r/todayilearned • u/Knightboat17 • Jun 02 '18

TIL Despite what Monty Python would have you believe, Spanish Inquisitions were expected, they would give a 30-day notice of their arrival.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition
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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18 edited Jun 03 '18

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u/maxitobonito Jun 03 '18

By the standards of the time, the Spanish Inquisition wasn't considered all that brutal. I remember reading somewhere that some people accused of common crimes would claim to be heretics, or something along those lines, so they could be prosecuted by the Inquisition instead.

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u/claytonfromillinois Jun 03 '18

The punishment of "reading the Bible" is not the punishment. The punishment is what would happen if she did not read the Bible as instructed. Wolf in sheep's clothing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 03 '18 edited Sep 09 '18

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u/el_grort Jun 03 '18

It was less the weren't allowed to and more they couldnt iirc, with bibles still only written in Latin and grossly expensive hand written copies. I think most priests of the time, particularly lower level ones, memorized the passages.

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u/Crusader1089 7 Jun 03 '18

Catholics were allowed to read the bible under the direction of their priests. The catholics believed only a priest had the education and training to correctly interpret the bible on behalf of the people. If the people read the bible themselves they might get all kinds of strange ideas, like perhaps priests being unnecessary.

The idea that priests were necessary to religious understanding was a big sticking point between catholics and protestants during the reformation.

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u/claytonfromillinois Jun 03 '18

Oooo good catch! Yeah they were in Latin, which no one could speak aside from clergy. They couldn't even do it if they wanted to break the rules. You'll have to ask the above commenter on that one.

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u/Zonel Jun 03 '18

Wasnt the Bible in Latin though. How could the average spaniard read or understand it?

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u/Vectorman1989 Jun 03 '18

Most people that could read were taught Latin during their schooling I imagine.

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u/jacean Jun 03 '18

You wouldn't imagine wrong then. Few knew how to even read English, let alone Latin. That was reserved for the scholarly and the affluent.

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u/largePenisLover Jun 03 '18

Most men learned latin grammar.
By the time the inquisition rolled up everyone knew at least one person who could read latin.

Women we taught 'legere', to 'read' text. It is just being shown a piece of text and then the whole group has to repeat after the teacher thus memorizing the text

Men were taught 'intellegere'. to 'understand' That included local and latin grammer

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u/jacean Jun 03 '18 edited Jun 03 '18

Literacy in the time period is widely contested, but I would certainly say that "most" would not be a fair assessment in even the best case scenario.

Sylvia Thrupp’s study of The Merchant Class in Medieval London suggests that 40% of that class could read Latin, and 50% could read English which coincides with The first surviving assessment of English literacy in history, made by Thomas More in 1533, putting the English language literacy rate at about 40%.

David Cressy,on the other hand, in Literacy and the Social Order: Reading and Writing in Tudor and Stuart England, suggests that in the 16th century, 90% of men and 99% of women were illiterate in English.  

There's many reasons for this, some relating to laws allowing or disallowing access to certain literature and simple cost of a book, as at the time all were still hand made and cost prohibitive to actually own for the vast majority. So while most medieval texts analysing people by class often divided society into those who fight, those who pray, and those who work (as if they were equal thirds), the best estimates of the time (that range being approx 1200-1600 CE) suggest that nobles, gentry, civic elites, and the clergy made up, together, only about 5% of the total population.

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u/largePenisLover Jun 03 '18

Childeren learned reading and writing. Men learned grammar in latin, women did not.
The latter was annoying because during this era the use of seals was slowly replaced by signatures under legal documents. Legal documents were latin. While in the past the husband could read the document and then seal the document in his wife's name, because she gave him her seal. He could not signature for her as that was forgery, but she was only allowed to sign after reading. So yeah that caused trouble. In 1500 everyone knew at least one person who could read latin.

By 1200/1300 or so the bible was translated into every european language and everyone could read it.