Modern Inquisitions: Peru and the Colonial Origins of the Civilized World by Irene Silverblatt addresses the colonization of Peru and the role that colonization played in the development of modern society. Silverblatt argues how the formation of the early modern state occurred in conjunction with colonization and “that both Spanish colonialism and the Spanish Inquisition attended civilization’s birth”. (27) This book is Silverblatt’s attempt to apply the work of Hannah Arendt to the workings of the Spanish empire and, more specifically, the Spanish Viceroyalty in Peru during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. To support her argument, Silverblatt uses eyewitness accounts and records of the inquisitors themselves and focuses on the colonial life in Peru rather than that of the Spanish monarchy itself which was located a world away. Through these examples, Silverblatt shows a relationship between race thinking and the imperial bureaucracies contained within the mission of the Spanish Inquisition in Peru.
The beginnings of modern society can be traced to the expansion of Western European cultures. Monarchs wanting to extend their power and wealth led to widespread colonization throughout the globe. Religion became a very convenient and motivating factor for the success of these European nations to colonize various parts of the world. The Spanish Inquisition is often thought of as being part of a pre-modern past in which barbaric violence was commonplace and feared. It is rarely, if ever, thought of on the basis of contributing to the birth of civilization. This idea that a nation state institution, such as the Spanish Inquisition, was not only a contributor to the immergence of modern civilization in colonial Peru, but a necessity of it, is quite a controversial perspective.
In this book, Silverblatt describes religious fanaticism in the name of Christianity as it relates to the idea of race and “bureaucratic control of colonized populations”. (x) Christianity became the common denominator of every conflict. In her chapter “The Three Heretics”, she gives heart wrenching accounts of three individuals. The experiences of Doña Mencia de Luna, Manuel Henriequez, and Manuel Bautista Pérez bring to the forefront the issue of race thinking and how it affected these people. In this chapter Silverblatt identifies the tribunal’s prejudice. She articulates that “the tribunal’s mission to delineate and fight the battle for civilization; and, for most magistrates, Castile vs. Portugal, Old Christian vs. New Christian, True Christian vs. Jew were one and the same struggle.” (34) Although the tribunal, Inquisitors, and ultimately the Spanish Crown believed and intended to have objective consideration on the issue of racial identity and consideration of religious expectations, Silverblatt shows the bureaucratic aspect of racial prejudice and how it filtered down through the political systems to the people who were ultimately caught within its clutches. No one was safe from the accusations of the Inquisition.
In many ways, and certainly from the perspective of the people affected by the whims of the tribunal in Peru, the Inquisition seemed like an all powerful entity. Silverblatt proposes a very interesting and complicated theory on how this affected the social subconscious of the people: “Taken together, elaborate rites and mundane routines are the cultural practices that urge us to imagine power in certain ways: that make state categories (like race thinking) and the classifications we use to make sense of our world one and the same; that make history of the state disappear from social awareness; and that facilitate transformation of the state into an independent, quasi-divine force.” (81) While the tribunal was often thought of as an unquestionable, unimpeachable power of state; it was also comprised of human men with flaws and imperfections as well. The impeccable record keeping of the Inquisition further solidifies its identity as a bureaucratic entity. The Inquisition, like most bureaucracies, excused away its discrepancies in the name of national security and the search for the “truth”.
Although Irene Silverblatt gives an eloquent and detailed account of the relationship between race thinking and the imperial bureaucracies contained within the mission of the Spanish Inquisition in Peru, she falls short on the broad scale of the issue. Her argument that the colonization of Peru was the precursor to the development and formation of the early modern state has in one motion given little importance to the indigenous societies which existed before colonization. While her book was very thorough in its intent and has spawned a wonderful piece of scholarship towards the debate over the effects of colonization, she by no means has given an all-encompassing view of the nations pushed out by this colonization.