It must be observed, that the demon affirmed that God had permitted a spell to be put upon the king, and that it could not be taken off, because the holy sacrament was in the church without lamps or wax candles, the communities of monks dying of hunger, and other reasons of the same nature. Two other demons who were interrogated, only agreed in declaring the necessity of favouring the churches, convents, and communities of Dominican monks; perhaps because the inquisitor-generals Rocaberti and Diaz were of that order.
This prince convoked the grand junta, composed of two councillors of state, two members of each of the Councils of Castile, Aragon, Italy, the Indies, the military orders and the finances, and one of the king's secretaries. The royal secretary informed the junta that the disputes between the inquisitors and the civil judges had caused so much disturbance, that the king had resolved to commission the assembly to propose a plain and fixed rule, to secure to the Inquisition the respect due to it, and to prevent the inquisitors from undertaking trials foreign to the jurisdiction of the holy office. The king commanded the six councils to remit to the junta all the papers necessary for the examination of the affair.
On the 21st of May, 1696, the grand junta made a report, stating that it appeared from the papers which had been examined, that the greatest disorder had long existed in the different jurisdictions, because the inquisitors had arbitrarily extended their power, so that the common tribunals had scarcely anything to do; that they punished the slightest offence against themselves or their domestics with the greatest severity, as if it was a crime against religion; that not content with exempting their officers from taxes, they gave their houses the privileges of an asylum, so that a criminal could not be taken from them, even by a judicial order; and if the public authorities exercised their powers, they dared to complain of it as a sacrilegious violation of the church; that in their official letters, and in the conduct of their affairs, they showed an intention of weakening the respect of the people towards the royal judges, and even to make the authority of superior magistrates contemptible; and that they affected a certain independent manner of thinking on the subjects of administration and public economy, which made them forgetful of the rights of the crown.
The junta then stated that these abuses had caused complaints from the subjects, division among the ministers, discouragement to the tribunals, and much trouble to his majesty in settling their differences. That this conduct had appeared so intolerable, even in the beginning, that the powers of the Inquisition had been suspended for ten years by Charles V., until it was restored by Philip II., in the absence of his father, with some restrictions, which had not been well observed; that the extreme moderation with which the inquisitors had been treated was the cause of their boldness.
The junta proposed for the reformation of the holy office; 1st. That the Inquisition should not make use of censures in civil affairs. 2nd. That in case they employed them, the royal tribunals should be charged to oppose them by the means in their power. 3rd. That the privileges of the inquisitorial jurisdiction should be limited, in respect to the ministers and familiars of the Inquisition, and the relations of the inquisitors. 4th. That measures should be adopted to ensure the immediate settlement of affairs relating to competence and mutual pretensions.
The Count de Frigiliana, councillor of state, added that the inquisitors ought to be compelled to give an account of the revenues of the holy office. These observations, and the propositions of the junta, had no effect; for the inquisitor-general Rocaberti, and Froilan Diaz, succeeded in changing the favourable inclinations of the king.
CHAPTER XL.
OF THE INQUISITION IN THE REIGN OF PHILIP V.
PHILIP V. succeeded his uncle Charles II. on the 1st of November, 1700; he died on the 9th of July, 1746. The grand-inquisitors, during this period, were, Don Balthazar Mendoza y Sandoval; Don Vidal Marin, Bishop of Ceuta; Don Antonio Ibañez de la Riba-Herrera, Archbishop of Saragossa; Cardinal Don Francis Judice; Don Joseph de Molinos; Don Diego de Astorga Cespedes, Bishop of Barcelona; Don Juan de Camargo, Bishop of Pampeluna; Don Andres de Orbe Larreategui, Archbishop of Valencia; Don Manuel-Isidore Manrique de Lara, Archbishop of Santiago; and Don Francis Perez de Prado Cuesta, Bishop of Teruel, who was still in office at the death of Philip V.
The court had always been so favourable to the Inquisition, that the inquisitors thought that a solemn auto-da-fé in celebration of his accession would be agreeable to the king. It took place in 1701, but Philip refused to be present at this barbarous scene. He however protected the tribunal of the holy office, according to the advice of his grandfather, Louis XIV., who told him, that he must support the Inquisition as the surest means of maintaining the tranquillity of his kingdom. This system acquired fresh importance in his eyes when Don Vidal Marin, the inquisitor-general, published an edict excommunicating all those who did not denounce the persons who had been heard to say, that they thought themselves permitted to violate the oath of fidelity to Philip V. This edict gave occasion for several trials, but none of them were followed by a definitive sentence.
Judaism was nearly extirpated during the reign of Philip V.; it had been secretly propagated for the second time in a remarkable manner, after the reunion of Portugal to Spain. A yearly auto-da-fé was celebrated by all the tribunals of the Inquisition, during the reign of this prince; some of them held two, and three were performed at Seville and Grenada. Thus, without including those of America, Sardinia and Sicily, seven hundred and eighty-two autos-da-fé took place at Madrid, Barcelona, the Canaries, Cordova, Cuença, Grenada, Jaen, Llerena, Logroño, Majorca, Murcia, Santiago, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid and Saragossa.