Book 2, Chapter 1, Part 3 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 2, Chapter 1. Relations with the Crown. Part 3. Andrés Pacheco, who succeeded him in 1622, prudently resigned his Sea of Suenca and, in spite of his audacious enforcement of inquisitorial claims, was allowed to hold the office until his death, April 7th, 1626. There was no haste in filling the vacancy, for it was not until August 6th that Olivares replied to the King's order to report in writing the best persons to fill the office. He named four, covertly indicating his preference for Cardinal Zapeta, who had resigned the Archbishopric of Bergos in 1605, and at the time was Governor of that of Toledo. Philip followed the suggestion by an endorsement on the paper, which was a singularly informal appointment, remarking at the same time that the choice should not be made public until his successor at Toledo was selected. His resignation of the office in 1632 is commonly attributed to a request from the King, but this is by no means certain. He was more than 80 years of age, and for some time had been talking of resigning. Already in 1630, the Suprema alludes to the Consulta to the publicity of his intention of relieving himself of the charge. Possibly at the end, some gentle pressure may have been used, but when, September 6th, 1632, the commission of his successor arrived, his parting with the King was in terms of mutual respect and good feeling. His retirement was softened by continuing to him his full salary and perquisites, amounting to 3,620 ducats, which, as the Suprema never had enough revenue for its desires, was not cordially welcomed. His successor, the Dominican Fray Antonio de Sotomayor, was Archbishop of Damascus in Partibos and Confessor of the King. He was already in his 77th year, and when he had held his office for 11 years, his infirmities and incapacity became more evident to others than to himself. Early in 1643, the fall of Olivares deprived him of support. His opposition to the King in the matter of appointments still further weakened his position, and in June he was requested to resign in view of his advanced age and to preserve his health. He was much disturbed and consulted friends who advised him to obey, but he still held on, saying that they might await his death. Greater pressure was applied to which he yielded. June 20th, he made a formal notarial attestation of his desire to be relieved on account of his great age, and the next day he sent an ungracious resignation, followed on the 24th by one addressed to the Pope. His successor, Diego de Arce Irenoso, Bishop of Placencia, was already on the spot, exercising some of the functions, but Urban VIII hesitated to confirm the change and required explanations. It was not until September 18th that the commission of Arce Irenoso was expedited, and it only reached Madrid November 7th. Sotomayor was jubilated with half his salary of 9,000 ducats, which he enjoyed for five years longer. Arce Irenoso, as we shall see, when embroiled with Rome in the prosecution of Villanueva, Marquis of Villalva, was obliged to resign his sea of Placencia, December the 2nd, 1652, in order to retain his inquisitor generalship. He continued in office until his death, June 20th, 1665, followed by that of Philip, September 16th. During this interval, Philip gave the appointment to Pasquale of Aragon, son of the Duke of Cardona, and serving at the time as Viceroy of Naples. He promptly sailed for Spain, and, though he is said to have resigned without acting, there are documents of October and November, 1665, which show that he performed the functions of the office. He obtained the sea of Toledo, March 7th, 1666, and desired to retain the inquisitor generalship, but the queen regent, Maria Anna of Austria, compelled him to resign in order to fill the place with her confessor and favorite, the German-Jesuit Johann Everhardt Nighthart. Nighthart, in 1668, boasted that he had had charge of the queen's conscience for 24 years, during which she had kept him constantly with her. He had thus molded her character from youth, and, as she was weak and obstinate, he had rendered himself indispensable. Her selection of him as inquisitor general provoked lively opposition, which even reverence for royalty could not repress. Protests were presented, leading to prolonged and heated discussion, but resistance was in vain. He was appointed October 15th, 1666, and speedily became the ruler of the kingdom which he misgoverned. The general dissatisfaction thus aroused was stimulated by the jealousy of the Freyales, who had been accustomed to see Dominicans as royal confessors, and whose hatred of the company of Jesus was exacerbated by his combination of that position with the inquisitor generalship. He was accused of filling the holy office with Jesuit Calificadores, under whose advice he managed it, and with accumulating for himself pensions, amounting to 60,000 Ducats a year. Spain at the time had a pinchback hero in the person of the second Don Juan of Austria, son of Philip IV by a woman known as Le Calderona. He stood high in popular esteem, for he had the reputation of suppressing the Neapolitan revolt of 1648, and of ending the Catalan rebellion by the capture of Barcelona in 1652. Between him and Nightheart, there inevitably arose hostility which ripened into the bitterest hatred. To get him out of the country, he was given command of an expedition about to sail for Flanders. He went to Coruña, but refused to sail. He was ordered to retire to Consuegra, whether a troop of horse was sent to arrest him, but he had fled to Catalonia, leaving a letter addressed to the Queen, in which he said that the execrable wickedness of Nightheart had forced him to provide for his safety. His refusal to sail had been caused by his desire to remove from her side that wild beast, so unworthy of his sacred office. He did not propose to kill him, for he did not wish to plunge into perdition a soul in such evil state, but he would devote himself to relieving the kingdom of this basilisk, confident that the Queen would recognize the service thus rendered to the King. This letter and a similar one of November the 13th were widely circulated and inflamed the popular detestation of Nightheart. Don Juan stood forward as the champion of the people against the hated foreigner and continued to issue inflammatory addresses. Letters came pouring into the court from the cities represented in the Cortes, praying the Queen to accede to his demands, but though her counselors wavered, she stood firm. On December 3rd, she wrote to him to return to Consuegra or to come near to Madrid, where negotiations could be carried on. While taking advantage of this, he avoided the trap by writing that, as his life was endangered, her envoy, the Duke of Osuna, had furnished him with a guard of three companies of horse, about 250 men in all. With this escort, he started from Barcelona by way of Saragossa. It was in vain that orders were sent from the court to insult him on the road. Everywhere his journey was like a royal progress. Nobles and people gathered to applaud him and, in Saragossa, even the tribunal of the Inquisition bore a part, while the students carried around the effigy of a Jesuit and burnt it before the Jesuit house, forcing the rector to witness it from the window. As he drew near to Madrid with his handful of men, Nighthart called on the nobles of his party to assemble with their armed retainers, but the Council of Regency prohibited this. Don Juan was in no haste. On February 9th, he reached Junqueira, some ten leagues from Madrid, and, on the 22nd, he was at Torrejon de Ardos, about five leagues distant. Imminent danger was felt that if he advanced, the populace would rise and murder the ministers to whom they attributed their sufferings, and all idea of resistance was abandoned. Nighthart induced the Papal Nuncio to see Don Juan, February 24th, and ask further time for negotiation. But at 9 p.m., the Nuncio returned with word that Nighthart must leave Spain at once. The Royal Council sat until 10 p.m. and reached the same conclusion. The next day, the city was in an uproar. People carried their valuables to the convents for safekeeping and a mob assembled around the palace, where the Junto de Gobrierno drew up a decree that Nighthart must depart within three hours. It bore that he had supplicated permission to leave and, in granting it the Queen, to express her satisfaction with his services, appointed him ambassador to Germany or to