Book 2, Chapter 3, Part 1, 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 3, Privileges and Exemptions. Before the revolution introduced the theory of equality, class privileges were the rule. Public burdens were eluded by those best able to bear them, and were accumulated on the toilers. The mortemain lands held by the church were exempt from both taxation and military service, and, though filled the fifth, in a concordat of 1737, obtained the privilege of taxing such as might subsequently be acquired. The repeated decrees for its enforcement show the impossibility of enforcing it. The complete immunity of ecclesiastics from taxation was emphatically asserted by Boniface VIII in the bull Cléricas Laicos, and, although this was revoked by the Council of Vien in 1312, care was taken to enunciate the principle as still in vigor. Yet, in the kingdoms of Aragon, they were subject to all imposts on sales, to import and export dues, and other local taxation. And when resistance was offered to this, Charles V procured from Adrian VI in 1522, and from Clement VII in 1524, briefs confirming their liability. Hidalguia, or gentle blood, conferred a multiplicity of privileges, including exemption from taxation, royal and local, with certain exemptions that were largely evaded, and the Labrador, or peasant or commoner, was distinctively known as a pechero, or taxpayer. That in such a social order, the inquisition should seek for its members all the exemptions that it could grasp was too natural to excite surprise, though it might occasionally provoke resistance. As regards freedom from taxation, the subject is complicated by questions concerning royal and local imposts, and by varying customs in the different provinces, and by the distinction between the active officials of the tribunals, known as titulados y asalarridos, and the more numerous unsalaried ones, who were only called upon occasionally for service, such as familiars, commissioners, notaries, consultants, and censors. Their rights were loosely denied, and were subject to perpetual variation by conflicting decisions in the contests that were constantly occurring with the secular authorities, provoked by habitual antagonism, and frequent in position of new taxes, raising new questions. Ferdinand wrote sharply, April 13, 1504, to the town council of Barcelona, when it attempted to subject the officials of the tribunal to the burdens borne by other citizens, in violation of the preeminences and exemptions of the Holy Office, and he warned them to desist, in view of the judicial measures that would be taken. Yet in 1508 we find him writing still more sharply to that tribunal, scolding it because it had taken from the house of the Alguazil of the Bailea a female slave and, without waiting for formal judgment, had sold her without paying the royal impost of twenty percent, a disregard of the regalías not permitted to them. They had also issued an order on the custom house to pass free of duty certain articles for an inquisitor, which was against all rule for, even if the goods were needed for the support of the officials. It was a matter for the farmers of the revenue to decide, and the issuing of such passes would be fruitful of fraud and loss. These instances indicate the uncertainties of the questions that were constantly arising in the intricate system, or lack of system, of Spanish taxation. To follow the subject in detail would be an endless and unprofitable task. I have collected a considerable number of more or less contradictory decisions of this early period, but the only deductions to be drawn from them are the indefiniteness of the exemption, and the earnestness of the effort made to extend it by the inquisition. The matter evidently was one in which there were no recognized rules, and, in 1568, Philip II undertook to regulate it, at least insofar as concerned royal taxation. He defined for each tribunal the officials who were to be exempted from all taxes, excise and assessments, and forbade their exaction under pain of fifty thousand marvietes, and punishment at the royal discretion. But this exemption was granted only during his good pleasure, so that he retained full control and admitted no privilege as inherent in the inquisition. His enumeration, moreover, comprised only the titulados y asalariados, holding commissions from the Suprema and in constant service, and omitted the familiars and others who greatly exceeded them in numbers. This attempt at settlement left the matter still undefined and provocative of endless strife. It said nothing as to local taxes. These and the royal taxes were often indistinguishable, or so combined that they could not be separated. The unsalaried officials were not specifically declared to be taxable, and were always striving for exemption. And when, in the growing needs of the monarchy, new taxes were imposed, there came ever fresh struggles conducted with the customary violence of the inquisition. May 10th, 1652, the royal council earnestly represented to Philip IV that it had already laid before him certain excesses of the inquisitors of Swenka, to which he had not seen fit to reply. Now, the corregidor of Swenka has reported other excesses requiring immediate remedy, for they have issued an order under pain of excommunication and other penalties that the collector of the excise on wine imposed for the pay of the troops shall not collect it of the salaried officials of the tribunal, although they are laymen and subject to it. They pretended that they were not liable to the al-Savallah, or tax on sales, but they were defeated in this suit on this before the council of Hacienda. And if this is permitted, all the other tribunals will attempt the same. And with their exemption will come that of their servants and kindred and connections of all kinds, with frauds and concealment as usual, resulting in increase of charge to other vassals and damage to the treasury. For it seems as though the sole object of the inquisitors is to diminish the royal patrony. Other troubles attended to the levying of the Servicio de Miones, an exceedingly unpopular in post on wine, meat, vinegar, and other necessities. When, in 1631, the tax of Metia Annata, or half a year's salary levied on appointees to office, was imposed there was a discussion as to whether it was applicable to the inquisition. This was settled in the affirmative, and the Suprema made no objection, for its collection was taken from the Sala de Medea Annata, and was given to Gabriel Ortiz de Sotomayor, appointed by Inquisitor General Zapata, and when he, in the course of a few years, became Bishop of Barajos, the business was entrusted to the Inquisitor General himself. For a while the payments were made with some regularity. But in 1650 an investigation showed that for a long while it had been quietly allowed to drop, and, as it was in the hands of the Inquisitor General, there were no means of enforcing and accounting. For a year Artzi Arenoso eluded the efforts of the Sala de Medea Annata to obtain information, and finally, May 17th, 1651, the king ordered him preemptorily to pay his own Medea Annata, due since 1643, to make the other officials do so, and to furnish the required information to the Sala. On receiving this he said there were difficulties in making ecclesiastics like Inquisitors pay, but he would consult the Suprema and reply in July. The reply passed away, and the Sala again applied to him. When he replied that, as concerned the Familiars and other secular officials, orders had already been given and collections made, but as to clerics there were scruples about which he would advise with the king. He failed to do so, and in October the king was urged to repeat his demand for immediate payment. The outcome of the affair was that ecclesiastics were exempted, and laymen had to pay, while Familiars who had no salaries were assessed nine dukats. So Artzi Arenoso succeeded in eluding his tax. Collection moreover from the laymen was not easy, and, January 28th, 1654, the Suprema issued general instructions to deduct it without exemption from the salaries. This only transferred the indebtedness from the individuals to the receivers or treasurers of the tribunals, who seemed to have been equally slow to pay, and, in 1655, an inquisitor in each tribunal of Castile and the colonies was designated to collect the money from the treasurer and remit it at once. It is safe to assume that the receipts were trivial, and the whole business affords an illustration of the methods by which the revenues of Spain were frittered away before reaching the treasury. Whether productive or not, however, the Medea Agnata remained until the end a permanent charge upon the lay officials. In Valencia, in 1790, it had for ten years amounted to an annual average of ten libras. With regard to local taxation, contests were renewed at every new impost with varying success, and a single case will elucidate the character of these struggles. In 1645, the Cortes of Valencia agreed to furnish for six years twelve hundred men to garrison Tortosa, reserving the right to impose whatever duties or excise might be necessary to defray the expense. In order that the eclergy might be included, the ascent of Archbishop Aliaga was sought, which he granted with difficulty, and only, on condition that, within eight months, the confirmatory papal brief should be obtained, which was duly accomplished. To meet the charge, an excise, known as the Cisa del Corte, was levied on all goods cut for garments. The tribunal refused to submit to this, and pointed to its contributions to a loan of twenty thousand dukats, made by the Inquisition to the King in 1642, and to its payment since 1643 of five percent of the salaries for the maintenance of certain mounted men. The city yielded for a while, and then a compromise was made. The ecclesiastics at the time were paying eighteen dinars on the Libra, or seven and a half percent, while the officials of the tribunal were to be taxed only six dinars, or two and a half percent. To maintain their principle of exemption, however, for some years they had their garments made in the name of other ecclesiastics, and paid the eighteen dinars. But in 1659 they grew tired of this, and paid the six dinars for themselves, first registering a protest that it was without prejudice to their privileges and exemptions. This continued until 1668, when suddenly, on June 19th, the Fiscal of the Tribunal summoned the collectors of the Cisa del Corte to pass freely, within twenty-four hours, the cloth cut for the garments of Benito Sanguino, the Alcheid mare under pain of five hundred dukats. On the twenty-first, the syndics of the city and the collectors interjected an appeal to the king, in spite of which the next day the mandate was repeated, this time giving twelve hours for obedience and adding excommunication to the fine. Another appeal was interposed, and the regent of the Audiencia applied for a competencia, or orderly method of settling disputes, as provided in the Concordia. But notwithstanding this, the next day the excommunications were published, and the names of the collectors were affixed to the doors of the cathedral as under the anathema of the church. The final outcome is of little moment. The interest of the affair lies in its illustration of the persistence of the Inquisition, and the violence of its methods. In this respect the case is not exceptional. The