned back, leaving the
outside Magdeburg. The city had recently
Once more in the ascendancy, Ferdinand forced French slightly bewildered but undoubtedly
declared for the King of Sweden, Gustavus
the Protestant German princes to come to terms relieved that the attack on their capital had failed
Adolphus, and had refused to surrender. Angry
at the prolonged siege and anxious about the at the Peace of Prague in 1635. His former general to materialise.
Swedish army’s impending arrival, on 20 May Wallenstein had been assassinated the previous Emperor Ferdinand II died in 1637 and was
a contingent of troops took the initiative and year, so the emperor was elated when the princes immediately succeeded by his son, Ferdinand III.
launched a surprise assault that captured some agreed to dissolve both the Catholic League and The former emperor had likely died feeling
of the walls. The defence of Magdeburg had
failed, and destruction was soon to follow.
The men unleashed their frustrations on the
citizenry by raping, stealing and murdering their
way through the streets. Their commanders,
who were at first powerless to stop them,
could only watch on in horror as multiple fires
sprouted up across the city. These quickly raged
out of control in the blasting wind and before
long the air was thick with smoke and flames.
By the time the fires had subsided the city was
a smouldering ruin.
Of the 30,000 inhabitants within the city
prior to the assault, 25,000 had died in the
slaughter. Tilly had their bodies cast into the
Elbe, and the bloated corpses piled up in the
reeds, some with their arms aloft as if raised
in prayer. Many of the surviving women and
children would soon die from exposure, and the
men were forced into servitude if they could
not pay their ransom. A census the following
year would find that only a few hundred people
had persisted in the city. Magdeburg had been Christian IV of Denmark
stripped of life, and only a phantom of its had little support from the
former self remained. aristocracy, so he raised an
army of his own

112
 The Thirty Years’ War

that he’d left the position more powerful than shunned the practice of immediately recruiting dragged them into the conflict, but it had been
when he’d first occupied it, but his successor captured soldiers into their army. This had the their crops that had been razed, their homes
would soon undo all of his work. advantage of leaving them with a veteran, unified destroyed, their finances depleted by taxes, their
The French-allied forces had recently been force proud to fight under the French banner. families forced into cannibalism inside besieged
enjoying parallel success: the resurgent Swedes The French commander Duke d’Enghien used cities and their men pushed into battle.
had defeated an imperial army at Wittstock in the this now elite weapon to best the Spanish army The battles themselves had inflicted hundreds
northeast of the empire and Duke Bernard had amassed outside the town of Rocroi and in doing of thousands of casualties, but the main ravages
successfully starved the Rhine town of Breisach so obliterated Spanish military might. of war were felt by the families who had no
into submission. Duke Bernard passed away from With the French-Swedish alliance all but means of feeding their children and no shelter
natural causes in 1639, extinguishing the last victorious, peace talks opened at the end of in which to protect them. Exposure, starvation
ember of major German military involvement in 1644 but progressed at a snail’s pace. For their and disease had claimed countless lives and cost
the conflict. And yet the war trundled onward. part, the German princes were particularly war Germany dearly. Prince Maximilian of Bavaria, for
In 1642, the Second Battle of Breitenfeld saw weary. Personal ambition coupled with devout one, was devastated by the sights he saw in his
the Swedish commander Lennart Torstensson, passions had driven them into the conflict all home country. It had once been so prosperous,
who had served under Gustavus Adolphus, win those decades ago, but now they felt that they'd but by the end of the Thirty Years’ War the lands
another victory over an imperial army. This put suffered enough. In fact, it was the peasantry of the Holy Roman Empire were in ruins. The
pressure on Ferdinand III to make a stronger of Germany that had been hit particularly hard reach and power of the Catholic Church would
conciliatory peace with the Swedish, but it would by the Thirty Years’ War. The ruling class had never fully recover.
be a French victory in 1643 that would remove
Ferdinand’s Spanish allies from the board and
render him powerless.
The French had been slowly improving “The ill-disciplined Swedish troops committed
throughout the war. Opting for quality over
quantity due to their limited funds, the French one reckless charge after another”

Images: Getty Images; Alamy

The heavily fortified port town

of Stralsund successfully repelled
the imperial commander Albrecht
von Wallenstein in 1628, denying
him a means by which to threaten
Denmark and Sweden by sea

