A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

In 1801, the Suprema called upon the tribunals for information as to details and fees, the answer to which from Valencia indicates the purely financial view of the matter entertained by the officials. Since the royal orders of 1742 and 1764, it said, and for many years previous, no visits had been made, because the fee for large vessels was eight reales and four for small ones, while it was necessary to hire a carriage from the city to the Grao and a boat to the ship, so the cost was greater than the gain. In Denia the visits had been performed anciently, but for many years they had been abandoned.[1379]

In fact, it had for the most part become simply an impost levied for the benefit of the Inquisition on ships from foreign parts. The suppression of the Inquisition by the Córtes of Cádiz, in 1813, was followed by a decree stating that at almost all the sea-ports of Spain there was collected for the Inquisition a fee known as derecho de Inquisicion on all foreign vessels or those from foreign parts, and that in some places there was further levied on all packages of books and merchandise another fee for registration—all of which the Córtes now suppressed.[1380]

With the revival of the Inquisition under the Restoration, the visitas de navios were naturally resumed, whenever the opposition of shipmasters and foreign consuls permitted. Desiring to reorganize the system, the Suprema, June 17, 1816, called for information, the responses to which show that, at the ports of the northern coasts, for the most part, it was maintained as far as practicable, while on the Mediterranean shore, except in Majorca and Velez Málaga, it was in a thoroughly demoralized condition. No visits were made to the ships. Where they could, commissioners collected fees from vessels arriving from foreign ports, but consuls raised objections and, when subsequently the Suprema ordered the commissioner of Cádiz to enforce payment, he could not persuade the consuls to assent, as they simply referred him to their ambassadors. The matter slumbered until, in January, 1819, the Minister of Marine addressed to the inquisitor-general a complaint from the Hydrographic Office that it had been obliged to pay to a commissioner eight reales for examining two cases containing articles for it. This opened the way, and the Suprema laid before the king a long consulta, urging a reorganization of the system and presenting an elaborate series of regulations for his consideration, as the matter was of immense importance to religion and the state. The scheme resuscitated all the old details in the most rigorous form; indeed, as regards books, it provided that the packages should be sealed with sealing-wax, the duties were to be paid and the packages forwarded to the Suprema by some confidential person.[1381] No more effective plan could have been devised for preserving Spain from the contagion of foreign ideas and, even without this, the other provisions gave to the Inquisition the power of embarrassing largely the whole foreign commerce of the land. The scheme is of interest as revealing the aims of the Inquisition on the brink of its extinction. How it was regarded by the court we have no means of knowing for, before it could be acted upon, the Revolution of 1820 put an end to the active existence of the Holy Office.

LICENCES

The restrictions which censorship imposed on learning and culture were slightly relieved by the licences which were granted to possess or to read prohibited books. In the struggle with heresy, its confutation required that some persons should be allowed to read the works in which it was taught, and it became customary to grant the privilege to those whose firmness in the faith could be trusted. The bull in Cœna Domini of Paul III, in 1536, excommunicates all who read Lutheran books without papal licence, showing that already licences were issued and that the power was reserved to the pope. This power was valuable, and the officials of the curia, to whom it was confided, were subject to temptations which, in that age of venality, were not likely to be resisted. Inquisitors, moreover, assumed that this was included in their delegated apostolical faculties and undertook to issue licences, leading to a multiplication of privileged persons which nullified to some extent the prohibitory edicts. To remedy this, in 1547, the Suprema revoked all such licences and forbade their future issue by the tribunals, a provision which had to be repeated in 1549 and 1551.[1382] This still left the papal licences in the hands of those possessing them, but these were similarly annulled, in 1550, by Julius III, in a brief, from which we learn that papal legates also issued them.[1383]

