 Book 5, Chapter 1, Part 6, of the History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 2. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Guero. The History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 2, by Henry Charles Lee. Book 5, Resources, Chapter 1. Part 6 Confiscation. The eagerness for these spoils was such that claims for them were put in without waiting for confiscation to be decreed, and it is evident that, when a man of wealth was arrested, there were agencies to convey the news to the expectants, and the prey was divided before the query was killed. After Isabella's death in 1504, these grants were an economical way to secure the fluctuating allegiance of the Castilian nobles, which Philip of Austria was ready to exploit, and the nobles eager to profit by. When the Licenciado de Medina of Vaja Dolid was arrested, the admiral of Castile, Fadrique Enriquez, petitioned him at once for the confiscation, and Philip from Brussels, May 5, 1505, granted the request, repeating it six months later, while awaiting Juana's confinement, before sailing for Spain, the two spouses, on September 12, sent orders to all the cities, the nobles and officials, not to obey Ferdinand, or to pay taxes to him, and the receivers of the tribunals were specially told to withhold from him the confiscations. Philip's orders from Flanders, however, received scant respect, and his reigning Castile was too transitory for him to exercise any notable influence on the disposition of the confiscations. As for Ferdinand, what he granted with one hand he withheld with the other. February 23, 1510, he issued a cedula to all receivers, saying that, in consequence of the falling off in confiscations, if all the grants which he had made and was making were paid, the officials would not receive their salaries, and would abandon the work, to the great disservice of God. Wherefore in future, no matter what orders he or the Inquisitor General might issue, no grants were to be paid until all officials had received their salaries and adjudas de costa, and, when such grants were presented, he or the Inquisitor General was to be consulted. The rule was to be that debts must be paid first, then salaries, and grants not until the last. Yet on the day previous he had given to Fernando de Masueco, a member of the Suprema, certain olive orchards and censos confiscated on Gonzalo Jiménez of Seville. The same day he ordered the receiver of Jain to deduct twenty thousand marbezis from the appraised value of some confiscated houses wanted by Dr. Juan de Sontogio, former judge of confiscations of Jain, and he continued making gifts with reckless prodigality as though the royal treasurer were overflowing and the Inquisition were richly endowed. In January the Admiral of Castile had had a grant of houses valued at eight or nine thousand sueldos, and on April 2nd he ordered the receivers of Toledo, Seville, Córdoba, and Jain each to pay three hundred seventy-five thousand marbezis, or one million five hundred thousand in all, to his servant Juan Rodriguez de Porto Carrero. Apparently it was exceptional for the Inquisition to enjoy the product of its exertions, for in May we find him assuring the Suprema that no one had asked him for a confiscation of one hundred thousand marbezis just made in Valladolid, and that he will reserve it for the known necessities of that tribunal, and in July that although he has been much importuned for another confiscation he will make no grant of it, so that the officials shall not suffer want. It is needless to point out what a stimulus this state of things gave to the condemnation of those whose estates promised relief. Ferdinand went on precisely as before, and it would be superfluous to multiply instances of his reckless profusion save that we may mention a gift to his wife, Queen Germaine, in fifteen fifteen of ten thousand florins from the confiscations of Sicily, and we may recall his attempted grant of ten thousand ducats to the Marquis of Denia from the composition of Córdoba. In this general scramble for fragments of the spoils there is one point that may be noted, the demand for attractive slave girls. How their existence came to be known to those who asked for them we can only guess, and it would be indiscreet to inquire why reverend members of the Suprema seem to be especially desirous of such acquisitions. April 7, fifteen ten, Ferdinand writes to the receiver of Cartagena that he is told that, in the confiscated property of Romando Martín de Santa Cruz, there is a Moorish female slave named Alia. If this is so, she is to be delivered to Dr. Pérez Gonzalo Manso of the Suprema to be his property as a gift. March 18, fifteen fourteen, the licenciado Fernando de Masuecos of the Suprema, petitions for a Moorish slave girl confiscated among the property of Juan de Tena of Ciudad Real, and Ferdinand orders her to be given to him to do what he pleases with her. There was some contest over Fátima, a white Moorish slave girl confiscated in the estate of Alonso Sánchez del Castillo. The Marquilla Villena asked for her and Ferdinand granted his request, June 15, fifteen fourteen, but when the order was sent to Toledo, the deputy receiver refused to obey it, alleging that it was obtained by false representations, as the Suprema had already given her to the fiscal Martín Jiménez. This was promptly answered, in a letter signed, not only by Calcena, but by the members of the Suprema, reiterating the grant to Villena and ordering the receiver to compensate Jiménez for her value. It is suggestive that no such eagerness is shown to obtain male slaves. Ferdinand himself was not above appropriating articles found among the spoils of his subjects. In fifteen-o-two we find him taking fifty-five pearls from Sardinia, a part of the confiscation of Miserre Hadel, burnt for heresy. Sometimes he did not even wait for the conviction of the owner, as in the case of a horse, which in fifteen-o-one he gave to the inquisitor of Córdoba, and then, on learning that the animal would be serviceable to him in the chase, he had it sent to him and ordered four thousand barredis to be paid to the inquisitor, wherewith by a horse or mule. He was even more unscrupulous in fifteen-o-one, when in Granada, on hearing of the death of Bernal Daja, a prisoner not yet convicted, he ordered that the garden belonging to him in the Rambla should be seized and given to the Princess Juana for her pastime, although he did not know whether it had been sequestrated. It manifests the abiding confidence felt in the conviction of all who fell into the hands of the inquisition. Yet it would be unjust to Ferdinand not to allude again to the numerous cases in which he softened the hardships of confiscations by concessions to the sufferers or their representatives, and this, when as we have seen, his own treasury was empty. No doubt in many instances the influence of Calcena was purchased, but as a whole they are too numerous not to find their origin in a kindliness which has been deemed foreign to the stern consolidator of the Spanish monarchy. Norcul Calcena have ventured to presume too far, during a long series of years, in making his master an unconscious almoner. Two or three examples of this must suffice to show the spirit actuating him. In 1509, Juan de Peralta of Segovia, betrothed himself to Franziska Núñez, daughter of López de Molina and his wife, who were prisoners of the tribunal of Cayenne. They were condemned and burnt, their estate was confiscated, and Peralta petitioned the king, saying that he could not marry without a dowry and begging an allowance out of the estate, whereupon Ferdinand ordered the receiver to give them 200,000 maravedis. The inquisition was not to be balked. Franziska, in turn, was tried and reconciled with confiscation. Peralta made another appeal, and this time Ferdinand granted 20,000 maravedis. In October 21, 1500, he writes to the receiver of León to release Leónor González, reconciled, a vineyard confiscated on her, of the value of 2,000 maravedis, because she is poor and has a daughter to marry. In 1510 he instructs receiver Badía a Barcelona to collect from the bishop of Urgel 90 libras due to the confiscated estate of Guillén d'Ala, and in view of the poverty and misery of Beatriz, Violante Isabel and Aldonza, his daughters, the money is to be paid to them. There was also an old debt due to d'Ala by Ferdinand's father, Juan II. This he orders to be collected from the rents of property set aside for the benefit of Juan Sol, and to also be paid to the daughters. These are only examples of numerous similar acts, which afford a welcome sense of relief as mitigations in some small degree of the miseries inflicted on thousands of the helpless through the pitiless enforcement of the cruel laws of the Church. It would be wrong not to bear testimony also to the spirit of justice, which is apparent in many of Ferdinand's decisions of questions brought before him. Thus on January 8, 1502, in instructing a receiver about a senso in dispute with Galceran de Santanjel, he concludes by telling him to act without legal delays, so that justice may be administered with rectitude and promptitude, and that nothing may be taken but what belongs to the Fisk, without wronging any one. September 12, 1502, he wrote that García Cortes complains that he had granted him certain sensoes and, then by a second letter, had stopped the transfer, whereupon he now orders the matter to be settled, according to justice, without reference to what he may have written to the contrary. For it is not his will to inflict wrong on any one. It would be easy to multiply these examples from his confidential correspondence with officials when there could have been no possible object in a hypocritical affectation of fairness. If he not infrequently rebuked inquisitors and receivers for negligence in gathering in confiscations, it may be truly said that he more often scolded them for undue harshness and delay in settling honest claims. The pressure on Ferdinand for grants from the confiscations continued to the last, and was yielded to more often than prudence would