CARLOS III
Thepersonnelof the Inquisition was visibly deteriorating and consequently forfeiting the respect of the community. There had long been complaint of the insufficiency of the salaries, which had remained stationary while the purchasing power of money had greatly diminished, and there had been no reduction in the official staffs to correspond with the dwindling business. Thus, in spite of theempleomaníacharacteristic of the nation, and of the privileges and exemptions attached to official position, it became increasingly difficult to fill the offices properly. As early as 1719, the inquisitors of Barcelona complained to the Suprema of the trouble they experienced getting people to serve, on account of lack of desire for the offices and the absence of advantage accruing from them.[856]In 1737 we find that the Toledo tribunal had neither a commissioner nor a notary in Guadalajara, the capital of a province which, in 1787, numbered 112,750 souls.[857]In 1750, a writer deplores that the stipend of eight hundred ducats is insufficient to support the dignity of an inquisitor, so that the inquisitor-general is not always able to make fitting nominations. Thisnecessitates the appointment of calificadores to examine the doctrines brought under review, resulting in the indefinite prolongation of cases, and also in lack of vigilance to suppress the errors perpetually propagated in books; when the calificadores are not paid, they are slow in their work and, to escape paying them, many things which ought to be referred to them are passed over.[858]That the respect felt for the Inquisition should diminish under these circumstances was inevitable and altogether, at this period, it presents the aspect of an institution which had survived the causes of its creation and was hastening to its end. Yet it had exercised too powerful an influence in moulding the Spanish character for it to disappear when its mission was accomplished, and we shall see how violent were the struggles attendant upon its dissolution.
Meanwhile it dragged on its existence under constantly increasing limitations. Fernando VI, it is true, gave it obstinate support in its quarrel with Benedict XIV over the works of Cardinal Noris, but he dealt a severe blow when, in 1751, he deprived of thefuerothe officials of the tribunal of Lima. Carlos III, who succeeded in 1759, came from Naples with the highest ideals of royal supremacy, coupled with less respect for ecclesiastical claims than was current in Spain; he surrounded himself with advisers such as Roda, Campomanes, Aranda and Floridablanca, who were more than suspected of leanings to modern philosophism, and his reign of benevolent despotism was marked with a series of measures designed to diminish or abolish the privileges of inquisitorial officials, to repress abuses and to tame arrogance. The complete control which he assumed over its functions is exhibited in the rules imposed, in 1768, on its censorship and, in 1770 and 1777, on its jurisdiction over bigamy, when he ordered it in future to limit its operations to the suppression of heresy and not to embarrass the royal courts. The theory thus developed of the relations between the crown and the Holy Office is formulated in a consulta of the Council of Castile, November 30, 1768: “The king as patron, founder and endower of the Inquisition, possesses over it the rights inherent in all royal patronage.... As father and protector of his vassals, he can and ought to prevent the commission of violence and extortion on their persons, property and reputation, indicating to ecclesiastical judges, even in their exercise ofspiritual jurisdiction, the path pointed out by the canons, so that these may be observed. The regalías of protection and of this indubitable patronage have established solidly the authority of the prince, in issuing the instructions which he has deigned to give to the Holy Office acting as an ecclesiastical tribunal.”[859]Under such conditions, he was quite content with its existence and, when Roda suggested its suppression and presented various documents to show that this had been discussed under Charles V, Philip II and Philip V, he merely replied “The Spaniards want it and it gives me no trouble.”[860]In fact, the time had not arrived for such drastic measures. The Abbé Clément reports a conversation with Aranda, October 29, 1768, in which the count warned him that it was necessary to speak of the Inquisition with great reserve, for people imagined that all religion depended on it; it was, in truth, an obstacle to all improvement, but time would be required to deal with it, and he advised Clément to allude to it only to Roda and Campomanes.[861]
With the accession, in 1788, of Carlos IV, there opened for Spain a new and disastrous epoch. Timid, irresolute, indolent, he had fallen completely under the influence of his wife María Luisa, an energetic and self-willed woman. Until 1792 he kept in office Floridablanca, who was succeeded for a short time by Aranda, and then power was grasped by Manuel Godoy, subsequently known as Prince of Peace. Cadet of an obscure family of Badajoz, he had entered the royal body-guard, where he attracted the attention of the queen, whose favored lover he was universally believed to be, as well as the favorite of her husband. He speedily rose to the highest dignities and became omnipotent; although a court intrigue occasioned his dismissal in 1798, he was restored in 1800, remaining arbiter of the destinies of Spain, until the “Tumult of Lackeys,” at Aranjuez, in 1808, directed against him, caused the abdication of Carlos in favor of his son Fernando VII. Light-headed, selfish, vain and unscrupulous, he was mainly responsible for the misfortunes which overwhelmed his country and from which it may be said not to have as yet recovered.
