A Colonial Inquisitor

OF the various causes which contributed to the decadence of the great Spanish Monarchy, not the least efficient was the preponderance obtained by the Church. Through popular fanaticism carefully stimulated, it was enabled to maintain in many ways the claims put forward during the Middle Ages, and in some directions to develop them almost into the ideal of ecclesiastical supremacy, with the result of disintegrating the powers of the State. The immunity from subjection to secular law which the Church had secured for its members during the anarchy consequent upon the breaking up of the Carlovingian empire was zealously upheld, rendering churchmen of all ranks exempt from responsibility to the royal courts. When to this the Inquisition was superadded by Ferdinand and Isabella, the piety of the sovereigns granted it exclusive jurisdiction, not only over its own members, but also over its numerous lay officials and dependents. Thus there grew up three independent and competing jurisdictions, whose unseemly quarrels filled the land with confusion, exposed to contempt the administration of justice, and undermined the respect for the laws which is essential to the development of a well-ordered state.

In the perpetual struggles of this rivalry, the royal jurisdiction commonly had to succumb. The ecclesiastics had the enormous advantage of wielding the dreaded weapon of excommunication, which paralyzed its victim, deprived him of his functions, no matter how exalted was his office, and left him scarce an alternative but submission. To some extent the bishops were restricted in the use of this weapon, and there was a process of appeal from their arbitrary acts to the royal court, but the inquisitor was untrammeled. His authority was derived directly from the Pope, and was popularly regarded as far more formidable than that of the bishops; all attempts to limit him in its exercise were stigmatized as an assault upon the faith, and the only appeal from him lay through the inquisitor-general to the king or the pope. He was, therefore, in a position to make good whatever claims he saw fit to advance, and the internal history of Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is a history of constant encroachments, bitterly resisted by the other departments of the State.

In the colonies, distance from the central authority diminished what little restraint existed at home, and the violence thence arising coöperated with the insane commercial policy of the mother country to render its American possessions a source of weakness rather than of strength. Details happen to be preserved of one of the frequent conflicts of authority occurring at the close of the seventeenth century, which may serve as a typical illustration of the mutually destructive passions always lying latent, and ready to be aroused at any moment.

The city of Cartagena de las Indias enjoyed a complete organization, secular and ecclesiastical. It had a royal governor, subject to the president or captain-general of New Granada, and also a bishop, suffragan to the Archbishop of Santa Fé. In addition it was the seat of a tribunal of the Inquisition, which had an extensive jurisdiction, including the Antilles, and which, in 1692, attempted without success to establish a subordinate inquisition in Florida. These various authorities were almost always at odds with one another, and carried on their quarrels with a ready recourse to the most violent methods. In 1681 we hear of a dispute between the President Castillo and the Archbishop Sanz Lozano, in the course of which the former banished the latter and seized his temporalities, while the archbishop responded by excommunicating the president and proclaiming a general interdict.

Hardly had this been settled, when, in 1683, a still more vicious struggle broke out in Cartagena. The nuns of the convent of Santa Clara desired to withdraw themselves from obedience to the Franciscan friars, who were accused of too great an intimacy with some of the sisters, and to place themselves under the direction of the episcopal provisor. In the interest of morality, the bishop. Miguel Antonio Benavides y Piedrola, seconded the wishes of the nuns. The Franciscans resisted; passions on both sides grew hot, till the president of New Granada espoused the cause of the friars and issued a sentence of banishment on the bishop, who left the city after casting an interdict over it. The population took so lively an interest in the question that it became divided into two factions, between which riots were frequent, and civil war seemed imminent. At this conjuncture there arrived a new inquisitor, Doctor Don Francisco Varela, who speedily ranged himself with the friars, because the bishop refused him the privilege of celebrating mass in his own house during the interdict. In defiance of the prohibition he continued to celebrate, thus giving great encouragement to the anti-episcopal party; for, although some of them had already disregarded the interdict, the authority of the inquisitor was conclusive. Thus emboldened, the secular authorities sent a party of armed men to break into the cathedral, where three ecclesiastics were seized, whom the governor threw into prison, in violation of their sacred immunities. Then President Castillo prevailed on the neighboring Bishop of Santamarta to come to Cartagena and remove the interdict. There was a lively interchange of excommunications between the bishops, and the quarrel grew fiercer and more intricate than ever when Bishop Benavides cast his censures over the president and some of his officials. It chanced that one of these, the advocate Jerónimo Isabal, was likewise advocate of the Inquisition, and this afforded Valera the opportunity to intervene again. He denounced the excommunication as an infringement of his jurisdiction, as he alone had cognizance of the offenses of his subordinates; he prohibited the bishop from further action, and demanded the surrender of all the papers in the case. To this Bishop Benavides responded by excommunicating the inquisitor, and announcing that, to prevent injury to the interests of religion from the disability thus inflicted on the Inquisition, he would assume its functions himself, in the exercise of his episcopal jurisdiction over heresy. He caused placards to this effect to be posted throughout the city, whereupon the alguazil of the Inquisition arrested and threw into prison all who were concerned in the publication.

