PERSECUTION OF JEWS AND MOORS
Increased persecution of the Jews--Accusations made against
them--Ferdinand introduces the modern Inquisition into the Kingdom
of Aragon in 1484--Fray Gaspar Juglar and Pedro Arbués appointed
Inquisitors--Assassination of Pedro Arbués--Punishment of his
murderers--Increased opposition against the Holy Office--Arrest of the
Infante Don Jaime for sheltering a heretic--Expulsion of the Jews from
Spain--Appeal to the King to revoke this edict--Ferdinand inclined
to yield, but Torquemada over-rules him--Sufferings of the Jews on
the journey--Death of Torquemada--Hernando de Talavera appointed
archbishop of Granada--His success with the Moors--Don Diego Deza new
Inquisitor-General--Succeeded by Ximenes de Cisneros--His character
and life--Appointed Primate of all Spain--His severity with the
Moors--University of Alcalá founded by Ximenes--Accession of Charles
V--Persecution of Moors--Expulsion.
The fires of the modern Inquisition, it was said, had been lighted
exclusively for the Jews. The fiery zeal of Torquemada and his
coadjutors was first directed against the Spanish children of Israel.
The Jews constantly offered themselves to be harassed and despoiled.
They were always fair game for avaricious greed. The inquisitors
availed themselves of both lines of attack. Jewish wealth steadily
increased as their financial operations and their industrial
activities extended and flourished. When the Catholic Kings embarked
upon the conquest of Granada, the Jews found the sinews of war; Jewish
victuallers purveyed rations to the armies in the field; Jewish
brokers advanced the cash needed for the payments of troops; Jewish
armourers repaired the weapons used and furnished new tools and warlike
implements.
At the same time the passions of the populace were more and more
inflamed against the Jews by the dissemination of scandalous stories
of their blasphemous proceedings. It was seriously asserted by certain
monks that some Jews had stolen a consecrated wafer with the intention
of working it into a paste with the warm blood of a newly killed
Christian child and so produce a deadly poison to be administered to
the hated chief inquisitor. Another report was to the effect that
crumbs from the holy wafer had been detected between the leaves of
a Hebrew prayer book in a synagogue. One witness declared that this
substance emitted a bright effulgence which gave clear proof of its
sanctity and betrayed the act of sacrilege committed. Other tales were
circulated of the diabolical practices of these wicked Jewish heretics.
Ferdinand in 1484 proceeded to give the modern Inquisition to the
Kingdom of Aragon, where the "ancient" had once existed but had lost
much of its rigour. It was a comparatively free country and the Holy
Office had become little more than an ordinary ecclesiastical court.
But King Ferdinand was resolved to reëstablish it on the wider basis it
had assumed in Castile and imposed it upon his people by a royal order
which directed all constituted authorities to support it in carrying
out its new extended functions. A Dominican monk, Fray Gaspar Juglar,
and a canon of the church, Pedro Arbués, were appointed by Torquemada
to be inquisitors for the diocese of Saragossa. The new institution
was most distasteful to the Aragonese, a hardy and independent people.
Among the higher orders were numbers of Jewish descent, filling
important offices and likely to come under the ban of the Inquisition.
The result was a deputation to the pope and another to the king
representing the general repugnance of the Aragonese to the institution
and praying that its action might be suspended. Neither pope nor king
would listen to the appeal and the Holy Office began its work. Two
_autos da fé_ were celebrated in Saragossa, the capital, in 1484, when
two men were executed.
Horror and consternation seized the Conversos and a fierce desire for
reprisals developed. They were resolved to intimidate their oppressors
by some appalling act of retaliation and a plot was hatched to make
away with one of the inquisitors. The conspirators included many of
the principal "New Christians," some of whom were persons of note in
the district. A considerable sum was subscribed to meet expenses and
pay the assassins. Pedro Arbués was marked down for destruction but,
conscious of his danger, continually managed to evade his enemies. He
wore always a coat of mail beneath his robes when he attended mass in
the Cathedral, and every avenue by which he could be approached in his
house was also carefully guarded.
At length he was taken by surprise when at his devotions. He was on his
knees before the high altar saying his prayers at midnight, when two
men crept up behind him unobserved and attacked him. One struck him
with a dagger in the left arm, the other felled him with a violent blow
on the back of the neck by which he was laid prostrate and carried off
dying. With his last breath he thanked God for being selected to seal
so good a cause with his blood. His death was deemed a martyrdom and
caused a reaction in favour of the Inquisition as a general rising of
the New Christians was feared. The storm was appeased by the archbishop
of Saragossa who gave out publicly that the murderers should be
rigorously pursued and should suffer condign punishment. The promise
was abundantly fulfilled. A stern recompense was exacted from all who
were identified with the conspiracy. The scent was followed up with
unrelenting pertinacity, several persons were taken and put to death,
and a larger number perished in the dungeons of the Inquisition. All
the perpetrators of the murder were hanged after their right hands had
been amputated. The sentence of one who had given evidence against the
rest was commuted in that his hand was not cut off till after his death.