ALTERED FUNCTIONS
The outbreak of the French Revolution gave a new importance to the Inquisition. When the seductive theories of the Frenchphilosophers were preached as the foundation of practical politics, overturning thrones and threatening monarchical institutions with the doctrines of the social compact, the sovereignty of the people and the universal brotherhood of man, the Holy Office might claim that, as the foundations of social order were based on religion, its labors were essential for the safety of the State, while the State recognized that it was the most available instrumentality for the suppression and exclusion of the heresies of liberty and equality.
In this tumultuous breaking down of the standards of thought and belief, in this emergence of a new order on the ruins of the old, the functions of the Inquisition adapted themselves to the exigencies of the times, in other ways besides the increased sharpness and vigilance of its censorship. I have frequently had occasion above to refer to an alphabetical list of all the persons denounced to the various tribunals, from 1780 to 1820, some five thousand in all, and this, taken as a whole, affords us an insight into the change in the objects of inquisitorial activity. Judaism and Islam and Protestantism no more claim its attention. The Church is no longer threatened by enemies from without; what it has to dread is revolt among its own children. Three-fifths of the denunciations are for “propositions,” largely among the cultured classes, including a fair proportion of ecclesiastics. Their precise errors are not stated, but doubtless many were Jansenistic and more were hostile to the claims of the Church Militant and to the absolutism of the monarchy. There is also a large class of cases, virtually unknown a century earlier, significant of a vital change in the intellectual tendencies of the nation, calling for the special vigilance of the Inquisition. Popular indifferentism is revealed in the numerous prosecutions for inobservance or contempt of church observances. Even more noteworthy are those for outrages on images of Christ, the Virgin and the saints, and even for sacrilegious treatment of the Venerable Sacrament. In many other ways was manifested the weakening of the profound and unquestioning veneration which, for three centuries, had been the peculiar boast of the Spanish race. On the other hand it is not a little remarkable that there are very few cases of offences against the Inquisition, for, in all these forty years, there are but nine that can in any way be included in this class.[862]
At the same time, when we recall the old-time punctilious enforcement of profound respect, it argues no little decline in popular awe when, in 1791, a simple parish priest, Dr. Joseph Gines of Polop (Alicante) dared to address the Valencia tribunal in terms of violent indignation at the conduct of its secretary, Dr. Pasqual Pérez, when on a mission to collect testimony. He tells the tribunal that, if it does not dismiss Pérez it will sink greatly in his estimation, and his whole epistle breathes a spirit of independence and equality wholly impossible at an earlier time.[863]It was not without reason that, in 1793, the tribunal, in appealing for increase of salaries, complained of the decline in popular respect for its officials, which it attributed to their meagre pay and the curtailment of their privileges.[864]How completely the tribunals had lost their former energy is indicated by the abandonment, about this time, as we have seen (Vol. II, p. 98) of the publication of the Edict of Faith, which of old had been so impressively solemnized and had proved at once so fruitful a source of denunciations and so powerful a means of maintaining popular awe.
POLITICAL FUNCTIONS
Coincident with this, and as though the Inquisition felt that it was on trial before the people, there was a marked tendency towards amelioration of procedure, coupled with benignity in treatment of culprits. Allusion has been made above to the introduction of theaudiencia de cargos, through which the accused was afforded an opportunity of knowing what was alleged against him, and frequently of clearing himself without the disgrace of arrest and trial. There is a very suggestive instance of merciful consideration, in 1791, in the case of Josef Casals, a weaver, charged before the Barcelona tribunal with the utterance of shocking blasphemies in the church of Santa Catalina. A century earlier he would have been arrested and, on proof of the offence, he would have been sentenced to scourging or the galleys. In place of this Padre Miguel Alberch was instructed to report secretly as to the character of the accused, which he did to the effect that Casals had regular certificates of confession, but was of quick temper and occasionally broke out in curses. Then a commission was issued to Alberch to summon Casals and to represent to him the gravity of his offence and of the punishment incurred, and the mercy shown by the tribunal, which would keep a watch on him.
