 Book 3, Chapter 4 of the History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 2. The History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 2 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 3, Jurisdiction. Chapter 4, The Edict of Faith. All allusions have been made above to the edicts of faith, whereby the tribunals obtain knowledge of offenses coming within their jurisdiction. This was one of the most efficient methods by which that jurisdiction was exercised and was brought home to the consciences of the people as an ever-present power. It rendered every individual, an agent of that Inquisition, bound under fearful penalties spiritual and temporal, to aid it in maintaining the purity of the faith, and, at the same time, it made every man conscious that his lightest word or act might subject him to prosecution by that terrible court whose very name inspired dread. No more ingenious device has been invented to subjugate a whole population, to paralyze its intellect and to reduce it to blind obedience. It elevated deletion to the rank of high religious duty. It filled the land with spies, and it rendered every man an object of suspicion, not only to his neighbor, but to the members of his own family, and to the stranger whom he might chance to meet. Continued through generations, this could not fail to leave its impress on the national character. Even Mariana, in enumerating the results of the Inquisition, ventures to allude to the cautious reserve which it rendered habitual among Spaniards. A somewhat crude prototype of the Edict of Faith is found in the Old Inquisition, when Inquisitors visited their districts and, at each town, summoned an assembly of the people, preached to them, and caused to be read an edict calling upon all the inhabitants to come forward within a specified time and reveal anything that might tend to suspicion that anyone was a heretic under pain of ipso facto excommunication, removable only by them or by the Pope. While this was nominally preserved in the Aragonese Inquisition, that institution had become so inert that we may assume that the Inquisitors no longer visited their districts or had occasion to issue edicts. In Castile, when the Inquisition was founded, this practice was evidently unknown, for the instructions of 1484 merely order that when the Inquisitors opened their tribunal in any town, after the sermon, they shall publish a munition with censures against all who resist or contradict them. By 1500, however, the efficacy of what became known as the Edict of Faith had been discovered, and Inquisitor General Deza, in ordering yearly visitations of the districts, specifies that, on arriving in every town or village, a general edict shall be issued, summoning those who know anything of heresy to come forward and reveal it. The form of this was probably the same as that which, in the same year 1500, the Inquisitors of Cicely, Dr. Scalambrough and Montoro Bishop of Salafu issued, requiring all cognizant of heresy to denounce it within fifteen days, promising secrecy to the informer and threatening with prosecution, as photos of heresy those who failed to do so. In Catalonia, the Concordia of 1512, in alluding to the Edict requiring the denunciation of all offenses against the Faith, shows that it was already an established custom, while, in 1514, the instructions of Inquisitor General Mercedes proves that the various offenses included in the expanding jurisdiction of the Inquisition were specifically enumerated for the general term of heresy no longer sufficed. The effect on the people of these proclamations, with their threats and anathema, is vividly expressed in the description of terror excited by the publication of the Edict, when a Tribunal of Cayenne made a raid on Arrona. As in the course of time, new fields of activity were opened to the Inquisition, the enumeration of offenses requiring denunciation grew to be a long and detailed catalogue, in which all the acts by which they could be recognized were specified so that there could be no excuse for omission. The simplest and oldest formula, which I have met, is that published in Mexico at the installation of the Inquisition in 1571, and in view of its comparative brevity it is given in the appendix. Subsequently, the Edict grew to portentous dimensions, the purport of which can be gathered from an abstract of that of 1696. It begins by reciting that the fiscal has represented that for some time there has been no visitation or interest made in many places of the province, whereby numerous crimes against the faith remain unpunished. Seeing this complaint to be justified, the Edict is addressed to everyone individually, so that if he has known or heard say that anyone living or dead present or absent has done or uttered or believed any act, word or opinion heretical, suspect, erroneous, rash, ill-sounding, scandalous, or heretical blasphemists, it must be revealed to the Tribunal within six days. Then follows an enumeration of all Jewish rights and customs, then similar lists concerning Mohammedanism, Protestantism, and Illuminism. Then under the heading of diversas heresias, follow blasphemy with the specimens of heretical oaths, keeping or invoking familiar demons, witchcrafts, pacts, tacit or expressed with the devil, mixing for this purpose sacred and profane objects, and attributing to the creature that which belongs to the creator, marrying in orders solicitation of women in confession, bigamy, saying that there is no sin in simple fornication, or usury, or perjury, or that concubinage is better than marriage, insulting or maltreating crucifixes or images of saints, disbelieving or doubting any article of faith remaining a year under excommunication or despising the censures of the church, having recourse to astrology, which is described at length and pronounced fictitious, being guilty of sorcery or divination, the practices of which are described with instructive profusion, possessing books condemned in the index, including Lutheran and Mohammedan works, and Bibles in the vernacular, neglecting to perform the duty of denouncing what has been seen or heard, or persuading others to omit it, giving false witness in the Inquisition, concealing or befending heretics, impeding the Inquisition, removing San Benitos placed by the Inquisition, throwing off San Benitos or non-performance of penance by reconciled penitents, or they're saying that they confessed in the Inquisition through fear, saying that those relaxed by the Inquisition were innocent martyrs, non-observance of disabilities by reconciled penitents, their children or grandchildren, possession by scriveners or notaries of papers concerning the above enumerated crimes. Inquisitors moreover were ordered under the same penalties to withhold absolution from penitents who had not denounced all offenses coming to their knowledge. This was a tolerably searching grand inquest in which the whole population was summoned to assist and the ceremonies of its publication were designed to render it as impressive as possible. On the Saturday previous, a proclamation was made by the Inquisitors requiring all persons over the age of 12 or 14 in some texts to assemble to hear the edict and on the following Sundays to hear the anathema under pain of excommunication and of fifty ducats. In the smaller towns this proclamation was made by the town crier or if there were none by house to house notification. The next day at the offertory in the mass the edict was to be read slowly, distinctly, and in a loud voice, after which the priest was to explain the obligation to denounce whatever was known of the living and the dead, of themselves or of others, and the peril of omitting it. It was not to be talked about, but was to be done directly, even if it was known that others had done so, otherwise the penalty was incurred. In larger cities, especially the seats of tribunals, the ceremonies were more imposing. In Seville, for instance, on the afternoon of Saturday before the second Sunday of Lent, the familiars assembled on horseback at the castle of Triana, where they formed a procession with drummers and trumpeters and the town crier to escort the Alguazil mayor and one of the secretaries of the Inquisition. This wound through the city stopping at eight principal places to publish the proclamation and to order that there should be no sermons in other churches on the days of the publication and anathemas. Then on those Sundays other processions were timed to meet the inquisitors at the doors of the cathedral and San Salvador, the churches designated for the ceremonies. When the secretary at the proper time mounted the pulpit and read the edict, the sermon followed and then the mass was resumed. When the six days allowed for denunciation or confession had elapsed, a second proclamation was made, reciting the former one and adding that the fiscal complaint that many had not complied with it and he demanded the fulmination of the censures in the most aggravated form. An edict was therefore addressed to all priests requiring them at high mass when the people were assembled to denounce as publicly excommunicated and anathematized all who had not obeyed the first edict, sprinkling holy water to drive away the demons who kept them in their toils and praying Christ to bring them back to the bosom of the church. If they persisted in contumacy, all faithful Christians were ordered within three days to withdraw from all intercourse with them under pain of similar excommunication, both those who should have confessed and those who should have denounced but who continued contumaceous were involved in the anathema pronounced on the third Sunday. This was an awe-inspiring solemnity. The clergy marched in procession, the cross was covered with black and two flaming torches were on the altar, where the priests stood in profound silence during the reading of the curse. We excommunicate and anathematize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, in form of law all apostate heretics from our holy Catholic faith, their photos and concealers who do not reveal