A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4 — John Shaqi
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 4
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
The warning was unheeded and, some ten years later, another Dominican,
Fray Alonso de la Fuente, was led to devote himself to a mortal struggle
with Illuminism, and with the Society of Jesus as its source. In a long
and rambling memorial addressed, in 1575, to Philip II, he relates that,
in 1570, he chanced to visit his birth-place, la Fuente del Maestre,
near Cuidad Rodrigo, and found there a Jesuit, Gaspar Sánchez, highly
esteemed for holiness, but who was blamed for perpetually confessing
certain beatas and granting daily communion. Sánchez appealed to him for
support and he preached in his favor, which brought to him numerous
beatas, whose revelations of their ecstasies and other spiritual
experiences surprised him greatly. This led him to investigate, when he
found that the practice of contemplation was widely spread, but its
inner secrets were jealously guarded, until he persuaded a neice of his,
a girl of 17, to reveal them. She said that her director ordered her to
place herself in contemplation with the simple prayer, "Lord I am here,
Lord you have me here!" when there would come such a flood of evil
thoughts, of filthy imaginings, of carnal movements, of infidel
conceptions, of blasphemies against God and the saints and the purity of
the Mother of God, and against the whole faith, that the torment of them
rendered her crazy, but she bore it with fortitude, as her director told
her that this was a sign of perfection and of progress on the path.[54]
Thenceforth Fray Alonso devoted himself to the task of investigating and
exterminating this dangerous heresy, but the work of investigation was
complicated by the concealment of error under external piety. Before
discovering a single false doctrine, we meet, he says, a thousand
prayers and disciplines and communions and pious sighs and devotions. It
is like sifting gold out of sand; to reach one heresy you must winnow
away a thousand pious works. So it is everywhere in Spain where there
are Jesuits and thus we see what great labor is required to overcome it,
since there are not in the kingdom three inquisitors who understand it
or have the energy and requisite zeal. Yet he penetrated far enough into
it, after sundry prosecutions, to draw up a list of thirty-nine errors,
some of which, like those ascribed to witchcraft, suggest the influence
of the torture-chamber in extracting confessions satisfactory to the
prosecutor. Not only are the adepts guilty of all the heresies of the
Begghards, condemned in the Clementines, and of teaching that mental
prayer is the sole thing requisite to salvation, but the teachers are
great sorcerers and magicians, who have pact with the demon, and thus
they make themselves masters of men and women, their persons and
property, as though they were slaves. They train many saints, who feel
in themselves the Holy Ghost, who see the Divine Essence and learn the
secrets of heaven; who have visions and revelations and a knowledge 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.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account