Karoline Cook
11:30 am
Clark Hall Room 206
11130 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
Concerned with regulating orthodoxy, Spanish inquisitors followed a series of prescribed questions that sought to accurately identify an individual’s beliefs in order to assess whether these aligned with Catholic doctrine. Inquisitors also sought self-denunciations, aiming to steer those who denounced themselves toward salvation through the rejection of heretical beliefs and instruction in the Catholic faith. While both the accused and witnesses were sworn to secrecy, knowledge nonetheless circulated in local communities regarding inquisitors’ expectations and could inform strategies to shape one’s own testimony to avoid harsh penalties. My talk will examine the questions raised by the trial testimonies of Cristóbal de la Cruz, born in Algiers and enslaved in the Spanish galleys. De la Cruz denounced himself to the inquisitorial tribunals of Barcelona, Seville, and Mexico City between 1650 and 1680, for doubts he had about whether Islam or Catholicism was the true faith in which he could achieve salvation. He also sought respite from the grueling conditions on the galleys, to practice his profession as a cook in a hospital or monastery where he could receive religious instruction. What can his self-representation in each of the trials tell us about religious identity, mobility, and dissimulation in the early modern Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds? And how might scholars interested in early modern self-fashioning approach archival sources such as the “discursos de la vida” in inquisition trials?
Karoline Cook holds the position of Lecturer in the History of the Atlantic World at Royal Holloway, University of London. Both her research and teaching interests explore the interconnections between Mediterranean and Atlantic worlds. Her research focuses on Moriscos and the Spanish Empire, and the intersection between religious identity, race, and nation in the creation and negotiation of ethnic and legal categories.
Karoline Cook is a 2025 Hildegarde and Elbert Baker Visiting Scholar in the Humanities.
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