them, and we curse them that they may be accursed as members of the devil and separated from the bosom and unity of the holy mother church, and we order all the faithful to hold them as such and to curse them so that they may fall into the wrath and indignation of Almighty God. May all the curses and plagues of Egypt which befell King Pharaoh come upon them because they disobey the commandments of God. May they be accursed wherever they be, in the city or in the country, in eating and in drinking, in waking and in sleeping, in living and in dying. May the fruits of their lands be accursed and the cattle thereof. May God send them hunger and pestilence to consume them. May they be a scorn to their enemies and be abhorred by all men. May the devil be at their right hand. When they come to judgment may they be condemned. May they be driven away from their homes. May their enemies take their possessions and prevail against them. May their wives and children rise against them and be orphans and beggars with none to assist them in their need. May their wickedness be ever remembered in the presence of God. May they be accursed with all the curses of the old covenant and of the new. May the curse of Sodom and Gomorrah overtake them and its fire burn them. May the earth swallow them alive like Dathan and Abiram for the sin of disobedience. May they be accursed as Lucifer with all the devils of hell where may they remain with Judas and be damned forever. If they do not acknowledge their sin, beg mercy and amend their lives. Then the people responded, Amen. While the clergy again marched in procession chanting the Psalms, Deus laud o' ma'am and Misa re re to the chapel or altar, the great bells tolled as for a death and the bearers of the torches extinguished them in the font of holy water, saying, As these torches die in the water, so will their souls in hell. And the procession was resumed to the sacristy. After this the edict continues, anyone knowing these things and not revealing them and remaining contumaciously and persistently thus for a year is held suspect in the faith and shall be prosecuted with all the rigor of the law. Thus all the resources of religious terrorism were exhausted to impress upon the popular conscience the supreme duty of denouncing kindred and friends for the slightest act or word which might be held to infer suspicion of heresy or of the varied classes of offenses over which the inquisition had succeeded in extending its jurisdiction. It is true that the constant abuse of anathemas in the pettiest quarrels with officials lay in clerical must have somewhat blunted their effect. It is also true that casuistry early in the 17th century had no difficulty improving that when the obligation to denounce involve danger to life or reputation the natural law of self-protection overrode the positive law of denunciation with its threat of excommunication. Still to those not trained in such subtleties and who piously believed in the power of the keys it was impossible that this terrible accumulation of curses temporal and spiritual should not overcome natural affection in human kindliness. It was not the fault of the inquisition if Spain was not converted into a nation of spies and informers in which no man could trust those nearest and dearest to him. The Enic the Faith was published annually on a Sunday in Lent in cities which were the seat of the tribunal and during the earlier times elsewhere when the inquisitors went on their visitations. Indeed we are told in 1560 that it was of little service unless the inquisitors visited their districts for people would not incur the labor and expense of coming from a distance and the publication was regarded as a chief object of the visiting inquisitor who was directed to see that it was made in the monasteries as well as in the churches. Visiting their districts as we shall see was the duty most disliked by the inquisitors which they shirked whenever possible and with the development of postal communication it was easier and more speedy to send the printed edicts to commissioners for distribution. What was the total number thus annually showered upon the land we have no means of knowing but it must have been large. In 1595 the inquisitor Arevalo de Tsuazo reporting his visitation of the mountainous dioceses of Urgel, Vich and Zosona states that he distributed 600 copies among the parish churches besides personally publishing it in all the towns. From a printer's bill of June 7 1759 when the custom was declining it appears that in Valencia the edition printed was 400 and a list of churches in the city in which it was posted amounted to 63. This device was not confined to Spain though Rome was somewhat tardy in adopting it. The congregation of the inquisition issued January 3 1623 a brief edict commanding the denunciation within 12 days of all heretics under pain of excommunication removable only by it or by the Pope. This was followed January 10 1666 by one more in detail specifying the offenses to be denounced. It was universal in its character and therefore applied to Spain but as usual the Spanish Inquisition maintained its independence and continued to employ its own more elaborate formulas. Although the annual publication remained the rule there were occasional intermissions. In 1638 for instance it was suspended without a reason being assigned and again in 1689 on account of the death of Maria Luisa wife of Carlos II. Local causes also sometimes interfered with it especially when questions of etiquette arose as that which we have seen in via the lead in 1635 over the point whether at its reading a bow should be made to the sacrament or to the inquisitors. 16 years later we are told that since then there had been no reading of the edict at via the lead and that in consequence during the visitations of the inquisitors other places refused to have it read on the ground that this was not done in the city where there was a full tribunal. A similar trouble arose at Quito because the Audencia refused to allow the Commissioner of the Inquisition a seat with a cushion during its reading. For this in 1699 and again in 1700 he appealed to the viceroy stating that in consequence of this it had been many years since the edict had been published there. With a decline in the activity of the Inquisition towards the close of the 18th century there grew to be negligence in the annual publication. In 1775 the Suprema ordered that there be no change with regard to it. A document of 1777 indicates that it was still customary but an inquiry in 1784 by the Suprema of its tribunals whether or not it had been suspended shows that it was falling into desuitude. And another of 1806 asked how long it had been since the publication ceased indicates that it had become obsolete. The efficacy of the edict of faith is incontestable although in 1578 the inquisitor Francisco DiRibera in reporting his visitation of the diocese of Girona and Elna and his publication of it in places which had never before been visited complains that it did not render the people disposed to make denunciations which he attributes to their limited intelligence. In more enlightened centers its effectiveness is seen in the frequency with which accusers preface their charges with the statement that their attention has been called to the duty by the publication of the edict. It naturally set men to searching their memories for what they had seen or heard respecting the various offenses so elaborately enumerated and described. For instance the edict was published in Madrid on September 4th 1569 and the next day Hans de Evalo appeared before the inquisitor to denounce Hans Brunzvi and Costananzio, two members of the royal Guarda Tudesca for things which he had heard and known of them but of which he had thought nothing until he heard the edict read. It was the same in stimulating self-denunciation whether through prictive conscience or fear of accusation by others thus in 1581 we have two cases following each other which Juan Gonzalez and Bartolome Benito accused themselves of having in conversation with their wives asserted that fornication is no sin for which they both were duly penanced and fined. The wives were sent for and confirmed the confessions which we may safely attribute to the fear that the spouses might be led to denounce them. The habit of dilation in which the Spaniard was thus trained continued after the edict of faith ceased to be published and was stimulated by the assurance of immunity through the profound secrecy which denied to the accused all knowledge of his accuser. The records of the tribunals show that these were welcomed no matter how flimsy was the evidence nor through how many months it had passed. Thus January 5th 1816 the Dominican fray Vicente Manendo writes to the tribunal of Barcelona that he had heard Joseph Castellar of Manlyu say that on Easter day 1815 he had been discussing some pending suits with the advocate Baldurish when the time came for hearing the mass and he said let us go to mass to which Baldurish replied by a contemptuous expression. Instructions were therefore forthwith sent to the commissioner at Pinalada to put the denunciation into formal legal shape for prosecuting Baldurish. Informers thus were not put to the trouble of coming forward personally and facilities for dilation were brought to every man's door. Thus on June 28th 1807 Dr Pedro Reguar of Suria writes to the tribunal Barcelona that he has a denunciation to make and asks that a commission be sent to someone in Suria to receive it. Full instructions were accordingly sent to the parish priest of Suria. When the deposition was made to the effect that 18 months before at the clinic in Barcelona Reguar had seen in the possession of a student named Pedro Sitzas a book entitled Yusubeo which he understood to be prohibited and a year ago he had also seen a copy in the hands of another student named Jaime Call. In this case the tribunal with rare moderation only ordered its operator to seize the books in the hands of the students. So carefully were the accusers protected against recognition that when