CHAPTER X.

POLITICAL ACTIVITY.

[Sidenote: _DEVELOPMENT OF ABSOLUTISM_]

Joseph de Maistre, in his profound ignorance of the Inquisition, started

the theory that it was a mere political agency.[537] Apologists, like

Hefele, Gams, Hergenrother and others, have eagerly elaborated this idea

in order to relieve the Church from responsibility for its misdeeds,

wholly overlooking the deeper disgrace involved in the assumption that

for three centuries the Holy See assented to such misuse of delegated

papal authority, and stimulated it with appropriations from

ecclesiastical revenues.[538] They base their arguments on the

difference between the Old and the New Inquisition--the former

consisting of inquisitors selected by Dominican or Franciscan

Provincials, and the latter organized with its inquisitor-general and

supreme council, appointed by or with consent of the sovereign, so that

its whole corps was virtually composed of state officials[539]--forgetting

that their authority consisted of apostolical faculties, delegated by

the popes and exercised without restraint through their recognition by

the State. Ranke falls into the same error and so do Maurenbrecher and

some other Protestant historians, apparently in an overstrained effort

at impartiality and without investigation of the facts.[540] In the

Catholic reaction since the time of Hefele, the most advanced writers

of that faith no longer seek to apologize for the Inquisition, and to

put forward royal predominance to relieve it from responsibility. They

rightly represent it as an ecclesiastical tribunal which discharged the

duty of preserving the religious purity for which it was created.[541]

The synchronism of the development of the Inquisition and of absolutism

in Spain renders seductive the theory that the one was the product of

the other, but this is wholly fallacious. Nowhere in the transformation

of the State does the Inquisition appear as a factor. Isabella, as we

have seen, laid the foundations of monarchism when she subdued the

anarchy pervading Castile by the vigorous assertion and extension of the

royal jurisdiction. Ferdinand eliminated some of the most troublesome

elements of feudal power when he incorporated in the crown the

masterships of the great Military Orders. The restiveness of the nobles

under the unaccustomed restraint manifested itself when, in 1506, they

flocked to Philip and Juana, had the Inquisition been a political force,

Ferdinand would have used it, for Inquisitor-general Deza was devoted to

him, in place of which he suspended it. After the death of Philip I,

during the retirement of Juana and the absence of Ferdinand, the nobles

attempted to reassert themselves but, when he returned, the severe

punishment of the Marquis of Priego, the great Duke of Medina Sidonia,

Don Pedro Giron and others, was a severe blow to feudalism, redoubled,

after Ferdinand's death, when Ximenes as governor raised a standing army

and crushed the rebellion of the Girons and their allies, punishing them

with the destruction of the town of Villadefrades. What remained of

feudalism disappeared under the steady policy of Charles V and Philip

II, in keeping the great nobles aloof from the higher offices of state,

and employing them in military service abroad or in vice-royalties,

until they became mere courtiers, wasting their substance in adding to

the splendor of the throne. In all this there is no trace of the

Inquisition, nor is there in the rise and suppression of the

Comunidades, which destroyed the privileges of the communes, and left

the crown supreme. The comuneros had no grievance against the

Inquisition, nor had it any share in their defeat and punishment,

although Charles V applied to Leo X for special briefs empowering it to

act and one was granted, commissioning Cardinal Adrian to try and punish

ecclesiastics concerned in the movement.[542] Even when Acuña, Bishop of

Zamora, was prosecuted, as we have seen, the Inquisition was not charged

with the work, as Ranke mistakenly asserts. The revolt arose from the

coercive measures applied by Charles to the Córtes of 1518 and 1520, by

which he reduced to impotence the only representative and deliberative

body of the nation. Thus the last obstacle to autocracy was swept away,

and thenceforth royalty was supreme. The process was a normal

development, such as accompanied the downfall of feudalism throughout

Europe and, from first to last, it accomplished itself without aid or

opposition on the part of the Inquisition.

Much has been made of the saying attributed to Philip II, that he kept

his dominions in peace with four old ecclesiastics, and the Suprema was

fond of referring to this, when putting forth claims for its services,

but it meant nothing except that the Inquisition maintained religious

unity, which, in that age and in view of the troubles in France, the

Netherlands and Germany, was not unnaturally regarded as the sole

guarantee of internal quiet--in fact, the Suprema, when quoting the

remark, in 1704, says expressly that Philip uttered it in reference to

the turbulence of the Huguenots.[543] That Philip himself did not regard

the Inquisition as a political instrument sufficiently appears in his

private and confidential instructions of May 7, 1595, to Gerónimo

Manrique de Lara, when appointing him inquisitor-general; his anxiety is

solely for the faith and there is not the slightest intimation that

political service would be expected.[544]

[Sidenote: _IRREGULAR FUNCTIONS_]

Yet the average statesman has few scruples in employing any agency at

hand to effect his purposes, and to this the Spanish monarchs were no

exception. When it suited them to use the Inquisition they did so but,

in view of their control over it, their employment of it was singularly

infrequent, prior to the advent of the Bourbon dynasty. In the Old

Inquisition, with which writers like Hefele endeavor to establish a

contrast in this matter, Philip the Fair used it to destroy the

Templars, the Regent Bedford to burn Joan of Arc, and Alexander VI to

rid himself of Savonarola--three cases to which no parallels exist in

the annals of the Spanish Holy Office. The nearest approach to them is

to be found in the trials of Carranza, Antonio Pérez and Villanueva. In

the first and last of these, as we have seen, inquisitors-general

instituted action for their own purposes and the monarchs were brought

in to their support. The case of Antonio Pérez will be discussed

presently and need not be further referred to here.

Still, a tribunal, whose undefined powers and secrecy of action fitted

it so perfectly for use as a political agent, could scarce exist for

centuries without occasionally being called upon, and the only

legitimate source of surprise is that it was so rarely employed and that

the objects for its intervention were usually so trivial. Ferdinand

occasionally found it a convenience in settling questions outside of its

regular functions, as when Marco Pellegrin appealed to him in a dispute

with the authorities of his city and Ferdinand wrote, August 31, 1501,

to the inquisitor of the place, charging him to examine the question and

do justice, for which he gave him full royal power. So when, in 1500,

complaints reached him from Valencia of injustice in the assessments for

a servicio, he ordered the papers to be submitted to the inquisitor who

was to report to him, and, in 1501, he called for a report from the

inquisitor of Lérida as to the necessity of certain repairs to the

castle.[545] When, in 1498, he was endeavoring to carry out in Aragon

the reform of the Conventual Franciscans, which Ximenes had undertaken

in Castile, and they had obtained papal briefs restraining him, he

applied to the pope to revoke the letters and meanwhile obtained others

from the nuncio, which he transmitted to the tribunal of Saragossa with

instructions to act promptly. The inquisitors carried on the reform much

to his satisfaction and, when the frailes got the public authorities to

protect them, he instructed the inquisitors to represent that they were

acting under apostolic authority, that there was no violation of the

liberties of the kingdom, that they were salaried by the king, not only

for the Inquisition but for whatever duties he might assign to them;

they were therefore public officers and, if the Saragossa authorities

should endeavor to create scandal, they would be duly punished. This

distinction between inquisitorial and non-inquisitorial functions,

however did not prevent him, when occasion required, from enforcing

outside operations with inquisitorial authority. In 1502, when

prosecuting, in the same way, the Franciscan reform in Sardinia and the

Bishop of Ocaña, in virtue of a surreptitious papal letter, released

from the castle of Fasar the Franciscan vicar, Ferdinand wrote with much

indignation to him and to the governor of Cabo de Lugador; it was great

audacity to intervene, in a matter concerning the Inquisition, without

consulting him or the inquisitor-general; the prisoner must be

recaptured forthwith and be held until the inquisitor and _reformador

apostolico comes_.[546]

This indicates the dangerous tendency to extend inquisitorial activity

beyond its original limits, and it is remarkable that a monarch

entertaining these conceptions and engaged in the struggle with

feudalism should not have frequently sought the assistance of the Holy

Office. The only definite case that I have met with of its political use

occurred in 1507, when Cæsar Borgia escaped from the castle of Medina

del Campo to Navarre, and was made commander of his army by Jean

d'Albret, whose sister Charlotte he had married. Ferdinand vainly

endeavored to obtain his surrender and then caused a prosecution to be

brought against him in the Inquisition for heretical blasphemy and

suspicion of atheism and materialism. As Cæsar came to his death, March

12, 1507, while besieging the castle of Viana, which held out for Luis

de Beaumont, and the prosecution was abandoned, we can only conjecture

what the outcome might have been.[547] Navarre was also the scene of a

trivial political use of the Inquisition in 1516, when, as we have seen

(Vol. I, p. 227) it was instructed to ascertain the names of those

friendly to Jean d'Albret.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

There was evidently a purpose to use the Inquisition against the revolt

of the Germanía of Valencia, when a brief of October 11, 1520, was

obtained from Leo X, granting to Cardinal Adrian faculties to proceed

against all persons conspiring against public peace. No use seems to

have been made of this, but the Valencia tribunal had an opportunity of

making itself felt towards the end of the disturbances. After Vicente

Peris, the leader of the _Agermanados_ was killed in a tumult, March 3,

1522, a mysterious individual, known as _el Encubierto_, and variously

described as a hermit from Castile and as a Jew from Gibraltar,

presented himself as the avenger of Peris and became the spiritual chief

of those who kept up the revolt in Játiva and Alcira. He assumed to be a

prophet and the envoy of God, which brought him under the ordinary

jurisdiction of the Holy Office, and it made record of the heresies

uttered by him in a sermon preached at Játiva, March 23d. He organized a

conspiracy in Valencia, but one of the accomplices, named Juan Martin,

was betrayed and was seized, by the Inquisition. El Encubierto was

assassinated, May 18th, at Burjasot, and his head was cut off; the

corpse was brought to Valencia, where the inquisitors had it dragged

through the streets on the way to the tribunal. He was condemned as a

heretic, the headless body was relaxed and burnt and the head was set

over one of the gateways.[548] The action of the Inquisition had no

influence on the course of affairs, but it manifests the readiness of

the tribunal to assert itself as a political force.

