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LLORENTE'S

HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.

THE HISTORY

OF THE

INQUISITION OF SPAIN,

FROM THE

TIME OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT

TO

THE REIGN OF FERDINAND VII.

COMPOSED FROM THE

ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS OF THE ARCHIVES OF THE SUPREME COUNCIL,
AND FROM THOSE OF SUBORDINATE TRIBUNALS
OF THE HOLY OFFICE.

ABRIDGED AND TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL WORKS OF

D. JUAN ANTONIO LLORENTE,

FORMERLY SECRETARY OF THE INQUISITION,

_CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO, KNIGHT OF THE ORDER OF CHARLES III.,
&c. &c. &c._

_SECOND EDITION._

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR GEO. B. WHITTAKER,

AVE-MARIA-LANE.

MDCCCXXVII.

LONDON:
Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES,
Stamford Street.

CONTENTS.

                                                                    Page

CHAPTER I.--First Epoch of the Church till the Conversion of the
Emperor Constantine                                                    1

CHAP. II.--Establishment of a General Inquisition against Heretics
in the Thirteenth Century                                             12

CHAP. III.--Of the Ancient Inquisition of Spain                       16

CHAP. IV.--Of the Government of the Old Inquisition                   20

CHAP. V.--Establishment of the Modern Inquisition in Spain            30

CHAP. VI.--Creation of a Grand Inquisitor-general--of a Royal
Council of the Inquisition--of Subaltern Tribunals and Organic
Laws--Establishment of the Holy Office in Aragon                      39

CHAP. VII.--Additional Acts to the First Constitution of the Holy
Office--Consequences of them, and Appeals to Rome against
them                                                                  46

CHAP. VIII.--Expulsion of the Jews--Proceedings against Bishops--Death
of Torquemada                                                         53

CHAP. IX.--Of the Procedure of the Modern Inquisition                 59

CHAP. X.--Of the principal Events during the Ministry of the Inquisitors
Deza and Cisneros                                                     71

CHAP. XI.--An Attempt made by the Cortes of Castile and Aragon
to reform the Inquisition--Of the principal Events under
Adrian, fourth Inquisitor-general                                     84

CHAP. XII.--Conduct of the Inquisitors towards the Morescoes          94

CHAP. XIII.--Of the Prohibition of Books and other Articles          100

CHAP. XIV.--Particular Trials for Suspicion of Lutheranism, and
some other Crimes                                                    113

CHAP. XV.--Prosecution of Sorcerers, Magicians, Enchanters, Necromancers,
and others                                                           129

CHAP. XVI.--Of the Trial of the false Nuncio of Portugal, and
other important Events during the time of Cardinal Tabera,
sixth Inquisitor-general                                             142

CHAP. XVII.--Of the Inquisitions of Naples, Sicily, and Malta, and
of the Events of the Time of Cardinal Loaisa, seventh
Inquisitor-general                                                   157

CHAP. XVIII.--Of important Events during the first years of the
Administration of the eighth Inquisitor-general--Religion of
Charles V. during the last years of his Life                         164

CHAP. XIX.--Of the Proceedings against Charles V. and Philip II.
as Schismatics and Favourers of Heresy--Progress of the Inquisition
under the last of these Princes--Consequences of the
particular Favour which he shewed towards it                         179

CHAP. XX.--The Inquisition celebrates at Valladolid, in 1559, two
Autos-da-fé against the Lutherans, in the Presence of some
Members of the Royal Family                                          196

CHAP. XXI.--History of two Autos-da-fé, celebrated against the
Lutherans in the City of Seville                                     212

CHAP. XXII.--Of the Ordinances of 1561, which have been followed
in the Proceedings of the Holy Office, until the present Time        227

CHAP. XXIII.--Of some Autos-da-fé celebrated in Murcia               253

CHAP. XXIV.--Of the Autos-da-fé celebrated by the Inquisitions of
Toledo, Saragossa, Valencia, Logroño, Grenada, Cuença, and
Sardinia, during the Reign of Philip II.                             269

CHAP. XXV.--Of the Learned Men who have been persecuted by
the Inquisition                                                      277

CHAP. XXVI.--Offences committed by the Inquisitors against the
Royal Authority and Magistrates                                      323

CHAP. XXVII.--Of the Trials of several Sovereigns and Princes
undertaken by the Inquisition                                        347

CHAP. XXVIII.--Of the Conduct of the Holy Office towards those
Priests who abused the Sacrament of Confession                       355

CHAP. XXIX.--Of the Trials instituted by the Inquisition against
the Prelates and Spanish Doctors of the Council of Trent             357

CHAP. XXX.--Of the Prosecution of several Saints and Holy Persons
by the Inquisition                                                   371

CHAP. XXXI.--Of the celebrated Trial of Don Carlos, Prince of
the Asturias                                                         377

CHAP. XXXII.--Trial of the Archbishop of Toledo                      409

CHAP. XXXIII.--Continuation of the Trial, until the Archbishop
went to Rome                                                         442

CHAP. XXXIV.--End of the Trial of Carranza--His Death                459

CHAP. XXXV.--Trial of Antonio Perez, Minister and First Secretary
of State to Philip II.                                               472

CHAP. XXXVI.--Of several Trials occasioned by that of Antonio
Perez.                                                               488

CHAP. XXXVII.--Of the principal Events in the Inquisition during
the Reign of Philip III.                                             500

CHAP. XXXVIII.--Of the Trials and Autos-da-fé during the Reign
of Philip IV.                                                        502

CHAP. XXXIX.--The Inquisition during the Reign of Charles II.        512

CHAP. XL.--Of the Inquisition in the Reign of Philip V.              518

CHAP. XLI.--Of the Inquisition during the Reign of Ferdinand VI.     524

CHAP. XLII.--Of the Inquisition under Charles III.                   539

CHAP. XLIII.--Of the Spanish Inquisition under Charles IV.           546

CHAP. XLIV.--Of the Inquisition during the Reign of Ferdinand VII.   565

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Compiler of the following pages has only attempted to give a
condensed translation of a complex and voluminous history, with the hope
that it might prove of more utility in its present form than in the
original works. Those portions which are not calculated to interest or
instruct the general reader, and afford no illustrations of the subject,
have been passed over. Those trials have been selected which serve as
examples of the various laws of the Inquisition, and of its state at
different epochs, and which include the persecutions of the most eminent
men.

The curious will be amply gratified by the perusal of the history of the
secret tribunal; the man of leisure cannot fail in finding occupation
and amusement in the pages of Llorente; and the philosopher will
discover in them ample scope for reflection on the aberrations of human
reason, and on the capability of our nature, when under the influence of
fanaticism, to inflict, with systematic indifference, death, torture,
misery, anxiety, and infamy, on the guilty and the innocent.

All the records of the fantastic cruelties of the heathen world do not
afford so appalling a picture of human weakness and depravity as the
authentic and genuine documents of the laws and proceeding of this Holy
Office, which professed to act under the influence of the doctrines of
the Redeemer of the World!

I offer, with humility, this abridgement of the work to the public, and
while I hope that it will be kindly and favourably received, I believe
that it may prove interesting and useful to every class of readers.

_June, 1826._

PREFACE.

Although a tribunal has existed for more than three hundred years in
Spain, invested with the power of prosecuting heretics, no correct
history of its origin, establishment, and progress has been written.

Writers of many countries have spoken of Inquisitions established in
different parts of the world, where the Roman Catholic faith is the
religion of the state, and yet not one is worthy of confidence. The work
of M. Lavallée, entitled the "History of the Inquisitions of Italy,
Spain, and Portugal," and published in 1809, has only added to the
historical errors of the authors who preceded him. The Spanish and
Portuguese writers on the same subject deserve no higher credit; and
have not detailed, with accuracy, the circumstances which led to the
establishment of this dreadful tribunal. These writers even differ in
their statements of the period of its origin, and place it between the
years 1477 and 1484. One affirms, with confidence, that the latter date
is the true one, because in that year the regulations of the tribunal
were enacted; another decides that it originated in 1483, because in
that year Thomas Torquemada was appointed inquisitor-general by the
Pope.

The inquisition of Spain was not a new tribunal created by Ferdinand V.
and Isabella, the queen of Castile, but only a reform and extension of
the ancient tribunal, which had existed from the thirteenth century.

No one could write a complete and authentic history of the Inquisition,
who was not either an inquisitor or a secretary of the holy office.
Persons holding only these situations could be permitted to make
memoranda of papal bulls, the ordinances of sovereigns, the decisions of
the councils of the "_Suprême_," of the originals of the preliminary
processes for suspicion of heresy, or extracts of those which had been
deposited in the archives. _Being myself the secretary of the
Inquisition at Madrid_, during the years 1789, 1790, and 1791, I have
the firmest confidence in my being able to give to the world _a true
code of the secret laws by which the interior of the Inquisition was
governed, of those laws which were veiled by mystery from all mankind_,
excepting those men to whom the knowledge of their political import was
exclusively reserved. A firm conviction, from knowing the deep objects
of this tribunal, that it was vicious in principle, in its constitution,
and in its laws, notwithstanding all that has been said in its support,
induced me to avail myself of the advantage my situation afforded me,
and to collect every document I could procure relative to its history.
My perseverance has been crowned with success far beyond my hopes, for
in addition to an abundance of materials, obtained with labour and
expense, consisting of unpublished manuscripts and papers, mentioned in
the inventories of deceased inquisitors, and other officers of the
institution, in 1809, 1810, and 1811, when the Inquisition in Spain was
suppressed, _all the archives were placed at my disposal_; and from 1809
to 1812, I collected everything that appeared to me to be of consequence
in the registers of the council of the Inquisition, and in the
provincial tribunals, for the purpose of compiling this history.

Never has a prisoner of the Inquisition seen either the accusation
against himself, or any other. No one was ever permitted to know more of
his own cause than he could learn of it by the interrogations and
accusations to which he was obliged to reply, and by the extracts from
the declarations of the witnesses, which were communicated to him, while
not only their names were carefully concealed, and every circumstance
relating to time, place, and person, by which he might obtain a clue to
discover his denouncers, but even if the depositions contained any thing
favourable to the defence of the prisoner. The maxim on which this was
founded, is, that the accused ought not to occupy himself but in
replying to the chief points of his accusation, and that it was the
province of the judge afterwards to compare the answers that he had made
with those which had been given favourable to his acquittal. Philip
Limborch, and many more of veracity, have erred in their histories, from
their ignorance of the method of conducting an inquisitorial trial.
Those authors relied wholly on the accounts of prisoners, who knew
nothing of the groundwork of their own case; and the details in
Eymerick, Paramo, Pegna, Carena, and some other inquisitors, are too
limited to yield the necessary information.

These facts make me hope that I shall not transgress the bounds of
propriety when I say, that I only can give a true history of the
Inquisition, as I only possess the materials necessary for the
undertaking.

I have read the most celebrated trials of the modern Inquisition, and
the details given by me differ essentially from those of other
historians, not excepting those of Limborch, who is the most exact of
them. The trials of Don Carlos of Austria, prince of the Asturias, of
Don Bartholomew Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, and of Antony Perez, the
first minister and secretary of Philip II., have been greatly
illustrated in many important particulars.

I have established the truth of that which concerns the Emperor Charles
V.; Jeanne of Albret, queen of Navarre; Henry IV., king of France, her
son, and of Margaret of Bourbon, the sovereign duchess of Bar, her
daughter; of Don James of Navarre, son of Don Carlos, prince of Biana,
surnamed the Infant of Tudela; of John Pic de Mirandola; of Don John of
Austria, son of Philip IV.; of Alexander Farnèse, duke of Parma, and
grandson of Charles V.; Don Philip of Arragon, son of the Emperor of
Morocco; of Cæsar Borgia, son of Pope Alexander VI., and relation of the
king of Navarre; of Jean Albret, duke of Valentinois, peer of France;
of Don Peter Louis Borgia, last grand-master of the military order of
Montessa, and of many other princes against whom the Inquisition
exercised its power. The lover of history will find the details of the
trials of seven archbishops, twenty bishops, and a great number of
learned men, among whom are many of the members of the Council of Trent,
who were unfortunately suspected of entertaining or favouring the
Lutheran doctrines. To this list I have added the suits instituted by
the _holy office_ against many _saints_, and other personages, held in
reverence by the Church of Spain, and also of many literati persecuted
by this tribunal. These, for the sake of perspicuity, I have divided
into two classes; the first class comprises those learned theologians
who were accused of Lutheranism, for having, in their zeal, corrected
the text of Bibles already published, or Latin translations from the
Greek and Hebrew editions. The second class consists of those learned
men, designated by the holy office under the title of False
Philosophers, and who were persecuted for having manifested a wish to
destroy, in Spain, superstition and fanaticism.

