Hostility of the Inquisition to the progress of literature and science—examples—freemasonry a peculiar object of persecution by the holy tribunal—interesting trial of M. Tournon—cruelty of the Inquisition in the nineteenth century—affecting account of the sufferings of Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano—remarks by Puigblanch on the iniquitous procedure of the holy office.

We have already seen, in the case of the famous Galileo, the determined opposition of the Inquisition to the progress of science. Many other examples of a similar kind might be added. Not content with exerting a rigid censorship over the press, the Inquisitors intruded into private houses, ransacked the libraries of the learned and curious, and carried off and retained at their pleasure, such books as they in their ignorance suspected to be of a dangerous character, besides inflicting punishment on their owners. So late as the beginning of the eighteenth century, we find Manuel Martini, dean of Alicant, and one of the most enlightened of his countrymen in that age, complaining bitterly in his confidential correspondence of what he suffered from such proceedings.

Under the reign of the fanatical Philip V., Don Melchior de Macanez, one of the most learned statesmen in Spain, having drawn up a report by order of the king, at a time when it was in agitation to suspend the remittances of money with which Spain then supplied Rome, was compelled to take refuge in France, in order to avoid being immured in the dungeons of the Inquisition. His property was in the meantime seized, and himself excommunicated. After an exile of ten years, during which he made numerous supplications to his faithless sovereign, he was at length recalled with the promise of pardon. But on his arrival in Spain he was arrested and confined in the Inquisition of Segovia, till the reign of Charles III.

Luis de Leon, Professor of Scripture in the University of Salamanca, was apprehended and imprisoned in the Inquisition, for making a version of the Song of Solomon for his private use. For this heinous crime, he was condemned to solitary confinement for no less than five years. The professors of the Hebrew and Chaldean languages, and of Rhetoric and Greek, in the same University, were likewise arrested and imprisoned by the holy tribunal, for publishing works eminently calculated to improve the mind, and advance the literature of their country.

The Inquisition, indeed, "has at all times evinced towards learned men the greatest enmity, and has driven many to the brink of the precipice through its absurd and violent conduct, or caused them to separate from the Roman Catholic Church, particularly when they have been animated by more than ordinary zeal. Aonius Palearius, whose singular merit, and disastrous end wrest from historians the most lively sentiments of compassion, may serve as an example of this fatal truth. His merit was universally acknowledged, not only on the score of philosophy, of which he was a professor in Milan, when he was arrested, and where he had besides published an estimable Latin poem, on the immortality of the soul, as well as several orations in the same language, but also as far as regards theology, which, notwithstanding he was a secular, and married, he possessed in an eminent degree. Many cardinals, and even Pope Paul IV., honoured him with their friendship; and Philip II. granted him certain privileges, and ordered a large salary to be assigned him for his subsistence. His zeal was particularly displayed in drawing up a charge, or, as he calls it, a declaration against the Roman Pontiffs, as corrupters of discipline, which he addressed to Charles V. and the three other Christian princes, in order to excite attention to this subject on the convocation of a general council, at that time agitated, and which ended in that of Trent. This paper was in the meantime deposited in the hands of his friends, in case he should previously die, or the Inquisition, which had already threatened him, should sacrifice him, as it afterwards did. [24]

"Without entering into a long enumeration of all the sciences, as well as of the persons who have been eminent therein, it would not be possible to give a complete idea of the individuals who have suffered by the proceedings of the Inquisition; John Reuchlin, in Germany—Picus, Prince of Mirandula, in Italy—Peter Ramus in France—and Desiderius Erasmus, every where—had to endure the lash of this infernal fury; yet no nation has thereby suffered so much as Spain. In the seventeenth century, father Pedro de Soto, a wise and pious writer—father Juan de Villagarcia, professor of theology at Oxford—and in general all the learned men who at that time visited England, became its victims. Father JosÉ de SigÜenza, a diligent and polished historian—and in more recent times, many distinguished individuals, by their acquirements in history, theology, mathematics, politics, philology, &c., became objects of Inquisitorial vengeance. Finally, within late years, not a few enlightened persons of literary pursuits and known probity, have had to drag a miserable existence within the walls of the Inquisition, on account of denunciations ridiculous and chimerical, or have been admonished or threatened by it. Even in the way of artists of any pre-eminence, this tribunal has placed obstacles. A navigator, who, by discovering a new route, had performed a voyage in less than the customary time—a master of the first rudiments, who, by his genius and constancy, had brought forward and improved his scholars quicker than his competitors—and even the handicraftsman who has enjoyed more credit than others of his own class—have incurred the displeasure of the Inquisition, and been entangled in its toils."

