CHAPTER XXVI.

OFFENCES COMMITTED BY THE INQUISITORS AGAINST THE ROYAL AUTHORITY AND MAGISTRATES.

IN addition to the prevention of the progress of literature, the Inquisition was so much dreaded by the magistrates, that criminals were frequently left unpunished. Ferdinand and his successors had granted privileges to this tribunal, which the encroachments of the inquisitors soon rendered insupportable. They even endeavoured to humiliate three sovereigns: Clement VIII.; the Prince of Bearn, King of Navarre; and the Grand Master of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, at Malta. They also attacked and qualified, as suspected of heresy, the whole Council of Castile; excited seditions in several cities by their arbitrary measures; and persecuted several members of their own Supreme Council.

This system of domination has never been repressed either by the general laws of Spain and America, the particular resolutions taken in each of the kingdoms of the crown of Aragon, the king’s ordinations, or the circular letters of the Council of the Inquisition. The inquisitors have been punished (though rarely) by being deprived of their offices; this, however, had no effect. Lastly, the general conventions have not been less impotent in restraining the ambition which led them to endeavour to establish their dominion throughout the world by fear.

The Inquisition presents to our view a tribunal, whose judges have neither obeyed the laws of the kingdom in which it was established, the bulls of the Popes, the first constitutions of the tribunal, or the particular orders of its chiefs; which has even dared to resist the power of the Pope, in whose name it acts, and has disowned the king’s authority eleven different times; which has suffered books to circulate, favouring regicides and the authority of the Popes to dethrone kings, and at the same time condemned and prohibited works containing a contrary doctrine, and defending the rights of the sovereign; which acted in this manner in circumstances entirely foreign to the crime of heresy, which was the only one they were competent to judge. Some examples will be given of the contests for jurisdiction which have so much injured Spain.

In 1553, the inquisitors of Calahorra excommunicated and arrested the licentiate Izquierdo, alcalde-major of Arnedo, for having attempted to prosecute Juan Escudero, a familiar of the holy office, who had assassinated a soldier. They also ordered divine service to cease at Arnedo. The Chancery of Valladolid demanded the writings of the trial, but the inquisitors eluded two of their ordinances. In the mean time the culprit was left at liberty in the town of Calahorra, and afterwards made his escape, so that the crime remained unpunished.

In 1567, the inquisitors of Murcia excommunicated the Chapter of the Cathedral, and the municipality of that city; their competence was contested, and the Supreme Council decided that some members of the chapter and municipality should make public reparation in the capital of the kingdom, and receive absolution; they received it in public, and in the character of penitents, before the altar.

In 1568, a royal ordinance prescribed the execution of the Convention, known as that of Cardinal Espinoza. It was issued, on the inquisitors of Valencia claiming the right of judging in affairs concerning the police of the city and many others, such as contributions, smuggling, trade, &c. They asserted that this right belonged to them, particularly if one of the individuals concerned in the affair was in the service of the Inquisition. They would not allow any criminal to be arrested in the houses of the inquisitors either in the town or country, while even the churches were no longer a refuge for those they pursued.

In 1569, the tribunal of Barcelona excommunicated and imprisoned the military deputy and the civil vice-governor of the city, and several of their people. Their crime was, having exacted from an usher of the Inquisition a certain privilege called la Merchandise. The Royal Council of Aragon contested the competence of the Council of the Inquisition; but Philip II. put an end to the dispute, by liberating the prisoners: the inquisitors were not punished for disobeying the law, which forbids them to excommunicate a magistrate.

In 1574 the Inquisition of Saragossa excommunicated the members of the deputation which represented the kingdom of Aragon during the interval of the assembly of the Cortes. The deputies complained to Pius V., who paid no attention to them: after his death they applied to his successor, Gregory XIII. The Pope commissioned the inquisitor-general to arrange the affair; but, being influenced by the Supreme Council, he rejected the papal commission, and asserted that the cognizance of the complaint belonged to him by right. Philip II., that fanatical protector of the holy office, commanded his ambassador at Rome to defend the Inquisition to the Pope; and he obtained what he required, while the deputies were still suffering under the excommunication, which lasted nearly two years. It must be remarked, that this deputation was composed of eight persons: two of them were ecclesiastics, generally bishops; two for the highest order of nobility, who were counts or grandees of Spain; two gentlemen of illustrious birth to represent the second class of nobility; and two for the third class, selected from the most distinguished citizens.

In 1588, the inquisitors of Toledo excommunicated the licentiate Gudiel, alcalde of the king’s house, and judge of the royal court of justice at Madrid: this magistrate had prosecuted Iñigo Ordoñez, secretary of the holy office, for having wounded Juan de Berrgos, who died in consequence, and for having wilfully fired a pistol at the Canon Don Francis Monsalve. The Council of the Inquisition pleaded the cause of the culprit before the king, and excused the use of censures, alleging that such was the usual proceeding of the holy office.