A native of Saragossa had taken refuge in Tudela where he found
shelter and concealment in the house of the Infante, Don Jaime, the
illegitimate son of the Queen of Navarre, and nephew of King Ferdinand
himself. The generous young prince could not reject the claims of
hospitality and helped the fugitive to escape into France. But the
Infante was himself arrested by the inquisitors and imprisoned as
an "impeder" of the Holy Office. His trial took place in Saragossa,
although Navarre was outside its jurisdiction, and he was sentenced
to do open penance in the cathedral in the presence of a great
congregation at High Mass. The ceremony was carried out before the
Archbishop of Saragossa, a boy of seventeen, the illegitimate son
of King Ferdinand, and this callow stripling in his primate's robes
ordered his father's nephew to be flogged round the church with rods.
The second story is much more horrible. One Gaspar de Santa Cruz of
Saragossa had been concerned in the rebellion, but escaped to Toulouse
where he died. He had been aided in his flight by a son who remained
in Saragossa, and who was arrested as an "impeder" of the Holy Office.
He was tried and condemned to appear at an _auto da fé_, where he was
made to read an act which held up his father to public ignominy. Then
the son was transferred to the custody of the inquisitor of Toulouse
who took him to his father's grave, forced him to exhume the corpse and
burn it with his own hands.
The bitter hatred of the Jews culminated in the determination of the
king and queen, urged on by Torquemada, to expel them entirely from
Spain. The germ of this idea may be found in the capitulation of
Granada by the Moors, when it was agreed that every Jew found in the
city was to be shipped off forthwith to Barbary. It was now argued
that since all attempts to convert them had failed, Spain should be
altogether rid of them. The Catholic King and Queen were induced to
sign an edict dated March 30th, 1492, by which it was decreed that
every Jew should be banished from Spain within three months, save and
except those who chose to apostasise and who, on surrendering the faith
of their fathers, might be suffered to remain in the land of their
adoption, with leave to enjoy the goods they had inherited or earned.
No doubt this edict originated with Torquemada.
Dismay and deep sorrow fell upon the Spanish Jews. The whole country
was filled with tribulation. All alike cried for mercy and offered
to submit to any laws and ordinances however oppressive, to accept
any terms, to pay any penalties if only they might escape this cruel
exile. Leading Jews appeared before King Ferdinand and pleaded abjectly
for mercy for their co-religionists, offering an immediate ransom
of six hundred thousand crowns in gold. The king was inclined to
clemency, but the queen was firm. He saw the present advantage, the
ready money, and doubted whether he would get as much from the fines
and confiscations promised by the inquisitors. But at that moment, so
the story goes, Torquemada rushed into the presence bearing a crucifix
on high and cried in stentorian tones that the sovereigns were about
to act the part of Judas Iscariot. "Here he is! Sell Him again, not
for thirty pieces of silver, but for thirty thousand!" and flinging
the crucifix on to the table, he ran out in a frenzy. This turned the
tables, and the decree for expulsion was confirmed.
The terms of the edict were extremely harsh and peremptory. As a
preamble the crimes of the Jews were recited and the small effect
produced hitherto by the most severe penalties. It was asserted that
they still conspired to overturn Christianity in Spain and recourse
to the last remedy, the decree of expulsion, under which all Jews and
Jewesses were commanded to leave Spain and never return, even for a
passing visit, on pain of death, was therefore necessary. The last day
of July, 1492, or four months later, was fixed for the last day of
their sojourn in Spain. After that date they would remain at the peril
of their lives, while any person of whatever rank or quality who should
presume to receive, shelter, protect or defend a Jew or Jewess should
forfeit all his property and be discharged from his office, dignity
or calling. During the four months, the law allowed the Jews to sell
their estates, or barter them for heavy goods, but they were forbidden
to remove gold or silver or take out of the kingdom other portable
property which was already prohibited by law from exportation.
During the preparation for, and execution of this modern exodus, the
condition of the wretched Israelites was heart-rending. Torquemada had
tried hard to proselytise, had sent out preachers offering baptism and
reconciliation, but at first few listened to the terms proposed. All
owners of property and valuables suffered the heaviest losses. Enforced
sales were so numerous that purchasers were not to be easily found.
