ESTABLISHMENT Of THE MODERN INQUISITION IN SPAIN.
The state of the Inquisition in the kingdom of Aragon, at the accession
of Ferdinand and Isabella, has been shown in a preceding chapter. This
tribunal was then introduced into the kingdom of Castile, after having
been reformed by statutes and regulations so severe, that the Aragonese
violently resisted the fresh burdens which were imposed on them.
This is the Inquisition which has reigned in Spain since the year 1481,
which was destroyed, to the satisfaction of all Europe, and which has
since been re-established to the grief of all enlightened Spaniards.
The war against the Albigenses was the first cause of the establishment
of the Inquisition; and the pretended necessity of punishing the
apostacy of the newly-converted Spanish Jews, was the reason for
introducing it in a reformed state. It is important to remark, that the
immense trade carried on by the Spanish Jews had thrown into their hands
the greatest part of the wealth of the Peninsula; and that they had
acquired great power and influence in Castile under Alphonso IX., Peter
I., and Henry II.; and in Aragon under Peter IV. and John I. The
Christians, who could not rival them in industry, had almost all become
their debtors, and envy soon made them the enemies of their creditors.
This disposition was fostered by evil-minded men, and popular commotions
were the consequence in almost all the towns of the two kingdoms. In
1391, five thousand Jews were sacrificed to the fury of the people in
different towns. Several were known to have escaped death by becoming
Christians; many others sought to save themselves in following their
example; and in a short time more than a million persons renounced the
law of Moses to embrace the Christian faith. The number of conversions
increased considerably during the ten first years of the fifteenth
century, through the zeal of St. Vincent Ferrier and several other
missionaries; they were seconded by the famous conferences which took
place in 1413 between several Rabbis and the converted Jew, Jerome de
Santafe. The converted Jews were named _New Christians_; they were also
called Marranos, or the cursed race, from an oath which the Jews were in
the habit of using among themselves. As the fear of death was the cause
of most of these conversions, many repented, and secretly returned to
Judaism, though they outwardly conformed to Christianity. The constraint
to which they were obliged to submit was sometimes too painful, and
several were discovered. This was the ostensible reason for the
establishment of a tribunal which gave Ferdinand an opportunity of
confiscating immense riches, and which Sextus IV. could not but approve,
as it tended to augment the credit of the maxims of the court of Rome;
it is to these projects, concealed under the appearance of zeal for
religion, that the Inquisition of Spain owes its origin.
In 1477, Philip de Barbaris, inquisitor of the kingdom of Sicily, went
to Seville, to obtain from Ferdinand and Isabella the confirmation of a
privilege granted in 1233, by the Emperor Frederic, which gave to the
Inquisition of Sicily the right of seizing a third part of the property
of condemned heretics. Barbaris, through zeal for the interests of the
Pope, endeavoured to persuade the king that the Christian religion
derived the greatest advantages from the fear which the judgments of the
Inquisition inspired. He was eagerly seconded by Alphonso de Hojida,
prior of the convent of Dominicans at Seville; and Nicholas Franco, the
nuncio of the Pope at the court of Spain. A report was then spread in
different parts of the kingdom that the _New Christians_, with the
unbaptized Jews, insulted the images of Jesus Christ, and had even
crucified Christian children in mockery of his sufferings on the cross.
Ferdinand was willing to receive the Inquisition into his states: the
only obstacle was the refusal of Isabella; that excellent queen could
not approve of measures so contrary to the gentleness of her character,
but her consent was obtained by alarming her conscience: she was told
that it became a religious duty to adopt them in the present
circumstances.
Isabella suffered herself to be led away by the representations of her
council, and commissioned her ambassador at Rome, Don Francis de
Santillan, Bishop of Osma, to solicit in her name a bull for the
establishment of the Inquisition in Castile, which was granted in 1478.
It authorized Ferdinand and Isabella to name the priests who were to be
commissioned to discover in their states all heretics, apostates, and
favourers of these crimes. As this measure was displeasing to Isabella,
her council, by her order, suspended the execution of the bull until
less severe remedies had been tried.
The queen commissioned D. Diego Alphonso de Solis, Bishop of Cadiz,
Diego de Merlo, and Alphonso de Hojida, prior of the convent of
Dominicans, to observe the effects produced by gentle means, and give a
faithful account of them. Their reports were such as might be expected
from the situation of affairs; and the Dominican fathers, the nuncio,
and even the king, desired that the measures preferred by Isabella
should be declared insufficient.
