PHILOSOPHISM.
In the earlier period, Spanish orthodoxy seems to have been little
troubled with free-thinking, nor, when this was encountered, does it
seem to have been visited with the same vindictiveness as Protestantism.
From a temporal point of view, it was less dangerous, and the denial of
God was an offence less than the denial of papal supremacy. In an auto
at Toledo, November 8, 1654, there appeared Don Francisco de Vega
Vinero, characterized as "herege apostata, ateista," who escaped with
reconciliation, confiscation, ten years of prison and three years of
exile from Toledo, Madrid and Renedo.[635] The intellectual movement of
the eighteenth century in France, however, could not but awake an echo
in Spain, despite the severity of censorship, and the quarantine at the
ports. There was a steady infiltration of liberalism, political and
spiritual; Spaniards of culture who travelled, or who were sent abroad
on missions, returned with enlarged horizons of thought, and could not
but compare the backwardness of their native land with the activity, for
good or for evil, of the other European nations. The more the writings
of the fashionable philosophers of France were denounced, the greater
became the curiosity to examine them. A reactionary writer tells us that
the works of Filangieri, Rousseau, Mably, Condillac, Pereira, Febronius
(Hontheim) and Scipione de'Ricci had full circulation in the
universities and colleges. Some professors taught many of their
principles, the students were infected and this moral pestilence
extended rapidly without attracting due attention.[636] The Abbé Clément
found, in 1768, that one of the obstacles to the success of his
Jansenizing mission was the secret tolerance and indifferentism; it was
difficult to believe how great were the evidences of incredulity, united
with all the externals of devotion, even under the oppression of
habitual dread of the severity of the Inquisition.[637] Thus, in the
latter half of the eighteenth century, the decadent activity of the Holy
Office found a new heresy to combat, which it styled Philosophism or
Naturalism.
The leading ministers of Carlos III, such as Aranda, Campomanes, Roda
and Floridablanca, were shrewdly suspected of sympathy with these
dangerous speculations, but the time had passed when the Marquis of
Villanueva could be arrested and prosecuted without the assent of the
king. It was safer to make examples of men not thus protected but yet
sufficiently conspicuous to serve as warnings. Such a case was that of
Dr. Luis Castellanos, health-officer of the port of Cádiz--a
free-thinker calling himself a philosopher, an agnostic who professed to
know nothing of God and who probably was indiscreet in airing his
opinions. On his trial by the Seville tribunal he at first denied, but
subsequently he confessed and begged for mercy. On June 30, 1776, an
auto with open doors was held in the chapel of the castle of Triana, at
which were present, doubtless by invitation that could not be declined,
the Duke of Medina Celi, the Count of Torrejon and innumerable other
distinguished personages, at which Castellanos was sentenced to
abjuration and confiscation, to wear a _sanbenito de dos aspas_ and to
serve for ten years in the hospital of the presidio of Oran--a severity
which emphasizes the dread inspired by this negation of opinion.[638]
[Sidenote: _PABLO OLAVIDE_]
Contemporary with this was a case of more far-reaching influence. Pablo
Olavide, a young lawyer of Lima and judge in the Audiencia,
distinguished himself in the terrible earthquake of 1746 and was made
custodian of the treasures dug from the ruins. After satisfying those
who could prove their claims, he employed the remainder in building a
church and a theatre. There were disappointed claimants who carried
their complaints to Madrid. Olavide was summoned thither, disbarred,
condemned to pay various sums and imprisoned. His health failing, he was
allowed to go to Leganes, where he contracted marriage with Isabel de
los Rios, whose two successive husbands had left her large fortunes. He
was remarkably intelligent, brilliant in society, and, with the aid of
his wife's money, he speedily acquired prominent social position. He
travelled and in France he formed relations with Voltaire and Rousseau,
with whom he maintained correspondence. Aranda, who secretly
sympathized with him in this, was then at the height of his power and
became his warm friend, seeking to use his abilities in the projects on
foot to elevate Spain from its condition of poverty and misery.
