OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS DURING THE MINISTRY OF THE INQUISITORS DEZA AND
CISNEROS.
The new inquisitor-general was scarcely in possession of his office,
when he began to establish regulations to increase the activity of the
Inquisition. In 1500 he published a constitution in seven articles; and
in 1504 four new articles relative to the confiscations.
To prove his zeal, Deza proposed to Ferdinand that the Inquisition
should be introduced into Sicily and Naples in its present form, and
that it should be under the authority of the Spanish inquisitor-general,
instead of being dependent on the Court of Rome. The king undertook to
introduce it into Sicily by a decree in 1500; but the inhabitants made
great resistance, and he was obliged to pursue the plan which had
succeeded in Aragon, by commanding the viceroy and other magistrates to
assist the inquisitors. Several seditions were quelled before the
sub-delegated inquisitor-general, Don Pedro Velorad, Archbishop of
Messina, could enter upon his office.
In 1516 the Sicilians, weary of the proceedings of the Inquisition,
revolted and set all the prisoners at liberty. Melchior de Cervera, the
inquisitor, only escaped death by a concurrence of extraordinary
circumstances; the viceroy was also in the greatest danger. The
islanders were thus freed from the yoke of this detested tribunal; but
they did not long enjoy liberty, for they were not able to resist the
power of Charles V., who obliged them to receive it a second time.
Naples was more fortunate. Ferdinand, in 1504, commanded the viceroy,
Gonzales Fernandez de Cordova, surnamed _the Great Captain_, to assist
the Archbishop of Messina with all his power, in establishing the
Inquisition; but the Neapolitans opposed it so obstinately, that the
viceroy judged it prudent to desist, and informed the king that it would
be extremely dangerous to combat so decided a resistance.
In 1510 Ferdinand again attempted to introduce the new Inquisition; but
his efforts were unavailing, and he was obliged to declare that he would
be satisfied if the Neapolitans would banish all the _New Christians_
who had taken refuge in their towns when they were driven from Spain.
Deza persuaded Ferdinand and Isabella to introduce the Inquisition into
the kingdom of Grenada, although a promise to the contrary had been made
to the baptized Moors. The queen rejected the proposition, but granted
one that differed little from it, namely, that the jurisdiction of the
inquisitors of Cordova should extend over Grenada, but permitting them
to prosecute only in cases of actual apostasy. From that period the
Moors have been known in history by the name of _Morescoes_.
The principal inquisitor of Cordova was Don Diego de Lucero; the
severity of his character caused great misery throughout the kingdom of
Cordova.
The moderation and exhortations of Ximenez de Cisneros, Archbishop of
Toledo, and Don Ferdinand de Talavera, had converted more than 50,000
Moors, and the conversions would have been still more numerous, if some
priests had not treated the Moors with severity, and excited a general
revolt.
In 1501 the sovereigns declared in an edict, that by the grace of God,
there were no infidels in the kingdom of Grenada, and to render the
conversions more secure, they forbade any Moors to enter the territory;
they also prohibited the slaves of that nation from holding any
communication with others, that their conversion might not be retarded,
or with those who had been baptized, as they might induce them to
apostatize. All who did not conform to these laws incurred the
punishment of death.
In February, 1502, Ferdinand and Isabella commanded all the free Moors
of both sexes, above fourteen and twelve years of age, to quit the
kingdom of Spain before the month of May following: they were allowed to
sell their goods as the Jews had been; but were prohibited from going to
Africa, which was then at war with Spain. The states of the Grand
Seignior and other countries were assigned to them as places of refuge:
as several baptized Moors sold their property and went to Africa, a
royal ordinance was published, importing that, for the space of two
years, no person could sell his property, or leave the kingdom of
Castile, except to go into Aragon or Portugal, without a permission,
which would only be granted to those who gave a security for their
return when they had terminated their affairs.