Rome as he might elect, with retention of all his offices and salaries. The Queen signed this, and the Archbishop of Toledo and the Count of Peñaranda were deputed to carry it to Nighthart, who received it without a trace of emotion and placed himself at their disposal. It was arranged that they should call for him at 6 p.m. The Archbishop and the Duke of Maqueda came with two coaches and Nighthart entered, carrying with him nothing but his braviary. Thrice in the streets, the howling mob threatened an attack, but were deterred by the sight they cross with which the Archbishop had prudently provided himself. They drove him to Fuencarral, about two leagues from the city, and left him at the house of the Cura. The next day he went to San Augustine, about ten leagues distant, where he lingered for a while in the vain hope of recall. Don Juan fell back to Guadalajara, where terms were agreed upon. The principal articles being that Nighthart should immediately resign all his offices and never return to Spain, and that Diego de Valladores, Don Juan's special enemy, should have nothing to do in any matter affecting him. Nighthart accordingly went to Rome, but he had no commission to show and no instructions. He reported this to the Council of State, which told him to urge the definition by the Holy See of the Immaculate Conception. The Queen endeavored by a subterfuge to obtain for him a cardinal's hat, which had been promised to Spain, but failed. He still hoped for a return to his honors, stimulated by the correspondence of his confidential agent, the Jesuit Salinas, but a letter warning him not to resign the Inquisitor Generalship, for things were tending towards his return, with a lodging in the Queen's Palace, chanced to fall into the hands of the Nuncio, who placed it where it would do the most good. The result was a preemptory order for him to resign in favor of Valladores, who had been nominated as his successor. When this was handed to him by San Ramon, the Spanish ambassador, he is said to have fainted and not to have recovered his senses for an hour. The coveted cardinal's hat was bestowed on Porto Carrero, Dean of Toledo, and when the news of this reached the Queen, it threw her into a turkey and fever. The Jesuit General Oliva, seeing Nighthart thus stripped of his offices and offended at his arrogance, ordered him to leave Rome, and he retired to a convent, but he was amply provided with funds, and for some years at least, he was carried on the books of the Suprema and received his salary regularly. Moreover, in 1672, the Queen procured from Clement X, what Clement IX had persistently refused, and Nighthart was created Archbishop of Edessa and Cardinal. Valladores had received his appointment September 15, 1669. It was not until 1677 that he resigned his sea of Placencia, and he held the Inquisitor Generalship until his death, January 29, 1695. He was succeeded by Juan Tomás de Rocapériti, Archbishop of Valencia, for whom, innocent XII, at the request of Carlos II, granted a dispensation from residence, conditioned on his making proper provision for the spiritual and temporal care of his sea. He died June 13, 1699, and his successor, Alfonso Ferlandes de Aguilar, Cardinal of Cordova, followed him September 19, the very day that his commission arrived, after a brief illness and not without grave suspicions of poison. The choice then fell on Balthasar de Mendoza y Sandoval, Bishop of Segovia, who became involved, as we shall see, in a deadly quarrel with his colleagues of the Suprema over the case of Frey Froylian Diaz. In the confusion of the concluding months of the disastrous reign of Carlos II, who died November 1, 1700, Mendoza made the mistake of embracing the Austrian side. His arbitrary action, in the case of Freylian Diaz, served as a sufficient excuse for his removal, and Philip V, apparently in 1703, ordered him to return to his sea. He is generally said to have resigned in 1705, but in the Papal Commission, March 24, 1705, for his successor, Vidal Marin, Clement XI states that he has seen fit to relieve Mendoza of the office because his presence is necessary at Segovia. Vidal Marin served till his death in 1709, and so did his successor, Riva Herrera, Archbishop of Saragossa, who, however, enjoyed his dignity for little more than a year. Philip V had brought to Spain the Galicanism and the principles of high royal prerogative, which were incompatible with the pretensions of the Curia and the quasi-independence of the Inquisition. With the Bourbons, there opens a new era in the relations between the Crown and the Holy Office. In 1711, he selected as Inquisitor General Cardinal Guidice, Archbishop of Montreal in Sicily, a Neapolitan of much ambition and little scruple. The recognition of the Archduke Charles as King of Spain by Clement XI in 1709 had caused relations to be broken off between Madrid and Rome. Philip dismissed the Nunzio, closed the tribunal of the Nunziatura, and forbade the transmission of money to Rome. There was talk in the Curia of reviving the medieval methods of reducing disobedient monarchs to submission, and Philip, to prepare for the struggle, ordered December 12, 1713, the Council of Castile to draw up a statement of the Regalias, which would justify resistance to the demands of the Curia and to their jurisdiction exercised by Nunzios. It was a quarrel which had been in progress for a century and a half, now breaking out fiercely and then smothered, but none the less bitter. The Council entrusted the task to its fiscal, Melcore Raphael de Macanas, a hard-headed lawyer, fully imbued with convictions of royal prerogative, whose report was, in general and in detail, thoroughly subversive of ultramontanism and consequently most distasteful to the Curia. When it was presented to the Council December 19, Don Luis Curiel and some others prevented a vote and asked for copies that they might consider the matter maturely. Copies were given to each member. Consideration was postponed and, on February 14, 1714, Molines, the ambassador at Rome, reported that copies had been sent there by Curiel, Guidice and Belluga, Bishop of Mercia. Although it was a secret state paper, the Curia issued a decree condemning it and, coupled with it, an old work. Barclays replied to Belliamine and a French defense of the royal prerogative by Leivaillard, attributed to President Denis Thalon. Such a decree could not be published in Spain without previous submission to the Royal Council, but Guidice was relied upon to evade this. He was nothing loath, for he had an old quarrel with Macanas, who had prevented his obtaining the Archbishopric of Toledo, his enmity being so marked that at one time Philip, to separate them, had sent Macanas to France with the title of ambassador extraordinary, but without functions. At the moment, Guidice was ambassador to France, and the decree was sent to him. He declined to act unless assured of the protection of the courts of Rome and Vienna and, on receiving pledges of this, he signed it, July 30, as inquisitor general, and sent it to the Suprema for publication. Four of the members promptly signed it and had it published at high mass in the churches on August 15. This created an immense sensation, and exaggerated accounts were circulated of the errors and heresies contained in the unknown legal argument which Macanas had prepared in the strict line of his duty. When Philip was informed the next day of this audacious proceeding, he called into consultation his confessor Robinet and three other theologians who submitted on the 17th an opinion in writing that the Suprema should be required to suspend the edict and that Guidice should be dismissed and banished. The Suprema obeyed, excusing itself on the pretext that it had supposed, as a matter of course, that Guidice had submitted the edict to the king. He was not satisfied with this and dismissed three of them, but they refused to surrender their places. Then he summoned a meeting of the Council of Castile, pointing out that if such things were permitted the kingdom would be reduced to Vasilege under the Dattaria and other tribunals of the Curia. The Council was not to separate until every member had recorded his opinion as to the measures to be taken. Seven of them voted for dismissing and banishing Guidice, while four showed themselves favorable to the inquisition. Meanwhile, on the 17th, Philip had dispatched a Curia to Paris, summoning Guidice to return and informing Louis XIV of the affair. The latter, recognizing that the