In pursuance of this the good priest reported that Casals was deeply repentant and desired to be heard in confession, which he had permitted.[865]The case is trivial, but of such was the bulk of inquisitorial business, and the temper in which it was conducted was of no little import to the people at large.
Partly this may be attributable to the modern softening of manners, partly to a growing sense of insecurity, and partly to the inertia which led the officials to shun all avoidable labor. It was becoming more and more a political machine and neglectful of the objects of its creation. During the inquisitor-generalship of Manuel Abad y la Sierra, from 1792 to 1794, we are told that, in all Spain, there were but sixteen condemnations to public penance. Abad was an enlightened man; he thought of assimilating the inquisitorial procedure to that of other courts of justice, and consulted with Llorente as to the formula for such a reform, but conservatism, however relaxed in practice, was not ready for total abandonment of the old methods. His design became known: he was forced to resign and was relegated to the Benedictine monastery of Sopetran, under a charge, as we have seen of Jansenism.[866]
In fact, an absolute renunciation of the old procedure would have largely deprived the Inquisition of its usefulness in its new political functions, to which its established methods were peculiarly adapted. When, in 1796, a powerful intrigue was formed for the overthrow of Godoy, the Inquisition was naturally selected as the only weapon with which to strike at the favorite. Three friars were found to denounce him, because for eight years he had avoided confession and communion, and because of his scandalous relations with women. Had Inquisitor-general Lorenzana been resolute, Godoy’s fate might have been that of Olavide, but he was timid. Archbishop Despuig of Seville and Bishop Muzquiz, then of Avila, who were the leaders of the plot, vainly assured him that Godoy’s arrest would insure success; he refused to act except under orders from Pius VI. Despuig then prevailed upon hisfriend Cardinal Vincenti to induce the pope to write to Lorenzana reproaching him with his indifference to a scandal so hurtful to religion. It chanced that Vincenti’s letter, inclosing that of Pius, was intercepted at Genoa by Napoleon who, to ingratiate himself with Godoy, forwarded to him the correspondence. Godoy assured his position and took a mild revenge, which does credit to his sense of humor, by sending Lorenzana, Despuig and Muzquiz into honorable exile as special envoys to condole with the pope on the occupation of his territories by the French.[867]In fact, Capmany describes the Inquisition of the period as devoted to the unholy work of an Inquisition of State, in order to preserve its imperilled existence, and its ministers as trembling at the sight of the infamous favorite, when they had the honor of joining the crowd of his flatterers.[868]
Inquisitors might reasonably feel anxious as to their position, for projects of reform were in the air. Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, the most conspicuous Spaniard of his time for intellectual ability and rectitude, had been exiled from the court, in 1790, and had betaken himself to his native Gijon, where for years he labored in founding the Instituto Asturiense. Desiring to endow it with a library of scientific works, he applied, in 1795, to Lorenzana for licence to import them, but Lorenzana refused on the ground that there were good Spanish writers, rendering recourse to foreigners unnecessary, especially as foreign books had corrupted the professors and students in various universities—a process of reasoning applied to works on physics and mineralogy, which Jovellanos characterized as amonumento de barbarie. The attention thus drawn to his library aroused the suspicions of the commissioner of the Inquisition, Francisco López Gil, priest of Somió, who secretly entered it one day while the owner was taking his siesta. Word was brought to him and he hastened thither, finding Gil examining a volume of Locke. Jovellanos turned him out, telling him that his office rendered him an object of suspicion and forbidding him to enter the building without permission. Gil became a spy and was probably the author of a denunciation which cost Jovellanos years of captivity.[869]
JOVELLANOS
