«I left Havana one day ... ». The case of Secretary Jose María Lanza

Abstract

The Spanish Inquisition has been studied mainly from administrative and procedural documents in the National Archives in Madrid and other scattered Spanish American territories. This paper examines a file belonging to the court of the Mexican Inquisition, now guarded by a twist of fate at the Bancroft Library at the University of California (Berkeley). It deals with the peculiar vicissitudes suffered by an employee of the Holy Office who rebelled against the environment and the social uses of his time to see accomplished his goal of marrying the young woman in which he had deposited his passionate love feelings. Along the lines of the document, ethical and disciplinary guidelines are thrown, governing the operation of the inquisitorial system in the eighteenth century as regards the staff as well as the legal consequences of non-compliance. It is also interesting to note that in the pages of the record two mentalities encountered in a moment that was straddling the fundamental ideas of the Old Regime intermingle (honor , duty, obedience, etc.) And the new winds of Enlightenment proclaiming other principles, such as freedom of the individual to decide his fate outside of certain social prejudices.