Until the 19th century, Europeans often fell into the hands of the Turks. Some were assimilated, others were sold in slave markets. And everyone was forced to convert to Islam. Someone later managed to escape to Malta, where the Order of the Hospitallers ruled and there was a representation of the Holy Inquisition. In an article published in the Journal of Religious History, historian Frans Chiappara explains why the inquisitors returned those who converted to Islam to the bosom of the church without much question.
Types of apostates
It is generally accepted that Christians converted to Islam rarely returned to their faith. However, the book by French historians Bartolomé and Lucille Benassarov speaks of 1,500 apostates mentioned in the archives of the Maltese Inquisition between 1550 and 1700. Historian Anna Broghini has 922 people who have expressed a desire to renounce their new faith and voluntarily presented themselves before the inquisitor in Malta.
And that's not all. Some renounced Islam when they lost all hope of ransom, others before the death penalty. Many slaves were forbidden by their Muslim masters to step on the threshold of the sacred office.
In addition, in 1637, Pope Urban VIII granted missionaries in the Levant the right to re-baptize apostates on the spot, now they did not need to appear before the Inquisition in person. They were mainly Maltese, Greeks, Russians, French, Italians, Spaniards and Turks, less often Hungarians, Poles, Dutch and English.
Interestingly, women were only 7.1 percent of the apostate. It was more difficult for them to escape and were redeemed less often. In addition, almost all women were given in marriage, and they gave birth to children.
Europeans were captured in sea battles and battles on land (most often in border areas). The captives were usually brought to the slave market in Constantinople. In addition, the Janissaries kidnapped children.
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There were also those who themselves renounced their native culture. They chased the "Turkish dream", believing that the Christian society is unfair to them, makes them drag out a miserable existence. Islam gave them a pass to a new society.
There were also former pirates among the converts. Most of the poor families, attacks on Christians were for them a form of resistance, an opportunity to avenge humiliation.
Sometimes they accepted Islam for real, completely changing their mentality. Such apostates believed that the Kingdom of Heaven was prepared for the Muslims, since they are generous and carefully follow religious codes, in contrast to Europeans who constantly adjust religion to their own needs.
Thus, a certain Andrea, who took the name Regeb, told the Inquisition: “I do not want to curse the sect of Muhammad and I do not want to become a Christian again. I want to be a Turk."
Burning of heretics
Photo: Globallookpress.com
I did what I was told
At the end of the 17th century, the Maltese Inquisition treated the apostates rather mildly. Only 22 percent of them, judging by the surviving documents, were formally declared heretics.
As a certain Guero from Castelnuovo said, he was “still in swaddling clothes” when his parents died. He was raised by a Muslim woman who circumcised him at the age of six. “I don’t know if Islam is good or bad, I just did what the Turks told me,” he said. Many had a similar fate.
Such people were explained the basics of Christian doctrine, and then baptized. Or, if they were baptized at birth, the rite was repeated immediately after the conversation with the inquisitor.
Those apostates who were really suspected of heresy were not burned alive, as, according to their confessions, the Turks told them. Usually they were simply released after public repentance. Moreover, the church more willingly accepted into its fold Christians who had converted to Islam than were born Muslims who wished to join Christianity.
Survival strategy
It is logical to assume that the apostates did not tell the whole truth and came up with a lot in an effort to justify themselves. Usually, they tried to present the conversion to Islam as a long-term strategy for survival in a hostile environment. It was especially emphasized how badly the Muslims treated them: “Hussein kept me in chains and almost did not give me food”; "My master threw me in jail for four months, and God, how I suffered!" In 1658, Vito, a Greek from Zara, told the inquisitor that when he was a slave, his Muslim master tied him to a tree in the yard for "18 long days," where he suffered from "wind and rain until the last days of December."
The apostates cited many reasons to justify themselves. For example, they were threatened with death for having a relationship with a Muslim woman or because they defamed Islam, took revenge on a Muslim, or seduced him with another faith. Some claimed that if they had not converted to Islam, they would have been thrown into the sea with a stone around their necks. A certain Nikolo told the inquisitor that in 1669 he killed a Christian slave and the pasha offered him a choice: to be buried alive with the murdered one or to convert to Islam.
