How historians and commentators have viewed the Spanish Inquisition has changed over time and continues to be a source of controversy. Before and during the 19th century, historical interest focused on who was being persecuted. In the early and mid-20th century, historians examined the specifics of what happened and how it influenced Spanish history. In the later 20th and 21st centuries, some historians have re-examined how severe the Inquisition truly was, calling into question some of the assumptions made in earlier periods.
19th to early 20th century scholarship Before the rise of professional historians in the 19th century, the Spanish Inquisition had been portrayed primarily by Protestant scholars who saw it as the archetypal symbol of Catholic intolerance and ecclesiastical power. The Spanish Inquisition for them was largely associated with the persecution of Protestants. William H. Prescott described the Inquisition as an "eye that never slumbered". Despite the existence of extensive documentation regarding the trials and procedures, and to the Inquisition's deep bureaucratization, none of these sources were studied outside of Spain, and Spanish scholars arguing against the predominant view were automatically dismissed. The 19th-century professional historians, including the Spanish scholar Amador de los Ríos, were the first to successfully challenge this perception in the international sphere and get foreign scholars to take note of their discoveries. Said scholars would obtain international recognition and start a period of revision on the Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition.
At the start of the 20th century Henry Charles Lea published the groundbreaking History of the Inquisition in Spain. This influential work describes the Spanish Inquisition as "an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas and the obstruction of progress." Lea documented the Inquisition's methods and modes of operation in no uncertain terms, calling it "theocratic absolutism" at its worst. In the context of the polarization between Protestants and Catholics during the second half of the 19th century, some of Lea's contemporaries, as well as most modern scholars thought Lea's work had an anti-Catholic bias.
Starting in the 1920s, Jewish scholars picked up where Lea's work left off. They published Yitzhak Baer's History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Cecil Roth's History of the Marranos and, after World War II, the work of Haim Beinart, who for the first time published trial transcripts of cases involving conversos.
Contemporary historians who subscribe to the idea that the image of the Inquisition in historiography has been systematically deformed by the Black Legend include Edward Peters, Philip Wayne Powell, William S. Maltby, Richard Kagan, Margaret R. Greer, Helen Rawlings, Ronnie Hsia, Lu Ann Homza, Stanley G. Payne, Andrea Donofrio, Irene Silverblatt, Christopher Schmidt-Nowara, Charles Gibson, and Joseph Pérez. Contemporary historians who partially accept an impact of the Black Legend but deny other aspects of the hypothesis include Henry Kamen, David Nirenberg and Karen Armstrong.
Toby Green, while accepting that there was a certain demonization of the Spanish Inquisition in comparison with other contemporary persecutions, argues that the habitual use of torture should not be denied, and that correcting the "black legend" should not mean replacing it with a "white legend." Richard L. Kagan says that Henry Kamen failed to "enter the belly of the beast and assess what it really meant to the people who lived with it." Kamen does not, according to Kagan, "lead the reader through an actual trial. Had he done so, a reader might conclude that the institution he portrays as relatively benign in hindsight was also capable of inspiring fear and desperate attempts to escape, and thus more deserving of its earlier reputation." For Kagan, in order to reconstruct the world of those who were trapped in the Inquisition's net, studies that thoroughly examine the meticulous archives of the Inquisition are necessary.
Revision after 1960
The works of Juderias in (1913) and other Spanish scholars prior to him were mostly ignored by international scholarship until 1960.
One of the first books to build on them and internationally challenge the classical view was The Spanish Inquisition (1965) by Henry Kamen. Kamen argued that the Inquisition was not nearly as cruel or as powerful as commonly believed. The book was very influential and largely responsible for subsequent studies in the 1970s to try to quantify (from archival records) the Inquisition's activities.See for example Jean-Pierre Dedieu, Los Cuatro Tiempos, in and Those studies showed an initial burst of activity against conversos suspected of relapsing into Judaism, and a mid-16th century pursuit of Protestants, but, according to these studies, the Inquisition served principally as a forum Spaniards occasionally used to humiliate and punish people they did not like: blasphemers, bigamists, foreigners and, in Aragon, homosexuals, and horse smugglers. Kamen went on to publish two more books in 1985 and 2006 that incorporated new findings, further supporting the view that the Inquisition was not as bad as once described by Lea and others. Along similar lines is Edward Peters's Inquisition (1988).
One of the most important works about the inquisition's relation to the Jewish conversos or New Christians is The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth-Century Spain (1995/2002) by Benzion Netanyahu. It challenges the view that most conversos were actually practicing Judaism in secret and were persecuted for their crypto-Judaism. Rather, according to Netanyahu, the persecution was fundamentally racial, and was a matter of envy of their success in Spanish society. This view has been challenged; the majority of historians either align with religious causes or with merely cultural ones, with no significant racial element.Vicente Ángel Álvarez Palenzuela. Judíos y conversos en la España medieval. Estado de la cuestión (Jews and converts in medieval Spain. Estate of the matter). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) eHumanista/Converso 4 (2015):156–191 It can be checked for free here.