Deza was not contented with exciting the zeal of Ferdinand and Isabella
against the Moors; he also proposed measures against the Jews on the
occasion of the arrival of different strangers in Spain, but who were
not of those expelled in 1492. He obtained a royal ordinance in 1499,
which applied those measures to them which had been established against
the first Jews. The council of the Inquisition had already decreed that
the converted Jews should be obliged to prove their baptism, and that
they lived with the other Christians; that those who had been rabbins or
masters of the law should be obliged to change the place of their
residence; that they should appear every Sunday and on festival days in
the churches, and be carefully instructed in the christian doctrine.
Ferdinand permitted the inquisitors of Aragon to take cognizance of
usury and other crimes foreign to their jurisdiction, contrary to the
oath which he had taken to observe the laws of that kingdom, which
ordained that they should be punished by the secular judge.
Deza was at the head of the Inquisition eight years. If the calculation
of his victims is formed after the inscription at Seville, we shall find
that 38,440 persons were punished during that time, of whom 2592 were
burnt in person, 896 in effigy, and 34,952 condemned to different
penances. Among this crowd of persons who were persecuted by the
Inquisition, there were many distinguished by their birth, their
learning, their fortunes, and their offices. The sanguinary inquisitor,
Lucero, made the venerable Don Ferdinand de Talavera, first Archbishop
of Grenada, the object of a shameful persecution. He became jealous of
the reputation for sanctity and charity which this prelate had acquired,
and raised doubts of his faith, by reminding Isabella, that he had
opposed the establishment of the Inquisition in 1478, and the following
years; and by publishing that, although his father was noble, and of the
illustrious family of Contreras, yet he was of Jewish origin by the
mother's side. The inquisitor concluded from these circumstances that he
could commence a _secret instruction_ against the holy prelate. Deza
commissioned the Archbishop of Toledo, Ximenez de Cisneros, to receive
the preparatory informations on the faith of the Archbishop of Grenada;
Cisneros informed the Pope of the commission which he had received, and
the pontiff commanded his apostolical nuncio, the Bishop of Bristol, to
take the affair under his direction, and prohibited Deza and the
Inquisitors from pursuing it. The Pope, in a Council of Cardinals and
Bishops, acquitted the Archbishop of Grenada, who died in 1507, some
months after this judgment, after three years of the greatest anxiety,
as the inquisitor Lucero had caused many of his relations to be
arrested, although they were all innocent.
The persecution suffered by the learned Antonio Lebrija was not less
cruel. He had been tutor to Isabella, and was honoured by the friendship
and protection of Ximenez de Cisneros: he was well acquainted with the
Greek and Hebrew, and discovered and corrected in the Latin text of the
Vulgate some errors which had been committed by the transcribers before
the invention of printing. He was accused by some scholastic
theologians; his papers were seized, and after being treated with the
greatest cruelty, he had the grief of seeing the suspicion of heresy
established against him, and was obliged to live in that species of
disgrace until he could write his apology under the protection of
Ximenez de Cisneros.
The inhumanity of the inquisitor Lucero had still more serious
consequences: as he declared almost all the accused persons guilty of
concealment, and condemned them as _false penitents_, some persons added
imaginary circumstances to their confessions, and declared that
synagogues were held in different houses in Cordova, Grenada, and other
towns; they added, that even monks and nuns attended at them, and went
in procession from all parts of Castile; they also affirmed that many
Spanish families of _Old Christians_, whom they named, assisted at the
Jewish feasts. In consequence of these declarations, Lucero arrested
such an immense number of persons, that Cordova was on the point of
revolting against the Inquisition. The municipality, the bishop, the
chapter of the cathedral, and all the nobility sent deputies to the
inquisitor-general, to demand that Lucero should be recalled. Deza
refused to listen to their claim, until the cruelties of which Lucero
was accused were proved. Lucero had then the audacity to note down as
favourers of Judaism, knights, ladies, canons, monks, nuns, and
respectable persons of every class.
At this period, 1506, Philip I. ascended the throne of Castile; the
Bishop of Cordova informed him of what was passing, and the relations of
the prisoners demanded that they should be tried by another tribunal.
