A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

This came to an end, in 1663, with the appointment of a new commissioner, the Licentiate Domingo de Leguina, whose excessive exactions and arbitrary methods excited the bitterest dissatisfaction. One thing which was the subject of especial complaint was that, in place of examining merchandise in the warehouses of the consignees, he insisted on opening the packages on the quay, cutting the cords and scattering the contents, which were thus subjected to theft and to the vicissitudes of the weather; he even bored holes in casks of tar and explored the interior with a stick in the search for hidden books. Commerce on a large scale could scarce be conducted under such conditions, the prosperity of the port was seriously threatened, passions on both sides were enkindled and a controversy of the fiercest kind raged for years. The Señorio of Biscay took sides with the merchants and represented forcibly to the queen-regent the absurdity of ruining commerce and risking complications with foreign nations on the pretext of preventing the smuggling of prohibited books, considering the risks attendant on the attempt and the lack of purchasers for them if successful, in a community so ardent for the faith.[1369]

Both sides resorted to extreme measures. The Contratacion in 1667 ordered the merchants not to pay fees; the tribunal, with the approval of the Suprema, ordered Leguina to collect them; he seized goods and sold them by auction; he prosecuted some of the merchants and compromised with them for money; the English and Dutch ambassadors intervened with protests against the disregard of treaty stipulations; the queen-regent annulled the decree of the Contratacion forbidding the payment of fees, and against this the Señorio of Biscay, in a solemn assembly, November 7, 1668, protested, as a violation of the fueros, and adopted a decree prohibiting their payment; if attempts should be made to collect them it would resist and, if other remedies failed, a Junta General would be assembled to determine on further measures. Meanwhile, any secular official assisting Leguina was declared to be disabled for insaculation in the choice by lot for public office. This decree was published in Bilbao to sound of drum and fife, with general popular rejoicing, and Leguina could find no official to assist him in his work, even his notary being disqualified for an office to which he aspired. Then the Council of Castile intervened May 15, 1669, with an order to Leguina to levy no fees for visiting ships, an action probably induced by a forcible protest from the Earl of Sandwich, the English ambassador, in which the exactions of the commissioner were represented as infractions of the treaties of 1665 and 1667.[1370]

The serious character of the questions thus raised made an impression on the court and led to a royal decree of July 19, 1669, informing the Suprema that the vexations and excessive dues levied by Leguina on the commerce of Bilbao had aroused such hatred that means must be taken to avoid greater evils, by removing the officials and replacing them with others who would perform their duties without arousing complaints. An immediate answer was required to this, but the Suprema waited until December 23d and then replied in a long consulta, insisting that Leguina had been right from the beginning; that all laws or regulations infringing the immunities of the Inquisition were invalid, and the mere attempt subjected its authors to punishment. As the Suprema was immovable, an attack was made directly on Leguina by a royal letter and provision of the Royal Council, January 22, 1670, ordering him to collect no fees for visiting ships and to make his visits as his predecessors had done. When this was served upon him he made an unseemly reply and stopped the commerce of the port until there were eighteen ships waiting to discharge their cargoes. To overcome this, a solemn mandate in the name of the king and queen-regent was addressed to him, February 14th, reciting his misdeeds and ordering him to quit the kingdom or to present himself at court under penalty of twenty thousand maravedís. When this was served upon him by a notary, on February 23d, he reverently placed it on his head and said he respected it as the act of his king, but the next day he served upon the notary his declinatoria (denial of jurisdiction), stating that he was simply the servant of the Suprema and of the Logroño tribunal, in which capacity he had complied with the obligations of his office, and the Suprema had never brought a charge against him, wherefore he supplicated the king to inform himself from the Suprema as to the matters contained in these royal provisions, which had been obtained surreptitiously, and to recognize the justice of his reply and of his proceedings.[1371] The authority of the Suprema evidently was superior to that of the king.

VISITAS DE NAVIOS

Thus baffled, the queen-regent turned again to the Suprema, with a decree of April 1, 1670, in which she rehearsed the agreements of 1561, 1567 and 1576 as providing that no fees were to be levied; the visits must be made in the former fashion, so as to give no occasion of complaints of the violation of treaties, and Leguina must be removed. To this the Suprema replied, April 24th, insisting on the necessity of the visits; the resistance of Bilbao had proved contagious; the other ports were refusing to pay fees, and this would extend to the whole monarchy; the labor had to be paid for and the Inquisition had no funds for salaries. It further explained that, in view of the hostility felt for Leguina, the Logroño tribunal had replaced him, on January 3d, by Joan de Zabala, who had found himself unable to act, everybody being terrorized and refusing to assist him, so Leguina had resumed his duties. Then, on February 14th the Council of State had intervened and allowed the eighteen waiting ships to discharge their cargoes without examination, which was an invasion of the jurisdiction of the Inquisition and consequently null. At the end of February Leguina had been replaced by Don Iñigo Zubiaur who had been well received by the merchants—a fallacious welcome for soon afterwards it was learned that Zubiaur, though he reduced the fees, could get no assistance; his life was threatened and he asked to be relieved on June 20th.[1372]