formularies of the Inquisition contained a full assortment of arbitrary mandates which it employed, in place of seeking the legal courses prescribed by the Concordias, by which the king and the courtes sought to preserve the peace. One of these, drawn in the name of the tribunal of Iarena, addressed to the governor and magistrates, recites that complaint has been made of the imposition on officials and familiars of a new auktroy on meat, and proceeds to assert that, by immemorial custom and royal sedulas, the commissioned officials are exempted from paying any taxes, ex-Is, imposts, and assessments, whether royal or local or otherwise. The magistrates are commanded within two hours to desist from the attempt under paying of major ex-communication, and a fine of a hundred thousand marvietes for the governor or his deputy, and a fifty thousand for subordinates, with a threat, in case of disobedience, of prosecution with the full rigor of the law. Moreover, the secretary, or notary of the city, is ordered within the two hours to bring to the tribunal and surrender all papers concerning the assessment on the officials, under paying of ex-communication and ten thousand marvietes. Such were the preemptory commands habitually employed, the arrogance of which rendered them especially galling. Not only were these fulminations ready for use when the case occurred, but there were formulas drawn up in advance to prevent any attempted infraction of the privileges claimed by the officials. Thus, this same collection has one addressed to the corregidor and magistrates of a town where a fair is to be held, reciting that an official of the tribunal proposes to send thither a certain number of cattle bearing his brand, which he swears to be of his own raising, and, as he is exempt from paying al-cavala, tolls, farriages, royal servicio, and all other assessments and dues, and, as he fears that there may be an attempt to impose them, therefore all officials and collectors are ordered, under paying of major ex-communication and two hundred dukats, to abstain from all such attempts, with threats of further punishment in case of disobedience. The enormous advantage which the official thus possessed is plain, as well as the door which it opened to fraud. That the claim was groundless appears by a memorial presented to the Suprema in 1623, a response to a call by Inquisitor General Pacheco, on his colleagues for suggestions as to the better government and improvement of the Inquisition, a remarkable paper to which reference will frequently be made hereafter. On this point it states that, in some tribunals, the officials were exempted from paying the al-cavala on the products of their estates, while in others they were not. In some, a portion of the officials have dexterously secured exemption, while others have been compelled to pay by a judicial decision, as there is no basis for such claims. If there is no right or privilege of exemption, it is not seen how the officials can conscientiously escape payment, or how the Inquisitors can defend them in evading it. That's the numerous suits thence arising which occupy the time of the tribunals. To cure this, it is suggested that the King grant exceptions to all, for there are not more than two or three in each tribunal to be thus benefited. This suggestion was not adopted, but the claim was persisted, in with its perpetual exasperation and multiplicity of litigation. The large numbers of unsalaried officials, especially the familiars, rendered the question of their exemption of considerably greater importance. They had no claim to it, but they were persistently endeavouring to establish the right, and for the most part they were supported by the tribunals in the customary arbitrary fashion. In the feudal Concordia of Catalonia in 1599, it was provided that levies and executions for all taxes and imposts could be made on familiars and commissioners by the ordinary officers of justice. In the memorial to Clement VIII, asking for the disallowance of this Concordia, the Suprema proved learnedly, by a series of canons from the Fourth Council of Latter and Down, that the Cruci Signati, whom it claimed to correspond with modern familiars, were exempt. It even had the audacity to cite the Concordia of 1514, which in reality denied their exemption, and it assumed with equal untruth that this was the universal custom in Spain. Yet, in a consulta of December 30, 1633, the Suprema tacitly excluded the unsalaried officials when it argued that there were not, exclusive of ecclesiastics, more than 200 officials in Spain entitled to the exemption. Still, the Inquisition fought the battle for the unsalaried officials with as much vigor as for the salaried. In 1634, the leving of a few reales on a familiar of the Salvero, on the occasion of the voyage to Barcelona of the Infante Fernando, was resisted with such violence by the Tribunal of Toledo, that finally the king had to intervene, resulting in the banishment and deprival of temporalities of a clerical official and the summoning to court of the senior Inquisitor. In 1636, Philip IV, to meet the extravagant outlays on the palace of Buen Retiro, levied a special tax on all the towns of the district of Madrid. In Baesas, the quota was assessed on the inhabitants, among whom was a familiar who refused to pay when the local Alcaldeis levied upon his property. He appealed to the Suprema, which referred the matter to the Tribunal of Toledo, and it arrested the Alcaldeis and condemned them in heavy penalties. Then the Alcaldeis de Casa y Corte, the highest criminal court, intervened and arrested the familiar, whereupon the Suprema twice sent to the Saladelos Alcaldeis, declaring them to be excommunicated, but the bearer of the censure was refused audience. On this, the Suprema, with the assent of the Council of Castile, sent a cleric to arrest the Alcaldeis and convey them out of the kingdom, and on March 12th, in all the churches of Madrid, they were published as excommunicate, and subject to all the penalties of the bull in Choina Dominí. That was the outcome of this, the chronicler fails to inform us. But the Council of Castile took a different view of the question when, in 1639, one of its members, Don Antonio Valdés, who had been sent to Extremadura as commissioner to raise troops, was publicly excommunicated by the Tribunal of Yarena because, in assessing contributions for that purpose, he had not exempted its officials and familiars. The Council thereupon appealed to Philip, who ordered the decree expunged from the records, and that a copy of the Royal Order should be posted in the Secretariat of the Tribunal. Yet it was about this time that the claim in behalf of unsalaried officials seems to have been abandoned for, in 1636, 1643, and 1644, the Suprema issued repeated injunctions that in the existing distress, the royal imposts and taxes must be paid. In 1646, it ordered the Tribunal of Valencia not to defend two familiars in resisting payment, and in the same year, the Cortes of Aragon gained a victory which subjected them all to local charges. With the advent of the Borbons, the salaried officials found a change in this as in so much else. In the financial exigencies of the War of Succession, they were subjected to repeated levies. Philip V called upon them for five percent of their salaries, and then for ten percent, to which they were forced to submit. In 1712, a general tax was laid of a doubloon per hearth, which was assessed in each community according to the wealth of the individual. There were no exemptions, and appeals were heard only by the provincial superintendents of the revenue. The sole concession obtained by the Suprema was that, where the officials of the Inquisition were concerned, the local tribunal could name an assessor to sit with the superintendent, and it warned the tribunals that any interference with the collection would be repressed with the utmost severity. Salaries, however, were held to be subject only to demands from the Crown, for, when Saragosa, in 1727, endeavored to include them in an assessment for local taxation, Philip, in response to an appeal from the Suprema, decided that those of the Inquisition, in common with other tribunals, should be exempt, but that real and personal property, including trade belonging to officials, should be held liable to the tax. As the close of the eighteenth century, various documents show that all ideas of resistance and all pleas of exemption had been abandoned. The Holy Office submitted to ordinary and extraordinary exactions, and the Suprema warned the tribunals that the assessments were wholly in the hands of the royal officers, and that it had no cognizance of the matter. The calls were frequent and heavy, as when, in 1794, four percent was levied on all salaries of over eight hundred dukats, and three months later a demand was made of one-third of the fruits of all benefits and pre-bends, which was meekly submitted to, and statements were obediently rendered. Under the restoration, the Inquisition was less tractable. In 1818 an income tax was levied and was imposed on all salaries, including those of the Suprema, which at once prepared for resistance. There seems to have been a prolonged struggle with a successful result, for, on November the 17th, it issued a circular in closing a royal order which conceded exemption. End of Book 2, Chapter 3, Part 1. Book 2, Chapter 3, Part 2 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 3, Privileges and Exemptions, Part 2. The exemption from taxation, which included import and export dues, or merchandise and provisions required for officials and prisoners, led to the claim of other privileges and to not a few abuses. It was not confined to sea-ports and frontier towns, for the jealous particularism of the kingdoms, dynastically united, kept up their antagonistic policy towards each other, and intercourse between them was subjected to regulations similar to those of foreign trade. The exemption from these, as well as from the Oak Troy duties of the towns, was a most important privilege, capable of being turned to account in many ways besides diminishing the expenses of the officials. We have seen that Ferdinand, in 1508, prohibited the issue of orders to pass goods free. But nevertheless it continued. When, in 1540, Blas Ortiz went to take possession of his office as Inquisitor of Valencia, the Suprema furnished him with a pass addressed to all customs officials, permitting him to cross the borders with three horses and four pack mules. He could be required to swear that what he carried was his private property and was not for sale, but all further interference was forbidden under pain of excommunication and a hundred dukats. It was not only on such occasions, however, that the custom houses were thus eluded. Before the introduction of regular posts, the constant communications between the tribunals and with the Suprema were carried by couriers or by mule-teers, and the mysterious secrecy which shrouded all the operations of the Holy Office furnished an excuse for preventing any risk that these sacred packages should be examined. All bearers of letters, therefore, even when they had loaded mules, were furnished with passes forbidding under excommunication and fine any unpacking or investigation of what they carried. The facilities thus offered for contraband trade are obvious, and their value can only be