PORTUGUESE JEWS
Notwithstanding these superhuman exertions the inquisitors complained that their labors were unavailing; Judaism was steadily increasing; the misfortunes of the land were attributable to the idolatry of this evil rabble, and they clamored for more drastic measures. The Supreme Council, January 17, 1619, addressed to Philip III a consulta urging that prompt action was necessary in view of the contamination, and of the infinite sacrileges committed, to the scandal of the faithful. The king, it said, did not want vassals only, but good vassals, and it therefore suggested that, when a penitent was condemned to confiscation, he should also be banished; he would thus be stripped of everything and would not take wealth to enrich the enemy as now was the case. It also said that a general visitation was on foot which had already produced much result; presumably there were many in Madrid who should be investigated, and the king was asked to order a visitation there. One member of the council, Mendo de la Mota, went even further, and wanted banishment for all required to abjure for vehement suspicion. Philip responded to this with chilling indifference; if those who abjured for suspicion were banished, they would take their money with them; it was a doubtful measure and he wished the council to consider it further; as regarded the Portuguese in Castile, if a list was furnished, with notes as to grounds for suspicion, he would have them investigated. The list was duly supplied, but the investigation was not made.[762]
The effort was resumed the next year. On April 30, 1620, the tribunals of Lisbon and Evora sent to Philip relations of the autos held by them on the previous September 29th, so that he might see the large numbers punished on those occasions, and recognize the necessity of more active measures of repression. Among them were three canons of Coimbra, three frailes and several lawyers. Six canons of Coimbra, all New Christians, had been arrested; they were all appointees of the pope, and the king was prayed to ask him to close the door on all applicants for benefices of that race; also to order that none should be admitted to the Church, either as seculars or regulars, and none to public office—which indicates how little the prohibitory laws were respected.[763]
The youthful Philip IV was scarce more than seated on the throne when, in 1622, Fernando Mascarenhas, Bishop of Faro,urged him to provide some remedy for the political dangers apprehended from the New Christians. It was in evidence, he said, that they were all secretly Jews and the state was in great peril from them as they were very numerous. There was no city in which they were not powerful through their wealth and the important positions held by them, while the danger of detection and punishment might lead them to cause serious trouble through alliance with enemies. It was found that they secretly invested their capital in dealings with the Dutch, and in Dutch commercial companies and, if they ventured their wealth with these rebels, they would conspire with them, especially as the Inquisition was pushing them hard, arresting them all and they had no other remedy.[764]Israel has rarely had a more flattering tribute to its intellectual superiority than the fears excited by this remnant surviving through near a century of pitiless persecution.
Doubtless there were other urgent warnings which have not reached us and, in 1628, Philip called for a formal expression of opinion from his Portuguese prelates. By his order they assembled at Tomar and summoned to their aid all who were most distinguished in the kingdom for learning and virtue. After prolonged debates they submitted to him a series of suggestions to which he replied seriatim. In view of the failure of all previous efforts to abate the evils wrought and threatened by the New Christians, the remedy they preferred was the thorough expulsion of the whole race; if this were not practicable, at least those who were full-blooded Jews, excepting such as could prove their Christianity, should be banished, and their property be confiscated; as for those of half or quarter blood, all should go who had been, or who in future should be reconciled, or sentenced to abjure de vehementi, unless inquisitors were satisfied of their true repentance and conversion. To this Philip replied, proposing delay in the case of the full-blooded Conversos, and assenting to the exile of the reconciled and vehemently suspect. For the further relief of the kingdom, the bishops proposed that all who desired could, within a year, irrevocably expatriate themselves, selling their property and taking with them the proceeds, but not in jewels or the precious metals. To this the royal answer was that already there was unrestricted liberty to go, but as evils had arisen from their return, in future it should be prohibited. The next suggestion was significant; to check the spread of Judaic infection,by intermarriage, which was destroying the lustre