The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 39

When Charles II. married Maria Louisa de Bourbon in 1680, the taste of the nation was so depraved, that a grand _auto-da-fe_, composed of a hundred and eighteen victims, was considered as a proper and flattering homage to the new queen; nineteen persons were burnt, with thirty-four effigies. None of the cases were remarkable, and may therefore be pa.s.sed over in silence, together with another _auto-da-fe_ which was celebrated in the church of the convent of the nuns of St. Dominic. Some ma.n.u.script notes indicate that some of the condemned avoided the fate which awaited them, by bribing the inferior officers of the tribunal; I am persuaded that this a.s.sertion is incorrect, because the subalterns had very little influence after the criminals were arrested.

The most celebrated trial of the Inquisition in this reign is that of Fray Froilan Diaz, bishop elect of Avila, and confessor to the king. The habitual weakness of Charles II., and the failure of an heir, created a suspicion that he was _bewitched_. The Cardinal Portocarrero and the inquisitor-general Rocaberti believed in sorcery, and after persuading the king that he was bewitched, they entreated him to suffer himself to be exorcised according to the formulary of the church. Charles consented, and was exorcised by his confessor. The novelty of this proceeding occasioned many remarks, and Froilan was informed that another monk was at that time exorcising a nun at Cangas de Tineo, in order to free her from the demons, which, she said, tormented her.

Froilan and the inquisitor-general charged the exorcist of the _demoniac_ to command the demon, by the formula of the ritual, to declare if Charles II. was bewitched or not, and if he replied in the affirmative, to make him reveal the nature of the sorcery; if it was permanent; if it was attached to anything that the king had eaten or drank, to images or other objects; in what place it might be found; and lastly, if there were any natural means of preventing its effects: the confessor added several other questions, and desired the exorcist to urge them with all the zeal which the interest of the king and the state required.

The monk at first refused to question the demon, because it is forbidden by the church; but on being a.s.sured by the inquisitor-general that it would not be sinful in the present circ.u.mstances, he faithfully performed all that had been requested of him. The demon declared by the mouth of the demoniac, that a spell had been put upon the king by a person who was named. According to the private notes of that time, the criminal was an agent of the Court of Vienna; but Cardinal Portocarrero and the confessor Diaz were the partisans of France for the succession of Spain.

Diaz was very much alarmed at this information, and redoubled his conjurations until he learned some method of destroying the enchantment.

Before this operation was concluded, Rocaberti died, and was succeeded by Don Balthazar de Mendoza, who was of the Austrian party; he signified to the king that all that had taken place had arisen from the imprudent zeal of his confessor, and that he must be removed. The king followed his advice, and made Froilan Bishop of Avila; but the new inquisitor-general, not contented with preventing the expedition of the bulls, prosecuted him for having made use of demons to discover hidden things.

Mendoza directed this attack in concert with Torres Palmosa, the king's confessor, who was as eager for the ruin of Froilan Diaz as himself; this man communicated to Mendoza the letters which Diaz had received from Cangas, which were found among his papers.

Mendoza examined witnesses, and after combining their declarations with the contents of the letters, he gave them to five qualifiers who were devoted to him, and made Don Juan Arcemendi, a counsellor of the Inquisition, and Don Dominic de la Cantolla, official of the secretarys.h.i.+p of the Supreme Council, their president and secretary.

However, the five qualifiers declared that the trial offered no fact or proposition worthy of theological censure.

This decision was very displeasing to Mendoza; but relying on his influence in the council, he proposed that Diaz should be arrested: the councillors refused, because the measure was unjust, and contrary to the laws of the holy office, according to the decision of the five qualifiers. This resistance irritated the inquisitor-general, who caused the decree to be drawn up, signed it, and sent it to the council, with an order to register it with the ordinary forms. The councillors replied that they could not perform a ceremony which they considered illegal, because the resolution had not been adopted by a majority of votes.

