Hostility of the Inquisition to the progress of literature and
science—examples—freemasonry a peculiar object of persecution by
the holy tribunal—interesting trial of M. Tournon—cruelty of the
Inquisition in the nineteenth century—affecting account of the
sufferings of Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano—remarks by Puigblanch
on the iniquitous procedure of the holy office.
We have already seen, in the case of the famous Galileo, the determined
opposition of the Inquisition to the progress of science. Many other
examples of a similar kind might be added. Not content with exerting
a rigid censorship over the press, the Inquisitors intruded into
private houses, ransacked the libraries of the learned and curious, and
carried off and retained at their pleasure, such books as they in their
ignorance suspected to be of a dangerous character, besides inflicting
punishment on their owners. So late as the beginning of the eighteenth
century, we find Manuel Martini, dean of Alicant, and one of the most
enlightened of his countrymen in that age, complaining bitterly in his
confidential correspondence of what he suffered from such proceedings.
Under the reign of the fanatical Philip V., Don Melchior de Macanez,
one of the most learned statesmen in Spain, having drawn up a report
by order of the king, at a time when it was in agitation to suspend the
remittances of money with which Spain then supplied Rome, was compelled
to take refuge in France, in order to avoid being immured in the
dungeons of the Inquisition. His property was in the meantime seized,
and himself excommunicated. After an exile of ten years, during which
he made numerous supplications to his faithless sovereign, he was at
length recalled with the promise of pardon. But on his arrival in Spain
he was arrested and confined in the Inquisition of Segovia, till the
reign of Charles III.
Luis de Leon, Professor of Scripture in the University of Salamanca,
was apprehended and imprisoned in the Inquisition, for making a version
of the Song of Solomon for his private use. For this heinous crime, he
was condemned to solitary confinement for no less than five years. The
professors of the Hebrew and Chaldean languages, and of Rhetoric and
Greek, in the same University, were likewise arrested and imprisoned by
the holy tribunal, for publishing works eminently calculated to improve
the mind, and advance the literature of their country.
The Inquisition, indeed, "has at all times evinced towards learned men
the greatest enmity, and has driven many to the brink of the precipice
through its absurd and violent conduct, or caused them to separate from
the Roman Catholic Church, particularly when they have been animated
by more than ordinary zeal. Aonius Palearius, whose singular merit,
and disastrous end wrest from historians the most lively sentiments
of compassion, may serve as an example of this fatal truth. His merit
was universally acknowledged, not only on the score of philosophy, of
which he was a professor in Milan, when he was arrested, and where he
had besides published an estimable Latin poem, on the immortality of
the soul, as well as several orations in the same language, but also
as far as regards theology, which, notwithstanding he was a secular,
and married, he possessed in an eminent degree. Many cardinals, and
even Pope Paul IV., honoured him with their friendship; and Philip
II. granted him certain privileges, and ordered a large salary to be
assigned him for his subsistence. His zeal was particularly displayed
in drawing up a charge, or, as he calls it, a declaration against the
Roman Pontiffs, as corrupters of discipline, which he addressed to
Charles V. and the three other Christian princes, in order to excite
attention to this subject on the convocation of a general council, at
that time agitated, and which ended in that of Trent. This paper was in
the meantime deposited in the hands of his friends, in case he should
previously die, or the Inquisition, which had already threatened him,
should sacrifice him, as it afterwards did.[24]
"Without entering into a long enumeration of all the sciences, as
well as of the persons who have been eminent therein, it would not be
possible to give a complete idea of the individuals who have suffered
by the proceedings of the Inquisition; John Reuchlin, in Germany—Picus,
Prince of Mirandula, in Italy—Peter Ramus in France—and Desiderius
Erasmus, every where—had to endure the lash of this infernal fury; yet
no nation has thereby suffered so much as Spain. In the seventeenth
century, father Pedro de Soto, a wise and pious writer—father Juan
de Villagarcia, professor of theology at Oxford—and in general all
the learned men who at that time visited England, became its victims.
Father José de Sigüenza, a diligent and polished historian—and in more
recent times, many distinguished individuals, by their acquirements
in history, theology, mathematics, politics, philology, &c., became
objects of Inquisitorial vengeance. Finally, within late years, not a
few enlightened persons of literary pursuits and known probity, have
had to drag a miserable existence within the walls of the Inquisition,
on account of denunciations ridiculous and chimerical, or have been
admonished or threatened by it. Even in the way of artists of any
pre-eminence, this tribunal has placed obstacles. A navigator, who,
by discovering a new route, had performed a voyage in less than the
customary time—a master of the first rudiments, who, by his genius and
constancy, had brought forward and improved his scholars quicker than
his competitors—and even the handicraftsman who has enjoyed more credit
than others of his own class—have incurred the displeasure of the
Inquisition, and been entangled in its toils."
