The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand Part 27

_Roda_ (Don Manuel de), Marquis de Roda, minister and secretary of state in the department of grace and justice, under Charles III. He had been a celebrated advocate at Madrid, and minister-plenipotentiary at Rome; his talents and learning made him of the greatest use to Charles III. in the important affairs relative to the expulsion of the Jesuits. The imputation of Jansenism, incurred by the archbishops and bishops of the Council extraordinary, was also brought against this minister, who had made many enemies by advising Charles III. to reform the six great colleges established at Salamanca, Alcala, and Valladolid. This denunciation failed, because it contained no _particular proposition_ which deserved to be censured.

_Salcedo_ (Don Pedro Gonzalez de), procurator to the king in the Council of Castile, published a treatise _On Political Law_, and some other works, in which he attacked the abuses committed by the judges of the privileged tribunals, and the pretensions of the inquisitors and other ecclesiastics to the royal jurisdictions. He was persecuted, and his works were condemned, but Philip IV. revoked the prohibition; however some pa.s.sages were afterwards retrenched, and they are not found in the later editions.

_Salgado_ (Don Francis de), member of the Council of Castile, published some works in defence of the royal jurisdiction against the ecclesiastical authority; they are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio. The Court of Rome condemned them; the inquisitors of Spain persecuted the author, but when they were on the point of publis.h.i.+ng the prohibition of his works, Philip IV. commanded them to suspend their proceedings.

_Samaniego_ (Don Philip de), priest, archdeacon of Pampeluna, knight of the order of St. James, counsellor to the king, and chief secretary and interpreter of foreign languages. He was invited to attend the _auto-da-fe_ of Don Paul Olavide, and was so alarmed that he voluntarily denounced himself. He presented a declaration, in which he confessed that he had read prohibited books, such as those of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Rousseau, Hobbes, Spinosa, Montesquieu, Bayle, d'Alembert, Diderot, and others; that from this course of reading he had fallen into a religious pyrrhonism; that having thought seriously on the subject, he had resolved to remain firmly attached to the Catholic faith, and that in consequence he had resolved to demand to be absolved from the censures _ad cautelam_. The tribunal ordered that he should confirm his declaration by taking an oath. They then obliged him to confess by what means he had obtained the books, whom he had received them from, and where they were at that time; with what persons he had conversed on the subject of religion, and revealed his opinions; what individuals had refuted or adopted them; who had appeared to be ignorant of the doctrine, or were acquainted with it; and lastly, how long he had known it himself: these declarations were the conditions on which he was to receive absolution. Samaniego wrote a declaration, in which almost all the learned men of the court were implicated. Some of these persons had been invited to the _auto-da-fe_ of Don Paul Olavide.

_Sardinia_ (the viceroy of) was excommunicated in 1498, and punished by the inquisitors for having lent a.s.sistance to the Archbishop of Cagliari in taking a criminal from the prisons of the holy office to those of the archbishopric.

_Sese_ (Don Joseph de), president of the royal Court of Appeal of the kingdom of Aragon. This magistrate wrote a work, in which he had collected many definitive sentences which had been p.r.o.nounced in trials for competency; they were all favourable to the secular power. The author was the victim of his zeal; he was persecuted, and his work prohibited, but Philip IV. caused it to be revoked.

_Solorzano_ (Don Juan de), member of the Sovereign Council of the Indies. He was the author of a work on _Indian Politics_, and several others of the same nature. They were written in the same spirit as those of Salgado; Solorzano and his works shared his fate.

_Sotomayor_ (Don Guiterre de), knight commander of the order of Alcantara, brother of the Count de Benalcazar, and governor of the fortress of that name. See _Benalcazar_.

_Terranova_ (the Marquis de). See Chapter 16.

_Toledo_ (the royal judge of) was excommunicated, imprisoned, and received much ill treatment from the inquisitors in 1622, in a contest for jurisdiction.

_Valdes_ (Don Antonio), member of the royal Council of Castile. He was excommunicated by the inquisitors in 1639, because he refused to exempt the familiars of the holy office who possess land, from paying a contribution.

