Religion info

Question 1

Quality of religious education in Spain 1556

Answer 1

• Only 40% could recite the lords prayer in 1555
• A Jesuit priest in Huelva complained that the laity were ‘living in caves… so ignorant they could not make the sign of the cross’

Question 2

Quality of the clergy in Spain 1556

Answer 2

Pay for priests were poor
- 30 ducats a year as opposed to the archbishop of Toledo’s 200,000 ducats a year

Absentee priests were also an issue
- Absentee priests were a big issue e.g in Barcelona of 67 priests only 6 were recorded to be residence of their parishes

Ability and spread of religious figures

• Galicia Inquisitor ‘Galicia …. Has no priests or lettered persons’
• Overall ability of priests was thought to be poor

Question 3

Quality of Catholicism across Spain 1556

Answer 3

• Pagan superstitions dominated relgious practices in rural areas, the Inquisition observed people dipping the virgin Mary in rivers to end droughts seeing her as an earth mother figure

Question 4

Quality of religious education in 1598

Answer 4

• 82% of the laity could recite the lords prayer by 1600

Question 5

Examples of reformation being carried out

Answer 5

• The Bishop of Valencia is an example of a reformist bishop setting up seminaries and improving the quality of Catholicism in his diocese
• Towns like Mondonedo displayed a great commitment to reformation of doctrine, collecting and burning all pre Tridentine Prayer books in 1586

Question 6

Lack of progress improving Catholicism

Answer 6

• Only 20 seminaries were actually set up across Spain demonstrating a real lack of commitment
• No evidence on real development in rural paganism, the reformation was a story of particular priests and bishops making great improvements with a lack of consistency across Spain

Question 7

Cooperation with the Papacy

Answer 7

• Lepanto 1571 and the Holy alliance

- Three Graces, Cruzado, Servicio and Excusado, 1.4 million ducats at their height

Question 8

Standing up to the Pope

Answer 8

• Refusing the Papal Bull banning Bull fighting in 1567 demonstrates the autonomy of Philip
• Refusing to hand over the Archbishop of Toledo in 1559, being able to use him as a political bargaining chip and asserting his dominance of the Spanish Church

Question 9

Philip, unable to influence the Pope, the pope showing dominance over Philip

Answer 9

• In 1570 the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth I, contrary to Philip’s wants
• Pope Sixtus did not fund the Armada

Question 10

Philip leading to a lack of European Catholic unity

Answer 10

• Philip banned the right for Spaniards to be able to appeal to Rome in 1572
• The situation with Henry of Navarre, despite the Pope converting him to Catholicism Philip did not accept this, leading to war with France from 1595-98

Question 11

Success in dealing with heresy, dealing with deviants

Answer 11

• Successfully managed to keep Spain free from any level of protestantism
• Auto de Fes were used to counter heresy, only 77 were burnt, only 6 for being protestants
• The Limpieza Statutes which allowed the Inquisition to persecute moriscos and conversos can be seen as keeping down heresy

Question 12

Failure in dealing with heresy, spread of ideas

Answer 12

The Index of Forbidden Books in 1559 had 2,000 titles included, however this was poorly regulated and limited any cultural and intellectual development in Spain

• In 1559 recalling Spaniards from all foreign universities lead to cultural stagnation within Spain, limiting any level of innovation

Question 13

The Inquisition successes

Answer 13

• With only 45 official Inquisitors the Inquisition managed to control 8 million Spaniards
• The popularity of the Inquisition can be demonstrated by how 88% of denunciation came from the laity

Question 14

The Inquisition failures

Answer 14

• The wave of Lutheran heresy reported by the Inquisition in Seville and Valladolid were complete fabrications demonstrating the redundancy of the Inquisition
• In Toledo over half the arrests made by the Inquisition were Catholics who were blaspheming or committing bigamy, this shows the redundancy of the Inquisition as a force for eradication heresy

Question 15

Main points of the Tridentine Decrees

Answer 15

• Running from 1545 to 1563 the council of Trent published the Tridentine Decrees, however Philip was the only monarch to accept them
• Seminaries and acts against pluralism laid out
• The Latin Vulgate Bible would be the only Bible
• Censoring of Church images and paintings and banning of May festivals and other local festivities

Question 16

Main points on Jesuits

Answer 16

• Founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540
• In 1556 they numbered 1,000, in 1565 they numbered 3,500
• Early in Philip’s rule the Jesuits had many Spanish members, Philip saw them as a tool to spread the Counter Reformation
• However in 1573 the leadership of Jesuits became Italian dominated prompting Philip to see them as Papal agents
• In 1593 all Spaniards were expelled from the order