This history will make known numberless attempts perpetrated by the
inquisitors against magistrates who defended the rights of sovereign
authority, in opposition to the enterprises of the _holy office_ and the
court of Rome; and which enables me to state the trials of many
celebrated men and ministers who defended the prerogatives of the crown,
and whose only crimes were having published works on the right of the
crown, according with the true principles of jurisprudence. These trials
will display the Counsellors of the Inquisition carrying their audacity
to such a height, as to deny that their temporal jurisdiction was
derived from the concession of their sovereign, and actually prosecuting
all the members of the council of Castile, as rash men, suspected of
heresy, for having made known and denounced to the king this system of
usurpation. In addition to these intolerable acts, will be found
accounts of their assumption of superiority over viceroys, and other
great officers of state. I have also shewn, that these ministers of
persecution have been the chief causes of the decline of literature, and
almost the annihilators of nearly all that could enlighten the people,
by their ignorance, their blind submission to the monks who were
qualifiers, and by persecuting the magistrates and the learned who were
anxious to disseminate information. These monks were despicable
scholastic theologians, too ignorant and prejudiced to be able to
ascertain the truth between the doctrines of Luther and those of Roman
Catholicism, and so condemned, as Lutheran, propositions incontestably
true.

The horrid conduct of this _holy office_ weakened the power and
diminished the population of Spain, by arresting the progress of arts,
sciences, industry, and commerce, and by compelling multitudes of
families to abandon the kingdom; by instigating the expulsion of the
Jews and the Moors; and by immolating on its flaming piles more than
_three hundred thousand victims_!! So replete with duplicity was the
system of the inquisitors-general, and the council of this _holy
office_, that if a papal bull was likely to circumscribe their power, or
check their vengeance, they refused to obey, on the pretext of its being
opposed to the laws of the kingdom, and the orders of the Spanish
government. By a similar proceeding, they evaded the ordinances of the
king, by alleging that papal bulls prevented them from obeying, under
pain of excommunication.

Secrecy, the foe of truth and justice, was the soul of the tribunal of
the Inquisition; it gave to it new life and vigour, sustained and
strengthened its arbitrary power, and so emboldened it, that it had the
hardihood to arrest the highest and noblest in the land, and enabled it
to deceive, by concealing facts, popes, kings, viceroys, and all
invested with authority by their sovereign. This _holy office_, veiled
by secrecy, unhesitatingly kept back, falsified, concealed, or forged
the reports of trials, when compelled to open their archives to popes or
kings. The Inquisitors constantly succeeded, by this detestable knavery,
in concealing the truth, and facilitated their object by being careful
not to number the reports. This was practised to a great extent in the
trials of the archbishop of Toledo, of the Prothonotary, and others.

Facts prove beyond a doubt, that the extirpation of Judaism was not the
real cause, but the mere pretext, for the establishment of the
Inquisition by Ferdinand V. The true motive was to carry on a vigorous
system of confiscation against the Jews, and so bring their riches into
the hands of the government. Sixtus IV. sanctioned the measure, to gain
the point dearest to the court of Rome, an extent of domination. Charles
V. protected it from motives of policy, being convinced it was the only
means of preventing the heresy of Luther from penetrating into Spain.
Philip II. was actuated by superstition and tyranny to uphold it; and
even extended its jurisdiction to the excise, and made the exporters of
horses into France liable to seizure by the officers of the tribunal, as
persons suspected of heresy! Philip III., Philip IV., and Charles II.,
pursued the same course, stimulated by similar fanaticism and
imbecility, when the re-union of Portugal to Spain led to the discovery
of many Jews. Philip V. maintained the Inquisition from considerations
of mistaken policy, inherited from Louis XIV., who made him believe that
such rigour would ensure the tranquillity of the kingdom, which was
always in danger when many religions were tolerated. Ferdinand VI. and
Charles III. befriended this _holy office_, because they would not
deviate from the course that their father had traced, and because the
latter hated the freemasons. Lastly, Charles IV. supported the tribunal,
because the French Revolution seemed to justify a system of
surveillance, and he found a firm support in the zeal of the
inquisitors-general, always attentive to the preservation and extension
of their power, as if the sovereign authority could find no surer means
of strengthening the throne, than the terror inspired by an
Inquisition.

_During the time I remained in London, I heard some Catholics affirm
that the Inquisition was useful in Spain, to preserve the Catholic
faith, and that a similar establishment would have been useful in
France._

These persons were deceived, by believing that it was sufficient for
people to be good Catholics not to have any fear of the _holy office_.
They knew not that nine-tenths of the prisoners were deemed guilty,
though true to their faith, because the ignorance or malice of the
denouncers prosecuted them for points of doctrine, which were not
susceptible of heretical interpretation, but in the judgment of an
illiterate monk, is considered erudite by the world, because he is said
to have studied the theology of the schools. The Inquisition encouraged
hypocrisy, and punished those who either did not know how, or would not,
assume the mask. This tribunal wrought no conversion. The Jews and
Morescoes, who were baptized without being truly converted, merely that
they might remain in Spain, are examples which prove the truth of this
assertion. The former perished on the pyres of the Inquisition, the
latter crossed over into Africa with the Moors, as much Mahometans as
their ancestors were before they were baptised.

I conclude with declaring that the contents of this history are
original; and that I have drawn my facts with fidelity, from the most
authentic sources, and might have greatly extended them[1].

HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.

CHAPTER I.

FIRST EPOCH OF THE CHURCH TILL THE CONVERSION OF THE EMPEROR
CONSTANTINE.

The Christian religion was scarcely established before heresies arose
among its disciples. The Apostle St. Paul instructs Titus, the Bishop of
Crete, in his duty towards heretics, saying, that a man who persists in
his heresy, after the first and second admonition, shall be rejected:
but St. Paul does not say that the life of the heretic shall be taken;
and our Saviour, addressing St. Peter, commands that a sinner shall be
forgiven, not only seven times, but seventy times seven, which infers
that he ought never to be punished with death by a judgment of the
church. Such was the doctrine of the church during the three first
centuries, until the peace of Constantine. Heretics were never
excommunicated until exhortation had been employed in vain. As this
system was adopted, it was natural that some persons should write
against heresy to prevent its increase. This was done by St. Ignatius,
Castor Agrippa, St. Irenæus, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Justin, St.
Denis of Corinth, Tertullian, Origen, and many others.

These faithful imitators of the benevolence of their Divine Master were
averse to oppressive measures. Although the evil produced by the
religion of the impious Manès was so great, that Archelaüs, Bishop of
Caschara, in Mesopotamia, judged it necessary to imprison him, yet he
renounced that design when Marcellus (to whom Manès had written)
proposed another conference with him. Archelaüs succeeded in converting
the heretic, and not only gave up his intention of detaining him, but
saved his life when the people would have stoned him to death.

It is possible that the church was in a certain degree compelled to act
in this manner, from the impossibility of employing the coercive
measures of temporal power against heretics during the reigns of the
heathen princes; but this was not the only motive for her tolerance,
since it is certain that when no edicts of persecution existed against
the Christians, the emperors received the appeals of the bishops in the
same manner as those of their other subjects: this is proved by the
history of the heretic Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch.

The council of that town, assembled in 272, perceiving that Paul had
relapsed into heresy, after the abjuration which he had made before the
council of 266, deposed him, and elected Domnus in his place. The
episcopal house being still occupied by the deposed bishop, he was
ordered to quit it, that his successor might take possession. Paul
having refused to obey, the bishops applied to the Emperor Aurelian, who
had not then begun to persecute the Christians: he received their
complaint, and replied, that as he did not know which of the two parties
was right, they must conform to the decision of the Bishop of Rome and
his church. The holy see was then occupied by Felix I., who confirmed
the decision of the council, and the Emperor Aurelian caused it to be
executed.

As toleration was universal in the Christian church, it is not to be
supposed that the church of Spain followed different principles.
Basilides and Marcial, Bishops of Astorga and Merida, apostatized; they
were reconciled to the church without any punishment but degradation,
to which they submitted before the year 253, when they appealed to Pope
Stephen.

The Council of Elvira in 303 decreed, that if an heretic demanded to be
re-admitted into the bosom of the church, he should be reconciled,
without suffering any punishment but a canonical penance of ten years,
which was the more remarkable, as this council established more severe
punishments for many crimes which appear less heinous. This seems to
prove that the Spanish bishops who composed this council, among whom
were the great Osius of Cordova, Sabinus of Seville, Valerius of
Saragossa, and Melantius of Toledo, were persuaded, like Origen, that
leniency was the means to convert heretics, in order to prevent them
from falling into obstinacy and impenitence.

SECOND EPOCH.--_From the Fourth to the Eighth Century._

If the primitive system of the church towards heretics had been
faithfully pursued, as it ought to have been, after the peace of
Constantine, the tribunal of the Inquisition would never have existed,
and, perhaps, the number and duration of heresies would have been less;
but the popes and bishops of the fourth century, profiting by the
circumstance of the emperors having embraced Christianity, began to
imitate, in a certain degree, the conduct which they had reprehended in
the heathen priests.

These pontiffs, though respectable for the holiness of their lives,
sometimes carried their zeal for the triumph of the Catholic faith, and
the extirpation of heresy, to too great a height; and to ensure success,
engaged Constantine and his successors to establish civil laws against
all heretics.

This first step, which the popes and bishops had taken contrary to the
doctrine of St. Paul, was the principle and origin of the Inquisition;
for when the custom of punishing a heretic by corporeal pain, although
he was a good subject, was once established, it became necessary to vary
the punishments, to augment their number, to render them more or less
severe, according to the character of each sovereign, and to regulate
the manner of prosecuting the culprit.

The Emperor Theodosius published, in 382, an edict against the
Manicheans, decreeing that they should be punished with death, and their
property confiscated for the use of the state, and commissioning the
prefect (Préfet du Prétoire) to appoint inquisitors and spies to
discover those who should conceal themselves.

It is here that inquisition and accusation are first mentioned in
relation to heresy, for until that time only those great crimes which
attacked the safety of the empire were permitted to be publicly
denounced. The successors of Theodosius modified these edicts, some of
which menaced heretics with the prosecutions of the impartial judges, if
they did not voluntarily abjure their errors. Notices were given to
known heretics who did not abjure after the publication of the edicts,
that if they were converted in a certain time, they would be admitted to
a reconciliation, and would only suffer a canonical penance.

When these conciliatory measures were unavailing, various punishments
were adopted. Those doctors who, in contempt of the laws, promulgated
their false opinions, were subjected to considerable fines, banishment
from cities, and even transportation. In certain cases, their property
was confiscated; in others they were obliged to pay a fine of ten pounds
of gold, or they were scourged with leathern thongs, and sent to islands
from whence they could not escape. Besides these punishments, they were
forbidden to hold assemblies, and the offenders were liable to
proscription, banishment, transportation, and even death in some cases.
The execution of these decrees was intrusted to the governors of
provinces, magistrates charged with the administration of justice,
commanders of towns and their principal officers, who were all liable to
various punishments in case of negligence.

The establishment of most of these laws had been solicited by popes and
bishops of known sanctity, and it must be allowed that it was not their
intention to carry those which decreed the punishment of death into
execution; they only desired to intimidate innovators by their
publication.

The church of Spain continued faithful to the general discipline, under
the authority of the Roman emperors; the Arian heresy was afterwards
established among them under the Goths; but since their princes have
embraced the Catholic faith, the laws and councils of Spain inform us of
their treatment of heretics.

The fourth Council of Toledo, assembled in 633, at which St. Isidore,
Archbishop of Seville, assisted, was occupied with the Judaic heresy: it
was decreed, with the consent of King Sisinand, that they should be at
the disposal of the bishops, to be punished, and compelled by fear to
return to Christianity a second time: they were to be deprived of their
children, and their slaves set at liberty.

In 655, the ninth Council of Toledo decreed, that baptized Jews should
be obliged to celebrate the Christian festivals with their bishops, and
that those who should refuse to conform to this discipline should be
condemned either to the punishment of scourging, or abstinence,
according to the age of the offender.

We find that greater severity was shown towards those who returned from
Christianity to idolatry. King Récarede I. proposed to the third Council
of Toledo, in 589, that the priests and civil judges should be
commissioned to extirpate that species of heresy, by punishing the
culprits in a degree proportioned to the crime, yet without employing
capital punishment.

These rigorous measures did not appear sufficient, and the twelfth
Council of Toledo, in 681, at which King Erbigius assisted, decided
that, if the offender was noble, he should be subject to excommunication
and exile; if he was a slave, he should be scourged and delivered to his
master loaded with chains, and if the proprietor could not answer for
him, that he should be placed at the disposal of the king.

In 693, the sixteenth Council of Toledo assembled in the presence of
King Egica, added, to the measures already established, a law, by which
all who opposed the efforts of the bishops and judges to destroy
idolatry were condemned, if noble, to be excommunicated and pay a fine
of three pounds of gold; and if of a low condition, to receive a hundred
strokes of a whip, and have half his property confiscated.

Recesuinte, who reigned from 663 to 672, established a particular law
against heretics: it deprived them indiscriminately of the wealth and
dignities they might possess, if they were priests, and added to these
punishments, perpetual banishment for laymen, if they persisted in
heresy.

THIRD EPOCH.--_From the Eighth Century to the Pontificate of Gregory
VII._

In the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries, the ecclesiastics
obtained many privileges from the kings and emperors, and the judicial
power became, in some cases, a right of the episcopacy. These
acquisitions, and the universal ignorance which followed the irruption
of the barbarians, were the causes of the influence which the pontiffs
of Rome acquired over the Christian people, who were persuaded that the
authority of the pope should be without bounds, and that he had supreme
power both in ecclesiastical and temporal affairs.