Practical statesmen had long recognized as a serious evil the baldios,
or extensive and numerous tracts of uncultivated land, useless for all
purposes except as pasturage for the migratory flocks of the _Mesta_,
that powerful combination of sheep-owners who had secured legislation
restricting all cultivation that interfered with their privileges. As
early as 1749 the Marquis of la Ensenada had entertained projects of
introducing colonies of foreigners to occupy these idle lands; in 1766
the idea was revived and _Nuevas Poblaciones_, as they were called, were
established in various places. A contract was made to bring six thousand
German and Swiss Catholics and establish them on the southern slope of
the Sierra Morena, along the main road from Madrid to Cádiz--a wild and
rugged country, the haunt of highway robbers. Campomanes drew up the
plan, under which establishments of the religious Orders were absolutely
prohibited; the settlers were to have pastors of their own race; all
spiritual affairs were to be in the hands of the parish priests, subject
to episcopal jurisdiction, and the dreaded Mesta was not allowed to
intrude. Olavide was appointed superintendent of the colony, and was
also made _assistente_, or governor of Seville.
He threw himself into the project with enthusiasm, labored with
intelligent activity, overcame the initial difficulties and for some
years success seemed assured. Gradually however trouble arose with the
Capuchin friars who had accompanied the colonists as their priests.
Friar Romuald of Freiburg, the prefect of the group, was a disturbing
element, involved in quarrels with the episcopal officials; friction
sprang up between him and Olavide, which developed into hatred, and the
Inquisition furnished ready means for gratifying malevolence. In
September, 1775, Romuald presented a formal denunciation of the
Superintendent as an atheist and materialist, who was in correspondence
with Voltaire and Rousseau, who read prohibited books, denied the
miracles, and held that non-Catholics could be saved. Ample details were
furnished of his irreligious walk and conversation, some of which
indicate the points on which quarrels had arisen--not resorting to
prayer and good works to avert calamities, forbidding the ringing of
bells in tempests, wanting corpses buried in cemeteries rather than in
churches, and defending the Copernican system condemned by the Church.
Olavide's protector, Aranda, had fallen from power in 1773 and the
opportunity was not to be lost by the Inquisition of striking at a man,
conspicuous enough to serve as a terrifying example, and yet who, as a
"kinless loon," had no influential family behind him. Besides, the whole
scheme of the Poblaciones had aroused the hostility of two influential
classes--the friars whose establishments were excluded and the Mesta
whose flocks were not allowed to ravage the fields.
[Sidenote: _PABLO OLAVIDE_]
It shows the decadence of the Inquisition that the royal permission to
prosecute was sought and obtained. Olavide was summoned to court,
towards the end of 1775, on a pretext; after some delay he realized the
situation and sought the protection of Manuel de Roda, then minister of
Gracia y Justicia, who was too vulnerable himself to compromise his own
safety, and who merely wrote to Inquisitor-general Beltran a note
speaking favorably of Olavide. The Madrid tribunal moved with
deliberation, for it was not until November 14, 1776, that Olavide was
arrested. For two years he disappeared from human sight. Seventy-two
witnesses were examined, and the fiscal accumulated a formidable array
of a hundred and sixty-six heretical propositions. He admitted imprudent
talk, while denying all lapse from the faith, but he confessed enough
for the inquisitors to assume that he secretly cherished the opinions of
the fashionable philosophy, and his condemnation was inevitable. We are
told that a public auto was desired, in order to emphasize the warning,
but it was felt that the occasion scarce justified such a solemnity, and
the Roman Inquisition was consulted which suggested that the purpose
would be answered by a private auto with a huge number of spectators. It
was held, November 24, 1778, in the audience-chamber, after
inviting--invitations equivalent to commands--Campomanes and numerous
prominent nobles, statesmen and others who had been connected with
Olavide, or were suspected of philosophism, so that when he was brought
in he found himself surrounded by his friends assembled to witness his
humiliation. For three hours he listened to the long-drawn recital of
all the heretical propositions proved against him by the witnesses, to
which he responded by ejaculating "I never have lost the faith although
