Llorente, Don Juan Antonio, the noted author of a historj' of the Inquisition, etc., was borit at Eincon del Soto, near Calahorra, Spain, March 30, 1756. He studied at Tarascone with great success, and received the tonsure when but fourteen years of age. In 1779
he was ordained priest, and took his degree in canon law. At tliis time the liberal ideas prevailing in France were beginning to make their way into Spain, and Llorente became interested in them. In 1781 he was named advocate of the Council of Castile, and in the year fol- lowing was made general vicar of the bishopric of Cala- horra. WhUe in this position he appears to have con- nected himself with the Freemasons, and, although this rumor seems to have been generally credited, he was nevertheless appointed commissary of the Inquisition in 1785, and general secretary in 1789. After the down- fall of the grand inquisitor he attached himself to the Liberal minister Jovellanos, who contemplated a relig- ious and political regeneration of Spain. The minister fell, and Llorente was involved in his fall, the more surely as he openly expressed his sympathy for him. Suspected by his superiors, he was closely watched. He was subjected to innumerable petty annoyances, his let- ters were opened, and, without any reason being given for the measure, was deposed from his situation, and imprisoned in a convent for one month. In 1805 he was again received into favor as the reward of a liter- ary service of a very questionable character which he rendered to the minister Godoy. The latter purposed abolishing the ancient privileges of the Basque Prov- inces, and carrying out in Sixain a thorough system of centralization ; to accomplish this, he deemed it advan- tageous to prepare the way by means of a historical es- say, disproving the ancient liberties of those province*. The mission was given to Llorente, who wrote No- iicias historicas sohre las ires provincias Bascongadas (Madrid, 1806-8, 3 vols. 8vo), a work not in any way re- markable for historical truthfidncss. Llorente was now again favored with several high offices. His tendency towards the French ideas, centralization among others, led him perhaps to accept offers which he would other- wise have rejected. Upon the intrusion of the French (1807), Llorente found himself placed between the na- tional government which opposed all progress, and that of a foreign sovereign which offered both political and religious liberty. Unable to serve at once the cause of the hereditary monarch and that of progress, Llorente and the Josephinos chose the latter; but the accusation preferred against them of having sold themselves to France (Hefele, in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, vi, 557 sq.) is unsupported by proof, and unlikely ; they simply chose a foreign master rather than religious and political slavery. In 1809 the Spanish Inquisition was abolished in Spain, and Llorente was commissioned to search its records for the jnirpose of writing a history of that tribunal. He had already, as early as 1789, be- gan to collect materials for this purpose, yet two more years were spent, with the aid of several assistants, in compiling the voluminous records. AVhen the convents were abolished he was given the direction of the pro- ceedings, and the charge of the sequestered goods, as also the administration of the national properties, an ungrateful and not verj' creditable task, for these prop- erties were the result of sequestration ; yet he claimed afterwards to have introduced many favorable changes in the administration, such, for instance, as that of leaving the management of the property belonging to parties put under the ban to the members of their fam- ily, and the many distinguished persons of Spain to whom he appealed in corroboration of his assertion have never denied its truth. He was, however, accused of embezzlement to the amount of 11,000,000 reals, and lost his position ; but the accusation not being substan- tiated, he was indemnitied by another situation. In the mean time he continued to advocate the cause of Joseph Bonaparte both by his pen and in pubUc addresses, and when the celebrated Constitution of the Cortes of Cadiz was proclaimed he" was one of its most zealous oppo- nents. When Joseph lost the Spanish throne (1814) Llorente was obliged to quit the country in haste. Af- ter his night, banishment was pronounced against him, and his property, and his hbrary of 8000 volumes, some
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of which were rare and costly manuscripts, were seques- tered. After stopping a short time in London, Llorente settled in Paris, where he completed the work of which he had published a sketch in Spain : Histoire critique de V Inquisition cVEspaync (4 vols. 8vo). It was written in Spanish, but was immediately translated into French by Alexis FelUer, under Llorente's own supervision (Par. 1817-18). Translations into most of the languages of Europe were made shortly afterwards. One of the best English editions was published in London in 1826. (For a review, see British Critic, i, 119.) Llorente was now the outspoken enemy of the Church, and he was forbid- den to officiate as priest in Paris, and thus deprived of his regular means of support. He next attempted to earn a living by teaching Spanish, but the University of Paris forbade him teaching in public, and he became altogether dependent on his literary labors and the as- sistance of his masonic brethren for a support. To what straits he found liimself reduced is seen in the fact that he translated Faublas into Spanish. In 1822 he published his Portraits politiques des Fcqjes, which still increased the animosity of the clergy against him, and in this instance it must be granted that he reck- lessly provoked this enmity by accepting as undoubted facts such legends as that of the popess Joanna, etc., while his friends were obliged to admit that the nature, tendencies, and even the tone of the work were not be- coming the character of a priest. In December of the same year (1822) he received orders to leave France within three days. Exiled from the land of his adop- tion, he returned to that of his birth, but died shortly after (Feb. 5, 1823) at Madrid, in consequence of the hardships he had undergone during his journey.