The first edition of this work appeared in 1950 under the title El Santo Oficio en América. The present edition has been so extensively revised through the introduction of new topics and new approach as to constitute in reality a new book. It is evidently the author’s hope to focus scholarly attention on the Inquisition in America as it really was, and so call a halt to a misguided trend to defend the Holy Office.
Professor Lewin makes no attempt to defend the Inquisition. It is all black and deservedly so. He does not, however, regale the reader with gruesome details of autos de fé. This, he tells us, belongs to the historians of the tribunals of the Holy Office in the viceregal capitals, like the great Chilean historian José Toribio Medina. Professor Lewin is more concerned in exposing the far-reaching tentacles of the Inquisition on the local level throughout the Indies.
It was by means of “comisarios” and “familiares” that the tribunals of the Holy Office at Lima, Mexico, and Cartagena extended their jurisdiction to the uttermost extremities of the empire. In each bishopric and seaport there was a comisario, and each was aided by four familiares. These were the individuals who were encharged with the inquisitorial activity in its initial phase. The comisarios like all officials of the Holy Office, high and low, had to be able to prove “limpieza de su sangre,” that there were no Jews or Moors among their ancestors for at least four generations.
Lewin has a great deal to say about “limpieza de sangre,” it being his contention that racism was a root cause of the creation of the Inquisition. He says that “without racial discrimination (not extermination) the Inquisition was inconceivable.” Thus, it was no necessarily to uproot heresy that the Inquisition was created, but to expose heresy among the “New Christians,” that is, the converted Jews and Moors. The author is very insistent on the racist theory, holding that it served as a model for the Nazis. Then he asks, since there is a modern trend to excuse the Inquisition, may we expect in a short time excuses for Hitlerism?
Despite a too uncompromising position on the evils of the Inquisition and probable error in connection with the racist theory, t is impresses me as a work of substantial scholarship. It is extensive y documented and exhibits a ready acquaintance with the literature of the subject. Particularly, I believe the author has achieved his objective to show that the terror of the Inquisition left its mark on the history of the Indies.