During these transactions, Diaz made his escape to Rome: Mendoza, who could depend upon the king's confessor, induced him to persuade the king that this was an offence against the rights of the crown, and obtained a letter from him to the Duke de Uzeda, his amba.s.sador at Rome, commanding him to seize the person of Diaz, and send him under an escort to Carthagena.

The anonymous author of Anecdotes of the Court of Rome says, that Diaz went thither to show to the Pope the will of Charles II., by which Philip de Bourbon was called to the throne of Spain; and that his return as a prisoner was occasioned by a court intrigue; but there is no evidence to prove this a.s.sertion. The inquisitor-general sent Froilan Diaz to the prison of the Inquisition of Murcia, and commanded the inquisitors to begin his trial. They appointed as qualifiers nine of the most learned theologians of the diocese, who unanimously gave the same answer as those of the Supreme Council: the inquisitors consequently declared that there was no cause for the arrest. The inquisitor-general then caused Diaz to be transferred to Madrid. Mendoza afterwards charged the fiscal of the Inquisition to accuse him as a dogmatizing arch-heretic, for having said that an intercourse with the demon might be permitted, in order to learn the art of curing the sick.

Charles II. died about this time, and Philip was at first too much engaged with the war against the Archduke Charles of Austria, to discover the intrigues and artifices of Mendoza. He at last submitted the affair to the Council of Castile, on the 24th of December, 1703, which decided that the arrest of Diaz was contrary to the common laws, and those of the holy office. The Supreme Council then decreed that Diaz should be set at liberty and acquitted.

It must be observed, that the demon affirmed that G.o.d had permitted a spell to be put upon the king, and that it could not be taken off, because the holy sacrament was in the church without lamps or wax candles, the communities of monks dying of hunger, and other reasons of the same nature. Two other demons who were interrogated, only agreed in declaring the necessity of favouring the churches, convents, and communities of Dominican monks; perhaps because the inquisitor-generals Rocaberti and Diaz were of that order.

This prince convoked the _grand junta_, composed of two councillors of state, two members of each of the Councils of Castile, Aragon, Italy, the Indies, the military orders and the finances, and one of the king's secretaries. The royal secretary informed the junta that the disputes between the inquisitors and the civil judges had caused so much disturbance, that the king had resolved to commission the a.s.sembly to propose a plain and fixed rule, to secure to the Inquisition the respect due to it, and to prevent the inquisitors from undertaking trials foreign to the jurisdiction of the holy office. The king commanded the six councils to remit to the junta all the papers necessary for the examination of the affair.

On the 21st of May, 1696, the grand junta made a report, stating that it appeared from the papers which had been examined, that the greatest disorder had long existed in the different jurisdictions, because the inquisitors had arbitrarily extended their power, so that the common tribunals had scarcely anything to do; that they punished the slightest offence against themselves or their domestics with the greatest severity, as if it was a crime against religion; that not content with exempting their officers from taxes, they gave their houses the privileges of an asylum, so that a criminal could not be taken from them, even by a judicial order; and if the public authorities exercised their powers, they dared to complain of it as a sacrilegious violation of the church; that in their official letters, and in the conduct of their affairs, they showed an intention of weakening the respect of the people towards the royal judges, and even to make the authority of superior magistrates contemptible; and that they affected a certain independent manner of thinking on the subjects of administration and public economy, which made them forgetful of the rights of the crown.

The junta then stated that these abuses had caused complaints from the subjects, division among the ministers, discouragement to the tribunals, and much trouble to his majesty in settling their differences. That this conduct had appeared so intolerable, even in the beginning, that the powers of the Inquisition had been suspended for ten years by Charles V., until it was restored by Philip II., in the absence of his father, with some restrictions, which had not been well observed; that the extreme moderation with which the inquisitors had been treated was the cause of their boldness.

The junta proposed for the reformation of the holy office; 1st. That the Inquisition should not make use of censures in civil affairs. 2nd. That in case they employed them, the royal tribunals should be charged to oppose them by the means in their power. 3rd. That the privileges of the inquisitorial jurisdiction should be limited, in respect to the ministers and familiars of the Inquisition, and the relations of the inquisitors. 4th. That measures should be adopted to ensure the immediate settlement of affairs relating to competence and mutual pretensions.

