XIV. The Decline of the Inquisition

CHAPTER XIV

THE DECLINE OF THE INQUISITION

IN the middle of the seventeenth century, both in Spain and in Portugal, the Inquisition appeared to be at the height of its power. It was one of the wealthiest and most influential corporations in the land. The tribunals were housed in magnificent palaces, constructed with the wealth that a long series of confiscations had amassed. Ceremonious autos-da-fè were held at frequent intervals in all the principal cities of the Peninsula, vying with bull-fights in popularity, and frequently graced by the presence of royalty. For all that, it is obvious in retrospect that the first traces of decline were already to be discerned. If the autos had gained in pomp, they had lost ground as far as numbers were concerned. The importance of the Judaizers was appreciably diminished. In Spain, as we have seen, Moslems had also been subject to the Holy Office from 1525; and in the subsequent period an increasing number of Protestants and other heretics fell under its scope. The native Marrano tradition had by now almost entirely died out, so that the main attention for some time past had been devoted to immigrants from Portugal. Here, too, conditions had been altering. As in Spain, though to a minor degree, the exclusive preoccupation of the Holy Office with Judaizers had somewhat lessened in the course of time. The force of Marranism had been weakening partly owing to ignorance, partly to assimilation, and partly to the

protracted emigration which had drained the country of its ablest brains.

The restoration of the House of Braganza, in which the New Christians had participated to a notable extent, marked the beginning of the decline of the Inquisition, which had attained its greatest influence under Spanish rule. The new King, João IV, was reported (probably unfoundedly) to be willing to allow freedom of conscience in the country, and certainly attempted to modify the rigor of the Inquisitional procedure. He was forced to forego this owing to the impossibility of obtaining confirmation from Rome; but he was able for a short time to suspend the sequestration of the property of persons accused. Meanwhile, the Inquisition had continued its activity with apparently unabated zeal; and, as a matter of policy, the King and his family had attended a series of autos held at Lisbon, in 1642 and 1645. In 1652 the poet-statesman, Manuel Fernandez Villareal, was relaxed, notwithstanding the favor which he enjoyed at Court. On June 23, 1663, an auto with one hundred and forty-two penitents was held at Evora, in spite or perhaps because of the fact that Don John of Austria was occupying the city with a hostile Spanish force. From 1651 to 1673, in the three tribunals of the kingdom, no fewer than 184 persons were relaxed in person and 59 in effigy, while 4793 were penanced.

In 1663, Duarte da Silva, who had been reconciled eleven years earlier, brought forward from his refuge in London proposals for the amelioration of the position of the New Christians (including, it was reported, though with obvious exaggeration, the establishment of an open synagogue) in return for which he promised the govern-

ment considerable subsidies in men and ships. Dom Francisco de Mello, the eminent Portuguese statesman and man of letters (himself apparently of Marrano birth), threw the weight of his influence into the scales in favor of these concessions. They were viewed sympathetically by the Court; and the refugees, in London and elsewhere, were looking forward eagerly to hearing the good tidings of the release of their imprisoned kinsmen. Before long the rumor reached the ears of the Pope, who protested vigorously, and with complete success. On the death of João IV, in 1656, the Inquisition set about collecting the arrears of confiscations of which it had been deprived during the last half-dozen years. Within the next quarter of a century, the total reached twenty-five millions, of which not more than one-fiftieth found its way to the royal treasury. In 1671, a pyx with a consecrated host was stolen from the church of Orivellas in Lisbon. A great commotion was caused throughout the country. The Court put on mourning. An edict was actually signed banishing all New Christians (whose guilt was naturally assumed) from the country. Before this could be put into execution a common thief was arrested near Coimbra, with the stolen article in his possession. Fortunately, no Jewish blood was traceable in his veins; and, though he was burned, the New Christians were saved.

By this time, a ray of hope had burst through the clouds. An interregnum in the office of Grand Inquisitor from 1653 to 1672, though it did not bring about any decrease in the activity of the Tribunal, sensibly lessened its authority. Meanwhile, arms had been taken up on behalf of the New Christians by no less a person than Antonio Vieira, the distinguished Jesuit, who had earned

the name of the Apostle of Brazil. He had urged João IV to abolish confiscations and to remove the differences which still obtained between New and Old Christians. His freedom of opinion brought upon him the enmity of the Inquisition. After a three years’ imprisonment (1665–1667), his writings were condemned, and he was formally penanced. His experience of the horrors of the Holy Office increased his sympathy for the oppressed. He transferred himself to Rome, where, at the citadel of Christianity, he assailed the Portuguese Inquisition as an unholy tribunal, inspired more by greed than by piety, condemning the innocent as frequently as the guilty, and inimical to all the best interests of Christianity.

