But I think I may claim and can prove that they are exaggerated. Above all we must never forget that Llorente’s figures are not taken from official registers, not even from private records, but originated only from a system of probable reckonings which in part rests on false premises. He himself confesses this unreservedly, and often describes the theory he has used in his conjectural reckoning. Llorente’s arbitrariness and injustice are most clearly shown in regard to Ximenes. Llorente states explicitly that this archbishop tried to make the Inquisition less severe, that he removed bad officials, that he pardoned many of the accused, etc. Nevertheless, that does not hinder him from supposing just as many executions annually under Ximenes as under Deza and his helper Lucero, both of whom he repeatedly accuses of the most boundless cruelty and severity. That such a reckoning is untrue and unjust needs no proof.
After all these observations we are still far removed from wishing to justify the Spanish Inquisition; on the contrary we would everywhere oppose the right of a secular power to interfere with the conscience, but we wished to prove that the institution of the Inquisition was not the outrageous monstrosity which party passions and lack of knowledge have often made it out to be.[oo]
Another Catholic View (Heinrich Brück)
Opinions differ as to the character of the Spanish Inquisition. A number of scholars (Hefele[oo], Gams[pp] and others) claim that it was purely a state institution, whereas the Spanish writers emphasize its ecclesiastical character, without denying the great influence of the crown upon it. The correct view is probably given by Rodrigo[ii] and Orti y Lara.[jj] The former says (I, 276): “The tribunals of the Holy Office had no secular character of themselves. They were ecclesiastical tribunals in respect to the cases which they judged and in respect to the authority which created them. In respect to the royal delegation, however, which was granted to the judges, it may be said that they had a mixed character.” Orti y Lara expresses himself in like manner. According to him (p. 27), “the Inquisition united the papal sword of the church and the secular sword of the king into one single sword.”
The accusation that the Spanish Inquisition was unpopular is just as false as the statement that it caused the ruin of science and literature in Spain. As Balmes testifies (Protestantismus and Katholicismus, I, 412, et seq.), the Catholic kings fulfilled the universal wish of the people by establishing the Inquisition; the people were always in sympathy with it, whereas it was opposed by the nobility and higher clergy. The decline of literary activity moreover can not have been caused by the Inquisition for the reason that the golden age of Spanish literature coincided with the time when the Inquisition was in full sway. The greatest theologians, philosophers, and poets, whose works were approved by the Inquisition, lived at that time. Schools were founded and classical studies diligently pursued.
One of the chief accusations brought against the Spanish Inquisition is the alleged extraordinary number of its victims. This accusation is based chiefly on the statements of Antonio Llorente.[k] But it needs only a nearer acquaintance with the character of this embittered free mason and with his proofs, to perceive the incorrectness of his statements. Far from citing historical documents he builds up his argument upon evident falsification, arbitrary assumptions which are in wide contrast with the authorities, and, as the Protestant Peschel[rr] says (page 151), upon a “frivolous calculation from probabilities,” so that he cannot be trusted in regard to his data. According to Gams[pp] (III, 274) the number of those executed for heresy during the whole period of the Inquisition was about four thousand, a number not equal to that of the victims of the witch processes in Catholic and Protestant Germany.[ss]
FOOTNOTES
[187] [This brief study, inserted here because Spain and Portugal were the chief centres of the fury of the Inquisition, will afford glimpses also of its development in other countries.]
[188] Confusion has been introduced by both friend and foe into the history of the Waldenses. At first they were confounded with the Cathari or Albigenses by Catholics in order to represent them as Manichæans; by reformed writers in order to clear the Albigenses also from the charge of Manichæism. Further, the origin of the Waldenses is often referred to an earlier period than that of Peter Waldensis, though it is so clearly proved by the witness of contemporaries that he is the founder of the sect.
[189] [This terrible man, in his letter to Innocent III announcing his victories, relates himself with triumph: “Our troops sparing neither sex nor age put to the sword nearly twenty thousand; splendid deeds were accomplished in the overthrow of the enemies, the whole city was sacked and burned by a divine revenge marvellous fierce.”]