dictate. The courtiers maintained intelligence with the tribunals to obtain advices in advance of the arrest or condemnation of huelticunversos, in order to make early application and occasional letters from the king to receivers asking information as to such estates and forbidding their sale without further orders, indicate a growing sense on his part of the necessity of caution. One of his latest utterances, as mortal sickness was stealing over him, is a letter of September 23, 1515, to the receiver of Toledo, in reply apparently to a statement thus furnished. He had received, he says, the information as to the confiscated property of Bero Díaz and his wife, and also the representation as to the pressing needs of the tribunal, in consideration of which he will change his mind and make no grants from it, except of a hundred thousand mara-bevis to his treasurer Vargas to reimburse him for certain outlays. Thus to the end was maintained the struggle between those who labored for the harvest and those who sought to reap its fruits. When after his death he managed sought to bring order into the finances of the inquisition, he seems to have felt that his conjoined power, as inquisitor general and governor, was insufficient to remedy these abuses. And he procured from the young king Charles, a pragmatica, dated at Ghent, June 14, 1517, which was assuredly drafted by him. This recites that the salaries and ordinary expenses of the inquisition are defrayed by the confiscations, but experience shows that often they cannot be paid in consequence of the grants made by the crown. This must be remedied, or the inquisition cannot be sustained, to the great damage of the royal conscience, and therefore, during the good pleasure of the king, and until the salaries and ordinary expenses are provided for, no graces, donations, or reliefs are to be complied with, under pain of a thousand gold ducats. Copies of this are to be sent to every tribunal, and all officials are exhorted to see to its enforcement. The glass put on this by Cardinal Adrián, when sending it to the tribunal of Sicily, shows that there was no scruple in construing its provisions most liberally. He says that he has heard that many are obtaining grants on the Sicilian confiscations. What was collected under Ferdinand must be used as he had ordered, which was to buy rents for the support of the tribunal. The new pragmatica postpones all grants to the salaries and charges of the inquisition, and, as Sicily must provide for the support of the Suprema, and of some of the home tribunals, it can be alleged in refusing to pay all grants that are presented, wherefore none must be paid without consulting him. Having issued this pragmatica, Charles proceeded to nullify it with all convenient speed, but it served as a justification to the receivers inwithstanding him. Three months later, on September 19th, he landed in Spain surrounded by a crowd of hungry and greedy Flemish favourites, eager to enrich themselves at the expense of their master and his subjects. This reinforcement of the importunate native beggars made the profusion of Ferdinand seem-niggeredly by comparison. Peter Marder tells us that the Flemings, in less than ten months after their arrival, had already sent home eleven hundred thousand ducats, drawn partly from the indulgence of the Santa Cruzada, and partly from the inquisition, for they obtained grants not only of estates confiscated, but also of those of prisoners still under trial, showing how promptly they established relations which gave them secret information of the operation of the tribunals, and how little chance of escape had the unlucky prisoners, whose estates would have to be refunded if they were not convicted. This was one of the abuses of which the cure was sought in the project of reform in 1518, which failed through the death of Jean de Sauvage. The booty thus secured by the Flemings shows how the confiscations had increased under this pressure, especially as the Spaniards were no less eager if not quite so fortunate. This thoughtless prodigality of Charles is emphasised by the fact that he was impoverished in the midst of his profuseness. July 5, 1519 we find him ordering the receiver of Cartagena to pay the paltry sum of thirty ducats to Fernando de Salmerón, receiver general of the Suprema, to reimburse him for a loan of that amount. The receivers did all they could to check these extravagant liberalities, for large as were the receipts the tribunals were threatened with bankruptcy. Saragossa, in reporting March 18, 1519 to the Suprema, summon pending convictions endeavored to avert the dissipation of the results by representing its poverty. The salaries of most of the officials were more than a year in arrears, and if the king did not exercise more restraint the tribunal could no longer be maintained. One or two instances of the struggles between the receivers and the recipients of the royal bounty will illustrate the existing conditions and incidentally show how Adrián and the Suprema were forced to bow to the tempest and to connive at the pillage of the resources of the Holy Office. A letter of Charles, January 19, 1519 to Juan del Pozo, receiver of Toledo, relates how he had granted to Monsieur de Setebrun of his bodyguard the confiscation of Alonso de Baena and had ordered Pozo to put it into money and pay it to him. How Pozo had subsequently been notified that Setebrun had sold it to Inigo de Baena, son of Alonso, and had been ordered to deliver it to the latter, how neither of them had been able to make him surrender it, how another royal order had been served on him and then one from Adrián and the Suprema with no result, save an assertion that he had no funds, how Baena had made four journeys to Madrid to his great loss and expense, the whole winding up with preemptory command to obey the repeated mandates without further delay or excuse. It is probable that still more energetic measures were requisite to get the property, for Pozo was an obstinate man. A letter from Charles to him, September 5, 1519, refers to an order on him for six hundred ducats, in favor of Monsieur Baldré, which remained unpaid, in spite of repeated commands from the king and Carvinal Adrián, where at Baldré is much aggrieved, especially as he has been keeping a man in Toledo at his expense to collect it. Charles now orders it to be paid within sixty days, in default of which Pozo must, within twenty days thereafter, present himself at the court, wherever it may chance to be, with all his books and papers for examination. This was a most formidable threat and perhaps brought Pozo to terms, for on December 2 we find him ordered to pay on site four hundred ducats to La Schultz as procurator of the Toisson d'Or and the next day five hundred more to Jean Vignacourt, a gentleman of the royal chamber. Cristóbal de Prado, receiver of Cuenca, was another troublesome subject. Charles granted to Cortavilla and Armastorf two of his chamberlands, the confiscated estate of Francisco Martinez and his wife. It must have been a large one, for a suggestion was made of giving the courtiers four thousand ducats and reserving two thousand to pay the salaries, but they demanded the whole, and Charles, April 10, 1518, ordered it to be turned over to them, and if any part had been converted to the use of the Inquisition, it was to be made good out of other confiscations. Prado staved it off for nearly eighteen months, pretending to hesitate about including the dowries and marriage portions of the children, until Charles, September 5, 1519, ordered all these to be swept into the grant. Soon after this, on November 9, there was another crop of confiscations at an auto de fe at Cuenca, when in preparation for fresh bounties Salmerón, the receiver general, was ordered to report as to their value, and also as to the condition of the salaries and other indebtedness. This probably deprived Prado of excuses for a while, and we hear of no more refusals to pay until April 16, 1520. The Duke of Escalona had asked for the confiscations of three of his vassals at Alarcon, amounting to 350 ducats. But Prado alleged that only two of the parties named had been condemned, and that the order, therefore, must be surreptitious. He wrote in this sense to Charles and to the Suprema, but on September 7 he was commanded to pay it, and the letter was signed by Dr. Manso of the Suprema, and counter-signed by Cardinal Adrián. Cuenca, at this time, must have been a mine of wealth. Just before sailing from Coruña, Charles, on May 8, 1520, ordered Prado to pay a thousand ducats to Antoine de Coy, 200 to Henri de Spinelle, 400 to Simon Fisnal, Major Domot, to Charles de Coy, Prince of Chame, and 500 to Adolf Duke of Cleves. On October 23, Charles writes that his secretary, Guillemot de Joan, had been charged with these collections. Reported that Prado refused to pay them, but he adds that, as there are now funds sufficient after paying salaries and expenses, and the thousand ducats to Cardinal Adrián, they must be paid in preference to subsequent grants. As Adrián had been given an interest in this heavy raid on Cuenca, it is probable that Prado was coerced by the Abedians. Our old friend Villacis of Seville was wary and experienced and accustomed to hard blows. He gave the courtiers infinite trouble, but the cases in which he was involved were too numerous to be detailed here, and space can only be found for one of 500 ducats to Francisco Guzman and Antonio Tobar, gentlemen of the King's Chamber. This had originally been drawn on but Prado had been found too impervious and it was transferred to Seville. Villacis evaded it until Charles, on May 6, 1519, threatened him with Merced, being placed at the King's Mercy, if it was not paid at once. This was serious, but Villacis was unmoved and merely replied that he had no money to pay the overdue salaries, besides large sums owing for services and for judgments rendered against the confiscations. The affair dragged on until on August 23, 1520, Adrián and the Suprema ordered immediate settlement, in default of which an agent would be sent at his expense to do