THE SPANISH PENINSULA.
The kingdom of Aragon, stretching across both sides of the Pyrenees,
with a population kindred in blood and speech to that of Mediterranean
France, was particularly liable to inroads of heresy from the latter.
The Counts of Barcelona had been Carlovingian vassals, and even owned a
shadowy allegiance to the first Capetians. We have seen how ready were
Pedro II. and his successors to aid in resisting Frankish encroachments,
even at the cost of encouraging heresy, and it was inevitable that
schismatic missions should be established in populous centres such as
Barcelona, and that heretics, when hard-pressed, should seek refuge in
the mountains of Cerdaña and Urgel. In spite of this, however, heresy
never obtained to the west of the Pyrenees the foothold which it enjoyed
to the east. Its manifestations there were only spasmodic, and were
suppressed with effort comparatively slender.
It is somewhat remarkable that we hear nothing specifically of the
Cathari in Aragon proper. Matthew Paris, indeed, tells a wild tale of
how, in 1234, they were so numerous in the parts of Spain that they
decreed the abrogation of Christianity, and raised a large army with
which they burned churches and spared neither age nor sex, until Gregory
IX. ordered a crusade against them throughout western Europe, when in a
stricken field they were all cut off to a man; but this may safely be
set down to the imagination of some pilgrim returning from Compostella
and desiring to repay a night's hospitality at St. Alban's. In the
enumeration of Rainerio Saccone, about 1250, there is no mention of any
Catharan organization west of the Pyrenees. That many Cathari existed in
Aragon there can be no doubt, but they are never described as such, and
the only heretics of whom we hear by name are _los encabats_--the
Insabbatati or Waldenses. It will be remembered that it was against
these that the savage edicts of Alonso II. and Pedro II. were directed,
towards the close of the twelfth century.[184]
After this, for a while, persecution seems to have slept. The sympathies
and ambition of King Pedro were enlisted with Raymond of Toulouse, and
after his fall at Muret, during the minority of Jayme I., the Aragonese
probably awaited the results of the Albigensian war with feelings
enlisted in favor of their race rather than of orthodoxy. As it drew to
a close, however, Don Jayme, in 1226, issued an edict prohibiting all
heretics from entering his kingdom, doubtless moved thereunto by the
numbers who sought escape from the crusade of Louis VIII., and he
followed this, in 1228, with another, depriving heretics, with their
receivers, fautors, and defenders, of the public peace. The next step,
we are told by the chroniclers of the Inquisition, was taken in
consequence of the urgency of Raymond of Pennaforte, the Dominican
confessor of the young king, who prevailed on him to obtain from Gregory
IX. inquisitors to purge his land. This is based on the bull
_Declinante_, addressed, May 26, 1232, to Esparrago, Archbishop of
Tarragona, and his suffragans, instructing them to make inquest in their
dioceses after heretics, either personally or by Dominicans or other
fitting persons, and to punish such as might be found, according to the
statutes recently issued by him and by Annibaldo, Senator of Rome. This
doubtless gave an impulse to what followed, but as yet there was no
thought of a papal or Dominican Inquisition, or of adopting foreign
legislation. In the following year, 1233, Don Jayme issued from
Tarragona, with the advice of his assembled prelates, a statute on the
subject, showing that the matter was regarded as pertaining to the State
rather than to the Church. Seigneurs who protected heretics in their
lands forfeited them to the lord, or, if allodial, to the king. Houses
of heretics, if allodial, were to be torn down; if held in fief,
forfeited to the lord. All defamed or suspected of heresy were declared
ineligible to office. That the innocent might not suffer with the
guilty, no one was to be punished as a heretic or believer except by his
bishop or such ecclesiastic as had authority to determine his guilt.
Bishops were ordered, when it might seem expedient to them in places
suspected of heresy, to appoint a priest or clerk, while the king or his
bailli would appoint two or three laymen, whose duty it should be to
investigate heretics, and, taking precautions against their escape, to
report them to the bishop or to the royal officials, or to the lord of
the place. In this incongruous mixture of clerical and lay elements
there may, it is true, be discovered the germ of an Inquisition, but one
of a character very different from that which was at this time taking
shape at Toulouse. The subordinate position of these so-called
inquisitors is seen in the provision that any negligence in the
performance of their functions was punishable, in the case of a clerk,
by the loss of his benefice, in that of a layman, by a pecuniary
mulct.[185]
To what extent this crude expedient was put in practice we have no means
of knowing, but probably some attempts were made which only proved its
inefficiency. Esparrago died soon afterwards and was succeeded in the
archiepiscopal seat of Tarragona by Guillen Mongriu, whose vigorous and
martial temperament was illustrated by his conquest of the island of
Iviza. Mongriu speedily found that the domestic Inquisition would not
work, and applied for the solution of some doubts to Gregory, who sent
him, April 30, 1235, a code of instructions drawn up by Raymond of
Pennaforte. About this time we find the first record of active work in
persecution, which illustrates the absence of all formal inquisitorial
procedure. Robert, Count of Rosellon, was one of the great feudatories
of the crown of Aragon. He seems to have been involved, as most nobles
were, in some disputes as to fiefs and tithes with the Bishop of Elne,
whose diocese was in his territories. The bishop accused him of being
the chief of the heretics of the region and of using his castles as a
refuge for them. All this was very likely true--at least the bishop had
no difficulty in finding witnesses to prove it, when Robert obediently
abjured, but subsequently relapsed. Don Jayme accordingly had him
arrested and imprisoned, but Robert managed to escape and shut himself
in one of his inaccessible mountain strongholds. His position, however,
was desperate, and his lands liable to confiscation; he therefore
expressed to Gregory IX. his desire to return to the bosom of the
Church, and offered to serve with his followers against the Saracen as
long as the pope might designate. Gregory therefore wrote, February 8,
1237, to Raymond of Pennaforte, that if the count would for three years
with his subjects assist in the conquest of Valencia, and give
sufficient security that in case of relapse his territories should be
forfeited to the crown, he could be absolved. On hearing this the good
bishop hastened to the papal court and declared that if Robert was
absolved he and his witnesses would be exposed to the imminent peril of
death, and that heresy would triumph in his diocese; but, on receiving
assurances that his fiefs and tithes would be taken care of, he quieted
down and offered no further opposition.[186]
Under the impulsion of Gregory and of Raymond of Pennaforte, Dominican
inquisitors had at last been resorted to, and in this year, 1237, we
first become cognizant of them. In right of his wife Ermessende, Roger
Bernard the Great of Foix was Vizconde of Castelbo, a fief held of the
Bishop of Urgel, with whom he had had a bitter war. He gave Castelbo to
his son Roger, who, by the advice of his father, in 1237, allowed the
Inquisition free scope there, placing the castle in the hands of Ramon
Fulco, Vizconde of Cardona, in the name of the Archbishop of Tarragona
and the bishops assembled at the Council of Lerida. That council
thereupon appointed a number of inquisitors, including Dominicans and
Franciscans, who made a descent on Castelbo. It had long been noted as a
nest of Catharans. In 1225, under the protection of Arnaldo, then lord
of the place, perfected heretics publicly preached their doctrines
there. In 1234 we hear of a heretic of Mirepoix going thither to receive
the _consolamentum_ on his death-bed. The inquisitors, therefore, had no
difficulty in finding victims. They ordered two houses to be destroyed,
exhumed and burned the bones of eighteen persons, condemned as heretics,
and carried off as prisoners some forty-five men and women, condemned
fifteen who fled, and were undecided about sundry others. Still, the
Bishop of Urgel was not satisfied, and he gratified his rancor by