Fine estates were sold for a song. A house was exchanged for an ass
or beast of burden; a vineyard for a scrap of cloth or linen. Despite
the prohibition much gold and silver were carried away concealed in
the stuffing of saddles and among horse furniture. Some exiles at
the moment of departure swallowed gold pieces, as many as twenty and
thirty, and thus evaded to some extent the strict search instituted at
the sea ports and frontier towns.
At last in the first week of July, all took to the roads travelling
to the coast on foot, on horse or ass-back or were conveyed in
country carts. According to an eye-witness, "they suffered incredible
misfortunes by the way, some walking feebly, some struggling manfully,
some fainting, many attacked with illness, some dying, others coming
into the world, so that there was not a Christian who did not feel
for them and entreat them to be baptised." Here and there under the
pressure of accumulated miseries a few professed to be converted, but
such cases were very rare. The rabbis encouraged the people as they
went and exhorted the young ones to raise their voices and the women to
sing and play on pipes and timbrels to enliven them and keep up their
spirits.
Ships were provided by the Spanish authorities at Cadiz, Gibraltar,
Carthagena, Valencia and Barcelona on which fifteen hundred of the
wealthy families embarked and started for Africa, Italy and the Levant,
taking with them their dialect of the Spanish language, such as is
still talked at the places where they landed. Of those who joined in
the general exodus some perished at sea, by wreck, disease, violence
or fire, and some by famine, exhaustion or murder on inhospitable
shores. Many were sold for slaves, many thrown overboard by savage
ship captains, while parents parted with their children for money
to buy food. On board one crowded ship a pestilence broke out, and
the whole company was landed and marooned on a desert island. Other
infected ships carried disease into the port of Naples, where it grew
into a terrible epidemic, by which twenty thousand native Neapolitans
perished. Those who reached the city found it in the throes of famine,
but were met in landing by a procession of priests, led by one who
carried a crucifix and a loaf of bread, and who intimated that only
those who would adore the first would receive the other. In papal
dominions alone was a hospitable reception accorded. The pope of the
time, Alexander VI, was more tolerant than other rulers.
The total loss of population is now difficult to ascertain, but
undoubtedly it has been greatly exaggerated. The most trustworthy
estimate fixes the number of emigrants at one hundred and sixty-five
thousand, and the number dying of hardships and grief before leaving at
about twenty thousand. Probably fifty thousand more accepted baptism
as a consequence of the edict. The loss entailed in actual value was
incalculable and a vast amount of potential earnings was sacrificed by
the disappearance of so large a part of the most industrious members
of the population. The king and queen greatly impoverished Spain in
purging it of Hebrew heresy. Their action however was greeted with
applause by other rulers who did not go to the same lengths on account
of economic considerations. They were praised because they were willing
to sacrifice revenue for the sake of the faith.
Open Judaism no longer existed in Spain. There were left only the
apostates, or New Christians. That many of these were Christians in
name and kept the Mosaic law in every detail is undoubted. As Jews they
were not subject to the Inquisition. As professing Christians, any
departure from the established faith subjected them to the penalties
imposed upon heretics. In spite of the high positions which many
achieved, they were objects of suspicion, and with the increasing
authority of the Inquisition their lot grew harder.
Torquemada had been active not only against the Jews, but against
all suspected of any heresy, no matter how influential. The odium he
incurred raised up constant accusations against him, and he was obliged
on three occasions to send an agent to Rome to defend his character.
Later his arbitrary power was curtailed by the appointment of four
coadjutors, nominally, to share the burthens of office, but really to
check his action. On the whole he may be said to take rank among those
who have been the authors of evil to their species. "His zeal was of
such an extravagant character that it may almost shelter itself under
the name of insanity." His later days were filled with constant dread
of assassination, and when he moved to and fro his person was protected
by a formidable escort, a bodyguard of fifty familiars of the Holy
Office mounted as dragoons and a body of two hundred infantry soldiers.
Yet he reached a very old age and died quietly in his bed.
Estimates of the numbers convicted and punished during his
administration differ widely. Llorente, who is, however, much given
to exaggeration, states that eight thousand eight hundred were burned
alive, and that the total number condemned was more than one hundred
and five thousand. On the other hand Langlois,[4] whose estimate is
accepted by Vancandard, and other Catholic writers, thinks that the
number put to death was about two thousand.
[4] Langlois, L'Inquisition d'après des tableaux recénts (1902), quoted
by Vancandard (Conway's translation, 1908).
Death overtook him when a fresh campaign against heresy was imminent.