_Valencia_ (the viceroy of), captain-general, was obliged in 1488, to appear before the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, and ask pardon and absolution for having set at liberty a soldier who was detained in the prisons of the holy office. He had the mortification of being obliged to appear in a _lesser auto-da-fe_.

_Vera_ (Don Juan-Antonio de). See Chapter 36.

_Zarate_ (Diego Ruiz de), chief alcade of Cordova, was punished by the Supreme Council in 1500, and suspended from his office for six months, because he refused to allow the inquisitors of Cordova to take cognizance of the trial of the chief alguazil of that city.

Many other instances might be quoted: but these are sufficient to show that the nature of the tribunal of the holy office will be contrary to the independence of the sovereign, while the royal jurisdiction is confounded with that of the inquisitors, and while the members of the holy office are exempted from the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the royal tribunals.

CHAPTER XXVII.

OF THE TRIALS OF SEVERAL SOVEREIGNS AND PRINCES UNDERTAKEN BY THE INQUISITION.

It is not surprising that the Inquisition should persecute magistrates and learned men, when it has not scrupled to attack kings, princes, and grandees. Some writers (particularly the French and Flemish) have singularly exaggerated the accounts of these trials; some of them having but a vague and slight foundation for what they have advanced, and others have filled their accounts with invectives and fictions. The history is derived from the archives and writings of the trials of the Inquisition, and I have attended more to these authentic doc.u.ments than to the narratives of those who have not had the same advantages. This Chapter will contain _all that is certainly known_ of the trials of the princes and other potentates by the Inquisition.

The _Holy Tribunal_ was scarcely established in Aragon, when it attacked Don James de Navarre, sometimes called the _Infant of Tudela_, and the _Infant of Navarre_. His crime was an act of benevolence. The a.s.sa.s.sination of Pedro Arbues, the first inquisitor of Aragon, which took place in 1485, obliged many of the princ.i.p.al inhabitants of Saragossa to take flight. One of these persons went to Tudela de Navarre, where the Infant of Navarre resided, and asked and obtained an asylum in his house for several days, until he could make his escape into France. The inquisitors being informed of this humane action, arrested and took Don James to their prisons in 1487, as an enemy to the holy office. He was condemned to hear solemn ma.s.s, standing in the presence of a great concourse of people, and of his cousin Don Alphonso of Aragon (a natural son of Ferdinand V. and Archbishop of Saragossa), and to receive absolution from the censures which he was supposed to have incurred, after submitting to be _scourged_ by two priests, and having gone through all the ceremonies prescribed in such cases by the Roman ritual.

In 1488, the Inquisition tried John Pic de la Mirandola and de Concordia, a prince who was considered a prodigy of science, from the age of twenty-three years. Innocent VIII. instigated them to this measure by a brief addressed to Ferdinand and Isabella, dated the 16th of December, 1487, in which he said, that he had been informed that John Pic was going into Spain, with the intention of maintaining, in the universities and other schools of the kingdom, the erroneous doctrine of several theses which he had already published at Rome, and had abjured, which rendered him still more culpable. His Holiness added, that he was most afflicted in perceiving that the youth, the pleasing manners and agreeable conversation of the prince would gain him many partisans; he said that these considerations had induced him to request the two sovereigns to arrest the prince when he arrived in Spain, as the fear of corporal punishment might have more effect than the anathemas of the Church. De la Mirandola doubtless received information of what awaited him in Spain, as he did not undertake the journey; at least nothing is to be found in the archives concerning it. The learned historian Fleury must have been ignorant of the existence of this bull, since he says that the affair of the Prince de la Mirandola terminated in the suppression of his theses at Rome, in 1486. This prince had published and defended nine hundred propositions on theology, mathematics, physics, cabala, and other sciences. Thirteen of these were examined and qualified as heretical; the author published an apology, showing the ignorance of his judges. His adversaries, finding that they could not dispute with him, accused him of being a magician; and a.s.serted, that so much knowledge in so young a person could only be acquired by a compact with the devil.