The fable that the Inquisition was invoked to accomplish the death of

Don Carlos, in 1568, has been sufficiently disproved to call for no

attention here. There is probably, however, more truth in the statement

that, about the same time, Philip II, in promotion of his designs on the

remnants of Navarre, caused Inquisitor-general Espinosa to collect

testimony as to the notorious heresy of Jeanne d'Albret and her

children, and formed with the Guises a plot to abduct and deliver her to

the tribunal of Saragossa, but the secret was not kept and the attempt

was abandoned.[549] Perhaps, also, we may class with political service

the utilization by Philip of the Inquisition to supply him with

galley-slaves.

The most prominent instance of the employment of the Inquisition in a

matter of State was in the case of Antonio Pérez. Its dramatic character

attracted the attention of all Europe; the mystery underlying it has

never been completely dispelled, and its resultant effect upon the

institutions of Aragon invests it with an importance justifying

examination in some detail.

Antonio Pérez was the brilliant and able favorite of Philip II, who in

1571 succeeded his patron, Ruy Gómez, Prince of Eboli, in acquiring his

master's fullest confidence and becoming the most powerful subject in

Spain. In 1573, the Venitian envoy Badoero describes him as a most

accomplished man, whose courtesy and attractive manners soothed the

sensibilities of those provoked by the delays and penuriousness of the

king, while his dexterity and ability promised soon to make him the

principal minister. At the same time, he was a man of pleasure and the

magnificence of his daily life was the admiration of his

countrymen.[550] He found his fate in the widow of his patron, the

Princess of Eboli. Sprung from the noble house of Mendoza, she was

proud, vindictive and passionate, unflinching in the gratification of

her desires and reckless as to the means. Whether Philip II had been her

lover, and if so whether he was favored or rejected, is a disputed

question, which we need not discuss; it suffices that Pérez, who had a

devoted wife in Juana Coello, became enamoured of her mature charms and

a slave to her imperious will.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Don John of Austria had been sent to the Netherlands on the desperate

task of pacifying them, and had been left without resources. Much to the

king's displeasure, he sent, in July, 1577, his secretary, Juan de

Escobedo, to Madrid to urge the necessity of supplying funds. Escobedo

was thoroughly honest, but rugged and uncourtly, and the vigor of his

representations increased the royal ill-humor. Pérez had for some time

been secretly fanning the king's suspicions of his half-brother's

designs, even to the point, it is said, of mistranslating cypher

despatches. He represented Escobedo as an emissary sent to perfect Don

Juan's plans, including a descent upon Santander and raising Castile in

revolt. Convinced that Escobedo must be put out of the way, Philip

ordered Pérez to procure his death. If Pérez felt any scruple as to

this, it was removed by the fact that Escobedo, who was a retainer of

the house of Mendoza, discovered the relations between the princess and

the favorite; he remonstrated with freedom and threatened to inform the

king. His doom was sealed and, after two ineffectual attempts at poison,

bravos were hired who assassinated him in the street on the night of

March 31, 1578, and were rewarded with commissions in the army of Italy.

Suspicion fell on Pérez, whose fellow-secretary and bitter enemy, Mateo

Vázquez, reported the rumors to the king. The princess in her wrath

threatened that Vázquez should share the fate of Escobedo; the court was

divided into factions which Philip vainly sought to pacify. He was bound

in honor to protect his instrument, and repeatedly assured him that he

was in no danger, but, whether he was beginning to realize that he had

been unpardonably deceived, or was prompted by jealousy of the relations

between Pérez and the princess, he at length was willing to sacrifice

his secretary as an escape from a situation that was becoming

impossible. Some one to replace him was required; Cardinal Granvelle,

then living in retirement in Rome, was sent for; he arrived at the

Escorial, July 29, 1579, and, on the preceding night Pérez and the

princess were arrested in Madrid. She was carried to the castle of Pinto

and was kept in strict confinement until February 1581, when she was

allowed to return to her palace at Pastrana, when her extravagant freaks

caused her affairs to be placed in charge of a commission, leading to

her virtual imprisonment until her death, February 2, 1592.

Pérez, meanwhile, had undergone various vicissitudes of imprisonment,

more or less harsh. In May, 1582, Philip ordered an investigation into

the different branches of administration, directed principally against

Pérez. This resulted in showing that he had habitually sold the royal

favor and, in January, 1585, he was condemned to two years' imprisonment

in the castle of Turruegano, to ten years' exile from the court, and to

refund 12,224,739 maravedís, of which 7,371,098 went to the fisc and the

balance to the heirs of Ruy Gómez, in restitution of presents given to

him by the princess. The family of the murdered Escobedo had been vainly

clamoring for justice. Philip had shrunk from being compromised in the

affair, but now that Pérez was thoroughly disgraced, if the documents

proving his own complicity could be secured, Pérez could safely be

sacrificed to justice. His wife, Juana Coello, was imprisoned and

threatened with starvation unless she would surrender his papers; she

resisted heroically until a note from Pérez, which he says was written

with his blood, permitted her to do so, but he had, with his usual

foresight, abstracted from them in advance and placed in safety what he

deemed necessary for his justification.

In the summer of 1585, Philip permitted the Escobedo kindred to commence

the prosecution. Antonio Enríquez, the page of Pérez, who had arranged

the assassination, gave full testimony, but the _conteste_, or

corroboration by another witness was lacking. The affair dragged on,

until, September 28, 1589, Pedro Escobedo, son of the victim, abandoned

it for the sum of twenty thousand ducats and pardoned his father's

murderers. Philip's rancor, however, had deepened with time, and the

prosecution was continued. Pérez was tortured, February 22, 1590, when,

at the eighth turn of the _cordeles_, his resolution gave way; he

confessed the crime at the royal command and stated the reasons which

had moved the king to order the murder. Soon after this he took to his

bed and was reported to be dangerously sick; his wife, early in April,

was admitted to attend him and, on the 20th, by a side-door, of which he

had procured a false key and from which the bolts had been removed, he

escaped at night. Friends with horses were in waiting and he took the

road to Aragon. He was of Aragonese descent, so that he could claim the

fueros and the court of the Justicia, which, as we have seen, sat in

judgement between the sovereign and his subjects.

Aragon, at the moment, was especially excited in defence of its

privileges, among which was the claim that none but an Aragonese could

serve as viceroy. Philip was contesting this and had sent the Count of

Almenara to conduct a suit on the question before the court of the

Justicia. Almenara earned general ill-will by assuming superiority over

all the local officials; the Count of Sástago, then viceroy, resisted

his pretensions and was removed and replaced by Andrés Ximeno, Bishop of

Teruel, a timid and irresolute man; so great became Almenara's

unpopularity that a nearly successful attempt was made to burn at night

the house which he occupied; there was a spirit of turbulence abroad,

peculiarly favorable to Pérez, who came to claim the protection of the

fueros as a faithful servant, whom his king was endeavoring to destroy,

in reward of his fidelity.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Philip's wrath was boundless. His first impulse was to wreak vengeance

on the helpless wife and children, who were thrown into prison, where

they lay for nine years until after their persecutor had gone to his

last account. Orders were at once despatched to seize the fugitive, dead

or alive, before he should cross the Ebro, and so swift were the

pursuers that they reached Calatayud, where he made his first halt, only

ten hours after him. He threw himself into the Dominican convent for

asylum, while his faithful friend, Gil de Mesa, who had accompanied him,

hurried forward to Saragossa and claimed for him the _manifestacion_

which secured for him the jurisdiction of the Justicia. Alonso Celdran,

lieutenant of the governor, rushed to Calatayud and, after some

difficulty, forcibly removed Pérez from the convent, but the veguero of

the Justicia came with letters of manifestacion and obliged him to

surrender his prey. Nobles and gentlemen flocked to Calatayud, and Pérez

was conducted to Saragossa in a veritable triumphal procession, where he

was received by the populace as though he were a king and was safely

lodged in the _cárcel de los manifestados_. Then commenced the curious

spectacle of a duel to the death between the disgraced fugitive and the

whole power of the greatest monarch of Christendom, giving us an

enlarged respect for the fueros of Aragon to see that the monarch was

helpless until he invoked the overriding powers of the Inquisition,

under the pretext that his thirst for vengeance was a matter of faith.

