On the 25th of February, 1560, the inquisitors of Toledo celebrated an auto-da-fé, in which several persons were burnt, with some effigies, and a great number subjected to penances. This auto-da-fé was performed to entertain the new queen, Elizabeth de Valois, the daughter of Henry II., King of France. It is rather surprising that this melancholy ceremony was chosen to amuse a royal princess of thirteen years of age, and who in her native country had been accustomed to brilliant festivals, suitable to her rank and age. The Cortes general of the kingdoms was also assembled at Toledo at the same time, to swear allegiance to the heir-presumptive, Don Carlos, so that this auto-da-fé, with the exception of the number of victims, was as solemn as any of those in Valladolid.
In 1561, another auto-da-fé took place in the same town; four impenitent Lutherans were burnt, and eighteen reconciled. Among those condemned to penances was one of the king’s pages, a native of Brussels, named Don Charles Estrect, but the young queen Elizabeth obtained his pardon.
On the 17th of June, 1565 (which was Trinity Sunday), an auto-da-fé of forty-five persons was celebrated; eleven were burnt, and thirty-four condemned to penances. Some of these were Lutherans, but the greater number were Jews. Among those designated as Protestants, some were called Lutherans, others the Faithful; there was a third called Huguenaos, after Huguenots.
Although the Inquisition of Toledo celebrated as many autos-da-fé as the other tribunals, I do not find any persons of distinction among the victims, until the auto-da-fé of the 4th of June, 1571, when two men were burnt in person, and three in effigy, for Lutheranism, and thirty-one individuals were condemned to penances. One of the men who were burnt ought to be particularly mentioned. He was called the Doctor Sigismond Archel, of Cagliari, in Sardinia. He had been arrested at Madrid, in 1562, as a dogmatizing Lutheran, and after remaining for a long time in the prisons at Toledo, he contrived to make his escape. He had not time to get out of the kingdom; descriptions of his person were sent to all parts of the frontier, and he was again arrested, and fell into the hands of his judges. He persisted in denying the facts imputed to him, until the publication of the witnesses, when he confessed, and maintained not only that he was not a heretic, but that he was a better Catholic than the Papists. He was condemned to be burnt, but persevered in his system, and declared that he was a martyr; he insulted the priests when they exhorted him, and was then gagged until he was fastened to the stake. The archers, perceiving that he pretended to the glory of martyrdom, pierced him with their lances, while the executioners were lighting the faggots.
The Inquisition of Saragossa also celebrated an auto-da-fé every year, when several people were burnt, and about twenty reconciled. Most of these were Huguenots who had quitted Bearn, to establish themselves as merchants in Saragossa, Huesca, Barbastro, and other cities. The progress which the Calvinistic doctrines had made in Spain, is proved by an ordinance of the Supreme Council, in which we read, that “Don Louis de Benegas, the ambassador of Spain at Vienna, informed the inquisitor-general, on the 14th of April, 1568, that he had learnt from particular reports, that the Calvinists congratulated each other on the peace signed between France and Spain, and that they hoped that their religion would make as much progress in Spain as in England, Flanders, and other countries, because the great number of Spaniards who had secretly adopted it might easily hold communication with the Protestants of Bearn, through Arragon.” These, and other reports, induced the council to recommend additional vigilance to the inquisitors.
The following circumstance shows the injustice and cruelty of the Inquisition in a strong light. In 1578, a man was condemned, on suspicion of heresy, to receive two hundred stripes, to be sent for five years to the galleys, and to pay an hundred ducats. His crime was sending Spanish horses into France. Since the reign of Alphonso XI., in the fourteenth century, the introduction of Spanish horses into France was prohibited, on pain of death and confiscation; the particular circumstances which caused so disproportionate a punishment to the crime to be established are not known; it was however renewed in 1499, by Ferdinand the Catholic. No one will deny that the officers of the customs were the proper persons to arrest these smugglers; but when the civil wars broke out between the Catholics and Protestants in France, Philip thought proper to employ the Inquisition in repressing the practice, pretending, according to the Papal bull, that those who furnished the Protestants with arms, ammunition, &c., were favourers of heretics, and liable to suspicion of heresy. Philip II. commissioned the Inquisition of Logroño, Saragossa, and Barcelona, to take cognizance of all the crimes relating to the introduction of Spanish horses into France.
