Saturday, February 7, 2015

Myths of the Spanish Inquisition

Interesting videos (especially the Monte Python scenes) . . .

Myth of the Spanish Inquisition


The Black Legend

The Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition is a term used by authors who consider the existence of a romanticized or exaggerated image of the Spanish Inquisition as the epitome of terror and human barbarity. As such, it is a part of the Spanish Black Legend and one of its most recurrent themes.

Peters defines it as:
a body of myths and legends that between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, established the perceived character of inquisitorial tribunals that have influenced all subsequent attempts to recover the historical reality


A Catholic View of the Black Legend

[The Black Legend: How Lies, Jealousy, and Hatred of Spain Have Influenced World Opinion for More Than Five Hundred Years]

In order to begin to understand this complex topic, we must first settle on a working definition of the meaning of the term “Black Legend.” Let us then start with the man who coined the phrase, the Spaniard Julian Juderias, in his book, La Leyenda Negra (The Black Legend), of 1914: “(It is) The environment created by the fantastic stories about our homeland that have seen the light of publicity in all countries, the grotesque descriptions that have been made of the character of Spaniards as individuals and collectively, the denial or at least the systematic ignorance of all that is favorable and beautiful in the various manifestations of culture and art, the accusations that in every era have been flung at Spain.”

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