Had the political utility of the Inquisition been the customary

expedient that has been asserted, recourse would have been had to it at

once. As soon as the flight of Pérez became known, a special junta had

been formed in Madrid to manage the affair, and there Juan de Gurrea,

Governor of Aragon, familiar with the institutions of his native land,

advised that the Inquisition be at once invoked, but there was

repugnance to do this and it was resolved to rely on the regular process

of law. Philip presented a formal accusation to the court of the

Justicia alleging that Pérez had had Escobedo killed, falsely using the

king's name; that he had betrayed the king by divulging state secrets

and altering despatches, and that he had fled. The documents were sent

to Almenara, who pushed the prosecution, while Pérez endeavored to

convince the king that it would be better to allow the matter to drop

and permit him to live in obscurity rather than to bring the

compromising documents to light, as there was no secrecy in Aragonese

procedure. He wrote in this sense to Fray Diego de Chaves, the royal

confessor, and he sent, by the Prior of Gotor, copies of the papers to

Philip, who gave the prior two or three audiences, read the papers and

then, on July 1st, published a sentence condemning Pérez to be hanged

and beheaded, with confiscation. At the same time instructions were sent

to Almenara to push the prosecution and to find some means to seize

Pérez and convey him to Castile.

Pérez had already drawn up a memorial replying to the charges, in which

he observed considerable reticence. Now he threw off all reserve and

prepared another, fortified with documents exposing Philip's share in

the tragedy, and representing himself as undergoing ten years of

persecution in reward for faithful service. Philip asked Batista de

Lanuza, a lieutenant of the Justicia, to send him a copy of the memorial

with his opinion as to the result. Lanuza in reply said he expected an

acquittal, whereupon Philip withdrew the prosecution on the grounds that

it would reveal matters not proper for publication, declaring at the

same time that Pérez had committed crimes as great as any subject could

and he reserved the right to prosecute him elsewhere. The Justicia,

however, continued the case which resulted in acquittal. Then an

accusation was brought that Pérez had poisoned his astrologer, Pedro de

la Hera, and his servant Rodrigo de Morgado, but these charges were

easily refuted and again he was acquitted. Then an attempt was made

under an Aragonese law permitting _inquisitio_ or inquest, in

accusations of officials by the king, and he was prosecuted for

misfeasance in office, but he proved that he had served Philip as King

of Castile, not of Aragon, and that he had already been tried and

punished for the alleged offences, so this also failed. The principal

object of these successive actions was to prevent his discharge from

prison, but they had the effect of heightening the popular enthusiasm

for Pérez, whose cause became identified with the preservation of the

fueros.

As a last resort, when all legal processes were exhausted, recourse was

had to the Inquisition. For this some charge involving the faith was

necessary and the first suggestion was an assumed attempted flight to

the heretics of Béarn. A safer base of operations, however, was devised

by Almenara, who won over by bribery an old servant, Diego Bustamente

and a teacher named Juan de Basante in whom Pérez had the fullest

confidence. In explosions of despairing wrath, they said, he had uttered

expressions indicating disbelief in God and blasphemous rebellion

against His will. We have seen how much of inquisitorial activity was

directed against more or less trivial ejaculations of the kind, and it

was strictly in rule to act upon such denunciations. It mattered little

on what grounds the Holy Office might obtain possession of him; once in

its hands, he would be conveyed, openly or secretly, to Castile, where

his fate was certain and, before the dreaded words "a matter of faith"

all barriers were vain.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Inquisitor Medrano put the testimony in proper shape and forwarded it

to the Suprema. Philip ordered that Fray Diego de Chaves should be the

sole calificador and he, within twenty-four hours, pronounced the

expressions to be heretical. On the strength of this, Inquisitor-general

Quiroga and the Suprema, on May 21, 1591, issued orders for the arrest

of Pérez and his confinement in the secret prison for trial.

This was hurried to Saragossa, where it was received on the 23d, and on

the 24th, the three inquisitors, Medrano, Mendoza and Morejon, issued a

warrant of arrest, which was presented at the prison of Manifestacion

and was refused obedience. The tribunal then sent, between 9 and 10

A.M., to the lieutenants of the Justicia a mandate, under the customary

penalties, requiring the surrender in spite of the pretended right of

manifestacion, which was abolished in matters of faith. This could not

be evaded and the officials of the Justicia were sent to the prison with

orders to deliver Pérez to the alguazil of the tribunal. He was put in a

coach and driven to the Aljafería, a short distance beyond the gates,

where the Inquisition had its seat.

Two servants of Pérez carried the news to Diego de Heredia and Gil de

Mesa, who assembled their friends and sallied into the streets, with the

cry, _Contrafuero! Viva la libertad y ayuda a la libertad!_--the cry

which, under the law, could only be raised by order of the Justicia and

which, as we have seen, summoned every citizen to come in arms and

defend the liberty of the land. The tocsin of the cathedral was tolled

and the city rose. Under the leadership of nobles and gentlemen, a part

of the mob rushed to the dwelling of the hated Almenara. The Justicia,

Juan de Lanuza, with his two sons and his officials, endeavored to

protect him, but the door was battered in; he refused to fly, but

allowed himself to be conducted to prison, on the promise of the mob to

spare his life, but he was attacked on the way and, when the prison was

reached, it was with injuries of which he died within a fortnight.

The other section of the populace hastened to the Aljafería and demanded

the restoration of Pérez and of his friend Francisco Majorini, who had

been included in the prosecution and surrender. Don Pedro de Sesé is

said to have brought four hundred loads of wood with which to burn the

castle in case of refusal, and the situation was menacing in the

extreme. The Viceroy Bishop of Teruel came and urged the inquisitors to

compliance. The Archbishop Bobadilla wrote three notes, in increasing

desperation--his palace and that of the Justicia would be burnt that

night if Pérez were not given up. For five hours the inquisitors

resisted this pressure, but finally they yielded, though even then they

safeguarded their authority with an order that Pérez's place of

confinement should be changed from the secret prison to that of the

manifestados. At 5 P.M. the prisoners were delivered to the Counts of

Aranda and Morata, with a protest that the trial would be continued.

Pérez was conveyed back in a coach to his former prison; the people

could not see him and were not satisfied until the viceroy made him

stand up and show himself, when they shouted that he must appear at a

window thrice daily to prove that no wrong was done him in violation of

their liberties and fueros.

There was a tradition that Queen Isabella had once expressed a wish that

Aragon would revolt, so that an end could be put to the fueros which

limited the royal power. Such an opportunity had now come and Philip was

not a sovereign to neglect it. Cabrera relates that, when he lay sick at

Ateca and the Count of Chinchon brought him the news, he rose at once

from bed, had himself dressed and commenced sending despatches in all

directions, ordering the levy of troops. He also wrote to the towns of

Aragon and to the nobles, protesting that he meant no violation of their

privileges, and the answers encouraged him greatly, for they condemned

the troubles at Saragossa and proffered their services. The Inquisition,

moreover had opened to it an enlarged field of operations, for which it

had abundant justification. Already, on June 4th, the Council of Aragon

presented a consulta, calling attention to the impeding of its action,

in the threatening of the inquisitors and the killing of a servant of

one of them; they should therefore commence to take testimony and arrest

the culprits, one by one, who should be relaxed; in such a matter of

faith the nobles could not plead privilege and there could be no

manifestaciones and firmas.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Work to this end was commenced at once in Madrid. Anton de Almunia, who

had testified against Pérez, had fled thither with a tale of the threats

uttered against him to force him to revoke his evidence. This was a

crime against the Inquisition and Pedro Pacheco, Inquisitor of Aragon,

was deputed to take his deposition; the investigation widened; all the

refugees from Aragon and enemies of Pérez were heard and it was shown

that the instigators of the troubles aimed at transferring Aragon to

France or to found a republic, and in this were implicated the Diputados

of the kingdom, the jurados of Saragossa and the gentlemen who favored

Pérez, including the Duke of Villahermosa, who was the head of Aragonese

nobility and the Count of Aranda, the richest and most powerful noble.

Even Inquisitor Morejon, who had not been as zealous as his colleagues,

was laid under suspicion. As a preparation for the impending struggle,

the Saragossa tribunal, under orders from Madrid, published, on June

29th, in all the churches, an edict embodying the savage bull _Si de

Protegendis_ of Pius V, concerning impeders of the Inquisition, in

virtue of which all persons were called upon to aid it, not only in the

matter of Pérez but of all others. This created intense excitement; an

armed mob assembled in the plaza of the cathedral and discussed whether

they were included in the papal censures and if so what remedies should

be tried to preserve their liberties, while multitudes sought their

confessors and asked to be absolved from the _ipso facto_

excommunication incurred. The Diputados complained to the king and to

Quiroga of this stirring up of trouble, when every effort was required

to maintain quiet, but they only received from the king a reply thanking

them for their zeal for peace.