The Society of Jesus, resenting the treatment which one of the most distinguished of its members had received, espoused his cause. Heartened by the turn which events were taking, the New Christians appealed to the Crown for certain definite reforms, including the free pardon of those persons then under trial and the modification of the Inquisitional procedure by the adoption of the more humane forms customary in Rome. In return for these concessions, moderate though they appeared, they offered to pay annually 20,000 cruzados, to maintain 4,000 troops in India, and to send out each year 1200 reinforcements, with an additional 300 in time of war. The Inquisition protested strenuously against the consideration of this appeal. Nevertheless, it was supported by many of the greatest magnates of the kingdom, including the faculty of the University of Coimbra and the Archbishop of Lisbon himself. It was accordingly approved, and forwarded to Rome for authorization. Here, Francisco de Azeyedo, the representative of the

New Christians, prepared in conjunction with Vieira a scathing indictment, from which it appeared that the Portuguese Inquisition was nothing but an instrument of oppression, thriving upon blackmail, and preying upon any person of New Christian blood. The latter, it was alleged, were in truth nearly all fervent Catholics, who were either put to death as negativos for denying Judaism or reconciled as a result of confessing it falsely. After a prolonged struggle, the New Christians gained the day. On October 3, 1674, Pope Clement X suspended the action of the Portuguese tribunals, evoking all outstanding cases to Rome. Since the Inquisitors refused cooperation in the subsequent inquiry, on the ground that it would reveal the secrets of procedure, an interdict was pronounced upon them; and ultimately, on May 27, 1679, they were suspended from office.

The respite was only momentary. On August 22, 1681, the suspension was removed, after a few unimportant reforms had been ordered. The resumption of activity in Portugal was celebrated by triumphant processions and gala illuminations. In January of the following year, the first auto-da-fè since the Interdict was held at Coimbra. It was outdone a few months later at Lisbon, where, on May 10, four persons were burned—three of them alive, as impenitent. The latter included an advocate of Aviz, Miguel Henriques (Isaac) da Fonseca, who insisted that he should be called Misael Hisneque de Fungoça; Antonio de Aguiar, alias Aaron Cohen Faya, of Lamunilla near Madrid; and Gaspar (Abraham) Lopez Pereira, who were mourned by the litterateurs of Amsterdam as martyrs. All told, nearly three hundred persons appeared in the autos at Lisbon, Evo-

ra, and Coimbra at this period. The resumption of activity on the part of the last-named tribunal reached its climax in the awful holocaust of November 25, 1696, when fourteen men and women were relaxed in person and five in effigy. The revival was signalized by an order of September 1683, banishing from the realm, within the impossible period of two months, all persons who had been reconciled for Judaizing. They were, however, to leave behind them all children up to seven years old until it was proved that they were living the lives of true Christians in their new homes. It was in part to this measure, which was suspended only on the outbreak of war with France in 1704, that the rapid increase in the communities of the Marrano Diaspora about this time was due.1

Notwithstanding superficial appearances, the power of the Inquisition was not so great as it had previously been. The number of its victims from year to year, though still appalling, shows eloquently the change that had come about. During the period 1651–1673, 184 persons had been burned in person by the three tribunals of the country, while 59 had been relaxed in effigy and 4793 had been penanced. From 1682 to 1700, despite the accumulations of the period of the interdict, only 59 suffered in person and 61 in effigy, while 1351 were penanced. The yearly average was thus decreased by two-thirds. During the War of Spanish Succession, there seems to have been a recrudescence of violence, particularly at Lisbon—due, no doubt, to the prevalence of war-time passions. The numbers that appeared were reminiscent of the last century, the total rising on one occasion, in September 1706, to as many as 111, and on

June 9, 1713, to 138. In spite of this, over the whole period from 1701 to 1720 there was a further decrease in the number of capital punishments, only 37 being relaxed in person and 26 in effigy. Thus, in the course of half a century, the average had gone down from more than eight each year to less than two. The number of penanced in the same period rose to 2126, indicating that the change was in the temperament of the Inquisition, not in the strength of crypto-Judaism. At Evora, for many years after 1686, no relaxations in person took place at all; while in Coimbra, the last burnings were in 1718.

