A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4

by Henry Charles Lea

PHILIP V

Philip’s assertion of the royal prerogative, however, by no means implied any lack of zeal for the faith and, as long as the Inquisition confined itself to its duties of exterminating heresy, it had his cordial support. Frequent allusions have been made above to its renewed activity during the period following the close of the War of Succession. Full statistics are lacking, but in sixty-four autos, between 1721 and 1728, there appeared nine hundred and sixty-two culprits and effigies, of whom one hundred and fifty-one were relaxed.[852] That this met his hearty approbation is manifested by the letter which he addressed, January 14, 1724, to his son Luis, when abdicating in his favor. In this the exhortations breathing a lofty morality are accompanied with earnest injunctions to maintain and protect the Inquisition, as the bulwark of the faith, for to it is attributable the preservation of religion in all its purity in the states of Spain, so that the heresies which have afflicted the other lands of Christendom, causing in them ravages so deplorable and horrible, have never gained a foothold there.[853] Small-pox cut short the reign of Luis to seven months, after which Philip was obliged to resume the weary burden, till death released him, July 9, 1746, and if, during this later portion of his government, the Inquisition was less busy, this may safely be attributed to flagging energies and lack of material and not to any restraint on the part of the sovereign. The punishment which he allowed it to inflict on Belando, for the history of his reign of which he and his queen, after careful scrutiny, had accepted the dedication, shows how untrammelled was its exercise of its recognized functions.

Yet Philip unwittingly started the movement that was ultimately to undermine the foundations on which the Inquisition rested. He brought with him from France the conviction that the king should be the patron of letters and learning, and he had the ambition to rule over a people of culture. He aroused the slumbering intellect of Spain by founding the Academies of Language and of History and of Medicine, the Seminary of the Nobles, and the National Library, and he replaced for Catalonia the University of Lérida by that of Cervera. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the censorship, it was impossible that the awakening intelligence of the nation, thus stimulated, should not eagerly grasp at the forbidden fruit of modern philosophism, all the more attractive in that it had to be enjoyed in secret. Fernando VI, from 1746 to 1759, followed his father’s example, in encouraging the spread of culture. Carlos III was even more energetic in urging the enlightenment of his subjects, and thus there was gradually formed a public, few in numbers, it is true, but including the statesmen in power, which had lost the old Spanish conception that purity of faith was the first essential, and regarded the Inquisition as an incumbrance, save in so far as it might be used for political ends. The Inquisition still inspired fear, and the case of Olavide shows that these opinions had to be cherished in secret, but the number who entertained them was indicated when the bonds of society were loosened and the national institutions crumbled in the earthquake of the Napoleonic invasion.

Possibly the diffusion of this modern rationalistic spirit, insensibly affecting even those opposed to it, may partly explain the rapidly diminishing activity of the Inquisition. The great tribunal of Toledo, in the fifty-five years, from 1740 to 1794 inclusive, despatched but fifty-seven cases, or an average of but one a year.[854] This cannot be attributed to a lack of culprits, for bigamy, blasphemy, solicitation, sorcery and similar offences, which furnished so large a portion of the penitents of old, were as rife as ever. The fact is, that the officials were becoming indifferent and careless, except in the matter of drawing their salaries. When, on May 22, 1753, the priest Miguel de Alonso García was to be sentenced in the audience-chamber with closed doors and in the presence of the officials, it happened that there were no witnesses of the solemnity because none of the officials were to be found in the secreto.[855]

CARLOS III

The personnel of the Inquisition was visibly deteriorating and consequently forfeiting the respect of the community. There had long been complaint of the insufficiency of the salaries, which had remained stationary while the purchasing power of money had greatly diminished, and there had been no reduction in the official staffs to correspond with the dwindling business. Thus, in spite of the empleomanía characteristic of the nation, and of the privileges and exemptions attached to official position, it became increasingly difficult to fill the offices properly. As early as 1719, the inquisitors of Barcelona complained to the Suprema of the trouble they experienced getting people to serve, on account of lack of desire for the offices and the absence of advantage accruing from them.[856] In 1737 we find that the Toledo tribunal had neither a commissioner nor a notary in Guadalajara, the capital of a province which, in 1787, numbered 112,750 souls.[857] In 1750, a writer deplores that the stipend of eight hundred ducats is insufficient to support the dignity of an inquisitor, so that the inquisitor-general is not always able to make fitting nominations. This necessitates the appointment of calificadores to examine the doctrines brought under review, resulting in the indefinite prolongation of cases, and also in lack of vigilance to suppress the errors perpetually propagated in books; when the calificadores are not paid, they are slow in their work and, to escape paying them, many things which ought to be referred to them are passed over.[858] That the respect felt for the Inquisition should diminish under these circumstances was inevitable and altogether, at this period, it presents the aspect of an institution which had survived the causes of its creation and was hastening to its end. Yet it had exercised too powerful an influence in moulding the Spanish character for it to disappear when its mission was accomplished, and we shall see how violent were the struggles attendant upon its dissolution.

