History Of The Spanish Inquisition Of The 15th Century Essay Example for Free

History Of The Spanish Inquisition Of The 15th Century Essay The Spanish Inquisition is usually synonymous with persecution, brutality and tyranny; and it is thought to be the forerunner of the covert regulatory bodies of contemporary autocracies. Yet how accurate is this picture of an establishment set up in the late 15th century to route out deviation and agnosticism in that land? This report aims to place the Spanish Inquisition in its correct historical context. BACKGROUND The conception of inquisitions to eliminate religious heretics was not new when, in 1478, Pope Sixtus IV sanctioned the formation of Spanish Inquisition. The monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, decided to establish a body (which began its work in 1480) chiefly to deal with the issue of the huge numbers of converted Jews (Conversos) who were alleged of continuing to carry out tenants of the Jewish religion after apparent conversion to Catholicism. Following the formal expulsion of all non-converted Jews from Spain in 1492, the problem of the Conversos increased. The roots of the Spanish Inquisition can therefore be traced quite clearly back to anti-Semitism. In 1518, the Inquisition became a permanently unified body under one head, the Inquisitor-General . Tomas de Torquemada was appointed by the Monarchs as Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition. The Catholic Church, under the rule of the pope in Rome was a powerful force in Europe during the Middle ages. The decrees of the church provided the basis of law and order. Christians who disagreed with catholic principles were regarded as heretics, and heresy was considered an crime against the church and the state. The â€Å"inquiries† into a person’s faith to determine whether or not one was a heretic, was branded as the inquisition, with the inquisitors being priests or bishops who subjected a suspect to long grilling followed by terrible tortures. Death by fire was often the punishment of those who did not repent. The heretic’s property was then claimed by the church. Between 1478 and 1502, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon took three complementary decisions. They persuaded the pope to create the Inquisition; they expelled the Jews; and they forced the Muslims of the kingdom of Castile to convert to Catholicism. All these measures were designed to achieve the same end: the establishment of a united faith. The Christian, Muslims and Jewish communities existed tolerantly throughout the first centuries of Muslim domination and continued to do so in the Christian Spain of the 12th and 13th century. Tolerance presupposed an absence of discrimination against minorities and respect for the point of view of others. This tolerance was nowhere to be found in the Iberia of the 8th century to the 15th. Spanish archdeacon named Ferran Martinez was busy delivering a sequence of sermons in the diocese of Seville. It was his remarkable eloquence rather than the novelty of his subject which attracted an audience: for he spoke only on a single theme, one that in every age has provided an easy stalking horse for demagogues religious and civil- the iniquities of the Jews. Their veins had venom that poisoned whatever contribution they made. The Jews, he argued, had been guilty, as a body, of the greatest crime in history. They adhered to a faith that had been rejected in no uncertain manner by the Deity. Their ceremonies were outmoded and impious, rendered those who performed them capable of the most heinous misdoings and doomed them to eternal punishment in the hereafter . ORIGIN AND AIMS Jews weren’t newcomers in Spain. They had been settled there since the 1st century. Documentary and archaeological evidence demonstrates their numbers at the beginning of the fourth century, long before the coming of the Arabs or the Visigoths. The latter had persecuted them, but under the moors they had flourished as nowhere else in Europe. They were an important and influential minority. Every Spanish city had its prosperous juderia, or Jewish quarter, comprised of craftsmen and weavers, goldsmiths and carpenters . The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 by Edward I En masse. His example had been followed in France sixteen later, by Philip the Fair. The Spanish Jews considered themselves secure from anything of the sort. The activities of Martinez disturbed them but didn’t alarm them. Month after month passed without any untoward occurrence. They fell into the error of imagining that nothing would happen. It came as a shock to them when at the close of 1390, just before Christmastide, Martinez succeeded in having some synagogues in the diocese partially destroyed and closed down, on the plea that they had been built without authorization. The community, alarmed, applied for protection to the council of regency then governing Castile in the name of the young king Henry III, which ordered steps to be taken for the protection of the petitioners. Martinez was defiant, however, and his sermons were as violent as ever. On Wednesday, March 15th, 1391 his harangue was particularly effective, and his audience was roused to a high pitch of frenzy. On its way from the church, a turbulent crowd, thirsting with zeal and greed, surged towards the Jewish quarter, which seemed to be in imminent danger of sack. The civil authorities were at last awakened to the necessity of stern measures. Seizing two of the most turbulent members of the mob, they had them flogged, turned them into martyrs overnight. After some further disturbances, order was outwardly restored: but the spirit of unrest still simmered and Martinez continued his unbridled invective from the pulpit. These