The 28th and last, commits to the prudence of the inquisitors the discussion of all points not mentioned in the foregoing articles.
Ferdinand having convoked at Tarazona the Cortes of his kingdom of Aragon, decreed that the Inquisition should be reformed in a privy-council. After this resolution, Torquemada named Gaspard Juglar, a dominican, and Peter Arbuès d'Epila, as inquisitors for the archbishopric of Saragossa. A royal ordinance commanded all the authorities to aid and assist them in their office, and the magistrate known by the name of Chief Justice of Aragon, took the oath with several others. This circumstance did not prevent the resistance which the Aragonese opposed to the tribunal; on the contrary it augmented, and rose to such a height, that it might have been termed national.
The principal persons employed in the Court of Aragon were descended from New Christians: among these were Louis Gonzalez, the royal secretary for the affairs of the kingdom; Philip de Clemente, prothonotary; Alphonso de la Caballeria, vice-chancellor; and Gabriel Sanchez, grand treasurer; who were all descended from Jews condemned, in their time, by the Inquisition. These men, and many others employed in the court, had allied themselves to the principal grandees in the kingdom, and used the influence which they derived from this circumstance, to engage the representatives of the nation to appeal to the Pope and the king, against the inquisitorial code. Commissioners were sent to Rome and the Court of Spain, to demand the suspension of the articles relating to confiscation, as contrary to the laws of the kingdom of Aragon. They were persuaded that the Inquisition would not maintain itself if this measure was abandoned. While the deputies of the Cortes of Aragon were at Rome, and with the king, the inquisitors condemned several New Christians as Judaic heretics. These executions increased the irritation of the Aragonese; and when the deputies wrote from the Court of Spain, that they were not satisfied with the state of affairs, they resolved to sacrifice one or two of the inquisitors, with the hope that no one would dare to take the office, and that the king would renounce his design. The project of assassination having been approved by the conspirators, a voluntary contribution was raised among all the Aragonese of the Jewish race; and it was proved by the trials of Sancho de Paternoy and others, that Don Blasco d'Alagon received ten thousand reals, which were destined to reward the assassins of the Inquisitor Arbuès, John de la Abadia, a noble of Aragon, but descended from Jewish ancestors on the female side, took upon himself the direction of the enterprise. The assassination was confided to John d'Esperaindeo, to Vidal d'Uranso, his servant, to Matthew Ram, Tristan de Leonis, Anthony Gran, and Bernard Leofante. They failed several times in their attempts, as Peter Arbuès, being informed of their design, took the necessary precautions to secure his life.
It appears, from the examination of some of the murderers, that the inquisitor wore a coat of mail under his vest, and a kind of helmet covered with a cap. He was at last assassinated in the metropolitan church, during the performance of the matins, on the 15th of November, 1485. Vidal d'Uranso wounded him so severely in the back of the neck, that he died two days after. The next day the murder was known in the town, but its effects were different from what had been expected, for all the Old Christians, or those who were not of Jewish origin, persuaded that the New Christians had committed the crime, assembled to pursue them and revenge the death of the inquisitor. The disturbance was violent, and its consequences would have been terrible, if the young archbishop, Don Alphonso of Aragon, had not shewn himself, and assured the multitude that the criminal should be punished. Policy inspired Ferdinand and Isabella with the idea of honouring the memory of Arbuès with a solemnity which contributed to make him pass for a saint, and caused a particular worship to be addressed to him. This took place long after, when Pope Alexander VII. had beatified him as a martyr, in 1664. A magnificent monument was erected to his memory, by Ferdinand and Isabella. While the sovereigns were occupied in honouring the remains of Peter Arbuès, the inquisitors of Saragossa were labouring without ceasing to discover the authors and accomplices of his murder, and to punish them as Judaic heretics and enemies to the holy office. It would be difficult to enumerate the number of families plunged into misery through their vengeance; two hundred victims were soon sacrificed. Vidal d'Uranso, one of the assassins, revealed all he knew of the conspiracy, which was the cause of the discovery of its authors. There was scarcely a single family in the three first orders of nobility, which was not disgraced by having at least one of its members in the auto-da-fé, wearing the habit of a penitent.
Don James Diaz d'Aux Armendarix, lord of the town of Cadreita, a knight of Navarre, and ancestor of the Dukes of Albuquerque, was condemned to a public penance, for having concealed in his house, for one night, several persons who fled from Saragossa. The same punishment was inflicted on several other illustrious knights of the town of Tudela in Navarre, for having received and concealed other fugitives. Don James de Navarre (the son of Eleanor, Queen of Navarre, and Gaston de Foix) was imprisoned in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and was subjected to a public penance for having assisted several of the conspirators in their flight. The inquisitors knew, when they had the audacity to imprison him, that he was not beloved by Ferdinand, who always feared him, although he was not legitimate.
Don Lope Ximenez de Urrea, first count of Aranda; Don Louis Gonzalez, secretary to the king; Don Alphonso de la Caballeria, vice-chancellor of the kingdom; and many other persons of equal rank, were condemned to the same punishment. John de Esperaindeo and the other assassins of Arbuès were hung, after having their hands cut off. Their bodies were quartered, and their limbs exposed in the highways. John de l'Abadia killed himself in prison the day before the execution, but his corpse was treated in the same manner as the others. The hands of Vidal d'Uranso were not cut off until he had expired, because he had been promised his pardon if he discovered the conspirators.
All the other provinces of Aragon made an equal resistance to the introduction of the new Inquisition. The seditions at Teruel were only quelled in 1485, by extreme severity. The town and bishopric of Lerida, and other towns in Catalonia, obstinately resisted the establishment of the reform, and were not reduced to obedience until 1487. Barcelona refused to acknowledge Torquemada or any of his delegates, on account of a privilege which it possessed of having an inquisitor with a special title. The king applied to the Pope, who instituted Torquemada special inquisitor of the town and bishopric of Barcelona, with the power of appointing others to the office. The king was obliged to employ the same method with the inhabitants of Majorca and those of Sardinia, who did not receive the Inquisition until 1490 and 1492. It is an incontestable fact in the history of the Spanish Inquisition, that it was introduced entirely against the consent of the provinces, and only by the influence of the Dominican monks.
CHAPTER VII.
ADDITIONAL ACTS TO THE FIRST CONSTITUTION OF THE HOLY OFFICE; CONSEQUENCES OF THEM, AND APPEALS TO ROME AGAINST THEM.
THE inquisitor-general judged it necessary to augment the laws of the holy office; and added eleven new articles to them; the substance of them is as follows:—
1st. That each inferior tribunal should consist of two inquisitors as civilians, an attorney, an alguazil, a recorder and other persons, if necessary, who were to receive a fixed salary. The same article prohibits the admission of the servants or creatures of the inquisitors into the tribunal.