in 1818 Don Francisco de Mora a retired lieutenant of artillery accused Don Tomasans of the same core to the tribunal of Valencia because in a loose conversation between them he had asserted that there was no sin in fornication and where Mora found himself obliged to testify against another officer Manuel Moreno was present. The tribunal dropped the case at his request because Moreno would have identified the source of the accusation. The very triviality of these cases is the measure of their importance. It was not merely the Judaizing Converso or the secret protestant but the whole body of the Catholic nation that was exposed to prosecution and infamy for a thoughtless word the denunciation of which was commanded by the edict of faith and invited by the impenetrable secrecy of the tribunal. The shadow of the holy office lay over the land and no one could feel sure that a trusted comrade might not at any moment become a spy and an informer or might not repeat an unconscious word until it reached someone who recognized the inexorable duty imposed upon all. A duty more deeply felt by the conscientious than by those of easy morals. There was moreover the fatal facility afforded for the safe gratification of malice as in the case of John Joseph de Campillo whose merits raised him from obscurity to the position of finance minister under Philip V in 1740. In 1726 when holding a responsible office in the administration of the navy he had a quarrel with a Chironomai Fraile over the occupancy of a house. The Fraile forthwith collected gossip about him especially from a disillute chaplain whom he had dismissed from the service and all this was welcomed by the tribunal of Lagronio which commenced to gather testimony against him with a view to prosecution. It came to his ears through the boasts of the Frailes as to what they had done and the profound horror which seized him at the prospect of being dishonored for life by the mere suspicion that he was liable to prosecution shows how terrible a weapon the system placed at the service of malignant tea. In the life of a nation outward calamities can be survived and recovery from their effects is but a work of time. Far more lasting and benumbing are the results of the perpetual and unrelenting vigilance which seeks to penetrate into the secret heart of every man to control his thoughts to stifle their expression to repress every effort to move out of a beaten and prescribed track to destroy mutual confidence and to lead each individual to regard his fellows as the possible destroyers of his reputation and career. Such was the system imposed on Spain by the Inquisition and its appropriate expression is found in the Edict of Faith. End of Book 3, Chapter 4. Book 3, Chapter 5, Part 1 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. The History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 2 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 3, Jurisdiction. Chapter 5, Part 1, Appeals to Rome. So long as the acts of the Spanish Inquisition were not final but were subject to revision by the Roman curia its jurisdiction was incomplete. To emancipate itself from this it struggled for more than two centuries aided unreservedly by all the power of the Spanish crown. This long protracted and intricate contest is full of interest and merits a somewhat detailed investigation. Soon after the Inquisition commenced its work complaints of its remorseless cruelty poured in upon the sovereigns. They sent around as we are told certain conscientious prelates to investigate and report who informed them that four thousand houses had been abandoned in Andalusia. But this seems only to have inflamed Isabella's ardor and the business of vindicating the faith was prosecuted with undiminished energy. The only refuge of the victims was the Holy See which had always been open to appeals from the sentences of the Inquisition. Papal predominance had its foundation in the universal supreme jurisdiction original and appellate of Rome in all matters of faith and the unlimited area of affairs contingent on faith. This had been gradually acquired during the dark ages and was strenuously upheld as it was the source of wealth as well as of power and without it the bishop of Rome would speedily shrink to his original primacy of honor. That he should divest himself of it was not to be expected especially for the benefit of inquisitors whose jurisdiction was a delegation from him and whose claim to superiority over bishops was based on the functions of the latter being merely ordinary while theirs were apostolic. It is true that Nicholas V in his projected Castilian Inquisition of 1451 had granted jurisdiction without appeal but this could have been withdrawn at any time and the whole attempt had been soon forgotten that no illusion was ever made to it in the subsequent controversy. In the Old Inquisition appeals to the Pope were recognized but it was an intricate and costly process only possible to those familiar with canon law and as the victims then were mostly peasants or ascetic missionaries it was rarely employed and still more rarely successful. Now however the situation was wholly different the class assailed consisted largely of men of wealth or learning merchants bankers lawyers high officials theologians and prelates able to command the services of skillful canonists and ready to sacrifice a portion of their fortunes to save their persons from the stake and their states from confiscation. The curia of the period more over was notorious for shameless veniality a place where everything was for sale from cardinal lets to pardons and where the supreme jurisdiction of the papacy was exploited to the utmost. It did not take long for the keen-witted conversos to recognize that the mercy denied them in Spain could be bought in the open market of Rome and the curia which had mourned the lost opportunity of sharing in the confiscations welcomed the prospect of selling exemptions from confiscation. Everything therefore pointed to an exercise of the supreme appellate jurisdiction of the Holy See which would seriously limit the activity of the Spanish Inquisition or least would confine it to those whose property rendered them unprofitable subjects of persecution. Ferdinand soon became alive to the situation and manifested little reverence for the papacy in his resolute resistance to the protection which it sold to all applicants. The earliest recourse was naturally to the papal penitentiary. It had long been in the habit of selling confessional letters empowering any confessor whom the purchaser might select to absolve him from all sins including those reserved to the Holy See. Originally, these were understood to be good only in the form of conscience but the further step was easily taken of making them effective also in the judicial forum thus anticipating or annulling the action of the courts and selling immunity for crime as well as pardon for sin. There was no difficulty in obtaining such letters for anyone and they were sought by the conversos as a means of protection in advance and of setting aside sentences after conviction. In the appendix will be found a specimen issued December 4th 1481 by the major penitentiary to Francisco Fernandez of Seville and his wife and mother. It purports to be granted by the direct command of the pope and authorizes the recipient to select any confessor who after secret abduration can absolve him for all acts of heresy apostasy relapse and dogmatism and annull all sentences by whom so ever pronounced after trial and conviction reintegrating him into the church removing all stain of heresy restoring him to all his rights and releasing him from all punishment only opposing on him salutary penits which at that period was understood to be a money payment for the benefit of the poor i.e. the church or its members. A final clause grants the further faculty of overcoming all opposition by the use of censures under papal authority. It was impossible for Ferdinand and Torque Mada to allow the inquisition to be reduced to impotence by the speculative activity of the curia in selling such exemptions which were not only good for the future but had a retroactive effect in annulling its acts. No reverence for the Holy See could restrain them from visiting their wrath on all who were concerned in rendering effective this purchasable clemency. We have a glimpse at the methods adopted by both sides in a notorial act evidently part of a process to set aside a papal letter of a somewhat different kind and to punish those engaged in its use. The narrative showing that all concern felt that they were incurring serious perils. The notary, Anton Pelaez, deposes that in Ceres de la Fulterra he received from the Duke of Dina Sidonia a letter of April 16th 1482 calling him to San Lucar de Barameda to draw certain business papers. He went and while engaged on them in the house of Juan Mateos on April 20th at 2 p.m. a messenger summoned him to the Duke whom he found in the company with the Duchess, the Teniente de Bora, Frey Tomas, prior of the order of Santa Maria de Barameda and others. Then entered Juan Verandes of Seville, the Duke's Contador or auditor carrying a bowl with a lead seal said to be from the Pope Sixtus IV and ordered Pelaez to read it to the prior. He was alarmed and refused but finally yielded to the entreaties of the Duke and Duchess. Then Frey Tomas refused to accept it as he had been inhibited verbally by the inquisitors and promised to produce the inhibition in writing within eight days. The Duchess left the room in anger but in a quarter of an hour Verandes brought Fernando de Troxillo prior to the Universidad of Ceres and not of the Church of San Salvador as described in the bowl. The Duke told him that this made no difference and urged him to accept it, throwing his arms around him and promising that he would expose his whole rank and dignity to make good whatever he might suffer in person and property. Troxillo accepted the bowl with the greatest reverence and kissed it. Then as apostolic judge under it he ordered Juan Mateos, cura and vicar of