Pérez and his friends meanwhile were busy in provoking excitement by

addresses and pasquinades in prose and verse, stigmatizing their

opponents and urging vigilance in defence of the fueros. He also

petitioned the Zalmedina to investigate the methods by which Almenara

and Medrano had gathered evidence against him, and the testimony thus

obtained as to bribes, promises and threats had large influence on

public opinion. When the results, however, were sent to Philip by the

Diputados, he merely replied that he had not read them, for the whole

was invalid because witnesses before the Inquisition could only be

impugned in it; Pérez must be returned to the tribunal before anything

else could have attention. The papers however were carefully preserved,

for the mere investigation was a grave offence against the Inquisition,

which was subsequently charged against its authors. The Inquisition

judged all men and was to be judged by none and, in the sacredness which

shielded it, any attempt to examine its methods was a crime.

As the summer drew to a close, the cooler-headed citizens became anxious

for an accommodation. Conferences were held with jurists and it was

recognized that the position was untenable, that Pérez must be

surrendered and an understanding was reached with the inquisitors as to

certain unimportant conditions which avoided the appearance of complete

abandonment. The aspect of the populace, however, was threatening, and

the nobles brought their retainers to the city to enforce order. Philip

had no objection to the delays which enabled him to collect his forces

at Agreda, on the Castilian border, and September 24th was named for the

delivery of Pérez as a solemn public act. He was fully alive to the

danger and resolved on escape; a file was furnished to him with which

during three nights he worked at his window bars. A few hours more would

have set him free when he was betrayed by his false friend Juan Basante,

who still retained his confidence and was to share his flight. He was

transferred to a stronger cell, where he was kept incomunicado, with a

guard of thirty arquebusiers, watching him day and night.

On September 22d died the Justicia, Juan de Lanuza, an old and

experienced man, succeeded by his son of the same name, who was but 27

years of age, universally beloved on account of his many good qualities,

but untried and lacking in influence. Great preparations were made for

the surrender on the 24th. The gates were closed, troops were posted,

the streets from the prison to the Aljafería were patrolled by cavalry,

and death was threatened for the slightest disturbance. Complicated

formalities were observed when the mandate for the delivery of Pérez and

Majorini was presented to the court of the Justicia by Lanceman de Sola,

secretary of the tribunal. Under guard of arquebusiers a procession was

formed of officials and dignitaries, who on reaching the market-place

bestowed themselves in the overlooking windows. The prison was entered,

Pérez and Majorini were produced, shackles were placed on them and they

were formally surrendered to Lanceman de Sola. The coaches to convey

them were brought up and they were descending the stairs when the roar

of a multitude outside brought a pause.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

The friends of Pérez had not been idle. The gentlemen who still adhered

to him had brought their retainers to the city; propagandism had been

active and a majority of the arquebusiers declared themselves ready to

die in defence of the fueros. The streets were filled with clamorous

crowds; already during the march of the procession, stones had been

thrown and now, under the leadership of Diego de Heredia and Gil de

Mesa, the market-place was attacked on several sides. Some of the guards

were slain, others fled and others joined the assailants. The plaza was

strewn with some thirty dead and numerous wounded; the governor's horse

was shot and he escaped to a house which was promptly set on fire; the

notables at the windows broke out a way to escape by the rear and

hurried off amid the insults of the people. Inside the prison the

officials saved themselves by flight over the roof, except a lieutenant

of the Justicia who made Pérez show himself at a window to calm the mob,

which sent up shouts of joy and commenced to break in the doors, when he

was delivered to them through a postern. He was carried in triumph to

the house of Diego de Heredia and then Majorini was remembered. He was

sent for; the prison was found abandoned and he was set free.

Pérez mounted a horse and, accompanied by Gil de Mesa and Francisco de

Ayerbe, with a couple of servitors, fled to the mountains, reaching

Alagon that night and Tauste the next day, where he rested five days in

the house of Francisco de Ayerbe. The agents of the Inquisition tracked

him and came near seizing him; when, finding escape to France blocked,

he returned secretly to Saragossa, by the advice of Martin de Lanuza, in

whose house he was secreted, while directing the course of affairs. The

city had been in a state of chaos, the magistrates not daring to show

themselves, but through his counsels comparative tranquility was

restored under Diego de Heredia. He set to work to organize Aragon,

Catalonia and Valencia in opposition to Castile, with a view of forming

a republic under the protection of France, but his efforts met with no

practical response.

Aragon itself was lukewarm. The assembling of an army at Agreda under

Alonso Vargas, a distinguished captain, with the pretext of an

expedition to France, gave warning that revolt would be crushed with a

heavy hand and both sides sought the support of the kingdom at large. In

Saragossa the fuero prohibiting the introduction of foreign troops was

invoked, and the new Justicia, Juan de Lanuza, was summoned by the

Diputados to call the kingdom to arms to resist the _contrafuero_. He

did so with a proclamation, October 31st, ordering the towns and nobles

to send their quotas to Saragossa on November 5th, but the course of

affairs at Saragossa had been watched with disfavor. Jaca responded with

protestations and not with men; Daroca sent thirty musketeers; Bielsa,

Puertolas and Gistain furnished two hundred men who turned back after

reaching Barbastro. There were disturbances at Teruel which only

resulted in the punishment subsequently inflicted on the leaders. The

other towns united in a letter to the Justicia, declaring Philip to be

the defender of the fueros and those who resisted him to be the

violators, and the same ground was taken by the nobles and gentry

outside of Saragossa. Villahermosa and Aranda had remained in the city

by Philip's orders, and were forced to serve on the council of war which

was formed, but they were regarded with suspicion and were insulted and

menaced.

This practical abandonment produced profound discouragement and the

gates were locked to prevent desertions, but all who could left the

city. The leaders, however were too deeply compromised to withdraw and,

in their irritation, they provoked quarrels and discord. To give an air

of legality to resistance the leadership of the Justicia was essential,

and they summoned Juan de Lanuza to take the field with the municipal

forces. He and the Diputado Juan de Luna established relations with

Villahermosa and Aranda and all four agreed to escape on the occasion of

a review to be held on November 7th, but when Lanuza ordered a gate to

be opened and the review to be held outside the walls, there was a cry

of treason. Villahermosa and Aranda succeeded in escaping and took

refuge in Epila, a fortified town belonging to Aranda, but Lanuza and

Luna were pulled from their horses and were with difficulty rescued

alive.

Bruised as he was, however, Lanuza was forced, the next day, to take the

field at the head of four hundred men, the rest of the forces following

the next day, and with a so-called army of two thousand he advanced to

Utebo, to contest the advance of Vargas, who had crossed the border

November 7th with a well-equipped force of twelve thousand foot and two

thousand horse, supported by sufficient artillery. A messenger from

Vargas offering terms gave him an opportunity of escape and, accompanied

by Luna, he sought the refuge of Epila. When the news of this spread

through the camp the little army disbanded and Vargas, on November 12th,

presented himself before the Aljafería, to the great joy of the

inquisitors. The viceroy and officials came forth to welcome him, and he

made a triumphal entry into the city. The plaza of the cathedral was

made a _place d'armes_, heavy guards were posted, cannon commanded the

streets and the soldiers were billeted on the citizens. The working

classes had abandoned the town and there were more than fifteen hundred

vacant houses.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Pérez had been watching the wreck of his schemes of vengeance, and, not

caring to share in the ruin that he had wrought, he sought to save

himself. Martin de Lanuza escorted him to a gate and had it opened for

him and, on the 10th, two days before the arrival of Vargas, he took

the road to Sallent, on the French frontier. The next day Don Martin

offered to the Diputados to die for the city if they proposed to defend

it, but, as they did not, he suggested that the gates be opened and that

all who desired be allowed to depart. This was done and, in the exodus

that followed, he betook himself to the mountains in order to save

Pérez.

Resistance had ceased, but there was still some apprehension as to what

was known as the Junta of Epila, where Lanuza had invited a conference

to consult as to the best means of preserving the fueros. Such fears

were superfluous. Villahermosa and Aranda, at the earnest request of

Vargas, returned to Saragossa; Luna went into hiding and Lanuza retired

to his lands at Badallur, subsequently coming to Saragossa and resuming

his functions as Justicia. Vargas conducted himself with great

adroitness, receiving most graciously deputations from the towns,

inviting absentees to return and assuring every one that the fueros

would be respected. Then, on November 28th came the Marquis of Lombay,

as special royal commissioner, with letters assuring the preservation of

the fueros and clemency for culprits. He was received with great

distinction and was hailed as an _Angel de Paz_; all was thought to be

settled peacefully and the refugees returned. Vargas and Lombay urged

Philip to issue a general pardon with specified exceptions, to limit the

Inquisition to matters absolutely its own, to assemble the Córtes under

his own presidency and they even suggested Aranda as the new viceroy.