The conquest of the Kingdom of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella opened
up a new field for the proselytising fervour of the Inquisition, which
was now resolved to convert all Mahometan subjects to the Christian
faith. A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Hernando de Talavera, a
man of blameless life, a ripe scholar, a persuasive preacher, deeply
read in sacred literature and moral philosophy, had been one of the
confessors to Royalty, and had been raised to the bishopric of Avila.
But he had begged to be allowed to resign it and devote himself
entirely to the conversion of the Moors. The pope granted his request
and appointed him archbishop of Granada with a smaller revenue than
that of the diocese he left, but he was humble minded, had no craving
to exhibit the pomp and display of a great prelate and devoted himself
with all diligence to the duties of his new charge.
He soon won the hearts of the Moors who loved and venerated him. He
proceeded with great caution, made no open show of his desire to
convert them, and strictly refrained from any coercive measures,
trusting rather to reason them out of their heterodox belief. He
caused a translation to be made of the Bible into Arabic, distributed
it, encouraged the Moors to attend conferences, and come to him in
private to listen to his arguments. Being thus busily engaged, he
withdrew to a great extent from the court of Ferdinand and Isabella,
who came more and more under the influence of fiery bigots, to whom
the mild measures of the archbishop became profoundly displeasing.
The inquisitors, with Don Diego Deza who had succeeded Torquemada, at
their head, incessantly entreated the sovereigns to proceed with more
severity, and went the length of advising the immediate expulsion of
all Moors who hesitated to accept conversion and baptism forthwith.
They urged that it was for the good of their souls to draw them into
the fold and insisted that it would be utterly impossible for Christian
and Moslem to live peacefully and happily side by side. The king and
queen demurred, temporising as they had done with the revival of the
Inquisition. It might be dangerous, they argued, to enforce penalties
that were too harsh. Their supremacy was hardly as yet consolidated
in Granada; the Moors had not yet entirely laid aside their arms and
unwise oppression might bring about a resumption of hostilities. They
hoped that the Moors, like other conquered peoples, would in due course
freely adopt the religion of their new masters. Loving kindliness and
gentle persuasion would more surely gain ground than fierce threats and
arbitrary decrees.
So for seven or more years the conciliatory methods of Archbishop
Talavera prevailed and met with the approval of Ferdinand and Isabella.
But now a remarkable man of very different character appeared upon the
scene and began to advocate sterner measures. This was a Franciscan
monk, Ximenes de Cisneros, one of the most notable figures in Spanish
history, who became in due course inquisitor-general and regent of
Spain. A sketch of his life may well be given to enable us better to
understand the times.
Ximenes de Cisneros better known, perhaps, under his first name alone,
was the scion of an ancient but decayed family and destined from his
youth for the Church. He studied at the University of Salamanca and
evinced marked ability. After a stay in Rome, the best field for
preferment, he returned to Spain with the papal promise of the first
vacant benefice in the See of Toledo. The archbishop had other views,
however, and when Ximenes claimed the cure of Uceda, he was sent to
prison in its fortress and not to the presbytery. For six years Ximenes
asserted his pretensions unflinchingly and was at last nominated, when
he exchanged to a chaplaincy in another diocese, that of Siguenza,
where he continued his theological studies and acquired Hebrew and
Chaldee. Here he came under the observation of the Bishop Mendoza,
who afterwards became Cardinal Primate of Spain, and who enjoyed the
unbounded confidence of Queen Isabella. Mendoza when invited to
recommend to her a new confessor, in succession to Talavera on his
translation to the See of Granada, fixed upon Ximenes of whom he had
never lost sight since their first acquaintance at Siguenza.
Ximenes, meanwhile, had become more and more devoted to his sacred
calling. His marked business aptitudes had gained for him the post
of steward to a great nobleman, the Conde de Cifuentes, who had been
taken prisoner by the Moors. But secular concerns were distasteful
to him and Ximenes resigned his charge. His naturally austere and
contemplative disposition had deepened into stern fanatical enthusiasm
and he resolved to devote himself more absolutely to the service of the
Church. He entered the Franciscan order, threw up all his benefices
and employments, and became a simple novice in the monastery of San
Juan de los Reyes in Toledo, where his cloister life was signalised
by extreme severity and self-mortification. He wore haircloth next
his skin, slept on the stone floor with a wooden pillow under his
head, tortured himself with continual fasts and vigils, and flogged
himself perpetually. At last he became a professed monk, and because
of the fame of his exemplary piety, great crowds were attracted to
his confessional. He shrank now from the popular favour and retired
to a lonely convent in a far off forest, where he built himself a
small hermitage with his own hands and where he passed days and
nights in solemn abstraction and unceasing prayer, living like
the ancient anchorites on the green herbs he gathered and drinking
water from the running streams. Self centred and pondering deeply on
spiritual concerns, constantly in a state of mental exaltation and
ecstasy, he saw visions and dreamed dreams, believing himself to be
in close communication with celestial agencies and was no doubt on
the eve of going mad, when his superiors ordered him to reside in the
convent of Salceda, where he became charged with its administration
and management, and was forced to exercise his powerful mind for the
benefit of others.