113
 Allegory of the Peace of Westphalia by
Flemish painter Jacob Jordaens

114
 The Beginning of the End?

1644–1648
THE
BEGINNING
OF THE END?
The Peace of Westphalia marked the end of the
Thirty Years’ War, but the treaty forever changed the
political landscape of the Holy Roman Empire
Written by Dominic Eames

B
y the 1640s Europe had been tearing on friendly ground (Münster was a staunchly
itself apart for three tumultuous Catholic city while Osnabrück was home to a
decades in a series of wars of supreme largely Lutheran population).
destruction and bloodshed that had Yet despite these efforts at placation, it was
left millions dead and enveloped a never going to be possible for the talks to be
myriad of countries and states. What had erupted held at a single place and on a specific date that
as a religious conflict between the Catholics and would allow every representative to attend. The
Protestants within the Holy Roman Empire soon organisational pressure to involve no less than
embroiled all of the continent's superpowers: 194 states, including dozens of the imperial
France, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Russia, states, each bringing diplomats and thousands
England, Scotland and the independence-seeking of delegation members, demanded that the
Netherlands and Switzerland. negotiations be carried out over many meetings.
Each had their own cause for entering the fray, The piecemeal peace talks therefore lasted for
so the Thirty Years’ War soon concerned not only several years, beginning in 1644.
religion but shifting alliances, bitter rivalries, During that time, several men voiced the
commercial interests and political aspirations. The interests of the Holy Roman Empire, chief among
war was a conflict of such complexity and scope them Maximilian, Count von Trauttmansdorff,
that in her seminal 1938 work, the 20th-century a confidant of the emperor and the most
English historian Dame Veronica Wedgwood influential figure in the negotiations. Along with
described the period as “the outstanding example the experienced diplomat Johann Maximilian
in European history of meaningless conflict”. To von Lamberg and lawyers Johann Krane and
reach any kind of lasting peace would be, to put it Isaac Volmar, he met with the French, Dutch
mildly, no small feat. and Spanish envoys in Münster and those of
That daunting task began in earnest in the Sweden in Osnabrück until his declining health
1640s, once the decision had been made on forced him to step back. The dozens of Protestant
where the peace talks should take place. The Holy imperial states were led by Brandenburg’s Johann
Roman Empire had remained at the centre of Graf von Sayn-Wittgenstein. Presiding over the
the conflict over the years and overwhelmingly talks was a papal nuncio, or ambassador, from
saw the worst of the destruction and death, the Vatican named Fabio Chigi (who went on to
so it understandably refused to see talks held become pope in 1655).
outside of its borders. Two cities in Westphalia, Progress proved slow. It took six months to
in northwestern Germany, were chosen, as this work out the seating arrangements and the order
placated all sides, all of whom wished to meet in which the diplomats would enter the room,

115
 Reformation and retribution

LEFT
Celebrations
mark the signing

WHEN of the Peace

of Westphalia,

PEACE
including
fireworks in
Sweden

CHANGED INSET Count von

Trauttmansdorff

THE WORLD
was a driving force
in the talks

BELOW Münster
The Peace of Westphalia was one of the two
Westphalian cities
ended a war, but did it also chosen for the
affect international politics peace talks

for centuries?

“The Peace of Westphalia may well remain the

foundation of our political system forever.”
So said the great Enlightenment philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1761, well over a
century after the treaties that ended the Thirty
Years’ War had been signed. By granting the
individual states of the Holy Roman Empire
sovereignty, the treaties would be heralded as
the foundation of the modern state system.
The principle of international relations that
has been attributed to and taken the name
of Westphalia declares that every state has
sovereignty over its territory and domestic
affairs. They are all equal, no matter how large
or small, and all must be free of interference
from external powers.
Despite the reputation of the Westphalian
system, the importance of the 1648 peace to while the representatives of France and Sweden This strengthened Sweden's control of the Baltic
© Wiki

