Synopses & Reviews
On June 11, 1485, in the pilgrimage town of Guadalupe, the Holy Office of the Inquisition executed Alonso de Paredes--a converted Jew who posed an economic and political threat to the town's powerful friars--as a heretic. Wedding engrossing narratives of Paredes and other figures with astute historical analysis, this finely wrought study reconsiders the relationship between religious identity and political authority in late-Medieval and early-modern Spain.
Gretchen Starr-LeBeau concentrates on the Inquisition's handling of conversos (converted Jews and their descendants) in Guadalupe, taking religious identity to be a complex phenomenon that was constantly re-imagined and reconstructed in light of changing personal circumstances and larger events. She demonstrates that the Inquisition reified the ambiguous religious identities of conversos by defining them as devout or (more often) heretical. And she argues that political figures used this definitional power of the Inquisition to control local populations and to increase their own authority.
In the Shadow of the Virgin is unique in pointing out that the power of the Inquisition came from the collective participation of witnesses, accusers, and even sometimes its victims. For the first time, it draws the connection between the malleability of religious identity and the increase in early modern political authority. It shows that, from the earliest days of the modern Spanish Inquisition, the Inquisition reflected the political struggles and collective religious and cultural anxieties of those who were drawn into participating in it.
Review
"Because only a handful of documents for the earliest years of the Inquisition survive anywhere in Spain, these . . . cases are exceptionally valuable, and Starr-LeBeau makes a masterful use of them to address the questions that have preoccupied scholars. . . . [She] provides a much more detailed analysis than previously available of the incremental steps in the process by which the Inquisition established boundaries and orthodox practice, its major impact on Spanish society."--Helen Nader, American Historical Review
Review
"[T]his comparative study in church discipline is recommended to all scholars in the field. It may be hoped that some of them will imitate its approach in their own research."--Avshalom Laniado, Mediterranean Historical Review
Review
Because only a handful of documents for the earliest years of the Inquisition survive anywhere in Spain, these . . . cases are exceptionally valuable, and Starr-LeBeau makes a masterful use of them to address the questions that have preoccupied scholars. . . . [She] provides a much more detailed analysis than previously available of the incremental steps in the process by which the Inquisition established boundaries and orthodox practice, its major impact on Spanish society. Helen Nader
Review
[T]his comparative study in church discipline is recommended to all scholars in the field. It may be hoped that some of them will imitate its approach in their own research. American Historical Review
Synopsis
On June 11, 1485, in the pilgrimage town of Guadalupe, the Holy Office of the Inquisition executed Alonso de Paredes--a converted Jew who posed an economic and political threat to the town's powerful friars--as a heretic. Wedding engrossing narratives of Paredes and other figures with astute historical analysis, this finely wrought study reconsiders the relationship between religious identity and political authority in late-Medieval and early-modern Spain.
Gretchen Starr-LeBeau concentrates on the Inquisition's handling of conversos (converted Jews and their descendants) in Guadalupe, taking religious identity to be a complex phenomenon that was constantly re-imagined and reconstructed in light of changing personal circumstances and larger events. She demonstrates that the Inquisition reified the ambiguous religious identities of conversos by defining them as devout or (more often) heretical. And she argues that political figures used this definitional power of the Inquisition to control local populations and to increase their own authority.
In the Shadow of the Virgin is unique in pointing out that the power of the Inquisition came from the collective participation of witnesses, accusers, and even sometimes its victims. For the first time, it draws the connection between the malleability of religious identity and the increase in early modern political authority. It shows that, from the earliest days of the modern Spanish Inquisition, the Inquisition reflected the political struggles and collective religious and cultural anxieties of those who were drawn into participating in it.
Synopsis
"This book presents an impressive amount of archival research as well as an original interpretation of the development of the Inquisition's power. The author explores Guadalupe as a microcosm of the restructuring of political authority based on religious identity that became a crucial element in the emerging Spanish state. No other study of the Inquisition presents the same kind of political and social analysis as does this book."
--Mary Elizabeth Perry, Occidental College"The strengths of this book include Starr-LeBeau's masterful and exhaustive use of primary sources, her intelligent and even-handed deployment of a vast literature, and her skillful weaving of dramatic stories and narratives of individual lives into her text. This is an original and gripping book that will have an impact and a reading public well beyond those interested in the history of Spain or of religion."--Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles
Synopsis
"This book presents an impressive amount of archival research as well as an original interpretation of the development of the Inquisition's power. The author explores Guadalupe as a microcosm of the restructuring of political authority based on religious identity that became a crucial element in the emerging Spanish state. No other study of the Inquisition presents the same kind of political and social analysis as does this book."--Mary Elizabeth Perry, Occidental College
"The strengths of this book include Starr-LeBeau's masterful and exhaustive use of primary sources, her intelligent and even-handed deployment of a vast literature, and her skillful weaving of dramatic stories and narratives of individual lives into her text. This is an original and gripping book that will have an impact and a reading public well beyond those interested in the history of Spain or of religion."--Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles
Synopsis
On June 11, 1485, in the pilgrimage town of Guadalupe, the Holy Office of the Inquisition executed Alonso de Paredes--a converted Jew who posed an economic and political threat to the town's powerful friars--as a heretic. Wedding engrossing narratives of Paredes and other figures with astute historical analysis, this finely wrought study reconsiders the relationship between religious identity and political authority in late-Medieval and early-modern Spain.