The Count de Frigiliana, councillor of state, added that the inquisitors ought to be compelled to give an account of the revenues of the holy office. These observations, and the propositions of the junta, had no effect; for the inquisitor-general Rocaberti, and Froilan Diaz, succeeded in changing the favourable inclinations of the king.

CHAPTER XL.

OF THE INQUISITION IN THE REIGN OF PHILIP V.

Philip V. succeeded his uncle Charles II. on the 1st of November, 1700; he died on the 9th of July, 1746. The grand-inquisitors, during this period, were, Don Balthazar Mendoza y Sandoval; Don Vidal Marin, Bishop of Ceuta; Don Antonio Ibanez de la Riba-Herrera, Archbishop of Saragossa; Cardinal Don Francis Judice; Don Joseph de Molinos; Don Diego de Astorga Cespedes, Bishop of Barcelona; Don Juan de Camargo, Bishop of Pampeluna; Don Andres de Orbe Larreategui, Archbishop of Valencia; Don Manuel-Isidore Manrique de Lara, Archbishop of Santiago; and Don Francis Perez de Prado Cuesta, Bishop of Teruel, who was still in office at the death of Philip V.

The court had always been so favourable to the Inquisition, that the inquisitors thought that a solemn _auto-da-fe_ in celebration of his accession would be agreeable to the king. It took place in 1701, but Philip refused to be present at this barbarous scene. He however protected the tribunal of the holy office, according to the advice of his grandfather, Louis XIV., who told him, that he must support the Inquisition as the surest means of maintaining the tranquillity of his kingdom. This system acquired fresh importance in his eyes when Don Vidal Marin, the inquisitor-general, published an edict excommunicating all those who did not denounce the persons who had been heard to say, that they thought themselves permitted to violate the oath of fidelity to Philip V. This edict gave occasion for several trials, but none of them were followed by a definitive sentence.

Judaism was nearly extirpated during the reign of Philip V.; it had been secretly propagated for the second time in a remarkable manner, after the reunion of Portugal to Spain. A yearly _auto-da-fe_ was celebrated by all the tribunals of the Inquisition, during the reign of this prince; some of them held two, and three were performed at Seville and Grenada. Thus, without including those of America, Sardinia and Sicily, seven hundred and eighty-two _autos-da-fe_ took place at Madrid, Barcelona, the Canaries, Cordova, Cuenca, Grenada, Jaen, Llerena, Logrono, Majorca, Murcia, Santiago, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid and Saragossa.

In fifty-four of these ceremonies seventy-four persons were burnt, with sixty-three effigies, and eight-hundred and eighty-one condemned to penances. From this statement we may calculate, that during the forty-six years of the reign of Philip V. fourteen thousand and sixty-six individuals were condemned by the Inquisition to different punishments.

It has been a common opinion, that the Inquisition began to be less severe towards heretics, when the princes of the house of Bourbon ascended the throne of Spain; but other causes seem to have decreased the number of its victims, which will be considered in the following chapters.

Among the pretended sorcerers condemned by the Inquisition was Juan Perez de Espejo, who was punished at Madrid in 1743, as a blasphemous hypocrite and a sorcerer. This person, after taking the name of _Juan de St. Esprit_, is said to have been the founder of the _Congregation of Hospitaliers_ or of the _Divine Shepherd_, which still exists. He was condemned to receive two hundred stripes, and to be imprisoned ten years in a fortress.

A number of the disciples of _Molinos_ were also condemned. Don Joseph Fernandez de Toro, Bishop of Oviedo, was condemned for this doctrine in 1721. The Inquisition of Logrono burnt Don Juan de Causados, a prebend of Tudela, the most intimate friend and disciple of _Molinos_; he had promulgated his mystic doctrines with great zeal and enthusiasm. His nephew, Juan de Longas, maintained this doctrine after his death; he is still known in Navarre, Rioxa, Burgos, and Soria, by the name of _Brother John_. The inquisitors of Logrono condemned him, in 1729, to receive two hundred stripes, and sent him for ten years to the galleys: he was afterwards imprisoned for life. Unfortunately some monks of his order had adopted his sentiments, and had communicated them to several nuns of the Convents of Lerma and Corrella, which gave occasion to several _autos-da-fe_.

