 Book 1, Chapter 4, Part 8, of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. 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 Morgan Scorpion. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1, by Henry Charles Lee. Book 1, Chapter 4, Establishment of the Inquisition, Part 8 A still further project for mitigating the rigours of the Inquisition was laid before Charles in 1520, apparently after his arrival in Flanders. This proposed no payment, but suggested that the expenses should be devade by the Crown, which should wholly withdraw the confiscations from the control of the Inquisitors. But this were connected various reforms in procedure, revealing the names of witnesses, allowing the accused to select his advocate and to see his friends and family in the presence of the jailer. The punishment of false witnesses by the Talio, the support of wife and children during the trial from the sequestered property, and some others. There would seem also, about 1522, to have been a further offer to Charles of several one hundred thousand ducats for the abandonment of confiscation. But it does not appear what conditions accompanied it. It was all useless. The grasp of the Inquisition on Spain was too firm, and its routine too well established for modification. In the revolt of the Communidadies, which followed the departure of Charles, the affairs of the Inquisition had no participation. Some ten years later, however, in 1531, the tribunal of Toledo came upon traces of an attempt to turn the popular movement to account in removing one of the atrocities of inquisitorial procedure. The treasurer Alfonso Gutierrez is said to have spent in Rome some twelve thousand ducats in procuring a papal brief which removed the seal of secrecy from prisons and witnesses. He endeavoured to secure for his scheme the favour of Juan de Padilla, the popular leader, by a loan of eight hundred ducats on the pledge of a gold chain. But Padilla, while accepting the loan, prudently refused to jeopardise his cause by arousing inquisitorial hostility. What Gutierrez failed to obtain was sought for again from Charles V in 1526. About this time commenced the efforts to subject the Moriscos of Granada to the Holy Office, and apparently in preparation for this, Granada was separated from Cordova and was favoured with the tribunal of its own, transferred dither from Gen. The frightened inhabitants made haste to petition Charles to do away with the secrecy which was so particularly provocative of abuses. They pointed out that a judge, if licentiously disposed, had ample opportunity to work his will with the maidens and wives brought before him as prisoners, and even with those merely summoned to appear, whose terror betrayed that they would dare to offer no resistance. In the same way the notaries and other subordinates, who were frequently unmarried men, had every advantage with the wives and daughters of the prisoners, eagerly seeking to obtain some news of the accused, immured incommunicado in the secret prison, from which no word could escape, and ready, in their despairing anxiety, to make any sacrifice to learn his fate. Or if the officials preferred they could sell information for money, and all this was so generally understood that these positions were sought by evil-minded men in order to gratify their propensities. Bad as was this, still worse was the suppression of the witnesses' names in procuring the conviction of the innocent while facilitating the escape of the guilty. The memorial assumes what was practically the fact that the only defence of the accused lay in getting the names of the adverse witnesses and discrediting and disabling them for mortal enmity, and it pointed out how, in diverse ways, facilitated miscarriage of justice. It did not confine itself to argument, however, but added that the little kingdom of Granada would pay fifty thousand ducats for the removal of secrecy from the procedures and prisons of the Inquisition, and a very large sum could thus be obtained from the other provinces of Spain. The only possible answer to the reasoning of the memorial was that the faith would suffer by any change, but this always sufficed and the Inquisition continued to shroud its acts in the impenetrable darkness which served to cover up iniquity and gave ample scope for injustice. When Charles had returned to Spain and again held the Cortes at Valadolid in 1523, they repeated the petitions of 1518 and 1520, adding that nothing had been done. They further suggested that the Inquisitors should be paid salaries by the king and not draw their pay from the proceeds of their functions, and that false witnesses should be punished in accordance with the laws of toro. This shows that the old abuses were felt as acutely as ever. But Charles merely replied that he had asked the pope to commission as Inquisitor General the Archbishop of Seville, Manrique, whom he had especially charged to see that justice was properly administered. Again in 1525 the Cortes of Toledo complained of the excesses of the Inquisitors, and the disorders committed by the Familiars, and asked that the secular judges might be empowered to restrain abuses, but they obtained only a vague promise that, if abuses existed, he would have them corrected. It required no little courage for deputies to arraign the Inquisition publicly in the Cortes, and it is not surprising that the hardyhood to do so disappeared with the recognition of the fruitlessness of remonstrance. Thus all efforts proved futile to remitigate or ameliorate inquisitorial methods, and the Holy Office, in its existing form, was firmly established in Castile for three centuries momentous to the Spanish people. Navarre When Ferdinand in 1512 made the easy conquest of Navarre, he presumably no longer had hope of issue by his queen Germaine, to whom he could leave the kingdoms of his crown of Aragon. To avoid, therefore, for the new territory the limitations on sovereignty imposed by the Aragonese Ferreras in the Cortes of Burgos, in 1515 he caused Navarre to be incorporated with the crown of Castile. Its Inquisition thus finally became Castilian, although at first it was scarce more than a branch of that of Saragossa. When the Castilian invaders under the Duke of Alba occupied Pampa Luna, they found there the Dominican fire, Antonio de Maya, armed with a commission as inquisitor, issued by his provincial and confirmed by the Pope. The office had doubtless been a sinecure under the House of Albrecht, but the transfer of the land to the Catholic King gave promise of its future usefulness, for the little kingdom had served as an asylum for refugees from the rest of Spain. The goodfail lost no time in obtaining from Alba permission to exercise his office, and in dispatching an envoy to Ferdinand at Lagrano to secure the royal confirmation and suggest the necessity of appointing a staff of salaried officials. Besides, the Episcopal vicar general of Pampa Luna was seeking to exercise the office, and the king was asked to order him not to interfere. Ferdinand, with his usual caution, wrote on September 30th, 1512 to the Duke of Alba as Captain General and to the Bishop of Majorca as Governor, expressing his earnest desire to forward the good work and desiring information as to the character of Maya, meanwhile if the inquisitors of Saragossa sent to claim fugitives, they were to be promptly surrendered. No further action was taken for a year, during which Fremaya did what he could in the absence of assistance. At length, a royal letter of September 26th, 1513, to the Marquis of Camaris, Lieutenant and Captain General, announced that the inquisitor general Mercadoe had appointed as inquisitors his Francisco Gonzales de Fresneda, one of the inquisitors of Saragossa, and Ray Antonio de Maya, to whom the customary oath of obedience was to be taken. The only other official designated was James Julian, an Escribano de Securestras, with a salary of 2,500 Sreldors. Further delays, however, occurred, and, on December 21st, the king wrote de Fresneda to lose no time in going to Pamplona with his officials, where he would find Maya awaiting him. On the 24th, a proclamation announced that Leo X had ordered the continuance of the inquisition in all the kingdoms of Spain, and especially in that of Navarre, wherefore in order that the dread of loss of property might not deter those conscious of guilt from coming forward and confessing, the king granted relief from confiscation to all who would confess and apply for reconciliation within the terms of grace of thirty days which the inquisitors would announce. As a preparation for those who should disregard this mercy, already on the 22nd, Martin Adrien had been commissioned to the important office of receiver of the confiscations which were expected to supply the funds for the machinery of persecution, and on January 1st, 1514, he was empowered to pay himself a salary of 6,000 Sreldors and one of 3,000 to fry Maya. As nothing is said about the salaries of the other officials, they presumably were carried on the payroll of the tribunal of Saragossa. The process of manning the new inquisition was conducted with great deliberation. It was not until July 13th, 1514 that receiver Adrien was informed that Bishop Merkader had appointed Randa Vilena as fiscal or prosecuting officer, to whom a salary of 2,500 Sreldors was to be paid. The close connection of the tribunal of Pampaluna with that of Aragon is seen in the fact that Adrien was also notary of the inquisition of Cala Tyod, and continued in service there for which he received his accustomed salary. Randa Miades, also the al-Grasil of Saragossa, was put in charge of the prison at Pampaluna, for which he was allowed an additional salary of 500 Sreldors, until October 15th, 1515, Bernardino del Campo of Saragossa was appointed jailer at Pampaluna with a salary of 500 Sreldors. We also hear of Miguel Díaz, notary del Segreto of Saragossa acting for the inquisition of Pampaluna. This may partly be attributable to Ferdinand's policy, as expressed March 23rd, 1514, in a letter to the Marquis of Comares, that the officials must not be now paraisae, for he had elsewhere experienced the disadvantage of employing natives. More urgent, however, was the pressure of economy, for the Pampaluna inquisition had apparently little to do. Navarre had never had a population of Moors and Jews comparable to that of the southern kingdoms, and the refugees there doubtless hastened their departure as soon as the shadow of the inquisition spread over the land, although one of the earliest orders of Ferdinand to Comares, December 21st, 1513, had been to place guards secretly at all ports and passes to prevent their escape. How little material existed for the Holy Office is manifested by the fact that the confiscations did not pay the very moderate expenses, and in May 1515 it was necessary to transfer from Valencia 200 ducats to enable Martin Adrian to meet the necessary charges. In September 1514 we find the inquisitors making a visitation of their district, and in the following month, Fremaya returned to the seclusion of his convent, but of the actual work of the tribunal we hear little. It is true that a letter of the Supremer, October 11th, 1516, representing the collection of appellants of 300 ducats imposed on Miguel de Saint-James, shows that occasionally a lucrative prize was secured, but chances of this kind must have been few, for in 1521 Cardinal Adrian, in view of the necessities of the tribunal, ruthlessly cut down the salaries of all the officials. Its authority cannot have been well assured, for in 1518 the viceroy, Duke of Najera, expresses doubts whether a sentence of San Benito's, pronounced on Rodrigo de Oscar and his wife of Pampa Luna, can be enforced in view of their numerous kindred. To which the Supremer replies by instructing him to see that nothing was allowed to impede it. Little as it had to do, the business of the tribunal was delayed by its imperfect organization. In 1519, eight citizens of Pampa Luna complained to the Supremer that, for trifling causes, their fathers and mothers, wives and brothers, were in the prison of the Inquisition, where three of them had died and the rest were sick. They had been detained for seven or eight months, although their cases were finished, awaiting consultories from Saragossa to vote on them. Wherefore the petitioners asked that the decisions be reached without further delay, and that, when discharged, the prisoners should not be ruined by pecuniary penances greater