In 726, when the Romans deposed their last duke, Basil, Pope Gregory
II. usurped the civil government of Rome, and had recourse to the
protection of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace, against the King of
Lombardy, who aspired to the command in that capital. His successor,
Gregory III., offered the dignity of patrician to Charles Martel, as if
he had the right of disposing of it. Zachary, who was elected pope, in
741, acted as the temporal sovereign of Rome, and permitted Pepin, son
of Charles Martel, to take the title of King of France, after having
deposed Childeric III., who was the legitimate sovereign. Pepin was
crowned in France by Stephen II., who became pope in 752.

At last, Leo III. crowned Charlemagne emperor of the west, on Christmas
day, in the year 800. In this ceremony, which took place at Rome,
Charlemagne was proclaimed the first emperor of the restoration.

The popes employed the great influence they had gained over general
opinion, to extend and preserve their dominion. Pepin and Charlemagne
did not foresee how fatal their example would prove to their successors,
when they solicited Stephen II. to release the French from their oath of
fidelity to Childeric III. When the doctrine, that a pope possessed the
power of releasing subjects from their oath of fidelity, was once
established, it became necessary that kings should endeavour to
conciliate the popes. Succeeding events show that this doctrine was
favourable to the rise of the Inquisition.

The idea that excommunication produced all the effects attached to
infamy, not only to the Christian on whom it fell, but to all who held
any communion with him, was another cause of the great influence of the
popes, and the progress of the Inquisition. The barbarians had preserved
the doctrine of the Druids, which forbade a Gaul to assist one whom the
priests had declared impious and abhorred of the gods, on pain of being
deemed guilty towards the gods, and unworthy of the society of men. The
priests, finding this opinion established, did not combat it, because
it added force to the anathemas of the church. Fortunately the popes of
the middle ages had not yet thought of commissioning men to ascertain if
Christians were orthodox, and the ancient discipline of the church was
still pursued towards heretics.

Felix, Bishop of Urgel, in Spain, had embraced the erroneous opinion
that Jesus Christ was the Son of God only by adoption. He returned to
the faith of the church, but relapsed some time after into the same
error, although he had abjured, before the Council of Ratisbonne, in
792, and before Pope Adrian, at Rome. The conduct of Felix was very
reprehensible, yet Leo III. would not excommunicate him in a simple
manner, but only pronounced, the anathema against him, in case he
refused to abjure a second time. Felix afterwards abjured, and suffered
no punishment but deprivation of his dignity.

The Emperor Michel, in 811, renewed all the laws which condemned the
Manichean heretics to death. The patriarch Nicephorus represented to him
that it was better to convert them by gentle means; but the spirit of
the church at that time was so far from moderation, that the Abbot
Theophanes, celebrated for his piety, does not hesitate to speak of
Nicephorus and the other counsellors of the prince, as ignorant and ill
advised; and adds, that the maxims of Holy Writ warrant the custom of
burning heretics, because they can never be brought to repent.

Theodore Critinus, chief of the Iconoclastes, was called before the
seventh council general, assembled at Constantinople in 869. He was
convicted of entertaining opinions contrary to the doctrines of the
church: he abjured his heresy, with several of his sect, and was
reconciled without being subjected to any penance. The Emperor Basil,
who assisted at the council, honoured him with a kiss of peace. We may
conclude from this, that if the conduct of the church had always been
equally lenient, heresy would not have been so frequent among the
Christians.

In 1022, certain heretics, who appeared to profess the doctrines of the
Manicheans, were discovered in Orleans, and several other towns; among
them was Stephen, confessor to Queen Constance, wife of Robert. That
prince assembled a council at Orleans: Stephen was summoned to appear
before it, and attempts were made, but in vain, to bring him back to the
true faith. The bishops resolved to punish these heretics, and those who
were ecclesiastics were degraded and excommunicated with the others. The
king immediately afterwards condemned them to be burnt. Several, when
they felt the flames, exclaimed that they were willing to submit to the
church; but it was too late, all hearts were closed against them. These
examples show the difference which was made between the Manichean and
other heresies.

It is necessary to mention several maxims which had been introduced into
the ecclesiastical government, and which passed at that time for
incontestable truths. The first of these opinions was, that it was
necessary not only to punish obstinate heretics with excommunication,
but to employ it against every species of crime, which abuse was carried
to such a height, that Cardinal St. Peter Damian reproached Pope
Alexander with it. According to the second maxim, if an excommunicated
Christian persisted for more than a year in refusing to submit and
demand absolution, after having been subjected to a canonical penance,
he was considered as an heretic. The third maxim held that it was a
meritorious act to prosecute heretics, and apostolical indulgences were
granted as a recompense for this service to the cause of religion.

These maxims, and several others which prevailed during the fourth
epoch, prepared the minds of the people for the establishment of the
Inquisition, which was destined to persecute heretics and apostates.

FOURTH EPOCH.

The celebrated Hildebrand ascended the pontifical throne in 1073, under
the name of Gregory VII., soon after his predecessor, Alexander II., had
summoned the emperor Henry III. to Rome, to be judged by a council. This
prince had been denounced by the Saxons, who revolted against him, as an
heretic. As he did not appear, the pope excommunicated him, released his
subjects from their oath of fidelity, and caused them to elect, in his
stead, Rodolph, Duke of Suabia.

The authority which this pope acquired over the Christian princes
greatly surpassed that of his predecessors, and although it was directly
contrary to the spirit of the New Testament, his successors employed
every means to preserve it.

The famous French monk Gerbert being elected pope in 999, under the name
of Sylvester II., addressed a letter to all Christians, in which he
supposes the Church of Jerusalem speaking from its ruins, and calling
upon them to take up arms and fight boldly to deliver it from
oppression. Gregory VII. also undertook, in 1074, to form a crusade
against the Turks, in favour of Michael, emperor of the East; but as he
died before he could put his plan into execution, his successor, Urban
II., caused it to be proclaimed in the Council of Clermont, in the year
1095. The efforts of the pope had an incredible success; a numerous army
left Europe soon after, which first took the city of Antioch, and
afterwards Jerusalem in 1099. The injustice of this war, and the other
expeditions of the same kind which succeeded it, would have disgusted
all Europe, if the people had not been prepossessed with the absurd
idea, that it was meritorious to make war for the exaltation and glory
of Christianity: the consequences of a system so fatal to temporal power
were felt in France at the time of the Patarians, Catharians, and other
sects of Manès. Alexander III., having sent Peter, Bishop of Meaux, to
Count Raymond V. of Toulouse, that legate made him and all his nobles
take an oath that they would not favour the heretics who had taken up
arms in defence of their party; and in the Council of Lateran, the
following year, the fathers declared that though the church did not
approve of sanguinary measures, yet she would not refuse the assistance
offered by Christian princes: in consequence, Alexander not only
excommunicated the heretics and their adherents, but promised all those
who should die in the war against them absolution and salvation, and for
the present granted indulgences for two years to all who should take up
arms.

In 1181, Cardinal Henry, Bishop of Alva, was sent into France to pursue
the war against the Albigenses; but this expedition did not entirely
destroy that party, and a new council was held, in whose decrees
Cardinal Fleury supposes he has discovered the origin of the
Inquisition. He was not mistaken in this opinion, but it was not at that
time actually instituted, since the bishops alone, as they had always
been, were commissioned to preserve the faith. The council recommended
that the bishops, or their archdeacons, should visit the dioceses once
or twice a year, and that they should cause the inhabitants to take an
oath that they would denounce all heretics, or persons who held
meetings, to the bishop or archdeacon. The council also decreed that
counts, barons, and other nobles should take an oath to discover
heretics and punish them, on pain of excommunication and deprivation of
their estates and employments.

In 1194, Cardinal Gregory St. Angelo instigated Alphonso II., King of
Aragon, to publish an edict banishing heretics of all sects
indiscriminately from his states; and Peter II., son of Alphonso,
published another in 1197, with nearly the same injunctions, which
proves that the former edict had little effect.

CHAPTER II.

ESTABLISHMENT OF A GENERAL INQUISITION AGAINST HERETICS IN THE
THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

In 1203, Pope Innocent III. commissioned Peter de Castelnau and Ralph,
two monks of the order of Cistercians, in the monastery of Fontfroide,
in Narbonnese Gaul, to preach against the Albigenses. Their exhortations
were not in vain, and the success of their mission was a favourable
introduction to a plan which Pope Innocent had formed of instituting
inquisitors independent of the bishops, with the privilege of
prosecuting heretics, as delegates of the holy see.

On the 4th of June, in the seventh year of his pontificate, he named the
abbot of the Cistercians, with Peter and Ralph, apostolical legates. He
gave them full powers to prosecute all heretics; and to facilitate the
execution of the orders of the holy see, they were to engage in the name
of the pope, Philip II., King of France, his son, and all his nobles, to
pursue the heretics, and to promise them full indulgences as a
recompense for their zeal. The pope invested these monks with the
necessary powers to enable them to destroy or establish whatever they
might judge to be favourable to their design, in the ecclesiastical
provinces of Aix, Arles, Narbonne, and other bishoprics where heretics
might be found, only recommending that they should apply to the holy see
in all difficult cases; at the same time he wrote to Philip, requesting
him to assist his commissioners, and even, if it was necessary, to send
the presumptive heir to his throne with an army against the heretics.

The legates encountered many difficulties, because their mission was
displeasing to the bishops. The King of France took no part in the
affair, but the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, Beziers, Cominges, and
Carcassone, and the other nobles of these provinces, seeing that the
Albigenses had singularly increased, and persuaded that a very small
number would be converted, refused to banish them from their states, as
it would lessen the population, and, consequently, be against their
interests: an additional motive for this refusal was, that these
heretics were all peaceful and submissive subjects.

Peter and Ralph commenced preaching against the heretics; they held
conferences with these fanatics, but the number of the converted was
very small. Arnauld, Abbot of the Cistercians, called upon twelve abbots
of his order to assist him; and (during their sojourn at Montpellier)
they admitted two Spaniards to share their labours, who were known under
the names of Diego Acebes, a bishop of Osma, who was returning to his
diocese, and St. Dominic de Guzman, a regular canon of the order of St.
Augustine. They both converted several Albigenses, and when the Spanish
bishop returned to his diocese, he permitted St. Dominic to remain in
France.

The great feudal chiefs of Provence and Narbonne refused to execute the
orders of the legates, to pursue the heretics in their states, alleging
that they were always at war with each other; but the legates threatened
to excommunicate them, and to release their subjects from their oaths of
fidelity. These menaces alarmed the nobles, and they consented to sign a
peace.

The most powerful of these princes was Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse.
His conduct towards Peter de Castelnau, who had threatened him several
times for not performing his promises, induced the Albigenses who were
his subjects to assassinate the legate, who was beatified in 1208. The
pope wrote to all the nobles of the provinces of Narbonne, Arles,
Embrun, Aix, and Vienne in Dauphiny, pressing them to unite and march
against the heretics, and promising them the same indulgences which had
been granted to the crusaders.

The assassination of Peter de Castelnau had excited among the Catholics
the greatest indignation against his murderers. Arnauld took advantage
of this moment to execute the orders which he had received from the
pope. He commissioned the twelve monks, and others whom he had
associated, to preach a crusade against the heretics, to grant
indulgences, to note those who refused to engage in the war, to inform
themselves of their creed, to reconcile the converted, and place all
obstinate heretics at the disposal of Simon de Montfort, commander of
the crusaders. This was the beginning of the Inquisition in 1208.

Pope Innocent III. died on the 16th of July, 1216, before he had
succeeded in giving a permanent form to the delegated inquisition: the
continuation of the war against the Albigenses, and the opposition which
he met with from the bishops in the Council of Lateran, were perhaps the
causes of his failure. Honorius III., who succeeded him, prepared to
finish his undertaking.

Innocent had sent St. Dominic de Guzman to Toulouse, that he might
choose one of the religious orders approved by the church, for the
institution which he intended to form. He preferred that of St.
Augustine; and on his return to Rome with his companions, Honorius
approved his choice on the 22nd of December, 1216.

St. Dominic also established an order for laymen. This order has been
designated as the _Third Order of Penitence_, but most commonly as the
_Militia of Christ_, because those who were members of it fought against
heretics, and assisted the Inquisitors in the exercise of their
functions; they were considered as part of the inquisitorial family, and
on that account bore the name of _Familiars_. This association
afterwards gave rise to that which was called the _Congregation of St.
Peter Martyr_; it was approved by Honorius, and confirmed by his
successor, Gregory IX. Another association was formed in Narbonne, which
also bore the name of _Militia of Christ_; it was soon after blended
with the third order of St. Dominic. Honorius having formed a
constitution against heretics, the Emperor Frederic II. gave it the
sanction of civil law at his coronation. In 1224 the Inquisition already
existed in Italy under the ministry of the Dominican friars, which is
proved by an edict of the Emperor Frederic against heretics at Padua.
The efforts of the Inquisition in Narbonne had not succeeded according
to the expectation of the pope, who imputed its failure to the
negligence of Cardinal Conrad, whom he recalled, and sent Cardinal Roman
in his place. The importunity of this legate induced Louis VIII., King
of France, to place himself at the head of an army to march against the
nobles who protected the Albigenses. But Louis died in the same year,
and the pope followed him, without having succeeded in giving a
permanent form to the new tribunal which had been introduced into
France.

