The Inquisition of Saragossa also celebrated an auto-da-fé every year, when several people were burnt, and about twenty reconciled. Most of these were Huguenots who had quitted Bearn, to establish themselves as merchants in Saragossa, Huesca, Barbastro, and other cities. The progress which the Calvinistic doctrines had made in Spain, is proved by an ordinance of the Supreme Council, in which we read, that "Don Louis de Benegas, the ambassador of Spain at Vienna, informed the inquisitor-general, on the 14th of April, 1568, that he had learnt from particular reports, that the Calvinists congratulated each other on the peace signed between France and Spain, and that they hoped that their religion would make as much progress in Spain as in England, Flanders, and other countries, because the great number of Spaniards who had secretly adopted it might easily hold communication with the Protestants of Bearn, through Arragon." These, and other reports, induced the council to recommend additional vigilance to the inquisitors.
The following circumstance shows the injustice and cruelty of the Inquisition in a strong light. In 1578, a man was condemned, on suspicion of heresy, to receive two hundred stripes, to be sent for five years to the galleys, and to pay an hundred ducats. His crime was sending Spanish horses into France. Since the reign of Alphonso XI., in the fourteenth century, the introduction of Spanish horses into France was prohibited, on pain of death and confiscation; the particular circumstances which caused so disproportionate a punishment to the crime to be established are not known; it was however renewed in 1499, by Ferdinand the Catholic. No one will deny that the officers of the customs were the proper persons to arrest these smugglers; but when the civil wars broke out between the Catholics and Protestants in France, Philip thought proper to employ the Inquisition in repressing the practice, pretending, according to the Papal bull, that those who furnished the Protestants with arms, ammunition, &c., were favourers of heretics, and liable to suspicion of heresy. Philip II. commissioned the Inquisition of Logroño, Saragossa, and Barcelona, to take cognizance of all the crimes relating to the introduction of Spanish horses into France.
The Council of the Inquisition added a clause to the annual edict of denunciations, which obliged every Spanish Catholic Christian to denounce persons known to have bought horses to send to France, for the use of the Protestants. Besides these motives of religion, the zeal of the inhabitants was excited by the promise of a reward.
In 1575, the punishment of whipping was decreed for this crime; but though the law is expressed in general terms, the following event shows that it was only inflicted on those whose power and credit were small. In 1576, a Commissary of the Inquisition met a servant of the viceroy of Arragon going into France with two horses; he seized the horses, but allowed the servant to go away. He gave an account of his proceedings to the inquisitors, who approved of his conduct in not arresting the servant; their opinion was confirmed by the Supreme Council. The inquisitors were on the point of writing to the viceroy, to demand an explanation of the conduct of his servant, and the destination of the horses, when the council ordered them to desist, if they thought it would be disagreeable to the viceroy.
This law was afterwards applied to those who were suspected of smuggling, and to those who favoured the practice. In 1607, Philip II. ordered the inquisitors to offer rewards to those who intercepted this trade, and the people were at last inspired with so great a horror of it, and those who practised it became so odious, that the government was obliged to declare that the misfortune of being convicted and punished for this crime, did not exclude a person from enjoying honours and offices.
The inquisitors, always eager to extend their jurisdiction, wished to have the right of undertaking the trials for smuggling saltpetre, sulphur, and gunpowder; this attempt did not succeed, and was, in fact, the cause of their being deprived of the powers bestowed on them by Philip, respecting the introduction of horses into France.
Inquisition of Grenada.
In the yearly autos-da-fé of the Inquisition of Grenada, there generally appeared about twenty condemned persons; for although the Morescoes who denounced themselves were treated with great clemency, yet there were many who refused to accuse themselves, either from the fear which the severity of the Inquisition inspired, or because they were persuaded that those who declared they had been treated with great gentleness, did not dare to assert the contrary; and others, after having emigrated to Africa, had returned to Spain without considering the danger they were in of being arrested by the Inquisition.
On the 27th of May, 1593, a grand auto-da-fé took place at Grenada; five individuals were burnt in person, and five in effigy; eighty-seven were condemned to penances. The only considerable person among these, was Donna Inez Alvarez, the wife of Thomas Martinez, alguazil to the royal chancery. She was condemned to be burnt, but making a confession on the scaffold, she was reconciled.
The proceedings were the same in the Inquisition of Valencia. The number of Morescoes who relapsed into Mahometanism, and refused to accuse themselves, was so considerable, that many appeared in every auto-da-fé, either to be burnt as impenitent, or to suffer different penances.