Note 37 — Chapter I · SICILY.

Argensola, Añales de Aragon, Lib. I, cap. 5.—Caruso, Memorie istoriche di Sicilia, T. VI, p. 119.

One of Moncada’s arbitrary acts concerned the Inquisition. In 1517, when the receiver Garcí Cid was settling his accounts, he claimed credit for 700 ounces which he had deposited with a banker in Messina, where Moncada seized it. Cardinal Adrian the inquisitor-general thereupon ordered Inquisitor Cervera to summon the banker to return the money, for the viceroy had express orders from Ferdinand not to meddle with the property of the tribunal. If, however, the banker could prove that Moncada had taken it by force, then Garcí Cid could proceed to collect it from the revenues of the Priorazgo of St. John at Messina, which belonged to Moncada. If the banker could not prove this, he must pay the money and have recourse against the property and revenues of Moncada. Hereafter, Adrian concludes, no one shall dare to take the property of the Inquisition, for the Catholic king ordered that it should be used to purchase rents for the perpetuation of the tribunal.—Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Lib. 933.