For several ages the method of proceeding against heretics was committed to the bishops, with whom the government and care of the churches were entrusted, according to the received decrees of the church of Rome. But as their number did not seem sufficient to the court, or because they did not proceed with that fury against heretics, as the pope would have them; therefore, that he might put a stop to the increasing progress of heresy, and effectually extinguish it, about the year of our Lord 1200, he founded the order of the Dominicans and Franciscans. [[W]]Dominick and his followers were sent into the country of Tholouse, where he preached with great vehemence against the heretics of those parts; from whence his order have obtained the name of Predicants. Father Francis, with his disciples, battled it with the heretics of Italy. They were both commanded by the pope to excite the Catholic princes and people to extirpate heretics, and in all places to inquire out their number and quality; and also the zeal of the Catholics and bishops in their extirpation, and to transmit a faithful account to Rome: hence they are called inquisitors.
Dominick being sent into the country of Tholouse, was confirmed in the office of inquisitor by the papal authority; after which, upon a certain day, in the midst of a great concourse of people, he declaredo penly in his sermon, in the church of St. Prullian, “that he was raised to a new office by the pope;” adding, that “he was resolved to defend, with his utmost vigour, the doctrines of the faith; and that if the spiritual arm was not sufficient for this end, it was his fixed purpose to call in the assistance of the secular one, and to excite and compel the Catholic princes to take arms against heretics, that the very memory of them might be intirely destroyed.” It evidently appears that he was a very bloody and cruel man. He was born in Spain, in the village of Calaroga, in the diocese of Osma. His mother, before she conceived him, dreamt that “she was with child of a whelp, carrying in his mouth a lighted torch; and that after he was born, he put the world in an uproar by his fierce barkings, and set it on fire by the torch which he carried in his mouth.” His followers interpret this dream of his doctrine, by which he enlightened the whole world; but others, with more reason, think that the torch was an emblem of that fire and faggot, by which an infinite number of persons were consumed to ashes.
SECT. I.
Of the progress of the Inquisition.
Dominick being settled in the country of Tholouse, sent a great number of persons, wearing crosses, to destroy the Albigenses in those parts; and caused the friars of his order to promise plenary indulgences to all who would engage in the pious work of murdering heretics. He also caused Raymond earl of Tholouse to be excommunicated, as a defender of heretics, and his subjects to be absolved from their oaths of allegiance. The cross-bearers, being thus sent by Dominick, filled all places with slaughter and blood, and burnt many whom they had taken prisoners. In the year 1209, Biterre was taken by them; and the inhabitants, without any regard of age, were cruelly put to the sword, and the city itself destroyed by the flames; and though there were several Catholics in it, yet, lest any heretics should escape, Arnold, abbot of Cisteaux, cried out, “Slay them all, for the Lord knows who are his;” upon which they were all slain, without exception. Carcassone also was destroyed, Alby and La Vaur taken by force; in which last place they hanged Aymeric, the governor of the city, who was of a noble family, beheaded eighty of lower degree, and threw Girarda, Aymeric’s sister, into an open pit, and covered her with stones. Afterwards they conquered Carcum, where they murdered sixty men. They seized on Villeneuve, a large city near Tholouse, and burnt in it 400 Albigenses, and hanged fifty more. They also took Castres de Termis, and in it Raymond, lord of the place, whom they put in jail, where he died; and burnt in one large fire, his wife, sister, and virgin daughter, because they would not embrace the faith of the church of Rome. They also took Avignon by treachery, and, in despite of their oaths, plundered the city, and killed great numbers of the inhabitants; and, at last, forced the brave earl to surrender Tholouse itself, and then stripped him of his dominions, and would not absolve him from his excommunication, without walking in penance to the high altar, in his shirt and breeches, and with naked feet. Upon this conquest and destruction of the Albigenses, the inquisition proceeded with vigour, and was established by several councils at Tholouse and Narbonne.
In the year 1232, the inquisition was brought into Aragon, and pope Gregory gave commission to the archbishop of Tarracone, and his suffragans, to proceed against all persons infected with heretical pravity; and accordingly the inquisition was there carried on with the greatest rigour.