In 1591, violent contests took place between the Inquisition of Saragossa and the chief justice of Aragon. Two seditions were the result, and several grandees of Spain, many gentlemen, and a still greater number of private individuals, were condemned to death. An account of the intrigues of the inquisitors in this affair will be given in the trial of Antonio Perez.

In 1598, the Inquisitors of Seville went to the metropolitan church, with the president and members of the royal court of justice, to attend the funeral of Philip II.; they pretended that they ought to precede the judges, who resisted, and the inquisitors excommunicated them in the church. The king’s attorney protested against this act, and the scandalous scene which ensued may be easily conceived. The judges repairing to the place where they held their sessions, declared that the inquisitors had used violence in proceeding against the law, and passed a decree commanding the inquisitors to take off the excommunication. The inquisitors did not obey the order, and the judges repeated it, with the threat of depriving them of all civil rights, and condemning them to banishment and confiscation. Philip III. disapproved of the conduct of the inquisitors, commanded them to take off the excommunication and repair to Madrid, where they were confined to the city. In the December following, the king issued a decree, importing that the inquisitors should only take precedence in the ceremony of the auto-da-fé. The inquisitor-general Portocarrero was deprived of his office, and banished to his bishopric of Cuença.

In 1622 the town of Lorca, which was within the jurisdiction of the Inquisition of Murcia, appointed a familiar of the holy office to be the collector of a tax upon the sale of goods called Alcabala. The man refused the employment, but his representations were not admitted, upon which the inquisitors excommunicated the judge of Lorca, and required the assistance of Don Pedro Porres, the corregidor of Murcia, to take him to their prisons. On his refusal, they excommunicated him also, and decreed that divine service should cease in all the churches of Murcia. This measure threw the inhabitants into the greatest consternation, and they entreated their bishop, Don Antonio Trejo, to interpose his authority. This prelate remonstrated with the inquisitors; but not succeeding, in order to tranquillize the people, he published a mandate, announcing that he was not obliged to submit to the interdict, or to the order for the cessation of divine service. Don Andres Pacheco, the inquisitor-general, condemned the mandate, and ordered this measure to be proclaimed in all the churches of Murcia. At the same time he imposed a penalty of eight thousand ducats on the bishop, and cited him to appear within twenty days at Madrid, to answer the complaint preferred against him, by the fiscal of the Supreme Council, on pain of another penalty of four thousand ducats. The bishop and the chapter of his cathedral sent the dean and a canon to Madrid as his deputies. The inquisitor-general excommunicated them, without hearing their defence, and threw them into separate prisons, and at the same time caused this excommunication to be announced in all the pulpits of Madrid. The inquisitors also excommunicated the Curé of St. Catherine, who refused to submit to this interdict without an order from his bishop. The king and the Pope were at last obliged to interfere, they re-established the bishop in his rights; but this act of justice did not destroy the cause of the evil which was complained of.

In the same year, the Inquisitors of Toledo excommunicated the sub-prefect of that city, who had seized and sentenced a butcher as a thief, and convicted him of having sold bad meat with false weights: the inquisitors pretended that the culprit came under their jurisdiction, because he furnished the holy office with meat, and they accordingly required that the prisoners and the writings of the trial should be given up to them. Their demand was refused, because the offence was committed in the exercise of a public profession. The inquisitors then published the excommunication in all the churches of Toledo; they imprisoned the usher and the porter of the sub-prefect for having obeyed their master, and they remained in prison several days; they were then subject to the punishment of having their beards and hair shaven, which was at that time considered infamous, and to appear in the chamber of audience without their shoes and girdles; they were examined on their genealogy, to discover if they were descended from the Moors or Jews; they were made to repeat the catechism as if they were heretics, and were then condemned to perpetual banishment; the inquisitors even refused to give them a certificate, to show that they had not been condemned for heresy. The compassion excited by the fate of these unfortunate men was so general, that the people rose against the Inquisition; but some persons of high rank, and who were devoted to the public good, succeeded in appeasing the tumult. The king being informed of what had passed by the Council of Castile, appointed an extraordinary commission of eleven members selected from his councils; they passed several resolutions against the inquisitors, which had only the effect of correcting the present disorder, without entirely destroying the evil.

In the following year, the Inquisitors of Grenada excommunicated Don Louis Gudiel de Peralta, and Don Mathias Gonzalez; the first a member of the royal civil court, and the other the king’s procurator in the same court. They condemned as heretical two works of these excellent jurisconsults, in which they defended the rights of the royal jurisdiction in all cases of competence. The Council of Castile respectfully remonstrated with the king, and showed that the inquisitors acted in opposition to Instructions to the holy office of 1485, which directed them to consult the king in affairs of this nature. In order to remedy this abuse, a committee was appointed in 1625, to decide upon all difficulties which might arise on this subject. This committee did not exist long, but it was re-established in 1657.