Donna Agueda de Luna was the princ.i.p.al of these: she was born of n.o.ble parents at Corella, in Navarre. In 1712 she entered the Carmelite Convent at Lerma, with so great a reputation for virtue, that she was looked upon as a saint. In 1713 she had already adopted the heresy of Molinos; she pa.s.sed twenty years in the convent, and her fame was continually increased by the accounts of her ecstasies and miracles, which were promulgated by Juan de Longas, the Prior de Lerma, the provincial, and other monks of the first rank, who were all accomplices in the imposture of Agueda, and interested in her reputation for sanct.i.ty.

A convent was founded at the place of her birth, and she was made prioress; in this character she continued her iniquitous course of life without losing any of her reputation, which, on the contrary, became so great, that the inhabitants of all the neighbouring countries repaired to her to implore her intercession with G.o.d.

After having pa.s.sed a life full of iniquity, concealed by an appearance of sanct.i.ty, Agueda was denounced to the Inquisition of Logrono; she was taken to the secret prison, where she died from the consequences of the torture, before her trial was terminated. She confessed during the question that her sanct.i.ty was an imposture; she appeared to repent in her last moments, and received absolution. It was said in the informations taken during the trial, that Agueda had made a compact with the demon, and had sold her soul to him. She was also accused of infanticide, and some bones were found in the spot where it was said that her children were murdered and buried.

Fray Juan de la Vega, provincial of the barefooted Carmelites, was also prosecuted as an accomplice of Agueda; he was her spiritual director, and, according to the evidence in his trial, had partic.i.p.ated in her crimes, and seduced several other nuns. Several persons declared that Fray Juan had likewise made a compact with the demon; but he denied the fact, and resisted the severity of the torture, although he was advanced in years. He only confessed that he had received the money for eleven thousand eight hundred ma.s.ses which had not been said. He was declared to be suspected in the highest degree, and sent to the desert Convent of Duruelo, where he died a short time after.

The provincial, and the secretary, and the two monks who had held those offices in the three preceding years, were implicated in the charges, arrested, tortured, and denied the facts; they were confined in the convents of their order in Majorca, Bilboa, Valladolid, and Osma. The annalist of the order confessed his crime, and appeared in the _auto-da-fe_ with the _San-benito_. The other nuns who were found guilty were dispersed in different convents.

The trial of Don Balthazar Mendoza-Sandoval, Bishop of Segovia and inquisitor-general, was equally famous, though from a different cause.

The conduct of this bad prelate towards Froilan Diaz has been related in the preceding chapter. When the Supreme Council refused to sanction the enormous abuse of his powers which he meditated, Mendoza ordered the arrest of three of the councillors who had been the most remarkable in their opposition; he requested of the king, in a false representation, the dismissal of Don Antonio Zambrana, Don Juan Arzemendi, and Don Juan Miguelez, whom he sent loaded with chains to Santiago de Grenada, and formed the bold design of depriving the council of the right of intervention in the trials submitted to them, and the members of the power of voting a definitive sentence.

This act of despotism roused the resolution of Philip V. On the 24th of December he submitted the affair to the Council of Castile. On the 21st of January, 1704, the council proposed that the Supreme Council should be re-established in the possession of the privileges it had enjoyed since the foundation of the Inquisition, and that the three members should be restored to their office. The king took this advice, and commanded Mendoza to give in his resignation and leave Madrid.

Mendoza complained to the Pope, who wrote to the king to remonstrate on the manner of treating one of his sub-delegates. The king, however, maintained his resolution with firmness, and Mendoza was obliged to obey.