He was suddenly recalled from his exile, November 23, 1797, to assume the position of minister of Gracia y Justicia, where he speedily gave the Inquisition abundant cause to dread him. A competencia had arisen between the Seville tribunal and the episcopal authorities over a confessional which it had ordered to be closed. The matter came before Carlos, who instructed Jovellanos to obtain the opinion of Tavira, Bishop of Osma, which he duly transmitted to the king, February 15, 1798, with a Representation arguing that the time had come to restore to the bishops their old jurisdiction in matters of faith; the object for which the Inquisition was established had been attained; its processes were cumbrous and inefficient, and its members were ignorant. The jurisdiction of the bishops could alone furnish an effective remedy for existing evils—a jurisdiction more natural, more authoritative, more grateful to the people, and fuller of humanity and gentleness, as emanating from the power granted to them by the Holy Ghost, wherefore the authority that had been usurped from them should be restored. Moreover he took into consideration the condition of the Holy See, deprived of its temporalities by the French Republic. Everything, he said, pointed to a fearful schism at the death of Pius VI, in which case each nation must gather itself under its own pastors. The papacy would endeavor to retain the cumbrous and costly organization of the curia, by increasing its exactions, and it would have to be reduced to the functions exercised during the first eight centuries.[870]
Jovellanos was a sincere Catholic, but after utterances so hardy it was not difficult for his enemies to convince the king that he was inclined to heresy and atheism. Godoy had grown alarmed at the ascendancy which he was acquiring over Carlos; his fellow-minister Caballero conspired with the Inquisition, and on August 15th the king signed the dismissal of his minister, whose official life had endured but eight months. A fortnight later a royalcarta ordendeclared it to be his unalterable will that the Holy Office should permanently enjoy its jurisdiction and prerogatives without modification.[871]Jovellanos returned to Gijon where he lived in dignified retirement for two years and a half. Hisoffence however had been too great for pardon and his influence was still dreaded. An anonymous denunciation of the flimsiest character was laid before Carlos, describing him as having abandoned all religion and as being at the head of a highly dangerous party, engaged in schemes for the overthrow of Catholicism and the monarchy. The pusillanimous king adopted the course suggested to him by the secret accuser. Before day-break of March 13, 1801, the house of Jovellanos was surrounded by a troop of horse; he was aroused from sleep, his papers were seized and transmitted to the ministry of State; he was kept in his houseincomunicadofor twenty-four hours, then thrust into a coach and carried, still incomunicado, across Spain to Barcelona and thence to Majorca, where he lay in prison until the abdication of Carlos, in 1808, and the consequent troubles effected his release.[872]
ATTEMPTED SUPPRESSION
A case nearly parallel was that of Mariano Luis de Urquijo, who followed Jovellanos in the ministry of Gracia y Justicia. He had no cause to love the Inquisition. Among his youthful indiscretions was a translation of Voltaire’sMort de César, which led the Inquisition to make secret investigations, resulting in the conviction that he was dangerously infected with philosophism. He was about to be arrested when Aranda, who recognized his merit, recommended him to the king and, in 1792, he was appointed to a position in Aranda’s office. The Inquisition had learned respect for royal officials and substituted for a decree of arrest a summons to anaudiencia de cargos, ending in a sentence of light suspicion of sharing philosophic errors, absolutionad cautelam, some secret penances and the suppression of his book, though his name was considerately omitted in the edict of prohibition. His official promotion was rapid and, at the age of thirty, he found himself a minister, employing his power, possibly with more zeal than discretion, in encouraging enlightenment and all humanizing influences. On the death of Pius VI he incurred Ultramontane hostility by inducing the king to sign the decree of September 5, 1799, restoring to the bishops the right of issuing dispensations—a measure which provoked long and bitter discussion. This was followed, as we have seen above (Vol. III, p. 504) October 11th by a sharp rebuke to the Inquisition, ordering it to confine itself to its proper duties and, soon afterwards, he presented to Carlosfor signature, a decree suppressing the institution and