"The Inquisition," says Dr. M'Crie, "was not satisfied with preventing heretical men and books from coming into Spain, it exerted itself with equal zeal in preventing orthodox horses from being exported out of the kingdom. Incredible or ludicrous as this may appear to the reader, nothing can be more unquestionable than the fact, and nothing demonstrates more decidedly the unprincipled character of the Inquisitors, as well as those who had recourse to its agency to promote their political schemes. As early as the fourteenth century it had been declared illegal to transport horses from Spain to France. This prohibition originated entirely in views of political economy, and it was the business of the officers of the customs to prevent the contraband trade. But on occasion of the wars which arose between the Papists and Protestants of France, and the increase of the latter on the Spanish borders, it occurred to Philip as an excellent expedient for putting down the prohibited commerce, to commit the task to the Inquisition, whose services would be more effectual than those of a hundred thousand frontier guards. With this view he procured a bull from the Pope, which, with a special reference to the Protestants of France, and the inhabitants of Bearn in particular, declared all to be suspected of heresy who should furnish arms, ammunition, or other instruments of war to heretics. In consequence of this, the council of the supreme, in 1569, added to the annual edict of denunciation a clause obliging all, under the pain of excommunication, to inform against any who had bought or transported horses for the use of the French Protestants, which was afterwards extended to all who sent them across the Pyrenees. For this offence numbers were fined, whipped, and condemned to the galleys, by the Inquisitorial tribunals on the frontiers. Always bent on extending their jurisdiction, the Inquisitors sought to bring under their cognizance all questions respecting the contraband trade in saltpetre, sulphur, and powder."

Freemasonry, as has been already stated, was a very heinous crime in the eye of the Inquisition. The following trial which took place at Madrid, in 1757, will sufficiently prove the hatred of the "Holy Office," to all who were connected with that order. A Frenchman of the name of M. Tournon, had been invited to Spain to instruct the Spaniards in the art of making brass or copper buckles; but in the year above mentioned, he was denounced to the Inquisition, by one of his pupils, as a favourer of heresy. His heresy consisted in having asked some of his pupils to become freemasons, and obtained their consent. At his first audience, the following conversation took place between the Inquisitors and M. Tournon, which, after the cruelties that have been detailed, will both relieve and amuse the reader. [25]

Quest. Do you know or suppose why you have been arrested by the holy office?

Ans. I suppose it is for having said that I was a freemason.

Q. Why do you suppose so?

A. Because I have informed my pupils that I was of that order, and I fear they have denounced me; for I have perceived lately, that they speak to me with an air of mystery, and their questions lead me to believe that they think me a heretic.

Q. Did you tell them the truth?

A. Yes.

Q. You are, then, a freemason?

A. Yes.

Q. How long have you been so?

A. For twenty years.

Q. Have you attended the assemblies of freemasons?

A. Yes, at Paris.

Q. Have you attended them in Spain?

A. No: I do not know if there are any lodges in Spain.

Q. If there were, would you attend them?

A. Yes.

Q. Are you a Christian, a Roman Catholic?

A. Yes; I was baptized in the parish of St. Paul, at Paris.

Q. How, as a Christian, can you dare to attend masonic assemblies, when you know, or ought to know, that they are contrary to religion?

A. I did not know that; I am ignorant of it at present, because I never saw nor heard any thing there which was contrary to religion.

Q. How can you say that, when you know that freemasons profess indifference in matters of religion, which is contrary to the articles of faith, which teach us that no man can be saved who does not profess the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion?

A. The freemasons do not profess that indifference. But it is indifferent if the person received into the order be a Catholic or not.