In an effort to procure the release of his ecclesiastics, the bishop had a personal altercation with the governor, Don Rafael Capcir, which resulted in fresh excommunications and a renewal of the interdict; this was speedily declared null by the Bishop of Santamarta. and the inquisitor issued notices that he had removed it. The confusion was at its height when the royal court of Santa Fé declared the see vacant ; the cathedral doors were broken open ; the chapter was ordered to obey the decree, and, on its refusal, the officials of the church were arrested. The anti-episcopal faction was now supreme, and the friends of the bishop were persecuted, imprisoned, and banished, and their property was confiscated. The bishop himself was kept a prisoner in his house, with guards in his bedroom. The nuns of Santa Clara, after enduring a virtual siege for six months, were overpowered ; their convent was forced June 4, 1684. Some of them were beaten and others ironed, and all were imprisoned on bread and water. The archbishop sent an order to the Bishop of Santamarta to leave the city, but the document was declared to be forged, and all who professed belief in it were prosecuted.

Thus far the inquisitor and governor were triumphant, but the situation was suddenly reversed by the receipt of a papal brief, approved by the Council of the Indies. Although issued in response to an appeal from the hostile secular authorities, it pronounced in favor of the bishop, and placed the nuns of Santa Clara under his care. For a time this reduced to peace the warring factions. Benavides was reinstated in his episcopal seat, but he was unable to obtain the return of his ecclesiastics and servants who had been banished by the inquisitor. The sentences of the tribunal could be reversed only by itself.

Permanent peace, however, was impossible when passions had grown so vehement and so unrestrained. A new president, Don Gil de Cabrera y Davilos, replaced Castillo, and endeavored without success to effect a reconciliation. Another inquisitor, Juan Martinez de Zárate, came to join Varela, and shared his indignation at the rebuff which the tribunal had experienced. Nothing but an excuse was lacking for a fresh outbreak, and it was readily found. The inquisitors and governor placed chairs in the cathedral ; the bishop ordered them removed, in consequence of the disturbance to divine service caused by the tertulia to which they gave rise. The quarrel over this rapidly became envenomed ; the inquisitors excommunicated the bishop, and forbade the mention of his name in the mass ; and when the dean and prior of San Augustin disobeyed the command, the inquisitors excommunicated, fined, and banished them. Having thus asserted their power over the city, they proceeded to abuse it, until even the governor was alarmed and sought reconciliation with the bishop, who rejected his advances. The inquisitors were virtually absolute, and disorder reigned unchecked ; the majority of the people favored the bishop, but terror kept them quiet, and most of the better clergy fled. Then the judge of Santa Fé came, bearing a royal commission to heal the troubles, which he sought to do by dismissing the governor, and replacing him with Don Francisco Castro; but the latter promptly formed an alliance with the inquisitors, and matters were no better than before. Then came a royal order, drawn in accordance with the papal brief, commanding the bishop to be obeyed and respected ; but it was wholly disregarded. When the bishop preached in Holy Week, the inquisitors again declared him excommunicate ; and when so abusive a sermon against him was delivered by Fray Laureano Salvador that the preacher’s superiors suspended him. the inquisitors interposed and restored him.

Yet so long as the bishop was at liberty he was an obstacle, and the inquisitors asked the governor for an armed force to arrest him. Fearing the consequences, the governor applied to the central authority at Santa Fé, and was told that the bishop was to be respected. In spite of this a guard was set around his palace, and the chapter was assembled, with instructions to declare the see vacant ; but all the canons save two voted in the negative and left the room, when the remaining two deposed the bishop and appointed provisors to govern the diocese. Then there arrived vessels from Spain. The dispatches which they brought were not made public ; but it was observed that the guards at the episcopal palace were silently withdrawn, and the bishop was liberated after a confinement which had lasted from April 13 to August 22, 1687. Still more significant was the fact that the fleet brought another inquisitor, Don Gomez Suarez de Figueroa, with orders transferring Inquisitor Valera to Lima.

