Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

                                            

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition” is one of the most famous lines from one of the most well known Monty Python skits. Today, it might be better to say that no one understands the Spanish Inquisition but everyone talks about it. Just in the past week I read two opinion pieces that used the Inquisition as a kind of code word for human cruelty and injustice. Earlier this year even President Obama equated the Inquisition with the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS Moslem fanatics. The President had to go back 500 years in time to find a kind of moral equivalence of what is going on today in Iraq and other Moslem countries.

It is a sad fact that once misinformation has become so ingrained in the popular imagination, it takes on the quality of myth so that even the most careful and balanced research is not able to overcome it. It’s not that the Spanish Inquisition did not happen but rather that that it has been almost totally misunderstood in both its origins and in its actual practices. 

 

I remember poring through a massive study of the Spanish Inquisition by renowned Jewish scholar Benzion Netanyahu back in 1995. If the name sounds familiar, it is because the author was the father of Bibi Netanyahu, the current prime minister of Israel. Although Benzion Netanyahu took a leading role in the founding of the State of Israeli, he will perhaps be best remembered as a great scholar. His field of study was the Spanish Inquisition and his masterpiece, The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain, revolutionized the study of the subject. ***

Few people understand that the Inquisition in Spain was not directed against Jews in Spain but against Christians. The Inquisition had no authority to persecute or even investigate the Jewish population. It was specifically chartered to deal with popular charges leveled against Christians of Jewish ancestry and their families who had converted to Christianity. These converts were known as “conversos” and there were elements in all levels of Spanish society who suspected that the conversos were not sincere Christians even if their families had converted more than a century before.

Periodically charges were made that the conversos had only converted to gain political or financial advantage. Indeed, they were often suspected of adhering to their Jewish beliefs in secret, and even working to undermine Christian society. Some regarded them as a kind of “fifth” column in the struggle against the Moslems in Granada.

It is true that many of the conversos had prospered during the century before the creation of the Spanish Inquisition. Some had risen to high places in the administrations of the various Kings of Castile. Aristocratic grandees who regarded themselves as pure-blooded Christians without any trace of Judaism in their veins were often jealous and contemptuous of these conversos in high places. Among the lower classes it didn’t help the reputation of the conversos that some of them had become tax collectors or tax farmers for the Royal government.

The one major point I recall from Netanyahu’s 1000 plus pages was that he demonstrated that the charges leveled against the conversos were wrong. He marshaled an enormous amount of evidence to show that the conversos were almost always sincere, even dedicated, converts to Christianity. Like many converts, before and after, these converts from Judaism to Christianity in medieval Spain could even be more zealous or committed than the cradle Catholics of the time.

Descendants of conversos often become theologians and clergymen. Some bishops and abbots of famed monasteries could trace their origins to converso forebears. Even Torquemada, the first head of the Inquisition in Castile and a favorite of Queen Isabella, had converso roots.

Nevertheless, in times of political turmoil, military defeat, or economic hardship the conversos were often blamed. Sometimes the charges erupted into mob violence and riots. It was to deal with these charges and riots in very difficult times, that Ferdinand and Isabella sought permission from the Pope to set up an Inquisition in Isabella’s Kingdom of Castile.

Isabella had inherited the throne under the most dangerous of circumstances. Castilian grandees or warlords disputed her right and authority. The King of Portugal put up a rival claimant to the throne and launched an invasion of Castile. Once these threats were somewhat subdued, she had to turn her attention to the constant border menace of the Moslem Kingdom of Granada.

Islam was a real threat. In 1480 an Islamic naval expedition had landed on the Adriatic coast of Italy and destroyed the city of Otranto. The invaders tortured and killed 12000 of the 22000 inhabitants of the city. Every priest was murdered and the Archbishop of Otranto was sawed in two. Those who were not killed were forced to convert or taken into slavery. In Spain there was constant border fighting and raids with the Moslem Kingdom of Granada.

It was a time of great peril from both within and without and fear led to the inevitable outcry of charges against the conversos. Isabella turned to the Church for permission to establish an Inquisition in Spain to deal with the charges directed against the conversos and unite her country in the war effort. One historian has called the Spanish Inquisition “a disciplinary body called into existence to meet a national emergency.”

The word “inquisition” has the same root as the word “inquiry.” The inquisitors were to look into the charges, call witnesses, and take testimony. In its origins the Inquisition resembles the way in which President Obama has ordered his Justice department to examine the causes of local unrest and riots in cities like Ferguson and Baltimore. An outside body is called in hopefully to fairly and impartially examine the charges and counter-charges in an emotionally charged situation.

The fact that the great, great majority of the conversos accused before the tribunal of the Inquisition were released is a testimony to Netanyahu’s thesis that they were innocent, sincere Christians and that the charges leveled against them were baseless. Since the publication of Netanyahu’s book, historians have had to alter their perspective on the Inquisition, its methods, and its results.