They speedily multiplied again, and the Suprema took advantage of the Lutheran excitement of 1558 to procure their withdrawal. In its report of September 9th of that year to Paul IV, it represented that many prelates and frailes kept prohibited books, in spite of edicts and censures, refusing to surrender them on the plea that they held papal licences; in view of the danger thence arising to the faith, the pope was asked for a brief revoking all such licences, ordering their surrender under heavy penalties and authorizing rigorous prosecution of transgressors.[1384] Paul did more than merely respond to this petition. By a brief of December 21st, he revoked all papal licences and then, by another of January 4, 1559, he committed the execution of this to Inquisitor-general Valdés, who printed it in his Index of that year.[1385]

These briefs granted to the Spanish Inquisition no power to issue licences. So jealously was this reserved to the Holy See that, in 1574, Gregory XIII gave a special licence to Inquisitor-general Quiroga, with a faculty to extend it to members of the Suprema, in order to enable them to decide cases of heresy.[1386] This caution contrasts strangely with the favors shown to the Society of Jesus. Pius V, while yet inquisitor-general, granted to the Jesuit General faculty to issue licences; this was confirmed, vivæ vocis oraculo, by Gregory XIII and, to establish it more firmly, he was asked to embody it in a brief which he did, January 9, 1575, moreover releasing them from any censures or other penalty, by whomsoever inflicted, in so far as necessary to render the concession effective. Under this the Jesuits claimed to be independent of the edicts of the Spanish Inquisition, but it asserted its jurisdiction. In 1584 we find Padre Mariana applying for and obtaining a licence, through the Toledo tribunal, to read certain specified books—a licence which was withdrawn the same year. Still more aggressive was its action when, in 1587, it learned that some books had been received by the Jesuit Provincial, and the Suprema sent lists of them to the tribunals of Saragossa, Seville and Valladolid, with orders to examine them and detain such as they deemed proper. This assertion of control was repeated in 1602, when the Murcia tribunal was instructed to examine certain books belonging to the Jesuits and to return them if found unobjectionable.[1387]

LICENCES

The earliest formal grant of power to the Spanish Inquisition to issue licences would appear to have been made by Paul V early in the seventeenth century,[1388] but it had been exercised long before. The Index of Quiroga, issued in 1583, in its preliminary rules 3, 4, 5 and 8, assumes that inquisitors can grant written licences, but this power was held subject to the inquisitor-general and Suprema for, in the orders accompanying the distribution of the Index, consultation with them was prescribed as a necessary preliminary.[1389] From some examples of the period it would seem that only special and not general licences were granted, and that much circumspection was used with regard to them. Even Philip IV had no general licence until, about 1640, he wrote to Inquisitor-general Sotomayor that he had been amusing his leisure with Guicciardini’s History, until he was told that it was prohibited. He therefore asked for a licence to read it and other prohibited books not treating of matters of faith, for he would not accept a licence to read them.[1390] A curious partial licence was one granted in 1614, to Padre Gullo Sabell (William Saville?) to read Catholic books in the English tongue—apparently the language sufficed to render them prohibited.[1391]

The tendency of the Spanish Inquisition to assert its independence of Rome in matters of censorship was especially manifested with regard to licences. When in 1622, Gregory XV and, in 1631, Urban VIII, revoked all licences, the Suprema declared that it was not the papal intention to interfere with the licences granted by the inquisitor-general, and that they remained in force.[1392] The next step was to invalidate all papal licences and accordingly, January 18, 1627, the Suprema presented a consulta to Philip IV, representing that many persons in Spain obtained them, and supplicating him to order his ambassador to urge the pope not to grant them, adding that meanwhile it was deemed necessary to issue an edict annulling them. Philip was not prepared to sanction so flagrant an assault on papal authority, and replied that he would ask the pope to transmit them through the inquisitor-general, but that, until the answer was received, no innovation must be attempted. Urban took advantage of the request to assert his supreme authority in a manner for which the Suprema had not bargained, for he annulled all licences, both papal and those issued by the inquisitor-general, the only exception being the one held by the inquisitor-general himself. As all the bishops in Spain were ordered to publish this brief, the Inquisition could not suppress it, however humiliating it was. Cardinal Zapata accordingly published it, February 21, 1628, requiring the surrender of all licences within twenty days, under heavy penalties, and when he issued his Index of 1632 he included in it the brief and his edict.[1393]