In 1251, pope Innocent IV. created inquisitors in Italy: and the office was committed to the Friars Minors and Predicants. The Friars Minors were appointed in the city of Rome, the patrimony of St. Peter, Tuscany, the dutchy of Spoletto, Campania, Maretamo, and Romania. To the Predicants he assigned Lombardy, Romaniola, the Marquisate of Tarvesano, and Genoa; and gave them certain articles to be prescribed to the magistrates and people subject to their jurisdiction, with power to excommunicate all who refused to observe them; and in process of time tribunals of the inquisition were erected in Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Ragusia, and in all places where the power of the pope could extend itself. Innumerable cruelties were practised upon those whom the judges condemned for heresy; some were burnt alive, others thrown into rivers, tied hand and foot, and so drowned; and others destroyed by different methods of barbarity.
Ferdinand and Isabella having united the several kingdoms of Spain by their inter-marriage, introduced, in the year 1478, the inquisition into all their kingdoms, with greater pomp, magnificence and power, than it had ever yet appeared in. The Jews were the first who felt the fury of it. A set time was appointed by the inquisitors for them to come in and make confession of their errors, in the year 1481. Accordingly about 1700 of both sexes appeared, who had their lives granted them. Many, however, refused to obey, and persisted in their heresy. On this they were immediately seized; and through the violence of their torments great numbers confessed their crimes, and were thrown into the fire; some acknowledging Christ, and others calling on the name of Moses. Within a few years, two thousand of them of both sexes were burnt. Others professing repentance, were condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and to wear crosses. The bones of others who were dead were taken out of their graves, and burnt to ashes; their effects confiscated, and their children deprived of their honours and offices. The Jews being terrified by this cruelty, fled, some into Portugal, others into Italy, and France; and left all their effects behind them, which were immediately seized on for the king’s use. At length, in 1494, to purge their kingdoms intirely from Jewish superstition, Ferdinand and Isabel by a law ordered them to depart all their dominions within four years; forbidding them ever to return to Spain, under the punishment of immediate death. Most writers affirm that there were 170,000 families who departed; others say there were 800,000 persons; a prodigious number, almost exceeding belief.
In the year 1500, the archbishop of Toledo took great pains to convert the Moors of Granada to Christianity. He first of all gained over some of their chief priests by gifts and favours. Others, who refused to become Christians, he put in irons in jail, and ordered them to be used with great cruelty; and by these methods gained many converts. Ferdinand at last published an edict against them, commanding them in general to become Christians, or depart his dominions within a certain day.
This tribunal, first erected to discover Jews and Moors, soon began to proceed against heretics, and to exercise the same cruelties against these as they had against the others. Charles V. king of Spain, who with great difficulty had brought the inquisition into the Netherlands, against the Lutherans and reformed, recommended it to his son Philip in his will; and Philip gave full proof of his zeal to execute his father’s commands. For when he was requested by many to grant liberty of religion in the Low Countries, he prostrated himself before a crucifix, and uttered these words: “I beseech the divine majesty, that I may always continue in this mind; that I may never suffer myself to be, or to be called the lord of those any where, who deny thee the Lord.” Nor is this any wonder; for the popish divines endeavoured to persuade the kings of Spain that the inquisition was the only security of their kingdom. No one can wonder, that under this persuasion, the Spanish kings have been violent promoters of the inquisition; and that they have inflicted the most cruel punishments upon the miserable heretics. Philip II. not only in the Low Countries, but also in Spain, shewed himself the patron of it; and that the most outrageous cruelty was acceptable to him. He gave some horrid specimens of it in the year 1559, in two cities of Spain, when he came thither from the Low Countries; [[245]]“Immediately on his arrival,” as Thuanus relates, “he began to chastise the sectaries. And whereas, before this, one or more, just as it happened, were delivered to the executioner, after condemnation for heresy; all that were condemned throughout the whole kingdom were kept against his coming, and carried together to Seville, and Valladolid, where they were brought forth in public pomp to their punishment. The first act of faith was at Seville, the 8th of the calends of