decree was an assault on the French as well as the Spanish regalia, refused to Guidice a farewell audience and sent his confessor, Laitelier, to tell him that where he not certain that Philip would punish him, he would do so himself. When Guidice reached Bayonne, he was met by an order not to enter Spain until the edict should be revoked. He replied submissively, enclosing his resignation, whereupon Philip commanded him to return to his Archbishopric, a command which he did not obey. Felipe Antonio Guilde Tabuada was appointed inquisitor general and, on February 28th, 1715, his commission was dispatched from Rome, probably the Suprema interposed difficulties, for he never served. He obtained the post of governor of the Council of Castile to be rewarded subsequently with the Archbishopric of Seville. Meanwhile, there was a court revolution. Maria Luisa of Savoy, Philip's wife, died February 11th, 1714. The Princess de Ursin's, who had accompanied her to Spain and had become the most considerable personage in the kingdom, desired to find a new bride whom she could control. Gio Leo Aberoni, an androite Italian adventurer, was then serving as the envoy of the Duke of Parma and persuaded her that Elizabeth Farnes, the daughter of his patron, would be subservient to her, and the match was arranged. December 11th, 1714, Elizabeth reached Pampa Luna and found Alberoni there ready to instruct her as to her course and his teaching bore speedy fruit. De Ursin's had also hastened to meet the new queen and was at Idiages, not far distant, where she received from the imperious young woman in order to quit Spain. Aberoni, who was in league with Guidice and hated Macanas, painted him to Elizabeth in the darkest colors and his ruin was resolved upon. He had been pursuing his duty as fiscal general of the Council of Castile in July 1714. He had occasion to make another report on the notorious evils of the religious orders, pointing out the necessity of their reform and asserting that the Pope is not the master of ecclesiastical property and spiritual profits. Some months later, he was called upon to draw a complete reform of the inquisition, suggested doubtless by the pending conflict for which an occasion was found in an insolent invasion of the royal rights by the tribunal of Lima. The Council of Indies complained that the latter had removed from the administration of certain properties indebted to the royal treasury, the person appointed by the Chamber of Accounts, on the plea that the owner was also a debtor to the inquisition. Philip V, thereupon, ordered Makanas, in conjunction with D. Martin de Minerval, fiscal of the Council of Indies to make a report covering all the points on which the Holy Office should be reformed. The two fiscals presented their report November 14, 1714, exhaustively reviewing the invasions of the royal jurisdiction, which, as we shall see hereafter, were constant and audacious, and their recommendations were framed with a view of rendering the inquisition an instrument for executing the royal will to the subversion of the jealously guarded principle that laymen should be wholly excluded from spiritual jurisdiction. In the reaction wrought by Elizabeth and Albaroni, Makanas was necessarily sacrificed. Philip, notoriously Uxorius, speedily fell under the domination of his strong-minded bride, and Albaroni became the all-powerful minister. Guidesse, who had been loitering on the borders, was recalled, and, on March 28, 1715, Philip abased himself by signing a most humiliating argument, evidently drawn up by Guidesse, reinstating the latter, and apologizing for his acts on the ground of having been misled by evil counsel. Albaroni and Guidesse, however, were too ambitious and too unprincipled to remain friends. Their intrigues clashed in Rome, the one to obtain a cardinal's hat, the other to advance his nephew. Albaroni had the ear of the queen and speedily undermined his rival. Guidesse was also tutor of the young Prince Louis. On July 15, 1716, he was deprived of the post and ordered to leave the palace, and, on the 25th, he was forbidden to enter it. He fell into complete disfavor and shortly left Spain for Rome, where he placed imperial arms over his door. His resignation must have followed speedily for, on January 23, 1717, the Tribunal of Barcelona acknowledges receipt of an announcement from the Suprema that the Pope has at last acceded to the reiterated requests of cardinal Guidesse to be allowed to resign and has appointed in his place D. Joseph de Molines, as published in a royal decree of January 9. Albaroni obtained the coveted cardinalate, but his triumph was transient. He replaced the King's Confessor, Father Robené with another Jesuit, Father Du Benton, who soon intrigued against him so successfully and so secretly that the first intimation of his fall was a royal order, December 5, 1719, to leave Madrid within eight days and Spain in three weeks. He vainly sought an audience of Philip and was forced to obey. End of Book 2, Chapter 1, Part 3. Book 2, Chapter 1, Part 4 of History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee. Book 2, Chapter 1, Relations with the Crown. Part 4. Although the episode of Giudice is thus closed, the fate of Macanaz is too illustrative of inquisitorial methods and of royal weakness to be reached over without brief mention. He had incurred the undying hatred of the Inquisition simply in discharge of his duty as an advisor of the Crown, with perhaps an excess of zeal for his master and an intemperate patriotism that strove to restore its lost glories to Spain. It was impossible to continue him in his high function while recalling Giudice and, as a decent cover for banishment, he was allowed in March, 1715 to seek the waters of Bagneres for his health when he departed on an exile that lasted for 33 years to be followed by an imprisonment of 12. Giudice promptly commenced a prosecution for heresy sufficient proof of which according to the standards of the Holy Office, was afforded by his official papers. As he dared not return, his trial in absentia resulted, as such trials were want to do, in conviction, and he seems to have been sentenced to perpetual exile with confiscation of all his property including even 500 doubloons which the King was sending to him at Pau through a banker of Saragossa. All his papers and correspondence in the hands of his friends were seized, and his brother, a Dominican friar whom the King had placed in the Suprema, was arrested in the hope of obtaining incriminating evidence. Thenceforth, he led a life of wandering exile so peculiar that it is explicable only by the character of Philip. He was in constant correspondence with the high state officials frequently entrusted with important negotiations. Sometimes he was under salary but it was irregularly paid and for the most part he had to struggle with poverty. When the Infanta Maria Anna Victoria was sent back to Spain from France in 1725 he was commissioned to attend her to the border and from there he went as plenipotentiary to the Congress with the comforting assurance that the King was endeavoring to put an end to the affair of the Inquisition, an effort apparently frustrated by the influence of Pere dau Benton. It was possibly with a view to overcome this fatal enmity that he occupied his leisure between 1734 and 1736 in composing a defense of the Inquisition from the attacks of Dr. Delon and the Abbe de Bos. In this he had nothing but praise for its kindliness towards its prisoners its scrupulous care to avoid injustice the rectitude of its procedure and the benignity of its punishments. Beyond these assertions the defense reduces itself to showing that from the time when the church was persecuted it had persecuted heretics to the death and that the heretics in their turn have been persecutors. Propositions readily proved from his wide and various stores of learning and sufficient to satisfy a believer in the Semper et Ubike et Abbe Omnibus. Ten years later when Fernando VI ascended the throne in 1746 addressed him a memorial on the measures requisite to relieve the misery of Spain and in this he superfluously urged the maintenance of the Inquisition in all its luster and authority. In spite of all this it was unrelenting and his entreaties to be allowed to return were fruitless. In 1747 he was sent to the Congress of Breda where he mismanaged the negotiations deceived it is said by Lord Sandwich relieved and ordered in 1748 to present himself to the visory of Navarre at Pampaluna. After