A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
Although the object of the Inquisition was the purification of the land
from Judaism, it was not confined to this, and it early proved that it
could exercise its blighting influence on the intellectual development
as well as on the material prosperity of Portugal. Among the learned
foreigners whom André de Gouvêa, at the request of João III, brought to
Portugal, in 1547, to found a college of arts in his University of
Coimbra, was George Buchanan, as professor of Greek. Gouvêa died within
a year, and soon afterwards the foreigners were driven out to be
replaced by Jesuits, who were becoming the dominant power in the land.
The process was a simple one. Buchanan and two others were prosecuted by
the Inquisition and thrown in prison. The accusation against the former
was that he had written a poem against the Franciscans, that he had
spoken disrespectfully of the friars, that he had eaten meat in Lent,
that he had said that St. Augustin's views on the Eucharist were akin to
those condemned by Rome, and generally that he was thought to be
ill-affected towards the Holy See. After incarceration for eighteen
months, he was sentenced to reclusion in a monastery for instruction by
the monks, whom he describes as good-natured enough but wholly ignorant.
On his liberation João offered to retain him, but he took the earliest
opportunity to escape to England.[733]
A still more effective deadening of intellectual aspiration was the
persecution of Damião de Goes, the foremost scholar of Portugal in the
sixteenth century. When a youth of 22, he had been sent to Flanders as
secretary to the Portuguese factory. It was not until 1528 that his
thirst for learning was awakened, he studied Latin, went to Padua, and
speedily made himself known to scholars throughout Europe. In 1545, João
recalled him to Portugal, where rivalry arose between him and Simon
Rodríguez the Jesuit Provincial, who had met him in Padua and now
accused him to the Inquisition for heretical utterances made there nine
years before, the details of which he could not remember, but had a
general impression that they were Lutheran. Nothing came of this and, in
1550, Rodríguez repeated his accusation, with the same result. Goes made
enemies in his literary career and, in 1571, the denunciation of
Rodríguez, made twenty-six years before, was resuscitated. He was now
seventy years old, he had been an invalid for twenty years, and was
scarce able to stand, but he was cast into a dungeon, April 4, 1571,
while his trial dragged on. No further evidence of any account could be
found against him, but he freely confessed that, when he went to
Flanders, he fell into the errors of considering indulgences of little
value, and that general confession sufficed, that after learning Latin
and studying, he had abandoned these errors and had since been strictly
orthodox, at the request of Cardinal Sadoleto he had written to
Melanchthon, in hopes of winning him over, and he had given a letter of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account