Philip II. died in September, 1598, after having reigned forty-two years. His name was abhorred in his own dominions on account of his sanguinary bigotry, and his pernicious policy in government. Historians represent him as worthy to be classed with those monsters of cruelty, Nero and Domitian, deserving the execration of mankind.
The number of the victims of the Inquisition during the reign of Philip II. was estimated at not less than 40,664; of whom, 6,300 were burnt; 3,124 were burnt in effigy; and 31,240 were subjected to various humiliating penances. This was, therefore, the reign of terror in Spain.
Philip’s cruelty may be further illustrated by one act of his domestic administration; for he added his own son, and heir to his throne, to the number of his victims. Don Carlos being shocked at the cruelties exercised by the duke of Alva against the Protestants in the Netherlands, [see Chapter VII.] at the entreaty of several nobles, desired a commission to govern that country, as viceroy, that he might give toleration to those who rejected the domination of the Pope. But his father, attended by several of his privy counsellors and twelve guards, entered his chamber in the middle of the night, seized him, and threw him into prison. The nation was astonished at this outrage against the prince; and the Emperor Maximilian besought Philip to set him at liberty; but in vain. A junta, of whom the inquisitor-general was president, was appointed to try Don Carlos; and he was kept in close confinement. None were allowed to visit him, not even the queen, or the princess, Donna Juana, lest the complaints of the prince should become public; those officials only, with one physician, were permitted to see him, who were appointed by the king. Philip himself dared not see him, fearing the reproaches of the injured prince; and he appears to have been secretly murdered,—the prevailing opinion is, by poison,—July 24, 1568, at the age of twenty-three years!
Philip would never satisfy the public regarding the particulars of the prince’s death. De Castro says, “Don Carlos fell a victim to his desires to banish from Flanders the horrors of the Inquisition, and set all men’s consciences free in matters of religion. The greatest crime of which Carlos was held by his father, the palace favourites, and the inquisitors, to be guilty, was that of entertaining Protestant doctrines. This was the report in and out of Spain. There is one circumstance which confirms the opinion that Don Carlos was murdered, viz., that the Marquis de Bergnes died in the court under the suspicion of having been poisoned; the Baron de Montigny was secretly beheaded in the palace of Segovia, and the Counts of Egmont and Horn perished on a scaffold, before the populace of Brussels,—all of them for their secret correspondence with Don. Carlos!”
Spain greatly declined under this inhuman policy of Philip II., who was succeeded by his son, Philip III., who reigned twenty-three years, dying March 31st, 1621. The number of his victims in the Inquisition in that period was 15,824; of whom 1,840 were burnt; 736 were burnt in effigy; and 13,248 were subjected to penances. Philip IV. succeeded his father, and died in 1665, having reigned forty-four years; in which period the victims of the Inquisition were 18,304; of whom, 2,816 were burnt; 1,408 were burnt in effigy; and 14,080 suffered severe penances. Philip IV. was succeeded by his son, Charles II., only four years old; and at his marriage, in 1680, he was honoured with the celebration of an auto da fé, on a scale of great magnificence, at Madrid! A description of this will be found in Chapter XV.
CHAPTER VII.
THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND THE NETHERLANDS.
Jews in Portugal—Popular hatred against them—The Inquisition against them—In several cities—Established in Goa—Decree against the Jews—Even after they professed Christianity—Luther’s followers in the Netherlands—Inquisitors seek them—Alarm in the cities—Edicts of Charles V.—Philip succeeds him—Duke of Alva’s murders—“United Provinces.”
Portugal, as we have seen, received some of the Jews, who had been persecuted and driven from Spain under the inquisitor-general Torquemada. Every possible effort, by persecution and cruelty, was employed to convert them to a profession of Christianity. Their children were taken from them,—all under the age of fourteen,—and educated in the Catholic belief. Sismondi states,—“On the occasion of a newly-converted Jew, in 1506, who had appeared to disbelieve in some miracle, the people of Lisbon rose, and having assassinated him, burnt his dead body in the public square. A monk, in the midst of the tumult, addressed the populace, exhorting them not to rest satisfied with so slight a vengeance, in return for such an insult offered to our Lord. Two other monks, raising the crucifix, then placed themselves at the head of the seditious mob, crying aloud only these words, ‘Heresy! heresy! Exterminate! exterminate!’ And during the three following days, two thousand of the newly converted, men, women, and children, were put to the sword, and their reeking limbs, yet warm and palpitating, burnt in the public places of the city. The same fanaticism extending to the armies, converted Portuguese soldiers into the executioners of infidels and the tyrants of the east. At length, in the year 1540, John III. succeeded in establishing the Inquisition, which the progress of superstition had been long preparing.”
King John established the “Holy Office” in Portugal, on the model of that in Spain. “How great his zeal was to maintain the faith in its ancient splendour,” says a Catholic historian, “his introducing the sacred tribunal of the inquisitors of heresy into Portugal, is an abundant proof, bravely overcoming those difficulties and obstructions which the devil had cunningly raised in the city, to prevent or retard his majesty’s endeavours. For he learned experience from others, and grew wise by the misfortunes of many kingdoms, which, from the most flourishing state, were brought to ruin and destruction, by monstrous and deadly heresies. And it is very worthy of observation, that the year in which the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition against heretical pravity was brought into Portugal, the kingdom laboured under the most dreadful barrenness and famine. But when the tribunal was once erected, the following year was remarkable for an incredible plenty, commonly called ‘the year of St. Blaze,’ because before his festival the seed could not be sown in the ground for want of rain, whereas, afterwards, provision was so cheap, that a bushel of corn was sold for two-pence.”
Didacus de Silva was the first inquisitor-general in Portugal, and he erected tribunals in several cities, the first at Evora, A.D. 1537, appointing John de Mello the first inquisitor in that city. The tribunal at Lisbon was erected in 1539, by Cardinal Henry, the second inquisitor-general; and another court at Coimbra, in 1541.