In 1530, the Inquisitors of Valladolid behaved with still greater insolence. The bishop of that city (who was at the same time president of the royal chancery) was to officiate pontifically in a solemn mass. The inquisitors chose that day to publish the edict of denunciations; and asserting that their power as inquisitors was superior to that of the bishop, they attempted to take away the canopy which was raised when the prelate officiated. The canons resisted, and the inquisitors sent some of their officers to the church, who arrested Don Alonso Niño the chanter, and Don Francis Milan a canon; they carried them away in their canonical robes, and deposited them in that dress in the prisons of the holy office. The Council of Castile made a representation to the king on this event, which was the origin of the convention of the following year, known as that of Cardinal Zapata. Several resolutions were passed, and it was decided that censures should only be employed in cases of emergency; but this had little effect on the inquisitors. Much more would have been done, if the king had taken the advice of the Council of Castile, which (after giving an account of evils arising from the system of the inquisitors) recommended, that he should allow the other tribunals to proceed against them for abuse of power. This advice was addressed to the king by his councils, in the consultations of the year 1634, 1669, 1682, 1696, 1761, and in several others, when the Inquisition of Spain prohibited works in which the privileges of the crown were defended, particularly that of Don Joseph de Mur, president of the royal court at Majorca. It was printed in that island in 1615, and called, Allegations in favour of the King, on the Conflicts for Jurisdiction which have arisen between the Royal Court of Justice and the Tribunal of the Inquisition of Majorca.

In 1634, another contest took place on the subject of competency, concerning certain taxes which had been received from an inhabitant of Vicalboro, near Madrid. The inquisitors of Toledo excommunicated a judge of the royal court, and of the king’s court, and committed the greatest excesses against the authority of the Council of Castile, which, impressed with a sense of its dignity, as the Supreme Senate of the nation, commanded the Dean-inquisitor of Toledo to repair to Madrid, to answer in person the charges brought against him, and threatened, in case he refused, to deprive him of his property and temporal rights. It also condemned a priest, the secretary of the holy office, to banishment and confiscation, and ordered the Inquisitor of Madrid to give up the prisoners and the writings of the trial to the chamber of judges of the court. The council made an address to the king, requesting him to forbid the inquisitors the use of censures, and to deliver his people from the oppression under which they suffered. The king merely renewed the prohibition of employing excommunication without an absolute necessity, and decreed that it should never be employed against judges without a particular permission. This ordinance shows the neglect or contempt into which the Convention of Cardinal Zapata had fallen, only three years after it had been established.

In 1640 the Inquisitors of Valladolid had another contest with the bishop, who complained to the king, representing that the permission granted by royal council to print or publish, without suppressing what those authors who depend on the Inquisition write on the privileges of that tribunal, would have the most fatal consequences. This assertion was proved in 1641. Some disputes arose on the subject of competency, between the Inquisition and the Chancery of Valladolid; the Council of Castile was obliged to consult the king several times during the course of the affair, and in one of its memorials stated, that the jurisdiction which the inquisitors exercise in the name of the king is temporal, secular, and precarious, and cannot be defended by the use of censures. The members of the Council of the Inquisition in which Don Antonio de Sotomayor the inquisitor-general presided, carried their presumption so far as to convoke an assembly of ignorant scholastic theologians, all chosen from the monks, to qualify the proposition advanced by the Council of Castile. These qualifiers, eager to display their penetration, divided it into three parts.

First part. The jurisdiction which the inquisitors exercise in the name of the king is temporal and secular.—QUALIFICATION. This proposition is probable, if considered on the fairest side.

Second part. The said jurisdiction is precarious.—QUALIFICATION. This proposition is false, improbable, and contrary to the welfare of his majesty.

Third part. Ecclesiastical censures cannot be employed to defend the said jurisdiction.—QUALIFICATION. This proposition is audacious, and approaching to heresy.

After this measure, the fiscal of the Council of the Inquisition accused the Council of Castile; he demanded that the tribunal should procure the copies and the minutes of the consultation addressed to the king; that the condemnation of it should be published, and the authors should be proceeded against. The council of the holy office, intending to act according to circumstances, represented all that had passed to the king, referring to the judgment of the theologians. The king, with the carelessness which was natural to him, merely told the inquisitor-general that he had failed in his duty, in approving a proceeding so contrary to the honour and dignity of the senate of the nation. The effects of the obstinacy and violence of the inquisitors was felt for some time after. In 1643, the king obliged Don Antonio de Sotomayor to give in his resignation.