of the nobility, no dower in such unions should exceed two thousand cruzados, and the husband should be disabled from holding positions of honor and dignity. To the first clause the king assented; to the latter he said that the existing laws in favor of the nobility should be enforced. To prevent the constant profanation of the sacraments it was proposed that papal briefs should be procured prohibiting all entrance into the Church of all who were New Christians, even in the tenth degree. To this the king promised to apply for such briefs and meanwhile the bishops should refuse to install persons bearing dispensations and report to him, and also represent to the pope the evils attendant on such preferment. The next suggestion was that the king should ratify and enforce the prohibition to hold secular offices and dignities, to which he replied that it should be strictly enforced. Finally, the bishops proposed that the New Christians should be wholly excluded from trade and commerce or, if this was not possible, at least from that which concerned the royal revenues, but to this Philip answered rather curtly that it was none of their business.[765]
Such were the views of Christian prelates, and even the partial concessions of the king seemed sufficient to threaten the New Christians with virtual extinction, but the whole portentous transaction served only to put on record the extremes to which bigotry could reach. As Luys de Melo suggestively says, after giving the documents in full, the orders issued by the king were not executed, and it would be superfluous to explain the cause of this to any one acquainted with the methods of government of the period. Yet it had one result, for the New Christians, in fear of the threatened consequences, paid to King Philip eighty thousand ducats for the privilege of leaving Portugal and, under this, some five thousand families emigrated to Castile, besides a countless number of individual stragglers, so that it would be a wonder to find any place in Spain not filled with Portuguese Jews.[766]Theyfelt themselves in perfect safety, for the Castilian tribunals refused to honor requisitions from those of Portugal.[767]Efforts were also made to obtain modification of procedure, but in vain. By a cédula of December 20, 1633, Philip expressed his approbation of the existing rules and refused all change; moreover, he gave to Inquisitor-general de Castro all the memorials, petitions and arguments presented to him, thus furnishing to the Inquisition the names of those upon whom to wreak its vengeance.[768]
The question of transit to France came up again in 1632, when the Suprema notified Philip that the commissioner at Pampeluna reported that troops of Portuguese families were passing into France, many of them people of wealth, with litters and coaches, and the Inquisition did not interfere with them, as the last instructions were that they should not be impeded. The result of this representation was that the orders of 1619 were repeated.[769]Not content with retaining those who wished to expatriate themselves, when the Admiral of Castile, in 1636, captured Saint-Jean de Luz, and there were hopes of conquering Guienne, which was ripe for revolt, the Inquisition took steps to seize the refugees who might have settled there, though it had no evidence that they were Judaizers. It assumed that they were apostates and as such not included in the promises held out to the inhabitants at large, and that anyhow the cause of the faith was privileged. The king was therefore asked to order the admiral to send to the border all whom its agents might designate, so that they could be seized without attracting attention.[770]It is possible that some victimsmay thus have been procured during the brief time in which the Spaniards held their advantage.
PORTUGUESE JEWS
The refugees, however, mainly bent their steps to Holland, where they enjoyed free toleration and could work for their own advancement and the detriment of their oppressors. This was the leading cause of the effort to prevent emigration, and it was a matter of much concern. Luys de Melo says that there had passed to Holland more than two thousand families and, in those rebel states, they had purchased the right to establish synagogues. Those who publicly Judaized there were the same as those who, quitting Portugal assanbenitados, published that their confession of Judaism was under coercion of the Inquisition. Many who had lived in misery in Portugal were rich in Holland; they paid contributions to those rebel states, and assisted to maintain their fleets and armies; they invested largely in the East India Company, and thus were absorbing a great part of Spanish commerce and, under feigned names and in vessels of the United Provinces, they did a large trade in contraband goods.[771]In short, their commercial aptitudes were impoverishing Spain and enriching her enemies. The writer unconsciously points out how large a part intolerance played in the decadence of the state.