appreciated through a knowledge of the elaborate system of import and export duties and prohibitions of import and export which characterize the policy of the period. Posts were fruitless, for when the Council of Hacienda issued letters against certain familiars in the Canaries, detected in importing prohibited goods, Philip II, February 11, 1593, ordered the letters to be recalled and that no more should be issued. There were few things concerning which there was more jealousy than the transfer of grain from one Spanish kingdom to another, and when it was permitted there were duties, either import or export, or perhaps both. Deficient harvests in one province or another were not infrequent, and the tribunals were constantly seeking special relief by obtaining permits to violate the laws, or by violating the laws without permits. Many instances of this could be cited, but it will suffice to recount the experience of the Valencia Tribunal in endeavoring to obtain wheat from Aragon. For this it had special facilities, for the Aragonese districts of Taru el and Albaracin were subject to it, but on the other hand, Aragon was especially firm in prohibiting the exportation of wheat. In 1522, the tribunal undertook to bring some wheat from Aragon, and threatened the frontier officials with excommunication if they should interfere. In spite of this, they detained it when the Inquisitor published the censures and imprisoned a guard whom he caught, whereupon the Aragonese Diputados remonstrated, saying that if the emperor or pope wanted wheat from Aragon, he applied for a license, and begging the Inquisitor to keep within his jurisdiction and release the guard. Then, an accommodation was reached, and the tribunal was permitted to bring in thirty cajises, about one hundred bushels, on condition of removing any excommunication that might exist. But it repudiated its side of the agreement, and summoned the officials to appear and receive penance. This exhausted the patience of the Diputados. They ordered the wheat to be stopped, or, if it had gone forward, to be followed and captured with the mules bearing it. The Inquisitor might do what he pleased, but they would employ all the forces of the kingdom and enforce respect for the laws. The position in which the Inquisitor had placed himself was so untenable that the Inquisitor general issued an order forbidding tribunals to take anything out of Aragon in violation of the prohibitions. The effect of this rebuff was evanescent. The tribunal persisted, and by false pretenses established a claim which, in 1591, the Suprema warned it to use with moderation as the Council of Aragon was making complaint. As usual, no attention was paid to this, and, in 1597, Philip II was compelled to interfere because the tribunal was issuing to excess letters authorizing the export of wheat from Teruel, an abuse which was doubtless abundantly profitable. If this brought any amendment it was transient. On June 16, 1606, the Diputados represented to the tribunal that they were bound by their oaths of office under pain of excommunication, to enforce the laws prohibiting the export of wheat. That, in spite of these laws, large quantities were carried to Valencia, to the destruction and total ruin of the land, by individuals armed with licenses issued by the tribunal. Therefore, they prayed that no more licenses should be issued. No attention was paid to this, and on January 8, 1607, they wrote again, stating that the abuse was increasing and that they must appeal to the King and the Suprema for its suppression. This brought an answer to the effect that the tribunal was more moderate than it had previously been, and would continue to be so as it would find convenient, without prejudice to the rights conceded to it by the royal sedulis, and, as it was occupied in the service of God, it could reasonably exercise those rights. The asserted rights under which it had so long nullified the laws of Aragon were a conscious fraud, for, when it had complained to the Suprema of the interference of the Diputados, with its immemorial privilege and enclosed the royal sedulis conferring it, the Suprema pointed out that this referred only to Castile and not to Aragon. The complaints of the Diputados had been listened to, and all that could be done was to invoke the good offices of the Saragossa Tribunal to obtain permission to get 1,500 bushels per annum. The Saragossa Inquisitors willingly lent their aid, but in vain. They wrote, June 6, 1608, that they had brought to bear all their influence on the Diputados, who declared that the Fuero prohibiting the export of grain was too strict for them to violate it. A correspondence ensued with the Suprema, which ordered the tribunal, February 8, 1610, to abstain, as previously ordered. But if, in a year, there should be special necessity, it might report the quantity required when instructions would be given. This imposed silence on it until 1618, when another attempt was made to overcome the obstinacy of the Diputados. It had abstained, the tribunal said, for some years from issuing licenses. In consequence of the great abuses and excesses of those to whom they were granted. But now the sterility of the land causes great inconveniences, and it asks that the fruits of its pre-bends in Aragon and its rents be invested in wheat allowed to be exported. The Diputados, however, wisely refused to open the door. The law to which they had sworn imposed heavy penalties for its infraction, and they were compelled to refuse. This was probably effectual, as far as concerned Aragon, for we happened to find the tribunal in 1631, obtaining from the king license to import 250 bushels from Castile. This narrative is instructive in more ways than one. The pretense of necessity in the service of God was as fraudulent as the claims put forward. The whole business was purely speculative, and the licenses were doubtless sold to the highest bidder through all these years. The Valencian tribunal was at no time in need of wheat from Aragon or Castile, for it had ample privileges at home for all its wants, and it was working these local privileges for a profit to someone. Among other public-spirited acts of Jimenez was the founding, in 1512, of an Alhondiga, or public granary, in Toledo, so that, as we are told in 1569, in times of scarcity, the citizens could procure supplies at moderate prices. It was probably owing to this that other cities, including Valencia, formed establishments of the kind, monopolizing the traffic and wheat, to which the citizens resorted day by day for their provision. When a loss occurred in the business, from a surplus over the demand, or from spoiling of the grain, it was assessed upon the citizens, under the name of Pan Esegrado. But in 1530, the magistrates relieved the officials of the tribunal from sharing this burden, and the exemption was enumerated, in 1707, as still among its privileges. Another privilege, which it shared with the Viceroy and the Archbishop, was that the baker who served it was the second one allowed every morning to enter the granary, and select a sack of wheat of five-and-a-half bushels, and every week, three-and-a-half bushels of trigo candela, without payment, save a small tax known as murs evals, evidently for the maintenance of the city defenses. This he baked, and distributed the bread among the officials and to the prison, in allotted portions, and what was over he sold, showing that the tribunal not only got its wheat gratuitously, but more than it needed to somebody's profit. The amount must have been considerable, for the bakers complained of the unfair competition of the favored baker, and, in 1609, the city endeavored to put an end to the abuse, but without success. The matter slumbered until 1627, when the city obtained a royal sedula, abolishing the privilege of taking the wheat. But obedience to this was refused, because it had been issued without preliminary notice to the other side, and without a junta or conference between the Supremah and the Council of Aragón. Then the city ordered the baker no longer to go to the granary for wheat, and the aggrieved Supremah complained loudly to the king, urging him to consider the services to God and the tonsure of the inquisitors, and not to allow these holy labors to be interrupted by the necessity of going personally to the granary. To this, Philip replied by ordering the Fueros to be observed, which was virtually a confirmation of his sedula. But this seems to have been similarly disregarded, for, in 1628, we find the city again endeavouring to put an end to the collateral abuse of the sale of the surplus bread, and the tribunal busily engaged in gathering testimony to prove that this had publicly been the custom from time immemorial. In proving this, however, it also proved unconsciously how fraudulent had been the claim that it had been in need of wheat from Aragón. This commercial development of the inquisition led it to utilize its exemption from taxation and oak-droid duties, opening shops for the necessaries of life, causing violent quarrels with the cities whose revenues were impaired and whose laws were ostentatiously disregarded. Among a number of cases of this in the records, a series of occurrences in Saragossa will illustrate this phase of the activity of the Holy Office. A large part of the local revenues of the city was derived from a monopoly of wine, meal, and provisions, and no citizen was allowed to bring these articles within the gates. The Alhaferria occupied by the tribunal was situated a few hundred feet beyond the walls. The inquisitors assumed that they were not bound by the municipal regulations. They introduced what they pleased into the town, and the authorities complained that they maintained in the Alhaferria a public meat market, a tavern, and a shop where citizens could purchase freely to the infinite damage of the public revenues. The Cortes of 1626 demanded that affairs should be reduced to what they had been prior to the troubles of 1591, when the Alhaferria was garrisoned with soldiers, giving rise to profitable trade. But the Suprema prevented the royal confirmation of the Acts of the Cortes, and the matter was left open. This led to troubles, which came to a head, September 21st, 1626, when a load of wine for the tribunal on entering the city was seized under the law by the guard and taken to the house of one of the Juardovs, or town councilors. At once the inquisitors issued letters demanding its release under pain of excommunication and a thousand ducats. The Juardovs lost no time in forming the competencia, which, in accordance with the existing Concordia, was the method provided for deciding such contests. But the inquisitors refused to join in it, asserting that there could be no competencia as it was a matter of faith and impeding the inquisition in its exercise of its functions. They arrested and imprisoned one of the guards, notwithstanding that he had letters of Manifestacion from the Court of the Justicia of Aragon, a species of habeas corpus of the highest privilege in Aragon, which was traditionally venerated as the Palladium of Popular Liberty. And the next day they seized three more who were likewise Manifestados. The incensed magistrates applied to the Justicia and to the Diputados to release by force the prisoners from the Alharferia, and there was prospect of serious disorder. The governor of Aragon, however, succeeded