An International Workshop

The Origins of the Inquisition in comparative perspective

An international workshop

The Treehouse,

Humanities Research Centre (HRC), Berrick Saul Building, University of York

21 May 2015

Organised by Simon Ditchfield & Andrea Vanni

in association with the Department of History & the

Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies (CREMS)

University of York

Recent work on the inquisition tribunals operating not only in Spain, Portugal and the Italian peninsula but also in the Habsburg Low Countries has made us appreciate as never before the degree to which they consciously wrote themselves into history as saviours of orthodoxy in the face of heresy. Some of the latest scholarship has shifted attention from focus on ‘the body count’, that is to say, the victims, to considering the ‘bodies that count’ – the inquisitors themselves, their careers and professional culture. This workshop intends to look at these themes in a truly comparative context: one, furthermore, that is not only synchronic – in which it will be asked to what degree can all four early modern inquisitions can be considered a single, transnational network - but also diachronic: how important is the history of the medieval inquisition to our understanding of its early modern successors?

Provisional programme

All papers are to be pre-circulated at least a week in advance. Discussants will chair each session and start off dicsussion/debate with a short 5-10 minute response to the papers – each paper author will then have five minutes or so to respond before the discussion is opened out to everyone present. There will also be a small audience of invited auditors.

09.30 - 11.00 Panel A: Medieval and Early Modern Origins

Lucy Sackville (Lecturer in Medieval History, University of York)

Andrea Vanni (Marie Curie postdoctoral Fellow, University of York)

Respondent: John Arnold (Professor of Medieval History, Birkbeck College, University of London)

11.00 - 11.30 Coffee/tea break

11.30 - 13.00 Panel B: Confessional histories of the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions

Kimberly Lynn (Associate Professor of History, Western Washington University)

Michaela Valente (Associate Professor of History, Università degli studi del Molise, Campobasso)

Respondent: Simon Ditchfield (Professor of Early Modern History, University of York)

13.00 - 14.15 Buffet Lunch for workshop participants incl. auditors (in Treehouse)

N.B. Afternoon workshop sessions will now be on the ground floor of the HRC in room BS/008

14.15 - 15.45 Panel C: The Habsburg & Lusitanian Inquisitions and their victims in history

Violet Soen (Associate Professor of History, KU Leuven)                                  

Giuseppe Marcocci (Research Fellow, Università degli studi della Tuscia, Viterbo) 

Respondent: Francisco Bethencourt (Charles Boxer Professor of Portuguese History, King’s College, University of London)

15.45 - 16.00 Short coffee/tea break

16.00 - 16.45 Concluding Round-table of discussants led by Nicholas Davidson (Associate Professor of the History of the Renaissance and Reformation, University of Oxford)  

18.00 - Distinguished Visitor Lecture in Bowland Theatre (HRC) – Massimo Firpo (Professor of Early Modern History, Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa - University of Turin) Rethinking ‘Catholic Reformation’ and ‘Counter Reformation’: what happened in Early Modern Catholicism? The Case of Italy

19.00 - Wine reception in ground floor lobby of HRC

19.30 - Buffet supper for speakers and invited guests (The Treehouse)

N.B. As this is a workshop with pre-circulated papers, anyone wishing to attend must apply via email to the organisers Simon Ditchfield and Andrea Vanni by 1 May