Nor was this the only mischief wrought by their hostility to the land that had driven them forth. In 1634, the Capitan Esteban de Ares Fonseca, in a memorial to the Suprema, represents the refugees in Holland as aiding actively the enemies of Spain, and as holding constant correspondence with spies residing there in the guise of merchants. The Dutch West India Company, he says, was controlled by Jews, who were large stockholders, and its chief profits were derived from piracy in the colonies, especially those of Portugal on the Brazilian coast, where the New Christians were numerous and were in correspondence with the enemy. It was two Jews, Nuño Alvarez Franco and Manuel Fernandez Drago, residents of Bahía, who planned and executed the capture of that place by the Dutch in 1625. Franco, he adds, now lives in Lisbon as a spy, under orders from Holland, and his brother Jacob Franco carries intelligence back and forth disguised as a Fleming of Antwerp. Drago is still in Bahía; he is a great rabbi and teacher of the Jews, and moreover is a spy who last year sent word to the Dutch to return there. The capture of Pernambucowas the work of the Jews of Amsterdam, chief among whom was Antonio Vaez Henriquez, known as Cohen, who had lived there, who arranged the plans and accompanied the expedition; he is now residing in Seville as a merchant, but is nothing but a spy. Last year he went to Amsterdam with a plan for the capture of Havana, where he has a correspondent named Manuel de Torres. At present a large fleet of eighteen sail is fitting out for the relief of Pernambuco, under command of David Peixoto, a Jew, who proposes to call at Buarcos and penetrate to Coimbra, where the Inquisition is to be burnt and the prisoners are to be liberated. It was a Jew of Amsterdam, named Francisco de Campos, who took the island of Fernando de Noronha; it could readily be recaptured, as it has a garrison of only thirty-four men with four cannon. In San Sebastian, there is a Jew named Abraham Ger, who calls himself Juan Gilles, under Dutch pay; he works much mischief to Spain and keeps a man named Rafael Mendez, who is constantly travelling back and forth.[772]
We need not accept all this as literally true, but it had an undoubted substratum of fact. In 1640, the tribunals of Lima and Cartagena de las Indias reported that in recent autos de fe it had been discovered that many Judaizing Portuguese in the colonies had correspondence with the synagogues in Holland and the Levant, assisting the Dutch and the Turks with information and money. To verify this, orders were given to open, on a certain day, all letters addressed to Portuguese throughout Spain. The information was found to be true; a cypher was discovered, used in correspondence with the synagogues of Holland, and further, that a million and a half of money had been pledged from Spain. The matter was appropriately referred for investigation to the inquisitor-general and two inquisitors.[773]What was the result, we have no means of knowing, but we may be reasonably sure that the rumors, which attributed to the New Christians of Portugal a share in the rebellion of 1640, were not wholly without foundation.
PORTUGUESE JEWS
They certainly benefited at first by the change of masters. It is true that João IV conciliated the Inquisition by intervening in its favor in a quarrel which it had, in 1643, with the Jesuits of Evora, and by attending, with his family and court, two autos de fe held in Lisbon, April 6, 1642 and June 25, 1645, in one ofwhich there were six relaxations in person and four in effigy, with seventy-five penitents, and in the other eleven relaxations in person and two in effigy, with sixty-one penitents,[774]but this we may assume to have been a matter of policy rather than of conviction, for his tendencies were towards liberality. He is even said to have contemplated granting freedom of conscience and liberty of residence to Jews, but to have been forced to abandon the purpose by the stubborn resistance of the inquisitor-general Francisco de Castro, Bishop of Guarda,[775]but this is probably a Spanish exaggeration of an intention to modify the rigor of inquisitorial procedure, which he was obliged to forego through the impossibility of obtaining the requisite papal confirmation.[776]Spanish influence in Italy sufficed to prevent the Holy See from recognizing or holding relations with the House of Braganza, until, by the treaty of Lisbon in 1668, Spain abandoned her futile efforts at reconquest—a position which resulted in the vacancy of the Portuguese sees, as the bishops dropped off, until there was but one left, Francisco de Sotomayor, a Dominican who chanced to be bishop of Targain partibusand who was made Bishop of Lamego in 1659.[777]