in getting himself accepted as umpire by both sides, and temporarily quieted them by the compromise that the wagon, mules, and wine should be delivered to him, that the prisoners should be surrendered through him to the city, and that the commonatory letters should be withdrawn, all this being without prejudice to either party. He wrote earnestly to the king, pointing out the imminent danger of an outbreak, and the necessity of a decision that should avert such perils for the future. If the assumption that such questions were matters of faith were admitted, the inquisitors could refuse all competencias, which would annul the Concordia and destroy the royal jurisdiction. The city also addressed him, saying that the inquisitors had refused to abstain from further action pending his decision, and if these pretensions were admitted, they would be unable to pay him the Servicio which had been granted. This resulted in a compromise, agreed upon between the Suprema and the Council of Aragon, under which the city obligated itself to supply the tribunal with meat, wine, and ice. It was impossible, however, to compel the inquisition to observe compacts. Fresh complaints arose, the nature of which is indicated by a decree of Philip IV, June 17, 1630, requiring the Suprema to order the inquisitors to keep to the agreement, and not to sell any portion of the provisions furnished, and further to stop the trade carried on in some little houses in the Alhaferia, where the municipal supervisors could not inspect them. This resulted in a fresh agreement of December 7, 1631, under which the city bought, for 3,000 crowns, the Casa de Penitencia, or Prison for Penitents, and engaged to maintain in it shops for the sale of meat and ice, to the inhabitants of the Alhaferia at the prices current in the town. Probably this quieted the matter, but before long the irrepressible inquisitors started another disturbance. The saltworks of Ramolinos and El Castillon belonged to the royal patrimony, and were framed out under condition that no other salt should be sold or used in Saragossa, and some other places under heavy fines. To enforce this, there were commissioners empowered to investigate all suspected places, even churches not being exempt. In 1640 a party in the city was found to be selling salt, and confessed that he had obtained it from the gardener of the Alhaferia. The commissioner, Baltasar Peralta, went there with a scrivener and in the gardener's cottage they found two sacks, one empty, the other nearly full of salt, with a half-peck measure. They announced the penalty to the gardener's wife, and proceeded to enforce it in the customary manner by seizing pledges, in the present case, three horses. The inquisitor, who had doubtless been sent for, came as they were leading the horses away, forced the surrender of the horses and salt, and told them that they should deem themselves lucky if they were not thrown in prison. Thereupon, the royal advocate Fiscal of Aragon, Adrián de Sada, reported the case to the king, adding that it was learned that the coachman of one of the inquisitors was selling salt from the saltworks of Sobradiel. He pointed out that, if the servants of the inquisition could sell salt freely, and the royal officials be deterred by threats from investigation, the revenue would be seriously impaired, for no one would venture to farm the saltworks, and he asked for instructions before resorting to proceedings which might disturb the public peace, as it happened on previous occasions. The matter was referred to the Council of Aragon, which advised the king to issue imperative commands that the inquisitors should not obstruct the detection and punishment of frauds for their cognizance in no way pertained to the Holy Office. The Saragossa Tribunal had a still more prolonged and bitter dispute with the city over the Bake Oven of the Alhaferria. This belonged to the Crown and, at some time prior to 1630, Philip IV made it over to the Tribunal which was pleading poverty. Its use of the privilege soon brought it into conflict with the city, but a complicated arrangement respecting it was included in the agreement of December 7, 1631, requiring the baker to purchase at least 70 bushels of wheat per month from the public granary, with certain restrictions as to the places once he could procure further supplies. In 1649 we chanced to learn that the oven was farmed out for 16,000 reales per annum, and, in 1663, a lively conflict arose because the Tribunal had granted a lease which was not subject to the restrictions of 1631. And again, in 1690 the trouble broke out afresh, each side accusing the other of violating the agreement. All the authorities, from the King and Viceroy Down, were invoked to settle it. There were fears of violence, but, May 1, 1691, the Tribunal reported to the Supremah that a compromise had been reached on satisfactory terms. The independent spirit of Aragón caused it to suffer less from the mercantile enterprises of the Inquisition than the more submissive temper of Castile. In 1623 there was a flagrant case in Toledo arising from a butcher shop established by the Tribunal in violation of the municipal laws. Its violent methods triumphed, and Don Luis de Paredes, an alcalde de Corte, sent thither to settle the matter, was disgraced for attempting to restrain it. This called forth an energetic protest from the Council of Castile, which boldly told the King that he should not shut his eyes to the fact that the Inquisitors were extending their privileges to matters beyond their competence, with such prejudice to the public wheel that they were making themselves superior to the laws, to the government, and to the royal power, trampling on the judges, seizing the original documents, forcing them to revoke their righteous acts, arresting their officials, and treating them as heretics because they discharged their duty. In procuring provisions, whether for consumption or sale, besides the freedom from local imposts, the Inquisition had the further advantage of employing coercive methods on unwilling vendors and of disregarding local regulations and prohibitions. As early as 1533, the Aragonese at the Cortes of Monson took the alarm and petitioned that the statutes of the towns, when short of breadstuffs and provisions, should be binding on officials of the Inquisition, to which the Emperor's reply was the equivocating one, customary when evading confirmation. The significance of this is manifested by a Cartagordada of 1540, authorizing the tribunals to get wheat in the villages for their officials and prisoners, and, if the local magistrates interfere, to coerce them with excommunication. The inquisitorial zeal in using this permission sometimes overstepped the bounds, and, in this same year, the Supremah had occasion to rebuke a tribunal, which had issued orders to furnish it with wheat under pain of a hundred lashes, for it was told that, in rendering such extrajudicial sentences, it was exceeding its jurisdiction. How bravely the Supremah itself overcame all such scruples was manifest when laws of maximum prices and the heavy discount on the legal tender spurious vell and coinage rendered holders of goods unwilling to part with them at the legal rates. It issued, February 14th, 1626, to its alcalde Pedro de Salazar, an order to go to any places in the vicinage and embargo sheep and whatever else he deemed necessary, sufficient for the maintenance of the households of the inquisitor general and of the members and officials, paying therefore at the rates fixed by law, to effect which he was empowered to call for aid on all royal justices, who were required to furnish all necessary aid under penalty of major excommunication and five hundred dukats. So again, on April 11th, 1630, Salazar was ordered to go anywhere in the kingdom and seize six bushels of wheat in baked bread for some households, paying for it at the established price, and all officials, secular, ecclesiastical and inquisitorial, were required to assist him under the same penalties. This was an organized raid on all the bakeries of Madrid, and Salazar was more scrupulous than the average official of the time, if he did not turn an honest penny by taking bread on his own account at the legal rate and selling it at the current one. The tribunal of Valencia enjoyed another privilege in the important matter of salt, the royal monopoly of which rendered it so costly to the ordinary customer. Every year, the tribunal issued an order to the farmers of the saltworks, commanding them under pain of excommunication and fifty dukats, to deliver to the receiver of confiscations twelve cajices, or about forty-two bushels, of refined salt, at the price of Atreales the Cajis, and the custom house officials were summoned under the same penalties to let it pass without detention or trouble for the service of God. The salt was duly apportioned among the officials at this trivial price, each inquisitor getting four bushels, down to the messengers who received two-thirds of a bushel, and even jupilado officials had their portion. When, or how this originated is unknown. In 1644, it seems established as of old date, and it continued until 1710 when the new dynasty brought it to a sudden conclusion. The house of Hacienda reported it to the king, as though it were a novelty just discovered, pointing out that the Atreales were less than the cost of transport from the works to the magazines, that the manufacture was a monopoly of the regalias, and the price charged was in no respect a tax or impost, but was regulated by the necessities of the national defense. That no other tribunal in Spain, secular or ecclesiastic, made such a demand, while the publication of censures against royal officials was dangerous in those calamitous times. This aroused Philip, who ordered a prompt remedy. The Suprema no longer ventured an opposition or remonstrance, but wrote immediately to Valencia, expressing its surprise. The demand must be withdrawn at once. If any censures had been published, they must be revoked, and no such demonstration should have been made without previous consultation. It would be superfluous to adduce further examples of the manner in which the tribunals abused their power for unlawful gains and benefits, and we can readily conceive the exasperation thus excited, even among those most zealous in the extermination of heresy. 