A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

This letter remained unanswered for nearly six months, during which another experiment was tried on João’s credulity. Cardinal Sforza, one of the papal grandsons, wrote in the name of the pope that, if the nuncio was admitted, all that he asked for the Inquisition would be conceded, and Cardinal Crescenzio confirmed this verbally. With natural distrust, however, the king asked to have Paul himself ratify this to Faria, and then he would admit Ricci. As late as June 22, 1545, he was writing in this sense, not knowing that on June 16th the pope had responded to his letter in a brief in which, with exasperating affectation of benignity, he pardoned João’s asperity; against João’s assertions of the wickedness of the New Christians and the mildness of the Inquisition, he set the constant complaints reaching him of its cruelty and injustice, and the numerous burnings of the innocent; as it was under his jurisdiction, he was responsible and he could not forego the duty of investigating the truth of these conflicting statements; there was also the spoliation of Cardinal Silva which must be redressed. The brief closed with the significant threat that, if these matters were not remedied, he could not expose himself before Almighty God to the charge of negligence in an affair of such moment.[709]

The devious ways of the papal court are hard to follow. Four days before the date of this brief, on June 12th, Cardinal Sforza sent to João the written assurance that was demanded, promising that if he would admit the nuncio, the pope would grant all that he desired as to the Inquisition. On receiving this in August, the king at once replied that, in reliance on the cardinal’s assurances, he would permit Ricci to enter Portugal and he asked to have the necessary bull made out and sent by Simão da Veiga. At the same time he gave Ricci permission to come, cautiously adding that it must be under the limitations imposed on Lippomano. Ricci, detained by sickness, did not arrive until September 9th, and then he was the bearer of the minatory brief of June 16th. That João was thunderstruck may well be believed and he wrote to his envoys that he knew not what to say.[710]

The pope sought a compromise, offering to revoke the brief of September 22, 1544, and that, after the nuncio had reported, he would leave everything in the king’s hands, but he refused to carry out the promises of Cardinal Sforza. No answer was given to this, but the brief of revocation was made out and reached Ricci, January 18, 1546, accompanied with one empowering him to act in case he discovered abuses in the Inquisition, but the only investigation that João would permit was that he should examine the papers in four or five cases and interrogate the inquisitor concerning them. The first case submitted was that of a septuagenarian, burnt some years before. He was one of those who had been converted by force; he had at once confessed more than had been testified against him, and had begged for mercy. Ricci asked the inquisitor, João de Mello, why he had burnt him, as this was not a case of relapse, to which Mello replied that his repentance was simulated because he had varied in the three examinations, but on investigating the record the variations were found to be trifling. Ricci asked for a copy of the process to send to Rome, and it was promised but not given. His report was naturally adverse to the Inquisition and the pope, assuming that the brief of 1536 had established it for ten years only, notified João that the term had expired: in deference to him it was prolonged for a year, but he was told that, within that time, the question as to the New Christians must be definitely settled; it was suggested that a general pardon could be granted, or that he could banish them all from his kingdom.[711]

We may fairly assume that, in such a crisis as this, the gold of the New Christians had not been spared in Lisbon or in Rome. João evidently felt that the turning-point had come and that some supreme effort must be made to outbid his subjects. He had not been niggardly, on his side, in responding to the urgent calls of his ambassadors for liberality towards the cardinals. Cardinal Farnese, the favorite grandson of Paul III, and the most influential member of the Sacred College, had a pension from him of thirty-two hundred cruzados, assigned in 1544 equally on the sees of Braga and Coimbra to assure its continuance: at a critical moment, in 1545, the arrearages and two years in advance were paid to him, in a lump sum of thirteen thousand cruzados. So little reserve was there in these matters that, after the death of Cardinal Santiquatro, the “protector” of Portugal, João actually suggested the employment of Paul III as his successor, pointing out the large “propinas” that would enure to him from certain provisions as to bishops which the king was soliciting. For these and for the payment to Farnese, he forwarded bills of exchange for thirty-three thousand cruzados. Julius III was as mercenary as his predecessor. In 1551 João, in response to a hint that a present was desirable, sent him a magnificent diamond, valued by the Roman jewellers at a hundred thousand cruzados. Julius was greatly pleased and declared that he would make it an heirloom in his family, but when the next year he intimated that another gift would be acceptable, João, who was dissatisfied with him at the time, refused to respond, saying that when the pope acceded to his demands to make Henrique perpetual legate it would be time to think of giving him something. This brought Julius to terms; in 1553 the appointment was made and in 1554 João sent him a brooch.[712]

