There is little new material in this brief survey of Inquisition history. Hayward is a prolific writer on Italian ecclesiastical and secular history, and his latest book is a conservative rehash of works by liberal attackers and conservative apologists of the Inquisition. The reason for the English translation appears to be to give thoughtful Catholics some help in accounting for an embarrassing institution in the Church’s historical past.
Hayward’s recurring theme has some validity. If we are to judge institutions fairly we must examine them against the prevailing cultural and ideological environments in which they flourished. It is indeed unreasonable and unfair to evaluate the Holy Office of the Inquisition from a strictly twentieth-century equalitarian viewpoint. Having laid out this rationale, the author examines the Church’s historical and theological right to coerce and the early history of inquisitorial tribunals and figures. Part Two is devoted to an interpretation of the Spanish Inquisition with brief comments on the Latin American world. This section is more shallow than the introductory chapters and suffers from fuzzy delineation of terms. The author appears to be more acquainted with Portuguese than Spanish, for he emphasizes Portuguese terminology—for example, auto da fe instead of auto de fe.
Hayward often refers to the harshness and the cruelties of the Inquisition, and he admits that from the standpoint of modern man there is no excuse or justification for them. At times, however, he argues that Spanish political and social stability of the early modern period was possible because the Holy Office enforced orthodoxy, thus helping Spain to avoid the civil and religious disorders of the rest of Europe during this epoch. But it is to Hayward’s credit that he ends the book declaring that “the faith cannot and should not be defended by methods and means which distort the very meaning of faith and which show a basic disrespect for the human person” (p. 176).
Unfortunately the English translation has no bibliography and lacks an index. The entire text contains only three footnotes.
