A History of the Inquisition of Spain (Vol. 1-4). Henry Charles Lea
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give them all necessary aid and to protect and defend their privileges.
The Concordia thus granted to Valencia confirmed that of 1554 and ordered its observance, adding a number of special provisions, highly suggestive of the abuses which had flourished. As affording a view in some detail of the causes of popular irritation and of the remedies sought, I subjoin an abstract of the articles bearing on the subject.
Outside of the city the local magistrates are to have cognizance of civil cases of familiars involving less than twelve libras.
Familiars of other districts settling in Valencia lose the fuero, but retain it if the residence is temporary.
The number of familiars is to be reduced to that provided in 1554, weeding out the least desirable.
They must present themselves with their commissions to the local magistrates in order to be entered on the lists, without which they forfeit their exemption.
The provision depriving those in trade of the fuero, for frauds and offences committed in their business, which has not been observed, is to be enforced.
Crimes committed prior to appointment are not entitled to the fuero.
No cleric or religious or powerful noble or baron is to be appointed.
Consultors are not to be considered as officials, but only persons holding commissions from the inquisitor-general, to whom may be added a steward of the prison and two advocates of prisoners.
In future the servants of officials must really be servants living with them and receiving regular wages in order to be protected by the inquisitors.
Inquisitors are not to interfere, at the petition of an official or familiar, with the regulations of the college of surgeons.
Any familiar who is a carpenter and who brings lumber from the sierra of Cuenca shall not be protected by the inquisitors, but shall be left for judgement to the secular court.
Outside of cases of heresy inquisitors must not interfere with the execution of justice by the royal judges under pretext that culprits have committed offences pertaining to them, but in such cases the judges shall be notified and allowed to execute justice, after which the inquisitors can inflict punishment. In case of heresy, however, a prisoner can be demanded, to be returned after trial, provided he is not sentenced to relaxation.
Familiars are not to be protected in the violation of municipal regulations, nor, during pestilence, in the refusal to observe the regulations for the avoidance of contagion; they must submit for inspection the goods which they bring in and the royal judges shall not be prevented from imposing the penalties provided in the royal pragmática.
Commissioners shall not form competencias with secular or ecclesiastical judges, nor shall their assistants enjoy greater privileges than familiars.
Persons temporarily employed to make arrests, or to read the edicts, or as procurators, etc., shall not be defended by the inquisitors.
As the inquisitorial district of Valencia comprehends Teruel in Aragon and Tortosa in Catalonia, those places are not to be exempted from the Concordia under the pretext that the Concordia of 1554 spoke of the kingdom of Valencia.
The widows of officials, while remaining unmarried, enjoy both civil and criminal fuero, but not their children and families as has been the case, but widows of familiars are deprived of it and are not to be defended by the inquisitors.
The judge employed by the inquisitors to hear the cases of officials and familiars is to be dismissed; such cases are to be heard by the inquisitors outside of the regular hours of service and for this they are to charge no fees.
Servants and families of salaried officials are only to have the passive fuero in civil cases, like familiars.
Inquisitors are no longer to defend familiars in matters of the apportionment of irrigating waters, injuries to harvests, vineyards, pastures, forests, furnishing of lights, licences for building, street-cleaning, road-mending and furnishing provisions.
Inquisitors are not to publish edicts with excommunication for the discovery of debts, thefts or other hidden offences committed against officials and familiars, nor such edicts against any delinquents save in cases of heresy.
Persons arrested, except for heresy, are not to be confined in the secret prison but in the public one, where they can confer with their counsel and procurators, and they are to be allowed to hear mass and receive the sacraments.
Familiars holding office are not to be defended for official frauds or malfeasance, but the secular authorities are to be freely allowed to administer justice.
Inquisitors shall not give safe-conducts to persons outlawed or banished by the royal judges, except in cases of faith and then only for the time necessary to appear before them.
When any official or familiar, in criminal or civil cases not of faith, has consented tacitly or explicitly to the secular jurisdiction or has pleaded clergy, the inquisitors shall not protect him nor inhibit the secular judges. And if any official or familiar inherits property in litigation the case shall remain in the court where it is pending.
As familiars in civil cases have only the passive and not the active fuero there shall no longer, as heretofore, be artifices employed, such as pretended criminal prosecutions and interdicts, to obtain cognizance of such cases, but they shall be conducted in the court of the defendant.
When a suit between outsiders has been decided, if any official or familiar intervenes to prevent the execution of the decision, on the pretext that he is in possession of the property at issue or a part of it, the inquisitors shall not support him in it.
VALENCIA
If an outsider commits a crime while in company with an official or familiar, or is an accomplice in a crime committed by an official or familiar, the inquisitors shall not have cognizance of his case but only of that of the official or familiar.
When a grave crime has been committed by or against a familiar the inquisitors shall not send a judge to take testimony or punish, with salary by the day, but shall avoid expense by making a commissioner gather the evidence.
Inquisitors shall no longer enforce contracts of peace and truce unless they have been entered into before them or by their order.
Inquisitors shall not have cognizance of contracts between outsiders because of a clause submitting them to the fuero, nor of cases of donations or cession to officials or familiars.
Inquisitors shall not protect widows of officials and familiars in refusing to pay imposts and contributions.
When inquisitors have to summon secular judges before them it must be only in cases where it is unavoidable and then only with great consideration.
If a bankrupt is a familiar the inquisitors have cognizance, but not in the case of an outsider under pretext that an official or familiar is a creditor.
Familiars shall not make arrests or other execution of justice without orders from inquisitors.
Inquisitors shall not proceed against the priors and officials of guilds and confraternities who levy upon a familiar, who is a member, for dues under the rules of the association, or when a familiar has had the administration of a church or hermitage or hospital and is sued for debts or contributions due.[1088]
The other prayers and demands of the Córtes were rejected, but those which were granted sufficiently indicate the abusive manner in which the tribunal had extended its jurisdiction, how that jurisdiction was admittedly used to protect officials and familiars in violations of law, and how intolerable was the influence on municipal and commercial life of letting loose on the community a class who were beyond the reach of justice. We can readily understand the eagerness of the lawless and unscrupulous to obtain positions which secured for them such privileges and why it was impossible to restrain inquisitors within the prescribed limits of their appointing power.
After protracted effort the Valencians had thus obtained promise of substantial relief, but as usual it was a promise only made to be broken. How little