Bails (D. Benito), professor of mathematics at Madrid, and author of a work on that science, used in the schools. The Inquisition instituted his trial towards the end of the reign of Charles III., as suspected of atheism and materialism. Bails was deprived of the use of his limbs, and incapable of attending to his affairs; yet he was arrested and taken to the prisons of the holy office, with one of his nieces, who obtained permission to share his captivity, that she might continue to render him the assistance which his situation rendered necessary. He prepared his defence in the best manner he was able; and before the publication of the depositions, he acknowledged enough to show that he was sincere in his confession and repentance. When he was examined on his internal belief, he declared that he had had some doubts on the existence of a God, and the immortality of the soul, but that he had never actually been an atheist, or a materialist; that during his solitude in the prison, he had reflected on the subject, and was ready to abjure all heresies, and particularly those of which he was suspected. He demanded reconciliation, and a penance, which he promised to accomplish as well as his health would allow him. His situation was considered; and instead of sending him to a convent, whither his niece could not have followed him, he was kept for some time in the secret prisons of the holy office: he was afterwards removed to his own house, which served for his prison, and he was obliged to pay for his food during his imprisonment, and subjected to several other penances, one of which was being obliged to confess to a priest, who was appointed three times in the year,—at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.
Balza (Francis), Franciscan, and a celebrated preacher in the reign of Charles III. When the Jesuits were driven from Spain, he openly preached against the relaxed morals of the age; he inveighed against the authors who had introduced and propagated them, and endeavoured to inspire people with a horror of reading their works. As some of these authors were Jesuits, he declaimed violently against those persons who blamed the king for the measures he had taken, to drive them out of the kingdom. Balza was denounced at Logroño, and the inquisitors gave him to understand, that he would be treated with severity if he did not change his tone.
Barriovero (Doctor Ferdinand de), theologist of the church of Toledo, and a professor in the university. He was tried in 1558, for approving the doctrine of the Catechism of Don Bartholomew Carranza. He allayed the storm by retracting, when he received the king's order to do so, and by sending his recantation to the Pope, when the Archbishops of Granada and Santiago, and the Bishop of Jaen adopted that measure.
Belando (Fray Nicolas de Jesus), Franciscan: he was prosecuted on account of his Civil History of Spain. In this work he gives an account of all the events from the accession of Philip IV. to 1733. The inquisitors prohibited this book entirely from political motives, and not from anything relating to doctrine; their judgment against Belando was given on the 6th of December, 1774. The inquisitors had no respect either for the license at the beginning of the book, the dedication to Philip V., or for the favourable opinion of an enlightened member of the Council of Castile, who was commissioned by his majesty to examine it, before he allowed it to be dedicated to him. The author appealed against the sentence, and demanded to be heard: he offered to reply to all the observations, and to make any alterations or suppressions in his work which the tribunal should suggest. This attempt of Belando to defend his book was considered as a crime, and he was confined in the dungeons of the holy office, where he suffered the harshest treatment. He only left them to be imprisoned for life in a convent, and he was prohibited from ever composing another work. He was stripped of the honours which distinguished him in his order, and more severe penances were inflicted on him than if he had been an heretic.
Bercial (Clement Sanchez del), priest, archdeacon of Valderas, and dignitary of the church of Leon. He was prosecuted and punished in the time of Charles V. for Lutheranism. He was condemned for some propositions in a work called Sacramental. In 1559, the inquisitor-general Valdez placed this book in the Index.
Berroçosa (Fray Manuel Santos), author of a work called Essays on the Theatre of Rome. He was imprisoned by the Inquisition of Toledo, because he spoke of the court of Rome, in his Essays, in a manner displeasing to the Jesuits and inquisitors. The proceedings in this trial were so arbitrary, that the work in question was not examined until the affair was nearly finished. The writings of this trial were taken from the archives of the Inquisition, for some unknown reason. In 1768 they were laid, by the king's order, before the council extraordinary of bishops, who were assembled to consider the affairs of the Jesuits.
Blanco (Don Francis), archbishop of Santiago. See Chapter 29.
Brozas (Francis Sanchez de Las), generally called el Brocense; he was born in the village of Las Brozas, from whence he took his name. He was one of the greatest humanists of his age, and the most distinguished Spaniard of that party in the time of Philip II. During this reign he published several works, which are mentioned by Nicolas Antonio in his catalogue. The severe Justus Lipse calls him the Mercury and Apollo of Spain, and Gaspard Scioppius, the divine man. He was prosecuted by the Inquisition of Valladolid several times for some propositions contained in his works, but principally in a book in octavo, entitled, Escolias à las quatro Sylvas escritas en verso heroico por Angelo Policiano, intituladas Nutricia, Rustico, Manto y Ambra; viz. "Commentaries on the four Sylvas, written in heroic verse by Angelo Politiano, called Nutricia, Rustico, Manto, and Ambra." El Brocense completely satisfied the qualifiers, and his work was not inscribed on the Index.
Baruaga (Don Thomas Saenz), archbishop of Saragossa. See Chapter 29.
Cadena (Louis de la), second chancellor of the university of Alcala de Henares, and nephew of Doctor Pedro de Lerma, who was the first who possessed that dignity. Cadena was one of the most learned men of his time; he understood Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, and other eastern languages; he wrote Latin with the greatest elegance, and enjoyed a high reputation among the literati. The learned Alvaro Gomez de Castro says, in his History of Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, that he had formed the design of destroying the bad scholastic taste which reigned in the universities. This enterprise cost Cadena dear: those who were attached to the opinions of the schools denounced him to the Inquisition of Toledo, as suspected of Lutheranism; the archbishops Ximenez de Cisneros and Fonseca, who protected the persecuted members of the university of Alcala, were no more; and Cadena was obliged to follow the example of his uncle, and fly to Paris to escape the dungeons of the holy office. He was received as a doctor in the Sorbonne, and died a professor in that celebrated house.