FOREIGN HERETICS
This was too reasonable to be acceptable to Spanish fanaticism.Archbishop Ribera, in 1608, varied his efforts for Morisco expulsion with an earnest appeal to the king, expressing the grief which he had never ceased to feel since he heard of the peace with England, fearing, as he did, the offence given to God which would bring many evils on Spain. His affliction had increased in view of the excesses committed by the English in Valencia, living publicly in their religion and causing great scandal and evil example to the faithful and, at much length and with many instances, he proved that peace with infidels was forbidden by Holy Writ. This memorial was duly considered in the Council of State, when the Comendador Mayor of Leon reported that the king had ordered the inquisitor-general to be notified, so that he might instruct the tribunals to exercise great vigilance and to punish all who gave occasion for scandal.[1241]
When, in 1609, the twelve years’ truce was concluded with the United Provinces, the Dutch naturally claimed the same privileges as the English, and these were embodied in Article 7 of the treaty.[1242]The Inquisition did not submit quietly to this restriction on its powers and, in 1612, it issued a carta acordada, repeated in 1616, asserting that these privileges applied only to transient strangers, and that those who were resident and kept houses were subject to the tribunals in all matters of faith like any Spanish subjects; it invoked, moreover, an old regulation of 1581, ordering special watch to be kept on them, so that what they did in private as well as in public might be known, full reports being sent to the Suprema. In 1620 it revived another instruction of 1581 forbidding foreigners in the seaports to keep inns or lodging houses.[1243]Whether any trouble arose from these arbitrary constructionsof international compacts does not appear, but at least they manifested a desire to render the position of foreign heretics as precarious and uncomfortable as possible.
When the truce with Holland expired, in 1621, of course the privileges of the Dutch were withdrawn and, when war with England came in 1624, the Inquisition eagerly assumed the office of purifying Spain from heretical infection. Inquisitor-general Pacheco informed the king that papal permission had been necessary to enable Philip III to enter into the treaty of 1605; now that the peace had been broken and the causes of the papal permission had ceased, he was, as inquisitor-general, obliged in conscience to obviate the evils of Catholic intercourse with such pertinacious and pernicious heretics as the English and Scotch, by not permitting them to remain in his Majesty’s dominions, for otherwise he would be lacking in his duty to the king and to his office. He had therefore ordered an edict to be published that all Englishmen and Scotchmen, who were not Catholics, should leave the king’s dominions within twenty days, notifying them that after that date they would be punished by the Holy Office. As it was a weighty matter, of which the king should be notified, Pacheco added that he had not wished to execute it without informing him and he could issue such orders as he saw fit.[1244]It may be assumed that Philip did not approve of this insolent invasion of the royal power, for it was not till April 22, 1626, that he issued a proclamation forbidding all commercial intercourse with England and ordering the confiscation of all English goods imported in contravention of its commands, when the Inquisition followed by a carta acordada of May 29th, prescribing the prosecution, in the regular way, of all English heretics who had sinned against the faith.[1245]
FOREIGN HERETICS
When peace was restored, in 1630, article 19 of the treaty revived the article of 1604 and Philip, as before, promised to provide that English subjects should not be molested so long as they caused no scandal.[1246]As before, the Suprema followed this, January 28, 1631, with detailed instructions that those who kept house should be treated as Spanish subjects and be subjected to special surveillance.[1247]This unjustifiable distinction between transient and residentforeigners gave ample opportunity for molestation and blackmail. It was construed as applying the Index of prohibited books to residents for, in 1645, we find the Canary tribunal ordering its commissioner at Orotava to search the houses of the English merchants and report whether they found any forbidden books or books that had not passed the censure. The duty was performed and lists were forwarded, not only of books but of pictures and prints and, as nothing objectionable was reported, we may not uncharitably surmise that the commissioner’s labor was not unprofitable.[1248]As the rule had no legal basis, it probably called forth protests for, in 1652, the Suprema submitted the question of its legality to a number of calificadores, who unanimously agreed that it was not in accordance with the treaties, when presumably it was withdrawn.[1249]The espionage to which foreign merchants were exposed is portrayed, in 1648, by Pedro de Villareal, commissioner at Bilbao, who reports that there were sixteen houses in which the English and Dutch traders were lodged; he was confident that nothing heretical could escape his knowledge, for the keepers of the houses were faithful spies and very zealous in matters of religion.[1250]
A treaty of commerce with Denmark, in 1641, placed the Danes on the same footing as the English and, in the treaty of Munster, January 30, 1648, the Dutch obtained the same terms, while a special article placed the Hanse towns on the same footing as Holland.[1251]