than their substance, as had occurred on previous occasions. The Supremer, January 12th, 1519, forwarded this petition to the Inquisitors with instructions that, within 15 days, one of them should bring to Saragossa all the cases concluded to be duly voted on, while the remainder were to be finished as soon as possible, and within 15 days thereafter to be similarly brought to Saragossa for decision. As in this letter, the council describes itself as entrusted with the business of the Inquisition in all the kingdoms and lordships of the Crown of Aragon and Navarre. It shows that the latter still remained subject to the section of the Supremer pertaining to Aragon. While the tribunal of Pampa Luna was thus of little service for its ostensible objects, it was turned to account politically in the petrobations which followed the death of Ferdinand, July 23rd, 1516. Jean de Aldre, supported by France, naturally made an effort to recover his dominions, but is in effective siege of Saint-Jean-Pied-du-Port, and the defence and capture of the Marshal of Navarre-ad-Ronserval, speedily put an end to the invasion. It was important for the Spanish government to ascertain the extent to which assistance had been pledged to him by his former subjects. The Inquisition was unpopular among them and would undoubtedly have been overthrown had de Aldre succeeded, so that an investigation into those concerned in the movement would come within an elastic definition of its functions, while its methods fitted it admirably to obtain the information desired. Accordingly, a cadulla of April 21st, 1516 instructed the Inquisitors to spare no effort, in every way, to discover the names of those engaged in the affair, and to obtain all the information they could about the whole matter. This probably did not increase the popularity of the Holy Office, and the French invasion of 1521 offered an opportunity, which was not neglected, of expressing in action the hostility of the people. After the expulsion of the enemy, reprisals were in order which Cardinal Edwin committed to the pre-centre of Tudela. Apparently, he was not sufficiently vigorous in the work for, in 1523, we find the Supremus stimulating him to greater activity. In which dominion, being thus assured, the Navarraza tribunal became useful chiefly as a precaution to prevent the subject kingdom from continuing to be an asylum for heretics. It had been shifted from Pampaluna to Estela, and thence to Tudela, where in 1518 the Supremus instructs the Inquisitors to find a suitable building, in order to relieve the monastery of San Francisco, in which the tribunal was temporarily lodged. Some years later there was talk of returning it to Estela, but finally it was recognised as having a district inadequate to its support, while the monarchy felt itself strong enough to disregard the old boundaries of nationality. At some time, prior to 1540, Calahora, with a portion of old Castile, was detached from the numerous district of Valadolid, and was made the seat of a tribunal of which the jurisdiction extended over Navarra and Biscay. About 1570 this was transferred to Loguono, on the boundary between Old Castile and Navarra, and there it remained, as we shall have occasion to see until the dissolution of the Holy Office. Chapter 4, Part 8. Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 1 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1, by Henry Charles Lee. Book 1, Chapter 5, The Kingdoms of Aragon, Part 1. The Crown of Aragon comprised the so-called Kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia, the Principality of Catalonia, the Counties of Rosayón and Cerdanya, and the Balearic Isles, with the outlying dependencies of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. Although marriage had united the sovereigns of Castile and Aragon, the particularism born of centuries of rivalry and frequent war kept the lands apart as separate nations, and Ferdinand ruled individually his ancestral domains. What had been accomplished in Castile for the Inquisition had therefore no effect across the border, and the extension of the Spanish organization there was complicated by the character of the local institutions, and the fact that the Papal Inquisition was already in existence there since its foundation in the middle of the 13th century. Aragon had not undergone the dissolving process of Castilian anarchy, which enabled Ferdinand and Isabella to build up an absolute monarchy on the ruins of feudalism. Its ancient rights and liberties had been somewhat curtailed during the tyrannical reigns of Ferdinand of Antequera and his successors, but enough remained to render the royal power nominal rather than real, and the people were fiercely jealous of their independence. The Cortes were really representative bodies which insisted upon the redress of grievances before voting supplies, and, if we may believe the Venetian envoy Giovanni Soranzo in 1565, the ancient formula of the oath of allegiance was still in use. We who are as good as you swear to you who are no better than we as to the prince and heir of our kingdom on condition that you preserve our liberty and laws, and if you do otherwise we do not swear to you. In dealing with a people whose liberties were so extensive and whose jealousy as to their maintenance was so sensitive, Ferdinand was far too shrewd to provoke opposition by the abrupt introduction of the Inquisition such as he had forced upon Castile. His first endeavor naturally was to utilize the institution as it had so long existed. This, although founded as early as 1238, had sunk into a condition almost dormant in the spiritual lethargy of the century preceding the Reformation, and in Aragon, as in the rest of Europe, it appeared to be on the point of extinction. It is true that, in 1474, Sixtus IV had ordered Fra Leonardo, the Dominican general, to fill all the tribunals of the Holy Office, and he had complied by appointing Fry Juan as Inquisitor of Aragon, Fry Jaime for Valencia, Fry Juan for Barcelona, and Fry Francisco Vital for Catalonia, but we have no record of their activity. So little importance indeed was attached to the functions of the Inquisition that in Valencia, where in 1480 the Dominicans creased a Balde Gualbes and Juan Oritz were Inquisitors, they held faculties enabling them to act without the concurrence of the Episcopal representative, an unexampled privilege only explicable on the assumption that the Archbishop declined to be troubled with matters so trivial. The Archbishop at the time was Cardinal Rodrigo Borja, papal vice-chancellor, better known as Alexander VI, who speedily woke up to the speculative value of his Episcopal jurisdiction over heresy when the fierce persecution which arose in Andalusia in January, 1481, with its attendant harvest of finds and compositions, showed that a similar prospect might be anticipated in his own province. Accordingly, a brief of Sixtus IV, on December 4, 1481, addressed to the Inquisitors withdrew their faculties of independent action and went to the other extreme by directing them in future to do nothing without the concurrence of the vicar general, Matteo Mersa there, senior Archdeacon of Valencia. In reviving and stimulating toeactivity this papal institution, Ferdinand was fully resolved to have it subjected to the crown as completely as in Castile. Hither, too, it had been a Dominican province, with Inquisitors holding office at the pleasure of the Dominican authorities, and his first step, therefore, was to procure, in 1481, from the Dominican general, Salvo Caseta, a commission to Fray Gaspar Houglar to appoint and dismiss Inquisitors at the royal will and pleasure. This gave him control over the personnel of the Inquisition, but to render it completely dependent and at the same time efficient, it was necessary that the appointees should be well paid and that the pay should come from the royal treasury. A hundred years earlier, Amaric, the Inquisitor of Aragon, had sorrowfully recorded that princes were unwilling to defray the expenses, because there were no rich heretics left whose confiscations excited their cupidity. The church was equally disinclined so that, in the absence of regular financial support, the good work languished. Now, however, greed and fanaticism joined hands at the prospect of wealthy conversals to be punished, and Ferdinand, by a rescript of February 17, 1482, provided ample salaries for the manning of the tribunal of Valencia with all the necessary officials. We may reasonably assume that he commenced there in the anticipation of meeting less obstinate resistance than in the older and stronger provinces of Aragon and Catalonia. He was, however, not fully satisfied with his control over appointments, and he applied to Sixtus IV for some larger liberty. But the Pope, who was beginning to recognize that the Castilian Inquisition was more royal than papal, refused by a brief of January 29, 1482, alleging that to do so would be to inflict disgrace on the Dominicans to whom it had always been confided. The reorganized tribunal speedily produced an impression by its activity. The conversals became thoroughly alarmed. Opposition began to manifest itself while the more timid sought safety in flight. A certain Mosin-Louis Moscow, one of the jurats of Valencia, made himself especially conspicuous in exciting the city against the Inquisitors and in stimulating united action in opposition by the estates of the kingdom. A letter to him from Ferdinand, February 8, 1482, centers him severely for this, and vaguely threatens him with the royal wrath for persistence. Another letter of the same date to the maestre racional, or chief accounting officer of the kingdom, shows that the severity with which the property of those arrested was seized and sequestrated was arousing indignation. Ferd explains the necessity of this so that not a diner should be lost. If the Inquisitors have not power to do this, it shall be conferred on them. The maestre racional had suggested that for those who should spontaneously come forward and confess, a form of abduration and reconciliation might be adopted which should spare them the humiliation of public penance while still keeping them subject to the penalties of relapse. Under this, after consultation with learned canonists, Ferdinand assented and sent him the formula agreed upon with instructions that it should appear to be the act of the local authorities and not his, doubtless to prevent his Castilian subjects from claiming the same exemption from the humiliating penitential processions in the Autos de Fe. Allusions in this correspondence to special cases of arrests and fugitives and sequestrations show that Ferdinand was succeeding in molding the old inquisition as he desired and that it was actively at work when suddenly a halt was called. In the general terror it is presumable that the conversos had recourse to the Holy See and furnished the necessary convincing arguments. It may also be conjectured that Sixtus was disposed by throwing obstacles in the way to secure the recognition of his profitable but disputed right to entertain appeals and that he was unwilling, without a struggle, to lose control of the inquisition of Aragón as he had done with that of Castile. There are traces also of the hand of Cardinal Borgia seeking to recover his Episcopal jurisdiction over heresy in Valencia. Whatever may have been the impelling cause, the first move of Sixtus was to cause the Dominican general, Salvo Casada, to withdraw the commission given to Fray Gaspar Houglar to appoint inquisitors at Ferdinand's dictation. At this the royal wrath exploded in a letter to the general, April 26, 1482, threatening the whole order with the consequences of his displeasure. While Bace and Orts had done their duty fearlessly and incorruptibly, while Fray Francisco Vitaal, appointed to Catalonia by the Dominican general, had been taking bribes and had been banished the kingdom. He will never allow inquisitors to act except at his pleasure. Even with the royal favor, they can accomplish little in the face of popular opposition, and without it they can do nothing. Meanwhile, while Bace and Orts will continue to act. This heated epistle was followed, May 11, by one in a calmer mood asking that Houglar's commission be renewed or another one be issued, feeling which he would obtain papal authority and over-slaw the Dominican order. The next move by Sixtus was the issue, April 18, 1482, of the most extraordinary bull in the history of the Inquisition, extraordinary because, for the first time, heresy was declared to be, like any other crime, entitled to a fair trial and simple justice. We shall have abundant opportunity to see hereafter how the inquisitorial system, observed since its foundation in the 13th century, presumed the guilt of the accused on any kind of so-called evidence, and was solely framed to extort a confession by depriving him of the legitimate means of defense and by the free use of torture. It was also an invariable rule that sacramental confession of heresy was good only in the forum of conscience and was no bar to subsequent prosecution. There was brazen assurance, therefore, in Sixtus's complaining that, for some time, the inquisitors of Aragon had been moved not by zeal for the faith, but by cupidity, that many faithful Christians on the evidence of slaves, enemies, and unfit witnesses, without legitimate proofs, had been thrust into secular prisons, tortured and condemned as heretics, their property confiscated, and their persons relaxed to the secular arm for execution. In view of the numerous complaints reaching him of this, he ordered that in future the Episcopal vicar should in all cases be called in to act with the inquisitors, that the names and evidence of accusers and witnesses should be communicated to the accused, who should be allowed counsel, and that the evidence for the defense and all legitimate exceptions should be freely admitted, that imprisonment should be in the Episcopal jails, that for all oppression there should be free appeal to the Holy See, with suspension of proceedings under pain of excommunication, removable only by the Pope. Moreover, all who had been guilty of heresy should be permitted to confess secretly to the inquisitors or Episcopal officials, who were required to hear them promptly and confer absolution, good in both the forum of conscience and that of justice, without abjuration on their accepting secret penance, after which they could no longer be prosecuted for any previous acts, a certificate being given to them in which the sins confessed were not to be mentioned, nor were they to be vexed or molested thereafter in any way, and all this under similar pain of excommunication. The bull was ordered to be read in all churches, and the names of those incurring censure under it were to be published and the censors enforced if necessary by invocation of the secular arm. While finally all proceedings in contravention of these provisions were declared to be null and void, all exceptions from the excommunication were withdrawn, and all conflicting papal decrees were set aside. It is evident that the conversos had a hand in framing this measure, and they could scarce have asked for anything more favorable. In fact, Ferdinand in December 1482 writes to Luis Cabanillas, that he learns that Gon salvo de Gon salvo Royce was concerned in procuring the bull for the conversos. He is therefore to be arrested at once and is not to be released without a royal order, while Luis de Santanjel, the royal Escribano de Racion, will convey orally the king's intentions concerning him. In this elaborate and carefully planned decree, Sixtus formally threw down the gauge of battle to Ferdinand and announced that he must be placated in some way if the inquisition of Aragón was to be allowed to perform its intended functions, that it was simply a tactical move rendered doubly advantageous by a liberal converso payment, and that he is to be credited with no humanitarian motives is sufficiently evident from his subsequent action, and also from the fact that the bull was limited to Aragón and in no way interfered with the Castilian tribunals. Ferdinand promptly accepted the challenge. He did not await the publication of the bull, but addressed, on May 13th, a haughty and imperative letter to Sixtus. He had heard, he said, that such concessions had been made, which he briefly condensed in a manner to show that his information was accurate, and further that the inquisitors Gualbes and Orts had been removed at the insistence of the new Christians who hoped for more pliable successors. He refused to believe that the pope could have made grants so at variance with his duty, but if he had thus yielded to the cunning persuasions of the new Christians, he, the king, did not intend ever to allow them to take effect. If anything had been conceded, it must be revoked. The management of the inquisition must be left to him. He must have the appointment of the inquisitors, as only through his favor could they adequately perform their functions. The management was through lack of this royal power that they had hitherto been corrupted and had allowed heresy to spread. He therefore asked Sixtus to confirm Gualbes and Orts and the commission to Gaspar Huvlar, or to give a similar commission to some other Dominican, for he would permit no one to exercise the office in his dominions except at his pleasure. Sixtus seems to have allowed five months to elapse before answering this defiance, but in the meanwhile the inquisition went on as before. Ferdinand had formed in Valencia a special council for the holy office, and this body ventured to remonstrate with him about the confiscations and especially the feature of sequestration, by which, as soon as an arrest was made, the whole property of the accused was seized and held. This was peculiarly oppressive, and the council represented that it violated the furrows granted by King Jaime and King Alfonso. But Ferdinand replied, September 11, that he was resolved that nothing belonging to him should be lost but should be rigidly collected, while what belonged to others should not be taken. Another letter of September 6 to the governor Luis Cabaníes refers to an arrangement of a kind that became frequent under which the conversos agreed to pay a certain sum as a composition for the confiscations of those who might be proved to be heretics. At length, on October 9, Sixtus replied to Ferdinand in a manner to show that he was open to accommodation. The new rules, he said, had been drawn up with the advice of the cardinals deputed for the purpose. They had scattered in fear of the impending pestilence, but when they should return to Rome he would charge them to consider maturely whether the bull should be amended. Meanwhile he suspended it insofar as it contravened the common law, only charging the inquisitors to observe strictly the rules of the common law, the common law here being an elastic expression certain to be construed as the traditional inquisitorial system. Thus the unfortunate conversos of Aragon, as we shall see hereafter were those of Castile, were merely used as ponds in the pitiless game of king and pope over their dispoilment and the merciful prescriptions of the bull of April 18 were only of service in showing that, in his subsequent policy, Sixtus sinned against light and knowledge. What negotiations followed the documents at hand failed to reveal, but an understanding was inevitable as soon as the two powers could agree upon a division of the spoil. It required a twelve-month to effect this, and in the settlement Ferdinand secured more than he had at first demanded. It was no longer a question of commissioning a frayle to appoint inquisitors at his pleasure, but of including in the organization of the Castilian Inquisition the whole of the Spanish dominions. On October 17, 1483, the agreement was ratified by a bull appointing Torque Mada as inquisitor of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia, with power to appoint subordinates. In this, with characteristic shamelessness, Sixtus declares that he is only discharging his duty as pope, while his tender care for the reputation of the Dominicans is manifested by his omitting to prescribe that the local inquisitors should be members of that order. The only qualification required being that they should be masters in theology. During the interval prior to this extension of Torque Mada's jurisdiction, there was an incident showing that Sixtus had yielded the appointment of inquisitors, while endeavoring to retain the power of dismissing them. Priest Dóbal Gualbes, who was acting in Valencia to the entire satisfaction of Ferdinand, became involved in a bitter quarrel with the Archdique and Merceder for whom, as we have seen, Cardinal Borgia had attained a papal brief, virtually constituting him an indispensable member of the tribunal, a power which he doubtless used speculatively to the prophet of Borgia and himself. It is to the interference of Gualbes with these worthies that we may reasonably attribute the action of Sixtus, who wrote, May 25, 1483, to Ferdinand and Isabella that the misdeeds of Gualbes merited heavy punishment, but he contented himself with removing him and asked them to fill his place with some fitting person on whom he in advance conferred the necessary powers. He evidently felt doubtful as to their acquiescence, for he wrote on the same day to Inigo, Archbishop of Seville, asking him to use his influence to induce the sovereigns to concur in this. Ferdinand was not inclined to abandon Gualbes, for, in a letter of August 8, he orders the Maestre Racionale of Valencia to pay to, quote, lo devote religios Maestre Gualbes, and, quote, forty libras to defray his expenses in coming to the King at Cordova, and in order that he might without delay return to work. In the final settlement, however, Gualbes was sacrificed, for when Torque Mada was made inquisitor general of Aragon, Sixtus expressly forbade him from appointing that son of iniquity, Cristobal Gualbes, who, for his demerits, had been interdicted from serving as inquisitor. If Ferdinand imagined that he had overcome the resistance of his subjects by placing them under the Castilian inquisition with Torque Mada at its head, he showed less than his usual sagacity. They had been restive under the revived institution conducted by their own people, and the intense particularism of the Aragonese could not fail to arouse still stronger opposition to the prospect of subjection to the domination of a foreigner such as Torque Mada, whose sinister reputation for pityless zeal gave assurance that the work would be conducted with greater energy than ever. In Castile the introduction of the inquisition had been done by the arbitrary power of the Crown. In Aragon the consent of the representatives of the people was felt to be necessary for the change from the old to the new, and a meeting of the Cortes was convoked at Tarasona for January 15, 1484. Ferdinand and Isabella arrived there on the 19th and remained until May, when the opening of the campaign against Granada required their presence elsewhere. Torque Mada was there ready to establish the tribunals. What negotiations were requisite, we do not know, though we hear of his consulting with persons of influence and an agreement was reached on April 14. It was not until May 7, however, that Ferdinand issued from Tarasona a sedula addressed to all the officials throughout his dominions, informing them that with his assent the pope had established the inquisition to repress the Judaic and Mahometan heresies, and ordering that the inquisitors and their ministers should be honored and assisted everywhere under pain of the royal wrath, of deprivation of office, and of ten thousand florins. Under the plenary powers of Torque Mada's commission, steps were taken to reorganize the inquisition and adapted to the active discharge of its duties. Tribunals were to be established permanently in Valencia, Saragossa, and Barcelona, with new men to conduct them. Gualbes was disposed of by the enmity of Sixtus IV. Orts still figures in an order for the payment of salaries April 24, 1484, and on May 10, Ferdinand, writing from Tarasona, says that he is there and will be sent to Saragossa, but he never appeared at the latter place, though he was not formally removed from office until February 8, 1486, by Innocent VIII, when he was styled Inquisitor of Valencia in Lerida. End of Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 2 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. In the spring of 1484, Torque Mada appointed for Valencia, Frehuanda Epila and Martín Inigo, but the popular resistance and effervescence were such that their operations were greatly delayed. The jurats or local authorities prevented the opening of their tribunal, and, by the advice of Miguel Dalmán, Royal Advocate Fiscal, presented an appeal to the Cortes of the Kingdom imploring their intervention. The Cortes had assembled, and all four bratsos or