In America, the ordinances of the king, and other regulations, could not prevent violent quarrels from arising between the civil tribunals and those of the holy office. But in all these affairs the viceroys showed more firmness, and repressed the arrogance of the inquisitors with more success than was displayed in the Peninsula. This is not surprising, because in distant countries the inquisitors are not supported by an inquisitor-general, who, possessing the king’s favour, may influence him in private conversations. Besides this, the viceroys, jealous of the power with which they are invested, are careful that it shall meet with no obstacles or contradictions.

In 1686, a quarrel arose between the inquisitors of Carthagena in America, and the bishop. The inquisitor Don Francis Barela, after excommunicating the prelate, caused his decree to be read in all the churches. The bishop replied, and showed by his manner to the inquisitor, his contempt for the excommunication. Don Francis (in concurrence with his consultors) arrested and threw into prison the bishop and many respectable persons of the cathedral and the city, who had spoken freely on the subject. The Pope being informed of this affair on the 13th February, 1687, commanded the inquisitor-general, Don Diego Sarmiento de Valladares, to cause the inquisitor Barela and the consultors to be brought to Madrid, and to deprive them of their offices. This order not being obeyed, on the 15th of December he expedited a second brief, which was comminatory. The inquisitor-general then had recourse to the king, and gave so unfaithful an account of the transaction, that neither his majesty nor the council of the Indies were ever informed of the truth. The Pope persisted in his resolution, and wished to decide on the affair himself. It was not finished when Clement XI. ascended the pontifical throne; this Pope assembled the cardinals, and taking their opinions, confirmed by a formal decree all that the bishop had done, and annulled the extravagant measures of the inquisitor. A bull, in 1706, commanded the restitution of the penalties which had been imposed, and suppressed the tribunal of Carthagena. This suppression was not executed, because it was contrary to the king’s policy.

In 1713, the Cardinal Francis Judice, inquisitor-general, prohibited a work of Don Melchior Macanaz, procurator of the king in the Council of Castile: the cardinal knew that this work had been printed by the order of Philip V., who had approved it after having read it. The king was at first very much irritated at this proceeding; but the cardinal, accustomed to the intrigues of Rome and Paris, succeeded in eluding the orders of his sovereign; although he was not in the kingdom, he continued to exercise his office, and sent orders to his creatures which were extremely displeasing to Philip. This prince could not obtain the dismission of Judice, until Cardinal Alberoni had exerted his influence at Rome and Paris, to second his master’s views. Judice retired in 1716.

Don Melchior Macanaz continued to live in exile. His trial became important, from the great number of denunciations which were made against different works which he had written: in some of these he inveighed against the abuses which were committed at the Court of Rome, against those of the immunities of the clergy and of the ecclesiastical tribunals, and called the public attention to the fatal effects of increasing the number of monks and other societies. The qualifiers, in judging his works, clearly showed the spirit of hatred and revenge which actuated them. In the trial of Macanaz, one of his works, called A Critical Defence of the Inquisition, is mentioned; the inquisitors qualified it as ironical, because they found some things in it which were not true. They were confirmed in their opinion some time after, by another work of Macanaz, called An Apology for the Defence of Fray Nicolas Jesus de Belando, in Favour of the Civil History of Spain, unjustly prohibited by the Inquisition.

Although the inquisitors treated him with so much severity, Ferdinand VI., and the inquisitor-general Don Manuel Quintano Bonifaz, permitted Macanaz to return to Spain, and the king sent him to Aix-la-Chapelle as his ambassador.

In 1768, the inquisitors endeavoured to obtain the right of trying persons for polygamy: Charles III. ordered that the cognizance of this offence should belong to the secular judge, except when the criminals thought that it was permitted. It was his pleasure that the inquisitors “should only punish heresy and apostasy, and, above all, that none of his people should be subjected to the disgrace of an arrest, if they had not been previously convicted of a crime.”

In 1771, the Council of the Inquisition represented to the king, that the simple fact of marrying another person, while the first wife was alive, was sufficient to create a suspicion that the persons guilty of it erred in faith on the article of marriage. For this reason the inquisitors continued to receive the denunciations on this pretended heresy, and to take cognizance of it.

In 1781, the inquisitor-general commanded that the confessionals in the convents of nuns should be placed within sight of the persons in the churches. This was done by the inquisitors, without consulting the archbishops and bishops of the dioceses; they were extremely offended at this conduct, but dissembled their anger, that the public tranquillity might not be disturbed.

In 1797, the Inquisitors of Grenada removed the confessional of the convent of the nuns of St. Paul, which was under the immediate direction of the archbishop: the ecclesiastical governor of the archbishopric complained to the king. The minister of justice, Don Gaspar Melchior de Jovellanos, resolved to take advantage of this event; he addressed himself to the Archbishop of Burgos, inquisitor-general, to the Bishops of Huesca, Tuy, Placentia, Osma, Avila, and to Don Joseph Espiga, the king’s almoner, and requested them to propose “whatever they thought most proper to correct the abuses committed in the holy office, and to destroy the false principles on which that tribunal founded all its measures.” The archbishop (as may be supposed) sent notes favourable to the tribunal; those of all the others were of quite an opposite nature. This attempt, however, did not lead to any satisfactory result: Jovellanos quitted the ministry before Charles IV. had decided on the subject; the minister who succeeded him had other views, and Jovellanos was denounced on suspicion of heresy.

