Juan Antonio Llorente

Born Mar. 30, 1756, in Rincón del Soto, near Calahorra; died Feb. 5, 1823, in Madrid. Spanish historian of the Inquisition; priest and doctor of canon law.

Llorente held a series of posts in the institutions of the Inquisition from 1785 to 1801 (with interruptions). He was dismissed from his post as secretary of the Inquisition in 1801 for leniency toward its victims and for sympathizing with the ideas of the Enlightenment. During the French occupation from 1808 to 1814, Llorente joined the Francophiles, who supported Joseph Bonaparte. After the abolition of the Inquisition by the French occupation authorities in December 1808, Llorente was appointed to head the archives of the Inquisition, which gave him the opportunity to study the documents collected in the archives. He emigrated to Paris in 1814, where he published Critical History of the Spanish Inquisition (Russian translation, vols. 1-2, 1936). This work, which exposed the crimes of the Inquisition, became very well known. He was expelled from France in 1822 for publishing the work Political Portraits of the Popes From St. Peter to Pius VII.