some delay he was carried to Coruña and emured in comunicado in a case mate at the castle of San Antonio a prison known as a place of rigorous confinement. The authorities there compassionated him and at their intercession he was removed to an easier prison and permitted the use of books and writing materials. Here during a further captivity of 12 years the indomitable old man occupied himself with voluminous commentaries on the Teatro Crítico of Padre Fejo and the Espana Sagrada with many other writings and memorials to the king. It was not until the death of the latter in 1760 that Elizabeth of Parma the regent and the cause of his misfortunes liberated him with orders to proceed directly to Marcia. At Leganes he was greeted by his wife and daughter with whom he went to Helin his birthplace on the following November 2 in his 91st year. There is no record of any further exercise of royal control over inquisitors general until in 1761 Clement XIII saw fit to condemn the catechism of messengui for its alleged jansenism in denying the authority of popes over kings. The debate over it in Rome had attracted the attention of all Europe and the prohibition of the book was regarded as a general challenge to monarchs. Carlos III had watched the discussion with much interest especially as the work was used in the instruction of his son. He expressed his intention of not permitting the publication of the prohibition but by a juggle between the Nunzio and the inquisitor general Manuel Quintano and Boniface. An edict of condemnation was hastily drawn up of which copies were given to the royal confessor on the night of August 7. They did not reach the king at San Ildefonso until the morning of the 8th who at once dispatched a messenger to Boniface ordering him to suspend the edict and recall any copies Boniface replied that copies had already been delivered to all the churches in Madrid and forwarded to nearly all the tribunals to suppress it would cause great scandal injurious to the Holy Office wherefore he deeply deplored that he could not have the pleasure of obeying the royal mandate. Carlos was incensed but contended himself with ordering Boniface to absent himself from the court. He obeyed and in about three weeks made a humble apology protesting that he would forfeit his life rather than fail in the respect due to the king. Carlos then permitted him to return and resume his functions and when the suprema expressed its gratitude he significantly warned it to remember the lesson. He took warning himself and on January 18th 1762 he issued a pragmatica systematizing the examination of all papal letters before issuing the royal executor which permitted their publication. Carlos III had no further occasion to exercise his prerogatives but it was otherwise with Carlos IV his first appointee Manuel Abad y la Ciara Bishop of Astorga who assumed office May 11th 1793 had but a short term for he was requested to resign in the following year. His successor Francisco Antonio de Ranzana Archbishop of Toledo who accepted the post September 12th 1794 was not much more fortunate although his enforced resignation in 1797 was decently concealed under a mission to convey to Pius VI the offer of a refuge in Mahorca he was followed by Bramón José the Arte Irenoso Archbishop of Saragossa who resigned March 22nd 1808 four days after the abdication of Carlos IV in the Tumult of Lackeys at Aranjuez he was probably to escape his share of the popular odium directed against the favorite Godoy during the short-lived revival of the Inquisition under the Restoration its dependence on the royal power was too great for differences to arise that would provoke assertions of the prerogative. The relations of the crown with the Suprema were originally the same as with the other royal councils who moved at will although, as the members came to exercise judicial functions it was necessary for the Inquisitor General to delegate to them the papal faculties which alone conferred on them jurisdiction over heresy Ferdinand exercised the power of appointment and removal and as his orders were requisite for the receivers of confiscations to pay their salaries it is scarce likely that anyone had the hardyhood to raise a question we have seen how he forced the members to accept as a colleague Aguirre although he was a layman how he menace when Governor of Castile removed him and Adrian reinstated him the earliest formula of commission that I have met is of the date 1546 it bears that it is granted by the Inquisitor General who constitutes the appointee a member and invests him with the necessary faculties and it is more over countersigned by the other members in this there is no allusion to any nomination by the king although the appointment lay in his hands in 1573 the Venetian envoy Leonardo Donato so states adding that the popes felt very bitterly the fact that they had no participation in it they had repeatedly tried to secure the membership of some one dependent upon them such as the Nuncio but Philip would not permit it the council did nothing without his consent tacit or expressed at some period not definitely ascertainable the customer rose of the Inquisitor General presenting three names from among which the king made selection at first the number of members was uncertain but it came to be fixed at five in addition to the Inquisitor General to these Philip II added to from the council of Castile as these were sometimes laymen he finally had a scruples of conscience and in his instructions to Manrique de Lara in 1595 he tells him that when there are fitting ecclesiastics in the council of Castile they are to be proposed to him for selection if there are not it is to be considered whether a papal brief should be procured to enable them to act in matters of faith these adventitious members came to be known as concejeros de la tarde as they attended only twice a week and in the afternoon sessions of the body where the secular business was disposed of and thus they took no share in matters of faith their salary was one-third that of the others the royal authority was emphatically asserted when in 1614 Philip III ordered that a supernumerary place should be made for his confessor Fri Aliaga who was over his colleagues and a salary of 1500 Ducats also that when the royal confessor was a Dominican he should always have this place and when he was not that it should be given to a Dominican the Suprema accepted Aliaga but demured to the rest when Lerma preemptorily ordered it to be entered on the records there were murmurings after the accession of Philip IV he ordered the council to make out a commission for his confessor the Dominican Sotomayor to which there was an effectual opposition the rule held good soon after the inquisition was reorganized under the restoration Fernando VII July 10th 1815 appointed his confessor Cristóbal de Bencomo a member to serve without salary for the time but with the reversion of the first vacancy and all the honors due to his predecessors he had the seat next to the dean and when the latter died February 16th 1816 he took his position and salary Philip V ordered that a seat should always be occupied by a Jesuit this of course lapped with the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 after which Carlos III in 1778 provided that the religious orders should have a representative by turns the royal power of appointment was not uncontested and gave rise to frequent debates Philip IV sometimes yielded and sometimes persisted occasionally the question was complicated papal intervention was hinted at a decisive struggle came in 1640 in which the Suprema chose its ground discreetly it suited Olivares to appoint Antonio de Aragon a youthful cleric and the son of the Duke of Cardona anticipating resistance Philip announced the nomination imperiously Don Antonio must be admitted the next day as he was about to start for Barcelona and any representations against it could be made subsequently the Suprema replied that the Inquisitor General could not make the appointment and if he did so it would be invalid Don Antonio was less than 30 years old the cannons require an Inquisitor to be 40 although Paul III had reduced for Spain the age to 30 the members of the Suprema were Inquisitors and it was only as such that they sat in judgment without appeal in cases of faith to this Philip rejoined that Olivares should report the efforts he had made to quiet his conscience in view of the great public good to result from the appointment wherefor