These events did not prevent Philip II. from attempting to introduce the inquisition at Naples, although both Ferdinand V. and Charles V. had failed in the enterprise; but his efforts only served to disgrace him and destroy his authority in Naples, as they had before done in Flanders and Milan.
It may be supposed that Philip did not forget his American dominions. Ferdinand V. having resolved to establish the Inquisition in the New World, charged Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros with the conduct of the affair, and in 1516 he appointed Don Juan Quevedo, Bishop of Cuba, the delegated inquisitor-general, for the Spanish colonies then known by the name of the kingdom of Terra Firma, and gave him the power of appointing judges and officers for the tribunal. Charles V. wished to extend the benefits of this pious institution, and Cardinal Adrian, by his order, appointed, on the 7th of January, 1519, Don Alphonso Manso, Bishop of Porto Rico, and Brother Pedro de Cordova, inquisitors for the Indies and Isles of the Ocean, and gave them the requisite powers to establish the tribunal.
The new inquisitors began to prosecute the baptized Indians, who still retained some idolatrous practices. The viceroys informed the King of Spain of the evils produced by this system: in fact the Indians fled into the interior, and joined the savage tribes, which considerably retarded the progress of population in those vast countries. Charles V. in 1538 prohibited the inquisitors from prosecuting the Indians, who were to be under the jurisdiction of the bishops. The inquisitors of America were not more submissive than those of Spain, which obliged the prince to renew his orders in 1549. Philip II. undertook to organize the tribunal on the plan of that of Spain. In 1553 and 1565 he renewed his father's injunctions to leave the Indians under the jurisdiction of the bishops; and in 1569 he published a royal ordinance, importing that the inquisitor-general had appointed inquisitors, and commanding the viceroys and governors to give them every assistance in their establishment. These inquisitors were received with great ceremony at Panama and Lima, when they first formed the tribunal.
In 1570 Philip II. appointed an Inquisition at Mexico, and in 1571 established three tribunals for all America; one at Lima, one at Mexico, and the other at Carthagena, assigning to each the extent of territory which they were to possess, and subjecting them to the authority of the inquisitor-general and the Supreme Council.
The first auto-da-fé in Mexico took place in 1574; it was celebrated with so much pomp and splendour, that eye-witnesses have declared that it could only be compared to that of Valladolid in 1559, at which Philip II. and the royal family attended. A Frenchman and an Englishman were burnt as impenitent Lutherans; eighty persons were reconciled, and subjected to different penances. The Inquisition of Carthagena was not established at this period; it was founded in 1610 by Philip III.
The great fleet of the Catholic league against the Emperor of Constantinople, which gained the famous battle of Lepanto, inspired Philip II. with the project of creating an Inquisition for heretics who might be found in ships. As the authority of the inquisitor-general did not extend beyond the dominions of the King of Spain, it was considered necessary to apply to the Pope, who in 1571 granted the brief, which was demanded, authorizing the inquisitor-general to create the new tribunal, and appoint judges and officers. It was first known by the name of the Inquisition of the Galleys, but it was afterwards called the Inquisition of the Fleets and Armies; it existed but for a short period, as it was found to impede the progress of navigation.
The Inquisition was unknown in Galicia for more than a century before this period. This province formed part of the district subject to the holy office of old Castile and the kingdom of Leon; it had escaped this scourge, but at last Philip II. resolved that it should have an Inquisition to superintend the sea-ports, in order to prevent the introduction of pernicious books, and the entrance of persons who would teach the doctrines of the Protestants. The royal ordinance which established the Inquisition in Galicia was expedited in 1574, and the tribunal was organised in the same year.
Disputes with the Inquisition of Portugal.
The establishment of the power of Philip II. in Portugal, after the death of the Cardinal King Don Henry, who had occupied the throne until 1580, gave that prince another opportunity of signalizing his zeal for the Inquisition. I have already indicated the period of its institution, and the attendant circumstances[18]. Don Henry was inquisitor-general from 1539 to 1578, when he succeeded to the crown of Portugal, after the death of his nephew Don Sebastian. He bestowed the archbishopric of Lisbon, which he occupied at the time of his accession, on Don George Almeida, and likewise appointed him the third inquisitor-general of the kingdom.
In 1544, Don Henry (who then occupied the see of Evora), and Cardinal Don Juan Pardo de Tabera, inquisitor-general of Spain, with the consent of their respective sovereigns, published a circular, in which they announced, that as the two states were so near each other, and the extent of the frontier favoured the flight of the persons prosecuted by the Inquisition, they had agreed, 1st, to communicate reciprocally everything which might interest the Inquisition; 2nd, to arrest in their respective jurisdictions those subjects who were designated; 3rdly, to keep them prisoners, and to claim the writings of the trial, because this measure was less inconvenient than the exchange of the prisoners.