it personally. This was probably effective as we hear no more of it. Aliaga of Valencia was one of Ferdinand's oldest and most trusted receivers and had given evidence of similar powers of resistance, if we may judge from the anticipatory measures taken when the interests of the powerful favorite, the Prince of Chi-May, were involved. When news was brought to the court of the reconciliation and confiscation of the wealthy Alonso de Abellia of Valencia, a speedy partition was made among the vultures. Eight hundred ducats were signed, to Jean de Baudré and Philippe Berque de la Borne, gentlemen of the Chamber, three hundred to another gentleman, Jaime de la Trugera, and the rest of the estate to the Prince of Chi-May, after paying salaries if they could not be met out of other confiscations. Orders to this effect were dispatched to Aliaga, July 5, 1519, with a pressing letter from Charles to the Inquisitors. Apparently the beneficiaries felt that more reactive measures were necessary. Simonte's note, the Prince's Mayor Tomo, was empowered to receive the property, and, as his agent, Guy Morijón, was sent to Valencia, July 9, with letters to the Inquisitors, to the Governor of Valencia and to Aliaga. The Inquisitors were told that as the clause concerning salaries might be so construed as to consume the whole, they must order Aliaga under pain of excommunication, to deliver it to Chi-May's agent, within three days, all the properties, goods, debts, and money of the confiscation, except the eleven hundred ducats to the other courtiers. If the necessities of the tribunal required any portion, it must be very moderate, so that Chi-May, if possible, might get the whole. The Governor was ordered to help this Count, and to urge the Inquisitors to compel Aliaga to obey. Aliaga was told that under pain of deprivation of office, he must deliver the estate to Morijón, within three days, and must strain every nerve to meet the needs of the tribunal from other sources, so that Chi-May may suffer no deduction. If the salvation of the monarchy had depended on the realization of the grants, the better could scarce have been more vehement. Yet it was all in vain. Aliaga was impertubable, and on December 8 Charles expressed his displeasure that the eleven hundred ducats had not yet been paid, though he had postponed to them the grant to Chi-May. But it is not likely that his vague threats, in case of further delay, proved effective. In this carnival of plunder there is small risk in assuming that the pressure on the tribunals gave a stimulus to the prosecution of the richer class of the conversos, and that wealth became more than ever a source of danger. In fact, the number of largest states referred to in these transactions would seem to indicate that few escaped whose sacrifice would supply needful funds to the Inquisition, while ministering to the greed of the leaders. It need occasion no surprise, therefore, if the threatened new Christians, in their despair, appealed to Leo X and rendered it worth his while to remonstrate with Charles. Yet the latter, while scattering ducats by the thousand among his sycophants, had the effrontery to instruct his envoy, Lope Hurtado de Mendoza, September 24, 1519, to disabuse the Pope as to the accusation that the Inquisition was prosecuting the rich for the confiscations, the truth being that all, or nearly all, of those prosecuted were poor, and that the Fisk had to support them while in prison, and to pay their advocates and procurators. After Charles's departure in May 1520, to assume the imperial dignity, we hear of a few new grants. He was rapidly ripening under the weight of the tremendous responsibilities accumulated upon him, and was recognizing that his position implied other duties than the gratification of his courtier's greed. It would seem that he willingly shifted upon the Inquisitor-General and Suprema the burden of such trivial matters, and left it to them to assent to, or dissent from, such graces as he might bestow. A grant from a confiscation at Saragossa dated at Brussels, October 1, 1520, bears the formula that it is with the assent and advice of the Inquisitor-General and Council of Aragón, and, though it is signed by Hugo de Urias by order of the Emperor, it has the vidmus of Cartinal Adrián. Practically thus the control was lodged with the Suprema, whose needs, as we have seen, prevented any accumulations in the tribunals, and we hear little or nothing, subsequently, of this dissipation of the confiscations. If I have entered thus minutely into the details of this branch of inquisitorial activity, it is because its importance has scarce been recognized by those who have treated of the Inquisition. It not only supplied the means of support to the institution during its period of greatest activity, but it was recognized by the inquisitors themselves as their most potent weapon, and the one most dreaded by the industrious classes which formed the chief field of labor. Its potency is the measure of the misery which it inflicted through long generations on the innocent and helpless, far transcending the agonies of those who perished at the stake. To it was largely owing the ultimate extinction of Judaism in Spain, for the exalted heroism, which might dare the horrors of the Bracero, might well give way before the prospect of poverty to be endured by disinheriting offspring. To it also is greatly attributable the stagnation of Spanish commerce and industry, for trade could not flourish when credit was impaired, and confidence could not exist when merchants and manufacturers of the highest standing might at any moment fall into the tribunal and all their assets be impounded. Even the liberality of the Spanish Inquisition in not confiscating the debts due by the heretic was but a slender mitigation of this, for the creditor was liable to ruin through the difficulties and delays interposed on the realization of his credits, and past transactions were not secure until protected by a prescription of forty years. The Inquisition came at a time when geographical discovery was revolutionizing the world's commerce, when the era of industrialism was dawning, and the future belonged to the nations which should have fewest tremors in adapting themselves to the new developments. The position of Spain was such as to give it control of the illimitable possibilities of the future, but it blindly threw away all its advantages into the laps of Heretic Holland and England. Many causes too intricate to be discussed here contributed to this, but not the least among them was the bleeding to Anemia through centuries of the productive classes and the insecurity which the enforcement of confiscation cast over all the operations of commerce and industry. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Mike Bloomfield. The History of the Inquisition of Spain. Volume 2 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 5. Resources. Chapter 2. Fines and Penances. Although at least in the earlier period, confiscation was the main financial reliance of the Inquisition. It had other resources. Of these, a productive one was a pecuniary penance, which the tribunals had discretionary power of imposing on those whose offenses amounted only to suspicion of heresy and not to the formal heresy which entailed reconciliation or relaxation with confiscation. Almsgiving and satisfaction of sin formed a feature of ecclesiastical practice. And in the Middle Ages, the schoolmen had no difficulty in proving that pecuniary penance was more efficacious than any other. And it certainly was more efficacious in the sense that the enormous possessions of the church were largely gathered from this source. Moreover, the Inquisitor inherited from his medieval predecessors an undefined duplicate function of the confessor and judge. His culprits were penitents, and the punishments he inflicted were penances. Even when the canon law required the hardened or relapsed heretics to be relaxed to the secular arm for burning, they are sometimes alluded to as penitenciados. When, under the early edicts of grace, penitents by the thousand flocked to confess their sins and escape corporal penalties and confiscation, the Inquisitor was instructed to make them give as alms a portion of their property, according to the quality of the person and the character and duration of his offenses, and these penitentsia's pecuniarias were to be applied to the war with Granada as to the most pious of causes. Thus, at the start, pecuniary penance and almsgiving were regarded as convertible terms, both equally applicable to the discretionary fines which the Inquisitor could impose on his penitent. There was a technical, though not a practical, distinction between these and the mocks inflicted on offenders for other than spiritual offenses in the exercise of the royal jurisdiction conferred on the Holy Office. They formed together a common fund which was known as that of the penas e penitencias, the fines and penances, of which the former were drawn from the secular and the latter from the spiritual jurisdiction. This distinction at best was shadowy and though it was observed at first, in time the tribunals grew indifferent and recognized that penance was punishment. The earliest formality is seen in the case of Brianda de Bardoxi, where the consultant de Fe, March 18, 1492, pronounces her guilty of vehement suspicion to be penanced at the discretion of the Inquisitors. Accordingly, on March 20 the Inquisitors deliberated on the penance and pronounced an impositio penitentie, consisting of five years imprisonment with certain spiritual observances, and moreover we penance her in the third part of all her property which we apply to the coffer of penances of this tribunal and to the costs of her trial which third part, or its true value, we order to be paid within ten days to Martin Dakota, receiver of penances. By the middle of the 16th century this scruple was overcome. In the case of Marie Serrana at Toledo in 1545, the consultant de Fe, it is true votes that she be penance in a third of her property, but the public sentence which customarily did not