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
to the Suprema that, for trifling causes, their fathers and mothers,
wives and brothers, were in the prison of the Inquisition, where three
of them had died and the rest were sick. They had been detained for
seven or eight months, although their cases were finished, awaiting
_consultores_ from Saragossa to vote on them, wherefore the petitioners
asked that decisions be reached without further delay and that, when
discharged, the prisoners should not be ruined by pecuniary penances
greater than their substance, as had occurred on previous occasions. The
Suprema, January 12, 1519, forwarded this petition to the inquisitors
with instructions that, within fifteen days, one of them should bring to
Saragossa all the cases concluded, to be duly voted on, while the
remainder were to be finished as soon as possible and within fifteen
days thereafter to be similarly brought to Saragossa for decision. As in
this letter the Council describes itself as entrusted with the business
of the Inquisition in all the kingdoms and lordships of the crown of
Aragon and Navarre, it shows that the latter still remained subject to
the section of the Suprema pertaining to Aragon.
[Sidenote: _NAVARRE_]
While the tribunal of Pampeluna was thus of little service for its
ostensible objects, it was turned to account politically in the
perturbations which followed the death of Ferdinand, January 23, 1516.
Jean d'Albret, supported by France, naturally made an effort to recover
his dominions, but his ineffective siege of Saint-Jean-Pied-du-Port, and
the defeat and capture of the Marshal of Navarre at Roncesvalles,
speedily put an end to the invasion. It was important for the Spanish
government to ascertain the extent to which assistance had been pledged
to him by his former subjects. The Inquisition was unpopular among them
and would undoubtedly have been overthrown had d'Albret succeeded, so
that an investigation into those concerned in the movement could come
within an elastic definition of its functions, while its methods fitted
it admirably to obtain the information desired. Accordingly a cédula of
April 21, 1516, instructed the inquisitors to spare no effort, in every
way, to discover the names of those engaged in the affair and to obtain
all the information they could about the whole matter. This probably did
not increase the popularity of the Holy Office and the French invasion
of 1521 offered an opportunity, which was not neglected, of expressing
in action the hostility of the people. After the expulsion of the enemy,
reprisals were in order which Cardinal Adrian committed to the Precentor
of Tudela. Apparently he was not sufficiently vigorous in the work for,
in 1523, we find the Suprema stimulating him to greater activity.[604]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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