San Lucar, to absolve Verandes and his wife of any sentence of excommunication, interdict, suspension, etc. placed on him by the inquisitors. On his giving security, which was promptly furnished by Gonzalo Pelaez, Gu Pelaez and Fernando Riquel, swearing that Verandes would stand to the mandates of the Church as required in the bowl. Thereupon Troxillo as apostolic judge ordered Juan Mateos to absolve Verandes and his wife, which was duly performed. The Duke's lawyers drew up an inhibition to the inquisitors, which the deponent engrossed. The Duke wanted Troxillo to sign it, but the deponent privately advised him not to do so until he should consult his counsel at Ceres, and whether he did so or not, the deponent could not say. This gives us an inside view of the struggle to escape the inquisition, which was going on in every corner of the land. It was useless for these papal letters were disregarded and the purchasers could look for no redress from Necuria, for Pope Sixtus had no scruple in abandoning his customers. It was a lucrative business, this disposing of exemptions and then allowing them to be an adult for consideration. Both sides thus contributed to the papal treasury, and as it all came from the conversos in the end, the Curia indirectly got its share of the confiscations, and the inquisition was but nominally restricted. One device for accomplishing this is revealed in a Crusada indulgence granted March 8th, 1483, ostensibly in aid of the war with Granada, but as Sixtus bargained for one-third of the proceeds, his share was a sufficient inducement for sacrificing the purchasers of his confessional letters. A special clause of the indulgence empowered any confessor to absolve the possessor of it, the price being six reales, for killing or despoiling those seeking the Roman court, or for preventing the execution of papal letters, or for forbidding notaries to draw up acts concerning such letters, or for detaining them from those to whom they belonged, all of which was evidently framed to allow the sovereigns to annul the papal priests in any way they deemed best. Yet, while Sixtus thus was content for a moderate compensation to permit those who were seeking his court to be detained or slain and to have his letters contemptuously annulled, yet when their market was threatened by the assertion that the penitentiary was only a court of conscience and its absolutions were good only in the interior for him, his indignation burst forth in a bull of May 9th, 1484, stigmatizing all such opinions as contumatious and sacrilegious. The penitentiary, he declared, could grant absolutions good in either form, and those for the judicial form were good in both spiritual and secular courts. This monstrous assumption, which claimed for the penitentiary the power to anticipate or set aside the judgment of every criminal court in Europe for the benefit of culprits who could pay the moderate fee demanded for its letters, was not merely a temporary policy adopted by Sixtus for the occasion. Having once been asserted, it was persisted in. Paul III, July 5th, 1549, confirmed the bull of 1484, and subjected to the anathema of the bull in chaining dominion all who called in question the validity of such letters. When confined to the form of conscience, they were sealed and addressed to the confessor. When intended for the judicial form, they were patent. As Paul died November 10th, 1549, before the publication of this brief, it was confirmed and issued February 22nd, 1550, by Julius III. It was the settled purpose of the Holy See of the period to continue this profitable business of selling pardons so long as purchasers could be found for them. They continued to plague the Inquisition, and we shall see what stern measures Ferdinand found necessary for their suppression. Yet Ferdinand was justified and necurious, self-condemned for when the Roman Inquisition was reorganized and found its operations similarly impeded by the letters of the penitentiary. It ordered, September 26th, 1550, its subordinates to pay no attention to them. Meanwhile, the struggle continued in Spain. Isabella applied in 1482 to Sixtus to give her inquisitors power to pronounce final judgments that should not be subject to revision or appeal. He replied February 23rd, 1483, that he would take counsel with the Sacred College, the result of which was a bull of May 25th, in which he conferred on Inigo Manrique, Archbishop of Seville, a Pelle jurisdiction from the inquisitors, deputizing him in place of the Pope for the Spanish dominions. This expedient brought no relief to the conversos. The inquisitors paid no respect to it, and would be appellants, found that it was not safe to go to Seville for revision of their cases by the Archbishop. It was the same with the letters of absolution that continued to be issued. They were disregarded, and many fugitives who had procured them found on the return that they had been burnt in effigy during their absence, and that the document on which they relied was of no avail. They needed something more, and Sixtus was nothing low to grant it. As early as August 2nd, he followed the bull of May 25th with another, for which we may safely assume that the conversos paid roundly. For in it, he evoked to Rome all pending cases of appeal. He ordered the Spanish bishops to protect at all hazards the bearers of papal letters of absolution, even to the invocation of the secular arm, and he entreated Ferdinand and Isabella to show mercy to their subjects as they hoped for mercy from God. Whatever was paid for this was money vainly thrown into the bottomless sea of the Curia. Eleven days later, with shameless effrontery, Sixtus wrote to the sovereigns that it had been issued without proper deliberation, and that he suspended it. This reinstated Manrique as a pellet judge, and Juan of Seville, who had carried the previous brief to the bishop of Evora for multiplying, was brought with his companions before the archbishop who condemned them. The gold of the victims was vainly pitted against the unalterable will of the sovereigns, for the Holy See had no scruple in selling exemptions and abandoning the purchasers. The delegation to the archbishop Manrique by no means inferred that Sixtus relinquished his own profitable appellate jurisdiction, and to encourage appeals, it was necessary to manifest indignation when the inquisitors rated the papal action at its true value. How little they respected it is manifested in a brief of July 4th, 1484, addressed to the inquisitors Miguel de Morillo and Juan de San Martín, reciting that the dean of Montoniero, two cannons of Seville and several others whom they were prosecuting and whose property they had sequestered had appealed from them. That Sixtus had referred the cases to the bishop of Taracina and some of the auditors of the sacred palace at whose instance the inquisitors had been ordered to cease the proceedings, to grant absolution ad cautelam and to lift the sequestration which deprived the parties of the means to carry on the appeal. That the inquisitors had not only flatly refused obedience and had kept possession of the property but had constrained the appellants under oath and threat of censures not to prosecute or appeal or even write to Rome on the ground that they had the jurisdiction and would render judgment. Wherefore Sixtus now pronounces null and void all proceedings since the issue of the inhibitory order and prohibits further action under threat of excommunication. The sequestration is to be lifted and all the papers are to be sent to Rome. There was no reason why this should command obedience more than the previous order and we may feel sure that the appellants fared no better in consequence. The case has interest only as a specimen of innumerable others which were bringing an abundant harvest to the officials of the Curia without affording relief to the victims who were like a shuttlecock between two bottle of Doris yielding sport to the players as they were driven from one to the other. Archbishop Manrique's position as appellate judge must also have been lucrative for on his death in 1485 the succession was eagerly sought for and was obtained by the papal vice chancellor Rodrigo Borgia but Ferdinand had had experience of him in Valencia and the sovereigns remonstrated so effectually that he was obliged to withdraw in favor of their nominee Cardinal Hurtado de Mendoza Bishop of Palencia. Sixtus IV had died August 12, 1484 to be succeeded by Innocent VIII. The Inquisition might hope for an improvement but was resolved to resist with greater energy than before if the new pope should imitate his predecessor. In a series of instructions issued December 6, 1484 Torquemada provided for a resident agent in Rome whose expenses were to be defrayed from the confiscations. He complained of the extraordinary and illegal letters so profusely granted by Sixtus and announced that the sovereigns would suspend the operation of such letters but that action would be withheld until it should be seen whether Innocent continued a practice so prejudicial. Innocent must already have given evidence that his methods were the same as those of Sixtus for in less than 10 days Ferdinand issued December 15 a savage pragmatica far more decisive in Torquemada had forecast for a decreed death and confiscation for all who should use such letters whether emanating from the pope or his subordinates unless they should have received the royal exequatar and all notaries and scriveners who should act under them or take transcripts of them were deprived of their offices. As a matter of course the change of pontiffs worked no change in the lucrative business except that perhaps under Innocent the practice of taking money and betraying those who paid it became more unblushing than before and promises to both sides were made and broken with still greater facility. To this end care was taken to maintain the papal jurisdiction for when the new pope was asked to confirm or renew Torquemada's commission and power was asked for him to disregard the exemptions issued in blank for names to be filled in and