Meanwhile it dragged on its existence under constantly increasing limitations. Fernando VI, it is true, gave it obstinate support in its quarrel with Benedict XIV over the works of Cardinal Noris, but he dealt a severe blow when, in 1751, he deprived of the fuero the officials of the tribunal of Lima. Carlos III, who succeeded in 1759, came from Naples with the highest ideals of royal supremacy, coupled with less respect for ecclesiastical claims than was current in Spain; he surrounded himself with advisers such as Roda, Campomanes, Aranda and Floridablanca, who were more than suspected of leanings to modern philosophism, and his reign of benevolent despotism was marked with a series of measures designed to diminish or abolish the privileges of inquisitorial officials, to repress abuses and to tame arrogance. The complete control which he assumed over its functions is exhibited in the rules imposed, in 1768, on its censorship and, in 1770 and 1777, on its jurisdiction over bigamy, when he ordered it in future to limit its operations to the suppression of heresy and not to embarrass the royal courts. The theory thus developed of the relations between the crown and the Holy Office is formulated in a consulta of the Council of Castile, November 30, 1768: “The king as patron, founder and endower of the Inquisition, possesses over it the rights inherent in all royal patronage.... As father and protector of his vassals, he can and ought to prevent the commission of violence and extortion on their persons, property and reputation, indicating to ecclesiastical judges, even in their exercise of spiritual jurisdiction, the path pointed out by the canons, so that these may be observed. The regalías of protection and of this indubitable patronage have established solidly the authority of the prince, in issuing the instructions which he has deigned to give to the Holy Office acting as an ecclesiastical tribunal.”[859] Under such conditions, he was quite content with its existence and, when Roda suggested its suppression and presented various documents to show that this had been discussed under Charles V, Philip II and Philip V, he merely replied “The Spaniards want it and it gives me no trouble.”[860] In fact, the time had not arrived for such drastic measures. The Abbé Clément reports a conversation with Aranda, October 29, 1768, in which the count warned him that it was necessary to speak of the Inquisition with great reserve, for people imagined that all religion depended on it; it was, in truth, an obstacle to all improvement, but time would be required to deal with it, and he advised Clément to allude to it only to Roda and Campomanes.[861]

With the accession, in 1788, of Carlos IV, there opened for Spain a new and disastrous epoch. Timid, irresolute, indolent, he had fallen completely under the influence of his wife María Luisa, an energetic and self-willed woman. Until 1792 he kept in office Floridablanca, who was succeeded for a short time by Aranda, and then power was grasped by Manuel Godoy, subsequently known as Prince of Peace. Cadet of an obscure family of Badajoz, he had entered the royal body-guard, where he attracted the attention of the queen, whose favored lover he was universally believed to be, as well as the favorite of her husband. He speedily rose to the highest dignities and became omnipotent; although a court intrigue occasioned his dismissal in 1798, he was restored in 1800, remaining arbiter of the destinies of Spain, until the “Tumult of Lackeys,” at Aranjuez, in 1808, directed against him, caused the abdication of Carlos in favor of his son Fernando VII. Light-headed, selfish, vain and unscrupulous, he was mainly responsible for the misfortunes which overwhelmed his country and from which it may be said not to have as yet recovered.

ALTERED FUNCTIONS

The outbreak of the French Revolution gave a new importance to the Inquisition. When the seductive theories of the French philosophers were preached as the foundation of practical politics, overturning thrones and threatening monarchical institutions with the doctrines of the social compact, the sovereignty of the people and the universal brotherhood of man, the Holy Office might claim that, as the foundations of social order were based on religion, its labors were essential for the safety of the State, while the State recognized that it was the most available instrumentality for the suppression and exclusion of the heresies of liberty and equality.