The effect of this change in opinion was particularly conspicuous in the reduction of the number of trials for Judaism and, consequently, in the victims in the _autos-da-fe_. During the reign of Ferdinand, no general, and not more than thirty-four private _autos-da-fe_ were celebrated; the persons who appeared in them were condemned for blasphemy, bigamy, and pretended sorcery. Ten persons only were relaxed, and one hundred and seventy subjected to penances: those who were burnt had relapsed into Judaism. The Jews had been so severely persecuted in the preceding reigns, that scarcely any remained.

Jansenism and Freemasonry particularly occupied the Inquisition under Ferdinand VI. The Jesuits called those persons Jansenists who did not adopt the opinions of Molina, on grace and free-will: their adversaries designated them as Pelagians. These parties reciprocally accused each other of favouring heresy. But the faction of the Jesuits prevailed during the reigns of Philip V. and his successor, because their confessors were of that order.

Freemasonry was an object entirely new to the Inquisition. Clement XII.

had expedited on the 28th of April, 1738, the bull _in Eminenti_, in which he excommunicates the freemasons. In 1740 Philip issued a royal ordinance against them, and many were arrested and sent to the galleys.

The inquisitors took advantage of the example, and treated the members of a lodge discovered at Madrid with great severity. The punishment of death was decreed against freemasons, in 1739, by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, in the name of the high-priest of the G.o.d of peace and mercy!

Benedict XIV. renewed the bull of Clement, in 1751. Fray Joseph Torrubia, examiner of books for the holy office, denounced the existence of freemasons, and Ferdinand published an ordinance against them in the same year, in which it was said, that all who did not conform to the regulations contained in it, would be punished as state criminals guilty of _high treason_. Charles III., then King of Naples, prohibited the masonic a.s.semblies on the same day. The following pages contain the notice of a trial of this nature, which took place at Madrid, in 1757.

M. Tournon, a Frenchman, had been invited into Spain, and pensioned by the government, in order to establish a manufactory of bra.s.s or copper buckles, and to instruct Spanish workmen. On the 30th of April, 1757, he was denounced to the holy office as suspected of heresy by one of his pupils, who acted in obedience to the commands of his confessor.

The charges were: 1st. That M. Tournon had asked his pupils to become freemasons, promising that the _Grand Orient_ of Paris should send a commission to receive them into the order, if they should submit to the trials he should propose, to ascertain their courage and firmness; and that their t.i.tles of reception should be expedited from Paris. 2nd.

That some of these young workmen appeared inclined to comply, if M.

Tournon would inform them of the object of the inst.i.tution. That in order to satisfy them, he told them several extraordinary things, and showed them a sort of picture on which were figured instruments of architecture and astronomy. They thought that these representations related to sorcery, and they were confirmed in the idea, on hearing the imprecations which, according to M. Tournon, were to accompany the oath of secrecy.

It appeared from the depositions of three witnesses that M. Tournon was a freemason. He was arrested and imprisoned on the 20th of May. The following conversation, which took place in the first audience of _monition_, may be interesting to some readers. After asking his name, birth-place, and his reason for coming to Spain, and making him swear to speak the truth, the inquisitor proceeded:--

_Question._ Do you know or suppose why you have been arrested by the holy office?

_Answer._ I suppose it is for having said that I was a freemason.

_Q._ Why do you suppose so?

_A._ Because I have informed my pupils that I was of that order, and I fear that they have denounced me; for I have perceived lately that they speak to me with an air of mystery, and their questions lead me to believe that they think me an heretic.

_Q._ Did you tell them the truth?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ You are then a freemason?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ How long have you been so?

_A._ For twenty years.

_Q._ Have you attended the a.s.semblies of freemasons?

_A._ Yes, at Paris.

_Q._ Have you attended them in Spain?

_A._ No; I do not know if there are any lodges in Spain.

_Q._ If there were, should you attend them?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Are you a Christian, a Roman Catholic?

_A._ Yes; I was baptized in the parish of St. Paul, at Paris.

_Q._ How, as a Christian, can you dare to attend masonic a.s.semblies, when you know, or ought to know, that they are contrary to religion?

_A._ I did not know that; I am ignorant of it at present, because I never saw or heard anything there which was contrary to religion.

_Q._ How can you say that, when you know that freemasons profess _indifference_ in matters of religion, which is contrary to the article of faith, which teaches us that no man can be saved who does not profess the Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman religion?

_A._ The freemasons do not profess that _indifference_. But it is _indifferent_ if the person received into the order be a Catholic or not.

_Q._ Then the freemasons are an _anti-religious_ body?

_A._ That cannot be; for the object of the inst.i.tution is not to combat or deny the necessity or utility of any religion, but for the exercise of charity towards the unfortunate of any sect, particularly if he is a member of the society.

_Q._ One proof that _indifference_ is the religious character of freemasons is, that they do not acknowledge the Holy Trinity, since they only confess one G.o.d, whom they call the _Great Architect of the Universe_, which agrees with the doctrine of the heretical philosophers, who say that there is no true religion but _natural religion_, in which the existence of G.o.d the Creator only is allowed, and the rest considered as a human invention. And as M. Tournon has professed himself to be of the Catholic religion, he is required by the respect he owes to our Saviour Jesus Christ, true G.o.d and man, and to his blessed mother, the Virgin Mary, our Lady, to declare the truth according to his oath; because in that case, he will acquit his conscience, and it will be allowable to treat him with that mercy and compa.s.sion which the holy office always showed towards sinners who confess: and if, on the contrary, he conceals anything, he will be punished with all the severity of justice, according to the holy canons and the laws of the kingdom?

_A._ The mystery of the Holy Trinity is neither maintained nor combated in the masonic lodges: neither is the religious system of the natural philosophers approved or rejected; G.o.d is designated as the Great Architect of the Universe, according to the allegories of the freemasons which relate to architecture. In order to fulfil my promise of speaking truth, I must repeat, that in the masonic lodges nothing takes place which concerns any religious system, and that the subjects treated of are foreign to religion, under the allegories of architectural works.

_Q._ Do you believe as a Catholic, that it is a sin of superst.i.tion to mingle holy and religious things with profane things?

_A._ I am not sufficiently acquainted with the particular things which are prohibited as contrary to the purity of the Christian religion; but I have believed till now, that those who confound the one with the other, either by mistake, or a vain belief, are guilty of the sin of superst.i.tion.

_Q._ Is it true that in the ceremonies which accompany the reception of a mason, the crucified image of our Saviour, the corpse of a man, and a skull, and other objects of a profane nature, are made use of?

_A._ The general statutes of freemasonry do not ordain these things: if they are made use of, it must have arisen from a particular custom, or from the arbitrary regulations of the members of the body, who are commissioned to prepare for the reception of candidates; for each lodge has particular customs and ceremonies.

_Q._ That is not the question; say if it true that these ceremonies are observed in masonic lodges?

_A._ Yes, or no, according to the regulations of those who are charged with the ceremonies of the initiation.

_Q._ Were they observed when you were initiated?

_A._ No.

_Q._ What oath is it necessary to take on being received a freemason?

_A._ We swear to observe secrecy.

_Q._ On what?

_A._ On things which it may be inconvenient to publish.

_Q._ Is this oath accompanied by execrations?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ What are they?

_A._ We consent to suffer all the evils which can afflict the body and soul if we violate the oath.