Philip commanded Deza to retire to his archbishopric of Seville, and to
invest Don Diego Ramirez de Guzman, Bishop of Catania, with the powers
of inquisitor-general; at the same time all the papers relative to this
affair were submitted to the Supreme Council of Castile. Ramirez de
Guzman suspended Lucero, and the other inquisitors of Cordova, from
their functions. The affair would have terminated happily, but for the
death of the king in the same year.
Deza was no sooner informed of that event than he again resumed his
office of inquisitor-general, and annulled all that had been done during
his retirement. Ferdinand V. resumed the government of the kingdom, as
father of Queen Joanna, widow of Philip I., as her mind was disordered.
Some time elapsed, however, before he began to reign, as he was at
Naples at the time of the death of the King of Spain. At this period,
all the inhabitants of Cordova, and some members of the Council of
Castile, declared against Deza, and published that he was of the race of
_Marranos_, that is, a descendant of the Jews.
The Marquis de Priego excited the Cordovans to a revolt; they forced the
prisons of the holy office, and liberated an immense number of
prisoners. They seized the persons of the procurator-fiscal, one of the
notaries, and several other officers of the tribunal; Priego would also
have arrested Lucero, but he escaped by means of an excellent mule.
These events alarmed the inquisitor-general to such a degree, that he
resigned his office, and retired to his diocese with the greatest
precaution. This proceeding restored tranquillity in Cordova, but did
not terminate the trials.
When the Regent of Spain arrived in that kingdom, he named Don Francisco
Ximenez de Cisneros inquisitor-general for the crown of Castile, and Don
Juan Enguera, Bishop of Vic, for that of Aragon. The Pope expedited
their bulls in 1507, and made Cisneros a cardinal.
Ximenez de Cisneros began to exercise his new employment on the 1st
October, when the conspiracy against the holy office had become almost
general, on account of the events at Cordova, of which the Council of
Castile took cognizance. All its members who had been of the party of
Philip I. signalized themselves by their hatred against the Inquisition.
This aversion made Ximenez de Cisneros feel the necessity of conducting
himself with extreme caution, that he might not give occasion for a
general convocation of the Cortes, which would have deprived him of the
high office of governor of the kingdom, which he then possessed.
The events at Cordova forced a great number of persons to appeal to
Rome. The Pope appointed two prelates to examine the trials, and made
Cardinal Cisneros judge of appeals, with the power of bringing all the
trials begun by the apostolical commissioners before him.
The cardinal immediately suspended the inquisitor Lucero, and sent him
prisoner to Burgos; he also imprisoned all those witnesses who were
suspected of having made false depositions, because some of the charges
were so absurd that no one could believe them. The examination of the
trials made the cardinal perceive, that an affair which implicated some
of the most illustrious families of Spain could not be treated with too
much delicacy:--he therefore obtained the king's permission to form a
junta, which he named the _Catholic Congregation_: it was composed of
twenty-two respectable persons, namely, the inquisitor-general (who was
the president); the inquisitor-general of Aragon; the Bishop of Ciudad
Rodrigo; those of Calahorra and Barcelona; the mitred abbot of the
Benedictines at Valladolid; the president of the Council of Castile, and
eight of its members; the vice-chancellor and the president of the
Chancery of Aragon; two counsellors of the _Supreme_; two provincial
inquisitors, and an auditor of the Chancery of Valladolid.
Their first assembly was held at Burgos, on Ascension-day, in 1508, and
on the 9th of July they decreed that the characters of the witnesses
were vile, contemptible, and unworthy of confidence; that their
declarations were full of contradictions; that they contained things
unworthy of belief, and contrary to common sense; that the prisoners
were consequently at liberty; that their honour, and that of the
prisoners who had died, was re-established; that the houses which had
been destroyed, as having been used for synagogues, should be rebuilt;
and that the judgment and the notes in the register should be erased.
This decision of the _Catholic junta_ was proclaimed at Valladolid on
the 1st August, in the same year, in the presence of the king, and a
multitude of nobles, and other inhabitants of all classes.
Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros had genius, knowledge, and was just, which
he proved in the affair of Cordova, and in the protection which he
granted to Lebrija and other learned men on different occasions. I shall
here remark the error into which several writers have fallen, in
accusing Cisneros of having taken a great part in the establishment of
the holy office, when it is certain that, in concert with Cardinal
Mendoza and Talavera, he endeavoured to prevent it. When he was chosen
as chief of an institution which had more power and was better obeyed
than many sovereigns, circumstances made it a duty to uphold and defend
it, and he was obliged to oppose innovations in the manner of
proceeding, although the events at Cordova had shown him the
inconveniences of the secrecy preserved by the tribunal.
The division of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, which took place at
this time, and the idea that it was no longer necessary to have as many
inquisitorial tribunals as bishoprics, were the reasons that induced
Cisneros to distribute them by provinces. He established the holy office
at Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Toledo, in Estremadura, at Murcia,
Valladolid, and Calahorra, and determined the extent of territory for
the jurisdiction of each tribunal: at this time he also sent inquisitors
to the Canary isles. In 1513, the inquisition was introduced at Cuenca;
in 1524, at Grenada; under Philip II., at Santiago de Galicia; and under
Philip IV., at Madrid. Cisneros also judged it necessary, in 1516, to
have a tribunal at Oran, and soon after in America.
The inquisitor-general of Aragon adopted the same system, and sent
inquisitors to Saragossa, Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca, Sardinia, and
Sicily; and, at a later period, to Pampeluna, after the conquest of
Navarre: but this kingdom being united in 1515 to that of Castile, its
tribunal was subjected to the inquisitor-general of that kingdom, who
suppressed it some time after, and transferred the territory to that of
Calahorra.
During the eleven years of his ministry, (which ended by his death in
1517,) Cisneros permitted the condemnation of 52,855 individuals, 3564
were burnt in person, 1232 in effigy, and 4832 suffered different
punishments. Although this number of executions is immense, yet it must
be acknowledged that Cisneros had taken measures to relax the activity
of the Inquisition; the most important was, that he assigned particular
churches to the _New Christians_, and charged the curates to increase
their zeal in instructing them, and to visit them often in their own
houses.
_Offer made to the King to obtain the publicity of the Proceedings._
In 1512, a report being spread among the _New Christians_ that Ferdinand
intended to make war against his nephew, the King of Navarre, they
offered him 600,000 ducats of gold towards the expenses of the war if he
would consent to make a law that the trials of the Inquisition should be
public: the king was on the point of treating with the _New Christians_,
when Cisneros placed a large sum of money at his disposal; the king
accepted it, though it was less than the first, and abandoned the idea
of a reform.
After the death of that prince, and while Charles V. was in Flanders, in
1517, the _New Christians_ again offered, on the same conditions,
800,000 ducats for the expenses of his journey to Spain. William de
Croy, Duke d'Ariscot, the favourite governor of the young monarch,
persuaded him to consult the colleges, universities, and learned men of
Spain and Flanders; they all replied that the communication of the names
and the entire depositions of the witnesses was consonant to all rights
natural, human, and divine. When the cardinal-inquisitor was informed of
this decision, he sent deputies, and wrote to the king to combat it; he
reminded him that a similar proposal had been refused by his
grandfather; but he did not tell him the most important circumstance,
that he had refused it for a sum of money. Charles V. left the affair
undecided until his arrival in Spain, but he terminated it according to
the general hopes after the death of Cisneros, in 1518.
The particular favour which Ferdinand granted to the Inquisition did not
prevent him from maintaining the rights of his crown. In 1509, he
published a law which prohibited, on pain of death, any person from
presenting to the inquisitors any bull, or writing of that nature,
obtained from the Pope, or his legates, without first applying to the
king that it might be examined by his council.
This right of the crown of Spain over the decisions of the Pope has been
lately renewed by a law of Charles III.; yet the law has often been
impotent against the enterprises, the decisions, and the briefs of the
Popes.
Ferdinand named Don Louis Mercader inquisitor-general for the kingdom of
Aragon, after the death of the Bishop of Vic. Mercader died in 1516,
while the government was in the hands of Charles of Austria, the
grandson of Ferdinand, who died in the same year, leaving no children by
his second marriage.