Of the Magistrates who were persecuted.

The examples which have been given of the quarrels between the Inquisition and the civil tribunals, sufficiently prove the constant attention of the inquisitors in endeavouring to extend their influence and privileges, even in defiance of the sovereign power; yet a list of the persecuted magistrates may be useful and interesting.

Almodovar (Don Christopher Ximenez de Gongora, duke of). He was ambassador to the Court of Vienna, and published a work on the Establishments of the European Nations beyond Sea. This book is only a free translation of that of the Abbé Raynal. He concealed his name under that of Eduardo Malo de Luque, which is the anagram of El Duque de Almodovar. He presented some copies of his book to the king, but though he had taken this precaution, and had suppressed some articles, he was denounced to the Inquisition as being tinctured with the opinions of the incredulous philosophers. The inquisitors endeavoured to find out how the duke conversed in society with learned men; but they did not learn enough to authorize an accusation, as it almost always happened, during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV., when they wished to attack the literati.

Aranda (Don Pedro-Paul Abarca de Bolea y Ximenez d’Urrea, Count d’), grandee of Spain. He rendered himself more illustrious by his talents and learning than he was by his birth and high offices. As a soldier he attained the rank of Captain-general, which is equivalent to that of Field-marshal: his diplomatic talents obtained the office of ambassador to Paris; his knowledge as a statesman, that of prime-minister, secretary of state, under Charles IV.; and for his talents as a politician he was made president of the Council of Castile. In these four branches of the art of governing he was always truly great. He was president in the royal council extraordinary, assembled by Charles III. to consider the affairs of the Jesuits. Although the members of this assembly deliberated in secret, the public were informed not only of its objects in general, but the particular opinions of each councillor. The Count d’Aranda was denounced to the holy office as being suspected of professing the sentiments of the philosophers of the eighteenth century, because his political opinions were extremely liberal. The ordinance signed by Charles III. in 1770 (forbidding the inquisitors to take cognizance of any crime but heresy) was thought to be the work of the Count d’Aranda, and the inquisitors hated him in consequence. The trial of Don Paul Olavide, which took place about this time, furnished some details which caused a suspicion that the opinions of the Count d’Aranda on the subject of mere exterior devotion were the same as those of the accused. However the inquisitors could not obtain a sufficient mass of evidence to authorize proceedings against him, and he died after having been denounced four times to the holy office, but without ever being put upon his trial.

Arroyo (Don Stephen d’), corregidor of Ecija, a town in Andalusia, and a member of the royal civil court of the district of Granada. He was excommunicated by the Inquisition of Cordova in 1664, because he opposed the attempts made by the inquisitors to extend their jurisdiction at the expense of the civil tribunals.

Avalos (Don Diego Lopez d’), corregidor of the city of Cordova, was threatened to be excommunicated and imprisoned in 1501, because he refused to give up two archers of the holy office, who had been taken to the royal prison, unless they were demanded with the proper forms.

Azara (Don Joseph Nicolas d’), born in Aragon, was successively director of the office of the minister for foreign affairs, minister plenipotentiary at Rome, and ambassador extraordinary to Paris. He published a translation of the Life of Cicero, with notes, illustrations, and plates. He was considered one of the most learned men in Spain during the reigns of Charles III. and his successor. Although he almost always resided in Italy or France, his name was in the registers of the holy office. He was denounced at Saragossa and Madrid as an incredulous philosopher; but there were no proofs, and the trial was suspended until fresh charges should be brought against him.

Aragon (the deputation of). See the preceding Article.

Aragon. The Chief Justice of Aragon was invested with supreme power, and placed between the king and the nation, to decide without appeal, if the king’s ministers infringed the laws established at the beginning of the monarchy. Even the king was obliged to submit to the decisions of this magistrate in all constitutional affairs. In order to prevent disputes between the two powers, the chief justice and his tribunal were independent of the king in the criminal proceedings. The inquisitors of Saragossa, regardless of these regulations, commenced proceedings against the chief justice, and in 1591 threatened to excommunicate him. Some account of this affair will be given in the trial of Antonio Perez.

Bañüelos (Don Vincent) was excommunicated by the Inquisition of Toledo, for endeavouring to defend the jurisdiction of the civil tribunal in a trial for homicide.

Barcelona. See the preceding Article.

