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Spanish Inquisition
Sara Nalle
Introduction
Since its papal authorization in 1478, the Spanish Inquisition has been controversial. A religious court
established at the request of the Spanish crown to punish apostate converts from Judaism, the institution over the years
continually reinvented itself to confront perceived threats to religious orthodoxy, social harmony, and even national security. As
a result, since its final abolition in 1834 the institution has continued to fascinate, with new scholarly and popular works on the
subject being published every year. Anyone desiring to study the Spanish Inquisition should be aware of the polemical, even
sensational, nature of many works, particularly those published before 1975, when ideological partisanship continued to
influence authors agendas and assumptions. For this reason, few works dating before the revolution in Inquisitorial studies
that began in the 1970s are indexed in this bibliography.
General Overviews
Although not exclusively dedicated to the Spanish Inquisition, the best overall introduction to the institutionits history,
procedures, and mythologyremains Edward Peterss Inquisition (Peters 1988). There are many introductory works to the
Spanish Inquisition for those seeking a general overview. Rawlings 2006 provides a balanced, up-to-date summary. Kamen
1985 incorporates the new social history research, whereas Kamen 1997 controversially downplays the overall importance of
the tribunals on Spanish life. Prez 2005 relies on outdated and exclusively Spanish and French sources. Less well known but
representative of Spanish scholarship are Martnez Milln 2009 and Garca Crcel and Moreno Martnez 2000. The Italian
historian Stafania Pastore (Pastore 2003) looks at Spanish opinion of the Inquisition during its first one hundred years.
Garca Crcel, Ricard, and Doris Moreno Martnez. Inquisicin: Historia crtica. Madrid: Ediciones Temas de Hoy,
2000.
Looks at the Holy Offices history from three points of view: its overall history; its institutional underpinnings; and its victims,
their numbers, and types of heresies. Without being polemical, tries to answer some of the enduring questions about the
institutions impact on Spanish history.
Kamen, Henry. Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1985.
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Retains many features of Kamens earlier study The Spanish Inquisition (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1965) but
incorporates much of the new research from the 1970s and 1980s.
Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
This revision unconvincingly downplays the institutions impact on Spanish religious, intellectual, and social life.
Martnez Milln, Jos. La Inquisicin espaola. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2009.
More a very long interpretative essay than an introductory work. Martnez Milln puts aside the discussion points set by
previous generations and focuses on how various power groups around the monarchy and in the provinces used the institution
to promote their interests.
Pastore, Stefania. Il vangelo e la spada: Linquisizione di Castiglia e suoi critici (14601598). Rome: Edizioni di storia
e letteratura, 2003.
Pastore shows how in Castile various religious orders and the secular church from the very beginning were opposed on
theological grounds to the state-controlled Inquisition but were powerless to stop it.
Prez, Joseph. The Spanish Inquisition. Translated by Janet Lloyd. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University
Press, 2005.
A brief introduction tending toward generalizations and relying on an older bibliography of French and Spanish works.
Peters, Edward. Inquisition. New York: Free Press, 1988.
Explains the legal underpinnings, procedure, polemics, and myths surrounding the medieval and modern inquisitions.
Rawlings, Helen. The Spanish Inquisition. Oxford: Blackwell, 2006.
An up-to-date, balanced starting point for students.
LAST MODIFIED: 08/26/2011
DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780195399301-0150
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