In 1507 the Inquisition, instigated by Ferdinand V., undertook to prosecute and arrest Caesar Borgia, Duke de Valentinois, and brother-in-law to John d'Albret, King of Navarre. It is most probable that this prince would have been taken, if he had not been killed in the same year before Viana, not far from Logrono, by the governor of a fortress, Juan Garces de los Fayos. Caesar Borgia was the natural son of Don Rodrigo de Borgia (afterwards raised to the papal see, by the name of Alexander VI.), and the famous _Vanoci_. He had been a cardinal, but, in 1499, his father, in compliance with the request of Louis XII. King of France, who adopted him, granted him dispensations to marry the sister of the King of Navarre; he then obtained the t.i.tles and estates of the dukedom of Valentinois. A short time after the death of Caesar Borgia's father, in 1503, he was arrested at Naples, by the order of Gonzalo de Cordova, viceroy of that monarchy, on the pretence that he disturbed the tranquillity of the kingdom. He was taken to Spain, and confined in the Castle of Medina del Campo, from whence he made his escape, and fled to Navarre. Ferdinand, finding that his niece, the Queen of Navarre, would not give up this prince to him, resolved to secure him by means of the Inquisition.

It has been already stated that the inquisitors did not prosecute the memory of Charles V.; but in 1565, they were concerned in the proceedings against Jane d'Albret, the hereditary Queen of Navarre, and against her son, Henry de Bourbon, afterwards Henry IV. of France, and his sister, Margaret de Bourbon Albret, who married the sovereign Duke of Bar. The holy office, however, did not take an active part in this affair. After Ferdinand V. had taken possession of the five districts of the kingdom of Navarre, called _Merindades_, he refused to recognise either Jane or Henry de Bourbon as sovereigns of Navarre. These princes were deprived of all their dominions, except the sixth _Merindade_ of Navarre, by a papal bull in 1512; the Court of Rome also refused to grant them the t.i.tle of Kings of Navarre until the year 1561. The first to whom it was given was Anthony de Bourbon.

Charles V. had ordered in his will that the right of his successors to the crown of Navarre should be examined, and that it should be restored to its rightful owners if it had been unjustly seized. In 1561, Philip II., who had not yet thought of executing the intentions of his father, perceiving that the king, Anthony de Bourbon, inclined towards Calvinism, entered into a negociation with him on this subject. In order to attach him to the Catholic party, Philip promised to obtain a dissolution of his marriage with Jane, who was a heretic, to induce his holiness to excommunicate her, and to give her states to him, with the consent of the Kings of France and Spain; to restore Navarre, or to give the island of Sardinia in exchange for it, and to negotiate a marriage between him and Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Anthony accepted this offer, but died before it could be executed. Philip then, through the intrigues of his agents at Rome, obtained the excommunication of Jane d'Albret, and that her states should be offered to the first Catholic prince who would take possession of them on the condition of expelling the heretics. Pius V. published a bull on the 28th September, 1563, excommunicating Queen Jane, for having adopted the heresy of Calvin, and promulgating his doctrines in her states; and according to the requisition of the procurator-fiscal of the Inquisition, his Holiness summoned her to appear at Rome, within six months, to answer these charges.

Catherine de Medicis, regent of France, who was then reconciled to the Prince of Conde, the brother of the late King of Navarre, was displeased at the Inquisition of Rome; and in order to stop the proceedings, sent an amba.s.sador extraordinary to the Pope, with a very learned memorial, which has been printed, with the bull, in the _Memoires du Prince de Conde_.

Charles IX., and Catherine de Medicis, his mother, wrote to Philip II., (who was married to Elizabeth of France, the daughter of Catherine,) and informed him of what had pa.s.sed, requesting that he would act in concert with them. Philip replied, that he not only disapproved of the conduct of the court of Rome, but he offered to protect the Princess Jane against any one who should attempt to deprive her of her states. It has, however, been proved by the letters of the French king to the Cardinal d'Armagnac, that Philip at the same time offered a.s.sistance to the Catholic subjects of Jane, to induce them to rebel against her, and that he privately introduced Spanish troops into her territories. This event was the origin of a confederation, known by the name of the _Catholic League_, which forms part of the histories of M. de Varillas, and of the secret memoirs of M. de Villeroi.