3. Few of the privileges claimed by the inquisition gave rise to more bickering and contention than its demand that all connected with it should be exempt from all the billeting of troops and the furnishing of bagages or beasts of burden for transportation. The subject is one of minor importance, but it furnishes so typical an illustration of inquisitorial methods that it is worthy of examination somewhat in detail. Under the old monarchy, the yantor, or doigite, or right to free quarters, was an insufferable burden. Almost every courtes of Leon and Castile from the 12th century complained of it energetically, for it was exercised not only by the royal court in its incessant peregrinations, but by nobles and others who could enforce it, and it was accompanied by spoilation of every kind, while the impressment of beasts of burden was in associated abuse, and even the lands of the church were not exempt. The more independent Argonis were unwilling to submit to it, and a fuero of the Cortes of Alcanis in 1436 provided that the courtiers and followers of the king should pay all Christians in whose houses they lodged. When the inquisition was founded, and was to a great extent peripatetic, the officials apparently claimed free quarters, for a clause in the instructions of 1498 provides that where a tribunal was set up, they should pay for their accommodations, and provide their own beds and necessaries. When traveling, a decree of Ferdinand, October 21st 1500, repeated in 1507, 1516, 1518, 1532, and 1561, provided that they should have gratuitous lodging and beds with food at moderate prices. The frequent repetition of this indicates that it aroused opposition, and, in 1601, when the inquisitor of Valencia was ordered to go at once on a visitation of Tortosa, he was told not to oppress the city by demanding free quarters, but to lodge decently in a monastery or in the house of some official. Furnishing free quarters, however, was different from enjoying them. The old abuses gradually disappeared with the settled habitations for kings and tribunals, but the changes in military organization, with standing armies, gave rise to others which, if more occasional, were also more oppressive, the billeting of troops. When Louis XIV resorted to the Dragonades, the quartering of dragoons on Huguenot families, as an effective coercion to conversion, it shows how severe was the inflection. The rebellion of Catalonia in 1640 had for its proximate cause the outrages committed by troops quartered for the winter in places insufficient for their support, culminating in their burning the churches of Rieu de Arenas and Montreux. The massacre in Saragossa, December 28, 1705, of the French troops in the service of Philip V had the same origin. As the pay of Spanish armies was habitually in El Reyes and the Commissarot system imperfect, it can be realized how valuable was the privilege of exemption from entertaining these uninvited guests and providing them with transportation when they departed. In the war with Portugal in 1666, Galicia suffered so seriously that we are told a company of Calvary was worth to its captain 2,000 dukats in ransoms from outrage. That the Inquisition should claim such exemption was to be expected, for it was one of the privileges of Hidalgos. But the earliest allusion to it that I have met occurs in 1548, when Inquisitor General Valdez ordered that no billets must be given on houses occupied by Inquisitors or Officials, even though not their own or during their absence, for their clothes were in them. What authority he had to issue such a command it might be difficult to say, but it indicates that the exemption was an innovation, and as it refers only to salaried officials, it infers that the numerous unsalaried ones were not entitled to the privilege, which is further proved by the fact that in the Castilian Concordia of 1553, regulating the exemptions of familiars, there is no allusion to billeting. The action of Valdez, however, settled the matter as far as the salaried officials were concerned, and even the Argonese Cortes of 1646, which greatly limited the claims of the Inquisition, admitted that they had the same privileges as Hidalgos. The determination with which this was enforced is seen in a case in 1695, when Inquisitor Sons Imonios of Barcelona threatened with excommunication and a fine of 200 libras, the town councilors of Malno, if they should assign quarters in a country house, belonging to the portero of the Inquisition, although it was occupied by a peasant who worked on the land. The councilors appealed for protection to the Audiencia, or Royal Court, which invited the Inquisitor to settle the matter amicably in the prescribed form of the Compensia. But he treated the overture with such contempt that he promptly issued a second mandate under the same penalties and summoned the councilors to appear before him as having incurred them. The Audiencia made another attempt at pacification, to which he replied that he proposed at once to declare the councilors as publicly excommunicated. The Diputados of Catalonia, thereupon protested vigorously to the king that, while all the rest of the people were patriotically united in aiding the war, and the gentry had voluntarily foregone their privilege of exemption, the officials and familiars of the Inquisition were exciting tumults and riots in their efforts to extend exemptions to those who had no claim. The chief trouble arose with the unsalaried officials, especially the multitudinous familiars who had no claim to exemption. The Barcelona Tribunal seems to have started it, for one of the complaints made to De Soto Salazar on his visitation of 1567 was that the Inquisitors forbade the quartering of soldiers in the houses of familiars. In his report, he suggested that it should be done when necessary, and the Aragonese Concordia of 1568 followed this idea by prohibiting Inquisitors to support familiars in refusing to receive men assigned to them when there were no other houses to receive them. There was virtually no recognized exemption, but a steady effort to establish one, while the familiars complained that the hatred felt for them led to their being oppressed with billets when others went free. To remedy this, Philip II, in a Sedgula of February 21, 1576, ordered that no discrimination should be made against them, but that they should be placed on inequality with justiceas and reguidores who were not called upon to furnish quarters until all other houses were occupied. Lengths continued, and he advanced a step, February 22, 1579, by decreeing that for three years the towns of upwards of 500 hearths familiars should be exempt from billeting and furnishing transportation. In smaller towns, one half should be exempted, and where there was but one, he should be exempt. This was renewed frequently for three years at a time, and as frequently was overlooked. But this made little difference, for we are told by an experienced inquisitor that it was always assumed to be in force, and when a familiar complained of a billet, the tribunal would issue a mandate, ordering his relief within three hours under a penalty of 100,000 marbeides. If the exemption was in force, a copy of the Sedgula was included in the mandate. If it was not, it still was quoted as existing in the archives of the tribunal. There were few questions which gave rise to more embroilment than this. Both sides were unscrupulous. The privilege excited ill will. It was evaded by the authorities wherever possible, and the tribunals were kept busy in defending their familiars with customary violence. At length, in 1634, the necessities of the state were pleaded by Philip IV as his reason for withdrawing all exemptions, a measure which he was obliged to repeat more than once. It is somewhat remarkable, therefore, that when the Cortes of Aragon, in 1646, succeeded in greatly abridging the privileges of familiars, they were included with the salaried officials in the exemption from billets. This did not avail them much, for we are told that, in the changes affected by the Cortes, the terror felt for the Inquisition was so greatly diminished that there was scant ceremony in imposing on its officials, that the familiars were singled out to have two or three soldiers quartered on them, and when they complained, the tribunal ventured no more than to instruct its commissioner to use persuasion. Catalonia was not so fortunate, and strife continued with its usual bitterness. As a frontier province, in wartime it was occupied with troops, and there were abundant opportunities for friction. In 1695, the Deputados complained that, as the only mode of escaping billets was to become a familiar, many had themselves appointed, although there was already an innumerable multitude, and that even when the local magistrates were compelled to receive soldiers, the familiars refused, in contempt of the royal orders. The war of succession brought fresh necessities, and the change of dynasty was unfavorable to the Inquisition, in this as in so much else. A royal decree of February 11th, 1706, abolished all exemptions, but, as a favor to the Inquisition, four of its officials were accepted in towns and 20 in cities that were seats of tribunals. The Suprema accepted this cheerfully, but when a decree of January 19th, 1712, revoked all exemptions, it remonstrated, and was told that, while the king recognized the claims of the Inquisition to all the privileges granted by his predecessors, the existing urgency required the withdrawal of all exemptions, and, as the law was absolute, he could make no exceptions. Although this covered the salaried officials, it seems to have been the familiars who complained the loudest, possibly now that the tribunals could no longer protect them, they were exposed to special discrimination. It was a question of money, however, rather than of hardship, for a system of composition had been developed under which, by Peine Quartel, or Utensilio, an assessment proportioned to the wealth of the individual, the billet was escaped. When the urgency of immediate peril was passed, these decrees were either withdrawn or became obsolete. The claim of exemption revived, and with it, the active efforts of the tribunals to protect those whose exemptions were disregarded, and to punish the officials who disregarded them. In 1728, Philip V made a well-intentioned attempt to relieve the oppression of the poor arising from the numerous classes of officials who claimed exemption from the common burdens, including the billeting of troops. As for the familiars, he says, who all claim exemptions and give rise to disturbances, attacks on the local magistrates with excommunications and other penalties and perpetual competencies, all this must cease. Yet he admits their exemption, and only insists that it must be confirmed to the number allowed by the Concordia of 1553. That limitation had never been observed, and the inquisitors had appointed large numbers in excess of it, in spite of perpetual remonstrance. And Philip now ordered that tribunals should not issue certificates to more than the legal number, and should not take proceedings against the local magistrates. As usual, the royal orders were disregarded. The tribunal of Valencia threatened with excommunication and fine the magistrates of Hativa and San Mateo, to the instance of some familiars on whom soldiers had been quartered. And on learning this, Philip addressed the Suprema in 1729, stating that the records showed that familiars were entitled to no exemption. Even if they were, the tribunal had exceeded its powers in employing obstreperous methods in defiance of the royal decrees. There must be no competencia, the Valencia tribunal must be notified not to exceed its jurisdiction, and the Suprema itself must observe the royal orders. After the delay of a month, the Suprema forwarded the royal letter to the Valencia, sullenly telling the tribunal to report what could be done, and not to act further without orders. For two centuries, the inquisition had been accustomed to obey or to disregard the royal decrees at its pleasure and to tyrannize over the local authorities. The habit was not easily broken, and it was hard to conform itself to the new order of things. A formulary of about 1740 contains a letter to be sent to magistrates granting billets on familiars, couched in the old, arrogant, and preemptory terms, and threatening excommunication and a fine