This impossibility of negotiating with Rome rendered necessary an indirect method of accomplishing his desire to abolish confiscation, which he recognized as a serious impediment to commercial credit and prosperity, especially through the sequestration of property at arrest. As it was provided by the canons it could only be abrogated by a papal rescript, and to evade this difficulty,in his decree of February 6, 1649, he disclaimed all intention of interfering with the functions of the Holy Office, which should continue to include confiscation in its sentences but, after this declaration, he made to the culprits a free gift of their forfeited property, which they could dispose of at will, provided it was in favor of Catholics, and he also abolished sequestration at arrest. But this was not only a free gift but a binding contract, under which the merchants engaged to form a trading company to enrich the country with colonial commerce and to provide, at its own expense, thirty-six war ships to serve as convoys for the merchantmen, all of which was impossible so long as the capital of the company was liable to be imperilled by sequestration and confiscation imposed on the shareholders. The inquisitor-general was ordered to have this decree filed in the secreto of the tribunals, and to enforce its observance, while João obligated himself never to revoke it.[778]The Inquisition subsequently boasted that it had excommunicated all who advised the king to this measure, and it actually succeeded in obtaining from Innocent X a brief of October 25, 1650, thanking God for what it had done and urging it to persevere.[779]Notwithstanding this, the Companhia da Bolsa was organized and, through its means, Pernambuco was recovered from the Dutch. There was flattering prospect of restoring Portuguese commerce but, when João IV died, in 1656, leaving the kingdom under the regency of his widow Lucía de Guzman, during the minority of Affonso VI, the Inquisition not only resumed confiscation but proceeded to collect the arrears since 1649. Altogether, Padre Vieira tells us, about 1680, they had gathered in up to that time some twenty-five millions, of which not more than half a million cruzados reached the royal treasury.[780]
PORTUGUESE JEWS
When Bishop de Castro died, in 1653, the attitude of the Holy See towards Portugal precluded the appointment of a successor, and the General Council acted from that date until 1672, whenD. Pedro de Lencastre, Archbishop of Side,in partibus, was appointed. The lack of a head seems rather to have stimulated than to have repressed its energies, and one can scarce comprehend how, after a century of such earnest work, so small a territory can have furnished so unfailing a supply of victims. Autos were held in each tribunal nearly every year, with so copious a number of culprits that occasionally they occupied two days, and one at Coimbra, in February, 1677, required three days to despatch its nine personal relaxations and its two hundred and sixty-four penitents. Peace or war seems to have made no difference. Evora celebrated an auto, June 23, 1663, with a hundred and forty-two penitents, although Don John of Austria, with a hostile Spanish army, was occupying the city.[781]
The explanation of this exhaustless reservoir of material for autos is to be found in the strictness with which the infection of blood was reckoned, without limit of generations; all who had the slightest admixture were reckoned as New Christians and were held to be Jews at heart. Intermarriages had been frequent, and so large a portion of the population was thus contaminated that foreigners generally regarded the Portuguese as all Jews.[782]Thus the field of operation of the Inquisition was almost unlimited, and every one whom it penanced became a source of stronger infection. The death of João IV removed what little restraint he may have ventured to exercise and, in 1662, the oppressed population, comprising so large a portion of the wealth and intelligence of the kingdom, made an attempt to purchase alleviation of suffering. A New Christian named Duarte, who had been penanced, in the name of his fellows, made a liberal offer of money and troops for the defence of the land, in return for a general pardon, the publication of witnesses’ names and permission to found a synagogue in which professing Jews might worship. Considering that in Rome there was a synagogue, there is some inconsistency in theenergetic brief of Alexander VII, February 17, 1663, denouncing the project and urging the Inquisition to resist it to the utmost.[783]Of course the attempt was abortive. Then, in 1671, the New Christians were suddenly threatened with a catastrophe. In the church of Orivellas, a pyx with a consecrated host was stolen. We have seen with what equanimity the Roman Inquisition regarded this offence, but in Portugal the whole kingdom was thrown into consternation. The Regent Pedro and the court put on mourning; an edict ordered that for some days no one should leave his house, so that everybody might be compelled to give an account of himself on the fatal night. All efforts to identify the sacrilegious thief proving fruitless, it was assumed that the New Christians must be guilty, and the regent signed an edict banishing them all from Portugal—a measure opposed by the Inquisition, doubtless because its occupation would be gone. Before the expulsion could be enforced, however, it happened that a young thief near Coimbra, named Antonio Ferreira, was arrested, and in his possession was found the pyx with its contents. The most searching investigation failed to discover in him a trace of Jewish blood; he was duly burnt and the New Christians were saved.[784]
