be converted into benefices. There was delay in carrying this out, which interfered with the conversion, for the lords held back until assured of what they should get, but, April 28, 1526, Charles procured from the Legate Salviati a bull on the subject, which we are told gave rise to innumerable suits, some of them carried up to the Roman Rota, as the measure was attacked for invalidity. It provided that the Moriscos should pay tithes like Christians, but to the king or their other lords in lieu of the old tribute; the funds of the mosques were to be used for the churches, and what tithes the Moors had paid to their mosques were still to be continued; if the funds thus were more than what was necessary to support the churches, the surplus was to be paid to the lords, to whom was assured the patronage of these churches and of all new ones erected, and all were to be free from any impost to the episcopal Ordinaries.1 The lords, secular and ecclesiastical, thus sold their consent to the conversion of their vassals at a good price, to the impoverishment of the new establishment. The churches thus founded came to be known as rectories, of which we shall hear much hereafter. Such was the foundation on which Manrique had to build. There had been 213 mosques converted into churches in the archbishopric of Valencia, 14 in Tortosa, 10 in Segorbe and 14 in Orihuela, but the object kept in view had been the revenues and not the instruction of the Moriscos.2 Acting under the papal faculties, Manrique, January 14, 1534 despatched to Valencia Fray Alonso de Calcena and Don Antonio Ramirez de Haro, after 1 Sayas, Añales, cap. 110.-Dormer, Añales, Lib. II. cap. 2. wards Bishop of Segovia, as his subdelegates armed with full powers and also with the title of inquisitors. Their instructions were that after consultation with the viceroy, the Duke of Calabria, husband of Queen Germaine, they were to complete the ecclesiastical arrangements for the Moriscos. If the rectors, who apparently were not expected to reside but merely to enjoy the revenues, have income sufficient to provide chaplains and sacristans they must do so; where they cannot, these must be furnished by the prelates who receive the tithes and first-fruits. If the nobles endow benefices they are to be patrons with power of presentation; where they do not, the preferment is to be given to persons belonging to the place or the nearest vicinity, taking care that the appointees are fitted for the work and that moderate salaries be assigned to them by the commissioners in conjunction with the Ordinaries. Careful selection must be made of sacristans who will administer justice, keep the churches clean and instruct the children in the faith, while, for the adults, preachers must be provided and means found for their support. A college must be founded for the education of children, who in turn will instruct their parents, and the means for this must be discussed. Arrangements must be made with the Ordinaries for the administration of the sacraments gratuitously, or very cheaply, so that the Moriscos may not be repelled from them, and confession is not to be obligatory except at Easter, Annunciation, Ascension of the Virgin and All Saints. Marriage fees must be reduced; if the Ordinaries will not consent to this the matter is to be referred back to Manrique.1 1 Archivo de Simancas, Inqn, Libro 77, fol. 227. (See Appendix No. VIII.) While much of this was intelligently adapted to the situation one cannot but reflect that eight years had passed since the enforced baptism of the Moriscos, that all this elementary work had still to be done, and that the most prominent feature of the difficulties to be encountered is revealed to be the money question. The Moriscos were wellnigh supporting the whole kingdom with the products of their toil, yet all their earnings, beyond a bare subsistence, were so greedily clutched by noble and prelate that it was impossible to find means for the religious training that was essential to the safety of the state. When the final expulsion took place we are told that it reduced the revenues of the archbishop from 70,000 ducats to 50,000 showing how large was the income contributed by the Moriscos, yet all that could be drawn from the archiepiscopal and other ecclesiastical revenues by papal authority, for the support of a hundred and ninety new rectories founded by the commissioners was 2000 ducats per annum, to endow with 30 crowns a year those which were not supported by the first-fruits, and when St. Tomas de Vilanova assumed the archbishopric, in 1544, it was burdened with this pension, then designated as suggested by the commissioners for the foundation of the college, and a further pension of 3000 ducats for his predecessor Jorje de Austria who had accepted the benefice of Liege. At the same time St. Tomas urged Charles to place zealous and exemplary rectors in the Morisco villages with ample salaries to enable them to distribute alms, but it does not seem to have occurred to him that this was part of his duty and that of the Church. No change was made and 1 Cabrera, Relaciones, p. 464 (Madrid, 1857). —Fonseca, p. 21.--Coleccion de Doc. ined. T. V. p. 81. In 1588 Philip ordered the Arch in 1559 a formal report to Philip II. stated that men could not be found to serve as rectors for the beggarly pittance of thirty ducats a year.1 It seemed impossible to eradicate the idea that persuasion must be supplemented or superseded by force. In 1535 we hear that in the Val de Alfandecheln the commissioners appointed an alguazil to drive the Moriscos to church on Sundays and feast-days and to punish those who did not go. His arbitrary proceedings displeased the Duke of Gandia who complained to the viceroy that so evil a man should have been selected. The viceroy sent for the alguazil who, on the road to Valencia, was murdered by Gandia's servants, whereupon the inquisitors applied to the Suprema for instructions and were ordered to prosecute the murderers vigorously and to inquire why the viceroy dared to summon an official of the Inquisition. How little had been accomplished by thus attempting to enforce this outward conformity is seen in the report of the inquisitors that the new converts live as Moors, circumcise their sons and fast so that Allah may grant victory to Barbarossa against Charles V. before Tunis. The Cortes of 1537 might well embody in their complaints against the Inquisition that the Moriscos had not been instructed in the faith nor properly provided with churches and yet they were prosecuted for heresy, to which the Suprema loftily replied that they had been treated with all moderation and benignity; as for the bishop of Valencia and Bishop of Segorbe to establish a seminary for Moriscos to be supported by 1000 ducats a year levied on the tabla or bourse of Valencia. -Danvila, p. 217. 1 Danvila, p. 159. 2 Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 77, fol. 353. rest, provision would be made with the emperor's assent.1 How slender was the provision may be gathered from a letter of the empress-queen, September 30, 1536, to the commissioner Haro stating that in the town of Oxea, with a population of four hundred households, mostly Moriscos, there was but one priest, who was manifestly insufficient for their instruction and guidance, wherefore he was ordered to establish two more there.2 There must have been a considerable revenue derived from a place of that size and some one was doubtless enjoying it. There appears to have been some episcopal co-operation when we are told that the Archbishop Jorge de Austria on leaving his see for Flanders, in 1539, issued new constitutions for the conversion of the Moriscos and renewed the commission of Benito de Santo Maria to preach to them.3 The commissions granted by Manrique to Calcena and Haro were held to expire with his death in 1538 and the work was suspended until his successor Tabera was reinvested with the papal faculties. As soon as this occurred Haro, now Bishop of Cindad Rodrigo, was again commissioned and sent to Valencia with full power to prosecute the work. He remained until 1545 when he withdrew in obedience to a summons to attend the council of Trent (he was then Bishop of Segovia) from which, however he succeeded in getting himself excused, when Prince Philip asked the Archbishop Tomas de Vilanova to take charge of the matter. The latter assented, although, as he truly said, the work was so important and 1 Archivo de Simancas, Patronato Real, Inquisicion, Leg. único, fol. 38. 3 Danvila, p. 126. 2 Ibid. Inquisicion, Libro 926, fol. 79. |