shamelessness, Sixtus declares that he is only discharging his duty as pope, while his tender care for the reputation of the Dominicans is manifested by his omitting to prescribe that the local inquisitors should be members of that Order, the only qualification required being that they should be masters in theology.1

During the interval, prior to this extension of Torquemada's jurisdiction, there was an incident showing that Sixtus had yielded the appointment of inquisitors, while endeavoring to retain the power of dismissing them. Cristóbal Gualbes, who was acting in Valencia to the entire satisfaction of Ferdinand, became involved in a bitter quarrel with the Archdeacon Mercader for whom, as we have seen, Cardinal Borgia had obtained a papal brief, virtually constituting him an indispensable member of the tribunal-a power which he doubtless used speculatively to the profit of Borgia and himself. It is to the interference of Gualbes with these worthies that we may reasonably attribute the action of Sixtus, who wrote, May 25, 1483, to Ferdinand and Isabella that the misdeeds of Gualbes merited heavy punishment, but he contented himself with removing him and asked them to fill his place with some fitting person on whom he in advance conferred the necessary powers. He evidently felt doubtful as to their acquiescence, for he wrote on the same day to Iñigo Archbishop of Seville, asking him to use his influence to induce the sovereigns to concur in this.2 Ferdinand was not inclined to abandon Gualbes for, in a letter of August 8th, he orders the Maestre Racional of Valencia to pay to "lo devot religios maestre Gualbes" forty libras to defray his expenses in coming to the king at Córdova and in order that he might without delay return to work.3 In the final settlement however Gualbes was sacrificed, for when

1 Ripoll, III, 622.-When Innocent VIII, by letters of February 11, 1486, confirmed or reappointed Torquemada, the qualification of his appointees was modified by requiring them to be fitting ecclesiastics, learned and God-fearing, provided that they were masters in theology or doctors or licentiates of laws or canons of cathedrals or holding other church dignities.-Páramo, p. 137.

Ferdinand, July 9, 1485, had requested that the condition of holding grades in the church should not be insisted upon for there were few of such who were fitted for the work.—Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 59.

? Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 34.—Boletin, XV, 472.-Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Lib. I, fol. 43.

Zurita (Añales, XX, xlix) is evidently in error in stating that Ferdinand, May 20, 1483, asked Sixtus to remove Gualbes and Orts.

Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 11.

Torquemada was made Inquisitor-general of Aragon, Sixtus expressly forbade him from appointing that son of iniquity Cristóbal Gualbes who, for his demerits, had been interdicted from serving as inquisitor.1

If Ferdinand imagined that he had overcome the resistance of his subjects by placing them under the Castilian Inquisition with Torquemada at its head, he showed less than his usual sagacity. They had been restive under the revived institution conducted by their own people and the intense particularism of the Aragonese could not fail to arouse still stronger opposition to the prospect of subjection to the domination of a foreigner such as Torquemada, whose sinister reputation for pitiless zeal gave assurance that the work would be conducted with greater energy than ever.

In Castile the introduction of the Inquisition had been done by the arbitrary power of the crown; in Aragon the consent of the representatives of the people was felt to be necessary for the change from the old to the new and a meeting of the Córtes was convoked at Tarazona for January 15, 1484. Ferdinand and Isabella arrived there on the 19th and remained until May, when the opening of the campaign against Granada required their presence elsewhere. Torquemada was there ready to establish the tribunals; what negotiations were requisite we do not know, though we hear of his consulting with persons of influence, and an agreement was reached on April 14th. It was not until May 7th, however, that Ferdinand issued from Tarazona a cédula addressed to all the officials throughout his dominions, informing them that with his assent the pope had established the Inquisition to repress the Judaic and Mahometan heresies and ordering that

1

1 Ripoll, III, 622.-Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Lib. I, fol. 182. When he had no further use for Gualbes Ferdinand also turned against him, for in March, 1486, on hearing that Gualbes proposed to visit a Dominican convent he wrote earnestly to the Governor and Inquisitor of Valencia to prevent it as it would be a scandal.-Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 90.

It is possible that there may have been some rancor on Ferdinand's part against Gualbes who, as an eloquent preacher and fervid popular orator, had done much, in 1461, to stimulate the resistance of the Catalans to Juan II, after the death of the heir-apparent, Carlos Prince of Viana, which was attributed to poison administered by Queen Juana Henríquez to open for her son Ferdinand the path to the throne (Zurita, Añales, Lib. xvII, cap. xxvi, xlii; Lib. XVIII, cap. xxxii). It is true that Zurita is not certain whether there may not have been two Cristóbal Gualbes (Lib. xx, cap. xlix) but Bofarull y Broca (Hist. de Cataluña, VI, 312) has no such doubts.

the inquisitors and their ministers should be honored and assisted everywhere under pain of the royal wrath, of deprivation of office and of ten thousand florins.1

Under the plenary powers of Torquemada's commission, steps were taken to reorganize the Inquisition and adapt it to the active discharge of its duties. Tribunals were to be established permanently in Valencia, Saragossa and Barcelona with new men to conduct them. Gualbes was disposed of by the enmity of Sixtus IV. Orts still figures in an order for the payment of salaries, April 24, 1484, and, on May 10th, Ferdinand, writing from Tarazona, says that he is there and will be sent to Saragossa, but he never appeared at the latter place, though he was not formally removed from office until February 8, 1486, by Innocent VIII, when he was styled Inquisitor of Valencia and Lérida.'