Gregory IX., who ascended the pontifical throne in 1227, finally
established the Inquisition: he had been the zealous protector of St.
Dominic, and the intimate friend of St. Francis d'Assiz. Cardinal Roman
was more fortunate than the legates who preceded him: the nobles, weary
of a war which had lasted twenty years, wished for peace. The Count of
Toulouse, Raymond VII., after the death of his father, who had begun the
war, reconciled himself to St. Louis and the church in a Council of
Narbonne, and promised to drive the heretics from his domains.

In 1229 another council was held at Toulouse. The decrees were nearly
the same as those made at the Councils of Lateran and Verona, except
that laymen were then first prohibited from reading the Scriptures in
the vulgar tongue. In the succeeding year, many other edicts were
published, increasing in severity; but it appears that these rigorous
measures failed in effect, as the heresy of the Albigenses penetrated
even to the capital of Christendom.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE ANCIENT INQUISITION OF SPAIN.

In 1233, when the Inquisition in France had received the established
form which was bestowed on it by St. Louis, Spain was divided into four
Christian kingdoms, besides the Mahometan states. Castile was under the
dominion of St. Ferdinand, who added to it the kingdoms of Seville,
Cordova, and Jaen. James I. governed Aragon, and conquered the kingdoms
of Valencia and Majorca; Navarre was possessed by Sancho VIII., who died
in the course of the following year, and left his crown to Theobald I.,
Count de Champagne and de Brie. Sancho II. reigned in Portugal.

Many convents of Dominicans existed in these kingdoms after the
establishment of the order, but there are no authentic records, to prove
that the Inquisition was introduced before the year 1232, when Pope
Gregory IX. addressed a brief to Don Esparrago, Archbishop of Taragona,
and to his suffragan bishops, in which he most earnestly exhorted them
to oppose the progress of heresy by every means in their power.

The archbishop sent the bull to Gil Rodriguez de Valladares, first
provincial of the Spanish Dominicans; he also sent it to Don Bertrand,
Bishop of Lerida, in whose diocese the first Spanish Inquisition was
founded. Pope Innocent VI. conferred many privileges on the Dominican
Friars, and in 1254 extended the rights of the Inquisitors, and in the
same brief decreed that the depositions of witnesses should be
considered valid, although their names were unknown. Urban VI. and
Clement VI. also augmented their privileges.

The Kings of Aragon continued to protect the Inquisition, and James II.,
in 1292, published a decree, commanding the tribunals of justice to
assist the Dominicans, to imprison all who might be denounced, to
execute the judgments pronounced by the monks, to remove every obstacle
which they might meet with, _&c_. The hatred which the office of an
inquisitor everywhere inspired in the first ages of the Inquisition
caused the death of a great number of Dominicans and some Cordeliers:
the honours of martyrdom were assigned to them, but St. Peter of Verona
was the only one canonized by the pope. Nothing certain is known of the
state of Portugal during this period: it appears that in the thirteenth
century the Inquisition was established only in the dioceses of
Taragona, Barcelona, Urgel, Lerida, and Girona.

The convents of Dominicans having multiplied in Spain, a chapter-general
of the order decreed, in 1301, that it should be divided into two
provinces; that the first in rank should be named the province of Spain,
and comprise Castile and Portugal; and that the second should have the
title of Aragon, and be composed of Valencia, Catalonia, Rousillon,
Cerdagne, Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza.

The provincial of the Dominicans of Castile, designated as the
provincial of Spain, possessed the right of naming the apostolical
inquisitor in the other provinces. In 1302 Father Bernard was inquisitor
of Aragon, and celebrated several _autos-da-fé_ in the same year.

In 1308 Pope Clement V. commanded the King of Aragon and the inquisitors
to arrest all the knights templars who had not been prosecuted, and to
confiscate their property for the use of the holy see; the templars in
Castile and Portugal were also arrested.

In 1314, other heretics were discovered in the kingdom of Aragon;
Bernard Puigceros, the inquisitor-general, condemned several to
banishment, the others were burnt. Many who abjured were reconciled.

In 1325, F. Arnaldo Burguete, inquisitor-general of the kingdom,
arrested Pierre Durand de Baldhac, who had relapsed into heresy, and he
was burnt alive in the presence of King James, his sons, and two
bishops.

In 1334, F. William da Costa condemned F. Bonato to the flames, and
reconciled many persons who had been perverted by that monk.

In 1350, Father Nicholas Roselli discovered a sect of heretics named
_Begards_, whose chief was named Jacobus Justis; they were all
reconciled, and Jacobus was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. The
bones of three of these heretics who had died impenitent were
disinterred and burnt. Roselli being elected Cardinal in 1356, Nicholas
Eymerich succeeded him. Eymerich composed a book entitled "The Guide of
Inquisitors," in which the most minute details of his judgments, and
those of other inquisitors of Aragon, are found.

It is not certain whether the provincial of Castile exercised his
privilege of naming inquisitors; perhaps heresy had not penetrated into
the states of Castile.

Pope Gregory IX. dying in 1378, the Romans named Urban VI. as his
successor; but several cardinals assembled out of Rome, and elected
another Pope under the name of Clement VII.

The great schism of the West then began, and lasted till the election of
Martin V., in the Council-general of Constance in 1417, where Don Gil
Muñoz, who had been elected as Clement VIII., renounced the papacy. This
revolution influenced the state of the Inquisition as much as the other
points of ecclesiastical discipline. Castile followed the party of
Clement VII., and Portugal that of Urban VI. The order of Dominicans was
equally divided, and elected different vicars-general. Urban VI. died in
1389, and his party elected Boniface IX., who appointed F. Rodrigo de
Cintra apostolical inquisitor-general of Portugal. He afterwards named
F. Vicente de Lisboa inquisitor-general of Spain. Castile, Navarre, and
Aragon were under the dominion of Benedict XIII., who was elected Pope
after the death of Clement VII. Such was the state of the Inquisition in
Spain towards the end of the fourteenth century.

It is uncertain if the Inquisition existed in Castile in the beginning
of the fifteenth century; for, though Boniface IX. appointed F. Vicente
de Lisboa inquisitor-general, his authority was not recognized, as that
kingdom belonged to the party of Benedict XIII., who, after the Council
of Constance, was designated as the anti-pope Peter de Luna. The town of
Perpignan was the seat of one of the provincial Inquisitions of Aragon,
whose jurisdiction extended over the countships of Rousillon and
Cerdagne, and over the islands of Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza. Benedict
XIII., who was recognized in this part of Spain, divided this province
and appointed two inquisitors, who celebrated several _autos-da-fé_, and
burnt a considerable number of people.

The election of Martin V. having put an end to the great schism of the
West, the Portuguese monks ought to have submitted to the authority of
the Provincial of Spain, who was then a monk of their nation, named F.
Juan de Santa Justa; but the Dominicans who were at Constance persuaded
the Pope that his jurisdiction was too extensive, which induced the
pontiff to subdivide the province of Spain into three parts: the first
part was named the province of Spain, and comprised Castile, Toledo,
Murcia, Estremadura, Andalusia, Biscay, and the Asturias de Santillana;
the second, Santiago, was composed of the kingdom of Leon, Galicia, and
the Asturias of Oviedo; and the third, that of Portugal, extended over
all the dominions of the monarch.

Martin V. established a provincial Inquisition at Valencia, in 1420, at
the request of Alphonso V., King of Aragon; hitherto commissioners had
only been sent there.

The Inquisitor of Aragon, 1441, was F. Michael Ferriz, and that of
Valencia, F. Martin Trilles, who reconciled in their districts several
Wickliffites, and condemned many others to be burnt. Several inquisitors
succeeded these till 1474, when Isabella, wife of Ferdinand of Aragon,
King of Sicily, ascended the throne of Castile, after the death of Henry
IV. her brother. John II., King of Aragon, dying in 1479, his son,
Ferdinand, united that kingdom to Sicily; he soon after conquered the
kingdom of Grenada, which belonged to the Moors, and lastly that of
Navarre, which was secured to him by the capitulation of the
inhabitants.

CHAPTER IV.

OF THE GOVERNMENT OF THE OLD INQUISITION.

Although the Popes, in establishing the Inquisition, had only proposed
to punish the crime of heresy, yet the inquisitors were commissioned to
pursue those Christians who were only suspected, because it was the only
means of discovering those who were really guilty. There were many
crimes which came under the jurisdiction of a civil judge, which the
Popes considered no one could be guilty of without being tainted with a
false doctrine; and although they were pursued by secular tribunals, the
inquisitors were enjoined to consider the accused as suspected of
heresy, and to proceed against them, in order to ascertain if they
committed these crimes from the depravity natural to man, or from the
idea that they were not criminal; which opinion caused a suspicion that
their doctrine was erroneous. A species of blasphemy which was called
heretical, belonged to this class of crimes; it was committed against
God or his saints, and showed in the offender erroneous opinions of the
omniscience or other attributes of the Deity. It rendered the blasphemer
liable to be suspected of heresy, as the inquisitor might consider it a
proof that his habitual thoughts were contrary to the faith.

The second species of crime which caused a suspicion of heresy, was
sorcery and divination. If the offenders only made use of natural and
simple means of discovering the future, such as counting the lines in
the palm of the hand, they came under the jurisdiction of a civil judge;
but all sorcerers were liable to be punished for heresy by the
Inquisition, if they baptized a dead person, re-baptized an infant, made
use of holy water, the consecrated host, the oil of extreme unction, or
other things which proved contempt or abuse of the sacraments and the
mysteries of religion.

The same suspicion affected those who addressed themselves to demons in
their superstitious practices. A third species of crime was the
invocation of demons. Nicholas Eymerich informs us that, in his office
of inquisitor, he had procured and burnt, after having read them, two
books which treated of that subject; they both contained an account of
the power of demons, and of the mode of worshipping them. The same
author adds, that in his time a great number of trials for this crime
took place in Catalonia, and that many of the accused had gone so far as
to worship Satan, with all the signs, ceremonies, and words of the
Catholic religion.

A fourth kind of crime which caused suspicion of heresy, was, to remain
a year, or longer, excommunicated without seeking absolution, or
performing the penance which had been imposed. The Popes affirmed that
no Catholic, irreproachable in his faith, could live with so much
indifference under the censure of the church.

Schism was the sixth case where heresy was suspected. It may exist
either without heresy or with it. To the first class belong all
schismatics, who admit the articles of the faith, but deny the authority
of the Pope, as head of the Catholic Church, and vicar of Jesus Christ.
The second is composed of those who hold the same opinions as the first,
and also refuse to believe in some of the articles; such as the Greeks,
who hold that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father, and not from
the Son.

The Inquisition also proceeded against concealers, favourers, and
adherents of heretics, as being suspected of professing the same
opinions. The seventh class was composed of all those who opposed the
Inquisition, and prevented the inquisitors from exercising their
functions.

The eighth class comprehended those nobles who refused to take an oath
to drive the heretics from their states. The ninth class consisted of
governors of kingdoms, provinces and towns, who did not defend the
Church against heretics, when they were required by the Inquisition. The
tenth class comprised those who refused to repeal the statutes in force
in towns and cities, when they were contrary to the measures decreed by
the holy office. The eleventh class of suspected persons, were all
lawyers, notaries, and other persons belonging to the law, who assisted
heretics by their advice; or concealed papers, records, and other
writings, which might make their errors, dwellings, or stations known.
In the twelfth class of suspected were those persons who have given
ecclesiastical sepulture to known heretics. Those who refused to take an
oath in the trials of heretics when they were required to do it, were
also liable to suspicion. The fourteenth class were deceased persons who
had been denounced as heretics. The Popes, in order to render heresy
more odious, had decreed that the bodies of dead heretics should be
disinterred and burnt, their property confiscated, and their memory
pronounced infamous. The same suspicion fell upon writings which
contained heretical doctrines, or which might lead to them. Lastly, the
Jews and Moors were considered as subject to the holy office, when they
engaged Catholics to embrace their faith, either by their writings or
discourse.

Although all the persons guilty of the crimes above-mentioned were under
the jurisdiction of the holy office, yet the Pope, his legates, his
nuncios, his officers, and familiars were exempt; and if any of these
were denounced as heretics, the inquisitor could only take the secret
information and refer it to the Pope. Bishops were also exempt, but
kings had not that privilege.

As the bishops were the ordinary inquisitors by divine right, it seems
just that they should have had the power of receiving informations, and
proceeding against the apostolical inquisitors in matters of faith; but
the Pope rendered his delegates independent, by decreeing that none but
an apostolical inquisitor could proceed against another. The inquisitor
and the bishop acted together, but each had the right of pursuing
heretics separately: the orders for imprisonment could only be issued by
both together, and if they did not accord they referred to the Pope. The
inquisitors could require the assistance of secular power in the
exercise of their authority, and it could not be refused without
incurring the punishment of excommunication and suspicion of heresy. The
bishop was obliged to lend his house for the prisoners; besides this,
the inquisitors had a particular prison to secure the persons of the
accused.

