The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 26

In America, the ordinances of the king, and other regulations, could not prevent violent quarrels from arising between the civil tribunals and those of the holy office. But in all these affairs the viceroys showed more firmness, and repressed the arrogance of the inquisitors with more success than was displayed in the Peninsula. This is not surprising, because in distant countries the inquisitors are not supported by an inquisitor-general, who, possessing the king's favour, may influence him in private conversations. Besides this, the viceroys, jealous of the power with which they are invested, are careful that it shall meet with no obstacles or contradictions.

In 1686, a quarrel arose between the inquisitors of Carthagena in America, and the bishop. The inquisitor Don Francis Barela, after excommunicating the prelate, caused his decree to be read in all the churches. The bishop replied, and showed by his manner to the inquisitor, his contempt for the excommunication. Don Francis (in concurrence with his consultors) arrested and threw into prison the bishop and many respectable persons of the cathedral and the city, who had spoken freely on the subject. The Pope being informed of this affair on the 13th February, 1687, commanded the inquisitor-general, Don Diego Sarmiento de Valladares, to cause the inquisitor Barela and the consultors to be brought to Madrid, and to deprive them of their offices. This order not being obeyed, on the 15th of December he expedited a second brief, which was comminatory. The inquisitor-general then had recourse to the king, and gave so unfaithful an account of the transaction, that neither his majesty nor the council of the Indies were ever informed of the truth. The Pope persisted in his resolution, and wished to decide on the affair himself. It was not finished when Clement XI. ascended the pontifical throne; this Pope a.s.sembled the cardinals, and taking their opinions, confirmed by a formal decree all that the bishop had done, and annulled the extravagant measures of the inquisitor. A bull, in 1706, commanded the rest.i.tution of the penalties which had been imposed, and suppressed the tribunal of Carthagena. This suppression was not executed, because it was contrary to the king's policy.

In 1713, the Cardinal Francis Judice, inquisitor-general, prohibited a work of Don Melchior Macanaz, procurator of the king in the Council of Castile: the cardinal knew that this work had been printed by the order of Philip V., who had approved it after having read it. The king was at first very much irritated at this proceeding; but the cardinal, accustomed to the intrigues of Rome and Paris, succeeded in eluding the orders of his sovereign; although he was not in the kingdom, he continued to exercise his office, and sent orders to his creatures which were extremely displeasing to Philip. This prince could not obtain the dismission of Judice, until Cardinal Alberoni had exerted his influence at Rome and Paris, to second his master's views. Judice retired in 1716.

Don Melchior Macanaz continued to live in exile. His trial became important, from the great number of denunciations which were made against different works which he had written: in some of these he inveighed against the abuses which were committed at the Court of Rome, against those of the immunities of the clergy and of the ecclesiastical tribunals, and called the public attention to the fatal effects of increasing the number of monks and other societies. The qualifiers, in judging his works, clearly showed the spirit of hatred and revenge which actuated them. In the trial of Macanaz, one of his works, called _A Critical Defence of the Inquisition_, is mentioned; the inquisitors qualified it as _ironical_, because they found some things in it which were not true. They were confirmed in their opinion some time after, by another work of Macanaz, called _An Apology for the Defence of Fray Nicolas Jesus de Belando, in Favour of the Civil History of Spain, unjustly prohibited by the Inquisition_.

Although the inquisitors treated him with so much severity, Ferdinand VI., and the inquisitor-general Don Manuel Quintano Bonifaz, permitted Macanaz to return to Spain, and the king sent him to Aix-la-Chapelle as his amba.s.sador.

In 1768, the inquisitors endeavoured to obtain the right of trying persons for polygamy: Charles III. ordered that the cognizance of this offence should belong to the secular judge, except when the criminals thought that it was permitted. It was his pleasure that the inquisitors "should only punish heresy and apostasy, and, above all, that none of his people should be subjected to the disgrace of an arrest, if they had not been previously convicted of a crime."

In 1771, the Council of the Inquisition represented to the king, that the simple fact of marrying another person, while the first wife was alive, was sufficient to create a suspicion that the persons guilty of it erred in faith on the article of marriage. For this reason the inquisitors continued to receive the denunciations on this pretended heresy, and to take cognizance of it.

