Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/200

 |g4 THE SPANISH PENINSULA. mesne profits, on recantation. ^N'o one, after condemnation for heresy, can hold oiFice, inherit property, make a will, execute a sale, or give testimony. The house where a wandering heretic missionary is sheltered is forfeited to the Church, if inhabited by the owner ; if rented, the offending tenant is fined ten pounds of gold or pubhcly scourged. A rico home or noble sheltering here- tics in his lands or castles, and persisting after a year's excommu- nication, forfeits the land or castle to the king ; and if a non-noble his body and property are at the king's pleasure. The Christian who turns Jew or Moslem is legally a heretic, and is to be burned, as well as one who brings up a child in the forbidden faith. Prose- cutions of the dead, however, are humanely limited to five years after decease."^ All this shows that Alonso and his counsellors recognized the duty of the State to preserve the purity of the faith, but that they considered it wholly an affair of the State, in which the Church had no voice beyond ascertaining the guilt of the accused. All the voluminous and minute legislation of Gregory IX., Innocent ly., and Alexander lY. was wholly disregarded— the canon law had no currency in Castile, which regulated such matters to suit its own needs. That in this respect the popular needs were met is shown by the Ordenamiento de Alcala, issued in 1348, which is silent on the subject of heresy. Apparently no change Avas deemed necessary in the provisions of the Partidas, which were then for the first time confirmed by the popular assembly. Under such legislation it foUows as a matter of course that the Domini- can provincial had no inquisitors to appoint, except in Aragon, under the bull of Urban lY. in 1262. Castile continued unvexed by the Inquisition, and persecution for heresy was almost unknown. In 1316 Bernard Gui, of Tou- louse, discovered in his district some of the dreaded sectaries known as Dolcinists or Pseudo-Apostoh, who |led to Spain to escape his energetic pursuit. May 1, 1316, he wrote to all the prelates and friars of Spain describing their characteristics and urging their apprehension and punishment. Had there been an Inquisition there he would have addressed himself to it. From remote Com- 2-7.— El Fuero real, Lib. iv. Tit. i. 11. 1, 3.
 * Las Siete Partidas, P. i. Tit. vi. 1. 58; P. vii. Tit. xxiv. 1. 7; Tit. xxv. 11.