Barrientos (the commandant), knight of the military order of St. Jago, and Corregidor and Sub-prefect of Logroño, was obliged, in 1516, to go to Madrid, and appear before the inquisitor-general of the Supreme Council, to ask pardon for having refused to lend assistance to the archers of the holy office in arresting some monks. He was subjected to the lesser auto-da-fé, attended mass, standing with a torch in his hand, and received some slight strokes of a whip from the inquisitor; this ceremony was concluded by a solemn absolution from all censures.

Benalcazar (the Count de) was excommunicated and menaced with an arrest by the inquisitors of Estremadura in 1500. The same threat was made to the governor of the fortress of Benalcazar; their offence was having defended their temporal power against the pretensions of the holy office, in the case of a woman who was arrested for having uttered some words against the faith.

Campomanes (Don Pedro Rodriguez de Campomanes, Count de) was, perhaps, the most eminent literary man in Spain, during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV. He is the author of several works mentioned in the Spanish Library of the time of Charles III. published by Don Juan de Sempere Guarinos. He first filled the office of procurator to the king in the Council of Castile, and in the chamber of the king, of which he was afterwards the governor. In all his works he constantly maintained the independence of sovereigns with respect to the Court of Rome, the obligation that all the citizens of the state should pay their part of the public expenses, and the impossibility that the contentious jurisdiction should form part of the ecclesiastical power, unless accorded by the special favour of the sovereign. It is easy to suppose that Campomanes had a great many enemies among the clergy; he was denounced to the holy office as an anti-catholic philosopher. The charges were numerous, but they did not prove that he had advanced any heretical proposition; they only tended to create a suspicion that his works were opposed to the spirit of Christianity. He was invited to attend the auto-da-fé of Don Paul Olavide, in order to inform him of the punishment he would incur by professing the same opinions; but though the inquisitors knew him to be their enemy, they did not dare to go any further.

Cardona (Don Pedro de), captain-general of Catalonia. See Chapter 16.

Castile (Council of). See preceding Article.

Chaves (Don Gregorio Antonio de), corregidor and sub-prefect of Cordova, was excommunicated and threatened with imprisonment by the inquisitors of Cordova in 1660.

Chumacero (Don Juan), Count de Guaro, president of the Council of Castile, ambassador at Rome, composed several works which are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio, and some discourses in defence of the temporal against the ecclesiastical power, and in favour of the independence of sovereigns against the abuses of the Court of Rome. The inquisitors of Spain, at the instigation of the Pope’s nuncio, undertook to condemn his doctrine, and to prohibit his works, with those of some other authors who wrote in the same spirit, in order to force them to retract, on pain of excommunication and imprisonment.

Cordova (Don Pedro Fernandez de), Marquis de Priego, member of the municipality of Cordova, was persecuted by the Inquisition in 1506. See Chapter 10.

Cordova (Don Diego Fernandez de), Count de Cabra, and also a member of the municipality of Cordova, was treated in the same manner. Ibid.

Godoy (Don Manuel), Prince of Peace, Duke of Alcudia, secretary of state to Charles IV. See Chapter 43.

Gonzalez (Don Mathias). See the preceding Article.

Gudiel (the Licentiate). Ibid.

Gudiel de Peralta (Don Louis). Ibid.

Guzman (Don Gaspar de), Count-Duke d’Olivarez, prime minister to Philip IV. See Chapter 37.

Izquierdo (the Licentiate). See the preceding Article.

Jovellanos (Don Gaspard Melchior de), Secretary of State in the department of grace and justice under Charles IV., was one of the most learned men in Spain; he wrote several pamphlets on politics and different branches of literature. In 1798 he resolved to reform the mode of proceeding in the holy office, and intended to take advantage of a memorial which I had composed in 1794, according to the orders of the inquisitor-general Abad-y-la-Sierra; but from a secret court intrigue he was denounced to the Inquisition as a Jansenist and an enemy to the tribunal. Charles IV. was persuaded first to banish him to his native place Gijon, in the Asturias, and afterwards to confine him in the Chartreuse, in the island of Majorca, where he was informed that he was to study the Christian doctrine. This treatment was extremely unjust, for Jovellanos was not only a good Catholic, but a just and irreproachable man, whose memory will do honour to Spain.

Juan (D. Gabriel de), president of the royal Court of Appeal at Majorca, was excommunicated in 1531; he maintained the rights of the sovereign against the inquisitors.

Lara (Don Juan Perez de), procurator to the king, and fiscal of the royal Court of Appeal at Seville, was extremely ill-treated by the inquisitors in 1637, because he maintained the rights of the royal jurisdiction in a manifesto, which the inquisitors declared contained propositions offensive to the holy office.

Macanaz (Don Melchior de). See the preceding article.