In 1781, the inquisitor-general commanded that the confessionals in the convents of nuns should be placed within sight of the persons in the churches. This was done by the inquisitors, without consulting the archbishops and bishops of the dioceses; they were extremely offended at this conduct, but dissembled their anger, that the public tranquillity might not be disturbed.

In 1797, the Inquisitors of Grenada removed the confessional of the convent of the nuns of St. Paul, which was under the immediate direction of the archbishop: the ecclesiastical governor of the archbishopric complained to the king. The minister of justice, Don Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos, resolved to take advantage of this event; he addressed himself to the Archbishop of Burgos, inquisitor-general, to the Bishops of Huesca, Tuy, Placentia, Osma, Avila, and to Don Joseph Espiga, the king's almoner, and requested them to propose "whatever they thought most proper to correct the abuses committed in the holy office, and to destroy the false principles on which that tribunal founded all its measures." The archbishop (as may be supposed) sent notes favourable to the tribunal; those of all the others were of quite an opposite nature.

This attempt, however, did not lead to any satisfactory result: Jovellanos quitted the ministry before Charles IV. had decided on the subject; the minister who succeeded him had other views, and Jovellanos was denounced on suspicion of heresy.

_Of the Magistrates who were persecuted._

The examples which have been given of the quarrels between the Inquisition and the civil tribunals, sufficiently prove the constant attention of the inquisitors in endeavouring to extend their influence and privileges, even in defiance of the sovereign power; yet a list of the persecuted magistrates may be useful and interesting.

_Almodovar_ (Don Christopher Ximenez de Gongora, duke of). He was amba.s.sador to the Court of Vienna, and published a work _on the Establishments of the European Nations beyond Sea_. This book is only a free translation of that of the Abbe Raynal. He concealed his name under that of _Eduardo Malo de Luque_, which is the anagram of El Duque de Almodovar. He presented some copies of his book to the king, but though he had taken this precaution, and had suppressed some articles, he was denounced to the Inquisition as being tinctured with the opinions of the incredulous philosophers. The inquisitors endeavoured to find out how the duke conversed in society with learned men; but they did not learn enough to authorize an accusation, as it almost always happened, during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV., when they wished to attack the literati.

_Aranda_ (Don Pedro-Paul Abarca de Bolea y Ximenez d'Urrea, Count d'), grandee of Spain. He rendered himself more ill.u.s.trious by his talents and learning than he was by his birth and high offices. As a soldier he attained the rank of Captain-general, which is equivalent to that of Field-marshal: his diplomatic talents obtained the office of amba.s.sador to Paris; his knowledge as a statesman, that of prime-minister, secretary of state, under Charles IV.; and for his talents as a politician he was made president of the Council of Castile. In these four branches of the art of governing he was always truly great. He was president in the royal council extraordinary, a.s.sembled by Charles III.

to consider the affairs of the Jesuits. Although the members of this a.s.sembly deliberated in secret, the public were informed not only of its objects in general, but the particular opinions of each councillor. The Count d'Aranda was denounced to the holy office as being suspected of professing the sentiments of the philosophers of the eighteenth century, because his political opinions were extremely liberal. The ordinance signed by Charles III. in 1770 (forbidding the inquisitors to take cognizance of any crime but heresy) was thought to be the work of the Count d'Aranda, and the inquisitors hated him in consequence. The trial of Don Paul Olavide, which took place about this time, furnished some details which caused a suspicion that the opinions of the Count d'Aranda on the subject of mere exterior devotion were the same as those of the accused. However the inquisitors could not obtain a sufficient ma.s.s of evidence to authorize proceedings against him, and he died after having been denounced four times to the holy office, but without ever being put upon his trial.

_Arroyo_ (Don Stephen d'), corregidor of Ecija, a town in Andalusia, and a member of the royal civil court of the district of Granada. He was excommunicated by the Inquisition of Cordova in 1664, because he opposed the attempts made by the inquisitors to extend their jurisdiction at the expense of the civil tribunals.