absolutions granted on false confessions and other abuses impeding in every way the inquisition Innocent turned a deaf ear and the commission was only renewed not enlarged. Then the sovereigns assumed the power denied to Torquemada and issued circular letters July 29th 1485 addressed to all the ecclesiastical authorities reciting how to the scandal of religion disregard of the royal preeminence and damage to the rise certain parties obtained bulls rescripts provisions and confessional letters from 6th to 4th and Innocent the 8th to protect themselves in their crime as it is not to be supposed that the popes would do this knowingly all such letters are suspended until the papal intention after due information can be ascertained and obeyed meanwhile no such briefs are to be enforced until after the submission to the sovereigns for their approval It is not easy to follow the rapid caregiverizations of the pope for the pledges given to either side were impartially violated almost as soon as given the only explanation being that both sides could get what briefs they desired provided they were willing to pay what was demanded for a while the influence of Ferdinand and Isabella prevailed and in a solemn repetition of Torquemada's commission April 24th 1486 Innocent directed that all appeals should be made to him and not to the Holy See Still more emphatic was a disgraceful brief of November 10th 1487 by which he declared inoperative all the letters issued by the penitentiary whose purchasers he thus surrendered to the inquisitors whom he authorized to proceed in spite of the inhibitions contained in them Possibly he may have recognized that this breach of faith was likely to damage the market by destroying confidence for the ink was scarce dry in his brief when he issued another November 27th ordering that when such letters were produced they or authentic copies of them should be sent with details of the case and that until his decision was announced proceedings should be suspended Ferdinand thereupon forbade the inquisitors to accept such letters notwithstanding which their issue continued without remission for on May 17th 1488 Innocent declares that they should be invalid unless presented within a month of that date Simultaneous with this was an elaborate bowl of the same date doubtless procured by the conversos of Aragon addressed to the Bishop of Mallorca reciting the daily appeals from the Kingdom of Aragon which were committed to judges in Necuria who issued inhibitions to the inquisitors As this impeded the inquisition the Pope evoked to himself all pending cases and committed them to the Bishop to be decided without appeal his commission continuing during the papal pleasure We may reasonably doubt whether Ferdinand permitted the Bishop to exercise these functions even if he did so the conversos profited little for the good Bishop died in about six months and there is no trace of the appointment of a successor Yet when Ferdinand wanted to save those whom he favored from the inquisition he sometimes had recourse to procuring for them papal letters to which he granted his exequator He did this for his treasurer Gabriel Sanchez and for the Vice Chancellor of Aragon Alonso de la Caballeria Gabriel Sanchez also obtained letters for his brothers Alonso and Guillen which Ferdinand approved and had some difficulty in 1498 in preventing the tribunal of Saragossa from seizing and suppressing them There was even more significant recognition of the appellate power of the Holy See in the case of Gonzalvo of Onsi defunct in 1493 The Consul de Fe was unable to reach unanimity and in place of referring it to the Suprema the Consulters referred it to Alexander VI who by brief of August 13 appointed the Bishop of Gordova and the Benedictine prior of Viadolid to decide the case at the same time inhibiting the inquisitors from further cognizance The year 1492 saw the conquest of Granada achieved and the death of Innocent VIII The one event greatly increased the reputation and influence of Ferdinand and the other placed in the papal chair Rodrigo Borgia better known as Alexander VI Both men were unscrupulous but the political situation brought them into close relations and the services rendered by the King to the Pope or still more perhaps the disservice which he could render made the latter eager to gratify him In 1494 he confirmed and enlarged the letters of Innocent VIII prescribing that appeals should be made to the inquisitor general and not to the Holy See To render this effective he commissioned as we have seen one of the inquisitors general Francisco de la Fuente as appellate judge to hear all cases The brief of appointment November 4 1494 shows in what a tangled condition these matters have been brought by the shifting and shiftless papal policy governed alone by the expectation of profit It recites that Innocent VIII at the instance of Spanish suspects of heresy had committed their cases both original and appellate to various auditors of the sacred palace where they remained pending for lack of evidence not obtainable in Rome wherefor Innocent VIII evoked them all to himself but had appointed no judge to hear them and no further progress was made Besides, under their commissions the said auditors had issued letters compulsory, inhibitory, and citatory on inquisitors and other officials in consequence of which they were under excommunication and against this they appealed To put an end to these dangers and scandals Alexander therefore evoked anew all these cases to himself and committed them to La Fuente together with all arising in the future granting him full power for their final determination This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Still the lucrative business of issuing letters of absolution and reintegration went on unchecked until pressure from Spain which was insufficient to restrain their manufacture and sale at least induced Alexander to betray those who had bought them On August 29, 1497 he issued a bull reciting how heretics who had been burnt in effigy had obtained from him absolution rehabilitation and exemption from the inquisitorial jurisdiction to the scandal of the faithful wherefore at the request of Ferdinand and Isabella he now withdraws and annulls all these letters except in the form of conscience Even this did not satisfy Ferdinand who under the pretext that a papal secretary named Bartolomeo Florido had issued false ones ordered the inquisitors to seize them when presented and to send them to him in order that he might communicate with the Pope about them This was followed by decrees of the Suprema January 8 and February 12, 1498 commanding all who had obtained absolutions and dispensations from Rome to deliver them within a given time to the inquisitors who would forward them to the inquisitor general for verification of their genuineness thus obtaining possession of all letters to the general terror of the owners Ferdinand as we have seen was obliged to write to Sargosa to protect Alonso de la Caviaria and the brother Sanchez while Isabella interceded June 26 for a servant of hers who had procured such a letter and could not produce it Then Alexander was called upon for a more absolute surrender of those who had dealt with him and on September 17 he addressed a brief to the Spanish inquisitors empowering them to proceed against all heretics notwithstanding all letters of absolution and reintegration here too far or hereafter issued for all such letters were to be held as having been granted inadvertently What with Spanish fanaticism and papal faithlessness the conversos were between the Hammer and the Anvil Their only recourse was exile many abandoned Spain and a portion of these found in Rome a refuge for Alexander welcomed them in view of the heavy impulse which they had paid for safety and toleration They also furnished him with material for a speculative outburst of persecution when in 1498 he was in need of funds to furnish forth the magnificent embassy of his son Caesar sent to bear to Louis XIII the Bull of Divorce from Queen Jean He appointed as inquisitors Cardinal Pietro Isuale and the master of the Sacred Palace Frapeolo de Monalía who proclaimed a term of grace during which the Spaniard's suspect of heresy could come forward 230 presented themselves the form of receiving and examining their confession was gone through with they were admitted to mercy and a salutary penance was imposed in lieu of penalties that might have been inflicted in Spain What was the amount of this cannot be known but it must have been considerable for the inquisitors could ransom them at discretion Asylum Autodefe was celebrated in St. Peter's July 29th in the presence of Alexander and his cardinals the penitents were marched thither in pairs were retconciled to the church abjured their heresies and were sentenced to wear the San Benito and to undergo penance after which they were taken in procession to Santa Maria Sopra Minerva where they were relieved of the San Benitos and discharged The performance evidently was expected not to be pleasing to the Spanish sovereigns for part of the penance assigned was to furnish a notarial attestation that they would not return to Spain without license from the Catholic kings under pain of relaxation as relapsed There were doubtless intimations of Ferdinand's displeasure which drew from these impromptu inquisitors a letter of September 10th to their Spanish brethren and one of October 5th from Alexander to the sovereigns in which the provision respecting return to Spain was emphasized Ferdinand however was not to be thus placated indeed he had already on August 2nd issued an edict designed to frustrate further attempts by the papacy to share in the prophets of persecution In this he ordered the execution without trial of all who had fled from condemnation by the inquisition and who should venture to return no matter what exemptions, reconciliations, safe conducts, or privileges they might allege Any property they might possess was apportioned in thirds to the informer, the official, and the fiscal and any one harboring them and any official