specify the amount, after enumerating certain spiritual observances adds also the pecuniary punishment imposed on her for a certain reason is reserved for the present. So in the case of Marie Gomez in 1551 it is stated that she is condemned in twenty dukats for the expense of the tribunal, which she is to pay within nine days to the receiver. When the sentence was read to her in the audience chamber she asked how she was to pay the twenty dukats, and was told it would come out of the property sequestrated at her arrest. Sequestration, we may observe, enabled the tribunal to help itself at discretion from the culprit's property and to proportion the penalty to his ability. There was an advantage to the inquisition in considering these fines as penitential, for penance was part of the sacrament of absolution which was an ecclesiastical function the proceeds of which were controlled by the church, and it differed thus wholly from confiscation. It is true that practically this was merely a verbal juggle, for the inquisitor did not absolve, and as he was not necessarily a priest his office did not comprise the administration of the sacraments, but the verbal juggle sufficed and serves to explain the rigid separation of the funds arising from penance and from confiscation, even after both were controlled by the inquisition. We have seen, volume 1, page 338, the prolonged struggle made by Ferdinand to obtain possession of the penances which finally terminated in favor of the inquisition. This was rather beneficial to the accused, as the tribunal would be inclined to find him guilty only of suspicion of heresy, enabling it to inflict a pecuniary penance for its own benefit, rather than a formal heresy which inferred confiscation. Of course this passed away when financial control practically lapsed to the Suprema, but the distinction between the funds was still maintained. In the earlier period the distinction was emphasized by the office of special receiver for the penances who seems to have been subject to the inquisitor general while the receiver of confiscations held from the king. Thus the sentence for Rihanda de Bardaxi shows us Martin Dakota as receiver of penances in Saracosa in 1492, and we still hear of him in that position in 1497, while Ferdinand had, as his own receiver, Juan Denvin, succeeded by Juan Ruiz. As early as 1486, Esteve Costa was Receptor de las Penitencias in Valencia, whose salary of fifty libras shows the office to be of much less importance than that of the receiver of confiscations. Still there came to be no settled rule about this. In 1498 Juan Ruiz was receiver of both penances and confiscations in Saracosa, and in Valencia Juan de Monasterio was inquisitor and at the same time receiver of penances, while in 1512 in Barcelona the fiscal also filled the latter office, as we learned from his salary being suspended until he should render an account of his receipts. As late as 1515 there was still a special receiver of penances in Huesca, the canon Pedro Perez, whose death revealed him to be a defaulter to the extent of four thousand swell-dose, when the office was consolidated with that of the receivership. In 1516 among his other reforms, Zimonis abolished this special office and put the fines and penances in the hands of the receivers of confiscations, with instructions however to keep the funds separate and not to disperse the fines and penances except on orders from the inquisitor general. There had previously been, in the Suprema, a receiver general of fines and penances, an office which was likewise suppressed and all the charge of a single official, a regulation which was confirmed by Benric in 1524. There was difficulty in preventing the unauthorized collection of these funds by other officials with a consequent absence of responsibility and risk of embezzlement. In instructions for the prevention of abuses October 10th, 1546 it is prescribed that all fines be again August 20th, 1547 it is ordered that neither the inquisitors nor other officials save the receiver shall collect the penances or other monies. Inspection of the Barcelona Tribunal in 1549 showed that this was not obeyed. Other officials made the collections and they were not reported to the receiver, all of which was forbidden for the future but the order of 1547 had to be issued on December 24th, 1551, May 9th, 1553 and December 20th, 1555. Evidently, there were leaks which the Suprema was vainly seeking to stop. A special commission was issued January 12th, 1549 to Garanamos Rita as Contador for the Kingdoms of Aragon to audit the accounts of all receivers, past, present and to come concerning the inquisitions and penances and other parties as well with full powers to send for persons and papers under such penalties as he might designate which is highly significant. Possibly his investigations led to a Carta Accordada of September 23, 1551 which states that in some tribunals some of the pecuniary penalties are not entered in the Book of Punishments. The notaries of sequestrations are therefore impressively ordered under holy obedience and major excommunication, leto sententii to make such entries when sentence is rendered stating whether they are applicable to the inquisition or to some pious work, so that the Contador may know whether they are collected and all fines thus omitted are to be deducted from the salaries of the notaries. As by this time the fines were invariably applied to the inquisition the pretense of appropriating to pious uses was presumably a mere device for embezzling them. The Suprema evidently had no doubts as to this when the inquisitors of Barcelona in the case of Pirro de Gausaga imposed a penance of 300 duquets and appropriated 25 to the convent of En Señora de los Ángeles 25 to the nuns of San Granomo and the remainder to the beds and garments for the poor. It told them in 1568 that all fines were for the expenses of the inquisition and required them within 30 days to furnish authentic evidence of the disposition made of the 250 duquets underpain of rigorous proceedings against them. As for holding the notaries responsible there was manifest injustice in this for they were powerless to prevent fraud by the inquisitors. In 1525 some instructions to the tribunal of Sicily mentioned that the notary had repeatedly and vainly requested that notice be given to him of all penances in order that he might charge them to the receiver. How reckless sometimes were the inquisitors appears in the case in the murder of Juan Antonio Managaz, deputy receiver at Puissada. In 1565 the three Barcelona inquisitors inflicted on the accused certain heavy fines which were duly collected and placed in the coffer with three keys after which they coolly helped themselves to a thousand reales apiece under pretext that it was for fees in trying the case. On this being discovered in the inspection by De Soto Salazar the Supremo ordered the money to be returned to the coffer and satisfactory evidence of the restitution to be furnished within 30 days. The distinction between the fines and penances was rigidly maintained when both were concentrated in the hands of the receiver. A special commission was issued to authorize him to receive the latter and he was strictly instructed to keep the accounts separate. The confiscations were devoted to salaries and, if there was an over-plus, to investments of a more or less permanent character. While the fines and penances were levied, as the formula of the sentences habitually expressed it, for ordinarios, the other and extraordinary expenses of the tribunals. Still, when the confiscations ran short there was no hesitation in drawing upon the other fund, although a special order that Supremo was necessary for its authorization. Ayudas de Costa were generally drawn from the fines and penances though frequently the receiver is told to pay them out of any funds in hand. In 1525 Manrique directed the house in the interest of the officials to be paid from the fines and penances. In 1540 Tvera granted from the same fund in Valencia 3,000 sueldos to the nunnery of Santa Julia as the dowry of a reconciled morisca placed there to save her soul. In 1543 he calls upon the receiver of Granada to furnish from the same source 200 duquettes to Juan Martinez Le Sao secretary of the Supremo on the occasion of his marriage. In 1557 the inquisitors of Saragosa were allowed in the same manner to defray the cost of alterations in the Alhatharia. In short, this fund was expected to meet the innumerable miscellaneous expenses of the tribunals and to supply all deficiencies rendering the inquisitors watchful to keep it abundantly supplied. There were occasions when penances replaced confiscations to the manifest advantage of the tribunals. Thus in 1519 when the estate of Fernando de Villarreal was subject to confiscation Charles V authorized inquisitors to impose on him such penances they deemed fit and released to him the surplus. It is not likely that this surplus was allowed to be large for when in 1535 the tribunal of Valencia was trying the bachelor Molina and learned that the viceroy had promised Molina's wife that in case of confiscation he would ask the emperor to forego it the inquisitors wrote to the suprema that they proposed not to confiscate his property but to impose a penance of something less than its value. This indicates that the penances were not subject to the crown and thus it exposes the disingenuousness of the suprema in replying to a petition of Valencia in the Cortes of Monzon in 1537 that the inquisition should be restrained from penancing the Mariscos. It argued that these pecuniary penances were applied to the royal treasury and that his majesty should not be asked to remit them or be required to supplicate the pope to revoke what the cannons prescribed. The cannons prescribed confiscation but there was no hesitation as we have just seen in substituting penance. The largest scale on which this was tried was in the kingdoms of Aragon where the Mariscos were mostly vassals of the gentry and nobles but when they were impoverished and their lands were taken. The Fueros of Valencia