Although the inquisitors of Spain pretended that their authority was canonical and spiritual, and had been delegated to them by the sovereign pontiff, who is infallible when he pronounces _ex cathedrâ_, yet they always opposed this infallibility in fact, and refused to submit to his decrees, when contrary to their particular system. The inquisitors would have acted differently, if they had not been certain that by applying to the king and interesting his policy, they would force the royal authority to take a part in their quarrels, and oppose the measures of the pontiff, who, if they had not possessed that powerful support, would have treated them as rebels, and degraded them to the rank of simple priests by depriving them of their employments. _History of the Viceroys of Sicily and Catalonia._ In 1535, Charles V. had deprived the Inquisition of the right of exercising the royal jurisdiction, and it was not restored to them till 1545; consequently, in 1543, they had not the privilege of trying their officers, familiars, or other secular attendants of the holy office, for matters not relating to religion. This royal decree was known to the Captain-general of Catalonia, Don Pedro Cardona, when he commenced proceedings against the gaoler, a familiar and a servant of the grand-serjeant of the Inquisition of Barcelona, for carrying arms, which was prohibited in his government. The inquisitors of Barcelona had become insolent, from having always prevailed in affairs of this nature, and they instituted proceedings against Don Pedro Cardona, as a rebel against the holy office; without respecting his high situations of captain-general, and military governor of the province, or the rank and name of his illustrious family. Being informed that the emperor was only nine leagues from Barcelona, they denounced the act of his lieutenant to him, and represented, through Cardinal Tabera, that if Cardona was not condemned to make a public reparation, the people would lose all respect for the Inquisition, and an incalculable injury be done to the Catholic religion throughout the kingdom. The emperor, blinded by fanaticism, not only favoured the inquisitors against all justice, and in contempt of his own ordinance of 1535; but he wrote to Cardona, that the interests of the faith required that he should submit to receive the absolution _ad cautelam_. This order deeply afflicted Don Pedro, but he resolved to obey his master, and demanded absolution. The inquisitors, to render their triumph greater, celebrated an _auto-da-fé_, in the cathedral of Barcelona, where Cardona was compelled to attend, standing without a sword, and with a taper in his hand, during the celebration of mass, and the ceremony of his absolution.