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
For the inquisitors themselves it is provided that upon assuming
office they shall be bound by oath to discharge their duties well and
faithfully and to observe the secrecy; that no inquisitor or officer
of the Inquisition shall receive any gift of whatsoever nature from a
prisoner, under pain of loss of office and a fine of twice the value of
the gift plus 100,000 maravedis, whilst any who shall have knowledge of
such matter and fail to divulge it shall be subject to the same penalty.
Inquisitors are to make oath never to be alone with a prisoner, and
neither an inquisitor nor any officer of the court shall hold two
offices or receive two salaries. Lastly, in any district where the
Inquisition’s tribunal is established, the inquisitors must pay for
their own lodgings, and must never receive any hospitality from
_conversos_.[266]
* * * * *
We have seen Torquemada’s efforts strained to obtain the fullest
possible control over subjects of inquisitorial jurisdiction in Spain,
and to establish himself the sole arbiter in matters concerning
heresies there committed. And we have seen his frequent conflicts with
Rome in consequence of what he accounted undue interference on the part
of the Holy See in affairs which he considered purely within his own
province. Despite repeated protests which had resulted in the annulment
of absolutions granted by the Apostolic Court, the Holy See had ever
continued to receive those who fled thither from Spain in quest of a
reconciliation that was procurable in Rome upon terms far easier than
were accorded by Torquemada’s delegates.
Never, however, had the fugitives to Rome been so numerous as they
were now in the reign of Alexander VI. Never before had so many
Judaizers--who were liable, if discovered in Spain, to perpetual prison
or the fire--sought at the hands of the Pontiff the absolution which,
subject to penitence and penance, the Holy Father was willing and ready
to accord them.
On July 29, 1498, an Auto de Fé was held in Rome in the vast square
before St. Peter’s, when 180 Spanish Judaizers came to be reconciled to
the Church.[267]
It is worth while to take a glance at this, and to mark the difference
between the Act of Faith in the very heart of Christendom, and the
spectacles provided under the same title by Spanish bigotry and
fanaticism.
There were present the Governor of Rome, Juan de Cartagena, the Spanish
Orator at the Vatican, the Apostolic auditors, and the Master of the
Sacred Palace, whilst the Pope himself surveyed the scene from the
balcony above the steps of St. Peter’s.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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