tion of the Inquisition.' The Archbishop Mendoza, doubtless disgusted with the failure of his methods of instruction, joined in these representations and they had a powerful supporter in Fray Thomas de Torquemada, prior of the Dominican convent of Santa Cruz in Segovia, who, as confessor of the sovereigns, had much influence over them and who had long been urging the vigorous chastisement of heresy. At last the victory was won. Ferdinand and Isabella resolved to introduce the Inquisition in the Castilian kingdoms and their ambassadors to the Holy See, the Bishop of Osma and his brother Diego de Santillan, were ordered to procure the necessary bull from Sixtus IV.3 This must have been shrouded in profound secrecy, for, in July, 1478, while negotiations must have been on foot in Rome, Ferdinand and Isabella convoked a national synod at Seville which sat until August 1st. In the propositions laid by the sovereigns before this body there is no hint that such a measure was desired or proposed and, in the deliberations of the assembled prelates, there is no indication that the Church thought any action against the Conversos necessary. Even as late as 1480, after the procurement of the bull and before its enforcement, the Córtes of Toledo presented to the sovereigns a detailed memorial embodying all the measures of reform desired by the people. In this the separation of Christians from Jews and Moors is asked for, but there is no request for the prosecution of apostate Conversos.5 Evidently there was no knowledge of and no popular demand for the impending Inquisition.

Sixtus can have been nothing loath to accomplish the introduction of the Inquisition in Castile, which his predecessors had so frequently and so vainly attempted and which he had essayed to do a few years previous by granting the necessary faculties to his legate. If the request of the Castilian sovereigns, therefore, was not immediately granted it cannot have been from humanitarian motives as alleged by some modern apologists,

1 Bernaldez, Historia de los Reyes Católicos, cap. xliii.

2 Páramo, p. 135.-Medina, Vida del Cardenal Mendoza (Memorial histórico español, VI, 235).

3 Pulgar, Crónica, P. II, cap. clxxvii.-Pulgar (cap. iv) gives sole credit to Isabella for the extirpation of heresy.

The proceedings of this important assembly have been printed by Padre Fidel Fita (Boletin, XXII, 212-250).

' Printed by Dom Clemencin, Elogio de Doña Isabel, pp. 595–7.

but because Ferdinand and Isabella desired, not the ordinary papal Inquisition, but one which should be under the royal control and should pour into the royal treasury the resultant confiscations. Hitherto the appointment of inquisitors had always been made by the Provincials of the Dominican or Franciscan Orders according as the territory belonged to one or to the other, with occasional interference on the part of the Holy See, from which the commissions emanated. It was a delegation of the supreme papal authority and had always been held completely independent of the secular power, but Ferdinand and Isabella were too jealous of papal interference in the internal affairs of their kingdoms to permit this, and it is an evidence of the extreme desire of Sixtus to extend the Inquisition over Castile that he consented to make so important a concession. There also was doubtless discussion over the confiscations which the wealth of the Conversos promised to render large. This was a matter in which there was no universally recognized practice. In France they enured to the temporal seigneur. In Italy the custom varied at different times and in the various states, but the papacy assumed to control it and, in the fourteenth century, it claimed the whole, to be divided equally between the Inquisition and the papal camera. The matter was evidently one to be determined by negotiation, and in this too the sovereigns had their way, for the confiscations were tacitly abandoned to them. Nothing was said as to defraying the expenses of the institution, but this was inferred by the absorption of the confiscations. If it was to be dependent on the crown the crown must provide for it, and we shall see hereafter the various devices by which a portion of the burden was subsequently thrown upon the Church.

The bull as finally issued bears date November 1, 1478, and is a very simple affair which, on its face, bears no signs of its momentous influence in moulding the destinies of the Spanish Peninsula. After reciting the existence in Spain of false Christians and the request of Ferdinand and Isabella that the pope should provide a remedy, it authorizes them to appoint three bishops or other suitable men, priests either regular or secular, over forty years of age, masters or bachelors in theology or doctors or licentiates of canon law, and to remove and replace

1 Fortalicium Fidei, Lib. II, consid. xi.-History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, I, 512-13.

them at pleasure. These are to have the jurisdiction and faculties of bishops and inquisitors over heretics, their fautors and receivers.1 Subsequently Sixtus pronounced the bull to have been drawn inconsiderately and not in accordance with received practice and the decrees of his predecessors, which doubtless referred to the power of appointment and removal lodged in the crown and also to the omission of the requirement of episcopal concurrence in rendering judgment. The creation of inquisitors was in itself an invasion of episcopal jurisdiction, which, from the earliest history of the institution, had been the source of frequent trouble, and where, as in Spain, many bishops were of Jewish blood and therefore under suspicion, the question was more intricate than elsewhere. With respect to this, moreover, it is observable that the bull did not confer, like that of Nicholas V, in 1451, jurisdiction over bishops in any special derogation of the decree of Boniface VIII requiring them, when suspected of heresy, to be tried by the pope, Both of these

1 This bull is embodied in the first proclamation of the inquisitors, Seville, January 2, 1481, printed by Padre Fita (Boletin, XV, 449–52). It had previously been looked upon as lost. Its main provisions, however, are embodied in the cédula of Dec. 27, 1480, printed in the notes to the Novísima Recopilacion, Ed. 1805, Tom. I, p. 260.