international relations has been rejected by failed to agree to a single meeting due to arguments Sea and gave it a voice in the Imperial Diet.
some historians who claim that the treaties
over protocol. All the while the fighting continued, Despite France and Sweden only entering the
contain nothing explicit concerning state
as did the suffering due to the famines and Thirty Years’ War in the 1630s, they both made
sovereignty or non-interference. Instead, it was
in the centuries since that such significance plagues ravaging Europe, especially in the empire. substantial gains from the carnage, as did the
was assigned to Westphalia – by opinions much Following years of back-and-forth discussions and Protestant states of Brandenburg and Bavaria,
like Rousseau’s and those contained within laborious meetings, enough deals and compromises which acquired key territories including the Upper
an influential article published in 1948, on the had been reached for the signing of the first treaty Palatinate. The Lower Palatinate, meanwhile, was
300th anniversary, by Leo Gross. These views on 30 January 1648 between Spain and the Dutch. restored to the son of Frederick V, the man whose
appealed at times of nationalistic fervour but Then, on 24 October, two treaties were crowning as King of Bohemia had been one of the
were somewhat superseded as globalisation simultaneously signed in Münster and Osnabrück catalysts for war.
became more important. that would go down in history as the documents The other territorial winners were the United
that marked the end of the Thirty Years’ War, one Netherlands and the Swiss Confederation. The
of the bloodiest, most unforgiving conflicts ever to treaty confirmed them as independent republics
scar Europe. The Holy Roman Emperor, Ferdinand from Habsburg-controlled Spain and the empire
III, signed them with France, Sweden and their respectively, a status they had held for decades
allies. Following the preamble, the text of the Peace already, albeit unofficially. Not all conflicts that
of Westphalia read, “That there shall be a Christian arose from the war, however, had been ended by
and Universal Peace, and a perpetual, true, and the peace, nor all disputes resolved to everyone’s
sincere amity between his Sacred Imperial Majesty satisfaction. In fact, France remained at war with
and his most Christian Majesty.” Spain for another 11 years.
His most Christian Majesty, the King of France, Yet it was not just the map of Europe getting
the young Louis XIV, had cause to be more pleased a shake-up. The Thirty Years’ War had long ago
than the emperor. Under the terms of the treaty stopped being about religion – after Catholic France
France secured its ownership over the region of had joined on the side of the Protestants against
Alsace and the towns of Metz, Toul and Verdun, their Habsburg rivals in the empire and Spain – but
The philosopher Jean-
Jacques Rousseau believed which gave it a strategically strong frontier on the treaty arguably made more important steps
in the Westphalian system the Rhine River. France's ally Sweden received a when it came to ecclesiastical matters.
of state sovereignty
huge cash sum along with the territory of western Most notably, signatories had to recognise
Pomerania, the port cities of Stettin and Wismar, the Peace of Augsburg, a treaty signed in 1555
and the imperial regions of Bremen and Verden. to grant Lutherans tolerance within the empire.