provided that feudal lands confiscated whether for heresy or other cause should revert to the lord and this was repeatedly sworn to by Ferdinand and Charles but the inquisition calmly disregarded all laws and insisted on confiscating for its own benefit. Even a brief of Paul III August 2nd 1546 decreeing that for ten years subsequently at the pleasure of the Holy See there should be no confiscations or pecuniary penances inflicted on the Mariscos received no attention and the practical answer to the remonstrances of the Cortes of 1564 was a specific instruction from the Suprema to the Valencia Tribunal to go on confiscating no matter what the people might say about their privileges. Aragon meanwhile had obtained in 1534 a pragmatica by which Charles renounced his right to the Marisco confiscations which were to revert to the heirs or be distributed as intestate and to this the ascent of the Suprema was secured. This was however practically nullified for in 1547 the Cortes complained that confiscations were replaced by penances greater than the wealth of the culprits who were obliged to sell all their property and, in addition to impoverish their kindred to which the Suprema luckily replied that if anyone was aggrieved he could appeal to it or to the inquisitors. A lucrative bargain was finally made with Valencia which had the largest Marisco population. In 1537 the Cortes proposed that for a payment of 400 Ducats a year the inquisition should abstain from penancing the Mariscos but the Suprema refused a disservice to God. It was shrewd in this for in 1571 it secured an agreement under which for an annual payment of 50,000 sueldos, 2,500 Ducats it abandoned confiscation and limited penance to 10 Ducats the payment of which was rendered secure by levying it on the al-Hamas of the culprits. Favorable as was this the inquisitors did not restrain themselves to its observance. In the buffet of January 7, 1607 there was a penance of 50 Ducats, one of 30 and one of 20 and while there were only 8 reconciliations there were 20 penances of 10 Ducats. The Suprema took exception to this saying that without reconciliation the fines were uncalled for in the absence of some special offense. The agreement in fact was one under which the gains of the tribunal were limited for there was no lack of Marisco apostates. The little village of Mislata near the city must have been well-nigh bankrupted for it was liable for the penances of its inhabitants of whom there were 83 penances in 1591 and 17 and 1592. As confiscations diminished throughout Spain the unrestricted power to impose fines and penances came in opportunity to fill deficiencies they could be levied in a vast variety of cases not only for suspicion of heresy and for faltership but for bigamy blasphemy, ill-sounding expressions and all offenses against the tribunal and its officials as well as for those of the officials themselves and the familiars. The temporal jurisdiction especially afforded large opportunities for the defendant whether he was a familiar or an outsider could always be fined for the benefit of the tribunal and this was rarely omitted. It was no secret within the Holy Office that this discretional power was to be exercised not in accordance with the merits of the case but with the needs of the inquisition. As early as 1538 this was intimated in the instructions to inquisitor Valdiolite of Navarre when sent on a visitation to investigate witchcraft. He was forbidden to inflict confiscations but was told he could impose fines and penances in proportion to the offenses and wealth of the culprits in order to meet the expenses and enable the receiver to pay salaries. In time the Suprema grew more outspoken. Acarta Acordata of October 22nd 1575 told inquisitors that they could impose pecuniary penalties while on visitations as well as when sitting in the tribunal and must bear in mind the poverty of the Suprema as well as the wealth of the culprits and the character of the defense. This was repeated in 1580 and in 1595 attention was called to the necessity of relieving the wants of the inquisition in this manner and exhortation repeated in 1624. This stimulation was apparently superfluous for the inquisitors exploited their powers in this respect to a degree that sometimes moved even the Suprema to reprove. In a visitation of Garona and Eln by Dr. Salona in 1564 we find him inflicting fines and penances continually of four, six, ten, twenty, thirty or one hundred dookettes apparently limited only by the means of the victim. His colleague Dr. Mejia on a visitation penance Damien Cortes in one hundred dookettes because thirty years before when someone told him to trust in God he'd exclaimed trusting God by trusting in God last year I lost fifty dookettes and when Juan Barbero made a comment on this sentence he was fined twenty dookettes and costs. When this last exploit was reported by De Soto Salazar the Suprema ordered the fines to be refunded as it also did with those inflected by Mejia of sixty, forty and fifteen dookettes on the bail of Vindoli and two jurados for an offense so tripling that their names were ordered to be stricken from the records. When sitting as a tribunal these inquisitors were even more liberal to themselves for they find the abbot of Kipple four hundred dookettes for keeping a none as a mistress an offense wholly outside of their jurisdiction. As late as sixteen eighty-seven the tribunal of Logronio furnished a flagrant instance of this abuse of arbitrary power when it excommunicated and fined in two hundred dookettes Di Miguel Urbande Espinosa a knight of Santiago and familiar because when summoned to attend at the publication of the Edict of Faith he sought to enter the church while wearing a sword. The inquisitor general promptly ordered his absolution and suspended the fine until further information. The receipts from penances although fluctuating were a substantial addition to income. In the civil auto-defe of May thirteenth fifteen eighty-five a penitent accused of lucronism was penanced in one hundred dookettes. A bigamist in two hundred provided it to not exceed half his property. For asserting fornication to be no sin one man was penanced in two hundred dookettes or less according to as well. Another in two hundred and two in one thousand mervedees a piece while for concealing heretics there was a penance of fifty dookettes. In all the auto yielded eight hundred fifty dookettes in two thousand mervedees. Even more productive was the auto of June fourteenth fifteen seventy-nine at Irena where the tribunal harvested six hundred twenty-six thousand mervedees and twenty-seven hundred dookettes or about four thousand three hundred seventy-five dookettes in all owing to some of the penitence being well-to-do ecclesiastics given to Illuminism. Toledo imposed a penance of three thousand dookettes on Geraldo Paris a German of Madrid guilty of sundry heretical propositions including the assertion that St. Job was an alchemist. The same tribunal in sixteen forty-nine and sixteen fifty penanced four persons engaged in endeavoring to shield a Judaizer. Two of them five hundred in the other two three hundred dookettes a piece. In sixteen fifty-four again two autos November eight and December twenty-seventh it realized a total of four thousand dookettes after this it had occasional good fortune and in sixteen sixty-nine it was supremely lucky in a rich penitent Don Alonzo Sanchez priest and physician to the Cuenca Tribunal whom it convicted of faltership and penanced in the large sum of thirteen thousand dookettes in sixteen fifty-four Cuenca realized two thousand two hundred fifty dookettes besides thirteen confiscations for its auto of June twenty-ninth. Cordova was more fortunate in an auto of May third sixteen fifty-five when a group of wealthy Judaizers and their friends yielded an aggregate of seven thousand dookettes. In addition to this source of revenue from penance imposed on penitents there were the fines inflicted in the exercise of the secular jurisdiction of the Inquisition. How liberally this power was exercised even when the delinquents were officials is seen in the defense offered by the Suprema in sixteen thirty-two when strenuous complaints were made about the familiars of Valencia. It instanced the case of Hemi Blau who was fined six hundred Libras half to the complainant and half to the Fisk. Vicente de Sanjaman fined three hundred Libras Hieronomo Yodra five hundred dookettes Pedro Carbonell five hundred dookettes Tomas Real three hundred dookettes Miguel Rubio four hundred Libras Hieronomo Pilart five hundred Libras Doubtless through these inflections the culprits escaped corporal punishments much less and durable and they served to explain the persistent multiplication of familiars coupled with disregard of the character of the appointees. It was the same with outsiders who were prosecuted for offenses against officials as when in fifteen sixty-five Don Tristan de Uria of Serragosa was fined sixty dookettes for insulting a notary. In the seventeenth century the Suprema claimed these fines as its special perquisite. When Hemi Blau for instance was mulked in three hundred dookettes for the Fisk no sooner was the Suprema apprised of it than it ordered the amount to be remitted at once. And the length of correspondence which ensued indicates that this was a novelty submitted to unwillingly. Even a fine of one hundred Libras imposed on Ignacio Navarro in sixteen thirty-six was called for immediately and remitted as was also soon afterwards one hundred dookettes with which he purchased his pardon. As he was forthwith arrested again for murdering Don Juan Augustine Soluco he probably yielded another series of fines. In the extreme exigencies of the royal treasury the king claimed a portion of these receipts and by a decree of September thirtieth sixteen thirty-nine he ordered one-fourth of all fines for secular offenses to be paid to the official designated to receive the fines of the royal courts. In the unscrupulous exercise of discretional power fines and penances were frequently imposed beyond the culprit's ability to pay and