It is a little singular that the Inquisition possessed very few documents relating to its early history. In an elaborate consulta of July 18, 1703, presented to Philip V on the affair of Fray Froilan Diaz, the Suprema states that it had had all the records searched with little result; many important papers had been sent to Aragon and Catalonia and had never been returned; the rest were in a chest delivered to the Count of Villalonga, secretary of Philip III, to arrange and classify and on his arrest and the sequestration of his effects they disappeared. -Biblioteca Nacional, Seccion de MSS., G, 61, fol. 198.

It is quite possible that the contents of the chest form the "Bulario de la Inquisicion perteneciente á la Orden de Santiago," consisting of eight Libros, or folio volumes (five of originals and three of copies) now in the Archivo Histórico Nacional. It is from this collection that Padre Fita has printed the proclamation above alluded to and many other important documents, and it will be seen that I have made large use of it under the name of "Bulario de la Orden de Santiago." There are also vast stores of records in the Archivo Histórico Nacional of Madrid, in the archives of Simancas and Barcelona, and some in the Vatican Library. Llorente burnt many papers before leaving Madrid and carried others to Paris, some of which are in the Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds espagnol. The Biblioteca : Nacional of Madrid also has a large number and others are dispersed through the various libraries of Europe or are in private hands.

? See his brief of January 29, 1482, printed by Llorente, Historia Crítica, Append. n. 1.

3 History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, I, 331.

questions, as we shall see, subsequently gave rise to considerable discussion.

So far the anti-Semitic party had triumphed, but Isabella's hesitation to exercise the powers thus obtained shows that the Conversos in her court did not abandon the struggle and that for nearly two years they succeeded in keeping the balance even. It is possible also that Ferdinand was not inclined to a severity of which he could forecast the economical disadvantages, for as late as January, 1482, a letter from him to the inquisitors of his kingdom of Valencia manifests a marked preference for the use of mild and merciful methods. Whatever may have been the influences at work, it was not until September 17, 1480, that the momentous step was taken which was to exercise so sinister an influence on the destinies of Spain. On that day commissions were issued to two Dominicans, Miguel de Morillo, master of theology, and Juan de San Martin, bachelor of theology and friar of San Pablo in Seville, who were emphatically told that any dereliction of duty would entail their removal, with forfeiture of all their temporalities and denationalization in the kingdom, thus impressing upon them their subordination to the crown. Still there were delays. October 9th a royal order commanded all officials to give them free transportation and provisions on their way to Seville, where, as in the most infected spot, operations were to commence. When they reached the city they waited on the chapter and presented their credentials; the municipal council met them at the chapter-house door and escorted them to the city hall, where a formal reception took place and a solemn procession was organized for the following Sunday. They were thus fairly installed but apparently they still found difficulties thrown in their way for, on December 27, it was deemed necessary to issue a royal cédula to the officials ordering them to render all aid to the inquisitors.2

They had not waited for this to organize their tribunal, with Doctor Juan Ruiz de Medina as assessor and Juan Lopez del Barco, a chaplain of the queen, as promotor fiscal or prosecuting officer. To these were added, May 13, 1481, Diego de Merlo,

1 Archivo General de la Corona de Aragon, Reg. 3684, fol. 1. See Appendix. • Fidel Fita, Boletin, XVI, 452.-Llorente, Hist. Crít. cap. v, art. ii.-Relacion histórica de la Judería de Sevilla, p. 22 (Sevilla, 1849).

assistente or corregidor of Seville, and the Licentiate Ferrand Yáñez de Lobon as receivers of confiscations-an indispensable office in view of the profits of persecution. All soon found plenty of work. The Conversos of Seville had not been unmindful of the coming tempest. Many of them had fled to the lands of the neighboring nobles, in the expectation that feudal jurisdictions would protect them, even against a spiritual court such as that of the Inquisition. To prevent this change of domicile a royal decree ordered that no one should leave any place where inquisitors were holding their tribunal, but in the general terror this arbitrary command received scant obedience. A more efficient step was a proclamation addressed, on January 2, 1481, to the Marquis of Cadiz and other nobles by the frailes Miguel and Juan. This proved that no error had been made in the selection of those who were to lay the foundations of the Inquisition and that a new era had opened for Spain. The two simple friars spoke with an assured audacity to grandees who had been wont to treat with their sovereigns on almost equal terms-an audacity which must have appeared incredible to those to whom it was addressed, but to which Spain in time became accustomed from the Holy Office. The great Rodrigo Ponce de Leon and all other nobles were commanded to search their territories, to seize all strangers and newcomers and to deliver them within fifteen days at the prison of the Inquisition; to sequestrate their property and confide it, properly inventoried, to trustworthy persons who should account for it to the king or to the inquisitors. In vigorous language they were told that any failure in obeying these orders would bring upon them excommunication removable only by the inquisitors or their superiors, with forfeiture of rank and possessions and the release of their vassals from allegiance and from all payments due-a release which the inquisitors assumed to grant in advance, adding that they would prosecute them as fautors, receivers and defenders of heretics. This portentous utterance was effective: the number of prisoners was speedily so great that the convent of San Pablo, which the inquisitors at first occupied, became

1 Boletin, XV, 453-7. This was fairly within the rules of the canon law but it did not put an end to the sheltering of fugitives from the Inquisition by nobleswho doubtless found it profitable. In some instructions issued by Torquemada, December 6, 1484, there is one regulating the relations between such nobles and the receiver of confiscations.-Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 933.

?