one kingdom, governed by Ferdinand and Isabella, to- wards the close of the 15th century, the Inquisition be- came general. It was at this time that the iiKjuisitorial tribunal underwent " what its friends have honored with the name of a reform ; in consequence of which it be- came a more terrible engine of persecution than before. Under this new form it is usually called the Jloderu In- quisition, though it may with equal propriety bear the name of the Spanish, as it originated in Spain, and has been confined to that country, including Portugal, and the dominions subject to the two monarchies. . . . The principles of the ancient and modem Inquisition were radically the same, but they assumed a more malignant form under the latter than under the former. Under the ancient Inquisition the bishops always had a certain degree of control over its proceedings; the law of secre- cy was not so rigidly enforced in practice ; greater lib- erty was allowed to the accused on their defence ; and in some countries, as in Aragon, in consequence of the civil rights acquired by the people, the inquisitors were restrained from sequestrating the property of those whom they convicted of heresy. But the leading dif- ference between the two institutions consisted in the or- ganization of the latter into one great indejiendent tri- bunal, which, extending over the whole kingdom, was governed bj' one code of laws, and yielded implicit obe- dience to one head. The inquisitor general possessed an authority scarcely inferior to that of the king or the pope ; by joining with either of them, he proved an overmatch for the other ; and when supported by both, his power was irresistible. The ancient Inquisition was a powerful engine for harassing and rooting out a small body of dissidents ; the modern Inquisition stretched its iron arms over a whole nation, upon which it lay like a monstrous incubus, paralyzing its exertions, crushing its energies, and extinguishing every other feeling but a sense of weakness and terror" (M'Crie, Ref. in Spain, p. 86, 103). Most prominent among those who were ac- tive in bringing about this new order of things were the archbishop of Seville, Petro Gonzalez de Mendoza_. the Franciscan (afterwards cardinal) Ximenes, and the Dominican prior Torquemada. But to the credit of Is- abella be it said, that it was only her zeal for the cause of her Church that led her, when misguided, to commit the unfortunate error; "an error so grave that, like a vein in some noble piece of statuary^, it gives a sinis- ter expression to her otlienvise unblemished character" (Prescott). Indeed, it was f)nly after repeated importu- nities of the clergy, particularly of those whom she be- lieved to be sincere as hcrseli' in the zeal for the Rom- ish religion, and only these when seconded by the ar- guments of Ferdinand, who, to his shame be it said, fa- vored the project because he believed it likely to result in filling his coffers by means of confiscations, that she consented to solicit from the pope a bull for the estab- lishment of the " holy office" in Castile. " Sixtus IV, who at that time filled the pontifical chair, easilj' dis- cerning the sources of wealth and infiuence which this measure opened to the court of Rome, readily complied with the petition of the sovereigns, and expedited a bull bearing date Nov. 1, 1478, authorizing them to appoint two or three ecclesiastics inquisitors for tlie detection and suppression of heresy throughout their dominions" (Prescott, i, 248, '249). The apijointmcnt of these offi- cers was made Sept. 17, 1480, the clergy in confidence with the queen professing to have failed in their at- tempts " to illuminate the benighted Israelites by means of friendly exhortation and a candid exposition of the true principles of Christianity," which Isabella had coun- selled before violent measures were resorted to. Janu- ary 2,1481, the new inquisitors commenced their pro- ceedings in the Dominican convent of St. Paul, at Se- ville. But the tribunal did not really assume a perma- nent form until two years later, when the Dominican monk Thomas de Torquemada, the queen's confessor, subsequently raised to the rank of prior of Santa Cruz in Segovia, was placed at its head as iiKpiisitor general,
IXQUISITIOX
602
INQUISITION