A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

To secure the desired result by the employment of force, through the Inquisition, could not fail to intensify abhorrence of a religion which, while professing universal love and charity, was known only as an excuse for oppression and cruelty. Yet the only alternative was the slow and laborious process of disarming the prejudices already aroused, and winning over the reluctant convert by gentleness and persuasion, by kindly instruction and demonstration that the truths of Christianity were not mere theological abstractions, of no vitality in practical life. We have seen the embodiment of the two methods in Ximenes and Talavera, and it was the fatal error of those who ruled the destinies of Spain that they had not patience and self-denial resolutely to follow the latter. Haltingly and spasmodically they tried to do so, with only persistence enough to put themselves in the wrong and deprive of justification the concurrent employment of the easier process of coercion. From one cause or another, as we shall have occasion to see, the intermittent and ineffective attempts at persuasion failed miserably, while the perpetual irritation of persecution led inevitably to chronic exasperation.

Five years had elapsed since the coercive baptism which, under the precepts of the church, should have been preceded by competent understanding of the mysteries of the faith, when Ximenes attained, in 1507, the inquisitor-generalship. One of his earliest acts was a letter to all the churches prescribing the deportment, in religious matters, of the New Christians and their children, including regular attendance at the mass, instruction in the rudiments of the faith, and avoidance of Judaic and Mahometan rites.[887] Presumably this accomplished little and, in 1510, Ferdinand addressed all his prelates, pointing out the neglect of Christian observances by the Conversos, and ordering the bishops to enforce their presence at mass and to provide for their instruction, matters to which the parish priests must devote special attention.[888] The council of Seville, in 1512, responded to this by calling attention to the number of new converts who greatly needed religious instruction. The prelates, who were responsible for the salvation of souls, were ordered to depute for that purpose learned men, who should specially investigate their manner of life and their commission of sins pertaining to their old faith. All parish priests were ordered to make out lists of the converts and see that they conformed to the mandates of the church, and special lists were to be compiled of those who had been reconciled by the Inquisition, with orders to attend mass on Sundays and feast-days, so that their fulfilment of their sentences could be enforced.[889] From what we know of the failure of subsequent measures of this kind we may safely assume that these received little attention from those who would have been obliged to expend money and labor in their execution.

Simultaneously with his letters of 1510, Ferdinand had applied to Julius II, representing that, since 1492, there had been converted many Jews and Moors who, through insufficient instruction, had been led to commit many heretical crimes; he had ordered their instruction, but it would be inhuman to visit them with the full rigor of the canons, and he therefore asked faculties to publish an Edict of Grace, under which those coming in could be reconciled without confiscation and public abjuration, so that, in case of relapse, they could escape relaxation.[890] The conditions appended to Edicts of Grace so reduced their effectiveness that this has importance only as an indication that Ferdinand, as we shall see elsewhere, was rather disposed to check inquisitorial ardor in the prosecution of Moriscos, but he atoned for this on his death-bed, by a clause in his will commanding his grandson Charles to appoint inquisitors zealous for the destruction of the sect of Mahomet.[891] This was superfluous for, as the stock of Judaizers became reduced, Moriscos supplied their place, and the Inquisition required curbing rather than stimulation. That Charles recognized this is seen in various Edicts of Grace issued in their favor, for certain districts, between 1518 and 1521, edicts which relieved them from confiscation and the sanbenito but did not protect from relapse or exempt from denunciation of accomplices.[892]

PERSECUTION

There was little practical relief to be expected from such measures, but at least they indicate the conviction of the rulers that it was both unjust and impolitic to visit with the rigor of the canons those who had been forced into the Church and had had no spiritual instruction. Still, the canon law was a positive fact; an elaborate machinery had been instituted for its enforcement, with no corresponding organization to render the new religion attractive instead of odious, and a situation had been created for which there was no radical cure. Alleviation was the only resource, and this was attempted, although the fluctuating policy adopted only intensified the evil for the future. In pursuance of this Cardinal Adrian, August 5, 1521, issued orders that no arrests should be made except on evidence directly conclusive of heresy, and even then it must first be submitted to the Suprema. This seems to have received so little obedience that Archbishop Manrique, April 28, 1524, repeated it in more decisive fashion. He recited the conversion of the Moriscos by Ferdinand and Isabella, who promised them graces and liberties, in pursuance of which Cardinal Adrian had issued many provisions in their favor, ordering the tribunals not to prosecute them for trifling causes and, if any were so arrested, they were to be discharged and their property be returned to them. In spite of this, the inquisitors continued to arrest them on trivial charges, and on the evidence of single witnesses. As they were ignorant persons, who could not readily prove their innocence, these arrests had greatly scandalized them, and they had petitioned for relief, wherefore the Suprema ordered inquisitors not to arrest them without conclusive evidence of heresy, and when there was doubt it was to be consulted. All who were held for matters not plainly heretical were to have speedy justice, tempered with such clemency as conscience might permit.[893]