VALENCIA.

In the Spring of 1484 Torquemada appointed, for Valencia, Fray Juan de Epila and Martin Iñigo, but the popular resistance and effervescence were such that their operations were greatly delayed. The jurats, or local authorities, prevented the opening of their tribunal and, by the advice of Miguel Dalman, royal advocate fiscal, presented an appeal to the Córtes of the kingdom, imploring their intervention. The Córtes had assembled and all four brazos or Estates united in remonstrances against the threatened violation of the fueros and privileges of the land and threw every impediment in the way of the inquisitors. All this we learn from a series of letters despatched, July 27th, by Ferdinand to the various officials, from the governor down, in which he gives free vent to his wrath and indignation, declaring his will to be unchangeable, threatening with punishment and dismissal all who resist it and pronouncing as frivolous the argument that the Inquisition was an invasion of the privileges of the land. At the same time he wrote to the inquisitors informing them of his proposed measures, instructing them to perform their duties without 'Zurita, Añales, Lib. xx, cap. Ivi, lxv.

'Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 11, 12.-Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Lib. 1, fol. 51.

fear and cautioning them to observe the fueros and privileges and to show clemency and mercy, in so far as they could with a good conscience, to those who confessed their errors and applied for reconciliation.1

Energetic and determined as was the tone of these letters they produced no effect upon the obstinate Valencians. The Cortes and the city joined in sending a deputation to the king to remonstrate against the proposed violation of their rights. The Maestre Racional stood by and did nothing to remove the dead-lock. Even the Royal Council of Valencia prevented the inquisitors from opening their tribunal, on the ground that they were foreigners while, by the fueros, none but natives could exercise official functions. All this produced another explosion of royal anger under date of August 31st. Ferdinand roundly scolded his officials and threatened punishment proportioned to the gravity of the offence; the reasons alleged by the envoys and the council were brushed aside as untenable; he ordered the governor to set the inquisitors at work, without caring what the Córtes might do or what the people might say, and he exhorted the inquisitors to lose no time in performing their duties. The struggle continued but at length opposition was broken down and, on November 7, 1484, the inquisitors were able formally to assume their functions by preaching their sermon de la fe and publishing their edicts. Although they were thus in shape to carry on the business of the tribunal, the usual solemnities were omitted and they did not venture to exact, from the secular and ecclesiastical dignitaries, the customary oaths-all of which Ferdinand subsequently ordered to be performed.3

Scarcely had the inquisitors commenced operations when Borgia's representative, the Archdeacon Mateo Mercader, was the cause of fresh trouble. Discord arose between him and Juan de Epila which threatened to have even more serious results than his quarrels with Gualbes, which had compromised the attempt to revive the old Inquisition. Ferdinand's patience was exhausted and so serious did he consider the situation that he despatched his secretary, Antonio Salavert, to Valencia armed with peremptory orders to Mercader and the governor. The former was

1 Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 19-22.

2 Ibidem, Reg. 3684, fol. 25, 26.

3 Zurita, Añales, Lib. xx, cap. lxv.-Páramo, p. 187.-Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 34.

required to make over his episcopal functions to Martí Trigo, another vicar-general, to surrender the bull of December 4, 1481, delegating to him inquisitorial powers, and no longer to meddle in any way with the Holy Office. In case of disobedience, the governor was instructed, without a moment's delay, to order him under pain of five thousand florins, to depart within twenty-four hours for the royal court and to be beyond the frontier of Valencia within six days; if he failed in this all his temporalities were to be seized to defray the fine and further contumacy was to be met by banishing him from the kingdom as a disobedient rebel. The inquisitors were also told no longer to summon him to their deliberations and not to allow him to take part in their action.1 All this was in flagrant violation of the fueros of the land and independence of the Church and shows what latitude Ferdinand allowed himself when the Inquisition was concerned. It was successful however and we hear no more of Mercader, though it was not until February 8, 1486, that the curia assented to this arbitrary illegality by withdrawing his commission along with those of the old inquisitors.?

Still, Valencia was not disposed to allow to the Inquisition the untrammelled exercise of its powers or to render to it the assistance required of all the faithful. The nobles continued for some months to offer resistance and when this was nominally broken down it continued in a passive form. To meet it, Ferdinand, in a letter of August 17, 1485, ordered Mossen Joan Carrasquier, alguazil of the Inquisition, at the simple bidding of the inquisitors, to arrest and imprison any one, no matter how high in station. For this he was not to ask the concurrence of any secular authority, for the whole royal power was committed to him and all officials, under pain of two thousand gold florins, and other arbitrary punishment, were required to lend him active assistance. Even this infraction of the royal oath to respect the liberties of the subject did not suffice, for another letter of January 23, 1486, states that the nobles continued to give refuge in their lands to fugitives from the Inquisition, even to those condemned and burnt in effigy, wherefore they were summoned, under their allegiance and a penalty of twenty thousand gold florins, to surrender to the alguazil all whom he might designate and to aid him in seizing them. About the same time Ferdinand placed the royal palace

1 Arch. Gen. de la C. de A., Reg. 3684, fol. 32, 34.

2 Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Libro 1, fol. 31.