Advanced Seminar: The Inquisition in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, 1200-1700

3 units

This seminar will study the history of the Inquisition from its beginnings in southern France in the first half of the 13th century up to the investigations undertaken by Dominicans and Franciscans in 17th century Mexico and Peru. Along the way the seminar will focus upon other inquisitions in Europe (especially those made in Italy, Spain, and Germany), and the hunt for heresy in Goa and the Phillipines. This course will read inquisitional manuals (books on how to conduct an inquisition), and original inquisitional documents (the records of the trials and interrogations). Consequently, the history of heresy and witchcraft, as understood by people in the past and historians in the present, will be discussed.