_Avalos_ (Don Diego Lopez d'), corregidor of the city of Cordova, was threatened to be excommunicated and imprisoned in 1501, because he refused to give up two archers of the holy office, who had been taken to the royal prison, unless they were demanded with the proper forms.

_Azara_ (Don Joseph Nicolas d'), born in Aragon, was successively director of the office of the minister for foreign affairs, minister plenipotentiary at Rome, and amba.s.sador extraordinary to Paris. He published a translation of the _Life of Cicero_, with notes, ill.u.s.trations, and plates. He was considered one of the most learned men in Spain during the reigns of Charles III. and his successor. Although he almost always resided in Italy or France, his name was in the registers of the holy office. He was denounced at Saragossa and Madrid as an incredulous philosopher; but there were no proofs, and the trial was suspended until fresh charges should be brought against him.

_Aragon_ (the deputation of). See the preceding Article.

_Aragon._ The Chief Justice of Aragon was invested with supreme power, and placed between the king and the nation, to decide without appeal, if the king's ministers infringed the laws established at the beginning of the monarchy. Even the king was obliged to submit to the decisions of this magistrate in all const.i.tutional affairs. In order to prevent disputes between the two powers, the chief justice and his tribunal were independent of the king in the criminal proceedings. The inquisitors of Saragossa, regardless of these regulations, commenced proceedings against the chief justice, and in 1591 threatened to excommunicate him.

Some account of this affair will be given in the trial of Antonio Perez.

_Banuelos_ (Don Vincent) was excommunicated by the Inquisition of Toledo, for endeavouring to defend the jurisdiction of the civil tribunal in a trial for homicide.

_Barcelona._ See the preceding Article.

_Barrientos_ (the commandant), knight of the military order of St. Jago, and Corregidor and Sub-prefect of Logrono, was obliged, in 1516, to go to Madrid, and appear before the inquisitor-general of the Supreme Council, to ask pardon for having refused to lend a.s.sistance to the archers of the holy office in arresting some monks. He was subjected to the lesser _auto-da-fe_, attended ma.s.s, standing with a torch in his hand, and received some slight strokes of a whip from the inquisitor; this ceremony was concluded by a solemn absolution from all censures.

_Benalcazar_ (the Count de) was excommunicated and menaced with an arrest by the inquisitors of Estremadura in 1500. The same threat was made to the governor of the fortress of Benalcazar; their offence was having defended their temporal power against the pretensions of the holy office, in the case of a woman who was arrested for having uttered some words against the faith.

_Campomanes_ (Don Pedro Rodriguez de Campomanes, Count de) was, perhaps, the most eminent literary man in Spain, during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV. He is the author of several works mentioned in the _Spanish Library of the time of Charles III._ published by Don Juan de Sempere Guarinos. He first filled the office of procurator to the king in the Council of Castile, and in the chamber of the king, of which he was afterwards the governor. In all his works he constantly maintained the independence of sovereigns with respect to the Court of Rome, the obligation that all the citizens of the state should pay their part of the public expenses, and the impossibility that the contentious jurisdiction should form part of the ecclesiastical power, unless accorded by the special favour of the sovereign. It is easy to suppose that Campomanes had a great many enemies among the clergy; he was denounced to the holy office as an anti-catholic philosopher. The charges were numerous, but they did not prove that he had advanced any heretical proposition; they only tended to create a suspicion that his works were opposed to the spirit of Christianity. He was invited to attend the _auto-da-fe_ of Don Paul Olavide, in order to inform him of the punishment he would incur by professing the same opinions; but though the inquisitors knew him to be their enemy, they did not dare to go any further.

_Cardona_ (Don Pedro de), captain-general of Catalonia. See Chapter 16.

_Castile_ (Council of). See preceding Article.

_Chaves_ (Don Gregorio Antonio de), corregidor and sub-prefect of Cordova, was excommunicated and threatened with imprisonment by the inquisitors of Cordova in 1660.