116
 The Beginning of the End?

Dutch painter Gerard

ter Borch captures the
moment the Peace of
Münster is signed

This inclusion in the 1648 peace Westphalia made changes that were As the influence of the Habsburgs waned, other
affirmed that the individual states anything but empty of meaning nations in Europe rose to power. The French King
could determine their own religion and effect within its borders. Louis XIV (also known as the ‘Sun King’) would
under the principle of ‘cuius regio The empire had lost land and the dominate European politics for the remainder of the
eius religio’ (whose realm, his A medal commemorating the end ability to enforce a single religion, 17th century, while the empire had to face ongoing
of three decades of bloody war
religion) and extended Augsburg’s undermining the efforts of its threats from the Ottomans to the east. It did pull
tolerance towards the Calvinists. Christians living ongoing Inquisition, while the individual states and off a great victory at the Battle of Vienna in 1683,
in a state of a different denomination to their own principalities within it became more powerful. The marking the beginning of the end of Ottoman
had the freedom to worship in public during certain treaty recognised their sovereignty and empowered dominance, and it would not be until the early 19th
hours and in private at their will. them to make their own treaties, allowing them to century before the empire collapsed, but Westphalia
A solution was also devised to resolve disputes reject the hegemonic grip of the emperor in favour had already signalled the beginning of the end.
over land. By setting the year 1624 as a fixed point, of governing themselves. The peace itself, however, has been said to
the treaty granted possession to those who had The fragmentation of the empire into around 300 have laid the foundations of the beginning of
been in control of the land on 1 January 1624, semi-autonomous states became more pronounced. something new: the modern state system based
regardless of whether it changed hands. Even if the Just ten years after the signing of the Peace of on the principle of a state’s sovereignty over its
ruling prince converted, they would forfeit their Westphalia, dozens of German princes formed territory and non-interference by foreign powers. It
lands to ensure it aligned with the new template. the League of the Rhine with France against the also helped establish a new form of international
The empire was bound to religious toleration emperor, and areas like Brandenburg and Bavaria relations where diplomacy, coexistence and
and had to adapt to a world in which Catholics emerged as powers in their own right. The war left collective security became the norm, which to this
and (some) Protestants were free to worship. Pope the empire devastated, with vast swathes of land day can be referred to as the ‘Westphalian system’.
Innocent X became so angry upon hearing the plundered and millions (some estimates say as The signing of the treaties in 1648 did not end
news that he announced the peace to be “null, void, many as 8 million) of people dead (Germany lost all war in Europe, nor did they bring about the
invalid, iniquitous, unjust, damnable, reprobate, approximately 20 per cent of its population). This immediate end of the Holy Roman Empire. Their
inane, empty of meaning and effect for all time”. was then followed by a peace treaty that dashed importance to international relations have been
The truth would prove to be quite the opposite any hopes of the empire maintaining its grip on all vehemently debated ever since. Yet the Peace of
for the Holy Roman Empire, as the Peace of of its territories. Westphalia is rightly remembered as a crucial
Images: Getty Images; Alamy

moment in European history, a move away from the

old way to a new order. In that way, the diplomats
“The treaty dashed any hopes of the empire in Münster and Osnabrück succeeded in achieving
the feat that seemed so unlikely in the chaotic
maintaining its grip on all of its territories” aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War: a lasting peace.

117
 ENDING THE
INQUISITION
120 How Napoleon ended
the Inquisition
It was always going to take a titan
124
to end centuries of suffering, but
few expected the Emperor of France
to literally march into Spain and
upend the Inquisition

124 Confessing the truth

Shrouded in myth for centuries,
it’s time to dive into the darkness
and shine some light on the truth
behind this troubling chapter in the
Church’s history

“The archives are

full of reports
of Spaniards
criticising the
Inquisition with
impunity”

124
120
 HOW
NAPOLEON
ENDED THE
INQUISITION
After 330 years of rooting out supposed
heretics, the Spanish Inquisition was
finally abolished by the French emperor
Written by Jessica Leggett

F
or over three centuries, the Spanish
Inquisition was a powerful – and
feared – institution in Spain. So how did
Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of the
French, become involved in its demise?
By the start of the 19th century, Napoleon had
risen to power as the dominant force in Europe
thanks to a string of military victories. However,
Britain remained out of his control, and he
attempted to bring her to her knees by launching
an economic war against them, hoping that this
would force the British to surrender. Already allied
with Spain, he demanded that Portugal join his
trade embargo against Britain and declare war.
Yet Portugal, Britain’s long-standing ally for
400 years, refused to bend to Napoleon’s will.
Infuriated, Napoleon used this refusal as a
pretext for war and invaded Portugal in July 1807,
sending his troops through Spain. The Portuguese
royal family fled into exile in Brazil as his army
advanced, and soon enough Napoleonic France
conquered Portugal.
As they made their way to Portugal, Napoleon’s
troops also occupied areas of northern Spain,
a country that had been experiencing political
turmoil. In March, King Charles IV had been
forced to abdicate by his son and successor, King
Ferdinand VII, following the Tumult of Aranjuez,
an uprising against Charles. Ferdinand had earlier
led a failed coup d'état against his father and
tensions between the two men were high.
Taking advantage of their conflict, Napoleon RIGHT
offered to mediate between the two men and The spread of
arranged a conference in May 1808. This, however, Enlightenment
ideas weakened
was a trap, and Napoleon forced Ferdinand and the Spanish
Charles to abdicate their rights to the throne. Inquisition

