Volume 3 / Book 8 — CHAPTER IV. CENSORSHIP. (continued 2)

LICENCES

The earliest formal grant of power to the Spanish Inquisition to issue licences would appear to have been made by Paul V early in the seventeenth century,[1388] but it had been exercised long before. The Index of Quiroga, issued in 1583, in its preliminary rules 3, 4, 5 and 8, assumes that inquisitors can grant written licences, but this power was held subject to the inquisitor-general and Suprema for, in the orders accompanying the distribution of the Index, consultation with them was prescribed as a necessary preliminary.[1389] From some examples of the period it would seem that only special and not general licences were granted, and that much circumspection was used with regard to them. Even Philip IV had no general licence until, about 1640, he wrote to Inquisitor-general Sotomayor that he had been amusing his leisure with Guicciardini’s History, until he was told that it was prohibited. He therefore asked for a licence to read it and other prohibited books not treating of matters of faith, for he would not accept a licence to read them.[1390] A curious partial licence was one granted in 1614, to Padre Gullo Sabell (William Saville?) to read Catholic books in the English tongue—apparently the language sufficed to render them prohibited.[1391]

The tendency of the Spanish Inquisition to assert its independence of Rome in matters of censorship was especially manifested with regard to licences. When in 1622, Gregory XV and, in 1631, Urban VIII, revoked all licences, the Suprema declared that it was not the papal intention to interfere with the licences granted by the inquisitor-general, and that they remained in force.[1392] The next step was to invalidate all papal licences and accordingly, January 18, 1627, the Suprema presented a consulta to Philip IV, representing that many persons in Spain obtained them, and supplicating him to order his ambassador to urge the pope not to grant them, adding that meanwhile it was deemed necessary to issue an edict annulling them. Philip was not prepared to sanction so flagrant an assault on papal authority, and replied that he would ask the pope to transmit them through the inquisitor-general, but that, until the answer was received, no innovation must be attempted. Urban took advantage of the request to assert his supreme authority in a manner for which the Suprema had not bargained, for he annulled all licences, both papal and those issued by the inquisitor-general, the only exception being the one held by the inquisitor-general himself. As all the bishops in Spain were ordered to publish this brief, the Inquisition could not suppress it, however humiliating it was. Cardinal Zapata accordingly published it, February 21, 1628, requiring the surrender of all licences within twenty days, under heavy penalties, and when he issued his Index of 1632 he included in it the brief and his edict.[1393]

Urban pursued his victory by instructing Cardinal Mellini to write, December 6, 1628, to Zapata defining his authority to be that of granting licences to learned persons who furnished security that they wished to combat heresy, but the licences were to be limited in time, and to require the recipients to show to the Inquisition what they wrote.[1394] This however was a failure, for no attention seems to have been paid to the prescribed limitations. The Inquisition continued its independent course and finally carried its point, to a certain degree, by instructing the tribunals that, if papal licences were presented to them, they were not to be admitted, but were to be forwarded to the inquisitor-general for his action.[1395]

PENALTIES

Towards the close of the eighteenth century, Llorente tells us that licences were difficult to obtain. When an application was made, the inquisitor-general instituted secret inquiries as to the character of the applicant and, if the result was favorable, he was required to state his object and the nature of the works that he desired to consult; if the licence was granted, it was limited to a specified number of books in a definite branch of literature; permission to keep them was rarely granted, and all licences excepted works directed against Catholicism, such as the writings of modern philosophers.[1396] Doubtless this strictness may be true of certain times, but the practice varied according to the temper of the inquisitor-general or Suprema. There sometimes was great laxity, if we may believe the reasons alleged, in 1747, by Prado y Cuesta, for revoking all licences, for he says that on investigation he had found that they were not sought by men of learning, but by the frivolous of both sexes to gratify idle curiosity; many persons merely made a verbal request to read a single book and extended the permission to cover all that they wanted, while others, seeing that ignorant people were licensed, thought that the privilege was general and availed themselves of it without asking.[1397] Licences, moreover, were by no means so restricted in character as Llorente asserts. Some issued by Inquisitors-general Bonifaz and Beltran cover all prohibited books, except Machiavelli, Sarpi’s Council of Trent, works assailing the Catholic religion and obscenities,[1398] and we have seen that religious houses generally and even occasionally individuals held licences enabling them to purchase from estates considerable miscellaneous lots of prohibited books, the possession of which, by deceased scholars, shows that they too must have enjoyed similar privileges.

From the very numerous applications for licences made about this time it appears that they were customarily addressed to the Suprema, which referred them to the appropriate tribunal for report as to the age, the learning and the judgement of the applicant. Under the Restoration this inquiry was extended to his moral and political conduct, showing that discrimination was made in favor of those whose conservative tendencies were approved.[1399]

We have seen the ferocious penalties of death and confiscation provided in the law of 1558 for unauthorized printing. With these the Inquisition had nothing to do, as its censorship was concerned only with books after publication, and its treatment of those who violated its rules was much more moderate. With its jurisdiction over them it allowed no interference, even from Rome, for, about 1565, it suppressed a papal jubilee indulgence, because it contained faculties of absolution for keeping prohibited books.[1400] In the Index of 1559, the penalties threatened for reading, possessing, buying or selling prohibited books were excommunication latæ sententæ ipso facto, two hundred ducats and a menace of prosecution for suspicion of heresy and disobedience.[1401] In the special edicts prohibiting individual books, there appears to be no established formula. Sometimes the penalty threatened is excommunication and two hundred ducats, sometimes excommunication and punishment at discretion, sometimes excommunication, fine and punishment at discretion.[1402]

This discretion manifested itself in a great variety of penalties, moderate and severe, both as regards readers and booksellers, though the latter appear commonly to be the more harshly visited. A rehabilitation granted, September 28, 1647, to Luis Sanaren, bookseller of Saragossa, infers that he had been reconciled and deprived of his civil rights.[1403] Miguel Rodríguez, a bookseller of Madrid, for importing and selling prohibited books, was sentenced, August 1, 1763, to reprimand, absolution ad cautelam, certain spiritual penances, all costs of trial and banishment from Madrid for six years, of which the first three were to be spent in an African presidio. This of course meant his utter ruin.[1404] At Logroño, in 1645, Fray Tomas de Nieva, for teaching in his professorial chair from a prohibited book, was condemned to grave reprimand before his colleagues, to retract certain propositions, to four years’ reclusion, and to perpetual deprivation of teaching and of voting and being voted for.[1405] On the other hand, in 1803, Don Jacobo María de Parga y Puga, for the inveterate habit of reading prohibited books, knowing them to be prohibited, in contempt for many years of the authority of the Inquisition, was sentenced by the Madrid tribunal to fifteen days’ spiritual exercises and to a private reprimand in the apartments of the inquisitor.[1406] So, in 1816, the Suprema, acting on a sumaria, and without subjecting the delinquents to a trial, sent to the Santiago tribunal a sentence on Juan Romero for reading prohibited books and on Josef Manuel García for selling and recommending them; they were to present themselves before the nearest commissioner, who was to reprimand and warn them that for a repetition of the offence they would not be treated with the same benignity.[1407]

THE SCRIPTURES

Cases of infraction, until a comparatively recent period, are not frequent. After the excitement of the Reformation was suppressed, intellectual activity in Spain seems to have been reduced to such torpor that the forbidden fruit was little sought. In the Toledo record from 1575 to 1610 there is not a single case, nor is there one in the same record from 1648 to 1794.[1408] In the disturbance of thought, preceding and during the revolutionary epoch, prosecutions become more frequent, although still not as numerous as might be expected from the importance claimed by the Inquisition for its services. From 1780 until 1820, in the whole of Spain, the total aggregate amounts only to three hundred and five. During this period, from 1808 to 1815, inclusive, the Inquisition was virtually dormant, having only five cases in all, which would leave, for the remaining years, an average slightly under nine. The crowding of a hundred and one cases into the six years, 1801 to 1806, reflects the urgency with which the government of Carlos IV was endeavoring to restrict the press, and that there were twenty in 1819 is significant of the agitation leading to the revolution of January, 1820.[1409] The slenderness of the whole record is the measure of the success which attended the combined action of the state and of the Inquisition in benumbing for nearly three centuries the Spanish intellect.

Although censorship was instituted for the suppression of heresy and for keeping heretical books and propositions from the people, it developed its utility in many directions, more or less connected with its primary object. It was inevitable that it should wage incessant warfare with the countless editions of the Bible with Protestant notes and commentaries, and we have seen how industriously Valdés prepared for his expurgatory Index of the Scriptures in 1554. It was, however, the vernacular versions that caused the greatest anxiety. Prior to the Reformation there was practically no restriction on the circulation of the Bible in the vulgar tongue. It is true that, in the early thirteenth century, the struggle with the Waldenses and the Cathari, who possessed versions of their own, led to prohibitions by Innocent III, in 1199, and by Jaime I of Aragon in 1234, while the Council of Toulouse, in 1229, prohibited the possession by laymen of any portion of the Bible, even in Latin, as well as of the Breviary and Hours of the Virgin in the vernacular, because they contained extracts. The decree of Pope Innocent became embodied in the Corpus Juris and thus remained familiar to canon lawyers; it was adduced in the Repertorium Inquisitorum of 1494, but only in a kind of obiter dictum, showing that at that time it was regarded as of no practical moment.[1410] Yet from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century there was no proscription of vernacular Bibles. The temporary causes which had led to their prohibition had passed away, and many translations were made, especially in Germany. One in Catalan, by Bonifacio Ferrer, brother of San Vicente Ferrer, was printed in Valencia, in 1478, under the editorship of the Inquisitor Jaime Borell.[1411]

THE SCRIPTURES

It was natural that the use made of the Bible by the Reformers should cause the revival of these obsolete prohibitions. Even before the compilation of the Indexes, we find Inquisitor-general Tavera granting to the Duchess of Soma, wife of the Admiral of Naples, a licence to keep and read a Bible in Italian, but the permission is limited to one year, showing how carefully it was guarded.[1412] It was therefore a matter of course that the Index of 1551 should contain a prohibition of the Bible in Spanish or any other vulgar tongue.[1413] This zeal was intensified by the versions which the Spanish refugees—Francisco de Enzinas, Juan Pérez, Cipriano de Valera and Cassiodoro de Reina—perfected and strove to introduce into Spain, but the prohibition was not confined to these. It extended to all fragments and extracts, however orthodox the rendering, as though to keep the unlearned ignorant of the existence of the Bible, or at least to make them understand that it was a wholly forbidden book. The Index of 1559 condemns twenty-two editions of the Hours of the Virgin in Romance, together with all others containing similar superstitions, but the real objection was the passages of Scripture contained in them, and, in 1573, all Hours in Romance were forbidden, as the Council of Toulouse had done in 1229.[1414] The extreme care with which the public was guarded from the Bible is seen in the 1583 Index of Quiroga, which, in forbidding all portions of Scripture in Romance, only excepts the fragments embodied in the canon of the mass, and the texts which Catholic writers may cite and explain, provided they are not printed alone but are in sermons and other works of edification.[1415] So unreasoning was this jealousy that, according to Azpilcueta, there were earnest men who desired to suppress vernacular versions of the Creed, the Paternoster, the Ave Maria and the Salve Regina, a zeal which found practical expression, in 1674, when the Inquisition prohibited a work entitled Exercicios de Devocion because it contained translations of the Miserere, the Magnificat, the Te Deum and the Athanasian Symbol.[1416] The people were to be kept in such profound ignorance that the Sotomayor Index of 1640 prohibits, not only the vernacular Bible and all its parts, but even summaries and compendiums of it and, as though to render it hateful, in the Edicts of Faith, it was classed with the Koran and other Mahometan books, the possession of which was to be denounced to the Inquisition.[1417] It had to watch not only over its Spanish flock, but over its converts in the Indies, when it found that the English Society for the Propagation of the Gospel had caused versions to be made in the Indian tongues and was circulating them in America. This unexpected missionary work called for fresh exertion and, in 1710, we find Clement XI congratulating Inquisitor-general Ibañez on his efforts and urging him to persistent watchfulness.[1418]

