God's Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World (35 page)

Tolerance and free expression did not spread everywhere, or at the same pace anywhere. Locke’s contemporary, Jonathan Swift, published much of his most acerbic writing anonymously, fully aware of the potential consequences if his authorship became known. (Even so, he was denied ecclesiastical preferment in England, and shunted off to a sinecure in Dublin.) But the gradually accruing power of an idea that takes hold can have all the force of physical reality.

The philosopher John Searle has written about this in several of his books—he calls the process “the construction of social reality.”
It’s easy enough to see how aspects of the physical world come to be accepted as givens: rock is hard; water flows downhill; death comes to us all. It is less easy to understand how social conventions—for instance, that the slips of paper known as money possess value—come to enjoy the same universal acceptance. But they do. Some of them are more durable than the tangible world itself. Societies change from one political form into another; civilizations crumble into dust; new technologies transform ordinary life from one generation to the next—but certain agreed-upon ways of thinking live on. The notion that one can own pieces of the physical world—private property—has sunk in deeply. So has the very idea of “rights.”

Inquisitions have a tangible component and a notional component. On the one hand, there are the laws, the bureaucracies, the surveillance, the data-gathering, the ways of meting out punishment and applying force. One can imagine “reforms,” “restrictions,” “guidelines,” and “safeguards” in all these areas, to keep abuses in check. Some already exist, to limited effect. Individuals and organizations all around the world are engaged in efforts to enact legal curbs of one kind or another. I wish them well.

On the other hand, there is the idea that some single course is right, that we can ascertain what it is, and that we should take all necessary measures to compel everyone in that direction. Samuel Johnson once remarked of someone he knew that the man “seems to me to possess but one idea, and that is a wrong one.”
The drafters of the U.S. Constitution—fearful of rule by one opinion, whether the tyrant’s or the mob’s—created a governmental structure premised on the idea that human beings are fallible, fickle, and unreliable, and sometimes to be feared. Triumphalist rhetoric about the Constitution ignores the skeptical view of human nature that underlies it. The Church itself, in its more sober teachings on certitude and doubt, has always raised a red flag: Human beings are fallen creatures. Certitude can be a snare. Doubt can be a helping hand. Consider a list of theologians who have found themselves targets of the Holy Office—Teilhard de Chardin, John Courtney Murray, Yves Congar—only to be “surrounded with a bright halo of enthusiasm” at some later point, as Cardinal Avery Dulles once put it.
When the Church says it has “no fear of historical truth,” the point it should be trying to convey is this: it has no fear because if historical truth demonstrates anything, it is that we will keep taking the wrong path—and to acknowledge that fact keeps us on the right one. Humility is the Counter-Inquisition’s most effective ally. It can’t be legislated, but it can come to be embraced.

Passing from the courtyard of the Holy Office and back through the heavy studded doors, I turned around for a look at the façade. Pope Pius V, who built the palazzo, had put a bold inscription there—in effect, the Inquisition’s mission statement. Translated from the Latin, the inscription declared: “Pius V Pontifex Maximus constructed this home for the Holy Inquisition in 1569 as a bulwark of the Catholic faith, in order that adherents of heretical depravity might be utterly restrained.”

I noticed for the first time that the inscription is in fact no longer there. The marble scroll on which it was placed has been scraped and polished, shorn of any words at all. French troops, I later learned, had removed the inscription during Napoleon’s occupation. The marble today looks shiny but unnatural, like skin that has burned and then healed. Some things can be erased. Some things cannot be. And some things shouldn’t be. In this instance, I was grateful for the attempt, and grateful for the scar.

God’s Jury
has evolved and matured during the course of more than a decade, and owes a debt to many people. Chief among them are the historians who gave generously of their time and their guidance. They include Francisco Bethencourt, Eamon Duffy, Carlo Ginzburg, Peter Godman, Henry Kamen, David Kertzer, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, William Monter, Edward Peters, and John Tedeschi. Msgr. Alejandro Cifres, who oversees the Inquisition archives at the Vatican, was unfailingly helpful. I am also grateful to many Jesuit friends and Catholic theologians who offered assistance and perspective along the way, and in certain cases provided insights drawn from personal experience of unhappy interactions with the authorities in Rome.

