A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

It was only in formal heresy that relapse entailed relaxation for, as we have seen, the stake was reserved for heretics. Where heresy was merely inferential, as in bigamy, blasphemy, solicitation in the confessional, reading prohibited books, and other offences reserved to the Inquisition, relapse was treated only as an aggravation, to be punished with such additional severity as the circumstances might indicate. Even relapse in the crime of administering the sacraments without being in orders, which the Roman Inquisition treated as the equivalent of heresy, was visited in Spain only with the ordinary penalties in somewhat rigorous measure. Thus Juan Vicente Esquirel y Morales—a man with a number of aliases who had been a foot-soldier—was penanced for this offence at Granada in 1727. He persisted in his evil courses and, in the Córdova auto of March 4, 1731, he was forbidden to wear clerical garments and was sentenced to two hundred lashes and ten years of galleys.[612]

The latter half of the eighteenth century witnessed the gradual disappearance of relaxation. Llorente tells us that during the reign of Carlos III (1759-1788) he has found accounts of only ten autos de fe, in which there were but four cases.[613] Probably the latest instance was that of Isabel María Herraiz, an impostor known as the Beata de Cuenca, who died in prison without confession and, being thus unable to recant and beg mercy, was burnt in effigy in 1802.[614] When it came to relaxing a living fellow-creature, however, the Inquisition by this time was honestly desirous of escaping the necessity. Padre Miguel Sorano, cura of Esco in Aragon, was an unmanageable heretic, who discarded tradition and the fathers and held that Scripture was the sole authority; purgatory and limbo were human inventions; fees for masses were simony; tithes were a fraud; the pope was not the vicar of Christ and his decretals were mere devices to raise money. All this he embodied in a book which he audaciously submitted to his bishop and other theologians. Tried by the Saragossa tribunal, he was pertinaciously impenitent, impervious alike to argument and threats, and there was no alternative but to vote for relaxation. Then the Suprema ordered fresh testimony to be sought and renewed efforts at conversion, but all proved fruitless and again relaxation was voted. As a last resource the Suprema ordered an investigation into his sanity. All the population of the vicinage was examined, and one doctor was found to say that some years before he had been dangerously sick, which might have affected his brain, and since then he had talked freely of these heretical doctrines. Taking advantage of this, renewed efforts were made to convert him without coming to a vote. While this was in progress he was attacked with mortal illness and, at the end of twenty days, he was told that the end was near. He merely said that he was in the hands of God; he refused all the consolations of religion and passed away unrepentant in 1805, to be buried in unconsecrated ground, when the Suprema ordered the case to be closed, without proceeding to conviction and burning in effigy.[615] We shall see that twenty years later the episcopal Inquisition was less merciful.

CHAPTER V.
THE AUTO DE FE.

THE Act of Faith—the Auto de Fe—was the name by which the Spanish Holy Office dignified the Sermo of the Old Inquisition. In its full development it was an elaborate public solemnity, carefully devised to inspire awe for the mysterious authority of the Inquisition, and to impress the population with a wholesome abhorrence of heresy, by representing in so far as it could the tremendous drama of the Day of Judgement.[616] It was regarded as an eminently pious duty. Ferdinand, in 1499, congratulating the inquisitors of Saragossa on the reports of their autos, and the consequent edification of the people, exhorts them to continue to serve God and to discharge their consciences and his. In a similar mood Cardinal Adrian, in 1517, urged the tribunal of Sicily to celebrate one as early as possible for, besides the service to God, it would greatly edify the people.[617] The old designation of Sermo was derived from the sermon with which the proceedings commenced—originally preached by one of the inquisitors, but subsequently by some eloquent fraile, who dilated on the supreme importance of preserving the faith in its purity and of exterminating heresy and heretics. To insure a large attendance, an indulgence, usually of forty days, was granted to all present at the pious work.

