Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/201

 CASTILE. 1S5, postella he received an answer, written by Archbishop Rodrigo, March 6, 1317, announcing that five persons answering to the description had been captured there and were held in chains, and asking for instructions as to the mode of trying them and the punishment to be inflicted in case they are found guilty, '' for all this is heretofore unaccustomed in our parts." Evidently there was no Inquisition in Castile and Leon to which to apply, and even the provisions of the Partidas were unknown, though of all places in the kingdom Compostella must have been the one most familiar with the outer world and with heretics, from the stream of penitents continually sent thither as pilgrims.* In 1401 Boniface IX. made a demonstration by appointing the provincial, Vicente de Lisboa, inquisitor over all Spain, directing that his expenses should be paid by the bishops, and that no supe''- rior of his Order could remove him. The only heresy specificaUy alluded to in the buU is the idolatrous worship of plants, trees, stones, and altars — apparently superstitious relics of paganism which indicate the condition of religion and culture in the Penin- sula. Boniface's action could hardly have been taken with any expectation of result, as Spain rendered obedience to Benedict XIII., the Antipope of Avignon, and it was probably onlv a move in the political game of the Great Schism. Whatever the motive, however, the effort was fruitless, for Fray Vicente was already dead in the odor of sanctity at the date o/the bull. On learning this, Boniface returned to the charge, February 1, 1402, by em- powering forever thereafter the Dominican Provincial of Spain to appoint and remove inquisitors, or to act as such himself, with all the privileges and powers accorded to the ofiice by the canons. Inoperative as this remained, it at least had the advantage of sup- plymg to the Spanish historians an unbroken line of inquisitors- general to be catalogued. About the same time King Henry IIP increased the penalties of heresy by decreeing confisaition to the royal treasury of one-half of the possessions of heretics condemned by the ecclesiastical judges.f Ibis I presume to be an error of a copyist, probably misled by the use ot the bpamsh era in which 1355 is equivalent to 1317
 * Coll. Doat, XXX. 132 sqq.-Archbishop Rodrigo^s letter is dated 1315