Moñino (Don Joseph), Count de Florida-Blanca, first secretary of state under Charles III., and Charles IV. He had been successively an advocate at Madrid, procurator to the king and fiscal of the Council of Castile, and minister plenipotentiary at Rome. His celebrity as a lawyer was the origin of his elevation, and his subsequent conduct fully justified the favourable opinion which had been formed of him. In his quality of fiscal he wrote several works. Don Juan Sempere Guarinos, in his Catalogue of the Authors of the Reign of Charles III., has inserted notices of those which had been printed and those which remained unpublished. Among the first are some of great merit: the Advice of a Fiscal, which he gave to the council on the memorial presented to Charles III. by Don Isidro Carbajal y Lancaster, Bishop of Cuença, and on the impartial judgment of the brief issued by Clement XIII. against the sovereign Duke of Parma, induced some ignorant and prejudiced priests to denounce him to the Inquisition as an enemy to religion. The Count furnished them with additional arms against himself, when he gave his opinion as procurator-fiscal on the abuses committed by the inquisitors in the prohibition of books, and on the system which they had adopted of taking cognizance of crimes not relating to doctrine. However, the inquisitors, not finding in his writings any proposition which might be qualified as heretical, were afraid to continue the trial of a minister for whom the king showed the greatest esteem.

Mur (Don Joseph de), president of the royal Court of Appeal at Majorca, being obliged to maintain the rights of the tribunal against the holy office, composed, in 1615, a work on competency, in which he supported the royal jurisdiction against the ecclesiastical power in all contests not relating to spiritual concerns. The holy office made the author suffer much, and inserted his work in the Index. Philip IV. caused it to be erased in 1641, at the request of the Council of Castile.

Ossuna (the Duke of). See Chapter 37.

Olavide (Don Paul), born at Lima, in Peru, Assistant, that is, Prefect of Seville, and director of the towns and villages recently built in the Sierra-Morena and in Andalusia, was arrested in 1776, and taken to the secret prisons of the Inquisition of Madrid; on the suspicion that he held impious opinions, particularly those of Rousseau and Voltaire, with whom he maintained an intimate correspondence. It appeared from the trial, that Olavide had, in the new towns which he governed, uttered the opinions of these philosophers, on the exterior worship which is rendered to God in this country. The accused denied many of the words and actions imputed to him; he explained others which might not have been understood by the witnesses, but he confessed enough to induce the inquisitors to believe that he secretly held the same opinions as his two friends. Olavide asked pardon for his imprudence, but declared that he could not do so for the crime of heresy, as he had never lost his interior faith. On the 24th of November, 1778, an auto-da-fé was celebrated with closed doors, in the hall of the Inquisition of Madrid, in the presence of sixty persons of high rank: Don Paul Olavide appeared before them, in the habit of a penitent, and holding in his hand an extinguished torch. The sentence declared him to be convicted of formal heresy; he ought to have appeared in the San-benito, with a cord round his neck, but this was dispensed with, as well as the obligation of wearing the San-benito afterwards. He was condemned to pass eight years in a convent, and to live according to the orders of a spiritual director chosen by the Inquisition; to be banished from Madrid, Seville, Cordova, and the new town in the Sierra Morena. His property was confiscated; he was forbidden to possess any office or honourable title; to ride on horseback, or to wear any jewels or ornaments of gold, silver, pearls, diamonds, precious stones, or habits of silk, or fine wool, but only those of coarse serge or some other stuff of that kind. The reading of the factum of his trial, by the secretary, lasted four hours; the fiscal accused him of having advanced seventy heretical propositions, and seventy-two witnesses were examined. Towards the conclusion, Olavide exclaimed, Whatever the fiscal may say, I have never lost my faith. No answer was made to him. When he heard his sentence he fainted, and fell off the bench on which he had been permitted to sit. When he had recovered, and the reading of the sentence was finished, he received absolution on his knees, after having read and signed his profession of faith; he was then taken back to the prison. The sixty individuals who were invited to this ceremony were dukes, counts, marquises, generals, members of the councils, and knights of different military orders; they were most of them his friends. These persons were, from some circumstances in the trial, suspected of partaking his opinions, and the invitation was intended to inform them of what they might expect, and to induce them to be more reserved in their conversation. Olavide went to the convent where he was to be confined, but made his escape some time after, and retired to France. He lived at Paris under the name of the Count de Pilo, a title which he had never borne in Spain. A few years after he published a work, called The Gospel Triumphant; or, the Converted Philosopher. This composition obtained his pardon, and permission to return to Spain, where no penances were imposed on him.

Perez (Antonio). See Chapter 35.

Ramos del Manzano (Don Francis), Count de Francos, tutor of Charles II. and president of the Sovereign Council of the Indies, composed some treatises on politics, which are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio. In these writings he maintains the prerogatives and independence of the sovereigns against the indirect powers of the Popes, the abuses of the Court of Rome, and the ecclesiastical judges in the holy office. The Count de Francos suffered much persecution, and his works were prohibited; if Philip IV. had not protected him, he would have been arrested, and his books burnt.