seemingly unimportant disorders are to be traced some of the greatest tragedies in history – the darkest page in the dark record of the Jewish people, one of the saddest episodes in the history of human thought, and the ultimate decline of sprain from the high status to which her achievements and her genius entitled her – everything, in a word, which is associated with the term, â€Å"the Spanish Inquisition†. On June 6th, a storm broke out. An infuriated mob rushed upon the juderia of Seville and put it to sack. An orgy of carnage raged the city. The dead were numbered by the hundreds, if not by the thousand. Every ruffian in the city flaunted the finery sacked from Jewish houses, or boasted the ravishing of a Jewish maiden . Through some curious psychology of mass psychology, the infection spread from one city to the other, and throughout Spain onslaughts on the Jews became the order of the day. The fury raged that summer and autumn, and at several places the entire Jewish community was exterminated. At Cordova, the ancient Jewish quarter, where Moses Maimonides had first seen the light, was reduced to ashes. Toledo was witness to a similar horrifying carnage. 70 other towns in Castile were doomed to similar incidents of terror. In Aragon, in spite of measures put into force by the authorities to suppress the mayhem, the case was commonly adhered. In Valencia, within a few days, not a single professing Jew was left alive in the entire kingdom. In Barcelona, despite a half hearted protection given by the civic authorities, the whole community was wiped out. From Catalonia, the disorders spread to the Balearic Islands, where a massacre took place on August 2nd at Palma. Outbreaks were prevented only in the kingdom of Granada thanks to the efforts of the crown, in Portugal. Elsewhere in the peninsula, hardly a single community escaped. The total no of victims was estimated as many as 50,000 . The Inquisition did not begin in Spain, but did gather notoriety there. Shortly after commencement, the Spanish Inquisition was accused of numerous abuses. Accusations of heresy ran rampant, and innocent, faithful people were unjustly punished by public trials and condemnation. This usually took the form of strangulation or burning at the stake. The Inquisition, although vastly changed and more humane, remained a strong force in Spain until the early 19th century . By about 1750 the Inquisition had lost its power. It had been created to eradicate all traces of Semitism in Spain. The Jews had long been expelled and two and a half centuries of persecution had eventually eliminated the Judaisers. Yet the statues of blood purity still did not disappear; in fact, in the course of the eighteenth century, they tended to multiply. They no longer constituted a serious obstacle to a career in the Church, the official administration, or civic society. By the end of the eighteenth century, essentially the Inquisition was operating as a political policing force devoted to opposing the introduction of revolutionary and liberal ideas. By this time, it seemed to have softened its attitude. It no longer published edicts of faith encouraging the faithful spontaneously to denounce their neighbors and their relatives. Nor did it any longer torture its prisoners. CONCLUSION The Spanish Inquisition was one of the most powerful organizations used to eradicate heresy and safeguard the unanimity of Christendom. Begun in 1478, by 1512 the Inquisition was under review for a wide range of issues – from corruption, patronage and bribery. The Spanish Inquisition, first established under Queen Isabella was finally suppressed 356 years later under Queen Isabella II, leaving its mark in the annals of Western civilization. The onset of the Enlightenment slowed down the Inquisition. It, however, wasn’t until the Spanish invasion of Napoleon that the Inquisition finally came to an end in 1810, being completely abolished in 1836. It is estimated that more than 20,000 people were killed because of the Inquisition. Numerous more were subjected to torture and others had their possessions confiscated. John Paul II’s teachings are an ever present reminder of how to learn from history: â€Å" †¦we must take account of the complexity of the relationship between the subject who interprets and the object from the past which is interpreted†¦. Events or words of the past are, above all, â€Å"past. † As such they are not completely reducible to the framework of the present, but possess an objective density and complexity that prevent them from being ordered in a solely functional way for present interests. It is necessary, therefore, to approach them by means of an historical-critical investigation that aims at using all of the information available, with a view to a reconstruction of the environment, of the ways of thinking, of the conditions and the living dynamic in which those events and those words are placed, in order, in such a way, to ascertain the contents and the challenges that precisely in their diversity they propose to our present time . On 12 January 2000, to mark the Catholic Church’s Jubilee, Pope John Paul II issued a document entitled Memory and Reconciliation in which he asked for forgiveness for the errors of the Church over its 2,000 year history. ? BIBLIOGRAPHY Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition: An Historical Revision. London, 1997. John Paul II, Memory and Reconciliation, 2000. Finkelstein, Louis. 1970. The Jews: their history. New York: Schocken Books. Kohen, Elizabeth, Elias, Marie Louise. 2004. Spain. New York: Benchmark Books/Marshall Cavendish. Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 vols. New York, 1906–1908. Lemieux, Simon. The Spanish Inquisition. History Review 7. 44 (2002): 44-49