The Council of the Inquisition added a clause to the annual edict of denunciations, which obliged every Spanish Catholic Christian to denounce persons known to have bought horses to send to France, for the use of the Protestants. Besides these motives of religion, the zeal of the inhabitants was excited by the promise of a reward.
In 1575, the punishment of whipping was decreed for this crime; but though the law is expressed in general terms, the following event shows that it was only inflicted on those whose power and credit were small. In 1576, a Commissary of the Inquisition met a servant of the viceroy of Arragon going into France with two horses; he seized the horses, but allowed the servant to go away. He gave an account of his proceedings to the inquisitors, who approved of his conduct in not arresting the servant; their opinion was confirmed by the Supreme Council. The inquisitors were on the point of writing to the viceroy, to demand an explanation of the conduct of his servant, and the destination of the horses, when the council ordered them to desist, if they thought it would be disagreeable to the viceroy.
This law was afterwards applied to those who were suspected of smuggling, and to those who favoured the practice. In 1607, Philip II. ordered the inquisitors to offer rewards to those who intercepted this trade, and the people were at last inspired with so great a horror of it, and those who practised it became so odious, that the government was obliged to declare that the misfortune of being convicted and punished for this crime, did not exclude a person from enjoying honours and offices.
The inquisitors, always eager to extend their jurisdiction, wished to have the right of undertaking the trials for smuggling saltpetre, sulphur, and gunpowder; this attempt did not succeed, and was, in fact, the cause of their being deprived of the powers bestowed on them by Philip, respecting the introduction of horses into France.
In the yearly autos-da-fé of the Inquisition of Grenada, there generally appeared about twenty condemned persons; for although the Morescoes who denounced themselves were treated with great clemency, yet there were many who refused to accuse themselves, either from the fear which the severity of the Inquisition inspired, or because they were persuaded that those who declared they had been treated with great gentleness, did not dare to assert the contrary; and others, after having emigrated to Africa, had returned to Spain without considering the danger they were in of being arrested by the Inquisition.
On the 27th of May, 1593, a grand auto-da-fé took place at Grenada; five individuals were burnt in person, and five in effigy; eighty-seven were condemned to penances. The only considerable person among these, was Donna Inez Alvarez, the wife of Thomas Martinez, alguazil to the royal chancery. She was condemned to be burnt, but making a confession on the scaffold, she was reconciled.
The proceedings were the same in the Inquisition of Valencia. The number of Morescoes who relapsed into Mahometanism, and refused to accuse themselves, was so considerable, that many appeared in every auto-da-fé, either to be burnt as impenitent, or to suffer different penances.
The Inquisition of Logroño was not less active in prosecuting heretics. An auto-da-fé was celebrated every year, composed of about twenty persons condemned for Judaism, and some others for different heresies, particularly Lutheranism; for after the time of Don Carlos de Seso, corregidor of Toro (who was arrested at Logroño, in 1558, and burnt in the following year at Valladolid), there were always some individuals to be found who professed his opinions, and succeeded in obtaining Lutheran books. The council which was informed of this circumstance, wrote to the inquisitors in 1568, enjoining them to redouble their vigilance in preventing the introduction of heretical books, and informed them, that Don Diego de Guzman, ambassador to England, had written that the Protestants of that country boasted that their doctrine was well received in Spain, particularly in Navarre, and that it was even preached there.
While the inquisitors of Logroño were preparing for the auto-da-fé of 1570, they had the mortification of being blamed for their conduct in two instances by the Supreme Council. One was in the case of Lope de Arguinaraz, and the other in that of Juan Floristan Maestuz, who were accused of Judaism. Arguinaraz denied the fact, was tortured, and then confessed having committed the actions, but asserted that he did not do them with the sentiments and belief that he was accused of. He ratified his confession some days after, and demanded reconciliation. The judges when they assembled to vote for the definitive sentence, resolved to refer the case to the Supreme Council, which pronounced that they had not sufficiently examined the accused on the sentiments and intentions which he entertained in committing the actions he had confessed, and commanded them to return to that stage of the trial, and vote according to the result. The inquisitors sent an account of the motives of their conduct, and gave notice that they should wait until the council had considered their observations, before they proceeded further. The reply to this message enjoined the inquisitors to execute the orders they had received immediately, and harshly reproached them for not having obeyed them in silence, and for having failed in their duty, in the interrogation, when they ought to have examined the accused on his doctrine.