After this narrow escape, there came a gleam of promise. Few members of the Society of Jesus, at that time, were more distinguished than Antonio Vieira, who had earned the name of the Apostle of Brazil. He had long regarded the New Christians with compassion and had urged João IV not only to abolish confiscation but to remove the distinctions between them and the Old Christians. He had made enemies and the Inquisition readily undertook his punishment; his writings in favor of the oppressed were condemned as rash, scandalous, erroneous, savoring of heresy and well adapted to pervert the ignorant.[785]After three years of incarceration, he was penanced in the audience-chamber of Coimbra, December 23, 1667, and his sympathy for the victims of the Holy Office was sharpened by his experience of its unwholesome prisons, where he tells us that five unfortunates were not uncommonly herded in a cell nine feet by eleven, where the only light came from a narrow opening near the ceiling, where the vessels were changed only once a week, and all spiritual consolation wasdenied.[786]Then, in the safe refuge of Rome, he raised his voice for the relief of the oppressed, in numerous writings in which he characterized the Holy Office of Portugal as a tribunal which served only to deprive men of their fortunes, their honor and their lives, while unable to discriminate between guilt and innocence; it was known to be holy only in name, while its works were cruelty and injustice, unworthy of rational beings, although it was always proclaiming its superior piety.[787]
PORTUGUESE JEWS
The Society of Jesus could scarce fail to resent the affront put upon one of its most distinguished members; it was still a power in Portugal, and it made its influence felt. The New Christians took heart and, in 1673, they made an organized effort to gain relief. They asked to have the procedure of the Inquisition modified to that of Rome and, in order that the new system might have a fair start, that a general pardon be granted to those under trial.[788]The extent of the considerations offered for these very moderateconcessions shows how desperate was the condition of the sufferers, for they proposed to place within a year four thousand troops in India, and then yearly to send twelve hundred men, or fifteen hundred in case of war, besides an annual payment of twenty thousand cruzados and various other considerable contributions, including some important matters which there were reasons for keeping secret.[789]Against this proposal the Inquisition protested in two elaborate remonstrances, revealing the temper in which it habitually exercised its powers. It could find no words too strong to describe the wickedness of the New Christians, whose invincible adherence to their errors showed that punishment and not pardon was the only means to be employed; in place of mitigating the laws they should be sharpened, as heresy was steadily increasing, and to ask for the Roman procedure was scandalous, and in itself worthy of punishment. The regent was told that he had no power to overthrow the laws and he was threatened, on the one hand, with an uprising of the people, and, on the other, with an appeal to the pope. In fine, the proposed reform would bring desolation on the land and result in Portugal becoming a Judea. On the other side, the arrangement was warmly supported by many ecclesiastics, to which Jesuit influence doubtless contributed. Not only did the Archbishop of Lisbon favor it, but also thirty masters and doctors of theology, the professors of the University of Coimbra, seven ministers of the Inquisition, and many men of high position among both the regular and the secular clergy. The regent and his council gave it their approval and the matter was referred to the pope for his decision.[790]
PORTUGUESE JEWS
The debate was thus transferred to Rome where, in 1674, both sides submitted their arguments to the commission of Cardinals formed for the purpose. The advocates of the New Christians presented a scathing indictment of the Inquisition, doubtless one-sided and exaggerated and yet affording an insight into the abuses inevitable when secret and irresponsible power fell into unworthy hands. The great mass of victims, they asserted, were fervent and loyal Christians, who either were burnt for denying Judaism or obtained reconciliation by falsely confessing. A case occurring only the year previous, 1673, at Evora, was that of twonuns, burnt asnegativas. One of them had lived for forty years in her nunnery, with unblemished reputation and filling all the official positions in turn; the confessors who heard her before the auto were overcome by the fervent piety which she manifested and, when the procession was formed, she recognized among the penitents her own sister and nieces, who had saved their lives by denouncing her. She pardoned them and made a most exemplary end, invoking Christ with her last breath as the garrote was applied. Indeed, it was the evidence of many confessors that the greater part of those to whom they ministered at the autos were true and fervent Christians, and this was confirmed by the University of Evora, by Padre Manoel Diaz, S. J., confessor of the crown-prince, and numerous ecclesiastics of high standing.[791]
The trade of false witness was a thriving one, both for gain and the gratification of enmity. There were regular associations of perjurers, who made a living by levying black-mail on rich New Christians, accusing those who refused their demands, so that the unfortunate class lived in perpetual terror and purchased temporary safety by compliance. The matter was reduced to a fine art. The accusing witness would give a fictitious name and address, so that the accused could never recognize and disable him. Sometimes, indeed, when additional evidence was necessary, a witness would change his name and garments and give the required corroborative testimony.[792]