"The Inquisition," says Dr. M'Crie, "was not satisfied with preventing
heretical men and books from coming into Spain, it exerted itself
with equal zeal in preventing orthodox horses from being exported
out of the kingdom. Incredible or ludicrous as this may appear to
the reader, nothing can be more unquestionable than the fact, and
nothing demonstrates more decidedly the unprincipled character of
the Inquisitors, as well as those who had recourse to its agency to
promote their political schemes. As early as the fourteenth century it
had been declared illegal to transport horses from Spain to France.
This prohibition originated entirely in views of political economy,
and it was the business of the officers of the customs to prevent the
contraband trade. But on occasion of the wars which arose between the
Papists and Protestants of France, and the increase of the latter on
the Spanish borders, it occurred to Philip as an excellent expedient
for putting down the prohibited commerce, to commit the task to the
Inquisition, whose services would be more effectual than those of a
hundred thousand frontier guards. With this view he procured a bull
from the Pope, which, with a special reference to the Protestants of
France, and the inhabitants of Bearn in particular, declared all to
be suspected of heresy who should furnish arms, ammunition, or other
instruments of war to heretics. In consequence of this, the council
of the supreme, in 1569, added to the annual edict of denunciation
a clause obliging all, under the pain of excommunication, to inform
against any who had bought or transported horses for the use of the
French Protestants, which was afterwards extended to all who sent them
across the Pyrenees. For this offence numbers were fined, whipped,
and condemned to the galleys, by the Inquisitorial tribunals on the
frontiers. Always bent on extending their jurisdiction, the Inquisitors
sought to bring under their cognizance all questions respecting the
contraband trade in saltpetre, sulphur, and powder."
Freemasonry, as has been already stated, was a very heinous crime
in the eye of the Inquisition. The following trial which took place
at Madrid, in 1757, will sufficiently prove the hatred of the "Holy
Office," to all who were connected with that order. A Frenchman of the
name of M. Tournon, had been invited to Spain to instruct the Spaniards
in the art of making brass or copper buckles; but in the year above
mentioned, he was denounced to the Inquisition, by one of his pupils,
as a favourer of heresy. His heresy consisted in having asked some
of his pupils to become freemasons, and obtained their consent. At
his first audience, the following conversation took place between the
Inquisitors and M. Tournon, which, after the cruelties that have been
detailed, will both relieve and amuse the reader.[25]
_Quest._ Do you know or suppose why you have been arrested by the holy
office?
_Ans._ I suppose it is for having said that I was a freemason.
_Q._ Why do you suppose so?
_A._ Because I have informed my pupils that I was of that order, and
I fear they have denounced me; for I have perceived lately, that they
speak to me with an air of mystery, and their questions lead me to
believe that they think me a heretic.
_Q._ Did you tell them the truth?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ You are, then, a freemason?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ How long have you been so?
_A._ For twenty years.
_Q._ Have you attended the assemblies of freemasons?
_A._ Yes, at Paris.
_Q._ Have you attended them in Spain?
_A._ No: I do not know if there are any lodges in Spain.
_Q._ If there were, would you attend them?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Are you a Christian, a Roman Catholic?
_A._ Yes; I was baptized in the parish of St. Paul, at Paris.
_Q._ How, as a Christian, can you dare to attend masonic assemblies,
when you know, or ought to know, that they are contrary to religion?
_A._ I did not know that; I am ignorant of it at present, because I
never saw nor heard any thing there which was contrary to religion.
_Q._ How can you say that, when you know that freemasons profess
indifference in matters of religion, which is contrary to the articles
of faith, which teach us that no man can be saved who does not profess
the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion?
_A._ The freemasons do not profess that indifference. But it is
indifferent if the person received into the order be a Catholic or not.
_Q._ Then the freemasons are an anti-religious body?
_A._ That cannot be; for the object of the institution is not to combat
or deny the necessity or utility of any religion, but for the exercise
of charity towards the unfortunate of any sect, particularly if he is a
member of the society.