neglecting to execute the edict was threatened with confiscation The prevention of further speculative performances of this kind was doubtless the motive for the stringent regulations which we have seen above in 1499 and 1500 to prevent the escape of the conversos Ferdinand sometimes recognized the papal letters as in the case of some parties named Beltram in 1499 which he permitted to be heard by the commissioners appointed by the pope But there was too much at stake for him to abandon the struggle and the papacy followed its practices of sacrificing those who sought its protection while never failing to promise it Early in 1502 the sovereigns remonstrated forcibly as to the great damage to the faith resulting from these letters transferring cases to special commissioners and Alexander promptly responded by a bull evoking to himself all such cases and committing them to the inquisitor general Desa to be decided by him personally or with the cessers whom he might call in To this Ferdinand objected under the pretext of the hardship which it would inflict on the appellants as Desa had to follow the migratory court and Alexander with his usual appliances empowered Desa, August 31st to appoint deputies to decide cases Desa availed himself of this to restore the cases to the tribunals instructing them to proceed to final judgment without regard to any papal letters that might be presented and thus again the unlucky appellants were delivered back to their persecutors without recourse Julius II was elected November 1st 1503 and the next day even before his coronation he issued a motu proprio to Ferdinand and Isabella confirming all graces and privileges granted by his predecessors and especially those to the inquisition Still appeals to the Holy See continued to pour in and to be welcomed and in 1505 Ferdinand remonstrated energetically asking a recall of all commissions and drawing a doleful picture of the religious condition of Spain which was saved only by the inquisition from a schism worse than that of Arius Philip of Austria, however, in his eagerness to win papal support abandoned the claims of the inquisition and admitted to the Holy See that it could not refuse to entertain the appeals of those who sought its protection Julius had no intention of divesting himself of the supreme jurisdiction which was so profitable and he took care to assert it in the commissions issued in 1507 to Chimenez and Bishop Anguera as inquisitors general respectively of Castile and Argon by evoking to himself all cases pending in the tribunals and committing them to the new incumbents and those whom they might deputize Like his predecessor, Julius with one hand sold letters of absolution and inhibition while with the other he declared them invalid A brief of November 9, 1507 recites that some persons pretending to be aggrieved have appealed to the Holy See whereby the inquisition is impeded therefore he decrees that all appeals must be to the inquisitor general while those to Rome are to be regarded as null the inquisitors are to disregard them and not to delay an account of them still the output of these letters was unchecked and for a while Ferdinand fluctuated in his policy with regard to them Sometimes, as in a Sardinia case in 1508 he ordered the inquisitor to arrest and punish severely those concerned in procuring them assuring him of the royal protection against the indignation of Rome Sometimes, as in the Via de Lille case in 1509 he assumes the current convenient fiction that the letters are issued surreptitiously that the Pope on better information will withdraw them and meanwhile they are held suspended the trial is to go on and the sequestrations are not to be lifted Finally, in a pragmatica of August 31st 1509 a definite policy was adopted combining both methods and based on the principle that if the letters were surreptitious those who obtained them deserved condine punishment This required all such briefs to be submitted to the Suprema for examination and reference back to Rome If found to be rightly issued exequator would be granted but without this anyone presenting such letters to inquisitors incurred as in the pragmatica of December 15th 1484 irremissible death and confiscation Notaries acting under them were deprived of office while secular officials were commanded to execute the edict under pain of 5000 florins and ecclesiastics under seizure of temporalities and perpetual exile The ferocity of this after a constant struggle with the Curia for 25 years shows the importance attached by Ferdinand to the autonomy of the Inquisition and his determination to suppress all papal interference Still that interference continued and Ferdinand could not but recognize that it was legal In a case occurring in 1510 when a certain Augustinian fray Dionisio on trial before the Tribunal of Seville obtained letters committing the case to a judge who inhibited the Tribunal Ferdinand requested the Pope to evoke the case and commit it to Cardinal Chimenez and further that all future cases of the kind should be similarly treated In all this long wrangle the diplomatic reserve is observable which assumed that the Holy See was actuated by motives that, if mistaken, were at least disinterested The financial element underlying its action was fully recognized however and when the Spanish delegates were sent to the Lateran Council in 1512 Among the instructions which they bore was one which said that Rome must not in future defend as it had been defending the apostates of Jewish race who were burnt in effigy at home while they purchased for money dispensations in the Curia In fact, Charles V in a letter of April 30th, 1519 to his Ambassador Louis Carros openly asserted that the briefs issued in the time of Ferdinand had been obtained by the conversos through the payment of heavy psalms The delegates to the Lateran Council, of course, affected nothing and Leo X while his penitentiaries and auditors were as busy as ever was even more regardless than his predecessors of the papal dignity in annulling their acts after the fees had been paid In a multi-proprio of May 31, 1513 he alludes to the letters negligently granted by Julius II and himself through which the business of the inquisition was impeded wherefore he empowers chimines to inhibit under excommunication and other penalties all persons even of episcopal rank from using such letters of commission to entertain appeals In the Kingdoms of Aragon the Cortes of Monson in 1510 agreed that no one should appeal from the tribunals to the Pope but only to the Inquisitor General Possibly this may have led to the invention of a method of reprisals which was infinitely annoying and difficult to meet A certain Baldera Metelli procured from Roma citation to appear addressed to Monsen Coda the Judge of Confiscations in Barcelona and some other officials This completely none plus the tribunal and Ferdinand was driven to instructing November 2, 1510 his Lieutenant General of Catalonia to consult with the Inquisitor General Anguera as to the best mode of inducing Metelli to withdraw the citation He was obstinate especially as he had meanwhile procured citations on other officials and Ferdinand could find no other remedy than notifying the Diputados that the agreement of Monson was a totality and that if the clause respecting appeals was violated Anguera would disregard the rest What was the result? The documents failed to inform us but an even more troublesome case occurred in Saragossa when Sanchez de Romeral on being prosecuted fled to Rome March 11, 1511 Ferdinand wrote to his ambassador to request the Pope send him back to the Inquisitor General but the Pope declined and Ferdinand was moved to Lively Wrath in 1513 on learning that Romeral who had meanwhile been burnt in effigy had procured citations on all the officials from the Inquisitors down including even the Consultors who had acted in the Consult de Faye and that he had managed to get the citations published in Tudela and Cascante Ferdinand wrote to Rome in terms of vigorous indignation and ordered the Archbishop of Saragossa the Captain General of Navarre and the Inquisitors to consult with lawyers as to the best means of punishing this audacious attack on the Inquisition Apparently there was no means of parrying such an attack save coming to terms with the other side so long as the Curia was willing to lend itself to this guerrilla warfare This was seen in somewhat similar case in Sicily in 1511 when a certain Cola de Aelo condemned to perpetual imprisonment by the Inquisitor Bellorado managed to escape He took himself to Rome as a penitent and there commenced suit against Bellorado and his colleague the Bishop of Cefalti The Bishop was obliged to obey a summons to Rome The affair was protracted and gave so much trouble that when Aelo wanted to return to Sicily and offered to withdraw the suit Ferdinand agreed to let him come back pardoned his offenses including jail breaking and gave him safe conduct against further prosecution This method of fighting the Inquisition would probably have been more frequently adopted but for the risk to which were exposed the notaries and scriveners whose administrations were essential In the present case the one who sent the citation to the Bishop was seized by the viceroy tortured and probably punished severely One or two cases will illustrate the chaotic condition produced by these contending elements especially after the death of Ferdinand January 23, 1516 had removed from the scene of action his resolute will and ceaseless activity Miguel Verdeña suspected of complicity in the murder of Bernardo Castele Assessor of the Tribunal of Baleguerre appealed to the Pope from the prison of the Tribunal of Barcelona The Suprema of Aragon vainly instructed its Roman agent to make every effort to defeat the appeal Leo X committed the case to the Bishop of Ascoli who ordered the Tribunal to release Verdeña on his giving security to constitute himself a prisoner in Rome The Inquisitors had lost all respect for papal letters and refused obedience whereupon the Bishop appointed certain local prelates as