It was here that the call to court found him and he was summoned to
Valladolid and unexpectedly brought into the presence of the queen.
Isabella was greatly prepossessed in his favour by his simple dignity
of manner, his discretion, his unembarrassed self-possession and
above all his fervent piety in discussing religious questions. Yet he
hesitated to accept the office of her confessor, and only did so on
the condition that he should be allowed to conform to the rules of his
order and remain at his monastery except when officially on duty at the
court.
Soon afterwards, he was appointed Provincial of the Franciscans
in Castile and set himself to reform their religious houses,
the discipline of which was greatly relaxed. Sloth, luxury and
licentiousness prevailed and especially in his own order, which was
wealthy and richly endowed with estates in the country, and stately
dwellings in the towns. These monks, styled "conventuals," wasted large
sums in prodigal expenditure, and were often guilty of scandalous
misconduct which Ximenes, as an Observantine, one of a small section
pledged to rigid observance of monastic rules, strongly condemned. He
was encouraged and supported in the work of reform by Isabella and a
special bull from Rome armed him with full authority. His rigorous and
unsparing action met with fierce opposition, but he triumphed in the
end and won a notable reward. When the archbishop of Toledo died, in
1495, Ximenes, unknown to himself, was selected for the great post of
primate of all Spain and Lord High Chancellor of Castile.
The right to nominate was vested in the Queen, and Ferdinand in this
instance begged her to appoint his natural son, Alfonso, already
archbishop of Saragossa, but a child almost in years. She firmly and
unhesitatingly refused and recommended her confessor to the pope as
the most worthy recipient of the honour. When the bull making the
appointment arrived from Rome, the queen summoned Ximenes to her
presence handed him the letter and desired him to open it before her.
On reading the address, "To our venerable brother, Francisco Ximenes
de Cisneros, Archbishop of Toledo," he changed colour, dropped the
letter, and crying, "There must be some mistake," ran out of the room.
The queen, in surprise, waited, but he did not return and it was found
that he had taken horse and fled to his monastery. Two grandees were
despatched in hot haste to ride after him, overtake him and bring him
back to Madrid. He returned but still resisted all the entreaties of
his friends and the clearly expressed wishes of his sovereign. Finally
his persistent refusal was overborne, but only by the direct command of
the pope, who ordered him to accept the post for which his sovereigns
had chosen him. He has been sharply criticised for his apparent
humility, but it is generally admitted that he was sincere in his
refusal. He was already advanced in years, ambition was dying in him,
he had become habituated to monastic seclusion and his thoughts were
already turned from the busy turmoil of this world to the life beyond
the grave.
However reluctant to accept high office, Ximenes was by no means slow
to exercise the power it gave him. He ruled the Spanish Church with
a rod of iron, bending all his energies to the work of reforming the
practices of the clergy, enforcing discipline and insisting upon the
maintenance of the strictest morality. He trod heavily, made many
enemies, and stirred so much ill feeling that the malcontents combined
to despatch a messenger to lay their grievances before the pope. The
officious advocate, however, got no audience but went home to Spain,
where twenty months' imprisonment taught him not to offend again the
masterful archbishop of Toledo.
Ximenes in insisting upon a strict observance of propriety and
the adoption of an exemplary life, was in himself a model to the
priesthood. He never relaxed the personal mortifications which had
been his rule when a simple monk. He kept no state and made no
show, regulating his domestic expenditure with the strictest and
most parsimonious economy, until reminded by the Holy See that the
dignity of his great office demanded more magnificence. Still, when he
increased his display and the general style of living in household,
equipages and the number of his retainers, he continued to be as harsh
as ever to himself.
In spite of all opposition and discontent he pursued his course with
inflexible purpose. His spirit was unyielding, and his energetic
proceedings were unremittingly directed to the amelioration and
improvement in the morals of the clergy with marked success. And now
he set himself with the same uncompromising zeal to extirpate heresy.
