Hi Maurice and Fred,
Hope you did not mind my comments to your post on Goanet. I have not followed all tit-bits of information on the Inquisition in Europe; as I follow regarding the same history in Goa. Yet from the little I know, long before the Inquisition was introduced in Europe, there was a related history that pre-dated it. I will just make three points in relation to what you posted below, which are not mentioned in your post. Nothing in history occurs in isolation. These points are historical occurrences and I am not passing a moral judgment on them. 1. The Spanish monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand, warred with and finally ejected the Moors out of Spain. One of the major reason the Moors were able to be entrenched in Spain was because of the support of native Jews; who prospered (perhaps at the expense of the rest) due to the largess of and relationship with the Muslims. How much of this mind-set, on the part of both Catholics AND Jews, was transferred to the Spanish / Portuguese colonies cannot be ignored. In fact the Jews were sheltered by the Catholics in Italy; but not in Spain / Portugal. This suggest the animosity was related to history and geography rather than religion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_of_Castile Jewish-Muslim links in the Portuguese pockets in India must have certainly been intriguing. Trading with the enemies has its big rewards, but also carried big risks. I have not read in the writings of the period in Goa identifying / segregating subset of the Goan population as Jews and Crypto Jews. It is only now that some are claiming victim-hood and identifying themselves as 'special targets'. 2. The socio-economic environment in Europe prior to the period of the Inquisition. Perhaps the best book I can recommend you and others to read is about (preferably the autobiography of) Girolamo Savonarola. A glimpse of this period of history can be seen in the wikipedia of this monk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savonarola . Such anti-lack-of-morality crusade came to Goa with the European priests; and translated into the working of the Inquisition is an important feature. We know this was the thinking of Francis Xavier. Hindus have a difficult time understanding why would the Inquisition be introduced (to Goa or for that matter to Europe) to persecute the Catholics? So it is easy (in fact so logical) for Hindus to frame the Inquisition as an anti-Hindu action; and for Jews to frame it as an Anti-Jewish action. Yet the largest group that was penalized because of 'guilt by association' was the European religious orders. They were summarily expelled from Goa EN MASS, during the Inquisition for political-economic reasons. 3. Now we know that much of what REALLY happened in Europe (famine, severe weather changes, epidemics, droughts, plagues, etc), pre- and during the Inquisition period was related to weather changes. This is now officially called the "Little Ice Age". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age Thanks for allowing me to share my thoughts with you. I find Fred's question interesting - "Can anyone enlighten about the ideologies and interests of the repeated-cited authors of the Goa Inquisition?" I hope the authors can be upfront in responding to this question. Thank you. Regards, GL ------------- Frederick Noronha I sometimes suspect that the term "Inquisition" is played up by a set of interests who would like to create a contemporary Inquisition -- this time based on political interest, and communal ideologies. Can anyone enlighten about the ideologies and interests of the repeated-cited authors of the Goa Inquisition? Yours provocatively, FN --------------- MD <mmdme...@gmail.com> The Roman Inquisition aimed at eradicating Protestantism throughout Italy, although by the end of the sixteenth century, it primarily dealt with crimes of witchcraft, magic, clerical discipline and Judaizing.
