History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic, vol 2 | Page 5

concerned the
confiscation of property, which it rightly regarded as the moving power
of the whole terrible machinery. [6]
Both the pope and the king, as may be imagined, turned a deaf ear to
these remonstrances. In the mean while the Inquisition commenced
operations, and autos da fe were celebrated at Saragossa, with all their
usual horrors, in the months of May and June, in 1485. The
discontented Aragonese, despairing of redress in any regular way,
resolved to intimidate their oppressors by some appalling act of
violence. They formed a conspiracy for the assassination of Arbues, the
most odious of the inquisitors established over the diocese of Saragossa.
The conspiracy, set on foot by some of the principal nobility, was
entered into by most of the new Christians, or persons of Jewish
extraction in the district. A sum of ten thousand reals was subscribed to
defray the necessary expenses for the execution of their project. This
was not easy, however, since Arbues, conscious of the popular odium
that he had incurred, protected his person by wearing under his
monastic robes a suit of mail, complete even to the helmet beneath his

hood. With similar vigilance, he defended, also, every avenue to his
sleeping apartment. [7]
At length, however, the conspirators found an opportunity of surprising
him while at his devotions. Arbues was on his knees before the great
altar of the cathedral, near midnight, when his enemies, who had
entered the church in two separate bodies, suddenly surrounded him,
and one of them wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while another
dealt him a fatal blow in the back of his neck. The priests, who were
preparing to celebrate matins in the choir of the church, hastened to the
spot; but not before the assassins had effected their escape. They
transported the bleeding body of the inquisitor to his apartment, where
he survived only two days, blessing the Lord that he had been
permitted to seal so good a cause with his blood. The whole scene will
readily remind the English reader of the assassination of Thomas à
Becket. [8]
The event did not correspond with the expectations of the conspirators.
Sectarian jealousy proved stronger than hatred of the Inquisition. The
populace, ignorant of the extent or ultimate object of the conspiracy,
were filled with vague apprehensions of an insurrection of the new
Christians, who had so often been the objects of outrage; and they
could only be appeased by the archbishop of Saragossa, riding through
the streets, and proclaiming that no time should be lost in detecting and
punishing the assassins.
This promise was abundantly fulfilled; and wide was the ruin
occasioned by the indefatigable zeal, with which the bloodhounds of
the tribunal followed up the scent. In the course of this persecution, two
hundred individuals perished at the stake, and a still greater number in
the dungeons of the Inquisition; and there was scarcely a noble family
in Aragon but witnessed one or more of its members condemned to
humiliating penance in the autos da fe. The immediate perpetrators of
the murder were all hanged, after suffering the amputation of their right
hands. One, who had appeared as evidence against the rest, under
assurance of pardon, had his sentence so far commuted, that his hand
was not cut off till after he had been hanged. It was thus that the Holy
Office interpreted its promises of grace. [9]
Arbues received all the honors of a martyr. His ashes were interred on
the spot where he had been assassinated. [10] A superb mausoleum was

erected over them, and, beneath his effigy, a bas-relief was sculptured
representing his tragical death, with an inscription containing a suitable
denunciation of the race of Israel. And at length, when the lapse of
nearly two centuries had supplied the requisite amount of miracles, the
Spanish Inquisition had the glory of adding a new saint to the calendar,
by the canonization of the martyr under Pope Alexander the Seventh, in
1664. [11]
The failure of the attempt to shake off the tribunal served only, as usual
in such cases, to establish it more firmly than before. Efforts at
resistance were subsequently, but ineffectually, made in other parts of
Aragon, and in Valencia and Catalonia. It was not established in the
latter province till 1487, and some years later in Sicily, Sardinia, and
the Balearic Isles. Thus Ferdinand had the melancholy satisfaction of
riveting the most galling yoke ever devised by fanaticism, round the
necks of a people, who till that period had enjoyed probably the
greatest degree of constitutional freedom which the world had
witnessed.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, iii. lib. 1, cap. 10.--Pulgar,
Reyes Católicos, part. 3, cap. 27, 39, 67, et alibi.--L. Marineo, Cosas
Memorables, fol. 175.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol.