The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 7

The third was for those who were impenitent. It was similar to the others, with a bust, and the flames in the natural direction, to show that the person who wore it was to be burnt alive; grotesque figures of devils were also painted on the _San-benito_ and _Caroza_.

CHAPTER X.

OF THE PRINc.i.p.aL EVENTS DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE INQUISITORS DEZA AND CISNEROS.

The new inquisitor-general was scarcely in possession of his office, when he began to establish regulations to increase the activity of the Inquisition. In 1500 he published a const.i.tution in seven articles; and in 1504 four new articles relative to the confiscations.

To prove his zeal, Deza proposed to Ferdinand that the Inquisition should be introduced into Sicily and Naples in its present form, and that it should be under the authority of the Spanish inquisitor-general, instead of being dependent on the Court of Rome. The king undertook to introduce it into Sicily by a decree in 1500; but the inhabitants made great resistance, and he was obliged to pursue the plan which had succeeded in Aragon, by commanding the viceroy and other magistrates to a.s.sist the inquisitors. Several seditions were quelled before the sub-delegated inquisitor-general, Don Pedro Velorad, Archbishop of Messina, could enter upon his office.

In 1516 the Sicilians, weary of the proceedings of the Inquisition, revolted and set all the prisoners at liberty. Melchior de Cervera, the inquisitor, only escaped death by a concurrence of extraordinary circ.u.mstances; the viceroy was also in the greatest danger. The islanders were thus freed from the yoke of this detested tribunal; but they did not long enjoy liberty, for they were not able to resist the power of Charles V., who obliged them to receive it a second time.

Naples was more fortunate. Ferdinand, in 1504, commanded the viceroy, Gonzales Fernandez de Cordova, surnamed _the Great Captain_, to a.s.sist the Archbishop of Messina with all his power, in establis.h.i.+ng the Inquisition; but the Neapolitans opposed it so obstinately, that the viceroy judged it prudent to desist, and informed the king that it would be extremely dangerous to combat so decided a resistance.

In 1510 Ferdinand again attempted to introduce the new Inquisition; but his efforts were unavailing, and he was obliged to declare that he would be satisfied if the Neapolitans would banish all the _New Christians_ who had taken refuge in their towns when they were driven from Spain.

Deza persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to introduce the Inquisition into the kingdom of Grenada, although a promise to the contrary had been made to the baptized Moors. The queen rejected the proposition, but granted one that differed little from it, namely, that the jurisdiction of the inquisitors of Cordova should extend over Grenada, but permitting them to prosecute only in cases of actual apostasy. From that period the Moors have been known in history by the name of _Morescoes_.

The princ.i.p.al inquisitor of Cordova was Don Diego de Lucero; the severity of his character caused great misery throughout the kingdom of Cordova.

The moderation and exhortations of Ximenez de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo, and Don Ferdinand de Talavera, had converted more than 50,000 Moors, and the conversions would have been still more numerous, if some priests had not treated the Moors with severity, and excited a general revolt.

In 1501 the sovereigns declared in an edict, that by the grace of G.o.d, there were no infidels in the kingdom of Grenada, and to render the conversions more secure, they forbade any Moors to enter the territory; they also prohibited the slaves of that nation from holding any communication with others, that their conversion might not be r.e.t.a.r.ded, or with those who had been baptized, as they might induce them to apostatize. All who did not conform to these laws incurred the punishment of death.

In February, 1502, Ferdinand and Isabella commanded all the free Moors of both s.e.xes, above fourteen and twelve years of age, to quit the kingdom of Spain before the month of May following: they were allowed to sell their goods as the Jews had been; but were prohibited from going to Africa, which was then at war with Spain. The states of the Grand Seignior and other countries were a.s.signed to them as places of refuge: as several baptized Moors sold their property and went to Africa, a royal ordinance was published, importing that, for the s.p.a.ce of two years, no person could sell his property, or leave the kingdom of Castile, except to go into Aragon or Portugal, without a permission, which would only be granted to those who gave a security for their return when they had terminated their affairs.