In the other affair of Juan Floristan Maestuz, the council expressed its surprise, that the inquisitors did not examine the accused on some heretical propositions which were proved against him, though he refused to confess even during the torture; and above all, that the inquisitor, who had qualified the accused as negatively perjured, had voted for his reconciliation, since the constitutions of the holy office prohibited the reconciliation of those who persisted denying the charges proved against him. The reconciliation of the two prisoners took place in the auto-da-fé.
An auto-da-fé took place at Logroño, on the 14th of November, 1593, where forty-nine persons appeared; five were burnt in person, seven in effigy; the others were subjected to penances.
The custom of celebrating one general auto-da-fé every year was so well established, that when the inquisitors of Cuença, in 1558, gave up a man to secular justice in a particular auto-da-fé, it was doubted if the rules of the holy office permitted it; and though the council decided in the affirmative, the custom of reserving all the condemned persons for the general auto-da-fé prevailed, unless any very particular circumstance made it necessary to deviate from it.
I have already stated, that Philip II. introduced the Spanish constitution into Sardinia, in 1562. Don Diego Calvo first began to put it into execution, but the novelty made so great an impression on the inhabitants, that they demanded that the tribunal should be visited. This commission was confided by the inquisitor-general to the licentiate, Martinez del Villar, who fulfilled it in 1567. He received so many complaints against the inquisitor Calvo, that he was recalled, and Martinez took his place; he, however, did not remain there long, but was succeeded by Don Alphonso de Lorca.
In 1575, an appeal was made to Rome against the tribunal of Sardinia, and Philip II. interposed in its defence. Don Francis Minuta, a Sardinian gentleman, had been subjected to a penance for bigamy, and condemned to serve for three years as a common soldier in the galleys of Spain, and without the liberty of going out of the Goletta, in Malta. He had not been there a month, before he contrived to escape, and returned to Sardinia; the inquisitor-general then ordered him to be again arrested, and doubled his punishment; Minuta was taken back to the Goletta, whence he escaped a second time, and fled to Rome. He represented to the Pope that he was not guilty of bigamy, and that the manner in which the inquisitor-general had treated him was unjust, since he had left the fort with the permission of the governor. Don Francis demanded, and obtained of the Pope, two briefs of commission: the first for the examination of the principal question, that of bigamy; the other to judge of the reasons which he advanced against the sentence, which prolonged his detention. In the interim, the inquisitor of Sardinia declared him a contumacious fugitive, and condemned him to eight years’ labour in the galleys. The apostolical judge required the inquisitor to suspend the proceedings; he informed the inquisitor-general, who applied to the king, whose interference they had never requested in vain. Philip II. wrote to Don Juan de Zuñiga, his ambassador at Rome, to demand a revocation of the briefs of commission, and to obtain permission for the inquisitor of the island to continue the prosecution, or that it might at least be referred to the inquisitor-general, to whom the right of judging the cause belonged. The Pope revoked his bulls to please the King of Spain, and the unfortunate Don Francis Minuta experienced the fate which he might have expected; for, in cases of this nature, the inquisitor-general always delegates one of the members of the accused tribunal to be the examining judge, on pretence that they are in possession of the writings of the trial.
Don Andrea Minuta, brother to Don Francis, was also condemned to the same punishment for three years. He fled to Rome, and appealing to the Pope, obtained a brief of commission for a bishop of Sardinia. Philip II. made the same request to the Pope, and Andrea was treated in the same way as his brother.
Don Pedro Guisa, Baron de Casteli, in Sardinia, was prosecuted and condemned for the same crime of bigamy; but having learnt what had happened to the two brothers Minuta, he had recourse to entreaties and humiliations, to appease the inquisitor-general and obtain a commutation of his punishment.