Protestantism and Catholicity

I have said that the Popes labored, from the commencement, to soften the rigors of the Spanish Inquisition, sometimes by admonishing the kings and inquisitors, sometimes by giving the accused and condemned a right of appeal. The kings feared that the religious innovations would produce a public disturbance; I add, that their policy embarrassed the Popes, and prevented them from carrying as far as they would have wished their measures of mildness and indulgence. Among the other documents which support this assertion, I will cite one which proves the irritation of the Spanish kings at the assistance which the accused found at Rome.

"Book viii. chap. 3, law 2, of the new Recopilacion, enjoining persons condemned by the Inquisition, and absent from these kingdoms, not to return there under pain of death and losing their goods.

"D. Ferdinand and D. Isabella, at Saragossa, 2d August, 1498. Pragmatic Sanction.

"Some persons condemned as heretics by the Inquisition have absented themselves from our kingdoms, and have gone to other countries, where, by means of false reports and undue formalities, they have surreptitiously obtained exemptions, absolutions, mandates, securities, and other privileges, in order to be exempt from the condemnations and punishments which they had incurred, and to remain in their errors, which, nevertheless, does not prevent their attempting to return to these kingdoms, wherefore, wishing to extirpate so great an evil, we command these condemned persons not to be so bold as to return. Let them not return into our kingdoms and lordships, by any way, in any manner, for any cause or reason whatsoever, under pain of death and the loss of their goods; which punishment we will and ordain to be incurred by the act itself. One-third of the property shall be for the persons who shall have denounced, another for the courts, and the third for our exchequer. Whenever the said justices, in their own places and jurisdiction, shall know that any of the said persons are in any part of their jurisdiction, we order all and each of them, without exception, to go to the place where such persons are, without being otherwise called upon, to apprehend them forcibly and immediately, and without delay to execute, and cause to be executed, on them and their properties the punishments which we have appointed; and this notwithstanding all exemption, reconciliation, securities, and other privileges which they may have, these privileges, in the present case, and with respect to the said penalties, not availing them. We order them to do and accomplish this under pain of the loss and confiscation of all their property. The same penalty shall be incurred by all other persons who shall have hidden or received the said condemned persons, and who knowing that they were so, shall not have given information to our courts. We order all great men and councillors, and other persons of our kingdoms, to give favor and assistance to our courts, whenever it shall be demanded and required from them, to accomplish and execute what has been said above, under the penalties which the courts themselves shall appoint on this subject."

We see from this document, that, after the year 1498, things had reached such a point, that the kings attempted to maintain against every one all the rigor of the Inquisition, and that they were offended that the Popes interfered to soften it. It will be understood thereby whence proceeded the harshness with which the guilty were treated; and this shows us one of the causes which made the Inquisition sometimes use its power with excessive severity. Although it was not a mere instrument of the policy of kings, as some have said, the Inquisition felt more or less the influence of that policy; and we know that policy, when about to defeat an adversary, does not commonly display an excess of compassion. If the Spanish Inquisition had been at that time under the exclusive authority and direction of the Popes, it would have been infinitely milder and more moderate in its method of acting.

At that time the object ardently desired by the kings of Spain was, to obtain that the judgments of the Inquisition should be definitive in Spain, without appeal to Rome; Queen Isabella had expressly demanded this of the Pope. The Sovereign Pontiffs would not accede to these solicitations, no doubt fearing the abuse which might be made of so fearful an arm when the restraint of the moderating power should become wanting.

It will be understood from the facts which I have just quoted, how much reason I had to say that, if you excuse the conduct of Ferdinand and Isabella with respect to the Inquisition, you must not condemn that of Philip II., since the Catholic sovereigns showed themselves still more harsh and severe than the latter monarch. I have already pointed out the reason why the conduct of Philip II. has been so rigorously condemned; but it is also necessary to show why there has been a sort of obstinacy in excusing that of Ferdinand and Isabella.