Subsequently, there was a recrudescence of activity, and the figures again rose; but they never reached the ghastly totals of the first half of the previous century. Over a period of little more than forty years after 1721, 139 individuals were relaxed in person. Thus the yearly average of victims was nearly quadrupled as compared with the first two decades of the century, although the total number of penitents was proportionately rather less. The number of women who were punished was surprisingly high, often far exceeding that of the men.2 But, as was subsequently to appear, this was a last despairing outburst of ferocity, which preceded final quiescence. By this time the offence of Judaizing had apparently been almost crushed in the greater towns. The center of activity was now the country districts, where the New Christians were relatively more numerous and where, it may be presumed, secrecy was more easy to maintain. The vast proportion came from the northern provinces of Beira and Tras-os-Montes, especially from the towns of Covilhã, Fundão, Idanha, Guarda, Lame-

go, and Braganza. There was a minor center farther south in the northern part of Alentejo. In this region, it was said, whole towns were deserted and prosperous industries destroyed by reason of the activities of the Holy Office. It was a systematic war of extermination. In 1718, over fifty natives of Braganza appeared at a single auto at Coimbra; and in succeeding years that city continued to provide nine-tenths of the total number of victims to the northern tribunal. In all, the names of no less than 805 persons from the city, and nearly 2000 from the district, figure in the records of those punished by the Holy Office; yet the lists are by no means complete. At an auto held on May 25, 1737, at Lisbon (whither at this period it became customary to send persons condemned by the other tribunals for punishment) all of the twelve persons who were relaxed, except one woman, were from Celorico and Lamego. Next, it was the turn of the district of Aviz; and, in 1744 and the following year, eight out of the ten persons burned were from that region. On October 16, 1746, the majority of those who appeared came from the same part of the country; all of the six persons relaxed—three in person and three in effigy—being natives of Beira or the northern part of Alentejo. However, from the middle of the century, the numbers decreased with the utmost rapidity. It almost seemed as though the intensification of the war against the Marranos had succeeded in its object, its adherents being at last exterminated.3

The reaction against the Inquisition, outside the Peninsula, had meanwhile been growing. The Protestants of northern Europe, whose compatriots and sympathizers were subject to its attentions fully as much as the

Jews, regarded it as the instrument of anti-Christ. Philosophical France thought of it with horror. Antagonistic books and pamphlets poured from the press in a never-ending stream. As early as the middle of the sixteenth century, works began to appear in England and elsewhere, giving details of the Protestant martyrdoms in Spain. In 1688, there appeared in Paris Dellon’s Relation de l’Inquisition de Goa, giving an account of his protracted sufferings. Contemporaneously, the Dutchman, Philip van Limborch, published his bitterly antagonistic history of the Inquisition. Both of these books were widely translated and exercised great influence among thinking persons in all countries. A refugee Spaniard, Reginaldo Gonsalves Montano, wrote a whole series of anti-Inquisitional works. Dr. Michael Geddes, a Scottish divine, took up the cudgels in London, where he published a couple of striking tracts laying bare the iniquity of the system.4 Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Sterne joined in the fray, in caustic comments.

The Jews were not behindhand. On September 6, 1705, a solemn auto-da-fè at which sixty-six penitents figured was held on the great square of the Rocio at Lisbon. The sermon was preached by Diogo da Anunciação Justiniano, Archbishop of Cranganor, in India. He opened it with a brutal series of insults directed against the poor victims:—“Miserable relics of Judaism! Unhappy fragments of the synagogue! Last remains of Judea! Scandal of the Catholics and detestable objects of scorn even to the Jews themselves!... You are the detestable objects of scorn to the Jews, for you are so ignorant that you cannot even observe the very law under which you live.” This savage address was natu-

rally deemed worthy of perpetuation in print. A copy reached the hands of David Nieto—himself of Marrano descent— who was then rabbi of the congregation established by the refugees in London. He replied to it in a vigorous but dignified pamphlet, in Portuguese, in which he exposed simultaneously both the ignorance and the brutality of the Archbishop. This was published anonymously in 1709 with the imprint Turin, but probably at London. So sure was the author of his ground that he had the courage, unusual in a controversialist, of reissuing with his pamphlet the sermon to which it was intended as a reply. A similar work, in Spanish, appeared some years later (probably in 1722 or 1723), purporting to be printed in Villa Franca (“The City of Freedom,” obviously London) by Carlos Vero (“Charles Truth”).5 In the meantime, in 1722, he followed up this initial encounter by publishing, similarly in “Villa Franca,” the Recondite Notices of the Inquisitions of Spain and Portugal, in two parts, Spanish and Portuguese. This work comprised the memoranda prepared by Antonio Vieira, for his onslaught upon the institution half a century before, which the Marranos then settled in London had already prepared for publication.6 The abuses of the system were once more laid bare in a damning fashion. In 1750, the work appeared again in Venice under a slightly different title, this time under Vieira’s own name. All this adroit propaganda assisted in undermining the position of the Holy Office; and it was inevitable that ultimately repercussions should reach those parts of southern Europe where it still held undisputed sway.