120
How Napoleon ended the Inquisition

121
 Ending the Inquisition

LEFT
Madrid surrenders
to Napoleon after
his successful
invasion in 1808

INSET Napoleon
installed his
brother, Joseph,
as the new king
of Spain

PORTRAIT
RIGHT
King Ferdinand
VII was restored
to the Spanish
throne in 1814

PORTRAIT
FAR RIGHT
The Spanish
Inquisition was
formally abolished
for the final time
by Maria Christina
of the Two Sicilies

He subsequently installed his brother, Joseph

Bonaparte, as the new king of Spain. The
“Growing religious
invasion and occupation of Spain triggered the
Peninsular War, one of the key conflicts of the
tolerance in Europe
Napoleonic Wars.
Napoleon’s decision to seize the Spanish throne
made Spain appear
and install his brother as king, as well as occupy
Spain, enraged the Spanish people. Immediately,
backwards”
the fight for Spanish independence began, with
a rebellion in Madrid, known as the Dos de Mayo reaction from many traditionalists in Spain and Three years later, Ferdinand regained absolute
Uprising, and further pockets of guerrilla warfare other parts of Catholic Europe. Even so, the Cortes control of Spain thanks to the support of France
throughout the provinces. Joseph was forced to of Cádiz – the parliamentary body established and its army, which helped to quash the liberals.
retreat to northern Spain in August to await French in 1810 that claimed Spanish sovereignty He annulled all of the acts that had been
reinforcements, who ruthlessly suppressed the and opposed the French – also abolished the introduced from the 1820s onwards and therefore
Madrid rebellion in December. Nevertheless, the Inquisition with the liberal Spanish Constitution – once again – the Inquisition was re-established.
French failed to gain control of the entire country, of 1812. However, the king did not formally bring the
with Britain also sending troops to support the On 11 December 1813, Joseph abdicated the Inquisition back and it never regained the power it
rebels in Portugal and Spain. throne less than six months after his troops were once held.
So, what does this all have to do with the end of defeated at the Battle of Vitoria by the British, There were two main reasons why Ferdinand
the Spanish Inquisition? Napoleon had a fraught Portuguese and Spanish armies. This victory was reluctant to formally declare the return of the
relationship with the Catholic Church throughout paved the way for Napoleon’s defeat and the Spanish Inquisition. First, he was dependent upon
his life, and during his occupation of Spain he end of the Peninsular War in April 1814, which the support of the French government that had
found himself at loggerheads with Pope Pius VII. ultimately led to his downfall. Ferdinand was restored him to power, which did not want the
Opposing the control and influence of the papacy restored as king of Spain after Joseph’s abdication, Inquisition to return. Second, he did not want to
and Catholic Church in Spain, Napoleon had his and he immediately re-established the absolutist bow to pressure from the traditionalist right who
brother abolish the Inquisition on 4 December monarchy. He rejected the constitution of 1812 increasingly opposed him, concerned that they
1808. The controversial decision to end the and as a result effectively reinstated the Spanish would use the Inquisition to persecute his allies.
Inquisition, a part of Spanish life and society for Inquisition. However, a liberal uprising in 1820 The Inquisition was essentially back in name
more than three centuries, sparked a negative forced him to abolish it once again. only. However, a number of Juntas (tribunals),

122
 How Napoleon ended the Inquisition

A TIME FOR
TOLERANCE
The Inquisition spread
around the globe before
losing support as views
began to change