Charles, his grandson, resided in Flanders, but he sent into Spain
several men who enjoyed his confidence: amongst them were his governor,
the Duke d'Ariscot, and Adrian de Florencio, who was Dean of Louvain,
and born at Utrecht. As the two sovereignties of Castile and Aragon were
now united, it appeared natural that there should be but one
inquisitor-general for the monarchy, but Cisneros had too much
penetration to omit this opportunity of recommending himself to the
favorite, and, consequently, to the prince. Instead of demanding this
union, he wrote to the king to represent that it appeared to him
expedient to bestow the bishopric of Tortosa and the office of
inquisitor-general of Aragon on the Dean of Louvain, and it was easy to
obviate the difficulty of his being a foreigner by giving him letters of
naturalization. This plan was executed; the double nomination was sent
to Rome, and the Pope granted the bulls. Adrian took possession of
Majorca on the 7th of February, 1517: this nomination was followed by
one to the office of Cisneros, who died on the 6th of November
following. Although he was elected Pope on the 9th of January, 1522, he
continued in his office until the 10th of September in the following
year, when he signed the bulls of his successor, Don Alphonso Manrique
de Lara, Archbishop of Seville.
During the period that the Inquisition remained separate from that of
Castile, it was often violently attacked, and more than once was on the
point of being abolished, or at least subjected to a reform, which would
have left it without the power of exciting terror. Ferdinand having
assembled the Cortes of the kingdom at Monzon, in 1510, the deputies of
the towns and cities loudly complained that the inquisitors abused their
powers, not only in matters of faith, but in several points which were
not in their jurisdiction. The deputies also represented, that they
interfered in the regulation of the contributions, and that the taxes
were shamefully diminished by the reductions which they made in the
lists; that their authority had made them so bold and insolent, that
they created themselves judges in all doubtful cases; and where their
competence was denied, they had recourse to excommunication; that they
oppressed the magistrates, who feared that they should be obliged to do
public penance in an _auto-da-fe_; that this misfortune had already
happened to the viceroys and governors of Barcelona, Valencia, Majorca,
Sardinia, and Sicily, and to several persons of high rank; in
consequence, they entreated his Majesty to maintain the execution of the
laws and statues of the kingdom of Aragon, and to oblige the officers of
the Inquisition to confine themselves to matter of faith, and to pursue
them according to the rules of common law, in giving them the publicity
of criminal proceedings.
This representation of the Cortes acquainted the king with the
disposition of the public; yet he avoided giving a direct reply, and
said that it was impossible to decide upon so important an affair
without having acquired a profound knowledge of facts; that he requested
them to collect all that came to their knowledge, and to lay them before
him in the first assembly. This took place in the same town, in 1512.
The resolutions which were then adopted form a treaty between the
sovereign and his people: it contains twenty-five articles, all tending
to restrain the extent of the jurisdiction of the inquisitors.
It was there stated that they could not interfere in trials for bigamy
and usury, unless the culprits had fallen into the crime of heresy in
asserting that these offences were not sinful; nor in the proceedings
instituted against blasphemers by other tribunals, unless the blasphemy
was heretical: they were also prohibited from proceeding in a trial
without the concurrence of the _ordinaire diocesan_: the
inquisitor-general was likewise restrained from pronouncing judgment in
cases of appeal without the consent of his counsellors; and that the
execution of the sentence which had caused it should be delayed. No
measures were taken for the publicity of the proceedings, or with regard
to the confiscations; but it was agreed that the contracts and other
engagements, signed by one who had the reputation of a good catholic,
should be valid, although he should be afterwards proved to have been a
heretic at the time of the transaction.
The king soon repented of having given his word to the Cortes; and,
seconded by the intrigues of the inquisitors, he solicited and obtained
a dispensation from his promise, on the 30th of April, 1513. One of the
clauses of the dispensation reinstates the tribunals of the holy office
in all the privileges which they had formerly possessed. This conduct
of the king caused a general revolt; and he was obliged to request the
Pope to confirm the regulations of the Cortes, and subject those who did
not conform to them to the censure of the church. The Pope saw the
necessity of compliance, and granted the bull in 1515.