The first inquisitors had no fixed salary: the holy office was founded
on devotion and zeal for the faith; its members were almost all monks,
who had made a vow of poverty, and the priests who were associated in
their labours, were generally canons, or provided with benefices. But
when the inquisitors began to make journeys, accompanied by recorders,
alguazils, and an armed force, the Pope decreed that all their expenses
should be defrayed by the bishops, on the pretence that the inquisitors
laboured for the destruction of heresy in their dioceses. This measure
displeased the bishops, still more as they were deprived of part of
their authority. The expenses of the Inquisition were afterwards
defrayed by the fines and confiscations of the condemned heretics: these
resources were the only funds of the holy office; it never possessed any
fixed revenue.

_Of the Manner of Proceeding in the Tribunals of the Old Inquisition._

When a priest was appointed an inquisitor by the Pope, or by a delegate
of the holy see, he wrote to the king, who issued a royal mandate to all
the tribunals of the towns where the inquisitor would pass to perform
his office, commanding them, on pain of the most severe penalties, to
arrest all the persons whom he should mark as heretics, or suspect of
heresy, and to execute the judgments passed upon them. The same order
obliged the magistrates to furnish the inquisitor and his attendants
with a lodging, and to protect them from insult and every inconvenience.
When the inquisitor arrived at the town where he intended to enter upon
his office, he officially informed the magistrate, and required his
attendance, fixing the time and place.

The commander of the town presented himself before the delegate, and
took an oath to put in force all the laws against heretics. If the
officer or magistrate refused to obey, the inquisitor excommunicated
him; if he made no difficulty, the inquisitor appointed a day for the
people to meet in the church, when he preached, and read an edict which
commanded that all informations should be given within a certain
period. The inquisitor afterwards declared that all who should
voluntarily confess themselves heretics, should receive absolution, and
be subjected to a slight penance, but that those who were denounced
should be proceeded against with severity.

If any accusations took place during the interval, they were registered,
but did not take effect until it was known that the accused would not
come voluntarily before the tribunal. After the expiration of the period
allowed, the informer was summoned; he was told that there were three
ways of proceeding to discover the truth,--accusation, information, and
inquisition, and was asked to which he gave the preference. If he chose
the first, he was invited to accuse the denounced person, but at the
same time to consider that he was subject to the law of retaliation if
he was found to be a calumniator. This manner of proceeding was adopted
by very few persons: the greater number declared, that fear of the
punishments with which the holy office menaced those who did not inform
against heretics was the cause of their appearance; and they desired
that their information might be kept secret, on account of the danger
they incurred of being assassinated if they were known.

The inquisitor interrogated the witnesses, assisted by the recorder and
two priests, who were commissioned to observe if the declarations were
faithfully taken down, and to be present when they were read to the
witnesses, who were then asked if they acknowledged all that was read to
them. If the crime or suspicion of heresy was proved in the information,
the criminal was arrested and taken to the ecclesiastical prison. After
his arrest, he was examined, and his answers compared with the testimony
of the witnesses. If the accused confessed himself guilty of one heresy,
it was in vain for him to assert that he was innocent of the others; he
was not permitted to defend himself, because his crime was proved. He
was asked if he would abjure the heresy of which he acknowledged himself
guilty. If he consented, he was reconciled, and the canonical penance
was imposed on him, with some other punishment; if he refused, he was
declared an obstinate heretic, and was delivered up to secular justice,
with a copy of his sentence.

If the accused denied the charge, and undertook to defend himself, a
copy of the process was given to him, but without the names of the
accuser or the witnesses, and with every circumstance omitted which
might lead to their discovery.

The accused was asked if he had enemies, and if he knew their motives
for hating him. He was also permitted to declare that he suspected any
particular person of wishing to ruin him. In either case the proof was
admitted, and the inquisitor considered it in passing judgment. The
inquisitor sometimes asked the accused if he knew certain persons; these
individuals were the accusers and witnesses; if he replied in the
negative, he could not afterwards challenge them as enemies: in the
course of time, every one concluded that these persons were the accuser
and the witnesses, and the custom was abandoned. The accused person was
also permitted to appeal to the Pope, who rejected or admitted his
appeal, according to the rules of justice. There was no regular
proceeding before the Inquisition, and the judges did not fix a time to
establish the proof of the facts. After the replies and defence of the
accused, the inquisitor and the bishop of the diocese, or their
delegates, proceeded to pass sentence without any other formalities. If
the accused denied the charges, although he was convicted or strongly
suspected, he was tortured, to force him to confess his crime; or if it
was thought that there was no necessity for it, the judges proceeded to
pass the final sentence.

If the crime imputed to the accused was not proved, he was acquitted,
and a copy of the declaration given to him, but the name of his accuser
was not communicated. If he had been calumniated, he was obliged to
clear himself publicly by the canonical method, in the town where it had
taken place; he afterwards abjured all heresy, and received the
absolution _ad cautelam_[2] for all the censures which he had incurred.
In order to proportion the punishment to the suspicion, it was divided
into three degrees, named _slight_, _serious_, and _violent_.

The person who was declared to be suspected, though in the least degree,
was called upon to renounce all heresies, and particularly that of which
he was suspected. If he consented, he was reconciled, and was subjected
to punishments and penances; if he refused, he was excommunicated; and
if he did not demand absolution, or promise to abjure after the space of
one year, he was considered as an obstinate heretic, and proceeded
against as such. If the accused was a _formal_ heretic, willing to
abjure, and not guilty of having relapsed, he was reconciled with
penances.

A person was considered as relapsed if he had already been condemned, or
_violently_ suspected of the same errors. The abjurations were made in
the place where the inquisitor resided, sometimes in the episcopal
palace, in the convent of Dominicans, or in the house of the inquisitor,
but most generally in the churches. The Sunday before this ceremony, the
day on which it was to take place was announced in all the churches of
the town, and the inhabitants were requested to attend the sermon which
would be preached by the inquisitor against heresy. On the appointed day
the clergy and the people assembled round a scaffold, where the person
_slightly suspected_ stood bare-headed, that he might be seen by every
one. The mass was performed, and the inquisitor preached against the
particular heresy which was the cause of the ceremony; he announced that
the person on the scaffold was _slightly suspected_ of having fallen
into it, and read the process to the people: he concluded by saying,
that the culprit was ready to abjure. A cross and the Bible was given to
the offender, who read his abjuration, and signed it, if he could write;
the inquisitor then gave him absolution, and imposed upon him those
penances which were thought most useful.

When the suspicion of heresy was _violent_, the _auto-da-fé_ took place
on a Sunday, or festival-day, and all the other churches were closed,
that the concourse of people might be greater in that where the ceremony
was to be performed. The offender was warned, not only to be a good
Catholic for the future, but to conduct himself in such a manner as not
to be accused a second time; as, if he relapsed, he would suffer capital
punishment, although he might abjure and be reconciled. If the offender
was suspected in the highest degree, he was treated as an heretic, and
wore the habit of a penitent during the ceremony; it was composed of
brown stuff, with a scapulary which had two yellow crosses fastened on
it.

If the suspected person was to clear himself from calumny by the
canonical method, the ceremony was also announced before it took place,
and he was obliged to take an oath that he was not an heretic, and to
produce twelve witnesses who had known him for the last ten years, to
swear that they believed his affirmation to be true. He then abjured all
heresies.

If the accused was repentant, and demanded to be reconciled after having
relapsed, he was to be delivered over to secular justice, and was
destined to suffer capital punishment. The inquisitors, after having
passed judgment on him, engaged some priests, who were in their
confidence, to inform him of his situation, and induce him to demand the
sacrament of penance and the communion. When these ministers had passed
two or three days with the prisoner, an _auto-da-fé_ was announced; the
sentence was read which delivered the culprit over to secular justice,
and recommended the judges to treat him with humanity.

If the accused was an impenitent heretic, he was condemned, but the
_auto-da-fé_ was never celebrated until every means had been tried to
convert him; if he was obstinate, he was delivered up to the justice of
the king, and burnt. If the unfortunate heretic had relapsed, it was in
vain for him to return to the true faith; he could not avoid death, and
the only favour shewn him was, that he was first strangled, and
afterwards burnt. Those who escaped from the prisons, or fled to avoid
being arrested, were burnt in effigy.

The tribunal of the Inquisition being ecclesiastical, had originally
only the power of inflicting spiritual punishments; but the laws of the
emperors during the fourth and following centuries, and other
circumstances, caused the inquisitors of the thirteenth century to
assume the right of imposing punishments entirely temporal, except that
of death. The sentence of the Inquisition imposed a variety of fines and
personal penalties; such as entire or partial confiscation; perpetual,
or a limited period of imprisonment; exile, or transportation; infamy,
and the loss of employments, honours, and dignities. Those persons who
abjured as _seriously suspected_ of heresy, were condemned to be
imprisoned for a certain time proportioned to the degree of suspicion.
If the accused was _violently suspected_, he was condemned to perpetual
imprisonment, but the inquisitor had the power of mitigating the
sentence, if he judged that the prisoner repented sincerely. If the
abjurer had been a _formal_ heretic, he was imprisoned for life, and the
inquisitor had not the power of shortening the duration of the
punishment.

Among the punishments to which heretics were condemned, must be
enumerated that of wearing the habit of a penitent, known in Spain under
the name of _San Benito_, which is a corruption of _saco bendito_. Its
real name in Spanish was _Zamarra_. The first became the common name,
because the penitential habit was called _sac_ in the Jewish history.

Before the thirteenth century it was the custom to bless the _sac_ which
was worn in public penance, and hence it derived the epithet of
_bendito_ (blessed). It was a close tunic, made like the cassock of a
priest, with crosses of a different colour affixed to the breast. St.
Dominic and the other inquisitors caused the _reconciled heretics_ to
wear these crosses, as a protection against the Catholics who massacred
all known heretics, although they might be unarmed. The _reconciled
heretics_ wore two crosses to distinguish them from pure Catholics, who
only wore one as crusaders.

CHAPTER V.

ESTABLISHMENT Of THE MODERN INQUISITION IN SPAIN.

The state of the Inquisition in the kingdom of Aragon, at the accession
of Ferdinand and Isabella, has been shown in a preceding chapter. This
tribunal was then introduced into the kingdom of Castile, after having
been reformed by statutes and regulations so severe, that the Aragonese
violently resisted the fresh burdens which were imposed on them.

This is the Inquisition which has reigned in Spain since the year 1481,
which was destroyed, to the satisfaction of all Europe, and which has
since been re-established to the grief of all enlightened Spaniards.

The war against the Albigenses was the first cause of the establishment
of the Inquisition; and the pretended necessity of punishing the
apostacy of the newly-converted Spanish Jews, was the reason for
introducing it in a reformed state. It is important to remark, that the
immense trade carried on by the Spanish Jews had thrown into their hands
the greatest part of the wealth of the Peninsula; and that they had
acquired great power and influence in Castile under Alphonso IX., Peter
I., and Henry II.; and in Aragon under Peter IV. and John I. The
Christians, who could not rival them in industry, had almost all become
their debtors, and envy soon made them the enemies of their creditors.
This disposition was fostered by evil-minded men, and popular commotions
were the consequence in almost all the towns of the two kingdoms. In
1391, five thousand Jews were sacrificed to the fury of the people in
different towns. Several were known to have escaped death by becoming
Christians; many others sought to save themselves in following their
example; and in a short time more than a million persons renounced the
law of Moses to embrace the Christian faith. The number of conversions
increased considerably during the ten first years of the fifteenth
century, through the zeal of St. Vincent Ferrier and several other
missionaries; they were seconded by the famous conferences which took
place in 1413 between several Rabbis and the converted Jew, Jerome de
Santafé. The converted Jews were named _New Christians_; they were also
called Marranos, or the cursed race, from an oath which the Jews were in
the habit of using among themselves. As the fear of death was the cause
of most of these conversions, many repented, and secretly returned to
Judaism, though they outwardly conformed to Christianity. The constraint
to which they were obliged to submit was sometimes too painful, and
several were discovered. This was the ostensible reason for the
establishment of a tribunal which gave Ferdinand an opportunity of
confiscating immense riches, and which Sextus IV. could not but approve,
as it tended to augment the credit of the maxims of the court of Rome;
it is to these projects, concealed under the appearance of zeal for
religion, that the Inquisition of Spain owes its origin.