This treatment of the Bible seems to have piqued the curiosity of the intelligent for, in 1747, Inquisitor-general Prado y Cuesta complains of the inordinate desire of many persons to have it in the vernacular, but, among the mass of the people it produced the impression desired. In 1791, Villanueva tells us that they, who once sought it, now regard it with horror and detestation; many care nothing for it and more are ignorant of its very existence.[1419] Yet, within a decade of Prado’s utterance, the policy of the Church changed. Although, in 1713, Clement XI, in the bull Unigenitus, had condemned the use of the Bible by the laity as a Jansenist error, yet, only forty-four years later, the Congregation of the Index, in 1757, conceded the use of vernacular versions, if approved by the Holy See and accompanied with orthodox comments.[1420] This was followed, in 1771, by a version of the Acts of the Apostles by Catenacci, dedicated to Clement XIV and, in 1778, by the brief In tanta librorum, in which Pius VI approved of a translation of the whole Bible by Archbishop Martini.[1421] The Spanish Inquisition promptly followed the papal example. In 1782, Inquisitor-general Beltran issued a decree reciting that ample cause had existed for exceeding the Tridentine rule, but these causes had ceased and, in view of the usefulness of the sacred text, the Spanish rule was modified to conform to that of Trent, to the decree of the Congregation of 1757 and to the brief of 1778.[1422] In 1783 the Suprema ordered that the French version of Le Maître de Saci should be freely allowed[1423] and, in 1790, there appeared in Valencia a complete Spanish translation by Scio de San Miguel, which was speedily and repeatedly reprinted. No such evils have followed as were dreaded for two centuries, showing how much wiser would have been the policy of meeting the heretic Scriptures with an orthodox version, fortified with appropriate comments.

EXTENSION OF JURISDICTION

The same jealousy of admitting the vulgar to too great a familiarity with spiritual things showed itself with regard to works of devotion and edification. In 1570 a consulta of the Suprema to the inquisitor-general recommended that the catechism should not be printed in Romance.[1424] In the Preface to the Index of 1583, the prohibition of works by men of the highest Christian repute, such as Fisher of Rochester, Thomas More, Gerónimo Osorio, Francisco de Borja, Luis de Granada, Juan de Avila and others is explained, partly by books having been falsely attributed to them, partly by occasional incautious passages, and partly by their not being fitted for circulation in the vulgar tongue. The case of the Obras del Cristiano of St. Francisco de Borja is illustrative. In the Index of 1559 it is simply prohibited. After his death, in 1572, as General of the Society of Jesus, Quiroga, in the Index of 1583, added “only in Romance or other vulgar tongue.” He was beatified in 1624, but the canonization proceedings were delayed in consequence of his book being in the Spanish Index and, in 1662, the Jesuit Procurator-general applied to the Inquisition to rubricate the leaves of a copy and send it to the Congregation of Rites, so as to remove the impediment, but it was not until 1671 that he was finally enrolled in the catalogue of saints.[1425] The effort to suppress mysticism manifested itself, about 1620, in numerous edicts to suppress books of mystic devotion and lives of men and women who evidently were mystics.

Books of ritual were scrutinized with the same captiousness. June 15, 1568, the Pontificals printed in Dueñas and Valladolid were ordered to be seized. In 1583 some pernicious errors were discovered in the Breviary printed in Salamanca, in 1575. Even books so elementary as cartillas, or primers, could not escape. A carta acordada of November 6, 1577, alludes to a previous one of June 14th, ordering the suppression of cartillas containing an article entitled “Castigo y doctrina de Caton.” Since then, it goes on to say, there have been found in other cartillas various matters pernicious and contrary to the teaching of the Church, especially in those printed by Juan de la Plaza in Toledo, wherefore all cartillas of every kind are to be seized, in the shops and in the hands of children going to school, and orders are consequently given that no one, under pains and censures, shall hold, read, or sell them.[1426]

There was little, indeed, to which the Inquisition could not extend the jurisdiction of its censorship. The fifth Council of Lateran had alluded to the danger to the public peace arising from libellous attacks on individuals, as one of the reasons for the examination and licensing of books before printing, but this was a purely secular matter, and the faculties conferred on the inquisitor-general looked solely to the suppression of heresy. Clement VIII, however, in his Index of 1596, included, as subjects of condemnation, defamatory memorials against religion or princes, and this opened the way to much else. It is true that an experienced writer assures us that, although such writing can be suppressed by edict, it cannot be under pain of excommunication, but only as a command under pain of mortal sin, and that the Inquisition cannot proceed against the author unless the faith is involved.[1427]

These limitations, however, were easily overpassed. We have seen (Vol. I, p. 488) how Inquisitor-general Pacheco, in 1623, condemned some legal arguments in defence of the Chancellery of Granada and commenced prosecutions of the counsel who had drawn them up. His successor Zapata, in 1627, was a trifle more cautious in a conflict wherein the Inquisition was not concerned. The Universities of Salamanca, Valladolid and Alcalá united in an attack on the Jesuits and their new college, when the Inquisition ordered the paper suppressed on the ground that it was anonymous and harsh in style. Then Salamanca came forward and acknowledged the authorship; the Jesuit procurator still asked for its suppression, but the Inquisition decided that it had not the calidad de oficio and withdrew the prohibition, but still assumed authority to require the removal of asperities. Philip IV was dissatisfied, as he favored the Jesuits, and asked in what this case differed from others in which Pacheco had suppressed similar papers.[1428]

In 1687, the tribunal of Toledo, in a quarrel with the Carthusian house of el Paular, suppressed four memorials of its adversaries to the king, and punished the printer, Lucas Antonio Bedmar with four years’ exile from Toledo and Madrid; the grounds alleged were that they were scandalous, insulting, untrue and defamatory of those mentioned in them; there was no assumption that the faith was in any way involved and it was simply an expeditious way of putting an opponent out of court.[1429] Other similar cases will come before us presently and meanwhile we may observe that there was even no scruple in prosecuting individuals, in matters with which the Inquisition seemingly had no concern or jurisdiction, as in the case of Fray Bonifaz de San Pablo, tried in 1791, by the Barcelona tribunal, for attempting to print a satirical paper on his own Carmelite Order, and in that of Josefa and Jacinto López, prosecuted by Toledo, in 1797, on suspicion of having posted some pasquinades, characterized as “infamatorios y hereticales.”[1430] The powers of the Inquisition were so elastic that they included the privilege of self-definition; none dared to call them in question, and it seems have been invoked to supply any deficiency in the ordinary machinery of justice—or of injustice.

THE REGALIAS

Still less concerned with heresy was an important field in which the censorial functions of the Inquisition were employed by the crown, in its frequent struggles with the Holy See. In the middle ages papal domination encroached in many ways on the prerogatives of the temporal ruler, encroachments submitted to, with more or less resistance, by the loosely organized feudal monarchies. As these, in the sixteenth century, transformed themselves into absolutism, it was natural that they should grow restive, and the Reformation, which divided Europe into two hostile religious camps, gave to those sovereigns who remained faithful to Rome the opportunity of advancing their claims as the price of their support. The Spanish kings had always been distinguished by their resistance to papal pretensions and though, throughout the sixteenth century, they sternly kept their people in the Roman obedience, they were none the less resolute in asserting the regalías, or royal prerogatives, which in many ways conflicted with what Rome asserted as its rights. In the struggles thence arising, valuable assistance was derived from the works of legists, learned in the imperial jurisprudence and in the fueros, and these regalistas became especially obnoxious to the Holy See. Rome has never hesitated to use the powerful aid of the Index in support of Ultramontanism, and it took special care to condemn and prohibit the books of the regalistas. It was impossible for a temporal sovereign to allow the suppression of works written in defence of his sovereignty, and the Inquisition, at least for a time, willingly supported the crown in this, not from loyalty, but because it afforded the opportunity of declaring and maintaining its independence of the hated Congregations of the Inquisition and of the Index.

When Melchor Cano, in 1555, at the request of Charles V, drew up a memoir in which he assailed, with the bitterest invective, the pretensions of the curia, and Paul IV summoned him, as a son of perdition, to Rome for trial, the Spanish Inquisition sided with the sovereign and did not put the obnoxious paper in the Index.[1431] Melchor Cano was forgiven, but the causes of dissension remained. One of the chief of these was the jurisdiction exercised by the papal nuncio, bringing in its train a long series of abuses, relief from which was sought by the recurso de fuerza, like the French appel comme d’abus, admitting appeals to the Council of Castile from all ecclesiastical tribunals. The curia claimed this to be an invasion of clerical liberty, and the struggle over it was long and envenomed. In 1591 Juan de Roa printed, with a dedication to the king and the approbation of an inquisitor, a treatise entitled “Apologia de Juribus principalibus defendendis,” arguing in favor of the royal jurisdiction in such cases, which excited no little indignation in Rome, where it was promptly condemned and burnt. Gregory XIV and the Roman Inquisition instructed the Nuncio Millino to induce Philip II to follow this example, and the succeeding Nuncio Caietano was ordered to labor with the utmost zeal to have the very memory of the book obliterated. So far was he from success that the Inquisition did not censure the work, and Philip rewarded the author with presentation to a priory worth fifteen hundred ducats per annum, of which he was promptly deprived by the nuncio, on account of his unspeakable crimes. So bitter was the quarrel that Cardinal Baronius, in his Annals, so far forgot the impartiality of an historian as to introduce an indecent personal attack on Roa in his account of the Priscillianists of the fifth century. This led to a rumor that his volume would be condemned by the Spanish Inquisition, whereat he complained loudly, in a letter to Padre Antonio Talpa, inveighing against the incredible audacity of the Spanish Inquisition, which placed on its Index whatever it chose.[1432]