condemning and excommunicating Roger Bernard as a defender of heretics,
and it was not until 1240 that the latter, through the intervention of
the Archbishop of Tarragona, and by submitting, abjuring heresy, and
swearing to perform any penance assigned to him, procured from the
bishop absolution and a certificate that he recognized him "_per bon
et per leyal e per Catholich_."[187]
In 1238 the Inquisition of Aragon may be said to be founded. In April of
that year Gregory IX. wrote to the Franciscan Minister and Dominican
Prior of Aragon deploring the spread of heresy through the whole
kingdom, so that heretics no longer seek secrecy, but openly combat the
Church, to the destruction of its liberties; and though this may be an
exaggeration, we know from a confession before the Inquisition of
Toulouse that there were enough scattered through the land to afford
shelter to the wandering Catharan missionaries. Gregory, therefore,
placed in the hands of the Mendicants the sword of the Word of God,
which was not to be restrained from blood. They were instructed to make
diligent inquisition against heresy and its abettors, proceeding in
accordance with the statutes which he had issued, and calling in when
necessary the aid of the secular arm. At the same time he made a similar
provision for Navarre, which was likewise said to be swarming with
heretics, by commissioning as inquisitors the Franciscan Guardian of
Pamplona and the Dominican Pedro de Leodegaria. As an independent
institution the Inquisition of Navarre seems never to have advanced
beyond an embryonic condition. In 1246 we find Innocent IV. writing to
the Franciscan Minister there to publish that Grimaldo de la Mota, a
citizen of Pamplona, is not to be aspersed as a heretic because while in
Lombardy he had eaten and drunk with suspected persons, but this is the
only evidence of vitality that I have met with, and Navarre was
subsequently incorporated into the Inquisition of Aragon.[188]
In Aragon the institution gradually took shape. Berenger de Palau,
Bishop of Barcelona, was busily engaged in organizing it throughout his
diocese at the time of his death in 1241, and the vicar, who replaced
him while the see was vacant, completed it. In 1242 Pedro Arbalate, who
had succeeded Guillen Mongriu as archbishop, with the assistance of
Raymond of Pennaforte, held the Council of Tarragona to settle the
details of procedure. Under the guidance of so eminent a canonist, the
code drawn up by the council showed a thorough knowledge of the
principles guiding the Church in its dealings with heretics, and long
continued to be referred to as an authority not only in Spain, but in
France. At the same time its careful definitions, which render it
especially interesting to us, indicate that it was prepared for the
instruction of a Church which as yet practically knew nothing of the
principles of persecution firmly established elsewhere. It was probably
under the impulse derived from these movements that active persecution
was resumed at Castelbo, which does not seem to have been purified by
the raid of 1237. This time the heretics were not as patient as before,
and resorted to poison, with which they succeeded in taking off Fray
Ponce de Blanes, or de Espira, the inquisitor, who had made himself
peculiarly obnoxious by his vigorous pursuit of heresy for several
years. This aroused all the martial instincts of the retired archbishop,
Guillen Mongriu, who assembled some troops, besieged and took the
castle, burned many of the heretics, and imprisoned the rest for life.
An organized effort was made to extend the Inquisition throughout the
kingdom, and the parish priests were individually summoned to lend it
all the aid in their power. Urgel seems to have been the headquarters of
the sectaries, for subsequently we hear of their sharp persecution there
by the Dominican inquisitor, Bernardo Travesser, and of his martyrdom by
them. As usual, both he and Ponce de Blanes shone forth in miracles, and
have remained an object of worship in the Church of Urgel, though in
1262 the latter was translated to Montpellier, where he lies
magnificently entombed.[189]
Still, the progress of organization seems to have been exceedingly slow.
In 1244 a case decided by Innocent IV. shows a complete absence of any
effective system. The Bishop of Elne and a Dominican friar, acting as
inquisitors, had condemned Ramon de Malleolis and Helena his wife as
heretics. By some means they succeeded in appealing to Gregory IX., who
referred the matter to the Archdeacon of Besalu and the Sacristan of
Girona. These acquitted the culprits and restored them to their
possessions; but the case was carried back to Rome, and Innocent finally
confirmed the first sentence of conviction. Again, in 1248, a letter
from Innocent IV. to the Bishop of Lerida, instructing him as to the
treatment in his diocese of heretics who voluntarily return to the
Church, presupposes the absence of inquisitors and absolute ignorance as
to the fundamental principles in force. The power conferred the same
year on the Dominican Provincial of Spain to appoint inquisitors seems
to have remained unused. The efforts of Archbishop Mongriu and Raymond
of Pennaforte had spent themselves apparently without permanent results.
King Jayme grew dissatisfied, and, in 1254, urgently demanded a fresh
effort of Innocent IV. This time the pope concluded, at Jayme's
suggestion, to place the matter entirely in Dominican hands; but so
little had been done in the way of general organization that he confided
the choice of inquisitors to the priors of Barcelona, Lerida, Perpignan,
and Elne, each one to act within his own diocese, unless, indeed, there
are inquisitors already in function under papal commissions--a clause
which shows the confusion existing at the time. Innocent further felt it
necessary to report this action to the Archbishops of Tarragona and
Narbonne, and to call upon them to assist the new appointees. This
device does not seem to have worked satisfactorily. At that time the
whole peninsula constituted but one Dominican province, and, in 1262,
Urban IV. again adopted definitely the plan, in general use elsewhere,
of empowering the provincial to appoint the inquisitors--now limited to
two. A few days before he had sent to those of Aragon a bull defining
their powers and procedure, and a copy of this was enclosed to the
provincial for his guidance. This long remained the basis of
organization; but after the division of the province into two, by the
General Chapter of Cologne in 1301, the Aragonese chafed under their
subordination to the Provincial of Spain, whose territories consisted
only of Castile, Leon, and Portugal. The struggle was protracted, but
the Inquisition of Aragon at last achieved independence in 1351, when
Fray Nicholas Roselli, the Provincial of Aragon, obtained from Clement
VI. the power of appointing and removing the inquisitors of the
kingdom.[190]
Meanwhile the inquisitors had not been inactive. Fray Pedro de Cadreyta
rendered himself especially conspicuous, and as usual Urgel is the
prominent scene of activity. In conjunction with his colleague, Fray
Pedro de Tonenes, and Arnaldo, Bishop of Barcelona, he rendered final
judgment, January 11, 1257, against the memory of Ramon, Count of Urgel,
as a relapsed heretic who had abjured before the Bishop of Urgel, and
whose bones were to be exhumed; but, with unusual lenity, the widow,
Timborosa, and the son, Guillen, were admitted to reconciliation and not
deprived of their estates. Twelve years later, in 1269, we find
Cadreyta, together with another colleague, Fray Guillen de Colonico, and
Abril, Bishop of Urgel, condemning the memory of Arnaldo, Vizconde of
Castelbo, and of his daughter Ermessende, whom we know as the heretic
wife of Roger Bernard the Great of Foix. They had both been dead more
than thirty years, and her grandson, Roger Bernard III. of Foix, who had
inherited the Vizcondado of Castelbo, was duly cited to defend his
ancestors; but if he made the attempt, it was vain, and their bones were
ordered to be exhumed. It is not likely that these sturdy champions of
the faith confined their attention to the dead, though the only
execution we happen to hear of at this period is that of Berenguer de
Amoros, burned in 1263. That the living, indeed, were objects of fierce
persecution is rendered more than probable by the martyrdom of Cadreyta,
who was stoned to death by the exasperated populace of Urgel, and who
thus furnished another saint for local cult.[191]
During the remainder of the century we hear little more of the
Inquisition of Aragon, but the action of the Council of Tarragona, in
1291, would seem to show that it was neither active nor much respected.