How completely these instructions were ignored is manifest in the trials of the Moriscos where, as in those of the Judaizers, any adherence to customs, which for generations had formed part of daily life, was sufficient for arrest and prosecution. It was not merely the fasting of the Ramadan, the practice of circumcision, the Guadoc or bath accompanied with a ritual, or the Taor, another kind of bath used prior to the Zala, or certain prayers uttered with the face turned to the East, at sunrise, noon, sunset and night. These were well-defined religious ceremonies admitting of no explanation, but there were numerous others, innocent in themselves, which implied suspicion of heresy, and suspicion was in itself a crime. Under skilful management, including the free use of torture, arrest for these simple observances might lead to further confessions, and the opportunity was not to be lost. Abstinence from pork and wine was amply sufficient to justify prosecution, and we hear of cases in which staining the nails with henna, refusal to eat of animals dying a natural death, killing fowls by decollation, the zambras and leilas, or songs and dances used at merry-makings and nuptials, and even cleanliness, were gravely adduced as evidences of apostasy.[894]

In pursuance of this policy, elaborate lists of all Moorish customs were made out for the guidance of inquisitors; abstracts of these were included in the Edicts of Faith, where every one who had seen or heard of such things was required under pain of excommunication to denounce them; the Moriscos were subjected to perpetual espionage, and any unguarded utterance, which might be construed as inferring heretical leaning, was liable to be reported and to lead to arrest and probable punishment. It is true that from these slender indications the inquisitorial process frequently led up to full confession, but this did not render the position of the Morisco less intolerable, and constraint and anxiety contributed largely to intensify his detestation of the religion which he knew only as the cause of persecution. Bishop Pérez of Segorbe, in 1595, when enumerating fifteen impediments to the conversion of the Moriscos, included their fear of the Inquisition and its punishments which made them hate Christianity.[895] At all events, it secured outward conformity, at least in Castile, where they were gradually assimilating themselves to the Old Christians; they had long since abandoned their national dress and language; they were assiduous in attendance at mass and vespers, the confessional and the sacrament of the altar; they participated in processions and interments and were commonly regarded as Christians, whatever might be the secrets of their hearts.[896]

GRANADA

Doubtless, as time wore on, many were won over and became sincerely attached to their new faith, but every now and then little communities of apostates were brought to light. Thus, in 1538, Juan Yañés, Inquisitor of Toledo, included Daimiel in a visitation. It had a Morisco population, which had been baptized in 1502, and had apparently been overlooked so long that it had grown somewhat careless. A woman reported to Yañés that she had lived with Moriscos for twelve years and had observed that they did not use pork or wine, on the plea that these things disagreed with them. This sufficed to start an investigation which so crowded the secret prison that we hear of nine women confined in a single cell, and of the hall of the Inquisition being used as a place of detention. Yet this vigorous work did not extirpate the evil for, in 1597, the Toledo tribunal was busy with heretics from Daimiel.[897] More shocking was a case in which María Páez, daughter of Diego Páez Limpati of Almagro, figured, for she accused all her kindred and friends. Her father was burnt in 1606, as an impenitent negativo; her mother, who confessed, was reconciled and imprisoned, and in all twenty-five Moriscos of Almagro suffered, of whom four were relaxed. In the Toledo record, from 1575 to 1610, there are a hundred and ninety cases of Moriscos as against a hundred and seventy-four of Judaizers, and forty-seven of Protestants, showing that, notwithstanding the influx of Portuguese, the Moriscos were the most numerous heretics with which the tribunal had to deal.[898] The old Mudéjares of Castile had fallen upon evil times, but worse were in store for them.

Granada presented a more difficult and dangerous problem, requiring the most sagacious statesmanship to reconcile political safety with the demand for unity of faith, yet this delicate situation was treated with a blundering disregard of common-sense characteristic of Philip II. The population was almost wholly Morisco, and the country was rugged and mountainous, offering abundant refuge for the despairing. The so-called conversion of 1501 had worked no change in their belief. They were hard-working, moral, honorable in their dealings, and charitable to their poor, but they were Moslems at heart; if they went to mass, it was to escape the fine; if they had their children baptized, they forthwith washed off the chrism and circumcised the males; if they confessed during Lent, it was merely to obtain the certificate; if they learned the prayers of the Church, it was in order to get married, after which they were forgotten with all convenient speed. They had been promised forty years’ exemption from the Inquisition, but they were rendered disaffected by the abuses of judicial avarice and the insolent domination of the officials, secular and ecclesiastical.[899]