inquisitors had a habit of adding in the sentence the alternative of some corporal punishment such as the galleys, scourging, or verguenza with the object of inducing the kindred to contribute in order to avert from the family the shame of the public inflection. The instructions of fifteen sixty-one strictly forbid this cruelty. The sentences are to be without condition or alternative and inability to pay is not to be thus visited. This receives scant obedience. In fifteen sixty-eight it was the ordinary practice of the Barcelona Tribunal to enforce payment of its arbitrary impositions by the alternative of such punishments. About sixteen forty however we are told by an inquisitor that the question was evaded by the prudent custom of sending poor men to the galleys in reserving pecuniary penance for the wealthy. In fact, after the middle of the seventeenth century a number of such penances diminished and they are usually for larger amounts. In a record of the Autos de Fe of Toledo from sixteen forty-eight to seventeen ninety-four there is but one that is less than one hundred duquets and that one is for fifty. In all there are but sixty-four penances imposed up to seventeen forty-two and none subsequently. The aggregate is thirty thousand six hundred duquets besides fourteen of half the property of the culprit. Whether from a growing sense of their indecency or from a lack of material the custom of imposing pecuniary penances rapidly declined in the eighteenth century. In a collection of sixty-six Autos de Fe between seventeen twenty-one and seventeen forty-five comprising in all nine hundred sixty-two cases there is not a single pecuniary penance. Fines however continued to be imposed to the last. March twenty-seven eighteen sixteen Pasquale Francini of Madrid for possessing two indecent pictures was fined one hundred duquets and as these are defined as applicable to the royal treasury it would appear that the crown had absorbed this trifling source of revenue. In this matter the Roman Inquisition offered a creditable contrast to the Spanish. Except in Milan, Cremona and other places under Spanish rule pecuniary punishments were rarely to be inflicted. The ascent of the congregation of cardinals was required and they were at once to be distributed in pious uses of which a strict account was required. Thus in fifteen ninety-five one of four thousand crowns was given to the poor of Genoa and in the same year at Naples one of four hundred crowns was parceled out among the charitable establishments. Even this was felt to derogate from the character of the Holy Office and in sixteen thirty-two urban the eighth decreed that papal confirmation must be had in each case and at the same time he withdrew the special privileges of the Milanese tribunals. So strong was the disgust felt in Rome for this commercialized zeal for the faith that when the fiscal cabrera was there representing the Inquisition in the case of Villanueva an arce iranoso sent to him for presentation to the pope a report of an auto celebrated by the tribunal of Santiago with the expectation of arousing his sympathy for an institution that was doing so much for religion cabrera replied January sixth sixteen fifty-six that he would not present it without special orders. Alexander the Seventh he said disliked pecuniary penalties in matters of faith and there were some of these in the report. His holiness had already spoken to him on the subject and it was wiser not to call his attention to it a fresh. End of book five chapter two book five chapter three of the history of the Inquisition of Spain volume two this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Mike Bloomfield the history of the Inquisition of Spain volume two by Henry Charles Lee book five resources chapter three dispensations the Roman Curia had so long accustomed Christendom to the idea that pardon for the consequences of sin was purchasable that we cannot be surprised if relief from the Inquisition was a marketable commodity to be regarded as a source of revenue we have already seen this exemplified in the compositions for confiscation and it was carried out with regard to the more personal inflections prescribed by canon and municipal law the disabilities of culprits and their descendants alluded to above page 287 the instructions of 1484 and 1488 adopted these and extended the sumptuary regulations by including the carrying of arms and riding on horseback they enlarged the list of prohibited callings and applied them all to the descendants of those who were burnt in person or effigy then Ferdinand and Isabella by Prachmatikas in 1501 made the prohibition of office holding and the following of numerous trades and professions a matter of municipal law reserving the right to grant relief by royal licenses thus these disabilities which weighed cruelly upon penitents and their descendants drew their origin from different sources the sumptuary restrictions which came to be known as Kosas arbitrarias were considered to be the act of the tribunal which could remove them permission to hold office or to follow the inhibited callings was a royal prerogative while the holy sea as the guardian of the faith and of the canon law and as a supreme source of inquisitorial jurisdiction claimed a general control which was grudgingly conceded in addition to these disabilities were the personal punishments relief from which was claimed by the inquisition those which concern us here were the galleys exile, imprisonment and the wearing of the sanbito or habito a kind of yellow tunic with a red st. Andrew's cross a mark of infamy and a severe infliction as it largely impeded the efforts of the penitent to gain a livelihood the curia was not long in recognizing the abundant market opened for its dispensations by the large numbers of those subjected to disabilities in the taxes of the penitentiary there was inserted a clause offering the fullest possible dispensation for Marania to a cleric the price was 60 gross turnwa or 15 dukets to a layman 40 gross or 10 dukets besides a fee to the datory of 20 gross when the dispensation was partial allowing a layman to follow his accustomed calling or a priest to celebrate mass the charge was 12 gross or 3 dukets but if the profession was that of a physician or advocate the charge was double we have seen the extreme jealousy which existed as to any papal interference with the inquisition and Ferdinand's repeated efforts to suppress papal letters but the power to issue these dispensations could not be questioned Cardinal Mendoza Archbishop of Toledo held from innocent the eighth a faculty to grant rehabilitations and one of these issued to Perro Diaz of Sifuentes where the mother had been burnt was recognized and confirmed in 1520 by the Suprema and Charles the Fifth at the same time the inquisition claimed the right to control relief from the punishments which it inflicted and it held these favors at a far higher price than the cheap papal dispensations Ancius the secretary of the Seragosa Tribunal tells us how one geranimo was sentenced to the San Benito and carried it for a long time until his father paid for him to the tribunal a thousand florins for permission to abandon it some of the gold proved to be of light weight and eighteen or twenty florins were demanded of him to make good the deficiency when he handed them to the messenger saying how is this are not the signores well paid for the merchandise they sold me but take it and welcome when exactions on this scale were possible we can readily believe that Dr. Giral the embezzling inquisitor of Cordova could easily secrete a hundred and fifty thousand Merovedes from the dispensation sold to the wearers of the San Benito volume one page 190 nor can we wonder that the holy office was resolved to maintain a hold on so prolific a source of gain the situation was complicated by the pretensions of the sovereigns to intervene and claim their share and this they sought to establish by procuring from Alexander the sixth a brief of February 18th 1495 which recites that the inquisitors collect various sums from those who had obtained papal rehabilitations and retained them all such monies there too for and thereafter received for commutations and rehabilitations were to be placed at the disposal of the sovereigns under paying of ipso facto excommunication it is obvious from this that the papal dispensations were not admitted without the exaction of further payments that the pope was content with this so long as the taxes of the penitentiary were paid in Rome and that Ferdinand was concerned only with the destination of the proceeds and was quite willing to acknowledge the papal authority when it was exercised for his benefit he lost no time in availing himself of the papal grant on a large scale and before the year was out we find him selling relief in mass to all those disabled by the tribunal of Toledo a transaction which brought in large returns for in 1497 Alonso de Morales the royal treasurer acknowledges the receipt of 499 2028 Merevedes from Toledo commutations and rehabilitations and this was doubtless only one of numerous similar compositions the inquisition was not disposed to abandon its profitable commerce the supreme continued to assert its control in instructions june 3rd 1497 ordering inquisitors to take no fees for rehabilitations without consulting it May 25th 1498 it declared that if there were no inquisitors general there would be no one able to grant rehabilitation or to relieve from San Benitos and it forbade the tribunals to commute for imprisonment except by spiritual penances there was evidently a contest on foot between the inquisition and Ferdinand of which the details for we have a letter from him February 24th 1498 to a tribunal in which he says you know that we have granted a privilege through which the children of condemned heretics are rehabilitated as to the culces arbitrarias imposed by you as it is our will that this privilege be maintained we charge you not to levy or take anything from them for the enjoyment of it and if perchance the inquisitors general will have written or shall write