Antonio Proto from Naples, who appeared before the inquisitor in 1669, accused the Muslims of having performed a circumcision on him in a deranged state: "They gave me wine, I got drunk, and then fell asleep." The Hungarian Paolo laid the blame on his master: "He made his servant hold me and circumcised me."
The inquisitors interrogate the heretic
Photo: Globallookpress.com
Indulgent Inquisitor
This raises two questions. First, could the inquisitor fail to understand that the apostates do not say a lot, but even come up with something? Did he really believe those who justified their piracy "with the hope that I would be caught and returned to the bosom of Christendom"? Second, if Christians are supposed to keep their faith until death, as the Revelation of John the Theologian says, why did the inquisitors usually not pass a severe sentence?
The answer is simple: the church was more interested in the return of Christians than in their punishment, and in an early return. For the Christian world, this meant the acquisition of new soldiers, sailors and, in general, specialists of various profiles, who were previously in the hands of Muslims. In addition, they had invaluable information about the enemy's military strength.
In the end, they still made it to Christian lands. This means that they have not forgotten about their former faith. The apostates revolted on ships, stole boats to get to Malta.
There were other reasons for the condescension of the Inquisition. After all, inquisitors are people too, and they could not help but be touched by the stories of apostates, often extremely dramatic. For example, the Maltese Ambrose, who was in slavery on the island of Rhodes, wrote to his confessor on November 10, 1652:
“Alas, they forced me to renounce my religion, but only by force, for I would never have accepted this sect voluntarily. On the contrary, my heart is more than ever turned towards the Christian faith. I pray to the Lord for the opportunity to see Your Reverend and my relatives again before I die. This is the greatest happiness I can hope for in this world. I am in good health, which is what I wish for all of you. Please remember me in your prayers. I send my best wishes to you, my beloved father, brother and all relatives and friends."
On September 15 of the same year, Matteo Abela sent a letter to his mother, in which he talked about the misfortune that befell him. He was accused of killing a Muslim and forced to convert to Islam on pain of death. However, he wrote: “I will never betray my faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and will run away at the first opportunity. Do not be sad, but pray to God and the Mother of God the Virgin Mary to help me return to Christian lands, where I can die a Christian."
Finally, the inquisitors were well aware that they were dealing with people who were not particularly well versed in matters of faith. So, a certain Mamet, aka Nikola, to the question of whether a Muslim can save the soul of another person, answered: "I am stupid, and therefore I do not know."
The inquisitors were guided by the provisions that faith is learned not in words and not in deeds, but in the thoughts and will of a person. For example, Cardinal Deodato Scalia wrote that Christians who commit an act of apostasy under the threat of violence or death are apostates only in word, not in deed, and therefore, after an instructive conversation, they should be taken back into the fold of the church.
Chambers of the Malta Inquisition
Photo: Public Domain / Wikimedia
Double life
The Venetian Antonia, who contracted scabies in 1684, decided that this was a punishment for denying Christ. But most of the apostates believed that the main thing was to keep the faith not in words, but in the heart, and the apostasy did not weigh on them.
So, the owner married Giorgio from Zagreb to a married woman, but in his heart he did not perceive this marriage as real. When children were born to apostates, they secretly baptized them and gave them Christian names in addition to Muslim ones.
These people kept their views to themselves, but the society of the same "Crypto-Christians" among whom they lived did not allow them to become discouraged. They prayed together and were baptized at least once a day, reminding each other of their religion and Western roots.
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Most of the apostates kept their original faith, remaining in the Christian community. They knew how to correctly tell the inquisitor about their difficult fate in order to return to the bosom of the church. As theologian Valentin Vigel wrote, these people allowed their "outer man" to live according to Islamic laws, while "the inner man lived by faith in the Lord."
Mikhail Karpov