estates united in remonstrances against the threatened violation of the furrows and privileges of the land, and through every impediment in the way of the Inquisitors. All this we learn from a series of letters dispatched, July 27, by Ferdinand to the various officials, from the Governor down, in which he gives free event to his wrath and indignation, declaring his will to be unchangeable, threatening with punishment and dismissal all who resisted, and pronouncing as frivolous the argument that the Inquisition was an invasion of the privileges of the land. At the same time he wrote to the Inquisitors, informing them of his proposed measures, instructing them to perform their duties without fear and cautioning them to observe the furrows and privileges and to show clemency and mercy insofar as they could with a good conscience, to those who confessed their errors and applied for reconciliation. Like and determined as was the tone of these letters, they produced no effect upon the obstinate Valencians. The Cortes and the city joined in sending a deputation to the King to remonstrate against the proposed violation of their rights. The Maestre Racionale stood by and did nothing to remove the deadlock. Even the Royal Council of Valencia prevented the Inquisitors from opening their tribunal on the ground that they were foreigners, while by the furrows none but natives could exercise official functions. All this produced another explosion of royal anger under date of August 31st. Ferdinand roundly scolded his officials and threatened punishment proportioned to the gravity of the offense. The reasons alleged by the envoys in the Council were brushed aside as untenable. He ordered the Governor to set the Inquisitors at work without caring what the Cortes might do or what the people might say, and he exhorted the Inquisitors to lose no time in performing their duties. The struggle continued, but at length opposition was broken down, and on November 7th, 1484, the Inquisitors were able formally to assume their functions by preaching their Sermon de la Faye and publishing their edicts. Although they were thus in shape to carry on the business of the tribunal, the usual solemnities were omitted, and they did not venture to exact from the secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries the customary oaths, all of which Ferdinand subsequently ordered to be performed. Scarcely had the Inquisitors commenced operations when Borges representative the Archdeacon Matteo Mercader was the cause of fresh trouble. Discord arose between him and Juan de Epela, which threatened to have even more serious results than his quarrels with Cuauves, which had compromised the attempt to revive the old Inquisition. Ferdinand's patience was exhausted, and so serious did he consider the situation that he dispatched his secretary, Antonio Salvert, to Valencia, armed with peremptory orders to Mercader and the governor. The former was required to make over his episcopal functions to Martin Trigot, another vicar general, to surrender the bull of December 4, 1481, delegating to him inquisitorial powers, and no longer to meddle in any way with the Holy Office. In case of disobedience the governor was instructed, without a moments delay, to order him under pain of five thousand florans to depart within twenty-four hours for the royal court, and to be beyond the frontier of Valencia within six days. If he failed in this, all his temporalities were to be seized to defray the fine, and further controversy was to be met by banishing him from the kingdom as a disobedient rebel. The inquisitors were also told no longer to summon him to their deliberations, and not to allow him to take part in their action. All this was in flagrant violation of the furrows of the land and independence of the church, and shows what latitude Ferdinand allowed himself when the inquisition was concerned. It was successful, however, and we hear no more of Mercader, though it was not until February 8, 1486, that the Curia assented to this arbitrary illegality by withdrawing his commission along with those of the old inquisitors. Still, Valencia was not disposed to allow to the inquisition the untrammeled exercise of its powers, or to render to it the assistance required of all the faithful. The nobles continued for some months to offer resistance, and when this was nominally broken down, it continued in a passive form. To meet it, Ferdinand, in a letter of August 17, 1485, ordered Moson Yoan Karaschie, al-Guazil of the inquisition, at the simple bidding of the inquisitors, to arrest and imprison anyone no matter how high in station. For this he was not to ask the concurrence of any secular authority, for the whole royal power was committed to him, and all officials under pain of two thousand gold florins and other arbitrary punishment were required to lend him active assistance. Even this infraction of the royal oath to respect the liberties of the subject did not suffice. For another letter of January 23, 1486 states that the nobles continued to give refuge in their lands to fugitives from the inquisition, even to those condemned and burnt in effigy, wherefore they were summoned under their allegiance and a penalty of twenty thousand gold florins, to surrender to the al-Guazil, all whom he might designate, and to aid him in seizing them. About the same time, Ferdinand placed the royal palace of Valencia at the service of the inquisition, and ordered to be built in it the necessary prisons. His own officials apparently had by this time been taught obedience, for in March 1487 he writes to the governor warmly praising their zeal. To stimulate this, on July 28, 1487 he issued a safe conduct taking under the royal protection all the officials of the inquisition, their families, and goods. All royal officials, from the highest to the lowest, were required under pain of five thousand florins and the king's wrath to assist them and to arrest whomesoever they might designate. Still, there were occasional ebullitions of resistance which were met with prompt and effective measures. In 1488 the Lieutenant General of the kingdom ventured to remove by force from the inquisitorial prison a certain Domingo de Santa Cruz, condemned for heresy, and was at once summoned by Torquemeta to answer for his temerity. Ferdinand at the same time wrote to him severely to come without delay and that the kingdom might not be without a governor sent him a commission in blank to fill in with the name of a deputy to act during his absence or until the king should otherwise provide. Moreover, all who had assisted in the removal of the prisoner were to be forthwith arrested by the inquisitors. So when in 1497 the notaries of Valencia claimed that the notaries of the Holy Office had no power to certify documents concerning the sales of confiscated property and other similar business, and summoned them before the secular authorities, Ferdinand threatened them with severe punishment besides the prosecution by the inquisition to which they were liable for impeding it, for it was not subject to any of the laws or privileges of the land. He also wrote to the Duke of Segorbe, his lieutenant general, to support the inquisition. The Fiscal of the Suprema presented a clamosa claiming that those guilty of this action were excommunicate and liable to the penalties for photorship of heresy, and the inquisitor general forwarded this to them with a summons to appear within 15 days and defend themselves. The inquisition was so sacred that a mere attempt to decide law a question of business was a crime involving heavy penalties. Ferdinand's sharp rebuke in 1499, when a case of confiscation involving peculiar hardship, provoked the royal officials and local magistrates to meet and draw up a protest in terms unflattering to the tribunal, has already been referred to. It was probably one of the results of this that on June 28, 1500, the inquisitors summoned all the officials and the deputados before them, and, when all were assembled, read to them the apostolic letters and those of the king respecting the tribunal and its fees, and required all present to take the oath of obedience which was duly exceeded to without objections. The unintermitting pressure of the throne was thus finally effective, and in spite of its furrows the little kingdom was brought under the yoke. The tribunal had been active and efficient. Already in June 1488 a list of those reconciled under the edicts of grace amounted to 983, and among these no less than a hundred women were described as the wives or daughters of men who had been burnt. Those included in this enumeration were given assurance that their property would not be subject to confiscation unless it had already been sequestrated, and that they could effect sales and make good titles. Apparently inquisitorial zeal disregarded this assurance, for these penitents applied for and obtained its confirmation May 30, 1491. Of course they had been subjected to heavy fines under the guise of pecuniary penance, and we can readily imagine how large was the sum thus contributed to the coffers of the inquisition, to which as yet these fines enured. Aragon. The parent state of Aragon proper seemed at first to present an even more arduous problem than Valencia. The people were proud of their ancient liberty and resolute in its maintenance through institutions sedulously organized for that purpose. The conversos were numerous, wealthy and powerful, occupying many of the higher offices and intermarried with the noblest houses, and, in the fate of their brethren of Castile, they had ample warning of what was in store for them. In the revival of the old inquisition Valencia was the scene of action, and we hear little of Guelbas and Orts beyond its boundaries. The acceptance, however, by the Cortes of Tarazona in the spring of 1484 of Torquemata's jurisdiction, of course included Aragon. He lost no time in organizing a tribunal in Zaragoza by the appointment May 4 as inquisitors of Fray Gaspar Houglar and of Maistre Pedro Arbues, a canon of the Cathedral, with the necessary subordinates, and, by May 11, the appointments for a full court were complete as we learned by an order for the payment of the salaries. The expense was large, but it was already provided for. Torquemata must himself have employed his leisure in acting as inquisitor, four on May 10, and Otto de Fe was held in the Cathedral, in which four persons were penanced and subjected to confiscation. Gaspar Houglar in this appointment obtained his reward for the services he had rendered as nominator of inquisitors, but he did not long enjoy it. He disappears almost immediately, poisoned, as it was said, by the conversos in some rosquillas or sweet-cakes. No time was lost in getting to work. Ferdinand had written from Tarazona May 10 that the Edict of Grace which had been resolved upon was not to be published, but that proceedings should go on as if it had been proclaimed and had expired, thus depriving the conversos of the opportunity of coming forward for confessing, and explaining the absence at Zaragoza of the long lists of penitence that we find elsewhere. Thus, although some time must have been required for the members of the tribunal to assemble, by June 3 it was ready for another Otto, held in the courtyard of the Archipescopal Palace. This time it was not bloodless, for two men were executed, and a woman was burnt in effigy. No more Otos were held in Zaragoza for eighteen months. Thus far the people had been passive. They had accepted the action of the Cortes of Tarazona, apparently under the impression that the new inquisition would be as inert as the old had so long been. But as they awoke to the reality, an opposition arose which called a halt, and Arbues never celebrated another Otto. Not only the conversos, but many of the old Christians denounced the inquisition as contrary to the liberties of the land. The chief objections urged against it were the secrecy of procedure and the confiscation of estates. And as these were the various common places of inquisitorial business, it shows how completely the old institution had been dormant. So many conversos were lawyers and judges and high officials that they had abundant opportunity to impede the action of the tribunal by obtaining injunctions and decisions of the courts as to confiscations which they regarded as the most assailable point, leaving that if these could be stopped, the whole business would perish of inanition. To overcome this resistance, resort was had to the