The events of this year proved how displeasing the institution was to
the Castilians. In the beginning of the year 1480, the Cortes assembled
at Toledo. It was occupied in providing means to prevent the evil which
the communication of the Jews with Christians might produce: the ancient
regulations were renewed; and among others, those which obliged
unbaptized Jews to wear some distinguishing mark, and to inhabit
separate quarters, to which they were compelled to retire before night:
they were also prohibited from exercising the professions of physicians,
surgeons, merchants, barbers, and innkeepers; yet the Cortes had no
intention either of approving or demanding that the Inquisition should
be established in the kingdom.
The consent of the queen was obtained; and while the two sovereigns were
at Medina del Campo, on the 17th of November, 1480, they named as the
first inquisitors Michael Morillo and John de San Martin, both
Dominicans, as adviser and accessor of these two monks, Doctor John Ruiz
de Medina, a counsellor of the queen's; and as (procurator-fiscal)
attorney, John Lopez del Barco, the queen's chaplain.
On the 9th of October an order was sent by the king and queen to all the
governors of provinces to furnish the inquisitors and their suite with
everything they might require in their journey to Seville; an
extraordinary circumstance in that time, and which proves the influence
which the Dominicans had already acquired. Their privileges were the
same as those granted in 1223 by the Emperor Frederic. The Castilians
were so far from being pleased at the introduction of the Inquisition,
that the inquisitors, on their arrival at Seville, found it impossible
to collect the small number of persons necessary to the performance of
their functions, although they shewed their commission; and the Council
of Spain was obliged to issue another order, that the prefect and other
authorities of Seville, and the diocese of Cadiz, should assist the
inquisitors in their installation; this order was also interpreted in
such a manner that it was only executed in those towns which belonged to
the queen. The _New Christians_ then immediately emigrated into the
states of the Duke de Medina Sidonia, the Marquis of Cadiz, the Count
D'Arcos, and other nobles; and the new tribunal declared that their
heresy was proved by their emigration.
The inquisitors established their tribunal in the Dominican convent of
St. Paul, at Seville; and on the 2nd of January, 1481, they issued their
first edict, which commanded the Marquis of Cadiz, the Count D'Arcos,
and all grandees of Spain, to seize the persons of the emigrants within
fifteen days; and to send them under an escort to Seville, and
sequestrate their property, on pain of excommunication, besides the
other punishments to which they would be liable as favourers of heresy.
The number of prisoners was soon so considerable, that the convent
assigned to the inquisitors was not sufficiently large to contain them,
and the tribunal was removed to the Castle de Triana, situated near
Seville.
The inquisitors soon published a second edict, named the Edict of Grace,
to engage those who had apostatized to surrender themselves voluntarily:
it promised that if they came with true repentance, their property
should not be confiscated, and they should receive absolution; but if,
on the contrary, they suffered the time of _grace_ to elapse, or were
denounced by others, they would be prosecuted with all the severity of
the tribunal. Several suffered themselves to be persuaded; but the
inquisitors only granted them absolution when they had declared upon
oath the names, condition, and place of dwelling, of all the apostates
whom they knew or had heard spoken of. They were also obliged to keep
these revelations secret; and by these means a great number of _New
Christians_ fell into the hands of the inquisitors. When the period of
grace was passed, a new edict was published, which commanded all persons
to denounce those who had embraced the Judaic heresy, on pain of mortal
sin and excommunication. The consequence of this edict was, that an
heretic was only informed that he was accused, at the moment when he was
arrested and dragged to the dungeons of the Inquisition.
