The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII.

by Juan Antonio Llorente

THE enemies of Carranza procured new witnesses, in order to justify their conduct. Valdés and his coadjutors feared that public opinion would be against them, if, when they pronounced the definitive sentence, the archbishop was not proved, to all Europe, to be guilty of heresy.

To attain this end, the inquisitors examined ninety-six witnesses, who, most of them, unfortunately, added nothing to what had been already deposed; some of them attested the purity of Carranza's faith, and the few who were against him deposed only what they had heard from other persons, who either did not confirm, or denied the facts. It is worthy of remark, that the greatest number of the witnesses who spoke in favour of the archbishop were in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and made their depositions during or after the torture, and when they were liable to have it renewed, and to be subject to the cruel treatment of the judges, whose schemes they frustrated. While these miserable people showed so much courage, the bishops, archbishops, and theologians, who aspired to the episcopacy, basely retracted their first and true opinion, and qualified, as violently suspected of Lutheranism, the man whom they had before considered almost as an apostle, and that in the same trial and for the same work.

On the 26th of August, the grand-inquisitor delegated his powers to the counsellors Valtodano and Simancas, reserving to himself the right of pronouncing the definitive sentence; at the same time he appointed Baca, Riego, and Gonzalez, inquisitors of Valladolid, to take the proper measures to guard the archbishop, and sequestrate his property.

When the prelate arrived at the house intended for his prison, he was asked what domestics he wished to have; he named six, but only two were permitted to attend him. He begged Valtodano and Simancas not to allow any person to see certain papers and letters from the Pope, Fray Ferdinand de St. Ambrose, and the licentiate Cespedes, because they related to a trial for the lordship of Cazorla: he asked the same favour for a bundle of letters from the king, on some affairs which it had been improper to make public. He demanded the original of his consultations, and some approbations of his book, because he wished to present them to the Pope, who was the only competent judge of his trial; and lastly, some other writings relative to conferences which took place at the Council of Trent, in England, and in Flanders, and which were so many proofs of his efforts in the cause of the Catholic religion.

On the 1st of September, Valtodano and Simancas summoned the archbishop to take an oath to speak the truth. The prelate replied that he would do so when he received an order from the Pope or the king; that he protested against all that had been done, because they were not competent; that he did not acknowledge the grand-inquisitor as his judge, until he was furnished with special powers for that purpose; that, supposing him to have sufficient authority, he did not believe that he could delegate it; that he should prove his assertions much better if he had the brief, of which he demanded a copy. His request was granted the next day; on the 3rd, the grand-inquisitor, after a consultation with the Council, declared that he was a competent judge, and that he could delegate his powers; he announced that he should attend with the Council at the sessions of the tribunal: he attended on the 4th, and required Carranza to take the oath to speak the truth, either against himself or any other person, informing him that if he confessed all he knew, he would be treated with clemency, but in the contrary case he would be used with all the rigour of justice: he also told him that if he was reluctant to reply in the presence of the Council, he would be permitted to do so before two counsellors, or the inquisitors of Valladolid. Carranza made the same reply as on the preceding day, adding, that he was not certain that truth had been spoken in soliciting the brief from the Pope; since at that time there were no Spanish prelates suspected of heresy; that, if they had him in view, he was not in Spain at the time, but in Flanders, occupied in labouring for the defence of the Catholic religion, and converting heretics; that he exerted himself to destroy all the heresies, and for that purpose informed the king that heretical books were sold even at his palace-gates, and that the king, in consequence, gave the necessary orders to prevent the evil, which would be proved by the testimony of the king and the noblemen of his court.

Not satisfied with these arguments, the archbishop challenged the grand-inquisitor for reasons which he explained at the same session, and in his presence: on the 5th and the following days he continued to give the motives for his challenge in writing; his charges against Valdés were numerous, and very serious. He mentions persons, times, subjects, and reasons, which authorized him to represent Valdés as a perfidious, envious, vindictive man; to maintain that he continually abused his authority in order to satisfy his vengeance, which could be proved by some writings which were registered: he particularly applied himself to show that Valdés concealed his hatred to him, under the mask of an hypocritical zeal for religion; that this enmity was caused by his spite and envy after he (Carranza) was elevated to the see of Toledo, and had published his work on the Residence of Bishops;—in short, he filled eight folio sheets in a small hand, with the motives which induced him to challenge Valdés, and added those concerning the counsellors Perez and Cobos, promising to establish the proofs.