INDEPENDENCE OF ROME

It was probably this case that led Clement VIII, in the Rules prefixed to his Index, which have been retained in all succeeding Indexes, to order the expurgation of whatever was contrary to ecclesiastical immunity, liberty and jurisdiction. This did not prevent Spanish legists and theologians from defending the regalías. About 1600, Henrique Henríquez, one of the most learned doctors of his day, produced his “De Clavibus Romani Pontificis” in which, like Roa, he maintained the recurso de fuerza. By order of the papal nuncio, this was suppressed and burnt so successfully that only three or four copies have survived.[1433] That an organized government should permit within its territory an antagonistic foreign power to suppress books defending what it claimed to be its rights was an anomaly which could not be patiently endured. Rome was immovable, and a clash was inevitable. In 1613 appeared the “Tractatus de cognitione per viam violentiæ” by Gerónimo de Cevallos and, in 1617, Philip III, on learning that its condemnation was under consideration in Rome, wrote earnestly to his ambassador to prevent it, and declared that such condemnation would not be received or executed in Spain. This may have delayed but did not prevent the adverse decision, which came December 12, 1624, when Philip IV carried out his father’s threat. The Spanish Inquisition did not condemn the work, but merely ordered some clauses altered, and its independence in the matter of censorship was tacitly asserted.[1434]

Rome persisted, and independence was definitely asserted. In February, 1627, the Count of Oñate, ambassador to the Holy See, reported the issue of a decree condemning books, some of which were in defence of the regalías. In June, Philip sent this to the Suprema, asking its advice. It replied that, when the decree should come, it would be examined and reported to the king without allowing its publication, for no ecclesiastic or layman in Spain could do so without orders from the Inquisitor-general and Suprema. If such attempts were made, an appropriate remedy would be applied.[1435] The issue promptly came. The decree appeared, April 12, 1628, and one of the books condemned was the “Tractatus de Regia Protectione,” by Salgado de Somoza, President of the Royal Council and a vigorous upholder of the regalías. When the decree arrived, the king ordered the inquisitor-general to deliver it to him and wrote to all the bishops forbidding them to publish it.[1436]

Having thus established its independence, the Inquisition refused to recognize Roman condemnations of books of all kinds. When one was received, it caused the book to be examined by its own calificadores and voted on their report, either to approve or to condemn; whatever was done was its own act and not that of Rome. Another of the works condemned in the decree of April 1, 1628, was a book of extravagant Mariolatry, entitled Elucidarium Deiparæ, by the Jesuit Juan Bautista Poza, which had been current in Spain for a couple of years. Poza wrote two abusive letters to Urban VIII, asserting that the Roman Congregations had no jurisdiction in Spain, where its own Inquisition was supreme, and, in 1632, the Congregation retorted by condemning all his works. The Nuncio Monte made great efforts to have this published, but the Suprema had the books examined and only prohibited them until they should be expurgated. It was not always easy, however, to array the bishops in opposition to the Holy See, and in Valencia the self-willed Archbishop Acevedo claimed the right to publish the papal decree, and the tribunal there was involved in some trouble with the episcopal officials.[1437]

INDEPENDENCE OF ROME

This was speedily followed by a similar struggle over a vastly more important book—the Dialogo of Galileo, on the Copernecan system.[1438] In a consulta of December 13, 1633, the Suprema represented to Philip that, under the papal delegations, the Inquisition had exclusive control over censorship in Spain. In Rome, prohibitions were issued by the Congregations of Inquisition and Index, which were similar bodies to the Suprema, and it did not recognize them, but only the pope, as its superior. The nuncios were always endeavoring to extend their jurisdiction and required to be watched to avert greater evils. The inquisitors of Cuenca had just written that, by the nuncio’s order, the provisor had affixed to the church-doors an edict regarding a book entitled “Galileo Galilei Fiorentino,” without having first given notice to the inquisitor-general. The results of allowing the nuncio to do this were foreseen when the Count of Oñate reported from Rome the prohibition of certain books defending the regalías and, as the nuncios were continually endeavoring thus to invade the exclusive jurisdiction of the Inquisition in matters of censorship, the king was asked to sign the accompanying letters to the archbishops and bishops, similar to those despatched in 1627.[1439] Of course the king signed the letters; whether the Suprema had Galileo’s book examined or not, we have no means of knowing, but the Inquisition escaped the discredit of condemning him, and the name of the illustrious Florentine appears nowhere in the Spanish Indexes.

In the matter of the regalistas, Philip, in a letter of April 10, 1634, to Cardinal Borja, pointed out the unfairness of suppressing legal works defending his side of the controversy with the Holy See, in which the faith was not concerned, and he ordered urgent representations to be made to Urban VIII, with the intimation that, if Rome continued its course, he would suppress all books supporting the papal claims.[1440] Remonstrance was in vain. In 1640, Salgado de Somoza’s “Tractatus de Supplicatione ad Sanctissimum” was condemned; in 1642, Solorzano’s “Disputationes de Indiarum Jure” and, in 1646, six or eight similar works, for which the nuncio was instructed to demand similar prohibition in Spain.[1441] Imperious as was this, the act was rendered doubly offensive by causing the condemnation to be published without transmitting it through the Inquisition, thus disregarding the independence claimed by the latter and the courtesy due to a friendly government. Provocation so extreme could scarce have been ventured but for the desperate position of Spain, battling at once with France, with Portugal and with Catalonia. Yet Spain was not sunk so low as to submit. After deliberation in the various councils, Philip, on October 16th, sent to the Suprema three consultas which they had presented and ordered it to advise him. With unusual promptitude it replied, October 20th, expressing its unreserved adhesion to the regalías claimed by the crown, which were founded in rights inseparable from sovereignty, in papal bulls, and in immemorial prescription. The unlawful act of the nuncio was of the highest prejudice; the books condemned had in no way transcended proper limits; their authors were pious Catholics and the works had been circulated in sight of the Inquisition, whose duty it was to watch over such matters. The consulta ended with a promise to suppress the papal decree and to make the fact known everywhere, so as to avert the injury which its publication might have caused.[1442] Thus supported by the indignation of all his advisers, Philip issued a decree in November ordering the papal decree to be suppressed; the nuncio was rebuked and told that the royal indignation would seek other means of expression; the ambassador at Rome was instructed to represent the deep resentment which was felt, and to tell the Holy See that this was not a mere matter of opinion, in which it could interfere and dictate to Spain about rights coeval with the crown and always uninterruptedly enjoyed. Opportunity was also taken to reassert emphatically the independence of the Spanish Inquisition and the nullity, without its approval, of the acts of the Roman Congregations.[1443] Notwithstanding this, the progressive decadence of Spain encouraged the curia to make another attempt, in 1687, when the nuncio sent a decree of the Congregation of the Inquisition to the bishops, with orders to publish it. The Suprema lost no time in presenting two earnest consultas to the king, urging him to take prompt action in repelling this attempt to subject Spain to the Roman Inquisition.[1444]

The persistence of the curia was fruitless. The established custom, resulting from these disputes, as described by an experienced inquisitor, was that, when the nuncio received a brief from the Congregations, he sent it to the Suprema, which ordered the book to be examined by its calificadores and, if they pronounced it objectionable, the Suprema issued a corresponding edict. Twice, he says, the nuncio, in order to evade these rules, caused edicts to be posted in the court-yard of his palace, but the Suprema abrogated them, punished those who did it, and reported to the king in order that he might warn the nuncio to observe the regulations. Sometimes, however, a brief came directly from the pope. Then the matter was in the hands of the king, who retained it and supplicated the pope that it should be published by the Inquisition. In Sicily, no brief was published without receiving the exequatur of the viceroy.[1445]

USED AGAINST THE CROWN

The Inquisition had thus, by supporting the royal jurisdiction against the papal claims, achieved its independence of Rome, but it was fighting for its own hand and, when its object was attained, its allegiance to the Church outweighed its allegiance to the sovereign. When the question was between its own jurisdiction and that of the crown, its attitude was most decisive. The condemnation by Pacheco of the arguments of Don Luis de Gubiel, in the competencia with the Chancellery of Granada, was not an isolated instance of this. In 1637, there was a bitter controversy between the Seville tribunal and the royal Audiencia, over the banishment of a familiar by the latter, in the course of which the Suprema ordered the suppression of various arguments prepared in support of the royal jurisdiction, and among them one by Juan Pérez de Lara, the fiscal of the Audiencia, written in the strict line of his duty. To this the Council of Castile took exception, in a consulta complaining that it was of great prejudice to the regalías; the paper contained nothing contrary to the faith, rendering it liable to the censure of the Inquisition, wherefore the Council asked that all the documents suppressed should be examined by disinterested persons, and that the Suprema be ordered in future not to suppress any paper in favor of the royal jurisdiction without preliminary notice to the king. To this temperate expostulation the Suprema replied with lofty disdain. The king was told that he should answer all remonstrances as Charles V did, May 17, 1519, to the Diputados of Aragon—“as an affair of the Inquisition, it is not for us to interfere, nor can the fueros of the kingdom impede what the inquisitor-general does, as it is an ecclesiastical case.” It was astonished that there should be any question as to the power of the Inquisition, established by papal bulls, decrees of councils and inviolable custom, while the rule of the Index extends this power without limitation, at the discretion of the inquisitors. That the regalías had been threatened was easy of disproof, for the peace and prosperity of the king’s dominions were due to the unity of faith procured by the watchful care of the Inquisition. The object of the Council of Castile was to limit the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and to reduce its censorship to a matter of competencias, but the Inquisition alone could decide what belonged to it and what did not belong.[1446]

Such being the temper and spirit of the Holy Office, it is not surprising that, when it had secured its own emancipation from Rome, it should no longer prove an ally of the crown in defence of the regalías. Llorente mentions two authors—Ramos del Manzano and Pedro González de Salcedo, whose works it condemned for defending the royal prerogative.[1447] It could not be depended on for suppressing those which impeached the regalías, and the State, in defending itself, was obliged to resort to its own censorship, as in case of the work entitled “Casos reservados à su Santidad,” attributed to Doctor Francisco Barambio, in 1694. It never appeared in the Index, but a royal auto condemned it as subversive of the regalías and prerogatives of the crown, and ordered its suppression under pain of half confiscation and arbitrary penalties.[1448]

RESTRICTIONS

We have already (Vol. I, pp. 315, 321) seen how, in the eighteenth century, the Inquisition, in the cases of Macanaz and the works of Barclay and Le Vayer, and in that of the Catechism of Mesengui, took sides against the royal prerogative. Although in the former Philip V weakly yielded, Carlos III in the latter, not only temporarily suspended Inquisitor-general Bonifaz, but took steps to protect more thoroughly the crown against papal encroachment, and to limit the censorial powers of the Inquisition. November 27, 1761, he laid down the basis of subsequent legislation in instructions to the Council of State to frame a law adequate to the necessities of the case. In consequence, the Pragmática del Exequatur of January 18, 1762, ordered that no bull, brief or papal letter, addressed to any tribunal, junta, judge or prelate, should be published without having first been presented to the king for his approval by the nuncio, while those for individuals should be submitted to the Royal Council to see whether they affected the Concordat, or prejudiced the regalías or the good customs and usages of the kingdom. This was followed by a cédula of August 18th imposing restrictions on inquisitorial censorship, but both of these were withdrawn by decree of July 15, 1763—a decree obtained by the royal confessor, Padre Eleta, working on the king’s superstition by representing the loss of Havana as an evidence of divine wrath.[1449] This respite, however, was not of long duration. At a junta called, in 1768, to consider matters growing out of the expulsion of the Jesuits, the Counts of Floridablanca and Campomanes presented a memorial calling attention to the surreptitious introduction of several papal briefs, and to the disastrous influence of the censorship in flooding the land with ignorance. The result of the discussion was the re-enactment of the Pragmática del Exequatur, with more enlarged provisions, and a cédula of June 6th providing that the Inquisition should not prohibit any work by a Catholic of good repute, without giving him a hearing or, if he were a foreigner or dead, without appointing for him an advocate of competent character. The circulation of books was not to be suspended under pretext that they were undergoing examination; in those to be expurgated the objectionable passages were to be speedily designated, so that the current reading of them should not be interrupted, and any special propositions condemned were to be clearly indicated, so that they could be expurgated by the owners. Prohibition was to be confined to errors and superstitions and lax opinions prejudicial to religion and morality, and no edict was to be published until it had been approved by the king.[1450]

