(8) The precursor to the self-destruction of power in medieval Spain: the evils of a powerful bureaucracy and vast administrative affairs "Learning from the Medieval Inquisition" ⑻.

Read Toby Green's "The Inquisition: The Horrors That Undermined the Great Spanish Nation" ⑻

This issue continues the series of "The Toby Green Book," written by Toby Green and translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, published by Chuo Koron Shinsha in 2010.The Inquisition: The Terror That Undermined the Great Spanish Nation.We will read the

I was inspired to read this book by learning about the history of the Soviet Union, especially Stalin's purges.

During the Stalin era, even the slightest deviation from the Stalinist regime or suspicion of such deviation would result in arrest without question, torture, and forced confession. It did not matter whether the person was actually guilty or innocent.

Reading these histories of the Soviet Union, I couldn't help but think of the medieval Inquisition of the past.

The Inquisition also had a history of torture and forced confessions, and large numbers of innocent people were killed and exiled.

And this inquisition is also connected to Dostoevsky.

Speaking of Dostoevsky and the Inquisition, the greatest highlight of "The Brothers Karamazov" is indeed "The Brothers Karamazov"!Chapter of the Grand Inquisitor."This is a critical setting for the

This is a very interesting and informative book and I will read it carefully.

So let's get started.

Mighty bureaucracy and massive paperwork

Evidence of the meticulousness of the Inquisition's paperwork can be seen in the inventory of a prisoner's property. Immediately upon a person's arrest, a clerk would enter the arrestee's home and make a list of his or her possessions. These inventories are extremely detailed. Every last handkerchief and sheet of linen was noted down. For example, when Francisco Piñero was arrested by the Inquisition in Cartagena in 1636, the inventory of his property included the following items

One mattress
Four cedar wood chairs with broken seats
Two handkerchiefs
Cloth made in Rouen
Several napkins
Several pillows
One black silk jacket
One parasol

Presumably, the officials did not make use of cedar wood chairs with broken seats or old parasols. Still, the investigation was meticulous. A tattered hat and an old, musty black stocking were found in Piñero's wardrobe, both of which were discarded. These two items were probably thought to be of little use in improving the Inquisition's financial situation.

The attention to detail made the Inquisition's archival documents resemble a substantial inventory. The meticulous paperwork, however, is also a testament to a mental structure that believes that what is written down is somehow legalized, just as we saw in the torture chambers of Chapter III. Even acts of theft were recognized as legal once they were recorded, i.e., the records were used for both good and ill.

Strict paperwork and abuse of power were in fact two sides of the same coin. Both were closely related to the fact that the Inquisition was a powerful force in Iberian society. The Inquisition wielded so much power that its officials could often do unethical things and keep a cool face, and the Inquisition's power allowed it to create a careful and meticulous bureaucracy.

Thus, the world has learned that excessive power and excessive paperwork are often compatible. The ability to judge an individual's integrity on paperwork and to determine what a clerk would do in a land he had never seen, allowed him to exercise administrative power in far-flung places. Moreover, those with power could also protect themselves from the consequences of exercising it.

Chuokoron Shinsha, Inquisition: The Terror that Undermined the Great Nation of Spain, by Toby Green, translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, P349-351

It was already clear from this time that rigid bureaucracy and enormous amount of paperwork were a set. This is something that is deeply relevant to us today.

The rise and fall of power is the fate of the world - a sign of power's self-destruction.

Collection of the Museo del Prado, Belgete, The InquisitionWikipedia.

The world is a place where the rise and fall are inevitable. Power intoxicates and enthralls, but it must eventually fade. That is why, with romance in our hearts, we study and research the remains of once flourishing civilizations such as the Easter Island civilization, the Mayan civilization, the Tiahuanaco culture of Bolivia, and Great Zimbabwe. The collapse of power seems to be a natural consequence of the inherent nature of power, but for those in power, the(in neo-Confucianism) the underlying principles of the cosmosdeclinationmay be unacceptable at the level of consciousness.

The history of the Inquisition was not unaffected by this trend. In the 16th century, Spain was the most powerful nation in the world, and at the same time, the Inquisition, Spain's persecuting institution, was at its peak. But the power wielded by the Inquisition and its constant pursuit of enemies laid the groundwork for its decline, from which the colonial empire would not be able to emerge.

Cumbersome paperwork was not irrelevant. As we have seen from Chapter VIII, the Inquisition's human and material resources were increasingly invested in work that, objectively speaking, seemed pointless. Such work consumed enormous amounts of time and effort and diverted it to more productive tasks. The increasing complexity and size of the bureaucracy, which indicated an expansion of the Inquisition's power, also created an undercurrent of stagnation. As stagnation worsened, Spain ended the seventeenth century breathlessly and faced a crisis: the War of the Succession of Spain (1701-14).

Chuokoron Shinsha, Inquisition: The Terror that Undermined the Great Nation of Spain, by Toby Green, translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, P351-352

Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, everyone thought such a thing was impossible. But in fact, from the postwar period to the Cold War era, the Soviet Union, which had been so powerful, finally collapsed on itself.

History repeats itself in different forms...

The self-destruction of power that occurred in Spain was to be repeated many times in history. Below is a recommended reference book on the collapse of the Soviet bloc by Victor SeveschenThe Eastern European Revolution 1989: The Collapse of the Soviet Empire.It is a very interesting book and I highly recommend it. It is a very interesting book and I highly recommend it.

An example of the process of power collapse - economic collapse due to the expulsion of Moriscos (converted Muslims)

A reference point for the process of power's self-destruction is the way in which Morisco was made out to be the enemy and exiled. In our earlier discussion, we confirmed that this was the result of society's choice and that, although they were converts and could have been assimilated, they humiliated this amphipathic group by relegating them to the margins of society and, in so doing, displayed their own power. But not only that, in fact, this expulsion of Morisco was the cause of the most serious decline for Spaine all of a sudden.