Otherwise the council would scarce have felt called upon to order the
punishment of heretics who deny a future existence, and, further, that
all detractors of the Catholic faith ought to be punished as they
deserve, to teach them reverence and fear. Still more significant is the
injunction on parish priests to receive kindly and aid efficiently the
beloved Dominican inquisitors, who are laboring for the extirpation of
heresy.[192]
With the opening of the fourteenth century there would appear to be an
increase of vigor. In 1302 Fray Bernardo celebrated several _autos de
fé_, in which a number of heretics were abandoned to the secular arm. In
1304 Fray Domingo Peregrino had an _auto_ in which we are told that
those who were not burned were banished, with the assent of King Jayme
II.--one of the rare instances of this punishment in the annals of the
Inquisition. In 1314 Fray Bernardo Puigcercos was so fortunate as to
discover a number of heretics, of whom he burned some and exiled others.
To Juan de Longerio, in 1317, belongs the doubtful honor of condemning
the works of Arnaldo de Vilanova. The names of Arnaldo Burguete, Guillen
de Costa, and Leonardo de Puycerda have also reached us, as successful
inquisitors, but their recorded labors were principally directed against
the Spiritual Franciscans, and will be more particularly noted
hereafter. The Aragonese seem not to have relished the methods of the
Inquisition, for in 1325 the Cortes, with the assent of King Jayme II.,
prohibited for the future the use of the inquisitorial process and of
torture, as violations of the Fueros. Whether or not this was intended
to apply to the ecclesiastical as well as to the secular courts it is
impossible now to tell, but, if it were, it had no permanent result, as
we learn from the detailed instructions of Eymerich fifty years later.
About the middle of the century, the merits of the Inquisitor Nicholas
Roselli earned him the cardinalate. It is true that when the energetic
action of the Inquisitor Jean Dumoulin, in 1344, drove the Waldenses
from Toulouse to seek refuge beyond the Pyrenees, Clement VI. wrote
earnestly to the kings and prelates of Aragon and Navarre to aid the
Inquisition in destroying the fugitives, but there is no trace of any
corresponding result.[193]
To Roselli, however, belongs the credit of raising a question which
inflamed to a white heat the traditional antagonism of the two great
Mendicant Orders. It is worth brief attention as an illustration of the
nicety to which doctrinal theology had attained under the combined
influence of scholastic subtlety in raising questions, and inquisitorial
enforcement of implicit obedience in the minutest articles of faith. In
1351 the Franciscan Guardian of Barcelona, in a public sermon, stated
that the blood shed by Christ in the Passion lost its divinity, was
sundered from the Logos, and remained on earth. The question was a novel
one and a trifle difficult of demonstration, but its raising gave
Roselli a chance to inflict a blow on the hated Franciscans, and he
referred it to Rome. The answer met his most ardent anticipations. The
Cardinal of Sabina, by order of Clement VI., wrote that the pope had
heard the proposition with horror; he had convened an assembly of
theologians in which he himself argued against it, when it was
condemned, and the inquisitors everywhere were ordered to proceed
against all audacious enough to uphold it. Roselli's triumph was
complete, and the unfortunate guardian was obliged to retract his
speculations in the pulpit where he had promulgated them. The
Franciscans were restless under this rebuff, which they construed as
directed against their Order. In spite of the papal decision the
question remained an open one in the schools, where it was eagerly
debated on both sides. The Franciscans argued, with provoking
reasonableness, that the blood of Christ might well be believed to
remain on earth, seeing that the foreskin severed in the Circumcision
was preserved in the Lateran Church and reverenced as a relic under the
very eyes of pope and cardinal, and that portions of the blood and water
which flowed in the Crucifixion were exhibited to the faithful at
Mantua, Bruges, and elsewhere. After the lapse of a century, the
Franciscan, Jean Bretonelle, professor of theology in the University of
Paris, in 1448 brought the matter before the faculty, stating that it
was causing discussion at Rochelle and other places. A commission of
theologians was appointed, which, after due debate, rendered a solemn
decision that it was not repugnant to the faith to believe that the
blood shed at the Passion remained on earth. Thus encouraged, the
Franciscans grew bolder.
The Observantine Franciscan, Giacomo da Monteprandone, better known as
della Marca, was one of the most prominent ecclesiastics of the
fifteenth century. His matchless eloquence, his rigid austerity, his
superhuman vigor, and his unquenchable zeal for the extermination of
heresy well earned the beatification conferred on him after death; and
since 1417 he had been known as a hammer of heretics. He held a
commission as universal inquisitor which clothed him with power
throughout Christendom, and the heretics in every corner of Italy, in
Bohemia, Hungary, Bosnia, and Dalmatia, had learned with cause to
tremble at his name. It required no little nerve to assail such a man,
and yet when, April 18, 1462, at Brescia, he publicly preached the
forbidden doctrine, the Dominican Inquisitor, Giacomo da Brescia, lost
no time in calling him to account. First a courteous note expressed
disbelief in the report of the sermon and asked a disclaimer; but on the
Observantine adhering to the doctrine, a formal summons followed, citing
him to appear for trial on the next day. The two Orders had thus fairly
locked horns. The Bishop of Brescia interfered and obtained a withdrawal
of the summons, but the question had to be fought out before the pope.
The bitterness of feeling may be judged by the complaint of the
inquisitor that his opponent had so excited the people of Brescia
against him and the Dominicans that but for prompt measures many of them
would have been slain; while, from Milan to Verona, every Dominican
pulpit resounded with denunciations of Giacomo della Marca as a heretic.
The politic Pius II. feared to quarrel with either Order, and had a
tortuous path to tread. To the Dominicans he furnished an authenticated
copy of the decision of Clement VI. To Giacomo della Marca he wrote that
this had been done because he could not refuse it, and not to give it
authority. It had not been issued by Clement, but only in his name, and
the question was still an open one. Giacomo might rest in peace in the
conviction that the pope had full confidence in his zeal and orthodoxy,
and that his calumniators should be silenced. On May 31 he issued
commands that all discussions of the question should cease, and that
both sides should send their most learned brethren to an assembly which
he would hold in September for exhaustive debate and final decision.