The archbishop chose for his advocates those men whom he considered most able to defend him; but they were, by different intrigues, induced to refuse their assistance: this plan was pursued with all the others whom he chose in case of their default, so that he was obliged to apply to some advocates who defended in the chancery his right to the lordship of some villages, although they knew nothing of the affairs of the holy office. Don Juan Sarmiento de Mendoza, counsellor of the Indies, for Valdés, and the licentiate Isunza, judge of the civil court of Valladolid, for the fiscal, were appointed arbitrators, to decide on the validity of the challenge. On the 23rd of February, 1560, they pronounced that the allegations were just, reasonable, and well proved. The fiscal not being satisfied with the decision, intended to appeal to Rome, but soon renounced the measure; in fact, how could the inquisitor-general think of sending a trial to Rome, which, if made public, would cover him and many others, who afterwards attained the highest dignities of the church, with eternal infamy? However, this appeal took place at a later period, after a thousand intrigues, but Valdés was not the inquisitor-general at that time.

The lodgings assigned to the archbishop were neither commodious, agreeable, nor airy; he was allowed only two rooms for himself, a monk, and his page. He complained of the inconvenience, but the fiscal presented a verbal process, stating that the house was large, convenient, and healthy: this was true, for he spoke of it in general, and did not mention the place where Carranza was confined. The rooms were very remote from all communication; in 1561 there was a great fire at Valladolid, which consumed four hundred houses in the quarter nearest to the prison of the archbishop, yet he heard neither the cries of the people, nor the noise which must have been occasioned by such an event, and only learnt that it had happened, a long time after, when he was at Rome. This privation of air and exercise produced in the archbishop a tertian fever, which weakened him considerably, but the inquisitors had not sufficient humanity to remove him to a more suitable place. They dreaded that he would appeal to the Pope, or the king, on whom however it would not have had any effect, as Valdés had contrived to persuade him, in some private conversations, that Carranza was really an heretic, and that all that he had done in England and Flanders was intended to conceal his opinions.

Although Valdés persisted in maintaining that he had the right of delegating his powers to prosecute the archbishop, yet as several counsellors, and particularly Baco de Castro, held a contrary opinion, he was obliged to appeal to the Pope. Paul IV. was dead, and had been succeeded by Pius IV., who, on the 23rd of February, confirmed to Valdés the powers granted to him by his predecessor, and that of delegating confidential persons to proceed in the trial of the Archbishop of Toledo. This brief was of no use, because the arbitrators had declared on the same day that the motives for the challenge were just and valid; his holiness, in consequence, expedited another special brief, confirming all that had passed, provided that the proceedings had been lawful, and authorizing Philip II. to choose judges in his own name, to whom he gave from that moment the power of continuing the trial until it was in a state to be terminated, for the space of two years, beginning from the 7th of January, 1561. This brief was interpreted at Madrid to be a permission to pass a definitive sentence. The Pope being informed of this circumstance, on the 3rd of July issued a fourth brief, in which he disapproved of the interpretation of that preceding it, and commanded that the trial should be remitted to him, instructed but not judged, within a certain time.

Philip II. appointed Don Gaspard de Zuñiga y Avellanada, archbishop of Santiago, to be the judge, with the power of delegating his authority. This choice was pleasing to Carranza, because that prelate was one of the persons he had proposed for the see of Toledo; in fact, he derived some advantage from the change of his guards, and other measures. But Zuñiga appointed Valtodano and Simancas, who had begun the trial, to be the judges. Carranza intended to challenge them, as having voted his arrest; but being told that the king had said that no person who had ordered the imprisonment of a criminal could afterwards be his judge, if this challenge was allowed, he abandoned his design. The right which the prelate had intended to make use of, is now recognised as a principle among civilized nations; to it we owe the establishment of Juries.