Meanwhile, in 1645, the English merchants in Andalusia, by a payment of twenty-five hundred ducats in silver, had secured certain commercial privileges, one of which indicates how grudgingly their treaty rights had been interpreted. A foreign hereticappearing in court, either as party or witness, was asked whether he was a Catholic; if he replied in the negative, his oath was not received. This humiliating and injurious distinction was abrogated, and the Englishman’s oath was declared to be legal and binding, like the Spaniard’s, but it was difficult to make the courts accept the innovation, and the royal order, issued March 19th had to be repeated June 26th and again November 9th. By the Munster treaties this privilege was extended to Holland and the Hanse towns, and it was confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.[1252]
FOREIGN HERETICS
We have seen how difficult it was to make the Inquisition respect municipal law, and it was not likely to regard international obligations. Excuses could readily be found to bring the hated foreign heretic under its jurisdiction and, in the chronic penury of the time, the opportunity of rich confiscations was not likely to be lost sight of. In 1621 we hear of a number of Englishmen arrested in Málaga, with sequestration of property, and the same occurred in Seville, in 1622.[1253]Of one case we chance to have details—that of George Penn, brother of Admiral—then Captain—Penn, and uncle of William Penn, the Founder of Pennsylvania. He was in no sense a bigoted Protestant, or he would scarce have married a Catholic wife in Flanders. He took her to Seville, where he conducted a prosperous business until 1643, when he was arrested. His account of his sufferings is manifestly exaggerated though we may believe him when he says that he was tortured until he confessed all that was required of him—that he was a heretic who had married a Catholic in Antwerp, intending to take her to England and pervert her and their children from the faith. He was required to abjure in a public auto and ordered to leave Spain within three months, while his wife was taken from him and he says was married to a Spaniard. The property confiscated amounted, according to disinterested appraisers, to £6000 of his own and £6000 belonging to other parties. On his return to England, beggared and broken in health, he sought to obtain redress and, about 1664, Charles II appointed him envoy to Spain, to enable him to urge his claims to advantage, but being then 63 years old he did not venture to go. During the negotiations atUtrecht, William Penn endeavored to obtain consideration of this case, but apparently without success.[1254]
The superb imperturbability of the Inquisition as to international obligations is evinced in a case occurring soon after the treaty of Munster. Paul Jerome Estagema, a citizen of Hoorn, was arrested at Alicante and tried by the Valencia tribunal. Influential people in Holland urged his release, and the Dutch ambassador, Anthony Brun, made forcible representations to the king, who wrote, September 15, 1651, to the Suprema, urging a prompt decision of the case and pointing out that, under the treaty, Estagema, as a citizen of the United Provinces, was not subject to the Inquisition. The royal request was treated with absolute indifference; Ambassador Brun kept urging the matter and, on December 16th, Philip repeated his application to the Suprema, and asserted the necessity of satisfying the Hollanders. Then the Suprema condescended to forward the royal letters to the tribunal, telling it to despatch the case without delay, which could readily be done as the trial had been finished on September 7th, and ordering it to report the sentence when pronounced.[1255]
At this period, political exigencies rendered both France and Spain desirous of an alliance with England. Don Alonso de Cardenas, the Spanish ambassador, endeavored to negotiate a treaty with Cromwell in 1653 and again in 1655, but the Protector insisted on larger toleration. In the draft of the projected treaty, Articles 22 and 35 not only repeated the previous provisions but added that Englishmen conducting business in Spain should be permitted, in their houses and ships, to perform divine service in their own manner, and to use their Bibles and other books, and that they should not be arrested for so doing or their property be sequestrated. When the treaty was submitted to Philip, he sent these articles to the Suprema for its advice, protesting that he was unalterably resolved to risk all his dominions and spill the last drop of his blood, rather than to yield anything that would be to the disservice of God, or prejudice in the least degree the purity of religion. In response to this the Suprema declared that the royal words ought to be recorded in imperishable bronze; it easily proved that by divine, canon and municipal law, a sovereign had no rightto permit such toleration; it quoted Gregory XV as ordering, in 1622, all rulers, under heavy penalties, to expel all heretics from their dominions, and it pointed out that heretics employed Catholic servants who would be corrupted, and that all cognizant of heresy incurred mortal sin and excommunication if they did not denounce it. These arguments were as applicable to the treaties of 1605, 1630, and 1648 as to the proposed one, but they sufficed; it was rejected, and Cromwell turned to France.[1256]Doubtless Admiral Penn felt a special personal satisfaction, when he avenged his brother by wresting Jamaica from Spain in 1655.