rule compelling all who held office to take the oath of obedience to the inquisition. On September 19th the royal and local officials were assembled and solemnly sworn to maintain inviolably the Holy Roman Catholic faith, to employ all their energies against every one of whatever rank who was a heretic or suspect of heresy or a foetor of heresy, to denounce any one whom they might know to be guilty and to appoint to office no one suspect in the faith or incapacitated by law. A few days later the same oath was taken by the governor of Aragon, Juan Francisco de Heredia, and his assessor, Francisco de Santa Fe, son of that Heronimo de Santa Fe, the convert, who had stimulated the popular abhorrence of Judaism. Other nobles were subsequently required to take the oath, and it was gradually administered to all the different estates. Then in November followed Torquemata's assembly of inquisitors at Seville, whose instructions were duly transmitted to Aragon for observance, although Aragon had not been represented in the conference. Thus far the tribunal seems to have had no definite quarters, but it was now settled in some houses between the Cathedral and the Archepiscopal Palace, convenient to the ecclesiastical jail. Agitation grew stronger, and those who deemed themselves in danger began to seek safety in flight, whereupon Ferdinand, on November 4, issued orders to the authorities of the three kingdoms to adopt whatever means might be necessary to prevent the departure of all who were not firm in the faith. The effort proved ineffective, as it was decided to be in violation of the Fueros. But the inquisition was superior to the Fueros, and Ferdinand instructed the inquisitors to issue an edict forbidding anyone to leave the kingdom without their license, under pain of being held as a relapsed heretic in case of return. And this scandalous stretch of arbitrary power he sarcastically said that he would enforce, so that the object might be attained without infringing on the liberties of the kingdom. The rich conversos offered large amounts to the sovereigns if they would forego the confiscations, but the proposition was rejected. A heavy sum was subscribed to propitiate the Curia, but the arrangement by which the land was subjected to Torquemata was too recent to be changed. The lieutenant of the Justicia of Aragon, Tristan de la Porta, was urged to prohibit the inquisitor altogether, but in vain. Then the four estates of the realm were called together to deliberate on a subject which involved the liberties of the whole land. To forestall their action, Ferdinand on December 10th addressed a circular letter to the deputies and to the leading nobles, and treating them affectionately to favor and aid the inquisitors of Saragossa and Terrewell. But this had no influence, and a solemn embassy was sent to remonstrate with him. To their representations, he answered, disposing of their arguments by assuming practically that he was only the agent of the church in enforcing the well-known principles of the cannons. The essence of his answer is embodied in responding to their demand that the inquisition be carried on as in times past, for in any other way it violated the liberties of the kingdom. There is no intention, he said, of infringing on the Fueros, but rather of enforcing their observance. It is not to be imagined that vassals so Catholic as those of Aragon would have demanded, or that kings so Catholic would have granted, Fueros and liberties adverse to the faith and favorable to heresy. If the old inquisitors had acted conscientiously in accordance with the cannons, there would have been no cause for bringing in the new ones, but they were without conscience and corrupted with bribes. If there are so few heretics as is now asserted, there should not be such dread of the inquisition. It is not to be impeded in sequestrating and confiscating and other necessary acts, for be assured that no cause or interest, however great, shall be allowed to interfere with its proceeding in future as it is doing now. Meanwhile there had been, at Terrell, a more open resistance to the inquisition, in which the inflexible purpose of the monarch to enforce obedience at any cost was abundantly demonstrated. Simultaneously with the organization of the Saragossa Tribunal, Fréjoin Colivera and Mohsen Martin Navarro were sent to Terrell with their subordinates to establish one there. Terrell was a fortified city of some importance near the Castilian border, the capital of its district, although it was not elevated into a separate bishopric until 1577. When the Reverend Fathers appeared before the gates, the magistrates refused them entrance and they prudently retired to Salia, a village about four leagues distant, once they fulminated an edict excommunicating the magistrates and casting an interdict on the town. From the venal papal court Terrell had no difficulty in procuring letters, in virtue of which the dean Francisco Savestan and Martin de Sant Juan, rector of Villa Camada, absolved the excommunicates and removed the interdict, nor is it likely that any success attended Ferdinand's order to his son, the Archbishop of Saragossa, to send to his official at Terrell secret instructions to seize the two priests and hold them in chains. The town sent a supplication to him by Juan de la Mata and Miser Jaime Mora, but he only ordered them to send home a peremptory command to submit, under pain of such punishment as should serve as a perpetual example. This he also communicated to the governor of Aragon, Juan Fernandez de Heredia, with instructions to take it to Terrell and read it to the magistrates. When, if they did not yield, a formal summons to appear before him was to be read to each one individually, all of which was doubtless performed without effect. Ferdinand had also ordered the envoys not to leave the court, but they fled secretly, and his joy was extreme when, six months later, Juan de la Mata was captured by Juan Garces de Marcia. The next step of the inquisition was a decree, October 2, 1484, confiscating to the crown all the offices in Terrell, and pronouncing the incumbents incapable of holding any office of honor or profit. A decree which Ferdinand proceeded to execute by stopping their salaries. It was in vain that the Diputados of Aragon interceded with him. He replied that the people of Terrell had nothing to complain of and were guilty of madness and outrage. Then the inquisitors took final action, which was strictly within their competence, by issuing a letter invoking the aid of the secular arm and summoning the king to enable them to seize the magistrates and confiscate their property. To this he responded, February 5, 1485, with an executoria invocacionis, Brachae Secularis, addressed to all the officials at Aragon, requiring them and the nobles to assemble all the horse and foot that they could raise and put them at the service of the inquisitors, under a captain whom he would send to take command. Under pain of the royal wrath, deprivation of office, a fine of 20,000 gold florins, and discretional penalties, they were ordered to seize all the inhabitants of Terrell and their property, and deliver them to the inquisitors to be punished for their enormous crimes in such wise as should serve for a lasting example. The people of Solia also were ordered to deliver their castle to the inquisitors to serve as a prison, and to make all repairs necessary for that purpose. Apparently the response of Aragon to this summons was unsatisfactory. For Ferdinand, in defiance of the Fuero which forbade the introduction of foreign troops into the kingdom, took the extreme step of calling upon the nobles of Quensa and other Castilian districts contiguous to the border, to raise their men and join in the Holy War. While the receiver of confiscations was ordered to sell enough property to meet the expenses. Whether this formidable array was raised or not, the documents do not inform us, nor of the circumstances under which Terrell well submitted. But it had braved the royal will as long as it dared, and it could not hold out against the forces of two kingdoms. By April 15th Ferdinand was in position to appoint Juan Garces de Marcia, the captor of Juan de la Mata, as Asistente or governor of Terrell well, with absolute dictatorial powers, and the spirit in which he exercised them may be gathered from his declaration that he did not intend to allow Fueros or privileges to stand in the way. The lot of the inhabitants was hard. Ferdinand ordered Marcia to banish all whom the inquisitors might designate, thus placing the whole population at their mercy. And their rule must have been exasperating. For in January 1486 Ferdinand reproaches Marcia, because his nephew, who had aided in the capture of La Mata, had recently attempted to slay the Al-Guaziel of the Inquisition. Presumably the inquisitorial coffers were filled with the fines and confiscations which could be inflicted at discretion on the citizens for impeding the Inquisition. During the long struggle Terrell well had been at the disadvantage that the surrounding country supported the inquisitors, one over through an astute device by which the inquisitors, while at Silia, had guaranteed on the payment of certain sums the remission of all debts and the release of all censos or bonds and ground rents, which might be due to heretics who should be convicted and subjected to confiscation in Terrell well. All debtors were thus eager for the success of the inquisitors and for the punishment of heresy among the moneylending conversos of the town. End of Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 2. Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 3 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee, Book 1, Chapter 5, The Kingdoms of Aragon, Part 3. Meanwhile, in Zaragoza the conversos were growing desperate. All peaceful means of averting the fate that hung over them had failed, and events at Terrell well demonstrated the futility of resistance. The boulder spirits began to whisper that the only resource left was to kill an inquisitor or two when the warning would deter others from incurring the hazard. They knew that secret informations were on foot gathering from all sources testimony against them all. Inquisitor Arbues was almost openly said to be ready to pay for satisfactory evidence, and the life and fortune of every man was at the mercy of the evil-minded. Sancho de Paternoi, the mestre racional of Aragon, went on trial, admitted to prejudice against Juan de Ancias, secretary of the tribunal, because he had inquired of a Jewish tailor whether Paternoi had a seat in the synagogue. Suspense was becoming insupportable. The project of assassination gradually took shape, and when the friends of the conversos at the royal court were consulted, including Ferdinand's treasurer Gabriel Sanchez, they approved of it and wrote that if an inquisitor was murdered it would put an end to the inquisition. At first the intention was to make way not only with Pedro Arbues, but with the assessor Martín de la Raga, and with Miser Pedro Frances, and a plot was laid to drown the assessor while he was walking by the Abro, but he chanced to be accompanied by two gentlemen and it was abandoned. The whole attention of the conspirators was then concentrated on Arbues. Mistre Epila, as he was commonly called, was not a man of any special note, though his selection by Torquemada indicates that he was reputed to possess the qualities necessary to curb the recalcitrant Aragonese, and we are told that he was an eloquent preacher. He possessed the gift of prophecy, if we may believe the story, that he foretold to his colleague Martín Garcia that he would reach the episcopate. For Garcia in 1512 became Bishop of Barcelona, but such foresight is not necessary to explain his reluctance to accept the inquisitorship. For, although this was always a promising avenue to promotion, the post was evidently to be an arduous one. His hesitation was overcome, and we have seen how energetically he commenced his new career. Yet the interruptions which supervened had prevented him from accomplishing much, and he fell a victim rather to fear than to revenge. The conspirators were evidently irresolute, for the plot was long in hatching, but the secret was wonderfully well kept, considering that the correspondence respecting it was extensive. Rumors, however, were not lacking, and as early as January 29, 1485, Ferdinand wrote to the Governor of Aragon that a conspiracy was on foot and that a large sum