of 200 dukats. Familiars, it says, are not to furnish quarters and beasts of burden, except in extreme urgency, when no exemptions are permitted. And this assumes to be in accordance with the royal decrees, including the latest one of November 3, 1737. I can find no trace of a decree of 1737, and we may assume that it was this obstinacy of the inquisition that induced Philip, in 1743, to reissue his decree of 1728, with an expression of regret at its inobservance and the disastrous results which had ensued. He added that, when the houses of the non-exempt were insufficient for quartering troops, they could be billeted on Hidalgos and nobles. The inquisition still adhered to its claims, but Carlos III taught it to abandon its combinatorie style. When, in 1781, the authorities of Castellón de la Plana billeted troops on familiars, the Valencia Tribunal adopted the more judicious method of persuading the Captain General that they were to be classed with Hidalgos, and he issued orders to that effect. This did not please Carlos III, who brushed aside the claim to exemption by a preemptory order that all familiars of Castellón de la Plana should subject themselves to the local government in the matters of billets, and that there should be no charge until he should issue further commands. This would seem, in principle, to abrogate all claims of exemption, but Spanish tenacity still held fast to what it had claimed, and, in 1800, when José Poris, a familiar of Alcira, complained that the governor had quartered on him an officer of the Regiment of Sagunto, the Valencia Tribunal took measures for his relief. The times were adverse to privilege, however, and in 1805 the Captain General of Catalonia sent a circular to all the towns stating that familiars were not exempt. The magistrates accordingly compelled them to furnish quarters and beasts of burden, and, when the Tribunal complained to the Captain General and adduced proofs in support of its claims, he responded with the decrees of 1729 and 1743, which he assumed to have abrogated the exemption, and he continued to coerce the familiars. The same process was going on in Valencia, and, when that Tribunal applied to Barcelona for information, and learned the result, it ordered its familiars to submit under protest. Then followed a royal cedula of August 20, 1807, limiting strictly what exemptions were still allowed, the Napoleonic invasion supervened, and under the restoration I have met with no trace of their survival. Another privilege, which occasioned endless debate and contention, was the right of officials and familiars to bear arms, especially prohibited ones. This was a subject which, during the Middle Ages, had taxed to the utmost the civilizing efforts of legislators, while the power assumed by inquisitors to issue licenses to carry arms, in contravention of municipal statutes, was the source of no little trouble, especially in Italian cities. The necessity of restriction, for the sake of public peace, was peculiarly felt in Spain, where the popular temper and the sensitiveness as to the pundinor were especially provocative of deadly strife. It would be impossible to enumerate the endless series of decrees which succeeded each other with confusing rapidity, and the repetition of which, in every variety of form, shows conclusively how little they were regarded and how little they affected. Particular energy was directed against armas alebosas, treacherous weapons, which could be concealed about the person. In the Catalan Cortes of 1585, Philip II denounced hacke buses, fire locks, and more especially the small ones known as pistols, as unworthy the name of arms, as treacherous weapons, useless in war, and provocative of murder, which had caused great damage in Catalonia and had been prohibited in his other kingdoms. They were therefore forbidden, not only to be carried, but even to be possessed at home and in secret, and against this no privilege should avail, whether of the military class, or official, or familiar of the Inquisition, or by license of the King or Captain General, under penalty for those of gentle blood of two years exile, for plebeians of two years galley service, and for Frenchmen or Gascons of death, without power of commutation by any authority. Three palms, or 27 inches of barrel, was the minimum length allowed for firearms in Catalonia, and four palms in Castile. Philip IV, in 1663, even prohibited the manufacture of pistols, and deprived of exemptions and fuero those who carried them. While as for poignards and daggers, Philip V, in 1721, threatened those who bore them, with six years of presidio for nobles, and six years of galleys for commoners. These specimens of multitudinous legislation, directed against arms of all kinds, enable us to appreciate how highly prized was the privilege of carrying them. In an age of violence, it was indispensable for defense, and was equally desired as affording opportunities for offense. That the Inquisition should claim it for those in its service was inevitable, and it had the excuse, at least during the earlier periods, that there was danger in the arrest and transportation of prisoners, and in the enmities which it provoked, although this latter danger was much less than it habitually claimed. The old rules, moreover, were well known, under which no local laws were allowed to interfere with such privilege, and the Inquisition had scarce been established in Valencia, when the question arose through the refusal of the local authorities to allow its ministers to carry arms. Ferdinand promptly decided the matter in its favor by an order, March 22, 1486, that licenses should be issued to all whom the Inquisitors might name, for the time had not yet come in which the Inquisitors themselves issued licenses. Probably, complaints arose as to the abuse of the privilege for the instructions of 1498, which were principally measures of reform, provided that, in cities where bearing arms was forbidden, no official should carry them, except when accompanying an Inquisitor or Al-Guazil. As indicated by this, policy on the subject was unsettled, and it so remained for a while. November 14, 1509, Ferdinand ordered that the ministers of the Sicilian Inquisition should not be deprived of their arms. June 2, 1510, he thanked the Valencia Tribunal for providing that its officials should go unarmed. For, by the grace of God, there is no one now who impedes or resists the Inquisition, and, if there were, the royal officials or he in person will provide for it. Then, in about three months, on October 28, he wrote to the Governor of Valencia that the salaried officials of the Tribunal, with their servants and forty familiars, should enjoy all the prerogatives of the Holy Office, and were not to be deprived of their arms. We see in all this the traces of general popular opposition to exempting Inquisitorial officials from the laws forbidding armsbearing. This was stimulated by the difficulty of preventing the exemptions from being claimed by unauthorized persons without limit, leading Catalonia, in the Concordia of 1512, to provide that officials bearing arms could be disarmed, like other citizens, unless they could show a certificate from the Tribunal, and further that the number of familiars for the whole principality should be reduced to thirty, except in cases of necessity. Although this Concordia was not observed, Inquisitor General Mercedes, in his instructions of August 28, 1514, admitted the necessity of such regulations by prohibiting the issue of licenses to bear arms, by reducing the overgrown number of familiars to twenty-five in Barcelona, and ten each in Péter Pignan and other towns, by permitting the disarmament of those who could not exhibit certificates, and by endeavoring to check the fraud of lending these certificates, by requiring them to swear not to do so, and keeping lists whereby they could be identified. The right of arming its familiars, thus assumed by the Inquisition, was by no means uncontested. We have seen how the Empress Isabella, when in Valencia in 1524, ordered the arms taken from them and broken, leading to a protest from Inquisitor Gerald Manrique, who asserted this to be a privilege enjoyed since the introduction of the Inquisition. In spite of this, Charles V, by a cedula of August 2nd, 1539, ordered Inquisitors to prohibit the use of arms by familiars. The matter remained a subject of contest for some years more. In 1553, there were quarrels concerning it between the Valencia Tribunal and the local authorities, but the Concordia of 1554 admitted the right unreservedly. By this time, in fact, it was generally recognized, but this, in place of removing a cause of discord, only intensified and multiplied it. The right to bear arms could scarce be held to include weapons which were prohibited to all by general regulations. Yet the authorities had no jurisdiction over familiars to enforce them. Thus, when Flintlock Harkabosses were prohibited and the visory of Valencia included familiars in a proclamation on the subject in 1562, Philip II called him to account, telling him that the order must come from the Inquisitors and, in 1575, he repeated this to the visory of Catalonia. The Suprema might decide that familiars were included in prohibitory decrees, and that Inquisitors must issue the necessary orders, as it did in 1596, with regard to one respecting daggers and, in 1598, to one forbidding firelocks and pistols at night. But the Tribunals had no police to enforce these orders, and, when the secular authorities undertook to do so, Inquisitors were prompt to resent it, in their customary fashion, as a violation of the immunities of the Holy Office. End of Book 2, Chapter 3, Part 3. Book 2, Chapter 3, 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 3, Privileges and Exemptions, Part 4. Even more fruitful of trouble was the fact that it was impossible to make the Inquisitors respect the limitations imposed by the Concordias on the number of familiars, and consequently, to obey the rule of furnishing lists of them to the authorities so that they might be known. Appointments were lavished greatly in excess of all possible needs, and without informing the magistrates, often, indeed, without keeping records in the archives. The familiar might or might not carry with him the evidence of his official character, but, whether he did so or not, his arrest or disarmament was violently resented, and the ordinary citizen, when caught offending, was apt to claim that he was a familiar in hopes of being released. How exasperating to the civil authorities was the situation may be gathered from a case occurring in Barcelona in 1568. The veguer, on his nightly rounds, arrested Franco Foix, whom he found armed with a coat of mail, sword, buckler, and dagger. The culprit claimed to be a familiar, and the veguer obediently handed him over to the tribunal. He proved not to be one, but instead of returning him, the inquisitors fined him in 44 Reales for their own benefit, presumably as a penalty for personating an official, and restored him his forfeited arms. When the laws were thus openly set at defiance, conditions were eminently favorable for quarrels, even without the violent and mutual animosity everywhere existing between the tribunals and the civil authorities. Collisions were correspondingly frequent, and were fought to the bitter end. It would be wearisome to multiply cases