A secret treaty, in 1656, between the wandering Charles II and Philip, pledged the former to bring about freedom of conscience in England, but was discreetly silent about toleration in Spain. With the Restoration, in 1660, peace ensued and the treaty of 1630 was revived. In 1663, when a new treaty was discussed, England again put forward the stipulations of Cromwell, and Philip again consulted the Suprema with the same result. On Philip’s death, in 1665, the treaty of December 17th continued in force the provisions of 1630 and extended to all Englishmen the privileges granted, in 1645, to those of Andalusia. Then, in 1667, the treaty of May 23d defined more clearly that the pretext of conscience should not be used to inflict injury on Englishmen or raise any dispute so long as no manifest public scandal was caused nor offence committed. In this shape the relations between the kingdoms continued; the treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and those of 1763 and 1783 merely confirmed that of 1667.[1257]
FOREIGN HERETICS
With France, of course, relations were wholly different. When the Huguenot was grudgingly tolerated at home, he could expectno protection for his religion abroad, especially when, as in Spain, he could reside only by pretending Catholicism. The peace of the Pyrenees, November 7, 1659, merely provides, in article 5, that the vassals of each power shall have free ingress, residence and egress in the territories of the other, observing the laws and customs of the country.[1258]This did not, however, preclude reclamation in cases of special malfeasance, as when, in 1672, the French ambassador Villars complained of an outrage in Majorca. A French ship, arriving there from Barbary, September 6th, with a cargo of wheat, chanced to have as a passenger a Huguenot of position, M. de la Fent, governor of the Bastion de France, with a large sum of money. On learning this, the inquisitor arranged to seize him and embargo his property; he assembled a force and armed two vessels with which to take possession of the French ship, and he would have done so had not M. de la Fent prevailed upon the master to make sail. The queen-regent forwarded this to the Suprema, October 28th, for explanation, but it was not until November 19th that it replied, merely saying that the inquisitor of Majorca had reported, on September 21st, the arrival of a heretic and that, on October 3d, it had ordered him to take such action as comported with the service of the queen, the public peace, and the consideration due to the subjects of the French king, who were to be treated like the English and the Dutch.[1259]
As the attempt had failed, the Suprema made the best excuse it could, but with manifest equivocation, for the French heretic had not such treaty protection as the English. This was manifested, after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, when it was thought that fugitive Huguenots might have settled in Spain. In 1687, the papal nuncio and the French ambassador called the attention of the inquisitor-general to the matter, suggesting that the Holy Office should not permit their residence. Carlos II seconded their representations, and issued a cédula, February 28th, ordering his officials to lend all necessary assistance to the Inquisition. The Suprema sent this to the tribunals and followed it, June 14th, with detailed instructions, ordering a general perquisition to be conducted through the parish priests throughout Spain. Each tribunal was to collect the results, investigate them and vote, reporting the vote to the Suprema.Extreme vigilance was enjoined and the Suprema was to be kept informed.[1260]Judging from such statistics of the period as are accessible, this proved to be a false alarm, leading to no results, but none the less it indicates the dread inspired by the prospect of the intrusion of foreign heretics. There seems to have been a similar scare, in 1698, when the Suprema instructed the tribunals to order all their commissioners to report whether, in their districts, there were any heretics, transient or resident, giving in detail the nationality, sect, occupation etc. of each one, and this without loss of time.[1261]
This policy continued. In 1784 similar lists were called for. The answer from Valencia showed how successful had been the exclusion of Protestants, and how precarious was the position of those who ventured to reside in Spain. The tribunal reported, August 29, 1785, that it had instructed its commissioners everywhere and, where there were no commissioners, satisfactory persons, to make this secret investigation, with the result that there were no Protestants in the kingdom of Valencia, except in the city, where there were two—Mons. Champane, a Frenchman and Dueclaux, whose nationality could not be ascertained. Both were Protestants, although it was difficult to verify the fact, on account of their extreme care in attending church and in accompanying the sacrament when it was carried to the sick.[1262]
FOREIGN HERETICS
With the outbreak of the French Revolution, the desire to exclude heretics extended itself to foreigners generally, with the view of completely isolating Spain. In 1791 a decree of Carlos IV required all foreigners to be registered; those who desired to be naturalized must be Catholics and take the necessary oath of allegiance; transient residents were compelled to take out licences in which, among other details, their religion was specified; they were not allowed to exercise any profession or art or craft, or to follow any retail trade, or even to be servants, and all engaged in such pursuits were given two months in which to leave the country.[1263]When, however, the peace of 1795 put an end to the disastrous war with the French Republic and aroused apprehension of an approaching rupture with England, there was a feverish desire to placate France, showing itself in a royal cédula of May 1, 1796,prohibiting all tribunals, including the Inquisition, from molesting Frenchmen on account of religion, but those only were to be recognized as Frenchmen who wore the tricolor cockade. When war broke out with England, a further advance was made; Carlos ordered his representatives abroad to assure all foreign powers that in Spain strangers enjoyed full liberty of conscience, and in August, 1797, he forbade the Inquisition to trouble foreigners about their faith.[1264]We may be permitted, however, to doubt the sincerity of this. When, in the same year, the attention of the Valencia tribunal was drawn to a German merchant named Johann Foch, who called himself a Protestant, it applied at once to the captain-general to know whether he held the licence authorizing his residence in Spain, not being a Catholic. It proceeded with the case but suspended it because of his marriage with Bernarda María Pellicer, a parishioner of Santo Tomás.[1265]
This liberality, whether genuine or not, was only a passing episode. A document of 1801 shows that the decree of 1791 was still in force, and that the Inquisition was relied upon to carry it into effect. It is a series of questions addressed by the Suprema to the tribunals, with the answers from Valencia, and explains itself.
Q. Whether, prior to the royal order of 1791, foreigners not Catholics were allowed to reside, in the cases provided by the treaties and, if they were not permitted, what measures were taken to ascertain whether they professed Calvinism?A. In case of their not having the benefit of those treaties, as soon as the tribunal had knowledge of them, it made the requisite investigation and, on ascertaining it to be true, it notified them to quit the kingdom, if they had not special permission from the king.Q. If investigation led to the belief that a stranger was Catholic and it was subsequently found that he was not, but that he did not speak ill of our religion, or cause scandal, or insult sacred objects, to what punishment was he condemned?A. No recent case of this kind has occurred but, from some former ones, it is deduced that the Suprema was consulted.Q. Have those who established themselves in Spain, in virtue of the royal order of 1791, complied with the formalities which it prescribes?A. As no advice has been sent to this tribunal by the Junta del Comercio y Moneda, nor by the Intendente of the kingdom, it is inferred that no non-Catholic artists have established themselves, or else that the prescription to advise the tribunal has not been obeyed.Q. Whether they (non-Catholic foreigners) contract marriage with Catholics and, in that case, what is the religion of the children?A. But one case of such marriage is known—that of Juan Foch, a German of Lindau, who called himself a travelling merchant, with Bernarda María Pellicer of this city. This was in virtue of a papal brief, passed by the Council of Castile and with the royal exequatur, providing that he should allow his wife to remain a Catholic and his children to be brought up in the same faith, and she promising to persuade him to conversion. They were married privately, outside of the church and without banns or other public ceremonies. We learn from the Vicar of Los Santos Juanes, where they live, that they cause no scandal, comply with the obligations and that a boy has been baptized.Q. Since the royal order, about how many non-Catholic strangers have established themselves, naming some of the principal ones and their nation or sect?A. This could be answered only by examining the registers required to be kept by the captain-general and royal justicias. This tribunal can only have notice by denunciations, which has occurred only with Foch.Q. How manyautillos públicoshave been held with strangers since 1759 when Carlos III ascended the throne? State the name, country, religion and principal offences.A. Since 1759 there has been no autillo público for strangers.[1266]
Q. Whether, prior to the royal order of 1791, foreigners not Catholics were allowed to reside, in the cases provided by the treaties and, if they were not permitted, what measures were taken to ascertain whether they professed Calvinism?
A. In case of their not having the benefit of those treaties, as soon as the tribunal had knowledge of them, it made the requisite investigation and, on ascertaining it to be true, it notified them to quit the kingdom, if they had not special permission from the king.
Q. If investigation led to the belief that a stranger was Catholic and it was subsequently found that he was not, but that he did not speak ill of our religion, or cause scandal, or insult sacred objects, to what punishment was he condemned?
A. No recent case of this kind has occurred but, from some former ones, it is deduced that the Suprema was consulted.
Q. Have those who established themselves in Spain, in virtue of the royal order of 1791, complied with the formalities which it prescribes?
A. As no advice has been sent to this tribunal by the Junta del Comercio y Moneda, nor by the Intendente of the kingdom, it is inferred that no non-Catholic artists have established themselves, or else that the prescription to advise the tribunal has not been obeyed.
Q. Whether they (non-Catholic foreigners) contract marriage with Catholics and, in that case, what is the religion of the children?