anything contrary to this consult us before acting on it and we will write to them and to you what most comports with our service the sovereign's hover yielded the point when by a segula of January 12th 1499 they formally made over to the inquisitors general all the monies accruing from penances commutations and rehabilitations in the kingdoms of Castile in order to provide for the salaries but this grant as usual was practically subject to the exigencies of the royal treasury and the promise was irregularly kept the inquisitors seemed to have speedily irrigated to themselves this profitable privilege for the instructions of 1500 forbidden to grant dispensations and commutations the right to which is reserved to the inquisitors general it was greatly impaired however by the next move in the game the pragmaticas of 1501 which made disability to hold office or to follow numerous callings a matter of municipal law and reserved to the crown the right to issue licenses in derogation of it thus depriving the inquisition of control over this important section of penalties while Ferdinand thus secured a share in the business he fully admitted the necessity of papal rehabilitation as a condition in 1510 writing to a member of the suprema about the rehabilitation of herado Alonso de Medina issued at the request of Queen Wana he says that it was granted under the belief that Medina held a papal brief if he did not it was invalid as there must first be papal rehabilitation yet papal action amounted to nothing in these matters without the royal license about this time the licenciado Portillo applied to him stating that as the memory of his grandfather had been condemned he was incapacitated from holding office he had been rehabilitated by the pope and now he asked for a license in view of certain services rendered and Ferdinand granted the prayer the strictness with which these licenses were construed is illustrated by a petition in 1515 from Dr. Jaime de Lis a physician of logronio representing that by the condemnation of his parents he had been incapacitated he had procured a papal brief authorizing him to practice everywhere and a royal license to practice in logronio unable to resist importunities he had exceeded his bounds for which he craved pardon and also permission to attend the Duke of Nahara who joined in the supplication this was granted with a warning not to transgress again in the tribunal of Calahora and the magistrates of all the towns were charged to make him observe the limits when the papal dispensation was issued to ecclesiastics the king did not intervene but there can be no doubt that the vidimas or confirmation of the suprema was required and had to be paid for for it had on January 8 and February 12 1498 summoned all reconciled penitents to present solutions and dispensations which they had procured from Rome a significant indication that otherwise they would not be respected such dispensations were issued as readily as those to laymen though as we have seen the price was 50% higher thus April 8 1514 Leo X dispensed Cristobal Rodrigo priest of Luduena from the disabilities incurred by the condemnation of his parents to retain his benefices, acquire others, and perform all his functions so also November 3 1514 he dispensed Bartolome Eruelo benefaced in the convent of Santa Cruz of Serragosa from all the disabilities resulting from the heresy of his paternal grandfather yet there frequently occurred cases of rehabilitation in which there is no mention of papal intervention under circumstances where it could scarce fail to be alluded to had it existed there would seem to have been no thought of invoking the cooperation of the Holy Sea in the great composition of Seville under which 20,000 dukets were obtained by Ferdinand for the rehabilitations alone and when it was extended to Cordova and other places they formed part of the inducements offered so when Cardinal Menrique issued by wholesale licenses to hold office to the large districts of Seville, Cordova, Granada, and Leon there is no allusion to papal dispensations for some reason probably financial these licenses were issued for short terms and required renewal in one case a document issued in February 1528 prolonged the time to April 15th and then on April 6th it was extended to the end of June this disregard of papal participation seems to have provoked the curia to retaliatory action and it issued rehabilitations with clauses of censures and penalties for all who might impede them thus rendering unnecessary the concurrence of the king and the inquisition Charles thereupon reissued the pragmaticas of 1501 and empowered the inquisition to enforce them while the suprema explained to the tribunals that there was a disability and another under the pragmaticas so that the papal rehabilitation was insufficient without the royal and vice versa where for the inquisitors were instructed to look closely into this and prosecute those who did not possess both it withdrew however from this position and issued cartes acordadas May 15th 1530 and May 16th 1531 this was the beginning of this new form of papal dispensations if these were allowed to continue it said all the disabled would be rehabilitated and the laws of the kingdom would be annulled where for when such letters were presented the fiscal was ordered to draw a supplication to the pope setting forth that the disabilities were enacted by the laws of the land and that it had been found by experience that these children of heretics judicial positions condemned Christians to death unjustly or if they become physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries give their patients poisons in place of remedies all these supplications were to be sent to the supreme which would forward them to the roman agent of the inquisition and meanwhile we may assume the papal letters were suspended in another document of the period opposition to the papal rehabilitations is enumerated as one of the regular duties of the fiscal it is somewhat remarkable that this seems to have been confined to Castile for in 1535 the Suprema learned that the Valencia tribunal accepted and respected papal rehabilitations and hastened to instruct it to follow the Castilian method the struggle continued and the instructions of 1531 were repeated July 19th and October 26th 1543 and May 14th 1546 the strenuous days of Ferdinand were passed and resistance was vain the curia continued imperturbably to sell dispensations of the most liberal character which completely annulled Spanish legislation one bearing the name of paul III February 1st 1545 issued to Juan de Haril of Heine whose grandparents had been burnt to nephage gives assurance of his high desserts and concedes that even if his progenitors had been condemned and burnt he can ascend to the degrees of bachelor, licentiate and doctor he can assume the office of judge corregador, advocate procurator and notary legate, nuncio, physician surgeon, apothecary farmer of revenue collector and receiver of taxes and all honors and dignities including professional chairs he can wear garments of any color and material ornaments of gold and silver and jewels he can bear arms and ride on horses and mules inherit from any kindred acquire property of all kinds enter the priesthood and obtain any dignity or preferment and all inquisitors and secular powers are forbidden to interfere with him in the enjoyment of these privileges this is evidently the customary formula of these dispensations and it was galling to have the laws of the land and the jurisdiction of the inquisition thus calmly said it not but there was no help for it sometimes, however, the recipients of these papal rehabilitations deemed it wise to show humility in which case they were fairly assured of a benignant reception in 1548 Saragossa Tribunal pennanced for faltership five Hidalgos vassals of the count of Ribagorzo in a way disabling them from holding office they procured letters from Rome but submitted them to the Suprema and declined to use them whereupon Valdez told the inquisitors to follow the letters and dispense the penitents from their disabilities Roman competition, however by no means destroyed the home traffic in dispensations whatever was imposed by the inquisitors could be removed by the inquisitors general as when Valdez May 27, 1551 granted license to Leandro de Lloris to accept the position of assessor to the bail of Valencia after he had been disabled by the tribunal from holding any office of justice when, however, disabilities were the result of pragmaticas it was recognized that the removal was a function of the crown thus in 1549 the Suprema expresses pleasure that those reconciled under an edict of grace should procure rehabilitations from the king and in 1564 it explains that the dispensations granted by the inquisitor general only relate to the sumptuary coses arbitrarias so that those obtaining them who exceed in this are to be prosecuted the functions of the inquisition thus were restricted to enabling the disabled to wear costly apparel and jewels to bear arms and ride these, which were known as dispensations inlo arbitrario were in great demand and a brisk business was done in them in the records of course there is nothing said about there being sold or the prices paid for them which were doubtless proportion to the station or wealth of the penitent or of his kindred but that they were articles of traffic as shown by there being frequently given as gratifications to the lower officials issued in blank to be disposed of at the best price that could be had so customary indeed became the issue of these dispensations that toward the close of the 16th century Pena closes his remarks on disabilities by saying that after time it is usual to dispense for them the rehabilitation for holding office and trading was likewise a source of profit to the crown and its officials the sale of these became so general that in 1552 it formed a subject of complaint by the Cortes of Madrid which represented that the children and grandchildren of condemned heretics were rich and obtained rehabilitations from the king in