PhD Program in Historical studies
The opponents of the Sicilian Holy Office
The first attempt to introduce the tribunal in Sicily was in 1483. The institution, however, began to work only since 1500, when the inquisitors sent from Castile had the sufficient funds to rent a property where they could establish their residence and the host environments necessary for the life of the institution, the courtrooms and the prisons. The stable and definitive presence of the Holy Office in Sicily began in 1543, at the end of a long and tormented half century. The period was marked by violent clashes between the parliament and the viceroyal and inquisitorial authorities that, thanks to a strong protection by the sovereign, implemented a systematic policy of penetration into the Sicilian society. The initial suspicions became a real opposition in the first half of the sixteenth century, carried out both in the offices of political negotiation and with mass rebellions. The institution, tolerated and sometimes encouraged in times of peace and social policy, became one of the first and main targets to hit in times of popular tension.
The revolt of 1516 against the viceroy Ugo de Moncada (1509-1516), that of the following year against the viceroy Ettore Pignatelli (1517-1535) and the rebellion led by the Earl of Cammarata in 1523 had as objective not only the removal of viceroys deemed excessively authoritarian, but also the dismantling of the inquisitorial organization recently established. The insurrectional attempts alternated with petitions submitted to the sovereign to observe the canons and the inquisitorial procedures in force in the island in the courts of the bishops, before the installation of the “Spanish” Inquisition.
The emperor’s repeated denials to the demands of the parliament to abolish the “Spanish” Inquisition were diluted on the occasion of the visit of Charles V in Palermo in 1535, during which the privileges of the Holy Office were suspended for a five-year period. This short period precedes the definitive reintroduction of the tribunal in 1543; it will operate in Sicily until 1782, when its closure will be celebrated with the burning of all the documents relating to its work, making extremely difficult the reconstruction of its history.