he expected that possession would be given to Don Antonio without delay the orders went so far that the Duchess of Cardona wrote to her son to abandon the effort but the royal command prevailed he obtained the position and in the following year he was made a member of the Council of State he was already a member of the Council of Military Orders and the whole affair gives us a glimpse of how Olivares governed Spain having this asserted his prerogative Philip in 1642 and the early months of 1643 made four appointments without consultation the remonstrances of the Suprema must have been energetic for Philip yielded and in a decree of June 26 or July 2 1643 he agreed that the old custom of submitting three names should be renewed with the innovation that the Suprema should unite in making the recommendations against this the Inquisitor General protested but in vain it was probably to make an offset to these royal nominees that November 2nd 1643 the Inquisitor General and Suprema asked that their fiscal should have a vote which Philip refused the rule continued of submitting three names for selection but the participation of the Suprema in this seems to have been dropped the royal control moreover asserted itself in the case of Froylandias when by decree of November 3rd 1704 Philip V reinstated three members Antonio Sambrana, Juan Bautista Arsia-Mendi and Juan Migueles who had been arbitrarily ejected by Inquisitor General Mendoza ordering moreover they should receive all areas of salary while thus the crown continued to exercise the right of selecting the heads of the Inquisition its practical control was greatly weakened by one or two changes which established themselves of these perhaps the most important was the claim of the Suprema to interpose itself between the king and the tribunals so that no royal commands to them should be obeyed unless they should pass through it thus rendering the Inquisitor subject to itself alone and not to the sovereign in a government theoretically absolute this was substituting bureaucracy for autocracy and when the example was followed though at a considerable distance by some of the other royal councils it at times produced deadlocks which threatened to paralyze all governmental action we have seen that towards the end of Ferdinand's reign his letters to the tribunals were sometimes countersigned by members of the Suprema but that this was not essential to their validity and when there was an attempt to establish such a claim he was prompt to vindicate his authority a royal sedula of October the 25th 1512 gave certain instructions as to the manumission of baptized children of slaves whose owners had suffered confiscation there was no question of faith involved but when in 1514 Pedro de Trigueros applied to the Inquisitors of Seville to be set free under it they refused on the ground that had not been signed by the Suprema he appealed to Ferdinand who promptly ordered the Inquisitors to obey it if they find Pedro's story to be true they are to give him a certificate of freedom and meanwhile are to protect him from his master who was seeking to send him to the Canaries for sale the claim which Ferdinand thus preemptorily rejected was persistently maintained during the period of confusion which followed his death it received positive assent from Charles is more than doubtful although the Suprema so asserts in a letter of July 27th 1528 ordering Inquisitors to examine whether a certain royal sedula had been signed by its members for the kings had ordered that none should be executed in matters connected with the Inquisition unless thus authenticated thus basing the claim on the royal will and not on any inherent right of the Holy Office so complete was the autonomy thus established for the organization that a Carta Accordada or Circular of Instructions May 12th 1562 tells the tribunals that if an inquiry from the king comes to them through any other council they are to reply that if the king desires the information it will be furnished to him through the inquisitor general or the Suprema the far reaching importance of this principle can scarce be exaggerated one of its results will be seen when we come to consider the complaints and demands of the Cortes and find that Fueros directed against inquisitorial aggressions purely civil matters when agreed to by the king were invalid without confirmation by the inquisitor general a single instance here will suffice to show the working of this in 1599 various demands of the Cortes of Barcelona were conceded by Philip III one regulated the number of familiars which Philip promised that he would induce the inquisitor general to put into effect within two months if possible another provided that all officials save inquisitors should be Catalan's he agreed to charge the inquisitor general and Suprema to observe this and he would get it confirmed by the pope another was that in the secular business of the tribunal the opinion of the Catalan assessor should govern because he would be familiar with the local law this he accepted and promised insofar as it concerned the inquisitor general and Suprema to charge them to give such orders to the tribunal another was that commissioners and familiars should not be quote religious close quote to which his reply was the same another required the inquisitor general to appoint a resident of Barcelona to hear appeals in civil cases below 500 libras this he said was just and he would charge the inquisitor general to do so after this in fulfillment of his plighted word he addressed the inquisitor general in terms most supplicatory quote I charge you greatly that for your part you condescend and facilitate what I have supplicated may be put in execution in conformity with what I have conceded and decreed in each of these articles which will give me particular contentment close quote not the slightest attention was paid to this request and on May 6th 1603 Philip repeated it quote as until now it is understood that not a single thing contained in it was a quote in execution and as I desire that it be enforced I ask and charge you to condescend to it and help and facilitate it with the earnestness that I confidently look for close quote this second appeal was as fruitless as the first and the Catalan's gained nothing it is true that in 1632 the Barcelona Tribunal to Philip IV asserted that Philip III had only assented to these articles to get rid of the Catalan's and that he wrote privately to the Pope asking him not to confirm them this case may have been more jugglery and collusion but in general it by no means followed that the royal decrees sent to the Suprema for transmission were intervals until perhaps the matter was forgotten or dropped or some compromise was reached the privilege that all instructions must be transmitted through the Suprema was therefore one of no little importance and it was insisted upon tenaciously there was a convenient phrase invented which we shall often meet obeseder i no cumplir to obey but not to execute which was very serviceable on these occasions in 1610 the Suprema argued away the cedula of Philip III as invalid because it had been dispatched through the council of state and the king was repeatedly told to his face that the laws required his cedulas to be countersigned by the Suprema in order to secure their execution this was done to Philip IV in 1634 when he intervened in a quarrel and in 1681 to Carlos II when there were difficulties threatened with foreign nations arising from abuses committed in examining importations in search of forbidden books as the questions calling for royal interposition as a rule affected only the wide secular and not the spiritual jurisdiction of the Inquisition this created conditions unendurable in any well organized government and of book 2 chapter 1 part 4 book 2 chapter 1 part 5 of history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org history of the Inquisition of Spain volume 1 by Henry Charles Lee book 2 chapter 1 relations with the Crown part 5 another change which conduced greatly to the independence of the Inquisition was the control which it acquired over its finances we have seen that under Ferdinand the confiscations and penances belonged to the Crown and that the salaries and expenses were paid by his orders the finances of the Inquisition will be discussed hereafter and meanwhile it suffices to say that after his death and the exuberant liberality of Charles to his Flemish favorites during his first residence in Spain the diminishing