Over the years I have discussed aspects of this book, sometimes sharing drafts of work in progress, with a wide circle of people who have particular knowledge or particular judgment: Karen Barkey, Mark Bowden, Fredric Cheyette, Lawrence Douglas, Paul Elie, James Fallows, David Friend, Robert D. Kaplan, Corby Kummer, Toby Lester, Gail Kern Paster, Tom Ricks, Philippe Sands, Eric Schlosser, Benjamin Schwarz, Clive Stafford Smith, Scott Stossel, Doug Stumpf, Charles Trueheart, Alan Wolfe, and Robert Wright. In a category by themselves are the three editors I’ve had the privilege of working for as
God’s Jury
took shape: William Whitworth and the late Michael Kelly at
The Atlantic Monthly,
and Graydon Carter at
Vanity Fair.

Finally, I would like to thank those involved in making the book itself: Andrea Schulz, my editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; the late Peter Davison, who encouraged the idea for this book to begin with; Anton Mueller, who got the idea off the ground; Martha Spaulding, a longtime friend and colleague, who has copyedited virtually every word I’ve written for more than thirty years; Raphael Sagalyn, my friend and agent over that same period of time; the illustrator Edward Sorel, another friend and frequent collaborator; and Cullen Nutt, who has served ably in the role of both researcher and sounding board. Special thanks are due to my assistant, Keenan Mayo, and to the staff of the Boston Athenaeum, where significant portions of this book took form.

My wife, Anna Marie, always the first and best reader, has subjected
God’s Jury
to her typical “
rigoroso esamine,
” and it is to her that the book is dedicated.

1. Standard Operating Procedure

1.
[>]
   
“No one goes in”:
Chadwick,
Catholicism and History,
p. 89. The archivist was Msgr. Francesco Rosi-Bernardini.
[>]
   
“Theology, sir”:
Miller,
The Crucible,
p. 67.

2.
[>]
   
in the words of the Apostolic Constitution:
Apostolic Constitution (
Pastor bonus
), translated by Francis C. C. Felly, James H. Provost, and Michel Thériault. Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1998.
[>]
   
plenty of rulings of its own:
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Instruction
Dignitas Personae
on Certain Bioethical Questions,” September 8, 2008; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons,” June 3, 2003; “Vatican Tells Parishes Not to Open Archives to LDS Church,”
Catholic News Agency,
May 7, 2008; Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Declaration on the Unicity and Salvific Universality of Jesus Christ and the Church—
Dominus Jesus,
” August 6, 2000.

3.
[>]
   
Holocaust-denying bishop:
Peter Walker, “Profile: Richard Williamson,”
Guardian,
February 25, 2009.
use of condoms:
Richard Owen, “Pope Says Condoms Are Not the Solution to AIDS—They Make It Worse,”
The Times
(London), March 17, 2009.
indigenous peoples:
Gina Doggett, “Pope Once Again in Damage Control Mode,” Agence France Presse, May 23, 2007.
once introduced the visiting Ratzinger:
Peter Steinfels, “Cardinal Is Seen as Kind, if Firm, Monitor of Faith,”
New York Times,
February 1, 1988.
[>]
   
a Ratzinger fan site:
http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/faq.html
.
http://www.popebenedictxvifanclub.com/faq.html
.

4.
[>]
   
so that work could be completed:
Pastor,
History of the Popes,
vol. 17, p. 289.
[>]
   
When I first set foot:
My first visit to the Archivio della Congregazione per la Dottrina della Fede took place in 2000. It was followed by visits in 2001, 2004, and 2010. The account here and elsewhere in this book is based on all four visits and on conversations on each occasion with Msgr. Alejandro Cifres Giménez, the director of the archives.
vast underground bunker:
Richard Owen, “The Vatican Offers a Glimpse of Its Most Secret Archives,”
The Times
(London), January 8, 2010.

5.
[>]
   
the convenience of modern historians:
Chadwick,
Catholicism and History,
p. 9.

6.
[>]
   
“some pleasant surprises”:
Bruce Johnston, “Vatican to Open Up Inquisition Archives,”
Daily Telegraph,
January 12, 1998.

