PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

was soon felt of a rigid definition of orthodoxy, while the licence which had been good-naturedly
tolerated, so long as it did not threaten the loss of power and wealth, became heresy, to be diligently
inquired into and relentlessly punished. Men who esteemed themselves good Catholics, and had no
thought of withdrawing from obedience to the Holy See, found themselves accused of heresy and liable
to its penalties. Prior to the definitions of the Council of Trent, there was a certain amount of debatable
ground, within which no authoritative decision had as yet rendered the speculations of the schoolmen
articles of faith. Erasmus, for instance, had not been called to account for asserting that sacramental
confession was not of divine law but, as the conflict grew more desperate, and the Church found
defence of its outworks to be requisite, it became heretical to question the divine origin of confession,
even before the Council had made it de fide. We shall then find the chief sufferers from inquisitorial
action divided into two classes. Before the middle of the century they largely consist of unconscious
heretics--of men who, prior to the condemnation of Luther, would have been reckoned as undoubtedly
orthodox. After 1550, with some exceptions, like Carranza, they were those who had knowingly and
[413] consciously embraced more or less of the doctrines of the Reformation. Outside of these another,
and by no means the least numerous class, can be defined of those who incurred more or less vehement
suspicion of heresy through mere carelessness, in the constantly increasing rigor of external
observance. It is doubtless to the first of these classes that we may refer the earliest victim of so-called
Lutheranism whom I have found recorded--Gonsalvo the Painter of Monte Alegre in Murcia, a resident
in Majorca, relaxed, in 1523, by that tribunal as a Lutheran. It is inconceivable that Lutheran errors
could have penetrated at that time to Majorca, or that the inquisitor could have had any clear
conception of what they were and, as Gonsalvo is described as a negativo, he doubtless considered
himself a good Catholic and perished because he would not admit himself to be otherwise. (1)
It was not until 1521 that the curia was aroused to the necessity of preventing the dissemination in
Spain of the new doctrines in the writings of Luther. The Nuncio Aleander, writing from Worms,
February 18th of that year, mentioned that in Flanders Spanish versions of Luther's books were in
press, through the efforts of the Marrani, and that Charles V had given orders to suppress them. (2)
Acting promptly on this, Leo X, on March 21st, addressed briefs to the Constable and Admiral of
Castile--the governors in Charles's absence--exhorting them to prevent the introduction of such works,
and Cardinal Adrian lost no time in ordering, April 7th, the tribunals to seize all the obnoxious volumes
that they could find, an order which he repeated May 7, 1523, together with instructions to the
corregidors to enforce the surrender of the books to the inquisitors. (3) Very earnest letters were also
written, April 12 and 13, 1521, to Charles V, by an assembly of grandees, and by the President and
Council of State, urging him to adopt strong measures to prevent the spread of Lutheranism, which had
been introduced into Spain and threatened to develop. (4)
[414] These may be regarded as measures rather precautionary than called for by existing exigencies.
So far as the records of the Inquisition have been searched there is no trace, for some years as yet, of
prosecutions for Lutheranism, save the solitary case above referred to. With the return of Charles to
Spain, in 1522, the influence of Erasmus seemed to promise a perpetuation of the freedom and even
licence of speech, of which he was the protagonist. The emperor was his admirer and he became the
fashion among courtiers and churchmen pretending to culture. The Inquisitor-general Manrique openly
defended him, and so did the primate, Alfonso Fonseca, Archbishop of Toledo. His immense reputation,
the immunity conferred on him by the patronage of successive popes against the vindictiveness of the
religious Orders, provoked by his merciless ridicule, and the futility of condemnations by scholastic
faculties, seemed a guarantee for those who merely echoed the opinions to which he had given
currency so wide. So it continued until, in 1527, a translation of his Enchiridion was issued by Alonso
Fernández de Madrid, Archdeacon of Alcor. It was dedicated to Archbishop Manrique, who had it duly