Talk:Inquisition in the Netherlands

Difficulties
Creating a strong page will be difficult. Historians skirt the subject. Wikipedia pages:


 * Inquisition says The Spanish Inquisition "operated in Spain and in all Spanish colonies and territories, which included the Canary Islands, the Spanish Netherlands..." The subject of this page is defined there as part of the Spanish Inquisition.


 * Spanish Inquisition says nothing about the Netherlands. This follows Kamen whose focus is on Iberia alone.  Kamen instead contrasts inquisition statistics in the two regions to claim that the Spanish Inquisition was less fearsome than the Dutch version.  Henry Charles Lea wrote at least 8 volumes on inquisitions; a quick scan of them was not very fruitful.


 * Historical revision of the Inquisition discusses the local inquisition in terms of Protestant propaganda leading to a distorted image of The Inquisition. This follows Peters who details the legal actions of the Crown in the creation and strengthening of the local inquisition.  Peters discusses the Spanish Inquisition in terms of Iberia and the New World.


 * Spanish Netherlands and Habsburg Netherlands say nothing directly about the Inquisition.


 * Dutch Revolt points here.


 * Philip II of Spain says "Philip's gravest mistake over the long run was his attempt to violently eradicate Protestantism from the Netherlands which was a major economic asset for the empire." The violent eradication was an escalation of the local inquisition.

In summary, related Wikipedia pages and multiple books manage to avoid a direct discussion of the Inquisition of the Netherlands. I suspect (conjecture!) that few records are available. The Dutch Inquisition plausibly contributed to the Dutch Revolt, to the Eighty Years' War and then to the Thirty Years' War, one of the bloodiest wars in European history. It should be of great interest.

A bit of reading about the Dutch Revolt suggests that record keeping may not have been a priority. "Heresy was Alba's central interest. His Council of Troubles - with a staff of 170 researchers, prosecutors, and soldiers/executioners - got to work.  According to Dutch sources, by its end the Council of Troubles put eighteen thousand Dutch men and women to death.  Other tallies have it closer to nine thousand.  Alba's own head count was twelve thousand.  But killing via the formal proceedings of the Council were only a fraction of the total." Amsterdam, Shorto, 2013, 9780385534574, p 74 Armies marched. Towns (of 2000) surrendered. Every inhabitant was killed. The town was then burnt. Was the Council of Troubles part of the Inquisition? Alba arrived after the Inquisition ended?

Causes of the Dutch Revolt is more informative. It mentions the Dutch Inquisition with some statistics (and sources). "Between 1523 and 1566, more than 1,300 people were executed as heretics, far more relative to the overall population than, for instance, in France." This implies to me that the Dutch Inquisition was relatively influential in Dutch history. "A total of about 9,000 people were eventually convicted by the council, though only 1,000 were actually executed, as many managed to go into exile." So, maybe 1 (in Causes) to 18 (Shorto's highest number) thousand people were executed by the Council of Troubles? A lot of uncertainty.

Council of Troubles has some statistics for that tribunal alone. It says that records were lost, but some duplicates exist "in Spanish archives".

The subject of this article seems important, but finding sources may be challenging. Sources are not consistent, even in basic definitions. Histories of the Netherlands mention the Inquisition. Histories of Inquisitions neglect the Netherlands. Wikipedia policies regarding original research will complicate editing. One of the minor complications in any search for information is the lack of a standard name for the region that would eventually become Belgium and the Netherlands - Amsterdam, Antwerp, Belgium, Burgundy, Dutch, Flanders, Netherlands... Zeeland.104.173.68.20 (talk) 19:47, 26 June 2015 (UTC)

Goals
What I (as a reader) would like is a page that summarizes the books on the subject. Unfortunately I cannot find even chapters or papers on the subject.

Plausible outline (from Spanish Inquisition)

"The Antwerp courts between 1557 and 1562 executed 103 dissidents. More heretics died in this one northern city in five years than in the whole of Spain in the entire sixteenth century.  Overall, in the Habsburg Netherlands at least 1,300 persons were executed for heresy between 1523 and 1566." Kamen, 2014, p 377 CONFIRM QUOTE BEFORE PUBLISHING. (These figures are quoted by Kamen from recent publications.) Much is made of the difference between Inquisitions without explicitly stating what the differences were. The Spanish Inquisition was particularly feared. Given that Inquisitions were secretive organizations, did the public know the difference? Do we? The article should be as clear as possible on who, what, when, where and why. I doubt that history supplies those answers. Is there a list of Inquisitor Generals? Do any of them have biographies? Do any of the heretics have names? Were there any lesser punishments than death? Were executions public spectacles? Were there any crimes other than Protestantism? If we cannot supply the facts, can we at least say what information is available?104.173.68.20 (talk) 20:14, 26 June 2015 (UTC)
 * Previous inquisitions
 * Activity of the Inquisition
 * Organization
 * Composition of the tribunals
 * End of the Inquisition
 * Outcomes
 * Historiography
 * In popular culture


 * In answer to your questions, there are many instances where we do know a lot about who, how and by whom. Merely because the Netherlands Inquisition was so distinct from the Spanish, it could be much more open - there were no black gowns and darkened rooms - the inquisitors rode the commons arresting men and women will then or nill they, and having them burned alive - if they were in a very humane mood, they might privately strangle them before bringing their corpses out to dishonour. That was the only punishment more lenient than (public) death. Their goal was to create a reign of terror - there was no need for secrecy therefore. As I've said, I'm still privately working on the page; and sorry if my feelings are rather strong (though I'll try to keep that out of the page); I can't help it. It is my Flemish blood. Le Sanglier des Ardennes (talk)  10:23, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

In Defense of my Page
Please feel free to alter this page in any way you see fit; I'm currently waiting 'til I have more time to do so myself. Personally I believe the topic to be of great import and interest, and I have not found any degree of the material contained here in the other articles you mention. I think that saying that the Netherlands Inquisition was merely a part and parcel of that of Spain is somewhat inaccurate; although it was partially run by Spaniards, the different temperaments of the nations in question meant that the methods were utterly at variance - while there were but few anti-Catholics in Spain, the moiety of the Dutch population was heretic. At one point, Pope Pius issued a bull wherein the life of every man and woman in the Netherlands was declared forfeit - and the rigour with which this was put into effect was quite extraordinary. Such is hardly covered under the purely Spanish topic.

This is only offered as a raison d'être for my page; thanks for your input anyway.

Le Sanglier des Ardennes (talk) 04:48, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition in The Netherlands
Historians have reached a consensus that there was no Spanish Inquisition in The Netherlands. They only ever had jurisdiction in Spain. Mentions of the Spanish Inquisition in historical sources are based on rumors or were made for propaganda purposes. The Spanish Inquisition kept records and none are to be found about activities in The Netherlands.

I used most of the sources cited under References on the talk page for my dissertation and they don't mention any actual activities of the Spanish Inquisition in The Netherlands. Only the perception of the Spanish Inquisition or rumors about it.

Historical revision of the Inquisition - The Revolt of the Netherlands

That Wikipedia page does mention a "Dutch Inquisition" but that doesn't seem to have existed either. As far as I remember, the persecution of heretics was done by the state and its representatives. The local inquisition, being an institution under the Catholic Church, in the Netherlands was mainly focused on censorship.

Oda86 (talk) 13:41, 4 December 2019 (UTC)