This he hoped would put an end to the matter, while skilful postponement
of the conference would allow it to die out; but he miscalculated the
enmity of the rival Orders. The quarrel raged more fiercely than ever.
The Franciscans declared that the inquisitor who started it would be
deprived of his office and mastership in theology. Pius thereupon
soothed him by assuring him that he had only done his duty, and that he
had nothing to fear.
The conference had become an inevitable evil, and Pius found himself
obliged to allow it to meet in December, 1463. Each side selected three
champions, and for three days, in the presence of the pope and sacred
college, they argued the point with such ardent vehemence that, in spite
of the bitter winter weather, they were bathed in sweat. Then others
took part and the question was debated pro and con. The Franciscans put
in evidence the blood of Christ exhibited for the veneration of the
faithful in many shrines, and to the foreskin which was in the Lateran
and also in the royal chapel of France. They also appealed to the
cuttings of Christ's hair and beard, the parings of his nails, and all
his excretions--did these remain on earth or were they divine and
carried to heaven? To these arguments the Dominican reply is a curious
exhibition of special pleading and sophistry; but as no one could allege
a single text of Scripture bearing upon the question, neither side could
claim the victory. The good Bishop of Brescia, who had at first played
the part of peacemaker, consistently presented a written argument in
which he proved that the pope ought not to settle the question because
such a determination would, firstly, be doubtful; secondly, superfluous;
and, thirdly, perilous. This wise utterance was probably inspired, for
Pius reserved his decision, and, August 1, 1464, only eight days before
his death, issued a bull in which he recited how the faithful had been
scandalized by the quarrel between the two Orders, and, therefore, he
forbade further discussion on the subject until the Holy See should
finally decide it. The Dominicans were emphatically prohibited from
denouncing the Franciscans as heretics on account of it, and any
infraction of his commands was punishable by _ipso facto_
excommunication supplemented with harsh imprisonment. He tells us
himself that after the public discussion the cardinals debated the
matter for several days. The majority inclined to the Dominicans and he
agreed with them, but the preaching of the Franciscans was necessary for
the crusade against the Turks which he proposed to lead in person, and
it was impolitic to offend them, so he postponed the decision.
Mutterings of discussion, without open quarrel, have since then
occasionally occurred between the Orders, but the popes have never seen
fit to issue a definite decision on the subject, and the momentous
question started by Roselli remains still unsettled--a pitfall for
unwary feet.[194]
In 1356 Roselli was created Cardinal of S. Sisto, and was succeeded
after a short interval by Nicolas Eymerich, the most noteworthy man of
whom the Aragonese Inquisition can boast, although after more than
thirty years of service he ended his days in disgrace and exile. Trained
in varied learning, and incessant in industry, of his numerous works but
one has had the honors of print--his "Directorium Inquisitorum," in
which, for the first time, he systematized the procedure of his beloved
institution, giving the principles and details which should guide the
inquisitor in all his acts. The book remained an authority to the last,
and formed the basis of almost all subsequent compilations. Eymerich's
conception of the model inquisitor was lofty. He must be fully
acquainted with all the intricacies of doctrine, and with all the
aberrations of heresy--not only those which are current among the common
people, but the recondite speculations of the schools, Averrhoism and
Aristotelian errors, and the beliefs of Saracen and Tartar. At a time
when the Inquisition was declining and falling into contempt, he boldly
insisted on its most extreme prerogatives as an imprescriptible
privilege. If he assumed that the heretic had but one right--that of
choosing between submission and the stake--he was in this but the
conscientious exponent of his age, and his writings are instinct with
the conviction that the work of the inquisitor is the salvation of
souls.
From Eymerich's lament over the difficulty of providing for the expenses
of an institution so necessary to the Church, it is evident that the
kings of Aragon had not felt it their duty to support the Holy Office,
while the bishops, he tells us, were as firm as their brethren in other
lands in evading the responsibility which by right was incumbent on
them. The confiscations, he adds, amounted to little or nothing, for
heretics were poor folk--Waldenses, Fraticelli, and the like. In fact,
so far as we can gather, the sum of Eymerich's activity during his long
career is so small that it shows how little was left of heresy by this
time. Occasional Fraticelli and Waldenses and renegade Jews or Saracens
were all that rewarded the inquisitor, with every now and then some
harmless lunatic whose extravagance unfortunately took a religious turn,
or some over-subtle speculator on the intricacies of dogmatic theology.
Thus, early in his career, about 1360, Eymerich had the satisfaction of
burning as a relapsed heretic a certain Nicholas of Calabria, who
persisted in asserting that his teacher, Martin Gonsalvo of Cuenca, was
the Son of God, who would live forever, would convert the world, and at
the Day of Judgment would pray for all the dead and liberate them from
hell. In 1371 he had the further gratification of silencing, by a
decision of Gregory XI., a Franciscan, Pedro Bonageta. The exact
relation between the physical matter of the consecrated host and the
body of Christ under certain circumstances had long been a source of
disputation in the Church, and Fray Pedro taught that if it fell into
the mud or other unclean place, or if it were gnawed by a mouse, the
body of Christ flew to heaven and the wafer became simple bread; and so
also when it was ground under the teeth of the recipient, before he
swallowed it. Gregory did not venture to pronounce this heretical, but
he forbade its public enunciation. About the same time Eymerich had a
good deal of trouble with Fray Ramon de Tarraga, a Jew turned Dominican,
whose numerous philosophical writings savored of heresy. After he had
been kept in prison for a couple of years, Gregory ordered him to have a
speedy trial, and threatened Eymerich with punishment for contumacy if
his commands were disobeyed. Ramon must have had powerful friends in the
Order whom Eymerich feared to provoke, for six months later Gregory
wrote again, saying that if Ramon could not be punished according to the
law in Aragon, he must be sent to the papal court under good guard with
all the papers of the process duly sealed. In fact, the Inquisition was
not established for the trial of Dominicans. At the same time another
Jew, Astruchio de Piera, held by Eymerich on an accusation of sorcery
and the invocation of demons, was claimed as justiciable by the civil
power, and was sequestrated until Gregory ordered his delivery to the
inquisitor, who forced him to abjure and imprisoned him for life.