Generally, when thinking about the Inquisition,

most of us would immediately associate it with
Spain. However, the Inquisition also took place
in other parts of the world, including Venice,
Portugal and Hispanic America. As with the
Spanish Inquisition, these institutions eventually
collapsed against a backdrop of war and
increasing religious tolerance.
The Venetian Inquisition, which had been
established in the 16th century, had to contend
with the spread of Enlightenment ideas in the
18th century, as the Catholic Church viewed
them as heretical. This Inquisition, which lasted
for over two centuries, came to an end in 1797
acting in place of the Inquisition, had sprung up Napoleon’s invasion of Spain played a key with the fall of the Republic of Venice after it
in a few dioceses across the country and these part in ending the Spanish Inquisition, but it is was invaded and conquered by Napoleon and
tribunals were tolerated by Ferdinand. important to note that it was not the only factor. his army.
It was the tribunal in Valencia that was Once welcomed as an institution that was seen In Portugal, the Inquisition had been
responsible for executing the last victim of to enforce discipline in Spanish society, popular established by King John III in 1536 and it
the Spanish Inquisition, Cayetano Ripoll. A support for the Inquisition throughout the country later spread to Portugal’s colonial dominions,
schoolmaster from Ruzafa, located just outside had greatly declined from its heyday between the including Brazil and Goa. The Portuguese
of Valencia, Ripoll had been captured during the 15th and 17th centuries. Inquisition was briefly suspended in the late
17th century before it was finally abolished in
Peninsular War and imprisoned in France. During This change in attitude was largely the result of
1821 following the Liberal Revolution of 1820.
this time he converted to Deism, the belief in the Enlightenment, which had swept through the
Meanwhile, the Spanish Inquisition had
the existence of God on the evidence of reason continent during the late 17th and 18th centuries. also spread to the Spanish colonies in the
and nature only, without reliance on religion or The Enlightenment movement led to an increasing Americas, with the Inquisition being established
religious authority. acceptance of the separation between the Church in territories such as Mexico and Peru in the
Ripoll eventually returned to Valencia, and in and the state throughout Europe, which left Spain 16th century. However, after the Napoleonic
September 1824 he was arrested for teaching Deist increasingly isolated thanks to its dependence on Wars and the Spanish-American wars of
principles. He spent the next two years on trial, the Catholic Church. independence, which saw Spain lose all of
but despite being pressured he refused to convert Growing religious tolerance in Europe also its colonial possessions in the Americas, the
to Catholicism and consequently he was sentenced made Spain appear backwards in comparison to Inquisitions in Hispanic America were abolished
in the 19th century.
to death. While some clergymen demanded that other nations, with famous Enlightenment figures
Ripoll be burned at the stake, the Audiencia – the such as Voltaire openly criticising the Inquisition.
highest judicial tribunal of local government – Numerous Enlightenment texts had also been The Spanish-American wars
of independence triggered
decided to hang him. Ripoll was executed on 26 circulated in Spain by the nobility and the the end of the Inquisitions in
July 1826. movement’s ideas spread throughout the country. Hispanic America
News of Ripoll’s execution greatly concerned The Inquisition opposed this, as Enlightenment
Ferdinand, who made it clear to the Audiencia ideas questioned Catholic orthodoxy, and they
that these tribunals were not acting officially. attempted to censor and suppress these texts,
The loss of royal support was a blow to the but this just served to weaken support for the
tribunals and their remaining influence institution even more.
throughout the country continued to dwindle After a French invasion, domestic turmoil and
over the next few years. an intellectual and philosophical movement that
On 29 September 1833, Ferdinand died. He was swept through Europe, the Inquisition could no
succeeded by his young daughter, Queen Isabella longer stand. Started by Queen Isabella I and King
II, who was two weeks shy of her third birthday. Ferdinand II, and ended by the former’s namesake,
Images: Alamy; Getty Images

Ferdinand’s widow, Maria Christina of the Two Isabella II, the Spanish Inquisition had finally
Sicilies – who was governing on behalf of her come to an end after 350 years. A mainstay of
young daughter as queen regent – issued a decree Spanish society, the Inquisition was a controversial
that formally abolished the Spanish Inquisition for period in history and today its legacy remains just
good on 15 July 1834. as complicated.

123
 CONFESSING
THE TRUTH
DEBUNKING THE
INQUISITION MYTHS
Nobody expects that most of what we know
about the Inquisition is false
Written by Edoardo Albert

T
he image of the Spanish any hint of free thought, burning Protestants
Inquisition stands stark in the and heretics, and all without a scintilla of mercy
modern imagination: red-clad – a uniquely corrupt and evil institution. In fact,
monks presiding over the sadistic these are largely myths. The Inquisition was
torture of innocent people before both more wide ranging, in time and period,
consigning them to the flames. In terms of than its Spanish iteration, and generally less
victims, the numbers spiral upwards: tens of brutal than the secular institutions of its day. In
thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions this feature we will examine some of the main
even. By these lights, the Inquisition was an myths that continue to surround the Inquisition
omnipotent organisation that brooded over and separate evidence from propaganda and fact
Spain and the wider Catholic world, extirpating from fiction.

