Latest / The Rise of Colonialism: How Europe Divided the World — Fexingo History / The Spanish Inquisition in Manila: Faith, Fear, and Empire
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa, but I think it's easy to forget that the Spanish had their own Inquisition running in the Philippines too. It started just a few decades after Legazpi founded Manila. Luna: I didn't know there was a separate Inquisition there. Was it the same as the one in Spain? Lucas: It was modeled on it, yes. The Tribunal of the Holy Office in Manila was established in 1583, though the first inquisitor didn't arrive until 1587. His name was Diego de Oseguera, and he was a Dominican friar. The whole apparatus was meant to police the faith among Spaniards and, eventually, the local population. But it had a very distinct flavor because of the multicultural reality of Manila. Lucas: Manila was this incredible crossroads — Spanish soldiers and friars, Chinese merchants, Japanese traders, Filipinos from dozens of ethnic groups, and even Portuguese from Macau and Malacca. The Inquisition had its hands full. And one of the first big cases was against a Chinese merchant accused of sorcery. Luna: Sorcery? That sounds like it could have been a convenient excuse to go after someone. Lucas: It probably was. The Chinese in Manila, known as Sangleys, lived in a separate district called the Parián, right outside the city walls. They were essential for the economy — they were the artisans, the traders, the provisioners of the Manila-Acapulco Galleon trade. But the Spanish authorities always feared them. The Inquisition saw their folk religions and practices as diabolical. So when a Chinese merchant named — we don't have his original name, but the Spanish records call him Juan de la Cruz — was caught with talismans and making offerings to his ancestors, he was tried for superstition and sorcery. Lucas: He was found guilty, and in 1599, he was burned at an auto-da-fé in Manila. It was a public spectacle, designed to terrify the Chinese community into conversion. But the Inquisition also went after Europeans. Portuguese merchants in Manila were often suspected of 'judaizing' — practicing Jewish customs in secret. The Spanish were deeply suspicious of the Portuguese, even though they were under the same crown from 1580 to 1640. Luna: So the Inquisition was also a tool of political control, not just religious. Lucas: Exactly. And it put the friars in a strange position. The Augustinians and Dominicans were rivals, and they both wanted influence over the Inquisition. The Dominicans, who ran the tribunal, sometimes used it to settle scores with Augustinian missionaries who they thought were too lenient with native Filipinos. There's a famous case from 1604 where an Augustinian priest was accused of heresy for teaching that Filipinos didn't need to confess their sins in detail — he was arguing that their limited understanding made detailed confession impossible. The Dominicans pounced. Luna: What happened to him? Lucas: He was suspended from preaching and sent back to Spain for review. But the whole affair shows how the Inquisition was entangled in the politics of the colonial church. And it also reveals a deeper tension — were Filipinos rational beings capable of sin, or were they like children who needed a simpler faith? The Inquisition officially had jurisdiction over all Christians, including natives, but in practice, it often treated them differently. Lucas: By the early 1700s, the Inquisition in Manila was in decline. The crown was tightening control, and the tribunal's excesses were being questioned. The last recorded auto-da-fé was in 1735. But it left a lasting mark on Philippine society — a legacy of fear and conformity that shaped the colonial Catholic culture. Luna: It's wild to think that all of this was happening while the galleons were crossing the Pacific, linking Manila to Acapulco. Lucas: It really is. And speaking of that connection — you know, something like this episode takes a lot of work to put together. We're able to keep this show ad-free and listener-supported, and a small group of people already chip in through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's what makes covering stories like the Manila Inquisition possible, without any sponsorship or commercial breaks. Luna: Yeah, it's a pretty special thing to be able to dive this deep into niche topics. And it's all because of those listeners. Lucas: Exactly. So — back to the Inquisition. One of the most fascinating aspects is how the tribunal handled cases of 'superstition' among the native Filipinos. They saw it as a sign that conversion hadn't fully taken root, and they tried to root out practices like offerings to anito, the ancestral spirits. But they also had to be careful not to provoke rebellion. Luna: So it was a balancing act between repression and pragmatism. Lucas: Right. And the Inquisition's own records give us a glimpse of daily life in the colony — people accused of blasphemy for cursing, or for saying that the friars were greedy. There's a case from 1610 where a Spanish soldier said that the Santo Niño was just a wooden doll, and he was denounced by his own comrades. He spent years in prison. Luna: That seems harsh for just a comment. Lucas: It was. The Inquisition was unforgiving. But it also created a record of resistance — people who refused to conform, who held onto their own beliefs. In that sense, the Inquisition archives are a window into the voices of the colonized, even if they're filtered through the lens of the tribunal. Lucas: So next time you think about the Spanish Empire, remember that the Inquisition wasn't just in Spain or Mexico — it had a long arm that reached all the way to Manila, and it shaped the religious landscape of the Philippines for centuries. Luna: Thanks for bringing this to light, Lucas.