In many ways the Inquisition represented an enormous improvement in prevailing methods of justice throughout the European and Moslem worlds at the time.  The proceedings of the Inquisition were carried out in public and not in secrecy. Its prisons were only temporary detention centers with conditions much better than in local jails. There were no pits with giant swinging razor sharp pendulums. Torture was rarely used in contrast to the methods almost universally used in other European and Moslem countries. Even when torture was applied, there was little danger to life and limb.

Here are some quotes from a modern historian whose study followed upon Netanyahu’s groundbreaking work.

“The scenes of sadism conjured up by popular writers…have little basis in reality.”
“The tribunal had little interest in cruelty and often attempted to temper justice with mercy.”
“The proportionally small number of executions is an effective argument against the legend of a blood thirsty tribunal.”
“In reality the public execution of criminals in other countries was not very different from an auto de fe, and more frequently outdid the auto in savagery.”

Nevertheless, the Spanish Inquisition has become synonymous with barbaric cruelty and injustice. In the wars of religion that followed upon the Protestant Reformation, a “Black Legend” arose primarily in Protestant England, which found itself involved in a life and death struggle with Catholic Spain. The Black Legend has gained mythical status and is still used as a weapon to batter Spain and the Catholic Church. It was one of the factors behind the hatred engendered in modern history by the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.

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*** Netanyahu dedicated the book to his eldest son, an Israeli commando who died in the attempt to free hostages in an airplane on an airstrip at Entebbe in the 1970s.

Postscript: 

There were atrocities on both sides in the Spanish Civil War. Before anyone considers that there was a “correct” side in the conflict, they should consider the role of the Franco government during WWII.  Spain was a neutral during the war and it was almost alone in offering sanctuary to Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. Moreover, it insisted that all Jews who could claim Spanish citizenship be given safe conduct back to Spain from Nazi occupied territories.  The Franco government even went so far as to offer Spanish citizenship to all Jews who could trace their ancestry back to the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.

                                         

Minimum Wage Madness

      

Hillary Clinton has just announced her candidacy for the Presidency in 2016. Predictably, her big issue is “income inequality,” a problem that she and other like-minded Democrat politicians claim has gotten worse and worse in recent years. Never mind that these years include almost six and a half years of the Obama administration.

Despite all the problems in the world today, it would appear that “income inequality” will be the big issue in next year’s election campaign. Already activists are taking to the streets in demands to increase the minimum wage in the country to $15 dollars an hour. April 15, the tax-filing deadline, saw mobs disrupting traffic in New York City, and demonstrators marching on the State Capitol here in Connecticut.

I would bet that hardly any of these demonstrators had ever employed anyone, except baby sitters. The great majority have no idea of what it means to meet a payroll every week. Of course, when their upper class liberal supporters hire gardeners, and cleaners, they are notorious for their own parsimony. I recently talked to someone who owns a house cleaning service in Martha’s Vineyard, a trendy vacation island off the coast of blue state Massachusetts. She complained that while her business that complies with all employment standards, the wealthy vacationers prefer to hire illegal immigrants to clean their homes at markedly lower rates.

Most of the demonstrators and their liberal supporters think that business owners, big or small, are rapacious, greedy wolves. Why do they think they will act like sheep willing to stand by placidly while they are being sheared? Despite the good intentions of those who think an almost 100% increase in the minimum wage will help those on the bottom of the economic ladder, there is evidence that it will do more harm than good.

A recent legislative proposal by Marilyn Moore, a newly elected representative to the Connecticut State Senate from the city of Bridgeport provides a good example of the potentially bad effects of mindless legislation. The Senator proposes that any large corporation in Connecticut that does not raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour will be subject to a large fine for each employee under her desired minimum.

She expects that the legislation will bring in millions in fines that could be then used to alleviate the plight of the poor. Let’s just skip over the fact that a recent large tax increase failed to bring in the projected revenues, or that the monies raised did not necessarily go to the poor, but concentrate on the fact that this proposed legislation might cause many low income employees to lose their jobs.

Senator Moore targeted General Electric (GE), one of the large corporations in Connecticut. GE’s corporate headquarters are located in my hometown of Fairfield. GE is the biggest taxpayer in Fairfield paying about 2 Million dollars a year in real estate taxes. It is therefore the largest supporter of our town services like public schools and police and fire departments. Moreover, GE employees who live in Fairfield and other Connecticut cities pay state income taxes, state sales taxes, and local real estate and personal property taxes.

What would prevent GE from moving its corporate headquarters to another more tax friendly state like Texas or Florida? The huge company is in the process of divesting itself of its financial arm, and so would seem to have less reason to remain close to New York City. The loss of GE would be a catastrophe. Taxpayers in Connecticut and Fairfield would have to bear a heavier burden. Thousands of employees would either relocate out of state or just lose their jobs. Many peripheral companies and workers would also lose their best customer. Finally, the low paid workers that Senator Moore is hoping to aid would suffer the most. They will probably never have as good a job as the one they had at GE.