In 1477, Philip de Barbaris, inquisitor of the kingdom of Sicily, went
to Seville, to obtain from Ferdinand and Isabella the confirmation of a
privilege granted in 1233, by the Emperor Frederic, which gave to the
Inquisition of Sicily the right of seizing a third part of the property
of condemned heretics. Barbaris, through zeal for the interests of the
Pope, endeavoured to persuade the king that the Christian religion
derived the greatest advantages from the fear which the judgments of the
Inquisition inspired. He was eagerly seconded by Alphonso de Hojida,
prior of the convent of Dominicans at Seville; and Nicholas Franco, the
nuncio of the Pope at the court of Spain. A report was then spread in
different parts of the kingdom that the _New Christians_, with the
unbaptized Jews, insulted the images of Jesus Christ, and had even
crucified Christian children in mockery of his sufferings on the cross.
Ferdinand was willing to receive the Inquisition into his states: the
only obstacle was the refusal of Isabella; that excellent queen could
not approve of measures so contrary to the gentleness of her character,
but her consent was obtained by alarming her conscience: she was told
that it became a religious duty to adopt them in the present
circumstances.

Isabella suffered herself to be led away by the representations of her
council, and commissioned her ambassador at Rome, Don Francis de
Santillan, Bishop of Osma, to solicit in her name a bull for the
establishment of the Inquisition in Castile, which was granted in 1478.
It authorized Ferdinand and Isabella to name the priests who were to be
commissioned to discover in their states all heretics, apostates, and
favourers of these crimes. As this measure was displeasing to Isabella,
her council, by her order, suspended the execution of the bull until
less severe remedies had been tried.

The queen commissioned D. Diego Alphonso de Solis, Bishop of Cadiz,
Diego de Merlo, and Alphonso de Hojida, prior of the convent of
Dominicans, to observe the effects produced by gentle means, and give a
faithful account of them. Their reports were such as might be expected
from the situation of affairs; and the Dominican fathers, the nuncio,
and even the king, desired that the measures preferred by Isabella
should be declared insufficient.

The events of this year proved how displeasing the institution was to
the Castilians. In the beginning of the year 1480, the Cortes assembled
at Toledo. It was occupied in providing means to prevent the evil which
the communication of the Jews with Christians might produce: the ancient
regulations were renewed; and among others, those which obliged
unbaptized Jews to wear some distinguishing mark, and to inhabit
separate quarters, to which they were compelled to retire before night:
they were also prohibited from exercising the professions of physicians,
surgeons, merchants, barbers, and innkeepers; yet the Cortes had no
intention either of approving or demanding that the Inquisition should
be established in the kingdom.

The consent of the queen was obtained; and while the two sovereigns were
at Medina del Campo, on the 17th of November, 1480, they named as the
first inquisitors Michael Morillo and John de San Martin, both
Dominicans, as adviser and accessor of these two monks, Doctor John Ruiz
de Medina, a counsellor of the queen's; and as (procurator-fiscal)
attorney, John Lopez del Barco, the queen's chaplain.

On the 9th of October an order was sent by the king and queen to all the
governors of provinces to furnish the inquisitors and their suite with
everything they might require in their journey to Seville; an
extraordinary circumstance in that time, and which proves the influence
which the Dominicans had already acquired. Their privileges were the
same as those granted in 1223 by the Emperor Frederic. The Castilians
were so far from being pleased at the introduction of the Inquisition,
that the inquisitors, on their arrival at Seville, found it impossible
to collect the small number of persons necessary to the performance of
their functions, although they shewed their commission; and the Council
of Spain was obliged to issue another order, that the prefect and other
authorities of Seville, and the diocese of Cadiz, should assist the
inquisitors in their installation; this order was also interpreted in
such a manner that it was only executed in those towns which belonged to
the queen. The _New Christians_ then immediately emigrated into the
states of the Duke de Medina Sidonia, the Marquis of Cadiz, the Count
D'Arcos, and other nobles; and the new tribunal declared that their
heresy was proved by their emigration.

The inquisitors established their tribunal in the Dominican convent of
St. Paul, at Seville; and on the 2nd of January, 1481, they issued their
first edict, which commanded the Marquis of Cadiz, the Count D'Arcos,
and all grandees of Spain, to seize the persons of the emigrants within
fifteen days; and to send them under an escort to Seville, and
sequestrate their property, on pain of excommunication, besides the
other punishments to which they would be liable as favourers of heresy.
The number of prisoners was soon so considerable, that the convent
assigned to the inquisitors was not sufficiently large to contain them,
and the tribunal was removed to the Castle de Triana, situated near
Seville.

The inquisitors soon published a second edict, named the Edict of Grace,
to engage those who had apostatized to surrender themselves voluntarily:
it promised that if they came with true repentance, their property
should not be confiscated, and they should receive absolution; but if,
on the contrary, they suffered the time of _grace_ to elapse, or were
denounced by others, they would be prosecuted with all the severity of
the tribunal. Several suffered themselves to be persuaded; but the
inquisitors only granted them absolution when they had declared upon
oath the names, condition, and place of dwelling, of all the apostates
whom they knew or had heard spoken of. They were also obliged to keep
these revelations secret; and by these means a great number of _New
Christians_ fell into the hands of the inquisitors. When the period of
grace was passed, a new edict was published, which commanded all persons
to denounce those who had embraced the Judaic heresy, on pain of mortal
sin and excommunication. The consequence of this edict was, that an
heretic was only informed that he was accused, at the moment when he was
arrested and dragged to the dungeons of the Inquisition.

The same fate awaited the _converted_ Jew, who might have acquired
certain habits in his infancy, which, though not contrary to
Christianity, might be represented as certain signs of apostacy. The
inquisitors mentioned in their edict several cases where accusation was
commanded. The following cases are so equivocal, that altogether they
would scarcely form a simple presumption in the present time. A convert
was considered as relapsed into heresy, if he kept the sabbath out of
respect to the law which he had abandoned; this was sufficiently proved
if he wore better linen and garments on that day than those which he
commonly used, or had not a fire in his house from the preceding
evening; if he took the suet and fat from the animals which were
intended for his food, and washed the blood from it; if he examined the
blade of the knife before he killed the animals, and covered the blood
with earth; if he blessed the table after the manner of the Jews; if he
has drunk of the wine named caser, (a word derived from caxer, which
means _lawful_,) and which is prepared by Jews; if he pronounces the
bahara, or benediction, when he takes the vessel of wine into his hands,
and pronounces certain words before he gives it to another person; if he
eats of an animal killed by Jews; if he has recited the Psalms of David
without repeating the Gloria Patri at the end; if he gives his son a
Hebrew name chosen among those used by the Jews; if he plunges him seven
days after his birth into a basin containing water, gold, silver,
seed-pearl, wheat, barley, and other substances, pronouncing at the same
time certain words, according to the custom of the Jews; if he draws the
horoscope of his children at their birth; if he performs the ruaya, a
ceremony which consists in inviting his relations and friends to a
repast the day before he undertakes a journey; if he turned his face to
the wall at the time of his death, or has been placed in that posture
before he expired; if he has washed, or caused to be washed, in hot
water the body of a dead person, and interred him in a new shroud, with
hose, shirt, and a mantle, and placed a piece of money in his mouth; if
he has uttered a discourse in praise of the dead, or recited melancholy
verses; if he has emptied the pitchers and other vessels of water in the
house of the dead person, or in those of his neighbours, according to
the custom of the Jews; if he sits behind the door of the deceased as a
sign of grief, or eats fish and olives instead of meat, to honour his
memory; if he remains in his house one year after the death of any one,
to prove his grief. All these articles show the artifice used by the
inquisitors in order to prove to Isabella that a great number of Judaic
heretics existed in the dioceses of Cadiz and Seville. These measures,
so well adapted to multiply victims, could not fail in their effect, and
the tribunal soon began its cruel executions. On the 6th of January,
1481, six persons were burnt, seventeen on the 26th of March following,
and a still greater number a month after; on the 4th of November, the
same year, two hundred and ninety-eight _New Christians_ had suffered
the punishment of burning, and seventy-nine were condemned to the
horrors of perpetual imprisonment in the town of Seville alone. In other
parts of the province and in the diocese of Cadiz, two thousand of these
unfortunate creatures were burnt; according to Mariana, a still greater
number were burnt in effigy, and one thousand seven hundred suffered
different canonical punishments.

The great number of persons condemned to be burnt, obliged the prefect
of Seville to construct a scaffold of stone in a field near the town,
name Tablada; it was called Quemadero, and still exists. Four statues,
of plaster, were erected on it, and bore the name of the _Four
Prophets_; the condemned persons were enclosed alive in these figures,
and perished by a slow and horrible death[3].

The dread which these executions inspired in the _New Christians_ caused
a great number to emigrate to France, Portugal, and even to Africa. Many
of those who had been condemned for contumacy had fled to Rome, and
demanded justice of the Pope against their judges. The sovereign pontiff
wrote on the 29th of January to Ferdinand and Isabella, and complained
that the inquisitors did not follow the rule of right in declaring those
to be heretics who were not guilty. His Holiness added that he would
have pronounced their deprivation but from respect to the royal decree
which had instituted them in their office, but he revoked the
authorization which he had given. On the 11th of the following month the
Pope despatched a new brief, in which, without mentioning the first, he
says, the general of the Dominicans, Alphonso de St. Cebriant, having
proved to him the necessity of increasing the number of inquisitors, he
had appointed to that office Alphonso de St. Cebriant, and seven monks
of his order. It was at this time that Queen Isabella requested the Pope
to give the Inquisition a permanent form which should be satisfactory to
all parties; she required that the judgments passed in Spain should be
definitive and without appeal to Rome, and complained at the same time
that many persons accused her of being influenced in all that she did
for the tribunal by a desire to seize the wealth of the condemned.

When Sixtus IV. received this letter he had just learnt that his bulls
had met with some resistance in Sicily from the viceroy and other
magistrates, and artfully took advantage of Isabella's request to
confirm his authority in that kingdom. He replied to the queen, and
praised her zeal for the Inquisition; appeased her scruples of
conscience in regard to the confiscations; and assured her that he would
have complied with all her demands, if the cardinals, and those charged
with the administration of affairs, had not found insurmountable
difficulties in so doing. He exhorted her to maintain the Inquisition in
her states, and above all to take proper measures that the apostolical
bulls should be received and executed in Sicily.

The councillors to whom the Pope had submitted the demands of Isabella,
approved of the creation of an apostolical judge of appeal in Spain; and
proposed at the same time that no person descended from the Jews, either
by the male or female side, should be admitted among the inquisitorial
judges. Don Inigo Manrique was named sole judge of appeals in all
matters of faith.

CHAPTER VI.

CREATION OF A GRAND INQUISITOR-GENERAL; OF A ROYAL COUNCIL OF THE
INQUISITION; OF SUBALTERN TRIBUNALS AND ORGANIC LAWS: ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE HOLY OFFICE IN ARAGON.

In 1483, Father Thomas de Torquemada was appointed inquisitor-general of
Aragon, and the immense powers of his office were confirmed in 1486, by
Innocent VIII. and by the two successors of that pontiff. It would have
been impossible to find a man more proper to fulfil the intentions of
Ferdinand in multiplying the number of confiscations than Torquemada. He
first created four inferior tribunals at Seville, Cordova, Jaen, and
Villa-Real (now Ciudad-Real); the latter was soon after transferred to
Toledo. He then permitted the Dominican fathers to exercise their
functions in the kingdom of Castile: these monks, who held their
commission from the holy see, did not submit to the authority of
Torquemada without some resistance; they declared that they were not his
delegates. Torquemada did not pronounce their deposition, as he feared
it would injure the execution of the enterprise which he was commencing,
but prepared to form laws which he found very necessary. He chose as
assistants and councillors, two Civilians, named John Gutierrez de
Chabes, and Tristan de Medina. At this time Ferdinand, perceiving how
important it was to the interest of the revenue to organize the
tribunal, created a royal council of the Inquisition, and appointed
Torquemada president, and as councillors, Don Alphonso Carillo, Bishop
of Mazara in Sicily, Sancho Velasquez de Cuellar and Ponce de Valencia,
both doctors of law. Torquemada commissioned his two assistants to
arrange the laws for the new council, and convoked a junta, which was
composed of the inquisitors of the four tribunals which he had
established, the two assistants, and the members of the royal council.
This assembly was held at Seville, and published the first laws of the
Spanish tribunal under the name of instructions in 1484. These
instructions were divided into twenty-eight articles.

The 1st article regulated the manner in which the establishment of the
Inquisition should be announced in the country where it was to be
introduced.

The 2nd article commanded that an edict should be published, accompanied
with censures against those who did not accuse themselves voluntarily
during the term of grace.

By the 3rd, a delay of thirty days was appointed for heretics to declare
themselves.

The 4th regulated that all voluntary confessions should be written in
the presence of the inquisitors and a recorder.

The 5th, that absolution should not be given secretly to any individual
voluntarily confessing, unless no person was acquainted with his crime.

The 6th ordained, that part of the penance of a _reconciled heretic_
should consist in being deprived of all honourable employments, and of
the use of gold, silver, pearls, silk, and fine wool.

By the 7th article, pecuniary penalties were imposed on all who made a
voluntary confession.

By the 8th, the person who accused himself after the term of grace could
not be exempted from the punishment of confiscation.

The 9th article decreed, that if persons under twenty years of age
accuse themselves after the term of grace, and it is proved that they
were drawn into error by their parents, a slight punishment shall be
inflicted.