Deza was not contented with exciting the zeal of Ferdinand and Isabella against the Moors; he also proposed measures against the Jews on the occasion of the arrival of different strangers in Spain, but who were not of those expelled in 1492. He obtained a royal ordinance in 1499, which applied those measures to them which had been established against the first Jews. The council of the Inquisition had already decreed that the converted Jews should be obliged to prove their baptism, and that they lived with the other Christians; that those who had been rabbins or masters of the law should be obliged to change the place of their residence; that they should appear every Sunday and on festival days in the churches, and be carefully instructed in the christian doctrine.

Ferdinand permitted the inquisitors of Aragon to take cognizance of usury and other crimes foreign to their jurisdiction, contrary to the oath which he had taken to observe the laws of that kingdom, which ordained that they should be punished by the secular judge.

Deza was at the head of the Inquisition eight years. If the calculation of his victims is formed after the inscription at Seville, we shall find that 38,440 persons were punished during that time, of whom 2592 were burnt in person, 896 in effigy, and 34,952 condemned to different penances. Among this crowd of persons who were persecuted by the Inquisition, there were many distinguished by their birth, their learning, their fortunes, and their offices. The sanguinary inquisitor, Lucero, made the venerable Don Ferdinand de Talavera, first Archbishop of Grenada, the object of a shameful persecution. He became jealous of the reputation for sanct.i.ty and charity which this prelate had acquired, and raised doubts of his faith, by reminding Isabella, that he had opposed the establishment of the Inquisition in 1478, and the following years; and by publis.h.i.+ng that, although his father was n.o.ble, and of the ill.u.s.trious family of Contreras, yet he was of Jewish origin by the mother's side. The inquisitor concluded from these circ.u.mstances that he could commence a _secret instruction_ against the holy prelate. Deza commissioned the Archbishop of Toledo, Ximenez de Cisneros, to receive the preparatory informations on the faith of the Archbishop of Grenada; Cisneros informed the Pope of the commission which he had received, and the pontiff commanded his apostolical nuncio, the Bishop of Bristol, to take the affair under his direction, and prohibited Deza and the Inquisitors from pursuing it. The Pope, in a Council of Cardinals and Bishops, acquitted the Archbishop of Grenada, who died in 1507, some months after this judgment, after three years of the greatest anxiety, as the inquisitor Lucero had caused many of his relations to be arrested, although they were all innocent.

The persecution suffered by the learned Antonio Lebrija was not less cruel. He had been tutor to Isabella, and was honoured by the friends.h.i.+p and protection of Ximenez de Cisneros: he was well acquainted with the Greek and Hebrew, and discovered and corrected in the Latin text of the Vulgate some errors which had been committed by the transcribers before the invention of printing. He was accused by some scholastic theologians; his papers were seized, and after being treated with the greatest cruelty, he had the grief of seeing the suspicion of heresy established against him, and was obliged to live in that species of disgrace until he could write his apology under the protection of Ximenez de Cisneros.

The inhumanity of the inquisitor Lucero had still more serious consequences: as he declared almost all the accused persons guilty of concealment, and condemned them as _false penitents_, some persons added imaginary circ.u.mstances to their confessions, and declared that synagogues were held in different houses in Cordova, Grenada, and other towns; they added, that even monks and nuns attended at them, and went in procession from all parts of Castile; they also affirmed that many Spanish families of _Old Christians_, whom they named, a.s.sisted at the Jewish feasts. In consequence of these declarations, Lucero arrested such an immense number of persons, that Cordova was on the point of revolting against the Inquisition. The munic.i.p.ality, the bishop, the chapter of the cathedral, and all the n.o.bility sent deputies to the inquisitor-general, to demand that Lucero should be recalled. Deza refused to listen to their claim, until the cruelties of which Lucero was accused were proved. Lucero had then the audacity to note down as favourers of Judaism, knights, ladies, canons, monks, nuns, and respectable persons of every cla.s.s.

At this period, 1506, Philip I. ascended the throne of Castile; the Bishop of Cordova informed him of what was pa.s.sing, and the relations of the prisoners demanded that they should be tried by another tribunal.

