Download e-book for kindle: The Business of the Roman Inquisition in the Early Modern by Germano Maifreda

Established in 1542, the Roman Inquisition operated via a community of virtually fifty tribunals to wrestle heretical and heterodox threats in the papal territories. while its theological, institutional and political facets were well-studied, earlier no sustained paintings has been undertaken to appreciate the monetary foundation upon which it operated. but  – as The enterprise of the Roman Inquisition within the Early sleek Era indicates – the economic autonomy loved by way of every one tribunal was once a significant component in settling on how the Inquisition operated. For, because the movement of money from Rome declined, each one tribunal was once compelled to depend on its personal resources and assets to fund its paintings, leading to a state of affairs wherein tribunals more and more got here to resemble companies. As each one tribunal used to be authorized to maintain a considerable percentage of the fines and confiscations it levied, questions quick arose in regards to the monetary issues which may have encouraged the Inquisition’s activities. Dr Maifreda argues that the Inquisition, with the necessity to generate adequate profit to proceed operating, had a transparent incentive to focus on prosperous teams inside society who may perhaps have the funds for to yield up big sales. additionally, as secular experts additionally started to depend upon a levy on those sales, the monetary concerns of selections relating to heresy prosecutions turn into even better. established upon a wealth of hitherto missed basic assets from the Vatican and native Italian records, Dr Maifreda finds the underlying monetary constructions that performed an integral part within the operations of the Roman Inquisition. by means of exploring the method of incentives and pressures that guided the activities of inquisitors of their procedural procedures and selection of sufferers, a far clearer realizing of the Roman Inquisition emerges. This booklet is an English translation of I denari dell’inquisitore. Affari e giustizia di fede nell’Italia moderna (Turin: Einaudi, 2014).