God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World

by Cullen Murphy

  [>] begun painting it red: Geoff Grammer, “Cross of the Martyrs: Third Year for Vandals’ Message in Red,” Santa Fe New Mexican, August 24, 2010.

  [>] an inscription on an obelisk: Santo Invisibles, “Santa Feans Call for Truth in Public Celebration of Religious Conquest,” Arizona Indymedia, September 5, 2010.

  147. [>] highlights, marginal notations, and underlinings: Lester, The Fourth Part of the World, p. 251.

  [>] deeply religious, even obsessively so: Details of the spiritual life of Christopher Columbus and other information about his outlook and ambitions are drawn from Lester, The Fourth Part of the World, pp. 295–296; Pauline Moffitt Watts, “Prophecy and Discovery: On the Spiritual Origins of Christopher Columbus’s ‘Enterprise of the Indies,’” American Historical Review, vol. 90, no. 1 (1985), pp. 73–102; Delno West, “Christopher Columbus and His Enterprise to the Indies: Scholarship of the Last Quarter Century,” William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 49, no. 2 (1992).

  [>] “parish priests or friars”: “Columbus’s Letter to the King and Queen of Spain, 1494,” Medieval Sourcebook, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/columbus2.html.

  [>] popularized by a Harvard Business School professor: The professor was Theodore Levitt; the article that gave the term new currency was “Globalization of Markets,” Harvard Business Review, May–June 1983.

  148. [>] the trip from Rome to Alexandria and back: Fergus Millar, “Emperors, Frontiers, and Foreign Relations, 31 B.C. to A.D. 378,” Britannia 13 (1982), pp. 1–23.

  [>] “messengers of the lord”: Dutton, Carolingian Civilization, pp. 65–66.

  [>] transport by sea could occur over longer distances: Parry, The Discovery of the Sea, pp. 20–47, 165–171; Lester, The Fourth Part of the World, pp. 218–249.

  149. [>] as Edward Gibbon wrote: Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1, p. 50.

  [>] The Spanish Empire was no different . . . institutions of crown and church: J. H. Plumb’s introduction to Parry, The Spanish Seaborne Empire, pp. 21–22; Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance, p. 239.

  150. [>] many conversos in the New World . . . Columbus numbered: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, p. 54; Meyer Kayserling, “America, the Discovery of,” JewishEncyclopedia.com.

  [>] sometimes encouraged . . . made the prohibition largely a dead letter: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, pp. 55, 60.

  151. [>] in cities around the world: Charles H. Cunningham, “The Ecclesiastical Influence in the Philippines (1565–1850),” American Journal of Theology, vol. 22, no. 2 (April 1918), pp. 161–186; Scholes, Church and State in New Mexico, p. 9.

  [>] “the most important ecclesiastical court in the New World”: Scholes, Church and State in New Mexico, pp. 9–10.

  [>] Some years ago, the Bancroft Library: Gillian C. Boal, foreword to Faulhaber and Vincent, Exploring the Bancroft Library, p. 57.

  152. [>] a vivid sense of the range of transgressions: “Survey of Mexican Inquisition Documents,” Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/latinamericana/inquisitionsurvey.html.

  [>] some two hundred people were investigated: Stanley Hordes, “The Inquisition and the Crypto-Jewish Community in Colonial New Spain and New Mexico,” in Perry and Cruz, eds., Cultural Encounters, p. 208.

  [>] left behind a deeply personal and affecting memoir: Liebman, The Enlightened, pp. 23–33, 49–50, 133.

  153. [>] A converso community was by then a palpable reality: Stanley M. Hordes, “The Crypto-Jewish Community of New Spain, 1620–1649: A Collective Biography,” doctoral dissertation, Tulane University, 1980; Stanley M. Hordes, “The Inquisition and the Crypto-Jewish Community in Colonial New Spain and New Mexico,” in Perry and Cruz, eds., Cultural Encounters, pp. 210–211.

  [>] The Inquisition stepped in: The statistics here and the general unfolding of events are drawn from Stanley M. Hordes, “The Crypto-Jewish Community of New Spain, 1620–1649: A Collective Biography,” doctoral dissertation, Tulane University, 1980; Stanley M. Hordes, “The Inquisition and the Crypto-Jewish Community in Colonial New Spain and New Mexico,” in Perry and Cruz, eds., Cultural Encounters, pp. 207–217.

  154. [>] the oldest European road in America: Moorhead, New Mexico’s Royal Road, pp. 8–27.

  [>] New Mexico’s only significant connection: Preston and Esquibel, The Royal Road, pp. 3–34; Moorhead, New Mexico’s Royal Road, p. 55.

