Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/194

 ■^^Q THE SPANISH PENINSULA. midable. Fray Pedro Salazo, Inquisitor of Eosellon and Cerdana, threw in prison on charges of heresy a hermit named Pedro Fre- serii, who enjoyed great reputation for sanctity among the people. The 'accused declared that the witnesses were personal enemies, and that he was ready to purge himself before a proper judge, and his friends lodged an appeal with Martin Y. The pope re- ferred the matter, with power to decide without appeal, to Ber- nardo, Abbot of the Benedictine Monastery of Aries, in the diocese of Elne. Bernardo deputed the case to a canon of the church of Elne, who acquitted the accused without awaiting the result of another appeal to the pope interjected by the inquisitor ; and Martin finally sent the matter to the Ordinary of Narbonne, with power to summon aU parties before him and decide the case defi- nitely. The whole transaction shows a singular want of respect for the functions of the Inquisition.^ Even more significant is a complaint made in 1450 to Cahxtus III. by Fray Mateo de Eapica, a later inquisitor of EoseUon and Cerdana. Certain neophytes, or converted Jews, persisted in Judaic practices, such as eating meat in Lent and forcing their Christian servants to do likewise. When Fray Mateo and Juan, Bishop of Elne, prosecuted them, they were so far from submit- tincr that they published a defamatory libel upon the inquisitor, and, with the aid of certain laymen, afflicted him with injuries and' expenses. Finding himself powerless, he appealed to the pope, who ordered the Archbishop and Official of Narbonne to intervene and decide the matter. The same spirit, in even a more ago-ravated form, was exhibited in a case already referred to, when, in 1458, Fray Miguel, the Inquisitor of Aragon, was mal- treated and thrown in prison for nine months by some nobles and high officials of the kingdom, whom he had offended in obeying the instructions sent to him by Nicholas Y.f Yet, as against the poor and friendless, the Inquisition retamed its power. "Wicldiffitism— as it had become the fashion to designate Waldensianism— had continued to spread, and about 1440 numbers of its sectaries were discovered, of whom some were reconciled, and more were burned as obstinate heretics by Miguel Ferriz, t Ripoll III. 347.— Arch, de Tlnq. de Carcass. (Doat, XXXV. 192).
 * Ripoll II. 613.