The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 4

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 Arbues d'Epila, as inquisitors for the archbishopric of Saragossa. A royal ordinance commanded all the authorities to aid and a.s.sist them in their office, and the magistrate known by the name of Chief Justice of Aragon, took the oath with several others. This circ.u.mstance 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 princ.i.p.al 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 princ.i.p.al grandees in the kingdom, and used the influence which they derived from this circ.u.mstance, 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 a.s.sa.s.sination 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 a.s.sa.s.sins of the Inquisitor Arbues, John de la Abadia, a n.o.ble of Aragon, but descended from Jewish ancestors on the female side, took upon himself the direction of the enterprise. The a.s.sa.s.sination 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 Arbues, 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 a.s.sa.s.sinated 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, a.s.sembled 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 a.s.sured the mult.i.tude that the criminal should be punished. Policy inspired Ferdinand and Isabella with the idea of honouring the memory of Arbues with a solemnity which contributed to make him pa.s.s for a saint, and caused a particular wors.h.i.+p 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 Arbues, 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 a.s.sa.s.sins, 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 n.o.bility, which was not disgraced by having at least one of its members in the _auto-da-fe_, 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 ill.u.s.trious 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 a.s.sisted 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 a.s.sa.s.sins of Arbues 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 t.i.tle. The king applied to the Pope, who inst.i.tuted 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 CONSt.i.tUTION 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 t.i.tle 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 n.o.bles 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 circ.u.mstances 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 rest.i.tution 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 a.s.sistance 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 pa.s.s 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 pet.i.tion 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 a.s.sembly 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 p.r.o.nounced, 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.