was being raised to embarrass the inquisition in every way. Yet at the same time, he thanked the jurats for their zeal in aiding the inquisitors. If suspicion was then aroused, it slumbered again, and for six months meetings were held without being discovered. It was determined to raise a fund for hiring assassins, and three treasurers were appointed. Juan de Esperandú, a courier known as a desperate man, whose father had been arrested, undertook to find the bravos and hired Juan de La Badia for the purpose. In April or May, 1485, an attempt was made on the house where Arbres lodged, but the men were frightened off, and the matter was postponed for several months. At length, on the night of September 15, Esperandú went to the house of La Badia and awakened him. Together they returned to Esperandú's where they found the latter's servant Vido Durango, a Frenchman, with Mateo Ram, one of the leaders of the plot, his choir, Tristanico Leonis, and three others who were masked and remained unknown. They all went to the cathedral and entered by the chapter door, which was open on account of the service of matins. Arbres was kneeling in prayer between the high altar and the choir when the cannons were planting. He knew that his life was threatened, for he wore a coat of mail and a steel cap, while a lance which he carried was leaning against a pillar. La Badia whispered to Durango, there he is, give it to him. Durango stole up behind and, with a backstroke, clove his neck between his armor. He rose and staggered towards the choir, followed by La Badia, who pierced him through the arm, while Mateo Ram was also said to have thrust him through the body. He fell. The assassins hurried away and the cannons, alarmed at the noise, rushed from the choir and carried him to his house nearby, where surgeons were summoned, who pronounced the wounds to be mortal. He lay for twenty-four hours repeating, we are told, pious ejaculations, and died on September 17th between one and two a.m. Miracles at once attested his sanctity. On the night of the murder, the holy bell of Vilella told without human hands, breaking the bull's pistol with which the clapper was secured. His blood, which stained the flagstones of the cathedral after drying for two weeks, suddenly liquefied, so that crowds came to dip in it, cloths, and scapulars, and had to be forcibly driven off when he was buried on the spot where he fell. When the conspirators were interrogated by the inquisitors, their mouths became black and their tongues were parched, so that they were unable to speak until water was given to them. It was popularly believed that when in their flight they reached the boundaries of the kingdom, they became divinely benumbed until seized by their captors. More credible is the miracle reported by Juan de Anciás, that their trials led to the discovery of innumerable heretics who were duly penanced or burnt. Pecunerially the affair had not been costly. The whole outlay had been only six hundred florins of which one hundred was paid to the assassin. Like the murder of Pierre de Castelneau in Languedoc, this crime turned the scale. Its immediate effect was to cause a revulsion of popular feeling which hitherto had been markedly hostile to the inquisition. The news of the assassination spread through the city with marvelous rapidity, and before dawn the streets were filled with excited crowds shouting burn the conversos who have slain the inquisitor. There was danger in the exultation of feeling, not only that the conversos would be massacred, but that the giuriría and moriría would be sacked. By daylight the archbishop Alfonso de Aragon mounted his horse and traversed the streets, calming the mob with promises of speedy justice. A meeting was at once called of all the principal persons in the city which resolved itself into a national assembly and empowered all ecclesiastical and secular officials to proceed against everyone concerned with the utmost vigor and without observing the customs and furos of the kingdom. For some days the conversos continued to flatter themselves that with money they would disarm Ferdinand's wrath. They had they said the whole court with them and the sympathies of all the magnets of the land, but they miscalculated his shrewd resolve to profit to the utmost by their blunder and the consequent weakness of their friends. The royal anger indeed was much dreaded and the diputados a few days later wrote to the king reporting what had been done. The criminals had already scattered in flight, the city had offered a reward of five hundred ducats. The judges had written to foreign lands to invoke aid in intercepting the fugitives and both city and kingdom would willingly undergo all labor and expense necessary to avenge the crime. A proclamation was also issued ex communicating all having knowledge of the conspiracy who should not within a given time come forward and reveal what they knew. It was probably in consequence of the murder that Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded in obtaining from innocent the eighth papal letters of April 3rd 1487 ordering all princes and rulers and magistrates to seize and deliver to the inquisition of Spain all fugitives who should be designated to them. Thus extending its arms everywhere throughout Christendom and practically outlawing all refugees. No proof was to be required, simple requisitions sufficed. The surrender was to be made within 30 days and safe conduct assured to the frontier under pain of excommunication and the penalties for photorship of heresy. Fortunately for humanity this atrocious attempt to establish a new international law by papal absolutism was practically ignored. There was one case however in which its punitive clauses seem to have been invoked. Several of the accomplices in the assassination found refuge in Tudela a frontier city of Navarre and on January 27th 1486 Ferdinand wrote to the magistrates there affectionately requesting that if the inquisitors should send for the accused all aid should be rendered seeing that he had given orders to obey such requisitions throughout his own kingdoms. This application was unsuccessful and in May he repeated it imperiously threatening war upon them as defenders of heretics. The condition of the perishing kingdom of Navarre under the youthful Catherine and Jean d'Aubret was not such as to protect it from the insults of a sovereign like Ferdinand and the inquisitors presumed so far as to instruct Don Juan de Ribeira then in command of the frontier to carry the royal threats into execution. That prudent officer refused to make war upon a friendly state without the protection of an express order bearing the signatures of Ferdinand and Isabella where upon on June 30th the inquisitors complained of him to the king. He was in Galicia suppressing a rising of the count of Lemos and reducing the lawless nobles to order and from Viso July 22nd he replied that he would at once have sent the order but that he had brought with him all the frontier troops. As soon as his task was accomplished he would send back forces with orders to Don Juan to make war on Tudela in such fashion as to compel it to do what was requisite for the service of God. A letter of the same date to Torquemada states that the inquisitors have asked for letters of mark and reprisal against Tudela on account of Luis de Sant'Angel but this must be preceded by a Carter requisitoria which he instructs Torquemada to prepare and send to him when he will execute it. It was not until the end of November that the sovereign's returned to Salamanca and it is presumable that the campaign against Tudela was postponed until the spring. Of course the fugitives had long before sought some safer asylum but the papal brief of April 3rd 1487 could be enforced against the magistrates and they endured the humiliation of submitting to the tribunal of Saragosa. At an Otto de Fay held March 2nd 1488 the Alcalde and eight of the citizens appeared and performed penance. Ferdinand recognized the opportunity afforded by the assassination of Arbues and was resolved to make the most of it. Prominent among the means for this was the stimulation of the popular veneration of the murder. On September 29th 1486 his solemn execues were celebrated with as much solemnity as those of the holiest saint. A splendid tomb was built to which his remains were translated December 8th 1487. A statue was erected with an inscription by the sovereign's and over it a ba relief representing the scene of the murder. During a pestilence in 1490 the city ordered a silver lamp 50 ounces in weight to be placed before the tomb and another silver lamp to burn day and night. His cult as a saint was not allowed to await the tardy recognition of the Holy See. The conspirators miscalculated when they imagined that his murder would deter others from taking his place. There was no danger for inquisitors now in Aragon and the tribunal of Saragosa was promptly remand and enlarged for the abundant harvest that was expected. It was not long in getting to work and on December 28th 1485 an otto was celebrated in which a man and a woman were burnt. The tribunal was removed to the royal palace fortress outside of the walls known as the Alhaferia as an evidence that it was under the royal safeguard and Ferdinand proclaimed that he and his successors took it under their special protection. Strict orders were sent to the estates of the kingdom and to the local officials to suppress summarily all resistance to the confiscations which were becoming so extensive that the receiver at Saragosa had his hands full and was empowered to appoint deputies throughout the land to attend to the work in their respective districts. In the prevailing temper pursuit was hot after the murderers of Arbues and the avengers were soon upon their track. There were some hair breath escapes and much curious detail for which space fails us here will be found in the memoria de diversos otos in the appendix and some of it showing that there were powerful secret influences in favor of individuals. One party consisting of the chief contriver of the plot Juan de Pedro Sanchez and his wife Gaspar de Santa Cruz and his wife Martín de Sant'Angèle, García de Mora's, Mohsón Pedro Magna's and the two Pedro de Almazón affected their escape by way of Tudela for which as we have seen that city was held responsible and the lord of Cadreca, an ancestor of the dukes of Albuquerque was penanced for giving them shelter and receiving 60 florins in payment. Although by decree both secular and ecclesiastical courts were empowered to punish the guilty, the prosecution seemed to have been left altogether to the inquisition and it had the satisfaction of burning the effigies of the fugitives. Many, however, paid the penalty in their persons. Vido Durango was soon caught at La Rita when he made no difficulty in revealing the details of the plot and the names of the accomplices. A lot of retribution followed and was continued for years. In the auto of June 30th, 1486 Juan de Pedro Sanchez was burnt in effigy. Vido Durango was treated mercifully, doubtless in consideration of his communicativeness. His hands were cut off and nailed to the door of the Diputación or House of Diputados and it was not until he was dead that he was dragged to the marketplace where he was beheaded and quartered and the fragments were suspended in the streets. The punishment of Juan de Esperando was more harsh. He was dragged while living to the portal of the cathedral when his hands were cut off. He was then dragged to the marketplace beheaded and quartered as in the case of Durango. On July 28th, Gaspar de Santa Cruz and Martín de Sant'Angelo were burnt in effigy and Pedro de Exia who had contributed to the fund was burnt alive. On October 21st, Maria de la Badia was burnt as an accessory. On December 15th and Otto was hastily arranged Francisco de Santa Fe, assessor of the Governor of Aragon and son of the great converso Jerónimo de Santa Fe was fatally compromised in the conspiracy. Hopeless of escape, he threw himself from the battlement of the tower in which he was confined and was dashed to pieces and the same day his remains were burnt and his bones, enclosed in a box were cast into the Tagos as though it was feared that they would be venerated as those of a martyr. Juan de la Badia eluded his tormentors in even more desperate fashion and Otto was arranged for January 21st, 1487 in which he was to suffer. In his cell the day before he broke in pieces a glass lamp and swallowed the