These reforms were in the spirit of those by which Benedict XIV, in the bull Sollicita ac provida, had endeavored to soften the rigor of the Roman censorship, but they were largely impracticable. They excited lively opposition, especially the provision allowing the circulation of books during the process of examination, and Llorente tells us that, for the most part, the Inquisition eluded their restrictions. It was of course impossible for the king to pass judgement on all the condemnatory edicts which followed each other in rapid succession and were submitted to him without explanation or record of the author having been heard in his defence.[1451] This latter provision however seems to have been observed. In 1775 we find the Suprema sending to Valencia certain conclusions commencing “Sistema phisicum de hominis generatione,” together with the papers concerning their condemnation and the cédula of June 16, 1768, so that the party could be heard in defence.[1452] The author, however, was not allowed to print and circulate his defence, though he might have licence for enough copies to supply the members of the Suprema; in a case in which he distributed them through the universities they were called in and suppressed, and if he attacked the witnesses and calificadores, he was liable to the savage penalties of the bull Si de protegendis.[1453] Yet to the end the author was entitled to a hearing. In a case occurring at Llerena, in 1816, the Suprema instructs the tribunal to suppress a certain pamphlet in the next edict, but it is to ask the author, Dr. Martin Batincas, whether he desires to defend it; if so to furnish him with the censures, but not the names of the calificadores, when the matter will take its regular course. The provision for a defender in the cases of deceased and foreign authors was similarly maintained. In 1816 the Suprema instructed the Madrid tribunal to take up the case of a book entitled “El Niño instruido,” which had been suspended on account of the troubles; now a new edition had appeared, which must be seized and a copy of the censures be furnished to the General of the Barefooted Carmelites; if he should not desire to put forward a defender, the tribunal was to appoint a defensor de oficio. So scrupulously was this observed that, in 1817, a single copy of a French book, printed in 1801, entitled “Du Mariage dans ses rapports avec la Religion et avec les lois nouvelles,” found in possession of Canon Miguel Cortés, was duly condemned by calificadores when Padre Cento was appointed to defend it and, on his refusal, proceedings appear to have been dropped.[1454]

POLITICALLY EMPLOYED

During this later period, the Inquisition and the State were in firm alliance, against their common enemy the Revolution, and the State made full use of the Inquisition as a political instrument, although it had its own elaborate and effective censorship. This employment of the Inquisition was a new development, for in the earlier time, the instances in which inquisitorial censorship was called upon for political service are surprisingly few. In the case of Antonio Pérez, it was inevitable that the Inquisition should prohibit his writings and unauthorized accounts of his persecutions. There was less excuse for suppressing, in 1609, Padre Mariana’s volume of essays on account of his criticism of the ruinous debasement of the coinage.[1455] There was unworthy complaisance to the Holy See when, in 1606, the Suprema forbade the possession by any one of the papers and memorials issued by Venice, in its quarrel with Paul V, on the pretext of their being scandalous to Christendom, and an even greater misuse of its power when it arrested and prosecuted Francisco de la Cueva, a lawyer whom the Venetian ambassador had employed to write in defence of the Republic.[1456] On the eve of the Catalan revolt, in 1640, the protest of Barcelona to the king was suppressed as coming under the rules of the Expurgatorio, being seditious, insulting and scandalous, and this precedent was followed with all writings on the subject during the revolt.[1457] On the whole, however, throughout the first three centuries of its existence, the political use made of the Inquisition, in this and other ways, was wonderfully small.

It was otherwise when the upheaval came which threatened the stability of all monarchical institutions, and nothing was more dreaded than public opinion, which might develop into action. All the agencies at command of the State were felt to be needed, and Carlos IV hastened to open the way for the Inquisition by declaring, in an edict of 1789, that all which contributed to spread revolutionary principles was heresy, being a doctrinal error, contrary to the teachings of the Apostles Peter and Paul, and this was speedily reduced to practice by an edict of the Inquisition ordering the surrender of all papers coming from France and conveying revolutionary ideas.[1458] Watchfulness on importations, especially from France, by both royal and inquisitorial officials, was redoubled, and for years new methods were constantly devised to keep the population in ignorance of events beyond the Pyrenees.[1459]

It was in vain. French newspapers and books were smuggled across the frontier, and forbidden speculations on the laws of nature and the rights of man were widely disseminated. When the crisis came, with the deportation of the royal family and the Napoleonic invasion, there was a leaven of liberalism sufficient to find expression in the demand for a new order of things. The Extraordinary Córtes, elected by universal suffrage and assembled at Cádiz in 1810, lost no time in framing a law for the freedom of the press. Yet the tradition of the necessity of censorship was so strong that the decree of February 22, 1813, suppressing the Inquisition, transferred to the bishops the jurisdiction over censorship as well as over heresy. The law on the press had provided a control by the State over all printing, and works on religion were subjected to a second episcopal examination, with full power of condemnation and suppression, while elaborate provisions were made for an authoritative Index.[1460]

This cumbrous scheme never had vitality, and the Restoration of 1814 restored to the Inquisition its jurisdiction over the press. As soon as it could spare time, during the labor of reconstruction, it addressed itself to the suppression of the revolutionary literature of the previous six years. A carta acordada of October 25, 1814, ordered the tribunals, as speedily as possible, to notify the Suprema of all objectionable books, pamphlets and papers that had been written or printed in their districts, with all details as to authorship and place of publication. From this was compiled a list of a hundred and eighty-three prohibited publications, including thirty-five journals, but an edict of July 22, 1815, described this as incomplete; the faithful were referred to the rules of the Index as defining whatever had been omitted, and all such were to be surrendered within six days, under the traditional penalty of excommunication and two hundred ducats; all the old regulations and Indexes were declared to be in force and, on August 3d, each tribunal was ordered to suppress all objectionable matter printed within its district.[1461]

POLITICALLY EMPLOYED

The correspondence of the Suprema, at this period, shows minute and constant watchfulness over the press, and a large part of the labors of the Inquisition, during its brief resuscitation, was devoted to censorship, mostly of a political character. The Constitutionalist refugees, who had fled from the vengeance of the reaction, were busy, with such slender means as they could command, in propagating their ideas, as the Protestant refugees had been in the sixteenth century, and there was the same anxious vigilance to counteract their efforts, while the danger was greater, for a large part of the population was known to secretly share their views. Thus, in 1818, circulars were received in Madrid, announcing the appearance in London of a weekly entitled El Español Constitucional. Immediately the Royal Council sent out orders to the judicial and military authorities to seize all copies, and the Juez de Imprentas did the same to his subordinates, all of which resulted in finding enough of the circulars to show that they had been widely distributed. Then the aid of the Inquisition was invoked and, on August 3d, the Suprema ordered the tribunals not only to seize all copies but to arrest everybody concerned. Then, on September 13th, the king reported that the wicked refugees in London, who had been, through lack of funds, obliged to abandon the project, had recently obtained contributions and had resumed it, wherefore fresh diligence was enjoined. Two days later the Suprema forwarded this to the tribunals, with orders to exert themselves in seizing the circulars and periodical and also the accomplices in the so-called conspiracy. Again, on November 4th, the Suprema called renewed attention to its former letters and enclosed a royal order stating that the London ambassador reported the appearance of the second number of the journal, and insisting on every precaution to prevent its circulation in Spain. There is no trace, however, of any copy of the mysterious periodical being captured by the Inquisition, or of the arrest of any one concerned. Simultaneously with this, on November 5th, the Suprema transmitted another royal order stating that letters intercepted in the mails contained prospectuses of a periodical entitled “Gabinete de Curiosidades politicas y literarias de España y Indias,” to be issued in London by Gallardo, former librarian of the Córtes. The Suprema consequently issued instructions enjoining the utmost vigilance in seizing the prospectus and copies of the periodical.[1462] The happy faculty of confusing the spiritual and the temporal, so valuable to the medieval Church, had evidently not been lost to the Spanish monarchy.

Although in general the Inquisition carefully abstained from intrusion in the field of morals, yet in censorship it undertook to guard the public from that which might contaminate virtue as well as from what affected faith. This was justified by the rules of the Tridentine Index as well as of that of Clement VIII, in 1596, where lascivious books and illustrations were to be prohibited or expurgated.[1463] Literature however largely escaped, at least until the later period. The Celestina of Francisco de Rojas, of which more than thirty editions were printed in the sixteenth century, its popularity leading to its use as a schoolbook notwithstanding its somewhat crude indecency, escaped attention, until the Index of 1640 ordered the expurgation of about fifty lines, and it was not prohibited until that of 1790.[1464]

Art attracted earlier attention, especially when its employment in sacred subjects lacked dignity, however stimulating it might be to the piety of the unlettered public. The first allusion I have met to this function of the Inquisition occurs in 1568, when Inquisitor Moral, in reporting his visitation of San Sebastian, mentions penancing Gracia de Caldiere for possessing a pintura deshonesta, whereupon the Suprema told him that he should have sent the picture to it—apparently, as a matter of censorship, it reserved the decision to itself.[1465] The next is a carta acordada of 1571, ordering the suppression of some figures on linen of the Crucifixion and the Trinity, in which the calificadores had discovered symbols of Lutheran doctrines, and a series of twelve wood cuts of the Passion, with an epitome on the backs in Latin and French.[1466] This is emphasized in the Expurgatory Index of Quiroga, in 1583, of which the twelfth rule is directed against all representations of sacred persons or objects which savor of irrision or irreverence.[1467] Spanish piety, in fact, occasionally manifested itself in somewhat grotesque form, as in certain images on linen of the Christ-child, in military uniforms, the suppression of which was ordered in 1619.[1468] In 1649, the Suprema was scandalized at the great irreverence and diabolical indecency, with a savor of sacrilege, of ribbons which were called “bowels of angels” or “hearts or entrails of apostles,” and, under the customary penalties, it forbade asking for, buying or selling ribbons with such names. A few weeks later it prohibited all razors or knives on the handles of which were engraved images of Christ, the Virgin, the saints or the instruments of the Passion; all found in the shops were to be seized, and the commissioners at the ports were to see that none were imported.[1469]