October; in which John Ponce de Leon, son of Rhoderic Ponce Comte de Baylen, was led before the others, as in triumph, and burnt for an obstinate heretical Lutheran. John Consalvus, a preacher, as he had been his companion in life, was forced to bear him company in his death; after whom followed Isabella Venia, Maria Viroes, Cornelia, and Bohorchés; a spectacle full of pity and indignation, which was encreased, because Bohorchés, the youngest of all of them, being scarce twenty, suffered death with the greatest constancy. And because the heretical assemblies had prayed in the house of Venia, it was concluded in her sentence, and ordered to be levelled with the ground. After these, came forth Ferdinand San Juan, and Julian Hernandez, commonly called the Little, from his small stature, and John of Leon, who had been a shoemaker at Mexico in New Spain, and was afterwards admitted into the college of St. Isidore; in which his companions studied, as they boasted, the purer doctrine privately. Their number was encreased by Frances Chaves, a nun of the convent of St. Elizabeth, who had been instructed by John Ægidius, a preacher at Seville, and suffered death with great constancy. From the same school, came out Christopher Losada, a physician, and Christopher de Arellanio, a monk of St. Isidore, and Garsias Arias; who first kindled those sparks of the same religion amongst the friars of St. Isidore, by his constant admonitions and sermons, by which the great pile was afterwards set on fire, and the convent itself, and good part of that most opulent city almost consumed. He was a man of uncommon learning, but of an inconstant, wavering temper; and, being exceeding subtle in disputing, he refuted the very doctrines he had persuaded his followers to receive, though he brought them into danger on that account from the inquisitors. Having, by these arts, exposed many whom he had deceived to evident hazard, and rendered himself guilty of the detestable crime of breach of faith; he was admonished by John Ægidius, Constantine Ponce, and Varquius, that he had not dealt sincerely with his friends, and those who were in the same sentiments with himself; to which he replied, that he foresaw, that in a little time they would be forced to behold the bulls brought forth for a lofty spectacle; meaning thereby, the theatre of the inquisitors. Constantine answered, You, if it please God, shall not behold the games from on high, but be yourself amongst the combatants. Nor was Constantine deceived in his prediction: for afterwards, Arias was called on; and whether age had made him bolder, or whether, by a sudden alteration, his timorousness changed into courage, he severely rebuked the assessors of the inquisitory tribunal; affirming, they were more fit for the vile office of mule keepers, than impudently to take upon themselves to judge concerning the faith, which they were scandalously ignorant of. He farther declared, that he bitterly repented that he had knowingly and willingly opposed, in their presence, that truth he now maintained, against the pious defenders of it; and that from his soul he should repent of it whilst he lived. So at last, being led in triumph, he was burnt alive, and confirmed Constantine’s prophecy. There remained Ægidius and Constantine, who closed the scene; but death prevented their being alive at the shew. Ægidius having been designed by the emperor, Philip’s father, for bishop of Tortona, upon the fame of his piety and learning, being summoned, publicly recanted his errors, wrought on either by craft, or the persuasion of Sotus, a Dominican; and hereupon was suspended for a while from preaching, and the sacred office, and died some time before this act. The inquisitors thought he had been too gently dealt with, and therefore proceeded against his body, and condemned him dead to death, and placed his effigies in straw on high for a spectacle. Constantine, who had been a long while the emperor’s confessor, and had always accompanied him in his retirement, after his abdication from his empire and kingdoms, and was present with him at his death, was brought before this tribunal, and died a little before the act, in a nasty prison. But, that the theatre might not want him, his effigies was carried about in a preaching posture. And thus this shew, terrible in itself, which drew tears from most who were present, when these images were brought on the scene, excited laughter in many, and at length indignation. They proceeded with the same severity, the following October, at Valladolid, against others condemned for the same crime; where king Philip himself being present, twenty-eight of the chief nobility of the country were tied to stakes and burnt.” Bartholomew Caranza, archbishop of Toledo, was also accused; who for his learning, probity of life, and most holy conversation, was highly worthy of that dignity. He was cast into prison, and stripped of all his large revenues. His cause was brought before Pius V. at Rome, and Gregory XIII. pronounced sentence in it.