The 10th obliged the inquisitors to declare, in their act of
reconciliation, the exact time when the offender fell into heresy, that
the portion of property to be confiscated might be ascertained.

The 11th article decreed, that if a heretic, detained in the prisons of
the holy office, demanded absolution, and appeared to feel true
repentance, that it might be granted to him, imposing, at the same time,
perpetual imprisonment.

By the 12th, if the inquisitors thought the repentance of the prisoner
was pretended, in the case indicated by the former article, they were
permitted to refuse the absolution, to declare him a false penitent, and
as such condemn him to be burnt.

By the 13th, if a man, absolved after his confession, should boast of
having concealed several crimes, or if information should be obtained
that he had committed more than he had confessed, he was to be arrested
and judged as a false penitent.

By the 14th article, the accused was to be condemned as impenitent, if
he persisted in his denials even after the publication of the testimony.

By the 15th, if a semi-proof existed against a person who denied his
crime, he was to be put to the torture; if he confessed his crime during
the torture, and afterwards confirmed his confession, he was punished as
convicted; if he retracted, he was tortured again, or condemned to an
extraordinary punishment.

The 16th article prohibited the communication of the entire deposition
of the witnesses to the accused.

The 17th article obliged the inquisitors to interrogate the witnesses
themselves, if it was not impossible.

The 18th article decrees, that one or two inquisitors should be present
when the prisoner was tortured, or appoint a commissioner if they were
occupied elsewhere, to receive his declarations.

By the 19th article, if the accused did not appear when summoned,
according to the prescribed form, he was condemned as a heretic.

The 20th article decrees, that if it is proved that any person died a
heretic, by his writings or conduct, that he shall be judged and
condemned as such, his body disinterred and burnt, and his property
confiscated.

By the 21st, the inquisitors were commanded to extend their jurisdiction
over the vassals of nobles; if they refused to permit it, they were to
be censured.

The 22nd decreed, that if a man, burnt as a heretic, left children under
age, a portion of their father's property should be granted to them
under the title of alms, and the inquisitors shall be obliged to confide
their education to proper persons.

By the 23rd, if a heretic, reconciled during the term of grace, without
having incurred the punishment of confiscation, possessed property
belonging to a condemned person, this property was not to be included in
the pardon.

The 24th obliged the reconciled to give his Christian slaves their
liberty, when his property was not confiscated, if the king granted the
pardon on that condition.

The 25th prohibited the inquisitors, and other persons attached to the
tribunal, from receiving presents, on pain of excommunication,
deprivation of their employments, restitution, and a penalty of twice
the value of the gifts received.

The 26th recommends to the officers of the Inquisition to live in peace
together.

The 27th commands that they shall carefully watch the conduct of their
inferior officers.

The 28th and last, commits to the prudence of the inquisitors the
discussion of all points not mentioned in the foregoing articles.

Ferdinand having convoked at Tarazona the Cortes of his kingdom of
Aragon, decreed that the Inquisition should be reformed in a
privy-council. After this resolution, Torquemada named Gaspard Juglar, a
dominican, and Peter Arbuès d'Epila, as inquisitors for the
archbishopric of Saragossa. A royal ordinance commanded all the
authorities to aid and assist them in their office, and the magistrate
known by the name of Chief Justice of Aragon, took the oath with
several others. This circumstance did not prevent the resistance which
the Aragonese opposed to the tribunal; on the contrary it augmented, and
rose to such a height, that it might have been termed national.

The principal persons employed in the Court of Aragon were descended
from _New Christians_: among these were Louis Gonzalez, the royal
secretary for the affairs of the kingdom; Philip de Clemente,
prothonotary; Alphonso de la Caballeria, vice-chancellor; and Gabriel
Sanchez, grand treasurer; who were all descended from Jews condemned, in
their time, by the Inquisition. These men, and many others employed in
the court, had allied themselves to the principal grandees in the
kingdom, and used the influence which they derived from this
circumstance, to engage the representatives of the nation to appeal to
the Pope and the king, against the inquisitorial code. Commissioners
were sent to Rome and the Court of Spain, to demand the suspension of
the articles relating to confiscation, as contrary to the laws of the
kingdom of Aragon. They were persuaded that the Inquisition would not
maintain itself if this measure was abandoned. While the deputies of the
Cortes of Aragon were at Rome, and with the king, the inquisitors
condemned several _New Christians_ as Judaic heretics. These executions
increased the irritation of the Aragonese; and when the deputies wrote
from the Court of Spain, that they were not satisfied with the state of
affairs, they resolved to sacrifice one or two of the inquisitors, with
the hope that no one would dare to take the office, and that the king
would renounce his design. The project of assassination having been
approved by the conspirators, a voluntary contribution was raised among
all the Aragonese of the Jewish race; and it was proved by the trials of
Sancho de Paternoy and others, that Don Blasco d'Alagon received ten
thousand reals, which were destined to reward the assassins of the
Inquisitor Arbuès, John de la Abadia, a noble of Aragon, but descended
from Jewish ancestors on the female side, took upon himself the
direction of the enterprise. The assassination was confided to John
d'Esperaindeo, to Vidal d'Uranso, his servant, to Matthew Ram, Tristan
de Leonis, Anthony Gran, and Bernard Leofante. They failed several times
in their attempts, as Peter Arbuès, being informed of their design, took
the necessary precautions to secure his life.

It appears, from the examination of some of the murderers, that the
inquisitor wore a coat of mail under his vest, and a kind of helmet
covered with a cap. He was at last assassinated in the metropolitan
church, during the performance of the matins, on the 15th of November,
1485. Vidal d'Uranso wounded him so severely in the back of the neck,
that he died two days after. The next day the murder was known in the
town, but its effects were different from what had been expected, for
all the _Old Christians_, or those who were not of Jewish origin,
persuaded that the _New Christians_ had committed the crime, assembled
to pursue them and revenge the death of the inquisitor. The disturbance
was violent, and its consequences would have been terrible, if the young
archbishop, Don Alphonso of Aragon, had not shewn himself, and assured
the multitude that the criminal should be punished. Policy inspired
Ferdinand and Isabella with the idea of honouring the memory of Arbuès
with a solemnity which contributed to make him pass for a saint, and
caused a particular worship to be addressed to him. This took place long
after, when Pope Alexander VII. had beatified him as a martyr, in 1664.
A magnificent monument was erected to his memory, by Ferdinand and
Isabella. While the sovereigns were occupied in honouring the remains of
Peter Arbuès, the inquisitors of Saragossa were labouring without
ceasing to discover the authors and accomplices of his murder, and to
punish them as Judaic heretics and enemies to the holy office. It would
be difficult to enumerate the number of families plunged into misery
through their vengeance; two hundred victims were soon sacrificed.
Vidal d'Uranso, one of the assassins, revealed all he knew of the
conspiracy, which was the cause of the discovery of its authors. There
was scarcely a single family in the three first orders of nobility,
which was not disgraced by having at least one of its members in the
_auto-da-fé_, wearing the habit of a penitent.

Don James Diaz d'Aux Armendarix, lord of the town of Cadreita, a knight
of Navarre, and ancestor of the Dukes of Albuquerque, was condemned to a
public penance, for having concealed in his house, for one night,
several persons who fled from Saragossa. The same punishment was
inflicted on several other illustrious knights of the town of Tudela in
Navarre, for having received and concealed other fugitives. Don James de
Navarre (the son of Eleanor, Queen of Navarre, and Gaston de Foix) was
imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and was subjected to a
public penance for having assisted several of the conspirators in their
flight. The inquisitors knew, when they had the audacity to imprison
him, that he was not beloved by Ferdinand, who always feared him,
although he was not legitimate.

Don Lope Ximenez de Urrea, first count of Aranda; Don Louis Gonzalez,
secretary to the king; Don Alphonso de la Caballeria, vice-chancellor of
the kingdom; and many other persons of equal rank, were condemned to the
same punishment. John de Esperaindeo and the other assassins of Arbuès
were hung, after having their hands cut off. Their bodies were
quartered, and their limbs exposed in the highways. John de l'Abadia
killed himself in prison the day before the execution, but his corpse
was treated in the same manner as the others. The hands of Vidal
d'Uranso were not cut off until he had expired, because he had been
promised his pardon if he discovered the conspirators.

All the other provinces of Aragon made an equal resistance to the
introduction of the new Inquisition. The seditions at Teruel were only
quelled in 1485, by extreme severity. The town and bishopric of Lerida,
and other towns in Catalonia, obstinately resisted the establishment of
the reform, and were not reduced to obedience until 1487. Barcelona
refused to acknowledge Torquemada or any of his delegates, on account of
a privilege which it possessed of having an inquisitor with a special
title. The king applied to the Pope, who instituted Torquemada special
inquisitor of the town and bishopric of Barcelona, with the power of
appointing others to the office. The king was obliged to employ the same
method with the inhabitants of Majorca and those of Sardinia, who did
not receive the Inquisition until 1490 and 1492. It is an incontestable
fact in the history of the Spanish Inquisition, that it was introduced
entirely against the consent of the provinces, and only by the influence
of the Dominican monks.

CHAPTER VII.

ADDITIONAL ACTS TO THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF THE HOLY OFFICE;
CONSEQUENCES OF THEM, AND APPEALS TO ROME AGAINST THEM.

The inquisitor-general judged it necessary to augment the laws of the
holy office; and added eleven new articles to them; the substance of
them is as follows:--

1st. That each inferior tribunal should consist of two inquisitors as
civilians, an attorney, an alguazil, a recorder and other persons, if
necessary, who were to receive a fixed salary. The same article
prohibits the admission of the servants or creatures of the inquisitors
into the tribunal.

2nd. That if any of the persons employed should receive presents from
the accused or his family, he should be immediately deprived of his
office.

3rd. That the holy office should employ an able civilian at Rome, under
the title of agent, and that this expense, should be supported by the
money arising from the confiscations.

4th. That the contracts signed before the year 1479, by persons whose
property had since been seized, should be regarded as valid; but if it
was proved that any deception had been used in the transactions, that
the culprits should be punished by a hundred strokes of a whip, and
branded on the face with a red-hot iron.

5th. That the nobles who should receive fugitives in their estates,
should be compelled to deliver up to government the property committed
to their care; and if they claimed the fulfilments of contracts signed
by the accused for their profit, that the attorney should commence an
action to reclaim the property at belonging to the revenue.

6th. That the notaries of the Inquisition should keep an account of the
property of the condemned persons.

7th. That the stewards of the holy office could sell the confiscated
property, and receive the rents of the estates which might be let.

8th. That each steward should inspect the property belonging to his
tribunal.

9th. That a steward could not sequestrate the property of a condemned
person, without an order from the Inquisition; and even in that case,
that he should be accompanied by an alguazil, and place the effects and
an inventory of them in the hands of a third person.

10th. That the steward should pay the salaries of the inquisitors
quarterly, that they might not be obliged to receive presents.

11th. That in all circumstances not foreseen in the new regulations, the
inquisitors should conduct themselves with prudence, and apply to the
government in all difficult cases.

The nature of these articles proves that the number of confiscations
had been considerable. Ferdinand and Isabella often gave the property of
the condemned persons to their wives and children, granted them pensions
on the property, or a certain sum to be paid by the receiver-general.

These sums, and the care which people took to conceal their effects,
diminished the funds of the Inquisition; besides which, most of the _New
Christians_ were merchants or artisans, and it often happened that the
receivers who paid the royal gifts were unable to pay the salaries of
the inquisitors. Torquemada, in 1488, decreed that the royal gifts
should not be paid, until the salaries and other expenses of the
Inquisition had been defrayed, and wrote to request the approbation of
Ferdinand, who refused it. The inquisitor-general was then obliged to
permit the inquisitors to impose pecuniary penalties on reconciled
persons (which permission was afterwards revoked). As experience showed
that the revenue of the Inquisition was never sufficient, on account of
the great number of prisoners which it was obliged to maintain, and the
expenses incurred by the agent at Rome, Ferdinand and Isabella requested
the Pope to place at the disposal of the holy office, a prebendary in
each cathedral in their dominions; to which he consented in 1501. The
receivers finding themselves unable to defray the expenses of the
administration, demanded restitution of many persons whom they accused
of retaining estates belonging to the Inquisition. This conduct caused
so many complaints, that the council of the Inquisition was obliged to
prohibit the receivers from molesting the proprietors of estates which
had been sold before the year 1479. It is not surprising that the
receivers should employ such measures to augment the revenue, when the
inquisitors contributed to impoverish it themselves, by disposing of it
according to their caprices, and without the permission of the
sovereigns. This abuse rose to such a height, that Ferdinand and
Isabella complained to the Pope, who prohibited the inquisitors from
disposing of their revenues without an order from the king, on pain of
excommunication. The inquisitors were afterwards obliged to refund the
sums which they had seized.

In 1488 the inquisitor-general formed, with the assistance of the
supreme council, a new ordinance, which consisted of fifteen articles.

The first decreed that the regulations of 1484 should be followed in all
things, except in regard to the confiscations, which were to be
regulated by the rules of equity.

The 2nd enjoins the inquisitors to proceed in a uniform manner, on
account of the abuses produced by a contrary system.