The spirit of humanity abroad in Europe at last began to penetrate into the Peninsula, though by very slow

degrees. Antonio Ribeiro Sanchez, the eminent Marrano physician, who had become reconciled to Catholicism, submitted a striking memorandum suggesting in the interest of the State the abolition of distinctions between Old and New Christians and the restriction of the power of the Inquisition. Don Luiz da Cunha, the famous diplomat, went even further, suggesting that Jewish worship should be tolerated in the country. Alexandre de Guzmão, another personage of importance at the Court of João V, poured ridicule on the pretensions of certain families to complete purity of blood, pointing out that over a period of centuries the total number of ancestors of any person ran into hundreds, concerning the antecedents of all of whom it was impossible to be absolutely sure. Finally, this point of view was adopted by the reforming statesman, Sebastian Joseph de Carvalho e Mello, Marquis of Pombal, under whose competent rule Portugal was transformed from a medieval into a modern state.

The year of his accession to power, 1751, saw the first step, it being forbidden for any auto-da-fè to be held without the permission of the civil authorities, by whom all sentences were henceforth to be confirmed. Thus, the subordination of the Inquisition to the state was accentuated. This did not by any means put an immediate end to activity. In Lisbon, on September 24, 1752, 30 men and 27 women appeared, all but twelve for Judaizing. Besides these, three—all negativos— were condemned to relaxation in person, and one in effigy. All told, eighteen victims were relaxed in the first ten years of the enlightened new regime—an eloquent testimony to the hold which the Holy Office had es-

tate lished upon the country. After the great Earthquake of 1755, which laid the palace of the Inquisition in ruins, and according to legend facilitated the escape of many prisoners, no further Judaizers suffered in Lisbon. In Evora, on the other hand, there was a sudden resumption, after a complete cessation which had lasted since 1686. In four successive autos from the year 1756 to 1760, eight New Christians were relaxed there. In the year following the last of these, on September 20, 1761, the inoffensive Jesuit father, Gabriel Malagrida, was burned at Lisbon, for having dared to assert that the recent earthquake was a punishment from heaven for the sins of the country. He was the last of the many hundreds of persons to suffer capitally at the hands of the Portuguese Inquisition, and one of the comparatively few during the whole series whose crime was not that of Judaizing.7

The next move was against the old and by now ridiculous differentiation between Old and New Christians, which had been introduced by Manoel I in direct contravention of his promise at the time of the General Conversion, and had caused untold suffering to those of Jewish blood ever since. Antonio Ribeiro Sanches, who was himself in this category, has left a graphic description of the slights and disabilities which a child of New Christian parentage had to face at every stage of his life, from his school-days upwards. It was now an antiquated as well as a pernicious system. Pombal dealt with it with characteristic vigor. On May 2, 1768, he ordered the destruction of all registers containing the names of the New Christian families. Next, he gave instructions to the heads of all the so-called “puritan”

houses (who had hitherto prided themselves on contracting no outside alliances) that within four months they must arrange matches for all their daughters of marriageable age with members of families hitherto excluded from their circle, as being contaminated with Jewish blood. This order, worthy of any Oriental despot, and communicated in private so as to avoid ridicule abroad, was to be enforced by depriving of all their dignities those who refused compliance. Finally, on May 23, 1773, all legal distinctions between Old and New Christians were removed. Thus, Marranism was officially abolished in Portugal; and the seal was set on the long process of assimilation which the Forced Conversion of nearly three hundred years before had begun.8

For the past few years, the Inquisition had been almost entirely inactive, Pombal having ensured its subservience by appointing his own brother to preside over it as Grand Inquisitor. It was now made powerless. On April 8, 1768, it was deprived of the power of censorship. On November 15, 1771, orders were given forbidding the celebration of autos-da-fè in public and the printing of listas of those who figured in them. Thus it was clearly indicated that, in the eyes of the government, this was entirely an ecclesiastical concern, which should not be allowed to interfere with the civil life of the country. Three years later, in 1774, there was issued a new code, or Regimento, for the Inquisition. This removed the worst of the old abuses, now naively attributed to the machinations of the Jesuits, and received the royal approval on September 21, 1774. (The last public auto-da-fè, with its invariable accompaniment of New Christian penitents, had been held on October 27,1765. )9 In succeeding years, the

various tribunals continued to hold in private occasional autos, at which minor punishments were inflicted for technical offences, though the populace was deprived of the pleasure of participation. (The last recorded ceremony of the sort was in 1778.) Henceforth the dreaded Inquisition of Portugal was almost powerless. The three long centuries of martyrdom were ended.