As an illustration of the arbitrary abuse of power, allusion was made to a notorious case occurring at Evora, in 1643. According to custom, a student of the Jesuit college was appointed to superintend the market. The servant of an inquisitor desired to buy a load of honey, in order to retail it at an advance, but the student interposed, because it had already been purchased for the use of the college, and would only let the servant have enough to supply his master’s table. For this he was imprisoned, tried, required to abjure and penanced as unsound in the faith. When the sentence was read in the presence of a number of ecclesiastics, the professor of theology, a Jesuit of high standing, appealed to the Holy See, to which one of the inquisitors replied that fromthat holy tribunal the only appeal was to the Holy Trinity, and the unlucky appellant was gaoled and severely handled. Jesuits were not accustomed to such treatment; the matter was laid before Urban VIII, who summoned the inquisitors to appear before him but, in the confusion of the war with Spain, the affair blew over.[793]
The statements as to confiscation explain the tenacity of the Inquisition in maintaining its position. The crown supported the Inquisition and was entitled to the results of its industry, but obtained little. The sequestrations were in the hands of the tribunals during the trials, which were protracted for five, ten or twelve years to the intense distress of the prisoners. During this time the management of the property was irresponsible; no accounts were rendered and, of the immense sums received, only occasional trifling payments were made to the state. The inquisitor-general had authority to make donations to the inquisitors, and this was liberally exercised in granting them sums of six, or eight, or even fourteen thousand crowns at a time. Commerce was most disastrously affected for, when a merchant with foreign correspondents was arrested and his property was sequestrated, his foreign consignors or creditors clamored in vain for the goods or debts belonging to them and, as this was a fate overhanging every man, Portuguese trade suffered accordingly. In short, while we may not accept literally the assertion that the Inquisition brought irreparable ruin upon Portugal, we cannot but regard it as one of the largely contributing factors to the rapid decadence of the kingdom.[794]
The contest in Rome was stubborn, but the New Christians gradually gained the advantage and, on October 3, 1674, Clement X, as a preliminary, issued a brief reciting their complaints, in view of which he evoked to himself all pending cases and committed them to the Roman Inquisition, inhibiting further action in Portugal, under pain of deprivation of office and other penalties, for all officials, including the inquisitor-general. Coimbra treated this as a general pardon and, on November 18th, discharged all those under trial, but the other tribunals seem to have detained their prisoners. It was probably with the object of releasing them that, in 1676, Innocent XI instructed his nuncio to permit the inquisitors to finish the trials, but not to inflict sentences of relaxation, confiscation, or perpetual galleys. If this was the object,it was unsuccessful. The Inquisition was sullen and celebrated no auto de fe between the years 1674 and 1682, save three private ones in the Lisbon audience-chamber, in each of which there was but a single penitent.[795]
The inquisitorial agents in Rome denied the assertions as to the arbitrary injustice of procedure and the coercion of good Christians to confess Judaism by the terrible alternative of relaxation as negativos. In the conflict of statement, it was proposed that the truth could be ascertained by the examination of the records, and Innocent consequently ordered the transmission to Rome of the papers in some specimen cases of convicted negativos. The inquisitor-general, Verissimo de Lencastre, Archbishop of Braga, refused obedience, on the ground that it would reveal the secrets of procedure. The pope naturally pronounced the reason to be frivolous, and treated this imitation of Arce y Reynoso’s course in the Villanueva affair with greater decision than his predecessor. After meeting repeated refusals, he peremptorily ordered, by a brief of December 24, 1678, that, within ten days after notice, four or five of the prescribed cases should be delivered to the Nuncio Marcello, under pain ofipso-factosuspension of the inquisitor-general and all his subordinates; if they continued to act, the inquisitor-general was interdicted from entering a church, and the others incurred excommunication removable only by the Holy See, while, during suspension, the episcopal Ordinaries were restored to their jurisdiction with full powers. Even this did not break down inquisitorial contumacy and, on May 27, 1679, another brief formally suspended them, while letters of the same date to the nuncio instructed him to prosecute them and report the result. This decisive action at length brought the partial submission that two processes were sent to the Portuguese ambassador to be delivered to the pope, but evidently this was deemed insufficient, for the suspension was not removed until 1681, when a brief of August 22d gave as a reason that the episcopal Ordinaries, owing to various impediments, had not been able to exercise jurisdiction and the prisoners were suffering through the delay. The raising of the suspension, however, was conditioned on the future observance of numerous modifications of procedure, under threat of reincidence of the penalties previously prescribed. The New Christians had especially asked for a change in the rule respectingnegativos but this, as we have seen, was unfortunately an essential part of the system and their desire was ungratified. The changes granted were of minor importance, and are interesting only as evidence of some specially iniquitous practices against which they were directed, and better treatment of prisoners was enjoined.[796]