Suddenly this dream of pacification was dispelled. Without communicating

his resolve to any one, Philip sent, by a secret messenger, an order

written in his own hand and not countersigned, to arrest the Justicia at

once "and let me know of his death as soon as of his arrest." He was to

be beheaded, his estates confiscated and his castles and houses razed to

the ground. Villahermosa and Aranda were likewise to be arrested and to

be sent to Castile.

Vargas felt acutely his position in being thus forced to belie his

promises of clemency, but he was a soldier, trained to obey orders.

Lombay was indignant at the use made of him and asked to be relieved, a

request promptly granted for the court had no further need of him.

Vargas lost no time in executing the royal commands. The next morning,

December 19th, at 11 o'clock, Lanuza was arrested as he and his

lieutenant were on their way to mass, prior to opening their court.

Villahermosa and Aranda were enticed to Vargas's quarters on a pretext;

he detained them in friendly conversation until word was brought of

Lanuza's arrest, when he dismissed them and they were arrested as they

left him. In three hours they were placed in coaches, each with two

captains charged not to lose sight of them. Four companies of horse and

a thousand infantry guarded them to the border, after which two

companies of foot conducted them, Villahermosa to the castle of Burgos

and Aranda to the Mota of Medina del Campo. Both died in prison.

The early light of the next dawn showed a black scaffold erected in the

market-place; the troops were under arms and cannon guarded the

approaches. The citizens shut themselves up in their houses and there

were none present but the soldiery who, we are told, although

Castilians, shed tears over the fate of Lanuza, whose brief three months

of office had brought him to such end. The executioner struck off his

head while he was reciting a hymn to the Virgin and he was honorably

buried, in the tomb of his ancestors in the church of San Felipe, the

bier being borne on the shoulders of high officers of the Castilian

army.

This unexpected blow aroused indescribable terror throughout Aragon, and

the impression caused by the revelation of the hidden purposes of the

king was intensified by his granting to the Governor a commission

authorizing him to punish the notoriously guilty without regard to the

fueros. Under this there followed arrests and executions of those

compromised in the troubles, especially of those concerned in the death

of Almenara, including many men of rank, who were generally regarded as

innocent, or at most as lightly culpable. No one felt himself safe, and

the sense of insecurity was heightened by the razing of the houses of

the victims--the palace of the Lanuzas, one of the most conspicuous in

Saragossa, and those of Diego de Heredia, Martin de Lanuza, Pedro de

Bolea, Manuel Don Lope and others--the ruins made in the principal

streets symbolizing to the people the destruction of their liberties.

Nor was the Inquisition remiss in vindicating its insulted dignity. The

inquisitors had been changed and the tribunal now consisted of Pedro

Zamora, Velarde de la Concha and Juan Moriz de Salazar, who fully

realized the work expected of them. They filled the prisons of the

Aljafería with men of all classes, who had taken part in obstructing the

action of the Holy Office, though they subsequently, under orders from

Philip, delivered to Vargas certain of their prisoners who were marked

for execution for offences outside of inquisitorial jurisdiction.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

Satisfied with the impression thus made, Philip now took measures to

calm the agitation. He withdrew the special commission of the Governor

of Aragon and promised to the accused a regular trial by an impartial

Aragonese judge. Then, on January 17, 1592, there was solemnly

proclaimed in Saragossa a general pardon, in which the king dwelt on his

love for Aragon and on his clemency, but also on his duty to enforce

justice and uphold the Inquisition. There were certain classes excepted

from the benefit of the amnesty, which, when subsequently applied to

individuals, amounted to 196, whom every one was ordered by proclamation

to capture wherever found. The promised impartial judge was appointed in

the person of Doctor Miguel Lanz, whose ignorance and cruelty were the

cause of bitter complaints.

It was part of Philip's tranquilizing policy that the Inquisition should

issue simultaneously an edict of pardon, with exceptions like his own.

The two classes of culprits were largely distinct, and the tension of

the public mind could not be relieved until the extent of both should be

known. With this view, when drawing up his own proclamation, he ordered

the Suprema to do the same, but he encountered resistance. The

Inquisition was playing for its own hand. It had not only to avenge

insults endured but it was resolved to make the most of the opportunity

to break down the obstinate resistance in Aragon to its arbitrary

proceedings. The Suprema was therefore indisposed to accede to Philip's

wishes and, in a consulta of January 2d, it asked for delay. To this

Philip replied, in his own handwriting, that the postponement would

prevent the desired restoration of confidence and, where there were so

many involved, it sufficed to punish those most guilty. He was about to

publish his own pardon and he charged the Suprema to do the same on its

part with all despatch.

Considerations such as these had no weight with the Suprema, which

calmly disregarded the king's wishes. The silence of the Inquisition

kept alive popular anxiety and, on March 3d, Philip renewed his urgency.

The pardon should be such as to give satisfaction to the people,

relieving from infamy those comprehended in it who should come and

confess spontaneously. Proceedings could be taken against those arrested

and fugitives, who could be summoned by edicts, and the pardon could be

general, excepting the prisoners and those cited and to be cited in

contumacy, without giving names, but all this he left to the Suprema to

do what it deemed best for the authority of the Holy Office.

Philip evidently shrank from too positive insistence, and the Suprema on

various pretexts continued to postpone the pardon. In answer to renewed

urgency, it presented a consulta, April 29th, reporting its operations,

according to which the tribunal of Saragossa had recently voted the

arrest of a hundred and seventy-six persons; it had already seventy-four

in its prisons, and it contemplated the prosecution of three

hundred--which explains the reluctance to issue a general pardon. This

was so contrary to the policy of the king that he replied by suggesting

the liberation on bail of those whose offences admitted of it, and

suspending arrest in cases that might reasonably be condoned. He made no

allusion, this time, to a general pardon and the Inquisition carried its

point. Without issuing a pardon, on October 20th it celebrated an auto

de fe with more than eighty culprits, of whom all were impeders of its

free action, except a few Moriscos and a bigamist. Six were relaxed,

ostensibly as guilty of homicide in the disturbances of September 24,

1591, and the rest were penanced, mostly by exile from Aragon, although

some were sent to the galleys, among whom was Manuel Don Lope. The

procession at the auto was closed with the effigy of Pérez, condemned to

the flames in a sentence which, we are told, recited a million of

arrogant and ill-sounding propositions against God and the king, his

affection for Vandoma (Henry IV), treasons committed in his office of

Secretary, strong indications of sodomy, his flight to France, his

listening to preachers and taking communion with Huguenots, sufficient

to prove him a Huguenot, with presumption that all his actions had been

directed to that end and to destroy the Inquisition, as he was a

descendant of Jews and great-grandson of Aubon Pérez, a Jew who relapsed

after conversion, was burnt and his sanbenito was hanging in the church

of Calatayud. The sentence was relaxation, with disabilities of

descendants.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

On the day of the auto Philip was at Rioja, on his way to Tarazona,

where the Córtes which had been called had been sitting and had nearly

finished its labors. As the Inquisition had still withheld its general

pardon, he again insisted that it be put into shape and sent to him, in

order that everything might be concluded before he reached Tarazona.

Still unsatiated and procrastinating, the Suprema replied with the names

of eleven persons, whom it characterized as principal leaders of the

tumults and asked him to give such instructions as he pleased. He

responded that he would delay answering till he reached Tarazona and

could survey the aspect of matters there. Some days later he wrote

asking that the propriety of issuing the pardon should be discussed, as

also the form which it should have. Thereupon the Suprema sent him a

form, with a letter to the inquisitors which he could forward, at the

same time stating that there were objections. The royal pardon was

unconditional and took effect of itself, but the Inquisition was not so

easily satisfied and required that all who availed themselves of its

mercy should make personal application and submission. The papal decree

_Si de protegendis_ inflicted an _ipso facto_ anathema on all who

obstructed in any way the action of the Holy Office, and this censure

had to be removed, wherefore the proposed formula required that all

applicants for pardon should seek relief from the censures, those

present within two months, and the absent within four, but the Suprema

added that publication should be preceded by edicts against seven

specified persons and others notoriously guilty who could not be named

without violating the secrecy of the Inquisition. Even this the Suprema

felt to be too great a concession, and the next day it forwarded another

consulta, saying that it had received from the Saragossa tribunal the

names of some parties notoriously and deeply inculpated; there was

evidence of their guilt in the tribunal and it had commenced action

against them with edicts. This was submitted to the king so that he

could order the inquisitors to commence before publishing the pardon, in

order that the parties might be excepted. Philip disregarded this last

effort of the Inquisition to maintain its hold on those who had offended

it. Without further correspondence he sent the pardon to Saragossa with

orders for its publication, which was done with great solemnity,

November 23d, when more than five hundred penitents presented

themselves.