_Q._ One proof that indifference is the religious character of
freemasons, is, that they do not acknowledge the Holy Trinity, since
they only confess one God, whom they call the "Great Architect of
the Universe," which agrees with the doctrine of the heretical
philosophers, who say there is no true religion but natural religion,
in which the existence of God the Creator only is allowed, and the
rest considered as a human invention. And as M. Tournon has professed
himself to be of the Roman Catholic religion, he is required, by the
respect he owes to our Saviour Jesus Christ, true God and man, and
to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary, our Lady, to declare the
truth according to his oath, because in that case he will acquit his
conscience, and it will be allowable to treat him with that mercy
and compassion, which the Holy Office always shows towards sinners
who confess; and if, on the contrary, he conceals any thing, he will
be punished with all the severity of justice, according to the holy
canons, and the laws of the kingdom.
_A._ The mystery of the Holy Trinity is neither maintained nor
combated in the masonic lodges; neither is the religious system of
the natural philosophers approved or rejected. God is designated as
the Great Architect of the Universe, according to the allegories of
the freemasons, which relate to architecture. In order to fulfil my
promise of speaking truth, I must repeat, that in masonic lodges,
nothing takes place which concerns any religious system, and that the
subjects treated of are foreign to religion, under the allegories of
architectural works.
_Q._ Do you believe as a Catholic, that it is a sin of superstition to
mingle holy and religious things with profane things?
_A._ I am not sufficiently acquainted with the particular things which
are prohibited as contrary to the purity of the Christian religion.
But I have believed till now, that those who confound the one with the
other, either by mistake, or a vain belief, are guilty of the sin of
superstition.
_Q._ Is it true, that in the ceremonies which accompany the reception
of a mason, the crucified image of our Saviour, the corpse of a man,
and a skull, and other objects of a profane nature, are made use of?
_A._ The general statutes of freemasonry do not ordain these things;
if they are made use of, it must arise from a particular custom, or
from the arbitrary regulations of the members of the body, who are
commissioned to prepare for the reception of candidates; for each lodge
has particular customs and ceremonies.
_Q._ That is not the question; say if it is true, that these ceremonies
are observed in masonic lodges?
_A._ Yes, or no, according to the regulations of those who are charged
with the ceremonies of the institution.
_Q._ Were they observed when you were initiated?
_A._ No.
_Q._ What oath is it necessary to take, on being received a freemason?
_A._ We swear to observe secresy.
_Q._ On what?
_A._ On things which it may be inconvenient to publish.
_Q._ Is this oath accompanied by execrations?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ What are they?
_A._ We consent to suffer all the evils which can afflict the body and
soul, if we violate the oath.
_Q._ Of what importance is this oath, since it is believed that such
formidable execrations may be used without indecency?
_A._ That of good order in the society.
_Q._ What passes in these lodges which it might be inconvenient to
publish?
_A._ Nothing, if it is looked upon without prejudice; but, as people
are generally mistaken in this matter, it is necessary to avoid giving
cause of malicious interpretations; and this would take place, if what
passes when the brethren assemble, were made public.
_Q._ Of what use is the crucifix, if the reception of a freemason is
not considered as a religious act?
_A._ It is present, to penetrate the soul with the most profound
respect, at the moment that the novice takes the oath. It is not used
in every lodge, and only when particular grades are conferred.
_Q._ Why is the skull used?
_A._ That the idea of death may inspire a horror of perjury.
_Q._ Of what use is the corpse?
_A._ To complete the allegory of Hiram, architect of the temple of
Jerusalem, who, it is said, was assassinated by traitors, and to induce
a greater detestation of assassination, and other offences against our
neighbours, to whom we ought to be as benevolent brothers.
_Q._ Is it true, that the festival of St. John is celebrated in lodges,
and that the masons have chosen him for their patron?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ What worship is rendered him in celebrating his festival?
_A._ None; that it may not be mingled with profane things. This
celebration is confined to a fraternal repast, after which a
discourse is read, exhorting the guests to beneficence toward their
fellow-creatures, in honour of God, the great Architect, Creator, and
Preserver of the universe.
_Q._ Is it true, that the sun, moon, and stars are honoured in the
lodges?
_A._ No.
_Q._ Is it true, that their images or symbols are exposed?
_A._ Yes.
_Q._ Why are they so?
_A._ In order to elucidate the allegories of the great, continual, and
true light, which the lodges receive from the great Architect of the
world; and these representations belong to the brethren, and engage
them to be charitable.
_Q._ M. Tournon will observe, that all the explanations he has given
of the facts and ceremonies which take place in the lodges, are false,
and different from those which he voluntarily communicated to other
persons, worthy of belief; he is therefore again invited, by the
respect he owes to God, and the Holy Virgin, to declare and confess the
heresies of indifferentism, the errors of superstition, which mingle
holy and profane things and the errors of idolatry, which led him to
worship the stars. This confession is necessary for the acquittal of
his conscience, and the good of his soul, because, if he confesses
with sorrow for having committed these crimes, detesting them, and
humbly soliciting pardon, (before the fiscal accuses him of these
heinous sins,) the holy tribunal will be permitted to exercise towards
him that compassion and mercy, which it always displays to repentant
sinners; and because, if he be judicially accused, he must be treated
with all the severity prescribed against heretics by the holy canons,
apostolical bulls, and the laws of the kingdom.
