The enemy within : the Roman inquisition and the control of Protestant practices in Malta : 1561–1575

Abstract

The Roman Inquisition was established in Malta thanks to a Brief of Pope Pius IV in October 1561. The Brief, which was published in Malta on 15 July 1562, marked a new chapter in the history of the Inquisition (also known as the Holy Office). The first Inquisitor, Bishop Domenico Cubelles, immediately set up separate prisons, for the Inquisition Tribunal and a Camera Secreta (Tribunal room), and appointed officers directly attached to the new Tribunal. Within a month of its establishment many, came forth to declare their faults spontaneously and several prominent members of Maltese society were found guilty of heretical practices and eventually given spiritual sentences and fined for their transgressions. It was said that the new Tribunal had immediate success and might have extirpated the spread of heretical practices from Malta had it not been for the Ottoman Siege of 1565. It was only a decade later, after the advent of the Apostolic Visitor Mgr Pietro Dusina (1574–1575), and the re-organisation of the Tribunal, that effective control on Protestant heretical practices was finally brought about. The early years of the Inquisition in Malta have been studied and discussed by several scholars. This study aims to re-assess these crucial decades for the Inquisition Tribunal in Malta through the light thrown by the letters of the Inquisitor and Apostolic Visitor, Mgr Pietro Dusina, sent from Malta during his ten-month stay on the Maltese Islands.