When it is wished to falsify an historical fact by calumniating a person or an institution, it is necessary to begin with an affectation of impartiality and good faith; great success is obtained in this by manifesting indulgence for the same thing which it is desired to condemn, but taking care that this indulgence has strongly the appearance of being a concession gratuitously made to our adversaries, or of a sacrifice of our opinions, of our feelings, on the altars of reason and justice, which are our guide and our idol. We thus predispose our hearers or readers to regard the condemnation which we are about to pronounce as a judgment dictated by the strictest justice; a judgment in which neither passion, nor partiality, nor perverse views, have any part. How can we doubt the good faith, the love of truth, the impartiality of the man who begins by excusing what, according to all appearances, and considering his opinions, ought to be the object of his anathemas? Such is the situation of the men of whom we speak. They intended to attack the Inquisition; now it happened that the protectress, and, in some sort, the foundress of that tribunal was Queen Isabella, – that distinguished name which Spaniards have always pronounced with respect, that immortal queen, one of the noblest ornaments of our history. What was to be done in this difficulty? The means were simple. Although the Jews and heretics had been treated with the greatest severity in the time of the Catholic sovereigns, and although they had carried severity further than all those who have succeeded them, it was necessary to close the eye to these facts, to excuse the conduct of these sovereigns, and to point out the important matters which urged them to employ the rigors of justice. They thus avoided the difficulty, – for it was one to cast a stigma on the memory of a great queen cherished and respected by all Spaniards, – and they thus prepared the way for merciless accusations against Philip II. That monarch had the unanimous cry of all Protestants against him, for the simple reason that he had been their most powerful adversary; it would therefore cost nothing to make all the weight of execration fall upon him. The enigma is thus explained. Such is the cause of a partiality so unjust, – such is the hypocrisy of that opinion which, while excusing the Catholic sovereigns, condemns Philip II. without appeal.

I have not attempted to justify the policy of this monarch in all respects; but I have presented a few considerations which may serve to mitigate the violent attacks made upon him by his adversaries: it only remains for me to transcribe here the documents to which I alluded when I said that the Inquisition was not a mere instrument of the policy of Philip II., and that this prince did not intend to establish a system of obscurantisme in Spain.

Don Antonio Perez, in his Relations, gives a letter of the confessor of the king, Fray Diego de Chaves, in which letter the latter affirms that the secular prince has power over the lives of his subjects and vassals, and adds in a note: "I shall not undertake to relate all that I have heard said on the subject of the condemnation of some of these propositions; this is not within my province. Those who are concerned in this will at once understand the import of my words. I shall content myself with saying that, at the time when I was at Madrid, the Inquisition condemned the following proposition: a preacher – it matters not that I should mention his name – maintained in a sermon, at St. Jerome's, in Madrid, in presence of the Catholic king, that kings have an absolute power over the persons of their subjects, as well as over their properties. Besides some other separate matters, the preacher was condemned to retract this publicly, in the same place, with all the ceremonies of a juridical act, which he did in the same pulpit, saying that he had advanced such a proposition on such a day, and that he retracted it as erroneous. 'For, messieurs,' said he, reading literally from a paper, 'kings have no other power over their subjects than what is given them by the divine and human law; they have none proceeding from their own free and absolute will.' I even know who condemned the proposition, and appointed the words which the accused, to the great gratification of the former, was obliged to pronounce; indeed, he rejoiced to see torn up so poisonous a weed, which he felt was increasing, as the event proved. Master Fray Hernando del Castillo (I will mention his name) was the one who prescribed what the accused was to say; he was consultee of the holy office, and preacher to the king; he was a man of singular learning and eloquence, very well known and esteemed by his own nation, and especially by the Italians. Dr. Velasco, an important personage of that time, said of him, that the guitar in the hands of Fabricio Dentici was not so sweet as the tongue of Master Fray Hernandez del Castillo to the ears of those who heard him." And at page 47 in the text: "I know," says Don Antonio Perez, "that they were denominated very scandalous by persons very important by their rank, their learning, and their Christian purity of heart; there was one among them who had held supreme rank in the spiritual order in Spain, and had previously filled an office in the tribunal of the Inquisition." Perez afterwards says, that this person was the nuncio of his Holiness. (Relaciones de Anton. Perez. Paris, 1624.)