fragments which speedily brought the death he craved. The next day his corpse was dragged and quartered and the hands were cut off and on the same occasion there were burnt in effigy as accomplices Pedro de Almazón the Elder, Anton Perez and Pedro de Vera. On March 15th Mateo Ram, who superintended the murder had his hands cut off and was then burnt with Joan Frances who was suspected of complicity and the effigies of three accomplices Juan Ram, Alonso Sanchez and Garcia de Moras. August 8th Luis de Santangel who was one of the chief conspirators was beheaded in the marketplace. His head was set upon a pole and his body was burnt. Thus the ghastly tragedy went on for years as the ramifications of the conspiracy were explored and all who were remotely connected with it were traced. It was not until 1488 that Juan de la Caballaria was placed on trial. The wife of Gaspar de la Caballaria having testified that her husband told her that Juan had offered him 500 florins to kill the inquisitor. Juan admitting having learned Juan de Pedro Sanchez that there was a fund for the purpose and that he had mentioned it to Gaspar but concluded that Gaspar had not sufficient resolution for the deed. He died in jail in 1490 and his body was burnt in the auto of July 8th 1491 while Gaspar was penanced in that of September 8th 1492. In this latter auto Sancho de Paternoy Mr. Racionale of Aragon was penanced with perpetual imprisonment. His trial had been a prolonged one. He had been repeatedly tortured and had confessed privity to the murder and had then retracted wholly saying that he knew nothing about it and that he had spent the night of the assassination in the palace of the archbishop. His guilt was not clear. He had powerful friends especially Gabriel Sanchez Ferdinand's treasurer and he was punished on mere suspicion. Any expression of satisfaction at the murder was an offense to be dearly expiated. Among the crimes for which Pedro Sanchez was burnt May 2nd 1489 this is enumerated and it was one of the chief accusations brought against Brianda de Bardaxi but though she admitted it under torture she retracted it afterwards. It could not be proved against her and she was let off with a fine of a third of her property and temporary imprisonment. The assassination gave the Inquisition ample opportunity to make a profound impression and it made the most of its good fortune. The Inquisition thus had overcome all resistance and Aragon laid its mercy. How that mercy was exercised is seen in the multitude of victims from among the principal converso families which were almost extinguished by the stake or by confiscation The names of Caballaria, Sanchez, Sant'Angèle, Ram and others occur with wearying repetition in the lists of the Autos de Fay. Thus of the Sant'Angèle who were descended from the Convert Rabbi Azarias Genilo Martín de Sant'Angèle escaped to France and was burnt in effigy. Luis de Sant'Angèle who had been knighted by Juan II for services in the war with Catalonia was beheaded and burnt as we have seen. His cousin, Luis de Sant'Angèle Ferdinand's financial secretary who advanced to Isabella the 16,000 or 17,000 dockets to enable Columbus to discover the new world was pennanced July 17th 1491. He still continued in the Royal Service but he must have been condemned again for after his death about 1500. Ferdinand kindly made over his confiscated property to his children including a thousand dockets of composition for the confiscation of Miser Tarancio. There was yet another Luis de Sant'Angèle who married a daughter of Juan Vidal also a victim of the Inquisition and who finally fled with her to France after which he was burnt in effigy. Juan de Sant'Angèle was burnt in 1486. Juan Tomas de Sant'Angèle was pennanced August 12th 1487. A brother of Juan was the Zalmadina de Sant'Angèle who fled to France and was burnt in effigy March 17th 1497. Gabrielle de Sant'Angèle was condemned in 1495. Hisperte and Salvador de Sant'Angèle were reconciled at Huesca in 1499. Leonardo de Sant'Angèle was burnt at Huesca July 8th 1489 and his mother two days afterwards. The Olante de Sant'Angèle and Simone de Sant'Angèle with Clara his wife were reconciled at Huesca. Miser Miguel de Sant'Angèle of Huesca was reconciled March 1st 1489. To estimate properly this terrible list we must bear in mind that reconciliation involved confiscation and disabilities inflicted on descendants which were almost equivalent to extinguishing a family. In 1513 Fulsona, wife of Olante de Sant'Angèle petitioned Ferdinand saying that her husband Olante de Sant'Angèle 30 years before had fled from the Inquisition and his property had been confiscated leaving her in poverty with four young children. She had withheld 80 Libras of his effect and had spent them. Her conscience impilled her to confess this and to sue for pardon which the king graciously granted with our customary clemency and compassion. One of these four children seems to be an Augustan de Sant'Angèle of Barbastro, son of Alonso who as late as 1556 obtained relief from the disabilities consequent on his father's condemnation. There was in Aragon no converso house more powerful than the descendants of Alasar Yusuf and his brothers who took the name of Sanchez and furnished many officials of rank such as treasurer, bailey, dispensary, mayor, etc. Of these between 1486 and 1503 there were burnt in person or in effigy Juan de Pedro Sanchez Miser Alonso Sanchez Angelina Sanchez Brianda Sanchez Juan Anton Sanchez Miser Juan Sanchez and among the tamarit with whom they were allied by marriage Leonor de Tamarit and her sister Olalia Valentino de Tamarit and Beatrice de Tamarit of the same family there were penanced Aldonso Sanchez, Anton Sanchez Juan de Juan Sanchez Luis de Juan Sanchez Juan Sanchez the jurist Martín Sanchez María Sanchez and Pedro Sanchez It is unnecessary to multiply examples of what was going on in Spain during these dreadful years for Aragon was exceptional only insofar as the industrious notary Juan de Ancias kept and compiled the records that should attest the indelible stain on descendants There is something awful in the hideous coolness with which he summarizes the lists of victims too numerous to particularize The Gomez of Huesca are new Christians and many of them have been abandoned to the secular arm and many others have been reconciled The Zaportas and Benitez of Monzon many of them have been condemned and abandoned to the secular arm End of Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 3 Book 1, Chapter 5, Part 4 History of the Inquisition of Spain Volume 1 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 Jamie Arango History of the Inquisition of Spain Volume 1 by Henry Charles Lay Book 1, Chapter 5 The Kingdoms of Aragon, Part 4 Catalonia Catalonia had of old been more intractable than her sister kingdoms and fully as jealous of her ancient rights and liberties The Capitals de Court or Fueros granted in the successive Cortes were ordered to be systematically arranged and fairly written out in two volumes one in Latin and the other in the Mosin These volumes were to be kept in the Diputación ordered by chains but open to the public so that every citizen might know his rights Whenever the king or his officials violated them by edict or act the Disputados a standing committee of the Cortes were instructed to oppose by every lawful means the invasion of their liberties until the obnoxious measure could be withdrawn Apparently forewarned as to Ferdinand's designs Catalonia had manifested her independence by refusing to send representatives to the Cortes of Tarazona in January 1484 alleging that it was illegal to summon them beyond the boundaries of the Principality The Catalans had thus escaped ascending to the jurisdiction of Turcadamada but this in no way hindered Ferdinand from sending May 11th to Juan de Medina his receiver of confiscations of Barcelona a list of salaries similar to that drawn up at the same time for Zaragoza although the names of appointees were left in blank The citizens met this by sending him a consulta affirming their rights and meanwhile prevented the old inquisitors from manifesting any increase of activity To this Ferdinand replied from Córdoba, August 4th expressing his extreme dissatisfaction They need not he assured them as to their privileges and liberties for the inquisition will do nothing to violate them and will use no cruelty but will treat with all clemency those who return to the faith Further remonstrance he adds will be useless for it is his unchangeable determination that the inquisition shall perform its work and opposition to it will be more offensive to him than any other disservice The Catalans were obdurate to both landishments and threats Barcelona claimed as a special privilege derived directly from the Holy See that he had a right to an inquisitor of its own and that it could not be subjected to an inquisitor general It already had its inquisitor in the person of Juan Conte who would apparently gave the people no trouble and served as a convenient impediment to the extension of Torqueta Mata's jurisdiction especially as he held a papal commission To meet this obstacle Ferdinand wrote, October 12 to his ambassador at Rome that the inquisitors were not doing their duty wherefore he earnestly requested that at the earliest possible moment further power be granted to him and to Isabella and Torqueta Mata to appoint and remove at pleasure officials who should be full inquisitors and not merely commissioners as the franchises of the cities provide that they shall not be subjected to commissioners The Catalan conversos doubtless understood how to counteract with the Curia the king's desires for nine months later July 9th, 1485 Ferdinand again wrote to his auditor apostolico that the inquisition in Aragon Catalonia and Valencia was much impeded by the papal commissions granted to Dominican masters of theology and other persons and that he must at once procure a bull revoking all commissions to act as inquisitors especially those of Fray Juan Conte of Barcelona and Arquedocon Mercader of Valencia Torqueta Mata must have a fresh appointment for the Aragonese kingdoms and especially as inquisitor of Barcelona with faculty to subdelegate his powers It is possible that Cardinal Borges' interests in his vicar general Mercader neutralize the efforts of Ferdinand's agents For six months passed away without the request being granted and in January 1486 the king ventured the experiment of sending two appointees of Torqueta Mata the Dominicans Juan Franco and Guillén Caceles with an Excuturia pro inquisitorbis Apud Catalonium addressed to all of the officials who were ordered under paying a 5000 gold florins to receive and convey them safely to aid them in their work to arrest and imprison in chains whomesoever they might designate and to inflict due punishment on all whom they might abandon to the secure secular arm This energetic movement was as fruitless as its predecessors and some weeks later an order was issued to the inquisitors at Saragosa to reimburse from the pecuniary penances in their hands the expenses of the cleric who had been sent to Barcelona and also to pay 50 libras each to Esteban Gago sent there as Alguazil and Jaime Milan as notary in order to provide for their support At the same time Ferdinand expressed the hope that the Barcelonaese Tribunal would soon be in working order and in this he was not wholly disappointed Innocent the A's yielded at last and by a brief of February 6th 1486 under pretext that they had been too zealous he removed all inquisitors holding papal commissions in Aragon, Juan Colivera Juan de Pina Juan Franco and Guillen Cacels in Valencia, Juan Ortiz in Mateo Mercader and in Barcelona, Juan Comte he appointed Orquera Mala as special inquisitor for Barcelona With power of sub-delegation and apparently to prepare for expected resistance he authorized the bishops of Córdoba and León and the abbot of Saint Emilien of Burgos to suppress all opposition especially in the part of Juan Comte while he expressly set aside the privileges of the city In spite of this formidable missive nearly 18 months elapsed before Barcelona was reduced to submission and Orquera Mala's final appointee Alonso de Spina was able to enter the city When at last he succeeded July 5th 1487 we are told that the Lieutenant General of the Principality the bishops of Urel Tortosa and Girona and many gentlemen and citizens sallied forth to greet him but there is no mention made of the Diputados or the local Magistrisi