The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-21

IN all officials OF the lnQutGttton. SO re-
markable, however. was this development
OF the prevailing fanaticism and 70
much influence did it exercise on the
social condition Of Spain that il deserves
a somewhat detailed Investigation. The
frst indication Of this exclusiveness was
seen in 1859, when all conpeTsos were stripped
Of Official positions. az being suspect in the
faith. This statute called forth from Pope
Nicholas v. a bull ~denouncing such legis-
Iation as un-Christian. and forbidding
discrimination between Old and New Chris
tisns. The earliest Papal recognition Of a
distinction between Old and New Chris
tisns in Spain was a bull OF Sixtus w.,
which in 1883 ordered that episcopal in
o~uisitors should be Old Christians. The
next incident was more p~ortentous. When
10 1885 a temporary Inquisition was estab-
lshed in the Geronimite monastery of
Gnadaloupe a Jew was found among the
monks who had been living as one OF them
for forty years. and yet had never been
Gptized. His prompt burning in front
Of the convent gates did not allay the dread
thai other heretics might find refuge in
similar houses Of the order, and the General
Chapter decTeed that no descendant OF q
Jew should he admitted: those already
entered. II they had not professed, were to
Be expelled, and IL they had professed
were 10 I've incapacitated for any honor
or dignity. The new rule was practically
confirmed by a brief of Innocent VIII.
Subsequently Torquemada, Apprehensive
that the hatred which he had earned from
the conrersos might lead them TO enter
the convent which he had founded at Avila,
applied in 1893 to Alexander VI. for a decree
~forbidding the reception Of any one de-
scended directly or indirectly from Jews,
. request which was readily granted.
The tide Of prescription now rose rap
IDLY. In 1922 the Suprema Supreme Council
Of the Inquisition) issued a decree prohib-
iting the universities OF Salamanca, Valla-
dold and Toledo from comforting degrees
on any convert from Judaism or on any
son or grandson of one condemned by
the Inquisition. 1t would not be easy
TO ~exaggerate the effect OF thus barring
the way to all the learned professions and
consequently to public employment and &C.
clesiastical preferment. Three years later
the O~bservantine Franciscans procured from
Clement VII. a brief providing that in Spain
no Fraile descended from Jews or from one
convicted by the Inquisition should be pro-
mOteu 10 ally OUNCb OT uAkuAIy hHu JldJ
thereafter no one laboring under such de-
Tects should be admitted into the order.
By this time the question OF limpie4d was
ever present and every one was popularity
classed as an Old Christian or a New, for
Renealogies seem to v been public
property. The increasing importance OF the
matter is indicated by a petition Of the
Cortes of Segovia in 1882 that those should
be held as Old Christians who could prove
their descent from Christian parents, grand
parents and great grandparents-or, il
necessary, from observation-disclosures
and that no imputation Of lack OF impiesd,
or purity OF blood, should be cast on them
unless there was evidence to prove their
descent from Jews or Moors or that an an
cestor had been condemned by the Inqui-
sition.
The movement against the New Chris
tans constantly gained momentum. The
Dominicans had not at first been as active
as the Franciscans in obtaining Papal pro-
lection OF their lin piezd, but in 1912 Paul Ill.
prohibited the Dominicans Of Aragon from
receiving into the order descendants Of Jews
or Of convicts Of the Inquisition to the fourth
generation. six years later the Archbishop
Of Toledo enumerates among the bodies
refusing admission to all except Old Chris
tians the three great military orders OF
Santiago, Calatrava and Alcantara, MEM
bership in which was the object Of ambition
70 almost every Spanish layman Of gentle
birth. In all the Spanish colleges, including
that Of Bologna, lone but Old Christians
were received and from these colleges
were drawn the members Of councils and
chancelleries and other judicial officials.
The same exclusion was practised by many
cathedral chapters, numerous confrater-
mites we're based upon it and many entailed
estates were conditioned on it. Thus the
mania for absolute purity OF blood spread
irresistibly, and it is safe to say that by
the middle Of the sixteenth century the
avenues of distinction and even OF liveli-
hood in public life and in the Church were
almost entirely closed TO all who bore the
fatal mdnchd, or stain. OF Jewish or Moorish
descent. In time even admission TO holy
orders required proof Of hmpieSG.
S~ingularly enough, the Inquisition, in
stead Of taking the initiative, was tardy
in exacting purity Of blood from its own
employees. As late as 1547 the Cortes Of
Monzon complained that Moriscos were
appointed as familiars Of the InCuisition,
and the answer OF the Supreme was a for
NAL declaration that the Inquisition re-
garded as capable Of holding Office all h
had been baptized, and VINO lived as Chris
tians, except heretics, or spostates, or
fautors Of heretics. IL was not until 1880
that the Supreme issued an order that all
familiars must b. married men and linpios
(f pure blood. Not much attention was
paid to this order, however, for five years
later Philip II. himself issued a series OF
conciliatory instructions regarding the
Moriscos OF Valencia, in which he ordered
that their leading men should be made
familiars Of the Inquisition, Not long
afterward, nevertheless, the test was APP
piled to all new appointments, and no one
was admitted to Office in any capacity
under the Inquisition who was not free from
the faint Of Jewish or Moorish blood or Of
ancestral punishment. Unfortunately, in
the craze for absolute linpiesG no limit was
set to the number Of generations through
which a faint could be transmitted. In
1882 the Cortes Of CASTLE had petiti0ned
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