  155. [>] A great convoy: Moorhead, New Mexico’s Royal Road, pp. 32–33.

  [>] hundreds of people . . . documents of government: Simmons, Spanish Pathways, pp. 16–18.

  [>] records are held at the Archivo General: Kate Doyle, “‘Forgetting Is Not Justice’: Mexico Bares Its Secret Past,” World Policy Journal, Summer 2003, pp. 61–72.

  [>] one of the first things interrogators did: Stanley M. Hordes, “The Crypto-Jewish Community of New Spain: 1620–1649: A Collective Biography,” doctoral dissertation, Tulane University, 1980.

  [>] the first American historian to become intimately familiar: Richard E. Greenleaf, “France Vinton Scholes (1897–1979): A Personal Memoir,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 1 (1980), pp. 90–94.

  [>] after background checks to confirm their doctrinal fealty: France V. Scholes, “The First Decade of the Inquisition in New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 10, no. 3 (1935), p. 200.

  156. [>] took evidence in cases of every kind: The incidents recounted here are cited in France V. Scholes, “The First Decade of the Inquisition in New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 10, no. 3 (1935), pp. 195–241.

  [>] wash her private parts with water: Richard E. Greenleaf, “The Inquisition in Eighteenth Century New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 1 (1985), pp. 29–60.

  157. [>] “The very simplicity of political, social, and economic conditions”: Scholes, Church and State in New Mexico, p. 193.

  [>] sometimes employed special messengers: Scholes, Church and State in New Mexico, pp. 32, 38, 110, 124.

  158. [>] his murder was an affront to civil authority: Scholes, Church and State in New Mexico, pp. 115–191.

  [>] “the largest mass beheading”: Pacheco, Ghosts, Murder, Mayhem, p. 75.

  [>] In the 1660s, the tribunal brought formal charges: Kessell, Kiva, Cross, and Crown, pp. 171–207.

  159. [>] they rose up in a coordinated attack: For a concise description of the Pueblo Revolt, see Knaut, The Pueblo Revolt of 1680, pp. 3–15.

  [>] “having expressed views on religion”: Quoted in James, In and Out of the Old Missions of California, p. 52.

  [>] confiscated four copies of a game: Chapman, A History of California, p. 373.

  [>] the “mad poet” of New Mexico: Richard E. Greenleaf, “The Inquisition in Eighteenth Century New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 1 (1985), pp.38–39.

  [>] harassed but not killed: Richard E. Greenleaf, “The Inquisition in Eighteenth Century New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol 60, no. 1 (1985), pp. 29–60.

  160. [>] suspected of owning a book by Voltaire: Bancroft, A History of California, vol. 19, pp. 659–660.

  [>] weren’t known for reading books: Bancroft, A History of California, vol. 19, pp. 659–660.

  [>] a man was denounced—by his mother: J. R. Spell, “Rousseau in Spanish America,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 15, no. 2 (1935), pp. 260–267.

  [>] “ferret out French and English catechisms”: Richard E. Greenleaf, “North American Protestants and the Mexican Inquisition, 1765–1820,” Journal of Church and State, vol. 8, no. 2 (1966), pp. 186–199.

  [>] Inquisition in New Mexico appointed a censor: Richard E. Greenleaf, “The Inquisition in Eighteenth Century New Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 60, no. 1 (1985), pp. 29–60.

  [>] A decree arrived in California: Bancroft, A History of California, vol. 19, pp. 659–660.

  161. [>] in an isolated region of Portugal: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, p. 53.


  [>] immigrants from the Azores: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, p. 47.

  [>] the so-called Jewish Indians of Venta Prieta: Raphael Patai, “The Jewish Indians of Mexico,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 18, no. 1–2, pp. 2–12; Raphael Patai, “Venta Prieta Revisited (1965),” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 18, no. 1–2, pp. 13–18.

  [>] got to their desired destination: Ross, Acts of Faith, pp. 1–25; Joel Millman, “Texas Rabbi Claims Mexico Is Playing Host to a Lost Tribe,” Wall Street Journal, June 15, 2000.

  162. [>] certain practices among small groups of Hispanics: Hordes, To the Ends of the Earth, pp. 244–245; Schulamith C. Halevy, “Manifestations of Crypto-Judaism in the American Southwest,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 18, no. 1–2, pp. 68–76.

  [>] “cross-cultural commonplace”: Judith'S. Neulander, “The New Mexico Crypto-Jewish Canon: Choosing to Be ‘Chosen’ in Millennial Tradition,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 18, no. 1–2 (1996), pp. 19–58.