_A._ I have declared the truth, and if any witnesses have deposed to
the contrary, they have mistaken my words; for I have never spoken on
this subject to any but the workmen in my manufactory, and then only in
the same sense conveyed by my replies.
_Q._ Not content with being a freemason, you have persuaded other
persons to be received into the order, and to embrace the heretical,
superstitious, and pagan errors, into which you have fallen?
_A._ It is true, that I have requested these persons to become
freemasons, because I thought it would be useful to them, if they
travelled into foreign countries, where they might meet brothers of
their order, who could assist them in any difficulty; but it is not
true that I engaged them to adopt any errors contrary to the Catholic
faith, since no such errors are to be found in freemasonry, which does
not concern any points of doctrine.
_Q._ It has been already proved, that these errors are not chimerical;
therefore, let M. Tournon consider that he has been a dogmatizing
heretic, and that it is necessary that he should acknowledge it with
humility, and ask pardon and absolution for the censures which he has
incurred; since, if he persists in his obstinacy, he will destroy both
his body and soul: and as this is the first audience of _monition_, he
is advised to reflect on his condition, and prepare for the two other
audiences which are granted by the compassion and mercy which the holy
tribunal always feels for the accused.
After undergoing this examination, M. Tournon was remanded to prison.
In two subsequent audiences he persisted in giving the same answers;
but perceiving at length, that the only method by which he might
escape punishment, was to acknowledge that he was wrong, he pretended
that he might have been deceived, from being ignorant of particular
doctrines, and requested absolution. He was accordingly sentenced to
one year's imprisonment, and to be afterwards banished for ever from
Spain, and obliged at the same time to promise that he would never
again attend the assemblies of the freemasons.
The following account of the persecution of a Spanish Protestant
priest, who was imprisoned in the Inquisition of Saragossa in 1802,
is particularly deserving of notice, showing, as it does, the cruelty
of the holy office, even in the nineteenth century.—"Don Miguel Juan
Antonio Solano, a native of Verdun, in Arragon, was vicar of Esco, in
the diocess of Jaca. His benevolence and exemplary conduct endeared
him to his parishioners. The goodness of his heart combined with his
inventive talent in the work of fertilizing a dale, or rather a mere
ravine, belonging to the inhabitants of his parish, which lay waste for
the want of irrigation. Without any help from the government, and with
no mechanical means but the spades of the peasants, he succeeded in
diverting the waters of a mountain streamlet upon the slip of vegetable
soil which had been deposited in the glen.
"A long and severe illness, which made him a cripple for life, withdrew
the good vicar of Esco, from these active pursuits, and limited his
employment to the perusal of the few books which his little library
afforded. Providentially the Bible was one of them. Solano read the
records of revelation, with a sincere desire to embrace religious
truth as he found it there, and having gradually cleared and arranged
his views, drew up a little system of divinity, which agreed in the
main points with the fundamental tenets of the Protestant churches.
His conviction of the Roman Catholic errors became so strong, that he
determined to lay his book before the bishop of the diocess, asking
his pastoral help and advice upon that most important subject. An
answer to his arguments was promised; but despairing, after a lapse
of time, to obtain it, Solano applied to the faculty of divinity of
the University of Saragossa. The reverend doctors sent the book to the
Inquisition, and the infirm vicar of Esco was lodged in the prisons
of the holy tribunal of Saragossa in 1802. It seems that some humane
persons contrived his escape soon after, and conveyed him to Oleron,
the nearest French town. But Solano, having taken time to consider his
case, came to the heroic resolution of asserting the truth in the very
face of death; and returned of his own accord to the Inquisitorial
prisons."
The Inquisitor-general at that time was Arce, archbishop of Santiago,
an intimate friend of the Prince of Peace, and one strongly suspected
of secret infidelity. When the sentence of the Arragonese tribunal,
condemning Solano to die by fire, was presented to the supreme
court for confirmation, Arce, shocked at the idea of an auto-da-fé,
contrived every method to delay the execution. A fresh examination of
witnesses was ordered, during which time the Inquisitors entreated
Solano to avert his now imminent danger. Nothing, however, could move
him. He said, he well knew the death that awaited him, but no human
fear would ever make him swerve from the truth. The first sentence
being confirmed, nothing remained but the _exequatur_ of the supreme
council. Arce, however, suspended it, and ordered an inquiry into the
mental sanity of the prisoner. As nothing appeared to support this
plea, Solano would have died at the stake, had not Providence snatched
him from the hands of the papal defenders of the faith. A dangerous
illness seized him in the prison, where he had lingered three years.