The Spanish monarch endeavoured to obtain, by means of the Inquisition of Spain, what he had been refused by that of Rome. The inquisitor-general Cardinal Espinosa, in concert with the Cardinal de Lorraine, caused several witnesses to be examined, to prove that Jane d'Albret and her children were Huguenots, and that, as they encouraged this heresy in their states, it might spread into Spain. Espinosa (who pretended that Philip was ignorant of his proceedings) informed the council that it was necessary to impart this circ.u.mstance to his majesty, and entreat him to do all in his power to prevent Jane from persecuting the Catholics.

Philip secretly directed the affairs of the _League_ in France by means of communications with the chiefs of the party; and according to his orders the inquisitor-general formed a plot to carry off the Queen of Navarre and her two children, and confine them in the dungeons of the Inquisition of Saragossa. He hoped to succeed in this enterprise, through the a.s.sistance afforded him by the Cardinal de Lorraine, and the other chiefs of the _League_.

Those French historians who wrote after this period (such as the Abbe St. Real, Mercier, and others) have endeavoured to throw all the odium of this plot on Philip II. and the Duke of Alva; but as truth is the first duty of historians, I am compelled to say, that the De Guises were the authors of it. Nicolas de Neuville, Lord of Villeroy, minister and first secretary of state during the reigns of Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV., and Louis XIII., has left details of this affair, in a _Memoir_ which was found after his death among his papers, and which has been printed with many others, under the t.i.tle of _Secret Memoirs of M.

de Villeroi_. This author, who was a contemporary, and acquainted with the secrets of the government, seems to be more deserving of confidence than any other.

Philip II. took advantage of the attempt, though it entirely failed; and wrote to represent to the Pope, that his subjects in the neighbourhood of France might imbibe the heresy, and demanded and obtained an order to separate from the bishopric of Bayonne the villages of the valley of Bastan, and those of the arch-priesthood of Fontarabia.

In 1563, the Inquisition of Murcia condemned another prince, called Don Philip of Aragon. See Chapter 23.

In 1589, the Prince Alexander Farnese, governor-general of the Low Countries and Flanders, and uncle to Philip II., was denounced to the Inquisition of Spain, as suspected of Lutheranism, and a favourer of heretics; it was also said, that he intended to become the sovereign of Flanders, for which purpose he courted the Protestants. No proofs of heresy were produced, and the inquisitor-general suspended the proceedings. Although the enemies of Prince Farnese made every effort to ruin him, Philip did not deprive him of his office, and he remained Governor of the Low Countries till his death in 1592. It has been said that he was poisoned by Philip II.

The Cardinal Quiroga, and the Council of the Inquisition, treated the Sovereign Pontiff, s.e.xtus Quintus, with little respect. This Pope published a translation of the Bible in Italian, and prefaced it by a bull, in which he recommended every one to read it, saying, that the faithful would derive the greatest advantages from it. This conduct of the Pope was contrary to all the regulations from the time of Leo X. All doctrinal works had been forbidden to be in the vulgar tongue for fifty years, by the expurgatory index of the council, and by the inquisitions of Rome and Madrid. The Cardinals, Quiroga at Madrid, and Toledo at Rome, and others, represented to Philip II., that great evils would arise from it, if he did not employ his influence to induce the Pope to relinquish his design. Philip commissioned the Count d'Olivarez to expostulate with the Pontiff; the Count obeyed, but at the peril of his life, for s.e.xtus Quintus was on the point of depriving him of it, without respect for the rights of nations, or for the privileges of Olivarez as an amba.s.sador.

This formidable Pope died in 1592, and Philip was suspected of having shortened his days by slow poison. After this event, the Inquisition of Spain having received witnesses to prove that the _infallible_ oracle of the law was a favourer of heretics, condemned the s.e.xtine Bible, as they had already condemned those of Ca.s.siodorus de Reyna, and many others.

A preparatory instruction was commenced against Don John of Austria, a natural son of Philip IV., but the proceedings were suspended by the king. This event was caused by the intrigues of the inquisitor-general, John Everard Nitardo, who was the mortal enemy of Don John; and some persons were found base enough to accuse the king's brother of Lutheranism, in order to flatter him.

The Grandees of Spain may be numbered among the princes, since Charles V. declared them to possess that t.i.tle, and that they were equal in rank to the sovereigns of the Circles of Germany; they had likewise the privileges of being seated and covered in the presence of the king, as, for example, when the emperor was crowned.