124
 Confessing the truth

THE INQUISITION WAS A UNIQUELY

BLOOD-THIRSTY INSTITUTION
Some of the more lurid accounts of the toll
taken by the Inquisition suggest that its victims
numbered in the tens or hundreds of thousands.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, as Spain
lay in its post-imperial slumber, these sorts of
figures went largely unchallenged and entered
the stream of common belief. However, the
opening of the Inquisitorial archives and the
painstaking work of a generation of scholars
have demonstrated conclusively that these sorts
of numbers are a wild exaggeration. Examining
the 355-year history of the Spanish Inquisition,
scholars estimate that it executed between 2,000
and 10,000 people. A considerable number, but
at least an order of magnitude less than the myth
of its savagery would suggest. By comparison,
the witch-hunting frenzy that afflicted Europe
brought about the deaths of between 40,000 and
60,000 people. The toll taken by the Inquisition
also pales in comparison to the number of people
executed for normal crimes by the secular
authorities, for this was an era when people could
be put to death for crimes ranging from stealing a Unlike other contemporary institutions, the
sheep to counterfeiting. So, while the Inquisition Inquisition concentrated most of its efforts on the
rich and the powerful. It generally ignored or treated
was by no means innocent, it was significantly
leniently poor people accused of heresy
less brutal than similar institutions of its era.

THE INQUISITION WERE THE

ENFORCERS OF THE CHURCH
In the view of the popular imagination, the
Inquisition was the enforcement arm of the
Catholic Church, a special organisation that the
popes employed to ensure that people in Catholic
countries did and believed what the pontiff told
them to do and believe. Works of fiction such as
The Da Vinci Code, where Opus Dei stood in for
the Inquisition, have not helped to counter this
belief. However, the Spanish Inquisition, from
which most of the notoriety of the wider institution
derives, was an instrument of the Spanish state,
not the papacy. It was established by Ferdinand
and Isabella in 1478 to deal with the perceived
problem of religious orthodoxy among convert
Jews, but its remit and lifespan was extended when
Ferdinand and Isabella, and their successors, found
the Inquisition too useful a tool of state control
to give up. Spain was not so much a country as a
federation of sovereign states, rather like England
and Scotland under the Stuart kings, each with
The killer monk from The Da Vinci their own laws and institutions. The Inquisition
Code has reinforced the idea of was the one organisation whose brief and powers
the papacy having a secret force of
trained killers that do its bidding covered the whole country and, as such, it became
an invaluable instrument of state power.

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 Ending the Inquisition

THE BLACK LEGEND OF THE INQUISITION

The legend of the Spanish Inquisition, as
a uniquely ferocious and overpowering
institution that burned tens of thousands of
innocent victims and reduced Spain to a state
of intellectual impoverishment, is a result not of
its actions but of the propaganda war between
Protestant and Catholic Europe in the 16th and
17th centuries. When the forces of Protestant
Europe suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle
of Mühlberg in 1547 to the army of Charles V,
Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain, their
response was to begin the propaganda campaign
against the Spanish Crown and, in particular,
its Inquisition. Further incentives to blacken
Spanish institutions came when Charles’ heir,
Philip, sponsored the Armada in an effort to
bring Protestant England back into the Catholic
fold. Numerous works of increasingly sensational
nature were published over the following
centuries, and even when the Wars of Religion
ended, the rise of Gothic literature found it had
ready-made villains in the shape of sinister, red-
Gothic tales of the 18th and robed inquisitors. It has only been over the last
19th centuries helped to half-century that the Black Legend has been
embed the idea of inquisitors
successfully challenged by scholars examining
as figures of robed menace
the records kept by the Inquisition itself.