contravention of the pragmaticas to the great detriment of the republic to the petition that this should cease the reply was that the king would be born in mind and the pragmaticas be observed that this promise was kept may well be doubted especially as in time the curia abandoned its claim to issue dispensations of this nature when in 1603 and 1604 several applications for such a grace were made to it the congregation of the inquisition refused to interfere the curia had never assumed to interfere with the commutation or redemption of the punishments inflicted by the inquisition in these it therefore had a free hand and the resultant's revenue must have been important for it was always ready to show mercy for a reasonable consideration the speculative value of such commutations were recognized at least as early as 1498 when they were already regarded as a regular source of income for Juan de Manistaria was then characterized as inquisitor of Valencia and the receiver of penances and commutations in 1524 we find Manri commissioning Francisco de Salmarón to collect from the receivers of the tribunals all penas and penitencias, commutaciones and habilidades and a similar grouping in 1540 and 1544 shows that they all continued to be sources contributing to a common fund of these punishments the one most productive and most commonly commuted was the San Benito or penitential habit released from which in the early period as we have seen was reckoned in one case at least at a thousand gold florins the severity of the inflection is well set forth in the petition about 1560 of Lopoverro Notar Recovo Damiano to the Sicilian Tribunal he says that he has tried in every way to earn a living and his only resource is a return to his birthplace Ra Calmuto where his family will aid in his support and he can end the few days that remain to his age and infirmities but as his kindred are persons of honor if he comes with the San Benito they will drive him away and leave him to die of starvation he therefore begs to have the habit commuted to a money payment for the redemption of captives and some other penance not from his family otherwise he is in peril of death from want as he is abandoned by all what between the degradation and the impediment to winning a livelihood those subjected to the penalty and their kindred were likely to pay whatever sum they could afford for release it was commonly coupled with imprisonment the carcel i ambito usually went together and commutation covered both as a rule inquisitors were prohibited from granting these commutations the temptation to retain the proceeds was doubtless too great in 1513 Zimonies on learning that some inquisitors were doing so forbade it for the future and reserved the right to the inquisitor general there were some exceptions however especially in the case of distant tribunals as in a commission granted to Sicily in 1519 to Navar in 1520 and a limited one to Mallorca in 1523 as a rule all applications were submitted to the Suprema which gave the necessary instructions and directed the money to be remitted to it or to be held subject to its order for pious uses its full realization of the financial possibilities of the matter is seen in instructions in 1519 to Barcelona and doubtless to the other tribunals to report how many penitents were wearing San Benito's and how much could be obtained from them for commutations when conviction would bring not only confiscation but the prospect of another contribution from the kindred it will be realized how great was the temptation to severity the pious uses for which the payments were ostensibly received were various Dr. Arganda Inquisitor of Cuenca in rendering May 9th 1585 revealing a deficit in revenue renewed a request of the month previous that the Suprema would grant to the Tribunal the commutations of Francis Galvest and one way bit Moriscos they were very old had been sentenced ten years before and would die more therefore it would be well that the Tribunal should have the benefit of the 4000 Rials which they offered the Suprema replied with an inquiry whether this was the utmost from them then on August 9th the Inquisitor urged the acceptance of the offer so that the money could be used for a much needed prison for familiars and other purposes and reminded the Suprema that in 1583 it had made a similar grant of commutations for a building another pious use was giving to Dr. Ortiz when sent to Sicily as Inquisitor in 1541 certain commutations as part of his salary they must have been considerable for the fees accruing on them to Secretary Zarita amounted to 55 Ducats still another pious use is indicated in an order from the Suprema in 1549 to the Tribunal of Granada to commute the San Benito of Catalina Ramirez into spiritual works and such pecuniary penance as she could pay for pious uses the latter are explained in an accompanying private note of instruction to hold the money until the Aparitor Cuevas marries his daughter when he is to be aided with it he evidently had petitioned for a commutation de habito and it was accorded in this form these commutations in fact became a sort of currency in which favors were asked and granted replacing to some extent the confiscations of an earlier period thus in 1589 the Valencia Convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Santa Teresa petitioned for the grant of the commutations of certain San Benitos and soon afterwards the Dominican Convent made a similar request the most usual pious work however for which they were ostensibly employed was in assisting the redemption of captives yet this formula frequently covered other destinations as in the case of Martin de Bugera of Calateud who was relieved the prison in San Benito for 15 Ducats and the Ducats were simultaneously granted to Pedro Salvan a parator of the Saragosa Tribunal when the proceeds were really to be employed for the redemption of captives precautions were taken to see that they were so applied these were expressed January 18, 1559 by Valdez to Horosco de Arce inquisitor of Sicily when empowering him to grant commutations to four penitents provided their sentences are not irremissible and they have completed three years of imprisonment when besides the money payment there are to be simple penances of fasting prayer and pilgrimage the penitents are to be designated by Nicholas Calderon or his agent who will bargain as to the amounts of payment and the money is to be given to him for the ransom of his mother sister and two nieces on his furnishing good security that within a term to be designated by the inquisitor he will present them to the tribunal or refund the money the condition in this that the penalty commuted must not be irremissible was not always observed such sentences as we shall see were reserved for cases of special guilt but they yielded to the powerful solvent of money a larger price presumably being demanded thus March 7, 1560 the Sicilian inquisitor was ordered to select some one who hadn't served not less than nine years under such a sentence and commuted for the ransom of the wife of of Sibedadella even the galleys which were regarded as a much severer punishment than the carcelia bito or commutable though as the prisoner was an incumbrance while the galley slave was useful and the supply was always deficient we may infer that his commutation was held at a higher price condemnation to the galleys was also less frequent than to the San Benito and of course was only inflicted on able-bodied men so that cases of its commutation do not occur in such abundance yet they were sufficiently numerous to lead to complaint by the Suprema to Charles V in 1528 that when it sent messengers to liberate those whose sentences were thus commuted the commanders of the galleys refused to surrender them whereupon Charles issued a sedula ordering for liberation under pain of 2000 florins commutations for the galleys had various shapes in 1543 Don Luis Munoz lord of Ayudan offered two slaves a substitute for two of his Marisco vassals Juan Memón and Juan Munoz condemned to serve the one for ten and the other for twelve years of which three had elapsed and after investigation to see that the substitutes were able-bodied in 1517 Miguel Mercado obtained the remainder of his sentence to the galleys commuted to service on the French border when presumably there was some money consideration it is probable that commutations for money became too frequent for the good of the naval service for in 1556 the Suprema strictly forbade them for the future doubtless under royal command this prohibition seems to have lasted for a considerable time as the Spanish armada was greatly in need of men and we happen not to meet with cases until near the close of the century when they reappear in the Valencia records in 1590 Hucepe Gassette a familiar condemned for the murder of his wife obtained a commutation of sentence in 1596 a new Christian Gaspar Neu negotiated for release from the three years which he still serve and after investigation into his means it was fixed at 700 Libras and a slave Mois however on his liberation found that his San Benito was not included in the bargain and he had to pay 100 Libras more for its removal in 1597 Onufri Quintana offered 2000 Rials and a slave which were accepted in the same year Miguel Saucer applied for commutation when the Suprema instructed Tribunal to ascertain what he would pay for it and the same answer was given in 1600 to a similar petition from Jaime Cornexo it is apparent from the high values set on these mercies the comparatively few convicts could afford their purchase evidently the Suprema paid little heed to the instructions of Philip II to Manrique de Lare in 1595 to be very cautious in granting of dispensations for galleys in San Benitos there must be ample cause and no attention should be paid to prayers and favors for it was essential the senses should be completely executed. This was repeated with some amplification by Carlos II in 1695 showing that there was still occasion to restrain the Holy Office from bartering pardons for money. End of book 5 chapter 3 recording by Mike Bloomfield