Philip was not so devoted to the court of the Inquisition as his predecessors had been. In the first year of his reign, a solemn auto-da-fé was celebrated in honour of his accession to the throne; but though Philip declared it to be his intention to protect the tribunal of the holy office, yet he decidedly refused to be present at a scene so barbarous. During the reign of this monarch, however, which lasted forty-six years, one auto-da-fé was annually celebrated by every Inquisition throughout the kingdom, at which, it has been calculated, upwards of fourteen thousand individuals suffered, who had been condemned by the holy tribunal to different punishments. It was in the reign of Philip, too, that the freemasons became the objects of persecution by the Inquisition. Pope Clement XII. had excommunicated them in a bull which he issued in 1738; and, copying the example of his holiness, Philip in 1740 enacted several severe laws against all who were, or should be connected with that order; in consequence of which many of the fraternity were arrested and condemned to the galleys. Never behind in any species of cruelty or oppression, the Inquisitors apprehended every freemason upon whom they could lay their hands; and in a short time they seemed to be more intent upon their suppression than even upon that of heretics. The same rigour against freemasonry existed under the reign of Ferdinand VI., which lasted from 1746 to 1759. Yet during these years, no general auto-da-fé, and only thirty-four private ones, were celebrated in Spain. At these private acts of faith, one hundred and eighty individuals were punished, ten of whom only were burnt alive. Historians differ in opinion as to the cause of this decrease in the number of autos-da-fé at that period in Spain, and the consequent diminution of the victims who were sacrificed by the tribunal of the holy office. The following account, given by Llorente, who was secretary to the Inquisition, seems to be the most probable: "The rise of good taste in literature in Spain," says that author, "the restoration of which was prepared under Philip V. was dated from the reign of Ferdinand VI. On this circumstance is founded the opinion, that the accession of the Bourbons caused a change in the system of the Inquisition; yet these princes never gave any new laws to the Inquisition, or suppressed any of the ancient code, and consequently did not prevent any of the numerous autos-da-fé which were celebrated in their reigns. But Philip established at Madrid two royal academies, for history and the Spanish language, on the model of that of Paris, and favoured a friendly intercourse between the literati of the two nations. The establishment of weekly papers made the people acquainted with works they had never before heard of, and informed them of resolutions of the Catholic princes concerning the clergy, which a short time before they would have considered as an outrage against religion and its ministers.