538 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The interest of Sixtus IV. continued to follow the tribu« nal he had authorized and, in a letter addressed to Isabella, Feb. 13, 1483, he assured the queen that its work lay close to his heart. The same year, to render the tribunal more efficient, it was raised by Ferdinand to the dignity of the fifth council of the state with the title, Coiicejo de la l^uprema y Greneral Inquisicion. Usually called the suprema, this body was to have charge of the Holy Office throughout the realm. The same end was promoted by the creation of the office of incLuisitor-general, 1-1834 to which the power was consigned of removing and appointing inquisitorial functionaries. The first incumbent was Thomas de Torquemada, at that time prior of Santa Cruz in Segovia. This fanatical ecclesiastic, whose name is a synonym of uncompromising religious intolerance and heartless cruelty, had already been appointed, in 1482, an inquisitor by the pope. He brought to his duties a rare energy and formulated the rules characteristic of the Spanish Inquisition. •
With Torquemada at its head, the Holy Office became, next to royalty itself, the strongest power in Spain. Its decisions fell like the blow of a great iron hammer, and there was no power beneath the sovereign that dared to olTer them resistance. In 1507, at the death of Deza, third inquisitor-general, Castile and Aragon were placed under distinct tribunals. Cardinal Ximenes, 1436-1517, a member of tlie Franciscan order and one of the foremost figures in Spanish church history, was elevated to the office of supreme inquisitor of Castile. His distinction as archbishop of Toledo pales before his fame as a scholar and patron of letters. He likewise was unyielding in the prosecution of the work of ridding his country of the taint of heresy, but he never gave way to the temptation of using his office for his own advantage and enriching himself from the sequestrated property of the conversos, as Torquemada was charged with doing.
Under Adrian of Utrecht, at first inquisitor-general of Aragon, the tribunals of the two kingdoms were again united in 1518, and, by the addition of Navarre, which Ferdinand had conquered, the whole Iberian peninsula, with the exception of
§ 60. THE SPANISH INQUISITION. 539
Portugal, came under the jurisdiction of a single supreme official. Adrian had acted as tutor to Charles V., and was to succeed Leo X. on the papal throne. From his administration, the succession of inquisitors-general continued unbroken till 1835, when the last occupant of the office died, Geronimo Castellan y Salas, bishop of Tarazona.^
The interesting question has been warmly discussed, whether the Inquisition of Spain was a papal institution or an institution of the state, and the attempt has been made to lift the responsibility for its organization and administration from the supreme pontiff. The answer is, that it was predominantly an ecclesiastical institution, created by the authority of Sixtus ly. and continuously supported by pontifical sanction. On the other hand, its establishment was sought after by Ferdinand and Isabella, and its operations, after the papal authorization had been secured, was under the control of the Spanish sovereign. So far as we know, the popes never uttered a word in protest against the inhuman measures which were practised by the Spanish tribunals. Their only dissent arose from the persistence with which Ferdinand kept the administrative agency in his own liands and refused to allow any interference with his disposition of the sequestrated estates. ^ The hearty
^ The list is given by Lea, I. 556-559.
2 Hefele, in his Life of Cardinal Ximenes, p. 265 sqq., took the position that the Spanish Inquisition was a state institution, Staatsanstalt, pointing out that the inquisitor-general was appointed by the king, and the inquisitors proceeded in his name. Ranke, Die Osmanen %i. d. span. Monarchie in Fiirsten u. Volker, ith ed., 1877, calls it " a royal institution fitted out with spiritual weapons." On the other hand, the Spanish historians, Orti y Lara and Rodrigo take the position that it was a papal institution. Pastor takes substantially this view when he insists upon the dominance of the religious element and the bull of Sixtus IV. authorizing it. So, he says, erscheint d. span. Inquisition als ein gemischtes Institut mit vorwiegend kirchlichem Charakter, 1st ed., II. 542-546, 4th ed., III. 624-630. Wetzer-Welte, VI. 777, occupies the same ground and quotes Orti y Lara as saying, " The Inquisition fused into one weapon the papal sword and the temporal power of kings." Dr. Lea emphasizes the mixed character of the agency, and says that the chief question is not where it had its origin, but which party derived the most advantage. It is,however, of much importance for the history of the papacy as a divine or human institution to insist upon its responsibility in authorizing and supporting the nefarious Holy Office. Funk says that "the assumption that the Spanish Inquisition was primarily a state institution does not hold good."