Whether these modifications were observed and mitigated the rigor of procedure; whether the Inquisition was humbled and weakened by its defeat in the struggle with the papacy, or whether the material for its autos was becoming exhausted, it would be impossible now to determine, but there is no question that, after its resumption in 1681, the number of its victims diminished notably. The renewal of operations was celebrated by autos de fe held in the early months of 1682, with processions and illuminations and other demonstrations of rejoicing, but, in the nineteen years including 1682 and 1700, there were but fifty-nine relaxed in person, sixty-one in effigy and thirteen hundred and fifty-one penanced—an aggregate deplorable in itself, yet encouraging in comparison with its predecessors.[797]
PREJUDICE INFLAMED
From this sketch of the Portuguese Inquisition, we can readily estimate its efficiency in keeping the Spanish institution supplied with material as the native stock grew Christianized. Not the least unfortunate effect of this was its influence in maintaining the prejudice that might otherwise have subsided, and that consequently became one of race as much as of religion. The venom which we have seen in the work of da Costa Mattos was, if possible, exceeded in theCentinela contra Judíosof Padre Fray Francisco de Torrejoncillos, published as late as 1673 and reprinted in 1728 and 1731. In this popular exposition of Christian rancor, no story is too wild and unnatural to be unworthy of credence, if it illustrates the innate and ineradicable depravity of the Jew, and his quenchless desire to work evil to the Christian. The fablesof theFortalicium Fideiare repeated as incontestable truths, and new ones are invented to prove that the virus is as active as ever. It makes no difference if the Jew is baptized, for this does not change his nature and his faith, and he remains the same implacable enemy.[798]The same temper is manifested in a memorial, drawn up about this time by an inquisitor, in answer to a proposition for moderating the harshness of inquisitorial procedure. The writer was evidently a man of learning and culture, but his paper is a bitter tirade against the Jews, insisting upon their diabolical nature and asserting them to be much worse now than when they crucified Christ. The evil is in their blood, forcing them to hate and rage against Christ, the Virgin and all who profess the Christian faith.[799]Popular beliefs that they had tails, and that they were distinguishable by a peculiar odor which they exhaled and that, as physicians, they killed one out of five of their Christian patients, were persistent outgrowths of the hatred thus inculcated.[800]Even to call a man a Jew was an offence justiciable by the Inquisition, for when, in 1646, Padre Boil, a royal preacher, in a sermon stigmatized as a Jew Fray Enríquez, of his own Mercenarian Order, the tribunal of Toledo promptly sent for him and, after detaining him for six months, sentenced him to two years’ exile from the court, during which he was forbidden to preach.[801]
When, about 1632, the New Christians made an effort to procure a removal of their disabilities, Juan Adan de la Parra who, though an inquisitor was a poet and a man of culture, opposed it in an elaborate essay, cautiously couched in Latin, for the matter was too delicate for popular discussion. He did not pander to vulgar prejudice, but addressed himself to arguments of state policy, which are a curious illustration of what, on such a subject, an intelligent man regarded as conclusive. He deplores the decline of population, of agriculture, of shipping and of the mechanic arts, which he attributes to the insidious practices of the Jews, their avoidance of manual labor and their addiction to usury. Look at Portugal, he says, where this traitorous race stimulated the ardor of foreign conquest, until it embraced the East andWest Indies, and then cunningly corrupted the native virtue with the wealth and luxury thus acquired, until they have succeeded in eliminating the heroes and destroying the heroic spirit which rendered Portugal so formidable. It is this craving for oriental luxuries, shrewdly stimulated by the New Christians, which is undermining the robustness of Spanish virtue; the useful is neglected for the superfluous, and thus agriculture declines. He scarcely seems to recognize the tribute which he pays to the superior endowment of the Jew, when he winds up by foretelling that, if the restrictions and disabilities imposed on the New Christians are removed, they will acquire such power that they will reduce the Old Christians to subjection.[802]