Q. Then the freemasons are an anti-religious body?

A. That cannot be; for the object of the institution is not to combat or deny the necessity or utility of any religion, but for the exercise of charity towards the unfortunate of any sect, particularly if he is a member of the society.

Q. One proof that indifference is the religious character of freemasons, is, that they do not acknowledge the Holy Trinity, since they only confess one God, whom they call the "Great Architect of the Universe," which agrees with the doctrine of the heretical philosophers, who say there is no true religion but natural religion, in which the existence of God the Creator only is allowed, and the rest considered as a human invention. And as M. Tournon has professed himself to be of the Roman Catholic religion, he is required, by the respect he owes to our Saviour Jesus Christ, true God and man, and to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary, our Lady, to declare the truth according to his oath, because in that case he will acquit his conscience, and it will be allowable to treat him with that mercy and compassion, which the Holy Office always shows towards sinners who confess; and if, on the contrary, he conceals any thing, he will be punished with all the severity of justice, according to the holy canons, and the laws of the kingdom.

A. The mystery of the Holy Trinity is neither maintained nor combated in the masonic lodges; neither is the religious system of the natural philosophers approved or rejected. God is designated as the Great Architect of the Universe, according to the allegories of the freemasons, which relate to architecture. In order to fulfil my promise of speaking truth, I must repeat, that in masonic lodges, nothing takes place which concerns any religious system, and that the subjects treated of are foreign to religion, under the allegories of architectural works.

Q. Do you believe as a Catholic, that it is a sin of superstition to mingle holy and religious things with profane things?

A. I am not sufficiently acquainted with the particular things which are prohibited as contrary to the purity of the Christian religion. But I have believed till now, that those who confound the one with the other, either by mistake, or a vain belief, are guilty of the sin of superstition.

Q. Is it true, that in the ceremonies which accompany the reception of a mason, the crucified image of our Saviour, the corpse of a man, and a skull, and other objects of a profane nature, are made use of?

A. The general statutes of freemasonry do not ordain these things; if they are made use of, it must arise from a particular custom, or from the arbitrary regulations of the members of the body, who are commissioned to prepare for the reception of candidates; for each lodge has particular customs and ceremonies.

Q. That is not the question; say if it is true, that these ceremonies are observed in masonic lodges?

A. Yes, or no, according to the regulations of those who are charged with the ceremonies of the institution.

Q. Were they observed when you were initiated?

A. No.

Q. What oath is it necessary to take, on being received a freemason?

A. We swear to observe secresy.

Q. On what?

A. On things which it may be inconvenient to publish.

Q. Is this oath accompanied by execrations?

A. Yes.

Q. What are they?

A. We consent to suffer all the evils which can afflict the body and soul, if we violate the oath.

Q. Of what importance is this oath, since it is believed that such formidable execrations may be used without indecency?

A. That of good order in the society.

Q. What passes in these lodges which it might be inconvenient to publish?

A. Nothing, if it is looked upon without prejudice; but, as people are generally mistaken in this matter, it is necessary to avoid giving cause of malicious interpretations; and this would take place, if what passes when the brethren assemble, were made public.

Q. Of what use is the crucifix, if the reception of a freemason is not considered as a religious act?

A. It is present, to penetrate the soul with the most profound respect, at the moment that the novice takes the oath. It is not used in every lodge, and only when particular grades are conferred.

Q. Why is the skull used?

A. That the idea of death may inspire a horror of perjury.

Q. Of what use is the corpse?

A. To complete the allegory of Hiram, architect of the temple of Jerusalem, who, it is said, was assassinated by traitors, and to induce a greater detestation of assassination, and other offences against our neighbours, to whom we ought to be as benevolent brothers.

Q. Is it true, that the festival of St. John is celebrated in lodges, and that the masons have chosen him for their patron?

A. Yes.

Q. What worship is rendered him in celebrating his festival?

A. None; that it may not be mingled with profane things. This celebration is confined to a fraternal repast, after which a discourse is read, exhorting the guests to beneficence toward their fellow-creatures, in honour of God, the great Architect, Creator, and Preserver of the universe.