illustrating the various phases of these quarrels which occupied the attention of the king and his councils in their settlement. A single one will suffice to show the spirit in which they were conducted on both sides. In 1620, by order of the tribunal of Valencia, acting in its secular capacity and not in a matter of faith, the commissioner at Hattiva arrested a man and sent him to Valencia under the customary guard of relays of familiars. One of these, named Juan Lopez, armed with a prohibited flintlock, was conveying him, on February 23rd, when, at Cartaroja, about a leak from the city, some armed Alguaziles, in the service of Dr. Pedro Juan Rejuale, a judge on the criminal side of the Audiencia, arrested him, taking away his weapon and carrying him to Dr. Rejuale's house. Disregarding his documents, Rejuale told him that he could not be released without giving bail to present himself to the visory, and, as he was unable to furnish it, he was handed as a prisoner to the local magistrates. On learning the event, the inquisitors applied to the regent of the Audiencia, who ordered the release of Lopez, which was effected, and Rejuale visited the tribunal, admitted that he had been in error, and promised in future to observe all necessary respect. In spite of this, the inquisitors proceeded to try him for impeding the inquisition, ordered him to keep his house as a prison under pain of 300 Ducats, and threw into the secret prison, as though they were heretics, the four Alguaziles, who had made the arrest. When notice of this was served on Rejuale, he protested that the inquisitors were not his judges, and that he would appeal, whereupon the additional indignity was inflicted upon him of posting two guards in his house with orders to keep him in sight. This produced a crisis. The visory assembled in his palace, all three salas, or branches of the Audiencia, where the matter was fully discussed, and it was resolved to release Rejuale and hold the two guards as hostages for the imprisoned Alguaziles. At 2 a.m. Dr. Morla went with halberdeers, furnished by the visory, seized and handcuffed the guards, and brought Rejuale to his brother's judges. At the same time a scrivener of the court had been sent to the inquisitor Salazar, with a message from the visory to the effect that, as the offense had not been in a matter of faith, Rejuale was justiciable only by the king. If the inquisition held otherwise, a competencia could be formed. The Audiencia had decided that Rejuale and the Alguaziles must be released, and the guards be held until this was done. The scrivener also presented a petition of appeal to the pope, or to whomever was judged, and demanded apostolos, or letters to that effect. To this, Salazar replied in writing that the arrests had been made for matters incident to and dependent upon matters of faith, in which the inquisition had exclusive jurisdiction, and could admit no competencia. He could say no more as to the cause of the arrests without violating the secrecy of the inquisition, and incurring excommunication, and he begged the visory not to interfere in a matter concerning so greatly the service of God and the king. At 4 a.m., the scrivener returned with this reply, to where the visory and judges were waiting. At the magic word faith, however fraudulently employed, all opposition vanished. By 6 o'clock, Dr. Moorla had taken Rejuale back to his house, and had replaced the guards, and at the same time, the scrivener bore to the inquisitors a note from the visory, saying that, as they had certified that it was a matter of faith, the audiencia had restored everything to its previous condition, and he offered not only not to impede the inquisition, but to show it all aid and favor. The case was thus transferred to the court, where the Suprema on one side, and the Council of Aragon on the other, struggled for a favorable decision from Philip III. The former evidently felt the weakness of the claim that the faith was involved, but it argued that impeding the inquisition in any way conferred jurisdiction on it, and Aliaga, in his double capacity of inquisitor general and royal confessor, added a bitter complaint as to the manner in which the inquisition was abused and maltreated. To this, the king replied that he wished the affair treated with the customary moderation and mercy of the Holy Office, especially as it was not directly a matter of faith, and whatever sentence the Suprema resolved upon for Rejuale and the other inculpated parties must be submitted to him before publication. Besides, he ordered a junta of two members each of the Suprema and the Council of Aragon to be formed, and to devise a plan for the avoidance of future contention. This assumed Rejuale's guilt, and awarded the victory to the Suprema, but it was not satisfied, and presented a consulta representing the perilous condition of the Valencia Tribunal, which necessitated the punishment of the delinquents as a warning, but Philip merely repeated his former decision. What was Rejuale's fate we have no means of knowing, but his career was evidently blasted, whatever may have been the so-called mercy exhibited. As for the perilous position of the Tribunal insisted on by the Suprema, it seems to be set forth in a petition of the syndic of the College of Familiars, February 25, 1616, complaining of arrests and ill treatment, and asking the Tribunal to take evidence on the subject. It accordingly did so, but while the testimony was ample as to the existence of ill feeling towards the familiars, in substance it amounted only to their being deprived at night of daggers and bucklers which were prohibited weapons, and it does not appear that any action was taken in consequence. Complaints continued, and another petition of October 30, 1626, asked that an envoy be sent to the Suprema, for which the familiars would defray the cost. For unless some relief was had, they would resign in a body, as their position only exposed them to wrong and insult, and their privileges were set at naught. The difficulty of enforcing the laws on the people was intensified by the privileges claimed by the familiars. They were by no means peaceable folk, and the unprivileged class naturally regarded it as a hardship to be restricted to the use of swords when these gentry were so much more efficiently armed. The Suprema, as a rule, supported its satellites. For ten years, from 1574, it resisted, in Aragon, the enforcement on familiars of a royal decree against carrying prohibited weapons at night, although the Concordia of Aragon in 1568 provided that familiars should obey the laws respecting arms, and that inquisitors should not protect them in violations. Members of all royal councils were involved in the discussion, as though it were the wadiest affair of state, and it was not until 1584 that the Suprema was induced to issue the necessary orders, which it was obliged to repeat in 1592. Another illustration of its attitude occurs with respect to the pragmatica of great severity against the use of firearms, issued by Philip III, March 14, 1613, pronouncing the mere discharge of a weapon to be a capital offense, whether death ensued or not. It abrogated all privileges and exemptions, and conferred on the royal court's full jurisdiction in such cases, and all this was accepted and its observance enjoined by the Suprema. This met with such scant obedience that the Council of Aragon, in a consulta of July 31, 1632, called the king's attention to the evils existing from the exemption of familiars, and suggested that they should not be permitted to decline the jurisdiction of the courts for crimes committed with firearms. It was doubtless in consequence of opposition by the Suprema that it was not until September 30, 1633 that Philip IV, in a sedula addressed to the Viceroy of Valencia, ordered that, with the assent of the Councils of Aragon and of the Inquisition, the pragmatica of 1613 must be strictly observed by which all exemptions were disallowed, and all offenders were triable and punishable by the royal courts. The Inquisition must withdraw from all pending competencias, and the cases be carried to conclusion by the Audiencia. The Suprema must have consented unwillingly to this, for it labored with the wavering monarch, and, on November 8, he wrote, withdrawing the sedula, and ordering the suspension of all cases before the Audiencia. A few weeks later he yielded to other influences, and annulled the last letter, but added that his orders of September 30 must be executed impartially, for the Inquisition complained that it was enforced only against its officials, and in such cases he would give it a free hand again. December 27, the Suprema sent this to the Valencia Tribunal with formal instructions to obey it, but added a confidential letter saying that efforts would not be relaxed to persuade the king to remit all such cases back to them. Meanwhile an agreement had been obtained from the Council of Aragon that all sentences by the Audiencia should be referred to it before execution, and the Tribunal must watch them closely and send such reports as would enable the Suprema to obtain favorable action on them. For this endless strife, for the habitual disregard of the laws by familiars, the Suprema was primarily responsible. It was perfectly acquainted with the innumerable edicts specifying prohibited weapons and forbidding the caring of them after nightfall. It acquiesced, ostensibly at least, in the subjection of these offenses to the royal courts, and yet it encouraged familiars in the belief that it had power to override all laws and could confer license to violate them. The formula of commission, which it caused to be issued to familiars, contained a clause granting them full liberty to carry arms, offensive and defensive, publicly and secretly, by day or by night, and ordering all secular officials to abstain from interference with them in virtue of holy obedience and under penalty of excommunication and of 50,000 Marviades applicable to the expenses of the Holy Office. It could not be fuller or more explicit. There are no exceptions as to the character of arms or allusion to the jurisdiction in these cases granted by the king to the royal courts. When one branch of government thus resolutely placed itself in opposition to the sovereign and encouraged its subordinates to resist the laws and the constituted authorities, peace was impossible and conflicts were inevitable. Yet the illegality of all this was admitted when, in 1634, the familiars of Valencia held a meeting to assess themselves for a donation to be offered to the king in return for a privilege to bear arms, and the suprema instructed the tribunal to aid the movement, and again when, in 1638, a fruitless offer was made by them of 12,000 dukats for the revocation of legislation on the subject. To crown all this, the suprema, in 1657, reached the audacity of arguing that the right of familiars to bear arms was imprescriptable and could not be abrogated by any prince, for it would impede the inquisition in the free exercise of its functions. Wherefore, it denied that any competencia could be formed in such cases. The secular authorities had no jurisdiction, and there could not even be a discussion about their claim to interfere. Philip IV had the weakness to submit to these extravagant claims in 1658 and to decide that the suprema alone had cognizance in such matters. The case in which