applying its property to purposes of charity and public utility. This was too bold a measure; the king shrank from the responsibility and Urquijo only succeeded in concentrating upon himself clerical hostility, which was reinforced by the enmity of First Consul Bonaparte, whose policy he had opposed. Godoy, who commenced to fear him as a rival, and who was irritated by some imprudent jests, withdrew his support. A triple prosecution was commenced against him by three inquisitors and he fell in December, 1801. He was sent to Pampeluna, to the cell which had been occupied by Floridablanca, and there he lay for a year or two, deprived of fire, lights, books and writing materials. He was liberated under surveillance; in 1808 he refused to accompany Carlos and Fernando to Bayonne, but he attended the so-called Junta of Notables there, accepted the French domination, served as secretary of State and, with the otherAfrancesados, sought refuge in France in 1813, dying in Paris in 1817.[873]
It is evident from all this that the opposition to the Inquisition was gathering strength and boldness, but that its foundations were too deep and solid to be overthrown without an upheaval that should shatter the social fabric. A well-intentioned, but somewhat absurd, attempt was made by Grégoire, Constitutional Bishop of Blois, whose fervent Catholicism, combined with equally fervent liberalism, was of service so essential in piloting the Church of France through the storms of the Revolution. In 1798, he addressed a letter to the Spanish inquisitor-general, urging the suppression of the Inquisition and universal toleration, as a preliminary to the redemption of Spain from despotism, and to enabling it to take its place among the nations which had recovered their rights. This was translated into Spanish and some thousands of copies were circulated; it may have made some secret converts but the only visible result was to elicit several replies. One of these, by Pedro Luis Blanco, told Grégoire, with more or less courtesy, to mind his own business; assured him that, if the Inquisition was suppressed, Spain would remain as intolerant as ever, and asserted that no Spaniard had ever imagined that coercion could be employed to obtain conversion. It was probably this, mingled with some skilful adulation of the kingand his ministers, that procured for the author, in 1800, the episcopate of Leon.[874]There was also an anonymous “Discurso historico-legal,” evidently by a well-informed inquisitor, probably Riesco of Llerena. It was the most rational history of the Inquisition that had as yet appeared, although it assures us that experience showed that penitents were most grateful for the benevolence shown to them, and that it was a tribunal full of gentleness, the centre of benignity, compassion and mercy, but also of justice.[875]
A third was by Lorenzo Villanueva, a calificador of the Valencia tribunal, whose defence of the reading of Scripture has been alluded to above. It was published under the transparent pseudonym of Lorenzo Astengo, his maternal name. In view of his subsequent career it is not without interest to see his indignation at the advocacy of toleration and his dithyrambic denunciation of the horrors to which philosophism has led in the assertion of human liberty. The first portion of his work is an impassioned and rhetorical defence of persecution, supported by ample learning. Vigorous is his denunciation of the modern theories of philosophism and the rights of man—since original sin, he asks, what rights has man save to slavery, to punishment, to ruin? So he combats at length the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people, which he stigmatizes as a delirium, a dream and a deception. Yet he admits that the Inquisition is not perfect—that it has committed errors through imprudence, through ignorance, through excessive zeal, and through human frailty, and that it has prevented the development of some things which would aid the prosperity of the nation.[876]If, as has been asserted, he expected a bishopric in reward for this, he was disappointed.
POLITICAL UPHEAVAL
Thus, at this period the Inquisition was inert and its very existence seemed to be threatened, but its potentiality of evil was undiminished. It was still an object of terror to all inclined to liberal opinions, and it was regarded by the Conservatives as the bulwark protecting the land from the deluge of modern thought.
Feeble though it might be in appearance we shall see how prolonged and stubborn was the contest required for its final suppression.
The treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, 1807, dismembered Portugal, of which Godoy was to have the southern portion, as an independent kingdom, and the King of Etruria (Ferdinand of Parma) the northern portion. Napoleon sent Junot with an army which, accompanied by Spanish troops, speedily overran the land, when Junot issued a decree declaring Portugal annexed to the empire. Simultaneously French armies, under Dupont and Moncey, entered Spain and occupied the strongholds of Pampeluna, Barcelona, Figueras and other places. Murat was sent as commander in chief and took possession of Madrid. The Tumult of Aranjuez drove Godoy from power and, on March 19, 1808, Carlos abdicated in favor of his son, Fernando VII, whose accession was received with enthusiasm by the nation. Beauharnais, the French ambassador at Madrid, and Murat, however, refused to recognize him; Carlos protested to Napoleon that his abdication had been coerced; by various devices, Carlos and his queen, Fernando and his younger brother Don Carlos, were induced to go to Bayonne to lay their respective pretensions before the emperor. There, on May 5, Fernando was obliged to renounce the crown to his father and the latter to transfer it to Napoleon. Carlos and María Luisa were sent to Compiègne and Fernando to Valençay, where he remained until 1814. Meanwhile in Madrid, Murat, under instructions, ordered the Infantes Antonio and Francisco, the remaining members of the royal family, to depart for Bayonne on May 2d. The indignant populace rose, with the aid of a few officers and soldiers and, after a gallant struggle against the veterans of Napoleon, the insurrection was repressed with heavy slaughter, followed by numerous executions. The heroic “Dos de Mayo” was the signal of resistance to the invader and, in a few weeks, Spain was aflame; the desperate six years’ War of Liberation was commenced, and the nation showed what a people could do when abandoned by its incapable and cowardly rulers. With a soldier’s contempt for an unorganized militia, Napoleon pursued his plans. Joseph was called from Naples to occupy the vacant throne and was acknowledged as king by an Assembly of Notables,convoked at Bayonne in June, which transformed itself into Córtes and adopted a Constitution.
This summary of the situation is necessary to an understanding of the position of the Inquisition. Whatever may have been the views of some of the local tribunals, the central body accepted the intrusive domination and wasafrancesado—a term which, to the patriots, became one of the bitterest contempt. The Constitution of Bayonne provided that, in Spanish territories, no religion save Roman Catholicism should be tolerated. Raimundo Ethenard, Dean of the Suprema, was a member of the Córtes and, when he took the oath of allegiance to Joseph, the latter assured him that Spain was fortunate in that the true faith alone was there honored. When the Constitution was under consideration, two members, Pablo Arribas and José Gómez Hermosilla, advocated the suppression of the Inquisition, but Ethenard and his colleagues of the Inquisition, Galarza, Hevia Noriega and Amarillas, successfully opposed it, although they admitted that, in conformity with public opinion, its procedure should be made to conform to that of the spiritual courts in criminal cases.[877]
SUPPRESSION BY NAPOLEON
The Inquisition thus deemed itself safe and earnestly supported the Napoleonic government. After the sanguinary suppression of the Madrid rising on May 2d, it made haste to counteract the impression produced and, on the 6th, the Suprema addressed a circular letter to the tribunals, describing the affair as a scandalous attack by the lowest mob on the troops of a friendly nation, who had given no offence and had observed the strictest order and discipline. Such demonstrations, it said, could only result in turbulence and in destroying the confidence due to the government, which was the only one that could advantageously direct patriotic energies. The tribunals were therefore instructed to impress on their subordinates, and the commissioners and familiars in their districts, the urgent necessity of unanimously contributing to the preservation of public tranquillity. This communication was received by the Valencia tribunal on May 9th and, on the 11th, it was read to the assembled officials, calificadores, notaries and familiars of the city, with exhortations to comply strictly withits commands—action which was doubtless taken by the other tribunals.[878]
The Inquisition thus remained in Madrid under the protection of the French arms, but its freedom of action was curtailed. The Abate Marchena, a fine classical scholar, but revolutionary and tinctured with atheism, had abandoned Spain early in the French Revolution and had barely escaped the guillotine during the Terror. He returned, in 1808, as Murat’s secretary, when the Inquisition thought fit to arrest him, but Murat sent a file of grenadiers and forcibly released him.[879]When Napoleon reached Madrid, December 4, 1808, the capitulation granted to the city provided that no religion but Catholicism should be tolerated but, on the same day, he issued a decree which suppressed the Inquisition, as contrary to sovereignty and to civil authority, and confiscated its property to the crown.