A. But one case of such marriage is known—that of Juan Foch, a German of Lindau, who called himself a travelling merchant, with Bernarda María Pellicer of this city. This was in virtue of a papal brief, passed by the Council of Castile and with the royal exequatur, providing that he should allow his wife to remain a Catholic and his children to be brought up in the same faith, and she promising to persuade him to conversion. They were married privately, outside of the church and without banns or other public ceremonies. We learn from the Vicar of Los Santos Juanes, where they live, that they cause no scandal, comply with the obligations and that a boy has been baptized.
Q. Since the royal order, about how many non-Catholic strangers have established themselves, naming some of the principal ones and their nation or sect?
A. This could be answered only by examining the registers required to be kept by the captain-general and royal justicias. This tribunal can only have notice by denunciations, which has occurred only with Foch.
Q. How manyautillos públicoshave been held with strangers since 1759 when Carlos III ascended the throne? State the name, country, religion and principal offences.
A. Since 1759 there has been no autillo público for strangers.[1266]
This document has interest not only as showing the continued vigilance as to foreign heretics, but as indicating how thoroughly successful had been the policy of exclusion. The district of the tribunal embraced a long stretch of sea-coast, including such commercial cities as Valencia and Alicante, yet the non-Catholic stranger was still almost unknown, as he had been when the report of 1785 was made. Spain was a land to be shunned by all who were liable to be dealt with by the Inquisition, and it was left to its isolation. For those who ventured it, concealment of heresy was worse than its avowal. David Bonoran, a French Protestant, domiciled in Bilbao, succeeded in passing as a good Catholic. Becoming converted, he applied to the tribunal of Logroño to abjure his errors and be incorporated in the Church, when, in 1791, he was promptly prosecuted for having feigned Catholicism.[1267]
This sensitiveness survived the Peninsular War and was vigorous to the last. In 1816 there is considerable correspondence respecting the wife of Don Rufino de Acha, settled in Bilbao as a merchant, who had married in England a Protestant named Doña Juana de Ancell—presumably Jane Hansell. From this it appears that, after a discussion lasting nearly a year, she was given the alternative of leaving Spain or of conversion and that she accepted the latter.[1268]
HERETIC TROOPS
This persistent dread of heretics is vividly reflected in one of the last acts of the Suprema prior to its suppression. In 1819 it issued an elaborate series of instructions for the guidance of commissioners at the sea-ports in thevisitas de navios, or examination of all ships on their arrival. This was principally intended to prevent the introduction of prohibited books, which will be considered hereafter, but the sections devoted to heretics show that the regulations adopted at the treaty of 1605 were still in force. Foreign heretics were not to be prosecuted for acts committed abroad but, for anything done in Spain and causing scandal, they were to be arrested and transmitted to the tribunal for trial. They were not to be compelled to enter churches but, if they did so, they were to pay due respect to the Sacrament and, on meeting it in the street, they were to kneel or remove themselves out of the way. Strangers were forbidden to keep public houses for the entertainment of Protestant shipmasters and sailors or travellers. The commissioner was to be vigilant in ascertaining and reporting to the tribunal everything they said against the Catholic faith, how they behaved in public and in private and whether any scandal was caused to the faithful.[1269]Spain was the same as it had been two centuries before.
There was one exception, however, to the prohibition of the hated presence of heretics on Spanish soil. Constantly recurring war necessitated the employment of whatever troops could be had, irrespective of their spiritual condition. It was the German bands of Lutherans under Georg Fronsberg who sacked Rome for Charles V in 1527. Foreign mercenaries were continually in Spanish service, and they grew more indispensable in the seventeenth century with the decline both in population and military ardor. The revolts of Portugal and Catalonia, in 1640, rendered Spain the battle-field, and recruits from any source were welcome, who of course could not be subjected to inquisitorial interference, no matter what their faith. The Inquisition in vain pointed out the dangers thence arising. In a consulta of November 13, 1647, the Suprema related with grief that four hundred German soldiers, landed at San Sebastian, on their way to Catalonia, were disseminating their errors, distributing heretic books and outraging images.[1270]There was no help for it and, after war had ceased onSpanish territory, the employment of foreign regiments continued to excite its susceptibilities. In 1668, the Suprema arguing in a consulta for the maintenance of its prerogatives, urged that they were especially necessary, in view of the presence of such bodies of soldiers, many of whom were heretics.[1271]
Still, there was an effort made to preserve the Spanish organizations from wolves in sheep’s clothing. Fernando VI issued a decree, December 31, 1756, imposing the death-penalty on any heretic who pretended to be a Catholic in order to enlist and, in 1765, Carlos III modified this to expulsion from the kingdom under pain of ten years’ labor in thebagne, adding that, if the heretic when enlisting had sworn that he was a Catholic, he should run the gauntlet twice before expulsion.[1272]
ADMISSION OF CONVERTS