receipts from these sources caused them to be virtually assigned the expenses of the Inquisition and they were no longer regarded as a source of supply to the Royal Treasury still the money belonged to the Crown and the Inquisition enjoyed it only under the authority and by virtue of the bounty of the Sovereign the growth of control over income and a virtual financial independence was gradual and irregular even Ferdinand in his watchful care over his receivers of confiscations felt the need of some central auditor and it seemed natural that he should be an official of the Suprema accordingly as early as 1509 we find a Contador General in that position in 1517 there are two officers a Contador and a Receiver General and in 1520 two are merged into one when in 1513 Bishop Mercader was made Inquisitor General of Aragon he desired a statement from all receivers of their receipts and payments and of the property remaining in their hands and Ferdinand ordered them to comply alluding to it as usual on the entrance of a new Inquisitor General this inevitably ripened into the transfer to that official of the control over receivers which Ferdinand had exercised so that in place of being royal officials they became virtually officers of the Inquisition and eventually were designated as treasurers by 1544 we find the Suprema to be the final court of revision of all the receivers of the local tribunals whose accounts were ordered to it and audited by it still in theory the money belonged to the Crown and its disbursement could only be made under royal authority the order for the payment of the Ayuda de Costa of the Suprema July 21st 1517 was drawn in the name of La Reina El Rey, Juana and Charles after Charles reached Spain in September of that year he received grants from the confiscations with a profusion that threatened to bankrupt the Inquisition and if we find Adrian and the Suprema also occasionally issuing orders for payments it was undoubtedly underpowers granted by Charles when Charles left Spain May 20th 1520 he gave Adrian a general faculty for this purpose he called in question for he found it necessary to send from Brussels September 12th a Sejula to all receivers confirming it and stating that Adrian's orders signed by members of the Suprema would be received as vouchers by the Auditor General under this the Suprema exercised full authority over the funds collected by all the receivers and disposed of them at its pleasure when Charles returned he presumably resumed control and after his marriage with Isabel of Portugal during his frequent absences he left the power in her hands until her death May 1st 1539 when he saw fit moreover he claimed and received a share of the spoils a letter of Cardinal Manrique June 17th 1537 shows that a portion of the proceeds of a certain Autudefe had been paid to him and another of October 11th of the same year addressed to him at the Cortes of Monson reinforces an appeal not to sacrifice the interests of the inquisition to the Aragonese demands with the welcome news that the receiver of Swenka with the 10,000 Ducats for which he had asked from the confiscations of that Tribunal Charles's hasty departure in November 1539 to quell the insurrection of Ghent left matters in some confusion the Suprema on March 20th 1540 wrote to Chancellor Granville that cedulas for the salaries under the crown of Aragon always signed by the Emperor and that the inquisitor general could not do it they had sent him a power for execution similar to that given to Cardinal Adrian but he refused to sign it saying that they could do so under Cardinal Manrique forgetting that there had been the Empress who always signed the cedulas wherefore they asked him to get the Emperor to sign the power he doubtless did so for an order, June 12th on the receiver of Valencia to send 1500 Ducats for the salaries of the Suprema purports to be by virtue of a special power granted by their Majesties on Charles's return he again assumed control and when he went to Italy in 1543 he left Philip as regent while during the absence of Philip there were successive regents who signed a cedulas as called for by the Suprema yet in spite of these formalities the control of the crown was becoming scarcely more than nominal it is true that in 1537 Cardinal Manrique declared that he could not increase salaries without the royal assent but when the crown undertook any exercise of power the little respect paid to its commands is seen in the fate of an application made in 1544 by Juan Tomás de Prado notary of the tribunal of Saragossa to Prince Philip for an Ayuda de Costa of 300 Ducats Philip ordered his prayer to be granted but the death of Inquisitor General Tavera served as a convenient pretext for disregarding the command it was repeated for the same amount January 11th 1548 and finally on June 4th Inquisitor General Valdes authorized the payment of a hundred Ducats to perfect the absolute control of the confiscations thus gradually assumed it was necessary to keep the crown in ignorance of their amount its right to them was incontestable and the Inquisition deliberately abused the confidence reposed in it when their collection was left in its hands the less the king was allowed to know the less likely he was to claim his share and the policy was adopted of deceiving him as early as 1560 we have evidence of this in a letter to the Inquisitors of Sicily instructing them when reporting Altos de Fe to the king to suppress all statements as to the confiscations but to report them to the Suprema so that it may determine how far to inform him this was doubtless a general mandate to all the tribunals it was repeated in instructions of 1561 and we shall see that it became a settled practice this systematic concealment was the more indefensible from the fact that the Inquisition was now obtaining funds from other sources than confiscations we shall see hereafter how it utilized the scare caused by the discovery of Protestantism in Valladolid and Seville in 1558 with the plea of additional expenses thus caused to obtain from Paul IV a levy of a hundred thousand gold ducats on the revenues of the clergy and the more permanent endowment of the church to be suppressed for its benefit in every cathedral and collegiate church a large portion of the inquisitors moreover already held canonaries and other benefits for which under a brief of Innocent the 8th February the 11th 1485 they were dispensed for non-residents the burden of the Holy Office was thus thrown largely on the ecclesiastical establishment which remonstrated and resisted but was compelled to submit it could thus look with equanimity on the shrinkage of the confiscations in Valencia an agreement was reached in 1571 by which the Moriscos compounded for them with an annual payment to the tribunal of 2500 ducats the Judaizing heretics had been largely eliminated especially the more wealthy ones and it was not until some years after the conquest of Portugal in 1580 that the influx of Portuguese new Christians brought a new and profitable harvest all of this tended to the financial independence of the inquisition although the crown by no means abandoned its claims on the confiscations a book of receipts given by the royal representative in Valencia for the proceeds of the confiscations in 1593 shows that under the financial pressure of the time Philip II was reasserting his rights the treasury was empty when Philip III succeeded the throne in 1598 and among his expedients to raise money he ordered the receivers of the tribunals to give the funds in their hands promising speedy repayment the Suprema had no faith in the royal word and instructed the tribunals to retain enough to meet their own wants the obedience of the tribunals was by no means prompt and the Suprema was obliged to order Valencia to comply with the royal demand and to furnish an oath that no money was left for years of Philip IV the tendency of the inquisition to emancipate itself from royal control grew rapidly we shall see hereafter that when in 1629 the king called for a statement of salaries and perquisites the Suprema equivocated and suppressed nearly all the information required still more significant was its attitude respecting the tribunals which the king supported under an annual expenditure of 30,000 pesos with the understanding that this should cease when the confiscations should become sufficient these which had been small at first rapidly increased in the 17th century and were enormous between 1630 and 1650 when the