MORALS AND ART

After the more serious work of the Inquisition was accomplished, in the elimination of Judaism, Protestantism and Islam, its energies were more actively employed in this direction. In 1787 we find the Valencia tribunal prosecuting Francisca Lazaro for indecent songs. In 1803 the Caprichos of Goya, the leading artist of the period, wounded inquisitorial sensibilities; he was summoned and his prosecution was commenced, but he was saved by the intervention of Carlos IV. Two of the last acts of the Valencia tribunal in 1820 were proceedings against the “Rime e Prose del Doctor Tomaso Crudeli,” which it pronounced to be obscene and impious, and the condemnation of a book called Il Zibaldone, for lascivious propositions. The theatre also became subject to inquisitorial censorship. In 1817 a tragedy entitled “La Obstinacion de un Padre” was presented on the Valencian stage, October 9th and 10th; it seems to have excited disapproval and, on the 13th, the MS. was presented to the tribunal for its censure. In Madrid, the Suprema acted as a preliminary censor; in 1815 we find it ordering the local tribunal to examine the opera “El hombre de mal genio y buen corazon,” and the comedy “El no de las niñas” and, on the report that the fiscal had no objection to their representation, it gave its assent. So, in 1819, the Suprema returns to the Seville tribunal its calificacion of four saynetes, or farces, with orders to put it into more intelligible shape, to vote on it and return it for final decision.[1470]

Works of art, however, were the principal objects of inquisitorial Puritanism. In 1793, the Valencia tribunal formed a process concerning a certain snuff-box with a scandalous picture, supposed to be in possession of Don Jacinto de Castro, governor of the sala del crimen. Solicitude for the public morals was so acute that, October 2, 1815, the Suprema approved a decree of the Madrid tribunal, ordering all the hairdressers of the city to remove from their windows, or alter to decency, the wax busts which they exhibited as specimens of their art—apparently because they made too exuberant a display of their charms. Artists and dealers in pictures were held to a strict accountability. But a week before the last case, the Suprema had considered a prosecution by the Seville tribunal of Juan Rodríguez and Domingo Alvarez of Cádiz, the former for painting and the latter for exhibiting in his shop a picture called Diana, provocative by its posture and nudity. They were ordered to appear before the commissioner of Cádiz, who should reprimand and absolve them from the excommunication incurred, and warn them that a repetition of the offence would be visited with the penalties provided by Regla XI of the Expurgatorio—banishment and five hundred ducats fine. Six months later, Pasqual Franchini for two pinturas obscenas was fined a hundred ducats and, as he was ordered to be set at liberty, it is evident that he had been imprisoned; he pleaded poverty and his fine was kindly reduced. Three months later, Santiago Schmidt and his son Josef were sentenced, by the Madrid tribunal, for selling to the Prussian ambassador an indecent picture for eight thousand reales; for this they were fined two thousand reales, which the Suprema benignantly reduced to fifty ducats.[1471]

Doubtless in this case ambassadorial privilege saved the purchaser from prosecution, for the possession of objects regarded as immoral was calidad de oficio, and the records are full of cases against those who owned snuff-boxes, watches, packs of cards etc., with indecent figures or inscriptions, as well as of pictures, engravings and books with plates that offended the modesty of the censors. No doubt much of what was condemned was thoroughly vicious and disreputable, but the resultant purification scarce compensated for the invasion of private life and the stimulus to the detestable habit of espionage and denunciation, through which alone such matters could come to the knowledge of the tribunals. Much good art, moreover, was undoubtedly sacrificed by ignorant censors, for the objects thus condemned were destroyed. In 1805 at Valencia a painting on copper of the Adultery of Venus was thus ordered to be effaced, and when this was done the sheet of copper was delivered to the alcalde del crimen, to be restored to the owner. Akin to this was the tearing out of objectionable plates from books, which happens to be mentioned, in 1819, in the case of Don Luis Monfort, a captain of artillery.[1472]

INFLUENCE

Thus the censorship of the Inquisition was all-embracing, from the most dangerous heresies of Luther and Calvin, the popularization of Scripture, the relations between Church and State and the liberalism of the modern era, down to the veriest trifles. It was an engine of immense power, constantly applied for the furtherance of Obscurantism, the repression of thought, the exclusion of foreign ideas, and the obstruction of progress. It was accompanied by a state censorship, based upon the law of 1558, perfected in innumerable successive regulations, of a character most vexatious and embarrassing to authorship, and this duplication of censors exercised a most deplorably depressing influence on literature and culture. Authorship was discouraged by the uncertainty whether works, on which perhaps years of labor had been spent, would secure a licence to print; the business of publication was rendered extra-hazardous by the fact that a book, printed with due licence from the state, might at any moment be prohibited by the Inquisition and the whole edition be seized and destroyed, while purchasers who had bought such a licensed book were liable to be deprived of it without compensation. Thus, between the state and the Inquisition, whether working in unison or at cross-purposes, the intellectual development which, in the sixteenth century, promised to render Spanish literature and learning the most illustrious in Europe, was stunted and starved into atrophy, the arts and sciences were neglected, commercial and industrial progress was rendered impossible, and the character which Spain acquired among the nations was tersely expressed in the current saying that Africa began at the Pyrenees.

APPENDIX. STATISTICS OF OFFENCES AND PENALTIES. (See p. 93).

It is manifestly impossible to compile the statistics of inquisitorial activity during the centuries of its existence and amid its numerous tribunals, but some fragmentary figures may serve to illustrate the comparative frequency of the offences with which it had to deal and the character of the punishments which it inflicted. As regards the latter it will be remembered that the sentences usually comprised several penalties.

Offences.

The following summary of cases acted upon by the tribunal of Toledo is condensed from the “Catálogo de los causas contra la fe seguidas ante el Tribunal del Santo Oficio de Toledo” (Madrid, 1903) prepared by Padre Fresca, S. J., and Don Miguel Gómez del Campillo, from the original records. As the earliest case is of 1483 (p. 192) and the latest of 1819 (p. 81) it would appear to cover the whole activity of the tribunal, but it is manifestly imperfect, in view of the masses of Judaizers reconciled and the effigies burnt of the dead and fugitives, in the early years of the organization (Vol. I, pp. 165-72, 183). In a minor degree this is also shown by comparison with tables below of portions of the period from other sources. These latter also have interest as indicating changes in the character of offences at successive periods.

The classification of Señor Gómez del Campillo is as follows:

Bigamy188Insults to officials186

Blasphemy755Personating priesthood33

Fornication not a sin259Judaizers977

Personating officials and forged licences48Prohibited books34

Fautorship of heretics60Moriscos219

Sorcery296Irreverence and scandalous speeches551

Heresy—Illuminism39False witness34

Anglicanism14Propositions, erroneous60

Calvinism18 scandalous63

Lutheranism79 heretical46

Freemasonry3Marriage in Orders16

General72Sacrilege74

Deluded and deluders25Solicitation in confession105

Impeding the Inquisition62Various43

Violation of disabilities91

A MS. volume in the Library of the University of Halle (Yc, 20, Tom. I) contains the reports to the Suprema by the tribunal of Toledo of its operations, from the auto de fe of September 4, 1575, to that of February 7, 1610. The auto of 1595 is however missing and the report of the last one is incomplete, breaking off at the tenth case. So far as it goes, the record for these 35 years embraces 1172 cases, an analysis of which yields the following results:

Bigamy 53Propositions—

Blasphemy46 On Offerings for the Dead3

Fornication not a sin264 On the Eucharist3

Personating officials13 On the Sacraments1

Sorcery18 On Canonization and Saints3

Heresy, Illuminism12 On the Authority of Scripture1

Protestant sects47 On the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes1

Greek Christians3 On the Stigmata of St. Francis1

Offences against the Inquisition22 On Excommunication1

Personating Priesthood25 On Marriage and Adultery9

Judaizers174 On Oaths1

Moriscos190 On Holy Orders1

Irreverence5 On Moors1

False witness8 On Self-Damnation1

Do in cases of Limpieza57 On Infidelity1

Solicitation in Confession52 On Impeccability1

Propositions, Marriage better than priesthood30 On Sin inevitable1

Scholastic discussion at Alcalá7 On the Papal Power2

Ridicule of pious observances3 On Women1

Story about St. Peter4 On Homicide1

Excuse for blasphemy1 On the Inquisition3

On God9 On the Royal Power3

On Christ5 On Incest1

On the Virgin4 On the Defeat of the Armada1

On Magdalen4 Various8

On Belief in Virgin and Saints1Offences of Officials22

On the Grace of God1Slander1

On Salvation12Hermaphrodite1

On the Resurrection6Quarrel over an Irish Benefice1

On the Future Life4Imposture1

On Indulgences9Smuggling of Horses1

On Images6Apostate Frailes2

On the Necessity of Mass6Favoring Vandoma (Henry IV)1

On Confession5Irregularities1

On Intercessory Prayer1

In Legajo I of the Archivo histórico Nacional, Inquisicion de Toledo, there is a volume of which the introductory lines state that on February 8, 1648, Gonzalo Bravo Graxera, then inspecting the tribunal, reminded the inquisitors that a carta acordada of May 22, 1570, required a register to be kept of all penitents appearing in the autos, with their punishments. Thereupon a book was procured for the purpose and the record commenced. It extends from 1648 to 1794 and is doubtless complete. An analysis of this yields the following results:

STATISTICS OF OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Bigamy62Marriage in Orders10

Blasphemy37Solicitation in Confessional68

Fornication not a sin3Mala doctrina in Do9

Personating officials4Rebaptism (Greek)1

Fautorship16Errors1

Sorcery100Hipocrita1

Illuminism (Molinism etc.)17Fray Berrocosa2

Protestantism11Gypsy1

Heresy3Greek1

Suspicion of Heresy2Atheism1

Deluded and Deluders16Burlesque Sermon1

Impeding the Inquisition13Threatening a witness1

Insulting officials3Hiding confiscated property1

Disrespect to Inquisition5Offence of a Notary1

Speaking ill of Do1Blackmailing1

Personating Priesthood12Breaking prison2

Judaism659 Do exile and presidio4

Mahometanism5Non-performance of sentence1

Apostasy2Cofradia execrable1

Irreverence and Sacrilege3Improper rules for a Congregation1

Propositions74 Printing without licence1

In the Royal Library of Berlin Qt. 9548 is a volume containing relations of sixty-four autos held in various tribunals, between 1721 and 1727. During this period inquisitorial energy was mainly directed against Judaism, as will be seen from the following summary of the cases:

Bigamy 35Personating officials1

Blasphemy4Judaism824

Fautorship2Apostasy6

Sorcery etc.57Mahometanism1

Protestantism3Marriage in Orders1

Heresy4False witness17

Deluders2Rebaptism2

Personating Priesthood1Breaking prison3

Punishments.

In the Toledo record of 1575-1610 the sentences include

Relaxation in Person15To be last in Choir and Refectory26

in Effigy18 The Discipline11

Confiscation185Spiritual Penances17

Fines (aggregating 2,586,625 mrs.)141Hearing Mass as Penitent in Church66

Reconciliation207 Do in Audience-Chamber150

in Effigy1 Abjuration de vehementi21

Sanbenito186 de levi49

Imprisonment175Reprimand or warning56

Reclusion in convent or hospital87To write no more books1

Galleys91Temporary suspension from priestly functions1

Scourging133Public recantation1

Vergüenza26Cases dismissed30

Exile167 suspended98

Prohibition to leave Spain6Acquittals51

Gagging20

Deprivation of Confessing42

Disability for Orders10

The Toledo Record from 1648 to 1794 yields the following summary:

Relaxation in Person8Vergüenza 10

in Effigy63Exile566

Confiscation417Deprivation of confessing68

Fines (aggregating 30,600 ducats) 50Disability for Orders3

Do of half property of culprits14Suspension from Orders4

Reconciliation445 Do from confessing1

Prison and sanbenito, short terms183 Do from preaching11

Do Do perpetual161Deprivation of priestly functions5

Do Do irremissible82Degradation from priesthood1

Reclusion in convents etc.91Abjuration de vehementi51

Galleys, Presidios and Arsenals98 Do de levi314

Scourging92Reprimand467

Cases suspended104

Acquittals6

The sentences in the sixty-four autos de fe between 1721 and 1727 include:

Relaxation in Person77Prison etc. irremissible275

Do in Effigy74Galleys and Presidio99

Confiscation776Scourging297

Fine of one-half of property12Vergüenza13

Reconciliation630Exile189

Prison and sanbenito, short terms252Abjuration de vehementi31

Do perpetual113 Do de levi125

DOCUMENTS.

