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A Jewish Councillor of Inquisition? Luis de Mercado, the Statutes of limpieza de sangre and the Politics of Vendetta (1598–1601)

1990; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 67; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/1475382902000367253

1469-3550

Patrick Williams,

Historical Studies on Spain

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeBSS Subject Index: INQUISITION [IN HISTORY, LITERATURE, CULTURE & SOCIETY]JEWS — LANGUAGE, HISTORY, LITERATURE, CULTURE & INFLUENCELIMPIEZA DE SANGRE/LINEAGEMERCADO, LUIS DE (1545?–1627)POLITICS [AS LITERARY, CULTURAL & IDEOLOGICAL THEME] Notes 1. I am obliged to Dr Henry Kamen, Professor A. I. Watson and to my colleagues Susan Holliday and T. M. Smyth for their generous advice in the preparation of this paper. 2. C(o)n(sul)ta of (Council of) Inquisition, 13 Nov. 1598, A(rchivo) H(istórico) N(acional), (Seccion de) Inq(uisición), lib(ro) 101, fol. 816. See also, fols. 818 and 820. 3. Mercado's account of his background are in the 'Processo de la recusación', AHN. Inq. leg(ajo)3657, no. 3, unfoliated (hereafter 'Processo'); this includes the papers on the dispute and they are broadly in chronological order. On his family, see Jesús Larios Martín, Nobiliario de Segovia (Segovia: Instituto Diego de Colmenares, 1959), iii, 376–77, 379–82. His oath on Castile, 1.10.90, A(rchivo) G(eneral de) S(imancas), Q(uitaciones de) C(orte), 32. 4. The four made declaraciones in response to the recusación which contain biographical information. They are supplemented by the pruebas for entry into Inquisition office. Zúñiga's prueba is summarized in A. Prieto Cantero, Archivo General de Simancas, Catalogo V. Patronato Real (834–1851) (Valladolid: Archivo de Simancas, 1946–49), ii, 403; Álvarez de Caldas', AHN. Inq. Pruebas, 1256 (14) and further information from Gil González Dávila, Teatro Eclesiastico de las Iglesias Metropolitanas ... de las dos Castillas, two vols. (Madrid, 1645 and 1650), ii, 310. On Vigil de Quiñones, Diego de Colmenares, Historia de la Insigne Ciudad de Segovia, two vols., (Segovia: Academia de Historia y Arte de San Quirce, 1969–70), ii, 429–30, and González Dávila, op. cit., i, 588. The prueba of Hurtado de Mendoza, AHN. Inq. Pruebas 1471 (3). Oaths as councillors of Inquisition, AHN. Inq. libro 1338; Zúñiga, 10.11.86, fol. 12; Álvarez de Caldas, 21.3.89, fol. 13v; Vigil de Quiñones, 15.5.90, fol. 15; Hurtado de Mendoza, 15.12.92, fol. 16v. 5. Biographical information is from Juan Pablo Mártir Rizo, Historia de la Muy Noble y Leal Ciudad de Cuenca (Barcelona: El Albir, 1979), 202–04, Luis de Salazar y Castro, Advertencias Históricas (Madrid, 1688), 337 and González Dávila, op. cit., i, 494-95. Oath on Castile, 17.8.79, AGS. QC. 38, and on Inquisition, 2.5.81, AHN. Inq. lib. 1338, fol. 153. 6. I. S. Revah, 'La controverse sur les Statuts de pureté de sang, un document inedit., relacion y consulta del Cardenal G[u]evara sobre el negocio de Fray Agustín Saluzio (Madrid, 13 Août 1600)', Bulletin Hispanique, LXXIII (1971), 263–306, at 294. Revah printed a copy of the consulta of Niño de Guevara of 13.8.1600. I have used another copy, B(ritish) L(ibrary) Mss. Eg(erton) 338, fols. 306–12; this is obviously nearer to the orginal than Revah's copy, but I have followed Revah in dating it 13.8.00. It is accompanied by an undated copy of the consulta of Inquistion on Salucio's Discurso, ibid., fols. 313–17. 