Gretchen Starr-LeBeau concentrates on the Inquisition's handling of conversos (converted Jews and their descendants) in Guadalupe, taking religious identity to be a complex phenomenon that was constantly re-imagined and reconstructed in light of changing personal circumstances and larger events. She demonstrates that the Inquisition reified the ambiguous religious identities of conversos by defining them as devout or (more often) heretical. And she argues that political figures used this definitional power of the Inquisition to control local populations and to increase their own authority.
In the Shadow of the Virgin is unique in pointing out that the power of the Inquisition came from the collective participation of witnesses, accusers, and even sometimes its victims. For the first time, it draws the connection between the malleability of religious identity and the increase in early modern political authority. It shows that, from the earliest days of the modern Spanish Inquisition, the Inquisition reflected the political struggles and collective religious and cultural anxieties of those who were drawn into participating in it.
Synopsis
"This book presents an impressive amount of archival research as well as an original interpretation of the development of the Inquisition's power. The author explores Guadalupe as a microcosm of the restructuring of political authority based on religious identity that became a crucial element in the emerging Spanish state. No other study of the Inquisition presents the same kind of political and social analysis as does this book."--Mary Elizabeth Perry, Occidental College
"The strengths of this book include Starr-LeBeau's masterful and exhaustive use of primary sources, her intelligent and even-handed deployment of a vast literature, and her skillful weaving of dramatic stories and narratives of individual lives into her text. This is an original and gripping book that will have an impact and a reading public well beyond those interested in the history of Spain or of religion."--Teofilo Ruiz, University of California, Los Angeles
About the Author
Gretchen D. Starr-LeBeau is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Kentucky.
Table of Contents
Maps and Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter One: Before the Inquisition: Guadalupe, The Virgin, and the Order of Saint Jerome 12
The Landscape and the Virgin 12
The Jeronymites 18
The Expansion of Guadalupe's Economic and Spiritual Authority 30
Anti-Jeronymite and Anticonverso Violence in the Mid-Fifteenth Century 41
Chapter Two: Living in the Shadow of the Virgin 50
Sabbath and Sunday Observances 53
Christian and Jewish Dietary Regulations 66
Life Rituals: Birth, Marriage, and Death 71
The Acts of Community Life: Holidays, Festivals, and Processions 81
Chapter Three: Conversos in Christian and Jewish Societies 90
Converso Connections to Jews 91
Links between New and Old Christians 94
Perceptions of Assimilation 99
Attempts to Slow Assimilation into Christian Society 102
Chapter Four: Political Conflicts, Social Upheaval, and Religious Divisions: The Origins of the Guadalupense Inquisition 111
The Jeronymites and the Establishment of the Spanish Inquisition 112
The Ecclesiastical Inquisition in Guadalupe in 1462 117
Prior Diego de Par´?s and Changing Conditions in Guadalupe 121
Converso Functionaries and Resistance to the Friars' Overlordship 124
Fray Fernando de Ubeda, Converso Traperos, and the Misuse of Power 136
The Prior's Election of 1483 141
Chapter Five: The Inquisitors' Gaze 145
The Holy Office in Guadalupe 146
The Trials 152
Rendering a Verdict 166
The Autos de Fe 174
Chapter Six: Strategies of the Accused 180
The Trajectory of Resistance 180
Confronting Family and Friends 187
Tactics of Desperation 195
Chapter Seven: Investigating the Friars 200
Jeronymite Spirituality in Guadalupe 202
Conversos in Guadalupe and the Order of Saint Jerome 203
An Internal Inquisition 206
New and Old Proconverso Friars 218
Chapter Eight: Guadalupe after the Inquisition: Envisioning the Early Modern State in Guadalupe 224
Guadalupe after the Inquisition 225
Expulsion from Guadalupe 237
The Hegemony of the Friars 240
Guadalupe and the Sacrality of the Early Modern Spanish State 251
Conclusion 259
Appendix: The Trial of Juana Gonz´alez, Wife of Lope de Herrera 263
Index 277