Among the princes humiliated by the Inquisition, the following persons must be included. The Marquis de Priego, the grand-master of the military order of Montesa, the Duke de Gandia, St. Francis de Borgia, the blessed Juan de Ribera, the venerable Don Juan de Palafox, and many others, among whom were several ladies. None of these trials had any serious result; the denounced persons only received a severe remonstrance, except in the case of the Dowager Marchioness d'Alcanices, who was imprisoned in the Convent of St. Catherine, at Valladolid. These persons were all innocent; the only foundation for the accusations was their intimacy with the Doctors Pedro and Augustine Cazalla, Fray Dominic de Roxas, and Don Pedro Samiento de Roxas: they were also accused of having heard conversations on justification, and of not having denounced them.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

OF THE CONDUCT OF THE HOLY OFFICE TOWARDS THOSE PRIESTS WHO ABUSED THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION.

While the Inquisition was occupied in persecuting the peaceable Lutherans, they were obliged to take measures to punish Catholic priests, who abused the ministry of confession, by seducing their penitents. The inquisitors were compelled to act with great reserve and caution in this affair, that they might not furnish the Lutherans with new arguments against auricular confession, and the Catholics with a motive for employing it less frequently.

On the 18th of January, 1556, Paul IV. addressed a brief to the Inquisitors of Granada, in which his Holiness commanded them to prosecute those priests whom the _public voice_ accused of seduction, and not to pardon _one_ of them. He also recommended that they should ascertain if the doctrine of the priests on the sacrament of penitence was orthodox, and if it was necessary to pursue the course prescribed for the prosecution of heretics. The inquisitors communicated this brief to the Archbishop of Granada, and the Council of the Inquisition, which informed them in reply, that the publication of the brief in the usual form would produce great inconveniences, and that it was necessary to act with prudence and moderation.

For this reason the archbishop summoned the cures, and other ecclesiastics, while the inquisitors did the same with the prelates of the regular communities, to recommend to them to notify the brief of the Pope to all the confessors, that they might be more strict in their conduct for the future, and that the people might not be made acquainted with the order of his Holiness. At the same time, informations were taken against those who were suspected, and some who were guilty were privately punished under other pretexts.

This measure convinced the Pope that the abuse was not confined to the kingdom of Granada; and, in 1561, he addressed a brief to the inquisitor-general Valdes, authorizing him to proceed against the confessors guilty of this crime in the domains of Philip, as if they were heretics. As this bull did not affect the inquisitors-general who succeeded Valdes, several others were afterwards expedited.

It was the custom to read the _Edict of Denunciations_ in the churches every year, on some Sunday in Lent, and as the number of crimes increased, new articles were added to the Edict. The inquisitors of some provinces introduced that of the priests who corrupted their penitents, and Raynaldus Gonzalvius Monta.n.u.s, speaking of the occurrences at Seville after the publication of this edict, declares that it was published in 1563, and that the denunciations were so numerous that the notaries of the holy office refused to receive them, and that the inquisitors were obliged to relinquish the prosecution of the criminals.

The edict was not published till 1564, and the denunciations were much less numerous than he pretends. The denunciations ceased, because the obligation imposed on the penitents to inform against the criminals was annulled by the Supreme Council. Several other edicts were afterwards published on this subject, and they were framed to include a great number of cases.

This crime is never punished in a public _auto-da-fe_, because it might prevent the faithful from confessing themselves. The _auto-da-fe_ was held in the hall of the holy office; the secular confessors were summoned to attend it, two from each of the establishments in the town, and four from that of the condemned person, if there were any. No laymen were permitted to be present, except the notaries. When the sentence, and the motives for it, had been read, the dean of the inquisitors exhorted the criminal to acknowledge his crime, and prepared him to make the abjuration of all heresies in general, and of that of which he was suspected in particular. He then placed himself on his knees, p.r.o.nounced his confession of faith, and signed his abjuration: the inquisitor absolved him _ad cautelam_ from all the censures he had incurred: this act terminated the _auto-da-fe_, the criminal was taken back to the prison, and the next day he was transferred to the convent in which he was to be imprisoned, according to his sentence. The confessors who attended this ceremony, were commanded to inform others of the affair, to deter them from committing the same crime.