The letter of Philip II. to Doctor D. Benito Arias Montano contains the following, in addition to the remarkable passage which we have quoted.

"Concerning what you, Dr. &c., my chaplain, will have to do at Antwerp, whither we send you. Dated at Madrid, 25th March, 1568.

"Besides that you will render this good office and service to the said Plantinus, know that, from this time, in proportion as the six thousand crowns are recovered from his hands, I apply them to buy books for the monastery of St. Laurent-le-Royal, of the order of St. Jerome, which I am building near the Escurial, as you know. Thus you are admonished that such is my intention; you will comply with this, and will be diligent in collecting all the choice books, printed and MS., that your excellent discernment shall think proper, in order to bring them and place them in the library of the said monastery. Indeed, it is one of the chief possessions which I would wish to leave to the religious who are intended to dwell there, for it is the most useful and necessary. Wherefore I have also commanded my ambassador in France, D. Francis de Alaba, to collect the best books which he shall be able in that kingdom: you will communicate with him on that subject. I will direct him to communicate in writing also with you, to send you a list of the books which are to be had, as well as their price, before buying them; you will advise him as to which he had better take or leave, and what he may give for such. He will send to you at Antwerp those which he has thus bought; you will acknowledge them, and forward them here, all at once, at the proper time."

During the reign of Philip II., – of that prince who is represented to us as one of the principal authors of obscurantisme, – choice works, both printed and MS., were sought in foreign countries, in order to enrich the Spanish libraries; in our age, which we call that of enlightenment, the libraries of Spain have been plundered, and their treasures have gone to add to those of foreigners. Who is ignorant of the collections which have been made of our books and MS., in England? Consult the catalogues of the British Museum and other private libraries. The author of these lines states only what he has seen with his own eyes – what he has heard lamented by persons worthy of respect. While we show so much negligence in preserving our treasures, let us not be so unjust and so puerile as to lose our time in vain declamation against those who have bequeathed them to us.

AppendixA few words on Puigblanch, Villeneuve, and Llorente

Here, in the Spanish edition, the notes relating to the Inquisition terminate; but I think it may not be useless in the French edition to add a few words, to explain the matter to my foreign readers: little versed as they are in the knowledge of our affairs, they might often happen to drink at corrupted sources, which they imagine to be pure and salutary. Le Compte de Maistre, with respect to the Spanish Inquisition, cites L'Inquisition dévoilée de Natanaël Jomtob: I will say a few words, lest the authority of the author who quotes should give too much importance to him who is quoted. This Natanaël Jomtob is no other than Dr. D. Antonio Puigblanch, a Spaniard, who died not long ago in London. This author, in the prologue to his works published in London, himself explains the reason which made him adopt a strange name. "These Hebrew words," he says, "are two proper significative names, which, together, form the inscription, Dedit Deus diem bonum. I wished thus to express the happiness of being able to speak and write freely against the tribunal of the Inquisition, and the happiness of seeing it abolished." (Prolog. p. cxv.)