this occurred was that of Jaime Espejo, al-Qaeda of the penitential prison of Valencia, arrested for carrying pistols, and it has interest for us, because in it the inquisitor Don Antonio de Ayala Verganza argues away all the royal decrees and pragmaticas, as not meaning what they had said and proves it by citing a vast number of cases in which, when carried up to the king, he overruled his own legislation, invariably deciding in favor of the inquisition and against his own jurisdiction. He could sometimes be brought to issue wholesome general regulations, but when it came to their execution, the ever-present dread of interfering with the service of God overwhelmed him. Yet Philip promptly reversed himself, for, in a despairing effort to put an end to these interminable quarrels, he was induced to issue a royal letter, December 23, 1659, declaring that the cognizance of infractions of the laws respecting prohibited arms lay with the royal jurisdiction, and that no competencias should be formed in these cases. When this letter was alleged by the royal court, in the case then pending of Joseph Navarro, a familiar arrested for carrying a pistol, the inquisition in reply eerily cast aside the pragmatica of 1613, and its confirmation of 1633, by asserting that both before and after those laws it had always exercised jurisdiction over these cases, as was notorious to everyone, which was all doubtless true. As for the recent letter of 1659, it had not been issued with the assent of the Suprema, being thus irregularly issued, it should not be regarded as valid, until the king should be supplicated to modify it. And until this was done, the accused should be surrendered to it, or he could be released under bail to both jurisdictions. The facilitating monarch probably yielded again, whether he did so or not, mattered little to the Holy Office, which regarded his decrees so lightly. The miserable business of quarreling over the multiplication of the laws went on, and in 1691, Carlos II found it necessary again to prohibit the carrying of pistols and armas cortas, and to deprive offenders of their claims to jurisdiction, even if they were familiars or salaried officials of the inquisition. Several cases in the earlier years of Philip V seemed to indicate that this matter was an exception to the general limitation of the privileges of the Holy Office, and that there was a tendency to admit its claims. Their final extinction, however, was not far off. In 1748, Ferdinand VI prohibited all officials of tribunals, including the inquisition, from carrying cut and thrust weapons of any kind. Exclusive jurisdiction in the enforcement of this was reserved for the secular courts, and all claims to Fuero were abolished. He confirmed and extended this by proclamations of 1749, 1751, and 1754, with penalties of six years in the mines for commoners, and six years' service in Presidio for nobles. In another of 1757, he regretted the non-observance of these laws, and ordered their irremissible enforcement without privilege of Fuero. This legislation was supplemented by Carlos III in 1761, who included in the prohibition all firearms of less than four palms' length of barrel, although he conceded to gentlemen the use of holster pistols when on horseback, but not when on muleback. Yet the inquisition continued to issue the old form of commissions granting unlimited license, until the magistrates of Seville and Alcalá la Real refused to recognize them. When, in 1777, it admitted its altered position by a modification, which granted the right to carry non-prohibited weapons, but only when on duty for the Holy Office, and contented itself with exhorting the secular authorities not to interfere with this. In somewhat ludicrous contrast with the belligerent spirit, indicated by the earnest desire to carry arms, was the claim that all connected with the inquisition were exempt from military service. In its relations with the state, the Holy Office recognized no duties of citizenship, it only claimed privileges. That the salaried officials regularly employed in the tributals should enjoy such exemptions was merely in accordance with old custom, for a law of Juan II in 1432, specifically released from the obligation of service nearly all officials, including even physicians, surgeons, and school masters. That this should apply to the inquisition seems to have been assumed as a matter of course in its early days, but in 1560 the Corregidor of Córdoba summoned the officials and familiars to appear in the musters. They all claimed exemption when the inquisitor general upheld the appeal of the officials, but deny that of the familiars. Similar questions arose in Murcia in 1563 and 1575, in which a similar distinction was drawn. In Valencia, the familiars had probably been more successful, for an article in the Concordia of 1568 provides that they must serve their terms in guarding the coasts, and that inquisitors shall not defend them in seeking exemptions under pretext of their office. The same question arose in Mahorca, and was settled by a law providing that familiars refusing to perform guard duty on their appointed days could be compelled by the royal officials. Thus, by common consent at this time, salaried officials were exempted while the claims of familiars were rejected. In the troubles of the 17th century, when the very existence of Spain was threatened, the question as to officials as well as familiars came up again, and the Suprema sought to protect both classes. In 1636 and 1638 the Corregidores of various cities refused to accept the officials when making up the lists for conscription, but Philip IV decided that they were exempt. As the danger increased in 1640, with the rebellions of Catalonia and Portugal, and the resources of the kingdom were strained to their utmost, all claims were disregarded. By a cedula of September 7, 1641, Philip declared this to be a religious war, as the rebels were allied with nations infected with heresy. Inquisitor General Sotomayor was required to summon all officials and familiars to organize and serve, and was clothed with power to enforce it. No protest was made against this, for it was a financial rather than a military move. Arrangements were made to commute service for cash, and the Suprema was thus aided in meeting the royal demands for contributions. This was only a temporary truce. Philip, in a letter of February 22, 1644, to Inquisitor General Arzi Irinoso, reported that the attitude of the officials had excited much dissatisfaction in Galicia. He therefore ordered that no exemptions be admitted and no excuses be received. To this, the Suprema responded with bitter complaints that in Saragossa the lot had fallen on a messenger of the tribunal and the widow of a notary, who were told that they must furnish substitutes, all of which was in violation of the privileges of the Inquisition, crippling it in its pious labors so essential to the faith, and reducing it in popular esteem to a level with other institutions. Unstable as usual where the Holy Office was concerned, Philip abandoned his position, and admitted that salaried officials were not liable to serve or furnish substitutes, which the Suprema promptly conveyed to the tribunals, cautioning them not to employ excommunication in collisions with the royal officials until after obtaining its permission. Even in this hour of supreme need, the liability of familiars was contested. Philip endeavored to placate the Suprema by assigning them to Garrison duty, but it remonstrated, asserting that the Inquisition could not perform its functions if wholly deprived of them, and the cause of religion was higher than any other. It therefore asked that no place should be left without one. In small towns, there should be two, and in larger places, four. To this Philip assented, on condition that those exempted should contribute to those who served. But the Suprema demurred. Everyone could avoid service who could pay the assessment, so this would be giving the familiars no special privileges. There could be no question that favors shown to the Inquisition would contribute to success in the war. For experience had demonstrated that the more sovereigns had fostered it, the more fortunate they had been. However, just was the argument, it was fruitless. Philip adhered to his decision, but when the corresponding decrees were issued, the Council of Castile remonstrated in its turn, and the distracted monarch was involved in a fresh discussion between the two. The Suprema carried its point that those exempted should not contribute to those conscripted, and the arrangement remained in force. It was repeated in a Calta Accordada of January 14th, 1668, and when, in 1681, a question arose in Temebleque, the Suprema cautioned the Toledo Tribunal not to issue more letters of exemption than the settlement permitted, in order to avoid competencias, which only served to render the Holy Office hateful, and to imperil its other privileges. Carlos III seems to have been more liberal when, in 1767, he included, in an elaborate list of those exempt from military service, the ministers and dependents of the Inquisition who were relieved from billets under the decree of May 26th, 1728, which, it will be remembered, granted the privilege to the number of familiars allowed under the old Concordias. Carlos IV was more exacting, for, in 1800, when regulating the conscription in minute detail, he granted exemption only to the titular officials, and took special care to exclude familiars and other dependents. This continued to the end. September 14th, 1818, the Suprema communicated to the tribunals a decision of the king that, in order to secure exemption from conscription, it was not necessary to exhibit a royal commission, but one from the Inquisitor General or Suprema sufficed. Evidently, the local tribunals were no longer allowed to issue certificates of exemptions. End of Book II, Chapter III, Part IV


The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has called for effective partnership in the fight against drug abuse, particularly among youths in Nigeria. The Zona Commander of the Agency, in charge of Zonsi, Minnan, Niger State, Yaaya, Aliyu, are made a call in Eloni, the United States, during a meeting with principals of secondary schools in the state. While given an overview of the agency's effort in the ongoing fight against substance abuse, the Zona Commander said his agency is currently enlightening students and the general public on the dangers of drug abuse. The fight against drug abuse is a total war. I require support of all and some of you. There is the urgent need to save our teaming youth from the minance of drug abuse. We are all gathered here today to discuss about our children in school and come up with suggestions on the best we can do to eliminate or reduce to the barest minimum substance abuse among the students in secondary schools. The commander noted that the state's command of the NDLEA has trained about 21 persons who were previous victims of substance abuse and various skill accusations to keep them relevant when they are finally reintegrated into the society. Given them skills of position, I think it's the best thing that we should all focus our attention to. The agency says a drug free society is possible only if there is cooperation among the key stakeholders at all levels. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.