It would be a weariness to follow in further detail these obscure quarrels which were carried on with equal tenacity by both sides. A new commissioner, Pedro de Irazagarria Butron, was succeeded by Miguel de Jarabeytía, who were as little successful as their predecessors. At length, on May 26, 1680, the king sent to the Suprema a protest from the Dutch ambassador as to the detention of vessels and damage to goods for the purpose of extorting illegal fees. This was followed, June 26th, by another from the ambassador of France, claiming that French vessels should be exempted, and that only packages of books should be examined. Then, on September 4th the king transmitted one from the English ambassador, and accompanied it by a sharp message to the effect that at the moment it was especially desirable to avoid giving just cause of offence to England, and that a prompt remedy must be applied. It was not until October 22d that the Suprema replied, insisting upon the enforcement of the visits; more books entered the port of Bilbao than all the other ports of the kingdom combined, and since these troubles began the visits had been so impeded that immense numbers of books of evil doctrine were filling all the public and private libraries.[1373] The Suprema was willing to embroil Spain with half of Europe rather than to spend a few hundred ducats in salaries, and equally reckless was its assertion as to the commerce in books at Bilbao. When, in 1648, it had called for reports on the visitas de navios from all the northern ports, Commissioner Villareal stated that no books had come to Bilbao for eight years. At none of the other ports was there any allusion made to books, except at San Sebastian, where it was added that they rarely came.[1374] When we recall the forty bales imported in one lot through Bilbao for Robles of Alcalá, in 1561, we can estimate the success of the Inquisition, during the interval, in securing the intellectual isolation of Spain and the flimsiness of the pretext on which was based this prolonged struggle.

Still the struggle went on, stimulated by fresh protests from the English and French ambassadors and met by the Suprema with vociferous assertions of the masses of heretical literature introduced into Spain. At length, on June 12, 1681, the corregidor of Bilbao, Don Juan González de Leon, a member of the Royal Council and judge in the Chancellery of Valladolid, in conjunction with the General Deputies of the Señorio, issued a proclamation imposing a fine of fifty ducats on all shipmasters, merchants and others who should pay the fees, thus uniting the royal and provincial authorities in resistance to the Inquisition. The Suprema met this, July 17th, by ordering Jarabeytía to collect the fees, in which if necessary he was to employ excommunication and collect evidence to prosecute those who impeded the Inquisition. This was a declaration of war, but it was accompanied with secret instructions that he was not to seize goods but to keep a record for future use, and that he was to lose no opportunity of reaching a compromise with the Contratacion, which could take the shape, as formerly suggested, of a lump sum in payment on every ship according to its tonnage.[1375] Here the documents at my disposal come to an end, but there can be little doubt that, on some such basis, a compromise was reached, as the Contratacion had shown a willingness to pay a handsome sum in gross, in the confidence apparently, that when the stimulus of fees for each package was removed, the examinations would be nominal and the commissioners would render their office a sinecure.

VISITAS DE NAVIOS

Barcelona was more fortunate than Bilbao. The opposition of the viceroy and the intervention of the Banco Regio prevailed against the efforts of the tribunal. In 1819 it reported that there was no trace of commissioners ever having visited ships, except when there were Jews on board, and that a letter of 1677 showed that visits were not made because shipmasters would not pay the fees.[1376] Elsewhere, abuses were rife. At Cádiz, among seafaring men, the Santo Oficio was generally known as the Santo Ladronicio, although there and in Málaga a judicious system of bribery was established, which removed most of the impediments of commerce, together with the obstacles to the importation of prohibited books.[1377] I have met with complaints about Valencia, Alicante and other ports and, in view of the prevalence of official venality, it may be assumed that at least many commissioners used their virtually irresponsible power for profit either by omitting supervision or rendering it unduly onerous.

In 1705 an elaborate digest of all previous instructions was sent to the tribunals with orders to impress upon their commissioners the necessity of constant vigilance to prevent the introduction of prohibited books; not only were bales, hogsheads, casks, packages and especially packs of playing cards to be examined, but the chests and beds of the sailors, yet the utmost tact and dexterity were to be employed, so as to avoid exciting the repugnance felt for these visits. If any controversy arose, the commissioners were not to proceed judicially but the matter was to be referred directly to the Suprema.[1378] In 1742 and 1764, there were royal orders issued prescribing rules and fees, which have interest only as showing the control acquired by the crown over the Inquisition.