PHILIP II. died on the 13th of September, 1598, and left the crown to his son, Philip III., whose education had made him more worthy of wearing the habit of St. Dominic, than of governing a kingdom: the Inquisition was then as formidable and powerful as before the constitutions of 1561. As the new king wished to have an inquisitor-general of his own choice, he took advantage of a bull, commanding all bishops to reside in their dioceses, to invite Don Pedro Porto-Carrero to retire to his see of Cuença, and appointed as his successor, in 1599, Don Ferdinand Niño de Guevara, cardinal of the Roman Church, and afterwards archbishop of Seville. This prelate retired to his diocese in 1602, in consequence of an order from the king; his successor was Don Juan de Zuñiga, bishop of Carthagena, who died in the same year. Juan Baptiste de Acebedo, bishop of Valladolid, took his place, and died in it in 1607, with the title of Patriarch of the Indies. He was succeeded by Don Bernardo de Sandoval Roxas, cardinal archbishop of Toledo, brother to the Duke de Lerma. At his death Don Fray Louis Aliaga, a Dominican confessor to the king, was appointed inquisitor-general; Philip IV., on his accession, deprived him of his office.
Philip III., in 1607, assembled the Cortes of the kingdom at Madrid, where they remained for more than a year. The members represented to the king, that in 1579 and 1586, they had required a reform of the abuses committed in the tribunal of the Inquisition, to put an end to the right, which the inquisitors had usurped, of taking cognizance of crimes not relating to heresy; that Philip II. had promised to do this, but died before he could perform it, and that in consequence they renewed the request.
Philip replied, that he would take proper measures to satisfy the Cortes. In 1611, when he convoked the new Cortes, they made the same request and received the same answer, but nothing was attempted, and the inquisitors daily became more insolent, and filled their prisons with victims.
The archbishop of Valencia, Don Juan de Ribera, represented to Philip III., that it was impossible to convert the Morescoes of Valencia, and that their skill in agriculture and the arts gave just cause of apprehension, that they might some day disturb the public tranquillity, with the assistance of the Moors of Algiers, and the other African cities, with whom they held constant intercourse; he therefore advised his majesty to banish them from the kingdom.
The gentlemen whose vassals the Morescoes were, complained of the immense loss it would occasion, if their estates were thus depopulated; they also declared that the statement of the archbishop was shamefully exaggerated, since the holy office had never failed to punish every Moresco who returned to his heresy.
The king summoned his council, and after many discussions, it was resolved to send the Morescoes out of the kingdom of Valencia, on the 11th of September, 1609, and all the others in the following year.
This emigration cost Spain a million of useful and industrious inhabitants, who all went to Africa: they were invited by Henry IV. to colonise the Landes in Gascony on condition that they professed the catholic religion, but they feared that they should be persecuted in the same manner, at some future period. The inquisitors principally contributed to induce Philip III. to take this resolution, and they noted all who had condemned the measure, as suspected of heresy: among these was the Duke of Ossuna, whose process they began. This trial had no particular result, because the charges did not offer any heretical propositions, though some were qualified as audacious, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears. The duke was appointed Viceroy of Naples, but was deprived of the office some years after, and imprisoned by the king. The inquisitors seized this opportunity to renew their charges, but they were disappointed; the duke died in prison before the definitive sentence was pronounced.
On the 7th and 8th of November 1610, the Inquisition of Logroño celebrated an auto-da-fé, in which six persons were burnt, with five effigies, twenty-one individuals were reconciled, and twenty condemned to different penances; among these were eighteen sorcerers [73].
A sufficient number of the trials of the Inquisition, during the reign of Philip III., have already been cited; therefore, that of Don Antonio Manriques, Count de Morata, need only be mentioned: in 1603 he abjured some heretical propositions without being disgraced by an auto-da-fé.