There was some slight compensation, for the presence of these heretics, in the field which they furnished for missionary work. There were frequent conversions, especially when the chaplains were zealous for the salvation of souls. One of these was Francisco Columbano Burke, chaplain of the first Swiss battalion, who held a faculty for this purpose as commissioner of the Inquisition. He writes, May 23, 1764 from Tarragona to the Barcelona tribunal, forwarding the abjurations of six converts in the Swiss regiment of St. Gall and giving the names of twenty-four others, who were ready for conversion. They were duly gathered in when there proved to be ten Calvinists and fifteen Lutherans.[1273]The exclusive jurisdiction of the Inquisition over heresy rendered its interposition necessary in this, for it alone could admit the heretic to incorporation in the Church, it alone could judge of the degree of his sin, determine whether he was rightfully a son of the Church through baptism, and whether he was worthy of admission through repentance. In theory he was a heretic spontaneously denouncing himself and, when these conversions became frequent, early in the seventeenth century, they took the form of a regular trial, in which the fiscal acted on one side and the convert had counsel assigned to him on the other while, in the form of abjuration administered, he pledged submission to the penalties of relapse in case of backsliding.[1274]Indeed the Suprema felt it necessary, April 22,1605, to warn the tribunals that foreigners coming forward voluntarily and confessing their errors were not to be imprisoned but were to be welcomed; their reconciliation was to be in the audience chamber, without sanbenito or confiscation, and with spiritual penances only; then they were to confess their errors sacramentally and receive absolution for their sins.[1275]Heresy, even congenital, was a mortal sin, to be duly atoned for.
Subsequently the rigor of these formalities was abandoned and the process was facilitated, although it was still formidable. Printed instructions for commissioners, apparently drafted in the eighteenth century, prescribe a minute examination into the life and history of the convert and his motives, so as to be satisfied that his object is really salvation. All details as to his baptism are to be specially inquired into, so as to be assured whether or not he is really baptized, and, if there is any doubt, proceedings are to be suspended until the tribunal can be consulted. He is also made to specify all the errors of his former religion, and to utter a profession of faith in which he promises to reduce, as far as he can, all heretics to Catholicism and to denounce them to the Inquisition. He is also to be asked whether he knows of any heretics save those permitted for the sake of trade, and whether any of the latter have transgressed the conditions of their residence. Also, whether he has ever professed Catholicism, and whether he has been instructed in it sufficiently to incur the obligation of its profession, in which case he is required to abjure and to be formally reconciled and is absolved from the excommunication which he has incurred, while, if he has never known Catholicism, he is absolvedad cautelam. If he is less than 25 years of age, a curador is to be appointed, with all the formalities, who is to be present and to consent to all the proceedings. There is suggestiveness in the contrast of this cautious detail with the multitudinous sprinkling by which Jews and Moors were incorporated in the Church.
PROTESTANTISM
Among converts the most curious case in the records is that of Joh. Heinrich Horstmann—with many aliases—of Borgenstreich, who supported himself during a long life by trading on the rivalry between Protestantism and Catholicism. Born about 1663, he was educated as a Catholic by the Jesuits of Prague. When about25, he changed his religion at Dresden, studied at Wittenberg, and for many years wandered through Germany, living on charitable contributions given to him as a convert. He even went to England, where the Archbishops of Canterbury and York assisted him. Then, in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, he supported himself as a Catholic ready for conversion, and in the Catholic ones as a Lutheran seeking salvation in the Church. Finally in the latter capacity he hit upon the lucrative device of saying that he had been baptized in the Lutheran fashion of one person administering the material and another the form; theologians would pronounce this invalid, and that rebaptism was necessary; some prominent person would be induced to act as godfather and would encourage him with a donation of twenty or thirty ducats, and possibly there was an additional collection from the faithful. On this he traded for the rest of his life, varied with an episode of having himself circumcised in Amsterdam and living for some years on the Jews there. This subsequently gave him trouble, for in Rome he was recognized as a Jew, he was tried by the Inquisition and sent to the galleys for ten years, after which he resumed the profession of a candidate for baptism. From Lisbon to Paris and Naples, he imposed on the credulity of the faithful, and it was reckoned that in all he had been baptized twenty-one times. A second visit to Spain, however, brought his career to an end in his eighty-ninth year. Repeated baptisms in Cádiz, Madrid and Valencia aroused suspicion. All the tribunals were ordered to be on the watch for him and, after a year of searching, he was arrested at Valencia in 1751. He told his story freely and fully; at first he said that his repeated baptisms were merely to gain a living, but subsequently he asserted that he was possessed by a demon, whom he hoped to eject by the repetition of the rite. Theconsulta de fevoted that, as an apostate and relapsed heretic anddiminutohe had forfeited his life, but that efforts should be made to save his soul, after which another vote should be taken. At this conjuncture he fell mortally sick; he refused to speak to those who sought his salvation and, when one of them told him, if he desired to die in Calvinism, to squeeze his hand, he seized it with such a grip that assistance was necessary to unloosen it. Thus he passed away in his heresy on February 28, 1752; the body was buried in unconsecrated ground in a box of quick-limeand, in an auto held August 26, 1753, the bones and effigy were reduced to ashes and scattered.[1276]
Thus, when divested of legendary amplification, Spanish Protestantism is seen to have been of importance only as serving to tighten the bonds which restricted the development of the nation. One of the most efficient means to this end remains to be considered in the censorship of the press.
