[302] These statistics are compiled from various registers, covering respectively portions of the period. There are some minor breaks, which would increase the aggregate somewhat, but not materially. See Archivo hist. nacional, Inq. de Toledo, Leg. 233, n. 108; Inq. de Valencia, Leg. 66.—Archivo de Simancas, Libros 1002, 1003, 1004.

There is perhaps some interest in recording the respective responsibilities of the various classes and orders of the clergy for these delinquents, as follows:

Secular priests, canons etc981
Franciscans, Conventual and Barefooted 552
Observantines506
Capuchins183
Recollects56
Carmelites355
Dominicans288
Augustinians156
Trinitarians144
Mercenarians131
Jesuits92
Minims69
Benedictines35
Geronimites30
San Pedro de Alcántara29
Clérigos Menores20
Congr. of San Filippo Neri20
Bernardines (Cistercians)20
Escuelas Pias16
Basilians16
S. Francisco de Asis5
N. Señora de la Vitoria5
Order of Santiago4
Order of Calatrava3
Theatins3
Servites3
Misioneros2
Agonizantes2
Hermits of St. Paul2
San Juan2
Premonstratensians2
Ex-Jesuits2
Carthusians1
St. Ursula1
San Diego1
Not specified38

The comparatively small number of Jesuits, who devoted themselves so greatly to the confessional, is partly explicable by the expulsion of the Society in 1767.

[303] Puigblanch, La Inquisicion sin Mascara, pp. 422-5 (Cádiz, 1811).

[304] Instruct. S. Inquis. Roman. 20 Feb. 1867 (Collect. Concil. Lacens. III, 353).—Berardi, op. cit.

[305] A priest, who could speak from experience, concisely described, in 1820, the conditions produced by the system “En donde la doctrina infernal de la delacion tenia en una habitual consternacion á las familias y á los individuos que se correspondian con la mutua desconfianza que inspiraba el continuo recelo de encontrar en amigo, en el padre, en el hijo, en la esposa, un verdugo que armado con el puñal del fanatismo religioso contribuyese á los asesinatos naturales que solo Dios conosce y a los civiles que no son tan desconocidos.”—P Antonio Bernabeu, España venturosa, p. xvi (Madrid, 1820).

[306] Theologians had a storehouse of epithets with which to characterize the various classes of propositions. A few of the more usual, with their significance, are given by Alberghini (Man. Qualificator. cap. xii, n. 1-18) as follows:—

Heretical—one which is contrary to Catholic truth.

Erroneous—that which does not directly contradict the faith, but some conclusion evidently deducible from the faith.