Having begged Archbishop Talavera to allow him to join in the good work
at Granada, he took immediate advantage of the consent given and began
to attack the Moorish unbelievers in his own vigorous fashion. His
first step was to call together a great conference of learned Mussulman
doctors, to whom he expounded with all the eloquence he had at his
command, the true doctrines of the Catholic faith and their superiority
to the law of Mahomet. He accompanied his teaching with liberal gifts,
chiefly of costly articles of apparel, a specious though irresistible
bribery, which had the desired effect. Great numbers of the Moorish
doctors came over at once and their example was speedily followed by
many of their illiterate disciples. So great was the number of converts
that no less than three thousand presented themselves for baptism in
one day, and as the rite could not be administered individually, they
were christened wholesale by sprinkling them from a mop or hyssop which
had been dipped in holy water, and from which the drops fell upon the
proselytes as it was twirled over the heads of the multitude. These
early successes stimulated the primate's zeal and he next adopted more
violent measures by proceeding to imprison and impose penalties upon
all Moors who still stood out against conversion. He was resolved
not merely to exterminate heresy, but to destroy the basis of belief
contained in the most famous Arabic manuscripts, large quantities of
which were collected into great piles and burned publicly in the great
squares of the city. Many of these were beautifully executed copies
of the Koran; others, treasured theological and scientific works, and
their indiscriminate destruction is a blot upon the reputation of the
cultivated prelate who had created the most learned university in Spain.
More temperate and cautious people besought Ximenes to hold his hand.
But he proceeded pertinaciously, declaring that a tamer policy might
serve in temporal matters, but not where the interests of the soul were
at stake. If the unbeliever could not be drawn he must be driven into
the way of salvation, and he continued with unflinching resolution
to arrest all recusants, and throw them into the prisons which were
filled to overflowing. Discontent grew rapidly and soon broke into
open violence. When an _alguazil_ in Granada was leading a woman away
as a prisoner, the people rose and released her from custody. The
insurrection became general in the city and assumed a threatening
aspect. Granada was full of warlike Moors and a mob besieged Ximenes in
his house until he was rescued by the garrison of the Alhambra.
The king and queen were much annoyed with Ximenes and condemned his
zealous precipitancy, but he was clever enough to vindicate his action
and bring the sovereigns to believe that it was imperative that the
rebellious Moors must be sharply repressed. Now a long conflict began.
Forcible conversion became the order of the day; baptism continued to
be performed in the gross upon thousands, the alternative being exile,
and numbers were actually deported to Barbary in the royal ships. A
fierce civil conflict broke out in the Alpujarras beyond Granada, which
required a royal army to quell. The object sought was the welfare of
the state by producing uniformity of faith.
[Illustration: _Peint par Benjamin Constant_
_Photogravure Goupil & C^{ie}._
_The Alhambra Palace, Granada_
The beautiful Moorish stronghold during the time of the supremacy
of the Moors was often made the home of slaves captured in near-by
frontier towns of Andalusia, who endured hateful bondage under the
rule of the Mohammedan monarch. Granada and its palace were finally
captured by Ferdinand and Isabella, and the Alhambra is to-day the
finest example of Moorish architecture, with its delicate elaboration
of detail.]
Ximenes found a strenuous supporter in Diego Deza, the
inquisitor-general, who was eager to emulate the strictness of
his predecessor, Torquemada. Deza was a Dominican who had been at
one time professor of theology and confessor to the queen. He was by
nature and predilection exactly fitted for his new office upon which he
entered with extensive powers. A bull from Pope Alexander VI dated 1499
invested him with the title of "Conservator of the Faith" in Spain.
Deza gave a new constitution to the Holy Office and prescribed that
there should be a general "Inquest" in places not yet visited, and
that edicts should be republished requiring all persons to lay
information against suspected heretics. He stirred up the zeal of
all subordinate inquisitors and was well served by them, especially
by one, Lucero, commonly called _el Tenebroso_, "the gloomy," whose
savage and ruthless proceedings terrorised Cordova where he presided.
He made a general attack upon the most respectable inhabitants and
arrested great numbers, many of whom were condemned and executed.
Informers crowded Lucero's ante-chamber bringing monstrous tales of
heretical conspiracies to reëstablish Judaism and subvert the Church.
His familiars dragged the accused from their beds to answer to these
charges and the prisons overflowed. Cordova was up in arms and many
would have offered armed resistance to the Inquisition, but the more
circumspect people, the Bishop and Chapter, some of the nobility and
the municipal council appealed to Deza praying him to remove Lucero.
The inquisitor-general however turned furiously upon the complainants
and caused them to be arrested as abettors of heresy. Philip I, acting
for his wife Juana, the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was
inclined to listen to the complainants, and suspended both Deza and
Lucero from their functions. But his sudden death stayed the relief
he had promised, and the tormenting officials returned to renew their
oppression.
