The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 08: The Later Renaissance: from Gutenberg to the Reformation
History
The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 08: The Later Renaissance: from Gutenberg to the Reformation
World history
The Queen's trial of humanity was ended; but a question of policy
remained. The King and Queen remembered that they had an interest in
Spain as well as the Pope, but they scarcely knew how that interest
could be guarded if the inquisitors were allowed absolute power over the
persons and property of their subjects. To have proposed lay assessors
and open court would have provoked a quarrel with the Pope, then powerful
enough to raise Europe in arms against them; therefore they modestly
requested no more than that some priests nominated by the King should
be associated with some others nominated by the Pope; or that the King
should name all, and the Pope confirm his nominations. The "Catholic
sovereigns" calculated that nominees of Rome would, of course, prefer the
rights of the Church to those of the crown, but they fancied, or they
wished to fancy, that priests of their own choice would prefer their
interests to those of a stranger. This was an illusion, and therefore
Rome made little difficulty; and after due correspondence, and some
changes, the Supreme Council of the Spanish Inquisition was constituted
thus:
Inquisitor-general--Friar Thomas de Torquemada, of whom Llorente says
that it was hardly possible that there could have been another man so
capable of fulfilling the intentions of King Ferdinand, by multiplying
confiscations; those of the court of Rome, by propagating their
jurisdictional and pecuniary maxims; and those of the projectors of the
Inquisition, by infusing terror into the people by public executions.
Two assessors--Juan Gutierrez de Chabes and Tristan de Medina,
jurisconsults.
Three King's counsellors--Don Alonso Carillo, a bishop-elect, with Sancho
Valasquez de Cuellar and Poncio de Valencia, doctors of civil law. In
matters relating to royal power they were to have a definite vote; but in
affairs of spiritual jurisdiction they could only be suffered to offer an
opinion, inasmuch as a spiritual power resided in the chief inquisitor
alone.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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