I.

Conclusion of Sentence of Relaxation of Don Gaspar de Centellas, For Protestantism, Valencia, September 17, 1564.

(MSS. of Library of University of Halle, Yc, 20, Tom. XI). (See p. 94).

CHRISTI NOMINE INVOCATO.

Ffallamos, attento los auttos y meritos del dicho processo que el dicho promoter fiscal provó bien y cumplidamente su acusacion y querella, Damos y pronunciamos su intencion por bien provada, en consequencia de lo qual que devemos declarar y declaramos el susodicho Don Gaspar Centellas ser herege y estar suficientamente convencido por suficiente numero de testigos y demas desto haver confessado, affirmado y defendido pertinazmente ante nos las dichas proposiciones hereticas y por tales condenadas y declaradas y que le devemos condenar y condenamos que el dia del aucto de la fe salga al cadahalso con insignias de relaxado y que alli le sea leyda publicamente esta nuestra sentencia por la qual le declaramos por herege abominable, pertinaz, obstinado y endurecido y por ello haver cahido y yncurrido en todas las penas en que cahen y yncurren los semejantes hereges ympenitentes y pertinaces, y porque por todas vias se ha procurado con el susodicho con toda solicitud y cuydado de attraerlo y reduzirlo a nuestra santa fe catolica, ofreciendole toda benignidad y misericordia de que el no se ha querido ni quiere aprovechar y pues la santa madre yglesia no tiene otra cosa ni remedio de que usar con el susodicho, pues el la menosprecia, sino relaxarlo à la justicia y brazo seglar como à miembro podrido, ynfecto, pestifero y nocivo, porque otros no se dañen ni padezcan con el, por esta nuestra sentencia, como à herege pertinaz y obstinado, lo relaxamos al muy ilustre señor Don Joan Lorencio de Villamasa, Visorrey y capitan general por su Magestad en esta ciudad y Reyno ò al muy magnifico Mossen Quille Ramon Catalan, justicia criminal en esta dicha ciudad, ò à quien la punicion y castigo del dicho crimen pueda pertenecer y pertenezca y à su señoria pedimos por merced y al dicho justicia muy affectadamente rogamos y encargamos que con el susodicho se manden haver y ayan misericordiamente. Otrosi por quanto el dicho delicto y crimen de la heregia excede y es muy mayor sin comparacion que otro alguno por ser cometido contra la divina Magestad y por su graveza por que en las personas de los perpetradores del no puede ser suficientemente punido ni castigado y la pena del sestiende à los bienes, progenie y posteridad de los que lo cometen, por esta nuestra sentencia declaramos sus bienes ser confiscados à la camara y fisco Real de su Magestad desde el tiempo que cometiò los dichos delictos con los quales mandamos acudir al magnifico Mossen Bernardino Gutierrez recetor deste S^to Officio en su nombre, y los hijos, hijas, nietos y nietas del dicho don Gaspar Centellas, herege ympenitente pertinaz y obstinado, descendientes por linea masculina en segundo grado y por feminina en primero, ser privados de todas y qualesquier dignidades, beneficios y officios ecclesiasticos y seglares que sean publicos y de honrra que los susodichos tienen y possehen, y ser inabiles e yncapaces para ympetrar, tener y posseher otros de nuevo, ni poder ser justicias, jurados, clerigos ni notarios ni otro ninguno officio publico de onrra, e no poder traer sobre si ni en su persona oro, plata, perlas, piedras preciosas, seda, grana, chamelote ni paño fino, armas, ni cavalgar en cavallo, hazer ni traer otra cosa alguna de las que por derecho e ynstructiones deste S^to Officio le son prohibidas, y por esta nuestra sentencia definitiva juzgando ansi lo pronunciamos, sentenciamos y mandamos en estos escritos y processo pro tribunali sedendo.

El Licenciado Aguliera. Don Miguel Vich.

Sentencia dada y promulgada por el Señor Inquisidor el licenciado Bernardino de Aguilera los dia mes y año susodichos en presencia de las partes susodichas las quales passaron por ella.

Presentes fueron por testigos à la publicacion de la dicha sentencia los discretes Miguel Perez de Huermeda, Pere Lopez y Francisco Pastor notarios y muchos otros vezinos de Valencia. Passo ante me, Miguel Bellot, notario.

II.

Release from Perpetual Prison and Sanbenito.

(Proceso de Mari Gomez, fol. xxxx.—MS. in possession of the Author).

(See p. 161).

DOCUMENTS

Nos los del consejo de sus Mag^des que iintendemos en las cosas tocantes al officio de la S^ta Inq^on hazemos saber a vos los R^dos inq^res contra la heretica pravedad y apostasia en la cibdad y arçobpãdo de toledo y su partido que vimos la Relacion que por ñro mandado embiastes de los meritos del processo de mari gomez muger de diego carrillo herrero vezino de daimiel por la qual paresce que fue rrecibida a rreconciliacion y condenada a carcel perpetua y habito en diez y seiss dias del mes de Julio del año pasado de quinientos y quarenta e un años y que despues aca cumple bien su penytencia, por lo qual y por otras cabsas que nos mueven, queriendo usar de piedad y clemencia con la dha mari gomez nuestra voluntad es de le mandar comutar la penytencia de la dha carcel perpettua y habicto en otras penytencias espirituales, por ende nos vos encargamos y mandamos que luego que esta nuestra provision vos fuere presentada comuteys a la dha mari gomez la penytencia de la dha carcel perpettua y habicto en otras penytencias espirituales de ayunos, rromerias y oraciones como à vos otros bien visto fuere, y ansi comutada mandadle quitar el dho habito y soltar de la carcel en que estoviere para que se haya y este libremente do quisiere e por bien toviere, con tanto que no sea fuera de los reynos y señorios de castilla y de leon y con que haga y cumpla todas las otras cosas contenidas en la sentencia que contra ella se dio e pronuncio que fasta aqui no obiere fecho y cumplido e fuere obligada a fazer y cumplir. Fecha en la villa de madrid a xvi dias del mes de noviembre de myll e quinientos e quarenta y cinco años.

III.

Disabilities of Descendants of Prisoners.

(Archivo General de Simancas, Registro de Genealogias, No. 916, fol. 61).

(See p. 178).

D. Cristóbal de Cos y Vivero, Secretario del Rey Nuestro Señor del Consejo de S. M. de la Santa General Inquisicion por lo tocante á la Corona de Castilla y de Leon etc.—Certifico: Que en el dia diez y siete del corriente mes de Enero se acudió al Exmo. Señor Obispo Inquisidor General por parte del Licenciado Don Mariano de Santander y Albarez y hizo presente ser publico y notorio que en año pasado de mil setecientos noventa y ocho fué procesado por el tribunal del Santo Oficio de dicha ciudad D. Mariano Santander su Padre y que lo es tambien que no lo fué por delitos de heregia ó apostasia y sí solo por asuntos relativos á su comercio de Libros y haberse excedido tal vez en el exercicio de su profesion. Que el expresado tribunal con un pleno conocimiento de el proceso manifestó en su definititiba que la formacion de causa y prision que sufrió con lo demas que en ella expresó no le perjudicaba ni obstaba á sus hijos y descendientes para disfrutar de todos los efectos civiles de los que á consecuencia de este decision ha gozado sin interrupcion y goza actualmente: Que sin embargo por lo reserbado de los asuntos que se tratan en el Santo Oficio y mucho mas por haberse tambien traspapelado con el transcurso del tiempo el certificado que de la decision de la causa se dió por dicho Tribunal al Padre del exponente para su resguardo y el de sus descendientes no era facil tratandose de unas pruebas formales como necesitaba para incorporarse en el ilustre Colegio de Abogados de aquella Real Chancillería hacer constar sin ningun genero de duda quanto llebaba expuesto. Por lo que suplicaba se le mandase dar la correspondiente Certificacion de no obstancia.—Y vista en el expresado consejo de S. M. de la Santa general Inquisicion la suso dicha representacion con los antecedentes que obran en su archivo concernientes á la causa seguida en el Tribunal de Valladolid y determinado en el año pasado de mil setecientos noventa y ocho contra Don Mariano Santander, Padre del exponente, por comercio ilicito de Libros prohibidos vino en declarar y declaró en Decreto de diez y nuebe de este mismo mes que la referida causa no obsta al nominado Don Mariano Santander y Albarez, ni le perjudica como ni tampoco á sus Descendientes para obtener Empleos publicos y de honra ni para disfrutar plenamente de todos los efectos civiles, mandando se le diese certificacion para su resguardo y lo demas que le convenga. EN cuyo cumplimiento doy la presente sellado con la sella de la general Inquisicion en Madrid á viente y siete de Enero de mil ochocientos diez y ocho.

Don Cristoval de Cos y Vivero.

IV.

Consulta of the Spureme Council of Portugal, January 17, 1619.

(MSS. of Bodleian Library of Oxford, Arch. Seld. A, Subt. 17).

(See p. 275).

DOCUMENTS

Señor—Los Inquisidores de la Ciudad de Coimbra y su distrito enviaron a V. M^d la relacion inclusa de las personas que salieron en el Auto de la Fe que se celebrò en aquella ciudad el Noviembre passado, algunos de los quales poco antes avian sido presos en la ciudad del Puerto, y con esta ocasion el Obispo Inquisidor General escribiò à V. M^d que sin ningun escrupulo affirmaba que todo Portugal en la materia de Judaismo estaba contaminado y que convenia aplicar remedio pronto para que aquellos reynos de V. M^d no tuviessen los castigos que amenazaban tantas heregias, porque el Judaismo era muchissimo, los sacrilegios infinitos, canonigos presos, Frayles huidos, y quatro Monjas inclusas en las carceles del S^to Of^io y que pudiera decir à V. M^d que le impiden las lagrimas y que vuelve à acordar à V. M^d, acabando de celebrar, que es necessario remedio breve en que muestre V. M^d su pecho catolico, reformando estos males; porque no ay Reyno sin fe y buenos costumbres; y que à V. M^d le conviene no solo tener vasallos sino buenos vasallos, como lo dicen los Santos; y que postrado à los reales pies de V. M^d dice lo que entiende y lo en que ha pensado muchos tiempos ha.