[880]The Inquisitor Francisco Riesco stated, during the debate in the Córtes of Cádiz, that this sudden decree was motived by the refusal of the members of the Suprema to take the oath of allegiance to the new dynasty, but this is evidently incorrect, as most of them had already done so at Bayonne, and Arce y Reynoso, who resigned his inquisitor-generalship, adhered to the French and accompanied them on the final evacuation. Riesco further asserts that Napoleon ordered them to be imprisoned, but they escaped and scattered to places of safety.[881]The Inquisition was thus left in an anomalous position and without a head, for correspondence with Pius VII was cut off, and neither his acceptance of Arce’s resignation nor his delegation of powers to a successor could be had. The Junta Central, which was striving to govern the country, attempted to fill the vacancy with Pedro de Quevedo y Quintano, Bishop of Orense, but he could obtain no papal authorization and made no attempt to act. It was argued that during a vacancy the jurisdiction continued with the Suprema, but this was denied and it remained an open question.[882]
During the period which followed, the tribunals maintained their organization and exercised their functions after a fashion, when not prevented by the French occupation. Thus when the invaders reached Seville, February 1, 1810, the Inquisition was suppressed, but its members took refuge in Ceuta. Valencia remained in operation until the city was captured by Suchet, in 1811, while Barcelona at one time transferred itself to Tarragona. Activity was intermittent and, in the excitement of that stirring time, there was little energy for the prosecution of heresy while, even when the enemy had withdrawn, in many cases the buildings had been ruined. The Valencia record shows that the total number of cases brought before all the tribunals in 1808 was 67; in 1809, 22; in 1810, 17; in 1811, 25; in 1812, 1; in 1813, 6. Probably few of these cases were regularly heard, if we may judge from that of Don Vicente Valdés, captain of volunteers who, in 1810, was denounced to the Valencia tribunal for blasphemous propositions. October 27th it was ordered that, in view of the circumstances, a fitting occasion should be awaited for theaudiencia de cargosdemanded by the fiscal—a postponement which proved to be protracted for it was not until 1816 that he was tried.[883]Still, where the Inquisition itself was concerned it could act swiftly and effectively. In 1809 the French took possession of Santiago. Felipe Sobrino Taboada, professor of civil law in the university, was acting as police-magistrate and, by order of the director-general of police, he issued a proclamation exhorting the people to lay down their arms and praising the suppression of the Inquisition. When the French retired, the university refused to readmit him to his chair. He obtained a decision of the tribunal of Public Safety of Coruña re-establishing him and then the Inquisition arrested him, without the prescribed preliminary formalities, and kept him for five months in the secret prison. Afterwards he was allowed to keep his house as a prison and, when finally the bounds were enlarged to the province of Galicia, it was with the condition that he would accept no public office.[884]
ASSEMBLING OF THE CORTES
The Junta Central, which had endeavored to govern, amid much opposition from the particularist tendencies of the provincial juntas, retired to Cádiz when the French occupied Andalusia.
On January 1, 1810, it issued a convocation for the assembling of Córtes, and on the 31st it dissolved, after appointing a Regency and imposing on it the duty of convoking the Córtes by March 1st. The Regency delayed until, forced by the pressure of public opinion, on June 18th it published a decree ordering elections where they had not been held, and summoning the deputies to meet in August in Isla de Leon, now San Fernando, near Cádiz. Suffrage was virtually universal and, in the letters of convocation, the nation was called upon to assemble in general Córtes “to establish and improve the fundamental constitution of the monarchy,” while the commissions of the delegates empowered them to decide all points contained in the letters and all others, without exception or limitation.[885]The Córtes accordingly assumed the title of Majesty, as embodying the will of the people and occupying the throne of the absent sovereign. When they were opened, September 24th, about a hundred deputies were present, two-thirds of whom were elected by the provinces not occupied by the French armies, and the rest selected in Cádiz from among natives of the unrepresented districts, including the colonies, then more or less in open revolt, while, as the vicissitudes of the war permitted, deputies came straggling in from districts unrepresented at first. As a whole, the body fairly reflected existing public opinion. The Liberals numbered forty-five, and the majority consisted of ecclesiastics, men of the privileged classes and government employees.[886]It was an unavoidably hazardous experiment, this sudden wrenching of Spain from the old moorings and launching it on the tempestuous waters of modern ideas, under the conduct of men without training or experience in self-government. Grave mistakes were inevitable and their constructive work was idealistic and doomed to failure—a failure bound to result in blood and misery. At the moment, however, there were no misgivings and the Córtes were regarded as the salvation of the nation.[887]
