#AMREADING ERIKA RUMMEL, THE INQUISITOR’S NIECE.

Rummel, Inquisitor's Niece

Yes, I’m reading the final proofs of my forthcoming novel, The Inquisitor’s Niece, the story of a taboo relationship between a Jew and a Christian, set in inquisitorial Spain. Here is a teaser:

Public executions always fetched a good crowd. People craned their heads to see the expression on the faces of the trio of heretics, an old Jew and two youths - his sons presumably - bareheaded and shirtless, their backs bloodied by the lash, their hands and feet shackled. They were transported in an open cart for all to see, to be vilified, cursed and spit on. The crowd was in a holiday spirit, merry and boisterous. Boys were hawking chestnuts, dried fruit and sugared almonds. A band of blind musicians was playing their guitars. A juggler performed tricks with coloured balls. Harlots were doing brisk business.

The crowd was jostling for the best spots from which to watch the spectacle. There was excitement in the air when the heretics were dragged to the pyre and tied to the stake.  A joyful shout went up when the executioner put a torch to the kindling, and for a moment the cheers and jeers drowned out the agonized shrieks of the men at the stake. The crowd watched them writhing as the smoke and the licking flames enveloped their bodies, and the fumes and the pain overcame first the old man and then his companions. Their bodies slackened, the roaring fire ate through the ropes that tied them to the stake, and they dropped to the ground. For a while an up-drift of air made it look as if they were waving their limbs in desperation, then the bodies turned into a darkly glowing heap, shapeless lumps seen through a curtain of fire.

The flames had hardly died down before souvenir-seekers started raking the hot ashes for keepsakes and carried off the bones to grind up and hawk as magic powder. Alonso watched them in cold horror. The spectacle made Alonso’s skin crawl. It was an evil omen. Was this the fate that awaited his father?

You can pre-order the book from the publisher at: http://www.bygoneerabooks.com/#!inquisitors-niece/co4k

NO DISCRIMINATION HERE -- SPANISH INQUISITION PERSECUTES BOTH JEWS AND MUSLIMS.

In the 1390s Friar Vincent Ferrer wanted to convert all the Jews of Spain through preaching and put an end to the obstinate, stinking synagogue…but he was frustrated in his efforts because the Jews were deceived and misled by that gloss called the Talmud which is full of great lies and intricate arguments.

And so this monstrous affliction lasted another century until the Spanish crown forced Jews to leave or convert to Christianity. But the newly baptized Jews observed the Faith very badly…and practiced their old religion secretly. Nor did they stop observing Jewish customs, such as eating little dishes of onion and garlic fried with oil…and the oil with the meat and the other things that they stewed smelled very bad on their breath. Also, they were usurers and had many artful tricks.

Meanwhile, Pope Sixtus IV issued a bull that gave the Spanish monarchs the authority to proceed against this heresy and to punish it with fire. The papal bull led to the establishment of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

(From the chronicle of Andres Bernaldez)

Apparently relapsed Jews did not keep the inquisitors busy enough, so they also proceeded against relapsed Muslims:

In 1571, for example, Ramiro de Palencia, a new Christian descended from Muslims, was brought before the tribunal for having said prayers in which he seemed to call on Mohammed. One time, yawning, he said: May Mohammed close my eyes. And many times he performed the zala, raising and lowering his head without reason, and bringing his hands over his face. The witnesses against him were shady characters, it seems, so it was questionable whether he could be convicted and condemned to death. Instead he was fined  50,000 maravedis (the annual income of a wealthy grandee) to defray the expenses of the Holy Office.

(Source: Lu Ann Homza , The Spanish Inquisition, 1478-1614).

HOW TO CATCH A JEW. Instructions posted on your local church door.

Where? When? Berlin, 1938? No, Valencia, 1512, by the inquisitor Andres de Palacio.

The instructions posted on church doors were addressed to all the faithful, men and women, of every condition, quality, and estate. They invited them to spy on their neighbours and report persons who might have sinned against the Holy Catholic faith. More particularly, the inquisitor wanted to know about Jews practicing their religion in secret and observing the law of Moses. A long list of suspect behaviour was appended.

• Changing into clean linen on Saturdays,
• Preparing on Fridays the food for Saturdays,
• Refraining from work on Friday evenings and Saturdays,
• Kindling lights on Friday evening,
• Eating unleavened bread and bitter herbs,
• Standing up before a wall and saying prayers,
• Shrinking from eating pork, hares, snails or fish that had no scales,
• Cutting sinews out of meat, taking a morsel of dough when baking and throwing it into the fire.

And what if you didn’t want to denounce your neighbours?  Shame on you, abettor of heretics!

That is what Palacio called people who were reluctant to become spies for the Inquisition. He posted a warning to strike fear into their hearts.

And you, who with obstinate hearts refuse to declare and manifest the things you have heard and seen, will be proceeded against, excommunicated and accursed, for you have incurred the wrath of the Almighty God, who will turn your prayers to maledictions.

Your property will be given to others and your children will be orphans and your wives and widows. And likewise the houses you inhabit and the clothes you wear and the animals your ride and the beds on which you sleep and the tables on which you eat: let them be accursed and ruined, and may your wickedness be ever present in the divine memory. Amen.

(Source: C. Roth, The Spanish Inquisition. Image: www.beithetzchaim.es.tl).

TO BURN OR NOT TO BURN. Tales from the records of the Spanish Inquisition

In the popular imagination the Spanish Inquisition is associated with heretics being burned at the stake. But the statistics show that executions were infrequent. Here are some figures:

• Some 26,000 people were tried in Aragon between 1540 and 1700 – 2 percent were executed (the judicial term for this was “being relaxed”, meaning handed over to the secular government for execution).
• In Toledo, 1422 people were tried between 1575 and 1610 -- 15 were “relaxed”. Others were scourged, imprisoned, had their property confiscated, served on galleys, or were exiled. 179 were acquitted or had their case dismissed. The majority of those found guilty was formally reconciled with the church and had to walk in an auto-da-fe.

What is an auto-da-fe? A public ritual, in which heretics had to demonstrate that they were penitent. They took part in a procession, wearing sackcloth (sanbenito) and carrying candles or crosses. Their sentences were read out aloud, and they fell on their knees to give thanks to God (or just thanks for having escaped the clutches of the Inquisition?)

Witches and Jews were not the only ones dragged before the tribunals. The Fugger Newsletter (a forerunner of today’s newspaper) lists the 38 people who walked in an auto-da-fe in Seville, 3 May 1579. There were Jews, Moors, nuns, Lutherans, escaped slaves, and fornicators.  One was burned at the stake. The others were reconciled with the church.

Here are examples of the sentences handed down:

• Juan de Color, a black slave, 35 years old, “reviled the name of Our Dear Lady” and denied her miracles: 2 years imprisonment.
• Juan Corineo, a Moor, said: “Our Dear Lady did not conceive as a virgin”: 100 strokes of the rod.
• Francisco Gonzales married twice: 100 strokes of the rod and three years on a galley.
• Francisco Berocano “said that it was no sin if a woman tgoes to a man and they copulate.” No punishment since he “disavowed his words as frivolous.”
• Orbrian, a native of Flanders, 30 years old, burned paintings of Jesus, endorsed the teachings of Luther, and “showed great stubbornness”: goods confiscated, burned at the stake.