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The Inquisitorial Office in the Sixteenth-Century Habsburg Low Countries: A Dynamic Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 January 2015

GERT GIELIS  and
VIOLET SOEN
GERT GIELIS
Affiliation:
KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts, Blijde Inkomststraat 21/05 bus 3307, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium; e-mail: gert.gielis@arts.kuleuven.be
VIOLET SOEN
Affiliation:
KU Leuven, Faculty of Arts, Blijde Inkomststraat 21/05 bus 3307, BE-3000 Leuven, Belgium; e-mail: violet.soen@arts.kuleuven.be
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Abstract

The long acknowledged Mediterranean character of the early modern Inquisition(s) has recently been positioned within a global context. This article aims to integrate the Habsburg Low Countries into this newly emerging picture. Firstly, it argues that the Inquisition there should be understood as an office rather than as a tribunal: only individual inquisitors were called upon as specialised judges for offending clerics, or for judicial procedures de fide conducted by laymen. Secondly, this article emphasises that the inquisitorial office underwent continual redefinition in the four decades of its existence. Hence, the situation in the Low Countries offers a contrast to the religious persecution in France and England, where secular courts more clearly monopolised jurisdiction over heresy, and to the institutionally organised tribunals on the Iberian and Italian peninsulas.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 47 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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References

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14 List of subdelegati for the general pardon in the Ghent bishopric, 1572: UAL, Documenta autograp(i)a, fo. 37. See also Soen, Geen pardon zonder paus, appendix i, i–x.

15 A. Duke, ‘The “Inquisition” and the repression of religious dissent in the Habsburg Netherlands, 1521–1566’, in Duke, Pollmann and Spicer, Dissident identities, 99–118.

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18 Mandate for Frans van der Hulst granted by Charles v, 23 Apr. 1522, CDI iv. 101–4; imperial placard, 29 Apr. 1522, CDI iv. 115–20; Gielis, Verdoelde schaepkens, 87–109.

19 Imperial instruction for Frans van der Hulst and Josse Lauwereijns, 7 May 1522, CDI iv. 123–7.

20 Vercruysse, J. E., ‘De Antwerpse augustijnen en de lutherse Reformatie (1513–1523)’, Trajecta xvi (2007), 193–216Google Scholar; Gielis, Verdoelde schaepkens, 80–5.

21 The Leuven theologians were Nicolaas Egmondanus and Jacobus Latomus: Inquisitorial mandate, granted by bishop Robert de Croÿ, 6 Dec. 1521, CDI iv. 80–1.

22 Goosens, Les Inquisitions modernes, i. 50.

23 CDI iv. 191–5, 199–203, 205, 208–10; Gielis, Verdoelde schaepkens, 91–8.

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28 Spruyt, B.-J., Cornelius Henrici Hoen (Honius) and his epistle on the eucharist (1525): medieval heresy, Erasmian humanism, and reform in the early sixteenth-century Low Countries, Leiden 2006, 75–84Google Scholar. For relevant documents see CDI iv. 179–83, 214–18, 232–4, 237.

29 Report of a meeting between Holland deputies and the governor, 7 Sept. 1523, CDI iv. 232–3.

30 Charles v to Margaret of Austria, 15 Jan. 1524, CDI iv. 247–8. It seems that during the ‘inquisitorial vacuum’ (Sept. 1523–June 1524) the government had to rely on the medieval-style Inquisition, i.e. the episcopal and the papal Inquisition; cf. CDI iv. 256.

31 Margaret of Austria to Charles v, 21 Feb., 3 Apr. 1524, CDI iv. 256–7, 269–70.

32 Open letter of Cardinal Campeggio, responsible for screening the candidates, 17 June 1524, CDI iv. 275–8.

33 Breve addressed to prince-bishop Erard de la Marck, 12 Feb. 1525, CDI iv. 307–8.

34 Draft of a petition by inquisitor-general Nicolas Coppin, before 20 Mar. 1525, CDI iv. 315–56.

35 Breve addressed to Nicolas Coppin, Olivier Buedens and Nicolas Houzeau, 20 Mar. 1525, CDI iv. 319–25; Gielis, Verdoelde schaepkens, 114–25.

36 Romeinsche bronnen voor den kerkelijk-staatkundigen toestand der Nederlanden in de 16e eeuw, ed. G. Brom and A. Hensen, ’s Gravenhage 1922, 32–6. The Curia considered Ruard Tapper. He did not receive a papal mandate as inquisitor-general until 1547. Until then, his inquisitorial authority was based upon other commissions.