whole trading communities of Peru and Mexico were shattered by the tribunals to make permanent investments that rendered them wealthy besides sending heavy remittances to the Suprema which moreover seized the goods and credits of Seville of the colonial Judaizers in addition to this in 1627 a pre-bend in each cathedral was suppressed for the benefit of the tribunals yet the salaries were still demanded of the royal treasury and repeated efforts of Philip III and Philip IV from 1610 to 1650 to obtain statements of the receipts from confiscations and peciniary penances were completely baffled that was an inviolable secret which no royal official was allowed to penetrate it is true that the colonial tribunals on their side adopted the same policy in concealing as far as they could from the Suprema the extent of their own gains yet in the ever increasing distress of the crown demands were made upon the inquisition as on all other departments of government demands which it was forced to meet thus for the ten years 1632 to 1641 inclusive an annual sum 700,360 Marveides was required of it to aid in defringing the cost of garrisons and fleet and a statement of October 11 1642 shows that it had paid the aggregate of 11,583,110 in Veillon and 18,700 in silver leaving a balance still due of 8,474,790 evidently there was good reason for concealing its revenues in the frightful confusion of the finances which followed the revolution of Portugal and the revolt of Catalonia in 1640 while Spain was heroically battling for existence against France and its rebellious subjects the demands were varied and incessant for some so small as to reveal the absolute pinnury of the state and Philip's impatient urgency as he chafed under the deleteriness of the responses shows the desperate emergencies in which he was involved in 1643 a royal decree of February the 16th ordered all officials to send their silver plate to the mint a watch being kept made so as to see that each sent a quantity proportioned to his station to a complaint of delay in performance the suprema replied that those who had sent in their silver could get no satisfaction from the mint the delays were such that the promptitude required by the king was impossible even more arbitrary was the seizure in 1644 at Seville a remittance of 8,676 ducats in silver a remittance from the colonial tribunals to the suprema in protesting against this the suprema, February 29th gave a deplorable account of its condition owing to the demands made upon it by the king on the 10th he had called upon it for 16,000 ducats deprived of the silver that had been seized it was already short in 7,724,843 marvides of its annual expenses and the provincial tribunals were short 5,318,000 for it had impoverished them to meet the royal demands last year it had sold a senso of 18,000 ducats belonging to the tribunal of Saragossa which was beseeching its return it had also given the king 10,000 ducats for the calvary and to raise this amount it had taken the sequestrations of the tribunal of Seville a sacred deposit including 20,000 ducats worth of wool the owners of which, having been acquitted were beseeching it for their money this Doloros was effective in so far that the seizure at Seville was credited on account of the demand for 16,000 ducats how much of it was true we can only guess for the inquisition had means of raising money outside of its judicial functions when, in 1640 the king summoned its familiars and officials to render military service like the nobles the Suprema arranged that they should buy themselves off and from this source was cheaply raised 40,000 ducats expended on two companies of horse in return for which by a segula of September 2nd 1641 the king promised to maintain inviolate the privileges and exemptions of the familiars and officials these instances out of many will suffice to show how the crown in its days of distress was recouping itself for abandoning the spoils of the heretics in time these special and arbitrary demands were systematized into an annual requirement of 50 horses estimated at an outlay of about 5,500 ducats and the raising and equipping of 200 foot costing 8,000 ducats the Suprema was in no wise prompt in meeting these demands a segula of June 24th 1662 tells it that what is due for the present year as well as the previous years must be paid at once otherwise an inventory of its property must be given to the president of the treasury who will raise the money on it subsequently there was a feeble attempt to return some of these contributions and in each of the years 1673 and 1674 a trifling payment was made of 10,000 reales but in 1676 the Suprema stated to Carlos II that in all it had furnished for remounts of horses 90,000 ducats veillon and 10,000 in silver and that its total assistance to the crown had amounted to no less than 800,000 pesos equivalent to over 500,000 ducats to accomplish which the salaries in many tribunals had been unpaid and vacancies of necessary offices had remained unfilled still as we shall have occasion to see the Suprema always had money, not only for an undiminished payroll but for perquisites and amusements the crown could not accept this assistance however grudgingly rendered without a sacrifice of its supremacy and the inquisition came to treat with it as with an independent body about this time the Suprema happens to mention in a letter to the tribunal of Lima that it had lent the king 40,000 pesos of which 10,000 came from Peru and 30,000 from Mexico and that the Count of Medellin had become security for the return of the loan as though it were a banker dealing with a merchant yet all parties knew that these colonial remittances were derived from confiscations the ownership of which the crown had never relinquished this is the more noteworthy because about this time the king suddenly asserted his claims on some large sums which could not be wholly concealed in 1678 the tribunal of Mahorca unexpectedly made a successful raid on the whole new Christian population of Palma and in the early months of 1679 there were more than 200 penitents reconciled as they constituted the active trading element of the place the confiscations were enormous and the affair attracted too much attention to be hidden as soon as the news came of the arrests the king wrote, May 20th 1678 to the visory to look carefully to the sequestrations because in case of confiscation the proceeds belonged to the treasury the Supremma, however made him hold his hands off with dire whole threats and kept control of the liquidation after the condemnations a consulta of July 5th 1679 shows that 50,000 pesos had already been paid to the king but that the inquisition was resolved to have its full share in November the king acceded to a compromise under which 200,000 pesos were to be used to endow certain tribunals and to cancel certain loans made to him by the inquisition probably those just alluded to the balance coming to him was estimated at 250,000 pesos but in the handling of the assets and the settlements with creditors the property melted away till the Supremma reported that it barely sufficed to meet the portion assigned to the inquisition and finally in 1683 the king had to content himself with 18,000 pesos spent on the fortifications of Mahorca and the payment of him of 2,000 which the Supremma assured him that it advanced at considerable risk to itself the secretiveness so carefully observed undoubtedly had its advantages or it would not have been so persistently claimed as a right in a consulta of 1696 the Count of Figiliana states that when he was Viceroy of Valencia he had in vain endeavored to get from the tribunal a statement of its affairs and he asked the king whether or not the inquisition possessed the privilege of rendering no account of his assets and income at length the quarrel between inquisitor general Mendoza and his colleagues in the case of Froylian Dias and his banishment to his sea in 1703 gave opportunity for royal intervention and investigation the war of succession had deranged the finances of the inquisition and it had appealed to the king for help he required a statement of the payrolls investments and revenues of all the tribunals which was furnished March 9th 1703 after which on May 27th he issued a decree declaring that he must put an end to the abuses and disorders which had crept into the administration and disbursement of its property in order to relieve the embarrassment of which it complained he therefore annulled all commissions