7. On the possibility of converso origins, see W. Byron, Cervantes. A Biography (London: Cassell, 1978), 19; on Ana and San Juan, Crisógono de Jesús, O.C.D., Vida y obras de San Juan de la Cruz (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Castellanos, 1972), 884, 209, 281, 290–93, 314–15, 383–85, 883–89, and Gerald Brenan, St John of the Cross. His Life and Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 1973), 51, 64, 65, 74, 80, 81, 104. See also Colmenares, op. cit., ii, 342–43 and 354–55, n. 18. 8. Brenan, op. cit., 82–83. On the encamisados (Don Quixote, Pt. 1, cap. xix), Columba Carey-Elwes and Edward Sarmiento, 'A Note to Don Quixote's Adventure with the Men in White', BHS, XXXII (1955), 25–29. 9. Ángel C. Vega, Poesías de Fray Luis de León, Edicion Crítica (Madrid: Saeta, 1955), 29–30, 261–62, 268–73, 291, 431–36, 446–48, 496–500, 509–11. 10. On Philip II's attempts to secure a dispensation from illegitimacy, Count of Olivares, Spanish ambassador in Rome, to Philip II, Rome, 21.4.86, BL. Mss. Add. 28, 371, fol. 20 and Philip's reply on the dorse. Oath on Inquisition, 10.11.86, AHN. Inq. lib. 1338, fol. 12. 11. Colmenares, op. cit., ii, 191–94, H. Keniston, Francisco de los Cobos Secretary of the Emperor Charles V (Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh U.P., 1958?), 92–94, 219-20 and Joseph Pérez, La revolución de las Comunidades de Castilla (1520–21) (Bordeaux: Féret et fils, 1970), 175–78, 206, 238, 384, 433, 482, 591, 632, 633; on Medina del Campo, J. H. Elliott, Imperial Spain 1469–1716 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963), 154–55. 12. On the statutes, Henry Kamen, Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985), 114–33. 13. J. H. Elliott, The Count-Duke of Olivares. The Statesman in an Age of Decline (New Haven, Conn, and London: Yale U.P., 1986), 10. 14. González Dávila, op. cit., i, 328. 15. Revah, op. cit., 288. 16. Other writers included Archbishop Ribera (the Patriarch of Valencia) and the Duke of Medina Sidonia, ibid., 277, 269–70, 278, 297. 17. On these changes, see my 'Philip III and the Restoration of Spanish Government, 1598-1603', English Historical Review, LXXXVIII (1973), 751–69 (hereafter EHR) and 'El reinado de Felipe III', Historia de España y America (Madrid: Ediciones Rialp, 1986), viii, La Crisis de España (Siglo XVII) (hereafter Rialp), 422–23 and 424–26. 18. Oath as councillor, AHN. Inq. lib. 1338, fol. 24. 19. Williams, Rialp, 426. 20. The documentation for Gaitán's enquiry is not extant, but is referred to in cnta. Portocarrero (copy), Madrid, 14.8.99, 'Processo'. 21. This is the first document in the 'Processo'. 22. Below, 258–59. 23. Untitled record of meeting by H. de Villegas, Secretary of the Council, Madrid 29.7.99, 'Processo'. 24. Cnta. Portocarrero (copy), Madrid, 29.7.99, 'Processo'. 25. Philip III to Francisco González de Heredia, Tarragona 19.7.99, on dorse of González de Heredia's letter to Philip, Madrid 10.7.99, 'Processo'. On appointment of Niño de Guevara, H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols. (London: Macmillan, 1922), i, 557. 26. 'Papeles mandados repeler del proceso de recus(aci)ón de Don Luis de Mercado', 'Processo'. 27. Cnta. Portocarrero, 14.8.99, 'Processo'. 28. Álvarez de Caldas' reply, untitled 'Declaración', 13.9.99, 'Processo'. The responses of Vigil de Quiñones and Hurtado de Mendoza, 'En la villa de Madrid a 9.9.99 yo el presente secretario notifiqué los autos ...', 'Processo'. 29. Two letters of Mercado to King, Madrid, 9.9.99, 'Processo'. 30. Alonso López de Haro, Nobiliario genealógico de los Reyes y Títulos de Espana, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1622), i, 117–18, 213, González Dávila, op. cit., ii, 98–101 and Revah, op. cit. 283–84. 31. Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Relaciones de las cosas sucedidas en la Corte de España desde 1599 hasta 1614 (Madrid, 1857) (hereafter Relaciones), 33, 44. See also González Dávila, op. cit., i, 494–95. 