Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A HistorySabatini, Rafael
History
Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History
Sabatini, Rafael
Inquisition -- Spain; Torquemada, Tomás, de, 1420-1498
A reign of terror was established in Zaragoza. The tribunal of that
city became one of the busiest in Spain, and it is computed that
altogether some two hundred victims paid in one way and another for the
death of Pedro Arbués, so that there was hardly a family, noble or
simple, that was not plunged into mourning by the Justice of the Faith.
Amongst those against whom proceedings were instituted were men of the
very first importance in the kingdom. One of these was that Alonso
de Caballeria, Vice-Chancellor of Aragon, who had been prominent in
the council summoned by Torquemada to determine the details of the
introduction of the Inquisition into Aragon. Nor did they confine their
attention to New-Christians. Amongst those they summoned to render to
the Holy Office an account of their deeds we find no less a person than
Don Jaime de Navarre, known as the Infante of Navarre or the Infante
of Tudela, the son of the Queen of Navarre, and King Ferdinand’s own
nephew.
A fugitive New-Christian coming to Tudela cast himself upon the mercy
of the prince, and found shelter in Navarre for a few days until he
could escape into France. The inquisitors, whom nothing escaped, had
knowledge of this, and such was their might and arrogance that they
did not hesitate to arrest the Infante in the capital of his mother’s
independent kingdom. They haled this prince of the blood-royal
to Zaragoza to stand his trial upon the charge of hindering the
Holy Office. They cast him into prison, and subjected him to the
humiliating penance of being whipped round the Metropolitan Church by
two priests in the presence of his bastard cousin, the seventeen-year
old Archbishop, Alfonso of Aragon. Thereafter he was made to stand
penitentially, candle in hand, in view of all during High Mass, before
he could earn absolution of the ecclesiastical censure he had incurred.
* * * * *
Alonso de Caballeria is one of the few men in history who was able
successfully to defy and withstand the terrible power of that
sacerdotal court.
This Vice-Chancellor was a man of great ability, the son of a wealthy
baptized Hebrew nobleman, whose name had been Bonafos, but who had
changed this to Caballeria upon receiving baptism, in accordance with
the prevailing custom. He was arrested not only upon the charge of
having given shelter to fugitives, but also upon suspicion of being,
himself, a Judaizer.
Presuming upon his high position, and also upon the great esteem in
which he was held by his king, Caballeria showed the Inquisition an
intrepid countenance. He refused to recognize the authority of the
court and of Torquemada himself, appealing to the Pope, and including
in his appeal a strong complaint of the conduct of the inquisitors.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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