In 1525, the nobles were surprised to learn that, following the forced conversion of the Moros of Aragon in the preceding Jalmaniyah Rebellion (see pp. 182-186), they were going to deport Muslims who had not converted.

They sent a long letter to King Carlos I, claiming that the entire kingdom of Aragon owed its prosperity to the Moros and that if they were deported, Aragon would be ruined. The Moros were responsible for all agricultural harvests and handicrafts, and they paid the land rent that supported the church, monasteries, and even the income of the nobility.

The nobles consistently supported the Moriscos throughout the 16th century, vouching for them when they petitioned to be released from the prisons of the Inquisition, all because the interests of the plantations owned by the nobles were at stake for them.

Morisco was the backbone of the agricultural economy of Aragon and Valencia, and the expulsion of Morisco was nothing but folly. But, as we have already seen, the country implemented this foolish measure according to the logic of exclusion promoted by the Inquisition at its core.

The effects were powerful. In June of 1610, after the proclamation of Morisco's expulsion, the Vice King of Aragon wrote that the nobility lost virtually overnight 880% of their income and were threatened with bankruptcy by their creditors. Some areas were abandoned.

In the Catalan town of Asco, people disappeared, houses collapsed, and vineyards, olive groves, and mulberry plantations were all left to fall into ruin. Aragon and Valencia not only lost a large part of their labor force, but also suffered extreme inflation as the moriscos dumped and sold their property for a couple of bucks. The situation was so severe that the farmers were exempted from military service.

However, the countermeasures were not enough. As of 1638, the total number of settlements in the Kingdom of Valencia had dropped from 755 to 5500, a decrease of about one-third, and the 205 villages where Morisco once lived were left abandoned.

Although only 4% of the total population of Spain was expelled, much of the agricultural technology was lost along with the moriscos. The situation was the same in Castile, where the population declined by less than 15% between 1591 and 1631. The population continued to decline until the end of the 17th century, and it was not until 1787 that the population of Castile finally recovered to its 1591 level.

The decline, which began rapidly, partly due to the expulsion of Morisco, had disastrous consequences.
Some line breaks have been made.

Chuokoron Shinsha, Inquisition: The Terror that Undermined the Great Nation of Spain, by Toby Green, translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, P352-354

The repression and exile by the Inquisition was not merely a political issue; it was also tremendously damaging to the economy. This quote is one of the most memorable in the book.

We are reminded here that eliminating others will ultimately strangle us. We may think that we have defeated the bad guys by letting our emotions get the better of us, but in reality, we have not solved any of the problems.

This is the same today. They make someone look bad, attack and eliminate them as they are responsible. Time goes by without discussing what really needs to be looked at and without taking any action...

The result is a terrible loss and a country in decline... The Spanish Inquisition is no stranger to this. This is exactly the problem we are facing now.

The decline brought about by the Inquisition and the bureaucracy

Thus, the extensive bureaucracy of the Inquisition led to widespread decline. When one thinks of the stagnation caused by the Inquisition, the gap separating the ideal from the reality seems impossibly large to fill.

The Inquisition was supposed to protect society in the first place, but it ended up inviting decline. It was supposed to purify the faith, but if the guardians of the faith were behaving in a broken manner, no one would follow that faith. Instead of defending the faith, they often only promoted cynical views. Just as they worked hard to create enemies instead of destroying them, they corrupted society instead of purifying it. (omitted)

Sometimes individuals or institutions claim to be motivated by religious reasons in RO, even though their goals are purely political, and sometimes their stated goals are political, even though their theatrical and violent actions are carried out for purely religious purposes.

Judging not by its outwardly expressed ideals and beliefs, but by its actual actions and their impact, the Inquisition was neither the guardian of purity nor the protector of the security of society. In the end, the Inquisition only led to corruption and decay.
*Lines have been changed as appropriate.

Chuokoron Shinsha, Inquisition: The Terror that Undermined the Great Nation of Spain, by Toby Green, translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, P354-355

The author, Toby Green, also makes a stark point in this section.

The second half is particularly harsh.

No matter how idealistic and wonderful the "outwardly expressed beliefs and words" may be, it is what they really are that is crucial.

It is the actual actions, not the words that appear on the surface, that we must pay attention to.

How do we assess the impact of centuries of abuse of power and bureaucratic stagnation?

How do we assess the effects of centuries of abuse of power and bureaucratic stagnation? The decline of both Iberian countries and the fact that their former colonies are suffering from poverty compared to North America would seem to be the measure, but there are other yardsticks.

In the early 1990s, I was employed by the City Hall of Santiago, Chile, and lived in a dormitory given to me by contract, which was also supposed to provide me with an iron. However, the iron did not arrive in my possession for months. According to the person in charge, the mayor of Santiago had to sign the contract in order to lend me an iron, but he was either too busy or absent.

I am sure that many people around the world have experienced similar stories of bureaucratic progress. It may be a leap of logic, at any price, to claim that these practices are a direct legacy of the monstrous administrative apparatus that arose with the Inquisition.

However, I do not think it is far off the mark to say that in the past, an attitude of respect and emphasis on management organizations was fostered in society, and that this attitude has been transmitted to the present.
*Lines have been changed as appropriate.

Chuokoron Shinsha, Inquisition: The Terror that Undermined the Great Nation of Spain, by Toby Green, translated by Tomonori Kobayashi, P356-357

Here the author describes the bureaucracy in relation to his own experiences.

When you put it this way, it seems quite familiar to us.

I feel it is important to use history not simply as something from the past, but as a way of looking at the present.

be unbroken

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