Todo lo que el obispo Inquisidor General apunta de quan inficionados de Judaismo estan aquellos Reynos con continuos sacrilegios y graves offensas de Dios N^ro S^r, de que se sigue grandissimo escandalo al pueblo christiano, es muy presente al Consejo, y con el sentimiento que se debe à calidad de materia tan grave, se ha tratado muchas vezes del remedio que puede aver, para expurgar aquellos Reynos de gente tan infiel y pertinaz, sin daño comun, evitando los castigos generales y trabajos que por su respeto se entiende que padecen los mismos Reynos tantos años ha.

Y porque unos de los medios mas adequados para lo que tanto importa al servicio de Dios y de V. M^d se juzga que seria de desterrar á los christianos nuevos que, siendo presos por el S^to Of^io fuessen condenados en perdimiento de las haciendas para el Fisco, pues iendo pobres no podran ayudar à los enemigos de V. M^d con gruessos caudales como aora lo hacen, y se escribiò al Marques de Alenquer, Virrey, que de parte de V. M^d encargasse al Obispo Inq^r Gen^l que tratasse este punto con los del Consejo General del S^to Of^io y el modo con que se podia executar, para que considerandolo todo consultassen à V. M^d por orden del mismo Virrey, lo que se les offreciesse, que como se satisfaga à esta diligencia (que debe ser con brevedad) dira el consejo à V. M^d lo que le pareciere y de ella huviere resultado, y Mendo de la Mota propone en su voto, que esta muy bien considerado y tendra entonces mas propio lugar.

Y porque en Portugal se hace aora visita general del S^to Of^io de que se ha seguido notable fruto; porque se prendieron muchos Christianos nuevos en la ciudad del Puerto, particularmente dos Monjas de S. Francisco y otra de S. Bernardo y en Coimbra dos Canonigos de aquella Iglesia, de los quales es uno Fernando Diaz de la Sylva que vino proveido de Roma en un canonicato y por instancias que hizo el Nuncio, en nombre de su Santidad, en su favor, permitiò V. M^d que se le diesse la possession, y en Lisboa à Marcial Nuñez que era Juez Apostolico, de todo lo qual consta lo poco que se puede fiar de qualquiera persona de essa Nacion.

En esa Corte viven muchos de ella, naturales de Portugal, que, por no ser conocidos, se presume con fundamento que tienen necessidad de ser visitados por la Inqⁿ. Acuerda el Consejo à V. M^d que debe mandar ordenar al Consejo General del S^to Of^io que trate de hacerlos visitar.

Mendo de la Mota acrecienta que, siendo la principal obligacion de V. M^d limpiar sus Reynos de toda especie de Herejia ò Infidelidad, y aviendo mostrado la experiencia por tan largo discurso de tiempos quantos males ha causado en los Reynos de Portugal la perfidia Judaica y Judaismo, que se entiende ser una de las dos causas principales porque Dios le ha dado tan graves castigos. Le parece que tiene V. M^d obligacion en Ley Divina y natural à mandar desterrar de sus Reynos y Señorios todos aquellos que ò fueren declarados por herejes ò abjuraren de vehementi sospechosos en la Fe; y que assi lo debe V. M^d mandar executar luego en los que han salido en este cadahalso de Coimbra y en todos los demas que fueren condenados y declarados de aqui adelante por herejes. Porque de lo contrario se sigue estar siempre viva la semilla del Judaismo, quedando las mismas raizes en el Reyno con que se aumenta y conserva. Y que demas de la pureza de la Religion Catholica à que V. M^d como Rey esta obligado y los grandes y continuos sacrilegios que esta gente comete, profanando y injuriando los Sacramentos, consideran que por si solos bastaban para mover el catholico y real animo de V. M^d ordenar assi. Porque no puede dexar de estar expuesto à muchos peligros el Reyno que tiene dentro de sus venas humor tan pestilente y de que naceran crueles enemigos como son los que engendra la diferencia de Religion y que no podra ser de ningun inconveniente irse esta gente à otros Reynos extrangeros. Porque como se le confisca la hacienda por el crimen de la Herejia, queda tan pobre y mesquina que en ningun parte pueda dar cuidado: antes por este medio ira V. M^d limpiando sus Reynos poco à poco, sin hacer ningun movimiento en ellos, hasta que Dios sea servido descubrir otro camino para limpiarlos del todo.

Decreto de su Magestad.

DOCUMENTS

En una consulta del Consejo de Portugal de 17 de Henero de 1619 se trata de los de la nacion Hebrea que ay en aquel Reyno con ocasion del auto de Inqⁿ que se hizo el año antes en Coimbra y uno de los puntos de esta Consulta es que convendria desterrar no solo à los que fueron declarados y condenados por herejes sino tambien à los que huvieren abjurado de vehementi: y se entiende à esta segunda calidad de gente no se le confiscan los bienes por el S^to Of^io. Aviseme el Consejo que opinion tiene quanto à esto; y si aurian de ser desterrados del Reyno aun en caso que no se les confiscassen los bienes: pues en el seria forzoso que saliendo del Reyno sacassen tambien sus bienes. Cosa en que parece ay razones para reparar, no siendo este remedio obligatorio y necessario en conciencia, que siendolo claro està que se ha de vencer qualquier inconveniente que se pudiesse representar. En otro de lo puntos trata el Consejo de Portugal que convendria visitar expressamente todos los de la nacion que de aquel Reyno huviessen passado à los de Castilla; y para hacer esta visita es necessario que el Inq^r Gen^l ó Consejo de la Inqⁿ de Portugal embie una lista de los Christianos nuevos de aquel Reyno que andan por Castilla. Y si algunos de ellos tuviere sobre si causas de particular sospecho en materia de la Fe lo apunten en la margen. Y se me embiaran las cartas para el Inq^r Gen^l de Portugal en la forma y por la via que se suele, para que Yo las firme. Y en lo demas que contiene la dicha consulta quedo mirando para responder à ella.—Rey.

V.

Cases of Heresy Tried by the Tribunal of Valencia Between 1455 and 1592.

(Archivo historico nacional, Inquisicion de Valencia, Legajo 98).

(See p. 345).

Year. Cases.Year. Cases.

1455 3151463

14617151534

148211151641

148519151725

1486 14151821

148715151922

148818152036

148920152131

149028152240

149151152337

14926152440

14934152647

149410152842

149510152944

149615153020

149724153158

14991515321

150035153361

150136153425

1502915352

150311153639

150531153769

1506201538112

15077153979

150814154053

150926154479

151010154537

151112154649

151232154712

151341154815

15494157713

15582157815

156015157924

156362158037

156438158122

15656615838

156641158429

156754158664

156868158735

157016158821

157155158994

157232159049

1573341591270

1574161592117

157520 Amounting in all to 3125 cases.

157616

In Legajo 300 of the same archives there is a list of relaxations in Valencia from 1486 to 1593. As customary in these registers it is arranged alphabetically under the baptismal names and is unfortunately incomplete, ending with the letter N. From other similar lists it appears that the letters A-N comprise substantially four-fifths of the whole and therefore if twenty-five per cent. be added to these figures it will probably give a close approximation to the whole number. Arranged chronologically it presents the following results.

YearRelaxed in person. In effigy Absent. Dead. YearRelaxed in person. In effigy Absent. Dead.

148610 152413

148710 152615

14898 152823

149018 152924

149212 15301

149318 153137

1496 1 15338

1497479 153612

1498128 15371

149963 153811

15003 15394

150115 15404

150213 15443

15034 15453

150513 5115531

15064 22155415

1508 4815636

150912 3156431

1510941015663

1511 3215674

15121 815682

151312 115711

151452 815725

15174 615733

152027 15747

152183 157521

15226 1576111

15238 15775

15783 1

15791

158111

158341

15842

15863 2

1590121

159264

15935

The aggregate of this list is 515 relaxed in person and 383 in effigy, of whom 189 were fugitives and 194 were dead.

If to these figures we add twenty-five per cent. for the missing portion of the record we shall have 644 relaxations in person and 479 in effigy as the result of a hundred and eight years of the most active period of the tribunal of Valencia.

VI.

Brief of Clement VII to Inquisitor-general Manrique, July 15, 1531, Respecting Lutheranism.

(Bulario del Orden de Santiago, Lib. I. de copias, fol. 98).

(See p. 423).

Dilecto filio Alfonso Manrique, Sancti Calixti presbytero cardinali, Hispalensi nuncupato, Clemens PP. VII.

DOCUMENTS

Dilecte fili, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Cum sicut veredica relatione ad nostri apostolatus auditum displicenter pervenit, propter libros errores Lutheranos continentes qui ad loca Castellæ et Legionis ac Aragonum regnorum et dominiorum charissimi in Christo filii nostri Caroli Romanorum imperatoris semper Augusti qui etiam Hispaniarum rex existit delati fuerunt, damnata hæresis Lutherana in aliquibus locis regnorum et dominiorum prædictorum pullulare cœperit et ad presens varia et erronea iniquitatis filii hæresiarchæ Martini Lutheri dogmata jam usque adeo invaluerunt et in dictis regnis et dominiis multi reperiantur qui hujusmodi errores et dogmata imitent et publicent ac tales libros vendant et nonnulli hujusmodi erroribus infecti sanctæ matris Ecclesiæ præcepta contemnant ac sanctorum patrum decreta parvifacienda mendaciter affirment et multas blasphemias in omnipotentem Deum ejusque gloriosam genetricem intemeratam semperque Virginem Mariam ac sanctos Dei proferant et varios hæreses introducant ac diversos errores committant in gravissimam divinæ Majestatis offensam et catholicæ et orthodoxæ fidei scandalum et auctoritatis apostolicæ enervationem ac animarum salutis perniciem et irreparabile detrimentum: Nos, quorum est pro salute gregis dominici huic nefariæ hæresi ne in deteriora procedat omni quo possumus remedio occurrere ac illius sectatores debita arctatione et correctione compescere, circumspectioni tuæ, quæ ecclesiæ Hispalensi ex concessione et dispensatione apostolica præesse dignoscitur et inquisitor generalis in partibus illis existit et de cujus prudentia et rectitudine specialem in domino fiduciam obtinemus contra quoscumque cujuscumque status, gradus, ordinis et conditionis seu præeminentiæ existant, et quacumque ecclesiastica, episcopali et archiepiscopali dignitate seu mundana etiam ducali auctoritate præfulgeant ipsius Martini et aliorum erroneorum dogmatum sectatores, sequaces, fautores et defensores aut illis auxilium consilium et favorem, directe vel indirecte publice vel occulte præstantes, auctoritate nostra inquirendi ac hujusmodi labe infectos, non tamen episcopos et archiepiscopos, capiendi et carceribus mancipandi, necnon juxta canonicas sanctiones et sanctorum patrum instituta, prout qualitas excessuum exegerit vel conscientiæ fuerit et videbitur expedire puniendi, et ad cor redire nolentes a dictæ ecclesiæ communione veluti putrida membra separatos et divisos esse ac damnationi æternæ cum Sathana et angelis ejus addictos, et perpetuo infames et intestabiles esse, et corpora eorum postquam defuncti fuerint sepultura ecclesiastica carere debere denuntiandi et declarandi; et si ad veritatis lumen redire et hujusmodi hæresim abjurare voluerint, etiam si archiepiscopi et episcopi fuerint, postquam errorem suam deposuerint ac de præmissis doluerint idque humiliter petierint, si alias relapsi non fuerint, ab omnibus et singulis excommunicationis, suspensionis et interdicti aliisque ecclesiasticis sententiis, censuris et pœnis quas præmissorum occasione quomodolibet incurrerint, et ab hujusmodi excessibus, delictis et criminibus in forma ecclesiæ consueta absolvendi et super irregularitate quomodolibet contracta dispensandi omnemque inhabilitatis et infamiæ notam sive maculam penitus absolvendi ac eos rehabilitandi et ad nostrum et sedis apostolicæ gremium necnon gratiam et benedictionem restituendi et reponendi, omniaque et singula alia quæ ad hujusmodi pestem reprimendam et radiciter extirpandam necessaria et opportuna esse dignoscuntur et ad officium inquisitoris tam de jure quam consuetudine pertinent et quæ tibi et aliis inquisitoribus generalibus in partibus illis pro tempore deputatis, tam per quoscunque Romanos pontifices prædecessores nostros quam per nos quomodolibet concessa sint, faciendi, ordinandi et exequendi ac auxilium brachii sæcularis invocandi et ad præmissa omnia et singula si et quando expedire videris viros aptos et idoneos cum simili aut limitata facultate subdelegandi et deputandi ipsosque quotiens eis opportunum videbitur revocandi ac loco ipsorum alios similiter idoneos deputandi, plenam et liberam auctoritate apostolica tenore præsentium facultatem concedimus. Nonobstantibus fe. re. Bonifacii papæ VIII, prædecessoris nostri de una et concilii generalis de duabus diætis et aliis apostolicis constitutionibus contrariis quibuscumque; aut si Lutheranis adhærentibus, fautoribus receptoribus et aliis præfatis vel quibusvis aliis communiter vel divisim a dicta sit sede indultum quod interdici, suspendi vel excommunicari aut extra vel ultra certa loca ad judicium evocari non possint per litteras apostolicas non facientes plenam et expressam ac de indulto hujusmodi mentionem et quibuslibet aliis privilegiis et litteris tam apostolicis quam regularibus sub quibuscumque tenoribus singulis præfatis concessis per quæ præsentium litterarum et vestræ jurisdictionis in præmissis executio quomodolibet impediri vel differri posset quæ quoad hoc ipsis vel alicui ipsorum nullatenus suffragari posse nec debere decernimus. Dat. Romæ apud Sanctum Petrum sub annulo piscatoris, die XV. Julii MDXXXI., Pontificatus nostri anno octavo.—Evangelista.