and appointments without obligation of service granted by the inquisitor general whether within or outside Spain the papers of all jubulations new places and gratuities created or granted since the time of Valladaris in 1695 was to be placed in his hands in no case thereafter should the inquisitor general jubilate any official of the Suprema or local tribunal without consulting him and any such act issued without a previous royal order was declared void no Ayuda de Costa or grant exceeding 30 Ducats Veyon for a single term was to be made without awaiting his decision and this decree was to be placed in the hands of all receivers or treasurers for their guidance it was so transmitted June 8 with strict orders for its observance this was a resolute assertion of the royal control over the finances of the inquisition and it held good in theory at least however much it may have been eluded in practice about the middle of the 18th century a systematic writer describes it as still in force and states that no salaries can be increased without the royal approval it so continued to the end and under the restoration an order from the king countersigned by the Suprema was requisite for any extraordinary disbursement Philip had reasserted but made good the right of the crown confiscations by claiming a percentage of the rentals of all confiscated property but he listened to appeals from the tribunals and in 1710 we hear of Saragossa and Valencia being practically restored to their enjoyment a liberality which was doubtless followed with regard to the others in 1725 Valencia expressed its fear that the alliance with Austria against England, France and Prussia would result in its having to restore the confiscations and the blow seems to have fallen for in 1727 the Suprema in the consulta of December the 9th describing the poverty of Saragossa attributes it to the king having taken away the confiscations which he had granted with the gradual amelioration of the Spanish finances the source of revenue must have been restored for in 1768 the inquisition is described as enjoying the confiscations which the pious liberality of the monarchs had bestowed there were other sources of revenue rehabilitations or dispensations from the San Benito and disabilities commutations of punishment and the Pucinieri penances penas y penitencias all these will be considered hereafter but a few words may be said as to the latter in their relation with the royal authority the penitents who were reconciled under edicts of grace were not subject to confiscation but were punished with fines under the guise of Pucinieri penance at the discretion of the inquisitor we have seen how numerous these were and we can conjecture how large were the sums thus exacted for penances of a half or a third of the penitents property were not uncommon similar fines were usually accompanied sentences that did not embrace confiscation and formed a continual although fluctuating source of revenue sometimes there were special officials for their collection when this was entrusted to the receivers of confiscations they were instructed to keep a separate account of them as the two funds were held to be essentially different and as a rule were to be employed for different purposes in the earliest instructions of 1484 these Pucinieri penances are said to be imposed as a limosna or alms to the sovereigns in the pious work of warring with the Moors but in the instructions issued a few months later by Torquemata this is modified by ordering them to be placed in the hands of a trustworthy person and reports to be made to him or to the king in order that they may be spent on the war or in other pious uses or in paying the salaries of the inquisition both the destination and the control of these funds were thus left undetermined and they so continued for some years in 1486 we find Ferdinand giving orders for sums from this source for various uses for the war with Granada to pay the salaries of the lay judge to pay expenses of a tribunal of the inquisition to repay Luis de San Angel for advances made to tribunals in one case his tone is apologetic and he asks Torquemata to confirm the order in others his command is absolute this indicates the uncertainty which existed both as to the use and the control of the pecuniary penances so long as lasted the war with Granada whatever was taken by the crown might be regarded as devoted directly or indirectly to that holy object but when the conquest was achieved in January 1492 that excuse no longer existed and doubtless the inquisitors looked with jealousy upon the diversion to secular objects of the proceeds of their pious labors the confiscations unquestionably belonged to the crown but the penances were spiritual funds which for centuries had always enured to the church there must have been a sustained effort to withhold them from the royal acquisitiveness to which Ferdinand was not disposed to yield for he procured from Alexander the sixth February 18th 1495 a brief directing the inquisitors to hold all such monies subject to the control of the sovereigns to be disposed of at their pleasure even this was resisted and Ferdinand and Isabella complained to the Pope that they were unable to compel an accounting of the sums received or to collect the amounts to correct which Alexander issued another brief March 26th 1495 commissioning Jimenez then Archbishop of Toledo to enforce accounting and payment by excommunication and other censures this was equally ineffective there was a privacy and simplicity in the imposition and collection of a penance very different from the procedure of sequestration and confiscation and Ferdinand at least for a time abandoned the struggle this is manifested in a clause in the instructions of 1498 in joining on inquisitors not to impose penances more heavily than justice requires in order to ensure the payment of their salaries but the principle was formally recognized by Ferdinand and Isabella in a cedula of January 12th 1499 reciting that although they held a papal brief placing at their disposal all monies arising from penances, commutations and rehabilitations yet they grant to the inquisitors general all collections from these sources both in Castile and Aragon to be used in paying salaries disbursements being made only on their order Ferdinand however was not disposed to relax on any point his control over the inquisition and on April 10th of the same year we find him forbidding the leving of penances on the members of a town council for fountorship of heresy doubtless a speculative inflection for some assumed neglect in arresting suspects in 1501 his renunciation is already forgotten and he is making grants from the penances as absolutely as ever even empowering inquisitor general Desa to use those of Valencia to the extent of a hundred Ducatse year for the salary of Jaime de Moquildos the roman agent of the inquisition so in 1511 we find him granting to Enguera inquisitor general of Aragon a thousand Libras out of the penances to defray the expenses of his bowls for the sea of Lérida and authorizing him to pay from them an Ayuda de Costa of 200 Ducats to Juan de Galbes Aragonis Suprema then in 1514 he places all the penances unreservedly at the disposal of inquisitor general Mercader to be employed on the salaries and other necessary expenses of the inquisition of Aragon this seems to have been final after his death instructions sent to the tribunal of Sicily assume that the inquisitor general was in full control it was the same in Castile instructions issued by Jimenez in 1516 direct the receiver general who was an officer of the Suprema to collect the penances from the receivers of the tribunals who were to keep them in a separate account and not to disperse them without an order from the inquisitor general after this we find the Suprema in full control there is virtually no trace of any interference subsequently by the crown and the inquisition found itself in possession of an independent and by no means inconsiderable source of revenue which it could levy almost at will from those who fell into its hands the only exception to this that I have met is that Philip IV in his financial distress by a decree of September 30th 1639 claimed and collected 25% of fines and he scrupulously limited these to those inflicted incases not connected with the faith that is in the exercise of the royal jurisdiction civil and criminal enjoyed by the inquisition in matters concerning familiars and other officials end of book 2 part 5