A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4

by Henry Charles Lea

The Cortes.

The treaty of Fontainebleau, October 27, 1807, dismembered Portugal, of which Godoy was to have the southern portion, as an independent kingdom, and the King of Etruria (Ferdinand of Parma) the northern portion. Napoleon sent Junot with an army which, accompanied by Spanish troops, speedily overran the land, when Junot issued a decree declaring Portugal annexed to the empire. Simultaneously French armies, under Dupont and Moncey, entered Spain and occupied the strongholds of Pampeluna, Barcelona, Figueras and other places. Murat was sent as commander in chief and took possession of Madrid. The Tumult of Aranjuez drove Godoy from power and, on March 19, 1808, Carlos abdicated in favor of his son, Fernando VII, whose accession was received with enthusiasm by the nation. Beauharnais, the French ambassador at Madrid, and Murat, however, refused to recognize him; Carlos protested to Napoleon that his abdication had been coerced; by various devices, Carlos and his queen, Fernando and his younger brother Don Carlos, were induced to go to Bayonne to lay their respective pretensions before the emperor. There, on May 5, Fernando was obliged to renounce the crown to his father and the latter to transfer it to Napoleon. Carlos and María Luisa were sent to Compiègne and Fernando to Valençay, where he remained until 1814. Meanwhile in Madrid, Murat, under instructions, ordered the Infantes Antonio and Francisco, the remaining members of the royal family, to depart for Bayonne on May 2d. The indignant populace rose, with the aid of a few officers and soldiers and, after a gallant struggle against the veterans of Napoleon, the insurrection was repressed with heavy slaughter, followed by numerous executions. The heroic “Dos de Mayo” was the signal of resistance to the invader and, in a few weeks, Spain was aflame; the desperate six years’ War of Liberation was commenced, and the nation showed what a people could do when abandoned by its incapable and cowardly rulers. With a soldier’s contempt for an unorganized militia, Napoleon pursued his plans. Joseph was called from Naples to occupy the vacant throne and was acknowledged as king by an Assembly of Notables, convoked at Bayonne in June, which transformed itself into Córtes and adopted a Constitution.

This summary of the situation is necessary to an understanding of the position of the Inquisition. Whatever may have been the views of some of the local tribunals, the central body accepted the intrusive domination and was afrancesado—a term which, to the patriots, became one of the bitterest contempt. The Constitution of Bayonne provided that, in Spanish territories, no religion save Roman Catholicism should be tolerated. Raimundo Ethenard, Dean of the Suprema, was a member of the Córtes and, when he took the oath of allegiance to Joseph, the latter assured him that Spain was fortunate in that the true faith alone was there honored. When the Constitution was under consideration, two members, Pablo Arribas and José Gómez Hermosilla, advocated the suppression of the Inquisition, but Ethenard and his colleagues of the Inquisition, Galarza, Hevia Noriega and Amarillas, successfully opposed it, although they admitted that, in conformity with public opinion, its procedure should be made to conform to that of the spiritual courts in criminal cases.[877]

SUPPRESSION BY NAPOLEON

The Inquisition thus deemed itself safe and earnestly supported the Napoleonic government. After the sanguinary suppression of the Madrid rising on May 2d, it made haste to counteract the impression produced and, on the 6th, the Suprema addressed a circular letter to the tribunals, describing the affair as a scandalous attack by the lowest mob on the troops of a friendly nation, who had given no offence and had observed the strictest order and discipline. Such demonstrations, it said, could only result in turbulence and in destroying the confidence due to the government, which was the only one that could advantageously direct patriotic energies. The tribunals were therefore instructed to impress on their subordinates, and the commissioners and familiars in their districts, the urgent necessity of unanimously contributing to the preservation of public tranquillity. This communication was received by the Valencia tribunal on May 9th and, on the 11th, it was read to the assembled officials, calificadores, notaries and familiars of the city, with exhortations to comply strictly with its commands—action which was doubtless taken by the other tribunals.[878]

The Inquisition thus remained in Madrid under the protection of the French arms, but its freedom of action was curtailed. The Abate Marchena, a fine classical scholar, but revolutionary and tinctured with atheism, had abandoned Spain early in the French Revolution and had barely escaped the guillotine during the Terror. He returned, in 1808, as Murat’s secretary, when the Inquisition thought fit to arrest him, but Murat sent a file of grenadiers and forcibly released him.[879] When Napoleon reached Madrid, December 4, 1808, the capitulation granted to the city provided that no religion but Catholicism should be tolerated but, on the same day, he issued a decree which suppressed the Inquisition, as contrary to sovereignty and to civil authority, and confiscated its property to the crown.[880] The Inquisitor Francisco Riesco stated, during the debate in the Córtes of Cádiz, that this sudden decree was motived by the refusal of the members of the Suprema to take the oath of allegiance to the new dynasty, but this is evidently incorrect, as most of them had already done so at Bayonne, and Arce y Reynoso, who resigned his inquisitor-generalship, adhered to the French and accompanied them on the final evacuation. Riesco further asserts that Napoleon ordered them to be imprisoned, but they escaped and scattered to places of safety.[881] The Inquisition was thus left in an anomalous position and without a head, for correspondence with Pius VII was cut off, and neither his acceptance of Arce’s resignation nor his delegation of powers to a successor could be had. The Junta Central, which was striving to govern the country, attempted to fill the vacancy with Pedro de Quevedo y Quintano, Bishop of Orense, but he could obtain no papal authorization and made no attempt to act. It was argued that during a vacancy the jurisdiction continued with the Suprema, but this was denied and it remained an open question.[882]

During the period which followed, the tribunals maintained their organization and exercised their functions after a fashion, when not prevented by the French occupation. Thus when the invaders reached Seville, February 1, 1810, the Inquisition was suppressed, but its members took refuge in Ceuta. Valencia remained in operation until the city was captured by Suchet, in 1811, while Barcelona at one time transferred itself to Tarragona. Activity was intermittent and, in the excitement of that stirring time, there was little energy for the prosecution of heresy while, even when the enemy had withdrawn, in many cases the buildings had been ruined. The Valencia record shows that the total number of cases brought before all the tribunals in 1808 was 67; in 1809, 22; in 1810, 17; in 1811, 25; in 1812, 1; in 1813, 6. Probably few of these cases were regularly heard, if we may judge from that of Don Vicente Valdés, captain of volunteers who, in 1810, was denounced to the Valencia tribunal for blasphemous propositions. October 27th it was ordered that, in view of the circumstances, a fitting occasion should be awaited for the audiencia de cargos demanded by the fiscal—a postponement which proved to be protracted for it was not until 1816 that he was tried.[883] Still, where the Inquisition itself was concerned it could act swiftly and effectively. In 1809 the French took possession of Santiago. Felipe Sobrino Taboada, professor of civil law in the university, was acting as police-magistrate and, by order of the director-general of police, he issued a proclamation exhorting the people to lay down their arms and praising the suppression of the Inquisition. When the French retired, the university refused to readmit him to his chair. He obtained a decision of the tribunal of Public Safety of Coruña re-establishing him and then the Inquisition arrested him, without the prescribed preliminary formalities, and kept him for five months in the secret prison. Afterwards he was allowed to keep his house as a prison and, when finally the bounds were enlarged to the province of Galicia, it was with the condition that he would accept no public office.[884]

ASSEMBLING OF THE CORTES

The Junta Central, which had endeavored to govern, amid much opposition from the particularist tendencies of the provincial juntas, retired to Cádiz when the French occupied Andalusia.