Somewhat earlier was a certain Bartolo Janevisio, of Majorca, who
indulged in some apocalyptic writing about Antichrist, and was forced,
in 1361, by Eymerich to recant, while his book was publicly burned. More
practical, from a political point of view, was Eymerich's doctrine that
all who lent assistance to the Saracens were punishable by the
Inquisition as fautors of heresy, but this seems to have remained a
theoretical assertion which brought no business to the Holy Office. We
shall see hereafter how he fared in seeking the condemnation of Raymond
Lulli's writings, and need only say here that the result was his
suspension from office, to be succeeded by his capital enemy Bernardo
Ermengaudi, in 1386, and that after the succession to the throne, in
1387, of Juan I., who was bitterly hostile to him, he was twice
proscribed and exiled, and was denounced by the king as an obstinate
fool, an enemy of the faith inspired by Satan, anointed with the poison
of infidelity, together with other unflattering qualifications. He did
not succeed better when in his rash zeal he assailed the holy San
Vicente Ferrer for saying in a sermon that Judas Iscariot had a true and
salutary repentance; that, being unable to reach Christ and obtain
forgiveness owing to the crowd, he hanged himself and was pardoned in
heaven. When the case was drawing to a conclusion, Pedro de Luna, then
Cardinal of Aragon, took Vicente under his protection and made him his
confessor, and, after his election in 1394 as Avignonese pope, under the
name of Benedict XIII., he forced Eymerich to surrender the papers,
which he unceremoniously burned. The next inquisitor, Bernardo Puig, is
said to have been earnest and successful, punishing many heretics and
confuting many heresies. In Valencia, about 1390, there was a case in
which Pedro de Ceplanes, priest of Cella, read in his church a formal
declaration that there were three natures in Christ--divine, spiritual,
and human. A merchant of the town loudly contradicted it, and a tumult
arose. The inquisitor of Valencia promptly arrested the too ingenious
theologian, who only escaped the stake by public recantation and
condemnation to perpetual imprisonment; but he broke jail and fled to
the Balearic Isles, interjecting an appeal to the Holy See.[195]
The creation, in 1262, of the kingdom of Majorca, comprising the
Balearic Isles, Rosellon, and Cerdaña, by Jayme I. of Aragon, for the
benefit of his younger son Jayme, seemed to render a separate
inquisition requisite for the new realm. At what time it was established
is uncertain, the earliest inquisitor of Majorca on record being Fr.
Ramon Durfort, whose name occurs as a witness on a charter of 1332, and
he continued to occupy the position until 1343, when he was elected
Provincial of Toulouse. From that time, at least, there is a succession
of inquisitors, and the forcible reunion in 1348, by Pedro IV., of the
outlying provinces to the crown of Aragon did not effect a consolidation
of the tribunals. As the Inquisition declined in dignity and importance,
indeed, it seems to have sought a remedy in multiplying and localizing
its offices. In 1413 Benedict XIII. (who was still recognized as pope in
Aragon) made a further division by separating the counties of Rosellon
and Cerdaña from the Balearic Isles, Fray Bernardo Pages retaining the
former, and Guillen Sagarra obtaining the latter. Both of these were
energetic men who celebrated a number of _autos de fé_, in which
numerous heretics were reconciled or burned. Sagarra was succeeded by
Bernardo Moyl, and the latter by Antonio Murta, who was confirmed in
1420, when Martin V. approved of the changes made. At the same time
Martin, at the request of the king and of the consuls of Valencia,
erected that province also into a separate Inquisition. The Provincial
of Aragon appointed Fray Andrea Ros to fill the position; he was
confirmed in 1433 by Eugenius IV., but was removed without cause
assigned the next year by the same pope, although we are told that he
inflexibly persecuted the "Bohemians" or "Wickliffites" with fire
and sword. His successors, Domingo Corts and Antonio de Cremona, earned
equal laurels in suppressing Waldenses.[196]
A case occurring in 1423 would seem to indicate that the Inquisition had
lost much of the terror which had rendered it formidable. Fray Pedro
Salazo, Inquisitor of Rosellon and Cerdaña, threw in prison on charges
of heresy a hermit named Pedro Freserii, who enjoyed great reputation
for sanctity among the people. The accused declared that the witnesses
were personal enemies, and that he was ready to purge himself before a
proper judge, and his friends lodged an appeal with Martin V. The pope
referred the matter, with power to decide without appeal, to Bernardo,
Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Arles, in the diocese of Elne.
Bernardo deputed the case to a canon of the church of Elne, who
acquitted the accused without awaiting the result of another appeal to
the pope interjected by the inquisitor; and Martin finally sent the
matter to the Ordinary of Narbonne, with power to summon all parties
before him and decide the case definitely. The whole transaction shows a
singular want of respect for the functions of the Inquisition.[197]
Even more significant is a complaint made in 1456 to Calixtus III. by
Fray Mateo de Rapica, a later inquisitor of Rosellon and Cerdaña.
Certain neophytes, or converted Jews, persisted in Judaic practices,
such as eating meat in Lent and forcing their Christian servants to do
likewise. When Fray Mateo and Juan, Bishop of Elne, prosecuted them,
they were so far from submitting that they published a defamatory libel
upon the inquisitor, and, with the aid of certain laymen, afflicted him
with injuries and expenses. Finding himself powerless, he appealed to
the pope, who ordered the Archbishop and Official of Narbonne to
intervene and decide the matter. The same spirit, in even a more
aggravated form, was exhibited in a case already referred to, when, in
1458, Fray Miguel, the Inquisitor of Aragon, was maltreated and thrown
in prison for nine months by some nobles and high officials of the
kingdom, whom he had offended in obeying the instructions sent to him by
Nicholas V.[198]
Yet, as against the poor and friendless, the Inquisition retained its
power. Wickliffitism--as it had become the fashion to designate
Waldensianism--had continued to spread, and about 1440 numbers of its
sectaries were discovered, of whom some were reconciled, and more were
burned as obstinate heretics by Miguel Ferriz, Inquisitor of Aragon,
and Martin Trilles of Valencia. Possibly among these was an unfortunate
woman, Leonor, wife of Doctor Jayme de Liminanna, of whom, about this
time, we hear that she refused to perform the penance assigned to her by
the Inquisition of Cartagena, and that she was consequently abandoned to
the secular arm. The post of inquisitor continued to be sought for. To
multiply it, Catalonia was separated from Aragon by Nicholas V. shortly
after his accession in 1447. In 1459 another division took place, the
diocese of Barcelona being erected into an independent tribunal by
Martiale Auribelli, Dominican General Master, for the benefit of Fray
Juan Conde, counsellor and confessor of the infant Carlos, Prince of
Viane. The new incumbent, however, had not a peaceful time. It was
probably the Inquisitor of Catalonia, objecting to the fractioning of
his district, who obtained from Pius II., in 1461, a brief annulling the
division, on the ground that one inquisitor had always sufficed. Fray
Juan resisted and incurred excommunication, but the influence of his
royal patron was sufficient to obtain from Pius, October 13, 1461,
another bull restoring him to his position and absolving him from the
excommunication. In 1479 a squabble occurring at Valencia shows that the
office possessed attractions worth contending for. The Provincial of
Aragon had removed Fray Jayme Borell and appointed Juan Marquez in his
stead. Borell carried the tale of his woes to Sixtus IV., who commanded
the General Master to replace him and retain him in peaceful
possession.[199]
Ferdinand the Catholic succeeded to the throne of Aragon in 1479, as he
had already done, in 1474, to that of Castile by right of his wife
Isabella. Even before the organizing of the new Inquisition in Aragon,
in 1483, it is probable that the influence of Ferdinand had done much to
restore the power of the institution. In 1482, on the eve of the change,
we find the Inquisition of Aragon acting with renewed vigor and
boldness, under the Dominican, Juan de Epila. A number of cases are
recorded of this period, including the prosecution of the father and
mother of Felipe de Clemente, Prothonotary of the kingdom. As a
preparatory step to placing the dominions of the crown of Aragon under
Torquemada as Inquisitor-general, it was requisite to get rid of
Cristobal Gualvez, who had been Inquisitor of Valencia since 1452, and
who had disgraced his office by his crimes. Sixtus IV. had a special
enmity to him, and, in ordering his deposition, stigmatized him as an
impudent and impious man, whose unexampled excesses were worthy of
severe chastisement; and when Sixtus, in 1483, extended Torquemada's
authority over the whole of Spain, with power to nominate deputies, he
excepted "that son of iniquity, Cristobal Gualvez," who had been
interdicted from the office in consequence of his demerits, and whom he
even deprived of the function of preaching.[200]
* * * * *
The great kingdom of Castile and Leon, embracing the major portion of
the Spanish peninsula, never enjoyed the blessing of the mediæval
Inquisition. It was more independent of Rome than any other monarchy of
the period. Lordly prelates, turbulent nobles, and cities jealous of
their liberties allowed scant opportunity for the centralization of
power in the crown. The people were rude and uncultured, and not much
given to vain theological speculation. Their superfluous energy,
moreover, found ample occupation in the task of winning back the land
from the Saracen. The large population of Jews and of conquered Moors
gave them peculiar problems to deal with which would have been
complicated rather than solved by the methods of the Inquisition, until
the union of Aragon and Castile under Ferdinand and Isabella, followed
by the conquest of Granada, enabled those monarchs to undertake
seriously the business, attractive both to statecraft and to fanaticism,
of compelling uniformity of faith.
