500 



THE CENTURY BOOK OF FACTS. 



(he zeal of Mendoza, the archbishop of Seville, 

 gave a new impulse to the institution. At that 

 time there was a real or pretended alarm lest 

 the Jews and Moors in Spain should unite 

 against the Christians. Bishop Mendoza pro- 

 posed to King Ferdinand, in 1477, that an 

 inquisition should be established in Castile, 

 with the primary object of searching out the 

 Jews who had relapsed into Judaism after 

 having professed Christianity, or who simply 

 feigned conversion. The Inquisitorial Court 

 of Seville was established in September. 1480, 

 in the person of two Dominican friars. Tor- 

 quemada, another Dominican, appointed in 

 1483, was Grand Inquisitor for fifteen years. 

 Under him three new tribunals of the Holy 

 Office were erected at Cordova, Jaen, and Villa 

 Real ; afterwards a fifth was added to Toledo. 

 These Tribunals were always popular with che 

 lower orders and the clergy in Spain, but ter- 

 rible in the eyes of the nobles and the rich 

 middle class, who believed that tb'ay were 

 often used by the Government as e'agines of 

 political repression in order to diminish their 

 influence. Ranke calls the Spanish Inquisi- 

 tion " a royal tribunal furnished <vith spiritual 

 weapons." In 1492 an edict .vas issued for 

 the banishment of all Jews refusing to em- 

 brace Christianity from Spain, chiefly on 

 account of their alleged incorrigible obstinacy 

 in persisting in the attempt to convert Chris- 

 tians to their own f svith and instruct them in 

 their rites. About a hundred thousand accord- 

 ingly went int/> banishment. 



The history of the Spanish Inquisition was 

 written by Llorente, who was secretary to the 

 tribunal of Madrid from 1790 to 1792. Al- 

 though he is supposed to have possessed great 

 opportunities for obtaining exact information, 

 his estimate of the persons condemned to death 

 is now considered very much exaggerated. 

 The figures of Llorente include not only those 

 condemned for heresy, but besides persons 

 charged with many other crimes, such as 

 polygamy, seduction, unnatural crime, smug- 

 gling, witchcraft, sorcery, imposture, etc., 

 civil offenses within the jurisdiction of the 

 Inquisition and punishable with death. 



The celebrated Autos-da-Fe (Acts of the con- 

 fession of the faith), says Mohler, " were as a 

 rule bloodless. But few inquisitional processes 

 terminated with the death of the accused." 

 THe Auto, speaking generally, was a form of 

 reconciling culprits to the Church. Neverthe- 

 less the severities practiced by the tribunals 

 were such that Rome frequently interfered. 

 By the beginning of the seventeenth century, the 

 Inquisition, having largely obliterated heresy 

 in Spain, became more lenient ; its efforts were 

 then principally directed against heretical 



books, and occasionally decreed an execution. 

 The jurisdiction of the Inquisition had been 

 greatly restricted when Joseph Bonaparte 

 abolished it in December, 1808. It was restored 

 by Ferdinand VII. in 1814, but was again 

 abolished by the Constitution of the Cortes in 

 1820. After the second restoration a tribunal 

 was re-established at Valencia in 1826. It 

 was finally abolished, however, in 1834, and 

 in 1835 all its property was confiscated for the 

 public debt. 



Celibacy in the Roman Catholic 

 Church. Previous to the close of the fourth 

 century there was no law nor uniformity of 

 opinion regarding the celibacy of the Romish 

 priests. About this time, however, Pope Siri- 

 cius forbade priests to marry, and those who 

 had married previous to ordination were com- 

 manded to put away their wives. Children 

 born to a clergyman after ordination were de- 

 clared by the Emperor Justinian to be illegiti- 

 mate and incapable of inheritance. This 

 doctrine was opposed by the Eastern Church, 

 and in 692 it was condemned as heretical by 

 the Council of Constantinople, and the mar- 

 riage of priests has, therefore, always been 

 sanctioned by the Orthodox Greek Church. 

 Notwithstanding the action taken by the 

 Romish Church, it was several centuries be- 

 fore celibacy was firmly established, and this 

 was not accomplished until Pope Gregory V 1 1 . , 

 in the face of violent opposition in all coun- 

 tries, deposed all married priests and excom- 

 municated all laymen who upheld them in the 

 exercise of their spiritual functions. This 

 decree was carried out with the utmost rigor, 

 and brought about the result which the Church 

 had been aiming at for centuries, and which 

 still continues to be the canonical law. 



Indulgences. Originally, indulgences 

 meant a release from the temporal penalties 

 which remained due after the sin itself had 

 been remitted by confession and absolution, 

 and were granted during the first centuries of 

 the Christian churches, not only by the pope, 

 but by all bishops, to infirm persons or to those 

 penitents who showed extraordinary con- 

 trition. An indulgence cannot be granted for 

 unforgiven sin. It is not the remission of sin 

 nor of the eternal punishment due to mortal sin, 

 still less is it a permission to commit sin in the 

 future. Before an indulgence can be gained, sin 

 must have been previously remitted by repent- 

 ance. Thus, instead of being an encouragement 

 to sin, it is a strong motive to repentance. Many 

 indulgences have been abrogated, or declared 

 apocryphal by the Roman Catholic Church. 

 The Council of Trent prohibited the " disrepu- 

 table gains ' ' made at some places at the 

 expense of those who desired to obtain indul-. 