Philip commanded Deza to retire to his archbishopric of Seville, and to invest Don Diego Ramirez de Guzman, Bishop of Catania, with the powers of inquisitor-general; at the same time all the papers relative to this affair were submitted to the Supreme Council of Castile. Ramirez de Guzman suspended Lucero, and the other inquisitors of Cordova, from their functions. The affair would have terminated happily, but for the death of the king in the same year.

Deza was no sooner informed of that event than he again resumed his office of inquisitor-general, and annulled all that had been done during his retirement. Ferdinand V. resumed the government of the kingdom, as father of Queen Joanna, widow of Philip I., as her mind was disordered.

Some time elapsed, however, before he began to reign, as he was at Naples at the time of the death of the King of Spain. At this period, all the inhabitants of Cordova, and some members of the Council of Castile, declared against Deza, and published that he was of the race of _Marranos_, that is, a descendant of the Jews.

The Marquis de Priego excited the Cordovans to a revolt; they forced the prisons of the holy office, and liberated an immense number of prisoners. They seized the persons of the procurator-fiscal, one of the notaries, and several other officers of the tribunal; Priego would also have arrested Lucero, but he escaped by means of an excellent mule.

These events alarmed the inquisitor-general to such a degree, that he resigned his office, and retired to his diocese with the greatest precaution. This proceeding restored tranquillity in Cordova, but did not terminate the trials.

When the Regent of Spain arrived in that kingdom, he named Don Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros inquisitor-general for the crown of Castile, and Don Juan Enguera, Bishop of Vic, for that of Aragon. The Pope expedited their bulls in 1507, and made Cisneros a cardinal.

Ximenez de Cisneros began to exercise his new employment on the 1st October, when the conspiracy against the holy office had become almost general, on account of the events at Cordova, of which the Council of Castile took cognizance. All its members who had been of the party of Philip I. signalized themselves by their hatred against the Inquisition.

This aversion made Ximenez de Cisneros feel the necessity of conducting himself with extreme caution, that he might not give occasion for a general convocation of the Cortes, which would have deprived him of the high office of governor of the kingdom, which he then possessed.

The events at Cordova forced a great number of persons to appeal to Rome. The Pope appointed two prelates to examine the trials, and made Cardinal Cisneros judge of appeals, with the power of bringing all the trials begun by the apostolical commissioners before him.

The cardinal immediately suspended the inquisitor Lucero, and sent him prisoner to Burgos; he also imprisoned all those witnesses who were suspected of having made false depositions, because some of the charges were so absurd that no one could believe them. The examination of the trials made the cardinal perceive, that an affair which implicated some of the most ill.u.s.trious families of Spain could not be treated with too much delicacy:--he therefore obtained the king's permission to form a junta, which he named the _Catholic Congregation_: it was composed of twenty-two respectable persons, namely, the inquisitor-general (who was the president); the inquisitor-general of Aragon; the Bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo; those of Calahorra and Barcelona; the mitred abbot of the Benedictines at Valladolid; the president of the Council of Castile, and eight of its members; the vice-chancellor and the president of the Chancery of Aragon; two counsellors of the _Supreme_; two provincial inquisitors, and an auditor of the Chancery of Valladolid.

Their first a.s.sembly was held at Burgos, on Ascension-day, in 1508, and on the 9th of July they decreed that the characters of the witnesses were vile, contemptible, and unworthy of confidence; that their declarations were full of contradictions; that they contained things unworthy of belief, and contrary to common sense; that the prisoners were consequently at liberty; that their honour, and that of the prisoners who had died, was re-established; that the houses which had been destroyed, as having been used for synagogues, should be rebuilt; and that the judgment and the notes in the register should be erased.

This decision of the _Catholic junta_ was proclaimed at Valladolid on the 1st August, in the same year, in the presence of the king, and a mult.i.tude of n.o.bles, and other inhabitants of all cla.s.ses.

Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros had genius, knowledge, and was just, which he proved in the affair of Cordova, and in the protection which he granted to Lebrija and other learned men on different occasions. I shall here remark the error into which several writers have fallen, in accusing Cisneros of having taken a great part in the establishment of the holy office, when it is certain that, in concert with Cardinal Mendoza and Talavera, he endeavoured to prevent it. When he was chosen as chief of an inst.i.tution which had more power and was better obeyed than many sovereigns, circ.u.mstances made it a duty to uphold and defend it, and he was obliged to oppose innovations in the manner of proceeding, although the events at Cordova had shown him the inconveniences of the secrecy preserved by the tribunal.

The division of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, which took place at this time, and the idea that it was no longer necessary to have as many inquisitorial tribunals as bishoprics, were the reasons that induced Cisneros to distribute them by provinces. He established the holy office at Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Toledo, in Estremadura, at Murcia, Valladolid, and Calahorra, and determined the extent of territory for the jurisdiction of each tribunal: at this time he also sent inquisitors to the Canary isles. In 1513, the inquisition was introduced at Cuenca; in 1524, at Grenada; under Philip II., at Santiago de Galicia; and under Philip IV., at Madrid. Cisneros also judged it necessary, in 1516, to have a tribunal at Oran, and soon after in America.

The inquisitor-general of Aragon adopted the same system, and sent inquisitors to Saragossa, Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily; and, at a later period, to Pampeluna, after the conquest of Navarre: but this kingdom being united in 1515 to that of Castile, its tribunal was subjected to the inquisitor-general of that kingdom, who suppressed it some time after, and transferred the territory to that of Calahorra.

During the eleven years of his ministry, (which ended by his death in 1517,) Cisneros permitted the condemnation of 52,855 individuals, 3564 were burnt in person, 1232 in effigy, and 4832 suffered different punishments. Although this number of executions is immense, yet it must be acknowledged that Cisneros had taken measures to relax the activity of the Inquisition; the most important was, that he a.s.signed particular churches to the _New Christians_, and charged the curates to increase their zeal in instructing them, and to visit them often in their own houses.

_Offer made to the King to obtain the publicity of the Proceedings._

In 1512, a report being spread among the _New Christians_ that Ferdinand intended to make war against his nephew, the King of Navarre, they offered him 600,000 ducats of gold towards the expenses of the war if he would consent to make a law that the trials of the Inquisition should be public: the king was on the point of treating with the _New Christians_, when Cisneros placed a large sum of money at his disposal; the king accepted it, though it was less than the first, and abandoned the idea of a reform.

After the death of that prince, and while Charles V. was in Flanders, in 1517, the _New Christians_ again offered, on the same conditions, 800,000 ducats for the expenses of his journey to Spain. William de Croy, Duke d'Ariscot, the favourite governor of the young monarch, persuaded him to consult the colleges, universities, and learned men of Spain and Flanders; they all replied that the communication of the names and the entire depositions of the witnesses was consonant to all rights natural, human, and divine. When the cardinal-inquisitor was informed of this decision, he sent deputies, and wrote to the king to combat it; he reminded him that a similar proposal had been refused by his grandfather; but he did not tell him the most important circ.u.mstance, that he had refused it for a sum of money. Charles V. left the affair undecided until his arrival in Spain, but he terminated it according to the general hopes after the death of Cisneros, in 1518.

The particular favour which Ferdinand granted to the Inquisition did not prevent him from maintaining the rights of his crown. In 1509, he published a law which prohibited, on pain of death, any person from presenting to the inquisitors any bull, or writing of that nature, obtained from the Pope, or his legates, without first applying to the king that it might be examined by his council.

This right of the crown of Spain over the decisions of the Pope has been lately renewed by a law of Charles III.; yet the law has often been impotent against the enterprises, the decisions, and the briefs of the Popes.

Ferdinand named Don Louis Mercader inquisitor-general for the kingdom of Aragon, after the death of the Bishop of Vic. Mercader died in 1516, while the government was in the hands of Charles of Austria, the grandson of Ferdinand, who died in the same year, leaving no children by his second marriage.