Devial And Daniel Webster :: essays research papers

The play "The Devil and Daniel Webster" was boiring as watching grass grow. The audience struggled to find a comfortable position to stay awake. This disappointing production was stale and went nowhere. Unfortuneltly the audience was unable to develop any emotional relationship with the main characters. THe play predictablitly created an atmosphere of distisfaction. Stephen Vincent Benet obviously was having a bad day when writing this script. Benet uses his three main characters as symbols of mans struggle with good and evil. Evil was represented by the all mighty Scratch. Usually the devil is the undestructable force that can't be stopped. Benet did a poorjob portraying that we all struggle with the Scratch's inside of us. THis is a missed opportunity to develp his characters with traits we could all relate to. The most honest part of the play was the jury. The twelve men represented Jabez's weaknesses. They understood is internal need for money and power. The conversatioin between then three main characters helped the audience understand their relationshipfor one another and their daily values. For example, Mary portrayed the little girl next door nrole in the play. Mary was apathetic and devoted to her husband. At all cost her marriage vowes were very strong and meant a lot to her. Even her commitment to her husband was strong but she still apeared pathetic. Websters powerful commitment to strong morals leaves him exposed and out in the open. You can't take this story to seriously. For example, what neighboor is going to help someone who made a pakted with the devil. Theres a lot of unfinished story lines. The disappointing writing of Benet left the story unresolved.

