HIST 339 - Witches and Inquisitors in the Vast Early American Archives

FC SSCI CD WINT

4 credits
The Spanish Inquisition was a quasi-legal governing body of the Catholic Church, primarily in Spain but also in the Americas, for three hundred fifty years. It still occupies a place in the popular imagination today. Meant to enforce orthodox Catholicism, this court became a complex mechanism where law and religion intersected. Using witchcraft as a tool of analysis, this course examines the function of the Inquisition and its counterparts across the Americas to understand the institution in its various forms. Students will build familiarity with its historiography and will gain hands on work with documents in Inquisition archives as they are introduced to basic early modern English and Spanish paleography.