or the cannons joining in the reception and it was not until July 30th that the municipal officials took the oath of obedience to him He probably still found obstacles in his path but it was not until December 14th that the first procession of penitence took place Consisting only of 21 men and 29 women followed a week later by another in which the participants were scourged The smallness of these numbers as the result of five months work showed that the Edict of Grace had met an ungrateful response and the first public auto celebrated January 25th 1488 furnished only four living victims and the effigies of 12 fugitives As already remarked elsewhere the fear spread abroad the advent of the Inquisition after so long a struggle caused the greater part of those who had reason for fear to seek safety in flight in spite of the edicts forbidding expatriation During the whole of the year 1488 the number of burnings amounted only to seven and in 1489 there were but three It was doubtless owing to the lukewarmness of the local majesty that in the early autos the sufferers were spared the extreme penalty of conchremation and were mercifully strangled before the pile was lighted In fact, a royal cedula of March 15th 1488 ordering afresh all officials to render aid and support to the Inquisition under penalty of 2,000 florins would seem to argue no little slackness for there on their part The jurisdiction of the tribunal of Barcelona was extensive comprehending the dioceses of Barcelona Tarragona, Vich, Girona Lierda, Ergel and Elna The inquisitors were industrious and visited many portions of their territory for we have record during the remainder of the century of autos de fe Hel and Tarragona, Geroa Perpignan Malaguer and Lierda but as late as November 18th 1500 Ferdinand complains that in Rosaleón the inquisition had not yet been put fairly in operation and that no effort had been made to secure the confiscations The imperiousness with which the inquisitors exercised their authority to break the independent spirit of the Catalans is well illustrated by a trifling but significant incident in 1494 The city of Tarragona had established a quarantine against Barcelona on account of pestilence On June 18th the inquisitor Antonio de Contreras with all his officials presumably fleeing the pest presented himself at the gates and demanded admittance The secret general of the archbishop the cannons and the royal and local offices came to meet him and explained the situation asking him to remain in some convenient place in the neighbourhood for some days His reply was to give them the delay of three Miseres in which to open their gates under pain of major excommunication and interdict whereupon they left him after interjecting an appeal He recited the Miseres thrice commanded his notary to knock at the gate and then fulminated his censures with an additional order that no notary but his own should make record of the affair He then withdrew to the neighbouring Dominican convent where he sent his excommunication to be affixed to the town gates While at supper Ciprián Corte, a scrivener came and served him with a notice from Rome and was seized and confined in the convent prison During the night the vicar general with a crowd of citizens surrounded the convent in a fashion so threatening that the scrivener was released It was not until July 18 that the inquisitor entered Tarragona when he suspended the excommunication and interdict and took testimony as to the affair banishing a man who said that the Vish had similarly refused to break a quarantine for an inquisitor Finally, on September 5 all of the dignitaries ecclesiastical and secular with the leading citizens were assembled in the chapel of the chapter in presence of the inquisitor and of Don Juan de la Nusa the lieutenant general of Catalonia There they humbly begged for pardon and absolution and offered to undergo any pedants that he might inflict allegiance to him and appointed the following Sunday for the penance when they were all obliged to attend mass's penitence with lighted candles in their hands thus incurring an indelible indelible stigma on themselves and their posterity Men who wielded their awful and irresponsible power in this arbitrary fashion were not to be restrained by law or custom and from their tyranny they themselves should check them He had already, by Cedura of March 26, 1488 forbidden all secular officials from the lieutenant general down from taking cognizance of anything concerning the subordinates and familials of the holy office under penalty of the royal wrath and a fine of 2,000 florins and when, in 1505 the deputados of Catalonia were involved in some trifling quarrel with the inquisitors he presented to Fernand that their jurisdiction was in derogation of the constitution of the land he sternly replied the jurisdiction of the faith and the execution of its sentences pertain to the inquisition that this jurisdiction was supreme over all others and that there was no fuero or law that could obstruct it this fateful declaration became practically engrafted upon Spanish public law It was impossible that such irresponsible power should not be abused and their speedily commenced a series of complaints from the Catalan authorities which as we shall see hereafter continued with little intermission until the revolt of 1640 at the present time however Fernand showed a disposition to curb the abuses inevitable under the system and in letters of August 16th and 20th and September 3rd 1502 to the inquisitors of Barcelona he enclosed a memorial from the Diputals of Catalonia accompanying it with a severe rebuke the chief source of complaint was that the receiver of confiscations bought up claims and prosecuted them through the irresistible machinery of the tribunal in a sample instance Franci Ballester made over to the receiver for 100 Libres a debt of 228 due by Juan de Trillo then collected through the inquisition Fernand said that he had frequently forbidden this practice and he ordered the inquisitors to excommunicate the receiver if he persisted in it the receiver then contended himself with a smaller profit and proceeded in the case of the confiscated estate of a certain Maul to collect from its debts for a commission of 10% whereby the creditors with the weakest claims got most of the money again Fernand prohibited this September 9th ordering all funds to be paid into the tabla of Barcelona for equitable distribution among the creditors and all commissions to be refunded at the same time there was no talk of the only effective way of cutting up these practices by the roots that of discharging the knavish receiver this tenderness for official malfeasance continued throughout the career of the inquisition and prevented any effective reforms the Balearic Isles Mallorca claimed to be a separate and independent kingdom governed by its own customs and only united dianastically with Catalonia in 1439 it complained that its franchises were violated by the Queen Regent when she summoned citizens to appear before her on the mainland for they were entitled to be tried nowhere but at home and her husband, Alfonso the Fitts admitted the justice of this and promised its observance for the future the frequent repetition of this privilege shows how highly it was prized and it rendered necessary a separate tribunal for the Balearic Isles this had long been an operation under the old institution and the inquisitor at this period was Fray Nicolas Meronna who was an inert as is brethren elsewhere the records of his office show that under him there were no relaxations that in 1478 there were four Huthazaires reconciled in 1481 in 1482 two and in 1486 one he was probably simulated to greater energy by the prospect of removal for in 1487 the number increased to eight not until the following year 1488 that the new inquisition was introduced when Fray Meronna was replaced by the doctors Pedro Perez, de Munebrega and Sancho Martín their addictive grace was so successful that 338 persons came forward confessed and were reconciled August 18th 1488 in addition to 16 reconciled August 13th after trial evidently the prosperous converso population recognized that the new institution was vastly more efficient than the old there must undoubtedly have been some popular effervescence of which the details have not reached us for the inquisitors were removed and replaced by native Fray Juan Ramón but if the change calmed the agitation it did not diminish the activity of the tribunal for the records of the year 1489 have seven autos in which there were 10 reconciliations 44 relaxations in effigy one of bones exhumed and six in person a monetary pause followed for in 1490 we find only the reconciliation of 96 pendentants March 26th under the addictive grace then in 1491 another edict was published of which on July 10th and 30th 134 persons availed themselves besides 290 of those already reconciled in 1488 and 1490 who had relapsed and were readmitted as a special mercy in addition to these records of 1491 show numerous autos in which there were 57 reconciliations 18 relaxations in effigy and 18 in person as elsewhere the delay in introducing the new inquisition had given opportunity for flight and for some years the chief business of the tribunal was the condemnation of fugitives thus in an auto of May 11th 1493 there were but three relaxations in person to 47 in effigy and in one of June 14th 1497 there was no living victim the bones of one were burnt and the effigies of 159 as unusual these proceedings against the dead and absent were productive of abundant confiscations and the fears of descendants were thoroughly aroused thus an aberration of an ancestor should be discovered which would sweep away their fortunes this gave rise to the expedient of compositions in which we shall see more hereafter as a sort of insurance against confiscation in the present case a letter from Ferdinand January 28th 1498 to the inquisitor and the receiver announces that these people are coming forward with offers and he orders the officials to make just and reasonable bargains with them and report to him when he will decide what is most to his advantage in 1499 there is an order given to the receiver Matteo de Morrano to make to the receiver Valencia 200 gold ducats to cancel some debts that were pressing on the royal conscience followed soon after by other orders to pay 450 ducats to the royal treasury and 50 florins to the nunnery of Santa Clara the confiscating zeal of the officials was stimulated February 21st 1498 by an allowance to Morrano to the nunnery in addition to his salary in reward of his eminent services arid another March 2nd of 100 Libras Mayorkins to the nunnery Bérepres it was not always easy to trace the property which the unfortunate naturally sought to conceal and the liberal offer of 50% was made to informers who should reveal or discover it it was as difficult to reconcile the Mayorkins as the Catalan to the new inquisition in 1517 the Suprema was obliged to order the viceroy not to maltreat the officials or obstruct them in the performance of their duty and at the same time the inquisitors were instructed to proceed against him if he did not cease to trouble them apparently he did not heed the warning for in 1518 the inquisitor was formally commanded to prosecute him what followed we have no means of knowing but apparently the viceroy had full popular sympathy for soon afterwards there was a rising led by the Bishop of Elna whose parents had been condemned by the tribunal the inquisitor fled and the populace was about to burn the building and the records when the firmness of the Bishop of Mayorka at the risk of his life suppressed the Talmud it was probably this disturbance that called forth in 1520 an adoration from the Suprema to the viceroy and the eclastical and secular authorities not to permit the ill treatment of the inquisitor and other officials it was impossible however to preserve the peace and in 1530 we find the viceroy his assessor and officials under excommunication as the result of a compendence or conflict of jurisdiction even more significant was the imprisonment and trial in 1534 of the Regent or President of the Royal High Court of Justice resulting in the imposition in 1537 of a fine so excessive that the Suprema ordered its reduction this was but the beginning and we shall see hereafter how perpetual were the enrollments of the tribunal with both the civil and the eclastical authorities End of Book 1 Chapter 5 Part 4 Recorded by Jamie Orango