Figueroa proved to be a worthy successor to Valera. He commenced by requiring all who had communicated with the bishop to seek absolution at his hands for having disregarded the excommunication of the Inquisition. It was in vain that the bishop published a new papal brief, declaring valid the excommunications which he had issued, and those of the inquisitors to be null, and requiring them to seek absolution from him. This was repudiated as a forgery; the prisons were filled with his friends, and a Franciscan friar named Francisco Ramirez was garroted in the public square, the governor himself performing the office of executioner. Then a new governor arrived, — Don Martin Ceballos y la Cerda, — bringing a royal order commanding the restitution of the bishop to his full rights and jurisdiction. This was greeted with immense popular rejoicings, and was published amid general enthusiasm at the prospect of deliverance from inquisitorial tyranny. Yet one clause of the order, requiring the return of all confiscated property, could not be enforced ; for the sentences of the Inquisition were subject to revision, not by the king, but by the Supreme Council of the Holy Office. Governor Ceballos soon found that it was better to take sides with the Inquisition, and he speedily quarreled with the bishop. The inquisitors were encouraged to make fresh trouble, and in 1688 Benavides gladly obeyed an order summoning him to the court. The last we hear of him is in 1696, thirteen years after the outbreak of the disturbances, when he was still at work in Rome vainly seeking to obtain the enforcement of the papal brief which had never been obeyed. At this time Inquisitor Valera was comfortably settled at Lima, where he seems to have profited by experience and to have conducted himself peaceably. The proverbial delays of Spanish procedure postponed his punishment for many years, and he eluded it at last. Inquisitors were treated with too much consideration to be dismissed for malfeasance; they were merely jubilado, or consigned to honorable retirement on half pay, when the Supreme Council could no longer protect them. In 1703 an order reached Lima that Valera should be thus jubilado, and that the half of his salary should be assigned to the cathedral of Cartagena in reparation of his misdeeds. To this his colleagues replied that they would obey the command with all exactitude, but that Valera had died on August 2, 1702.

Governor Ceballos had not much reason to congratulate himself on the support which he had given to Inquisitor Figueroa. In a dispatch of January 16, 1693, to the Council of the Indies, he complains piteously of Figueroa’s high-handed proceedings. It appears that the butcher of the public shambles, in serving meat, refused to give preference to a negro slave of the inquisitor, whereupon the latter promptly sent his alcayde with orders to bring the offender, securely bound, to the inquisitorial prison, or, if he could not be found, one of the regidores, or magistrates of the city. The unlucky butcher was captured, manacled, and cast into prison, where he was still lying. Imprisonment by the Inquisition was one of the heaviest misfortunes that could befall a man ; it inferred suspicion of heresy, and left an ineffaceable stigma not only on him, but on his family and his descendants for several generations ; for the fact of his imprisonment remained, while its cause was forgotten, and the burden of disproof was thrown upon children and grandchildren who might aspire to public employment or ecclesiastical benefices, for which they were disqualified if they had a heretic ancestor. The governor says he was afraid to take proper steps for the liberation of the unfortunate man, and contented himself with a courteous request to the inquisitor, which was disregarded. Then he endeavored to collect legal evidence to send to Madrid, but such was the terror inspired by the Inquisition that, though there were plenty of witnesses, no one dared to make a deposition. The fact of his seeking to obtain evidence leaked out, and on January 13 his residence was invaded by a mob, headed by the secretary of the Inquisition, who, with much insolence, required him, under threat of major excommunication and other censures, to sign a declaration that he abandoned the case to the Inquisition, to which its jurisdiction belonged, and also that all reference to the matter should be removed from the books of the municipality, and all papers concerning it he delivered to the inquisitor. In his perplexity the governor consulted Don Francisco Garrechategui, the highest judicial officer of New Granada, and Don Fernando de la Riva Aguera, judge of the royal court of Panama ; but they could give him no comfort, and for the sake of peace he meekly obeyed.

When such was the internal condition of the Spanish colonies, a career like that of Sir Henry Morgan becomes intelligible, and we can understand the easy capture of Cartagena in 1697 by the French and the buccaneers, in spite of the valor of the governor, Don Sancho Jimeno. We can also understand the deplorable state of New Granada as described in 1772 in a report by Francisco Antonio Moreno y Escandon. The frontier territories, he tells us, were “missions,” under the charge of friars, whose expenses were defrayed and who were furnished with a guard of soldiers by the government, entailing heavy outlays with little result, owing to the lack of the missionary spirit in the friars.

Who sought the position only in order to enjoy a life of ease and sloth. These missions had been established for a hundred years, but had accomplished nothing for the propagation of the faith, because, when the Indians were apparently converted and collected into pueblos, they would escape and take to the mountains. The lower class of the so-called civilized population consisted largely of mixed breeds. Every one of Spanish blood sought to live on the government by obtaining some little office, and when obtained its duties were discharged with the utmost negligence. Poverty reigned everywhere ; trade was almost extinct; capital was lacking, and had it existed; there would have been no opportunity for its employment. The only industry was gold - mining, and, though the mines were as rich as ever, the product was constantly decreasing; those of the province of Choco could be made to yield well, but they could only be approached by way of the river Atrato, and since 1730 the navigation of this had been forbidden, under pain of death. It may be added that, in 1772, the Viceroy Megia obtained permission to send two vessels a year up the stream, but the permits were held at so high a price that they proved virtually prohibitive. The only foreign commerce allowed was with Spain, and this consisted of one or two ships a year from Cadiz to Cartagena ; but the goods they brought were so burdened with duties and expenses that no profit could be made on them. The country was rich in resources, — in cocoa, tobacco, and precious woods; but the restrictions on trade were such that they could not be cultivated and exported. Moreno y Escandon can find no comfort in the present and can see no hope in the future. Such was the condition to which mistaken policy and priestly misrule had reduced one of the fairest portions of God’s earth.

Henry Charles Lea.