CENSORSHIPof the press was not the least effective function of the Inquisition in arresting the development of the Spanish intellect. That it should suppress the utterance of heresy in print as well as in speech would appear to be inevitable, and yet no such power was included in the commissions of the earlier inquisitors-general, nor at first was this regarded as one of its duties. It is true that, as early as 1490, it burnt a large number of Hebrew Bibles and other Jewish books and, soon afterwards in Salamanca, it consigned to the flames in an auto some six thousand volumes of works on Judaism and sorcery.[1277]We have seen also that Ximenes in Granada burnt a mass of Moorish MSS., but these were extra-judicial acts, which there was none to call in question. In the Instructions issued by Torquemada and his immediate successors, there is no reference to censorship as an inquisitorial duty and, in the earliest manual, printed in Valencia in 1494, the only allusion to it is the prescription, derived from the canon law, that any one obtaining possession of an heretical book is bound, within eight days, to burn it or to deliver it to the bishop or inquisitor.[1278]
EARLY TOLERATION
In fact, the matter was not regarded as pertaining especially to the Inquisition. The earliest provision for censorship, called forth by the development of the art of printing, is a faculty granted, March 17, 1479, by Sixtus IV to the rector and dean of the University of Cologne, to proceed with censures against the printers, sellers and readers of heretical books.[1279]Alexander VI, in 1501, assumed it to be an episcopal function, when he called on the German bishops to keep a vigilant watch on the press.[1280]So Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1502, when they promulgated the earliest law regulating the issue of books, made no mention of the Inquisition.This law formed the basis of all subsequent legislation, and its uncompromising character foreshadowed the relations that were henceforth to exist between the government and the intelligence of Spain. No book was to be printed, imported or exposed for sale without preliminary examination and licence. In Valladolid this duty was imposed on the president judges of the royal courts; in Toledo, Seville and Granada on the archbishops, in Burgos on the bishop, and in Salamanca and Zamora on the Bishop of Salamanca, who were to act through examiners, paid by a moderate salary, not oppressive to booksellers and printers. When a MS. had been thus licensed, it was, after printing, to be carefully compared with the sheets to see that no changes had been made. Any book printed or imported and offered for sale, without such licence, was to be seized and publicly burnt; the printer or vendor was incapacitated from continuing in business and was fined in twice the amount received for any copies that he might have sold.[1281]That the censorship thus created was enforced with more or less regularity may be inferred from a remark of Chancellor Gattinara, in 1527, reassuring Erasmus against expected attacks—that nothing was permitted to be published in Spain without careful previous examination, and he fervently wished that an equally wholesome rule could be established in Germany.[1282]
The motive for this sharp and comprehensive legislation can only be conjectured. Before the Reformation there was little demand for the services of the censor. The Church was worldly; its supremacy in all matters of faith and discipline seemed to be so immutably established that it regarded with good-natured indifference abstract speculations such as those of Marsiglio Ficino, Pomponazzi and Agustino Nifo, and concrete ridicule like that of Sebastian Brandt, Thomas Murner and Erasmus. It was otherwise when the Lutheran revolt threatened the overthrow of Latin Christianity and spread with such rapidity that no man could foretell its limits. We have seen that, as early as 1521, Rome called upon Spain to prevent the introduction and dissemination of Lutheran writings, and that Cardinal Adrian promptly assumed that it was the function of the Inquisition to do so. There is no trace of any delegation of such faculty, from either the Holy See or the civil power, but his action was not likely to be calledin question, and the civil authorities were under oath to obey the mandates of the inquisitors, where the faith was concerned Accordingly, his decree of April, 1521, is couched in the most absolute terms; the books in question had been prohibited by the inquisitors and spiritual judges, wherefore the tribunals were instructed to order, under heavy censures and civil penalties, that no one should possess or sell them, whether in Latin or Romance, but should, within three days after notice, bring them to the Inquisition to be publicly burnt; the edict was to be published in a sermon of faith and, after publication, any one possessing or selling them, or knowing that others possessed them and not denouncing the offenders, was to suffer the penalties announced by the inquisitors, while all ecclesiastical and secular authorities were ordered to render whatever aid might be necessary.[1283]