I don’t want to sound like an alarmist but just today headlines noted that retail giant Walmart just closed four stores and 11000 employees lost their jobs.

Nevertheless, politicians from lowly state senators to presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton will continue to rail against income inequality. Speaking of Mrs. Clinton the Wall St. Journal noted this week that she gets paid $300000 for her speaking appearances. In addition, she insists that all her expenses be paid by the sponsoring organization. These expenses include the most expensive suite in the best hotel, and a private jet round trip.

If she gives just one speech a month, that comes to $3.6 million per year. It’s also tax-free since it goes into the Clinton Foundation whose primary social welfare program this year would appear to be getting her elected President in 2016. The companies who pay her the $300000 can write it off as a business deduction. What a joke! But the jokes on us.

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Easter Signs and Symbols

The Easter egg is a symbol that refers to the tomb from which Jesus arose on Easter Sunday. Other symbols of the risen Lord include the resurrected Lamb from the Book of Revelation. 

In the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Fairfield, Connecticut, the Lamb is shown in the center of a beautiful Rose window at the back of the Church. The Lamb reclines on the Book of the Seven Seals with a triumphal cross and banner. Click on the image to enlarge.*



The word "Easter" comes from a Germanic goddess of spring. Latin peoples use the word pasqua from the Jewish pasch or passover. When the Germanic peoples were converted, the Church wisely associated the word for Springtime with the feast of the Risen Lord. All around us new life is springing from the dead of winter. As the last traces of snow disappear, the crocus miraculously pushes its way up through its winter tomb.

The Easter Parade is no longer the fixture it once was but tomorrow night Turner Classic Movies will feature the wonderful movie with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland. Here is a link to a clip of Judy singing "In Your Easter Bonnet" to Fred. He's a little old but still dapper, and she never looked or sang better. Or, if your device permits, click on the video below.

Pension Plan Reform: the First Step

                                            

Pension plan liabilities are loading states and cities all over the country with huge debt burdens but because of the sacrosanct nature of public service employee contracts, politicians can see no solution other than raising taxes on those who do not enjoy such generous pensions. A first step in reforming the pension systems would be to freeze benefits for all participants in the plans who are not covered by these sacred union contracts, and offer them 401k type defined contribution plans.

There is no contractual reason for elected officials, political appointees, and high paid non-union employees to continue in these plans. Removing them from participation will eliminate a real conflict of interest. How can there be significant pension reform until the legislators and political appointees who negotiated these generous union plans no longer share in the benefits and concessions they gave to the unions. 

My home state of Connecticut provides a good example of egregious excess in the distribution of pension benefits. Just last year Democratic Governor Dannell Malloy appointed two sixty-six year old Democratic operatives as judges on the State’s highest court. The two will be eligible to receive pensions of $100000 per year at age 70 after serving just four years on the bench. It takes approximately $2,500,000 earning 4% to provide an income of $100000 per year.

There was no union contract requiring this incredibly generous pension benefit. It has just been a traditional way to reward friends in high places. In this case, however, public outcry caused the Governor and the Legislature to act almost overnight and alter the pension benefit formula for future judicial appointees. Still, the damage had been done. During his first term the Governor added about a dozen Democratic lawyers to the State’s judiciary. All will enjoy extremely generous pensions after relatively short periods of employment.

The high paid administrators of Connecticut’s University system are also included in the State’s pension system even though they are not covered by union contracts. There is no sacrosanct contractual reason to provide football and basketball coaches whose total compensation exceeds $2,000,000 per year with pensions. Actually, in 2011 a study showed that the top ten pension recipients in the State were all associated with the University of Connecticut, especially its health center and medical school. They were all drawing pensions in excess of $200000 per year, with the highest being about $272000.

Finally, all elected state legislators and their staffs are included in the State’s pension system even though they are not covered by any union contract. It is true that legislators are considered part-time employees and only make about $35000 per year in salary. But there is a pot of gold at the end of their rainbow. During his first term Governor Malloy appointed a number of Democratic legislators to high paid positions in his administration.

These appointments will eventually double and perhaps even triple the pensions they would have received if they had stayed in the legislative branch. A good example is Andrew McDonald, a lawyer and political friend of the Governor’s from their hometown of Stamford. McDonald left the legislature to take a high paying job in Malloy’s new administration. He was subsequently elevated to the State’s Supreme Court where he will be eligible for a six-figure pension upon retirement. If he had stayed in the legislature his pension would have been a percentage of his $35000 salary.

How will it be possible to reform the State’s pension system when the people who are supposed to be representing the public share in all the benefits they confer on the unions? People regard these union contracts as sacred obligations but the legislators and their staffs knew they every concession they made in the past to the union negotiators would benefit themselves or their own family members.

They cannot be part of the pension liability solution as long as they are part of the problem.

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