Isabella and Fernando came to the thrones of Castile and Aragon during a difficult time in Spanish history. Both nations were struggling with major internal problems of various kinds. In Castile especially, they needed to repair the damage done by years of neglect, and sometimes direct harm, under Enrique. Isabella began by organizing local police forces to maintain order and protect her subjects from criminals. She reclaimed royal lands which Enrique had wrongfully given to many noblemen, at the same time reducing the power of those ambitious nobles and returning those sources of wealth to the bankrupt crown. While increasing the power of the crown, Isabella also protected Spain’s few democratic institutions, such as the local councils. Slowly, as crime and poverty decreased, the Castilian economy strengthened, eventually creating a thriving and prosperous kingdom.
But the social problems were not as important to Isabella as the problems she observed within the Church in Spain. Isabella was not merely concerned with her people’s temporal welfare; she saw herself as responsible for their spiritual well-being. In the aftermath of the Bubonic Plague, all of Europe was suffering from a shortage of priests and religious, and a severe lack of religious training for those men. This often led to uneducated priests living in sin and neglecting their duties toward the faithful. In Spain in particular, many bishops did not live in their own dioceses. Isabella and Fernando carefully selected pious, learned monks and priests to carry out the reform of the Church in Spain, by calling local Church councils to address the issues which, in addition to solving the short term problems of laxity among the clergy, also had far-reaching results. These reforms were what protected Spain from the Protestant Reformation which shook Europe just a decade after Isabella’s death. Furthermore, Spain was filled with well-educated, zealous priests and religious who became the first missionaries of the New World.
Isabella’s concern for the souls of her people also motivated the establishing of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. While the Spanish Inquisition is often portrayed as an example of Catholic intolerance and cruelty, modern secular historians are beginning to recognize that the myths about the brutality of the Inquisition are not based on fact. The proceedings of the Spanish Inquisition were extraordinarily well-documented, and those primary sources have, until recently, been entirely neglected by historians who chose instead to rely on early accounts from anti-Catholic sources. Isabella, contrary to popular opinion, did not invent the Inquisition. It was a form of legal and religious investigation used during the Middle Ages in order to discover whether or not certain accused persons truly were heretics, and if so, to give them a chance to repent. The Medieval Inquisition was successful in that it actually saved people who would otherwise have been accused of heresy by their neighbors and executed by a mob without a trial.
In 1478, Isabella and Fernando asked Pope Sixtus IV’s permission to form an Inquisition tribunal in order to investigate accusations of heresy. Spain was in a difficult position, religiously speaking, because of the fact that there were so many Jews and converted Jews, or conversos, living among the Catholics. Many of the conversos fully embraced the Faith and lived as good Catholics, but there was a minority whose conversion was not sincere, and who attempted to lead Catholics away from the Faith. The Inquisition was an institution of the Church, and as such it only had jurisdiction over baptized Catholics who were accused of heresy. There was no indiscriminate burning of non-Catholics. There were abuses early on, before proper procedures and rules had been established, and before there was a system to enforce them, but this was quickly brought to the attention of the pope and the monarchs, who acted swiftly to end all unlawful actions. Overall, when compared with the usual practices of the time, the Inquisition was remarkably lenient and just. Torture was acceptable in every court in Europe and capital punishment was a common sentence. One of the best arguments against the myths of the Spanish Inquisition is that common criminals who were accused and imprisoned often blasphemed in order to be kept in the Inquisition’s prisons, which were far more comfortable than the state dungeons, and far less likely to torture and eventually kill them.
After steps were taken to assure religious unity within the kingdom, Isabella and Fernando’s next goal was to achieve religious unity throughout the peninsula. This was accomplished in two steps. The first was the war against the Moors, and the second was the expulsion of the Jews. The ten-year crusade (1482-1492) against the Moors in Granada was the completion the Reconquista, or reconquest. The Moors in Granada caused many problems for the Spanish Christians living nearby, in the form of raids on nearby villages, taking Christians as prisoners, or murdering them. King Fernando organized military campaigns to capture the Moorish-held cities one by one, and he led the Spanish armies into battle while Queen Isabella rode throughout Spain recruiting soldiers to fill the ranks and raising money to buy artillery. At times she even visited the front lines to encourage the soldiers. She also set aside time each day to spend in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. When the Spanish were finally victorious over the Moors, the monarchs made every effort to ensure a peaceful reconciliation. They offered free and safe passage to Africa for any Moors who wished to leave Spain.
As a result of the Inquisition and the Reconquista, Christian Spain had only one remaining barrier to its religious unity—the Jews. England, France, and parts of Germany had already expelled the Jews, and at a time when violence and even massacres between Jews and Christians were common, it seemed the logical solution to ensure peace. Isabella saw herself as the protectress of all of her people, including the Jews, and she wished to avoid such a drastic measure if at all possible. In 1482 Isabella and Fernando expelled the Jews from the region of Andalusia, where the most serious conflicts occurred, in the hopes that this would resolve the issue. They later suspended the order, but by 1492, they were forced to acknowledge that the Jews had continued their crimes against the Christians, and the Christians were continuing to retaliate. They published an edict which stated that any Jews who did not convert to Christianity would be forced to leave Spain.
Isabella was not only concerned with preserving Christianity within Spain; she was also eager to spread the Gospel to other parts of the world. That is why she was eager to finance Columbus’ voyage. To her, it was the chance to save innumerable souls. When Columbus returned to Spain in triumph after having reached the New World, Isabella was shocked to discover that among the riches and novelties he had brought to impress the monarchs, he had also brought natives back as slaves. Isabella saw to it that these people were set free, and that slavery would not be practiced in these new lands. She insisted on fair treatment of the Indians, and ensured that on Columbus’ future voyages he would take along missionaries to convert the natives. Isabella took a great interest in the affairs of the New World, and was greatly distressed when she heard of the various conflicts among those in leadership positions, and their misuse of their power. She wished to establish a just system of government for these new Spanish territories, but she died before it could be accomplished.
Next week we’ll take a step back from the political details and look at Isabella as a woman, as a wife, and a mother, but most especially, as a servant of God.
I love that they offered safe passage for the losing Moors to leave!
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