A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1 — John Shaqi
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
With such men at the head of the Church it is not to be expected that
the lower orders of the clergy should be models of decency and morality,
rendering Christianity attractive to Jew and Moslem. Alonso Carrillo,
the archbishop of Toledo, can scarce be regarded as a strict
disciplinarian, but even he felt obliged, when holding the council of
Aranda in 1473, to endeavor to repress the more flagrant scandals of the
clergy. As a corrective of their prevailing ignorance it was ordered
that in future none should be ordained who could not speak Latin--the
language of the ritual and the foundation of all instruction,
theological and otherwise. They were forbidden to wear silk or gaily
colored garments. As their licentiousness rendered them contemptible to
the people, they were commanded to part with their concubines within two
months. As their fondness for dicing led to perjuries, scandals and
homicides, they were required thereafter to abstain from it, privately
as well as publicly. As many priests disdained to celebrate mass, they
were ordered to do so at least four times a year; bishops, moreover,
were urged to celebrate at least thrice a year, under pain of severe
penalties to be determined at the next council. The absurdities poured
forth in their sermons by wandering priests and friars were to be
repressed by requiring examinations prior to issuing licenses to preach,
and the scandals of the pardon-sellers were to be diminished by
subjecting them to the bishops. The bishops were also urged to make
severe examples of offenders in the lower orders of the clergy, when
delivered to them by the secular courts, and not to allow their
enormities to enjoy continued immunity. The bishops, moreover, were
commanded to make no charge for conferring ordinations; they were
exhorted, and all other clerics were required, not to lead a dissolute
military life or to enter the service of secular lords excepting of the
king and princes of the blood. As duels were forbidden, both laity and
clergy were warned that if slain in such encounters they would be
refused Christian burial.[27] That this effort at reform was, as might
be expected, wholly abortive is evidenced from the description of the
vices of the ecclesiastical body when Ferdinand and Isabella
subsequently endeavored to correct its more flagrant scandals.[28] It
was wholly secularized and only to be distinguished from the laity by
the sacred functions which rendered its vices more abhorrent, by the
immunities which fostered and stimulated those vices and by the
intolerance which, blind to all aberrations of morals, proclaimed the
stake to be the only fitting punishment for aberration in the faith.
While powerless to reform itself it yet had influence enough to educate
the people up to its standard of orthodoxy in the ruthless persecution
of all whom it pleased to designate as enemies of Christ.
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