commissioners to prosecute them and inflict censures The Suprema inhibited these commissioners from acting but not before they had excommunicated the Inquisitors who applied to Leo for relief Leo had already at least in appearance abandoned Verdeña in a brief of May 5, 1517 addressed to Cardinal Adrian then Inquisitor General of Aragon styling Verdeña that son of iniquity evoking the case to himself and committing it to Adrian By accompanying this brief and one of the same date was another of private instructions in which Verdeña was alluded to as his dearest son and Adrian was told that the case was committed to him in order that his dexterity might compound it The evidence was doubtful and Verdeña had purged it sufficiently it would seem that he should rather be acquitted than condemned but if Adrian thought otherwise he was to send a statement when Leo would give final orders Some three months later there was another brief to Adrian about the excommunicated Inquisitors If the censures were subsequent to the withdrawal of the case from the Bishop of Ascoli they were invalid but the whole matter was left to Adrian We have no means of knowing what was the final outcome of the case but it sufficiently indicates the entanglements caused by the conflicting jurisdictions and the contradictory actions of the Popes as his officials were bought by one side or the other Another aspect of these affairs is exhibited in the case of the heirs of Juan and Erike de Medina whose bones were condemned by the tribunal of Cuenca to be exhumed and burnt The heirs appealed to Chiminez who commissioned judges to revise the sentence but these refused to the heirs a copy of the proceedings by which alone they could rebut the evidence Then they appealed to Pope Leo who appointed three commissioners to hear the case and communicate the proceedings to the heirs on their giving security not to harm the witnesses The parties appointed doubtless fearing to incur the enmity of the Inquisition declined to serve and the last we hear of the case is a brief of May 19, 1517 threatening them with excommunication for persistence With the appointment of Cardinal Adrienne as Inquisitor General of Castile as well as of Aragon Leo in 1518 confirmed the decrees of Innocent to Athe and Alexander VI granting him exclusive appellate jurisdiction and Adrienne, when Pope repeated this in 1523 in favor of Manrique Yet this in no way interfered with the reception in Rome of the multitudinous applications both appellate and in first instance which Charles V in a letter of October 29, 1518 to Cardinal Santiquato broadly hinted was accomplished by the free use of money How recklessly indeed the papal jurisdiction was prostituted at the service of the first comer is evidenced in the case of a mill in Paterna purchased by Juan Clauver from the confiscated estate of Euphre Rinseche The infante in Enrique laid claim to it The tribunal of Valencia decided in favor of Clauver and imposed perpetual silence on Enrique On the death of Clauver Enrique brought suit against his heir before a judge of his own selection whom the tribunal promptly inhibited Enrique then procured a papal brief inhibiting the tribunal and committing the case to this judge Then Charles V intervened October 29, 1518 ordering Enrique to bring his suit before the tribunal Papal letters issued after such fashion had no moral weight and were lightly disregarded The contempt felt for them was increased by Leo's perpetual vacillations A brief of September 9, 1518 to Adrien states that in view of the iniquity and injustice of the tribunal of Palermo and some others he had placed all such matters in the hands of his vicar the cardinal of San Bartolomeo in Insula with faculties to decide them and coerce the inquisitors with censures and fines But now he thinks it better that these affairs shall be confided to Adrien to whom he commits them with full powers A contemporary case which attracted much attention at the time shows Leo in a more favorable light Blanquenet Diaz was an octogenarian widow of Valencia whose orthodoxy had never been suspected But in 1517 she was denounced for Judaism and thrown into the secret prison An appeal to the pope brought orders that she be released on good security be a loud defense and the case be speedily tried This brief never reached the tribunal being apparently suppressed by the supremo whereupon Leo issued a second one March 4th, 1518 evoking the case to himself and committing it to two ecclesiastics of Valencia Blanquenet being meanwhile placed in a convent and Cardinal Adrien being especially prohibited from intervening anything that he might do being declared invalid It was probably before the second trial It was probably before this was received that the tribunal submitted the case to Adrien who assembled a consulte d'effet and condemned Blanquenet to perpetual imprisonment and confiscation The papal intervention seems to have aroused much feeling Charles was ready to sign anything drawn up for him by Adrien and in two letters of May 18th and June 18th to his Roman agent Louis Carose he ordered the latter to disregard all other business in the effort to procure the withdrawal of the two briefs If the safety of all his dominions had been at stake he could not have been more emphatic Such interference with the inquisition was unexampled Unless the pope would revoke the briefs and promise never to issue similar ones the Holy Office would be totally destroyed and heresy would flourish unpunished for everyone would seek relief at the Curia and the service of God would become impossible He also wrote to the pope and the cardinals while Adrien and the supremacist sent pressing letters Leo however was firm in substance though he yielded in form In briefs of July 5th and 7th to Adrien he ordered that everything done since his letters of March 4th should be annulled Blanquenet being restored to her good fame her son Benito being removed and she being placed under bail in a convent or in the house of a kinsman As the evidence against her consistent of trifles committed in childhood he again evoked the case to himself and committed it to Adrien There had been active work on both sides in Rome for the brief of July 5th gave Adrien full power to decide the case while that of the 7th limited him to sending the results to Leo and awaiting instructions as to the sentence Leo thus kept Blanquenet's fate in his hands Adrien was only his mouthpiece and the sentence pronounced her to be lightly suspect of heresy and discharged her without imprisonment or confiscation A further instance of Leo's vacillation is the coincidence that the brief of March 4th in Blanquenet's favor was dated the same day as Adrien's commission as inquisitor general of Castile in which Leo evoked to himself all pending cases whether in the tribunals or the curia and committed them to Adrien with full power to inhibit all persons from assuming cognizance of them With this before him it is scarce the subject of surprise that Charles V on April 30th instructed his ambassador to tell the pope that no letters prejudicial to the inquisition would be admitted This threat he carried out in a contemporaneous case which for some years embroiled the inquisition with the curia Bernardino Diaz had been tried and discharged by the tribunal of Toledo after which he had a quarrel with Bartolome Martinez whom he accused of perjury in his case and killed him Diaz fled to Rome while the tribunal not only burnt him in effigy but seized his wife and mother and some of his friends as accomplices in his escape In Rome he secured pardon in both the interior and exterior form on condition of satisfying the kindred of Martinez to the great indignation of Charles who complained not without reason of this invasion of jurisdiction Diaz also procured a brief ordering the liberation of the prisoners and the release of their property but when the executors named in it endeavored to enforce it the Toledo tribunal seized their procurator and compelled its surrender This realization of Charles' threat exasperated the curia and the auditor general of the Camero summoned the inquisitors to obey the brief or answer personally in Rome for their contumacy They did neither and were duly excommunicated Charles wrote repeatedly and bitterly about this unexampled persecution of those who had merely administered justice The case dragged on for some three years and its ultimate outcome does not appear but the family of Diaz were probably released For in 1520 we hear of the removal of the excommunication and connection with the revocation by the inquisitors of their proceedings against Juan de Salazar a canon of Toledo residing in Rome in the papal service whom they had deprived the citizenship and temporalities for some action of his in prejudice of the inquisition Another person who about this time gave infinite vexation to Charles and Adrienne was Diego de las Casas of Seville The agent who bore to Rome the contested proceedings of the Cortes of Aragon and labored for their confirmation He was well supplied with funds and naturally was a persona grata to the curia The inquisition speedily attacked him in its customary unscrupulous manner by not only prosecuting him in absentia but by seizing his brothers Francisco and Juan and their wives To meet this he procured a brief committing the cases to Adrienne and to Ferdinand de Arsé, Bishop of Canaries with a provision that the party should present themselves to Adrienne and Arsé and keep such prison as might be designated for them and further permitting them to select advocates for their defense Equitable as were these provisions the brief excited hot indignation when laid before the royal council it was pronounced scandalous and of evil example and its execution was refused Charles wrote in haste to Leo, April 30, 1519 that it was scandalous and would destroy the inquisition He instructed his agents to procure its revocation to be forwarded by the next courier and he invoked by letters the cardinals and the Spanish interest to bring what pressure they could upon the pope His urgency was