In order that the reader may judge of the value that belongs to this work, I will observe, that the first qualification in an historian, especially on a matter so delicate, is complete impartiality united to a great fund of moderation: these two qualifications were wanting in M. Puigblanch, who was lamentably infected with the contrary faults. It is impossible to be more violent than he is against all that he meets with; his ill-humor and anger blind him; he attacks institutions and men with perfect fury; he respects nothing: add to this a pitiable vanity. It would be easy for me to produce here various proofs of the impiety of Puigblanch; but I should fear to soil my paper by transcribing the impious satires of this man. This is enough to give an idea of the point of view in which he could regard things relating to religious affairs and to the clergy. He misses no opportunity of ridiculing the ministers of religion, of indulging in invectives against them, and of giving vent to the incomprehensible rage which he has against them. The unbecoming manner in which he treats his adversaries, real or imaginary, even when they have more or less sympathy with his opinions, is a good apology for the things which he combats on the other hand. I cannot repeat his words here, so coarse are they; besides, they attack persons who are still living; suffice it to say, that not content with insulting them in the most disgusting way, Puigblanch descends so low as to reproach them with their physical defects, after the manner of a market-woman. What was to be hoped from such a mind in a matter so important and delicate? Were such dispositions suitable for an historian of the Inquisition, who published his work precisely in the year 1811, that is to say, at a time of reaction and effervescence? With respect to talent and knowledge, I will not refuse to M. Puigblanch either reading or erudition, or a certain aptitude for criticism, yet it must not be forgotten that his mind was far from being so cultivated as it ought to have been, in order to keep pace with our age. A work like his required that he should have followed the march of the times, that he should not have been altogether devoid of the philosophy of history, that he should not have relied exclusively upon certain books, while accumulating crude erudition, and incessantly perusing etymologies and grammatical questions: this is what was wanting in M. Puigblanch. To sum up all in one sentence, I have found the following description, which I heard in London, from the mouth of a distinguished man who had intercourse with Puigblanch for a long time, to be perfectly correct: "Puigblanch," he told me, "knew what a learned man of the seventeenth century in Spain might have known." The Christian reader may imagine what was the result of the amalgamation of this kind of instruction with all the bile of Voltairian passion.

D. Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva is another of those Spaniards who have distinguished themselves by declaiming against the Inquisition; in his Literary Life (Vida Literaria) he had asserted that the public information on this question, and the abolition of that famous tribunal, were in great part owing to him. Puigblanch strongly recriminates against Villanueva, who attempted to usurp his glory by availing himself of his work without acknowledging it, and other similar things, which do as little honor to the one as to the other. Villanueva has been already judged in Spain by all sensible men; foreigners who desire to understand this question will be under the unpleasant obligation of reading the two large volumes in 8vo, in which he has written his literary life. The bile of Villanueva against all the clergy who are not of his coterie, and, above all, his hatred against Rome, show themselves at every page of his book, and from time to time produce explosions which are much too violent to accord with the extreme mildness which he is pleased to affect. Moreover, let the reader prepare and arm himself with patience, if he undertake to get through these two large volumes, which contain, written by the man himself, who so well deserved it, the most complete panegyric of his profound knowledge, his vast erudition, his great humility, and his virtues of all kinds. It certainly would have been very well, if the author, with a slight recollection of modesty, had not candidly told us, that they went so far as to call him the father of the poor, that his poetic fire was not cooled by age, that his activity in labor did not allow him to remain idle, even in the midst of the greatest persecutions; in fine, if he had not undertaken to make us believe that all his life was a continual sacrifice on the altars of knowledge and virtue. To those who desire to derive their information from Villanueva, we have a right to say: Do not forget that you must beware of believing all – that the tree is known by its fruits – that the wolf often assumes sheep's clothing.

Among those who have made the most noise with respect to the Inquisition, is Llorente, the author of a history of that famous institution. The impartiality which may be expected from this writer shows itself every moment in his book, which has evidently been written for the purpose of blackening, as much as possible, the Catholic clergy and the Holy See. Happily the author has made himself too well known by his other works, for any Catholic to allow himself to be deceived by his insidious writings. No one, especially in Spain, is ignorant of the project of the religious constitution with which Llorente attempted to disturb consciences, and introduce schism and heresy into our country. Does he who attempts to destroy the universal discipline established from the earliest ages, who expresses doubts on the most sacred mysteries of our holy religion, who contests the infallible authority of the Church, and does not hold the first four Œcumenical Councils to be legitimate, deserve the least credit when writing the history of the Inquisition, – that history which affords so many opportunities of declaiming against the clergy and against Rome? Here is a proof of his impartiality. In his history of the Inquisition, he could not avoid relating the conduct of the Apostolic See in the early times of the Inquisition in Spain, and the efforts made by the Holy See for the purpose of softening the rigors of that tribunal, the appeals which were made, and the merciful judgments which were almost always obtained at Rome; all these facts clearly showed that Rome, far from being, as he pretended, a monster of cruelty, was rather a model of mildness and prudence. How do you think he gets out of this difficulty? By saying, that what the Court of Rome wanted was, to extort money from us. An explanation as unworthy as it is impudent – an odious means of depriving the most beneficent and generous actions of their lustre, and which shows a fixed design to find evil every where, even to the extent of assigning evil motives for benefits which are the most worthy of gratitude.