Causes The Spanish Inquisition emerged from a complex interplay of social, political, and religious factors. The "multi-religious hypothesis" highlights Spain’s diverse society, where Catholics, Jews, and Muslims coexisted in relative peace (convivencia), though with unequal legal status, until anti-Jewish riots in 1391 led to mass conversions. The "enforcement across borders hypothesis" suggests the Inquisition was a tool for the Catholic Monarchs to assert royal authority over fragmented noble factions, using Catholicism as a unifying force. The "placate Europe hypothesis" posits that the Inquisition and expulsions of Jews and Moriscos aimed to counter Spain’s negative image as a land of “impure blood” and align it with European Christian norms to secure alliances. The "Ottoman scare hypothesis" points to fears of Morisco collaboration with an expanding Ottoman Empire. The "Renaissance hypothesis" aligns the Inquisition with centralizing political philosophies, while the "checking the Pope hypothesis" views it as a strategic move to limit papal influence by placing the Inquisition under royal control. Economic motives and rising intolerance, mirroring broader European trends, may have also played roles, though purely religious devotion is debated given Ferdinand’s pragmatic political persona.
Too multi-religious hypothesis
The Spanish Inquisition emerged in response to the multi-religious society of Spain after the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Muslim Moors. The Reconquista did not fully expel Muslims, who, along with Jews, were initially tolerated by the Christian elite. Major cities such as Seville, Valladolid, and Barcelona had significant Jewish populations in Juderia, but Muslims faced increasing alienation from power centers.
Cultural historian Américo Castro describes post-reconquest medieval Spain as a society of relatively peaceful coexistence (convivencia), marked by occasional conflict among Catholics, Jews, and Muslims. Kamen described this "so-called convivencia" as featuring unequal relationships. Despite legal disparities, Jews long served the Crown of Aragon in prominent religious and political roles. Castile had an unofficial rabbi, and Ferdinand’s father, John II, appointed the Jewish Abiathar Crescas as Court Astronomer.
Anti-Jewish sentiment grew across Europe in the late 13th and 14th centuries, with England and France expelling Jews in 1290 and 1306. In Spain, this prejudice peaked during the 1391 anti-Jewish riots in cities such as Barcelona and Valencia, killing thousands. New converts, called conversos or New Catholics, were distinguished from long-established Catholic families.
According to Don Hasdai Crescas, persecution began in Seville in June 1391, on the 1st of Tammuz.* ;
The violence spread to Córdoba, reached Toledo (then called Ṭulayṭulah by Jews) by mid-June, and hit Mallorca and Barcelona by the 1st of Elul, killing about 250 in Barcelona. Jews in Lleida, Gironda, Valencia, and Al-Andalus (Andalucía) also suffered. Many died as martyrs, while others converted.
Ferrand Martínez, Archdeacon of Ecija, fueled the unrest, affecting nearly all Spanish Jews. An estimated 200,000 Jews converted or hid their faith, known in Hebrew as Anusim, or "those compelled [to hide their religion]". Only a few prominent Jews, sheltered by viceroys in outlying areas, escaped.
Forced baptism violated Catholic Church law, and theoretically, those forcibly baptized could revert to Judaism. However, legal definitions limited this to baptisms under physical force; those consenting under threat of death or injury were considered voluntary converts, barred from returning to Judaism.Raymond of Peñafort, Summa, lib. 1 p. 33, citing D.45 c.5. After 1391, many converts "felt safer remaining in their new religion." This created a new social group, conversos or New Christians, who, free from Jewish occupational restrictions, secured prominent roles in 15th-century Spain, including in government, the Church, and finance. Notable conversos included physicians Andrés Laguna and Francisco López de Villalobos (Ferdinand’s court physician), writers Juan del Encina, Juan de Mena, Diego de Valera, and Alonso de Palencia, and bankers Luis de Santángel and Gabriel Sánchez, who funded Christopher Columbus, Bishop Pablo de Santa Maria (author of Scrutinium Scripturarum), Jeronimo de Santa Fe (Hebraomastix) and Pedro de la Caballeria (Zelus Christi contra Judaeos).) Some conversos, despite opposition, rose in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, occasionally becoming vocal critics of Judaism. Others gained noble titles, prompting later works claiming many Spanish nobles descended from Israelites.Notably the Libro verde de Aragon and Tizón de la nobleza de España (cited in ).
Enforcement across borders hypothesis