At the height of its power the Inquisition spared no labor or expense to lend impressiveness to the auto publico general, as a demonstration of its authority and of the success with which it performed its functions. In the earlier and busier period, the exhibition was simpler, and confined to the practical work in hand. Thus in the first one celebrated in Toledo, August 16, 1486, the victims were marched on foot to the plaza, their hands tied with ropes across the breast, wearing sanbenitos of yellow linen with their names and the inscription “herege condenado,” and bearing mitres on their heads. In the plaza they were ranged in tiers on a staging, while the inquisitors and their officials occupied another staging opposite. The sentence of each one was read and, although the culprits were numerous, the affair, commencing at 6 A.M., was over by noon, when the convicts were carried to the brasero or quemadero for burning. Apparently the exhibition consisted only of those condemned to the stake, to the exclusion of the reconciled or otherwise penanced.[618] The autos of the period, moreover, were not confined to the seats of the tribunals. We hear of them in the smaller towns, and, from a letter of Ferdinand, November 21, 1498, it appears that the convicts were distributed to their several bishoprics where the celebration and execution, though on a minor scale, would bring the terror of the Inquisition and the danger of heresy more directly home to the people.[619] By 1515, however, we may assume that they were centralized in the tribunal cities, for a royal cédula of that year orders the tribunal of Murcia to confine its autos to the city of Murcia and not to celebrate them in Orihuela.[620] It was evidently desired to render them more impressive, and this was further accomplished, about the same time, by requiring all penitents to appear in them for, in 1517, we find the Suprema instructing the tribunal of Navarre that, in future, abjurations de levi were not to be made privately, but in the public autos, which were to be celebrated with all solemnity.[621] There was cruelty in this, for appearance in an auto was in itself a severe punishment, and we shall see that subsequently autos particulares, or private autos, were instituted which enabled those guilty of lighter offences to escape without public humiliation.

IMPOSING SOLEMNITIES

Thus far autos were held at the discretion of the tribunals, which celebrated them whenever there was an accumulation of finished trials requiring relief to the prisons. A consulta de fe would be assembled, the sentences would be agreed upon, and a day would be appointed. It probably was not often that any external interference was apprehended, as at Cuenca, in 1520, where the tribunal had so excited popular passion by arresting the deputy corregidor, in some collision of jurisdictions, that it was obliged to procure a royal cédula instructing the corregidor not to permit the inquisitors to be impeded in the performance of their functions.[622] Gradually, however, in this, as in so much else, the Suprema assumed control. A commencement of this is seen, in 1537, when it ordered that, whenever an auto was proposed, it should be apprised before any one else, but even the Instructions of 1561 leave as yet the determination with the tribunals.[623] It could not have been long after this, however, that the permission of the Suprema became requisite for, in 1585, we find the Inquisitor of Cuenca, Ximenes de Reynoso, writing, September 3d, for a decision of certain cases, and for authority to hold an auto, as there were thirty penitents, many of whom being poor were a charge on the fisc. The Suprema delayed its answer and, on October 14th, Reynoso sent a special courier, asking the reply to be returned by him; the auto was necessary for the benefit of the sick prisoners, as there was a pestilence raging, and also for the relief of the treasury; it was only by special entreaty that the receiver had paid the expenses of the last month, saying that there were no funds. This brought a speedy answer, with the desired permission.[624] Finally, the customary routine was for the tribunal to send a list of the cases in readiness and to ask for licence to hold an auto; if the Suprema approved, it ordered the auto to be celebrated without delay. Apparently in the active work of the eighteenth century there was an effort to regain control of the matter, for a carta acordada of June 5, 1720, orders that no auto be held without advising the Suprema and awaiting its commands.[625]

As public autos became less frequent, they lost the simplicity of the earlier period and grew to be imposing demonstrations of the authority of the Inquisition. Possession was taken of the principal square of the city, and two vast stagings were erected, one for the penitents and their ghostly attendants, and the other for the inquisitors with their officials and all the ecclesiastical and secular authorities, while the windows of the surrounding houses were filled with the notables of the place and their families. The participation of prelate and magistrate, in the processions and spectacle, was compulsory, for though, as a rule, they were proud to take their places, causes of quarrel were too frequent and bitter not occasionally to render them unwilling thus to do honor to their imperious adversaries. In 1486, the local authorities of Valencia absented themselves from an auto and, when this was reported to Ferdinand, he rebuked them and ordered them in future always to be present, for nothing was so important as the service of God.[626] Similar commands had to be repeated not infrequently. About 1580, a royal cédula to the viceroy and officials of Majorca instructs them to lend the weight of their authority to the Inquisition, by accompanying the inquisitors in the procession to the staging, and then conducting them back to their palace. In 1588, the President of the Royal Council of Castile issued a general order to all the judges of the royal courts to march in the processions and, in 1598, the inquisitors were empowered to compel by excommunication the attendance of all public officials.[627]

The staging, on great occasions, was elaborate and costly, and the question of defraying the expense was variously decided. In 1553, we find the Suprema settling it, in Cuenca, by requiring the city to erect it, as was customary in Toledo. These two cities and Madrid remained charged with it, but elsewhere it was paid by the tribunals. At the great Madrid auto of 1632, Philip IV ordered the city to construct the staging in conformity with plans drawn by his chief architect, and the same course was followed in that of 1680, where we have long details of the complicated structure erected under the superintendence of commissioners of high rank, who esteemed the duty to be an honor.[628]