fruitless and when in September he sent Lope Hurtado de Mendoza to Rome a special ambassador in the quarrel with Aragon his instructions were to represent to the pope the impropriety of harboring in Rome fugitives from the inquisition especially Diego de las Casas and his colleague Juan Gutierrez whose parents and grandparents and kindred had been reconciled or burnt They should be expelled and Mendoza was to labor for the revocation of their briefs and all other exemptions and commissions in favor of conversos Mendoza exerted all his diplomatic ability but although Leo admitted in a brief of July 13, 1520 to Adrienne that for the evocation of cases to Rome both on appeal and in first instance led to delays impunity for offenders and encouragement of offenses still he would not abandon Diego de las Casas The grant by Sixtus IV of appellate jurisdiction to the Inquisitor General he admitted had been beneficial and in hopes that Adrienne would use it with integrity and justice he evoked to himself all cases pending in the Roman courts and committed them to Adrienne with full powers but he made no promises as to the future and he especially accepted his physician Ferdinand de Aragon and his wife Diego de las Casas Juan Gutierrez and the deceased Juan de Covarrubias whose case had long been in dispute to all these and to their kindred and to the third degree and their property Leo granted letters exempting them from the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and committing them to the Archbishop of Saragossa and certain other ecclesiastical dignitaries Complaint soon arose as to the manner in which these commissioners exercised their powers to the dishonor of the Inquisition Leo yielded by a brief of January 8th, 1521 in which he substituted Adrienne and the Nuncio Vienneseo de Albergati with full power to inhibit their predecessors Then in a more formal brief of January 20th he deprecated the evil caused by the cases which were daily brought to Rome and committed them all to Adrienne saving those of the five exempts in which the Nuncio was to be conjoined with him and at the same time he revoked the letters exempting them and their kindred and empowering them to select judges for themselves It was a practical surrender although Leo distinguished las Casas and Gutierrez by styling them his beloved children These cases will suffice to show how the traditional policy of the Curia continued of taking the money of the refugees and appellants for protecting briefs and then abandoning them by revocations issued without even a sense of shame when their funds were exhausted in the protracted struggle Yet undeterred by this there was a constant succession of new applicants who had no other refuge on earth and the valueless briefs were granted with unfailing readiness It was a source of perpetual irritation and Charles was untiring in his efforts to counteract it not always observing due courtesy as when March 25th, 1525 he wrote to Clement VII in violent language to revoke and erase from the registers a brief granted to Louis Cologne and to order his officials not to issue such letters as they were scandalous He no longer had the excuse of his youthful tutelage under Adrien and yet his subservancy to the Inquisition was complete This was manifested in the case of Bernardo de Orda a servant of Cardinal Colonna who had a suit against Dr. Saldagna about the treasure ship of the Church of León Saldagna was a member of the Suprema and when Orda came to Spain it was not difficult to have him charged with heresy and arrested by the tribunal of Viadolid He escaped to Rome and the prosecution was continued against him in absentia whereupon Charles demeaned himself by writing to Colonna July 30th, 1528 asking him to prevent Orda from obtaining a brief of exemption as it would be an injury to the faith and also not to favor him in his suit with Saldagna Meanwhile the popes continued to propitiate Charles' growing power by granting with as much facility as ever what was nominally exclusive appellate jurisdiction to the Inquisitor General In 1523, Adrien VI as we have seen confirmed in favor of Manrique the bulls of Sixtus IV and Alexander VI Clement VII went even farther for in a bull of January 6th, 1524 he not only evoked all pending cases and committed them to Manrique but decreed that any commissions which he might thereafter issue should be invalid without the express assent of Charles while all appeals were to be made to the Inquisitor General and not to the Holy See and this he repeated June 16th, 1525 Still appeals continued to be made to Rome and briefs to be granted require repeated confirmations of the bulls of 1524 and 1525 with inclusion of the letters obtained in the interval of which we have examples in 1532 and 1534 Charles was thus justified in enforcing Ferdinand's pragmatica of 1509 as when in 1537 he ordered the Corrigidor of Murcia to prevent the publication of certain letters understood to have been procured from the Pope against the Inquisition if presented they were to be sent to the Council of Castile for its action and parties endeavoring to use them were to be arrested and dealt with as might be deemed most advantageous to the Holy Office The position of Charles as the master of Italy and the protagonist of the church in its struggle with Lutheranism had thus enabled him to obtain for the Inquisition virtual though not acknowledged independence of Rome there's a very striking illustration of this in 1531 when Clement VII intervened in favor of Fray Francisco Ortiz a celebrated observantine preacher prosecuted for audaciously criticizing the Inquisition from the pulpit he had lain in prison for more than two years obstinately refusing to retract when the interposition of Clement was sought he did not evoke the case but in terms of remarkable deference July 1st 1531 he suggested to Manrique that if nothing else was alleged against Ortiz he might be held as sufficiently punished by his long imprisonment and might be restored to liberty in view of his blameless life and the profit to souls to be expected from his preaching this Clement asked as a favor moved only by Christian charity and zeal for the salvation of souls to this carefully guarded request the Inquisition turned a deaf ear if the trial of Ortiz came to an end in February 1532 it was because he voluntarily submitted himself completely and his sentence was by no means light including public penance which was rarely inflicted on an ecclesiastic Paul III was more decided when his intervention was asked by Charles V who in spite of his bitter protests against papal interference found himself obliged to appeal in behalf of his favorite preacher Fray Alonso Virues the civil tribunal had prosecuted the latter on a charge of Lutheranism had kept him imprisoned for four years and had sentenced him to reclusion in a convent for two years and suspension from preaching for two more Charles who had vainly sought to protect him during his trial supported an appeal to the pope and obtained a brief of May 29, 1538 which not only annulled the sentence but forbade his future molestation when in 1542 Paul III reorganized the moribund papal inquisition by forming a congregation of cardinals as inquisitors general for all Christendom there was a not unnatural apprehension that this, even if not so intended might interfere with the independence of the Spanish holy office to representations of this he responded by a brief of April 1, 1548 in which he characterized such fears as baseless he declared that it was not designed to interfere with the authority of the inquisitors in Spain and he formally revoked anything to their prejudice that might be found in the decree establishing the congregation this brief remained to the end the charter to which the Spanish inquisition appealed in its frequent collisions with the Roman congregation and but for such a declaration it would probably have been subordinated this in no way affected the continual applications to Rome for relief nor the effort of the inquisition to suppress them it was a singular departure from the settled policy of the government in this matter which led the Supremes in 1548 to utter a bitter complaint to Charles V setting forth the facility with which citations and inhibitions and commissions were granted in Rome and the daily royal sedulas dispatched to prevent them and yet when recently a converso presented to the royal council a petition stating that he did not dare to notify the inquisitor general of letters concerning a case which had been decided the council issued an order permitting any notary to serve the papers and testified to the service with penalties for impeding it the popes were more consistent in their inconsistency we have seen how Paul III in 1549 and Julius III in 1551 confirmed the 1484 bull of Sixtus IV insisting on the validity of paper letters in both the interior and judicial forum and threatening the curses of the bull in chaine domini on all who should impede them yet in 1550 a case in which papal letters were obtained led to vigorous remonstrance and Julius by a brief of December 1551 confirmed those of Clement VII and Paul III besides evoking all pending cases and committing them to inquisitor general Valdez yet the very fact of doing this inferred the papal possession of supreme jurisdiction which it merely delegated a point of which the holy scene never lost sight the commissions to the success of inquisitor general during the century contains a clause by which all unfinished business was evoked and committed to the appointee it is true that there was also a provision that no appeals from the tribunals should lie except to the inquisitor general all other appeals even to the holy sea being invalid and referred back to him who was empowered to use censures to prevent interference even by cardinals the popes could afford to be thus liberal in their grants for their irresponsible power enabled them to disregard or to modify these delegated faculties at discretion and these provisions never prevented them from entertaining appeals end of book 3 chapter 5 part 2