Crime and punishment : the Roman inquisition and Maltese society, 1793-1795

Abstract

In choosing the Roman Inquisition as a basis for the present dissertation, it would not be out of place to pose the question: Why the inquisition? Is it necessary? I venture on to say „yes‟; it is, and has been necessary to our understanding of the past. Crime and punishment have been around since time immemorial. Although these are a veritable indicator on the lives of a few, they can never give us a wide enough picture of society because they only reflect a part of it. However, in inquisitorial proceedings, one does not only encounter criminals, but also those who have reported them. In this way, the picture can be broadened to include society at large, including the judging body itself, that is, the inquisitor and his team. The proceedings at the Archives of the Inquisition in Mdina are a treasure trove that cast insight into various themes and features of life on Hospitaller Malta. The themes included in this dissertation are blasphemy, magic, heresy, and apostasy, and the fulfilling of Easter obligations. Due to time limitations and length restrictions, there are many other themes, cases, and sources which I did not have the opportunity to consult. The Miscellanea of the inquisition archives, and also the proceedings of trials at the lay court of the Magna Curia Castellania section, would have certainly contributed to a far more rewarding and richer work. I only had the time to delve deeply into a few case-studies. There were some I just went through fairly rapidly while there were many others that remained unnoticed. However, the few that I consulted founded me with a general idea of what the proceedings entailed. Though very limited, I endeavoured to reconstruct a small aspect of life in late eighteenth-century Malta as faithfully as the surviving documents have allowed me. The degree to which I have succeeded is not for me to tell. I will let others judge.