the fiscal says so." Then followed the sentence, pronouncing him a
convicted heretic, a rotten member of the Church, and condemning him to
reconciliation, confiscation, and banishment for ever for forty leagues
from Madrid and all royal residences, the kingdoms of Lima, Andalusia
and the colonies of the Sierra Morena, to reclusion for eight years in a
convent and to the customary disabilities for himself and his
descendants to the fifth generation. This tremendous severity so
overcame him that he fell senseless to the floor. A distant convent at
Gerona was selected for his confinement; in 1780, on the plea of
ill-health, he was allowed to visit a watering-place, from which he
escaped to France, not without, it is said, the secret connivance of the
court, although, when his extradition was demanded, he sought safety in
Geneva. With the outbreak of the Revolution he returned to France, where
he narrowly escaped the guillotine; adversity brought a change of heart
and, in 1798, he published anonymously at Valencia his "El Evangelio en
Triunfo, ó Historía de un Filósofo disengañado," which had an enormous
circulation and so impressed Inquisitor-general Lorenzana that he was
allowed to return to Spain. He was offered restoration to his positions,
but he was disillusioned with the world; he retired to Baeza, devoting
himself to good works and dying in 1804.[639]
The Inquisition had not miscalculated the salutary influence of the
example. Don Felipe Samaniego, Archdeacon of Pampeluna, Knight of
Santiago and member of the Royal Council, was one of those constrained
to be present, and was so frightened that the next day he denounced
himself to the tribunal as a reader of prohibited books, of which he
presented a long list. This, he said, had led him to religious doubt
but, on serious reflection, he had resolved to adhere firmly to the
Catholic faith and he asked to be absolved _ad cautelam_. He was turned
to account by being required to submit a sworn statement as to where and
how he had procured the books, how long he had held these views, who had
taught him, with whom had he discussed these matters, and who had
refuted or accepted his opinions. This brought out a detailed confession
compromising almost all the learned and enlightened men of the
court--Aranda, Floridablanca, Campomanes, O'Reilly, Lacy, the Duke of
Almodovar and many others of high position. Prosecutions were instituted
against them all, but the testimony of a single witness was insufficient
and the power of those implicated was so great that the tribunal was
content to let the cases remain in suspense.[640]
Offenders less conspicuous were less fortunate, and numerous cases
attested the resolve of the Inquisition to crush out the new ideas. It
was merciful to Benito Bails, a professor of mathematics and author of a
series of text-books long in use, for a niece was allowed to enter with
him the secret prison and take care of him, as he was aged and crippled
in all his limbs. Before the publication of evidence he confessed to
having entertained doubts as to the existence of God and as to
immortality, but that solitude and reflection had removed them, and that
he was ready to abjure and accept penance. As reclusion in a convent
would have deprived him of the care of his neice, his house was
charitably assigned to him as a prison, with various spiritual
penances.[641] A more suggestive case was that of Doctor Gregorio de
Vicente, professor of philosophy in the University of Valladolid, for
certain theses in which were discovered twenty propositions savoring of
"naturalism," and for a sermon in which he argued that true religion
consisted in the practice of virtue and not in external observance. For
eight years he lay in the secret prison, but it chanced that he had an
uncle who was an inquisitor of Santiago, whose influence induced the
Valladolid tribunal at length, in 1801, to pronounce him insane, while
condemning his propositions. On his release, however, he gave such
evidence of sanity that the tribunal felt obliged to arrest him again
and repeat his trial. This time a year of incarceration sufficed; he
abjured his errors publicly and accepted certain penances.[642]
[Sidenote: _CONSERVATISM AND PROGRESS_]
A case which excited much attention was that of D. Ramon de Salas, a
prominent man of letters and professor in Salamanca, imprisoned in 1796,
on the charge of entertaining the errors of Voltaire, Rousseau and other
exponents of the new philosophy. He admitted that he had read their
works, but only for the purpose of confuting them, which he had done
publicly and in writing. The accounts which have reached us of his trial
differ irreconcileably, but it appears that the prosecution was the
