Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/104

94 INQUISITION tion comes up perpetually. In no part of Spain was the system well received ; the resistance in Aragon passed into revolt and assassination, which were only overcome by the united efforts of . the Dominicans, the papacy, and the sovereign, aided to some extent by the " Old Christians" (i.e., those not of Jewish origin), whose jealousy towards the new Christians and the Moors led them to favour a system which repressed their rivals. The Holy Office had now free scope for its work, and its procedure, arranged by Torquemada, will explain how thoroughly it succeeded in terrifying all who came within its reach. When an accused or suspected person was first delated to the Inquisition, a preliminary inquiry was held, and the results of it laid before the tribunal. If the tribunal thought it a case for interference, and it usually did so, the informers and witnesses were re-examined, and their evidence, with all suspicious circumstances which zeal could rake together, drawn out and submitted to a body of monastic theologians called " the Qualifiers of the Holy Office." The character of these officials was at stake, and their honour involved ; they could hardly be expected to report well of the accused, or there might be a suspicion as to their own orthodoxy. When they had given in their opinion against the accused, he was at once removed to the secret prison of the Office, where all communication with the outer world was entirely cut off from him. Then followed three " first audiences," in which the officials did their utmost to wring a confession out of him, so that he might be made to rank as a penitent, and enjoy the charity of his persecutors. If, however, he was stiff, the charges against him were re-formed, and the fiscal in charge of the case demanded torture to extort confession. This in the earlier times of the institution followed frequently, and had many forms of ingenious cruelty, as to which Llorente, who had good means of judging, declares that " none of the descriptions of them can be accused of exaggeration. " After torture, the shattered victim was carried to the audience chamber, and called on to make his answer to the charges, which were now read to him for the first time. He was next asked whether he desired to make any defence. If so, he had to choose a lawyer from a list of those employed by his accusers, and the defence was little but a mockery. After this process, which sometimes lasted for months, the qualifiers were again called in, and gave their final opinion, which was almost always adverse, on the whole case. Then followed the sentence, with opportunity of an appeal either to the " Suprema " which was useless, as being an appeal to the tribunal again or to Rome. The papal treasury by these appeals obtained a large income; for money was the only valid argument. Thus the Inquisition got the victim s property by confiscation, and the papacy the wealth of his friends in the appeal. If the sentence was, as did sometimes occur, an acquittal, the poor wretch might slink home without redress or recom pense for imprisonment, and the agony of the trial and the torture ; if it was a condemnation, the victim was made the centre of an auto-da-fe, dressed in a sanbenito, or con demned man s robe, and eventually, at the open place of execution, informed as to his fate. He might be either "reconciled," and then, as a penitent, had to undergo penalties almost worse than death, or " relaxed," that is, handed over to the secular arm for burning,- for the Holy Office shed no blood. This then was the instrument by which the purity of Christendom was to be assisted and defended, " misericordia et justitia," as the motto of the institution runs, by the most flagrant injustice, and by the infliction of those cruel " tender mercies " of which the Book of Proverbs speaks. In 1492 the great work began with the persecution and expulsion of the Jews ; they were ejected, and their wealth confiscated. There was an enormous crowd of exiles c who wandered to different shores of the Mediterranean, carrying misery and plague in their train. A few years later, under supervision of Cardinal Ximenes, the Moors were also ordered to be converted or to go ; the Morescoes, or Christianized Moors, suffered constant persecution through out the 16th century, until finally they too were expelled by Philip III. in 1609. Jews, Moors, and Morescoes made up over three millions of the wealthiest and most intelligent inhabitants of Spain; the loss in trade, agriculture, and manufactures was incalculable ; in seventy years the popul ation fell from ten to six millions. Ximenes was the greatest organizer, after Torquemada, of the Office ; he divided the whole Inquisition into ten tribunals, Seville as the capital, Jaen, Toledo, Estremadura, Murcia, Valladolid, Majorca, Pampeluna, Sardinia, and Sicily ; and, though the bishops still resisted his authority, he carried his will through with a high hand. The Inquisi tion was set up in all the colonies and dependencies of Spain ; it established itself, as a theological quarantine, at all the harbours, and greatly checked the development of Spanish trade. The horror of the English at the institu tion was much due to the collision of the English traders and adventurers of Queen Elizabeth s day with the Inquisi tion on the Spanish main, and to its interference with that freedom of traffic which they desired. The new Inquisition was set up in the Netherlands by Charles V. in 1522 ; it was exceedingly severe, and greatly hated by the people (see HOLLAND) under Philip II. and Alva. In Portugal the Holy Office established itself in its sharpest form, and continued there in full force even when the Jesuits were suppressed. It was introduced into France under Henry II. (1557), though its hold on that country was small. In Italy it had free course during the 16th century and vigorously supported the Catholic reaction, especially when the very soul of the Inquisition, Michele (Jhislieri, had ascended the pontifical throne as Pius V. Its organization was also strengthened by Sixtus V., who secured it at Rome. The hand of the Holy Office was outstretched against all ; no lofty dignity in church or state, no eminence in art or science, no purity of life, could defend from its attacks. It is said to have threatened Charles V. and Philip II.; it persecuted Archbishop Carranza, head of the church in Spain ; destroyed De Dominis, archbishop of Spalatro ; it smote Galileo, murdered Giordano Bruno, attacked Pico di Mirandola, and even is said to have threatened Caesar Borgia, With equal vigour, in combination with the Jesuits, the Inquisition made war on books and learning, religious or secular alike ; we have seen how baleful was its effect in earlier days on literature and art in Provence, and in the time of the Catholic sovereigns on the material well-being of Spain. " In the love of Christ and his maid- mother," says Queen Isabella, " I have caused great misery, and have depopulated towns and districts, provinces and kingdoms." The statistics of death at the hands of the Inquisition in Spain given by Llorente show how the institution gradu ally lost force ; the average number in each year steadily diminished after the beginning of the 17th century; and in the 18th torture was abandoned, and the deaths dropped to two or three or even less in the year. In Italy it was abolished in Parma and Tuscany about 1769, in Sicily in 1782 ; the spirit of the 18th century was all against the Office, though it lingered on. In the Revolution wars Napoleon sternly crushed it wherever he came across it, in Spain in 1808, and in Rome in 1809. Down to 1809 Llorente gives as the figures for Spain alone burnt alive 31,912, in effigy 17,659, and imprisoned, &c., as penitents, 291,450 a total of 341.021. After the hand of Napoleon was taken off , the institution revived again at Rome and at