The Jew
26 October 2006 by Eve
For Sean, who among many other things, loved history and understood so well why we need to remember it
The Story Thus Far: In 1490, Spanish Inquisitor General Tomas de Torquemada transfers Converso Benito Garcia’s case from Toledo to Segovia and finally to Avila (see pic) so that he can personally conduct the stalled investigation (See The “Rabbi”).
Even then, to reach Avila meant traveling across a dry, brown, mountain-ringed plain, featureless but for immense gray boulders and a rocky hill sprouting suddenly from it. On the flat top of this hill sits Avila, the highest capital city in Spain, then as now surrounded by great brown granite walls topped with a parapet and punctuated by 82 fortified towers and nine gateways. Torquemada’s new Dominican Monastery of Saint Thomas boasted the same dark stone walls and an austere atmosphere only partly due to the region’s long, harsh winters and short summers.
Before he could attend to the case himself, however, the Inquisitor General received a summons to attend Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, and even he could not afford to ignore or refuse his monarchs’ call. Since Avila had no formal Inquisitorial tribunal, he appointed three investigators in his place, including Inquisitor of Valencia Juan Lopez de Cigales and Brother Fernando de Santo Domingo of the failed “Rabbi Abraham” ploy, trusting them to continue the interrogations of the eight suspects according to his exacting standards.
Imagine Benito’s reaction upon discovering that the third inquisitor was none other than his original tormentor, bishop’s vicar Pedro de Villada of Astorga (see The Vicar).
For almost a year, Torquemada’s very special guests commanded the complete attention of his minions in Avila. Regularly scheduled visits to the brand-new torture chamber relieved the tedium of languishing in the light, airy dungeons, and even though the trio now considered the Jew Juce Franco as the “gang’s” ringleader, Benito and his other six co-defendants couldn’t complain of neglect on their part. In addition to the now-familiar whip, rack, and water torture, they probably experienced the also-popular garrucha, better known as the “strappado” in other parts of Europe, which left even less visible evidence of torture than the other techniques.
Captors would tie the victim’s arms behind his back, then attach a rope to his wrists and either throw the other end over a beam or rafter in the ceiling, or feed it through a pulley attached to the ceiling. They would then pull on this rope until the prisoner hung from his hands, his full weight on his extended and internally rotated shoulder sockets. Sometimes they added weights to the rest of his body, increasing the stress on his arms, and after pulling him up, often proceeded to lower him in drops, each drop increasing his already intense pain and joint dislocation to the point of nerve and ligament damage and even broken shoulders.
From defiantly calling the accusations against him the “greatest falsehoods in the world,” a shattered Franco went to “confessing” in July 1491 how three years ago, he had led the group of conspirators in kidnapping, torturing, and crucifying a six-year-old Christian boy in a cave near La Guardia. After supposedly cutting out his heart and draining his blood, they had performed some magic spells with these and the by-now famous Communion wafer that fell out of Benito’s knapsack. Franco even “claimed” that they had hoped one particular incantation would protect them from Inquisitors by driving anyone who touched the plotters crazy.
Elated, the fearsome threesome congratulated themselves, already tasting triumph and Torquemada’s appreciation. But first, to make their case as air-tight as possible, they had to get all eight “testimonies” to agree with each other and most importantly, they had to obtain the answers to a couple of vital questions:
Who had this boy been, and where was his body?
Next: The Child
26 October 2006, on 9:10 pm
[...] The Jew [...]
26 October 2006, on 11:02 pm
If Benito was really lucky, he’d have got a good visit from La Pera at his backdoor. It would really have broadened his horizons.
It always amazes me what people under the influence of religion are capable of, whether it be the PCP-like intoxication of a Bush or an Ahmadinejad, a Fred Phelps or an al-Zawahiri, a Dani or a bin Laden, the more Ecstasy fueled Deepak Chopra or Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh, or the chronic alcoholism of Francis Collins or our friend Robert O’Brien.
Everybody says that Syd Barrett was an acid casualty, that it was the drugs that sent him round the bend but I’m convinced that the abyss was within him from the getgo and, while it may or may not have driven him to the extremity of his usage, it certainly was there to be exacerbated by the chemicals.
Makes me wonder about the state of Tommy Torquemada’s psyche before he became a gawd junkie. I mean, we can pretty much assume, just due to the times and the cultural climate, that he was at least sexually repressed and we can know for sure that he was scientifically illiterate for the same reasons- the earth being flat and the center of the universe, diseases caused by demons and spirits at that point.
Alright, so I kind of lost track of what my point was but I guess it had something to do with the fact that, while we can kind of give a bit of a pass to the Torquemadas of the world- because the stupidity was pretty much universal then, the Pastor Bobs of the world have no excuse whatsoever. Good story, as usual, Eve.
27 October 2006, on 2:19 pm
For some reason my comments haven’t taken over the past few days.
Eve
Once again great job. We didn’t have this in any history classes I’ve ever taken. It reminds me of the saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same”. 500 years ago and this torture is still going on. Only by primitive people who are unable to deal effectively with reality. I’ll bet the powers that be are hoping to set up such torture chambers. I hope we get a chance to change that asinine law.
27 October 2006, on 3:01 pm
Glad you like it, guys.
Our friend Torquemada actually wasn’t universally approved of even in his time (what? you exclaim, but how come? He was so darned lovable!). His abuses and excesses became infamous all over Europe even during his life, and the Pope was constantly investigating his actions in Spain.
The problem was that the Pope also had to look at the big picture politically: France was knocking on Italy’s back door (not the back door you’re referring to, Raindog!) and the only power strong enough to counter it were it to invade Italy and the Vatican was Spain, so the Papacy couldn’t afford to piss off Torquemada, who had the ear of the Spanish monarchy, who being absolute rulers could easily refuse to help the Pope if he ever needed it (which he eventually did).
So the Pope was limited to writing letters to Torky urging him to either tone it down or stop, which he could easily ignore being at some physical distance as well as in political power from the Vatican. If he was ordered to come to Rome for a formal investigation, which he was on at least several occasions, he sent his representative, a guy he employed just for that purpose, to stand in for him at the hearings. He never had to respond in person to any papal summons.
As for his personal development, all we really have are stories, most very superficially substantiated if at all. Rumors abound of his having turned down an archbishopric because he wasn’t interested in high ecclesiastical office; of his almost always wearing a hair shirt under his robes - you know, mortification of the flesh and all that stuff. He does seem to have been very much an ascetic, into the denial of physical comforts and so on, but that wasn’t that unusual at the time.
28 October 2006, on 12:03 am
[Mit a Yiddish accent?]
“It’s REALLY very nice, mine dahlink!…Oy Vey!”
28 October 2006, on 1:39 am
Great history lesson, Eve!
1 November 2006, on 9:48 pm
Happy to please, all, and almost finished!
2 November 2006, on 5:22 pm
[...] The Story Thus Far: All the newly-assembled Inquisition of Avila, Spain, needs to clinch its case against Converso Benito Garcia and his seven co-defendants are the identity of the boy they supposedly murdered and the location of his body (see The Jew). [...]