  [>] Her conclusion parallels Patai’s: Judith'S. Neulander, “The New Mexico Crypto-Jewish Canon: Choosing to Be ‘Chosen’ in Millennial Tradition,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 18, no. 1–2 (1996), pp. 19–58; Judith'S. Neulander, “Crypto-Jews of the Southwest: An Imagined Community,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review, vol. 16, no. 1 (1994), pp. 64–68; Debbie Nathan and Barbara Ferry, “Mistaken Identity? The Case of New Mexico’s ‘Hidden Jews,’” Atlantic Monthly, December 2000.

  163. [>] They are also able to show: Kunin, Juggling Identities, p. 107.

  [>] Genealogical research by Hordes: Hordes, To the Ends of the Earth, pp. 273–279; Kunin, Juggling Identities, p. 105.

  [>] left Spain and Portugal by the thousands: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, p. 54.

  [>] genetic evidence as well: Simon Romero, “Hispanics Uncovering Roots as Inquisition’s ‘Hidden Jews,’” New York Times, October 29, 2005; Hordes, To the Ends of the Earth, pp. 271–273.

  [>] an unusually high incidence . . . disproportionately susceptible: Jeff Wheelwright, “The ‘Secret Jews’ of San Luis Valley,” Smithsonian, October 2008.

  [>] held on to elements of their faith: Gitlitz, Secrecy and Deceit, pp. 35–64.

  164 [>] showed themselves to be shrewd observers and advisors: Joseph'S. Sebes, S.J., “China’s Jesuit Century,” Wilson Quarterly, Winter 1978, pp. 170–183.

  [>] what today would be called comparative religion: See Hunt, Jacob, and Mijnhardt, The Book That Changed Europe.

  [>] “I seek Christians and spices”: Duffy, Portuguese Africa, p. 104.

  165. [>] To this day, it enjoys: “Goa’s Per Capita Highest, Bihar’s Lowest in FY ’10,” The Hindu, March 9, 2011.

  [>] forcing him to find other quarters: Saraiva, The Marrano Factory, pp. 350–351.

  [>] the faithful managed to save their idols: Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch, “Flight of the Deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa,” Modern Asian Studies, vol. 30, no. 2 (1996), pp. 387–421.

  [>] sent a substantial payment to Pope Paul IV: Saraiva, The Marrano Factory, pp. 342–352.

  166. [>] the Inquisition held twenty-seven autos-da-fé in Goa: Saraiva, The Marrano Factory, pp. 342–352.

  [>] printing presses were kept out of Brazil: James E. Wadsworth, “In the Name of the Inquisition: The Portuguese Inquisition and Delegated Authority in Colonial Pernambuco, Brazil,” The Americas, vol. 61, no. 1 (2004).

  [>] One petty dispute in Angola: Birmingham, Portugal and Africa, pp. 63–81.

  [>] two hundred years after their executions: Ioan Grillo, “Mexican Church to Review Cases of Excommunicated Independence Heroes,” Catholic News Service, October 16, 2007; “Better Late Than Never,” The Mex Files, September 1, 2009; “Church: Independence Heroes Died As Catholics,” McClatchey–Tribune Regional News, August 31, 2009.

  167. refused to recognize . . . and withdrew: Kertzer, Prisoner of the Vatican, p. 3.

  [>] who opened up . . . who re-established: Duffy, Saints and Sinners, p. 313; “Vatican Observatory,” Vatican City State, http://www.vaticanstate.va/EN/Other_Institutions/The_Vatican_Observatory.htm.

  [>] preserved in a motion picture . . . first pope whose voice survives in a recording: “Recording of Pope Leo XIII, 1903,” How to Be a Retronaut, April 3, 2010. http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/recording-of-pope-leo-xiii-1903.

  169. followed the progress of its drafting and editing: “Democracy and the Labour Problem,” North-Eastern Daily Gazette, April 30, 1891.

  [>] “The Standard’s Rome correspondent”: “The Pope’s Encyclical,” Yorkshire Herald, May 16, 1891.

  [>] “the expression of his century”: “Pope Leo’s Anniversary,” New York Times, March 3, 1895.

  [>] the perfect Latin edition of the works of Thomas Aquinas: Cullen Murphy, “All the Pope’s Men,” Harper’s, June 1979.

  170. [>] eighty beliefs that Catholics must condemn: Duffy, Saints and Sinners, p. 295.

  [>] These included the belief: http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm.

  [>]that provoked Lord Acton’s famous remark: Dalberg-Acton, Essays on Freedom and Power, p. 364.

  [>] “towards power and against freedom”: Owen Chadwick, “Lord Acton at the First Vatican Council,” Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 27, no. 2 (1977).

  [>] that is to say, its name was retired: Peters, Inquisition, p. 120.