The Cordovese would not tamely submit and appealed to force. A strong
body of men under the Marques de Priego attacked the "Holy House,"
broke open the prison and liberated many of those detained, shutting up
the officers of the Inquisition in their place. Lucero took to flight
upon a swift mule and escaped. Though for a time Deza continued to
keep his influence, he was shortly forced to resign and Cordova became
tranquil. Deza's persecution had spared no one. In the eight years
during which he held office, one account, probably greatly exaggerated,
says that 2,592 persons were burned alive, some nine hundred were
burned in effigy, and thirty-five thousand were punished by penance,
fines and confiscations.
The fall of Deza and the hostile attitude of the people warned the
authorities that the affairs of the Inquisition must be managed
more adroitly. New inquisitors must be appointed and choice fell
upon Ximenes de Cisneros, who had already played a foremost part
in proselytising, but who now was willing to adopt more moderate
measures. The Pope in giving his approval sent him a cardinal's hat
as a recompense for past services, and as an encouragement to act
wisely in the future. He had a difficult task. Disaffection, strongly
pronounced, prevailed through the kingdom and the Inquisition was
everywhere cordially detested. Ximenes strove to appease the bitter
feeling by instituting a searching inquiry into the conduct of his
immediate predecessor, Deza, and promising to hear all complaints and
redress all grievances. He created a "Catholic Congregation" as a
special court to investigate the actions of Lucero in the proceedings
growing out of the charges against Archbishop Talavera and his
family. This court in due course pronounced a verdict of acquittal
and rehabilitation of the Talaveras. Ruined houses were rebuilt, the
memory of the dead restored to honour and fame, and this act of grace
was published at Valladolid with great solemnity in the presence of the
kings, bishops and grandees.
Nevertheless Ximenes had no desire to remodel the Holy Office or
limit its operations to any considerable extent. On the contrary,
he bent all his efforts to develop its influence and make it an
engine of government, utilising it as a political as well as a
religious agency. It was as rigorous as ever but he set his face
like a flint against dishonesty. He systematised the division of the
realm into inquisitorial provinces, each under its own inquisitor
with headquarters in the principal cities, such as Seville, Toledo,
Valladolid, Murcia, and in Sardinia and Sicily beyond the seas. His
personal ascendancy became extraordinary. He enjoyed the unbounded
confidence and favour of the sovereign. He had been created Cardinal of
Spain, a title rarely conferred. As archbishop of Toledo, he was the
supreme head of the Spanish clergy, and as inquisitor-general, he was
the terror of every priest and every layman within his jurisdiction.
He had, in fact, reached the highest ecclesiastical rank, short of the
papacy and as he rose higher and higher he wielded powers little short
of an independent absolute monarch, and his zeal in the cause of his
religion grew more and more fervent and far-reaching. No doubt in an
earlier age he would have turned crusader, but now he sought to crush
the fugitive Moors who had escaped into Northern Africa, whence they
made constant descents upon the south of Spain, burning to avenge the
wrongs of their co-religionists, and were a constant scourge and source
of grievous trouble.
The evils centred in the province of Oran, a fortified stronghold--the
most considerable of the Moslem possessions on the shores of the
Mediterranean--whence issued a swarm of pirate cruisers, manned by the
exiles driven out of Spain, who had sought and found a welcome refuge
in Oran. Ximenes was resolved to seize and sweep out this hornets'
nest and undertook its conquest on his own account. Much ridicule
was levelled at this "monk about to fight the battles of Spain," but
he went forth undeterred at the head of a powerful army, conveyed by
a strong fleet from Cartagena, which he landed at the African port of
Mazalquivir, and after some desperate fighting made himself master of
Oran. After his successful African campaign he resumed his duties of
chief inquisitor, and the Holy Office under his fierce and vigorous
rule became more than ever oppressive. Ximenes pursued his unwavering
course and encouraged his inquisitors in their unceasing activity.
He desired to extend the power and influence of the Inquisition, and
established it in the new countries recently added to the Spanish
dominion. A branch was set up in the newly conquered province of Oran,
and another farther afield in the recently discovered new world beyond
the Atlantic. On the initiative of Ximenes Fray Juan Quevedo, Bishop of
Cuba, was appointed chief inquisitor in the kingdom of Terrafirma, as
the territories of the new world were styled.
The energetic pursuit of heresy did not monopolise the exertions of
Ximenes. He founded the great University of Alcalá, a vast design, a
noble seat of learning richly endowed with magnificent buildings and
a remarkable scheme of education, which produced the ablest and most
eminent scholars. Another great monument is the well known polyglot
Bible, designed to exhibit the scriptures in their various ancient
languages, a work of singular erudition upon which the munificent
cardinal expended vast sums.