Meanwhile the Córtes had been employed in modifying the institutions of

Aragon to meet the wishes of the king. While resolved thus to take full

advantage of the opportunity, he was shrewd enough to see that such a

settlement to be enduring must be in conformity with the fueros. While

his army still overawed the land he therefore convoked the Córtes, which

met at Tarazona, June 15, 1592. According to rule, he should have

presided over it, but he desired not to enter Aragon until the trials

and executions under Dr. Miguel Lanz should be completed, and, though he

left Madrid May 30th, he took the circuitous route by way of Valladolid,

and his leisurely journey was interrupted by attacks of gout. After some

difficulty, the Córtes accepted the presidency of Archbishop Bobadilla,

and modified the immemorial rule requiring unanimity in each of the

four _brazos_ or chambers. The way being thus cleared, and still further

smoothed by a lavish distribution of "graces," it was merely a work of

time to obtain the adoption of a carefully devised series of fueros

which, without changing the form of Aragonese institutions, removed the

limitations on the royal power which had so long been the peculiar boast

of the kingdom. The changes were too numerous for recapitulation here in

full; some of them were beneficial in facilitating the punishment of

crime, but the most important from the monarch's stand-point were those

which established his right to appoint viceroys who were not Aragonese;

which placed in his hands the nomination and dismissal of the Justicia

and the nomination of his lieutenants, with preponderance in the

machinery for hearing complaints against the latter; which took from the

Diputados the power of convoking the cities and citizens, which limited

the amount that they could spend, and which transferred from them to the

crown control over the rural police; which prohibited raising the cry of

"libertad" under penalties extending even to death; which provided

punishment for offences against royal officials; which established

extradition for crime between Castile and Aragon; which required the

royal licence for the printing of books, and which deprived the lands of

the nobles, secular and ecclesiastical, of the right of asylum for

criminals. Thus the Justicia and his court, which had been the pride of

the land, became in fact, if not in name a royal court; the Diputados,

who had been the executive of the popular will, were deprived of all

dangerous exercise of authority, the barriers against the encroachments

of arbitrary power were removed, and all this had been accomplished

through the representatives of the people, apparently of their own

volition.

[Sidenote: _ANTONIO PEREZ_]

When, early in December, Philip at Tarazona held the solio in which he

confirmed the acts of the Córtes, he followed it with a general pardon,

liberating all those prosecuted by Dr. Lanz, except the jurists and

lieutenants of the Justicia, who had counselled resistance and who were

punished with exile. Cosme Pariente, an unlucky poet, was sent to the

galleys as the author of the pasquinades which had stimulated revolt,

and there was another significant exception. Philip's inextinguishable

hatred of his favorite still kept in prison Juana Coello and her seven

children, the youngest of whom was born in captivity. Thus they

languished for nine years until their gaoler had passed away. Philip III

signalized the first year of his reign with pardoning those excepted in

his father's edicts and, in April 1599, Juana was set free. She

hesitated to leave her children, the eldest of whom was in her twentieth

year, but she finally did so to labor for their release, which she

accomplished in the following August. The friends of Pérez sought to

have him included in the royal mercy, but were told that his offence was

a matter of the Inquisition with which the king could not interfere.

Before relieving Aragon of his army, Philip caused the Aljafería to be

fortified and lodged there a garrison of two hundred men to keep the

turbulent city in check. To this the inquisitors objected strongly, and

asked to be transferred to some other habitation, but he refused, as

their protection served as an excuse for the garrison. They never grew

reconciled to their unwelcome guests and, in 1617 and again in 1618, we

find them complaining that the soldiers exercised control over the

castle and that their audacious pretensions diminished greatly the

popular respect due to the Holy Office.[551] Their remonstrances were

unheeded until, in 1626, Philip IV, as a special favor transferred the

garrison to Jaca.

Pérez and his friends had succeeded in reaching Béarn, where they were

welcomed by the governess, Catherine, sister of Henry IV. Imagining that

a small force would raise the Aragonese in defence of their liberties,

they persuaded Henry to try the experiment, to be followed, in case of

success, by an army of fifteen or twenty thousand men, to wrench from

Spain Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, and form a republic under French

protection. In February, 1592, therefore, some fifteen hundred or two

thousand Béarnese, under the leadership of Martin Lanuza, Gil de Mesa,

Manuel Don Lope, and Diego de Heredia attempted an invasion, but the

Aragonese rose against them. Embarrassed by the deep snows in the

mountains, they attempted to retreat but were vigorously attacked and

most of them were taken prisoners, including Dionisio Pérez, Francisco

de Ayerbe and Diego de Heredia. Vargas liberated the Béarnese, but the

refugees were sent to Saragossa, where they expiated their treason on

the scaffold.

In spite of this misadventure, Pérez was warmly welcomed and was

pensioned by Henry IV, as a personage of importance, a statesman versed

in all the arts of Spanish diplomacy. The peace of Vervins, however, in

1598 reduced him to insignificance. Age and infirmities overtook him and

his adventurous existence terminated in misery, November 3, 1611, when

he manifested every sign of fervent Catholicism. After his death, Juana

Coello and his children undertook the vindication of his memory and

solicited to be heard in his defence. It was not, however, until January

22, 1613 that the Suprema presented to Philip III a consulta

recommending that the widow and children should be heard by the

Saragossa tribunal. Sentences rendered _in absentia_, as we have seen,

were never regarded as conclusive, but the tribunal was unforgiving. It

interposed delays and then, on March 16, 1615, it rendered an adverse

judgement. This the Suprema refused to confirm and, after an obstinate

resistance, the tribunal, on June 19th was forced to utter a sentence

absolving the memory and fame of Antonio Pérez, declaring the limpieza

of his blood and pronouncing that his descendants were under no

disabilities. Nothing, however, was said about removing the confiscation

of his property, probably because this had been decreed both by the

secular sentence of July 17, 1590 and by the inquisitorial one of

October 20, 1592.[552]

[Sidenote: _OCCASIONAL CASES_]

Thus in this, the most prominent instance of inquisitorial political

intervention, the Holy Office was invoked only as a last resort, when

all other methods had failed, and, when it was called in, so far from

being the obsequious instrument of the royal will, it resolutely sought

to advance its own interests with little regard for the policy of the

monarch.

Yet the impression made at the time is reflected in the report of the

Venetian envoy, Agostino Nano, in 1598, when he says that the king can

be termed the head of the Inquisition, for he appoints the inquisitors

and officials. He uses it to hold in check his subjects and to punish

them with the secrecy and severity of its procedure, when he cannot do

so with the ordinary secular authority of the Royal Council. The

Inquisition and the Royal Council mutually help each other in matters of

state for the king's service.[553] This was a not unnatural conclusion

to draw from a case of this nature, but the royal power, by this time,

was too securely intrenched to require such aid. It was only the

peculiar features of the Aragonese fueros that called for the invention

of a charge of heresy in a political matter. The Inquisition, as a rule,

considered it no part of its duties to uphold the royal power for, in

1604, we find it sentencing Bartolomé Pérez to a severe reprimand, a

fine of ten thousand maravedís and a year's exile for saying that

obedience to the king came before that due to the pope and to the

Church.[554] Thus the mere denial of the superiority of the spiritual

power over the temporal was a crime.

Sporadic cases occurred in which special considerations called for the

aid of the Inquisition, but they were not numerous and were apt to be

directed against ecclesiastics, whose privilege exempted them from the

secular courts. Such was that of the Jesuit, Juan de Mariana,

distinguished in many ways, but especially by his classical History of

Spain. He had served the Inquisition well as a censor of books, but in

his _Tractatus septem_, published anonymously at Cologne, in 1609, in an

essay on the debased Spanish coinage, the freedom with which he

reprobated its evils and spoke of the malfeasance of officials gave

great offence to the royal favorite Lerma and his creatures. Had Mariana

been a layman there would have been no trouble in punishing him

severely, but to reach the Jesuit Philip invoked the papal nuncio

Caraffa and the Toledo tribunal took a hand. The whole proceeding was

irregular and the pope was asked to render sentence, but, after a year's

imprisonment, Mariana was liberated, without an imputation on his

character, and he died, in 1624, full of years and honor, at the age of

87.[555]

It is true that, when the Barcelona tribunal was battling to maintain

its pretensions against the Córtes of Catalonia, it represented, in

1632, in a memorial of Philip IV, among its other claims to

consideration, the secret services often rendered in obtaining

information and in the arrest of powerful persons, which could not

otherwise be so well accomplished. Its thorough organization, no doubt,

occasionally enabled it to be of use in this manner, and there was no

scruple in calling upon it for such work, as in 1666, when Don Pedro de

Sossa, the farmer of the tax of millones, in Seville, absconded with a

large sum of money and was understood to be making his way to France,

the Suprema wrote to Barcelona and doubtless to other tribunals at the

ports and frontier districts, with a description of his person and an

order to arrest him and embargo his property.[556]

The prosecutions of the two fallen favorites, Rodrigo Calderon, in 1621

and Olivares, in 1645, were not state affairs but intrigues, to prevent

their return to favor and were rendered unnecessary, in the one case by

the decapitation of Calderon and in the other by the death of

Olivares.[557] The secrecy of the Inquisition and its methods of

procedure rendered it a peculiarly favorable instrumentality for such

manoeuvres, as was seen in the Villanueva case, as well as for the

gratification of private malice, and it was doubtless frequently so

abused, but this has no bearing on its use as a political agency.