Q. Is it true, that the sun, moon, and stars are honoured in the lodges?

A. No.

Q. Is it true, that their images or symbols are exposed?

A. Yes.

Q. Why are they so?

A. In order to elucidate the allegories of the great, continual, and true light, which the lodges receive from the great Architect of the world; and these representations belong to the brethren, and engage them to be charitable.

Q. M. Tournon will observe, that all the explanations he has given of the facts and ceremonies which take place in the lodges, are false, and different from those which he voluntarily communicated to other persons, worthy of belief; he is therefore again invited, by the respect he owes to God, and the Holy Virgin, to declare and confess the heresies of indifferentism, the errors of superstition, which mingle holy and profane things and the errors of idolatry, which led him to worship the stars. This confession is necessary for the acquittal of his conscience, and the good of his soul, because, if he confesses with sorrow for having committed these crimes, detesting them, and humbly soliciting pardon, (before the fiscal accuses him of these heinous sins,) the holy tribunal will be permitted to exercise towards him that compassion and mercy, which it always displays to repentant sinners; and because, if he be judicially accused, he must be treated with all the severity prescribed against heretics by the holy canons, apostolical bulls, and the laws of the kingdom.

A. I have declared the truth, and if any witnesses have deposed to the contrary, they have mistaken my words; for I have never spoken on this subject to any but the workmen in my manufactory, and then only in the same sense conveyed by my replies.

Q. Not content with being a freemason, you have persuaded other persons to be received into the order, and to embrace the heretical, superstitious, and pagan errors, into which you have fallen?

A. It is true, that I have requested these persons to become freemasons, because I thought it would be useful to them, if they travelled into foreign countries, where they might meet brothers of their order, who could assist them in any difficulty; but it is not true that I engaged them to adopt any errors contrary to the Catholic faith, since no such errors are to be found in freemasonry, which does not concern any points of doctrine.

Q. It has been already proved, that these errors are not chimerical; therefore, let M. Tournon consider that he has been a dogmatizing heretic, and that it is necessary that he should acknowledge it with humility, and ask pardon and absolution for the censures which he has incurred; since, if he persists in his obstinacy, he will destroy both his body and soul: and as this is the first audience of monition, he is advised to reflect on his condition, and prepare for the two other audiences which are granted by the compassion and mercy which the holy tribunal always feels for the accused.

After undergoing this examination, M. Tournon was remanded to prison. In two subsequent audiences he persisted in giving the same answers; but perceiving at length, that the only method by which he might escape punishment, was to acknowledge that he was wrong, he pretended that he might have been deceived, from being ignorant of particular doctrines, and requested absolution. He was accordingly sentenced to one year's imprisonment, and to be afterwards banished for ever from Spain, and obliged at the same time to promise that he would never again attend the assemblies of the freemasons.

The following account of the persecution of a Spanish Protestant priest, who was imprisoned in the Inquisition of Saragossa in 1802, is particularly deserving of notice, showing, as it does, the cruelty of the holy office, even in the nineteenth century.—"Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano, a native of Verdun, in Arragon, was vicar of Esco, in the diocess of Jaca. His benevolence and exemplary conduct endeared him to his parishioners. The goodness of his heart combined with his inventive talent in the work of fertilizing a dale, or rather a mere ravine, belonging to the inhabitants of his parish, which lay waste for the want of irrigation. Without any help from the government, and with no mechanical means but the spades of the peasants, he succeeded in diverting the waters of a mountain streamlet upon the slip of vegetable soil which had been deposited in the glen.

"A long and severe illness, which made him a cripple for life, withdrew the good vicar of Esco, from these active pursuits, and limited his employment to the perusal of the few books which his little library afforded. Providentially the Bible was one of them. Solano read the records of revelation, with a sincere desire to embrace religious truth as he found it there, and having gradually cleared and arranged his views, drew up a little system of divinity, which agreed in the main points with the fundamental tenets of the Protestant churches. His conviction of the Roman Catholic errors became so strong, that he determined to lay his book before the bishop of the diocess, asking his pastoral help and advice upon that most important subject. An answer to his arguments was promised; but despairing, after a lapse of time, to obtain it, Solano applied to the faculty of divinity of the University of Saragossa. The reverend doctors sent the book to the Inquisition, and the infirm vicar of Esco was lodged in the prisons of the holy tribunal of Saragossa in 1802. It seems that some humane persons contrived his escape soon after, and conveyed him to Oleron, the nearest French town. But Solano, having taken time to consider his case, came to the heroic resolution of asserting the truth in the very face of death; and returned of his own accord to the Inquisitorial prisons."