There was some foundation for the fear that the barriers between the races would be removed. In the exhaustion of Spanish finance, Olivares, in 1634, opened negotiations with the Jews of Africa and the Levant, and royal licences were granted for the admission of individuals. In 1641, relations were resumed; they sent representatives whom he received and kept with him for a considerable time, silencing the remonstrances of the Suprema with the assertion that they were there on the service of the king. It was proposed that they should be allowed to reside in the suburbs of Madrid, in a separate quarter, with a synagogue, as in Rome. He won over some members of the Royal Council and some theologians to his plans, but the Inquisition was inexorable, and Cardinal Monti, the nuncio, told the king, in public audience, that Olivares must be dismissed if the harvest of the Lord was to be cleansed of tares and the risk be averted of ruining the faith of Spain. Incidentally Olivares interfered with the Inquisition, by demanding the papers in certain cases; Inquisitor-general Sotomayor refused but, finding himself powerless to resist, placed the documents at the foot of a crucifix, whence they were carried to Olivares, who burnt them and released a number of prisoners. It is even said that he contemplated abolishing the Inquisition, but Philip IV was too profoundly convinced of its necessity to both Church and State to entertain the project, and there may well be truth in the assertion that his quarrel with the Holy Office was contributory to his downfall. This put an end to all negotiationsand, in 1643, we find the Suprema instructing the Valencia tribunal to forbid the landing of the Jews who were coming from Oran.[803]
PROSELYTISM
Some stir was caused, in 1645, by two Jews, Salamon Zaportas and Bale Zaportas, who presented themselves in Valencia with a royal licence, dated in 1634, and one from the Marquis of Viana, Governor of Oran. They applied to the tribunal for permission to attend to their business in the city and to wear Christian garments, so as not to be mobbed. The tribunal was puzzled and ordered them not to leave the city under pain of two hundred pesos, while it consulted the Suprema. The latter represented to the king the danger impending on the faith from this disregard of his orders by ministers who issued licences, to which he responded with instructions to send them back to Oran: the causes leading to the cédula of 1634 no longer existed; if in future their coming were considered necessary, the Governor of Oran must report and await the royal decision and a special licence.[804]There is no reason to suppose that the venturesome Israelites had anything more important in view than private business.
One of the most prominent reasons urged for the establishment and perpetuation of the Inquisition was the zeal of the crypto-Jews in proselyting and the danger to which the purity of religion was thus exposed—an argument which served its purpose, however discrediting to the firmness of Spanish faith. Cases, however, were never cited in proof, nor could they be, for Judaism is a matter of race as much as of dogma; the Jews have never sought to convert the Gentiles and, in Spain of all lands, it was clearly preposterous that men, who could only exist by concealing their belief, would incur the certainty of detection and of pitiless punishment, by the unpardonable offence of seeking the apostasy of their Christian neighbors. What conversions there were were spontaneous, and these served to intensify the horror of Judaism and to keep alive the sense of danger arising from the presence of those suspected of cherishing the ancient faith. Fray Diogo da Assumpçao, burnt in Lisbon, in 1603, as a convert to the Lawof Moses, is said to have been led to this fatal step by witnessing the constancy in martyrdom of those who suffered for their belief.[805]A more remarkable case was that of Lope de Vera, which aroused universal interest throughout Spain, and pointed the moral that the safety of religion lay in the ignorance of the faithful, thus justifying the prescience of Valdés, when he placed on the first Spanish Index a translation of Josephus’s Antiquities of the Jews.[806]
Lope de Vera was the son of a gentleman of San Clemente, of gentle blood and limpieza. At the age of nineteen he was a student at Salamanca, so deeply learned in Hebrew and Arabic that, in July, 1638, he competed for a chair of Hebrew. His studies led him to embrace Judaism and, with the zeal of a convert, he sought to win over a fellow student, who denounced him to the Inquisition. There was a second witness, and yet the consulta de fe of Valladolid was not unanimous in voting his arrest; it had to be ordered by the Suprema, and was executed June 24, 1639. He freely admitted the truth of the accusation and much more, but denied intention, assuming that what he had said was for the sake of argument, and asserting that he went to confession and communion and carried a rosary. There was variation and equivocation in his successive audiences; there was delay and doubt on the part of the Inquisition, and the trial dragged on. On April 16th and May 23, 1641, he revoked all that he had confessed and then suddenly, on May 29th, he announced that he wished to be a Jew and to hold all that the Jews believed, for this was the truth revealed to them by God, which he would defend with his life. Hitherto he had believed what the Church taught, but now he adhered to the Law given by God to Israel; the religion of Rome and all other religions were false; he had never practised the Jewish observances but would do so in the future; no one had taught him this, but God, in his mercy, had brought him to the truth. Learned men were called in to wean him from his errors, but they declared his pertinacity to be terrible and that, with his knowledge of Hebrew, he would be most dangerous. He refused to have an advocate or to make defence, persisting that he was a Jew and would die for the Law of Moses. On August 8th the alcaide reported that he had circumcised himself with a bone, and the physician sent to examine him verified this andreported that he said he hoped to be burnt alive, for he sought the honor of martyrdom and would go to paradise.