7.
[>]
   
“No one expects”:
“The Spanish Inquisition,”
Monty Python’s Flying Circus
, series 2, episode 15.
[>]
   
Mel Brooks dance number:
History of the World: Part 1
(1981), produced, written, and directed by Mel Brooks.
[>]
   
“comedy is tragedy plus time”:
Crimes and Misdemeanors
(1989), written and directed by Woody Allen.
[>]
   
Cokie Roberts was asked:
Good Morning America,
December 3, 1998.
[>]
   
media scrutiny of Sarah Palin’s record:
“Fox Special Report with Brit Hume,” September 2, 2008.
[>]
   
captains of finance who were summoned to testify:
Stanley Bing, “The Inquisition Convenes in Washington,”
Fortune.com
., January 12, 2010.

8.
[>]
   
“I had to learn who Torquemada was”:
20/20,
ABC News, November 25, 1998.
[>]
   
singling out Bobby:
“The Visible Vidal,”
Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide,
vol. 17, no. 2, March 2010.
[>]
   
criticizing the tactics:
Taki, “Rats and Heroes,”
The Spectator,
15/22 December, 2001.
[>]
   
writing about the sex-abuse scandal:
Maureen Dowd, “Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?,”
New York Times,
March 31, 2010.
[>]
continued . . . for seven hundred years:
The brief summary that follows of three main phases of the Inquisition is based on a variety of sources, including Lea,
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages;
Kamen,
The Spanish Inquisition;
Lea,
A History of the Inquisition of Spain;
Bethencourt,
The Inquisition;
Black,
The Italian Inquisition;
and Peters,
Inquisition.

9.
[>]
   
the only Belgian song ever to hit No. 1:
Rachel Helyer Donaldson, “New Film Tells Tragic Story of the Singing Nun,”
The First Post
, April 29, 2009.
[>]
   
shortage of combustible material:
Kamen,
The Spanish Inquisition
, p. 213.

10.
the victim was a Spanish schoolmaster:
Lea,
A History of the Inquisition of Spain,
vol. 4, p. 461.

11.
pressing to have Queen Isabella declared a saint:
Isambard Wilkinson, “Spain Seeks Sainthood for Isabella,”
Daily Telegraph,
April 23, 2003.
[>]
   
a fertile recruiting ground for bishops and cardinals:
Bethencourt,
The Inquisition,
p. 136.

12.
[>]
   
“No death certificate has ever been issued”:
William Monter, “The Inquisition,” in Hsia, ed.,
Companion to the Reformation World
.
[>]
   
the rise of a metaphorical Inquisition:
Peters,
Inquisition
. The subject occupies much of the book, but see in particular pp. 189–262, 296–315.

13.
[>]
   
cited the Inquisition in his summation: Robert H. Jackson, “Summation for the Prosecution,” International Military Tribunal, July 26, 1946.
Robert H. Jackson, “Summation for the Prosecution,” International Military Tribunal, July 26, 1946.
the Grand Inquisitor delivers a scathing indictment:
Dostoyevsky,
The
Brothers Karamazov,
pp. 248–262.

14.
[>]
   
He heard nothing for nearly twenty years:
The details of this episode are recounted in a letter to the author from Carlo Ginzburg, February 25, 2001.

15.
[>]
   
“Naturally,” said a Vatican official:
Anne Jacobson Schutte, “Palazzo del Sant’Uffizio: The Opening of the Roman Inquisition’s Central Archive,”
Perspectives,
American Historical Association, May 1999.
“We know all the sins of the Church”:
Alessandra Stanley, “Vatican Is Investigating the Inquisition, in Secret,” New York Times, October 31, 1998.
[>]
   
by two conclaves of Inquisition scholars: The account, here and elsewhere, of the conferences that marked the opening of the archives is based on conversations with people who attended, among them John Tedeschi, Eamon Duffy, and William Monter.
The account, here and elsewhere, of the conferences that marked the opening of the archives is based on conversations with people who attended, among them John Tedeschi, Eamon Duffy, and William Monter.
[>]
   
John Paul asked the historians:
“Vatican Prepares Apology for Inquisition,” Agence France Presse, November 1, 1998.
[>]
   
deeds done by the followers of the Church:
Francis A. Sullivan, “The Papal Apology,”
America
, April 8, 2000.