[Sidenote: _THE WAR OF SUCCESSION_]

With the advent of the Bourbon dynasty there was a change. In the

governmental theory of Louis XIV the Church was part of the State and

subject to the dictation of the monarch. In the desperate struggle of

the War of Succession, the advisers of the young Philip V had no

hesitation in employing all the resources within reach and the

Inquisition was expected to play its part. At an early period of the

conflict, the Suprema sent orders to the tribunals to enjoin earnestly,

on all their officials, fidelity to the king, who thus had the benefit

of a well-distributed army of missionaries in every quarter of the

land.[558] It was easy, as we have seen, for inquisitorial logic to

stretch the elastic definition of heresy in any desired direction, and

lack of loyalty to Philip was made to come within its boundaries. In an

edict of October 9, 1706, the Suprema pointed out that Clement XI had

threatened punishment for all priests who faltered in their devotion to

the king, yet notwithstanding this there were some who in the

confessional urged penitents to disobedience and relieved them from the

obligation of their oath of allegiance. This was a manifest abuse of the

sacrament and, as it was the duty of the Inquisition to maintain the

purity of the faith and prevent the evil resulting from a doctrine so

pernicious, all penitents so solicited were ordered, within nine days,

to denounce their confessors, under pain of excommunication and other

discretional penalties.[559]

The Inquisition, during the war, was especially serviceable in dealing

with ecclesiastics, who were beyond the reach of secular and military

courts, and this in cases where there was no pretence of heresy. The

events of 1706--the capture and loss of Madrid by the Allies and the

revolutions in Valencia and Catalonia--occasioned a number of trials for

high treason. The Suprema was still in Burgos when Philip V informed

Inquisitor-general Vidal Marin that he had ordered the arrest of Juan

Fernando Frias, a cleric, who was to be delivered to the Inquisition at

Burgos, to be tried for high treason, with all speed. The Suprema

replied, August 13th, that it had placed Frias in safe custody,

incomunicado; the inquisitor-general had commissioned the Prior of Santa

María de Palacio of Logroño to serve on the tribunal, and there should

be the least possible delay in the verification and punishment of the

offence. It assured the king that he could rely on the promptest

fulfilment of his wishes and of the _vindicta publica_, for the

Apostolic jurisdiction of the Suprema extended to the infliction of the

death-penalty.[560] In its loyal zeal it took no thought of

irregularity. Indeed, the Suprema seems to have issued commissions to

tribunals to act in such cases. In 1707, Isidro de Balmaseda, Inquisitor

of Valencia, signs himself as "Inquisidor y Juez Apostólico contra los

eclesiasticos difidentes," in the case of Fray Peregrin Gueralt,

lay-brother of the Servite convent of Quarto, whom the testimony showed

to be an adherent of the Archduke Charles, industriously carrying

intelligence to the Allies and, on his return, spreading false reports,

to the disturbance of men's minds. In this trial the formality of a

_clamosa_ by the fiscal was omitted; the inquisitors had the testimony

taken and on receiving it ordered the arrest of Gueralt without

submitting it to calificadores.[561]

From this time forward the Inquisition was at the service of the State

whenever it was required to suppress opinions that were regarded as

dangerous though, when its interests clashed with those of the crown,

the cases of Macanaz and Belando show that it could still assert its

aggressive independence. As the century wore on, however, it became more

and more subservient. A writer about 1750, while regretting that it did

not repress the Probabilism of the fashionable Moral Theology, gives it

hearty praise for its political utility; it is not only, he says,

engaged in preserving the purity of the faith, but, in an ingenious way,

it maintains the peace of the State and the subordination due to the

king and the magistracy. In his wars Philip V made use occasionally of

its tribunals in difficult conjunctures with happy results and therefore

he honored and distinguished it throughout his reign.[562]

[Sidenote: _UNDER THE RESTORATION_]

Thus, as its original functions declined, a new career was opened. We

have seen how its censorship was utilized to prevent the incursion of

modern liberalism, and its procedure was similarly employed against

individuals. With the outbreak of the French Revolution, its vigilance

was directed especially against the propagation of the dangerous

doctrines of popular liberty, and any expression of sympathy with events

beyond the Pyrenees was sufficient to justify prosecution. As early as

1790, Jacques Jorda, a Frenchman, was tried by the Barcelona tribunal

for propositions antagonistic to the spiritual and temporal authorities,

and prosecutions for such offences continued to be frequent. In 1794,

during the war with the French Republic, even so important a personage

as Don Antonio Ricardo, general-in-chief of the army in Roussillon, was

on trial by the tribunal of Madrid for utterances in sympathy with

occurrences in France and, at the same time, his secretary, Don Josef

del Borque, was undergoing a similar experience in the Logroño

tribunal.[563] War carried on in such fashion could not fail to be

disastrous.

This prostitution of an ecclesiastical tribunal to temporal purposes was

one of the reasons given by the Córtes of Cádiz for its abolition. Even

its chief defender, Fray Maestro Alvarado, could not deny the

accusation, but, he turned the tables by ascribing the fault to the

Jansenists, to whom the orthodox attributed all the evils of the time.

It was they, he argued who mingled religion and politics, and set the

State above the Church.[564] He did not live to see the refutation of

his dialectics, when Ultramontanism triumphed in the Restoration, and

the political functions of the Inquisition became still more prominent.

In 1814, a copy of the treaty of July 30th with Louis XVIII was sent to

the tribunals in order that they might enforce the clauses appertaining

to them, and when, in 1815, the news of Napoleon's return from Elba was

received, King Fernando, by an order of April 8th, included the

tribunals of the Inquisition in the instructions given to the military

and ecclesiastical authorities to keep watch on the frontier against

surprises, and to guard in the interior against the artifices and

seductions of the disaffected.[565] In fact, we may say, the chief work

expected of the Inquisition was that of the _haute police_, for which

its organization rendered it especially fitted. April 8, 1817 we find it

notified that the refugees, General Renovales and Colonel Peon,

accomplices in the attempted rising of Juan Diaz Porlier in Galicia,

were hovering on the Portuguese border. The tribunal of Santiago

(Galicia) was therefore to put itself in communication with that of

Coimbra, it was to devise means for their capture and, through its

commissioners and familiars, find out what was on foot, for the security

of the throne and of the altar required of the Holy Office extreme

vigilance under existing circumstances. The inquisitor-general forwarded

this to Galicia with orders to execute it "at once, at once, at once"

and, not content with this, instructions were sent to the tribunals of

Murcia, Córdova, Saragossa and Barcelona, all of which responded with

promises of the utmost activity and of watchfulness over

reactionaries.[566] So, in 1818 the Logroño tribunal reported that its

commissioner at Hernani (Guipúzcoa) reported that he had heard a person

utter the proposition _"La nacion es soberana."_ To this the Suprema

replied that this was a matter of high importance and might lead to

great results. Llano must make a formal denunciation with all details;

also he must declare why he suspected Don Joseph Joaquin de Mariategui,

and how he knows of his journey to France and England and his relations

with the refugees there--all of which must be done with the utmost

caution and speed and the results be reported.[567]

It is scarce worth while to multiply trivial details like these to

indicate how efficient a political agency the Inquisition had become

under the Restoration. Its activity in this direction continued until

the end and when, in the Revolution of 1820 at Seville, on March 10th,

the doors of the secret prison were thrown open, the three prisoners

liberated were political.[568]

* * * * *

Besides these direct political services, the Inquisition was sometimes

called upon by the State to aid in enforcing secular laws, when the

civil organization found itself unequal to the duty. The most

conspicuous instance of this is found in the somewhat incongruous matter

of preventing the export of horses.

[Sidenote: _EXPORTATION OF HORSES_]

From a very early period this was regarded with great jealousy. From the

twelfth century onward, the Córtes of Leon and Castile, in their

petitions, constantly asked that the prohibition should be enforced and,

at those of Burgos in 1338, Alfonso XI decreed death and confiscation

for it, even if the offenders were hidalgos, a ferocious provision which

was renewed by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1499.[569] Aragon, which lay

between Castile and France, suffered from this embargo. The Córtes of

Monzon, in 1528, petitioned Charles V for the pardon of certain citizens

who had drawn horses from Castile and were condemned to death and other

penalties, to which Charles replied that he would not pardon those who

had carried horses to France; as for those who had merely taken them to

Aragon, if they could be pointed out, he would grant them pardon.

Another complaint of the Córtes indicates the rigid methods adopted to

prevent evasions. If an Aragonese went to Castile on business, he was

allowed to remain ninety days; if he exceeded the limit, on his return

his horse was seized at the frontier, even though at the same place by

which he had entered.[570] Severe as were these measures, they were

ineffective. Contraband trade of all kinds flourished in the wild

mountain districts along the French frontier, and the prohibition

respecting a beast of burden, which transported itself, was notoriously

difficult of enforcement.