With respect to Llorente, I am unwilling to pass over in silence a remarkable fact which he has had the kindness to communicate to the public in the same work. King Joseph, the intruder, intrusted Llorente, by express orders, with the archives of the Supreme Council and the Tribunal of the Inquisition of the capital. This excellent man was so perfect an archivist, that he burnt all the reports of proceedings, with the approbation of his master (as he himself tells us), with the exception of those which could appertain to history, by the celebrity or the renown of the persons who figured in them, such as those of Caranza, of Macanaz, and a few others; although he preserved entire, he adds, the registers of the decisions of the Council, the royal ordinances, and the bulls and briefs from Rome. (Edition Française, 1818, t. 4, p. 145.) After having heard this remarkable confession, we will ask every impartial man, whether there is not room for greatly mistrusting an historian who claims to be sole and unique, because he has had the opportunity of consulting the original documents whereon he founds his history, and who, nevertheless, burns and destroys these same documents? Was there no place to be found in Madrid to place them, where they could be examined by those who, after Llorente, might wish to write the history of the Inquisition from the original documents? Llorente has preserved, he tells us, those which belonged to history; but the history of the Inquisition had equally need of others, even the most obscure – even the most apparently insignificant; for it not seldom happens that a fact, a circumstance, a word, shows us an institution, and paints for us an age. And observe, that this destruction took place at a critical moment of public disturbance, when the whole nation, devoted to an immortal struggle in defence of her independence, could not fix her attention on such matters. The most remarkable men, scattered on all sides, then led their fellow-citizens in arms, or were engaged in the most important interests of the country; consequently they could not watch over the conduct of an archivist, who, after having left his brethren, whose blood was flowing upon the battle-field, accepted employment under a foreign intruder, and burned the documents of an institution whereof he undertook to write the history.

Note 27, p. 281

The plan of my work required that questions relating to the religious communities should be examined at some length but it did not allow me to give to this matter all the development of which it is susceptible. Indeed, it would be possible, in my opinion, in writing the history of religious communities, to give side by side that of the nations among whom these communities arose, so as to show in detail a truth we have now proved, viz. that the establishment of religious institutions, besides the superior and divine object which they have had in view, has been at all times the fulfilment of a social and religious necessity. Although my strength does not enable me to aspire to such an enterprise, by which the courage may well be daunted, even by contemplating the immense extent of such a work, I wish to suggest the idea of it here; perhaps a man may be found with sufficient capacity, learning, and leisure, to undertake it, and enrich our age with this new monument of history and philosophy. By conceiving the plan in this point of view, and making it subordinate to this unity of object, whereof the foundation, which shows itself in well-known facts, is discovered in obscure and conjectured in hidden ones, there would be no difficulty in giving all desirable variety to this work. The subject itself leads to variety; for it invites the writer to descend to extremely interesting particulars, which will be like the episodes of a grand and unique poem. The disposition of men's minds, now become favorable to religious institutions, thanks to the deceptions which are the consequence of vain theories, and to the lessons of experience, which destroy the calumnies invented by philosophy, render the road every day more easy. The path is already sufficiently beaten; it is only required to enlarge and extend it, in order to conduct a greater number of men towards the region of truth.