"On the 25th of September, twenty-five individuals were arrested, on suspicion that they were the members of a masonic lodge, and partisans of the Cortes: among them were the Marquis Tolosa; the Canon Marina, a learned and distinguished member of the Academy; Doctor Luque, the court physician; and some French, and Italians, and Germans, who had settled in Spain. The brave General Alava, who was chosen by General Wellington for his aide-de-camp, on account of his merit, has been imprisoned by the holy office, as a freemason." I consider the latter assertion to be entirely false, because letters worthy of credit, and the gazettes of Spain, only stated that an order to leave Madrid had been sent to the general by the king, but it was revoked, as his majesty discovered that he had been deceived; it is certain that Ferdinand, some time after, sent him as his ambassador into the Low Countries.
The account given in the Madrid Gazette on the 14th May, 1816, of an auto-da-fé celebrated by the Inquisition of Mexico on the 27th December, 1815, is more worthy of belief. Don Joseph-Maria Morellos, a priest, had placed himself at the head of his countrymen, with the intention of freeing his country from the dominion of the King of Spain. The holy office prosecuted him for heresy, while the viceroy arrested him for rebellion. The prisons of the holy office were preferred to that of the government, and some witnesses were found who deposed to certain facts which the Mexican qualifiers thought sufficient to authorize them to pronounce Morellos suspected of atheism, materialism, and other errors. One proof of his guilt was, that he had two children. The accused abjured, and was absolved in an auto-da-fé, which was celebrated with as much parade as in the reign of Philip II. When the Inquisitors treated Morellos with so much moderation, they knew that the viceroy would hang him; before his execution he was degraded from the priesthood by the Bishop of Antequera in America.
I do not know if the Spanish Inquisition has celebrated an auto-da-fé since its re-establishment. I shall only say, that if its members wish to follow the precepts of the Gospel more faithfully than their predecessors, they ought to follow the example of their chief, Pius VII. A letter from Rome, dated the 31st of March, 1816, announces that his Holiness had abolished the use of torture in all the tribunals of the holy office, and that the resolution had been communicated to the ambassadors of Spain and Portugal[80]. A second letter from the same city on the 17th of April following, says that the procedure of the Inquisition was to be similar to that of the other tribunals, and to be made public[81].
A third letter on the 9th May, states that the Inquisition of Rome had annulled the sentence which that of Ravenna had pronounced against Solomon Moses Viviani, who had relapsed into Judaism, after having abjured it to become a Christian. In confirming the revocation, the Pope said: "The divine law is not of the same nature as that of man, but a law of persuasion and gentleness; persecution, exile, and imprisonment, are only suitable to false prophets and the apostles of false doctrines. Let us pity the man who does not see the true light, or who even refuses to see it; the cause of his blindness may tend to fulfil the profound designs of providence, &c." His Holiness having since presided at a congregation of the holy office, has decreed that, "in all trials of heresy, the accuser shall be confronted with the accused, in the presence of the judges, and has expressed an intention that the trials shall be so conducted as to avoid the punishment of death[82]."
Another letter from Rome, of the 17th January, 1817, contains the following article: "It is reported that the holy office will be reformed this year. It appears that it will only be allowed to proceed in the same manner as the other tribunals. The government considers it to be dangerous to allow a body to exist which is useless, and always armed against the progress of reason. You may believe that the Inquisition has already ceased to exist[83]."
In March, 1816, the Portuguese ambassador had sent a diplomatic note to the cardinal-secretary of state to his Holiness, in which he informs him, in the name of his court, of the condemnation of a work printed by the Inquisitor Louis de Paramo, of the formal and judicial suppression of the holy office, and of the re-establishment of the bishops in their former privileges[84].
These just and moderate measures ought to be the rule and guide of the Spanish inquisitors; if they would make the proceedings public, and liberate the prisoners on bail, I confess that I should not be afraid to present myself to be tried by that tribunal.
Since this article was printed, I have been informed, that the inquisitor-general Mier Campillo is dead, and that Ferdinand has appointed Monseigneur Jerome Castillon de Salas, Bishop of Taragona, as his successor. God grant that he may understand the spirit of the Gospel, and the necessity of reforming the Inquisition, better than his predecessor!
NUMBER OF THE VICTIMS
OF
THE INQUISITION.
IT is impossible to determine the exact number of persons who perished in the first years after the establishment of the holy office. Persons were burnt in the year 1481, and the Supreme Council was not created until 1483. The registers in its archives, and those of the inferior tribunals, are of a still later date; and as the inquisitor-general accompanied the court, which had no fixed residence until the reign of Philip II., many of the trials must have been lost during these journeys. These circumstances oblige me to found my calculations on the combination of certain data, which I found in the registers and writings of the holy office.