A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 2

by Henry Charles Lea

[444] Archivo de Alcalá, Hacienda, Leg. 544² (Lib. 10).—MSS. of Royal Library of Copenhagen, 218^b, p. 341.

[445] Bibl. nacional, MSS., Pp. 28, §§ 58-88.

[446] Tomás Sanchez, the supreme Spanish theologian, says “Licitum quoque est interrogare, non deprecative sed coactive, aliquam veritatem ad peculiariam Dei gloriam et astantium utilitatem quando adjurans prudenter judicaverit id expedire.... Ex levitate tamen et curiositate quadam res vanas et inutiles interrogare dæmonem in energumeno existentem est veniale propter actus imperfectionem.”—In Præcepta Decalogi Lib. II, cap. xlii, n. 24, 25.

The offence of Villanueva consisted in enquiring about the future and believing the responses of the demons. This was divination, which infers denial of free-will and is therefore forbidden as heretical. This is well defined in the Edict of Faith of 1696, which restricts the offence to enquiries as to the future—“O si sabeis ... que alguna ó algunas personas ayan preguntado en los cuerpos endemoniados ó los espiritados ó lunáticos cosas por venir ocultas, preguntandolas á los demonios.”

[447] S. Th. Aquinat. Summæ Sec. Sec. Q. XCV, Art. iv ad 1. “Aliud autem est inquirere aliquid a dæmone sponte occurrente; quod quandoque licet propter utilitatem aliorum, maxime quando divina virtute potest compelli ad vera dicenda.”

[448] MSS. Bibl. nacional de Lima, Protocolo 225, Expediente 5278.

[449] For most of the details of this case we are indebted to an anonymous memoir, evidently written by Folch de Cardona. It was largely circulated in MS. and finally was printed by Valladares, in 1788, under the title “Proceso criminal fulminado contra el R^mo P. M. Fray Froilan Díaz” and was followed by another volume of the same date “Criticos Documentos que sirven como de segunda parte al Proceso criminal etc.”

Consultas by Cardona, in the name of the Suprema, are in the Bibl. national MSS., G, 61; D, 118. A review of the case from the Roman standpoint is in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, Class 3, Vol. 27. The decree of Nov. 3, 1704, is also in Simancas, Inquisicion, Legajo 1465, fol. 74.

[450] Archivo hist. nacional, Inquisicion de Valencia, Leg. 1, n. 4, fol. 123, 134; Leg. 13, n. 2, fol. 13, 17, 54.

[451] MSS. Trinity College, Dublin, loc. cit.