_Chumacero_ (Don Juan), Count de Guaro, president of the Council of Castile, amba.s.sador at Rome, composed several works which are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio, and some discourses in defence of the temporal against the ecclesiastical power, and in favour of the independence of sovereigns against the abuses of the Court of Rome. The inquisitors of Spain, at the instigation of the Pope's nuncio, undertook to condemn his doctrine, and to prohibit his works, with those of some other authors who wrote in the same spirit, in order to force them to retract, on pain of excommunication and imprisonment.

_Cordova_ (Don Pedro Fernandez de), Marquis de Priego, member of the munic.i.p.ality of Cordova, was persecuted by the Inquisition in 1506. See Chapter 10.

_Cordova_ (Don Diego Fernandez de), Count de Cabra, and also a member of the munic.i.p.ality of Cordova, was treated in the same manner. _Ibid._

_G.o.doy_ (Don Manuel), Prince of Peace, Duke of Alcudia, secretary of state to Charles IV. See Chapter 43.

_Gonzalez_ (Don Mathias). See the preceding Article.

_Gudiel_ (the Licentiate). _Ibid._

_Gudiel de Peralta_ (Don Louis). _Ibid._

_Guzman_ (Don Gaspar de), Count-Duke d'Olivarez, prime minister to Philip IV. See Chapter 37.

_Izquierdo_ (the Licentiate). See the preceding Article.

_Jovellanos_ (Don Gaspard Melchior de), Secretary of State in the department of grace and justice under Charles IV., was one of the most learned men in Spain; he wrote several pamphlets on politics and different branches of literature. In 1798 he resolved to reform the mode of proceeding in the holy office, and intended to take advantage of a memorial which I had composed in 1794, according to the orders of the inquisitor-general Abad-y-la-Sierra; but from a secret court intrigue he was denounced to the Inquisition as a Jansenist and an enemy to the tribunal. Charles IV. was persuaded first to banish him to his native place Gijon, in the Asturias, and afterwards to confine him in the Chartreuse, in the island of Majorca, where he was informed that he was to study the Christian doctrine. This treatment was extremely unjust, for Jovellanos was not only a good Catholic, but a just and irreproachable man, whose memory will do honour to Spain.

_Juan_ (D. Gabriel de), president of the royal Court of Appeal at Majorca, was excommunicated in 1531; he maintained the rights of the sovereign against the inquisitors.

_Lara_ (Don Juan Perez de), procurator to the king, and fiscal of the royal Court of Appeal at Seville, was extremely ill-treated by the inquisitors in 1637, because he maintained the rights of the royal jurisdiction in a manifesto, which the inquisitors declared contained propositions offensive to the holy office.

_Macanaz_ (Don Melchior de). See the preceding article.

_Monino_ (Don Joseph), Count de Florida-Blanca, first secretary of state under Charles III., and Charles IV. He had been successively an advocate at Madrid, procurator to the king and fiscal of the Council of Castile, and minister plenipotentiary at Rome. His celebrity as a lawyer was the origin of his elevation, and his subsequent conduct fully justified the favourable opinion which had been formed of him. In his quality of fiscal he wrote several works. Don Juan Sempere Guarinos, in his _Catalogue of the Authors of the Reign of Charles III._, has inserted notices of those which had been printed and those which remained unpublished. Among the first are some of great merit: the _Advice of a Fiscal_, which he gave to the council on the memorial presented to Charles III. by Don Isidro Carbajal y Lancaster, Bishop of Cuenca, and on the _impartial judgment_ of the brief issued by Clement XIII. against the sovereign Duke of Parma, induced some ignorant and prejudiced priests to denounce him to the Inquisition as an enemy to religion. The Count furnished them with additional arms against himself, when he gave his opinion as procurator-fiscal on the abuses committed by the inquisitors in the prohibition of books, and on the system which they had adopted of taking cognizance of crimes not relating to doctrine.

However, the inquisitors, not finding in his writings any proposition which might be qualified as heretical, were afraid to continue the trial of a minister for whom the king showed the greatest esteem.