result of private enmity on the part of men high in office, and that
Salas had powerful protectors who induced Carlos IV to evoke the case,
after he had been condemned. This invasion of inquisitorial jurisdiction
led to resistance on the part of Inquisitor-general Lorenzana, which
caused Queen María Luisa to exclaim to him "It is you, hypocrite, and
the like of you who cause the revolutions of Europe." Not only was the
sentence annulled and Salas was liberated, but a royal order was
obtained that in future no arrest should be made without previously
consulting the king. This was duly drawn up, but Vallejo, Archbishop of
Santiago and President of the Council of Castile, one of the enemies of
Salas, had sufficient influence with Godoy to procure its
withdrawal.[643]
This case illustrates the struggle on foot between the forces of
conservatism and progress, in which the Inquisition, as the protagonist
of the former, was not always successful. The propagators of the new
ideas were difficult to silence. Even under Carlos III, we are told that
in 1785-6 there appeared in Saragossa essays scandalizing to the
faithful, for they sought to establish that celibacy is prejudicial to
the State, that vows of religion should be postponed to the age of 24,
that the Church had customs detrimental to the State and that its abuses
and superstitions should be suppressed. Apparently the Inquisition took
no steps to vindicate the faith, and when Fray Diego de Cádiz, at the
request of many ecclesiastics, preached against these subversive
propositions, he was obliged to fly and even then he was pursued by the
wrath of the innovators.[644] Under the anomalous government of Carlos
IV, constant changes in the ministry and the fluctuating whims of his
favorite Godoy, who liked to pose as the patron of letters and
enlightenment, in turns repressed the Inquisition and gave it free rein.
A prominent personage of the time was the Count Francisco Cabarrús, a
French adventurer who founded the Bank of San Carlos and alternated,
like other statesmen of the period, between guiding the destinies of the
nation and a dungeon. After his imprisonment in the castle of Batres, he
relieved his mind in 1792 and 1793 of the thoughts which had accumulated
there, in three letters to Jovellanos, developing in verbose rhetoric
the ideas of Rousseau and the _contrat social_. Education, he argued,
should be universal, but it should be purely secular, and the clergy
should not be allowed to meddle with it, religious training being left
to parents and parish priests. In colleges the studies should be
directed to fitting youth for actual life; the existing universities
were sewers of humanity, whose scholastic theology and teaching of
jurisprudence were equally destructive to the human race. The numbers of
the clergy were enormously excessive, constituting a running sore and a
body subversive of all the principles of morals and statesmanship. There
should be stimulated a holy and virtuous indignation against all the
absurd and apocryphal devotions which pervert reason, destroy virtue and
cause heathendom to ridicule Christianity.[645] For much less than this
many a man, like Olavide, had suffered bitterly but, in 1795, Cabarrús
prefaced these letters with one addressed to Godoy himself as "mi amigo"
and, secure in the protection of the all-powerful favorite, he was
beyond the reach of the Inquisition, showing how uncertain were its
functions during the disastrous period when absolutism was in the hands
of a frivolous courtier.
[Sidenote: _CONSERVATISM AND PROGRESS_]
The feelings of the orthodox towards these innovators are
comprehensively expressed by Fray Francisco Alvarado, the leading
champion of conservatism against the Córtes of 1810. "These
philosophers" he says, "have come to disrupt our union, to disturb our
peace, to embarrass our defence, to distract our attention, to corrupt
our fidelity, to overturn our State, to seize our fortunes, to degrade
our reason, to abolish our religion, to--what shall I say?--to make our
free cities a hell where nothing but blasphemies are heard and where
there is little lacking to replace order with sempiternal horror."[646]
Virulent as is this objurgation, it is but the natural expression of the
passions excited by the struggle in progress, which each side felt to
be a combat to the death. A moderated philosophism, as we shall see,
triumphed in the Córtes of 1810-13 and, although there has followed
nearly a century of vicissitudes, some of them sanguinary, it has, at
least established its right to existence. The Inquisition was not
mistaken in recognizing it, from the first, as its most dangerous
enemy--the embodiment of the modern spirit, destined, for better or
worse, finally to supplant medievalism.