In 1552, we find the Suprema ordering the Saragossa tribunal to

prosecute and punish one of its commissioners in the mountains of Jaca,

accused of passing horses to France, but this was evidently due to the

fact that the offender was entitled to the fuero of the

Inquisition.[571] There was as yet no ingenious attribution of suspicion

of heresy to this contraband trade and, when in 1564, the Córtes of

Monzon prohibited the exportation of horses and mares from Aragon, the

only reason alleged was their scarcity in the kingdom.[572] The third

Lateran Council, however, in 1179, had denounced excommunication and

severe penalties on all who furnished the infidel with warlike material,

and this had been carried into the Corpus Juris; Nicholas IV had

specifically included horses and had sharpened the penalties; Boniface

VIII, in 1299, had placed the offence under the jurisdiction of the Holy

Office, and had ordered all inquisitors to make vigilant inquest in

their districts, and the prohibition was repeated in the annual bulls

_In coena Domini_.[573] The south of France, and especially the

contiguous territory of Béarn, had become interpenetrated with heresy

and a colorable pretext was afforded of invoking the aid of the

Inquisition to suppress the contraband traffic.

[Sidenote: _EXPORTATION OF HORSES_]

This was first confided, in 1573, to the tribunal of Saragossa, by a

commission empowering it to act in the premises. It accordingly inserted

in the Edict of Faith a clause requiring the denunciation of all who

sold arms or horses to infidels, heretics, or Lutherans, or who passed,

or assisted to pass, them to Lutheran lands. This brought in numerous

denunciations but, as there were no means of knowing what became of the

horses after they passed the border, the tribunal was powerless to

prosecute and so reported to the Suprema. It replied, August 25, 1573,

that further provision was necessary; assuming that Béarn was inhabited

by heretics under heretic rulers, the tribunal could proceed against and

punish, as fautors of heretics, those who bought or sold or passed

horses to Béarn, even when it did not appear that they had been sold to

heretics, and it was urged to be active in the matter. The edict was

therefore modified to include, as fautors of heretics, all concerned in

passing horses to Béarn; it was sent, with a secretary, to all the

principal fairs where horses were sold, to be published in the church,

with notice that the commissioner would receive any one who desired to

unburden his conscience. Exportation was forbidden, unless the owner was

known and would give security that the horses were not to be taken to

Béarn, or else would present himself with his horses before the

inquisitors within a designated time, so that note could be taken of the

animals and an account be required as to their destination. Another

device, which proved effective, was to register all the horses at the

fairs, with descriptions and the names of the owners, who were required

to keep an account of all sales and purchasers. This however, applied

only to natives; as for Frenchmen and Béarnais, any horses that they had

were seized without ceremony; if the owner was a Frenchman, the horses

would be kept, awaiting instructions from the Suprema; if a Béarnais, he

was seized with his horses and prosecuted, as being included in the

Edict. Spaniards found with horses going towards France or Béarn, were

treated like Frenchmen--the horses were sold to pay expenses and, if any

balance was left, it was handed to the receiver. Pains, moreover were

taken to find who made a trade of passing horses to France; they were

arrested on some pretext and thrown into prison; if evidence were found

against them, they were prosecuted; if not, after detention they were

released under bail, because, as the inquisitors said, there was no

penalty expressed in the Edict or in the laws of the kingdom. In view of

the risk that the parties might apply for a firma or manifestacion, the

Suprema was asked for further instructions, when it replied, July 1,

1574, that the prosecutions were to be conducted as in cases of heresy,

the accused be required to give their genealogies and then, if recourse

was had to manifestacion, it was to be met with an assertion that the

case was a matter of faith. Yet the fraudulent character of this

assumption is revealed in the admission that the secular magistrates

could prosecute for the offence.[574]

Thus the zeal and activity of the Inquisition, working through its

disregard of all laws, and its methods of procedure, virtually placed

under its control the whole trade of the kingdom in horse-flesh.

Encouraged by this, the Saragossa tribunal sought a still further

extension of jurisdiction and, in 1576, it reported to the Suprema great

activity in the exportation to France, Béarn and Gascony of arquebuses,

powder, sheet iron for cuirasses and other warlike material, and it

suggested an edict concerning that trade similar to that respecting

horses. To this the Suprema assented, with the caution that it must be

understood that these arms and munitions were intended for

heretics.[575] The difficulty inherent in this probably prevented

action, for I have met with no case of its enforcement.

It will be observed that the Saragossa tribunal pointed out that there

was no penalty defined by law for the offence. This omission was

rectified in the Córtes of Tarazona, in 1592, which deprived of what was

known as the _via privilegiata_ a long list of crimes, including that of

passing horses and munitions of war to Béarn and France, with the

addition that it could be punished with the death-penalty.[576]

A decision of the Suprema, rendered to the Barcelona tribunal in 1582,

was to the effect that, if horses were taken to France, it must be

ascertained whether they were for heretics in order to justify

prosecution by the Inquisition, but, if to Béarn, that alone

sufficed.[577] In time this nice distinction was abandoned, although the

fiction was maintained that it was a matter of faith. About 1640, an

inquisitor informs us that it was customary to punish those who exported

horses or warlike material to France, even though there were no evidence

that they were for heretics, for the act was very prejudicial. The

accused was generally confined in the secret prison, the trial was

conducted as one of faith, and was voted upon in a regular consulta de

fe, including the episcopal Ordinary. Unless the case was light, the

culprit appeared in a public auto. If he belonged to the lower classes,

he was sometimes scourged; if of higher estate, he suffered exile and a

fine, together with forfeiture of the horse or, if it had been passed

successfully, he paid double its value. In the case of a Benedictine

abbot, who had passed one or two horses to France, the Suprema fined him

in six hundred ducats and suspended him from his functions for a year.

Sometimes the sentence included disability for public office for both

the culprit and his descendants.[578]

Oddly enough, in the case of Antonio Pérez this matter emerges for a

moment in a manner significant of the uses to which it could be put. In

the Spring of 1591, when it was desirable to suppress Diego de Heredia,

Inquisitor-general Quiroga wrote, March 20th to the Saragossa tribunal,

that he was suspected of passing horses to France. By April 4th, the

tribunal was taking testimony to show that, a year or two before, he had

sold two horses to a Frenchman for three hundred and sixty libras and

that they were to be taken to France. There had been no secrecy in the

transaction and further evidence was obtained that Heredia brought

horses from Castile to Saragossa, whence they were taken to the

mountains and were seen no more.[579] The events of May 24th, however,

rendered further researches in this direction superfluous.

When this peculiar inquisitorial function was abandoned, does not

clearly appear. In 1667 the Barcelona tribunal prosecuted Eudaldo

Penstevan Bonguero for exporting horses to France. Already it would seem

that the cognizance of the offence had become obsolete for, in 1664 the

Suprema had called in question the competence of the tribunal to deal

with it, when it replied, July 23d, that it held a papal brief

conferring the faculty. The Suprema asked for an authentic copy of this

or of the instructions empowering it to act, but neither was forthcoming

and, on November 11, 1667, the Suprema again asked for them in order to

decide the case of Bonguero.[580] We should probably not err in

considering this to mark the last attempt to enforce a jurisdiction so

foreign to the real objects of the Holy Office.

[Sidenote: _COINAGE_]

A still more eccentric invocation of the terror felt for the

Inquisition, when the secular machinery failed to accomplish its

purpose, occurred when the debasement of the coinage threw Spanish

finance into inextricable confusion. The miserable vellon tokens were

forced into circulation at rates enormously beyond their intrinsic

value, and statesmen exhausted their ingenuity in devising clumsy

expedients to arrest their inevitable depreciation--punishments of all

kinds to keep down the premium on silver, and laws of maximum to

regulate prices, from shirts to house-rent. The rude coinage, mostly

battered and worn, was easily counterfeited, and there was large profit

in manufacturing it abroad and flooding Spain with it at its fictitious

valuation. Sanguinary laws were enacted to counteract this temptation,

and the offence was punishable, like heresy, with burning, confiscation

and the disabilities of descendants. To render this more effective, it

was declared to be a case for the Inquisition and, like the exportation

of horses, there was an attempt to disguise it as a matter of faith. A

carta acordada of February 6, 1627, informed the tribunals that it fell

within their jurisdiction if any heretic or fautor of heretics imported

vellon money for the purpose of exporting gold or silver or other

munitions of war, thus weakening the forces of the king, and all such

offences belonged exclusively to the Inquisition. But when this was done

by Catholics, for the sake of gain, the jurisdiction belonged

exclusively to the king and as such he granted it cumulatively to the

Inquisition, with the caution that, in competencias, censures were not

to be employed. A papal brief confirming this was expected and meanwhile

such prosecutions were to be conducted as matters of faith. It is not

likely that Urban VIII condescended to authorize such misuse of the

power delegated to the Inquisition for, in little more than a year,

Philip IV revoked this action and confined the cognizance of the offence

to the secular courts.[581]

* * * * *

If, as we have seen, the Inquisition was not a political machine of the

importance that has been imagined, this was not through any lack of

willingness on its part to be so employed. When its services were

wanted, they were at the command of the State and if this rarely

occurred under the Hapsburg princes, it was because they were not

needed.