In Spain, meanwhile, the first blow had been dealt at the power of the Inquisition at the beginning of the eighteenth century, when Philip V, the first king of the House of Bourbon, true to his French upbringing, had refused to grace with his presence an auto arranged (in accordance with precedent) to celebrate his accession. Under less august auspices, similar ceremonies continued with little intermission. As far as Judaism was concerned, indeed, it appeared for the moment as though the victory had been won. The native New Christians had long since been assimilated or else exterminated; and it seemed that the menace offered to orthodoxy by the Portuguese immigrants had finally been overcome. There was however to be one final outburst. At Madrid, a secret synagogue was discovered where for some years twenty families had been accustomed to meet for service, under the auspices of a spiritual guide whose name had been sent to Leghorn for confirmation. Five of those implicated in the affair were relaxed in an auto on April 7, 1720. This discovery aroused the other tribunals to renewed activity. There was a general recrudescence of persecution throughout the country.10 Within the short period 1721–1727, there were held at least 64 autos. Of the 868 cases dealt with in these, no less than 820 were for Judaizing; 75 persons being relaxed in person and 74 in effigy. The

climax was reached in 1722–3, after which date there was a gradual diminution. At Cordova, autos were held in 1728, 1730, and 1731, 26 cases of Judaizing being punished in them; but thereafter there was none for a period of fourteen years. At Toledo, there was an intermission from 1726 to 1738 when fourteen cases were taken into consideration; but afterwards, down to the close of the series in 1794, there was only one more.11 At Valladolid, a Judaizer was relaxed in person in 1745, and six in effigy, together with the bones of one dead woman, at Llerena, in 1752. These are the last recorded cases of the sort. Owing perhaps to the suspension of immigration from Portugal, crypto-Judaism in Spain seems suddenly to have collapsed. Out of a total of 4,000 cases tried by all of the tribunals of the country from 1780 to 1820, only sixteen were for Judaism. Of these, ten were in connection with foreign Jews who had been found in the kingdom without authorization, four were discovered to be groundless, and only two were really serious. In the Spanish colonies, similarly, cases concerned with Judaizers had been rare since the beginning of the century.

Thus, in its last days, the connection between the Spanish Inquisition and the Marranos was slight. Nevertheless, it continued its career, with undiminished authority though with no more than a fraction of its old vitality, down to the period of the Napoleonic wars— long after the sister-tribunal of Portugal had been rendered powerless. It was formally abolished by Joseph Bonaparte during his brief reign, in 1808, this action being confirmed after his fall by the liberal Cortes of 1813. The reactionary Ferdinand VII, however, reinstat-

ed it in all its previous power and authority by a decree of July 21, 1814. Its activity during the succeeding period was not great and it was abolished again during the constitutional revolution by a royal edict of March 9, 1820. With the counter-revolutionary movement of 1825, its powers automatically revived. As late as July 26, 1826, a Deist schoolmaster (not a Jew, as is commonly stated) was garroted at Valencia by an episcopal junta de fé. He was the last victim of the Inquisition in the Peninsula; for, on July 15, 1834, the Queen Mother, Maria Christina, finally and definitely abolished the Inquisition and all its powers, direct or indirect. Thus, the career of blood which had lasted for three and a half centuries was closed.12

For some years more, the discrimination between the Old and New Christians survived in Spain, proof of limpieza, or purity of blood “from any admixture of Jew or Moor,” being required for entry into certain professions. This gradually disappeared. The last stronghold was the Corps of Cadets, where it hung on tenaciously. At length, in 1860, the need for this qualification was abolished by the Cortes. Socially, the differentiation still to some extent survived;13 and, in the Balearic Islands, the prejudice against the descendants of the local crypto-Jews, or Chuetas, remained extraordinarily virulent and effective. This survival was beyond the power of legislation to control. Officially, the record of the Marranos in the Peninsula was ended by that trivial decree of 1860, by which the efforts of the past five centuries were crowned and the descendants of the Jewish converts were admitted finally and without qualification into the body politic.