A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 2Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 2
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
[Sidenote: _ARCHBISHOP CARRANZA_]
Pius IV had carried to an extreme his subservience to Philip. Pedro de
Avila, one of Philip's agents, wrote, August 23, 1565, that Cardinal
Borromeo assured him that the pope had done and was doing more than he
had power to do in order to gratify the king; he had gone against the
canons, the councils and the cardinals and, when recently he thought
himself to be dying, nothing weighed on his conscience more heavily than
this.[213] His successor was a man of different stamp. To few popes does
Catholicism owe more than to St. Pius V, for, while pitiless in his
persecution of heresy, his recognition of the need of reform and his
unbending resolution to effect it, regained for the Church much of the
respect which it had forfeited. The Spanish agents speedily found that
in the matter of Carranza he was incorruptible and intractable. As the
ambassador Zuñiga plaintively reported to Philip, February 23, 1566, "He
is certainly well-intentioned but, having no experience in affairs of
state and no private interests, which are the two things that ordinarily
make popes yielding, he fixes his eyes on what he deems just and is
immovable."[214] As cardinal-inquisitor and Dominican he had been
favorably inclined to Carranza, whose friends received with hope the
news of his accession. They conveyed this by means of an arrow aimed at
one of his window-shutters and he responded by casting out a paper,
picked up by a person stationed for the purpose, in which he addressed
the new pope in the words of Peter, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come
unto thee on the water" (Matt. xiv, 28).[215]
Pius did not need urging. One of his first acts was to despatch a
messenger to Buoncompagni ordering him to remain and bring the affair to
a conclusion, but the legate's Spanish experience did not incline him to
return from Avignon. Doubtless his report brought conviction that
justice was not to be expected in Spain, for Pius speedily made a demand
for the person of Carranza and the papers so that he might decide the
case. Accustomed to browbeat popes, Philip replied that the demand was
offensive and contrary to the royal prerogative, as an attempt to change
a matter unalterably fixed by the Holy See, and that it would not be
entertained; the pope could commit the case to such persons as he
pleased, provided they were Spaniards, otherwise, if Carranza should
linger in prison until he died, the responsibility would not be with
those who had offered every possible alternative. This audacious answer
only strengthened the determination of Pius, who summoned Zuñiga and
told him to tell his master that he exposed himself to all the
indignation of the Holy See, for the pope was resolved to carry the
matter to a conclusion. Zuñiga was silenced and could only report to
Philip the terrible earnestness of Pius, from which there was no hope of
diverting him.[216]
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