The same fate awaited the _converted_ Jew, who might have acquired
certain habits in his infancy, which, though not contrary to
Christianity, might be represented as certain signs of apostacy. The
inquisitors mentioned in their edict several cases where accusation was
commanded. The following cases are so equivocal, that altogether they
would scarcely form a simple presumption in the present time. A convert
was considered as relapsed into heresy, if he kept the sabbath out of
respect to the law which he had abandoned; this was sufficiently proved
if he wore better linen and garments on that day than those which he
commonly used, or had not a fire in his house from the preceding
evening; if he took the suet and fat from the animals which were
intended for his food, and washed the blood from it; if he examined the
blade of the knife before he killed the animals, and covered the blood
with earth; if he blessed the table after the manner of the Jews; if he
has drunk of the wine named caser, (a word derived from caxer, which
means _lawful_,) and which is prepared by Jews; if he pronounces the
bahara, or benediction, when he takes the vessel of wine into his hands,
and pronounces certain words before he gives it to another person; if he
eats of an animal killed by Jews; if he has recited the Psalms of David
without repeating the Gloria Patri at the end; if he gives his son a
Hebrew name chosen among those used by the Jews; if he plunges him seven
days after his birth into a basin containing water, gold, silver,
seed-pearl, wheat, barley, and other substances, pronouncing at the same
time certain words, according to the custom of the Jews; if he draws the
horoscope of his children at their birth; if he performs the ruaya, a
ceremony which consists in inviting his relations and friends to a
repast the day before he undertakes a journey; if he turned his face to
the wall at the time of his death, or has been placed in that posture
before he expired; if he has washed, or caused to be washed, in hot
water the body of a dead person, and interred him in a new shroud, with
hose, shirt, and a mantle, and placed a piece of money in his mouth; if
he has uttered a discourse in praise of the dead, or recited melancholy
verses; if he has emptied the pitchers and other vessels of water in the
house of the dead person, or in those of his neighbours, according to
the custom of the Jews; if he sits behind the door of the deceased as a
sign of grief, or eats fish and olives instead of meat, to honour his
memory; if he remains in his house one year after the death of any one,
to prove his grief. All these articles show the artifice used by the
inquisitors in order to prove to Isabella that a great number of Judaic
heretics existed in the dioceses of Cadiz and Seville. These measures,
so well adapted to multiply victims, could not fail in their effect, and
the tribunal soon began its cruel executions. On the 6th of January,
1481, six persons were burnt, seventeen on the 26th of March following,
and a still greater number a month after; on the 4th of November, the
same year, two hundred and ninety-eight _New Christians_ had suffered
the punishment of burning, and seventy-nine were condemned to the
horrors of perpetual imprisonment in the town of Seville alone. In other
parts of the province and in the diocese of Cadiz, two thousand of these
unfortunate creatures were burnt; according to Mariana, a still greater
number were burnt in effigy, and one thousand seven hundred suffered
different canonical punishments.
The great number of persons condemned to be burnt, obliged the prefect
of Seville to construct a scaffold of stone in a field near the town,
name Tablada; it was called Quemadero, and still exists. Four statues,
of plaster, were erected on it, and bore the name of the _Four
Prophets_; the condemned persons were enclosed alive in these figures,
and perished by a slow and horrible death[3].
The dread which these executions inspired in the _New Christians_ caused
a great number to emigrate to France, Portugal, and even to Africa. Many
of those who had been condemned for contumacy had fled to Rome, and
demanded justice of the Pope against their judges. The sovereign pontiff
wrote on the 29th of January to Ferdinand and Isabella, and complained
that the inquisitors did not follow the rule of right in declaring those
to be heretics who were not guilty. His Holiness added that he would
have pronounced their deprivation but from respect to the royal decree
which had instituted them in their office, but he revoked the
authorization which he had given. On the 11th of the following month the
Pope despatched a new brief, in which, without mentioning the first, he
says, the general of the Dominicans, Alphonso de St. Cebriant, having
proved to him the necessity of increasing the number of inquisitors, he
had appointed to that office Alphonso de St. Cebriant, and seven monks
of his order. It was at this time that Queen Isabella requested the Pope
to give the Inquisition a permanent form which should be satisfactory to
all parties; she required that the judgments passed in Spain should be
definitive and without appeal to Rome, and complained at the same time
that many persons accused her of being influenced in all that she did
for the tribunal by a desire to seize the wealth of the condemned.
When Sixtus IV. received this letter he had just learnt that his bulls
had met with some resistance in Sicily from the viceroy and other
magistrates, and artfully took advantage of Isabella's request to
confirm his authority in that kingdom. He replied to the queen, and
praised her zeal for the Inquisition; appeased her scruples of
conscience in regard to the confiscations; and assured her that he would
have complied with all her demands, if the cardinals, and those charged
with the administration of affairs, had not found insurmountable
difficulties in so doing. He exhorted her to maintain the Inquisition in
her states, and above all to take proper measures that the apostolical
bulls should be received and executed in Sicily.
The councillors to whom the Pope had submitted the demands of Isabella,
approved of the creation of an apostolical judge of appeal in Spain; and
proposed at the same time that no person descended from the Jews, either
by the male or female side, should be admitted among the inquisitorial
judges. Don Inigo Manrique was named sole judge of appeals in all
matters of faith.