  [>] “The interests of the Inquisition were increasingly focused outward”: Collins, From Inquisition to Freedom, p.14.

  [>] conservative and controlling mind-set of this period: “Censorship of Books”: http://www .newadvent.org/cathen/03519d.htm; “inquisition”: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/ 08026a.htm.

  171. [>] what would come to be called Modernism: A useful introduction to the controversy and some of its participants can be found in Ratté, Three Modernists.

  [>]made the sign of the cross over his grave: Kerr, Twentieth-Century Catholic Theologians, pp. 2–5.

  [>] hurled the word “anathema”: Pius X, “Pascendi Dominici Gregis: On the Doctrine of the Modernists,” September 8, 1907. http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius10/p10pasce.htm.

  [>] “lengthy and ferocious”: Duffy, Saints and Sinners, pp. 328–329.

  172. “There is a twofold and serious difficulty”: King, Spirit of Fire, p. 106.

  173. “never say or write anything against”: King, Spirit of Fire, p. 107.

  [>] “I weighed up the enormous scandal”: King, Spirit of Fire, p. 108.

  [>] “in order to be free of it”: Robert Nugent, “From Silence to Vindication: Teilhard de Chardin and the Holy Office,” Commonweal, October 25, 2002.

  [>]“burned at the stake”: Aczel, The Jesuit and the Skull, p. 211.

  [>] “you may count on me”: Aczel, The Jesuit and the Skull, p. 205.

  174. [>] a stern and public condemnation: “Monitum,” L’Osservatore Romano, July 1, 1962, translation provided by the conservative Catholic organization Tradition in Action. http://www.traditioninaction.org/ProgressivistDoc/A_121_teilhardCondemned.html.

  [>] Pope Benedict made a positive reference: John L. Allen, Jr., “An Evolutionary Leap for Teilhard?” National Catholic Reporter, August 7, 2009.

  [>] in order to escape a libel action: Andrew Johnson, “Shirley Temple Scandal Was Real Reason Greene Fled to Mexico,” The Independent, November 18, 2007.

  [>] The documents in the case: The details of the case of Graham Greene and the quotations from documents in the archives are drawn from Peter Godman, “Graham Greene’s Vatican Dossier,” Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2001.

  175. [>] personal collection of more than 120,000 volumes: “The De Luca Collection,” Vatican Library, March 17, 2009.

  177. [>] still kept books on the Index in a locked cage: Pascal de Caprariis, “The Cage” (letter to the editor), Boston College Magazine, Winter 2011.

  177. [>] by the pseudonymous Xavier Rynne: Rynne’s reporting was eventually collected and published in the
single volume Vatican Council II.

  178. [>] “No one should be judged and condemned”: Allen, Cardinal Ratzinger, pp. 64–65.

  [>] “prejudged every question” . . . signed his name: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, pp. 184–185.

  [>] “soon had the effect on Ratzinger”: Garry Wills, “A Tale of Two Cardinals,” New York Review of Books, April 26, 2001.

  179. [>] his right to teach as a Catholic theologian: Victor L. Simpson, “Theologian Stripped of Teaching Post,” Associated Press, December 18, 1979.

  [>] neither “suitable nor eligible”: Merrill McLoughlin, “The Pope Gets Tough,” U.S. News & World Report, November 17, 1986; “Catholic U. Is Upheld in Firing Priest,” Associated Press, March 1, 1989.

  179. [>] “in disagreement with the teaching of the Church”: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, p. 197.

  [>] Dominican priest . . . was silenced for a year: “Rebel Priest Sentenced to Year of Silence,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1988; “Vatican Expels Factious Priest From Dominicans,” Los Angeles Times, March 6, 1993.

  [>] took the extreme step of excommunicating a Sri Lankan priest: Celestine Bohlen, “Excommunicated Priest Is Reunited with Vatican,” New York Times, March 5, 1998.

  [>] the litany of names goes on: Many of the cases from the 1980s and 1990s are discussed in Collins, From Inquisition to Freedom, and Reese, Inside the Vatican; some of them, and others as late as 2005, are taken up in Gibson, The Rule of Benedict.

  [>] putting Catholic universities on a tighter leash: Reese, Inside the Vatican, pp. 258–259.

  180. [>] compared it to what he had endured at the hands of the Nazis: Quoted in Cahalan, Formed in the Image of Christ, p. 10.

  [>] offers this vignette from another case: Gibson, The Rule of Benedict, p. 200.

  181. [>] after years of confrontation: Laurie Goodstein, “Vatican Is Said to Force Jesuit off Magazine,” New York Times, May 7, 2005.

  [>