THE INQUISITION TORTURED PEOPLE TO DEATH

An integral part of Protestant propaganda
against the Inquisition were increasingly lurid
tales of the sorts of torture that it used to extract
confessions from its victims. It is true that the
Inquisition did use torture – this is not a myth.
However, the types of torture that inquisitors
could employ were strictly controlled and, by
contemporary standards, they were relatively
mild. Remember, this was a time when the
standard mode of executing state enemies in
England was hanging, drawing and quartering,
where the living prisoner had to watch as his
own intestines were extracted from his stomach
by the executioner. In contrast, inquisitors were
forbidden to cause any permanent injury to their
prisoner, nor were they allowed to mutilate or
draw blood. Torture could last for a maximum
of 15 minutes and a confession derived under
torture was not admissible as evidence unless
confirmed by the accused later. In contrast,
secular authorities throughout Europe at this
time employed torture without time limits or
restraints on the harm done to the accused.
So, yes, the Inquisition sometimes tortured
its prisoners, but it did so as a last resort, John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was
used less savage methods of torture than its particularly influential in cementing the
idea that the Inquisition used particularly
contemporaries, and had strict controls over how barbarous methods of torture on its victims
much torture it could employ.

126
 Confessing the truth

ABANDON HOPE IN THE

PRISON OF THE INQUISITION
According to the Black Legend, once thrown
into an Inquisition gaol, a prisoner might as
well abandon hope of release while suffering
from the most savage and repressive conditions
anywhere in Europe. Their reputation was not
helped by the Inquisition referring to its gaols
as ‘secret prisons’, although this was meant to
distinguish them from ‘public prisons’. While
it was true that some prisoners languished for
many years in prison before trial – imprisonment
was not usually a punishment imposed by the
Inquisition – this was normally because of the
Inquisition failing to keep up with its workload.
Prisoners might then be left in prison for years
while paperwork was being completed. However,
the Inquisition generally sought to ensure that
its prisoners were reasonably well fed and
housed – so much so that prisoners of the state
authorities regularly resorted to blasphemy or
other stratagems in court so that the judicial
authorities had no alternative but to transfer
their cases to the Inquisition. Indeed, this Popular legend had it that inquisitors particularly
targeted beautiful and innocent girls but in fact it
happened so often that the Inquisition had to
regularly investigated the rich and the powerful,
complain to the secular authorities about being both among the clergy and the nobility
forced to take their prisoners.

THE INQUISITION HELD ALL SPAIN IN

A GRIP OF TERROR FOR CENTURIES
The Inquisition has an image of overbearing
The image of an all-powerful Grand Inquisitor power, but, in reality, there were only ever about 50
filling every Spanish heart with horror
endures because it answers to our need for
inquisitors to cover the whole of the country. The
simple answers to complex questions Inquisition’s real – rather than its perceived – power
was also limited by its lack of guaranteed income
(inquisitors often scrabbled around for money to
pay their bills), its shortages of support staff, and
rivalries with ecclesiastical and secular authorities.
For most of its existence, the Inquisition was little
more than a name invoked to frighten children in
rural areas of Spain. In villages, people would pass
their whole lives without ever seeing an inquisitor.
Even in towns, an inquisitor might visit maybe
once a decade. Only in the major cities was there
an ongoing Inquisitorial presence, and outside
the kingdom of Castile that presence was often
marginalised and ignored. Indeed, the Inquisitorial
archives are full of reports of Spaniards criticising
the Inquisition with impunity – hardly the actions
of people living in mortal fear. There were a few
times and places where the Inquisition became a
baleful and overwhelming presence but for most of
its history and in most places it was simply another
distant arm of the state.
Images: Alamy

127
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 THE INQUISITION
BY NUMBERS
People persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition Articles written
by Tomás de
Torquemada
on crimes,
interrogation
methods and
Jews expelled from Spain by the Alhambra Decree punishments

Spanish Muslims expelled by King Philip III

Between the
start of the first
Inquisition to the
abolition of the
last Inquisition
Estimated victims of the Portuguese Inquisition

Jews killed during

the Mexican
People executed by the Spanish Inquisition Inquisition
 BOOK OF THE

I N S I D E C A T H O L I C I S M ’S R U T H L E S S WA R O N H E R E S Y
9021

ORIGINS OF THE INQUISITION HERETIC HUNTERS

Uncover the religious movements that spurred Descend into the dark history of the Spanish
the Catholic Church to take violent action Inquisition and its torturous methods

NEW WORLD, OLD WAYS ADMIT THE TRUTH!

As the empires of Spain and Portugal spread, Just how evil was the Church’s campaign
so too did the agents waging their Inquisitions against heresy? It’s time to bust some myths
9000