The 3rd prohibits inquisitors from delaying to pass sentence, on the
pretence of waiting for the full proof of the crime.

The 4th imports, that as there are not in all the tribunals civilians of
sufficient ability to be consulted in the preparation of the definitive
sentences, the inquisitors shall send the writings of the trials to the
inquisitor-general, in order to be examined by the civilians of the
supreme council.

The 5th decrees that no person shall be allowed to hold any
communication with the prisoners, except the priests, who were obliged
to visit the prisons once in a fortnight.

The 6th commands that the testimony of witnesses shall be received in
the presence of as small a number of persons as possible, that secrecy
may not be violated.

The 7th, that the writings and papers belonging to the Inquisition shall
be kept in the place of residence of the inquisitors, and locked up in a
chest; the key of which shall be kept by the notary of the tribunal, who
must not give it up, on pain of losing his place.

The 8th article decrees, that if the inquisitors of a district arrest a
man already pursued by another tribunal, all the papers relating to his
trial shall be placed in the hands of the first.

The 9th article decrees, that if there are papers in the archives of a
tribunal which may be of use to another, the expenses incurred in
sending them shall be paid by it.

The 10th article declares, that as there are not prisons enough for all
who are condemned to perpetual imprisonment, they shall be permitted to
remain in their houses, but not to go out, on pain of being punished
with the utmost severity.

In the 11th, the inquisitors are recommended to execute rigorously all
those laws which prohibit the children and grandchildren of condemned
persons from exercising any honourable employment, and from wearing any
garment of silk, or fine wool, or any ornament of gold, silver, or
precious stones.

The 12th article decrees, that males cannot be admitted to
reconciliation and abjuration before the age of fourteen years, or
females before that of twelve; if they had abjured before that age, a
ratification was necessary.

The 13th prohibited the receivers from paying the royal gifts, until the
expenses of the Inquisition were defrayed.

The 14th declares, that the holy office should petition the sovereigns
to build a prison in each town where it was established, for the
reception of those who might be condemned to that punishment. It also
recommends that the cells should be arranged in such a manner, that the
prisoners might exercise their respective professions, and thus maintain
themselves.

The 15th and last article obliged the notaries, fiscals, and alguazils,
and other officers of the Inquisition, to perform their functions in
person.

The inquisitor-general found that these regulations were not sufficient
to prevent abuses; he therefore convoked a junta of inquisitors at
Toledo. The decrees of this assembly were published at Avila in 1498,
and were as follows:--

First, that each tribunal should be composed of two inquisitors, one a
civilian, the other a theologian. They were prohibited from inflicting
imprisonment or torture, or communicating the charges made by the
witnesses, without the consent of both.

Secondly, that the inquisitors should not allow their dependents to
carry any defensive arms, except where their office obliges them to do
so.

Thirdly, that no person should be imprisoned if his crime had not been
sufficiently proved; and that when the arrest had taken place, his
judgment should be immediately pronounced, without waiting for fresh
proofs.

Fourthly, that the Inquisition should acquit deceased persons, if
sufficient proof was not produced, and not delay the trial to wait for
fresh accusations, as it was injurious to the children, whose
establishment was prevented, from the uncertainty of the result of the
trial.

Fifthly, that the entire failure of the funds of the holy office should
not occasion the imposition of a greater number of pecuniary penalties.

Sixthly, that the inquisitors should not change imprisonment, or any
other corporeal punishment, to a pecuniary penalty, but for the
punishment of fasting, alms, pilgrimages, or other similar penances.

Seventhly, that the inquisitors should carefully examine into the
expediency of admitting to reconciliation those who confessed their
crimes after their arrest, since they might be considered as
contumacious, as the Inquisition had been established many years.

Eighthly, that the inquisitors should punish false witnesses publicly.

Ninthly, that two men related in any degree should not be employed in
the holy office, nor a master and his servant, even in case their
functions should be entirely distinct.

Tenthly, that each tribunal should have archives secured by three locks,
the keys of which should be placed in the hands of the two notaries and
the fiscal.

Eleventhly, that the notary should receive the testimony of witnesses
only in the presence of an inquisitor, and that the two priests
commissioned to prove the truth of the deposition should not belong to
the tribunal.

Twelfthly, that the inquisitor should establish the Inquisition in all
towns where it did not already exist.

Thirteenthly, that in all difficult cases the inquisitors should consult
the council.

Fourteenthly, that the women should have a prison separated from that of
the men.

Fifteenthly, that the officers of the tribunal should perform their
functions six hours in a day, and that they should attend the
inquisitors whenever they were required.

Sixteenthly, that after the inquisitors had received the oath of the
witnesses in presence of the fiscal, he should be obliged to retire.

Besides these ordinances, Torquemada established several particular
regulations for each individual belonging to the tribunal: all the
persons employed were obliged to take an oath that they would not reveal
anything they might see or hear: the inquisitor was not allowed to
remain alone with the prisoner; the gaoler could not allow any person to
speak with him, and was obliged to examine if any writings were
concealed in the food which was given him. These were the last
regulations framed by Torquemada, but Diego Deza, his successor,
published a fifth _instruction_ at Seville, in 1500.

Such were the laws of the holy office in Spain. This code caused the
emigration of more than a hundred thousand families useful to the state,
and the loss of many millions of francs which were spent at the court of
Rome, either for the bulls which it expedited, or by those who repaired
thither to solicit their absolution from the Popes. The holy see was far
from complaining of this practice, as it brought immense sums to the
treasury, and no person who presented himself with his money before the
apostolical penitentiary, failed of obtaining the absolution he
solicited, or an order for absolution elsewhere.

This conduct displeased the inquisitors: depending on the protection of
Ferdinand and Isabella, they expostulated with the Pope, who annulled
the absolutions already granted, thus deceiving those who had spent the
greatest part of their fortunes in endeavouring to obtain them. He then
promised new pardons on new conditions, contrary to the engagement he
had entered into with Ferdinand, to abolish every means of appeal to the
Court of Rome. Such was the constant practice of the holy see during
thirty years after the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain.

CHAPTER VIII.

EXPULSION OF THE JEWS.--PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BISHOPS.--DEATH OF
TORQUEMADA.

In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella conquered the kingdom of Grenada. This
event offered a multitude of victims to the holy office in the persons
of the Moors, who were converted merely in the hope of obtaining
consideration, and after their baptism returned to Mahometanism. John de
Navagiero, in his travels in Spain, states, that Ferdinand had promised
the Morescoes, (as those Moors were called who became Christians,) that
the Inquisition should not interfere with them for the space of forty
years, but that the Inquisition was established in the kingdom of
Grenada, on the pretence that many Jews had taken refuge there. This
statement is not exact; the sovereigns only promised that the Moorish
Christians should not be prosecuted except for serious crimes, and the
Inquisition was not introduced among them before 1526.

It was in the year 1492 that the unbaptized Jews were expelled from
Spain. They were accused of persuading those of their nation who had
become Christians to apostatize, and of crucifying children on
Good-Friday, in mockery of the Saviour of the world, and of many other
offences of the same nature. The Jewish physicians, surgeons, and
apothecaries, were also accused of having taken advantage of their
professions, to cause the death of a great number of Christians, and
among others, that of Henry III., which was attributed to his physician,
Don Maïr.

The Jews, in order to avert the danger which threatened them, offered to
supply Ferdinand with thirty thousand pieces of silver to carry on the
war against Grenada; they promised to live peaceably, to comply with the
regulations formed for them, in retiring to their houses in the quarters
assigned to them before night, and in renouncing all professions which
were reserved for the Christians. Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to
listen to these propositions; but Torquemada, being informed of their
inclinations, had the boldness to appear before them with a crucifix in
his hand, and to address them in these words:--

"Judas sold his master for thirty pieces of silver, your highnesses are
about to do the same for thirty thousand; behold him, take him, and
hasten to self him."

The fanaticism of the Dominican wrought a sudden change in the minds of
the sovereigns, and they issued a decree on the 31st of March 1492, by
which all the Jews were compelled to quit Spain before the 31st of July
ensuing, on pain of death, and the confiscation of their property; the
decree also prohibited Christians from receiving them into their houses
after that period. They were permitted to sell their stock, to carry
away their furniture and other effects, _except gold and silver, for
which they were to accept letters of change, or any merchandise not
prohibited_.

Torquemada commissioned all preachers to exhort them to receive
baptism, and remain in the kingdom. A small number suffered themselves
to be persuaded; the rest sold their goods at so low a price, that
Andrew Bernaldez (a contemporary historian) declares, in his history of
the Catholic Kings, that he saw _the Jews give a house for an ass, and a
vineyard for a small quantity of cloth or linen_.

According to Mariana, eight hundred thousand Jews quitted Spain, and if
the Moors, who emigrated to Africa, and the Christians who settled in
the New World, are added to the number, we shall find that Ferdinand and
Isabella lost, through these cruel measures, two millions of subjects.
Bernaldez affirms, that the Jews carried a quantity of gold with them,
concealed in their garments and saddles, and even in their intestines,
for they reduced the ducats into small pieces, and swallowed them. A
great number afterwards returned to Spain, and received baptism. Some
returned from the kingdom of Fez, where the Moors had seized their money
and effects, and even killed the women, to take the gold which they
expected to find within them. These cruelties can only be attributed to
the fanaticism of Torquemada, to the avarice and superstition of
Ferdinand, and to the inconsiderate zeal of Isabella, who, nevertheless,
possessed great gentleness of character, and an enlightened mind.

The other European courts were not thus influenced by fanaticism, and
paid no attention to a bull of Innocent VIII., which commanded all
governments to arrest, at the desire of Torquemada, the fugitives whom
he should designate, on pain of excommunication; the monarch was the
only person exempted from the penalty.

The insolent fanatic, Torquemada, while he affected to refuse the honour
of episcopacy through modesty, was the first who gave the fatal example
of subjecting bishops to trial. Not satisfied with having obtained from
Sixtus IV. the briefs which prohibited bishops of Jewish origin from
interfering in the affairs of the Inquisition, he even wished to put
two on their trial, namely, Don Juan Arias Davila, Bishop of Segovia;
and Don Pedro de Aranda, Bishop of Calahorra. He made his resolution
known to the Pope, who informed him that his predecessor, Boniface
VIII., had prohibited the Inquisition from proceeding against bishops,
archbishops, or cardinals, without an apostolical commission; but if any
prelate was accused of heresy, he charged Torquemada to send him a copy
of the informations, that he might decide on the method to be pursued.

Torquemada immediately began to take secret informations of the conduct
of the bishops, and the Pope sent Antonio Palavicini, Bishop of Tournai,
to Spain, with the title of apostolical nuncio, when he received the
informations of Torquemada, and returned to Rome, where the two bishops
were cited to appear and defend themselves. Don Juan Arias Davila was
the son of Diego Arias Davila, who was of Jewish origin, and was
baptized after the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrier; he afterwards
became chief financier to the kings John II. and Henry IV. Henry IV.
ennobled him, and gave him the lordship of the Castle of Puñonrostro,
and several other places which form the countship of Puñonrostro, and
the title of Grandee of Spain, which has been possessed by his
descendants from the time of Pedro Arias Davila, the first count, and
brother to the bishop, and who was also chief financier to Henry IV. and
Ferdinand V. The rank of the bishop did not intimidate Torquemada;
informations were taken by his order, and the result was, that Diego
Arias Davila died a Judaic heretic: the object which the
inquisitor-general had in view, was to condemn his memory, confiscate
his property, and to disinter his body, in order to burn it with his
effigy. As, in all affairs of this nature, the children are cited to
appear, Don Juan Arias Davila was obliged to repair to Rome in 1490, to
defend his father and himself, although he had arrived at a great age,
and had been Bishop of Segovia thirty years. He was well received by
Alexander VI., who appointed him to accompany his nephew, the Cardinal
Montreal, to Naples, when he went to crown Ferdinand II. Davila returned
to Rome, and died there in 1497, after having cleared the memory of his
father.

Don Pedro Aranda, Bishop of Calahorra, was not so fortunate. He was the
son of Gonzales Alonzo, a Jew, who was also baptized in the time of St.
Vincent Ferrier, and who was afterwards master of a chapel. Gonzales had
the pleasure of seeing both his sons attain the dignity of bishops: the
eldest was Archbishop of Montreal in Sicily, the second was made Bishop
of Calahorra, in 1478, and president of the Council of Castile in 1482;
yet in 1488 he was the object of a secret instruction, directed by
Torquemada, which however did not prevent him from convoking a synod in
the town of Logrogna, in 1492. At that period Torquemada, and the other
inquisitors of Valladolid, undertook the trial of Gonzales Alonzo, to
prove that he had died a Judaic heretic. The inquisitors of Valladolid
and the bishop of the diocese could not agree on the sentence to be
pronounced on the accused; and his son, Don Pedro Aranda, obtained a
brief from Alexander VI., by which this affair was referred to Don Inigo
Manrique, Bishop of Cordova, and John de St. John, prior of the
Benedictines at Valladolid. They were commissioned to pronounce judgment
and execute the sentence, without any interference on the part of the
Inquisition. Their decision was favourable to Gonzales.