Thus, at a bound, the Inquisition claimed and exercised the power of enforcing the prohibition of condemned books. The next step—that of condemning books—would seem to have been taken, in 1525, in an order to the vicar of Alcalá de Henares to seize all copies of a certain book of expositions of the Psalter.[1284]Then followed, in 1530 and 1531, various edicts showing the activity of the Inquisition in exploiting its new field of action. The heretics were printing their works under assumed names, or adding heretic commentaries to authorized books, for the detection of which the utmost vigilance of the tribunals was invoked; a clause was to be added to the Edict of Faith requiring the denunciation of all such works; the tribunals were to send executory letters to all towns demanding the surrender of Luther’s writings, and discreet persons were to be appointed to investigate the book-shops in search of this evil literature. When, in 1535, the tribunal of Valencia admitted that it had neglected to do this it was commanded to make the appointments forthwith and to have all condemned books seized.[1285]
CONFIDED TO THE INQUISITION
The Inquisition had assumed and was exercising authority to condemn books, to seize those in circulation and to punish their possessors, although it had no formal authority for any of these acts. It seems to have felt that the punishment of offenders, at least, required papal faculties and, when Inquisitor-general Tavera, in 1539, succeeded Manrique, a clause was inserted in his commissionempowering him and his successors to proceed against those who owned or read heretical books.[1286]The authority of the Holy Office was thus complete with regard to books after they were printed, but as to the equally important function of granting licences to print, its policy at first varied somewhat. The law of 1502 had confided this duty explicitly to judges and bishops, but, in 1527, the Inquisition invaded this by granting licences for Antonio de Obregon’s translations of some of St. Bernard’s and San Vicente de Ferrer’s works. Even individual inquisitors seem to have arrogated to themselves power to grant licences for, in 1530, the Suprema forbade them to do so, but it assumed for itself entire control over the matter, in 1536, by issuing orders that no book should be printed without a preliminary examination by the Holy Office.[1287]Reflection, and possibly experience, however, showed that this assumption of power carried with it a responsibility that occasionally might prove embarrassing, for books which it thus approved might subsequently, in the growing sensitiveness of orthodoxy, be condemned, and a carta acordada of 1550 definitely prohibited all such licences, adding that the Suprema did not grant them.[1288]It was wiser that preliminary approval and subsequent judgement should be in different hands, and this was provided for in an edict of Charles V and Prince Philip, in 1554, confining to the Royal Council the duty of issuing licences, after careful examination of the MSS. submitted, which, in the case of all important works, were to be retained for comparison with the printed sheets.[1289]Yet the Inquisition retained the right to stop the printing of any book denounced to it as heretical, and it seems for awhile to have occasionally issued licences, for a carta acordada of 1575 alludes to the approval of books and their licensing by inquisitors.[1290]This was probably the end of it, and the Inquisition tacitly declined to risk its reputation for infallibility by approving books in advance, which it might subsequently have to condemn.
The Inquisition thus restricted itself to the duty of condemnation.The prohibition might be total and the book be wholly suppressed, or partial, in which case its circulation was suspendeddonec corrigatur—until it should be expurgated of passages regarded as erroneous, misleading or offensive. For this duty it provided no machinery and did not profess to take the initiative. In the Edicts of Faith, it was made the duty of everyone to denounce whatever was contrary to the faith, and there were plenty of acute theologians and captious critics to whom it was an agreeable task to call attention to any word or sentence or proposition to which exception could be taken. The book was then submitted to calificadores, and their verdict, whether for suppression or expurgation, was submitted to the Suprema, or the book itself might be sent there for examination; in any case the decision rested with it and was communicated to the tribunals by an edict, which was read in all the churches and affixed to their portals, so that no one could plead ignorance. All who possessed the inculpated book were summoned, within a limited time, to surrender it for suppression, if it were prohibited, or for expurgation if objectionable passages were to be blotted out, and this under penalty of excommunication and fine, with threat of prosecution for persistent disobedience.[1291]