32. Cnta. Inq. 27.9.99, two copies, AHN, Inq. libs. 330, fol. 171 and 563, fol. 143. On bitterness, decline and death (29.9.1600), Martir Rizo, op. cit., 203. 33. Cnta. Zúñiga, 5.11.99, AHN. Inq. lib. 101, fol. 838. A summary is printed by José Martínez Millán and Teresa Sánchez Rivilla, El Consejo de Inquisición (1483–1700) (Madrid: CSIC, 1984) 22–24. 34. Williams, Rialp, 423. 35. Philip referred Zúñiga's paper to the royal confessor, who reported that while the suggestions were laudable, it would not be appropriate to implement them at the outset of a new inquisitorship general, cnta. Gaspar de Córdoba, 18.12.99, AHN. Inq. lib. 101, fol. 848. On Zúñiga's appointment and departure from Court, Relaciones, 45 and 77. 36. AHN. Inq. lib. 357, fol. 170. 37. Auto of the Council, 18.1.1600, 'Processo', and declaraciones of the four councillors, initialled and dated, 'Processo'. 38. Niño de Guevara nominated four men; Philip chose Alonso de Anaya, specifying that he was to be a supernumerary councillor, cnta. Niño de Guevara, 26.1.1600, AHN. Inq. lib. 270, fols. 1–2. 39. Anaya's oath, 10.1.1600, AHN. Inq. lib. 1338, fol. 24v. 40. Declaraciones of the four recusantes, op. cit. 41. Declaración of Álvarez de Caldas, op. cit. 42. Auto of Council of Inquisition, Madrid 29.1.1600, 'Processo'. 43. He made no reference to having replied to the Council's auto, but presumably did so, and wrote to the King to complement that reply, Mercado to Philip III, Madrid 3.2.1600, 'Processo'. 44. Auto of Council of Inquisition, Madrid 3.2.00, the last document in the 'Processo'. 45. Title of Alvaro Benavides as replacement, 7.2.1600, AGS. QC. 6. 46. Actas de las Cortes de Castilla (Madrid: Real Academia de Historia, 1894), XIX, 33–39. 47. Title, 26.9.1601, AHN. Inq. lib. 1338, fol. 32v. 48. Relaciones, 60–61, 69–71, 73–75, 77–78. 49. 'Papel del Cardenal de Toledo ... al Duque de Lerma', Granada, 9.5.1600, a copy, B(iblioteca) N(acional) 4013, fols. 101-04, at 102v. 50. On the appointment to State, Williams, EHR, 763–64, and on the rumour of his appointment as Inquisitor General, Relaciones, 67. 51. Cnta. Niño de Guevara, op. cit., fol. 310v–11v. 52. Undated cnta. Inq. (copy); see above, n.6. 53. Relaciones, 94. 54. Ibid., 97. 55. Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga, Anales eclesiásticas y seculares de ... Sevilla (Madrid, 1677), 601. 56. On Niño de Guevara's entry into Seville (3 December), ibid., 601. He was ordered to resign the inquisitorship general in January 1602, Lea, op. cit., i, 306. Mercado's oath, above, n. 47. 57. Oath as oidor of the Contaduría Mayor de Hacienda, 30.7.1604; his title (10.6.04) noted that he was then alcalde del crimen, Valladolid. He served until 23.2.1623, when he took the oath as Councillor of Finance, retiring in 1626 and dying on 15.1.1627, titles, AGS.QC.32. On tenure, Nómina de los Consejos, AGS. Contadurías Generales 888, Año 1627. 58. Janine Fayard, Les membres du Conseil de Castille a l'époque moderne (1621–1746) (Paris-Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1979), 367, and Larios Martin, op. cit., 396–97, 379–82. 59. On Zúñiga, Lea, op. cit., ii, 557 and Relaciones, 154, 162; on Acevedo, Lea, i, 557, Relaciones, 168, and on Toledo, ibid., 346, 351 and Lea, i, 557. The instability of these years at the head of the institution may have contributed to the curiously revealing incident of 1604–05 when the crown sold a general pardon to the Portuguese New Christians in return for a 'gift' of 1,860,000 ducats—a device which bore all the marks of Lerma's ability to win financial advantage from policy; see Kamen, op. cit., 223.