The king gave another proof of his firmness in defending the privileges of the crown, in his conduct towards the Inquisitor-general Judice, in the affair of Don Melchior Macanaz[75]. Philip, however, endured an insult from the Inquisition, which it is surprising that he did not avenge. He had complained of a decree which Cardinal Judice had signed at Marli in 1714, prohibiting the works of Macanaz. The members of the Supreme Council had the boldness to reply that his majesty might _suppress_ the holy office if he thought proper, but _that, according to the apostolic bulls, he could not prevent it from exercising its office while it continued in existence_.

The Council of Castile, on the 3rd of November, 1714, gave the king substantial reasons for the suppression of the holy office. The ordinance for that purpose was prepared, and the blow would have been struck, but for the intrigues of the Queen, Isabella Farnese; the Jesuit Daubenton, her confessor, and Cardinal Alberoni, who made the faithful and zealous conduct of Macanaz appear in a criminal light. They reminded the king of the advice of Louis XIV., and obtained another decree annulling the first. In this ordinance the king acknowledges that he had paid too much attention to the evil advice of perfidious ministers, and approves the prohibition of the works of Macanaz as favourable to the rights of the crown, re-establishes the counsellors who had been dismissed, and praises the conduct of Cardinal Judice.

The Inquisition prohibited the works of _Barclay_ and _Talon_ in the same edict with those of Macanaz, because they defended the rights of the crown against the pretensions of the Court of Rome, and Philip had the weakness to sanction an act so prejudicial to his own authority. It was during this reign that the works of Nicolas Belando and Don Joseph Quiros were prohibited[76].

Among the trials I examined at Saragossa, was one very similar to that of Corellas, but the criminals had not committed the crime of infanticide, or made a compact with the demon.

CHAPTER XLI.

OF THE INQUISITION DURING THE REIGN OF FERDINAND VI.

Philip V. left his crown to Ferdinand VI., his eldest son by his first wife, Gabriella of Savoy. This prince reigned from the 9th of July, 1746, to the 10th of August, 1759; he died without children. He was succeeded by his brother, Charles III. of Naples, the son of Philip V.

and Isabella Farnese, his second wife. Don Francis Perez del Prado, Bishop of Teruel, held the office of inquisitor-general at the accession of Ferdinand. He was succeeded by Don Manuel Quintano Bonifaz, Archbishop of Pharsala, who was still in office at the death of that Prince.

The rise of good taste in literature in Spain, the restoration of which was prepared under Philip V., was dated from the reign of Ferdinand VI.

On this circ.u.mstance is founded the opinion that the accession of the Bourbons caused a change in the system of the Inquisition; yet these princes never gave any new laws to the inst.i.tution, or suppressed any of the ancient code, and, consequently, did not prevent any of the numerous _autos-da-fe_ which were celebrated in their reigns. But Philip established at Madrid two Royal Academies for History and the Spanish language, on the model of that of Paris, and favoured a friendly intercourse between the _literati_ of the two nations.

The agreement made in 1737 with the Court of Rome, concerning the contributions to be imposed on the clergy, and some other points of discipline, had rendered appeals to the Pope more rare; and many opinions were admitted to be reasonable, which had been long represented as unfavourable to religion and piety, by the ignorance and superst.i.tion of one side, and the malevolence of the other. The establishment of weekly papers made the people acquainted with works they had never before heard of, and informed them of resolutions of the Catholic princes, concerning the clergy, which a short time before they would have considered as an outrage against religion and its ministers. The _Diario de los Literatos_ (Journal de Savans) also opened the eyes of many persons, who, till then, had not been able to judge of books.

These circ.u.mstances, and some other causes, during the reign of Philip V. prepared the way for the interesting revolution in Spanish literature under Ferdinand VI. This change was followed by a great benefit to mankind; the inquisitors, and even their inferior officers, began to perceive that zeal for the purity of the Catholic religion is exposed to the admission of erroneous opinions. The doctrine of Macanaz no longer shocked the people, who heard with tranquillity all that had been written on the appeal against violence (_fuerzas_), and without dreading the anathemas fulminated every year by the Popes in the bull _in coena dominum_.