The oath administered to the members bound them to maintain Catholicism as the exclusive religion of Spain and to preserve for their beloved monarch Fernando VII all his dominions. Their first act was to adopt a series of five resolutions, offered by an ecclesiastic, Diego Muñoz Torrero, rector of the University of Salamanca, of which one provided that the Regency should be continued as the executive power, on taking an oath recognizing the sovereignty of the nation as embodied in the Córtes and promising obedience to their enactments. Rather than do this, the Regency proposed to break up the Córtes, but the threatening aspect of the people and the army caused a change of heart, and that same night they took the oath, except the implacable conservative Quevedo Bishop of Orense, who resigned both from the Regency and the Córtes. His resignations were accepted but he was forced to take the oath required of all prelates and officials before he was allowed to retire to his diocese. It was evident that the Córtes and the Regency could not pull together; on October 28th, the latter was dismissed, its membership was reduced from five to three and a new Regency was installed with which the Córtes could work in harmony.[888]
THE INQUISITION ASSAILED
After settling relations with the other departments of the State, the first attention of the Córtes was given to the freedom of the press. Two days after the opening session the subject was introduced and referred to a committee; no time was lost, a decree was reported October 8th, and on the 18th, in spite of the reclamations of the opposition, it was passed by a vote of 68 to 32. This was regarded as a preliminary attack on the Inquisition, which was thus deprived by implication of the function of censorship. Some members desired this to be explicitly stated, giving rise to a hot debate in which Inquisitor Riesco, a member of the Córtes, pleaded in vain for some honorable mention of the Holy Office. There was also indignation excited by the provision subjecting prohibition by the bishops to revision by the secular power, which was subversive of the imprescriptible rights of the Church, whose judgements are final.[889]If this was really the first move in a campaign against the Inquisition, it was not unskilful, for it set at liberty the pens which had hitherto been restrained. At oncethere arose a crowd of pamphleteers and journalists, not only in Cádiz but throughout Spain, who attacked the institution unsparingly, raising a clamor which showed how severe had been the repression. Sturdy defenders were not lacking and the wordy war was vigorously waged. The two most prominent champions on either side were Antonio Puigblanch, who, under the pseudonym of Natanael Jomtob, issued a series of pamphlets, collected under the title of “La Inquisicion sin Máscara” or “The Inquisition unmasked,” and Padre Maestro Fray Francisco Alvarado, a Dominican of high repute for learning and eloquence, whose letters under the name ofEl Filósofo Rancioor Antiquated Philosopher, continued for two years to keep up the struggle against all the innovations of the Liberals.[890]
Puigblanch was no exception to the general rule that those who attacked the Inquisition were careful to profess the highest veneration for the faith and in no way to advocate toleration. His work commences with an eloquent description of religion as the foundation of all civil constitutions and Catholicism as the noblest adornment of enlightenment and liberty, the only question being whether the Inquisition is the fitting institution for its protection. He is careful to maintain to the last his abhorrence of heresy and his desire for its suppression, which he proposes to effect by reviving episcopal jurisdiction under certain limitations.[891]With all this his denunciation of the Inquisition was unsparing, and he had ample store of atrocities with which to justify his attacks, although there was unfairness in attributing to it, in the nineteenth century, the cruelties which had stained its previous career.
Alvarado was a man of extensive learning, but of little claim to the title of philosopher, whether antiquated or modern. Though his methods were not such as to make converts, they were well adapted to stimulate those of his own side, for he was an effective partizan writer, fluent, sarcastic, often coarse, vulgar and vituperative, using assertion for argument and indifferent as to truth. The chief value of his letters is the flood of light which they shed on the conservative attitude of the time, which explains much in thesubsequent vicissitudes of Spain. Philosophers, he says, are wolves, robbers and devils, monsters who cannot be regarded without horror, enlighteners who are nothing but ignoramuses and cheats and emissaries sent by hell. To seek to undermine popular confidence in the priesthood he holds to be a crime greater than the crucifixion of Christ. The ferocity of his intolerance shows how little Spanish churchmen had changed since the days of Torquemada. As to the relations of religion and the State, he assumes that the only function of the civil power is to punish him who offends the faith; the Catholic religion is as intolerant as light is of darkness, or as truth is of falsehood, and this intolerance distinguishes it from all religions invented by man. Repeatedly and savagely he proclaims that burning is the proper remedy for unbelief, and he tells his adversaries that, if they wish free thought, they may go to England or to the United States, but in Spain what they had to expect was thequemadero.[892]Such advocacy could only render the Liberals more eager to accomplish their work.