The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 3

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 punis.h.i.+ng 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 Santafe. 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 s.e.xtus 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 circ.u.mstances.

Isabella suffered herself to be led away by the representations of her council, and commissioned her amba.s.sador 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 inst.i.tution was to the Castilians. In the beginning of the year 1480, the Cortes a.s.sembled 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 distinguis.h.i.+ng 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 circ.u.mstance 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 a.s.sist 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 n.o.bles; 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 a.s.signed 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 pa.s.sed, 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 p.r.o.nounces the bahara, or benediction, when he takes the vessel of wine into his hands, and p.r.o.nounces 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, p.r.o.nouncing 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, s.h.i.+rt, 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 p.r.o.nounced their deprivation but from respect to the royal decree which had inst.i.tuted 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sured 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 p.r.o.nounce 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 a.s.sistants 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 a.s.sistants 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 a.s.sistants, and the members of the royal council.

This a.s.sembly 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 va.s.sals of n.o.bles; 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 t.i.tle 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, rest.i.tution, 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.