_Mur_ (Don Joseph de), president of the royal Court of Appeal at Majorca, being obliged to maintain the rights of the tribunal against the holy office, composed, in 1615, a work on competency, in which he supported the royal jurisdiction against the ecclesiastical power in all contests not relating to spiritual concerns. The holy office made the author suffer much, and inserted his work in the _Index_. Philip IV.

caused it to be erased in 1641, at the request of the Council of Castile.

_Ossuna_ (the Duke of). See Chapter 37.

_Olavide_ (Don Paul), born at Lima, in Peru, _a.s.sistant_, that is, Prefect of Seville, and director of the towns and villages recently built in the _Sierra-Morena_ and in Andalusia, was arrested in 1776, and taken to the secret prisons of the Inquisition of Madrid; on the suspicion that he held impious opinions, particularly those of Rousseau and Voltaire, with whom he maintained an intimate correspondence. It appeared from the trial, that Olavide had, in the new towns which he governed, uttered the opinions of these philosophers, on the exterior worship which is rendered to G.o.d in this country. The accused denied many of the words and actions imputed to him; he explained others which might not have been understood by the witnesses, but he confessed enough to induce the inquisitors to believe that he secretly held the same opinions as his two friends. Olavide asked pardon for his imprudence, but declared that he could not do so for the crime of heresy, as he had never lost his interior faith. On the 24th of November, 1778, an _auto-da-fe_ was celebrated with closed doors, in the hall of the Inquisition of Madrid, in the presence of sixty persons of high rank: Don Paul Olavide appeared before them, in the habit of a penitent, and holding in his hand an extinguished torch. The sentence declared him to be convicted of _formal heresy_; he ought to have appeared in the _San-benito_, with a cord round his neck, but this was dispensed with, as well as the obligation of wearing the _San-benito_ afterwards. He was condemned to pa.s.s eight years in a convent, and to live according to the orders of a spiritual director chosen by the Inquisition; to be banished from Madrid, Seville, Cordova, and the new town in the Sierra Morena. His property was confiscated; he was forbidden to possess any office or honourable t.i.tle; to ride on horseback, or to wear any jewels or ornaments of gold, silver, pearls, diamonds, precious stones, or habits of silk, or fine wool, but only those of coa.r.s.e serge or some other stuff of that kind. The reading of the _factum_ of his trial, by the secretary, lasted four hours; the fiscal accused him of having advanced seventy heretical propositions, and seventy-two witnesses were examined. Towards the conclusion, Olavide exclaimed, _Whatever the fiscal may say, I have never lost my faith_. No answer was made to him.

When he heard his sentence he fainted, and fell off the bench on which he had been permitted to sit. When he had recovered, and the reading of the sentence was finished, he received absolution on his knees, after having read and signed his profession of faith; he was then taken back to the prison. The sixty individuals who were invited to this ceremony were dukes, counts, marquises, generals, members of the councils, and knights of different military orders; they were most of them his friends. These persons were, from some circ.u.mstances in the trial, suspected of partaking his opinions, and the invitation was intended to inform them of what they might expect, and to induce them to be more reserved in their conversation. Olavide went to the convent where he was to be confined, but made his escape some time after, and retired to France. He lived at Paris under the name of the _Count de Pilo_, a t.i.tle which he had never borne in Spain. A few years after he published a work, called _The Gospel Triumphant; or, the Converted Philosopher_.

This composition obtained his pardon, and permission to return to Spain, where no penances were imposed on him.

_Perez_ (Antonio). See Chapter 35.

_Ramos del Manzano_ (Don Francis), Count de Francos, tutor of Charles II. and president of the Sovereign Council of the Indies, composed some treatises on politics, which are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio. In these writings he maintains the prerogatives and independence of the sovereigns against the indirect powers of the Popes, the abuses of the Court of Rome, and the ecclesiastical judges in the holy office. The Count de Francos suffered much persecution, and his works were prohibited; if Philip IV. had not protected him, he would have been arrested, and his books burnt.

_Ricla_ (the Count de), minister of war, and lieutenant-general in the army under Charles III., was denounced to the holy office as having adopted the opinions of the philosophers of the eighteenth century.

There was not sufficient proof against him, and the trial was suspended.