At length, however, the conspirators found an opportunity of surprising him while at his devotions. Arbues was on his knees before the great altar of the cathedral, near midnight, when his enemies, who had entered the church in two separate bodies, suddenly surrounded him, and one of them wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while another dealt him a fatal blow in the back of his neck. The priests, who were preparing to celebrate matins in the choir of the church, hastened to the spot; but not before the assassins had effected their escape. They transported the bleeding body of the inquisitor to his apartment, where he survived only two days, blessing the Lord that he had been permitted to seal so good a cause with his blood. The whole scene will readily remind the English reader of the assassination of Thomas à Becket. [8]
The event did not correspond with the expectations of the conspirators. Sectarian jealousy proved stronger than hatred of the Inquisition. The populace, ignorant of the extent or ultimate object of the conspiracy, were filled with vague apprehensions of an insurrection of the new Christians, who had so often been the objects of outrage; and they could only be appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa, riding through the streets, and proclaiming that no time should be lost in detecting and punishing the assassins.
This promise was abundantly fulfilled; and wide was the ruin occasioned by the indefatigable zeal, with which the bloodhounds of the tribunal followed up the scent. In the course of this persecution, two hundred individuals perished at the stake, and a still greater number in the dungeons of the Inquisition; and there was scarcely a noble family in Aragon but witnessed one or more of its members condemned to humiliating penance in the autos da fe. The immediate perpetrators of the murder were all hanged, after suffering the amputation of their right hands. One, who had appeared as evidence against the rest, under assurance of pardon, had his sentence so far commuted, that his hand was not cut off till after he had been hanged. It was thus that the Holy Office interpreted its promises of grace. [9]
Arbues received all the honors of a martyr. His ashes were interred on the spot where he had been assassinated. [10] A superb mausoleum was erected over them, and, beneath his effigy, a bas-relief was sculptured representing his tragical death, with an inscription containing a suitable denunciation of the race of Israel. And at length, when the lapse of nearly two centuries had supplied the requisite amount of miracles, the Spanish Inquisition had the glory of adding a new saint to the calendar, by the canonization of the martyr under Pope Alexander the Seventh, in 1664. [11]
The failure of the attempt to shake off the tribunal served only, as usual in such cases, to establish it more firmly than before. Efforts at resistance were subsequently, but ineffectually, made in other parts of Aragon, and in Valencia and Catalonia. It was not established in the latter province till 1487, and some years later in Sicily, Sardinia, and the Balearic Isles. Thus Ferdinand had the melancholy satisfaction of riveting the most galling yoke ever devised by fanaticism, round the necks of a people, who till that period had enjoyed probably the greatest degree of constitutional freedom which the world had witnessed.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, iii. lib. 1, cap. 10.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 3, cap. 27, 39, 67, et alibi.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 175.—Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 348.
[2] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, cap. 66.—A pertinent example of this occurred, December, 1485, at Alcalá de Henares, where the court was detained during the queen's illness, who there gave birth to her youngest child, Doña Catalina, afterwards so celebrated in English history as Catharine of Aragon. A collision took place in this city between the royal judges and those of the archbishop of Toledo, to whose diocese it belonged. The later stoutly maintained the pretensions of the church. The queen with equal pertinacity asserted the supremacy of the royal jurisdiction over every other in the kingdom, secular or ecclesiastical. The affair was ultimately referred to the arbitration of certain learned men, named conjointly by the adverse parties. It was not then determined, however, and Pulgar has neglected to acquaint us with the award. Reyes Católicos, cap. 53.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1485.
[3] Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. lib. 35, cap. 2.
[4] Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. cap. 52, 67.—Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 25, cap. 8.