Charles, his grandson, resided in Flanders, but he sent into Spain several men who enjoyed his confidence: amongst them were his governor, the Duke d'Ariscot, and Adrian de Florencio, who was Dean of Louvain, and born at Utrecht. As the two sovereignties of Castile and Aragon were now united, it appeared natural that there should be but one inquisitor-general for the monarchy, but Cisneros had too much penetration to omit this opportunity of recommending himself to the favorite, and, consequently, to the prince. Instead of demanding this union, he wrote to the king to represent that it appeared to him expedient to bestow the bishopric of Tortosa and the office of inquisitor-general of Aragon on the Dean of Louvain, and it was easy to obviate the difficulty of his being a foreigner by giving him letters of naturalization. This plan was executed; the double nomination was sent to Rome, and the Pope granted the bulls. Adrian took possession of Majorca on the 7th of February, 1517: this nomination was followed by one to the office of Cisneros, who died on the 6th of November following. Although he was elected Pope on the 9th of January, 1522, he continued in his office until the 10th of September in the following year, when he signed the bulls of his successor, Don Alphonso Manrique de Lara, Archbishop of Seville.

During the period that the Inquisition remained separate from that of Castile, it was often violently attacked, and more than once was on the point of being abolished, or at least subjected to a reform, which would have left it without the power of exciting terror. Ferdinand having a.s.sembled the Cortes of the kingdom at Monzon, in 1510, the deputies of the towns and cities loudly complained that the inquisitors abused their powers, not only in matters of faith, but in several points which were not in their jurisdiction. The deputies also represented, that they interfered in the regulation of the contributions, and that the taxes were shamefully diminished by the reductions which they made in the lists; that their authority had made them so bold and insolent, that they created themselves judges in all doubtful cases; and where their competence was denied, they had recourse to excommunication; that they oppressed the magistrates, who feared that they should be obliged to do public penance in an _auto-da-fe_; that this misfortune had already happened to the viceroys and governors of Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and Sicily, and to several persons of high rank; in consequence, they entreated his Majesty to maintain the execution of the laws and statues of the kingdom of Aragon, and to oblige the officers of the Inquisition to confine themselves to matter of faith, and to pursue them according to the rules of common law, in giving them the publicity of criminal proceedings.

This representation of the Cortes acquainted the king with the disposition of the public; yet he avoided giving a direct reply, and said that it was impossible to decide upon so important an affair without having acquired a profound knowledge of facts; that he requested them to collect all that came to their knowledge, and to lay them before him in the first a.s.sembly. This took place in the same town, in 1512.

The resolutions which were then adopted form a treaty between the sovereign and his people: it contains twenty-five articles, all tending to restrain the extent of the jurisdiction of the inquisitors.

It was there stated that they could not interfere in trials for bigamy and usury, unless the culprits had fallen into the crime of heresy in a.s.serting that these offences were not sinful; nor in the proceedings inst.i.tuted against blasphemers by other tribunals, unless the blasphemy was heretical: they were also prohibited from proceeding in a trial without the concurrence of the _ordinaire diocesan_: the inquisitor-general was likewise restrained from p.r.o.nouncing judgment in cases of appeal without the consent of his counsellors; and that the execution of the sentence which had caused it should be delayed. No measures were taken for the publicity of the proceedings, or with regard to the confiscations; but it was agreed that the contracts and other engagements, signed by one who had the reputation of a good catholic, should be valid, although he should be afterwards proved to have been a heretic at the time of the transaction.

The king soon repented of having given his word to the Cortes; and, seconded by the intrigues of the inquisitors, he solicited and obtained a dispensation from his promise, on the 30th of April, 1513. One of the clauses of the dispensation reinstates the tribunals of the holy office in all the privileges which they had formerly possessed. This conduct of the king caused a general revolt; and he was obliged to request the Pope to confirm the regulations of the Cortes, and subject those who did not conform to them to the censure of the church. The Pope saw the necessity of compliance, and granted the bull in 1515.

CHAPTER XI.

AN ATTEMPT MADE BY THE CORTES OF CASTILE AND ARAGON TO REFORM THE INQUISITION.--OF THE PRINc.i.p.aL EVENTS UNDER ADRIAN, FOURTH INQUISITOR-GENERAL.