It is true that the Dominican legend relates how Dominic returned from
Rome to Spain as Inquisitor-general, on the errand of establishing there
the Inquisition for the purpose of punishing the renegade converted Jews
and Moors; how he was warmly seconded by San Fernando III.; how he
organized the Inquisition throughout the land, celebrating himself the
first _auto de fé_ at Burgos, where three hundred apostates were
burned, and the second _auto_ in the presence of the saintly king, who
himself carried on his shoulders fagots for the burning of his subjects,
and the pertinacious wretches defiantly rejoiced in the flames which
were consuming them; how, after this, he established the Inquisition in
Aragon, whence he journeyed to Paris and organized it throughout France;
how, in 1220, he sent Conrad of Marburg as inquisitor to Germany, and in
1221 finished his labors by founding it in all the parts of Italy. All
this can rank in historical value with the veracious statement of an old
chronicler--a compatriot of the Pied Piper of Hamelin--that St. Boniface
was an inquisitor, and that, with the support of Pepin le Bref, he
burned many heretics. Detailed lists, moreover, are given of the
successive inquisitors-general of the Peninsula--Frailes Suero Gomes, B.
Gil, Pedro de Huesca, Arnaldo Segarra, Garcia de Valcos, etc., but these
are simply the Dominican provincials of Spain, who were empowered by the
popes to appoint inquisitors, and whose exercise of that power did not
extend beyond Aragon. Even Paramo, although he tries to prove that there
were inquisitors nominally in Castile, is forced to admit that
practically there was no Inquisition there.[201]
Yet, even in the distant city of Leon, Catharism had obtained a
foothold. Bishop Rodrigo, who died in 1232, expelled a number of
Cathari, on his attention being called to them by their circulating a
story to excite hatred of the priesthood, relating how a poor woman
placed a candle on the altar in honor of the Virgin, and on her leaving
it a priest took it for his own use. The following night the Virgin
appeared to her votary and cast burning wax into her eyes, saying,
"Take the wages of your service. As soon as you went away a priest
carried off the candle; as you would have been rewarded had the candle
been consumed on my altar, so you must bear the punishment, since your
carelessness gave me the light only for a moment." This diabolical
story, says Lucas of Tuy, an eye-witness, so affected the minds of the
simple that the devotion of offering candles ceased, and it required two
genuine miracles to restore the faith of the people. During the
interval between the death of Bishop Rodrigo, in March, 1232, and the
election of his successor, Arnaldo, in August, 1234, the heretics had
ample opportunity to work their wicked will. A Catharan named Arnaldo
had been burned, about 1218, in a place in the suburbs used for
depositing filth. There was a spring there which the heretics colored
red, and proclaimed that it had miraculously been turned to blood. Many
of them, simulating blindness, lameness, and demoniacal possession, were
carried there and pretended to be cured, after which they dug up the
heretic's bones and declared them to be those of a holy martyr. The
people were fired with enthusiasm, erected a chapel, and worshipped the
relics with the utmost ardor. In vain the clergy and the friars
endeavored to stem the tide; the people denounced them as heretics, and
despised the excommunication with which the neighboring bishops visited
the adoration of the new saint; while the real heretics made many
converts by secretly relating how the affair had been managed, and
pointing it out as a sample of the manufacture of saints and miracles.