Ricla (the Count de), minister of war, and lieutenant-general in the army under Charles III., was denounced to the holy office as having adopted the opinions of the philosophers of the eighteenth century. There was not sufficient proof against him, and the trial was suspended.

Roda (Don Manuel de), Marquis de Roda, minister and secretary of state in the department of grace and justice, under Charles III. He had been a celebrated advocate at Madrid, and minister-plenipotentiary at Rome; his talents and learning made him of the greatest use to Charles III. in the important affairs relative to the expulsion of the Jesuits. The imputation of Jansenism, incurred by the archbishops and bishops of the Council extraordinary, was also brought against this minister, who had made many enemies by advising Charles III. to reform the six great colleges established at Salamanca, Alcala, and Valladolid. This denunciation failed, because it contained no particular proposition which deserved to be censured.

Salcedo (Don Pedro Gonzalez de), procurator to the king in the Council of Castile, published a treatise On Political Law, and some other works, in which he attacked the abuses committed by the judges of the privileged tribunals, and the pretensions of the inquisitors and other ecclesiastics to the royal jurisdictions. He was persecuted, and his works were condemned, but Philip IV. revoked the prohibition; however some passages were afterwards retrenched, and they are not found in the later editions.

Salgado (Don Francis de), member of the Council of Castile, published some works in defence of the royal jurisdiction against the ecclesiastical authority; they are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio. The Court of Rome condemned them; the inquisitors of Spain persecuted the author, but when they were on the point of publishing the prohibition of his works, Philip IV. commanded them to suspend their proceedings.

Samaniego (Don Philip de), priest, archdeacon of Pampeluna, knight of the order of St. James, counsellor to the king, and chief secretary and interpreter of foreign languages. He was invited to attend the auto-da-fé of Don Paul Olavide, and was so alarmed that he voluntarily denounced himself. He presented a declaration, in which he confessed that he had read prohibited books, such as those of Voltaire, Mirabeau, Rousseau, Hobbes, Spinosa, Montesquieu, Bayle, d’Alembert, Diderot, and others; that from this course of reading he had fallen into a religious pyrrhonism; that having thought seriously on the subject, he had resolved to remain firmly attached to the Catholic faith, and that in consequence he had resolved to demand to be absolved from the censures ad cautelam. The tribunal ordered that he should confirm his declaration by taking an oath. They then obliged him to confess by what means he had obtained the books, whom he had received them from, and where they were at that time; with what persons he had conversed on the subject of religion, and revealed his opinions; what individuals had refuted or adopted them; who had appeared to be ignorant of the doctrine, or were acquainted with it; and lastly, how long he had known it himself: these declarations were the conditions on which he was to receive absolution. Samaniego wrote a declaration, in which almost all the learned men of the court were implicated. Some of these persons had been invited to the auto-da-fé of Don Paul Olavide.

Sardinia (the viceroy of) was excommunicated in 1498, and punished by the inquisitors for having lent assistance to the Archbishop of Cagliari in taking a criminal from the prisons of the holy office to those of the archbishopric.

Sesé (Don Joseph de), president of the royal Court of Appeal of the kingdom of Aragon. This magistrate wrote a work, in which he had collected many definitive sentences which had been pronounced in trials for competency; they were all favourable to the secular power. The author was the victim of his zeal; he was persecuted, and his work prohibited, but Philip IV. caused it to be revoked.

Solorzano (Don Juan de), member of the Sovereign Council of the Indies. He was the author of a work on Indian Politics, and several others of the same nature. They were written in the same spirit as those of Salgado; Solorzano and his works shared his fate.

Sotomayor (Don Guiterre de), knight commander of the order of Alcantara, brother of the Count de Benalcazar, and governor of the fortress of that name. See Benalcazar.

Terranova (the Marquis de). See Chapter 16.

Toledo (the royal judge of) was excommunicated, imprisoned, and received much ill treatment from the inquisitors in 1622, in a contest for jurisdiction.

Valdés (Don Antonio), member of the royal Council of Castile. He was excommunicated by the inquisitors in 1639, because he refused to exempt the familiars of the holy office who possess land, from paying a contribution.

Valencia (the viceroy of), captain-general, was obliged in 1488, to appear before the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, and ask pardon and absolution for having set at liberty a soldier who was detained in the prisons of the holy office. He had the mortification of being obliged to appear in a lesser auto-da-fé.

Vera (Don Juan-Antonio de). See Chapter 36.

Zarate (Diego Ruiz de), chief alcade of Cordova, was punished by the Supreme Council in 1500, and suspended from his office for six months, because he refused to allow the inquisitors of Cordova to take cognizance of the trial of the chief alguazil of that city.

Many other instances might be quoted: but these are sufficient to show that the nature of the tribunal of the holy office will be contrary to the independence of the sovereign, while the royal jurisdiction is confounded with that of the inquisitors, and while the members of the holy office are exempted from the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the royal tribunals.