INQUISITION OF PORTUGAL

In such matters it was difficult for subjects to compete with their monarch. Under the pressure so skilfully applied by Rome, a brilliant idea occurred to João and, in a letter of February 20, 1546, to Balthazar de Faria, he suggested that, in return for a free Inquisition, he would grant to Cardinal Farnese the administration and revenues of the see of Viseu, which he had been withholding from Cardinal Silva, thus at once obtaining the object of his desires and gratifying his rancor against that unfortunate prelate by depriving him of papal support.[713] This dazzling bribe overcame Paul’s scruples as to his responsibility to the Almighty and his friendship for Silva. The Holy See has been stained with many examples of nepotism and rapacity, but its history has furnished few transactions of more shameless effrontery in sacrificing those whom it was pledged to protect. Still, Paul strove to maintain some semblance of decency in abandoning the New Christians, and he advanced a demand that there should be a general pardon for past offences and the granting of a term during which those desiring to emigrate could leave Portugal. João was determined to get all that he could, and a series of intricate negotiations took place, occupying the whole of 1546 and 1547, in which each side endeavored to outwit the other with little regard to consistency. Matters were complicated by the question of the accrued revenues of Viseu, which João was loath to refund, and which Paul demanded, for the convenient receptacle of the fabric of St. Peter’s. Ignatius Loyola took a hand in the fray and so did two members of the Council of Trent, Frade Jorje de Santiago, an inquisitor, and the Carmelite Balthazar Limpo, Bishop of Porto, an honest and free-spoken fanatic, who was much scandalized by ascertaining that a brief of safe-conduct had been secretly issued, inviting the Portuguese New Christians to Italy, with assurance of not being disturbed on account of their religion. Thus, as the bishop said, those who had been baptized at birth came and were immediately circumcised and filled the synagogues under the very eyes of the pope—the inference being that he desired free emigration from Portugal, in order that Italy might benefit by the intelligence and industry of the apostates, an argument which was freely used and was not easy to answer.[714]

INQUISITION OF PORTUGAL

In the spring of 1547, as matters seemed to approach a settlement, the necessary briefs were successively drafted. One of May 11th granted a general pardon for past offences; all prisoners were to be released, all confiscations returned, all disabilities removed, and reincidence was not to incur the penalty of relapse. One of July 1st addressed to Cardinal Henrique announced to him that the pope had granted the Inquisition, with full powers of procedure. One of July 5th, to João informed him that the bearer, Cav. Giovanni Ugolino (a nephew of the late Cardinal Santiquatro) carried the bull for the Inquisition and exhorted him to see that the inquisitors exercised their powers with moderation. Ugolino was also empowered to take possession for Farnese of the see of Viseu and the other benefices of Silva, and to collect the arrears of revenue for the fabric of St. Peter’s. There were two briefs of July 15th, one appointing Farnese administrator for life of the see and the benefices; the other withdrew and annulled all the letters of exemption from the Inquisition which the New Christians had been for so many years purchasing at heavy cost. Finally, under date of July 16th, came the long sought-for bull, Meditatio cordis, instituting for Portugal a free and untrammelled Inquisition. It declared that the pope, desiring the rigorous punishment of the atrocious crime of heresy, revoked all previous limitations on its powers, and conferred on it all faculties at any time granted to inquisitors. To render effective the withdrawal of the letters of exemption, it evoked to the pope all cases pending before other judges than Cardinal Henrique, and committed them to him and his deputies with full powers. That Paul did not, without some qualms of conscience, thus abandon the New Christians who had contributed so liberally to the curia, is suggested by a subsequent brief of November 15th, in which he told the king that, as he had granted to Portugal a free Inquisition, he earnestly exhorted him to see that the inquisitors acted with charity and not with judicial severity, in consideration of the weakness of the neophytes, for this would be most gratifying to him.[715]

The pope’s anxiety to save appearances is visible in the instructions to Ugolino. Those from Paul bore that his wishes were that, under the pardon brief, all prisoners were to be discharged; those who had to abjure should do so before a notary and not in an auto de fe; that for a year no one was to be relaxed, no arrests were to be made save for public and scandalous offences, and prosecutions were to be conducted as in other crimes, while, if the law prohibiting emigration could not be repealed, it should be kept quiet for a year—thus hiding for a twelvemonth his betrayal of the friendless.[716] The instructions from Farnese were more openly cynical. To disarm João’s distrust, he had agreed not to take possession of Silva’s temporalities until the affair of the Inquisition should be settled, while Ambassador Faria and the Bishop of Porto had pledged that João should raise no difficulties; it was on that condition that the pope had granted the Inquisition, in the confidence that both should be settled together. João was to be persuaded to accede to the general pardon and graces asked for, in lieu of the permission to emigrate, for that would enable the pope to answer the appeals and complaints of the New Christians, by telling them that these were sufficient. The pope was anxious that, for a year, the Inquisition should not employ rigor and that procedure be that of secular law; this was of slender importance but it would seem to them a great matter. They were also to be told that, as in previous cases, the pope could have had from them twenty thousand cruzados for the pardon, while he had granted it without getting a single farthing. It was further significant that both Ugolino and the nuncio Ricci were warned to be specially careful to exact nothing from the New Christians.[717]