God visited the sacrilege with a drouth of ten months, which was not
broken until Lucas, at the risk of his life, destroyed the heretic
chapel; and when the rains came there was a revulsion of feeling which
enabled him to expel the heretics. All this would seem to indicate that
the heretics were numerous and organized; it certainly shows that there
was no machinery for their suppression; but after the elevation of Lucas
to the see of Tuy, in 1239, we hear no more of heretics or of
persecutions. The whole affair, apparently, was a sporadic
manifestation, probably of some band of fugitives from Languedoc, who
disappeared and left no following.[202]
If what Lucas tells us be true, that ecclesiastics frequently joined in
and enjoyed the ridicule with which heretics derided the sacraments and
the clergy, the Spanish Church was not likely to give much aid to the
introduction of the Inquisition. How little its methods were understood
appears in the fact that when, in 1236, San Fernando III. found some
heretics at Palencia, he proceeded to brand them in the face, which
brought them to reason and led them to seek absolution. No one seemed to
know what to do with them, so Gregory IX. was applied to, and he
authorized the Bishop of Palencia to reconcile them. There is probably
no truth in the statement of some historians that the king, on several
occasions, was obliged to levy from his subjects a tribute of wood with
which to burn the unrepentant, and the story only serves to show how
utterly vague have been the current conceptions of the period.[203]
We reach firmer ground with the codes known as El Fuero Real and Las
Siete Partidas, the first issued by Alonso the Wise, in 1255, and the
second about ten years later. By this time the Inquisition was at its
height. It was thoroughly organized, and wherever it existed the
business of suppressing heresy was exclusively in its hands. Yet not
only does Alonso take no count of it, but in his regulation by secular
law of the relations between the heretic and the Church he shows how
completely, up to this period, Spain had remained outside of the great
movements of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Heresy, it is true,
is one of the matters pertaining to the ecclesiastical tribunals, and
any one can accuse a heretic before his bishop or vicar. If the accused
is found not to believe as the Church teaches, effort is to be made to
convert him, and if he returns to the faith he is to be pardoned. If he
proves obstinate, he is to be handed over to the secular judge. Then,
however, his fate is decided without reference to the laws which the
Church had endeavored to introduce throughout Christendom. If the
culprit had received the _consolamentum_, or is a believer observing the
rites, or one of those who deny the future life, he is to be burned; but
if a believer not observing the rites, he is to be banished or
imprisoned until he returns to the faith. Any one learning heresy, but
not yet a believer, is fined ten pounds of gold to the fisc, or, if
unable to pay, to receive fifty lashes in public. In the case of those
who die in heresy or are executed, their estates pass to Catholic
descendants, or, in default of these, to the next of kin; if without
such kindred, the property of laymen goes to the fisc, of ecclesiastics,
to the Church, if claimed within a year, after which it inures to the
fisc. Children disinherited for heresy recover their portions, but not
the mesne profits, on recantation. No one, after condemnation for
heresy, can hold office, inherit property, make a will, execute a sale,
or give testimony. The house where a wandering heretic missionary is
sheltered is forfeited to the Church, if inhabited by the owner; if
rented, the offending tenant is fined ten pounds of gold or publicly
scourged. A _rico home_ or noble sheltering heretics in his lands or
castles, and persisting after a year's excommunication, forfeits the
land or castle to the king; and if a non-noble his body and property are
at the king's pleasure. The Christian who turns Jew or Moslem is legally
a heretic, and is to be burned, as well as one who brings up a child in
the forbidden faith. Prosecutions of the dead, however, are humanely
limited to five years after decease.[204]
All this shows that Alonso and his counsellors recognized the duty of
the State to preserve the purity of the faith, but that they considered
it wholly an affair of the State, in which the Church had no voice
beyond ascertaining the guilt of the accused. All the voluminous and
minute legislation of Gregory IX., Innocent IV., and Alexander IV. was
wholly disregarded--the canon law had no currency in Castile, which
regulated such matters to suit its own needs. That in this respect the
popular needs were met is shown by the Ordenamiento de Alcalà, issued in
1348, which is silent on the subject of heresy. Apparently no change was
deemed necessary in the provisions of the Partidas, which were then for
the first time confirmed by the popular assembly. Under such legislation
it follows as a matter of course that the Dominican provincial had no
inquisitors to appoint, except in Aragon, under the bull of Urban IV. in
1262.
Castile continued unvexed by the Inquisition, and persecution for heresy
was almost unknown. In 1316 Bernard Gui, of Toulouse, discovered in his
district some of the dreaded sectaries known as Dolcinists or
Pseudo-Apostoli, who fled to Spain to escape his energetic pursuit. May
1, 1316, he wrote to all the prelates and friars of Spain describing
their characteristics and urging their apprehension and punishment. Had
there been an Inquisition there he would have addressed himself to it.
From remote Compostella he received an answer, written by Archbishop
Rodrigo, March 6, 1317, announcing that five persons answering to the
description had been captured there and were held in chains, and asking
for instructions as to the mode of trying them and the punishment to be
inflicted in case they are found guilty, "for all this is heretofore
unaccustomed in our parts." Evidently there was no Inquisition in
Castile and Leon to which to apply, and even the provisions of the
Partidas were unknown, though of all places in the kingdom Compostella
must have been the one most familiar with the outer world and with
heretics, from the stream of penitents continually sent thither as
pilgrims.[205]
In 1401 Boniface IX. made a demonstration by appointing the provincial,
Vicente de Lisboa, inquisitor over all Spain, directing that his
expenses should be paid by the bishops, and that no superior of his
Order could remove him. The only heresy specifically alluded to in the
bull is the idolatrous worship of plants, trees, stones, and
altars--apparently superstitious relics of paganism which indicate the
condition of religion and culture in the Peninsula. Boniface's action
could hardly have been taken with any expectation of result, as Spain
rendered obedience to Benedict XIII., the Antipope of Avignon, and it
was probably only a move in the political game of the Great Schism.
Whatever the motive, however, the effort was fruitless, for Fray Vicente
was already dead in the odor of sanctity at the date of the bull. On
learning this, Boniface returned to the charge, February 1, 1402, by
empowering forever thereafter the Dominican Provincial of Spain to
appoint and remove inquisitors, or to act as such himself, with all the
privileges and powers accorded to the office by the canons. Inoperative
as this remained, it at least had the advantage of supplying to the
Spanish historians an unbroken line of inquisitors-general to be
catalogued. About the same time King Henry III. increased the penalties
of heresy by decreeing confiscation to the royal treasury of one-half of
the possessions of heretics condemned by the ecclesiastical
judges.[206]
This, perhaps, technically justifies Alonso Tostado, Bishop of Avila,
who soon afterwards alludes to inquisitors in Spain investigating those
defamed for heresy, and it explains the remarks of Sixtus IV. when, in
January, 1482, he confirmed the two inquisitors appointed at Seville by
Ferdinand and Isabella at the commencement of their reforms, and forbade
their naming more, for the reason that the appointees of the Dominican
provincial were sufficient. In spite of all this, the Spanish
Inquisition was simply potential, not existent. When, in 1453, Alonso de
Almarzo, Abbot of the great Benedictine foundation of Antealtares of
Compostella, with his accomplices, was tried for selling throughout
Spain and Portugal indulgences warranted to release the souls of the
damned from hell, for counterfeiting the papal Agnus Dei, for forging
and altering papal letters, and for persuading Jewish converts to
apostatize, had there been an Inquisition it would promptly have taken
cognizance of the culprits; but in place of this the case was referred
to Nicolas V., who instructed the Bishop of Tarazona to proceed against
them. A few years later Alonso de Espina, about 1460, sorrowfully admits
the absence of all persecution of heresy. Bishops and inquisitors and
preachers ought all to resist the heretics, but there is no one to do
it. "No one investigates the errors of heretics. The ravening wolves, O
Lord, have gained admittance to thy flock, for the shepherds are few.
There are many hirelings, and because they are hirelings they care only
for shearing, not for feeding the sheep!" and he draws a deplorable
picture of the Spanish Church, distracted with heretics, Jews, and
Saracens. Soon after this, in 1464, the Cortes assembled at Medina
turned its attention to the subject and complained of the great number
of "_malos cristianos e sospechosos en la fe_," but the national
aversion to the papal Inquisition still manifested itself, and its
introduction was not suggested. The archbishops and bishops were
requested to set on foot a rigid investigation after heretics, and King
Henry IV. was asked to lend them aid, so that every suspected place
might be thoroughly searched, and offenders brought to light,
imprisoned, and punished. It was represented to the king that this would
be to his advantage, as the confiscations would inure to the royal
treasury, and he graciously expressed his assent; but the effort was
resultless.[207]
For the most part the orthodoxy of Spain had been vexed only with a few
Fraticelli and Waldenses, not numerous enough to call for active
repression. The main trouble lay in the multitudes of Jews and Moors
who, under the law, were entitled to toleration, but whom popular
fanaticism had forced to conversion in great numbers, and whose purity
of faith was justly liable to suspicion. Hereafter I hope to have the
opportunity of showing that from both the religious and the political
standpoint of the age the measures taken by Ferdinand and Isabella were
by no means without justification, however mistaken they were both in
morals and in policy, and however unfortunate in their ultimate results.
