Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/206

 ^gQ THE SPANISH PENINSULA. in 1418, the kingdom was reorganized as an independent Domini- can province, the earnest annalists of the Inquisition assume that under the bull of Boniface IX., in 1402, each successive provmcial was likewise an inquisitor-general, and the lists of these worthies are laboriously paraded as such, until the founding of the ^ew Inquisition in 1531. ^^o acts of theirs in such capacity, however, are recorded. The Holy Office continued dormant, without even a titular official, until, in the early years of the sixteenth century, Dom Manoel, stimulated by the example of his Castilian neigh- bors, and f eehng sohcitude as to the status of the New Christians, or converts from Judaism and Islam, bethought him of its revival. Although he had the Dominican provincial at hand, no purpose of utilizing him in this manner seems to have been entertained. The king applied to the pope and obtained the appointment of a Fran- ciscan, Henrique de Coimbra, but there is no trace of his activity.* The New Inquisition of Spain was a model which the smaller kingdom would naturally be expected to adopt, and in fact, to ardent Catholics, there might well seem to be a necessity for such an institution in view of the problems arising from the large influx of New Christians flying from Spanish persecution. Dom Manoel, indeed, at one time entertained so seriously the idea of establish- ing the Spanish Inquisition in his dominions that, m 1515, he ordered his ambassador at Eome, D. Miguel da Silva, to obtain from Leo X. the same privileges as those which had been conceded to Castile, but from some cause the project was abandoned. His son Dom Joao HI., who succeeded him in 1521, was a weak- minded fanatic, and it is only singular that the introduction of the Inquisition on the Spanish model was delayed for stiH ten years. The struggle which took place over the measure belongs, however, to a period beyond our present limits.f -Wadding, ann. 1394, No. 4 ; 1413, No. 4.— Ripoll H. 389. + Herculano, Da Origem, etc., da Inquisivao, I. 163-5.
 * Llorente, Ch. iii. Art. ii. No. 24.-Monteiro, P. i. Liv. ii. c. 35, 37, 38, 39.