The efforts to convert him were on this occasion renewed with increased
ardour.
"The Inquisitors," says Llorente, "gave it in charge to the most able
divines of Saragossa to reclaim Solano, and even requested Don Miguel
Suarez de Santander, auxiliary bishop of that town, and apostolic
missionary, (now, like myself, a refugee in France,) to exhort him,
with all the tenderness and goodness of a Christian minister, which are
so natural to that worthy prelate. The vicar showed a grateful sense
of all that was done for him; but declared that he could not renounce
his religious persuasion without offending God, by acting treacherously
against the truth. On the twenty-first day of his illness, the
physician warned him of approaching death, urging him to improve the
short time which he had to live. 'I am in the hands of God,' answered
Solano, 'and have nothing else to do.' Thus died, in 1805, the vicar of
Esco. He was denied Christian burial, and his body privately interred
within the inclosure of the Inquisition, near the back gate of the
building, towards the Ebro. The Inquisitors reported all that had taken
place to the supreme tribunal, whose members approved their conduct,
and stopt all further proceedings, in order to avoid the necessity of
burning the deceased in effigy."
We shall close this chapter with the following able and just remarks
of Puigblanch, on the iniquitous procedure of the holy office. "The
Inquisition," says that elegant writer, "in its relations as a
tribunal, as well as in the laws by which it is governed, tramples
to the ground the rights of the citizen, by violating in substance
and in manner, the common rules and principles of justice. A code
suggested and framed by fanaticism and error—a want of learning almost
general, among the individuals of whom it is composed, accompanied
by an omnigenous faculty of committing irregularities—together with
the tyrannical oppression with which the innocent man is therein
treated, when merely indicted for heresy, are all deducible from the
premises established, and come in as incontrovertible arguments to
prove the truth of my assertion. Busied rather in forming unhappy
victims, than in extirpating crimes, this institution has spared no
pains, however contrary to reason, and even to religion, as long
as it was able to flatter its pride, and feed its ferocity. Secret
accusation and calumny encouraged without any regard to friendship or
domestic piety; the name of the Supreme Being invoked with the greatest
rashness, in order to wring from the culprit a confession, which
must necessarily carry him to the scaffold; mean cavils, perfidious
incitements, and even gross falsehood, employed for the same purpose,
and with the same iniquity—have all entered into the complicated system
of the Inquisition, and constituted its chief essence and delight.
Impervious prisons, secured with double bolts, and secluded from all
communication; refined and overwhelming torments authorized, and even
administered with unheard of cruelty, by judges, who call themselves
the ministers of the God of peace: citizens, who had already paid the
debt of nature, insulted in their memory, and their mouldering remnants
of mortality dug out to public scorn; whole generations condemned to
mendicity and infamy, even before they had commenced their existence;
blazing piles of faggots, enkindled by the breath of implacable
vengeance, hidden under the parade of charity—such have been the
component parts which have formed the plan, and such the deeds of this
formidable and bloody tribunal. And can that government be called just
and beneficent, which suffers the Inquisition to rankle in its bosom?"
FOOTNOTES:
[24] The following is an extract from this interesting paper.
"What is it that princes wait for, in order to prove that the religion
of Jesus Christ is not indifferent to them, by promoting a salutary
reform? We have been forbidden to speak the truth; the edifice raised
by the apostles has been destroyed; the word of God is belied; the
majesty of his precepts is diminished; the fruit of the cross, as far
as regards the popes, rendered useless; great and unimaginable abuses
have been introduced; and, in short, all the divine and human rights
have been confounded. Who therefore can be so great an enemy to the
name of Christ, as to behold all this, and still remain silent? Or who
would not wish, since he is unable to remedy it, rather to die, than be
held as an accomplice in so much iniquity? With regard to myself, I can
assert, that I shall never regret having undertaken the defence of the
gospel, whatever may be the danger to which I am thereby exposed. Here
thou hast me: oh! executioner, tie my hands, cover my head, discharge
thy axe on my neck, since I voluntarily offer myself to the anger of
the popes, as well as to the torments they may seek to inflict upon me.
And if with my death they are not satiated, and should wish to see my
entrails torn to pieces, and converted into ashes, here thou hast me;
oh! executioner, approach I will endure all."
[25] The trial is given in full by Llorente, from which the above is
taken.