37 This was supposedly due to the inactivity of inquisitor-general Buedens, who died the following year: Monseur, E., ‘Contributions à l'histoire des inquisiteurs des Pays-Bas au xvie siècle’, in Fredericq, P. (ed.), Travaux de cours pratique d'histoire nationale. Ghent–The Hague 1883–4, 79–111 at p. 93Google Scholar. Coppin did in fact make use of this opportunity: after his inquisitions in Holland (July–Sept. 1525) he commissioned the dean of Naaldwijk, Pieter van der Goude, as sub-inquisitor for Holland, and in 1527 the Dominican inquisitor Jean Frelin received inquisitorial authority for la Flandre gallicante.

38 Zijlstra, S., Om de ware gemeente en de oude gronden: Geschiedenis van de dopers in de Nederlanden, 1531–1675, Hilversum 2000, 232–47Google Scholar; Mellink, A., De wederdopers in de noordelijke Nederlanden, 1531–1544, Groningen 1954Google Scholar, repr. Leeuwarden 1981.

39 Van Uytven, R., ‘Bijdrage tot de sociale geschiedenis van de protestanten te Leuven in de eerste helft der xvie eeuw’, Mededelingen van de geschied- en oudheidkundige kring voor Leuven en omstreken iii (1963), 3–38Google Scholar; Van Santbergen, R., Un Procès de religion à Louvain: Paul de Rovere (1542–1546), Brussels 1953Google Scholar.

40 List of appointments in ARAB, PEA, 1177, fos 536v, 544.

41 ARAB, PEA, 1177, fos 571r–572v; UAL, Fonds Van de Velde, no. 6. Historians have long been confused about this date, as it was often thought that Tapper had been commissioned in July 1537. This confusion, however, arose from a copyist's error: ARAB, PEA, 1177, fo. 572r.

42 In 1543 a concordat was arranged between Charles, as duke of Brabant, and the prince-bishop of Liège, arranging the respective competences of the bishop (and Official) on the one hand and the duke of Brabant (or his representatives) on the other. It was laid down that the Official was only competent for crimes concerning faith and dogma, as any contravention of the placards fell to civil courts. With regard to heresy prosecution and jurisdiction, this settlement turned out to be very much to the disadvantage of the episcopal courts: Van Peteghem, P., ‘Laat-middeleeuwse concordaten en het concordaat tussen het hertogdom Brabant (1515–1555) en het Prinsbisdom Luik (Cornelis van Bergen, 1538–1544 en Joris van Oostenrijk, 1544–1557)’, in Berkvens, A. and Gehlen, A. (eds), Van Verminkingsstraf tot Vrederechter: Opstellen ter gelegenheid van het twintigjarig bestaan van de Werkgroep Limburgse Rechtsgeschiedenis (1980–2000), Maastricht 2000, 63–106Google Scholar.

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44 Recueil des ordonnances, 2nd ser. v. 231–2; ARAB, PEA, 1177, fos 266r–267v.

45 ARAB, PEA, 1177, fos 508–9.

46 Ibid. fos 490–2; Decavele, De dageraad, 19.

47 Goosens, Les Inquisitions modernes, i. 155–6.

48 For the slight alterations see CPhII i, p. cxx.

49 Duke, ‘The Inquisition’, 108–9.

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51 Valvekens, De inquisitie, 270–1.

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54 Van de Wiele, ‘De inquisitierechtbank’, 21–2.

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57 All three inquisitors-general died within the same year: Meldert in early 1559, Tapper in March and Driutius in September. Tapper was considered to be the most important. In his letter to Cardinal Pacheco, Philip ii referred to the death of Tapper, ‘who had the principal charge of the inquisition’: Philip ii to Cardinal Pacheco, 6 Mar. 1559, AGS, E. 885 fo. 114, published by Dierickx in DI i. 183.

58 As a result of the delay caused by the death of Paul iv in August 1559, the five theologians did not receive a copy of their papal instruction as inquisitors-general until September 1560.

59 Sonnius, Curtius and Rythovius became respectively bishops of ’s-Hertogenbosch, Bruges and Ypres: Memoire pour monsieur l'audiencier, n.d. but 1572: ARA Aud.1.177/5, s.f.; Soen, Geen pardon, 109–10.

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66 Margaret of Parma to Michael Baius and Judocus Ravesteyn, 29 Mar. 1566, ARAB, PEA, 265, fo. 65; CPhII ii. 552–3. This revocatio was later also communicated to the regular inquisitors: Soen, Geen pardon, 132.

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69 ARAB, PEA, 1720/1, fos 100–1.

70 Scheerder, ‘De werking’, 153–65.

71 Goosens, Les Inquisitions modernes, i. 162.

72 Soen, Geen pardon zonder paus, 23.