| Subject: |
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Inquisition in Goa (1560-1812) |
| Name: |
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Giacomo Cavallo |
| Date Posted: |
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Jun 8, 06 - 9:30 AM |
| Email: |
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gcavallo@noos.fr |
| Message: |
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I would like to comment to the long post by Prof. De Mello regarding the Goa Inquisition. My post should not be intended as an apology of the Catholic Church, whose responsibilities, in any case, should not be extended to the whole of Christianity. However, an apology of the Catholic Church, I would almost say “regrettably”, is the inevitable result of my arguments against Prof. De Mello.
1. It can be easily demonstrated that the account given by Prof. De Mello of the book written by Dellon, on which he builds his attack on the Goa Inquisition, is a deformation of truth, made through misreadings, omissions, interpolations, whether due to incompetence or to malevolence. The only problem is that my counter-essay pointing out all these distortions is too long and cannot fit within the limit 5000 words. I am ready to provide it to whomever wants to see how not to read a book and not to report on it.
Luckily, the benevolent reader can judge by himself by downloading ( for free) the book written by Dellon from the site of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (gallica.bnf.fr).
2. What an unbiased reader can conclude from Dellon's book is that:
- prisoners were not treated particularly badly (tolerable cells, sufficient food, medical assistance);
- torture, which was commonly adopted in all lay tribunals at that time, was not used with particular frequency and/or sadism by the Inquisition;
- capital sentences were seldom applied (about one in 30-40 sentences) and people actually burned alive were about one in 10 years;
- All victims who were actually sentenced to death were Christians (no Hindus, no Muslims etc.).
Indeed there was a state religion in Goa, which forbade any public display of other religions, the maximum penalty being deportation. State religions have existed for centuries and still exist today, notably in a few Islamic Countries.
3. A question thus arises: how many were the victims of the Goa Inquisition?
One might say that the number is irrelevant, because it is the principle which is wrong and one victim is as important as one thousand. Yet, the discussion of principles is a matter for philosophy, not for history. History should provide the right figures for the discussion.
At http://www.goacentral.com/Goahistory/TheGoaInquisition.htm. I found data referring to the days of maximum activity of the Goa Inquisition (1600-1773). According to this source in that period there were 71 autodafe, 4046 sentences, (1012 being women); 121 victims were sentenced to death (16 women). Of these 121, 54 (clearly a misprint for 57) were alive at the time of the Autodafe and 64 had already died and were burned in effigy. The ratio of capital sentences to total number of sentences was therefore 1/33. There was an autodafe every 2.4 years, 1.7 persons burned at each autodafe.
The figure of 121 should be considered a maximum for the period 1600-1773, because also people who had died in their beds - perhaps one in six - could be dug out and burned in effigy (according to Dellon).
I have no figures for the periods 1560-1600 and 1778-1812. For the latter period, I would not be surprised if the figure for the number of autodafes and victims were zero. I believe that on this basis one cannot go above 160 victims in the whole period of the Goa Inquisition (80 being burned in effigy, of which 25 undergoing trial after their death; maybe 30 being burned alive), and a total of 5000 sentences including all light sentences and deportations of non Christian faithfuls.
On the basis of Dellon's data it is easy to calculate that the number of prisoners in the Carcere of the Inquisition cannot have been more than 18400 in 230 years. If they were that many, it means that 70% were acquitted.
I would be extremely interested to know whether there exist any more precise and authenticated figures.
3. Having said that Prof. De Mello cannot use the book of Dellon to demonstrate what he wants about the Inquisition, one might ask whether there are any other first hand-accounts by Inquisition prisoners. I would be very interested in reading any such other first hand accounts. Until then one should believe the data above.
In any case pages like Prof. De Mello's are a shame for the profession of historians and can only fuel hatred. They serve no other purpose. But I am confident that facts can be analysed in a sober and objective way. Inevitably the truth will be recognised and assessed against the background of different times and cultures. This will possibly bring about reciprocal understanding, and appreciation of the different philosophies of life. Then, instead of hatred, reasons of union will be found, reciprocal merits and good intentions will be recognised. I would be happy if my essay could contribute to this end, because we cannot imagine that cultures can isolate themselves in the future within walls of reciprocal hatred. |
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Mirsangh 
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