The Inquisitor-general at that time was Arce, archbishop of Santiago, an intimate friend of the Prince of Peace, and one strongly suspected of secret infidelity. When the sentence of the Arragonese tribunal, condemning Solano to die by fire, was presented to the supreme court for confirmation, Arce, shocked at the idea of an auto-da-fÉ, contrived every method to delay the execution. A fresh examination of witnesses was ordered, during which time the Inquisitors entreated Solano to avert his now imminent danger. Nothing, however, could move him. He said, he well knew the death that awaited him, but no human fear would ever make him swerve from the truth. The first sentence being confirmed, nothing remained but the exequatur of the supreme council. Arce, however, suspended it, and ordered an inquiry into the mental sanity of the prisoner. As nothing appeared to support this plea, Solano would have died at the stake, had not Providence snatched him from the hands of the papal defenders of the faith. A dangerous illness seized him in the prison, where he had lingered three years. The efforts to convert him were on this occasion renewed with increased ardour.

"The Inquisitors," says Llorente, "gave it in charge to the most able divines of Saragossa to reclaim Solano, and even requested Don Miguel Suarez de Santander, auxiliary bishop of that town, and apostolic missionary, (now, like myself, a refugee in France,) to exhort him, with all the tenderness and goodness of a Christian minister, which are so natural to that worthy prelate. The vicar showed a grateful sense of all that was done for him; but declared that he could not renounce his religious persuasion without offending God, by acting treacherously against the truth. On the twenty-first day of his illness, the physician warned him of approaching death, urging him to improve the short time which he had to live. 'I am in the hands of God,' answered Solano, 'and have nothing else to do.' Thus died, in 1805, the vicar of Esco. He was denied Christian burial, and his body privately interred within the inclosure of the Inquisition, near the back gate of the building, towards the Ebro. The Inquisitors reported all that had taken place to the supreme tribunal, whose members approved their conduct, and stopt all further proceedings, in order to avoid the necessity of burning the deceased in effigy."

We shall close this chapter with the following able and just remarks of Puigblanch, on the iniquitous procedure of the holy office. "The Inquisition," says that elegant writer, "in its relations as a tribunal, as well as in the laws by which it is governed, tramples to the ground the rights of the citizen, by violating in substance and in manner, the common rules and principles of justice. A code suggested and framed by fanaticism and error—a want of learning almost general, among the individuals of whom it is composed, accompanied by an omnigenous faculty of committing irregularities—together with the tyrannical oppression with which the innocent man is therein treated, when merely indicted for heresy, are all deducible from the premises established, and come in as incontrovertible arguments to prove the truth of my assertion. Busied rather in forming unhappy victims, than in extirpating crimes, this institution has spared no pains, however contrary to reason, and even to religion, as long as it was able to flatter its pride, and feed its ferocity. Secret accusation and calumny encouraged without any regard to friendship or domestic piety; the name of the Supreme Being invoked with the greatest rashness, in order to wring from the culprit a confession, which must necessarily carry him to the scaffold; mean cavils, perfidious incitements, and even gross falsehood, employed for the same purpose, and with the same iniquity—have all entered into the complicated system of the Inquisition, and constituted its chief essence and delight. Impervious prisons, secured with double bolts, and secluded from all communication; refined and overwhelming torments authorized, and even administered with unheard of cruelty, by judges, who call themselves the ministers of the God of peace: citizens, who had already paid the debt of nature, insulted in their memory, and their mouldering remnants of mortality dug out to public scorn; whole generations condemned to mendicity and infamy, even before they had commenced their existence; blazing piles of faggots, enkindled by the breath of implacable vengeance, hidden under the parade of charity—such have been the component parts which have formed the plan, and such the deeds of this formidable and bloody tribunal. And can that government be called just and beneficent, which suffers the Inquisition to rankle in its bosom?"