At present it suffices to point out this condition of affairs to explain
the dissatisfaction which was widely prevalent and the demand for an
efficient remedy.
At the same time even Spain was not wholly unmoved by the spirit of
unrest and inquiry which marked the second half of the fifteenth
century, sapping the foundations of tradition and rejecting the claims
of sacerdotalism. About 1460 we learn from Alonso de Espina that many
were beginning to deny the efficacy of oral confession, and this point
could not have been reached without calling in question many other
doctrines and observances which the Church taught to be necessary to
salvation. At length these innovators grew so bold that Pedro de Osma, a
professor in the great University of Salamanca, ventured to promulgate
their obnoxious opinions in print. Oral confession, he asserted, was of
human, not of divine precept, and was unnecessary for the forgiveness of
sins; no papal indulgence could insure the living from the fires of
purgatory; the papacy could err, and had no power to dispense with the
statutes of the Church. Had there been any machinery of persecution at
hand, short work would have been made with so bold a heretic, but the
authorities were so much at a loss what to do with him that they applied
to Sixtus IV., who sent a commission to Alonso Carrillo, Archbishop of
Toledo, the dignitary next in rank to the king, to try him. In 1479 a
council was assembled for the purpose at Alcalà, consisting of fifty-two
of the best theologians in Spain, besides a number of canon lawyers.
Pedro was summoned to appear, and on his failing to do so his doctrine
was condemned as heretical, and he was sentenced--not to the stake for
contumacy, but to recant publicly in the pulpit. He submitted and did
so, and we are told in the official report of the proceedings that all
the faithful burst into tears at this signal manifestation of the
conquering hand of God. Pedro died peacefully in the bosom of the Church
during the next year, 1480, and Sixtus IV., in confirming the action of
the council, ordered the archbishop to prosecute as heretics any of his
followers who would not imitate his obedience.[208]
Evidently some more efficient and less cumbrous method was requisite if
the population of reunited Spain was to enjoy the blessing of uniformity
in faith. It did not take long for the piety of Isabella and the policy
of Ferdinand to discover appropriate means.
* * * * *
In Portugal, Affonso II., at the commencement of his reign, in 1211, had
manifested his zeal by inducing his Cortes to adopt severe laws for the
repression of heresy; but when Sueiro Gomes, the first Dominican
Provincial of Spain, endeavored to introduce in his kingdom inquisitors
of the order, Affonso refused to admit them, and successfully insisted
that heretics should be tried as heretofore by the ordinary episcopal
courts. This rebuff sufficed for nearly a century and a half, and there
must have been considerable freedom of thought, for, about 1325, Alvaro
Pelayo gives a long list of the errors publicly defended in the schools
of Lisbon by Thomas Scotus, a renegade friar. Their nature may be
appreciated from his Averrhoistic assertion that there had been three
deceivers--Moses who deceived the Jews, Christ the Christians, and
Mahomet the Saracens. He seems to have enjoyed immunity until he
declared that St. Antony of Padua kept concubines, when the Franciscan
prior had him incarcerated, and his trial followed. At last, by a bull,
dated January 17, 1376, Gregory XI. authorized Agapito Colonna, Bishop
of Lisbon, to appoint, for this time only, a Franciscan inquisitor, as
heresies were known to be spreading, and there were no inquisitors in
the kingdom. The nominee was to receive an annual salary of two hundred
gold florins assessed upon all the dioceses in the proportion of their
contributions to the apostolic chamber. Under this authority Agapito
appointed the first Portuguese inquisitor, Martino Vasquez. From what we
have seen elsewhere we may reasonably doubt his success in collecting
his stipend; but, small as his receipts may have been, they were the
equivalent of his service, for no trace of any labors performed by him
remains.[209]
The Great Schism commenced in 1378, and as Portugal acknowledged Urban
VI. while Spain adhered to the antipope Clement VII., the Dominican
province of Spain divided itself, the Portuguese choosing a
vicar-general, and finally a provincial, Gonçalo, in 1418, when Martin
V. legalized the separation. This perhaps explains why Martino Vasquez
was succeeded by another Franciscan. In 1394 Rodrigo de Cintra, calling
himself Inquisitor of Portugal and Algarve, applied to Boniface IX. for
confirmation, which was graciously accorded to him. Apparently the
revenues of the office were nil, for the privilege was granted to him of
residing with one associate at will in any Franciscan convent, which was
bound to minister to his necessities, the same as to any other master of
theology. Rodrigo was preacher to King João I., who requested this favor
of Boniface, and his career, like that of his predecessor, is a blank.
He was followed by a Dominican, Vicente de Lisboa, who had been
Provincial of Spain at the time of the disruption, when he returned to
Portugal and became confessor of Dom João. The king, in 1399, requested
of Boniface his appointment as inquisitor, which was duly granted; and,
as we have seen, in 1401, the pope endeavored to extend his jurisdiction
over Castile and Leon. No trace of his inquisitorial activity exists.
After his death, in 1401, there appears to have been an interval. The
office apparently was regarded as a perquisite of the royal chapel for
those who would condescend to accept it. The next appointment of which
we hear is that of another confessor of Dom João, in 1413, this time a
Franciscan, Affonso de Alprão, of whose doings no record has been
preserved. When, in 1418, the kingdom was reorganized as an independent
Dominican province, the earnest annalists of the Inquisition assume that
under the bull of Boniface IX., in 1402, each successive provincial was
likewise an inquisitor-general, and the lists of these worthies are
laboriously paraded as such, until the founding of the New Inquisition
in 1531. No acts of theirs in such capacity, however, are recorded. The
Holy Office continued dormant, without even a titular official, until,
in the early years of the sixteenth century, Dom Manoel, stimulated by
the example of his Castilian neighbors, and feeling solicitude as to the
status of the New Christians, or converts from Judaism and Islam,
bethought him of its revival. Although he had the Dominican provincial
at hand, no purpose of utilizing him in this manner seems to have been
entertained. The king applied to the pope and obtained the appointment
of a Franciscan, Henrique de Coimbra, but there is no trace of his
activity.[210]
The New Inquisition of Spain was a model which the smaller kingdom would
naturally be expected to adopt, and in fact, to ardent Catholics, there
might well seem to be a necessity for such an institution in view of the
problems arising from the large influx of New Christians flying from
Spanish persecution. Dom Manoel, indeed, at one time entertained so
seriously the idea of establishing the Spanish Inquisition in his
dominions that, in 1515, he ordered his ambassador at Rome, D. Miguel da
Silva, to obtain from Leo X. the same privileges as those which had been
conceded to Castile, but from some cause the project was abandoned. His
son, Dom João III., who succeeded him in 1521, was a weak-minded
fanatic, and it is only singular that the introduction of the
Inquisition on the Spanish model was delayed for still ten years. The
struggle which took place over the measure belongs, however, to a period
beyond our present limits.[211]