Early Childhood Educator Essay

The inspiration for the Reggio Emilia approach came from Reggio Emilia, Italy. In Italy, all the preschools are centered on this approach. It is a city run program for children from birth to the age of six (Cyert Center, 2004). The philosophy is that, â€Å"children’s interactions and relationships with other children and adults are a vital component of their learning† (Schiller, 1995). Reggio Emilia schools in the United States, Italy, and other countries around the world differ greatly from standard preschools here in the United States. Some of the key differences and components of the Reggio Emilia program is its role in the community, attention to the environment, and its emergent curriculum which functions as a part of the teachers and the children. Role of the Community The community is a big part of the Reggio Emilia schools. There are regularly scheduled meetings for parents to take part in. These meetings are scheduled in the evening so that working parents are able to attend. The parents and teachers discuss issues regarding school policies, child development concerns, and curriculum planning and evaluations (Wikipedia, 2007). The parents are involved in the whole process of the education of their children. Teachers send home journals of children’s thoughts and ideas expressed in class. This kind of cooperation among teachers and parents make learning on the children’s part much easier and complete. Attention to the Environment According to Lilian G. Katz, â€Å"The physical environment of a preschool center is considered a ‘teacher’ in and of itself! † (Katz, 1990). This holds true in a Reggio Emilia school. The environment is considered the â€Å"third† teacher to the students attending this kind of program. The building itself and classrooms are filled with indoor plants, vines, and lots of natural light. Natural light enters the classrooms through wall-sized windows letting the children connect with the outside world. All of the classrooms have a door to the outside and open to a center piazza. Each classroom flows well with each other and the surrounding community. The lunch rooms, courtyards and bathrooms are designed in a way to encourage community among all the students (Wikipedia, 2007). Incorporated into each school is a common space available to all children in the school that includes dramatic play and work tables (Cyert Center, 2004). Each classroom is connected with a phone, passageway or a window. The classrooms are equipped with art centers called atelier (Gandini, 1993). In the atelier are easels, watercolors, crayons, markers, paper, and any art materials children need to be creative. Another part of the classroom has books about artists and a place where children can read comfortably (Schiller, 1995). Displayed around the classroom, among all the photographs of the children and carefully placed mirrors in the school, are works completed by the children with transcriptions of their discussions about the work. The physical environment of a preschool center is considered a ‘teacher’ in and of itself! † (Katz, 1990). Emergent Curriculum There is no time schedule where at some part of the day the students are learning about science, then language arts, and then math. The kind of schedule the students follow is that there is a group meeting when the students arrive in the morning. Then there is a work period, play period, lunch time, play time, nap time, and then another work period or play period (Hertzog, 2001). For their work period, there is no set curriculum that the teachers must follow. The curriculum is an emergent curriculum which is child centered. Emergent means that is builds upon the interests of the child. The teachers have broad goals but can follow the lead and interests of the children (Schiller, 1995). During the work periods, a teacher will work with one small group on their project while the other students are engaged in self selected activities. The projects are teacher directed and child initiated and begins with the teacher observing the children and asking the children questions on a topic that interests the child. The students then do in depth studies of the content that interests the children of that group (Wikipedia, 2007). The project moves in unanticipated directions. To avoid confusion the teachers help children make decisions about direction of study, how to research the topic, and how to represent the topic (Cyert Center, 2004). The projects can range in length from one week to the whole school year. When the students are content to be complete with their project they depict their knowledge through drawing, sculpting, dramatic play, or writing. At every school, there is a visual art specialist, an atelierista, who works closely with the other teachers and children (Gandini, 1993). The atelierista guides the children into appropriate media choices to complete their ideas and projects. Because art is such an integral part of all activities, the students’ old works, finished and unfinished, are available to them to finish or add on. While they work on their art projects, the teachers talk to the children and write down any thoughts or ideas the students have. They display the students’ discussions with their art work around the classroom and school (Schiller, 1995). In order for this curriculum to work, the teachers must also learn with the students. The teachers take turns with the following roles: observing, note taking, and recording observations between children. After all observations are recorded, they are shared with other teachers and parents in the planning of the students’ projects. It is crucial that teachers become skillful observers of the children. Their observations guide the curriculum planning and implementation (Wikipedia, 2007). Conclusion The Reggio Emilia approach to learning is a constructivist approach where the students learn at their own pace and guide the curriculum. It is all about the children. The children’s interests lead them into a project that is researched in depth at a level that they can understand. The children’s thoughts and ideas are implemented into the curriculum and planning and are shared with the community. Reggio Emilia works because the children are learning what they want to learn with the help of their parents, teachers, and the community.

Essay on Reflections on Cultural Aspects of International...

Reflection Paper Introduction The five weeks of the Cultural aspects of international business course have been a truly enriching life experience for me. I must admit that I was a little skeptical about the value proposition of the course as I thought this was going to be one of those purely theoretical pro-diversity lectures with no potential for practical application. However, the fact that Professor Lane co-authored the textbook intrigued me so much (I have never had a Professor who actually wrote the textbook for the course) that I decided to give it a chance and sign-up for the course. The Cultural aspects of international business course has helped me to discover new perspectives and taught me to look at things through†¦show more content†¦The above characteristics suggest that I work in a truly global and culturally diverse business environment; therefore; cultural wisdom and cognition gained through this course can definitely improve the effectiveness of our global interactions. Cultural dimensions and stereotypes I had basic knowledge of the Gofstede national cultural dimensions – Power distance, Uncertainty avoidance, Individualism-Collectivism, Masculinity-Femininity, and Long term-short term orientation; however, I have never viewed them as a helpful tool to analyze cultural differences related to conflicts at a workplace. For example, every time I used to e-mail or call the Mexico office with questions about planning assumptions, the second in command finance staff member would never give me an answer and would always say that I should speak to the manager. 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