VII.

Letter of Charles V to Inquisitor-general Valdes from Brussels, January 25, 1550.

(Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion de Barcelona, Córtes, Legajo 17, fol. 83).

(See p. 425).

Erasso nos mostro la relacion que embiastes de lo sucedido sobre el derrocamiento de aquellas casas de Valladolid, y por lo que los del Consejo de la Inquisicion nos han consultado lo havemos entendido mas particularmente, y cierto ello ha sido de qualidad que se pudiera llevar por otros terminos, y no ponerse este negocio tan adelante por que dello no puede haberse seguido ningun buen fruto, y los rreyes de Bohemia mis hijos me han escripto lo que habian mandado proveer sobre todo, y paresce que aquello esta bien por que si se obiera de pasar mas adelante no pudiera ser sin notable inconveniente, y porque no sucedan semejantes cosas se provee que se ponga en execucion lo que ordenamos los dias pasados, y se nos inbie relacion dello junto con lo que parescera para que se tome algun termino en estos negocios y se terna el respeto que es razon a lo tocante al Santo Oficio.

De los que nombrastes en el memorial pasado habemos elegido para la plaza de la Inquisicion que esta vaca por cortes al licenciado Otalora; encargamos os le deis luego el despacho en la forma que se acostumbra.

La provision de las Iglesias que estan vacas aun no se ha hecho quando se tratare dello se mirara en lo que nos habeis escrito cerca de la perpetuidad de los salarios de los Inquisidores y otros oficiales, pues que estan muy cargados de pension.

En lo del doctor Egidio acaso han visto las proposiciones que contra el resultaron y lo que ultimamente tomaron a escribir los Inquisidores de Sevilla, y pues os hallais en esa ciudad encargamos os proveais que se averigue muy bien la verdad, y con la mas brevedad que ser pueda, y se nos consulte lo que parescera en su causa antes que se determine, porque de una manera ò de otra combiene al servicio de Dios y nuestro que aquella Iglesia se de prelado, y porque frai Domingo de Soto nos hablo algunas veces en este negocio diciendo lo que cerca del le escrevistis por lo que se le mostraron las escripturas que embiaron los del Consejo y por esta causa y sus letras y doctrina creemos que convenia que entendiesse en las qualificaciones deste negocio, paresciendose assi proveereis que se le comuniquen.

Despues desto escrive Erasso que podria ser que con aver vacado lo de Sanctiago oviesse mas comodidad para esto.

VIII.

Letter of Inquisitor-general Valdes to Paul IV, September 9, 1558.

(Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Sala 40, Libro 4, fol. 230).

(See pp. 436 and 521).

PARA SU SANCTIDAD.

Sanctisimo Padre:

DOCUMENTS

No he scripto antes a V. S^t de los herexes lutheranos que en estas partes nuevamente se an descubierto por pensar que siendo los negocios como son de muy grand inportancia convenia primero hacerse las dilixencias que se an hecho para descubrir mas en ellos y aunque parezca que a avido alguna dilacion en esto suplico a V. S. no lo atribuya a culpa de descuido ni de otra cosa sino al deseo que yo y los ministros del sancto officio que tratamos estas cosas tenemos en cumplir con toda vigilancia lo que es a nuestro cargo en servicio de dios y descargo de V. S. a quien humilmente suplico se acuerde de mandar las cosas que tocaren al servicio de V. S. y de su sancta sede apostolica con la confiança que merece mi deseo y fidelidad de hijo y siervo muy obediente y que siempre tenga memoria de favorecer las cosas del sancto officio con la aficion y voluntad que lo a hecho para que en tiempo de su felicisimo pontificado se extirpen las herexias y se ahumente la fee catholica y rreligion christiana como espero en dios sera ansi y por no cansar a V. S. con larga carta me rremito a la rrelacion que va con esta por mano del dean de oviedo y de joan de vedoya que tienen cargo en esa corte de los negocios del oficio de la santa Inquisicion de las provincias que estan a mi carga. Guarde dios la muy sancta persona de v. beatitud por muchos años para su servicio y buen govierno de su yglesia. En valladolid 9 de setiembre 1558. S. V. Servus humilis, F. Hispalens.

La Relacion que se embio con la carta a su Santidad—

Despues que se a tenido noticia de las herexias y herrores de lutero y sus secaces y se an estendido por muchas partes de la cristiandad la provincia que por la gracia de dios mas libre a estado desta macula a sido los rriñones de españa por el gran cuidado y vixilencia de los ministros del santo oficio de la Inquisicion aunque algunos pocos naturales y otros estranjeros dellos an sido convencidos y condenados por herexes destos herrores y executados en sus personas las penas que merecian en los que an podido ser avidos y contra otros que se an ausentado se a procedido en rebeldia y an sido condenados en su ausencia y contumacia.

A sucedido de un año a esta parte poco mas ó menos que como los Inquisidores de sevilla por ciertos avisos e yndicios que tuvieron començaron a inquirir y hacer dilixencias contra ciertas personas de aquella cibdad y esto vino a noticia de unos frailes del monesterio de sancti ysidro extramuros della que son de la orden de los hermitanos de sant geronimo y entendieron ser culpados luego se ausentaron del monesterio y del arçobispado y del reyno y entiendese que estan en alemania los nombres de los quales van en una memoria questa con esta y de los que quedaron en el monesterio estan presos en la Inquisicion de Sevilla ochos frailes demas de otras personas sus conplices. A esta saçon que esto acaecio supose tanbien como hera venido a sevilla un hombre español llamado Julian que venia de alemaña y traia cartas de un herexe que alla esta deste reyno llamado joan perez para ciertas personas principales de aquella cibdad y que tanbien avia traido muchos libros de herexes ansi en latin como en lengua española y los avia repartido por ciertas personas que se los pagavan bien. Este hombre fue avisado y encubierto y persuadido que luego se ausentase porque los Inquisidores lo sabrian y le quemarian y ansi se ausento de manera que por buena dilixencia de los Inquisidores fue preso en la sierra morena treinta leguas de sevilla adonde fue traido y esta preso el qual aunque al principio muchos dias estuvo muy pertinaz en sus herexias y dixo de otras muchas personas ya parece que muestra arrepentimiento y que quiere rreducirse a la yglesia catholica. De la prision deste y de los otros an rresultado otras muchas prisiones que se an hecho y estan presos y otras se espera que lo seran en sevilla e su comarca.

Entiendese que toda la mayor parte del daño que se a hallado en sevilla rresulto de algunos companeros y debotos del doctor exidio canonigo de la magistral de aquella iglesia ya defunto que fue admitido el año de cinquenta y tres a abjuracion de muchos herrores que tuvo cerca de estas materias aunque segund se sospecha falsa y finxidamente y que engaño a los Inquisidores de manera que quedaron muchos inficionados de su ponçona en que ay personas principales Illustres y letrados los quales hasta aora ay alli presos demas de los frailes de sant Ysidro verse an por la memoria que va con esta. Demas de lo dicho abra cinco o seis meses que por ciertos indicios y avisos quel Inquisidor general y el consejo e inquisidores tuvieron se entendio que en valladolid salamanca çamora toro palencia logroño se domaticavan muy secretamente malas doctrinas de los herrores lutheranos y aunque la averiguacion y Inquisicion desto se començo a hacer con toda la disimulacion y secreto posible no dexo de venir a noticia de algunos de los culpados entre los quales fue frai domingo de rrojas fraile y predicador de la orden de sancto domingo hijo del marques de poça e don carlos de seso que huieron con toda dilixencia el fraile en abito seglar y fueron presos en navarra adonde ya tenian salvo conduto para se pasar en francia como lo hicieran si la buena dilixencia de la Inquisicion no los previniera embiando por todos los puertos y pasos de los confines de los reynos despaña ansi maritimos como de la tierra fueron traidos a la Inquisicion de valladolid adonde esta la corte y rreside el Inquisidor general y consejo de Inquisicion y se an prendido y estan presos otros muchos conplices ansi personas principales e Illustres e letrados cuios nonbres van en el memorial e sus causas y procesos se oyen y prosiguen con todo cuydado e dilixencia porque demas de los Inquisidores que de asiento rresiden en la Inquisicion de valladolid el Inquisidor general a proveido que dos de los del consejo que asisten con el vaian cada dia mañana y tarde a la audiencia de las carceles a oyr a los presos y tomar sus confisiones y proveer lo necesario y por ser los presos muchos y las causas y personas tan calificadas se a mandado venir otros Inquisidores y oficiales de otros partidos para que todos juntos se ayuden para la brevedad y buena expedicion de los negocios y conclusos los procesos esta acordado que se llamen perlados y letrados theologos y juristas de los mexores y de mas auctoridad que se hallaren para que juntamente con los Inquisidores los vean y determinen conforme a derecho y a la calidad y gravedad de cada uno.