Ximenes lived to the advanced age of eighty-one, long enough to act as
regent of Spain during the interregnum preceding the arrival of Charles
I, better known as the Emperor Charles V. The immediate cause of his
death was said to have been the receipt of a letter from the Emperor in
which he was coldly thanked for his services and desired to retire to
his diocese, to "seek from heaven that reward which heaven alone could
adequately bestow." In his last moments he is reported to have said,
"that he had never intentionally wronged any man; but had rendered to
every one his due, without being swayed, as far as he was conscious, by
fear or affection."
He combined a versatility of talent usually found only in softer and
more flexible characters. Though bred in the cloister, he distinguished
himself both in the cabinet and the camp. For the latter, indeed, so
repugnant to his regular profession, he had a natural genius, according
to the testimony of his biographer; and he evinced his relish for it
by declaring that "the smell of gunpowder was more grateful to him
than the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" In every situation, however, he
exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments
of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman
or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious
bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for
displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal over which he presided
during the last ten years of his life.
The accession of the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella to the Spanish
throne as Charles I (better known as the Emperor Charles V), seemed
to foreshadow a change in the relations of the Inquisition and the
state. The young sovereign was born in Ghent and was more Fleming than
Spaniard. Though his grandfather left in his will solemn injunctions
"to labour with all his strength to destroy and extirpate heresy" and
to appoint ministers "who will conduct the Inquisition justly and
properly for the service of God and the exaltation of the Catholic
faith, and who will also have great zeal for the destruction of the
sect of Mahomet," it was reported that he sympathised with the critics
of the Inquisition and was disposed to curtail its activity. The
influence of his old tutor, Adrian of Utrecht, whom he commissioned
inquisitor-general, first of Aragon, and, after the death of Ximenes,
of Castile also, changed him however into a strong friend and staunch
supporter of the institution.
Cardinal Manrique, who followed as inquisitor-general, was a man of
more kindly disposition, charitable and a benefactor to the poor.
He was inclined to relax the severities of the Holy Office but it
was urged upon him that heresy was on the increase on account of the
appearance of Lutheran opinions and the bitterest persecution was
more than ever essential. Protestants began to appear sporadically and
called for uncompromising repression. The writings of Luther, Erasmus,
Melancthon, Zwingli, and the rest of the early reformers were brought
into Spain, but the circulation was adjudged a crime, though Erasmus
had once been a favourite author.
The Inquisition later prepared an _Index Expurgandorum_, or list of
condemned and prohibited literature. All books named on it were put
under the ban of the law. Possession of a translation of the Bible in
the vulgar tongues was forbidden in 1551, and the prohibition was not
lifted until 1782. By that time there was no longer such keen interest
in its contents, and the Book was little circulated. In 1825 the
British and Foreign Bible Society sent one of its agents into Spain to
distribute it, and his adventures are described autobiographically in
that interesting work, George Borrow's "Bible in Spain."
In spite of all the efforts to make good Catholics and good Spaniards
of the Moriscos, little real progress was made. They had accepted
baptism under compulsion, not realising that thereby they were brought
under control of the Church. Little effort was made to instruct them,
moreover, and as a result thousands, nominally Christians, observed
scrupulously the whole Moslem ritual, used the old language, and kept
their old costume. Some, to be sure, were hardly to be distinguished
from the Spaniards with whom they had intermarried, but, on the whole,
they seemed an unassimilable element in the population.
When Philip II succeeded his father, Charles V, in 1556, he determined
to take strong measures. A decree proclaimed in Granada in 1566 forbade
the use of the distinctive dress and of the Moorish names. The old
customs were to be abandoned, and all the baths were to be destroyed.
Rebellion followed this edict, and, for a time, it was doubtful whether
it could be crushed. Finally open resistance was overcome, and several
thousand were transferred to the mountains of Northern Spain. Meanwhile
the Inquisition was active, and thousands were brought to trial for
pagan practices.
Prejudice continued to grow, and fanatics declared that Spain could
never prosper until the "evil seed" was destroyed or expelled from
the Christian land. Jealousy of the prosperity of the Moriscos led
the populace to agree with the bigots, and finally expulsion was
unanimously decreed by the Council of State, in 1609, during the
reign of Philip III. Valencia was first purged, and next Murcia,
Granada, Andalusia, Old and New Castile and Aragon. Afterward vigorous
attempts to root out individuals of Moorish blood, who had become
indistinguishable because of their strict conformity, were made. Great
suffering was incurred by the unfortunate exiles and many died. Those
who reached Africa carried with them a hatred which persists to the
present.
The number driven out is uncertain. The estimates vary from three
hundred thousand to three million. Probably the most accurate estimate
is that of six hundred thousand. In this number were included the most
skilful artisans, and the most industrious and most thrifty portion of
the population. It was a mistake from which Spain has never recovered.